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p260 [T Smith] BELOVED BROTHER, - . . . It is so true that we have all grace in our living Head, and I do pray that we may be enabled in holding fast the Head, to draw continually thence, and to be preserved from what would hinder the life of that blessed One in our mortal bodies. When we think what it is to have such a life and such a fulness to draw from, and that really we are to enjoy all that that supplies in God's own presence, in the light in heaven, it gives a thanksgiving and a steadiness of joy, that the Holy Ghost alone can give or make us understand. But we have to seek that there be an exercised spirit, that our living and habitual state may be according to this. Christ was not always in the glory of the transfiguration. He met and felt an unbelieving world; but He was always consistent with the glory which that revealed, and indeed with what was only dimly shadowed there, and that in every spring of action and manifestation in life; and in us this must be sought to be realised in them. It is not an effort to copy (though we do copy) but to be, or rather so to draw from the Head, that what we are in Him be not hindered in its manifestation by evil. To overcome, we need power as well as the desires of a new nature; hence constant dependence, not uncertainty as to the nature and life which desires, but dependence for force or power on Another for the accomplishment (I mean here below) of those desires. It is the difference of Romans 7 and 8.

There is another point I will mention, as I have been led to this, that all proper and happy affections suppose the relationship to which they belong, not merely the nature capable of them. An orphan has the capacity of loving a father and mother, and it makes it unhappy. A child who has its parents has the affections which belong to this relationship. So the existence of the divine nature involves the desires natural to it; spiritual affections have their place in known relationship with the Father and with Christ; and this is founded on redemption and grace, which must be known as an assured thing, accomplished, and indeed the relationships into which we have been brought by it, in order that these blessed affections which flow from a known God exist in our souls. But then what a sure and immutable source of happiness we have - divine and immediate nearness to God! He has adopted us to Himself as children (see Eph. 1), and given a nature capable of enjoying it, and the Holy Ghost as power (unlimited in itself), and that based on a redemption which places us fully in unclouded favour and fully known love, exercised and accomplished towards us in it, in a position as assured as the value of the redemption itself - eternal redemption.

The Lord keep us in His peace, and walking before Him in all holy conversation and godliness, that we may meet in unfeigned joy. Adieu, dear brother. The Lord our gracious Master be with you and near you, and all His beloved people, and deign to keep me also. I have been these latter times in general very happy with Him, but it has been with a look into the blessedness before me in His presence, which has made me feel how little one sees into it as one ought, though at the same time how great it is; but it is a wonderful light into which one is permitted to look; I speak of the happiness of His presence in light.

[Lausanne, November 23rd, 1850.*]

{*See page 182.}

[51145E]

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