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p138 [To the same.] [From the French.] * * * I do not at all doubt that the apostle, when he says (1 John 1), "We have fellowship one with another," speaks of the fellowship of saints among themselves. There are three elements of the christian life: the first is being in the light as God is in the light - no veil. We must find ourselves in the presence of God fully revealed. If we cannot stand there, we cannot have intercourse with Him. The second is, that being thus in His presence, it is not, with us, the selfishness of the individual, but the communion of saints by the Holy Ghost, in the enjoyment of the full revelation of God Himself. The third is, that we are white as snow, so that we can be with joy in this light, which only makes manifest that we are all that the eye and heart of God desire in this respect - what our hearts also desire, in His presence.

The idea is abstract and absolute; it is the value and efficacy of the blood. It is not only restoration. It is an efficacy, moreover, which is never lost. My soul once washed, I am always before God according to the efficacy of this blood. Restoration is rather by water, although in virtue of the blood. (See John 13. and the "red heifer," Num. 19.) But here, it is the value of the blood in itself: and, mark well, if we are in the light as God is in the light, it is indeed a real state, but the apostle does not say, "according to the light." It is our position now that the cross has revealed God without a veil. As this passage is generally interpreted, it ought to read: "If we do not walk according to the light, the blood cleanses us"; but there is no such thought. It is at the beginning of chapter 2 that we find provision made, as is necessary, in case of failure. I do not doubt that the light searches us; but here God does not see evil. He sees the man cleansed by the blood of Jesus. With verse 8 begins the consideration of known sin. Without doubt the blood cleanses us from everything; but when we think of the existence of sin in us, while knowing that the blood cleanses us from all, we are led to another truth of the gospel, it is that we are dead with Christ. (Rom. 6; Col. 2, 3; Gal. 2) This is for walk, and it is directed against the movement of this sin in the flesh. If sin has acted, we are brought to confess, not sin in the flesh, but what it has produced. (1 John 1:9.) Then we are pardoned and cleansed. This is true at the beginning, but true also in the details of life. . . .

The characters that Christ takes in connection with these last days, are these: "The holy, the true." Yes, that is the character He takes; that which He desires in His own, in their walk, when He is about to come. We have to watch over ourselves and over our brethren, that it may be so. I feel, for my part, that we have, in these days, to watch very specially as to this holiness, though it is always an essential thing for the children of God.

. . . Evil is in the world, but we are in the hands of God: Christ came in after the evil, and has gained a complete victory over him who was their leader in it; thanks be to Him for it. He holds in His hands the keys of death and of hades, but the time has not yet come for taking away the evil from off the earth. God uses it for our good, but the evil is there.

1871.

[52086F]

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