======================================================================== WRITINGS OF GEORGE CUTTING by George Cutting ======================================================================== A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by George Cutting, compiled for study and devotional reading. Chapters: 22 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 00.00. Cutting, George - Library 2. 01.00. "How Shall They Hear?" 3. 01.000. Introduction 4. 01.01. How Shall They Hear It? 5. 01.02. Has the Result of Our Answer Satisfied Us? 6. 01.03. Does It Concern Us? 7. 01.04. God's Answer 8. 01.05. Now Come to What We May Safely Call 9. 01.06. But How Shall They Preach Except They Be Sent? 10. 01.07. The Light of the Cross 11. 01.08. Our Happy Instance 12. 02.00. The Old Nature and the New Birth 13. 02.01. Part 1 14. 02.02. Part 2 15. 03.00. Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment 16. 03.01. Chapter 1. If a believer, Why Not Sure of Salvation? — If saved, Why Not Happy? 17. 03.02. Chapter 2. UNCERTAINTY 18. 03.03. Chapter 3. THE WAY OF SALVATION. 19. 03.04. Chapter 4. THE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION. 20. 03.05. Chapter 5. THE JOY OF SALVATION. 21. S. Brotherly Care and Personal Trespass. 22. S. Two Companies — A Contrast. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: 00.00. CUTTING, GEORGE - LIBRARY ======================================================================== Cutting, George - Library Cutting, George - How Shall They Hear Cutting, George - New Convert and His Difficulties Cutting, George - Safety, Security, Enjoyment S. Brotherly Care and Personal Trespass. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: 01.00. "HOW SHALL THEY HEAR?" ======================================================================== "How Shall They Hear?" Ministry by George Cutting - 1843-1934 Mr. George Cutting is well known, even in evangelical circles, as the author of ’Safety, Certainty and Enjoyment’ but, sadly, little personal information is available. He was born in 1843 and taken by his Lord in 1934 while living in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. In addition to many booklets and gospel tracts, he co-authored hymn 234 in the 1973 hymn book. How shall they Hear By George Cutting (1843-1934) CONTENTS Introduction 1. "How Shall They Hear?" 2. Has the Result of our Answer Satisfied us? 3. Does it Concern us? 4. God’s Answer 5. The Way of Acceptable Service 6. A Fully Qualified Servant 7. The Light of the Cross 8. One Happy Instance ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: 01.000. INTRODUCTION ======================================================================== “HOW SHALL THEY HEAR?” WHAT IS GOD’S WAY OF REACHING THE MILLIONS WHO GO NOWHERE? The question before us refers to certain tidings brought to this world from heaven. The Sender, God Himself. Its engrossing theme, a Man once crucified here, but raised from the dead and glorified there - God’s well-beloved Son. Romans 1:3-4. The Report itself, announced by the apostles “with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven”, 1 Peter 1:12. The Divine intention - God “would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”. Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47; 1 Timothy 2:4; Acts 17:30. Toward the close of a long letter unfolding the glories of this heavenly message, its marvellous possibilities, its gracious far-reaching results, a question is raised by the Spirit of God through the pen of the apostle. If forgiveness and peace and salvation are proclaimed in it, if “joy unspeakable” and “an inheritance incorruptible” and “life everlasting” are obtained through it, if “all men everywhere” are concerned in it, ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: 01.01. HOW SHALL THEY HEAR IT? ======================================================================== How shall they hear it? It is this inquiry, and that which hangs upon it, that we propose to consider in these pages. Two answers to the question will come before us – The answer of professing Christians generally, as seen in their long-established methods.* The answer of God as seen in the Scriptures. Alas! that they do not perfectly coincide. [* It is not a little remarkable that, with all the dissensions in the professing Church to-day, there should be such a wellnigh universal agreement on this point.] Substantially the united answer is this – We have provided the place of preaching. We have secured the preacher. We have fixed the hour. And gladly we say to all, Come to us and hear it. Who can say that this answer does not apply as truly to those who are able to present the glad tidings in its primitive simplicity - full, clear, and unadulterated - as to those who have only a beclouded or mutilated expression of it? But the real value of an answer to this question does not lie in the universality of its adoption among men, but in the satisfaction it gives to God. This we shall have to consider later. But before going to that side let us make one serious inquiry – ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: 01.02. HAS THE RESULT OF OUR ANSWER SATISFIED US? ======================================================================== Has the Result of our Answer Satisfied us? A man starts to cross a mountain. It is the first time he has done so, and seeks direction. He is told by one who ought to know that by taking a certain path the journey on foot will take him two hours. He starts in good earnest on the path pointed out to him. He walks on and on without any appearance of nearing his destination. Four weary hours are spent, but still no sign of it. Would it not, think you, be high time for him to stand and inquire: “Have I not taken a wrong turn somewhere?” That would be wisdom, certainly. Then let us try to apply our figure to the matter before us. It has been publicly stated in London recently by an archdeacon in the Established Church, and one, therefore, in a position to speak with pretty good authority, that only about eighteen per cent of its six and a half millions attend church or chapel of any kind. The other five millions go nowhere to hear the gospel! And what is still worse, the echo of this serious confession is to be heard from nearly every town and village and hamlet in the land. Is it not time, with such facts before us, that we began to inquire, Have we not taken the wrong way? For who could be satisfied with methods producing such a result? If the man in our illustration had only idly sauntered along that mountain path he could not be much surprised that he had doubled the specified time without reaching his destination. And if the professing Church had shown any such lack of energy in making her plan successful, she need not be surprised at failure either. But it is not so; far otherwise. Wellnigh every available stratagem has been adopted. No pains have been spared - we do not here discuss their character. Costly structures have been erected to arrest the public eye. Mental culture provided for the pulpit to please the public mind. Music - both vocal and instrumental - has been in great request to gratify the public ear. Indeed, it may well be asked: What has been left undone in seeking to make successful the various competitive cries of Come to us? We only refer to one thing more. This desire of pleasing men and attracting them to “our places” has opened the door for one of Satan’s most subtle devices. Deadly though it is to the last degree, it has not only been widely adopted, but is evidently gaining favour every day. “If you want to please men, tell the that which will make them pleased with themselves!” Therefore, if you want to fill your pews, change your preaching to suit the popular ear! Deny or else hide that part of Scripture which would make man ill at ease in his sins. Tell him that there is a least a little good in him - spite of Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Mark 7:21-23. Tell him that this germ of good only needs to be properly cultivated to make him fit for heaven- notwithstanding Romans 7:18; Romans 8:8. Show him that, consistent with this, neither the new birth nor redemption by blood is necessary - in defiance of John 3:5; Hebrews 9:22. Smile unbelievingly and assure him that to talk of hell and of eternal banishment from God for those who defiantly reject His gracious provision is only the vulgar blunder of an out-of-date theology - spite of Matthew 25:46, Mark 9:43-48; and though you may not reach his conscience, you will at least have the satisfaction of reaching his ear. Your preaching will please him; his presence will please you! This, we verily believe, is one of the last bitter fruits of our “Come to us” method. It is impossible that such a state of things can satisfy us. That is not our question now, but ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: 01.03. DOES IT CONCERN US? ======================================================================== Does it Concern us? Is it enough to heave a deep sigh and then settle down comfortably and unconcerned in the midst of these perishing millions? Nay, have we not done so, until they have come to consider us nearly as indifferent about these things as they are? When Jesus was on earth the sight of hungry thousands called forth those gracious words - “I have compassion on the multitudes”. Millions to-day are in still greater need. In what way are we expressing our compassion? Seeing them is not serving them, nor is reckoning their number reaching their need. A certain lawyer once excused himself for not loving his neighbour by pleading the difficulty he had in finding him. Can we find such an excuse? Impossible! Like house-flies in August they are to be found anywhere, everywhere. Two or three years since a large business house in the very heart of London was on fire, and several employees perished in the midst of it. The poor victims could be seen at the upper windows looking in vain for deliverance, while crowds in the streets below anxiously witnessed their peril. Why were they not rescued? They could not be reached! But were there no fire-escapes in London of sufficient length to reach them? Yes. But they were not brought. Of bustling activity there was no lack. Many things were resorted to, but all proved inadequate. The sad event seemed to be a serious reflection upon those in charge, though it is quite possible that no real blame could be attached to any one. But what if the fire brigade officials had sent a message of this sort to the scene of need: “We have splendid fire escapes here. If those who need them will only come to us we will do our best to teach them how to use them”? But who in his senses, you say, would thus trifle with the safety of men’s bodies? What, then, of men’s souls? What of the millions in the same city who have not yet been reached by the gospel of God - the gospel which is His “power unto salvation to every one that believeth”?, Romans 1:16. Does our concern end here? Do we say: “If they do not choose to come to us, as far as we are concerned they shall not hear God’s message at all”? What a magnificent triumph for Satan would that be! God deliver us from even the “appearance” of it. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: 01.04. GOD'S ANSWER ======================================================================== God’s Answer We have no hesitation in saying that any unprejudiced mind with the Scriptures before him will not fail to see that, in bold contrast to man’s elaborate system, stands God’s way in its own unselfish simplicity. If sinners want to hear, let them come to us! Is our way. If you would have them hear, go to them! Is God’s way. Nor would He have us satisfied to go as mere advertising agents on the line of somebody else will tell you. He confers on every believer on earth the honour of being a personal witness of the grace he has himself received. If he had no tongue at all he would have the privilege of showing what Jesus had done for him “Let everybody see it, If Christ has set you free; And when it sets them longing Say, Jesus died for thee”. But let us come at once to the testimony of God in the Scriptures. The word of the Lord to the delivered demoniac was - “Go home to thy friends”, and “Show them what great things God hath done unto thee”, Mark 6:19; Luke 8:39. To the servant when all things were ready for the “Great Supper” - “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city”, Luke 14:21. To the apostles - “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature”, Mark 16:15. And later when delivered from prison - “Go stand and speak in the temple all the words of this life”, Acts 5:20. To Philip the Evangelist - “Go toward the south … Go … join thyself to this chariot”, Acts 8:26, Acts 8:29. Note the eunuch was not told to drive round to Samaria to hear Philip preach. To Peter - respecting Cornelius - “Go with them, nothing doubting”, Acts 11:12. Cornelius was not sent to see Peter. To Ananias - “Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight and inquire … for one called Saul, of Tarsus”, Acts 9:11. The Lord knew as well where Ananias lived as where Saul lodged, yet He did not direct Saul to go to Ananias. To Paul - “Unto whom” - i.e. to the Gentiles - “now I send thee”, Acts 26:17. But above every other example Jesus Himself stands before us in Scripture as pre-eminently the “Sent One”. More than forty times in the Gospel of John He so speaks of Himself. The Good Samaritan - lovely figure of the Compassionate Deliverer - came to the very spot where the helpless one lay. The Great Shepherd went out to seek His lost sheep, and did not cease His search until He had reached it where it was. The Pharisees had said: “This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them”. Mark the import of His gracious reply as it comes out in this parable: “I do not wait till they come to Me; I go to them”. How lovely. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: 01.05. NOW COME TO WHAT WE MAY SAFELY CALL ======================================================================== Now come to what we may safely call The way of acceptable service. Its importance is seen in the fact that each evangelist is inspired to record it. We refer to the feeding of the five thousand. With the exception of the feeding of the four thousand, it is the only instance where all served together under His own immediate oversight and personal direction. Note, therefore, how this service was performed. It was as though He had said, “Do not ask them to go elsewhere. Feed them here on the spot”. Do not expect them to run after you for what they need. Bid them sit down where they are, and I will honour you with the service of taking it to them. Come to Me and get. Go to them and give. And this they did until, one by one, the whole multitude had eaten to their fill. But further. Not only has our gracious Lord told us how He would like His work done, and illustrated it by parable, He has simply exemplified it in His own personal service. What heart does not like to dwell on that delightful incident in John 4:1-54, where it is said: “He must needs go through Samaria”? - verse 4. We all know the secret of that journey. There was labour in it, and weariness too, but that mattered little, for there was love in it. Again, if Andrew found Simon, and Philip found Nathanael, it was Jesus Himself who would find Philip. John 1:41, John 1:43. Blessed Master! Happy the servants who serve after such a pattern! It matters little that men are unwilling to come to us if we are willing to go to them. It is our waiting till they can be persuaded to come to us that has so seriously stood in the way of their hearing the gospel at all. It is the “feet” willing to carry the message to them that God calls “beautiful”. Isaiah 52:7; Romans 9:15. When God looked down upon the weary journey of His blessed Son from Judea to Sychar’s Well, you may be sure, if one admiring word could have expressed His thought of it, it would have been this word, “Beautiful”! And does He not still express the same admiring word when He sees willing feet on similar errands? That God takes a peculiar delight in the assembling of His saints together, and that He has His own way of doing so, there can be no shadow of question. To devote such places of assembling to the proclamation of the glad tidings, as often as preachers can be found to preach and men to listen, is not only our privilege, but God’s pleasure. To preach the gospel or to teach it with such sympathetic surroundings cannot fail to be a joy to any servant. Beside, it is a service of the greatest importance. The anxious and unestablished need it, and the most advanced will get his heart enlarged by it. If the unconverted are willing to come to such meetings, we may well encourage them by all the means in our power. But let us never sin against the light of Scripture by limiting the scope of God’s harvest field to such places. Those who attend them have either been “found” already, or are outwardly occupying the place of seekers. God says, “I was found of them that sought Me not. I was made manifest to them who asked not after Me”, Romans 10:20. How was this? Was it not that some of those “beautiful feet” had journeyed to them with the news which makes “manifest” what He is? How was the Giving God made manifest to the woman of Samaria? How did she find Christ? Those “beautiful feet”, as we have seen, journeyed to where she was. He found her an unsatisfied sinner, but not seeking after Him. He filled her heart with the manifestation of Himself, and made her feet “beautiful” too; for how soon she left her waterpot and went to seek others! Can there, then, be any question as to the way the gospel was carried at the beginning, or the marvellous triumph accompanying it? In less than thirty years its power had been felt in all the three known continents - Europe, Asia and Africa! But this by no “Come to us” methods. Whether in the Jewish synagogue, or in some place of concourse like Mars’ Hill, or by a riverside, Paul went to them - “publicly and from house to house”. It is most strikingly significant that the Holy Ghost,Who makes the record for that period, only mentions three buildings used as Christian meeting-places, and not one of them an ecclesiastical edifce! An “upper room”, probably a guest chamber, Acts 1:13, “a school”, Acts 20:9, and “a third loft”, Acts 20:9. And, as far as we are told, these were for disciples only. That the unbeliever was free to go is clear enough from 1Co 14:-25. We read, “The secrets of his heart are manifested; and thus, falling upon his face, he will do homage to God, reporting that God is indeed amongst you”. [Darby] New Translation. But who could possibly imagine that the ear of “every creature under heaven” could be reached within such bounds? How many would have heard Peter preach at Pentecost if he had remained in that “upper room”? But he and the rest of the Spirit-filled men went where the needy ones were; they went to the people. The farm labourer, at certain seasons, may find plenty to do in his master’s granary; he needs what he finds in the granary for the sowing, but how much actual sowing would he do if he confined his labours to those four walls? No, no! The word of the gospel admits of no barriers of limitation. “The Word of God is not bound”. It is “living and operative”. The apostle’s desire was, “that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified” - 2 Thessalonians 3:1 - and as with the sun, according to God’s desire - “nothing hid from the heat thereof”, Psalms 19:6. Rather try to chain a sunbeam in some dark cellar, and expect to succeed in your task, than fetter the outgoing of the “faithful saying”, and think by so doing to please the God of the gospel! “But”, says one, “we cannot all be preachers; and we read: ‘How shall they hear without a preacher?’” The common thought is that a “preacher” is a public speaker only. That is a mistake. Philip preached, that is, announced the glad tidings to one. He got into the eunuch’s chariot and “preached unto him Jesus”. The field of individual testimony is open to all who have been made personally acquainted with His saving grace and power. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: 01.06. BUT HOW SHALL THEY PREACH EXCEPT THEY BE SENT? ======================================================================== But how shall they preach except they be sent? That introduces another and very important consideration, namely, the necessary spiritual equipment of A FULLY QUALIFIED SERVANT. In what does his fitness consist? It consists, we believe, in the measure in which, by the Spirit’s help, he makes use of two mighty moral forces. And we may add that it is to these two forces he owes not only his power to testify, but his very existence as a Christian. The first is a positive force, the second a negative one. Both are inseparable from Christ, and each one inseparable from the other. I order more simply to draw the reader’s attention to the first of these, which, for the want of a better term we call moral forces, we shall follow the Spirit’s example and personify the same. We would beg the reader to note carefully the various features as they come before him, and say if he does not consider that such a servant, if unhindered, would be a fitting vessel to do his Master’s work, carry his Master’s message, express his Master’s mind and spirit, and to do it anywhere. Behold, then, HIS MORAL PORTRAIT. He can suffer with patience and still retain a kindly spirit - “suffereth long, and is kind”. Can see superior favours shown to others without the least jealous grudging - “envieth not”. Is neither rash nor insolent - “vaunteth not itself”. Without self-importance - “not puffed up”. Not unmannerly - “doth not behave itself unseemly”. Unselfish - “seeketh not her own”. Can endure vexations and contradictions - “not easliy provoked”. Puts the best possible construction on everybody’s conduct - “thinketh no evil”. No scandal-monger, he rejoices in what is good and right, and is never glad to speak of the sins and shortcomings of others - “rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth”. Very patient - “beareth all things”. Never suspicious - “believeth all things”. Always cheerful - “hopeth all things”. Will put up with anything - “endureth all things”. Come what may, is never without resource - “never faileth”. We have only to direct your attention to 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 to show you that the first quality in a divine equipment for any service is love. This is abundantly set forth in Scripture. Love is the outward mark of every true disciple, the inward power of all acceptable service. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 we are not told what we ought to do, but what love does, whether we have it or whether we have not. “Love is of God: and every one that loveth is born of God”. Without love, in God’s account, we are nothing. Men may go to college and learn to preach, but they must be “taught of God to love”, 1 Thessalonians 4:9. Money may build imposing edifices, educate able preachers, train effective choirs, and purchase magnificent organs; but “if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned”, Song of Solomon 8:7. He may be taught to understand all mysteries; he may be well schooled in scriptural knowledge, and be as eloquent as an angel to set it forth, but if he has not taught of God to love he will have no more spiritual power to win a soul for Christ than the church bell or the chapel organ. The tongue of the bell can only set forth what the bell is, and however unconsciously, the unconverted preacher can only do the same; while an unseen hand writes “sounding brass” on both. “Big Ben” lets all London know what his own sounding powers are, and “Simon Magus” gave out that “himself was some great one”. But Paul wrote: “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord”, 2 Corinthians 4:5. “The Faithful and True Witness - Christ Himself” - Revelation 3:14 - was the perfect expression of Another. The love that sent Him, the love He was constantly enjoying, was the love that was every seen in Him. So should it be with every true servant. And so will it be according to the intimacy of his communion with the love expressed to him in Christ. Of course it is only those who are truly born of the Spirit, and have received the forgiveness of their sins, that can, by the Holy Ghost, enter into this; and only to such we here address ourselves. “We love Him because He first loved us”. It is by knowing His love that we love; and as the knowledge of His love increases in us, our love grows. The Holy Ghost sheds abroad that love in our hearts - Romans 5:5 - and, as He does so, our love is strengthened. Hence the first-mentioned “fruit of the Spirit” is “love”, Galatians 5:22. But how is it, says one, that with such marvellous possibilities as are to be found in the possession of the Spirit of Christ, I am able to express so little? This brings us to the consideration of the other element in the fitness of a divinely qualified servant. We have said that the two elements of this qualification are inseparable. Take an illustration. When a steamboat is about to commence her voyage two things are absolutely necessary. She must have a motive force strong enough to propel her - an engine with steam to work it. She must be able to resist and exclude the element that will beset her on every side from start to finish - the water through which she is driven. Without the latter she would not go very far; without the former she would not go at all. The engineer who desires a record passage may think almost exclusively of the first, but a wise captain will carefully consider both. Now let us seek to apply our figure. The motive power is love - “the love of Christ constraineth us”. The constantly besetting element is self. The only effective excluder is death. Hence, if we are not to make “shipwreck” of our testimony, the great propeller and the great excluder - Love and Death - must go hand-in-hand together. Even Adam himself, outside the garden, was only like the ship we have been describing. The comfort of his Creator’s loving-kindness could be enjoyed within; the humbling witness of what he was could be seen in the skin outside. But a more marvellous development of the story had yet to be told. The Creator Himself, veiled in flesh, would come into this world of sin, and in His own holy Person would positively make use of death for the ends of love! Could anything be more marvellous? Well might the angels desire to look into such a mystery. But its foreshadowing was on record long before it was actually carried into effect. Did Goliath’s sword make Israel tremble? In the hand of David the same weapon should be used to drive all fear from their hearts and fill their mouths with praise. Did Satan’s weapon, death, strike fear and terror into the whole of Adam’s race? Hebrews 2:14-15. “By death” - the death of Jesus - God would declare His perfect love; and it is His “perfect love that casteth out fear”, 1 John 4:18. But we have yet to learn another thing. More was involved in Christ’s death than the putting away of our sins. And unless by the Spirit this is experimentally apprehended we can neither fully enjoy the love expressed, not be fitting witnesses of it to others. In every believer on earth an evil propensity still exists, and though, as born of the Spirit, with Christ as an object for his affections, a new being has been formed in him, yet “that which is born of the flesh is flesh”. It is not only still there, but not one whit better than the day when man crowned the wickedness of crucifying the Lord of glory by battering to death a man who testified of Him - “Stephen full of the Holy Ghost”. It is of this evil root - self, as born of Adam - that the apostle speaks when he says: “I know that in me - that is, in my flesh - dwelleth no good thing”, Romans 7:18. Now if this in dwelling principle of evil was such that nothing but the death of Christ could deliver the believer from it, then by that death God has proclaimed its hopeless exclusion from His service; has proclaimed it as unmistakably as by the flaming sword of the cherubims He proclaimed Adam’s exclusion from Eden. And if there was no more place for fallen man to “dress” and “keep” that garden, even before he had gone to the length of murdering God’s Son, how can there possibly be room in God’s present harvest-field for that which is born of the same degenerate stock? If the services of disobedient Adam were righteously refuse, how could the services of the murderer Cain be righteously accepted? What we have to learn is this great moral principle of Exclusion. If you could improve the flesh you would do more than God did after trying it under various test for four thousand years. If you imagine that you can bring to an end its actual existence within you, the Spirit of God says you are only deceiving yourself. 1 John 1:8. Then you say, What can I do? We repeat, Learn the lesson of Self-Exclusion. Gideon, before his great victory, had to learn it, however dimly; and we too must learn it, however slowly. By God’s special command, all that were “fearful and afraid” were excluded from Gideon’s ranks. Twenty thousand fell out immediately. Self-preservation has long been called “the first law of nature”. So it may be; but self-condemnation and self-renunciation are the first elements in the triumphs of grace. Then followed another ordeal. They were brought face to face with one of their greatest mercies - water. The test of non-self-gratification was applied. All alike participated in the mercy itself, but nine thousand seven hundred of them showed symptoms of self-indulgence, and were excluded forthwith; and by “the sword of the Lord and of Gideon” the fearless, self-denying three hundred gained the victory without them! Judges 8:3, Judges 8:5. When the disciples asked respecting their inability to deliver the child from the power of the devil, “Why could not we cast him out?” the same secret came out – “This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting”, Mark 9:28-29. Prayer brings the Blesser in. Fasting shuts the hinderer out. Death is the great excluder, and fasting is the application of death in principle. Carried to its extremity it would be actual death. Fasting is self-denial, but it is more: it is the denial of self. But even fasting in the way of self-denial is of the greatest service in the individual work of the gospel. Secret self-denial has a peculiar joy of its own. It enables us to minister more freely to the temporal needs of the poor as we come across them. One shilling thus used in the compassions of Christ, we verily believe, will do more real service than all the stately spires in Christendom, though their cost could only be expressed in millions! The converted working man of our acquaintance who bought old sleepers out of his own earnings, chopped them up for firewood in his spare hours, and carried the result of his labour to the poor and aged, was no mean servant. [It was not from the man himself we got this information, but from his next-door neighbour.] True Christianity is full of such beauties! The bestowal of God’s unspeakable Gift cost Him something! And even the giving of a converted thief is to cost him something also, that he may have the honour of being an “imitator of God”. “Rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth”, Ephesians 4:28; Ephesians 5:1. But to return. In the cross God writes His “No” on man born after the flesh. My own experimental knowledge of him gives me by the Spirit to write my “No” on the same man. Galatians 5:17. Christ’s death as thoroughly excludes all hope of good in that man as the cursing of the barren fig tree excluded all hope of fruit in it. Thus does the believer learn to take sides with God against himself, and judge in himself that which God has judged at the cross. What a lovely specimen of the “victorious three hundred” type was Paul! What fearlessness when the interests of Christ were in question! - “We were bold in our God to preach the gospel”. What absolute self-renunciation too! - “Death worketh in us, but life in you”. What a tight rein he held! He did not go down on his hands and knees to make earthly comforts his object, thought constantly on his knees for the welfare and spiritual comfort of others! No wonder that he was carried in triumph everywhere. But perhaps some reader may say, “We are not all Pauls today”. No. And what is more, there are no Pauls today. But we have Paul’s God to please, and Paul’s gospel to preach, and Paul’s example to follow, and Paul’s equipment open to us! All that is wanted is Paul’s heart to use it; and for that we have the same love that constrained Paul, and the same blessed Spirit’s power to shed abroad that love within us. What encouragement! But spite of this, some one may say, “How could I reach these ‘go-nowheres’ even if I tried?” How? Consider the two mighty forces at your disposal, and you will soon settle that question for yourself. Is there any person in any house in the land that Death cannot reach? Is he to be abashed by the surroundings of the proud and wealthy, or kept at distance by the squalor of the dissipated poor? Does he wince at man’s laugh of scorn, or fall back as if paralysed by the sight of his indifference? Not he! Of all the fallen race who can resist him? Who can match his strength? Well, he has found his match. “Love is strong as death”, Song of Solomon 8:6. Is death able to reach the multitude? So is love! With such forces at our back we have nothing to fear. Millions are made up of units, and “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: 01.07. THE LIGHT OF THE CROSS ======================================================================== But before going out even to speak to one we shall do well to take our true measure in The Light of the Cross There we shall see love and death embracing. There we shall learn to judge self; there learn the love that has severed us from it by taking our place in death, that by the Spirit we might be united to Him beyond it. For us He has left all that is of the flesh in the place of judgment - prefigured by the ashes of the sin-offering - that He might serve us in the place where He now is in glory. We have only to do what He has done, namely, Make use of death for the ends of love, and rejoice in the honour of doing so. Selfishness is the very opposite of love; the greatest antagonist to its display. Self must be excluded if love is to be seen. But how subtle it is! It will do its best to discover a good reason for sparing itself the discomfort and reproach of going personally to those who really need the gospel, and will even consider itself “spiritual” for its ingenuity! But bring it to the cross. Its love of ease, its fear of man’s scorn, its spiritual pride will surely get a greater shock there than it could possibly get in an hour’s visiting amongst the most careless, or in standing in some back street to set forth the praises of Him Who, for our sakes, once endured the insults and mockery of that shameful cross! “Faith cometh by hearing”. But if they will not come to us, how are they to hear if we do not go to them? Aged Anna “spake of Him”, and so may we; and we have far more to tell than she had! Oh, for as much heart to tell it! Can we not each tell how we found Him; of the welcome we got; of His faithful friendship and patient kindness and tender sympathy and timely succour ever since? Can we not warmly assure them of the same welcome, and lovingly encourage them to come to Him? And should they have neither time nor inclination to listen to us, can we not leave some little printed message and call again? If all we leave is the impression that we care for them we shall not have called in vain. We have only one thing to fear - the fear of hiding Christ by intruding ourselves. Perhaps the less we say to them of the place we go to the better. They will only put us down as canvassers for one of the rival sects of Christendom; and this we should avoid with all our powers. It is our common shame and their serious stumbling-block. We may freely speak to them of the place we are going to, and of the Person Who makes that place what it is. There is no doubt that what men see in us bears its own peculiar witness to them, but it is to Christ alone that we should direct them, and neither to ourselves nor our place of meeting. Should they become interested they will not be slow to inquire where we meet together; and when they come they should find a beautiful expression of the “household of God”, His peace resting, no discord intruding, holiness dwelling and love divine filling every bosom. Oh, what an impression would be made amongst men if, by the Spirit of God in the power of the love and compassions of Christ, and with the jealous exclusion of the “great hinderer”, every true Christian in the land were moved to care for those who go nowhere! If Jesus died for them, are they not worth our seeking? What unity would there be in such a testimony! What an honour to the Christ we love! What a joy to the heart of the God Who sent the gospel. Oh, that just before our Lord’s return He may bring it about! He only can. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: 01.08. OUR HAPPY INSTANCE ======================================================================== One Happy Instance Before closing we desire to bring before the reader just one happy instance of a self-denying soul seeker. The incident was related to the writer by an aged, sober-minded Christian in South Wales, and having come under his personal notice, he vouched for the truth of it. The incident transpired some years since while my informant was on a railway journey between Bristol and Southampton. Two passengers were in the compartment with him - one a Christian minister, the other a man of the respectable working-class type. The unassuming simplicity of the speech and manner of the latter at once enlisted my friend’s interest in him, especially when he gathered the object of his present journey. He was travelling from some village near Exeter to Portsmouth, in order to see and speak to an old “chum” of his who was lying ill. “He is not likely to get better”, he said, “and I am not sure abut the safety of his soul!” “And are you going all that distance on purpose to see him?” “Yes, I am”. “May I ask if you are a family man?” “Yes, but I am a widower; my daughter lives with me”. “And do your earnings enable you to take such a journey as this?” “Well, yes; though I have never known the colour of a pound a week!” “This - said my informant, “astonished me greatly, especially as the man spoke of it in a way that made me feel he did not regard it as anything very extraordinary”. “But”, said he, “I was still more astonished when he added, ‘I have always a lost man in hand!” It appears he had himself been met by God in grace in the depths of misery and on the very verge of utter despair, and that, after the light had dawned upon him, he not only sought to walk according to it, but to do his utmost to bring others into it. A little later in the conversation, he said in his simple, unassuming style, “I never yet lost my man!” though he had, it would appear, bestowed long and patient labour on some before the desired end was reached. In one case, he confessed, he had made a great mistake. His lost man was a poor enslaved drunkard. “My object”, he said. “was first to make him a teetotaller and then to see him converted. It was not until he had ten times broken the pledge, which I persuaded him to sign, that I saw where I was wrong. Then, no longer waiting for reformation, I pointed him to the cross. His soul was saved and he has since led a consistent Christian life and never returned to his drinking habits”. Well, dear reader, it is with much exercised before the Lord that we leave our little paper in your hands. All our knowledge of Scripture, all our discussion of what the gospel is and how the work should be done, are surely not enough, if, through lack of heart, or love of ease, we shirk the labour of carrying the message to those who need it. “Faith cometh by hearing; and how shall they hear without a preacher?” From an old record comes an important inquiry - most important, for it is God’s: Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us? Labourers He wants, and every heart that loves Him is eligible. Shall not reader and writer humbly but eagerly and joyfully answer: Here am I; send me? “The morning cometh, and also the night”. Let us redeem the time because the days are evil. Since life’s short span will soon be past, Let every day be as our last, And this our sole endeavour - Each hour to list what He doth say, Serve His blest wishes all the way, Then dwell with Him for ever. Now is our opportunity. With Him is our account. by George Cutting ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: 02.00. THE OLD NATURE AND THE NEW BIRTH ======================================================================== The Old Nature and the New Birth or The New Convert and His Difficulties by George Cutting This is a short 2 chapter work by Cutting explaining why the believer still has to deal with sin in his life even after being saved. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: 02.01. PART 1 ======================================================================== There seems to be an increasing amount of teaching today, particularly among the vocal "covenant" theologians and their sympathizers, that the old nature is "eradicated" by the new birth, leaving the believer with no biblical explanation for the presence of sin in his life. George Cutting explains the "new-creation" position of the two natures in the believer—the "new" being righteous and holy (Ephesians 4:24), without even the possibility of sin (1 John 3:9); the "old" entirely corrupt (Ephesians 4:22), but "positionally" crucified (Romans 6:6). Understanding this distinction is especially important in our day —ed. Part I THOSE who have much to do with the difficulties and exercises of the newly-converted, are constantly hearing some such expression as this: "I thought I was saved once, but I now begin to fear that after all I’ve only been deceiving myself. Not only do I feel no better in myself, but, if anything, even worse than before I professed to be converted." Now, in such cases, one generally finds that it is not so much their sins that trouble them, as the heart-sickening disappointment they feel, as more and more the truth is forced upon them, that their new birth has not only effected no improvement in their evil nature, but that that nature seems much worse than before their conversion. Then comes many a fruitless effort to improve it; but, alas! only to end in deeper wretchedness than ever. In such a state of soul Satan finds but too fitting an opportunity of hurling his terrible darts. He suggests that they are only miserable hypocrites, professing to be what they know they are not; that they had far better give up the whole thing, come out in their true colours, and own that they have never been converted at all! Oh, what intense soul-agony do such assaults cause, when, as yet, true liberty is unknown! and only those who have really passed through such exercises can have any conception of their untold bitterness. It is with a desire to encourage and help such that this little book is sent forth. GOD’S FACTS AND OUR EXPERIENCES Many believers pass through the sorest distress because they are continually searching their own hearts for evidence that they have been truly [saved]. "When I compare my daily experience with the plain truths in. God’s word," such a soul will say, "I begin to fear that I am not born again at all. For example, I see in the first Epistle of John three absolute facts stated about the one who is ’born of God,’ and I cannot answer to even one of them, do what I will. 1st. He does not... and cannot sin. (1 John 3:9). 2nd. He overcometh the world. (1 John 5:4). 3rd. The wicked one toucheth him not. (1 John 5:18). Now, in the face of such a scripture, I am bound to confess— 1st. That I can, and, alas! do sin. 2nd. That instead of my overcoming the world, it constantly overcomes me. 3rd. That the enemy has defeated me times without number—thus he does touch me. "Is there any wonder, therefore, in the perplexity or even the alarm that I often feel in contemplating such a scripture, in the face of such an experience as mine?" Well, it must be confessed there is not; but let us say for your comfort that those who are "dead in their sins" never experience such conflict. It is only converted ones who really desire to answer to the thoughts and wishes of God. The unconverted "desire not the knowledge of His ways." They have "no fear of God before their eyes." (Romans 3:18). But let us return. We have been noticing one impossibility; viz., "Whosoever is born of God cannot sin." Let us also look at another (Romans 8:7-8), "The carnal mind" (literally ’mind of the flesh’) "is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Mark well these important contrasts: 1. The one who is "in the flesh—as "born of the flesh"—"cannot please God." 2. The one who is "born of God cannot sin." It may be well here to state what is meant by "the flesh" in the subject before us. It is the evil or fallen nature, in every child of Adam, poisoned by indwelling sin. It is the real source of every sinful action performed by him. TWO DISTINCT NATURES IN ONE PERSON We have seen, that at our natural birth we get an evil nature, so evil that God says it is impossible to make it subject to His holy law. It "cannot please Him." "Behold," says the Psalmist, "I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalms 51:5). Then, at our spiritual or second birth we receive, through the sovereign operation of the Spirit by means of the word of God (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23), another nature entirely, a "divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). The blessed Lord puts it to Nicodemus in a few words thus: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). So that the believer actually possesses two natures; viz., "that which is born of the flesh," and which, because of its very nature, "cannot please God;" and "that which is born of the Spirit," which from its essential nature "cannot sin, because it is born of God." In Romans 7:1-25 you will find these two natures distinctly mentioned side by side. See, for example, Romans 7:25. "So then, with the mind [i.e., the renewed mind, or, as we have been expressing it, the new nature] I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh [i.e., the old nature] the law of sin." Then, again, Romans 7:22-23, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind," etc. A simple illustration here may be helpful. A farmer’s wife, having placed a hen upon a sitting of duck’s eggs, found, at the end of a week, that the greater part of them had been destroyed by some enemy of the hen-roost; upon which she made up the sitting with hen’s eggs. When the hatching-day came round, the hen, of course, found herself responsible for two distinct broods of little ones. This, however, caused her little or no trouble, till one day she discovered, to her dismay, that the little ducklings had taken themselves off to a pond close by, and so delighted were they with their first excursion on the water, that her loudest clucks and most urgent calls alike proved fruitless to bring them back to dry land. The chickens, on the contrary, shewed not the slightest inclination to venture into such an element, and would have been miserable enough had they been forced into it. Here, then, were two distinct natures, with entirely different tastes and habits. That which came from the duck’s egg had the nature of the duck, that from the hen’s egg the nature of the hen; yet both were hatched in the same nest. Now, all the farmers’ wives in the world, with all the men of science at their back, could never change the nature of a duck into that of a chicken. The duck would still keep the nature of a duck, and the chicken the nature of a chicken. A thousand times more distinct are the two natures in a Christian, and this because of the different sources from whence they are derived. One is from man—lost, guilty, fallen man; the other from God, in all the holiness of His sinless nature. One is human and polluted, the other divine, and therefore undefilable. So that every evil thought or deed of the believer springs from the old nature, while every good desire, or godly deed, finds its source in the new. For example, you may remember the day when you had a desire to retire to your quiet room alone for prayer. That desire came from the new nature. But while upon your knees, perhaps, some wicked, wandering thought came into your mind. That was the outcome of the old. But now comes another important enquiry, viz., IS THE OLD NATURE IMPROVED BY THE NEW? There is but one answer: Nothing can improve the flesh. It was tried in every possible way, from the fall of Adam in Eden to the cross of Christ at Calvary. And what was the result? Why, just this: God’s holy law was willfully broken, when He came righteously demanding obedience from man. His Son was cruelly murdered, when He visited this world in grace to man. Indeed, instead of the presence of a divine life improving the old nature, it only manifests its utter badness. Just as making a poor beggar the present of a new coat by no means improves the appearance of his old, thread-bare, dirty waistcoat, but the very opposite. Then, it may be asked, if my old nature can neither be forgiven, nor improved, two difficulties at once present themselves. 1. "How can I be delivered from it ?" 2. "How do I get power over it?" In considering these difficulties, it will be well to notice the important difference made in Scripture between... "SIN" in the flesh and "SINS" Very frequently, the evil principle, born in us naturally, is simply called SIN, while the evil actions, words and thoughts which are the consequence of possessing this corrupt nature, are called SINS. You will see the distinction in 1 John 1:8-9 : "If we say that we have no SIN, we deceive ourselves," etc. And again: "If we confess our SINS, He is faithful and just to forgive us our SINS." This distinction is of the greater importance when we find in Scripture, that while, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, God does forgive our sinful deeds, i.e., our SINS; yet He never forgives SIN in the flesh, but "condemns" or judges it. Let me seek to explain how this is. Suppose you have a child who has naturally a violent temper. In a fit of passion, one day, he throws a book at his brother, and breaks a large pane of glass in the window. Well, upon penitent confession of the naughty deed, you would be free to forgive him. But what about the bad temper that made him do it? Do you forgive that? Impossible! You detest it, and, if you could, would get rid of it—thoroughly rid of it. You utterly condemn it. Now, the bad temper [though, in itself, only one feature of an evil nature] would answer more to indwelling SIN; while its evil activities, in hurting the brother and smashing the window, would answer more to the SINS. And so I repeat, though God does most freely forgive the believer’s sins, He never forgives the indwelling SIN. Condemnation is the only thing He can righteously apply to it—death is our only way out of it (See Romans 8:3). "God, sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin [i.e., a sacrifice for sin], CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH." In the earlier chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle is occupied in showing our deliverance from SINS; but in Romans 6:1-23 he shows how we are delivered from SIN. For example, in Romans 4:25 he speaks of Christ as having been "delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification." And the blessed consequence of His having been thus delivered is, that those who believe on Him are righteously forgiven—are "justified"—have "peace with God." But, as it has just been said, in Romans 6:1-23 he is treating of deliverance from sin, another matter entirely. "He that IS DEAD," he says, is freed [or justified] from SIN" (Romans 6:7, margin.). Now I think you will, in figure, get a glimpse of the difference between these two things by comparing the cleansing of the leper in Leviticus 14:1-7 with that of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:10-14. In the first Scripture I ask you to notice that; the poor leper, totally unfit to do anything for his own cleansing, has simply to stand by and see all done for him. The bird "alive and clean," is dipped into the blood of the slain bird, and then let loose into the open field; that is, the poor leper beholds a "living," "clean" one going down into death for him, an "unclean" one. The bloodstained substitute then soars on high, and the lips of the priest pronounce the leper clean. Thus hath "Christ once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). And, therefore, not a spot can be found upon, nor a charge brought against, those who believe on Him. "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7); and "BY HIM all that believe are justified from all things." (Acts 13:38-39). But, in the case of Naaman, it is not another going down into death for him; he must himself go there (looking at Jordan as a figure of death). The happy result need not occupy us now. Suffice it to say that, speaking figuratively, all that he had been as a leper was left behind in Jordan’s flood. And thus Scripture teaches, that not only did Christ go down into death for the believer, but that, like Naaman, he himself has been into death. "You are dead," or, more correctly, "You have died." (Colossians 3:3). There is, however, one great difference between our deliverance and Naaman’s. He was delivered from the presence of the plague; whereas we shall never, while here below, be delivered from the actual presence of "indwelling sin." Thus all that we are by nature, as well as all that we have done, has already been dealt with on the cross; and He who there bore our condemnation said, "IT IS FINISHED." Who then shall condemn us? Nay, is THERE ANYTHING LEFT TO CONDEMN? Nothing. Does Satan bring our sins before us? We have neither to deny nor excuse them; faith can simply answer, "Christ died for them." Is it the sinfulness of our nature that he would harass us with? Faith can but add, "And I died too." But now comes a practical difficulty with many. The writer once heard a believer pray most earnestly that "he might feel that he was dead with Christ." But does God ever speak about our feeling dead? Never. He says, "Likewise reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11). We are expected to believe that in Christ’s death we died, simply because God says so, and not because we feel dead, or ever will. God Himself clearly states the fact for us, and says, "You are dead" (Colossians 3:3), and He expects us as simply to believe it, as we do that Christ died for our sins. God reckons our Substitute’s death as our death, and the reckonings of faith will always agree with His. Thus our old standing, as children of fallen Adam, came to an end before God at the cross; or, as Scripture puts it, "Our old man has been crucified with Christ" (Romans 6:6), and we are now connected in life with the last Adam—the risen Christ; or, as it is expressed in Romans 7:4, "Married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead." As believers, we have been brought into a new position altogether. He who took our condemnation, by being made sin for us upon the cross, is now risen out of death; and since God sees us "IN HIM," we are necessarily beyond the reach of condemnation. "Death and judgment are behind us, Grace and glory are before; All the billows rolled o’er Jesus, There they spent their utmost power. Firstfruits of the resurrection, He is risen from the tomb; Now we stand in new creation, ’Free’ because beyond our doom." * * * ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: 02.02. PART 2 ======================================================================== Part II MUST THE PRESENCE OF INDWELLING SIN NECESSARILY INTERRUPT COMMUNION? "How is it," some one may enquire, "that the very presence of such an evil thing as the flesh in a believer is not a hindrance to his communion with God?" Let me seek to explain this by using another illustration. A father and son sit at home one day in happy communion with each other. What is meant by "communion" is, that they share the same thoughts and feelings about every matter that comes before them. Presently, however, another child comes in from taking a ramble in the woods, and lays upon the table some wild berries. The father at once condemns them as poisonous, and totally unfit for food, and desires that they should be immediately thrown away. Now, if the son shares his father’s thought about them, and condemns them too, you can see at once that the mere presence of the bad fruit has not occasioned the slightest breach of communion between them. But if, on the other hand, the son, deceived by the enticing appearance of the berries, refuses to accept his father’s judgment and seeks to retain them, he is now out of communion; and, if he ventures to taste them, will be sure to suffer in consequence. When, however, in humble confession of his self-will, he is brought to see his folly, and to take sides with his father in condemning the fruit, communion is again restored. When the believer, who has learned from God these blessed truths, discovers, as he surely will, that sin still "dwelleth in him," and that the old nature is as bad as ever, or worse, he can, instead of fruitlessly attempting to make it better, take sides with God against it. He never regards it as anything but the deadliest enemy, ever to be distrusted, and never to be indulged. He knows that God has utterly condemned it at the cross, and, therefore, he utterly condemns it too. He reckons himself to be dead to it, but "alive unto God in Christ Jesus." Oh, what a comfort it is, that God is expecting no good thing from the flesh! that He has given it up forever as a totally worthless thing, and that He would have us do the same! Neither has it any rightful claim upon us. We are no longer debtors to the flesh to live after the flesh (Romans 8:12). And, though still responsible to exercise the greatest watchfulness in not allowing it to act, yet God gives us, through the death and resurrection of Christ, to regard it as no longer having any place in our new state as "in the Spirit" before Him. The cross of Christ forever snapped the link that we once had with the first Adam, fallen; and the Holy Ghost has brought into our souls the life of the last Adam, risen. We are not "in the flesh" at all, according to God’s reckoning, but in the Spirit; and the only life that we now have before Him is the life of Christ. So that the apostle could say, "I [have been] crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). But let us now consider the next question, viz., WHAT IS THE SECRET OF OUR POWER? If you will call to mind what we were saying about the hen and her brood of ducklings, I think you will see, in her distress, a picture of the state of numbers of precious souls today. For what is really the cause of her sore trouble? She cannot make the ducklings to be what she knows by natural instinct a brood of chickens ought to be, and the older they get, the more self-willed they become. They seem determined to get into the water whenever the least opportunity is afforded. Sometimes, it is true, they are all at rest together under her wing, and then, perhaps, she thinks she is at last gaining the victory, and making them better. But, alas! again and again she is doomed to disappointment, for they only get worse and worse. The farmer’s wife, however, hearing her cry of distress one day, sends her little girl to keep the ducklings out of the pond; for she plainly sees that the hen’s trouble about this part of the brood is seriously interfering with her care for the little chickens. Oh, what a comfort is this new helper to the hen! For though she found no way to improve the manners of the tiresome truants, she has now, at all events, got a power to control them. Now, every one that is born of the Spirit of God, possesses instincts peculiar to the new nature which has been imparted to him—instincts which cause him to say, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man." But he finds also that he has got to do with instincts and desires of an entirely opposite character, viz., those peculiar to the old nature. Thus we read of "the things of the flesh" and "the things of the Spirit," and the tastes and desires of both stand in the most direct contrast. But what troubles the new convert is, that he cannot make the flesh to be what the word of God teaches him a newborn soul ought to be, and the law, though he delights in it after the inward man, gives him no POWER. In other words, he is trying to accomplish what God has declared to be an utter impossibility; viz., making the flesh subject to His holy law (See Romans 8:7-8). He finds that the flesh will mind the things of the flesh, and is very enmity itself to the law of God, and even to God Himself. And since this is so, the greater his earnestness to accomplish this impossibility, the more intense his misery. Indeed, to apply law to the flesh, in seeking to make it subject, is only to manifest still more its desperate willfulness. If you pour water upon unslaked lime, instead of cooling it, you will only bring out the fire that lies hidden within. Thus it is with the flesh. The law, applied to it, only brings out its "enmity," though the enmity was there before. "By the law is the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). Though the newborn soul has a nature that "would do good," yet he finds, alas! that "evil is present with him," and it is not until he gives up his struggle as utterly hopeless, and looks outside himself, crying, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?" that deliverance really comes; and then he thanks God, through Jesus Christ. Thus he has learned, what every one must learn, before deliverance can be realized in an experimental way; first, that the "flesh" is an utterly worthless thing, that there is neither good in it nor remedy for it (Romans 7:18; Romans 8:7); second, that even in the new nature, with all its right desires, there is no real power either for good or against evil. But the Spirit of God does more than merely quicken a dead sinner into life. He afterwards becomes the power of that life. When the newborn soul believes the "gospel of his salvation," the Holy Ghost, as a distinct Person, comes into him as an abiding Dweller there (Ephesians 1:13). He is "sealed unto the day of redemption;" i.e., the redemption of the body (Ephesians 4:30. See also Romans 8:9, Romans 8:14, Romans 8:16, and the Lord’s own words, John 14:17). According to 1 Corinthians 6:19, his body becomes "the temple of the Holy Ghost" which is in him. He is no longer his own, but "bought with a price." A few months since I saw the following announcement fixed outside a large house (it looked like some hotel), "This house will be reopened," at such a date, "under entirely new management." I presume that it had changed hands, and that there was, therefore, new proprietorship too. Now this announcement at once brought the scripture just quoted to my mind. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) The house was the same; its windows, doors, chimneys, outhouses, all the same, but there was a new proprietor, and, in consequence, entirely new management." So it is with the believer. He is same individual, with the same faculties as before his conversion; is in the same business, perhaps, with precisely similar social circumstances surrounding him, but he is now the personal property of another. He is "Christ’s," and, as such, is now put under entirely "new management," i.e., the Holy Ghost enters his body; takes up his residence there, hence-forward to "manage the house" upon heavenly principles. How solemn! Yet how intensely blessed! Now, herein is the believer’s power for every activity that is according to God. Here is his power to control the flesh, to "mortify the deeds of the body" (See Romans 8:13). Just as the little girl resisted the natural will of the ducklings, so that, by her means, the hen was able to keep them under due control, so we are told in Galatians 5:17, that "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, in order that ye should not [1] do the things that ye would." What we need to be careful about is, not to "grieve" the One who has thus come to "manage" us, even the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30). [1] This is a more correct translation. There are two important things to remember in connection with power. 1st. That we must be brought to the experimental discovery that we have none of our own. 2nd. That it is only in absolute dependence upon Christ that the Spirit’s power is made effectual in us. Our power is in the weakness that clings to Another. But, it may be asked, if the evil nature still remains in every converted person, and that evil nature is ever ready to assert itself, how can it be possible that— "WHOSOEVER IS BORN OF GOD CANNOT SIN?" Well, carefully mark in the first place, that it is not some peculiar advanced attainment of just a few who may be said to have "faith for it," as it is sometimes called. It takes in the whole of the newborn race—WHOSOEVER is born of God." But, remarks another, this statement seems to be a thorough contradiction to all that I either experience in myself or see in others! Well, it may seem so, but let us look at it a little more closely, and prayerfully, bearing in mind that the first step toward understanding the word of God is to believe it. "By faith we understand..." (Hebrews 11:3). And here I would give you an illustration, much used by a Spirit-taught servant of God, now at rest in the presence of his Lord; viz., the well-known practice of grafting an apple tree upon a crab tree stock. As you are aware, no doubt, the head of the crab tree is first cut off; then a small portion of an apple tree is carefully inserted, or "grafted in," as it is called; then it is securely guarded by a covering of clay round the joint, and left to grow and develop in the coming spring and summer. Now let us, in thought, go to the orchard where the tree in question is planted, and enquire more about it of the gardener. "What kind of tree do you call this?" we ask. "An apple tree," he replies. "But why don’t you say that it is partly a crab tree and partly an apple tree?" "Because we gardeners never think of talking like that. It was once a crab tree in the wood, now it is an apple tree in the orchard. It is really the same individual tree; but when we cut off its head, its history as a.crab tree came to an end; and when the new graft first showed signs of life, its new history as an apple tree from that day commenced." "But doesn’t this apple tree still bear crabs?" "No! and what is more, it cannot. It is just as impossible for the apple tree to bear crabs, as it was impossible for the crab tree to bring forth apples." But do you mean to say then, that there is nothing whatever of the "crab" nature about this tree?" No! But I do say that there is nothing of the "crab" that has not been condemned as such, and if it should show signs of life by sending up shoots from the old stock, I at once take the knife and never think of sparing even the smallest sprout." Let us now apply this figure. The wild crab tree represents a. man in his natural state, before he is born of God. At his second birth a new nature, like the apple tree graft, is produced in him by the Spirit and the word. Now the apostle John, in his epistles, generally speaks of things in a very abstract way. Just as the gardener who insisted that the tree was only an "apple tree," so John in the passage referred to looks at the believer only in connection with the new nature—the divine nature he possesses as born of God. And therefore, just as it impossible for an apple tree (looked at simply as such) to bear crabs, and that because it is an apple tree, so it is equally impossible for the one who is born of God (looked at simply as such) to commit sin. "His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." How could a divine nature sin? Now this divine nature was really the nature that Christ manifested in His blessed pathway through this world. Thus, He did not sin. How could He? He overcame the world. The wicked one could not touch Him. "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me" (John 14:30). And, as we have already seen, these are the very things that are said to be true of those who are born of God. So that the apostle can say: " Which thing is true in Him [i.e., in Christ] and in you" (1 John 2:8). How wondrous it is! Well may we exclaim with holy adoration, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." But while John speaks of the divine nature in this absolute, abstract way, he does not, on the other hand, ignore the existence of the sinful nature in the believer. So in 1 John 1:8, he says: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Then, in 1 John 2:1, we are exhorted not to sin, and the provision pointed out if we do fall into sin, viz., an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who restores us again to communion with the Father, by bringing us, as His erring children, to see our folly and confess our sins. We have, moreover, the comforting assurance in 1 John 2:9, that "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." But why faithful and just? Because Jesus Christ the righteous made full satisfaction for sins, once and forever, by His precious blood upon the cross. Now, in Paul’s writings, we have brought before us the Spirit’s teaching as to the believer’s entire deliverance from his old standing in Adam, and his place of complete justification and perfect acceptance in Christ. He shows us that though there are actually two distinct natures in the believer, yet that because God has condemned sin in the flesh in the person of His own Son upon the cross, we are as believers privileged to reckon that our old "crab tree" standing has, once for all, come to an end there, as before Him, judicially; that our old man has been crucified with Christ; that we have been "cut off" as men in the flesh (Colossians 2:11), and that we are no longer reckoned as "in the flesh." Thus He can speak of the time when we were in the flesh (Romans 7:5); and in Romans 8:9, can plainly state, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." Just as the tree, if it could speak, would be able to say, "I haven’t lost my individuality as a tree, but though I was once a crab tree in the wood, I am now an apple tree in the garden." How unspeakably blessed it is then, to know that God would have us see ourselves no longer in connection with the condemned life of the first Adam, but in the risen life of Christ, the last Adam. "For ye are dead," He says, "and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). "There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to them which are IN CHRIST JESUS" (Romans 8:1). Let me add a practical word in conclusion. WHICH NATURE SHALL I GRATIFY? We have seen that there are not only two natures, but that, with their different origins, they have widely different tastes; thus, there are "the things of the flesh" and "the things of the Spirit." Let us not forget that both these natures will be daily calling our attention to their distinctive cravings. See those two young birds in that hedge-sparrow’s nest; both are clamorous for food. The young cuckoo, that was hatched there, cries, "Feed me;" and the little hedge-sparrow, in the same nest cries, "Feed me.’’ So with the two natures; only that while both those nestlings thrive on the same kind of food, the two natures in a Christian cannot, for what feeds the old only starves the new; while that which is food for the new is thoroughly distasteful to the old. We are told, therefore, in Romans 13:14, to make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof; and in 1 Peter 2:11, to abstain from "fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." On the other hand we are exhorted, "As newborn babes, to desire the sincere milk of the word, that we may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2). Let us, then, be like vigilant sentries on the watch, challenging all that we read, or think, or do, or say, with this test: Will this be food for the renewed nature, or will it minister to the flesh? Let us allow nothing to pass muster that would do the latter. Peter warns us that it is our fleshly lusts which "war against the soul." How many a difficulty would this simple question settle for us! And let us never forget that, apart altogether from the question of the salvation of the soul, there are practical consequences in this world, both to our "sowing to the flesh" and "sowing to the Spirit." "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). So that if we "sow to the flesh" we may surely expect to "reap corruption." But let us never allow the government of our Father’s hand to diminish our confidence in the love of our Father’s heart. May increased tenderness of conscience and distrust of self be ours, dear fellow-believer. May Christ Himself be more and more our daily food—His precious Word our constant delight. GEO. C. * * * ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: 03.00. SAFETY, CERTAINTY, AND ENJOYMENT ======================================================================== Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment by George Cutting Written by George Cutting (1834-1934), ca. 1900. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: 03.01. CHAPTER 1. IF A BELIEVER, WHY NOT SURE OF SALVATION? — IF SAVED, WHY NOT HAPPY? ======================================================================== Chapter 1. If a believer, Why Not Sure of Salvation? — If saved, Why Not Happy? Which Class Are YOU Traveling? WHAT AN OFT-REPEATED QUESTION! Let me put it to you, my reader: for traveling you most certainly are — traveling from Time into Eternity and who knows how very, very near you may be at this moment to the GREAT TERMINUS? Let me ask you then in all kindness, "Which class are you traveling?" There are but three. Let me describe them that you may put yourself to the test as in the presence of "Him with whom we have to do." First Class — Those who are saved and who know it. Second Class — Those who are not sure of salvation, but anxious to be sure. Third Class — Those who are not only unsaved, but totally indifferent about it. Again I repeat my question — "Which class are you traveling?" Oh, the madness of indifference when eternal issues are at stake! A short time ago, a man came rushing into the railway station and while scarcely able to gasp for breath took his seat in one of the carriages just on the point of starting. "You’ve run it fine," said a fellow-passenger. "Yes," replied he, breathing heavily after every two or three words, "but I’ve saved four hours, and that’s well worth running for." "Saved four hours!" I couldn’t help repeating to myself — "four hours" well worth that earnest struggle! What of eternity? What of eternity? Yet are there not thousands of shrewd, farseeing men today, who look sharply enough after their own interests in life, but who seem stone blind to the eternity before them? In spite of the infinite love of God to helpless rebels, told out at Calvary; in spite of His pronounced hatred of sin; in spite of the known brevity of man’s history here; in spite of the terrors of judgment after death, and of the solemn probability of waking up at last with the unbearable remorse of being on hell’s side of a "fixed" gulf, man hurries on to the bitter, bitter end, as careless as if there were no God, no death, no judgment, no heaven, no hell! If the reader of these pages be such an one, may God this very moment have mercy upon you, and while you read these lines, open your eyes to your most perilous position, standing as you may be on the slippery brink of an endless woe. Oh friend, believe it or not, your case is truly desperate! Put off the thought of eternity no longer. Remember that procrastination is like him who deceives you by it — not only a "thief," but a "murderer."There is much truth in the Spanish proverb which says, "The road of ’By-and-by’ leads to the town of ’Never.’" I beseech you, unknown reader, to travel that road no longer. "Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). "But," says one, "I am not indifferent as to the welfare of my soul. My deep trouble lies wrapped up in another word — ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: 03.02. CHAPTER 2. UNCERTAINTY ======================================================================== Chapter 2. UNCERTAINTY; I am among the second-class passengers you speak of." Well, reader, both indifference and uncertainty are the offspring of one parent — unbelief. The first results from unbelief as to the sin and ruin of man, the other from unbelief as to God’s sovereign remedy for man. It is especially for souls desiring before God to be fully and unmistakably SURE of their salvation that these pages are written. I can in a great measure understand your deep soul-trouble, and am assured that the more you are in earnest about this all important matter, the greater will be your thirst, until you know for certain that you are really and eternally saved. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36) The only son of a devoted father is at sea. News comes that his ship has been wrecked on some foreign shore. Who can tell the anguish of suspense in that father’s heart until, upon the most reliable authority, he is assured that his boy is safe and sound? Or, again, you are far from home. The night is dark and wintry, and your way is totally unknown. Standing at a point where two roads diverge, you ask a passer-by the way to the town you desire to reach, and he tells you he thinks that such and such a way is the right one, and hopes you will be all right if you take it. Would "thinks," and "hopes," and "may be’s" satisfy you? Surely not. You must have certainty about it, or every step you take will increase your anxiety. What wonder, then, that men have sometimes neither been able to eat nor sleep when the eternal safety of the soul has been trembling in the balance! "To lose your wealth is much, To lose your health is more, To lose your soul is such a loss As no man can restore." Now, dear reader, there are three things I desire, by the Holy Spirit’s help, to make clear to you, and to put them into scriptural language, they are these: 1. The Way of Salvation (Acts 16:17). 2. The Knowledge of Salvation (Luke 1:77). 3. The Joy of Salvation (Psalms 51:12). We shall, I think, see that though intimately connected, they each stand upon a separate basis; so that it is quite possible for a soul to know the way of salvation without having the certain knowledge that he himself is saved; or, again, to know that he is saved, without possessing at all times the joy that ought to accompany that knowledge. First then, let me speak briefly of ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: 03.03. CHAPTER 3. THE WAY OF SALVATION. ======================================================================== Chapter 3. THE WAY OF SALVATION. Please open your Bible and read carefully Exodus 13:13; there you find these words from the lips of Jehovah — "And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem." Now, come back with me in thought to a supposed scene of three thousand years ago. Two men (a priest of God and a poor Israelite) stand in earnest conversation. Let us stand by, with their permission, and listen. The gestures of each bespeak deep earnestness about some matter of importance, and it is not difficult to see that the subject of conversation is a little ass that stands trembling beside them. "I am come to inquire," says the poor Israelite, "if there cannot be a merciful exception made in my favour this once. This feeble little thing is the firstling of my ass, and though I know full well what the law of God says about it, I am hoping that mercy will be shown, and the ass’s life spared. I am but a poor man in Israel, and can ill afford to lose the colt." "But," answers the priest firmly, "the law of the Lord is plain and unmistakable: ’Every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck.’ Where is the lamb?" (Exodus 13:13) "Ah, sir, no lamb do I possess." "Then go purchase one and return, or the ass’s neck must surely be broken. The lamb must die or the ass must die." "Alas! then all my hopes are crushed," he cries, "for I am far too poor to buy a lamb." While this conversation proceeds, a third person joins them, and after hearing the poor man’s tale of sorrow, he turns to him and says kindly, "Be of good cheer, I can meet your need," and thus he proceeds: "We have in our house on the hill top yonder, one little lamb brought up at our very hearthstone, which is ’without spot or blemish.’ It has never once strayed from home, and stands (and rightly so) in highest favour with all that are in the house. This lamb will I fetch." And away he hastens up the hill. Presently you see him gently leading the fair little creature down the slope, and very soon both lamb and ass are standing side by side. Then the lamb is bound to the altar, its blood is shed, and the fire consumes it. The righteous priest now turns to the poor man, and says, "You can freely take home your little colt in safety; no broken neck for it now. The lamb has died in the ass’s stead, and consequently the ass goes righteously free. Thanks to your friend." Now, poor troubled soul, can you not see in this God’s own picture of a sinner’s salvation? His claims as to your sin demanded "a broken neck," that is, righteous judgment upon your guilty head, the only alternative being the death of a divinely approved substitute. Now, you could not find the provision to meet your case; but in the Person of His beloved Son, God Himself provided the Lamb. "Behold the Lamb of God," said John to his disciples as his eyes fell upon that blessed spotless One. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Onward to Calvary He went, "as a lamb to the slaughter," (Isaiah 53:7) and there and then He "once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). He "was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification" (Romans 4:25). So that God does not abate one jot of His righteous, holy claims against sin when He justifies (i.e., clears from all charge of guilt) the ungodly sinner who believes in Jesus (Romans 3:26). Blessed be God for such a Saviour, such a salvation! "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" "Well," you reply, "I have, as a condemned sinner, found in Him one that I can safely trust. I do believe in Him." Then I can tell you that the full value of His sacrifice and death, as God estimates it, He makes as good to you as though you had accomplished it all yourself. Oh, what a wondrous way of salvation is this! Is it not great and grand and godlike — worthy of God Himself? The gratification of His own heart of love, the glory of His precious Son, and the salvation of a sinner, all bound up together. What a bundle of grace and glory! Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has so ordered it that His own beloved Son should do all the work and get all the praise, and that you and I, poor guilty things, believing on Him, should not only get the blessing, but enjoy the blissful company of the Blesser for ever and ever. "O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together" (Psalms 34:3). But perhaps your eager inquiry may be, "How is it that since I do really distrust self and self-work, and wholly rely upon Christ and Christ’s work, that I have not the full certainty of my salvation?" You say, "If my feelings warrant my saying that I am saved one day, they are pretty sure to blight every hope the next, and I am left like a ship storm-tossed, without any anchorage whatever." Ah! there lies your mistake. Did you ever hear of a captain trying to find anchorage by fastening his anchor inside the ship? Never. Always outside. It may be that you are quite clear that it is Christ’s death alone that gives SAFETY, but you think that it is what you feel that gives you CERTAINTY. Now again take your Bible, for I wish you to see from God’s Word how He gives a man ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: 03.04. CHAPTER 4. THE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION. ======================================================================== Chapter 4. THE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION. Before you turn to the verse which I shall ask you very carefully to look at, which speaks of how a believer is to KNOW that he has eternal life, let me quote it in the distorted way in which man’s imagination often puts it. "These happy feelings have I given unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life." Now open your Bible, and while you compare this with God’s blessed and unchanging Word, may He give you from your very heart to say with David, "I hate vain thoughts: but Thy law do I love" (Psalms 119:113). The verse just misquoted is found in 1 John 5:13, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that ye HAVE eternal life..." How did the firstborn sons of the thousands of Israel know for certain that they were safe the night of the Passover and of Egypt’s judgment? Let us visit two of their houses and hear what they have to say. We find in the first house we enter that they are all shivering with fear and suspense. What is the secret of all this paleness and trembling? We enquire, and the firstborn son informs us that the angel of death is coming around the land, and that he is not quite certain how matters will stand with him at that solemn moment, "When the destroying angel has passed our house," says he, "and the night of judgment is over, I shall then know that I am safe, but I can not see how I can be quite sure of it until then. I hear they are sure of salvation next door, but we think it very presumptuous. All I can do is to spend the long, dreary night hoping for the best." "But," we ask, "has the God of Israel not provided a way of safety for His people?" "True," he replies, "and we have availed ourselves of that way of escape. The blood of the spotless and unblemished first-year lamb has been duly sprinkled with the bunch of hyssop on the lintel and two side-posts, but still we are not fully assured of shelter." Let us now leave these doubting, troubled ones, and enter next door. What a striking contrast meets our eye at once! Peace rests on every countenance. There they stand, with girded loins and staff in hand, feeding on the roasted lamb. What can be the meaning of all this tranquility on such a solemn night as this? "Ah," say they all, "we are only waiting for Jehovah’s marching orders, and then we shall bid a last farewell to the taskmaster’s cruel lash and all the drudgery of Egypt!" "But hold! Do you forget that this is the night of Egypt’s judgment?" "Right well we know it; but our firstborn son is safe. The blood has been sprinkled according to the wish of our God." "But so it has been next door," we reply, "but they are all unhappy, because all uncertain of safety." "Ah!," responds the firstborn firmly, "but we have MORE THAN THE SPRINKLED BLOOD; we have THE UNERRING WORD OF GOD ABOUT IT. God has said: ’When I see the blood, I will pass over you’ (Exodus 12:13). God rests satisfied with the blood outside, and we rest satisfied with His Word inside." The sprinkled blood makes us SAFE. The spoken Word makes us SURE. Could anything make us more safe than the sprinkled blood, or more sure than His spoken Word? Nothing, nothing. Now, reader, let me ask you a question. "Which of these two houses, think you, was the safer?" Do you say the second, where all were so peaceful? Nay then, you are wrong. Both are safe alike. Their safety depends upon what God thinks about the blood outside, and not upon the state of their feelings inside. If you would be sure of your own blessing, then, dear reader, listen not to the unstable testimony of inward emotions, but to the infallible witness of the Word of God. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me HATH everlasting life" (John 6:47). Let me give you a simple illustration from everyday life. A certain farmer in the country, not having sufficient grass for his cattle, applies for a nice piece of pasture land which he hears is to be let near his own house. For some time he gets no answer from the landlord. One day a neighbour comes in and says, "I feel quite sure you will get that field. Don’t you recollect how that last Christmas he sent you a special present of game and that he gave you a kind nod of recognition the other day when he drove past in the carriage?" And with such like words the farmer’s mind is filled with sanguine hopes. Next day another neighbour meets him, and in course of conversation he says, "I’m afraid you will stand no chance whatever of getting that grass-field. Mr. _____ has applied for it, and you cannot but be aware what a favourite he is with the Squire — occasionally visiting with him," and so on. And the poor farmer’s bright hopes are dashed to the ground and burst like soap bubbles. One day he is hoping, the next day full of perplexing doubts. Presently the postman calls, and the farmer’s heart beats fast as he breaks the seal of the letter, for he sees by the handwriting that it is from the Squire himself. See his countenance change from anxious suspense to undisguised joy as he reads and re-reads that letter. "It’s a settled thing now," exclaims he to his wife. "No more doubts and fears about it; the Squire says the field is mine as long as I require it, on the most easy terms, and that’s enough for me. I care for no man’s opinion now. His word settles it!" How many a poor soul is in a like condition to that of the poor, troubled farmer — tossed and perplexed by the opinions of men, or the thoughts and feelings of his own treacherous heart! And it is only upon receiving the Word of God as the Word of God, that certainty takes the place of doubts and peradventures. When God speaks there must be certainty, whether He pronounces the damnation of the unbeliever, or the salvation of the believer. "For ever, O LORD, Thy word is settled in heaven" (Psalms 119:89); and to the simple-hearted believer HIS WORD SETTLES ALL. "Hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19). "I need no other argument I want no other plea, It is enough that Jesus died— And that He died for me." The believer can add — "And that God says so." "But how may I be sure that I have the right kind of faith?" Well, there can be but one answer to that question. "Have you placed your confidence in the right Person, in the blessed Son of God?" It is not a question of the amount of your faith, but of the trustworthiness of the person you repose your confidence in. One man takes hold of Christ, as it were, with a drowning man’s grip. Another but touches the hem of His garment, but the sinner who does the former is not a bit safer than the one who does the latter. They have both made the same discovery, namely, that while all of self is totally untrustworthy, they may safely confide in Christ, calmly rely on His Word, and confidently rest in the eternal efficacy of His finished work. That is what is meant by believing on Him. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on ME HATH everlasting life" (John 6:47). Make sure of it then, my reader, that your confidence is not reposed in your works of amendments, your religious observances, your pious feelings when under religious influences, your moral training from childhood, and the like. You may have the strongest faith in any or all of these, and perish everlastingly. Do not deceive yourself by any "fair show in the flesh." The feeblest faith in Christ eternally saves, while the strongest faith in aught beside is but the offspring of a deceived heart — but the leafy twigs of your enemy’s arranging over the pitfall of eternal perdition. God, in the Gospel, simply introduces to you the Lord Jesus Christ, and says: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17)." "You may," He says, "with all confidence trust His heart, though you cannot with impunity trust your own." Blessed, thrice blessed Lord Jesus, who would not trust Thee, and praise Thy Name? "I do really believe on Him," said a sad-looking soul to me one day, "but yet, when asked if I am saved, I don’t like to say yes, for fear I should be telling a lie." This young woman was a butcher’s daughter in small town in the Midlands [central counties of England]. It happened to be a market day, and her father had not then returned from market. So I said, "Now, suppose when your father comes home you ask him how many sheep he bought today, and he answers ’ten’. After a while a man comes to the shop, and says, ’How many sheep did your father buy today?’ and you reply, ’I don’t like to say, for fear I should be telling a lie." "But," said the mother (who was standing by at the time), with righteous indignation, "that would be making your father the liar." Now, dear reader, don’t you see that this well-meaning young woman was virtually making Christ a liar, saying, "I do believe on the Son of God, and He says I have everlasting life, but I do not like to say I have it, lest I should be telling a lie," when Christ Himself has said, "He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life!" (John 6:47). "But," says another, "How may I be sure that I really do believe? I have tried often enough to believe, and looked within to see if I had got it, but the more I look at my faith, the less I seem to have." Ah, my friend, you are looking in the wrong direction to find that out, and your trying to believe but plainly shows that you are on the wrong track. Let me give you another illustration to explain what I want to convey to you. You are sitting at your quiet fireside one evening, when a man comes in and tells you that the station-master has been killed that night on the railway. Now it so happens that this man had long borne the character in the place for being a very dishonest man, and the most daring, notorious liar in the neighbourhood. Do you believe, or even try to believe, that man? "Of course not," you exclaim. "Pray, why?" "Oh, I know him too well for that!" "But tell me how you know that you don’t believe him. Is it by looking within at your faith or feelings?" "No," you reply, "I think of the man that brings me the message." Presently a neighbour drops in, and says, "The station-master has been run over by a freight train tonight and killed on the spot." After he has left, I hear you cautiously say, "Well, I partly believe it now; for to my recollection this man only once in his life deceived me, though I have known him from boyhood." But again I ask, "Is it by looking at your faith this time that you know you partly believe it?" "No," you repeat, "I am thinking of the character of my informant." Well, this man has scarcely left your room before a third person enters and brings you the same sad news as the first. But this time you say, "Now, John, I believe it. Since you tell me, I can believe it." Again I press my question (which is, remember, but the re-echo of your own), "How do you KNOW that you so confidently believe your friend John?" "Because of who and what John is," you reply. "He never has deceived me, and I don’t think he ever will." Well, then, just in the same way, I know that I believe the Gospel because of the One who brings me the news. "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that BELIEVETH NOT GOD HATH MADE HIM A LIAR; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son" (1 John 5:9-10). "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness" (Romans 4:3). An anxious soul once said to a servant of Christ, "Oh, sir, I can’t believe!" To which the preacher wisely and quietly made reply, "Indeed, WHO is it that you cannot believe?" This broke the spell. He had been looking at faith as an indescribable something he must feel within himself in order to be sure he was all right for heaven, whereas faith ever looks outside to a living Person and His finished work, and quietly listens to the testimony of a faithful God about both. It is the outside look that brings the inside peace. When a man turns his face towards the sun, his own shadow is behind him. You cannot look at self and a glorified Christ in heaven at the same moment. Thus we have seen that the blessed Person of God’s Son wins my confidence. HIS FINISHED WORK makes me eternally safe. GOD’S WORD about those who believe on Him makes me unalterably sure. I find in Christ and His work the way of salvation, and in the Word of God the knowledge of salvation. "But, if saved," you may say, "How is it that I have such a fluctuating experience — so often losing all my joy and comfort, and getting as wretched and downcast as I was before my conversion?" Well, this brings us to our third point; ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: 03.05. CHAPTER 5. THE JOY OF SALVATION. ======================================================================== Chapter 5. THE JOY OF SALVATION. You will find in the teaching of Scripture, that while you are saved by Christ’s work and assured by God’s Word, you are maintained in comfort and joy by the Holy Spirit who indwells every saved one’s body. Now you must bear in mind that every saved one has still "the flesh" within him, that is, the evil nature he was born with as a natural man, and which perhaps showed itself while still a helpless infant on his mother’s lap. The Holy Spirit in the believer resists the flesh, and is grieved by every activity of it, in motive, word or deed. When he is walking "worthy of the Lord," the Holy Spirit will be producing in his soul His blessed fruits — "love, joy, peace ..." (see Galatians 5:22). When he is walking in a carnal, worldly way, the Spirit is grieved, and these fruits are wanting in greater or less measure. Let me put it thus for you who do believe on God’s Son: Christ’s Work and Your Salvation > stand or fall together. Your Walk and Your Enjoyment > stand or fall together. If Christ’s work could break down (and, blessed be God it never will), your salvation will break down with it. When your walk breaks down (and be watchful, for it may), your enjoyment will break down with it. Thus it is said of the early disciples (Acts 9:31), that they were "walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost." And again in Acts 13:52: "And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost." My spiritual joy will be in proportion to the spiritual character of my walk after I am saved. Now do you see your mistake? You have been mixing up enjoyment and your safety — two widely different things. When, through self-indulgence, loss of temper, worldliness, etc., you grieved the Holy Spirit and lost your joy, you thought your safety was undermined. But again I repeat it— Your safety hangs upon Christ’s work FOR you. Your assurance upon God’s Word TO you. Your enjoyment upon not grieving the Holy Spirit IN you. When as a child of God, you do anything to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, your communion with the Father and the Son is for the time practically suspended; and it is only when you judge yourself and confess your sins, that the joy of communion is restored. Your child has been guilty of some misdemeanour. He shows upon his countenance the evident mark that something is wrong with him. Half an hour before this he was enjoying a walk with you around the garden, admiring what you admired, enjoying what you enjoyed. In other words, he was in communion with you, his feelings and sympathies were in common with yours. But now all this is changed, and as a naughty, disobedient child he stands in the corner, the very picture of misery. Upon penitent confession of his wrong-doing you have assured him of forgiveness, but his pride and self will keep him sobbing there. Where is now the joy of half an hour ago? All gone. Why? Because communion between you and him has been interrupted. What has become of the relationship that existed between you and your son half an hour ago? Is that gone too? Is that severed or interrupted? Surely not. His relationship depends upon his birth; his communion depends upon his behaviour. But presently he comes out of the corner with broken will and broken heart confessing the whole thing from first to last, so that you see he hates the disobedience and naughtiness as much as you do, and you take him in your arms and cover him with kisses. His joy is restored because communion is restored. When David sinned so grievously in the matter of Uriah’s wife, he did not say, "Restore unto me Thy salvation," but "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation" (Psalms 51:12). But to carry our illustration a little farther. Supposing while your child is in the corner there should be a cry of "House on fire!" throughout your dwelling, what would become of him then? Left in the corner to be consumed with the burning, falling house? Impossible! Very probably he would be the very first person you would carry out. Ah, yes, you know right well that the love of relationship is one thing, and the joy of communion quite another. Now, when the believer sins, communion for the time is interrupted, and joy is lost until, with a broken heart, he comes to the Father and confesses his sins. Then, taking God at His Word, he knows he is forgiven, for His Word plainly declares that "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Oh, then, dear believer, ever bear in mind these two things, that there is nothing so strong as the link of relationship; and nothing so tender as the link of communion. All the combined power and counsel of earth and hell cannot sever the former, while an impure motive or an idle word will break the latter. If you are troubled with a cloudy half-hour, get low before God, consider your ways. And when the thief that has robbed you of your joy has been detected, drag him at once to the light, confess your sin to God your Father, and judge yourself most unsparingly for the unwatchful careless state of soul that allowed the thief to enter unchallenged. But never, never, NEVER, confound your safety with your joy. Do not imagine, however, that the judgment of God falls a whit more leniently on the believer’s sin than on the unbeliever’s. He has not two ways of dealing judicially with sin, and He could no more pass by the believer’s sin without judging it, than He could pass by the sins of a rejecter of His precious Son. But there is this great difference between the two, namely, that the believer’s sins were all known to God, and all laid upon His own provided Lamb when He hung upon the cross at Calvary, and that there and then, once and for ever, the great "criminal question" of his guilt was raised and settled — judgment falling upon the blessed Substitute in the believer’s stead, "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). The Christ-rejecter must bear his own sins in his own person in the lake of fire for ever. But, when a believer fails, the "criminal question" of sin cannot be raised against him, the Judge Himself having settled that once for all on the cross; but the communion question is raised within him by the Holy Spirit as often as he grieves the Spirit. Allow me, in conclusion, to give you another illustration. It is a beautiful moonlight night. The moon is full, and shining in more than ordinary silvery brightness. A man is gazing intently down a deep, still well, where he sees the moon reflected, and thus remarks to a friendly bystander, "How beautifully fair and round she is tonight! How quietly and majestically she rides along!" He has just finished speaking when suddenly his friend drops a small pebble into the well, and he now exclaims, "Why, the moon is all broken to pieces and the fragments are shaking together in the greatest disorder!" "What gross absurdity!" is the astonished rejoinder of his companion. "Look up, man! The moon hasn’t changed one jot or tittle. It is the condition of the well that reflects the moon that has changed." Now, believer, apply the simple figure yourself. Your heart is the well. When there is no allowance of evil the blessed Spirit of God takes of the glories and preciousness of Christ, and reveals them to you for your comfort and joy. But the moment a wrong motive is cherished in the heart, or an idle word escapes the lips unjudged, the Holy Spirit begins to disturb the well, your happy experiences are smashed to pieces, and you are all restless and disturbed within, until in brokenness of spirit before God you confess your sin (the disturbing thing) and thus get restored once more to the calm, sweet joy of communion. But when your heart is thus all unrest, need I ask, Has Christ’s work changed? No, no. Then your salvation is not altered. Has God’s Word changed? Surely not. Then the certainty of your salvation has received no shock. Then, what has changed? Why, the action of the Holy Spirit in you has changed, and instead of taking of the glories of Christ, and filling your heart with the sense of His worthiness, He is grieved at having to turn aside from this delightful office to fill you with the sense of your sin and unworthiness. He takes from you your present comfort and joy until you judge and resist the evil thing that He judges and resists. When this is done, communion with God is again restored. The Lord make us to be increasingly jealous over ourselves lest we grieve "the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30). Dear reader, however weak your faith may be, rest assured of this, that the blessed One who has won your confidence will never change. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and FOR EVER" (Hebrews 13:8). The work He has accomplished will never change. "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be FOR EVER: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it" (Ecclesiastes 3:14). The word He has spoken will never change. "The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth FOR EVER" (1 Peter 1:24-25). Thus the object of my trust, the foundation of my safety, and the ground of my certainly, are alike ETERNALLY UNALTERABLE. "My love is oft-times low, My joy still ebbs and flows, But peace with Him remains the samel No change Jehovah knows. "I change, He changes not; My Christ can never die; His love, not mine, the resting-place; His truth, not mine, the tie." Once more, let me ask, "WHICH CLASS ARE YOU TRAVELING?" Turn your heart to God, I pray you, and answer that question to Him. "Let God be true, and every man a liar" (Romans 3:4). "He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true" (John 3:33). May the joyful assurance of possessing this "great salvation" be yours, dear reader, now, and "till He come." "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life..." 1 John 5:13 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: S. BROTHERLY CARE AND PERSONAL TRESPASS. ======================================================================== Brotherly Care and Personal Trespass. Matthew 18:1-35. Geo. Cutting. Christian Friend, vol. 13, 1886, p. 197. This question, asked by the disciples, in the first verse of this chapter, led the Lord to speak of the moral state that was suited to that kingdom. As a fitting model of the spirit which God looked for in those who belonged to it, He placed in their midst a little child, and, in reply to their question, said, "Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Meekness and humility - littleness in our own eyes, whatever our insignificance in the eyes of men - were the equivalents for what was truly great in the sight of God. "Thy gentleness," said David, "hath made me great." (Psalms 18:35.) Matthew 18:10-14 give us the Lord’s thoughts as to these little ones, and withering indeed are His words to those who cause them to stumble. Indeed, the "woe" which He pronounces against His own betrayer is expressed in almost the same language as that pronounced upon the one who should "offend" His little ones. Of the one He says, "Woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed;" of the other, "Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh." (Matthew 26:24; Matthew 18:7.) How constant the care that should be found in us, therefore, lest, even unwittingly, we should do anything to stumble or even discourage the feeblest of His own. In Matthew 18:15 the Lord takes up another side of the subject. He is no longer warning His disciples against offending others, but giving instruction as to what their behaviour is to be if a brother should trespass against them. "If thy brother shall trespass against thee." The spirit of gracious consideration for the welfare of others is to characterize their conduct under every circumstance, the very opposite of the spirit of him who said, "Am I my brother’s keeper?" in Matthew 18:8-9 we are told to make no allowance whatever for our own hand, or foot, or eye offending. The utmost severity is to be shown in such a case, even to cutting off or plucking out the offending member, as though the Lord had said, "You can’t be too severe with yourselves when you go wrong, and you cannot exercise too much carefulness in your conduct towards others." How natural for us to act directly opposite to this! Any amount of consideration we are ready to show towards ourselves; the cleverest excuses can be produced at the shortest notice in palliation of our own failures, yet there is no lack of righteous indignation if the failures of others are in question. It is noteworthy that personal trespass between brother and brother is the first disturbing element mentioned in Scripture in connection with the gathering together of the saints to the name of the Lord Jesus, and He proceeds to lay down in the most simple and explicit manner what is to be our line of conduct under such circumstances. Let us carefully consider these important communications. "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone." Mark well, in the first place, there is to be no making light of the trespass: "Tell him his fault." In the gospel of Luke (Luke 17:3) it is even stated more strongly than this: "If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him: and if he repent, forgive him." The natural course might be to avoid him, and to say nothing to him about his fault; or we might be determined in our own mind to bear the injury in longsuffering towards the offender, rind, as it is sometimes expressed, "try to live it down." Such might at first sight seem very plausible, and have the appearance of grace on my part; but it omits one all-important item of consideration; viz., the spiritual condition of my offending brother; and whoever may commend it, it is certainly not the Lord’s way of treating the matter. Besides, staying away from my brother might leave a tinge of bad feeling in my own heart; and even if it did not, am I to rest while knowing that the conscience of my erring brother is defiled? (See Leviticus 19:17.) No. I am to go and plainly lay his fault before him; for if he is to be truly recovered it must be through the exercise of conscience and the judgment of his state before God. "Go and tell him his fault" are words that cannot very well be mistaken. It is not even, "Go and write him a note." Alas! who can measure the mischief that has come in among God’s people by this very thing, either through ignorance of the Lord’s mind about such matters, or through failing to act upon it when known. To send what I think a very faithful letter may both spare my feelings and suit my pride; but He who knows us far, far better than we know ourselves says plainly, "Go and TELL him his fault." Then, again, what wisdom and grace are embodied in the next few words - "Between thee and him alone." Yet is it not sadly too common to discuss a personal trespass somewhat more publicly than this? Perhaps there is some brother whom we know to be not on the most amicable terms with the one who has injured us. We have but little doubt that he (1:e., the brother just referred to) will lend a ready ear to the tale of our wrongs, and the danger is that, in our selfishness, we go to him, though, if we considered his soul’s welfare, he would be the last person in the assembly to whom such a thing would be breathed. But it suits us better to share the story of our grievance with others, who may be ready to sympathize with us, and tell us how shamefully we have been treated, and the like, than to go and seek "to gain" the one who has done us an injustice. How is this? It is much to be feared that we are not altogether sorry to be able to inflict a punishment upon our brother by lowering him in the estimation of others. But is it obedience to the Word thus to act? Is it the Spirit of Christ? Is it not rather only another, though more subtle, form of the same flesh that manifested itself in our brother’s trespass? Next comes a sentence of the very deepest importance to us - "If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." Does not this let us into the secret of why I am to tell him his fault, and why it is to be between him and me alone? It is "to gain" my brother. The Lord had, just before (Matthew 18:12), been speaking of His own search among the mountains for the lost sheep, and of His joy when the straying one was brought back, in order, no doubt, that we might see the value which He put upon one of His own, and that we might learn to act toward them accordingly. Notice here that nothing is said about the redress of any wrongs. The Lord does not say that "if he hear thee, all thy wrongs shall be put right," but, "If he hear thee, thou has gained thy brother." No doubt, if grace really works in him, if he is really "gained," one of the earliest fruits of it will be an ardent desire for the redress of those injuries; but the securing of this is not to be the motive which prompts me to go to him. Leaving my wrongs with the Lord, I am to seek my brother’s blessing. But this going to "gain" him will necessarily put my own soul through deepest exercises. If, in true love to him, I am set upon his recovery in a righteous way, what godly watchfulness and carefulness will be wrought in me? With what earnestness and fervent desire shall I plead for him before God! When a bird has left his cage, any rude hand or discordant voice can drive him further away; but how great the care and caution that is exercised by the one who really desires to bring him back to food and shelter! If my errand to my brother were only to pain him, the task might easily be accomplished without a particle of exercise; but if I am to gain him, then grace must work both in him and in me. But now we proceed a step farther. Suppose that the best-intentioned efforts to restore my brother prove fruitless, what then? Am I therefore to take it for granted that he is henceforth beyond recovery? Not so. How do I know that my manner of dealing with him was not the cause of my failure? Or perhaps our interview has made the discovery to him that I have put what be considers to be an unwarrantable colour upon his conduct, or attributed motives to him which he is conscious he never had. In that case, I should only have given to him what he judges a righteous ground for resisting me, and have left him harder than I found him. I am therefore now to take with me "one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." And even should this prove unavailing, another step is yet to be taken; the assembly must be told. If, after all this, the offender still manifest wilfulness, if repentance be not wrought in him, the word then is, "Let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican;" for there is no higher court of appeal for the saint upon earth than the "two or three" gathered to the name of the Lord. (Matthew 18:18-20) But there is another danger, into which, if not very watchful, any one of us might very easily fall. I might go to the brother who has trespassed against me, not so much with a desire to "gain" him as to satisfy my own conscience, in a hard, legal way, that I have acted scripturally toward him. Suppose such a case. I go and "tell him his fault;" but instead of finding him hard and unrepentant, he is thoroughly broken down. He freely owns that he has trespassed against me, and shows every sign of genuine contrition. But what follows? Alas’ I am more concerned about the injury which I have sustained than I am for my brother’s restoration to happy fellowship with me. The pangs of wounded pride spur me on, and I make it but sadly too manifest that I would prefer my brother getting the discipline of the unrepentant, rather than the forgiveness of the repentant. Grace has wrought in him, but not in me, and in my heart I do not forgive him. Now what follows in this chapter seems to be addressed to such a case. Let us examine it. In Matthew 18:21 Peter asks the Lord this question, "How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" And the question is answered by, "I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy tinges seven." And then (by the word "therefore ") He connects this statement with the parable of the merciful master and the unmerciful servant. Two cases of debtor and creditor are brought before us in the parable. The first debtor owes his king ten thousand talents. Yet upon confession of the debt, and the expressed willingness on the part of the debtor to meet his creditor’s demands, the whole debt, immense though it was, is immediately forgiven. The same servant leaves his gracious master’s presence, and finds a fellow-servant, who owes him "a hundred pence." He takes him by the throat, and demands immediate payment. The poor debtor confesses to the legitimacy of the claim, and makes known his willingness to meet the righteous demands of his creditor. Yet what do we find? No mercy whatever is shown, no forbearance is exercised; he cast him into prison "till he should pay the debt." Now mark well what follows; for it is full of solemn and wholesome instruction for us. The rest of the servants seeing such behaviour are "very sorry," we are told, and bring the tidings to their master, who summons the ungrateful servant into his presence and deals this most withering rebuke: "O thou wicked servant," he says, "I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee?" (Matthew 18:32-33) And then it is added, "His lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him." The Lord next applies the parable by saying, "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." It need scarcely be said that this parable does not speak of the salvation of the soul, but of the principles of the government of the King in His kingdom, principles as applicable to the real possessor as to the mere professor. It is an unchanging fact that upon the cross Christ took the consequences for eternity of every believer’s sins; but as to our conduct in this world, it is an unalterable principle in the government of God that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7.) Another broad principle of His government is expressed in Psalms 18:25-26 : "With the merciful Thou wilt skew thyself merciful; with an upright roan Thou wilt shew thyself upright; with the pure Thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward Thou wilt shew thyself froward." And again, in Matthew 5:7 : "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." Now which of us, as he reviews his past history, whether as saint or sinner, and thinks of the governmental consequences of all he has said and done, can say, "I stand in no need of governmental mercy"? Do we not rather each feel ourselves to be more like needing the mercy shown to the ten-thousand-talent debtor, and say with all our hearts "Nothing but mercy will do for me; Nothing but mercy, full and free"? Let us then remember, if tempted to show a hard, unmerciful, unforgiving spirit to our brethren, that while, through the grace of our God, our sins and iniquities He will remember no more, yet that according to His government, "with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Matthew 7:2.) Let us bear in mind that precious exhortation to the saints at Ephesus, "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ hath forgiven you." (Ephesians 4:32.) Is it not significant that the chapter which instructs us as to the Centre to whom we should be gathered (Matthew 18:20) should be so similar, in the scope of its moral teaching, to the chapter which gives us the ground of our gathering; viz., the truth of the one body? (Ephesians 4:1-32) In Matthew 18:1-35, as we have seen, the spirit of childlike lowliness and gracious consideration for the welfare of others is brought before us as that which should ever characterize us. In Ephesians 4:2 the exhortation is, "With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." It is said of a blind man that, when asked why he always carried a lantern at night, he replied that, being himself unable to see, the light was therefore not to preserve his own feet from stumbling, but to prevent others stumbling over him. May the Lord keep us each walking "as children of light;" and then not only will our own feet be kept from stumbling, but we shall be no occasion of stumbling to others! On the contrary, may our care for each other in the sight of God be more and more apparent! (2 Corinthians 7:12; 1 Corinthians 12:25.) Remembering that He who was the "merciful" was also the "faithful" (Hebrews 2:17), and that He who was perfectly "holy" was equally "harmless" (Hebrews 7:26), let us never seek to show mercy at the expense of divine principle and practical holiness, nor mistake hardness and harshness for firmness and faithfulness. Geo. Cutting. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: S. TWO COMPANIES — A CONTRAST. ======================================================================== Two Companies — A Contrast. G. Cutting. In Matthew 28:11-15, we have a company of Christ-haters produced by the religious world of that day. In John 20:19, we have a company of those who loved the Lord and they now formed the assembly. Every one belongs to one or other of those companies. The Spirit has come to bring heavenly things before those who form the assembly, so that we find our interest in them. The other company cast out the heavenly Man. With which company do we associate? Suppose the case of a mother with her children, through the hatred of another family, her husband had been banished. After a time the latter make pleasant advances to the children who are taken by the seeming friendliness, as kindly and agreeable, there can surely be no harm in responding to their overtures. But the mother answers "remember, that whatever they may say or do, they hate your father, the one who loves you." Let us each challenge our own hearts! Are we subject to the smiles of the world? Let us not forget what the world did to our blessed Lord! The Holy Spirit would impress us with the awfulness of belonging to such a company, and with the blessedness of belonging to the family of God. Three things marked the company outside of those closed doors, in the strongest contrast to the company inside. There was no fellowship that day between the two. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ created a great gulf between His crucifiers and those who loved Him and the coming of the Holy Ghost made the gulf more apparent. It will be the same today, if the Holy Ghost has his way with us. Three things mark the inside company: (1) Love; He loved them and in response they loved him. (2) Joy; the moment they apprehended His presence, joy filled their hearts. (3) Peace; His first word to them was "Peace unto you!" It was a foretaste of heaven and the Holy Spirit can still make Christ’s presence known to us, so that we get a foretaste of heaven also. In the other circle there were : (1) Hate; they hated Him without a cause. (2) Selfishness; the soldiers took the money. (3) Trouble and disturbance; for He whom they hated was risen. The devil was greatly disturbed when Christ rose from the dead and had to cover his blunder with the greatest lie ever invented. All was discord. Why is there strife, sorrow and discord in the world? Because there are still present the hatred that refused Christ and its selfishness. The only bit of heaven the world will ever know is the bit they see in us! Love, peace and joy we know inside. As we are able to show a little of what we enjoy inside to those outside, we are witnesses for Christ here! (Notes of an address by GEO. CUTTING, 1901). ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-george-cutting/ ========================================================================