======================================================================== CHRISTIAN FRIEND VOLUME 7 by Unknown ======================================================================== A collection of articles and writings from Christian Friend Volume 7, covering various biblical topics and Christian teaching. Chapters: 83 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0. Christian Friend Volume 7 1. Praying 2. A Little Child 3. The Red Sea and the Jordan 4. Sheltered by Blood 5. Overcoming 6. Three Exhortations 7. The Potter’s Broken Vessel 8. Fragment: Drawn Out of the World 9. The Resurrection 10. Fragment: Known, Enjoyed Relationship 11. Fragment: Faith 12. Fragment: Heaven in Everything He Did 13. Fragment: Why We Suffer 14. Fragment: Christ in View 15. Watching 16. Fragment: Christianity Without Living Power 17. Fragment: Christ in Our Hearts 18. Fragment: the Lord Gives Fully and Perfectly 19. The Burnt-Offering 20. Taken Aside 21. Intimacy With the Lord 22. Oh, How I Want to See the Man That Saved Me! 23. Fragment: Prayer 24. The Laver 25. A Note on Balak and Balaam 26. Fragment: God’s Heart and Grace 27. Fragment: to Have the Mind of Christ 28. The Meat-Offering 29. Crucified to the World 30. Devotedness and Separation 31. The Songs and Their Solution 32. Fragment: Christ’s Sympathies 33. What Is a Christian’s Rule of Life, Christ or the Law? 34. The Philadelphian Overcomer 35. Fragment: Christ in the Heart 36. Fragment: Nothing so Near As Christ 37. I Will Come Again 38. The Divine Goodness 39. His Will, His Work 40. Fragment: Letting Our Light Shine 41. The Peace-Offerings 42. The Old and the New 43. The Father: a Study for the Heart 44. The Lord’s Prophecy Concerning Jerusalem 45. The First Thought of Christ in Resurrection 46. Was Balaam Converted? 47. The Peace-Offering 48. The Anthem of the Angels 49. Fragment: the Cause of Restlessness 50. Fragment: Our Wicked Heart, Christ’s Blessed Heart 51. Transfiguration 52. The Destruction of Jerusalem and the Abomination of Desolation 53. The Sin-Offering 54. The Call of Abraham 55. The Seventeenth Psalm 56. Letters on Profession and the Work of Grace 57. The Trespass-Offering 58. Inside the Veil 59. The Ministry of New Covenant 60. Wherefore Didst Thou Doubt? 61. Notes on Naaman 62. Propitiation 63. The Living Link With a Living Christ 64. Notes of a Gospel Address 65. The Three Raisings of the Dead 66. Fragment: Perfect Law of Liberty 67. Fragment: Perfect Will of God 68. Sanctification 69. On Worship in the Past, the Present, and the Future 70. Fragment: Slovenliness 71. Fragment: the Cost of Worldliness 72. Fragment: Friend of the World, Enemy of God 73. Peace and No Peace 74. Separation From Evil, and Holiness to the Lord, in Order to Testimony-Early Witnesses to Their Necessity 75. Fragment: the Veil Rent 76. Substitution 77. Fragment: Receiving Strength 78. To Me to Live Is Christ 79. Christ As Light and Love 80. Motives to Holiness 81. The Christian’s Directions As to Separation From Evil, and Holiness to the Lord 82. Objections to Separation From Evil, and Holiness to the Lord Considered ======================================================================== CHAPTER 0: CHRISTIAN FRIEND VOLUME 7 ======================================================================== ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: PRAYING ======================================================================== “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” One feels that the want of this is the cause of weakness. If we said half as much to one another, and twice as much as we do to God, it would be better. Many a thing that we say to one another, if said to God, would produce a different effect. I never can get out of this place of dependence-praying because my heart longs to pour out and cast itself on God, but not for the sake of praying. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: A LITTLE CHILD ======================================================================== It is important in a day of decline -for the day of apostasy advances (Jude 14,15), and the saints are in danger of becoming infected with its premonitory symptoms, those of “lukewarmness” (Rev. 3:15,16)-it is of all importance to return to what is the desire of the great Head of the Church for us all. This, if cultivated and sought after, is calculated to preserve from this spirit, which is tingeing almost the whole of religious profession. I refer the reader, in illustration of His desire, to the Lord’s reply to the question asked in Matt. 18:1: “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” In the preceding chapter there had been given them a glimpse of the “Son of man coming in His kingdom “-a little foreshadowing of His glories, which, as Son of man, are yet to come. Would one who gazed thereon seek to place any on an equality with Him? No sooner is the proposal on the speaker’s lip than the voice of the Father is heard interrupting the vain desire, “This is MY BELOVED SON, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him.” From the excellent glory He is thus declared beyond compare glorious and beloved, the center of all, greatest and highest. Thus Peter’s voice was hushed; and though there with Him, and the eye-witness of His majesty, as he afterward declares, yet He is God’s Center, the only One who in Himself has title to be there. In the day of the manifestation of that glory we who believe shall be with Him too, our voices hushed in the contemplation of Him who is God’s Center-a day which will ‘see the fulfillment of His prayer in John 17 “Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” Descending from the glory where they had heard the testimony of the Father as to the Son of His bosom, they ask the question already quoted, whose tenor is, Which of us shall be next to Him 2 And what a reply comes from those gracious lips-a reply for each heart to weigh the import of then, and a lesson for us to ponder still! Does He deny that there is such a place? Does He assert that we shall be all equal in that day? No, He does neither; but, exposing by contrast their love of self with what will be the true ground of exaltation, personal love, and devotedness to Himself, He replies, “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” He does not say, as is (perhaps unintentionally, but commonly) misquoted, “Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child humbles itself, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” We cannot understand a little child humbling itself, because one who is in the place, who is that, needs not to come down to it; for already he is a little child. The Lord’s words are rather, “You must become as this little child, if you desire the highest place in the day of my kingdom glory.” This expression of infant helplessness, “a little child” (παιδίοω), is the same as the apostle John delights to use in his first epistle, chap. 2, when distinguishing, “Fathers, young men, and babes” (little children). This is the word he uses in verses 13 and 18. It describes the infant, the youngest in the household. Such is the attainment, my reader, which the Lord Jesus proposes to each of us to aim at and to reach” a little child.” Do we ask why? It is because we are not in heart and spirit, and ways and affection, such; they betrayed it in their question; and do we not betray it in ourselves day by day? May I then draw your attention to two or three things, seen prominently in the model before us, seen in “a little child.” Watch him in the nursery (picture of this world wherein we grow up, and where the child of God now is); not a fear, not an anxiety, not a care has he! Dependent for food, and shelter, and raiment, and everything he wants or possesses on another; while in himself without plan, or thought, or resources, and with no ability to make his wants known save to One, who alone can understand the baby language that he speaks-such is our model. Is he happy? Let any who doubt it observe him; or let my reader look back at the days of his own infancy, and the reply is at hand. But while his feebleness is thus before us, we must remember that he has a consciousness, young as he is-a consciousness that only deepens and increases with the lapse of years -that consciousness is that he is beloved, beloved by the One we have already mentioned, with a perfect and never-changing love. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. That person who loves fills the whole range of his vision-a person, my reader, not a place. And is it so to-day? Is it so with each of us? One, as he walked this earth, has borne the marks of it. “One thing I do... that I may win Christ, and be found in Him ““ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” A Person filled the sphere of his vision. He was beloved, and he knew it. “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Reader, do you know it? Can you say it? and has it power over you as it had over him? But the nursery time is passing away with all of us. Let our model, “a little child,” be brought then from the nursery into all the light and brilliance of that day of the coming glory for which we wait. Let the assembled company stand back to make way for the approach of a “little child.” “Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (19: 14) Why amidst the brilliant throng wanders his eye timidly from one to another? Is there not enough in the grandeur of all around to engage his attention? No; the place is naught to him, while all the grandeur and all the dignity do but distress him. He seeks for One whose heart’s affections are twined around him, and whose love he has learned and proved in other days, and in other scenes, than these; for that same person, who fully satisfied him then, can only fully satisfy him now; and passing by all else, he hastens to the arms and the bosom of love. And He, whose is all the grandeur and dignity of that day, delights to pillow that timid, trembling head on His own bosom. And thus shall it be in the day of the kingdom-glory; and THUS has the “little child” reached the highest place, even the bosom of that One to whom it shall be confessed in that day, that fast-coming day of His glory, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” (Rev. 5:12) Reader, who will occupy the place of the little child? If you occupy it now He declares you shall occupy it then. Again we would ponder His blessed words, “Of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Oh, may we cultivate day by day, and seek grace to manifest day by day, the simple heart and ways, and the spontaneous affections for Him, our one beloved object, which are seen in “a little child!” H. C. A. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: THE RED SEA AND THE JORDAN ======================================================================== Why are we said to be co-risen with Christ in Col. 2:11, before we are said to be co-quickened with Him in verse 12? The doctrine of the Epistle to the Colossians lies between that of the Romans and the Ephesians. In Romans the believer is dead with Christ to sin, dead to the law, but not risen. Chapter 6 does not go so far as being risen with Christ. Our responsibilities, as in the old creation, are discussed most fully; all are under sin, all under judgment before God. The death of Christ -His precious blood presented to God-meets all our guilt, and we are justified freely by His grace, through righteousness. Our state then is taken up from chap. 5: 12 and onwards, and deliverance from that by our having died with Christ to sin and from under law, which had its application to our old state, as in Adam. Chapter 6 unfolds this truth with regard to sin; chap. 7. as regards the law, which is the strength of sin. But we are not seen as risen with Christ. The nearest approach to such is the statement of chap. 6: 8: “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him;” and this verse leads us onwards towards the Colossians-putting it as a result of the doctrine there unfolded-forming the link with that Epistle. The saint, however, is not risen with Christ; but is dead with Him to sin, and to the law. In Colossians we get a step further. Here he is risen, co-raised with Christ, and he is dead absolutely. “Ye are dead;” not merely dead to this or that, though “with Christ.” He is “dead with Christ “-” dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world”-but he is not in heavenly places yet. He has a hope laid up in heaven; and his state is a subjective one suited to heaven, though not there. In Ephesians we find his responsibility in and of the new creation unfolded; and he is not only dead with Christ to sin and the law (Romans), with the hope and result before him in the words, “If we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live through Him “(Rom. 6:8), nor merely “dead “absolutely and co-risen with Christ (Colossians), but he is co-quickened, co-raised, and co-seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, both Jew and Gentile. He has left the place of death as a sinner, and the world as formed for the first man, and he is brought into the full place of being in Christ Jesus in heavenly places. This ground has been gone over before, and I do not follow out what has been before many; but desire to present other features of truth. First of all, let me remark that I do not think we find the typical teaching of the “Jordan “in Rom. 6 It is the Red Sea; though, like it, Israel passed through, and enjoyed full deliverance from their enemies. In the type they saw sins, and death, and judgment all behind them. Sins were their part; death was Satan’s, who wields its power (Heb. 2); judgment was God’s part; and all are passed forever. They were, so to speak, dead to all these. But remark, it is never stated that they came up out of the Red Sea. Historically, of course, we know it was so; but it would have marred the type to have recorded it, as it would in Rom. 6 to have said, we were risen with Christ. It is fully stated afterward that the people came up out of the Jordan; and there it was needed to say so, but not before. Thus the Red Sea is one aspect of the truth-that which is seen in Rom. 6-and like as in this chapter (vs. 8) we have to look out for more. So in the song of Moses (vs. 16) they anticipate the truth, yet to be experienced, in their passing over the Jordan, and being planted in the mountain of the Lord’s inheritance-in the place He had made for Himself to dwell in; in the sanctuary which His hands had established. But they only looked for this in the hope of faith. They are not therefore said to have come up out of the Red Sea, as they are not said in Rom. 6 to be risen with Christ. But in Josh. 4:17,19, we read that Joshua said to the priests, “Come ye up out of Jordan.” “And the people came up out of Jordan,” which rolled on in his channel as heretofore. And they were thus cut off from the world, as the death of Christ has done for us. And as at the Red Sea they looked forward to the Jordan, so now at the Jordan they look back at the Red Sea, as we read: “For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up from before us, until we were gone over.” (vs. 23) The Red Sea and the Jordan thus coalesce, and form two sides of the same truth, though quite distinct. We cannot confound, and we cannot separate them. Rom. 6 does not take in the Jordan and risen with Christ, though it looks out for it. Col. 2 does not take merely dead to sin and the law and the type of the Red Sea, though it looks back at it, as we shall see. Exo. 14: 15. does not say that Israel came up out of the Red Sea, though they sang a song, which looked for more to come. At Jordan they are said to have come up out of the Jordan, and are taught to look back at and connect it with the deliverance of the Red Sea. Let the Red Sea and the Jordan coalesce for a moment in our minds, and let us drop out the wilderness from our thoughts. (Eph. 1 does this; as will Israel’s future deliverance, which bases the nameless Psa. 114 on this likewise The sea saw it and fled, Jordan was driven back.”) Let these two waters lie together, and let the wilderness lip of the Red Sea touch the side of Jordan eastward. Israel enter death from all who pursued at the Egyptian lip of the sea, and rise on the Canaan side of Jordan in full and complete deliverance and redemption, into the land of promise. The wilderness is never in the purpose of God, though it is His plan to test and prove His own heart and ours. When He announced this purpose He left out all allusion to it. “I am come down to deliver them... and to bring them up out of that land into a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites,” &c. (Exo. 3:8) When Moses proclaimed it, He said, “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out... and I will bring you in unto the land.” (Exo. 6:6,8) When Faith, accepted it, it sang, “Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance.” (Exo. 15:13,17) And When Experience looked back upon it with the words, “And He brought us out from them, that He might bring us in.” (Deut. 6: 23) Now when we turn to Col. 2 we find an apparent difficulty; but, like all such, if we wait on divine instruction we shall get it from God. “If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God,” surely applies indirectly even in these things. Why are we said to be “risen “with Christ before we are said to have been co-quickened with Him? (vss. 12, 13) Let me draw your attention to it for a little. I must leave full details aside in doing so, interesting though they are. One first thought in his mind is to establish their souls (as all others whom he had never seen in the flesh, chap. 2: 1) in conscious union with Christ in glory, and this without naming the bond-the Holy Spirit. He saw the danger in the want of this; and how the soul was open to every device of the enemy; and he would unfold the glories of Christ as he never had before, and give them the consciousness of “completeness in him.” To have even named the bond of union-the Spirit of God, to such a state would have been to occupy them with the Holy Spirit rather than Christ Himself, and damage their souls. Instead of this he would lead them most blessedly, as in chapter 1: 9-14, into the true experience of the Spirit in the soul which is at peace-i.e. the thoughts begin with God, and flow downwards from the light of His glory into the conscience of him who is their recipient. The Spirit of God reasons ever from God to us; and when the soul is at peace and the heart free, the reasonings and experience of the soul flow in the same direction. How strange, and yet how lovely, then, to find the apostle in the one passage praying to God, writing Scripture, teaching the saints, and giving the true experience of the soul who stands in grace, by the same words! In verses 12-14, he begins in the light of the Father’s presence with praise, and by seven steps he reasons downwards from His heart, to the conscience of the worshipper, giving them the true direction of thought, when the soul is right with God. 1. “Giving thanks unto the Father.” 2. “Which hath made us meet.” 3. “To be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” 4. “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness,” 5. “And hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son,” 6. “In whom we have redemption,” 7. “And the forgiveness of our sins.” We learn this in the inverse way, from us to Him: from the depths of the need of conscience, to the light of the Father’s presence. We see this in the order of the offerings, and in their application. How in the unfolding of the doctrine of them He begins with God, and in their application to the sinner he begins with him, and so on constantly. I allude to the first chapter of Colossians, because it helps us in the second. It gives us our apprehension, experimentally known, what we have through grace. Chapter 2 gives us God’s side rather. He looks at Christ Jesus, the Lord; He beholds Him in whom dwelleth all the completeness (πληρωμα) of the Godhead bodily, as man In Him “we are complete.” From Him he reasons in the same way as in the first chapter-from God downwards to our depths of need. Here Christ and His identification with His people, that they may be thus “complete in Him,” is his theme. Again we find seven steps in the train of thought: 1, “completeness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him.” “God is complete in Christ for us; we are complete in Him for God,” as one has said. 2, “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” He has left the scene, given up His life here below, and all that connected Him to this scene and Israel His people. He is gone on high, the beginning of the creation of God. 3, “In whom also ye are co-risen through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.” [Remark here that in verse 12 I have omitted the first clause-” Buried with Him in baptism.” I would read that clause as a parenthesis. Just as Rom. 6:8 was the link forward with Colossians (see also Ex. 15:16), so this parenthesis is the link backwards with Rom. 6 (See also Josh. 4:23) This, too, re-relieves us from any controversy as to whether ἐν ᾧ should be translated “in whom “or “in which; “either translation being possible from the original words; the spiritual sense alone determines the true translation. Read verses 11 and 12 for a moment, omitting the parenthesis, and the meaning is plain. “In putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ... in whom also ye are co-raised through the faith of the operation of God,” &c. This leaves baptism its own true meaning, that of the person baptized being buried to death. It does not, in my mind, go farther than that, and just ends there; the person is buried to death, as we read in Rom. 6, “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism unto death.” Read the first clause of Col. 2:12 as a parenthetic link connecting us with Rom. 6, and read what follows as in connection with “Christ... in whom ye also are co-risen,” &c., and all is plain Faith in God’s operation comes in there and clears baptism of the thought of resurrection, though it follows where there is faith in God’s operation. 4, “And you being dead in your offenses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He co-quickened us. together with Him.” 5, “Having forgiven us all the offenses.” 6, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us... nailing it to His cross.” 7, “And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” Thus we see the reason why the co-raising us up with Christ should come before the co-quickening; because the Spirit of God reasons in the true divine order-from God in Christ to us, and down to all our ruin in which we lay, by the seven steps of His truth. (1) Complete in Him; (2) circumcised in Him; (3) co-risen with Him; (4) co-quickened together with Him; (5) forgiven through Him; (6) the law nailed to His cross; and (7( the whole power of Satan destroyed. Now let me notice another thing which is very fine. The seven steps of chapter i. give us our subjective consciousness, what we possess and know in our own soul’s experience, what we have from God. Those in chapter ii. give us rather the objective unfolding by revelation -what is in Christ for us, apart from our experience, though known to faith, of course. Both lines of thought reasoning from God to us, whether in a revelation objectively presented in Christ, or what our own souls consciously possess in Him. F. G. P. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: SHELTERED BY BLOOD ======================================================================== In no divine communication about sacrifice, to which we have yet turned, have we met with a single word about blood. In God’s instructions to Moses for Israel, concerning the passover, we first learn something about it. The Lord had warned Pharaoh, at the outset of His communications to that monarch, of the penalty He would exact, if His command by Moses was disregarded: “Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my first-born: and I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy first-born.” (Exο. 4:22,23) Moses, on the occasion of his last interview with Pharaoh, before the execution of this judgment, announced to the king that it must and would be carried out. The day of mercy was over, the carrying out of the sentence was determined upon; and that not only on Pharaoh’s house, but on the houses of the Egyptians likewise, and on the first-born of their cattle as well. Nothing like it had ever been known; nothing like it would they ever again endure; and at midnight would it take place. At the time when men are ordinarily least prepared, then Jehovah would go out into the land of Egypt. (Exο. 11:4-6) In God’s mind it had all been settled centuries before. He had evidently purposed it when He called Abraham to go out from his country, his kindred, and his father’s house, and thus made him start from his ancestral home, Ur of the Chaldees. For it was at the end of “four hundred and thirty years, even the self-same day “that Israel departed out of Egypt. (Exο. 12:40,41) Now, from whence are we to reckon this period of time? Its termination being given us, the date of the Exodus, its commencement is not difficult to determine. From the birth of Isaac to the Exodus was to be four hundred years. (Gen. 15:13) From Abraham’s departure out of Haran to the birth of his son was twenty-five years more. (Gen. 12:4;21. 5) It is probable, then, that his departure out of Ur was five years previous to his leaving Haran; thus the four hundred and thirty years are to be accounted for, comprising the whole period of the sojourn of Israel and the patriarchs in countries which they did not possess. But God did not, that we read of, declare, at the outset of Abraham’s career, what He had purposed as to the duration of the period of their sojourning. His purposing, and the announcement of His purpose, do not always synchronize. He did, however, reveal it to Abraham more than four hundred years before He executed it. Yet He did not carry out His purpose of judicial dealing with the Egyptians till He had warned Pharaoh, and had given him time to avert the impending doom. Thus, on the one hand, we see God purposing to judge the Egyptians; and, on the other, the Egyptians proving by their ways that they deserved it; and God did not carry out His mind, till those who were responsible to obey had refused to let Israel go. Who doubts for one moment that Pharaoh richly deserved his punishment? An opportunity, however, was afforded him of averting it, but he did not make use of it. How this illustrates God’s ways on a large scale. He has announced that He will judge the world in righteousness. He has appointed the very day, and the judge likewise. (Acts 17:31) Can any charge Him with injustice for this? He will demonstrate when He judges, as He did in the case of the Egyptians, that He is only acting righteously; for men will have plainly shown that they deserve it. God’s sovereignty, and man’s responsibility, may seem to some impossible to harmonize; but we see how they were harmonized in the case of Pharaoh at the Exodus. Not only, however, had God determined to judge, He had purposed also to shelter from judgment. He had pledged Himself to Abraham to bring up Israel into Canaan. (Gen. 15) He had promised the same to Jacob (46: 3, 4), and Joseph on his death-bed reminded the people of it. (1: 25) The Lord, too, had announced beforehand to Moses, that He was determined to effect it (Ex. 3:8), and now He was about to accomplish it. Hence, whilst announcing to Pharaoh his impending doom, the Lord, by Moses, told Israel how they could be exempted from the visitation of the angel of death. (12) Here two important points should be noticed. First, though Israel were clearly the subjects of divine counsels, and objects of special divine favors, they had need nevertheless to make use of God’s way of shelter from the inroad of death into their houses. Second, though the Lord made known to them the only way of deliverance, they were in themselves no better morally than the Egyptians. Had any of them rested their hopes of security from the impending judgment on the fact that they were part of a favored people, they would, in common with the Egyptians, have been bewailing and burying their first-born on the fifteenth day of Nisan. (Num. 33:3,4) Had they trusted to any goodness in themselves for exemption from the threatened visitation, they could never have been sheltered from it; for they were at that time idolaters who had positively refused to put their idols away. (Ezek. 20:6-10; Josh. 24:14) Thus God’s faithfulness and grace were both displayed on that night, which was to be much remembered (Exo. 12:42); faithfulness in fulfilling His word to Abraham, by judging their oppressors; grace in His dealings with Israel, by sheltering them from the sword of the angel of death. How they had provoked the Lord in Egypt by their disobedience Ezekiel sets forth. So we have to turn to that recital of the nation’s ways by the prophet, when the ten tribes were in the land of their captivity, ere we are in a position to estimate aright this display of grace towards them. It was nothing new for God to deal in judgment. He had dealt judicially with men by the flood. He had overthrown the cities of the plain; now He was about to destroy the first-born of man, and of beast, in the land of Egypt. The old world being ungodly, and proving itself to be disobedient, was destroyed by the deluge, Noah only and his family having a refuge provided for them in the ark. The cities of the plain -illustrations of apostasy- received their just doom, Lot only, with his two daughters, being saved by the intercession of Abraham. (Gen. 19:29) The ungodly and apostates had been thus punished; now idolaters were to be dealt with; and their lying vanities, to which they had trusted, were to be exposed. For Jehovah, the self-existing one, would march through the land of Egypt, supreme in power, and terrible in judgment. He would take up the cause of His people by manifesting Himself to be the true God. “Who is Jehovah,” said Pharaoh, in the pride and dense ignorance of his heart, “that I should obey His voice, to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” (Exo. 5:2) Such were the words of a mortal creature. But the Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth. (Psa. 9:16) This Pharaoh found to his cost; so men will find by-and-by. “Known by the judgment which He executeth!” How truly was that the case in Egypt; for on all the gods of Egypt did He execute judgment. He had foretold it. (Ex. 12:12) He fulfilled His word. (Num. 33:4) The Egyptians discovered by the infliction of divine judgments the inanity of their idols. The proud Pharaoh of the Exodus stooped to ask the blessing of Moses and Aaron, the representatives of the people he had kept so long in slavery, when his first-born lay death-stricken in his house. And Israel could see, surely did see, whilst sheltered in Jehovah’s goodness from the infliction of His judgment on. their families, the folly of idolatry which they had so long practiced. Against all the gods of Egypt the Lord executed judgment. This is a statement soon read; but how terrible was that of which it treats. Man had no refuge on that day from the avenging arm of Jehovah. The gods of Egypt were powerless when Jehovah rose up to judgment. Shelter, help, deliverance, there was none. The angel of death entered every house of the Egyptians, and with an unerring blow smote the first-born of whatever age or rank he might be. The most exalted in position could not shelter his first-born, the meanest could not escape the observation of God; for “the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; fur there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.” (Ex. 12:29, 30) It was a terrible moment indeed; for the Lord Jehovah was passing through the land of Egypt, and no power could hinder His passage. The angel of death was entering into houses; and no bolts, no bars, no chains, no incantation, nor demoniacal agency, could shut him out. A power which man could not cope with, and which man could find nothing to resist, was carrying all before it, making the first-born of man and of beast its victims. Every Egyptian was made to feel that Jehovah alone was God, who had the life of His creatures absolutely at His disposal, and who could act in discrimination, smiting those He would, by singling out for death the first-born male in each house. Such was the state of matters among the Egyptians. With the Israelites how different. Fear, distress, sickness, death, were harassing their oppressors. Peaceful security reigned within their houses. There is a calm, which presages a storm, when all the forces of nature seem resting preparatory to their re-awakening to action with redoubled vigor and violence. There is a calm, which forebodes no disturbance to be at hand, the effect of an atmosphere perfectly serene; all nature enjoying repose after the disturbing forces have spent their strength. The calm peacefulness, however, which reigned in the houses of the Israelites differed from both of these. It was like a calm before a storm, for they awaited the outburst of the judgment. It was like a calm resulting from the knowledge that the tempest would not expend itself on their heads. But it was more; it was the peaceful serenity, which confidence in God’s word can alone give, assuring the one who receives it of immunity from coming judgment. Israel knew both the day, and the hour, when the threatened visitation falling on the land of Mizraim would evoke a wail of distress from every house of their taskmasters; but they were insured against the divine visitation by the blood outside upon the door-posts. Now, this way of escape was quite new to them, and unheard of before. Further, it was a secret between God and them. No Egyptian was informed of it. Neither man, nor any power known to man, nor all the gods of Egypt together, could keep the destroying angel from entering any house that night; but the blood upon the door-post was to prove an effective shelter. So, whilst the Egyptians were learning the powerlessness of man, and all that they had trusted in, to cope with the power of God in judgment, the Israelites were proving how effectual was the shelter provided by blood. Across a threshold thus distinguished the messenger of death did not pass. Inside the house they could feed in calmness and security on the lamb, whose blood was on the lintel and the side -posts outside. For God’s word to Israel was: “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.” (12: 13) What virtue could there be in the blood? they might ask, and probably ask in vain. But their security lay not in what they thought of it, but in what God thought of it. With their door shut they could not see it, nor was there any need for them to see it. The point, and the all-important point, was, Would Jehovah see it? He did; so not one of the first-born of Israel was smitten that night. Now, no one could have devised such a way of escape from judgment, and none but God can declare what will exempt from His visitation of wrath; for, since it is divine judgment which is to be executed, to God alone belongs the prerogative of announcing what that is which can screen sinners from it. But why was the blood of the paschal lamb to keep out the angel of death? In the blood is the life of the flesh. (Lev. 17:11) So, sprinkled outside on the door-posts, it proclaimed that life had been taken on behalf of those who were within. Hence they were secure in the midst of a scene of judgment. Believing God’s word, obedient in faith, they proved the sheltering efficacy of blood. But what virtue was there in the paschal lamb None intrinsically. It was the type, however, of that sacrifice which is of priceless and abiding value before God; so there was one mark in common between it and the true sacrifice, which helps to identify it as the type of that which was to be offered to God on the cross. A bone of the former was not to be broken (Exo. 12:46), the foreshadowing, as John the Evangelist points out (John 19:36), of the treatment by the soldiers of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ when dead upon the cross. As then, so it is now. There is a wrath to come. (Rom. 1:18) Of this Christians were fully cognizant in apostolic days, and were awaiting the advent of Him who delivers from it previous to executing it. (1 Thess. 1:10) So the Thessalonian saints, but recently idolaters, when sheltered by the blood of Christ from all fear of the coming wrath, could rest in the contemplation of the future on the simple word of God. For the Lord has said: “He that heareth my word, and believeth Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24) Is every reader of these lines, like Israel, sheltered by blood from coming judgment. Is every reader, like the Thessalonians, waiting for God’s Son from heaven, who delivers from the wrath to come. If not, why not? C. E. S. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: OVERCOMING ======================================================================== How consoling it is for the true heart to recount its resources in a day of ever-increasing weakness and ever-deepening gloom, to feel that an eye is watching over us, moment by moment, which can take in the scope of circumstances, and can estimate the bearing and influence of each upon our lives while, in a path capable of demonstrating the weakness of even the foremost at every step. Guided by that eye, and guarded by the love which has made us its special objects, we may confidently move forward in the course He marks out for those faithful to Him in communion with the Father, and complacently observe Him turning every circumstance to account for the glory of the adorable, thrice-blessed object of His eternal delights, though the occasion should be the failure of His most privileged ones. Let us remember the portion of our Master, when in a scene where “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father.” In the place where Satan has furnished man with sources of pleasure, He was the “Man of sorrows; with means of self-aggrandizement, He walked in self-emptied poverty. (2 Cor. 8:9) Though born King of the Jews, He dwelt in Nazareth! Come to His own, they received Him not; to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. For His love He had hatred; and for His faithfulness to God He was rejected and cast out, so ignominiously that even “they that were crucified with Him reviled Him;” yet then, as much as ever (and oh, may our hearts, in the energy of faith, retain in our momentary consciousness the wonderful mystery!), the mighty God, the everlasting Father! We slip from this; and how a sense of it, when recalled, humbles us afresh! Faith alone can scan, value, and use such a mystery. What strength and unspeakable grace the words carry with them: “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world!” And what it cost the blessed One to enable Him to say this for our encouragement! The same quality of moral tension was, likewise felt by those who had received grace to own Him; the kingdom of God was preached, and men pressed into it (Luke 16:16; Matt. 11:12,13); and the world on its part reciprocated the action. (John 9:34) Though, in His rejection, when He looked for comforters, and found none (He was then “alone “), contempt was the price of identification with Him, however feeble was the tread of the most determined in such a path. But the corn of wheat having fallen into the ground and died, fruit was the blessed consequence, in the power of the Holy Spirit descended. The reproach of Christ was henceforward the coveted portion of “His own “(Phil. 1:29); His cross the boast of one who by faith saw Him in His ascended glory, and realized oneness with Him above. Overcoming the world required little explanation in those days, and faith was equal to the emergency. (1 John 5:4,5) Still dangers in the contest were earnestly pressed, even on those who had overcome the wicked one (1 John 2:14-16); and contest itself generally, as the present heritage of believers on earth, was fully recognized. (Rom. 12:21; 1 Peter 2:19-22; James 4:4, &c) There are, then, antagonisms in the pathway of faith, and it is our truest wisdom to acknowledge the propriety-necessity, may we not say? (2 Tim. 3:12)-of their place in normal Christian experience. Where they have ceased-and where in this day are they seen?-there is evident room for suspicion, that faithfulness to the Lord is at a discount. Amongst us there is the truth; but much besides that the truth would expunge were it held in power. Outside there is a tacit admission of where the truth is (which flatters our vanity), and on their part is tantamount to the challenge, that the truth is useless to sustain, and unable to guide; to which our manifest, though unfelt, weakness renders us unable to reply. The word which assures us of that which we all look forward to with inexpressible gratitude (Rev. 21:7), gives also the nature of the path which leads to such glory. (2 Tim. 2:11,12) But where, we may ask in vain, is now the comely treading of that path? The early Christians accepted the ease which “the world “offered, on its own terms of course; and so dropped into the delusion of estimating the Church’s prosperity according to its position on earth, to the abandonment of that identification with a rejected Lord, which would retain them in the condition of pilgrims and strangers here-God’s gracious estimate of us in His word. (1 Peter 2:11) The delusion once started gains strength at every step in the Church’s history, following the Smyrnian persecution, up to the culminating point of Papal usurpation in Thyatira; even Sardis, though it had “revived “and “heard,” is immersed in the delusion; and it reaches a climax in Laodicea. From the moment that the professing church purchased the world’s smile, at the expense of faithful testimony to the rejected Lord, to the moment when it will be spued out of His mouth as a worse than worthless testimony, the delusion never ceases. Hence, those faithful to the Lord, at any time between these two events, must be so in presence of the delusion and its withering effects-simply a new and peculiar form of worldliness; and there is, therefore, an additional tax on the energies of faith, as well as a peculiar occasion for the exercise of spiritual discernment. Co-extensive with the delusion, however, is the path of precious grace-warning, sustaining, encouraging, restoring, and condescending; unchecked by man’s levity and failure, and unhindered by his abuse of that grace. To Ephesus the Lord offers an opportunity of retracing its steps, of finding its way back to those feelings which He could at all deem suitable response to His love, and warns it with a jealousy which bespeaks the depths of that love. In Smyrna He “sits as a refiner of silver,” sustaining those who suffer in faithfulness to Him. Even though Pergamos has so completely compromised the true standing of the assembly of God on earth by accepting the world’s patronage, He still remonstrates graciously. In Thyatira, where He cannot sanction the corruptions of Jezebel, He addresses Himself to the remnant (“ the rest “) in the most condescending tenderness, as a company, before giving the usual admonition to individuals. In Sardis He had given and spoken, though the use made of these privileges has been so faulty that Sardian testimony is not up to His mind at all. There is no true church testimony in it; no occasion for the exercise of spiritual discernment; e.g., as to how long a true heart should remain associated with what professes His name unworthily-He still lingering over it in yearning grace; no manifest bridal recognition of Him as Head, though doubtless there are “names.” Nothing more clearly implies the Judaized condition of things in Thyatira and Sardis than that; in the succeeding church phase, those forming the Philadelphian assembly required to pass through “an open door,” out of Thyatira and Sardis, of course, the only two systems of things of the first five stages, which “go on to the end.” It is a repetition of John 10:3; just as in Matt. 25, the virgins needed to “go out” a second time. Lastly, in Laodicea, where the claims of the Lord are disowned; and all true ecclesiastical responsibility abandoned, in a lukewarmness which has no room for bridal affections-however much zeal may be displayed for “the benefit of man’’-condescending grace is still seen in its divinely persevering activity, offering every necessary thing to render the last phase of church testimony suitable to His eye; grace as free and as perfect at the close as at the outset of our sad history! “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” But more. What depths are in the love which, in view of the dark history of the Church for the past eighteen hundred years-yea, whilst recording it, all this incessant failure on our part collectively-could stoop to notice individual state, and supply personal need, in a tenderness which is inexpressible, and an anxiety depicted in the reiteration of the admonition given in Rev. 2:7,11,17,29; 3:6, 13, 22, which our heedless hearts too often read as a mere formula. He notices the snares, difficulties, and hindrances of the faithful soul -the overcomer- in each phase; administers the needed strength, and bears with its weakness; encouraging and comforting it, whether it be found standing firmly in the midst of general departure from His way, or in circumstances through (perhaps out of) which its spiritual instincts or intelligence lead it upward towards the source whence have flowed the blessings which bespeak to his heart the character of that source. The last sentence introduces a twofold aspect of overcoming: one, acquiring; the other, maintaining. It is evident that the churches are viewed by the Lord, in these epistles, according to their states for walk on earth, i.e., in their responsibility, rather than as the body of Christ before God in acceptance. There is, therefore, room for an introduction of the distinctions as to overcoming just alluded to; though all true believers will doubtless in grace be regarded as overcomers by-and-by, as all will, being joint-heirs with Christ, “inherit all things.” (Rev. 21:7) The path of an overcomer in acquiring is clearly traceable up out of the indifferentism in Laodicea by way of “gold,” “white raiment,” and “eye-salve,” into the blessed intimacy of personal communion with the Lord-the portion which never-failing grace has secured to a true heart in the midst of utter wreck. (3: 20) There is also evidently acquiring in reaching true church ground from Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea in a later day. But just as evident is it that maintaining is in view (e.g.) in Smyrna (2:10, 11) and in Philadelphia. (3:11) There is difficulty (reluctance rather, is it not?) felt in realizing that circumstances should obtain in Philadelphia which would give occasion for overcoming in its second aspect; that is, a general defection amongst those professing the truth, from the state the company was in when the Lord reviewed it, and spoke of it as we find recorded in verse 8; a condition, in fact, of corporate weakness and failure, induced by inroads of worldliness and allowance of evil, wherein faithfulness is exceptional in maintaining its links with the Lord. That Laodicea should at the close be characteristic of the Church shows that those on Philadelphian ground have declined corporately from their original condition. And looking around us, can we with any show of reason really appropriate the Lord’s estimate of the Philadelphian character given in verses 8-11? To entertain the thought that we could is at least hazardous; for self-judgment is therein departed from, and room left for the self-complacency which not only constitutes us a body in our own esteem, instead of a mere remnant as we are before God, but displaces Christ also, in whom alone is our worth found. Were He everything to us, we should judge of things in their suitability to Him, or otherwise; and viewing things in this light, nothing but dissatisfaction could fill our hearts, a dissatisfaction appropriately expressed in ample confession (as in Ezra’s case, chap. 9: 2-7) of how our God sees everything, from our individual selves outward to the utmost limits of the Church, and the causes which led to its (our) utter failure in testimony. It was this avenue which first led to the place we now through much grace occupy. If we have slidden from such a state, then circumstances are present which call for individual faithfulness-overcoming, even where the truth is professed, in a maintenance of that condition of soul which corresponds to the state Philadelphia was in when the Lord described it. The heart determined on this, is touchingly assured of the Lord’s sympathies in verse 12, as has often been remarked. Who will be in the enjoyment of them when He comes? J. K. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: THREE EXHORTATIONS ======================================================================== “Rejoice in the Lord alway.” Who was a fit person to say that? The man who had been in the third heaven? No. The man a prisoner at Rome. That was rejoicing always; as we have in the Psalms, “I will bless the Lord at all times.” When I get the Lord as the object of my heart, there is more of heaven in the prison than out of it. It is not the green pastures and waters of quietness that made him glad. “The Lord is my Shepherd,” not the green pastures, though green pastures are very nice. And even if I wander from them, it is, “He restoreth my soul.” And if death is in the way, I am not afraid; for “Thou art with me.” And though there are dreadful enemies, there is a table spread in their presence. Now he says, “My cup runneth over.” He carries him through all the difficulties and trials of his own feebleness. Ah I he says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” The man who trusted in the Lord, the more trouble he was in, the more he proved that all was right. Paul says, “I know Him free, and I know Him in prison.” He was sufficient when he was in want, and sufficient when he abounded. So he says, “Rejoice in the Lord alway.” What could they do with such a man? If they kill him, they only send him to heaven; if they let him live, he is all devoted to lead people to the Christ they would destroy. It is more difficult to rejoice in the Lord in prosperity than in trials; for trials cast us on the Lord. There is more danger for us when there are no trials. But delight in the Lord delivers us altogether from the power of present things. We are not aware, until they are taken away, how much the most spiritual of us lean on props. I mean, we lean on things around us. But if we are rejoicing in the Lord alway, that strength can never be taken away, nor can we lose the joy of it. “Let your moderation be known unto all men.” Do you think people will think your conversation is in heaven if you are eager about things of earth? They will only think us so if there is the testimony that the heart does not stick up for itself. “The Lord is at hand.” All will be set right soon. If you pass on in meekness, and subduedness, and unresistingness, how it acts in keeping the heart and affections right and the world can see when the mind and spirit are not set on it. So he says, “Let it be known unto all men.” “Be careful for nothing.” I have found that word so often a thorough comfort. Even if it be a great trial, still “be careful for nothing.” “Oh,” you say, “it is not my petty circumstances; it is a question of saints going wrong.” Well, “be careful for nothing.” It is not that you are careless, but you are trying to carry the burden, and so you are racking your heart with it. How often a burden possesses a person’s mind, and when he tries in vain to cast it off, it comes back and worries him. But “be careful for nothing “is a command; and it is blessed to have such a command. What shall I do then? Go to God. “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Then in the midst of all the care you can give thanks; and we see the exceeding grace of God in tins. It is not that you are to wait till you find out if what you want is the will of God. No. “Let your requests be made known.” Have you a burden on your heart? Now go with your request to God. He does not say that you will get it. Paul, when he prayed, had for answer, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” But peace will keep your heart and mind, not you will keep this peace. Is He ever troubled by the little things that trouble us? Do they shake His throne? He thinks of us we know, but He is not troubled; and the peace that is in God’s heart is to keep ours. I go and carry it all to Him, and I find Him all quiet about it. It is all settled. He knows quite well what He is going to do. I have laid the burden on the throne that never shakes, with the perfect certainty that God takes an interest in me, and the peace He is in keeps my heart, and I can thank Him even before the trouble has passed. I can say, Thank God, He takes an interest in me. It is a pleasant thing that I can have this peace, and thus go and make my request-perhaps a very foolish one; and, instead of brooding over trials, that I can be with God about them. It is sweet to me to see that, while He carries us up to heaven, He comes down and occupies Himself with everything of ours here. While our affections are occupied with heavenly things, we can trust God for earthly things. He comes down to everything. As Paul says, “Without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us.” It was worth being cast down to get that kind of comfort. Is He a God afar off, and not a God nigh at hand? He does not give us to see before us, for then the heart would not be exercised; but though we see not Him, He sees us, and comes down to give us all kind of comfort in the trouble. J. N. D. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: THE POTTER’S BROKEN VESSEL ======================================================================== I feel and judge very distinctly that there is a special character in this present time through which we are passing. The great powers which are destined to fill out the action of Christendom’s closing day are practicing themselves, each in its several sphere, with great earnestness and skill. I mean the civil and the ecclesiastical. I do not doubt but that, for a season, the ecclesiastical will prevail. The woman is to ride again for a while-a prophetic symbol, as I believe, signifying ecclesiastical supremacy. And this present moment is marked by many efforts on the behalf of that which takes the place of the Church, or of the ecclesiastical theory, thus to exalt itself; and she is so adroitly directing those efforts that success may speedily await them, and then the blood of the saints may flow afresh. The civil power, however, is anything but idle. The wondrous advance that it is making every day in the cultivation of the world proves great skill and activity on its part. It is largely boasting itself, showing what it has done, and pledging what further it means to do. At this moment each of these powers is abroad in the scene of action, and the minds of men are divided between them. In some sense they are rivals. There is the commercial energy, and there is the religious energy; the one is erecting its railroads and making its exhibitions; the other is extending its bishoprics, building its temples, multiplying its ordinances, and the like. The attention of the children of men is divided between these things; but the saint who knows the cross of Christ as the relief of his conscience, and the reason of his separation from the world, is apart from them both. I doubt not that the civil power will have to yield the supremacy for a time, and the woman will ride again, though her state and greatness will be but for a little; for the civil power will take offense, and remove her. If we, in God’s grace, keep a good conscience towards Christ and His truth, we may count upon it that no inheritance in the earth is worth, as people speak, many years’ purchase. If we consent to become whatever the times would make us, of course we may go on, and that, too, advancing with an advancing world. I have been sensible lately how much the spirit of Jeremiah suits these times. He lived in the daily observation of evil. Iniquity was abounding in the scene around him, though it was called by God’s name, and was indeed His place on the earth. The house of prayer had become a “den of thieves,” though they still cried, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these.” He knew that the judgment of God was awaiting it all, and he looked for happy days which lay in the distance, beyond the present corruption and the approaching judgment. Over all this corruption Jeremiah mourned; against it all he testified; and, like his Master, he was hated for his testimony. (John 7:7) He was, however, full of faith and hope; and in the strength of that (anticipating the future) he laid out his money in the purchase of Hanameel’s field. (Jer. 32) All this was beautiful-the present sorrow over the corruption of the daughter of his people, faith’s certainty of the coming judgment, and hope’s prospect of closing crowning glory. This is a pattern for our spirit. And I observe another feature of power in the prophet. He was not to be seduced from the conclusions of faith by occasional fair and promising appearances. (See chap. 37) The Chaldean army had broken up their camp under the walls of Jerusalem because of the arrival of the Egyptian allies. This circumstance flattered the Jewish people into hopes; but Jeremiah left the city, because he would still hold to the conclusions of faith-that Jerusalem was doomed of God in righteous judgment. All this is a fine exhibition of a soul walking by the light of God, not merely through darkness, but through darkness which seemed to be light. All seems to be quiet around us at present, and even more than that, things are greatly and rapidly advancing, as far as all the accommodations of social life extend. But the moral of the scene, in the eye of faith, is more serious than ever. The apostate principles of man’s heart are but ripening themselves into their most fruitful and abundant exhibition. There is something of rivalry in the different powers that are in action just at present. The secular and the religious are apart to a great extent. Each has its respective worshippers; but ere long confederacy will take the place of rivalry, I believe. The world must, even for its own ends, adopt religion for a time, that man’s system may grow solid, as well as extended and brilliant, and propose itself as that which has earned a title to conform all and everything to itself. Separation is the Christian’s place and calling-church separation-separation because of heavenly citizenship and oneness with an already risen Christ. Abraham’s separation was very peculiar; it was twofold. He was separated from the natural associations of Mesopotamia, “country, kindred, and father’s house,” and from the moral associations of Canaan, or its iniquity and its idols. In the thought of these solemn truths, beloved, may the Lord Himself be more real and near to us! May the hope of His appearing be found lying more surely and calmly in the midst of the affections and stirrings of our hearts! All was reality with Jeremiah, to whom I have referred. The present corruption was a reality to him, for he rebuked it and bewailed it; the approaching judgment was a reality to him, for he wept at the thought of it, and deprecated it; the final glory was a reality to him, for he laid out his money upon it. He had occasional refreshments of spirit. His sleep, and the dream that accompanied it, in chap. 31, was, as he says, “sweet unto him.” was a moment on “the holy hill” to him; for a light from the kingdom, or the glory, visited him. He had likewise revelations, and he could speak and write of them -but not only as thus refreshed and gifted in spirit; he was real and true in moral power. He testified against this “present world” unto suffering, and laid out his money, his expectations, and labors, on “the world to come.” It was this which completed his character, and all would have been poor without it. We may speak of Christ, and teach about the kingdom-one’s own soul knows it well; but to witness for Him against the world, and to be rich towards God, this is to fill out and realize our character as saints. We may covet these elements of the Christian character. Some of us, if one may speak, are but half Jeremiahs. We can talk of Christ, but can we suffer for Him? We can teach about the kingdom, but can we lay out our money upon it? All this may admonish us, beloved, but I have another word in my heart just at present also. The parable of the potter, in Jer. 18. 19., was designed to let Israel know that, though brought into covenant, they were still within the range and reach of the divine judgments, and that such judgments would overtake them because of their sins. In John Baptist’s time, Israel is found in the like character of self-confidence. If in Jeremiah’s day they would say, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these;” in the Baptist’s day they said, “We have Abraham to our father.” But John, like Jeremiah, would again teach them that, though in covenant, judgment could reach them. In the Lord’s ministry we find the same. Israel still boasted. They talked of Abraham being their father, and of God being their Father (John 8), but we know how the Lord again and again warned them of the coming judgment. All this has a lesson for our learning. Christendom or Babylon has taken this ancient place of Israel. She trusts in security in spite of unfaithfulness. She boasts in the Lord, though her moral condition be vile. She says, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow “(Rev. 18:7), though blood, and pride, and all abominations, stain her. But Rev. 18 is another action. Like that of the prophet in the potter’s house, it teaches the unfaithful one that the doom of the broken vessels, or of the millstone cast into the sea, awaits her. This is for our learning. God never sanctions disobedience. He did not go into the garden of Eden to accredit Adam’s sin, but to bring relief in the way of grace for it. So, in the gospel, He utterly condemns sin, while delivering the sinner. Nor does He ever commit Himself to His stewards. He commits Himself to His own gifts and calling (Rom. 11:29), but never to His stewards. They are always held responsible to Him, and disobedience works forfeiture. Christ is the only Steward that ever stood and answered for Himself in the conditional place, and in this respect, as in every other, He is the moral contradiction of man. In the temptation (Matt. 4) the devil sought to inspire the Lord with confidence in spite of disobedience. He partially cited Psa. 91, quoted the promised security, omitting the required obedience. But he was utterly defeated. The Lord in answering cited Deut. 6, and acted accordingly; for in that chapter obedience is declared to be Israel’s ground of security. In this way did Jesus keep His own blessings under Psalm 91., and His Israel’s blessings under Deut. 6. But all other stewards, in their several turn and season, have failed, and Babylon’s boast, which we have already listened to, is a lie. All this may now-a-days be had in our remembrance seasonably; for we live at a time when Babylon is filling herself afresh with this boast, just before her overthrow, when she is to meet the doom of the millstone. (Rev. 18:21) For the boast of “the eternal city,” as she calls herself, only the more awfully signalizes her for the judgment of God. It is a favorite thought with her, that while other churches tremble for their safety, she is above such fears-she is God’s city, and has His walls around her. This is imposing; but, when considered by the teaching of the Word, it only the more distinctly declares what she is, and witnesses her more advanced ripeness for the judgment of God. Because this boast is defiance. It is not faith in God, but disavowal of His rights and authority. It is the denial of her subjection to Him, of her stewardship or place of being answerable to Him and His judgment. This boast of being “the eternal city “so far identifies her with the Babylon that says, “I sit a queen, and am no widow,” and it leaves her for the doom of the potter’s vessel in the valley of the son of Hinnom, or of the millstone in the hand of the angel. “Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again.” (See 19: 11) J. G. B. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: FRAGMENT: DRAWN OUT OF THE WORLD ======================================================================== Prophecy drives us out of the world; Christ in glory draws us out of the world. We have the word of prophecy as a candle, a light shining in a dark place-God’s candle; but I have to do with the bright and heavenly side as my own heart’s portion. When I can boast of a truth, it has no hold on my soul. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: THE RESURRECTION ======================================================================== The saints are the witnesses of the Lord’s resurrection. Our souls too little dwell on the stupendous import of the act which introduced a total change in the position and character of God’s people. Not in the nature of their redemption; for as guilty they always needed forgiveness of sins; and as sinners it was always necessary that they should be born again to enter the kingdom of God. But besides the fact that forgiveness of sins was not entered into as a present and assured blessing before the resurrection, the earth and blessing on it, length of days, and abundance of riches, with the favor of God, were what bounded the vision of the saints. An Abraham might not actually get so much of the promised inheritance as to set his foot on; and a David might suffer persecution under the government of God, though he were God’s chosen king; but the revelation given to them respectively of the seed, in whom all the nations would be blessed, and by whom the land would be possessed, and of the final judgment of the wicked, and deliverance of the righteous, satisfied their minds so that they went on contentedly with God and what they had. Thus also was it with others who embraced the promises as having seen them afar off, but who died in faith, not having received them. The Spirit of God in Heb. 11 gives His own value to the faith that thus simply waited on God, and so connects it with unseen and heavenly blessings. But we are not to suppose that these saints had a portion in heaven definitely before their minds; for such was not revealed to them, and they were taught to look for the time when there would be no obstacle to God’s blessing His people here on earth, and even when the traces of sin would be removed from it. There is a decided and complete change in this respect when resurrection is accomplished. Not only is heaven presented as the proper sphere of the blessings of the saints now, and earth is definitely refused, and the world separated from, as unfit for them in their true character, but the character and extent of the blessings which are revealed are now found to be expressed in that which the Lord Jesus enjoys as the risen and ascended Son of man. We may perhaps take verses 42, 43 of Luke 23 as illustrating this, what the thief actually received from the Lord being a figure of the blessing of the saints now in contrast to the portion proposed in verse 42, which will be that of the Jew in the future day. “Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom,” was all that the Scriptures would then have led one to expect; and so this man, who was subject then to the teaching of the Spirit, was led into the revealed mind of God. But, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise,” is perfectly new. Literally it, of course, refers to the state of his soul, his condition of existence, immediately after death; but in figure it sets forth the kind of blessing the Church has in contrast to the other. The resurrection is everything to her, and chap. 24. brings this out. The angels announce it (5: 4-8), almost reproaching the disciples for being so untrue to their peculiar blessing as still to cling to earthly hopes, when they say, “Why seek ye the living One among the dead?” He is not to be found in this world at all for us, and to expect to find Him here, or to seek to connect Him with earthly hopes, is to seek the living One among the dead. “He is not here, He is risen: remember how He spake unto you.” He had sought in His love and care for them to prepare their hearts by His words; but these hearts, as usual, proved truant; but “they remembered His words.” We see the great difficulty which they had in apprehending it at first in verses 10, 11; and it appears (from vv. 13-25) that the disciples even went back to earthly concerns in a spirit which gave up and denied the truth of all their blessing as connected with Him in His new character and position. But they are immediately set right, and their hearts recalled, when He is known to them as Lord in resurrection, and they at once return to their proper path as connected with this One (vss. 31-34) of whom they are to testify. It should be remarked, that though the Lord graciously drew near to them in their backsliding, and gave them communications of His mind from the Scriptures, so as to cause exercise of heart in them, still “their heart burning within them “must not be mistaken for communion with Him, for His presence was at that time unknown to them. They were not intelligently enjoying His company, and true communion there could not be without that enjoyment. They find on returning that the same Lord has thought of others of His doubting people; but those who were not so ready to act in self-will have the truth brought home to them sooner, and without their experiences. The eleven, and those with them, are found gathered together, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed.” He appears amongst them to strengthen and confirm this faith (vss. 35-43), and shows them how that He Himself, known as thus risen, is the key to the entire Scriptures (vss. 44, 45), making them witnesses of the truth (vs. 48) thus brought out, and connecting them by the gift of the Spirit (vs. 49) with Himself as ascended to glory (vss. 50, 51), and truly an object of worship, as well as a subject of joy and praise. (vss. 52, 53) Thus the proper blessing of the Church is immense. She does not wait till the kingdom will display the truth as to Christ, but even now enters into God’s thoughts about Him by virtue of knowing Him so immediately. Not only so, but also the measure of the glory in which Christ in resurrection is known being far above that of the kingdom, the extent to which divine wisdom in the Word is opened is immensely greater now than then. F. J. R. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: FRAGMENT: KNOWN, ENJOYED RELATIONSHIP ======================================================================== A KNOWN, enjoyed relationship gives quietness and rest. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: FRAGMENT: FAITH ======================================================================== Faith is my thinking God’s thoughts instead of my own. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: FRAGMENT: HEAVEN IN EVERYTHING HE DID ======================================================================== The Lord Jesus had the taste of heaven in everything He did, and the world cannot bear this. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: FRAGMENT: WHY WE SUFFER ======================================================================== We suffer here because we have a soul risen in a body that is not risen, and that in a world at enmity with God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: FRAGMENT: CHRIST IN VIEW ======================================================================== What is often important to man is not so to God, for God has Christ in view. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: WATCHING ======================================================================== The characteristic of a person who has his ear open to the Lord is watching. “Blessed are those servants, whom the lord, when he cometh, shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat (that is a figure), and will come forth and serve them.” I find Him serving, then, in divine love, still in the same character. He comes and brings us to heaven-to His Father’s house, that where He is, there may we be also. “While you were in that wicked world,” He says, “I was obliged to keep you on the watch, in a state of tension, with diligent earnestness to keep the heart waiting; but I bring you to a place where you are to sit down, and it will be my delight to minister to you.” It is one of the greatest comforts to me that I shall not want my conscience in heaven. If I let it go to sleep for a moment now, there are temptations and snares; there there is no evil, and the more my heart goes out, the more good it is. Here I dare not let it, but I must watch and pray; I shall not need that in heaven. The full blessedness of it is, the Lord being there of course; and next, the saints being perfect. What does the heart desire that cares for the Lord’s people? That they should be just what Christ’s heart would have them. That will be there; He will see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. Then there is after that this comfort, that my heart can go out-here it cannot-to God and the Lamb, and to the saints in measure too; but then, roam as it will, there is nothing to roam over but a paradise where evil never comes, and it can never go wrong. He comes, then, and takes us there; and what heaven can find there for the heart to feed on is spread on the table of God. “You shall rest there and feed on it,” He says, “and I will gird myself, and come forth and serve you. I am not going to give up my service of love.” Thus, while I have the blessedness of feeding on what God has to give, I have the increased satisfaction, that if I put a morsel of divine meat into my mouth, I receive it from the hand of love that brings it to me. When He brings us there, all is turned round. “Here,” He says, “you must have your lights burning, and be watching; when I get my way, I must put you at ease, and make you happy.” “Then shall the Son also Himself be subject.” He was serving here. It was man’s perfection to serve -the very thing the devil tried to get Him out of. If he had, it would have been doing his own will; but “though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things that He suffered.” But when all things shall have been subdued unto Him, He is subject after that. In the meanwhile He has been on His own throne; now He is on His Father’s throne, our High Priest; but He will take His own throne and power, and reign, bringing everything into subjection. Then it is not serving, but reigning; afterward He gives up the kingdom in that sense to His Father, for everything is brought to order. In the millennium it is a King reigning in righteousness; but then it is new heavens and earth, wherein dwells righteousness. Innocence dwelt in the first paradise; sin dwells in the present earth; and then, in the new heavens and earth, it will be “wherein dwelleth righteousness.” He gives up the mediatorial kingdom, as it is called, to God, and takes His place as a man-” the first-born among many brethren.” He never gives up a place in which He can own us as associated with Himself in the blessedness of first-born of many brethren. As all was ruined in the first Adam, all shall be blessed in the last. “As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” Then I find myself enjoying everything that God can give to the objects of His love, and enjoying it with Christ then at the head of everything-Son of God and Son of man; we associated with all the blessedness, and He administering to us so that the heart can taste His love. And He does not just bring us there, but it is to all eternity. He has purchased us too dearly to give us up. His love will be in constant exercise towards us. It leads us to adore Him more than anything that can be thought of; but we can trust a love that never ceases in heaven. You see here His heart is going out to do it. Then you must have your lights burning. “Let your light” (not your works) “so shine before men,” that they may know where your works come from, “and glorify your Father which is in heaven,” that they may attribute them to God. I do whatever God tells me to do, and it is a testimony to Christ. People say that is what comes from a man being a Christian. It is that there may be no uncertainty as to what we are-a well-trimmed lamp, the testimony of the life of Christ-that it may be manifested what I am, and what I am about -a pilgrim and a stranger in a thousand different circumstances, the ordinary duties of life to perform, but one service-to be the epistle of Christ. I may be a carpenter or a shoemaker; I must be a Christian. In various relationships, servants, masters, in eating or drinking in our houses, wherever it is, I must be a Christian. What characterized those servants was waiting, and they got the blessing. “Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching.” Ah, beloved friends, are you watching, waiting for Christ practically? I cannot be watching and going on in my own way. Are our lights burning, or have we slipped down to the ease and comforts of this world like other people? That is not having our loins girded, and it is not as a doctrine we are to have it only. J. N. D. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: FRAGMENT: CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT LIVING POWER ======================================================================== THE nearer a man is to God externally, if his soul has not living fellowship with Him, the worse he is. Judas is worse than the Pharisees; the Pharisees than the Samaritans. Hence the profession of Christianity, where there is not its living power, is the very place where the most terrible evil is to be looked for. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: FRAGMENT: CHRIST IN OUR HEARTS ======================================================================== If we let Christ practically out of our hearts, it costs a deal to bring Him back again. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: FRAGMENT: THE LORD GIVES FULLY AND PERFECTLY ======================================================================== Whatever may be withheld in a time of ruin, the Lord gives, not what would take His people out of it, but fully and perfectly what they need in it. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: THE BURNT-OFFERING ======================================================================== From patriarchal times, and from that memorable night in Egypt, the last that all Israel ever spent in it, as their home, we pass on to the laws about the offerings and sacrifices given by God to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai. As yet we have only met with burnt-offerings, with sacrifices which had the character of peace-offerings, and with drink-offerings; now we are made acquainted, through the Mosaic ritual, with these and others as well; viz., meat-offerings, sin-offerings, and trespass-offerings. To these may be added heave-offerings and wave-offerings. But the burnt-offering, meat-offering, peace-offering, sin-offering, and trespass-offering have this in common, that they all typify what is true only of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereas the heave-offering and wave-offering were not confined to that which is peculiar to Him, and the drink-offering did not typify Him at all, but testified of the joy of God, and of the offerer in Him. Hitherto, in the history of sacrifice, we have met with no directions respecting the manner of sacrificing. Now we come to regulations minute and explicit, revealed to Moses. And the first to be described, though not always the first to be offered, where more than one kind of sacrifice was prescribed, is that called the burnt-offering, and so called, we are expressly informed, because it burned all night upon the altar (Lev. 6:9) unto the morning. It was the only offering which was burning all night, and it formed the basis on which all other offerings were burned by day on the brazen altar in the court of the tabernacle, or of the temple. No wonder then it has priority over all the other offerings in the Mosaic ritual. It was the only one they could never do without. It was the only one that was never to be absent from God’s eyes till the true sacrifice, its antitype, should be offered up, and animal sacrifices thenceforth cease, until preparations should be made for the Lord’s return in power. Further, this was the only sacrifice of which the whole went up to God, so, in whatever way one might classify the offerings, this one would always come first. For it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ in a character especially important, and ever to be remembered, as it tells of His whole surrender to death to do God’s will, without which, as we well know, no sacrifice on our behalf could ever have availed before God. Sinful man could not have offered himself to God on his own behalf, or on behalf of others, and earth could never have provided that sacrifice with which the Holy One could in righteousness have been satisfied. There was needed for the sacrifice not only an offering free from sin, but one who was holy in all his ways; his life, his energies all devoted to God, and who could also die. One only can answer to all these requirements; viz., the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God. But though earth could not provide the sacrifice, certain animals on the earth could be accepted as types of it. Israel could bring to the Lord Jehovah, and offer on His altar, that which in His eye was typical of the death of His Son. Of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl Noah offered his burnt-offerings to God. (Gen. 8:20) Of clean beasts, and of clean fowls, Israel could offer burnt-offerings to Jehovah; but the occasions on which they were to be offered, the manner of offering them, and what animals were to be brought, they had to learn from the Mosaic ritual. On private and on public occasions burnt-offerings could be presented. For instructions about private occasions we turn to Lev. 1; for directions for public or special occasions we must turn elsewhere. On private occasions God allowed the offerer a choice. On public, and at times on special occasions also He prescribed what should be brought. If any one in Israel was moved in his heart to present a burnt-offering to God, it might be either of the herd, of the flock, or of fowls. In the case of no other offering was there such a choice. The wealthiest and the poorest could meet on common ground at the altar of burnt-offering; and whilst the rich man could bring his bullock, which required the services of more than one priest to sprinkle the blood and to place the parts of the animal on the altar, the poor man, who for his bird needed only the ministry of one priest, could return from the altar with the assurance of his God, that his turtle-dove or young pigeon was equally with the bullock “an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord.” (Lev. 1:17) How gracious was this! The Lord accepted the offering, not according to its intrinsic value, as man would have appraised it, but according to His own estimate of that of which each was a type-the self-surrender to death of His well-beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Where the sacrifice was of the herd or of the flock, the offerer’s identification with it was openly declared by placing his hand on its head. In the case of the bird this significant action is not mentioned. When a bullock, or sheep, or goat was brought, the offerer killed it, and the priests sprinkled the blood round about the brazen altar; then the offerer skinned the animal, washed the inward parts with water, and, having dismembered it, presented the parts to the priests or the priest to be placed in order upon the altar. When the sacrifice was a bird, the priest nipped off its head and burnt it on the altar, and squeezed out its blood at the side of the altar; then the offerer plucked away its crop with its filth (not its feathers), which was cast on the east part by the place of the ashes. Then, cleaving it with the wings thereof, he presented it a whole carcass to be burnt upon the altar. In every case the head was treated separately from the body; but in the case of the bird the body was burnt as a whole. Further, in every case the sacrifice was to be clean, and to be a male without blemish if it came from the herd or from the flock. Thus far we have detailed to us the part the offerer had in the service. He had to provide the offering, and to bring it, and to prepare its body for the sacrifice; whilst the priest’s part was to deal with the blood, and to burn the carcass upon the altar. Hence, in the case of a quadruped the priest had no place at all in the matter, till the blood had to be sprinkled on the altar round about. In other words, death took place before the priestly service at the altar was called into requisition. The priest’s place was at the altar; he ministered there, but, till death had taken place, in the ordinary way he had nothing to do. The death of the sacrifice must be an accomplished fact, and acknowledged to be such ere the priest’s work could begin. The exception to this in the case of the bird arose probably from the physical difference between it and the beast. From the latter the blood readily poured forth; from the former it had to be squeezed out. (Lev. 1:15) This principle is an important one. It puts the offerer in his place, and the priest in his. The priest did nothing till the offerer killed his offering, after identifying himself with it. So the Lord offered Himself, and only after His death entered on his priesthood, as Heb. 8:4 clearly states. The priest was required for all that went on at the altar, but only after the death of the victim has taken place beside it, or in front of it, as the case might be. Accurate as the type was in this respect, it came short, as each must do of the full delineation of that of which it was but a type. Here we read of the offerer, of the offering, and of the priest, all three distinct; but the offerer, on whose behalf the sacrifice was brought, here killed the beast; whereas the antitype, the true sacrifice, offered up himself. (Heb. 7:27) In reality the offerer, the offering, and the priest are one and the same person seen in three different characters. Christ offered Himself, being the Lamb of God, and the high priest, who has entered into heaven by his own blood. Everything, then, that had to be done in connection with sacrifice He has done, and done once for all (Heb. 10:14), leaving to man the only part he can take in it; viz., identification with the sacrifice, so as to share in the rich results which flow from it, by owning it to be the offering on his behalf, according to the value of which he stands accepted before God. Under the law the offerer presented the sacrifice for his acceptance (not “of his own voluntary will,” as our version has translated the Hebrew word lirzono), owning thereby the ground on which he stood before God. But we do not present the sacrifice, since that has been already done. Christ offered Himself without spot to God (Heb. 9:14), and offered up Himself as well. For though men crucified Him, He nevertheless laid down His life of Himself. (John 10:18) None could have taken it from Him Thus both actions, the presenting the sacrifice and the offering it up, indicated by the Greek words προσφἐρω and αναφέρω, were carried out by Him in His grace. But more. The burnt-offering offered up for the man’s acceptance, he learned that it made atonement for him. Now this mention of atonement is instructive, since it shows that, apart from the aspect of sacrifice typified by the burnt-offering, atonement could not have been accomplished. There was needed for that, not only a substitute for the sinner-One who could bear the sins of the guilty one in His own body on the tree -but One who would surrender Himself wholly to do God’s will by dying, on whom death could in no way have a claim. One essential element then in atonement was the sacrifice of One who could surrender Himself to die, apart from, though of course closely connected with, His position as the sinner’s substitute. And the offerer in Israel, when he brought his burnt-offering, moved probably by the sense of Jehovah’s goodness to him, but without reference to any sin that he had committed in the past, learned his need of atonement through the provision Jehovah thus made to effect it. Precious was this sacrifice to God. All of it went up to Him, the skin only excepted, which was to be the priest’s who offered it. For the priest at the altar being always typical of Christ Himself, the skin, symbolical of the circumstances through which the Lord passed, would rightly belong to him; for who but the Lord can know what those circumstances were? And here the reader should be reminded that only one priest officiated at the altar to burn the sacrifice. When the animal was of the herd several priests were required to sprinkle the blood, and to lay the pieces on the altar on the wood, but one priest (vs. 9) it was who burnt all on the altar. Precious indeed was all that was consumed thereon; for whatever the sacrifice might be in itself, all that was burnt on the altar was a sweet savor to God, and went up to Him, as it were, as incense; for all thereon burnt spoke of what the Lord Jesus Christ was in Himself to God, and not of what He was made for us. All that typified Him as a sacrifice was holy. What typified that which He was in Himself was, when burnt, as sweet incense to God. Precious was the burnt-offering to God, so it never was to be out of His sight, and all night long it burnt on the altar-ever in God’s remembrance, ever under His eye. What a thought that gives us of its preciousness to Him He could always, as it were, be looking on it, the witness to Him of that self-surrender to death of His Son, then future, but now past; then a secret known only to Him, but now shared in through grace by us who believe on Him whilst still the world is asleep, and the night has not passed away. Precious was this offering. So at all their feasts, and on stated occasions provided by the law, as well as on special occasions as they arose in after years, this offering was always in season. Each morning and each evening it was offered up on the altar-the first sacrifice in the morning, the last in the evening. This was a standing ordinance in Israel, ever to be remembered and observed. At the close of each week, on the Sabbath, a special burnt - sacrifice was appointed in addition. At the commencement of each month a burnt-offering of the flock and of the herd was enjoined. At each of the feasts, and on each day of the feasts, special burnt-offerings were commanded; and so on the day of atonement. At Aaron’s consecration, too, this sacrifice had its place, and again at the setting apart of the Levites. No mother in Israel would rejoice over the birth of her child, whether male or female, without bringing for her purification the appointed sacrifice for a burnt-offering. Each leper, too, that was cleansed was reminded of his need of it ere he could re-enter his tent in the camp, and be at home there again; and every one, whether man or woman, made unclean by an issue was taught the importance, in his or her case, of bringing a burnt-offering to God. So on special occasions Samuel at Mizpeh (1 Sam. 7), David on mount Moriah (2 Sam. 24), Elijah at Carmel (1 Kings 19), offered burnt-offerings to the Lord. And on that day when the Lord, under the symbol of the ark, first took up His abode in Jerusalem, David sacrificed burnt-offerings after they had carried it into the tent prepared for it on mount Zion. (2 Sam. 6) Very prominent then was this class of sacrifice in Israel’s worship, whether national or individual. The brightest day could not pass without it; the darkest was a fitting season for it; and we understand the reason of it, whatever those of old could have told about it. It spoke to God, and, we can add, it speaks to us too, of that self-surrender of His Son, even to death, the death of the cross, to whom in a marked way the Father’s love flows out (John 10), and whom in consequence God hath highly exalted, and has “given Him a name which is above every name.” (Phil. 2) C. E. S. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: TAKEN ASIDE ======================================================================== “He is chastened also with pain.... He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.” (Job 33) “ He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.” (Psa. 102:19,20) “He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind.” (Luke 4:18) “And they bring a blind man unto Him … He took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town.” (Mark 8:23) “ They bring unto Him one that was deaf … He took him aside from the multitude.” (Mark 7:33) “They heard not the voice of Him that spake to me.” (Acts 22:9) Gone! in a moment from us Taken “aside” to die! Father, our hearts in anguish Yearningly question, “Why?” Is there no answer coming? We listen in waiting faith; Faith which can trust the Savior Even in silent death. Even if settled darkness Broods o’er the shoreless sea; Savior, we wait Thy coming! Light, in Thy light, to see! Wait for the sweet surprises- Wonderful words of love- Which shall fill our hearts with rapture, Told in the home above. Telling, how in the darkness, No loving watcher by, To the world-worn, restless spirit, “Jesus Himself” drew nigh, Speaking words of compassion Gently, while drawing near; And the soul was content for, silence That wonderful voice to hear; Content for the sudden summons To come when all alone; And the Savior’s band to lead him Unto the Father’s home. What were the words He uttered? What was the answer given? Ah! the joy of that private meeting We must wait to hear in heaven. Savior and sinner meeting, Meeting after long years; Wonderful words of greeting Softening the heart to tears. Broken words of confession Breathed in the Father’s ear; Then His embrace dispelling Once, and forever, fear. Breaking the chains of Satan, Setting the captive free; Then to the ransomed spirit Saying, “To-day with me.” Wonderful, glorious moment! When at the Savior’s word Eyes long blinded were opened, Opened to see the Lord. A look-at the One beside him A word-and the work was done; And the threshold crossed to glory By the blood-bought ransomed one. A.S.O. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: INTIMACY WITH THE LORD ======================================================================== The position in which Abraham is presented in this chapter gives a very descriptive display of the ground of intimacy with Himself on which the Lord has set His people. In many respects it is a positive blessing to be brought into association with the Lord, as we find in the case of Abraham; but he is here presented, not as the depositary of promises, or the object of covenanted blessings, but as enjoying the intimacy which his position brought him into with the Lord. The condition of the revelation which separated him from natural associations and earthly ties, and made him a stranger and pilgrim in the world, put him into this place of intimacy, as God had said to him, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” But the testimony to us is, that in virtue of God’s dealings with us in Christ we also are brought into this place of confidence and intimacy, though in a much higher sense. Abraham stood on the earth, the place of judgment; but God’s call in grace puts us in direct association with the blessing, and as risen with Christ, altogether apart from the place of judgment. Eph. 1:9 presents this intimacy as resulting from the place in which we are set in Christ: “Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself,” &c. This revelation to us of the thoughts of God does not relate to our own direct blessing, but is the token of confidence toward us whom He has set in such intimacy of relationship with Himself. As Christ said to His disciples, “I call you not servants: for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you.” Abraham’s position with the Lord was one of perfect peace and unquestioning confidence. He has no question to settle with the Lord, but is on that ground where he can enjoy without any hindrance communion with Him. Neither the scene that was passing before him, nor the thoughts of the judgment that the Lord tells him he is about to execute, have any power to disturb the quiet with which he maintains his intercourse with the Lord. In the sixteenth verse it is said, “The men rose up from thence, and looked towards Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.” The Lord directed them in judgment, and Abraham went with them to show them the way. He is here the companion of the Lord and confidant of His thoughts. And to us the Lord is not only the eternal spring of blessing to our seals, but He makes His saints His companions; not invariably, it is true, but still He does so. And it is in the communications which the Lord makes to us that He thus makes us His companions; for certainly there is not a mote happy or certain way in which any one can show his love to another than by communicating to him his thoughts and feelings. “Who hath known the mind of the Lord?” “But we have the mind of Christ.” “Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him,” So we are called to walk with Christ until He comes and takes us up to Himself. The exercise and the path of faith are all in this world, but the issues of the trial and the bright “hope of righteousness by faith” are above. “Abraham went with the men to bring them on their way.” That was all. He was entirely apart from the judgment that was about to be executed upon Sodom, as the Church is also above the world’s judgment, though not above the Lord’s discipline for its good. Lot, in his desires after the good of this world, had looked towards Sodom and found himself ensnared by it; but Abraham was so entirely out of it, as to be talking to the Lord about its fate when Lot had to be roused by the startling words of the angels, “Hast thou here any besides? Sons-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: for we will destroy this place.” But the Lord said to Abraham, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? For I know him,” &c. The Lord God put Abraham into the place of covenant blessing, and on this ground He communicates to him His thoughts. He had, in a sense, bound Himself to be Abraham’s companion by the very terms of the revelation He had made to him; for He had said, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.” And the result is this introduction into confidence and intimacy of intercourse with the Lord, who speaks to him “of his house for a great while to come.” And the ground of the Lord’s communication of His thoughts to us is, that having centered His love in us, He lets us into His confidence. He has united the Church to Christ, and associated it with Christ, and hence He makes known to us “the mystery of His will.” It is the consequence and result of the place in which He has set us. The Lord says of Abraham, “I know him,” &c. There is the greatest blessing in this; it is so entirely the language of friendship, and so opposite to the way in which He speaks about judgment. He does not talk about “knowing “those He is going to judge, but says, “I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me: and if not, I will know.” Until He has fully investigated He will not strike even in judgment. But it is not thus with the saints; He has no need to go down to see about them; for He fully knows and owns them, as He said to Abraham, “I know him.” “The men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom; but Abraham stood yet before the Lord.” It is a blessed thing to so know our place and blessing with the Lord as to be able to do this; for if the Lord thus “knows Abraham,” so as to secure to him the blessings he had promised, it is answered by Abraham’s staying with the Lord Himself. He is going to bring judgment on the world, but He will not smite until He cannot help it, as He said, “The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” But no judgment that was coming on the cities of the plain could separate Abraham from the Lord. The Lord’s eye so rests on him that he is able to rest quietly in the Lord. And so it is with us; whatever trial, or sorrow, or judgment, is coming upon the world, our place is to abide with the Lord Himself, and then, like Abraham, the effect of having drunk into His grace will be that we shall be calm, quiet, and happy. There will, alas I be many Lots in the well-watered gardens of the plain; but let us be in the mountain with the Lord, abiding in perfect peace, not alone in security from the judgment, but in that which is far higher, with the Lord Himself. Abraham being thus with the Lord in perfect peace, has nothing, as we see, to ask for himself, but becomes the earnest intercessor for others. And even subsequently, in the case of Abimelech, the Lord says, “Restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live.” The force of this is, “If he be a prophet, if he has this intimacy with the mind of the Lord, let him pray for thee, and I will hear him.” So it is with us: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” The possession of the Lord’s mind gives us the power of intercession for others. This is not like wrestling Jacob, who had to get the blessing for himself, though it is possible we may have to wrestle for ourselves in order to get individual blessing; for we must not be untrue to our actual state; but Abraham’s prayer for Sodom is communion, and the knowledge of this communion produces peace and joy. It is not that reverence will be absent from the soul; for Abraham says, “I am but dust and ashes,” in the profoundest sense of his own nothingness in the presence of God. Still there is the most perfect intimacy, as we witness in his advancing from point to point in his pleadings with the Lord for the sparing of Sodom; while this whole wondrous scene closes with the simple words, “And the Lord went His way as soon as He had done communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.” ============================= ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: OH, HOW I WANT TO SEE THE MAN THAT SAVED ME! ======================================================================== It is a great thing when the soul gets beyond the fact of its deliverance, wonderful and blessed as that is, and lays hold by faith upon the person of the Deliverer; for it is in being occupied with Him, in the having to do with Himself personally, and addressing Him in happy, assured confidence of heart as one now known and delighted in, that positive and increased blessing of an inexhaustible character consciously accrues to the believer. And the more I value the immensity of the blessing I now possess, the more surely should I desire to make the direct acquaintance of the One who has conferred so wonderful a boon upon me at the incalculable cost of the sacrifice of Himself. How much, dear reader, do you and I know of personal intimacy with Him, of Jacob’s well at Sychar, and of Martha’s cottage at Bethany, now the Man enthroned in glory? How much of that individual intercourse with Himself, without which each recurring day should be to us a cold and cheerless blank, and will be, unless we are drawing from earthly springs and human cisterns? Alas! how many habitually grieve Him by accepting the benefit bestowed, while exhibiting pronounced indolence or indifference as to the Benefactor, depriving themselves thus of that peculiar joy which fills the heart for the first time in that thrilling moment when we are conscious of what has never dawned upon us before-that we are personally known to Christ and He to us! Nor can we doubt that it is equally a time of exceptional joy to Him when a soul in the bloom and beauty of its new-born spiritual life is brought thus fully and blessedly into conscious acquaintance with Himself, to enter upon an intercourse as intimate as the relations of the Father to the Son, and as lasting as God’s eternity. It is the occasion on which the believer can say, and say it unequivocally, “Well, now I know Him, my Savior! Not merely do I know what He did for me when He was here; but I know the One who has left the scene, the Man now in glory, and have been so brought into the secret of His own presence to have immediate contact with Himself, that, indeed, I know Him more intimately than I know any earthly relative, and am known of Him infinitely better than by any such!” We are fully persuaded that hundreds of believers who are well assured of the blessing they have received go on in coldness and leanness, withered and stunted in soul, because of the absence of this. What they need is to have their hearts stimulated to seek this direct knowledge in cultivated and constant intercourse of the person of Christ. The Spirit of God loves to conduct the soul of the believer to Christ now, as also He will his body by-and-by, when morning breaks and glory dawns. For us nothing could be more profitable or more blessed; for Him no tribute so acceptable! It is as somewhat illustrating this point that we put the following little narrative before the reader. A few years ago a poor woman, one of a number who earn a scanty living by washing at the river-side near Glasgow, and whose only possession was the tub in which her daily task was performed, had the misfortune to fall into the Clyde, and as the river was deep and the current, strong, her case was imminent, no help being apparently at hand. Suddenly a man who was a renowned swimmer and had saved many lives, plunged into the stream; but only by extreme exertion, and well-nigh at the cost of his own life, did he succeed in rescuing the object of his solicitude. The old woman herself had been so long submerged that animation was suspended, and no little effort was requisite before consciousness returned. And now, dear reader, what do you think were the first words which, issuing from her lips, manifested to those around that she had really come back, as it were, from death to life? Some expression of anxiety as to her home, her family, her friends? Some disclosure of her feelings while in the jaws of death, or on her discovery that she had been rescued? No, nothing, nothing of this! But words that should be a touching lesson for us, who have been further gone than she towards a far more terrible fatality, and who have been rescued, not at the almost, but at the actual cost of another’s life. Her words were those which head this paper, “Oh, how I want to see the man that saved me!” Beautiful exclamation in the mouth of one who had nearly. perished, but whose unselfish gratitude led her to concern herself about him whose self-sacrificing work had brought her back from death. The man came at her word. Again she spoke, “Oh, sir,” she said, “you’ve saved me, and I’ve naught in the world save you tub; but, oh! if you’ll take it you ‘re welcome, with all my heart!” The man, no less astonished than gratified, made no reply, but doffing his hat went round collecting from the assembled crowd, and speedily coming back poured all he had received into her lap, enriching her as she had never in her life either experienced or expected. Is it not thus, though in an infinitely higher and more blessed way, that God, having given us eternal life in Christ, with Him also freely gives us all things? Have we, like the poor woman, experienced deep longings of heart to see the One who has saved us, and when we have made His acquaintance laid all we possess with all our heart at His feet? If so, surely we shall have found that, inasmuch as it is more blessed to give than to receive, He will be no man’s debtor; but taking to Himself the higher blessedness which is His due, He will pour into our lap all that He has received, to share with us the spoils of His own victory, the guerdon of His own work! And thus to us shall belong the double and lasting indebtedness which our narrative illustrates. May we who have been so wondrously blessed, and who sometimes sing of Him, “And gave us all that love could give,” be led of the Holy Spirit into personal acquaintance with the Man in glory whom grace has made our satisfying portion forever. And may the taste we thus acquire for what we more and more find only in Himself intensify, as it surely will, the longing desire of our hearts to see Him face to face, when the day dawns and the shadows flee away! W. B. D. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: FRAGMENT: PRAYER ======================================================================== In prayer I have not only to ask for things, but to realize the presence of Him to whom I speak. The power of prayer is gone if I lose the sense of seeing Him by faith. Prayer is not only asking right things, but having the sense of the Person there. If I have not that, I lose the sense of His love, and of being heard. J. N. D. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: THE LAVER ======================================================================== The laver is the last of the sacred vessels enumerated. Together with this the tabernacle and its arrangements are completed. It was placed outside, in the court of the tabernacle, between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar; i.e. between the brazen altar which was inside the entrance into the court, and the entrance into the holy place. Thus passing the altar of burnt-offering, on their way into the tabernacle, the priests would encounter the laver on the road. The reason of this will be shown as we proceed. “ And the Lord spike unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein: for Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat. When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord: so they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.” It will be observed that nothing is said as to the shape of the laver. All the illustrations that are given of it in works on the tabernacle are without authority; in fact, they are purely imaginary. There is without doubt a divine reason for the concealment both of the shape and size, as it is the thing typified rather than the vessel itself to which the Spirit of God would direct our minds. The silence of Scripture is as instructive as its speech, and it is the happy privilege of the believer to bow to the one equally with the other. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deut. 29:29) It was made entirely of brass, both the laver and its foot. The significance of this material has been frequently explained, but may again be recalled. It is divine righteousness testing man in responsibility, and consequently in the place where man is. Brass, on this account, is always found outside of the tabernacle; while gold, which is divine righteousness as suited to the nature of God, is found within, in the holy place, as well as in the holy of holies. But testing man, it of necessity condemns him, because he is a sinner; and hence it will be found to have associated with it a certain judicial aspect. There is another element to be specified. The laver was made out of a special character of brass, out of the brazen mirrors (see margin) used by the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation (38: 8), out of the very articles that revealed, in figure, their natural condition, and thereby showed their need of cleansing. If the brass therefore revealed and judged the condition of those it tested, the water was there to cleanse and purify. For the water is a symbol of the Word. It is so used in John 3:5, compared with James 1:18 and 1 Peter 1: 23-25. It is also found in Eph. 5:26, in the special sense of the water of the laver. But this will be seen more fully as we consider the use of the laver. It was for Aaron and his sons to wash their hands and their feet thereat. “When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not,” &c. It was an imperative, as well as a perpetual, obligation upon the priests to wash their hands and their feet on the occasions specified. Now before explaining the character of this washing, it will clear the way and aid the reader, to make a few preliminary remarks. Remark then, first, that the washing of the bodies of the priests, as at their consecration, is never repeated. It is the hands and feet only that are repeatedly to be washed in the laver. The reason of this is obvious. Washing the whole body is a figure of being born again, and this cannot be done again. Our Lord taught this truth in John 13 In reply to Peter He said, “He that is washed” (bathed, literally; i.e. washed all over) “needeth not save to wash” (another word) “his feet, but is clean every whit.” The feet, or, as in the case of the priest, the hands and the feet, might be defiled, and need to be cleansed again and again, but the body never; for that was cleansed once and for all in water at the new birth. Observe, secondly, that it is water, and not blood, in the laver. It has often been attempted to deduce from this ordinance for the priests that the believer needs the repeated application of the blood of Christ. Sueh a thought is not only alien from the whole teaching of Scripture, but it also tends to undermine the efficacy of the one sacrifice of Christ. Yea, it impugns the completion of atonement, and consequently the title of Christ to an abiding seat at the right hand of God. The blood of Christ has to do with guilt, and the moment the sinner comes under its value before God he is cleansed forever; for by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. The one object of the Spirit of God in Heb. 9 and x. is to enforce this precious and momentous truth. That it has been lost sight of in the whole of Christendom is only too true; but the guide of the believer is not to be found in the current teachings of men, but in the immutable word of God. Whoever therefore will read the two chapters indicated, and read them honestly, will at once perceive that there is never a question of the imputation of guilt to the believer, but that he is entitled to rejoice in having no more conscience of sins, if he has been once cleansed by the precious blood of Christ. What then, it may be distinctly asked, was the nature of the cleansing at the laver? It was confined, as pointed out, to the hands and the feet. Comparing this with John 13, a difference will be observed. In the case of the disciples the feet only were washed; in the case of Aaron and his sons it was their hands and their feet. The difference springs from the character of the dispensations. The hands are indicated for the priests, as well as the feet, because with them work was in question; they were under law. Bat with the disciples the feet only are washed, because, though done before the Lord had left them, it was an action typical of the present position of believers, with whom it is no question of work, but one of walk. Let it then be repeated that the priests were never re-washed or re-sprinkled with blood. They are looked upon as born again in figure, and as abidingly under the value of the blood. But thereafter comes the question of defilements in their service and walk. Now if there had been no provision for these they would have been debarred from their priestly functions in the sanctuary; for how could they have gone in before God with defiled hands and feet-into the presence of Him of whom it is said, “Holiness becometh thine house”? Hence this gracious provision of the water-symbol of the Word-that ere they entered into the holy place they might cleanse their hands and feet from the defilements which they had contracted. Bearing in mind then the difference of the dispensations (as shown by the inclusion of the hands), the teaching of the laver corresponds entirely with that of John 13; that is, it is a question of cleansing from defilements. We find thus our Lord seated with His disciples, and it is said, “having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” (vs. 1) This statement is significant on two accounts-first, as showing that it was a dealing with those who belonged to Him; and secondly, as revealing the motive of the ministry which He was about to perform. “During supper” (not “supper being ended “) “the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him; Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself.” (vss. 2-4) The meaning of this action was, that as He could not continue longer with them, for He was going to God, He would show them how they might have part with Him in the place to which He was going. They had been washed (vs. 10), but in their passage through the world their feet would be defiled, and thereby, unless, as in the case of the priests, provision were made for their cleansing, they would be unable to have part with Him (vs. 8)-they would be unable to enjoy communion either with the Father or His Son Jesus Christ. Hence He reveals to them, by this symbolic act of washing their feet, how He by His ministry above on their behalf would remove the defilements they might contract. There are three points in the act to be noticed-first, having laid aside His garments-emblematic of His departure from this world-He took a towel, and girded Himself, an act expressive of His service on behalf of His own; then, secondly, He poured water into a basin. Water is also here a symbol of the Word. Lastly, He began to wash His disciples’ feet; i.e. to apply the Word so as to effect their cleansing. Bearing this in mind, we shall easily understand what answers to this in Christ’s present ministry for His people-the truth really set forth by the laver. The apostle John says, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,” &c. (1 John 1:1) The context shows that this is stated of those who have eternal life, and are brought into fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. It is also clear that there is no necessity that such should sin. “These things write I unto you that ye sin not;” and then he adds, “If any man sin.” The advocacy of Christ with the Father is therefore for believers-and a provision for sins after conversion-God’s means of removing the defilements thus incurred. If therefore a believer sins (there is never any question of the imputation of guilt; but) his communion is interrupted; and this can never more be enjoyed until the sin is removed-forgiven. As soon as he sins, Christ, as the Advocate, undertakes his cause, intercedes for him. An illustration of this is found in St. Luke: “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” (Chapter 22:31,32) It is so now; as soon as-not before-the sin is committed Christ intercedes; and the answer to His intercession is the application of the Word through the Holy Spirit, sooner or later, to the ‘ conscience. An illustration of this point also is found in the same gospel. After Peter had denied his Lord, as he had been forewarned, there was no sense of his sin, not even when he heard the cock crow, until the Lord looked upon him (Luke 22:61) This reached his conscience, broke his heart, as we may say, so that he went out and wept bitterly. In like manner, when the believer falls into sin, he would never repent if it were not for the intercession of the Advocate; and, as a matter of fact, he does not repent until, in response to the prayer of the Advocate, the Word, like the look upon Peter, used by the Holy Spirit reaches the conscience, and lays bare the character of his sin before God. Then he is at once bowed in the place of self-judgment, and confesses his sin. This leads to the next and final stage. Confessing his sin, he finds that God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9); and now, his soul restored, he is able once again to enter the tabernacle, or, in other words, to enjoy again fellowship with the Father and His on Jesus Christ. This truth, the truth really of the laver, is of all importance for the believer. It is essential, in the first place, to know that we are cleansed once and forever as to guilt. But learning this, it is equally essential to understand that if sins after conversion are unconfessed and unjudged we are shut out from communion with God, disqualified for priestly service and worship; and not only so, but if we remain in that state, sooner or later God will deal with us, in answer to the intercession of Christ, to bring our sins to remembrance. The advocacy of Christ therefore meets the need of the believer-being, as it is, God’s gracious provision for our sins-for the removal of our defilements, so that we may be free to go, without let or hindrance, into His immediate presence for worship and praise. One thing more may be added. Aaron and his sons were always to wash at the laver when they entered into the tabernacle. This may teach us our need of continual self-judgment. How often are we hindered in prayer, worship, and service from neglect of this? There has been some failure, and we have not recalled it, or carried it into God’s presence for confession and self-judgment; and hence, though unwittingly, we have been entering the tabernacle with defiled feet. As a consequence, we have been made to realize our coldness and constraint, our inability to occupy our priestly positions. May we never therefore forget the use of the laver-our constant need of having our feet washed by the loving ministry of our Advocate with the Father. E. D. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: A NOTE ON BALAK AND BALAAM ======================================================================== I think it is interesting to notice whereabouts in Paul’s epistles this interesting scene comes in. We are well aware of what Paul says, “All these things happened unto them for ensamples “(types), &c. (1 Cor. 10:11) Hence we read his epistles with interest, and find therein the true meaning for us of the Red Sea, the Jordan, &c. This interesting scene, described in Num. 22-24, shows the people encamped in the plains of Moab, at the edge of the Jordan, just where they crossed over to Gilgal. Now the epistle to the Romans gives us the truth of the Red Sea; Col, 2. gives the Jordan; Eph. the land itself. Where then in these epistles do we see these questions (as in Balak’s attempt to curse Israel) raised and answered? I think we shall find that, as in Israel’s case, God justified His people, and would hear nothing against them; so God takes the same place of not allowing one charge against us, and that too at precisely the same spot as typified in Num. 22-24, just at the edge of the Jordan. Where then do we see ourselves brought thus far in the history of our redemption, as opened out for us almost in panoramic line in Paul’s epistles? I think Rom. 8:31 and onwards mark the spot exactly. Read Num. 22-24, and then read, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” and see if the picture is not complete and beautiful. Balak took Balaam up to three places to view the people: first, to “the high places of Baal;” then to the “field of Zophim;” then to the heights of Peor. Do we not see in Rom. 8, first, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” then, “Who is he that condemneth?” then, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Look at the people from any point whatsoever; let the questions be raised at these spots. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” “Who is he that condemneth?” “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Not one charge will God allow or listen to about His people. Their justification is complete. Now Rom. 8 just brings us to the edge of the Jordan, but neither into it nor over it, and the truth of Col. 2 (Jordan) links on there; but before entering on the truth of Col. 2 there comes in what answers to the scene of Num. 22-24 Again, “accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Balak really did that, but feeling himself powerless to accomplish the slaughter, he hires Balaam), yet “we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” “Whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” J. S. R. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: FRAGMENT: GOD’S HEART AND GRACE ======================================================================== If I can fathom God’s heart, I can fathom grace. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: FRAGMENT: TO HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST ======================================================================== There is nothing I feel more in going out to visit, than the desire that Christ should be so there, that the thing should come out that would come out of Christ-not my own thoughts. We do not know half how blessed it is to have the mind of Christ; but the mind of Christ was to go down to the cross. J. N. D. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: THE MEAT-OFFERING ======================================================================== Next to the burnt-offering comes the meat or food-offering, especially called most holy. “It is,” we read, “a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire.” (Lev. 2:3) In this it had a feature in common with the sin-offering, and with the trespass-offering; whilst in common with the burnt-offering and the peace-offering it spoke of something about the Lord Jesus Christ apart from a delineation of anything that He was made for us. The burnt-offering, as we have seen, spoke of His death. The meat-offering spoke of His life, though not without a distinct reference to His death, and to that divine judgment, because of sin, which He in His grace stooped to bear. For no offering which the Israelite was permitted by the law to bring, if typical of the Lord Jesus Christ, passed over as of no moment the truth of His death. The offerer could never bring one which did not in sonic way or another testify of it. The wave-sheaf, typical of Him as risen, necessarily reminds us of His death. But whilst the wave-sheaf typifies Him as alive in resurrection, the meat-offering views Him as alive before death-of His life before the cross-all of which was a sweet savor to Jehovah. A perfect man then this offering prefigured-one holy, harmless, undefiled; tempted in all points like us, sin apart, and in whom there is no sin (Heb. 7:26;4. 15; 1 John 3:5); one, too, whose delight it was to do God’s will, and who always did the things which pleased the Father, setting the Lord Jehovah always before His face (Psa. 40:8; John 8:29; Psa. 16:8); speaking what He had heard of the Father, and doing what He had seen the Father do (John 8:26,49;5. 19); and at last becoming obedient unto death, the death of the cross. (Phil. 2:8) Till the Lord Jesus appeared, no such man had been known; since His departure to heaven, no similar person has been seen. So when the meat-offering was prescribed in the law, no man had ever been known in whose life on earth its lineaments could be traced. But since the advent of the Lord Jesus in humiliation we do know one, though only one, of whom it certainly was and could be a type. Composed of fine flour, whether dry or cooked, it typified the Lord as a man; mingled with oil, and presented with frankincense as often as that was the case, it spoke of His conception by the Holy Spirit, and of His life on earth, being a sweet savor to God. And when the anointing with oil is spoken of, we are reminded of Him who was anointed with the Holy Spirit after His baptism by John the Baptist. Under various conditions could meat-offerings be brought. They might be voluntary or compulsory. Of the voluntary, we read in Lev. 2; as to those commanded, we have the directions in different parts of the law. After the people had entered the land, whensoever they, or the stranger that sojourned with them, brought a voluntary burnt-offering or a peace-offering to God, a meat-offering was to accompany it (Num. 15:1-16); and the same rule held good for Israel at all their solemn feasts (Num. 28:29.), and on special occasions as well (Lev. 9:14.; Num. 6: 8), besides the daily meat-offering that accompanied the morning and evening burnt-offering (Exo. 29:40), and the weekly sabbatic-offering. (Num. 28:9) In all these Israel individually or nationally had part. But whereas in the case of the voluntary meat-offering no measure defining its size or quality was mentioned, for those which the people were commanded to provide, a regular measure was laid down, according as the animal sacrificed was a bullock, a ram, or a lamb. Another meat-offering which was also commanded by God to be brought had its measure prescribed, and its daily offering was enjoined. We allude to that presented daily for the priests by the high priest, commencing from the day of his consecration. (Lev. 6:19-23) All these were typical of the Lord Jesus Christ. There remains, however, one other offering, called in Hebrew by the common term minghah, and translated in the authorized version a meat-offering, and that was the special offering on the feast of weeks of the two wave-loaves, typical really of those from Jews and Gentiles who together form the Church of God. Dismissing all consideration of this, since no part of it was offered on the altar of burnt-offering, we shall confine our attention throughout this article to those meat-offerings which were really typical of the Lord Jesus Christ, a portion therefore of which was burnt on the brazen altar; only adding, that as minghah means a present, and meat-offering is simply food-offering, the reader may understand how the wave-loaves could be thus designated. And first of the voluntary meat-offering. Its composition was defined by the Lord Jehovah; for who, save God, was to say what would be as such acceptable unto Him? It might be either what is called the dry meat-offering, which was composed of fine flour uncooked, or it might be of fine flour previously baked, or boiled, or made into wafers, since the man Christ Jesus could be viewed either simply as a man, or as a man who passed through trials on earth at the hands of His enemies; for in both these aspects He was seen to be perfect, and God could take delight in Him. In the dry meat-offering oil was only mingled with the flour, typical of His birth who was conceived by the Holy Spirit; and consequently that holy thing which was born of the Virgin Mary was called the Son of God. Son of God by eternal generation, the only-begotten of the Father, as John the evangelist describes Him (John 1:14;3. 16-18), He is also Son of God as born in time according to the testimony of the second Psalm (vs. 7) Perfect then as a man He always was, and holy from His birth, and by the manner of His conception. As a child He “grew, and waxed strong” (for thus probably St. Luke wrote), “filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him.” (Luke 2:40) Such was He seen to be ere He completed His twelfth year. Then, at Jerusalem, among the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions, but not teaching them; “all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers,” who was now about His Father’s business, as He told His mother in the temple. Perfect in His position as a child with the doctors, He was as perfect in the home at Nazareth, going down thither with His mother and Joseph, being subject unto them, where “He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2: 51, 52), and worked at Joseph’s trade, as the people at Nazareth years afterward attested. (Mark 6:3) Then, at His baptism by John, God’s seal was openly put on His life up to that moment when the voice from heaven declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:17) Perfect, too, in His life of service, going about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38); approved of God amongst Israel by miracles, signs, and wonders winch God did by Him in their midst (Acts 2:22); seen to be the Holy One and the Just (Acts 3:14); borne witness to a second time by the Father as His well-beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased (Matt. 17:5); this was the One of whom the fine flour mingled with oil, and with frankincense placed on it, was the type; His manhood typified by that which came out of the earth, the peculiarity of His conception delineated in the oil which was mingled with it, and His acceptableness as a man to God set forth in the frankincense placed upon it. The offering brought to the altar, a handful of it was cast into the fire, which was kept alive thereon by the daily burnt-sacrifice; for, until that had been done by the priest, the offering was not completed. Now this point is a most important one. The fire on the altar is the emblem of divine judgment. Hence the offering of that which typified the Lord in His life on earth as a man was not complete without the memorial also of His death. To God His walk on earth, as we have seen, was always acceptable; but no man is allowed to bring that in remembrance before God apart from the recognition of His having borne the divine judgment due to sin. To attempt to speak of His pure and perfect life before God, unless we own what He suffered in His death, is not worship acceptable to the Father. And since the priest at the altar is always the type of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, there was shadowed forth at the altar the offering up of the Lord Jesus Christ by Himself, His voluntary surrender to bear divine judgment-a truth we must always remember, if we would speak in the holy presence of God. of the fragrance and acceptableness of His life. How much is this ignored, yet how clearly is it taught us in this offering! Men can admire the even walk of the Son of God across the stage of this world, who refuse to own the need or the results of His death. But God will not accept such homage; He will not allow that to be true worship to Him. How completely then is the fallen creature shut up to the recognition of Christ’s atoning death, if he would worship God acceptably! We can only enter the divine presence without judgment overtaking us, as we go through the veil-His flesh. We cannot worship God acceptably if we do not acknowledge before Him the death of His Son on the cross, here symbolized in the memorial of the meat-offering burnt upon the altar. The memorial having been burnt thereon, with all the frankincense, the offerer left the remainder with the officiating priest for consumption by all the males of the priesthood, as part of the divine provision for those who ministered to God. For the offerer could not partake of the residue; God’s priests alone were to feed on it. Now Christians are a holy priesthood similar in that to the priesthood of Aaron and his sons, so as priests they are to find in the life of Christ food for their souls; and as the remainder of the dry meat-offering was for Aaron and his sons, so the life of Christ is for us now, and is food common to us all. But here again God carefully guarded the truth about the person of Christ; for the fine flour was not to be baked with leaven when prepared for the use of the priests, and it was to be eaten with unleavened bread by Aaron and his sons in the holy place. The perfect purity of Christ, and His separation from the least admixture of, or connection in Himself with evil, is thus traced out, and all undue familiarity and lack of reverence towards Him as a man is distinctly rebuked. This food was holy, and differing from common food, was to be partaken of in a holy place in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation; and everyone that touched it was to be holy. (Lev. 6:14-18) But the Lord’s life on earth can be viewed in two most distinct aspects-in His walk simply as a man, and His walk through sufferings and trials before the cross. As typical of the Lord Jesus in this second aspect, the cooked meat-offering next comes before us. Until after his baptism by John in Jordan He had not, that we read of in the gospels, ever experienced the world’s enmity. His appearance in the synagogue at Nazareth, where He had been brought up, confirms this. What He said there aroused the anger of the congregation, though till He spoke it they appeared to be ready to welcome Him. But with the commencement of His ministry His sufferings from man began. Of such Peter wrote (1 Peter 2:23), and Paul likewise (Heb. 12:3), and to them the Lord referred (John 15:20,21), and the Holy Spirit had predicted them in the Psalms and the prophets. Hence in the cooked meat-offering we read of anointing with oil as well as mingling with oil, foreshadowing the Lord’s anointing with the Spirit at His baptism preparatory to His work of testimony for God, and in service to man upon earth. With His baptism commenced a new chapter in His life. He was henceforth to minister to men, and in the great congregation, till the circumstances immediately connected with the cross should cause that ministry to cease. In harmony with this the directions about the cooked meat-offerings commence a new paragraph. For the dry meat-offering, as we have remarked, no measure was prescribed. What the offerer could, or was minded to bring, that the Lord was willing to receive. In the cooked meat-offering the same readiness on. God’s part was manifested-no measure for it was fixed; and three different kinds are mentioned, any of which a person was free to present. No sacrifice but one, and that the most costly, could be accepted on man’s behalf, and that the Lord Jehovah provided; for nothing short of the gift of His Son could really meet the requirements of His holiness. But when any one would present a cooked meat-offering to God, the requirements as laid down in the law placed such within the reach of the poorest; and if it were only an oblation in a kettle (not frying pan, v. 7), it would be, when presented by the priest, an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord, though there was lacking in it the full delineation of Christ, which was so carefully portrayed in the other two, in both of which there was the mingling with oil, and the anointing with oil. In the first of these, described in verse 4, the unleavened cakes were to be mingled with oil, and the unleaved wafers to be anointed with oil; for the wafers with the cakes really formed but one offering. In the second case, when the offering was on a flat slice, or griddle, it was to be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil, then parted in pieces, and oil poured upon it. How precise are these directions, typical of what then was only known to God! Yet little as the Israelite could have understood it, when he brought his offering as enjoined by the law, he was presenting in type to God that which was full of fragrance to Him-His own well-beloved Son, a man dependent, obedient, and perfect, and whose life on earth, in all its stages, was fully acceptable to Him. C. E. S. (To be concluded, if the Lord will, in the next number) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: CRUCIFIED TO THE WORLD ======================================================================== It can never be true that we are crucified to the world unless the heart is in constant communion with the cross of Christ. The cross comes in, in everything, as a matter of daily experience. How is one to pass into the old age of a Christian? How find one’s self laid aside, no longer with any energy? Surely only by the cross. ‘How can one meet difficulties with a word, and be kept in perfect quietness? Only by the cross. How can we keep under such flesh as ours? Does the “old man “ever get to be better? Not a bit! but you must learn to be able to carry the cross, saying of everything that is evil, “I have nothing to do with that, because my Lord was crucified on account of it.” G. V. W. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: DEVOTEDNESS AND SEPARATION ========================================================================