Table of Contents

Canaan and the Armour of God

Colossians 1

Notes of a Private Conversation.

The Epistle to the Philippians

The Epistle to the Philippians

Philippians 1

Philippians 2.

Philippians 3

Philippians 4

Philippians 2

Philippians 3

Thoughts on 2 Timothy for the Closing Days

The Eternal Sonship of Christ

1 John 5: 7

The Rest, the Word, and the Priesthood

Hebrews 4

A Call to Gilgal

Being a Word in Season.

Miscellaneous Notes on the Epistles

Justification and Righteousness

Romans 1

Romans 6

Christ Dwelling in the Heart.

To Live - Christ.

Notes of the Meeting of Brethren at Guelph, Ontario

1 John 3: 4

Notes on Revelation

A Letter On Atonement

Rom. 3: 25, Rom. 4: 25, Rom. 5: 9, 10;

1 Cor. 15: 3;

2 Cor. 5: 21;

Gal. 1: 4, Gal. 3: 16;

Col. 1: 14, 20;

1 Tim. 2: 6;

Titus 2: 14;

1 John 1: 7, 1 John 2: 2, 1 John 4: 10;

Matt. 20: 28, Matt. 26: 28;

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Luke 15

Notes of Readings

John 14

Notes of Readings

The Father's House

John 14

An Address on John 14

The Acts of the Apostles

Acts 1

Is "bishoprick?"

Acts 2

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The Acts of the Apostles

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Acts 18-20

The Epistle to the Ephesians

Ephesians 1

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Notes of the Cheltenham meeting.

John 17

Ephesians 1: 15-23; Ephesians 2: 1-10 Fragments.

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Fragments: Phil. 1: 22. (GVW? or JND?)

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Fragment on 2 Cor. 4, 5: 1-5

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Gal. 4: 4

Fragments on Matthew 27: 17-

Psalm 51, 2 Cor. 3 and 4.

Lecture - May 1872.

Romans 5: 1-11.

Titus 1: 3.

2 Corinthians 8 - 10.

2 Corinthians 8 - 10.

The Aaronic and Melchisedec Priesthood.

God's Delight in Blessing His People.

Ephesians 4, 5: 16.

Imitators of God

Ephesians 4: 20 - 5: 21.

Articles probably by J. N. Darby.

Explanation about the source of the text.

Present Testimony:

The Folly of trusting to Egypt for help

Isaiah 31: 1-3.

The Fold and the Flock

John 10: 1-30.

Remarks on Failure

Galatians

Concerning the Near Appearing

.

1 John 4: 1-6.

The Worthiness of the Lamb

Revelation 5.

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The Lord's Host

Ephesians 6: 10-18.

"Love is of God," and "God is love."

1 John 4: 7-21.

Magazine Fragments

"The Holy One of God."

Some Last Words

On the Coming of the Lord.

"Raised and seated together.

Ephesians 2.

Rest for the Weary.

Risen with Christ

Colossians  3.

The Thoughtfulness of Divine Love

1 John 4: 16.

Unselfishness.

"The Word became flesh."

John 1: 1-34.

Notes of a Lecture.

Colossians 2: 1-10.

A Letter on "The Praise of Men"

Note:

A Few Helpful Remarks For the Present Times

Passages in which each name occurs

JESUS CHRIST.

JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.

OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

LORD, OR THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

JESUS.

LORD, OR THE LORD JESUS, OR JESUS AS LORD.

JESUS OUR LORD.

OUR LORD JESUS.

THE ONE, JESUS CHRIST

JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED.

JESUS CHRIST THE FOUNDATION.

ONE LORD JESUS CHRIST

THE SON OF GOD, JESUS CHRIST.

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST SAVIOUR.

JESUS CHRIST LORD.

JESUS, OUR DELIVERER FROM THE COMING WRATH

JESUS CHRIST RAISED FROM AMONG (THE) DEAD OF (THE) SEED OF DAVID

OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

OUR GREAT GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR.

JESUS THE SON OF GOD.

JESUS MEDIATOR OF A NEW COVENANT.

OUR LORD JESUS THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP.

OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST (LORD) OF GLORY.

OUR GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

THE LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

HIS SON JESUS CHRIST.

HIS SON, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.

JESUS CHRIST HIS SON.

JESUS CHRIST (THE) RIGHTEOUS.

JESUS THE CHRIST.

THE ONLY MASTER AND OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

I JESUS

CHRIST JESUS

THE CHRIST JESUS.

CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.

CHRIST JESUS LORD.

CHRIST JESUS MY LORD.

THE CHRIST, JESUS THE LORD.

CHRIST JESUS OUR HOPE.

THE MEDIATOR OF GOD AND MAN ONE, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS.

CHRIST JESUS OUR SAVIOUR.

CHRIST.

Christ.]

THE CHRIST.

THE LORD CHRIST.

OUR LORD CHRIST.

CHRIST CRUCIFIED.

CHRIST, THE POWER OF GOD AND WISDOM

OF GOD.

(THE) FIRST-FRUITS CHRIST.

THE CHRIST, THE IMAGE OF GOD.

THE HEAD THE CHRIST.

CHRIST AS SON OVER HIS HOUSE.

HIS CHRIST

THE LORD, OR (THE) LORD.

LORD.

THE SAME LORD OF ALL.

THE LORD OF GLORY.

THE SAME LORD.

THE LORD OF PEACE.

THE LORD, THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE.

THE LORD AND SAVIOUR.

OUR LORD.

ONE LORD.

THEIR LORD, (OF THE WITNESSES.)

LORD OF LORDS.

SON OF GOD, OR GOD'S SON, OR THE SON, OR HIS SON, OR MY SON, OR SON.

HIS OWN SON.

THE SON OF HIS LOVE.

A SON PERFECTED FOR EVER.

SON OF MAN.

ONE LIKE THE SON OF MAN.

MY BELOVED SON.

HIS ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON.

THE SON OF THE FATHER.

THE SON OF GOD, HE THAT HAS HIS EYES AS A FLAME OF FIRE, AND HIS FEET ARE LIKE FINE BRASS.

THE SAVIOUR OF THE BODY.

OUR SAVIOUR GOD

SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD.

OVER ALL, GOD BLESSED FOR EVER.

THE TRUE GOD.

THE HEAD.

THE HEAD OF EVERY MAN.

HEAD OVER ALL THINGS TO THE ASSEMBLY.

HEAD OF THE ASSEMBLY.

THE HEAD OF THE BODY, THE ASSEMBLY.

THE HEAD OF ALL PRINCIPALITY AND

AUTHORITY.

HEAD OF THE CORNER.

THE MASTER.

THE FIRST-BORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN.

FIRST-BORN OF ALL CREATION.

THE FIRST-BORN FROM AMONG THE DEAD.

THE FIRST-BORN.

THIS FOUNDATION.

THE FOUNDATION.

FIRST-FRUIT.

FIRST-FRUITS OF THOSE FALLEN ASLEEP.

ONE MAN.

THE SECOND MAN.

THE WORD OF GOD.

THE WORD OF LIFE.

A MERCY-SEAT.

A SPIRITUAL ROCK.

THE ROCK

THE STUMBLING STONE.

A STONE OF STUMBLING.

SEED OF ABRAHAM.

THE SEED.

THE CORNER-STONE.

A LIVING STONE.

A CORNER-STONE ELECT, PRECIOUS.

THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS CAST AWAY AS WORTHLESS.

ROCK OF OFFENCE.

THE BEGINNING.

THE BEGINNING AND THE END.

HIM (THAT IS) FROM THE BEGINNING.

THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD.

A MINISTER OF THE CIRCUMCISION.

MINISTER OF THE HOLY PLACES AND OF

THE TRUE TABERNACLE.

MEDIATOR OF A BETTER COVENANT.

A MEDIATOR OF A NEW COVENANT.

THE BELOVED.

"THE DELIVERER."

THE ONE.

ONE THAT ARISES TO RULE OVER THE NATIONS.

ROOT OF JESSE.

THE ROOT OF DAVID.

THE OFFSPRING OF DAVID.

THE JUDGE

THE JUST.

THE SAME.

THE LIFE.

THE ETERNAL LIFE.

ETERNAL LIFE.

THE SHEPHERD OF YOUR SOULS.

THE CHIEF SHEPHERD.

A PATRON WITH THE FATHER.

THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS.

A PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS.

THE HEAVENLY ONE.

FORERUNNER.

A QUICKENING SPIRIT.

THE LAST ADAM.

HEIR OF ALL THINGS.

THE LEADER OF THEIR SALVATION.

A HIGH PRIEST.

A ONE HIGH PRIEST.

A GREAT HIGH PRIEST.

A MERCIFUL AND FAITHFUL HIGH PRIEST.

THE APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST OF OUR CONFESSION.

A HIGH PRIEST ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDEC.

A PRIEST FOR EVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDEC.

A DIFFERENT PRIEST ACCORDING TO THE SIMILITUDE OF MELCHISEDEC.

HIGH PRIEST OF GOOD THINGS TO COME.

A GREAT PRIEST OVER THE HOUSE OF GOD

THE EFFULGENCE OF HIS GLORY.

(THE) EXACT EXPRESSION OF HIS SUBSTANCE.

AUTHOR OF ETERNAL SALVATION.

A SURETY OF A BETTER COVENANT.

THE OVERSEER OF YOUR SOULS.

IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD.

THE FIRST AND THE LAST.

THE LIVING ONE.

KING OF KINGS.

THE PRINCE OF THE KINGS OF THE EARTH.

A MALE SON WHO SHALL SHEPHERD ALL THE NATIONS WITH AN IRON ROD.

THE MALE.

THE LION WHICH IS OF THE TRIBE OF JUDA.

HIM OR HE THAT SAT ON THE CLOUD.

THE MORNING STAR.

THE BRIGHT AND THE MORNING STAR.

HE THAT HOLDS THE SEVEN STARS IN HIS RIGHT HAND, WHO WALKS IN THE MIDST OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN LAMPS.

HE THAT HAS THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD AND THE SEVEN STARS.

HE THAT HAS THE SHARP TWO-EDGED SWORD.

HIM THAT (IS) TRUE.

HE THAT SAT ON THE THRONE.

THE FAITHFUL WITNESS.

THE FAITHFUL AND TRUE WITNESS.

FAITHFUL AND TRUE.

THE HOLY, THE TRUE, HE THAT HAS THE KEY OF DAVID, WHO OPENS AND NO ONE SHALL SHUT, AND SHUTS AND NO ONE SHALL OPEN.

A LAMB WITHOUT BLEMISH AND WITHOUT SPOT.

A LAMB.

THE LAMB.

THE SLAIN LAMB.

THE ALPHA AND OMEGA.

THE AMEN.

The Vail

(1.) THE VAIL ON MOSES FACE.

2 COR. 3

(2.) THE VAIL DONE AWAY IN CHRIST.

(3.) THE VAIL ON THE HEART OF ISRAEL.

Letter, 1 Timothy 4: 8

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Two Brief Quotes

Notes of Addresses

On the Baptism of Households

Beloved Children

Ephesians 4: 20 - 5: 2

The Cross.

The Character of the Ministry of the Gospel.

Christianity Mysterious

The Closing Days of Christendom

The Coming of the Lord.

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The Full Import of Conversion.

1 Thessalonians 1: 9, 10.

The Costliness and Blessed Self-hiding of the Love of Christ.

"Thou shalt surely rejoice."

Deut. 16: 1 - 15.

J. N. D.

Lettre de J. N. Darby

Forgivenesss and Salvation.

(J. N. D.)

Fragments

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A Reading on Galatians 2: 19-21.

Genesis 12

The Gospel without the Church.

The Heavenly One and the Heavenly Ones.

Faith, Hope, and Charity for an Evil Day.

Jude 20-25.

How the Lost Sheep was Found

Like Christ in Glory.

J. N. D.

Luke 12: 32.

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Redemption

The Mission of the Comforter.

John 14-16

The Name of the Lord.

A note on the Parables of the Treasure and the Net.

In the last three parables we have the mind of the Lord in what took place; and first, it seems to me, in contrast with Judaism. Judaism, and Israel itself, was no hidden treasure, no mystery of the kingdom. The Lord gave up nothing to have it. They were His known people and inheritance in the world. He came to His own, though His own received Him not. When He comes again, He will take them to have the world, not the world to have them. In no case has the Lord, it seems to me, taken the world to have the Jews.

The Patriarch Jacob

Gen. 32: 24-32; Gen. 35: 1-14.

Philippians 3.

Principles of Faithful Bible Translation

Letters on certain points in Romanism

1. Rule of Faith.

2. Romanism Infidel.

3. Transubstantiation.

J. N. D.

Notes of a lecture on Revelation 3: 7-13.

Time and Space

The Unity of the Spirit and the Word of God.

Righteousness without Grace.

Waiting and Watching

Luke 12: 13-44.

Worship -  Notes of a Reading.

John 4.

Mr Darby's footnote to 1 Cor. 8: 1 in the New Translation on ginosko & oida

Are the Newman Street teachers (Catholic Apostolic) sent of God?

Is there a re-application of the blood?

Unrevised notes of readings on the Gospel of John

John 1.

Notes - Spiritual Songs, Morrish edition, 1882.

* * * * *

Brief notes on the First Chapter of John

The Second Coming of Christ

Luke 12: 34-59.

Notes of Addresses.

THURSDAY MORNING.

THURSDAY EVENING.

FRIDAY EVENING.

SATURDAY MORNING. - READING MEETING.

Funeral of Augustus James Clarke, a 13 year old boy.

1 Thess. 2

The Call of Abraham

Genesis 12: 1-10.

The Christian Divinely Pictured.

John 12: 1, 2.

Nothing Like Him.

Note on the Chronological Dates

Collectanea:

Publisher's Note.

(1) THE HEAVENLY AND EARTHLY JERUSALEMS.

Notes of a Reading on Colossians 1 (1879)

What does the Coming of the Comforter mean?

The Lord's Departure

Luke 22: 1-38.

Deuteronomy 26

A Reading on Ephesians 1.

J. N. D.

Eternal Life

John 6

Evil Thoughts, unbidden and hated.

J. N. D.

God Manifested and Glorified.

John 17

God Speaking from Heaven

Hebrews 12: 18-29.

"God was in Christ."

2 Corinthians 5

Gospel Addresses

The Grace that is in Christ Jesus.

J. N. D.

On Haggai 2: 5-9

The Heavens Opened

Acts 7

On Hebrews 2

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"His praise shall continually be in my mouth."

Philippians 4

A Just God and a Saviour

John 8: 1-11.

John 17

The Cleansing of the Leper.

Leviticus 14: 10-20.

Extract from an Unpublished Letter.

Light, Love and Life

John 3.

"The Lord Himself shall descend."

A "Man in Christ" and the flesh.

2 Corinthians 12

Man's heart and Christ's Heart.

Luke: 23: 39-43.

Matthew 16: 13-28

New Creation

Col. 2: 1-15.

The Testimony of the Presence of God,

the power of assembling and journeying.

Numbers 10

The Failure of the Flesh

Numbers 11

The Nazarite

Numbers 6

Liberality of Heart

Numbers 7

Service

Numbers 8

Remembrance of Deliverance; and Guidance.

Numbers 9

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Obedience and Manifestation

John 14: 18-28.

The Object of Prophecy

On Eternal Life

J N D

Part with Christ

John 13: 1-17.

Peace, Grace, and Glory

Romans 5: 1-11

The Perfect Man

Luke 22: 39-46, 23: 33-49.

Power for Conflict

Joshua 3

The Spirit's Presence in the Church

The Presence of Christ and Spiritual Intelligence

The Present Effect of Waiting for Christ

WAITING.

Psalm 40: 1.

The Priestly Garments

Exodus 28

Spiritual Songs Hymnbook, Preface of 1881.

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Searched and Known

Psalm 139

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Self-Knowledge

Deuteronomy 8

(1878.)

Sins Blotted Out and Glory Seen

"Some better thing."

Sorrows and Triumphs

The Standing and State of the Believer

True Greatness

This is true greatness, to serve unnoticed and work unseen

The Temptation of Christ

Matthew 4: 1-12.

That I may

Christ

Philippians 3

Grace and Glory

Titus 2

Treasure in Earthen Vessels.

2 Corinthians 4

The True Grace of God wherein we stand.

1 Peter 5: 12.

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The Lord's Testing and Love

True Nazariteship

Luke 22: 14-30.

Two Brief Articles

Brief notes of a reading with J. N. D. on "The unity of the Spirit."

Utter Ruin - the ground of complete blessing

The Unsought Love of God

"We have known and believed the love that God hath to us"

The Service of Women

White as Snow

The blessings which Characterize Christianity

Treasure in Earthen Vessels

2 Corinthians 4

What Characterises the Christian and secures his blessing.

Romans 8.

What the World is; and how a Christian can live in it.

"What hath God wrought?"

Numbers 33: 23

"Where I am ye cannot come"

John 7

Unpublished letter, dated July 1850, and sent from France.

JND - Other

J. N. Darby

This document may be found online at www.stempublishing.com

You are welcome to freely access and use this material for personal study or sending to other Bible students, compiling extracts for notes etc, but please do not republish without permission.

With the prayerful desire that the Lord Jesus Christ will use this God-given ministry in this form for His glory and the blessing of many in these last days before His coming. © Les Hodgett (contact@stempublishing.com) (2011)

Canaan and the Armour of God

A Lecture, by J. N. Darby. - (Unrevised.)

<35011E> 179

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore; having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds; that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." (Ephesians 6: 10-20 )

It might seem strange at first sight that in this epistle, where there is the fullest unfoldings of the privileges of the children of God, conflict should be brought out; but we are often not aware of the character of the conflict from not knowing our privileges. Here it is found we are specially in conflict, and in a conflict that is neither known nor got into until we realize the privileges which this epistle specially unfolds.

In Galatians there is conflict, but it's a conflict between flesh and Spirit - the flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; but in Ephesians it is not flesh, but spiritual wickedness in high places. We have to overcome flesh, and there is a very close connection between these two conflicts, still they are distinct.

180 In Ephesians, it is a new creation; Christ has ascended up on high, "He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." So completely has He taken us out of the power of Satan that He can make us the vessels of His service. He has taken us out of the world, and then sent us into it, and if we thus stand associated with Christ, (which is the privilege of every Christian, though all do not realize it,) we must expect all the conflict associated with the place into which we are brought. In proportion as we realize that we are the vessels of heavenly service, we get this special character of conflict.

You cannot cross Jordan without finding the Canaanite and the Perizzite in the land. There are the trials and perils of the wilderness, which test our hearts, - all know more or less of the weary way testing our hearts and discovering what is in them, but wilderness experience is not the same as conflict in the land. When Joshua got into the place of the privileges of the people of God, he was in the place of conflict. God has set Christ as a Man in the glory, because He (as a Man) has perfectly glorified God as to sin. Christ has not only died for our sins, but we have died with Him, (dead with Christ is what Jordan is,) and we are raised up and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; thus associated, dead and risen, with Him, we are brought into the place where all the conflict is. It is most valuable and precious to get distinctly hold of this; many a Christian has not realized it; there is many a one still in Egypt, holding the value of the blood on the door-posts, but knowing nothing of the deliverance accomplished at the Red Sea. Israel had to stand still and see the salvation of God; this answers to the death and resurrection of Christ. I am out of Egypt: the judgment which fell on the Egyptians has saved me. God has raised up Christ and given Him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God. Just as every poor sinner has been driven out of the earthly paradise because sin is complete in the first Adam, so am I taken out of this world into the heavenly paradise in the Second Adam because righteousness is complete. God raising up Christ and giving Him glory proves that the question of sin has been all settled in Christ on the cross, and in virtue of this, He is sitting where He is, at the right hand of God. The passage through the wilderness is to humble and prove us; our perseverance is tested by God, leading us through the path in which Christ was found implicitly faithful. Israel went through that great and terrible wilderness where were the fiery serpents and scorpions and drought, where there was no water. God brought them water out of the rock of flint, fed them with the manna to humble them and prove them, to do them good at their latter end. They came to Jordan, they pass it, they get into the land, they eat the old corn, and the land is theirs.

182 In the wilderness and Canaan we get two characters of Christian experience, - one, the life down here; the other, the position in the heavenlies. We are not only a testimony to the world, but also to principalities and powers in the heavenlies. - "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God." He "hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places;" but though that is all true as to title, as to fact, the Canaanite and the Perizzite are still in the land to dispute the possession. We have our place in the power of the Spirit of God. Christ having gone before, our place is sure to faith; but the Canaanite is not yet destroyed - Christ's enemies are not yet put under His feet, so conflict characterizes the place of the Lord's redeemed people. When Joshua got into the land, he met a man with a drawn sword. Fighting was to characterize their possession of the land, and when Joshua asks, "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" the answer was, "Nay, but as Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come." They were the redeemed of the Lord  - the LORD'S host, - so completely the Lord's, that He uses them as His servants in conflict to subdue His enemies.

They must be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, and they cannot fight the Lord's battles if the flesh is at work. With an Achan in the camp there can be no victory, and therefore we must be practically dead to fight successfully; not merely reckoning ourselves dead, but be always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body.

183 Paul, as a servant, always carried with him the sense of this, not as a title merely, but "Paul" was kept completely down, always bearing about in his body the dying of Jesus; nothing of Paul appeared, it was Jesus only. As soon as they crossed the Jordan (Jordan is death and resurrection with Christ), they were circumcised - death is practically applied; and in like manner after they had crossed the Red Sea they had to drink of the bitter water - really the salt water; they had been saved by it, they must now drink it. "By these things men live, and in all these things is the life of the spirit."

As soon as we get in heavenly places we get the "old corn" - we find Christ there, we feed on Him; but we have to be circumcised, practically putting off the body of the flesh. Israel got into the land, and had to be circumcised; - their title they knew, but they had not taken the ground of being practically dead and risen (from Egypt). If a man is practically dead and risen, what has he to do with this world? A man dead, and thus taken out of the world, has to go through the world and live in it again if God so wills it. We have to run across the wilderness to glory. As one associated with the Lord, I am the witness and testimony to the world of what a heavenly Christ is. I am to be a follower of God, an imitator of God. I shall be seeking other souls to enjoy it with me. If we are endeavouring to serve the Lord, shall we not find hindrances? if seeking to maintain the Lord's people in the place of fidelity to all this, do you think Satan will let you alone? There will be the wiles of Satan to get saints into his power, and we have to withstand his stratagems, even more than his power.

184 Infidelity, superstition in its various forms, are opposed to us, consequently we need the whole armour of God the moment we come in. We shall not get through in our own strength, we need the strength of the Lord and the power of His might; we need the whole armour, not one piece must be wanting; the armour must be of God; human armour will not ward off the attacks of Satan; confidence in that armour will engage us in the combat to make us fall before an enemy stronger and more crafty than we. Let us see what this complete armour is.

"Stand, therefore; having your loins girt about with truth." This is the first thing, looking at what we call the subjective part. Our state comes first, and there is no divine activity until the heart is perfectly in order. The loins are the seat of strength when duly girt, but represent the intimate affections and movements of the heart. The figure is taken from the habits of the country where these instructions were given; they wore long garments, which hindered their working unless girded up. We get the expression in Job 38: 3, - "Gird up now thy loins like a man" - that is, to see what he had to say to God. It is the power of truth applied to every thing that takes place in the heart; it is not doctrine, but truth practically applied. The Lord said, "Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy Word is truth." God has sent into the midst of the world all that can judge man according to what God is. Christ is the centre of the Word; He was the light of the world; He revealed the thoughts of many hearts. He was here as a man, and revealed what God was, and the world was judged by it. He comes and brings all that is divine and heavenly in a man (Christ) in direct contact with all that is contrary to God in this world. Satan, as the god of this world, led man against Christ. Some fancy that he has ceased to be the god and prince of this world; but though the cross broke his title, it was not until the cross (where man openly ranged himself, under Satan, against God) that he became its prince. Truth came into the world - Christ Himself, the truth. The truth of God brought right to men's hearts discovers their thoughts and intents. Now, when I get this Word effectually applied to me, I get the girdle of truth.

185 When all that God has said in His Word, and the unseen realities He reveals, have their true force and application to my heart, my loins are girt, my garments are not dragging in the mire of this world, my thoughts are not wandering, and the condition of my heart is, so to speak, tucked up ready for service, whatever that may be. We do not get into this conflict until we get into this place. We get the conflict of the old man, but that is Egypt. In order to get the victory over Satan, and carry on the Lord's battles, I must realise my position according to the truth, just as Israel overcame by realizing the promises of God.

186 First thing of all, my heart must be completely tested and subjected to a heavenly word. The Lord said, "No man hath ascended up to heaven." Christ brings this heavenly truth before us and says, Does what is in your heart correspond with this? When this Word becomes a positive delight to us, we get the taste and appreciation of heavenly things - the things that are lovely and of good report - which He has brought to us. I get on the one hand judgment of all flesh in me, and on the other the blessedness of what Christ is. Wherever the loins are girt about with truth there will he confidence of heart, and the soul will be steadfast, there will be no turning back in the conflict to judge ourselves, our souls, so to speak, will be naturally with God, there will be occupation of heart with Christ, and there will be the Holy Ghost taking of the things which are Christ's and showing them to us.

The result of this girding of the loins is, that a man's condition is the effect of truth. It was Christ's condition; He was the truth, and my condition will be like Christ's in proportion as the truth is in effect on my heart, - the affections and heart right, I pass through the world in spirit with Him. "Stand, therefore; having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness." All this, mark, is practical righteousness with God; we do not want armour with God, we want it against Satan.

187 If I am an inconsistent man, going to serve God without the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left - without practical godliness, Satan will be sure to bring it up. In preaching, for instance, if your walk is not consistent, the world will say you are no better than they, and Satan will then have power against you. If you are walking according to Christ because your heart is according to Christ, you have the breastplate of righteousness; but unless a man has a good conscience, he will be a coward, and afraid of being detected. With a good conscience, we can go on boldly; the condition of the soul where Christ is revealed is truth, and the walk of the man is all right - there is nothing for Satan to lay hold of. The loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, I have then to see that my feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. I pass through the world with my feet shod. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace." In this path there is no selfishness; selfishness is for maintaining its rights, but that is not having my feet shod with peace. Self is subdued if I am following Christ. "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." Learning of Christ, he carries peace with him, the soul is at peace with God, the conscience at rest, his feet are shod with peace, and he carries through the world the Spirit and character of Christ.

188 He has on the breastplate of righteousness. What was the path of the blessed Lord? There was nothing in question as to His state. He went untouched with all that man could bring against Him; His feet were shod. So with him who follows Christ, he can bring out the Spirit and character of Christ wherever he goes. It may raise hatred, as it did with Christ; His perfect love brought out the hatred of man; but a subdued, godly, upright man will be a peaceful man in passing through the world, and although man may not speak peaceably to him, as much as lieth in him, he is to live peaceably with all men. Thus we get it in both aspects, - the path is characterized by the spirit of grace and peace, and there is righteousness and truth. The state of the heart first right, loins girt with truth, righteousness for a breastplate, and feet shod with peace, the soul subjectively right, I can then take up the shield of faith. Subjectively right, I have not to think of myself. A man walking with nothing on his conscience is free; if not walking right, he will be occupied with himself. The mere existence of an evil nature does not suppose a bad conscience, but yielding to it does. We are not told to confess sin, but sins; it is easy to confess sin - easy to say, "I am a poor sinful creature," but that generally is to excuse sins. I have failed to keep the flesh down. Of course I can never say I have no sin, but if I am not bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, practically dead, the flesh will surely play me false. We want these three first elements of the armour, and then we have not to think about ourselves. Practically in the light, as He is in the light, the heart right, I then get the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. This shield supposes I can look up with entire blessed confidence in God. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty; He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust; His truth shall be Thy shield and buckler; thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day."

189 God is above Satan. Satan may shoot his arrows, but they cannot break through the shield of faith. In Christ, the victory has been won in man and for man. Satan did his worst against Christ, first, to seduce and afterward to deter Him, but he was completely overcome. All the power of Satan is broken and gone. Christ has gone through death and annulled him who has the power of death. Christ has not only put away our sins, but as a man standing for us, He has completely overcome the devil. We are not told to overcome, but to "resist" the devil, and he will flee from us. If resisted, he meets Christ in us and runs away. Human nature cannot resist, it will acquiesce. It is not a question of power on our part, but of simple faithfulness and looking to Christ; it is not that we are strong, but strength is made perfect in weakness. What was ever so weak as Christ - Christ crucified through weakness? but then the weakness of God is stronger than men, and the foolishness of God is wiser than men. Nothing could be more weak and foolish in man's eyes than the cross, but we know, nevertheless, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Whenever we are content to own ourselves weak, there is the strength that enables us to overcome. Satan is very subtle. If Satan deals with man (apart from God), it is all over with him. How is it possible that wise and learned men of this world give way to such follies as ritualism and the like? Satan, more clever than they, is behind it all, and laughs to see them trusting their own wisdom. The simple soul that has his heart right cannot go wrong. Satan has no kind of power while the soul is walking in obedience, that is the secret of it all. If walking inconsistently, the shield of faith will be down, and I shall be open to all the fiery darts. There should be that blessed confidence in God which reckons on Christ having completely overcome the world and the devil, and that all the power of evil now in the world will soon be put down We are to be exercised in the conflict; the Lord has said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

190 We have as yet no activities brought out, - so far, it is defensive. The defensive armour comes first. We are slow to understand this, and we often get into activities when we ought to be quiet. The shield is defensive. Satan is active. The Lord may bless and help us, in His grace, but there is many a one got into activities without knowing themselves. The helmet of salvation is still defensive; we have the conscious, blessed, and full certainty of being in heavenly places in Christ - the soul walking in the full confidence that I have Christ there, who has delivered me out of the power of the devil. Christ has fought my battle and overcome. I can hold my head up, because I have got salvation. The blessed certainty that I am in Christ and Christ is for me is my helmet. I can now be active. Having judged the flesh, godly in walk, peaceful in my path through the world, with confidence in God, and salvation assured, I can take up the sword of the Spirit, - I can fight, sheltered in the inner man, and shielded from all attacks from without. I take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We do not always look to see that it is so - that there's nothing between God and our souls, so that He is practically with us in the conflict. Are we walking in the practical sense of God being with us? If there is an Achan in the camp, as there was with Israel, God will not go up. It is of all-importance we should be clear as to this. Paul kept under his body, and brought it into subjection. If we are to be active in the service of the Lord, we must go out from the presence of the Lord according to what His presence gives. Paul said, "Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and men." Always self-judgment, always keeping close to God, and then you can go out in service to others; not always, perhaps, in public ministry, but in the path of every-day life.

192 You will have the secret of the Lord with you, the consciousness of God with you, clearness of judgment, and not distracted or dismayed by half a dozen thoughts. You have the secret of the Lord; going on quietly, it may be, but going on with God. Then comes, no matter how active I may be, the inward preparation, - "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." We have had the inward affections and the sword of the Spirit, but now it is entire dependence - the Word of God and prayer. These two things are found running together through Scripture: the Word of God and prayer. Mary sat at the Lord's feet and heard His word. The Lord said, "Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." In the next verses, the Lord teaches His disciples to pray. When the apostles chose deacons, the reason assigned is, that they might give themselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word. When there is to be service carried on against the wiles of the devil, half the battle is to be fought out in God's presence beforehand in prayer. When the prince of this world came to the Lord in the garden of Gethsemane, he found Him agonizing in prayer. Peter slept while the Lord prayed: the result was, that Peter denied Him, but the blessed Lord witnessed a good confession.

Nothing can, nor ever will, take the place of that earnestness in prayer: if we are to have God with us, we must pray. It is marked by perfect calmness. If we have God with us, we must be with God, who is sovereign in love and goodness, and has associated us with His own interests. Does not my heart yearn after the conversion of poor sinners? do I not pray that hearts may know more of Christ? that saints may walk more faithfully? God desires this, and He has given us a path in the world associated with His interests. There is to be perseverance and supplication for all saints. If I see a soul in danger of going astray, I go with all perseverance and supplication to God about him: my heart is in it.

193 The very same word used of the Lord in Gethsemane is used of Epaphras, who laboured fervently in prayer. It is conflict of heart. He craves the blessing of God with all his heart - craving for it earnestly, and entering into it because it is in the interests of God in the world. This has to be carried on in opposition to Satan, who will bring all his craft and power against us. We have consequently to be with God. What a blessed thing to know that I get power and wisdom from God, grace and wisdom in practice! If I use a sword, I must get wisdom for it. What a place of blessing it would be if we were all practically with God!

For our own souls it is so helpful, because prayer is the expression of entire dependence, but at the same time, confidence in God. A person like Paul, in weakness and trembling, fightings without and fears within, going about getting victories! He says to the Corinthians, "I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling." It is always good to be conscious of weakness provided there is faith in God. Constant dependence is the constant expression of faith in God; the soul goes to God with God's affairs; we realize how much they are our own. The blessed Lord has gone down into the dust of death. Satan's power was exercised to the fullest, but it was all broken. He comes up again and sits at the right hand of God, takes His people, whom He has completely delivered from the hand of Satan, and uses them for conflict against him - the instruments of His service in the world. A wondrously blessed place if we only knew how to hold it, - blessed to be made the Lord's host against Satan. The more you are in the forefront of the battle, the more you will be exposed to the fiery darts. The more you bear testimony to God's thoughts, God's mind, the place the saints have in God's mind, the more you will be the object of Satan's attacks. You will necessarily be exposed to more snares and dangers than those who lag behind, and there is no place where dependence is more needed and felt.

194 There is more strength provided for those in the forefront to bear witness to Christ's title against Satan, and Satan will never let it pass without opposition. When I have all the armour on, and come to wield the sword, I am not to be thinking of the armour, but of God and His purposes, "watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." Oh how little we know of this! Supposing we pass through a day, was all that happened turned into prayer? If I am walking maintaining Christ's cause, it all turns to prayer. It is a wondrous test of the state of our souls. Do you find you can intercede much for others? Do you find earnestness in intercession for all saints? Is my heart so in the interests of Christ that I can have a lasting and continual interest for others? If my heart is in a bad state, and the presence of God is revealed to me, I think of myself - I am not free to intercede for others. "And for me also," says the apostle, "that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, . . . as I ought to speak." How is it with us, beloved friends? It is an amazing blessing to be doing this, but we cannot if our own souls are not right - if I am not in the presence of God. As far only as I keep on this armour, I am useful: all is founded on being in a settled place before God. The blood on the door-post, the Red Sea crossed, Jordan passed, circumcised, and the reproach of Egypt rolled away, - then comes conflict in the land: all is founded on redemption.

195 Be assured we shall meet the wiles of Satan. Our own state and conscience are easily detected if our hearts are simple in the truth. It is not that we are to be learning Satan's wiles, but if our hearts are simple, we shall be more than a match for him. Satan is a good deal cleverer than we are, and wherever redemption is not fully known, there Satan plays his tricks. The moment that redemption is really believed in, all the systems of superstition, so prevalent in the world, are gone. You may have old things lingering, but you will never find a person under the power of superstition who has the consciousness in himself that Christ has died and suffered for him. We see wise and learned men going away to ritualism, and the devil behind it all, but the moment redemption is really known, the devil's power is gone. The system of ritualism proceeds on the footing that Christ can have to say to man in the flesh that he is not lost and dead in his sins, and consequently a complete and accomplished redemption is denied. The moment I have my soul established in Christ, this snare of the devil will not prevail. A man may know the truth of the incarnation, and may speak more beautifully of the person of the Lord than even Christians, but all the time ignorant of redemption. I have the witness of Christ in me; I know Christ. They may try to persuade me that Christ is such and such, but I know Him; I have got Him; He is dwelling in my heart, so that I am not to be turned by such follies as ritualism and the like. The Lord keep us in a constant sense of dependence, in a sense of what He is, dependent on Him every moment, that we may never get out of the presence of God, for when we are out of His presence there is danger.

Colossians 1

J. N. Darby.

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What characterises this epistle, is, that we are looked at as risen - dead and risen - but not yet seated in heavenly places, it is not the Holy Ghost revealing our place in heaven, but we walking as risen men in the world looking for it.

In different epistles we get various aspects of the Christian. In Ephesians we are seated in the heavenlies; in Romans alive in the world; here we are risen, but not in glory. We get here, more fully than elsewhere, life unfolded, your life is in Christ, in God. Then you should walk according to that. He puts us to run the race.

People get confused by connecting these "if's" with redemption. "Christ in you the hope of glory"  - in you, Gentiles - is an entirely new thought, a thing never heard of before; it is that side of the mystery that is revealed here - not Christ come in glory to take up His people, but Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Verse 8 is the one place where "Spirit" is named in this Epistle.

Verse 10. He puts the walk first, not merely avoiding wickedness (a natural man might do that), but filled with the knowledge of His will. Christ left the traces of His path in the wilderness. In the ordering of Israel, the tabernacle was in the midst of the camp, and they were to march in the same order as they encamped; but when they wanted to find a way through the wilderness, the ark leaving the prescribed place, that was the centre, went before them, it was grace.

198 It is remarkable that there is no direction as to the walk, but filled with the knowledge of His will; are you that?

How often we do not know if we are right, even when we desire it.

Seeing the path through the wilderness tests the state. The vulture's eye hath not seen it. If we are to walk worthy of the Lord, we must be filled with the knowledge of His will. Men ought to read "Christ in you," as distinctly as the ten commandments on the tables of stone.

This is the apostle's comparison, not mine. We shall be perfectly like Christ in glory, and the eye is directed to that now. As though He said, I am going away, and I cannot be glorified in my own Person down here, but I should be in you. You are called to walk worthy of the Lord.

The first thing that struck me when I began to think seriously was, that Christ never did anything for Himself. He ought to govern our hearts, our motives, everything.

He was never weary of doing good - as a Man He sat weary at the well, yet ready to speak to a poor woman. He had come down so low as to be dependent on her for a drink of water. We should walk here, having Christ before the heart, governing us, as the only motive.

He was at all times, and in every case, governed by divine principles - sensible to everything around Him, but never governed by what was around Him; always by what was divine. We should always be governed by Him.

199 He was at all times the expression of divine perfectness.

"Christ is all, and in all," not "all in all;" that is never said of Christ, God is all in all.

Our calling is to walk worthy of the Lord: we are in this place, epistles of Christ. I am called to walk through this world to express Christ.

Three ways in which we are told to walk worthy - of "God," of "the Lord," of "the vocation."

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

It is the spiritual state that discerns what is "worthy" of the Lord.

Verse 11. "Strengthened," etc. There is no doing without patience in the difficulties; you would expect it was to do something great - no, to be patient.

200 There is no will when I am patient. You will find when you fail through the day, it is patience has failed. We get wisdom to shew what the path is, strength to walk in it - not strength to overcome, but strength to endure. "Rejoice in the Lord always." If my will is at work, I am sure to get vexed with something.

We do not read, "Resist the devil, and you will overcome him," but resist, and he will flee from you; he knows he has met Christ, for flesh would not resist him.

Verse 12. Now he comes to what set him in the path. I am fit for heaven, made meet; I cannot look up to God without having the consciousness, I am fit to be there in light. An exercised heart looks at Christ.

The thief was fit to go to heaven; he confessed the Lord when the disciples were afraid to do it. He says, "Lord," and cared for nothing, though he was in agony, but "Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom" - and it is an ugly place to be remembered, as a thief on a gibbet.

The Lord will not remember him only - "this day shalt thou be with me in paradise." He was fit to go - to be the Lord's companion from the gibbet.

Do you believe that Christ by His work has made you fit? I do not ask if you have accepted it - God has; and you should be only too glad to have it.

201 He gave His Son in love, and accepted Him in righteousness; and the thing that gives me peace is what God thinks of it.

We are delivered from Satan's power. "Resist him, and he will flee from you." Christ has broken his power - I am delivered from the power of darkness - but that did not content God; He has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. We have got a positive place, the kingdom of the Son of His love, not of light, though it is that.

He has many attributes - He is holy, just, righteous; but there are two names given as what He is, "light" and "love," and we get the love as well as the light.

He is not content to say you have light, but you have love too.

Then He speaks of the fulness of the Person of Christ, but I cannot go into it all here.

Verse 16. I get blessed revelations brought close down to me. You must not suppose that we do not know Him because He is not present, for we know Him a great deal better, because we have the Spirit. I am not a stranger before God, for I know Him, and as my Father - if you get that, you get everything.

202 I have met God, I know what He is; and He is all love to me.

It is the full revelation of God to my soul.

In John 4 had Christ a hard word for the poor woman? Has He one for me? No; He would have given the living water - I have got it - He is all love to me; it makes me feel what a poor creature I am, these blessed revelations.

1 John 4: 15. We have the consciousness that He is with us. If I make my abode with the Father and the Son up there, they will make their abode with me down here. One has a consciousness that He is with us - in us. He goes on revealing Himself to us. The time is coming when Christ will take to Him His great power, then I get glory.

His first coming did not bring the world into order: at His second everything will be brought into order, both in earth and heaven.

Look at the earth now - oppression, wars, &c. That was how Christ found the world; and He was a man of sorrows in it.

As to heaven, we read of angels that sinned and were cast out, and we never hear of them again. Do you think Christ, when He comes, will allow such things? Not for a moment.

The thing that should characterise us, is going against the stream. I know God is infinite love, He gave His Son for me, He will reconcile all things; but you hath He reconciled. It is never said God is reconciled to us. God's love was the spring of it all.

203 I joy in God, instead of hiding myself like Adam. You are brought now to enjoy His love. "Herein is love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment."

I cannot realise this wonderful love of God without loving Him.

It is the sense of its mother's love that makes the child obedient. I am reconciled, I am fit to be in the light. There is no "if" in what has gone before; perfect love accomplished all, "by one offering." The word "for ever" means uninterruptedly. The "if" never comes in as to redemption, the thief goes straight to heaven.

In the wilderness we are tested - you must set out for Canaan or you will not get there. We have the journey to take where the dangers are, and there we are thrown on the faithfulness of God, to keep us, and that is dependence.

The danger is real, but the care is faithful - it is constant dependence; but He has to keep me, every moment. "No man shall pluck them out of my hand;" but why does He say so, if there is no danger. Satan would like to do it. "Pluck them" (John 10: 28) is the same word as "catcheth." (v. 12.) The wolf catcheth the sheep.

204 In 1 Corinthians 1: 8, after having said, "who shall also confirm you to the end blameless," he begins to blame them for every single thing. They had more gift than grace, these poor Corinthians.

Christ is in heaven because my sins are gone; but when I come to my path, there is not an instant I am not dependent on His faithfulness; every instant of every day, I need to be in dependence on Him, and as to my sins if they are not perfectly put away now, it can never be done. "He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous." God had been considering Job, and it is He who directs Satan's attention to Job, but He forces Satan to own that Job was no hypocrite. He withdraweth not His eyes for one instant.

Do you believe, beloved friends, that God sees everything - a constant, unceasing care over us every moment?

It is not a question of my walk, but of the unchanging faithfulness of the living Lord. He never takes His eye off us, and if ours are always on Him, He will guide us with His eye.

"As he is, so are we in this world." I do not see any presumption in believing what God says, though it is most wonderful, blessed too.

Look at Israel, they were going on wretchedly - "a stiff-necked people" - but what do I hear from the mountain-tops? "I have not seen iniquity in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel."

205 No encouragement, beloved friends, to carelessness. But is it not encouragement to lean on the Beloved?

We are strengthened, but we need it, and have to walk in the sense of our need of it.

The Lord give us, beloved friends, the full blessed consciousness of the full efficacy of the work of Christ.

Notes of a Private Conversation.

J. N. Darby.

<35013E>

Q. Should it be, "Since ye then are risen with Christ"?

A. Yes.

Q. It does not mean any doubt, does it?

A. No; just as I should say to you, if you are a Scotchman, I hope you will honour your country.

Peter is afraid to walk on the water when he saw the storm, but had it been smooth he could not have walked any better.

To me it is a wonderful thing, far more wonderful than the glory, that the Father loves me as He loves Jesus. The Lord was constantly labouring to persuade the disciples, that they were loved as He Himself was loved. The tribute money was an instance of this. People think it was tribute to Caesar - it was the tribute for the temple. They ask Peter, Is your Master a good Jew? "Oh, yes," says Peter - he was always ready to say something, you know; but we find the Lord is beforehand with Peter. He asks, "Of whom do the kings of the earth take tribute?" We are the children of the great king of the temple. Then He says, Take the fish that first comes up, you will find in it two didrachmi, that take and give unto them for me and for thee.

206 What amazing condescension, to put Peter along with Himself!

Q. Is chastening always on account of evil?

A. No; it is often to prevent evil. Paul had a thorn in the flesh to prevent evil.

I feel sure christian life is not what it ought to be. It will be seen in the end there was nothing else worth living for but Christ.

The Lord takes care of people. The Lord's work goes on in spite of all; man's thoughts and ways cross each other, but the Lord goes through all.

Q. What does that mean, the devil disputing about the body of Moses, in Jude?

A. Well, I suppose it was lest it should prove an object of superstition to the Jews, like the brazen serpent. We do not find that in the word, it is just my mind about it. The Jews might have made pilgrimages to it. The Lord buried him, and "no man," etc.

207 It is impossible for a man to understand God; we are so constituted, that when we see things, we at once see that some one made it. Tell a man in the country that nobody made his wagon, he would look out an asylum for you. We know there is a cause for everything, we cannot understand anything to exist that was not made. It is impossible for us to know God, we are only finite, He is infinite. If I can know God, He is not God, and I am not a man.

Q. What does that mean, that the disciples should not go over the cities of Judah till the Son of man come?

A. They have not gone over them yet. They were prevented by judgment.

The destruction of Jerusalem, you know, came in.

The Epistle to the Philippians

J. N. Darby.

<35014E> 209

In Philippians we get the experience of the Christian, but no allusion to sin. All the out-goings of the heart - Christ. There is no "if" as to being in Christ, but plenty of "ifs" the moment we get Christ in us. Caleb and Joshua were sustained as examples of the power of faith in the wilderness; that is Philippians, God sustaining in grace where there was only weakness. The wilderness is the production of Christ's life in the circumstances of this life. Canaan is the power of Christ introducing us into spiritual conflict with the power of Satan. Holiness is as needed for one as the other, for the words said to Moses at the bush are repeated to Joshua in the Land (cf. Ex. 3: 5, and Joshua 5: 15).

The epistle to the Philippians is a pattern of christian experience as it ought to be: the power of the Spirit of God leading in the path of God amid the manifold trials of the path - heavy trials of Christians getting on badly - all seeking their own. But faith cannot be hindered by circumstances in its link with God, nor, therefore, in thoughtful service for men, suited though it might be to the need around. The character of Christ, giving up self, is just what is needed for this.

Philippians 3, presents the energy of divine life connected with a Christ gone up as Man on high. Philippians 2, presents what forms our character down here - Christ came down. The two together give us the display of divine life in us. In one, Paul is on the way to glory and all else is dross and dung - there is no difficulty in giving that up. I may have a very good cloak in a race, but if I want to run I throw it off. What I get in the other gives me Christ as the object, imparting the mind of Christ, giving up self. If not given up - judged and got rid of - it impedes. The grace without the energy would be human sentiment; the energy without the grace would be stoicism.

210 The terms of the exhortation in Philippians 2: 14-16, tell us that what Christ was, we are to be. It is the power in the midst of the reign of evil. It is not the reign of good now. The failure of man was always uniform and immediate, but no failure can break the link of faith with the power of God. The darkest circumstances brighten the light; a candle is nothing in the day, it is seen for miles in the night. Dark times become the times for the manifestation of faith.

It is a great thing to have the right thing, but it is blessed and needed to have the mind of God to carry out the right. Now, if self is at work, this is hindered. See the Apostle's grace in Philippians 2: 1 and 2, the mind of Christ is the perfect model of this. Does our energy take the form of a servant? It may be of faith, and with a true heart, but does it take the place of service?

The blessedness in glory is not simply blessedness, but Christ ministering to it. By abiding in Him we get His mind - self nowhere. The man that is walking in Christ is occupied with Him, and sees Christ in his brother, and all the ugliness of self in himself, so he finds it easy to esteem each better than himself. Just because of love the parent sees all the good qualities of his child. The power of good in the midst of evil is learnt in the coming down of Christ from the glory to the cross.

211 Mark another character of the life - obedience (Phil. 2: 8). There is nothing so humble and unselfish as obedience, because self does not work at all. The Word forms this: we live by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. There is no truth in the world, but in the Word of God. Christian obedience is not being stopped in a will of our own, but in having no will - God in His Word guiding the new nature.

Philippians 2: 12. The contrast is between Paul's work and Gods work in the Christian. No deprivation of Apostolic power will stop obedience by God's working in us - only then there is called for more earnestness and seriousness, for Paul was a mighty warrior.

Salvation is the result in glory. Salvation is never looked at as simple redemption, but as the result in glory and blessing. We are subjects of the conflict between God and Satan. What a serious position! Which would you like, Christ's place, i.e., no place; or honour and position in the world?

Verses 15 and 16 describe exactly what Christ was - that is the Christian.

The Epistle to the Philippians

J. N. Darby.

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Philippians 1

In the Epistle to the Philippians there is not much doctrine, but Christian experience as it ought to be - in the power of the Spirit of God - as it was in fact in Paul's case. You never get the working of the flesh or the word sin in the Epistle, but the operation of the Spirit of God leading the saint to walk in the Spirit. All through it is the working of the Spirit in varied aspects of Christian life.

Philippians 1. The general character of Christian life in the presence of life and death.

Philippians 2. The likeness to Christ in graciousness of walk.

Philippians 3. The energy of Christian life that carries Paul through circumstances.

Philippians 4. The entire superiority to all circumstances. Paul had a thorn in the flesh at the very time; so it was not absence of flesh, but walking in the power of the Spirit.

Verse 1. Office was local, not so gift. Order is gone and it is a mercy it is, in one sense, because else I should have to recognize the clergy and all the corruption. Man always spoils at the outset what God sets up. All will be set up in Christ, the second Man, that failed in the first, in all its various forms and shapes.

213 Verse 6. Personal dependence on the Lord to carry on the work.

Verses 9-11. Paul was not content merely that the Philippians should do no wrong, but that they should have spiritual discernment as to the best thing to do, namely to glorify Christ. The fruit of righteousness is the expression of the life of Christ, not merely the natural consequences of the life but its manifestation. The day of Christ brings Christ more personally before us than the day of the Lord.

Verse 18. You find things that are done in the spirit of evil that you can rejoice in, though you cannot go with them (cf. Luke 9: 49).

Verse 19. Nothing is looked at as accomplished in the Epistle. All our blessings in Christ are looked at as at the end. Paul looks at the Christian as running the race, therefore it is not doctrine. I have eternal life, but it is looked at as the end. Satan seems to have got the victory as to the Apostle, but he says "this shall turn to my salvation." I have got righteousness but it is not displayed except in glory. The consequence of Israel being delivered from Egypt was that it brought them into the wilderness. There I am dependent but have the comfort of God's faithfulness. I am held in infallible safety, but have to be held - kept by the power of God, but need to be kept, and would not come to a good end if I were not. I need grace every minute, though not more safe when in heaven. For the race you find the "ifs." He will perfect, but He needs to perfect and I to be perfected - a constant action on the part of God. So Israel in Deuteronomy 8. God was not uncertain what He was about, but putting them into and through all the exercises, and when they came to the end they found that God had been thinking of everything for them. They had not been thinking of it by the way, but it was all "to do thee good at thy latter end."

214 Verse 28. Satan in the darkness and opposition to the truth. We are apt to be cowed by the power of evil. Where there is boldness it is the ruin of the adversaries; they have got in collision with the power of God, not of poor man. It is a question between God and Satan. The instruments of Satan are cowed (cf. Joshua 2: 9-24). The man four years in prison, chained to a soldier, encourages those who were not in prison. It is not when the trial is there that we suffer the most, where there is faith; but when we are expecting and looking at it: when in it we look out of it at God. If we do not lean on God the enemy can have his own way and run after us.

Philippians 2.

Chapters 2 and 3, present the two sides of Christian life. The graciousness that makes me thoughtful of others, and the energy that enables me to run on through the world without caring for it. In one Christ is presented as coming down and you are to come down like Him, in the other Christ is gone up and I am to go up after Him.

Verse 3. This is not possible if I look at the bare hard fact, but quite possible in Christ. I see the flesh in myself and Christ in my brother. Compare 1 Corinthians 1: 4-9 with the rest of the Epistle: He begins to blame them for everything, but he sees all the good first, and rests in the good, and then blames them, without vexation, in love. It is a great test of nearness to Christ. It needs to live with Him and learn oneself there. The flesh mixes itself up with so much of our judgment of evil, and we get vexed with it. Self jostles against another man's self. Now if I think of what Christ thinks of that person all this is put down. Near Christ there is lowliness of heart and we see our own wretchedness and good-for-nothingness. "Things of others" are things which God has given.

215 Verses 6-9. The last Adam is presented in contrast with the first. Adam set up by robbery to be as God. He who was in the form of God humbled Himself down to death below the creature. Adam exalted himself and is abased. Christ humbled Himself and is exalted. Satan's temptation was, "If thou be the Son of God command." "No," he says, "I will not keep out of the place of service, I came to obey." He left the glory as to state not as to nature.

Verse 12, 13. "Your own salvation" is often quoted as if it was in contrast with God's, but it is in contrast with Paul. Paul worked for you, God works in you. The path of obedience is that in which salvation is wrought. God works in them the willing and the doing.

Verses 14-16. The effect is the life of Christ completely expressed. Every member of the sentence is just what Christ was in the world.

Verse 17. Paul looks at himself as the libation. They were the main thing, he only poured out on them - his death the accompaniment of the sacrifice. (cf. for the sacrifice Rom. 15: 16). The great thing was that Christ should have His people; if Paul suffered for it, it was all right.

There is no hardness in the Christian or in Christ. When it is the service of God and faithfulness we must not regard father or mother. The Lord sent His mother away whenever she came to Him in His service. It is not the destruction of natural affection, but superiority of Christ - God coming in or else it is idolatry. If I get honey when I am fighting the Philistines it lightens the eyes. I get refreshment by the way, but I cannot put honey in the sacrifice. The moment it becomes an object it is not allowed.

216 Verse 29. "Receive him . . . in the Lord. It brings in Christ, into the kindly relationships. You do not get this in the Old Testament - divine life brought into the circumstances of human life.

Philippians 3

What is called holiness is generally righteousness. For acceptance righteousness is wanted, not holiness. Righteousness looks at meeting every claim of the relationships in which we are. Holiness is the activity of the nature in its own delights, or the abhorrence of evil. There is the new nature in us, but no nature can exist without an object. Our own righteousness and law go together, the righteousness of God and faith. The two parts of righteousness are, first Christ died to clear away my sins (Rom. 3-5); second, that in which God has His glory (Rom. 8). The position is never fully brought out until the first man is cleared away; then I find myself in the Second before God. In Corinthians the aspect of righteousness is higher than in Romans because more connected with the counsels of God. What Paul looks for, as an object, is what forms him now. If we were risen what would trouble be? He is looking for a condition in which he will have done with the whole thing. Instead of suffering being a terror to him, it was only making him more like Christ. You could not kill a dead man (2 Cor. 1: 9). He would be nearer being raised from the dead when he was dead than when alive. Christ's resurrection had set aside the power of death. Verse 10 presents power along the road; verse 11, future resurrection. The power is not the object. It is present attainment by future resurrection - a thing already accomplished in Christ. It is resurrection from among the dead: there is no attainment at all in the resurrection of the dead. The resurrection from among the dead is the resurrection of those in whom God has the same delight as He has in Christ - it is the expression of it. That they without us should not be made perfect proves that the Old Testament saints are included in it (Heb. 11: 40).

217 Two things Paul was running after, to be with Christ, and to be like Christ.

There are three classes in the chapter. First the perfect Christian who is not stopping short of being raised like Christ in glory. Second, real Christians but in the imperfect state of not having got hold of this. They rest in the work of Christ, they love Him, but have not got the power of the calling on high. Third, those who bear the name of Christ but are not His at all.

Philippians 4

The last chapter presents superiority to circumstances and the Lord proved sufficient.

Verse 6. The request might be foolish. The answer is not promised, but the peace that God is in to keep our hearts. Nothing disturbs the throne of God. Thus free my heart can be occupied with what suits God - the bright and blessed things of His own presence.

Philippians 2

J. N. Darby.

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We get here how the Lord humbled Himself, and associated us with Himself according to the counsels of God.

The Deity of the Lord Jesus is the basis of everything for our souls. Without it God could not be known to us. Who could leave His place but a Divine Person? I say that because I desire this evening to speak of His humanity, that brings Him specially near to our souls, and enables Him to associate us with Himself. It is His human place I speak of. It inspires our hearts with confidence. "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" that is the reality of humanity. "Though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered (Heb. 5: 8). He understands it all as having gone through it. He never gives up the place in which He has associated us with Himself. He has set Himself apart in the glory that all that is divine may be presented to us in a Man - in Christ - and thus win the affections. He never gives it up nor will give it up.

There are several other passages to which I desire to refer, to show the reality of His having become a Man. But first I refer to verses 12 and 13, because they present a difficulty to some. "Work out your own salvation" is often taken as contracting our work with God's. It is a simple blunder. They had lost the Apostle, now they must do for themselves. If they had lost Paul, had they lost God? No: that is just what they had not. It is our part in contrast with Paul's, not in contrast with God. The effect is to produce in Christians exactly the character of Christ. Verses 14 to 16 are word for word a description of what Christ was in this world. We are set to be practically what Christ was in it.

219 Now I turn to speak of the humiliation. Just by meditating on what He is we become like Him. The great starting point of all this wonderful truth is Proverbs 8, where Christ is spoken of as the wisdom and power of God before the world was. Before ever the world existed it was man, not angels, that was His delight and the object of the testimony of His grace in redemption. The delight - predilection of God (speaking reverently) - was in man.

All that God is morally has been brought out in redemption - holiness, majesty, love. "It became God . . . to make the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings. Now that was first expressed in incarnation. The redemption work was necessary to bring us into the enjoyment of it. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." Perfect love was there in the presence of perfect evil - that which is not in heaven. There is no evil to bring out patience there. We can therefore follow Him step by step and learn God: thus only angels can see Him. There is spiritual power by grace to contemplate and feed upon it. God prepares the body for Him, and He says, in free love, "Lo I come to do Thy will O God."

Now I turn to Luke 2. It is sweet to see the perfect unjealous glorifying of God in these angelic and holy beings. All Christian doctrines are facts, so that the simplest can understand better than the wisest because he does not reason about it. "Glory to God in the highest, peace upon earth, good pleasure in man." Heaven itself is celebrating this wonderful thing that is proved by Christ becoming a Man. If you go to an inn it is a kind of epitome of the world: they look at you, scan you, and assign you your place. There was no place for Christ. He began in the manger and finished on the Cross, and had nowhere to lay His head all the way along. The moment He takes that place, man can deal with God so to speak, and refuse Him any place. In the end of the chapter the Lord was in perfect submission - Son of God - but entirely subject. He does nothing at all until called out - what a lesson for us (verse 51).

220 In Matthew 3 we see Him take this public place. He was that "Holy thing born of the virgin Mary, called the Son of God. God was changing everything, bringing God and man face to face. It was not a law to see how man could stand before Him at a future day of judgment, but God come to man as he is. God comes as a present thing in the heart and conscience. God and man are thus face to face whenever a soul is converted. Just as I am God meets me - perfect light showing me what I am - and then all perfectly settled. And it is perfect grace.

It is no question of the law here - they were condemned already. The kingdom was going to be set up, and the people go to be baptized of John in Jordan confessing their sins. "Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him." He needed no repentance. I trust I need not say that here, yet He does go there doing His Father's will. "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." He enters by the door taking His place among those in whose hearts God's Spirit and Word had wrought. At the first step He says, I must go with them. Then man is put into his proper place. I am speaking of Christ now. Redemption was needed to put us into it. The way it was shown that His delight was with the sons of men, was by His Son going there. The Lord came thus among these godly ones, and heaven is opened. Four times we find heaven opened. Here He comes among these poor things, who, when God came claiming good, had only the confession of none. The Father owns Him as Son, and the Holy Ghost seals and anoints Him. It is a wonderful passage bringing out the whole Trinity. The Son is there. The Holy Ghost descends upon Him in the form of a dove. The Father's voice is heard; and all brought out in connection with the Son become a Man, taking man's place according to the thoughts of God's delight. Redemption was needed to put us into it. By it He can say, I have brought you into my own place.

221 I get the sweet and blessed truth there of His coming there as Man, taking man's place according to God. What is the next step? We have first His place, ours with the Father and God. Is there no other place? In the world I mean? Yes: with the devil. Perfect obedience has brought Him where sin brought us (Matt. 4: 1). We have to do with Satan, Christ makes our place: as to all the difficulties of our path, He puts Himself into them and passes through them "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." He meets Satan as we have to meet him, only Satan is overcome now. The first two temptations are the wiles of Satan, the third is open iniquity. Let me say a few words on the details. There is no harm in taking food when hungry: but Satan comes to tempt Him to command. He says I came to obey. That is the obedience we are sanctified to. Did He have His own will and God stop Him in it? Never! Here when everything depended on it - when He was in all the sorrows of the wilderness - for the Son of God a single word was sufficient, and for the devil too. The power and authority of the Word of God was shewn when everything depended upon it. There is another thing, confidence in order to obey. That was where Eve failed. "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Tempting is distrusting Him; people say it is when you are trusting Him too much! There is entire confidence to enable me to do His will. The last thing was the world (verse 8). The devil shews Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. Alas, a little thing often turns off our hearts. He makes our place with the Father, and gives us next the power of our path with Satan, and in the world, serving us as love delights to serve (selfishness wants to be served). You might say that is all over now that He is in glory. John 13 shews us the contrary. He had been with them in gracious love and condescension, He is going back, as the unsullied One, to the Father getting all things into His hands, but do not think He has given up serving you. With all His glory in sight, just going out to the Father He says, "I cannot stay down here with you in the world, I will not give you up, but I must make you fit to have a part with Me where I am going. You are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you, but you will be picking up dirt by the way; that will not do for heaven." When it comes to communion I cannot have an idle thought in my heart that does not hinder it. He washes our feet. That is His present service for us in glory. It was not because Peter repented that Christ interceded, but because Christ interceded that Peter repented. There is no excuse for defiled feet. There is not one of us that does not fail here, and the type of the Red Heifer figures it. Your failure gave Christ the Cross. That is what makes sin so horrid. There was only one place where He was alone when He had become a Man - the Cross.

Philippians 3

J. N. Darby.

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This epistle gives us two practical characteristics of Christian life in which we find the true practical power of the life - the principle on which it passes through the world according to the mind of God. The Epistle is not doctrinal but, in it, we get the Christian path - Christian experience in the power of the Spirit of God. There is not a word about sin in it from beginning to end: but it sets out the Christian path in a person walking in the power of the Spirit.

The first characteristic is lowliness as in Philippians 2: the second, the energy that leads a soul on, with Christ in glory as its object. This is the whole power. The basis of the whole thing is, that Christ is in the glory as man. It is a wondrous truth, that man - that is, the Lord Jesus Christ - is gone into heaven on the accomplishment of that work on the ground of which man could go in, hence as our Forerunner; and that the place that man has thus got in Christ is what the Holy Ghost always sets before our minds as our object.

All the great truths of God are found centred in the cross. Seeing a man in heaven sets man aside on the earth. We have got to pass through the world till Christ comes, and the question is how we walk down here till then. Of some the Apostle tells us weeping. We are looking for Christ to change our vile bodies. Till then we are not in the full result. That is what is set before our minds; but Christ is presented as already set down at the right hand of God, the distinct testimony of our accomplished salvation, and the blessing into which it brings.

225 Our calling is heavenly. Nothing is more important than our distinct apprehension that our calling is to be with Christ and like Christ where He is now. There is a full definite revelation of it all now. It is not merely that we are cleared of sin, but that God has a purpose about us which forms the object of the running here. "For whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." The Cross was the turning point between that which tested man's responsibility down here and God's purpose concerning us. Before the world was, God had this purpose about believers, to have us there like His Son (Prov. 8). God, according to this purpose, would have us in this glory with His Son - the personal dignity of the Lord being always kept safe. You never find the saints said to be brought into this glory, without the guarding of His perfect excellency. The heart delights in preserving it.

Let me refer to one or two instances. In Matthew 3 Christ took His part with the remnant - going with His people in their first right step. Never till then was the heaven opened. At this moment the heaven was opened unto Him, and the Spirit of God came down, and the voice of the Father declared, This Man is My beloved Son. Now heaven was just as much open to Stephen: but mark the difference. When the heaven is opened over Christ, does He look up and see an object that changes Him into the same image? Not at all; heaven looks down upon Him. But this is just what Stephen does. Thus His person is kept safe, while Stephen gets as like Christ as the creature can.

226 So on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elias appear in just the same glory as Christ; but the moment Peter would put them all together on the same level, they go away. He remains - the voice again declaring, "This is my beloved Son, hear him."

But to return to these thoughts of God about us, in Matthew 3. Having put man into his proper place there is for the first time the revelation of the Trinity. There, where the fact of God's Son taking His place as Man sets man into his proper place before God, all three Persons are revealed in connection with it. The more we enter into the thoughts God had about us, the more we see what poor worms we are. How could we ever have thought of being brought into this same glory as the fruit of His redemption? It shows how it is all grace, "That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus."

He brings these things before our souls now that our affections may be formed by them in living association with Him where He is. We want to walk through this world with our affections flowing from our connection, as new men, with the second Man, that is Heir of all, in heaven. He connects us with the Man that is there - Christ in heaven - the only accepted Man according to the counsels of God - by the Holy Ghost. God did not begin with the Man of His counsels; He gave promise of it in Eden, and it becomes clearer and clearer afterwards. He began with the responsible Adam. All that probationary system is closed, in the setting aside of the old things altogether in the Cross. It closed the connection between God and the flesh, in spite of all that man - infidel and religious - can do to make something of it. That makes all the difference in our position. Now I have a fallen man - each of us adding our own sins to the heap - and a glorified Man. Am I walking on the principle of the fallen man, or the heavenly Man? I cannot do both. To walk as the heavenly Man is full blessed liberty of soul. The Cross made Christ say, "Now is the judgment of this world," but Christ then said, "Now is the prince of this world cast out." God did that work on the Cross; while men slew Him, it was "by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." It was the triumph of Divine love, that through Christ's work the counsels of God might be accomplished that put us into the same glory as Christ. The counsels were never brought out while that probationary system was going on, because the foundation for them was not laid. But the counsel "is now made manifest" (2 Tim. 1: 10: Titus 1: 3). Hence we read, in 1 Corinthians 2: 7, "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery . . . ordained before the world unto our glory," but it did not come out. Again "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." People stop there, saying it is so wonderful and blessed we cannot know it. It is just the opposite, "God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit . . . that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God." Then we have three steps as to the revelation of these things. First revelation: second, the inspired communication of them: third the spiritual reception; and this founded on a perfectly complete work. A Man has entered into the glory as our Forerunner, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. There is a difference between having our debts paid, and having all this glory before us. We might have our debts cleared and be without a farthing, but God gives us besides an inheritance of glory.

228 In John 13 Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him, if God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself." He does not wait for the royal manifested glory. The Holy Ghost comes down and puts us into connection with Christ in the glory of God, and the things that are around Him. That is the Christian position.

What becomes then of man's righteousness, if you are made the righteousness of God in Christ? The Cross puts an end to it altogether. It was just the attempt to maintain the legal righteousness that led Paul once to persecute the saints, and afterwards became his whole toil and burthen to oppose. The continual effort is to build up the first man again - in bold infidelity - but even in the Christian too. Whatever there is of it is a hindrance to the enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Cross has judged it all, broken down the whole thing, "He takes away the first that He may establish the second." We get it here, "We are the circumcision which . . . rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh."

What is confidence in the flesh? A very easy but a very foolish thing. It is the religion of the flesh. In verses 5 and 6 you get all that man was under the law. Who established it? God. Why then speak of it in this way? Because under that system they had crucified His Son. "If I had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin . . . now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father." The Jews had promises and Christ was the fulfiller of them: He had come and they would not have Him, and the Jews were shut up in unbelief that they might come in under pure mercy just as the Gentiles.

229 Religion of the flesh is still man's confidence, because we do not know that we have no power, and we try to make out righteousness for God, instead of seeing God has made it out for us in a new way in a Man in glory. The Cross was the end of the trial of religion with man, to see if there was any good in him. But people say, "Ought I not to walk in this way?" You ought to have done it, but you are guilty under that system.

Here we have the religiousness of the flesh (not sin) which he calls concision - a name of utter contempt. That was the grosser thing, that was first set aside. But now he comes to "all things" and counts them loss for Christ. "That which was gain to me," that was the secret of it. If he was learned, who had the credit of it? Righteous - to whose credit was this? Paul's; but he says, I will not have "me." There is a totally new thing that God has set up - a Man in the glory of God as my righteousness, and the Spirit of God makes Him the object of my affections. "I am crucified with Christ . . . 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." "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people." What my heart wants is to have the Christ that has done it, in glory. "For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." He says, "There is God's intention about me, now, in the settled certainty of that, I want Him in the glory as my object." Here he is speaking of what carries the heart on. The object of a man is what characterises him: if money, then he is covetous; if pleasure, then he is a man of pleasure; if power, then he is ambitious: he who follows after Christ is a Christian. Christ is the power and principle of his life here. Paul was walking down here but he had no other object in the world than to win Christ. Christ had laid hold of him to have him in the glory, and he wants to lay hold of that. What governs the Christian in his path is the Cross written on all down here, and Christ up there as the object.

230 "Not having mine own righteousness which is of the law." He does not say "Not having his sins," but his righteousness. Christ has obtained the glory. The law would have been his righteousness down here: but doing what I ought to do would never give a title to be in the same glory as the Son of God. Why should it? But he will not have his own righteousness, "but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."

"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death" (verse 10). It is not that we are to seek suffering, but the cross was before him and he says "I will only be more like Christ; I have a life in Christ that is beyond death." As he says in 2 Corinthians 5. "We are always confident, knowing, that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord." His place is all a settled thing: if killed he will only be with Christ. But he has not got it: it is his object.

231 He sets aside all that man is. The flesh, take it in all its best shew and colours, is all legal righteousness - fleshly righteousness. All is set aside.

Another thing has come in - not making the first man righteous, but - substituting the second Man for him.

His first object was to get Christ Himself; afterwards his own part in the blessing. Christ takes up the active open enemy against God. Not content to stop at home, like the chief priests, Paul goes to strange cities persecuting the saints, and then God stops him in sovereign grace, with a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun. If it is a question of labouring for Christ, there will be different results; but if of glory, it is true of all saints as of Paul, predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. If you believe in Him, He has obtained it for you.

Then he looks at that glory. If it costs him his life, that is what he wants - "having a desire to depart and to be with Christ." There is no uncertainty. Cost what it will going through this hostile world - if it cost him his life - he says, "Well, I will be more like Christ," and he will have the conformity of His sufferings.

He was a man of one thought, one object, one purpose - "This one thing I do." All gain to him is loss, "I have suffered the loss of all things," but "I do count them but dung." Not "I did count," but "I do count." It had not lost its present power. Do we count everything but loss for Christ? In Matthew 25 there is time left between the cry "Behold the Bridegroom" and the coming, to test the heart to see if Christ is everything. If we look around how often people talk of losing first love. It is that Christ has lost His first power over the heart. The world comes in in such a subtle way - and the things of it - and deadens the heart. The consequence is we begin at last to judge after the atmosphere we are living in. When Christ fills the heart the temptations are not there. It is the power of this new Object.

232 I turn now to what is connected with that, what Paul calls the perfect Christian. The thing set out before us is to be like Christ in glory. We are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, according to the eternal counsels of God. We are not that yet. "He that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself even as He is pure." That supposes that the heart has understood this - not merely that my sins are put away, forgiven, but my place in Christ. Romans 5 and 8 give the contrast; "if any man be in Christ" is the new place I have got into. Not my sins blotted out - that is the first thing - but, "he is a new creation," belonging to this new world. This is what the Apostle earnestly insists on. I am not a debtor to the flesh - there speaking of its sinfulness. The point of that is "crucified with Christ," not Christ crucified for my sins merely, but I am a dead man. He takes this truth of our being crucified to put our hearts, and consequently our lives, where we are not in body yet - in complete association with the Man that is in heaven. The old man has been condemned. If I know my place then I put off the old man and put on the new. Where do I get the measure of it? "Which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Besides sins put away the cross of Christ has separated us from our existence in the flesh, sin, the world, and law; and risen with Christ, I have my place in life, and heart, and spirit, along with Christ, who has redeemed me to Himself in glory. "Our conversation is in heaven."

233 I add another thing; the same Spirit that dwells in Christ, dwells in us. People talk of being united by faith, Scripture never does. We get the Spirit and then we know that we are in Him and He in us. The soul gets hold of this by grace, and my part, my portion, and my place is with the Son of God, the second Man and not the first. The Cross closed the whole system of righteousness by law. I died and now belong, as having Christ as my life, to the place where He is; and the Spirit is given that I may know it. "Our conversation is in heaven." What am I waiting for? For Christ to come and put me there, every day seeking to be more like Him here.

You find a Christian first converted knows his sins forgiven. But if you want to be a Christian as God contemplates it, you are in the world but not of it as He is not, you are in Christ. That is the reason why God puts us constantly through trials and difficulties, that God may make all this real to our souls. "Always bearing about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our body."

"For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: . . . who mind earthly things." The Cross has put entire contempt upon them. If I look for the glory of God, where do I find divine dealing with sin, infinite divine love? In the Cross. That is what has put an end on God's part to everything connected with man - pretension to righteousness, recoverableness, everything, save the body left to be the vessel of the manifestation of the life of Christ.

"Our citizenship is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." We are left here like the man with the legion of devils, sent to his friends that they might know what great things the Lord had done for him. We look for the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, to do the one thing that remains to be done, to change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. Then all will be complete. He will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied then.

234 Christ has come and given Himself for us that He might purify us to Himself. The Cross was the test of infinite love. And what we have to look for is that love of Christ to come and take us to Himself. If a Christian understands that he is done with the old man, he has to learn to grow up to the stature of Christ. There is no other full growth of the Christian but that. As to mind and faith he gets into the full grown state. The thing is to be attained in glory, we cannot say we have attained, but can we say "This one thing I do." If a man has only seen forgiveness yesterday he has got to walk according to the same rule. To be forgiven and know it, is blessed of course; but can you say you are doing one thing?

People talk a deal about perfection, but they have lost the sense that perfection is to be as Christ in glory.

Can you say that your citizenship is in heaven, your righteousness in Christ, the associations of your heart with Christ, everything there? Infidelity is stalking abroad, ritualism is in high places. Can you say I have no confidence in the flesh? Divine righteousness is in heaven, but the Cross has written death upon all below upon earth, and all association with it. We find our imperfection every day, but is the ruling object of our souls Christ? Are you looking for Christ? You cannot say when He will come. It is carefully not revealed, to keep you watching. But whenever the Lord speaks of it, He never puts it beyond the life of the people that were then living. He never presents another thing to their thoughts. In the parable of the virgins, those that awoke at the midnight cry were the same that fell asleep while He tarried. He wakes them up and then He comes, but stays sufficient time to test hearts as to how far He is everything. If He were to come to-night, would your hearts be saying, Oh that is what I am looking for? Do you love His appearing? Would it be the joy of your heart to say, "Oh there He is, and I am to spend eternity in the glory with Him"? You cannot expect joy unless you are looking for the Lord to come. The Cross put an end to all fleshly religion, and earthly things, and Christ becomes the bright blessed Object: while the love of Christ lays hold of, sustains, and comforts the heart, and gives us the consciousness that nothing can separate us from it.

Thoughts on 2 Timothy for the Closing Days

J. N. Darby.

<35018E> 237

It is worthy of remark that the moment you get out of the epistles to the churches, you get catholic epistles and others which treat the church as in the "last days." In John, there were "many antichrists." In Peter, "Judgment must begin at the house of God." In 1 Timothy, "In the latter times some shall depart from the faith." In 2 Timothy, "In the last days perilous times shall come." In Jude, "Certain men are crept in unawares." In 2 Peter, "There shall be false teachers among you."

It is at such a time that God specially commends us to His word; and He has taken care that we should have in Scripture what would guide us in the last days, when He commends us to it. After Paul's departure grievous wolves would come in, not sparing the flock. He commends us to God and the word of His grace. (Acts 20. See also 2 Timothy 3: 14-17). We need the grace of endurance in such a day. And when one goes through the trial with God beforehand, he meets the enemy and the actual trial when it comes, and the distressing effect upon the heart is gone. God helps and sustains us in it and through it.

One is struck in reading the second epistle to Timothy, by the way in which Paul goes back from dispensational glory (as in Ephesians, etc.) down to natural and Jewish relationships of private and personal character: "I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers, with pure conscience," and, "When I call to mind the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and in thy mother Eunice."

There is nothing he insists on more, than NOT TO LOSE PERSONAL COURAGE IN A TIME OF RUIN, no matter how great the ruin may be: "For God hath not given us the spirit of cowardice; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." It is always thus. "In nothing terrified by your adversaries." "Be not thou, therefore, ashamed of the testimony of our Lord (i.e., the gospel and the testimony generally), nor of me his prisoner." Satan is to be met with confidence as a beaten enemy. This gives steady firmness to the soul. One has the truth, and knows one has it; and this gives quiet consciousness, and keeps one in the midst of the attacks of the enemy in an evil day. He is to be thoroughly courageous when all the evil was coming in, and was there; to "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus"; to; "endure hardness." It was when the power of evil had come in that he expects courage.

238 This is not the tide of blessing which carries on others; but the ebb had come, and individuals were standing and stemming it, and carrying on the testimony of the truth. It was not like the tide of the gospel at the first when "a great door and effectual opened"; but, rather, "be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God." It is then we require the power of God and personal courage more than ever. All this is "truth for the times" in which we live. (There is truth for eternity as well.) 2 Tim. 1: 9, 10: "Not according to our works," i.e., our responsibility. The history of the responsible man ended with the Cross. There atonement was made, and God's eternal purposes came out. The Cross maintained the responsibility of man and the authority of God. Through it, we get out by redemption into the state where it was His purpose and grace to put us before the world began. The Church has nothing to do with this earth except to go through it.

The tide of the Gospel had gathered a crowd of people into this wonderful calling, but the tide began to ebb, and all were going back again (2 Tim. 1: 15). Positive power is needed in such a time, as well as having the truth. There are two things that are worthy of notice; first, that we now have only the power of good in the midst of evil, but the evil is never set to rights till the Lord comes; and the instant the power of good is not there, you get away down the stream; and second, how the good that God set up failed so fast. But this has always been so. The counsels of God as to what He set up were made known, and the power of evil came in at once to frustrate the counsels.

Verse 12. "For the which cause," etc. He was a prisoner for having carried the testimony to the Gentiles. But he had entrusted his happiness to Christ, and He would keep it for him against that day.

239 In verses 13 and 14, he passes on the testimony to Timothy, who would commit "the truth" to faithful men, who could teach it to others. The Church had ceased to be a guarantee for "the truth," i.e., the doctrines of Christianity and of Christ.

Defection was the order of the day (see 2 Tim. 1: 15); and in view of such, as of the general state of things, Timothy was to be "strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." The Apostle now takes up the case of a soldier, an athlete, and a husbandman. He must not be entangled with the affairs of this life, but be entirely at the disposal of Him who had called him to be a soldier. Striving in the games, he must do so lawfully; and labouring first, be a partaker of the fruits of it.

Paul's gospel and Paul's doctrine are positive things for the last days. WE ARE WALKING AND LABOURING IN THE MIDST OF AN IMMENSE NETWORK OF SYSTEMS IN WHICH PAUL'S MINISTRY IS TOTALLY UNKNOWN. For it he suffered as an evildoer unto bonds.

How like to Christ's own words are those of the Apostle in 2 Tim. 2: 10!

We now get corruption of doctrine (2 Tim. 2: 16, etc.). There had been falling away. Thus (v. 19) individual responsibility (coupled with God's faithful knowledge of His own) to depart from iniquity. In v. 20 we have ecclesiastical apprehension.

Supposing a person says, "I do not see that so and so is wrong when Scripture forbids it," this those walking in the truth cannot allow. You cannot take the conscience of the individual for the rule of the church. Scripture is its guide. Thus we have to walk with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. At the beginning of Christianity we did not find this expression. It was more general, "all that call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." Now it is "all that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart." The Church should have been the witness for the glory of Christ on high, and is now mixed up with all that witnesses against Him here below.

In 2 Tim. 2: 24, "patient" should be "bearing evil." "In meekness instructing those that oppose" (see New Trans.), that they might be recovered to God's will from the snares of the devil.

240 The profession of Christianity has become the reproduction, under the name of Christ, of all the horrors and wickedness of heathenism. (Compare 2 Tim. 3: 1-4 with Rom. 1: 29-31.)

We are never able to judge rightly as to what we have to do and to meet in the last days, unless we are conscious that we have to do with Satan's power actually; the "Jannes and Jambres" referred to were mere instruments of Satan. But their folly will be shown up, perhaps now, perhaps by and by.

The expression "silly women" is applicable to men of effeminate mind as well as to women. It is the turn and bent of the mind of the persons who are thus beguiled.

We here get Paul's doctrine (v. 10) and the manner of life which flowed from it. "Thou hast fully known" - i.e., had perfect understanding of it. It is a like expression to that in Luke 1: 3: "Having had perfect understanding," etc. He had fully followed up his teaching, as having learned it thoroughly. The manner of life goes with it.

In v. 12 the emphasis is on "godly"; they will suffer. Things would get worse and worse. It was the old story with the world - either deceiving itself or being deceived.

He now casts us upon Scripture specially. In v. 15, it is the Old Testament Scriptures which Timothy had known. In verse 16 he embraces "all Scripture." Scripture is the point - that which was written. Peter stamps Paul's writings with the authority of the other Scriptures. He says they are Scripture (2 Peter 3: 16). The man who can do this was conscious he was writing Scripture himself.

One may say, "How do you know that Scripture is the Word of God?" I reply, "How do you know that the sun shines?" If you say "It does not," you manifest the ground you are on, as denying it. If you say "It does," you admit it. God has spoken so as to make Himself known, and to make people know He is speaking.

In the New Testament the Holy Ghost comes down and vitalizes all the circumstances through which the new man has to pass. He takes up the little things of everyday Christian life. It is a mistake to suppose the Holy Ghost only engages Himself with great ecclesiastical things. As there is nothing too great for God to give us, so there is nothing too little for God to take up and interest Himself in for us. There is nothing so common as eating and drinking and dress. These things are here taken up most strongly. Even these things become an opportunity for the glory of God. God would never have us to act as a man; but always, by the power of the Holy Ghost, to act as a Christian. Thus the Holy Ghost enters upon the circumstances of daily Christian life, and vitalizes them. When the apostle writes of these things therefore, the words in which he wrote are the words of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. 2: 13), as much as when the prophet of old uttered his magnificent strains with "Thus saith the Lord," and then sat down to study his own prophecies, to see what they meant and of whom they spake. (See 1 Peter 1, 2)

241 The man of God is prepared unto every good work, in his having departed from iniquity and purged himself from the vessels of dishonour. In 2 Tim. 2 he is equipped; in 2 Tim. 3 furnished unto every good work; in 2 Tim. 4 he goes to war. He is to "reprove, rebuke, exhort." This shows the signs of failure which the wisdom of the Spirit foresaw. It was not so much evangelizing as preaching "the word" amongst professing Christians who would not endure sound doctrine. All was to be done in view of His appearing and His kingdom. Then faithfulness would be manifested.

We should be more earnest than ever in living to Christ, as we are now in the shaking of all things, and the Lord may come at any time now. Worldliness amongst us is a sign and a source of weakness. It must be "with all long-suffering and doctrine." These are the elements that must give character to our service. If men were left to their own responsibility they would never come in.

So he concludes, "I am now being poured forth" (v. 6). In Phil. 2 it had been, "If I be poured forth." Things have gone further here. "My release," is the thought, because he had been in the combat as an athlete. He can say, "I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith." It was the finishing of his race and wrestling of 1 Cor. 9: 24-27. The Lord would preserve him to His heavenly kingdom, if he was not to be preserved on earth (v. 18). Earlier, his desire was that he might finish his course with joy (Acts 20) Here he had done it: "I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

May we covet the same grace!

The Eternal Sonship of Christ

1 John 5: 7

J. N. Darby.

<35020E> 265

Though I have ever held this verse, to say the least, to be very doubtful from the course of the meaning, it is not to discuss this at present I write, but another point of importance - the use of the term Son.

There are those who, objecting to the term Son as applied to the divinity of our Lord, stand on the verge, if not slipping into, confusion of the Persons.

It is the name of the Person, not the nature; and the Person is personally known to us, fully in the revelation of God in Jesus.

But while no man knowing the Son but the Father, the manifestation of God in the Son - in Jesus - makes the language of man scarce preservable from error, if we wish to affirm things separately, of the natures when affirmed about the Son, yet is that which is revealed very distinct, but it is spoken about the Person into which the man was brought and therefore is rightly spoken of Jesus, and the connecting point of faith, not to know there is a Son, but that Jesus is the Son of God.

Nevertheless the works of God as such are directly attributed to the Son before the incarnation of, or rather in, Jesus, and therefore we are justified (much more than justified) in speaking of the Son as we do in the Trinity.

Thus Heb. 1 has "spoken to us by the Son, . . . by Whom also He made the worlds." We are therefore justified in speaking of the Son as before the worlds.

Again in Col. 1 where His whole personal glory is brought out - "In Whom we have redemption" (His dear Son) ". . . the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by Him were all things created which are in heaven and upon earth. . . all things were created by Him" (i.e., the Son) "and for Him; and He is before all things," (the present state) "and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body" (His official glory), "the church, . . . the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased" - not the Father, this much misleads, but - "the Godhead that in Him" (the Son) "should all fulness dwell" (to wit, in Jesus) - for in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

266 The Father dwelt in Him, and the Holy Ghost was upon, in all its fulness of indwelling presence.

Could there, I need scarce say, be separation, but He was not the Father, nor the Holy Ghost, but the Son.

Though He did His works by the Spirit, and the Father that dwelt in Him did the works, all fulness dwelt in Him.

He was the Son, and by Him all things reconciled, His actual efficient work.

In a word, God was in Christ, but there again we have the warrant for the speaking the name of His Person as revealed to us of the Son as before the worlds, "In Whom . . ."

Again that our Lord was addressed as the Son in His Godhead is further manifest as it is said and written,

". . . unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom."

They therefore seem to err who do not give the title of Son to our Lord as connected with His Godhead, if they say this name is known to us only through His manifestation in the flesh.

I believe so surely, both of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost alike unknown to us before we knew them by the indwelling and revelation of Jesus, God manifest (in the flesh), illustrating His character and opening out the fulness more revealingly.

I feel it would be opening a gap for evil to acquiesce any further in this, for the Scripture does not acquiesce in it, though as stated below it is not only sound but blessed and glorious truth, but it is better to acquiesce in nothing but Scripture, for one does not know where it would carry one.

The Word was personally known to us as the Son revealing the Father by the Spirit, and we beheld that the glory of the Word was the glory even in Jesus of the only begotten with a Father, His nature, inheritance and dignity the same, though while humbled He gave the glory all to Him in all that is revealed in this.

267 I fear using the fountain of blessing and glory in men's cavils, distortion, and pride.

But I say we are scripturally justified, and bound to silence these cavils, in speaking of the Son as acting in His creative capacity in the Godhead before the worlds, although we know that Person, or any Person, by His incarnation in which centred the unfolding of the mystery.

But we are bound to hold to this most important and essential (strictly speaking essential) truth as connected with the revelation of anything and subjection to any truth at all, for all blessing flows from believing and receiving from the Father, by the Son and through the Holy Ghost - thus the revealed, known and worshipped source of all blessing, the sum of the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.

Nor is it less important that we should understand Son to be the name of the Person, not of the nature, for as we see that by Him He made the worlds, God over all blessed for evermore, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today and for ever," competent to sit in the glory of His Father's throne, and sitting there in the glory which He had with Him before the world was.

So also we know that "God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law," than which indeed as magnifying the law nothing can be more wonderful; and "then shall the Son also Himself be subject to Him that did put all things under Him."

If we ask how can this be, we have the evidence of that in the fact of His having been so before; and thus the Lord secures and settles our faith, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit bringing us into blessing by giving us the facts of faith realized when they might be difficult of intelligence as to their internal possibility from our narrow nature and might be said to be contrary to natural possibility.

So it is written, "the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour."

If we say He were not the Son till the incarnation, then do I utterly lose the link of connection of His being sent from above, for then were it only after He was a Man in the world that He was sent about as a Man, but no, He was sent into the world - not to multiply passages, which are innumerable, for our connection with God hangs upon it.

268 If therefore the name Word be applied to our Lord previously so as to deny the relationship of Son instead of, as I have said, further illustrating what He is, Whom none knoweth but the Father, then I say that is using the testimony of "the brightness of His glory" to destroy a distinct glory and the first glory and blessing of Christianity, i.e. in relation to us.

Moreover the full glory of our Lord's headship hangs upon the recognition of this truth, for as Firstborn of every creature it is by Him all things were created. So that the headship of creation in the Son rests upon this "for by Him.  . . ."

Hence we strike at the sphere of our Lord's glory if we strike at the creative Sonship.

It is most important therefore as regards our relationship to God - that first link in the chain that brings us to God, gives us fellowship with the Father, and is the spring therefore of all this very point.

The Father sent the Son . . . it is what each were, the Sender and the Sent. I know nothing previous to this.

It is the Son that is the "brightness," only I did not know this nor Him till the incarnation, nor did a Gentile till the resurrection, nor indeed any till it pleased God to reveal it in Him, though there are full glimpses of it and statements in the Old Testament.

Nor did I know the Father a bit more, nor the Holy Spirit in His indwelling, though holy men spake by Him.

No more than I know the Son till taught of Him (though He made the worlds), nor the Father till the Son reveal Him.

But the office of Christianity is to reveal the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, to make known this relationship in the Godhead (in our enjoyment of the results) into which creature is brought in blessing in the intelligent, Spirit-taught and quickened church the personal fulness of Him Who being such filleth all in all because the fulness dwelt in Him.

Most important as regards His glory because the creative power is thus associated with redemptive power - is associated with, as the basis of the headship glory.

Proverbs 30: 1-6 is a most important passage, humbling us to profit, and yet opening to faith what man cannot enter into - a very important passage.

269 I have made this memorandum not to prove (it is known by communion in my own soul, i.e., to myself, communion with the Father by Him), but to show its importance because of the destructiveness of breaking the blessed link. The Word is our most important revelation of what He the Lord is - most important.

The Son is another most important revelation of what He, Jesus, is - the revelation, the name, the truth of His relationship in person in God, or in the Godhead.

If we do not see Him in this with the Father, we lose all the value of it in Him as incarnate.

It is another revelation about Him . . . .

No one can give me the partakings of the divine nature. No one can call me into this relationship in integral blessing unless he be in it vitally, unless he be in it in His union with the Father . . . .

Therefore the holy thing born of the virgin is called the Son of God, and in Him the fulness is manifested ever of God, and yet we are adopted into it further.

Officially the Word, might I not say, constitutes the apostleship, the Son the priesthood of Christ, both exercised as a Man, but in both competent for it from their respective characters. In a word, He is the Son.

As to any question arising from the term "begotten," it is only weakness itself, for if we argue from the Word, He was a Son before He was begotten, for the resurrection was the day He was begotten, yet was He not a Son while walking on the earth?

When He made the worlds He was a Son. I know Him as a Son in all that He is, and His acts, through some of them here. "Though He were a Son" - I see it as clearly as God's own truth, and it is in this I have to be receptive of truth by God in grace, not judging by my poor incapable intellect.

The love of the truth is a great matter in subjection of spirit, not to lay down the imaginations of man, but to be thankful for the communion of God, and not to depart, or bear departure from the Scriptures.

When we have to speak, God's Spirit will teach us what to say. As for me, I feel I may err in every word. I resist utterly when the truth of God is set aside, yea I trust ever will, by His grace.

270 As for me myself, I am but as the beasts that perish incapable of these things to know them. As revealed they are all my blessing, for God is revealed (reveals Himself) in them to me. So that one is taught of God's Spirit. I could not depart from them. I hold them fast with life. They are between me and my God in thought. I defend them and I do not discuss them with men as questions. I speak of matters of faith which have been made known by faith to me, as God gives me utterance, and I recur to His word to guard as it teaches them where His Spirit is. I hold it vital to hold the Sonship before the worlds. It is the truth.

{This article was found by one who came into possession of many of J.N.D.'s MSS. letters and papers in 1938.}

{The original Mss. can be seen by appointment by any of the Lord's people at Bank House, Redruth, Cornwall.}

The Rest, the Word, and the Priesthood

Hebrews 4

J. N. Darby.

<35021E> 271

We get three things spoken of here: one that we have not got, and two that we have.

The thing we have not got is rest: There remaineth a rest for the people of God. The prophet says, "Arise ye, and depart, for this is not your rest, for it is polluted." (Micah 2: 10.) We are partakers of the divine nature, and we must rest where He rests.

The other two things are the word of God and the priesthood of Christ. Also I wish, in speaking of this help by the way, to refer to that in which all is absolute perfection, to show the difference between our standing before God, and that which is a help more for infirmity than for sin. We have to learn - if we have not yet learned - the place in which we are set through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The first exercises of the heart do not come in in this portion at all, those which we have when we do not know our place, when we try to do good, and do it not; but that is not the path of the people of God as such. It may be the way into it, but the place of the Christian is in perfect acceptance before God, with every question of sin perfectly settled. Just as with Israel: they were delivered from the place they were in, God's judgment met by the blood upon the doorpost, and they brought through the Red Sea to Himself: "I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." (Ex. 19: 4) That is where the Christian is; the veil is rent, and we are now before God without any veil at all, though it may be on our hearts through unbelief. I do not speak of that now.

272 As far as God's government goes, all are in relationship with Him, but I speak now of the relations of the heart. Every possible trial of man has been made, and it only came out that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Christ has been rejected, and the world has no place before God at all, though His love goes out towards it, for He has had His purpose and thought of grace ever since Adam fell, and souls get into a place in which they are in relationship with God. We have to see where we are, when the whole world is lying in wickedness. Men own Christ outwardly, that He died on the cross, etc., and go on just as they did before. You cannot call that relationship - there is none.

There remains a rest even for God's people, just as Israel were journeying on to Canaan; they cannot have rest in a world which is contrary to Christ. We are exercised in the wilderness, we are in conflict, too, with wicked spirits in heavenly places; and that is not rest. Israel will get their rest in time; but I drop that for the moment, and apply it to ourselves. It is a blessed thought, that there will be rest and joy for this poor sin-stricken world, but for us it is a heavenly rest - we are blessed in heavenly places in Christ. Where God can rest in His love, we can rest. If God rests in His love, there is nothing wanting. He is active now in His love, seeking to save that which was lost; but that is not rest; He rests in His love when those whom He has brought by His love are there, and no single thing is lacking to their enjoyment. It is ours, that rest, but we are not there yet. Christ is waiting too, He does not yet see the full result of the travail of His soul, but He will do so, and be satisfied. That rest, of course, is according to God's nature. He brings us now, "holy and without blame, before him in love," having the adoption of children, knowing God as our Father, and the blessed rest of God's people is also according to His nature. And it is all revealed now, the veil is rent, and all that is revealed which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard. The Father fully revealed in the Son, the essence of all the blessing. The more spiritual we become, the more we learn what it all is. We get the figures of it in Revelation, where the spiritual apprehension lays hold of it, so that we can live in it, but it is clear we have not come to it.

273 It is a mistake to speak of this rest as rest of conscience. "We that have believed do enter into rest" only means the character of those who enter; as I might say, Men come in by this door, and women by that. I do not say that any are coming in now. We have rest in the sense of ceasing from our own works for righteousness, but not in the heavenly sense.

But then, beloved friends, all has been completely brought out now - they are not promises, the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared. The work is all completely finished and revealed. The moment the Son of God was rejected, all that could be done to test man's heart had been done, and He says, "Now is the judgment of this world." For when Christ was there, in perfect love and goodness, revealing the Father, He had to say, "The world hath not known thee, but I have known thee." He appeals to the righteous Father to judge between them.

274 We get Man then - Christ in the divine glory, because He had finished the work His Father gave Him to do: there, when He had finished it, and because He had finished it. And Paul says he did not know the Christ who came to be Messiah among the Jews; they had forfeited all the promises, and it was all over with Jew and Gentile, and there was no relationship that God recognized at all. Man was cast out of the first paradise, but was set in Christ in the heavenly paradise, and between the two there is nothing really that God owns. "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." (1 John 5: 19.) Satan was the prince of the world before, but he was never called it until the cross, where the world proved what it was: it was not a question of the responsibility of man, but the proof that he is enmity against God, and that he will not have Him on any terms. But in that, God wrought His own work, the work He had always had in His mind before the foundation of the world, and as the fruit of which, Christ is in heaven. (Of course, He always was there, but I speak now of Christ as Man.)

275 The more we dwell upon it, the more we shall see the whole question of good and evil definitively settled at the cross. The perfect wickedness of man was fully brought out there; the disciples run away, and all the rest were delighting in getting rid of the Lord, saying, Aha! Aha! so would we have it.

We get here, man entirely rejecting the Lord, and that is what we are ourselves, our natural state. On the other hand, when the wickedness of man's heart is brought out, then I get man perfect (in Christ, of course), absolute obedience at all cost, even to the cup and the curse, perfect love to the Father: "that the world may know that I love the Father, even so I do." That love was shown really and perfectly where He was made sin. I get man in His perfectness here, glorifying God at all cost: God revealed in His Majesty - He could not let His own Son be spared when He had put Himself in that place - His judgment against sin, the thought of which made the Lord sweat great drops of blood; and all this was done for us: He suffered, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Morally speaking, the whole question of good and evil was resolved: Satan's power, the wickedness of man, the perfection of Man, and the nature of God all fully brought out. It is not now a question of probation, but of belief in a thing that is so settled, that God has set the One who did it at His own right hand. He was perfectly glorified in the place where Christ was made sin, and Man is sitting at the right hand of God in glory. It is all done, and that is what the Holy Ghost comes down to reveal to us.

276 Exercises of heart there will be, finding out what we are, that in our flesh dwells no good thing - that we are the very persons who were thus manifested at the cross; but I find, too, that being one of those persons, and having that evil nature, it was all met at the cross - a settled thing. He would not have the twelve legions of angels, He went on to the end. "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do."

When, beloved friends, I have been thoroughly convinced of sin and sins, I find then, when I get before God in the full conviction of what I am, I get Christ instead of myself; He is before God for me. Not that all the sin is nothing, but that Christ has borne it all for me; God has accepted it as meeting it completely and absolutely, not giving me a legal righteousness - it is infinitely beyond that - but giving me a place in glory, in virtue of the work which has perfectly glorified God. I do not believe we get the sense of that until we have done with all confidence in self; it is a very subtle thing. A man does not set about saying there is something in him to trust, but he goes on as if there were, and he will not get that liberty spoken of in Romans 7.

I am utterly condemned, and taking my place under the righteous judgment of God, I find Christ is not on the cross now. He is sitting at the right hand of God, after He has been on the cross. All I was as a child of Adam is done away, and I am sanctified by the will of God, "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once." He is sitting there at rest, because He has finished the work. (I do not speak now of the grace He is daily ministering to us.)

277 If I am looking for anything to put away my sins, I do not believe in the finished work of Christ, and therefore the apostle says, in Hebrews 9, "then must Christ often have suffered." There is not a thing to be done; but it is done "no more conscience of sins." It is not that I do not fail, but when I look up to God, faith cannot have a thought that God imputes anything to me. And why so? Because Christ is sitting at the right hand of God when He had purged our sins.

If I go in faith, I go through the rent veil - His flesh - into the holiest of all, in boldness, because He who has accomplished the work is there. I find Him there when I go. I press that, beloved friends; because you are not on the full, true ground of liberty before God, until the thought of imputation, when you put yourselves in the presence of God, has completely disappeared. It is well to put yourselves there to test your souls. Supposing I stand before the judgment seat. Why, the One who is there is the One who bore my sins! I see it more every day, that the whole question of the church's ruin hangs upon this; whether or not the worshippers once purged have no more conscience of sins. People speak of Christ bearing their past sins, but there is no sense in saying Christ bore my sins up to the 16th of July! He was there before God meeting the whole question of sin, and He sits down because it is all settled. God has made death and judgment, like the Red Sea, to be a wall on my right hand and my left.

278 What, then, comes of our present life? The first thing to get quite clear is, that my place before God is Christ's place every instant. "No condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." How can you condemn one who is in Christ? It is absurd, and the apostle says it triumphantly.

But what do we get as to what is going on now? It is not a question of imputation at all, but we have to do with the same Christ who is the perfect Witness to God's satisfaction.

I am here, a poor weak creature, exposed to all sorts of snares and temptations, and we have the word of God, sharper than a two-edged sword, which comes and judges; it runs right through, and says, What is this in your heart? Is that in accordance with the light? No buts, no buts, there is no excuse, you are brought into the light. It shows me things I never suspected before - all things naked and open; the word is God's eye; prying into my heart, and showing me what suits that eye, judging not merely acts, but the thoughts and intents of the heart.

But, supposing all the thoughts and intents of my heart were as perfect as possible, still I am a poor weak creature, and then I get the Priesthood of Christ. There are snares all around - the world, Christian friends who are not spiritually-minded - and I have to go through all that, all the difficulty and trial that comes from those who do not wish the cross to be quite what it is. We are in danger in passing through this world, and so I have Christ, who has met every difficulty and temptation, and ten thousand times more than we do, and understands it all, not only in the divine, but also in the experimental, way. But for the evil movements of my heart, I want the hatchet: for the difficulties, trials, etc., I have the throne of grace - God Himself, the perfect and adequate supply of all grace to overcome.

279 The Priesthood of Christ does not apply to sins. Many a one who does not quite know that he is perfected for ever, if he gets into a low state, goes to Christ, just as if he could not go to God. I have a High Priest there, and I go to the throne of grace; it is for help in time of need, not for sin.

If you go to Christ about your sins, as if He were to go about them to God, that is not what He does as Priest. The Priest is to obtain grace for me, that I should not sin; He is always there to obtain every needed grace, to help in time of need. It is impossible that a temptation can be too strong for us, for He is faithful not to suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, and we have all the strength of God. We go to the throne of grace, and get what is needed to help in time of need.

The epistle never connects the priesthood with sin; it is well you should feel it, that you may not think you may sin, and then run to the Priest to get it set straight. But supposing I fail, and sin (which we all do), then I have an Advocate with the Father; it is not then going to God to get grace and strength, but that fellowship with the Father must be restored. Fellowship is interrupted if I even allow a sinful thought; it were blasphemy to say He could have fellowship with that. I go, then, not doubting His love, but not cheerful and happy as if nothing had happened; while the righteousness in which I stand is not touched, communion is destroyed. If I allow anything that is not of God, communion is interrupted: and "if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father;" that is about our sins. But mark how he speaks, that there may be no cloud - "Jesus Christ, the righteous." Why bring in that word? Because our righteousness is not touched, it all remains in unalterable value.

280 But it has brought me, too, to walk in the light, as God is in the light, and after communion is broken, He interferes to restore it. If I look at the sins as interrupting my standing before God, Christ is not my righteousness, but the effect of His work is to put me into the light, there to judge of everything, as He does; there is no other place for a man except that of being in his sins.

The moment there is anything inconsistent with the presence of God, in the measure in which I release it, communion is interrupted. Then do I go out of the position of grace? Not at all. He interferes to break me down about my sin, to make me judge the root, the place where I got away from the path. My soul has to go through the judgment of all that, and there I do get the question of sin raised, but then it is as Advocate with the Father.

281 If I think of the Priesthood, I am before God perfected for ever. But though this is true, I am a poor weak creature going through the wilderness and there is infinite strength for me, and He is my Priest, representing me before God. We never can excuse ourselves if we fail, because He is faithful. There may be negligence, and we may not have power at the time to overcome; negligence in prayer, and in using the means God has given, but I never can excuse myself.

Have your hearts right open before God. Do not leave any chambers locked up before Him, or you cannot have joy and liberty. You may walk well outwardly, not scandalize anybody, but if you have anything in your heart not open before God, you have lost your communion, and there is that which tends to weaken your whole path.

There are two things: the full and distinct apprehension that before God there is no more conscience of sin: if you have not reached it, never rest till you do: He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Here comes the fact that we are poor, weak, infirm creatures, and we are put through all sorts of things to exercise us; and He is my Priest where the intention is right. I have to have my will broken, things I do not suspect brought out, and, even if I fail, the advocacy of Christ is founded on His righteousness, and in that there is no progress, and no change.

282 I press upon you distinctly and definitely - for the loss of it was the very ruin of the church - and for your own souls, not to rest till you have no more conscience of sins. Then, not only watchfulness against evil, but growing up unto Him in all things. But there is no perfectness till we are like Him in glory. I press toward the mark.

The Lord give us diligence and earnestness of heart thus to follow Christ!

A Call to Gilgal

Being a Word in Season.

Proverbs 25: 11. See Judges 2: 1-5; 1 Sam. 7: 16; 1 Sam. 10: 8; 1 Sam. 11: 14.

J. N. Darby.

<36002E> 148

Beloved Brethren:

I am thankful a resting place has been reached after the struggle against evil and the assaults of the enemy. What I would seek now is, that as we cannot expect a peace of long duration, we may individually test ourselves as to the part we have taken in the matter, as to how far we have been using carnal weapons in our warfare - although our object has rightly been to clear away evil from a holy place, and which was of such a character as clearly to manifest that the enemy was making a serious assault upon Christ, through the assembly, scattering his blinding influences broadcast, obstructing in various ways the vision of saints in such a manner as to hinder their seeing eye to eye.

Through God's grace there was a decision to stand against the evil, and then the enemy sought to turn the attention from the real point, to the manner and ways of those who were acting. As in the old question as to the Person of Christ some thirty years ago, so it is now; so much was made of the way the thing was dealt with, those who made that a prominent point, seeming to forget that in such struggles it is not surprising that the weakness of the flesh should be seen; but what does it prove? Why, how incapable we were to meet such an attack, and that during the interval, between the former one and the present, there had not been "a redeeming the time," a "gathering up of strength so as to be ready," a "being clad with the whole armour of God." Has there been the attention to that part of the armour, "the breastplate of righteousness," and have "the loins been girt about with truth"? Has there been that attitude of dependence which is shewn by "praying always" and "watching thereunto"? Do not these circumstances exhibit failure in these respects? No real profit can accrue to us by dwelling on this or that failure, we get insensibly assimilated to it by so doing - the spiritual eye discerns evil and failure by progressing in the knowledge of that which is holy and true; as in spirit John: the untrue is made apparent by the true: what is of darkness is understood in the light, and what is of Satan by what is of God.

149 I do not desire to show error by dissecting writings, etc. I believe and trust that God will in His grace enable all to do that for themselves in quiet converse with Himself. We never get into a struggle with the enemy in which all who have been professedly on the Lord's side are found of exactly the same mind. Again, there is a greater energy of faith in some than in others; and this will be, if some have been unmindful of that word in 2 Peter 1: 5; and if in that struggle brethren come into collision and quarrelling begins, whoever is finally victorious, is also vanquished to a certain extent, as a conflict among brethren is injurious to both, if the flesh is aroused, which is too frequently the case. Of all this the enemy takes advantage.

In the book of Judges when it was deemed right to go against Benjamin for sin which that tribe had linked itself with by refusing to deliver up to judgment the sinners, they are both smitten in turn, and when those who had completely vanquished their brethren had settled down, they found that victory had sorrow for its accompaniment. There was one tribe lacking in Israel, and they had in their zeal "sworn in Mizpeh" about it. Now they get into God's presence, and humble themselves for Benjamin their brother. When there is real love to the brethren, this must ever be - that however we may have had to oppose a course, and God may have given us the victory, yet He repents Himself when He sees their trouble, and to have fellowship with Him, we must take the place of intercession - in love for our brethren, for whatever mistakes we may make - and we do make them - we are not to be as the Gentile rulers, exercising lordship and dominion, but as brethren, knowing that what delighted His heart, is to have us in a right path and in the enjoyment of it, and for this He has laboured; and even if He chastens it is for the same purpose. How readily He accepted confessions, though estimating fully its worth (Ps. 78: 34-39).

150 How His ways are shewn out in Hosea 14. How He lets them know where alone they will grow, namely, in His presence; they confess their sin and their weakness - He says, "I will be as the dew to Israel" - then "he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon, his branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive, and his smell as Lebanon." May we be among the wise to understand these things and know them.

God has in His grace given a rest in the conflict, the enemy is not vanquished, but we have learned how powerless we were to cope with the difficulty - how the flesh sought to enter into it, and how much it had to be restrained. May we be humbled about it all, yet thankful to our God that He has not allowed the enemy to crush us, weak though we are (Ps. 124: 6).

And now leaving details of heated discussions, harsh, unkind, or unholy expressions whether real or imaginary, let us look to our armour, so as to be prepared for the next onslaught of Satan, for come it surely will. Was there not pride and haughtiness of spirit? or our God would not have allowed this. When He brought Israel out of Egypt, He led them not through the land of the Philistines, that they should not see war, but He led them another way. How different is Exodus 14: 14, 15; they were then haughty in spirit, and He allowed them to learn their weakness in a struggle with His enemies. Abraham too - after his great victory, doing with his handful what the five kings could not do - had to learn who it was that enabled him to accomplish so much, only he learned it in a more blessed way. Melchizedec comes forth with refreshment, strength, and joy from the Most High God who had delivered his enemies into his hands - Abraham owns it and worships. Then when the moment came that the enemy would puff him up and heap the rewards of nature upon him, he would answer as he had learned in secret, "I have lifted up my hands to the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth." "No flesh shall glory in His presence," and if this present conflict has taught us weakness in any way, or that we have been exalted with the idea that we are Philadelphia, or have set up anything as an "organization" here, as the true thing, however sad the way we have learned it, we can still bless God who has not failed us, but who will always allow us to learn our need of Himself and invariably for our own blessing and His glory. Let us not spend the time in foolish recrimination, but with desires for blessing and mutual growth in the things of God.

151 Where sin is manifested there must be no compromise with it, but in these days individuals have to bear in mind that if the assembly is unable to clear itself from evil, through fleshly hindrances and to act upon the word for it (1 Cor. 5: 13), the same voice that speaks to the assembly, addresses the individual saint in 2 Timothy 2: 19: "Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." If the flesh in an assembly is such that evil cannot be put out, each individual is responsible to God for himself - the question of majorities or minorities will not come in there. I do not think God will allow His faithful to be long alone; others will be found equally faithful and true.

Romans 16: 17 is individual; verse 20 shows the character of God I'm to manifest in my separation or withdrawal, namely, "peace," and He sees the root of the mischief and says He will "bruise Satan under our feet shortly," and immediately follows with "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." In quarrelling I do not manifest the God of peace. If I can help others, well; I certainly can help no one by remaining in association with evil. My coming out may exercise souls, and so I go on in peace: to remain with sin I must not. The difficulty is to keep the motives clear; if we get into debates which as 2 Corinthians 12: 20 shows, we may end in tumult. To be with God in all these matters, the sole desire should be, the keeping each other in a right path, and bring back into it any who may have erred from it (James 5: 19, 20).

(Printed 1885, but written 4 or 5 years previously; exact date not known.)

Miscellaneous Notes on the Epistles

J. N. Darby.

<36003E> 153

We may remark that in Romans 8: 2, 3, we have the two parts of the Christian treated of. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus in verse 2, and sin in the flesh in verse 3; by the first which is a holy thing in power, I am free from the law of sin and death; it is the liberty of the new man perfect from God in itself but still sin in the flesh (of which I have learned however to say, not I) is there, but then it has been condemned when Christ was for sin. Hence freedom in the new man, perfect before God, and the old condemned in that by which I have a title to hold it dead. Further, I say, as a truth known in Christ has made me free. This is not expressive of myself but the truth for faith according to verse 6. The experience ought to follow. This is the moral ground of no condemnation. Forgiveness and justification and righteousness we have had before.

In Philippians 2, we have the twofold principles which lead to likeness to Christ as in verse 15; first, self abasement, giving up self, as Christ came from the divine glory to the cross. Love coming down to serve, secondly, and it applies specially to our case in the absence of manifested apostolic power, obedience in the seriousness of a conflict to which we have to make good the path and victory of faith ourselves, as contrasted with that power but that which is ever true and our sure and infallible strength, God working in us to will and to do. The result is the likeness to Christ of verse 16 and all gracious thoughtfulness of others - not love of self.

In Hebrews 5, is not verse 5 which does not institute priesthood, connected with verse 4 and in contrast though He must be a man to be a priest, (for contrast is the character of the Hebrews) with verse one - taken from amongst men? He does not glorify Himself, genethenai (to be made). But He who said, Thou art My Son, this day have I (emphatically) ego (I) begotten Thee. Though a man yet He is not simply taken from amongst men as such but God says of Him (even as a man) I have begotten Thee.

154 This qualified Him as to calling in contrast with glorifying Himself but also in contrast with mere human priests, then He is constituted and owned priest by God as in the 110th Psalm. This makes the fifth verse plain. Compare Hebrews 7: 28.

Note in 1 Thess. 5: 8 we have the three great principles of Christian life - faith, hope and love. Evidently these three were pretty settled and constantly in the Apostle's mind; we have them in 1 Thess. 1: 3. In 1 Thess. 5: 8 it is hardly against enemies though it supposes them, but more in the way of their watchfulness, that is, a heart right with God as to its state than actual conflict with enemies.

In Ephesians we are in conflict with enemies and have to be such and such to succeed and wield the sword successfully. Hence the breastplate is practical righteousness, which we must have to contend effectually with Satan. In Ephesians 6, after the whole subjective state is gone through before using the sword, we have the helmet of salvation - a deliverance that belongs to us which we enjoy and enables us to use the sword, coming after the shield of faith - entire confidence in God. In Thessalonians it is one of the elements of our life with God in its final result as a matter of hope, the active energy of the life with God in faith, love and hope in sobriety of walk in the midst of dangers or enemies down here.

Justification and Righteousness

Romans 1

J. N. Darby.

<36004E> 155

The character of Romans 1 comes out more distinctly than ever to me. First, the Person of Christ as the primary subject of the gospel, promise, fulfilment and power - this last according to the Spirit of holiness, the witness of the divine nature, that is, morally. Then the righteousness of God is revealed in it. This is the general introduction but the reason for this last is in what follows, which I now note: God's wrath from heaven is revealed. Not as often remarked governmental wrath on earth but what comes from His nature and will as impelled by evil as contrary to that nature, hence all unrighteous. God's nature coming out against all that was contrary to itself. This gives a most spiritual and important character to Christianity. It is the full light and the absolute question between God and evil found in itself, God's righteousness coming in, as the only answer to it.

Further righteousness through God's righteousness is the basis of our justification, and alone can be now, our justification is according to it, is more than justification and other than it. To be justified supposes responsibility and a change in my state called in question (it may be my pretensions). Man is in question with God, really a sinner (for as formed of God nothing could be questioned by God), he is justified, that is, cleared from all charge according to the principle by which his state is judged, the righteous exigence of God toward him. He is cleared by the propitiation of Christ through faith in His blood. The value of that blood makes him clear from all guilt in God's sight. God imputes no sin to him and in this sense imputes righteousness thus accounted to meet the exigency of what God requires - of what His judgment requires. His judgment has nothing to say against him but has to say I am met and satisfied. In the person, justification fully recognized and righteousness are the same. Righteousness in this sense - righteousness imputed is consistency with the relationships in which we stand. Now we had natural relationships and failed in them and Christ's precious blood justifies us, meets our failure in them. We are looked (at) as not having failed in any relationship through His obedience. Hence though justified from, refers to charge and failure, yet it also amounts to righteousness because we are now held not to have failed in our relationships. But there is more. When really looked into there was no relationship remaining. Sin and banishment from Eden had broken all. The law supposed there was (yet even here founded on an external redemption) yet, as law, too, the ground of these relationships, and gave the rule of them and helping in their maintenance but did not go beyond helping in the life in which the relationship subsisted. But God's righteousness goes further.

156 Our relationship is founded on a new work - a work in which God has been glorified and man set in a new position of acceptance according to God's own presence and eternal righteousness. Man's righteousness is according to this relationship now. He is made the righteousness of God in Christ. In a general way he is accounted righteous. God has nothing against him, only that justified, supposes change and the question is raised in Romans 8: 33. Righteous is a present state without charge - consistency with what God requires in the place we are in. But that and justified are the same; when we look into the real state of the case we find righteousness to be according to the full revelation of the divine character which Christ has as glorified - made good in every way even unto death on the cross so as to bring us into God's presence as His children (not Adam's) according to the perfectness of that - the fullest revelation of God's character (the cross), what angels desire to look into, and which has set Christ as man at His Father's right hand. He is our righteousness God is revealed, wrath from heaven is revealed against all not consistent with His presence as so revealed, hence it is said, sinned and come short of the glory of God.

157 Note in Romans 3, God, though setting forth the propitiatory work in grace, is a judge to whom propitiation is offered by blood. In Romans 4 He is a Saviour active in power; He has raised up Christ from the dead after He had been delivered for our offences; His the blood on the door posts, and the Red Sea.

I am confirmed in the conviction that Romans 8: 1 is the general resulting statement and stands by itself, that the gar (for) of v. 2 is not illative but the common gar (for) of bringing from farther off, a principle on which the result in his mind stands, as is in another way verse 3 which underlays the basis of the whole matter, and meeting in the Christian way the legalists' objection.

Man's probation history ended in the cross. He must meet the glory of God as revealed or cannot meet Him at all, but all have sinned and come short of that glory, and would be in themselves punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of His power. But then Christ has perfectly glorified God, John 13 and 17, and is entered as Man into God's glory - redemption is complete and according to it, yea wrought out in it, and so man is in the glory and like Christ there. He has borne our sins and so justified us from all things the old man has done, glorifying God in it. But then, what God is, has been glorified in it and righteousness now involves glory, because it is according to glory and this is more than justifying. The new fact of justifying and accounting righteous is the same but as I have said, the question on justifying being raised, but righteousness now is according to the glory of God, is a righteousness according to that glory. God's consistency with Himself proved by setting Christ at His right hand (John 16), proved as regards offences and justifying by resurrection, further than which on this point therefore Romans does not go, but going on as a result with the glory into which He is entered. This bringing all into the presence of God without a veil, in contrast with governmental wrath as the Assyrian and Babylon, etc., and sin being measured and all wrath, by the glory of God which can bear no ungodliness in His presence, is of the utmost importance. But Christ has glorified God. It is not merely that we are in the presence of the glory, and judgment of good and evil is according to the glory but He has glorified so that, sovereign grace as regards us, yet in righteousness is for us, our glory is a part of that righteousness as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. Hence we are said to be made the righteousness of God in Him. Our being in that state is a part of that righteousness.

158 Hence also it is said as to the abstract principle of it in the Person of Christ, that He was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness. Power raised Him but it was not simply power, that will raise the wicked, but will not declare them in any sense sons of God, but this is according to the Spirit of holiness, according to the nature and character of God, glorified in all Christ's ways and sealed and marked out in resurrection, the wholly new estate into which man is brought into the presence of God according to divine holiness; to walk in the light as He is in the light (Comp. Rom. 6: 4.) There is the power of Christian life - the resurrection from among the dead declares it but declares it according to the Spirit of holiness - God's divine nature. This is very blessed - a divine place; the other part shows it is in righteousness. After God, he says, in righteousness and true holiness, but then the life or nature in us.

Romans 6

Unrevised Notes of Lecture by J. N. Darby.

<36005E> 159

The more the Christian reads the Word of God the more assured he becomes of its Divine origin. I am not supposing that he has any doubts to remove, but its perfection unfolds itself as he learns its contents. He finds in it truth complete and fitted in all its parts; and in this perfection he sees the Master's hand. The way the apostle takes up the question of sin here led me to these remarks. He does not enter upon Ephesian truth, but we find what is exactly fitted to the subject he is treating. He does not speak of being quickened together with Christ, or of being raised up and seated in Him in heavenly places, but he says, "If we are planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection."

He does not speak either of Christ dying for sin or of bearing our sins. What the apostle speaks of here is the power of sin met by the death of Christ. He died unto sin once. "Likewise reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin." First, we are occupied with our sins, and these are met by the propitiation (Rom. 3); but after this, he takes up sin, and this is a much larger and fuller word. It is our condition. And mark! we could not say, Christ was made sins. He bore sins, but He was made sin for us. "Once in the end of the world He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" - not merely sins, but He took up the whole condition and state of the world, of everything, and before God everything was changed. He was "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin [not sins] of the world." Christ's work took up this principle of total alienation from the life of God and totally did away with it.

160 All the dealings of God with the world proceeded upon this principle of sin, of man being away from God, for when sin came into the world man was turned out from God. He could have forgiven a particular act by the death of Christ, but the whole condition of sin He could not. He must condemn it and put it away. We could not speak of God forgiving the old nature, but of condemning it and putting it away. Now this condition of man under sin is the fact upon which God had hitherto always dealt, however varied His acts may have been. Why was the seed of the woman promised but because of sin being in the world? Again, a law given which prohibited lusts and supposes sin? In fact, all God's dealings in the world, whether in mercy or in judgment, proceed on the fact of sin being the condition of man before God. Now the work of Christ has changed this state of things altogether. I speak of what the work is to faith. The final result is not yet fulfilled, but through the cross the whole thing is changed, and there will be in result a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. By faith we anticipate this. It is not merely that our sins are put away, but the whole of God's glory is concerned in it. The creation is ruined by sin. If an angel look on it, what is he to think of the world? or if a saint contemplates the world, what a scene of lusts, passions, sin! All is in confusion. How is God to be glorified in it? Here Christ comes in. God is glorified in all His perfect walk in His suffering; obedience in everything, in spite of Satan. And when we come to the cross we see that all that God was was glorified in Christ made sin. My soul anticipates the great result of this obedience of Christ, in that new creation where sin can never enter.

161 Practically, in our souls we must go through all that sin is before getting into the full consciousness of the blessing of its being put away. It is not only the forgiveness of my sins which I want, but I must get the question concerning the root of these sins settled, and this we find in Romans 5: 12-21. The question treated of there is the sin of one man met by the obedience of another. By one man sin entered into the world. By one, death passed upon all men. Adam is looked upon here as the head of a race. It is not the question of your and my particular sins, but of the sin of one man; and as by one man death came, so by one Man came righteousness. We get the remarkable fact that by one man came in sin, and by one Man righteousness.

The law is introduced that the offence might abound. Mark, not sin, but the offence. But the law came in afterwards. Here the great fact is that by one man sin entered into the world. Each has to answer for his own sins, of course, but here it is sin come by one man. It is the condition into which I have been brought. And so also by one Man righteousness is come. In both cases it is an individual's act which involves not only himself, but all connected with him. It does not deny my sins, but I am made righteous according to this work of Christ and by it; and I can anticipate the result by faith and say, I am the righteousness of God.

The flesh objects to this, and says, If it is entirely by the work of another that you are made righteous, and if it is all of grace, then you can continue in sin that grace may abound. The flesh always objects thus to sovereign grace. Not that the world is very careful about the matter, as if sin were really a trouble to it, but the objection is raised only to oppose the gospel, just as it was with those who brought the woman taken in adultery to Christ, simply to find fault with Him.

162 The apostle therefore raises this question of continuing in sin, and shows it is an absurdity in itself. Sin is the condition in which I was. The question, then, is this, Am I to continue in that from which I am saved? Two points are taken up as regards the condition of soul, and we shall see the apostle argues on each from different grounds. The first is, "Shall we continue in sin?" and then in v. 15, "Shall we sin?" The first question takes up the condition of sin in which we were; the second with being under grace and not under law.

Now, as to continuing in sin, the apostle shows the thing is an impossibility and a contradiction, for no one can be alive and dead at the same time. If you have died with Christ you can't talk of being alive in sin. When you were baptised what were you brought to? You had a part in Christ's death, and you want to live in sin. In saying so you deny the whole thing. Christ has died to sin. Not that He ever had sin, but He was in circumstances where He had to meet temptations, and at last to be made sin upon the cross, though He never knew sin. But now He has died out of that whole condition. He died unto sin once. He once came into the midst of this evil scene, displaying righteousness and holiness in all His ways, and now He has died out of it. If you have been brought unto Christ you are dead, and are out of the other condition. The apostle speaks here of dying unto sin. We know from other scriptures that He also died for sin, and that He bore our sins; but here it is deliverance from sin, and not forgiveness that is spoken of.

163 Faith has judged this state of the flesh. It is not a question of the fruit being bad, but the tree itself is bad. It is the root of sin and not the fruit only.

God says, "What could I have done more in My vineyard than I have done in it?" And yet when He looked for fruit it brought forth sour grapes. He cared for His vineyard perfectly, but the tree was bad, and the culture only brought forth a larger crop of sour fruit. As we have often said, Man was lawless without law and a law-breaker under law. The tree was always the same. Its only expression has been that the mind of the flesh is enmity against God.

I come then to Christ, and with Him I have died to sin and out of that condition altogether, and get my life elsewhere, and that too by a work done for me. I say, seeing what the flesh is - what I am - I must die and take a life elsewhere. "Know ye not that as many as were baptised unto Jesus Christ were baptised unto His death?" The apostle says you have taken your place with Him in death, so that you also should walk in newness of life.

He does not speak of our being quickened with Christ. He is bringing out here the source and power of the life. It brings out all the glory of the Father - this raising Christ from the dead. All that God was in His majesty, glory, righteousness, and love was, for faith, engaged in the raising of Christ. His love to Christ, His delight in His obedience, His righteousness and all that He was, was for faith involved in bringing Him up from the grave. Christ had devoted Himself, in blessed perfect obedience, unto death, to His Father; and so the Father must come in in power and take Christ out of the condition of death. Therefore I am to walk in newness of life - not merely not to do wrong things, but to walk in newness of life. If I have died with Christ I shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. Faith gets hold of this place which Christ has taken, and that we live through Him.

164 All that I was in Adam, to faith, is annulled. I have died out of that condition. And mark! the apostle does not say here, We do live with Him, but "We shall live with Him." We have not here our sitting in heavenly places in Him - the apostle is pressing truth for practice. We are planted in the likeness of His death and shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.

Christ has died unto sin once. It is not a question of what He was morally, for the more He was tried the more His perfection came out. But He has died out of that condition in which He had to say to sin, and now He lives to God. There I take my ground; I reckon myself also "to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." I am alive unto God, and nothing else. If alive at all, I am alive through Christ unto God. He lived, it is true, to God when in this world, but He has gone out of that state altogether and now lives to God where sin is not. Glory will be by-and-by, but now I am to live to God.

He that is dead is free or justified from sin. When a man is dead I cannot charge him with the evil of his past life, for by death he is right out of it altogether. We are thus free from sin. Death is the starting-point for practice. Being set free as dead to sin, now, says the apostle, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." If you are alive with Christ don't let sin reign as if you were still under its dominion. "Neither yield ye your members," etc. I can say to sin now, I am no longer your slave, I belong to somebody else now; I've been set free from sin, and I have a life given me to yield to God. Here it is not that we are dead only, but we have been made alive in being set free from sin's service.

165 What are we going to do in this new life? Unto what are you going to give yourself? I am going to yield my members as servants to righteousness and to God. I can do this, for I am set in true blessed liberty. I can yield myself up to God. I was a slave of sin, but I am set free and become a slave of righteousness.

The apostle says he uses the word "slave" to explain, speaking after the manner of men. We are to walk and speak now as those who are to be judged by the perfect law of liberty. We are bought with a price: we belong to God. And we have, as those who have died and are alive, the privilege to give ourselves to God and to yield our members as instruments of righteousness unto God. As delivered by death from the power of sin, we have a life to yield. To whom, then, are we going to live? To God; and all our members, which were once yielded to sin, are now to be yielded as instruments of righteousness to God.

What a place the Christian has!

166 Law can never get the better of sin. But if we have now no law to call us to account about sin, are we to sin then? He does not say here, Shall we continue in sin? He answered that by showing we were dead, and therefore could not go on as if we were alive in sin. But now he is looking upon us as free men. It is, then, a question where our hearts go. "Ye were slaves of sin"; ye are now slaves of righteousness. Once we were no servants of righteousness, for when following sin we were far from God. What fruit had we then? None: the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, we have become servants to God, and we have our fruit unto holiness.

There is positive fruit in the path of righteousness. As with Moses, when God revealed His grace to him he said, "Lord, shew me Thy way, that I may know Thee, and that I may find grace in Thy sight." If I am in Thy favour Thou must show me Thy own way through the wilderness. When in the path of obedience and the will is not at work, thus walking in God's way I know what delights Him and I get practically separate from evil. I get fruit. It is the way to grow up into the knowledge of God. As in John 14, "If a man love Me he will keep My words," etc. Thus we have fruit in following Christ. The soul grows up into God's revelation of what Christ is. Alas! we are often dull and need to get our senses exercised to discern good and evil.

But, dear friends, it is important to see where the grace of God has placed us by the work of Christ. You have by faith as entirely done with the world for fellowship as Christ has in fact. You are set free to live to God, and you will be judged according to the perfect law of liberty. If my will is to go just where God's will is for me, that is liberty. This is more than obedience to a command by which I surrender my will. If my child wanted to go to the city, and I forbade it, and the child obeyed, that would be the law of restraint. But suppose the next day I told my child I wished it to go to the city, that would be the law of liberty to it, because it wished to go there.

167 Now the Lord has set us free and He is saying to us, Where are you going to walk? In that which God has freed you from? It is not merely doing right, but obedience to God and fruit unto holiness in a more thorough acquaintance with God and an understanding of what Christ is in God's thoughts - our delight His delight.

Before the great results of this work of Christ are produced in the world, it is given to us to anticipate these results and to walk in the power of the new place into which we are brought. We are alive to God, and our privilege is not to give up only our time and money to Him, but to give up ourselves.

William St., January 18th, 1866.

Christ Dwelling in the Heart.

Unrevised Notes of Lecture by J. N. Darby on Ephesians 3: 14-21.

<36006E> 191

In the former part of this chapter we have the unsearchable riches of Christ contrasted with all that had been previously revealed. In all the Old Testament scriptures there had been nothing of the mystery as we get it here. There had been glimpses now and then, but nothing more. What strikes the apostle's mind is that he should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. It was outside all the promises. True, it had been written, "Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people," but here it is sovereign grace coming in outside all that had been previously thought of.

The gospel came to the Jews first because God had promised it; but they rejected it. Paul was the strongest proof that the Jews would not have Christ. We find him persecuting the Church and consenting to Stephen's death. He is met in grace from the very place where Stephen, looking up, sees the end of his testimony, and, as he says, he was made "a pattern to all who should hereafter believe." When the enmity of man had been brought to the highest pitch, then God could come in in sovereign grace, in His own personal will above all that man had done to prevent Him. Paul calls himself the chief of sinners, and justly so too; but we find God rising above him, and hence he goes to people who, like himself, had no title. It is astonishing how the two apostles, Peter and Paul, are both fitted for their several parts-Peter cursing and swearing ere he was converted and could strengthen his brethren, and Paul breathing out threatenings and slaughters. As we have seen, flesh must be put down. It is only an empty vessel that the Lord can use, that no flesh should glory in His presence; it is very humbling that we should need it, but we do need it. This fits him for preaching to Gentiles who had no promise, and we now find God revealing Himself in all the fulness of that love in which He could bless those who had nothing to say to God. Flesh was judged in the cross of Christ, and it was not now merely a question of promises, but of having Christ. I first find out what God is through the Son, but now I find the divine affections all centred in Christ-"the Father loveth the Son," then "the unsearchable riches," everything put into Christ's hands as Heir of all things, and this as man, as we get in Psalm 8. In Proverbs 8: 31 I find Him delighting in man. He passes by the angels-blessed, doubtless, in their places; but He passes by them, and takes man's nature upon Him. People keep Christmas, but the world's estimate of Christ when He came is shown by the fact that it could find no better place for Him than a manger. When Christ came the angels sang God's good pleasure in man; but man would not have Him in his life, and so He must die, because if not, like a corn of wheat, He must abide alone. But His desire is to get outside of all man's rejection and to have man notwithstanding. If man would not have Him in life, because man was dead, He must die and take man up in death, to make him partaker of a new and risen life. This was perfect, infinite love, not merely kindness (we get His goodness every day); but His love in coming to take a sinner's place! God's truth is brought out in this. He has taken man clean out of the position in which he was, and the consequence is that now I see man entering into a new position altogether, in the Second Man, who has gone into sin and death and borne the judgment, and now is in the glory of God as a Man, and I with Him. This is unsearchable riches, far more than promise, and the apostle's heart was here opening out to this.

193 In the first chapter we find his prayer is to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ; we have Christ as Man, and God in power, making the revelation of the inheritance, etc. But in this third chapter he bows his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is seen here in His own personal relationship as Son. Mark, it is our Lord, not the Lord. Thus saints are brought into closer relationship than any other created intelligence, and angels, instead of being jealous, are delighted at it. The poorest saint knows his union with Christ, and knows it by the Holy Ghost. We own Him as Lord, but He is not ashamed to call us brethren. I am brought into Christ's place, and, as Paul says, it is all by grace, it is all of God.

Christ identifies Himself with the Church-"Why persecutest thou Me?" It is all association with Himself. The apostle asks here that the saints may enter into the fulness of communion; not as in the first chapter, that they might know it outwardly, but that being strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith-Christ Himself in your own souls, that He may be the centre of your hearts by the Holy Ghost, a consciousness that Christ fills you, not merely with knowledge, but that you may be rooted and grounded in love. The love of God shed abroad by the Holy Ghost should flow in your hearts; then you would rise above everything-trial, tribulation, the result of all is love. This is the way the Holy Ghost reasons, not the way man reasons. God's love was shown in giving the nearest thing to Him for that which was farthest from Him. Solomon was large of heart, but if I could have such a large heart, God must be the centre of it, or else I should find only sorrow and vanity, as Solomon did.

194 "That ye may be able to comprehend," etc. If I am walking in self, I cannot see beyond the petty things of this world; but when I get beyond the region of self I am able to judge about sin, sinners, to have a true judgment about everything; and I am able to understand the breadth and length and depth and height. He does not say of what, that has to be filled in; but in order to make all practical I must "know the love of Christ." If I were going into the Queen's presence, how glad I should be if someone would tell me what to do! Well, this knowledge of the love of Christ is the very thing that calms my heart when I think of the immensity of the glory that is to be revealed in me. Christ is next me. I have known Him intimately down here and as risen too; for He is just the same as when He said, "Children, have ye any meat?" When I read that the glory of God doth lighten the city, is that too dazzling, too much for my eye? The next words that I read are that "the Lamb is the light thereof." You see, the heart gets into a condition where it is at home, and therefore the poorest, simplest saint is quite easy in all this glory, because Christ is in it all, and Christ is in his heart. I may be a poor earthen vessel, but then I have got the treasure inside. By faith in my heart He speaks to me; He manifests Himself to me as He does not to the world. It is a wonderful thing, for me to say that I know Christ's love, at the same time that I can also say it passeth knowledge. And now the apostle, having shown the saints the exalted position, rises up to it, and says it is "that ye might be filled into all the fulness of God." Wondrous place! wondrous purpose of love to have brought me here! Now how shall I look on tribulation? Oh, I can glory in it! I can joy in God, not merely joy amid the circumstances, but joy in God Himself.

195 "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think"-this is often wrongly put forth as though it said, "able to do for us" (quite true, of course, in its place, because He is able and does do for us); but it is not the thought here; it is "able to do in us"-"according to the power that worketh in us." (v. 20.) The Church has been looked at as all that we have been speaking of, in order that Christ may be glorified in us. "He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe in that day," although the apostle is not here looking at what it will be in the future, but what it is now by faith. Moses reflected in his face the glory of God when he came down from the mount; so should the Church now. The angels are looking on; there is wisdom in the Church, although very feeble. The angels ought to see in the saints the glory of God; but how little, beloved friends, how terribly little, can be seen! How everything has failed that has been put into the hand of man, as far as man is concerned-the law, the Son of David, Nebuchadnezzar, the Church! Man has spoiled everything, as far as he had the power. And, dear friends, would that you knew you were weak, then you would be better able to say, "Now unto Him be glory," etc. When Paul said, "I was with you in much weakness," we learn God had "much people in that city." There must be weakness in the vessel. The object known is Christ; the place, our hearts. God is looking for Christ being known by us, and God glorified us, not merely Christ dwelling in us by the Holy Ghost, but in our hearts-my heart; my thoughts, my feelings, the same as Christ's. The Lord give us to know how God has treated us, that we may know the heart's obligation to love, and that obligation not a legal one.

December 26th 1861.

To Live - Christ.

Unrevised Notes of Lecture by J. N. Darby.

<36007E> 197

This Epistle to the Philippians leads into a very peculiar apprehension of the Christian path. Its object is not doctrine, but Christian experience, and it is well for our souls to look it in the face and see how far our spirit and thought and mind answer to it day by day.

In this epistle salvation is always put at the end of the path as a thing to be attained - "that I may win Christ." This is an important principle for our souls. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," always looking to the end; and we have first to see that we are set in the place of redemption to run to the end of our course.

At the same time you will see a power brought in that supposes that in running we shall always be glorifying Christ, and above the circumstances.

I will say here that there is always an exercise of soul which goes on before we know redemption, and there is a distinct and definite responsibility under which we lie as Christians - not the responsibility of the first man, which inevitably ends in judgment. Our responsibility as sinners refers to acceptance, but that is settled completely: we are accepted in the Beloved. Now the responsibilities are ours as Christians, and duties always flow from the place in which we are already set.

As to man's condition, we get the truth that we are all lost, but souls individually go through a process shorter or longer before owning this, before submitting themselves to the righteousness of God. It may be learnt suddenly, or it may be a long time about, but the soul has to recognise this, that the flesh is utterly corrupt. "In me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not . . . And when I would do good evil is present with me."

198 As regards our standing in Adam as sinners, we are redeemed out of it into Christ, accepted in the Beloved, and the believer is in a standing and condition which is made for him in Christ. "At that day" (the Lord said) "ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." Now, that is the only true Christian peace. The angels see us in Christ up there; Christ is in us down here. Do those around us see it, and does the world see it?

The exercises of soul which precede this are all most valuable and useful to thoroughly teach us that our standing is not in the flesh, and we then get settled peace by knowing it. We put our seal to the truth of God in the judgment He passed upon us, and our souls now having divine light say, "In me is no good thing." Not only as a doctrine of Scripture, but in the presence of God we have to own that we cannot stand a moment in His sight. And here we get another thing, that the sins of the flesh were borne by Christ on the cross and put away for ever.

Again, Christ glorified God, and is as man on high sending the Comforter down to dwell in us, so that I can say my standing is no more in the flesh, in the first Adam at all, but in the second Adam.

Well, now there is a responsibility that flows from that condition. You find in this epistle the effect produced by the Spirit of God in the Christian when he is in the place, and we have to judge whether we are using this true liberty as those who are alive to God from among the dead.

199 Sin is never mentioned in this epistle. It is not that the flesh is altered in Paul or made better - it never grows better. In many things we all offend, and Paul had a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, to keep the flesh down. But this epistle shows us that a power has come in and dwells in us, which leaves us always without excuse if there is a thought that is contrary to the Spirit of God.

It is not always at the given moment we have the power to resist, but why not? Because I do not put my armour on. But whose fault is that?

There may be liberty of heart with God and confidence in Him to say I am a child of God through Christ Jesus. I have got my place, a place which is the riches of God's mercy, but is there found growth? "Growing up into Him in all things which is the Head." He has given me a place with His Son. He has given me to be in His Son, that He may unfold His glory through the countless ages of eternity - now through the Holy Ghost, and hereafter in glory. We have to enjoy this in Him. Our place is in the last Adam in righteousness. He has redeemed us out of the condition we were in. I am in Christ, and He is in the presence of God for me, and I am in the world for Him. That is where God has set us. The old man is reckoned dead. "Ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him."

And yet as a matter of fact we have the flesh to contend with, and we have to go through a scene where everything is temptation; consequently the character we take is that of overcoming and realising the presence of God in the midst of evil. Uniform, constant, unvarying superiority over the evil is the striking characteristic of the apostle's path in this epistle.

200 Now look at your own hearts, and you will find that in the course of this very day, in many things, looking within it has not been the life of Christ. You could not say as to them, "To me to live is Christ." I assume that it is the purpose of your heart to do so, but from hour to hour during the day there have perhaps been heaps of things travelling over the road of your soul that Christ never let in there and that the Spirit of God could not approve.

The leper in the Old Testament was first cleansed by water, and then the blood was put on the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot, afterwards being anointed by the oil put upon the blood. This is a beautiful type - every avenue of the soul guarded, all under the watchful care of the Spirit. But in looking within ourselves we shall find there is that which had passed the blood. We had forgotten "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus."

There is such an occupation of heart with Christ, such a fear of God, and such a walking in the practical guardianship of the Spirit, that a man is able to say, like the apostle, "For me to live is Christ." There is the power of the Spirit of God to lead the Christian through the race, that he may apprehend that for which he is also apprehended of Christ Jesus. Now in every respect you are called upon to have the mind which was in Christ Jesus, always willing to go down - humble - for it is graciousness, the grace of Christ, we get here.

201 In Philippians 1 he is determined that Christ shall be magnified in his body; in Philippians 2 there is the humility; in Philippians 3 , energy; in Philippians 4, superiority to circumstances.

The apostle never mentions sin. Christ has run the race, and is set down to show us where the course leads to, that we may have the eye and heart where He is - on the end. That is what we are called to. "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." Christ has set Himself apart in the glory, and the Spirit of God takes Him and unfolds Him to us, that we may be like Him, expressing the same mind which was in Him.

There is positive progress growing up in Him, but no such thing as growing meetness for heaven. Growth is pressed upon us, but you will never find Scripture mingling the two things, meetness and growth. The thief on the cross was as meet for heaven as Paul was. Not that God will overlook Paul's labours. No! but it is that in Christ we are always meet for the glory of God.

We have to get the perception that we are taken clean out of the place we were in. Christ is our life and Christ is our righteousness. We are called to walk (with the blood on the ear) with Him, watching against every inconsistent thing. "He which hath begun a good work in you shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." It is not merely that we are perfect in Christ, but He has begun a work; and the moment it speaks of the path to the glory, the wilderness path, there are "ifs" of every kind. You get the wanderings, the failures, the murmurings, but with these the faithfulness of God.

202 The armour is there for us, the strength is there also, to lead us to the end. We want that armour, we want that strength; there is danger, and yet I have the consciousness of being in Christ and Christ in me. It is not the path I have to run, but the dangers I have to meet. God says, You must be dependent on Me. You will need to be kept, but, do not mix up the two things, and because you have conflict in Canaan say that you are still in Egypt. There was no conflict in Egypt. God suits Himself so blessedly to His people. In Egypt, in their bondage, He comes as their Deliverer. In the wilderness He is with them to guide them night and day by the fiery cloudy pillar, and feed them with manna when they longed for the fleshpots of Egypt. When they have to turn back on the borders of the promised land, through want of faith to enter it, God turns back with them and dwells in a tabernacle. After forty years, when they get to the land and are to have conflict, there is the angel with the drawn sword; and when they are settled in the land He builds a house like one of the palaces of the great ones of the earth.

When I think of redemption it is no question of conflict, it is a delivering God who can completely deliver us out of the place we were in, but He will go through the wilderness with you, He will humble you, He will prove you; you will have to learn what you are, but also prove what He is. That is a different thing from redemption. If we have passed the Red Sea we have done with Egypt; and if I do not see this it may be with me as with Israel, who said, "Because there were no graves in Egypt hast thou brought us to die in the wilderness?" But God said, "I bare you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself." Have you not found the need of grace? He feeds with manna; He provides the garments that wax not old, He meets the need, and He carried the children of Israel through the wilderness for the double purpose, so to speak, to learn what they were and to learn what He was. He was always faithful. There is the discovery of what we are (with correction of course), but always the blessed discovery of what He is. I shall find conflict, and I shall have to go back to Gilgal, where the reproach of Egypt was rolled away, for that is the true circumcision of the flesh. Thus we learn in this way, whether in the wilderness or in conflict, what we are and what God is.

203 While we are going through the path here we have all the infirmity of the flesh, the dangers and the temptations, but we have the power of God. We get heaps of warnings and "ifs" when it is a question of our getting to the end, but never such a word as "if" applied to the faithfulness of God: "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." The very process is to take us off ourselves back practically to absolute dependence upon absolute faithfulness, so that there is growth.

Paul was not perfect; no one is. He had been four years in prison, chained to a soldier, but he was making request for the Philippians, with joy and with the confident sense that they had him on their heart, acknowledging the love that led them to send help to him a thousand miles away, and he was persuaded that God would accomplish His work in them.

204 All this humbles us and shows us what the world is. We may learn it slowly or quickly; if slowly we shall learn self, but if we walk with God we learn to trust Him. If we walk with self we learn ourselves and our need of Him, but we do not learn to trust Him. Like a careless child feeling the need of his father, but not knowing or trusting him. If I live with my friend I get to know what he is as my friend.

As regards the path we get every kind of warning and "ifs" on our side, but on God's side there are no "ifs." "He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Surely what blessedness to say we are walking in the light because Christ has rent the veil, and as children of light we ought to be able to know in a higher sense than Israel that wherever we go He will be "a little sanctuary" to us. Is He to us a sanctuary? We look out on the world, what is it? Instead of its being between me and God I have got God between the world and me. We have the secret of the Lord, and go on through the world with the light that He gives. It is a comfort if we are walking with God, to be leaning on One who never leaves me. He restores my soul in failure and leads me in the paths of righteousness. If the heart is getting cold, not walking freely and simply with Him as it should do, remember there is Divine power and Divine grace. Recollect this, "He restoreth my soul." He will bring me back to Himself in the light and joy of His presence.

We get in this epistle a lively recollection of all the good that is in the saints - he enters into all the details of it. There is the power of individualising which grace gives. Now, where the soul is with God these are constantly kept fresh; it is filled with the recollection of the grace that is in the saints. "It is meet," he writes, "to think this of you all, because you have me in your heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye are all partakers of my grace." This is the external means used by the Spirit of God to link the Church together. Instead of the wretched flesh jostling one against another, there is the lively recollection of all that is good, and a knitting together of the hearts by these means. It wakes up the grace that produces the kindness - not merely the kindness. And another thing we see, he is not afraid to express his praise of them or the feelings of his own heart towards them - a thing which I often find most difficult. He has true liberty to speak, being with the Lord in spirit and simple before Him. "God is my record, how greatly I long after you in the bowels of Jesus Christ," etc.

205 It is this, in a great measure, made me take up this chapter: "That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment." Is that the idea we have before us? He expects not only the love and desire on their part, but that there should be also spiritual intelligence. If I were perfectly spiritual I should know what to do in all things. And this is set before us. We are set to be witnesses of Christ, and we are the epistle of Christ, not we ought to be. And just as men read in the children of Israel the law and the ten commandments, so ought men now to read Christ in us - Christ engraved, as it were, in you. It does not say you ought to be what He was then, but you ought to walk as He walked. How impossible, if I am walking with Christ, realising Him, is it that I shall not know the mind of God as to everything! Did not He walk with Him without a cloud? We should be yielding our bodies as living sacrifices to Him.

206 This is not merely that I will not do wrong, but that which is the perfect will of God. It is the knowledge of Christ and of the mind of God proving what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. If He does not expect this of us, why then does He put it? He does expect it of us, that we should have this knowledge of Him, and walk as He walked down here. (vv. 9, 10.) It is not saying, That is wrong; or, There is no harm in that; but it is knowing the perfect will of God.

He that is holy, He that is true, is the character that Christ takes in addressing the Church of Philadelphia; and in these last days nothing is more important than to see Him thus, if you care to be kept out of that terrible day of sifting. He says, I am holy, I am true; you must walk with Me like that. He to whom Christ is all will say, Well, I am not to deny His Name outwardly, nor in anything; I am knit to Him. It requires patience, a broken will, and it requires a sense of our own nothingness; but it is a path of unmixed blessing and of nearness to Christ, and it is the power of hope. He is leading me on in my path, and whatever removes the film from my eyes to see my path clear removes the film from my eye to see Him clearly. When you have the responsibility of the world or the Church, you are referred to the day of Christ. When you get the privileges of the Christian, you have the rapture of the Church - that is, the fruit of completed redemption. We shall be like Christ, and Paul cannot be better than that. But when responsibility comes in we get the reward of labour: and what He looks for is that we should be sincere and without offence. Can we say "without offence" through this past week? You have a nature which has the desires; you have the life of Christ and the faithfulness of God to keep you; now how far can you say with all that, I am walking sincerely and without offence? Paul was no better than others as to flesh or nature  - the tree is bad; but there was nothing that soiled his conscience. He had not indeed already attained, neither was already perfect, but he followed after. It is not the mere existence of flesh that gives me a bad conscience, but the letting it act. It is like a mischievous madman in a house. I must keep him locked up or he will do mischief.

207 We have to be sincere and without offence "according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I may be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by death." It always had been his hope and always would be. Oh, if we could say this - Christ magnified! The Lord give us to have the eye upon Him, discerning things (that differ) that are excellent, that we may walk so as to glorify Him in our bodies. Would it not make your heart happy to say, "Always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body?" Well, I say, is there watchfulness to make it so? You are called to walk with that blessed object before you; is there not power in Him? You can't say, No!

208 It is a thing there will be no opportunity for in heaven. It is here He expects His people to be the living witnesses in the world of what He is to them. Would that our hearts may believe there is power in Him for that. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. But we have to remember that the strength is in Him, not in us. May the living earnest desire of our hearts be to glorify Christ, and from moment to moment carrying Christ in our hearts, to do our duties to Christ and for Christ, so that His life may be manifested in our mortal bodies.

Notes of the Meeting of Brethren at Guelph, Ontario

Wednesday, September 29, 1869

J. N. Darby.

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1 John 3: 4

Everyone that practices sin practices lawlessness. The gold of the gospel is in the Epistle of John; the germ of truth is there for it sets forth in such blessed, rich fullness God's standard of holiness and the working it out in detailed power, giving us to know the precious from the vile, and grace and wisdom to separate it and then you get a clean vessel meet for the Master's use, being filled with all the fullness of the knowledge of God - as a vessel hollowed out and as the gold of the sanctuary, sanctified unto every good word and work.

Where man in his sinful state has done his worst, God shines out most in all the resplendent characters of His perfect holiness. The world with all its wisdom and moral boasting power of doing good, pressed Christ out and murdered Him, and it will put the believer outside too, if he will walk with that blessed One as He walked. It is only they who will live godly in Christ Jesus that have the promise of suffering persecution and reproach for Christ.

There is nothing that tends to keep the soul of a saint in such a healthy condition as he ought to be in order to manifest Christ, but trouble of some kind or other. It is the sphere alone in which he can be kept happy, therefore Paul says, "I take pleasure in necessities, in infirmities, tribulations," etc. "These things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor Me" (John 16: 3). They also took up stones to cast at Him but He went through the midst of them and so passed by.

Beloved brethren, can you and I so walk before Him and in the power of that new nature even as He walked? The hating of the Son of God is bearing upon the fact (not man's morality) of the contrast of God's holiness. See what manner of love is from God in His Son and towards the sinner - not in him until he has received Christ Jesus the Lord.

210 God so loved the world - not loves the world - that He gave His Son. The holiness and righteousness of God in this present dispensation calls for condemnation upon the sinner out of Christ now - and the only remedy for the sinner that God has provided is not the receiving of the love of God, but receiving Christ alone, and as soon as he does that he receives the love of God and can say, "We love Him because He first loved us." Hence it is very unscriptural to say, God bore your sins away on His Son, because they, the unconverted, have not believed but as soon as they have believed that Jesus is the Christ, then it is true of them. The children out of communion have had their sins put away, but sins are still imputed on account of their ungodly walk. See 2 Cor. 5: 21, "He hath made Him to be sin for us" so consequently we have the standing of the righteousness of God, and God's claim upon us is that we should walk according to the measure and state of that condition in which God has placed us. So God has only wrath for the unconverted, the correlative (or opposite) of love is wrath. (See John 3: 36.)

A divine righteousness and divine love has been shown towards this world and now divine wrath is about to be poured out on all those who are rejecters of God's righteousness. God could not possibly give any greater proof of His love than putting the sinner's sins on His own dear Son in whom was all His delight (or, were all His delights). The very nature of God is love, not derived from any other source, as we get it, but He Himself is the Author of it. 1 Corinthians and Ephesians 1 are the attributes of God having their reflection on the saint towards those in fellowship.

But, on the other hand, how can I in the light of God's presence tell poor hardened unconverted sinners that God's love is on them (not towards them) when I know that God's wrath is hanging over their heads pending its execution. If he will not believe and accept God's remedy for sin, there is nothing left him but eternal banishment into hell. The eternal wrath of God is as true and scriptural doctrine as eternal salvation. Romans 5: 6 is a broad, general statement. It is the blessed aspect of Christ presented to God in sacrifice for the world while dead in trespasses and sins. The commending of God's love in the gift of His Son does not keep the soul of a sinner from a sense of his condemnation in rejecting Christ, but enhances the reality of the inevitable consequence if he does so, showing him God's way of deliverance - the only door. Every blasphemer on earth is an object of God's goodness, but not a recipient of His grace. In 2 Corinthians 5 we get Christ's work complete, but man's responsibility brought out. Also, v. 19, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." Superficial belief is of no use. Evangelists are very apt to accept this sort of faith, but it is only the deep-rooted seed that God accepts, and that which brings forth fruit. Mr. Stanley was once, as he thought, very much encouraged, but he found they turned out stony ground hearers. He discovered too that Calvinistic preaching would not do.

211 It is a pure gospel that must be preached with the whosoever will receive it. Paul says, "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed" (Romans 13: 11). Yet the salvation of the believer is totally whole - standing and state - complete in Christ, yet he is told to go on with it all the time (1 John 2: 6). Propitiation for our sins, but for the world, it is not sins, but sin (2 Cor. 5: 14, 15). Personal substitution is a responsibility of each individual; a broad aspect towards all, but only upon all them that believe. Atonement and substitution is God's positive satisfaction. Righteousness is met in Leviticus 16 in the Lord's lot and the people's lot. The Lord's lot is the blood being taken inside the veil. The people's lot is the sin confessed on the scape goat; the one was killed, the other taken away in the wilderness. What a beautiful type of the gospel of God.

212 There was a poor blind man in Liverpool who was sitting by the wayside reading his raised-letter Bible. When he came upon that verse in John 3, "God so loved the world," etc., he stopped at the word "whosoever." When a little boy was passing, he called him and said, "Little boy, can you tell me who whosoever is?" "Why yes, to be sure I can," he said; "it means you and me and everybody else."

"Well," said the dear old man, "if it's for me, I believe it," and that moment he received peace with God.

Faith does not belong to sinners in the aggregate because of their unbelief. Thus God manifests Himself. In contrast with what man is, He shows forth His righteousness and His holiness, and then, grace, mercy and peace towards poor fallen man, in the gift of His Son. All is presented to man and he is held responsible for receiving or rejecting it. Christ fulfilled the law and has shown what man ought to have been. Man could not be justified by the law; it merely shows how far he was from God. In Israel the lamb was kept up until the fourteenth day, but God's spotless Lamb - expression of God's divine righteousness - is what God has revealed in Himself, a co-operative and coequal working of God and His Son apart from all man's knowledge.

Wednesday afternoon: 1 John 3.

Judaism had this particular feature; it could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. It was not that perfect work of Christ, but it was a type of it which gave the conscience rest for the time being; there was, in short, uncertainty, but the technical term here in John is "We know," being manifested wherever it appears with that blessed hope constantly before us, that, "When He shall appear we shall be like Him." It is not enough for us to be like Him yesterday or a week or three years or any time, but always with unbroken, undimmed delight, enjoying the assurance of His return; yea, longing to behold Him, and yet going on carefully, prayerfully, and patiently, until it is His good time and pleasure to call us out of this scene where He Himself has trod before us. It has been and is the constant stimulating hope of every saint in communion with Him that He is to come, and that ought to be enough for us under all the varied circumstances through which He has called His own dear blood-bought ones to pass. Like Stephen, when we are the nearest to the Lord, the more His divine image and His glory shine into our hearts and shine upon our faces morally, the more we shall be like Him now.

213 Brother Stoney said to Dr. Wolston, "You may think it is a very little thing to look at Christ in glory, but let you or any saint try it, and he is sure, unconsciously, to be growing more and more like Him." Peter and Paul talk about the grave and death, but John in his epistle never speaks of death. The Lord had said of him, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me." What a sad thing it is to hear of the saints talking as they are on the way to the Lord's table, as if they were fully sure they were coming away again, whereas God has given us not a vestige of room to expect that such will really be the case. If such a thought is on the mind of any of God's children they are not in the full, unhindered enjoyment of the place of blessing, and guidance of the Holy Ghost.

The gathering of the Lord's saints to meet Him at His table should always be with the blessed thought accompanying that He will come, and so never speak certainly of returning from that spot. Instead of feasting with Him in unshackled blessing, we seem to be keeping our difficulties, sorrows and trials hanging on us like heavy death palls while we should be free from every thought and be in the full liberty which His blessed presence demands of us. He Himself bids us to have His own joy, that He may have our joy.

214 Here is another thought too, worth the consideration of every poor failing child of God - which we all are such more or less - that more than half the sorrows of man are made up of anticipated sorrow that never comes at all. The joy of the Lord is our strength. The hope of His speedily coming, keeps me looking upward and onward, and if He should tarry, I still find He is holding fast to His own promised word. I have His joy and hope which fills my heart with gladness that He has ratified His own word to me thus far and told me by His Spirit that "All things are yours," and He bids us unitedly by the Holy Ghost to comfort one another with these words. The proper, normal Christian's sphere is to be abounding in hope.

Brother Cecil asks, "How do you purify yourself?" By just remaining constantly in the light of His blessed presence who has eyes as a flame of fire, and His feet as fine brass, so that my every thought, word and deed is measured by the standard of Himself, and His claims of holiness. As an illustration, the husband asks the wife when he leaves in the morning to get something done by the wife before he returns. Would then a wife who really knew the desire of her husband wait till nearly evening before that thing was carried out? I need not answer; every sincere, affectionate wife would disdain such a thought. She seizes the first opportunity of putting everything exactly according to her husband's wish so that, come when he will, she may not feel the smart of a glance of his eye. Now for the comparison: have you and I got everything in our spiritual testimony ready for the Lord's return? So, practical holy walk in any child cannot be maintained except there is the constant expectation of His return, and what is so indicative of the Lord's being near at hand as the present outside and inside testimony that professional Christendom is now giving - quarrelling and drinking is the picture of Cain's religion of the world.

215 Mary at the grave on that notable morning of the resurrection, and John in his epistle to the saints have the conscious closeness of the Lord's presence, that they do not even name Him, Christ of God, but it is He and He alone, as if there was nobody else to speak of. "When He shall appear, we shall be like Him." In John 17: 19 how precious to find He sanctifies Himself for our sakes that we might be sanctified through the truth - set apart for God. What a wonderful thought! How our souls should pause and in solemn, silent meditation in His presence ask ourselves how much we each individually for ourselves understand and realize this wondrous fact. In James 4: 8 it was needful to warn, for the spiritual condition of the saints had become so corrupted: "Purify your hearts, ye double minded." It is the moral power of purifying my soul in His presence for His glory; for God's standard of holiness is the state and measure in which Christ is, in all His perfect purity in glory. He never knew anything else but companionship with God, except when sin was imputed to Him on the cross which is not necessary to say. It was His voluntary act to bring guilty man's case in God's presence and settle it by laying down His own life's blood; but in the believer's walk, God sets forth a glorified Christ as His standard of purity and we - every believer - are to purify ourselves even as He is pure. A wonderful thought - a man on earth and a Man in glory, even Christ Jesus; to know ourselves united! And the proof of my knowing myself united with Him is effective of producing holiness.

How then can a saved sinner take up the law as his rule of life? Sin is lawlessness; it is a violation of God's will, which, if I deny or sin against, proves at once that the fact that I am crucified with Christ has not had its proper place in my soul; and more, a creature has no right to a will. The Creator alone has an unlimited, indisputable right to a will. Man was pronounced dead on the cross in the Person of Christ, and it is true because He was there, though perfectly sinless, yet was my substitute and God has declared that man is dead as to his nature, dead as to practice and dead as to avoiding results. Nothing but the grace of God in providing the blessed Lord Jesus could meet his case. Whether under law or without law (Rom. 2) - no law or lawlessness - it makes no difference as to what man is as he stands before God. Consequently, no man will be in hell without a conscience; for the cross and He who hung upon it has been the evidence to God and to man as to his real enmity toward God Himself. So the Lord could truly say: "hated Me and My Father." John 5 is again a blessed testimony. He (Christ) was manifested to take away our sin, and in Him was no sin.

216 How often does one meet with some who would try to maintain the idea that Christ could be tempted, but reasoning upon the same ground as the theologians, it infers He must have been the same as Adam. But there was no sin stained scene when Adam fell; and Adam stood in innocence. But the Lord Jesus came right into the midst of evil and banished it on every hand; the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached, and more - "blessed is he whosoever is not offended in Me." And He alone could say too, "The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me." The second Man stands in the midst of ruin, untouched; and that is where we are if we are abiding in Him. Man cannot bring a clean thing out of unclean thing; but God can, for He by the Angel, said to the virgin, "That Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1: 35). Christ had not a mortal body; but He had a human body! What sorrow and difficulty often comes in through entertaining a wrong conception of the incarnation of Jesus as the Son of God, taking human nature (1 John 3: 6). The devil is a liar from the beginning. But the practical walk of the believer - abideth in Him, sinneth not - is quite another thing. His seed (Christ's) remaineth in him, for it is based on what Christ is and in unbroken communion with Him, is never anticipated by God the Father, Son or Holy Ghost to lose a sense of what Christ has been and is to him.

217 In John 15 the vine is a figure of the good effects of abiding in Christ. My mind, heart and body should be perfectly under His control, the Holy Ghost directing that new nature to which everything should be subordinate, for He, Christ, is my life. "Sinneth not" is the negative side. The fruit bearing in John 15 is a positive thing - the fruit of the fact that eternal life is in me now, down here. It has nothing at all to do with the Church; it is individual responsibility. How could God admit sin when He gave His Son to put it away? Can He then in the smallest degree allow it in me? Salvation is one thing; holiness is another. A man may have salvation and not have holiness. The Lord has provided it for him and offers it to him. 1 John 3: 7. "Let no man deceive you." Verse 9. "His seed remaineth in him." What is it that manifests the claims of their nature? Their behaviour. Abel proved his claim by offering a lamb; Cain his estimate in a broad abstract by offering (not life, but) death, his own righteousness, so that on either side, the walking or doing gives evidence of the standing, and sadly true it is that calling each other "Brother" now has been terribly misapplied and misunderstood. Verse 14 accepts exclusively brethren in Christ. The character of Cain in unrighteousness and self-will - just the character of the world now, in this present day of professing Christendom, which will enable a person to get on best in this world - is the one that will get the most patronized. Romans 7 is the walking of a bad nature, but this is the devil forcing into effect that nature which is corrupt and condemned of God. "No flesh can glory in His presence." The greatest opponent to Christ was a Jew under all his privileges, not Cain. Gentile power was taken up in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and has been allowed more or less by God in His sovereignty to hold the government of the world since.

218 Verse 16. We can only know and show love according to the measure by which we know Him, instead of taking the lives of God's children, as the Roman Catholics and Protestants did some time back because of what they did not believe in or did not know about the Church. The Word of God is that we should lay down our lives for the brethren. There is no negative work, but positive good, or positive evil must necessarily be the inevitable development of the believer, or of the infidel or professor. Let us then be more in His blessed presence within the veil that the light of His presence may have such a divine effect upon our souls, learning alone of Him what was that love of Him who laid down His life for us, and gaze into that blessed One's face while going out in His service, that He Himself may so absorb our souls, so that no other object may take our attention. He and His glory are indeed worth all our love, and His Person alone is worth gazing upon. May our good Lord thus keep us and bless us for His precious name's sake.

Notes on Revelation

J. N. Darby.

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Note the incense altar is found in Revelation only in Revelation 8, and the censer or incense vessel, libanotos; this not in chapter 4 where power and judgment - government is presented to us. Nor have the elders any censers, libanoton, in Revelation 5. This belonged to Him who was at the altar of incense. They might be given thumiamata (incense) for their bowls or saucers, but they had no libanoton (censer) or altar of incense. They are priests and offer the prayers, but they offer no prayer, no incense of their own. They add nothing and give efficacy to nothing. The angel in Revelation 8 do (give) to the prayers of the saints. There the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints, tais p.t.a. (to the prayers of the saints).

The action of the angel in Revelation 8 is quite a different thing. Further it would seem as if the sea being of glass marked that there was no more cleansing with water. Would it not show that though essentially holiness must be the same, namely consecration and separation to God, yet that it had formally a different character? This is separation to God while Christ is hidden and while it is His being all Himself for His own sake. It is not forcing out by excess and growth of wickedness but in the power of the Spirit because good is good. Hence when the last plagues are coming out they stand on the sea of glass mingled with fire. They have part in the necessary witness of the place but it is through the application of tribulation to them.

Judgment has the place of the secret separation of the Spirit in making Christ all within, through the result He produced (original priestly washing was not in the laver; that was when they were priests). In chapter 4 the holiness of heaven was fixed and stable as a result. It was not there washing for (or) in the wilderness yet according to the sanctuary. In Revelation 4 the elders are settled in their place around the throne according to that. In Revelation 15 it is only made good (as men say) by the tribulation. They have come through the fire and are there. The 24 elders peacefully there, as their place through grace. They had taken death as their portion, pilgrims and strangers on the earth. The 144,000 of chapter 14 come in as an additional chapter. They have not millennial quietness as their life but having suffered like (not with) Christ on earth they are with Him in His earthly glory wherever He goes.

221 Note in Revelation 9 the first woe applies to the body of unrepentant Israel, not the servants of God. Compare Revelation 9: 4 and Revelation 7: 3. The second woe applies to the Roman earth as I suppose, that is, the third part of men. The first: Satan's direct power and false prophecy; the second: more external but the false prophecy also. They are killed, not tormented merely as in the first woe. Idolatry and wickedness characterize the second class - inhabiters of the earth, apply to both, the unrepentant Jew and the idolatrous wicked dweller upon a Christless earth - the earth where Rome had its influence.

A Letter On Atonement

J. N. Darby.

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Beloved Brother - In John 14. 9, the Son presents Himself as the display of the Father. Fundamental truth! which every believer receives and rejoices in. Without doubt he who rejects it denies the glory of Him who came to effect atonement, and undermines the atonement itself. It is the dignity of the person which gave divine capacity for the work, and infinite efficacy to the work when accomplished.

But atonement demanded far more than either the divine rights of the Lord, or the sinner's appropriation of Him and His work by faith apart from works. Hence reasoning from the words of the Lord, which do not touch the question, can only mislead. What does Scripture say of the atonement? Does it not make it depend on the cross of Christ? On His blood shed for the remission of our sins? On His suffering once for sins, Just for unjust, that He might bring us to God? Here is an ample array of clear New Testament testimonies:

Rom. 3: 25, Rom. 4: 25, Rom. 5: 9, 10;

1 Cor. 15: 3;

2 Cor. 5: 21;

Gal. 1: 4, Gal. 3: 16;

Eph. 1: 7, Eph. 2: 13, Eph. 4: 32, Eph. 5: 2;

Col. 1: 14, 20;

1 Tim. 2: 6;

Titus 2: 14;

Heb. 1: 3, Heb. 2: 9, 14, Heb. 9: 12, 14, 15, 24-28, Heb. 10: 5-10, 12-19, Heb. 12: 24, Heb. 13: 12, 20;

1 Peter 1: 2, 18-21, 1 Peter 2: 24, 1 Peter 3: 18;

1 John 1: 7, 1 John 2: 2, 1 John 4: 10;

Rev. 1: 5, Rev. 5: 9, Rev. 7: 14, etc.

Need one add the anticipatory words in the Gospels,

Matt. 20: 28, Matt. 26: 28;

John 1: 29, or other such scriptures?

Yet it may be well to notice briefly a few indisputable types in the Old Testament. The blood of the slain lamb on the paschal night was sprinkled without, not within; on the lintel and door-posts, not for Israel to see, but for God. "When I see the blood, I will pass over." So in the sacrifices the blood was put on the horns of God's altar, presented to God, never to man. In certain cases men (lepers, priests, etc.) were sprinkled with blood that they might be cleansed, that is, judicially clean before God. Thus on the greatest of all occasions it was carried in, and put before the mercy-seat, on atonement-day; but it only the more establishes the principle, that it was for man before God, and not a mere token of God's love to man. In the New Testament application Christ is declared to have entered in by His own blood. To have come down and died in love to man is equally true, but quite distinct.

24 There is no doubt, then, of love in God more than in Christ; Scripture is explicit. The Father sent the Son; God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten. But it is equally true that the Son of Man must be lifted up; and that necessity was not merely man's evil, but God's word and righteous character and holy nature and majesty which must be vindicated in order to a righteous forgiveness. The cross of Christ meets all this, and much more. He was forsaken of God because of sin (Ps. 22.) It was no question here of the Jews or Gentiles, of Herod or Pontius Pilate, save as guilty persecutors. God too was at the cross, and made Christ sin for us, that we might become His righteousness in Christ. He had suffered for righteousness and holiness and grace before. He suffered for sins then. This is atonement, the sole ground of expiating the guilt of the believer. Nor was this a novel expectation, though a new fact. He was wounded for our transgressions, said the prince of prophets; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. Jehovah hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. "For the transgression of my people was he stricken." "It pleased Jehovah to bruise him: he hath put him to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed," etc. He shall bear their iniquities. He bare the sin of many. Isa. 53.

25 Thus law, psalms, and prophets agree; Old and New Testaments alike proclaim Christ's suffering from God, and before God, because of our sins. The Lord announced it; the apostles - Paul especially - are full of it; and not least the beloved disciple, who most presses God's love which is really enhanced by it, of which the depth and strength are only there known where Christ's drinking this cup from the Father is owned. Divine love is not all the truth, nor man's hatred, nor Satan's power; but deeper than all is Christ's offering Himself to God as a sacrifice for sins. Love indeed is enfeebled incalculably by not seeing the truth that Christ bore the judgment of our sins at God's hand. Rather is love degraded into indifference to man's sins, and disregard of God's holiness and majesty, and of such warnings as are in Deut. 27: 26; Rom. 2: 9; Heb. 10: 31. The scriptures cited prove, on the contrary, that expiation was essential for God's honour if He would save guilty man, even though he believed. Judgment was born by Christ that grace might flow out to the sinner. It is therefore now God's righteousness as well as His grace.

26 When it is argued, then, that all theology is false which makes the image of the Son different from that of the Father, is it denied that God bruised Christ, and that Christ was forsaken by God? that Christ died in expiation of our guilt before God, who raised Him from the dead? If so, this is abusing one truth to contradict another no less momentous. Justification is by faith, not works; but did Christ accomplish the work typified by the sacrifices for sin on atonement-day? Isaiah 53 predicts, and Matthew and Mark record, our Lord's suffering, as He says, by God's abandonment of Him, the bitterest of all punishment for our sins. Is God's punishing, and Christ's enduring, the same image? I should have thought them the greatest contrast; yet the counsel of peace was between Them both. What has been used, therefore, is only a misuse of John 14: 9, which in truth regards Christ's person and not His work. To apply it to the cross, so as to get rid of the Lord's suffering from God for our sins, is really to explain away the Scripture truth and Christian foundation of atonement. If this be not the meaning of the argument, what is?

Further, it is assumed that righteousness in God must be the same thing as in Jesus, and that the assertion of a good quality in the Father, which the Son lacks, in effect denies that the latter is God, or like Him. But this is quite a mistake. Righteousness is, as always, consistency with the relationship in which each stands. Evidently, therefore, as among men it is modified in the servant as compared with the master, in the child with the parent, in the wife with the husband, in the subject with the sovereign, so it is with Him who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking a bondsman's form, become in the likeness of men, and found in figure as a man, humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death of the cross: wherefore also God exalted Him exceedingly. As man therefore the Son, far from lacking what is the Father's morally, has what the Father has not and could not have, as He never became incarnate. The righteousness which directs or commands is one thing, that which obeys is another. "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." It was His act; yet was it obedience of His Father (John 10: 17, 18). The mystery of His person finds its answer in His death. To reason from one aspect of it exclusively, whether divine or human, is to divide the person, to neutralise the work, and to lose the truth. "No one knoweth the Son but the Father." We must be subject to His word, but to it all, and not to a part only. Jesus is the Son, who is not like God merely (Scripture never saying so), for He really is God, and as fully God as are the Father and the Holy Spirit.

28 Moreover all the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him does dwell in Him bodily; yet, while the persons in the Godhead have not only unity of nature but one mind and counsel and purpose, so they act distinctly in manifesting it, as we see, e.g., in Matt. 3: 16, 17, for they are three as well as one. And though Jesus were Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. There could not but be therefore qualities, perfect in their kind, in Him which were not in the Father, nor in Him (the Son) till He took the place of servant as man on earth. Still more is this true of Him on the cross, where He entered on a new work, unique in its character, and infinite in its consequences of grace and glory everlasting, as the sufferings in which it was wrought. This in no way compromises the Godhead of Christ, any more than it impeaches His manifestation of the Father or expression of God. And the refusal to see distinctness of action in the Father and the Son throughout His course on earth, and, above all, in the cross, tends not indeed to Romanism, but to what is yet worse - Sabellianism, and thus far more at issue with holy Scripture than with the doctrine of Anselm, which is to me of little or no account.

We must not with the theologians confound purchase with redemption. All the world, all mankind, even the wicked, are bought by Christ's blood; but none save believers have redemption (ἀπολύτρωσιν) through His blood, the forgiveness of sins though the ἀντίλυτρον be περὶ πάντων. Purchase makes all to be His property or slaves; by redemption we are freed from Satan, Christ's freedmen, to serve God in liberty. Is it seriously questioned by the figure of the King dying in victory for His army, that the blood of Christ shed as a sacrifice for sin was not presented to God as well as for man? It is in vain to reason on God's loving the world, and so loving it as to send His Son to give the believer eternal life; but this is distinct from the other truth, that He came to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Now sacrifice in Scripture is to God, and never to the creature, which is heathenism, as the negation of sacrifice is infidelity. And assuredly the work of redemption, the forgiveness of sins, is by blood, by suffering atoningly on the cross, not by all authority in heaven and earth conferred on the Risen Man by God. And it is important to see that when all is made subject by Christ, and He hands back the kingdom, it is that not the Father but God (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) should be all in all.

Yours ever in Christ,

___________

30 Pride is the greatest of all evils that beset us, and of all our enemies it is that which dies the slowest and hardest.  . . . . God hates pride above all things, because it gives to man the place that belongs to Him who is above, exalted over all. Pride intercepts communion with God, and draws down His chastisement, for "God resists the proud."

__________

Luke 15

Notes of Readings

J. N. Darby.

<35004E> 31

32 We sometimes think we ought to be this, or we ought to be that. This is the pride of man's heart.

There is sovereign grace for the vilest. It is all true we have sinned, we know that we do not love our neighbour as ourselves. The law was no sooner given, than the golden calf was made, and it was broken.

You may talk of politics, of anything, everything, in any kind of society, but bring in Christ - "there is no beauty that we should desire him." Man shewed the climax of his wickedness when he crucified Christ. God has shewn His love where we shewed our hatred. I say, "My sins brought Him there." Here I get righteousness against sin, and love to man. I find Man in all His perfectness on the cross.

The third parable is most important to unite them all. The first two, God seeking sinners; in the last, the grace that receives them - love and goodness triumphant over all. Who is the happy person in the first? "The shepherd." And who in the second? "The woman;" and in the third, "the father." We do not get the value of the third parable without the first two.

The shepherd shews love and care for the sheep; he puts it on his shoulders. I have no doubt the shepherd is a type of Christ; the second parable, of the work of the Holy Ghost; the third, "reception" by the Father. We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. We find the Lord constantly labouring to persuade the disciples of it. Do we believe the Father loves us as He loves Jesus?

33 The first two parables are the grace and love that sought. But, beloved, who put it into God's heart? There is not a joy in heaven that we have not got now. I know I have got Christ, and that I have the Holy Spirit. We have been washed from our sins. Everything a poor feeble thing wants, we have got - the Father's love, the Son's love. "Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ."

There is nothing in heaven that is not the portion of the believer now - nothing that the heart of God can give, but what we have. Nothing can go beyond "the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us, through Christ Jesus."

Whenever God is pleased to reveal Himself, we get two things - light and love. Man loved darkness rather than light. When God reveals Himself in Christ, it awakens the conscience, and there is a sense of His goodness - it was so with Peter when he got a net full of fishes, and he prostrates himself before Christ. The prodigal starts off, but there is as yet no real revelation of God; he is going to say, "make me one of thy hired servants." He is right so far, but he does not know God. When he does come, he confesses his sins: "I have sinned," etc., but the very first thing before he is received in the house, the father is on his neck, kissing him, and he has not even confessed the father yet. Now he says, "I am no more worthy to be called thy son." The father answers, "Bring forth the best robe." That is salvation; I have got an absolute proof of God's love to me. "God commendeth his love towards us." He has given His blessed Son, a token of His infinite love. Is the Person that bore my sins still on the cross? No; He is at the right hand of God. The work that saves me was done outside me; I find I had no part in it. "By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."

34 He finished the question of salvation the first time He came. The more we think of the cross, the more we shall find that there is nothing like it through all eternity.

Everything in good and evil was brought to an issue there.

In the first two parables, there is the grace that seeks; and in the third, the grace that receives.

It is a very different thing to be converted, and to be saved. Conversion is the conscience awakened, but not purged. The prodigal was converted when he thought of going to his father, but he was still in the far country, starving; even when the father met him, he was in his rags. When the best robe was put on him, he was saved; he was not fit for the house till then, could not have gone in till he had the best robe - Christ.

35 Conversion is, that I see goodness in God, and sin in myself; I see that He is good, but that I am not fit for Him. Like Peter, when he says, "Depart from me."

The prodigal son was converted when in famine. He said, "I will arise," but he has not an idea of the love that was in his father's heart till he met him. Then we hear no more about the prodigal son, except what was done for him.

There is not a joy in heaven that we have not got now, except the glorified body. We hear no more of the prodigal's thoughts or feelings, once he gets to the father. After that, all we get is the expression of the father's love, and his joy. Of course, the prodigal had joy too, but we do not hear about it.

The eldest son, the self-righteous man, has no part in the joy, he would not go in, although the father entreated him; thoroughly selfish, he had not a thought about his brother. It is the Jew, the one who had the promise. In that sense all was his, but he only wanted to make merry with his friends - no heart to enter into the father's joy over the restored one.

John 14

Notes of Readings

J. N. Darby.

<35005E> 36

In the previous chapter the Lord tells them He was going away; here He tells them what would be their comfort - He went to prepare a place for them - He would bring them to the same place as Himself - He would come for them Himself, not send for them. To be conformed to the image of His Son, that is the end of all knowledge. God's purpose was to give me a place with the Son: He is the first born among many brethren. He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one - one set - that is the key of all blessings.

Q. Verse 7. How does He mean "they would have known the Father" - not in relationship?

A. No, not in relationship till the Holy Ghost came; but He was then the revelation of the Father; purity, holiness, love, all that the Father is, was manifested in Him; and He was going to the Father, so they knew where, and they knew the way, for He was the way. The moment the Son was there, the name of the Father was revealed. God has come out in Christ; when God does come out, it is the Father revealed in the Son.

37 There are four names by which God revealed Himself. To Abraham it was "God Almighty," to Israel as "Jehovah;" "Most High," in the millennium; to us, "the Father" revealed in the Son.

"This is the hidden wisdom ordained before the world unto our glory," not revealed before, but God has revealed it unto us by His Spirit. The revelation is by the Holy Ghost - the words by which the revelation is communicated - and it is still the Holy Ghost who works to make me know it.

You do not get the Father in Hebrews; you get the priesthood, we do not get all the privileges, but you can go in, no hindrance to your going (Heb. 9: 8, Heb. 10: 19); but it is God's throne, not the Father's.

John 17: 21, 22. The world will know it when we appear in glory, but we know it now, though the treasure is in a poor earthen vessel.

Q. But our apprehension of it does not depend on natural intelligence?

38 A. No, it is spiritually discerned.

Q. Then, as it is by divine power, there is no limit to what we may have, or to what we may enter into?

A. No, only we do not get it all at once, but what we learn makes us capable of getting more.

Q. When He says (John 16: 18), "I will come to you," does He mean by the Spirit?

A. No, that is Christ Himself. (Ver. 20.) He does not say here, "the Father in me;" that had been while He was on earth, but in that day which was coming, they should know another thing - "I in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." The Father had been revealed in Him - they were dull - but the thing was there for them. They never once understood what He said, never on any occasion; when they said they did (John 16: 29), they only proved they did not; they said, "Now speakest thou plainly  . . . . by this we believe that thou camest out from God;" but they dropped "the Father:" the Lord responds, "Do ye now believe?"

We have the Spirit to enable us to understand - I in the Father, not He revealed in me. When the Spirit is come, I know that Christ is in me and I in Him; and that gives me everything.

Q. Is there an intended difference between "abide in" and being "in"?

39 A. It is as a consequence of verse 16 that it is said, "He in me." We get in Acts 1, 2. what was a great comfort to me; that the Holy Ghost was in Christ after His resurrection - we shall have the Holy Ghost for ever in us. He is always working. We find Him so working in creation. "By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens;" and there is a remarkable verse in Haggai 2: 5 - in Christ's miracles, and always.

Q. Is not the Holy Ghost's work now to bring us (the church) to Christ?

A. The Holy Ghost is like a steamship, with a power to surmount hindrances; not dependent on the wind like a sailing vessel. There are difficulties and hindrances by the way, which He has to surmount; but when He has brought us to heaven, there is nothing to do, but to unfold to us what is there.

Christ never glorified Himself; He says, "Father, glorify thou me." He even gets the Holy Ghost for us "from the Father."

"Ye in me" brings us into all that He has received. "Not as the world giveth;" the world gives and consequently possesses no longer, but Christ gives by bringing us into all that He has as Man.

"That I am in my Father" introduces me to heavenly things; they ought to have known the Father in Him down here, but now we know Him in the Father. I am then a son as He is. When on earth, He always spoke of God as "My Father;" when made sin it is "My God;" afterwards it is as God and Father, but it is also, "My God and your God, my Father and your Father."

40 In the epistles we get constantly "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

"Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba Father;" we have the Father's love and Christ's; but, besides, we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Son.

Q. And that is true Christianity?

A. Yes, Christianity is heavenly; everything will be gathered up under one Head, in heaven and on earth. We have the heavenly place - "blessed in heavenly places."

Q. How few have really got that?

A. They have not got into it, but it is theirs. Many stop at being clear from the first Adam - the debt paid - but they do not get hold of being put into the second Adam.

Every one brought into glory is glory to Christ, and I have to rejoice in His glory, not merely that I am glorified.

The love of the Father is the spring and centre of the new creation.

41 The spirit of the world is opposed to the spirit of Christ. I have one thing to desire - to please Christ here, to walk as He walked.

Another thing we get is God's rest. He would have us enjoying it; you do not find rest here. If you find a very happy meeting, you may be sure the devil will try and spoil it - there is no rest here.

Q. How do you understand verse 23?

A. If we get into their abode, they make us their abode. "If a man love me," etc.; all in this part of John is conditional. We ought to realise these things. It is from the lack of obedience there is lack of joy.

There are two things in verse 21; He that "hath" and "keepeth." Having His commandments is one mark of the obedient child; a careless child will not know them. It is a wonderful thing to know we are in Christ and Christ in us now.

Knowing what He has brought me into is another thing from knowing what He has brought me out of.

Further on we get another thing - peace; not merely peace of conscience, though we get that, but Christ's peace, the peace He had when walking through the world.

Q. Would that be the same as the "peace of God" in Philippians 4?

42 A. No, the peace of God is another thing; nothing can trouble God's peace, but the thought here is that Christ's peace fills my heart, walking through a scene where disturbing things are.

And how the blessed Lord reckons on our hearts entering into His joy! "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice." If you are thinking of yourselves, you will not, but He counts on our hearts.

"At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you." We are one with Him. If I am in Christ, then Christ is in me. He appears in the presence of God for you; you ought to appear in the presence of the world for Him.

It does not say, You "shall be" the epistle of Christ, but, Ye "are;" that is our responsibility, but it is not connected with our acceptance.

You cannot make yourself my child, though you may be ever so childlike, you must be in the place first. We are the epistles of Christ.

The Lord give us to know our obligation to the One who loved us in the common things of life.

The Father's House

John 14

J. N. Darby.

<35006E> 43

This chapter presents an object before our souls so as to give us our portion in Christ - a portion in the Father's house; and secondly how we get into this place. It wonderfully brings before us our place now that He is absent from us (though in one sense He is never absent), what the comfort of the Christian is, and the place into which God has brought him. This is no fresh truth, but showing where the heart of the Christian is when he really has Christ before him and the Holy Ghost working in him.

Christ was going away and it was natural that they should be troubled. At the end of the chapter He says to them in a touching way, "If you thought of me you would be glad that I am going back to my Father, and out of this scene of sin and sorrow." Still, it seemed to them that they were going to lose Him, and it was natural they should grieve; and so He gives them what is to be their comfort when He is gone.

Besides this, there is His coming again brought in. "I cannot stay with you here," He says, "but I will take you where I am going." The whole state of the world was unfit for Him to remain on the earth. He could not rest here. He could stay for a time and serve, but could not rest. Even long before, in the Old Testament, it is said "This is not your rest, for it is polluted"; but this only led to the blessed truth that He was going to give us a rest where He could rest, with the Father, and that His work was so perfect and so effectual that He could give us a place there. We have got a portion where He has all His glory, all His rest, the fruit of the travail of His soul.

44 "In my Father's house are many mansions . . . I go to prepare a place for you." Mark this, it was in His Father's house, the place that He had as Son where He was at home, there He was going to prepare my place. That is unspeakable blessing! It was a comfort, a joy to have Christ with them in the world, but that was by the way. He was going to prepare a place where He was at home. Think what the home of such a heart as His must be! Where all His divine affections would flow out, the divine Son, and yet a Man, and to think that this is the place where He is going to take us. What a wonderful thing! What a home must that be!

"I will come again and receive you unto myself." Not call you up, that would not do: not send for you, that would not do: but "I will come." How touching! Though gone into glory and sitting on His Father's throne, He would leave it to come and fetch us into His Father's house. His affections are so set on us that He is not satisfied without coming Himself for us; He would not send. It is not only the blessedness to us of His coming Himself for us, but it is the expression of Christ's heart. He wants it, wants to have us. It is His own interest in us, His love to us. When we know that, then the heart is drawn out to Himself. No doubt it is an unspeakable blessing to us, but it is the revelation of Christ Himself. The one only blessed hope of the Church is that He would come again and fetch us. Confidence is sure that when we are unclothed we shall be with the Lord, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." Yet that is not the hope; the hope is that He will come and fetch us. It is on His heart and should be on ours. They went out to meet the bridegroom; that was the condition of the Church at the first. Converted to wait for His Son from heaven, they all went to sleep, wise as well as foolish, and had to be waked by the midnight cry. It was "My Lord delayeth His coming," that brought deadness into the Church, that led to the eating and drinking and drunkenness, beating the men-servants and maid-servants.

45 This is no truth that may or may not be held. It is essential to the daily life of the Christian. If I am daily expecting Christ I shall not like to be in any place where I would not like Him to find me, and whatever would not please Him I should put off, whatever it is. We are looking for One who loves us. His heart wants us, and He is going to satisfy His heart. It is not prophecy; prophecy has to do with God's government of this world, and it is very interesting in its place, but it has nothing to do with our hope.

Now comes in another thing. If I am sending my son, or orphan, if you please - though in one sense we are not left orphans - to a strange place, the grand point would be for him to know what sort of person it was that I was going to send him to live with. Heaven is a very vague place if I have not got a Person in it. If there were no one there - if we were to dwell in a holy place by ourselves - it would not do. We should have no object there before our souls. There would be an immense gap. Of course, it is not possible that it should be so. And so He tells us that we have known the Father if we have known Him, that it is the Father's house He is going to, and going to take us to. So the grand point for us is how we can know the Father and perfect satisfaction. It is not like this poor empty world, which, our hearts being made for God, is too small ever to fill them. This object is too big for our hearts. I press this, how close the Father has been brought to us. They had seen Him and so had seen the Father; and when they ask the way, He says, "I am the way."

46 "Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father." They had got the full blessedness, but their poor hearts did not know it. Could He say to us, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?" Or can we say that our souls have so seen the Father in the Person of the Son, that we can say, "I have found it all, I have got it." It is that that forms the heart as to its affections. If we have followed Christ in His path down here - followed Him in the Gospels - have we learnt the Father's ways in the Son? He passed all on that He enjoys of the Father to the disciples that they might enjoy it with Him. How much have we learnt of this favour and blessedness which He reveals? I cannot learn anything of it that is not mine, "that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them." All things are mine.

The Lord presses this upon them, that "no man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." It is a wrong thought that He left the Father's bosom. He never did; He left the Father's house. You get in Christ the full revelation of what the Father is. The only begotten Son, all the Father's delight centres in Him, in the bosom of the Father, that is in the full enjoyment of it, He declares the Father. I see He is infinite, and I adore Him, but I see He is the revelation of the Father's love to me, as I go over His life down here.

47 It is not merely saying, I am a lost sinner and have been saved, but it is the Holy Ghost dwelling in me, occupying me with Christ, having fellowship with the Father and the Son, that is my portion. When I say I have fellowship with any one down here, I mean I have the same thoughts, the same joys, the same ways. Is that true of us with the Father and the Son? It gives holiness of thoughts of course, and it gives piety of thoughts; that is you get affections according to the relationship you are in, suitable to that which is before your soul.

Supposing my soul is dwelling on the blessed obedience of Christ - His obedience unto death - and I am adoringly sitting and contemplating Christ so, does not the Father contemplate it too? Do not I know the Father's delight in it too? "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life," and that is why I love Him because He has laid down His Life, in my poor feeble measure, of course, but it is having the same object.

Do not rest satisfied if you do not know what it is to enjoy the Father's favour in the Son, and to know the Father revealed in all the ways of Christ, that the Son of God is come into the world to reveal the Father. How much have your hearts learnt what He came down to let you know, the love of the Father and the Son?

Now He goes on to the other Comforter. The world ought to have recognised Christ, for He did among them the works that none other man did, but the world has nothing to do with the Holy Ghost. When the Holy Ghost comes there is no personal manifestation of Him to the world. "Whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not neither knoweth Him." They ought to see His fruits in the disciples of course, but they cannot see Him. "But ye know Him for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you." Christ could not abide. It was necessary that He should put Man in heaven and send the Holy Ghost down. It is now not merely the revelation of the Father and the Son, but it is the Holy Ghost dwelling in us. Christ dwelt with, but not in His disciples, the Holy Ghost dwells in us.

48 Now I get another thing, that being sprinkled by the blood of Jesus Christ and perfectly clean the Holy Ghost can take up His abode in us. It was not simply that a man was born again - being born again is not righteousness before God. There is a mixture, my poor flesh is there. I may hate the evil, hate myself for it, but it does not cleanse the conscience, but when I get the work of Christ outside myself, then it is according to the value God has of the blood of Christ that I am clean in His sight. In virtue of Christ being at the right hand of God my righteousness, the Spirit of God can come and take up his abode in me. Now He abides, now we get the power in us. Our bodies the temple of the Holy Ghost. What a thought! Who that thought of it could use his body for sin, who that thought of it could deck it out with vanities? We forget it or we never could, this wonderful thought that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost! If we just think of that what servants of Christ we should be in everything. We should be so careful not to grieve the Spirit. God dwelling in us as a Guest, what a thought! See the effect of that when I receive the Holy Ghost. "In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father." He does not add here, "and the Father in Me." The world was the place where they needed to know that. When they wanted to know about the Father, then it was, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." But now it was to know that this Man - this "carpenter's son," whose visage was marred more than any man's, who was treated as a malefactor, who underwent the outrages of man - that He is in the Father, and one with the Father. It brings God to us, and us to God.

49 And now mark what follows "Ye in Me," "Ye shall know this." I do not want this simply as a truth, but do you know, are you living in the consciousness that you are in Christ and Christ in you? Are you living day by day in that consciousness? Is that your life? It is our whole place now; we are in Christ, and in the presence of God. It is not only that He is in the presence of God between God and us to intercede for us, but we are in Him there, and the favour that rests on Him rests on us. I am in Christ Himself before God, and, moreover, Christ is in me. Now I get the standard of walk. He is before God for me and I in Him, and I am before the world for Him and He in Me. This gives us the measure of our walk down here. If it is true that you are in Christ, Christ is in you, and now let me see Him. I look to see nothing in your walk, or ways, or manner, or anything about you that is not Christ. Do you manifest Christ in everything? In your walk, and ways, and dress and everything?

The heart sees Him now. All that made God delight in Him we are called to esteem and to apprehend by the Holy Ghost, "because I live ye shall live also." If Christ is my life, He must die before I can die. If I look up to God, divine favour rests upon me. I am in Christ. If I want to know how to walk, Christ is in me and I am to show Him.

50 Then He closes this chapter in a way that is wondrously touching. I am to be concerned about His happiness. The place He has set us in is His own, as sons with the Father, the righteousness of God in Him. He is our life, and then, having put us in His own place, He leaves us His path. I ask you where your heart's time is spent? Is it spent in Christ or in tittle-tattle or what not? What springs up when we meet one another, is it Christ or what is in Christ? Or is it the tittle-tattle of the world? I am not talking of evil, I am supposing you know Him and are not going on in sin. But when the pressure of what you have to do is taken off, does Christ come forth?

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you." The way that Christ gives is to bring us into the enjoyment of all that He enjoys Himself. "In the world ye shall have tribulation." He leaves us His own path.

There is such a wonderful expression here of how He identifies Himself with us and expects us to identify ourselves with Him: expects our affections to be occupied with Him. I know no such expression, showing how near he has come to us, how near He has brought us to Himself, as this. "If you are thinking of yourselves," He says, "you will be sorry that I am going to leave you. If you are thinking of Me you will be glad that I am going back to my Father's house."

The Lord give us to have our eye resting on Him, on the fulness of grace in Him, so that knowing what He is going to take us into, we may know Him in us now; in Christ and Christ in me; and know His strength to go on, showing Him forth.

An Address on John 14

J. N. Darby.

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It is remarkable the pains the Lord takes to give us the sense of the way He has associated Himself with us and us with Himself; and how His heart goes out that our hearts may believe in His love, that He is interested in us and in our being with Him. In His rejection His heart would not rest and be satisfied unless He felt they had the consciousness of being associated with Himself.

The history of the Gospels is the history of His Person passing through this world, that would not have Him if He was that Person. Then He labours to persuade His own that He cares perfectly and completely for them - that He labours for them, and cannot be satisfied without having them with Himself.

When they came to Peter and said, "Doth not your Master pay tribute?" as a good Jew, Peter says "Yes." Jesus says, "Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children or of strangers?" Peter says, "Of strangers." Jesus replies, "Then are the children free notwithstanding lest we should offend them . . . take and give unto them, for Me and thee." We get the Lord showing Divine knowledge and Divine power, yet putting Peter along with Him. His own Person is always guarded but they were both children (Matt. 17: 24-27).

So at John's baptism; in the first step of the remnant, the Lord takes it with them, and man's place is shewn in the one Man, upon whom consequent upon what He was in Himself, heaven must open. It is the first time you get the whole Trinity brought out, the moment He has taken His place man amongst men.

52 Then man has to overcome Satan and He says, "I must go there too." (Matt 4: 1-10).

Then you get man's place shown out in glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses and Elias are in the glory talking familiarly together. There again His Person is guarded - they disappear. "This is my beloved Son, hear Him." You get Him being this Divine Person whether in the lowliest place, or in the heavenly glory, but always bringing His disciples into the same.

So in John 20, Who was it that was told the highest position that can be thought of? Who was the vessel of the revelation to minister it? Not the Apostles, but Mary Magdalene. Attached to Christ's grave she cannot leave it. If she had not Him she had nothing. She gets the revelation and communicates it to the Apostles. You will find always through Scripture, that where there are those who cling to His Person, there divinely given knowledge is found. If you want to know keep close to Christ. It was not in order to know that John was so close to Him (John 18): he was there before.

Divine affections are connected with the work of the Lord, who had been thus drawing out their hearts to cling to Himself, and was now going away. They were troubled. The thing that He takes up still, is their having to part with Him. He was going to the Father. "Very well, I cannot give you up - I must make you fit to be with Me." "He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet." "If I cannot be with you, you must be with Me, and I cannot have a spot in heaven." They were clean "through the word I have spoken unto you." But He cannot have them picking up dirt on the road, He must wash them. He became a Servant when He became a Man. Having loved His own which were in the world He loved them unto the end, that is out and out - right through. He will gird Himself and make them sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them even in glory. He makes Himself Minister of the blessing. His heart is not colder there than here, and this makes it doubly blessed to us. If my mother gives me a trifle I would not part with it for the world. There is not a joy we shall have in heavenly things that Christ will not give. He never ceases to be a Man nor to have Divine love in His heart.

53 In the first three Gospels Christ is presented to the world to be received, but this is not so with John. In chapter 1 the world knew Him not - His own received Him not. Therefore you find electing grace in John. Chapter 8 is the rejection of His word; chapter 9 of His work: chapter 10 "I will have my sheep in spite of all." Having been finally rejected in word and work you get Him owned in all the characters He was entitled to. Chapter 11, as Son of God in the resurrection of Lazarus: chapter 12, riding on an ass into Jerusalem as a testimony that He was Son of David. God took care that He should have that. Then Greeks come up desiring to see Him, and He says, "The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified." But if He takes this larger, fuller place He must die. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone."

54 In chapter 14, it is what He tells them for their comfort while He is away. First, He is coming back again. Ye believe in God as an object of faith, believe also in Me. In My Father's house there are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come to receive you to Myself. I cannot stay with you, but I am not going to be alone up there; there are many mansions, I will come to receive you.

In consequence of that you get two quite distinct things. First the object before the disciples - what they ought to have known then: second what they could not know until later. He does not leave us ignorant of the blessedness He is going to bring us into. "I am going to the Father." They say "whither goest Thou, we do not know the way." "Why I am going to the Father, and you have seen the Father in Me!" If I am sending my child anywhere, the great point is what the person is there. So the Father was where He was going.

"Show us the Father." "You have seen the Father in Me and you have got it all." They knew where He was going because they had seen the Father in Him. They knew the way because they had found the Father through Him.

We know Christ shall see of the fruit and travail of His soul; that is an immense joy. What does He desire for the saint now? To be as like Him as possible. Then there will not be a thing in us to jar with Christ's heart. Still the essence of the blessedness is that it is the Father's house and we know Who is there. They had seen the Father revealed in Him that they might know where He was going. It shows the immense importance of the Person of the Lord Jesus. When the Christian sees Him he knows the blessedness of where He is going quite well. Thus we get the object already before them, and if they really loved Him they would prove it by keeping His commandments.

55 He then goes to the second part of the christian blessedness. (verse 16). As I have got the object in the revelation of the Father and the Son, I now get the Comforter from the Father to give me this association with Christ, "at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." It is not merely the Father and the Son as in the first part, but now they learn another thing, that He who is gone to Heaven is in the Father, and that the Father has sent the Comforter to make them know that they are in Him and He in them. Thus I get the Christian's state consequent on the coming of the Holy Ghost. Thus I get sure blessedness - divinely given certainty of our place in Christ. I know that I am in Christ who is there, and I know Christ is in me here. It is not a question of hope, but the Holy Ghost is dwelling in us.

There is no thought of the world receiving the Holy Ghost. The world ought to have received Christ. The world did see Christ and ought to have known Him. The Holy Ghost is not in the world to be received as Christ was. The world cannot receive Him; it never says they cannot receive Christ. The Holy Ghost comes and is the seal of believers called out of the world to be a peculiar people. He belongs to and is known of believers only. He is not like the first Comforter. Christ was there and could not be in them. He was with them but had to go away. The Holy Ghost is in us, and stays with us. Christ was amongst them here, but not in them. He was absolutely alone in that sense - most accessible, affable, but alone. This other Comforter stays here, abides with us and in us. It is a thing that is only known by having it; but the effect of having it is that I know I am in Christ. He gives the consciousness of being in Christ. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. On the other side we know Christ is in us. Thus we get our full complete blessedness before God on one side, and the measure of our practical responsibility down here on the other. I am accepted in the Beloved; I have got a new place - not in the flesh at all. Responsibility as a child of Adam is completely and entirely over - not as a Christian, but as a man. There is none righteous no not one. I do not want the day of judgment to tell me what I am. The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost. It is not a state of probation. Man has plenty of debts and not a farthing. You come and tell me how to conduct myself, but I have nothing to live on. My standing and responsibility is that of a child of God, in Christ not in the flesh. Christ has answered for my sins not in the first man but in the second; the debts are all cleared. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. There is the blessed place I am in. The sealing of the Holy Ghost comes at the recognition of the grace of the forgiveness of sins. There we are white as snow. The Holy Ghost says "I will dwell in that man." God cannot seal an unbeliever, He seals a believer. It is a blessed place, high above angels. When once I believe that the Son of God became a Man and died for me, glory is only a natural consequence. Nothing is too good for us; all the rest is easy to believe.

56 The other side of that is where Christian responsibility begins. Saved, in Christ, sealed with the Holy Ghost, there is no responsibility; I could not get into a better place in heaven. But if that is true another thing is true: if I am in Christ, Christ is in me down here, and I say, now let Him be seen. Conflict is consequent upon that. The Lord does not enter into conflict with Satan for us, till He takes His place. My place is settled in Christ and my duties are settled by Christ being in me. It is not a question of what I am doing, but of Christ being in me. I am to manifest the life of Jesus and nothing else: it requires watchfulness and diligence. I ought to walk as He walked. We are sanctified to the obedience of Christ. What is the obedience of Christ? He never had a will of His own. The Father's will was the source of all He did. In Matthew 4. Satan said, "If thou be the Son of God command." "Nay I came to obey and serve - not to command - I have no word out of God's mouth." The obedience of Christ was having God's will as the origin and motive of all He did, not only the rule. "If I am a Son I do not depart from the place of a servant." That is the way Satan was perfectly silenced. There is no harm in eating when hungry. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." He can do nothing without that word, and Satan can do nothing.

57 It is Christ who is our life dwelling in us, that life living "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." If I had a direction telling me all I ought to do, it would not do. I want to know His will to test my state. If God has not a will I am to do nothing. But it needs spirituality to discern His will - "filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." When I am uncertain, there is something that hinders, and I detect it. If the eye is single the whole body is full of light. As I get then the full blessedness of being in Christ, so I get Christ in me. That brings on the present dealing and government of God with us in this path. "If ye love me keep my commandments." "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me . . . and I will love him and manifest myself to him." We get the positive enjoyment of the place; and that does depend upon the conduct - the place does not. "Grieve not the Spirit of God." If I grieve Him He grieves me, and the effect of the Spirit's presence in me is to make me unhappy  - conscious of having grieved Him if in disobedience. Some people are afraid of commandments; I am not. If I did everything right, and it was not obedience, I should have done nothing right. Commandment brings in authority and therefore I like it. He adds "If a man love me He will keep my words." There must be obedience. He leads me in the path.

58 All responsibility comes from the place I am in. The relationship that exists is the ground and measure of the duty. Every responsibility in conduct flows from the place a man is in. Am I child for ever; does that take away my duty? On the contrary it makes it for ever.

Two things remain in the chapter. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." See the manner of Christ's giving. "My" - that gives it its character. It is not the way the world gives. It sometimes gives generously, but it gives away. Christ brings us into the same place with Himself. What He gives He does not give away, but with Himself. "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them." "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you." He brings us into all blessedness in Himself.

59 There is one other thing - the most wonderful thing in the Scripture, because it shows how He looks for the heart to cling to Him. "If ye loved me ye would rejoice because I said I go unto the Father." It is as though He said, "You will be thinking of my happiness." What a place to put us into! What a thing to be expecting from us! Have your hearts that thought of Christ, so bringing us into enjoyment of all He has Himself, and expecting us to be interested in His happiness? Do you believe this?

What I feel is that if you get the consciousness of the blessed privilege of being in Christ before God, that cannot be true without His being in you.

The Acts of the Apostles

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J. N. Darby.

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Acts 1

We shall find that "The Acts" follows Luke's Gospel: it speaks of a "former treatise," which is the Gospel, but it follows it in its tone and character.

Is the style of the Greek the same?

Yes, there is no question with anyone that it came from Luke's pen. The only thing, and an astonishing thing too, is the thorough mastery of shipping Luke shews in Acts 27.

Had not Luke sailed more than once with Paul?

Yes; and he may have been to sea otherwise, as to that. But as to teaching, the Gospel closes with "repentance and remission of sins," to be "preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem;" and "tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." Both those you get taken up again in the Acts. And you will find Luke's commission taken up too in all the sermons in the Acts, whether by Peter or by Paul. In Acts 2: 38, Peter says, "Repent ye, and be baptized everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins," etc. In Acts 13, "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out," etc. And in Acts 13 you will find the same thing again: "through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins," etc.

62 Why does it say "among all nations beginning at Jerusalem," as though Jerusalem were among, the nations?

Because the message comes from heaven, and therefore Jerusalem does come in as one of the nations, though as Paul says, "to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Rom. 1: 16)

One thing struck me a long while ago in the beginning of this chapter, and that is, that Christ acted by the Holy Ghost as a risen Man, as well as when He was a Man on earth. This shews, if you reflect on it, that we shall not lose the Holy Ghost hereafter. There is this to be remembered also, that the power of the Holy Ghost here is necessarily spent very much in making us go on, but there will be none of that above; then, all His power will be our capacity for enjoyment. I refer to the second verse.

Would the word "began" in the first verse imply that the Lord continued His ministry through the Holy Ghost?

Yes, His ministry is looked at as going on.

Both before and after His resurrection?

Yes, "all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was taken up." We shall not want the power of the Spirit to keep flesh down when we are raised - "changed." That gives a great idea of the power of the enjoyment - the divine enjoyment - which we shall have; what the capacity of it is.

Then the second verse is connected with resurrection but not with ascension?

No; it is clear if you read on in verse 3, "to whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." Then there is the coming of Christ to the earth, and the restoring of the kingdom to Israel, and the power of the Holy Ghost meanwhile; but there is nothing about the rapture here.

63 This too answers to Luke's Gospel; in Luke 24: 51, "He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven," and in our verse (9), "while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight."

Does that word "until" in verse 2 exclude the idea of any private ascension before the public one?

Well, I do not know of any ground for such an ascension. "The day that he was taken up" is evidently His ascension.

Is there no ground in scripture for any intermediate ascension?

No. It has been held by some, I am aware, because of the expression in the garden to Mary, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father," while afterwards He tells Thomas to touch Him; but that is simply a misapprehension of the Lord's meaning.

Would you explain a little the difference between His saying to Mary, "Touch me not," and the women touching His feet in Matthew?

Touching His feet was merely in a spirit of deference, a kind of worship, whereas the other has a deeper meaning. Mary thought she had got Him back again as Messiah in this world, and the Lord says, No, I am not going to be bodily present here, you must not touch me, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." And there He associates His disciples with Himself as gone up on high; while Mary was made the vessel of the communication of this heavenly character in so calling them His brethren.

64 "I ascend," would not that be a present thing?

Yes; in the form of statement, but clearly not as saying, I am doing it now.

Is not the word "touch," handle me not, do not detain me?

The word is ἅπτομαι, used thirty-six times in the New Testament, and always rendered "touch" in the Authorized Version.

But He would receive homage as one risen?

Yes. And He was putting the disciples in their place with Himself as One gone up but not yet gone - not taking the kingdom to be bodily present here yet. Then another ground has been given which I do not think anything of, though there is no heresy in it that I know of, His saying, "Peace be unto you," but He could not make peace (so it is said) until He had gone up and presented His blood to God. Now in Colossians 1: 20, it says, He "made peace through the blood of his cross," and He says, "Go in peace" to the poor woman in His life, Luke 7: 50, and again in Luke 8: 48.

Would either of those salutations in John 20: 19-21, mean more than, "be kept in peace?"

Well, perhaps so, but that is a great thing. But peace was made only by the blood of His cross.

Still the perfection of the work in Hebrews 10 is connected with the Lord's having entered in by His blood, and so having perfected the work; could we say it was perfected until He had sat down?

65 Ah! I could not say that. By His "one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." You get not merely the clearing of what I am, as walking down here, but perfected for ever so as to go up there, as well as having no more conscience of sins; and all by His one offering. That is just what the so-called evangelical church does not get at all, when it is talking of forgiving past sins, and getting into perplexity about sins to be committed afterwards; and, some, like the boasted primitive church, even wondering whether they can be forgiven at all. And then come in absolution and the sacraments, and that is the way they get forgiveness. But Hebrews 10 puts the believer absolutely perfect before God, so that he has no more conscience of sins, but is brought into the holiest into the presence of God.

But is the work perfected before His ascension?

The work was perfected before, that was perfected on the cross; the resurrection puts God's seal upon it, and then for us to enter into the holiest, He has gone up to heaven.

But until the Lord had sat down, the work had not come to an end?

Had it not? The point the apostle insists on is, that the Lord is not standing, because the work had been finished.

When Stephen went in it was finished, but the Lord was standing then. After all, you see, "standing" is a formal thing, I believe, to express that till the Jews had rejected the testimony to a glorified Christ the door of repentance was open. (See Acts 3) He was not sat down till then. The work was finished on the cross, and God puts His seal upon it by resurrection, and then the full result follows. And that carries us a great deal further than forgiveness and cleansing, looked at as regards this world. Here am I, a responsible being on earth, of course I want cleansing and justifying, and I get it; but I really get a great deal more. I have often said when speaking of the gospel, a man may have all his debts paid, and not have a penny himself to buy a morsel of bread with; paying his debts is a very different thing from starting him afresh with capital, and so on, after the debts are paid. We too are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.

66 Take the Jews in the millennium, they will be forgiven through the work of Christ, but they will not be in the heavenly places. You must not confound the effect and application of the work, as regards the forgiveness of sins, with its full efficacy. We do get the forgiveness, of course, or we could not stand before God at all; we are cleansed and we are justified.

Could the disciples enter the holiest before the ascension?

I do not think they knew anything about it, the title to enter was fully there, but it was not brought out yet.

In the Hebrews Christ is said to be the forerunner, and so there was no such thing as worship until He had entered?

No; but the veil was rent from top to bottom the moment He died, and now we are talking of the application of that. The whole thing, in short, was done upon the cross, even the resurrection was the effect of that (though of course Christ could not be holden by death), God in it putting His seal upon the work.

67 And on that ground peace could be proclaimed fully?

Yes, and the Lord could tell it beforehand. Peace was made by the blood of His cross, but I hardly see anybody that gives full value to the death of Christ. I do not mean as to the forgiveness of sins, but as to the whole question of good and evil, which has all been brought to an issue, in every respect, in the cross. I know I come by my sins, and ought to come, and cannot come in any other way in truth, but when the soul has got peace and can contemplate it, then it can see the whole power of good and evil brought to a point and culminating in the cross. There I see man in absolute enmity against God, and that when God is displayed in goodness; and I see a Man, perfect in His love to God, and perfect in His obedience to God, on that same cross. I get all the power of Satan, with all the malice of man, and all the righteousness of God against sin, and all the love of God to the sinner, all united in the cross, and therefore I find there the foundation of the new heavens and of the new earth - of God's glory, in short; and all the consequences of blessing flow out. But then the application is varied so that everything in heaven and earth will be reconciled by it ultimately. I get the forgiveness of all my sins as a sinner, I am reconciled to God, and I get glory like Christ. The Jews will be restored in the millennium by virtue of it; but these are all effects.

Is the peace that the Lord spoke of in John 14. one of them?

Yes, prospectively, and He does not say "Peace be unto you" until after His resurrection. The two cases we mentioned in Luke 7, 8 have a special character. Neither did He call them brethren before; but then that was the fulfilment of Psalm 22, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren.

68 What ought to be the measure of the effect and application of the cross to us now?

Why, full. We are called and predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly."

With regard to our chapter once more, you were mentioning the Holy Ghost, could the writer have said that second verse before the Lord had risen?

No. That is when He has risen, and that is what I was noting; I get that a risen man has the Holy Ghost; it is not only he has a kind of help down here in the place of our infirmity, but after he has risen he has the Holy Ghost.

What is the difference between this and the outpouring in Acts 2?

Christ received the Holy Ghost a second time for the second of Acts. He was sealed and anointed in His own person, the Holy Ghost came down in a bodily shape like a dove and rested upon Him, but He came a second time for us.

But He gave commandments through the Holy Ghost when on earth?

Yes, but what I get here is, it is still so when He is risen. He acted through life by the Holy Ghost; He says, "If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils," He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and again He says, "the Father that dwelleth in me He doeth the works." The moment Christ takes His place as a man, the whole Trinity is revealed; He publicly takes His place with the godly remnant at His baptism; the Holy Ghost comes down, the Son was there, and the Father owns Him; and that is when Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are revealed together. Then it is written of Him, "and him hath God the Father sealed;" and John says specifically, "upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." And now He was going to baptize with the Holy Ghost, founded upon His own bloodshedding, because we could not receive the Holy Ghost until redemption was finished.

69 But could Peter understand Psalm 109 as he uses it in verse 20, before he had received the Holy Ghost?

Ah, there you get the value of "He opened their understanding to understand the scriptures." That is what enabled him; and that is one of the points we have to notice, the difference between intelligence and power; there was power when the Holy Ghost came down, but they received intelligence before they got power. In Luke 24: 44, it says, "And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them [this is after the resurrection], Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among, all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you." Now He had opened their understanding, and Peter could explain Psalm 109, but they had not got power, and therefore they go on in their old way, casting lots.

70 But could He say He gave commandments by the Holy Spirit while He was down here?

I do not know why He should not; He worked miracles by the Holy Ghost.

But could they receive them?

That is another thing; their capacity. The capacity to give, and the capacity to receive, are very different. The Lord attributes to them the capacity to receive, He says to them, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father," He attributed to them what belonged to them in the position they were in, though they had never found it out. There is all the difference between His speaking to them in the Spirit, and their capacity to receive what He said. He gave commandments by the Spirit, but they had not the Holy Ghost. He comes down in Acts 2.

In our second verse it does not seem to be at all a question of the state of the disciples, but the great truth of the Lord Himself risen and acting by the Holy Ghost?

Just so.

Then do you believe that they had seen the Father?

They had seen the Father in Christ. God Himself dwells in "light, which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, or can see."

71 Would that passage "he now liveth by the power of God" be connected with His giving commandments?

That is His resurrection, but He raised Himself from the dead too. Divine power was always in Him.

A risen state is a new thing, more new in one sense than ascension; a risen man is a totally new thing. Having passed death, and passed judgment, and passed Satan's power, and passed sin, and everything, when you get the man raised, then is the grand change; resurrection is the grand new thing. It is not ascension that we are justified by, you will never find that, but He is "raised again for our justification."

The point in the state of the disciples here is that they had not power, but had understanding, though that did not take them out of Jewish apprehensions; they had no guidance by the Holy Ghost, but they go and draw lots. Probably the Lord directed them in that, I do not doubt it, and Matthias was numbered with the twelve.

Then they had intelligence?

Yes. They had capacity to understand but not to display power.

I suppose their referring to the Lord in the matter of the lot was definite in that way?

Yes. I know people call Paul the twelfth, that thought is old enough, but I think he was a totally distinct thing.

It is said of all of them that He opened their understandings; in Luke, is it not?

Yes, quite so, it was when He was eating the fish with them.

72 Matthias, would he be there, because it says, he continued with them?

Yes.

"I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now, howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth;" what is that?

That is fresh revelations, not the understanding of the scriptures, but things the Lord could not tell them then.

There is the breathing on them?

Breathing on them would imply the communication of the Spirit as to intelligence.

Would it be too the communication of risen life?

Yes, I suppose so, as God breathed into Adam at first the breath of life. It is connected also with "whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them, and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained." (John 20: 23.)

"Ordained" in verse 22, is not altogether warranted, I suppose?

Is "bishoprick?"

Well, "bishoprick" is all very well, but "ordained" is all wrong, it is not even a wrong translation, but it is added, and put in; it is simply "must one become a witness?"

What is the connection between "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," and "whose soever sins ye remit," etc.?

They were then spiritually competent. You see administration on earth is a most important thing. It is a fact that whoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is forgiven all his sins for ever and ever; you cannot be too clear about that, but the administration in this world is very important too.

73 Then who administers the forgiveness?

The church of God does. "To whom ye forgive anything, I also."

Is there any sense in which the assembly forgives in receiving to the table?

Not exactly, it merely recognizes; but it might happen so, if a person is only then brought to the Lord it may take of that character.

What is the connection of resurrection life with the forgiveness of sins?

There was no forgiveness of sins before it, in this way, for there was no assembly.

How would you regard Psalm 32, "and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin"?

I will tell you how that came about: David sinned, and a prophet went and told him of it, which now, I do not want. Nathan went to him and told him - that is just what I do not need. It required a prophet then to get it, and it does not require a prophet now.

The Lord could say to the woman, "Thy sins be forgiven thee"?

And that was administrative too on earth. "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins."

In James, "if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him," is that administrative then?

To be sure, that is just what it is.

Is the breathing on them a collective thing?

Well, they were all there, that is all that is stated.

In John 8 He tells the woman to go and sin no more?

74 Well, there was no forgiveness in that.

What do you mean by the church of God administering forgiveness?

It is all administered. They were not to go and preach without people getting it. "Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins," that was what Peter declared to them.

Was not that exhortation?

But as people acted on it; that was what they got.

Where is the difference between that and priestly absolution?

The one is the priest and the other is the church. Paul says, "to whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also.

Do you mean sins against other Christians, or sins against God?

All sins.

Do you mean they receive the remission from the church and not from God?

Well, read 2 Corinthians 2: 10. "To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also, for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes' forgave I it, in the person of Christ." That is administrative forgiveness.

Is that anything but concurrent?

It may be concurrent, but it is administrative forgiveness.

Is it governmental?

Well, governmental if you like, I called it administrative.

If, in the case of James' Epistle, the man was under the chastisement of God, is it administrative then?

75 Yes, it is. As the Lord says, "whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted."

People have lost the idea of the present reception of forgiveness as a fact down here.

Is it not exceptional?

Every heathen received, and every Jew receive by the apostles, each and all were forgiven their sins.

It is the not making a difference between "perfected for ever," and the recognition of such an one on earth by the administration of the assembly that causes the difficulty.

"Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins," what is that?

Paul did so, and they were all put away. I see in scripture the believer come into a new place in Christ, where there is no possibility of condemnation: he is accepted in the Beloved, he is perfected for ever, and no sin imputed to him. In the Acts they came in, and when they were baptized, they got the forgiveness of their sins, and had no idea of difficulty as to administration.

Persons now put belief instead of baptism, and then say he is forgiven. A Roman Catholic will tell you it is when he is baptized, and, after that by the sacrament of penance; and a Church of England person will say it is when he takes the sacrament; while in the primitive church, so-called, you will find discussions whether he could ever be again forgiven for sins after baptism. But all of them have totally lost sight of "perfected for ever."

How does administrative forgiveness come in?

The sin is bound upon the person, for example, when he is excommunicated, and it is forgiven him when he is let in again.

But "whose soever sins ye remit," was said when there was no church?

There is no difficulty about that. The difficulty between the original forgiveness on admission, and forgiveness afterwards, is because "perfected for ever" is not known.

Could the Holy Ghost say now by a man as Paul said to the Corinthians, "I forgive also"?

No; Paul had a power to speak as we could not, not being apostles.

But could the Holy Ghost say that?

The Holy Ghost could do it, of course, because if the church does it, the Holy Ghost does, that is if the church is acting rightly.

What would "in the person of Christ" be?

That is because Christ was there.

Then administration has three aspects, it is declarative in the gospel; in admission; and in restoration?

In John it begins with remission, but in Matthew with binding, so that they are not analogous, in John it is more flowing out; "peace be unto you," &c., precedes it.

"As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you" is a mission in John, and the apostles are never named in John?

In the original testimony of the Gospel in Acts, when people were forgiven, it was administrative because a man was forgiven then and there, of course, supposing that he received the testimony.

May I ask further, Would you say the administration of forgiveness is now only in the case of church discipline?

No, I should not. Suppose I was going to preach to the heathen, then the moment one became a Christian, he would receive the forgiveness of his sins at that time. Past sins then it would be of course.

77 But then he received it from God?

Well, if he did not receive that too, the other would not be worth much.

You see when a person was received from the heathen, or when a Jew was received, he then got the forgiveness of his sins, his relationship to God was changed. In the thoughts and counsels of God all his sins were forgiven for ever and ever, and there never will be any question of them in judgment; but supposing he became a Christian, he then got the forgiveness of his sins on earth, and stood in a different relationship to God, he was reconciled to God, and not before.

What is the difference between administrative forgiveness by the church, and the actual forgiveness of God? Say I preach the gospel, and a man receives the text of scripture, in which is the forgiveness of his sins?

There must be the direct agency of the Holy Ghost upon his soul; but there is a vast difference between the absolute efficacy of Christ's work for the whole acceptance of the man before God, and the change which takes place in his state from being an unreconciled to a reconciled man acknowledged on earth.

Would you not say that Simon Magus had received administrative forgiveness but was not actually forgiven?

I speak of administered as being governmentally a present act, in contrast with an everlasting acceptance which a man has in God's sight; he receives as well the forgiveness of his sins here which he had not before.

78 If a person is converted by reading the scripture alone, what would that be?

Well, it would only be by Paul's preaching, or something of that sort. People do not seem to have got hold of the idea of the thing. Paul had washed away his sins when he had been baptized but not before.

It might help if we took the case of a person who was converted but refused to be baptized?

Well, there was just such a case of a Jew who said he believed Jesus was the Christ, but he would not be baptized; I said I could not own him as a Christian.

We must guard against reasoning from a state of confusion, to what was the case when there was no confusion. Until you get clear of the confusion, you will not understand either the administrative forgiveness or the other. Put the case that Paul was preaching at Lystra; and that people were convinced what he said was true after all, but still said, "We will not become Christians," would their sins he forgiven them? As a fact, then, would they stand before God as forgiven people, if they refused to be Christians?

"Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Now, say I hear that text, and I believe it, am I not a Christian?

I cannot tell yet, I want to know if you take your place with the Christians; if you will not, then I say, you cannot be reckoned one.

79 But am I not forgiven by God?

Well, God will tell you about that, but I say you are not now forgiven here.

But I believe on Christ?

God will settle with you about that.

But I shall go to heaven?

Well, that may be, but you are not forgiven on earth.

Take the case of a Quaker?

I must leave him to God; he has not taken his place in a scriptural way, that is all I know. There is a certain standing-place on the earth where certain blessings are, and God has set this place up; the administration of it gives these blessings then. There is administration in the word of God according to which things were administered down here; "but that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." There it is. It is not reasoning about the acceptance of that soul for eternity; it does not say there that that paralytic man was saved for eternity, but that he had the forgiveness of sins on earth.

What would be the course then to be taken by us?

Go and preach the gospel to every creature, and get them to see clearly the details afterwards.

Is administration the same as bestowal?

Well, administration is equivalent to bestowal, in a sense, at once.

"Thy sins are forgiven thee," would not imply that all his future sins would be forgiven?

Of course not.

80 If a person believes and goes among Dissenters would he get the forgiveness administered?

Now you come back to the confusion, and I do not know anything about it. I do not know how such an one receives the administration of forgiveness in the present confusion.

Did you not say the administration comes through baptism?

Well, yes, with heathens and those outside it does.

"He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," is that administrative?

No. That is the moral thing, and it is God, not the church. This question in the present state of confusion is in many cases only theory.

But we know in places how busy Puseyite clergymen are, saying that they have power to forgive sins?

But that is the clergyman personally, and in another sense of forgiveness. They do not talk of administrative forgiveness at all, but of putting away the sin. I deny the whole thing there, and I say, Who are you? The clergyman. Who made you so? The bishop. Who is the bishop? And the whole authority falls.

In verse 3, "the things pertaining to the kingdom of God" - in what sense is the kingdom of God set before us there?

It is just going to be set up as the kingdom of heaven, as it would be in Matthew 13.

This would go on to the glory, would it not?

Yes. The appearing of Christ is brought out.

Is it the kingdom of God Paul preaches?

Yes; he says so.

81 Do you connect Romans with Luke and Acts, as it says, "to the Jew first"?

Yes, of course, even more so than the Gospel and Acts.

Should the preaching now be the kingdom of God?

Not that alone.

At Thessalonica the offence was his preaching another king?

Yes, but in his ministry of the gospel Paul brought in much else about the Lord's coming and the Antichrist.

Acts 2

I think it of moment to notice here verse 1, because there is a general current idea that only the twelve were present, that there were a hundred and twenty, and not the apostles only. "They were all with one accord in one place."

What of the "five hundred brethren" in 1 Corinthians 15: 6?

There is no clue to that, that I know of. Very likely that may have been in Galilee, where the Lord had appointed others to meet Him, but there is no statement about it.

The hundred and twenty would comprise the whole assembly?

Not all who were converted, but those who were at Jerusalem.

Would it include the women?

Probably. Yes. In chapter 1: 14 it says, "with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren."

82 But in verse 16 Peter addresses them "men and brethren"?

Yes, but it is clear that the Holy Ghost was poured out on women: "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy," "and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit;" and Philip had four daughters who prophesied.

"By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body," how are we to understand that in connection with this?

They were baptized into one body then and there, only it was not fully developed until the Gentiles came in. The Spirit coming down upon them then did baptise them into one body, but the term "baptism" is never applied to this, except at Pentecost, in scripture, that I know of; though all come into that one body. In chapter 1 the Lord says, "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."

But the Corinthians came in afterwards?

Yes, and they are spoken of as "sealed" and "anointed." In John 1: 33 "the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost," it is the second part of the work of Christ. The first part was the taking "away the sin of the world" as the "Lamb of God," the second, baptizing with the Holy Ghost.

What would that mean, "fell upon them as upon us at the beginning"?

That is not called baptism; but it is just the same thing in effect; the disciples were formed into unity by the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon them; it was a special case with the Gentiles to shew that they were all one. The body was not in its developed condition before the Gentiles were brought in.

83 What was their condition before the Holy Ghost fell upon them?

They had intelligence of course but no power, like the disciples before Pentecost, as we were saying.

Would it be the condition of infancy in Hebrews 5?

That was the Jewish state before Christ's death and resurrection.

Would you not say that every believer is baptized with the Holy Ghost?

No. When brought into liberty, he is sealed and anointed, and comes into the general baptism; he comes into the same place then. I know how people speak, and God does not make a man an offender for a word; but you get the case of Cornelius clear enough, when God was saying, I will have the Gentiles in spite of you.

What would you call the action of the Holy Ghost in giving a believer his place in the body of Christ?

No action. He is sealed when he receives the Holy Ghost, it is not another Holy Ghost, and so he becomes a member of that body.

But in 1 Corinthians 12, he speaks of Gentiles having been baptized into that one body?

Yes; it is merely the use of a word. The practical idea is simple. I do not find it applied to an individual; it is the same Holy Ghost and the individual receives it; if a Gentile came, he received the Holy Ghost, and was formed into the same unity, that is the important point, the thing to be thoroughly seen and believed, that we do receive the Holy Ghost, and so get into this unity. When a man receives the Holy Ghost he is a member of the body of Christ, only the difference between this, and sealing, and anointing is important in this, that there are individual relationships as well as unity, because in receiving the Holy Ghost, he becomes a conscious son of the Father: I say conscious son, and he knows that he is in Christ, and Christ in him, by the Holy Ghost dwelling in him; there are many individual things you must not lose sight of.

84 Would the individual things you refer to be expressed in 1 Corinthians 12?

No; that is a different thing. But there is "the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us;" and again, "at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you;" that is all individual.

How are we to understand in Acts 19, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed"?

They were only John's disciples.

Were they not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ?

Well, I suppose Paul saw something in them that made him ask the question. But they were not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as risen.

What is the difference between anointing and sealing?

None. It is by the Spirit, and the Spirit is the earnest, but anointing is the general term; it is a figure; the leper was washed with water, sprinkled with blood, and anointed with oil: and when God anoints a man, He puts His seal upon him, and gives him the earnest of the inheritance and all other things.

85 Would you expect that to follow immediately on conversion?

Yes, when one heard a clear gospel preached. But I could not expect anything; that is a matter of God's condescending wisdom in particular cases, or He might see a person who wanted breaking down first, or a thousand things.

There seems to be an interval in the case of the Samaritans in Acts 8?

Yes, and so there was here too in Acts 2. I think it is gracious of the Lord to make all these things so distinct. I know what pious books say, that I receive the Holy Ghost when I am converted; it is all false, I receive the Holy Ghost after I am converted.

But the Holy Ghost works before?

Yes, of course, but my building a house, and my going to live in it when it is built, are two different things.

What is the "unction" in John's First Epistle?

The Holy Ghost, always. It is an allusion to the anointing with oil, after sprinkling with the blood. It is said of Christ, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, but Christ is never said to have been baptized with the Holy Ghost, you get "him hath God the Father sealed." Only remember, He was sealed and anointed in witness of His own perfectness, while we are sealed and anointed in virtue of Christ's work.

But the holy anointing oil was not to come on man's flesh?

Just so; and so Christ takes us out of flesh in that sense.

86 But before God does not anointing exist in every case whether known or not?

No, certainly not. These in Acts 19 were not anointed. I know no reason why there should be any delay. It was the regular thing when a man was sprinkled with blood, then he was anointed with oil.

There are many Christians who do not know what the anointing is?

The question is, Can they really cry "Abba, Father?"

Is that the criterion of having the Holy Ghost?

Certainly; "because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts."

Does not that imply receiving the Holy Ghost as soon as we are sons?

Naturally it does . . . . If I find a person in liberty with God, he will say "Father," and also if truly at liberty he will say, I am God's son. People may sometimes say "Father" through a measure of training and habit, but such will be afraid to say, if they have not the Holy Ghost, that they are God's sons. I mean even when they may use the name Father.

But there is such a thing as judicial blindness?

Oh yes, as chastisement there is. But, otherwise, when sealed, the consciousness of relationship will be there. That is a very distinct and definite thing. Just as a child may be forgetful and naughty, but still it lives in the consciousness of its being a child. It may have conscience deadened and hardened, but it is never out of the consciousness of the relationship after all. So when a person has the Holy Ghost, that gives him the consciousness of being a son.

87 Did the Prophet Joel think of the body of Christ? is it not merely a promise to the Jewish remnant?

That is what it really is, but it is promised to all flesh. It has its place so far here as well. But it is not true of us as its full final accomplishment. But we have the firstfruits of the Spirit.

But will it not be true of them that they will be baptized into one body?

No. But God was here going on in a way with Israel for a time.

But the full prophecy was not fulfilled here?

No. In Joel it says "afterwards" God will do it, but here it says, "in the last days."

How can we divide it?

We have it divided for us here; only Peter changes the language.

Is there anything to be learnt from the quotation?

If you look at Joel it is clearly this, "And it shall come to pass afterwards" - after God has restored Israel, and set them in blessing in their land, and they own Messiah, then they get the Spirit; but they are not connected with Christ in heaven then, because Christ is down here on the earth with them. The Lord will do great things for them; He will restore them in blessing, He will be jealous for His land, and will pity His people, so that they shall never be ashamed; they shall know that God is Jehovah, etc., "and afterward I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." Now here Peter changes the word "afterward" and puts in "the last days," and so takes in a distinct testimony.

Then would you say that those in the last days who receive the Spirit will receive Him, and the Holy Ghost dwell in them?

88 Poured out upon them is all that is said, but they have Christ present with them.

What part was fulfilled at Pentecost?

Just the fact of pouring out.

He does not say it was fulfilled, but "this is that which was spoken"?

Peter stops in the middle of Joel 2: 32. What he really gives you is the fact that the Spirit was poured out.

Is there anything in the leaving out of the "of"?

No. But you get it used of the Holy Ghost in scripture, as in "because he hath given us of his Spirit." It is important to see that the Spirit is personally present on earth; that is another truth.

What of "I will shew wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath"?

That is warning.

Then the restoration in the land will take place before the outpouring of the Spirit?

Yes, but they are distinct parts of the prophecy altogether; and they are separated on purpose in the way that Peter is speaking. Joel 2: 30 begins distinct testimony; he states a complete restoration of Israel to blessing; then He will pour out of His Spirit; and then in verse 30, before those days come, He will send signs and wonders; you get upon this little remnant of Israel, the Holy Ghost poured out, with the warning of signs and wonders before the terrible day comes. But Israel reject this, as they did all the rest, and then Paul comes out with the Son in heaven; and the ground of bringing that out is Stephen's murder.

89 Will the remnant get this pouring out of the Spirit before the Lord comes?

No. Joel says 'afterwards.' I believe there will be a working of the Spirit, as by Elias, and so on; but they will not get this pouring out. You get the restoration of Israel to full blessing, then the Spirit. But then Joel says before the coming of the terrible day of the Lord - the wonders.

The Lord delivers the people and then the Holy Ghost comes down, so that they are saved already before the Holy Ghost comes down, and then they shall never be ashamed.

Would the end of Joel 2: 29 be how much of the prophecy was fulfilled?

Yes.

But must not those words of Joel be the unity of the body?

Why "must?" I have nothing to do with the unity of the body here; other teachings makes us know about that, but not this passage.

Why will not this outpouring make the Jews one when it comes? Will it not be a necessary consequence, because Christ will have left heaven then?

But can you make things necessary with God?

You cannot unite with a Head in heaven, when He is here on earth. Why is God to do in one dispensation the same that He does in another? Christ's place now is ascended up on high to receive gifts for men . . . . and now the Holy Ghost gives gifts, but gifts have nothing to do with the nature of the unity of the church. There is a prophet now, and so there was in the Old Testament, but they are different; you are assuming that God is pledged to act in the same way always.

90 Will the Jews have these apostles and prophets?

No, I do not say that . . . . You get Christ's ascension in Psalm 68, and His sitting at the right hand of God in Psalm 110. But what comes out between that and His return, on being united to Him in heaven, is not presented then at all. He gives gifts for the rebellious also, that is Jews in Psalm 68, but the apostle does not quote that, but says "received gifts in man." But in the future day the Lord will be among them then as Messiah, and it is not the same order of things. Christ received the Holy Ghost again for communicating these gifts.

Does not the fact of Paul's ministry coming out bring in a different character of action?

Yes, but it is Stephen's death which is the turning point.

Would you be good enough to divide Joel for us?

In Joel 2: 17, they are to weep between the porch and the altar; in verse 18, the Lord is jealous for His land and pities His people, He sends them corn, and removes the northern army, and does great things for the land.

Is the northern army Gog?

I suppose so, but the Lord comes in with many blessings; and in Joel 2: 27, "ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel." There you get Israel completely restored, and that is one division. Then in Joel 2: 28, He goes outside Israel.

Is that, after the last week in Daniel?

Of course it is. He goes outside Israel and pours His Spirit upon all flesh, and "on my servants and handmaids, in those days will I pour out my Spirit," that finishes verse 29. Then there is another testimony, "and I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke, the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come." The day of the Lord is on the northern army; the "day" is the judgment of the Lord. Verses 28, 29 are together; but verses 30, 31 are distinct from them, and refer to what takes place before.

91 In the Acts of the Apostles we have the pouring out of the Spirit upon all flesh but a preliminary testing of the Jews. In Acts 2 Peter says, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation."

But in Joel, Israel is in full blessing before the Spirit is poured out on all flesh?

Exactly; he says "afterwards," after Israel is completely established in blessing. We have it now before, and here in Acts the Jews had it as preliminary. And Peter does not say that it was the fulfilment of Joel.

Would you say the Lord was present then when the Spirit was poured out on all flesh, in Joel?

Joel calls on the Jews to repent, and as soon as they do that, there is this northern army which is oppressing them and cutting them off, put down by Jehovah, while the Jews weep between the porch and altar. Then He gives them complete blessing, so that they shall never be ashamed, and they are established for ever and ever, and then He gives them the Spirit.

Does the Lord come personally to do all that?

Surely; how is the day of the Lord to come without the Lord?

92 Do verses 31, 32 then go back?

Yes, it says so, you get "afterward" in verse 28, and "before" in verse 31.

Then the whole of the chapter has yet to be fulfilled in detail?

Yes, it certainly has.

Why the weeping between the porch and the altar?

Humanly, it looked as if there would be destruction there, because this terrible enemy had come up.

Then verses 28, 29 are suitable to a remnant that received Christ as Messiah?

They are suitable to "all flesh."

But when the Lord comes back there will be only Judah and Benjamin in the land?

Well, but there is often a process going on, though you may not see every detail clear, I mean as regards Israel. You get Judah and the children of Israel their companions, and then the forming the whole house of Israel. What the Lord will do will be a long process, as I believe.

I get this, that the Jews are cut off in the land but the ten tribes are cut off outside of it. In Ezekiel 20 you have the restoration of the ten tribes.

I thought they came back after the beginning of Zechariah 14, and so were not in the land when the Lord came down?

Very likely. When Gog comes up for the last time (he besieges Jerusalem twice in Isaiah), that is, this northern army of Joel. The Lord has already destroyed the beast, and then the Lord sets up His throne. Gog finds Him there.

The ten tribes never get back except as a remnant. The moment the Lord has destroyed the beast, He takes His throne, and the whole thing is settled.

93 Does Peter's preaching in Acts 2 imply that, if the Jews had repented, the whole of Joel's prophecy as to the Spirit would have been fulfilled?

Well, in a certain sense, yes, and the Lord would have come. The more you see, the more you will see, that the Lord's dealings until Christ comes are provisional.

But many are looking now for the latter rain of the Spirit?

Well, then, they are looking in vain; but it is in a great measure ignorance.

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There are two kinds of gifts entirely distinct; I said so thirty years ago to Irving. Those in 1 Corinthians 12 are gifts of power, so much so that often when there was positive power nobody was to use it; it was all under the rule and authority of Christ's order in the house. And so there, therefore, I get no promise of the continuance of gifts; but when I come to Ephesians 4, I get no gifts that are signs at all; but, after the foundation of apostles and prophets, I get evangelists, pastors and teachers, those which the Lord uses to build up His church, "until we all come." I get Christ caring for His own body to build it up, and also the positive declaration of their going on to the end; they are "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." You have the caring for the church, and continuance.

94 What is "whether there be prophecies, they shall fail," etc.?

It means that there is no promise there of their continuance. Corinthians is merely power and the Holy Ghost.

It is not a statement that these should pass away?

No, but there is no promise of their continuance though it may foreshadow their passing away. It is power, and then the Holy Ghost distributing to every man severally as He will, but it is a perfect state of things; the gifts are in a certain sense meant to fail, and so their continuance is not the subject at all, but I do get the assurance of their continuance when I come to edification. The word of God never contemplates the continuance of the church, but it contemplates Christ coming. People say, How could God set up a thing and not provide for its continuance beyond thirty years? Of course He did not. He taught the saints to look constantly for the Lord as a present thing.

What is the difference between the talents in the Gospels, and the gifts spoken of in the Epistles?

I believe the talents are the gifts, the things that Christ gave when He went away. The lord left the talents with his own servants and not with anybody else.

Is it not important to see here that we get the Holy Ghost connected with a glorified Christ?

Yes, here and everywhere. And that is what I was noticing that Christ received the Holy Ghost afresh for us, "therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear."

Until the death of Stephen you get more of signs, and as in 1 Corinthians 12, and the other gifts come afterwards?

95 Yes, but you find signs too afterwards . . . . You see, until a man had gone to heaven, the complete thought of God is not brought out. We see God come down to the earth, and man gone up to heaven into the glory of God. As regards the cross, the immense thing is, not merely my sins are put away, that of course must be, but I get all the purposes of God founded upon it. I have man in absolute wickedness against God in the cross, then Man in His absolute goodness on the cross, and perfect obedience to God; "but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do" - absolutely obedient, and absolutely loving the Father, both; and then, too, at the cross, all the power of Satan is brought out as governing this world; while on God's side, I have His righteousness against sin in the cup Christ had to drink, and God's perfect love to the sinner also. I have every form of good and evil in man, and in Satan, and what God is in righteousness and love, brought out in the cross, and all settled - settled for ever, and the consequence is, man goes into the glory of God. And then many other consequences come flowing out.

. . . . The entire question is settled, and it is no longer man upon his responsibility - like Adam who had to be tested - but man already tested takes his place in the glory of God, and the Holy Ghost comes down to reveal all this.

Did you say Christ received the Holy Ghost afresh after His resurrection?

No; but in ascension. He is exalted first. This same Jesus is made Lord and Christ, the One whom they had crucified. It is that that reaches their hearts in the preaching - Him in that position, you do not get Jesus preached as Son of God, but the rejected Man is made Lord and Christ.

96 Is there any thought of the oneness of the believer there with the risen Christ?

No. It is perfectly true, but it is not brought out here. Peter is dealing with the Jews, and saying, You rejected Christ and God received Him.

Would you say that so far as the testimony went before Paul's conversion, it was an earthly thing?

Well, not quite; because you get in this chapter, "save yourselves from this untoward generation;" that did not refer to the ancient promises to Israel, though it was on earth in a certain sense. Still Christ had gone up as forerunner.

Is there any intentional difference in the form of the words here, ἐπὶ τῶ, "in the name of Jesus," (Acts 2: 38) and εἰσ τὸ in Matthew 28: 19?

No, not that I know of: ἐπὶ is more the character, εἰς the effect.

In Acts 3: 13, "His Son Jesus" should be "Servant" Jesus, should it not?

Yes, it is a mere mis-translation. It is so again in Acts 3: 26, Acts 4: 27, 30; in the two last παῖς is rendered "child," but the same word in Acts 4: 25 is rendered "thy servant David."

Is there anything special in Peter saying to them, "Repent and be baptized," or is that still to be the preaching?

It is not quite the preaching now, because people so largely profess to believe in Christ already. It is the same gospel though, as to the value of Christ's death and resurrection.

97 But if you were preaching to Jews, would it not then be correct?

Yes, I suppose so  . . . . I believe it will be carried on in the remnant.

Then how would the apostles preach to Gentiles?

I cannot tell how precisely to Gentiles, because they never went; but there is no different gospel as to the foundation of it, whether to Jews or Gentiles.

But Peter went to Cornelius?

Yes, that is a special case entirely by itself.

Could any who were not baptized at all be really happy?

Well, I suppose Christians might rejoice in the Lord who have not been baptized at all. Baptism here is "baptism for the remission," please all recollect that, the only baptism here recognized is for the remission of sins.

Would an assembly be justified in refusing those who confessed Christ, though not baptized?

It would not be in order to receive such; only you never get to the baptism for the remission of sins now, I mean to the ground the apostle takes here.

But how would you meet the case supposed?

That depends; we are all in confusion about it, and there is no way out except patience.

But how would you deal with those who have been baptized as children, and do not think it baptism now?

If anyone is anxious to be baptized as an adult, who has already been baptized, he must settle that for himself.

98 But were not the sins remitted through the bloodshedding of Christ?

Yes; here is the doctrine of the bloodshedding of Christ for the remission of sins, and they were baptized on that ground.

Would it be baptism by the apostles for the remission of sins?

Whoever baptized: Paul washed away his sins.

Is not baptism death?

It is the figure of death, shewing how the sins are washed away; still the fact of its being for the remission of sins shews what the administration of it is.

Did Paul preach it at all?

No, I do not get that, he was not sent to baptize, but he did not abrogate it either.

Does the commission in Matthew refer to the church at all?

The doctrine of the church was not brought out at the end of Matthew. There was no command to baptize Jews then.

Is there a single proof of the commission ever being acted upon?

No; but the question is the obligation of the command. The mission of the twelve was to teach all the nations, but in Galatians 2 they gave up this mission to Paul; and I should insist upon it that it never was fulfilled. Even to Peter, the sheet was let down before he went out to preach to Cornelius. But this is only proving what bad people the apostles were; they were to go discipling and baptizing and "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," that is, the age.

Does not that refer to the seventy weeks?

99 I have no objection to that. Here I have a positive command to go and do something; I agree with you that it was not carried out, but that does not touch the command itself.

But is it not important to see that the disciples begin anew from the ascension?

Yes. Paul never owns them, nor even Christ after the flesh; and in that sense you must start from the glory.

I suppose Rome has kept to Matthew 28?

Yes, and lost plenty else besides.

Baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is baptizing in the name of the Lord Jesus, is it not?

Yes, practically.

The kingdom of heaven, goes on, I suppose, until the Lord comes after the church is removed.

Well, that is a transitional time.

But will not the testimony then be like it was before the Lord first came?

You cannot have a John Baptist again testifying to the people of a Christ born in Bethlehem; and so coming for their reception. But you may have testifying to His coming in glory.

How does Paul's work stand in relationship to the twelve?

I get Paul supplanting the twelve as to the Gentiles in scripture.

Are the twelve representative of us, or are they the apostles of the kingdom, looking beyond church time altogether?

In Matthew 10 the Lord takes up the ministry in the land of Israel, and that by the twelve.

But does not the latter part of that chapter make a difference?

100 But Christ tells the disciples, You go and do so and so, and you must not say they are not to do it at all: I do not say that it did not fall through, because it did; but that does not touch the authority of the command. "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Then the chapter is divided into two distinct parts, after "Behold I send you forth as sheep," turning to a testimony to the Gentiles. Christ has gone then, for the Holy Ghost has come, and it is to be the Spirit of their Father that speaks in them. First, it should be worse for them than for Sodom and Gomorrah through the disciples' then mission; and then He goes on to the time when the Holy Ghost should be there; and He does not think of the church, but says, "you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come." The division is between verses 16, 17.

When is that testimony (ver. 18) borne?

When they are brought up as prisoners.

Have you not their mission to the Gentiles in Matthew 24?

That is yet to come.

The Acts of the Apostles

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J. N. Darby.

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100 Acts 3 - 17

What is striking here is that, after the setting up, in a sense, of the church, and saying "Save yourselves from this untoward generation," Peter then addresses himself to Israel as such, and tells them "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out," not "when" but "so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." God had raised up His Son Jesus, and now He deals with the nation and that after having called upon them to separate from the nation. God is still dealing with Israel on the ground of Israel. In verse 13 he says "the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers hath glorified His Son Jesus," he goes as far as that.

101The prophets, the covenant, and the fathers are all brought in, in connection with this fulfilment? (Ver. 25.)

Yes. The heavens must receive Him until the times of the restitution of all things; and that is still going on in fact. He proposes to them in this way the return of Christ; and he says, "I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers." But it was supplementary dealing with Israel on the ground of the intercession of Christ, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

But then the apostles are not allowed even to finish their speech, and Israel rejects the supplementary grace; "as they spake unto the people the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people."

In verse 26 does "raised up" refer to the fact of the Lord's coming amongst the Jews?

I have no doubt it does.

"Sent him to bless you," is that by the ministry of the apostles?

It takes in Christ's life on earth as well.

Is it "God was in Christ reconciling"?

Ah, that is "the world;" here it is, "ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers." This is an address to Israel, when Christ was gone, to say that He would come back again if they repented; as indeed He will when they do repent. But the priests stop their mouths altogether, and tell them that they must not preach; and then they say they must obey God rather than man. The priests let them go, and they go to their own company; but they have got their own company to go to, notice that.

102 Then we get another manifestation of the power of the Holy Ghost and its effect in making them all of one heart and of one mind too. (Acts 5: 12.)

Had Peter this in his mind in Acts 2?

No; there it was "Repent and be baptized, every one of you," and "save yourselves from this untoward generation." Here the return of Christ promised on repentance; but Acts 4 is present christian testimony, the other was supplementary grace.

Were they thoroughly given up until the last chapter?

Well, this was outside Jerusalem.

There is no offer that Christ should return after this?

No, not at all.

Would you explain Acts 3: 21?

It is what the prophets had stated, that is all. Nothing more is to be restored than they had said should be. In Acts 5 you get evil coming in inside; then you find the power of judgment, and they fall down dead; and fear comes upon all within and without. It was the manifestation of God's presence encouraging His disciples. Ananias and Sapphira were lying to God as in the assembly, and the Lord's presence shewed itself in judgment.

103 Does Peter allude to this when he says judgment begins at the house of God?

No; though it is the same principle. Then comes another character of evil - murmuring about the temporal provisions; and the seven are appointed. An important principle is connected with this, and that is the free action of the Holy Ghost shewn even in Jerusalem, in Stephen, and afterwards in Philip too. It was not apostles merely bearing witness, but you now see this free action in those who had the serving of tables.

I suppose Judaism was not thoroughly judged until Jerusalem was destroyed?

Well, not externally; but the patience of God still went on with them. You do not get the closing of all that, until the Epistle to the Hebrews and the going outside the camp.

Is the Epistle to the Hebrews supplementary and lingering?

Up to going outside the camp, and then there is no lingering after that.

What is "durst no man join himself to them"?

The people magnified them, heard them gladly, but not the grand folks, it would not do for them. On the contrary, it was they who put the apostles in prison. And then comes something more - angelic power is employed to minister to the heirs of salvation; the Lord sends His angel who opens the prison doors, and the apostles come out and preach as before. That is a wonderful display of power. "Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people." And Peter testifies to the council, "We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew, and hanged on tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost." Then God has providential things ready for them by the hand of Gamaliel. You get our New Testament Joshua here.

104 At what point does the primitive church lose its full power of blessing?

It gradually died down; though you get a point in "I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock." Then comes a question whether the apostles did not fail in staying at Jerusalem, because the Lord had said, "When they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another," and they did not do so.

You never find a church among the Gentiles in such a state of outward attraction as at Jerusalem?

No. But you get here at Jerusalem, Ananias and Sapphira trying to deceive the Holy Ghost; and then the Hellenists murmuring, and so on. Then comes this action of the Holy Ghost in Stephen, preaching and confounding his hearers; and they bring him up to the council.

Murmurings soon came in?

But the murmurings are met by the Spirit of God. First, there is a display of blessedness, everybody giving up what he has; then comes in this murmuring, about it all; and then power by the Holy Ghost to meet that. And power goes on in testimony all the while, and in Acts 7 Stephen is put to death, and that closes that scene. A person is sent to heaven, and that closes up Christ's coming back, because He has got some one gone up there, and that begins another thing entirely. In his speech in chapter 7, Stephen goes through all the dealings of God from Abraham down, from beginning to end, and shews the result as to man. Really the cross had finished everything. Abraham was the beginning of all the dealings of God; there were no dealings before, but a testimony only, not positive institutions or dealings {nor indeed promise to fallen man, though in the judgment on the serpent a revelation of Christ which faith could lay hold of), and that testimony ended with the flood. Then in the beginning of the world, after setting up authority in it in Noah, when that declined, God calls out a person who thereupon becomes the father of the faithful, he is the father of the race of God, just as you had the father of a wicked race in Adam, but in Abraham you get the root of the olive-tree.

105 Well, Stephen begins there, and gives the whole history of Israel, summing it up with this, they received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it; their fathers persecuted the prophets, and slew those who told before of the coming of the just One; and of Him they themselves had now been the betrayers and the murderers, "ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did, so do ye." You have there the law broken, the prophets killed, Christ crucified, and the Holy Ghost resisted. And so that chapter is the turning-point of Israel's, and indeed of man's history.

What are we to understand by the Lord standing at the right hand of God?

106 I believe He had not sat down to say it was all over with Israel, until they had killed Stephen. It is a figure of the thing. The whole scene is exceedingly beautiful: the stones are flying about Stephen, and he kneels down and prays for those who throw them, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." You see in him the effect of the perception of Christ in glory; Stephen is formed into the same image. The heaven is opened too; it was opened on Christ at His baptism, but then heaven looked down on Him as perfect, here Stephen looks up into heaven. The difference is total as to the person.

Why in Acts 7: 2 does Stephen call God "the God of glory"?

That was the natural title as to Israel. And here it is that you first meet Saul. We have been tracing the rejection of the truth, not only in a humbled Christ, but in a continued course of history which is over now, and that is where Saul comes in; he is the expression of the condition of man, who is an open enemy to the very last possible expression of God.

And that is why he calls himself the chief of sinners?

No doubt. Well then, persecution arose and God allowed it. And Philip's service in Samaria follows. Then the offer of Simon Magus to buy the power of giving the Holy Ghost. Philip is a beautiful character of promptness and readiness; he is sent off, when in the full tide of service in Samaria, into the desert; he purchased to himself a good degree and great boldness in the faith.

What was the character of his preaching?

Jesus.

107 How far does that go?

To the eunuch. He explained Isaiah 53. The eunuch asks, "Of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself or of some other man?" and Philip began at that scripture, it goes on even to the glory, for you get "he shall divide the spoil with the strong."

What is "the kingdom of God" in the Acts?

It was the great truth that the kingdom of God was come now, in the form of the kingdom of heaven.

Would preaching the second coming include the kingdom of God?

It brings it in. Preaching the kingdom is not dealing with the world merely, but it was setting up a kingdom.

What is the meaning of "ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel until the Son of man be come"?

They will not have gone over them until He comes again.

Was Simon's administrative forgiveness when he was baptized?

It was external, and there was nothing real in any part of it; but he had the form of it.

But the judgment of him was not brought out until afterwards?

Just so. He let the truth out when he saw the power working, that he thought it would be a fine thing to have that. And the apostle says, Thy money perish with thee, thou hast no part or lot in the matter.

Are the Samaritans here treated as a separate class?

Rather so.

108 They do not appear to have made the same difficulty about them as they did about the Gentiles?

No, you see the Lord had been in Samaria.

It speaks strongly for the unity that the apostles did not say, They are only Samaritans, let them alone?

In Acts 8: 22 he says, "Pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee," what is that?

Possibly he might get forgiven if he bowed to God; it does not exclude him from hope; that is all.

There is something in that word, "his life is taken from the earth;" was it not important at that moment to press that?

That is what he was reading, there was no pressing it more than any other part.

It was going from Jerusalem that this took place?

Yes, he was a proselyte. So now we get Jews, Samaritans, and proselytes, not Gentiles quite. And then we get Saul, the apostle of what brought final judgment on man; by final, I mean, after God had done everything, and Christ was utterly rejected.

And the whole testimony is rejected from the earth.

Yes. And Saul's place is an exceedingly special and peculiar one. Afterwards you get Peter receiving the Gentiles.

What marks Paul's place?

He tells us in Acts 26 "I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness, both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee." Paul was neither a Jew nor a Gentile, but taken out of both and connected with Christ in the glory. Sovereign grace had taken out this person, guilty as he was of final hostility - hostility to the very end, and in the moment when he was occupied in carrying out this violent hostility of man against God, notwithstanding all that God could do in grace, he is taken out, is identified with God's servants, and sent out in service; "delivering thee from" is really "taking thee out of," so that he was neither a Jew nor a Gentile. He did not even know Christ after the flesh. And you get a new truth at Saul's conversation, in "Why persecutest thou me?" "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest:" that is, all the Christians were Christ Himself, in Christ's estimate of them. As you have "so also is Christ." The whole mystery is involved if not developed in that word "Me."

109 How do you understand the Lord's appearing to him?

It was because he was to be a witness for Him.

Did Paul forget this when he said, "I am a pharisee, the son of a pharisee"?

I suppose so. It is not like his counting it all dross and dung at any rate.

Was Paul right in saying, "Is it lawful to scourge a Roman"?

Well, I do not know that there is any objection there.

And at Philippi?

At Philippi he was right; but his using the plea that he was a Roman sent him to Rome.

110 Did you mean just now that Paul was put into any other position than that of a believer in Christ?

No; but he was put into the position of a vessel and witness of the truth specially.

In what peculiar sense was he entirely a heavenly man?

Because he was neither a Jew nor a Gentile, and so totally different from what went before.

Was he more heavenly than any other christian man?

Practically he was; but not as to true position. If I receive Paul's testimony, I get into Paul's place. He is a special vessel of testimony; God might have used other instruments as well, and did, and they preached  . . . . by the Holy Ghost.

"Filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ," what is that?

Paul had his share, and a special share too, of the afflictions of Christ. Christ had to suffer for His love to the church, and so had Paul.

Paul says that by revelation the mystery was made known unto him, but was it not revealed by the Spirit to the "apostles and prophets"?

I do not doubt others had it revealed. But the first time Paul preached, he preached that Jesus was the Son of God; now Peter never preached that once, so far as we get in scripture.

Did the other apostles get their knowledge of the mystery from Paul?

I do not know. Peter knew Paul's writings, and thought some of them hard to be understood. In Galatians "privately" is what Paul communicated to them when alone. We get great truths shewn out in him, and this remarkably, that sovereign grace takes him up when in the extreme of hostility against Christ, and makes him the instrument of declaring sovereign grace to those who were in that condition themselves. . . . His opposition was a terrible thing; conscience told him he ought to do it, and all the religious authorities told him too; and then he found that he was fighting against the Lord of glory. He found out that all that was right in him (in one sense it was right) had just set him to destroy Christ. It was a complete smash - an utter smash - not of a wicked man at all, but a smash of a man in his most cultivated capacity; and the man was gone too. It was sovereign grace entirely above everything.

111 It seems to have always characterized Paul's ministry - this revelation of the mystery?

Yes. . . .Then as soon as Paul is called, we get back to Peter, with not only the power still going on, but all Lydda and Saron turned to the Lord, and then, though Paul is called the apostle of the Gentiles, Peter is used to bring in the first Gentile.

Why was that?

Because it must all be brought in in unity; if Paul had started apart, then it would have been a Gentile church, as well as a Jewish church, and that would not do at all.

Peter was naturally averse to going to the Gentiles?

Yes. You do not get unity at first, but blessing for Gentiles in itself.

Is this Peter's having the "keys"?

And the Holy Ghost is given them too?

112 After the testimony of a crucified Christ and faith in Him. . . . You must get blood before you get oil, and the oil may come immediately after the blood, as in the case of the leper. When I am cleansed by the blood of Christ, then the Holy Ghost can come and dwell in me.

________

When you come to understand and know the condition of man, you will find there are no promises belonging to him, any more than righteousness. Wherever you have promises, you will find man in some measure owned. There are no promises to man as man, at least Gentiles have none. That is what I see in the Syrophenician woman, and in what she was brought to own." "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and cast it to the dogs." She acknowledges that is true, but "the dogs eat the crumbs," she says - takes the dog's place, and looks to God's sovereign love to send to those who have no title, and then gets everything she wanted; but as long as she talked about the "Son of David," she got nothing.

What is "the Holy Ghost fell on all"?

Peter says it is the same thing happened to them - the Gentiles - as did to us at the beginning.

In Acts 8: 16, it says, "for as yet he was fallen upon none of them"?

That is the Samaritans. And now you have Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles, all made partakers of the Holy Ghost.

Just a word again about the water, and blood, and oil: do you put the washing with water as the new birth?

Yes; then the sprinkling with blood, the remission of sins.

113 And an interval between that and the oil?

There often is.

And an interval between water and blood?

Well, there may be, but not in a general way so much, at least, where Christ is preached. And here the oil is at once: "they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God." Cornelius was a converted man, and now he is more than that, he is "saved" by Peter's word, and the Holy Ghost fell on him.

Was he not a Christian until then?

A person is not entitled to be called a Christian until he has the third thing; "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of him."

If we have no promises, what is meant by "all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus"? And Peter speaks of - "whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises?

That is the second Man, "yea and amen in Christ Jesus." And Christians have promises of course. But not the first man - not Gentiles, I said.

What is the meaning of the place being shaken?

It shewed the power in an outward way.

There is no mention of the Holy Ghost in the case of the Ethiopian?

No; but he went on his way rejoicing, and to this day the Abyssinians are half Jews and half Christians.

What of Cornelius himself?

His alms, it says, came up before God, and his prayers; and he was a devout man. He may have heard of Christ, for this thing was not done in a corner; anyway he must have known of Christ, much or little, but he did not know the gospel, as we call it. It is important to see on this question to notice that the word "saved" has a force which is not generally given to it. Take the word "delivered," and then Israel was not delivered until they had passed the Red Sea, they knew they were to be, but were not really.

114 Would you call it a transition state?

You may call it so, or what you please, but they were not saved. Only remember, I do not go and preach about a transition state to a mass of supposed unbelievers. . . . Strictly, salvation is not believed in. Conversion is. Quickening is. But that a person is taken out of the state he is in naturally, in bondage in the flesh, and delivered from it, is not. And that is "saved."

Then what is the difference between conversion and salvation?

Conversion is when a man turns to God, through the Spirit of God working in Him.

What is conviction? Is that there?

It would include that, and be conversion too, if the will is bowed. But salvation is positive deliverance from the state the man is in. The prodigal son was converted when he turned and came to his father; but he had not Christ on him until he had the best robe. He would be glad before if he could but get a corner in the house.

In Acts 11 you get the gospel preached first to the Jews, and then some spoke to the Gentiles. Then Barnabas gets hold of Paul, and that is where the new ministry comes in. The church at Antioch is started.

"As far as Antioch," the distance did not hinder them.

115 Were Grecians Gentiles?

Hellenes were, but Hellenists were not. Here the whole point is that they were Gentiles.

You have faith there before conversion, they "believed and turned to the Lord"?

Yes, you always get belief first in that way. If they did not believe, they could not turn to Him. Then we get persecution and other things. The Lord delivers Peter out of the prison, but Herod cuts off James' head. The first persecution was by the chief priests, but this is a royal persecution. In the dealing with Herod we get the government of God outside the church. This is the end of Peter.

In Acts 13 we start from Antioch. There you get the public testimony with this important element, that they are sent forth by the Holy Ghost. Christ had called Paul, but now you get the immediate action of the Spirit for carrying out his ministry.

Would "ministering to the Lord" be worship?

Partly so, I suppose; partly worshipping and partly praying, they were together before the Lord. It would be like Israel, they kept the charge of the Lord until the cloud was taken up, or came down.

Is there anything special in Saul's name being changed?

Well, I believe he had got among the Gentiles, and Paul is a Latin name . . . .

In Acts 13: 47 Paul takes Isaiah 49: 6 for a command; it is really a prophecy spoken for the Lord.

In Acts 14 "elders" are chosen, and this is the first intimation of that arrangement.

Is it "ordain?"

The word really means choose, but in ecclesiastical Greek, to ordain. Calvin put in the words, "by the advice of the assembly." In chapter 1 the translators put in "ordain," simply from their own views. The etymological meaning of the word, "by show of hands," is quite lost.

116 What about these elders now?

Well, if you want them, you must first get me the church, and then apostles too. In Acts 20 Paul speaks of "the flock of God, over whom the Holy Ghost has made you overseers." If you were to choose elders amongst you now, you would be just a little sect with its own voluntary arrangements. Christ was the source of authority: He appointed apostles, apostles appointed elders. Authority came down, never went up. There is no kind of choosing by the church in that way in scripture. There is scripture for subjection to those who labour in the word, and so on; that is on moral ground. In Hebrews and Thessalonians you have, "esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake."

But to appoint them needed either an apostle or an apostle's delegate?

Yes.

How do you understand that "from themselves" grievous wolves should arise?

I do not confine that to the elders, though such might come even from them.

In Acts 15 we get the question of what was to be done with the Gentiles - were they to be circumcised?

Antioch and Jerusalem were tending towards a split; now, if Paul had settled it, each would have gone on its own way, and we should have had two churches. God hindered that, and made Jerusalem set the Gentiles free; so keeping up the unity practically. Then, as they went through the cities, they delivered the decrees to them for to keep.

117 There is one verse that I should like to get at the bottom of, and that is, "it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us." What is the force of that?

I do not know that it is not Cornelius there.

Was it that in the assembly the Holy Ghost spoke?

In verse 25 the Holy Ghost is not mentioned; and in verse 23 you have apostles, elders, and brethren. They were decrees of the apostles and elders. . . . You see the Holy Ghost had let in a Gentile without making him a Jew . . . . I see one very wise thing; the apostles let all the brethren tire themselves with discussing, and then they (the apostles) come in lively. James quotes a passage, the scope of which has nothing to say to the matter - one that is in the Septuagint - "that the residue of men might seek after the Lord," but which in the Hebrew is, "that they may possess the remnant of Edom."

What is it quoted for?

For one single word, "the Gentiles, on whom my name is called;" that is all that he quoted it for.

What is the principle of a decree of the council?

Merely that there were certain things they would do right to attend to. There were three things - the proper claims of God; the relationship of man and wife, purity in man; and then, that life belonged to God.

Jews in every city?

Yes, that there are plenty everywhere to plead for Moses. But spiritual intelligence will take up the defence of blood. It is not law only, but before it.

118 Are these binding upon us now?

Not in the shape of a decree now; but it is clear enough as to two of them. As to things offered to idols, if a thing were sold in the shambles I should ask no questions about it.

Paul's higher truth could not abrogate this?

No, certainly not. And as to fornication, in Thessalonians Paul presses the same thing; but it was ingrained in their habits, they were so degraded. Then we get Barnabas and Paul disputing. I do not doubt, after all, God's hand was in it, because Paul had to stand alone in the place he takes up. Barnabas takes Mark. John Mark, was sister's son to Barnabas, and so he was not above connection with nature as Paul was; that was the secret and therefore he would not be a suitable person to be with Paul.

I suppose it is distinct that the Holy Ghost was with Paul?

Yes, but he may have lost his temper about it. It is beautiful to see how, afterwards, he says (2 Tim. 4: 11), "Take Mark, and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry."

The brethren recommend Paul to the grace of God?

Yes. He is ordained twice; here, and in Acts 14: 26, we read what it meant, "Whence they had been recommended to the grace of God." It was laymen ordaining an apostle, if you take it as ordaining, and done twice over. It is very simple if you really take it as stated; they had what we should call a prayer-meeting about it, and that might be done a dozen times.

119 Would there be any danger in doing it again now?

No; doing it honestly.

What of laying on of hands?

Laying on of hands was always used as a sign of blessing.

In Acts 16 we come to an important principle for evangelists, and that is, that while they are called to preach the gospel to every creature, there is Christ's authority too for being here or there, as He sees fit; while their commission is universal, their direction is particular. Paul was not to go into Asia or Bithynia then (though he was allowed to go into Asia afterwards); but he is directed by a dream, and then says, "assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us." When he comes to Macedonia with Luke, then we get "we" for the first time. And we get the wisdom of God needed to defeat Satan. You see how subtle Satan is; if Paul had accepted this woman's testimony, this Pythoness, he would have accepted the devil; and if he put the spirit out of the Pythoness, then he raised the devil against him. And he does nothing for some time, and then he is stirred in spirit, and cannot help himself. Another thing: though he was very glad to preach in the synagogue, when he comes to Philippi, he goes and sits down by the river side with a number of poor women, and that is the commencement of one of the brightest churches we have in scripture. He does not put out any handbills or such things. He goes to the Jewesses. Lydia was a proselyte. And this was the commencement of the work in Europe.

Why did not Paul cast the evil spirit out at once?

Well, it is evident he avoided meddling with it for many days; at last he cannot stand the pretended co-operation of Satan, and then he arouses, and casts it out.

120 Will Satan co-operate now-a-days?

To be sure he will, if you will let him.

Not in the same manifest way?

Manifest! how so, how manifest then, except to the spiritual perception of the apostle? Many an infidel would come and work with you now, in some respects, if you would let him. It teaches us how important it is to see what we accept in the way of help in God's service.

In Acts 17 it is all Paul's ministry. And then you get him at Athens. Then you have Paul's defence, not sermon, from verse 22. He had preached (v. 18) Jesus and the resurrection.

He preached repentance, and that characterized his gospel preaching?

Only you must not call this preaching. Paul is here brought to Areopagus to answer for himself.

Acts 18-20

This is general history of Paul's service; and we may see how cast on the Lord we are in work. Corinth was a frightful place of luxurious wickedness, and he continued there a year and six months. Then he must by all means keep the feast at Jerusalem, and he goes away, and through Galatia. I suppose at this time the Epistle to the Galatians had hardly been written. You get his first preaching in Acts 16, and now he is confirming the disciples.

121 Is Apollos introduced here for any special purpose?

I do not know, except that he was a very eminent labourer afterwards. He went over to Achaia, so that they could say, "I am of Paul, and I of Apollos," there. Then Paul went to Ephesus, and there was an uproar. We do not know when he went to Crete, though it is supposed that it was when he was at Ephesus. Just after that uproar he wrote the Epistle to the Corinthians; then Titus came back with the answer to the first letter, and Paul wrote the second. It tells us he was three years at Ephesus.

Was this trouble in Asia, what he alludes to in 2 Corinthians?

Yes, only it must have gone further.

It says "disputing?"

Well, it was discussing the things of God; as an old term disputing was used in that way, not with bad feeling.

In chapter 19 we get very distinctly the Holy Ghost consequent upon believing - "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" And in Acts 20 he calls the elders of Ephesus, and shews them that all would go thoroughly bad after his decease. "Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things," etc. It is the religious body that is the spring of persecution; so at last, no doubt, the beast kills people, but the blood of the saints is found at Babylon . . . .

What are the chief points in his address to the elders?

There is, first, the gospel of the grace of God; then the kingdom of God, and then the whole counsel of God.

122 What is that last?

It would have special reference to what Paul had to communicate. . . . It was not that man was a moral being, and so on; it was much more objective than subjective; but the effect is to produce the subjective state, and the subjective state is always formed by an object.

It is not preaching about repentance that produces it?

No; but still you must preach that they repent; and it is repentance towards God too.

That is stated before "faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ?''

But that sentence (Acts 20: 21) is abused in a violent way, putting repentance before faith; if it is faith in the full efficacy of Christ's work, of course it can, and will come after repentance; it is impossible that repentance can go before faith, because when a man goes with a testimony, if it is not believed, it produces no effect.

Is not this the first historical notice of the great deflection of the church?

I suppose so. The Epistle to the Thessalonians was written before this; and the second to the Thessalonians was written after Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

Suppose a person took the ground that this was limited to Ephesus, how would you meet it?

Why, there is nothing about Ephesus in it. Paul is speaking in a general way, "after my decease." And you get the same things in Peter. It is Paul's ministry closing - that is the point.

But is it not fatal to all apostolic succession?

Yes, entirely, so called. But I get apostolic succession in scripture, and that is in the binding and loosing which is conferred on two or three gathered together in Christ's name; and that is the only thing the power is passed on to. But here, in the vulgar sense of apostolic succession, it is positively denied.

123 Do you think that the mystery had been fully revealed to Paul at this time?

I do, because he had written to the Romans before this, and there refers to it. You could scarcely have the whole counsel of God declared without the mystery being in it.

Could you call that view of apostolic succession uninterrupted?

Well, no, not quite, because it must come to "two or three." It is remarkable how literally this has been fulfilled . . . . It is given when they are a remnant getting out of an old system. Then the Lord tells them to count the cost, etc.

Ought an evangelist now to preach as Christ preached?

You never get the gospel from Christ at all; you get it practically stated, but His is the gospel of the kingdom.

But you get "salvation," and "go in peace?"

Yes, to one individual, but that is not His preaching about the country.

But the gospel now is the gospel of God?

Yes, it is God's glad tidings.

Is that practically now, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life?"

Yes.

Did people who were quickened on earth know Christ's salvation?

124 No, nor the 120; at least Peter, the first of them, did not.

But "thy sins are forgiven thee," to the man?

That was no "gospel" at all; it was administration on earth. I do not understand any effort to shew that the Lord could preach what is our gospel; how could He preach His own death and resurrection for salvation as an accomplished thing? You get some of the truth prophetically, in a way, as to His death, and so on, but that is all.

But you find in Romans 3 that the ground is now established, "to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness?"

Exactly; that is the very thing I am saying. There is no formula or rule as to preaching, but, taking all things together, here Paul characterizes the whole of his preaching by these two words, "repentance" and "faith."

Is "the word of his grace" the written word?

Well, wherever they could get it, this was partly written, but not all; it would be all of it when it came. When you get decay brought out fully in Timothy, then it is, "Continue in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them," and "the holy scriptures."

Is it "God," or "the word," that is able to build you up?

I think it is the word of His grace, but it is not without God - I am sure of that.

And no state of ruin can at all hinder the full blessing of that?

No, but on the contrary, it is the state of ruin that throws us entirely upon it. Only, as I said, in Timothy, I must know "of whom" I have learned, and "the scriptures." Cyprian says, if I get a channel choked from a spring, I go back and see if the spring has failed, or it the channel is choked. Chrysostom says of Matthew 24, that flying to the hills and mountains is flying to the scriptures. Not that I know much of the Fathers, for when I began to read them, I found them such trash, I could not go on.

125 How soon was church authority insisted on?

In the second and third centuries; it grew up gradually. It was rather official authorities at first than the church.

Did Paul write the last of all?

John was the last writer, not Paul; all John's writings, so far as known, were after Paul's. There has been a controversy about the date of the Revelation, but, according to the most received evidence, it was thirty years after Paul: at least it was after Paul was killed. That is why the Lord says of John, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee." He was the one who watched over the church until the last. Many learned Christians have put John's gospel as the last thing written.

What coming did the Lord refer to in that John 21: 22?

His own coming again.

Not the destruction of Jerusalem?

The destruction of Jerusalem had nothing to do with Christ's coming; that was the judicial action of setting aside the people on earth. Morally it was done before, so that there was nothing left after that but his return. And the Lord says, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled. I think it is most important to notice that passage in 2 Timothy 3: "In the last days perilous times shall come: men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away." And then he refers Timothy, as we have said, to the things he has learned; and from a child Timothy had known the holy scriptures. John says, "He that knoweth God heareth us, he that is not of God heareth not us; hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error."

126 Then it is by means of the scriptures we are to know the truth?

I do not know how else. You cannot hear them (the writers) so you must read them. The principle of church authority is gone in "the seven churches;" there I am not called to hear what the church says, but I am to listen to what the Spirit judges about the church.

What is "hear the church," Matthew 18: 17?

That is the assembly in discipline, not about doctrine at all, or anything of that kind. It is not for teaching - the church does not teach, the church is taught. Teachers teach, apostles teach, and the gifts the Lord has given. Take away this horrid word "church," and say assembly; then how can the assembly teach? I do not know a more mischievous word than that word "church." If the church were teaching, you would have a hundred people talking together.

They say "a teaching body?"

127 Ah, the teaching body of the church, says the Romanist, and that comes to the clergy.

The "pillar and ground of the truth?"

The church confesses the truth, and so is the pillar and ground of the truth, but it does not teach. Suppose I were to say here to Mr. O. "Now I cannot believe you, 'O.' until Mr. B. guarantees what you say." What would that prove? Just this, that I do not believe Mr. O. at all, I should be believing B., not O. And if I do not believe what is in the word until the church says it is right, I do not believe the word at all, but the church . . . . I am sure I am very thankful to have been brought up to confide in the word; but if you come to real power, then you never believe in the word, but by its power over your own conscience. I remember a priest saying to me "How do you know that it is the word of God?" And I asked him, suppose I give you a deep gash in your arm, how do you know what I have got in my hand is a knife? The trouble is, such things silence people at the moment, but they do not bow; it shews mere infidelity. How did the woman in John 4 know that Christ was a prophet, and not merely own that what He said was true? What He said was true, but because it was true, and came to her conscience, she knew that He was a prophet. . . . I quite admit there is external testimony to the word, but I do not believe that gives faith. You get the power of the word in your conscience, and you have the testimony of it there. As for the Apocrypha, in the preface of the Maccabees, the writer says, "I have abridged five books because they were too long." What authority can that carry? And there are numerous "gospels," so called, with horrid stories about Christ's power as a child, so that one says they were obliged to shut Him up, lest He should kill everybody. But you do not find people quarrelling with the Koran as they do with the Bible; it is because it is the word of God that they will not let it alone. They do not quarrel with Homer, or books that have no power of conscience.

128 Does the word ever act on the affections before it acts on conscience?

Oh yes, I quite admit it may.

And the different books of the Bible?

The word is like a dissected map, I do not want proof that it is all there; there it is, and all the parts fit in. The only book, as to external evidence, that you can cast any doubt upon is the Second Epistle of Peter; rather, there is less for that than for any other - not that I have the least doubt about it at all.

Could you give us all idea how the canon of scripture got welded together?

The canon of scripture is nothing to me, and the putting it into canon nothing either. You have the whole thing adapted and fitted in together. There may be more apparent difficulty about the Old Testament than about the New; but if you accept the history at all, then the Lord Jesus and the apostles distinctly recognize the Old Testament.

Are all quoted in the New Testament, as a whole, as well as separately?

Well, if I believe Christ is the Son of God, then I get Him taking a book which, on infidel shewing, is not genuine, and opening their understandings to understand from it things about Himself. You get all in the law, the prophets, and the psalms; they are the three divisions. Then there are a great many moral proofs. Infidels will tell you there is nothing like the life of Christ, and yet they say it is an imposture - a man who set up to be the Son of God, and He was not.

129 But they deny that He said He was the Son of God?

Well, that is not true. Besides, when a man comes and tells me, God ought this, and God ought that, what is that?

People say He was not called Son of God in the synoptic gospels?

He is commonly called Jesus, and Jesus is Jehovah-Saviour; you must get the facts first.

It is said that they read Clement in the churches of old, and Hermas too?

But then I do not admit that the church has authority in that. As for Hermas, what is the account you get there? It is that God took counsel with His Son, and with the holy angels, to put a pure spirit into a body, and then sent His servant - Christ - to set up stakes, and stake out a vineyard, &c., that is, apostles, and so on, in the church; but he did a great deal more than he was told, for he set to work to pull up the weeds, that is, take away their sins; and then God takes counsel with His Son, the Holy Ghost, His angels, what shall we do to Him for this, and they agree to make Him a joint-heir with the Son. Now, if the church authenticated that, then I get the epistle is authenticated, but the church itself unauthenticated. Origen said that that thing of Hermas I have quoted was inspired, but that does not make it inspired. Irenaeus too.

130 What about the Book of Jasher?

The Book of Jasher was not inspired; but the king says to Ammon, "Go and look at that record, and see if this country is not ours." . . . .

I suppose there is no doubt that it was Saturday night when the disciples came together to break bread?

. . . . Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.

In Acts 2 they broke bread from house to house?

Not from one house to another, but at home.

Is that the Lord's supper?

Yes. Then we get general facts as to Paul going up to Jerusalem.

In Acts 20: 11, is that the love feast?

I do not know; but they used to have it generally.

Was it breaking of bread on board the ship?

No, not on board the ship.

The Epistle to the Ephesians

J. N. Darby.

<35009E> 131

Ephesians 1

Here we have the thought of God about us - all that there is of blessing in Him for us. Angels, principalities, and powers, will learn through us the manifold wisdom of God. Then He unfolds it all. First our calling, then God's purpose as to Christ - His place then our inheritance. The close of chapter 1 puts all these subjects together; all are founded on this title which God takes - the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is only after His resurrection that Christ calls His disciples His brethren.

Verse 3. You get here the double title. It is the secret of all God's thoughts, that His purpose is to put us into the same place as Christ. (1 Cor. 15: 49.) We shall be as like the Second Adam as we have been like the first.

132 In Matthew 16: 20, He forbids them to say He was the Christ. In Matthew 12 He is rejected; Matthew 18, He introduces the kingdom of heaven; Matthew 16, the church; Matthew 17, the kingdom of glory, but at the end He shews the disciples where He was leading them. He says to Peter, You and I are children, we are therefore free - "for me and thee," think of the Lord of glory saying that! He puts Peter into this place with Himself. Then He shews His power over creation. He puts Peter in association with Himself just when He was shewing this divine power.

Ephesians 1: 3 is altogether in contrast to the Jew. They will be blessed with temporal blessings under Christ, we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ. He has blessed us; that is the first wonderful statement.

Christ's place comes second, not that it is second, but unless we were brought into the place, we could not understand His place.

Verse 4. We have to go through the world, all of us (speaking generally), but we belonged to heaven before the foundation of the world. "Holy," "love," that is God's nature; we are made partakers of it; that gives capacity for knowing Him. I know not anything of an angel, for I have not his nature; but I am capable of knowing and enjoying God, and that in His own presence.

133 Verse 4 is what Christ was here - holy, blameless, and always before God in love.

Verse 5. "Children" implies "Father," but it is still in Christ. It does not say in verse 4, according to the good pleasure of His will, for He could not have unholy creatures before Him; but here it is said, for though He might have only desired to have servants, He chooses to have "children." Verse 4. He might have said "accepted in Christ;" that would not do, it is "in the Beloved," accepted according to that.

Q. Is holy in Christ our state now, or our standing?

A. It is put here as it is in God's mind, not as it is found in the poor earthen vessel. The extent of God's grace almost alarms people. Do you believe that God loves you as He does Jesus? If I have glory, it is "the glory which thou gavest me."

Q. Do you think we get this without going through Romans and Colossians?

A. No; but it is of immense moment for us to understand that it is by "grace," and that according to what God is.

The conscience must be reached. God is light and love; and that manifests what we are - exposes us.

He reasons down from what God is - no one is ever free till he gets that side.

134 Israel, in Egypt, were sheltered from judgment; but it is a different thing at the Red Sea. There they are told to stand still, and see the salvation of God.

I am where God has put me, not where sin has put me.

In John 3 you get the two sides. Then my peace flows from what God is for me. If I go to God now, I go to the One who did not spare His own Son for me. I get all the love that was in His heart, this love reigning through righteousness.

The forgiveness is not according to the measure of my need (though it meets it, of course), but the manner of it is "according to the riches of His grace."

Verses 9 and 10. Then God says, Now that I have brought you into capacity to understand, I will make known to you my purpose about Christ.

There is nothing absolutely certain but faith. I may believe there is such a town as Edinburgh, but it is possible that an earthquake may have destroyed it. Nothing but faith can be absolutely certain.

In Hebrews we read, the "full assurance" of faith. Three "full assurances" are spoken of - in Colossians it is of "understanding," in Hebrews of "hope" and of "faith."

135 "Prudence" is an unhappy word; here it is God's mind, His thoughts, not prudence in practice. You get the word in Proverbs. He unfolds to me His thoughts and plans about Christ; He is going to head up all things under Christ as man, and we get three reasons for this. In Colossians it is as Creator; in Hebrews Christ is the Heir as Son; and thirdly, having been rejected as Christ, He comes out as Son of man, Head over all things. Hebrews 2: "He left nothing that is not put under him." He is seated at the right hand of God, but He is waiting till the time appointed to take His power and reign over all.

He has this Headship as Creator, as Son of God, and as Son of man; personal, relative, and positional Head over all; but Head to the church, which is His body. A head would be incomplete without a body.

But there redemption comes in: as a Redeemer He fills it all, not merely as God.

We have seen the plan of God as regards Christ; then I get the inheritance. The first part of the chapter is our calling, afterwards we get the inheritance.

Verses 12 and 13. Those who trusted in Christ before He appears, get to be with Him - same place as the church.

We are sons by faith, not merely born; quickening and believing go together. We get the Spirit, the earnest of the inheritance, until Christ comes in His glory.

136 Q. Does "after that ye believed" suppose an interval?

A. No; it should be "having believed." It is not that there is an interval, but you must get the things in their order; God could not seal an unbeliever.

There is nothing in heaven that does not belong to me now.

Moses and Elias talked with Christ, that was the kingdom; then came the cloud, that was the Father's house, the Father's voice heard speaking from it, and they entered in; that was a new thing, the disciples were afraid.

Q. Does "the inheritance" include everything, heavenly and earthly?

A. The inheritance takes in all created things, you must not confound it with our calling.

Ephesians 1: 17, and 3. We find the distinction between God and Father in these two prayers. Here He is looked at as Head over all things. Three things the apostle prays for - that they might know "the hope" of the calling and the "riches" of the inheritance; but then he prays that they might know the "power" that raised Christ from the dead. The calling is the first part; then that they are sons, they get the inheritance because they are sons. Then he goes on to pray that their "eyes may be opened."

137 Three callings - in Thessalonians it is "walk worthy of God, who has called you into his kingdom and glory;" in Colossians, "walk worthy of the Lord;" here it is simply God's calling.

To Israel, God says: "The land is mine." He inherited the land, in, and through Israel; here it is His inheritance in the saints.

"That ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints."

We are called to enjoy what is above us, and to inherit what is below us. The crowned elders were happier when they were on their faces than crowned on their thrones, more blessed to adore Him than to be in honour one's self.

They [the translators] were afraid to say "thrones," so they say "seats." Far above all.

Q. What is the eternal inheritance in Hebrews?

A. Oh! it is all eternal there. You look at the inheritance in two ways. Peter looks up, and that's eternal. Here it is - (end of the sentence lost, A. B. T.)

In Ephesians it is union, in Hebrews priesthood.

Q. Is not the "inheritance" there spoken of in connection with the new covenant, which is millennial?

138 A. No; all is eternal there, in contrast to Judaism. He looks at the heavenly calling, a positive thing, in contrast to the old [covenant]. God's side of the new has been accomplished, but it must be made good with the Jew.

While God makes the principle of the two covenants different, the blood of the new is shed; but He had other purposes - the church - and the new covenant is suspended till that be accomplished. We are sanctified unto the obedience of Christ.

What delivers us from law, was not that it had lost its force, but we have died in Christ, and you cannot apply the law to a dead man, you cannot charge a dead man with having lust in his heart.

In Romans 8, I find that what the law could not do God did - condemned sin in the flesh. It is not that He let it pass, but has done with it in the cross; it is not here that Christ died for my sins (that's true), but I died with Him.

Romans 5: 12 is the commencement of the new subject - what I am, not what I have done. I have died by faith, of course. Then there is the new life in Christ, which delights itself in God's will.

It is dead to sin in Romans, to the world in Colossians. You get not a word of all that in Ephesians, but that which takes me out of my own standing, and places me before God - Christ my righteousness - Christ my life.

139 In Colossians you get, "risen:" that question is not looked at in Ephesians, there it is dead in sins; I am dead in them - I am dead to God; God takes me up in Christ, and puts me in the same place. It is new creation here.

Death is spoken of in three aspects. In Colossians, "Ye are dead;" Romans, "Reckon yourselves dead;" 2 Corinthians 4, "Always bearing about in the body," &c., that is, carrying it out practically. I am at liberty, because I reckon myself dead, and so I can carry it out practically.

In Ephesians, "I am dead and quickened" together with Christ; and that is new creation; that power which came in and took Christ from that state of death and puts Him at God's right hand, takes us, and puts us in Him. The result, all things under His feet, and He Head over all things to His body. He fills everything between hades and the throne of God - fills the whole thing for faith. You cannot put my spirit in a place where Christ has not been. Ephesians 2: 2 is the Gentiles (ver. 3 the Jew), Satan's power over the world. By nature the Jew was very far off, but not by position; by position he was near to God, the elder son.

God does not give two epistles for the same purpose. In Colossians we do not get the Holy Ghost, but we do in Ephesians, therefore there is the strongest possible contrast. "Together with Christ" is a great deal more than new life. I am taken out of the condition I was in, and put in Him, there where He is. I have divine life, but there is more here, my standing is in Christ.

140 The position is totally changed, it alters the whole character of the Christian, if they get hold of it. It is new creation, not merely that I get a new life, but I have got a totally new position. We have not to grow to become meet, not to grow up, etc. The growing is all right, but He has "made us" meet.

That is the ground of it; we are not in the standing of the old man before God at all. It is a wonderful thing to apply to oneself, that God is going to shew forth in me the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness.

Q. "It makes us so small."

A. It makes us nothing, that is the comfort. "By grace are ye saved" - a fact, not a principle. God's salvation is, that I am going to be in the same glory as Christ.

Q. Does "that not of yourselves" apply to the whole thing?

A. No; I believe it applies to the faith - faith is just simply the word of God applied to man's soul by the Spirit of God. When the conscience is awakened, it puts God in His place, and man in his.

141 If I know all that is in your mind, I am your equal, as to your mind.

The Pharisee and the poor woman (Luke vii.) is an instance. Who was the child of wisdom? She was kissing His feet, and honouring God - that was God's wisdom.

I believe there is instinctively in man a conscience that he has to do with a power above him. A thing that reasoning proves is never a fact, but only a consequence.

"Unto good works, foreordained;" the works as much foreordained as I am.

In Ephesians 1 we have the universal thought of Christ, Head over all to His body. Here (end of Eph. 2) we get a new thing, not a body, as in chapter 1, but a habitation of God.

Apostles and prophets are those of the New Testament.

In the first place, Christ builds. (Matt. 16) In Peter we have, "built up as living stones" - that is another aspect. What God has already done is, to set up man in responsibility, the first thing man does, is, to fail. Then Christ comes, and makes all good in the second Adam that failed in the first. In 1 Corinthians 3 "a wise master-builder"; that is man's building. But when Christ builds, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

142 In Ephesians 2: 21 we get, first, it "groweth;" then (ver. 22), what God has set up, "ye are builded together" - it is not union here.

Q. When would you say the house will be set up in perfection?

A. In the heavenly Jerusalem. On the one hand the house, His dwelling-place; on the other, His body. It is union with Christ the Head, where it is His body, or, the bride.

Q. The body is not for the earth only?

A. Oh, not at all, it is for ever. There is no union till Christ is glorified in heaven.

The Vine and the branches is not the church at all. I get the house on earth; it will be the temple for ever. Consequent on the Holy Ghost coming down, the members of the body are united to Christ - entirely heavenly.

The church was never revealed in the Old Testament; not only did it not exist, but it could not be revealed till after the cross. You get the same thing in Colossians. You must have Christ glorified first, or you would have a body without a head; the church has its connection with Christ, the children with the Father. The Holy Ghost coming down from the Father puts us in the place of sons, and unites us with the Head: all that is heavenly. God has come out, and man gone in; the veil has been rent.

143 Colossians 1: 26. You cannot have the revelation of the church, and the Jews, at the same time, for they set aside each other.

In the Song of Solomon it is quite a different principle. There it is a question of going after Him, and finding Him, and losing Him (what the church never does). You have neither the place of sons, nor union with the Head.

Q. What is the difference between "children" and "sons"?

A. Well, "children" puts them in the place of relationship, but "sons" are considered as of full age. John speaks of "children," Paul, of "sons." You get "sons" in John, when it ought to be "children;" and "children," in Galatians 3, when it ought to be "sons." In 1 John 2: 1, 12, 28 it is all Christians; in verses 13 and 18 it is young Christians.

Here we get a Man in heaven, sitting at the right hand of God. Consequent on that, the Holy Ghost came down (the Holy Ghost came down ten days after Christ ascended); then you get the consciousness of being sons.

You get all about Christ in the Old Testament, but no idea of union could be there.

Q. Will the temple be set up in the millennium?

144 A. I believe it will; the temple is never given as a figure of heavenly things, but always the tabernacle; "the faces of the cherubim turned inwards, and their wings stretched forth on high covering the mercy-seat." It was the secret counsels of God. In the temple they turned outward, and their wings stretched to the wall of the house. It was the administrative government of God.

The difference of the prayer in Ephesians 3 comes out in verse 15, where you get the expression, "Every family," in connection with that of "Father of the Lord Jesus." Before Abraham there was no family of faith; Abraham the root of all the promises.

God had His throne between the cherubim but no more from the Babylonish captivity. Then Christ came as a King, and they would not have Him; this sets the whole thing aside. The principle of Judaism was to keep up the partition, of Christianity to break it down.

The Syrophenician woman got through all dispensations to the heart of God; and all God's heart was at her disposal.

It is not now mercy and promises, but grace. "Unto me is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ" - the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.

145 The heavenly beings did not know it, for it was hid in God. Then the "manifold wisdom;" a new thing came out. Our conversation is in heaven, our hearts ought to be there; all our living associations.

If I speak of "sons," it is not union - we are justified; you are a son and I am a son, but it is individual - we are two; but when it is said "one Spirit," it is union.

This prayer is very instructive. There was not one place where it was not the Jews who raised persecution against Paul, so he says to the Gentiles, "My persecution is your glory."

Now, I get "the Father" (ver. 14) of the Lord Jesus Christ - a deeper thing than "the God of the Lord Jesus." (Eph. 1: 17.) "Every family in heaven and earth;" this expression is taken from Amos 3: 2 - angels, principalities, the church, &c.

He revealed Himself as Almighty God to the patriarchs; as Jehovah to the Jews; it will be as Most High in the millennium. We come in as heirs with Christ, and He is our Father; we belong to no dispensation.

He does not say here, as in the prayer of chapter 1, "That ye may know;" here it is internal - we have it. He is in us as life, but here is another thing, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith."

See John 4 what a difference that makes; it spiritualises the whole life. It is wonderful how far he goes here. In Romans 5 "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost," - purely God's love. I get it in all its absolute purity, in the heart of God Himself. I had no part in what saved me, except my sins.

146 Christ is the centre of all God's purposes in glory - I have Him in my heart. Thus having Christ in me, I am at the centre. "That ye may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height."

What is that? Of God's glory. He brings me back to that centre, and I am at the very centre of the glory in heaven. It is beautiful that He puts me into the centre of all the glory; he goes on, "And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge"; impossible to go beyond that! You may not be able to take it all in, but it has taken me all in.

I cannot realise the thought of infinite space, consequently I can never get out of it, I am lost in it: still, I know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. We are creatures though a new creation; and shall be even in glory. "We know it" and "it passeth knowledge" go together.

Nothing of God that is revealable that is not revealed. We may think of one part at one time, and another at another time, but here we have it all revealed - "filled to all the fulness of God," "according to the power that worketh in us; unto Him be glory in the church," etc. He is to be glorified in the church; He is looking for a power in us, and Christ being glorified in the church by that. People generally separate the last verses, but they go together; it is according to the power that worketh in us, that there will be glory to Him in the church by Christ Jesus.

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Many have not the courage to go on in God's warfare, because they hold on to something which is inconsistent with the light they have received. Perhaps, alas they lose the light which they have not acted up to, and Satan is able to bring their mind under the darkness of his good reasons for staying where they are without conquering more territory from him.

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The armour should be put on before the battle, not just at the battle.

Notes of the Cheltenham meeting.

April 10th, 11th, 12th 1871 with J. N. Darby.

(Corn Exchange)

John 17

It is a mistake to take this chapter as intercessional: intercession is one element in it, but that is not the object.

In the previous chapters we get the Spirit of God as the operating power. From ch. 13 you have the Lord on the earth, or else this testimony concerning Him - but rejected. Always rejected in John. He is looked at as a divine Person in a world which rejected Him, as in ch. 1, “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.”

You see quickened souls from the 1st chapter: but the world and the Jews as such set aside. You get the power of God working in individual souls by whom the divine Person was received, but He is not seen as in the other Gospels presenting Himself to Israel in His character of Messiah, Son of David, Son of Man, servant. He stands from the very beginning as rejected as a divine Person, and this involves rejection, for “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” We do not get the electing love of God in the other gospels.

In chapters 11, 12 we see the 3 characters of Christ brought out as Son of God, Son of David, Son of Man. Son of God in the raising of Lazarus, Son of David when He rode into Jerusalem, then the Greeks come up and His title as Son off Man is brought out, but He must die to take His place as Son of Man. He cannot take the far wider glories connected with that title till He has been through death, for until death has come in He cannot have men along with Himself. He cannot stay with them, so He fits them to be with Himself. They cannot be washed over again - “ye are clean” - but He washes their feet that they may have part with Him.

In chapter 14 he tells them what He had been on the earth, what they ought to have known. The Father being revealed in the Son, and He going away; they knew the Father, knew also where He was going. They might be very dull about it, but there it was. When the Holy Ghost came they would know not only that He was in the Father, but also that they were in Him and He in them: union known only by the Holy Ghost: they ought to have known about His person upon earth but they would  not know about being in Him.

In chapter 15 looked at as to Judaism, we get the Jews set aside and then [?the ?this] Christ and His disciples substituted for them. Israel would have thought Him the best branch in the vine, but no, He is the Vine and they  the branches. The Comforter would testify what He was in heaven: rejected as the Vine He takes His place in heaven and that closes the history of the Vine. When Paul comes out he does not know Him after the flesh.

At the end of chapter 15 and in chapter 16 we get the Comforter sent by the Father giving consciousness of sonship and of being in Christ; we also get Him sent by Christ (v. 7): the revealer of the glory of the rejected Man. Remark here, this is the testimony of the total setting aside of the world [altogether]. Grace is sent out into the world now, but it is “to deliver from this present evil world.” The Comforter demonstrates the sin of the whole world as the rejecter of God: “will convince the world of sin because they believe not on me.” There are plenty of other sins, but the Holy Ghost would say to the world, “Where is Chris? What have you done with Him?” The whole word as such has hated Him.

If all have sinned, where is righteousness? With the Father. “I go to the Father,” and the world sees Him no more till it sees Him in judgment. The devil was the prince of this world, but he had committed himself hopelessly, and the one he had put to death was sitting at God's right hand - judgment was not finally executed, but it was proved that all that was in the world was not of the Father, for the One the Father had sent the world had refused.

People fancy the worst of fancies, that by the introduction of Christianity Satan ceased to be the god of this world - it is just the contrary. Satan was never called the god of this world till Christianity came, and then came the total setting aside of this world, and the perfect demonstration that Satan was its prince.

The testimony from the beginning of John's gospel is that the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not. The world is judged though perfect grace goes out to it, and those who are of God in it all connected with that One who was turned out of it: the Holy Ghost came down and connects them with Him. The world cannot receive Him because it sees Him not. Christ was seen, the Holy Ghost cannot be seen. Christ being rejected, the heart [?] becomes the temple, but the world cannot see Him. He is only known  by those in whom He dwells. This “other Comforter” abides for ever. Christ could not abide and indwell.

In chapter 17 we get the disciples put into His place in the world. He being gone, He sets them in His place. He is for them in heaven and they are for Him on earth., He appears in the presence of God for us, and we appear in the presence of men for Him. The statement of this is in chapter 17; He puts them in His own place before the Father and before the world. We get all the blessing He had, except in eternal sonship, and as regards this world, we are sent to take His place in it.

“Lifted up His eyes to heaven” - “the hour is come; glorify thy Son.” In John we always see the divine nature in One who was man. “Glorify me.” He is gone into all the glory He had before the world was, and He takes us with Him. He is the “first-born among many brethren.” He has taken the place of glorifying the Father, as man and as Servant [for ever], and He will never give it up. It is well to remember that all we get - association with Him, nearness to Him, only makes us more capable of seeing the glory of His person.

Hebrews 1: 8-9 takes up most beautifully His divine and human character; it begins with “Thy throne, O God” and then comes, “Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity” as the ground of being alone among His “fellows,” but in Zechariah, when His being smitten is in question it is “Awake O sword against the man that is my fellow.” We get a beautiful instance of His grace in associating us with Himself in Matthew 17 when Peter is asked “doth not your master pay tribute?” but the Lord anticipated him and asked, “of whom do the kings of the earth take tribute, of their own children?” “No, of strangers.” Christ was the Son of the great  King of the temple, and He brings Peter into His place - “lest we should offend them” - and then He puts forth His power as Lord of creation, and then says to Peter “that give for me and thee.” But His divine Person is always fully maintained. On the mount of transfiguration, when they saw Moses and Elias in the same glory with Himself talking familiarly with Him, they would have put Him on a level - “let us make three tabernacles” - and instantly Moses and Elias disappear and the voice comes “this is my beloved Son; hear Him.”

“Thou hast given him authority over all flesh” - the head of every man is Christ - “to give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” The electing love of God comes out all through, for He was a rejected Christ: the Jews would not have Him, but He says, “Well, I will have my sheep all the same.”

“That they may know thee (the Father), the only true God.” The world all gone [?] - it had rejected His Son. He shews grace to it, but all that is in the world is not of the Father. It does not say “not of God;” all that is created is of God; the cross brought in separation from the world. Man is saved out of it, but as to testimony it is judged before God. God created music: of course He did, who else could? God made the trees in the garden, but Adam used them to hide himself from Him. Man takes these things and uses them to separate himself from God if he can, and the question is not “has God made them?” but the use man puts them to. Cain went out from the presence of God and built a city, and then used the things God had made to make himself happy without God. It is a great delusion to speak of God making the world as it is. The point is this, we have a world that has rejected the Son - what has it then to do with the Father? What we have to do with the world is to go through it as Christ did and be a testimony to God in it.

Then we get the absolute grace, “This is life eternal,” Christ Himself. 1 John 5: 20 brings this out. We are not eternal life, but we have it in having Him; the character is knowing the Father. This is brought out doctrinally in John's epistle: “in this was manifested the love of God towards us” and “herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son.”

“I have glorified thee”, we get the whole work done perfectly: the Father glorified upon the earth, and the work totally and entirely finished, and man put in glory in the person of Christ. What God owns has been transferred to heaven and our hearts with it. Adam's one work was to ruin man - Christ's to bring him back to God - not only to put his sins away. The first man was set in responsibility, but now that the second man is come we have an entirely new thing founded not on responsibility but on redemption which can never fail. Now we get another step - “Glorify thou me with thine own self.”

“I have manifested thy name.” In 2 Corinthians 6: 18 [?text reads 2 John vi. 10] we have three names of God beautifully brought together. God Almighty was the name revealed to Abraham, Jehovah was the God of Israel, but now it is the God Almighty, Jehovah who is our Father. The relationship is that of Father because the Son has been revealed, but since the Son is rejected the relationship is found in heaven. What would characterise the disciples is “they have kept thy word.” John Baptist, the greatest born of woman, spoke of things of God but connected with the earth. “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven.” (Christ was the heavenly Messenger speaking heavenly things and man would not have Him at all.)

“Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.” At first sight this looks like tautology, but the thought is “of thee” as Father. Martha had said “I know that whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, he will give thee,” but now He had declared the Father's name and they were to know that all He had was the Father's gift: relationship was brought out.

“I have given them the words which thou gavest me.” The words He had received in that relationship He had passed on to them, and thus teaches them His relationship with the Father.

“I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me.” He had tried to teach them this in chapter 16: 28, “I came forth from the Father . . . and go to the Father,” but they could not understand, and they say, “by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.”

The whole world is set aside. “I pray not for the world.” “All mine are thine.” He puts them as objects of common interest to Himself and the Father. “Holy Father, keep through thine own name.” He looks to His Father as Holy Father to keep the children according to the nature of God. In all this He looked for His joy to be fulfilled in them.

In what follows this [?viz] we get relationship with the world. How did Christ come into the world? As of it? No, as of the Father, and He was the witness in the world of everything the world denies. The testimony which we bear would [?should] not be in any way affected by the evil which surrounds us. The smallest thing of flesh breaks communion. Look at Stephen. The Lord lit up the light in the lantern and at last the lantern became so transparent that the light came out as clear as it went in. We are earthen vessels, but if ever man acts he spoils the testimony. There is no truth in the world like the word of God. Our hearts are not true, we like a fair show in the flesh. Is [?not] that true?

When the Lord met Satan in the wilderness everything as to man's salvation depended on the word of God. It was the only competent instrument with which He defeated Satan.

The first Adam did not mind the word of God. The second [sic, last] Adam did. One simple word of God was enough. I dare say some criticism of it could be found now but it was enough for the Son of God, enough for the devil, and I thank God it is enough for me.

“As thou hast sent me into the world, even so send I them.” You can't send anyone into the world if he be in it already. I must be separated from it first and then I can be sent into it. “I take thee out from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I now send thee.”

“That they all may be one.” The world would see them living together in love and harmony, upon principles which the world knew nothing about.

“Righteous Father.” “Thou lovedst me before the world was. O Righteous Father.” Was the world right in crucifying Christ, or was Christ the Son whom the Father took to Himself? The Father is to settle this question.

Ephesians 1: 15-23; Ephesians 2: 1-10 Fragments.

G. V. Wigram and J. N. Darby.

Paul never forgot the place where mercy had found him so that he could always say - “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.”

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When two parties find themselves in presence of each other, the one who has any superiority ought to take the lead and be waited upon. But instead of waiting upon God to find out what He has done, we go before Him, and so find that we come into direct collision with what He has done. When our hearts were first awakened before we knew Christ, we thought something had to be done, and set to work and laboured 3, 4, or 7 years, and then we found that all our labour had taken for granted that Christ had not died, had not suffered upon the cross and that we were competent to do what only the Son of God could do to settled the question of sin in the presence of a Holy God - we had not taken our place as owning God alone, casting everything before Him to see what He would do.

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See the connection between the end of Eph. 1 and the beginning of Eph. 2. The only One upon earth of whom it could be said “this man hath done nothing amiss” rejected by Jew and Gentile, took the cup of wrath and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, we find the power that wrought in that Blessed One is the same that works in us (Eph. 1: 19-20). Power wrought in Him - in Him, a Man whose exaltation is connected with that verse [?] in which the Spirit speaks of the “Father of glory.” All glory originated with Him. We see a man who never had a will, who knew what His Father's will was and then accomplished it at all costs and He is at God's right hand, a specimen of His [?this?] power that wrought in you and me that believe. The One who can gather all things round Himself in the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, that is the character of the power that wrought in us.

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We never see rightly the blessing wherewith God has blessed us, until we see how the place and thought all spring up in His own bosom. He could not have drawn a motive from anything subordinate. God always keeps the place of God. Wealthy and rich, there is no limit to what He gives. He gave His own Son, and will send Him the second time to bring His people home. In creation we see Him displaying His goodness - and redemption is emphatically His own thought and His alone - placed [?traced] there before the world was.

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Eph. 2: 5. There are certain things which man may think he can enter into, and certain things which the human mind could not form a notion about. Christ is up there, the only One who had a right to the Father's house - and then comes the unfolding of how the plan ran [?], what were God's thoughts, what His purpose as to the portion of the believer.

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Eph. 2: 1-3. The Spirit does not here as in Romans trace out a great catalogue of evil in detail, but He looks at the pit in which we were all found, “dead in trespasses and sins.”

He is “rich in mercy.” There is a difference between 'mercy' and 'grace'. Grace is a free gift, but mercy is much more; it speaks of demerit and brings our souls to the bosom of God Himself who has mercy. “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” No claim. A great many young Christians have not taken their stand upon the ground of mercy, and so when something or other breaks down to which they trusted, they are utterly at sea. We ought to be getting the soul and conscience to rest in God as the God of mercy and compassion to the soul. The God of mercy brought them out of the pit and put them in vital union with the Son of His love, and they had something to rest upon in the hour of trial.

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There, up there upon the throne of God, is that Man sitting of whom the world said, “We will have nothing to do with Him,” and we are raised up and made to sit together in heavenly places with [sic., in] Him. Ask the wisest people of the world what sense they put upon this verse and you will find they nothing about it; as men we have no power to enter into the things of God.

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God who wrote this Word said He would communicate eternal life to us - did communicate it to us and this eternal life must flow through us and out of us. This settles an immense deal with regard to experience: if God has said a thing, we must give everything else the lie.

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If I had been one of Paul's companions, I believe I should have seen one who looked like a man who looked at everything from a different point of view to what the world does. Paul filled up every detail as he passed along here with something of Christ. He looked upon things as just fit for that purpose, as things in which Christ could be magnified whether by life or by death.

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The early Christians presented in a beautiful way the Nazarite character. They walked as those whose hearts Christ had taken away with Him into heaven.

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Fragments: Phil. 1: 22. (GVW? or JND?)

When you find a man who does not know what to choose, whether to live or die, such a one does not want much altered in his circumstances down here.

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It is a wholly different thing for God to be revealing and fulfilling the thoughts of His heart, and for Him to be manifesting the thoughts of ours; it is just the difference between Christ and Moses.

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Who could pretend to be the fellow of God's Son, except by the sovereign purpose of God?

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When God could not bear my sins, instead of putting me away, He put them away.

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The prodigal on His journey home was reasoning about what His father would be, instead of enjoying what His Father was.

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2 Cor. 3: 13-18. Unrevealed glory and unaccomplished redemption go together. I get not only the grace which gives confidence , but the work which makes righteous. Does it not alarm you, that glory? Alarm me?! I delight in it, for every ray tells me that my sins are put away, for I see the glory in the face of Him who bore them.

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The word of God is a sword which has no handle: it is sharper than a two-edged sword all over and if people touch it they meddle with a sword that has no handle.

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Romans 7 is not Christian experience though it is the experience of many Christians.

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The new man has got a sense of good and evil, not according to natural conscience, but according to all that God is.

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Eph. 4: 22. “The truth in Jesus” is the putting off and the putting on. It is not a question whether I have done it, it is not speaking of people - not of Christians, but of Christianity.

Food for the Flock 7 (1881), p. 34

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Conversion is an act of the Spirit of God in me. Salvation is the value of Christ's blood for me.

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The obedience of Christ is having no will at all; God's will the spring of all we do.

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Sanctification comes before justification in Scripture. We find progressive holiness constantly spoken of, but never in connection with meetness for heaven.

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In the Lord Jesus we learn not what a man should be amongst men, but what God was as man amongst men who were sinners.

Fragment on 2 Cor. 4, 5: 1-5

J. N. Darby.

Under the law you could not look even at the reflection of the glory because it came as a legal claim on man. You never get the light of God shining into a man's heart without the conscience being awakened: under the law the glory became a ministry of death and condemnation, now when I see the glory I see it in the face of Him who was hanging on the cross for my sins - and what does it mean? It means that the whole question has been settled entirely and exclusively between God and Christ upon the cross and man had no part in it whatever except the sins which He bore - and this is both our shame and our comfort.

The power of God is this complete redemption clearing away my sins and everything that was against me. Christ met the whole case and He is in the glory by virtue of the work He has accomplished and the testimony to me is, the man who has borne my sins is in the glory, a man against whom Satan did his worst is in the glory, all that I get by seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Food for the Flock 8 (1882), p. 12-13

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The way that I go up to the Judgment Seat is by Christ having such delight in me that He comes to meet me and takes me there Himself, glorified already. At the end of the world He does not come. He sits on the Great White Throne and heaven and earth flee away from before His face; that is not coming!

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When the ten virgins first go forth it is to meet the Bridegroom, and when they are awake [awakened?] from their slumbers they are recalled to what they began with: “Go ye forth to meet Him.”

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To hold myself dead is my privilege, for Christ has died but it is my necessity for my testimony. Death so wrought in Paul, that only life wrought from him to the Corinthians: that is testimony.

Food for the Flock 4 (1877), p. 324.

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Death so wrought in Paul that only life wrought from him to the Corinthians: that is testimony.

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The old ministry gave neither strength, nor life, nor object.

If I get the glory in heaven it is the cross that suits it here! [?]

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Gal. 4: 4

JND

I would notice a beautiful thing as to those words “made of a woman, made under law.” It shews how completely Christ met the whole case. The woman brought in sin and the law brought in transgression and Christ meets both! Come of a woman, and made under law.

Food for the Flock 5 (1878), p. 234

Fragments on Matthew 27: 17-

[?]

We get here that which is so profoundly interesting, Christ's spirit in understanding the work. We see His perfect calmness and yet His perfect realisation of what was coming upon Him. None could tell what death was, like the Prince of life - none what wrath was, like Him who dwelt in the Father's bosom. Of course He was perfect always, but we learn perfection in Him.

We are often indifferent, or if we feel, we are upset by the sorrow.

We must take up death as the first entrance into any communication with God whatever.

Death is not help, it is salvation: it is the very thing which tells us help would not do.

The old covenant was broken and death came in because it was broken, but the new covenant is founded upon death.

The new covenant is not made with anyone; it is a law written in the heart'; when it is established, a “minister” of it will not be wanted. We get the benefit of it before it is made. We get the good of the new covenant, but we get things which are far beyond it.

I drink the blood, the sign of death, the thing I want now is death.

Sorrow with power - I am awake, but if I am in sorrow without the power of God, I sleep.

If the heart has been with the Lord, then when men come, the Lord will be with the heart.

Psalm 51, 2 Cor. 3 and 4.

J. N. Darby.

There are two truths which the more we understand with God the more power we shall have. First, what our flesh is: it is utter ruin and evil; and second, the astounding place we are brought into through grace and the redemption [sic, redemptive] work of Christ, and then gazing upon Him we find the transforming power changing us into His own image - a very feeble image, but true. Here are two great truths which the Lord weighs out in the balances of the sanctuary. . . having a title through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. [?] In proportion as we learn one truth we learn the other. We only learn truth with God. There was a wonderful power of the Spirit in King David. He had sinned against everyone, murdered Uriah and a host of men, but God so fills the vision of his soul that he refers it all to God. “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.” He justifies God, accepts the punishment of his iniquity and comes to be of the same mind with God about his condition. He goes back to original sin (as it is called), v. 5. This scripture, Ps. 51, is not the deliverance of Romans 7, where a person learned grace, it is more than that: it is judging the nature of the flesh and that condition out of which God delivers men. And here I get the difference of dispensation. A quiet person who has gone on without outward falls or troubles with the ordinary experiences of a christian life may be given by God such a sense of himself as will force him to this v. 5. When I see a thing as God sees it and am conscious that I do so, there is positive power with God. The first part of Romans deals with the question of forgiveness of sins, then comes the question of sin: I find I am nothing but a sinner after all, and if not kept may do worse things than I ever did before - and the answer to that is that you have died with Christ. God says you are a dear child, but a poor thing. You have eternal life - My Son's own life, but in an earthen vessel - and then comes our judgment - this loathing of the earthen vessel. How far have we all got to this? If honest with ourselves, how far have we judged ourselves? Not the evil that has come out, but the evil within. David says, “Well, there never was any good in me - I have shewn it thoroughly out, sins are the fruit of the thing I have got: we have to confess our sins, but we have to confess our nature too, that it is as bad as God says it is, and this gives strange liberty to the soul, and peace. I say: I see what the blood of Christ has cleansed me from. Peter loved the Lord strongly - he was a fine man, but very self-confident. His conscience was not reached by this 'look,' when he went out and wept bitterly: his affections were reached, but in John 21 the Lord came to shew Peter he must be broken - asked him three times, 'lovest thou me?' and then his conscience was reached. He got this immense blessing - he judged himself - saw his self-confidence and folly and that if he was to go on at all it must be the Lord, not Peter. Do you think our consciences have been so reached that we are free before God to say we are as bad as He says we are? This is a serious question because we never shall understand what redemption is until we see in ourselves the total ruin of nature. We are redeemed by Christ, and the treasure is in an earthen vessel. When gazing on Christ and the affections moved, we are not sinning. Look at 2 Cor. 3 - it is not for apostles or any particular people, but for all of us. When looking at Him, will is not in activity. “We all, with unveiled face beholding” etc. The eye of faith is opened now and it sees the glory streaming from the face of Jesus Christ. What does the unveiled face tell me as I gaze upon it here? That no sin or sins arise before God for His people; as to their standing, Christ [or, people, as to their standing; Christ] is seen with unveiled face, and there is nothing between us and the eternal God but the love that has brought us there. It is our privilege to be occupied with Him, seeing Him. You can't follow even a worldly person, even a superior, without imitating him. The more I see the moral glory of the Lord Jesus the more I see how unlike Him I am - nothing in me as it ought to be, and so the transforming power goes on, and the person begins to bear some faint shade of the image of Christ - a poor thing indeed - still Paul could write to the Corinthians “Ye are the epistle of Christ.”

In 2 Corinthians 4 we get the contrast between Moses and the apostle. Moses' face shone, he was a great man, but we (apostles) can say nothing about ourselves, we are hid behind Him in whose face the glory shines. The apostle had seen Christ in the glory and that was his testimony; as sure [?surely?] as you know He is there, you are saved, but “we have this treasure in earthen vessels,” then we get the provision for the exercises.[?] You must get to the cross as quickly as you can, “bearing about in the body the dying” - finding He is our life and we failing in manifesting it. God applies death (sorrows, losses, etc.), His ministry that the life may be manifested.  We see ourselves in the mirror of God's word in Ps. 51 and again here in 2 Cor. 4. The Word, God's great instrument with His people: He uses it as a sharp two-edged sword.

As being saved, because I know that I am delivered and I know that He loves me as He loves the Lord Jesus, I want to see myself as God sees me. He says, 'You are all bad, no good thing ever came out of you: you had better have done with yourself!'

Lecture - May 1872.

Romans 5: 1-11.

J. N. Darby.

Here you get, not experience, but God dealing with a man - what God is for me from beginning to end. Am I so free that I can delight in what God is? We have to learn ourselves - under law - and then the place we have been brought into - but it is more to know God. Suppose I were free in heaven, it is more to know the God who made me free.

The notion of love in God is what has met the poor sinner. There is joyful reasoning in the eighth chapter and bitter in the seventh, the dreadful nature going through the process, then finds he has no strength and is delivered. You distinguish between the liberty in the eighth and what you get there [?here?] - here (Rom. 5) it is what God has done for a man. It is this point that makes the difference. When conscience is at work were reason from what we do to what God will be - all right - only I ought to conclude I am condemned because it depends on what we have done. Drawing conclusions from what we are is experience, and out of that there is no issue except a false profession of perfection. People find some good work (and that is pleasing to what they are) but there is no conscience of what they are really - they are standing upon God's judgment of what they ought to be and then the4re is, and can be, no peace, and if judgment comes they are certainly condemned. “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.” When I take up my state, mingling judgment with works, all that is confusion of mind, and a thorough mistake as to the whole ground man I upon.

“Hoping” to be saved is not being on the ground of redemption - when a man speaks of hoping, what is he hoping? Is he hoping, Christ's blood cleanses from sin? Is he hoping Christ has died? In that kind of hope there is not an atom of faith. We ought to find it written, “being justified by experience” instead of “justified by faith”. . . We go on with this till we find we can't get out of the position we are in. You can't get out, but there is one who can take you out. So the moment he says “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me,” it is all right then, and at once it is “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” That is what we have to learn. The moment He has made me learn myself, it is all settled. “Hath made me free” - is that nothing? The moment I learn God is for me, I reckon on Him for the future - He was for me when I was utterly ungodly and without strength.

A soul looking at God sees itself entirely guilty, not knows it - that's experience. It is one thing to know I am in debt - another thing to know that I am a bad man of business. Here it is the fact that we have sinned and God has come out I grace when all the world was guilty before Him. I learn what God is for man when guilty - I get all that God is in grace. There is nothing to do with experience when I get this peace. There is no thought of forgiving and evil nature. When sin was condemned Christ died - I do not want Him to intercede for that - I want Him to hatchet it down, so to speak - I do not want to spare the flesh but to get rid of it - so you find “the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and sprit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there and creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” - that's not intercession.

On the other hand you have “seeing that we have a great high priest . . . let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” That you do want if flesh is working. But I do not want my flesh to be spared. . . I may want to try and spare it in my folly, but what is wanted is the hatchet of God.

This has nothing to do with peace. That would be confounding the nature with what grace has done. The remedy for sin is “His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” “He was delivered for our offences.” The whole question of our sins was before God on the cross and settled for ever - conflict is not settled, that goes on - but this does not go on - the question of Christ's work must be raised - my experience neither adds nor takes away from the efficacy of Christ's work on the cross. This has nothing to do with being victorious. Here I get a person who has borne all my sins. If a question of guilt is raised in the mind then I see you have not laid hold of the work - the grace wherein we stand is the perfect divine favour - just as Christ is [,?] there is not a  question between us and God or else there is not peace - having peace as to the whole question of sin, I find nothing but divine favour shining upon me and I am looking for the glory of God.

“Being justified” for the past - “by whom also we have access into this grace wherein we stand” for the present - and “rejoicing in hope of the glory of God” for the future, so that past, present and future are all perfectly settled - peace settled, standing settled and glory settled. I've got the key of it all, “God's love” v. 3, 4, 5. “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations.” I glory in what God does - His dealings - it is God that is doing it all the way - glorying in all God sends that will work patience. That detaches from the world - the roots running in the world get loosened - “and patience experience;” experience is not glory, the heart is corrected - “experience hope,” and hope does not make ashamed - God's love is shed abroad in the heart. I get what God is, His character - It is His love I have understood - It is the dealing of God in His grace with us.

The God will be with me all the way. There is a great deal to learn but “God withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous;” God must work in them to bring them practically righteous in the end, because the love was shed abroad in their hearts.

Remark, this blessed truth, the proof of His love was in the gift of His Son (v. 8) - the consciousness of it is through the gift of the Holy Spirit (v. 5) - the way it is shed abroad is that God is there: “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” “God dwelleth in him and He in God.” Where do I get the proof and testimony? Is it in the experience of myself? In truth it is not! How can I tell this love? In that “when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” If I know it, it is by the Holy Ghost.

When I was ungodly, God gave the best thing He had in heaven for me. When I had no way of getting better, when I was without strength. Was it because of any good in me? No! I was ungodly. Was there some way for me to come? No! I was without strength and there was not a single right thought in me for me to shew. It was God's love, pure and alone.

The weakest saint knows it and the highest saint cannot fathom the love of God. If I want proof of it I must go back to the time when there was not a single good thought in my heart. That's God's pure love!

We can all love, even an animal can: “peradventure for a good man some would dare to die” but God loves from the motive of His own heart. “God commendeth His love to us” (v.8), the His is emphatic. When I come to the proof I turn wholly away from myself to God, that was the “own . .” [?] the doctrine of God's love, when it was all on God's side - the consequence is, I reckon upon the fruits of it.

The Spirit of God always draws conclusions from what God is and has done to what He will be for you, not from what I am (v. 10). “Much more” if God has done that, He will do the other.

There is the road to travel and you glory in tribulation. He may chasten, but the power of Christ's life is there as accepted for you. I have got God Himself, not merely in His acts, but in Himself, and more, “not only so,” but I joy in God.

I am assured to be kept because I cast the eye entirely on what God is. What God is everlastingly in Himself He has demonstrated in what He is to me as a sinner. It is what the angels desire to look into and in it I learn what He is. An angel can only see it in us, he does not know it for himself.

We must learn it as guilty sinners if we are to learn what God is - to learn it we must learn it as mere sinners, and having learnt what He is, then I delight in Himself - so you get to “joy in God,” not a question of sin, but of perfection of favour.

We must learn that we are guilty, but we must learn it as mere sinners. If I introduce the smallest atom of goodness I reduce it in God - then it is not all good in Him.

If I could go to the door of heaven and say “I have done well, let me in” I should never know God at all. If I earn my wages there is no grace - but if I am a mere sinner and God has come and saved me and put me into glory I can say I know God. I can joy in God, and because I am only that, the angels can learn in me what God is.

Now, beloved friends, how far can you say you joy in God? How far have we learned that we are sinners? and that's all about it - and that it is all love in God and from God and not in us at all? How far, that “when we were  yet without strength,” and “ungodly” it was simply there and then was the “due time” and that there and then we learnt God?

Is the love shed abroad in you hearts? is divine favour a word which sounds as a known thing in your souls? If you think of God is what comes into your mind the perfect sense of divine favour? the secret even if God disciplines you. You have got the secret of it all, for “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

The proof of it was “for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly,” thus I've got in what God did, the proof of what God is and the way that I learn it! for what had I? Just my sin, and not able to get out of it.

Do your souls really know what it is to joy in God having received the atonement [sic, reconciliation]? Divine favour the dwelling place of your souls and consequently jealous of everything that would hinder the enjoyment of it - we have to watch ourselves and judge ourselves.

May you be able to joy in God for having received the reconciliation. We shall soon leave our weakness, but it is that perfect divine love that met us when we were away from God in our sins that will be our everlasting joy when in His presence for ever.

Titus 1: 3.

[2?]

J. N. Darby

30 November 1971

When this was written the law had been departure from the truth, the effect of which is to throw the apostles back onto the whole mind and thought of God from the beginning. Nowhere does the Spirit of God go so far back into the mind and purpose of God as in the position when decline is treated of. He turns back to what life is as the most essential thing. There was the thought of life before the world was, and it was expressed in a Person, and when He came into the world life itself (not future life) was manifested - and this it is which is the light of men, not of angels, mark, but of men: the divine expression of God's light as to men, and this is manifested in our mortal bodies and s connected with what is the true character of godliness. This light tells us what we are as saints, and what the word is. It tells how men had utterly departed from God and that the world is a thing sprung up since the fall; while what we get in the cross was before creation.

Godliness is marked, stamped by a man living with God - to God and from God. What a man could do before God as investigated by God. What he could not do if he saw God present - that is not [?Godly?]. This goes much further than conscience, which may make a man do right. One who is godly is not governed by the world nor by the motives of the world around. He has Christ's mind how to conduct himself through the world he is in . . . . the divine life is suited in all its thoughts to the heaven itself.

When paradise ended the world began, man having departed from God and being given up to his own lust. Yet to the believer this world is but a thing by the bye - he is in a world and passing through a world which is, and will be to the end, alienated from God, which has its end in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to judgment. A world which, when eternal life came into it in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, spit on Him and cast Him out. Oh, what is this flesh - this life I have from Adam, but sin? It is a condemned thing. “Let no man eat fruit of thee again.” Eternal life was displayed in the world. The world shrank from it because it was too good for it, and God placed it on His throne as the only place good enough for it. It is difficult to have the heart so full of love that the things of the world cannot narrow it. The world constantly [??] up the heart - that is all it can do. What a narrow thing is selfishness! If only we could put our hearts into deep consciousness of what this life is (what Christ is) and then what the world is (what a poor little wretched thing it is). How glad should we be to go on as strangers and pilgrims declaring plainly that we seek a country - this life is not of this world, and can have no affinity with it.

2 Corinthians 8 - 10.

J. N. Darby.

Food for the Flock 5 (1878), p. 218.

He looks what is the natural portion of sinful man in the face - death and judgment. As to death, it is all settled; for what is death to those who have life in Christ? It is only "absent from the body, and present with the Lord;" therefore we are always confident; we have done with mortality as to the body, done with sin, done with groaning to be with Christ; and therefore it is "far better." Death - the question of death - is all settled. And he says elsewhere it is gain: "all things are yours . . . life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours."

Then comes the second thing, what comes after death - "the judgment." Well, judgment he cannot talk of in that way; judgment cannot be gone, therefore he calls it "the terror of the Lord." And, let me tell you, that it is a very useful test to put the soul into the presence of the judgment. Here am I, a poor sinner, and I have nothing but the cross; the cross suits a sinner, surely, but you cannot say judgment suits a sinner. If he think of judgment he cannot be easy. But we read: "As he is, so are we in this world;" well, if I am as the Judge, of course I can be happy in view of the day of judgment. The righteousness of God puts me into the glory of heaven. If I talk of myself as the righteousness of God, of course the judgment day has no terror. If you still feel uneasy about the judgment day, I say you have to get clear about the righteousness of God. The apostle does not make light of it; it is the terror of the Lord. It is not gain. "When it was death it was gain, because it is to be present with the Lord; still when it is judgment he does not tremble as to himself; it urges him to go and preach to poor sinners, to persuade them. We shall all be manifested, saints and sinners; but it is no terror for me at all, because Christ is my righteousness, and as He is, so are we. But there was an effect on himself; he realized it as a present thing; we are manifested to God: so everything in his heart was judged continually as it will be in that day by Him. He says, as regards death, it is all gain to me, and as to the judgment, it has brought me into God's sight in such a way that I judge myself now as if it were already that day. If Paul got into a kind of ecstasy, it was not excitement; he was beside himself to God. If he comes down to sober reflection in himself it is to think of the saints for their good. A blessed way to spend his life between the two!

The Aaronic and Melchisedec Priesthood.

J. N. Darby.

Notes taken at a meeting of brethren in London, 1841.

(extracted from Simple Testimony, 1845)

The Aaronical priesthood is provisional for evil without reference to judgment.

In it we have purity, discerning between good and evil, entering into the holiest, intercession, and blessing by virtue of sacrifice before Aaron came down. Lev. 9: 22.

This Christ is now, as to service, while He is priest after the order of Melchisedec.

We understand our title to royalty in Melchisedec, priest of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth; not merely the God of Israel but the God of the whole earth, — the gods of the Gentiles all set aside, and the Lord Jesus the centre and minister of all this blessing; blessing the people, and blessing God for the people, not merely interceding for sinners; though this is the foundation of the other.

But after all, we are not to consider the Melchisedec, in one sense, higher than the Aaronic.

We are kings with Melchisedec. The King becomes priest: this is perfection. It is not, in one sense, perfection to have the Lord Jesus Christ interceding for our imperfection: but out blessing is, to be associated with Him in all His blessing. He becomes Mediator to the earth of blessing, specially to the Jews, but to the whole earth.

As regards Aaronic priesthood, we get another thing — present mediation for the church.

We must always hold these two things — mediation and union.

Christ's intercession for us is to maintain our communion wit God in the righteousness we are made in Him.

Our union with Him is in resurrection; and we are brought into conflict wit the Canaanites because redeemed out of Egypt.

We were slaves of Pharaoh, but are conquerors of the Canaanites.

God's Delight in Blessing His People.

Ephesians 4, 5: 16.

J. N. Darby.

(Uncorrected Notes of an Address at a Fellowship Meeting,1859.)

Words of Faith 3 (1884), p. 225-230.

One cannot help seeing in such a scripture as this the profound interest the Lord takes in blessing. There is profound love in it, as well as the fact that He delights in blessing His people. His purpose is to bring us into the enjoyment of His own blessedness: His thoughts are blessing, and there is no blessing anywhere else but in Him. If I speak of blessing, it must be what is in the heart of God. A father's thoughts of giving to his children are measured by his love for them. When we see what is in God's heart for us, and that all His thoughts have the form and power of blessing, what a portion must ours be! He is bringing us to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ - this is to be the result.

But it is the principle or spring of blessing that is in my mind to speak upon. He is conforming us to His own thoughts in blessing at the end. The objects of such love - poor, abject sinners, taken up by Him to show forth the greatness of His love. Christ is the great Workman of it all. It is by Christ He does it all. When God sets about to bless, it is by "the Son of his love." It is an immense foundation for us to rest upon, not only strong, but wide, and large, and deep - "He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things." He descended first into the lower parts of the earth. What, then, is to escape the power of Him who has been borne up to the throne of God; who, after going down to the very lowest place of death, has been taken up to the highest place of glory - the throne of God?  And all between is filled up by Christ: thus nothing can escape.  He went down to the place of death and sin - "made sin for us" - and went up to the throne of God.  There is strength for us poor sinners - something to rest on. And it is not something distant from us, but we have the consciousness of its being in and around us.

It is said, in Revelation 21, of the holy city: "the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." This Lamb is nearer to my heart than any one; He has known me better than any - better than I know myself. And this Christ, who dwells in our hearts by faith, is the One we shall meet there. We shall find One in heaven nearer and dearer to our hearts than any one we have known on earth. Nothing is so near to us as the Christ that is in us, and nothing is so near to God as Christ. Yet the world is in the heart - all that is agreeable and outwardly good in the world finds its echo in the heart; all the evil that has come in finds its root there too. Christ was here amidst it all - He met it all - without having the evil in Him. He knows it all - everything we feel; all that passes through the heart of man, save sinful lust, Christ has gone through; not seeking anything in the world, but resisting the evil.

Now, spite of all the sensitiveness of the heart to good or evil (and that makes the heart of man such a wonderful thing), Christ in us can meet it all. The centre and key to all is Christ - He has power to put away the evil. If there were one thing in which our hearts could not rest upon Christ, it would be dreadful. All have the knowledge of good and evil; even the unconverted man has; but without Christ he sets about racking his heart to find some good thing under the sun, and then all the best affections of the man are only the occasion of his greatest distress, because sin has come in. The heart gets pulled every way, and it must go through it; wives lose their husbands; children, their parents, etc. etc. Now, the instant we get Christ in all this, we get the perfect good that God delights in. Divine sympathy is found in God Himself. We may have trial and conflict - we must have it in passing through this wilderness - but we get weaned from the things that are a snare to us by looking to Christ in them.

Present confidence in Christ is needed in trial - as in losing a near relative, etc. - but the practical effect is, that every trial we go through, gives us (if the heart is thus trusting in Christ) to know more and more of what He is to meet the need, and more of Christ as possessing Him, and, as Jehovah said to Israel, "I bare thee on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself." It is here in the wilderness that we find all the unfoldings of what God is in Christ. We cannot do without Christ one minute; we want water and manna in the wilderness; God gives these to us; and not only we get all this - water, manna, etc. - but we get Christ Himself in it all. No matter what it is that exercises our hearts in the knowledge of good and evil, and the need of the heart in consequence, it makes Christ more known, and more enjoyed.

Our proper, so to speak, our natural portion, as Christians, is to enjoy God. Where has God planted us? In the enjoyment of an accomplished redemption, and the result is, that love has not only been manifested towards us, but poured out in us - "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which He has given us;" "we dwell in God." God's love is infinite in measure, but we are in it, we dwell in it; He dwells in us, and we dwell in Him, and we learn it, amid all our weakness and failure.

"Builded together for an habitation of God, through the Spirit," that is our "vocation." What a thought! What a bringing down! - not of heaven, but something more than heaven, namely, the special blessing of God Himself come down to dwell in us. God would not dwell in angels, there is not the same want in them; but He will make Himself better known to angels, through His kindness towards us by Christ Jesus. There is a great deal more for us than the bringing down of heaven. "Whosoever shall confess Jesus the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God."

What is the first practical effect of this blessed sealing, and this being an habitation of God through the Spirit?

Here is the answer: Walking worthy of our vocation, with all lowliness and meekness. The vessel of God! All the passions of the flesh still in us but disallowed, and the presence of God making us unspeakably happy - that is our portion! What a thought!

"In all lowliness," etc., means a good deal. A man who is humble needs not to be humbled, and there is no safety but in being low. When what flows from self is not working, there is this lowliness; and why? Love is working, I cannot be happy with you all if self is working; but if self is not working, love is, and I am full of love towards you all. What a spring of blessedness in common there is here! So far as self is down, broken to pieces, there is an outgoing of perfect love to the brethren. Love is of God, and when His nature is at work, we love one another. The spring of the fellowship we find to-night, is God being here. God is our joy, and love - God's own nature - working, we are happy, and God is our common Object.

There are trials and difficulties for us all, but there is blessed joy in knowing one another thus, and seeing Christ in one another - "Receive ye one another, as Christ also has received us, to the glory of God." If we meet a Christian, though he may be a stranger, we can be more intimate with him than with one of one's own family who is not. Why? Because god is there. Another thing, too; there is the consciousness of what this unity is: "There is one body, and one Spirit;" "One Lord, one faith;" "One God, and one Father." We are brought together, not only through being united in the Spirit, but by what we possess together - "One Spirit," "One Lord," "One Father," etc. etc.

Rich or poor, each have their particular trials. I have mine, you have yours; but both of us have god - "One God and Father of all; who is above all, and through all, and in you all." God is above the world. You cannot tell me of one thing God is not above, and therefore there is not one thing that can separate me from His love. He is through all. You cannot find yourself in trouble, and not find God there; you cannot find yourself in any -difficulty, perplexity, and not find God through it all. He is in you all as believers; He is come to be the spring of all blessing and happiness in us.

If I know what water is, it is by drinking; if I know what sweetness is, it is by tasting it; if I know God, it is by His being in me. We can look upon one another, and see God in us all. What perfect blessedness and unity!

Then, these light afflictions; what are they? God is come to take possession of us, and He is the spring in our hearts to go through them all. And, then, He comes to make us love, because He loves; we shall find it is fully so in heaven. If anything is a safeguard against evil, it is that God, by His Spirit, dwelleth in us. But there is more: He is the spring in us of the new mature - God's nature.

Next, we read of "the perfecting of the saints." Christ is the Object of God's thoughts, and He says, "I must have these loved ones like Christ." Therefore, what God does, is to make them all grow up into Christ: for there is to be more and more of Christ in us every day; all the flow of Christian affection, all the enjoyment we have here, is for this end.

We can look at our brethren, and know that they are all going to be in heaven with us, and the enjoyment of this fellowship shuts out the world; we are not thinking of our Cares and troubles now. True fellowship with the brethren is perfect deliverance from all that is of the flesh; flesh cannot enter into it, all that is of the world is gone - we are dead to it. Every bit of real fellowship that we have with one another, as brethren in Christ, is a proof that outside things are gone - done with.

The more we are individually full of divine things, the more this communion with each other is realised. Two brethren together, if both are spiritual, open the sluices of joy, that all the powers in the world cannot dry up. The power of the Holy Ghost, that makes us overcome now, will make us enjoy heaven, where there is-nothing else - "They that dwell in thy house will be still praising thee." To those who are in Christ, all the power of evil, all the power of Satan and the flesh, are gone, and our common joy here below, in the union of our affections, is in and with God, and when we are there above it will be complete - "Christ all, and in all."

Imitators of God

Ephesians 4: 20 - 5: 21.

J. N. Darby.

Helps in Things concerning Himself 4 (1894), p. 286-300.

Christian conduct, as does every duty, flows from the place we are brought into; and is spoken of in scripture in different ways. Its motive and energy we find in Philippians 3 - Christ in glory as the object we are following after, and in pursuing which everything else is counted as loss and dung. And we get the spirit of our conversation in Philippians ii., and the pattern, too, even Christ come down, and even going down, in lowliness. And then, as representing Christ in the world, we are the "epistle of Christ." It does not say we ought to be such, but we are. (2 Cor. 3: 3.) The epistle may be sadly blotted by us, but still, that is what we are "manifestly declared to be." Here, in Ephesians, we are viewed as brought into God's presence, holy and without blame; that is, with a nature and character that suit Him, and are the reflection of what He is. And we are seen sitting in the heavenlies "in Christ;" not running to get into glory, as in Philippians iii. Moreover, we are in the same relationship to God as Christ is, and hence, Christian conduct is spoken of in this epistle as what suits this place, and flows from it.

Through the grace and power of God I am brought into His presence, not seeking to get into it, and my duties flow from the place I am in. People speak as though men were on probation, and the day of judgment would prove how it will turn out with them, whether they will be saved or lost. This is all wrong. Of course each is tested individually, by the presentation of the gospel; but the gospel comes to man and addresses him as one already lost, and needing salvation. Men have not to wait till the judgment to know how it will turn out. It has already turned out that I am a lost sinner. God turned man out of paradise when he had sinned; and as far as he could man has turned God out of the world when He came into it in grace, in Christ. Of course God can come into it in power, and will do so; but as far as man could he has turned Him out. Man is now lost in himself, but God has acted in grace, so that he who believes in Jesus is saved; just the opposite; and it does not need the judgment to prove either the one or the other. Judgment is for my work (Rev. 20: 12), and on that ground all are already lost. But salvation is of grace, and is God's work. What hath God wrought! (Num. 23: 23.) God takes up man as dead in sins, and quickens him: he has a new life, and is "made the righteousness of God," being brought to God, and set in His presence, in the same relationship as Christ.

Christian duties (and there are such), flow from the new relationship thus formed by grace, and in Christ, and we must first be in the relationship before the duties are there. People make a grievous blunder here: putting the duties as a means of getting into relationship with God. Such a thing would never be thought of in natural things. Men's minds are clear enough about their own matters; all is simple to them: but when they come to divine things, and having to do with God, all sorts of blunders are made. How absurd it would be for all you people to get to be my children! You might be never so earnest and diligent; but no amount of earnestness would avail to form the relationship. But if you were my children, all would be simple enough, and the duty, too, to act like children. You cannot fulfil the duties of a child till you are one, or show the love of one either. How unbecoming of a servant to jump up and kiss his master! Quite proper in a child. And if we are children of God, then we are to behave ourselves as such; but our duties as children of God do not commence till we are in that place. Of course there are duties that we have as men, but on that ground we are lost. God makes us His children, and then says, Now imitate your Father. "Be ye followers [imitators] of God, as dear children." We are brought into God's presence, and we are to go out into, and through, the world, and show whose children we are: to show His character, and "walk worthy" of Him. "To walk worthy of God" (1 Thess. 2: 12.) "Worthy of the Lord." (Col. 1: 10.) "Worthy of the vocation." (Eph. 4: 1.) God Himself is our pattern, and we are to imitate Him. He loved us when we were enemies, and He causes His rain to descend "on the evil and on the good," and we are to act in the same manner toward men. I am to be kind to the unthankful and to the evil, for instance: so here, "tender-hearted, forgiving," and why? because my Father is. I am to forgive as, in Christ, He has forgiven me. In all things I am to look to Him, as revealed in Christ, as my pattern, and imitate Him.

But all this, of course, flows not only from the fact of a new relationship, but there is a "new man." The nature we had, as children of Adam, was proved to be utterly bad, and nothing would do but the entire setting of it aside, and a new ''creation." In this Epistle men are seen as "dead in sins;" not alive in sins, as in Romans. And Christ goes down to the lower parts of the earth, putting away our sins on His way there, namely, on the Cross. So that before He lies there, our sins have all been atoned for; and then God comes in, and raises up Christ, and us with Him, our sins being all left behind. It is not simply that we are quickened, but we are quickened "together with Christ." (Eph. 2: 5.) When it is simply quickening, as in John 5, Christ is the Quickener; but in Ephesians, Christ is seen in death, where He had in grace put Himself for us. We were there through sin and disobedience. He came there in grace and obedience. And now, as quickened together with Him, we are, so to speak, raised by God out of His grave, and taken up into the heavenly places in Him. It is a new creation, the sins of the "old man" being all put away and gone. In Colossians we get the same thought: "Quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." (Col. 2: 13.) It is a new creation, and the trespasses all forgiven.

We have put off the old man, and put on the new. In principle we have done this in Christ's death; and now we realise it in knowing that we have died with Him. It is carried into effect in practice in bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus. The new man is after God (Eph. 4: 24), that is, it is like God, and is "created in righteousness and true holiness." Adam was created in innocence; neither righteousness nor holiness. Holiness supposes intelligence as to good and evil, though absolute and perfect separation from evil. Adam had not the knowledge of good and evil, and so is never said in scripture to be holy; nor righteous either, because righteousness is a judgment of, or walking in, ways consistent with the obligations in which we or others stand, and involves also the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was, of course, sinless, for this is one respect in which he was made in the "likeness of God." But the "new man" is "renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." (Col. 3: 10.) The old man is put off in the Christian - in him who has the truth as it is in Jesus, and the new man, which is after God, is put on. God Himself is the pattern, and it is in Christ that we learn what He is.

We have got a new life, and the Holy Ghost in us, as the power to be followers of God.

In Romans 7 we have the experience of a man with the new nature, "delighting in the law of God after the inward man", but without power in the Holy Ghost; and he finds the old is master of the new. It is one who, as to his experience, is under the law, not knowing redemption or liberty in the Holy Ghost, and learning what the flesh" is; and it makes him cry, "Oh! wretched man that I am," and long for deliverance. He does not say, How can I get forgiveness? or, how can I get better? but he wants some one to take him clean out of the place of bondage and helplessness where he finds himself, and says, "Who shall deliver me?" The moment he comes to this he finds it all done, and exclaims, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." There are three things learnt in that chapter. First, that there is no good in the flesh. Second, that it was not himself, but sin dwelling in him, that did the evil (ver. 17): he learns to distinguish between the "I" and the "sin that dwelleth in me." Third, he yet finds the law of sin in his members too strong for him; for he always does the evil, though he wills the good. Nothing will do but to be taken out of it; and this is what he realises in the next chapter. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death;" and "Ye are not in the flesh, but in Spirit." (Rom. 8: 2.) But here the man is looked at as "in Christ," not in the flesh, and the Spirit of God dwells in him, producing righteousness, which is different from the sin dwelling in him, preventing him from performing the good he consents unto and delights in. But, as we have seen, besides the new man, there is, in order to our being imitators of God, the Holy Ghost dwelling in us. We are told (Eph. 4: 30), "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed" &c. It is not only that there is a new nature, but the Holy Ghost comes into the vessel, as we see in the case of the cleansed leper, in Leviticus 14; and leprosy in scripture is a standing type of sin. He was washed in water, sprinkled with blood, and then anointed with oil. The water is the word applied in power; Jesus said to the disciples in John 15, "Now ye are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you." The word of Christ had been applied to them in power through grace, and by the Holy Ghost, and they were washed. Then we have the blood of Christ applied to the conscience; and next, as here in Ephesians, we are sealed with the Holy Ghost, the "holy anointing oil," the "unction from the Holy One." And this is the second great principle of Christian practice, as brought before us here. We have the "new man," the new nature from God, and according to God; and also the Holy Ghost, God Himself, comes and owns the person. He seals him and abides there, and we are not to grieve Him, but to walk as though God were seen by us at our side. Everything should comport with God's presence in us; and if we are walking with a good conscience, according to our measure of light; we are then free to think of Christ. The Holy Ghost occupies us with Christ, and leads us on in the knowledge of Him. (Eph. 1: 17.) And it is in this there is growth; as to acceptance and relationship there is no growth; all is perfect from the first, but in the fuller knowledge of Christ, and conformity to Him, we are led on by the Holy Ghost. If walking up to the light we have received, we have, in coming into His presence, communion with Him, and we enjoy and grow in the knowledge of Him. If, on the contrary, we are not walking godlily, the Holy Ghost will make us think of ourselves and judge ourselves. So when we are, not only living in the Spirit, but walking in the Spirit, all we are and do will represent Christ. His aim and purpose is that we should be, in all the moral features of His character, the reproduction of Himself. See Philippians 2: 15, where every clause may be applied to Christ, though it is given, as the Spirit's desire, for every Christian. "Blameless and harmless" - so was Christ. "The sons of God" - He was the Son of God.  "Without rebuke" - so was He, and so on.

It is a wonderful thing to know myself accepted in Christ before God, that He represents me there; but if He represents me before God, I am to represent Him before the world. "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and / in you" (John 14: 20.) You say, I am in Christ before God, "accepted in the beloved." Well, thank God, it is so: I do not doubt your acceptance, but if you are in Christ, He is in you, and let one, let the world see Him and nothing else. The new man then (the old being put off), and the Holy Ghost are subjectively that in which we walk; where is then the pattern we walk by? God Himself, God in a man, in Christ; and in Him we get a love that. gives up Himself, and that for His enemies. This goes infinitely beyond the law, which only requires that a man should "love his neighbour as himself." If every one did that, it would make of this world a sort of paradise, but that is the measure for man as a creature, mutually recognising each his neighbour's claim. It does not suit a sinful world. Every one does not love me as much as he loves himself, and if I am to represent God in such a world as this, I must have a kind of love that will get above people hating me, and this we see in Christ. And we are to be "imitators" of God as seen in Him, "as dear children." Not in order to be such, but as such. The same in Colossians 3: 12, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved," not in order to be the elect, etc., but as the elect. The Lord Jesus (in this love we are called to imitate), gave Himself "for us," but it was "unto God." (Chap. 5: 2.) God was His object, though it was for us He gave Himself. Divine love, as manifested in this world, takes up its object by its need, and looks at it in grace, and above its evil, so it was in Christ. As having become a man, He must have an object, and God was that object. Man must have an object, to keep him free from and above the evil of those he occupies himself with. What a man loves, and makes his object, gives him his true moral character. If he loves money, he is a covetous man. If power, an ambitious man; so with pleasure, or dress, it is the same: we are morally characterised by what engages our thoughts and affections. Suppose, for instance, I love a great rogue, I seek his company for its own sake, I make him my object - my affection is a low one. If a beautiful character, the affection is a noble one. Christ offered Himself for us, that was divine love, but it was to God: was the rule and perfection of man. Christ is our measure: God has now given His Son that we may be like Him not kept back the fruit, lest we should become as God, as the serpent insinuated to Eve. "Walk as children of light." (Ver. 8.) Here we see our relation to God as "Light." He is said to be "Love" and "Light." (John 1.) He is not said to be anything else, as to His nature. He has righteousness, holiness, majesty, almighty power, etc., these are His attributes; but love and light He is. Now, we have been told above to be imitators of Him, and walk in love: here we are addressed as children of light, which we must be, if children of God, who is such, and we are to walk as children of light, and Christ is the measure of both to us. Though both these essential names of God are used, we are not said to be love, because God is sovereign in goodness, and that does not suit us, but obedience in the walk of love, as Christ. But light we are said to be, because we are partakers of the divine nature in its purity and consequent manifestation of all impurity around. And while the light, shining out, reproves the "works of darkness," we are to be bringing forth the "fruit of the light" not "Spirit." (Ver. 9.) Light is perfectly pure, does not mix with the darkness, but makes manifest everything that is not of it. Walking as children of light, "proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.'' We do not learn all at once what is acceptable to Him: it is a thing in which we make progress. Is this our simple purpose? To prove what is acceptable? (Rom. xii. 2.) In buying or selling, or any common act of life, our question should be, Is this acceptable to the Lord? In purchasing an article of dress, it should not be simply, will this suit me? but is it acceptable to the Lord? Does it suit Him?

In verse 14, a sleeping man is called to "awake," not a dead man: he is a believer, but alas! in what a state. A man, when he is asleep, is no better than a dog asleep. They are both insensible to everything around. Dog and man snore together. But when the believer, who has sunk down into worldly associations, is thus aroused (for he is not dead, but among the dead, and grievous to say, apparently one of them), nothing short of Christ Himself is his light. "Arise from among the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." The light is there when he awakes, and Christ is the measure of it for him. We must have an object. Sanctification is objective, and not subjective only. A man is holy to something, that is, it is not merely a state in itself, though it be such, in ordering and regulating my ways; but in the occupation of heart and mind with an object, my heart is consecrated to that object, and so sanctified, one outside of me, into whose image I am transformed as I contemplate His glory. Christ should ever be that object, and the secret of real progress is personal attachment to Himself. Mary Magdalene is an example of this; others waited till sunrise to come to the sepulchre, but she came "while it was yet dark." It was ignorance, of course, to seek the living among the dead, but it was ignorant affection. She tells the disciples, and they come too, and then go back to their homes - to their breakfast: but will this do for Mary? No; she has found her way back to the sepulchre again. All the world to her was but an empty sepulchre, if Jesus were not there, and her heart, full of Him, was lonely in it; and to her Jesus shows Himself, sending her with that wondrous message to His brethren, which told them of the new relationship in which they now stood - He was ascending to His Father and theirs, His God and theirs. (John xx.)

The woman in the Pharisee's house, in Luke vii., is another example. Her heart was won by Christ - light had shown her her sins, but love and grace in Christ had attracted her, bringing her into that fine Pharisee's house, a poor sinner that, where Jesus was not, would have been ashamed to show her face anywhere. Look at Simon! What does he know about Jesus? He is pitch dark: has got God in his house and does not know it. But the "woman of the city" knows, and Jesus answers her faith. She loved much, and she got from the Lord those blessed words of forgiveness, salvation, and peace: "Thy sins are forgiven;" "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace"

This attachment of heart to Christ is what we so much need. Not mere intelligence in truth, which may puff up, but that knowledge of Christ by the Holy Ghost which makes Him my object. And now in company with this blessed One we have to walk through the world, finding a way in which we can glorify and represent Him, and enjoy fellowship with Him. But how is it we have got to find a way? Because we are not yet at home. Adam had not to find any way, but simply to abide in the place where God had put him, and enjoy it.1

Articles probably by J. N. Darby.

Explanation about the source of the text.

Present Testimony:

This magazine was edited by G. V. Wigram who was a lifelong intimate friend of Darby. In Wigram's magazine most of the articles are written anonymously; only a few have initials (save for poetry and in the latter volumes of the "new series" where more initials appear.) The initials "J.N.D." appear only once in vol. 1 (poetry), once in vol. 5, a few times in vol. 13 and twice in New Series vol. 2. Nevertheless a search in the Darby CD proved that about 130 articles in the "Present Testimony" are also in the Collected Writings of J. N. Darby. There might be other volumes by Darby in "Present Testimony" though not having his initials.

Now there is one remarkable observation: There are 11 articles in "Present Testimony" which are signed simply with "D.". I was not able to identify this "D" save in five cases where it is always J. N. Darby.* There is no other brother who is likely to be "D."** Therefore it is assumed that these other 6 articles of "D" were also written by J. N. Darby. Nevertheless I have added at the end of these articles that the authorship of Darby is not certain. M. Arhelger.

*The five cases are:

1) Present Testimony, vol. 1, page 239 - 249 which is in Collected Writings 5, page 215-224.

2) Present Testimony, vol. 1, page 451 - 454 which is in Collected Writings 5, page 252-255.

3) Present Testimony, vol. 2, page 196 - 235 which is from J. N. Darby's "Synopsis of the Books of the Bible" (Numbers).

4) and 5) Present Testimony, vol. 14, page 224 - 226 which contains two songs written by Darby.

It is interesting that an Article of Darby in "The Prospect" 2, 97-100 is also simply signed with "D." The same is true of an article in the "Christian Witness" 1 (1834), page 313-320.

**William Henry Dorman had his own magazine ("Girdle of Truth") which was issued since 1856 and which probably contained most of his own articles. (Similarly there are only very few articles of W. Kelly in the "Present Testimony" because Kelly had his own magazine "The Prospect" and later the "Bible Treasury") Dorman has signed an article with "WHD" (and not with "D.") in Present Testimony, vol. 4, page 417. J. G. Deck was a hymn-writer and is unlikely to be the author of the "D." articles. Sir Edward Denny normally signed his articles in "Present Testimony"; Denny had a peculiar style of writing which does not reflect the "D." articles.

The Folly of trusting to Egypt for help

Isaiah 31: 1-3.

"Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord." Isaiah 31: 1-3.

The importance of Israel's history to the church of God, arises from its peculiar character as a nation, in contrast with the other nations of the world by which it was surrounded, and from which its special glory and privilege was to be separate and distinct.

Israel, as a people, was God's elect nation, of whom He says, "This people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise." And, again, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." Hence their obedience or failures come to be most instructive to God's people now, because they exhibit the effect of God's principles, either in subjection to them, with all its happy issues; or in departure from them, with all its calamitous results.

This, it will be admitted, is true of their history generally; while, in one special part of it, the Scripture expressly teaches, that "they were types of us." - "All these things happened to them for ensamples (Greek: "tupoi" types); and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."

This is the point of importance in Israel's history, that they were a people in connection with God. Their conduct had its main importance in this respect. It had its bearing on their own national welfare, or the reverse; but it had a much higher importance in relation to God, as it exhibited His character and principles before the nations around. "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord."

The nations of the world were the witnesses of the power and policy of man, and they exhibited the ways and principles of man; but Israel should have been a witness before the nations of that truth. "Happy art thou, Ο Israel; who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and the sword of thy excellency, and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee."

It is on this ground that Israel and "Egypt" are found, in their national character, so frequently presented in contrast in the Old Testament, just as the church and the world are set in constant opposition in the New. The principles of God had their place in the one, and the principles of man were, working in the other, which necessarily placed them in opposition.

But Israel had another character besides that which was stamped on them by their connection with God. They were men, and they had, naturally, all the feelings and propensities of men. Hence, whenever their faith failed, and they were left to their own unrestrained action, they invariably displayed nothing but human tendencies, and sought for help in the natural resources of men.

It required the knowledge of God, and the recognition of the special relations he sustained towards them, and an active trust in His power and protection - in a word, faith in Him as God, and their God - to enable Israel to walk on God's principles, and to act in character before the nations. In like manner, now, it requires faith on the part of the church of God, in all God's blessed relations toward it, and the sense of His presence, in order to walk with Him, and to exhibit a heavenly character before the world. "They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee"! And what wonders of love and grace are wrapped up in the knowledge of that name! "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

But saints are men, as well as Israel of old, and in that character have been schooled and trained in the world, as Israel was trained in Egypt, and in either case the effect is seen, for the certain result of acting on the principles of the world, is to lose the principles of God. The world is a definite sphere, where the principles of man, under the influence of Satan, "the god of this world," are paramount and in action; while the church is the only sphere in which the principles of God are working. "Egypt" had its wisdom, and policy, and power; but Egypt could be only the oppressor or the corrupter of the people of God. Indeed, there is nothing more affecting in Israel's history, than their constant hankering after Egypt, after all that they had suffered there, and after all that God had done to deliver them from it. It only yields, in infatuation, to that which has been manifested in the history of the church, in its turning from the grace and presence of a divine Comforter and Guide, to the miserable shifts and appliances of "this present evil world."

The earliest mention of Egypt, except in Gen. 10, in the division of nations, is as the place whence Abram, the child of faith, sought help from the famine which pressed upon him, when a sojourner in "the land of promise." And, indeed, it was the land of earthly plenty. The comforts of this life were there in abundance; but we learn, in Abram's sojourn there, what a price must be paid by the believer for its "cattle, and silver, and gold," and for the favour of its prince! The faith of the patriarch and his altar belonged not to Egypt, but to the land of Canaan, which he had now left behind. Egypt was the land of plenty. It was well watered, and the fruitfulness of its river was proverbial. But it did not drink of the "rain of heaven;" nor did it enjoy the fertilising dews from above. It is coupled with Lot's portion in the plain of Jordan; of which it is said, "it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou comest unto Zoar." Still its river bore only "the fatness of the earth;" and in this respect it is contrasted with Israel's portion, as chosen by the Lord. "The land whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot as a garden of herbs: but the land whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven."

Accordingly, in after times, when their moral corruption was hastening on the sorrows of the Babylonish captivity, the Lord, by His prophet Jeremiah, expostulates with them thus: - "The children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when He led thee by the way? And now what hast thou to do with Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? Or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?" Israel (had they known how to value it) had their own, "fountain of living waters;" and ought never to have been indebted to the streams of Egypt, or the nations around them.

As to Egypt, Joseph's history may indeed cast a halo of glory over it; - as even the world itself will be changed in its character when the humbled One comes to take His power;* still its real character is to be found only in the hard and bitter bondage of Israel. For how often is that word repeated in the books of Moses, "Remember ye were bondmen in Egypt!" And their redemption is thus characterised in Deuteronomy 4: 20, "The Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto Him a people of inheritance as it is this day."

* So, in God's prophetic purposes, there is another destination for Egypt, when Israel under Messiah becomes the head of the Gentiles, and "they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord to Jerusalem." This is presented in Isa. 19 "And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt; every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined against it" (ver. 17). "In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord, in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord" (ver. 19). "And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation" (ver. 20). "In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a Messing in the midst of the land; whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance" (ver. 24, 25). The whole chapter is one of the deepest interest in connection with the millennial glory and blessing of the earth.

It required the plagues of Egypt, and the blood of the Passover, to put God's captive people and their oppressors, into their true relative position towards each other. And accordingly, God's relation to Israel, in redemption, is thus expressed, "I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of Egypt;" while the confession that was connected with the offering of "the basket of first fruits" was designed to be the constant memorial of this. "Thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish, was my father; and he went down to Egypt to sojourn there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous; and the Egyptians evil entreated, us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage; and when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked upon our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression; and the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs and with wonders; and He hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land that floweth with milk and honey." (Deut. 26.)

Still, almost as soon as ever they had reached the wilderness (the place of earthly destitution, and of heavenly supply), Egypt assumes another character in their eyes than the land of their oppression, and the place of God's judgment. "The children of Israel said unto them [Moses and Aaron] would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full." And they were not ashamed to say, "it was well with us in Egypt!" The reason of all this is obvious and instructive. To walk with God in a wilderness requires faith, and that spirit of dependence which nothing but faith can give. But to be satisfied with the supplies of Egypt is a thing which is perfectly understood by sense. Thus, whenever the necessities of their condition demanded the exercise of faith - and faith was not there, they, "in their hearts, turned back again into Egypt." And on one occasion, they said, "were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." Nor was this all: their religion was corrupted by Egypt. The worship of "the calf" was Egyptian idolatry; though. Israel knew that the Lord had said, "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment; I am the Lord." But, alas! Israel had learned to commit fornication in Egypt; and they practised the lesson in the wilderness, and ever after. For when the Lord presents before them their course, in the days of Ezekiel, in the parable of the two lewd women, He says, "they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth." The infidelities of Judah and Israel were multiplied in their after history; but it was only a fruit of their not having left their whoredoms brought from Egypt."* On their entrance to the land under the leadership of Joshua, this is noticed though in grace, by the Lord. After the people were circumcised anew, "the Lord said unto Joshua, this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day." And nothing but the power of circumcision can keep the heart of the saint separate from the world now; for if the flesh be allowed, the world at once has an open door.

* The father of the man that blasphemed the name of the Lord in the camp of Israel was an Egyptian (Lev. 24). Hagar also, Abram's bondmaid, was an Egyptian.

But, in another form, Egypt still was Israel's snare, after their settlement in the land. Outward weakness was the designed characteristic of Israel's polity by Jehovah; that the people might know that "they got not the land in possession by their own sword; neither did their own arm (at any time) save them; but Thy right hand and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favour toward them." And the song should have been ever heard in their midst, "Thou art my King, O God; command deliverances for Jacob. Through Thee will we push down our enemies; through Thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save Him. But Thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.  In god we boast all the day long, and praise Thy name for ever."

It was for this intent that they were forbidden to multiply horses, and that three times a year their coasts were to be left entirely unguarded; while all their males were brought together in solemn assembly, to Jerusalem, before the Lord. But Egypt was celebrated for its horses and chariots; and this is noticed in the Lord's prohibition to the king, "he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses; forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you ye shall henceforth return no more that way." Their redemption from Egypt and all its power should have been final; nor should any thing have tempted them to return. But, in the reign of Solomon, we find that horses were one chief article of commerce with Egypt. In 1 Kings, 10: 28, 29, it is recorded that Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt: - "And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for an hundred and fifty'." While in the days of Isaiah, the Lord complains, amongst other tokens of departure from himself, that" their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots." But in the following chapter of the book of Kings, there is opened a still further effect of Solomon's affinity with Egypt. This wisest of men was corrupted by it. "King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh. For it came to pass when Solomon was old that his wives turned away his heart after other gods." How near is the neighbourhood, and how subtle the connection of "the flesh," the world, and the devil! And how instructive is the lesson, that as to Israel, the first enemy that invaded their land after the death of Solomon was Shishak king of Egypt! "It came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house: he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of silver and gold which Solomon had made." What force do these historical notices give to that statute of the kingdom (already partly quoted) "he shall not multiply wives to himself that his heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold!" And how full is the illustration of a part of the passage which is the subject of the present comment, "Yet he also is wise and will bring evil, and will not call back his words!"

There may be the silver and the gold, and the "tapestry, and carved work, and fine linen of Egypt" - but it is Egypt still! There may be its wisdom, and policy, and power; its horses and chariots - but still the word of the Lord remains in all its force, "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are many; and on horsemen because they are very strong; .... now the Egyptians are men and not God; and their horses flesh and not spirit." And as a ground of trust to Israel, Egypt's character is most accurately given by a heathen man. "Now behold thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it; so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust on him." And this judgment is entirely confirmed by the Lord, through Ezekiel, who says, "And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because they have been a staff of reed, to the house of Israel. When they took hold of thee by the hand, thou didst break and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand." Nor should this instructive warning to Israel be allowed to lapse while the saint has this significant note of divine wisdom concerning the world through which he is passing, that it is "the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified!" Heaven-bestowed names and titles are more unchanging, and more significant, than our careless hearts are wont to conceive. But finally, as to Egypt, when God speaks of it in all its glory, he speaks of it only as "the tabernacles of Ham!" "He smote all the first-born of Egypt: the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham!" And it may be said, that the example of Moses gives the only proper action of faith towards it. "By faith Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath, of the king." He esteemed "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward."

All this recorded testimony to Israel about Egypt gives especial pungency to the denunciation of the prophet; -

"Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and slay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord! Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down and they all shall fail together" (Isaiah, 31: 1-3).

The special and instructive contrasts here, are '''Men" and "God" and "flesh" and "spirit." Man with his horses, and chariots, and horsemen presenting an array of strength, resistless in the estimation of the natural mind; but "when the lord shall stretch out his hand both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together." How deep is this infatuation of a people whose privilege and strength is thus presented to the eye of faith, that they should look to Egypt or horses and chariots as their strength!

"There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou, Ο Israel: who is like unto thee, Ο people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places." (Deuteronomy, 33: 26-29).

This was Israel's folly, to turn from God and his Spirit to trust in Egypt and in an arm of flesh, because they walked as men. But what is this to the church's folly that is associated with her head in heaven, and is blessed with the ever-abiding presence of the Holy Ghost on earth; and has God for her, and the infinite treasures of his grace as her resource; and Eternal glory before her; when she is found turning to seek the world's friendship, and practically trusts in the flesh and in carnal wisdom for her guidance and help!  The Lord teach our hearts more the force of that word, "If ye then be risen with Christ!"  And lead us to beware of following the course of "Demas," of whom the apostle says," Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." "If god be for us who can be against us." There is nothing more certain than this, that every degree of confidence that is reposed in man by a saint or in himself, is so much of his trust withdrawn from "the living God."  "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God."  But faith alone can use those weapons; and when faith fails, there is always the practical turning to the world and its strength and wisdom for help.  This only is the right position of our souls, "to have the sentence of death in ourselves; that we should not trust in ourselves; but in God that raiseth the dead."  And again let it be said; "if god be for us who can be against us!" "There is no king saved by the multitude of a host; a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.  A horse is a vain thing for safety; neither shall he deliver any by his great strength .... our soul waiteth for the Lord; he is our help and our shield."

(Present Testimony 2 (1850), p. 300 - 309. The authorship of Darby is not completely certain.)

The Fold and the Flock

John 10: 1-30.

The force and beauty of this chapter are often missed, through failing to notice the circumstances in our Lord's ministry, which impart to it its special character.

Much has been often advanced in illustration of the office of our Lord as "the Good Shepherd," and it may be with a measure of truth; but the parable before us which presents him in this character, applies itself to the condition of Israel, before God, as brought to light by the ministry of the blessed Son of God, in grace, amongst that people.

It is of Israel especially that the Lord says, "Ye, my flock, the flock of my pasture are men; and I am your God." Hence any application of the terms, "entering in by the door into the sheepfold," or "climbing up some other way," to a sinner's coming to Christ, or, which is more common, to any supposed entrance into the church is, to say the least, a misapprehension and a misapplication of a most important and instructive passage.

If, then, Israel be God's flock, Jerusalem, or, at any rate, that system of ordinances which separated Israel from the surrounding nations, and of which Jerusalem was the centre, was the fold. The fold into which Christ is here proving His right and title to enter; and in connection with which He presents, by way of parable, the effects of His personal ministry as the true, but disallowed, Shepherd of Israel.

'' This parable spake Jesus unto them; but they understood not what things they were which He spake unto them." The glass which so accurately reflected their condition and circumstances was held up to them, but they were too much blinded by their prejudices to discern in it God's moral judgment of their state, and of their own responsibility.

In seeking then to understand this parable, which it is said the Jews understood not, it should be remembered that there was a twofold effect resulting from our Lord's ministry; namely, the attaching to Himself, in grace, those who, as taught of God, received His claims; and also the testing of the moral condition of those who rejected His mission; which, indeed, were the great mass of the nation. For if God's manifestation of Himself in grace does not convert the heart, it nevertheless puts the consciences of men in the light; and thus leaves them under the responsibility of rejecting the light, and hating the light, because their deeds are evil.

This was pre-eminently true of our Lord's ministry; but in every dispensation it holds good, and, "wisdom is justified of all her children."

Of John the Baptist's ministry it is said, "all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him."

The light of God, in whatever vessel it shines, is recognised and rejoiced in where the heart and conscience are in exercise before Him; and it puts under responsibility those by whom it is rejected.

A little consideration of this will throw light upon the present chapter.

John the Baptist was intermediate between "the law and the prophets," and the coming of our Lord; and his mission was to disclose the moral condition of the people, and by the baptism of repentance to prepare them for the speedy advent of their expected Messiah. But, more than this; he was also set to preach a remnant in Israel, or a separation from the mass of the people, of those who received his testimony. Hence a distinct baptism was attached to his ministry, as the formal seal of that separation which was to be administered to all who obeyed his word. This was a circumstance which marked him off from all preceding prophets, who, whatever might be the force of their ministry, had no commission to effect an outward and formal separation of those who received their testimony.  A moral separation there must, of course, always have been between those that feared the Lord, and those that rejected His word. But the ministry of John marks an epoch in the dealings of the Lord with the nation.  Hence the language of Matt. 3: 7-12, "When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.  And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.  I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance [a baptism which separated by the confession of sins to the hope of coming mercy and salvation]: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost [a baptism which separates to God by the power and presence of God; making those who receive it the vessels of his power and presence], and with fire [a baptism of judgment which Christ when He returns will assuredly bring upon those who have rejected His claims as witnessed by the Holy Ghost]: Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Now, it is exactly at this point that in the Gospel of Matthew, our Lord's ministry is said to commence. He associates Himself with this remnant in Israel, separated by John's baptism; and He Himself is baptized with John's baptism. Not, indeed, as if He needed repentance, as the reason He gives for submitting to it sufficiently shows. "He said, Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" It was as fulfilling all righteousness that Jesus was baptized. But in thus owning this ordinance of God in the hand of John, our Lord at the same time associates Himself with this movement of God's Spirit on the hearts of a remnant in Israel, and fulfilled the gracious words of the sixteenth Psalm; "Thou art my Lord; my goodness extendeth not to thee; but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent in whom is all my delight."

Stooping thus low in love and grace, and in self-emptying obedience, he is in a position to declare God's name to his brethren. For the Apostle applies the first words of this Psalm to Christ, in connection with the declaration (Heb. 2: 11), that "both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in Him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

But being what He was, as Son of God, as well as the humbled Son of man, He is found receiving this remnant, who were the sheep, whom He "calls by name and leads them out;" or "the poor of the flock," - "of the flock of slaughter" - of the eleventh of Zechariah; where Christ is prophetically presented as the Shepherd of God's appointment to Israel; on which this chapter in part, and His personal ministry as detailed in Matthew, especially, forms a striking comment.

The first thing, then, which the Lord marks is, that He had entered by the door into the sheepfold, thus proving his authority from the owner of the flock, to take charge of the sheep, in opposition to any surreptitious entrance, which of itself convicts of a sinister design. As He says, "He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But He that entereth in by the door the same is the Shepherd of the sheep."

Christ is here, then, Jehovah's divinely sanctioned Shepherd of Israel, who were the "people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand;" - for He had submitted to every requisition of the owner of the flock: - but at this time, alas! proved to be "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." For the mass of the nation, and especially the rulers of the people, blinded by a false estimate of their condition before God, and entrenched in religious ordinances, knew not the person of Him who came in grace to meet their need; nor heeded the divinely-sanctioned claims of Him who, "when He saw the multitudes, was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd." "Their own shepherds pity them not!" Hence, having stated, as another mark of His proved title to be the Shepherd of the sheep that, "to Him the porter openeth," and the "sheep hear His voice," He adds, "He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when He putteth forth his own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him; for they now His voice." And here we may be reminded of the beautiful keeping of the figure; and be referred to the customs of oriental countries as verifying this description of the Shepherd's preceding His flock, when leading them from the fold to their pasture, or when conducting them from pasture to pasture. But it is not the correspondence of a description with physical facts or with a known usage that is here in question. It is the application of this peculiar action of the shepherd, by way of parable, to show, as in a glass, what was then taking place under the action of our Lord's ministry, as necessarily modified by the moral condition of Israel, which was being tested and proved by His presence amongst them.

In a word, it expresses the moral effect of our Lord's ministry, when received in grace, as in the example of the poor blind man in the preceding chapter, and also the effect of the disallowance of His claims on the part of the leaders and the mass of the nation.

In the one case, it was the Lord "calling his own sheep by name, and leading them out" - for the result of their attachment, in grace, to him was their being virtually, if not actually, excommunicated like "the blind man" referred to, and thus outside (led outside by the Good Shepherd) of all Israel's ordinances, and clean apart from every ground of connection with God, but that · which was found in the person of Christ. While, on the other hand, it was virtually the Lord's saying, as in the prophet, "I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land - but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king; and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them." And again, "Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another."

Thus, through the rejection of the claims of our Lord to be the Shepherd of Jehovah's flock, the fold is deserted by Him who alone could lead into green pastures, or give security to the sheep. But leading outside the fold His own sheep, He in effect says to them, "I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock." And how blessed to be under the care of such a Shepherd! though it be outside all man's religion, and apart from the whole array of Israel's divinely appointed ordinances. For it was in the maintenance of these, in opposition to a living faith, as the grounds of connection with God, that the claims of this blessed Shepherd were disallowed.

One might turn with deepest interest to the descriptions of the thirty-fourth of Ezekiel, in illustration of Israel's happiness, when, in a future day, the Lord will set aside, in power, the claims of every false shepherd that has neglected or preyed upon the flock, and will Himself take charge of His beautiful flock. As He says, "For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment." Or it might be thought an omission not to refer to the twenty-third Psalm, as an illustration of the present experience of a believer under the exercise of Christ's shepherd-care. And surely nothing can exceed the beauty and comfort of that Psalm, nor the richness of the portion of the soul which can say, "Jehovah is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth, me beside the still waters." The certainty that want will never be the condition of the soul that reposes in such a Shepherd as Jehovah, and is owned of Him, may, in its largest, widest, application, be affirmed; and that quietness and refreshment are the natural blessings to the soul that flow from being under his hand. But this is not all that our souls require; alas! as it is not all in the natural application of the figure. The silly sheep may stray from the rich and quiet pastures, and need the Shepherd's care to follow it in its wanderings, and restore it again to where the flock abides, under His gentle eye. Hence the touching expressions, "He restoreth my soul; He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake." This is a different exercise of the Shepherd's care from that of making to lie down in green pastures and leading beside still waters. It is recovery, in gracious love, when these have been departed from; and it affords the most affecting acquaintance with the grace of the heart of the Lord. When thus restored, the soul may add, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

Nothing so strengthens the confidence of the soul in the Lord as the experience of the exercise of his gentle restoring grace. It so introduces the heart to the interior resources of God's goodness, and so establishes it in his unfailing mercy, that confidence in all imaginable trials, and an assurance of receiving nothing but good at his hand, are the natural result. The darkest paths of difficulty and of danger - "The valley of death's shade" may be tracked in perfect security now, because the soul has been shown the only proper spring of confidence. "thou art with me: Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." And more than this - the sense of surrounding enemies can now be used not as an occasion of dread, but as only giving character to the efficiency of that goodness which prepares a table before us, in the presence of enemies. "Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over." This is not the result of an increase of outward good, nor the mere effusion of thankfulness at the contemplation of the increase of corn and wine - this may not exist - -but it is the renewing of holy joy from the experience of what god is; and the overrunning-cup is the sense of the heart's portion in the presence of a God of infinite goodness. The conclusion, therefore, from such an association with God, and such experience of what God is in goodness and love, is, "Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." All this, and much more than this, readily presents itself to the mind, while contemplating this lovely Psalm; but the chapter before us is not so much intended to teach generally the shepherd-care of Christ, as to disclose the present principles of his action resulting from Israel's rejection of His claims. For it is in Israel, and amongst an earthly people, that His proper shepherd-character will be displayed. As a proof (see Isaiah 40: 10, 11), "Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." And (Psalm 78: 70-72) "He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: from following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands." Hence, when he has given the remnant, whom His personal ministry was now separating to Himself, the necessary authority and guidance to leave the fold, which was His having called them by name (the mark of individual dealing in grace), and having Himself gone out before them, He takes an entirely new place and position.

He now says, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture" (John 10: 9). This is no mere reiteration of the previous parable, which it is said the Jews did not understand; but it is the unfolding of the true position in which He now stood to all who were taught of God to acknowledge His claims. He does not present Himself as the door into a fold; but as the door of salvation. "By me if any man enter in he shall be saved!" "And he shall go in and out and find pasture." It is the acknowledgment of His personal claims, in faith; and the result is, not security in a fold, but salvation and liberty, and sustenance. Neither does He now address Himself as before, to His own sheep within the fold, in order to lead them out; but it is, "If any man enter in he shall be saved," etc., which took up the outcasts of Israel and opened the door of grace to all.

It is indeed a tacit indication, that another principle of God's dealing must be known, and another position taken by those who were owned of Him.

It is not now enclosing in a fold of ordinances in separation from those without; but it is salvation through the Shepherd who gives the life for the sheep, and security and pasturage in following Him. It is the presence of the Shepherd, and not the walls of a fold, that we must seek.

It is not, as is generally known, when speaking of the gathering of the Gentiles, as the other sheep who were not of the Jewish fold, the gathering them to a fold: - for the word is changed, and it is, "There shall be one flock and one shepherd."

"The Good Shepherd," and the "True Vine," present the Lord in contrast with all that existed in Israel's vine of ordinances, and every pretender to the care of the flock as having a right to them before He came. United to Him as the True Vine, they become fruitful branches; and as the Good Shepherd, He not only gives His life for the sheep, but He gives eternal life and eternal security to those whom He thus owns as His flock.

The difference between the door into the fold, by which Christ entered, and Himself as the door of the sheep should be noticed, in order to have the line of instruction clear before the mind. In the one case, it was the appointed way of Christ's entrance amongst the Jews as the Shepherd of Israel, and living Messiah, in His earthly ministrations to that ancient flock of God; and in the other, it was the place which He took in grace as the rejected One of the nation - the door of salvation to all who entered by Him. Not the door into any fold of exclusive ordinances, as in Israel, which He was now leaving Himself, and thus leading out His own sheep; but the door of entrance to salvation, to liberty and sustenance; and where security would be found alone in being near and following the Good Shepherd.

Nothing can be more touching or instructive than the contrast presented between the conduct and feelings of the "hireling," and Himself as "the Good Shepherd." With Christ there is no fleeing like the hireling when danger appears, but in love and self-devotion to His sheep meeting all the danger, saying to the enemy, "If ye seek me, let these go their way."

"The Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep" - Israel as His sheep - those lost sheep of the house of Israel - and for the "other sheep" also which are not of Israel's fold - which are gathered and brought by His death from amongst the Gentiles, that thus there should be "one flock, one shepherd" ({Greek} mia poimne eis poimen). But this is spoken of as consequent upon His death - for, indeed, whether of Jew or Gentile there could be no association with God or enjoyment of salvation apart from his death.

The reciprocation of the knowledge subsisting between the Good Shepherd and His sheep is also marked. He knows His sheep and they know Him; even as the Father knew Him, and He knew the Father. It is not a mere abstract statement of a reciprocation of knowledge, but an illustration of the character of that knowledge. He, the blessed Son, who had given His life and was in heaven, ere this gathering of His other sheep took place, or even the remnant of Israel was gathered by virtue of His death, knew His own, even as the Father knew Him, when He was upon earth. Nothing can be more precious to the soul than such a principle as this! And how simply, yet how wonderfully, is the link of connection between Christ and His sheep presented, and their eternal security declared! "My sheep hear my voice - and I know them - and they follow me - and I give unto them eternal life!" But this is not all. He adds, "They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father who gave them me is greater than all; none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." What a link of connection is this! The poor sheep, precious to Christ as the Father's gift to Him! What a ground also of security! The sheep not only have eternal life from Christ, but they are in His hand! Nay more, the thought of their security must be knit up with the eternal power of God - for the sheep are in the Father's hand! And then the contrasted points brought together of the lowly Shepherd stooping to enter by the door into the fold - and the statement, "I and my Father are one!" Nothing can be more touching, nothing more precious or wonderful! The grace is infinite, the love knows no bounds, and the power by which all is secured is the Almighty power of the Eternal God! The depth of instruction in the chapter is but just touched upon in this brief paper, but it may guide the meditations of some to the chapter itself, there to find the infinitude of divine love thus brought home to us as the portion of the sheep of Christ.

(Present Testimony 8 (1856), p. 429 - 439. The authorship of Darby is not completely certain.)

Remarks on Failure

Galatians

The title of this paper was given by the Editor: G. V. Wigram.

The leading subject of the Epistle to the Galatians, as is manifest, is the correction by God's Spirit, of the first form of error by which the doctrine of Christ began to be corrupted; and, it may be observed, there is a severity of expression in its terms of reprobation, both of the propagators of the error, and of the error itself, that has no parallel in any other of the Apostolic Epistles. This fact, bearing in mind that error in doctrine rather than evil in practice is the subject of the Spirit's censure - is very strikingly in contrast with our ordinary thoughts; and most especially opposed to the latitudinarian sentiments of the present day.

The principle of this is plain. Nature can take its measure of human conduct; but Faith only can estimate the importance of the truth of God. And perhaps there is nothing that more strikingly displays the low spiritual condition of the church, and its utter incompetency to judge of things according to the mind of God, than that laxity of feeling which prevails with regard to doctrine, in comparison with the moral walk.

It could never be imagined that God had placed the two in opposition - for, indeed, the doctrine of the gospel is "the doctrine according to godliness;" - but the tendency of the natural mind, as to their relative importance, is always to reverse the judgment of the word of God. The spiritual mind, however, which makes God and not self its centre, will at once discern that the sinking of the foundation is incomparably more fraught with danger than a fracture in the edifice; and the corruption of the truth, which creates and sanctifies the church, is infinitely more fatal than a lapse in the walk, which is but the external witness of the power of the truth within. The church may be recovered while the truth of Christ remains; but if Christ be gone, nothing but hopeless corruption must ensue.

This is plainly the ground on which that unparalleled severity of rebuke, which pervades this Epistle rests. For example; he says, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you, LET HIM BE ACCURSED. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, LET HIM BE ACCURSED."

Here, in the outset, the Apostle, by the Spirit, enters his solemn protest, not against others only, but against himself, if he should ever swerve from the purity of that gospel he had preached. If man or angel, or himself, should ever become a perverter of the grace which he was empowered of Christ especially to proclaim, he invokes upon either a solemn curse; and thus raises a barrier against the possibility of his own, or others, turning back from the full position of grace and acceptance before God, into which the wondrous work of Christ introduces a sinner!

No authority must for a moment be allowed to cast a shadow over the full grace of the gospel; or question the divine truth of that declaration, "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, (or a new creation), old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. And all things are of god, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ." A man may be warned how he builds upon this foundation; - and the word of the Spirit is express, "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" - but, other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." "Let god be true, but every man a liar." This is "the shield of faith;" and is the merited rebuke of the least perversion of the "true grace of God, wherein we stand."

Unquestionably the church is the place of holiness - "the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" - but it is so, practically, only as it answers to the description," the pillar and ground of the truth" - the wondrous vessel of that which the Apostle thus denominates. For he directly adds, "without controversy great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up to glory."

This is "the truth" of which the church of the living God is to be the pillar and ground. It is both formative of its character and is the basis of its walk: - "He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."

Laxity of walk, or worldly principles and habits, may be corrected by bringing in the light to manifest the darkness - for we are to "walk in the light as he is in the light" - but when the truth is corrupted, the light becomes darkness, and the very instrument by which God is pleased to work is destroyed.

But our moral sense is outraged by flagrant conduct. Self is touched, in our associations, at least, when it is a question of walk. But it is only the spiritual sense that rightly estimates the danger of an inroad on the truth; and it requires the sensitiveness of the spirit to turn us from seeking our own, and "not the things that are Jesus Christ's."

Still, nothing is more important, than to heed the moral association of things in the mind of God. For example, in Philippians, 3: 19, those "who mind earthly things" are in the position of "the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame!" This is God's moral connection of things; and the true contrast of this, is to have "our conversation in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ."

So again, in a matter of more ordinary note, in 1 Tim. 6: 9. "They that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish, and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." This is God's moral association, and what in his mind is knit up with the commonest of all desires - the desire to be rich! And his path of escape is this, "Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content."

Also in Romans 16: 17, 18. "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." There is no middle course between serving the Lord Jesus Christ and one's own belly! And once more, in Cor. 15: 32; "If the dead rise not - let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die;" just as in the corresponding truth our Lord associates the expression, "My Lord delayeth his coming" with the servant's beginning to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken.

Now it is this Divine moral association of things, that accounts for the severity of expression, noticed, as pervading this epistle, whose object is to correct the very mildest - in our thought - and most universal form of error by which the grace of the gospel is perverted. For what is so common in the forms of Christianity around us, as the grafting of the law and Judaism on the gospel. But, it is this, which in this epistle calls forth the stern rebuke, "Behold, I Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. .... Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace" "But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: and that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage; to whom we gave place by subjection no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you." "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you." "When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation." "O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified? This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Ye did run well: who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased. I would they were even cut off, which trouble you!"

Now though there was manifest corruption and worldliness in the church of Corinth, and they were "carnal and walked as men," yet is their evil not rebuked in any degree with the sternness that pervades this epistle. It is true he says, "your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump;" - a universal principle, applied in Galatians to doctrine, as here to practice. And again in 2 Cor. 12: 20, 21. "I fear lest when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall not be found unto you such as ye would: lest there be debatings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults; and lest when I come again my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness, and fornication, and lasciviousness which they have committed." In visiting those who had so sinned, he says, "I will not spare." But he does not once say, "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain" - "I stand in doubt of you" - "Ye are fallen from grace" - "I would they were even cut off who trouble you" - "Christ shall profit you nothing" - "Christ is become of no effect unto you."

Alas! it is forgotten, that, if the church is to be the epistle of Christ, it is Christ known and valued, and all things else esteemed as dung and dross, in comparison, that can alone make her that epistle. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." And in vain is the cleanliness of the vessel and its external polish regarded, if the treasure which is alone of value be extracted!

Christ crucified and risen, and we risen in him, is the church's morality. "Let us hold fast grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."

Whenever grace is questioned, and a legal standing sought, there is introduced the wholesale principle of the corruption of the church's morals - "walking in the light, as he is in the light:" and "walking as he walked." For in the first place, conscience will stop at the lowest point at which it can be satisfied; and in the next place, the law deals with the flesh of man, in which grace teaches us "there dwells no good thing." But grace leads to holiness, through a new nature, which is born of God, and the subduing of the flesh. Never therefore is holiness, in its true character, so much in danger as when it is sought to be established apart from grace - which in its grossest form, is the Puseyism of the present day. And often the assumption of an ascetic sanctity, where the gospel prevails, sinks into moral debasement, that shocks even the natural conscience.

In the opening of the epistle - "Paul, an Apostle not of man neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised him from the dead" - we get a principle that characterises indeed, but extends much farther than the apostleship of Paul, and teaches us that nothing which is "of man" as its source, or "by man" as its authority, can be acknowledged in the Church of God. It must be, "by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead." Hence he says, "I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Neither man's ordinances, nor man's authority, nor man's obedience, can reach up to Him whom God hath "set at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which, is to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." The grace of the gospel is a thing altogether beyond man's power, and independent of man's authority; and is thus wonderfully expressed by the Apostle, - "I, through the law, am dead to the law" - I have been killed by it outright - "that I might live unto God. I am 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!" And this is the Christ, and this is the grace, that is to be guarded against all that is "of man" and "by man"! For, whatever is "of man" or "by man," necessarily subverts this grace, which flows alone from its divine fountain - "Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." Can any thing for a moment that is "of man" be borne with, by the heart that has learned this truth, "the son of god hath loved me and given himself for me?" or that which is so akin to it in Heb. 1. "Who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High." It is on this ground, that the Apostle says, in 2 Cor. 5: 16, "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we had known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." And, as already quoted, it follows, "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. And all things are of God."

Now, in Colossians the warning is, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him." What madness to attempt a supplement from man and his philosophy to the fulness of Him "in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily!" But here it is by the introduction of the law and circumcision. "Tell me ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law." And "Behold I, Paul, say unto you, if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law." Whatever man, in his wretched blindness may attempt, the two things - grace and law - cannot before God stand together. In grace "all things are of God" but the law, addresses itself to man: it requires something of man, which he, in his ignorance of his own condition, attempts to meet: although "by the law is the knowledge of sin." "And as many as are OF the works of the law are under a curse." If law is his principle, then he is only under a curse. "For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them."

The adding of "circumcision," which was the point at which this severely reprobated error touched the Galatians, was not in the least intended as an ostensible setting aside of the gospel, by the substitution of the law. But though they were deceived, the principle can receive no quarter. It may be only the addition of circumcision; but there is a principle involved in it which subverts the whole standing of grace - "If ye be circumcised, Christ shall  profit you nothing. Ye are fallen from grace!"

And yet this is the most natural condition into which the heart sinks that does not see - or has perhaps lost the perception of - the brightness of grace: and this on the most simple ground. For Judaism was God's own institution - his earthly institution - for maintaining intercourse with himself, on a lower ground than that of the veil being taken away. Judaism was the religion of a people at a distance from God; who, however near their priest might come, which their necessity required, had a veil between themselves and God. And whenever the heart practically loses its sense of that nearness to God to which his grace has introduced us through the eternally precious work of Christ, we naturally lapse into Judaism. Not that there may be a formal adoption of it as a system, but there is a natural adaptation in it to the heart that feels it right to be occupied about the things of God, but is not in the brightness of intercourse with God himself.

Hence the Apostle says, "When we were children we were in bondage under the elements of the world, but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying "Abba, Father." This was their place: this their altered position, through accomplished redemption, to be in communication and intercourse with God, as children with a father. And he therefore asks, "Now, after ye have known god, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, where-unto ye desire again to be in bondage?" It was the sweeping away of the whole position into which the redemption of the Son of God had brought them, to assume again the place of distance that belonged to those who were kept under the law shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

"Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." This was Judaism, no doubt; but then Judaism, it is but little imagined, was itself composed of "the rudiments (or elements) of the world."" The first covenant had ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary;" and the whole of the Jewish institution was arranged after the rudiments of the world. God had a righteous claim upon the people in the midst of this, but their religious institutions were arranged to meet their natural feelings as men. There was the beauty of the tabernacle and the costliness of the temple: - the gold and silver and precious stones; the silver trumpets on their feast days, and the magnificent garments of their priests, all which are now maintained by royalty and are to be found in palaces and courts, while their festive periods of commemoration are still found in the anniversaries of the world.

And it is this which gives it such a hold on our nature, and accounts for the universality of its prevalence, in conjunction with the profession of Christianity. It puts God at a distance, while it occupies the mind with religion, and sanctions the principles and elements of the world. "The way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing." God's presence could not then be reached. The veil was untaken away; and all that could be said of this array of services was, that they were carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. And hence the severity of that word," After that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements to which ye desire again to be in bondage?" "If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances?" The cross leaves no place for the elements of the world! "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Death and resurrection, in Christ, alike leave Judaism and Gentilism amongst the "rudiments of the world;" while they introduce into the blessed knowledge and presence of God, and leave nothing to be rejoiced in, or to be desired, but "the hope of the glory of God."

Many other things in this epistle are worthy of note, but my object is not to give an exposition. In verse 15, 16, of chapter 1, "When it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen: immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood," we get the whole principle of the Apostle's course and ministry. And this it was that also led him to say, "of those who seemed to be somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person." His only object and concern, was, "that the truth of the gospel might continue with them." And if the course of Peter even is opposed to this, he meets an uncourtly and open rebuke; and his, and Barnabas's dissimulation is as plainly censured, as when he says to his own converts, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth!"

It is this which fired him at the attempt to remove them "from the grace of Christ, into another gospel," and makes him say "I would they were even cut off who trouble you;" and at the close of the epistle to expose the hollowness of the wretched teaching of those principles, the destructiveness of which he had through the epistle so solemnly denounced - "as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they, themselves, who are circumcised, keep the law; hut desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh." - "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" - a new creation! If the cross brings inside the veil, - which it does, it at the same time, puts outside the world. God's "new creation" can combine with none of the elements of the old. The blood of the sin-offering, which brought the High-Priest within the veil, left the victim to be burnt outside the camp. "Jesus, that he might sanctify the people, suffered without the gate." The very thing which brings nigh to God, is that which entirely separates from the world!

Would that against all these attempts of the enemy to subvert the grace of the gospel, we had the faith to say, "From henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear in my body the marks (Greek stigmata) of the Lord Jesus!" But alas! where is now the sensibility of heart to Christ, which causes the blush to mantle on the cheek, and the soul to be filled with indignation, at any attempted admixture of law and grace, which is but the subversion of the gospel. Where is to be found the exhibition of that word - "the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up?"

Alas! in a day when faith is low, large scope is left for the reasonings of the natural mind; and often the surest resting-places of the soul are treated as points of debate. What is divinely taught is firmly held; but even the truth of God, gathered by human deduction, never rises to the point of faith. The ground of so many questionings amongst God's children, is, that there is so little faith. Faith settles the soul in the truth, and keeps it in the presence of God. And the reason why known truth is so feebly held, is, that there is so little faith, and consequently so little of God. The certainty of faith seems like dogmatism to the man of reason; and appears like the claim to a special revelation to the Christian whose habit is to gather his conclusions by a rational process, instead of by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. We allow a license to the "lusts of the mind," which we should not dare to do in the "lusts of the flesh:" But it is not the actions only, but every thought that should be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

(Present Testimony 1 (1849), p. 375-386. The authorship of Darby is not completely certain.)

Concerning the Near Appearing

or Presence of False Prophets

.

1 John 4: 1-6.

This little treatise is addressed to those who not only know Jesus to be a Saviour, but who know Him as their Lord, to whom their allegiance and obedience is due. Happy those who look wholly to His good pleasure as their Lord. They ought also to know that this is a time when allegiance to Him will be put to the test. It will be quite a different proof than heretofore, because Satan will deceive with far more deceivableness than heretofore. The deception will begin with unbelief in the Lordship of Jesus, and by insubjection to it; and in speaking therefore of the world and not of heavenly things, but perhaps often commending what is earthily religious, and thus enhancing the deceit. One can hardly believe that it is not already the case, and they are not in themselves so apparent, as not to require that the spirit by which they speak should not be tried by you, that you be not misled. We are desired to try the spirits, to bring them to proof by the works of the prophets who speak by these spirits. 1st. They must be proved by their works, and their works are not holding Jesus to be come in the flesh, and therefore immediate Lord over all men; and, 2ndly, speaking of the world. These are two very simple things, so there is no need that simple men should be deceived; it is the want of knowing Jesus as Lord that may lead even the elect into danger. Obedience to Jesus as Lord will disown what He disowns - will make a good confession of the hope. He has left, and will worship according to the power of that Spirit, that is of Him and the Father. We must not suppose, that having the spirit of antichrist is to make those, who by this spirit, speak of the world and its hopes, like men possessed so as to act violently and madly; they would in this case be quickly suspected or disregarded; but these require to be tested in the knowledge of God and of Christ, because they soberly lead from God and His obedience. Persons would gain no credit, and that their master knows, if they were to proclaim principles that would shock mankind. In order to persuade men, they must propose some advantage, something that does honour to mankind and not dishonour, and no one is taught in the honour and reward of obedience to Christ. A condition that would need forgiveness of God they would repudiate. They will say that man in his own honour and dignity, and educated therein, has a true nobility; that death is no judgment of God; and if they acknowledge a continuance of existence after death (not a restoration of the dead to life by the power of God), it is to their own honour, and the extension of the self-importance with which they have dignified themselves. With a future life, however, they trouble themselves but little. The mark given in addition to the denial of Christ come in the flesh is, that they speak of the world, and the world heareth them. What is now more common than these two marks? God warns us now against these. Against the world He has already warned us. The world perisheth, and the works thereof; and the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life are of the world, and not of the Father. The world will be judged and the works thereof, but of this those that scoff are willingly ignorant. They have known it, or at least have heard the testimony and rejected it. No one can get rid of the judgments that God has appointed by His word. Disbelief does not alter the truth of any thing. What is, is; and what shall be, shall be. Man does not make any thing untrue by his disbelief. So nothing that is false can be made true because I am deceived by it, even if it were to my ruin; nor do my convictions make any thing true, nor bind God in His judgments, or else my judgment would bind God. Men deceived by themselves are easily deceived by others who prophesy according to the blindness of the people; and who is so foolish as to think, that a man thinking he sees, or that he has a true mental apprehension of a thing will make it certain? God is never moved from His throne, and He will be justified in the day when all things will be judged; and if my affections are with God, I say, "Let God be true, though all be liars." Now God has revealed the resurrection of all men, and they will stand just as they now are to be tried in their present capacity of conscience, by His presence and not by their own thoughts; and their judgment will be final and righteously so, for God has not failed to make known His goodness by His word. A true prophet believes that Jesus Christ has appeared in the flesh, and will come to blessing or judgment. Such a one therefore speaks of things to come; he speaks of the peace made by blood, and that God has loved, receives men for the sake of His Son whom He has given.

Now false prophets are in this Scripture prophesied of; they prophesy false things, and the reverse of God's judgment of the world. They will speak of the capacities of it and its greatness; of the perfectibility of man, and of the world's institutions becoming his noble condition, and the world heareth them. How quickly are the ears of man caught by the false evangelist, or these inspired pretenders! How Christ's coming to judgment, and as Lord over the world would be scorned, though the price was paid for his deliverance from Satan in body and soul, as well as that for other men!

It is quite true, that at present some men have not gone as far as others in the denial of the Lordship of Jesus, but their words and position are in a strange contradiction one to the other. Religion is not yet always rejected by those who listen to the false prophets, but few would listen, did any do more than accidentally speak of it. Man was so formed of God, that some acknowledgment of Him is natural, and necessary to him as a right condition of his existence. Wholly to reject is to denaturalise himself; but they do not acknowledge a Lordship in Jesus, and the world heareth them. Politics, as we daily know them, are an unbelief of the Lord as Lord. Man as man, sufficient to himself, is the ground of their doctrine; and as the Egyptian said of his river, "The river is mine own, I have made it for myself." It is a simple character to try them by, and it seems a sweeping judgment; but God judgeth all things in truth, and giveth a simple rule to judge by, and all that is not in Christ will be found not of Him. A false prophet is one not confessing Jesus, and their word is about the world independently of God, and the world gives them heed; these are they that speak by the spirit of antichrist. The apostle says many false prophets are gone out into the world. If any man knows the true extent of the call that God has made by the apostle, and by those who follow the truth he delivers, he listeneth not to such at all.

Now the spirits and prophets that speak by them are prophesied of; and because they do the reverse of what true prophets do, they are false prophets, and they are spoken of as to appear in these latter times, when all things are hastening to the time of God's interference in the world by His judgments against the rebellious; and the spirit is called the spirit of antichrist, because it is set against the Lordship of Jesus over the world, and will fully exist in antichrist when he is manifested. Those that are of God overcome the seduction and turn away, because they have a spirit in them that is greater than the spirit that is in the false prophets. But let us not conceal from ourselves how plain the distinction is made by the Word of God between one spirit and the other. Nor let us think less of the grace of God to man in Christ, or to ourselves who believe, for Christ is made of God to us, "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption"; we are possessors of Christ, and own the Lord of whose glory we are partakers, but separate by a clear undeniable separateness from all the false prophets speak of. "Come out and be ye separate, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord God Almighty." Doing good to all men, and loving one another for God and for our hope's sake, and our works will be owned of Him when He shall come, and they shall be judged for all "the hard speeches they have spoken against Him."

It is unbelief in us to have any thing to say to any of these matters. We return as the dog to his vomit when we do so. We must not be deceived by words of honour and of noble sentiments. When men do well to themselves, men will speak well of them, as is said in Psalm 49. Your rule is, "Whom the Lord commendeth;" but for us they are condemned, though we confess ourselves always sinners saved by grace. The Lord cometh to judgment.

But if the spirit of anti-Christ is at work, the same will produce a false prophet far above the rest. How wise is the arch-enemy! Will he let the world see this all at once? None were ever wicked at once. No man ever gained his fellow-men by proposing a thing as evil, but as good; but you have here, in the description of the false prophets and their works, the sure marks of the beginning; and they lead surely to the end. Those we speak of speak of the world, and the world heareth them. Men, again, now perhaps dispute about religion, and about this or that being the right one. God says, "True religion, and undefiled before God and the Father, is to keep yourself unspotted from the world;" and His commandments are to believe on the Son of God, and to love one another in this faith. Now, beloved, everything is slipping from its place. Everything that is not founded on Christ and His word, and to the exclusion of everything else, will soon be in the enemy's camp. Take with you a single eye, and your whole body shall be full of light; otherwise you will slip away into the dominion of evil, and at last of Satan. Do not be deceived by the name of religion. The weak, the crucified One, is the power of God unto salvation. It is a matter of faith and of holding fast. Disbelieve the false prophets. Believe God, and the devil will flee from thee, and thyself be left to the rejoicing of hope, and to you belong rest (with those that have from the first declared the salvation of God) when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, and you, perfected by trial, because you hold fast; they who have troubled you, righteously receiving tribulation, and punished with everlasting destruction from that presence which is become yours in joy for evermore. Let us now be fain to pluck out of destruction those in whom we discover that God yet keeps a conscience to the Lord alive in their breasts.

This then is the present state of things, or one we shall see presently accomplished; but there will be a great FALSE prophet. The power he will receive of Satan will be very great: his business will be to commend him to whom Satan will give his power and throne and great authority, by the permission of God; and the great false prophet will commend him to mankind by signs and wonders, and miracles, and fire from heaven, to cause men to obey him whom Satan has set up, as the glory and boast of man.

It is one fashion of the unbelief of the present day to deny the existence of Satan, the adversary. There can be no greater cause of any falling into his toils, because when miracles and wonders are now done they will be ascribed to God, and thus they will give credit to Satan and be deceived. But Scripture (and a sad woeful sign of the power of Satan is it when the Scripture is kept from the hands of the people) is express on the subject, that as miracles were performed at the beginning of Christianity, that the miracles at the close of the dispensation will be from the Evil One, and not from God. Such then will have no eyes to discover the deceit, but wonder and worship. This false prophet will without doubt find his representatives, who by the same deceit will commend the same lie to those that are subject to them and not to God; and indeed, all those whose names are not written in the book of life through faith of the Son of God. And it is a sure word, that Christianity falls not into forget-fulness or into the ignorance of heathenism again, but is apostate from God in the fulness of human intelligence and in hatred of Christ.

The false prophet will receive his doom with the great king and power who is yet to be manifested, as we learn from the Apocalypse, Rev. 19: 20, and other places of Scripture in the New and Old Testament. If you will compare this with Rev. 13: 10, the description of his working miracles to deceive is the same as in Rev. 19: 20. The false prophet in Rev. 13: 10, has the character of a worldly power; this he apparently loses, before he is finally destroyed. It is not said that the prophets mentioned in the text at the head of this tract do any miracles - their task is more ordinary: their character is, that they do not confess the coming of Christ as man, and they say, "Who is Lord over us?" - and they speak of the world, and may be, its religion too. But the time comes; the world, through hearing of them, is ripe in the deceivableness of unrighteousness to fall into the last snare of the enemy; and the great false prophet, and those who are connected with him, will bring men into the last measure of deception and rebellion against the Lord. The time is not afar off. The signs of the last times abound on every side. It is written, that in the last times false prophets shall come on the earth, and speak by the spirit of anti-Christ. And this is written to warn and quicken you who confess the Lord, that you be not also deceived.

(Present Testimony 2 (1850), p. 40 - 46. The authorship of Darby is not completely certain.)

The Worthiness of the Lamb

Revelation 5.

"And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living-ones and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." - Rev. 5: 11, 12.

rich and blessed as are the associations in the mind of every saint of God connected with Christ's title of "the Lamb" it may be questioned whether that which stamps it, in the mind of Heaven, with its peculiar significance, has, so fully as it ought, its place and bearing in the soul. The emphatic exclamation of the Baptist, "Behold the Lamb of God!" indicates the grace and beauty and lowly virtues of Him who bears this name, and marks His title to the adoring worship of our hearts. But this title, as borne by the same blessed One, on high, unfolded in the book of Revelation, brings us associated with other glories and other scenes than those that, it is likely, met the holy musings of John, when he gazed on the blessed Jesus walking by the banks of Jordan, and said, "Behold the Lamb of God"

This title, familiar as it is to our hearts, is almost exclusively connected with the book of Revelation; and is unquestionably designed to indicate the special character in which the bearer of it is there presented. The observance of this may present no unuseful key to the understanding of that wondrous book, which may be "called the book of the rights of the Lamb·" for, certainly, it may be affirmed, that the whole of the details and principles of the prophetic part of it are knit up with this title; while, on its first occurrence in the book, we see heaven, earth, and all redeemed creation, roused by it in joy to accord to Him who bears it, this seven-fold ascription of praise: "saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." He alone is declared worthy to receive the whole tribute of the universe and to become the centre of its universal praise.

There is, doubtless, a marked difference in the presentation of "the Lamb slain" in this book, and in his presentation by the same title in John 1: 29, 36, the only other place in scripture in which as a title it occurs.*

*Nowhere else, indeed, is the exact expression; for in John 1: 29, 36, it is "ho amnos" but in the Revelation throughout, it is "to arnion" Acts 8: 32, and 1 Peter 1: 19, are comparisons, expressive of a blessed moral truth, but not applied by way of title.{Original remark}

In the expressions of John, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!" we see the person of the Lord Jesus, as God's Lamb, presented to the aye of faith, as the substantiation of all that had been prefigured in the way of atonement. He is here pointed out as the full and perfect provision of God for man's need as a sinner, and the only basis on which the mercy of a holy God can restore the guilt-stricken and polluted to his presence. This, there can be no doubt, was the immediate bearing of John's pointing to Jesus, as "the Lamb of God." But in the breadth of the terms, "that taketh away the sin of the world" it seems as if the Spirit would lead us on beyond the speciality of individual redemption, to the ultimate purpose of the manifestation of the Son of God - in the destruction of the works of the devil - to that point in the counsels of God, in which the blessed stream of redemption reaches its limit; and creation, brought back from subjection "to vanity," is again made capable of receiving and reflecting back the rays of its Creator's goodness and glory, rejoicing in "the glorious liberty of the sons of God."

The Lamb slain in sacrifice, from Abel downward, had declared on the part of the righteous holiness of God, that "Without shedding of blood is no remission;" and on the part of the love of God, the spotlessness of the victim and its being as a burnt offering "A sweet savour unto the Lord," declared as fully His delight in the perfectness of Jesus - that "Lamb without blemish and without spot" - and of His satisfaction in His wondrous, perfected, atoning work. "Christ hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savour." "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." But in the Revelation, the "Lamb slain" is not presented so much as God's provision of love to meet a sinner's need, or as the perfect Doer of His Father's will, as He is shown, by His rejection and suffering on earth, to have gained a title in heaven to universal homage, and to be the holder of universal power. In the revelations of God to His church, things in reference to Jesus have passed beyond the limit of grace and atonement now; and we are called to contemplate what are the righteous claims of this suffering and rejected victim, as recognised on high. It is true that the heart of a saint knows Him still as "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." The cross abides still in all its wondrous mystery of love, as the attractive point of mercy to meet a sinner's heart. "Pentecost," as the pledge and seal of the resurrection and ascension-glory of the church's Head, tells, by the presence of the abiding "Comforter," of present union, and of coming glory as the portion of the church. But beyond what the gospels reveal of incarnation and suffering; and the epistles unfold of grace untold, flowing down as the church's present portion, from her head in glory, and presenting the brightness of her hope in being "for ever with the Lord," - we have, in this book, the lifting up of a curtain, and showing things beyond the Spirit's direct testimony in the church. First, Jesus is shown in the position of rebuke and chastening, through the hour of the church's decadence, as His witness in the world, until rejection comes of that which was wholly unworthy of His care. And then, in the prophetic part, it is not so much the Spirit down here testifying of Christ, as seen on high, in close connection with "the Lamb," who is in the midst of the throne; and as the spirit of prophecy telling indeed of the progress of things here on earth; but that not so much in regard to the events themselves, as in connection with heavenly counsels, which result in the vindication of the claims of "the Lamb." The progress of evil is noticed; but it is noticed only as giving occasion to the introduction of the hand of power by which "the mystery of God" is finished. The opening of the seals, and the sounding of the trumpets, and the pouring out of the vials - whatever may be their effects on earth - have for their one central object, either the declaration or the enforcing by the hand of Divine Power, of the claims of the Lamb. It is, in a word, the blessed accomplishment, in power, of that word in Philippians, "He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is lord, to the glory of God the Father." Though there is this difference in the aspect in which this result of the Lord's humiliation and death are presented - here it is the reward of Christ's perfect obedience to the Father's will. In the revelation it is the vindication, on the part of God, of the claims of Him, who, as to man, had been but a suffering victim - "led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearers, so He opened not His mouth." Therefore, necessarily, judgment, in this vindication, falls on the world that had inflicted His injuries, and still resists His claims. The most cursory study of the book of Revelation must teach us that its object is not so much to unfold the character and fruits of redemption in relation to those who are its happy subjects, as to present the rights and claims of Him by whom redemption was, in "the travail of His soul," accomplished - His right, through redemption, to "inherit all things." And therefore it is, throughout, that Christ, as "the Lamb," in the midst of the throne, and the actings of the throne itself, are in connection with the earth and creation, rather than directly with the church. The fifth chapter, in which this worthiness of the Lamb is proclaimed, appears to give the entire outline of the prophetic part of the book. Nothing, as it seems, in accomplishment, can go beyond this. Heaven, earth, and all redeemed creation, in this anticipative song, recognise the full claims of Christ's mediatorial glory, as the "Lamb that was slain;" and, in accomplishment, we are brought by it down to the point, "When He shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power;" and when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father. "Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."

In the challenge which brings the Lamb upon the scene, however symbolic the action, there seems to be but little difficulty in ascertaining the simple truth conveyed. The question - "Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?" is designed to present, in strong relief, and in contrast with the hopelessness that springs from all besides, the worthiness and the power of Christ to enter into, and declare the whole mystery of God concerning the course of evil in this world, and its final redemption from its power. And more than this, to show, on whose behalf it is, and on account of whose worthiness it is, that Creation shall be delivered from the thrall of Satan, and the tribute of its praise be restored to Him whose right it is.

"No man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon." The redemption of God's inheritance from the power of Satan, is no work for man. Neither is it in the creature's power to declare through what appliances of power and wisdom the whole craft and power of Satan should be set aside. But there is one and one only found, to accept this challenge; and thus is relieved the oppressive sorrow that hung upon the prophet's heart. "I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon; and one of the Elders saith unto me, Weep not; behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

"And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four living ones, and in the midst of the Elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne." Here the mystery is solved. In redemption Christ has obtained a title to be the whole creation's lord, as well as the church's blessed Head. As the suffering, meek, and unresisting Victim, Heaven accords to Him the title to universal power and praise. Already - though hidden in the throne - He is manifested to the eye of faith, as being possessed of the perfection of power - "having seven horns" - and also of the controlling, all-pervading energy of God's universal Spirit - "having seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth." Here, therefore, there is One equal to solve this problem; unsolvable by all besides; and to accept a challenge that must be declined by all besides. For who can undertake to save the rights of the eternal God, and to bring back a sin-stained universe to His favour? And who can expel the power of evil by which the scattering and dissevering from God of His creation had been achieved? Before this can be, sin must be atoned, and death undone, and Satan bound. But all this power and worthiness is found in Him who was David's Son and David's Lord. "The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." In death, this title of Redeemer has been sealed as the Lamb's; and in redemption-power will all God's glory, in connection with the creature, eventually stand. The tribute of the universe must be paid alone to Him, who to the death asserted the glory of God in a world of evil; and who, in the administration of the affluence of His power and glory, will turn every stream of creature-good back to the Creator's praise.

Happy is it for the saint, thus instructed in the mind of heaven, to rest in the love and grace of Him who is in the midst of the throne; and happier still, in seeking now to uphold the honour of His name, to count on His power alone, who has the "seven horns and the seven eyes." For how surely is His power and grace directed to sustain the heart that counts on His goodness in seeking in a world of evil to do His will. Soon that power, which now secretly sustains, controls, and overrules, amidst the confusion of Satan's power, will be openly displayed. And how is the heart's joy augmented by the thought, that then the worthiness of the Lamb will not be a secret carried feebly in the bosom of the saint, and contradicted and gainsaid on every hand besides; but evil being removed by the hand of Power, every eye shall gaze upon His beauty, and every heart shall own His claims, and every voice re-echo His worthy praise! And Oh how soon will this bright scene of glory burst upon our dim anticipations! "We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." "And He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly." But there is another side of the picture. Heaven's counsels about the Lamb, alas! are fraught alone with sorrow for great Babylon in her luxurious glory, and for the thoughtless dwellers on the earth! When power Divine shall be put forth to vindicate the claims of earth's rejected Victim, what but dismay and displacement can be the result to those who despise His name, and will at last be found in martial array to resist His claims. "These shall make war with the lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for He is King of kings, and Lord of lords!" But before this hour arrives what a picture of the world's dismay does the Lamb's opening of the sixth seal present! "And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

It would be too wide a field, to comment in succession on each instance in this book in which, in different aspects and varied connections, we are brought into contact with the Lamb. In tracing through, from the fifth chapter to the end, "the Lamb" is ever in the ascendancy.

The song of Heaven is, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain" (Rev. 5: 6-13.) It is from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, that the men of this world seek to hide themselves in fear (Rev. 6: 15, 16). The palm-bearing multitude, before the throne, have "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Rev. 7: 9-14). It is the Lamb that feeds them and leads them (as a shepherd) "to living fountains of waters" (Rev. 7: 17). It is the blood of the Lamb that answers all the accusations of Satan, as the accuser of the brethren day and night, on high (Rev. 12: 10, 11). It is in the book of life of the Lamb slain, that the names of the faithful are found written amidst the corruptions of the beast (Rev. 13: 8). It is the Lamb, also, on Mount Zion with the sealed-ones, whose honour and privilege it is, to "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth" (Rev. 14: 1-4). Again, whoever worships the beast or his image, and receives his mark in his forehead or in his hand, will be tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb (Rev. 14: 9, 10). It is the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb, that is sung with the "harps of God," by those who, in victory over the beast, stand on "the sea of glass" (Rev. 15: 2-4). It is against the Lamb, that the beast and the ten kings make war; and the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is "King of kings, and Lord of lords" (Rev. 17: 12-14). It is the marriage of the Lamb, that strikes the note of joy in heaven; and to be called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, is the mark of honour and blessing then (Rev. 19: 7-9). And, after the seals are loosed, and the trumpets are blown, and the vials poured out, when Satan is bound and the clangour of earth's judgment is hushed, it is "the bride the Lamb's wife,'' that is the wondrously glorious spectacle on which the Apostle is called to gaze (Rev. 21: 9). They are the twelve apostles of the Lamb, whose names are in the twelve foundations of the "holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God" (Rev. 21: 14). Of this city the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple, and "the Lamb is the light thereof" (Rev. 21: 22, 23). There is to be no inhabitant in this glorious city "whose name is not written in the Lamb's book of life" (Rev. 21: 27). And, onwards, "the river of the water of life" flows out of "the throne of God and the Lamb" (Rev. 22: 1). And finally, there is to be no more curse, because the throne of God and of the Lamb are to be there (Rev. 22: 3, 4, 5).

These are but brief and desultory notices of the wondrous character and claims of Him who in heaven is seen as "the Lamb." A suffering victim here on earth, now hid for a season in heaven, but about to be brought forth in full investiture of heaven's glory; and in vindication of His claims, no place to be allowed for any that refuse to bow in homage to His name, "I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the living-ones, and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." The scattering and confusion, and sorrow, and death, that sin has brought into the universe of God, admit of no remedy but in redemption. And accordingly the Lamb's title to the glory and praise of restored creation is founded in this. "They sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof; for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood.'' This estimate of Heaven of the Lamb's worthiness and the preparations on high to enforce His claims, cast a dreadful shadow over the ease, and glory, and power, and security of the world! "Redemption" - alas! the world knows not the meaning of the word! And as to "the Lamb" its whole peace hangs only on the abeyance of His claims!

While the main subject of this book is the presentation and enforcement of the claims of Christ to universal homage, and to universal power, as the suffering Lamb, there is that which gleams forth, as it were incidentally in the vindication of His glory. Far away from the scene of conflict, and before the Lamb comes forth sitting on "the white horse," as "King of kings, and Lord of lords, in righteousness to judge and to make war," there is seen in the peaceful courts of heaven, "the marriage of the Lamb" and, it is added "his wife hath made herself ready!" For his glory cannot be asserted, and another not be with him in the scene. That "we may be glorified together" is the strange word of scripture! The joy must begin on high, before the glory is displayed below. From heaven the Lamb comes forth to redeem the inheritance, and to take possession of His glory; and "when Christ who is our life shall appear, we shall appear with Him in glory."

And how does this teach the heart of one who knows the espousal of the church to Christ, how little it has to do with all the busy aims of men; and how little reason it has to covet the world's wisdom, power, or glory, which are but the usurped rights of Christ; while another Lord and Prince is owned. It is not the earth in the power of redemption yet, and yielding its willing homage to the Lamb; but it is the world which made the Lamb a suffering Victim, and still retains its opposition to His claims.

(Present Testimony 2 (1850), p. 246 - 255. The authorship of Darby is not completely certain.)

_____________

How sweet it is to look to the end of our weary way - and what an end - "the home of the Lord"! and that "for ever"! Surely "goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." Can any thing be sweeter, goodness and mercy now, the house of the Lord hereafter?

(Present Testimony 1 (1849), p. 460. The authorship of Darby is not completely certain.)

The Lord's Host

Ephesians 6: 10-18.

J. N. Darby.

Food for the Flock 1 (1874), p. 39 - 46.

It is a little strange that conflict has such a prominent position given to it in this epistle. We find here the fullest unfoldings of our position and we get the walk of the Christian drawn from these; but here also it is that especially we are found to be in conflict, and are called upon to take on us "the whole armour of God." Indeed such a conflict as this is never got into until we know our privileges. In Galatians we have conflict, but not the privileges of the Church; it is not the same thing as what we find here; of course the flesh is not the same thing as wicked spirits. Take the saints out of the world, make them vessels meet for the Master's service, and that is the very reason they get into the conflict. If we stand in the place of privilege - every Christian stands in it of course - but if we have got hold of this place we must get into the conflict. In fact, as the apostle says, If you cross the Jordan you must meet the Canaanite and the Perizzite. Wilderness exercise - means of discovering what is in our hearts - all of us know something of; but it is when we have got into the land that we get into the conflict.

We have "died with Him," which is just what Jordan is, and are "made to sit together in heavenly places with Christ." It is the place of every Christian, but many a one does not realize it. Many a one is thinking whether he is not yet in Egypt, and is looking at the blood. But in the Red Sea I get the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; the judgment which has fallen upon the Egyptians has saved me; I "believe in God by Him who has raised Him up from the dead and given Him glory." Just as I was driven out of an earthly Paradise because of sin - of course by I, I mean every poor sinner in Adam - so I am raised up and put into an heavenly Paradise because of righteousness. Passing through the wilderness we have exercises of heart - we have the manna - Christ come down from heaven to feed us; we have the water from the rock - all most useful, that He may do us good in our latter end. Well, then, we come to Jordan, and then we pass death, so to say, and the land is ours - we eat the old corn of the land.

You get the two places, the wilderness and the land, all through this epistle. He sets us there in our place - of course we are here in our bodies - but, you come to the fact, the Canaanite is here. We have our place in Him, but His enemies are not yet put under His feet. The effect is to put us into conflict. You will hear people talk of Jordan being death, and Canaan being heaven; but it never strikes them when they thus talk of Canaan and death that what characterizes the land is conflict.

Now as to those who enter the land they are so completely the Lord's, that He uses them for conflict against His enemies. How can they fight the Lord's battles if they are in the flesh? So if we are to have some one successful in these battles we must have some one who is practically dead. See how the Apostle fought them; he kept all that was of Paul completely down, so that nothing of Paul appeared; he always bore about in His body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in his mortal body. A man that is dead and risen again, what has he to do with this world? Associated with the Lord in those heavenly places we are the witness and testimony of what He is there.

Now if you are seeking to maintain the saints in this place, do you think Satan will let you alone? So we get this instruction about putting on the whole armour of God; the moment we get into this place He says to us, You will not get through this in the flesh; you will have to put on the whole armour of God, for you "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth."

In looking at these parts of the armour we may notice that we get first the subjective parts; that is to say, our state comes first, and then comes the activity. There is no divine activity until God has been divinely active with us. The loins must be girded up; the power of truth applied to everything in the heart. God has sent into the midst of this world all the thoughts that can bless man. Christ was the Light of the world, and he brought out everything that was in it. He comes and brings all that is divine and heavenly in a man right into contact with all that is wrong in man. Some people think now that the world is a very fine thing! People fancy that in the cross Satan has been done away with! Why he was never called the prince of this world until after the cross. The truth came into the world, that is Christ Himself, the Truth of God now revealed in the Testament, is brought right into men's hearts. Well, when it is effectually applied I get the girdle of truth about my loins - my heart well tucked up. In this kind of conflict in order to be able to meet Satan, the first thing of all is, that my heart be entirely subject to a heavenly word. He has brought this heavenly truth to bear upon me, it says, Is this heavenly in your heart? I get in this revelation of Christ, my loins girt about with truth; I get my heart into a strengthened, steadfast state; and • whenever I get into this state there is conflict. But the soul goes naturally on; the man's condition is the effect of truth; the affections are right; the heart is in the truth.

" And having on the breast-plate of righteousness." Beloved friends, all this is practical. It is not righteousness with God. I do not want armour against God. But if I am going to preach Christ, and one can say of me, Why, here is a man preaching who is worse than his neighbours, Satan will take hold of it immediately. We must have on the breast-plate of righteousness, the soul and walk all right.

Next, my feet are to be "shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace." Selfishness will always be a contending thing; it says, I must maintain my rights. But the Christian carries peace, because he has peace within; he carries through the world the spirit and character of Christ. He had his loins girt about with truth, of course, perfectly; He had on the breast-plate of righteousness perfectly; so He could walk through this world, through every thing, passing on in perfect peace. A man can thus walk untouched through everything that they can bring against him; his feet are shod.

Now that I have got all subjectively right, as they say, I can take up "the shield of faith." The existence of a sinful nature does not give a bad conscience, but it is when we yield to it that we get a bad conscience, and that is why we are told to confess our sins, not our sin. When the heart is right in the first three pieces we can take up the shield of faith. When we "walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." There is blessed confidence in God. Satan may do what he can; he may lurk in secret places, - he cannot break through my shield of faith. He has done his best to seduce, his worst to dismay: a Man in His standing for us has completely overcome him. Therefore it is, "resist the devil, and he will flee from you," not overcome him; if he is once honestly resisted he has met Christ in us, and at once he runs away; he never can get through confidence in God; the shield of faith is up, and he can do nothing.

So, beloved friends, you find it is the defensive armour that comes first, and the state of the soul. Many a one has got into activity without knowing himself; but with this "helmet of salvation" on he can hold his head up, he knows that salvation is his, and that on to the glory is his portion. He is a man in Christ, - all that is a settled thing, - and now he takes "the sword of the Spirit," he can set about the fight. The first great thing, if we are to be active in the service of the Lord, is that we are to be perfectly right "with the Lord. The apostle was always self-judging. It is the man who has the secret of the Lord in power in his own soul who can go out in service. He will not be amazed and distracted with half-a-dozen thoughts. - he has the secret of the Lord.

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." These two have been always running through together, ever since the time of Mary. She sat at Jesus' feet and heard His words, - the word of God and prayer. The moment I get to apprehend that the conflict is against Satan and the wiles of Satan, I find that half the battle has to be carried on with God. Look at the Lord Himself. We find Him in Gethsemane earnestly praying, earnestly praying; and then, when it came, He was perfectly calm; whilst Peter, who was sleeping, cursed and swore he did not know Him, the Lord witnessed a good confession. This earnestness and supplication is from being in God's interests in the world. People have a fancy that an apostle would go sailing over everything. When Paul was at Corinth he was there "in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling."

The blessed Lord went down to where we were, - made sin for ourselves in the lower parts of the earth, - all Satan's power against him; then when He ascended up on high He led captivity captive. He takes us so entirely out of the hands of the enemy that He sets us in a place where we have the same interests as Christ, - the same interests as Christ, - a most blessed place, if we only have the power to hold it. But the more you are in the fore-front of the battle, the more you are exposed to the fiery darts; if anyone lags behind he will keep out of it. There is no place calls for more dependence on Christ than when we are in the fore-front of the battle. This leads us to this constant, unceasing dependence, when the apostle leaves figure altogether; it is "praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." Now let me ask you this, Do you find you can intercede much for all saints? I find nothing tests the state of my own soul more than this. Of course, I can pray for myself; if not I shall have a fall. But am I so walking in fellowship with God that I can be in continued intercession for all saints? If I get into God's presence and find myself not right in the light, of course I begin to think about myself, and rightly too, and there is an end to intercession.

Well, beloved, it is so far this armour of God that I am to keep on while I am here; when I have passed the Jordan, and the reproach of this world is rolled away, I can be in the Lord's host. It is the wiles of Satan that we have to fear; it is not learning, - it is not human wisdom. Satan is a great deal more clever than that; he will let a person be as orthodox as you like, but the moment redemption is believed in, the power of superstition is gone. When redemption is really known, all the ritualists in the world will not touch me. People often say, How can such learned and wise men as these give in to Ritualism, infidelity, and such like things? Why, they forget that Satan is behind it all. Men speak of the incarnation, - of the person of the Lord very beautifully; but it is never redemption, - never that Christ has gone before God and settled the question of sin for me. Hold fast, - beloved friends, - fast hold of that precious truth that Christ has done the work, Infidelity comes and says, Where is the proof of it? I say, I know Him; I have got Him in my heart; that will not do! But the moment we get out of the conscious presence of God we are in danger.

The Lord keep us in this consciousness until the day that He shall come and take us to Himself, that where He is there we may be also.

"Love is of God," and "God is love."

1 John 4: 7-21.

J. N. Darby.

Notes of an Address.

Helps in Things concerning Himself 4 (1894), p. 92-107.

The great subject of this epistle is net the grace manifested towards us as sinners, dealing with us as such, and justifying us; but another side of Christianity, and that is, the life of Christ, "That eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us," that is, in us; and then "which thing is true in him and in you;" we live by this life of Christ. Then the apostle unfolds this life of Christ in two great principles - righteousness, practical righteousness, doing God's will and commandments - and the other, loving the brethren: just what His own life was; so when we have this life, it bears the same fruit - perfect in Him of course - still, characteristically, it is that same life of obedience and love to the brethren.

The difference between Paul and John is, that Paul speaks of man being presented to God, justified and accepted in Christ; but John has a great deal more of revealing God to man. In verse 9, he does speak of the work done for us - not in us - for he goes to the way in which it has been manifested and done. In the Gospel of John you get, first, eternal life in the Person of the blessed Son of God down here - God Himself manifested; and then, in the epistle, he goes on to the expression and re-production of this life in us. Paul is much more upon justification and acceptance - the two things we want - eternal life and acceptance with God.

This fourth chapter takes up what God is towards us in love. In speaking of the life, it goes through the whole condition of man, from the time of his utter sinfulness since he was born, to the day of judgment; and then life, and how we are brought into the blessed knowledge of what it is. The fact of having life, does not in itself enable me to say, I am perfectly accepted in the Beloved: even supposing it is really there, it does not do for righteousness before God. The effect of being quickened and having life, is to make us understand that we want righteousness. We look on ourselves, and see that this will not do for God; and if it will not do, how are you going to be accepted of Him?

The first thing is, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God;" v. 7, one of the traits of this new life, the nature only. An angel cannot understand what is passing in my mind; we must have a divine nature to know God, and if I have, I know God. An animal has the same nature as that of which it is born. There is the spirit of love in us - we are born of God, and know God, and therefore we know what love is. If I am only partaker of this divine nature, I see faults in myself, and know nothing of righteousness. When a person is quickened, he sees the difference between things, and consequently is uneasy and restless, and finds a root of evil in himself - flesh working in him - even when he has known forgiveness; for he has to learn what he is, as well as what he has done. Well, then, the apostle turns to what is not his common subject. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us." (Ver. 9.) Not a bit of what is in us, but he turns round to show what God has manifested Himself to be towards us: so he begins at man's utterly lost condition, and goes on to the day of judgment. "God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." All my Adam-life gone and judged, and another life come in, that I might live by it. God sends Him into the world that we might live through Him, and I am looked at consequently, as dead in sins. If a man is dead, there is not a movement in him towards another; and what is more, if you try to awaken it, you cannot: there is nothing spontaneous, and nothing to be awakened - and that is a sinner's natural state. Nothing in them towards God; in fact, God has tried everything - promise, law, the prophets, His Son, and the Holy Ghost - and it is all no use. And now He sends His only begotten Son, and I get another kind of life, "that we might live through him," because we were dead.

Verse 10 is entirely another thing. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Now I have my guilt met, for we were guilty in our sins; He sends His Son to make propitiation for them. I was dead, and guilty, lying in my sins, and God has thought upon me, and has been willing to spend the best and most blessed thing in heaven His own Son, that I might get life in this new way - life, when I was dead, and propitiation for my sins, that they may be all cleared away. I find Him beginning where I was, expecting nothing from me. The only time you find the Lord pronouncing a curse upon anything, was, when He came to look for fruit upon the fig-tree, and there was nothing but leaves, and He said it should never bear fruit - man is judged in his condition. Man, the thing cultivated of God, brought forth wild fruit. "Let it alone this year also." God, in Christ's ministry, so to speak, digging about it, and dunging it, but at the close of His ministry, it withered away. That was man's condition; and, having judged the Adam-life, He sends Christ, that I might live through Him.

As regards my state, He has met my whole case in Christ; God has manifested His love. But my soul wants to know this love. Well, if I look at myself, I cannot. I may say, I do think there is something in me, for I love His saints and His word; but it is sinful nature that makes me discomfited and in uncertainty, and there can be no settled peace. But here is God's love manifested towards me as guilty and dead; and the blessed Son of God came, that we might live through Him: there is nothing but evil in your heart, so He comes and brings life. Yes, I say, but I am defiled and guilty all this time. Oh, He says, I am come to be the propitiation for these sins. The blessed manifestation of God's love is, that I find what is in God's heart about me; that He has done what was needed for my state, and revealed it too. It is what is in God's heart that is my comfort, not hunting anything out in my own. I know that God has acted on His own love, and revealed this love to me, where I was in all my sins. There I get this manifestation of God's love; He knew everything that was in me, and He sent His Son to put it away - He has acted from His own heart, unasked and unsought, and sent His Son. I insist on this word "manifested," because I have it demonstrated. How do I know what is in God's heart? Because He has given His Son - the very best thing He could give. There we have the first thing in which His love is shown out, both for life and propitiation: another life, which produces what is good in me, and not what is bad; thus it comes out in love to the brethren. "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."

Verse 12. "No man hath seen God at any time." How can I know a person I have never seen? What makes this passage more striking is John 1: 18. What is the answer to it there? That the only begotten Son has declared Him. If a person wanted to know God really (divine teaching for it of course), there was Christ to reveal Him, manifesting Him in love. "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. In His place of Son, He would necessarily know God as Father, infinitely and perfectly. He who knows God in the closest affection, He has revealed Him, and He must of course tell you what He was as He knows Him. There you get the way He was presented to the world.

Now mark the difference here. "God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us" - not the love to the sinner, but the love enjoyed in the saint: it is another step on. When I see the manifestation in the midst of the world, if anybody had eyes to see, there was the Father to be seen - but here it is "God dwelleth in us," that is the way "we know," and "His love is perfected in us." Well, if I have God dwelling in me, I can see His love; the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts - what more can I ask? It is a wonderful truth, God dwelling in us.

Verse 13. "Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit." The Holy Ghost dwells in us, as Paul says to the Corinthians, even when they were going on badly. "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost," how can you go and use it for sin?

Verse 15. "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." Of course He is not speaking of hypocrites; but if there is the real confession of Christ as the Son of God, God dwells in me, and I in Him, by His Spirit. There I get the love, not manifested to the sinner, but the direct, positive enjoyment of it by the saint. It is the presence of the Holy Ghost dwelling in the believer, which distinguishes and characterises him. The working of this verse is most blessed. Supposing I find a timid soul, why, I say, God is dwelling in you - do you confess that Jesus is the Son of God? Of course I do, he says, it is my hope and joy. Then you have God dwelling in you. But see how it acts on the conscience, supposing it is a person who has known these things only in the conscience - I say, You have God dwelling in you, but how far have you thought of Him to-day? Perhaps not once; Well, is that the way you are treating God? You know the truth that God dwells in you, and yet you are not even taking the trouble to think of Him once the whole day! It rejoices the feeble soul, but on the other hand, it tests the conscience; for how have you been treating this wonderful Guest - how much have your hearts been upon Him - watching not to do anything to displease Him - but to glorify Him? How far short it puts the low idea of Christian life you are dragging through - not to scandalize the world!

That is the second way I get the love known - it is shed abroad in my heart as a saint. God has taken me up, and cleansed and adopted me, and now He comes to dwell in me: and that is the condition of every Christian, "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God." We cannot think too much of what characterises the Christian, that the Holy Ghost dwells in him.

Verse 16. "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us:" and no wonder, if He is dwelling in us. If a person asks me, How do you know that God loves you? The proof is, that He has given His Son for me when I was a sinner. But if he asks me, How do you enjoy it? Oh, by the Holy Ghost which He has given me. It is a practical point with the Christian, because I have never to grieve this Spirit. He is not uncertain about the love - he knows very well he does not live up to it, though that is no excuse; still we do fail, and often; he knows he is not all he would wish to be - but he knows God is all He could wish Him to be for him. There I get this blessed effect, "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us" - we know and understand it, divinely, through the Holy Ghost, and there is not a doubt or a cloud. If we wish to know the measure of it (for it is His love, not mine to Him), the soul walks in the consciousness of this blessed, divine favour, and the measure is, that the Father has loved us as He loved Christ.

Verse 17 is a further step, which is often a hindrance to people. It goes on to the day of judgment - to the end. "Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." There I get the Christian condition. It is a great thing to connect experience with the absoluteness of grace. A person living on experiences is always doubting; the mistake is not in having the experience, but in looking at it. You must have the experience, for something must pass in our hearts about divine things; the harm is in looking at it. The effect of the Holy Ghost working in me is to make me look at Christ: He makes me in this experience to look at Christ as my only resource. He does not set me looking into my own heart, but He shows me that Christ is the answer to all the wants my experience gives me. Faith never leads me to look at my state, but it leads me, through the operation of the Holy Ghost, to look at Christ. Wherever there is divine faith in what I believe, there is no doubt at all. For instance, if I ask a person, Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Of course I do, he says, but that is what is making me so miserable, for I never care about Him as I ought - there is the experience you see. I may reason about it, but where there is faith in exercise, I set to my seal that God is true; and if I set to my seal that God is true, I am absolutely certain. The moment I think that God has said, "This is my beloved Son," and through grace I believe it, I am divinely certain. A doubt may come into my mind about something else - how can God have me when I have gone on in such a way - but I am not doubting that He is the Son of God. The word of God is brought into my soul as true, and I set to my seal that God is true, "God that cannot lie." The prodigal was perfectly certain that there was goodness in his father's house, but he doubted whether he could have it. There was no doubt about the house, or about the goodness in the house, but when he thinks of the consequences of his sin, he begins to doubt. When he comes to his father, he does not say, "Make me as one of thy hired servants," because he is perfectly certain of his father's heart, for he is on his neck. If I say, Look what I am, I do not see how God can receive me - there comes in the doubt, but, I am certain about this other truth, that "Jesus is the Son of God."

Many a soul whose trust is in the blood of Christ, if he thinks of the judgment-seat, is not quite sure where he is. You say, the cross just suits you, but can you say you are a poor sinner, and the judgment-seat just suits you? It is another thing, and brings up this - that when God is exercising judgment, it is a question whether I can stand in that clay. If I have my sins upon me, of course I cannot, and there is uncertainty and cloud.

Well, God has thought of it for us: it is not hope in the day of judgment, but "boldness." It is always wrong to hope about the day of judgment, for this reason, that if God entered into judgment with us, it is certain condemnation. "Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified," It is true that when God works in a soul, you never get a case where there is not some hope: if He brings the light of His truth into the soul, He is light and love, so there is some revelation of love. When the prodigal was perishing, it was the recollection of the love of his father's house - though he did not know whether he could have part in it - that carried him to his father: - love that was sufficient to draw him to the very place he feared he had no right to. When God deals with the sinner, and makes him feel his sin, it is always the attraction of His love. With Peter in the boat, in Luke v., he says, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." What did he go to Him for then, if he tells Him to go away? Because his heart was drawn. We all go through that state, for there is the attraction of the love of God, and the effect of the light.

But when I look on to the day of judgment, I cannot rest on that, for it is judgment - it is righteous dealing with sin, and not love. If I have not righteousness, I cannot stand. "There is none righteous, no, not one." There always will be some hope in the soul really taught of God; but I am perfectly certain that if God deals with me in my sins, it is all over with me. I know I am a child of wrath, and I am not looking to myself to answer for my sins. You could not judge Adam when innocent; but since Adam departed from God and listened to Satan, he has turned God into a Judge who condemns him. There would be no judgment at all, if we had not departed from God. They thought Satan more kind and good than God, and turned God into a Judge by sinning, and therefore it must be condemnation. If I think in that way of judgment, I become of course, unhappy. But supposing I am "the righteousness of God" in Christ; how can I be afraid of judgment, if righteousness is the thing he is judging by? "There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear." I can say now, that when I look up to the day of judgment, there is no time that I am so clear; the ground is the cross.

But in what state shall I come before the judgment seat of Christ? Christ will come and fetch me, to have me with Him. The next thing, He will change my vile body, and fashion it like unto His glorious body. When He shall appear, He will judge the quick and dead, but I shall be like Him. The moment I have the full effect of Christ's work, I shall be perfectly like the Judge. What God has done is, first, to show us that the One who is the Saviour is the One who is to be the Judge; and besides that, I find I am in Christ - the righteousness He judges by, I am in Him. That is where we are for judgment. God has thought of me as a sinner, He has given His Son - given me life in Christ - put away my sins, and put me in Christ, and given me the Holy Ghost; and now in the day of judgment, I am as Christ is; I am like the Judge, even in my body. True, we shall all have to give account of ourselves, but we are in glory when we do.

Take another aspect of it. Paul has been eighteen hundred years in heaven with Christ - are you going to take him out of heaven to judge whether he ought to be there? Before God, "as he is, so are we in this world:" well, then of course I have boldness. Is there any good in myself? No, I have no good in me - I was totally lost, I had no hope, but God has redeemed me out of that place; Christ is my life and righteousness, and the Holy Ghost in me makes me know it, so that I enjoy it; well, as Christ is so am I. So the apostle at once gives the consequence, "There is no fear in love." (Ver. 18.) The whole world is convicted of sin, because they have rejected Christ; then I cannot look for righteousness anywhere in the world; but God has set Christ at His own right hand, and that is where I look for it now. This love of God has settled the whole thing, from the time we were dead in sins to the day of judgment.

And now mark how blessedly the effect comes in in verse 19. "We love him, because he first loved us." It does not say, we ought to love God - of course we ought - for the Spirit of God is giving us this sense of love - God's love for sinners, and enjoyment of it as saints. What a blessed thing it is that God has loved us in this way! Well, then, I love God. Supposing a child were to say to me, I love my mother quite enough! I should say, You are a wicked child, you do not love her a bit. But supposing that child came to me and said, Oh, if you only knew my mother, all her patient kindness and unwearied ways, and I am so naughty and often grieve her - well, then, I say that child loves his mother. The sense by the Holy Ghost of all this perfect love from the time we were utter sinners to the day of judgment, tells me that I am to be loving Him. This saying that God dwells in us, gives me a measure and motive for walking, which nothing else ever could give me; as to whether I am behaving myself as if God were dwelling in me; and then I find myself thus surrounded infinitely in everything, by all that God is. I am nothing compared with the space, but I know I never can get out of it, dwelling inv God who is love - He may have to chasten me; but I do not go and chasten all the little children in the street, but my child. I am in that favour which is better than life.

Do you just ask yourself, and sec whether you can, in thus putting yourself before the judgment seat of Christ, be perfectly at case? Are your hearts simply rejoicing and bright in the consciousness of the day of judgment? If there is any fear, we do not know the love of God fully. I am not afraid of God loving me too much. "If God be for us, who can be against us," and He is for us in every detail of our life, too.

The Lord give us in exercised and humbled hearts (there cannot be too much exercise) to have the sense and consciousness of divine love; the proof of it being in Christ, and the enjoyment by the Holy Ghost; and then to look up and see that He is coming to take us to be with Him. The Lord give us, as emptied of self, judged self, to find what it is to have Christ in us, and we in Christ: - to do nothing to grieve the Spirit. If we thought of God dwelling in us, how careful and watchful we should be to do nothing to displease Him.

Magazine Fragments

In reasoning with unbelievers, answer their conscience not their questions, as the Lord did when one asked Him, "Are there many that be saved?" He said, "Strive to enter in yourself."

Food for the Flock 1 (1874), p. 46.

It is much harder to believe that I am "without strength," than that I am "ungodly;" conscience tells me that I am a sinner, but I must have my will broken before I know that I have no strength.

Food for the Flock 1 (1874), p. 56.

The great thing to take hold of is that I have got a totally new state; not only that life has been given to me, but that I am raised with Christ altogether out of the place that I was in. I am not united to Christ by faith, but by the Holy Ghost. And here we get two things: "the body" - union to Christ in heaven: "the habitation," - the dwelling-place of God on earth. There is no dwelling of God with man, except upon the ground of redemption: He only visited Adam; but He dwelt with Israel. (Ex. 29.)

Source: Food for the Flock 1 (1874), p. 71.

The world is an immense system kept up by Satan to blind the eyes of men, and to keep them away from God.

Food for the Flock 1 (1874), p. 71.

The chief thing in a trial is submission; at the time of trial I may not understand it, but when I become spiritual I rejoice.

Food for the Flock 1 (1874), p. 95.

Tell me that this poor world hinders me, that the flesh hinders me, that Satan hinders me, I admit it; but that ought not to blind my eyes to what His mind and purpose ever was, and is: that He will bring us into this glory of Christ, and that He has wrought us for it already. Do not suppose for a moment that God does not mean you to have the joy of it. The moment I believe that Christ the Son of God has died for me on the cross, nothing is too great for me. The question is, What is that worth? People talk of presumption! There is nothing too great for me to expect in Christ, Do not let yourselves be persuaded that you cannot have the sense of what God gives. He would have us have "a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us."

Food for the Flock 1 (1874), p.183.

It is not only pretty morality that you want: there is the question of your responsibility to God. It is not only a matter of mending your manners, but of getting your guilt put away. We are both guilty and responsible, and at the same time enemies to God. What we are has been brought out; our enmity has been proved; and that we can hate God, shows that there is some relation between us and God.

Food for the Flock 1 (1874), p. 204.

Men will take the water of the gospel to purify Adam's children, and leave the blood on one side. But He came "Not by water only, but by water and blood;" and the blood comes out of a dead Christ - the witness of the judgment of Adam and his children, and a total breach with God.

Food for the Flock 1 (1874), p. 217.

"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." Except ye own that flesh is judged; and so it is His flesh and blood separate, for that is death.

Food for the Flock 1 (1874), p. 217.

The world could not understand Christ; but He knew the world thoroughly. He was ever mixing with everybody, but always Himself, and never of the world; and we are by rights as much strangers in it as He was. Flesh, and Satan; and the world always go together; but he was ever drawing round Him everything that was of God, and judging all that was not. If you were a great man you would get a good place in an inn, if you were a little man you would get a little place; but He got no place at all. Have your souls got the thorough conviction that you have none either? and that all that you have got to do in it is to overcome.

Even if we do not cling to the world, how it clings to us! If Christ had His place it could not. If it were last night that the Lord Jesus had been put to death by the world, would any of us be hail fellows well met with it? What matters it whether it was last night or 1800 years ago? Some are insisting on belonging to this world and to Christ too. I say you are wonderful people if you can. Christ could not. All I do is to get through it as earnestly and as fast as ever I can.

Food for the Flock 1 (1874), p. 301.

Christ comes and, in grace, dies for my sins; and, if I am quickened, I am quickened with Him, and they are all left behind and forgotten; but I am quickened, not to live to myself at all. Now you will find that will cut to the root of many and many a thing. You say: What is the harm of it? I say: Is it living to Christ? What do I find in Christ's life? Why, that He never did a single thing for Himself. "He died that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again;" carry that into everything, and, if you can say about anything, it is for myself, then it is not for Christ. Where Christ is all, as He is in all, then He is the object. The claim that He makes is not a legal claim that comes upon me, but that He died for me.

Food for the Flock 2 (1875), p. 74.

He was the loneliest Man, but the most accessible Man, because He was love itself. He does not set Himself apart in the wilderness, but in heaven, and we are with Him there; every affection and moral feeling of my heart is linked up with Him who is on the throne of God.

Food for the Flock 2 (1875), p. 89.

It is well for our souls, especially going through such a world as this, that the Father has thought of us, and the Son come to us, and the Holy Ghost been given to us, and all this not for a small thing. Can we suppose that the blessed Son of God could have given Himself for us for small blessing? It is the heart getting hold of this, the clinging to Him, that delivers from the world. It has put us into a place where the world is crucified to us and we unto the world, not by the law, but by the object that governs our hearts. God has come down into this world and put Himself close to our sins, and has presented His Son to us as an object that fixes our hearts and affections, and takes them into heaven with Himself.

Food for the Flock 2 (1875), p. 96.

God was in Christ down here, revealing Himself in Him. He was showing man in Him that the heart that had a need might trust Him with that need. All His words and miracles were to lead the heart to this, that it might trust God in love. This was in the world. When once my eyes have been opened to know He is there, as the poor woman at the well, I get to know God, and I can trust Him.

Food for the Flock 2 (1875), p. 96.

We come to God first as beggars or not at all, but, once inside, God can tell us things that do not concern us. God deigns to call us friends, and I do not only go to my friend to talk to him about business, but to tell him what I have in my heart, even if it do not concern him at all. "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" "I have called you friends."

It is not a matter of indifference to be treated by God as His friends; but we must be in the place first; when there, the Christian's heart gets an occupation that makes him grow. Our hearts want something to think of. Not only is our salvation settled, but God introduces us into a new world, where our heart is opened and enlarged by occupation with Himself until it can take in His thoughts.

Food for the Flock 2 (1875), p. 101.

What the world calls mercy (when they speak of hoping in the mercy of God) is simply indifference to good and evil; the hope that God will think as little about sin as I do.

Food for the Flock 2 (1875), p. 112.

Christ is the expression of what divine perfection is in a man going through the world.

If I look up I am perfect; if I look at myself here I am very imperfect; but still I am not of the world just as Christ is not of the world. What are we of? We are of God. We are of God in the midst of a world that is not of God; and in which now, what is religious and what is worldly are so mingled together that you cannot tell what is black or white; it is all grey. So the word has to he applied in a thousand ways to things of which the true character must be discerned.

The Spirit applies the living word to every motion of my heart. He comes and says: I delight in you, but I cannot delight in this and that. The Father's word has to be applied to everything in me - things in which will has to be broken; and, because I am going to be in the glory, I purify myself even as He is pure; I have got to keep company with Him. I am not sent into the world but in the measure in which I am able to testify for Christ. It may be but a little testimony that I am able to bear, but still that is all I am sent into it for - all that I am required to go into it for.

Food for the Flock 2 (1875), p. 132.

The whole question, abstractly I mean, of good and evil came out at the cross. All the fulness of evil, on the one hand, in the rejection of Christ; and, on the other, the infinite love of God in giving His Son, in divine righteousness withal against sin; and the same love seen in the Son giving Himself. Perfection also in man in the Son's love to the Father, and His perfect obedience. Satan's full power over man was displayed too. Everything was brought to a point in a kind of summing of it all up together. There I find all the perfect love of God, and the perfect evil of man brought out. But that is all over and done: "He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin." And then I find the second Man, in virtue of this, gone up to sit on the right hand of God.

As I look up at Christ in glory I find that He so glorified God Himself in this work, that He has put man into His own glory. I get thus my own place in Him; I give up my place as a child of Adam. Christ has been made sin for me, and all my sins are gone. But we are brought out utter sinners in heart and act. Shall I tell you why you commit sins? Because you like them! That is what you are by nature. I have altogether given up all hope, and fled to the cross. I have given up what I am. I have got all He has done.

Where is righteousness then? It is not in man; it is in God. Law and judgment are against me. Yes, but Christ has been made sin. If Christ was made sin on the cross, it is on the cross that righteousness against sin was shown. That is as to sin it was; but, when I get Christ at the right hand of God as man, there I see righteousness manifested and glorified in Him. In that which Christ did I find God perfectly glorified; as He says in the sixteenth of John: "Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more." It is part of God's righteousness to put me into glory - the glory of Christ - because Christ has earned me for Himself by giving Himself for me; and has earned the glory for me. He would not have the travail of His soul, and be satisfied, if He had not got me. He is sitting there at the right hand of God in virtue of what He has done for me, and I am in Him; and, if in Him, then I am in the righteousness of God. Sins looked at as my responsibility are gone, and, as the apostle triumphantly reasons: "Who is he that condemneth?" How can you condemn what is in Christ? All that He has done for me, and has shown me the glory and the blessedness of my place, that it is not in Adam but in Christ, consequent on all that the second Man has done for me - made sin for me that I might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

It is because of the full efficacy of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the Holy Ghost has been sent down to me. God has wrought me for the self same thing; and, if I say, How can 1 be sure that I shall be there? my answer is, Because it is the effect of what Christ has done. The day of judgment would have referred to what I have done. My place now is the effect ox what Christ has done. If I am a new creature I am made the righteousness of God in Christ God has wrought me for that; it was His mind, His thought, His intention, and He has given me the earnest of the Spirit.

Never rest without the consciousness in your soul that you are, in Christ, this new creation, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body.

Food for the Flock 2 (1875), p. 169-172.

The hope of righteousness is not the hope of getting righteousness, but the hope of glory which belongs to righteousness. God says: You are my children; I have brought you to myself, and you are going to hear about the glory of Christ, and are joint heirs with Him in it. When I think of the apostles to whom God revealed such things as these, I think how, with such power of God in them, they could go safely. But thus laden with Christ, they could go safely and steadily through the world; they were fully ballasted with Christ.

Have Christ in yourself. Christ everything to us enlarges the Christ in us, and then we can go steadily along. If I have a full Christ in myself, then I can look safely out. If I have Christ as the centre of glory in my heart, I can look out and see the glory all around.

Food for the Flock 2 (1875), p. 247.

"Make the tree good and his fruit good." I cannot do that; the only thing is to kill it. And indeed I cannot do that either. But God has done it, and I can therefore say, I am dead, 'and my life is hid with Christ in God'.

Food for the Flock 2 (1875), p. 337.

What is service? It is having part in Christ's ministry of love.

Food for the Flock 2 (1875), p. 337.

Supposing that everything in us were judged, we should be all one; it could not be otherwise. And this is not attainment: a family is not disunited because there are old men, young men, and little children in it.

Food for the Flock 2 (1875), p. 358.

How do you get the comfort of God? By believing in Him; not by seeing Him. It is: "Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." And then He puts before our hearts that where the children are is home - the Father's house - the many abodes, and He comes again to bring us there, because His redeemed ones are everything to Him. But He tells us, too, all that we have as realizing this while He is away, so that our souls may live in these things, though we are not yet in them. For the Father and the world are now in direct enmity because of the rejection of the Son; the accepted of the Father is the rejected of the world, and it is all over with the world now.

We know what the Father's house is. The Lord says to us: You know where I am going, for I am going to the Father; and you have seen Him, for you have seen me. So I know where I am going, for the Father to whose home we are going is revealed in the Son, and the Son is the way, and I have got Him. He is the way, for I have found the Father in coming to Him. A poor vessel He is in, but it is one that is cleansed and made fit for God: and God comes and dwells in it, by His Spirit, which is the second comfort in His absence, as it is said: "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God."

And not this only, but I have got Christ back again. He says: "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Ye see me; because I live, ye shall live also." He must die before I can die spiritually; and, if He lives as triumphing over all, I shall live too. We hear it from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, anxious to make us happy. Thus as to my standing before God, I have the consciousness that I am in Christ where God's delight is. As to my standing before the world, it is Christ in me.

Food for the Flock 3 (1876), p. 78-79.

The Holy Ghost can reveal nothing to me that is not mine.

Food for the Flock 3 (1876), p. 174.

God never allows the faith of man to go beyond the grace of God. It may reach into it, but it can never get to the bottom.

Food for the Flock 3 (1876), p. 219.

The love of Christ was above all the wretchedness of His poor disciples, above all their failure; and thus if it were a right feeling, He could feel with them; if it were an infirmity, He could feel for them. He can enter into it all in a divine way, and with divine goodness, just because He is above it all. When I am not above a thing it acts upon myself; but when I am, I can think for it all as well as with it. And He says to us, "Love one another as I have loved you." By clinging close to Him we can love in the same kind of way in which He loved, and thus recognize anything good, and of Him, in our brethren, and learn to esteem others better than ourselves.

Food for the Flock 3 (1876), p. 265.

The way to be preserved from, sinning is to be full of Christ. If my heart be full of Christ evil cannot come in. Satan has nothing to do with the new man; therefore if any one keepeth himself, that wicked man toucheth him not.

Food for the Flock 3 (1876), p. 280.

How far are our hearts prepared to take our place before all the world and say, I belong to Christ alone? Let it be a strong pressure on the conscience that we should not take that name to dishonour it.

Food for the Flock 3 (1876), p. 280.

This is not the place for rest, but for watchfulness - watchfulness over our every thought. But what is heaven? It is where I can let my heart flow out. That is an immense comfort! But here I must have my loins girded - my heart and every affection kept in order by the Word of God.

Food for the Flock 3 (1876), p. 327.

Whenever grace gets into the heart I justify God; my hearts says, That is right. The world sets up to judge God, because it is far from Him; but, if I am near Him, I must justify Him even though He condemn me. It is easy to judge God at a distance from Him; it will be a different story in the last day! When the word of God reaches the heart it proves itself. I do not need to judge it, it judges me.

Food for the Flock 3 (1876), p. 327.

There is an undistractedness of object that humanly speaking is in itself power.

Food for the Flock 4 (1877), p. 157.

I do not think a man could exactly "joy in God," and then get into the seventh of Romans. You see joy in God is not joy in salvation. We do not generally get joy in God until we have done with ourselves. You get joy in salvation first in Rom. 5, and then troubles by the way, and then joy in that. Joy in God is another thing. In Rom. 8 it is we are set before God; it is not exactly what God is for us. The man in the seventh of Romans is "none of his." The ground of sealing is the remission of sins. God cannot have me in Christ without having Christ in me, and when Christ is in me there is liberty. And if Christ be in me the body is dead as to will; I do not own the body at all.

Food for the Flock 4 (1877), p. 247.

To hold myself dead is my privilege, for Christ has died; but it is my necessity for my testimony. Death so wrought in Paul, that only life wrought from him to the Corinthians: that is testimony.

Food for the Flock 4 (1877), p. 324.

It is said, Did not God make these things? Of course He did, who else could? God made the trees in the garden, but Adam used them to hide himself from Him. Man takes these things and uses them to separate himself from God if he can, and the question is, not whether God made them, but the use man puts them to. Cain went out from the presence of God and built a city, and then used the things God had made in order to make himself happy without God, It is a great delusion to speak of God making the world as it is. He put man in Paradise, not in the world. The world is the fruit of sin and Satan. The point is this: we have a world which has rejected the Son; what has it to do with the Father? All we can do with the world is to go through it as Christ did - a testimony for God in it.

Food for the Flock 4 (1877), p. 341.

"Christ is all and in all." Who can be this except God? "All" excludes everything else. In getting Christ we get eternal blessedness, and life, and knowledge of the Father - all that will make heaven blessed. The object on which we look gives perfect rest to the conscience and heart. The One in whom the Father delights I know has given Himself for me, and has satisfied, not only the Father's love, but God's righteousness. I start with the consciousness of being perfectly loved and perfectly cleansed. My relationship and standing with God are not founded on anything that I am, but on what Christ has done. The law put life at the end of the course; Christianity puts it at the beginning. The Christian has redemption behind him; and he is walking through the wilderness, waiting and watching for Him who is the object of his heart; for Him who gave not merely something for him, but Himself; who kept back nothing.

The distinct character of the Christian is that of one in a state of expectation. "Like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately."

The state of the soul is the first thing; it must precede service. It is, "Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning." Before we can serve our own state is in question; not the service but the quality of the service depends on it; Christ, the revelation of Christ, must be applied to everything: it is a dirty world, and you must have your heart rightly tucked up as you go through it - "your loins girded." There must be these two things: the heart in order (kept so by the word of God), and no will of our own. The instant we are not in the consciousness of God's presence self comes up - will is there; but, if we are in earnest, running to attain, we are glad of the removal of every hindrance to our running. Try your heart by this. Do you think a man running a race which he cared to win would weight himself by keeping even gold upon him? I judge everything by one object; Christ being my object I judge all by Him, and I say, If this hinder me in running after - in apprehending - Christ, let it go.

Then, when you have got your heart in order comes the full and unqualified confession of Christ before men: "Your lights burning." If the heart be not first right within of course profession is useless, but where it is true let us have it out. There is always a shrinking from confession when there is not power within.

A Christian is one whose affections are fixed upon Christ and who is waiting for Him. If He have bought us with a price it is that we may be as men that wait for their Lord. Every one should be able to see that you are a man waiting for Christ. If we were so, it would cut up by the roots ninety-nine out of a hundred of the things people so live for down here. Can the world say of all of us as of the Thessalonians of old: These are a people who have given up every idol to wait for God's Son from heaven? The world ought to think so. It is, blessed are those servants whom He finds, not only waiting but, watching for Him.

There was not one act for self in all Christ's life; He was always at the service of everyone. It is difficult for us to believe in the love of Christ, we are so selfish. Love likes to serve, selfishness to be served. Christ was love; He delighted to serve; He took upon Him the form of a servant; He took it as a man, and He never gives it up: even in that day "He will come forth and serve them." He says, You shall never make me give up this delight of myself - to serve you.

First we have, "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching;" and then we get, "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing" - serving in the place where his Lord has set him. Where their affections are watching, they get Christ's affections in return serving them in heaven; where they are doing they get the ruling all that He has. Where we serve we rule; where we watch we sit at the table and He serves us.

Christ shows His perfect love. If I love a person a little I give him a little - a small thing; if I love him much I give him more; but if I love him perfectly - which of course I cannot do - I give him everything I have. But more, when the world gives anything it has to part with what it gives; but He says: "Not as the world giveth, give I unto you." He brings us into the enjoyment of everything that He has.

But at the same time He came "to send fire on the earth; and what will I if it be already kindled?" The cross brought in what man will never accept: he will not have the reproach of it; and they despised and rejected Him even before the cross; the fire was "already kindled." But that thing which tests the heart of man and exposes it, sets free the heart of God. When He was baptized with that baptism it opened the flood-gates of God's love.

Verse 53 is a quotation from the prophet, describing the most horrible state of things. And this the cross will do; take care that your own will does not do it. But the state of man is such that when God gives His Son, this is the effect of it.

Food for the Flock 5 (1878), p. 34-37.

Knowledge of God's will is connected with my spiritual state; if I could have it without being spiritual it would only be mischief. I increase in the knowledge of God's will by increasing in the knowledge of God in His nature.

Food for the Flock 5 (1878), p. 75.

Whenever you get sanctification and justification mentioned together, sanctification comes first.

Food for the Flock 5 (1878), p. 176.

I never can meet a cross, that I do not meet a blessing, if I take it up as such.

Food for the Flock 5 (1878), p. 186.

Christ is not yet sitting on His own throne; God said to Him when He had accomplished the work on the cross, "Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." But the day is coming when He will put down His enemies and sit on His throne. The present state of things according to the Scriptures is this, that Christ is sitting at the right hand of God- until He makes His enemies His footstool. When you see all the wars and tumults and misery, and wretchedness, and superstition that there is all round us, do you think that Christ is sitting on His throne?

But He is doing a more blessed thing; if He were to come at once, He would have to execute judgment on all this; but He is gathering out now His joint heirs; this is what He is doing whilst He sits there. The Holy Ghost has come forth to gather those that are to he entirely associated with Christ in glory, and therefore God bears with the evil and wickedness of the world. That is the great condition of things now: the world has rejected Christ; God has received Him. Peter is constantly telling us this; this is the Holy Ghost's controversy with the world. Christ, God's blessed Son, that the world rejected, God has raised up, and declared Him to be the Son of God with power. The Holy Ghost from the day of Pentecost - from the day that Christ was rejected - comes to bear the blessed testimony that He who was thus refused here, God has received there.

Food for the Flock 5 (1878), p. 234.

I would notice a beautiful thing as to those words "made of a woman, made under the law." It shows how completely Christ met the whole case. The woman brought in sin, and the law brought in transgression, and Christ meets both: come of a woman, and made under the law.

Food for the Flock 5 (1878), p. 234.

"He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." It is a present manifestation which is an anticipation of heaven; as if He said: Till you can abide with us, we will abide with you. "We will come unto him, and make our abode with him."

Food for the Flock 5 (1878), p. 263.

Keep your feet in the narrow path, and your heart as large as you can. A Christian ought to be like a horse with blinkers on, going on and looking straight before him.

Food for the Flock 5 (1878), p. 290.

Priesthood is that I may behave well. Advocacy is when I do not behave well. Priesthood keeps my heart in constant dependence in my walk. Its exercise is that I may not go wrong. Advocacy is when I have gone wrong.

Food for the Flock 6 (1879), p. 53.

You cannot separate power from the state of the person; you must be near God to have power. He will not allow the effectual activity of Christians to be independent of their spiritual state.

Food for the Flock 6 (1879), p. 58.

God looks for might now, not in doing, but in suffering; as one of our poets has said in prose, "The irresistible might of nothingness;" to take scorn in a day when not only man but Christendom has departed from God. There is no triumph so great as that of suffering, when it is God's own people who have departed. Nothing gives such power to do and to suffer, as the certainty of what the will of the Lord is. We have all, as children of God, as bright, and brighter, opportunities still for victory as had any who have gone before us. Oh may we win victories! The only victory He values is one won under the shadow and in the power of the cross.

Food for the Flock 6 (1879), p. 70.

Very soon we shall find that what was not Christ was not life at all.

Food for the Flock 6 (1879), p. 204.

There must be preparation of heart to apprehend the ways and thoughts of God. Walking in the path in which Christ sets us, we can see all things; walking with Christ we get the apprehension of the things belonging to us through Christ.

Food for the Flock 7 (1881), p. 19.

Eph. iv. 21-24. "The truth as it is in Jesus" is the "putting off" and the "putting on." It is not a question whether I have done it; it is not speaking of people - not of Christians, but of Christianity.

Food for the Flock 7 (1881), p. 34.

Only those who know God can worship Him. I get into the place of perfect acceptance through the work of Christ, and then I worship. None can worship unless in this place of divine favour; but if I sing in the sense of the acceptance of Christ I cannot be out of tune.' The essence of worship is that the Holy Ghost can take up our praises and prayers to God in perfect association with Christ. (See also Words of Faith, Vol. 3, 1884, page 71.)

Is all I have got of God His being satisfied with the blood? I want my soul in the sense of relationship with him when I worship. And there is no worship without desire; desire goes ever beyond present ability. Restricting it to mere praise is impossible; it is never unmixed with prayer, though not the place properly of prayer; but you cannot separate it from it; it would not be genuine if you did, and that is the thing that is wanted.

Food for the Flock 7 (1881), p. 88.

The tide of apostasy has set in, and we have to lift our heads and be faithful for Christ, and be nothing till He makes us everything, but as nothing then as ever; perhaps I should say more so, but possessing Him.

Food for the Flock 8 (1882), p. 33.

The world which Christ has left must be to us a place of patience. We do not want the flesh-pots of earth, if Christ have a place in our hearts. We are not only waiting for something; we are waiting for Himself. Our hopes and joys are all packed up and gone. I do not wait for events, though they will come; I wait for God's Christ, and I love Him, and He possesses my soul, until He who has emptied Himself for me, and has emptied my heart for Himself, shall come and take me to Himself.

Food for the Flock 8 (1882), p. 96.

We know very little outward suffering; but "If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him." It is not suffering for, but with.

Food for the Flock 8 (1882), p. 141.

There is no true holiness without peace. I do not say there is no holy nature, but certainly there are no holy affections.

Food for the Flock 8 (1882), p. 177.

You never get sanctification apart from the glory in which Christ is. God has set one single Man apart, so that I may know what sanctification is in this world; He has given me a model Man according to the Father's heart.

Food for the Flock 8 (1882), p. 258.

When you have no will and no strength, then you can follow Christ, and then He can trust you.

Food for the Flock 9 (1884), p. 22.

Righteousness, as to forgiveness, is negative before sealing; but righteousness positive I learn in Christ.

Food for the Flock 9 (1884), p. 331.

"The Holy One of God."

That Christ was made sin for us, and that we having died with Him are reckoned dead to sin, in that He was there for sin, for so scripture expresses it, is quite true; but it is not said He took a place outside the presence of God, as to the extent of the suffering in His soul. It is said He was forsaken of God, but that is a different thing from His taking a place outside, which does not appear to me scriptural. God made Him to be sin for us, and He made His soul an offering for sin. Nor is He ever spoken of consequently as taking it as leprous and unclean, but suffering, the Just for the unjust. Scripture is careful when it speaks of Him as made sin, to set up His sinlessness, not to represent Him as leprous by reason of our leprosy. "Who knew no  sin" - "the  just" - "as  a  lamb  without blemish."

There is a sense of the value of the work which hangs on the spotless perfectness of His Person, which would hinder such expressions.

Leprosy is a disease and a foul one, a state, not imputed guilt - a nature can hardly be said to be imputed. I might understand what a person meant; but just reverence and a just estimate of His holy grace would, I think, hinder such an expression; and scripture does not sanction it, but on the contrary brings out not merely the holiness of His nature, but the spotlessness of the victim. Taking upon Him the sin of our nature even on the cross, can hardly be justified either by scripture, because it confounds nature and imputed guilt, though the terms be not so objectionable. God condemned sin in the flesh when He died and was for sin, yet it is our dying with Him that is made the deliverance here.

Helps in Things concerning Himself 3 (1893), p. 278-288.

Some Last Words

"I am very, very weak," he remarked; "and, humanly speaking, my life is gone from the earth, but the Lord holds the thread of it."

I said, "Yes, dear Mr. -, you are just in the hands of the Lord Jesus, and all you have loved and laboured for these fifty years and more is in His hands too."

"Yes, yes," he replied; "and I see three things. The Father has given me to His Son; Christ is my righteousness, which settles everything; and then (what is more outside one) Christ is my object."

"Absent from the body, present with the Lord." April 29th, 1882.

On the Coming of the Lord.

J. N. Darby.

Notes taken at a meeting of brethren in London, July, 1841.

(extracted from Simple Testimony, 1845)

The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ has an aspect, as to conscience, toward the whole world. As to conscience, we stand here in the world; but it has its joys for the heart of a saint, and these things the world can know nothing about.

You act upon the conscience of a saint, as in the world, because he has the same flesh as the world. You would act on his conscience as to falling away, and he never falls away. I would subject my conscience to the Lord's coming, as to the things here; but when He comes I shall come with Him.

We never should forget that while down here we never get out of the region of conscience, however high we get into the region of bliss.

"Raised and seated together.

"

Ephesians 2.

J. N. Darby.

(Notes of a Lecture.)

Helps in Things concerning Himself 1 (1891), p. 298-308.

There are two subjects in this chapter, one of which I have specially in view. The first is that God has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Still He has a habitation down here through the Spirit, which is the second thing. There is a house built in which God through the Holy Ghost dwells down here. It is the first part I have on my mind.

There are two great points in God's ways and dealings with man; one is the responsibility of the first Adam, and the second is His purpose in the last Adam. God purposes certain things about us. We are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, and, again, predestinated unto the adoption of children.

God had in view certain things, which He was going to accomplish in the second Adam. It was all before the foundation of the world, and the cross is the meeting-place of these two things. The cross proved that we were ruined and lost, and it also laid the foundation for putting us into the same glory as the Son of God. The epistle to the Romans takes up the first of these points, except two or three verses at the end of chapter viii., while that to the Ephesians is entirely taken up with the second. It looks at sinners first; but it looks at them in an entirely different way to Romans. It is a different thing to look at me as a sinner and responsible for my sins, with Christ Himself answering for them, to God putting me into the same glory as His Son. This last is treated of in Ephesians. We get also a different dealing with the condition of man. In Romans we are looked at as alive in sins, and there is a long account of the wickedness of Jews and Gentiles, and the whole world is proved to be guilty before God, and then it deals with our condition and state. The second part of Romans takes up the tree as being bad, not only the fruit it produces. The cross has met all that. Not only has He died for my sins, but I died with Christ, for faith. Death is the only end of the flesh or the evil nature. Romans takes up man as a sinner; first, as to his conduct, and secondly as to his state; for one, justification, and for the other, deliverance, and that is by death. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." It has been condemned in the cross of the Lord Jesus, and reckoning myself dead is a positive gain. Colossians treats of both. I reckon myself dead now, because Christ has died. It is the same figure as the Jordan, and the Red Sea, too, in a certain aspect.

When I come to Ephesians I am looked at as dead in sins, not alive in them. There is nothing to do with responsibility or justification - it is a new creation. Before the death of Christ it was God not merely saying that man was a sinner, but there were dealings of God with man - the flood, the law, the prophets, and lastly His Son; and the end of it was, not that God turned man out of Paradise, but that man turned the Son of God out of this world. Man is lost; but Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. That is what Christianity came in with. The world is thinking of meeting the day of judgment, but I do not think of that, for I am a poor lost sinner, and I get salvation. When people want to make something of man, it is important to get hold of this - what the testimony of the word of God is. We often find foundations insecurely laid in a man's soul, and that comes from the want of a thorough conviction of sin. They have no sense of the impossibility of God and sin coming together.

Well, God had gone all through this process, and at last said, "I have one Son, I will send Him." But when He came they said, "This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours." It was in the end of the world that He appeared - in the consummation of the ages. We are not come to the end of the world yet, but God has tested and tried man thoroughly and completely, and as the Lord Jesus says, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." It is not yet executed, but God has tested man thoroughly. The thing in which the enmity of man's heart was manifested against God was the very thing in which God wrought the redemption which saves a man. The cross was the meeting-point of the sin of man with the perfect love of God. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The world said, "We will not have God at any terms," and they cast Him out and slew Him. That is what we all are. Man has to find out what he has done and what he is.

When that blessed  and glorious work was done upon the cross, then God could bring out all His purposes and thoughts, not merely the church, but if you look at 2 Timothy i. 9, it is perfectly stated there. "Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began." God brought in the first Adam and tested him, and when all that was gone through, and Christ was rejected and died, God was glorified in that, and the foundation was laid for bringing man into glory; and then it comes out that the purpose was before the foundation of the world - so also in Titus. The soul goes through it individually, but we have the whole historical truth of it at the death of Christ. What I learn now is, that it is not whether I can meet the day of judgment, but that I am lost already. I prefer any vanity of dress or money to Christ. The world we live in has rejected God come in grace.

Then I come to the second point, what the purpose of God about us is - that we should be in the same glory as His Son. I was "alive" in sins if I look at my side of it, but "dead" in my sins if I look towards God. In this epistle, where it is "dead in sins" (I speak now of the operation that brings us into a new condition), Christ is looked at as dead. "What is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." Here Christ is looked at as a man, in order to bring us with Him according to the mighty power which God wrought in Christ. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;" the blessed truth of that is, that where we were lying in sin and disobedience, Christ came in love and obedience, so He gives Himself up to death where I was lying, having put away my sins. Well, then, God takes this One who had gone down into this place for us, and raises Him from the dead and sets Him in the glory of God. We do not see ourselves yet gathered to Him in the glory, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour." And now that very same power has wrought in bringing us into His place, by faith. Christ was actually dead, and I was dead in my sins, and God comes and raises us both up together. How came He to be down there in death? Ah! He came there about my sins. In virtue of what Christ has done, God takes a man that was dead in his sins, and puts him in Christ - in the very same place where Christ is, and by the same power that raised up Christ from the dead.

We "were by nature the children of wrath, even as others" - that is the condition we were all in, Jews and Gentiles. We naturally belonged to it Then he goes on, "But God, who is rich in mercy," etc. I see this poor, wretched child of wrath, and I find God above all this, and rich in mercy. I am taken from myself and cast upon God's doings, and that is where we get real peace. The prodigal son thought he would say to his father, "Make me as one of thy hired servants;" but he had not met his father then, for if he had, he would have known how his father would have treated him. It was all showing what the father was for the son: he must have the best robe, and the shoes, and the ring. The whole condition of the son was the effect of what the father was for him.

When I was by nature a child of wrath, He "hath quickened us together with Christ." Christ having done what made it righteous for God to do it, God comes and takes us up there, "And hath raised us up together and hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." He put Christ as a man at the right hand of God, and by the same power He puts me into Christ. My place now is the effect of the sovereign goodness and mercy of God, who took me when I was dead in trespasses and sins, and put me right into Christ where He is - wonderful place surely! Then the angels say, "Well, that is grace. That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ" Whether it is the thief upon the cross, Mary Magdalene, or one of us, we are put in the same place as He is. We are not in the heavenly places with Christ yet, but we are in Christ. The power that raised Christ, from death, into the glory of God, has put me in Christ in the same place.

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." You get the works afterwards. "We are his workmanship, created in Jesus Christ unto good works." Created in Christ Jesus, not in Adam now, I am created over again. The same power that wrought to put Christ into glory, has now wrought to put me into Christ. The Holy Ghost dwelling in me, gives me the knowledge that I am in Christ. God dwelling with us never was true of man, except in virtue of redemption - it never was true of Adam or Abraham, but the instant that Israel was redeemed out of Egypt, then He dwelt among them - there by the cloud over the tabernacle. Now in virtue of redemption God can come and dwell. The Christian is sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and individually he is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Being livingly united to Christ by the Holy Ghost, gives me the knowledge that I am in heavenly places in Christ, and therefore our citizenship is in heaven. Christ as Son of man has perfectly glorified God; and what is the just reward of glorifying God? That He is set at the right hand of God. We "rejoice in the hope of the glory of God;" what could make poor worms such as we are, think of that? It is because of what Christ has done. Just as we were like the first Adam, so shall we be like Christ in glory. He became a man on purpose to bring us, through His death, into the same glory with Himself.

Do you believe that, beloved friends, as regards yourselves? Do you believe that God is going to show to angels, in the ages to come, the riches of His grace in the place He has given you? It is important for us to see that, as regards title to the place and having the Holy Ghost who gives us the knowledge of being in Christ, it is a present thing. The glory is not a present thing, but we are to know that we are in Christ, and that as He is, so are we in this world, That is our place with God, so that we have boldness for the day of judgment, delight in the day of Christ. I could not dream of works of mine to get there - of my works giving me a place in the glory of God! Man is in the glory of God in virtue of what He has done who has entered as my forerunner. We are called there in justice to the worth of Christ's work.

Now see where the works are; they come in as the fruits of this. God has works which fit this place. "Good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." The works are ordained as much as the place. What does the apostle say when he exhorts them? "Be ye therefore followers of God as clear children." You are made partakers of the divine nature, and now go and walk in the way suited to that. Do not let me see anything but Christ in you. Christ appears in the presence of God for us, so that there is perfect acceptance for us according to the value of His work, and now you appear before the world for Christ. I am the epistle of Christ known and read of all men - entire association with Christ, in the power of the Holy Ghost. It is not that we have to get a place, but, as put into that place, my business is to show forth Christ in everything. "Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." If we have no oil in our vessels it will not do to meet Him. There is nothing more important than the thought of the expectation of the Lord's coming; it is the character of the Christian. Are you really waiting for Christ, as men that wait for their lord? It is the condition I am to be found in. How far can we really say, I know my place in Christ, who is a Man in the glory of God, and therefore I am waiting for Him to come and take me actually there?

Supposing I am in heavenly places in Christ, then our conversation is in heaven, earthly objects are gone. It is where we are set as God's workmanship. He has set us there in His sovereign grace, and what I most earnestly desire is, that our hearts should have the consciousness of it, and, in having this purpose of God set before us, that we should be living in a Christian state or place. The place that God has given us is a place in Christ Himself. And now the life of Jesus is to be manifested in our bodies.

It is important that we should get hold of what is Christianity, in these perilous times. "As the truth is in Jesus," is, that I have done with Adam, and am in Christ. I have put off the old man and put on the new. Man tries to improve the old, it cannot be done. You cannot set about and make the old man do for God, because God has supplanted him. He has judged the old man at the cross, and He has brought in Christ.

Rest for the Weary.

Matthew 11: 97-30.

J. N. Darby.

Christian Friend vol. 19, 1892, p. 162.

Jesus knew man, the world, the generation that had enjoyed the greatest advantages of all that were in the world. There was no place for the foot to rest on in the miry slough of that which had departed from God. In the midst of a world of evil Jesus remained the sole revealer of the Father, the source of all good. Whom does He call? What does He bestow on those who come? Only source of blessing and revealer of the Father, He calls all those who are weary and heavy laden. Perhaps they did not know the spring of all misery; namely, separation from God — sin. He knew, and He alone could heal them. If it was the sense of sin which burdened them, so much the better. Every way the world no longer satisfied their hearts; they were miserable, and therefore the objects of the heart of Jesus. Moreover, He would give them rest. He does not here explain by what means; He simply announces the fact. The love of the Father, which in grace, in the person of the Son, sought out the wretched, would bestow rest (not merely alleviation or sympathy, but rest) on every one that came to Jesus. It was the perfect revelation of the Father's name to the heart of those who needed it, and that by the Son — peace, peace with God. They had but to come to Christ. He undertook all, and gave rest. But there is a second element in rest. There is more than peace through the knowledge of the Father in Jesus, and more than that is needed; for even when the soul is perfectly at peace with God, this world presents many causes of trouble to the heart. In these cases it is a question of submission or of self-will. Christ, in the consciousness of His rejection, in the deep sorrow caused by the unbelief of the cities in which He had wrought so many miracles, had just manifested the most entire submission to His Father, and had found therein perfect rest to His soul. To this He calls all that heard Him, all that felt the need of rest to their own souls. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me"; that is to say, the yoke of entire submission to His Father's will, learning of Him how to meet the troubles of life; for He was "meek and lowly in heart," content to be in the lowest place at the will of His God. In fact nothing can overthrow one who is there. It is the place of perfect rest to the heart. J. N. D.

Risen with Christ

Colossians  3.

J. N. Darby.

Helps in Things concerning Himself 4 (1894), p. 3-16.

The whole of the exhortations here are founded upon this, that the believer is put into an entirely new place. Indeed everywhere, though there are different aspects of it (in Ephesians - seated in heavenly places; in Romans - walking down here; in this epistle - not going further than resurrection) we are in an entirely new place. Christ in every case is our life. Romans always looks at the Christian as down here. In Colossians we are called upon to walk as being in Christ. In Ephesians, we are called upon to be "imitators of God as dear children;" that is, as coming out from heaven in our walk here. In Corinthians, it is, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation," that is, a totally new thing. At any rate it is always a new thing, founded on the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If I look at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, I say, it is not only that, but I am risen with Him; that is what we find in Colossians, but the cross, as the foundation, has closed all that man was in the flesh. God has not executed judgment yet, but He has convinced the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment - it is treated by God as a lost world. The death of Christ was that point where God Himself had come into the world in goodness: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself," and He was rejected. It was not simply that God had to turn man out of Paradise down here, because he was a sinner; but when God came in grace into this world, man turned Him out. In Hebrews it is, "Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared," and it was the end of the world morally speaking. But God is now dealing in grace with this poor world, the fulness of grace meeting the perfect sinfulness of man. Just where man's sin was complete, the work of grace was complete. Where the highest sin was, the highest love was. It was the full blessedness of that work which brought salvation. It was the work of the Lord Jesus Christ which gave a character to the cross, for there everything came out completely: what man was, what the devil was, and what God was. You have the complete sinfulness of man in rejecting God come in goodness; then you get Satan thoroughly against Christ, and on the other hand Christ giving Himself up in love. When we come to dwell upon the cross, we find everything there; the perfect sin of man, and the perfect obedience of man in Christ, and the perfect love of God, and His righteousness even against, sin, when Christ was made sin. The glory of God was effected there, and everything depends on that; while it throws one world out, it begins a new creation, a new state, which Adam innocent was no more in than Adam guilty. Man altogether was brought out and judged (not that judgment is executed against sinners), but then on the other hand, that work is accomplished by which man gets a place in the glory of God - that is the basis of all. Satan is never called the prince of this world till the cross, for until then it was rot shown that he had that power in turning the whole world against Christ; the carnal mind is enmity against God. "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee." He appeals to the righteousness of the Father in speaking of the world.

We have to learn what it is to be associated with a rejected Christ in glory, when they have not got Him on earth. Of course I do not see the things in glory, and we must walk by faith, with our eyes fixed on Christ, going through this world by the power which we see outside, with the consciousness of the relationship that is made for us by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not now a question of whether I can meet God in the judgment. I know I cannot, I give up all thoughts of it; and I then come as a poor sinner to the cross of Christ, to find that I met God in Christ. Instead of going on, as a responsible sinner, to see how it will end, I see that it is all ended, but that God has stepped in, in grace, and saved me by sending His Son. He sent Him because I was a sinner, and now He is become my life; and my part with God is in virtue of what He has done. People will be judged according to their works; Christ had the fruit of what I did, and I have the fruit of what He has done. Then we get another truth, that receiving Christ as our life, "ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God," that is, we are completely associated with Christ where He is. He is our life, and it is hid with Christ in God because He is our life, and God thus identifies us with Christ. We all know His connection with this earth was closed when He died and went to heaven; they will see Him no more, except when He comes in judgment. Now the risen One has become my life, and I say Oh then, I am risen, for He has become my life. He has associated believers completely with Himself, not only put away their sins as guilty persons. The Christian starts with "My Father and your Father, my God and your God," only in a poor earthen vessel of course. Being a son, I have now Christ, the second Adam, to be my life, instead of the first Adam.

Now you will find how completely the apostle unfolds this practically. It is not our estimate of the blood of Christ that gives settled peace; the thing is that God estimates it rightly. The question is whether the offended person has accepted it. Oh yes! that is settled, for Christ is at the right hand of God. He gave it in love, and God has accepted it in righteousness. I am crucified with Christ. Then you are dead? Yes, thank God, I am. If you are dead, what is your life? Oh, I have a totally new life, and that is Christ; I am born again.

The apostle takes up this point, "In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them." People make religion out of these ordinances; it is not owning that we have died with Christ. We belong to heaven, though we have not got there yet. Now I say, I look at the second Adam, my life is hid because He is hid, and when He appears I shall appear - you cannot separate the two things. Having Christ as my life, I have power against evil. He does not talk of dying to sin, but that we are dead to sin. Christ having died, I have the title and duty to reckon myself dead; when I have Him, I have power. I had no power, "In due time, when we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly," but now I have Christ as power. I could not succeed in being anything I ought to be, but He has come and redeemed me out of that state. I find out my weakness, but I find I have Christ as strength. In. the new life in Christ, there is power, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." "What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh;" it required righteousness from me, but never produced anything in me. It was a perfect rule for man as a child of Adam, but as he was a fallen child of Adam, it condemned him because he was a sinner. Did the law give life? Oh no! for then we should have had righteousness by it. Did it give me strength, righteousness, or love? It tells me to love God with all my heart. Why? Because you will be cursed if you do not. Christ comes and does the very opposite: instead of imputing the sins, He takes them, and becomes my life, my strength, and a blessed object for my soul to live by, "that I may win Christ." The law could do none of this. By faith (Christ being my life) I can say to my flesh, You have not one word to say to me, you were condemned on the cross. Where is the condemnation? In His death. Oh, then it is gone. The flesh will be there trying to act, and the apostle goes through these gross sins in verse 5; but you have not to die, you are dead, "mortify therefore," and now that you have power and life, do not let the flesh act I live in Christ, and therefore I must not walk in these things which are contrary to Him.

Now in verses 8 and 9, you find another thing, where there is no lust. There are three characters of sin here. One is lusts (ver. 5), another is violence (ver. 8), and the other falsehood or lying. (Ver. 9) Corruption we have looked at: it is "mortify therefore;" but now it is not a lust, but "anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy." My flesh is unsubdued and unbroken, "but now ye also put off all these;" not only lusts, but an unsubdued will, which will not do for a Christian. And the third thing is, "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;" I have done with Adam. The exhortation is founded upon this: seeing I have put off Adam, I have the title and right to say, "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin," what the scripture calls flesh. By faith I hold it as a thing that is not to stir. "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus" - the power of death, the sentence of death in myself, that I should not trust in myself, but in God which raiseth the dead. I am carrying about the dying of the Lord Jesus, and I am not going to let the flesh stir.

Mark the blessed consequence of this; now I have a new man, I have put off the old man. If I am a Christian, God looks at me (and faith takes this as a truth), not as a child of Adam at all in this world. What are you then? A child of God. The law was a perfect measure for the first man; and now, what measure do we get for "the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him"? I know God. As in Ephesians, "which of God is created in righteousness and true holiness." It is a new nature which is like God, in fact it is Christ as my life. It is the same kind of life as He had (we speak now of that which is communicated). What is the measure of this "knowledge"? Why, what is in God - true spiritual knowledge - I am called to walk according to that; we are to be followers of God as dear children. I get the knowledge of what God's nature and character are in Christ, in a Man; well, then that is the way I am to walk. Did not He love His enemies? You go and love your enemies. Was not He holy? You go and think holiness. Was not He kind to the unthankful and evil? You go and do likewise. There is of course growth in likeness to Christ. The Spirit of God takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to me; very well, that is the way you must walk. It is not merely that I avoid gross sins, but I have to put on the new man. This apprehension of how God has revealed Himself in Christ is a perfectly new thing. I have the mind and spirit of Christ, the new man, and Christ as my life, and the perfect pattern of it, according to which I am to walk. What I get in Christ is alone and unique, perfect goodness in the midst of evil - go and walk like Him.

In verse 11, "Christ is all and in all." "Christ is all," the whole and sole object, and He is "in all" as the power of life and strength. "Christ liveth in me", that is "in all," and "the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God," that is "Christ is all." He is all to me, and if He is all, there is nothing else. We have various duties, but the question is, is our motive in them all, serving Christ? If you get distracted from that, you get away from Him. I get sonship in John. In Ephesians it is, "Be ye therefore imitators of God as dear children;" it is as dear children we are to follow. God puts us into this relationship, and then tells us to behave according to it. A child could not make himself my child, even if he were to behave like an angel.

Verse 12, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering." I am bound, in walking as a Christian, to carry along with me the consciousness of this; I am sanctified as "the elect of God, holy and beloved," God delights in me, I am His beloved one, He has sanctified me. In what measure and degree? What do I mean by holiness and righteousness? I mean what Christ was to God. What is righteousness? Why, what Christ was; well, then, what is redemption? Why, you get that fully at the end in glory. God puts us into this place first, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God;" now you go and behave like that. What a blessed thing it is to see where He does put us, the present consciousness of relationship. "He died, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves;" Christ gave Himself up for a parcel of sinners. It is the standard that is given to us, not to "live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again:" but He does not call on us to walk according to this, until He has put us in the conscious relationship. Verse 12 is just what was in Christ. Do you get wronged and injured? You go and take it patiently. He forgave the people: you go and forgive them. You are the epistle of Christ. The world is reading Christ in us, just as they read the ten commandments off the tables of stone; and scripture does not say, you ought to be the epistle of Christ, but, you are. Duties flow from that place. It is not merely a "kindness" among men, but it is "charity," which is God's love. Charity tests everything, whether it is up to the mark or not. We are so apt to degenerate, poor creatures that we are, that God Himself has to be brought in (ver. 13), to keep up the measure of the love in its true, real character: divine love, which must be holiness.

Verse 15. "And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts." What sort of peace do you think Christ had? Besides peace of conscience, there was the peace of an undistracted heart. Your heart is often distracted, and of course you have not Christ's peace. If He has brought us into the relationship of sons, we must walk in the peace in which Christ walked. What I feel so important for us is this, that it is not only forgiveness, but the mind and purpose of God is, to bring us really, livingly, and consciously into the place where Christ is. By the Holy Ghost I know I am in Christ; then I know that Christ is in me. I am perfectly accepted as Christ is; then my part comes, which is, Christ to be shown out, "That the life of Jesus should be manifested in our mortal flesh." He has left His own peace with us; and now, beloved friends, are we walking in the peace that Christ had in this world? It is perfectly true that we are to judge ourselves; we find we can do nothing without Him, and if we have been careless, we shall discover that we have not power and strength; but still what He has done, is, to set us consciously in His own place.

Verse 16. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." Here I have the positive enjoyment of all the divine things which are revealed. Do not think that we cannot know and enjoy all the things that belong to us as God's heirs. Live like Christ, and you will certainly find something of the Master's reproach. If the spirit of the world is active in me, of course I do not see clearly; but the Spirit of God is given to us, that we may know these things. I have the word of Christ dwelling in my heart, and the Holy Ghost lakes the things of Christ and shows them to me. When I know that every saint will be perfectly like Christ in glory, I say, What a blessed thing that will be. Whilst we have universal joy, there is a special link a person has with Christ's joy, which no one knows but himself.

"Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." (Ver. 16.) Spiritual songs to enjoy the Lord in. I have the word which brings all these precious things - the love of the Father - into my soul, and my song goes up in praise to the Lord.

Verse 17 is a very simple direction, but how it sweeps things away: "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." If you are going to buy a house - are you doing that in the name of the Lord Jesus? It is the motive that governs us. My life is not made up of heroisms, but of a hundred different little things; do them all in the name of Christ: it is everyday life. Supposing I am living three-quarters of my day without Christ, I then have to make an effort to get back. At the bottom of my heart, Christ, and at the top, blameless conduct, perhaps no one can reproach me, but a man in between the two. When I look back over today, has it been for Christ? Never do anything except for Christ; you will find it will keep the heart fresh.

Now let me ask you, Are you willing every day to take the place of being an epistle of Christ in this world? If you are, then of course you ought to do everything in His name. There is no growth in acceptance, for it is "in the Beloved," but there is growth in the Christian as to his path. I know Christ better, and I imitate Him better. If I am in earnest, I am very glad to be kept close to Him. When Christ is in the heart, the whole thing is easy, but it is not easy when the world is in the heart. If you get a pretty bit of dress, that is more than Christ. It is the question of what is near the eye of the mind. If I am walking with the peace of Christ in my heart, I get the word of Christ to dwell in me richly in all wisdom. Who gets the knowledge of the highest privileges of the Christian in John 20?

Was it the apostles? No, it was Mary Magdalene, for her heart was clinging to Christ: the disciples could do without Him; she could not, and He reveals Himself to her, and tells her to go to the disciples and say, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God." In the measure in which we keep close to Christ, the word of Christ dwells in us richly. The affections of the heart are up there, and the Holy Ghost takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us, and my responsibility is in everything to show forth Christ.

The Lord give us to see, very distinctly and clearly, that we are put into an entirely new place. If the Spirit of God is dwelling in me, my place is not as a child of Adam at all: I am in Christ, and Christ is in me, and my responsibility is to walk not as man ought to walk, but as a child of God ought to walk. When we sec the perfectness of grace in Christ, we shall soon see how far short we are. Are your hearts set upon Christ, so that your one, earnest desire is to glorify Him? If the life of Christ is manifested in everything I do, the world will soon find it out. God has left us the consciousness to walk in His favour as Christ Himself. Then the motive of anxious love to Him is to seek to glorify Him in everything we do: dead with Christ, risen with Christ, entirely associated with Himself, and a witness for Him here.

The Thoughtfulness of Divine Love

1 John 4: 16.

J. N. Darby.

Helps in Things concerning Himself 5 (1895), p. 292-302.

This passage is one of much beauty and comfort to the earnest and lowly soul, for it presents to us God, thinking of us from our state of utter sinfulness on to judgment itself, and displays His love from beginning to end.

In general, the epistle presents us divine life, that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested here below in the Person of the Lord Jesus, communicated to others, that thing, as it is said, which is true in Him and in us.

The Gospel of John, besides the doctrine of the Comforter, presents to us God manifested in the Son, and life in Himself; the epistle, life communicated to us, and that life known in its fruits of love to the brethren, and obedience or practical righteousness.

In the passage before us, love is especially the subject, and first love as partaking of the nature of Him who is love. He that loveth is born of God and knows God; partakes of the nature and knows Him who is it, as partaker of it.

Possession of a nature (and without possessing it is impossible), makes us know what that nature is, what the Being is who has that nature. A mere animal does not know what a man is, his way of thinking, feeling; a man knows what a man is. What an angel is, save as the part of connection with God necessarily reveals some elements of his nature, he does not know. He that loves, knows God, for he is born of Him, being partaker of the divine nature: a blessed truth, the spring (righteousness being introduced), of eternal joy and infinite delight.

But when we come to the practice down here, we find difficulty in it. I love the brethren: what coldness after all, often self has come in, and I fail in love. I cannot trust my own heart a minute. Can I really say I am born of God and know God when I find so much in a treacherous heart that belies after all what I desire? I hope, I fear - there is no liberty of spirit. And it is so far well; but, therefore, the blessed Spirit gives us the knowledge of love from another side, and where it is perfect: in God Himself, His ways and dealings. In this the love of God is manifested towards us, in our case. But let me briefly analyse the passage, that we may seize its completeness and bearing. First, in verses 9, 10, God's love to the sinner; verse 12, the enjoyment of His love in the saint; and 17, perfected in the boldness it gives us for the day of judgment.

First, His love to us as sinners.  The eternal object of God's delight, His only begotten Son, was sent in blessing to us, and with this two-fold object - first the positive blessing, what is given, that we might live through Him. We were dead in sin, God gives us a new life - a divine life. We no longer live through Adam, but through the Son of God. He that hath the Son hath life. Our existence towards God is divine life in Christ. God has thought of our ruin in love, and given us eternal life in His Son.

But we were guilty also, as responsible beings before Him. Here His love has met us. He has given His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. It is not law, nor duty, though it was there, but because it was there, ruin, failure, and condemnation. But love is not in that we love God (which is what we have to look for in our hearts if we seek the proof of life there, but then really under law); that law required, and rightly - but in that God loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. It is not requiring what we ought to be from us, just as this is, but putting away, making a holy propitiation for our sins. We are dead in sins, and He gives us life. We were guilty, and He has given Him to make propitiation for our sins. He has met our whole case, in both its aspects as sinners. Now the love of God is known, the heart free, the conscience purged, he can exhort us to love one another.

Now we have to do with a saint, and he has more privileges than being forgiven and having life. No man has seen God. How know Him, even if we have a life and nature which capacitates us thereto know Him as an object fully before our souls, and so known. Before the world this was in Christ personally present revealing Him (see John 1: 18), and He was rejected. But how in us? If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Here is the saint's privilege. He enjoys the love of God, poured out in his own soul. God dwells in him by His Spirit, and makes His presence known in infinite and enjoyed love, but as dwelling in the believer. It is not still that we love Him, but that His love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. It is in our hearts, but what is there is the love of God, known and enjoyed by His presence. If God thus dwells in us - which we know, because He has given us of His Spirit, and sheds that love by His very presence abroad in our hearts - we may well say perfected in love, for what is more perfect than God in love, and what more perfect exercise and display of it in communication to us than His dwelling in us Himself, who is it perfectly, and sheds it abroad in our hearts by His presence; but even this looks out when the proof of it is to be given. We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. You cannot separate the enjoyment of God's love in us by His presence, from that in which it has been perfectly displayed in His own work to His own glory. And this portion of the Christian is not a special or extraordinary proof of progress. It is the Christian state. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God. For God, if He dwell in us, is infinite, and we dwell in Him, feel surrounded, and are, by His goodness, love, power, so that our abode and rest is in Him, and in the fulness of His love. All this may be realised in different degrees, but it belongs to every one that confesseth jesus, the lowly Man, to be the Son of God. Of course, he does not speak of hypocrites.

But again the apostle carefully brings us back to look at the love as in God, as displayed towards us. We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. Whatever the enjoyment of the love and the realisation of it, it is always the love in Him, sovereign love, which He hath had to us. We know God. God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. Here, though the love is ever the same, what God is and what He displays to us, yet the order of thought is somewhat different. I am dwelling in love, the enjoyment and consciousness of this love, and its power to exercise towards others. I dwell then in God, for God is love; dwelling in this he dwells in God, and this is what God is. His soul rests, reposes, and confides in Him, surrounded by His goodness, and so as that love is active in his soul, shed abroad and exercised there, God is in him, God being love, and deigning to dwell in us. First it was the fact, God dwells in the saint, and as infinite, the saint in him. Now as to his enjoyment and privilege he dwells in God; and then as to the activity of love, God dwells in him. The first fact is this state, and the double blessedness of God Himself, and the activity of His love. All this is simple. Rich and eternal and pure life now enjoyed in joying in God Himself, and exercised as it was in Jesus, in love to His, and every sinner around.

We now come to the third step in this blessed chain of love. Herein is love perfected with us that we might have boldness for the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. Love has looked on from the time of, our sin, looked in and dwelt in us by the way, and now tells the tale of its perfectness for that day, when God's judgment calls all in question but the fruit of His love. But how should this meet the day of judgment? Here love is perfected with us, we are as Christ is who is the judge; what fear, then? Oh, how has love thought of us, from the state of sins and death right on to judgment, and given us to stand now, "in this world," as Christ Himself is before God. Who shall find fault in that! Shall Christ whom we are like, or God whose delight is in Him? We have boldness for the day of judgment. No place in which the Christian is so bold, when he knows his place in Christ. When we stand before His judgment-seat we shall be perfectly like Himself; and as He is, so are we in this world. Many a sincere person, I mean, sincere Christian, does not see this his place in Christ. He may say, I am a poor sinner, and the cross just suits me. Blessedly true. But change the phrase: I am a poor sinner, and the judgment-seat just suits me! That will not do. Yet we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ. (2 Cor. v. 10.) There we must be fit for the judge. A dirty man is fit to be washed, a debtor for one who comes to pay his debts, but a righteous person for a judgment-seat; and we have here the measure of this: Christ, who sits to judge, is my righteousness. When I appear there, I shall appear in glory, shall be like Him, bear His image, having been raised in glory - my vile body fashioned like His glorious body. Here there is no room for fear. Grace has put the believer in Christ now, and through His work he is accepted in the Beloved; as He is so is the believer in this world. How can I fear if I am as Christ? Note, it is not as He was. He was without sin, knew no sin even when He was down here. If I say I have none, I deceive myself, and the truth is not in me. But my place before God is in Christ, not in the flesh. There is no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus. But as He is, now He has finished the work and by Himself purged our sins, having by one offering perfected for ever those who are sanctified, through the offering of His body once for all, and now as He is, so are we in this world, accepted in the Beloved. I repeat, what room is there for fear? Is not this love, perfect, thoughtful love, that in the place of judgment, there we find perfection? Then, I know I am like the judge, like the Lord in glory, like my Saviour. Gracious love that has thought of my sins, and spiritual death in them; blessed and blessing love, God's dwelling in me; and perfected love, in that I am as Christ, God's own Son, so that where surely fear might be, fear is cast out. Love has made me know now what love has done, and while it makes me enjoy itself now, God dwells in me and I in Him, makes me look back and see it active when I was a dead sinner, a love that flows from itself out to me, so that I reckon on it, yea, learn its perfectness when I might fear, and find that love had counsels of infinite wonder, to make me as Christ the Son of God, a man in glory, and righteousness of divine perfection, even the one before whose judgment-seat I shall stand, like Him, His righteousness mine. Love has left nothing unthought of that could make me exalt God as infinite in grace, and enjoy His goodness in a righteousness which He has made mine. There is no fear in love. Where shall fear find a place, from my state of death in sins up to the judgment-scat of Christ? He cannot love me too much, but He cannot love me more, and my heart is at rest.

And note here, though we pass through it, and it is very natural that we should, yet hope as to the judgment day is not the true feeling of a believer at all. We hope because we see goodness, and know there is such a thing as redemption; and we fear because we sec that there is that in us which cannot stand before the judgment of God. We vacillate, are ill at ease, and when the thought of judgment comes in, there is torment because there is fear. God would not have us so. He would not we should have torment. He would have us walk with Him happy, and in confidence. Fear is not confidence. But if we have to be judged, that is, our state decided according to our works in that day (for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat), we shall certainly be condemned. Enter not, says the heart that knows what sin, and what flesh is in God's sight - enter not, into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified. But the believer has learned this as to himself before the judgment comes, and has fled for refuge to the hope set before him, and knows that redemption is as certain as complete, and divine righteousness as satisfactory, if I may use so feeble a word, as his condemnation was certain. He does not mix up as his portion judgment for sin, and redemption front sin. He owns fully the one and his own deserved condemnation, and believes fully in the other. He does not destroy the force of both by mixing them together. Judgment according to what he is, would, he knows, have been certain condemnation. Divine righteousness (and we are the righteousness of God in Christ) is necessary and perfect acceptance. Grace has given it to him, has made it his. As He is, so are we in this world, for we have it by faith, we have boldness in the day of judgment, and there is no fear in love, our portion is perfected in this. Raised in glory, he is manifested before the judgment-seat, but glorified before he is there, his vile body fashioned like Christ's glorious body, by that power which can subdue all things to itself. Knowing then as he is known, he looks back from that blessedness, bearing the image of the heavenly, on the countless ways of love, which has brought a poor feeble creature, justified through Christ the Lord, all the way along, that he might know himself, and the love which has led, thought of, sustained, borne with, lifted up, and brought there to enjoy and praise, made like the Lord, the love that has done it, and to dwell in a holiness where no evil can enter, and which is only joy, and find Jesus the Lord of glory the First-born among many brethren. We love Him because He first loved us. But oh, how imperfect are our thoughts of that day. Our part is to dwell in and think of Christ, to serve Him with an undivided heart here.

Unselfishness.

J. N. Darby.

Christian Friend vol. 16, 1889, p. 51.

One thing impressed my mind most peculiarly when the Lord was first opening my eyes - I never found Christ doing a single thing for Himself. Here is an immense principle. There was not one act in all Christ's life done to serve or please Himself. An unbroken stream of blessed, perfect, unfailing love flowed from Him, no matter what the contradiction of sinners - one amazing and unwavering testimony of love, and sympathy, and help; but it was ever others, and not Himself, that were comforted, and nothing could weary it, nothing turn it aside. Now the world's whole principle is self, doing well for itself. (Psalm 49: 18.) Men know that it is upon the energy of selfishness they have to depend. Every one that knows anything of the world knows this. Without it the world could not go on. What is the world's honour? Self. What its wealth? Self. What is advancement in the world? Self. They are but so many forms of the same thing; the principle that animates the individual man in each is the spirit of self-seeking. The business of the world is the seeking of self, and the pleasures of the world are selfish pleasures. They are troublesome pleasures too; for we cannot escape from a world where God has said, "In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread till thou return to the ground," etc. Toil for self is irksome; but suppose a man finds out at length that the busy seeking of self is trouble and weariness, and having procured the means of living without it, gives it up, what then? He just adopts another form of the same spirit of self and turns to selfish ease.

I am not now speaking of vice and gross sin (of course every one will allow that to be opposite to the spirit of Christ), but of the whole course of the world. Take the world's decent, moral man, and is he an "epistle of Christ"! Is there in him a single motive like Christ's? He may do the same things; he may be a carpenter as Christ was said to be (Mark 6: 3); but he has not one thought in common with Christ.

As to the outside, the world goes on with its religion and its philanthropy. It does good, builds its hospitals, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, and the like; but its inward springs of action are not Christ's. Every motive that governed Christ all the way along is not that which governs men; and the motives which keep the world agoing are not those which were found in Christ at all.

The infidel owns Christ's moral beauty, and selfishness can take pleasure in unselfishness; but the Christian is to "put on Christ." He went about doing good all the day long; there was not a moment but He was ready as the servant in grace of the need of others. And do not let us suppose that this cost Him nothing. He had not where to lay His head; He hungered and was wearied; and when He sat down, where was it? Under the scorching sun at the well's mouth, whilst His disciples went into the city to buy bread. And what then? He was as ready for the poor, vile sinner who came to Him as if He had not hungered, neither was faint and weary. He was never at ease. He was in all the trials and troubles that man is in as the consequences of sin, and see how He walked! He made bread for others; but He would not touch a stone to turn it into bread for Himself. As to the moral motives of the soul, the man of the world has no one principle in common with Christ. If then the worldling is to read in the Christian the character of Christ, it is evident the world cannot read it in him; he is not a Christian; he is not in the road to heaven at all, and every step he takes only conducts him farther and farther from the object in view. When a man is in a wrong road, the farther he goes in it the more he is astray. J. N. D.

"The Word became flesh."

John 1: 1-34.

J. N. Darby.

Helps in Things concerning Himself 1 (1891) p. 265 - 276.

What characterises the Gospel of John, is the bringing forward, at the beginning, of the personal glory of the Lord Jesus; and then, at the end, the gift of the Spirit, the Comforter, whom He promised to send when gone.

In this part there are three distinct subjects. In the first place we have the divine nature of the Lord - what He is in Himself. Secondly, what He is in incarnation - the Word made flesh, as come into this world: and then, in the third place, you have the work that He does in this world. The first part is a little abstract. "In the beginning was the Word." What gives its value to all is, that He was God. It is the divine nature of the Lord, though still looking at Christ as the One who is revealed to us. This chapter begins before Genesis, for the third verse is the beginning of Genesis. When everything else began, He was there already: He never had a beginning: He made everything: all that had beginning of existence He was there to create. Nothing more distinctly marks the eternity of the Word than that He was there before everything. Then you get His personality, "The Word was with God;" and thirdly, not only was with God, but "was God;" and lest we should have any confusion about it (ver. 2), He always was God. The eternity of His existence, the distinctness of His nature, and divinity of His Person - all just in that one word. When we are brought into the same glory as He is, His Person is always maintained safely - personally distinct. When Moses and Elias were in the same glory as Christ, the Father's voice comes out, and says, "This is my beloved Son." If you take Stephen, heaven is opened to him just the same - he is a son of God too; but Christ was not looking up into heaven at some object that was to make Him like it. Stephen was looking up to become like something - Christ was an object to heaven. Having stated His divine Person, we get Him in His connection with us. (Ver. 4.) "The life was the light of men." He was not the light of angels, but specifically and definitely the light of men. The delight of Christ being with the sons of men, He becomes a man. It was the Son Himself come down here - the power of divine life walking through this world, and specially for man, as He became a man. This One in whom life was, was the light of men in a special way. Here He is speaking of what He is.

The thoughts and counsels of God were just this, to have us conformed to the image of His Son, before ever the world was. Of course it is not so yet, but "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." We shall be perfectly like Him in glory. "And he that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure." The thought of God is this blessed thought, that Christ having taken us up, He is never satisfied until He sees the fruit of the travail of His soul, in having us in the glory perfectly like and with Himself. We have got into the relationship, though we have not all the fruits of it - we are sons, though we have not yet a bit of the inheritance.

The light was perfectly adapted to man, but as regards this unbelieving world, "The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." Now you cannot have light shining in darkness, for it is light and no darkness; but then it was God in the world, and they would not own Him. That is where I get what man is. They who found out this, "to them gave he authority to become the sons of God;" no one could be that before. It is not that we have power, but the moment the Son comes into this world, this blessed relationship of son is brought out and revealed. He says this is what He has given us. We are brought into the same place as Christ. He has, in His own Person on the earth, shown the place of a Son - a Man, too, who would not go out of the place of a servant - there He showed the perfect pattern of our place upon earth, and He has given us the title to take this place as sons. The blessed Lord is in Himself the expression and pattern of this place. We are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus; we have the consciousness of it, and are really born too. "The darkness comprehended it not'' - but as many as received Him, to them He gave the title to take their place as sons. Just think what a place that is, when the world is passing away; that He who was from the beginning, comes in to show us light and life. Here is a Man who is in this place as Son (not like the law, which says you ought to do this and that), and who can bring us into the same place.

When the poor leper said, "Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean," He put forth His hand and touched him. He says: "I will not put you out of the camp; I will come to where all the defilement is." He touched him as man, His divine authority sends away the leprosy.

Then it goes on, "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." In this latter clause we get riot merely what He was in His nature, but the fact that the Word was made flesh. It is put in contrast with "The law was given by Moses;" "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," not only were there. We get this wonderful truth, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He was here as really a man as any of us, only sinless.

The law did not tell man what God was, or what man was; but it came and told man what he ought to be. That was all the law did. It was a perfect rule of life as it came. What was the God they were to love with all their heart? You might take Him as the Israelites did, the One who brought them out of the land of Egypt; but there was no other revelation of God except terror. If you are going to have righteousness, law detects your sin and says, you have done it - opens your eyes. When I come to what I get here, it is altogether opposite. It is God come as a man into the world of sinners. He comes veiled in humiliation. He so comes into the world of sinners in grace, that instead of saying, "You must behave yourself rightly," He comes Himself, not to judge, but to save. If I take the law, God never came out, and man could not get in. Now, what I get in the Person of Christ is that God did come out, and man is gone in. When I know Christ I know man has gone into the holiest of all in virtue of Christ's work. Grace comes abounding over all the sin, and truth comes too; not telling us what we ought to be, but what we are; and man does not like that. When I come and tell a man that truth came by Jesus Christ, he does not like it, for truth says, man is lost already. There was a Man down here after God's own heart - perfect holiness and perfect love, and when He came, every one was the opposite. No men are like Him. You never saw selfishness or self-seeking in Christ. I see perfect grace come out to poor sinners because they could not go in; and, on the other hand, perfect truth told about them and about Him too. It was no sending out a message to them, but He came to them. Here He was, walking up and down in this ruined world, seeking the confidence of man.

I believe the first thing that ruined Eve was that she lost confidence in God and trusted the devil. Then she goes her own way, and the lusts come in - self-will and sin. Christ comes into the world that we might be like Him, and more than that, God comes in and walks through this world in perfect holiness, that men might have confidence in Him. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself" - not judging it. For example: the woman that was a sinner, in Luke vii., and the woman of Samaria. If they were wretched and miserable, afraid to trust any one, here is a heart that they could trust, when they could trust no other, and that was the heart of God.  He says to poor wretched creatures, "You may trust Me."

"No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." People say, "was in the bosom of the Father;" but the fact is, He never left it in His divine nature. "Is in the bosom of the Father;" - that is, that He who is the centre and sole object of the Father's delight, comes, that we may understand what a Father's delight in a Son is, I say, Where can I learn what God is - what His thoughts and feelings are? There in the One who is the perfect concentration of all God's thoughts. The Son tells what the Father is to Him. It is the only way of knowing it. Therefore, He says, in John 17, "That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." Then, "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." He brings us into it: not as the world gives, for it gives away only what it can spare. The way that Christ gives is bringing us into what He enjoys Himself. "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you." "That they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves." "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them." "I have given unto them the words that thou gavest me;" and then, "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them." He makes us sons, and is Himself the expression and model of what a son is. He declares what the Father is to Him, and brings us into the enjoyment of it. He has revealed God in grace to sinners, and the Father in love to sons. He tells His Father's name, as He is enjoying it then. He says He is not going to leave us to ourselves; He leads us now in our weakness by His Spirit. How can I know what God is? If you are a poor sinner, the way you can know what He is, is by looking at Christ, seeing how He received poor sinners. Then, on the other hand, having the title of sons, what is He to a son? I say, you look at Christ, the only begotten Son. He will make you know what a father is to a son who is thus loved.

The true character of repentance is not like Judas going and hanging himself. Love having come in, with the abhorrence of sin, there is perfect confidence in Christ, like the poor woman putting her tears upon Him. The conscience must be reached, to know God. If grace comes, truth comes as well, and the conscience is reached. Not one without the other; but there must be confidence. People say, "If I perish I will perish at the foot of the cross!" Is that what you call confidence? There must be the light of God coming into the conscience, and then confidence is produced. There is never full confidence though, till we come to the "best robe," and then there is no more about us.

"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." There are the two parts of Christ's work (the full result will never be, till the new heavens and new earth); "Behold the Lamb of God," the Person and work. God provides Himself with a Lamb, God's Lamb, for us no doubt. He who knows what righteousness is, and consequently what sin is, He provides a Lamb and a Victim for Himself. "The Lamb of God" - He came to be made sin, the One without spot before God. It is not merely that my sins are put away, but I get One, who having been made sin, has perfectly glorified God about it all. "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him .... shall straightway glorify him." He does not wait for the glory of the kingdom. Sin has been dealt with once and for ever. It is the end of the world as regards man's history. "Now is the judgment of this world," God's work was done in it. The very wickedness that rejected Christ was the very thing that brought about man's salvation: it was the means for saving even the people who did it! The only part we had in the work that saves us was our sins. Man's history was over; then God's Lamb comes in - was made sin: and the whole righteousness of God, and His hatred of sin, comes out against One perfectly able to bear it, and all God's love to the poor sinner. There I get the work of the blessed Lamb of God.

I had a world of innocence; I have a world of sin, but a sacrifice; then I get a world of righteousness, that never can change. My rest is upon the work on the cross. "Behold the Lamb of God" runs on to the new heavens and earth. It is perpetual, and never can change. The work of His Lamb is always there; in fact there is no time with Him. "He will convince the world of sin," not wicked people in it. The Spirit of God comes down and says from God, "Where is my Son?" And the answer is, "We spat in his face and crucified him." There I have the work of Christ. The second thing is that He baptises with the Holy Ghost; and there I have the present consciousness and effect of what He has done, though as yet I have not all the fruits of it. It is a ministry of righteousness, because Christ is my righteousness in the presence of God: and a ministry of grace, because the Comforter is come down. He is the earnest of the inheritance, not the earnest of love, for the love of God is shed abroad in my heart.

Duties always flow from a relationship we are already in. Are you a child of God? Then conduct yourself as a child of God. We have the distinct source of this - we have the Object - we have the bread of God come down from heaven. The law never gave an object: the gospel does; it is Christ, and as I look at Him, I am changed into the same image.

And now is that where our hearts are? Has your eye been so occupied with that blessed One, that He is your Object? And then I add, is your conscience all clear? He appears in the presence of God for those who believe, but He has not got your sins up there. Have you the consciousness of that, setting to your seal that God is true? If it be so, are your hearts able to say with Paul - not "I have attained," but "This one thing I do?" Is that what fills your heart? We shall be sure to find out our weakness; but "My strength is made perfect in weakness." Is Christ the One that feeds your heart and that leads your heart?

God has come down that we might know the whole story for ourselves in Christ. Love coming to us, and righteousness going to God. What we have to seek in everything is to glorify God - a thousand circumstances in life, but only one Object. The question is, whether we are living Christ in the ordinary circumstances of life - in honest toil and labour, in the calling in which we are (though if we cannot abide in the calling with God, we must leave it). Is it the one object of our lives to show forth Christ, to manifest Him in our mortal bodies, to realise more of Him by the power of the Spirit of God - is that where we are? And with thankfulness of heart that He became that Lamb of God, and has given us the Spirit to dwell in us.

The Lord give us to know the grace that has sought us, the love that has bought us, and the glory that awaits us!

Notes of a Lecture.

Colossians 2: 1-10.

J. N. Darby.

Christian Friend vol. 15, 1888, p. 309.

The leading truth of this chapter is, that we are not alive in this world. "If ye be dead with Christ . . . why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" The Lord having died, death is written on everything, because we have died with Him, and take our whole place with Christ risen from the dead.

When we come to the details, it is touching to see the interest the apostle has in all the saints, and in those he has never seen. They are on Christ's heart, and as far as we have His heart they are on ours. We are poor, feeble things at it; but the Spirit of Christ in the believer is now concerned with the love of Christ, above all, to those who are His own, though we may not have seen their face in the flesh.

"What great conflict I have for you." There we see what prayer can be (the same word as that used for the Lord agonizing in Gethsemane). It is not merely going to God with confidence as to our Father with our needs, though we cannot get on if we do not; but this is overcoming Satan. Where we have to move the power of Satan (which we have to do in all service), the word of God is the weapon; but the first thing is for the heart to be with God about it. Paul had never seen these saints, but he got exercised with the Lord about them, and the Lord was as much in one place as another. He was with them, though Paul was not. It is positive conflict here for the blessing of others. We find a lack of that now. There is not that kind of interest with God, and connecting His people with Himself so as to set the heart in this conflict and exercise.

Verse 2. "Knit together in love." The presence of God, who is love, always gives that as the primary character — "that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend," etc. I cannot understand and apprehend God's mind unless I am with Him; and if I am really with Him I am with love. I cannot be with Him without having the spirit of love, for He is love. "To the full assurance of understanding;" that is, Christ must be the centre of all glory, and have everything united under Him; it cannot be otherwise. It is part of God's counsels. Taught of God, the soul enters into all this, and sees there is no possibility of its being other. The moment our relationship with God is settled, He tells us things that do not simply concern ourselves. "All things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you." That principle is brought out fully in Eph. 1. In the first seven verses you get the condition of the believer in these counsels. Then, when He has put us there, He "abounds toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will . . . to gather together in one all things in Christ." It concerns us, for we are joint-heirs; but God says "You are completely at home with Me as a child, and now I am going to tell you all My plans about glorifying Christ." There the heart gets its delight. You must first have salvation; but is that all you are going to think of — yourself? You must begin there; but supposing God has brought us to this place, and deigns to calls us friends? A friend is one to whom I go and tell what is in my heart — things that do not concern him at all. That is what God does to us; and do not tell me it is a matter of indifference to you. No matter to be treated by God as His friend? If by Christ my heart is in that place, it won't be so; as I walk in love and near to God, He unfolds to me what concerns the glory of Christ, and thus the Christian's heart gets an occupation that makes him grow. Every one must think of something, some more and some less; but God introduces me into a new world, and my heart gets opened and enlarged to all the thoughts of God.

Verse 10. We are "complete in Him." Christ being the Head, the Body completes it. As God, the Divine Being, He fills all in all; but as the exalted Man, we are members of His Body, and He is the Head — we the completeness of Him, "Christ in us, the hope of glory," makes us realize it all. That is the mystery of God — Jews and Gentiles brought together. "Mystery" does not mean something mysterious, but something into which we are only initiated by revelation. It means what we do understand; but should not if it were not revealed. The Christian is initiated. It was hidden, but now is made known, and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are there. The sphere into which the believer is brought is God's world. This is the fallen world of the first Adam; that is God's world, a new creation altogether. My body is of the old creation, but my soul and spirit, my life as a Christian, of the new. The new is faith; we are living outwardly in the old, with a nature that belongs to the new, and then comes exercise that we should not live according to the old but the new. "Ye are dead . . . Set your affection on things above."

Then the apostle takes up the two things of the present day: ritualism and rationalism (philosophy). A man may be very clever, but he can only spin his imaginings out of his own mind; he cannot bring out more than he has in him; he may catch flies, and does. Man in the flesh cannot get beyond man's mind, and that knows nothing about God. His conscience does, and wherever God works, it is with the conscience. If I could measure God by my thoughts I should be equal to Him, and He would not be God at all. In philosophy, if you leave God out, it is false; and if you bring Him in, it is religion and not philosophy. "Canst thou by searching find out God?" The moment I have to do with God, if He is God and I am man, my conscience must have to do with Him. In Christ I get the full and blessed revelation of all my heart can live in and by; all the affections of the heart are drawn out. If a man has a strong imagination, he goes to the poetry of ritualism; if he has a hard head, he goes to the reasonings of rationalism — all that is not after Christ.

I get a world of folly and wickedness, or philosophy; but (v. 9) I find the fulness of the Godhead bodily in the midst of it all — God in the midst of this world of sin. The living revelation of God Himself as a Man, one of ourselves, though perfectly sinless. "All the fulness of the Godhead bodily." What immense blessedness! He who is to be the centre of this new creation — where do I find Him? In all the glory up there? I find Him a carpenter's Son — if you take His appearance — and laid in a manger. He could not take the glory of the world, which was the vanity of man's heart; but He came in divine grace and love, that man, in his sins, wretchedness, folly, and pride, might have God close to him, and see One who was above all the folly, and showed out the nature of God. All His life was the unceasing expression of God, who is love, in all the sorrows of man. What do philosophers say when they look at the world with its misery, hatred, and corruption? They say misery is necessary to form man's character. I would rather see a criminal in his wretchedness, than a philosopher saying that misery is necessary. Sin has brought it in, and after the sin God has come into the midst of it all. If I say, "I am too vile for Him to be with me," that is truth in the inward parts. He has come as light, and brought the conscience to its bearings.

When do I find a man that told me all that ever I did? When the perfect love of God has brought it to me. Perfect in love and holiness, He was carrying love through the world that there might not be an aching heart that did not know it is in God. He was "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." To one awakened to see what the world is, it is rest to see Him who is perfect grace in it. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." When I have the living God present in this world of sin, I have the key to what God is, and how the evil came in; that man departed from Him. Now instead of theorizing on what the world is, I confess what I am.

"And ye are complete in Him." He was complete before man in his sins, and those who believe are complete before God in Him. This "completeness" was manifested to man, and now what is man (who believes)? "Complete in Him." There was the completeness of God before man in sins, and now the completeness of man before God in holiness. All the fulness of everything God could delight in is in Him, and I am in Him.

The moment Christ has come in to be my life, I say I am dead. What He has done is mine, because He is become my life, and therefore I do not own the old man; it is not I; I do not own it as myself. It is in me to hinder me if it can; but I have done with it. Christ is my life. "Putting off the body of the flesh," etc. (v. 11.) In Ephesians Paul takes up the counsels of God, and does not see Christ till He is dead; and he sees us dead in our sins before God. As to God, totally dead; alive as to sin. Christ comes down into death, puts away the sin as He comes down, and then Christ and we are quickened together. In Romans we are seen living in sin; not in respect to God, dead in sin. But man is guilty, for he is living in sin without God; and there you find he has to die, or the old tree will bring forth the old fruit. In Ephesians he is dead.

In this chapter (Col. 2) you get both. As dead, and as living. Both are true; living to sin, and dead to God. (vv. 12, 13.) "Buried with Him in baptism," verse 12, is Romans. And "you, being dead in your sins . . . hath He quickened together with Him," verse 13, is Ephesians. You must go to death, you must get the tree cut down; and then he shows it has been cut down in Christ's death. Looked at as dead, I want to be made alive. In Romans you do not get the Christian risen, in Colossians you do; but not sitting in heavenly places, as in Ephesians. Here he is in spirit and heart risen with Christ, and he is, to set his affection on things above, and the apostle speaks of the hope laid up for us in heaven. In Ephesians he is sitting there by faith. In Colossians he is risen as to the spirit of his mind; he has died and is risen, and has to look up. I do not get the Holy Ghost here. In Ephesians it is full union — Christ and we one in heavenly places. In Romans it is merely individual, and the Spirit seals. In Colossians you get divine life; for the man is risen. Thus for our instruction we get different aspects in the different epistles. Justification is in Romans, not in Ephesians; for there it is a new creation, and that God cannot justify. Here the soul is going through the world with the consciousness of being risen. Are you passing through the world with the consciousness of being risen? It is a question of realizing it first as a truth, and then getting our affections in it, as the effect of the blessed truth that "the fulness of the Godhead bodily," in Christ as a Man, has been down here, and we are in Him before God. He is the Head of all principality and power. Man (Christ as Man) has been exalted to this place, to be set over all the works of His hands. He is the one God delights in, and we are complete in Him. We live in the world as those risen with Him while here, and our affections up there. How far are your hearts living in the objects Christ has brought you to? Christ brings us to another world. Adam and sin brought us to this. Are our hearts living in that? After such a thing as Christ Himself visiting us, and dying for us, how far is He all to us? J. N. D. (1871.)

A Letter on "The Praise of Men"

J. N. Darby.

My dear Friend and Brother in Jesus Christ:

It gives me much pleasure to see your translation of -. I reserve the pleasure of reading it, or rather of having it read to me, for moments in which the Lord says to us, as He did to the apostles, "Come ye yourselves apart, and rest a while." But I cannot refrain from telling you, my dear friend, that the pleasure that the appearance of your work gave me has been somewhat abated by the too favorable opinion which you have expressed in your preface respecting me. Before I had read a word in your translation, I made a present of a copy to a very dear and sincere friend of mine, who brought me word that you had spoken in praise of my piety in your preface. The Passage produced the same effect on my friend that it did on me, when I afterwards saw it. I hope, therefore, that you will not take in ill-part what I am about to say to you on the subject, and which is the fruit of a tolerably long experience.

Pride is the greatest of all evils that beset us, and of all our enemies it is that which dies the slowest and hardest, even the children of the world are able to discern this. Madame De Stael said, on her death-bed, "Do you know what is the last to die in man? It is self-love." God hates pride above all things, because it gives to man the place that belongs to Him who is above, exalted over all. Pride intercepts communion with God, and draws down His chastisement, for "God resists the proud." He will destroy the name of the proud, and we are told that "there is a day appointed when the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man laid low." I am sure, then, you will feel, my dear friend, that one can not do another a greater injury than by praising him, and feeding his pride. "He that flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a snare for his feet," and, "A flattering mouth worketh ruin." Be assured, moreover, that we are too short-sighted to be able to judge of the degree of our brother's piety; we are not able to judge it aright without the balance of the sanctuary, and that is in the hand of Him who searches the heart. Judge nothing therefore before the time. until the Lord come, and makes manifest the counsels of the heart, and renders to every man his praise. Till then let us not judge our brethren, whether for good or for evil, but with becoming moderation, and remember that the surest and best judgment is what we form of ourselves when we esteem others better than ourselves.

If I were to ask you how you know that I am one of the most advanced in the Christian career, and an eminent servant of God, you would, no doubt, be at a loss to reply. You would perhaps cite my published works; but do you not know, my dear friend and brother - You who can preach an edifying sermon as well as I can that the eyes see further than the feet go? and that unhappily we are not always, nor in all things, what our sermons are; that we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." I will not tell you the opinion I have of my will, for in doing so, I will probably all the while be seeking my own glory; and, while seeking my own glory, appear humble - which I am not. I had rather tell you what our Master thinks of me - He that searcheth the heart and speaks the truth, who is "the Amen, the faithful Witness," and has often spoken in my inmost soul, and I thank Him for it; but, believe me, He has never told me I am an "eminent Christian and advanced in the ways of godliness." On the contrary, He tells me very plainly that if I knew my own place, I should find it that of the chief of sinners, and least of all saints. His judgment, surely, my dear friend, I should take rather than yours.

The most eminent Christian is one of those of whom no one has ever heard anyone speak, some poor laborer, or servant, whose all is Christ, and who does all for His eye, and His alone. The first shall be last. Let us be persuaded, my dear friend, to praise the Lord alone. He only is worthy of being praised, revered, and adored. His goodness is never sufficiently celebrated. The song of the blessed (Rev. 5) praises none but Him who redeemed them with His blood. It contains not one word of praise for any of their own number - not a word that classes them into eminent, or not eminent - all distinctions are lost in the common title the redeemed, which is the happiness and glory of the whole Body.

Let us strive to bring our hearts into unison with that song, in which we all hope that our feeble voices will one day mingle. This will be our happiness, even here below, and contribute to God's glory, which is wronged by the praise that Christians too often bestow on each other. We cannot have two mouths - one for God's praise, and one for man's. May we, then, do now what the seraphim do above, who with two wings cover their faces, as a token of their confusion before the holy presence of the Lord; with two cover their feet, as if to hide their steps from themselves; and with the remaining two fly to execute their Lord's will, while they cry, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts; all the earth is full of His glory."

Excuse these few lines of Christian exhortation, which I am sure will, sooner or later, become useful to you, by becoming part of your own experience. Remember me in your prayers, as I pray that the blessing of the Lord may rest upon you and your labors. If ever you print another edition - as I hope you will - strike out, if you please, the two passages to which I have drawn your attention; and call me simply "a brother, and minister in the Lord." This is honor enough, and needs no addition.

Note:

This letter was copied from a tract from Bible Truth Publishers, and may still be available from them. Thanks to their publication, (and possibly others) its words are still in existence, for it is nowhere found in Darby's Collected Writings, Letters, or his writings in the public prints.

Later found under the title "A Weighty Word on the Praise of Men.'" in 'Words of Faith' 3 (1884), p. 130-133. Written in 1847 by J. N. D.

A Few Helpful Remarks For the Present Times

<35001E> 5

{Compare 36_mis5, page 145. This article is understood to have been written by John Jewell Penstone.}

This is the time of trial for the beloved brethren gathered to the name, and for the name, of the Lord Jesus, because the pretensions and energy of man are strongly manifesting themselves. It is not an easy thing to content ourselves with being simply that which we are in reality before God. Times of "revival" make manifest the thoughts of many hearts; but to learn, in a day of grace, to be still, and know that God is God, is completely above the education of the flesh.

The spirit of the age affects many Christians, who labour to restore old things for the service of God, instead of being broken before Him by the sense of their downfall. I do not at all doubt their sincerity, but I fear that they have not judged themselves and they do not know the true state of ruin surrounding them; so that they cannot have an adequate confidence in the living God alone, as the God of all resources, in the midst of a scene where man has failed everywhere and in everything. We ought never to be afraid of the whole truth. To confess openly that which we are in the presence of that which God is, is always the way to peace and blessing. Even when only two or three are together before God, if it be thus with them there will be no disappointments nor deluded hopes. If the wells dug in Abraham's days have been filled and stopped up by earth, we have to do with a God who can bring water out of the stricken rock, and make it flow in the dry desert, to refresh His thirsty, weary people. I do not envy the labour of those who dig channels in the sand for water-courses which, after all, may take another direction.

6 God's ways of acting, in all times of blessing, consist in reproducing the glories and the work of the Lord Jesus. The darker becomes the long night of apostasy, the more distinctly the Light of Life makes itself seen. The word for the remnant is, "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts." He is the only centre of gathering. Men may make confederations amongst themselves, having many things for their object or aim, but the communion of saints cannot be known unless each line converges towards this living Centre. The Holy Ghost does not gather saints around mere views, however true they may be, upon that which the church is, upon that which it has been, or that which it may be, on the earth, but He always gathers them around that blessed Person, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. 18: 20) One may be certain that Satan and the flesh will seek to resist this work and this path of the Lord, or seek to overturn them.

We need to be watchful against boasting, as people do in these days; need to be still in the presence of God. There is much independence and self-will almost everywhere. "We shall do great things" is the most inappropriate cry we can hear just at this time, when the light has shown how little we have done. God would have us know His truth as that which delivers us. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." This liberty is not that of the flesh, because it penetrates our hearts with all the reality of a separation well known to God, who is holy. We enter, unhinderedly into this position, with hearts broken and humiliated. If any one speaks of separation from evil, without being humiliated, let him take care lest his position becomes simply only that which at all times has constituted sects, and produced, doctrinal heresy.

7 As to our service we have seen our precious Lord and Master, in profound self-abasement, wash the feet of His disciples, making Himself an example - for whom? For us, surely. Now I know, at the present time, of no service which is worthy of Him, or agreeable to Him, if it is not done in humiliation. This is not the time to speak of a place for ourselves. If the church of God, so dear to Christ, is dishonoured in this world; if it is scattered, ignorant, afflicted, he who has the mind of Christ will always take the lowest place. True service of love will seek to give according to the need, and because of their need, he will never think of slighting the objects of the Master's love because of their necessity. Men taught of God, for His service, go forth from a place of strength, where they have learnt their own weakness and their own nothingness. They find that Jesus is everything in the presence of God, and Jesus is everything for them in all things, and everywhere. Such men, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, are real helps for the children of God, and they will not contend for a place, or a distinction, or for authority, amongst the scattered flock. The communion of a man with God about the church will shew itself in a willingness to be nothing in himself, and such a one will rejoice in his heart to spend and to be spent.

8 In our personal recollections we have lessons to learn with fear and trembling. May the thought of power never occupy our hearts too much. "Power belongeth unto God." Nearly twenty years ago there was a time of great excitement; everywhere people sought power, and would have crossed the seas to find it. Many thought of the church, but it was rather the church in power. Feeling that power was lost, they said: How are we to regain it? Thenceforth they again occupied themselves with earthly things, as if they could work deliverance on this earth. Many remember how, at that time, Satan was able to bring man forward; the result has been the same everywhere.

Whatever was the form that such efforts adopted, they were followed by deceptions and invariably it was agreed to renounce them (for all failed of their end), and nothing but sects was the result. There were deadly marks of hostility against the Lord Jesus; or else, if His name was left without spot, the path was prepared for another terrible result, namely, to annul the presence of the Holy Spirit who alone can glorify Jesus.

The great Shepherd will not forget the work done in His name, with a willing heart, for His beloved sheep, so poor and needy. Abundant praise and an unfading crown of glory, in the day of His appearing, will be the portion of those who act thus. God will remember all He can remember, and nothing will lose its reward. I am not surprised at the disappointments which have followed all the efforts people have made in the church to introduce some formal system of ministry, authority or government. God cannot permit us to enlarge the ground upon which, in these days, He is pleased to find and to bless His saints. We know well what is the way of the flesh which has never concerned itself at all about the fall of the church: it is to seek to occupy a position among men in the place where God has never granted it.

9 There is great instruction in the conduct of Zerubbabel, recounted in the book of Ezra. The son and heir of David takes his place with the remnant returned from the captivity; he is content to labour at Jerusalem, without throne or crown. Building the altar of the Lord and the house of God, he served God and his generation in all simplicity. Heir of the place which Solomon had occupied in days of prosperity and glory, he spoke not of his birth, nor of his rights. However, he is faithful in all the path of separation, of sorrow, and of conflicts he is obliged to pass through.

May the Lord give us to be more and more confident in Himself, in these days of trial. "When I am weak, then am I strong," is a lesson Paul had to learn by a very humiliating process. If we speak of our testimony upon the earth, it will soon be evident that all is but weakness, and, like the seed lost upon the wayside the testimony will like wise end to our shame. But if the living God has by us a testimony to His own glory upon the earth, then the sense of weakness will only bring us more directly into the place of His power. An apostle with a thorn in the flesh learnt the sufficiency of the grace of Christ. A little remnant is re-united and gathered, having nothing wherein it can glory in the flesh; but it is thus that it is ready to remain faithful to the name of Jesus, when that which seemed to be something before men has failed.

10 Neither the anger, nor the prudence, nor the pretensions of man can do anything, in the state of confusion in which the church is now. I freely own that I have no hope in the efforts which many make to assure themselves an ecclesiastical position. When the house is ruined in its foundations by an earthquake it matters little how one tries to make it an agreeable dwelling-place. We shall do better to remain where the first discovery of the ruin of things by man's deed has placed us - with our faces in the dust. Such is the place which belongs to us by right, and, after all, it is the place of blessing. In Revelation, it is in falling at the feet of Christ that John learns the actual state of the churches. Afterwards he was taken to heaven, that from thence he might see the judgments coming subsequently upon the earth; but the evil in the church cannot be well known, unless one is humbled at the feet of Jesus.

11 I have read of a time when several were gathered together in such sorrow of heart, that for a long time they could not utter a single word; but the floor of the meeting-room was wet with their tears. If the Lord would grant us such meetings again, it would be our wisdom to frequent these houses of tears. "They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy." (Ps. 126: 5) It is not only for the earthly remnant that this is true, it is also written for us. I would willingly take a long journey to join these afflicted ones; but I would not go a step with the object of receiving from the hands of most excellent men power to overturn all today, and reconstruct tomorrow.

All we can do is to walk watchfully, but quietly thinking of the interests of the Lord Jesus, and having nothing for ourselves, nothing to gain, and nothing to lose. The path of peace, the place of testimony, is in seeking to please God. We need to watch over ourselves, lest, after having been preserved from the corruption of the age by the very precious truths revealed to us in our weakness, we should be taken in the net of presumption, or thrown into insubordination. These are things which God can never recognise or tolerate, since we are called to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

The word of God remains the same today as always. Nothing which has happened has changed His purpose, which is to glorify the Lord Jesus. If we are humble before Him, all that which is for the glory of Christ will be of the greatest importance to us. What would we more?

Passages in which each name occurs

Passages in which each name occurs.

JESUS CHRIST.

Romans 1: 1. Paul, bondsman of Jesus Christ (a) called apostle, &c.

6. Among whom are ye also (the) called of Jesus Christ.

8. First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is proclaimed in the whole world.

2: 16. In (the) day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my glad tidings by Jesus Christ.

3: 21, 22. But now without law righteousness of God is manifested, borne witness to by the law and the prophets, righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ, towards all, and upon all those who believe.

5: 15. For if by the offence of one the many have died, much rather has the grace of God, and the free gift in grace, which (is) by one man, Jesus Christ, abounded unto the many.

15: 8. For I say that Jesus Christ became a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God.

16: 25-27. Now to Him that is able to establish you, according to my glad tidings, and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, as to which silence has been kept in the times of the ages, but which has now been made manifest, and by prophetic scriptures, according to commandment of the eternal God made known for obedience of faith to all the nations, the only wise God, through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever.

1 Corinthians 1: 1. Paul (a) called apostle of Jesus Christ, by God's will

2 Corinthians 1: 1 Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will

4: 6. Because (it is) the God who spake that out of darkness light should shine, who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in (the) face of Jesus Christ.

5: 17, 18. The old things have passed away, behold all things have become new; and all things (are) of the God who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and given to us the ministry of that reconciliation.

8: 5 Do ye not recognise yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed ye be reprobates?

Galatians 1: 1 Paul, apostle not from man nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God (the) Father, who raised him up from among the dead.

12. For neither did I receive them from man, neither was I taught (them) but by revelation of Jesus Christ.

2: 16. We, Jews by nature, and not sinners of (the) nations, but knowing that a man is not justified on the principle of works of law (nor) but by the faith of Jesus Christ.

3: 1. O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you, to whom as before your very eyes Jesus Christ has been portrayed, crucified (among you).

22. The scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise, on the principle of faith of Jesus Christ, should be given to those that believe

Ephesians 1: 1. Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ, God's will.

5. Having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.

2: 20. Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the corner-stone.

Philippians 1: 1. Paul and Timotheus, bondsmen of Jesus Christ, to all the saints, &c.

6. Having confidence of this very thing, that He who has begun in you a good work, will complete it to Jesus Christ's day

11. Being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness which (is) by Jesus Christ to God's glory and praise.

19. For I know that this shall turn out for me to salvation, through your supplication and (the) supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

2: 21. For all seek their own things, not the things Of Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy 1: 1. Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the command of God our Saviour, and of Christ Jesus our hope.

16. But for this reason mercy was shewn me. that in me, (the) first, Jesus Christ might display the whole long-suffering, for a delineation of those about to believe on Him to life eternal.

2 Timothy 1: 1. Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will, according to promise of life, the (life) which (is) in Christ Jesus.

2: 3. Take thy share therefore in suffering, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Titus 1: 1. Paul, bondsman of God, and apostle of Jesus Christ, according to (the) faith of God's elect, and knowledge of the truth which (is) according to piety.

Philemon 9 For love's sake I rather exhort, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also prisoner of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 10: 10. By which will we have been sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

13: 8. Jesus Christ (is) the same yesterday, and to day, and to the ages (to come).

20, 21 But the God of peace who brought again from among (the) dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, in (the power) of (the) blood of (the) eternal covenant, perfect you in every good work to the doing of His will, doing in you what is pleasing before Him through Jesus Christ; to whom (be) glory for the ages of ages.

1 Peter 1: 1. Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ, to (the) sojourners of (the) dispersion, &c

2 Elect according to (the) fore-knowledge of God (the) Father by sanctification of (the) Spirit, unto (the) obedience, and sprinkling of (the) blood of Jesus Christ.

3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His great mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope, through (the) resurrection of Jesus Christ from among (the) dead.

6, 7. Wherein ye exult, for a little while at present, if needed, put to grief by various trials, that the proving of your faith much more precious than of gold which perishes, though it be proved by fire, be found to praise, and glory and honour in (the) revelation of Jesus Christ.

13. Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober, (and) hope with perfect stedfastness in the grace (which will be) brought to you at (the) revelation Of Jesus Christ.

2: 4, 5. To whom coming, a living stone, cast away indeed as worthless by men, but with God chosen, precious, yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

3: 21. . . . . which figure also now saves you, (even) baptism, not a putting away of (the) filth of flesh, but (the) demand as before God of a good conscience, by (the) resurrection of Jesus Christ who is at the right hand of God, gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to Him.

4: 11. If anyone speak--as oracles of God; if any one minister--as of strength which God supplies, that God in all things may be glorified. through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and the might for the ages of ages Amen.

2 Peter 1: 1 Simon Peter, bondsman and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have received like precious faith with us, &c

1 John 4: 2, 3 Hereby ye know the Spirit of God, every Spirit which confesses Jesus Christ, come in flesh is of God; and every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God.

2 John 7. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, they who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in flesh.

Jude 1 Jude, bondsman of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to the called ones, beloved in God (the) Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ.

Revelation 1: 1 Revelation of Jesus Christ, Which God gave Him, to shew to His bondsmen what must shortly take place; and He signified it, sending by His angel to His bondsman John (2) who testified the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, all things that he saw.

5. Grace to you and peace from (Him) that is, and who was, and who is to come; and from the seven spirits which (are) before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born from among the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.

9. I, John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation, and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.

JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.

Romans 1: 4. .... concerning His Son (come of David's seed according to flesh, marked out Son of God in power, according to (the) Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of (the) dead), Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom we have received grace and apostleship, &c

5: 21. But where sin abounded, grace has overabounded, in order that, even as sin has reigned in (the power of) death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

7: 25. O wretched man that I (am)! who shall deliver me out of this body of death? I thank God. through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jude 25. To Him that is able to keep you without stumbling, and to set (you) with exultation, blameless before His glory, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, (be) glory, majesty, might, and authority, from before the whole age, and now, and to all the ages. Amen.

OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Romans 1: 7. Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and (our) Lord Jesus Christ.

5: 1. Therefore, having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ

2: And not only (that), but (we are) making our boast in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom now we have received the reconciliation.

15: 6 That ye may with one accord, with one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

29, 30. But I know that, coming to you, I shall come in the fulness of (the) blessing of Christ, but I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in prayers for me to God, &c.

16: 20. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

24. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

1 Corinthians 1: 2. ... with all that call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in every place, both theirs and ours.

7. So that ye come short in no gift, awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

8. Who shall also confirm you to (the) end, unimpeachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

10. Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all say the same thing, and that there be not among you divisions, &c.

5: 4. For I, as absent in body, but present in Spirit, have already judged as present, (to deliver) in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [ye and my spirit being gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,] him that has so wrought this, &c.

15: 57. But thanks to God, who gives us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 1: 3. Blessed (be) the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement

8: 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes He being rich became poor, in order that ye by His poverty might be enriched.

Galatians 1: 3. Grace to you, and peace from God (the) Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

6: 14. But far be it from me to boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom (the) world is crucified to me, and I to the world.

18. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, (be) with your Spirit, brethren. Amen.

Ephesians 1: 3. Blessed (be) the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.

17 .... That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you (the) spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.

3: 14. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father (of our Lord Jesus Christ) of whom every family in (the) heavens and on earth is named, in order that He may give you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inner man, &c.

5: 20. Giving thanks at all times for all things to Him, (who is) God and (the) Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

6: 24. Grace with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.

Colossians 1: 3. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ continually (when) praying for you

1 Thessalonians 1: 3. Remembering unceasingly your work of faith, and labour of love, and enduring constancy of hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.

5: 9. Because God has not set us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has died for us, that whether we may be watching or sleep, we may live together with Him.

23. And your whole spirit and soul and body, be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

28. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (be) with you.

2 Thessalonians 1: 8 . . . taking vengeance those who know not God, and those who do not obey the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ.

11, 12. To which end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of the calling, and fulfil all (the) good pleasure of (His) goodness, and (the) work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus (Christ) may be glorified in you, and ye in Him according to the grace of our God and of (the) Lord Jesus Christ.

2: 1. Now we beg you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together

2: 14. Whereto He has called you by our glad tidings to (the) obtaining of (the) glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

16. But our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us, and given (us) eternal consolation and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts, and establish you in every good work and word.

3: 6. Now we enjoin you, brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw from every brother walking disorderly, and not according to the instruction which he received from us

l8. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (be) with you all.

1 Timothy 6: 3 If any one teach differently, and do not accede to sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching which (is) according to piety, he is puffed up, knowing nothing, &c

14. I enjoin thee.... that thou keep the commandment spotless, irreproachable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Philemon 25. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (be) with your spirit.

1 Peter 1: 3. Blessed (be) the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope, through (the) resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead.

2 Peter 1: 8. For these things existing and abounding in you, make (you) to be neither idle nor unfruitful as regards the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

14 Knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle is speedily (to take place), as also our Lord Jesus Christ has manifested to me.

16. For we have not made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, following cleverly imagined fables, but having been eye-witnesses of His majesty.

Jude 17. But ye, beloved, remember the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c.

31. Keep yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life

LORD, OR THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Romans 13. 14. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not take forethought for the flesh, to fulfil (its) lusts.

1 Corinthians 1: 3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and (the) Lord Jesus Christ.

16: 22, 23. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (be) with you.

2 Corinthians 1: 2. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and Lord Jesus Christ.

13: 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit (be) with you all.

Ephesians 1: 2 Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and (the) Lord Jesus Christ.

6: 23 Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God (the) Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

Philemon 1: 2. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and (the) Lord Jesus Christ.

4: 23. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (be) with your spirit.

Colossians 1: 2. Grace to you and peace from God our Father (and Lord Jesus Christ).

1 Thessalonians 1: 1 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus to the assembly of Thessalonians in God (the) Father and (the) Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 1: 1, 2. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus to the assembly of Thessalonians in God our Father, and Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

12. .... So that the name of our Lord Jesus (Christ) may be glorified in you and ye in Him, according to the grace of our God and of (the) Lord Jesus Christ.

3: 12. Now such we enjoin and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that working quietly they eat their bread.

2 Timothy 4: 22. The Lord Jesus Christ (be) with your spirit.

Philemon 3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and (the) Lord Jesus Christ.

James 1: 1. James, bondsman of God, and of (the) Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which (are) in the dispersion, greeting.

2 John 3. Grace shall be with you, mercy, peace, from God the Father, and from (the) Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

Revelation 22: 21. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (be) with all the saints.

JESUS.

Romans 3: 26. For (the) shewing forth of His righteousness, in the present time, so that He should be just, and justify him that is of the faith of Jesus.

8: 11. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from among (the) dead dwell in you, He that has raised up Christ from among (the) dead, shall] quicken your mortal bodies also, on account of His Spirit which dwells in you.

1 Corinthians 12: 3. I give you therefore to know, that no one speaking in (the power of the) Spirit of God says curse (on) Jesus; and no one can say, Lord Jesus, unless in (the power of the) Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 4: 5. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord, and ourselves your bondsmen for Jesus' sake.

10, 11. Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body: for we who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

14. Knowing that He who has raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also through Jesus and shall present (us) with you.

Ephesians 4: 21 .... if ye have heard Him and been instructed in Him as (the) truth is in Jesus.

Philippians 2: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly, and earthly and infernal beings.

1 Thessalonians 4: 14. For if we believe that Jesus has died and has risen again, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.

Hebrews 2: 9 But we see Jesus who (was) made somewhat inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, so that by the grace of God He should taste death for everything.

6: 20. Where Jesus is entered (that is, within the veil) as forerunner for us, become for ever a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

7: 22. By so much Jesus became surety of a better covenant

10: 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness for entering into the (Holy of) Holies by the blood of Jesus the new and living way which He has dedicated for us through the veil, that is His flesh, &c

13: 12. Wherefore also Jesus, that He might sanctify the people by His own blood, suffered without the gate.

1 John 2: 22. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

4: 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

5: 1. Every one that believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God.

5. Who is he that gets the victory over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Revelation 1: 9. I, John . . . . was in the island called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus.

12: 17. And the dragon was angry with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus.

14: 12. Here is the endurance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

17: 6. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

19: 10. And I fell before his feet to do him homage. And he says to me, See (thou do it) not I am thy fellow-bondsman and the (fellow-bondsman) of thy brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Do homage to God For the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.

20: 4. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them, and the souls of those beheaded on account of the testimony of Jesus, and on account of the word of God; and those who had not done homage to the beast, nor to his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and hand, and they lived and reigned with Christ one thousand years

LORD, OR THE LORD JESUS, OR JESUS AS LORD.

Romans 10: 9. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from among (the) dead, thou shalt be saved.

14: 14. I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself, except to him who reckons anything to be unclean, to that man (it is) unclean.

1 Corinthians 5: 5. To deliver him (I say), (being) such to Satan for destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

6: 11. And these things were some of you; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

11: 23. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which He was delivered up, took bread, &c.

12: 3. I give you therefore to know, that no one, speaking in (the power of the) Spirit of God, says, Curse (on) Jesus; and no one can say Lord Jesus unless in (the power of the) Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 1: 14. .... we are your boast, even as ye (are) ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.

4: 14. Knowing that He who has raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also through Jesus, and shall present (us) with you.

Galatians 6: 17. For the rest, let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus.  Ephesians 1: 15. Wherefore I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which (is) in you, and the love which (ye have) towards all the saints, &c

Philippians 2: 19. But I hope in (the) Lord Jesus, to send Timotheus to you shortly.

Colossians 3: 17. And everything whatever ye do in word or in deed, (do) all things in (the) name of (the)

Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father by Him

1 Thessalonians 2: 15. . . The Jews who have both slain the Lord Jesus and the prophets.

4: 1, 2. For the rest then brethren, we beg you and exhort in (the) Lord Jesus, even as ye have received from us how ye ought to walk and please God, even as ye also do walk, that ye would abound still more For ye know what changes we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

2 Thessalonians 1: 7. And to you that are troubled, repose with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with (the) angels of His power in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who know not God, and those who do not obey the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2: 8. And then the lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of His month, and shall annul by the appearing of His coming.

Philemon 5. Hearing of thy love and the faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus, and towards all saints, &c.

Revelation 22: 20. He that testifies these thin--s says, Yea, I come quickly. Amen, come Lord Jesus.

JESUS OUR LORD.

Romans 4: 24.... Believing upon Him who has raised from among, the dead Jesus our Lord, who has been delivered for our offences, and has been raised for our justification, &c.

1 Corinthians 9: 1. Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not ye my work in (the) Lord?

2 Peter 1: 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in (the) knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things which relate to life and godliness, &c.

OUR LORD JESUS.

2 Corinthians 11: 31. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus knows, He who is blessed for ever, that I do not lie.

1 Thessalonians 2: 19. For what (is) our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting? (are) not ye also before our Lord Jesus at His coming? for ye are our glory and joy.

1 Thessalonians 3: 11. But our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.

13. ... in order to the confirming of your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.

THE ONE, JESUS CHRIST

Romans 5: 17. (For if by the offence of the one, death reigned by the One, much rather shall those who receive the abundance of grace, and of the free gift of righteousness, reign in life by the One, Jesus Christ.)

JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED.

1 Corinthians 2: 2. For I did not judge (it well) to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

JESUS CHRIST THE FOUNDATION.

1 Corinthians 3: 11 For other foundation can no man lay, besides that which (is) laid, which is Jesus Christ.

ONE LORD JESUS CHRIST

1 Corinthians 8: 6. Yet to us (there is) One God the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom (are) all things, and we by Him.

THE SON OF GOD, JESUS CHRIST.

2 Corinthians 1: 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who has been preached by us among you [by me, and Silvanus, and Timotheus], did not become yea and nay, but yea is in Him.

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST SAVIOUR.

Philippians 3: 20. For our commonwealth has its existence in (the) heavens, from which also we await the Lord Jesus Christ (as) Saviour.

JESUS CHRIST LORD.

Philippians 2: 11. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ (is) Lord to God (the) Father's glory.

JESUS, OUR DELIVERER FROM THE COMING WRATH

1 Thessalonians 1: 10. .... and to await His Son from the heavens, whom He raised from among the dead, Jesus, our Deliverer from the coming wrath.

JESUS CHRIST RAISED FROM AMONG (THE) DEAD OF (THE) SEED OF DAVID

2 Timothy 2: 8. Remember Jesus Christ raised from among (the) dead of (the) seed of David, according to my glad tidings.

OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

2 Timothy 1: 9, 10. . . who has saved us, and has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to (His) own purpose and grace, which (was) given to us in Christ Jesus before (the) ages of time, but has been made manifest now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to life light and incorruptibility by the glad tidings.

OUR GREAT GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

Titus 2: 13. Awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR.

Titus 3: 6. According to His own mercy, He saved us through (the) washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit which He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

JESUS THE SON OF GOD.

Hebrews 4: 14. Having therefore a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession.

JESUS MEDIATOR OF A NEW COVENANT.

Hebrews 12: 24. .... and to Jesus, Mediator of a new covenant, and to (the) blood of sprinkling, speaking better than Abel.

OUR LORD JESUS THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP.

Hebrews 13: 20. But the God of peace, who brought again from among (the) dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in (the power) of (the) blood of (the) eternal covenant, perfect you in every good work to the doing of His will, &c.

OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST (LORD) OF GLORY.

James 2: 1. My brethren, do not have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ (Lord) of glory, with respect of persons.

OUR GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

2 Peter 1: 1. Simon Peter, bondsman and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have received like precious faith with us, through (the) righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, &c.

OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

2 Peter 1: 11. For thus shall the entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be richly furnished unto you.

THE LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

2 Peter 2: 20. For if after having escaped the pollutions of the world through (the) knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, again entangled, they are subdued by these, their last state is worse than the first

HIS SON JESUS CHRIST.

1 John 1: 3. ... Our fellowship (is) indeed with the Father and With His Son Jesus Christ. 3: 23 And this is His commandment, that we believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and that we love one another, even as He gave us commandment.

20. And we are in Him (that is) true, in His Son Jesus Christ.

HIS SON, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.

1 Corinthians 1: 2. God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into (the) fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

JESUS CHRIST HIS SON.

1 John 1: 7. If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

JESUS CHRIST (THE) RIGHTEOUS.

1 John 2: 1. If any man sin, we have a Patron with the Father, Jesus Christ (the) Righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

JESUS THE CHRIST.

1 John 5: 6. This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus the Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood.

THE ONLY MASTER AND OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Jude 4. For certain men have got in unnoticed, they who of old were marked out beforehand to this sentence, ungodly (persons) turning the grace of our God into dissoluteness, and denying the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I JESUS

Revelation 22: 16. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies.

CHRIST JESUS

Romans 3: 24. Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption which (is) in Christ Jesus.

6: 3. Are you ignorant that we, as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

11. So also ye reckon yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

8: 1, 2. There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.

15: 5. Now the God of endurance and of encouragement give to you to be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus.

16, 17. .... I have written to you .... as putting you in mind, because of the grace given to me by God, for me to be minister of Christ Jesus to the nations, carrying on as a sacrificial service, the message of glad tidings of God, in order that the offering up of the nations might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. I have therefore (whereof) to boast in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God.

16: 3. Salute Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-workmen in Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians i. 2. Paul .... to the assembly of God which is in Corinth, to (those) sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, &c.

4. I thank; my God always about you, in respect of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus, that in everything ye have been enriched in Him, &c.

1 Corinthians 1: 30. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

4: 15. For if ye should have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the glad tidings.

16: 24. My love (be) with you all in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 2: 4. And (it was) on account of the false brethren brought in surreptitiously, who came in surreptitiously to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.

16. .... knowing that a man is not justified on the principle of works of law (nor) but by the faith of Jesus Christ, we also have believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified on the principle of (the) faith of Christ, and not of works of law.

3: 14. .. . that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

26 For ye are all God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus.

28. There is no Jew nor Greek, there is no bondsman nor freeman; there is no male and female; for ye all are one in Christ Jesus.

4: 14. . . ye received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

5: 6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision has any force, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.

6: 15. For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision: but new creation.

Ephesians 1: 1. Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will, to the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus, who are at Ephesus.

2: 6, 7. God .... has raised (us) up together, and has made (us) sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, that He might display in the coming, ages the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

10. For we are His workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them.

13. .... But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were afar off; are become nigh by the blood of the Christ.

3: 6......... that (they who are of) the nations should be joint-heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus by the glad tidings.

12............ To Him be glory in till assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages.

Philippians 1: 1. Paul and Timotheus, bondsmen of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with (the) overseers and ministers.

8. For God is my witness how I long after you all in (the) bowels of Christ Jesus.

26. That your boasting may abound in Christ Jesus through me by my presence again with you.

2: 5. For let this mind be in you which (was) also in Christ Jesus, who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God.

3: 3. For we are the circumcision who worship by (the) Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh.

12. . . . . seeing that also I have been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.

14. I pursue (looking) towards (the) goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.

4: 7. And the peace of God which surpasses every understanding shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus.

12. But my God shall abundantly supply all your need, according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

21. Salute every saint in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 1: 1. ,apostle of Christ Jesus, by God's will, &c.

4. Having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which (ye have) towards all the saints

4: 12. Epaphras, who is (one) of you, (the) bondsman of Christ Jesus, salutes you, &c

1 Thessalonians 2: 15 For ye, brethren, have become imitators of the assemblies of God, which are in Judea in Christ Jesus.

5: 18 In everything give thanks, for this is (the) will of God in Christ Jesus towards you.

1 Timothy 1: 14, 15. But the grace of our Lord surpassingly over-abounded with faith and love, which (is) in Christ Jesus. Faithful (is) the word, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am (the) first.

3: 13. For those who shall have ministered well, obtain for themselves a good degree, and much boldness in faith, which (is) in Christ Jesus.

4: 6. Laying these things before the brethren, thou wilt be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished with the words of the faith, and of the good teaching which thou hast fully followed up and learnt.

21. I testify before God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou keep these things without prejudice, doing nothing by favour.

6: 13. I enjoin thee before God who preserves all things in life, and Christ Jesus who witnessed before Pontius Pilate the good confession that thou keep the commandments spotless, irreproachable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 1: 1. Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will, according to promise of life, the (life) which (is) in Christ Jesus.

9. .... His own purpose and grace, which (was) given to us in Christ Jesus, before the ages of time.

13. Have an outline of sound words, which (words) thou hast heard of me in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

2: 1. Thou therefore, my child, be strong in the grace which (is) in Christ Jesus.

10. For this cause I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which (is) in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

3: 12. And all indeed who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

15. .. .. The sacred letters which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which (is) in Christ Jesus.

4: 1. I testify before God and Christ Jesus who is about to judge living and dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom proclaim the word, be urgent in season and out of season, &c.

Philemon 1. Paul, prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timotheus the brother unto Philemon, &c.

6. .... that thy participation in the faith should become operative is the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in us towards Christ Jesus.

23. Epaphras salutes thee, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus.

1 Peter 5: 10. But the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus.

THE CHRIST JESUS.

Ephesians 3: 1 For this reason I Paul, prisoner of the Christ Jesus, for you, nations, &c.

CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.

Romans 6: 23. For the wages of sin (is) death, but the act of favour of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

8: 39. .... nor powers, nor height, nor depths, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which (is) in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Corinthians 15: 31. Daily I die by your boasting which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 3: 11. According to (the) purpose of the ages, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Timothy 1: 2. Grace, mercy, peace, from God our Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord.

12. (And) I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me power that He has counted me faithful.

2 Timothy 1: 2. Grace, mercy, peace, from God (the) Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord.

CHRIST JESUS LORD.

2 Corinthians 4: 5. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord, and ourselves your bondsmen for Jesus' sake.

CHRIST JESUS MY LORD.

Philippians 3: 8. But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ.

THE CHRIST, JESUS THE LORD.

Colossians 2: 6. As therefore ye have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.

CHRIST JESUS OUR HOPE.

1 Timothy 1: 1. Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ, according to (the) command of God our Saviour, and of Christ Jesus our Hope.

THE MEDIATOR OF GOD AND MAN ONE, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS.

1 Timothy 2: 5. For God is one, and (the) Mediator of God and man one, (the) man Christ Jesus.

CHRIST JESUS OUR SAVIOUR.

Titus 1: 4. Grace, mercy, and peace from God (the) Father. and Christ Jesus our Saviour.

CHRIST.

Romans 5: 6. For we being still without strength, in (the) due time Christ has died for (the) ungodly.

8. But God commends His own love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us.

6: 4. We have been buried therefore with Him by baptism unto death, in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among (the) dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life.

8, 9. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised up among (the) dead, dies no more; death has dominion over Him no more.

8: 2, 10. But ye are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed God's Spirit dwell in you, but if any one has not (the) Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him; but if Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that has raised up Jesus from among (the) dead, dwell in you, He that has raised up Christ from among (the) dead shall quicken your mortal bodies also on account of His Spirit which dwells in you.

17. And if children heirs also; heirs of God, and Christ's joint-heirs, if indeed we suffer with (Him) that we may also be glorified with (Him)

34, 35. (It is) God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? (It is? Christ who has died, but rather of God, who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

9: 1. I say (the) truth in Christ. I lie not.

3. For I have wished, I myself, to be accursed from Christ for my brethren, kinsmen according to flesh.

10: 4 For Christ is (the) end of law for righteousness to every one that believes.

6, 7. But the righteousness of faith speaks thus: Do not say in thine heart, Who shall ascend to the heavens, that is to bring Christ down? Or who shall descend to the abyss? that is to bring up Christ from among (the) dead.

12: 5. Thus we, (being) many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other.

14: 9. For to this (end) Christ has died and lived again, that He might rule over both dead and living.

15. Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ has died.

15: 18. For I will not dare to speak anything of the things which Christ has not wrought by me for (the) obedience of (the) nations.

20. And so, aiming to announce the glad tidings, not where Christ has been named, that I might not build on another's foundation.

29. But I know that coming to you, I shall come in (the) fulness of (the) blessing of Christ.

16: 5. Salute Epaenetus, my beloved, who is (the) first-fruits of Asia for Christ.

7. Salute Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-captives, who are of note among the apostles, who were also in Christ before me

9, 10. Salute Urbanus, our fellow-workman in Christ, and Stachys my beloved. Salute Apelles, approved in Christ.

16. All the assemblies of Christ salute you

1 Corinthians 1: 12. But I speak of this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, and I, of Apollos, and I, of Cephas, and I, of Christ.

17. For Christ has not sent me to baptize, but to preach glad tidings.

2: 16. But we have the mind of Christ.

3: 1. And I, brethren, have not been able to speak to you as to spiritual, but as fleshly, as to babes in Christ.

23. And ye (are) Christ's and Christ (is) God's.

4: 1. Let a man so account of us as servants of Christ, and stewards of (the) mysteries of God.

10. We (are) fools for Christ's sake, but ye prudent in Christ.

15. For if ye should have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers.

17. Timotheus . . shall put you in mind of my ways (as) they (are) in Christ.

6: 15. Do ye not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

7: 22. The freeman being called, is Christ's bondsman.

8: 11, 12. And the weak (one), the brother for whose sake Christ died, will perish through thy knowledge. Now, thus sinning against the brethren, and wounding their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

9: 21. To those without law, as without law, [not as without law to God, but as legitimately subject to

Christ.]

11: 1. Be my imitators, even as I also (am) of Christ.

12: 27. Now ye are Christ's body, and members in particular.

15: 3 Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures

12, 13, 14. Now, if Christ is preached, that He is raised from among (the) dead, how say some among you that there is not a resurrection of (those that are) dead? But if there is not a resurrection of (those that are) dead, neither is Christ raised; but if Christ is not raised, then, indeed, vain also (is) our preaching.

16, 17, 18, 19, 20. For if (those that are) dead are not raised, neither is Christ raised; but if Christ be not raised, your faith (is) vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then indeed also, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only, we have hope in Christ, we are (the) most miserable of all men. But now Christ is raised from among (the) dead, first-fruits of those that are fallen asleep.

2 Corinthians 1: 21. Now He that establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, (is) God.

2: 10. If I have forgiven anything, (it is) for your sakes in (the) person of Christ.

15. For we are a sweet odour of Christ to God in the saved, and in those that perish.

17. As of sincerity, as of God, before God we speak in Christ.

3: 3. Being manifested to be Christ's epistle, ministered by us.

14. The same veil remains in reading the Old Covenant; unremoved, which in Christ is annulled.

5: 16, 17. But if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know Him (thus) no longer. So if any one (be) in Christ, (there is) new creation.

19, 20. How that God was in Christ, reconciling the word to Himself . . we are ambassadors therefore for Christ, God as (it were) beseeching by us, we entreat for Christ, be reconciled to God.

6: 15. And what consent of Christ with Belial?

8: 23. .... (They are) deputed messengers of assemblies, Christ's glory.

10: 7. If anyone has confidence in himself, that he is of Christ, let him think this again in himself, that even as he (is) of Christ, so also (are) we.

11: 2. For I have espoused you unto one man, to present (you) a chaste virgin to Christ.

10. (The) truth of Christ is in me, that this boasting shall not be stopped as to me, in the region of Achaia.

13. For such (are) false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.

23. Are they ministers of Christ?

12: 2. I know a man in Christ.

10. I take pleasure in .... straits for Christ.

19. We speak before God in Christ, and all things, beloved, for your building up.

13: 3. Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, &c.

Galatians 1: 6. I wonder that ye thus quickly change from Him that called you in Christ's grace, to a different gospel.

10. If I yet pleased men, I were not Christ's bondsman.

13. But I was unknown personally to the assemblies of Judaea which (are) in Christ.

2: 16. .... that we might be justified on the principle of (the) faith of Christ.

17. Now if in seeking to be justified in Christ, we also have been found sinners, then (is) Christ minister of sin?

20. I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live I, but Christ lives in me.

21. For if righteousness (is) by law, then Christ has died for nothing.

3: 13. Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law.

16. .... And to thy seed, which is Christ.

24. So that the law has been our tutor up to Christ.

27. For ye, as many as have been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ.

29. But if ye (are) of Christ, then ye are Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise.

4: 19. .... My children of whom I again travail in birth until Christ shall have been formed in you.

5: 1, 2. Stand fast therefore in the freedom wherewith Christ has freed us, and be not held again in a yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say to you, that if ye are circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

6: 12. As many as desire to have a fair appearance in (the) flesh, these compel you to be circumcised only that they may not be persecuted because of the cross of Christ.

Ephesians 1: 3. Blessed (be) the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.

2: 12. That ye were at that time without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, &c.

4: 12. For the perfecting of the saints, with a view to (the) work of (the) ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ.

32. And be to one another kind, compassionate, forgiving one another, so as God also in Christ has forgiven you.

5: 21. Submitting yourselves to one another in (the) fear of Christ.

82. This mystery is great, but I speak as to Christ and as to the assembly.

6: 6. But as bondsmen of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul.

Philippians 1: 10 .... That ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent, in order that ye may be pure and without offence for Christ's day.

13. So that my bonds have become manifest, (as being) in Christ in all the praetorium, and to all others.

18. What is it then? At any rate, in every way, whether in pretext or in truth, Christ is announced; and in this I rejoice.

20, 21. According to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but in all boldness. as always now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For, for me to live (is) Christ, and to die gain.

23. But I am pressed by both, having the desire for departure, and being with Christ, for (it is) very much better.

29. Because to you has been given as regards Christ, not only the believing on Him, but the suffering for Him also.

2: 1. If then there be any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of (the) Spirit, if any bowels and compassions, &c.

16. Holding forth (the) word of life, so as to be a boast for me in Christ's day, that I have not run in vain nor laboured in vain.

3: 7, 8, 9. But what things were gain to me, these I counted, on account of Christ, loss. But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ, and that I may be found in Him, not having my righteousness, which (would be) on the principle of law, but that which is by faith of Christ, the righteousness (which is) of God through faith.

18. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they (are) the enemies of the cross of Christ.

Colossians 1: 2. To the holy and faithful brethren in Christ which are in Colosse.

7. Even as ye learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-bondsman, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you.

24. Now, I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for His body which is the assembly.

27, 28. To whom God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we announce, admonishing every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ.

2: 5. For if indeed in the flesh I am absent, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

8. See that there be no one who shall lead you away as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the teaching of men, according to the elements of the

world, and not according to Christ.

17. Let none therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in matter of feast or new moon, or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body (is) of Christ.

20. If ye have died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as (if) alive in (the) world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances?

3: 1. If therefore ye be risen with Christ, seek the things (which are) above, where the Christ is sitting at the right hand of God

11. Wherein there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondsman, freeman; but Christ (is) everything, and in all.

15. And let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to which also ye have been called in one body, and be thankful.

4: 3. Praying at the same time for us also, that God may open to us a door of the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, on account of which also I am bound.

1 Thessalonians 2: 6. Nor seeking glory from men, neither from you nor from others, when we might have been a charge as Christ's apostles.

3: 2. And sent Timotheus, our brother and fellow-workman under God, in the glad tidings of Christ to confirm you and encourage (you).

4: 16. For the Lord Himself with an assembling shout, with archangel's voice, and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

1 Timothy 5: 11. But younger widows decline, for when they grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry.

Philemon 8. Wherefore having much boldness in Christ to enjoin thee what is fitting, &c.

20. Yea, brother, I would have profit of thee in (the) Lord; refresh my bowels in Christ.

Hebrews 9: 11. But Christ being come an high priest of the good things to come, by the better and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, &c.

1 Peter 1: 11. Searching what or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which (was) in them pointed out, testifying before of the sufferings which (belonged) to Christ, and the glories after these.

19, 20. Knowing that ye have been redeemed by precious blood .... (the blood) of Christ foreknown indeed before (the) foundation of (the) world, but who has been manifested at the end of the times for your sakes.

2: 21. For to this have ye been called; for Christ also has suffered for you, leaving you a model that you should follow in His steps.

3: 16. Having a good conscience, that (as to that) in which they speak against you as evil doers, they may be ashamed who calumniate your good conversation in Christ.

18. For Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, (the) just for (the) unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in flesh, but made alive in (the) Spirit.

4: 1. Christ then having suffered for us, in (the) flesh, do ye also arm yourselves with the same mind.

13, 14. But as ye have shared in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, that in the revelation of His glory also ye may rejoice with exultation. If ye are reproached in (the) name of Christ, blessed (are ye).

5: 14. Peace be with you all who (are) in Christ.

THE CHRIST.

Romans 7: 4. So that my brethren, ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ.

9: 5. Whose (are) the fathers; and of whom, as according to the flesh, (is) the Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever.

14: 18. For he that in this serves the Christ (is) acceptable to god, and approved of men.

15: 2. For the Christ also did not please Himself, but according as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee, have fallen upon me.

7. Wherefore receive ye one another, according as the Christ also has received you to (the) glory of God.

19. I from Jerusalem, and in a circle round to Illyricum, have fully preached the glad tidings of the Christ.

1 Corinthians 1: 6. According as the testimony of the Christ has been confirmed in you.

13. Is the Christ divided?

17. For Christ has not sent me to baptize but to preach glad tidings, not in wisdom of word, that the cross of the Christ may not be made vain.

6: 15. Do ye know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then, taking the members of the Christ, make (them) members of a harlot?

9: 12. We bear all things that we may put no hindrance in the way of the glad tidings of the Christ.

10: 4. For they drank of a spiritual Rock which followed (them): now the Rock was the Christ.

9. Neither let us tempt the Christ, as also some of them tempted, and perished by serpents.

16. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not (the) communion of the blood of the Christ? The bread which we break, is it not (the) communion of the body of the Christ?

11: 3. But I wish you to know that the Christ is the head of every man, but woman's head (is) the man, and the Christ's Head, God.

12: 12. For even as the body is one, and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also (is) the Christ.

15: 15. And we are found also false witnesses of God, for we have witnessed concerning God, that He raised the Christ, whom He has not raised if indeed (those that are) dead are not raised.

22, 23. For as in the Adam all die, thus also in the Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own rank; (the) first-fruits, Christ; then those that (are) the Christ's at His coming.

2 Corinthians 1: 5. Because even as the sufferings of the Christ abound towards us, so through the Christ does our encouragement also abound.

2: 12. Now when I came to Troas for the (publication of the) glad tidings of the Christ, a door also being opened to me in (the) Lord, &c.

14. But thanks (be) to God, who always leads in triumph in the Christ, and makes manifest the odour of

His knowledge through us in every place.

3: 4. And such confidence have we through the

Christ towards God.

5: 10. For we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of the Christ, that each may receive the things (done) in the body, &c.

14. For the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this, that if one died for all, then all have died.

9: 13. .... They glorifying God through the proof of this ministration, by reason of your subjection, by profession, to the glad tidings of the Christ, and your free-hearted liberality in communicating, towards them, and towards all.

10: 1. But I myself, Paul, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ, who, as to appearance, (when present) (am) mean among you, but absent am bold towards you.

5. Overthrowing reasonings, and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God, and leading captive every thought into the obedience of the Christ.

14 . . . . For we have come to you also in the glad tidings of the Christ.

11: 3. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, so your thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ.

12: 9. Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of the Christ may dwell upon me.

Galatians 1: 7. But there are some that trouble you, and desire to pervert the glad tidings of the Christ.

5: 4. Ye are deprived of all profit from the Christ, as separated (from Him), as many as are justified by law.

24. But they that are of the Christ have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts.

6: 2. Bear one another's burdens, and thus, fulfil the law of the Christ.

Eph. 1: 10-12. Having made known to us the mystery of His will .... to head up all things in the Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in Him, in whom we have also obtained an inheritance, being marked out beforehand, according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His own will, that we should (be) to the praise of His glory, who have pre-trusted in the Christ.

20. . ... And what the surpassing greatness of His power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of His strength, (in) which He wrought in the Christ, (in) raising Him up from among (the) dead, and set Him down at His right hand in the heavenlies.

2: 5. But God .... has quickened us with the Christ.

13. But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were afar off, are become nigh by the blood of the Christ.

3: 4. According as I have written before briefly, by which in reading it, ye can understand my intelligence in the mystery of the Christ.

8. To me, less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given, to announce among the nations the glad tidings, of the unsearchable riches of the Christ.

17-19. That the Christ may dwell through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints, what (is) the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge, that ye may be filled (even) to all the fulness of God.

4: 8. But to each one of us has been given grace, according to the measure of the gift of the Christ.

12. Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at (the) full-grown man, at (the) measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ.

20. But ye have not thus learned the Christ, if ye have heard Him, and been instructed in Him, according as (the) truth is in Jesus.

5: 2. Walk in love, even as the Christ loved us and delivered Himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savour.

5. For this ye are (well-)informed of, knowing that no fornicator, &c., has inheritance in the kingdom of the Christ and God.

14. Wherefore He says, Wake up (thou) that sleepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee.

23-25. For a husband is head of the wife, as also the Christ is Head of the assembly. He (is) the Saviour of the body. But even as the assembly is subjected to the Christ, so also wives to their own husbands in everything. Husbands love your own wives, even as the Christ also has loved the assembly and delivered Himself up for it.

29. For no one has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as also the Christ, the assembly.

6: 5. Bondsmen obey masters according to flesh, with fear and trembling, in simplicity of your heart as to the Christ.

Philippians 1: 15-17. Some indeed also for envy and strife, but some also for goodwill, preach the Christ. These indeed out of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the glad-tidings; but those out of contention, announce the Christ, not purely, supposing to arouse tribulation for my bonds.

27. Only conduct yourselves worthily of the glad tidings of the Christ, &c.

Colossians 2: 11. In whom also ye have been circumcised with circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of the Christ.

3: 1. If therefore ye be risen with Christ, seek the things (which are) above, where the Christ is sitting at (the) right hand of God.

3, 4. For ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God. When the Christ appears who is our life, then shall ye also appear with (Him) in glory.

13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any should have a complaint against any, even as the Christ has forgiven you, so also (do) ye.

16. Let the word of the Christ dwell in you richly, &c.

2 Thessalonians 3: 5. But the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of the Christ.

Hebrews 3: 14. For we are become companions of the Christ, if indeed we hold the beginning of the assurance firm to the end.

5: 5. Thus the Christ also has not glorified Himself to be made a High Priest, but He who had said to Him, Thou art my Son, I have to-day begotten Thee.

6: 1. Wherefore leaving the word of the beginning of the Christ let us go on to (what belongs) to full growth.

9: 14. How much rather shall the blood of the Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered Himself spotless to God, purify your conscience from dead works to worship (the) living God.

24. For the Christ is not entered into Holy places made with hands, figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us.

28. Thus the Christ also having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear to those that look for Him the second time without sin for salvation.

11: 26. Esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.

1 Peter 5: 1. The elders which (are) among you I exhort, who (am their) fellow-elder and witness, of the sufferings of the Christ, who also (am) partaker of the glory about to be revealed.

1 John 2: 22. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

5: 1. Every one that believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God.

2 John 9. Whosoever goes forward and abides not in the doctrine of the Christ has not God.

Revelations 20: 4. They lived and reigned with the Christ a thousand years.

6. They shall be priests of God and of the Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

THE LORD CHRIST.

Colossians 3: 25. Knowing that of (the) Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance, ye serve the Lord Christ.

1 Peter 3: 15. But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts.

OUR LORD CHRIST.

Romans 16: 18. For such serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly.

CHRIST CRUCIFIED.

1 Corinthians 1: 23. But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews an offence and to nations foolishness.

CHRIST, THE POWER OF GOD AND WISDOM

OF GOD.

1 Corinthians 1: 24. But to those that (are) called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, God's power, and God's wisdom.

1 Corinthians 5: 7. For also our passover Christ has been sacrificed.

(THE) FIRST-FRUITS CHRIST.

1 Corinthians 15: 23. But each in his own rank (the) first-fruits Christ, then those that (are) the Christ's at His coming.

THE CHRIST, THE IMAGE OF GOD.

2 Corinthians 4: 4. In whom the God of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is (the) image of God should not shine forth (for them).

THE HEAD THE CHRIST.

Ephesians 4: 15. But holding the truth in love, we may grow up to Him in all things, who is the Head the Christ.

CHRIST AS SON OVER HIS HOUSE.

Hebrews 3: 6. But Christ as Son over His house, whose house are we.

HIS CHRIST

Revelation 11: 15. The kingdom of the world of our Lord and of His Christ is come, and He shall reign to the ages of ages.

12: 10. I heard a great voice in the heavens, saying, Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the

kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ.

THE LORD, OR (THE) LORD.

Romans 10: 13. For every one whosoever who shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

12: 11. As to diligent zealousness not slothful, in spirit fervent, serving the Lord.

14: 4. Who art thou that judgest the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls. And he shall be made to stand; for the Lord is able to make him stand.

6. He that regards the day regards it to (the) Lord, (and he that regards not the day, to (the) Lord he does not regard it,) and he that eats eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks (and he that does not eat (it is) to (the) Lord he does not eat) and gives God thanks.

8. For both if we should live, (it is) to (the) Lord we live; and if we should die (it is) to the Lord we die; both if we should live then, and if we should die, we are the Lord's.

16: 2. That ye may receive her in (the) Lord, worthily of saints.

8. Salute Amplias, my beloved in the Lord.

11. Salute those who belong to Narcissus, who are in (the) Lord.

12. Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa who labour in (the) Lord. Salute Persis the beloved, who has laboured much in (the) Lord.

13. Salute Rufus the elect in (the) Lord.

22. I Tertius who have written this epistle, salute you in (the) Lord.

1 Corinthians 3: 5. Who then is Apollos, and who Paul? ministering servants, through whom ye have believed, and as the Lord has given to each.

4: 4. For I am conscious of nothing in myself, but I am not justified by this: but He that examines me is the Lord.

5. So that do not judge anything before (the) time, until the Lord shall come, who shall also both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and shall make manifest the counsels of hearts; and then shall each have (his) praise from God.

17. For this reason I have sent to you Timotheus, who is my beloved and faithful child in (the) Lord.

19. .... but I will come quickly to you, if the Lord will.

6: 13. .... but the body (is) not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

14. And God has both raised up the Lord, and will raise us up from among (the dead) by His power.

17. But he that (is) joined to the Lord is one spirit.

7: 10. But to the married I enjoin, not I, but the Lord, let not wife be separated from husband.

12. But as to the rest I say, not the Lord.

17. However, as the Lord has divided to each, as God has called each so let him walk.

22. For the bondsman that is called in the Lord is the Lord's freeman.

25. But concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord; but I give my opinion, as having received mercy of (the) Lord to be faithful.

32. The unmarried cares for the things of the Lord, how he shall please the Lord.

34. The unmarried cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit.

35............... waiting on the Lord without distraction.

39. A wife is bound for whatever time her husband lives; but if the husband be fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she will, only in (the) Lord.

9: 1. Are not ye my work in (the) Lord?

2. For the seal of mine apostleship are ye in (the) Lord.

9: 5......... As also the other apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

14. So also the Lord has ordained to those that announce the glad tidings to live of the glad tidings.

10: 21 Ye cannot drink (the) Lord's cup, and (the) cup of demons: ye cannot partake of (the) Lord's table, and of (the) table of demons.

22. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy are we stronger than He?

26. For the earth (is) the Lord's and its fulness.

11: 11. However, neither (is) woman without man, nor man without woman, in (the) Lord.

20. When ye come therefore together unto one place, it is not to eat (the) Lord's supper

23. For I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you.

26. For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until He come.

27. So that whosoever shall eat the bread, or drink the cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty in respect of the body and Of the blood of the Lord.

11: 32. But being judged, we are disciplined of (the) Lord that we may not be condemned with the world.

14: 37. If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the commandment of (the) Lord.

15: 58.........Abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not vain in (the) Lord.

16: 7. I hope to remain a certain time with you, if the Lord permit.

10. Now if Timotheus come, see that he be with you without fear; for he works the work of (the Lord even as I.

19. Aquila and Priscilla with the assembly in their house, salute you much in (the) Lord.

2 Corinthians 2: 12. ... . A door also being opened to me in (the) Lord.

3: 16. But when it shall turn to (the) Lord the veil is taken away.

17. Now the Lord is the Spirit, but where the Spirit of (the) Lord is there is liberty.

18. But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by (the) Lord (the) Spirit.

5: 6. Therefore (we are) always confident, and know that while present in the body we are absent from the Lord.

8. We are confident, I say, and pleased rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.

11. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men.

8: 5. They gave themselves first to the Lord, and to us by God's will.

19. Ministered by us to the glory of the Lord Himself.

21. For we provide for things honest, not-only before (the) Lord, but also before men.

10: 8. For and if I should boast even somewhat more abundantly of our own authority, which the Lord has given to us for building up and not for your over-throwing, I shall not be put to shame.

17. But he that boasts let him boast in the Lord.

18. For not he that commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.

11: 17. What I speak I do not speak according to (the) Lord, but as in folly, in this confidence of boasting.

12: 1. I will come to visions and revelations of (the) Lord.

8. For this I thrice besought the Lord, that it might depart from me.

13: 10. .... That being present I may not use severity according to the authority which the Lord has given me for building up, and not for overthrowing.

Galatians 1: 19. But I saw none other of the apostles, unless James, the brother of the Lord.

5: 10. I have confidence as to you in (the) Lord, that ye will have no other mind; and he that is troubling you shall bear the guilt (of it), whosoever he may be.

Ephesians 4: 17. This I say, therefore, and testify in (the) Lord, that ye should no longer walk as the rest of the nations walk, in (the) vanity of their mind, &c.

5: 8. For ye were once darkness, but now light in (the) Lord; walk as children of light.

10. Proving what is agreeable to the Lord.

17. For this reason be not foolish, but understanding what (is) the will of the Lord.

19. Singing and chanting with your heart to the Lord.

22, 23. Wives (submit yourselves) to your own husbands, as to the Lord. for a husband is head of the wife, as also the Christ (is) head of the assembly.

6: 1. Children, obey your parents in (the) Lord, for this is just.

4. Do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them Up in (the) discipline and admonition of (the) Lord.

7. Serving with good will as to the Lord, and not to men.

8. Knowing that whatever good each shall do, this he shall receive of (the) Lord, whether bond or free.

10. Be strong in (the) Lord, and in the might of His strength.

21. Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make all things known to you.

Philippians 1: 14. Trusting in the Lord through my bonds, dare more abundantly to speak the word fearlessly.

2: 24. But I trust in (the) Lord that I myself also shall soon come.

29. Receive him therefore in (the) Lord with all joy.

3: 1. For the rest, my brethren, rejoice in (the) Lord.

4: 1. So that, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown thus stand fast in (the) Lord, beloved.

2. I exhort Euodia, and exhort Syntyche, to be of the same mind in (the) Lord.

4. Rejoice in (the) Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice.

6. The Lord is near. Be careful about nothing.

10. But I rejoiced in (the) Lord greatly, that now however at length ye have revived your thinking of me, though surely ye did also think (of me) but lacked opportunity.

Colossians 1: 10. (So as) to walk worthily of the Lord unto all well-pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing by the true knowledge of God.

3: 18. Wives, be subject to (your) husbands, as is fitting in (the) Lord.

20. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing in (the) Lord.

22. Bondsmen, obey in all things your masters according to flesh, not with eye services, as men pleasers, but in simplicity of heart, fearing the Lord.

23. Whatsoever ye do, labour at it heartily, as (doing it) to the Lord, and not to men.

24. Knowing that of (the) Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance, ye serve the Lord Christ.

4: 7. Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow-bondsman in (the) Lord, will make known to you all that concerns me.

17. Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in (the) Lord, to the end that thou fulfil it.

1 Thessalonians 1: 6. And ye became our imitators, and of the Lord, having accepted the word in much tribulation with joy of (the) Holy Ghost.

8. For the word of the Lord sounded out from you.

3: 8. Because now we live if ye stand firm in (the) Lord.

12. But you may the Lord make to exceed and abound in love toward one another, and toward all, even as we also toward you.

4: 6. The Lord (is) the avenger of all these things.

15. For this we say to you in (the) word of (the) Lord, that we, the living, who remain to the coming of the Lord, are in no way to anticipate those who have fallen asleep.

17. For the Lord Himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel's voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

17. Then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in (the) clouds, to meet the Lord in (the) air; and thus we shall be always with (the) Lord.

5: 2. The day of (the) Lord so comes as a thief by the night.

12. But we beg you, brethren, to know those who labour among you, and take the lead among you in (the) Lord, and admonish you, and to regard them exceedingly in love on account of their work.

27. I adjure you by the Lord that the letter be read to all the holy brethren.

2 Thessalonians 1: 9. Who shall pay the penalty (of) everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.

2: 2. That ye be not soon shaken in mind, nor troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as (if it were) by us, as that the day of the Lord is present.

13. But we ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of (the) Lord.

3: 1. That the word of the Lord may run and be glorified.

3. But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you and keep (you) from evil.

4. But we trust in the Lord as to you, that the things which we enjoin, ye both do and will do.

5. But the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of the Christ.

16. The Lord (be) with you all.

2 Timothy 1: 16. The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he has often refreshed me.

1: 18. The Lord grant to him to find mercy from (the) Lord in that day.

2: 7. For the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things.

14. Of these things put in remembrance, testifying earnestly before the Lord not to have disputes of words, profitable for nothing.

19. (The) Lord knows those that are His; and, Let everyone who names the name of (the) Lord withdraw from iniquity.

22. With those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.

24. A bondsman of (the) Lord ought not to contend.

3: 11. And the Lord delivered me out of all.

4: 14. The Lord render to him according to his works.

17. But the Lord stood with (me).

18. The Lord shall deliver me from every wicked work.

Philemon 16. Both in (the) flesh and in (the) Lord?

20. I would have profit of thee in (the) Lord.

Hebrews 2: 3. How shall we escape if we have been negligent of so great salvation, which, having had its commencement in being spoken (of) by the Lord, has been confirmed to us by those who have heard.

12: 14. Pursue peace with all, and sanctification, without which no one shall see the Lord.

13: 6. The Lord (is) my helper, and I will not be afraid: what will man do unto me?

James 1: 7. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord.

3: 9. Therewith bless we the Lord and Father.

4: 10. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He shall exalt you.

15. Instead of your saying, If the Lord should (so) will and we should live, we will also do this or that.

5: 7. Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord.

8. Stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is drawn nigh.

10. The prophets, who have spoken in the name of (the) Lord.

14. Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of (the) Lord.

15. And the prayer of faith shall heal the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.

1 Peter 2: 3. If indeed ye have tasted that the Lord (is) good.

13. Be in subjection therefore to every human institution for the Lord's sake.

2 Peter 3: 9. The Lord does not delay His promise, &c.

10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief.

Jude 14, 15. Behold, (the) Lord has come amidst His holy myriads, to execute judgment against all.

Revelation 1: 10. I became in (the) Spirit on the Lord's day.

14: 13. Write, Blessed the dead who die in (the) Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their works follow with them.

LORD.

Hebrews 1: 10. And, Thou in the beginning, Lord, hast founded the earth, and works of Thy hands are the heavens.

THE SAME LORD OF ALL.

Romans 10: 12. For there is no difference of Jew and Greek; for the same Lord of all (is) rich towards all that call upon Him.

THE LORD OF GLORY.

1 Corinthians 2: 8. Which none of the princes of this age knew, (for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory), &c.

THE SAME LORD.

1 Corinthians 12: 5. And there are distinctions of services, and the same Lord.

THE LORD OF PEACE.

2 Thessalonians 3: 16. But the Lord of peace Himself give you peace continually in every way.

THE LORD, THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE.

2 Timothy 4: 8. Henceforth the crown of righteousness is laid up for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will render to me in that day; but not only to me, but also to all who love His appearing.

THE LORD AND SAVIOUR.

2 Peter 3: 2. To be mindful of the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of the Lord and Saviour by your apostles.

OUR LORD.

1 Timothy 1: 14. But the grace of our Lord surpassingly over-bounded with faith and love, which (is) in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 1: 8. But not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner; but suffer evil along with the glad tidings, according to (the) power of God.

Hebrews 7: 14. For it is clear that our Lord has sprung out of Juda, as to which tribe Moses spake nothing as to priests.

2 Peter 3: 15. .... And account the long-suffering of our Lord (to be) salvation; according as our beloved brother Paul also hag written to you according to the wisdom given to him.

ONE LORD.

Ephesians 4: 5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

THEIR LORD, (OF THE WITNESSES.)

Revelation 11: 8. And their body (shall be) on the street of the great city, which is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

LORD OF LORDS.

Revelation 17: 14. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is Lord of lords and King of kings: and they (that are) with Him called, and chosen, and faithful.

1 16. And He has upon His garments, and upon His thigh, the name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.

SON OF GOD, OR GOD'S SON, OR THE SON, OR HIS SON, OR MY SON, OR SON.

Romans 1: 3. Concerning His Son come of David's seed according to flesh.

4. Marked out Son of God in power, according to (the) spirit of holiness, by resurrection of (the) dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

9. For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the glad tidings of His Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you, &c.

5: 10. For if, being enemies, we have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much rather, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by (the power of) His life.

8: 29. Because whom He has foreknown, He has also predestinated (to be) conformed to the image of His Son, so that He should be (the) first-born among many brethren.

1 Corinthians 15: 28. But when all things shall have been brought into subjection to Him, then the Son also Himself shall be placed in subjection to Him who put all things in subjection to Him, that God may be all in all.

Galatians 1: 16. .... Was pleased to reveal His Son in me, that I may announce Him as the glad tidings among the nations, immediately I did not take counsel with flesh and blood.

2: 20. I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me; but (in) that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, (the faith) of the Son of God, who has loved me and given Himself for me.

4: 4. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, come of woman, &c.

6. But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Ephesians 4: 13. Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God at (the) full-grown man, at (the) measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ.

1 Thessalonians 1: 10. And to await His Son from the heavens, whom He raised from among the dead, Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath.

Hebrews 1: 2. At the end of these days has spoken to us in (the person of the) Son, whom He has established heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.

5. For to which of the angels said He ever, Thou art my son, I have to-day begotten thee? And again, I will be to him for father and he shall be to me for Son

7. And as to the angels He says, Who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire; but as to the Son, Thy throne, O God, (is) to the age of the age, and a sceptre of uprightness (is) the sceptre of Thy kingdom.

5: 5. Thus the Christ also has not glorified Himself to be made a high priest; but He who had said to him, Thou art my Son, I have to-day begotten thee.

8. Though He were Son, he learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

6: 6. .... And have fallen away, crucifying for themselves (as they do) the Son of God, and making a show of (Him).

7: 3. .... Without father, without mother, without genealogy; having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but assimilated to the Son of God, abides a priest continually.

10: 29...........Of how much worse punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy who has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and esteemed the blood of the covenant, whereby He has been sanctified, common, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

1 John 2: 22. He is the Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.

33. Whoever denies the Son has not the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also.

24. If what ye heard from the beginning abides in you, ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father.

3: 8. He that practises sin is of the devil; for from (the) beginning the devil sins. To this end the Son of God has been manifested that He might undo the works of the devil.

4: 10. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son a propitiation for our sins.

14. And we have seen, and testify, that the Father has sent the Son (as) Saviour of the world.

15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

5: 5. Who is he that gets the victory over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

9. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God which He has witnessed concerning His Son.

10. He that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself; he that does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness which God has witnessed concerning His Son.

11. And this is the witness, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

12. He that has the Son has life; he that has not the Son of God has not life.

13. These things have I written to you that ye may know that ye have eternal life who believe on the name of the Son of God.

20. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know Him that (is) true; and we are in Him that (is) true, in His Son Jesus Christ.

2 John 9. He that abides in the doctrine, he has both the Father and the Son.

HIS OWN SON.

Romans 8: 3. .... God, having sent His own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh, &c.

32. He who, yea, has not spared His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him grant us all things?

THE SON OF HIS LOVE.

Colossians 1: 13. Who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated (us) into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

A SON PERFECTED FOR EVER.

Hebrews 7: 28. For the law constitutes men high priests, having infirmity; but the word of the swearing of the oath which (is) after the law, a Son perfected for ever.

SON OF MAN.

Hebrews 2: 6. What is man, that thou rememberest him, or Son of Man, that thou visitest Him?

ONE LIKE THE SON OF MAN.

Revelation 1: 13. And I saw seven golden lamps, and in the midst of the seven lamps (one) like (the) Son of Man, clothed in a garment reaching to the feet, and girt about at the breast with a golden girdle.

14: 14. And I saw, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud one sitting like the Son of Man, having upon His head a golden crown and in His hand 8 sharp sickle.

MY BELOVED SON.

2 Peter 1: 17. For He received from God the Father honour and glory, such a voice being uttered to Him by the excellent glory: This is My beloved Son, in whom 1 have found my delight.

HIS ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON.

1 John 4: 9. Herein as to us has been manifested the love of God, that God has sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

THE SON OF THE FATHER.

2 John 3. Grace shall be with you, mercy, peace from God (the) Father, and from (the) Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

THE SON OF GOD, HE THAT HAS HIS EYES AS A FLAME OF FIRE, AND HIS FEET ARE LIKE FINE BRASS.

Revelation 2: 18. And to the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write: These things says the Son of God, He that has eyes as a flame of fire, and His feet (are) like fine brass.

THE SAVIOUR OF THE BODY.

Ephesians 5: 23. He (is) Saviour of the body.

OUR SAVIOUR GOD

Titus 1: 3. But has manifested in its own due season His word in (the) proclamation with which I have been entrusted according to (the) commandment of our Savour God.

2: 10. Not robbing (their masters) but shewing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the teaching which is) of our Savour God in all things.

3: 4. But when the kindness and love to man of our Saviour God appeared, &c.

SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD.

1 John 4: 14. And we have seen, and testify, that the Father has sent the Son (as) Saviour of the world.

GOD.

1 Timothy 3: 16. God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in (the) Spirit, has appeared to angels, has been preached among (the) nations, has been believed on in (the) world, has been received up in glory.

Hebrews 1: 8. Thy throne, O God, (is) to the age of the age, and a sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.

OVER ALL, GOD BLESSED FOR EVER.

Romans 9: 5. Whose (are) the fathers; and of whom, as according to flesh, (is) the Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever, amen.

THE TRUE GOD.

1 John 5: 20. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know Him that (is) true; and we are in Him that (is) true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God, and eternal life.

THE HEAD.

1 Corinthians 12: 21. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee, or again, the head to the feet, I have not need of you.

Colossians 2: 19. .... And not holding fast the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God.

THE HEAD OF EVERY MAN.

1 Corinthians 11: 3. But I wish you to know that the Christ is the head of every man, but woman's head (is) the man, and the Christ's head God.

HEAD OVER ALL THINGS TO THE ASSEMBLY.

Ephesians 11: 22. And has put all things under His feet, and gave Him (to be) head over all things to the assembly.

HEAD OF THE ASSEMBLY.

Ephesians 5: 23. For a husband is head of the wife, as also the Christ (is) head of the assembly. He (is) Saviour of the body.

THE HEAD OF THE BODY, THE ASSEMBLY.

Colossians 1: 18. And He is the head of the body, the assembly; who (is) the beginning, the first-born from among the dead, that He might have the first place in all things.

THE HEAD OF ALL PRINCIPALITY AND

AUTHORITY.

Colossians 2: 10. And ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and authority.

HEAD OF THE CORNER.

1 Peter 2: 7. To you therefore who believe (is) the preciousness; but to the disobedient, the stone which the builders cast away as worthless, this is become head of (the) corner.

THE MASTER.

2 Timothy 2: 21. If therefore one shall have purified himself from these, in separating himself from them he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work.

2 Peter 2: 1. But there were false prophets also among the people, as there shall be also among you false teachers, who shall bring in by-the-bye destructive heresies, and deny the Master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

THE FIRST-BORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN.

Romans 8: 29. Because whom He has foreknown, He has also predestinated (to be) conformed to the image of His Son, so that he should be (the) first-born among many brethren.

FIRST-BORN OF ALL CREATION.

Colossians 1: 15. Who is image of the invisible God, first-born of all creation.

THE FIRST-BORN FROM AMONG THE DEAD.

Colossians 1: 18. And He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is (the) beginning, first-born from among the dead, that He might have the first place in all things.

Revelation 1: 5. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness the first-born from among the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in His blood.

THE FIRST-BORN.

Hebrews 1: 6. And again, when He brings in the first-born into the world, He says, And let all God's angels worship Him.

THIS FOUNDATION.

1 Corinthians 3: 18. Now if any one build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw, the work of each shall be made manifest.

THE FOUNDATION.

1 Corinthians 3: 10. According to the grace of God which has been given to me, as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation.

14. If the work of any one which he has built upon (the foundation) shall abide, he shall receive a reward.

FIRST-FRUIT.

Romans 11: 16. Now if the first-fruit (be) holy, the lump also; and if the root (be) holy, the branches also.

FIRST-FRUITS OF THOSE FALLEN ASLEEP.

1 Corinthians 15: 20. But now Christ is raised from among (the) dead, first-fruits of those fallen asleep.

ONE MAN.

Romans 5: 15. But (shall) not the act of favour (be) as the offence? For if by the offence of one the many have died, much rather has the grace of God, and the free gift in grace, which (is) by one man Jesus Christ, abounded unto the many.

MAN.

1 Corinthians 15: 21. For since by man (came) death, by man also resurrection of (those that are) dead.

Hebrews 2: 6. But one has testified somewhere, saying, What is man, that thou rememberest him, or son of man that thou visitest him?

THE SECOND MAN.

1 Corinthians 15: 47. The first man out of (the) earth, made of dust; the second man, out of heaven.

THE WORD OF GOD.

Hebrews 4: 12. For the word of God (is) living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to (the) division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of (the) heart.

Revelation 19: 13. And clothed with a garment dipped in blood; and his name is called, The word of God

THE WORD OF LIFE.

1 John 1: 1. That which was from (the) beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life.

A MERCY-SEAT.

Romans 3: 25. Whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in His blood, for (the) shewing forth of His righteousness, in respect of the passing by the sins that had taken place before, through the forbearance of God.

A SPIRITUAL ROCK.

1 Corinthians 10: 4. And all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; (for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed [them]: now the rock was the Christ).

THE ROCK

1 Corinthians 10: 4. Now the rock was the Christ.

THE STUMBLING STONE.

Romans 9: 32. For they have stumbled at the stumbling stone.

A STONE OF STUMBLING.

Romans 9: 33. According as it is written, Behold I place in Sion a stone of stumbling and rock of offence.

1 Peter 2: 7, 8. To the disobedient, the stone which the builders cast away as worthless, this is become Head of (the) corner, and a stone of stumbling and rock of offence.

SEED OF ABRAHAM.

Galatians 3: 16. But to Abraham were the promises addressed, and to his seed: he does not say, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.

THE SEED.

Galatians 3: 19. Why then the law? It was added for the sake of transgressions, until the seed came, to whom the promise was made, ordained through angels in (the) hand of a mediator.

THE CORNER-STONE.

Ephesians 2: 20. Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the cornerstone.

A LIVING STONE.

1 Peter 2: 4. To whom coming, a living stone, cast away indeed as worthless by men, but with God chosen, precious.

A CORNER-STONE ELECT, PRECIOUS.

1 Peter 2: 6. Behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone, elect, precious; and he that believes on Him shall not be put to shame.

THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS CAST AWAY AS WORTHLESS.

1 Peter 2: 7. To you therefore who believe (is) the preciousness: but to the disobedient, the stone which the builders cast away as worthless, this is become head of (the) corner.

ROCK OF OFFENCE.

Romans 9: 32. According as it is written, Behold, I place in Sion a stone of stumbling and rock of offence.

1 Peter 2: 8. . . . . And a stone of stumbling and rock of offence; (who) stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they have been appointed.

THE BEGINNING.

Colossians 1: 18. And he is the head of the body, the assembly, who is (the) beginning, first-born from among the dead, that he might have the first place in all things.

THE BEGINNING AND THE END.

Revelation 21: 6. And He said to me, It is done. I am the A and the omega, the beginning and the end.

Revelation 22: 13. I (am) the A and the omega, (the) first and (the) last, the beginning and the end.

HIM (THAT IS) FROM THE BEGINNING.

1 John 2: 13. I write to you, fathers, because ye have known him (that is) from the beginning.

14. I have written to you, fathers, because ye have known him (that is) from the beginning.

THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD.

Revelation 3: 14. And to the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

A MINISTER OF THE CIRCUMCISION.

Romans 15: 8. For I say that Jesus Christ became a minister of (the) circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers.

MINISTER OF THE HOLY PLACES AND OF

THE TRUE TABERNACLE.

Hebrews 8: 2. Minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, not man.

MEDIATOR OF A BETTER COVENANT.

Hebrews 8: 6. But now he has got a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is Mediator of a better covenant, which is established on the footing of better promises.

A MEDIATOR OF A NEW COVENANT.

Hebrews 9: 15. And for this reason he is Mediator of a new covenant, so that, death having taken place for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, the called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

THE BELOVED.

Ephesians 1: 6. To (the) praise of (the) glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the beloved.

"THE DELIVERER."

Romans 11: 26. And so all Israel shall be saved. According as it is written, the Deliverer shall come out of Sion; he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

THE ONE.

Romans 5: 19. For as indeed by the disobedience of the one man, the many have been constituted sinners; so also by the obedience of the One, the many will be constituted righteous.

ONE THAT ARISES TO RULE OVER THE NATIONS.

Romans 15: 12. And again, Esaias says, There shall be the root of Jesse, and One that arises to rule over (the) nations: in him shall (the) nations hope.

ROOT OF JESSE.

Romans 15: 12. There shall be the root of Jesse, &c.

THE ROOT OF DAVID.

Revelation 5: 5. Behold, the lion which (is) of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, has overcome (so as) to open the book, and its seven seals.

22: 16. I am the Root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star.

THE OFFSPRING OF DAVID.

Revelation 22: 16. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star.

THE JUDGE

James 5: 9. Complain not one against another, brethren, that ye be not judged. Behold, the Judge stands before the door.

THE JUST.

1 Peter 3: 18. For Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, (the) just for (the) unjust, that he might bring us to God.

THE SAME.

Hebrews 1: 2. But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

THE LIFE.

1 John 1: 2. (And the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us.)

THE ETERNAL LIFE.

1 John 1: 2. And report to you the Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us.

ETERNAL LIFE.

1 John 5: 20. He is the true God and Eternal Life.

THE SHEPHERD OF YOUR SOULS.

1 Peter 2: 25. For ye were as straying sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

THE CHIEF SHEPHERD.

1 Peter 5: 4. And when the chief Shepherd is manifested ye shall receive the unfading c. own of glory.

A PATRON WITH THE FATHER.

1 John 2: 1. If any one sin, we have a patron with the Father, Jesus Christ (the) righteous.

THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS.

1 John 2: 2. He is the propitiation for our sins; but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world.

A PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS.

1 John 4: 10. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins.

THE HEAVENLY ONE.

1 Corinthians 15: 48. Such as he made of dust, such also those made of dust; and such as the heavenly (one), such also the heavenly (ones).

49. And as we have borne the image of the (one) made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly (one).

FORERUNNER.

Hebrews 6: 20. Where Jesus is entered as Forerunner for us, become for ever a High Priest according to the order of Melchisedec.

A QUICKENING SPIRIT.

1 Corinthians 15: 45. Thus also it is written, the

first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a quickening Spirit.

THE LAST ADAM.

1 Corinthians 15: 45. The first man Adam became a living soul, the last Adam a quickening Spirit.

HEIR OF ALL THINGS.

Hebrews 1: 2. At the end of these days has spoken to us in (the person of the) Son, whom he has established heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.

THE LEADER OF THEIR SALVATION.

Hebrews 2: 10. For it became him, for whom (are) all things, and by whom (are) all things, bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings.

A HIGH PRIEST.

Hebrews 7: 26. For such a High Priest became us, holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and become higher than the heavens.

A ONE HIGH PRIEST.

Hebrews 8: 1. We have such a one High Priest who has sat down on (the) right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens.

A GREAT HIGH PRIEST.

Hebrews 4: 14. Having therefore a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession.

A MERCIFUL AND FAITHFUL HIGH PRIEST.

Hebrews 2: 17. Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like to (his) brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things relating to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

THE APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST OF OUR CONFESSION.

Hebrews 3: 1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of (the) heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus.

A HIGH PRIEST ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDEC.

Hebrews 5: 10. Addressed by God (as) High Priest according to the order of Melchisedec.

6: 20. Where Jesus is entered as forerunner for us, become for ever a High Priest according to the order of Melchisedec.

A PRIEST FOR EVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDEC.

Hebrews 5: 6. Even as also in another (place) he says, Thou (art) a Priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedec.

7: 17. For it is borne witness, Thou art a Priest for ever (according to the order of Melchisedec).

21. But he with the swearing of an oath, by him who said, as to him, the Lord has sworn, and will not repent (of it), Thou (art) Priest (for ever according to the order of Melchisedec).

A DIFFERENT PRIEST ACCORDING TO THE SIMILITUDE OF MELCHISEDEC.

Hebrews 7: 15. And it is yet more abundantly evident, since a different priest arises according to the similitude of Melchisedec.

HIGH PRIEST OF GOOD THINGS TO COME.

Hebrews 9: 11. But Christ being come High Priest of good things to come, by the better and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand, (that is, not of this creation.)

A GREAT PRIEST OVER THE HOUSE OF GOD

Hebrews 10: 21. And (having) a great Priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith.

THE EFFULGENCE OF HIS GLORY.

Hebrews 1: 3. Who being (the) effulgence of his glory and (the) exact expression of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high.

(THE) EXACT EXPRESSION OF HIS SUBSTANCE.

Hebrews 1: 3. Who being (the) effulgence of His glory, and (the) exact expression of his subtance, &c. &c.

AUTHOR OF ETERNAL SALVATION.

Hebrews 5: 9. And having been perfected, became to all them that obey him, author of eternal salvation.

A SURETY OF A BETTER COVENANT.

Hebrews 7: 22. By so much Jesus became surety of a better covenant.

THE OVERSEER OF YOUR SOULS.

1 Peter 2: 25. For ye were as straying sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD.

Colossians 1: 15. Who is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation.

THE FIRST AND THE LAST.

Revelation 1: 17. And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead: and he laid his right hand upon me saying, Fear not; I am the First and the Last, and the Living One.

2: 8. And to the angel of the assembly in Smyrna write: These things says the First and the Last, who became dead, and lived.

22: 13. I (am) the A and the omega, (the) First and the Last, the beginning and the end.

THE LIVING ONE.

Revelation 1: 17. And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead: And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not, I am the First and the Last, and the Living One.

KING OF KINGS.

Revelation 17: 14. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and they (that are) with him called, and chosen, and faithful.

19: 16. And he has upon his garment, and upon his thigh, the name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.

THE PRINCE OF THE KINGS OF THE EARTH.

Revelation 1: 5. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth.

A MALE SON WHO SHALL SHEPHERD ALL THE NATIONS WITH AN IRON ROD.

Revelation 12:. 5. And she brought forth a male Son who shall shepherd all the nations with an iron rod: and her child was caught up to God and to his throne.

THE MALE.

Revelation 12: 13. And when the dragon saw that he had been cast out into the earth, he persecuted the woman which bore the male (child).

THE LION WHICH IS OF THE TRIBE OF JUDA.

Revelation 5: 5. And one of the elders says to me, Do not weep. Behold, the lion which (is) of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, has overcome (60 as) to open the book, and its seven seals.

HIM OR HE THAT SAT ON THE CLOUD.

Revelation 14: 15. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Send thy sickle and reap; for the hour of reaping is come, for the harvest of the earth is dried.

16. And He that sat on the cloud put his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

THE MORNING STAR.

Revelation 2: 28. And I will give to him the morning star.

THE BRIGHT AND THE MORNING STAR.

Revelation 22: 16. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and the morning star.

HE THAT HOLDS THE SEVEN STARS IN HIS RIGHT HAND, WHO WALKS IN THE MIDST OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN LAMPS.

Revelation 2: 1. To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write: These things says he that holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lamps.

HE THAT HAS THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD AND THE SEVEN STARS.

Revelation 3: 1. And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis write: These things saith he that has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

HE THAT HAS THE SHARP TWO-EDGED SWORD.

Revelation 2: 12. And to the angel of the assembly in Pergamos write: These things says he that has the sharp two-edged sword.

HIM THAT (IS) TRUE.

1 John 5: 20. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know him that (is) true; and we are in him that (is) true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

HE THAT SAT ON THE THRONE.

Revelation 21: 3. And he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

THE FAITHFUL WITNESS.

Revelation 1: 6. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.

THE FAITHFUL AND TRUE WITNESS.

Revelation 3: 14. And to the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

FAITHFUL AND TRUE.

Revelation 19: 11. And I saw the heaven opened and behold, a white horse, and one sitting on it, called Faithful and true, and he judges and makes war in righteousness.

THE HOLY, THE TRUE, HE THAT HAS THE KEY OF DAVID, WHO OPENS AND NO ONE SHALL SHUT, AND SHUTS AND NO ONE SHALL OPEN.

Revelation 3: 7. And to the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: These things saith the holy, the true; he that has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open.

A LAMB WITHOUT BLEMISH AND WITHOUT SPOT.

1 Peter 1: 19. Precious blood as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.

A LAMB.

Revelation 5: 6. And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God which are sent into all the earth.

THE LAMB.

Revelation 5: 8. And when it took the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell before the Lamb, having each a harp and golden bowls full of incenses, which are the prayers of the saints.

12. Worthy is the Lamb that has been slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

13. To him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, blessing, and honour, and glory, and might, to the ages of ages.

6: 1. And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as a voice of thunder, Come (and see).

16. And they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and have us hidden from (the) face of Him that sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

7: 9. After these things I saw and lo a great crowd, which no man could number, out of every nation and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palm branches in their hands.

10. And they cry with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb.

14. These are they who come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

17. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall shepherd them, and shall lead them to fountains of

waters of life, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.

12: 11. And they have overcome him by reason of the blood of the Lamb, and by reason of the word of their testimony, and have not loved their life even unto death.

14: 1. And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing upon mount Zion, and with him a hundred (and) forty four thousand, having his name and the name of his Father written upon their foreheads.

4. These are they who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins: these are they who follow the Lamb wheresoever it goes. These have been redeemed from men (as) first-fruits to God and the Lamb.

10. He also shall drink of the wine of the fury of God prepared unmixed in the cup of his wrath, and he shall be tormented in fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb.

15: 3. And they sing the song of Moses, bondsman of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying great and wonderful (are) thy works, Lord God Almighty; righteous and true (are) thy ways, 0 King of nations.

17: 14. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords and King of kings: and they (that are) with Him called, and chosen, and faithful.

19: 7. Let us rejoice and exult, and give him glory; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready.

9. And he says to me, Write, Blessed (are) they who are called to the supper of the marriage of the Lamb.

21: 9. And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven bowls full of the seven lost plagues, and spoke with me, saying, Come here, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

14. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

22. And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God almighty is its temple, and the Lamb.

23. And the city has no need of the sun, nor of the moon, that they should shine for it; for the glory of God has enlightened it, and the lamp thereof (is) the Lamb.

27. And nothing common, nor that makes an abomination and a lie, shall at all enter into it; but those only who (are) written in the book of life of the Lamb.

22: 1. And he shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, going out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

3. And no curse shall be any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be ill it; and his servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face.

THE SLAIN LAMB.

Revelation 13: 8. And all that dwell on the earth shall do it homage, (every one) whose name had not been written from (the) founding of (the) world in the book of life of the slain Lamb.

THE ALPHA AND OMEGA.

Revelation 1: 8. I am the A and the omega, saith the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

21: 6. And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

22: 13. 1 (am) the Alpha and the Omega,

(the) first and (the) last, the beginning and the end.

THE AMEN.

Revelation 3: 14. And to the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

The Vail

The Vail.

(Translated from the French.)

(1.) THE VAIL ON MOSES FACE.

2 COR. 3

The excellency of the ministry of the gospel consists in its simplicity. The main difficulty, both for the servant of the gospel and the hearers, lies in keeping this simplicity in view, for the ministry is generally looked upon as capable to be served only by the learned, and Christianity is for most but a tradition. "Seeing, then," says the apostle, "that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech." The excellency of the ministry consists on the one hand in the truth which it presents, and on the other in the saving grace of God which can meet the sinner, who had nothing to expect but His righteous judgment. As to the true condition of man in the presence of God, every distinction disappears before this truth: "There is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3: 22, 23.) Once this truth is established there is no hindrance to the presentation of the word of the ministry in its power and adaptability to the lost sinner. That there is no difference in the light of the glory of God must be accepted by every servant of the new covenant. To deny the lost and ruined condition of man is, in fact, to make the death of Christ of none effect, and to rob the ministry of the new covenant of all its excellency, bringing it down to a mere system of morals. It may be allowed to be better than other systems, still it would be but one of the many resources for the moral development of man, not the sole "power of God unto salvation."

It is, therefore, of all importance to have a clear conception of the gospel. It may make it more difficult to use great plainness of speech, but not more so than in the time of Paul. He had succeeded when he had put on the same platform the pious Jew and the idolatrous Gentile, the learned Greek with the uneducated Scythian. In the present day it is just as difficult to convince Christians by birth that they must perish in their sins if they do not give up traditional Christendom for Christ, as it was for Paul to convince the Jews that they were no better than the Gentiles.

"And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished." The apostle contrasts the simplicity and boldness of his ministry - both as regards the hopeless ruin of man and the abounding, grace of God - with the dimness in which both these points were seen through the vail of Moses. This dimness had its necessary place for that time. Although God had made known His ways to Moses personally and shown him the mystery of His grace, the public ministry of Moses was that of law and not of grace. "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1: 17)

The people had thoughtlessly entered into a covenant with God when they said, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." (Ex. 19: 8) "But when the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die." (Ex. 20: 18, 19.) There was terror, but no dimness; Moses had no covering over his face when he descended from the mountain after his first stay of forty days. (Ex. 32) The sins of the people caused him to come down. "And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides . . . and the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." (Ex. 32: 15, 16.) Here was the covenant in the hands of the mediator; all was plain and concise. "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount." (Ex. 32: 19.) This action was full of meaning: the people had broken the covenant, and the mediator of the covenant bore testimony to it, and judgment follows. No vail was necessary on that occasion; the mediator had testified that the covenant was broken.

Afterwards he intercedes for the people, and Jehovah proposes to send an angel to bring them into the land Canaan which He had promised them. (Ex. 32: 30, 34, and 33: 1-3.) But this could not satisfy the heart of Moses; he is troubled, and asks Jehovah to show him His way and Himself to go with them. "If Thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not in that Thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And Jehovah said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken; for thou hast found favour in My sight, and I know thee by name." Moses encouraged, and anticipating the word of Him to whom he testified - unto him that hath shall be given - continues his intercession and says, "I beseech thee, show me Thy glory." (Exod. 33: 15-18.) Moses had seen the glory of God in a wonderful way when the law was given, but in the tent of the congregation erected outside the camp Jehovah had spoken with Moses face to face, "as a man speaketh unto his friend" (Ex. 33: 11), and he now seeks a more excellent glory than that of the law. For behind the law - the end of the law - a way of God and a glory of God remained, and the glory of the law served only to prepare and introduce these. It was that glory which Moses had to hide, because the time of its manifestation according to the counsels of God had not yet come.

This glory revealed to Moses is in reality the glory of God in the face (i.e. in the person) of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 4: 6.) It was thus proclaimed: "I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of Jehovah all before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." (Ex. 33: 19.) The sovereignty of God in grace is an essential part of His glory. Israel had destroyed itself, and their only resource remained in Jehovah Himself. (Hosea 13: 9.) When all is lost, then is the time for grace to show itself, but the glory of this grace must be seen from a suitable standpoint. Moses was to be put in the cleft of the rock that he might see the glory. For this purpose Moses, after he had hewn two tables of stone like the first two which were broken, ascends the mount Sinai a second time. "And Jehovah descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah." (Ex. 34: 5.) After having passed forty days and forty nights upon the mount (Deut. 10: 10), Moses descended from the mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in his hand, and he knew not "that the skin of his face shone while he talked with God." (Ex. 34: 28, 29.)

There is a transforming power inherent in grace. Forty days of intimate intercourse with God had exerted a wonderful influence upon Moses. On the one hand he had learnt, through the experience of his own heart, the blessing of the grace with which he had communed; on the other he remained perfectly unconscious of the visible result which was the outcome of this intercourse. Blessed are we if we know the secret of communion with divine grace. The heart is refreshed, while the believer is kept in all humble path wondering that anyone should look at him. In fact, we may be sure that we shall never be used in the service of God till we have come to count ourselves as nothing. When God makes our face to shine for others we ought to be the very last to know it.

The people fear the glory in the face of Moses more than the two tables in his hands. Such is man! He is quite ready to promise obedience to the law for his whole life, but the nearer God seeks to approach man in grace, the further he draws back. Distance from God is the natural element of man, and gladly does he remain at this distance, even when it is proclaimed that the cross has removed all hindrances, so that a sinner may approach God. Jehovah bore with a people which was under the curse of a broken law, and Moses had thus learned the way of Jehovah. But it was just this glory which he was obliged to vail, "because the children of Israel could not stedfastly look on the end of that which is abolished." (2 Cor. 3: 13.) For Moses the question of human righteousness on the principle of law was settled. He could look on the end, "for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." (Rom. 10: 4.) But the majority in Israel could not look beyond the law, but sought for righteousness through it, while all the time they were under the curse. "For His own sake," not on account of their righteousness, God did bring Israel temporarily into the land, but as regards individual dealings He acted as He said to Moses, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious." Everyone, therefore, who was quickened by His grace could, according to this principle, look beyond the law and see the glory in the face of Moses.

As long as the vail remained on the face of Moses grace was necessarily hidden. But now, says the apostle, no darkness exists. The ministry is the ministry of the glad tidings of the grace of God (Eph 3: 2; Acts 20: 24), the glad tidings of the "glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Cor. 4: 4), the glad tidings of the blessed God. (1 Tim. 1: 11.) It reveals fully the glory of this grace whose rays illuminated the face of Moses, and the tables of the law in his hand could not dim it. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1: 17.)

Is the proclamation of the "gospel of the grace of God" characterised in our day by this great "plainness of speech" as it was with Paul?

Is not rather the modern preaching of the gospel to he compared to Moses with the two tables of the law in his hand and with the vail hiding the glory of the grace on his face?

The present time resembles much that of the apostles as regards the acceptance of the testimony of God's free grace. Paul, writing to the faithful of the nations, speaks of the vail on Moses' face. Legal righteousness, ceremonial holiness, philosophical wisdom form equally great hindrances to the acceptance and understanding of the grace of God. Modern Christendom in its main characteristics makes the vain attempt to unite the principles of law and grace. The upshot is a conventional righteousness, for grace and formality result only in obedience to traditions and commandments of men and in self-willed ministry, just as grace and wisdom result in philosophy and vain deceit. (Compare Gal. 5 and Col. 2) All these are but reproductions of Moses with the two tables of the law in his hand and the vail on his face. This is manifest in a remarkable way when we think what importance is given to the tables of the law in the chief religious systems. The doctrine of grace may be expressed with much clearness and conciseness in so-called articles of faith, and may be preached with full understanding from the pulpits. But all this clearness of exposition is much darkened through a ritual which establishes legal righteousness and ascribes a certain efficacy to sacraments. There are many true servants of God who proclaim solemnly that man must be born again to see or enter into the kingdom of God, and who testify to the cross of Christ as the sole power of salvation for sinners. Yet when they minister the sacraments they are like Moses with the vail on his face, and the precious grace which they had preached with great joy and to the edification of many must be kept in the background.

May the Lord give grace to all His servants who labour in the ministry, that they may always be and remain in the position where they may be able to use great plainness of speech.

(2.) THE VAIL DONE AWAY IN CHRIST.

We cannot sufficiently admire the wisdom of God who has given us a detailed history of Israel, for it is written especially "for our admonition." It shows clearly and distinctly that man is unable to preserve. his position before God when he is put under responsibility. Yet the whole history cannot produce this conviction in the conscience; only the quickening power of the Spirit of God can show man his hopeless ruin brought about through sin. But once truly convicted of sin, he is able to profit by the teaching of the history of Israel as to the fruitlessness of the law. "He that is spiritual judgeth all things." (1 Cor. 2: 15.)

But their history teaches us yet more. It shows us in an especial manner the blinding power of traditional religion, even where it is connected with an originally divinely-appointed organisation. Such a system tends only to blind man as to his position before God. "Their minds are blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament." (2 Cor. 3: 14.) Their own history in the desert, the song of Moses in testimony against them (Deut. 32), the testimony of Samuel against the evil of the priesthood, the ministry of the prophets bringing low their pride (Hosea 6: 5), while strengthening the saints for the fight through His gracious promises, the captivity of Babylon and the deliverance, the renewal of the word of the Lord through John the Baptist (Luke 3: 2), and that after a sad silence of 400 years, the ministry of the Lord Himself; and later that of His apostles with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, all was unavailing to remove the vail from the face of Moses. "Even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart." (2 Cor. 3: 15.)

The vail can be taken off the face of Moses only under one condition. Moses and Elias appeared with Jesus at His transfiguration on the holy mount, but disappeared at these solemn words, "This is My beloved Son: hear Him." (Luke 9: 28-36.) Taught of God, we come to Jesus, and then learn to look back upon Moses. We must do this before we can look from Moses to Christ with intelligence and profit. If we know the Lord, the vail drops from the face of Moses, "which is done away in Christ." (2 Cor. 3: 14) After the disciples had seen the Lord risen from the dead, He opened their understanding that they might know the Scriptures. "And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me." (Luke 24: 44.) The conversion of Paul the Pharisee to the faith of Jesus presents us with a remarkable example of the removal of the vail in Christ. From the moment that the Lord appeared to him on the way, and that he saw that the Jesus of Nazareth, against whom he verily thought that he ought to do many things (Acts 26: 9), was in truth the Lord of glory, from that moment the vail was removed from the face of Moses as well as from his own heart. The same man, who was more zealous than, all his contemporaries for the religion of his fathers, was made especially competent, after he had in his own heart learned the reality (the body of Col. 2: 17), to show others the danger of keeping to the shadow when the body had been revealed. He too could clearly see the glorious end which previously had been proclaimed in the shadows of the law, viz., "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth" (Rom. 10: 4), for the law and the prophets prophesied until John.

The vail was taken off in Christ in such a way that Paul could show the Jews through the history of the people of Israel the sovereign grace of God towards them as a nation, and at the same time prove that as a nation they never could hope to stand before God under the law, as they had imagined in their foolishness. Likewise, the apostle could throw down from their lofty station those who said, "We know that God spake unto Moses" (John 9: 19), and show that they had as little claim to the glory of God as the sinner of the Gentiles. "For He saith unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." (Rom. 9: 15.)

The true character of Moses' ministry as the mediator of the old covenant could only be known by a man in Christ after the vail had been removed from the face of Moses. A man who thus is under grace can not only see the glory of this grace under the vail on the face of Moses, but also understand, through the removal of this vail, the true character of the law as the ministration of death and judgment. "Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law." (Rom. 3: 31.) The man in Christ fully owns the authority of the law; he owns that for the man in the flesh the law can only mean death and judgment, and thus establishes the authority of the law. "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good." (Rom. 7: 12.) For the man in Christ the law has been established, because Christ has magnified it both in life and death. "Jehovah is well pleased for His righteousness' sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honourable." (Isa. 42: 21.) Christ was "made under law, to redeem them that were under law." (Gal. 4: 4, 5.) The introduction into the liberty wherewith Christ makes us free - the liberty of worship - gives us a true insight into the bondage from which they had been set free, and into the curse from which they had been redeemed. Those who know these things would not like to frustrate the grace of God, nor make the death of Christ of none effect by going back to the law for help, for they have learned that nothing but the fullest grace could meet their needs. The vail has been removed from the face of Moses, and now grace shines out in clear, bright rays.

To the man in Christ the removal of the vail from the face of Moses is of special importance, because that which was before an insupportable yoke becomes thereby a living reality. See how Peter speaks of it: "Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they." (Acts 15: 10, 11.) When Peter knew the Lord this whole system, with its heavy yoke of carnal ordinance, was imbued with living power. The moment the vail fell from the face of Moses all the solemn commandments about sacrifices, priesthood, order, fat, etc., became "living oracles"; they all spoke of Christ. The law itself was a prophecy. The shadow received - now that the body, Christ, had appeared - a meaning and an interest, while by itself it had been uninteresting and insupportable. The shadows can now with profit be used to show the reality, i.e. the manifold riches of the graces of Christ, for "the body is of Christ." (Col. 2: 17.) But to impose them again as duties would be to deny Christ, or to imitate them as examples would be to put those far off again who "were made nigh through the blood of Christ." (Eph. 2: 13.)

In Christ, the true Rock cleft for us, the glory of God is manifested and His name proclaimed, "if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious" (1 Peter 2: 3); and here is this grace, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious." (Ex. 33: 19, 22.) "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2: 4, 5.) This is the easy yoke and the light burden which Jesus lays upon those who follow Him, and this is their true honour and glory. They are justified, sanctified, and a royal priesthood, therefore able to show forth the praises of Him who hath called them "out of darkness into His marvellous light." Every dimness regarding Moses is gone; the law is now apprehended as that which only ministers condemnation; and instead of making it of none effect by accommodating it to man, it is now seen to reveal the total ruin of man.

The prophetic character of the law is not only made plain, but also rejoices the heart, showing us in beautiful types "the good things to come" which we already enjoy in Christ. Yet the types remain far behind the reality; they are only shadows, not the things themselves, just as a portrait representing a beautiful scene remains far inferior to the scene itself. The vail is done away in Christ, and Moses shows himself as the herald of grace - grace in electing love, grace which quickens the sinner dead in trespasses and sins, grace which opens the eyes to see the glory of Christ in His Person and in His work, grace which is the way of God bearing the misery of the people, in short, "grace which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 5: 21.)

There are two things of deepest importance for us. We read: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3: 3.) A man thus quickened feels the power and knows the blessing of the commandment: "Look unto Me, and be ye saved." (Isaiah 45: 22.) He that is born of God finds alone rest by looking away from himself to Christ. For him Jesus the crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God. But when led on through the Holy Spirit in the teaching of the cross, he understands too the truth about the substitution of Christ, viz., that God "hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5: 21), then is the one who is born of the Spirit capable of viewing the thin,, from another standpoint. He can then turn his looks back from Christ to himself, from that which grace has made him in Christ to that which he finds himself to be through painful experience. Christ becomes for him the true light, and he himself "light in the Lord." The man, new born, is thus able to solve the contradictions which he finds in himself, and to justify God in His ways of grace.

(3.) THE VAIL ON THE HEART OF ISRAEL.

The people of Israel, in spite of their vaunted veneration of Moses, did not in reality receive him as the messenger of God. They rejected him in Egypt, saying, "Who made thee a prince or a judge over us?" (Exodus 2: 14.) And afterwards, when, sent of God, he presented himself again with the manifest tokens of the reality of his mission, they murmured against him again and again. At the close too he bears testimony to them, "Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you." (Deut. 9:. 24.) "For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death?" (Deut. 31: 27.) But when Jesus, "the true and faithful witness," "the true light," came, the Jews rejected His claims by putting forth those of Moses. This is one of the traits of the evil heart and perverted will of man. He refuses constantly to own the rights of God. Despisers of His grace in Christ, they pretend to own His rights in the law, and use the law to reject Christ. But Jesus would not admit the pretended submission of the Jews to Moses: "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how can ye believe My words?" (John v. 40-47.) The vail was upon their hearts when they read Moses.

The gospel of the grace of God is the revelation of the glory of God in the person and the work of His Son Jesus Christ. It is the perfect expression of that name which God had proclaimed to Moses. (Exodus 34: 6.) The word, "true and worthy of all acceptance," is, "that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." (1 Tim. 1: 15.) The only ground on which God addresses man in the ministry of reconciliation is that he is a lost sinner. Peter told Israel as a people, "Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." (Acts 3: 26) But in spite of the clearness of the testimony the vail remained upon their heart; they looked constantly to Moses. They confirmed their national crime when they rejected the Holy Ghost who spoke to them through Stephen, and killed him, as they had before denied and killed the Son.

When the apostle of the Gentiles was called, he testified of the perfect glory of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13: 38, 39.) But the vail remained on their hearts. "It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." (Acts 13: 46.)

Let us turn now our attention to a truth which is much represented in our days, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." (Zech. 4: 6.) It is possible to preach the gospel of the grace of God in a very full and clear manner; but while it is opened to those "that find knowledge" (Prov. 8: 9), it remains as to its true meaning, hid without the quickening, power of the Spirit, and the grace is not apprehended. In the same manner we may be forced through the clearness of the exposition to accept with the understanding the doctrine of the grace, and all the time the heart remain unconscious of its own needs, and show soon that it rejects the grace of God, and that independence instead of boast in Christ is its sole principle. When the Lord said to the Jews who had been attracted by His miracles, "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting, life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed," what did they answer? "What shall we do that we might work the works of God?" (John 6: 27, 28.) Man with the vail upon his heart is ready to do, but refuses a God who gives. He is ready to labour honestly and diligently to establish his own righteousness, but refuses to submit himself to the righteousness of God. To submit is to own God's grace, i.e. that God of His own free gift, for His own sake, can give to man what he did not deserve, and what he had no right to demand of God. The vail must be taken from his heart to see these things, and then the vail drops at the same time both from his heart and from the face of Moses.

"Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." (2 Cor. 3: 16) There is only one power which can turn the evil heart of Israel to the Lord; miracles are for this powerless. The history of that people was full of miracles from the beginning; nevertheless they were "a perverted and crooked generation." When Jesus in His great condescension invited them to come to Him, He adds, "But I said unto you, that ye also have seen Me, and believe not." (John 6: 36) Although Jesus had spoken to them "as never man spake," the servants who testified this of Him were interrupted angrily by the religious leaders, "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him?" (John 7: 46-49) They had been eye witnesses of His miracles, "but though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him." (John 12: 37.) And when the Holy Ghost came down from heaven as witness of the glory of Him whom they had crucified, enabling uneducated and ignorant men to testify of Him with such clearness and boldness, they are reminded of the word, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." (Acts 7: 51.) What more could God do for Israel that He had not done? They are without excuse and righteously afflicted with blindness till this day.

But though the Lord could do no more for Israel, He can for His own sake do the wonderful work in them of turning their hearts to Himself. And this will happen. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." (Ezek. 36: 25, 26.) "I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy name's sake." (v. 22.) "Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel." (v. 32.) The Spirit quickens. God alone has life in Himself; He alone can communicate life. The Spirit, where He works for salvation for this ministry, opens the eyes to see and the ears to hear, and then the vail is removed from the heart and the heart is won for the Lord.

But is it only a question of Israel, or are not the words of the apostle also addressed to us and meant for our instruction? Often we learn our position best when we see it mirrored in that of others. Surely not without a purpose does the apostle, through the Holy Spirit, refer to the future conversion of Israel when writing to the converted of the nations. The Corinthians might easily think that a cultivated civilisation could only be advantageous to the cause of the gospel. But Paul refuses such an auxiliary from the outset. His testimony among them was "not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (1 Cor. 2: 4, 5.) Those wise Greeks had drawn the line of civilisation, and considered those barbarians who stood outside of this line. But their wisdom was linked with the grossest superstition.

In distinction to the wise Greek is the pious Jew who testified to the oneness of the Godhead. But the testimony of Paul was the same to both, although they stood opposed to one another, "to the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." (1 Cor. 1: 23) The vail was on the heart of the latter as well as of the former; they were equally opposed to the doctrines of grace. The apostle counted solely upon the power of God to remove the vail and to open the way for the reception of His testimony. When the Lord Jesus was on the point of leaving His disciples, He gave them the promise, "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning." (John 15: 26, 27) This double testimony is equally necessary, viz., the testimony of the servants of God and the quickening testimony of the Spirit. The clearest exposition and the most pointed proofs are unavailing without the quickening power of the Spirit. And because He is the Spirit of truth, He boars testimony in the soul which is quickened by Him, "because the Spirit is truth." (1 John 5: 6-10.)

Although there may be individual cases in which God sends a "strong delusion, that they should believe a lie," it cannot yet be said that the great mass of nominal Christians has been given over to delusion in the judgment of God as Israel has been. Yet morally an equally dense vail rests upon the hearts of the great bulk of those who call themselves Christians, as regards the true gospel, as on the heart of Israel in respect of the coming Messiah. Leaving out popery, which has evidently an anti-Christian character, how does it stand with the great number of Protestants by birth and tradition, even with those who read the New Testament, if it is really read at all? The Holy Scriptures are read by the light of tradition, i.e. with a mirror, which alone is sufficient to make the Word of God void and of none effect. They are read like the writings of any human author, whereas this Word comes to man with divine authority, representing God's thoughts and demanding the obedience of faith; or else one looks in the Holy Scriptures for accounts, annals, histories, without heeding in the least the truths connected with the facts, i.e. the teaching of the gospel. Therefore they may be read without the living power of the Spirit being in the least felt - a power which speaks to sinners or disciples now as directly as in the first days of the Church, when this Word issued from the lips of the Lord or of His apostles. (Heb. 2: 3.) And thus the word becomes true: "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." (2 Cor. 3: 6.)

Christianity exists, the presence of the Church is owned; but these two facts only help to keep the vail on the heart when the New Testament is read. To hold fast Christianity as known, to confess one or other of its many forms of worship, is generally considered sufficient to make a Christian. But there is little desire to know God as revealed in Christ. The foundation principles of the gospel are dimmed or made powerless through human additions. The strife between Protestants and Catholics is more regarding the senselessness of the Catholic faith than regarding the vital question of saving faith as it was at the time of the Reformation. Unto this day the vail is upon the mass of the Protestants when they read the Holy Scriptures. They stumble at the threshold: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3: 3) Allowing the fullest value to sound criticism, recognising all the light which the discoveries of recent travellers have thrown on Holy Scriptures, and accepting thankfully the many helps which are offered to the student of Scripture, yet we maintain that all these things by themselves are powerless to remove the vail from the heart. The law could not give life, and these things can do it just as little. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth." (John 6: 63.)

In this, as in many other cases, the Lord is above men: "Now the Lord is that Spirit." (2 Cor. 3: 17.) God allows man to bring out all his resources to make evident the distance which exists between man and God. Thus in this particular case, where the gift of life is in question, the line of separation is drawn very clearly. "I am the life," says Jesus; "I am [not shall be] the resurrection and the life." "The Son quickeneth whom He will." "The last Adam is a quickening spirit." "The life is the light of men." The quickened soul sees in the Lord Jesus the salvation of God.

When the Lord spake with Nicodemus the subject was, so to speak, "man." "Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast-day, many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man. But there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night and said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles which thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 2: 23-25; 3: 1-3.)

Nicodemus is presented to us as an honest man who values the miracles of the Lord rightly and owns that they confirm His divine mission. Nicodemus was "ruler of the Jews," one of the religious authorities of that day; yet at the very outset he meets with a statement which confounds him. The vail was on his heart, and he hesitates (an instance of the curious inconsistency of man) to accept a doctrine, although presented by One whom he owns "a teacher come from God," because this doctrine silenced his understanding. It is therefore possible to accept the mission of Jesus, supported as it is by glorious, incontestable proofs; but without the quickening power of the Holy Ghost it is impossible to accept the doctrine. Only he who is born again can see and believe that the same Person can be teacher and doctrine at the same time.

Letter, 1 Timothy 4: 8

J. N. Darby, Dublin, 1880.

(Words in Season, Vol. 3, 1889, page 306.)

Dearest brother,

The passage in 1 Tim. 4: 8, though referring to present blessing as Peter does (1 Peter 3: 10-13) has a different, or at least more general basis. Godliness is the way of happiness in this life (save of course persecution with it, we read in Mark), but it is the way of blessing. Peter's writings, after redemption, are occupied with the government of God - the first in favour of the pious, the second in judgment - and hence the passage referred to has this character, and refers immediately to the peaceful and upright character which avoids evil, and gets quietly through the world in peace as a follower of good. If you wish to see good days, you must govern your spirit and walk so and so, and then - save persecution for righteousness or for Christ - if you live in peace, you will live peacefully and happily. But the life we love is life here, and so is 1 Tim. 4. It is a quotation from Psalm 34, and shews how far the direct government of God, which was immediate and dispensational in Israel, applies to Christians. I believe 1 John 1: 9 to be, as all such statements in John, abstract and absolute for forgiveness at first coming, and for governmental forgiveness. In detail there is often delay; in general, the Holy Ghost is given to them that believe; but if we examine all that is said, I think we see that there must be faith in the efficacy of Christ's work, as well as His Person. But whenever a soul can say, Abba, Father, it is sealed - has the Spirit - though bad teaching may mar its effects. The mass of evangelicals don't go beyond Peter's teaching, and enter neither into Paul's nor John's, and souls are thus kept down.

______________________________

"Have you remarked that it is only the second time Moses went up that His face shone? The tables under pure law never reached the camp, but now, though put back under law, all God's goodness passed before Moses. It is a remarkable point as to holiness, that we never meet it at all till Ex. 15, after redemption and judgment." J. N. D.

Two Brief Quotes

J. N. Darby.

The more you nourish your soul by feeding on the Word of God, the more likely He is to use you in blessing to others.

If faith is not nourished by the Word of God it sinks down and fades away, for nothing can maintain faith in strength and vigour but the Word, it cannot feed on what it sees.

Notes of Addresses

Dublin, July, 1868.

J. N. Darby.

(Words in Season, Vol. 2, 1888, page 254.)

In Romans, man is looked upon as living in sins, and needing justification.

In Ephesians, man is looked on as dead in sins, and justification is not spoken of.

Hebrews is more contrast than comparison.

In passing through this world, we need the word and the priesthood - the word, to judge our conduct - the priesthood to support us.

The enjoyment of the consciousness that I know God depends on my walking with Him.

Holiness and truth are the characteristics of Christ.

In Rev. 3: 1, 2, what a strange thing! God saying they were dead and yet expecting perfect works!

If we have to wait for Christ, He has to wait; and we have only to wait until He has done waiting.

One of the characteristics of true faith is lasting out to the end: Saul's faith did not last, and he lost the kingdom.

Wherever there is conscious strength, there is real weakness: and wherever there is conscious weakness, there is real strength.

It is a dark world; but at night if I see a light, it is the nearest thing to me; so is Christ's coming.

The nearer you are to Christ, the more you will find out His greatness and your nothingness; the nearer you are to man, the more you will find out his weakness.

It is a great mistake to say you should not always be on the mount: it was after Paul came down from the mount he was in danger of being puffed up.

We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: the Jews were blessed with earthly blessings in the land.

The very things which Christ would have had to judge in us at the throne, God has judged Christ for at the cross.

The world ought to read Christ in us, just as they would the ten commandments on the two tables.

It is God's view of the Blood - not mine - which gives me peace; I rest in His estimate of it - not mine.

"He shall go no more out" - he may have been cast out here below, but up there he shall go no more out, i.e., when he shall have once come.

Does Christ's approbation satisfy your heart in going through this world?

Quickening means nothing short of the impartation of divine life to the soul.

Quickening and sealing are different things, as much as building a house is different from coming and dwelling in it.

But there is no reason against a soul being quickened and at once sealed on his believing in the person and work of Christ, for the Holy Ghost is come down from heaven.

The terms on which souls get the Spirit is faith in the person and work of Christ.

On the Baptism of Households

an unrevised copy of answers by J. N. Darby to enquirers.

Some remarks on the work of the Lord Jesus, with especial

reference to the world in which we now live.

Romans 5: 12. To Adam it was said, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die," etc., and death has been the common lot of all from that day to this. In the garden there was no barrier between God and man till sin came in, after it there was no way of approach or return to God but through death. This is the way God has been teaching to all his servants through the Scriptures. Adam is clothed with skins, and that brings the lamb (Ed.: Abel's sacrifice.) and Noah, Abraham, Moses - all had to learn the same truth.

What means the Paschal Lamb and what means the elaborate Jewish ritual but that if God is to have a redeemed people on a cursed earth it must be on the ground of death? That if God is to have any dealing with sinful man so as to bring a man into outward relationship with Himself, it could only be through the slain lamb - a type of "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." How little was known of the import of all these things! The better thing has been reserved for us, and in the light of the glorious gospel all becomes plain.

It is written (Heb. 2: 13), "These all died in faith," etc., and (2 Cor. 1: 20), "All the promises of God," etc. Thus the Lord Jesus Christ is seen to be on man s side the object of faith and on God s side the only ground on which He could have dealings with sinners (He being the Holy God must of necessity witness against me). And from the past to the present moment he who comes to God must come in God s way. "How can a man be just with God?" "If one died for all, then were all dead," "In Thy sight shall no flesh living be justified." At the flood God had said, "The end of all flesh is come before me," and there was no alternative but judgment. Still man was not set aside, which took place on the Cross. Noah comes forth, and on the ground of the sacrifice God blessed him and made a covenant with him, and with all that came forth from the ark.

Afterwards the land is given and man in the flesh is put upon trial. How miserably he fails we need not here examine, but pass on to that which seals the doom of all men whether Jew or Gentile. The blessed Son of God appears, the light shining in the darkness; the Life where all was dead; the truth exposing all that was not of it. He is rejected of His own, the Jews. They deliver Him over to the Gentiles by whom He was condemned to death, and that cross set up on Calvary becomes the central point of human history. Then and there sin, alias the flesh, or first man, with all that belonged to him, was judged by God and for ever set aside.

This blessed truth accomplished by One, on whom God had His eye from all eternity, is unfolded to us in His word. There it is we learn that it is in the death of His Son God has been glorified about sin, etc. (2 Cor. 5: 21). When the Lord Jesus came forth from the grave whither He had gone for sin, He says to His own, "I ascend to My Father," etc. (John 20.) - the result of His death and resurrection. Then the message goes forth into the world, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," etc. Jesus is preached as the One risen from the dead, having annulled him that had the power of death, that is the devil. He had "tasted death for every man," and henceforth becomes the head of every man. The first man is for ever judicially set aside; his trial is over, his judgment is passed. "Now is the judgment of this world," etc. (John 12: 31). These solemn words were spoken by our Blessed Lord in view of His death, and if there is to be any blessing for any soul of man it must be through Him the risen One from among the dead.

This is the solemn but glorious testimony that God is now presenting to sinners. Jesus passed through death and is exalted to heaven s highest place; that He has borne all the judgment that was due to sin, having taken upon Himself every responsibility in which it was possible for man to come and to fail in: that upon His devoted head met all the wrath of God against sin - in brief, then, that the first man - sin - the flesh, has been perfectly judged in the death of Christ, for ever set aside and put out of sight. Baptism is the expression of the acceptance of this judgment, the renunciation before God of the man, the confession that I had my due as man if God is to deal with me on the ground of what I am, death is my portion: for this was the portion of Christ when He was made sin, that henceforth I might live as in Christ, "the second man," who in grace died for me. So it is written, "The publicans justified God being baptized," etc. Now, to justify God is to condemn myself, but "the Pharisees rejected the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptised," etc. A few in baptism gave up all hopes of blessing on the ground of their responsibility, acknowledged the failure of the nation, renounced all the claims they ever had, confessing their hopes of blessing to be in the One announced by John, "He that cometh after me." The Pharisees on the other hand were righteous, did not justify God: refused to be baptized, did not condemn themselves, and did reject the counsel of God. I adduce this simply to illustrate what Baptism means (that is the acceptance of the testimony raised) without going into the difference between John s and Christian baptism, save to note there is one. The moment a sinner believes in Christ he is accepted in Him, saved through faith in His name: but then this is a scene in which God has been outraged, the scene where sin has been reigning, the scene where Christ was made sin, in which He died unto sin. If I am to have part with Him down here I must in figure go through death. I am baptized to His death in order to have part with Him down here, in whom alone is life. It is not that I have first to have part in His life in order to have part in his death, but, as in reality, so in type, I have part in his death in order to have part in His life.

Baptism never supposes life in the one baptized though it may be there, but it always supposes death. Thus Saul was in the condition that attached to him as a sinner with sins on him, though himself safe, when he was bidden to "arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins" (Acts 22: 16). His sins were not washed away, that is to say, he was outwardly connected with the first man, until baptism to Christ, and as to himself as a man on the earth was not in a Christian state till after baptism. If life were implied in baptism, would it not have been written, "Arise, and be baptized, because your sins are washed away"? Again it is said, "Repent, and be baptized, for the remissions of sins," not "because your sins are remitted," which is the ground taken by those who refuse baptism for any but believers. "They that gladly received the word were baptized," and it was "for the remission of sins"; that is to say, they could not be acknowledged as outwardly free from sin until they had in type died in the waters of death, and waters of baptism (1 Peter 3: 20, 22), "wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by waters!" etc.

Here are statements first that Noah was saved by water. He entered the ark before the flood and God shut him in, and he was as safe as God could make him; but no one could say he was yet saved, and the word says he was "saved by water; the like figure," etc. As the water was God's judgment by which the world was overwhelmed, Noah goes through it. He enters the ark in the old world, goes through the water, the judgment, and comes out in the new world. He could not be saved, but by going through. the waters of death through which he who accepted God's judgment is called to pass, and which "doth now save us." Noah could not be saved but by going through the judgment, he could not be brought to stand in the new world except through the flood; neither can we be brought into outward connection with the new man except we go through Christ's death in a figure. "The like figure now saves us." Then we are not saved outwardly without it. "Not the putting away the filth of the flesh," that is, not the outward washing which does make clean the outside of the cups, but that of which it is a type and unto which I am baptized, Christ's death, (Ed.: The resurrection of Christ was proof of the efficacy of His death.) which alone can give a good conscience before God, knowing that He has borne the judgment of sin in His death. Noah was saved, through faith in God's testimony, in the ark, the type of Christ, but he could not stand on new ground except through the flood. The Christian is likewise saved through faith in the blood, but he cannot stand in the judged world in connection with the second man except he likewise go through death in a figure.

This was exactly the condition of Israel in Egypt. They were under the shelter of the blood, but they did not get out of Egypt till they had crossed the Red Sea, in type the death of Christ, and the destruction of all enemies. They are safe, but not saved. It is the blood which shelters them from judgment, but they have to pass through the waters of death before they are seen as a delivered people. In like manner faith in the blood shelters me, but I am not delivered from Egypt till I have been through the Red Sea. True, I may be the Lord's, and may know that Christ has been through death for me, but this (Ed.: The Red Sea figure of Baptism.) has to do with my position on earth, not the going to heaven. We do learn in it that we have died with Christ, and therefore ought to be buried. (Ed.: This touches Colossians 2.) We do see that Christ has died to sin; but, on the contrary, I am baptized in order to die, and in type die. There the first man has been judicially ended since the cross, and I then and there own that truth in the type of death. It separates me, as the Red Sea did Israel, from Egypt, from all that to which Christ died. "How shall we, that are dead to sin," etc. (Rom. 6: 2, 3). The question is raised of saints delivered from sin turning again to it, sinning that grace may abound, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. How does the Spirit of God meet them? "If ye have been baptized to Christ, it was also to His death"; and what was the death but the judgment of God against sin? In baptism they had acknowledged this - the righteousness of that judgment borne for sin - had been baptized unto it, and were henceforth to walk in newness of life (see also Gal. 3: 27, Col. 2: 12). The death of Christ to which they had been baptized was that which separated them from all things - sin, the law, the flesh.

Believing, then, that the first man is entirely condemned and judicially ended in the death of Christ, baptism is faith's acceptance of this judgment that if God has given me children they are born not in connection with the second man, but in the nature of the first, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Believing that these children, though thus born in sin and in the nature of the first man, the ended man, are to be trained for God, brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (He who has attained that Lordship by death); it is the privilege of faith to reckon such as judicially ended, to start from the death of Christ, remembering what God thinks of that death, that it is either salvation or judgment, that in it is displayed the righteousness of God which is unto all but is only upon all which believe. "We are unto God a sweet savour," etc. (2 Cor. 2: 10, 15). The cross of Christ has become that which accredits the holiness of God in the face of sin. We, as believers, are bound before God to present the death of Christ for the acceptance of our children as soon as they become responsible to receive it. But faith in me at the earliest moments lays hold of that death for my child, who is part of me, and for whom I am responsible to God.

When Israel passed through the Red Sea, a type of Christ's death, they having part in it on the principle of faith, those waters became "a wall unto them on the right hand and on the left," and they were the same waters of death that overwhelmed the Egyptians, who assayed to enter them, without faith and apart from Moses, the leader of Jehovah's people. In like manner faith sees that Christ dead and risen is preached to all, and is made the witness of God's holiness in opposition to sin: the ground of condemnation apart from faith. The question arises out of this. In what relation do children stand with regard to God? And secondly, in what relation do Christian parents stand with regard to God, and the children He has given them? It is here we recognize no standing for ourselves, but in the second man. The first standing has been swept away by the death of Christ, and it is equally true that our children's standing in the first man has been swept away also. As children they stand in virtue of Christ's death, "In heaven their angels," etc. Faith accepts this, and puts them in it in type, accepting it as God's righteousness which shall be to them either salvation or judgment. But blessed be God, it is not His will that any should perish. His word to the tailor was, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house." His faith was to lay hold on the death of Christ not only for himself but also for all that belonged to him. God in response to his faith in Christ would apply the word to their conscience and would give them to accept for themselves what his faith had accepted for them, so they were baptized as his household. This was an absolute statement of God, and, if words have meaning, warrants me to claim the salvation of my house in answer to my faith in God. This too is His gift. Ephesians 2: 8.

But I remember the first man is judged, that Christ risen is displayed as the righteousness of God before a guilty world, that the world lies under the judgment of God for the death of His Son: that every mouth is stopped: that all are under sin: that Baptism expresses nothing for myself as a believer which my faith may not lay hold of for my child who is part of me. When I remember that God warrants me to expect the salvation of my child: that by baptism one is brought out of the world that lieth under judgment into subjection to the faith of Christ ("the like figure whereunto baptism doth now save us," etc.), and that one is brought into the Church: that the death of Christ, and baptism the figure of it, is either salvation or judgment to all those to whom Christ risen is displayed as the righteousness of God, then I joyfully accept in figure, and by faith for my child, for whom I am responsible to God, Christ's death for it.

I own if God deals with it according to what it is (or the first man), there is no hope. I own that the death of Christ has ended the first man, that in that death this child, as part of the first man, was judged. I own that all hope is in the second man. I submit it to Christ's death, which shall be of necessity either its salvation or its judgment. But, blessed be God, He encourages me to believe it shall not be judgment but salvation. He is not willing that any should perish. He has given me Christ for myself, and presents Christ for the acceptance of my children not to be their condemnation. He tells me to bring them up for Him "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." He tells me to "train up a child," etc. (Prov. 22: 6). The little ones belong to Christ. He has redeemed them. He said, "Suffer little children," etc.

In baptism I acknowledge the right of Christ, which He has attained over it by death. "That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man" (Heb. 2: 9). That it is not to be brought up in the world and as of it, trusting that God may at some future time claim it for Himself, but trained for Him. Faith for it does renounce the world, the flesh, and the Devil, owns that all its education and training is to be as of one who belongs to Christ by virtue of His death. Faith reckons it to be dead to the world: therefore I cannot allow for my children in the world anything that I myself as a Christian may not have. Who are sufficient for these things? All their training should be for this end, that Christ has acquired a right over them when they are responsible. I, as responsible for them, acknowledge that right. This done in faith, will not God give them to know for themselves, not only the need of a Saviour, but will He not assuredly delight to give them Christ for their hearts. He who accepts Christ's death as the shelter from judgment, whether for himself or those God has given him, and then allows his children to grow up in the ways and the pleasures of the world because they are not converted, or is himself engrossed with them, is like what an Israelite would have been had he gone out of the door of his house before the morning. (Ed.: A reference to the night of the Passover.) "The life which I now live in the flesh," etc. We cannot afford to forget that the blood is on the lintel. The world is under judgment, everything is a question of faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11: 6).

If the word of God has told us to baptize children, that would have been something that anyone could have taken hold of without faith. "The word of God is perfect." He who penned it knew what Christendom would be, hence we see the wisdom of God in withholding anything that nature could have appropriated, or that would have appeared to give countenance to that which now exists - a baptized Christendom without faith. But if there is nothing about children being baptized there is something and very much about the baptism of households, not because they were believers - they may or may not have been - but because they were households. There is a principle running through Scripture from beginning to end, and one may do well to examine it. You ask: How is it that these things are not known? That godly men refuse to baptize any but believers? That there was much darkness and confusion about that which concerns the simplest child of God?

The Church as "the pillar and the ground of truth" has failed: departed from single-eyed allegiance to Christ: ceased to walk by faith: has fallen back upon nature to walk by sight. We are in the last days. The Church of God is in ruins. The truth has been hidden, covered over with the dust of centuries: but God has been graciously removing the dust, leading the saints back to the word and restoring to them the glorious truths therein. He has recovered to us the glorious truth of the Lord s coming; the heavenly calling of the saints; the new creation, the principle of the assembly, etc. Still the saints are trying to discover the truth about baptism through the dust and in the ruin fettered by all that has been said and done about. it. Fearful of regeneration, we have rushed to another extreme and, knowing it could never give life, have denied that it now saves. Beneath the dust, and apart from the ruin, the word of God is bright and luminous as ever. It reveals as we are able to bear it and in its practical application. This is a subject peculiarly for faith, giving present deliverance to the Christian and all that belongs to him. Therefore the enemy makes special efforts to keep it from the saints of God. "The just shall live by faith."

J.N.D.

Beloved Children

Ephesians 4: 20 - 5: 2

J. N. Darby.

(Words in Season, Vol. 2, 1888, page 69.)

What a wonderful place the Lord sets us in here, and sets us in the consciousness of it too (shows us how we get it, and the effects and fruits of it); and that consciousness is hindered by everything that is in contrast to God - worldliness, carelessness, or negligence - but it is where God has really set us, and we are to be "followers of God as dear children." To think that such a word should come out of His mouth to us, calling us "dear children"!

We are familiar with the thought of being sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus; but when we think of the nearness and intimacy of this, and His revealing Himself to us and acting as such! It is not what He has done to deliver us from condemnation; but when the sin is all gone out of memory to be remembered no more, He sets us in this relationship of dear children, and sets us in the consciousness of it. If He says to me, "Dear child," what a thought I have of Him and the wonderful condition I am in! Suppose a father says, "Dear child," the expression gives consciousness of the love. He may have done all kinds of things for me, but the very word conveys to me where I am.

If we come to think of it and measure it, we have to think of Christ. He says: "I have declared Thy name unto them, and will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them." He dwells in us to be the power and enjoyment of it, and attracts down from the Father's heart what He feels for Him and for us; and that is shed abroad in our hearts. We are accustomed to look at God as Judge, and a solemn truth in its place: "He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and cannot look on sin;" but there is such a complete dealing with the whole question of sin according to God's glory (looking at the work of Christ), that I get into the light, and the only thing it shows is that I am as white as snow, leaving the heart free to enjoy this "grace wherein we stand."

Being justified by faith, I have peace with God (referring to poor sinners), and I can say, I am waiting for the glory; and besides that, I have access to this grace wherein we stand. It is of all importance for our hearts and affections that we should be there with God. We can't enjoy it fully if we allow evil, and even negligence dims our hearts. We get the doctrinal part before; and now He says, You are my dear children. It is not a mere doctrine, but the address of God, when He says "dear." What is it says it? It is His heart - what He feels about us. We are all poor sinners, I know; but He says it because He feels it. He is expressing Himself and reaching us, and that is what is so thoroughly blessed.

A child is to be obedient and dutiful, and all that; but it is so wonderful that God should express it; and He reckons on our hearts walking in it. (How dismal it is if a child of a family does not walk in the affections of it. A stranger you can have done with, but with one of the family it is dreadful, like harassing raw flesh). It is the outgoing of God's good pleasure and delight; and I know I am His delight - poor, unworthy creature as I am (but it is not a question of worthiness - that is in Christ). In God's sight the sin has been so dealt with that His heart can go out. There is no feebleness in the spring of love in Christ. It took Him to the baptism. "I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished." Till then the love could not go out freely; for His love He got hatred, but then His love could flow out in unmingled freeness.

Perfect love in the drinking of that terrible cup; now it is free to act - grace reigning because righteousness is accomplished. His whole love can go out through grace. I get through the work of Christ, God free to satisfy His love, all the purposes and delight of His own nature. "He will rest in His love."

Now, as it were, God says, I am content; I have made that person as happy as he can be. You never get a word about the prodigal son when he comes to the father (a deal about him when he is coming), but you hear about the father, and his joy in having him. The poor prodigal was happy enough; but it is not "meet to make him happy" (he had the best robe), but it is meet to make merry and be glad; for this my son was lost and is found. He tells it to us that we should know it: it was meet that He should make merry and have all glad around Him, because this poor sinner had come back. There is no hindrance to the full satisfaction of His soul, His own joy to have this one in.

We get two great truths here. The work of Christ - that was needed to put away sin and open out this love; there is a new creation, and we are dead; we have put off the old man, and put on the new. Then the love is perfectly free. And I get hold of another thing: What did it all come from? What have I got into? It comes from God; the very nature is of God. "Of God are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." We are of God and the righteousness of God, all is of God and according to God; and we have a nature capable of understanding it, and of enjoying all God is.

All is free and full, and this nature can let itself out to me in love. The thing I am brought to enjoy is of God; and all my intelligence for conduct, and feeling, and everything is of God. Paul could say, "Be followers of me;" but the Spirit here goes up to the source, and says, "Be ye followers of God," - you must take after your Father - "renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him," "after God created in righteousness and true holiness," and love too. Having the divine nature, we are in the presence of God, - sin put away, and we in the light as God is in the light. We are brought into the presence of God in a double way, and capable of enjoying it. It is not of human wisdom or knowledge, but of a pure heart. We have more and more every day if we are walking with the Lord; but it is not intellect. All the intellect in the world never knew what it is to be loved by - never found out God - never found God.

We learn Him by our wants. He who learns what strength is, and knows the comfort of strength, is a poor, feeble person who can't get on upon a rough road, and the strong one lends his arm. What a comfort strength is to him. The real wants, the need that we have, God has met in every possible way. "When we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." The perfectness of His love came out, in that, when we had no strength to get out of our state, He says, I must come down to you. That is one end (it is endless), but it takes me up to enjoy God Himself - comes down to the sinner where he is, and thus he learns there is love enough to reach from the holy throne of God to him, and to take his poor heart up to the throne of God. Not wisdom or intellect, but God-revealing Himself.

As God was acting in this love, I get the very spring of it, and the root from the beginning to the end as I know Him. The light comes into my conscience and makes everything manifest, and the love comes too. We have to learn more of the treacherousness of our hearts, of the wiles of Satan and of the world; but I get into positive relationship with God, - and sin outside (by faith I mean), and there we have to keep it.

Set in the heavenly places as to doctrine, then we get the practical power. He sends us out from Himself to the world that men may know what He is. How close we have to keep to Him, and to judge ourselves - learning unsuspected bits of self and selfishness, and self confidence in us.

There is another element. We see we are brought to God. Not I as a poor human being having to do with God; I get Christ between - Christ revealed as man. He came down to where we were as poor sinners. He can reproach Philip: "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." God did not want to exalt Himself; but there was one new thing with God, to come down to us; the love that came down to be near us (as a man, but the divine nature breaking through the lowliness); so that when I talk to "the carpenter's son," I find the Son of God, the most lowly, humble Minister of Goodness to me. "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."

Poverty was the new thing with God, and the poverty was that He came among us. I know God by it. I get it in an intimate Object, and the nearer I get the more I see the divine majesty. He is close to us - reaches us, touches us; nay, He is become our life. "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." So near us - not physically, though He was that - that "He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all one."

All the power and grace in Him, but we all brought to this like condition. "I go to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God." And the One I can be familiar, and intimate, and at home with, I find engaged with myself.

He expects our affections, expects our interests in His glory. If you thought of My happiness, you would be glad that I am going to My Father, away from this troublesome earth. "If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice because I said I go unto the Father." In our hymn we get -

"O Jesus, Lord, 'tis joy to know

Thy path is o'er of shame and woe."

He expects us while worshipping and adoring Him to have our part in His joy, and that is where He comes so near.

There is great comfort in putting off the old man. Practically in power I have put it off (I have to fight it every day); I have put it off altogether. We have a right to say, through the efficacy of Christ's death, "I have put off the old man and put on the new." I get complete deliverance. I may forget it, and let the old man come in, but "ye have put on the new, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Morally, it is association with Himself. Who is the righteous One? God. And the holy One? God. Well, you are after God. No lower measure and standard. Even when He chastens us, it is that we may be made partakers of His holiness. In us it is a new creation, in Him it is eternal. That is what I am before God and according to God's work and doing, and I have done with the other man.

I am after His nature, or else I could not enjoy God. You can't get an animal that eats hay to eat meat. Christ has become our life, and the new creation in me is after God, according to what He is. He has not created anything inconsistent with Himself. In that life I am to live. That is another thing. We are feeble and weak: if we have it, it is in virtue of Christ's work, and He being glorified, we have the Holy Ghost. Being sprinkled with the blood, I receive the Holy Ghost; He comes and dwells in me. I get a nature capable of enjoying God; and He takes of the things of Christ and shows them to me. He stirs me up, leads, guides, and corrects, and rebukes my conscience if necessary. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." Don't grieve Him. "We know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit that He hath given us."

There I get not only a nature to enjoy, but power suited to my capacity, whether as a babe or father in Christ. Christ having taken His place at the right hand of God, the Holy Ghost comes down and says: "This is your place. He is gone to His God and your God, to His Father and your Father, and you are all dear children." The blessed Spirit of God dwells in us, and we are not to grieve Him.

We have the new nature, and the Holy Ghost to keep our minds alive to the consciousness of it. And He takes of the things of Jesus and shows them to us. My sins are gone, and I am as white as snow. Dead with Him. He has stepped in and charged Himself with the whole thing - drank the cup. I am dead and risen, and I get consequently this - the present grace, and the earnest of what I shall have when He comes. I have it in a poor, earthen vessel, and am learning to discern good and evil, learning a deal about myself and about God; but learning it as a dear child.

It may be very humbling, as it was to Israel in the wilderness, but they could never have learned it in Egypt. In the wilderness they had many humbling things to learn, and so have we; but we are walking in the light as He is in the light, and we have "boldness in the day of judgment," because as Christ is so are we in this world before God. Not as Christ was, because He was absolutely sinless. Wonderful to say, as He is in glory, as He is because grace has put us in Him before God. Then the Holy Ghost comes as the earnest. I am standing as an earthen vessel between the accomplished redemption and the glory He has won. We are dear children, and He speaks to us as such. The spring as to conduct is, "You as My child honour your Father." If I am not your Father, there is no sense in the thing.

As brought to God, I have learned what God is as to His ways of grace (verses 31 and 32): "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Did God come and clamour against you in justice? He sent His Son to give Himself for you, and has forgiven you. There is a man that wronged me; I am going to forgive him, as God forgave me, and (if I am near enough to God to do it) to show out what we have been learning is the joy of our souls.

"Walk in love." There we see the preciousness of Him who brought it so close to us, as "Christ hath loved us, and given Himself for us," &c. Don't you know what that means? Have you not understood what Christ's love to you, as a poor creature, was? Have you not learned for yourself? Did He not give Himself up - no light thing? Yes! Then you go and give yourself up! He did not merely give a great deal to us (He did give us everything), He gave up Himself: The law requires the measure of your love to yourself to be that of your love to your neighbour; grace requires you to give up yourself entirely. In a sinful world, I want something more than the former. I have to do with people who wrong, and insult, and harass, and outrage me. Christ did more than love us as He loved Himself; He gave Himself up entirely.

The perfectness of love is measured in self-sacrifice. We may fail in that, but there is no other measure. "We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." Was not God manifested in Christ? Is not Christ your Model? He the blessed Son of God, walking through this world, manifested God, with a divine superiority over evil. It is put away between us and God; and I am to be above it between me and man, the power of good in the midst of evil. If you see unrighteousness, and your spirit boils over (you may "be angry and sin not" - righteous indignation at evil  - but if it boils up that won't do), Christ was the expression of unavenging righteousness: "If ye do well and suffer for it," etc.

One word as to carrying this through. "Walk in love," etc. (verse 2). I give myself up for others, but to God. If I give myself to others, I may not go right, for they may not go right. The lower and worse the person I give myself up for, the higher it is. The principle of Christ was, He gave Himself to God, but for the vilest. It was a sacrifice of love - love that has its motive in itself for God, its object in God - and that kept it steady in the path.

You get further in the chapter: "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." You find light brought in, the full light of Christ into the conscience, and the full love of God into the heart, and then you will go right. Our consciences kept alive, and walking in the undisturbed consciousness of that word of God, "Dear children" - the way He addresses us - the feeling of affection going out from His heart, so that when I go to Him there is not only the love that sought the sinner, but the love now in the relationship that finds delight in expressing itself.

Wherever you see the world or selfishness gets in (evil, too, I need not say), that is not after God, but after the world and after the devil. That is like a man asleep; it never says he hears or speaks (he may dream). "Arise from among the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." If my heart goes with the things of the world, Christ is not shining into it. There may be glimmerings, but I can't say "Abba," and go to Him with the sense that He will say, "Now, my dear child, go and follow Me." And we ought to be walking in it! J. N. D.

The Cross.

J. N. Darby.

(Words of Faith, Vol. 3, 1884, page 244.)

I see how, in the cross, the whole question of good and evil was brought to an issue in every way. First, it was the complete display of man's enmity against God - the contemptuous rejection, alas! of God - come in love, for His love He had "hatred;" and in every detail, disciples, priests, Pilate, all bring out the evil that was in man. Then Satan's power is fully manifested, and that over men in their passions, and in one sense in death, at least in the sorrow of Christ's soul.

Next, I get the perfect Man as nowhere else - perfect love to the Father; perfect, absolute, obedience; and that in the very place of sin, and the cup it had filled. And this in human weakness, Satan's power (though above both, by looking to God), and the forsaking of God.

And, then, God Himself, in perfect righteousness against sin, and sovereign, perfect, infinite love to the sinner, His majesty and truth, both made good.

Such is the cross! In the history of eternity it stands alone.

Man in God's glory is its blessed result. J. N. D.

The Character of the Ministry of the Gospel.

Notes of a lecture on 2 Corinthians 4: 5.

J. N. Darby.

(Words of Faith, Vol. 3, 1884, page 5.)

The character of the ministry of the gospel, is, that the things are possessed for ourselves, before they can be ministered to others. In the Old Testament it was not for themselves, but for us, "did they minister the things." (See 1 Peter 1: 10-12.) We stand between the suffering and the glory, with the Holy Ghost, come down from heaven, shining in our hearts, to give out the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. "When it pleased God," says Paul, "who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles." (Gal. 1: 15, 18.) Mark, Christ was revealed, not to, but in, Paul. It is the light of the gospel of the glory of God, called the gospel of the glory - Christ is speaking from heaven. We have got the last things, the last revelations, connected with the glory of God in the Man Christ Jesus, now in heaven. "Therefore, having this ministry, we faint not," etc. (2 Cor. 4: 1-6.) He is speaking of the contrast with Moses, who put a veil over his face.

There is no glory to be compared with that in the face of Christ. Man could not look at it, if it came with a legal claim on the heart of man. You never get the light of the glory of God shining into the heart of man, without the conscience being awakened, if under law. I cannot stand in the presence of God; it tells me what I ought to be, and if I am not that, I cannot look at the glory - He must hide Moses in the cleft. But when I see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, where do I see it? It is in heaven, in a Man, in the Man that hung on the cross for my sins. The meaning of the glory seen there, is, that sin, death, and Satan have all been put away together. He, being made sin, died, and went into the grave, was raised, and is gone into heaven, and the only part in it man had was sin, and hatred to Himself.

The glory of God is the witness that there is the complete cleansing away of all sin. That Person at God's right hand, who was made sin, went under death, went into the grave, and has passed it all, and is now in glory; and, in virtue of the work being accomplished, the testimony comes to me, the One who bore my sins is in glory, and all is done with. There we get the full testimony of the glory of Christ - the testimony of God's value of it. All this I get in the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. Having been brought by Him to believe in God, I see the glory of God - I can look, and delight in it. The testimony of my salvation is the glory, and seeing it with an open face, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory.

I say, Let me see that my Sin-bearer is in the glory of God, and I have the certainty that all sin has been put away, and then the Holy Ghost comes down, and, because I am thus cleansed, I am sealed by Him. A Christian stands, and looks at the accomplished sufferings; looks back at the accomplishment of the work that has put away sin; looks up, and sees the One who did it all in glory, and that is the way the glory attains its full effect in the heart. It is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It confounds one when first one sees it; but what am I waiting for, if He owns me as one with Himself? I am waiting for Him to come and take me there - to bring me into the thing He has made mine.

Power has come into this place of death; I do not want to die, but to be clothed upon - death swallowed up in life. I do not want to die, I want to be changed into the body of glory, without dying at all. It is a present living power. We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed; the power of death is broken. If I go up to the judgment-seat, in what state shall I go? The Lord will come, and take me there. Christ, having such delight in me, comes for me; changes me; and takes me there glorified, and I shall have to give an account of myself there, and a very great blessing it will be to have all brought out in the light - how Christ kept me when I fell; how He lifted me up. The fulness of redemption is manifested when we go up to the judgment-seat in glorified bodies. When He appears, we shall be like Him, and what can I fear in regard to judgment now? My Sin-bearer is at the right hand of God, having put away sin at His first coming, and He appears the second time, without sin, unto salvation, to take us to Himself, as made like Him.

The wise virgins were asleep, as well as the foolish. What changed it? The midnight cry waked them - the testimony of the Lord's coming; they had oil (grace), and awakening at the cry, they were ready, and went in. When asleep they had given up expecting the Bridegroom, and when the cry came, they woke up. At first they went out full of the thought of His coming, and then got into ease and comfort, and went to sleep, more or less, in the world.

If the Lord Jesus came to-night, would you all be found, with bright lamps, ready for Him? It is the state of your souls. We are to expect, in the last days, perilous times, but great blessings, in the midst of it all, in the path of faith. We find the form of Christianity, but denying the power. In Timothy it is the scriptures I am directed to, because, if I say, "The church teaches this, or that," the question is, What is the church? But if I say, "The scripture says it," I know where I have learnt it - "From a child thou hast known the scriptures," &c.

The word of God is "sharper than any two-edged sword," etc.; it deals with the conscience, not with the intellect. If I touch it, it deals with my conscience; it comes in with invisible power, and, like the woman of Samaria, I can say, "Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did." Faith's root is in the conscience. People talk of apostolic succession; there is no succession in God's word. Just before Laodicea is spued out of Christ's mouth, the word to Philadelphia is, "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, which no man can shut." Not a great deal to say about Philadelphia, but it is characterised by what God delights in - the word of Christ has authority on their hearts and consciences, they hold to His name, and are looking for the promise, "Behold, I come quickly." He is waiting, sitting at the right hand of God, till His enemies become His footstool. His friends are perfected for ever, and He is coming to receive them. He does not take a bit of the inheritance till He has gathered up the fellow-heirs; then all things in heaven and earth are to be gathered together in one, and all to be under Christ.

Our place is a peculiar one, like Eve's. She was not lord of the earth, she was, in all the creation of which man was lord, his helpmeet. The being associated with the Lord Jesus Christ is the one thing marking our peculiar place. He is given to be Head over all to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all, and we, the joint-heirs of Christ, we wait for Him - the Eternal lover of our souls!

The thing that characterises Christianity, is, the knowledge of the unveiled glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and "if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." A veil may be on man's heart, but the fact of man being in the glory of God remains equally true, and when the veil is taken away, there is nothing to come but Christ coming in judgment to the world. Then the trials and afflictions of the present time are all connected with the earthen vessel - its weakness. If an apostle, you can only be kept, day by day, by the power of God.

The vessel is one thing, the treasure is another. The vessel must be nothing, if the treasure there is to shine out. The old man is judged, and crucified with Christ; I have to look at myself as a dead man. I may light up a lantern, but if the glass be not kept perfectly clean, the light will not shine out. I have a glorified Christ in my soul, and if my flesh rules me, that is not the treasure shining out; I must ever reckon myself dead before God.

A Christian stands a new man in God's sight. To reckon myself dead is a privilege for myself, and a necessity for my testimony, to put it simply. Suppose a mother heard her son was half-killed, would she stop on her way to him to look at the shops? So, if a Christian is full of Christ, he will not be distracted by anything of the world. Where the earthen vessel is right, the light will shine out. There must be no rest for the flesh; nothing but sorrows and trials - always "delivered unto death," and "bearing about in the body the dying," &c. The Lord put the apostle through all sorts of circumstances. If anything of the flesh sprang up, the red-hot iron must be put to it, to destroy the sprouts; death wrought in him, that nothing but the life of Christ might appear.

There is such a thing as a man being superior to all the circumstances he may be passed through; Paul gets the sentence of death welling through everything, yet "bold to preach," &c. We find the most complete superiority to circumstances in Stephen. Whilst the stones are flying about, he kneels down, and prays for his murderers; he is a copy of Christ, of life in the midst of death. - J. N. D.

Christianity Mysterious

J. N. Darby.

Bible Treasury Vol. 15, page 380.

To say that revealed truth is not mysterious is absurd. A religion, which depends on the Word being made flesh, and the Son of man at the right hand of God, and sending down the Holy Ghost to make our bodies God's temples; which tells us that we are members of Christ's body; which shews God become a man, obedient as such, and dying as such, with other truths needless to enlarge on, must be mysterious in the true, and indeed in every, sense of the word. What angels desire to look into can well be supposed to be so. Christ made sin, as well as His miraculous birth; our dwelling in God, and His in us; our being in this world as Christ is, so as to have boldness in the day of judgment: all speak with one voice. He who excludes mysteries from this word excludes sense from it instead of making it intelligible. By mysterious is not meant that it cannot be understood. The scriptural meaning of "mystery" is what is know only by revelation, not by human knowledge. The initiated know mysteries, uninitiated do not: such is the meaning of the word; but the true initiated are those taught of God. If God reveals, there must be mysteries; and from the nature of what He reveals, true initiation must exist to understand it. Its expression cannot be at the level of human ideas. All the deepest expressions of good and evil are brought together. God and sin meet on the cross. Christ is God, and yet is forsaken of God there. Christ is the power of Prince (Urheber) of life, and He dies, but through it destroys the power of death. You cannot have such things brought together in the same act without mysterious truth. When all that is pervading truth in God, and all that is evil in man, meets and are centred indeed in one person, or the condition He takes, the human mind must be taught of God to know it; and God alone, Who knows all things perfectly, can reveal it simply, because He does know it perfectly; but in it He reveals all in man, all in Himself, and all in Christ. A person may rest on the surface, and seek to destroy all depth in the truth, and bend it to the standard of the human mind and the scope of human thought. But there is no great sense in this - that the Incarnation should not suppose and reveal immense depths of thought, purpose, and moral truth. If all this is denied, it is simple infidelity, and one knows what there is to deal with. If confessed, we have a Christianity in which the depths of our moral nature, old and new, and in the exercises and conflicts of both, meet God, where He and sin have met, and Christ came in the consummation of ages to put sin away. There perfect love and divine righteousness find their manifestation and ground. The simplest expressions of Scripture awake profound depths in our moral nature. What does putting away sin mean? What, Christ the Son of God appearing to do it? What does the Lamb of God mean? It is easy for philosophers to avoid all these expressions and to make a Christianity of their own. Only it is in no part the Christianity that is revealed or known in the word. But interpreting the Christianity that is revealed in Scripture and has possessed men's minds for ages, by saying that the true Divine in it is not having mysteries, is false in fact and absurd in idea. J. N. D.

The Closing Days of Christendom

J. N. Darby.

I have just been thinking how the great apostate systems, whether civil or ecclesiastical, are destined to advance in strength and magnificence, as their day of doom and judgment approaches. Witness the condition of the WOMAN in Revelation 18, and that of the BEAST in Revelation 18 and 19.

And I ask, Is not this present moment through which we are passing giving pledges of this? Do we not see the great apostate ecclesiastical system advancing to occupy itself of the world with something of giant strides? And is not the world, as a civil or secular thing, spreading itself out in improvements and attainments, and cultivation of all desirable and proud things, beyond all precedent? Are not these things so, beyond the question of even the very least observant? And are they not pledges that all is now on the high road to the full display of the Woman and of the Beast in their several forms of greatness and grandeur, which are thus, according to God's word, destined to precede their judgment? These things, I own, are very plain and simple to me.

But again I ask, Is there any notice in God's word that the SAINTS or the CHURCH are to rise to any condition of beauty or of strength befitting them, ere the hour of their translation come? The APOSTATE THINGS, as we have seen, are to be great and magnificent just before their judgment; but I ask, Is the TRUE THING, to be eminent in its way, strong and beautiful in that strength and beauty that belong to it, ere its removal to glory?

This is an affecting inquiry. What answer do the oracles of God give us?

PAUL, in 2 Timothy, contemplates "the last days" in their perilous character, and the ruin of the church which we have seen and do see at this day all around us. But what condition of things among the saints or elect of God does he anticipate as following that ruin? I may say, with all assurance, he does not contemplate any restoration as to church order, any rebuilding of God's house, so to speak, any recovery of corporate beauty or strength worthy of this dispensation; but he exhorts the pure in heart to call on the Lord together outside the "great house," and there also together to follow the virtues and cherish the graces which become them and belong to them.

PETER, in his second epistle, contemplates "the last days" also, and very fearful unclean abominations among professors, and very daring infidel scorning of divine promises in the world. But he gives no hint whatever that there will be restored order and strength in the church, or in corporate spiritual action: he simply tells the saints to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour, and to be assured of this, that the promise of His coming and majesty is no cunningly devised fable. He speaks to them of an entrance into the everlasting kingdom, but never of a return to a restored order of things in the church on earth.

JUDE also in like manner anticipates "the last time," and many terrible corruptions, such as "turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness." But what then? He promises nothing in the way of restored beauty and consistency as in earlier days, but just encourages the "beloved'' to build themselves up in holy faith, and to keep themselves in God's love; but he is so far from encouraging any hope of recovered order and strength in the church on earth, that he tells them to be looking out for another object altogether - "the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."

JOHN, in his way, gives us the judgment of the seven churches in Asia, in Revelation 2 and 3. It is a very solemn scene. There is some good and much evil found in the midst of them. The voices of the Spirit heard there have healthful admonitions for us, both in our individual and gathered condition. But there is no promise that the judgment will work correction and recovery. The churches are judged, and they are left under the judgment, and we know no more of them on earth; the next sight we get of the elect is in heaven. (See Rev. 4)

All this is serious, and yet happy; and all this is strikingly verified by the great moral phenomena around us, under our eye, or within our hearing, at this moment. For we know that the great apostate things, the things of the world, whether civil or ecclesiastical, are in the advance, ripening to full bloom of vigour and of beauty, while we see the true thing broken, enfeebled, and wasted, in no wise promising to regain what once it had in days of corporate order and power.

But it is well. It is gracious in the Lord thus to cast up before us in His word the high road along which we were destined to travel, and the sights we were appointed to see. And it is happy to know that our translation does not wait for a regained condition of dispensational order and strength. For, according to present appearances, we might have to wait long enough ere that could be.

But mark further on this same truth. At times, when the Lord Jesus was about to deliver the poor captive of Satan, the enemy at the very moment would put forth some fresh energy of evil, and his captive apparently be in its most grievous estate.

This was another form of the same thing that we notice throughout God's word, that the apostate thing is in peculiar strength and magnificence just at the time when its doom or judgment is at the door, and that Christ's thing is in weakness and brokenness, just as the deliverance He brings with Him is at hand.

Joseph, Moses and David are samples of this also. One was taken from a prison to feed and rule a nation; another was drawn forth from an unnoticed, distant solitude, where he had the care of flocks and herds, to deliver a nation; another was raised up and manifested from under the neglect and contempt of his own kindred, to sustain by his own single hand a whole people and kingdom. And what may really amaze us in the midst of such things is this, that some of these were in the place of degradation and loss, through their own sin, and the judgment of God. Thus it was with both Moses and David. Joseph was a martyr, I grant, and went from the sorrows of righteousness to the greatness of the rewards of grace. So was David in the day of Saul, when David at last reached the kingdom. But David in later times was not a martyr, but a penitent. He had brought on himself all the loss and sorrow and degradation of the rebellion of Absalom; and the sin that produced it all had this heavier judgment of righteousness resting upon it: "The sword shall never depart from thine house.''

Nor did it. And thus he was under judgment; he was in the ruins which his own iniquity had brought on him; he was the witness of God's visitation in holiness, when suddenly his house, in the person of Solomon, broke forth in full lustre and strength.

And so Moses before him. Moses was a martyr, I grant, in his earlier days, in Midian, and comes forth from the place where his faith had cast him, into the honour and joy of being Israel's deliverer. But, like David, in later days Moses was under judgment - judgment of God for his unbelief and sin. He trespassed, as we know, at the water of Meribah, and so trespassed as at once to forfeit all title to enter the land of promise. And nothing to the end could ever change that divine purpose. In that sense the sword never departed from Moses' house, as it did not from David's. He besought the Lord again and again, but it was in vain. He never entered the land; and thus he was judged, and still under the judgment, when grace abounds; for he is (in principle) translated, borne to the top of the hill, and not to the fields of Canaan; to the heights of Pisgah, and not to the plains of Jericho and Jordan.

These things were so. But it is better to be judged of the Lord than to be condemned with the world, for the poor, weak, and judged thing is drawn forth in the light and redemption of God, while the proud and the strong bow under Him.

So, I say, there is no New Testament promise that the church shall recover her consistency and beauty ere her translation comes. She passes from her ruins to her glory, while the world goes from its magnificence to its judgment -  ruins too, I add, which witness the judgment of God. The sword has never departed from the house.

May I not say, beloved, in the light of these truths, Comfort yourselves as you look abroad, and see what it is that is strong nowadays, and what it is that is weak. But let me add, Let not the weakness of which I speak, the corporate or church weakness of the saints, be the least occasion for personal moral relaxation. This would be a sad and terrible use to make of the truths we are speaking of, and gathering from scripture. We are, most surely to be separate from evil as distinctly as ever, and to cherish all the thoughts and ways of holiness as carefully as ever.

But further, we may find some hesitation in knowing exactly how to speak of Israel's history - whether it be that of a martyr or a penitent. It has something of each in it; more, however, I judge, of the latter. But whether so or not, their recoveries and redemptions illustrate the mystery which we have now before us, that the apostate thing goes to judgment in the hour of its chiefest strength and greatness, and the true thing rises from amid its infirmities and ruins to its glory and blessedness.

They were in a low condition in Egypt, as brick-kilns and taskmasters tell us, and the exacted tale of bricks without the accustomed straw, just as the Lord was sending Moses and his rod for their deliverance.

So again in Babylon. The enemy was insulting their bonds, making merry in infidelity despite the captivity of Jerusalem and her temple, when, that very night, the deliverer of Israel entered Babylon.

So again in Persia. The decree had fixed a day for their destruction, and that decree would not, could not, be changed. Their Amalekite persecutor was in power, and all, as far as the eye could reach, was utter destruction. But Haman fell, and the Jews were delivered. And so will it be again with the same people. (Deut. 32: 36, and Isa. 59: 16) "At evening time it shall be light." The city will be taken; all the people of the earth will be round it in its day of siege and straitness; half of it will go into captivity; the houses shall be rifled, and all will be waste and degradation: but the Lord from heaven shall, in that instant, plead their cause. ''At evening time it shall be light." The shadow of death shall be turned into the morning. (See Zech. 14.)

And again, Caesar Augustus was in strength and majesty. His proconsuls were in far-distant provinces: his decree had gone to the ends of the earth, and the whole Roman world was set in beauty and order, just as Jesus was born. (Luke 2.) But the remnant were feeble. The family of David lived at Nazareth, and not in Jerusalem. The Hope of the nation lay in a manger at Bethlehem. A devout, solitary, expectant saint or two, frequented the temple; and it was shepherds during their nightly watches who had glories revealed to them. Israel had thus fallen, together with the house of David, and fallen, each of them, by their iniquity, and the judgment of God. The sovereignty of the Romans could command the chief of Israel's sons from Galilee to Judaea, to be taxed and estimated, like the rest of Roman property. But the Lord was at hand. The Child, who was to be for the fall and the rise of things and people was just born.

Let us be emboldened according to God, and judge, not according to flesh and blood, but by the light of the Lord.

And again I say, as the apostle teaches, it is better to be judged of the Lord than to be condemned with the world. Judgment has begun at the house of God. He abaseth the proud, and exalteth them that are cast down. The candlesticks are visited in the keen and searching power of Him whose "eyes were as a flame of fire"; and as far as we know them here on earth, there they are left; but the place of judgment proves itself to be next door to the place of glory. (Rev. 1-4.)

It is all right and comforting to faith; strange to the reasoning and religion of nature. The church will go from her ruins up to glory; the world will pass from its proudest moment of greatness to the judgment. God taketh the beggar from the dung-hill to set him among princes.

Would that the saints of God were apart from the purposes and expectations of the world. "Come out of her, my people."

"The feeble saint shall win the day,

Though hell and death obstruct his way."

The Lord will vindicate His own principles, and establish His own thoughts for ever and ever, though the voices that witness them be feeble, and well-nigh lost in the din of the world's exultation.

May the heart of the humbled, broken saint be comforted in Him! JND

The Coming of the Lord.

Uncorrected notes of an address on Luke 12.

J. N. Darby.

(Words of Faith, Vol. 3, 1884, page 141.)

My purpose this evening is to speak of the coming of the Lord, but not in order to prove it from scripture, but to shew how it is interwoven with the whole fabric of christian thought, so that if you take it out you rend the whole fabric to pieces. I do not say that there may not be saints resting on the foundation that do not see it; but if I come to the word of God, it is interwoven with the whole scheme (I do not like the word), and that all scripture, in the various thoughts, feelings, and affections of the Christian, are woven and mixed up with it.

You see that the Lord Jesus, beloved friends, has been rejected in the world, and that cannot go on for ever, every knee must bow to Him. Just take the fact as it is: He has been rejected by the world altogether, the world through which we are passing is a world that has rejected the Son of God, whom God has taken to His right hand. The Holy Ghost has come down consequent upon His exaltation, as the Comforter, but the closing of all that state of things is that the Lord comes again and takes His power and glory; therefore the coming and exaltation of the Lord is that without which Christianity is not complete; I cannot believe in His first coming and not see clearly the necessity of the other.

As an illustration, we have the Passover and the passover fulfilled; "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us;" and the feast of Pentecost fulfilled too - the Holy Ghost came down; but when you come to the feast of tabernacles, where do you get it fulfilled? it is not fulfilled, and is yet to come. That is the real meaning of John 7; the feast of tabernacles is there, but He cannot go up to it. His brethren said to Him, "If thou do these things shew thyself unto the world" (John 7: 4), but He said, "My time is not yet come;" then at the end of the feast He says, "If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink; he that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." That is, that He substitutes for the time the presence of the Holy Ghost instead of His being revealed to the world, and that is what we have in Christianity, the Holy Ghost come down from heaven and dwelling in the saints.

The Christian looks back upon what has been done, and looks forward for Christ to come to take him up to heaven; if you leave that out you leave out the thing that completes it all. The Holy Ghost points us forward to Christ, and leads the soul out to the thought and apprehension of His coming. The world having rejected Christ, the Holy Ghost comes down meanwhile; "we see not yet all things put under him." There is this double aspect of it - the world has rejected the Son of God; He must come and execute judgment consequent on His rejection.

But there is another, and blessed side of it, that when He was rejected He accomplished redemption, and having done this, and given the Holy Ghost to those that believe, He is not coming to execute judgment, but to take us to be with Him to execute the judgment with Him. The more we look into scripture, the more we shall see the way in which this expectation of the Lord's return is identified with the thoughts and feelings of the Christian. You may get the general thought if you look at the end of Titus 2, "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared .... looking for that blessed hope, and the appearing of the glory," &c.; the grace of God has appeared and brings salvation, teaching us to walk soberly, that is in self-restraint; righteousness towards others; and godly - with God; it embraces the whole Christian life. Grace has appeared; glory, which is the hope, has not. We are saved in hope, not we hope to be saved; we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness, that is the hope that belongs to faith. Grace hath appeared and brought the salvation, thus shewing us how to walk in this present world, it teaches us this blessed hope, the appearing of the glory.

In Hebrews 9 we see the same thing, verse 24 we find that "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." I look at Christ as in God's presence for me. "Nor yet that he should offer himself often . . . but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." The cross was the end of the world, morally speaking; God had finished with man, and therefore He says, "Now is the judgment of this world," &c.; it was the end of the world in that moral sense, the tryings and testings whether righteousness could be got from man are over; the righteousness has come down to us in the gospel. The apostle says he is not ashamed of the gospel, because the righteousness of God is revealed; that made it the end of the world.

Then you see how he speaks of it, "As it is appointed unto men once to die . . . so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Just as grace has appeared once for the putting away of sin, so as regards us, as Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, so to them that look for HIM He will appear the second time without sin - He has done with sin the first time, that is all over, so completely done with it that to those that look for Him He will appear the second time without sin. What for? To take us to glory - "unto salvation." In Hebrews 2 it puts in a distinct way what we find as to His present position, "One in a certain place testified, saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him . . . thou crownest him with glory and honour." We do not see that He has got the power, but we do see Him crowned with glory and honour, expecting till His enemies be made His footstool, and we are waiting for Him.

I just say here, Suppose people die before the Lord come, well, they are with Christ waiting; "absent from the body, present with the Lord," "to depart and be with Christ which is far better," they are waiting too. The promise we have got is to be conformed to the image of Christ, when He comes. The body is to be raised and changed, to be conformed to the same image. "As is the earthly such are they also that are earthly . . . and as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." I turn to these passages to shew you that what characterises the Christian is, we are waiting for Him.

In John 14, when the Lord was comforting the disciples when He was going away, they had given up everything for Him, and now they were losing Him, He says, "believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. . . I go to prepare a place for you." I am not going back to glory as Man and leave you in the lurch down here. I cannot stay with you (chap. 13), but I am not going to give you up, and therefore I must have you with me. In chapter 13 Peter would not let the Lord wash his feet, it was what slaves did in great houses; then He says, "If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me." Peter was rejecting it, but then He says, I am not going to give you up, but if I go to God you must be fit to be there. They were really converted and clean through the word (Judas, of course, excepted); He says I have not given up serving you, I must have you to be with me. In John 14 He tells them not to be troubled meanwhile, the Comforter was coming; then He goes on, "I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again." He was going to prepare a place up there, not being able to stay with them here, but would come back again to take them to be with Him. "Unto myself;" that word "myself" is everything. He does not say "to heaven" or "the Father's house."

The coming of the Lord has this special blessing, that it does not leave heaven a vague place. I have found the greatest blessing in the doctrine of the Lord's coming as it brings the Person of Christ before one, He is the object before the eye. This is the way scripture always presents Him. "To depart and to be with Christ is far better." I am speaking of the way the Person of Christ is what fills the eye. "Absent from the body, present with the Lord," and again "Lord Jesus receive my spirit." It is perfectly true, but it is not the vague thought of going to heaven, it is going to Christ; it is of course going to heaven too, but what fills the soul, is that Christ who loved them, who won their hearts through grace (they had given up everything for Him), says, I shall not be satisfied till I bring you up there.

That is the first way He comforts them, and they had seen the Father by seeing Him; then the rest of the chapter speaks of the Holy Ghost who would come and shew that they were in Christ, and Christ in them. When the disciples went out to Bethany to see Him going to heaven, the angels said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner," etc. (Acts 1: 11.) There it is His appearing, it is the same general truth, though not His coming to receive us. You cannot talk of death there, Christ is coming in like manner as He went, "so coming," is not a person dying; the angels say He is coming. The Lord was imprinting all this upon their hearts, that when He was gone, the Holy Ghost was here, but what they were looking for was His coming; meanwhile they would be taught by the Holy Ghost, and have the love of God shed abroad in their hearts, crying, "Abba Father," by the Holy Ghost, but what the Holy Ghost brings specially before souls is His coming again.

In 1 Thessalonians we have "they themselves shew of us .... ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven." The world was saying, "here are these people, a new thing that has come, they have left all their idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait," &c.; they were converted not to hold the doctrine merely of His coming but to wait, &c. They had learned of Him, by the Holy Ghost, testifying of Him in the gospel, and therefore they loved Him; there was no conversion then except to wait for God's Son from heaven. Where do we find that now?

Many hold it, and see it thoroughly but who ever talks now of being converted to wait for God's Son? and yet the apostle had not been more than three or four weeks there. In chapter 2, notice the way it is connected with the thoughts and feelings of the Christian, "We, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, .... for what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?" "Crown of rejoicing," (they were won to God) - "in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now it is his ministry, he cannot even rejoice in that without thinking of the coming of Christ.

Now, take another thing which belongs to the Christian, that is holiness, "the Lord make you to increase and abound in love .... unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," &c. (1 Thess. 3: 12, 13), in holiness, when? Now? No, at His coming. At His coming it will all appear, and be manifested.

Let us look at the first Epistle of John, it is also in connection with holiness, chapter 3, "Behold what manner of love .... [puts us in Christ's place], we know that, when he shall appear we shall be like him," &c. we have not seen the glory yet, "it does not yet appear what we shall be," &c., "but we know," &c. If we know that we are to be like Christ (conformity to Christ is in the glory, we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son) we are to walk as He walked, but there is no full conformity till then; it is not being conformed when the body is in the tomb, and the spirit in paradise; the time to be conformed to Him is when we get to the glory, and see Him as He is. "He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself." If I know that when Christ appears, I shall be like Him, I try to be as like Him as I can now - purifieth himself even as he is pure - it is according to that standard. It is very important thus to see as regards holiness, that it is directly connected with the coming of the Lord. J. N. D.

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IF you look, beloved friends, at the case of saints dying as in 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul says, "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, .... for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." The apostle, though eighteen hundred years have elapsed, did not say, "the Lord delays his coming." I believe it is very near, but that is a question of spiritual discernment. I do not press it, though I believe it; everything shews it. "We" - the living ones will be taken, the dead had not lost it - "We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them .... and so shall we ever be with the Lord." "With the Lord" - that is the point. "To depart" is to be "with Christ." It is not the Father's house, nor is it the Father's love only; but we are to be with Christ, and like Him. Suppose they were put to death for Christ, even so God would bring them back with Him.

You say that now this thought is gone from the mass of Christians; I will shew you how Christ judges when it is gone; but here the comfort given was that they were not deprived of the blessing, but when Christ came He would bring them with Him, He would raise the dead, and change the living. How it enters into all the apostle's thoughts, comfort, joy, &c.; here he brings it in specially if a saint has died. His coming is interwoven with all the affections of the Christian. It is not merely that I am going to be happy in heaven; but I am going to be with Christ, it is His joy to take me to be with Himself.

Note, again, how Paul connects holiness with the coming of the Lord in 1 Thess. 5: 23: "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly .... unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." He is looking for holiness and godliness, but he looks for it at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then as regards responsibility turn to 1 Timothy 6: 13, 14, and see what he says, "I give thee charge in the sight of God .... unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is always the appearing when it is responsibility that is in question, but when privilege it is the rapture.

What I have at heart is this, that you should see the way in which the coming of the Lord is interwoven with every thought and true feeling of the Christian. See, too, how James comforts the labourers who had been deprived of their wages, "Be patient, therefore, brethren unto the coming of the Lord." (James 5: 7.) The constant expectation of His return was the thing their hearts were to be set upon.

We find the same thing in Matthew 25, in the parable of the virgins. "They took their lamps," that is at the beginning of Christianity, "and went forth to meet the bridegroom;" this is the same truth as in Thessalonians, "they were converted to wait," &c. Then what happens? Just what has happened, "they all slumbered and slept." That is, that the true saints, as well as those that had no oil, they all forgot the coming of the Lord. It is just what the Lord told us would happen, while the Bridegroom tarried. We know the reason of His tarrying, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise," &c. As long as the work of grace is going on, and the Lord is gathering in souls, we must wait, thankfully wait. At midnight there was a cry. "Behold the Bridegroom." Some had no oil but there was time enough between the going out of the cry, and the coming of the Bridegroom, to test their state. I do not doubt it is going on now. It was the cry that woke them up, and then they trim their lamps and go out again, but the point I draw attention to is that what woke them was "Behold the Bridegroom cometh."

As to our affections and as to our service it is the same thing; the talents (the gifts of the Holy Ghost, whatever they may be) were to be used while Christ was away. But what is remarkable is this, that though there was a delay, which has taken place, the Lord never puts the thought that it will be longer than the life of the people He spoke to; the virgins that went asleep were the same that awoke. It is the same servants that got the talents that were in question when He came back; He will not put the thought forward beyond their lifetime. People say, Must not they have known that Peter would die? I say, but would any one dream nowadays of saying he had a personal revelation that he would die? It was an extraordinary exception, which strengthens the rule; to wait for Christ was what they were called to.

When you come to the seven churches (Rev. 2; 3), you find the common thought (it is a just thought) that it is a history of the visible church from the time it left its first love till it is rejected, down to the end. He takes up churches which were exhibitions of a particular state. But Christians were taught to be constantly waiting; when anything happened He put the thing during the life of the person in the parable; so, when it is churches, He takes the churches of that time, but does not say a word that would allow the thought that the Lord was not coming at any moment. People talk of events, but that is confounding the thought of God's government with the Lord's coming for His saints.

When I have my individual salvation settled, I get the teaching of the New Testament as to the government of this world. See Deuteronomy 32 - "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance . . . he set the bounds of the people . . . for the Lord's portion is his people." When I come to the government of the world the Jews are the centre; afterwards, I get the Beast, Antichrist, Babylon and so on, but that is connected with the government of this world, and there I get events; but as regards Christians, God's thought was to conform them to the image of His Son; to take poor sinners and put them in the glory with His Son; that has nothing to do with events. We have two things - He has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ, that is now; but we are to be conformed to the image of His Son.

Besides, there is the government of this world which Christ's appearing will close, but that has to do with promise and prophecy, very interesting in its place; but His coming has nothing to do with prophecy. You get away from all that, and have the consciousness that you are to be waiting for Christ. Any moment He may take us and put us into the glory with Himself, that the angels may look upon us and see such ones as Mary Magdalene, the poor woman that had the seven devils, the woman in the city that was a sinner, and the thief on the cross, in the same glory as the Son of God. The Christian has got into his place; he is a saved person, the Holy Ghost dwells in him, and he is looking for the Lord's second coming. Take Philippians 3; I quote texts that are connected with the thoughts and feelings of the Christian: "Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour . . . change our vile body," etc.; that is what I am waiting for.

If I look at the Book of Revelation, first at the beginning and then at the end - I do not look at the prophetic part of it. Before John commences that part you get the thoughts and feelings of the saints - the church. "From Jesus Christ, the Faithful Witness," &c., that is upon earth - he skips over the present time, "Unto him that loveth us, and washed us," that is our place. It is "Him that loveth us." Just as if a great general was passing by, and his wife were watching, she would not say, "that is a great general," but "that is my husband." Just so here, He is the "Prince of the kings of the earth," but we say, "Unto Him that loveth us." Then Revelation 22, "I, Jesus, have sent mine angel . . . I am the root and the offspring of David," because it is connected with promise there; "and the bright and Morning Star," that is not the kingdom, but the hope of the church.

You get in the address to Thyatira, "I will give him the morning star." When Christ comes as the "Sun of Righteousness" will be the day when every eye shall see Him, that is His appearing, but that is not the Star. The morning star is not seen when the sun is up, but those that are watching in the night, they see the morning star, it belongs to them.

We have the word of prophecy made sure. (2 Peter 1: 19.) Prophecy is God's candle brought to bear upon the world going on its way as fast as it can, the heavenly things lead you out from it: "Till the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." But there is another thing, the consciousness of my association with Christ, He is coming to take me up. He is "the bright and morning Star," and the moment He reveals Himself in this character, as the "bright and morning Star," He awakens the desire of the bride, and you get the whole character of the Christian walk. "And the Spirit and the bride" - those that have entered into the consciousness of their relationship with Christ - He is for them the "bright and morning Star;" then, "let him that heareth say, Come" - let them join in saying it, and then the Gospel, if you have the water you say, come and drink, "let him that is athirst come;" then it goes out to the world, "and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

I get the whole course of Christian affection. 1st Christ, He is the Bright and Morning Star; 2nd, the desire to be with Him, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come;" 3rd, those that are His, "let him that heareth say, Come," and then 4th, "whosoever will, let him take."

Notice the way the word of God brings the coming of the Lord before the heart in these addresses. First they are called back to what they were at the beginning - that is one way of judging what we are; but the moment you come to Thyatira, you get the kingdom, and the words "hold fast till I come." In Sardis it is, "I will come on thee as a thief," He treats them as the world, because they are so. To Philadelphia He says, "thou hast kept my word hast not denied my name; then, "behold, I come quickly." What was it that brought in the ruin of the church? Losing the doctrine of the Lord's coming. "If that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;" not that He will not come, but, "My lord delayeth his coming" (he did not expect him) "And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants" (this is hierarchical power joined to the world at the end), his portion is appointed with the hypocrites.

I just say a few words on the verses we have read. "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning," &c., that is your character as Christians, you are to be like people that are waiting, the Master of the house has gone to a wedding, you do not know what time he will return. Death is not my lord; Christ is my Lord; "blessed are those servants whom their lord, when he cometh, shall find watching." "Watching," those are the people that are blessed when Christ comes - the affections of the bride - they are watching for the Lord. If a person says some Turk or Russian is come over, I do not care about that, but how different with a mother that is watching for her son not knowing what moment he may come.

"Blessed are those servants," etc., their character is "like unto men that wait." Mark the consequence, it is most blessed, Christ has become a man and taken the form of a servant, He never gives it up - it is a figure of course; being a Servant, now He serves us, washing our feet, but in heaven He will be our servant to minister all blessing and joy. As I have so often said, Selfishness likes to be served, love likes to serve. Just like a mother with a sick child, she will not let any one else attend to it, her heart is there. You must have your lights burning, etc., that is the character you should have. Christ says, when I get you at home, I shall make you sit down to meat. It is a figure; I will spread the table in heaven for you if I find you watching.

You get now another thing connected with His coming. "Who then is that faithful and wise steward . . . blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing." "So doing" - we serve while He is away. As to the character of the Christian, he is waiting for Christ; then the affections of Christ come out, He gives him all the blessing - "Of a truth I say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he hath." There it is the ruling in the kingdom. You have the two things that belong to us; the blessedness of being with Christ, which is far the highest, and we are to reign with Him. Even there I get the character of Christians, they are to be as men that wait till their Lord shall return, then when Christ has everything His own way, He makes them to sit down to meat and comes forth and serves them. Next every man receives his own reward according to his own labour, that is, He makes us rulers, &c., "If we suffer we shall also reign with him." (2 Tim. 2: 12.) Thus what the Spirit of God puts before us as the hope, is that Christ Himself will come and bring us into this - the fruit of God's own love, with the constant expression of it on the way in the intimacy of friendship. Like what you get in Luke's account of the transfiguration you have Moses and Elias talking intimately while the disciples are frightened at the cloud; it was the witness of the presence of God: it was there where God had revealed Himself to Israel. The disciples fear while they are in the glory; it is the kingdom part of it; the disciples saw it, they went into it - Moses and Elias are in the same glory with Christ, but the voice is heard saying, "This is my beloved Son." For us there is a better thing still, the Father's house.

We are called to wait for the blessed Lord Himself; He has loved us and given Himself for us, and the heart of the Christian is set upon it - we wait to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and to be for ever with the Lord. Now I only ask, Suppose He was to come to-night, would your souls find your joy at His coming? Are your hearts set upon Him in the midst of a world that has rejected Him? The whole of Christendom is eating and drinking, etc.; but are you filled with the joy that Christ will meet you as men that wait? Are you watching for Christ? Christ is waiting at the right hand of God, and His delight and joy is this, that He will take His people to be with Him for ever.

The Lord only give you in truth of heart so to know Christ and delight in Him, that your hearts may be waiting for Him and watching for Him - the joy and hope of your souls. There is one thing that is a comfort to me, and that is, that I believe all who are His will be led to look for Him before He actually comes. May He keep us, then, waiting for Him. J. N. D.

The Full Import of Conversion.

1 Thessalonians 1: 9, 10.

J. N. Darby.

(Words of Faith, Vol. 3, 1884, page 36.)

It should ever be borne in mind that the Lord Himself must be the centre in testimony, however blessed it is to put forth the gospel of God's grace. Here, in Thessalonica, these souls were brought out to serve the living and true God. The whole man turned to God - a totally new state from beginning to end; not merely getting relief to conscience, but God Himself in Christ become the object before the soul. This is the full import of conversion, as we get it in 1 Thessalonians 1: 9, 10 - a man being turned round to God; there is repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

When you believe, you get an entirely new life and you judge the past - you repent because you believe; it all comes together, like the prodigal, when he turned to his father's house, there is a totally new life, state, and object. "They who are of the Spirit, mind the things of the Spirit," &c., and "Our conversation is in heaven," &c., is the doctrinal statement of this. You must get such a knowledge of self as to get rid of it. If you faithfully said, "I am dead," Satan could not tempt you. You may not always be able to do this, but it is yours to say, as one "born of water and of the Spirit." The water cleanses, but being born of the Spirit gives a new position and a new life.

We know we are born of God - that eternal life that was with the Father is my life, and that is Christ; He has become my life. The Lord breathing on the disciples was not the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. When Christ ascended to heaven, He received the Holy Ghost afresh for us. He had it before, but He received it for us when He went up on high. It is through the second Man, gone into glory, after having put away our sins, that we get the Spirit. God comes down to us in our sins as Man, and as Man He goes up, and receives the Holy Ghost for us. Man in Christ takes a new place in resurrection.

The work of Christ on the cross clears the conscience; then Christ Himself becomes our life, This is a totally new state - a new creation.

The first thing needed, is to have the question of sin settled, and to know that all our sins were borne by Christ, and put away. If you charge me with my sins God declares that the blood that cleansed me is always under His eye; He cannot impute my sins to me, their imputation was to Christ. It is what God sees that clears me, not that I have accepted Christ, but that God has. What gives Peace, is, that the work of Christ has perfectly settled the question of sin.

Practically, if I sin, not only am I miserably failing, but I am doing the thing that caused Christ's agony, but if it did that, it cannot be imputed to me. We have the teaching connected with our practical state in the type of the red heifer. (Num. 19) The ashes - sin consumed on the cross - with the running water, were sprinkled on the unclean person. The ashes are applied to the soul in testimony of the whole thing having been consumed - sin put away. If I indulge a foolish thought even the Holy Spirit is grieved, and I am uncomfortable, but I cannot judge myself for sin, unless I am certain that it is not imputed. The answer to everything is the work done on the cross. That work sets us in the presence of God, in the light, without a stain, our sin having been laid on Christ, according to God's knowledge of it.

Nothing tests the heart so much as realising that the worshipper "once cleansed, has no more conscience of sins." There can be no real or right sanctification till a man is clear about sin. Until I know my perfect acceptance, and am perfectly assured of salvation, through all sin being gone, I am mingling up my state with my standing. The holy nature is there, but there can be no proper sanctification till I see that Christ has not borne my sins up to such a day, but that all my sins are gone, and, besides that, I have a perfect acceptance in Christ.

There are three things: peace as to sins; present grace; and glory to come. Not merely no condemnation as in Christ Jesus, all sin having been cleared away, but a position - a new place in Christ Himself - is ours. All, as to the first Adam, was settled on the cross, and I have a new place in Christ, and I am called to walk now as Christ walked, but I am to be conformed to God's Son in glory. I am to walk as Christ walked, not to be as Christ was. He was without sin in Him, we have sin in us, but sin in our walk is never to be allowed.

"We all, with open face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory." Not only are my sins cleared away, but I see a Man gone into glory, and now, not only I would not sin, but I want to be like that Christ in glory - I press on towards the mark. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." I see Christ in glory by faith now; I know I am to be like Him by-and-by, and I want to be as like Him as ever I can be, even now. It is like a light at the end of a tunnel, the nearer I get, the brighter the light. I see the flesh in me never changes, only appears worse and worse; but if my eye is fixed, and my mind is occupied with, and full of Christ, I shall get more like Him at every step - "changed into the same image from glory to glory."

There must be nothing in the heart or walk not like Christ - all must be given up to Him; and, as to walk, I am to walk as Christ did. The account we get of the flesh is lawlessness, before the flood; then, under law it makes a golden calf; then, Christ, come in grace, is rejected and crucified; then, the Holy Ghost is rejected through Stephen; and lastly, if a man goes into the third heavens, as soon as he comes down the flesh must have a thorn. There is no changing it, but that is no reason why we should let it act; there is no present consciousness that the flesh is acting at all if the soul is full of Christ. I am not thinking of it if I am thinking of Christ, I reckon the flesh dead. If a man is dead, you cannot charge him with a wicked will and lusts. Not only Christ was crucified, but I have been crucified with Him. I have always that death of the cross to bring in, and I have Christ as my life - "If we be dead with Christ, we shall also live with him." I get the power of Christ acting in me with this new life. The sin I find in my flesh was put to death in Christ, and I have done with it. But another point I get Christ as the object of my life - "The life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

You find many who know their sins are forgiven, yet do not know what it is to have been crucified with Christ. You can never get rid of self till you know this. In Romans 7 the soul is quickened, but not delivered; it is under the first husband, renewed, because of knowing the spirituality of the law, but it is learning that it has no strength. It is harder to learn that you have no strength, than that you are ungodly. The last stage is, "I thank my God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." This is deliverance. The moment Christ comes in there is power, but I must learn my weakness; not a balance between flesh and Spirit. God in Christ having condemned sin in the flesh, I am dead to it. If I am told of a fine concert, or anything else, I say, "I am dead to it." A gardener has no idea of pruning a crab-apple tree, he cuts it down, and grafts with a new thing altogether.

People do not recognise the fact of their having died with Christ, as well as of Christ having died for them. Many a quickened soul does not know the full value of the work of Christ, and that "as he is, so are we in this world." When the blood was on the lintels and doorposts the Israelites were safe, but when they came to the Red Sea, and were told to stand still, and see "the salvation of God," there was positive deliverance - they were taken out of one place, and put into another.

Dry standing is, that I am not in the flesh, but in the Spirit: "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" - is not in a right standing at all. "Ye in me, and I in you," that is where I get my standing in Christ before God. I am quite perfect, if I am in Him, and He in me; and I have, as to the body, to reckon it dead.

The way the Thessalonians lived, as to testimony, was most blessed. One can never present it by trying to do it. If my heart be full of Christ, I shall not merely be avoiding evil, but, as Paul prays in connection with the Philippians, desiring to be filled with the fruits of righteousness; and, having got God's mind, I shall yield my body as a living sacrifice to Him. Paul did but one thing; he ran after Christ in glory. This is what conversion really is - Christ everything to the soul. J. N. D.

The Costliness and Blessed Self-hiding of the Love of Christ.

J. N. Darby.

(Words in Season, Vol. 4, 1890, page 36.)

The source of the glory which will be displayed is more blessed than the manifestation of it. It is blessed to be manifested in favour. Why? Because the favour of the person is precious to me. In John 17: 23, the Lord prays "that the world may know that Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me," while the Lord has obtained all the glory for us; yet when He comes to give His Bride her glory, He does not say it is a proof that He has loved her, but, in the blessed self-hiding of love, He says it is the Father's love. This is exceedingly blessed and beautiful. The Lord gives witness before the world, not that He loves her, for that was strewn in the necessity of her sinfulness (there is nothing more precious than the love between the Church and Himself), but to the world He exhibits the Church as loved by the Father which gives it honour, not in connection with sin and shame.

We see the same principle in Luke 15. However touching that love may be between the ruined sinner and the Father, which causes Him to fall on his neck and kiss him, yet before the servants He takes him home in honour, with the best robe on, and the ring on his hand. We have to know the depths of the love of Christ in meeting the sinner. This brings out the costliness of the love; but there is something besides this: when He loves the Church before the world, it is the Father's giving her glory and taking delight in her. The love of Christ is perfectly blessed and touching, and considerate towards us; there the heart's affections learn to delight in Him.

"Thou shalt surely rejoice."

Deut. 16: 1 - 15.

J. N. Darby.

(Extracted from Food for the Flock, Vol. 4, 1877, page 347.)

These three great feasts of which we read here were the feasts of gathering "in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in." All the males were to go up there; all the people were to be gathered up round the Lord. There was the Passover, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, these three; and connected with the Passover, though not exactly the same thing, was the Feast of unleavened bread.

In Acts 2 we read: "When the day of Pentecost was fully come;" and then follows the fulfilment - that of which this feast was the type; but of the Feast of Tabernacles there is no present accomplishment. It is after the harvest and after the vintage; it is the millennial time of rest after the discriminating judgment of God has taken place, and after the treading of the wine-press, His complete vengeance on the adversaries. Then this feast comes in; it is the rest remaining for God's people. They dwelt in booths as a sign that they had been strangers and pilgrims - that the Lord had brought them out of Egypt. I just say this that we may see the bearing of these feasts. With the first of them we are all familiar - the Passover, the death of Christ. And the unleavened bread we get the apostle applying himself in Corinthians: "Let us keep the feast; not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." One other point I would notice as to the Feast of Pentecost, that we may apprehend it better, and that is, that it was connected with "the morrow after the sabbath." It is outside the old creation and all that has to do with it; it has to do with Adam innocent no more than with Adam guilty; Satan's power, and sin, and death, and judgment, all that is past and gone; man, in the person of Christ, has got beyond it - is identified with Him before God in the new creation. That is Pentecost.

"Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread, even the bread of affliction." Sometimes, I do not say always, we are apt to remain in this feast of unleavened bread, and not get on sufficiently to the others. It is all right, of course, that we should have to do with it; we must have holiness: "Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." "Thou camest forth from the land of Egypt in haste;" Pharaoh, that is the devil, was behind them, and they were just escaping from the judgment. It is just deliverance. You get out of Egypt in haste; you are obliged to put the dough on your shoulder as fast as you can, that you may not be caught by the judgment; and so you have the seven days of unleavened bread. It is deliverance, but it is occupation with the state in which you were when you were delivered, so it is "the bread of affliction." There must be holiness, or we cannot have to say to God; but we do not get fulness of communion and blessing in it, and therefore we read that as soon as they had eaten the Passover they were to turn in the morning and go to their tents.

But when you come to the day of Pentecost you get this: "Thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God, with a tribute of a free-will offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee." There is not a bit of that in the Feast of unleavened bread. There they had to escape, and that was all; but here I get the heart satisfied with the Holy Ghost. They had the fruits of the land now; they had that which they were brought into, and not only that which they were brought out of. Of course, that which they were brought out of is not to be forgotten; we shall not forget it in heaven; it is the Lamb slain that is the foundation of everything; but I have more than that here: I have the free-will offering of thanksgiving and praise. But even that is according to the measure in which the Lord our God has blessed us; and in that "thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God." And then we find the fulness of grace: it is "with thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are among you." So I get here these two things with joy: the freewill offering to God, and thanksgiving and praise; and, having these things in our hearts, we have everything except the glory. We have life, we have righteousness, we have Christ Himself; we have all that the Father's love and the Son's love can give us by the Holy Ghost. I do not say we enjoy it all, but everything in that sense we have got into - we have actual possession of it all in heaven: "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." So the strangers, and the widows, and everything can rejoice.

And then "thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and thou shalt observe and do these statutes." That is, there must be present obedience, and the remembrance that we were bondmen, and then the heart free for the things that are God's; there is the enjoyment through the Holy Ghost of the things that are freely given us of God: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit"; and "where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." God's righteousness is settled, the conscience is perfect, and we are in that place in spirit where we can be occupied with God Himself, and not merely with what He has given us.

After this comes the Feast of Tabernacles, "after thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine" - after the judgment, as we have seen. That is the reason that, where it is spoken of in John 7, the Lord says He could not go up to that feast; it will be the millennial glory, and He would not go to that. But afterwards He goes up, "as it were in secret," and on the eighth day, "that great day of the feast," He cries, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." He lets us into the new week of heavenly glory, and in the Holy Ghost we do realize it, though we are not in it yet.

Another characteristic is that it is not "according as" now, as it was in the Feast of Pentecost, but it is "because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice." It was all right to come out and eat the Passover, and go to your tents in the morning, saying what poor wretched sinners you were; it is all right to remember that all the days of your life - we shall remember the Lamb slain in the glory. I have the sense that holiness must be, and I go with a personal, individual sense of it, and sit in my tent to keep the feast of unleavened bread, and bless God for having delivered me from that in which I was. And besides this I find that I have got into an entirely new place - a place in which God has made a habitation for Himself. I am risen; I am in the new creation; it is a new thing altogether, and the old is all done with; and so I come with a free-will offering, and I worship as I realize the coming down from God of all the blessings that He has given us in the Holy Ghost. Thus, in Pentecost, it is according to my spirituality that I rejoice. It is not merely that I have been delivered, but that God's heart is to give to me, and God sees flowing out from me praise and thanksgiving according to the spiritual state of my soul.

But in heavenly places I go a little farther and discover what I have in Christ; in Him I find that "all things" are mine, both "things present" and "things to come," and there I can rejoice always - there I can "surely rejoice." How could a person, if he had not spiritual power, think of eternal praise? Now it is according to the measure of our spirituality, but then it will be because He hath blessed us in all things. God's heart satisfied with seeing us in the full blessing of all He has brought us into; Christ's heart satisfied with seeing of the travail of His soul; the saint's heart satisfied with being fully like Him and with Him, and He fully glorified.

This is where God has set us; and how far, beloved friends, do your hearts go with it? It will be surely the Lamb that was slain there; but in what measure does my soul get hold of the second feast, and say, "According as the Lord my God has blessed me"? And then how far can my soul, even now, enter into all the blessing which God has prepared for them that love Him, having no present but what is future. We are strangers and pilgrims here, but if we are right our conversation will be up there "where Christ sitteth." God grant that it may be so in our hearts.

J. N. D.

Lettre de J. N. Darby

au frère Foulquier à Genève touchant Salomon et Espennett 1

Juin 1859

Bien.aimé frère,

Votre lettre, si je n'avais pas regardé vers Dieu, aurait jeté quelque alarme dans mon esprit, non que je doute du désir de ces chers frères de Genève de glorifier le Seigneur, et je vois avec actions de grâces que le Seigneur les a gardés en les amenant à refuser la discussion proposée par le frère Salomon; mais il me semblait, d'après votre lettre, qu'ils n'avaient guère l'idée de l'action de Satan dans cette affaire. Je n'ai aucune confiance dans la droiture de Salomon, ni dans l'innocente ignorance de M. Boucher 2. Je ne nie pas que Salomon soit droit, ni que M. Boucher ignore les faits, mais si j'étais moi.même sous l'influence de l'Ennemi, la droiture naturelle ne me garantirait pas, celle qui provient de la grâce ne subsisterait pas. Or toute cette affaire est une activité directe de l'Ennemi. Si l'on est ignorant par indifférence, on tombe entre ses mains, parce qu'on ne peut être indifférent à la gloire de Christ, selon sa grâce. Vous me dites que M. Espennett a écrit des choses satisfaisantes sur la divinité du Seigneur Jésus. Très bien, mais c'est une preuve de ce que je dis. Dans quel but? Pour cacher les choses affreuses qu'il justifie. M. Newton a fait la même chose. La divinité de Jésus n'est pas le sujet qu'il a traité ou attaqué dans ses blasphèmes. Il ne dit rien de ceux.ci et annonce son orthodoxie sur un autre point. M. Espennett a publié une lettre dans laquelle il déclare que M. Newton n'est pas coupable d'hérésie; il a même dit que ceux [de ses disciples] qui ont fait confession de leurs propres erreurs se sont trompés. Mais enfin, on a tort, dit.il, de condamner M. Newton. M. Craik, de Béthesda 3, déclare qu'il ne connâît personne à Béthesda qui considère Newton comme un hérétique. Or, voici la doctrine en question: "Christ avait l'expérience d'un homme inconverti, mais élu. Christ, en tant que né d'Adam, et né Juif était exposé à la colère et d l'indignation de Dieu. Il était plus loin de Dieu qu'Israël quand celui.ci se fait le veau d'or. Il a dû trouver son chemin vers un point où Dieu pouvait se rencontrer avec lui et ce point c'était la mort, la mort sur la croix. Il a écouté l'évangile prêché par Jean Baptiste avec une séneuse attention et il a ainsi passé, comme de la loi d l'évangile lui.méme. Etant exposé à l'indignation et au déplaisir de Dieu, comme homme né d'Adam et comme Juif, il a su échapper d beaucoup de ce qu'il aurait dû souffrir, par la prière, la piété, etc. Cependant, il en a tant souffert pendant sa vie, qu'il en était dégoûtant de figure et qu'on se sauvait de lui".

Voilà les choses enseignées en cachette pendant des années, ensuite publiées et jamais rétractées. M. Espennett dit qu'il ne doit pas le condamner, qu'il n'y a pas d'hérésie, puis publie son écrit pour montrer que lui croit à la divinité de Jésus. Ce n'est pas la divinité de Jésus qui est en question, sauf en ce que toutes les vérités se lient l'une à l'autre et que, comme déduction, on pourrait montrer que s'il en était ainsi, Christ ne serait pas Dieu. M. Newton a publiquement enseigné des blasphèmes. M. Espennett l'appuie de son mieux, et sur le point de la doctrine. Je n'ai pas affaire à autre chose. S'il cherche à cacher la vraie question en publiant son orthodoxie sur un autre point, ce n'est qu'une preuve de sa mauvaise foi; mauvaise foi qui est parfaitement évidente dans la lettre qu'il a publiée et d'une manière honteuse.

Dans la proposition de Salomon, je ne trouve pas la bonne foi. Il aurait pu dire: Vous avez tort en ceci, ou tort en cela; mais engager une discussion n'était qu'un effort pour enlacer les frères et les embrouiller, où ils n'étaient pas préparés. Avec les faits et les détails, leur mauvaise foi est au grand jour et les dames Hull 4 l'ont assez prouvé en Suisse. Je vous supplie de lire la confession de M. Batten 5. Voilà ce dont il est question. Avec ceux qui appuient une pareille doctrine et déclarent [net] un hérétique, comme chrétien je n'ai rien à faire. Lisez seulement ce qui se trouve (dans cette confession).

1 le frère anglais qui porta la division béthesdienne dans le canton de Vaud

2 M Boucher de Cannes avant sa rétractation

3 un des signataires de la "lettre des dix"

4 deux soeurs de Béthesda qui essayèrent de s'introduire parmi les frères

5 un frère respectable qui avait été 1'un des agents de M. Newton

La question est une question d'un vrai ou d'un faux Christ. Béthesda et M. Espennett sont les appuis du faux Christ que M. Newton prêche. Il ne s'agit pas d'individus, mais de l'action de Satan et il importe que les frères voient de quoi il s'agit. J'aimerais mieux mourir sur le champ que de reconnaître quelqu'un qui appuie la doctrine que M. Espennett excuse de son mieux. La conséquence naturelle de l'action de Satan est la fausseté; cela arrive toujours. Mais regardez la doctrine. Non que tous la tiennent, mais tous, par leurs actes la soutiennent. C'est un venin d'aspic. Je ne parle pas légèrement.

Saluez affectueusement tous les frères. Je les supplie d'être sur leur garde contre les ruses de l'Ennemi. Le petit bout du coin est plus dangereux que le gros.

Votre tout affect. frère.

J.N.D.

Forgivenesss and Salvation.

J. N. Darby.

(Extracted from Food for the Flock Vol. 2, 1875, page 273.)

People do not really  believe that they are lost; they believe that they have sins; but that does not touch  the question of being lost. Your sins make you guilty, but your state by nature  is that you are lost. It is quite another thing to seeing  that I have sins, the consciousness that I am lost now. In my natural condition, they go together, but they are distinct; guilt looks  forward to judgment; lost is my present state. If I get clear hold of that, then I get Christ dealing with it, and the consciousness that I am saved now. But people neither know that they are lost, nor that they are saved.  But, in the Christian, God has brought in a new thing -  he is a new creation; and thus my place is either  in the first man or in the second. And, to get hold of what this new creation is, is of immense moment in this day.

All the ordinances and religion that are going on in the world are for man in the flesh. Do you think we shall have such things in heaven? The first man, though the flesh be in us, is done with for faith; God takes me entirely out of my condition by nature - though my poor body is here yet of course - has separated me entirely from the world, though still in it. "Now once in the end of the world," we read, "hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

Do you believe that the world has morally come to an end? God's dealings with the first man were then thoroughly, perfectly closed. Man may get up an imitation of the Jewish ritual, but it is all over. The religiousness that is going on around us all hangs upon this question: Am I alive in this world, looked at in my relationship with God, or not? I am not! - Where does the believer get his life from? From heaven. Christ could say: "The Son of man which is in heaven." We, as united to Him, live of the life which is in Him who is on high. Will you occupy yourself in the improvement of the first Adam? Will you get good out of him? You never will. God has tried, but He could get nothing. The flesh that is in me has had Christ presented to it, and has rejected Him. It does so still. It cannot crucify Him now, but it rejects Him just as much. Lawless, if left to itself, it is not subject to the law of God when under it, neither indeed can be, and, if Christ be presented to it, prefers everything in the world to Him.

Whenever God set up anything good, the first thing man did was to spoil it. Take the history in order as it comes. What is the first thing ? Man himself - in the garden. And what did he do? - Then after the flood; you would say if ever anything could have mended man's manners, surely that would. But no, it is all ruined; the first thing Noah does is to get drunk. Abram is called out of it by grace. But the law is then given. The first thing Israel did was to make the golden calf. The priesthood was set up; but Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire on the very first day. The son of David is established; but Solomon loved many strange women, and the kingdom is ruined. Nebuchadnezzar, set up as the head of gold, sets up an idol. And the church is in ruins. "All," we read in the apostle's time, "seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." Who says that? The apostle; while he was yet alive that was the state of things. "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God." Have you not got that nature? Speaking of us as men, have we not got that nature, which is - what? Enmity against God! And are you going to educate it? to cultivate it? Cultivate enmity against God?

This is what I mean when I say that men do not know that they are lost. When Christ came into the world and went about doing good because God was with Him, men did not like Him. Why? Because God was manifested in Him! - It is natural that infidels should try to get what good they can out of the old tree; but I am speaking of Christians. It is the first question with the soul, and must be, if I want to get glory - this truth that I am lost already; you will never get hold of what it is to be saved already until you see that.

It was just at this point, when Pharisaic flesh made its most of religion, that Christ came into the world. He came in and found a magnificent temple; and that is what people want now. If I go into a church I take my hat off. I do not mean I, of course, when I say this, because I would not go into one, but that is what people do. And they take it off to what? There was a time when God had such a thing - a temple -  priests - everything, to try what man in the flesh could do. And now man will go back to it, and says: Oh, you must have music, temple, vestments, to influence people. Influence what? Their flesh! But I am "not in the flesh."

"Once in the end of the world." There ended man's history morally. They said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him;" and there was an end of the world as to the judgment of God, not executed indeed, but pronounced. But then there was the beginning of God, and where was that? In the grave of Christ, as come in the flesh - the cross, if you please, but it was death - in the grave. He accomplished the work in perfectness of love to God and perfect obedience in a man - One who was God, of course, but as man dying on the cross, closing all association with man in the flesh, fully tested by grace as well as law, and God set the Man who had done it at His own right hand. The first man's wickedness was proved in the death of Christ, and the second Man was taken out of the world; it is convicted of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, in rejecting Him; of righteousness in that He is gone to the Father, and the world sees Him no more as so come in grace, and the prince of this world proved to be Satan; but there is the Man in heaven; and Christianity is founded upon that. The end is made of the first man in death, and a totally new place is taken in the second Man, in which man innocent had no more place than man guilty, and till I know that I shall not know what salvation is.

Forgiveness applies to what I have done as the first man. I may sin now, surely, as a Christian, but, if I do, that is the first man - the flesh. Salvation is connected with my condition as a child of Adam. When I speak of sins, I do not say I am saved; I say I am forgiven. People think that their guilt, as children of Adam, is cleared away, and so it is; but that is only forgiveness; it does not in itself take me out of the position that I am in. But God has judged man; the prince of this world is cast out; and I am now in Christ at the right hand of God. "If any man be in Christ it is a new creation." Of course, as to my body, I have not got into the new scene yet, but am left here to have my senses exercised to discern good and evil, and to walk by faith and not by sight. He is not talking of the sight of things down here, but he means you have not yet got a sight of heavenly things. But I can go through the things down here, they do not affect me. I have to live down here -  perfectly true; but that has nothing to do with the moral question of the object that leads us: "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." And then what does he say? Why, I am groaning in this tabernacle meanwhile, desiring to be clothed upon with my house which is from heaven, for He that hath wrought me for the self-same thing is God. God has wrought me. It is not only a prepared place there, but he has wrought me for it - for that place where is the glory of Christ. The world may come and tempt me, but it is the things that are inside the veil that are mine, and I belong to that scene; and that is what is salvation.

A man in the seventh of Romans is a renewed man, but he has not salvation; he is a renewed man under the law. The law was God's rule for a child of Adam. Well, but what are you? - I am a child of God. The law deals with a man in the flesh; I am "not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." I get salvation when I get into a place where I am not in the flesh at all. "I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." The law is a very useful thing to kill me. The law says: Death and the curse are your portion. I say: Yes; but I died on the cross when the curse was born. If a guilty man fall into the law's hands and die there, what can it do with him? Give him up to be buried!

So a Christian is not in the flesh before God; my place - my standing - is not there at all. You say: Where is it then? - Why it is in Christ. I find that "when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly;" and what we learn in Romans 7 is, not guilt, but that we have no power to get out of the condition in which we are. Christ has come and taken me out of the condition in which I was, and put me into His own; by the power which God "wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places," He has "quickened us together with Christ, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ." Well, if I am sitting in heavenly places in Christ, am I saved, or am I not?

What salvation has done is not the merely forgiving me my sins; forgiveness, cleansing, justifying, applies to my responsible and guilty condition in the first Adam; but salvation applies to my state in the second Man. It is a new creation. What would you do if you wanted to make something of a crab tree? Not nurture, and prune, and dig about, and dung it. That God has done with his fig tree. If you know anything about it, you will cut it down and graft it. Until you find out that the old man is utterly bad, and that there is no mending it, you will not give it up. If you cultivate the old crab tree you will have fair flowers but only bigger crabs.

God has gone through the moral history of man's probation up to the cross, and a little supplementary trial too, if you like, through Christ's intercession on it for Israel, and He has come to the end of it. I get the whole thing. God's grace in seeking man in the condition he was in, giving His Son to die for him, and then Christ rising into a totally new place as man, what man as Adam was not at all, and has brought me there in Him - of course I am not physically there - and then gives me His Spirit that I may walk in the place He has set me in. In the death of Christ the whole thing on man's part has closed, and then God begins with His own work. A Man, the Lord of glory, goes down, takes this dreadful cup, goes on the cross into death for us, into the judgment, into the curse alone with God, settles that question with God, and has so settled it for God's glory that God has set a Man at His own right hand in glory. All the thoughts and the counsels of God came out consequently on that.

One passage we may refer to on this is 2 Tim. 1: 9. "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest." I am not saved according to my responsibility; "our works;" saving and calling does not come to me upon this ground. I am saved by the cross. Well, I say, and what part had you in the cross?  - If you are saved by the cross the only part you had in it was your sins; your enmity too, if you like, in putting Him there. But I find in the cross a death which on the one hand clears away my sins, and on the other hand brings me salvation. The whole of it is God's work. All alone between Him and God was that work; the darkness was the outward testimony that He was alone with God; His divine power not saving Him from the cup, but enabling Him to drink it. And then He goes to His Father, and the world sees Him, in grace, never any more, till He comes to it in judgment.

"It is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ." And again in the beginning of Titus: "Eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began, but hath in due times manifested." For this purpose of God, to bring us into the second Man, the ground was not laid until the cross.

But when He came it was not only this; He had also in His person the promises for Israel; recollect this. And it is well we should recollect, that there is no promise to the flesh. It was said, in passing sentence on the serpent, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head; it was not said to Adam. Was Adam the seed of the woman? He was the only man who was not. The promise was to the seed of the woman - to Christ. God had had purposes of grace before the world existed, but He began His dealings with Adam - the responsible man - and tried him. And, having proved what he was, then I get God's work; God wrought. If I get what man wrought it was sin and condemnation. But God has raised His Son from the dead, and my place with God being in Christ after His death - after the power of Satan being broken -  after my sins being put away, judged in Him -  I am a new creation, I am in the second Man, I am not in the flesh. You will never know what salvation is until you know that you are in Christ; then "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Sin in the flesh is condemned, not forgiven, but condemned where Christ was a sacrifice for sin, and, where the condemnation was, death was; so that there is no condemnation for me now, but I am dead to sin.

I will not say any more, but I am anxious this should dwell upon your minds; it is of great moment now. We have come back to the Father, kissed, robed, the ring on our finger, and the fatted calf killed. We have come back. But was it the fruit of what the prodigal did? He was perishing; if he stay where he is he will perish. But he sets out on his way to God. And what is the effect of that? The effect that is on the minds of many: it is - "Make me one of thy hired servants." But his reasoning thus only proved he had not yet met Him. And after all what does his experience bring him to? To the Father in his rags! I may say I am running too slow, perhaps stumble in the way, though seeking to go right; but I am always in my rags till I come to my Father. It is the Father who says, " Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry." It is He who had the best robe brought forth; till then the prodigal son was not fit to enter into the house, though he had been going right, and his father's love shown to him.

Of course then we must bring forth good fruit. If I have got the life of Christ in me, I must bring it out in everything: "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." I say, Are you doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus? If not, you have in that case given Him up for some foolish thing or other. "If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living (alive) in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" I am dead to flesh - to sin: "The body is dead, because of sin; but the spirit is life, because of righteousness." I am crucified to the world, and dead to the law by the body of Christ. The fact then is this, that I do not belong to the world any more than a dead and buried man does - of course I mean in the moral sense of it. If I take my privileges, I say I am seated in heavenly places. If I take my position in the world, I have nothing to do but to go through it as He did.

The Lord give us clearly to see what salvation is: that it is the taking me out of the first Adam and putting me into the second Man. "He hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

(J. N. D.)

Fragments

J. N. Darby.

(Words in Season, Vol. 4, 1890, page 249.)

Exodus 32: 31-33; Isaiah 43: 25. - Grace makes righteousness rest on the obedience of another, and so now it is not the sinner who is blotted out, but his sins, let them be never so vile. If I say I've sinned, and perhaps He will blot me out of His book, I am standing on law; but the moment I understand Christ is my righteousness, the ground is altered altogether, and I find God occupied with me constantly, and I say, "Go with me, for I am a poor stiff-necked, rebellious creature." What a God we have! No wonder if God can be with me when I am walking with Him; but to know that He is occupying Himself with my failings, well may we "joy in God."

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GOD does shew us what we are, but He brings us what we want in that state.

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CHRIST has taken the fruit of my doing, and I have got the fruit of His.

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THE conscience follows the throne. If God's will be unanswered, the conscience is not perfected; if His demands or will be answered the conscience is perfected, and we are sanctified.

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THE rending of the vail marked four things: - (1) That Judaism of the past was over; (2) that man had consummated his guilt; (3) that God had disclosed Himself in perfect grace; (4) and the sins of the believer were swept away by the same stroke for ever. The vail being rent, I see the holiness of God; but the very stroke that rent the vail, and thus unveiled the holiness of God, has put away the sin that hindered me from standing in the presence of that holiness; God coming out to me, and I enabled to go with Christ into the rest of His holiness. The more the eye of God scrutinises and searches us, the more it brings out the blessed truth that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. The light shews the whiteness of the robe that has been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

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IN the day of judgment God comes to claim what man owes, but in Christ He comes to pay it; and if one comes to pay all my debts, I'll take care that there is not a single debt I don't tell him of.

A Reading on Galatians 2: 19-21.

J. N. Darby.

(Extracted from Food for the Flock Vol. 3, 1876, page 153.)

You get four things brought out in this passage: the law, the cross, Christ the life, and Christ the object.

First. It is the righteousness of the law; the rule and measure of what man as a child of Adam ought to be - loving God with all his heart, and his neighbour as himself, and doing nothing forbidden in the ten commandments.

People forget the character of the law; it comes and requires obedience, and pronounces a curse if you do not keep it. It is very different to come and exact a debt, and to come and pay it. The law only exacts; and the moment we have got a sense, not merely of being outward sinners, which a man may escape, but of the law reaching the inner man, it is all up with us: "sin revived and I died;" "I through the law am dead to the law." Just because the law is perfect, it says you must not have lusts; but I have when under it, and I like to gratify them too; and, if not, cannot get rid of them. Then it kills. And that is just what we want as to the old man.

But then there is another thing. If it kills, it condemns too; and that is why it is said to be a ministration of death and a ministration of condemnation. But the way God has set about it is this: "I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live to God; " and the way to that is, He did it through Christ; He took the condemnation, and I have got the death, and lost the condemnation.

He takes the law in its nature first, and through it I am dead. But being by Christ, and the crucifixion of Christ, I get the death, but not the condemnation; that Christ took; and then I am to reckon myself dead. Not merely Christ crucified for my sins, but I with Christ - the way of getting rid of the old man and the condemnation together. The old man condemned in Christ, and I dead: "What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh."

Very well then, I say, I am dead. - Then there's an end of you! - No, say I; " nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ." It is death for the old man, and I have got another life: "not I, but Christ liveth in me."

We have got thus three things spoken of: the law, the cross, and the life. Now there is the fourth, the object. "The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." As it is said in Colossians: He is "all" as the object of life, and "in all" as the power of life.

It is the same thing here in other words. His only object in living was Christ.

What is "the faith of the Son of God"?

The faith which has Him for its object.

Is "the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ" (James 2) the same thing?

Yes. Some take it as if it were the faith Christ had; quite true, He did live by faith in perfect dependence; but when you say, "the faith of God" - which it is, where translated, "have faith in God" - you cannot take it as God's faith.

It is sweet to see how Paul's heart turns to what the Christ is whom he knows: "Who loved me, and gave himself for me." God speaks of my loving Him, but I must know first that He loved me: "Not that we loved God, but that he loved us."

It is a distinct thing to hold ourselves dead, knowing that we died with Christ, and to say he died for our sins. The Red Sea and the Jordan give us His death for us, and ours with Him. At Jordan the ark went down, and stayed there till all Israel had passed over, and then they were circumcised; the reproach of Egypt was never rolled away in the wilderness, it was at Gilgal.

What is "the reproach of Egypt"?

They were not dead - had not put off the body of the flesh. Worldliness is the reproach of Egypt; we are "dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world." If the world sticks to a Christian, he is going on as one who is not dead. It was a reproach for Israel to be in Egypt; he ought to be in Canaan. Till a person is dead and risen he does not get out of Egypt. If I see dress, money loving, etc., I see Egypt in people. There are plenty of other things, of course. I cannot bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, unless I reckon myself dead. Through Jesus, I have died with Him and am in Canaan; and then comes the practice. They went and won victories, and came back to Gilgal. So you will find with us; if one has been blessed in ministry, and does not come back there, he goes back in his soul.

Does the Red Sea go beyond forgiveness?

Yes; it is redemption: "stand still and see the deliverance of Jehovah." He is a Saviour, and He takes them out.

As to doctrine; will it go as far as Colossians?

Not quite.

As far as Romans?

Yes. But you do not get the full result in Romans.

Is the Red Sea being risen with Christ?

Yes. The Red Sea and Jordan coalesce. The wilderness is no part of the purpose of God. It is of His ways. The wilderness is not spoken of in Ex. 3 and Ex. 6, nor in Ex. 15. The Red Sea is Christ's death and resurrection, which deliver us; Jordan our death and resurrection with Him, which brings us into a new position - into Canaan. All is complete, in a certain sense, at the Red Sea - they are brought to God; but there is a new position in heavenly places not resealed there.

Where would Colossians come in?

Colossians takes a man as risen with Christ, but does not take him into heaven. In Ephesians he is in heavenly places, just where you want the armour. People do not understand what that means. The moment the Israelites cross Jordan, the man with the drawn sword meets them. Satan says: I will not have that. - But I am the Lord's host. It is no question now of saving me, but I have to act for the Lord in spiritual service.

There are two distinct things in which the Ephesians' starting.point is completely different from Romans. The starting.point in Romans is man's responsibility: he is guilty, all the world is guilty. There are proofs of sin both in Jew and Gentile; man is looked at as alive in sins. In Ephesians he is dead in them; a different thought altogether. Alive in sin in Romans, but, for that very reason, dead towards God -  not a movement in his heart towards God. After a man is dead he neither speaks, nor moves, nor feels. I want to be dead to sin, and alive to God, and then everything changes. The point is to get sins and sin dealt with; the fruit cleared away, and the tree dead; and this is fully brought out in Romans: "Propitiation through faith in his blood;" and then, "Reckon ye yourselves dead to sin."

In Ephesians I get nothing of the responsibility at all, nor a man being justified, but the counsels of God according to the good pleasure of His will. Dead in sins, quickened together with Christ, and so you can get all the fulness of blessing in Ephesians. Christ comes into that place for us, and having put away our sins, in coming down to death, God raises us all up together. In Ephesians you do not see Christ till He is dead: "Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies." It is a new creation; there is nothing about being justified, for I am a new creation.

In Colossians you get both (Col. 2); only he does not pursue it on to put us into heavenly places. "The hope laid up for you in heaven" (Col. 1: 5) - not yet in heaven: "Seek those things which are above" (Col. 3: 1) - seek them.

In chapter 2 you get both things: "In him dwelleth all the completeness (I put it so to connect the two words) of the Godhead." He, all the completeness of God, and I, complete in Him. "In whom also ye are circumcised . . . . in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." True Christian circumcision is practically realising that I have died. "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." Here I get Romans and something more. Then in verse 13 I get Ephesian doctrine as to our natural state: "You, being dead in sins, hath he quickened together with him." But it is not carried on to sitting in heavenly places. In Romans he speaks of being dead with Christ, but does not go on to show us risen with Him. The moment I am risen with Christ, I am getting into the same place as Christ; not merely justified as an individual before God, but on the way into the new place of being united to Christ in heaven.

"You being dead in your sins .... hath he quickened together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses." I was dead in my sins, and Christ dies and puts them all away, and the sins I was guilty of are all gone. He has forgiven us all trespasses because He put them away; and then God comes and takes Christ, and takes me, and raises me up from the dead; and He goes further and says: "Your life is hid with Christ in God." Now you are to have your affections on things above, not on things on earth. Ephesians takes us on from having our affections in heaven, to being ourselves in heavenly places.

Genesis 12

Notes of a Lecture.

J. N. Darby.

(Extracted from Simple Testimony Vol. 3, 1851, page 142.)

This chapter occupies a place of great importance, being the first public call by which the saints are separated from the world. Genesis brings out the great principles of God's actings with those taught of the Spirit to know His mind: the God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob - not as the God of the whole world, though this is true, but specially of individuals. God is not ashamed to identify himself with them: God is not ashamed to be called our God, because we are not of earthly but heavenly calling. A time is coming when He will be God of the whole earth, when Satan is bound; till then, God of those called out to Himself. Abraham, the depository of promise - Isaac, in resurrection - Jacob, election of God and type of Israel's history, cast out, brought back again. Thus God gives the principles of His dealing with men (single individuals were called before).

In Noah another principle is brought out - government for the restraint of evil - the whole order of earth formed by families. After this corruption comes in - man is set in responsibility and he fails. Up to this, the history of the world - the violence of men in Nimrod, and the rebellion of men in the confederacy of Babel. Another evil came in - Satan set himself up as head of power - Gentiles worship him - "the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to devils, and not unto God." 1 Cor. 10: 20. Then came this delusion - ascribing those things which God did to Satan, and setting Satan in God's place (Joshua 24: 2, 3.) "they served other gods." Hence we see an important principle - false gods - the introduction of Satan as it were, in heavenly places, and worshipped as God. God's people must be called away from this - "they served other gods." Joshua 24: 2, 3. In the midst of this, God calls Abraham out.

In this chapter there is a division - what Abraham was, blest in connection with God, and what in failure as to his own thoughts. In the first part two things - God calls to Abraham to come into the land; and the worship of Abraham when in the land. "The Lord had said, Get thee out, &c." This calls for separation from all God's natural order of things. God did not say, leave worshipping Satan, but leave thy kindred - the Jewish system, God's natural order - "when Jesus putteth forth His own sheep He goeth before them." God's ties before were by natural order, by family blessings and inheritances. Out of all this (not only the evil) Abraham is called he breaks the link of idolatry. Not correct your ways in the land where you are, but "get you out of the land, and go into a land that I will shew you." The law was given to Israel in the place where God was to keep them, as a rule for them in that place where they were. Grace brought them out of Egypt - the law was to guide them where they were afterwards..

Moses pitched the tabernacle without the camp, and every one who sought the Lord went out. So there is nothing for us now but the word of God to rest upon. What God calls us to is to believe on His word - by the word of God all things subsist - by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, overflowed, perished. The word of God is a necessary authority to the believing soul - as under the responsibility of the obedience of faith. The ground of the conduct of faith - "God had said." Abraham could not get into the land of Canaan, because Terah was with him. He went with Terah to go to Canaan, but not in faith, and therefore did not get there, nor yet get the blessing, for they came to Haran and dwelt there. Now Haran was not Canaan. Nature cannot break from nature, but faith can. Here we find natural order - all within the limits of flesh - and therefore no faith in it at all, not faith in the word of God. Nothing can set aside the immediate and personal responsibility of obedience to God's word - nothing between the soul and God but His word. The error of the church in all ages springs from putting something between these. All instrumentality is to bring the soul to God. This is a simple principle God will never give up - the immediate claim of obedience to His word.

Nothing in nature according to purpose - God says " I create," and "I destroy;" but God never says "I purpose," and "I set aside" - the purpose of God can't alter - His calling is without repentance. He calls man out of that which was corrupt through Satan. There are two parts in blessing - first to be recipients of blessing, second, to be the instruments of blessing others - "in thee" - the occasion of blessing - the divine joy of bringing into blessing. Luke 15: 9-25. Abraham could not come into the land while one link of natural ties remained unbroken. God had called Abraham out by His word, therefore he had nothing but the word to trust to, which told him he could not have blessing but out of flesh. "Get out of thy country and thy kindred," so Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken. Gen. 12: 4. "Salvation is of the Jews" - the moment the Shepherd came - "I am the door" - the sheep must go out at it, recognizing the voice of Christ - "my sheep hear my voice." Abraham got to Haran with his father, then had to begin again when done with his father "unto the land of Canaan he came." v. 5.

The second part of the position of Abraham - now called - our position now in heavenly places while Satan is yet there. Eph. 6: 12. So it is with Abraham called to Canaan while the Canaanite is yet in the land. Gen. 12: 6. Abraham here presents to us our actual position - the position of faith - to be in conflict with the wicked spirits in heavenly places - our bodies not yet in Canaan, but in spirit we are there. Faith acts upon the word - receiving the testimony, finds it is in heavenly places - not of the world, as Christ was not of the world - only in heaven, so we in heaven. We walk by faith, and not by sight - not earthly but heavenly things. v. 7. "The Lord appeared unto Abraham" - here all true worship begins, the Lord revealing Himself. Faith taking God at His Word, and acting on it. Faith finds itself in heaven with Christ. So the manifestation to Abraham was the source of worship - "he builded an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him." So we, seeing the glory - worship in heaven - the heavenly Canaan. Worship supposes a man to be at peace - that goes on properly in heaven, where Jesus is, because we worship in Him.

This is unfolded at large in Ephesians. In that epistle it is not grace to the world, but manifesting to principalities and powers the manifold wisdom of God. The prodigal son came to his father - he fell on his neck and kissed him. This was not worship, but when in the house then the music and the dancing - that is worship - communion with the father in the house. We are called as knowing ourselves put into the father's house in heaven, and then, being there, He reveals Himself to us there. A very different thing to be on the way to God, and being in spirit there, and having the full revelation of God to our souls, brought to God in spirit, at home there, and what accompanies this is the perpetuity of the blessing, "eternal redemption for us." Then we can worship. The same love when the father fell on his neck and kissed him, as when He had him in the house - but a different thing - the music and the dancing -  the adoration and the praise - when God is appearing in His own house to those He has brought there. We should be at home with God now, rejoicing in what the Father is at home in His own house, and not be occupied with what is passing in our own hearts.

The Gospel without the Church.

Address delivered at Manchester, June 19, 1873.

J. N. Darby.

If anything has weighed on my spirit and exercised it, it has been that of which our brother has just spoken, the gospel without the church; but one broad thing we must remember is, that people preached Christ even of contention, and the apostle was glad of it. Now, if Christ be really preached, there is blessing for souls. But if I may say one thing, - though I suppose I am a coward myself, and it is a humbling thing not being more of an evangelist, - it is this, that when brethren began, and the full clear gospel did come out through their means from the word of God, a clear gospel and many important points connected with it too, it started with persons who had entirely given up the world. All those who began had broken with the world and had done with it, and therefore those who had got the church's place, and were in the vessels, naturally carried others back, by their preaching, to the source from which it really flowed. But the world is a much more treacherous thing than we are aware, and comes in by little bits.

Unless the heart is set on what is in heaven, there is nothing clear. If I have a bigger family, then I must have a bigger house, and then I must furnish it, and so the world comes in. We have to look to this as to the gospel; though many have got hold of the difference between the church and the world, they found there was no centre for those persons, who were converted, to cling to; and there is nothing more important now than a distinct consciousness of what people are called to.

We are in the midst of a closing dispensation, but that does not alter the fact that souls have to be saved, though there is another side to the truth. Take Paul; he began dealing with heathenism, and, as he was gathering from under Satan's power, he must gather to some centre, and that centre was, in a practical sense, the church gathered to Christ. But now the church nominally is where Satan's power is. That is an immense difference. "The Lord added daily to the church," you can't say that now; that was, early at Jerusalem. One can rejoice in the preaching, for until Christ has gathered all that will be with Him in glory He can't come again. And so we all get the good of every soul that is converted as regards Christ's coming.

But the word now is, "The Lord knoweth them that are his; and let every man that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity:" we have to begin with the professing church and in a large degree, instead of seeing such as should be saved added to a visible body, leave it to the Lord's knowing them that are His. So in preaching the gospel, though I am satisfied the more we dwell on facts the more power there will be, yet we have to do with the effect and force of facts, not to announce them. You tell a Christian that Christ is risen; he knows that: what then? What is the result of it? The fact that Christ has been and is rejected by the world, and is gone to heaven, are marked and clear - and that must be made clear. But I rejoice that there is no doctrine in Scripture that is not a fact; and everybody can understand a fact, and that is the power of it.

But, to go to the Scripture that has been before us (Matthew 13: 47-48), it is the net we have to deal with. We are working in the midst of a professing body with a state of things turned away from the power which God has already brought in. If a man goes out to India, or any heathen country, it is a different case. As for what is doing there, I wish there were ten thousand times as much; but what does a man who came from there tell one? "Why," he says, "some of you tell me one thing, and some of you tell me another, you must leave me to the Bible." So an old American Indian, a hundred years old, said, "Go and settle among yourselves what is right, and then come and tell me." And you have to deal with what are called churches, and can't help yourself either. Someone preaches, and "What kind of man is this that is preaching the gospel? is asked directly." "Oh, he is a brother," is the answer, and so it is and must be now; such questions do arise. Now, therefore, I have to disown all that as an entirely abnormal state of things, and go myself outside the camp. But it is there that the looseness of the gospel without the church comes in. I speak in no ill-will to anybody in saying so, God forbid.

And we are bound to recognise everybody, who is converted, as a saint; or we sin against the very principle we go on if we don't. The thing is, how to keep two things together; thorough recognition of a brother as a saint, and at the same time never to go with that which is unfaithful to Christ. A matter of discernment, of course, - a difficulty sometimes - to have your feet in the narrow path, but keep your heart as large as you can. Many, we know, who are out of the narrow path in their walk, are in bitterness against it, while their hearts are really narrow.

I was looking yesterday at the coming of the Lord, and I quite admit those who don't see it are saved; but the Lord never recognises the putting His coming beyond the life of one alive when He is speaking; the foolish virgins in Matt. 25 are the same at the end as at the beginning; although, while they are asleep, you have centuries passed over. The servants at His departure, they are the same as those He finds at His return. What I say is this, that, in losing the expectation of the coming, the church and the Christian too have lost their true character. Not that they are not saved, but this does affect my personal conduct in the midst of the church which has so lost its character. The virgins went out to meet the bridegroom; men were converted to wait for God's Son from heaven; but if, as in the other parable, we say, "My Lord delayeth his coming," it continues he began to beat the men-servants, and to eat and to drink with the drunken: this is the truth of the condition of the professing church at large. They have lost the idea of the true unity of the body, and worldliness and hierarchical power have characterised the state of things for centuries, and they are not losing or looking for Christ's appearing. Now Paul says, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." Now that is not intelligence of a theory or of prophecy, but the practical state of a soul. It loves Christ's appearing and waits for Him; and the world has received its character as that which rejected Him, and the heart had done with it because it looked for Christ. Its fashion was nothing for the heart. But this expectation was given up, and the church lost its character in connection with that which at once detaches it from the world.

In Phil. 3, at the close of the chapter, Paul, having given up the world as all dross and dung to him, adds of some, "I tell you weeping they are the enemies of the cross of Christ," not of Christ simply, but of the cross of Christ, of that which characterises the world, and His and the Christian's relation to it, "whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, who mind earthly things." In the French translation they had put in "only" earthly things, they could not stand the truth.

One must make allowance for our brother's estimate about care for the church and so on; by remembering also that there is a difference of gift. You may hear two men in prayer, one asks for the conversion of souls, and the other asks God to strengthen the saints; the one is an evangelist, and the other is a pastor; you must make allowance for all that, only get it in the right place.

The Scripture calls a perfect Christian one who not only knows there is forgiveness, but has known his place in the risen Christ, the new standing and condition into which he has been brought.

There are two things to be distinguished in Scripture the purposes of God and the responsibility of man; and these make all the difference. We find them fully developed respectively - Romans and Ephesians. Romans takes up the responsibility of man; Ephesians, God's purposes. The cross took up both. The purposes were before the foundation of the world. It is not merely a question of persons predestinated, but of that to which they are so predestinated, and therefore you will not find persons so spoken of without reference to the things that are purposed as to them. We are "predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son." I cite this merely as an illustration. Before the foundation of the world God had all that before Him; His delights were with the sons of men. He had His purposes, but in connection with the Second Man. Now that is not the way He began. He began with the first man - the responsible man. He fell as we all know, and then God went on with that responsibility up to the cross. Up to the Flood there was no particular institution. It was man left with God's testimony in the world, but no special dispensational dealing, and he got so bad that the flood came. The world has been judged once. Then in Noah spared in the flood the restraint of violence by human government is established, and we may follow the history of the patient goodness of God dealing with man. First, He gave a promise and called out Abram in separation from the world departed from Him, and gone into idolatry. You get there election, calling, and promise; and, just as you get the head of what is bad in Adam, so you get the head of God's family in Abraham called by grace. There the promise was without conditions, the seed was to come; there was no "If you obey my voice." Still the question of righteousness must be raised, and it was raised in giving the law, and was required from man under law. "This do, and thou shalt live," was the principle, and he went to work directly and made a golden calf.

Then God sent His prophets, rising up early and sending them "till there was no remedy" and, at last, as the only means left, He says, "I have yet one Son, it may be they will reverence my Son." And this, too, as regards man's state in the flesh, was to no purpose at all, man would not be won, and his responsibility, its history, that is in Scripture, closed. It was finished on the cross. Not that the individual now does not go through it all for the benefit of his soul; he does, but to another end. It is not to settle the question, whether he can meet God's requirements and stand in the day of judgment, but to discern that he is already lost. And so, in Stephen's speech, he begins with Abraham, and after rehearsing their history declares that they have not kept the law, have killed prophets, crucified Christ, and resisted the Holy Ghost, and it is all over as regards man. God may save the lost and does, but the probation of man is over.

It is not merely that man is a sinner - he was that in Paradise, but all the means at God's disposal as to man are exhausted, and, instead of the question, "Can I stand in the day of judgment?" the present fact is learned, that I am lost. Now, have I that conviction? and that is God's dealing with man alike, guilty and lost? That is what Romans treats of; it takes up both Gentiles and Jews, shews that all have sinned, and are guilty first; and then takes up tile second point, all are lost by one man's disobedience. But you will find many a man who has owned he is guilty, but does not own that he is lost. Guilty refers to judgment and works; lost, to our state, and is a present thing.

You do not get the unity of the body in Romans, neither do you get, save a word, anything of the purposes of God. In the 8th. chapter you get "no condemnation for me in Christ," and the justification of the guilty sinner, and so far purpose, that it is said, we are also "predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren," but it is all individual still. You have the purpose and fact just stated that you may get a link on, and that is all, between the responsibility of man and the purpose of God. I have often referred to that statement, in 2 Tim. 1: 9, "Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest;" you get a concise statement of its revelation after the ground of its accomplishment was laid in righteousness in Christ's work, and He was glorified. So in Titus 1: 2, 3, as to eternal life Christ, in dying, not only met the responsibility in which we all were as men, but He glorified God so that God put a man into the glory of God. This is an immense thing. If I owed £10,000, and some person paid it when I was penniless; well, I am clear, but I have got nothing still, I can't even go and get a bit of bread. And, as a person merely forgiven, why should I have the glory of God? Why should my being clear of my guilt put me into the same glory as the blessed Son of God? This was the purpose of God, and its accomplishment is righteously grounded on the cross where also my responsibility was met. Now a perfect Christian has got hold of the intention and purpose of God about him, and does not merely know how Christ has met his responsibility; but that is what the church has lost, and the gospel is preached accordingly. The result is that such a gospel does not get a person out of what our brother called "downstairs;" he does not get into the place entirely in heaven. The purpose of God was that the Second Adam should have joint-heirs in the same glory as Himself; and so the Lord says "Not as the world giveth give I unto you." He gives by bringing us into the place where He is. Forgiveness is not all, He gives glory also; but not only so, but Christ's way of giving is not the world's. If I give, I give away - if I have a loaf and give half, I have half left, but Christ never gives so. He gives and has all the same. He introduces us into all He enjoys Himself and gives nothing away. It is His own peace He speaks of when He says it, and so His joy, so the words given to Him, so His glory, so even the Father's love, we are brought into all. We have then in Romans the full meeting of our responsibility and state being added as completing our portion. But, ''whom he justified, them he also glorified." They are with Christ in His glory, and this is another element not only meeting my responsibility, but bringing me into the result of God's purpose as to us.

Christ has borne my sins, and if they are not all put away they never can be; and it is further of the essence of the Christian's walk, and thus of all importance, that we should be clear as to our deliverance, that it is from our being dead with Christ, and not only that Christ died for our sins. So far the Romans. We die with Him. But the teaching of the word goes further; we are raised with Him, and so I am associated with Christ.

Ephesians begins with the purpose of God, then you get "quickened together with Christ," and raised up together (i.e. Jew and Gentile), and sitting in the heavenly places in Him, the purposes of God and the power of God by which I am associated with the Second Man already living in Him, though not there as to my body. And so you get no justification in Ephesians, but a new creation, "created in Christ Jesus" unto good works and to glory. God has not to justify His new creation. That is the difference between the two. And the one who is perfect is the one who has not only seen the justification but also the intention of God wrought out in quickening us together with Christ.

I was touching this morning a little on what Scripture says as to being perfect.

These questions arise out of the low state in which Christians are. The Spirit of God is working in them, and there is a craving after something, though what it is may not be defined in the mind. Christians are so entirely below the real thing set up by the Holy Ghost; the word is that to what we must turn, and then there is guidance. We were speaking of what a perfect Christian is; and this connects itself with what our brother was speaking of. In Phil. 3 and elsewhere the word perfect means a full-grown man; so in the end of Heb. 5, solid food, not exactly strong meat, is for them that are of full age, it is the same word. If I do not go beyond the question of my responsibility as a sinner and getting my guilt forgiven, that is not "full age," for it does not touch the purpose of God about us at all; all quite right though it is, so far as it goes. I may be low down and merely see forgiveness of sins, so that, as regards responsibility, I am looking at God as a judge, like Israel, when God passed through Egypt and saw the blood on the door post, and did not destroy them. I am speaking not of the value of the blood now, but of its application; as to its value the whole glory is founded upon it. But you will find many that stop there, and who have not an idea beyond being safe; while of course they will be happy hereafter, and I am not questioning that.

But in Phil. 3, when Paul speaks of those who are perfect, he says he speaks of running on to the prize of our calling above in Christ Jesus, and adds, "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto ye have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing." You find one, who knows he is forgiven, all right so far, and I walk with him joyfully, for the highest love I enjoy, the source of the glory, is what has reached him in his sins, but there is much more than that; not that the blood loses its value, we shall know it best in heaven, but its effect in full is to be sought here, and the question is how far that is produced in us; it is that that I speak of.

The cross stands alone in the history of eternity, there is nothing else like it whatever, except the heart of Him who died on it. There I get all Satan's power arrayed against God, and all the enmity of man's heart, and the perfect love of God meeting this very enmity; nowhere else but in the cross is this so brought out. All good and all evil, perfectly expressed at this one point, and that where Christ is "made sin;" then it is in Him that perfect love and perfect obedience are shown out. He stands, the sinless One, as sin before God, but it is the very place where obedience is perfected, and in virtue of perfect love. "But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do." The majesty of God is made good in this place where Christ is made sin, in this place of His perfect obedience to God, and of perfect love in man, more than man of course, but man, - all is seen in this place of the cross. God perfectly glorified in man, in whom he had been utterly dishonoured. But, when I come to God by the cross as a sinner, what do I measure the cross by? By my own wants. Sovereign goodness has met those wants, and that is perfectly right; we can go, in truth, in no other way, for the sins are there; but I go with my sins and find them all on the cross and gone. But my value for the cup is measured by my wants, not that I can exactly measure all my sins; but God knows them and has laid them on the cross, and that is my thought of it, and rightly. When I get to God's side of the cross, passing through that rent veil, then there is a new scene opened; I see God glorified in it in all that He is, His majesty, His righteousness, His holiness against sin, His perfect love. Christ has verified them all there; now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him. Until I get Christ I never get God come out and I never get man gone in, for man could not go in. The law put the impassable veil between God and man, the high priest just going in once as a figure of Christ. But Christianity is just the opposite. God did come out in love, and man is gone in and righteousness. But how often you find that a person rests there, as to its application to his need, and gets his happiness there, his mind dwelling on the contrast of where he had been, instead of living in the present blessed enjoyment of what he has got into. Of course the cross and the forgiveness always remain true, true even when you get to heaven, for we shall know good and evil better then than we do now; but what will occupy us is the living presence of the Father and of the Lamb in love, not merely the fact of having got in and the contrast with our once lost state, true as that may be. But we don't want contrast when we get there. Even in worship down here, when the soul is on the threshold, having got in, and occupied only with having escaped the storm, it is not the highest thing that is occupying me. I have not got "upstairs." I am in, and out of the storm, therefore inside the door, but have I nothing to enjoy there, nothing in His own love who has brought me in? We are, thank God, in from the storm, the wrath in which we should have perished; but so far it is not the highest thing that is occupying me. As to result, the highest thing is now only in the purposes of God. Of course we never could have them without redemption; and the love of Him who has redeemed is more than the glory which is in purpose; and we have seen how this puts the highest joy of the saint on the same ground as that known in the salvation of a sinner, so that they walk together in it. But we are associated with Christ, the last Adam, in the purposes of God. You get an example of what I mean at Christ's baptism. The moment His people, under the influence of His word, took a first right step He associates Himself with them. He, of course, had no need of repentance; still He goes there, takes His place with them. For them, it was repentance; for Him, fulfilling righteousness. As John therefore resists, and when He has taken that place, had taken His place with the remnant on whom the word had wrought, and comes up out of the water, then heaven is opened. It never was opened before, for there never was till then an object which heaven could look down upon with perfect complacency, never one, though saints through grace all along. Then the Holy Ghost comes down too, and seals the person on earth; then the Father's voice says, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Until then you do not get the Trinity thus fully revealed, though you get intimations of it in the Old Testament, but here you have the Holy Ghost, the Father, and the Son. When man is put into his place, then the whole glory of the relationship of the Trinity comes out.

Thus man's place through and with Christ is revealed in His person. For us to enter into it no doubt redemption must be accomplished; hence it is only when that was accomplished and the Lord was risen, that He says, showing how he had now put them into the same place with Himself, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." But you get the place and relationship, and standing of a man, as son with the Father; you get Christ in it when He has associated Himself with His people. Son He ever was; even as man, you have the testimony of it when He went up to Jerusalem at twelve years old, in Luke, but the place and standing of Son there here first fully received, and the purpose of God was to bring us into that same place, finally in the same glory; only wherever their place is shown as one and the same with Christ, the more you see the Divine Person distinctly manifested. It is that indeed that gives its full blessedness. In the transfiguration, Moses and Elias are in the same glory with Christ, talking in intimacy with Him, but when Peter would put them all on one level Moses and Elias disappear, and the Father's voice proclaims Jesus as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Take another most touching instance at the end of Matt. 17, just where Jesus has shown that His mission to Israel is over, and forbidden His disciples to say He is the Christ, though thus working in Divine patience in Israel.

They came and asked Peter, Does your Master pay tribute? It was the Jewish tribute paid yearly for the Temple services. Peter answers, Yes; eager to show His Master was a good Jew. On entering, the Lord anticipates him asking of whom do the kings of the earth take tribute, of their own children or of strangers?" Peter says "Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, then are the children free." You and I are children of the great King of the Temple, made free and need not pay. Still He remained subject as long as He was in this world, and says, Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, i.e., puts Peter in the same place with Himself, while showing He has Divine knowledge in anticipating Peter, knowing what had passed; and now Divine power over creation too, Go thou to the sea and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up, and, when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money; that take, and give unto them for me and thee. And, while shewing who He was, His Divine power puts Peter in the same place with Himself; they were sons of the great King of the Temple. The first Adam is set aside and the saints are brought, in grace, into complete association with the second Adam - "me and thee." What a word is that! if I hear Christ saying to me, poor worms as we are, "me and thee." That is not mere forgiveness. We must have forgiveness and cleansing, and God shows it to us in every shape. We are guilty and are justified, we are defiled and are cleansed, we are offenders and are forgiven; but clearly too we are associated with the second Adam, and where? Where? The world has entirely rejected Him, and so it says we have put off the old man and put on the new, we are not debtors to the old. There is a difference between the part of Romans which speaks of this, and Ephesians. Romans gives deliverance by death with Christ, we have done with flesh for faith; Ephesians goes further and puts us quickened also together with him, sitting in the heavenly places; Colossians shows us quickened with Christ, but not sitting in heavenly places. In Romans I have gone down into death, as regards sin in the flesh, and hence am delivered from the law also; in Ephesians I am viewed as dead in sins and am found there, and Christ is seen as having come down and putting all my sins away on the cross, so that I am clear. (Compare Col. 2: 13). Then God comes and raises us up together, and there we are, put into one place with Christ. That is not forgiveness and cleansing, though that must be done and has been done through death by faith; but we have died with Him, and as once dead in sins, and He come down into our place, there in grace we have been quickened with Him and raised up again into a new place, where we are sitting in heavenly places. And what is the consequence in practice? As now come out from God, I am to manifest God's character; walk in this world in the same spirit in which Christ walked. "Be ye followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ has loved us, and given himself for us, a sacrifice and an offering to God for a sweet smelling savour." So John, "Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us, and, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." So of the other essential name of God, for God is love and God is light, with Christ as our measure and pattern in life. "Awake thou that sleepest," and there are plenty of Christians asleep, "and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light," such is Ephesian teaching. What I get in Romans at all parallel to this is on the way more to get at this, as leaving flesh, and having to be dead, and so he says there, "offer your bodies living sacrifices to God." I am rather there going to God than coming from Him to show Him to the world; and therefore you do not get in Romans, "raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places." Still we have liberty in Romans, and are set free to serve God as those that are alive from the dead.

It is not to an unconverted man in the world it is said, Yield yourselves unto God - but you who are alive through grace, who reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive to God, alive from the dead; do you as such yield yourselves to God? For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made one free from the law of sin and death; God, having in Christ a sacrifice for sin, having condemned sin in the flesh: but it was in Christ's death it was condemned, while the condemnation is gone, I have died as in the flesh with Him. This sets me free. But, as risen with Him, I get man in a new place, where Adam innocent never was, the consequence of redemption of Christ going down into death, as to His state, as sitting in heavenly places in Him puts Him in a new place and scene.

That is where I get the difference between those two epistles. In one I am forgiven all the old man would be guilty of, and get rid for faith of the old man itself, and cleared of the old thing and alive in Christ, though in this world, and here it is the power of life in Christ; whereas in the other is a Man, Himself raised by God from the dead, and sitting in heavenly places, and we raised by the same power and set in Him there, in the purposes of God head over all things to the church. Perfection to us in the word does not take in this general purpose of God naturally, but is individual referring to our state; it means literally that a man is of full age, but Christ, the second Adam, the last Man, is the measure and standard of that. Hence we must look at it when He is made perfect, and that is in glory and consistency with this, is the standard of our walk according to this rule, not merely what becomes man towards God and his neighbour, which is law, but the manifestation of God in the flesh, the grace in which Christ walked in this world, the absolute giving up of self in love, and light in the midst of darkness. Take the sermon on the Mount, there you will find the same thing, Christ's mind and spirit contrasted with legal righteousness, and "be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect;" given in Luke. Be ye therefore merciful as your Father which is in heaven is merciful. He forgave you, an enemy. Do you forgive? Yes. He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Do you be so, and so on.

God has awakened the feeling which is abroad that something more real, something better is demanded than what passes for Christianity about us. Everybody is awakened all around us, and the question is, What is the real path in which we have to walk? Now, I know of no perfection presented to the Christian in Scripture but being like Christ; but it is Christ in glory. We are predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son, that He may be the first born among many brethren. It is "when he shall appear we shall be like him, and he that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure." We have borne the image of the earthly, and we shall have the image of the heavenly. But where? Is it down here? No. Desiring conformity to Christ sounds and is very nice. The renewed heart cannot but desire it, but He had no sin in Him. Have you no sin in you? You have, and therefore there is not the likeness to Christ in that condition; and the only perfection that Scripture presents is conformity to Christ in the glory when He shall appear and we shall be like Him. And this as we have seen leads to purifying ourselves as He is pure, but not to saying we are pure. It says the contrary, but gives a higher standard that acts in changing us unto the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. Whenever any one says he is pure he lowers the standard, and his judgment of what sin is too. There are two sides to the operation of grace in thus forming us after Christ, renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created us. First, the bright side, "We all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into his image from glory to glory;" and the darker side, "When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory, and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." We have, while looking at his perfection, to judge that which is inconsistent with it, but this keeps us humble and dependent, and that is the only right position. I am sitting in the heavenly places in Christ, and I have no object before my mind but Christ in the glory, and, if Christ there be my only object, I walk like Him down here. As far as being like Christ is concerned, I cannot be what He was, without sin, but I walk then down here as He walked, for I have never to let the flesh act, though the flesh be there. But Christ in glory and conformity to Him there is the only thing the Christian can own as an object before him, and that is his perfection, and where that is not the case the standard is lowered.

If you want to meet the difficulty that has been raised in the sense of bondage to evil which has been attempted to be met by a false perfection, you must have the real thing or you cannot meet the false. Just so, if you have a Christian staying in the 7th of Romans, which is not the Christian state, it is just the same, you can't help him in any other way, than death indeed with Christ where sin in the flesh was condemned, and so the law of the spirit of life in Christ through redemption. There is a deliverance, and Romans 7 is not the Christian but the renewed man captive and under the law not married to Christ risen from the dead. I feel it is all important this; "in many things we all offend;" it is a delusion to think we have not the flesh in us. On the other hand, we are not in our right state as Christians unless we are walking in the full present sense of Divine favour. The flesh is there, but, "If I bear about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus," beginning by reckoning myself dead, the power of Christ is there to keep us looking at the things which are not seen. I have to keep the flesh down. But, if I let an evil thought into my heart, I have no kind of excuse, that thought is evil; I did not abide in Christ or He would have abode in me. There has been neglect of Christ, being with Christ for His own sake, so that I have not His power with one if temptation comes, nor my heart full of Him; so that Christ does not rise up within. How came Peter to yield? Because he was asleep when Christ was praying. If we would live above sin, though it be there, we must live not looking at the things that are seen but the things that are not seen; and for this there must be lowliness, the sense of dependence, and diligence in seeking Christ. This last will bring the consciousness of the evil in us that hinders, but it will be judged evil in grace, and not evil, having power in us so as to impede communion or bring failure. I am brought into a place where Christ is, and the Holy Ghost shows me all that is there, and I feed on that. "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him," and there so many stop. Wonderful! So wonderful, we cannot conceive it, they say; and so it is wonderful, but they have not what follows, "but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit;" "but we have received the Spirit of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God;" His statement is that what eye hath not seen, nor is entered into the heart of man, God hath revealed unto us by His Spirit. He is stating that the case of the Old Testament saints was such, but that it is not our case, for we now have received the Holy Ghost, that we might know these things. And, again, at the end of the same chapter, still quoting from Isaiah, he asks, "For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." We have got God's wisdom, for Christ is the wisdom of God. Such too is the object before us. Consequently, the progress of the Christian is that he grows up to Him who is the head in all things. Having put off the old man and put on the new, we are changed into the same image as we look at Him who is perfect in glory.

We are the object of the Father's favour just as Christ is; I speak of consciousness now (John 17). When we appear in the glory it is that the world may know that the Father sent Christ, and has loved us as He loved Him; but we do not wait till then to know it. He says in John 17: 25, "I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them; this latter is where you get it now, when the world does not see it.

But I would repeat this, that wherever you get our being put into the same place with Christ, you will find the most careful maintenance of the Divine glory. If Moses and Elias are with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration in the same glory, talking familiarly of His decease, then the moment Peter says "Let us make three tabernacles," Moses and Elias are gone, and the Father says "This is my beloved Son, hear him." So in the case in Matt. the difference of the blessed Lord is shown in the most striking and beautiful way. The heaven is as open to Stephen as to Christ, he was full of the Holy Ghost. It is open to us, the veil rent; but, when heaven is opened to Christ, heaven is looking down at Him. In Stephen's case Stephen is looking up, and is changed into the same image. Was Christ changed into any image? Certainly not; He was in Himself the delight of God.

Now, when freed and walking in the Spirit, I need not think of myself any more, only of Him.

Beloved friends, I think we must all feel how all that, as a full blessing, has disappeared in the church of God. Individuals have laboured to be dead to sin in a monkish way very sincerely, but wrongly; but from the earliest time it was not merely that the individual did not reach up to the thought of God in making him like Christ, but the church having given up the full acceptance which is ours in Christ and the knowledge that we are justified by faith, at peace with God, had given Him up as an object, seen and sought in glory, so as to be changed into His image, and every effort at holiness was not only legal but asceticism, and an effort in the flesh to get rid of flesh. But we may go further - you find many a soul owning the forgiveness of sins who remains there; if it escape from the fear of the judgment to come, and that often not without misgivings, it still remains connected with this world. But now see in Colossians, what are ordinances for? They are for a living man; he is still alive in this world, he has not died with Christ, does not reckon himself dead, and so it is not merely that the false righteousness of ordinances is sought but the whole course is in connection with the world in various shapes. It is not things above which are sought. But the apostle is making out that he is dead and risen again, and his eye, as so risen, is on all that forms the man and his character, is on Christ at the right hand of God. What was the meaning of Israel's history? It was God dealing with man in the flesh to see if He could get any good out of it. But there was none but evil.

I was interested in the lectures of a church professor at Berlin, who taught there were two principles in Judaism, the moral and the ceremonial, the one the law of Moses, as in Leviticus and elsewhere; the other, the Prophets; that Jesus took up the moral part and taught it, and that associated people with heaven. But that men were incapable of holding, on that ground alone, and that Christianity had gone back to the ceremonial part, while, professing to keep heaven as its object, man must be earthly, and that nothing would be right till Judaism, which connected God and earth, was re-established.

Now, have not people got under the law and under a religion formed for this world? The camp is not simply the world, but religious ordinances. And that is the camp adapted to this world. Christianity has returned to it. Christ suffered outside the gate, and Christians were to go outside the camp. They have returned into this religion arrayed for the world, established on ordinances; and, wherever you get ordinances, you get masters of ordinances, Scribes and Pharisees. Judaism has proved it, the Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all therefore that they command you observe and do, but don't you do after their works. The moment I get a camp, a religion suited to this world, I get into Judaism; and so when you get into traditions you get them connected with this world, and the washings of pots and cups were carnal ordinances which, burdensome as they are, flesh can accomplish. I don't go into all the details, but that is the principle. But the Lord judges it all, rejects it all: not what goes into the mouth defiles the man; then what does? That which comes out from the heart, evil thoughts, lusts, murder, fornication, and the like. He sets out what the heart produces, and puts man as he really is in God's sight. Had He no good to say of it, no modification of such a sentence by some good that also was found there? None. Surely, there was love in Christ's heart, He did not want to make much of the badness of man to show out Himself, He did not want that. And then when the Syrophenician woman comes to Him after blasting all the religion of man and showing what man's heart was the source of, what does Christ do? He brings her to own, that there was goodness enough in God to show mercy to those who had no goodness and no title and no claim, who were without a promise, without a righteousness, and in the place of the curse. And then I can say that will do for me. Well, then, in Christ I get God's love and mercy declared; but what did I do with Him? Crucified Him. Then what can I do? You are hopeless in yourself. But God has set Christ at His own right hand. What becomes of them who crucified Him? Where is what is commonly and vulgarly called the church? and where are the Scribes and the Pharisees called clergy now? What of them? They hope they will get to heaven. It is the camp; and the heavenly glory as a present hope, and the cross as the path to it, are refused. The friendship of this world is enmity against God, and the worldly Christian does not believe in that union with Christ that sets me up in heaven.

But, if I get the thought of this heavenly Christ, I see that the religion of man in the world and all that he adds to it to eke it out, ordinances added to human righteousness, all that was ended in the cross; and that is what Paul, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, calls the camp. It you take heaven for your place, you must get the cross down here. When the Lord told the disciples that He must suffer many things and be killed, Peter says "Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee," but the Lord says "Get thee behind me, Satan." Don't you fancy that you will have the heavenly without being persecuted. I know it does not say that every Christian will be persecuted, but it does say, all that live godly in Christ shall be persecuted. But will it not be said, The tares and the wheat are to grow together till harvest? It does say so, but the field is the world, not the church.

I have nothing to do with the tares to pull them up, but I have to do with the wheat. If you look at what the camp is, well, it was God's religion to begin with, if you please, for God set it up in Israel. But it tested man, and he was found wanting. The cross closed that system, and the Father in that character of grace sought spiritual worshippers and set up Christianity on that ground; and what has man made of it? If I attempt to unite the world and Christianity I am denying the truth in Christ, and specially the truth of the cross of Christ.

I see beloved saints, whom I am bound to cherish as much as the dearest person to my soul, mixed up with the church world, the camp, but I am outside all that entirely. It is well that there should be no mistake or uncertainty as to this; grace to the weakest believer, to every member of Christ, holding fast faithfulness towards them, but our feet in the narrow path. Only it is of no use to take a special place without a true motive; but, if there is a thing that is of moment to us now, it is the distinctness of practical testimony; you that profess to be heavenly, partakers of the heavenly calling, to know what the church is, have to give a distinct and definite testimony; we are not of the world, as Christ was not of the world; our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; there are those who walk otherwise, but I am not to mind earthly things (though we may slip into that), for if I did my end would be destruction. There must be no ambiguity in my path through this world.

If we want to be a testimony for the blessed Lord that loved us, it must be by holiness first of all individually, but also by unworldliness in every respect.

The Heavenly One and the Heavenly Ones.

J. N. Darby.

(Words in Season, Vol. 4, 1890, page 103.)

I do not see any difficulty in 1 Cor. 15: 47-49. Ek is the source, hence characterises a thing in its nature. Ek pneumatos, e.g., so ex ouranon. One man is earthy dust, the other from heaven. It is not apo, merely, that He came thence. Then verse 48: as we are all what fallen Adam was, so our place, as in Christ, is to be just like Christ; and as we have carried this in manifestation as Adam's children, so we shall be manifested just such as Christ Himself, as Man. It is the source, and so character, nature, and constituted condition, and then manifested form. Of course, we have to realise it now we are in Christ, sitting in heavenly places in Him. As He is, so are we also, in this world. This characterises a class of Christians the "perfect," as contrasted with forgiven children of Adam. But the state of the affections is not the subject here (1 Cor. 15), but to be in glory like Christ acts on them now and here.

Faith, Hope, and Charity for an Evil Day.

Jude 20-25.

J. N. Darby.

Words in Season 1897 page 61.

There is no epistle perhaps more solemn than this of Jude in its denunciation of the tide of corruption which the Holy Ghost saw was about to overwhelm Christendom. There is none that puts more strikingly, though in few words, its salient, religious features, the dishonour done to God by it, and its sure doom at the coming of our Lord. But it is remarkable that even where the Holy Ghost launches out into so painful though necessary a theme, He could not do so without, first of all, opening the epistle with a very sweet and simple declaration of our blessing in Christ, and closing it with a peculiarly triumphant one. Thus, you see, nothing can be more false than the notion that, because evil abounds, therefore love, or holiness, or faith, or desire for the glory of God, are to grow one whit colder or feebler. It may be so. It is the natural tendency, but it has not the warrant of the Spirit of God. And, on the contrary, I am sure that this very Scripture shows that the Holy Ghost would have the children of God animated to even greater earnestness, because of the sense of the evil that surrounded them.

And striking it is, too, that if there is one passage which more than any other insists upon what is due to God by His saints at such a time, it is the epistle of Jude. Where else is the faith called "our most holy faith"? Peter, in one of his epistles which describes mockers, &c., speaks: "Them that have obtained like precious faith with us." It was not a thing that could be despised; only unbelief and enmity to God could so treat it; but where there was danger of giving way to evil, and thinking that things were in such a state that they could not be helped or hindered; so far from that, after the Holy Ghost has portrayed all the features of the evil things done in the Name of Christ - "Ye, beloved," He says, instead of giving way to these evils and dangers - "Ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." That is, He encourages the saints in the conviction that there is not a single thing that is bound up with the moral glory of God and the blessing of His people which we have not still, just as surely as ever. And the truth is, that times of great outward blessing are not the most searching and sifting for the state of the saints. It is easy to be a prophet among prophets - easy to be happy among people that overflow with blessing -  easy to speak about Christ among those who love Him; but it is when the difficulties come in, when the trial, the loss, the temptations and seductions of Satan increase - then is the time for testing whether the heart prefers Christ to everything else.

A sweet thing that we get here is, how persons can be happy in a state of evil around them. There is no reason why we should not be thoroughly happy in the Lord, spite of abounding evil. I do not mean that there is not sorrow too - and assuredly that sorrow will be more felt the more happy a soul is; but there are no circumstances that can exist in the state of Christendom when the saints may not build themselves up on their most holy faith. Ye, beloved, is language which supposes that there is community of feeling and affection and desire - no doubt of sorrow and confession also; but they are not disheartened; they do not say, like some of old, "There is no hope; we are delivered to do all these abominations;" but there is a looking straight up out of the church to God and to His Son; and the consequence is, all is bright there. On the contrary, when great grace was upon all, there was a danger of their looking down upon all, and being occupied with the fruits of grace in themselves. It is always so in a time of great outward blessing; and therefore it is not then we see the most real fruits of faith and separation to God. The depth of power, if I may so say, is lost in the breadth and extent of it; but the Holy Ghost's mercy comes out in a season of difficulty.

This is exceedingly cheering. For when things do not go on as we desire, you will find where faith is feeble that there is apt to be a complaining and murmuring spirit, &c. Such things ought not to be. When evil is increasing, these sounds of discontent will never help a soul out of its low estate; for instead of dwelling upon it, and murmuring about it, and perhaps even reflecting upon God and upon His children, there would be the spreading of it out before God, and the seeking out of those that are gone astray. Were this the case, I am sure that the blessing and power of God would be there in a way we have little conception of. There we all fail. But, then, what is the failing of all to a certain extent may be the fault of some in a very high degree; and therefore it is important that we should watch against this snare - that we should compare our spirit with that which the Holy Ghost urges upon the saints. He turns, after all has come out - and let us remember that He feels evil according to the full character of divine holiness - yet He calmly turns and says, "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith." I want you to know these things, but not to be cast down and despairing because of the sense of all the evil, but to look up. Is your faith less holy? Are you to relax, and say, We must lower our standard? On the contrary, I believe that instead of declension being the time for being less careful, it is rather one for greater diligence and more careful watching, lest there should be anything profane, anything unholy, or any root of bitterness springing up.

"But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, and praying in the Holy Ghost." He was not gone; He was still their power of looking up to God in intercession and prayer. "Keep yourselves in the love of God." There was God, not only in His special affection towards His people, but in the activity of love that goes out to others, and this for the purpose of strengthening the saints of God in His love towards others; not only in their loving God, but in God's loving them, and others too. For here it seems to be, in the largest sense, the love of God. Of course, it means God's loving us; but it includes also the blessed fact that no matter what the state of evil may be, as long as the Lord leaves His Church here, there is room for this energy of love to others.

"Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." That is, He looks at the accomplishment of the whole thing in glory, when, through the mercy of God, eternal life will have its crown. It is not merely the hope, but it is mercy. Even in connection with His coming again in glory, it is all mercy; and I am entitled to look upon it as mercy, even in such a state of things.

If this, then, be so, I can understand that He should now instruct us how to deal with cases of evil around us. "Of some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire." Some might say, there is partiality, that is never right; yet God calls upon us to make a difference: but we must take care that we do not make differences in order to please ourselves, but because we believe that God would have us do it. Nothing more calls for an exercised conscience than this. Saints very often have a common routine, a rule for dealing with everybody: but this is not God's way. There are numbers of circumstances, principles, states of souls, that have to be weighed and acted upon in the various cases that come before the saints of God. There may be hardly two persons that would have to be dealt with alike; and there is the blessedness and importance of having the word of God for our guide, and not a mere rule which must be always acted upon exactly alike. We have not got a human canon, but a divine word; and one that establishes the very thing that the flesh does not like. Of course, it would be easier to have one routine; it saves trouble: but it is not of the Spirit of God, who exercises the people of God in every case, whether of recognising Christians or owning the work of God. There may be some cases where the work of God is most evident - others where it is not so. Nothing could be more foolish than to put it on the same ground.

Again, if it is a question of evil, we ought to make a difference. There may be two cases that seem very much the same; but examine them closely, and you will find all the difference in the world between them. That is the true way of looking at all these matters; not as a mere question of habit, or of our way of doing things; but how do the word of God and the principles of God's own mind bear upon these different things?

All this requires spirituality and waiting upon God. This is the truth of the matter. Nothing is more easy than to get into a certain settled plan - very rigid in one way, or lax in the other; whereas the Lord would never have us to be either, but to have an exercised soul, and a conscience informed by the word of God, looking at each case according to its own peculiar features and circumstances. "Of some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire." It is remarkable that in both cases it is the activity of divine love seeking the deliverance of that which had got into evil. The Holy Ghost is not telling us here how to deal with a case where there is no hope, but where there is less or more evil. He supposes that these saints were building themselves up on their most holy faith, and that this was not all they were doing. They are thinking of those who are in an evil state, who have gone back; and this is their object - to have them with God, and so thoroughly right. This is not always the case with our souls. Supposing you take a person who, perhaps, has dishonoured the Lord; do we not feel so much the disgrace done to us as to be rather glad to get rid of him? If it be one who has been disagreeable in his manners, and not pleasant in his conversation, perhaps great patience and forbearance have been shewn towards him by the saints, and then something occurs which gives them a ground for dealing with him. The danger is, that the poor soul may be left to himself, and left, perhaps, as far as we are concerned, for ever. That is not what we have here: "Of some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire." Here there is much greater anxiety of soul expressed; but still it is always the thought of saving - of tenderness in one case, and earnest effort in the other. The person himself might not thank you for acting towards him with so much vigour, but still it is the way of love, though with it the strongest feeling as to the evil itself - "hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." Love is intolerant of evil, and the clean contrary of indifference.

But the wind up of all is blessed. Although there are these apparent triumphs of Satan, professing Christians going on from bad to worse, and then overwhelming divine vengeance to the end, to others occupied with divine love there comes the crowning word of joy, "Unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour be glory and majesty, dominion, and power, both now and ever." Could there be a more comforting word when not an outward blot defaced the church? And this is evidently given for special profit when we are, as it were, upon the point of meeting the Saviour from heaven; for Jude goes up to that point, and even foreshows the judgment which shall follow. J. N. D.

How the Lost Sheep was Found

An incident in the life of the late J. N. Darby.

Many years ago he was asked to see a poor boy who was dying in a lonely district in Ireland.

He says: After upwards of an hour's toilsome walking (for the roads which in some places led over steep hills were in others scarcely passable on account of the heavy marshes), on entering the little cottage I looked round me and at first found no sign of any inhabitant, except an old woman who sat crouching over the embers of a peat fire. She rose as I entered, and with the natural courtesy of the Irish poor offered me the low chair or rather stool on which she had been seated.

I thanked her, and passing on to the object of my visit discovered in one corner of the hut a heap of straw on which lay the poor sufferer. Some scanty covering, probably his own wearing apparel, had been thrown over him, but as to bed or bed clothes there was none discernible in this humble dwelling.

I approached, and saw a young lad about seventeen or eighteen years of age evidently in a state of extreme suffering and exhaustion, and it was to be feared in the last stage of consumption. His eyes were closed, but he opened them on my approach and stared at me with a kind of wild wonder, like a frightened animal.

I told him as quietly as possible who I was, and for what purpose I had come, and put a few of the simplest questions to him respecting his hope of salvation. He answered nothing, he appeared totally unconscious of my meaning.

On pressing him further, and speaking to him kindly and affectionately, he looked up, and I ascertained from the few words he uttered that he had heard something of a God and future judgment, but he had never been taught to read. The Holy Scriptures were a sealed book to him, and he was consequently altogether ignorant of the way of salvation as revealed to us in the gospel. His mind on this subject was truly an utter blank.

I was struck with dismay and almost with despair. Here was a fellow creature whose immortal soul, apparently on the verge of eternity, must be saved or lost for ever; and he lay before me now, the hand of death close upon him; not a moment was to be lost and what was I to do? What way was I to take to begin to teach him, as it were at the eleventh hour, the first rudiments of christianity?

I had scarcely ever before felt such a sinking within me. I could do nothing, that I knew full well, but on the other hand God could do all; I therefore raised up my heart and besought my heavenly Father for Christ's sake to direct me in this most difficult and trying position, and to open to me by His Spirit of wisdom a way to set forth the glad tidings of salvation so as to be understood by this poor benighted wanderer.

I was silent for a few moments whilst engaged in inward prayer and gazing with deep anxiety on the melancholy object before me. It struck me that I ought to try to discover how far his intelligence in other things extended, and whether there might not be reasonable hope of his understanding me when I should commence to open to him (as I was bound to do) the gospel message of salvation. I looked down upon him with an eye of pity, which I most sincerely felt, and I thought he observed that compassionate look, for he softened towards me as I said: 'My poor boy, you are very ill, I fear you suffer a great deal!'

'Yes, I have a bad cold; the cough takes away my breath and hurts me greatly'.

'Have you had this cough long?' I asked.

'Oh, yes, a long time; near a year now'.

'And how did you catch it? A Kerry boy, I should have thought, would have been reared hardily and accustomed to this sharp air!'

'Ah', he answered, 'and so I was until that terrible night - it was about this time last year when one of the sheep went astray. My father keeps a few sheep upon the mountains and this is the way we live. When he reckoned them that night there was one wanting, and he sent me to look for it'.

'No doubt', I replied, 'you felt the change from the warmth of the peat fire in this close little hut, to the cold mountain blast'.

'Oh! that I did; there was snow upon the ground, and the wind pierced me through; but I did not mind it much, as I was so anxious to find father's sheep'.

'And did you find it?' I asked, with increased interest.

'Oh, yes, I had a long, weary way to go, but I never stopped until I found it'.

'And how did you get it home? You had trouble enough with that too, I daresay. Was it willing to follow back?'

'Well, I did not like to trust it, and besides, it was dead beat and tired, so I laid it on my shoulders and carried it home that way'.

'And were they not all at home rejoiced to see you when you returned with the sheep?'

'Sure enough, and that they were', he replied. 'Father and mother, and the people round that heard of our loss, all came in the next morning to ask about the sheep, for the neighbours in these matters are mighty kind to each other. Sorry they were, too, to hear that I was kept out the whole dark night; it was morning before I got home, and the end of it was I caught this cold. Mother says I will never be better now, God knows best; anyways, I did my best to save the sheep'.

Wonderful! I thought, here is the whole gospel history. The sheep is lost, the father sends his son to seek for and recover it. The son goes willingly, suffers all without complaining, and in the end sacrifices his life to find the sheep, and when recovered he carries it home on his shoulders to the flock, and rejoices with his friends and neighbours over the sheep which was lost, but is found again. My prayer was answered, my way was made plain, and by the grace of God I availed myself of this happy opening.

I explained to this poor dying boy the plan of salvation, making use of his own simple and affecting story. I read to him the few verses in Luke 15, where the care of the shepherd for the strayed sheep is so beautifully expressed, and he at onee perceived the likeness, and followed me with deep interest while I explained to him the full meaning of the parable.

The Lord mercifully opened not only his understanding, but his heart also, to receive the things spoken. He himself was the lost sheep, Jesus Christ the good Shepherd, who was sent by the Father to seek for him, and who left all the joys of that Father's heavenly glory to come down to earth and search for him and other lost ones like himself; and as the poor boy had borne without murmuring the freezing snowstorm and the piercing wind, so has the blessed Saviour endured the fierce contradictions of sinners against Himself, and the bitter scorn and insults heaped upon Him, without opening His mouth to utter one word of complaint, and at last laid down His precious life, that we might be rescued from destruction and brought safe to our everlasting home. Neither will He trust His beloved ones, when rescued, to tread the perilous path alone, but bears them on His shoulders rejoicing to the heavenly fold.

My poor sick lad seemed to drink it all in. He received it all; he understood it all. I never saw a clearer proof of the power of the divine Spirit to apply the word of God.

He survived our first meeting but a few days. I had no time to read or expound to him any other portion of the Scripture. At times we could hear nothing but stifling, rending cough; at times he slumbered heavily for a little, but whenever he was able to think and listen, these verses in Luke 15 satisfied and cheered him. He accepted Christ as his Saviour, he earnestly prayed to be carried home like the lost sheep in the heavenly Shepherd's arms. He died humbly, peacefully, almost exulting, with the name of Jesus, my Saviour and my Shepherd, the last upon his lips.

Like Christ in Glory.

J. N. Darby.

(Words in Season Vol. 7, 1893, page 242.)

I am going to be like Christ in glory; then I must be as like Him now as ever I can be; of course we shall all fail, but we are to have our hearts full of it. Remember this, that the place you are in is that of the epistle of Christ. We are set for this, that the life of Christ should be manifested in us. Christ has settled the question with God: He appears in the presence of God for us, and we are in the presence of the world for Him. "In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." If I know He is in me, I am to manifest the life of Christ in everything. If He has loved me with unutterable love which passes knowledge, I feel bound in heart to Him; my business is to glorify Him in everything I do. "Bought with a price" - that is settled: if bought, I am His. But, beloved friends, I press upon you that earnestness of heart which cleaves to Him, especially in these last evil days, when we wait for the Son from heaven. Oh! if Christians were more thoroughly Christians, the world would understand what it was all about. There is a great deal of profession and talk; (and the activity of the Spirit of God, thank God there is); but DO YOU THINK THAT IF A HEATHEN CAME HERE TO LEARN WHAT CHRISTIANITY MEANT, HE WOULD FIND IT OUT?

The Lord give you to have such a sense of the love of Christ, that, as bought with a price, the only object of your souls may be to live by Christ and to live for Christ; and for those who do not know Him, that they may learn how He came down in love to seek us, and, because righteousness could not pass over sin, died to put it away.

J. N. D.

Luke 12: 32.

Notes of an Address, Dublin, July, 1868.

J. N. Darby.

(Words in Season, Vol. 4, 1890, page 24.)

This chapter opens by saying, that the time is coming when everything will be made manifest.

Do you, therefore, be clear out for God.

The Lord calls the man who lays up treasure in this world a fool, - what a number of fools there are in this world!

How far do our hearts like everything being brought to the light? If we shrink from this, it is a proof that we are not clear in our conscience - our conscience has not brought whatever it is into the light yet.

I am bound to believe that "by one offering" Christ hath "perfected for ever them that are sanctified."

Faith is giving credit to divine testimony.

We must know that Christ, who is to be the Judge, is first the Saviour.

I am going to give you a kingdom (He says.)

NOW, give up everything for Christ.

He gives what is the true proper hope of the saints: the coming of Christ to receive them to Himself. The hope is not death, but to be clothed upon.

We are to have the loins girded, and to be watching - this is not taking our rest.

The condition of my soul should be that every affection of my heart should be controlled by the Word of God, and I myself watching.

He is coming to receive us to Himself-not like sending to the train to meet a friend, He is coming Himself to fetch us TO HIMSELF.

This Hope is not prophecy - prophecy is concerning events which will happen upon earth. Christ is coming to take us to heaven.

The time is coming when He will make us sit down, enjoying ourselves - and not only that, but He will minister to us.

He took upon Him the form of a servant.

Is He going to give up being a man? - never. Christ is always pre-eminent in service as well as in everything else.

We shall be "at home" in the Father's house.

Faith finds its place where Christ is, and has its treasure there.

If Christ had been crucified in this city yesterday, could we go out and be "hail fellow well met" with those who crucified Him; and if it was last year, or a hundred, or eighteen hundred, years ago, what difference?

"Go ye out to meet Him." Have you gone out to meet Him? Is your soul waiting for Him?

Christ brings out the extreme of wickedness in man's heart. Take the most amiable man, and tell him his amiability is no good, and he will be furious. All the coming out of evil never baffles the power of God.

I joy with Christ till He comes.

I joy with Christ when He comes.

Are you content to have no more to say?

Are you allowing the world or anything else to come into your heart, so as to hide the joy of meeting the Lord? J. N. D.

______________________

Redemption

at the beginning, and Canaan at the end; the wilderness comes in between the two. Through the wilderness we have God with us, and for us, not imputing anything to us, but exercising our hearts to do us good at our latter end.

The Mission of the Comforter.

John 14-16

J. N. Darby.

Notes of a reading, 1873.

(Words in Season Vol. 8, 1894, page 234.)

There are two ways in which the Holy Ghost is spoken of in John 14 and in the two last verses of John 15. In John 14 it is the Father who sends the Holy Ghost in Christ's name; in John 15 it is Christ who sends Him. In John 14 He is putting us in relationship with the Father; in John 15 and in the beginning of John 16, you have the revelation of the glory of the Son of Man; towards the world in John 16; and towards the saints in John 15; looking up in 14, and looking down in 15 and 16.

In the beginning of John 14 He is comforting them about His going away, and the first thing He mentions is, that He is coming back again to receive them to Himself; and He shews them that in virtue of what He was down here on this earth before the Holy Ghost came, they knew where He was going, and they knew the way.

In this second part the Holy Ghost would become the Comforter, and they would know what they could not know while Christ was upon the earth - "At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." When the Comforter was come was the point. Christ could not abide with them. He had to do the work of atonement and go away; but this other Comforter would abide with them - "Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive."

That is never said of Christ, for He was presented in the world to be received, and they would not have Him; but there He was. (One sees the fruit of it in the disciples.) "Seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him," and the reason is that He abides with you, and is in you. That is in contrast with Christ, for He could not abide, and though He was with them He was not in them. He will be in you, which I cannot be while I am down here.

Ver. 18. - "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." That's in spirit. It's put together in Rom. 8. By the Holy Ghost we see Him by faith - "Because I live, ye shall live also." Christ being our life, because He lives we live, and before we can die spiritually He must die.

"If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His," he is not in his place as a Christian, Egypt was Israel's place, but God had come down and taken them up, the blood being on the doorpost; but they were not with God till He brought them out of Egypt.

The leper was washed before He was anointed. You must fit the knowledge you are bringing in to what is there already. Salvation is a positive actual deliverance out of the state I was in before.

The Holy Ghost gives me the consciousness of my relationship with the Father, and is the earnest of the inheritance which I have not got at all; I am going to get the inheritance.

The Christian is a person who has got the Holy Ghost between Christ's first coming and His second. The work is perfect, for it has saved me, and put me in acceptance with God; but I have not an atom of the glory yet. I look back and see all the value of the cross, and for the present I am in Christ, and what have I got? God can't be in me, and not give me a number of other wonderful things besides. Of course it must produce a wonderful effect.

Till Christ as Man went into heaven the Holy Ghost never came down on earth. Till He went and presented His blood, and took man's place, the Holy Ghost could not come down as a witness of it.

The Church is founded upon the denial of Judaism.

I don't know I am "in Christ" till I am sealed with the Holy Ghost: I may know I am forgiven. When I talk of my guilt, I talk of what I have done; but when I talk of being lost, I talk of what Adam has done. I know I am in Christ by the Holy Ghost which He has given me. Are we all that God would have us according to His thoughts of Christ?

Where am I to find righteousness now? I will tell you: there is a Man sitting at the right hand of God; He deserved it, and God has set Him up there. The world will never see Christ again except in judgment. It is God's righteousness instead of myself. I get the Lord Jesus Christ giving me the transcript of what the law is - "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," &c. Christ has come, and He has glorified God, and has shown what God is at all cost; it cost Him His life, and drinking that dreadful cup, He has shown what God is, and perfectly glorified Him, and that in the place of sin. When He was made sin, that was the very time when obedience was perfect, and love was perfect, and all that God was in His righteousness and hatred against sin and love for the sinner. - "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him."

He sets Christ as Man at the right hand of God. Now you go and imitate God. What is your example? Christ. You must give yourself up entirely, because Christ did. If they were always grieving the Spirit the Spirit must occupy them with their own state, and very well He does too!

If I say I am in Christ, I say Christ is in me, and my business is to show out Christ, and nothing else.

It is having Christ always before us, and really walking in the presence of God. The great secret is to be more with God than anybody, and if not, we shall go astray. The moment I get away from the conscious presence of God, self has a certain place; whereas, if I am really in the presence of God, I am nothing. I am more what I am before Him, than what I am in His power for others. You are not competent to discern the will of God if you are not with Him: "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." If power rests upon me, that does not put me in the presence of God as to my conscience or heart. It may be for others, but we have to be before God Himself, or else we shall never keep straight; and for that we must be in the path of God for Him to lead us. I cannot realise God's presence out of the path of His will. The instant we lose the sense of dependence we are in danger. Obedience and dependence, those are the two living principles of the new man. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

I also get another principle to help us through, and that is, confidence in God. I cannot depend if I have not confidence. We do need confidence, or we have not courage to go through sacrifices, if I have not confidence in God's faithfulness. It is everything; whatever I do, I ought to do it as serving Christ - "Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." I believe the presence of the Holy Ghost is important in the whole path.

In this part of John you don't get sovereign grace dealing with the sinner. What you get is the Father dealing with the children. "If a man love Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him," &c. If a man love Christ, he will keep His commandments, and then there is all this manifestation of Christ to him - "We will come unto him, and make our abode with him." All this is connected with Christian responsibility. I could not abide in Christ if I was not there (i.e., "in Christ"). The Lord keep us in His presence, and give us the consciousness of it, and enjoyment through the Holy Ghost!

The Name of the Lord.

J. N. Darby & J. G. Bellett.

(Words in Season, Vol. 3, 1889, page 302.)

The name of Jehovah signifies that which He is in Himself, the revelation of His character, and also that of His relationship with His people. His name (or glory) and His people's blessing go together, but putting His glory as our first object is the only true way to secure our blessing. Psalm 108 is composed of the end of Ps. 57 and the end of Ps. 60, and where they join is the exaltation of Jehovah (Ps. 57: 11) and the deliverance of the beloved people (Ps. 60: 5; Ps. 108: 1 and 7). Thus, "glory and strength" are in that name (Ps. 29: 1); "mercy and truth" (Ps. 115: 1); "goodness" (Ps. 25: 7); "loving-kindness" (Ps. 138: 2); "righteousness" (Ps. 143: 1); when faith counts on the revealed name there is "trust" (Ps. 9: 10); we get "victory" through that name (Ps. 44: 5); faith "waits" on that name (Ps. 52: 9); it is our "portion" (Ps. 61: 5); we may well "rejoice" in that name (Ps. 89: 16).

In Exodus 3: 14, 15, His name is the memorial for His people for ever. He remembers His covenant with the fathers (2: 24), and His name is pledged on behalf of His people. And in the utter failure of the people soon after (Ex. 32:), where they practically give up God, Moses pleads the name, the revealed character of the Lord (vers. 9-14). See also Exodus 33: 18, Exodus 34: 5-8, and mark, "Thy glory" (Ex. 33: 18), "goodness" (ver. 19), "name"; and see also Deut. 9: 18-29, Num. 14: 11-20. And again, in 1 Sam. 12: 22, when the people had rejected the Lord that He should not reign over them (1 Sam. 8). "His great name's sake" is the reason given by Samuel why He will not forsake His people. And Ps. 74 may be taken as an expression of the very lowest extremity to which their own sin in the rejection of their Messiah and of the Holy Ghost, through Stephen, had brought them - when "the enemies roar in the congregation" (ver. 4); when man's ensigns, not God's (Ps 60: 4), are the signs of power, and what is worse, "no signs from God" (ver. 9), no prophets, none that can tell "how long" before God comes in in power on behalf of His people; yet there is faith that God will not utterly forsake His people, and the word "how long?" turns into a cry (ver. 10). It cannot be "for ever." His faithfulness is trusted in redemption (vers. 2 and 13-15); His covenant faithfulness (vers. 16, 17), (see Jer. 33: 20); "His name," their cause, His cause (ver. 21). Confidence in the faithfulness of God, when as to outward circumstances the power of the enemy seemed to make all hopeless, even on the ground of trusting Him; but they were His own people, He had redeemed them, and now bound Himself up in grace with them.

So in the next Psalm, where Messiah takes up the congregation and judgment into His own hand, the first verse giving the thanksgiving of the people saved and avenged in answer to their cry in Ps. 74, we have the name again. God's work in their deliverance has shewn Him to be near His people, as here they celebrate. So for us, "all the power of the name of Father, all the grace and faithfulness of it for those who are risen with Christ, and loved as He is loved, is ever near to us, and the wondrous work of Christ, resurrection declares it." For in the deliverance of His people He acts righteously, and in His actings manifests all the principles of His throne, so as to give the place and ground of confidence to all that seek the right (Ps. 9: 7-10). The throne prepared for judgment, and righteous judgment, but the Lord, also a refuge, so when His doings are declared among the heathen (ver. 11), it shall be to the Lord a name of joy, a praise, and an honour (Jer. 33: 9), and indeed (vers. 6-11), a learning from the dealings of the Lord on behalf of the confiding remnant, the faithfulness, the goodness, and full name of the Lord. The mercy-seat was God's throne in Israel, and the blood sprinkled on it met all the demands of His holiness. So again in Ps. 105, which is the supremacy of pure grace, facts taken up between the Red Sea and Sinai, all from Sinai onward omitted. "O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name; glory in His holy name; He remembered His covenant" (vers. 8 and 42)

Ps. 106 begins with mercy, because in it we have facts taken up omitted in the former Psalm, after Sinai onward, God's government acting in the midst of evil, consequently in grace (Ex. 34: 6). But there, too, is His name mentioned, and that very sweetly. "He remembered" (Ps. 105: 8 and 42), but "they remembered not the multitude of His mercies" (Ps. 106: 7); nevertheless, He saved them for His name's sake" (vers. 8 and 47).

Ps. 135, which closes the songs of degrees, the burst of praise after them. They (the songs of degrees) are the progress of Israel from sorrow (120), through sorrow, to full blessing and praise in Zion, and then His name is celebrated in a full note of praise (vers. 1, 3, 13). Their Creator, Redeemer, and Protector, the name of the only true God, the God of Israel, endures for ever, while the memorials of all besides, and the idols, perish for ever.

Observe Ps. 136 is "mercy," and in 135, "glory." The creation of the heavens, the divine dealings with the Amorites, all these have declared God's name, or glory. And now the very same things are celebrated as publishing His mercy, the same ways and works of the Lord publishing both His name and His mercy, His glory and His grace, with equal clearness and sureness - they honour Him and bless His people. It is at His name, or glory, as seen from His works, they first look, and then at their own blessing from these works. His name endures for ever (Ps. 135: 13), and His mercy also (136). "Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the name of the Lord; sing praises unto His name, for it is pleasant." "I will bless Thy name for ever and ever."

A note on the Parables of the Treasure and the Net.

J. N. Darby.

(Extracted from Helps by the Way, Vol. 2, 1874, page 105. Ed. R T Grant.)

Will you allow me to call in question some details of your explanation of the parables of Matt. 13. No matter of faith is in question, or indeed of doctrine in any way, for I suppose on this we are quite agreed, but merely the interpretation of certain passages; but we lose by any mistake in this, and Scripture is too precious to allow of it, when in a form that acts on souls, for we are sanctified by the truth.

I suppose that the kingdom of heaven, in the six parables in which it is here spoken of, means the same thing. It is the subject of comparison. It may be, and is, viewed in various aspects, but the thing compared is the same. Your interpretation of the last makes of it an entirely new dispensation, when Christ has taken to Him His great power and is reigning and judging; or at least you mix these two together as one. I am not aware that, though "the heavens rule," the term "kingdom of heaven" is applied to the earthly dominion of the Son of Man. The Son of Man gathers out of His kingdom all things that offend and them that do iniquity, and the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

It has been long ago noticed that the first three of these parables present the outward apparent effects of the gospel in the world, the three last the thoughts of God in it; one, the result in man's responsibility; the other, the intention of God. We get the manifested effect on earth in the three first. The crop spoiled in the world, and to be left so till the harvest; the spread of a common doctrine in place of individual conversion; and that doctrine corrupt, a great power in the earth. Hence, in the parable, the tares are only gathered together in bundles on the earth, and the wheat gathered into the garner. The scene has ceased on earth, save that the tares are gathered in bundles for judgment. The wheat has disappeared there. Then God's actual judgment in power explains what now is known only spiritually.

Hence the explanation of symbolical prophecy and parables always goes further than the parable or prophecy, because these give the facts in their enigmatic form, which the spiritual mind alone can explain. In actual judgment all is manifest. In the explanation, the tares are cast into the fire, which they were not in the parable, and the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The parable chases with the closing of the public state of things in the world, - the closing of the present state of things. The explanation, (not the parable), gives the judgment of God on the wicked, and the shining forth in glory of the saints. The Son of Man in judgment gathers out of His kingdom all things that offend.

In the last three parables we have the mind of the Lord in what took place; and first, it seems to me, in contrast with Judaism. Judaism, and Israel itself, was no hidden treasure, no mystery of the kingdom. The Lord gave up nothing to have it. They were His known people and inheritance in the world. He came to His own, though His own received Him not. When He comes again, He will take them to have the world, not the world to have them. In no case has the Lord, it seems to me, taken the world to have the Jews.

To come more directly to what drew my attention to these statements, or (to speak more exactly) to which my attention was drawn, the net cast into the sea. I cannot receive the thought, that it refers to the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom, after the church is gone. As to the facts of that day, and that the preaching will take place, we are agreed. It is to the parable and its explanation that I refer. In the tares you have the position of the kingdom in the world. It is not the work of Christ and the Spirit for His own objects. Simply the facts and the result till the close of all here.

They are found as such in the world, and dealt with. In the parable of the net, the net is cast into the masses of population, the sea, and gathers out, the object being good fishes, though the net enclosed all; but they are taken out of the sea, and brought to be handled by the fishermen who drew the net. In the parable of the tares there is no gathering a company into one net-full, with which the fishermen are occupied. The whole in the case of the net is their work. In the tares it is the Lord's, and Satan's, who spoils it in its effects on earth, though he cannot injure the wheat or hinder its being put into the garner. It is the effect in the world till harvest, with the fact that the wheat is hid in the garner.

Further, in the gospel of the kingdom, when the church is gone, there is no gathering a net-full of good and bad. All is individual, and in the judgment all the world is brought together without exception; not a net-full gathered and the separation made between those only who are in it, the mass of fishes being left in the sea. The kingdom of heaven, the subject of all these parables, never embraces all the world, but is a partial thing, save buying the field to have the treasure hidden in it, which makes the special object more distinct, but the operation of the Lord is partial. The field is the world, but the operation is sowing, and tares, and a treasure which is there; but in the parable of the sheep and goats it is expressly all the Gentiles who are gathered, and no partial collective operation at all. Nor am I, indeed, aware that the throne of judgment set up on earth is ever called the kingdom. The parable of Matt. 25: 31, seems to me to make a clear distinction.

Beside this, the comparison of the use made of the sea does not seem to me to seize the true use of these figures. In Isaiah, the wicked are like the troubled sea, casting up mire and dirt. This is a special action of the surf, and the wicked are viewed in this character, and compared to it. That is another idea from the vast sea of nations, out of which a net-full of fishes is taken, good as well as bad. The sea and the fishes of the sea are distinct things, and it is a different thing to bring up all the nations - everybody - for judgment, and to gather of every kind, and leave the mass of the rest where they were. There is no bringing to shore in the judgment of the nations, before the judgment, but a gathering of all together. The fish are brought out of the sea into a net: that is the fishing work. I do not enter on the analogies of the days of creation as not necessary to my object; but I think in the remark, that this subject occupies 13 out of 22 chapters of Revelation, there is confusion between the beast and the Gentiles outside.

I have only one more remark to make, already alluded to as a principle. The statement of the parable is overlooked and confounded with the explanation. In the parable of the net, as in the tares and wheat, the explanation is, and is meant to be, different from the parable. In the parable, it is carefully stated that the persons who separate are the persons who have drawn the net: "which when they had drawn to shore, they sat down, and put the good into vessels." They are occupied with the good, and simply reject the bad. In the explanation the angels, certainly not the fishermen, separate the wicked from among the just, - another kind of act, - and cast them into the fire. In the parable, we have the fishermen's work carried out to the end of the fishermen's part in it. The two previous parables give the thought and purpose of God in the kingdom of heaven; this, the part His servants take in it. In the tares, further, you have no action of men but of Christ, and Satan, and then judgment in this world, providential and actual the wheat being gone out of the way into the garner. The gathering into the net, and out of it into vessels is a distinct part of the parabolic action and done by the fishermen. In the parables of tares and wheat, the servants are forbidden to meddle with what is to be done, and the work of judgment which is all, save the Lord's and Satan's, committed to others.

The Patriarch Jacob

The Patriarch Jacob

Gen. 32: 24-32; Gen. 35: 1-14.

J. N. Darby.

(Words in Season, Vol. 2, 1888, page 208.)

Here Jacob was on his return from Padan-aram. He was a saint of God, and valued the promises, but the means he used were reprehensible in every way. There was real faith in his heart; he was willing to yield (though it were only a mess of pottage) to get them; but there was no uprightness in him at all. It is true that he was not going with his own wretched will, like Esau, but still he was not going with God. There was value of the things of God, but no practical faith with God, and for twenty-one years God was chastening him, though giving him what he valued. God protects him from Laban, and will not let Esau touch him. He was a believer that valued the promises, but did not walk by faith.

You see grace in it; but at the end of his life he says, "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." God's patient love had taken care of him, and he could speak of "the angel that redeemed him from all evil." It was exceeding sad. It was not unbelief, but he was a believer not walking by faith. You get his character portrayed, and even in the end how the poorest believer is better than the world. He blessed Pharaoh; "and without all contradiction the less is blessed of the greater." He has got God's blessing, and he can bless Pharaoh; when it comes to the world, he is the great man.

We get God's dealings with him, chastening, &c.; but there is more than that. We see how terribly there is the want of uprightness with God where the believer is not walking with Him. It was not Jacob wrestling with God, but God with him. He would not allow Esau to touch him, for He was preserving and caring for him; but He takes him in hand to deal with him, and makes him limp all his life. He got the blessing, but through this struggling, God giving him strength to do it, showing the astonishing patience of God: grace it was, of course.

Acceptance is a settled thing, but the state of my soul is not a settled thing. Supposing I had a child, it is and always will be my child; but is it no matter how it goes on? That is the very thing that makes it matter. I encourage it or chasten it; I deal with it. God withdraws not His eyes from the righteous. It is my righteousness that is settled, and does not depend on what I am. I ought to have a peaceable spirit, and that depends on what I am. God wrestles with Jacob. There had been chastening, but Jacob needed to be brought into direct contact with God. He makes him discover his weakness, and what he is, and have the remembrance of it all through his life. If people belong to Him, and are walking without Him, He finds them out, but alone.

"Jacob was left alone." God is wise, and holy, and love in His dealings. Jacob had the consciousness that the Lord had blessed him, still He must have Jacob discover where he was. No prosperity, no children could be any comfort to him, if he had not peace with God practically. God has a controversy with the soul if it is not walking with Him. If I am walking up to the light I have, and not with a bad conscience, He has no controversy with me. You never hear of God wrestling with Abraham; he intercedes for others. It is the dealing of God with a person who is not walking simply and practically by faith.

He touches the hollow of Jacob's thigh. The Lord breaks him down. If He is to bless, He must give an abiding discovery of what he is, and he carries it with him all along. It was grace and mercy. He was a halting Jacob all through, because he was halting in his walk with God. He says, "I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me." It was right in its place, but it was not happy intercourse; it was forcing blessing out of God, as it were. He will not tell Jacob His name; there was the victory of faith to get the blessing; but there was no revelation of God. (The fullest blessing is His full, perfect, infinite love. He loves us as He loves Jesus, and we call Him Abba, Father; that is revealing His name - that is revealed in Jesus - but whatever the Name is, it is God revealed.) Here He did hide Himself. He came to give blessing, but He does not reveal Himself; and that is the effect of not walking with God. He does give blessing, and needed blessing; but He does not reveal Himself, and if needed He makes him halt all his life. He gives him flocks and herds; but He says, "I must have you for Myself, I won't let you go on like that." He had been halting morally, and God makes him halt actually.

In the second part I read, you get another thing showing the exceeding riches of His grace. He is going back. He is away from God, though he was right to go to Laban, for his mother sent him; but all through he had been cheating his father, and in the interval he had shown the same spirit. He told Esau he would meet him at Seir, and he had no intention of going to Seir; he had no idea of his strangership and pilgrimship, and he settled. Then he had to go and sell his land and be off. He settled before he got back to the point he started from; and we must always get back.

Even in Abraham, he had to get back to the place of the altar he had at first, and he had no altar between. God took care of him, but that is not communion. God takes care of us, and gives us outward blessings and inward too, and chastening, but that is not communion with God, and that is what we have to look to. Abraham goes to Egypt, and gets into a scrape. God was with him, but he never was with God; and we cannot be with God without the life of faith. We must go back the way we came, back to the place where we departed from God. A man may own his actual sin; but to have the soul restored and get the blessing, he must go back to where his soul left God, and he can have no altar else.

Jacob is not a stranger and a pilgrim with God. Now God comes and says, Go up to Bethel, and make there an altar to God, etc. He is to come back to be with God. It was great blessing to be back, but it was all lost time between, except learning what he was. Mark what follows. There is meeting God; it is not God meeting us, wrestling with us chastening, or bringing the soul to its bearings. A man may be walking very fairly outwardly, and not know at all what it is to have to say to God; and in such a case some fall might come. He might like to pray and have communion with God, and finds it all dark, and no light of His countenance.

Jacob says to all that are with him, "Put away the strange gods." How came this? There were false gods, and he knew it all the while he was wrestling. He knew it as a fact; but when he went to meet God his conscience took note of it. I can't be in communion with God and have idols in the tent. Is there NO idol in our tent? Is there nothing that takes our hearts off from God, that possesses our hearts, - some closet in our hearts that we shut from God, or something we find shut when we go to God? The moment it comes to be an altar in God's house, all the strange gods come into his conscience and mind, and he must get rid of them. I discover all that is there that I knew when it comes to the altar, and that I do not think of if it does not shock my natural conscience. I can't bring them to the altar.

He says, God "was with me in the way that I went." Now he has the consciousness of God being with him, and sees the grace that was with him, saved him from Esau, and gave him abundance. Everything is blessing when we are with God, everything works together for good; and he had had plenty of trouble and fear on the way, but God had been with him. What a difference that is to wrestling with God to get the blessing out of Him! (He was right to do that when he was there.) Seeing God's hand, and eye, and power, and the light of His countenance, all the circumstances are gone, and the God who had been with him is there. He goes back into communion. "El Elohe Israel" was acknowledging he had got the blessing; but now I get the house of God - not God giving blessing unrevealed, but now I can raise my altar in peace to the God of the house of God; and God does reveal Himself. He appeared to Jacob, and there was no wrestling. He appeared to him and blessed him. It is all coming from God - God speaking freely and fully, not His saying, What is your name? He had called his name Israel before - it was part of the discipline and exercise, though giving him strength. He is now taking it into His own hands and giving it of Himself; it is not Jacob wrestling for the blessing; but he has not even to ask God His name. He says, "I am God Almighty," &c. What a difference between struggling with God and feeling we have to, as inconsistent creatures to get a blessing, and God revealing Himself of His own accord, where we feel it is all faith. Jacob puts away the strange gods, and God comes and reveals Himself and talks with him, and then he goes up in peace.

In Abraham, it is not coming back to get the blessing, but God coming and dining with him; and then He says, "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do?" and he was called the friend of God; he was walking with God. You never hear that of Jacob. He was faithful, and trusted Him. There was failure, of course, but God comes in in the most intimate way. With a person I have intercourse with, I do my business with him and go away - do him a kindness if he needs it - but if I have a friend, I tell him what is on my heart about others; I trust his heart, and communicate it to him. God says, "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing I do?" Was he struggling for blessing? He had got it! Was he seeking to have God revealed? He was there talking with him on the mountain! and he pleads with God for others. When God tells him what He is going to do, he says, "Wilt Thou spare the place for fifty righteous?" and God says, "I will." Then he says, "For forty-five?" and God says if there are forty-five He will not destroy it and Abraham is emboldened, and goes on till he is ashamed to trespass any more on God's power; and God does much more perfectly, for He separates the righteous apart as they were. He was walking in communion with God; his present relationship with God was settled and habitual. God can tell him His thoughts, and Abraham can intercede with God for others. That is more than Jacob at his best.

It is different to be at peace and to have that intercourse with God that gives me His mind. You get more experience of a certain kind in Jacob - chastening exercises and wrestlings; in faith too, and it is not insincerity. The power of the Spirit enables me to stand up in the conflict. God says, I can't give you up, and I can't allow it; you must bear the effect of your inconsistency for long, and sometimes for always. He suits His dealings to the need. That does not go to the detection of all that is in my heart. When it is a question of communion, I find out the idols. If I had looked at myself with God's eye, I should have found it before. I find the inconsistency of idols and detect them, then God reveals Himself in blessing. He could not be there on a par with idols in the heart. He will lead the soul on, and give it strength for conflict, but He could not go on with idols. Then there is communion, but only to make Jacob arrive at the blessing, and then He goes up.

Abraham was always walking in the consciousness of the blessing. It was altar and tent, and he builds it here and there. He lost it when he was inconsistent for a moment, and got it back; and he stands the expression of all His wonderful grace, and a bright example of faith, and God makes him the vessel of all this wonderful revelation. He was in spirit walking with God about God's affairs.

There has been inconsistency, and you have been away from God perhaps - had chastening to remind you of it. God must have you with Himself to bring out what is there. He will bring your own name up. You won't get Israel without being Jacob with God. If you think of the altar, are there no things that are dividing your heart with God? When God says, Come and meet Me, was there nothing you then thought of? Has nothing entered into our hearts -  no thought in our mind (and allowed there), or doing, or walking, that does not suit the blood of Christ? That is an idol! Things that we are unconscious of, going on with habits and in unconsciousness that there is no Christ in such and such a thing. Is there love for that, clinging to that, and affection for that? Is it Christ? You can't say it is! God in blessing make us find it out, to lead us to communion.

Are you content to have blessing? There are two ways in which God gives a part with Himself. Joying in God when we are brought to Christ - that is the highest blessing. And there is another thing: He gives us a part in the activity of His love to other people, in gospel preaching, seeking souls, serving saints, services of love if it be but a cup of cold water; there I get God's thoughts of others. I must have His thoughts for that. I can't be His fellow workman if my soul is not with Him already. When the soul is walking with God and in His interests, there is the spirit of intercession, and that is immense blessing. God's love is there, shed abroad in one's heart, and it flows out to others; and it is an immense privilege to have identity of Christ's interests in the world. That can't be with idols. Could He treat you as His friend, give you His thoughts - not of yourself; infinitely precious that is. Has the heart that kind of confidence in God?

You need not fear want of lowliness in being near God; it is found in being away from Him. Paul was not proud when he was in the third heaven, but after he came down, then he needed the thorn in the flesh, lest he should say, "No one has been there but you, Paul."

Are the idols so gone that you are at rest with God, and He can talk with you? Can your hearts say they are free with God? God is thinking of us in that kind of way that He is trusting us with His thoughts. The Lord give us to know what it is to walk with Him so that we are free, and the freer we are the more humble we shall be. Walking with the Lord, we find our own nothingness. The Lord give us such nearness to God, that everything may be detected that does not suit that intercourse! J. N. D.

Philippians 3.

Notes of addresses.

J. N. Darby.

Dublin, July, 1868.

(Words in Season, Vol. 3, 1889, page 80.)

Here we get the glorified Man gone up. He fills the eye of the apostle. Therein is the true power and energy of work.

When faith is working no circumstances ever dim the heart.

It is no sacrifice giving up things which you esteem as dross and dung, especially if you have the eye fixed on Christ.

If I am thinking only of the race, I throw off the cloak as a hindrance.

What we should look to continually is the judgment of self, and complete conformity to Christ desired.

The exhortations here are simply to what Christ was.

The failure of man is uniform and immediate, however something better is brought in.

Man fell in Eden.

Man made the golden calf.

Man crucified Christ.

And all men seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.

But if I get man in ruins, I get the Second Man in perfection and glory. If I get the law broken, I get the law written in the heart. If I get the Church in ruins, the Church will yet be glorious.

No failure can break the link of faith in the power of God.

The candle shines brightest in the darkest night, so should our faith shine when all is dark around.

Christ's path from glory was all a descent, humbling Himself even to the death of the cross. Where was self to be found in that path? Nowhere. And now the Holy Ghost says by Paul, "Let this mind be in you."

In Christ, self found no place; in us, it is to be reckoned dead. Where there is not the judgment of self in the power of the Holy Ghost, there is sure to be the working of self in the energy of the flesh.

Christ's path was a divine path, going through this world in the grace and love of God, and we have a divine path through this world - viz., to be like Christ.

Nothing can ever stop the sufficiency of Christ, no matter what the circumstances may be.

Christ could not take a place in this world.

Which would you like best? a place in this world, or Christ's place?

Principles of Faithful Bible Translation

J. N. Darby.

(Extract from the Introduction to J N Darby's German translation of the New Testament, known as the Elberfeld version, dated 1855 - translated from the German by A. Hardy Estam of Dorchester MA, now with the Lord. Supplied by R Gorgas.)

The Holy Spirit Himself draws our attention to the need of an understanding of the divine will, as a means of our safety in the last days; and the esteem for the Holy Scriptures in these last days is a proof that God is being honoured.  The efforts of the enemy, too, are mainly directed against His Word.  While the scholar can examine it in the original text, the way for it is closed to the unlearned and to the one who does not know the language of the original text.  It was therefore our endeavour and our purpose to come to the aid of the latter and to present to them, with little expense, an as faithful and exact rendering of the Word of God, in their own language, as possible.

Any translation will, indeed, be more or less imperfect, and how great the difficulties are to transfer the expressions of a language, especially those of the rich Greek language, into another language, will only those recognize who have attempted to execute a translation.

We can claim, however, with a good conscience that we have worked with all care in order to render the Word of God as faithfully as possible, and we entertain the hope that even the unskilled reader will find our translation simple and understandable.

It is certainly possible that we could have clothed some passage into a more beautiful German; only, without being slaves of the words, the thought always guided us that an as faithful rendering of the original text as possible outweighed any other consideration, so much the more as we believe with a perfect conviction in the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures as the revelation of the infinite wisdom of God and the expression of His gracious character in Christ Jesus.

Seeing, however, that no one is able to grasp the whole extent of this revelation and that there is often a meaning hidden within a sentence that transcends the comprehension of the translator, which is lost in a free translation, but could be discovered in a more exact one through a deeper instruction of the Holy Spirit, it is thus an imperative necessity to reproduce the Word of the original text as it were in a mirror.

It goes without saying that the limit of this exactness cannot be drawn so closely that the sentence which has been translated into another language would thereby lose all intelligibility and consequently remain meaningless.

Letters on certain points in Romanism

J. N. Darby.

1. Rule of Faith.

Power in the church is neither more nor less than that of the Holy Ghost. There may be added at the beginning the apostles, as constituted of the Lord Jesus and having directions from Him. But now this is simply the working of the Holy Ghost in the church. This may be in an individual according to measure of power given to him, or it maybe in the body; but it will always recognise the Holy Ghost in the body and in all the members. This is most marked in the Epistles. They speak as to wise men, who have an unction from the Holy One. This is the whole matter: which once departed from, some mere arrangement takes its place, and the Holy Ghost is in principle -  namely in faith - set aside, and weakness is soon apparent. The kingdom of God is in power; but this power is known only to faith.

As to "tradition," no one who has read the Greek Testament can a moment doubt that the word in the N. T. means a doctrine delivered, not handed down; though this might sometimes be the character of what was delivered. "Form of teaching into which ye were instructed, lit. delivered" (ἐ. ὂ. ν. π. τ. δ. of Rom. 6: 17) makes this plain. So tradition in the popular sense is in contrast with scripture; but in the passage you refer to (2 Thess. 2: 15) it is either the direct word of prophecy in the church there, or the apostle's epistle. No thing handed down in the church is secured by subsequent authority. The saints were to keep the doctrine they had been taught - the body of saints. Suppose I were to write to the body of saints in  - to hold fast what they had been taught, whether viva voce, or what I had written to them by letter, what would this have to say to the authority of the church or tradition of a subsequent era? Yet this is exactly the case, save that that teaching was divine and inspired, and therefore the exhortation had its peculiar place and weight: "the instructions [traditions] which ye were taught, whether by word or by epistle of ours." It clearly shows tradition just to be a doctrine delivered.

Nor do I see what the communication of what he had learned to faithful men (2 Tim. 2: 2), so as to form teachers, has to do with tradition. Nobody, unless they deny ministry, could gainsay this; and as far as a man could be trusted as receiving it from St. Paul, it would of course have weight; but that is just the question. It was not authority, but a means of communicating truth. The confounding these two things is generally the unperceived sophism of Milner's End of Controversy: "A rule of faith, he says, or means of communicating Christ's religion. It must be plain, etc." But these things are not the same. A mother does it to her babe, but she is not a rule of faith; she does it perhaps perfectly well, but this alters nothing. Now here the apostle is directing the means of communicating. truth to others (of course as surely as he can), but not setting up either authority or a rule of faith. When I had a dozen young men reading with me at Lausanne, I was doing this according to my ability. Was I dreaming of setting up authority or a rule of faith in them? Certainly not. The written word is clearly such the moment we own it inspired.

The real question is, Is it (scripture) addressed to all saints as possessing the Spirit so as to use it? They are the church. Ministry maybe a means of communicating, and a very precious one, as in Eph. 4; but ministers are never a rule nor an authority. A rule must be an existing quantum of doctrine; but this no men are. This as an authority must be infallible, which none is but God. Infallible is more than perfectly right. I may say what is absolutely right, but I am not infallible. Whenever the apostles spoke by inspiration, they uttered in revelation what was absolutely right from God; but this did not make them infallible. God is so, because in His nature He never can say anything but what is right. When God spoke by them, as every true Christian believes he did, they were absolutely right; but God remained the alone Infallible, Who never could of Himself say anything wrong. This was not communicated to an apostle since; if he did not speak by inspiration, he was as another man - more experienced perhaps, but a man. Inspiration comes from the infallible One, but does not render the inspired one infallible, but only perfectly right and divine in what he utters as inspired.

Further, I believe God will secure by His power that the truth shall not be lost in the church to the end. It may be only in an upright godly few, as when almost all the professing church and Pope Liberius among them turned Arian. But this does not make the church infallible; yet it does prove that God will keep His elect in vital essential truth to the end. But being kept is not authority. I am persuaded I shall be kept in the truth for the end - sure of it through grace; but this is not making me an infallible authority. It is just the opposite: I am subject to the truth. So the church, the elect saints, are subject to the truth always. They may have accompanying obscurities on many points; but they will never deny saving truth to the church. Many foolish things may be brought in and added; but they will not deny saving truth.

This the Council of Trent, and hence the Roman Catholic body (I do not say every individual), have pretty much done. Hence the difference of the Establishment. The Prayer-book has added a mass of destructive, false, and superstitious errors; but the Articles in general, though obscurely, do not deny but proclaim saving truth. Hence of the Galatians Paul was afraid: they were on the point of denying really the saving truth, though recovered. The Colossians were introducing superstitions which led to this; but they were not met exactly in the same way, as they were not denying justification by faith (for example, - as the Galatians were well nigh doing). But this is saving subjection to the truth, not authority; and it is the real point of difference.

They say, With a law we must have an interpreting judge. God says, with His word we must have saving faith mixed. The heart must bow to His word itself: another cannot do this. Nobody denies that one can help another according to the measure of the Spirit - that is, help spiritually the soul in reception. But this is not authority, it is ministry. The truth received has God's authority; and by receiving the truth we are subject to Him. The word of God can have no authority outside to apply it, nor power either, but God Himself. Its whole object is to bring the soul and conscience into direct and immediate relationship with Himself. Interposed authority as to conscience sets aside God. There cannot be a judge with God's word, because Christ is; there may be discipline, and, in this sense, judgment in which the whole assembly acts: but this is another question. The whole point is the authority of God's word itself on the conscience. And mark, because God has said it, discerning it such, we set to our seal that God is true - not that the church is. The church it is that believes His word; and thereby it is the church. So "ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." The church does not judge about the word of God The word of God judges the church, first as sinners, then as saints. Whoever gets above this gets into sin - is not a doer of the law but a judge.

I do not enter here on the external part of the question - that the tradition, or even the authority, is not to be found, though de facto many things are surely believed. It is clear that the local priest is not that authority or rule, though be may be a means of communicating. It is quite clear that the, ponderous tomes of the Councils are not a more clear or accessible or intelligible rule of faith than the living word. But the truth is, they are not agreed where it resides, in a Pope or a Council; and this is serious. It will be said, Certainly in both. But the Council of Constance deposed the Pope, and that of Basle set itself above the Pope and ended without him. Also, there were two; and neither was owned by the former. And yet more: Romanism cannot pronounce with unanimity which are the general Councils. There are (I trust my memory) nineteen; but they dispute as to the enumeration of them. What a difference from the pure word of God? [These letters were written in 1846, two Councils having been held since.]

2. Romanism Infidel.

It is very important to observe that Romanism does take infidel ground, and to press this on

their consciences: I have often done so in Ireland. God is competent 'to make men responsible by speaking Himself - this is a most important proposition and this is the one thing they have to defend - by His own testimony, that is. In their arguments there is a grand πρῶτον ψεῦδος, namely, that the means of communicating Christ's religion is the rule of faith. This is a fundamental fallacy in Milner's "End of Controversy." A mother, a child, may be the means of communicating Christ's religion; but they are not a rule of faith. These two things may be united [as in the scriptures], but they are in no way the same things. I suppose the book you have, however, is Wiseman's.

Now I would take the bull by the horns, and say that there is no living saving faith whatever, but that which is wrought by the operation of the word of God, received on His direct authority without any other warrant whatever. If it is received on the authority of the church, it is not believing GOD. The word of God proves itself to the conscience, and puts man by itself under the responsibility of it; because God cannot speak without man's being bound to hear and know Him, for none speaks like Him. He may in grace use proofs and confirmations and witnesses; but man is bound to bear Him. God will prove that in the day of judgment. Nay, the very heathen are without excuse on much lower ground.

The reason too is plain practically. The word of God judges and is not judged. Man is "convinced of all, he is judged of all;" and, the secrets of his heart being revealed, he falls down and confesses, that "God is in you of a truth." This is not authority; but it is the only saving thing. A man does not want authority to know that a two-edged sword is sharp. A faith founded on miracles, though God vouchsafed this confirmation, is no saving faith at all: Jesus did not commit Himself to it (John 2). He knew what was in man. But then in the corruption of the church and its prevalent power, it may be a reason why none but those who receive the love of the truth should ever escape. But this power of the word by the Spirit acting on, not judged by, man supposes the unbeliever: all else is no living faith at all. Whereas the church has the Spirit and the word; and the spiritual man judges all things.

Hence then I first take the ground that if the word of God be received on another's authority, it is the rejection of God's testimony. If I receive an account of another, because you put your name to it, it is because I do not believe the person who gives the account. God may providentially make it to be received where this genuine faith is not; but then it is not saying. To be saving it must be faith in God; and "He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true;" he who demands the church's authority to receive it has not.

God may have used all manner of means for preserving or even authenticating the testimony, and so He has in many, as we might expect. And I believe the scriptures were committed to the church to keep - not to authorise but to keep; as I keep a document safe, but give it no authority: it has its own; but I keep it safe. Now God, I believe, providentially has done this. But then the Roman body has decidedly failed in this; because, at the Council of Trent which is with them of divine authority, it has declared that to be scripture which declares itself not to be. That is, for example, the second book of Maccabees, which concludes by saying, If I have done well, it is as befits the subject; if ill, it is according to my ability. Now it is profane to suppose for an instant that this is the Holy Ghost's inditing. The Prologus Galeatus indeed of Jerome, generally prefixed to the Vulgate, declares the Apocryphal books are not scripture. Many other passaces from the Apocrypha could be adduced: such as that the offerings for the dead were for those dead in mortal sin; and that there are three contrary ,lecounts of the death of Antiochus. But I prefer the fact, that one book of the Maccabees declares it is not scripture, as above.

Moreover, it is well known that Sixtus V., acting under the authority of the Council of Trent, promulgated as the only authentic word of God an edition of the Vulgate which was suppressed; and his successor Clement altered it in 2,000 places. Five copies only of the Sixtine are known to be in existence; and Clement's bears in appearance its name. Rome has been in no sense, what the church ought to be, a faithful keeper of the "oracles of God committed" to it.

But after all, clever as Doctor Wiseman is, it is a vicious circle he is in. He takes the scripture as an authentic book. This itself then he supposes may be done. But if authentic, in the first place it is inspired, as anyone who reads it may see. That is, it gives us (to say the very least, for I think it goes farther) an authentic account of the actual authoritative teaching of Paul, Peter, James, John, Jude, and of the Lord, Himself. If this be so, I have no need of the church to receive its doctrine as divine. The authentic record of Christ's words and the apostles' teaching gives me a divine instruction directly, which no reference to a derivative authority can set aside; because the body, which would set aside or call in question the authority of that from which it derives, is not derivative at all. If it be then authentic, I have the original divine instructions, which founded, formed, and guided the church itself at first. If it be not authentic, then to find that the church was founded proves nothing; for if not authentic, I do not know it is true. If I am to receive the church from scripture, I certainly can receive Christ's and the apostles' word directly.

But I may go farther. If it be not inspired as well as authentic, and if I do not know it to be so, I have no inspired warrant, that is, no divine warrant for hearing the church at all. So that, on this ground, you cannot set up the authority of the church without setting up previously the authority of scripture itself. The authenticity proves inspiration, or it gives. no inspired authority for the church, and I hear in scripture all Christ's and the apostles' inspired words, as well as that as to the church. For if I receive something a person says and not the rest, I receive none of it on his authority.

But examining the point farther, I find the authority of this authentic book showing me plainly a church indeed established, that is, an assembly, but quite the contrary to the conclusion drawn from it. I find the test of being of God as to doctrine to be hearing the apostles themselves; "He that is of God heareth us." Now I have their authentic words in this book; and I am not of God if I do not hear them themselves, as the guard against error. When I turn to hearing the church, I find not a word about doctrine at all, but a case of discipline (any rules of which, according to Roman Catholic doctrine, are not binding unless where received, though decreed by a Council, while they allege decrees on faith are: the discipline of the Council of Trent was not everywhere received). It is a question of wrong done, carried to two or three, and at last before the assembly; and if the wronging party will not mind the assembly, he is to be avoided by the offended one as a heathen. Whereas I find the scriptures referred to as the security in perilous times, and the certainty of having received the doctrines from the apostles personally - "Knowing, of whom." I find the Lord (Whose words all of us would bow to as divine) preferring, as to the medium of communication, the written word: "If they believe not his writings, how shall they believe my words?" "They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear them."

Now if we separate the rule of faith from the means of communicating Christ's religion (which last all admit may be and is now fallible - consequently the individual priest), where is their accessible rule? Is it in the acts of nineteen Councils (and which are they? For you are aware that Romanists are not agreed which the nineteen are) - acts in Latin moreover, or in Greek? Where is this accessible rule of faith? And now, farther, Romanists are not agreed what the rule is. Ultramontanes hold the Pope infallible, Cismontanes hold he is not. Many, as the Councils of Constance and Basle, hold that they had authority to act independently of and superior to the Pope. At the time of the former there were two Popes. The Council deposed them and chose another (Martin V.) who dissolved the Council. Is the Council of Constance a general council? If so, it has given an authority in matters of faith quite different from the Papal advocates; and it acted on that and deposed the Popes. If it had not that authority, the whole succession of the popedom since is founded on a schismatical act. However this may be, the authority on matters of faith Romanists are not agreed on. Not only so, but their Councils have decreed things against the Pope's authority, and he against theirs. The acts at Basle the Pope declared void after the departure of his legate, having transferred the Council elsewhere, though only a part left. But further, the Council of Chalcedon declared the equality of the Sees of Constantinople and Rome, which Pope Leo rejected.

Now if a Roman Catholic say, I am not learned enough for all this, then I reply, Where is the simplicity, the accessibleness, of their rule of faith? For this is it. If you say, But I trust my priest, then you are on confessedly fallible ground. I had much rather trust, with God's help by the Spirit, the writings of Paul and Peter and John, etc., addressed to all saints and expressly so addressed, How fallible the Romanist rule you way suppose, when I tell you that, in the four standard catechisms published by the authority of different Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, there are not the same lists of the seven deadly sins; but this is by the bye.

Is it not a fearfully upsetting thing that the moment I turn to the Bible - take the Roman translation - it sets aside all the cardinal points of Romanism, for instance the Mass? I read, there is no more oblation for sin. I am told by the highest authority of the Roman system, that the Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead. Take away this; and all Romanism falls. Again, there is one Mediator. Now Romanism makes many, and in fact more referred to than Christ. And it is in vain to say that it is only as praying. Their merits are positively acted on in the Missal, and the Virgin Mary is called upon to save us now and at the hour of death. Nay, so far is this carried that the Confiteor, on which absolution is received, leaves out Christ altogether.

The inadequacy of the scriptures to give unity is a mere claptrap. Has Rome produced it? Clearly not, unless by blood. Look at it from without. Authority, they say, was in the church from the beginning; if not, it is new and good for nothing. Well, did it preserve unity? Witness the Greeks, Nestorians, Jacobites; earlier the Novatian system, the Paulicians; later the Protestants. Half professing Christendom at this moment is outside their unity. But, their authority being alleged to be the original effectual thing, it is clear that it has failed to preserve unity. They tried by fire and blood when Protestantism arose, but in half Europe in vain. Present facts then prove its inadequacy to this end. To say that it promotes unity among those subject to it is merely what the smallest sect in Christendom would say too. I remember a poor Romanist telling me nine-and-thirty religions rose out of the Bible. I told him I suppose his did, or it was good for nothing (which he admitted); and I told him then there were forty. And really the argument is worth no more. Nothing can produce true unity, but the teaching power of the Spirit of God.

3. Transubstantiation.

I have generally found that, in sincere Roman Catholics where there was a value for Christ (though in some respects natural), transubstantiation remained the thought in their mind. It connects itself with a sensible apprehension of Him like a picture, and seems to be borne out by scripture respects it, though not rightly dividing or understanding it.

Yet the scriptural reasons seem to me most strong and plain on the point, though a person may be a true saint and hold it, if the mass or sacrificial part is given up. This touches the knowledge by faith of the completeness of the one sacrifice and our known forgiveness by it.

There is no need of Syrian or Protestant commentators to know that words are used for designating things they represent. It is the universal language of man. I say of a portrait, That is my father; this is my uncle. No one doubts an instant what it means. "It is Jehovah's passover." "I am the true vine." "I am the door" is the converse. And it is as much and as surely said of "The cup" as of the elements: "this cup is the new testament in my blood" - thereby demonstrating the mode of speaking. As soon as the sense attached by the church to it is got rid of, our ordinary use of language would not convey the Roman sense to the mind. It is really an imposed one.

Further, St. Paul positively calls it "bread" we break: why is this not literal? In what follows we have those figures, which no language can be spoken without - "the cup which we bless." Was it the cup he blessed? Proper literality in the strict sense would make nonsense of all language - is not its known sense. I drink a glass of wine: who ever doubted what this meant. It is not, as men speak, the literal sense to give the physical one. He drew a picture of vice in his sermon: who thinks he drew a picture? So, in a nearer case, a man brings his sin (chattath) to Jehovah. Christ was made sin. These bones are the whole house of Israel: does any one doubt what, it means? There are many such in Ezekiel: only here we have no verb at all.

And now as to the scriptural meaning of the doctrine. First, if the Roman Catholic one were true, it would be a sacrament, not, of redemption, but of non-redemption. That doctrine holds that the body, blood, soul, and divinity of the Lord Jesus are all contained in each of the elements. But if the blood be thus united to the body, there is no redemption at all. It is the blood "shed" which is redemption; and therefore we are called to "drink" it as a separate thing. It is body given we are told of, and shed blood. If the blood be in the body, there is no redemption. Christ has not a life of blood now: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom. If I take it shed, I own the great and blessed redemption. Take it otherwise than separate and shed, and it is a sign that there is none.

And this leads me farther. There is no such Christ in existence as that signified by the sacramental institution. There is a glorified Christ with a body in heaven, but this is a given body and shed blood. That is, it is a dead Christ we, in the power of resurrection, recognise and feed on  - that by which we were brought in, that all-precious sacrifice. But there is no dead Christ now. There cannot be a given body and shed blood now. There is no such thing in existence, while faith knows all its value in the one blessed act of the cross. Hence also it cannot be literally, or rather physically, true. "This is my body that is given;" but it was not given then, nor was the Lord dead. The living Christ did not hold actually and literally the dead Christ in His own hand. And this is absolutely necessary to the literal or rather (without meaning to offend the feelings of those who have learned to reverence it) the gross carnal sense. The given body and shed blood clearly represent a dead Christ. We know the unspeakable preciousness of that wondrous fact such as none is like. It is all our hope, the death of the Son of God. But there is no dead Christ in existence: hence it cannot be a physical reality. It is shed blood I need for my soul: where is that literally? And farther it was not literally true then. Christ was not given and His blood shed when He spoke to His beloved disciples.

Yet this feeding on death is the very thing that is precious. A Jew dared not: it was death to him. But, now Christ is dead, death is life and gain to us. Hence too we must "drink" His blood - that is, take it as shed out: "he that drinketh my blood." The doctrine of concomitancy (that is, a whole Christ in each element) fails here; because the very point of power is "drinking" the blood, or receiving it as shed," taking it as such.

Hence while we see that the literal is only an imposed sense, contrary to the plain meaning of the words according to all habits of language, I find that it is on spiritual grounds, as to the eternal truth of Christ's doctrine and person, an impossible thing; that is, it contradicts the truth. There is no dead Christ, now; but [in the Eucharist] it is clearly a dead Christ. And, further, it subverts the sense and spiritual power attached by Christ to it - His given body and shed blood, and makes it really, though unwittingly, a sacrament of non-redemption. Such is Satan's craft. Further, it cannot be literally true that Christ held Himself dead in His own hand; nor, as the breaking [of the bread] really represents His suffering and death, did He in any sense do this indeed at any time, though after it He gave up His spirit to His Father.

Hence I lose all by this pseudo-literal sense; my soul wants, my soul enjoys, a suffering Christ, a dead victim. It is my salvation. I adore the grace in it; my soul feeds on it; I need it; I worship and joy in it, though humbled at what called for it; and my heart goes out to these sufferings and to Him Who endured them. But there is no such Christ now, no dead Christ to be literally true. If it is not a dead Christ, it is nothing at all to my faith. If it is a dead Christ, it is clearly not a literal one; for we all together, who love Him, rejoice in His exaltation.

The fact is that it is a very modern doctrine. It was never established till Innocent the Third's time in the Council of Lateran, and was written against by esteemed doctors just before. And while you find many magniloquent though unintelligent expressions in the Fathers, one of the earliest - if the Roman doctrine be maintained - is a heretic, Irenaeus. I remember that he says that after the ἐπίκλησις two things were there, bread and Christ. I attach no importance to this as an authority, and think him wrong - imperfectly taught by the Holy Ghost in it. But it is a proof, not of truth - I never would use it as the smallest authority for it - but that the Roman doctrine was not held by an early saint. Consubstantiation, I think, was more the common thought of doctors who took a real presence. To me one is as unsound as the other. It mistakes the real object of faith, a Christ dead and shed blood.

1 do not add the common argument, "Whom the heavens must receive," and therefore not here; nor the ubiquity of Christ's body being unsound as to its reality: you will be familiar with them. To a faithful soul, though these be true, the meaning of the Holy Ghost will have more power. I agree with you as to "in remembrance of me."*

*In this there are a few verbal changes, as the writer formally allowed, after first publishing it literatim. Ed. B.T.

J. N. D.

Notes of a lecture on Revelation 3: 7-13.

J. N. Darby, 1863.

(Words in Season Vol. 6, 1892, page 264.)

I read the address of the Lord to the church of Philadelphia. This truth stands very simply on the Scripture. No exhibition of ruin, no exhibition of weakness in those who love the Lord, is in any wise incompatible with the fulness of Christ being made perfect in them: His fulness in their emptiness, His strength in their weakness, His riches in their poverty. I call your attention to remark the position which you and I are in now. Turn back to Pentecost. Christ had ascended into heaven. He had shown the speciality of His love to His people in sending down the Holy Ghost to them. There was really a people of God upon earth who were thoroughly unselfish, thoroughly unworldly, whose hearts had been carried away from earth into heaven with the Lord Jesus, and they were waiting here on earth till He came back, a people whose hearts were absolutely up there like a lake which reflects upon its surface the image of the object above it. They mirrored the Christ who was before their hearts. Now I find nothing of the sort. I may find souls, but no such company. I could not say, if you know the face of the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven you will find all His lineaments reflected in a people down here. In Thessalonians we get a company waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of ripening evil.

That which was set up ecclesiastically has utterly failed, but the blessed Lord does not fail. We get the same thing in Rev. 22: 11 - a strange mixture of light and darkness, profession and inconsistency, and a little further on the Spirit and the Bride inviting the Lord's return. This brings to our mind distinctly a state of things like the address to Philadelphia: awful confusion on earth, a mixture of good and evil, the Word of God came in suddenly to call His people; and I find that, in spite of the confusion and the ruin, there are those who are enabled to be responsive to the mind and thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ. We hear around us a great deal about the Church, the Church, the Church, "the temple of the Lord are we," and that which assumes to be this is that which is characterised by the power of Satan (Rome) or the power of the world.

It is remarkable and comforting we don't get here the Lord walking in the midst of the candlesticks holding the seven stars, i.e., we do not find any of these characteristics, but have quite another character, not an official one, that which was His own, and could not be put off: "He that is Holy, He that is True." These two titles are evidently divine. We could not say of John, he was the holy and the true one. He was called to be holy and to walk in the truth. But when we come to the blessed Lord, it is exactly Himself -  His separatedness from evil, His faithfulness in all that belonged to God when on earth, now in heaven, and when He comes back again will still be the same. He is presented in a time of failure, of weakness and exhaustion among His people down here, still as the One expressing the character of the Father.

We are called, when put in a place of responsibility in the power of the new life, to meet it. If all has failed, God has not changed. I can look to Him, the giver, and receive something which changes not.

God is the giver - in every respect Holy and True. It was not saying now, "I have done with you," but "Behold, I have the key of David," and "I have set before thee an open door." He had got the key just at the time when all was failing. He could not present one of the insignia of the Church, because they had all been lost, betrayed away; but He could say, "I am not changed." He was the opener and the shutter. Mark the extent of Christ's two services. If Christ opens, who can shut? He had opened, He has opened. It is not "Come and see"! There was no display of power, nothing outwardly wonderful, but the course was opened to them, and "Shutteth and no man openeth." He is not here speaking of His sovereign prerogative: "I have set before thee an open course, and if you do not enter in I can shut it up again." Quite true; but here it speaks of being shut to the adversaries. He can come in when all the power of Satan seems rampant, and can put a stop or overturn either in grace or providence, i.e. - take for example the late events in Spain - He controls the passions of men; "even the wrath of man shall praise Him, and the remainder of wrath will He restrain;" or in our own land, Henry VIII. Remark how beautifully He comes out just after and meets their hearts -  not one word about their works, and all about Himself He had begun by saying, "I know thy works." Well, about works. What were they? There was nothing that man could take notice of Verse 8. Only two things: "thou hast kept My words and hast not denied My name," and what have you got to shew? Nothing for man's eye to notice. Who knows if I have kept His word and not denied His name? I ought to know, and the blessed Lord knows it. If His word is something treasured up in your soul, and if, in spite of feebleness, you have not denied a certain character which was displayed, you have on you the tokens of that character which first gladdened your heart. It is exceedingly precious in a day of weakness and feebleness, when the Lord says, I've done with the churches, but I've relation (or connection) with a people on the earth, to know Himself as the fountain of all blessing, the source of all strength, His strength like a river flowing into our souls. Will our consciences bear the challenge about the "word of God dwelling in us richly"? They ought to. Does He see the word dwelling in you? God's eye marks, and not only this, but the practical dwelling on the character of the blessed Lord which that word reveals.

They took Him for everything; in their weakness they found Him at their side. In ver. 9 we get, in connection with the adversaries, the expressive hand of the Lord, and this is not an unusual thing. Even now He brings the opposers down to own that these very people whom they had despised are a people loved of the Lord. And knowing His mind, the result will be, I will write on you the tokens that I have loved you. There are tokens even the world cannot deny. It is often forced to confess, certainly these people have the favour of God upon them. Ver. 10: You have been identified with Me in the wilderness, you have kept My patience, you have recognised that I am in no hurry to rise up and take the kingdom, and you are waiting with Me. There is an hour of trouble coming to try the dwellers on earth, such as those spoken of Phil. 3: 9; but you who have not denied My name, &c., have not seized on anything as your rightful portion; but you are waiting for the portion I have to give you, and are counting on it. You were willing to wait till I rose up; you were not satisfied with all the good things here without Me, but you waited till you and I could be together. I will keep you from that hour. Verse 11. There was a crown. What had they got to hold fast? Not their crown. Christ has got my crown; I have not got it. They were to hold fast that which characterised them. There was the difficulty of overcoming when iniquity abounds and the love of many waxing cold. How at such a time does the faith act which overcomes? By two things: - by treasuring up the word of Christ and not denying His name. Then it will be like a river flowing in from the blessed Lord Himself, and keeping - not will keep - your hearts bright and fresh while you are holding fast that word, that Name, and that patience.

Then He brings out royal, divine, blessed words to cheer their hearts, especially characterised by association with Himself. There is something peculiar in the promise, ver. 12. It is very different to that given to Laodicea. Supposing this had been addressed to Laodicea, it would have been out of keeping. They were a carnal people, boasting of their riches. He gives them something that even the natural mind can appreciate. They were seeking the highest place on earth, so he says, Follow Me, and I will give you something better than it all - you shall sit with Me on My throne. But here were these poor weak things who had got no excellence. He knew every one of them, and He says, I have got certain things very near to Myself, and I propose to place you in permanence; then when the time comes many will be placed in the temple of God who have been thought little of here. He puts them in the place of blessing to go no more out. I will write upon him the name of My God; not merely a stone here, but the most precious of all things to His heart, "My new Name." What were the thoughts of the Lord Jesus about the name (Eph. 1: 21; Phil. 2: 9)? The name of the city of My God. God has got a character which He shewed out there. You shall bear that character. Many thoughts are crowded together here - a dwelling.place, "a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker are God," the special name, New Jerusalem, which none but He could give. Jehovah will provide perfection - the place where all His character can shine out. They might be oppressed with difficulties. What did it signify if these poor Philadelphians and Christ were of one mind together? The very difficulties were found by God to display the riches of His grace, to shew forth the fulness that is in Christ. I suppose all the churches had contemptible thoughts about Philadelphia - a poor set of things, weakness within and difficulties without. Christ looks upon them - evil is ripening around - and He says to these poor weak things, I can let My heart flow out to them, the grace that is in Me flow out, and there will be no mistake. It is very important to see that man has spoiled all, and will spoil everything God has put into his hands, and even till the Lord comes it is just the same. God has not changed: He can make the most desolate place to blossom and bud. Christ is not changed: He is coming forth to change. His people now are suffering on the earth. When He comes this will be changed. There ought to be a people waiting for Him to come. Have you tasted the unwearied freshness of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are your thoughts moved by His thoughts? What is thus connecting you in all your weakness with Himself in heaven? We want stirring up. It is a time of weakness; man's mind is full of pride and exalting itself. It ought to be a time when the blessedness of what Christ is to His poor weak ones is more and more tasted by us. This leads us to know His nearness. Christ can keep nothing back from you; He has not forgotten His poor people down here. He counts nothing too good to hold out for their benefit and encouragement.

In worship we seek not sermons, but the presence of God; the accomplishment of that promise "where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them." I do not go there to hear a sermon, nor do I like to hear one; I go to worship, to find the Lord, and worship Him; and I judge that if brethren are incapable of enjoying this, it is a very bad sign. I do not go with my ears open to hear man, however gifted, but to worship God: and I beg to press this on brethren. I feel thankful if any one be led of God to give a word of exhortation or comfort. I know that the flesh has abused this, forgetting the word, "Swift to hear, slow to speak." My brethren, be not many teachers. But I add most decidedly, that though I have seen liberty used for license (and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty), I have found where God was owned incomparably more of His presence and blessing than where man's arrangements had taken the place of God. There might be evils to deplore and to correct, but there was God to enjoy because God was owned. Elsewhere I have found decent things of man, a fair show in the flesh, but a sepulchre. The God I found delight in was not there; for even God's grace or gift in teaching is a wholly different thing from God's presence in the way of worship. But I add that where in worship this latter is slighted, I have never even found the former. It is written, "Cursed be the man who putteth his trust in man." Correct the evils, brethren; but let us not disown God nor His goodness. If you cannot know His presence in worship, nor what the blessing of this is, humble yourselves; you have suffered great loss, you have spiritually declined. I shall be glad often to wait not merely to compose my spirit, to gather up my strength from the Lord before I enter on His work or open my mouth to speak in His Name, but to wait in the hope to gather up strength through the blessing conferred upon some other beloved one of God, or by joining together, whoever may be used as our mouthpiece, in thanksgiving, and prayer, and praise; for "the joy of the Lord is your strength." -  J. N. D.

Time and Space

J. N. Darby.

The Bible Treasury,  June 1896

I do not think we have any knowledge of time as time in itself. We measure from one event to another, but cannot without facts with intervals. Space is not exactly the same, because we dicern it by a sense which sees an interval at one time. All I know of time is, "I am now." When I compare this with events, I am conscious that it is not "now:" there is time. As events only proceed from God, "I am" to Him never changes. He is in Himself always. Events come from His will, and are relative, not absolute. When I speak of an event before what happened today, I look at it as having happened in a "now" which is not present. This I extend by invented measures. "Infinite," I admit, we cannot know, though we know it is not "finite infinite." But without existence I do not understand time or eternity - but God is.

When I begin to count time, I count necessarily from "now," for I am now. I then speak of time not finishing in thought. Before and after make no difference whatever, save by events, and if I look after, I must imagine events or I cannot take a step beyond now. The starting-point in both is "now;" and I go on both ways from that and cannot finish.

Hence when Christ's eternal nature is spoken of it is said  ἐγ ἀρχῆ ἦν ὁ λόγος. "In the beginning was the Word," all events and γενόμενα by which time had an existence being supposed. His is existence per se eternal and divine. When historical creation is spoken of, it is supposed God created. All things made came into being, there must have been a Creator. What we wanted to know was Creation. The highest, holiest, way of speaking of God was thus saying nothing about Him, but that He acted. As to Christ, it was of the utmost importance to know that He was before, and eternal.

But all the talk about "bounded" or "unbounded" space is a mistake. I know very well indeed what "bounded space" is: a field is a bounded space, because I know what a bound is, being bounded. That I can negative; but I never conceive any negative proposition. I can deny a bound when a bound is supposed, but it is no idea of the opposite at all. I cannot conceive all space as a known whole. My only conception of it is that it is not within the limits of my finite conception. But this is what "infinite " means. It is no positive idea, for then it is finite - has bounds.

If it be said that "we cannot conceive God," I answer, Certainly not by an idea. If I did, it must be adequate, and He would not be God. But I do know He is not within the range and capacity of my idea. And this is something very material in our knowledge. When it is said, "He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love," it is another thing. It is not an idea but a moral nature morally apprehended; and space, and time, and measures have no place in it at all. It is another order of things. Affections, even human, are not ideas.

Past time without a commencement is not possible thought; because when I say "past," I have already commenced with the "now." I do not see why infinite division cannot be thought-of, because the parts are bounded. I remember a teacher of Mathematics sought to show by a tangent an indivisible angle; but he had only to make a circle with a longer radius, and division was made.

The only idea I have of time is bounded by events which are not "now." But as far as without, then I seek to know it. I have no idea of time but the principle of eternity, only contradicted by experience. "I am" - that is not time as having duration, but in a point, and with a notion excluding bounded time, and so leadirlg up to God Who is necessarily "I AM," the rearest approach to conceiving eternity; which in itself I cannot conceive. But I conceive God existing, and never doing anything but existing.

My only idea of space, save bounded or enclosed space, is practically infinitude, not conceived as so much (for then it is finite), but as simply endless, i.e. negatively. I do not say "existing time." Nothing properly exists in time which exists consciously; that is, consciousness is not cognisant of time. But I exist in space. Hence I do not begin it here, as I do time by "now." And I cannot conceive where a body cannot be unless where one is; that is, I only conceive space ss space without measurement, but room where.

"Nothing" cannot become, because there is nothing to become; but this does not say that God could not speak, and cause to be made, create. J.N.D.

The Unity of the Spirit and the Word of God.

J. N. Darby.

(Lectures and Addresses delivered in Manchester, June 18-20th, 1873.)

There is a great craving in the world for union, particularly in religious things; and we have to watch that, because we can rightly recognise only the union of the Spirit. Churches, so called, are wanting to get united; the divisions are a constant reproach; but true union is on the principle of holding fast what we have got in truth, and is the expression of the unity of the body by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Protestants seek this union. The Church of England is wanting to unite with the Greek Church (an utterly corrupt thing); and it all failed about an article of the creed. You find these thoughts of union assume as its basis the very thing that God is judging the state of; they accept the thing that God is judging, and so it is all a snare. There is but the unity of the Spirit of God. Patching together the corruptions that God is judging in the church, or amalgamating where division is still maintained, is not the unity of the Spirit, nor the body of Christ.

One word more. The mind of man is let loose. Old landmarks and institutions are breaking down, and you get all kinds of statements as truth; and what are they seeking to do? Either war with creeds, or form an external union; and to do this the truth is swamped until I have no Christianity at all. You've got your truth, and I've got mine, and God has got none. That is what it comes to. It comes back to man's competency to judge the word of God; but in this case it is not God's word at all to the soul. Men who do this really begin with denying it. Their starting point is the activity of man's mind, and this is utterly incompetent to judge God. But I accept it as God's word, and then hear what God has to say to me; that is another position of heart and soul. If I am to judge it, then it is not God's word. A man must be a madman to say, "Here God has spoken, and I am going to judge whether God has spoken right."

In 1 Cor. 2 the apostle says, "Howbeit, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world nor of the princes of this world that come to nought, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God; for what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."

There I find, first of all, revelation. Paul had it revealed to him, and then he goes on to say "which things also we speak," now it is communication, "not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth," this is Divine inspiration which we have in the word. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." There are three things brought out, first the revelation to Paul, then next he communicates them in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth, and when we get them, they are spiritually discerned.

Of course man must have intelligence to be acted on by the word, but that is not the activity of my mind on it. It acts on me and judges me and not I it, and it is really in the conscience that intelligence comes in. "Sir, I perceive thou art a prophet," came from telling the poor woman all that ever she did. This puts God in His place, but this man does not like; and the more mighty the word of God the more mischief I do if my mind acts. If I upset a perambulator, I might spoil it; but suppose I take a steam-engine, when incompetent, the more power the worse. And so here, the more wonderful the truth the more beautiful; but, the moment man's mind begins to work, every sort of opinion comes out, and there is no end to mischief and folly. One has to be as a child "desiring the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby." The church would hinder God's word from acting directly on me; the rationalist proclaims my competency to judge it, confiding it to my mind. The inlet it comes in by is not the mind, but the conscience; often, no doubt, the heart, but mainly the conscience; and I have to be subject to it. It acts on me, and then I get the mind of Christ.

Righteousness without Grace.

J. N. Darby.

Bible Treasury Vol. 15, page 380.

The whip and the scourge may be righteous; but there is no winning the heart of man with these. Nor is it righteousness which reigns among the saints of God, but grace through righteousness unto eternal life. Alas! how many sins that might have been washed away (John 13) have been retained! How many brethren alienated for all time, who might have been won back to God and to us, because we have hammered at the conscience merely, with the heart ungained - with the heart, I may say, almost unsought! We have not overcome evil, because we have not overcome it with good. We have taken readily the judge's chair and have got back judgment; but the Master's lowly work we have little done.

But how little yet do we understand that mere righteous dealing - absolutely righteous, as it may be - will not work the restoration of souls; that judgment, however temperate and true, will not touch and soften and subdue hearts to receive instruction, which, by the very facts of the case, are shown not to be in their true place before God. Man is not all conscience; and conscience reached, with the heart away, will do what it did with the first sinner among men - drive him out among the trees of the garden to escape the unwelcome voice. J. N. D.

Waiting and Watching

Luke 12: 13-44.

J. N. Darby.

(Words in Season, Vol. 2, 1888, page 171.)

The whole of this portion is founded on the deep consciousness of Christ Himself in passing through the world, that all in connection with earth was closed and broken up. The fire was kindled; all would come out more distinctly at the cross; but all that was in opposition was now actually shewing itself, bringing out the truth of the portion and the position of those who are Christ's being entirely heavenly, having nothing down here, waiting for the Lord with loins girded. He having been definitely rejected, all linking them to earth is broken.

In chapter 11 some said, "He casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils." What was that but calling the Holy Ghost a devil? It was a hopeless sin, the direct enmity of Satan. In this chapter, also, we find "singleness of eye"-our responsibility to let our light shine out; also, two characters of Satanic power-1st, malicious, a liar; 2nd, a murderer. In chapter 12, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body." If open persecution come in through Satan, they are not to be afraid. But in verse 13, there is the danger of the worldly influence of Satan, a quiet influence, the more to be feared because not open-a kind of influence that goes on when not watching, and weans the heart away from the only thing we have as Christians, i.e., a heavenly portion, making us solicitous about, and setting a value on, worldly things; but the Lord comes to the rich man to shew the utter folly of any who are making the world their portion, and then He enters on the use to be made of riches. We have not got apostles at whose feet to lay down everything for the Lord, but we are to hold all mammon for the service of the Lord, our portion being in heaven, yet having the privilege of using it for the Lord, turning what is mere dross and dung into something for service to the Lord, and then not to have a care.

Sweet the way in which the Lord discharges them from all care: "Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things." How blessedly they are brought into direct connection with the Father. The world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but the word of God endureth for ever. Directly we come to a Father taking care of us, the heart is discharged entirely from care about this world. How blessed the thought of that God being our Father without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground, and that we are in this blessed relationship because Christ has taken us into it with Himself "Fear not, little flock," &c. As those belonging to the kingdom, how ought we to walk? All laying up treasure here carries the heart with it; if laying up treasure, we shall like to keep it. On the one hand, warned against the spirit of the world; on the other, not to have a care, because He who is your Father careth for you. Walking with loins girded and lights burning, be ye as men waiting for their Lord, every moment having in the whole spirit, tone, and temper the sense of constantly waiting for the Lord girded (the long garments tucked up for service). There then is the distinct power of life seen. Servants in the midst of all down here, waiting for their absent Lord with their affections tucked up (loins girded). It is a great thing to walk through the world with the distinct thought that the Lord is out of it because it would not have Him. Suppose yesterday, or six days ago, He had been rejected by the world, and He had told us He was going to prepare a place for us, what should we think of the nature and character of that world that had blasphemed and rejected Him? Could we be taken up with it if our hearts are really attached to Himself, and He up there having done the work to bring us into the place of holiness before He went, that we should be up there accepted in Him? Should not we be waiting for Him with girded loins, walking through the world that spit upon and hated Him with hearts out of it?

It is to be constant watching. Blessed are those servants (ver. 37). "Soon I shall take my turn in serving. You must now be watching with hearts and eyes fixed on Me, but when I come I shall have it My own way; I shall gird Myself and put you at My table, and then I shall serve you. Here there must be watching and waiting, but there is a place where I shall have things My own way; I shall spread the table and serve you. All the fat of the house will be set before you; lay your account upon that. You are to be in the place where you are not going only to rule the world that turned Me out, but there where all the energy of My love will flow out to you."

The watching for the little while now, is for the outflowing of the eternal blessedness of His love at that day when He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down that He may serve them. There it is not watching, but service to those now watching. The loins girded for service and watching is to be the character of our walk all through this present wilderness path, suffering linked with it. If we suffer, we shall reign. We get suffering as the consequence of what He puts into our hands. What a wonderful thing for us that we are to be set in the place of rule in everything below Him. Now one sees here the blessedness of His love to His own; how He takes their hearts out of the world, expressing Himself as if all was over. His own heart cannot get on in such a world. He is driven in on Himself by the condition of all round Him, forced to shut up the very love ever ready to flow out.

The whole thing is, morally speaking, over; the world judged, He out of it; and that is the place you get, the place he is in now; that is what detaches the heart from all things not of the Father, but of the world. The Holy Ghost sets Christ's walk before us to shew us the character and spirit we ought to have in the world if our hearts would go rightly through it. It is only as the heart is fixed on Jesus as the One soon coming-that only will make us in our lives the diligent expression of His coming. Not only our treasure above, counting all but dross, but the practical place of separation to Him, the heart thinking only of Him, and separating from the world that won't have Him. Oh! may He fix our hearts on Himself, that He may see us in spirit and walk like men waiting and watching for Him. The Lord truly keep our hearts waiting and longing for Him from heaven!

Worship -  Notes of a Reading.

John 4.

J. N. Darby.

(Words of Faith, Vol. 3, 1884, page 71.)

Some desire to have a definite thought as to what worship really is. First let me say that preaching the gospel and hearing a lecture are quite distinct from worship, but one thing I would remark in passing, salvation is first needed for it.

In this chapter the Lord says, "Salvation is of the Jews" - amongst them the true God was known; there was no true knowledge of God save among the Jews. Wherever God put His name, there was the place of worship. Now Christ declares, "Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." It can only be in His name. Paul says, to the Athenians, "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." Only those who know God can worship. This chapter takes the place of worship away from amongst the Jews, and it supposes accomplished redemption. I get into the place of perfect acceptance through the work of Jesus Christ, and there I can worship; none can worship unless in this place of divine favour; if I can sing in the sense of the acceptance of Christ, I cannot be out of tune.

The essence of worship is that the Holy Ghost can take up our praises and prayers to God in perfect association with Christ. In the wave offering in Deuteronomy 26, we find a beautiful picture of holy worship offered by the individual, but worship in the assembly supposes the Holy Ghost uniting all together in joy and praise - "they lifted up their voice to God with one accord."

In Deuteronomy 16 we get three feasts: the Passover; Pentecost; and the feast of Tabernacles, which is not yet accomplished. The Passover is the sacrifice of Christ for us, and Pentecost is the Holy Ghost already given us, but the feast of tabernacles is still future. There is very little joy in the Passover; as soon as it was done they returned to their tents. At Pentecost I find, "Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord and remember," etc.; but in the feast of tabernacles there is something more, they here have got into the fullest blessing, and worship flows because of being in that fulness of blessing.

In worship you will find often exclusively the notion in hymns of our having escaped judgment through the blood, but what is so beautiful, is the thought that, "praise waiteth for thee, O God" - their voices all ready, and their hearts all tuned to praise. Certainly I must get my conscience cleansed first, but Christ wants children to be with the Father. Is all I know of God this, that He is satisfied about my sins - satisfied with the blood? No, He wants to get my soul into the sense of relationship with Himself when I worship, and this, too, as the Father. In Luke 15 I get God's own joy, "Let us eat, and be merry," etc. When I come up to the cross I do so only about my sins, but when I have passed through the rent veil I have got to God's side of the cross, that is, God is Himself known as well as the blessed truth that "the wages of sin is death, and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ."

My place of worship is the holiest, where all the value of Christ is put upon me. In Exodus 12 they feed upon the sacrifice - redemption accomplished. Worship is the return of the heart to God for all His blessings in Christ. The Holy Ghost gives me God's feelings about the sacrifice of His Son, and worship goes up to the Father. All our joy and peace flows up to God in praise.

Worship is the best part. When we get to heaven we shall not want gifts. I do not like lectures at worship meetings; such meetings suppose the Holy Ghost there to lead our praises and prayers. If my state of heart is not up to praise it will not do at the Lord's table; it is not in a right state. All who praise ought to walk so that praise should readily burst out - God must have worship in truth; and there must be unity - all one loaf.

We cannot worship without prayer, because desire goes ever beyond our present ability to worship; restricting it to mere praise is impossible, it is never unmixed with prayer; it is not the place properly for prayer, but you cannot separate it, it would not be genuine, and that is the thing God wants.

You never get the Father in the Psalms or in Revelation. Our place is that of children with the Father, and our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Praise belongs to both. If all do not come into the unity of the body praise is imperfect. Christ's heart ought to move mine, and He never leaves out any. It is the first circle, and love must flow to all the saints in it. Some may be going wrong, but I am to love them still.

What I get by the Holy Ghost, is a child worshipping the Father. I am standing with the Holy Ghost dwelling in me, between the first and second coming of Christ - a worshipper waiting for His coming. The table is the centre of all worship. The force of that word in 1 Corinthians 10: 22, "provoking the Lord to jealousy," is, that if one went with heretics it would provoke Him, or if one were to admit evil persons to the table it would do this. J. N. D.

Mr Darby's footnote to 1 Cor. 8: 1 in the New Translation on ginosko & oida

.

Two Greek words are used for 'to know' in the New Testament - ginosko and oida. The former signifies objective knowledge, what a man has learned or acquired. The English expression 'being acquainted with' perhaps conveys the meaning. Oida conveys the thought of what is inward, the inward consciousness in the mind, intuitive knowledge not immediately derived from what is external. The difference between the two words is illustrated in John 8: 55, 'ye know (ginosko) him not, but I know (oida) him,' in John 13: 7, 'What I do thou dost not know (oida) now, but thou shalt know (ginosko) hereafter,' and in Heb. 8: 11, 'they shall not teach . . . saying, Know (ginosko) the Lord; because all shall know (oida) me.' The word oida is used of Christ as knowing the Father, and as knowing the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees, of Paul's knowledge of 'a man in Christ,' and of the Christian's knowledge that he has eternal life. 'I know whom I have believed,' 2 Tim. 1: 12 - I have the inward conscious knowledge of who the person is: see also 1 Cor. 16: 15, 2 Tim. 3: 14 and 15 - all of these refer to inward conscious knowledge. The difference between the significance of the two words is often slight and objective knowledge may pass into conscious knowledge, but not vice versa. The Greek for conscience is derived from oida: see ch. 4: 4, 'I am conscious of nothing in myself,' that is, not conscious of any fault. In the present passage, 'We know that an idol is nothing' is conscious knowledge: 'we all have knowledge' and 'knowledge puffs up' is objective knowledge. 'If any one think he knows (conscious knowledge), he knows (objectively) nothing yet as he ought to know it (objectively):' 'he is known (objectively) of him,' so 'knowledge,' ver. 10.

Are the Newman Street teachers (Catholic Apostolic) sent of God?

J. N. Darby.

It is the character of heresy always to conceal itself, to cover the plain statement of the doctrine which forms its basis, or to misdirect the attention, so that the evil really introduced by the heresy may not be apparent. Heresy is not merely error; it is the power of error in seducing men's minds from the plain truth of the Spirit of God, so as to rest in, and be guided by, something besides the gospel.

The attention of many has been directed very much latterly, first to very large hopes, and then to assertion of the restoration of gifts to the church.

The destitute state of the church of God naturally gives great importance to such hopes in the eyes of those who, by Divine grace and the leading of the Spirit, are really interested as Christians in the condition of the church of God. And there are none, whose eyes are turned much upon the Lord, who do not more or less feel its need and troubled state.

The hopes press upon the mind; and they are naturally also much associated with the expectation of judgment, or at least liability to it, on the part of those whose lamps are not trimmed and their vessels full of oil. Under such circumstances the assertion, that persons are sent by God to announce that the gifts and presence of the Spirit are restored to the church, naturally awakens curiosity or interest.

But the doctrines connected with the assertion are little known, and not put forward so as to awaken the attention of those to whom the announcement of the restoration is made; while the responsibility of attending to the direct message from God is pressed strongly. Hence the conscience, not well informed, may be easily dismayed at the thought of not listening to God thus interfering in mercy, and at the judgments which will be the portion of those who refuse to hear.

But the first question is, before we listen, "Is it God that is speaking?" It is as awful and fatal an error to take that to be God speaking which is not, as to refuse to hear when He does speak.

When once we have taken it for granted that it is God who is speaking, then whatever is said we must implicitly receive. Judgment is gone; all investigation by the word of the truth of what is said ceases. We must follow implicitly every thing without further inquiry. It becomes therefore a very important inquiry, Is it God who is speaking? This indeed would be a very anxious question, but that He has spoken already, and we have His word. Thus therefore I have the opportunity of trying every thing that is asserted to be of God by that which I know to be of God. For the believer has many blessed truths indelibly printed on his mind by grace and the power of God's Spirit; yea, wrought into the framework of the new life, by which, if once touched, he knows that the truth upon which his soul infallibly rests is touched also.

Now I said that the doctrines with which the promises and gifts are identified are little known, and little brought forward into light. I shall state some of them and then Christians may take the word and their own experience (by which I mean God's truth known in their souls), to see how what is here alleged to be of God, and what they know to be of God, agree. If they find it not to agree with God's word, with the known truth of God, then they can say at once, "It is not of God; and I have done with it." The whole question is settled.

There is another simple way of determining it. And this is, if any one thing has been stated by that which we are told is the voice of God in the church which has not come to pass, or has been falsified by the event - as prophecy, not merely a threatening of judgment averted by repentance, but a distinct prophecy which has proved untrue - we can at once pronounce it not to be the testimony of God, and we have done with it as no true light.

Thus Jehovah says, "If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet," etc. (Deut. 13: 1-3).

Because God had already claimed their allegiance as the true and only God, this could not be surrendered, whatever happened. It was a trial of allegiance to Him. So in the New Testament, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1: 8, 9). For God had already revealed the true gospel. Now mark, if we do not know that, and what He has revealed about it, so as to have a means of judging any thing else by it, we can have no hope, no knowledge, no expectation about the church at all. It is our sure knowledge of the truth of God's word that gives us any expectation about the church at all; so that those who make these promises to the church must admit this, and be content to be always tried by it, or not to be received at all.

They say, "Receive the testimony; come not judging, but willing to hear: God is speaking, and you must hear; and then you will receive light upon the scripture. What you have read and understood of it hitherto has been in the flesh." If once I do this, I must then receive every thing they say; for I admit that God says it. Take care of this. But the scriptures which they use to make me receive them are not the only scriptures I have read, nor the only ones which God's Spirit enables me to understand, nor the only ones sealed to my soul by His power; nor can they say these are the only ones you are to use. If I have read the scriptures without understanding them, whence my scriptural hope of the gifts? Is that the only scripture a Christian has understood? Well then, if not, I must hold to the rest too, and judge what is alleged to be of God by these known scriptures. One guard in the perilous times is, "Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned;" the other is, "that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Nor are extraordinary gifts ever alleged as any guide at all. See 2 Tim. 3. We know that they will accompany evil. [See 2 Thess. 2: 9, and Rev. 13: 13-15.]

If I have been taught any of the scriptures of the Lord, then I am bound to judge that which the spirit they profess to give heed to has said, by every part of scripture which I have been so taught, by whatever scripture I know; or I despise the known word and guardianship of the Lord - I am departing from Him.

The other mark I gave, besides false doctrine, was false prophecy.

"And if thou say in thy heart, how shall we know the word which Jehovah hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of Jehovah, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which Jehovah hath not spoken; but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him" (Deut. 18: 21, 22).

So that, if the thing spoken follow not, Jehovah hath not spoken: we are not to be afraid. And if a sign or a wonder follow, but we are called to do or give heed to any thing contrary to the revealed will and knowledge of God, we are to pay no attention to it whatever, not if it were an angel from heaven, or an apostle himself.

Let me make another remark connected with this subject. Howsoever truly we way be Christians, and whatever attainments we may have made, or gifts we may possess, Satan can use our errors in conduct - what can we do in the flesh? - to only and worse purpose than if we were not Christians at all. "Before that certain came from James, [Peter] did eat with the Gentiles; but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation." The only effect of the eminence of Peter and the influence which he had was, to enable his flesh to do more mischief when he acted in it. Dissembling Peter carried away all the Jews and Barnabas with his dissimulation. So when the flesh acts thus in a saint, though in the form perhaps of holiness, it carries away all those over whom the saint has acquired influence by his spiritual walk before. But this is not of God, but a delusion of the enemy. Paul withstood him to the face.

Now let us remember well the assertion of God's authority, upon which the present claim to be heard is founded. It is not merely particular things which the Newman Street teachers may say that are in question; their claim to be heard is the appointment and mission by the spirit which speaks in Newman Street. We are therefore to learn from them, as having authority to teach from God, which they allege that spirit to be. Now, I say again, this would be an alarming thing, if we had not already got what we know to be the word of God; and then the simple enquiry is, Do this spirit and it agree? If not, we must repudiate at once the whole thing as not of God. Blessed be our God, Who has given us His own word to try it by.

Now the doctrine sanctioned by the spirit, alleged to have sent these missionaries here, is that our blessed Lord's human nature was sinful human nature. They are now very guarded in their statements; but they have said quite enough in their most guarded statements to make one acquainted with the subject perfectly aware of their real doctrine. They refuse now to say more, on being asked, than that "Christ was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," adding, that the last clause was not meant to qualify the first. But this is the whole question. The absence of sin did not qualify or characterise the temptations of Christ! In plain words, there was sin mixed with His temptations! for the Lord, they say, does not qualify the statement of His temptations by the latter clause, "yet without sin."

They might have acknowledged it more unequivocally; they could not really have stated it more plainly. We say, scripture adds this qualification, this difference, in the temptations of the Lord; namely, that they were "without sin." There was no sin mixed with them: in our case, there is continually. They say, there is no such qualification of the temptation in the sentence; it is hard then to say what the latter clause is for. If they say that it did not issue in sin in Him, then I get their mind plainly; there is no qualification as to the temptation itself. We know that our temptations are connected with sin; and according to them there is no qualification in the passage before us! Observe, "sin" is the thing in question. It is admitted on all hands, that it never produced as a fruit actual sin in the Lord. The point in which there was no difference in the temptation then is, that there was sin in the nature - sin in the human nature of Christ!

Let us see the matter stated a little more plainly by one more open and undisguised, believing it doubtless to be truth. These are the statements of Mr. Irving, appointed by the spirit by whose authority these persons teach, the angel of the church from whence they come, and the teacher and expounder of doctrine there.

"If then Christ was made under the law, He must have been made by His human nature liable to, yea, inclined to, all those things which the law interdicted."

"Conceive every variety of human passion, every variety of human affection, every variety of human error, every variety of human wickedness which hath ever been realized, inherent in the humanity and combined against the holiness of Him, who was not only a man but the Son of Man, the heir of all the infirmities which man entaileth upon his children."

"If His human nature differed by however so little from ours in its alienation and guiltiness, then the work of reducing it into eternal harmony with God hath no bearing whatever upon our nature, with which it is not the same."

"Was He conscious, then, to the motions of the flesh and of the fleshly mind? In so far as any regenerate man, when under the operation of the Holy Ghost, is conscious of them. I hold it to be the surrender of the whole question to say, that He was not conscious of, engaged with, and troubled by, every evil disposition which inhereth in the fallen manhood, which overpowereth every man that is not born of God, which overpowered not Christ, only because He was born or generated of God."

"Manhood, after the fall, broke out into sins of every name and aggravation, corrupt to the very heart's core, and from the centre of its inmost will sending out streams black as hell. This is the human nature which every man is clothed upon withal, which the Son of Man was clothed upon withal - bristling strong and thick with sin, like the hairs upon a porcupine." "I stand forth and say, that the teeming fountain of the heart's vileness was opened on him, and the Augean stable of human wickedness was given to Him to cleanse, and the furious wild beasts of human passions were given to Him to tame. This, this is the horrible pit and the miry clay out of which He was brought."

Now, take notice in passing, that reconciliation, in this view, is not reconciling sinners at all but His own sinful nature, "reducing it into eternal harmony with God;" and that incarnation is being clothed upon with human nature. He was clothed with a nature bristling with sin; and so separate then was His nature from His person, His clothing from Himself, that what was in His nature was not in Him. Thus we see the way this view affects atonement and incarnation also.

But, again, Mr. Irving says, "I hold it to be most orthodox, and of the substance and essence of the orthodox faith, to hold that Christ could say, until His resurrection, not I, but sin that tempteth Me in My flesh, just as after the resurrection He could say, I am separate from sinners. And, moreover, I believe that the only difference between His body of humiliation and His body of resurrection is in this very thing, that sin inhered in His human nature, making it mortal and corruptible till that very time that He rose from the dead."

Many such passages might be quoted, but these will suffice. I add, however, a general one. It is an "heretical doctrine, that Christ's generation was something more than the implantation of that Holy-Ghost-life in the members of His human nature which is implanted in us by regeneration."

Now many of Mr. Irving's followers and associates have used stronger and worse expressions than these; but I do not quote them.

It is stated that the spirit rebuked him for using unguarded expressions. This may be; we reason not about expressions but about a fundamental doctrine. Perhaps some may repudiate this, where there is the professed unity of the Spirit.

It is also stated that these things were stated before the spirit was given. Now, though they were held and taught subsequently too, it is most material to see that they were taught previously; because the spirit came amongst them who taught them as the witness and sanction of the doctrine taught (just as the Holy Ghost came down as the witness of the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ). And Mr. Irving honestly and expressly states, that the spirit's coming was the consequence of this doctrine, and that until this doctrine it had nothing to witness to.

This too was yet more expressly shown when Mr. Baxter left the body and wrote to Mr. Irving, stating his error in saying that the law of sin was in Christ's flesh. Mr. Irving maintained his opinions, and told him that the spirit came upon Miss E. C. declaring that Baxter had been snared by departing from the word and the testimony; that Mr. Irving, had maintained the truth, and the Lord was well pleased with him for it. This was followed by another utterance from Mrs. C. and a second from Miss E. C. to the same purpose. Thus, on the point being raised, whether the law of sin was in Christ's flesh or not, the spirit thrice confirmed Mr. Irving's teaching on the subject. I do not say justified his expressions, but "confirmed his doctrine" - his doctrine previously taught. What this is, we have sufficiently seen. Is this spirit then, which has declared that Mr. Irving maintained the truth on these points, a spirit of truth? is it of God?

Mr. Irving has taught that Christ was conscious of every evil disposition which inheres in the fallen manhood; that sin inhered in the human nature; and that Christ's work in the flesh was reducing a nature, in no way different from ours in alienation and guiltiness, into eternal harmony with God.

After the gifts came, in a work entitled, "Judgment on Decisions of the General Assembly," he says, "There is no other work of the Son in the flesh but this, that He took our nature in its fallen state, and redeemed it into the immortal state."

"It was manhood bristling strong with sin." To say the law of sin was not in the flesh in Jesus, was departing from "the word and the testimony," this spirit declared. Now the scripture says, "He knew no sin" - "was made sin for us," but knew no sin. Either therefore evil dispositions in our nature are not sin, or He was conscious of sin; for He was, they say, conscious of every evil disposition. The scripture says (that is, God has said), "In him is no sin."

This spirit has sanctioned the doctrine that sin was inherent in His nature.

This spirit has sanctioned the doctrine that sin tempted Him in the flesh.

Scripture says, "He was in all points tempted in the likeness [of our nature] except sin."

I cannot therefore believe this to be of God; for it contradicts what God has said, what the Spirit of God bears witness to me that God has said.

It was a "holy thing that was born" of the Virgin Mary; and I am "shapen in wickedness, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Here is therefore all the difference.

They say, if His nature differed however little in alienation and guiltiness from ours, He did nothing for reducing it into eternal harmony with God.

I have to say, "Cleanse my heart:" was Christ's heart unclean? They say the teeming fountain of the heart's vileness was opened on Him. What do they mean opened on Him? Was not His heart in Him? I read, "from within, out of the heart." Was vileness then in Him - the heart's vileness? The Lord pardon me for using such a word. Is this the truth of God? If we receive this spirit, we must say This is maintaining truth, for it says it is; or reject this, and the spirit, and all the authority, all the promises, and all the assumptions and terrors of them sent by it, as not of God.

After this spirit was amongst them, and the General Assembly had condemned their sentiments, Mr. Irving says, "The duty, which the Christian people owe to their ministers who in the General Assembly did give their condemnation of this doctrine by which we hold the Head, is in their several parishes to go boldly in, and ask them to their face if they believe that Christ came in the flesh, and had the law of the flesh, and the temptations of flesh to struggle with and overcome; and if they confess not to this doctrine, to denounce them as denying the Lord that bought them, as wolves in sheep's clothing."

Nothing can be clearer, then, than that the spirit which has sent the Newman Street teachers to this country has sanctioned, and is identified with, a doctrine which declares sin to have been in the nature of Christ. The teachers here, in attempting to guard their expressions, have made the matter worse. They have refused to say sin was in the nature of Christ, or use their own words on the subject. But since thus on their guard (for they were much plainer at first), they have fixed upon the statement that "He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," and that the last clause is not meant to qualify the first. Now this makes it not merely dead and dormant in the nature, which was the way the doctrine used to be defended, but connected with temptation that is acted upon, and made a matter of consciousness by the temptation, so that we should have sympathy in its actings in us, in its being acted upon so as to be felt by us when we are so tempted. If this be not putting sin into Christ, I know not what is. It must at least be a question of sympathy in our own thoughts, and "the thought of foolishness is sin," In a word, sin dwells in Him, that is, the way it is in us, the way it is connected with our temptations, so as to be acted upon by our temptations! Their effort at securing themselves has made the matter much clearer and much worse. Sin was not only dead but active in Him: for so it is, however repressed, when temptation reaches it. It is in vain their saying they do not mean to charge sin upon Christ. The scripture calls that sin, and the believer knows it to be such (it is a distinguishing point of a believer) and therefore Christ must have been conscious of sin, and this is every thing. I know that some of them would say that it is not sin till acquiesced in and acted on. This admits its being such then, and what they mean. As to its being sin, we are directly at issue, St. Paul has stated it to be such, the believer knows it to be such; he would not be grieved by, and hate it, were it not. Was this in Christ?

We thus see the first mark of the false assumption of prophecy shown, if any signs or wonders come to pass; false doctrine, the undermining the foundation of Christianity, which they do by the way they meddle with the person of the Lord Jesus.

The next mark was, if any thing was spoken, and the thing came not to pass, the prophet had spoken presumptuously: they were not to be afraid of him.

Now multiplied prophecies have been made by the spirit that is amongst these persons, which have proved false: not merely threatening of judgments, averted by repentance, to which they have been endeavoured to be compared; but prophecies of blessings and establishment of the church, and of positive definite facts about people, which have never taken place.

First, it was prophesied that, at the end of three years and a half from the beginning of the prophecy of the witnesses, Satan should take to himself the sovereignty, and stand forth in all hideous power in the person of one man, to receive the worship of all the earth. The person who should be so energized of Satan, and be set up as his Christ, was at a subsequent period declared to be young Napoleon.

At the time this latter point was prophesied, it was declared that within three years and a half, the saints would be caught up to the Lord, and the earth wholly given up to the days of vengeance.

The power came upon another at the same time, confirming the rapture of the saints within three years and a half.

Young Napoleon is dead some time.

It is now said, that the prophecy made him only a type of the man of sin. This is not the statement of those concerned in the prophecy. But, observe, it admits the prophecy, and the responsibility of those so excusing it for it, as coming from the spirit which they own and are sent by. If it were true, which it is not, from the manifest absurdity of making him a type, the explanation is worse or as bad as the thing excused. For young Napoleon, instead of being a type of hideous power in the person of one man to receive worship, died a boy of nineteen, brought up in quietude and retirement, under the care and superintendence of his grandfather in Austria; and was a type of nothing at all. It might do very well for a prophecy of what he was to be after, but to make him a type of it then was ridiculous.

Again, it was distinctly revealed in the power, and, says one who spoke in it, "I was made to utter, that the American Indians were the lost ten tribes,* and that they should within the three years and a half, appointed for the spiritual ministry, be gathered back into their own land, and be settled there before the days of vengeance set in; that the chief who was now [then] in London, was a chosen vessel of the Lord to lead them back; that he should be endowed with power from on high, in all signs and mighty wonders, and should lead them back, though in unbelief - that he would receive this power here, and be speedily sent forth to them.

*This is a common opinion among some.

"On another evening, I was made in a most, triumphant chant to address him as the vessel chosen of God, and to be endowed of God for the bringing back of his brethren. The chief went away an unbeliever in the work, and none of the powers have been manifested." Now, this also they attempt to explain by news from America, that two missionaries of theirs have since been in America; that Paul Jones (the name of the American) received them, allowed them to preach to the tribe, and says, searching the records of their tribe, he believes they are the ten tribes; but what is there here of the fulfilment of the prophecy? But we must observe, there is the admission of the prophecy having been so uttered as stated.

I must now give a somewhat longer account of remarkable promises made, which, though waited for, never came.

The failure was afterwards explained, and the promise renewed by the spirit itself, and failed again; and then an explanation and direction given, which contradicted the express testimony of the previous utterance.

The great subject of the hopes raised now quite otherwise stated amongst them, was, that the baptism by fire was to be given, entirely burning out sin; and the gifts of the Holy Ghost were to follow, and miracles to be performed; and that this belonged to a period of three years and a half of ministry, the last ministry on the earth; at the end of which England was to be desolate, the saints would be caught up to the Lord, and the earth wholly given up to the days of vengeance within three years and a half; and the spiritual ministry was to commence from a given Sunday then next ensuing, and mentioned in one of the testimonies or utterances of the spirit. Subsequently to the declaration of the rapture of the saints in their three years and a half (which was itself rather inconsistent with a declaration that the baptism and gifts were reserved for the three years and a half's ministry), there were utterances telling them to enlarge their hearts, lest, through unbelief, they should stumble at the greatness of the favour. A few days afterwards was an utterance, declaring that the Lord had set an individual apart for himself; that from the day that he was called to the spiritual ministry, as mentioned above, he was to count forty days; that this was now well-nigh expired; that, for these forty days, it was appointed he should be tried; that the Lord had tried him, and found him faithful; and, having now proved in him the first sign of an apostle, 'patience,' he would give to him the fulness of them, in the gifts of signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds that the Lord had called him to be an apostle, and by the laying on of his hands, and the hands of the other apostles whom the Lord should call, should the baptism by fire be bestowed. On the fortieth day power should be given, the sick should be healed, the deaf should hear, the dead should be restored. Wednesday was the fortieth day. There was nothing particular on Tuesday; but on Wednesday a prophecy of how much the endowments of the apostles to be sent forth would exceed the endowments given to the twelve apostles. The day passed over, without any manifestation of the power which had been foretold.

However, there were still repeated utterances of the prophecies as to the three years and a half; and the decree of the Lord was pronounced, that within three years and a half the land should be desolate.

It was fully declared also, that the spiritual church could not be fully constituted until the full powers of an apostle were given; and they were unceasing in expectation of them, the day named having passed. It was at this period the prophecy as to the American Indians was given.

However, the designated apostle returned to the country.

There it was declared to him by the spirit, that the power was not given on the fortieth day, because the church (i.e. Mr. Irving's church) in London had failed in love towards the visible church, which God had cast off. Then followed from the spirit an emphatic declaration, that, the day after the morrow, the designated individual and his wife would both be baptised with fire, - the Lord joining himself to His desolate church again, by bringing forth visibly a spiritual church, with spiritual ordinances in fulness of power and gifts, etc.

The day named arrived; and in the evening an utterance in power, "Kneel down, and receive the baptism by fire." They knelt down, lifting up prayer to God continually. Nothing, however, ensued. For six weeks he continued unshakenly to seek for it in vain. Mr. Irving wrote, saying how anxiously they looked to his return with the full powers of an apostle.

A little after, Mr. Irving again wrote, saying one of the prophetesses in London rebuked him for speaking of the time, so repeatedly put forth by the utterance in the person designated apostle, - declaring the utterance to be true about it, but containing a mystery, and that the day was not known. Now, this was important, because it was the recognition (by the prophetic spirit amongst them) of the spirit which in this person had declared so many things which entirely failed. And this prophetess had been owned by the others, and one began a prophecy, and another took it up and finished it. There was another important circumstance - there was rebuke for repeating the time prophesied as a mysterious one. Now, it had been constantly explained and enforced by the spirit, and more than once the power had enjoined ministers to preach it in the flesh, though they had no gifts. Here, then, was contradiction - contradiction at a critical moment, to save the prophecy which had failed of accomplishment, - the explanation and sanction by the spirit in the others attaching it, as they all themselves exultingly had done, to the whole work, and giving us a direct and unequivocal instance of a promise and prophecy failing entirely, and laboriously sought to be escaped from.

They have since, by utterance, appointed an apostle without any power at all, who ordains without any pretence of signs accompanying the ordination. I am informed that the number of apostles is now six [eventually twelve].

Let any one simply weigh the prophecies acknowledged here by the spirit still amongst them, and by whose authority these persons come, and their entire failure, and say, "Is this the spirit whose authority we are to receive?" They attempted to explain all these prophecies about apostolic power, and the baptism by fire, by the reform bill being forty days in parliament! and its being forty years since the French Revolution! so any one may see by consulting "The Morning Watch;" and these are the persons whom we are to receive, as alone having the Spirit

Again, one who had spoken in power amongst them was declared by the two chief prophetesses to speak by an evil spirit: but his call to the spiritual ministry had been declared by another in power, the spirit in whom had been recognized by the spirit in these same prophetesses.

Again a prophetess (whose speaking one of the above prophetesses had been made to declare in power ought to be heard, and to whom the individual so often spoken of as an apostle had spoken in power as a prophetess, and was again recognised as speaking of the Lord, and who was the first who spoke in power in the congregation at Mr. Irving's) was by the same two prophetesses charged with feigning utterances; and they pronounced in power the whole work to be of the flesh, and not of the Lord; and it was she also who had begun prophecies which these other two prophetesses had finished, and finished what they began.

I need add no more upon this head, though I could add a great deal more of announcements unfulfilled, but these are sufficient, and sufficient to connect all thus speaking together. It is well known that the great body of the work first received in Scotland as of the Lord, is by themselves pronounced to be of Satan; so that the great body of them in Scotland either entirely reject the whole matter, or decline receiving the Newman Street ordinances and authority.

I myself heard a person declare as God in the first person, not "Thus saith the Lord," but, "I will lay on no greater burthen," and encourage to the work of a pastor a person, who, at that time, fully received it, and was designated and sent down as pastor to the place, by the spirit in Newman Street, and so continued for some time; who afterwards renounced the whole thing entirely, judging it in his opinion to be a positively evil work. This was neither in Scotland, nor was it Mr. Baxter. And in that neighbourhood numbers came under the influence, and made all manner of noises, animal noises, and behaved in a way too painful to go into the detail of. I know well that those who maintain the work would say that this was Satan mixing himself with it; but I confess (though I find Satan opposing the work of the Holy Ghost in the early days), I do not find it an occasion of his mixing himself up so intimately with it, as even on their own allegation (being obliged to it by what was said) to say, that he spoke by the mouth of one of their own still recognised prophets. This is a strange way of giving us security; for how can I tell that the other spirit, which was denouncing that as Satan, was not himself speaking by an evil spirit? It had moreover been expressly declared in power, that such a thing would never be allowed.

I have now stated adequate facts on the second head, on which we are taught to reject persons coming with the assumption of God's authority, which, as said, one could abundantly multiply, but I cannot but think it needless.

It is from all this that those are sent who claim to be the only persons that come with authority directly from God, which they allege all this to be, to instruct, and inform, and to build up the church, furnished with this same spirit. Their assertions, however, on the subject now are entirely at variance with their promises then. The spiritual ministry was fixed to begin on a given Sunday, and service was carried on in a church in England (by the individual so stating it) in the power for the greatest part. This ministry was to be for three years and a half; and then the land was to be given up to desolation, and the earth indeed to vengeance and Satan to take all the power in one man. And the baptism by fire was to be given, as the introduction to ushering in of the apostolic gifts, by which, and their consequences, this ministry was thus powerfully to be carried on. The gifts and power of the ministry were to follow the baptism by fire. The testimonies as to the period were repeated.

We have already seen that the promise of the baptism by which the ministry was to be rendered so effectual (the period of which had already commenced) failed; but this is not the point I dwell on now. Considerably the greater part of the three years and a half of spiritual ministry are now elapsed; and the baptism by fire, instead of being an introduction to the power of the ministry, is now to be a perfecting of the body called out to be the full corn in the ear, whereupon they are, when all perfected, to be caught up to the Lord: so that not only did the prophecy fail, but the promises themselves are quite different from what they originally were.

And here let me add a contradiction in the promises even now made.

One statement they make is, that they are not at present, but to be, as a body, the full corn in the ear. First, the seed sown originally, then the long stalk of apostasy, and then, at last - which is themselves - the full corn in the ear (like the seed, Christ), for whom this baptism by fire is reserved. And when thus ripe, immediately He putteth in the sickle because the harvest is come, so that it is an awful and even fatal delusion to reject them.

Now, they also state that they are the 144,000 mentioned in Rev. 14 redeemed from the earth to sing a new song, which nobody else could learn but they; that they will not be in the judgments and the trouble under Antichrist and the beast; but that others will be saved through all these judgments and be in the harvest.

Now, I do not agree in either interpretation, but they cannot both be true. The full ear of corn cannot be ripe, and immediately the sickle be put in because the harvest is come, and also they be entirely excepted from it, and their distinction be that they will not be in the harvest at all. And it is to be observed, that between the 144,000 and the harvest, instead of immediately, there is the everlasting gospel to every nation, and people, and tongue, and language - another angel of Babylon fallen - another with warning against worshipping the beast - another of special blessing for the dead dying in the Lord - and then, after all this, the harvest, which, according to the other interpretation, was come on the ripening of them, who, on this interpretation, are the 144,000 who have been out of the way so long before.

It may be said of them who teach these things they may err; they do not say they are infallible, though the spirit that sends them is. Of its teaching we have spoken. But these are the promises, and expectations, and interpretations, by which they induce people to hear them, as especially sent by God; and their promises and expectations are themselves contradictory to one another. Who then can rely on them?

If it be asked, how then do Christians come to be deceived? I answer, by departing from the word. Beautiful things are said by these people, very attractive expressions and persuasive teaching: people are not aware of the things behind. Men perhaps of strong reasoning powers, addressed to persons not humbly and settledly taught and grounded in scripture, and persons impressed at the time, and not comparing what is said at different times, and disobediently receiving the spirit without trying it.

These great promises are held out, and solemn warnings and threatenings, if it be not received, given; and people are told they are rejecting God. Departure from the word, and want of humility and spirituality, have been the occasion, as far as I have seen, of persons who, we had trusted, were Christians, falling into it.

The very teachers may be often unaware of the extent the system goes to. The writer of this knows, that those thoroughly initiated into the system have mocked at the doctrine and idea of substitution in Christ's sacrifice. It does not follow that all are brought to this pitch, though one taught of God, and having his senses exercised to discern good and evil will most clearly see it involved in their very first principles. I will state it in the language in which Mr. Irving himself taught it, without saying that the teachers here, at any rate, are involved so deeply in it. The consequence is obvious on the doctrine of the sinful human nature; but I state it, to show it is no arbitrary charging a consequence not drawn by others. Mr. Irving says, "The man who will put a fiction, whether legal or theological, a make-believe, into his idea of God, I have done with: he who will make God consider a person that which he is not, and act towards him as that which he is not, I have done with. Either Christ was in the condition of the sinner, was in that form of being towards which it is God's eternal law to act as he acted towards Christ, or he is not. If he was, then the point at issue is ceded; for that is what I am contending for. If he was not, and God treated him as if he had been so; if that is the meaning of their imputation or substitution, or by whatever name they call it, away with it from my theology for ever." And again, "It is no reconciliation of individuals, but a reconciliation of human nature. It is not thine, it is not mine, it is not Christ's, but it is the common unity of our being."

And I must add, however I may indulge a hope that one of the teachers here may not be so deeply, as being more recently, involved in the doctrines of Newman Street, that he did not seek to join himself to this party, till he had learnt somewhere to use the language of "the fiction of imputed righteousness;" and had published a tract, the object of which was to show that the Spirit never dwelt in us individually; and that, therefore, we had only to look for it according to the manner it was in Newman Street.

It may be well to add, that cases similar to the one before us, have occurred before, specially about 700 years ago, in which were tongues, prophecies, and more wonders than even now; but the prophecies failing in like manner; reasons given for the non-fulfilment of signs, the very opposite of all their hopes and prophecies taking place, and the whole thing came to an end; many Christians misled by it, and even more prayer, power, preaching, apparent piety, and good conduct, accompanying it. It closed (though not given up by all, for reasons for the failure were published), by a positive testimony that a given person would be raised from the dead on such a day. They went in full expectation of it, but the dead man was not raised at all. But, while it lasted, the influence was wider and more powerful than this has been; and the language, warnings, threats, and promises, just the very ditto of those now used.

It came to nothing. Here I close the ground on which a simple mind will reject it. I add a few observations only, not meaning now to discuss the whole subject. It seems to me there are two great motives which the evil one could have in misleading us in such a manner - first, to discredit the testimony concerning the coming of the Lord, which he cannot like, for it ends all his present power; and, secondly, to frighten the saints from looking continually for the Spirit of God, believing that He dwells in and amongst them, for fear of such consequences, or alarmed by such circumstances as these. If he did either of these, he gains great advantage over the saints. But neither rests on their testimony, but on the word of God: and two cautions I would give as to this. We find terrifying by the near approach of the day of the Lord to be part of the craft of the enemy, in 2 Thess. 2; and one way of its being done was "by spirit." It was presented in a way calculated to trouble and confuse them.

The Spirit of the Lord never makes it the subject of terror to Christian saints, but of great joy and comfort to them - telling them it shall not overtake them as a thief - as walking in patience, separate from evil, it is the day of their comfort, and joy, and gladness, the time of their rest, when their conflicts will be over, and they will enter into the joy of their Lord, the day when they will see Christ with joy. This is a marked difference, Whenever the day of the Lord as instant and impending is brought to terrify a Christian, give no heed to that spirit or teacher. The undoubted apostle beseeches us not. And now, observe, how or by what does he beseech us? Is it by the promise of an extraordinary presence or gift, or baptism of the Spirit which is to secure us? Not at all. He beseeches them "by the coming of the Lord, and our gathering together unto him," by which we shall be not in the day as a day of terror, but up above with Him, and appearing with Him.

Not a word about the special and extraordinary or restored presence of the Spirit; but there is of signs and wonders accompanying evil, from which they were entirely secure, and only they who had received the love of the truth - chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth. Nor is there in any part of the New Testament any reference to any restored or extraordinary presence of the Spirit, as the security of the saints in the latter day. All the Newman Street promises, and the expectations they hold out, are founded on the Spirit's being restored to the church. This is a fallacious promise, there being none such; but it is accompanied with a denial, as indeed the terms and declared hopes and gifts express, that the Comforter is with us, and abideth in us, as given to the church.

In order to receive their promises of its being restored, we must set out with a denial that He dwells with us and in us. Now, the express promise of the Lord, as contrasted with His personal stay upon earth was, that it should abide with us for ever. We must, therefore, deny the Holy Spirit, and the promise, and word of God, if we take their promise of its restoration. If we deny that we have the Spirit, we cannot expect to be kept from the deceits of the enemy. But this is not all; for it makes God a liar, Who says, "abideth for ever," and turns our unfaithfulness in using the gift (which we have, indeed, with shame to acknowledge) into a charge of unfaithfulness in God, in holding to His word, "abide with you for ever." "Let God be true, and every man a liar."

Thus, while it turns away the mind to something as a hope, even the gift and baptism of the Spirit (which is not what the apostle does, but the coming of the Lord, as that which shall take us out of the day), it leads us, in giving us this false hope, to deny it as a present reality; thus leading us to deny the very Spirit it professes to give, while the word of God, which professed He should "abide for ever," is made nought of. How cunningly does the enemy weave his web! To supply the deficiency of New Testament promise, new and fanciful interpretations of the Old are introduced, and the statements of what the church was in the apostle's time produced, to show (but most falsely, I believe) what it must be now. As example of the former I bring this Isaiah 40: 1, is the restoration of the apostles now; ver. 3 of Prophets; ver. 9 of Evangelists; ver. 11 of Pastors. As to the latter, I would refer to Rom. 11: 22. "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: to them which fell, severity; but toward thee (i.e. the Gentiles taking the place of the Jewish branches), goodness if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." This does not look like a promise of restoration.

As to the figure, baptism of the Holy Ghost, I apprehend it rather would show that it could be but once to the church, which took place, we know, at the day of Pentecost. Any extraordinary visitation after the Jews are brought back, I do not enter upon here, as not my subject, I mean not to deny this, but this is not the place for it.

I will only add, further, that the apostle Paul, or the Spirit of God, speaking of the perilous times in the last days, gives also as the security, continuing in the things learned, and the scriptures able to make wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. So to the elders from Ephesus, He commends them to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, etc. So Peter, in an Epistle treating of apostasy, writes, that they may have these things always in remembrance. So Jude writes, and exhorts to contend for the faith once delivered. In none is any extraordinary restoration of the Spirit adverted to, as the guard or security against delusion; while in John, the actual indwelling of the Spirit in all Christians, and individually, is repeatedly insisted upon as a great distinguishing point against being seduced. Now the spirit amongst them calls knowing what is written, and keeping it in remembrance, knowing it in the flesh; and they deny the actual indwelling of the Spirit, so as that God thereby dwells in us. They upset or deny the securities God has given.

As to the test which they have so frequently applied to try, as they allege, the spirits, it is a mistranslation which, however comparatively immaterial in ordinary times, shows how little they could have been led by the Spirit, when the whole trial of the work rested on this, and they had a mistranslation which affected the whole test in the most material way. "Whosoever confesses [that] Jesus Christ [is] come in the flesh." Leave out the two marked words and you have the sentence. The apostle, in the Epistle, had been opening out the whole value, power, and import of the Incarnation, and then stated the Spirit given us, as a distinctive means of knowledge that the Lord was abiding in us. But then, says he, aware of the danger, do not believe every spirit - try them; and he then gives various notes of them who are of God, and specially this, to try the spirits, the acknowledging Jesus Christ come in the flesh. Devils owned abundantly that He was come in the flesh, but they never owned Him, which makes an amazing difference in the matter. The government of a country would own that a pretender was landed, but they would not own him. A rebel might own, when he could not help it, that the king was come, but it was another thing to own him: this made a loyal subject.

It is, then, owning Jesus as revealed, as incarnate, and made known by the Spirit of God, not merely owning that He is come. This the Spirit amongst them had not at all done, but quite the contrary. It has sanctioned doctrine injuring the person of Christ: doctrine, part of the statement of which was, that the generation of Christ was nothing more than the implantation of that Holy-Ghost-life, in the members of His human nature, which is implanted in us by regeneration. Now, this is just the opposite of the test here given. It militates against the whole truth of the Incarnation. The language also that Christ was clothed upon with a human nature bristling with sin, like the quills of a porcupine, which, therefore, must either have been distinct from Himself, or sin must have been in Him, again militates against it. And this doctrine it was, Mr. Irving says, which this spirit was sent to witness to, and there was not the subject of its witness till this was taught. So that if this be no true account of the Word made flesh, of Jesus the Son of God incarnate, then does the test subvert the whole thing, the authority of the spirit, not establish it. With them the test became a sanction of the sinful humanity of Christ. This failing - the taking it might prove evil, not good; and accordingly, the test was put by the chief authority in one of their churches in England, and taken fully by one who was afterwards proved by them to speak by an evil spirit, and confessed it.

One reference only remains. By the power, the presence of the Spirit is declared to be the security against being in the hour of temptation which shall come on all the world - this restored form of the Spirit, which was to be greater amongst them than the endowments of the twelve apostles. Now, I read thus in the word of God: "I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and has kept my word and has not denied my name . . . . . . Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them which dwell upon the earth." There is not a word about the Spirit, but it is what the Spirit says. It says not great gifts and endowments, but a little strength. It says not of itself - the extraordinary presence of its restored power, but "hast kept my word - hast not denied my name - kept the word of my patience." Can any thing be more opposite to the hopes and promises held out? Here, it is this spirit which promises that it will be the security to those who trust in it in the hour of temptation which shall come on the world; but I read, that keeping the word is the security. See Rev. 3: 10.

What then? Keep in communion with the Lord, cleave to Christ in spirit, leaning entirely upon Him. Hold fast by the word. Give no heed to doctrines which would bring Christ in any wise into the state of a sinner, except vicariously, a sinless substitute for us (that, cling to fast). But try the spirit, if need come of it, not by what they who receive them say of them, but by what they, the spirits, have already said and done. And do not receive them till you have ascertained this; for false prophets, perhaps I may say many, are gone out elsewhere, and in a little measure here. You are acting in disobedience if you do not act thus, and therefore cannot expect to be kept; for as to the appearance of the thing, Satan can transform himself into an angel of light. One word more: be not terrified if they say, Take care that you do not reject God. First ascertain if it be God; as to this, I have given you some evidence here. Nor if they say, Take care if it be the Holy Ghost, you do not call it Satan; it must be one or the other - leave them to settle that. Ascertain if it be God, or His truth; and if not, reject it, whatever it be: and be in nothing terrified by them. Simply by the help of God (as bound to do by His word, or you act in direct disobedience to Him), try the spirits by what they have said or done, before you listen to them. Listening first, and trying after, is no way, if they have, already testified to any thing. It is not by the spirit directly, which they profess to speak when sent, but that they came by the authority of it. The point to be ascertained is therefore their authority; and this must be seen by what the spirit has said and done, by which they are sent. Look to that, and take and hold fast the word of God already known. J. N. D.

Is there a re-application of the blood?

J. N. D. Christchurch, New Zealand.

(Extracted from The Bible Herald, First Series Vol. 1, 1876, page 43-5.)

I feel the subject of the greatest possible importance, and therefore do not let it drop. Many dear souls do not see clearly the truth on the point, and suffer by it. They have not the liberty before God they might have, and true holiness suffers by it; but it is want of light, and that is not a subject of reproach.

To be reduced to such an argument, taken from a possible but uncertain illustration, as one coming up from bathing having to wash his feet, dirtied in coming up, to prove that since the first washing was by blood the second must be, is to show that a person has not much to say.

There is a cleansing or washing by water as well as by blood. I have little doubt that the real allusion is to the priest, whose whole body was washed when they were consecrated, and afterwards washed hands and feet - here only the feet. But weak as it is, the whole of the argument is founded on the first washing in John 13 being with blood, which it surely is not. All blessing is founded on the value of Christ's precious blood, from the cleansing of our conscience from sin, to the new heavens and the new earth; yea, the glory of God Himself and the Son of Man's glory above. God's glory, our peace, and the immutable stability of all blessings depends on it. That is not the question, but whether our consciences are cleared once for all by the sacrifice of Christ, known, of course, by faith. [The article in question insists, though enveloping the matter in a mist, in substance, that we are not so cleared once for all - that the blood must be re-applied for this purpose.] The Epistle to the Hebrews declares that we are perfected for ever, and that God remembers our sins and iniquities no more; that there being only one offering, implies that the worshippers once purged should have no more conscience of sins - that if it were not so, Christ must have often suffered. Now I do not call in question the putting or sprinkling of the blood on us. He has washed us too, it is said, from our sins in His own blood- - only, He has done it. In the Old Testament we have the covenant sealed by the sprinkling of blood, or putting it on the person - the leper cleansed by it, the priests consecrated by it; but these, once for all. But there is another aspect of the blood, which is that insisted on in the Hebrews, namely, its being presented to God. You have not the application of it in the Hebrews, but its being taken within the veil. No doubt the value of this is enjoyed by faith, but the great subject of the epistle is its being presented to God. On the great day of atonement referred to (Hebrews 9: 12), there was no sprinkling of blood on the people, but on and before the mercy seat, where God sat between the cherubim, and the transfer of the sins to the scapegoat, and this, note, was what cleared their sins; and it is this these chapters insist on, adding an allusion to the red heifer, of which I will speak. Hence, note, so far from the sprinkling of the blood of bulls and goats in the first part of Hebrews 9: 13, necessarily involving its being the sprinkling of blood in the latter part (as both included in the antitype in verse 14), there was no sprinkling of the blood of bulls and of goats at all, on the great day of atonement referred to, except on the mercy seat; it was not any sprinkling of the blood on the people which cleared them. There is no foundation for this argument at all. Sprinkling of blood on us is not spoken of in the passage. The whole argument in it is founded on Christ being offered only once, and then sitting down, having entered in once by His own blood. The only sprinkling with blood in the chapter is in verse 19 - the blood of the covenant at Mount Sinai; which was certainly not repeated, and is not the question indeed before us. In the 14th verse even, no sprinkling or application is spoken of, but of the value of it to purge the conscience - He having offered Himself without spot to God. It is always this that is insisted on. Shedding of blood is what is urged - the value of the sacrifice, not its application by sprinkling. From verses 24 to 28, we have carefully urged, in a manner that leaves no question as to it, that it is Christ's offering Himself and entering into heaven to appear in the presence of God for us, which is the subject the Holy Ghost insists on; suffering once, appearing once in the end of the world to put away sin, bearing the sins of many, and being now at the right hand of God  - in the presence of God for us - after accomplishing it once for all, or He must often have suffered. This is what is set before our minds - the value and character of the one act, and Christ being gone up on high - and this only.

The 10th chapter is equally clear. It is the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all that sanctifies by God's will. Christ is not, as the Jewish priests, ever standing occupied with a work which can never finish. He is set down when He had offered one sacrifice for sins, having no more to do for His friends till His enemies be made His footstool - "for by one offering He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified;" and to this the Holy Ghost testifies. God's will, Christ's work (now set down), the Holy Ghost's testimony concur to give constant assurance in coming to God. There is no thought of sprinkling or applying the blood to us in the passage. It is another order of thought - many offerings, which can never take away sins, or one, offered once by Him who is now gone to God. Another remark is needed here, the force of "for ever." It is continuous or continual. It is translated rightly in verse 1 -  "offered continually." It was constantly going on. Now, Christ having offered one sacrifice of Him self, sits down continuously, and we are continuously perfect: our conscience is as constantly perfect as Christ is constantly sitting at God's right hand. The solemn warning which follows confirms, in the strongest way, the same truth, and the true sense of the passage. If this sacrifice be given up, if we sin wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there is no more an offering for sins, but a fearful looking for of judgment. It is not re-application - the value of the blood sprinkled on us being lost - but an impossibility of repetition of what has been done, because it has been done once for all. The whole passage is the urgent insisting on this, that this blessed efficacy cannot be repeated. Indeed this is universally the case in the Hebrews. Sin, if returned to, is always looked at as finally fatal. It is drawing back to perdition - impossibility to renew to repentance. At any rate, the point here is not repetition of sprinkling to cleanse, but the impossibility of repetition of that which cleanses, as that which is done once for all. Nor is it exactly justification, though akin to it; justification has judgment in view - is judicial in its character. This contemplates entrance into the holiest, and a present and constant cleanness suited to and necessary for it - a perfect conscience - no more conscience of sins - or a new sacrifice must be offered, and repeated suffering of Christ, which is impossible. By one offering He has perfected for ever - for a constant state - them that are sanctified. I do not see how anything can be clearer or more definite and positive, I am as constantly perfect as Christ is constantly sitting at the right hand of God -  and, indeed, because He is, appearing in the presence of God for me, the perpetual living witness that all my sins are gone, for He is there who bore them, and all the value of His blood who has cleansed me by it.

But I am told that the washing of the feet in John 13 is by blood. The simple answer is, the chapter speaks of water, not of blood - "The Lord poured water in a basin;" that is not blood. What Peter looked for when the Lord said "If I wash thee not," was water, not blood; and to this the Lord answers, "He that is washed," replying to Peter, who referred to the water He had in the basin, "needeth not, save to wash his feet." The whole chapter speaks of water and of nothing else. It is what He had in the basin - what He was cleansing their feet with, and what the whole chapter is about, the Lord actually using it then, and referring to it. I speak of the word, as signified by it, because, as the Lord, referring to this water-washing which was before their eyes, says, "Ye are clean, but not all," Judas being there; and in John 15, Judas being gone, "Now (already) ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." It is a gratuitous and mischievous alteration of the passage to apply it to blood, when the Lord had the water there and was speaking of it. A man cannot be converted and born twice of the word, any more than he can be justified and cleansed with blood twice.

The Red Heifer remains. One thing is perfectly clear - there is no sprinkling the man with blood in the account given. The blood was sprinkled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, seven times, as it was on the mercy seat on the great day of atonement. As a fact, the man was sprinkled with running water with the ashes in it. If it is merely meant that the blood of Christ is the basis of all cleansing, I receive it fully. But the sprinkling of the blood is brought in here definitely and positively, elsewhere than on the man the blood was sprinkled with perfect efficacy, seven times, at the door of the tabernacle, where the people met God. There was no sprinkling with blood to cleanse, and what was noted was, that the sin had been dealt with long before, and consumed, so to speak, when the heifer was killed and burned. The thing the man was cleansed with was running water, and the ashes which were a witness that this was so. There was no application or sprinkling of blood as blood, but the witness that that had been done long ago, the blood was gone in the fire, shed and sprinkled at the door of the tabernacle - the sin gone -  according to the holiness of God's nature, and the efficacy of Christ's offering, and the value of it, perpetually before God, at the place where the people met him. There was no sprinkling with blood, but the witness of the unbearableness of sin to God, according to that which had consumed and put it away as to us long ago; and the blood had disappeared in the sacrifice which had been consumed, and in which sin had been judged, while its efficacy remained constantly under the eye of God, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, where, and where only, it was sprinkled as shed blood. For the rest, as made sin, all had been consumed in the fire of God's judgment.

This is all they have to say to deny the plain statement - the blessed statement - that we are perfected for ever. No instance, no word of re-application of the blood, or re-sprinkling with blood, can they find. That is quite certain. It is only an effort to make out that what is expressly water, in Scripture, means blood, in order to deprive us of what Scripture gives - a perfect conscience - no more conscience of sins when once purged.

As to the remarks on our washing one another's feet, forgiveness has nothing to do with it, that is only as to what concerns ourselves. We cannot apply blood to another, but we can, by grace, apply the word and not suffer sin on our brother. What is said is hardly worth the words I have spent upon it. The statement that the passage quoted from the Hebrews applies only to the objective efficacy, not the subjective condition of the soul, is met by the simple remark, that the passage speaks of the objective efficacy in its effect on the subjective condition, namely, no more conscience of sins.

I never saw a more hopeless effort to get rid of the direct statement of Scripture, a more utter absence of apprehension of what it says, in any comment in my life. I insist on its being its objective efficacy, not application, here; but the whole object of the passage is to show that this, known by faith, has complete efficacy on the subjective condition, namely, that it purges the conscience; in this sense making us perfect for ever - continuously. Is not that a subjective condition? I wish for no greater testimony that the opponents of this blessed truth are denying what Scripture states, and have not apprehended God's testimony at all. If you want a proof of the incompetency of unbelief, you have only to read this paragraph and compare it with the 9th and 10th of Hebrews.

A purged conscience - a perfect conscience. This, they say, is "conscience as to objective efficacy of the sacrifice, not the subjective condition of one's own soul." The whole object of the passage being to show that faith in the objective efficacy has this subjective effect. Such is unbelief. That should draw out only gracious diligence to remove it. The effort to cultivate unbelief in the blessed word, and hinder souls receiving it is a graver thing.

As to hypothetical circumstances for a Jewish conscience, as is alleged as to Hebrews 10, they are Christianity, as it there goes on to explain. This is all very bad. But I repeat here, the question is not treated judicially in Hebrews. It is a question of boldness to enter into the holiest, and that is always ours. Psalm 32 just proves the contrary of that for which it is cited. The confession spoken of - led to being forgiven, and no imputation left. The confession was not of sin committed subsequent to the forgiveness spoken of in the first verse, but what led to it, as plain as words can make it, and then no sin was imputed. He had kept silence, was at last brought to confess, and so had forgiveness; and the apostle uses it to show a state of no imputation of sin. There, too, the Apostle urges, the objective faith gives the subjective state of peace with God.

The whole paper, then, is simply a denial of the truth of the purging of a believer's conscience - a perfecting us for ever in an uninterrupted state as to this before God. It seeks with vain efforts to make the water mean blood, leaving no place for the scriptural use of the water - plunging the believer back into uncertainty of conscience before God, instead of applying the judgment of failure to a question of holiness, for one who walks in the light as God is in the light, never allowing the soul to get beyond the question of guilt, and making it content when that is settled, falsifying, as has been done ever since the Scriptures have been closed, the whole truth of Christianity for the souls of men. Unbelief in the true force of Hebrews 10, and the truth contained in it, as to the true subjective condition of the Christian, was the real origin of all the superstition and corruption of the Church.

I knew the case of a charitable institution in Ireland, where New Testaments were left to be read by those for whose advantage it was carried on, where Hebrews 9 and 10 were torn out, and when the guilty ones were discovered, they said if that were true the priests misled them, and that they did not believe. And now Protestant teachers are trying to do away its force; but this began immediately after the Apostles' decease. The utter weakness of the effort here to get rid of the truth is more manifest than usual, by the attempt to say that the conscience being purged, and we perfect as to it, is not a subjective condition of the soul. It is tantamount to a confession that they have no ground to stand upon.

Other points I might notice, but my object, and only object, is to keep, by answering this paper, this great truth before the soul - that by one offering Christ has perfected us for ever; and that the worshippers once purged through that offering should have no more conscience of sins.

Unrevised notes of readings on the Gospel of John

with J. N. Darby in Dublin, 1880.

(Words of Faith, Vol. 3, 1884, page 261.)

John 1.

In the first part of this chapter we get abstractedly what Christ was: the Word, the Word with God, and who was God - life and light. An important element is brought out here, and that is, that when divine light came into the world in grace, the world did not know Him; and then we get quickening - "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

In verse 14 we have what Christ became, not what He was, essentially; I mean, of course, that this is another part of the truth. We have not His work yet, but His incarnation - "and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us." This is very simple in one sense. He became a Man; and not only that, but He "dwelt among us" - not like God visiting Abraham merely. In outward form He was like another man - He was "found in fashion as a man." (Phil. 2: 8) That is an immense truth; the Word comes and dwells among men as a Man, (more than a man, of course), "and we beheld his glory," the glory He had down here, and those who had eyes to see through it could see the Father - "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." "The glory as of an only begotten with a father;" this is really only a comparison, yet "this is my beloved Son" the Father said more than once.

If you leave out the parenthesis the passage reads thus: "And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us full of grace and truth. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace upon grace." But that is not all we get in this statement of His glory; there is a manifestation of the Father, and those who had eyes to see saw the Father revealed in the Son, but it is also the Son's revealed place as Man down here.

At the end of Matthew 3 we get in this connection a very remarkable passage. There He took His place publicly - He entered by the door into the sheepfold being baptised with the baptism of repentance; not surely as needing repentance Himself, but taking this place, as fulfilling righteousness, with the godly remnant in Israel in their first right step Godward. When He had taken His place there, as soon as He came up out of the water, the Holy Ghost descended on Him; heaven is opened, and the Father's voice came from thence saying, "This is my beloved Son." He stands here the expression of our place before God as our Father. But we must remark that there was no union with Christ in incarnation; no taking humanity into His Person. We are united to Him in glory, and it was after He had accomplished redemption and was risen that the Lord said to His disciples, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God" - He had brought them into the same place He had Himself as Man. What makes this scene in Matthew still more striking is that it was the first time the Trinity ever could be revealed, though we get the Son occasionally in the Old Testament, and the Spirit often. The revelations of the Trinity - the Father, the Son, and the Spirit - is identified with His taking this place - making it - for us in His own Person, and now ours actually through grace.

But to return to our verse, we get Him here as "the only-begotten of the Father," not as "the firstborn among many brethren," and He "dwelt among us" - it was not merely an apparition to them - and it was as "full of grace and truth." There had been acts of grace before, but here we have a Person who is Himself the thing "grace and truth came [subsisted] by Jesus Christ." It was not merely a direction how to walk such as the law was. The law came with a claim on man; it was the perfect rule for man as man. Here we have this precious Person dwelling among us, full of grace and truth - all divine goodness was there, dwelling in the world, and the truth about everything brought out. It could then be said of Satan that he was the prince of this world, and the god of it, because truth itself was in the world, and brought this fact to light. "Grace and truth" (the singular is used in the original) were one thing in His Person. It was the bringing down to man, the humanising, in a sense, of light and love; not the abstract nature of God, but the manifestation of that amongst men.

Next (ver. 15) we have John the Baptist's testimony.

Then (ver. 16) John the Evangelist takes it up again: "and of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace;" it really means grace heaped upon grace, when one grace was given another came upon it. There was in its plenitude divine favour in the world and truth about everything. Truth in a certain sense answers to light, but truth could not have been in the world if grace had not been there too, for it would not have been the truth about God. As believers we have all received of Christ's fulness abundance of grace; here it is what is in Himself.

Do you ask, "How have we received it?"

Because all that is in Christ is ours; all the riches of grace and blessedness; His nature, too, in one sense, because Christ is our life, the source and the fulness of it. In respect of our being sinners, the way of this we get in, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit." Christ is the reservoir of all blessedness, and we are connected with Him through death. Nobody was anointed with the Holy Ghost but Christ during His lifetime.

When the disciples looked back they could see what He was, because they had got (through the Holy Ghost, given to them after Christ was glorified) what He was in themselves; as communicated to us, it is said "which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passed and the true light now shineth." (1 John 2: 8.) At first the Light was shining in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it, the light shone - but nobody received it; now the darkness is passing, it should be (there are many still in it), and the true light does shine effectively. When redemption was accomplished, and never till then, could Christ say  My Father and your Father, my God and your God. In the earlier part of John's first epistle we get life and light, and in the latter part we get love.

The life was there objectively before the disciples, they "beheld his glory"; all is manifestation here. "The life was manifested, and we have seen it," says John.

The law was given by Moses - nothing came into the world by the law, but grace and truth came and were actually there when Christ was present. He is "the truth" - He is truth plainly out before us; and all grace was in Him, that is love adapted to the state man is in.

We are not saying here how a sinner is presented to God, but how the thing comes down from God; we do not get the sinner's side at all in the Gospel of John; we do not get the forgiveness of sins in John. It is a living Person in whom all these riches of grace have come down. It is an immense thing to see that Christ is the Fountain-Head, and that all the fulness that is in Him can flow down to us here. In all John's writings we get the flowing down towards us, not the presenting us upwards to God, that is Paul's doctrine; this other side is as just touched upon in 1 John 4: 17. We have a divine Person coming down and putting others in connection with Himself, so that all the fulness that is in Him flows into and through them.

In verse 18 we get another thing: "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Here we get the Father revealed; we have all the fulness that is in the Son for us, but besides that the Father revealed to us. A most wonderful thing this, that when He reveals the Father it is as He Himself knows Him. If I were to tell you about my father, I must tell you about him as I have known him myself.

Someone asks, "why have we the name of God here?" All through John's writings, whenever it is a question of God's nature or of man's responsibility we always get God; whenever the operation of grace is spoken of we get the Father and the Son. So we have "fellowship with the Father;" "God is light." "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" - there we have responsibility; "for the Father seeketh such to worship him" - there we have grace.

If you take God abstractedly, that is in His essence, which is the force of this passage, we shall never see Him - "He dwelleth in light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen or can see." (1 Tim. 6: 16.) Yet we read "the pure in heart shall see God," and Stephen saw "the glory of God;" how I do not pretend to say. The angels, too, saw God manifest in the flesh. It would be a terrible thing to spend eternity in my Father's house, and yet never to see Him.

We get this expression "No man hath seen God at any time," also in 1 John 4: 12, but we see a change has taken place in our position there, where the same difficulty is in question, and it is met in a different way. Here in the gospel we read, "The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." In that place where He was the sole and absorbing object - in the bosom of the Father where He dwelt alone, He has made Him known to us as He knows Him. Then in the epistle, we read, "If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us" - by the communication of the divine nature and by the dwelling of God in us we inwardly enjoy Him as He has been manifested and declared by the Son. Christ did reveal the Father when He was upon earth, and, when He had died and risen again, and the Holy Ghost had come, God dwelt in the believer. Thus we know God inwardly - "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God," that is, the Father.

Some one wishes to know, "what place the cross has in connection with the revelation of the Father?" All revelation of God, whether in His nature or relationships, is based upon the cross. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, but now since the cross, not being here Himself, He has ambassadors; and in principle this continues always - Christ having finished the work and gone on high, ambassadors were sent - the present action of God in reconciling sinners is by ambassadors. "God was in Christ:" this refers exclusively to His life - true all through His life - not His death. What is so very wonderful in the cross is that we get there the complete righteousness of God against sin and the perfect love of God to the sinner.

We have been speaking, up till now, of the divine nature of Christ, now we get (ver. 29) His work. We have His work in two characters: He is the Lamb of God that takes away sin; and He baptises with the Holy Ghost.

First, He is "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" - note, not sins. "Behold the Lamb of God," that is God's lamb, what specially appertains to God Himself - "the Lord's lot." He takes away the sin of the world, not here the sinner's sins, but the sin of the whole world; this will be the new heaven and new earth, where there will be no sign or trace of sin. We have had an innocent world, and a sinful world, then we shall have a righteous world depending on God's Lamb. God's Lamb He is in every sense, thank God, He has borne our sins too! but here it is abstract. God's Lamb is from God, according to God, and for God. In the very place of sin He has perfectly glorified all that God is - "God is glorified in him; if God be glorified in him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him" - without waiting for the day of the glory with men. According to the thought of John 13: 32, He goes at once into the glory of God. "I have glorified thee on the earth," He says, and as a consequence He goes back as Man into the glory He had with the Father before the world was.

As the Lamb of God, Christ perfectly glorifies God in John 13; as the Son, He perfectly glorifies the Father in John 14.

It is a wonderful thing the cross; there, and there only was God fully glorified. Where do we find the love of God in all its fulness? At the cross: "Hereby perceive we the love, because he laid down his life for us." Where do we find perfect righteousness against sin? At the cross: "He made him to be sin, for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Where do we find absolute obedience? At the cross, where Christ was before God in the very place of sin: "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Where was the majesty of God fully vindicated? Nowhere but at the cross: "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." The more we look into the cross - and we must come to it first as poor sinners that need salvation - the more we shall wonder at God's love. We get in the cross man in absolute hatred to God and all the power of Satan; Man, much more than man, in absolute obedience; and God in perfect righteousness against sin. All man was in goodness in Christ; all man was in badness; and all God was in love and righteousness, came out at the cross. Every question of good and evil was settled at the cross. The new heaven and new earth are founded on it. Though all our blessing is wrapped up in it, "God's Lamb" is for God's glory - for Himself and according to what He is.

It is a blessed thing to study what Christ was down here, not that we can ever fathom it. What a wonderful thing that He could say, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life to take it again" -  He could give a motive to God. As to comforters he had none; He went through all sorts of trials, denial, conflicts with Satan, and yet see what His spirit was in going through it all - how perfect in obedience. It is profitable indeed for us to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Look at the perfectness of the Lord, in another way, in Gethsemane: He was sweating great drops of blood when He was only even thinking of the cross, and yet He can go to His disciples and speak to them just as quietly and gently as if nothing was the matter, and then go back again and pray. We get possessed with things, they overwhelm us, but it was never so with Christ, they never took Him out of Himself, so to speak, though He suffered as no one else could suffer. We see nothing but perfectness in Him. There is nothing like it - of course there is not, but it is well to behold it, and have it always before our eyes.

Second, He is "He which baptiseth with the Holy Ghost." Here, first, we have Christ marked out by God Himself - by the Father: "Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him;" and then we get Him as the One who communicates the Holy Ghost to us: "The same is he which baptiseth with the Holy Ghost;" and in this connection we have: "For him hath God the Father sealed" (John 6: 27); "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and hath power." (Acts 10: 28.) Both the expressions, "sealed" and "anointed," are used as to Christ. The character of all the life of Christ here on earth was by the power of the Holy Ghost: "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God then the kingdom of God is come unto you" (John 7: 39); "After that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandment unto the apostle he had chosen." (Acts 1: 2.)

Then, after His ascension, He received the Holy Ghost a second time, not for Himself, but for others: "Therefore being by the right hand of God, exalted, and having received the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." (Acts 2: 33.) This answers to John 7: 39: "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified;" the Holy Ghost, as personally present in believers on earth, did not then exist.

Thus, first, we get Christ Himself anointed and sealed, its perfect Man; and then, having wrought redemption, which brings us unto His own place - "Because as he is so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17) - He gives us, from the glory where He now is consequent upon His work at the cross, the Holy Ghost, so that we are consciously in it. The Holy Ghost is given, notice, to those that "believe;" this is not the quickening power of the Holy Ghost, but what follows the place we are in through faith: "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (Gal. 4: 6.) Not only are we sons "by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3: 26), but, through the Holy Ghost, we have the consciousness of being sons.

By Christ's death everything as to man's relationship with God is changed; the veil was rent from top to bottom; Man - much more than a man - has entered the holiest, and, consequent on His entering there in the virtue of His sacrifice for us, the Holy Ghost has come down to give us the consciousness of our place before God, and with this He is the Spirit of Sonship; He sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts; and He is the earnest of the glory, which we have not yet got. Hence the possession of the Holy Ghost is what characterises the Christian: "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." (Rom. 8: 9.)

The Holy Ghost has always quickened souls, from Adam on, but that is a very different thing to what we have here: Christ as Man - having wrought redemption through His death, having gone through judgment for us, having been made sin for us, having His place as Man at the right hand of God - sending the Holy Ghost to dwell in believers; so that, "As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." (1 Cor. 15: 48.) There was no accomplished redemption, and no man in heaven to be revealed in the Old Testament.

As a child of Adam I am washed and forgiven, but what place have I got? Suppose I owed a million and it was paid for me, and that was all, I might starve afterwards. There is the work of Christ as regards our old state; all has been totally put away, both sins and sin - "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15: 3), this takes away the fruits - "In that he died he died unto sin once" (Rom. 6: 10), and we have died with Him, this takes away the tree for faith: then as to the place we have got, we find its full character in Ephesians, where Christ is not looked at as the quickening Son of God, but as Man dead, and then when God raises Him from the dead, He raises us with Him - the same power takes Him and us up together.

The Christian is a person whose body is the temple of the Holy Ghost; who looks back and sees by divine teaching the value of redemption, and who, possessing the Holy Ghost as the earnest, looks on to the glory he has not yet got. He is not in the flesh; Paul says, "when we were in the flesh" (Rom. 7: 5), and "ye are not in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." (Rom. 8: 9.) In Romans 7, after the first few verses, the man, as in the flesh, is still weighing his place with God by what he is himself, like the prodigal son before he had met his father - "make me as one of thy hired servants" (Luke 15), reasoning from himself to what his father might be; not from what his father was, as he knew after he had met him. God puts us into Christ, and gives us the Holy Ghost to give us the consciousness of it - "Of him are ye in Christ Jesus;" "for all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." (2 Cor. 1: 20) "Us" is always the word of the Holy Ghost.

The difference between "anointing" and "sealing" is that anointing is the figure of our receiving the Holy Ghost and sealing that we belong to God. Sealing is for the individual - I am sealed for myself, you for yourself; but as there is only one Holy Ghost in that way we are one - "For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body." (1 Cor. 12: 13)

In Romans 8 we get three characters of the Holy Ghost: He is "the Spirit of God," in contrast with the flesh; "the Spirit of Christ," as that by which Christ as Man walked, and which forms our characters; and "the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead," as the power by which our bodies will be raised.

"If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his," means, we are not Christ's till we have got it; we may be on the way. The operation of the Spirit in quickening is one thing, but that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost is another, and much lost sight of. When the blood was put on the lintels God had really taken the Israelites in hand, and they were safe; saved is a much stronger word than safe. If I am saved I have got out of the flesh into Christ: "There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus;" we do not get salvation till Romans 8. This alters everything. When the blood was on the lintels God's character was that of judge: He did not come into them; and this was mercy. At the Red Sea He became their Saviour: and the Israelites "saw the salvation of Jehovah," as those who had passed out of the condition to which judgment and all the power of Satan attached.

Christ was delivered for our offences; this clears me as a child of Adam, and in that state it is mercy securing me for the judgment of God. "In Christ" I am before God in Christ's place of acceptance and blessing.

The natural order of blessing, so to speak, is what we find in Acts 2: 38: "Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." The only thing that hinders the reception of the Holy Ghost is the want of simple faith in the work of Christ. The moment the Holy Ghost is received the soul cries, "Abba Father." If any one can cry "Abba, Father," he has the Holy Ghost; he has the known place of relationship with God as a son.

Notes - Spiritual Songs, Morrish edition, 1882.

J. N. Darby.

The following notes, amongst other details and incidents of interest, give the grounds upon which the dates have been assigned. The earlier dates are only approximately given. The later Hymns, with the exception of "The Hope of Day," were all written during Mr. Darby's residence in Pau, in the years 1879 to 1881, when the thought of Hymns addressed to "The Father," was much present to his mind. Hymns from pp. 41 to 77 are given in the order in which they were written in Mr. Darby's manuscript book.

[The numbering is the pagination of the Morrish edition of 1882.]

*The Hymns thus indicated, were all written at Pau, in the same year, 1879.

1. "What powerful, mighty Voice, so near,"

The date of this Hymn is, it is thought, somewhere about the year 1832; but being uncertain, is placed in brackets.

7. "Oh ! the joy of the salvation"

This Hymn was dictated by Mr. Darby, to a friend, while confined to his bed in a dark room, during the intervals of a severe and prolonged attack of gout in the eye, about the year 1835.

A selection from it, was published in the following year, in "The Christian Hymn Book, 2nd Edition (T. B. Rowe, Plymouth), 1836," but with considerable variations, introduced by Mr. Wigram (as in other of Mr. Darby's Hymns), to make the Hymn more suitable for singing purposes.

These variations are shown by the italics, in the following text, which is taken from "The Christian Hymn Book;" the printing and punctuation being given as there found:-

"Hark! ten thousand voices crying

'Lamb of God!' with one accord,

Thousand thousand saints replying,

Wake at once the echoing chord.

* * * * *

'Praise the Lamb,' the chorus waking,

All in heav'n together throng,

Loud and far each tongue partaking,

Rolls around the endless song.

Grateful incense this, ascending

Ever to the Father's throne,

Ev'ry knee to Jesus bending,

All the mind in heav'n is one.

All the Father's counsels claiming

Equal honour to the Son,

All the Son's effulgence beaming,

Makes the Father's glory known.

By the Spirit all pervading,

Hosts unnumber'd round the Lamb,

Crown'd with light and joy unfading,

Hail Him as the great 'I am.'

Joyful now the full creation

Rests in undisturb'd repose,

Blest in Jesu's full salvation,

Sorrow now, nor thraldom knows.

V. 6, 1. I. - "Full" in "The Christian Hymn Book," is changed to "new" in "Hymns for the Poor of the Flock (1, Warwick Square, London), 1838," - to avoid the recurrence of the word "full" in the 3rd line; and this is followed in other Hymn Books.

* * * * *

Hark! the heav'nly notes again!

Loudly swells the song of praise,

Throughout creation's vault, Amen!

Amen, responsive joy doth raise."

The complete Hymn, as given in this Collection, was not published in its original form, till it appeared in "The Present Testimony, vol. ix. (Groombridge, 5, Paternoster Row, London), 1857."

11. "Rise, my soul! Thy God directs thee;"

This Hymn was written in Switzerland, when a large number of Christians left the Swiss Free Church ("L'Eglise Libre"), after some lectures that Mr. Darby had given on the Book of Exodus.

It was first published in "The Christian Hymn Book, 3rd Edition, 1837."

14. "Rest of the saints above,"

This was first published, on Mr. Darby's return from Switzerland in 1845, in the form of a leaflet (T. B. Bateman, 1, Ivy Lane, London) ; and afterwards, in "The Prospect, vol. i. (S. Barber, Smith Street, Guernsey), 1848."

18. "O Lord, Thy love's unbounded!"

Written on the top of a coach, while trying to recall a Hymn by Mr. Deck, beginning with the same words, well known to many.

It appeared on the same leaflet with the above; and in "The Prospect, vol. i. 1848."

20. "This world is a wilderness wide:"

The manuscript of this was given by Mr. Darby, to a friend, at Montpellier, in 1849.

It was first published in "The Prospect, vol. i. 1849." It is called, in "The Present Testimony, vol. i. 1849," "A Song for the Wilderness."

22. "O Jesus, precious Saviour,"

First appeared in "The Present Testimony, vol. xiv. (Groombridge, 5, Paternoster Row, London), 1862."

25. "Sing, without ceasing sing,"

First came out in "The Present Testimony, vol. xiv. (Groombridge), 1862."

28. "Oh! bright and blessed scenes,"

In "Present Testimony, a new series, vol. i. (Groombridge), 1867;" and called there, "Home."

31. "O ever homeless Stranger!"

This was written during a severe illness, in Canada, in which it was thought he was dying, and when medical aid had been in vain pressed upon him. He got up, although weak; wrote the Hymn; and was then obliged to go to bed again, for the remainder of his illness.

First printed in "Words of Truth, vol. i. (R. L. Allan, 75, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow), 1867." It is called, in "Present Testimony, a new series, vol. i. 1867," "The Man of Sorrows."

41. "Soon we taste the endless sweetness"

First published in "A Voice to the Faithful, vol. iv. (24, Warwick Lane, London), 1870." It is called, in "The Streams, (Tract Depot, Warwick Lane)," "The Tree of Life."

45. "And is it so! I shall be like Thy Son!"

In "A Voice to the Faithful, vol. vi. (24, Warwick Lane, London), 1872."

Entitled, in Mr. Darby's manuscript, "The Hope of Day."

*48. "Father! Thy Name our souls would bless,"

Written at Pau, in the South of France, 1879.

Mr. Darby first concluded this hymn thus;-

"In holiness Thou keep'st us here,

With all a Father's love;

As Jesus loved, - we have no fear, -

Taught, led, by Thee above."

*51. "To live of Thee,-blest Source of deepest joy

Entitled, in Mr. Darby's manuscript book, "Echo of Songs in the Night."

*54. "There is rest for the weary soul- "

*56. "Oh! bright and blessed hope!"

*60. "Blest Father! infinite in grace:"

(1) Another manuscript reading of verse 2, is as follows;

"Thy love will find its perfect rest,

Where all around is joy;

Where - all in Thee supremely blest -

Thou shalt their powers employ."

(2) In place of the two last verses given in the text, the following verse occurs in the earlier manuscripts,

"Yet more than all, a Father's love

Doth deeper joy recall ;

And is, where all is bliss above,

The chiefest song of all!"

(3) There are further variations in the manuscripts.

*62. "Father! in Thine eternal power - "

This Hymn was written for an invalid who was in great suffering.

*66. "I'm waiting for the glory:"

Entitled, in Mr. Darby's manuscript book, "Sonnet."

68. "Father! Thy sovereign love has sought"

Written at Pau, 1880.

70. "And shall we see Thy Face!"

The manuscript is on the back of a letter sent to Mr. Darby in February, 1881.

72. "O Lord! Thy glory we behold,"

Written it is believed, in 1881.

75. "We'll praise Thee, glorious Lord!"

This Hymn was given by Mr. Darby to a sick friend, in March, 1881.

77. "I'm waiting for Thee, Lord, - "

This was sent by Mr. Darby to a friend, in November, 1881. In the letter accompanying it, he says; - "I send a hymn, suggested by one you like: but that brought you down, to being 'often weary.' This goes up, to where there is no weariness. I don't quite like it, as there is a certain levity about the metre. But it is Christ!"

The manuscript is roughly written, on a very small piece of paper, in single triplets. But now that the arrangement corresponds with the Hymn of which it is a paraphrase, an unfinished appearance is accidentally given to it. The Hymn, however, is complete.

80. "Jesus! canst Thou receive"

Entitled, in Mr. Darby's manuscript, "Part of a Hymn."

82. "It is not with uncertain step"

Entitled, in Mr. Darby's manuscript, "To Georgie L."

Brief notes on the First Chapter of John

J. N. Darby.

{Words of Help, Vol. 22, 1933, pages 228-9.}

In the beginning was the Word, in Greek, Logos. Logos is the intelligence, and the intelligible-reason, the thing thought. Logos is the mind of God expressed, the expression of what God is. This Christ was on earth, the Logos.

Chapter 1 shows us the Person of Christ and its bearing on man, as revealed, and what was required of man to be received, that is, God is Christ-revealed. We also have what that was which that revelation required from man.

This gospel goes back before Genesis. "Was." Whenever you put it the beginning "was." He "became" flesh. "With God" distinct from God. "All things were made by Him" (egeneto), and John adds, "Without Him was not anything made." Egeneto makes it absolute. "Only Begotten," always so. Similarly we read, "The light shines."

Theology is man's mind working on the truth of God. Nothing but faith puts God in the right place. If I pretend to know anything of the Godhead, in so doing I deny it. You must know the thing before you know the object. "Why do you not understand My speech; even because you cannot hear My word (8: 43). "We have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2: 16) is mind with the intelligence. God sends a messenger, John, who comes and says, "Look at the light," at the sun, but the blind people don't see it. "A light to lighten the Gentiles" is quite different, that is, to manifest them. Chapter 10: 1, "If anyone walk in the day, he stumbleth not," that is, if you have got the mind of Christ you will not fall. "Walk in the light" - we are in it.

The current idea is that the light has gradually developed until Christ come. It is not so at all - "the true light now shines."

The full development of man is Antichrist. "The light of everyone" - shining on everyone.

Christ was the Son begotten, not adopted like us. There are two senses in which Christ is Son of God. "He hath raised up Jesus again, as it is written also in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee," Acts 13: 33 - "Raised up" is not resurrection. Acts 2: 24, "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death" - this is resurrection.

"First Begotten" is in reference to other children; "Only Begotten" is sole, absolute relationship with the Father.

There are three facts in verse 14: "made flesh"; "dwelt among us"; "full of grace and truth." The first part of chap. 1 to verse 18 is what He is essentially, and what man is essentially. "Grace and truth came," not were communicated but came. There was no revelation of God in the law. "What is man" occurs three times in the Old Testament. Ps. 8, "What is man and the Son of man?" - Christ glorified, Job 7, "What is man that Thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?" - man in discipline; Ps. 144: 3, "Lord, what is man, that Thou takest knowledge of him, or the son of man that Thou makest account of him?" - His vengeance looked for.

Ps. 2, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee," is Son of God as born into this world. The meaning of "grace and truth" is, all that God was for man, and all His truth about man. There was all divine grace and truth in the Person of Christ. Verse 18, "No man hath seen God at any time." It would be poor comfort to be in my Father's house, and not see my Father.

The Second Coming of Christ

Luke 12: 34-59.

J. N. Darby.

A Reading. (Malvern, 1880)

{Christian Friend 1893, pages 1-9.}

The previous part of the chapter is addressed to the world, as to laying up treasure for themselves. At verse 32 the Lord begins with the disciples.

The coming of the Lord does not present itself, when we think of it rightly, as a thing we learn; but I see in Scripture that it is constantly identified with all the feelings and character of a Christian, "as men that wait for their Lord." It does not say, "As men that believe in the Lord's coming." The feeling indeed of those who had grown cold was not that the Lord would not come, but that He delayed His coming. (v. 45.) Now in the beginning of 1 Thess. they were converted to wait for God's Son from heaven. He was a living, personal reality to them. There is a great deal more in the passage; but that is the first thing; they were converted for that. Expecting Him is the state that becomes a Christian. I do not say there is no other motive; for the blessed love He has shown in His death would lead us to follow Him too; but still the Christian is a person between Christ's first coming to save him and His second coming to fetch him out of this scene, and what characterizes him (if he takes the word of God) is, that he is waiting for Christ.

It is gone into in detail in Luke 12. You first get the "watching," and then, secondly, "doing," while He is away; that is, serving Him. Those who are watching (v. 37), with their hearts upon Himself, He makes them sit down to meat (a figure, of course), and He girds Himself and serves them. But when you come to doing (v. 43), then it is He makes them "rulers" over all that He hath. You first get the blessedness of heaven (v. 37), and then joint-heirs with Him (v. 44), two distinct things - one watching for Him, and the other doing. You see the Christian knows (if he has really got into his place) that he is a person in whom the Holy Ghost dwells, who is the seal to us of the full efficacy of Christ's work on the cross (and our part in it too), and waiting for Christ to come, which will put us into possession. Christ enters into possession not of all things in the inheritance yet, but He is sitting on the Father's throne till the joint-heirs are gathered, and then He will put them into glory.

With regard to the way the coming of the Lord connects itself, not merely as a doctrine, but interweaves itself with all the thoughts and feelings of the Christian, there are only two epistles where it is not put before them as an object. In one (Galatians) they were too low, and the apostle had to begin at the very foundations with them; and in the other (Ephesians) they were looked at as already sitting in heavenly places. In 1 Thess. 1: 10 it was part of their conversion. Christ had suffered for them, and was going to come and receive them to Himself. In 1 Thess. 2: 19 it is the joy of the apostle's service in ministry. These Thessalonians were dreadfully persecuted, and he longs to know how they were getting on. When he thinks of his service and labour and ministry for them he says, "When the Lord comes, that is the time when I shall have my joy and crown." Then, in 1 Thess. 3: 13, it is connected with holiness - another great element in Christian life. We must walk in holiness now if it is to come out "at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints," and the thing the apostle looked for was that they should be unblameable at that day. In 1 Thess. 4 it comes in again (vv. 13-18); for the Thessalonians thought that those who had died would not be able to meet the Lord. They were so looking for the Lord's coming, every moment, that they thought those who died would be out of the way, and not meet Him. Of course, they did not know everything clearly, for Paul had only been a short time with them; yet they had learnt this much, and a good bit more. So Paul tells them that the dead in Christ are not left out; for when the Lord comes from heaven, they will come with Him. If a person died, they were to comfort one another with the words, "Well, the Lord will bring them with Him when He comes." You see from this epistle how the coming of Christ connects itself with the conversion, ministry, holiness, and sorrows of the Christian; and in chap. 5 it is a warning, still held out as the end they were looking for.

The thing I find most precious in the coming of the Lord is, that the Person of the Lord becomes so prominent. It makes Him more precious. He is coming to take me to be with Himself. It is the Person who is the object of our affections as Christians. But it will be a grand thing when we are with Him, and of course we cannot be separated. It is not our glory that is the great satisfaction, but being with Him. It sets Christ personally as the One before our eyes.

There is another thing it does. This expecting Him every moment detaches from the world; the life of every one would be changed, all their thoughts and plans gone. There are two things needed in order to look for the Lord in that way - peace with God, and that we love Him enough to care for His coming, and that makes all the difference, of course. If a person was to tell me that some East Indiaman was coming here, it would produce no effect on me; but if a mother were told that her son was coming, she would be on the look-out for the arrival of the packet. Of course we must have peace with God to be able to look for His coming; but it hangs a great deal on the affection of heart to Christ. "To you that believe He is precious." It is wonderful how distinctly Scripture makes being with Christ the thing to hope for. Of course it is heaven, because He is there; but except the word "paradise" you never get the expression heaven in Scripture. Of course, if I go to Christ, and He is in heaven, it is heaven I go to; but the thing that is spoken of is going to Christ. To be sure heaven itself is a paradise, but to "depart and be with Christ is far better." That is what He brings before us as the object - the loving Saviour, who is going to bring us to be with Himself. It exercises the conscience, of course; because if I was looking for the Lord, evidently it would keep my conscience awake, lest I should have anything that would produce a jar in my own heart when He did come.

It is a striking thing as regards the present expectation, that in all the parables, whether it be Christ Himself speaking, or the apostles by the Holy Ghost, it never supposes beforehand that His coming is beyond the life of the people He is speaking to. It is the present expectation. The virgins that slept were the same that woke. Those who received the talents were the same reckoned with. He would never present to them beforehand a thing that was beyond present expectation. It is evident we should like to be found, whether absent or present, agreeable to Him when He does come. It gives Christ the place. We are poor things; but if we heard Him saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant," what a thing it would be to us! Not that I pretend to expect it - except that they are His own words. There is a little more than waiting in this chapter. "Loins girded about." These flowing garments were to be tucked up, not loose, in going on with things as they are in the world; but hearts in order, according to the word of God - "loins girt about with truth," and then "lights burning" - a full profession of Christ. The first thing He takes is having our affections on Christ, and our delight in seeing Him, while we are watching for Him.

There is another thing quite distinct, a very blessed, touching expression of the Lord's love. Here we have to have our loins girded (our hearts in order); but that is now when the Lord is not yet come, but is sitting on the Father's throne; but then "He will gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and come forth and serve them." He says, "You won't have to have your loins girded when you come into my house. I shall make you sit down to meat, and serve you." He will make us sit down and feed upon the things that are in heaven at the table there, and He will minister the blessings to us - infinitely more precious. Not merely the giving us things to eat, but Christ Himself ministering them to us. In that sense Christ never gives up the form of a servant; and when we think that Christ the Son of God takes this place, and has taken it, and never gives it up, what a wonderful thing!

If you look at Phil. 2 you see His path. There are the two parts of Christian life - like Christ in coming down (chap. 2), and like Him, in Him, now He is gone up. (chap. 3) He made Himself of no reputation. He was made in the likeness of man, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and He never gives that up. He never ceases to be a Man, and He always goes down. His first act was to come down from "the form of God" to the cross. John 13 gives one step, and Luke 12 another. Love likes to serve, selfishness likes to be served. John 13 brings out the service He is doing for us now. He could not be the companion of His disciples down here any longer, and what about them when He goes back to heaven? "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." The time was come for Him to go back to heaven, but He was loving them right on the end, and He would have them with Him where He was going, to God, but they must be fit for His presence. He must have them fit to have a part with Him where He was going, so He sets about washing their feet. They were walking about here in this world picking up dirt and defilement, and He washes their feet. He is our Servant now, our Advocate, and, in virtue of that, when we have failed, the Spirit applies the Word, and we get humbled. As regards our practical state there is this daily cleansing which comes when I have let in an idle word or an ungracious thought, and I want cleansing. The Spirit then applies the Word to our consciences, and we get humbled and broken down.

Here, in Luke 12, it is the blessing: "Blessed are those servants," &c. (v. 37.) He will make them enjoy themselves, for His satisfaction is to make them happy. We do not enough believe in Christ's heart towards us, and we have not enough heart for Him either. He values our affections: "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations." What a Saviour He is! It is constant expectation; not waiting merely, but watching. The second part is doing (v. 43); in a certain sense an inferior part. He has entrusted us with talents, perhaps it may be "giving a cup of cold water;" but it is, "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing." The Lord has committed a service to all. Take an apostle, of course he is entirely given up to service, or it comes down to a cup of cold water. The reward is not sitting down and enjoying heaven here, but it is the kingdom, or more than the kingdom. The Father has set Christ over all the works of His hands, and He makes us joint-heirs. But it is much more blessed to be with God Himself, and enjoy Him, than to be heir with Christ, though, of course, that is a wonderful thing. It is especially in the kingdom that the ruling takes place, because Christ gives up the kingdom to the Father after. There will then be no need for power to be reducing a kingdom to order then, for it is all done.

There are two ways of looking at the inheritance. In Peter and Hebrews, as a man walking in this world in trials and difficulties, and looking out for an inheritance reserved in heaven; and then in Ephesians, where I get into the inheritance, I am looked at as sitting in heavenly places, and going to inherit all that Christ possesses. (See Ps. 2) There you get the counsels of God about Christ, and whatever the heathen do, God will make Him king. It is Christ set up in royalty over the earth. If you look at the promise to Thyatira you get that, and also the heavenly part. (vv. 26-28; cf. Rev. 2) A heavenly Christ as well as a royal Christ. That takes the place of what the Church was on earth - the kingdom. The morning star is Christ, as He is known to us; but the characteristic of the sun risen is judgment. A man that is awake at night sees the dawn of the morning; but when once the sun is risen the morning star is not seen. If you look at the sun risen in Mal. 4: 2, &c., you will see it is deliverance by judgment. And that is the reason you get in the Psalms these desires for judgment; that is the kingdom part. Ps. 8 brings out a wider result than Ps. 2: "Above the heavens." He is crowned with glory and honour, according to Hebrews 2: 5-8. It is more than the kingdom; for the kingdom rule has to do with this earth. But in this wonderful counsel of God He is getting joint-heirs for the same glory as Himself. When Peter was walking on the earth, the inheritance was in heaven; but when I am in heaven, the inheritance will be on earth. We know ourselves that we are nothing, at least, worse than nothing - badness in ourselves, yet God says that in the coming ages He is going to "show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus;" but it all supposes we are settled in redemption. It is a blessed thought, that the Father has given us to Christ. The Father says, "Now I want to have my heart satisfied by having them all around me;" and so He gives us to Christ that He may bring us back fit to be with the Father in that way. "Bringing many sons unto glory" - poor, feeble, wretched creatures that we are that He should take us up, but it shows the greatness of His love. But the best part is sitting down to meat, though the other is wonderful too - sovereign grace taking up worms like us and associating us with Christ.

The kingdom part you get in Moses and Elias. (Luke 9) There was Christ along with the saints in glory manifested to the earth. In Luke (which brings out our present place more than the other gospels) it says "they entered into the cloud." The cloud was what had separated Pharaoh from the Israelites; it had directed them through the wilderness; it hung over the tabernacle; it was where God was; and out of this shekinah comes the voice - I may say it was the Father's house practically - "And they feared as they entered into the cloud." It is only in Luke that you get that bit of the transfiguration. The "they entered" refers to Moses and Elias, but it is a difficult matter of interpretation.

Well, there is what belongs to us in Christ. We can sit down quietly at home in heaven, with Christ exercising hospitality to us there, ministering to us - a wonderful thing I am sure. What little, petty things turn us away from God's thoughts! We have to go through them; for "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world."

Notes of Addresses.

22-24 October, 1868 at Edinburgh.

J. N. Darby.

THURSDAY MORNING.

{Similar to C. W. Vol. 32, page 227}

There are two great subjects in Scripture (when once the great thing salvation is settled,) in the ways of God, namely, the government of this world and the sovereign grace that gives people a place according to God's counsels: the Jews are the centre of the one, and the Church of the other, after Christ, of course, He is the great centre - (there is a special government of God even over the children of God now) - but speaking generally, the Jews are the centre of all God's government of this world. You will see what I mean in Deut. 32: 8, "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the peoples (not people) according to the number of the children of Israel." "Most High" is the name of God in connection with the Melchisedec - (Psalm 91) - that is, he who has the secret of who this Most High is, shall have the care of Abraham's God - the Almighty - Jehovah, the God of the Jews. Verse 9 is the Jewish people speaking; verse 14 is Jehovah speaking. First, you get this riddle as it were put: He that knows who this Most High is shall get the blessings of Abraham's God, then they say, Jehovah is this Most High; and then Jehovah puts His seal upon it (v. 14).

He is The Almighty to Abraham: "I am the Almighty God, walk before Me, and be thou perfect." He is "Jehovah" to the Jews: "I am Jehovah and I appeared unto Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah, was I not known unto them."

He is Father to us: "Be ye perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (the name Most High is not yet fulfilled). Our responsibility is to manifest what our Father is. We are the Epistle of Christ, and He was the display of the grace of God amongst men.

We see by Deut. 32: 8, that Israel is the centre of the government of this world, but then I get another thing, I get the sovereign grace of God, associating man with the second Adam, just as he was connected with the first Adam. I get the failing responsible man, and the one who glorified God in everything. It is associating us with the Second Man in glory - we are to be like Him, "The glory Thou hast given Me I have given them," &c. The thought and purpose of God is to have us with Christ and like Christ, His own blessed Son, for ever. We have this place now, though we are not in the glory yet. People think it humility to doubt of God's grace. It's no such thing. It's thinking your own thoughts when God has spoken. When God puts the best robe on you, the greatest humility is to set to, and wear it. If you say, I am not fit, it shows you think it possible you could be fit. True lowliness is to accept God's thought. We have no business to think when God has spoken; our business is to believe. If He says we shall be like Him, we know we shall, for God has spoken it. That is the only true humility - giving up thinking what we are for God, and thinking only of what He is for us. The Prodigal spoke before he came to the Father, of being made like a hired servant. That seemed lowly. It only showed he did not know the Father's heart. He did not say it when the Father's arms were round him; he could not then.

I do not get the counsels of God, properly speaking, till Christ had died, (Eph 1: 1-4). God's choosing us before the world has nothing to do with the sovereignty of it. The grace would be as sovereign that chose today, this moment, any time, but it is that before the world was, He had His thoughts and counsels about a set of people. This shows they are not of the world, though in it of course. (2 Tim. 1: 9, 10), this saving and calling given us in Christ before the world began, but now made manifest, &c. (Titus 1: 2), here I get this counsel of God, given before the world existed, but which did not come out till after Christ had died. This is the first thing. Next thing when I come to creation, I find a different thing, a responsible man born into this world. The first thing he does, all through his history is, that he fails; the first thing we hear of Adam is that he fails; the first thing we hear of Noah after the flood is he gets drunk; the first thing we hear of the law after it is given it is broken; the priesthood is set up, and Aaron makes the golden calf; he never puts on his garments of glory and beauty except the day he was consecrated. Adam is created in innocence and beauty, total failure comes in, and judgment executed, he distrusted God, and listened to the devil, then lust comes in - then transgression, and it is all gone - he is turned out of paradise - the world goes on, brings on the flood - after that Noah fails directly, and so all through. In every place of responsibility, the first thing we hear is man's utter failure. In Paradise you see side by side the two principles about which men have been fighting ever since - man's responsibility and God's communicable grace - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life. Then the law comes and raises the question of righteousness: Do, this and thou shalt live. Here are the two trees again, but I get the tree of righteousness before life. Man fails again, of course. God still tries. He sends prophets, &c. They called back to obedience as the way of man's happiness. After man had been proved a total sinner, God sends the law and the prophets to bring His words and mind before them. This too failed. Then He says, I have yet one Son, perhaps they will reverence Him. They cast Him out of the vineyard, and slew Him (parable of the fig-tree is judged nature); and He says, now is the judgment of this world - not executed yet - but still there was the complete ending of all human responsibility (each individual comes in to conviction of it, of course); but when Christ was rejected, the first Adam's moral history was closed. It was in that sense the end of the world. συντελείᾳ τῶν αἰώνων, as the Apostle speaks. He came to seek fruit, and they had none for Him. He came to make a feast, and they would not sit at it (Matt. 20, 21). We must learn that there is no good in us. The three first Gospels present Christ to man to be received. John's Gospel is testifying that he was not received, and bringing in the grace. John's Gospel all through is election and grace. No such language in the three first Gospels. "Ye are of your father the devil," He says, but I'll have my own sheep for all that. "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the Sons of God, even to as many," &c. There I get the people. Man's responsibility is closed - he is a lost sinner. Man has been in a state of probation, and it's over. As to moral dealing with each individual the responsibility is there to the full; but what he has to find out is that he's lost already; the result of the principle of responsibility is to find out he's lost, that the responsibility is over because he's lost and ruined. Then I come to the Second Man. It's no mending of the first man, but a substitution of the Second Man (there will be a mending of the first, practically, if I see Christ, of course). I get both the trees of Paradise fulfilled in grace. I am brought to the discovery of what I am, and then I see Christ has died on the cross, and taken the whole thing on Himself. Here's the Son of God dying on the cross. Well, if that is not righteousness - judgment against sin - I don't know what is. But who is it for? - the guilty sinner. Well, if that isn't love, I don't know what is. He was there making atonement for sin, that the Gospel might go out to all the world; and as to believers, bearing their every sin, the whole thing is met there, and the believer's responsibility cleared away - the tree itself - this evil tree of responsibility cut down by the roots - the responsibility met by the atonement, and He Himself is the tree of life. (Of course when I say responsibility is gone, I don't mean to touch the believer's responsibility to Christ, that comes in on a different ground.) Now the counsels of God come out, because He could now bring them out. Righteousness is accomplished, and my standing is not on responsibility as a child of Adam, but on redemption as a child of God (admitting all my sinfulness, of course). It is a new footing and foundation. Not only my sins are put away, but that which has put them away, has so vindicated the righteousness of God, and glorified Him, that man has a place at the right hand of God in the glory. He says, "I have glorified thee - now glorify Me," and Jehovah answers, "Sit thou on my right hand, &c." This has put the Son of Man in the glory of God, and He sends the Holy Ghost to form the members into union with the Head who has gone to take His place as Man in Heaven, and this is the Church. Now comes the responsibility of a Christian. A man's responsibility flows from the place he is in. You are not responsible to me as my children, or my servants, because you are not my children, or my servants. If I am a believer, God says, I am a child of God. Well, now, let us see you walking as a child of God in all your ways. Here comes our responsibility; let me see Christ in you, so that he that runs may read. If you are in Christ, Christ is in you. Christ is before God for us, and we are before the world for Christ. There is your responsibility. You are God's child; well, I must see that the life of Jesus be manifested in your mortal bodies, that is individual. You will see the individual put always first in Scripture, because the individual must be put right before there can be any Church.

Our relationship with the Father is that of children; our relationship with Christ is members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones, the Holy Ghost uniting us with Him, the Head, and that is the Church. Our ground is Christ's work. The Church of God is, those whom, when the Head has been glorified in Heaven as man, the Holy Ghost coming down unites to Christ, the Head. The Holy Ghost never came before that, and could not come. All immediate action from creation is the Holy Ghost; He is the direct agent, but He never came till the day of Pentecost. You must not confound the action of a divine person, with the coming of a divine person. All things were created by and for the Son, yet He did not come till the Incarnation. Why this is of special importance is, that the Holy Ghost dwells in the believer, and in the assembly. The Holy Ghost came to dwell down here. There is no such thing as God's dwelling with us, except in redemption. He visited Adam, but never dwelt with him. He talked with Abraham often, but never dwelt with him; but when He redeems Israel, though only figuratively and outwardly, He came down in the cloud and dwelt with them.

The dwelling of the Holy Ghost is distinct from being born of God. It is founded on being perfectly washed and spotless by the blood of Christ. He must have a clean house to dwell in. Take an Old Testament figure - a man was washed with water, sprinkled with blood, and anointed with oil. So we are quickened, brought under the blood of sprinkling, and then the Holy Ghost seals us, by coming to dwell in us. He can't seal an unbeliever. "Because ye are sons, He hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts," &c. By the coming of the Holy Ghost, I get the Church associated with Christ in Heaven; but it was in consequence of His ascension, He could not have come before. The Holy Ghost in the Church could not exist as an actual thing on earth, till Christ had died and risen. The Jewish system was formed by the keeping of the middle wall of partition up. The Church is the breaking of the middle wall of partition down. You can't take Scripture and not see that the idea of the Church even could not be revealed until Christ had gone up on high, and the middle wall of partition broken up. You can get before, "Rejoice ye Gentiles with His people;" but there's His people - the distinction kept up. The Jews had promises; and the one in whom all the promises centred came; they refused Him, and crucified Him. So then they came under mercy the same as the Gentiles, there was no difference - both had sinned - God fulfilled His promise; but the Jews rejected it. So then the middle wall of partition could be broken down, for both came alike under mercy.

Deuteronomy eighth chapter. So we, in a spiritual sense, are put through the wilderness. God took care of the wearing out of their coats even all the time. We are left here to find out what we are and what God is. Being children of God, our home, the Father's house, Christ has gone to prepare us a place, that where He is we may be also. This leads at once to the coming of Christ. We are identified with Christ. He comes first to put us in our place beside Himself. This is our hope. The Jew is the centre of prophecy, the world too has to do with prophecy, but we were in the counsels of God before ever the world was, and so we are not of the world at all. I must wait till He comes to be fully identified with Christ. What rests on Paul's mind in Philippians is to depart and be with Christ - not to go to heaven, though it is heaven. I am not conformed to the image of Christ till I am raised. Christ is the first fruits. The resurrection of the saints is the fullest seal put on the righteousness of God. We are all to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, but we shall be glorified when we get there. We shall give account of everything to God, from the time we were born, but we shall be in glory when we give it. It's the saved that give this account (the others at the Day of Judgment, of course,) how they have glorified Him who saved them. This is our hope. I am to be like Christ when He raises me and glorifies me. I am to be conformed to His image when He comes; and, as regards the Church, the marriage of the Lamb does not come till then. The only proper hope of the Christian is to wait for His Son from heaven. No one knows when that will be. When the last member of the Church has been gathered in, He will come; but whether at midnight, in the first watch, or in the second watch, or at cock-crow, neither you nor I know. It may be to-night!

THURSDAY EVENING.

ROMANS 6 - We have been speaking to-day of the ways of God, and the blessing we have in connection with the Lord Jesus. My thought now is to speak a little more of the foundation on which we walk in conscious relationship with God, out of which our duties and service to God flow, and examine a little in detail how it is a soul can walk in peace. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God." Many a soul has to say, "No, they could not say they have peace." There is one thing that tests the heart, whether it really has peace, what I often use with souls - what effect the Day of Judgment has on the soul. Some have peace if you speak to them of the cross, but if you speak to them of the Judgment-seat, they have not peace. God would not have His children thus trembling and uncertain before Him. We have a certain knowledge of our relationship with God. Some have a vague sense of the goodness of God, by which they just mean that they hope He will not think worse of their sin than they do themselves. But that is not it at all. He is good, but it is in the giving His Son. All is settled, past, present, and future. We have peace by the work of the Lord on the cross - comfort and strength in the present, and hope of glory in the future.

There are two points Scripture treats of: putting away sin entirely, and purging the conscience. He thoroughly deals with my whole condition as a sinner, so as to bring me into a known relationship with Himself before the Day of Judgment comes. He has gone down into the depths of my heart, and shown me the depths of His - so that I know all my own sin and all His grace: I know what I have done, and what I am; and I know what He has done, and what He is. For this there are two things necessary: I must know the ways of God touching sin; I must know that all my guilt has been cleared away before the Day of Judgment - deals with me as a child of Adam. But I want more; there is another thing, putting me into an entirely new place - I have got all the flesh produces cleared away, and I am not in the flesh but in Christ - taken out of the first Adam, and put in the Second Adam.

In Romans I get, first, the clearing away of our sins; then that we are dead with Christ and alive with Christ, but no farther. In Colossians we get a step farther: Not only have we died and are alive, but we are risen with Christ. In Ephesians the Apostle drops the first of this, and holds entirely to the second, and therefore goes on farther - makes us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. We do not get justification in Ephesians, but sitting in heavenly places in Christ, and with the whole range of the privileges of the Church of God, as a present consciousness by the Holy Ghost. You get these blessed steps in the three Epistles. I turn back now to see how we get into this relationship with God. It is not an innocent Paradise - that's lost; and I cannot be with God in a sinful condition. I must be in the light, as He is in the light. If we cannot be that, we cannot be with Him. In Israel the veil was there. The Holy Ghost thus signifying [that] the way into the Holiest was not yet made manifest; there was no question of getting into God's own presence then, there is no question of getting out of it now. You must be in it according to it, or condemned, and cast out of it for ever. He begins all that by coming to us as we are in our wretchedness. If I call myself a Christian, I say I belong to a race who, when He was on earth, crucified and spit upon Him. The extremest act of sin met the highest act of love. In the life of Christ we get the power of perfect goodness in the midst of evil - a thing never known elsewhere. We have to follow it for a pattern. It was God in the midst of evil, to show He was greater than the evil. There He began His direct dealings with man, when man was a sinner without law, and a sinner with law. There He was dealing with Publicans and sinners, despised by the Pharisee, revealing the heart of God - revealing men's hearts, too, as He did to the Pharisee Simon - shows him He is a prophet, by telling him what he is thinking of. Shows He is more than a prophet by telling him this woman's sins are all forgiven her - her sins which are many. He knew them all - knew her heart, and revealed to her His own. He detected the whited sepulchres, and laid them bare. "Let him that is without sin cast the first stone at her"; and they went out one by one. Why did not they own it, and go out all in a lump? Because they were trying to save their characters. I get in His life on earth man's sin perfectly detected, and God's heart perfectly revealed.

The first great truth is, that instead of putting me away because of my sins, He comes in love and puts my sins away. That is the first half - perfectly clears away my sins, so as to give me a perfect conscience before God. Christ is the accomplishment of promise, and He is declared to be the Son of God, with power by the resurrection from the dead; that is, that God had done what He had spoken of; and, besides that, I get a great power come into the place of death, and declared to be the Son of God. . . . . . Christ bore my sins - every one of them. They never can be mentioned again any more; and, having borne them, His blood makes me as white as snow, and His blood IS shed, so that if you are coming to God by Him, and your sins are not put away, all of them, once for all, they never can be, because Christ cannot die over again. "For when He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down," &c. For by one offering He had perfected for ever them that are sanctified. This showed the righteousness of God in bearing with the sins of the Old Testament saints. When Christ's blood was shed, the proof of the righteousness of God came out in forbearing with the Old Testament saints. On this righteousness I rest, as on a rock. Sin has been imputed to Christ, and therefore it is impossible God can impute sin to me, because God has dealt with it, Christ has borne it, and it is all completely cleared away; and, therefore, when it comes to judgment, there is nothing to do with it. To those that look for Him, there is no sin to judge when He comes for them. Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God, &c. And God was perfectly glorified in the cross - perfectly glorified about the sin, and so I can tell the sinner, you come - God has been glorified about sin, and if you come the Father will throw His arms round you, and be glad to have you. When I get Christ on the cross I get perfect righteousness about sin, and perfect love to the sinner. Not only my sins have been perfectly put away, but God perfectly glorified; death destroyed; Satan's power destroyed - and I can rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

There is another thing comes in now, not sins, but sin. The difference is very simple; when we talk of sins; you have committed yours, and I mine; but when we speak of sin, "By one man's transgression many were made sinners," &c., there we are all alike. You get this division between the 11th and 12th verses of Romans 5. I cannot have a nature forgiven, I want to be delivered from it. "Who shall deliver me," &c. It is not now that He has died for my sins, but that I died with Him. This is another application of the death of Christ: that I am entitled to say I died in the death of Christ. By one man's obedience many were made righteous. Oh then, you say, if it is by one man's obedience, I can live on in sin. Ah! but how have you part in this obedience? By being dead with Him. Then, if you are dead, how can you be living on? I died with Christ, and thus I get free from the nature, and not only get rid of my sins which He has borne. Therefore there is now no condemnation. Your place is changed. As Christ died on your account, and is risen again, He died to sin for you there, and you are in Him now, and not in the first Adam at all. The law provokes the sin, and does not help me: while it curses me for breaking it; it does not help me to keep it. The law makes me discover I want deliverance. Well, then, I find I have died to that which held me - I died in Christ. Not merely He bore my sins. The work of Christ on the cross is not merely that He has borne my sins and put them away, but I am not in the flesh at all, I am in the Second Adam, before God, righteous as He is righteous. He having become my life, I treat the whole thing as a dead man. Practically I am not always consistent - I have to humble myself, but I have always the title to say I am dead. This is different from merely my sins being borne and my debt paid: as, for example, to use an illustration I have often used in other places - supposing a son gets terribly into debt - has nothing to do - no means of support - no means of paying his debt. Well, then, suppose his father comes forward and pays his debts. Well, he is as badly off as ever - he has nothing to live upon, and soon he will be in just the same case again. But if his father not only says, " I will pay your debts," but also, "I will take you into partnership with me." That is quite a different thing. He realizes he is a partner in the firm: he is on quite a different footing. You hear him talking about our capital, and our customers, and our business, and the like.

Now, I have got the believer in Christ before God, in chapter 8, and I look at all the full blessing that belongs to me, and I have peace before God, and I am accepted in the beloved.

You may get a person with the forgiveness of the third chapter, but he may not have learnt what he is, and the full provision made in Christ, and he must learn it sooner or later, and till he does he will not have full, settled peace. When our souls have really learnt that He loved us, when we were mere sinners, but cleansed us in His holiness, and accepted us in the beloved because of what Christ has done, we get full peace. The Lord give you to know thoroughly what you are; and that Christ, having died and given Himself for our sins, they are never mentioned again. We are chastened by the way - that is a different thing - but I say again, if our sins are not put away they never can be. And now, beloved friends, do you know your place in Christ? Know you are in Him and He in you. If not, the Lord give you to know He has once and for ever put away your sins, and also that second truth that you have died with Him, and are risen with Him, and sat down in Him in the heavenlies, and the whole thing is settled.

FRIDAY EVENING.

Heb. 9 - It is very striking in this and the following chapter, the way in which the Spirit of God has brought out the effect of the atoning work of Christ; and refers the heart at the end to His coming again as that which makes perfect His first coming, in contrast with the natural condition of man, death, and judgment. I press, first, the purging of the conscience once for all. When once it is known, the question of imputation of sin can never rise again: that is what is contrasted with the Jewish sacrifices which were often offered. Another contrast, too, under the Jewish system the veil was there - they could not go to God. He gave them promises, etc., but they could not go direct to God. When Christ died, the veil was rent from top to bottom - this signifying that the way into the Holiest was made manifest. In chapter 10 He applies it: "Having boldness, therefore," etc. The blow that rent the veil and gave us possession of the Holiest, took away the sins which would have prevented my going in there.

"Now once in the end of the world," etc. That was the end of the world morally. After that it was what Christ did for the lost. If that one sacrifice did not complete the whole work of putting away sin, then He must often have suffered. You must have blood shed again if it is not all done already, and that cannot be. He has made eternal redemption, an eternal inheritance; and He has sat down, having finished His work - put away the sins of those who had believed on Him from all time, and of those who should believe in Him.

The intercession of Christ is founded on redemption. By the work of Christ I have a place in the Holiest; and how can I reconcile that with me, poor failing creature down here. There the Intercessor comes in. Christ is always there as a propitiation. He is there, and He is our righteousness. Repentance is the effect of His advocacy. He says to Simon, "Satan hath desired to have thee, &c., but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." He prayed for him before the sin was committed. Then He looked on Peter at the right moment, and Peter repented, and went out and wept bitterly; but He had prayed for him before he repented. Intercession is founded on the double truth that He is my righteousness, and that He is ever there as my propitiation for every sin I could commit. I hate myself doubly for the sin, because I have sinned against grace as well as holiness. Peter wept bitterly, but our faith is not to fail. Christ did not pray Peter might not be sifted, but that his faith might not fail. He needed the sifting, and it was good for him, but how it proves the value of the intercession.

I have the good will of God to do it for me - a divine work done; and then the testimony of the Holy Ghost to it. So it is all a divine thing throughout. Upon that the Holy Ghost is given; after we believe we are sealed with the Spirit. It is a believer that is sealed. Three-fold character of the Holy Ghost - that He has sealed them, that the Holy Ghost is shed abroad in their hearts, and that He is the earnest of the glory. The one only true hope of the saint of God is the coming of the Lord. Death is not our hope, though to go and be with the Lord is gain to me; but the proper hope is that He will come and receive me to Himself. There is a bright and blessed truth given to us, that death is gain. The thief on the cross: "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." "To depart and be with Christ is far better," the Apostle says. Stephen says - "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." "Absent from the body, present with the Lord": all those passages show it is blessed to drop this tabernacle, and know we are to be with Him, but it is not the proper hope of the Church. We look for the bright and morning star. People take the Sun of Righteousness to mean the Gospel. It is judgment He is talking of there. When the Sun of Righteousness arises, the wicked are like ashes. The Morning Star is the heavenly hope of Christ before the day comes. Prophecy tells me of the Sun of Righteousness, but the saints who are waiting for Him watch in the night, and they see the Morning Star. You get the whole circuit of the Church's place in that one verse, "The Spirit and the Bride say come," etc. The saints say to the Bridegroom, come; press on the saints to join in saying come; then they turn to those who are athirst, and say, we have got the water of life, come and drink; and then to the world at large, to come and take of the water of life freely. This is the place of every Christian down here now. There are two Epistles only in which the coming of the Lord is not spoken of. In Galatians, where they were getting off the ground, and where he is writing to them in an agony, crying, "who has bewitched you?" He does not even salute them; his whole soul is absorbed with their danger. In Ephesians you get the fullest blessings of the Church; but why you do not get the coming of the Lord in Ephesians is that they are looked at as with Christ already in heavenly places, and so He has no need to talk to them of His coming. I might say the one Epistle is too high, and the other too low, to bring it in. Everywhere else it is mixed with every thought and feeling of the Christian; and with the giving up of this hope began the decay of the Church. It is said, How is it good men, years ago, were not waiting for Christ? Why the wise virgins as well as the foolish all slumbered and slept. The difference was, the wise had oil in their vessels - they had grace, and the others had not, but they all slumbered and slept. You get for service the inheritance, and for watching, the heavenly blessedness that Christ gives. When He went away He comforted them by telling them He would come again and take them to Himself. When, in Acts 1, the angels see them gazing up into heaven, they say, He shall come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. And this is no spiritual coming (Acts. 3: 19). Spiritually He was with them, therefore it could be no spiritual coming that is meant here. The Holy Ghost being come, and speaking with divine power, says Jesus shall come. Therefore it is nonsense to say it means the Holy Ghost coming down (Romans 11: 26, 1 Cor. 15: 23).

The coming of the Lord is intimately connected with the first resurrection of the saints. The value of resurrection in 1 Cor. 15: 21, is that it is the resurrection from among the dead. If all are raised together, what is the meaning of the resurrection of the just? and what is the meaning of "If so be that I may attain unto the resurrection from among the dead"? If all were to be raised together, what is there to attain unto? Paul coins a Greek word there to explain his meaning: ἐξανάστασιν. There is not a trace of such a thing as a general resurrection in the Scriptures, but a resurrection of the saints, of which Christ is the first fruits, is everywhere clearly preached. "Recompensed at the resurrection of the just": what else can that mean? When Christ appears we shall appear with Him, because we shall have gone up to be with Him before He appears at all. 1 Thess. 1 - The Thessalonians were converted, to wait for God's Son from heaven. Have you been converted to wait for God's Son from heaven? Giving up idols - the idols of the heart, and just waiting. 1 Thess. 2: 19. - There they are to be his hope, and joy, and crown, at the Lord's coming. Then, if it were a question of holiness, that too is referred to His coming (3: 13). Then if death happened among them, it was just the same (4: 13). If I were to say of a saint in this town who had died in Jesus, "Do not sorrow as one without hope, God will bring him with Him when He comes," they would think me mad - perhaps would turn me out of the house; and yet it is what the Holy Ghost gave as a comfort. How different are the thoughts of the Church now from then. That was given for a comfort, and if I used it to almost any now, they would call me a Spiritualist. The dead saints rise, the living are changed, and all go up in the same cloud of glory. In 2 Thess. the coming of the Lord is referred to judgment on sinners; but whether it is holiness, or conversion, or the joy of the saints, or a person's dying, in everything, every thought and feeling, this coming of the Lord was mixed up.

Wherever you get the responsibility of a Christian you get the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherever you get positive blessing, it is caught up to be with Himself (1 Tim. 6: 13, 14; Tit. 2: 12). In this last (Tit. 2: 12), the Apostle takes Christianity in these three elements - it has appeared and it teaches us to walk soberly, self-restrained, righteously towards men, with piety towards God. Hebrews 9, James 5: 7, and 1 John 3: 1. - When He appears we shall be like Him. I am looking to be like Christ glorified. When He appears we shall be like Him - never before, (we may be with Him - be happy) and then the practical effect here is: I am going to be like Him in glory, let me be as much like Him as possible down here; and to this end I purify myself. "He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure."

1 Peter 1: 10-14 - We get here three steps. First, the prophets prophesying of the glory to come; second, the Holy Ghost sent down giving the report; and then the things they prophesy of brought to us at the appearing of Christ. Jude, again, is full of the coming. All the Epistles and Gospels are full of it, excepting the two Epistles I have mentioned.

The Church is in eternity, and does not count time. All computations as to the time of His coming, are false in their very thought. I get these four things in Scripture. I get revealed that what made the Church go wrong, was "My Lord delayeth His coming" - that He has told us we are to be "like men waiting for their Lord"; that "while the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept." They went out to meet the Bridegroom, but they turned in somewhere and went comfortably to sleep. Any way, they had to be called out again; and then they are roused by the midnight cry, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh," rousing the Church at the midnight time - the time when He was least expected. It is not heaven, though I shall be in heaven: it is Christ I am to get - the blessedest of all, Christ. Am I waiting for Christ? He will find a people waiting for Him when He comes. How long the midnight cry goes forth, we know not. It may do its work in a moment, of rousing the hearts of the sleeping Church. Behold, the Bridegroom cometh! Scripture does not talk of going to heaven, but of being with the Lord. The nearest approach to any thought about heaven is to the thief on the cross - "This day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." But there it is with Me. In closing, are you waiting for His Son from heaven? If not, oh, do bow to the Word of God. Take the Scriptures and see if they do not speak of it as the one hope of the Church.

SATURDAY MORNING. - READING MEETING.

PHILIPPIANS. - What characterises Philippians is, Christian experience - not doctrine. The Apostle looks at salvation as the end of the race always here. Another thing peculiar to Philippians - you never get sin mentioned in it. And when he is looking at righteousness, it is righteousness in contrast with righteousness, and not in contrast with sin. No 7th Romans in Philippians; he is always above going through the wilderness, walking in the power of the Spirit, above all the circumstances, looking on to the end for the full salvation. It is the walk of the Christian in the power of the Spirit of God, triumphing over Satan. What is the difference between Philippians and Timothy? 1 Timothy is Church order; 2 Timothy, what to do in Church disorder. Philippians has to do with individuals; Timothy with the Church, first in order, and then in disorder.

Verse 9. - Not content with a Christian not doing wrong, he wants him to have spiritual discernment to know which are the best things, to have the positive desire to glorify Christ, not merely the not doing wrong.

What is the difference between this Epistle and Galatians 5: 16? The difference is, he is walking in the power of the Spirit of God, and is not thinking about the flesh at all. It is as if I locked up a man who would do mischief in a house, in the cupboard. It is not that the man is changed, or that if he were free he would not do the same mischief as before; he is unchanged, but he is locked up, and we do not trouble about him. It is not Christian experience, as some think, the leaving the door of the cupboard unlocked and letting him get out.

Verse 20 shows such a total setting aside of self. The Apostle decides his own case before Nero. He knows the love of Christ for His Church, and "knowing it was better for the Church, I should stay," he says, "I know I shall be acquitted." Such a wonderful putting away of self and trusting in Christ.

(Verse 19.) - Instead of being cowed by this great leader being in prison, many were encouraged to go on with the things in which he was interested, and even those who were full of themselves, and thought that the sun being down the stars might shine, still they preached Christ, and so he says, it shall all turn to my salvation - always looking at salvation as the final thing at the end. "Waiting for the Saviour," in chapter 3, is not merely a title, but looking for Him as a Saviour. Then too, he might have thought - if I had not gone up to Jerusalem about that money, I should not have got into this mess. If I had taken the Spirit's warning, that they would not receive my testimony in Jerusalem, I might have been free now to be doing the Lord's work. But no such doubts disturbed him. There was a total putting aside of self and thoughts of self. And he says it will all turn to his salvation in the end, by the supply of the Spirit. It was not present deliverance then? - surely not. All through the Epistle he only looks on salvation as at the very end, when the body is redeemed, and Satan finally vanquished. This salvation does not imply any doubt as to the final safety of the believer. You are quite safe, but you have to be kept. I am put through a process where I need to be kept every moment in dependence on God. That is His way with us. I have no doubt He will keep His sheep; but if He did not, we should all fall in the wilderness. You get the practical care of God leading them on every day till the end. "They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." But then, if He did not keep us, Satan is ever ready to pluck us out of His hand. We must be every moment in dependence on Him.

No one could say (verse 20,) except in entire dependence on God, otherwise, he would, like Peter, soon fall into the ditch.

Dependence and obedience the two characteristics of a Christian. Prayer and the Word the two expressions of them. Prayer, dependence, and obedience TO the word.

What is the difference between Psalm 16 and Psalm 23? You get a little difference. In 16th Psalm you specially get the nothingness of man. Christ though God, took that place as man. In 23rd Psalm you have the psalmist not looking at himself at all, but just in dependence on Jehovah.

You get in John's Gospel the divine side of Christ. No crying in Gethsemane in John. When they come to take Him you get Him saying, "I am He"; and they all go backward and fall to the ground. Then again He says, "I am He. If ye seek Me, let these go their way," asserting His care over them, and His complete giving of Himself up. "No man taketh it from Me, I lay it down of Myself." He puts Himself forward, and the disciples run away quite safe. On the cross it is not "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me" - He delivered up His own spirit, as God to God. In Luke you get Him as man - going through the thing. There you get the agony in Gethsemane. But on the cross in Luke, you get Him above the circumstances as Son of Man, thinking of others - "Father forgive them they know not what they do." "This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." There is no cry of agony, His thought is all for others.

He was Son of God, and they rejected Him. He was Son of David, and they would not have Him. But to be glorified as Son of Man He must pass through death, and then He finds that, what even His soul shrank from, was to be the very means of glorifying Him. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." Before we turn back to Philippians, I would say, in Psalm 16 you get the dependence on Jehovah. In Psalm 17 you get the righteousness of the one who called, "Hear the right, O Lord," &c. You get "In Thy presence is fulness of joy," as answer to the trust; "I shall wake up in Thy likeness," as answer to the righteousness.

In Philippians 2 you get the graciousness of Christian life in connection with the humiliation of Christ. In chapter 3 you get the energy of Christian life in connection with Christ in the glory, and running after Him. In chapter 4 you get superiority over all circumstances. Chapter 1 is absence of self, and dependence on the Lord. Chapter 4 - result of experience. Yet he must have had it all along the way, or would not have had it then. In chapter 2 you get the way of getting at self being done with. You get Christ going from glory to death in contrast with the first Adam. Adam tried, in the form of man, to be equal with God - by robbery. The devil said "Ye shall be as Gods." He, being in the form of God, took on Him the form of man, and became obedient to death. There you get the pattern of all graciousness of walk. He always goes down as far as man, and leaves it to God to exalt Him. He is the great example of "he that humbleth himself shall be exalted"; as Adam is the example of "he that exalteth himself shall be abased." He tried to exalt himself, and by that act fell into all sorts of evil and sin.

A person who walks in the power of the Spirit of God thinks every one better than himself, because he sees the faults in himself, and he sees Christ in his brother. The Lord in His own path always went down, just what the devil wanted Him not to do - he wanted Him not to take this place of low dependence, but to act as Son of God. But He knew it was not God's will, and He would not. First step of humiliation - He comes to be a man. Second step of humiliation - being a man, He comes down to death. Let the same mind be in you, i.e., always going down. Emptying yourself and going down, leaving it to God to exalt. He never used His Godhead to save Himself from suffering, but to feel it the more. There are three things - "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work"; "It is my Father that doeth the work"; and, "If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils," etc. The whole Trinity is in the work. You must be careful about dividing them. No man knoweth the Son, because there I get Godhead mixed with manhood, and that is unfathomable. It is not, no man knows the Father - His is simple Godhead - but it is, no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him. I get His manhood brought out as an example for me, only it is the perfectness of what is divine, brought out in a man. I know that all the fulness of the Godhead is in Him, and I know that He offered strong crying and tears, in dependence upon God as a man, and that is unfathomable. The very fact of His humiliation is a proof that He is God, because if any creature keeps not his first estate he goes into sin, a moral proof of His Godhead. Christ comes down by His own right to take upon Himself the form of a servant. Chapter 2: 12: "Work out your own salvation." Here, is THEIR working in contrast with Paul's working, not in contrast with God, for it is God that worketh in you. They had lost an able servant, and we have not got such a help either, and now, He says, have dependence on God instead of Paul, work out your own salvation, looking at salvation as the final thing at the end. If I am not walking close to God, He cannot put out His strength to help what is evil. V. 15, that is being like Christ. Chapter 2 is Christ coming down as a pattern - meekness. In chapter 3 it is energy. You will see in the end of chapter 2 such little proofs of consideration. When love is powerful it reckons on love (though it is not disappointed if it does not get it). "Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved." It is a beautiful picture, chapter 2, of the graciousness of a Christian. He is keeping back Timothy for a time, whose return would have been a comfort to himself; but he sends Epaphroditus, because he is in a fidget to get to them, because they had heard of his being ill, and he had thought they would be anxious about him. Verse 17, he is looking on the Philippians as an offering going up to God, and so he says that if he himself is killed, it is only a libation on their offering, perhaps signifying the willingness of the sacrifice, as the wine was poured on the head of the sacrifice. Wine, we know, typifies joy. Self-sacrifice is always joy where there is grace in it. There is no such joy as self-devotedness. Enduring is not self-sacrifice, but if I give myself up to God there is joy in it.

Chapter 3 - First, fleshly religiousness set aside. It is the sacrifice of self in another sense (verse 7).

Chapter 3 is the energy of Christian life, no matter what is in the way. Oh, but you will have death in the way. That is nothing. I have seen Christ in the glory, and I want to get to Him, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead. No uncertainty about it, but he is so anxious for it, and so you get Christ in glory as the end, not now a Christ down here. It is not "merely suffered the loss of all these things," but "I count them but dross and dung" - not have counted, but do count. The thing is to keep Christ so in the heart, that all else really is as dross and dung - and it is not hard to throw away dross and dung. If I am running for a prize, and anxious to gain it, I may have a very beautiful cloak on, but I shall throw it off to run in. If my heart is filled with Christ - full, full of Christ - I shall go through the streets and see nothing; but if my mind is not fixed on Christ I shall be thinking - "that is a nice engraving," or, "that is a very pretty ribbon." If I am a man, it will be politics, business, or the like. If I am a woman, it will be dress, or the like. If my heart is filled full of Christ, everything will seem as dross and dung. But then if I am not altogether taken up with Him, they will not seem dross and dung to me at all. I was sitting by the bedside of a sick sister the other day, and after talking to her as long as I thought she ought to bear, I turned to her daughter, a nice, modest girl about seventeen, a good daughter too, and I said to her, " Well, now, I daresay, you think more about a pretty bit of ribbon than about all Christ has done for our souls." She looked at me as if she thought it very queer, and I repeated it, and then she said, "Well, I never thought of it like that, but I cannot say but what I do." These things are not dross and dung unless Christ is everything. It is "win Christ" - not glory, but Christ. First, to be found in Him, then know Him. He is looking not merely to be found in Him at the end, but to know Him here, so that he may be above everything. Paul had seen Christ in the glory, and he sets out to be with Him. Does not even know Christ after the flesh - goes along the road in the power of Christ's resurrection. If death is in the road it is all nothing, if he gets this glory that is in Christ. If he gets death it is no matter, Christ will raise him. He looks at the resurrection state. There are two points here, first, Christ Himself that he wants to win, and then this prize of the high calling in Christ.

It is getting a glorious Christ in heaven, who had gone through death on earth. It is His path. Christ had life in Himself, and He went through death. I must get resurrection before I can look death in the face. In verse 19, in the French translation, they have got stuck in, "Mind only earthly things"; that shows the state of mind.

In Geneva once they began talking to me about perfection in the flesh. I said, oh, I want a great deal more than that - I want Christ's perfection. It was a Methodist minister. And afterwards, the world around called them the Perfects, and us the Plu-Perfects. There are three classes of people here. Those who had, and those who had not got hold of this power in which He was walking, - the power of resurrection, and the enemies of the cross.

Chapter 4 - Superiority to earthly things, in the midst of them, but above them. I will not insist on my rights, the Lord is at hand. Then, if we have cares, we are to be careful for nothing. The more Paul was beaten about and imprisoned, the more Christ became to him. No matter how evils bustle about me, God is in peace. Joy is an effect produced by circumstances, in Christ of course. Peace is a thing that is never disturbed, and so God is never called the God of joy, but the God of peace. Instead of worrying in your own heart about the things, go and carry all your requests to God. I do not say you will get them, it might not be good for you, but you will get God's peace; because, though the things may worry you, He is always in peace. His peace keeps the heart. That is not a question of getting what we ask. Now, there is another thing - he had learnt to be content, v. 11. It is very striking to see a soul living above everything, as this Epistle shows. The very energy that made Christ everything to him, carried him into trial. Chapter 4: 19 - "MY God" - that is very beautiful, "I will answer for God," Paul says, "I know Him, I have been through ups and downs and have known Him. And this God that I have known, I can answer for - He will supply all you need."

It is the snare of some minds to be meddling with evil, to go dabbling in it, desiring to mend it, but still, the evil drawing out their energies. The simple Christian rule is to be simple concerning the evil, wise concerning the good. To be meddling with evil gives unconsciously an appetite for strife.

Questions about music, painting, dress-making &c. - how far one could carry them on with Christ? If a thing is a snare to ME, I must give it up entirely. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Different things are snares to different people. If I can go on simply with God with my calling, all well. If I cannot, I must give it up. It is an individual thing with God. I cannot judge what may be a snare to you. If it is a snare, let it go.

Funeral of Augustus James Clarke, a 13 year old boy.

J. N. Darby.

{Notes of a message given by J. N. D. at the funeral of Augustus James Clarke, a 13 year old boy, whose parents were absent (probably in India), May 9th., 1845.

Extracted from the book by J. G. Deck entitled 'Joy of Departing', pages 110-3.}

1 Thess. 2

That while sin and death had entered into this world, and must sever every natural tie however blessed originally, however true and proper in its place, grace had formed new ties, new affections, new relationships, which death could not touch; because they had their source in that new life which God has given to us in Christ, and flowed from Him who is beyond death.

Paul had come to Thessalonica a perfect stranger to those whom he now addresses; he had not 'known them after the flesh.' He preached the gospel to them; they received his testimony, and were born of God. New affections at once existed between them, - new ties which death could not sever. How beautifully we see the exercise of them developed here! Before their conversion, 'he was willing to have imparted unto them not only the gospel, but also his own soul, because they were dear to him,' (ver. 8.) When they were in the weakness of new-born babes, he was 'gentle among them, as a nurse cherisheth her children,' (ver. 7); after that he had 'exhorted them, and charged every one of them, as a father doth his children, (for he had begotten them in the gospel,) to walk worthy of God, who had called them to His kingdom and glory.' (Ver. 11, 12.)

Circumstances, such as bodily separation, the power of Satan, death itself, may hinder the full enjoyment of these divine affections, but they cannot destroy them. Such was the case here; Paul was taken from them in presence, but not in heart; 'he had endeavoured to see them once and again, but Satan hindered him;' but these very circumstances only caused him to look beyond this scene to that day when these new affections will have all their full blessedness. 'What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of the Lord Jesus at His coming? For ye are our glory and our joy.' (Ver 19, 20.)

It was thus with our beloved young brother. All that was merely natural in relationship between him and us was gone; death was the end of all that. But death could not touch one spiritual tie or affection. So far from that, it only removed the hindrances to the fullest enjoyment of them; for it destroyed the energy of the flesh and natural will, which is wholly opposed to the life of God. Another step was gained; a painful and an humbling one, it was true, but a needful one. Death had removed the flesh with all its workings. There was nothing on his part to hinder now.

More even than that. The very body lying here was one step nearer to glory. That very body would become, by and by, the more efficient servant of those new affections, which it had hitherto been able so feebly to express. These new, divine feelings and affections were now ripening in their native clime above; and this body was preparing to give them, in their maturity, an unhindered development, 'in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, at His coming.'

The coming of that day is the spring and power of our hope; for it will be the consummation of everything which even these renewed affections can desire, whether it be, as in this case, the Father in Christ's affection for His children, or the brotherly affection which unites all the members of the family of God.

In the mean time, there is 'the patience of hope.' It is an unworthy object for which we cannot bear to wait. What is that love worth which cannot bear a trial? The present ability to bear separation, 'taken from you in presence, not in heart,' proves its reality and power. How blessed, then, amidst all these circumstances of sin and sorrow, to have these new joys and affections, which death itself cannot touch; the full maturity of which will be known, 'in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, at His coming!"

The Call of Abraham

Genesis 12: 1-10.

J. N. Darby.

{These notes have not been hitherto published. - Ed.}

{Christian Friend 1884, pages 85-91.}

The call of Abram, the father of the faithful, is evidently of special importance in this respect, that it is the first public separation of one called out of this world, and this gives a very particular position to the one so called out. The people of God were always morally, and must necessarily be, a people separate from the world. But Abram was the expression of something different. He was not merely to be a godly man in his family, but a godly man called out of his family. It was God exercising and establishing a title over those He had morally and spiritually called which broke the ties of nature, claiming them and calling them out into public testimony of separation. This distinguished the call of Abram - the public assertion of the claims of God over His people. The call of Israel out of Egypt is somewhat analogous, though it was not said to Israel, "Come out," but to Pharaoh, "Let my people go," because it was the assertion of the right of power over the prince of this world regarding God's own people. Therefore it was said to Pharaoh, "Let my people go," and on his refusing to do this God shows His power in redemption - first by blood, then by leading them out by the Red Sea. Thus it was not in the case of Israel the invitation of the power of grace to those who were its subjects to break the tie, but the assertion of the power of God over the enemy, breaking down every claim of the world. In the case of Abram it was not precisely that, it was an address to Abram himself - the claim of God over the person thus called. It was love working, not a claim of power. It was grace made effectual in its working in the heart of Abram.

For a time, however, the tie of nature was not broken: Abram went out with Terah his father. He did not leave his father's house, he lingered after something; he did not fully surrender himself to the Lord's will at once, and therefore the Lord could not show him the land of Canaan. Abram had left a great deal, but he stopped short of Canaan. It is true he had left his country and his kindred, but he had not left the nearest tie of nature - his father's house - therefore God could not show Canaan to him while he was clinging to Terah, and going but half way with God. Thus he stays in Haran. So it is with us, if there is still cleaving to us a desire after that which naturally belongs to us, there will not be the full entering into those things that God is ready and waiting to show us. All the communications of God to Abram, as to what Canaan was, took place after, or consequent on, his arrival in Canaan. God puts the position he is to be in, in direct contrast with natural ties; He said to Abram, "Get thee out into a land that I will show thee." He knew that natural ties were mixed up with what Abram had to leave, but he was to leave his country and all, having no other warrant for it but God's word. God had called him, and the call implied a claim. It was not merely the question of the public government of the world, Abram is entirely separated from that; he is to be a stranger to his father's house, and a stranger still when brought into Canaan. It was the Lord's love resting on an individual, and associating him with all that he had in His mind, and putting him into the place of all the promises of blessing. We see what he was called out from Joshua 24: 2: "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods." Men were not merely wicked, but God having manifested in the deluge the power of government in the world, Satan got hold of that power in the minds of men, who were thus led to worship devils, to whom they ascribed the power, and not to God.

It was this which formed the occasion of this public testimony for God in separating Abram from all around him; it separated him totally from every tie which was recognized in the world. He was not merely to be righteous and to be a worshipper, all that is true, but he was to be connected in his own person with a glory the world had lost sight of, for it had put the devil in God's place; thus it says in Acts 7: 2, "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham." God calls Abram out from the world to a glory set before him. Glory is revealed, and one called out by the knowledge of it. We have thus in principle the public call of God of the heirs of glory out of the world; the world is not set right, but left just as it was, and we find now a special link of connection set up between God and Abram. God reveals Himself to him, and says, "Come out unto a land that I will shew thee." The life of Abram depended on a present communication from God, an immediate present connection between himself and God, which was to be kept up by the Lord making good all He has promised. So the Lord reveals Himself to our souls, and gives His word as a sure ground of our conduct; and, blessed be God, we can count upon His infallible faithfulness, and live by faith in daily, constant, unceasing dependence on Him, to lead on to the possession of the desires of our hearts. But we find also that the Lord's promises involved the acting of Abram likewise, for while he does not leave Terah, God cannot bring him into Canaan. He could not enjoy Terah and Canaan together. God took care of that; if the father's house be not left, Canaan cannot be shown. The blessing to faith is only found in the path of faith. God's call gives the warrant for acting, and so far as Abram acts in dependence on God, the promises are made good to him.

In all that is spoken of Canaan, it is not rest that is before us. Look at the book of Joshua; there it is conflict. Does Abram get rest? He had not so much as to set his foot upon, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob - a heavenly position, but with conflict, he gets as soon as he had left Terah, and come into the land of Canaan; for the Canaanites are still there. The thing that God calls us to we do not get now, and that which marks the completion of Christ's work is that He sat down. We sit down in heavenly places in Christ; but do we get rest? No; we have to fight with wicked spirits in heavenly places. The saint is called into a place of rest, but as yet gets nothing. Thus we see that the worship of devils was not set aside, but that Abram was called out and brought into the promised land; but not to rest, because the Canaanites were there.

"And the Lord appeared unto Abram." (v. 7) He now appears to him in the land. It is not the call which sets us in the place of worship; but as soon as we enter the land, then we can worship, because our relationship with God is known and settled and enjoyed. Before it is the walk of faith; but that is not worship. So we, as seated in the heavenly places, can worship, knowing our relationship as sons. "And there built he an altar, and called upon the name of the Lord." In Heb. 11: 8-10 we get three things as regards the power of faith in Abram. 1st (verse 8), "By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." He went in simple present dependence, leaning on the promise of God. There was the life of faith. 2nd, when in the land (verse 9), "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." The Lord's appearing to him was the foundation of his worship, the Lord known in the land; and there he built his altar. The Lord further explains His purposes and intentions to him, and how they were to be accomplished. Thus he got prophetic knowledge. But it was not this which sustained Abram's soul. He could say, "I know now how it is all to be accomplished. It is in my seed, and not in myself. I am a stranger here." How then was his soul sustained while he was a stranger? 3rd (verse 10), "He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Thus Abram's soul was not merely brought to worship, but he was sustained by a closer communion with that God who had chosen him, in faith that He would build the city Himself.

I have been struck that, in Rev. 4 where, speaking of the throne of God's government, there are peoples, and angels, and assemblies, and living creatures, &c., a whole population there; but when I come to the heavenly city (Rev. 21), there is a high wall, and streets, and gates of pearl; but where are the people? No one there, because the people are lost in the idea of the glory of God and the Lamb, and nothing else is thought of (though we know it is the Lamb's bride), for God and the Lamb are there. It was looking for this city which made Abram a pilgrim and a stranger. The world could not understand him, and might have said, "Now Abram is in the land, what has he got?" Nothing; for he could not explain to them how it was, but he had seen by faith that city of which God was the builder. We see then Abram is called, and having by faith entered into the conditions of the calling, he gets into the land, and when there he has a present revelation of the Lord, which is the ground of his worship; but it is not rest, the Canaanite being there.

If God has called me out, I must leave the world just as it is, and not think of setting that right. God has called me out of the world into connection with Himself, and I cannot connect any natural tie with such an association. You cannot hold relationship with Christ and the world at the same time. The worship of God is founded on the knowledge of the heavenly position we are in, being called out of the world into fellowship with Himself. We have not a single thing in common with the world. We can sit and sing of redemption, just as if we were now in heaven. My relationships with God will not be in the least changed when I get home; they will be just the same then as they are now; and there is no ground upon which we shall be there that we are not upon now. He has set us in Christ, and we can say, as in Deut. 26: 3, "I profess this day unto the Lord thy God that I am come unto the country;" not shall come. We are there, and have the understanding of how God will accomplish His promises - "in thy seed." Not the earthly rest in the fulfilment of promise to man, but heavenly rest where He dwells, where the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof - that is where He has brought us.

God says to Abram, "I will shew thee," "I will bless thee." Thus it is now a particular relationship on a new ground with persons He has called, and has its existence in separation from the world. It is well for our souls to have the relationship into which we are called distinctly before our minds, that we may know how to worship and be sustained by the strength which it supplies. And if the foundations of the earth are out of course, I am not of it. Having the sentence of death in myself, I shall not fear death; but we shall have the comfort and joy of the place we belong to. The sweetness of a calm is better known when the storm is raging without. May the Lord give us the true revelation of Himself.

The Christian Divinely Pictured.

John 12: 1, 2.

J. N. Darby.

{Words of Help, Vol. 22, 1933, pages 16-18.}

In chapter eleven Lazarus was dead and corrupting, and the sisters Martha and Mary broken-hearted with sorrow.

Jesus, the resurrection and the life, comes into this scene of death and sorrow, and gives life and liberty to dead Lazarus, and joy and peace to the sorrowing sisters. Then, in chapter twelve, they make Him a supper.

There is not only life, but liberty; for when Lazarus heard the voice of the Son of God and came forth, he was bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and could not see, or walk, or move at all. But when the second word reached him, "Loose him and let him go," he gets liberty.

So it is with our souls, and we have in Lazarus, the man who was dead, sitting in a new life and at liberty, supping with Jesus, a picture of the believer. Indeed, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, taken together, make up one Christian. If Christians, we are all Lazaruses, Marthas and Marys. Martha is seen here serving, and not now, as in Luke 10, cumbered with it, and careful and troubled about many things, but here it is a picture of service flowing from life, liberty, and communion with the Son of God. Mary personifies worship, also flowing from the same, and a beautiful picture it is of worship. Mary pours out on the blessed Lord's feet, what (if she had not known and loved the Lord) she would have put on her own head - given to herself - and worship, i.e., praise, thanksgiving, and adoration, is just what we all like naturally to give and get for ourselves.

When, however, we get to know and love Him, we gladly give Him what we used to give and like to get for ourselves. We adore and thank and praise Him. We thus break the box of spikenard on Him instead of ourselves, and the Lord's Table is the place where we should specially come together to make "Him a supper," in the outside place gathered to His blessed name, like the little group at Bethany which was outside Jerusalem and all the Temple worship there.

But we must not think to find a box of spikenard all ready to hand because we have come to the Lord's Table on the first day of the week. Just as Mary's box of spikenard cost her something (it was very costly), so it will cost us something to have a box of spikenard to pour out upon Him. It will cost watchfulness, prayerfulness and self-denial during the week in order to keep near the Lord and walk with Him, else on Lord's Day there will be no spikenard to give to Him - no worship in us.

"And the house was filled with the odour of the ointment." God smells a sweet smell when we make much of His dear Son; when we pour out on Him our adoration, praises and thanksgiving as we remember Him together. Men, and even Christians like the disciples (carried away by the "good words and fair speeches" of a Judas), call this waste, waste of time, etc, getting together for a whole hour or more and spending it all in making much of God's Son, but doing nothing for man. But though service, too, is all right in its place, as in Martha, and will not be neglected if we are in communion with the Lord, yet the highest thing of all is to make much of, to adore, God's dear Son, giving praise, thanksgiving and adoration to Him.

But there is another point in this picture: we not only have worship and service flowing from life, liberty and communion with the Lord; we have testimony, too. The man with a new life in communion with the Son of God is a testimony (see verses 9, 10, 11). Much people of the Jews came not only to see Jesus but Lazarus also, whom He had raised from the dead, and many of them went away and believed on Jesus, from just seeing the man with a new life, sitting, feeding with Jesus. This draws out the jealousy and opposition of the chief priests, who consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death, because that, by reason of him, many went away and believed on Jesus.

How blessed to know that if we are only going on in communion with the Lord, people will be attracted by it, and some of them will go away and believe on Jesus, too, through God's grace using those who have a new life and liberty from the Son of God, and are in communion with Him. And it is not here direct service, such as preaching and talking to people, at least we do not know that Lazarus preached to anybody, blessed as that is, but the new life being manifested and so soon in the ways, manners, business, everything, that others are led to think of and to believe in Jesus, too. This draws down religious opposition and the religious leaders try and kill the testimony.

Nothing Like Him.

{Words of Help, Vol. 22, 1933, page 19.}

The value of revelation, of the word, increases for me daily, in a manner that I know not how to express. What a precious thing to have God revealed in Christ! How the Person of Christ stands out alone against the background of the scene of this world, to attract our gaze, and associate us in heart with God. In this respect the commencement of the Gospel of John has been of much blessing to me of late. Christ is unfolded there in so complete a manner! He gathers around Himself; He must be God, otherwise He would be turning us away from Him. He says 'Follow Me.' He is the Man who makes the way, the only way across the desert; for, for man there is none, since he is separated from God. On the Man Christ heaven is open; He is, as Man, the object of heaven, and of the service of the angels of God. John (a beautiful example of the absence of all selfishness and of all self-regard) receives a testimony from above, but he speaks of that which is earthly. Now that is but a testimony; but He who came from above bears witness of what He has seen, and in Himself He reveals heaven. He gives - He is - the eternal life, in order that we may enjoy it. What a thing to say - that heaven, its nature, its joys, what it is should be revealed to us by the word and by the presence of Him Who dwells there, Who is its centre and glory! Now, without doubt, man has entered into heaven, but it is none the less precious that God should have come down to earth. Man admitted into heaven is the subject of Paul; God, and the life manifested upon earth, that of John. The one is heavenly, as to man, the other divine. This is why John has such attractions for the heart. There is nothing like Him.

Note on the Chronological Dates

J. N. Darby.

(Translated from the French)

{Taken from the notes in the New Translation of the Scriptures by J. N. D. See chart Chronlgy.*}

The dates follow generally accepted chronology, and are based sometimes upon detailed information given by various passages of Scripture, and sometimes upon verses such as Ex. 12: 40, 41; Judges 11: 26; 1 Kings 6: 1; which cover a lengthy period of time. Only two or three of these passages require comment. For the reigns of the kings of Judah and Israel the duration of which is clearly stated, the reader is referred to the table on opposite page.

In order to determine the scope of the expression 'the residence of the children of Israel' (Ex. 12: 40), it must be borne in mind that the promise of God to Abram (Gen. 15. 13: 16) mentions 'four hundred years', and then the assurance that the patriarch's descendants would return in the fourth generation to the land of Canaan. It follows therefore that the time of the sojourn or pilgrimage of the elect family must be reckoned from the days of Abraham, and presumably from his entrance into the land of Canaan. Compare also Acts 7: 17.

The period of '450 years', mentioned in Acts 13. 20, appears to be an approximate figure covering the time which elapsed between the entry into the wilderness and the end of the reign of Saul, verse 21 being a parenthesis intended to fix the attention on the period the apostle had in mind, namely, the reign of David to whom the promise of Saviour-King had been made. We must remember that the Judges often exercised their authority over a part of the people only. Thus Ehud and Shamgar wrought amongst the tribes in the south, whereas Deborah and Barak brought about deliverance in the north. The reference to Ehud rather than Shamgar (Judges 4: 1), would prove that the 'rest' mentioned in Judges 5: 31 must form part of the 'rest' spoken of in ch. 3: 30, especially referring to the tribes in the south. Jephthah's reply to the Ammonites shows that the children of Israel, at this period, had been only three centuries in possession of Heshbon and Aroer-all the country lying between the Arnon and the Jabbok having been won not from the Ammonites but from the Amorites (Num. 21: 24-26). Finally, it was during a part of the 'forty years' of Philistine oppression that Samson judged Israel (Judges 13: 1; 15: 20); this period came to an end with the victory of Samuel (1 Sam. 7: 13).

For the chronology of the lapse of time between the Old Testament and the New, we have to consider the '70 weeks' of Dan. 9: 24. As one of these 'weeks' of years refers to the future, there remain 69 'weeks', that is to say 483 years, reckoning 'from the going forth of the word to restore and to build' not the temple but the city of 'Jerusalem'. Permission to do this was given to Nehemiah by Artaxerxes I in the twentieth year of his reign; the state of desolation in which Nehemiah found the city on his arrival is given in considerable detail. Verse 26 of Dan. 9 shows that the sixty-nine weeks do not end before the manifestation of the Messiah to Israel (John 1: 31), perhaps not even before His death. It would therefore be necessary to deduct 33 years to arrive at the date of His birth, which would have been 450 years after permission was given to rebuild the city, or 530 years after the return of the first captives from Babylon.

These considerations enable us to arrive at the following summary:

Years

From the creation to the flood, when Noah was 600 years old (Gen. 5: 3-29; 7: 11) 1,656

From the flood to the birth of Terah (Gen. 11: 10-25) 222

When his father died at the age of 205 years, Abraham was 75   130

Which fixes his birth, from the creation of the world 2,008

His entrance into the land of Canaan took place 75 years later (Gen. 12. 4) 75

Up to the exodus from Egypt (Gen. 15: 13, 16; Ex. 12: 40) 430

Up to the building of the temple 480 years later 480

Length of Solomon's reign, less three years already past (1 Kings 6: 1) 37

Kings of Israel and Judah, up to the Babylonish captivity 370

Length of the captivity 70 years, and up to Nehemiah 80 years 150

Sixty-nine 'weeks' less 33 years (Dan. 9: 26) 450

From the creation to the birth of the Messiah 4,000

For the facts related in the New Testament, we have no chronological dates of the same kind as those in the Old Testament. It was of the greatest importance to be able to indicate accurately the time of the coming into the world of the promised Messiah, not however according to human calculation, but according to the principles of prophecy. The same divine wisdom which fixes our attention on what has already been fulfilled requires that our hearts should be alert during the whole period which elapses before the last 'week' of Daniel. The Lord said 'a little while and ye do not behold me; and again a little while and ye shall see me, because I go away to the Father'. It is sufficient to recall as a well-established historical fact, that the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans took place forty years after the Saviour's death (Luke 19: 41-44; 21: 20-24; 23: 28, 29).

Collectanea:

being some of the subjects considered at Leamington on 3rd June and four following days in the year 1839.

J. N. Darby.

{J. S. Robertson, 52 Cockburn Street, 1882

Publisher's Note.

It may be necessary to say that the Papers making up this Book having fallen into the Publisher's hands some little time since, it was thought well to put them into print, both because they contain truth, and also because of the interest that attaches to them from the date (1839) at which the meetings were held.

Being put into print at this date (1882), it is impossible for those who uttered the Words to revise the Notes. What is printed here is but part of the MSS.; thus the name "Collectanea" is perhaps the truest one for the Book, it being simply a Collection of some of the subjects considered.

Edinburgh, December 1882.}

{The following six articles are from the above collection, the other articles in "Collectanea" are by J. G. Bellett and G. V. Wigram and are published on the  'Mighty Men' CD.}

(1) THE HEAVENLY AND EARTHLY JERUSALEMS.

When we find Christ spoken of as King, in connection with the bride, I believe it to refer to the earthly Jerusalem; while in the Revelation, I look upon the Lamb's wife as the heavenly Jerusalem; and in these there are different characters of blessedness. There are two principles in the character of God, - righteousness and grace; grace does not give up righteousness; but when the demands of righteousness have been provided for in Christ, it comes forth in the character of grace. Jerusalem was intended to have been the place of righteousness, therefore when iniquity was found in it, it was cast off. In Isaiah 60, describing the state they had been in, the Lord says to them, "I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders." There was power, maintaining the seat of righteousness in Jerusalem. But the Lord sends the King of righteousness to them to establish their guilt, and having done this, brings in His grace. Addressing the Gentiles, Paul says, "For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all." They did not believe in the Gentiles' mercy, and are therefore made the subjects of mercy. In Revelation 21 and 22, we see the Church set in a place exceedingly blessed. Grace is the character of the heavenly Jerusalem. There we see the Church associated with Christ in blessing, and it is in anticipation of this future blessedness that the Church should now witness to the grace of God. I know of nothing more instructive, than to take the description of the heavenly Jerusalem as that which should be the state of the Church now in the energy of the Holy Ghost. I see the saints then living in righteousness; there is no need of power to secure it. "The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it." It is much better than paradise, there was no such thing there, as we find shall be here, - the leaves of the tree of life for the healing of the nations. Instead of there being anything to defile our feet, and needing continual washing, the place where we are walking shall be righteousness. The street of the city was of pure gold, as it were transparent glass, representing purity, and the same as the laver in which the priests washed; we shall stand upon righteousness, we shall walk in righteousness. The nations will discern in us the glory and the grace of Jesus. "There shall be no more curse," nothing but blessing. It is a profitable thing, beloved friends, for us to bring the light and glory of the future dispensation into all the circumstances of our present condition. Thus it has been in all past dispensations. Those who had faith in them, did not rest on the things they had, but looked out, and brought in the energy of the future things. And thus it is now with us. Faith puts forth its energies, grasps the coming glory, and this gives us strength in the circumstances in which we are.

Psalm 145 seems to be a conversation, as it were, of Messiah's with the Jewish remnant at that day. They had learned what God was in all their distress. They had learned themselves to utter the memory of His great goodness, and to sing of His righteousness, and therefore to give forth to others the character of God. And this is just what the Church should be doing now. The Church is Christ's letter of recommendation to the world, even as the Church at Corinth was Paul's epistle of recommendation. When sin came in, life was misery, and therefore God kept man from putting forth his hand, lest he should take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. But now the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. The glory of the Church is the consequence of His grace. When a person is the object of another's love, the desire is that that love should be manifested before others; and thus does our Lord display His grace and love to the Church, and thus we find Him saying, "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." Very blessed this. He exhibits His love to the Church in the Father's love; a beautiful representation of this we have in the story of the prodigal. We are told, that when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him. But when he brought him into his house, he brings forth the best robe and puts it on him, and puts a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; he adorns him, that he may display him to all as his son. The first thing that is made known to our hearts in our discovery of ourselves as sinners, is the love of Christ. It is then the love of Christ that we see; as the Shepherd, who came to seek and to save that which was lost; as the one through whom we have obtained redemption, even the forgiveness of sins. But when Christ comes forth to display the Church to the world, He does not speak of Himself, but it is the love of the Father. He makes the Church the witness of his Fathers love. The source of this love I do not speak of.

The Church was taken out of the second Adam. Speaking of the Church, we find the language of our Lord in Psalm 139, " My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." Having washed and sanctified the Church with His blood, He presents it to Himself. He has divine delight in doing it. The Church is the Lamb's wife, because He has suffered for it, and the force of love cannot be brought out without suffering. There is nothing but the knowledge of this union that raises us up above all other good into communion with God. It is in the Church that God is displaying all the glory and variousness of His wisdom and power. So we find in Eph. 3: 20, 21, " Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end." The Church is set up at the head of all dispensations and ages, because it is set up in Christ.

Before we get the revelation of God as the Father, He revealed Himself first as God Almighty, and next as Jehovah. To the Jews He was known as Jehovah; to the Church as Father, as in 2 Cor. 6: 17, where He says, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." But we often find the saints miserably doubting their sonship. Now the character of God in this dispensation being that of Father, if we do not know Him thus, we know nothing. We find Abraham knowing God as the Almighty; and when we can enter into the power of the previous dispensation, we can depend upon Him too as the Jehovah; but in the dispensation yet future, we shall know Him as Lord God Almighty as well as Father. In Revelation 21, we see the saints in all the blessedness of familiar intercourse with God. In the first eight verses, there is nothing about the Lamb; it is all God. I quite agree with our brother as respects the nature of Messiah's kingdom, though I differ from him as to its duration. There is a difference to my mind between a king reigning in righteousness, and an earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Where there is the dwelling of righteousness, power cannot be needed to preserve it. Now in that day when God will be all in all, there will be no need of a mediatorial securer of blessing. I conceive the time of millennial power to be analogous to Noah power, and that when God will be all in all, Christ will be in the place of Adamic power. In Revelation 21, we have the tabernacle of God with man. Now we have the angels saying at the incarnation of Jesus, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace good will toward men;" but on His entry into Jerusalem, which showed forth His coming in His kingdom, the song then was, not peace on earth, but "peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." As to the duration of Messiah's kingdom, the passage in Heb. 10: 12, is only meant to show forth the work of Christ as high priest. He sits down, because He has finished it; and not the high priest on earth getting up, and getting up continuously; and that is all that the expression for ever, I believe, refers to. The same is implied in verse 14th, "By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." We have in Revelation 22: 5, the promise that the saints shall reign for ever and ever; and yet it is said in Revelation 20, they lived and reigned with Christ but a thousand years. Thus I think the particular character of Christ's kingdom merges into the eternal perpetuity of it, and this is not giving it up. So I think, in a blessed sense, the Lord is King for ever and ever, though not as controlling and restraining evil, but reigning in righteousness. The passages to which our brother referred in Ezekiel 37: 24-28 and 1 Cor. 15, do not, I believe, relate to Messiah's kingdom at all; do not refer to Psalm 110, but to Psalm 8, in His character as Son of man, when He shall have dominion on earth as Man, as the second Adam. The power of judgment also belongs to Him as Son of man. "The Father hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." The title to this power of judgment and dominion belongs to Him now, though he has not yet taken it; if He had, He would now execute judgment. The world does not acknowledge His title, but His Church does; and there is the difference. Psalm 110 is not actually as to the question of reigning, but refers to His right of supremacy. Now in 1 Cor. 15, it is not that the kingdom is put down, but He lays aside all rule, and authority, and power. There is a difference too between the Father's putting the enemies under the Son's feet, and the Son's putting them under His own feet. It is clear, if He is using death to destroy His enemies, there must be enemies to be destroyed; and then He drops the general question of death, because the ungodly do not put on incorruption. I understand by 1 Cor. 15: 28, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost will be all in all. The kingdom of Christ will not be taken away in the sense that the other kingdoms are taken away. "The Lord God will give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." At the period referred to in the beginning of Revelation 21, there will be the heavenly glory shining upon the earthly glory. But Messiah's kingdom is a distinct thing. The exaltation of man's will above God's was first set up by Satan in paradise, and it has been going on ripening ever since, and will bring in the apostacy, which will end in the judgment. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! for thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God." Satan here is persuading the head of man's will that he is still in heaven, though he has just been cast out of heaven. The first man exalted himself, the second man humbled himself. "Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name." The character of the Lord's coming in judgment, will be as the man from heaven to destroy this wilful king; but this is not the establishment of Messiah's kingdom. There will be something at this time that will draw out the hearts of the Jews after Christ, and keep them from antichrist, and show them what a desperate thing they have done in crucifying Messiah. The Assyrian stirs up antichrist. When the Assyrian is destroyed, the indignation for a very little while shall cease. Then Christ associates Himself with Israel, and begins to secure His kingdom. Then comes the going forth of His gospel, which will be the fulfilment of the words in Matt. 24: 14, &c. Then comes the scenes of Matt. 25; Christ having secured His kingdom by the judgment of His enemies, universal peace is established. Then the heathen shall know that the Lord does reign in Zion, and that He is sitting upon the throne of His holiness. While men are planning and forming schemes for themselves, God looks at the stock of nations from the beginning. We see the beginning of all the glory and schemes of the nations of the world set up in Babel; and that is what God looks at. Almost all the nations have been brought up under two heads. The children of Israel were planted in the midst of the family of Ham. It is remarkable, that all the nations mentioned in dependence on the Eastern power, are now getting into that state; and those mentioned as connected with antichrist, are connecting themselves with Western Europe. The king of the north, I judge to be Turkish Asia; the king of the south, Egypt. In the establishment of Messiah's kingdom, I would refer you to Isaiah 18. All the actions that were connected with Israel were placed on either side of these rivers of Ethiopia; there was no nation beyond these. These nations at this time will be standing up, not against the land, but against the Prince of princes.

The saints who are in the heavens, are not the instruments of vengeance; they are clothed with white robes, and not in real garments. I judge that the Jews will be the Lord's associates in judgment, as we read, "Judah is his horn in the day of battle." The ground on which a saint stands never can change, so long as God is the same; let it develop itself how it may, God is known in it. It is very important in every dispensation to have certain principles clear and distinct. The fellowship of the saints with God may vary in form, but it is the same in principle. The basis of this fellowship is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Therefore the standing of the saints cannot vary. This is the revelation that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. But when you come to the form of the standings of the saints on earth, we find them differing in character and essence. The millennium, as regards the saints on earth, will be judicial; now in grace. The Jewish economy was not of grace, but law. The Church cannot depart from its standing with God, and therefore cannot have to do with a judicial economy, which must have reference therefore to an earthly people. The word that formed the Church was, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate." The Church is the calling of those whom the Lord has called out. In the Lord's dealing with the world, there is of necessity a manifestation of those who are saints and who are not. Now the Lord speaks of the Church as being light in the midst of darkness; and therefore, to speak of an invisible Church, is at once asserting its apostacy. The Lord intended the Church to have been as a city set on an hill. God had a purpose about the Jews, but they failed too. A dispensation may be cast off, while those who have the principle of life in them cannot be. The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself not for that nation only, but that He "might gather together in one, the children of God which were scattered abroad." Of this the Holy Ghost in the Church was to be the power of testimony, but the Church having failed in her responsibility, the world will not believe the grace of God that has appeared unto all men, which was the proper character of this dispensation; and God is now securing righteousness by the secret association of the saints with Christ, and by their testimony against the evil around them. During the millennium there will be no fellowship with Christ in His sufferings, and therefore the saints now have by far this advantage. The trial of their faith is much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, and shall be found unto praise, and honour, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. This makes a most essential difference as to the standing of the saints now and during the millennium. Again, a man that is taught of God knows that all flesh is bad, he is made a partaker of the Divine nature, and this shows him what the other nature is. Now the whole creation is made subject to vanity, but then it will not; it may be liable to vanity, but it will not be subject to it. There will not be the constant dominion of Satan over it. The fact is, that now in our fallen nature, we are holding the world under the power of Satan; but then, the more a saint is blessed, the more he will honour God. I believe there will be an enjoyment of creation then, when it will not be subject to vanity, that we have no idea of. The trees that God gave Adam for blessing, he made use of to hide himself from God. When Christ takes the earth, the saints will be able to flow forth in all the fulness of joy, ministering to the good of everything, and entering into all the joy of that word, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." That will be a dispensation of righteousness. Now I have to watch, watch, watch; but then there will be no temptation to sin, there will be the full tide of unhindered blessing.

As to the fitting position of the saints, we find the Lord continually speaking to us according to the claims of the dispensation that we are in, and not according to our apprehension of it. But our power of speaking about it must be according to the measure of our own faith. The posture of the saints at this time, I believe, should be in heaven, should be in the knowledge of their redemption, and saying, "We shall reign with Christ." How far the body may hinder us, is a distinct question. Inasmuch as I am not yet in the redeemed body, I should be waiting for glory. In proportion as I am like Christ, I shall have joy. The object of my hope will then be, "when I shall see him as he is, then I shall be like him." Now, says Paul, I do not want to be unclothed, but to be swallowed up of life. Having the resurrection life in his soul, he reaches clean over everything that would come between; and this is the fitting posture of the saints. "We which are alive and remain, shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air." The Apostle was not looking for death, but to be caught up. Paul and Peter required an especial revelation to know they were to die. I know the kingdom and glory to be mine. What is the difference then between dying and not dying? all that I see is, in waiting here or waiting there. It is better to wait with Christ there than here. Christ is waiting, and to be joined with Christ in waiting, is just the link of power. All the value of the knowledge the saints can get, is by applying the facts of the glory to the circumstances in which we live. The fact of the upsetting of all things here just makes me say to them, I am not a debtor to you. By the word of the Lord all things first had their existence, so all things are kept by the word of the Lord. I was brought out of the world by the same word. The present position of the saint is suffering, therefore he is looking for that which is to deliver him from suffering, and that is the coming of the Lord Jesus. Dear friends, I say when these things begin to come to pass, that we know will come on the earth, do not be frightened. "Look up," says our Lord, do not look down, but "look up, for your redemption draweth nigh." The Lord give us power to look up! But while I believe the saints should be looking up, I believe also that the position of the saints should be one of thorough deep humiliation. "Ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many; and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool: and ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall," &c. (Isaiah 22: 9-14). Yet, beloved, though these things are so, though our house is pulled down, though our glory is gone, still what the Church has to do now, is to be looking for the Lord.

(2) Revelation 22: 7-17.

I believe that which greatly keeps us from the strength of our joy, is our ignorance of the utter ruin of man. Not merely should we be acquainted with the evil into which the ruin has brought us, but also with the ruin itself. The moment that this ruin came into the world, everything went wrong. Not only has man gone wrong, but all his activities have gone wrong also. Now Christ has provided for us a way wherein the activities of the new man have their exercise. This is our own proper and peculiar portion; to have the mind of Christ, and to be brought into fellowship with God. But for the enjoyment of this, it is essential that we should be introduced into a knowledge of the complete apostacy of our own natural will. The purpose of God for His children is, that they should be associated with Him in His own joy, and to this end we must know Him. Now, the main sorrow of Christ's life was man's ignorance of God. God was never understood; but the poor sinner understood Him much better than the self-righteous Pharisee. Jesus came forth from the bosom of the Father, having the knowledge of His mind, knowing that God loved the poor sinner; not merely the sinner's joy in being blest, but God's joy in blessing him; and this is the joy in which God would have us to be associated with Himself. Another most blessed truth is, that we should be associated with Christ in His sufferings. "That the trial of our faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1: 7). There is a little verse in this chapter which shows the Church's tendency to depart from a knowledge of its nearness to God. The first departure of the Church from God, is a departure from the knowledge of its fulness in God and nearness to Him, its conscious sonship with God. If I am one with Christ, I must be as He is. If I have anything at all, it must be what He has - what He is. There is no medium between being nothing in ourselves and being everything in Christ. If I have no title of my own, if I am nothing but wretchedness in myself, and have no natural understanding of God's goodwill to man, where is my claim? Therefore true humility is the knowing what I am in Christ. So the moment I say, I have not all the favour with God that Christ has, I come down to the flesh. The moment I say, I am not as Christ, I lose the knowledge of my glory in Him and I stoop down to the flesh. This we see in John, when he fell down and worshipped the angel. Here was that voluntary humility and worshipping of angels which the Apostle warns us against. Had John remembered the glory he had in Christ, he would not have done this; for, "as he is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4: 17). The Church's portion is as the washed, and cleansed, and glorified one in Him. Christ has presented us to the Father without spot or blemish, and now He is the faithful witness in heaven, as He was on earth, making known to us the Father. Through Him then I know perfectly what God is. I know that His love does not wax cold because of our coldness. I know that His heart is not hardened because of our sins. I know through the risen Jesus what I am, - sitting in heavenly places, that death has lost his power for ever, and that the very life of God is mine. Jesus says, "I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star." All the folly of David, all the apostacy of his seed, could not alter this truth, - God would be the sustainer of the blessings that He had promised. The morning will come, when that blessed light which was shut up in Christ will be unfolded, and the saint now enters into the hope of that day. When this light breaks forth, then will be the full display and understanding of this light, then will be the full enjoyment of it. Now we say grace is a blessed thing, but it must bring sorrow. "The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not." Then will be the full effulgence of light without sorrow. The Spirit and the bride therefore say, Come. It is most blessed to see the Spirit taking up His place with the Church in her sorrow, having sympathy with her in her sighing, and making intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Well, He who now enters into the Church's sorrow, has fellowship with her in her hope, takes up the word and says, Come. The Spirit and the bride say, Come, because the desire of Jesus for the Church will then be satisfied. Jesus must have joy in his own fulness now, but His satisfied joy will be the expression of this fulness in the Church ; and the time when this will be expressed with unhindered blessing, is on the revelation of Him to whom the Spirit and the bride say, Come. The moment the delight of God in dealing with us is understood, then we have association with Him, and say, Come. This is what we ought to be doing. But this is not all. If the day-star is risen in our hearts, we shall say, "Let him that is athirst come." If we have discovered that this is a dry and thirsty land, where no water is, we shall say, "Whosoever will, let him come, and take the water of life freely." The soul, entering into the fulness of the life of Christ, will go forth with the cry, Whosoever will let him come. But there is always defect in the invitation, if we have not entered into the power of Christ's love, and into His delight in bringing to the poor sinner the way of return to God. The Church should be an helpmeet for Christ. But how can she be so, if she cannot enter into His heart? and if we do this, we must do it in sorrow. He is the master of the house, and we, the servants, must be as the Master. In the Gospel of Luke we see Christ as the man, - the anointed man. We see Him in works, giving proofs that He was the sent one, doing the will of Him that sent Him. But when the leper said to Him, "If thou wilt thou canst make me clean;" this necessarily brought out the sovereignty of the Godhead, - "I will be thou clean." God never comes in with comfort to the flesh, but He breaks down the flesh, and then there is comfort to the spirit. Thus it was with Hezekiah; thus it was with Paul, and he had the sentence of death in himself that he should not trust in himself but in God, who raiseth the dead. The flesh must utterly be crumbled down, that we may be drawn up to the confession that God is all and in all. The flesh has no part with the sympathy of God. Glory indeed is our portion; and Jesus says to the Father, "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, as we are." But with the flesh, its place is to be nothing. The purpose of Christ for His Church is, that she should be a conscious co-operator with God, - the expression of His love and fulness. When we know anything of God, when we know the misery of the flesh, then we desire it should be nothing. It is said, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Not he that is humbled but he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted. In this theatre of Satan's power and the world's pride, to be the servant of all, I say this is the greatest proof of exaltation. We cannot do this in the flesh; but when we get a new nature, when we learn the glory of Christ, we can do it; then, and then only, can we humble ourselves.

(3) The Word of God, and the Knowledge of it.

We must bear in mind that all truth is the Spirit's teaching. I doubt if any can attain truth intellectually. There is a vast deal of truth taught now, which was hidden even from the greatest saints in the previous dispensation. As to the first question, - It is a solemn thing, I feel, to talk of the value of that which God has given. We get the expression of God's love in everything that He has given; and it is a solemn thing to be questioning on the value of this and that. I believe the value of Scripture knowledge to be everything. I believe the understanding of Scripture to be a subject of vast importance. It is not that God's mind reveals merely a fact, but it is God's mind in that fact that we have to do with. I see the Apostles failing in this, with respect to the resurrection, in their going to the sepulchre after our Lord had risen; which proved, that though they had believed His words concerning the fact, they had not really entered into the mind of God in the matter. What is stated about the Church, is not only that there are things given, but that "ye may know the things that are freely given to us of God."

The resurrection happened before many eye-witnesses, but they had not the mind of God in the fact. The word to Abraham was, "Shall I hide," &c.; but the Church has it upon a larger ground than Abraham, it has "the mind of Christ," - "an unction from the Holy One." The spiritual mind discerneth all things. A most extraordinary prerogative and place of blessing the Church is put into, it has the power of judging all things. I am not now speaking of the measure of attainment, but of the principle. The world can judge of evil, and so much the better, as they can keep a watch upon us; but they cannot judge anything about God. My knowledge must be essentially divine, that which belongs to God; for when I say I know all things, it must be from communion with God through the Word. The world may gather the elements of natural knowledge, but the Christian has the key to the whole, because he knows God. We must recollect, dear friends, that the Church is not merely a sacred body, but that it is left in the world to be a witness, and how should it be so without the Word? how could we know how to answer Satan, if we have not the weapon our Lord used against him? - "It is written." The Lord Jesus had come into the world as a servant, and when Satan assaulted Him, He directly applied the Word to the circumstances in which He was placed, and so must we. It is not enough to know the Word, but we must bring that to bear on circumstances. These circumstances may be perfectly contrary to those of others. The circumstances of Isaiah with Hezekiah, and Jeremiah with Zedekiah, were directly opposite, but knowing the mind of God, they were enabled to act. This is what the Church of God has to do, and we have the Word to guide us under the different circumstances in which we are placed. We have an instance, as our brother said, in the case of Nathan; and David ought to have known, by the revelation of God's mind concerning him, that it was not at all in God's heart that he should build the temple. It is a great mistake that good desires are a safe guide. It is well that we have them, but we should not carry them into effect till we have consulted the Lord. I believe the saints often think a thing is good to do, make up their minds to do it, and then ask God's blessing upon it. The energy of faith sets men going. After a time faith gets cold, and that which is merely of man decays, and corruption comes in. The principle of subjection to the mind of God just leads us to this: What does God say about it? No truth is of any avail that does not come directly from God. I do not speak of instrumentality; God may use a child if He pleases, but then we shall know it to be from God. I believe it to be one of the happiest things, our dependence upon one another for blessing, God thus comforting the hearts of His saints by knitting their hearts to one another. But the flesh takes advantage of this, gets lazy, and we lose sight of individual responsibility. Individual search keeps the soul alive, and open, and healthy, to receive the influences of God's love. God has made every individual responsible that He does not admit evil. How can I get responsibility but from God? I must either give myself implicitly to it, or, if I judge conscience at all, it must be by the testimony of God's truth. There is no possibility of connecting tradition and conscience. The conscience is God's link with man, and therefore Satan tries to get between the conscience and God. The Word tells us there is peace in the blood; Satan steps in between, and seeks to destroy the power of the blood. Again he steps in, trying to destroy the consciousness of sin. You have an instance of the conscience being a link in John 4. Jesus spoke important truths to the woman of Samaria, but the moment He touched her conscience, she said, "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet." Scripture is God's blessed weapon on the conscience. It is possible to have a blinded conscience, as in the case of the Pharisees. The tradition of washing the hands may be apparently trifling, and perhaps some would have said it was unnecessarily wounding them, when Jesus answered and said unto them, "Well did Esaias prophesy of you hypocrites," &c. The tradition, our Lord knew, clothed man with respectability. A man's hands might be washed, and his conscience remain untouched. It stepped in where God had the supreme right. "Laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men." Bring me a commandment of God; I get God's authority. "Full well," our Lord adds, "ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may hold your own tradition." Take all classes of men, and what do they like? their own tradition. He sums it up, "making the Word of God of none effect through your tradition which ye have delivered." The Word designates tradition as man's, not God's.

There is always sufficient in the Word to lay bare man's tradition. The worst evil has a religious character. I ask any one, Can he say what temptation will come upon him to-morrow? and has he Scripture to answer Satan with? Our Lord placed Himself as a servant in the midst of the ruin of man. He answered Satan in a manner suited to His circumstances. Satan brought forward those Scriptures which related to our Lord in power. Jesus did not come for that, He did not come to be ministered to, but to minister, and therefore said, "Man lives by the word; by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live." Did the Word come when man was in a state of innocence? No, it came in grace, when he was ruined; when death had come in, the Word of God came, as a living Word, to meet all man's ruined circumstances. Jesus repelled evil, but He touched it at every point. I say the saint cannot carry the life of God, without his having this body of light with him. There is nothing that can carry a saint rightly through the world, save this divine thing. "Man is become as one of us."

The Lord says, "He would have you simple concerning evil, and wise concerning that which is good; " and, beloved friends, this is what Scripture knowledge brings us to.

A saint may pass safe through all the evil of the world, because his heart is full of God; and how is he to get that, but through the Word?

Beloved, we do not really believe that we are brought into the family of God. I say the Church of God are children. As the Son knows the Father, so are we brought into communion; and how can we have this but in the knowledge of His mind? There is no other knowledge or way of glorifying God, but through the knowledge of His mind.

When the Lord Jesus Christ becomes the object of my love, it is impossible but that I must like to know more of Jesus. When is it that a soul is lifted up? I say it is when he is beholding the glory of Jesus. It carries us into the fulness of the Father's love in Christ. The moment that Jesus becomes the fulness of our hearts, I say, then Scripture becomes as honey to our mouths; every word comes with savour, because it testifies of Him.

Is it of value to know Jesus well? then that is the value of Scripture knowledge. It brings in a light that flows around the presence of God. I believe that the secret of not valuing the Scriptures, is that the person, the glories, the excellencies of Jesus are not prized.

The glory of Christ is what God has set up in competition with everything else in the world. Wherever we get the Spirit's teaching, we look up, and take the lowest place. It is impossible for me to see a thing in God, without seeing self as nothingness. When intellect is at work, I am under the power of my mind, and not in subjection of soul to something above it; it is always in being lowly I get up. All real progress and attainment is, when we feel something better and higher than ourselves. The sense of Divine love takes the place of self. "If any man thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know." God will not say to us, Here is a soul equal to mine; we will talk about it together. But He must bring our mind into subjection to His, and then He can have communion with us.

(4) Revelation 1-20.

It is most manifest, and should be among us a subject for praise, the progress that has been made in the understanding of this book (Revelation). The importance of giving heed to the prophetic word bears two characters, not only as regarding things to come, but we find also there is such a thing as the day-star arising in your hearts (2 Peter 1: 19). Now Peter had seen the glory, and this was not the result of statements of prophecy. The first thing that we must do, is to look at the day itself, to fix our eyes on the glory itself; this at once reaches all prophecy, and fixes it on the heart. Peter had beheld the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ in the glory, and that was the thing that occupied his heart. The power of prophecy is the laying bare the things that are carrying on according to the course of this world, and takes them into judgment. If I know the judgment is coming, and that the tares are to be burned, I shall not have anything to do with the tares. We find our Lord referring to Isaiah's vision of the glory in John 12. When Isaiah had seen the glory, evil was brought out, and he exclaimed, "Woe is me! for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips" (Isaiah 6: 5). And when the unbelief and hardness of heart in the Jews is spoken of, we read in John 12 and 41st verse, "These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him." Thus it is, dear friends, that the effect of beholding the glory, is to bring us to a consciousness of our position; and thus we should bring the glory of Christ to bear on our circumstances.

The grand moral importance of giving heed to the prophetic word, is in separating us from this present evil world. Prophecy is a light which God holds up to the saints, that they may not only see the things which are, but see them as God sees them. Prophecy teaches us, that God will judge the world in power; and it is for us now, knowing this, to judge morally what God will judge judicially.

Prophecy is also the expression of the object of hope to the Church. "We are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope; but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. The expression, "coming of the Lord," is rather ambiguous, and involves two things. There is the coming of the Lord for His saints, and there is the coming of the Lord with His saints; and these two facts we get in the Epistles to the Thessalonians. The testimony to the world of a fact, should never be confounded with the intelligence about that fact.

Now, as to the resurrection of the dead, all that I can say to the world about it is, there is a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust. But when I speak about the Church, it is quite another thing; then I say, the Church is raised by the power of union to Christ. I would say to the saints, "If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you." Thus the resurrection of the saints will be just a consummation of that already wrought in them. I see the same principle with reference to the Lord's coming. The Thessalonians were turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from Heaven; and this is the true standing of the saints.

Now, while I admit the broad fact of the coming of the Lord, yet when I come to investigate this truth, I find a peculiar thing connected with it, and that is the gathering of the saints to Him. The catching up of the Church is the witness of the complete justification of the whole body, and the world has nothing to do with it. One thing is quite clear, when the Lord comes, His saints will come with Him.

The spirit in which we should come to the prophetic word, I should say, is in order to be better taught about the Lord Himself, than by speaking much about it. Judgment cannot be the subject for my affections to rest upon.

But there is one thing connected with the coming of Christ, and this present evil world, which may give me joy, and that is, the stream of love and mercy flowing in to stop the tide of misery and wretchedness that exists. I can love to see Christ, but I cannot love to see antichrist. So we find the Thessalonians were troubled; but Paul writes to them, "Why should you be troubled about the day of the Lord? You will be caught up first; what have you to do with "the day?" The Church's separation from the world puts it into the place of prophecy. When Isaiah saw the glory in the temple above, he was laying the basis of his prophecy. I see Peter, the apostle of the circumcision; I see Paul, the apostle of the uncircumcision; and I see John, in the isle of Patmos, - all sustaining the Church in coming down from the glory to testify the hope of the Church in prophecy.

The book of Revelation has nothing to do with the Father and the children; it is not the Father guiding and teaching His children by the Spirit, but Christ sending the Revelation to His servant John by an angel.

The glory of the Lord Jesus is here presented to us as standing in the midst of the Church. John was to write the things that are, and the epistles to the seven Churches were evidently of this character. In chapters 4 and 5 we get a mystical synopsis of the whole thing. The throne was seen, and the whole result brought out. I do not acknowledge "the mystery of God" to be the gathering of the saints; the mystery of Christ and the Church, as we find in the Epistle to the Ephesians; but "the mystery of God," I believe, to be the gathering together in one all things in Christ, and put under His power, as the Son of man.

In chapter 4, we have the Spirits before the throne; in chapter 5, we get the Lamb taking the book; then we get the whole thing brought out in chapter 6. There is a clear difference between the Church of God caught up, and those suffering on earth during the time of antichrist, and caught up too. In Matt. 24, I do not see anything about the Church; it is entirely Jewish testimony. The gospel of the kingdom, that shall be preached to all nations for a witness, I see to be Jewish too. Their preaching was to be about that which was future; it was the gospel of the kingdom that was coming in power, that was to be established in righteousness. I believe the commission in Matthew 28, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations," was Jewish, and has never yet had its accomplishment in its particular form; and Matthew assumes the Jewish position in the kingdom as their right, and therefore speaks of the going out to the Gentiles, and has never therefore yet been accomplished. Instead of the twelve apostles accomplishing this commission, that was expressly given to them, God raises up another apostle to go to the Gentiles; but the literal command, in its primary character, will be accomplished too.

In chapter 6, we get the cry, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost not thou avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Here we find the object of their hopes was not to be up there. Then, again, we have in chapter 5, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us unto our God kings and priests, and they shall reign over the earth." Here some had got the fulfilment of their expectation in being before the throne; but there was still a shall, which was the object of other's hopes. In chapter 5, we have the grand announcement of the whole thing in full blessing. But these saints in chapter 6 are taught to wait till another class of martyrs shall be killed. What is the answer to this cry? The powers of heaven are shaken; the sun became black; the moon became as blood; the stars fell unto the earth; and the heavens departed as a scroll. A process of preparatory judgment in God's hand is going on, and just introduces the occasion for the Lamb's coming forth. What in the meantime is the situation of the saints above? All things are getting ready there, and all getting ready below, for the marriage of the Lamb, and the descent of Christ and His Church.

In chapter 7, we find the saints have got a step higher, they are not under the altar, but before the throne; they are interesting themselves in the concerns of the throne, and they have got their white robes. Before the closing of the whole scene, we find judgments coming down upon the earth in answer to prayers. Before the seventh trumpet begins to sound, we get the development of the final iniquity; they did not own God to be the God of the earth, but worshipped devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk. In the last half of Daniel's week, the abomination of desolation is set up, but the saints are taken up first. The beast out of the bottomless pit kills the witnesses. This was to be no time of testimony, but a time of vengeance. Our Lord's command was, "When ye see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains." Your testimony is ended. This testimony ceased the last three and a half years. The coming of the Lord is for the destruction of antichrist. And then when the Lord associates Himself with the Jews, He begins the judgment on the earth. The announcement of the seventh woe brings in the close.

In chapter 12, we get the woman, the man-child, and the great dragon. The man-child is taken out of the way; the woman is left to the consequences of weakness. It is perfectly clear that Christ, in the first place, is to rule, but the saints are to be caught up too. Christ cannot be manifested without His body, and therefore the saints are caught up. After they are caught up, Satan, having lost heaven for ever, rages on earth for three and a half years. The effect of this is, that the woman flees into the wilderness (Jesus told them to flee to get out of the way of Satan). In chapter 13, we get the thrones given to the beast. I do not believe that the beast is antichrist; for I do not believe antichrist will ever have his deadly wound healed, which the beast had; but I believe it to be the Roman empire in its last form, strengthened with the new power.

In chapter 14, we get the Lord reaping the earth; but first we get the connection of earth and heaven. Mount Zion, I believe to be the place of royal grace on the earth; and we find Christ in association with a suffering people upon the earth. Then goes forth the gospel, for the day of His judgment is come. The next thing we get, is the announcement of Babylon's fall, and the judgment of all those who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. In verse 13th, where it is said, "Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." Here we have not the saints that are caught up, but those who die on the earth.

In chapter 15, we get another sign, - all those that have suffered coming into holiness through judgment. Then we find the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony opened in heaven, but none could enter in. Now the time was come for the filling up of the wrath of God, and "the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God; and none could enter into it till the seven plagues were fulfilled," which we have in chapter 16.

Chapter 17: 5, is, I believe, properly ecclesiastical. Here we find the woman, or great Babylon, riding the beast at her own will; but immediately after, we have the destruction of this Babylon, all her glory and splendour gone, and she become the habitation of devils, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird and beast. The ten horns hate the whore, and agree to give their power to the beast. Thus the corrupt system of the earth is turned into a diabolical one.

Then in chapter 19, we get the Church married to the Lamb. When everything was prepared, and the earth was made ready, the Lamb comes forth and displays his wife. He comes forth as a warrior, at the head of the heavenly army.

In chapter 20, we get the thrones of judgment. John saw here three classes of persons, - all these three reigning with Christ a thousand years. The remaining chapters will come into the question for to-morrow, - The glory of the Church, and the blessing flowing out of her. The Church is set in grace, - grace is our grand characteristic; and even when joined with the Lord in glory, grace will still be the distinctive character of the Church.

(5) 2 Samuel 22, 23: 1-7.

David here retraces what specially marked out the path of the Lord Jesus Himself; also the judgment upon the condition of the failure of all on which man's hopes stood. That which primarily struck me in this passage, was the remarkable contrast between the song of David after he had done with Saul, and the song of David after he had done with himself; and it is remarkable that the Spirit of God has so placed them in juxtaposition here. In the first, there is exultation, victory, thanksgiving; in the second, the result of all is just this - "Although my house be not so with God."

The path of the Spirit of grace is always the path that Jesus took here; getting nothing in the world, but going on nearer and nearer to God. It is remarkable how in this Psalm the Lord Jesus is in Jewish circumstances, justice, judgment, and such like. We find at once here all that which is so fully true of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is here; and connected with this, we find most remarkable allusions to the whole history of Israel.

The next thing is, he goes on till he sets the Lord Jesus Christ as being avenged of His enemies, and having been made the head of the heathen. The history of Israel, looked at by the Spirit of God, is identified with the history of Christ as in Acts 23. In these last words of David, it is the God of Jacob, the Rock of Israel. In the 4th verse, he speaks of that one who should reign in peace over man; that true Solomon was what he was looking for. There must come in one with the power of judgment also to exterminate this evil, verses 6 and 7.

I would trace some traits of what David was up to the time of his contending with Goliath. We see in him the one forgotten of man, taken up of God (1 Sam. 18). Just the contrast with Saul; he the strength of the flesh, a goodly person, head and shoulders higher than the people, and so on; but all the strength of the flesh. What we specially see in David up to this time, is his humility and forgetfulness of himself, and his simplicity of faith in doing the Lord's work as a matter of course. There is no boast about it. He kept the sheep; well, it was his duty to keep the sheep, and if a lion or a bear come amongst them, of course it was the shepherd's duty to send them away or to slay them. And it is here I see the power of faith, - the full consciousness of the Lord's working with him, and doing these energetic works with simple reference to duty.

While the energy of faith was found in Jonathan, there was a great deal of blessing accompanying the career of Saul. Wherever he turned, he vexed his enemies; and though he had been in a certain sense rejected, we find, for the sake of Israel, the Lord blessing him.

When David came to the camp, he had learned - not from what he saw around him, but from his own secret communion - the faithfulness of God. There was no other thought in his heart, and therefore he is astonished. "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" He identifies the glory of God with Israel, and, in the simple consciousness of His faithfulness and power, he knows that no uncircumcised man can have any power against Israel. There is no question about it; he knows that the same God, who helped him to slay the lion and the bear, will help him to slay the Philistine also. And afterwards in the character of David, I find the consciousness of weakness, the consciousness of infirmity; never thinking of taking vengeance against Saul, never (except in one instance, and he got well chastened for it) acting without consulting God. He always felt that he was in conflict with a power that he could not set aside; he had no strength, but in God, to put down any, though they may persecute him even to death. No matter who comes against him, whether Doeg the Edomite, or anybody else. Jonathan, if it could have been so (but it could not, because God had a faithful remnant even in the camp of Israel); I say he had no strength, but in direct simple reference to God in every circumstance. Therefore he says, "Shall I go down to Keilah?" The Lord says, "Go down to Keilah." "Shall I go up to the Philistines, wilt Thou deliver them into my hand?" God says, "Go up, I will deliver them into thy hand." In the cave of Adullam, what a company they were; but in the cave of Adullam was God's King, God's Prophet, God's Priest; and there was God's power, God Himself was with him.

When Jacob comes before Pharaoh, he blesses him; he is identified with the power of blessing, because he is identified with God. Beloved brethren, if we are seeking God's glory, we shall not want to justify ourselves. I do not mean that we should have this feeling, "I do not care for it; what do I care?" but, as Peter says, "doing well, suffering for it and taking it patiently." This was the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and should be the picture of every saint. But now the day is coming upon Saul, when he has the terrible consciousness that the Lord is not with him. But, not to dwell upon this, Saul dies, and David takes the power, and after this we find him acting in the strength of the flesh, not waiting upon the Lord, not consulting Him. About building the house, it was a good thought, but he did not consult the Lord; and in bringing up the ark, though it was not a bad thing, he had not consulted the Lord about it, and the Lord breaks forth upon Him; and it was only the sovereign mercy of the Lord that kept him from fighting against Israel, because He turned the hearts of the Philistines against him. And again, in numbering the people, and in the case of Uriah; wherefore the sword never departed from his house

We have a lovely character of David up to the time of his taking the kingdom; he was a man after God's own heart, and now, not like Saul, - beginning in the flesh, and ending in the flesh, - but the man in whom most precious grace shone, though the blessings, that were the result of faith, were too great for the faith that brought them to bear. And this is a most amazing warning; and the only thing to do, is to be always going down, down, to the Cross. And now, I ask, is there a single heart, that has the Spirit of Christ in it, that does not say, "Although my house be not so with God?" Can we say God's house is such as it should be, for God to be satisfied in it? There is truly the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; but should we be contented with the ruin and evil that is now in the house? Surely we would not say that there is a covenant ordered in all things and sure, and that Christ's glory is a thing of no consequence. And, beloved friends, we look forward to the coming of the Lord; that is what brightens the heart, it is that upon which our affections can rest, as a scene and sphere of blessing where all our associations shall be pure and happy. Then the order and condition of the world shall come down from God, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ; even as life comes to us individually from Jesus now, so to the world then; and then all things will take their place in their proper relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church, the Bride, the Lamb's wife, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Eph. 1); Head over all things to the Church, &c.; Israel, the Gentiles; and then all men shall call Him blessed. There is the sphere of blessing, and it is He Himself that is the thing manifested; and we are to look for no blessing apart from Him who is the centre of it all. The great characteristic of that day, is the blessing coming down according to God's mind. God is the centre of blessing, but He has not shut Himself up from us; God is love and it flows out from Him through one another.

David looked not for the setting right of his house then, but he looked beyond, for the morning without clouds, and so must we. The Apostle Paul said, "All seek their own," even in his time. See how soon his house was not so with God. Well, I say, we want something; we want not only to have the Lord Jesus Christ as the object of hope, but to see Him in the display and unfolding of the glory, in heaven and in earth, of which He will be the centre, and the thoughts of God's heart finding their rest in that glory.

I would close now with one practical remark, which I would urge upon you, and it is, that the effect of all this should be to throw us back into the first part of the history of David. Here we find David's heart in sympathy with the sufferings of Christ's heart; and oh! beloved friends, though we are called now to have fellowship with His sufferings, yet a little while, and He shall compass us about with songs of deliverance.

134th Hymn. {Lord of glory, we adore Thee . . .}

(6) The Dispensations and the Remnants.

A dispensation is any arranged dealing of God in which man has been set before his fall, and having been tried, has failed, and therefore God has been obliged to act by other means. Man was good for nothing; but in order to bring out the variousness of Christ's glory, and the resources we have in Him, man was put into these different circumstances. It was not simple promise, because this rests solely on the faithfulness of the promiser. Further, when we talk of a faithful remnant, there has been a remnant without a close at all. There has always been a dispensation, and always immediate failure, and consequently there has necessarily been a remnant all through. Joshua, Caleb, the seven thousand, - always a faithful few, who were just the exhibition in that sense of the Father's work. This is a very serious question, because it supposes that we are at the close of this dispensation. The responsibility is most important, but yet simple to them that understand, and plain to them that keep knowledge; and the Lord has said, "He that followeth me, shall not walk in darkness." The question supposes, that there has been a certain body in contrast to others; that there has been failure; and then that some should be faithful at the close, when judgment comes in. There has been one in every dispensation. If darkness had set in, it brought out the character of those who did not sink with the darkness. And then, beloved friends, our duty is not only faithfulness in ourselves, but most especially grace; the faithfulness is called for with reference to the evil, but our proper position is grace towards those who are in the darkness.

We find when the golden calf was made, - the first manifestation of this, - Moses takes the tabernacle of the congregation, which was not yet set up, without the camp. Joshua stays there, but Moses goes back to the people. Joshua, the type of the captain of salvation; but Moses had another character to bear, and in studying this, we shall find our position as a remnant. Before the proper dispensation of God, we get the world before the flood; not exactly a dispensation, but a body of men left, in a certain sense, to themselves. There was testimony, as in Enoch and Noah, but no dispensed order or system by which God acted as governing the earth. We find even in this, that God acts in the grace of His own character. Noah was a faithful witness; in him was the great principle, though this was not strictly a dispensation. Adam had not, before his fall, taken his character as head of the first-Adam family; so Christ, till after His resurrection, did not take His place as head of the second-Adam family. "The Lord said unto Noah," &c. (Gen. 7: 1; 6: 8, &c.), two things, "Thee have I seen righteous;" and, thou hast "found grace." The earth was corrupt, and there came the flood upon it; then the remnant was called out. To this faithful remnant, He communicates the result of His looking upon the earth, - as He did to Abraham respecting Sodom; so, before He destroys Babylon, He communicates His mind to His Church, or chosen ones. Another thing as regards the close of this dispensation is, that it does not come till all remedy is impossible; till then, God never acts in judgment; till then, He never destroys what His hands have created. At this time of Noah, all remedy was impossible, all flesh had corrupted itself; and it is not only that God knows all remedy is impossible, but He never acts till He has justified His own conduct, - towards the Amorites for instance.

In the Jewish dispensation there were always those that were to be saved; sozomenoi, the same as in Acts 2: 47. The contrast is constantly put between the remnant and others in the prophets, &c. As regards this dispensation, it is just the same truth as regards the Jews (Rom. 11) out of the ten tribes, seven thousand preserved; so of the Church, if we take the epistles of John or Jude, we see evidently this faithful remnant, but under different circumstances, and placed in different positions, those in whom the Lord has proved His grace and faithfulness. As regards the remnant in Israel, they refused to go along with the evil around them. This precedes service, - God found Noah faithful; Lot showed love to the world, it was all selfishness; He chose Sodom, and then his righteous soul was vexed; and we read, God remembered Abraham, and delivered Lot &c. There will, I believe, be some coming out lame and weak, who have brought upon themselves sorrow of spirit, not having done as Caleb did, followed the Lord fully. There are many who will doubtless be saved so as by fire, but there will be some found faithful; so that in every dispensation the faithful were the remnant all through. At the beginning it was not so. Israel, the Church, were set in blessing, but evil came in, and then the faithful remnant. And it is not only faithfulness in the world, but faithfulness in the failure of what God had established to be faithful in the world. Failure now was not of the same grossly evil character as the breach of the ten commandments, but sin against the higher blessing, which is worse. The apostacy began in the time of the apostles. In John and Jude the same corruptions were there, and it was of those that Enoch spoke, who declared the judgment of the Lord. The real place of faithfulness is in the remnant that judges the dispensation, and not in the dispensation itself; more spiritual judgment is required now. It was so from the time of John (1 John 4: 1). This is most important, for it was not in the corporate power of the dispensation. It is important to connect the remnant all through the dispensation with those who will testify at the close. By the spirit of prophecy, God has always wrought deliverance, and consequently brought in something future for the saint to cling to. In Noah no mediation, but always afterwards; like the Lord Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, the heart yearning over those upon whom judgment is coming. It must be the spirit of grace, and the spirit of intercession accompanying it. So in the Psalms, "How long, O Lord; for ever?" This respecting the wicked, the spirit of prophecy saying, "How long?" He might have brought in some new thing, as in Habakkuk, but now He knew this was impossible. Isaiah 6, the character of Ahaz was such, that God knowing what was coming about, saw what support the remnant would require. The first thing required, is the perception of the glory of God, - I may say, of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1: 18). The first effect of this, is the consciousness of one's own condition, - not the Church apart from Him, - but it always begins here, in the seeing of one's own condition. So Gideon (Judges 6: 28), first throwing down the idolatry that was there. Isaiah says, "Woe is me;" not Israel, but himself; then his lips are touched, and he becomes a witness of God, he pronounces judgment on the people; and immediately the spirit of intercession says, "How long?" There then came a development of the Lord's dealings in answer to the prophet's intercession. The same thing takes place exactly in Habakkuk, and in Moses about the golden calf. We get first the spirit of prophecy, then the remnant found faithful; then the necessity, as a positive present thing, of bringing in some hope; then the faithfulness of the remnant proved at the close of the dispensation. The very fact of their being called out into a place of testimony, is the painful proof that all is evil around. And whatever love, whatever intercession, all that we can say, and all we can desire, will never alter the judgment of God. Jeremiah had wept and prayed for Jerusalem, but he was still the testimony that Israel had failed, and they could not bear it. Moses said, "If not, blot me out of thy book." Paul desired to be an Azazel for the people, but the testimony was against them, and must be where there is righteousness. But our place is grace, our proper disposition is the testimony of grace; our place was righteousness before testimony, as Noah, Lot, Nathanael, the Lord Jesus Himself, then grace. The Father's work has always been grace. We are found in the place of righteousness, and the practical power of our conduct will be the testimony of righteousness; and troubles, reproach, &c., will always accompany it, but our privilege is to carry along grace. Moses interceded, because he identified God and the people; but there is something more, he had anticipated grace, and he takes the tabernacle afar off out of the camp. He then gets into special communion with God. God speaks to him face to face, he takes the veil off. There is the spirit of intercession, in the remnant going out without the camp. Joshua abode there; when Moses had to inquire, he went there, but returned to the camp afterwards. We ought to have such thorough assurance of our communion with God, and nearness to Him, that we may be able to go into the camp without fear. It might have been questioned what right he had to do so; we have no revelation spoken of, but he had certainly the secret of God (Exodus 33). It was not a bit in order, neither the staves, nor the boards, nor anything else, but he had the secret of God, he had God's mind, and could go into the place before the tabernacle was set up. We have not got the tabernacle either, because it is in glory, but we have the spirit of grace, and know the tabernacle above; and that is just our proper position, and not to go and put the tabernacle back again into the camp. In Jeremiah 11, the Lord was weary of their repentance. He speaks to the prophet as if he were Jerusalem. This was the character of the Lord Jesus, "The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me," and Psalm 44. Jeremiah sat alone, not going on with the people; yearning over them, but not going on with them; verse 17,  "For thou hast filled me  with  indignation." He says, "Do not go to them, let them return to you;" have nothing to do with the bad fishes, gather the good into vessels, separate the precious from the vile; "and thou shalt be as my mouth; they shall fight against thee, but thou shalt not fight against them." Never mind that your righteousness is not found out, never mind the discontent at the tabernacle being removed; if you are talking with God face to face, do not be surprised that those in the camp do not hear what you are talking about; never let your good be overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. We are not to justify ourselves, but to commit ourselves to Him who judgeth righteously; as in the case of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Moses was the meekest man; then God comes in. God will take care to justify us, wherever there is the spirit of meekness. He will tell our character, as He did that of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is painful to the flesh. Let us give a reason, of course, of the hope that is in us, but always have it to God. The power of our duty is in communion with God; and where He has recorded His name, He will meet and bless, that is, "where two or three are gathered together in His name." The only possibility of being faithful is, by doing as Moses and Isaiah did, - seeing the glory, and communing with the Lord face to face. We may have trial, as Jeremiah had, but our position is to testify of grace; and let us not be surprised, if others do not understand the fulness of the grace that we have been taught; and oh, beloved friends, we shall always have plenty of reason to be humbled.

The Aaronic priesthood was evidently a provision of mediation without any reference to judgment, and this is our proper place now, not the Melchisedec priesthood yet; because we follow Christ, we have fellowship with it in spirit, but all our service is according to the Aaronic priesthood. This is what Christ stands in as to service, - in order, He is after Melchisedec; in chap. 9 (Heb.), altogether after the analogy of the service of Aaron. Melchisedec priesthood (Gen. 14), that great sovereign title of God, Most High, and Possessor of heaven and earth; this is the character for blessing, and thus the Lord Jesus Christ comes to be the priestly centre of all blessing. It is a priesthood of blessing and praise; no sacrifice then, the value remains, but it is a priesthood of blessing; not the maintaining of the communion and priesthood of a people who are passing through a world contrary to God, as the Aaronic priesthood does. But in one sense we are not to consider the Melchisedec priesthood a higher than the Aaronic, - it is the king acting as priest, - and our place is as kings with Melchisedec, we reign with Him. The place of the Church always is going on to perfection; when the Melchisedec priesthood is spoken of, it is perfection, not intercession for our imperfection, but perfection in unity with the Lord Jesus Christ. "As he is, so are we, in this world," - not as He was - that we shall never be, but as He is, associated with Him in the Melchisedec priesthood, His life ours, - neither beginning of days, nor end of life. Jesus takes His place by this of mediator of blessing, not intercession. I do not say there will be none, but this is the special point, as in Eph., Col., &c. As regards the Aaronic priesthood, we get the Lord Jesus Christ, the present mediator for the Church; there is the discernment between clean and unclean, offering of sacrifice, teaching the statutes, while the written Word of God is our only guide. We are in the place to learn the mind of God, that we might teach the statutes, and they will be according to the written Word.

We should recognise the two principles of union and mediation. Besides His mediation for us, between the two parties, as Aaron, He has, in His own person, all the promises of God; and if I am in Christ, I get the promises too; I get them in union with Him, all the promises of God, &c. (or the difference between righteousness and priesthood). I get righteousness as being united to Him, it is already settled, and then I am in the presence of God righteous, as He is righteous, - accepted in the beloved, righteous in His righteousness. But besides this, I have mediation to maintain my communion, because of what I really am; the blood was a token, but was soon forgotten; but this was all before the Red Sea: Pharaoh, and the Canaanites, - very different types of Satan. Israel were slaves to Pharaoh, but were conquerors of the Canaanites.

Covenant is not promise; diatheekee is just covenant, - anything revealed for all. Unless we can tell what it is to have nothing, and yet possess all things, we cannot understand covenant. All arises from the union of the Church with the Lord Jesus Christ; everything is mine, - glory, resurrection, - everything. There was no covenant made with man, - a mere sentence passed upon Satan; the covenant is with the Lord Jesus Christ. To Abraham, a promise, which is confirmed to the seed in the accomplishment of obedience, - and the obedience of Christ is ours. "In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed," Acts 3. Paul says, "Not of seeds, as of many," &c.; the true seed was Christ, the true Isaac, the laughter of heaven and earth. It is only in the Spirit, and by the Spirit, that we enter into this, because it is all in heaven. Israel could have no blessing, but in Jesus; no covenant, old or new, independent of Him; whatever blessing we get, it is in connection with Him. In Matt. the blood of the new covenant is spoken of as "shed," not the new covenant made. Whatever promises there may be, they are all in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God by us.

Wherever we cannot speak as the oracles of God, we should be silent; nothing hinders light to our souls more than playing with unascertained truth. "As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word."

Notes of a Reading on Colossians 1 (1879)

J. N. Darby.

{Christian Friend 1887, page 148-53.}

The word "Lord" is often used by people in a vague way; but here (v. 3) we find those names of God and of Christ which represent relations. If we say "Father," we speak as children; if we say "Lord," we speak as servants of the Lord Jesus. The title Lord applies to Christ as Man in the glory. "What is man?" (Ps. 8) Here we see Him as having entered into the divine glory, but not having taken His own throne as yet. (See Heb. 2: 5) He is now gathering the co-heirs to take them up to Himself; and when they are gathered He will take His throne, and we shall reign with Him.

Three points are to be noticed as to the rights of Christ to take possession of all things. First, He has created all things; second, He is the Son - established Heir of all things, after Heb. 1; third, according to God's counsels; fourth, there is yet another point, He shall take possession of all things on the ground of redemption. Satan shall be bound, and evil put away; then the Lord shall take possession of all things, and reign.

We find, then, here, these three relations: God, the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is important not to confound them, but to understand what the responsibilities are which flow from them.

We shall have all that Christ has. He will bring us into all that He Himself enjoys, only He has ever His own place, ever the pre-eminence in all things. Thus, on the holy mount, we see Moses and Elijah in the same heavenly glory with Him; but then, when Moses and Elijah disappear, the Father's voice is heard - "This is my beloved Son." That is the place that is His.

Q. What does the earnest of the inheritance mean in the Epistle to the Ephesians?

A. It is not difficult to understand that, for in our everyday language we often speak of earnest-money (i.e., a part of the payment before the whole be paid). It is the Holy Ghost in us. That we already have; but we are not in possession of the inheritance. As to power, and our enjoyment of Christ by the Spirit, it is evident that when we shall be in the glory our state will be very different. Take, as an example, the case of condensed steam in an engine. All that immense power is spent in dragging thousands of pounds. It is slow and difficult work; but if the steam were free, what elasticity. It is so with us, as being the vessels of the Spirit. The greater part of its power is absorbed in dragging the weight of that which is earthly, but in heaven there will be nothing to drag.

Verse 3. There are, then, these two characters of Christ which are not to be confounded: first, as Man before God; second, as Son before the Father. In Hebrews 1 we find yet a third: He is Son of God born in this world. Compare Psalm 2: "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee."

Verse 5. "On account of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens." Notice carefully that we are not looked at in Colossians as being seated in Christ in heaven. We have died, and have been raised up; but we are still in this world, and in it with the hope (of glory) laid up for us in the heavens. Compare this with the position of the Lord Jesus during the forty days between His resurrection and His ascension to heaven. He was a Man that had died, and had been raised up, but who had not gone up on high. God grant that we may fully apprehend the force of this word "raised up." There is a great difference between quickened and raised. In John 5 the Son quickens the dead - He imparts life to dead souls. That is what follows when His Word is received. (John 5: 24.) But how many quickened souls there are who do not understand aught of resurrection. When I speak of having died and being raised up the question is an entirely new position before God. Associated with Christ in His work, and united with Him by the Spirit, we pass into an entirely new state of things. Such is the Christian in the Epistle to the Colossians.

Q. Had the Old Testament saints life?

A. Of course they had; they were quickened, but they had not "died with Christ," nor had they been raised up with Him, which was impossible, because Christ had not yet died, nor was He risen. Then, again, He has brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings. This is the new thing.

Verse 8. Notice that this is the only instance where the Spirit is mentioned in the Epistle to the Colossians.

Verses 9 and 10. Here we have a very important thing - the walk in this world of a dead and risen Christian, according to the spiritual understanding which belongs to him. "Filled with the full knowledge of His will." This supposes that the eye is single. Mark the expressions in these verses. What an intelligent walk - with the full knowledge (ἐπίγνωσις) of His will. It is not a question here of merely being a good neighbour, a good father, or of being diligent in one's duties, etc. (any respectable Jew would do quite as much), but of walking worthily of the Lord unto all well pleasing.

Thus we find (Phil. 1: 10) things that are excellent, and the point is to be able to distinguish them. There are things which are good, and things which are excellent; the latter still more pleasing to the Lord. There are three expressions in connection with the Christian walk:

Walking worthy of:-

God (1 Thess. 2: 12), who calls us to His own kingdom and glory.

Christ (here in Col. 1: 10) unto all well-pleasing.

the Spirit worthy of the calling. (Eph. 4: 1)

Verse 11. Here is another point: "Strengthened with all power, according to the might of His glory, unto all endurance and longsuffering with joy." We see here the character of the epistle - the full knowledge of a glorious Christ, and thus are we strengthened with all power. To what purpose? For some heroic deed? No; but that we may endure. It is unto all endurance and longsuffering. This is true power. When speaking of proofs of power, Paul always puts endurance and longsuffering in the foreground. It is no such easy matter to endure everything with joy; for this we need the might of His glory.

Verse 12. Here we see the present position of New Testament saints: "Fit to share the portion of the saints in light." That is our present position. Not only are we saved, but we are already made fit to share the portion of the saints. Compare with the golden altar in the holy place of the tabernacle. The brazen altar prefigures rather the forgiveness of sins and the sinner's reception; the golden altar was within - in the sanctuary.

Verse 13. Mark two points here. There are two characters of God revealed in His Word - God is light, and God is love - and both are spoken of here. He has delivered us from the power of darkness (into light), and He has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love (love).

Q. What is here the meaning of "the kingdom of the Son," etc.?

A. It is where Christ has His true sway - the real thing, true believers; a kingdom, because His authority there is fully owned.

Verse 14. Here redemption is mentioned last of all these things.

Verses 15, 17, and 18. There are two headships of Christ here:

1st (v. 15). He is image of the invisible God, He who has created all things. It is a question of the rights and glories of His person. He has not taken His rights yet, as laid down in this verse. All things have been created by Him and for Him.

2nd. This is the second headship (v. 18). He is the Head of the body, the Firstborn from among the dead. He is about to take possession of all things on the ground of redemption. As risen Man, He will take all that He has created as God; and the assembly, the body, shall then be the fulness of His glory. The two reconciliations (vv 20, 21), and the two lines of Paul's ministry (vv. 23-25, etc.), flow from these two headships of Christ. (1) All things shall be reconciled; (2) you hath He reconciled. Again, (1) Proclaimed in the whole creation; (2) the dispensation of God towards the body of Christ, which is the assembly.

Mark now the word "if" (v. 23). Why should the apostle speak of being kept if there were no danger? The "ifs" apply to the wilderness. We are saved and reconciled, but not yet in glory, and we need to be kept guarded. We should not shun these expressions; for we have need of dependence all along the road, else we shall be negligent. God is faithful to keep us, but it is necessary that we should be kept. Thus, in John 10, the Lord says, "No one shall pluck them out of my hand." But it is evident that the enemy will endeavour to do that. See further 1 Cor. 1: 8, 9: "Who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom" - we have God's fidelity to keep us. May we avail ourselves of it.

What does the Coming of the Comforter mean?

J. N. Darby.

{Serving as a reply to the second article on "The Church in the Old Testament" in "Our Banner" (an American Periodical), April 16, 1877.}

{Bible Herald, 1877, pages 223-256.}

I have no pleasure in mere controversy, and as I noticed Mr G.'s previous article* on the church only at the request of those interested in the subject, I take notice of his reply for the same reason, but only of what refers to the main subject, which is all-important.

{*See Bible Witness and Review, Vol, 1, p. 240.}

I have no doubt, though unacquainted with him, that Mr. G. is a good man, and I have no wish to violate in any way the amenities of Christian charity with one who is a brother in Christ, as controversy tends to do. One should ask oneself now "Is this what I should wish it to have been when I come before the Lord? " If I should fail in this I must, anticipating, beg Mr. G. to forgive me. I have no consciousness of an ungracious feeling, but Mr G. will not deny that "What is the Church?" is an important question for us all.

I will reply, then, to his article in Our Banner of April 16, in what touches that question, and even so, I do it reluctantly. Positive truth is happier service. Mr. G. insists that the Church was Israel. That it was at first composed of Jews no one denies. God, as I said before, waiting on Israel in gracious patience, consequent withal on Christ's intercession on the cross (Luke 23: 34); the third of Acts, not the second, being the reply of the Holy Ghost by the mouth of Peter thereto. This was not only addressed to Israel but about Israel, calling them as a nation to repent and Jesus would return, the words of the Holy Ghost answering to Jesus' prayer "When the times of refreshing;" ver. 19, should be "so that the times of refreshing;" ὃπως ἂν has no other sense in Greek. The Jews' repentance would be the occasion of God's intervention in their favour, and then the blessing and peace of the world promised in the prophets would be established, commonly called the millennium. But in this case there was no gathering. The Jewish authorities would not even allow the Apostle to finish his speech. But Mr. G.'s argument as to Acts 2 has no force whatever. The Apostle's sermon was addressed to the Jews, to Israel, if you will, but what has that to do with the Church being Israel? The effect of the sermon under the power of the spirit was to gather out of Israel, three thousand, to form, so far, the church - to begin it among that people, though the doctrine of it was not taught till Paul's time. He was a minister of the church to fulfil or complete the word of God (Col. 1: 26). But to argue that the church was Israel, because Israel was preached to, and many gathered out of Israel to form it, has no possible force. If a missionary gathers a body of christians from among the heathen in India, converted to God by grace, are they still heathens, and christianity a continuation of their religion? No doubt they were by natural birth, as the Jews were Jews, but to say that the church is heathen it absurd. Those called out from Israel who were saved from that untoward generation, were the church, or assembly of God. Israel remained Israel, and was, for the time, hardened in the heart and cut off.

Mr. G. must allow me to complete the quoted prophecy of Joel, "The promise is unto you and to your children." There Mr. G. stops. The Apostle adds "and to all that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord your God shall call." Now that God did not reject the Jews till they had refused to receive a glorified Christ, as well as crucified a humbled one (a measure of sin and unbelief completed in the stoning of Stephen, who sums up their conduct from Abraham to that day; where also Paul, the minister of the church, first comes upon the scene), is quite true, and hence that God waited and did not reveal all His counsels as to the union of Jew and Gentile. But the language omitted by Mr. G. throws it open in principle, and if it does not, why does he omit it?

The promise was given to Israel especially, but by adding all flesh, the prophecy was in prospect carried out farther. It is the accustomed term for this in the Old Testament. "All flesh shall see the salvation of God." "By His fire and by His sword shall the Lord plead with all flesh." The "specially to Israel" does not exclude this. He was to be a light to lighten (to reveal) the Gentiles, and the glory of His people, Israel. Let my reader consult Jer. 25: 15-33, where the Lord declares He will plead with all flesh, beginning with Jerusalem (18-29, see Num. 16: 22). So to Christ, power is given over all flesh. But let the reader only take a concordance, and he will at once see the force of these words, its absolute universality, and where needed, contrast with Israel. He will readily understand why Mr. G. omits it, and what is far better, how God uses it, and how, while preserving the promises to Israel, it extends blessing and judgment to all, and putting the Jew first, goes out to the Greek.

Repentance and remission of sins were to be preached in His name, beginning at Jerusalem. So even Paul, who knew no difference, for that all had sinned, yet went to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, saying that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written. Till the Jews rejected a glorified Christ the patience of God dealt with them as a nation for repentance, and gathered the members of His assembly from that people, calling then Cornelius by Peter, that all might be one, but using Paul as the instrument for unfolding the doctrine of the assembly and the ministration of the Gospel to the nations, a mission the others gave up entirely to him (Gal. 2).

Did Mr. G. see the Lord's coming and the setting up of Christ's kingdom by power, I might go further into this. Let him here only ponder this, that the little stone, cut out without hands, did not become a mountain to fill the whole earth, till after it had executed judgment. The knowledge of this would help in the understanding of Joel* and interpret many passages now obscure and falsely applied by those who do not see it. But I must now confine myself to my reply.

{*Thus in Joel it is before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes that there is deliverance in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and with this chapter 3 is connected.}

As regards my alleged mistake of taking organization for privilege (and christian privileges do occupy the greatest part of my paper), I shall only quote Mr G.'s words, "To them (the Jews) pertained the adoption, glory, covenant, giving of the law, service, and the promises (Rom. 9: 4). Nothing more can be said of the church now." Any one can decide whether this applies to organization or privileges, and whether it is not an assertion that they had all that the church has now.

As to the coming of the Holy Ghost, the most essential point of all, I do mean to say that the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, did not come till after Christ was glorified. The word of God is positive and express as to this, and it is what is at the root of the question. What I have said about this, or rather what the blessed Lord and the word have said of it is quite plain. The Holy Ghost as God, is everywhere. "He inspired," I said, "the prophets, and wrought all through the divine history." But and if Christ and the divine word tell us the truth, we must so believe, the Comforter could not come until Christ went away and was glorified. "Christ," I remarked, "had created the world, but He did not come till the incarnation." "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world and go to the Father"

I shall repeat what the word of God says on this point as it is the real and vital question. It is a scriptural fact which constitutes Christianity, and the denial of the plain scriptural statements on the subject, or the neglect of them, is what has judaized Christianity, plunged the assembly of God into the world, and made it as it now stands, the powerless prey to infidelity. The death and resurrection of Christ are the foundations of Christianity, the presence of the Holy Ghost as personally come into the world, that is, to believers in it, is the essential living power and characteristic of Christianity and the Christian.

And I add now, that Christ glorified as man, received Him (the Holy Ghost) afresh when so glorified, to shed Him forth on His disciples. Christ had not received Him to this end till after His ascension, Acts 2: 33 "Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear."

I am not going to reason as Mr. G. does, but to quote the word of God. Mr. G. speaks of " pouring out," as giving in abundance, and that such only is the difference. When was the Spirit of God poured out before Pentecost? But I will quote the texts, and to them I can claim the submission of every child of God. I have done so, but I press this point as a cardinal one, constituting Christianity as revealed in the New Testament.

In John 7 Christ not then showing Himself to the world according to the yet unfulfilled type of the feast of Tabernacles, says on the special, last (eighth) and great day of the feast, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," and the Evangelist adds: "This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet (given), for Jesus was not yet glorified." Compare Acts 2 already quoted. There is no question of a greater or fuller measure. What is said is the Holy Ghost (πνευμα ἃγιον) was not yet. That is, as come and dwelling in believers. So the baptizing with the Holy Ghost was the second of the two great works of Christ. He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but He on whom, as man, the Holy Ghost descended and abode, He it was who would baptize with the Holy Ghost. This took place, as regards the one hundred and twenty, on the day of Pentecost, according to Christ's word (Acts 1: 5 ), and Christ being exalted and glorified according to John 7 shed forth the Holy Ghost according to the promise in Joel. The difference of the Spirit in the prophets, and the presence of the Holy Ghost as come down from Heaven, is clearly marked in 1 Pet. 1: 11-13: "The Spirit of Christ which was in them testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory (glories) which should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." There was a testimony beforehand, by the Spirit of Christ in the prophets, but with the gospel the things were, not brought, but reported with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and then we are told that the things will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ, for which we must wait. The distinction, then, is perfectly scriptural, and the distinction made in scripture, that distinction being marked by "sent down from heaven." But further I add the positive texts (John 14: 16), "I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter that He may abide with you for ever;" (25, 26), "These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things." (15: 26), "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth." (16: 7), "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; But if I depart, I will send Him unto you, and when He is come." And the Acts and Epistles confirm these plain testimonies. The former I have quoted. I add (19), "We have not so much as heard whether the Holy Ghost is." The same words as in John 7. So Eph. 1: 13, "In whom also, after that ye believed ye were sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise" - till Christ was glorified, promised, but not come; but now come, and given to believers as a seal. Their unity was the unity of the Spirit; there was one Spirit and one body. They were not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God by which they were sealed to the day of redemption (Gal. 3: 2), "They had received the Spirit by the hearing of faith." (1 Cor. 12), "All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as He will." "By one Spirit they were all baptized into one body." Christianity is the ministration of the Spirit, in contrast with the law (2 Cor. 3). And it is a great mistake to suppose that miraculous gifts and prophesy were the special and most important effects. The disciples were not to rejoice that demons were subject unto them, but rather that their names were written in heaven. Men might have supernatural power (1 Cor. 13), without being converted, and in the Old Testament we have instances of it, but if sealed with the Holy Ghost, it was as believers, and for the day of redemption. They could then (Gal. 4) cry Abba Father, being sons by faith in Christ Jesus, they (John 16) know they are in Christ and Christ in them (1 John 4: 13). They know, and that by the Spirit given to them, that they dwell in God, and God in them. His love is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost given to them (Rom. 5: 5). Their bodies are temples. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, helps our infirmities; we are led by the Spirit, mind the things of the Spirit: He which establishes in Christ, and has anointed us is God, who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts (2 Cor. 1: 21, 22). He who hath wrought us for the self-same thing (the glory), is God, who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit (2 Cor. 5: 5). All this is more than power and prophecy. It is the Christian state, and is contrasted (Gal. 4) with the Jewish believer consequent on accomplished and known redemption. The more the reader examines the Word, the more he will find the presence of the Holy Ghost in the believer and in the assembly, essentially and distinctively characteristic of Christianity.

I may notice one passage, as it makes a difficulty of some, John 14: 17. It does not touch the question, if we take it as Mr. G. and others do, namely, that the Holy Ghost had come down on Jesus as man after His baptism, and dwelt with them in that sense, but was not in them. This only confirms what I have insisted on. The Holy Ghost coming and being in them was future: "and shall be in you." That was not yet. But the truth is, I do not believe this to be the sense of "dwelling" with them. The translators had an avowed and unhappy practise of translating the same word differently in the same sentence, as in John 5: "judgment," "condemnation," "damnation," are one identical word in Greek. So here "dwell" in ver. 17 is the same as "abide" in ver. 16. The Father was to give another Comforter who was to abide for ever with them. Christ could not; He was to go away to the Father. When sent, He was to abide with them, and be in them. Christ was there with them, but He could not abide with them; was with them, but not in them. This other Comforter would abide, and be in them. The "cannot receive" of the world is as much the present time as "abide." It is when sent. And the truth is, abides or dwells, is just as much future as present. It depends on an accent (μενέι or μενεῖ) and in the early MSS. there were no accents. But taking it in Mr. G.'s sense, the Spirit was there in Christ as man, and so with them, but in them was, on the contrary, future.

The word of God, therefore, testifies positively that the Comforter did not, and could not come, till Christ went away and was glorified. There is nothing about any previous pouring out, but a promise of doing it in the future. Nor does even shaphak mean giving in abundance, particularly, but simply pouring out. Further, in speaking of less and more, His personal coming is denied; a very weighty point. "When He shall come." He is sent, comes, wills, distributes, works, and, I repeat, Christianity is distinguished by that presence of the Holy Ghost the Comforter. I repeat here the immensely important truth that God's dwelling with man is the consequence of accomplished redemption. He did not with Adam, nor Abraham, nor other saints. When He had redeemed Israel out of Egypt He did. "He dwelleth between the cherubim" (See Ex. 29: 45, 46). So the Holy Ghost could not come, till man sat at the right hand of God, the glorified witness that an eternal redemption was accomplished. Of this we have seen in John 7, Acts 2, John 16: 7, the positive testimony. The whole character of christianity depends on it. We are not yet in the christian state and standing if we have not the Spirit (Rom. 8: 9-11).

Mr. G. says that the work of instituting the church is nowhere ascribed to the Spirit in scripture. That the church was not yet built or building when Christ was on earth is certain, for He says, on this rock I will build my church. Till Christ died the foundation was not laid. Here only is the church spoken of in His lifetime and as a future thing. But He died to gather together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad, and the two characters in which the church is spoken of, body and house, are both attributed to the Spirit, baptized by one Spirit into one body, and the habitation of God by the Spirit (Eph. 2: 22). "In whom ye are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit (εν πνευματι). There is one Spirit and one body. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, Jews or Gentiles, etc." (1 Cor. 12: 12, 13). Even if we come down to the low ground of external organization, Mr. G. says, "Christ instituted the Lord's supper, Christ instituted baptism." Well then, they did not exist before Christ, as so organized. But when Mr. G. says, "Christ gave the organization of the New Testament to the disciples," though the expression "the organization of the New Testament" be somewhat unintelligible, will He tell us when He did so? I read in 1 Tim. of such organization, and historical facts elsewhere connected with it, but for saying that any such were given by Christ, there is not a shadow of ground.

If by organization He means baptism and the Lord's supper, it is a proof that as He instituted them, such organization did not exist before, and it was when the Holy Ghost came they were carried out. Baptism to Christ's death could not be till He had died, and the Lord's supper is a symbol of the unity of the body of which an exalted Christ (Eph. 1: 19-23) is the Head.

As to Christ not loving the church till it existed, it is false doctrine. In its fulness and completeness in God's purpose it does not exist yet, at least we trust that soul's will yet be brought in. "Yet to be made and defiled," says Mr. G. Did He not love the souls He saves now, before they existed? They were defiled in their own nature, and of these the church is made up, loved before they existed, defiled as sinners, and Christ died long ago for their purification, and they constitute the church when sealed. Christ did love the church before it existed. Did He only give Himself for what existed then? This is very sad. He gave Himself for it that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself, a glorious church without spot. What He will present to Himself certainly did not exist when He gave Himself for it. There could be no church but by His giving Himself for it. Its cleansing, in time, comes after this. He loved the church that He will present, glorious, to Himself.

This only shows how if one truth be given up, others, if touched, will crumble with it. If Mr. G. had given himself the trouble of examining the Greek in Eph. 3: 4-11, he would have found that as the English proves nothing of the kind, in Greek there is no ground for what he says as to the Jews being the body (a monstrous assertion, really) at all. The word is σύσσωμα, which could not exist till both were formed in one, according to chapter 2, to make of both one new man.

The concluding remarks scarcely require any on my part. There is not a word in scripture about any people using Melchisedec, not even Abraham, though he owned his greatness. Abraham acted as priest for himself continually setting up his altar, as did Isaac and Jacob, and the family altar has been generally recognized by christians. There is not a shadow of any assembly of believers, or professed believers, before the exodus. Melchisedec is introduced as a mysterious personage whose priesthood and life were coincident, not what priests were, or the great high priest is now, to intercede for the ignorant or out of the way, or to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin as the apostle insists; but to give, and to bless the Most High God, and Abraham from the Most High God, when through His power he was already wholly victorious. And if Mr. G. had taken the pains to read that one of the songs of Zion (Ps. 110) to which he alludes, he would have found that it was setting Christ at God's right hand till His enemies should be His footstool; and that the sending the rod of His power out of Zion is future. Then His enemies will be made His footstool. Hence when the apostle shows that there arises another priest not of the order of Aaron, Christ being that priest, he makes the present exercise of His priesthood exclusively according to the analogy of Aaron's, though He be not of his order (Heb. 8: 9), because Christ is yet sitting at the right hand of God, and His enemies, if scripture is to be believed, not yet made His footstool. A priest is not the priest of a church,* unless in popery, that I know of. The essential character of the present time is that Christ is not sitting on His own throne, but on His Father's, at God's right hand, till His enemies be made His footstool, and the Holy Ghost sent down while He is there "expecting," having by one offering perfected for ever them that are sanctified through it. I do not admit that there was an order known as elders when Moses returned to Israel in Egypt. There were elders, but no order known as elders. If there were, let the institution be shown. There was one established when Jethro came (Ex. 18, Deut. 1), but this was subsequent; and a special one of seventy (Num. 11: 17). But as to this I am quite indifferent. The congregation was not formed, but they were a separated people, and if there be no testimony of it, for aught I know there may have been some known elders, but no such order is spoken of. Nor even in the New Testament is any appointment of elders spoken of amongst the Jews.

{*The church is never spoken of unless in Heb. 12: 22, where the whole heavenly and earthly order is spoken of. }

But if there were a congregation connected with Melchisedec, of which there is not the slightest trace, or that there were elders in Israel organized as an order among the people, which is not said either, what has that to do with union with Christ by the Holy Ghost, with the glorious head of the body, or even with the habitation of God through the Spirit, formed consequent on Christ having broken down the middle wall of partition, and set aside Judaism? Were Melchisedec's fancied congregation members of Melchisedec's body? Yet that is what constitutes the church in its truest character: "the body of Christ."

How the habit of mere human arrangement blots out of the mind the divinely given revelations of a glorified Christ at God's right hand, and a body united to Him by the Holy Ghost. A priest must have a church, an utterly unscriptural thought, instead of a glorified Christ and union with Him by the Holy Ghost; Christ, too, fancied to be exercising His power as King now, instead of sitting at God's right hand expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.

I trust no harsh word has escaped me. I do not deny it is an exercise of patience to go over and over again what constitutes the characteristic existence of the church, and christianity itself commencing from Pentecost. My only consolation is that it brings out, clearer and clearer, for christians, great fundamental truths of their own standing. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His.

The Lord's Departure

Luke 22: 1-38.

J. N. Darby.

{This is another of the early addresses of the author translated from the French - Ed.}

{Christian Friend 1887, pages 85-7.}

All the circumstances of the death of Jesus sum up for us these two great principles; the love of God, and the hatred of man. Here the Lord makes preparations for His departure, but, though absent now, He is ever present spiritually with His own, and His desire is that the children of God should all lean on Him. Our strength comes from our weakness, but we easily overlook the sense of our weakness when God's grace acts, because we attribute to ourselves something of its effects. It is then that we need to be sifted, for the flesh has come in, and evil with it.

The Church is a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men, to show them and to make them know the power of God, the power of the Holy Ghost prevailing over the power of evil, and that even in the weakness of man. But if we abandon the support of the Spirit, the flesh re-appears, regains its strength, leads us into temptation, and does not shelter us from the effects of this last. This was what happened to Peter; the strength of the flesh suffices to lead him into temptation, but not to draw him out of it. Jesus in this way allowed Peter to be sifted, and to make experience of the weakness of the flesh, in order that he should, by this knowledge, be fitted to strengthen his brethren. The Lord says, "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations" (v. 28), and yet often they had neither understood Him nor followed Him faithfully.

By the Lord's departure, He leaves His disciples to themselves, as sheep in the midst of wolves; hence the instruction of verse 36. He gives them also the example of His deep humility. From the moment that we think ourselves to be the benefactors of anyone (vv. 25, 26) we take God's place; man is glorified at God's expense in the presence of his fellows. We lose our character as children of God when we lose our place as servants. Jesus was the Servant of all (v. 27); the more we are servants, the more we shall be like Him. Love makes us the servants of others, because of their miseries. A mother is servant to her child, although she is above him.

With regard to the Lord's Supper, the Lord wished to give His disciples a testimony of His love. But there also He was Servant. (vv. 14, 15.) The Lord was going to take His place in heaven, to become the Nazarite there, separated from the joys of His disciples, and separated outwardly from sinners. Love cannot be happy without those that are loved sharing what it has. Jesus cannot be satisfied until the Church is gathered with Him in glory. But before He departs, He leaves us a token of love. He had much desired to eat that passover with them before He should suffer. He made Himself man and servant that our hearts might have an object for our love, at the same time human and divine. The link of love is perfect; it is the most intimate communion of Him with us, and us with Him. Jesus is the first-born among many brethren, and takes that character as the object of our affections. He does not command love, but He produces it by the manifestation of His love for us. Jesus is not changed. He places us in the same position as Himself; He produces in us the desire for communion with Him. Taking a meal together is a sign of love and fellowship; the joy which accompanies it is not at its height, because now the Lord is separated from us, and does not eat with us in person any longer; He has left us together in love. The Christian is separated from the world by his love for the One who is far away from it.

How can a Christian stay away from the Lord's Supper? It is to excommunicate oneself. The Lord's Supper is a token of pardon; the memorial of the love of Jesus. Christ is spiritually present with His own, but He is also absent, and we wait for Him. By partaking of one loaf, we show that we are one body, and I cannot cut myself off, excommunicate myself from the body of Christ. In the Lord's Supper Christ desired to express His love, to remind us of His love; it is a necessity of His heart. The token of the love of Christ - the Friend who has died for us - the absent Friend - must be precious to us. He deigns to be one of us, separated from us for a little while, but finding His joy in making us happy.

Deuteronomy 26

J. N. Darby.

Malvern 1880.

{Christian Friend, 1893, pages 225-9.}

This chapter gives a kind of epitome of the book of Deuteronomy. This book is totally different to all the other books in the Pentateuch; for the people are viewed as in the land, and it is the ordering of them in the land. In the tabernacle service the question was, whether they could approach God; the point was going up to God in His holiness; but here it is the worship and blessing of God as in possession of all these blessings. We get both, because it is in going into the sanctuary that we enjoy the blessings.

You do not get here any promise made to Abraham, or anything connected with it. Verse 5 refers to Jacob; it is God delivering the people, and bringing them into the land in responsibility. Chapter 29: 29, they were put upon responsibility in the land to enjoy the blessings consequent upon obedience; but supposing they were not faithful, what then? Then he says, " If thou shalt return unto the Lord thy God . . . then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity," etc. (30: 2); that is, there is the promise of blessing "the revealed things." But then there are "the secret things," which are, when they had come into the land and lost everything, through disobedience, yet, if their hearts turned to the Lord, the door was not in heaven or hades, but nigh them in their heart (30: 14), and if they turned to Him there was recovery; those were "the secret things."

Between chapters 26 and 30 you get the real effect of the law, a curse in Chapter 27, and then in chapters 28 and 29 governmental blessings and cursings, and God restoring them in blessing. It is striking that chapter 27 takes up the law essentially in its character. He puts six tribes to curse, and you have all the curses; and he puts six tribes to bless, and you get no blessings at all. I suppose the blessings were pronounced historically, but we are only told of the curses. In chapters 28 and 29 you get governmental blessings; they would be blessed or not according as they obeyed: that is, a distinct thing from the curses or blessings being pronounced. Chapter 26 was the normal state, the right state of Israel. I have come to bring back to God what He has given me; but the principle was, that they had not defiled themselves with the dead (v. 14); that is, they had kept the principles of the first covenant.

The priests are left out in Deuteronomy, and the tithes given to the priests are left out too. There were three sets of tithes: the first in Num. 18, not given to the priests directly, but the increase of the people's fields, &c., given to the Levites, who gave a tenth of these tithes to the priests; these were the regular tithes. But in Deut. 12, and 14 you get nothing of that; the people take the tithes, their peace-offerings, and so on, and they go up to one place; for all social enjoyment was to be religiously connected with the place where God had put His name. They were to go up to Jerusalem, a leading principle in Deuteronomy to keep them from idolatry. If it was too far to take their offerings, they might sell them, and carry up their money to the place the Lord had chosen, and buy whatever they had set their heart upon, and feast upon it there. The priests are ignored, and the people go and feast upon it themselves; these were the second set of tithes. The third tithes (which Amos refers to chap. 4: 4) came every third year; they eat the tithes in their house, and did not go up to Jerusalem. (See chap. 26: 12.) They may have been the second tithes, and a special ordinance about them. You do not find the first tithes specified at all in Deuteronomy. The first tithes were the tenth part of all their increase given to the Levites. (Num. 18) The second tithes are in Deut. 12 and 14, not given to the priests, but eaten by the people themselves at Jerusalem. The third are in Amos 4: 4 and Deut. 26: 12. The priests are ignored in Deuteronomy, except in chapter 18; for there is nothing about going into the sanctuary. I do not suppose there was any sacrifice offered to Jehovah in the wilderness. (See Amos 5: 25.) Amos says the people were to go into captivity "beyond Damascus." (v. 27.) Stephen quotes it, and says "beyond Babylon" (Acts 7: 43), because it was a present dispersion. The priests in Exod. 19 were persons Moses appointed.

The very first verses of Deuteronomy are remarkable; the people took forty years for what was an eleven days' journey. The book goes on (with a division at chapter 12) to chapter 29; then you come to the secret things after failure. The other was the development of the basis on which they enjoyed the land when they got into it. In chap. 2 they turned and took their journey into the wilderness, and wandered there. All the people perished except Joshua and Caleb; all under twenty survived. Chapter 5 begins the book with commandments and statutes. Up to that Moses had been rehearsing their history with warnings; now he begins with the ten commandments. In chap. 12 he specially marks "the place which the Lord your God shall choose," which characterizes the body of the book, and which was to deliver them from idolatry, yet they soon had high places. In David's time Gibeon was a great high place; the ark was at Zion. Chapter 26 is based on redemption, and not on the original promise, only in chap. 30 he goes back to the original promise, and that is "the secret things." In Numbers it is the end of the wilderness; in Deuteronomy we are found in the land. In Numbers the priesthood closes; for Aaron dies, and it was Aaron who had carried them through the wilderness; his rod budded, not Moses'. You get in Numbers perfect justification after failure - "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob," &c. (Chap. 23: 21.) The red heifer in Numbers 19 was for washing the people's feet when in evil. Balaam's four prophecies are a separated people, a justified people, a beautiful people, and Christ's coming again. That closes the wilderness history, and then I get the being in the land, quite on distinct ground.

Our proper portion is in the holiest, and there I get two things. I have the assurance as to redemption, that I am come to God, that is a settled thing; that is, not counting on God's faithfulness, but believing in the assurance of that which He has wrought. But then, secondly, I get its application to me; for I am going through the wilderness, and I have to get to Canaan, and there dependence comes in - every-day faith in the Lord to keep me along the journey kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." It is a kind of assurance that is identified with incessant dependence on God every step of the way. If I am sitting in heavenly places in Christ, there is no one there to pluck me out of His hand; but if I am walking down here, it all depends on my dependence on the faithfulness of God. It must be constant dependence, or I am down in an instant. The moment I act in my own will I am wrong. All the "ifs" in the New Testament come in for the journey; it would be blasphemous to use an "if" as to salvation; it would be calling in question the efficacy of Christ's work. For the journey it is a different kind of assurance; it is just as sure; for "God hath spoken, and shall He not do it?" But it is not yet accomplished. Hebrews is full of "ifs;" for we are looked at there, not as in Christ, but as poor, feeble things walking on the earth, and Christ a Priest on high, therefore all conditions were looked at as finally fatal, if not kept; getting away from Him was apostasy. "If ye continue in the faith," etc. (Col. 1: 23), if not, it was apostatizing from the faith. There are no "ifs" in Ephesians, because we are looked at there as sitting in heavenly places in Christ. In Colossians it is a hope laid up in heaven. Philippians always takes up salvation as something to come; it looks at justification as a future thing. In 1 Cor. 1: 7 the apostle says, "God is faithful," and yet he begins to blame them for everything they were doing. (v. 8 is not standing but experimental work.) "At this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought?" When I speak of the work accomplished and done, I get that in Exodus 15; but there is still the other character, that we are walking through the wilderness, poor, feeble creatures, dependent on God every moment. In Philippians you get a man running a race, and doing nothing else; he has seen Christ, and he must win Him. There is no goal of attainment but Christ Himself; there is never any goal presented to us in this world for attainment; the goal is Christ in glory.

It is a wonderful thing what pains God takes with us, and the pains He takes to tell us all about it too.

A Reading on Ephesians 1.

J. N. Darby.

{The Christian Friend 1882, p. 212.}

You get that word "faithful" added in the first verse of Ephesians and Colossians. "Saints" means that God has sanctified them; but "faithful," that is what they were; they were in the exercise of faith towards God and our Lord Jesus Christ. It is having faith, but at the same time it practically comes to being faithful to the position we are in. Faithful is that they have the faith. It is a great principle, not merely here that they were consistent in everything, but that they were characterized by walking in the faith. "The life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God." You will find that that is a principle of conduct all through ordinary life. "I live by the faith," because it gives a different spring, and character to the whole life. "We walk by faith, not by sight." It is not that each person is exactly consistent in everything, but their life was a life of faith, an object before them which governed their lives. It is an object outside the heart and outside the world, and therefore it carries the heart through the world independent of it.

Then we get Christ presented distinctly in a double character - as Son of the Father and as Man - and that lies at the root of our whole condition too. He is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ as Man, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as Son. That runs all through. "My Father and your Father." During His life He always said Father, because He was a Son. On the cross, when He was dying, drinking the cup, He said, "My God;" but in Gethsemane He said "Father;" and at the end He says, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." But after He is risen (John 20) He uses both together - "My Father . . . my God" - as if He would say, "I have brought you in righteousness to God, and into the place of sons with the Father." And it is the first time He calls them "brethren." When the disciples found He was risen they were not gathered at all; it was Mary's message that practically brought that out. They were then gathered, and Christ with them.

You get here "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," and then the apostle goes on to unfold Christ. In Heb. 1: 8 you find Him first addressed as God - "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever;" and then, when He is looked at as Man in the next verse, it is, "God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows," and then what makes it wonderful is that He brings in others as His companions - "fellows:" addresses Him as God in one verse, and calls us His companions at the end. You get Christ in these two characters, as Man and as Son. Being a Son, it is of great moment to us that He is a Man; He did not take up angels, but the seed of Abraham. In Eph. 1 these two names are brought out, verse 4 the name of God, and verse 5 the name of Father. God has "chosen us in Him . . . that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love" Christ was holy, blameless in His ways, and He is love - just what we are before God. Then in verse 5 it is as Father; both names used for the character in which we are before God. But we must not pass over verse 3. There we find the best kind of blessings, in the best place; they are in Christ, and they are all there. We have temporal mercies assuredly, but that is just a kind of passing thing, and not our portion. Here it is all that we shall be in heaven. The Holy Ghost being here, we get them all in spirit now, everything. Verse 3 is true now in measure according, as we know the power of the Spirit, though of course we have to wait for our bodies; but what is moral is real to us now

In Ephesians we get it all as it is in the mind of God. In Romans it is just the opposite; it begins with man's responsibility. The only fact you get at all in the Ephesians is, that Christ was raised up to the right hand of the Father, at the end of chap. 1 (you get the blessings of course); chap. 3 is special, because it gives Paul's administration. By giving the truth to us as it is in the mind of God, we get it in its absolute perfectness.

Verse 4 is God's nature, and I see that the thought of God is to have me answering to His nature and in His presence. We are to be before Him according to His own nature, and we are in His presence. We have a nature capable of enjoying this, and are in the presence of an object that is ever to be enjoyed - God in fact. It is just what Christ was; He was "holy, and without blame," and always before God. We shall have it perfectly when we are before God, but it is our place now by the Spirit. Then in the next verse you get the Father, and to give it its full character He says "to Himself;" and there is another thing very beautiful in this verse: it is "according to the good pleasure of His will." He did not say that in the previous verse, because it is not His will to have an unholy being before Him (there are lots of unholy beings before Him of course); and that therefore hangs on the nature of God, and so He does not say, "According to the good pleasure of His will." But in verse 5 it is this special kind of love that makes us "children." Always in Scripture we find we are predestinated to something; it is some plan God has to bring us into blessing. We have it here twice (vv. 5 and 11). This is a wonderful passage, because we get Christ before God, holy and without blame, and we get Him as Son; and He takes us into both these places. And that is what He calls "the glory of His grace" (v. 6), to bring us into His presence in Christ, according to what Christ is. You get more in the English word "adoption," for it is putting us into the place of sons; but the way we get into the place of sons is by being born of God. Generally John speaks of being children. The nature is children, but when you get sons in the general it is used for grown-up children. Children is a more tender word. In this passage we have nothing to do with children as distinct from sonsIt is having a part with Christ that makes us sons, and the Holy Ghost gives us the consciousness by which we cry "Abba, Father."

The difference between counsel and purpose is, that purpose is more the intention of the will, and counsel the wisdom of the mind. All these thoughts and purposes are "the glory of His grace," and then He says, "Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." He does not say "in Christ," but "in the Beloved;" for we are loved as Christ is loved. And only in verse 7 does He come to what met our responsibility and ruin. After he has put us completely in the place as it is in God's mind, then he says, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." It does not say "the glory of His grace" here, but "according to the riches of His grace;" it is given to us according to the wealth of God. When we come for this redemption we must come according to our wants; but our wants are not the measure of what we have got in the cross. There we have God spending His own Son for us according to the riches of His grace. When I do come to Him, I find I have forgiveness according to what God is, and not merely according to what I wanted. He meets our poverty, but He meets it according to His own riches. It is striking how every word has its weight in this passage. I am "accepted in the Beloved," not merely that the sins are blotted out.

That closes the position, and then he comes to the dispensation; and he refers to that at the end of the chapter. "The hope of His calling" (v. 18) is what we have been upon now. Then you get that this grace is not merely redemption, and forgiveness, and so on, but that, having put us into this place of perfect blessing, He unfolds all His intentions as to Christ Himself. He has caused this grace to abound (v. 8), not merely in redeeming us, and now He says, "You will be able to comprehend my plans about Christ." (vv. 9, 10.) Then he tells us we are joint-heirs with Him. The "hope of His calling" is the first part of the chapter, and then, after He has stated what His plans are with regard to Christ, we get the second thing - the inheritance. His plan in Christ is to collect everything (not merely people) under Him who is the Head of it, and in this we are joint-heirs with Christ. It is God's inheritance. (v. 18.) If you think of Israel, you will understand it; for God would not allow the land to be sold for more than fifty years, "for it is mine," He says. Israel was God's land, and yet He inherited it in Israel; and so He inherits all things in the saints. Jacob was His inheritance, because it was an earthly thing down here. He always takes an individual position. (v 18.) He does not say the Church is heir. The "mystery" involves for us the Church; but "the mystery of His will" involves the gathering together of everything under Christ, the Church being His body when that takes place. In Colossians you get the reason. There are three reasons why Christ takes everything in Scripture. First, because He created everything (Col. 1: 16), and then (v. 18), "He is the Head of the body, the Church." He is Head over the things, but He is Head to the Church; and that word "filleth all in all" (Eph. 1: 23) is not simply as God, but "He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things." He fills all things in the power of redemption. That is the first ground of his possessing the things, because He created them all. But in Heb. 1 you get another title (v. 2), "Appointed heir of all things," and then the third title is in Heb. 2: 6, 7. He possesses them as man. Those three titles come in as creating everything, as being Son He is heir, and being man He is the object of God's purpose, because He has set man over them. And another thing comes in because it is in redemption. Till you get Christ glorified on high you do not get the Head, and so you cannot get the Body.

"Who pre-trusted in Christ." (v. 12.) The Jews when they see Him will only get the earthly blessing, but those who pre-trusted will get the heavenly thing. Those who trust before they see Him get the blessing. Verse 13 refers to the Gentiles being sealed, as a sign that they were brought into the same blessing. Verse 14 brings in His glory; they have got into it all. "The gospel of your salvation" (v. 13); that is, that the sovereign mercy which visited the Gentiles had given them salvation. I do not believe people get sealed who only believe in Christ's Person. Salvation applies to the two things: "Ready to be revealed in the last time," and then, besides that, the work by which we are already saved. The Spirit (v. 14) is the earnest of our inheritance which we have not got yet, "until the redemption of the purchased possession;" that is, "to the praise of His glory."

It is a great thing to see it is "the gospel of our salvation;" for it is a big word.

J. N. D.

Eternal Life

John 6

J. N. Darby.

{Notes of Addresses Vol. 2.}

It is remarkable the way in which the Lord here shows the source and power of eternal life, and how closely they are connected with Himself. How entirely He takes us in the power of eternal life out of the place of nature, and brings us into fellowship with the Father and with the Son. The Word of God holds this remarkable place, as the instrument by the Holy Ghost, of bringing us thus to God, on the ground of redemption.

The Lord had come down from heaven and associated Himself with man upon earth, walking in and out amongst men, and He took the hearts and thoughts of His disciples entirely out of the world. Grace had brought Him down into it, yet there was no connection with man, or man with Him but on the footing of death; as we read, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you;" and, "I will raise him up (who does so) at the last day;" I will give him another state of life altogether.

The Lord is the Word of life - the eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested to us in the Son (1 John 1: 2). He comes and speaks words to us (ver. 63). And it is upon the word of His testimony that all depends. Grace must work in our hearts that we may receive His words; but "he that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true." Thus we get everything by faith. We see who Christ is by faith. He was the carpenter's son - seen outside of faith (ver. 43). He had no condition in the world, no authority, nothing that would enable you to see, that in that person the Eternal Son of God was in the world, but positive faith. Suppose that even prophecies were brought to bear and miracles laid hold of your mind, they would leave you just where you were. I could not see the person of the Son of God, except God had given the eye of faith.

In the second chapter we find - "For he knew what was in man;" that is, there was no work of God in their souls - nothing but man. He might have honest and sincere convictions, but still no new nature. The people who followed Him were the same who cried "Away with him" afterwards. It is not insincerity, but only what is in man. There was no personal perception that the Son of God had come into this world. The eye was opened if there was any perception of this, and it connected itself with the desires and need of the soul.

We must first have this desire of the heart, and need in the conscience; the sense, too, that we cannot do without Him! Whether there is one or the other, both are connected with that, and for both we find we cannot do without Him.

Suppose I believed all that the Church has taught for eighteen hundred years, before I had this new life, there would be no more of eternal life in me than in that table! It would not bring me nearer to Him, because Christ has not been revealed to my inward soul. It would not be what Paul writes, "When it pleased God to reveal his Son in me."

You get this desire of conscience here in Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go?" (ver. 68). When the sifting comes, nothing else could replace Christ; there is nothing else that can; there was the consciousness that if they had not Christ there was nothing left. The heart and the conscience want Him, and that is eternal life. I might have every thought right as to truth without this. There is no true work where this is not done in the conscience. The heart is drawn to Jesus because the soul sees who He is. Like Peter in Luke 5 - "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord;" but there is power to keep him, he cannot go away.

The prodigal illustrates the same thing; he says, "There is blessing there." His heart was formed by the grace he knew was there. His heart was drawn to Christ, but his conscience told him he was not fit to be there; still the heart could not keep away. Then there comes a word from Christ which satisfies the soul. To Peter it was, "Fear not." To the poor woman of the city who was a sinner it was, "Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace," and all was done. She had Christ's word for it, and this was everything. He had the words of eternal life, as Peter had said, "Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe, and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." This is the only thing that is the ground of faith. Faith is the effect of the Word of God directly from God to the soul, without the intervention of any. Faith cannot rest upon any authority but that of God Himself.

What I press is the Word. Christ is the Living Word; so it is the Word of God that has come from God, and has come into this world, and by which all and every operation of God is effected. Where that is not the case, there is no real result. Miracles were proofs of His mission, but they were not life in the soul. If faith rested on the evidence of miracles alone, the Lord would not trust man. Where the Word is received, the soul is begotten of God.

Suppose I believed every truth which I now believe before I was begotten of God through His Word, it would have no link between God and my soul; there would have been no revelation of God by it to me - nothing that brought God into my soul by it - no drawing of the Father to make Christ needful and precious.

Such knowledge is merely the fire being laid, but no more. The revelation from God, is the revelation of God. Christ was this when He was here; though known as the carpenter's son for many years. What Christ spoke, was an expression of what Christ was. Who could reveal God, but God Himself? And Christ was God, come into a world which had departed from Him, to reveal Himself to souls, and "he that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true." (John 3: 33)

"Lord, to whom shall we go?" There I get the fact that the soul cannot do without Him who had laid hold of their heart. Ah, I say, He has "the words of everlasting life;" I cannot go elsewhere. The soul has got the first link, by the testimony of the Word to it, and it knows Him.

You should ask yourselves whether the voice of the Good Shepherd has reached your souls - has spoken to you so that you know His voice? Take an instance of the thief; he knew Him; he answers for every bit of Christ's life from one end to the other - "This man hath done nothing amiss." God had revealed to him what His Son was, and when every one was against Him, when the authorities of the world had all got rid of this presence of God, one man was there who answered for Christ's spotless humanity.

Why had the Word of God to come down in this way? Why not teach man, and guide man as he was? Why bring the Eternal Son from heaven? People will accept a great deal of truth, but why have a revelation, they say. There must be a revelation, because man has departed from God, and God in mercy to him must reveal something new to him.

If God is not revealed in perfect grace to my soul now, I must have to say to Him in judgment by-and-by; I cannot for ever stay in the dark in my own soul as to God. I must have to do with Him sometime or other. Then I find the grace of a revelation of God. I get in Christ - the Word of God, God Himself come down. Not waiting till I go up for judgment - that would be a terrible story! Then the whole question turns on this, How has He been received? How have I received Him? Why, my heart has turned to every vanity when He has been presented to me! That is the way I have received Him.

He has come down into the world - the "living bread" - to raise people's hearts to God, and to take them out of the world; but we do not like this. He comes amongst men as the lowliest of the lowly, so that the unjealous angels can sing "God's good pleasure in men." Yet in Him we see the only-begotten of the Father. He comes down so that man where he was, and what he was, might have God close to him. My heart is opened to the blessed consciousness that God has found His good pleasure in men.

But you will always find that a revelation of God, is a revelation that says, "You are all ruined and bad." This is too low for the world; it does not suit a person of fair and proper character. There is that which is attractive to the natural man in Christ; there is that which God meant to be attractive to the heart of man. You see the daughters of Jerusalem weeping as they followed Him. They are actuated merely by natural feeling. The pride of this world would not have Him; but the love of God did not stop for that - God will go on with the truth; if the world will not have it, He will go on for those who will.

But if you receive Him, you must do so as a dead Christ - One who has come under the power of death; "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." If you will have an incarnate Christ, you must have a crucified Christ as well. This hurts man's pride. In the present day an incarnate Christ is put in the place of a dead Christ; because an incarnate one exalts man. But a dead Christ shows where man lay, and the need of redemption. An incarnate Christ was presented to man down here; but now it is one who has passed through death and gone on high.

"Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" - I cannot give him a portion in this world, but I can give him a place with me in glory. He can give me thus a part with Himself, but He could not have a part with me here.

"He that eateth me, even he shall live by me." Now I get the blessed side I do not live by Adam; I have to contend with Adam - with the old man; but I live by Christ, and "Christ liveth in me." I live by Him and shall reign with Him, but entirely outside everything here.

In the opening of the chapter He sends the disciples away and He goes up alone to the mount, and there they are toiling, away from Him. It is a picture of what is going on now. Now He says, There is food for souls while I am away - from the beginning to the end I am the sustainer of your life!

The moment we know Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, we are justified. But what I dread is that a person should rest here. He has saved you; but do you not want to abide practically in Him, and He in you? Do you not want to sit under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit be sweet to your taste? Do you not want Him to manifest Himself to you?

I may be going through the billows of this scene, but I am feeding on Christ. I see Him if I trace Him here, and find every footstep blessed. He says He is my food; and by eating Him I shall have the consciousness that He came into a world without God, and brought God into it, and the world would not have Him. Then I find I belong to Him in glory, where He has gone, but I have not the glory yet. Meanwhile I have Him for my whole living portion.

Is that what your hearts are following after, beloved friends, in this evil world? Are your hearts taking as your everyday portion, that One whom the world rejected, or are you taking the world which rejected Him?

The Lord give us to answer this truly in the secret of our hearts, for His name's sake.

Evil Thoughts, unbidden and hated.

J. N. Darby.

(Extract from a Letter.)

{Pamphlet published by Morrish}

Dear -,

I have your letter, and I am sure that the enemy is very busy, as well as the evil heart within. What you need is thorough deliverance from yourself, that is, the flesh. You speak of evil thoughts, unbidden and hated, springing up in the heart even when you seek to be occupied with the Lord, this too when really thinking of Him. Then you stop to confess them, and the occupation for a moment in confession only provokes another evil thought. And so it is as you say, an unending, all-day work.

My feeling is that you have never yet enjoyed full deliverance from self and flesh. You are what scripture calls still "in the flesh," though a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe if your soul were free you would find the simple yet profound truth of "reckoning yourself dead" (Rom. 6: 2), would so act that the thought of turning aside to confess what would spring up unsought for in your soul, would be found to be really and only allowing the flesh a triumph, in leading you to be occupied with it.

When there is no will, such thoughts will be left, turned aside from, and treated as "not I." Of course when the soul is not free I could not say you could do so at all, but were freedom enjoyed you would not be the sufferer from such things. What I would simply say to you is, when evil thoughts are present to your soul, unsought for and hated, do not stop or cease from your measure of occupation with the Lord, to confess them. If will enters they must be confessed, but if not pass them by as you would avoid an evil person who is not yourself, and who you know is incorrigible, and with whom contact is only misery and defilement. "Avoid such, pass not by them," but leave them there. To own them at all, is but to give the flesh the place it seeks - a recognition in some way or another. This, even when it is only to abhor its workings, will be a satisfaction to the flesh.

Oh that you had grace to leave "the flesh" unrecognised and disowned, and to pass on conscious that it is always there and will be in you to the end. How blessed that we can by grace disown and refuse to hear its suggestions when it works, knowing through mercy that it is no more "I." Your case is one that has been and is common to most of the Lord's people, if not all. I refer to unsolicited, hated and wandering thoughts. You should simply go on and take no notice of them whatever, as by doing so you only give the flesh the place it seeks. Go on as not hearing the suggestions - be as it were deaf to them. Confess to God if you find will at work, but not so as to be occupied with the analysis of the evil: rather look up to Him, the sense of weakness and impotency filling your heart, and in the attitude of dependence of soul, pass on with your eye resting on Him, out of whom strength comes whenever there is conscious weakness.

J. N. D.

[Truth for the Day]

God Manifested and Glorified.

John 17

J. N. Darby.

{Unrevised Notes of a Lecture (H. Row May 19th 1879.) published in booklet form by Morrish.}

The more we search into the words of Jesus, the more we see how entirely it is a new thing that He is setting up, on the ground of the redemption He had accomplished.

"I have glorified thee upon the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do, and now O Father glorify thou me." We see how, while the divine nature of the Lord Jesus shines out upon every page of this Gospel-not only doctrinally, but in a thousand things when the eye is opened to see it-yet He never goes out of His place as Man, the place He had taken in order to fulfil the Father's will. It was the very thing Satan would have wanted Him to do: he tried in the wilderness to make Him leave it when he said: "Command that these stones be made bread"-act from your own will, don't stay in the place of a servant. He would not listen for a moment and says: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." He had taken the place of a servant, and being in that place He never went out and never will go out of it; therefore He does not say, "Now I will glorify myself," but, "glorify thou me;" yet it was "with the glory I had with thee before the world was." Thus, while we see His title to the divine place, at the same time He never goes out of this place of lowliness and humiliation. He could speak of "the Son of man which is in heaven," and yet walk about the earth as one that served; He came down to death, but He "gave up" His spirit. We see God shining through the humanity of Jesus, and it is the joy and blessedness of the saint who has eyes to see (for He came in a shape in which I can see it), that He was down here a man amongst men, but it is God whom I see there!

We see God's power manifested in creation, but we see nothing of His heart there: but when God is manifest in the flesh, we get all His perfect grace and goodness.

I find both sides, and if I lose either, I lose everything. If He is only a man-well, I see blessed grace and beauty in Him, but I have only a Man who is so much better than myself that He could have nothing to say to me. If He is only God, a little bit of His glory terrifies me: but we have divine love serving, and the more we contemplate it the more blessed we shall be.

There is another thing. We cannot eat of the bread of God, the true Manna come down from heaven, unless we first eat His flesh and drink His blood-unless we come by His death. We may be attracted by His grace, the Spirit shewing it and drawing the heart, as with the poor woman who was a sinner: the grace that was in Him attracted her heart, and she goes into the house. She had seen divine goodness and love so completely above all the evil in love and holiness, that He could bend down to all the evil (not allowing it of course).

We get a revelation of God in the Lord Jesus. He comes down to us where we are in our sins, but that would be nothing if it were not He who comes down: for I should say, "I have seen blessedness and holiness, but I cannot stand before it." We must remember that love never gave up holiness, but there was this blessed testimony to a love which never gave them up, and could bend down to sinners and come to them, " for God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." He never says, "Come unto me " until He had come in perfect grace and holiness to them; but the moment He had thus come, He presents a blessed Object to attract the heart: the blessed Son of God come down to the place of sinners and of sin, and there is nothing like that and never will be!

It is the one thing in which everything centres; all the purposes and counsels of God made good in that. "I have glorified thee upon the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." The Son of God is exalted in consequence of what He has done: He has finished the work and glorified God as He never could have been glorified except for sin. This may sound strange: but what was in the heart of God never could have been shewn out in any other way, as it has been shewn at the cross. He displayed His power in creation, but when I come to the case of sinners, all that God is in goodness, grace, and patience comes out as it could not have done with an innocent man.

All that is most blessed is unfolded when good and evil comes out, and that to a meeting-point. Satan's and man's hatred found its complete utterance, it was shewn in a full complete way in the rejection of the blessed Son of God come in love. Every possible detail in which evil could be shewn-treachery, base abandonment where love had been, injustice in the judge who should have defended the innocent, the priests who should have pleaded for weakness, pleading against Him-everything man ought not to be was shewn out then, man's enmity definitely proved when God was there in love, and in the blessed, perfect manifestation of what man ought to be in obedience.

All that God was in love met all that man was in sin, when Christ was made sin for us.

Creation could not glorify God. What has creation to do with sin except that it has been spoilt by it?

Sin having come in, God was dishonoured in the creature of His delight, and the blessed Lord who had God's glory perfectly at heart puts Himself forward, is made sin for us, and the righteousness of God goes out against sin.

God was there manifesting such unspeakable love as could not have been manifested except for sin, and at the same time fully establishing His righteousness and glory. The cross was the pivot on which turned all that went on in the counsels of God before, and that will be in the new heavens and new earth hereafter.

We cannot sit and contemplate the blessedness of the life of Christ unless we first come in by the death of Christ. Am I not a sinner? And do I sit down and say I am competent to estimate all that beauty and blessedness? What! with my stupid debased mind? No, if I come in truth I must come as a sinner, and then I find the grace that suits a sinner. I must meet Him in the grace that meets my need, or I must meet Him in His glory when He comes to take vengeance on them that know not God.

But when I have gone into the holiest of all through the rent veil, then I can turn on God's side of the cross, and look back at all that it was to Him, and all that His life was in leading up to it, and thus I can eat the manna after I have eaten the flesh and drunk the blood. It is impossible that a sinner can come with a divine mind, and meditate upon all His perfect divine life upon earth unless he first comes through the cross. There is no truth else. How can I talk about contemplating God till I know His mercy?! But when I go in through the veil and am at peace, perfectly reconciled to God, not a question about me left, not with the spirit of bondage, but with the Spirit of adoption,-when I know that He has said, "I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God"-then being at perfect peace, sitting in the heavenlies in the counsels of divine love, I can turn back and look at what that offering was, by which I have come, and see its intrinsic value. It is of infinite value! He could say "Therefore doth my Father love me." All our thoughts are poverty itself, but there is that aspect to the soul, and I can sit down and adore and worship.

This is a far higher thing than eating the flesh and blood. When I come as a sinner to the cross, as I must, what is the ground on which I come? My sins.

A young Christian has got forgiveness and he is full of his happiness: he is thinking about himself. No one can come in any other way-I would most strongly insist upon that; the first thing is to get washed. But we may see the character of what I mean in a very simple way-that coming about his own sins he measures the grace and goodness and the comfort and blessing, by the fact that Christ has met all those sins, but when I have come and am in perfect rest, then I can sit down and eat Him, eat that Bread come down from heaven, what I shall eat for ever and ever! It is blessed to see in the sacrifices how this is always kept in view. In the peace offering the fat was burned, it was the Lord's part. The priests (all Christians) eat the flesh of the sacrifice, and the people who were invited eat it; that is, they entered into the blessedness that it was to God.

We get in these sacrifices the difference brought out. In the sin-offering, something wrong had been done, and they had to bring their offering, but it was not a sweet savour. The blood was carried within the veil, but the beast was burned without the camp.

Note here, the sin and trespass offerings are directly in connection with our responsibility. He has borne the sins which we have committed, but then there is another thing-not only what we have done, but that our hearts should also feel where we were. Not only, "What hast thou done?" but as God said to Adam, "Where art thou?" Where was he? Away from God and getting away from Him if he could! This is the dreadful thing. He had sinned, but it was far more to be away from God, "without God in the world"-"there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

That is where man is.

We are not in Paradise and where are we? The first grand wickedness of Cain was that he did not know he was away from God. He was so utterly far from God that he never found it out! He had not the sense that he was totally away from God; he thought he could go and worship Him and offer the fruit of his toil as if nothing had happened, but he did not enter one atom into the thoughts of God.

It is a picture not of the open rejection of God, in an outward way, but of the utter dreadful insensibility of the human heart as to where we are. Abel recognised that he was outside, and that another must make atonement, he owned where he was:-one coming as if there was nothing the matter, nothing gone wrong, the other recognising that he must have an atonement or he could not come at all.

The condition of man was definitely brought out at the cross of Christ: "If one died for all then were all dead"-dead in trespasses and sins, and if so there must be a new creation. "The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."

The first man is cast out of Paradise and he is insensible, but we get Christ, the second Man brought into a far better Paradise, and we are brought in with Him, "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise." The second Man is brought into it, and we are made heirs with Christ-members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.

When looking at the wondrous glory of the church of God, if we would have these blessed truths really and solidly in our hearts, we must get thoroughly hold of the foundations. If I can look up and say it is all mine, joint-heirs with Christ, members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones-that I am given to enter into the joy of my Lord, that when He shall appear I shall be like Him-to enable us to hold the thought of these blessings, not only as scriptural statements, but in health in the soul, we must enter into the truth of Christ having gone in grace where we were, and then we see it could not have been otherwise.

When I see the blessed Son of God going down as man into death, then I see that glory is the natural consequence. I don't get this till I see Him bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, and this makes it not a mere matter of head knowledge, but one which calls forth the adoration of our hearts.

The burnt-offering was not for sin, and yet it would not have been there except on account of sin: Christ offered Himself without spot to God, and by the grace of God He tasted death for every man.

I get Him made sin: He gives Himself for it, and then I find another dreadful thing; He drank the cup of wrath due to me. I find Him going down into the place where there was no patience! God has patience towards us: He is longsuffering towards us, but there, there was no long-suffering, no patience.

He was made sin: no hiding or covering up of sin there, He brought it right into the very presence of God who was dealing with sin, and His cry upon the cross was, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

In Psalm 22 He speaks of all the external troubles, but then He says, "Be not thou far from me"-the very thing He was!

We find Him taking this place, bearing our sins-but now look at the other side. "Now is the Son of man glorified." It was in man that all the glory of God was made good, not merely the putting away of sin that we should not be judged, but the ground laid according to the glory of God, for man to be in the glory of God-a totally new thing!

It does not follow in itself that I must be in the glory because I am forgiven: but here I find the blessed Son of God takes this place before God as man, tasting death, offering Himself without spot; the One who knew no sin presents Himself, the spotless Lamb of God, not only to hear my sins, but to put away sin, and thus to glorify God. How wonderful that in man this should be done!

Everything that God is was in question, and He does not say, "I have borne the sins of my disciples," but "I have glorified thee."

How could God have glory where sin was, where everything, was corrupt, and Satan had got the upper hand? Well, He puts Himself there and takes all the sin and all its consequences, and then He glorifies God, and now all the counsels of God can be accomplished, and Christ takes the glory as the fruit of His work. "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do, now O Father, glorify thou me."

We see His perfect life through the testing of God in the meat-offering, and nothing but a sweet savour comes forth, but when I come to the burnt-offering, death is there. Christ comes in and glorifies God in the place of sin and death, and then we see death destroyed, the power of Satan broken, judgment gone, and as the result of this, Man takes His place with God! The first man, once innocent, brought in sin, was conquered by Satan, failed in every way, and dishonoured God: but before judgment comes, the second Man brings the triumph of Satan to a close. He comes here, and in that very place was made sin, and all that was in God was perfectly glorified in that place of sin and death and judgment, and now all the counsels of God come out, which could not have been before.

God had been dealing with man on the ground of his responsibility. The more we look, the more we see God setting man up in goodness and righteousness, and man always failing. Adam ate the forbidden fruit: Noah, brought out unto the new earth, got drunk: Israel worshipped the golden calf: the priests offered strange fire on the first day of their office: Solomon loved strange women: Nebuchadnezzar, when government was committed to him, exalts himself and casts the three children into the fiery furnace: the first thing which man does with that which God gives him is always to spoil it. It was the same thing with the church also: "all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." That is what we find man is! But One Man comes, and in the very place where all this was true, and ripened out to its full extent of evil, He is made sin who knew no sin: He stands before God in that character: all is dealt with, and a foundation laid which nothing can shake!

It is a precious thing to have some little sense of what Christ was doing. Fathom it of course we never can. Not only are my sins put away, but Christ had God's glory perfectly at heart, and now that is fully established, it comes out that what God had at heart before the foundation of the world, was to have man with Himself in glory. His delight was with the sons of men, and what does He do? He puts them in the same place as His own Son: they are sons, and they have the glory with Him. He has finished the work and gone into the glory, and that gives the Christian's place.

He will come again in glory, and we have complete association with Him-"We rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

"If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him." It is the next thing. He will not wait till the kingdom is set up. The disciples saw His glory in the Mount, but they did not see inside the cloud from whence came the Father's voice.

The union of the church with Christ was never revealed until the foundation was laid, and then God says, "I am able to do this in virtue of what Christ has done, and I will have you perfectly with Myself."

Christ was not merely the sin-offering, but a whole burnt-offering, in order that God might be perfectly glorified; the Man who has done this is in the glory, and that is the way I get in!

"I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me." The whole of this chapter speaks of the Father's name: it is not the Almighty, Jehovah, Most High, as He will be known in the millennium, "most high over heaven and earth," but it is the Father, putting us in the place of sons.

People very little realise this when they talk of "our Father," and say, "Thy kingdom come." What is the Father's kingdom? People don't notice words: it is astonishing how our wretched hearts glide over scripture as if it were ice!

He is Almighty, but that name does not save: He is Jehovah, but that name does not save; but if the Father sent the Son, it is that I might live through Him; that He might make propitiation for sin: that the world through Him might be saved: that is salvation, that is eternal life, and the Holy Ghost is given in virtue of the precious blood of Christ, giving us association with Himself, making us sons as Christ is a Son: we are "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ."

He says, "I have manifested thy name." We find He had been doing this throughout this gospel-"The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him;" but they as yet, dull and ignorant, not having the Holy Ghost, could not recognise it: they had not the spirit of adoption whereby they could recognise it.

See chapter 16: 29, 30. He had been telling them that the Father had sent Him, but they do not understand a word of it, and only say, "by this we know that thou camest forth from God." And we often see the same thing now in those who have not the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba Father-the name of Father is not known.

I do desire that while our hearts get peace through seeing Him made sin for us, we might also see what He was for God in the place of sin.

We are not only forgiven and cleansed, but we stand in the whole value of that work of which Christ could say; "Therefore doth my Father love me." The act itself so infinitely glorified God that He could give it as a motive for the Father's love to Him.

"Holy Father, keep through thine own name them that thou hast given me." He puts them in the place of sons, and looks to the Father to keep them according to that Name.

The world had no part in that: they must have life to be sons, and must be born of God.

He puts us into the present consciousness of the place into which His sacrifice has brought us, that is His own place in all its blessedness. The veil rent, the heavens opened to us, sealed and anointed by the Father, owned by Him as His sons. When He was here as Man, at His baptism the heavens were opened, He was sealed and anointed, and the Father owned Him as His Son (and this is the first time that the Trinity was fully revealed), and then He goes to be tempted. He takes the blessedness of the place with God, and stood in that place as a man, and then goes into the conflict like us.

Look at Philippians 2: 14, 16. Take this sentence, and word by word it is a statement of what Christ was. We are in a wicked generation-exactly what Christ was; sons-what He was; light in the world-He was the Light of the world; holding forth the word of life-He was the Word; take it word by word, and we are in it all! He puts us into His place before the Father, and gives us His place of testimony before the world.

"That they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves." How does He bring that about? You get this Man upon earth, the Son of man-the Father talking with Him in all the delight He had in Him, and He says, "Whatsoever I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."

Are our hearts taking this place? Where was His spring of delight and joy and blessing? His Father. And have you anything of the joy of Christ fulfilled in your hearts?

You may tell me your thoughts are weak and poor. I am sure they are; our hearts answer miserably to all this love-but that is where He has brought me, placed me; that is what is in His heart if I cannot trust my own! But while we see all the glory before us-going to be in the glory of God-our souls should go and look about the foundation it is all built upon; and if you have forgiveness, the Lord give you to see what you are as belonging to the Father's world.

If we see how completely He has glorified God, so that glory for Himself and for us too, with Him is the natural and necessary result, it must surely humble us, but it brings in adoration. I can't look at the Lord Jesus going down in grace into such a place, without adoring, forgetting self in the presence of such wondrous grace. And it keeps the heart subdued.

The Lord give us to have Him before our hearts and eyes, that we may be occupied with Him and satisfied with Him, and that in some measure we may walk like Him through the words which He has given us.

God Speaking from Heaven

Hebrews 12: 18-29.

J. N. Darby.

{Notes of an Address}

{Helps in Things concerning Himself Vol. 2, 1892, pages 141-7}

The apostle here contrasts Mount Sinai and Mount Zion, and points out what the present testimony is. It is a mistake that we very often make that we are so many responsible persons going on to judgment and there must give an account of ourselves. That is true of us, but that is very far from all. There has been a dealing of God with man, and He is now dealing with them for the last time; that makes it the more solemn.

It is now a question of good and evil in us. What the Lord presents to our souls now is, that the question is all settled; "there is none righteous, no, not one;" that is the way He is dealing now. If His grace is refused, judgment is pronounced upon their state; that is what I mean by settled. Now, He comes either in judgment or in warning, and if that is slighted, there is condemnation. The contrast between the two mounts is exceedingly striking. People do not believe that they are in this state of condemnation. There the law is exceedingly useful in awakening - if they judge of good and evil, they cannot judge of what is beyond themselves. Man's judgment is no higher than the evil he has done. A man brought up in dirt sees nothing in dirt; so with the natural mind, it judges according to its own state. God brings in His estimate of what man ought to be. That is what the law is - as a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. Therefore, "Moses said, I do exceedingly fear and quake." "Felix trembled," not that he was saved, but the word of God was awakening his conscience, because conscience was there. God has dealt probably with every heart here. The word breaks us up, and shews us we are not what God wants; but that is not the will being converted. The flesh abuses everything. God gave the law to convict of sin; man takes it to work out righteousness. But God is not leaving you to the day of judgment; He is dealing with you now, and this is the day of grace.

When the word of God comes home to man - what man really ought to be - who could "answer him one of a thousand"? Wherever the word reaches the conscience, it is a present dealing; not put off to the day of judgment, because it reaches it now. Man knows perfectly well he cannot meet it. You know you have not loved God with all your heart today; you have not loved your neighbour as yourself one day in your life. My conscience tells me the law is right - though I may kick against it. You must not have any thought of your own righteousness in the day of judgment, because you have not got any.

The young man in Matt, 19: 16, did not say, "What shall I do to be saved," but, "that I may have eternal life;" and the Lord's answer perfectly and entirely meets the question that was asked Him. "This do and live." The young man said, "This I have done, and what lack I yet?" "Sell all, and come, follow me." This tested him, for his heart was set on his possessions; he went away from grace. So, in John 8: 9, one by one they went away from grace, because they dreaded the eye that could detect them. That is what people do still - they cannot bear conviction. It is getting away from God, because the heart and conscience cannot bear that which comes out of the presence of God. What a terrible thing that is, if your only hope of comfort is to keep away from God - to keep out of His sight!

Verse 22 - We are come, - not to Mount Sinai, but to Mount Zion. Zion is a word of immense import, if we read it spiritually. Zion was not simply mercy and patience. The ark was the only possible means of intercourse with God that Israel had, and they sent it away; so have we - so to speak - looking at our natural state. The importance of Zion was, that Israel had been already tested and had failed. Eli was a godly man, and when he found the ark was taken, and that all was over, we read that he fell backward and died.

You have to be brought to the conviction, like Eli that it is all over. Then God comes in, not merely in mercy and patience - that he had been all through - but God comes in, as He did then, when all the responsibility was closed by the total failure of man, taking the ark out of the hands of the Philistines, and placing it on Mount Zion, by David, as now by Christ, David's seed.

Verses 22, 23. - The whole scene of millennial glory on earth and in heaven is exceedingly interesting, but I do not speak of that now.

Verse 25. - How does Christ speak from heaven? It is not, There is a day of judgment, and you must prepare yourself for it; but He comes and speaks to man, and deals with man on the ground of His being a man in heaven. If He speaks from heaven, He speaks not merely of mercy, but of grace, on the ground of an accomplished work. He appeals to our hearts upon the ground of what He is and what He has done. Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, because He has nothing more to do as to making out a righteousness for us. As to the question of righteousness, that work that He has finished is the righteousness that brings us into glory, who through grace, have believed in Him. I get these two things - the place that Christ speaks from, and the work that brings the people in. He does not reproach you. He comes and tells you, You must not think I am ignorant of what sin is, I bore it. He knows what the consequence is as none other can know it. "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." Are you learning God in the presence of grace? The hearts of the sons of men are wholly set in them to do evil. Man's history is a terrible one. Because Christ humbled Himself in grace, man profited by the occasion, in order that He should be despised and rejected of men. And is there not a rejection of Him now? Do not some of you reject Him; do not people know that they are sinners, and yet go on sinning? That is despising it. But where the heart has been brought down, what do I find? Suppose I am coming to God by Him, why, He tells me I am in heaven because your sins are put away. And what can God say if Christ, who bore my sins, is in the presence of God? The thing before me is not judgment, but Christ. If I come to God as a judge, why, Christ is there. He cannot but own that my sins are all put away - Christ appearing in the presence of God is the witness of it.

The judgment day would be according to my works, but the present day is according to the efficacy of Christ's work; so we see what a great thing it is for Him to speak to us from heaven. It is an appeal that ought to put to shame and confusion everyone that does not bow to it. "By Him all that believe are justified from all things." That is the only faith God will have. Christ is so perfectly glorified that he says, I won't have any other. If I own Christ, I am nothing; that is the thing that is wanted. Do you want to have a share of your own pretension in the presence of a dying Saviour? If you could get in a bit of your own righteousness, it would be like the dead flies, causing the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour. Thank God, that voice, if it is in the soul, is eternal life; it is God's way of communicating life.

Now, have you all taken this ground that God has taken with you, telling you that you are all lost - still telling it in grace? Beloved friends, He is not waiting for the day of judgment, when judgment will be executed. He is speaking to you from the right hand of the majesty on high, where he sat down when He had by Himself purged our sins. Are you going to refuse Him that speaks? I know our hearts drag us down, and the things around us are contrary to us, but it is Christ who has come and presented Himself before our eyes. Remember how He speaks; and are you going to refuse to hear Him, like the deaf adder? Are you going to take God in judgment, when you have despised Him in grace?

The Lord give us to see the truth, and taste the unspeakable love of Him who gave Himself for us, of Him who will with Him freely give us all things!

"God was in Christ."

2 Corinthians 5

J. N. Darby.

{Helps in things concerning Himself Vol. 2, 1892, Pages 197-203.}

There are two great aspects of the gospel in this chapter, first, That to which we are called, and for which we are made fit; second, The testimony God has brought out of sin in us, and Christ's work meeting it. It is good to apprehend what the calling of God is, in order to know what is needed to be in it. There is no reconciliation of the old thing as such, but complete reconciliation in the new man. The judgment of man is pronounced, "now is the judgment of this world." God's dealings with man in the flesh are over, the flesh is set aside for ever. In the new state of things brought in by Christ in resurrection, "all things are of God." As to the body we are not in it yet, therefore it is good to be "absent from the body and present with the Lord." The moment we get hold of our calling "to his kingdom and glory" (1 Thess. 2: 12), we are brought into the presence of God. He is also enabling the soul to apprehend the glory. It sees that a work entirely of God must be done in order that man may enter glory. Could you put yourself into Christ's glory? "He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God." The presence of God revealed to the soul, gives true, thorough conviction of sin. It does not mind what man thinks, because it knows what God thinks. Sin is a shameful thing, but the presence of God produces thoughts that are beyond shame. The moment the soul is before God, it hates, judges sin, cannot think of hiding it, would rather be in truth before God - "there is truth in the inward parts;" shame before man leads to the concealment of sin. God's true light manifests everything, but when the heart is set right, it takes God's side against sin - there is forgiveness; all is right when looking at what we are in the presence of God. We are called to "God's kingdom and glory" to be conformed to the image of His Son. We have a life - divine glory belongs to that life. It is God that justifies. He says that is right in my eyes, God Himself pronounces. That is what I want, this full, blessed justification connects itself with glory - "Whom he justified them he also glorified." "We wait for the hope of righteousness." (Gal. 5: 5.) This is what God is calling us into in Christ. That which is announced in the gospel is Christ as man is in divine glory. It is "the gospel of the glory of Christ." That has been done which has put man into the glory of God. This new thing is man, the centre of all the glory of God. It will be accomplished of course in Christ by-and-by, "that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth" - or as it is expressed in Revelation, "the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." It is to this glory of Christ we are called. It shines in upon the soul. Are you fit for this glory? If not, what are you fit for? You cannot stay here on earth for ever. Where are you going? If not into the light it must be into the darkness, that is opposite to it. There is no medium. We have this in the parable of the king's son - Jesus had spoken of seeking fruit before; now He is speaking of grace that seeks nothing, it is a feast prepared. Those bidden are from the highways and hedges, and no matter what they were before, but they must have the wedding garment. The prodigal must have the best robe to enter the house - he must be suited to the house. Have you, my reader, got that. We see what the calling is, can you say, "I have got what is fit for the glory I am going into?"

You may be getting it, the Lord leading you into it, but without it what are you fit for? You must either be outside or with the wedding garment inside. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." Did He not suit Himself to all to win their hearts? He came with the invitation to turn back to God: but no - they would not: for His love He got hatred - terrible witness of man's entire ruin - he is dead; alive indeed for himself and for his fellow men, but there is no movement of his heart toward God. "He came to his own and his own received him not." Yet in Christ there is perfect love - no reproach. Paul saw the terribleness of the judgment and set about to persuade men. The love of Christ is still pressing upon men the truth we are dead: the link between man and God is broken and cannot be formed again. Does the cross say, "Christ had set the world right?" "One died for all," unspeakable love, "then were all dead." Has your soul been brought to the conviction "that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing?"

Could you say you would not have put Christ to death? Could you say, "He would not have died for me, He might have helped me, and purified me"? If not, then you must say, "I am dead, lost, I have no link in heart with God!" The old creation is a judged, condemned thing - you, as children of Adam, belong to it, the question is, whether you get out of it? Man has emancipated himself from God; what infidelity does, is, to justify and proclaim the fact: set up and cultivate man's will. Cain began this world without God. He went and built a city and called it by his son's name. They had instruments of music and artificers there - all to make the world a pleasant place without God; and that is what man is doing still - he says it is with the faculties God has given - true: But what is the moral state of man's heart? is he not away from God? Jesus came "to seek and to save that which was lost." I do not ask whether you recognise yourself as wicked, but whether you see yourself to be lost - dead? By nature we reject Christ, all our thoughts cluster round self. We prefer pleasure - everything in the world, our own will - to Christ. This is the condition of all naturally, was the condition of every one of us, but the One who was not dead, who was acceptable to God, the only One who could be, who was made sin for us. He stood in our place. He, the holy blessed One, was made sin. The quickening power of God shews us sin, but we see the whole thing closed on the cross. I see what flesh is, it crucified Christ - but I am not in it any longer, I belong to the new creation; I am in Christ, who is my righteousness, and gives me the title to enter in. We find the calling into God's kingdom and glory. We see the veil rent, and Christ is within as man, and in getting there, He has put away all that we were in the flesh. We have to contend with the flesh daily as an enemy, but as to our standing before God it is ended. In Christ we have entered into the new place - "you hath he reconciled" (Col. 1: 21); there is not a thing left between me and God. We are brought into the glory of God. We wait for it indeed as to our bodies, and He has given us the earnest of the Spirit. We have the reconciliation - reconciliation to what? to God. He did it according to what God is, and we must judge sin according to what God is. When do we know it? now by faith; but we cannot receive it, till we have judged darkness to be darkness. God says, "Where is my Son?" The world must plead guilty of His death; it saw no beauty in Christ, and now prefers pleasure, dress, money, science, anything to Him. I may have to learn a great deal, to go through much conflict, but if I belong to Christ, I am reconciled to God. "The love of Christ constraineth us" - is the ground of all our walk. You may have been living to yourself it may have been very decently, none of what the world calls great sins, but there are plenty of decent enemies of God, and will reputation stand in the judgment? A Christian cannot live to himself in purpose, but are you living to yourself in practice? You may say you are occupied in innocent things, but nothing can be innocent away from God. Have you judged yourself as belonging to a world that has rejected Christ? We have to leave it in detail - the flesh continually showing itself in unexpected ways. But God has condemned sin in the flesh. He forgives sins, but the state He has condemned, not forgiven. Have you known Him, made sin and yourself the righteousness of God in Him. Can you say, I am reconciled to God, brought back to Him? Can you say, I am glad to know all about my sin, "search me, O Lord, and try my heart?"

Gospel Addresses

J. N. Darby.

The attention of our readers is earnestly invited to the various papers appearing under this title, adapted as they are to meet, in a simple but thorough and precious way, the first needs of the soul. They consist, in many cases, of notes taken at the time of the utterances of honoured and devoted servants of the Lord.

{Words of Grace for the Household of Faith, Vol. 2 1899, pages 48-51.}

No. 1. 2 Corinthians 5. December 22nd, 1870.

There are two words of immense comfort here, when once we have believed in the Lord Jesus and His work, and yet often they are a trial to people who cannot say them with simplicity. They are "we know" and "we have." (v. 1.) There is no question as to whether we can be received or not, for we are reconciled. The consequence of having eternal life is that we "live to Him." We know this, and it gives us a consciousness of the place we are in. It was not merely the apostle that had it, it was common Christian knowledge. The apostle considers here what its bearings are as to the Christian, and then to the world. The latter are death and judgment.

First I get the fulness of my place, that all this glory is mine; then he contemplates judgment. He says, "I don't want to be unclothed [to die]; I am looking for mortality to be 'swallowed up of life.'" Such a power has come in in the Son of God, that if the moment for this were come I should not die at all; it is divine power. "Enoch was not, for God took him." Such a power neutralizes death, and if you are "naked" - that is, you haven't got Christ - you will be raised for judgment.

Do you believe that God has given you glory? (v. 2.) You may groan now because you have not got it yet.

It is not a question of what we deserve; He has wrought us for it (v. 5), and He knows what He has wrought. He is glorifying Himself by us according to the riches of His grace, and He does what will glorify Himself. If we believe that He gave His Son for us, all the rest is easy; and that the blessed Lord gave Himself for us, then nothing is too great to expect.

Do you say, I fail here, and come short there: what will God do? The Holy Ghost never reasons like this, that is my responsibility, and drawing from it as a consequence what God will do. The Holy Ghost draws the consequence from what God has done for us: "If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by His life." He draws His conclusions from what God has done, and not from what we have done. The consequences of what we have done are judgment, and all would be over with me.

God never gives me up. It is His joy to get sinners to depend on what He has done for them, His joy to find the lost piece of silver, to get the lost sheep back. He does not ask us what He shall give us, He brings forth the best robe. He has wrought us for the glory. How can it be? Nothing less than by the gift of the Son of God on the cross. And He gives us the earnest of His Spirit that we may know it now.

Then the apostle looks the natural portion of man in the face. There is death and judgment, but he begins by saying, "We are always confident." I am looking for glory, but still I look death in the face. What is death for the believer? "Absent from the body, and present with the Lord." We were under death, and subject to it, and the judgment afterwards; now, instead of my belonging to it, death belongs to me. "All things are yours; life, death, things present, things to come, ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." When I die, I have done with mortality; my body goes to corruption; no matter, it will be raised again. I have done with this burden, the spirit is with Christ; and I have done with pain, sorrow, temptation, with having to resist evil, and bear with it. I am with Christ, in perfect happiness with Him, though not yet in glory. I am looking for glory, but if I do die I go and enjoy Christ, I depart "to be with Christ," "absent from the body." In this "vain show" in which we walk, "disquieting ourselves in vain," it is what faith gets at that is true. How little those men, when they brake the legs of the thief, thought that they were sending him off to paradise! "To die is gain," and all I am anxious about, the apostle says, is that when He comes He should find me what He likes, that all I do may be acceptable unto Christ. That was the sanctifying effect on Paul.

"We must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ," and it is useful to think of it. The apostle does not hide what a solemn thing it is, but the effect is that he persuades men - it does not alarm him. He has not such a thought. God had wrought him for the glory. It is a blessed thing to see all the wondrous ways and dealings of God in grace with us. There are poor things, not ready, still in their sins; Paul feels what a solemn thing judgment is, and the love of Christ constrains him when he thinks of their meeting the judgment of God. But we are made manifest to God, that is the sanctifying power, as a present thing: he looks at everything as it would appear at the day of judgment - of the believer I mean. By realizing this he is able to look at things and judge them as they would be there. "He that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." I must take Christ as my pattern and measure. I am manifested now, everything I do and think is clear out before God now. Then I shall find a Person judging who has put away all my sins, and there can be no question of imputing them to me.

There are three things. First, the bright and glorious hope for which He has wrought us. Then, secondly, he takes up death, and says, "We are always confident." We have a life that death does not touch at all. Thirdly, if he looks at judgment, it only urges him to go and preach to other people.

You will find many a thing that is not made manifest as in the day, if you are going on with your own will, and your own thoughts, and not according to God. It will not be manifest even if you do love Him, but that won't do.

Verse 14 shows that all were dead, not merely guilty. What man left for five hours would think of the things of God and of Christ unless God had awakened him? That is more than being guilty. Then he says: if we are beside ourselves it is to God; for then his mind was wrapt in ecstasy; if he began to reflect, it was thinking of other people. He just adds it is all new, the whole thing.

If the greatest sinner in London were here, God is beseeching him to be reconciled; and how terrible if he should have to say in that day: Thou wast beseeching me, and I didn't care about it. If I cling to selfishness, I can't be bright. If I am grieving the Spirit, I am uncomfortable, not because I have not got eternal life, but because I have got it and am not living up to it.

No. 2. Matthew 17: 22 to end. March 7th, 1871.

{Words of Grace for the Household of Faith, Vol. 2 1899, pages 75-6.}

In the first three gospels the Lord is presented to the Jews, and they reject Him. In John He is rejected from the first. But He says, "I will have My sheep." Nothing can touch His grace; if man cannot understand the grace in which He came, He goes on with it still. He is always the same. No matter what failure or rejection or stupidity He meets, He is the same.

What poor failing creatures we are. He may have to chasten us and deal with us: it only shows His watchful grace! We can lean on a heart that never changes in grace, and never can change in power. In ups and downs, rejections and receptions, He never changes. The thread runs all through of what He was - God revealed in man: perfect, constant grace.

Then comes His death, without which we could have no part in the blessing. In dying He has taken a new place, founded on redemption; and now I find, not only that He is unchanged, but He has wrought a work the value of which is unchanged, and which is the ground of eternal blessedness.

Redemption remains unchanged, and whatever is built on that has an eternal character. He associates us completely with Himself in the effect of that. When He spoke of His death His disciples were "exceeding sorry." We know it as the foundation truth of salvation, but we don't like the cross a bit better for ourselves than they did. He shows them their association with Himself, and says, "Then are the children free." They were children of the King, Peter as much as Himself. He is Jehovah, and knows and can do all things; and now, this truth of death having come in, He can put them into His place. He brings them all through into the same place with Himself. His heart brings us there; and the thing for us is to walk in the consciousness of it, to walk in the sense that that is what is in Christ's heart. He shows us His love by manifesting it down here, but He takes us up too. If I am to walk in the Father's love, I know Christ is in it. Being in this place, I taste the perfect love of Christ to Him in it. I confide and trust in His love, with heart-confidence in the love of Christ which does pass knowledge, but which we know and confide in. I obey and adore Him, but I see the way He has brought my heart back to confidence in Him, in what we have found to be the way He thinks about us.

In the Lord's Table I find He attaches importance to, our remembering Him; not that we are anything, but if I have a friend I like him to think of me when I am away because I love him. There must be redemption; but this is the expression of the heart of Christ putting us into this place. If Christ takes my heart, I am thinking of pleasing Him. He has possession of my heart; that is really practical sanctification. I judge myself as a poor ruined creature, and walk in intercourse with Christ. Sorrows and troubles I have, but He never changes; and nothing can separate me from His love, for they are only creature things that come on me, and His love is divine, the love of God.

No. 3. God in Christ and man in Christ. October 23rd, 1870.

{Words of Grace for the Household of Faith, Vol. 2 1899, pages 99-106.}

The great point of Colossians 2 is the completeness of the revelation, and our completeness, if we receive it, bringing us out of the old condition into a new. It is remarkable the way the apostle insists here on our completeness before God, and on the completeness of the revelation to us.

It is striking to see - for "there is nothing new under the sun," as the wise man said - how the apostle had to deal with what we have now to deal with: superstition, traditions - ritualism as we call it now - and rationalism, or man's reasoning, which ends in infidelity.

We see how imagination runs to tradition, and the reasoning of the human mind to philosophy; but the apostle insists that everything is in Christ, and that we do not want anything else; and this blessed truth is the revelation of God close to us. As to the way we are brought into it, we are quickened, and forgiven all trespasses.

The apostle calls all these workings of man's mind the "rudiments of the world." Man's mind cannot go beyond his mind, and so it cannot get God, for God is beyond his mind. If I trust to my mind, I may be deceived, for another man may have a cleverer mind than mine, and deceive me; but there is no conscience in it, because if I use my mind, it is not conscience. The whole thing is always false. There is no philosophy but what is false, for it leaves God out. I must live according to the relationship I am in, whether husband and wife, or father and child. If I leave out then the greatest relationship of all, namely, with God, all must be false. When God is brought in, it is not my mind working, because if He is there, I must be subject to Him.

Tradition does not seem to leave God out so much. There may be piety among ritualists, but they do not know their place in Christ. Philosophy is infidelity; they say there are words of God in the Scripture, but it is not the Word of God. Then the mind is to judge it, and everyone takes what he likes. That is man's mind at work.

In ritualism there is no consciousness of our place in Christ; its ordinances are things an unconverted man can do as well as a converted one: he can say prayers - not really pray, of course. There is no worshipping God in spirit. There may be piety, but it goes on the ground that man as man is capable of having to say to God. He can fast, offer money, etc. The Christian does these things in spirit. They are "not holding the Head." Take the instance of having saints as mediators. If I am one with Christ, how can I get a mediator between us? It looks very fair, humble, and so on, but it denies the whole Christian place. If you are toiling and getting others to go to God for you, then you have not been to God. That makes all priesthood essentially false. There was a priesthood in Israel, because the people could not go to God. Now the veil is rent, and to have a priesthood is denying Christianity. Of course we should pray for one another; but now God is fully revealed, you are completely purged, and you can go to Him: "boldness to enter into the holiest."

A man may be feeling after God, and God working in the conscience to bring him there; but a Christian is one who goes right into the holiest with boldness; he learns he is one with Christ, and he holds the Head.

No one can put the slightest thing between himself and the Head without being lost. If a gold-leaf were between my head and my body, my body might as well be at the other end of Europe; I should be dead. I may have forgiveness without having learned that union.

God treats man now as lost; He is not putting him under probation to see how it will turn out, but telling him how it has turned out. God in grace is come to seek and to save the lost. He gave up looking for fruit from man because the tree is bad - not that man ought not to bring forth fruit. He said at last, "I will send My Son, they will reverence Him," and they slew Him. Then all was over (not for Christians, of course; He does look for fruit when He has grafted the tree). Now it is grace, and he has to compel men to come in by the gospel.

The coming of Christ brought out clearly and decidedly, first, that there was no fruit to be had from man; and second, that if all the fatness of God's house is opened up for the marriage of His Son, they won't come to it. For all the patience He exercised, and the pains and goodness He showed, there was no fruit. Then He says: "My oxen and My fatlings are killed; all things are ready, come to the marriage," and they will not come. Then you get the judgment of man - yours and my judgment. The thing tested is what you and I are. It has not produced fruit, and it will not receive the goodness of God. Repentance cost them too much, and yet it was said, "Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish."

We see no beauty in Christ that we should desire Him: the things God delights in I don't.

He says, "Publicans and harlots shall go into the kingdom of heaven before you," because the moral man does not feel his need so much as the open sinner. But if I find a crab-tree with five apples on it, it is a crab as much as if there were five hundred on it. No one has anything to boast of. If I had been brought up with thieves (it was God's providence I was not), I should have been a thief; but I am just as much a sinner as if I were.

The prodigal was just as much a sinner, though not degraded in the same way, when he turned his back on his father, as when he ate with the swine. Jeremiah says, "If thou wilt return, return to Me."

If from being a profligate you turn to being moral, what good is it, if you don't get to heaven? The test of the heart is Christ. Christ is presented, and they see no beauty in Him. An infidel can see in Christ a beautiful character, but he sees nothing in the Son of God coming to redeem my soul.

We are not in paradise. How did we get out of it? We were turned out. Have you got back to God? The last Adam was rejected by man, the first by God (not that there is no mercy for him). Then the world came in, that God never made, but that He overrules, an immense system made by Satan to distract the heart from God, that it may not want God. But it does want Him. The prodigal "began to be in want." Is there no heart here that wants? It may distract itself, but there is a hungering in the soul. "He that cometh to Me shall never hunger." The soul has wants; it may turn to works, hankering after this and that to make you happy, and tired of everything but yourself, which is the only thing you ought to be tired of. Such a one is not at peace with God. You may forget God, and the effect of bringing in the thought of Him makes you miserable. The conscience feels it is not right; you would get away from God if you could; and you can busy yourself with the distractions of the world till judgment comes - then you cannot get away from God.

The world we are in is the world Satan has built up, to make us forget we are out of paradise, and without God. God makes Cain a vagabond, and he goes and builds a city in the land of Nod: the word signifies vagabond. He goes and settles himself there. Then he must have it as comfortable as he can: he has artificers in brass and iron - so have we; and harps and organs - so have we. Man's cleverness has invented these things to hinder our coming to God.

All that is truth, but it is not gospel in the sense of glad tidings.

In Christ is "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." I get God come into the world - God's side of it towards us - all the fulness of God, love and light, bodily. He looks for no fruit from man here. He is the fruit of God's love. He is seeking for no fruit at all, but He is the fruit of God's heart. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses." He never said "Come unto Me" until He had come to them. He did not wait in heaven and say, You get right and then come up here; but He came in sovereign grace where and when they were wrong.

He was the fulness of the Godhead bodily, a Man, born a Man, God thus showing that His delights were with the sons of men; and His dying was the grand testimony to the extent of God's love. He came, sinless, in infinite grace, the light of the world, and God in love in the world, where men were in sins. How dark our hearts are! He may well say, "to turn them from darkness to light." See God Himself, as a Man, talking to sinners, the One sufficiently above sin to talk to those who were in sin. The need of the sinner is the everlasting joy of the saint - Christ. When He has fully manifested all that you are in the light, you find yourself in the presence of perfect love, not imputing the things He has revealed to you. You find life and light and love come into the world in Christ. Light, confounding you with your sins. Love, showing you how God is dealing as to your sins. Life, eternal life, to live with Him. He could not have us in our sins. He must reveal them in the light, and bring us into God's presence before the judgment, or it is too late. It is humbling, breaking us down, and making us hate ourselves for the sins, but what a blessed thing to have the love that makes me hate my sins! But the love in itself is not enough, for we could not go to heaven with our sins, and He died. "In Him dwells all the completeness of the Godhead" (I alter the word that you may see the connection), "and ye are complete in Him." When I look at His work and at my being in Him, I see I am complete in Him. He found us in death, spiritual death, and He came in grace into actual death: and what has He done, in going there, for those who believe? He came where we were and bore the curse, putting all our sins away. He is the One who puts our sins away, before ever He is our life; "quickened together with Him," born out of His grave as it were. He has borne our sins, and He is life to a person whose sins He has already put away. We get the quickening by faith in Christ Jesus, the Christ who died for my sins before ever He comes into my heart. We are in the place of the Second Man, Christ, members of His body, of His flesh, and His bones. He is our righteousness before God, always appearing in the presence of God for us, and our Advocate if we fail in anything. My place before God is complete in Him. All that I should have had to answer for before God, that my conscience takes cognisance of, repents for, is put away, and I have Christ - complete in Him, have eternal life - am the righteousness of God in Him, and hereafter the glory. Christ comes in the perfectness of grace to me as a sinner, and I am in the perfectness of righteousness before God in Him. He has quickened us, having forgiven us all trespasses.

Then, if I am in Christ, it is equally true that He is in me, and I am to show forth the life of Christ in my mortal body.

How far can you say these two things? First, all my sins are forgiven. That is one side of it; and if you don't know forgiveness as complete and thorough as Christ's death can give it, you have not got what Christ gives in the gospel. He does not leave us to answer for our sins, or it would surely be judgment.

Then, secondly, can you say you are "complete in Him"?

Having all in Christ, the apostle says he is not going to make Jews of them. He has led everything captive for you. In detail you have everything in Him. What a thought! And how we need it, if we honestly know and judge ourselves. We have poor, even evil thoughts, if not deeds; how little the fibre of our hearts is able to take it in. But it is our own fault, for God is our strength.

How great the comfort of knowing we are in Him! He is life, and He has entirely overcome death. He comes in the power of life to the stronghold of death, and destroys it. We are not subject to death. We shall die, of course, if the Lord does not come first, but it is a beaten enemy. When I die I leave what is mortal; that is all death is, "absent from the body." It breaks all ties here, of course. We were death's prey, now "all things are yours." Death saved me, and death, spiritual death, is my deliverance. Dead to sin and to the world. And when it actually comes, I leave my poor mortal body and go to Christ; and so completely is it overcome that those who live when He comes will not die. "We shall not all die." If Christ came to-night, those who are His would never die.

Have your souls seen the vileness, guilt, self-will, and uncleanness of their condition before God, and seen that you are not there, but in Christ? If I am complete in Him, I want nothing else: it is deliverance; and if my eye is single and turned to Him, I have everything.

The Lord give our hearts to know it every day, that they may be satisfied. "He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and He that believeth on Me shall never thirst."

No. 4. Redemption. March 9th, 1871.

{Words of Grace for the Household of Faith, Vol. 2 1899, pages 137-9.}

We get in Exodus 15 the deliverance founded on Exodus 12, and God takes, as to His dealings, an entirely new character.

In chapter 12. He was a Judge, acting in that character, and He is met by the blood. He does not meet the sin; the blood meets the judgment, and He passes over, but the people are left in Egypt, safe from judgment. That is not all that God does: it is the foundation of all blessing, but they had not got actual deliverance yet. There is not only the value of what Christ has done meeting the eye of God, but He is active in delivering us and bringing us out. Christ went down to the condition we were in, and "by the grace of God tasted death for everything." He came into death where Satan's power was. He could not be holden of it, but in coming down He put away the sin. He came down in the power of divine life - He was God Himself - and He not only put away sin, though He did that in order to deliver us, for it could not be done righteously if the sin had not been put away; but now He is up out of it sitting at God's right hand in glory, and the worth of His work is such that it sets man, in His Person, but as our Forerunner, in the glory of God. There is complete deliverance for us.

God was a Judge in chapter 12. Here in chapter 15. He is a Deliverer, in virtue of that blood.

The Israelites got to the Red Sea, and found they could not go any further, and that is very humbling. It is a much more humbling thing to learn you are without strength than that you are a sinner. God says, "Trust Me and go forward." God is a Deliverer, and there was this much sea, that it protected them on the right hand and on the left. The very thing they dreaded was deliverance to them; they walked through it. We dread death and judgment, but it is through them we are delivered: the death of Christ.

Then they have to go through the wilderness, but they have come to God first. Death is gain, and judgment is gone for the believer.

"He guided them in His strength" (when they had none) "to His holy habitation" "I have borne you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself" Then there is peace.

We are brought to God by His power and righteousness, and the life that was manifested in Christ's resurrection from the dead; and from that there is a reckoning on divine strength for the way. Divine power has come in to deliver. Then what is Satan's power? There is perfect present deliverance from Pharaoh and Egypt, and the people are brought to God Himself by God's own strength. Then that work forms the ground for reckoning on God for the rest.

We see in verse 17 that God has an inheritance for His people. We have not got that (the glory) yet; but what we have got enables us to reckon on Him for it. He brings us to Himself and now dwells among us, consequent on redemption. (See Exodus 29: 45, 46.)

The moment I get there, I say, "Holiness becomes thine house." You cannot speak of holiness to a

person before he is redeemed; he has nothing to do with it except to say he has none. The Lord is "glorious in holiness," and now He has brought a people to Himself, He must have them holy.

With us it is inward and spiritual. He has redeemed a people to Himself, and He must have their hearts set apart - holy.

In the cleansing of the leper, the blood was to be on the tip of the right ear, on the thumb of the right hand, and on the great toe of the right foot. No thought is to go into our mind, we are to do nothing with our hand, and there is to be nothing in our walk, unfit for the blood of Christ.

The Grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Notes of a Reading on 2 Timothy 2.

J. N. Darby.

{The Christian Friend 1882, p. 141.}

Paul begins by encouraging Timothy in his own service: "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." He was to endure hardness, and not to entangle himself in the affairs of this life. "The husbandman labouring first, shall be partaker of the fruits;" that is, he must labour before he gets the fruit. He is speaking of the ruin of the Church in chap. 1; but a person is to go on working, through grace, in all the circumstances in which he finds himself.

Verse 8. Two characters of the gospel - the accomplishment of the promises, and Christ raised from the dead. You get the same thing in Rom. 1: 3, 4: He was the accomplishment of all the promises; the Jew has lost all title to them, and must come in in mercy like any other poor sinner. The promises to Moses were conditional, to Abraham unconditional.

Then he shows at the end of the chapter the state of things: "Foolish and unlearned questions avoid." (v. 23.) How from the beginning Satan wrought, or sought to work, by all these notions! Verse 19: Both sides of the seal, God's sovereign grace, and the responsibility side. You get the different stages of evil; in Jude they had "crept in," in the epistle of John they had "gone out." The "last days" (3: 1) have come to a head now, and this is a warning how to act when that is the case. God has always trusted the blessing He has sent to man, and he has always failed. God's grace has gone on working all the time, and " He knoweth them that are His." He "added to the Church daily such as should be saved" - made them manifest. While Paul was alive there was spiritual energy to detect these false brethren. False notions are learnt much more easily than the truth. The truth meets with the opposition of the flesh in us, whereas error meets with no resistance. You can learn Irvingism in a week, but it takes years to learn the truth; for the truth sanctifies, and if a person does not bow to that he does not get on. Verse 19: Two sides - godliness of walk in those who say they are Christians, that should accompany profession; and, on the other hand, they may be hidden among all these foolish people, but the Lord, knows them.

Then you get the great house, and he calls upon Timothy to purge himself from the vessels to dishonour. It is not here the exercise of discipline (you get that elsewhere); but here a man is to purge himself, then he will be a vessel unto honour. Then he takes up another thing. It is not now all who profess as at the beginning; now open infidelity has come in; but then what he says is, "Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." You must get this following godliness in every way, and do it with those who call on the Lord. When the Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved, there was no need to pick and choose; but here evil has come in, and you have to try people. It may be very plain in some: "Some men's sins are open beforehand," &c. Sometimes it requires a good deal of grace to discover only a little grace in another. "Out of a pure heart" is the motives that govern a man; "a sound mind" is that he does not go after wild fanaticism, but is sober in his judgment about divine truth. Till the disorder had come in I could not follow this order, for I should have nothing to purge myself from. All that God has established remains, and we must go on with it. The Church is still "the pillar and ground of the truth." Christendom is not, though in a certain sense it is; for it maintains outwardly the profession of Christ's name, and while it does that the Holy Ghost has not left it. Philadelphians are those who keep the word of Christ's patience, and are looking for Him. The thing is to keep fast hold of what does remain, though we have lost a good deal. Here "calling on the name of the Lord " is not sufficient. I have to see who is trying to walk "out of a pure heart." The directions of God are as distinct in this ruin as when there was no ruin at all.

Chap. 3: 14: "Knowing of whom thou hast learned them." I know whom I have learned them from - Paul, or Peter, or John, &c.; that is, when the nominal church is all gone into confusion, then I get the word of God which remains. In chap. 2 I find directions for personal conduct, in chap. 3 what they are based upon - the Scriptures. People talk about "the fathers." Were they from "the beginning"? I ask. No; but from near it. Very well then, I can't have anything that did not come from "the beginning." Christ never can be unfaithful to His saints, and He is just as sufficient for these times as for those times. All that is in the Word remains; it is not that organization remains as it ought; that may go, but none of this can go. And there is another thing connected with it - it is never promised that miraculous works should continue. But in Eph. 4 gifts are not spoken of as coming from the Holy Ghost, but you get what are edification-gifts there, and they will endure "till we all come," &c., and that is never said of miraculous gifts such as tongues and healing. You never find the apostles healing any of their own friends who were sick: "Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick." This very Timothy was to use a little wine for his often infirmities. But when it was a testimony to the Lord, you get all these miracles wrought; but where it was not for that, you do not find them at all. In Eph. 4 the gifts are spoken of as coming from Christ, because it was not merely power; for a person, as to the gifts that are lost, might have power and not exercise it at all, not speaking with tongues for example. There was positive action of the Holy Ghost, and not allowed to be used. But where Christ gives; He gives what will endure "till we all come," &c. He cannot desert His Church. It is of all moment to have the conviction that Christ, because of His holy, blessed nature, cannot fail the saints to give all that is needed for their blessing in walking down here. You never find the "us" dropped in Scripture: "They went out from us, but they were not of us." You still get the saints corporately. The "us" are people walking in faith, charity, peace, out of a pure heart, walking together. If there was not the corporate unity, there could not be anything from which to apostatize. There are special blessings attached to the fellowship of the saints which cannot apply to an individual.

"Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake." (v. 10.) Paul was saying there almost what Christ did; he was a witness, but it was a great deal to say. He must live for himself with Christ, to be able thus to live for the saints. Chap. 3: 17: "That the man of God may be perfect;" that is, full-grown. I am not a full-grown man in Christ till I realize what Christ is.

Well, with a little patience in trusting Christ, all goes on very simply; I do not mean to say without trial. Things are very much more moral than people think; seeing clearly, and all that, depends on the state of the soul.

J. N. D.

Malvern, 1880.

On Haggai 2: 5-9

J. N. Darby.

{To the Editor of 'The Investigator', 1832-3, page 334.}

Sir,

I do not pretend to an adequate knowledge of Hebrew for a criticism dependant on the language. It appears to me, however, that interpreters have hindered their apprehension of the general force of the passage in Haggai, by confining themselves to the English translation, valuable as it may generally be. The passage does not apparently contemplate two houses at all; but negatives the idea very carefully.

The spirit of the prophecy is contained in this; - "According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my Spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not." The fact of two houses of course was before them - so it has been before us. God in the exercise of his love obliterates this idea, (which we have rekindled,) and will allow only of a different state of the same house, and that was one of far greater glory. - "Who is amongst you that saw this house in its former glory, etc.

Then the Lord says (after the verse above quoted, stating his continuance with them,) "Thus saith Jehovah; yet it is a little while" &c. and he will shake all that whose apparent stability has been against the people of his love, and - "I will fill this house with glory; great shall be the glory of this house, the latter than the former:" or, simply, "the latter glory of this house (looked at in its unity) shall be greater than the former."

Such seems the idea and the construction of the passage: I find the Septuagint follows it. The thought of God's mind seems to run through this construction, and to be borne upon the plain terms of the whole passage itself, and to be fully given by it only.

As to the other part of the passage I confess the difficulty; but, it is clear to me, that it is much more abstract in intention than is generally supposed. It is not Christ shall become the desire of the Jews, nor merely the gold and silver after which the nations of the world should seek; but that that on which the heart of the Gentiles should be set should be not among them, (to wit the power and the glory) but in those that were broken and despised - God's house now among them, in its power attracting round itself all the honour and glory of the nations whose rebellions, stability and consistency had been shaken to pieces.

You are aware probably of the view of Parkhurst; and that, if I remember rightly, some manuscripts insert the Cholem.

I am, Sir, yours faithfully, J. N. D.

The Heavens Opened

Acts 7

J. N. Darby.

{Notes of an Address}

{Helps in Things concerning Himself Vol. 2 1892, pages 259-269}

This chapter is a very remarkable one in this respect: it is the Spirit of God summing up the whole history of man until Stephen was thus put to death. It is the rejection of the last testimony of God, all the dealings of God with man and the result of it as summed up by the Spirit of God; and what man's condition was as under those dealings; and then the blessed truth that a Christian cut off goes straight into Paradise.

What makes the chapter striking is, that Stephen was the first man that was carried up into heaven this way after Christ; he went to heaven so as to close the then testimony to man upon the earth. It was the turning-point in the history of man under God's dealings, and of what the ways of God were. Stephen went to join Christ in heaven; that gave backbone to his testimony. He recounts everything that had passed since Abraham, right on to the death of Christ, and then goes to heaven.

We speak of salvation - the grace of God that brings salvation. Salvation supposes something lost; if people are lost, I speak if the necessity of this salvation. It is not help we want, salvation meets what is lost. "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation." It is not merely the change in people, though there is a change in all their ways, habits, and spirit. God had come down and met people in the condition they were in; they could not meet Him at all, but He brought them out of that condition. Christ died "the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." We were away from God then, and God has been dealing with us to bring us to Himself, because we are not with Himself at all. The death of Christ has nothing to do with help; if He had not been the Son of God He would not have done it. The testimony we have of the Lord Jesus Christ is, "He came to seek and to save that which was lost."

Now it is the summing up by Stephen here, that brings this out so distinctly and definitely. Man turned out of paradise - the flood - the law, after that we all know the world that now is. There have been these provings, testings, and dealings of God with sinners, which is important, because man fancies he can remedy this. Now God has done everything He could do, and the result is man is proved to be lost; I do not mean finally lost, for God can save him, but as to the state he is in, entirely away from God. He has not got life. Life through whom? "This life is in his Son." "He that hath the Son hath life." If you have not the Son you have not life, there is nothing to be helped. You have not got the thing which puts us into relationship with God. There may be natural conviction of sin, or the law applied to the conscience, or the wonderful grace of the gospel making you feel confounded that you have lived without it at all. He is on the one side guilty, on the other lost. As regards his condition and state he has not righteousness. "None righteous, no, not one." You may be extremely amiable, pleasing and sweet to nature like the young man in Mark 10; the Lord tests him, and directly he goes away from Christ, for he loved money. It is very pleasing, of course, to find amiability and the like, but it is a natural thing in man, as you may find in any other animal, one vicious, another well disposed.

Remark the perfect calmness of Stephen before the Sanhedrim, the way in which he goes through the whole history they gloried in (as God can go through your history and tell you all that ever you did), and brings their own path and conduct to themselves, to shew them what they were and how it had all issued in their state. He begins at Abraham where everything began afresh. People built Babel, not as some have fancied so high that the flood could not reach them, but to make themselves a name that shall not be scattered. Then when they had been scattered they turned idolators, worshipping devils, and then God called out Abraham. Now you must leave your country, and your kindred, and your father's house; grace comes and calls him entirely out from all this. He half went, first, and did not get there. Then when Terah was dead "he removed him into this land." There is no condition whatever connected with Abraham. "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed," blessing to the Gentiles. God comes in His own grace and promises His Son. Then He sets about to deal with man in every possible way. Four ways - the law, the prophets, His Son and the working of the Holy Ghost. We sinners are not in paradise, even an earthly one - man has been turned out too, for you cannot have corruptions, passions, and lusts walking with a holy God. It cannot and ought not to be. If you could take man and put him into heaven, he would get out of it as fast as he could.

You get these four steps. He gives the law they did not keep it; the prophets, "which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" His Son, "of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers;" the Holy Ghost, "ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." Everything in which God could deal with man had to be gone through and tried, and that is the way it turned out. This grace, this special mercy that spared them on the intercession of Jesus, and now there was a testimony of a glorified Christ if they would receive it, and they sent back the messenger, "we will not have this man to reign over us." They put to death the humbled Christ, and refuse the testimony of the glorified Christ.

There we get the history of man and the history of your hearts. Who has not had the law practically and broken it? Who has not had the testimony and neglected it? Who has not had Christ presented to him, and preferred money, vanity, dress, or a thousand things? and the testimony of the Holy Ghost remaining without any effect. It is the very history of the world and of the little world of your hearts. I find I am a sinner, that is God's judgment of my state, but there is salvation for the vilest; I should not be here if there were not. But more; when "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them," when He came into this ruined world in grace, they would not have Him. We forget we are in a world in which the Son of God has been and is not. How came that? God says to the world practically, what have you done with My Son? What can the world say but, we have crucified Him. Was there any reason for it, was He really a malefactor? Was He even like John the Baptist, severe? There He was healing all who were oppressed of the devil, removing every sorrow, even of death, manifesting God, for God was with Him. Ah, said the world we will not have God, and as He willingly gave Himself He could be easily got rid of. And this is what man is! God came in grace into the midst of this world and man would not have Him, and there is this additional fact for us, that he died for us.

Go and introduce Christ where men are having their pleasures, quiet, gentle society, or rough society, what would be the effect? It would stop them directly. Take a man aside for a few hours, he will think of his pleasures or his troubles, but you never heard of a natural man thinking of Christ, for it is never on his heart, and if it is brought to him, his natural inclination rejects it. There is God's account of all of you.

What does wisdom do? Justify God, not themselves. I justify God where the testimony of the condemnation comes; I say God is right, I ought to repent, and I justify God in the testimony of sovereign grace in His Son, I bow my head with thankfulness. When a man is really taught of God he justifies God.

Now we have to see how God meets this state, which is the gospel. Not what I have wrought but "what hath God wrought," and I find "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son;" also, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." He saves what was lost, makes propitiation for guilt and gives life to those that have none in themselves. Christ has come into this world to shew what God was to the sinner, that wonderful unspeakable fact that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." God Himself has come as a man to shew His interest in man, and has gone through it, the Holy one whom sin could not defile, to carry the blessedness of God's own love to everyone who had a need. What brought Him here? Did I ask Him to come? Just His own love. We get this blessed love of God come amongst us. I know God not in speculating about what He may be, but in the blessed knowledge of what He is. If he had not shewn me all my sins, I might say, "If you knew all I was you would have nothing to say to me, I know my own heart but I know God's heart too."

People call God merciful, which means that they hope God will think as a little about their sins as they do themselves; it is awful how little man thinks of sin. They think it horribly bad to wrong their fellows, but they may calumniate God as much as they like. God cannot and ought not to be indifferent to sin; He would not be the holy God if He were. Am I to go defiled into heaven and spoil heaven itself? The love is an idle love that never displayed itself; where love is thorough and real it measures the wants and takes the case thoroughly into account. He bearing my sins in His own body on the tree was made sin for us; whether as regards the tree or the fruit, He stands before God and these sins have been dealt with. I do not wait till the day of judgment to own them or to know that they are put away. Where there is faith, "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," and we stand, as God has told us, in His presence as white as snow.

When we look at the cross, the more we weigh it the more we see how perfectly God has been glorified. I own that my sins brought him there. The only part I had in the cross was the sins that brought Christ there, and the hatred that put Him to death. If it humbles me in the dust, all the better. The work is divinely perfect between Christ and God about these sins. The wrath was such that even in the thought of bearing it He sweat great drops of blood, and while it bows my heart and my conscience, I find that God has already dealt with the sins in the grace that put all away, before ever I come to the day of judgment.

I may have been attracted by grace or alarmed by the terror of the Lord; one is the love getting into your heart, the other the light getting into your conscience, and God is both light and love. The work in which He bore my sins and put them away, is perfectly done, in virtue of which God has set Him as man at His own right hand; there I find salvation. The work is finished, I accept it, I am only too glad to have it, but the thing that gives me peace is that God has accepted it, for He has raised Christ from the dead. The glory of God Himself now in the face of Jesus Christ is the witness that the believer's sins never can be remembered anymore. Whereas the glory of God formerly alarmed and frightened us, now God has set Him at His right hand that you might be able to look at it in perfect peace. How could I walk with God if I did not know whether He was going to condemn me or not. You cannot if you are afraid of Him; but I am made the righteousness of God in Him. He is in the glory as Saviour. Oh, the thought that He became Man, that God is unveiled, and came into this world in unbounded love, making the day of judgment a time of triumph for the believer! I say of triumph, beloved. The believer will be perfectly like Christ, "Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." We are left here to have our senses exercised.

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." I am in Christ. Not only the clearing away of all the wretched things that I have and am in the first Adam, but God has put me into all the blessed things in the second Adam, in Christ. I know before God I am as Christ is. People think this presumption - if you ever think to be with God without it, it is presumption. If you are in the flesh you cannot please God. The Lord Jesus has said (when the Comforter is come), "at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you."

It is lovely the way it is brought out to Stephen; He was full of the Holy Ghost; I do not say every one is, though we have the Holy Ghost. The effect of seeing Christ in glory is that we are changed into the same image from glory to glory. He who is in the glory is the One who bore my sins. Now let me look upon that glory, let me think of it, let me tell it; He "loved me and gave Himself for me," and my heart delights to look at him. The effect is I am "changed into the same image," my heart gets full of Christ. Stephen in a certain sense becomes perfectly like Christ: he says, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge;" the Lord Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Stephen says, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit;" the Lord Jesus, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."

When the soul really sees and knows Christ by faith as the One who has saved us, we get like Him, though of course we have to be on the watch against temptations every day. What is very difficult for us in this world is entire superiority to circumstances. There were the people raging against Stephen, and not only that, when they set about dragging him out of the city, while the stones were flying round him, he kneels down and prays for them. Stephen, through the Lord's grace, is the quiet person, entirely superior to circumstances, always himself with his heart in heaven. There I get the effect of realising the presence of Christ. So far as we are above the circumstances we pass through, we are always ourselves, and we are the right thing in them. It is difficult, I grant, and requires communion with the Lord and diligence of heart in seeking Him in prayer. Supposing the world does kill us, why we go straight to Christ in heaven like Stephen did - a witness for Christ here, and a companion of Christ up there, to whom he goes in blessed joy and gladness of heart.

Now, beloved, where are we as to this? Are our souls trusting in that grace in which the blessed Lord came, till he comes to receive to Himself those who have believed on Him. The Lord give to us to have our eye fully open to Himself, to know and taste that the Lord is gracious, and then we shall be able to wait for His Son from heaven, the only thought we have, to please Him while here. May we have our eye on Him where He is in glory, so that we may be like Him, and rejoice with our hearts in joy unspeakable and full of glory.

On Hebrews 2

J. N. Darby.

{Christian Friend 1884, pages 113-7.}

The first four verses refer to the previous chapter. Christ's divine nature is looked at in Hebrews 1, then in Hebrews 2 He is looked at as Man. In chapter 1 it is the divinity of His Person, in chapter 2 His humanity. In these first four verses the apostle warns us not only not to disobey, but not to neglect so great salvation. You get in them the word of God, the heavenly thing brought down into this world, and applied to our consciences, so that everything in the natural state is judged; for the Word reveals what is heavenly and divine, but then it is by bringing in what is heavenly and divine that it judges me.

He goes on to say that everything will be made subject to a man, not to angels; they were used as instruments of His power. "What is man?" And yet God has all these wonderful thoughts about him. "What is man?" And then we get the answer - it is Christ; He is the Man of God's purpose; He created everything, and so when He takes it up, He must be the centre and Head over it. You find three reasons for this given in Scripture. First, He has created all things, and so He must be the Head of it when He comes and takes His place as Man (Col. 1); secondly, in Hebrews 1, because He is Son, He is Heir; and then, thirdly, in Hebrews 2, because the purpose of God is to Man. In Psalm 2 you get Him as Son of God and King of Israel; in Psalm 8 He says, "What is man?" You will find a remarkable illustration of the difference between these two psalms in the end of John 1. Nathanael bows to Christ, and owns Him as the One they expected, according to Psalm 2; then the Lord says to him, "You have believed me to be the Messiah, but you will see greater things than that; the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." It is a Man now that all these glorious creatures of heaven are ministering to. He did not take up angels, but the seed of Abraham. You get Psalm 8 quoted in the end of Ephesians 1, and quoted more fully in 1 Cor. 15; but in Heb. 2 you get it more developed as to the place that He takes. Verse 9 is half the Psalm fulfilled; He is crowned with glory and honour, gone back as Man into the glory. He is put as Man in the place of Lord over everything.

We see Him as regards His Person, everything accomplished, but not as regards the things; they are not under Him yet. And that is what we find in Rev. 11. - "We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty . . . because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned;" and then we get in our chapter how He associates us with Himself. Our proper blessedness is to be with Him and like Him. All through the Hebrews we never find the Father's name, nor the Church either, except in chapter 12; but you find saints walking down here, and Christ as a divine Person up there as Priest. It is the dependence of a weak individual on the priesthood of Christ. There is no priesthood for our sins now (He was Priest and Victim on the cross), but it is now "present grace to help in time of need." He is an Advocate with the Father for sin. Now He is sitting up there, expecting till His enemies be made His footstool; and we ought to be expecting too, with the blessed knowledge that He is expecting us. He became a Man in order to be able to die. We taste death for sin, but by the grace of God He tasted it in obedience.

There are four reasons in this chapter why He came down to taste death. First, for God's glory. (v. 10) It became God so to deal with Christ. In Christ's holiness (and it was absolute) He knew what it was to be made sin; in His love He knew what it was to be forsaken. There is not an instant that I am not perfect before God in virtue of the blood. The blood under God's eye never alters in its value; it is perfect and constant. The second reason is, because the power of evil was rampant there. (v. 14) He takes out the sting of death for the believer. What is death to a person who knows the value of Christ's death? Why, it is simply, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." The very things that would be my ruin - death and judgment - are the very things that have saved me; for Christ has borne them for me. The Red Sea was death and judgment to the Egyptians, but it saved the Israelites. It is not merely the fear of sin or the fear of judgment, but it is the " fear of death," and Christ has been through it, and taken the sting out of it. "All things are yours . . . life or death." (1 Cor. 3: 21, 22) The third reason is, our sins required it. (v. 17) A complete, perfect propitiation. I get to feel my sins the moment I am converted, but I had not committed one of them when Christ bore them. It is all one to God when I committed them. It is the value of the work itself before God. I come to know it at a given moment. God would slight the blood of His own Son, if He imputed sin to me. He gave it (the propitiation) in love, and accepted it in righteousness. A person never has guile out of his heart till he knows forgiveness; till then he never overcomes the tendency to excuse himself. I do not mean wilful guile. Aaron, for instance, "There came out this calf." (Ex. 32) Adam again, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me." (Gen. 2) Supposing a man comes to pay my debts, I tell him every farthing I owe - all that is in my heart. When I see what God is going to do, I am glad for Him to know it all. "I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." (Ps. 32) Trusting God's love, we come and confess our sins, and find they are all gone. Perfect forgiveness was never known till the gospel came in; forbearance there was. Now we know absolute, perfect forgiveness, and an eternal redemption, as the fruit of Christ's eternal work.

The fourth reason is, He is able to sympathise. (v. 18) I do not want sympathy for my sins; I want the hatchet of God's word applied to them. "In that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted." (Chap. 4: 12.) With Him there is an experimental knowledge of all the difficulties the saints pass through. I know Christ's power, of course; but then I know the sympathy of His heart. I cannot be in a trouble that Christ is not with me, and that He does not understand, and has felt more deeply than me, for a good deal of pride and selfishness often carry us through; but "He suffered being tempted," but never gave way. Here we are, walking through this world, but there is not a single thing that Christ does not see, and know, and feel. His disciples were compassed with infirmity; but He went through infirmity, and felt it, and is now on high. We have first in this chapter where Christ is - at the right hand of God, but not all things put under Him yet; and then these four reasons for which Christ took the capacity of dying.

There is another thing which we find in this chapter, and that is, the positive blessing in verse 11. It is not the unity of the body here, but Christ; and they who are sanctified "are all of one," all one thing or piece, so to speak, but He the Head. Christ and all the saints are one set. It does not say that He came down as one of us, for He was totally alone till His death. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone." He has brought us to Himself. As we were one with Adam, we are much more really one with Christ, joined by the Holy Ghost. We do not believe in His love enough, and the full reality and present exercise of it towards us; I mean in Him, of course.

"In the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee." (v. 12.) We ought to feel, each time we meet as an assembly, that Christ is there, and leads the praise. Think what it is that Christ should be there, and raising the song, so to speak! It is a wonderful thing, the present way He holds us as identified with Himself.

The Lord give us to taste and know that constant and exercised love of God towards us, shown in His death, but not all spent in His death, but exercised constantly toward us.

__________

There is nothing so petty as the human heart, but nothing on which God, by His grace, can compose such lovely and transcendent music, because man is the subject of redemption through Christ.

"His praise shall continually be in my mouth."

Philippians 4

J. N. Darby.

{Booklet published by Stow Hill}

In the third chapter of Philippians we find the spiritual energy which carries the saint onward in the race to Christ in glory. This chapter treats more of the power which gives him complete superiority over all the circumstances through which he has to pass, not as making him insensible to their sorrow, but able to "rejoice in the Lord always."

Nothing is more instructive, or humbling in this way, than the life of Paul. Cut off from the ministry which he loved, shut up in prison at Rome, where he had laboured "more abundantly than they all"; finding, at the end of such glorious effects as his ministry produced, the result was "all they which are in Asia be turned away from me"; and "all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's"; yet he can say, "Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice." You will find plenty of trouble, plenty of conflict, for Satan is not bound yet. The more we go on, the more we shall know the opposition - sorrow in the Church - saints individually going wrong; all these ought to press upon our hearts; but we ought to have the power which lifts the heart totally above it; the communion and faith which links up the heart to Christ, and walks with Him - the power, too, to serve others, come what will.

Christ - the "Man of Sorrows," was the example of this: who so ready to serve as He? "I have meat to eat that ye know not of" were His words. Even Martha, whom He loved, tried to get Mary away from listening to His words. The disciples sought to turn Him aside when He told them of His death; all showed a misapprehension of what He had come for - to "give His life a ransom for many"; yet in the midst of it all, He can ask that His disciples may have His joy fulfilled in them!

If we really have this joy of Christ, we can "endure all things for the elect's sake," because we are in spirit with Him, and He with us in it all; and He did endure all things for the joy that was set before Him - even the cross. It is not the mere buoyancy of a heart ignorant of the power of evil, or of the opposition of Satan. There is a great deal of this superficial joy, this floating over the surface of things, with many. But it is the real power, where the depth of evil and opposition is apprehended, and the power of the Lord is known and trusted in as above it all!

What is working now is, "the power of good (of God Himself), in the midst of evil"; and it is paramount to the evil in the midst of which it works. True, the evil is flowing in like a mighty stream which, if not stemmed, will flow on to the ocean to judgment, unless the Lord interfere, as He does in goodness and in mercy, or in judgment, or a scourge. But the character of the world until Satan is bound is this, that he is its god and its prince; and, in the midst of a world where Satan is prince, the power of Christ has come in above it all.

If my soul is living in the immediate centre of this power, it will feel the pressure of the evil, but will not be depressed - "In nothing terrified by your adversaries." The practical daily supplies of strength depend upon the heart's being with Him who has overcome it all; who has all power in heaven and on earth. Then we know the sure and certain resting-place in Himself, which nothing can touch. True, we have to labour on; as it says, "Labour to enter into His rest"; but if the heart is with Him who is in that rest, it has a power which nothing can reach; and the first mark of this power, when the tide of evil is present, is patience. That which "endures to the end" is better than a miracle! Thus we learn the graciousness and power, that keeps the heart free to think of what Christ has wrought in others; free to be occupied with the whole Church; and yet which can think of every state, even of a slave with his master (Philemon). Paul's affections were fresh for each "true yoke-fellow," as though all had not "forsaken" him; and though all sought their own, it did not hinder the going out of his heart.

Are our hearts living enough with Christ to think of a brother thus? Paul's heart was so with Christ, in the consciousness of what it is to be His, that when he thinks of a brother, it is as one whose name is "in the book of life"! In another place, he says, "I stand in doubt of you," but in the next chapter, "I have confidence in you through the Lord."

"Blessed is the man in whose heart are thy ways." The secret of all was, he made wells of the sorrows. Going through the valley of Baca, it was turned into a well - the blessing from on high, where Christ was, fills the pools.

The history of the apostle is very important in connection with this. In prison, chained between two soldiers, cast, of course, more than ever on the Lord - the Lord was very gracious to him - but he learned, come what will, to "rejoice," not in the prosperity of his work, or in the prosperity of the Church, or of the saints; but to "rejoice in the Lord always"!

What holier, deeper, truer, Christ-like feeling is had in these trials! As the Psalmist says (34), "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth." How did it come about? "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." The Lord was his shepherd, therefore he can say, "I shall not want"; not, "I have gotten green pastures." "I shall not want," but because the Lord was his shepherd. "He restoreth my soul; He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." He spreadeth "a table before me, in the presence of mine enemies." He anointeth "my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever," Psalm 23.

Paul, standing before King Agrippa, says, "I would to God that not only thou, but all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds." He does not say, "I would you were all Christians," but "such as I am"! There is a happy man! So conscious of the blessedness he had in Christ; so full of the love of Christ, that he could wish you were as he was! The heart's complete, internal happiness in Christ, so that the trials - trials even in the Church, which are much more deep and real - only carried him to Christ!

Are we so conscious of this blessedness in Christ, that we can say to others, "I would you were as I am"? Do you say, "Only an apostle could say this"? Nay, it is what every Christian, old and young, is called to! The only difference is, that a young Christian rejoices more in himself and his blessings; he has a blessed comfort in himself. The fathers more simply in Christ, they have got to know Christ, they have a personal acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ, and rejoice in intimacy with Him. The young rejoice in the first blush of feeling. It is good and true, what God has given; but in the "pull," going through the world, we find that there is nothing positively to rejoice in but Christ.

The power for this consists in that, the nearness to Christ, that when the evil springs up - the power of Satan present - the heart has to do with Him in resurrection, who has destroyed him who had the power of death; with Him whose mighty, holy arm hath gotten Him the victory; He says, "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world." He starts us with this testimony, having gone Himself into a place where evil cannot reach; and we have got Him there, the immovable source of blessing, and rejoice in Him there. He has not taken us out of a world governed by Satan's power, but He keeps us from evil, because we are not of the world, as He is not of the world.

The saints too, when running the race, are to look away unto Jesus, who has begun and ended this whole course of faith; who has met the power of Satan in the beginning, and in the end; tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. He overcame him who had the power of death (that is, the devil), and is set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high - the victory won. We are to enjoy Him now, high up above, and independent of the things we are passing through. Do not let any present circumstances occupy you. Do not look away from Him to them - but rejoice! Not in yourself in any way, but in Christ always!

You must be with Him in spirit for this, because He alone is out of the evil, and is the centre and fountain of good; and what should be seen in you down here is, your "moderation," your yieldingness. Suppose I am happy in Christ, am I looking for my rights in this world? Christ had none! Oh! no, my treasure is elsewhere; I am going out of this world;

I can wait for my rights till Christ has His. Let our hearts be weaned from things here, let us pass through the world as weaned children. Christ passed through it, leaving all to go its own way. In the presence of unrighteousness, the spirit is apt to rise; but let us cultivate the subduedness that yields. The Samaritans would not receive Him, and He turns aside into another village. Oh! what a lesson that is! Because He had steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem! The half-hearted would not receive Him, because He was doing the very thing that marked His devotedness to His Father. And so it will be with you; the religiously half-hearted will not want you, if you set your face steadfastly to go right!

"The Lord is at hand!" He has taught us to wait for Him - to be always "like men that wait for their Lord."

"Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." His peace is better than cares. We have cares and sorrows, true, and we should have more, if we were living more as servants among the sorrows of this world. Not indifferent - Christ was never that. But there is a getting away from Christ in my own heart - a tendency to make one anxious even in caring for others. But I must go and tell God, and this carries me so above the cares that I can rejoice in Him.

What does God give to the heart that has given all its cares to Him? An answer? No (though we know He does answer): but His peace! Is God's heart taken up with circumstances? troubled by them? Is His throne shaken by the folly and the wickedness of the world; or even the failure of the saints? Never! Put your cares, then, on God, and He will put His peace into your heart - the ineffable peace of God! He who knows the end from the beginning - the peace He is in, shall keep your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. There is no indifference, carelessness, or coldness, but supplication, earnest entreaty, and all with thanksgiving.

A man whose heart is filled with thanksgiving, reckoning on God, goes to Him with prayer and supplication, and the soul, having left all on God, feels His hand under the trouble, and can say, "It is His affair; not mine." He is a happy man. He goes through this world in this blessed fellowship with Christ; in the power of the Spirit of God for inward joy, and for outward circumstances; his affections free to go out to his brethren.

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Hearts free to find the good in people. Jesus could find the least bit of grace in a poor soul; His heart was ever ready to enjoy it; "I have meat to eat that ye know not of"; "Mary hath chosen that good part"; "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile." There is always this perception when the heart is kept free to enjoy the fruit of the Spirit in others, as being occupied with what is good!

You cannot touch pitch without being defiled, and there is a great deal of pitch in these days. Thinking with the world, talking like the world, then the heart gets into the colour of it. It is not Christ! The heart set free, lives in the thing that Christ's heart delights in. Oh! it makes such a difference; living in the atmosphere where Christ's heart dwells, instead of being dragged after ten thousand other things.

"Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do; and the God of peace shall be with you." Not only His peace, as in verse 7, but Himself.

What blessedness in that name God constantly gives Himself! He is never called the God of joy. Joy is an up and down thing that may be disturbed; there may be cause for joy, yet trouble may hinder the heart enjoying it. Peace is what nothing can disturb; it is calm as the throne of God! "Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen," Rom. 15. "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly," Rom. 16. "The God of peace shall be with you," Phil. 4: 9. "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly," 1 Thess. 5: 23. "The God of peace . . . make you perfect," Heb. 13: 20.

Peace is the effect of a full and perfect work. He has "made peace through the blood of His cross." Why? Because He has gone through everything that was contrary to God - has borne the wrath (the very opposite of the peace) of God; and the instant He is risen, He comes into their midst and says, "Peace"! And now to us God takes this wondrously blessed name of "the God of peace."

Do your hearts possess that peace? If God rises up with every attribute that He has, can anything disturb it? I can say before God, I am in the light, even as God is in the light, because the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses me from all sin. I may have conflict with self, with the world, or with Satan; but He sets me in that peace which nothing can disturb. Your peace should flow as a river.

Faith is needed to be able to rejoice always in the Lord, the feet going where God would have them go, not avoiding evil merely, but walking where He would lead us in every detail of life - in our habits, dress, conversation, intercourse. Nothing tests the condition of soul more than everyday habits.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It is a different thing to say, "Christ strengthens me," and to say, "I can do all things." Paul had learned it. Blessed thing to find that Christ was sufficient for him; he had learned how to be abased, and how to abound (more difficult, for abundance has the tendency to draw the heart away from the Lord - He had kept him from that twice). If he had want, He had Christ; if abundance, it was Christ. This was not joy in circumstances, but moral power rising above circumstances, but he had learned it; looking at Christ all through; finding it out all the way along. It was true when he began his course, but Paul did not know it then as he did at the end, when he could speak of it to others as that which he had learned. Just as He says, "My God" - blessed word! well known in all sorts of circumstances. "In journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness," he could say, "My God shall supply all your need!" I know Him, and, if you ask me what is the measure, it is "according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ"! I guarantee to you all that. Paul found that all sought their own, but it only enabled him to say more completely, "My God."

What reality there is in the life of faith - walking in secret with God. Poor hands we are at it; but it is that which no world can touch, no Satan can rob of, and the trials that come out in that path only prove us superior to every circumstance through the power of His grace! God grant that we may know it and Him in it. Amen.  J.N.D.

A Just God and a Saviour

John 8: 1-11.

J. N. Darby.

{Booklet published by Morrish}

There is in all persons a certain knowledge of good and evil; such and such things they say are good, and such and such things are evil. But perhaps no two persons fix exactly the same standard either of good or evil. What people do is to fix such a standard of good as they can come up to themselves, and such a standard of evil as shall just exclude themselves, and include others. For instance, the drunkard thinks there is no great harm in drinking, but would consider it a great sin to steal. The covetous man, who is every day perhaps practising some cheating or deception "in the way of trade," satisfies himself by thinking "it is necessary and customary to do so in business, and at all events I do not get drunk or curse and swear as others do." The profligate person prides himself upon being generous and kind-hearted to others, or, as he says, "he does nobody any harm but himself." The upright moral man, and the domestic amiable man, satisfies himself with doing what he calls his duty, and looks round and pities the open sinners that he sees; but he never considers how many an evil thought, how many a sinful desire, he may have cherished, unknown to others, in his bosom: and that God judges the heart, though man looks only at the outward conduct. Thus each congratulates himself upon his not having done some evil, and compares himself with some one else who has committed the sin, which he thinks he has managed to avoid. Now all this proves that men do not judge themselves by one regular fixed standard of right and wrong, but just take that which suits themselves and condemns others. But there is a standard, with which all will be compared, and according to which all will be judged, - a standard of righteousness, all who fall short of which will be eternally condemned; and that is no less than the righteousness of God. When a person begins to find that it is not by comparing himself with others that he is to judge, but by comparing himself with God, when his conscience begins to be awakened to think of sin as before God, then indeed he finds himself guilty and ruined; he will not then attempt to justify himself by trying to find out some one that is worse than himself, but he will be anxious to know whether it is possible that God, before whom he knows himself condemned, can pardon or forgive him.

Now the scribes and Pharisees, mentioned in this eighth chapter of John, were very moral and religious people, and were greatly shocked when they found this wretched woman taken in such open sin, and very indignant against her. Justice and the law of Moses, thought they, demand that she should be made an example of - it is not fit that such a sinner should live. It comforts and quiets the depraved heart of man, if he can only find a person worse than himself: he thinks the greater sin of another excuses himself; and whilst accusing and vehemently blaming another, he forgets his own evil. He thus rejoices in iniquity.

But this is not all; for not only do men thus glory and exult in the fall and ruin of another, but they cannot bear to see, or think of, God exhibiting grace. Grace - which means the full and free forgiveness of every sin, of every evil, without God demanding or expecting, any thing from the one so forgiven - is a principle so opposed to all man's thoughts and ways, so far above man, that he dislikes it; his own heart often secretly calls it injustice. He does not himself deal in this way, and does not like to think of God doing so. It is very humbling to be obliged to own that we are dependent upon grace entirely for salvation; and that nothing we have done, and nothing we can in future do, has made us, or will make us, fit subjects even for grace; but that our misery and sin and ruin are the only claim we have upon grace. The scribes and Pharisees could not understand this; and not liking to own that they were themselves sinners, they wished to perplex Jesus; and if He acquitted the woman, then say He was unjust; or if He condemned her, then say He was not merciful. "Such should be stoned," say they; "but what sayest thou?"

True the sentence was just, the proof of the woman's guilt was undoubted, and the law was clear; but who was to execute the law? Man may easily condemn, but who has a right to execute? "He that is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her." Who could say "Without sin?" and if not one of them could say, "I am without sin;" there was not one of them but was under the same sentence as the woman - that is, death, for "the wages of sin is death." Here, then, was a strange situation, - the accused and her accusers alike involved in the same ruin - criminals all. Not now "such should be stoned," but all should be stoned. From the eldest to the last, all convicted sinners.

And have you thought of that? that you and all the world are guilty before God? It is not what your amount of sin, as respects others, is; but can you say you are "without sin" before God? If not, death, then, is your sentence. "The soul that sinneth it shall die." And in this sad condition what have you done? Perhaps the same as the scribes and Pharisees did, when they were convicted by their own conscience - left the presence of the only One who can pronounce the forgiveness. Adam in the garden had done the same before; he went and hid himself from God when he knew himself guilty; he turned away from his only friend just when he most needed His help. And so it is still. Man is afraid of the only One who is ready to pardon. You may be able to persuade yourself that you are not so bad; you may find others manifestly worse; but are you a sinner at all? What is God's thought concerning you? Does not even your own conscience say, "I am not quite without sin." Well, then, death is the sentence. God cannot lie, it is His sentence. And if we only heard that God was just, there could be no hope. But He is "a just God and a Saviour." He has condemned, and He has also the power to execute; the only question that remains is, Can He pardon?

"And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." She was standing before One who could say, "Without sin," and who therefore could cast the stone. She was alone with One whom she owned as Lord; and what would be His sentence? The law had already condemned her; would He execute it? What a moment of intense anxiety must it have been for her! How all surrounding objects must have been as nothing in her sight! She was alone with One who had the power of life and death. Everything rested on His word. What would He say? Man had not dared to cast the stone; now what would God do? "Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more."

Such is still the gracious message to the ruined sinner, pronounced by the very Judge Himself. But it is only to the ruined sinner, standing consciously convicted before the Judge, that it is spoken. The righteous Pharisees heard it not. They were indeed convicted; but they liked not to confess their sin, and they sought to get rid of their convictions, to bury them in some good works of their own; and they would not put themselves in the same condemnation with the wretched woman, who got this blessed word of peace. And so it is still. If you desire to have God's full and free pardon, it must be your place to stand first as the guilty sinner. To be alone with Jesus, consciously self-condemned. To have no one else to trust to, no one else to compare yourself with. Not to make resolutions of amendment, not to try to get better first, before you come to Him; but to be brought to Him by your very sins, to stand in the very place of condemnation, and before the very Person who has the power to condemn. To make your very guilt the reason of being alone with Him.

And the Lord gave her no conditional pardon. He did not say, "Neither will I condemn you, if you will not sin any more." No, He gives her full and complete forgiveness first, and that He knew would enable her to avoid the sin in future. If you desire to have power over your sins, you must first know them all pardoned by God through Christ. But if you try to master your evil before you know the forgiveness of God, you will obtain neither the one nor the other. Through faith in Jesus you must be justified freely from all things, before you will ever be better as before God. Now, some who really believe on Jesus do not clearly see this, and they are seeking to have peace by holiness of life, or the fruits of the Spirit, instead of first acknowledging themselves as ruined sinners fully and freely pardoned, and then letting their life and conduct be guided by the knowledge of that pardon, and the love to God which the knowledge of His mercy must necessarily create. Begin with, "Neither do I condemn thee." Let your peace come from faith in the blood of His cross, by which He has made peace. God's knowledge and estimate of your sin is much deeper than your own, but He has provided the blood of His Son. He says that blood cleanses from all sin. The more I see and know my own sin, the more I shall value that precious blood by which it is put away; and the more anxious shall I be not to grieve the heart of Him who, in His own love, has provided such a wonderful sacrifice on account of my sins. Hence, the deeper I know my own guilt, the more secure will be my peace; for the greater will be my value for the blood, through which peace has been made.

May you know the peace and joy of having all your sins forgiven through faith in the blood of Jesus, and the consequent victory over the power of those very sins by which you have been led captive.

John 17

J. N. Darby.

Unrevised notes of a Lecture.

{Helps in Things Concerning Himself, Vol. 3, pages 194-6.}

The Lord ceases to speak to His disciples; He looks beyond the cross, and empties His heart into the Father's bosom about His disciples. Listen to me, He says. He says it to us in a way He could not have said to His disciples. They were Jews, not Christians. This communion He reveals to us that we may enjoy the same communion as Himself. We are Christians - anointed ones. The testimony of the Holy Ghost is that Christ has taken the place of our badness before God. The "Lord's Prayer" was suited to the people it was given to. In verse 26, there is the past "I have" and "I will" future revelation in redemption - disciples were in the middle between these two, and we are after both. The first was the revelation of the Father in testimony. Legal people put the first part of this chapter last - from vers. 1-13 the Lord puts us in His place before God - then He puts us in His place before men. His work is our title to His place before God. If Satan could have got Him to use His Godhead He would have left the place of a dependent man.

Verse 3: Eternal life is not connected with "almighty God," "Jehovah," but connected with the present capacity to know God and to become acquainted with His nature. Man thinks to know God by His brains. By my wants I have found out God. Conscience only is the entrance of God into my soul. I must have a revelation from God to know Him.

The Son takes an official place - gives up glory - becomes voluntary servant - "I love my Master," God - is made Lord and Christ - still official place. Then the Holy Ghost takes the subject place as servant of Christ to make you feel that Christ dwells in your heart by faith. Was there ever the smallest discrepancy between the Father's counsels and the revelation of Him in the Son? God meets you in grace without contradicting righteousness. The doctrine of non-eternity is an attack on the cross.

The Lord Jesus wishes His people to be brought into the same intimacies with His Father down here, that He had. His work is our title to His place. 2 Timothy 1: 9 is purpose; verse 10 is fact.

He created a condition of humanity for us by entering into it Himself. "I have glorified" &c. is our title to the place. Good resolutions, reforms, &c are but dead flies that spoil the ointment. He is now returned to the glory in a condition of humanity never known before.

"As he is so are we" - judgment behind Him, and as far behind us. There is nothing so hard as to make people believe grace.

Secondly, revelation in last verse is unfolded in the middle of the chapter. "I have glorified." You are as fit to be in the presence of God through the finished work of Christ as He is. A Christian speaking of Christ's love to him, is witnessing for Him. They have kept thy word." "Word" revelation of Himself they treasured in their hearts. The activities of God's nature in the midst of evil is grace. Grace is more than love. He loves the angels. You like grace because there is nothing good in you, and everything good in Christ for you.

"I have given them thy words." "Words" were the communication of God's heart to Him. There is not a thing you do in Christ's thoughts that He does not magnify to the Father. When the disciples slept in the garden He said of them, "These are they that have continued with me in my temptations."

Martha treated the Lord as if He had come down from heaven to receive her hospitality. Mary consulted the tastes of His heart, and in the end her service comes out in emptying a box of ointment on Him. We are first qualified for heaven, and then sent into the world to give faithful testimony to what we believe - to walk according to what we are, not what we are not. What a place we have! It comes through the conscience to the affections - His joy, our joy: not a thing He has acquired, that He does not wish to share with us now.

The Cleansing of the Leper.

Leviticus 14: 10-20.

J. N. Darby.

{Christian Friend and Instructor 1887, pages 57-60.}

{This is a translation from the French of unrevised notes of one of a series of addresses given by the author many years ago in Switzerland. Their simplicity is as striking as beautiful. Ed.}

In this passage we find the ceremony, according to the law, for the cleansing of the leper - a figure of the cleansing which Christ has accomplished for us, for leprosy is a type of sin. There is a distinction to be made between the purification of the leper and that of the priest.

There were but three sprinklings with blood in the Old Testament - the sprinkling of the leper, that of the people, and that of the priest; they each took place once and were not repeated. There was nothing to be done for the healing of the leper; it was the work of God. In order to prove that the disease was leprosy, the leper was kept by himself, set apart and watched and observed every seven days. When he was entirely white, or when the spot had become white, he was purified. (Compare Psalm 32: 3-5.) When sin is hidden, and the leprosy internal, the evil is greater. The manifestation and confession of sin lead to peace, and the heart is set at ease; this is the upright and honest heart. The symptoms of leprosy are described in Leviticus 13. The healing came from God; the priest could only ascertain the disease, and perform the acts for purification. Leprosy excluded its victim from the camp; sin hinders communion with God and His people.

After his cleansing, the leper was reinstated in communion with the children of Israel; but the first effect of the knowledge of sin is to take from us the desire for communion with God, the intelligence of that communion, and the seeking after it. Cleansing gives us, indeed, the right of communion with the children of God, although souls often fail to understand from the first that they have this right. Healing often precedes the knowledge of this healing; the converted soul puts itself under law, instead of accepting joyfully the whole gospel.

As to the means used for the cleansing of lepers, they are: First, the birds, one dead - a type of the death of Christ. It was killed over a vessel of running water. The living bird is a type of Christ's resurrection. (Lev. 14 4-7.) Our sins brought Jesus to the tomb, but He rose out of it, and left them behind Him there; He had accomplished all. Second (vv. 8, 9), the leper was to be washed with water. Jesus cleanses us by the Word which He has spoken to us; His Word does for our souls what the cleansing with water did for the body. (See Eph. 5: 25-27.) This cleansing was done once for all. Sanctification is once for all, but the Christian must grow in it. All believers are justified in Christ. This is an accomplished reality; the Holy Ghost puts us in this position. There is the sanctification by God the Father (John 17: 17), that of Jesus by His blood, and that of the Holy Ghost, who gives efficacy to the Father's will and the work of the Son. The Holy Ghost accomplishes it in individuals. He communicates life to us by the Word, and sanctifies us wholly. Third, after cleansing follows the knowledge of what has been done; the leper must understand it, and receive its efficacy in his heart. (vv. 10-20.) The leper is presented to God, with a sacrifice for his offence. He was anointed with blood as a sign of sanctification.

The Christian is never to allow anything to enter his ear which would be inconsistent with the blood of the Lamb. The right hand is the symbol of action. The Christian should not do anything which would be dishonouring to the blood of Christ; all that he does every day should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, and he must not act in any way which would not accord with the measure of God's thoughts in the death of Jesus. All in our actions which is not holy as the blood of Christ is sin. Blood on the great toe is a figure of holiness in our walk. We are not negative beings; Christ's life should always act in us. Our thoughts, actions, walk, all are under the blood of Christ, and that blood is the measure of what our holiness should be. One must either be under the shelter of the blood of Christ, or outside it. The child of God has on him that blood which can neither be effaced, nor lose its value. There is never need of another sprinkling. Every day our souls are renewed inwardly by the Holy Ghost, and we confess our sins before our Father. Fourthly, blood was not the only thing necessary; oil was also required. The oil, a type of the Holy Ghost, is given because the blood is there. It was not after the water, but after the blood, that the oil was applied.

The Holy Ghost comes to dwell in us because the blood of Christ is on us. If we are as pure in the sight of God as that blood, why should not the Spirit be in us? The blood of Christ has exhausted the wrath of God against sin. There is nothing but love for those who are sprinkled with that blood. The Holy Ghost is a Spirit of knowledge, joy, peace, and love; these are His first-fruits. He is also a Spirit of strength and power, able to overcome the obstacles which arise in our path.

The effect of all was to re-establish the leper in communion with God.

Extract from an Unpublished Letter.

J. N. Darby.

{Christian Friend 1884, page 107.}

There is need of building by the Word, but the earliest fruit of an awakened soul will be feeling, not knowledge, and this will become feeble and unhealthy if not fed by Christ and the Word. But this process went on at first, and has given the Epistles; but we see the weakness which may accompany it - they would have given their eyes, but did not hold fast justification by faith. All this needs the continual work of the ministry, not to make a fuss about the first feelings, the flowers which precede the fruit, but to labour therein to feed the soul.

As to conversions in singing, there is nothing at all unscriptural. If the truth is in the hymn spoken of with divine affections for souls, affections expressed respecting a truth already outwardly admitted, it is quite within the ways and operation of the Spirit of God to act on the soul in a quickening way by it, not without truth, but by truth so addressed to the soul.

I do not say that the work will be there as deep, or the foundation as solidly laid at the moment for after exercises, as if it was the direct application of the Word by the Holy Ghost to the conscience, but the heart receives Christ convincingly and lovingly so as to live. I have ever said that the smallest atom of Christ suffices for the Holy Ghost to quicken by, if it be really Him. No doubt a profound conviction of sin by the Word casts off a mass of imaginings of the flesh by a deeper inward work which such a conversion leaves undiscovered. But if God works, He will do His own work, and bring it to a good issue.

Light, Love and Life

John 3.

J. N. Darby.

{Notes of Addresses Vol. 2, pages 8-17.}

Every one who has any amount of spiritual intelligence remarks the difference between this and the three preceding Gospels. They present Christ, be it as Son of David, or Messiah, or Servant, or Son of Man, as may suit the individual case, and as such to be received by men; but John speaks of the Light being amongst them, and rejected. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." Thus we get the whole state of man judged, grace reigning, no doubt, but flesh judged for rejecting the Light. "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." The totally lost state of man is brought out - utterly lost, and yet no matter how vile, the light is come to him, and all are left without excuse. Then we get in the passage which refers to Moses lifting up the serpent - "That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Not only is this presentation made that they may escape the righteous wrath of God, but that they may be put into a new condition before Him.

I do not - God forbid that I should - weaken the force of the passage which speaks of coming judgment. This we shall see is inevitable. But I am not here to reproach you who are out of Christ with your sins. I want to show you, as I may be able, what the flesh is, and the impossibility of bettering it. Though one hears a great deal about social reform, it is all false. You cannot better a thing which is hopelessly bad; it is judged, condemned, and you can do nothing with it but confess that it is so.

This Gospel assumes all that is in the other three, and then goes on beyond them - the same truth, of course, but differently presented. John deals with things not suited to the other testimony, equally precious in its own way. It is most important for us while presenting the grace of God in all its fulness to recollect where we are, to get a full consciousness of it. We need this, my brethren; it gives power, and the poor unsaved one needs it too. Now if I be saved, I am in Christ, not only out of condemnation, but in acceptance before God in Christ, and He in me. But the poor sinner is still in darkness, and "the wrath of God abideth on him." In darkness - this is his condemnation, for light is come into the world, and he has loved darkness rather than light, because his deeds are evil. This is the Spirit's testimony of the world, where so much is made of man, and so little of Christ. Christ has been cast out, and now He is left out.

It is well to see flesh in its true colours: "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." "Good Master," said one "There is none good, but one, that is God," replied the perfect One. This is no mere theory, but a terrible fact, that we should know in our hearts. So utterly bad are they that the effect of having the light presented is just to have it rejected, and the rejection of the light is necessarily followed by judgment. What is judgment? Just the revelation of all the thoughts, words, and works of men which are going on now - every secret thing as well as the more glaring - unless, indeed, the precious blood has washed them all away. But this is another thing. God's terms now with man are not law. He has not in this dispensation sent out a rule whereby man is to walk; but He has sent His light into the world, and He calls man to walk in it. Law was all right in its place, and even now it is useful in convicting man; but this is not our place, but the light is here, and reveals to us that we cannot stand for one moment in ourselves before it. The light convicts us; it makes manifest what a man is; but when we walk in the light as He is in the light - in Christ - of course, what can judgment bring out? That I am there according to the measure of Christ's perfection, and the perfectness of His finished work. There is no judgment for that. Judgment does come. Solemn truth! And the apostle says, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost" (2 Cor. 4: 3). We are without excuse, for light is come to show us what we are; but if, through grace, there be the smallest desire in our hearts to be with God, like Christ - what a mercy that the light is here to reveal the way. There is no uncertain sound here. God is come down to reveal to us His own mind, what His righteousness required, and how the whole thing has been met. He brings down the light of God, and love too - but we are speaking of light - to my soul; and if we are in earnest, this makes us very thankful; if I reject it, it is another thing, of course. Light and truth are come, thank God, not in judgment, but in grace.

Now there are two things spoken of here which I would press upon you, though, perhaps, you think there is no necessity, the theme is so well known I allude to being born again, and the work of Christ. "Ye must be born again;" and "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." But there is yet another thing connected with these which I think too much overlooked. "Many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did." Now I give those people credit for sincerity. They did believe upon evidence, naturally so; but this was not faith, not being born again. I ask a man, "Do you believe in Christ?" He says, "Of course I do - I have been hearing about Him all my life." Is this faith in Christ? If such a man stood by and saw the dead raised, he too would have believed as those men did; but is that new birth? No wonder that we read, "Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man." But we find something more in Nicodemus. So far as the beginning, he was no better, for he says, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles which thou doest except God be with him." But you see Nicodemus feels a need, and he does not go on like the others to their old occupations and forget all about it. No, he comes to Christ to learn more; and this is the way the Spirit ever works. He creates a need, and brings it to the source of blessing. But the moment a man feels this, he has an instinctive knowledge that all will be against him. He is a man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews, a master in Israel; but this makes matters worse, for he must come to the poor carpenter's son, as he thought, and truly it was so, according to the position the Lord was pleased to take. To the eye of faith, of course, He was "that holy thing," but to the natural eye a carpenter's son. So Nicodemus comes by night; he comes nervously, but he comes. He has a question about appropriation to himself, and he must have it answered; the awakened sense of need must be satisfied.

Tell me, beloved friends, have you no need? I never in all my experience knew even one person who came to Christ without being compelled to do so by a sense of need. Nicodemus comes and applies to Him as a teacher. No, no, says the Lord, I am not going to teach flesh, Nicodemus; it is not a question of teaching yet. You must get another life first; you must be born again; you do not want teaching until you get life. It was teaching of the highest order, but he had not the spiritual faculties to coalesce with it. Christ meets him by showing the absolute necessity of a new nature, and this on the ground of redemption - a thing which all Christians profess to believe; but to my mind it is an immense reality. Do not you see what it is? I have nothing - nothing in me which can have to do with God, even as a Christian. There is nothing in myself which can please God. I can only receive from Him. Flesh never ceases to be flesh. I must be born of the Spirit, partaker of the divine nature, born of God, but I must not confound this with responsibility. I am responsible as born of Adam. I have a conscience or power of discerning good from evil. I feel that I do evil and not good. Then I am lost. This evil thing cannot be spared; it must perish. I must be born again; or, as one sometimes says, cut down and grafted. The light and truth of God reveals this to me.

Now this was very new teaching for the Jews - God's chosen ones; but the time had come when they must learn the lesson, that neither Jew nor Gentile can stand before the light of God. "Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye" (Jews) "must be born again." They were the children of the kingdom; but He comes at the root, not of dispensational teaching, but of nature. People talk of God's image being restored. All utterly false. A new creation, divine nature, is the thing we need. On this common ground of nature Jew and Gentile both stood alike, and both must be born again. Indeed, so far as this truth goes, Nicodemus, if he had spiritual intelligence, might have known it. As a master in Israel he must have been familiar with the Prophets; and we get this truth clearly brought out in Ezekiel 26. But he did not know it. And now we get the positive testimony of heaven. No man had been in heaven and come down to tell us about it. Paul was there; but utterance on this subject was denied him. But here is One who had been there, in the bosom of the Father, who came down to reveal that Father's heart to us, and who, while speaking there in very manhood to Nicodemus, could say He was in heaven, because divine. So it is now He keeps us informed by His Spirit concerning what is in heaven.

Here I find the Son of Man, one of us in a certain sense, having been born of woman, and yet so entirely divine as to be still in heaven, and I get the "ye must" - unwillingness at man's side, and all the love at God's. He shows me here, that I have nothing to do with heaven at all, unless another stands between God and me, or rather between me and God. This I learn from the One on earth, who is in heaven. I may lay hold of this by faith, and come with Christ in my hand, like Abel, and God testifies not to me, but to my gifts, for Christ is their measure. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." What does that mean? That the world had done with Him, and His testimony amongst men was closed. "Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the Prince of this world be cast out." Where do I see the perfect judgment of this world? In the putting away of sin, and a man standing out alone, in divine righteousness, at the other side.

Now if any was to be saved, it must be through Him - the perfect One. The world cast Him out, it is true; by wicked hands they crucified and slew Him; but we know that they were just the instruments of God's love to put One who could stand it, in the breach for us. It was not the Jewish promises, but the Lamb of God come to take away the sin of the world. Isaac asks, "Where is the lamb?" Abraham replies, "God will provide himself a lamb." And here we find Him, crucified and slain, or all must be lost; the victim of propitiation provided by God; a man, taking man's place, and drinking the cup of wrath for us, yet this man is God's own Son.

Some persons are ever looking at God as though He were a judge; quite true, so He is. And they look at Christ as if He were all love; quite true, infinite love, surely. But while God is a judge, and Christ is love, they leave out that which would make their opinion the truth of God. This well known verse sets the thing right - "For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God gave Him because of His love. Christ came in love, to bear the judgment of sin; for sin was there, and God's righteousness must judge it. Love is there. He gives His Son. Obedience is there in love. He comes to do the Father's will. This is very plain I learn from it, that because of the righteousness of God, a propitiation must be offered, and I find the Son of Man coming to offer it, responsive to the heart of God; and this Son of Man is Son of God, given by love.

He would not abide alone. He would die, in order to have His brethren with Him. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Thus we get all the wondrous counsels of God brought out. He who dwelt in His bosom, the Son of His love, must suffer alone. The veil is rent, He is forsaken, the disciples leave Him. He who could summon the hosts of heaven, is unattended by one angel minister. The Father withdraws from Him, for He must drink the cup alone, and all because - hear it, my friends! - "God so loved the world!" God and Christ were one in the eternal counsels, of course, and righteousness and holiness forbid us to be in God's presence, and their love provides a remedy - a means to bring us in. The veil is gone; no hiding in thick darkness now; we are "in the light as he is in the light."

But we get Himself first as lifted up. The altar was not in the holy place, but outside. Any one seeking God must have met the altar before he entered the holy place. The altar first, and then abundant entrance. Now I am in the light, and in coming to God I come in the fulness of His light, and here I learn not judgment, for there is no judgment where I am, but perfect, perfect love, divine love!

Have your souls got the consciousness of your need? To feel your need is a good sign. The Spirit must be at work where need is felt. Now, if so, you learn that He was rejected, and the effect of His having been cast out - slain, if you will - was the putting away of your sins for ever. Do you own that you are guilty, and, as such, lost? That in you dwelleth nothing but enmity against God? You have in spirit rejected Him, cast Him out, but God made this the occasion of working a work whereby all, the very vilest, may be brought in divine righteousness into His presence unblameable, by faith in Him whom He raised from the dead, because death could not hold Him. The spotless One is raised for our justification, and now I am reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Then I learn that God always loved me.

The Lord give us to rejoice in the truth that God Himself did the work which brings us into His presence in righteousness. Amen.

"The Lord Himself shall descend."

J. N. Darby.

{Booklet published by Morrish.}

The coming of the Lord, beloved brethren, is the subject of which I wish to speak to you a little.

Till the Lord came into the world there was very little about heaven in the scriptures. But when He came to earth, immediately there was a testimony from heaven to the shepherds, that now there was glory to God in heaven, and on earth good-will to men. And the first word of testimony to Him was from heaven - God's voice saying "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Then we find Him, in John 17, conversing with His Father in heaven about His heavenly people, and pouring out His heart about them; and afterwards, when He had gone up again into heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father, the glory could shine down out of heaven, because God wanted the glory of His beloved Son to be seen. This glory it was which came out literally when Stephen was martyred; he saw the Son of man occupied with himself, and got into conversation with Him. And in the Epistle to the Hebrews we get wonderful things, because this Man is in heaven. All the different things in that epistle are put out by the Holy Ghost to feed our souls with heavenly things. If my citizenship is in heaven, what would you expect? That there would be more of the things of this earth in my mind - more of the things of this earth in my heart; or, more of the things of heaven in my mind - more of the things of heaven in my heart? Oh! surely more of the things of heaven in my mind, and more of the things of heaven in my heart!

And I have, so to say, the best of my portion now. You and I have not come to the Father's house yet, but we have got the Father's heart. And which is it best for us to have - the Father's house, or the Father's heart? Surely the Father's heart! It will eventuate in our getting into the Father's house, and then we shall surely know the Father's heart better; but it will be the same subject, the same song, then as now.

But now as to this coming of the Lord. I would take the Epistle to the Thessalonians, which shews out this truth. There is there, so to say, a lamp shining down, putting all circumstances in the light of it, throwing its light on all things down here.

There are two verses I would refer to in the first chapter, and, on entering on it, I would just say that the first epistle is the coming of the Lord for His own people; the second is His coming to the world.

"We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father." Those three words - faith, love, and hope, and those other words, intensified by what is with them, work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope, tell us pretty plainly where these Thessalonians were, and what characterises the place where you and I ought to be.

It is the "work of faith." Knowing "the substance" that there is before God, our faith can work down here. When we get home it will be rest, but down here it must be work.

Then again it is "labour of love." Here, in these Thessalonians, there was labour connected with their love. They had much to go through. Times were hard. But then, again, there was hope connected with it, and "patience of hope" too. It could not be worn out. It had to endure, and it did endure.

But there is another thing that you and I will do well to take notice of, and that is, that all this was "in the sight of God and our Father." I have not only faith and hope and love, but I am wearing them before God. He looks down not only to see what is shining from me, but looks to see that these three things are shining out in His presence. The poor Ephesians lost their first love. (Rev. 2.) There was plenty of labour, but when God looked in upon their hearts, there was no love in them. This work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope, must be all in the sight of God and our Father.

And then he says, "We need not to speak anything, for they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." Their faith bore witness to what Paul's work among them had been, and thus bearing witness, they were waiting for God's Son from heaven. If the heart does not get the assurance that He who is coming is the Deliverer from the wrath to come, that coming could not be borne. But you know we are "kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to he revealed in the last time," and, being thus kept by God for a certain salvation, we can patiently await it, and not only await it, but await a certain Person, even "Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come."

And that, beloved brethren, is the brightness of the hope to me. As to myself, I may not have everything as right us I could wish in my desires; I may not have everything set to rights in my house. Ay, but there is another set of thoughts altogether! He says, "Surely I come quickly!" And He must come! He is the One whose coming is the plan of God. The purpose of God is that He should come down, and that, so coming, He should put all God's enemies under His feet, and bring in a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, and He will be true to His God and Father. He will accomplish all that God has given Him to do.

No wonder, if we look at our walk in the light of His coming, that we should judge it unworthy of Him, and I would not wish it otherwise. But I wish the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, rising up from the Father's right hand, were always before our minds. I believe it would soon make our walk consistent. I believe it would set both affections, heart, and thoughts in order.

But is it not a bright hope? He will come forth; and in His coming forth He will claim the church, as He says in John 14: - "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." He has not fulfilled this promise to Peter yet. Peter is with the Lord, but he has not yet been taken to the Father's house, and will not be until we all go to be with Him there. Now is there nothing lovely in that? Nothing in this thought of going to be in that Father's house? Nothing wonderful about the heart of that Son, who, though He has been sitting eighteen hundred years at the right hand of God, is still thinking of coming for His people here? Is there nothing emphatically lovely in it?

He will come upon the cloud of glory. He will come to take His people home. There is Himself to see. We have never seen Him yet. We cannot do without Him, and He will not do without us! We shall see Him for ourselves! We shall hear Him for ourselves! In all things we shall be like Him in the glory.

In the first chapter it was a difficult night they were passing through. Ay, but, says Paul, when you get out of the wood, then you will see it all. And now, in the second chapter, he takes up the difficulties through which he had to pass, and whilst he looks at them, he does not see any of them apart from the Lord Himself.

He says, I have suffered torture in trying to get to you, and you have suffered dreadful things in my absence from you, but when we are once at home in the glory, there will be no difficulty in my getting at you then! All these difficulties, which have been permitted to keep me away from you, will be no more, and in that day you will be my glory and joy - the Lord's too. This is a truth, and a blessed truth, but we shall have it with Him. Not one portion of the glory or the grace but will have flowed through Him; and I shall say Oh! I know the One who has done it all, the Effectuator of all this glory. One labours in one direction, and another in another, but, whatever the results all that is really subordinate. It is Jehovah's Fellow who has done it. He is the worker of it all. And what a joy it will be to Him to see the little circles around each labourer. Here, in one corner, Paul, surrounded with his dear Thessalonians, his joy and crown; and there, in another, some other labourer, with his around him; and in them Christ will see all that His own grace had wrought.

I do not believe we think enough of that communion in the glory which will be the counterpart of our communion here in the wilderness. All the details and difficulties of the wilderness journey will have their blessed counterpart in the glory. Our crown of rejoicing is Christ. Ay, but, says Paul, are not even you this to me? In the day when all these difficulties will be done away, my glory and joy will be what God has wrought in you by me!

What a heart has Christ! No heart so unselfish as His! He loves to give away all He can give away. He might have converted everyone Himself, just as He called Saul of Tarsus from the glory, but He would not. He loves to work by others.

And is there no work to do? Are there no eyes to be wiped? Are there no broken hearts to be bound up among the saints? Is there nothing of this sort to be done among His people? Well, then, go in for it! Bring out this patience of Christ, for in that day that will be a blessed counterpart of all labour amongst the saints.

In the next chapter he brings out another thing. The Lord is here bringing all His people out from heaven with Him. "To the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." "With all his saints." It is what we call the Epiphany - the manifestation of Christ. It is after 2 Corinthians 4 - after the bema of Christ. We have met Him, gone with Him to the Father's house, and now He brings us out again. He comes forth with all His saints.

I do not suppose that the apostle could have let out his heart more simply than he does in these words. Christ has His retired place to take the church into - the Father's house; but divine love will bring us forth with Him in manifested glory; and the desire of the apostle is that there may not be a single thing in us now that may in any way mar the time when He will bring us out with Himself. Is there nothing peculiar in the expression, "He shall come to be admired in all them that believe"? He will be admired in His saints! Is there, then, no separation - no separation between Christ and His saints? None! There is none as to His blood-shedding. He gave His life a ransom for them, and there will be none in His place in heaven. When He goes into His Father's house, He comes to seek His people first. No separation between Him and the church. He comes with all His saints! Oh, what a heart Christ has!

And what a mind God has! He has chosen One around whom He can safely wind all His plans. If you want to wind anything round a thing, you must consider the weight of what you want to wind before you can decide whether you may safely do it. You would not wind a coil of rope round a feeble twig. And thus God could not, so to say, have any centre but His Son. All His saints are wound round Him, and He will bring them out with Him in the glory.

And what if I am suffering down here? Surely there is power in this part of the hope to encourage the heart now. What if I am borne down now by difficulties? I shall come forth with Him, and shall be displayed as the one who is, with Him, to teach the world to rejoice, and who will keep evil in check. I shall come forth with Him.

Now, in chapter 4, there are some things that are very remarkable, brought up in connection with His coming.

The first thing is covetousness, or, as he calls it here, "the lust of concupiscence." It is the heart that is not satisfied with God and His portion - that is snatching at things round about it down here. It is just the power of the wicked spirit upon the heart that is separated to Christ, and that yet tries to satisfy itself with things down here; and that finds, like the young man in the parable, who tried to feed as the swine did, that he cannot satisfy himself in any way with the husks. He will only just find himself in the pitiable plight of trying what swine's food will do for him. He will find the husks are only fit for a swine's belly, and are no food for his.

And then he introduces mourning. What will be a satisfying portion? I have none down here. I have to wait, not only for happy association, but for the Person whose innate power will shew itself forth in the midst of the difficulties in which He will find His church when He comes. Paul says to them, God will bring with Him those very friends and relations of yours, you Thessalonians, who you think have lost their chance of being with Him in the glory. And these words tell upon every heart since, that is in like circumstances.

I have this thought, beloved friends, and I think it rather deepens upon me. It is, that that which shines forth from Christ is what gives the power of looking upward.

"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

There is everything to rouse the attention in the way that the subject is introduced: Himself, the Lord, shall descend from heaven. When? Does it say? No! It is not made known when. But, oh! to think of that One without whom nothing that has been created was made - that One into whose hands everything has been committed by God - to think of that Man about to descend again from heaven!

It is a wonderful thing, the stupidity of the mind of man! To think of people trying to make out that the death of saints is the coming of the Lord! If I die to-night, I go to the Lord; the Lord does not descend from heaven. When Stephen was dying he looked up, and saw the Lord waiting for him in heaven; he did not see the Lord descend from heaven.

But the Lord will descend. He will come off that throne at the appointed time. He will come down out of that glory upon the cloud. He will descend out of heaven.

There is everything to arrest the soul in the way it is put, and to cause it to inquire; and then, besides, it is so guardedly put - "the Lord Himself." There is only one Lord.

And then see the glory! Ay, and the grace too! It is with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.

I never read those clauses without certain thoughts waking up in my mind in one way or another. His voice was heard on earth before this. He was heard to pray by His disciples. In that hour when He asked them to watch with Him, His voice went up in prayer to His Father, and He was heard in that He feared. But He did not take upon Him then the regulating of anything. He let His Father do everything in His own way. What do you take your sword, and smite the servant's ear off, in that way, for, Peter? He laid His hand on it at once, and healed it. He would not be delivered, because He had to give His life for the sheep.

Of course, on the other hand, He did regulate, in a hidden way, as when He let Saul of Tarsus be at the death of Stephen, and when He spoke to Saul out of the glory. In a quiet way He spoke and regulated them, but He will speak in quite a different way in the day that is coming. The "shout" spoken of here is a regulating sound, such as a call to men to present arms; and its tones will be heard as announcing that the time is come. Ay, and the tones of that voice will be gladsome too! Himself will leave the throne! Himself will call His people! He is the One who regulates it all! He is the perfect servant. He does not leave the Father's throne a moment too soon, but when He does, it will be with a regulating shout.

And then there is "the voice of the archangel." The Lord takes it up. The time is come; and what angel in heaven would not gladly render up his place to the Lord!

And then there is "the trump of God." God takes it up. From the throne of His Father He is coming forth, the regulating introduction of blessing.

Then, besides this (no new thing to us here), there are two things that He brings in. He says, "I am the resurrection and the life." Now we are already associated with Him in resurrection-life in the heavenly places. He has given us to know that, but He is going to give us another exhibition of it.

Do you ever think how Christ is keeping the bodies of the dead? Do you never say, Oh, what a heart He has! How tenderly He is caring for them! How He knows that the dust of Stephen is there, and the dust of Paul here, and how He has His eye on every bit of it! And He is ready to bring it all forth when the moment comes. It is Himself that does it. He does not say, I will let any mighty power put the finishing stroke to it. No, it is Himself. He says, the dead in Christ shall rise first.

Oh! what a part of the hope is this to one who has had to battle with death - to one who has had to part with loved ones, and to lay them in the grave! It is "absent from the body, present with the Lord." Oh, death! I will be thy plagues, He says. He is coming to avenge the controversy, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. He is coming to make the display of His own glory as the resurrection. The Lord coming, and the dust giving up the dead that belong to Christ everywhere! Ah, yes! it is that which He is putting forward here!

Would you like to see the resurrection accomplished - every corner of this earth opening up to let out the dust that is sleeping in it? There is love supreme to the weakest and feeblest whose bodies are sleeping in the dust.

And then there is "the life!" There are you and I. If He appeared this very evening, He would so let the stream of life flow into us that there would be nothing but immortality left in us.

One often hears that text in Hebrews wrongly quoted. People say, "It is appointed unto all men once to die." It is "men," not "all men." If the Lord were to come to-night, we should not have to lay aside the body at all.

And then he shews what a comfort, too, it is. What is? The resurrection and the life? No! but the Lord who will be that!

Now, in the last chapter, he enters a little into the state of the world when Christ will do this. They have no idea of the Lord's coming. They are of the night; we are not of the night. His people are waiting for Him, but He shews us that the people of the world are not of that class.

And then He gives this as the desire of His own spirit, and the desire of the Holy Ghost also. "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Here it is a very strong word, and a very simple word, and a very blessed word. The thoughts of the Spirit of God and the thoughts of the apostle were not that I should be brought to know the things of heaven, of God, and of Christ, and then mar my walk by intercourse with the things of Sodom and Gomorrah. But this was His thought: "May your spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; and faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it."

He does not speak of taking the law of sin and death out of my members. He does not say that He sets me in a place where I shall have no more conflict. He does not speak of taking me out of the wilderness. But He does speak of this grace which shall preserve me blameless. He does talk of God finding us blameless in that day.

As to his own walk, he was fully persuaded that Christ would be magnified in his body, whether by life or death. And when he thus said that he was positive that Christ would be magnified, he did not get the idea of being blameworthy in his own particular walk. No! This word is to strengthen the hearts of the children of God. It is He who has called them, and He will do it.

Is God going to keep you blameless? Then mind, you are invincible! Mind, you are to overcome! Mind, you are not to flag! You will overcome, because He will keep you blameless. I see God putting Himself forward, saying, I am the Person who will keep you blameless unto that day.

A "Man in Christ" and the flesh.

2 Corinthians 12

J. N. Darby.

{*Translated from the French.}

{Christian Friend 1889, pages 57-61.}

There is a great contrast between the beginning and end of this chapter, between Paul caught up to the third heavens and the Christians at Corinth, between what a Christian should be and what he can be, what he can descend to. In verse 2 we have a great privilege, which it is useful to consider. Paul speaks of himself as a man in Christ, and this is what characterizes every Christian, the whole Church. It was not in his quality of apostle that Paul was caught up to the third heavens, but as a man in Christ, on a level with the rest of the Church. He that is in Christ is a new creation, and has his place in the third heavens, although every man in Christ is not caught up there like the apostle. But we are quickened together with Christ, seated together in heavenly places in Christ. There is no spot which faith cannot penetrate.

Paul did not receive a revelation in the third heavens in order to communicate it to others; on the contrary, he went there to hear mysteries which it is not lawful for a man to utter; he went there to realize the presence of God, and to draw thence his strength. When the eye of faith penetrates God's presence it finds there, together with communion, strength to walk before Him in all circumstances. Neither is it here as on the holy mountain, the sight of the future glory of Christ; it is communion with God, in which the body cannot share, to which it even becomes insensible. The principle of this communion applies to us all; the degree is not the same as with Paul, but our great and common privilege is this: "That ye also may have fellowship with us" (the apostles); "And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."

Ephesians 1: 15-20 and 3: 14-19 contain two very different prayers. The first has in view the knowledge of the glory of Christ, and what is connected with it; the second expresses the desire that our souls should enjoy communion with God. The apostle asks that we may be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, and that we may be filled with the knowledge of the love of Christ unto all the fulness of God. We cannot realize these blessings when we are seeking after things down here; for then we are grieving the Holy Spirit, and the inner man is at once weakened.

What was the apostle Paul's subject of glory? Not what he was, nor what he had done, but his infirmities. (v. 9) In communion with God he had learnt that his strength was in God. If, in the infirmity of the flesh (Gal. 4: 13), he had been the means of the conversion of many, it was that the power of God was with him. So that he took pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, in all that was not the flesh and that did not countenance it.

Directly the apostle regains consciousness of his presence in the flesh, this latter seeks to exalt itself, and God sends the thorn. The flesh seeks relief; it fears fighting and difficulties, but God will not relieve it at the expense of the soul. It is possible to pray earnestly for the healing of infirmities, or for deliverance out of painful circumstances, which God will not grant. Our dependence on God is thereby increased. We ought not only to expect infirmities, but to take pleasure in them, that the power of Christ may be manifested in us.

This thorn in the flesh given to Paul in order that he should not exalt himself was something that rendered him contemptible in his preaching. (Gal. 4: 13, 14.) It was a counterpoise to the rapture with which he had been honoured. We may not necessarily have the identical thorn that Paul had; God will always send us the needed one. It is Satan that God employs against the flesh, and Satan acts on the flesh in four different ways:

1. Before conversion the flesh is under the dominion of Satan, the conscience being hardened. This was the case with Judas, who loved money and was a thief. When he had taken the sop Satan entered into him to instigate him to unbridled iniquity, and to deliver him afterwards to despair in beholding the result of his crime.

2. Before conversion the flesh is enticed to act by the seductions of Satan.

3. After conversion the flesh remains always there, and can fall under the direct action of Satan, if the Spirit, the seal of redemption, has not yet been given, or else if He has not yet accomplished the work of deliverance in us. One finds oneself then, like Peter, opposing Christ at almost every turn. Before the transfiguration, when Jesus spoke of his approaching sufferings, and Peter out of affection, but in the flesh, wished to dissuade Him, the Lord replies, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." (Matt. 16: 23)

4. Satan desires to have us that he may sift us as wheat by means of the flesh. Jesus announces it to His disciples, and prays especially for Peter, in whom the flesh was strong.

Peter put himself forward on every occasion, and showed each time that the flesh is the exact opposite of Christ. Jesus said to the disciples, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." This is not yet entering into sin. The effect of the Spirit was to incite Christ to prayer, so that when the temptation came it had no power over Him; but the three disciples, instead of watching and praying, sleep, overcome with sorrow, and when the temptation comes they are a prey to it. In the moment when all that could break the Lord's heart was combined against Him and when Judas betrayed Him by a kiss, Jesus remains calm, submits, yields Himself up, undergoes humiliation to the full, and Peter draws his sword. The flesh leads into temptation, but sustains no one in it; it leads Peter to the high priest. There Jesus bears a glorious testimony; Peter, incited by Satan, denies Him. In everything the flesh is opposed to Christ, and yet Peter truly loved the Lord. Even after having received the Holy Spirit, we find Peter still acting in the flesh. (Gal. 2: 11-21)

Every time that a Christian acts according to the flesh, what there is in him of piety sanctions and authorizes in the eyes of others his evil action. When the flesh is at work in a Christian, the effects are, for this very reason, much more fatal than in an unconverted person. Peter, by his example, led all the Jews at Antioch, even the apostle Barnabas, into his dissimulation.

To have been in the third heavens even does not change the flesh in any way. It exalted itself, and could say to Paul, "No one but you has been there." It is then that the messenger of Satan has permission to buffet him, but becomes the instrument of the goodness of God for preventing Paul from exalting himself. God does not Himself do that, but Satan, who loves to hurt the children of God, is employed by Him as a means of making the flesh disagreeable to us, just where it would desire to exalt itself and be esteemed.

Circumstances painful to the flesh are the most profitable for the soul. It would be useless for a father to inflict a punishment which would not be felt as one by his child. The work and power of God in us, as well as our own weakness, are manifested in these difficulties. When something trying is before us, God's answer is: "My grace is sufficient for thee." God would have us in His presence in joy; and all which makes us suffer in the flesh is especially profitable.

Man's heart and Christ's Heart.

Luke: 23: 39-43.

J. N. Darby.

{Unrevised Notes of a Lecture published as a booklet by Morrish, also under the title of Man's Hatred and Christ's Love by Weston.}

God has not left us in darkness as to our state, nor as to His ways in grace towards us as in that state. The blessed truth of His coming in love to this world before He comes in judgment, is a testimony to our state, but also to the love of God towards us in that state, and if we neglect this testimony, we have to come before Him in judgment. "Every knee shall bow;" but there is all the difference between bowing to Him as a Saviour and as a Judge. If we come to Him in grace as a Saviour, we find our sins dealt with in another way than judgment. If my creditor comes to claim a debt, and I have nothing to pay, it is all over with me, but if he comes to pay it, I am clear. And we must have to do with God in one way or the other. If, as having our sins dealt with on the cross, that is putting them away: if in judgment, that is imputing them to us.

The gospel is the testimony of what God has done before the day of judgment, that man might not have to answer for his sins.

God cannot approve of iniquity - that is impossible; but it is very different to insist upon the payment of a debt, and to come and pay it. The gospel is the testimony of what Christ did as Saviour before He comes as Judge, and this testimony is for us to believe.

We get the work of the Spirit of God, which gives us a sense of our sins; the work done outside us, by which they are put away; and the testimony of the Holy Ghost to give us the knowledge of that work; for if unknown, I should be as uncomfortable as I was before.

We see in this scene what the human heart is when fully brought out (for it does not always shew itself). We see, too, a work in a man, and a work for a man; and then the consciousness of it wrought in his soul. God makes us know forgiveness; He has not given His Son that we should be ignorant of it. I cannot talk of walking with God, if I do not know whether He is going to condemn me, or not: you never heard of a criminal walking with his judge!

In looking at this scene, you will see how all were against the Lord Jesus? And why? He had healed their sick, cast out devils, raised the dead, so that Pilate could say, "Why; what evil hath he done?" I cannot call myself a Christian without saying that the world has crucified the Son of God. And the terrible thing is, all His works shewed who was there. God had said, "I have yet one Son, may be they will reverence him when they see him." But this revelation of what God was only brought out the enmity, and now God has to say to the world, What have you done with my Son? What has He done to you? Nothing but good. Then why spit in His face, and crucify Him? If any one had done so yesterday to my mother, could I go and be "hail fellow, well met," with him to-day? Man has done this, and when the light comes in, he confesses he has done it, and that he cannot answer one charge in a thousand.

The world is under judgment; we all know the world will come to an end; we all know it, and yet we go on with it!

The law comes to tell man what he ought to be: "Thou shalt love the Lord God with all thine heart;" "Thou shalt not covet." But I know I have not loved God, and I have lusted. I have broken the law in every particular. If I offend in one point, I am guilty of all. It is very simple: if I tell my child not to do three things, he does not care one bit to do two of them, but he does the third, which he does care about. A man must be a monster of iniquity to have committed all the sins in the world!

If you apply the law, "there is none righteous, no, not one." God does not say this in the day of judgment, but in the day of grace He warns us. He tells us beforehand, in mercy, what His judgment as to us is; if He were sitting on the great white throne, could it be any plainer than we get it in Romans 3? Can a man stand up after that, and say, I am righteous? Is that the way to meet God? Is He a liar?

People talk about mercy, which means they hope God will think as little about their sins as they do. A man has committed, say, ten sins  - he hopes to go to heaven; if he has committed eleven, he thinks that is not too much; if a hundred, he hopes still - he has no thought of holiness. One sin shuts out from God, but the door is not shut to any, if they own their sins. If I am set to wash this table, it is not a question whether there are five spots or fifty, but can I wash it well?

Man only mocks the blessed Son of God; every detail of this scene gives us a picture of what man's heart is. Man is never ashamed of a false religion. A Mahometan will say his prayers in the market, and if you are making a bargain with him, you may wait till he has done. A Hindoo is not ashamed of the worship of his gods, but a Christian is ashamed of Christ: and so the Lord says, "Whosoever will confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father and the holy angels."

The chief priests, who were set to intercede for weakness, cry out for His blood. Pilate, who was to judge the guilty and protect the innocent, washes his hands of the innocent. His own disciples flee from Him.

If two men are hung together, when did you ever hear of one insulting the other, unless he had brought him into the trouble? But when it comes to Christ you get it. The human heart is enmity against God. The moment they get the opportunity, they all trample upon Him. Thank God, He was there in grace, but it shews what our hearts are. We all know some are criminal and vicious, and some are not. But the prodigal son was as much a sinner when he crossed his father's threshold, as when he was eating the husks; and that is where we all are.

Do not you like doing your own will? Do not you see it in your children? You find it out in them. And this is what sin is. The law condemns it, but it condemns me too. Do not fancy that it only condemns the sins; it says, "Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them."

The law only shews what we ought to be, but does not tell us what we are. If I apply a right rule to a person who has cheated me, what does it do? Condemn him. The law does not give life, gives no help, but only a measure of what a child of Adam ought to be. God tells us what we are, and He tells us before the day of judgment comes, that we may lay it to heart, and find the remedy. When Christ came, He put His sanction upon all that, for it was His own law, but He came in quite the opposite way. The law claimed the debt, Christ paid it, and that is grace! "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." God came into the world because we were sinners; He did not stay in heaven, and say, You behave well, and it will be well, but He came down because we were all wrong.

Who put it into God's heart to give His Son? Did you? Did the world? Why, it was in God's own heart to do it! He so loved the world, that He gave His Son. I can trust God's heart more than I can trust my own: there is no inconsistency in His heart, He is not double-minded, and I know His thoughts concerning me.

But more than that - Christ died for us. Why should I go to pull a person out of a ditch, if he is not in it? Why did He taste death? Because we were under death. Why take the cup of wrath? Because we were under judgment. What was all that sorrow about? My sin. Oh! I say, what unutterable love I and what a sinner I must be! It gives honesty of heart, not excusing ourselves, like Adam; hiding our sins if we can, and if not, excusing them.

If a man comes to pay my debts, I take care to bring up every farthing I owe. The effect of God's love is to give honesty of heart. I believe His love; I am glad to tell Him everything, or rather to know that He knows, and that I need not tell Him. He has come to clear us completely, and this produces honesty, instead of concealment.

God is light and love, and He must be both wherever He comes. He comes in light, and shews me where I am, and He comes in love to forgive.

Look at that poor woman who was a sinner. There was one heart in the world she could trust, and that was God's heart. Did she hide her sins? No; she came weeping and confounded about them, but she trusted Him - she trusted the love that brought the light to her. Take Peter in the ship. He goes up to Christ, and says, Depart from me! What did he go to Him for, then? He was drawn to Him by the sense of what He was, and when there, felt he was not fit to be there. The great man said, This Man is not a prophet. He was so dark, he had got God in his house, and could not find it out; the poor woman did.

Let us look at this poor thief. There was the work in him, and the work for him. What does he say? The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, it is the sense of what God is. He says, "Dost thou not fear God." Then he confesses his sins, he owns he is suffering justly. The light had got into his soul.

We have been saying the world is wicked; so it is; but when the light comes, I say, I am wicked. An honest conscience owns its sins: "we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our sins." Then, "This man hath done nothing amiss." How did he know that? He had never been with Christ. He was taught of God; he could guarantee that Christ never did a wrong thing. Do your hearts pass their word for it that He never could? Has He been sufficiently revealed to your hearts for this?

Then he says, "Lord!" Here is a strange thing. The chief priests and heads of the people were all mocking Him - His disciples had run away. What sign of Lordship was there? To a malefactor, apparently like himself, he says, "Lord." The only comforter the Lord had upon the cross was this poor thief!

"Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." He was dying the death of the gibbet. The sign that God had come into the world was a babe lying in a manger, and He ended on a cross, and all the way through had not where to lay His head. What faith in this poor thief! No matter, if all the world was against him, He was a King all the same, and he says, You will come in your kingdom.

What was he thinking of? He was in an agony of pain on the cross, but he does not say, "Save thyself and us." He owned He was the Lord, but does not ask Him to spare him one bit of pain - only, "Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."

How could he have such confidence in Him? Why, he was a thief! But what the light always does is to give confidence. What! remember a thief, who had just owned he was suffering justly? Can you trust Him like that, honestly confessing your sins, but trusting in God's heart when you own them? Do you trust Christ's heart? If you do not, you do not know Him, for He is trustworthy.

God gives us striking examples that they may strike us. All are not thieves, but it is really the same thing for us all. Have your hearts had Christ so revealed to them, that, honest in your conscience before God, you trust God, when you know what you are? See that poor woman trusting Christ with all her sins before her: that is not so easy always, for if our sins are before us, we reason, and wonder how God will receive us. Are you wondering how God will receive you? Then you have not met Him yet, or you would know how. When the prodigal came to his father, he said nothing about, Make me as one of thy hired servants. And why not? Because his father was on his neck, kissing him, treating him as a son.

The thief owns his sins, but trusts Him. And then I get the Lord's answer: "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Now is the Son of man glorified, for to-day shalt thou be with me.

The poor thief was bearing the punishment of his sins from man, but who was bearing it from God? The One who hung beside Him. "He bare our sins in his own body on the tree." When I have confidence in Christ, I say, I must go to God, and I find Christ on the way; and what is He doing there? Judging me? No; bearing all my sins. There is that blessed One, whom I have been despising all my days, and I see He has taken my sins, and borne my burden - He has taken them all, and I shall not bear them. Trust Him, no matter how bad you are. If you cannot trust any man, trust Him.

If He has won my heart to this confidence, I find that He who is going to be Judge has been dying for my sins, and how can He impute them to me? Supposing, of course, that I have owned and confessed my sins, and am coming to Him about them, I find the wonderful truth that Christ has been bearing them, that God has dealt with them, and laid them upon Christ. I come beforehand to the day of judgment, and I see in the Judge the Man who bore all my sins. How, then, can I fear Him? I find that God, because of my sins, has given His Son to bear them all into a waste land, not inhabited.

The work for me is totally finished, but it is not finished in me. I ought to grow more like Him every day, but the work for me, as regards my guilt, is finished, and if it is not perfectly finished, when is it to be? He cannot die again, cannot suffer again, cannot drink that dreadful cup again. That cup made Him sweat great drops of blood in only thinking about what it was to be made a curse for us, and He cannot be made that over again. He is set down because the work is done. How little they thought they were sending the poor thief straight to paradise, when they sent to break his legs!

And now about knowing it, for that is the important point: the Lord told him he was to be with Him that day. And was he to believe it?

It happened to him, but it was written for us. If I come to Him, I know He has finished the work, and has put my sins away. The work was done once for all, and, through the grace of God, brought to me. Knowing no other name under heaven whereby I can be saved, I find He has put my sins away, and I know it! He has gone back into the glory, because He has finished the work. The Holy Ghost brings it home to our hearts, and I say He has finished the work. As in Romans 4, "He died for our sins, and was raised again for our justification." His resurrection is the proof that God has accepted the work. If Christ be not raised, ye are yet in your sins; but if raised, He has borne them, and I am not in them.

What part had we in the cross  - I mean in bringing it about? Nothing but our sins, and the hatred that killed Christ - that is all! And that is what humbles us, and brings us, dependent on the grace of God, to say, My sins brought Him there; but God, instead of putting me away, put them away.

Why is this gospel preached? Is it that we should know it, or that we should not? He has made peace; and how careful God is to shew us this, that we may be happy! Defiled, I am cleansed; guilty, I am justified. You say: But I have offended God dreadfully. So you have, but there is forgiveness. God has not a thing against you, Christ has borne it all. He has got the fruit of my sins, and I have got the fruit of His work. If we come thus to God, the very Christ who put our sins away is the very Judge before whom we shall appear. How do believers come before the judgment-seat? "Sown in dishonour, raised in glory." He comes, and receives me to Himself, and that is the way I get to the judgment-seat. How can the believer fear, if, when he sees his Judge, he is like Him?

What opened the poor woman's heart in John 4? Not speaking about the living water, but, "Go, call thy husband, and come hither." Her heart was opened by her conscience being reached; "If thou knewest the grace of God." Giving, not imputing - If you knew who it was who had come so low as to be dependent on a woman like you for a drink of water, you would have confidence in Him. And so would you, if you knew the Son of God, come down to a manger and a cross, you would have confidence in Him.

And that is what He is doing in Christ - winning back the confidence of man's heart, when he cannot trust Him because of his sins. The love of God came into the world when men were in their sins; there was love enough in Him to give Himself.

Do you believe that love? If so, there is the plain statement, "By him all that believe are justified from all things." He did not bear half, and leave me to perish by the other half.

When I come to Him, I find that, instead of meeting me in the day of judgment, He has met me in the day of grace.

Matthew 16: 13-28

J. N. Darby.

Notes of a Lecture.

{Helps in Things Concerning Himself, Vol. 5 pages 32-6}

Dear Mr. Editor,

I venture to send a few disconnected notes taken many years ago at a lecture by J. N. D. on Matt. 16: 13-28. As they are disconnected and imperfect I must, of course, be responsible for them in case I have missed the teacher's thoughts anywhere. I send them as I find them, in an old notebook, the immense interest of the subject impelling.

E. L. Bevir, Milan, November 30th, 1894.

In this passage we find Christ rejected and a revelation of a higher glory than that of Messiah as an earthly king. I must own His rejection if I wish to understand this better glory (see vers. 22, 23 where Peter wishes to set aside the Lord's rejection, because his flesh was unjudged).

All is founded on Christ having been crucified and raised. . . . . On the other side of the cross we have Christ glorified in heaven, and this is the starting-point whether for the foundation of the church or for our own blessing. . . . He does not say here that He is the Christ merely, but more - the Son of the living God. Then He says, "I will build." Rejected as Christ, He had come in life, and in His death glorified God in the cross. . . . . The work was perfectly done, and its acceptance proved. God anticipated the day of judgment in the cross, by giving His Son to be made sin, so the question has been completely settled before the day of judgment arrives. The curse of God was borne, and the power of Satan has been overcome. Christ was heard from the horns of the unicorns, when His work was finished; the old state of things has been completely judged, and now there is a new creation.

The second Man stands alone acceptable to God; and we who are in Him are reconciled to God in a world which is not reconciled.

This may help us to understand the place into which the church is brought.

Now we find ourselves living in a time, when the truth about the church has been lost; and people have a form of godliness, whilst they deny its power. God has foreseen all the evil of the last days, and the perilous times that should come, and has given us this resource - His word. "From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures," &c. (2 Tim. 3)

Paul laid the foundation as a wise masterbuilder, but then responsibility came in as to those who should build after. Wood, hay, and stubble has been built in, and all that is false will be judged. Thus if people trust to the "church" which God is about to judge, they will be judged with that "church."

Christ builds the true church after He had accomplished the work of redemption. He builds as One who has the title to build.

Compare 1 Peter 2: 4, 5, "To whom coming . . . as living stones, ye are built," &c., and Ephesians 2: 20.

In 1 Corinthians 3 it is different; God has put into the hands of man the responsibility of building, and this has failed like everything else. People say that man has done no harm in introducing wood, hay, and stubble into the building; but God calls us to hear what the Spirit says to the churches, and we have this history in the seven churches in Revelation 2, 3, where Christ judges all the evil in Christendom.

There are two distinct characters of the church of God.

One aspect is that of the body; the other that of the house.

As to the body, there can be no unreal member in it. We are all (true believers) united to Christ by one Spirit, and to one another.

The house gives a very different aspect; it is the place where God dwells, and it does not cease to be the house because evil has come in, and wood, hay, and stubble have been introduced. The evil will be judged (see Rom. 11. where professing Gentiles shall be judged as the Jews were). The faithful will be called to heaven, and the apostasy will come in Christendom, after the church is taken away. The evil has already made great progress; compare the church in Acts 2, 4 with the present state of things. If a Chinese came to England, what would he think of Christianity? . . . .

There is a new creation which brings us into a new place. No doubt we find ourselves in a very peculiar position, for our bodies still belong to the old creation. Christ bore all our guilt connected with the old creation; and there is a Man in heaven to whom we are to be like. The only perfection set before us is conformity to Christ in glory, and we shall never be satisfied till we have attained that glory. He that hath this hope in Him purifieth Himself even as He is pure.

New Creation

Col. 2: 1-15.

J. N. Darby.

{From 'Food for the Flock' vol. 6, 1879, pages 154-171, W. B. Horner, 27 Paternoster Square, London. This article is attributed to JND in the index, yet after the article it has †††, a designation the magazine uses in the index for authors who remain anonymous, there is therefore a little doubt as to the authorship.}

Christ is all in all to the believer. The soul first gets life in Him, and then it gets the object into which the life grows, its sphere, which is all the scene into which Christ has entered, just as a child grows up to realise all that is around it. There is a great deal more in it, of course, but we get in this passage I have read, first, that He is life in us, and then that He is all to us.

All Christians are conscious of the way in which He has met their need as sinners. But the Christian himself may be looked at in two ways: both as a saved sinner, and also as one who stands in the system and purpose of God's counsels. There are many, very devoted Christians too, who never get to any understanding of the latter. Christ does not merely give us forgiveness of sins; He also gives us a place with Himself, and we have to grow up into the knowledge of this, which was always in the mind of God for us, our portion, as looked at in the Second man. God has dealt with us in grace, according to the salvation that is in Christ, but beyond all that is the place that He has given us in Him.

In this chapter we are seen as "circumcised with the circumcision made without hands; in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." I leave "of the sins" out, for it is not there. "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." Here I get myself connected with Christ, coming so far into the new place. He has been in our stead down into death, and the judgment due to sin, and by His work on the cross has cleansed us and justified us. And then I get the second part in the next verse: "And you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses."

Wherever he speaks of quickened in this Epistle it is not merely the fact that we have been born again, but it begins with us as dead. It begins with Christ dead, and we are "buried with him," and quickened together with him. It takes us up at the starting point; we begin dead - dead to spiritual life, I mean; and then the whole thing is over. It is not God dealing with a responsible being, but picking up and quickening a dead one. It is another aspect of the results of the work of Christ. When I look at myself as a sinner I say, I have died with Christ. Death had to come in in that condition in which I was as a sinner if I was to be delivered out of it. He looks at the sinner there, and says, Now the whole thing is a new creation.

There are two things connected with this truth, and the apostle does not get much further than the first in Colossians. The first is, that it is a new creation; the other, the sphere in which this new creation has its life, heaven. It is one thing that I am saved, and an immense thing; it is another that I have the place with the Father that Christ His Son has: "My Father and your Father;" "As is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly." Of course we come into this at the first, that is, as guilty sinners; for there is no real appropriation of truth unless my conscience is reached, unless the truth has got hold of me, both as to what I have done and what I am; but it is not only that there is "no condemnation," but there is a scene where Christ is to which I now belong, though I have the treasure in a poor earthen vessel.

This, then, is the point I desire your hearts to be drawn to: saved sinners, whom Christ is not ashamed to call brethren, but who are also new creatures in Christ. In Colossians it does not go any further than this new creature; but it has a sphere in which all its affections are unfolded and developed. Colossians does not get up into it; still it says: "Their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the full knowledge of the mystery of God; in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge." You do not want the wisdom of the world, for you have the wisdom of God. God leaves us in this world, passing through the trials of it, so that we may learn what is in our hearts; all that is quite true; but still there is this sphere into which we are brought by God, and which we are able to enjoy. "As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." The apostle wants them to walk as they have received Christ; as they have received Christ so their minds are to live there. He would have their hearts get out of things here and rise to this sphere which belongs to the new man, this sphere of which Christ is the centre; "rooted and built up in him."

But if you know anything of yourself, you know that your great snare is double-mindedness; there is a constant tendency to it, for we are surrounded with that which solicits the old man. You find a man who is not insincere, and yet his heart is like a highway, everything in the world passing through it, and, of course, there is no spiritual power there. This is an extreme case, but take another. Here is one in whom that which determines the conduct of a Christian is not there, so he is unstable. He desires to walk after Christ, and to follow Him, but his feet are not in the straight and narrow way; there is that which distracts his mind and heart, and saps the spiritual strength of his soul; the manna becomes light food to him, it is no longer sweet to his taste; there is instability in all his ways. Here is the danger of this "philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." This is where the turning point comes. The world has its rudiments, its principles; it has its philosophy and vain deceit; all these distractions of the soul belong to the world. This is the snare. People get occupied with these things, get thrown into what is around them, into the ordinary conversation of the world, I do not mean anything wicked, but they come out from it with the consciousness that their souls are enfeebled. And, when a heart is in that state, it looks back to the leeks and onions of Egypt, as Israel did; but when they were wishing for these they forgot all about the bricks and the hard bondage. So it is "Beware lest any man spoil you," through "the rudiments of the world." The world will not have Christ. We do not remember this sufficiently.

We are told in Ephesians that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, that we; "being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fulness of God." This wonderful central blessedness has been embodied in a Man - all the fulness of the Godhead. How little our hearts reach it! The apostle prays that we may be able to comprehend it; that is what he looks for. There it is for us and in us, for Christ is dwelling in our hearts. Here I have got in a Man the Father's delight, and I have Him to feed on. It is this that is so wonderful in the blessed Lord: I see the fulness of the Godhead in Him in this world, "The Father dwelleth in me," and I also see Him one who [was here in weakness] close to me as a servant. And now it is to this One that we are united by the Spirit in glory, "Full of grace and truth; and of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace."

When people have got settled in the truth of the Epistles they go back to feed on the Gospels; Christ becomes the food of their souls and the object of them. He who is sufficient to be the object of the Father's delight is the object of mine. "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," yet He was a real, true man, sinless, perfect man. See His tender, gracious ways with the woman of Samaria. It is the blessedness of what the Lord is that is so precious. And He never gives up that place; He never ceases to be a man; only, instead of coming down in patient humble grace where we are, He takes us up where He is, He takes us up into His own blessedness.

All this must be by faith. If we saw these things we could not go on with the world at all, and that is not God's intention; yet it is equally true that we are to live in them by faith.

But if the completeness of the Godhead is revealed to us in Christ, so also we are complete before God in Him. I use the word completeness instead of fulness, not that I like it better, but because it makes the connection with the following verse plainer: "Ye are complete in him." All the completeness of the Godhead comes down to us in Christ, and in Him we are complete before God. It shows out what a wonderful place we are set in. What is the measure of the completeness of it? God looked down upon earth, and found in Christ all that His heart could desire in every sense, righteousness, obedience, and everything else; and we are complete in this Christ. All that satisfies God's delight and spiritual judgment, if we may use such a word, He brings us into. We are "complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." Above all these things that He has created, whether heavenly or down upon the earth, He is far above them all. He was always God's delight, "rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and his delights were with the sons of men." Therefore He became a man, and then, by grace, becoming our life He takes us into His own place before God. He satisfies all God's thoughts: He is the satisfying object of them, and all that we are brought into. We are in Him, "complete in him." What a place that is! That we should get thus the fulness of the Godhead brought down to us in perfect grace, and that we should be made complete in Him! There is growth, of course: "To him that hath shall be given;" but we have the fulness of the Godhead in Him, and we are complete in Him before God. And complete according to what? God has no measure but His own, and that is Christ. When we talk of our responsibility to God the law is the measure of it; that is what man ought to have been; but this is where all God's thoughts are satisfied, and that not in the first man but in the second.

The apostle now applies this to details. He shows how God takes us up as poor sinners and brings in redemption. How this was accomplished is first spoken of: "In whom also ye are circumcised." It takes us up where we were, in the lowest possible condition, "dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh." And then he shows out what God has brought us into, "The circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." Now here I get "putting off." This is not purpose. Of course it must be done or we cannot be in glory, but "sins" are the acts of the flesh, and the word is not literally here at all; it is not the putting off of the sins of the flesh, but the putting off of the whole thing, the flesh itself, before God. And because this is so comes the practical discovery of what the flesh is. There is this old tree, the old stock, which is enmity against God, and that has to be put off by dying with Christ, dying to what we are in the old Adam. God is dealing with us in grace now; the law could have killed us, but now we are crucified with Christ, and we have met its penalty in His death.

But now I find the flesh lusts against the desires of the new man, and the only remedy for this is death. I must reckon myself dead, and "alive unto God," not in the old man, but "in Jesus Christ our Lord." I get the figure of this in circumcision. If I try to keep the flesh down without knowing its death in Christ, it will be a wretched endeavour, in which I shall never succeed. That I am guilty is the first thing that I discover, only I cannot go back to this now; but I then find that the flesh in me "was not subject to the law of God," and then God, "sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." He did not forgive it; it was an evil thing, and God condemned it in the cross. The first thing is to get my sins blotted out as guilty, but then when I wish to walk holily I find there is this thing hindering. And then I find that God has "condemned sin in the flesh," in the cross of Christ, and that I am "not in the flesh but in the Spirit;" and I say, This is not I, it is only sin: "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."

All this deals with the old man; it is the necessity of my condition, but it is not the purpose of God. Many souls have not learned it. They may have learned that their old sins are forgiven, but they do not see that they have died out of their old condition entirely, that Christ has borne the condemnation due to the flesh, and that they are clear. They see that the fruit that the tree has borne is got rid of, but there is the tree that produced them, and that is still there. So I get "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which makes me free from the law of sin and death." I am "buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." Here I get this death to sin; life, too, resurrection, new life, but it is rather the old thing that I am dealing with, or that God is dealing with. I have died to it: "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." I am cleared altogether of the old thing.

Then when I come to the new thing I can look at it in a new way. In Ephesians it is looked at more in its nature; in Colossians it is more what it is thinking of, what are its tastes and feelings. In Ephesians it is God's nature reproduced; God's own blessed nature, righteousness and truth, and we are created in that. It is "the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and holiness of truth." In Colossians it says, it is "renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." I know what love is, I know what holiness is, and what divine righteousness, for Christ has died. And this new man is created after God. I am brought into all this in Ephesians; but in Colossians, I press it, we are "renewed in knowledge."  He has brought into our souls the knowledge of what pleases God. This new man is associated with God in its very principles and nature, and death to the old man belongs to us in Christ, and is to be realised by faith.

But now another thing. I was dead in sins; I was in a condition of total alienation from God. Man had nothing to do with God, and when there was One who perfectly answered to the heart of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, that was just the One man would not have at all. But we have got into another ground now. When Christ was dead for our sins God raised Him up, and set Him at His own light hand up there, and finding me dead in my sins, raised me up with Christ, and made me sit in heavenly places in Him. When I was gone totally away from God, when I was lying dead in my sins, I get this. Christ came down to the cross, went into death for me there, and then I get Him, not as the quickening One but as the quickened One, and this is where the new creation takes its start. I learn by grace that I have died with Christ, and that I am quickened together with Him. I am on another ground altogether. I was totally dead; not a movement of my heart towards God, nothing could get a movement out of it for Him; as He said, "They have both seen and hated both me and my Father." Then I get that Christ has died for me, or I could not get out of this condition, of course, and that I am quickened with Him. Christ is now the only life that I have. The old man was dead already in these things; Christ came down to where I was lying dead, and has taken me spiritually out of them, not in my body yet, of course, but He took me out of them, and set me up there where He is Himself. God has put me into Christ. We are "created in Christ Jesus." So it says in 2 Cor., "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation." There he looks at it as a whole; it is new creation. Are the lusts that are in my heart, if I do not keep them down, are they of God? Of course not! As to our bodies we are not yet in this new creation, but in Christ we are in it. By this new creation of God He makes me partaker of His own nature. I was dead in sins, but now I have this new creation, and the Second man is my life and not the old man at all. What does the old man belong to? To this poor, sinful, fallen world, though it may be very respectable; to a scene where all that goes on is on the principles, on the rudiments, of the world. I cannot expect the world to go on on my principles, but there is a path that the vulture's eye has not seen; for those who are His, Christ has traced a path through it, for it is not the world the new man belongs to.

As to the old man I have got entirely away from God. Do we not know it? Take the most respectable, decent man in the world, and the things of Christ have no possible attraction for him. They may be amiable people, clever people, modest people, but there is nothing of Christ in their hearts. The whole thing, the entire condition of man, is that he is dead in sins. He may not be reprobate, nor wicked, nor criminal, that is not the question; it is that he is dead. Supposing you take a dead man, has he any movement, any thought as to any possible thing? Of course not! You may galvanise him, and produce movement for a moment, just as a soul may have a momentary interest in Christianity, but it will not last. Man is dead.

Now Christ, of course, could not be holden of death, because there was life in Him, but He actually came down into death, and when God speaks of quickening Christ, and raising Him up to His own right hand, Christ is looked at as a dead man. I was thoroughly dead before God, but now I am made a new creation in Christ Jesus, created "unto good works," and so on. It is a totally new thing; the last Adam, and not the first. I have got now a man who belongs to God's new creation, because he is a new creation. When he was dead in his sins God created him in Christ Jesus: "The Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them;" I am looked at as dead, am always looked at as dead before God, and I never thoroughly know my position until I know this, and that God has made me a new creation. This is true Christianity. Alas, many are not there! They just know that their sins are forgiven, but they do not know that they are dead and risen with Christ, that they are absolutely and totally raised up into another world. God has a world of His own; it is not developed, of course, yet. Christ is sitting as much alone on His Father's throne yet as He was alone in this world, but this new creation has its sphere there where He is sitting, and there is a path for it through this world traced by Himself. Nothing but spiritual-mindedness can see its way through the world.

This new man is created "after God," and oh, what a thought it is of blessing! The life that I have now, God has created it to satisfy Himself, and all that He is. The first man was turned into sin and wretchedness through listening to Satan, but the new man was the purpose of God's heart ere ever the world existed. Its sphere is "where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God." I do not enlarge upon that scene; I suppose I might not do it properly even if I tried, but there is what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man. It is in heaven, another sphere that we belong to altogether. We are left down here to go through this world, as the Lord says, " I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil," but this is not the place He has prepared for us; He has gone to prepare a place for us there, and we are new creatures in Him, that is the new man is, of course. We are "created in Christ Jesus," not in Adam; it is just the contrast to Adam. The blessed Son of God became a man on purpose to die; He came down into our death and sins, on the cross He bore the judgment due to us, and now He is gone up to the right hand of God, to be the beginning and head of this new creation. In the Epistle to the church of Laodicea He is called "the beginning of the creation of God." This world, the old creation, is all ruined and spoiled; He passed through it and has gone up to be the head of the new creation; and as the beginning of that new creation He is our life; we are new creatures. The believer's body belongs to the old creation, his spirit to the new; he is created in Christ Jesus, and belongs to another world altogether, and our everyday trial is how far we are living in this new creation and how far in the old. It is "after God created in righteousness and truthful holiness."

And where will that new creation find what will satisfy it? Only in that scene where it can be filled to all the fulness of God." All that can satisfy it is revealed to us in Christ, and the Holy Ghost who is down here brings these things before us. But, while every Christian has this nature, or he could not be a Christian, we each of us have to see how far we not only overcome the evil and lusts of our hearts, the old man, which we have to do, of course, but also how far we are living in the elevation that is the sphere of this new creation; how far we keep clear of the things that distract and drag us down in our daily path; how far our hearts are now seeking those things which are above, where He is sitting. By His dreadful death, dreadful to Him, He has delivered us from the death we were in; how far are we living up to the things that He has died to put us into? There are other things that I do not go into, the things that are against us, Satan's power and so on; but, having been dead in sin, God has created us in Christ Jesus, and we have now a place, a portion, there where Christ is gone as man. He unfolds to us in Scripture what that place is. We have got the life, we are thus a new creation as to life, and now how far are we living in the sphere and condition that that life belongs to? It is wonderful to think that God has created us in Christ for His own glory. Christ is the attractive power to our souls there. What then is this poor world to us? A person just converted thinks nothing of this world at all, and that is the right thing for all of us.

The Lord give us, as quickened together with Christ, as raised up together with Him all trespasses forgiven, to know what our portion is in Christ, and as new creations to walk in that sphere to which we belong.

The Testimony of the Presence of God,

the power of assembling and journeying.

Numbers 10

J. N. Darby.

Unrevised notes of a Reading

{Christian Friend 1893, pages 197-200.}

In this chapter we get the first movement of the armies of the Lord; but before anything is set in motion the trumpets are brought into use. They were for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camp; this was their proper but not their only use. The energy of the Spirit is here brought out in public utterance before all the congregation. As the Levites were given to the priests, so here the priests are to blow the trumpets. The priest is always the type of communion with God, and here is the character of the power of gathering: it is in the power of communion. All the testimony flowed only from the mouth of those in communion with God, the testimony of those in the sanctuary. There were three special uses of the trumpets: first, gathering the congregation together - not here in figure the quickening power of the Spirit, but gathering; the energy of the Spirit in the power of communion bringing out the utterance of the Lord, and acting collectively, calling the assembly. Next, journeying. And when in the land "ye shall blow an alarm;" also, "In the day of your gladness and in your solemn days . . . ye shall blow," the utterance of that which is in the mind of God. So when in the war; it was not merely supplication, asking God to help them, but a memorial of their calling on God. "Be not afraid of their terror." They were to blow an alarm; and "ye shall be remembered" in this public utterance of God's mind; blowing an alarm because God was there to help them - not to call the people to come and help, but calling on Israel to lean on Israel's strength. Thus it was the power of faith in the consciousness of God's strength, God's presence being already there. In 1 Sam. 13: 3 Saul blew a trumpet, saying, "Let the Hebrews hear." This was not according to God's mind; for he did not say, Let Israel hear, nor, Let God hear, but, "Let the Hebrews hear." The Gentiles called them Hebrews; God called them Israel.

The natural effect of the trumpet was gathering them together. While in the wilderness there was no question of oppression. There might be trial, but there could only be oppression in the land. It was no privilege to be in the wilderness, it was a trial; but to have God's presence with them was a privilege. We are in these days leaving the wilderness; we know very little about war, it is more getting out of the world into the wilderness. The natural use of the trumpet was gathering the assembly together, to move onward according to the power of God's presence, which was with them, and not for war.

We may get oppression by unfaithfulness. The apostles were occupied with the calling of assemblies - the souls of men. They never said a word against the high priest; but when they were called before rulers said, "Whether it be right to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye," giving no heed to the opposition of men. The saints are not to be "fenced with a spear," but to exercise and manifest grace. When the tares were found in the field, the servants were not to root them up, but let them grow, because they were not to exercise judgment, but grace. The fishermen gathered the good fish into vessels; their business was with the good fish. The consequence of blowing the trumpet, though it might arouse the enemy, was to bring in God.

In verse 10 there is another use of the trumpet, the utterance recognizing God and the people. "Blow up the trumpet in the new moon" (Ps. 81: 3); the old moon had passed away, and now it is the new moon. "Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee" (v. 7); but now it is "the day of their gladness," and they "sing aloud to God their strength." (v. 1) In Lev. 23 we have first the Sabbath, then the passover and feast of unleavened bread, the waving of the sheaf of first-fruits and Pentecost; but Israel is left until the seventh month. "Speak unto the children of Israel in the seventh month, ye shall have a memorial of blowing of trumpets," then the feast of tabernacles, the day of gladness. (v. 24)

Note the sovereignty of God in ordering their journeyings; the directions here are more minute than in the beginning of the book, as showing the energy of the Spirit more than occupation with outward order. In chap. 2 it is simply, "Then the tabernacle in their midst;" here more detail. In Ps. 80: 2, "Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength," calling on God to act as in those days. The proper place of the ark was in the centre, but it went before them; and so in Josh. 3: 4, "A way they had not passed heretofore" - death. We have the power and presence of Jesus with us in our journey and our worship. If we are resting, it is to learn God; if journeying, it is for the display of God's power in ordering. Among them ought to have been the resting-place of the ark; God's sovereign goodness takes its own place, beyond all set order, in seeking a resting-place for them. Thus it is now, when He putteth forth His own sheep He goeth before them; or resting, "Where two or three are gathered together, there am I." In verse 35, "Let them that hate thee flee before thee, not those that hate us." Faith blows the trumpet, the battle is the Lord's. Then, when it is resting, "Return thou unto the many thousands of Israel."

The Failure of the Flesh

Numbers 11

Notes of a Reading

J. N. Darby

{Christian Friend 1893, pages 238-42.}

In chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9 we have had the energy of the Spirit of God in us while passing through the wilderness, and in the tenth the ark going before the children of Israel to seek out a place of rest for them - the only journey of which the Lord in this way was the conductor. In this eleventh chapter we have the history of the failure of the flesh. The whole Bible is just the history of the grace and faithfulness of God, and of the failure of man. The very purpose for which the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt was, that He might dwell among them; and if difficulties arose, then it was, "Rise up, Lord: let them that hate thee flee before thee;" or resting "Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel." But there was nothing in this to satisfy the natural man; flesh cannot feed on the manna. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing." "The people complained." (v. 1) Whenever there is complaint in the heart the flesh is at work. "It displeased the Lord." God being present with us, it is evident we are not satisfied with Him when there is complaining of heart. God has now sent down the Holy Ghost, that " He may abide with us for ever." But the flesh has all sorts of cravings which are contrary to the Spirit, nor can it find anything in the Spirit of God to satisfy it. If, therefore, we have murmuring and complaining of heart, we are not satisfied with what is of the Spirit of God. The heart has got away from God, and has not Him for its portion. Then the flesh is at work. A soul feeding on the Lord will not complain. It may be tried; then it will cry to the Lord. "They cried unto thee, and were delivered." But complaining is just saying to God, "You are not enough for me." Trial of heart does not produce complaint; it may bring forth humiliation. "The Lord heard it, and His anger was kindled." At first it was only a partial chastening, consuming those who were in the uttermost part of the camp. They had got away from the consciousness of His presence, and if they would not know His presence in joy, they must know it in judgement and chastening.

The mixed multitude (v. 4) had no possession in Canaan; they "fell a lusting." When the saints are associated with the world many thereby are defiled. "The children of Israel wept again." They were looking for present ease and comfort, good things here, not longing for Canaan. We remember (v. 5); now they were lusting like the mixed multitude. "Evil communications corrupt good manners." They had in heart turned back to Egypt, and, the flesh working in them, could recount all the good things which the flesh had in Egypt; and when Satan is thus drawing us back to the world, we never remember the deliverance, but what we lost by the deliverance. Then Pharaoh is most bountiful. Instead of crying out by reason of hard bondage, we remember the fish we did eat in Egypt freely. This was deception; for they ate it in bondage. We can remember the things of the flesh, but not the things of the Spirit. I may remember that I was happy in communion yesterday, but I must be under the present power of the Holy Ghost to remember what Christ is. The food of yesterday will not do for to-day. When under the power of present communion, we are sometimes ready to say, "My mountain stands strong; I shall never be moved." When we've lost that communion, all the joy we had in it is gone. It is a constant life of faith in present exercise by the Spirit. When the saint gets into the world all things appear lovely, but then their souls are murmuring and unhappy. But now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all besides manna.( v 6) They did not say that the manna was not there, but there was nothing else. So with us. It is not that Christ is not there, but saying that He will not satisfy us now in the wilderness, where we have nothing at all before our eyes but Christ to feed upon.

"The anger of the Lord was greatly kindled." (v. 10) Moses said (v. 11), "Wherefore hast thou laid this burden upon me?" Wretched me! Here his faith broke down. Nor does he now say "thy people," but lays the burden on his own shoulder and breaks down; for when "I," proud flesh, did not count upon the Lord's love, but he began to make himself of importance, he failed. It was true Moses had been sent to deliver Israel, but it was God still; and when Moses got in the flesh, and thought it was his work and strength, he did not count on God's love. "Have I conceived all this people?" Now in the matter of the golden calf he identified God with the people. Then he did not fail. And when they first murmured (v. 2) he prayed unto the Lord, but now in the general failure his own faith failed. The Lord pitied His servant, and provided for it by putting some of his honour on others and taking it from him. When the heart gets off the ground of love it counts on sorrow. "Let me not see my wretchedness." (v. 15) Then (v. 17) God takes from the proper honour of Moses (the life of faith), and puts it on others to share it with him. Himself alone in immediate communion with God, such is the proper honour of the life of faith. In the Church, it is to bear others' burdens. So with the Lord. "All the vessels of His Father's house laid on Him." True honour is to suffer, bearing others' burdens without comfort from any but God. How different the mind of Moses when alone with God's counsels, but now "not thyself alone." (v. 17) In the matter of the spies he said, "Thou broughtest up this people." "And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word" (Num. 14: 20), because he referred it all to God's glory. There was chastening of the people and merciful dealing with Moses, but with loss of honour, because of the want of the energy of faith. It was not lust in him, but despising the competency of God to guide and help. Though the Church may have lost the honour of the first glory, the Spirit is competent to bless and guide it now. The Lord may not "restore counsellors as at the first;" and though He will not bear with present evil, yet present evil does not put the Lord away. If we are saying, "Is the Lord among us?" it is despising the presence of the Lord among His people, and arises from losing the joy of His presence, and then forgetting the power of His presence.

When Moses' faith fails, then he begins to reason. (vv. 21, 22) In this he limited the Holy One of Israel; for, whatever Israel's sin had been, the Lord's hand was not shortened. No matter what the difficulty, we must not limit the present power of the Holy One to carry us through the wilderness.

Eldad and Medad prophesied; it was outside the order God had set up. So when some preached Christ of contention, Paul was glad of it because Christ was preached. "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets!" Whenever the Lord acts by the holy power of truth, let us say, "The Lord glorify Himself." It is God's prerogative to act contrary to His set order, and for us to bow to it. In the midst of failure, the energy of the Spirit of God will act spite of the failure.

In verses 31-33 there is a further testimony that the Lord was among them. It was love gave the quails, and they ought to have said, "How could we ever doubt the love of God?" but such was their persevering lust, that on they go to gratify it. It was this brought the anger of the Lord; for while the flesh was yet between their teeth the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and He smote them with a great plague. Thus we have the failure of Israel, their dissatisfaction with their portion in Christ, their complaining, and the heart going back to the world. Then the failure of Moses; losing the sense of the Lord's presence, with want of confidence in the energy of the Lord to bear all the burdens of His people.

The Nazarite

Numbers 6

J. N. Darby.

Notes of a Reading

{Christian Friend 1883, pages 57-61.}

In the book of Numbers is brought out the great principle of the energy of the Spirit of God in us while passing through the wilderness. Exodus shows us redemption and relationship; Leviticus, the way of a sinner's approach to God; Numbers, priesthood in the tabernacle in the wilderness. Up to Sinai all had been grace on the part of God with the people. Here is the intercourse of God with them in the tabernacle of the congregation in the wilderness of Sinai. (Num. 1: 1.) The principle of the red heifer in Num. 19 is the ground on which all the sacrifices are taken in this book - the energy of the Spirit of God in giving comfort to the soul, taking the ashes of that long ago burnt, and applying it with present efficacy to the conscience that has contracted defilement in its walk through the wilderness.

In Num. 6 we have the positive separation to God in the energy of the Holy Ghost (v. 2) - "unto the Lord." So the Lord Jesus, particularly after His ascension, "For their sakes I sanctify myself," that we, by the energy of the Spirit in us, should be separate now in the wilderness, walking in white, keeping our garments unspotted by the flesh. Again, the Lord did separate Himself that He might be about His Father's business, and for this did He separate Himself from "His mother's children" (Ps. 69: 8) - the flesh, which by sin was under the power of death. He still holds the Nazarite character, because all His disciples are not yet gathered to Him; and now, in a certain sense, with us it is separation from joy - "the fruit of the vine;" we must not let the heart go. In glory it is the great spirit of rest; there will be no need to gird the heart then. Now the effect of the energy of the Spirit is to gird up the loins of our mind lest we get defiled; but in glory we shall let flow our garments, because we shall not fear defilement there. In the city of refuge the man was safe, but he could not go out or enjoy his possessions.

Verse 3: "Separate himself from wine;" that is, joy. The Lord came in character expecting to find joy among men, expecting a response to His love in the hearts of men, but found none, and so was a Nazarite from the first. To be a Nazarite is to be separated from every natural affection which can be touched by death - to be separated unto the Lord. No honey could be offered to the Lord, and now the Spirit is a new power come in detaching us from everything natural. The Lord filled with the Spirit for service said, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" All nature by sin has come under the power of death, so the Nazarite "shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother," "because the consecration of his God is upon his head." (v. 7; see also Luke 14: 26.) The Lord's tie in nature was with the Jews as Son of David; but all this He gave up as natural, for "when He putteth forth His own sheep He goeth before them." Natural affections come from God, and are therefore good in themselves; but they do not tend to God, being spent on the object. John was a Nazarite from the womb. Paul was a Nazarite and Jeremiah also. So we are Nazarites. Our own proper joy is beyond death; therefore all I give up here which savours of death is just giving up that which hinders a deepened apprehension of the joy and blessing of that life which is beyond the power of death. The Lord broke the link in the cross. "By these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit." (Isa. 38: 16)

"All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord." (v. 8.) This is the great principle in the Nazarite - holy to God, and in however short a degree we may attain to that character, yet in Christ it is perfect. All this is a distinct thing from innocence. Adam was innocent, but not separated unto God. Separated unto God supposes a knowledge of good and evil, and yet separation from evil. Adam got the knowledge of good and evil by the fall; the Holy Ghost is come to take us out of that evil. The Spirit is a new power altogether, separating us unto Christ in glory now that evil and self-will have come in. It is a most trying thing to us to know good and evil; for by nature we are in the evil - loving the evil and hating the good. The Holy Ghost is now taking us out of the evil, and here is the pain - His energy in us keeping us from the evil while passing through a world of sin and death. We cannot be innocent now that sin has come in, but we are holy in Christ.

Verse 9: "If any man die very suddenly by him." Death came in on everything in nature as the sign of God's hatred of sin. The Spirit of real devotedness to God always was perfect in Christ; but it is failing in us. Wherever the old man works there is the principle of death; therefore we get into death for the time when the old man is working. Therefore the word to us is, "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts;" and again, "Ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man." All this is solemn. Not only have we peace, but while we are passing through this scene of sin we need to be kept holy and devoted to God by the energy of the Holy Ghost in us.

Verses 9, 12. If I go back from devotedness to God, it is true the hair may grow again; but the head must be shaved close, and the time lost. It is not a question of sin here, but of loss as to the energy of life. A tree that has been much mutilated and broken down will grow up again; it was not killed, but only injured, yet its stature will not be the same as an uninjured tree. It is letting Satan mar and hinder the work of the Spirit. Samson let his heart go into the weakness of nature, and when we let in nature our strength is gone. Samson, as a Nazarite, was a type of the energy of the Spirit of God; he let out the secret of his strength, and it left him, and he became weak as other men. True, in due course his strength returned, and with mighty energy he lifted the foundations of the temple. If we are not careful and watchful to keep the secret of our strength in communion with God, and worldliness and sin come in, we may not be conscious of it ourselves, but the truth will appear when we rise to shake ourselves - it may be in service - and we find ourselves weak as other men, and when in our weakness, like Samson, the devil will put out our eyes. The Lord was the true Nazarite, and He never departed in the whole course of His walk from His Nazariteship. It was not a light thing for Him to tread the path of suffering; but He prayed. In the garden, "being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly" before the temptation came, and then we see He halted not, He could not. So should we first pass through the trial with God, then God will be with us in the trial. Peter slept and did not pray, and when the trial came he met it in the flesh, and drew his sword. Jesus had prayed that the cup might pass from Him; but when the chief priest and soldiers came, though Satan was in it all, yet He saw the hand of God, and could say, "The cup which my Father hath given me;" then it was no temptation at all, but an act of obedience.

Verse 9: "Die suddenly," a careless thought, and communion is lost for the moment.

The offerings to be offered. All that was in Christ is presented to God (v. 20); so we really come in the power of these sacrifices to God; but until the Church be gathered the Lord keeps His Nazarite character.*

{*These unrevised notes, taken many years ago, have never before been published. Their value will be recognized by all. Others may follow (D.V.) from time to time. Ed.}

Liberality of Heart

Numbers 7

J. N. Darby.

Notes of a Reading

{Christian Friend 1893, pages 85-7.}

In Num. 6 we have had the Nazarite, entire separation from evil, a separation more of constraint, and therefore in one sense painful; but in this chapter another principle is brought out - voluntary devotedness to God, called liberality of heart. Blessings were to be "on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren." (Gen. 49: 26) At the close of chap. 6 we see divine blessing on his head. In Lev. 9: 23, 24, there is priestly blessing following upon the offering of the sacrifice, and now, by virtue of the sacrifice, the Priest is lifting up His hands to bless, only, as Aaron, He can now bless in heavenly joy. As Melchizedec, it will be earthly joy and blessing; but He is not yet come out; but the ground of blessing being laid, the Church has it now in Spirit. When the Lord ascended, He lifted up His hands and blessed the disciples. (Luke 24: 50, 51) "On this wise YE shall bless them." (chap. 6: 23) It is by virtue of the priestly office of Christ, blessing them, keeping them, making Jehovah's face to shine upon them, "they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them." All that comes to the Church in blessing is from the Lordship of Christ; but the blessing that comes to the children is from the Father, on whom the name of the Father has been put, and blessing must follow. Thus we have priestly blessing after the Nazarite, and then voluntary sacrifice.

This book shows us service, not merely doing certain things, but a voluntary offering up of oneself - a living sacrifice. Prince, in verse 2 of our chapter, means liberality. "My people shall be willing." (Psalm 110) "Willing" and "liberal" are the same word. So in the Song of Solomon (chap. 6: 12), "the chariots of Ammi-nadib," meaning a princely, willing people. Again, in 2 Cor. 8: 5, Gentiles had been made willing - "They gave themselves first to the Lord." Recognized and owned of the Lord, then comes the generosity. Grace wrought it in them, and God calls it their own voluntary will - "The liberal heart deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things shall he stand," "every man according as he purposeth in his heart." (2 Cor. 9: 7)

"Take it of them." (v. 5.) The Spirit of God suggests to them just what is wanted, and as it is what is in every man's heart, there is entire community with individual privilege. There is the privilege of taking ordinary and common things, and offering them to the Lord for "the service of the tabernacle." These wagons and oxen were given to the sons of Gershon and Merari. Theirs was the most showy and outward service, but was less intimate with God, and therefore had less real honour. Our uncomely parts have more abundant honour. Kohath had to carry on their shoulders. There might be less appearance of service; but we esteem most what we carry on our shoulders. External gift begets external honour. If God has called us to Gershon service, do it well. One priest was as near God as another, there is no difference in priesthood; but in service God giveth to every man severally as He will, and, whatever the liberality, it is just what the Lord wants.

Then, verse 10, came offerings for the altar. National liberality by individual spirituality - "Each prince on his day." Here again is the individual energy of the Spirit. The Lord said to Moses, "They shall offer" (v. 11), not, "Take it of them." Now they come near; the gift is dedicated on the altar. It is the altar that gives the offering its value. "Christ, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God." Our outward service, the dedication of our lives, is thus identified with this one offering of Christ. What is thus brought to God, done in faith, offered to God Himself; is a savour of a sweet smell unto God. When the altar is finally dedicated, there is a perfect result, the twelve princes have willingly offered; so when the Church is presented to God, it is, so to speak, a perfect weight offered; and, so far as we are led of the Spirit, the result is perfect; but when flesh comes in there is disorder.

In chap. 6, we have seen, it was priestly blessing for their need; now, in verse 89, it is "to speak with Him in the tabernacle," within, not on Sinai. God has now intercourse through Moses with a willing people, on the mercy-seat. It is there we get the communion of the mind of God according to the perfect righteousness of God in Christ. What blessed intimacy! He hears a voice in the place of grace in the tabernacle. The tabernacle began on the ruins of the law without the camp, and the Lord spake unto Moses face to face. For us it is written, "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things," and, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life."

Service

Numbers 8

J. N. Darby.

Notes of a Reading

{Christian Friend 1893, pages 113-6.}

We have dwelt on separation from evil in Num. 6, and on willing-heartedness in Num. 7. In this chapter we have the light, and the manner in which it should shine forth. There are little bits of direction in the book of Numbers. Here it is about the candlestick, showing the energy of the Spirit of God in us in passing through the wilderness.

"Speak unto Aaron." (v. 2.) The Lord is in the midst of the seven candlesticks in Rev. 1. The candlestick represents the Church by the power of the Spirit holding up the light - "holding forth the word of life." Gold is divine righteousness connected with or bearing upon what man is. It holds up the beauty and order of God's truth - holding forth truth to the world. "The seven lamps shall give light over against the candlestick." The light manifested the candlestick, as well as everything else. So should it be now with the Church; not only should the light shine from it, but on it, showing what it is in the mind of God. "According to the pattern which the Lord had shewed Moses, so he made the candlestick," according, to the perfect mind of God.

By the Church principalities and powers in heavenly places are to learn the manifold wisdom of God. The perfect mind of God is shown in that which gives light to the world. The seven lamps were not only to light up the tabernacle, but to give light over against the candlestick. Angels are to learn in the Church the comeliness of God's order, the energy too of the Holy Ghost now in the Church, not having the Holy Ghost themselves; so the woman is to have power on her head because of the angels; and Paul wrote to Timothy, that he might know "how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."

The Levites (v. 6) represent the saints in service. Priests, the Church in communion; the Levites are servants to the priests. The Levites are first offered to God. (v. 13.) "After that shall the Levites go in to do service." (v. 15) Here is the true character of service - "first gave themselves to God," then God employs them. The Levites are offered for an offering unto the Lord (v. 13), so in Rom. 15: 16, "that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable." The Church is not only a witness in the world, but an offering to God. Figuratively, Christ was waved before the Lord in Lev. 23: 11; so also the Church in verses 17, 20. The service of the Levites was entirely the consequence of their being the Lord's. "The Levites shall be mine." (v. 14.) For as it is written, "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price." (1 Cor. 6: 20.) It is blessed to say, "My beloved is mine;" but it is greater progress and a deeper joy to say, "I am His."

The Levites (v. 19) represented the whole of the children of Israel; they were consecrated by the very act of the cutting off of the firstborn in Egypt. The cross of Christ is condemnation to the world, but deliverance to those who believe on Him. He suffered the judgment that we might escape it. He has bought us with a price, just as, in verse 17, " the firstborn are mine."

In verse 10 we have another principle of offering, of great importance and blessing to the soul to observe - the children of Israel putting their hands on the Levites, thereby identifying the offerer with the offering. In verse 12 the Levites laid their hands on the head of the sin-offering, the whole thus standing guilty before God; and on the burnt-offering, completely identifying them as accepted in all the perfectness of Christ's sacrifice - a savour of sweet smell to God. Like as He bore our sins, which were laid upon Him, so all our services are accepted through the burnt-offering. Laying my hand on the burnt-offering identifies me with the savour of Christ in the presence of God. In verses 10, 11 they are brought before the Lord, and are offered to Him, that they may serve Him, and all this under the direction of priestly communion. The Church is first brought to God altogether, and then set in service under spiritual priestly direction. Observe, there is no anointing here. The Levites are not only given to God, but to Aaron and his sons (v. 19), identifying them with Christ in priestly communion. We are to be servants of God under the direction of spiritual priestly communion in the sanctuary. There can be no intelligent, no reasonable, service but that which springs from priestly communion with the Lord, not merely intention of obedience. It is communion which gives power and intelligence in service. (See Acts 7: 55.) Besides the positive written Word, we get the mind of God by habitual intercourse with Him - walking with Him, and "proving what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Thus shalt thou separate the Levites. (v. 14.) The blood which guarded the door-posts of Israel within was the token of judgment upon the Egyptians without. A Levite was not a priest, but a servant; they were not anointed, but were servants to the priests. Communion is higher than service, and it enables our service to be with power and intelligence. We are sons of God doing the work of servants here, just as Jesus when on earth was the Son of God in the place of a servant. Prophets were servants; so preaching the gospel is service; but oil inside the bowl is more blessed than the bowl. All service is inferior to communion; so our Lord said of John the Baptist, "He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." Only communion can bring true service; all else is only a flare, and will end in failure.

The age (v. 24) of twenty-five years shows maturity for service; that is, the full energy of the Spirit. Exemption from service was given as a blessing, but keeping the charge remains. The priestly service never departs, but we get greater in it. We, the saints now, are the offering up of the Gentiles to God. True honour in service is that we are wholly the Lord's. It is a saying, that if an angel came down from heaven to earth, he would be as glad to sweep the streets as to be a king, the only honour just to do what God set him to do. We should not be seeking ourselves, but the Lord's glory. God's order in His house, in the sanctuary, is the object of admiration and wonder in the heavenly places - the light of the Holy Ghost shining down over against the candlestick, showing out all its beauty and perfectness after the pattern of heavenly things.

Remembrance of Deliverance; and Guidance.

Numbers 9

Unrevised notes of a Reading

J. N. Darby.

{Christian Friend 1893, pages 141-5.}

Lapse of time comes in here; it is a year since their deliverance, and they are still in the wilderness. When the passover is understood, the present power of deliverance is a very intelligible thing. (Ex. 13: 3) They had been in bondage, but they were out of Egypt and in the wilderness, though not yet in Canaan. They had memory of deliverance, with toil and exercise as the fruits, because they were in the wilderness. So we have the joy and peace of deliverance, not yet rest. They were out of Egypt, but in trouble and trial. They felt it when they said, "Were there no graves in Egypt?" Herein is the exercise and often failure with us; but there is no failure on God's part, because He brings us into the wilderness.

The passover is to be kept as an offering to the Lord (v. 7) in remembrance of, and retaining full consciousness of, their being the Lord's delivered people. We have spiritually the principle of the thing in the Lord's supper. There is deliverance in Christ, but trial and exercise as to the actual condition here. Unbelief may say, "We shall die in the wilderness," but faith will always keep the passover; it thus recognizes God's deliverance, and this is blessing. Spiritually it is an offering to the Lord, and so by communion we have present joy - a privilege only to faith; for the deliverance has only brought us into the wilderness where we get trouble. We see in verse 9, etc., grace and holiness brought together to meet defilement. Defilement now is specially death, because, by the energy of the Spirit of God in us, sin is known in its actual power as death. God brings in the remedy where the need is, the moment it was a question of being kept back from offering to the Lord. When there is the power of the Spirit working in our souls from day to day, there will be the constant detection of sin; for what is not of the Spirit is flesh and sin, and in its power is not merely defilement, but death. They were delivered from Egypt, which was nothing but defilement, and yet they were defiled so that they could not keep the passover. Where there is any consciousness of sin, there cannot be worship. They could not come to God because they were defiled; for "holiness becometh thine house for ever." When the Spirit is grieved there cannot be worship to God, still they were not shut out from Israel, though there must be the humiliation that owns the defilement. We can never return to the power of worship without referring to past failure. There must be humbling and purging from the sin before we can really worship, and the Lord judges of cleanness according to the energy of the life of God.

A stranger (v. 14) might keep the passover, but He must keep it according to the ordinance and the manner thereof. Grace brings us to God, but it always brings us according to what God is, and therefore never departs from the principle of holiness - the eternal ordinance of God's house in the Spirit. If a man is not spiritually holy, his worship is only an abomination to God. "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle." (Heb. 13: 10) That is, fleshly ordinances. The real privilege of God's house is inward holiness. In this place of worship God's presence is found; it gives light, guidance, shelter, everything, so (v. 15) "the cloud covered the tabernacle." God's presence was there. Israel were to know that God brought them out of Egypt that He might dwell among them. (Ex. 29: 46) Hence the power of grace; for whatever is inconsistent with holiness is setting aside the purpose of redemption, "that I may dwell among them." The Lord has given us another Comforter to abide with us for ever; and saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?" is doubting the power and presence of the Spirit of God. Tempting the Lord is not mere rashness, but doing something to try whether the Lord is with us or not. The presence of the Lord is always with us for blessing, and being with us must necessarily detect sin. The cloud was always there, so that whatever they did should have been in the consciousness that the Lord was with them; the uncertainty from day to day, the want of water, &c., cast them for dependence on the Lord. The difficulties of the way taught them that God was ever nigh to help them. The Lord in His grace will ever keep us in a place of dependence for blessing to our souls. Entire dependence on God always gives entire wilderness blessing.

At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched. (v. 18) So Jesus never went but where the cloud led Him to go; thus when they told Him that Lazarus was sick, He tarried two days, and yet He loved Lazarus. It is important that we should not be doing what is evil only, but that what we are doing should be done because it is the Lord's will. Not a step in my journey, but the Lord has thought about it for me, therefore "we have to run the race set before us." If the cloud does not move we cannot move, our utter incapacity to act is our power against Satan.

Again, if I have no light on any given passage, this makes nothing of me. If we have no word from God, we can do nothing, because it is by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord that man lives. Paul did nothing for Epaphroditus. (Phil. 2: 27) God healed him in His own way. God charges Himself with this care of us because we are in the wilderness where there is no way, that God Himself might be our way. He will not give us a way that nature can find out; His way is only found out in communion with the Lord. When we say "There is no way," this will throw us upon God, who will lead us in His own way. In the wilderness there are difficulties, and here is the trial of the spirituality of the saints. The moment we lose the sense of dependence on God we are left to ourselves. Then "there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Prov. 14: 12) It is a solemn word, "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone." With us it should be not merely doing God's will, but doing it because it is God's will.

God delivered the children of Israel that He might dwell among them in the wilderness where there was no way; and His guidance proved that He was among them. The pillar of cloud leads by night and by day, for the day and night are both alike to Him, and to us if led by Him. Peter could no more walk on the smooth sea than on the rough without the Lord. We need willingness of mind to be always led by the Lord. We are children, and so sure of it, that we are willing to be servants. Jesus was Son of God, but took the place of a servant. It was to Him as having taken this place that Satan said, "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down," seeking to cast a doubt on His Father's care. The certainty of the Lord's love gives the confidence of obedience; if I count on the Lord's love I am cast on the Lord's will. When Israel settled down by the palm trees, they must get up, because it was not Canaan. The Lord may give us a little rest, but we must not settle here.

By virtue of the first passover we have been brought out of Egypt and are now in the wilderness, and while there keep the passover in the knowledge of God's love in our deliverance.

When the cloud tarried many days (v.19) they were to keep the charge of the Lord, so while we tarry here we have but one thing to occupy us - God; and if our "eye be single, our whole body shall be full of light."

______________

When Christianity is being given up on all sides, it is well to know what Christianity is. It is perfect peace and reconciliation with God; we are perfected for ever before Him. And as regards the path in this world, it is the eye on Christ Himself in glory, and one undivided energy to get after Him. Every step we take we get more of Christ, and are more capable of knowing Him; and thus the effect practically is to form us into His likeness. This bringing in of the life of Christ to my soul enables me to see Him in the glory, so that even now I get more like the resurrection I am aiming after. The resurrection from among the dead identifies itself with winning Christ; raising from the dead speaks to us of God's perfect delight in us in Christ.

Obedience and Manifestation

John 14: 18-28.

J. N. Darby.

Notes of an address.

{Christian Friend 1889, pages 29-35.}

It is striking here the way you get the settled knowledge of our place and position, and yet the ways of God with us are put conditionally on our love to Him. I get known life and perfect peace - "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you." He also says, "He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." That is not, "We love Him because He first loved us" - the work of grace; but here it is, "If a man love Me, my Father will love him." It is dealing with children; not a question of whether they are children, but obedient children; the Father's love dealing with His child, and chastening it if need be. A parent does not scourge his child when it is doing well, nor is he pleased with it when it is doing ill. We are under this fatherly government of God which depends on the conduct of the child. Jesus has committed us to Him. He said, "Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me." He keeps us as Father; but as "holy," He must have a walk that suits Him. We know we are in Christ, and Christ in us; then we ought to be manifesting Him in everything, and reckoning ourselves dead. We are in Him in the power of life before God, and at peace with the peace He gives; so perfect that it is the peace He had Himself - "My peace." There never could be a cloud on Him. He was always in the perfect sense of divine favour. We are loved too as He was loved. Then come the dealings of the Father with one in this state. The proof of love is obedience; just as a child that loves his father obeys his father.

It is of all importance, if we know peace - the peace He has made - and what it is to be in Christ, and Christ in us, how far our souls are walking in this present enjoyment of the manifestation of Christ. When we are walking in obedience, the Holy Ghost is not grieved; if not He occupies me with myself. The effect of His presence is to make me find I have gone wrong. "Your feet are dirty," He says. Of course anything gross comes to us at once, unless we have become hardened; but I mean carelessness. If I am not grieving Him, He reveals the unsearchable riches of Christ to me, and that is the manifestation of Him. "Now ye are clean," He says, "abide in Me," and that in order to bear much fruit. The Father deals with us with respect to our walk. What a blessing to know He takes notice of everything about us. "He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous." There is not a moment that He is not taking cognizance of our state! Such a perfect settlement of our place with God, that the question is one wholly of walk and communion.

The question of acceptance should never arise; it is settled. "Because I live, ye shall live also." He must die before I can die. The question you have to occupy yourself with is, Am I joying in God? Is Christ manifested to my soul? or, Is there anything in your soul, in your ways, that hinders His manifesting Himself to you? "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you." He comes to be with you spiritually, that you may enjoy His presence. Are you walking in such a way that you are enjoying His presence? Would the effect of His presence be, to bring to light something in my soul that hinders the joy? or simply to enjoy the blessedness of it? Have we that character of obedience - the power of Christ's word - in our habits, ways, our dress, our houses, so that if Christ comes in we have only to sit down and enjoy Him? It is a very solemn question, if our hearts are not dulled to His love, whether our doings or our state are a hindrance to our enjoyment of Christ. Strength is wanting of course, and discernment, to do His will; but these manifestations give a sense of the interest He has in us; and it is that by which all the things of this world - things that were all gain to us - are dung and dross, by the sense we get of what Christ is, and His blessedness. They have more than lost their power, they are offensive to the Spirit - it is not Christ.

The manifestation of Christ gives the consciousness too of what we shall have for ever. If Christ was everything to the disciples, and they felt they could not do without Him, what was the comfort they got? "I will come to you." The thing is, we get accustomed to live without Christ. Look into your own heart and see if there is not, more or less, the habit of living without that full communion with Christ. It is that we have to watch against, if we desire to glorify Him, and live in the consciousness of the blessedness He has brought us to. It is what will be our everlasting joy. We have now the double joy of communion "with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." Just think what the force of that expression is!

I would desire for your hearts to have activity and diligence to get into this atmosphere. What is fellowship? Common thoughts and feelings and joys. If we have that with the Father, what a thing it is! His thoughts and feelings and joys will be the spring of ours. That is Christian blessedness; the Father and the Son, thus revealing themselves in grace, bring in their own thoughts and joys - and holiness to delight in them too - so that Their thoughts and ways become the spring of our feelings and actions.

If you get to enjoy this real manifestation of the Father and the Son, you will find - I do - that there is very little power to keep it. You who believe and trust and reckon on His love, do you find you can look up steadfastly into heaven? Stephen looked up steadfastly, he was full of the Holy Ghost. But it does not last long with us. I find I cannot look up steadfastly, it dies out, some thought or other comes in. There is not the positive living in that place where all else is judged. The Son is the revealer of these heavenly things on which our affections are to be set; but if I let My thoughts go to that which is not of God, He must judge it. If I am keeping Christ's word, the effect is this blessed revelation of the Father's thoughts and mind and joys, and that strengthens the heart and spirit, and gives us discernment of all that is in this poor world.

I would speak of the means of being sustained in the condition to enable us to enjoy these things; and then a word on the occasion of our losing it.

Hebrews speaks of maintaining us in it. We are in a world where the tendency is to distract us from it. What we have to do is to deliver the testimony of Christ in the world. "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world." It does not say it is not of God. God made the world - not as it is morally - but He did not make sin. He made the trees; but He did not create them for man to make money of. When I see these heavenly things we have spoken of, all this is dross and dung to me; but it is a constant solicitation to our thoughts and senses, and tends to shut out the Father's world, where the Son is, and that in things where there is no outward harm. Then I get the constant service of Christ. It is a question of communion, and there is grace constantly in exercise toward us. "We obtain mercy" - which we all need every moment - "and find grace to help in time of need." "He was in all points tempted like as we are, apart from sin." But you cannot walk through the streets of London without the devil having something in every shop window to draw the heart from Christ, and on purpose. Christ was tempted; that was not lust. Satan tries to turn us aside from the way, and tests the fidelity of our inward hearts, if we will follow Christ. "One thing I do." But Christ is always up there for us; and when temptation or difficulty comes, there is mercy, knowing our weakness and infirmities, and that there are trials in the path of faith. He understands all that; He was thoroughly put to the test; more than we can ever be; and He is perfectly cognizant of it all, not as a Jewish high priest who could not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but He was tempted in all points - sin apart, that He might understand it all and sympathize.

It is not a question of sins here. I have "no more conscience of sins," they are gone; nor of failure - if I make an idol of my child it is sin, though perfectly right to have the affection for it, and woe to him who has it not. The word of God comes as a sword and detects sin; but here it is access to God. (Heb. 4) We come "boldly to the throne of grace." That I do not get in John, there it is fellowship with the Father and the Son; but then the moment I have an idle or an uncharitable thought, fellowship is gone; I have sinned, and if that goes on long, there comes hardness of conscience. Then he says, "If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father." Not a question of imputation, but of fellowship. "God is light," and in every detail, if any thought of that which is darkness is let into my mind, there can be no communion; but Christ is in activity to restore the communion. There is neither allowance nor imputation of sin; but I have not been obedient, I have let my old nature act, distractions have come in. If I have not kept His commandments, the effect of His presence is to awaken my conscience to whatever is not of God. I have not the abiding of the Father and the Son - the comfort of it in my soul, and then the effect of their presence is to make me uncomfortable. Grace is there, not to prevent sins being known, or that righteousness fails; but in virtue of the righteousness of that propitiation, not to let this breach continue in the state of communion of my soul. Advocacy comes in; for there is nothing more dangerous than to get to do without communion. Supposing a child is in the delight of fellowship with his father, and sees a cloud on his father's face, he says directly, "What is the matter?" What would you think if he saw the cloud and did not trouble about it? If you get hardened, you are away from God, without finding it out! Do you find out if you lose the light of God's countenance on your soul? Are you so walking with God that you get the consciousness of it if you are not walking in the light of His countenance? - or have you something creeping in that makes you go half a day - a whole day perhaps - without having His presence? Are you content with living without any communications from Christ? Why does He speak of coming to us and not leaving us comfortless? Because He loved us and knew what would be the joy of our souls!

Has that an echo in your soul? Has this fellowship with Him such an echo in your souls that the joy of your path down here is, "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come again to you"? If the love of Christ has power in our souls, it will be so. Is it the need of our souls, because we have tasted His love? How can we manifest Christ, or be really effectual epistles of Christ, if our souls are not thus in communication with Him, and the flesh judged, enabling us to "carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifest in our mortal bodies"?

Only remember this, beloved friends, that "we are not our own, we are bought with a price." He has taken us up for eternal salvation; but He has taken our hearts up to be for Christ. Then it creates a want in our hearts, and he says, "I will manifest Myself unto him."

The Lord give us to be so near Him, that the affections of Christ, which He has declared so abundantly to us, may have an echo in our hearts! (1872.)

The Object of Prophecy

J. N. Darby.

{Booklet published by Allan.}

In ordinary works on prophecy it is assumed as an admitted, incontestable truth, that the church is specially regarded in Daniel; and now, many believe that a godly Jewish remnant is in question, and cite the word in proof. This is a capital point. Why not discuss it? Why preserve a silence so absolute? It is necessary to their system that it should be the church; but they cannot demonstrate and assume it without proof. In truth, it is an utterly false principle, that God guides the world in view of the church. Christ and His glory are the end of God's counsels. The church will share His glory, and consequently it also enters into His counsels.

But the difference is complete, because, if Christ is the end, the Jews, of whom He will be head and chief, are the object of God's government as to the world, and even the arrangements of the nations. "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." Now, this revealed end of God's arrangements on the earth is set aside, and the church, or heavenly people, is substituted for Israel. It will be readily understood how completely all is changed thereby. For example, the greatest part of the prophecies apply to a time when Israel is more or less owned on earth. This fact is overlooked and shut out of the common system. Now, when Israel is owned as the object of God's dealings, the church, where there is neither Jew nor Gentile, is necessarily out of the scene. It is no longer a question of long years, but of "a short work" of God on the earth, of days whereof it is said, except they were shortened "no flesh could be saved" - a passage where the Saviour Himself directs our attention to Daniel and the predictions of the time, times, and an half, or 1260 days.

This, then, goes to the bottom of the question in dispute between the two great schools. The historicalists in general avoid it carefully. They talk of the approaching tribulation as if it must needs be for the church's portion to pass through it. They leave aside the Jews, as if they certainly were not concerned in such predictions; and thus the whole subject is involved in endless perplexity. Now this confusion of the church with Israel, profoundly injurious in spiritual things, becomes capital in prophecy, and most questions treated by these writers depend on the solution of this; because if Israel means Israel, the prophecies of Daniel, Ezekiel, &c., have an application which is not admitted or seen, and the system of interpretation, save certain analogies, is unsound from one end to the other. To omit the Jews, and apply all to the church, is confusion; to do so without discussing the point, is to build without any foundation whatever. If the predictions of Daniel refer to the time when the Jews enter the scene of prophecy, all is overthrown. Now the Spirit says so several times in the last chapters of the prophecy, (Dan. 10: 14; 11: 14, 30, 31; 12: 1, 7, 11,) where these numbers occur; and the Lord, in speaking of Jerusalem and the great tribulation, sends us to the prophecies of Daniel, where these numbers are given.

These men talk as if the statue in Dan. 2 were the key of prophecy, and the abridged plan of God's government of the nations. On the contrary, God's government of the nations, properly called, ceases during the duration of the powers represented by the statue; though, of course, His providence always acts. It is the time of the Gentiles, during which Israel is set aside, and God's government of the Gentiles, with Israel as the centre and pivot of his rule. Before the statue, there were various independent nations which were the fruit of the judgment of Babel, and Israel occupied the central place, and God had established His throne there, whence He governed all the nations in relation to His people. Then came Israel's sin, ruin, and judgment, and at the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldean king, the divine glory visits the city, and leaves it for a season. (Ezek. 1, 11.) Then God set up imperial unity in the hands of a Gentile chief over the known world, His own people being in bondage, and Jerusalem trodden down by them till the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Then He will resume His direct government, and judge the imperial power, which will have rebelled against Him. Is God's government of the earth confined to the time during which He has delivered His people to His enemies? Clearly, the period of His people's captivity is not properly, still less exclusively, the period of His government, and the system which considers it as such and which takes neither of this people nor of the mass of the prophecies which apply to them, is necessarily false. Daniel was of the captivity, and God gave His servant the divine light, which showed He had not forgotten His people, and to Daniel speaks naturally and only of this time. But his most detailed prophecy was after the Jews returned to Jerusalem - a circumstance which shows that the true captivity, the times of the Gentiles, still existed. Daniel just goes up to the judgment and the beginning of God's covenant, and there always he stops. He never describes that government or its effects; he, abides prophet of the captivity.

The system of the nations and of Israel chosen, then, subsisted till Nebuchadnezzar. It will be renewed in a more excellent manner when the beast is destroyed. The interval is the time of the beasts, of the Gentiles, in contrast with the government of God.

On Eternal Life

J. N. Darby.

{Published as 'Extracts' in a 16 page pamphlet, some are in the Collected Writings but it is added here as helpfully bringing together teaching on this subject and some of it cannot be found in the Collected Writings.}

The Epistle of John, that is to say, his first, shows us the life that comes from God by Jesus Christ. John sets God before us, the Father revealed in the Son, and eternal life in Him.

The babe who can but just confess Christ has eternal life, as truly as the strong man in Christ. It is not a question of what I am, but of what Christ is.

He is in all Christians; He is their life. "Christ is all, and in all." He is in us as our life; and, being in us as our life, Christ lives in me; and the life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. He is all to me. There is the Christian depicted in a few words. Having positively put off the old man with his deeds, and having put on the new which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him, Christ is everything to him, and Christ is his life in him. Christ is everything as the fulness of this object, and Christ is in him as his life. Most simple, most wonderfully full! He does not say what a Christian ought to be; it is what a Christian is that we have here. Christ is his life, and Christ is everything to him as having this life.

"The gift of God is eternal life." It is all grace; and I would rather have eternal life as the gift of God than ten lives of my own ever so long, because it is the proof of His love to me.

If we have heard His word, and believed on Him that sent Christ, we have eternal life. You hath He quickened who were dead. Eph. 2: 5. We have that perfect blessed holiness that can stand before God. Believing on Him, I have got a life in which I have the blessed certainty that I shall not come into judgment. I have already eternal life and I have passed from death unto life. I was dead, but I am raised, as to my soul, by the power of God. I have got Christ. He has made me whole. He has given me both life and righteousness.

Since the fall of man, since our judgment has been a fallen one by sin, our thought of obligation and duty is always as a means of gaining something. People often fancy, that if there is not the uncertainty attendant upon this responsibility to get life, there must be carelessness. But supposing you have got children, they are your children, and never can cease to be your children. But does that destroy their responsibility? Their relationship to you is the very thing that forms their responsibility.

Man is clearly proved to be a child of wrath. If man is dealt with as man, he refuses to come to God - "none righteous." When Christ comes, it is altogether another thing. God now approaches man, which is grace; not man the means for man to come to God; but God coming to man. He visited men in their sins, that they might live through Him. All was darkness, degradation, and idolatry. God takes them out of that condition that they might live through Christ. " God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son," and thus we are brought into His presence. The life I have as a saint is the fruit of the love of God - life communicated by grace; not creation putting me in a position and sustaining me, but when I have failed, His grace has abounded over it, and given me this life in Christ, when I was dead and enmity against Him; and the very truth that I have life is the proof of His love. We live through His only begotten Son.

There is more truth in God's life than in man's life: it is not a name, a voice, a notion, but eternal life, that very life which Christ has now, that very life which is without end, that we have. "He that hath the Son hath life;" he has it now: there is no such thing as shall, as regards our possession of it. "He that believeth hath everlasting life." And is not the believer called upon, by these wonderful mercies, by this stupendous grace, to exhibit his possession of this eternal life? He is. And how? The apostle says, "Seek those things which are above." Col. 3.

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." I have received Him who has risen, as my life. Nothing can be more important in its place than a distinct and definite apprehension of this; not only Christ has died for us, but we can also say that we have died with Him.

"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory."

Mark how distinctly he here associates us with Christ. He says, Christ is hid in God; well, He is your life, and your life is hid there too. But Christ is going to appear; and when He appears, ye also shall appear with Him in glory. There is complete association with the Lord Jesus now for life, so that my life is hid with Him in God, because He is my life; and when He appears, I also shall appear with Him in glory.

Eternal life has come down here, and I have it in a world that has all its life from the first man; in a world entirely departed and alienated from God; a world that had its origin in man having been turned out of Paradise; a world that when Christ, in divine beauty and grace, was in it, spat in His face and turned Him out.

But where does my heart go to out of the world? To that blessed life I have in Christ. I may have got it but yesterday, but the thing I have received was up there for me before the foundation of the world. I have got Christ as my life - the life I live is by faith of the Son of God; and it was in God's mind to give me this life before the world was. "He that hath the Son hath life" - a life not of man at all; and having got it, I am to show what is the effect of it, and from whence I got it.

As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; so the Son quickeneth whom He will. John 5: 21. Here there is no distinction between the Father and the Son; both equally give life.

But there is another important point settled in this chapter; namely, how we can know that we possess eternal life and shall escape the judgment. When the Lord presents Himself as giving life, He shows us how we may have the assurance of possessing that life. Many honour Him as the source of life that cannot say, "I have the life." Many own Christ as the only way, who cannot say they have got life. The Lord does not leave anxiety on this question unsatisfied. He knew man's responsibility under sentence of death and judgment, and so He says (v. 24), " He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life."

Man was in death, but judgment was not yet executed. It is the same now. But whenever a person has listened to Christ's voice, and owned the Father in sending Him, he hath everlasting life; he is passed from death unto life.

We "shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." The apostles possessed this life by direct communication; the saints receive it by the testimony borne to this life.

The thought in verse 17 [1 John 4], "As He is, so are we in this world," is that the saints are in the same place as Christ. If I have righteousness, it is a divine righteousness: We are "made the righteousness of God in Him." If I have life, it is a divine eternal life: "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear." If I have glory, it is the same glory: "The glory which Thou gavest me I have given them." If we have an inheritance, we are "joint-heirs with Christ;" if love, it is the same love wherewith the Father loved Christ: "Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved me."

"As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." Therefore it is that in the epistle of John we get the same truth brought out. First of all, we have there (1 John 4: 9) that the love of God was manifested toward us, "because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him." There I see divine love, that visited this world in the person of the Son of God. There were two things that were needed. That He should be the propitiation for our sins, because we were guilty, was one; but besides that, He goes on to say, " Herein is love with us made perfect," etc. There is the perfectness of love. Not merely that God's love visited us in this world, in all our need and sorrow, not to leave us there. But here is the love of God "made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world."

How can I have boldness in the day of judgment? Why, I am the same as my Judge, and in this world too. "As He is, so are we in this world.'' Just what I get here, "As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." It is the same truth. What a thing that is! What a salvation it is! Not merely mercy that forgives sin; it is a real, perfect salvation, it is a deliverance which has taken us, as in Christ, out of the condition in which we were, and has put us into another, and that other is Christ. It is true that we shall all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ; everything must be brought out there. But even so, why, I am like Himself. What is He going to judge? How do I get there at all? Because Christ has come and fetched me. "I am going," He said to His disciples, "to prepare a place for you. And if I go . . . I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." So that when I come to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, it is because Christ has so loved me, that He has come to fetch me there; and in what condition? I am in glory before I get to the judgment-seat. Everything will there be brought out, and with immense profit and gain to us. We shall know right and wrong then, as we are known. We shall be manifested, but manifested before Him who is in the presence of God as the warrant of our salvation. We shall not thoroughly bear the image of Christ till the time of glory. But even now as to our standing before God, "As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." Now, as regards my soul and my eternal life, He has come and brought us into this condition, making Christ to be my life, and in Christ my righteousness and hope. He has brought me in faith, and in the truth of my new nature, into this wondrous place in Christ. The realization of it is another thing, and may be hindered through failure or infirmity. You begin to search perhaps in yourself; and find such and such a thought contrary to Christ. But I say, That is the old man. If you take yourself by yourself, there is not righteousness for God, and therefore you cannot stand an instant in God's sight. I must look at Christ to see what I am, and I say, "As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly;" and that is what I am in the presence of God. There is no veil; we are to walk in the light, as God is in the light.

J N D

[London: W. H. Broom and Rouse, 15 & 16, Paternoster Square.]

Part with Christ

John 13: 1-17.

J. N. Darby.

{This booklet published by Morrish and also in a revision by Weston.}

Three things, beloved friends, especially come out in this chapter: 1st, the full and complete finishing, of the work which the Father had given the Lord Jesus to do; and 2nd, while that gives the full consciousness of the place we are in with God, there is the jealous care, and the holiness and watchfulness in the path in which we are called to walk down here; and 3rd, the blessed and gracious love of the Lord, "having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end," and the way He made Himself a servant in order to minister to us.

It is important for us as Christians to see our place with God in Christ; to know distinctly what that place is; many sincere souls do not know it, do not know their relationship with God, what the blessed Son of God has done for them in dying for them and bringing them to God, and at the same time, how that bears upon holiness of walk.

The Lord shews here that no defilement can be allowed, and then adds the measure of this. Suitability of walk and conduct flows from the place you are in: you cannot expect any one who is not a child or a servant to behave as a child or a servant. Evidently, then, it is of all importance to know the place I am in, as all my duties flow from it. The moment the relationship is there the duties are there, but you cannot get the relationship by doing the duties. It is of all importance to see the connection between the grace of God that brings salvation, and our walk and conduct; we must see what the relationship is before we can have the consciousness of its duties. The Lord would bring us, perhaps through painful exercises, to the consciousness of the place we are in, and the gracious, loving provision there is for us in that place, never to allow unholiness. You see, beloved friends, if it were only the being saved, that would be a blessed thing, but He brings us into positive relationship with Himself, in infinite love and perfect righteousness. He came into a world of sinners for this. We have the treasure in earthen vessels, but the relationship is settled. "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Therefore His first word to Mary after His resurrection is, "Go tell my brethren, I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." My Father is your Father too. He puts them into His place; He has brought them into it and tells them where He has brought them.

But that is not all. The moment I estimate the cross according to the word of God, I get to this, as the apostle says, "If one died for all, then were all dead." I see One who came in unspeakable love to save me; God said: I have yet one Son, one thing I can do to see if I can waken up right thoughts and feelings in these husbandmen. But when they saw the Son, they cast Him out and slew Him. In calling ourselves Christians we profess to be in a world which has cast out the Son of God; we are in a world of sinners, condemned sinners.

God was dealing with man; He tried and tested man, who had got out of his place where God had put him in Paradise, to see whether He could reclaim his heart, and all that ended in bringing out the condition in which man was; it shewed that he preferred anything to God - money, pleasure, duties (I do not speak now of sin), but no object too small to govern the heart and to shut out Christ. Take dress: is that too small? Take money: it is the same case with all our hearts, you never found a natural man thinking of Christ as the object of his heart. If alone in a room for two or three hours, he thinks of his sorrows, of his joys, but not of Christ.

You never find a man ashamed of a false religion; a Mahometan, if you are making a bargain with him, will stop to say his prayers if the hour comes, and you may wait till he has done. Gods that even man might be ashamed of, they are not ashamed of, but you find true Christians ashamed of confessing Christ. The true God people are ashamed of, but of a false religion, never!

Any object and every object in the natural heart has displaced Christ. I own Jesus the Son of God has come and died for me, and do I prefer a bit of dress to Him? All this tells us what scripture says: that the carnal mind is enmity against God, that every object is dominant over it, and even when we do love God we are often ashamed of Him!

It is not now a question of trying to arrange ourselves a little and set things straight; but the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost; my natural condition is, I am lost.

Where men get their enjoyment, if you only bring Christ in, it is all spoiled; the natural man never enjoys Christ, and as Christians we have to watch ourselves, lest we slip into that state of things.

First comes the honest conviction that I am lost, and then I find what God has done, and that is another thing altogether.

The law came to require from me, but He came to bring salvation to me, because I was lost. If I own myself as a sinner, I cannot go into heaven as a sinner of course, so the question is, What has He done for me that I may be cleansed? Supposing I have been brought thoroughly to confess that I am lost, I turn to Christ, and what do I find there? That when I did not think of God, God was thinking of me; that is what I get, and I have then, with no seeking of mine, what the spring of God's thoughts and heart were towards me, that He spared not His own Son. If I acknowledge myself as a sinner, I find what the blessed Son of God has done. I find the spring of His heart. He cannot allow sin, He is perfect in holiness and righteousness, and I find Him doing, what love always does when it is real, considering the whole state of its object. I was dead, and He comes into death, judgment was against me, and He takes the judgment. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and I see One coming in love and goodness and grace which astonishes me, as it did the poor woman by the well. He must bring us into truth and light. He says, You are so vile, you are not fit to shew your face to a decent person; but there is the revelation of God in Christ; it comes not as a claim upon me, but as grace to me; it tells me I am a sinner, or why should it come? It brings all that out to me. If the highest measure of grace is the cross of Christ, it is the very thing that shews me where I was. Why should I go down into some dreadful ditch, if there was not some one there to pull out?

I get this perfect work done, finished, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do," so that He is set down at the right hand of God, accepted by God. He gave Him in love and accepted Him in righteousness. God is satisfied, more than satisfied, glorified about the sin. The cross is the place where good and evil met completely, absolutely. I get all the evil of man shewn out against Christ; He was going about doing good, healing all their diseases, and even Pilate could say, What do you kill Him for? It was enmity against God.

But if I get all the wickedness of man's heart, what do I find on the other side? Absolute obedience and perfect love to His Father. "That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do." Where do I learn love? "Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us."

There is no such perfect display of perfect righteousness anywhere, as in Christ drinking that dreadful cup. I get most solemn righteousness and the perfect love of God to the sinner too. If we look at the moral glory of the cross, I get the whole question of sin perfectly settled, and God has glorified Christ up there. What did He die for? For my sins, according to the scripture. If I come as a poor vile sinner to the cross, I see Him bearing my sins in His own body on the tree, and now in glory. Has He got them there? I see Him standing here for me in righteousness drinking that dreadful cup, the very thought of which made Him sweat great drops of blood, and then, having purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Not like the Jewish priests who were often offering the same sacrifices, but for ever sat down because the work is finished. If the work is not perfect, it never will be. I am not speaking now of your appreciation of it, but of the work itself; if we live near to God, we shall appreciate it more every day, but the work is done.

I get then, beloved friends, this blessed truth - that coming to God by Him I find that work which is a proof of the love of God to me when I was a sinner, and I find it done and accepted when I was a sinner. Of course my heart is changed too, or I should not care about it in that way.

He is waiting till His enemies are made His footstool, having brought me to God by that work. And God is anxious in His love to put it before us in every shape in which it can meet our need.

You say you are guilty; but God has justified you: defiled by sin; yes, but God says, I have cleansed you with the precious blood of my Son: but you say, oh! I have offended God dreadfully - so you have, but, I have forgiven you. Then the Holy Ghost came down at Pentecost, and is given to every one who believes. "In whom after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." "Your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost." "If any man confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God." Oh! that those words rested in our hearts and consciences, beloved friends!

There is the place we are brought into, but we shall not get fully into the glory till the Lord Jesus Christ comes again, "I will come again and receive you unto myself." "When he shall appear we shall be like him." "The glory thou hast given me, I have given them." The purpose of God is (I am speaking to you as believers) to bring us into the same glory as His Son.

I earnestly desire for your hearts, that you should get clear hold of that - how all is cleared of the first Adam, that we might have all the blessing the second Adam gets. He became a man that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren; the dignity of His Person is always maintained, but He will never be satisfied until He sees you there in the same glory, with Himself and as Himself for ever.

If I pay a man's debts, and leave him without a farthing, he is a ruined man still; but Christ has paid our debts, and has, so to speak, given us an immense fortune besides, and, "as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." The scripture teems with passages which shew the way in which we are associated with Himself. As soon as Christ was gone up into heaven, the witness of divine righteousness, the Holy Ghost, came down, that we might know it, "because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father." How can I say Father, if I do not know I am a child? It would be hypocrisy. If the conscience is purged by the blood of Christ, relationship is known by His Person, and then I must walk as a child; but I must know that I am a child first. I cannot expect people to walk as Christians if they are not Christians; something else has to come first: they have to confess their sins, and be saved.

Now if you believe in the Lord Jesus, beloved friends, can you say, I know I am in Christ? "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." I have to manifest the life of Jesus in my mortal body, but I must have it first; how can I manifest it if I have not got it?

Supposing I have listened to that word, "My Father and your Father," He has brought me into the same place as Himself, and I am waiting for God's Son to take me there in person; death has lost its sting, and if I die, it is to be with the Lord. "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." The full result will not be till He comes again, and the marriage of the Lamb takes place; we are not in the glory yet, we know.

We might think that Christ having gone up into glory, all His service was over; but it is not so; love never gives up itself, and never gives up the happiness of those it loves. If a child goes wrong, the Father's heart yearns over him; he may have to punish, but the heart goes after him. Christ's love is perfect, and it never gives up its service if it can make the loved one happy, and this we get here. The supper over - He came from God and was going back to God in all the blessed perfectness in which He came, and what does He do? He says, I am among you as one that serveth. Is there an end of His service now? No; He rises from supper, testifies He cannot stay with them here, but tells them He must have them with Him there. He could not stay as Messiah, I am going away as your Forerunner, I go to prepare a place for you.

We get this in two ways: first, He is as priest, serving, "He ever liveth [think of that!] to make intercession for us." That is not exactly for sin, but that we may not sin. I a poor sinner upon the earth, and He always at God's right hand occupied with me.

But in this chapter I get another thing. Supposing I do sin, how are my feet to be washed? (This alludes no doubt to the custom of the priest's consecration; his body was washed when he was consecrated, but whenever he went to do anything at the altar, he washed his hands and feet - it was as much as to say, there must be holiness). He that is washed, needeth not save to wash his feet; he cannot be regenerate over again. The word used for washing the body and washing the feet is not the same in this chapter in the original.

We are cleansed by water and by blood; but then there is always this danger: here I am, walking through this world always ready to defile me, there is the danger of picking up dirt upon my feet, and when the Lord goes into heaven He takes what heaven is as a measure of our walk. He does not pray that we should be taken out of the world, but kept from the evil. Looking up to the Lord in glory we are changed into the same image from glory to glory. "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." I see Christ in glory, I know I am going to be like Him, and I say, I want to be as like Him now as ever I can. That is what Paul meant, "that I may win him." He sees Christ in glory, knows he is going to be like Him, and now tries in every possible way to be like Him here.

But supposing we fail - there is no excuse for doing so, it is our own carelessness and neglect - but He says, I am going up on high and I shall wash your feet. I have washed you here, "ye are clean through the word that I have spoken to you." Peter was ashamed of seeing the Lord there like a servant to wash his feet, but when he hears he must be washed he says, "not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." No; He says, that is enough. "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father . . . . and he is the propitiation for our sins." The propitiation is unchanged, but another service comes in. If I have sinned, I do not say, I am not under the blood of sprinkling, but, can the Father have fellowship with an unholy thing? No! It says, "if any man sin," not, "if any man repent." The advocacy brings us to repentance to be sure.

If only I have let an evil thought come in, do you think God has communion with that? It were blasphemy to say so. I have found my pleasure, if only for a moment, in what made Christ's agony on the cross, horrible to say so, but if it made His agony, it cannot be imputed to me. I am convicted, humbled, like poor Peter led to repentance. It was not because he repented that Christ prayed for him, but Peter repented because Christ prayed.

What I get in the present work of the Lord Jesus is this: if by anything I defile my feet, He takes away the taint, because I belong to this place. He does not raise the question whether I do belong to it, He acts because I do belong to it. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." Holiness is maintained because I am in this relationship. God says, I cannot have defiled people in my house; He chastens that we may be partakers of His holiness. He brings the word of God, which reveals what I am, to bear upon my conscience. He restores my soul and leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

The Christian is standing between the first coming of Christ, which accomplished redemption, and His second coming which takes him to glory, and meanwhile the Holy Ghost is given to every one that believes; He makes me cry, Abba Father, the witness that I am a child, and is the earnest of the inheritance. He gives me the certainty of the efficacy of Christ's work when He first came, and leads my heart on to the glory.

But I must have holiness, and I get grace still working and giving me the measure of what I am. It tells me I am going to be like Christ, and he who has this hope purifies himself - and I get the measure of my walk - "even as he is pure." Not that I have attained, I never shall until I am with Christ. but I ought to be always going on, never to soil my feet, never to do anything inconsistent. There are three things: we are to walk worthy of God, who has called us to His kingdom and glory; worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing; worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. It is put before us in these three shapes.

We get the perfect settled consciousness of the relationship into which we are brought, and then the conduct which suits those who are in this place.

Do your souls know, beloved friends, supposing you profess it, that your consciences have got hold of the efficacy of His work? "Peace I leave with you"; can you say you have got it? Do you fear the judgment seat? There is no place in which a Christian may be so bold, because, raised in glory, as He is, so are we. Do you believe that your sins will be no more remembered? Many a one sees it in scripture and says it is true, but can you stand in thought before the judgment seat, in the consciousness that it is so? - that you are divine righteousness before God?

One more question. If you can thus stand, are you seeking to be in everything the epistles of Christ? whatever you do, to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus? (We shall need carefulness, searching of the word, &c., exercises which make good soldiers.) The motive is the great thing. If I love my father, and he wishes this book to be laid this way instead of that, I put it so, because I love my father.

The Lord give us to have His will as the one object of our lives, the motive of all we do, to remember that we are not our own but bought with a price. May He give us to have our eyes upon Him, that we may know His love and seek His will!

Peace, Grace, and Glory

Romans 5: 1-11

J. N. Darby.

(Notes of a Lecture)

{Helps in Things concerning Himself Vol. 2, 1892, Pages 124-132.}

The statements in this chapter are founded on the last verse of the previous one. God is calling back our hearts to have confidence in Himself, confidence which man had lost in the garden of Eden. Eve trusted Satan, and thought that God had kept back the thing which would make her happy. No matter how wicked, or how far a person may be from God, he may trust Him. A person that would be ashamed to shew his face to any one in the world, may go to God and trust Him. The gospel wins back the heart to God, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." What God has done in Christ, is, that before He comes to be a Judge, He came to be a Saviour. He has anticipated the day of judgment, to win our hearts back to Himself, in Christ. If we neglect this salvation, we are doubly guilty. Before ever the day of judgment comes, God has sent His Son, that we might know His perfect grace, and know it in a work which was the most terrible judgment of sin possible.

Having gone through their sinfulness as Gentiles and Jews, in the first three chapters; and in chapter 4, death and resurrection; in the first eleven verses of chapter 5 he applies it. He speaks of the abundant and rich grace of God; and then in v. 11, you may joy in God; not merely in the salvation, but in God Himself; I may delight in my Father. It is all peace as regards the past; favour and grace as regards the present; and glory in the future.

The gospel is not, that some of our sins are hidden, but they are all out, and I have peace about them because Christ was delivered for them. We may have forgotten many things that we have done, but the Lord knows everything, and He has given His Son for me; there I get peace made by the blood of His cross.

Peace is a strong word. I may have joy, and some trouble along with it, but with peace I have no trouble at all. Christ has met God alone on the cross, and, in drinking that terrible cup, He has made peace for us. I see that Christ came down here for my sins, and the holiness and righteousness of God dealt with Him about them on the cross, so I get peace with God. Sins are the things that make us guilty. The fact of the existence of the flesh does not give me a bad conscience; it does so only when I have let it act. I am justified in respect of guilt; with regard to defilement, I am cleansed; I have offended, and am forgiven. If I am born of God, I see what my sins are; for when we get into the light, we see how dirty we are. Holiness comes in along with justification, but it is not the subject of this chapter. The moment I am born of God, the holy desires are there; and then comes in this beautiful chapter; and I am not merely justified, but I have power. I am before God, not according to my sins, but according to the value of Christ's blood. Nobody put it into God's heart to send His Son - Ah, I say, then I find perfect love in God's heart. I have got into God's own perfect favour, that present grace wherein we stand. He loves me as He loves Jesus. God never changes. It is not only that the grace is unchanging, but that I as a present thing am standing in it, and if I look up to God, I have in my soul the consciousness of infinite favour. I know, in thinking of the cross of Christ, that it was God's infinite love which passeth knowledge, that gave Him to die for us. I know God's heart a great deal better than I know my own, for I cannot trust my heart and feelings a moment; but having God revealed to me I know who He is. I cannot reckon on myself; but when I have learnt this love of God I say, Well I know he is not a poor creature like me, for I know who He is. In that work on the cross, I had no part but my sins; nothing but the hatred that killed Christ, and the guilt he bore. He was perfect love, and therefore I am on my face in the dust at the sins He should have had to bear, but He was perfect love. It is not only that the sins are cleared, but I also get the sense of divine favour in my soul; it is my present standing with God. How could poor worms like us talk of being in the glory of God, if God had not brought it about. It is a wonderful thing. Where God has cleared away all the sins, He gives the glory too.

I feel strongly the importance of this present "grace wherein we stand;" it forms the condition of my soul now; I am standing in this favour of God. When I look up to God, and I see nothing but the light of His countenance, the only thought I have is, perfect love and favour. "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them." We are first put into our place; and then it goes on, You are standing there in favour.

Well, what am I going to get? The glory of God - "Rejoice in the hope of the glory of God."

"And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also." May be, there is more evil in my heart than I have yet discovered," He withdraweth not his eye from the righteous." He is always looking at me, perhaps to correct me and help me. Job was getting into a subtle kind of self-righteousness. With Job, it is God who begins the battle, not Satan. God corrects and disciplines him, and sends all these things to help him; until, instead of saying, "When the eye saw me, it blessed me," he says, "Now mine eye seeth THEE, wherefore I abhor myself." "Ah," God says, "now you know yourself, and that is all I wanted to teach you; now I can bless you." That is the end of the discipline. Having this perfect love in the heart, we have the key to all these tribulations.

"Patience worketh experience." If I get my will broken, I know myself better, and I know God better. The effect of all this is to break my will, and to purify me of things that I wanted to get rid of. I get broken and exercised, and at the same time know the grace and love and faithfulness of God.

Then I get back to hope. I have the key in the perfect love, to all that comes upon me, and I say, In that, God has been thinking of me to do me good. I have the certainty of God's love, for He gave His Son for me; and if I were to ask God to give me proof of His love, He would say, He must give me a less proof than before, for He has already given me the greatest. The proof of the love is, that He has given His Son. The Holy Ghost is power; He is given us, so that there is the revelation of this love; I am in true liberty. In virtue of the blood of Christ, the Holy Ghost comes, and dwells in me. "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" How can you go and use your body for sin, when it is the temple of the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost makes me know that I am a child. I get the love of God shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost; He seals us too, and is the earnest of our inheritance.

Tribulation works patience, because it breaks my will. I kick against the tribulation if I do not see the key to it. A naughty child, put in the corner, knows very well that his father would not put him there if he did not need it. So with us, the Lord puts us in the corner, and there we must stay till He lets us out. I get the experience of God's faithful love, for I am sure He would not put me there if I did not need it. "He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous." He is constantly and unceasingly watching for their good. In Job 33 it is inward things that have to be corrected; it is correcting a disposition, to withdraw man from his purpose. In Job 36 it is actual failure, discipline for positive faults, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." The Lord has laid His hand upon me, and I must bow. It may not be for a positive transgression, but perhaps a disposition to be corrected. He has something for me to learn; there is something wrong, so He puts His hand on me in discipline. The Holy Ghost being given me, I have the key to it all, in the love of God, and I believe in this love. There are many things to correct in me, which hinder me feeling the love. I know it better, the more I am disciplined and exercised; but I have learnt it in God's having given His Son.

We have the threefold blessing; peace, favour, and glory; then tribulations. How do I know He loves me? "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." He gave His Son for me. If I have the Holy Ghost I am enjoying the love (though that is no proof); but I know He loves me because He gave His Son for me when I was alienated. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." His love is emphatic here. God loved those ungodly sinners, who were in one sense a horror to Him. He gave the best thing in heaven for this vile thing on earth. So we joy in God. I have first got to know the blessings then the patience and goodness of God, and then I say, "Well, but what a God I have!" And that is everlasting blessedness. So I joy in God Himself. I have got to know God in this. Just think what a Father I have! My joy is in Himself, and though we have it in an earthen vessel, yet we have it still. Along the road to the glory, He never withdraws His eyes from me. What a wonderful God I have! I do not glory in myself, I glory in the tribulation, because it is a proof to me that God is thinking of me.

"We which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake." It was a great deal to say, I always got the trouble for Jesus' sake. We get them for our own sake, often. In the thorn in the flesh that Paul had, it was for Christ's sake and his own as well. The highest kind of tribulation is the tribulation for Christ; only we need other kinds. The principle of sin working in us, often troubles people much. The remedy is, I am crucified with Christ; I reckon myself dead. I am alive to God in Christ, not in Adam; and as regards this old man I say, "I do not own you." Not only Christ is my life, but I am crucified with Him. I am the same person living by the life of Christ, not by my own life. As a child of Adam I own myself totally lost. God comes and gives me a new life in Christ. All Christ's death is available for me; so I reckon myself crucified with Christ. I not only have a new life, but I reckon the old one dead. I say to the flesh, You have been judged on the cross, I have nothing more to say to you. Then I ought to be "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus," always living in this way. I am not in the flesh before God; I am in Christ, and I know it in the Holy Ghost. Colossians 3: 3 is God's statement about death. Romans 5 we believe it, reckon it true. 2 Corinthians 4, we carry it out in practice.

The Perfect Man

Luke 22: 39-46, 23: 33-49.

J. N. Darby.

{From Note of Addresses, Vol. 1, pages 51-56, published by G. Morrish.}

Our blessed path, beloved brethren, while waiting for God's Son from heaven, is to feed upon Him as the bread that came down from heaven. In the midst of the toil and tossings and buffetings which are the portion of God's people while in this world, He gives us Himself as the food for our hearts. Thus, all that He was as Man while here below becomes most precious to us; but in order to feed upon Him as an incarnate Saviour, we must first know Him as crucified.

In the Gospel of Luke, the Lord Jesus is specially brought before us as the Son of man. It has been often remarked the contrast there is between John's Gospel and Matthew's. In John He is the Son of God - a divine Person; whether in Gethsemane or on the cross, you do not get suffering at all. The same scene is spoken of in both; but in Matthew you get the other side. You find in John, when the soldiers came to take Him, "As soon then as he had said unto them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground" (18: 6); but He gives Himself freely to them. If not for that, He had only to walk away and leave them lying there; but He gave Himself up for His Father's glory, and shewing His love for His own: "If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way" (18: 8) - He puts Himself forward that they may escape. So, on the cross you do not find in John the words given by Matthew - "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He gives up His own Spirit. "Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished, and He bowed his head and gave up the ghost." He gave up His own spirit.

In Matthew's Gospel you get the other side. In Gethsemane He "prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (26: 39); and when on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me." (27: 46)

In Luke's Gospel there is what might at first appear a difficulty to the mind, but it brings out Christ in a special way, so I speak of it here. In Luke there is more suffering in Gethsemane than in any other Gospel; and on the cross none at all. Why is this? Because, as man, He is above all that He is passing through. The character of the Lord's sufferings in Luke would lead us to remember, for the precious comfort of our souls, that He was perfect Man - sinless, of course, but a Man. When risen, He says, "Behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself; handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." (24: 39) He would bring home to the soul all the blessed truth of how thoroughly He was Man. Look how that is marked in Gethsemane: "When he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation." (22: 40) In Luke you find Him constantly praying as man - perfect man, obedient and dependent. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matt 4: 4) In Luke we find Him "all night in prayer to God." (6: 12) At another time "He went up into a mountain to pray, and as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered," and He was transfigured. (9: 28) In Gethsemane, "He kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven strengthening him, and being in an agony he prayed more earnestly." There you get the Man again.

Mark how in this Gospel there is more development of His sufferings than in any other. "Being in an agony he prayed more earnestly." The more He felt the depths of that dreadful cup which He was to drink, the more earnestly He prayed. With us, too often, the trouble that fills our minds turns us away from God; but "He prayed more earnestly." The agony brought Him to God; and that is just the right thing. "And his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when He rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, and said unto them, Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him; but Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" There you have in the disciples man in his infirmity; in Judas, man in his hatred and wickedness; and in Christ, man in his perfectness. The poor disciples were sleeping for sorrow while He was praying "more earnestly, being in an agony." When we come to the cross in this Gospel, we find no trace of the agony. He had gone through it in spirit in Gethsemane, and is then above it all.

I am not now speaking of His atoning work, but of His death. "Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice" - without feebleness - "yielded up the Ghost." (Matt 27: 50 ) In Luke I find these words, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." There you have the perfect, blessed, unclouded consciousness of the Man, giving up His spirit in full confidence to His Father. This characterises all that Christ was on the cross. He is above all the circumstances - so completely above them, that His occupation is with others; His first word on the cross is, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." The wretched malice and hatred of men had led to His crucifixion; but the poor Jews knew not what they were doing. They outrage and insult Him; "they parted his raiment and cast lots;" they "derided him saying, He saved others, let him save himself;" "the soldiers also mocked him" - the very malefactors "railed on him." And what do I find? - that He was above it all! He can turn to the poor thief hanging beside Him with these words, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." There was a blessed work going on in that poor malefactor's heart; in all the agonies of the cross, though believing Him to be the Lord, he seeks no present relief at His hands, but says, "Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom." And the Lord answers him, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." He shall be with Him when He comes in the kingdom, and surely He will so come; but He is now shewing the place He is taking as having put away sin, and says, No, you shall not wait for the kingdom, you shall be with me to-day in paradise.

"And it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth:" all was dark, but He brought light into it. "And when he had cried with a loud voice he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." You may call this faith or confidence in His Father. There is this difference with us, if we have seen Jesus at the right hand of God, we can say, like Stephen, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit;" but He could say, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." This blessedness He had as man, though passing through the bitterness of the cup of wrath - going into it to its fullest depths. In Gethsemane the agony was such that "His sweat was as it were great drops of blood." There He passed through it all with His Father, so that when He came to the cross He was above it all. In a certain sense that is our place; if we could only go through every trial beforehand with God, bringing God in spirit into it as He did, we should, when the trial came, have God with us in it. Ours are little trials when compared to His, but they test us and try us - no doubt of it - but the principle is the same. We should follow Him in our path, and if we take the sorrow or trial to God, even if it put us in an agony (as it may, for presenting it to God makes it more acute), we can carry that agony to Him; and we shall find that we can be above the circumstances with men, when we have gone through them perfectly with God.

Christ's obedience was perfect. His human nature, as you see in Hebrews (2: 20), was perfectly tried, but always perfect in the trial - all was perfect in Him. It is good for us to study what Christ was - really to meditate upon it, and get the benefit of it to our souls. "Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name." (Phil. 2: 8, 9)

We have to feel the need of abiding with God, and God with us. If you want to get the graciousness of Christ - if you want to grow in likeness to Him, you must feed upon Him. "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him." (John 6: 56)

The Lord give us, in the consciousness of all the sin and wretchedness and misery that is in ourselves, so to feed upon Christ, that our hearts may be filled with the blessed sense of what He was: that we may be able the more to understand the love and grace of God.

Power for Conflict

Joshua 3

J. N. Darby.

{Christian Friend 1883, pages 253-61.}

This chapter begins the testimony about the work of power which the book of Joshua presents to us. The books of the Old Testament bring before our souls certain features or characters of the dealings of God with us. In Genesis we have all the great fundamental principles brought out, such as the first Adam, the type of the last Adam; Abraham, the father of the faithful; Isaac, the Son in a figure risen from the dead; and we get these types and figures of God's thoughts all through the book. In Exodus we have the priesthood brought out, and in Leviticus all that is connected with their service. Numbers is the path of faith through the wilderness, though we often see failure in it because of unbelief. In Joshua it is Christ in the energy of the Spirit leading His people through conflicts with spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. Here too failure came in through human weakness and folly. And in Judges the failure and break-down of Israel when in possession of their privileges. In Joshua we see the way Christ acts in the power of the Spirit in them, in obtaining their privileges. Saints are now under the leading and guidance of Christ by the Spirit, so in this book. (v. 14) Christ comes as Captain of the Lord's host, because the Canaanite was still in the land.

As Jesus was led up of the Spirit to be tempted of the devil, so the conflicts of the saints are under the guidance of Christ by the Spirit in us, therefore there are many things, as regards the conflicts we are now in, which it will be of much blessing to our souls to notice, as they teach us our entire dependence on God in every step of the way. The first thing we find here is Jordan standing in the way. This doubtless refers primarily to Israel in the latter day, when the power of evil will overflow its banks, and Israel will have to be restored as through death by divine power. In Numbers it is patience in going through the world. In Joshua spiritual energy in taking possession by conquest of that which is in the enemy's hand, thus enabling us to realize those things which we should never have known but through this divine power in our souls. Thus Joshua is the energy of the Spirit, and not the patience of the Spirit as in Numbers.

Redemption brings us out of Egypt into the wilderness through the Red Sea; that is, through death and resurrection. Then, being brought home to God, they have the knowledge of being a people with Him; for "the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day ye shall see them no more for ever." And they sing the song of triumph and deliverance from Egypt, as brought home to God, before they begin their journey as a redeemed people through the wilderness. There are two points connected with this. 1st. The Lord declares Himself holy, as in the "burning bush" and the bush not consumed. 2nd. Besides the holiness of His nature, He takes a covenant relationship in the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The proper place of the ark was in the centre of Israel, with all Israel around it, "to keep the charge of the Lord." And this is what we are called to do - to watch for the Lord's honour. But when Israel are taking a journey, then the ark quits its place of being kept by Israel, and goes before to seek out a resting place for them. God thus takes His place as going before them on their journey.

God is not a consuming fire out of His people till the day of judgment, but He is now a consuming fire in His people. The patience of grace is going on with the world now, though "everyone shall be salted with fire" - His people and the world too. Now in the midst of His people His fire is working. His people are offered up to God in Christ first, and then they are salted with fire. The spiritual energy of divine grace is not absent, but the holiness of God in judgment is now in His house, not out of it. God's fire, although burning in the bush, did not consume it, neither does the fire with which the saint is salted consume the saint. The Lord presents Himself in the burning bush as the Holy One, but as come to redeem; and they were to come back to the bush - the place where He was - and serve Him on that mountain. God started from the bush, and everything contrary to His will must be consumed. The Father judgeth every man sojourning here in the wilderness state; therefore we ought to judge ourselves first in divine intelligence. Redemption was not by the ark, but by the rod on the sea; but when they started from Sinai, where God had made them His people, then the ark of the covenant of the Lord goes before them. So when we have been brought to God and made His people, we are afterwards brought to the place His hands have made. We have come to God, but not yet to the place His hands have made, for we are not yet come to our Father's house; but being brought to God we start from the place of His presence to go through the wilderness. All the dealings of God are centred round the work of Christ. The God of holiness having brought them to Himself, His ark goes before them a three days' journey, seeking rest for them, and they follow on as the people of His choice, enjoying the knowledge of His presence with them - He going before and leading them on, and giving them patience in the way. "For ye have need of patience" to go round this wilderness. We have not got the world, neither have we got Canaan; so if we are not contented with the manna we have nothing.

At the end of Numbers we see the Lord declaring, when Satan sought to curse Israel by the mouth of Balaam, that He beheld no iniquity in Jacob, nor saw perverseness in Israel; still they do not come into the land yet. Numbers ends in failure, but in an unqualified determination to bring them into Canaan. Acceptance is past, but getting into Canaan is another thing. Moses could not take them into Canaan, and the book of Joshua goes on practically where Numbers ceased. In Joshua is the fact that they get into Canaan; for in the details of this book we get in figure the heavenly condition of the saints now, as in Ephesians - "Sitting in heavenly places in Christ," but having our conflicts there, too, with wicked spirits. The book of Joshua then shows the heavenly path of the saint's life now, while the book of Numbers is the earthly path. The Red Sea was death and resurrection by which Israel was brought to God, whereas Jordan is the saint's moral death - death and resurrection in spiritual power. As such the saint is under the Captain of our salvation - the warrior Christ in spiritual energy. The more the saint realizes what it is to go through Jordan, the great power of evil overflowing its banks so that there is no fordable place to put one's foot upon, the deeper will be the sense of the conflict; but it is all swept away so that there is no passing through the water at all. To have a heavenly life here, or enjoy a heavenly life hereafter, nature must pass through death. When flesh came to deal with Satan then there were giants, and the Israelites were but as grasshoppers, and they could not go up; so God has to take them round another way.

The ark takes the first place on the journey of death to lead God's people into it, because through death and resurrection is "the way by which ye must go; for ye have not passed this way heretofore;" that is, nature or flesh had never passed that way before. But now ye must go through this Jordan with the whole power of death overflowing all its banks. Therefore, when ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God remove, "ye shall remove from your place and go after it;" that is, seeing Christ passing through the very same circumstances first, we must remove from our place of fleshly ease and follow after Him. But there is another thing true to us - that the power of spiritual life can only be enjoyed so far as we are dead to the world, and entering, with spiritual energy into the conflict. Therefore the apostle, having the sentence of death in himself, could go into the conflict saying, "I am a dead man trusting the living God." You cannot pass through Jordan without going into it; you cannot fly over it. It must be passed through by the feet; but then Christ passed through before us. We do not learn to pass through Jordan when in it; we learn it before. It will not do to enter Jordan by natural effort; it must be by the power of Christ's presence in the place of death, When we have courage to follow Christ, then we find Christ, and there is no Jordan at all. Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego were raised in the world by being in Nebuchadnezzar's court, and therefore got into the fire; but being faithful they found the Lord there, and no fire at all. The moment the priests' feet touch the waters, the waters cease. Were we to attempt to go through Jordan in our own power, we should be drowned; but when in the power of Christ, when we "behold the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passing over before into Jordan," then we find the water all gone. We are called to take the place in resurrection which Christ has taken, and death has no more dominion over Him. Nearness to God in the place of death is divine power in the saint. The flesh would be drowned by the water overflowing its banks unless there be the manifestation of the superior power of Christ over it.

In John 18, when Judas and the band of men and officers came to take Jesus, He said, "Whom seek ye? They answered, Jesus of Nazareth;" and as soon as He said unto them "I am He," they went backward and fell to the ground, thus manifesting the superiority of divine life in a man over the whole power of evil. Therefore we do not get the scene in Gethsemane in this gospel, because it is the Son of God passing onward in divine energy; consequently the waters even do not touch His feet, and the whole power of evil falls down before Him. When we find our feet touching the waters of death, it is the power of the divine life of Christ over the waters of Jordan exhibited in us; for the priests were to "stand still in Jordan." To the people Joshua said, "Hereby shall ye know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out before you the Canaanites . . . from the land." It was but enumerating the catalogue of things which were to be the occasion of manifesting the divine power. "The priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan until all the people were passed clean over Jordan;" so the power of Christ is there until every one is gone over. If our souls are occupied about going through Jordan, we shall never be able to venture into it; but if we see Christ there, and follow Him without thinking about Jordan, but only about Him, we shall pass right through, and find no Jordan at all.

To Joshua, when the Lord was acting in the midst of His people as Captain of the Lord's host, He said, "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy."

The Lord does not bring them immediately into conflict, but first gives them the corn of the land - the natural growth of the country - and the manna ceases; for they are now at home. Thus we have not merely the strength we need to get through the evil, but the enjoyment of feeding on that which is the fruit of the land itself - feeding on Christ in heaven. They are circumcised, keep the passover, and eat the corn of the land: the reproach of Egypt is rolled away. When we have the taste for heavenly things, we disrelish that which savours of the reproach of Egypt; but there must always be the getting back to Gilgal. From thence begin their conflicts. Then there is the Captain of the Lord's host; for if we enter into conflict without the spirit of dependence we shall fail; there may be undetected sin, which dependence and nearness to God would have brought to light and put away. There was more trouble in conquering Ai by stratagem than if they had gone up trusting in God.

May the Lord teach us how to walk in the spirit of lowliness, and as having full confidence in Him all the way that yet remains before us, seeing it is a path we have not trod heretofore.

The Spirit's Presence in the Church

Notes of a Lecture in 1860, on 1 Samuel 6 and 2 Samuel 6.

J. N. Darby.

{Christian Friend 1883, pages 74-79.}

The ark, the symbol of God's presence, is the great thing here - the symbol of the Spirit's presence in the Church, not in heaven but on earth. The grand argument of the apostle in urging us to cleanse ourselves, etc., is the divine presence in our midst (1 Cor. 3: 16, 17; 2 Cor. 6: 16, 2 Cor. 7: 1). The Holy Ghost down here is the fruit of the solicitude of Christ for His people. He had a deep sense of the high and holy ground on which His disciples were placed, one on which they cannot stand but by the power of the Holy Ghost. No sin, no coldness, can wear out His perseverance. He abides with them for ever (John 14: 16). Have you learned the mystery of oneness, the unity of Christ's members with Himself? "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou ME?" (Acts 9: 4). "He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye" (Zech. 2: 8).

Anxieties must be in the heart in order to faith and trust, to which they give place. Looking into the future, Jesus committed His mother to the care of John. "When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother" (John 19: 26, 27). He anticipated all her anxieties (comp. Phil. 4: 19). Transcendentalism, so much in fashion now, is not faith, it is not of God. We have to walk by faith, not through sublime illusions of the imagination, but amid the solid realities of the scene and circumstances we are in, and we need what is of God, real and immoveable, to lean upon. The Holy Ghost descended in consequence of the going up of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that other Comforter who shall abide with us for ever; the witness and the expression of the sympathy of His heart toward the weakness of His people. Before the interests, so dear to the Lord's heart, for His people were met, He went about among them forty days. He then went up, and for ten days God, personally, was not on the earth. No wonder they shut the door! (John 20: 19 and 26: Acts 1: 13). His fortunes were left to them, and to us, too; we are His representatives, though so very weak. The world would hate them as they had hated Him, and they should be put out of the synagogues (John 15: 18; John 16: 2). Nevertheless they had this, they loved Him, and were loved of Him. He spake peace to them; He had also promised to send the Holy Ghost; they waited in expectation, and He came, in answer to the name of Jesus Christ, and to give Him glory. Where does He abide? Where does He act? Do you really believe in the Third Person of the Trinity as actually here on the earth? If you do, you will walk carefully, and look to hear Him speak in your midst (1 Cor. 12, 14; 1 Peter 4: 11).

The second chapter I read, calls us up to the exceeding high place He has set us in; calling forth emotions toward the object of love; for the acts of God's love, taken hold of and appreciated by the soul, become creative, and by the power of the Holy Ghost produce the feeling that responds.

Do you believe in a Divine inhabitor of the church, and that for the name of Jesus Christ nothing can drive Him away? And do you hold this truth dearer than any, save the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ?

The coming of the Holy Ghost was in answer to the purpose of the Father, and the prayer of the Son. True, but it was also connected with the prayers of His people. All the promises of God are the awakeners of prayer and expectation in the souls of those to whom the promise belongs, before it is realised. The actings of God's grace are in answer to faith. Faith does not stagger at truth, yet I am free to say, that no one knows what faith is who has not staggered. True faith removes the staggering, but if a soul has not staggered at the immensity of the thing revealed, it is because he has narrowed it up into some little object that human thought can reach. What! He a worm and no man, yet God! Some object to the expression "blood of God."* What else? Was He not as truly God as man? All the actings of divine love and grace become true only to faith. The grace of God must needs be invincible, and irresistible, too, or we should come badly off.

{*This expression, which is nowhere found in Scripture, is derived by inference from Acts 20: 28. But verses 22 to 27 inclusive, are a parenthesis, and by reading the passage in that way the antecedent to "He" in verse 28, will be found to be "our Lord Jesus Christ" in verse 21. Tr. (See also New Trans. by J. N. D., Acts 20: 28, and the note. Ed.)}

The multitude in the upper room were believers, they were in the Father and in the Son, yet they waited for another. The Holy Ghost was an object of faith, "whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him" (John 14: 17). He is the object of knowledge, too, not merely the power of knowledge. He recalls the sorrows of the Lord Jesus Christ, and unfolds His glories. He is not less the object of faith since He has come, than He was before. His actings are in the name of Jesus Christ. He is here to repeat Jesus Christ, and so emphatically fulfils the word "I will come to you" (John 14: 18). The Lord Jesus Christ was the unsolicited gift of the Father's love (John 3: 16). Who could ever have imagined such a gift? Faith and the Lord attract each other. The leper came to Him, He went to the house of Jairus. The woman's touch (Mark 5: 28) became the pulse of life between them. This is found repeatedly in the Gospels. Never let us help one another to unbelief. I know that God is the Creator of faith, but He uses human hearts and human lips, therefore let us encourage one another. "Smite," - "smite" (2 Kings 13: 18, 19).

The Lord when on earth surrendered Himself to faith, and acted according to the measure of it, when it was great, "As thou hast believed, so be it unto thee" (Matt. 8: 13). "O, woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee, even as thou wilt" (Matt. 15: 28). When faith was small, He acted according to Himself, see Matt. 8: 26, where the disciples' "little faith," was answered by a "a great calm."

Faith is not a human virtue, suspicion and distrust naturally grow with our growth. We are all liars (Rom. 3: 13), and because we are so, we think all men liars, and believe no one. But faith is the gift of God, faith in Him (Eph. 2: 8). The Holy Ghost is here, but how we use Him is another thing. My consciousness of His presence depends upon His acting, not upon the fact only of His divine presence. If I don't believe it, I lose the blessing. His presence does not depend upon our behaviour, but our perception and enjoyment of it do.

Love never cavils, never reasons, never argues, but runs to obey, and would have nothing to do with what is not according to the will of its object; it delights in the words of Him it loves. Jesus Christ must reign supreme, love says so. He would not be one among many gods, as the heathen would have placed Him, nor would we consent to such a thing.

The church was never crucified for me, and though very dear, I'll not put her in His place. Love seeks to dwell in its own place. Oh, how grievous, that when He makes such a promise as "there am I in the midst of them," we don't esteem it more. He who is present in love is holy, and we may not trifle with His holiness. What is the table? What but the highest communication of a living love, "Do this in remembrance of me?" The holiness of God is never overlaid by grace. The character of the grace of God is, that it makes a way to lift you up to be partakers of His holiness. Remember all the actings of the Holy Ghost are in answer to the name of Jesus Christ. Would you have that divine person to be less holy? Rather would you not have your hearts lifted up to understand that divine presence in all its holiness. The incarnation is for life and worship, not for reasoning about.

The temple, exceedingly magnifical, was left desolate (Matt. 23: 38). Though the priests were very busy, all was hollow, the substance was gone; but in the upper room (Acts 2: 2) the Spirit was the glory. A wretched place comparatively, but the scene of the divine presence. The dove had its home there.

{The Notes are very fragmentary, but the truth is precious, and calculated to help souls. Though the sentences want finish, they are sufficiently clear and very suggestive. Ed.}

The Presence of Christ and Spiritual Intelligence

J. N. Darby.

{Notes of an Address}

{Helps in Things concerning Himself Vol. 2, 1892, pages 176-186.}

There are two points which are on my mind to say a word about. First, the way in which the Lord's own presence orders the path and gives character to testimony. Secondly, the way in which personal attachment to the Lord Jesus Christ gives intelligence in everything. The way to get spiritual intelligence as to all the things of God, is to have Christ as everything to the heart.

I turn to the Old Testament with regard to the first point, for there you get a striking history of the total failure of man. Stephen alludes to it in Acts 7, proving that man, dealt with by the law as responsible, was an entire failure, and at the cross man was fully rejected. Man is lost, but the process he goes through is to find out. To get a clear apprehension of divine things, we must see that we are lost, and if that is the case, we are not in a state of probation. We may get the knowledge of sin by the law, but the thing a man must be brought to the knowledge of is, that he is lost! "If one died for all, than were all dead." This is a very solemn position to recognise ourselves in, but it is not the first thing we learn; we learn first what we have done. If you ask persons if they are sinners, they say, We are all sinners; but if you say, Have you sinned enough to be lost? they say, Oh dear no, I hope not. In the death of Christ, man rejected the grace that had come in to him, and the One who had all the promises. The Gentiles were lawless, and the Jews broke the law; but when Christ came, there was a despising of mercy.

The condition of man from Adam, was that of sinners outside the garden. When God had given the law, it was broken - and when there was "none righteous, no not one," God comes in to the world in love, and man turns Him out (though, of course, He fulfilled His own purposes at the same time). That was more than sinning against Him, it was positive hatred. First you get lawlessness, lust, and self-will - then law-breaking - and then the positive rejection of God come in grace. The history of man is thus closed, and God begins on His own footing. It is not now what you have done, but as was said to Israel, "What hath God wrought?" The only possible relationship with God, depends now on what God has wrought.

First, the people make a golden calf - giving up God: that is always the first thing man does. When God sets up something good, man spoils it. Take Adam in the garden of Eden - take Noah; no sooner out of the ark, than he gets drunk - then the law, it is scarcely given before it is broken. Aaron too, he never puts on the garments of glory and beauty after the day of consecration. So with Solomon, no sooner established in the kingdom, than he brings in idolatry - the same with Nebuchadnezzar, the first great Gentile power. But it is a distinct thing when God comes in grace, for they despise it altogether. Government began on the part of God with Noah (Gen. 9: 5, 6), and went on till His Son came - they rejected Him, and then all was over. There was a little supplement in the beginning of Acts; but when Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, testifies to a glorified Christ, they reject a glorified Christ, as they had rejected Christ in incarnation.

But you get everything in which man failed set up again in Christ - failure in the first man, and God glorified in the second, where He had been dishonoured in the first.

At the golden calf, the trial of man was really over, "Yea, he took up the tabernacle of Moloch," Stephen quotes from Amos. That was the root that produced such terrible fruit afterwards. One finds in Moses what grace did. The Lord says to Moses, "Thou hast found grace in my sight, I know thee by name." And Moses says, "Consider that this nation is thy people," he pleads for them. There you get the fruits of grace, in contrast with the effects of sin. Moses is a beautiful picture of grace, but not as Christ was. God says to Moses that He will destroy the people in a moment, and they were to put off their ornaments, that He might know what to do. But Moses says, "If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiff-necked people." That is just what we have to do. Why must I insist on having God with me? Because, unless I have Him with me in His grace,  I shall never get through the wilderness, with this terrible flesh about me. I give as a reason, Because I am so bad; and through grace He can have me with Him, in spite of all my infirmities. I say, In my flesh dwells no good thing; if you do not go with me, I shall never get through the wilderness.

It is in separation that God deals in grace with Moses, in connection with his going outside the camp - the camp was deserted, but God was outside. The tabernacle had not really be set up then; so now, the building of God is not finished. There was nothing established on earth when He said, "I will build my church;" but He did establish a church on earth, responsible in its place, which has failed altogether - that is why we speak of ruin. The Lord says, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it;" they never will against what He builds. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul puts the church under the responsibilities of builders; but man fails in that, as he does in everything. Paul says to the elders of Ephesus, "After my departing, even of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things." He says, As soon as I am gone you will see how it will all be; and we have seen. Not a stone that Christ builds but will be safe in glory. The history of the so-called church is a history of iniquity - if you read the history of the heathen, you will not find such a history as that of the church.

The thing that Moses does, is to take the tabernacle and put it outside the camp. What was the effect of this? The Lord was in it; He came down to the door and talked to Moses, as a man speaketh unto his friend. He comes down in the cloud; we have something better, for we go into the cloud. God refers to this speaking face-to-face as a special favour shewn to Moses. When there had been this separation, Moses got such communion as he never had in the camp. When he was up in the mountain, and God tells him that Israel has made a golden  calf, and says, I will consume them, but will make of thee a great nation; Moses says, No, Thy glory is concerned in that. Why? Because he identified God's people with God's glory; and when he comes down from the mount, he identifies God's glory with God's people, and says "Slay every man his brother" - you get the very same principle in both cases. If I see God's people in evil, I say, You must be dealt with by the rod. Moses sets up the tabernacle outside the camp, and God owns it. There was no holy of holies then - it was a meeting place with the Lord. "And it came to pass that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle." They sought the Lord, that is what governed the whole. The golden calf was in the camp; the Lord was in the tabernacle, which was not then set up in its completeness.

You will see what the communications were with Moses at this time. (Ex. 33: 13.) "Show me now thy way, that I may know thee." There you get knowledge. Then "That I may find grace in thy  sight" - not that he had not found grace, but he wanted to know it every moment. "Consider that this nation is thy people." He never forgets God's people, though God would not call them His people. God's presence is the next thing. Moses must know God's way and have His presence. (Ver. 16.) They had sought the Lord when the tabernacle was set up outside the camp, but Moses now wants His manifest presence. Here I find that God's presence was the centre that governed the whole, that stamped the character of the whole thing, and if you have not that, you have nothing. It was when the sin was manifested in the camp, that Moses insists on the Lord's presence. It was God's way and God's presence that were to separate them from all the people on the earth. Moses gets bolder in faith, "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." But he could not see His glory, there was no atonement then - the cloud was not His glory. We have here two principles - one, the total failure of what God had set up, then we get the Lord's presence and the Lord's rest.

Two characters are brought out here, Moses and Joshua. Joshua did not leave the tabernacle, that is where the difference is between them. Joshua is the figure of Christ spiritually at the head of His People. We must be as near the Lord as Moses was, and the effect of nearness to Christ is love to all the people of God, even if they go wrong; but, at the same time, if I am near Christ I cannot go with any who are going wrong. It is only so far as we know how to separate from the vile, that the Lord says we shall be as His mouth, but we must be close to Christ to be enabled to do it according to His mind. I am speaking now of broad principles.

The first point I desired to shew you was, how the Lord's presence governed everything; now I will shew you some instances of personal attachment to Christ being the  origin of intelligence. I  was greatly struck with Mary Magdelene's history in John 20. The disciples go to their own homes, but there was no home for Mary without her Lord, and she stands there weeping. Though she turns and sees Jesus, at first she thinks He is the gardener. Her attachment to Him leaves her all alone with Him; it will lead to  communion with others, but there must be the soul alone with the Lord. The other women came early in the morning, but she came while it was yet dark. The disciples had gone home, but that would not do for Mary; she had not got Christ, and her heart could get nothing, if it did not get Him, and she is the first to whom He reveals Himself, and makes her the messenger of intelligence, for the disciples as yet knew not the scriptures. To her He says "Touch me not." He did not mind other women touching Him, but He says to her, That is not for you yet, "But go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God and your God." This is the first time He calls them brethren. Mary got the truth from Himself; He tells it to the disciples, but it is by Mary He tells it. There I get the secret of divine knowledge, and so you will always find it. She was wrong in one sense, in seeking the living among the dead, but there was this thorough attachment to Christ, and the consequence is that she gets the first revelation of Christ. She was the vessel of knowledge because she was attached to Christ.

Take the woman who was a sinner, in Luke 7, there was thorough attachment to Christ, and what was the consequence of this poor wretched creature's love? There was light, the knowledge of complete salvation, whilst the self righteous Simon, delighting in his own heart, was in perfect darkness - does not think God's Son even a prophet! But the woman loved much, and the Lord turns to her and says, "Thy sins are forgiven. Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." One sees forgiveness, salvation, and peace, connected with that poor creature's attachment to Christ. Her heart had been won to confidence, and she gets salvation revealed.

Take another instance. There was Martha and there was Mary. Martha was much cumbered about much serving, but Mary was sitting at the Lord's feet, hearing His word: just what He wanted. And what is the consequence of this learning? That she knew His mind. When Lazarus is dead, Martha goes out in the haste of her temper to meet the Lord, but soon returns to call Mary, saying, "The Master is come, and calleth for thee." Martha had the consciousness that she was not equal to this intercourse with Christ, so she goes and calls her sister. With Martha, there was no entering into the mind of Christ, but when He sees Mary weeping, He is moved deeply and groans in spirit. So when He comes to Bethany, it was this same Mary who poured the ointment on His head - her heart did it. The disciples think it a mistake, but He says, "Let her alone" - she knows all about it. It was not that she could have told prophetically what was the meaning of it, but her heart had got the instinct; she anointed Him for His burying.

Now look at the disciples in John 13. Peter could not ask Christ the question about His betrayal. Why? Because he was not on His breast. John did not place himself on Christ's bosom to get knowledge, but in being there he got it. As the apostle Paul expresses it, "We have the mind of Christ." John was in the place where he could get Christ's ear - Know Christ's secrets. But now all God's wisdom and power are in Christ, and to have the understanding of them, we must have Christ; it is when to our hearts He is practically all, that we get into His secrets. Then you are in the right place, and the right thing is done as He would have it done. I shall never get "Shew me now thy way," unless I have Christ - unless he is everything to me. Whether the habits we indulge in, or the things in which we are walking, are grieving to Christ, or whether they are like Christ, we have to look to; because  when we come to the end, there will be no life but what we have lived for Christ. The life that we live, answers to the Christ that we find when it is over. We would not like to be found not doing our duty, but faith makes present those unseen things, so that we live upon them, and we live Christ and can say, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

The Lord give us to find Him everything, beloved friends; He is far more full of love to us than we are to Him. May He lead our hearts closer to Himself, that we may get the secrets of His grace and wisdom, and then go forth in the Spirit to live a life of practical sanctification to Christ, without losing the judgement of self!

The Present Effect of Waiting for Christ

J. N. Darby.

{Christian Friend 1888, pages 237-41.}

There are two things which constitute the joy of a Christian, which are his strength on the road, and the object constantly before his heart. First, present communion and fellowship with God the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Secondly, the hope of the coming of the Lord. And these two cannot be separated without loss to our souls, for we cannot have all the profit without both of them.

If we are not looking for the coming of the Lord, there is nothing that can separate us in the same way, from this present evil world; neither will Christ Himself be so much the object before the soul, nor yet shall we be able, in the same measure, to apprehend the mind and counsels of God about the world, if there be not this waiting for His Son from heaven.

Again, if this hope be looked at apart from present communion and fellowship with God, we shall not have present power, the heart being enfeebled by the mind being too much occupied and overborne by the evil around. For we cannot be really looking for God's Son from heaven, without at the same time seeing the world's utter rejection of Him, seeing that the world itself is going wrong, its wise men having no wisdom - all is going on to judgment, the principles of evil are loosening all bands. The soul thus becomes oppressed, and the heart sad; but if, through grace, the Christian is in present communion and fellowship with God, his soul stands steady, and is calm and happy before God, because there is a fund of blessing in Him which no circumstances can ever touch or change. The evil tidings are heard, the sorrow is seen, but the Christian's heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord, and this carries him far above every circumstance.

Brethren, we all want this; for to walk steadily with God we need both this fellowship and this hope. I do not believe a Christian can have his heart scripturally right, unless he is looking for God's Son from heaven; for there could be no such thing as attempting to set the world right if its sin in rejecting Christ were fully seen. Moreover, there never will be a correct judgment formed of the character of the world until that crowning sin be apprehended by the soul. To a Christian who is looking and waiting for Christ to come from heaven, Christ Himself is unspeakably more the object before the soul. It is not that I shall get to heaven and be happy, but that the Lord Himself is coming from heaven for me, and for all the Church. It is this which gives its character to the joy of the saint; so Christ Himself says, "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." Where I find my delight, there shall you find yours also, I with you, and you with me - for ever with the Lord.

You may think to find good or produce good in man, but yon will never find waiting for Christ in man. In the world the first Adam may be cultivated, but it is the first Adam still; the last Adam will never be found there, being rejected by the world. And it is the looking for this rejected Lord which stamps the whole character and walk of the saints.

Then again there is another thing connected with my waiting for God's Son from heaven. I have not yet got the Person with me I love, and while waiting for Him I am going through the world tired and worn with the spirit and character of everything around me. The more I am in communion with God, the more keenly shall I feel the spirit of the world to be a weariness to me, although God still upholds my soul in fellowship and communion with Himself. Therefore, Paul says, in 2 Thess. 1, "To you who are troubled, rest with us." I get rest to my spirit now in waiting for Christ, knowing that when He comes He will have everything His own way; for the coming of the Lord, which will be trouble to the world, will be to the saints full and everlasting rest. Still it is not that we are to be "weary and faint in our minds;" it is not right to be weary of the service and conflict. Oh, no! Rather let me be victorious every day, but still it is not rest to be fighting. However, when walking with God, it is not so much thinking of combat, as joying in God Himself. I shall know it all better when I am in the glory, my soul will be enlarged, and more capable of enjoying what God really is; but it is the same kind of joy that I have now, as I shall have when He comes to be glorified in His saints, only greater in degree.

And if this joy in God is now in my soul in power, it hides the world from me altogether, and becomes a spring of love to those in the world; for though I may be tired of the combat, still I feel there are people in the world that need the love which I enjoy and desire that they should possess (it is the joy of what God is for me that sustains me and carries me on through all the conflict), so that our souls will be exercised in both the fellowship and the hope. Thus if I look for Christ's coming apart from this fellowship and communion with God, I shall be oppressed, and shall not go on steadily and properly. When the love of God fills my heart, it flows out towards all those that have need of it, towards saints and sinners according to their need; for if I feel the exercise of the power of this love in my heart, I shall be going out to serve others, as it is the power of this love that enables me to go through the toil and labour of service, from that attachment to Christ which leads to service, although through suffering for His sake. If my soul is wrapped up in the last Adam, attachment to Christ puts its right stamp upon all that is of the first Adam.

When this love has led out into active service, then the conflict, doubtless, will be found. In 2 Cor. 1 there is present blessing in the midst of trial; but in 2 Thess. 1 it is tribulation, and not rest out of it till the Lord come - "That ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer." In 2 Cor. 1: 3, 4 there is present blessing in the midst of the trial - "who comforteth us in all our tribulation" - so that if the sufferings for Christ's sake be ours, there is, at the same time, the comforting of God in the soul. How rich a spring of blessing is this in return for this poor little trouble of mine! I get God pouring into my soul the revelation of Himself. I get God communicating Himself to my soul, for it is really that. I find it to be a present thing; it comes home to me, to my heart, this very joy of God - God delighting in me, and I in God. He identifies Himself with those who suffer for Him.

If, therefore, the expectation of Christ and His constraining love lead us out into service, in the desire that others may share our blessing, and thereby bring us into trials or persecutions, how rich and sustaining are the consolations ministered to our hearts. "For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ." (2 Cor. 1: 5.) May the Lord ever fill our souls with the sense of His own presence, and keep our hearts under the present power of waiting for His coming.

WAITING.

Psalm 40: 1.

It is Christ's perfect life, and sorrows at the close of it, in which He refers to the faithfulness and goodness of Jehovah, so as to lead His people to confide in it, instructing them in this in which His perfection is shown. "I waited patiently for Jehovah." Patience had its perfect work - an immense lesson for us. Flesh can wait long, but not till the Lord comes in - not in perfect submission; and confiding only in His strength and faithfulness, so as to be perfect in obedience and in the will of God. Saul waited nearly seven days; but the confidence of the flesh was melting away - his army. The Philistines, the proud enemies, were there. He did not wait on till the Lord came in with Samuel. Had he obeyed, and felt he could do nothing, and had only to obey and wait, he would have said, "I can do nothing, and I ought to do nothing, till the Lord comes by Samuel." Flesh trusted its own wisdom, and looked to its own force, though with pious forms. All was lost. It was flesh which was tried and failed. Christ was tried. He waited patiently for Jehovah. He was perfect and complete in all the will of God. And this is our path through grace.

The Priestly Garments

Exodus 28

J. N. Darby.

{Translated from notes of the early series of addresses given in Switzerland. Ed.}

{Christian Friend 1887, pages 214-6.}

This chapter speaks to us of the garments with which Aaron was to be clothed to present himself before the Lord. He was the representative of the people, of those twelve tribes of Israel whose names he bore - a type of what Christ is doing for us in heaven. The Lord is not Priest after the order of Aaron, but He exercises priesthood now according to the type presented by Aaron. Now Christ is hid in God as the High Priest when he entered the holiest on the day of atonement.

A priest supposes temptations, distress, or, as in the epistle to the Hebrews, infirmities. He is the mediator to intercede on behalf of the people, and to represent them before God. I am weak, but all my weaknesses become, not a ground for judgment, but an occasion for God to display all His tenderness and all His compassion towards me, by means of our Priest. Down here Jesus washes our feet, but before God He represents us in His perfection. He displays to us down here the riches of God's grace towards us, and He presents us to God in His own perfection. Exodus 28 shows us how the Priest presents us before God. The ephod was the garment characteristic of the High Priest; the two parts of it were joined by two shoulder-pieces, which bore on two onyx stones the names of the twelve tribes. The girdle is typical of service - "Let your loins be girded." The breast-plate was fastened to the ephod, and also bore on twelve stones the names of the twelve tribes. The garments were of fine-twined linen; they were, as it were, ornamented with all possible graces, the groundwork representing purity itself.

Aaron was to bear the children of Israel before God. He carried them on his shoulders; all the burden of His people and the government are on the shoulders of Christ. If the stones had not been on Aaron's shoulders the ephod would have fallen; it was fastened by the names of the children of Israel. If Christ is Priest we are on His shoulders, borne as a memorial before God. He bears the burden and the government; He does all. Efficacy depends entirely upon Him, even in what we do for the Church. Aaron also bore the names of his people on his heart in the breast-plate of judgment. There is not a ray of God's glory and love shining upon Christ which does not also shine on us, who are borne upon His heart. The heart of Christ presents us to God. It is not only to obtain special favours, but it is we ourselves that He presents according to the love there is between Him and God. The Urim and the Thummim are lights and perfections. Aaron bore on his heart before God the judgment of the children of Israel according to the perfections of God's presence. Our sins cannot pass by Christ, and interpose themselves between God and Him. He maintains us in righteousness continually before God according to the lights and perfections of that presence. God never hides His face. He may chastise us. By our failures we may lose communion with Him; but if God hid His face from us He would hide it from Christ. It is hidden now from Israel, who is under the law. It is our shortcomings which raise a cloud between us and God; it is a consequence of our infirmity; but God's sovereign grace is by no means changed by it.

The "holiness to the Lord" (which was graven upon the gold plate, and put on a blue lace on the mitre) is always before God. Our prayers ascend in holiness to the Lord, because Christ is there. The iniquity in our holy things being borne by Him, our offerings (for there is iniquity, as all our service is imperfect) are presented before God according to divine holiness in Christ. This chapter in enabling us to understand better the extent of the love and favour, of which we are the objects, fills us with thanksgiving, and causes us to find in Christ ever new resources; for our knowledge of Him can always grow, and increase our joy.

Spiritual Songs Hymnbook, Preface of 1881.

J. N. Darby.

A new edition of this Hymn Book being required, the present editor was asked by the publisher to take charge of it. Of course the responsibility of its new contents and form must rest with him; but as it was meant for all, he took counsel with brethren in various places who came in his way, who he thought would be likely to aid in the work - a work far more difficult than those imagine who have never undertaken it.

Three things are needed for a hymn book. A basis of truth and sound doctrine. Something at least of the spirit of poetry, though not poetry itself, which is objectionable, as merely the spirit and imagination of man; and thirdly, the most difficult to find of all, that experimental acquaintance with truth in the affections which enables a person to make his hymn (if led of God to compose one) the vehicle in sustained thought and language of practical grace and truth, which sets the soul in communion with Christ and rises even to the Father, and yet this in such sort that it is not mere individual experience which, for assembly-worship, is out of place. In a word, the Father's love, and Christ developed in the soul's affections, rising in praise back again to its source. God alone can give this so as to meet the wants of an assembly. Like assembly-prayer, it must not rise too completely beyond the state of the assembly, yet must reach up to God, and raise the assembly's affections up to Him, so that what He is in grace developed in the affections of the soul should be jointly proclaimed. It is not mere wants - that would be a hymn for a prayer-meeting. A basis of truth has been spoken of, or, to speak more justly, the truth; this is evidently fundamentally necessary, but much more is. There is based on this truth a large sphere of scriptural thoughts, feelings, experiences and hopes, in which the soul moves, which ought to be scriptural.

Now in a vast number of hymns there is real piety in the affections, but connected with statements which may not touch any great foundational truth, but are unscriptural, and thus the best affections are connected with unscriptural thoughts, and this is a very real injury to the soul. Thus, suppose uncertainty as to salvation the absence of the spirit of adoption, a bright hope of being in glory when we die; these are merely taken as instances, for it applies to very many points, and souls are quite angry at losing a hymn which their piety has enjoyed, but which has connected their hopes and affections with what is not scriptural. Many such have been eliminated heretofore from the collection, but there remained still something to do. Hymns should be simple, full of Christ and the Father's love, unaffected, and in some measure elevated so as not to be mere prose. The singer must be there, but the singer associated in his thoughts with God filled from on high; yet so as not to individualise himself and leave the assembly behind him. Many most sweet hymns are too individual, too experimental, for an assembly. In this collection an Appendix is therefore added where there may be as beautiful hymns, but the assembly has been less thought of. Where possible, the hymns for the assembly are in the plural. There are hymns which suit prayer-meetings, home-devotion, even the gospel; though there the difficulty is very great. Abstractedly you are making people sing as having certain feelings, and then preaching to them because they have not.

But in actual Christendom things are not so sharply defined, and there are hidden souls and hidden wants which the hymn may give expression to, and set a soul free or make it apprehend God's love sometimes more effectually than the sermon; still there is very great danger of widespread delusion and loose apprehension of sin and grace, and the difficulty is very real. You may often find the loudest singers where the conscience is the least reached.

_________

Finally is added what perhaps should have come first: the great principle in selecting and correcting has been that there should be nothing in the hymns for the assembly but what was the expression of, or at least consistent with, the Christian's conscious place in Christ before the Father.

The reader will kindly remark that there are changes necessitated by putting "we" for "I." which, but for that, there would have been no occasion for.

The book is commended to Him who alone can give songs in the night, trusting that a hymn book, already the best known to the editor, may be still more useful to brethren sure that the Spirit, who alone can indite a genuine hymn, can alone enable it to be sung aright. J. N. D.

Searched and Known

Psalm 139

J. N. Darby.

(Notes of an Address.)

{'Helps in Things concerning Himself' Vol. 2, 1892, pages 225-33.}

The way integrity of heart is produced is by grace, and by grace alone. In the beginning the psalmist trusts God. At the close of the psalm, after he is brought to know God, after he looked at himself as made by God, his whole desire is to be searched out.

There is nothing that produces integrity of heart but sovereign grace, reigning through righteousness. There are people not awakened at all, careless people, away from God, who can boast of their delight to gratify their passions: it is folly as well as wickedness. It is the simple folly of the human heart to go on with an eternity before it, looking to get good out of things here, not liking to think what is before it, because knowing what is at the end of it - judgment, because there is guilt. "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; walk in the ways of thine heart, etc.; but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." This is where the careless young man that hates the light is; he is gay like a drunken man. He does not know the care of wretchedness; well, he is drunken, morally drunken.

They say, "If you think of God it will make you melancholy." Why should the thought of God make you melancholy? Because you have a bad conscience. If I saw a child that is melancholy always in the presence of his father and mother, I would say there is something going on there very bad. What kind of heaven would it be if the presence of God made it melancholy?

"All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do," is described in a strong way in this Psalm v. 4-12. "Whither shall I go from thy spirit?" What do souls want to go for? There is a soul before God and afraid of Him. It is a terrible thing, and terrible because it is true. How am I to get out of the sight of God? What a dreadful state, but a great deal better than the state I described before, because I should hope souls would get out of this. What would heaven be to such? "Thou art there." Well, that is enough for one in that state not to desire to be there.

We know we are in His presence, because our conscience tells us. We may deny it; but when the conscience is at all awakened, it knows it is. It knows that it has to do with God, with One that has knowledge of right and wrong; and I have got a sense of right and wrong, and God has taken care I should. When man was turned out of paradise he got a sense of right and wrong, it may be very vague, in the mind; but when the truth comes, there is a distinctness about it; and I know then what I am, and what all things are, "naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." There is not a man in this city that would not be happier now if he could know that he would be happy for eternity.

Here the soul speaks of how it cannot stand in God's presence, and yet cannot get out of it. If God does work, there must be some little sense of goodness, because He is goodness - love, if you please. There is some hope in the soul where this is so.

Now, what man always attempts is to make excuse. It does not succeed with you about your children when they do it, and yet you try to impose it on God. The human heart, where it does not get to a thoroughly broken-down state, is always excusing itself. You will find it in the Christian who has fallen and is not really humbled about it: he tries to make excuses even to himself. The excuse was Eve's condemnation. There is no good in an excuse, because it admits the evil. It leads into falseness if we try to excuse ourselves. Did you ever find a child in the habit of excusing itself that did not get into telling lies? Never! We deal with God as no one would let his child deal with him. We try to deceive God, but we cannot; we never did. You will get plenty of religion in the world, provided it is not God. They may have it from dread: it cannot be rooted out of the heart of man that there is a Being above him, though it may be perverted. There is no truth in the inward parts till we get the conscience thoroughly judged.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart." Do you think that a person could say that if he knew it was as a judge? I could not do it if I thought I was going to be condemned. You may get carelessness, forgetting God, and you may find an honest heart that hates God's presence, and cannot get out of it; or the religious heart that is always making excuses for itself. What idea have you of God if you make excuses? Why, you could not put off a sensible man with them.

Well, what gives integrity of heart? Suppose a physician comes to heal you, would not you tell him all your symptoms. This produces integrity of heart, and nothing else. "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." No iniquity! no guile! I do not want to excuse what is all put away. Suppose I am in debt. I do not like any one to see my books; I do not like to look at them myself, and there is no integrity. But when forgiven the debts, I like to look at them and see how much is forgiven. I may blame myself, of course, for getting into debt; but a forgiven debt I do not want to hide. The poor woman in the city had got confidence in His love; the love of God manifested in Christ attracted her heart to Him.

The burden of unconfessed sin is a terrible burden upon the heart. A secret is hard to keep, but a sin is dreadful to keep. One is always afraid of its coming out, and yet we know God knows it all. There is a comfort in being honest in the inward parts. And did the Lord ever reproach a poor sinner who owned his sin? Never! Though they had been insulting Him the day before, He tells them He came to seek them. Oh what a comfort to find I can perfectly trust Him! The heart rankling under the burden - and now to be able to bring it all out to One we can perfectly trust! The thief says, "we indeed justly." He tells it out because he can trust the Lord. I can go to Him and get my conscience perfectly relieved. I tell it out, and find nothing but love. He comes and presents Himself to us and says, "You may trust Me." You say, "No! I have sinned too much." "That is the very reason for coming to Him; you cannot escape judgment - so I have come in grace." I get the two names of God revealed (ver. 12): and when everything is fully revealed, I meet perfect love. God is light: in Him is no darkness at all. Well, here I am in the light, and in the light just as I am; how came that about? Why, that He is love. What the gospel does is not to allow a single sin to stand in the presence of God, but to have it taken away in grace - and that gives integrity of heart.

There I am weeping (Luke 7: 38) It is an immense relief, but it is not peace. But then comes another fact. You all know that He died for sins to put them all away. The person of the Lord Jesus Christ brought down to man, in grace lifted up upon the cross, has wrought propitiation for our sins. When I know He has come in grace I can say, "Oh, but He has borne MY sins upon the tree;" it has nothing to do with any work in our hearts. As I have often said, the importance of it is, there is nothing of mine mixed up with it, only my sins; and He finished the work according to the perfection of God, when there was not a single thought about it in my heart. I find that it was when I was an enemy the work was done for me. Whenever a person believes in God all the fulness of the work belongs to him. The heart that is utterly bad does not like to submit to the righteousness of God - to a work done entirely outside ourselves, it is too humbling. We mix up in our hearts the work for us with the work in us. Good feelings we ought to have; as a result we ought to walk in them. God will have right feeling for Christ, but no right feeling along with Christ.

You say, My heart is not happy about my debts being paid. Well, the reason is you do not believe it: when you do, you will be happy. If you do not believe what God says you cannot be happy. Feelings are right, for they are the work of the Spirit in us: but that is not the work for us. We must have Christ and His work, and nothing else whatever. "The worshippers once purged should have no more conscience of sins." The dread of consequences is not the motive of the Christian's walk. You cannot know the love of God and not love Him. A real love to God is a sense of His love in the soul. Love is shewn in the child's sense of the parents' love to it. The moment I have my conscience cleansed for ever - for ever, because the blood is always under God's eye - I find Christ, who has put them away. Then I take God's side against myself.

Verses 23, 24: "Search me, O God, and see if there be any wicked way in me." I can say to God, I want your eye to search my heart. There is the integrity of the saint. The integrity of the sinner is letting out all before God; the integrity of the saint is, "O God, search me" He does not say, " and see if there is any way of goodness in me." That he found in God. He does not want to find any goodness in himself: God does, for He has put Christ in him. The more spiritual we grow, the more we find out what we are.

And now, beloved friends, can you honestly say, "Search me, O God?" Are your hearts honestly so before God? Have you so seen the love of God as manifested in the Lord Jesus Christ that you, as sinners, can open your heart to Him? He does see it. It will come out in judgment, if it does not come out in your conscience now. The very thing God is exercising us ALL about is thinking "no eye shall see me." A man cares for his character before man, who does not care about what God thinks. A man who would not cheat men is cheating God continually. We cannot, in reality; He knows it all.

Now, do you trust Him enough to tell all out to Him? As Christians, are you able to say, "See if there be any wicked way in me?" I am not afraid of His imputing it, but are you afraid of His taking it away? You may be afraid to say it, because He may cure you of it. There are some Christians that keep their own will in a little cabinet, locked up. They pray and get answers up to that; but that is locked, and they never get on. Such a man is preparing something for himself - decay of soul, if not chastening. Whenever self works in anything Christ is not all: whatever hinders Christ is a wicked way. I am not now speaking of what is positively evil.

If you begin to think of your heart, are you glad that God should bring up what is in your heart, and say, That is the way I look at it? Could you say you would like God to give you His thoughts of it all? The Lord give us so to be under the eye that is never withdrawn from the righteous, as to be capable of enjoying Him without hindrance; every Christian in the bottom of His heart does wish it, but practically, if you knowingly keep a part in that way, you are sowing something for yourself that love must chasten. When I can see blessedness in the day of judgment, then I can say, Remove from me everything that hinders.

There is no integrity of heart without a perfect knowledge of grace. The heart cannot be with desire before God, unless the work of Christ is known. The Lord give us to have truth in the inward parts - and that we can have, because He visits us in perfect grace - that we may grow unhindered as a garden of the Lord's planting.

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The deference and obedience to a spiritual pastor will be just in proportion to the right feeling - to the holiness of mind of the Christian.

Self-Knowledge

Deuteronomy 8

J. N. Darby.

{Christian Friend 1888, pages 197-201.}

The Christian cannot be in a difficulty for which Christ is not sufficient, nor on a long, dark road where he cannot find Him enough. God's rest is where he can find perfect rest. Do you think God could find rest in this world? Have you ever found rest in it? Though He was perfect love above all the evil, yet He could not rest. When the Jews charged the Lord Jesus with breaking the Sabbath, He says that sweet and lovely word: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Could love rest in the midst of woe? When all the saints are perfectly conformed to Christ in glory, when, as is expressed in Zephaniah (and we may apply it to ourselves), "God will rest in His love," He will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. There will be nothing that hinders the enjoyment of the love and glory of God. Oh, the blessed future that is before us! The full result of redemption will be accomplished, and God will rest, because His love has no more to do to satisfy Himself.

God wants, as a present thing, our hearts to be in tune with His in our everyday life. He wants that. Therefore we find here: "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart," &c. Now, God says, "Your heart and Mine want to have a little talk together. I am going to show you what is in your heart, and to show you that I know it." He has brought you to Himself; and do you think that, if all that is in your heart is not brought out to Him, it will be all right between you? Do you think a father likes to have his heart all different to his child's heart? He likes that the whole spirit, soul, and mind of his child be suited to his mind. God passes us through the wilderness that we may learn this. You often see a true Christian not knowing where he is at his death-bed, because he has not had everything out with God day by day.

"Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men." The exercise of Paul was whether his heart was in everything attuned to God's heart. Christ's heart was. He could always say, "I do always those things which please Him." Enoch walked with God, and he had this testimony, that he pleased God. He was walking in God's presence, and the effect of it was he pleased God. You could not walk with God without having everything out with Him. If you have something on your conscience you will not be happy. Every step we take we see Him better, the light gets clearer, and we find things to judge that we had not known must be judged before - according to that which you know of the glory of God. Are your hearts up to it? And supposing they are not, what is the effect of God's presence? Why it has to set my conscience to work in order to bring me into communion. "My son, give Me thine heart." Now come, are your hearts given to God out and out?

"He humbled thee." (v. 3.) He brings us to our bearings. He causes us to live by faith. "Fed thee with manna." Do not our souls sometimes loathe the light food? Is it not often true that Christ does not satisfy our hearts? Of course, if our hearts are cleaving to something else, Christ will not satisfy us. "Man doth not live by bread only." Christ quoted this to the devil in the wilderness. He had no word from God for the stones to be made bread, and He had taken on Himself the form of a servant. His will was motionless until it had God's will to make it act. The word of the Lord abides for ever; that is the dependence of faith. Mark another thing, that while God kept His people in dependence on His word to guide them, He did not allow their raiment to wax old, neither their feet to swell all the forty years. He thought of everything for them, for "He withdraws not His eyes from the righteous" - not for a moment does He cease to think of them.

Then comes another character of His dealings. "As a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." (v. 5.) First of all, God passes us through circumstances which exercise us (feeding us and taking care of us all the time), and then there is the positive discipline for the breaking of the will. Every day one sees God doing it; and we often don't know where we are, and get questioning the love that did it. Look at Romans 5. God loves us as He loved Christ, and we are rejoicing in hope of the glory where Christ is. And not only so (when he has gone through the whole thing, that is not all), I am not only rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, but I am rejoicing in tribulations also, because God is not withdrawing His eyes from me in them. The hope is so much the brighter; for, oh, I say my rest is not here - that's a clear thing! And the hope makes not ashamed, because I have the key to it all in the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. It is God's ways and work to make us know ourselves. There can be no question of the love because He has given us the key to it all.

How, then, has He proved it? Why it goes on to state that in the next verse: "Christ died for the ungodly." Then he says again, "Not only so." What? "But we also joy in God." I have got to know myself, all my waywardness and forgetfulness of God, that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing; but in this way of self-judgment I have learnt to joy in God. It is to bring the heart into this tune with God that He has to break it down and humble it. But this being in tune with God is never reached - that settled consciousness of association with God - until, through these ways and words of God, we have got to the bottom of self. It is not that we shall not always have to contend with it; but its back is broken, and I have henceforward no trust in myself. The natural man says, "Whither shall I flee from Thy presence?" But at the end (Ps. 139) he says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart." Up to the knowledge you have of divine things, is your heart in tune with Him? Could you say, "Search me"? It is a painful process sometimes.

"Lead me in the way everlasting." Beloved friends, there is a way everlasting, and it is in that way everlasting that God comes and searches the heart. Are you content to have every motive searched out? It must be so if our communion with God and joy in Him is to be full and uninterrupted. We get these three things - the proving of our hearts, the chastening, and the conflict with Satan (v. 15) - "to do thee good at thy latter end."

Beloved, if your souls would walk in peace and fellowship with God, you must learn that there is no good in you; but you must also learn to know Him in the perfectness of His love. It is present joy and fellowship with God; and if we go on with it, when death comes, then it is "absent from the body, present with the Lord," and it is the brightest moment in the life. All these exercises of heart are self-knowledge. If you want to walk so as to glorify God in fellowship with the Father and the Son, then you must go through this having the conscience exercised to be "void of offence;" and as to the affections of the heart, having Christ at the bottom, and a walk which no one can blame at the top, but between them are all the thoughts and intents of the heart. You must have the soul practically exercised before God. You must learn the ways of God with you that you may be in tune with Him. The Lord give us to know more of a walk with Him, that we may have the kind of peace Christ had in His walk down here - that peace of heart which the soul knows in fellowship with the Father and the Son. The Lord give you to know what it is to have everything in your heart open before God.

(1878.)

Sins Blotted Out and Glory Seen

J. N. Darby.

{Bible Herald, 1877, pages 332-337.}

The knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ gives perfect and entire peace.

There is often great difficulty in the minds of men in seeing how a person can have "no more conscience of sins," when at the same time he is conscious of failure and of sin. But it is when the soul is fully purged, then it is there will be most consciousness of sin, and past and present failure; but no sense of imputation before God, or sense of Christ's work.

We see in this chapter (Acts 22) how perfectly conscious the apostle was of his sins, and yet how completely purged was his conscience; and that it was which enabled him to be most conscious of his former sins. We see the same purged conscience in Peter (Acts 2: 14). He charges the Jews with what he had done in a worse way himself. The soul cannot bear to rest distinctly on that which it knows will condemn itself, and therefore there must be always more or less guile in the heart where there is not certainty as to forgiveness. When our transgressions are seen by us to be completely "blotted out," we have no interest in extenuating our sinfulness. If I am bankrupt I shall be ashamed to look at my books, because they will show me that I am a ruined man; unwilling to own all my indebtedness, if one came to see my affairs or claim payment; but if one in exceeding kindness had paid my debts for me, I could go and look through all my books, and if I found that I had owed a thousand instead of one hundred pounds, it would only enhance my sense of the greatness and value of the love that had paid all for me, and thus increase my gratitude and joy. This would produce guilelessness of heart. If he came to pay them I should tell him all.

In this chapter the apostle refers to all the things that he had done (see verses 19, 20). He puts the Lord in mind of the greatness of his sins as his suitableness for giving testimony to the Lord's grace. Nobody can tell of grace like the man who has experienced grace. An angel has not known the value of grace for his own forgiveness, and therefore could not testify of it like a poor sinner who has been saved by grace.

When Peter stood up and accused the Jews of the very crimes of which he himself had been guilty, of denying the Holy One and the Just, do you think that Peter was not conscious of the sin which he had done? That was not it, but with a purged conscience he stood before God in the knowledge of his acceptance, because Jesus the risen Lord, had brought him into the presence of God, and made him know the greatness of the sins that had been blotted out, and the greatness of the love that had blotted them out. Jesus had died for it meanwhile, and He had received the Holy Ghost.

Observe (in chap. 9: 10,) the familiarity with which the Lord talks to his disciple, opening His mind to him as to a friend, mentioning to him the circumstances that affect His own mind. Then Ananias answers in the same blessed confidence, "Lord, I have heard by many of this man," etc. Of course Ananias had to obey the Lord, but it shows the unbounded confidence with which he could open all his heart, because of the intimacy of Jesus with him.

The Lord has been pleased to give us glory with Himself, and He enters with the fullest interest into every subject that concerns us as with us. The Lord revealed especially to Paul, that truth that He views His people as Himself, saying, "Why persecutest thou me?"

In regard to the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the first thing we see manifested is the love of God - it was not only the Son of Man lifted up, but the Son of God given. In the person of the Lord Jesus there was the exhibition and expression to the world of that which was suited to man's heart and feeling. Every expression of all that was grace in God we see in the Lord Jesus. It is quite true that, as regarded the natural man "we saw no beauty in Him that we should desire Him," but wherever His person was understood it was, "we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." The Lord Jesus clothed all the glory of God in a condition that was suited to sinners. It was not only that they "wonder at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth," but there was that confidence produced in Him which, when the heart was broken with grief, it could open what it was that broke it more easily to Him than to any friend or relation; but Christ being so full of grace and righteousness, only made Him to be more alone in this world of sin. If His heart was satisfied as with marrow and fatness in communion with the Father, it made Him but the more understand what it was to pass alone through this world.

There was in Jesus all the expression of Divine fulness and of human graciousness, but this only proved that man was far from God. It was neither the mind of Jesus nor the counsel of God that he should abide alone. If the Lord Jesus had taken the "all things" that were His on the earth, He must have taken them "alone." He might have had twelve legions of angels, and have returned to the Father, but He must have then returned "alone." This could not be - the counsels of God would not then have been fulfilled; and He drank the cup. He takes the circumstances of glory after He had finished the work of redemption alone on Calvary.

In the first place, there is the power of death, and atonement for that which hindered our entrance into glory; and then we get a new life, that we may be able to enjoy that glory. The promise made to Abraham was confirmed to Isaac after he had been received in a figure from the dead, and so with us. The power of atonement has blotted out our sin, and the life we have consequent on the resurrection of Jesus is beyond the power of Satan, for it is life in the risen Christ.

The first grand testimony to the world by the apostles was, "God has made this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." This gave distinct confidence to the disciples that God had made Him, whom man had spit upon and rejected, Lord of all.

Peter's ministry invites the people to return "Repent ye therefore, and be converted;" and thus Jesus would return; but Stephen's charge was, "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." He was looking up into Heaven, and seeing the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Soon after they had rejected a humbled Christ, on the intercession of Christ on the cross, the Holy Ghost came down from heaven, and proposed to them a glorified Christ, calling them to repentance by Him. Thus they finally rejected Stephen's charge, bringing it all to an issue where all things that had a beginning, began. He was (εγενετο) God the creator, but a distinct person "with God." Before the Cross, in the person of Jesus, there was something on earth on which the glory of God could rest; but now, Jesus being no longer on earth, but in heaven, Stephen turns his eye up to where Jesus was.

Paul could give no testimony to what Jesus was during His life on earth, but his ministry begins with the glory of Jesus, as the Lord in heaven. He appears to him in the glory of His Sonship, and Lord is the title by which Saul addresses Him - "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" is the expression of Christ and the church, being one. The interests of the Lord were thus shown to be centred in His poor, rejected, and persecuted people. In this we see what the place of the Church is on earth, to have the same heavenly interests with Christ on high which makes us willing to suffer with Him here, that we may also be glorified together with Him.

That which is the daily comfort of the feeblest saint is that he has a glory above the brightest glory of all dispensations. That Christ and the believer are one is the very highest glory, and yet this brings him into fellowship and intercourse with Christ about common things. The knowledge of the Lordship of Jesus keeps the mind in quietness, and enables the believer to leave all to the Lord, that in the certainty that in the world to come all the promises of God will be "to the glory of God by us."

While we have full interest in the glory of Christ, He has an interest in the smallest thing that concerns us, and our portion is to suffer with Him, as having a common interest with the Lord - "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" - suffering here because the world is against the Lordship of Jesus.

We are not only accepted because of what Christ has done, but accepted as children, having the very same interests with Christ, being heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. We have personal interest with Christ about Himself. (If my finger is hurt I am hurt, I do not say that my finger is hurt as if it were some one else.) The very glory that is given us is that we are loved as Christ is loved; but the glory is not the greatest thing, but the blessedness of union with Christ. The Holy Ghost is the witness of this. Through the Holy Ghost, Christ is formed in us, and we are made one with Him in presence of the Father. Union with Christ Jesus separates me from the world by giving me identity of life and feeling with Christ. We being "in Christ," and "Christ in us," if we come to look at suffering and trial, He is in us, and suffers and sympathises with us in it, "and when Christ who is our life, shall appear, we also shall appear with Him in glory."

The glory that is given to Him is given us by Christ as the token that the Father loves us as He loves His Son. It is consequent on that on which it is founded, which makes Him love us as He loves Himself; and union with Christ gives the full blessedness of the heavenly character to the believer. May we walk in the full blessing of the confidence that "all things are ours, and we are Christ's, and Christ is God's." "In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you." Our union with the Lord gives life and communion to our souls. The unity of the Church must be solely of the Holy Ghost - "by one Spirit ye are all baptized into one body," etc. As the sanctifying power, He gives its character to the sanctification of the Church, leading it "to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing."

"Some better thing."

J. N. Darby.

"God, having provided some better thing for us," Christians.

{Words of Help 1927, Vol. 16, p. 203.}

The church is a body, called out during the time the Lord Jesus is rejected upon earth; we belong to a rejected Christ, our lot is cast in with God's Son, whom the world has cast out. This characterises the "better things" referred to by the apostle when, speaking of the Old Testament saints, he says "God having provided some better thing for us" (Heb. 11: 40).

The special company to which Christians belong is the better thing. There will be the display of the church in eternity: "That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2: 7). Whatever place Christ has in heaven or on earth the church has and will have with Him; if He is rejected, as now, she has the place of rejection too; when He shall reign, she shall reign also. A wonderful thing is the better thing as to our standing and state in the glory, but all we can say to it is, that it is of God's sovereign grace!

Now, before the church could exist as the body of Christ, according to God's ways, Christ as Messiah must first have been rejected by His people the Jews, be received up into heaven, and the Holy Ghost be sent down to form the body. It would not have been possible, save only in the counsels of God (Eph 1: 4), for the body to have existed before Christ, as the Messiah was rejected.

In the epistles you have clear statements of what the body is and how it is organized. The body of Christ is declared to be one. "For we are members of His body." "The body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ." "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another " "But that the members should have the same care one for another." "We are members one of another." "And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you" (1 Cor. 12).

It is not sufficient for you to be interested in Christ alone, to the exclusion of the church. He is the Head of His body, and you cannot separate the Head from the body; it would he death. God is interested in the body of Christ, and the scriptures tell you what the body of Christ is and how it is governed.

In the present age there is the body upon this earth, forming for the Lord's glory, to be His companion in the glory; and this one body is the church of God; that even as the first Adam had his Eve, so the last Adam has His. "This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church" (Eph. 5: 32). "The bride, the Lamb's wife" (Rev. 21: 9).

In the epistle to the Ephesians the apostle is instructing the Ephesians that they belong to a new family, a family they had never heard of before, a family whose design had been "hid in God. " God had created all things; but there, he tells them, is something which for manifest reasons, had been "hid." The Spirit of God in this epistle, as also in other epistles, brings out the wonderful calling of the church, the wonders of God's resources; "the manifold wisdom of God." It is, therefore, now no longer a mystery, and christians should not be ignorant of the special place and blessing with which God had blessed them.

These, then, are the christian's guides; not the glory in the cloud, or in the tabernacle, or in the temple, as was presented to God's people in the past age; but the Saviour in the glory, and the written word, and the Holy Ghost down here. The real point of the christian's position is that he professes to see the truth of the church of God, that God is visiting the Jews and Gentiles, and gathering out a people to His name - that God is preparing a bride for His Son. The bride, the one body, characterizes the present age, nor is there any excuse for the christian not to own this truth.

Sorrows and Triumphs

J. N. Darby.

{Bible Herald, 1877, pages 322-8.}

There is no comfort like the thought that Jesus has entered into all our sorrows. This is the very way God has met the need, and want, and wretchedness of our nature. Supposing that Adam had never fallen, we could not speak of God with the comfort that we now can, since He has come in sympathy to us, through the means of the incarnation of our blessed Lord. The Lord Jesus having become a man is the source of all comfort. The Lord has entered into all the depths of sorrow, so as to give us all the depth of comfort, in order that we may know that God knows the very secret of our case. He lets us see the feeling of Jesus in entering into it, and in the expression of His thoughts and feelings whilst in this place; so we come to see how He entered into all our sorrows. And this is the channel for all His love to flow into our souls.

The book of Psalms brings before us Christ entering into the depth of our circumstances, and making them His own, saying, "Mine iniquities have taken such hold of me, that I am not able to look up." Some of His sorrows arose from His holiness. "Mine eyes gush out," etc. All the depth of sorrow was in Jesus. His putting Himself in this place makes us understand the depth of His love towards us. Jesus brings the capacity of God to feel in the circumstances of man that were to be felt about. His feelings were therefore those of holy sorrow. If we see any expression of sorrow in the saints, it is only the expression of the Spirit of Jesus in them.

We find some passages in the New Testament showing what was passing in the mind of our blessed Lord, such as His conflict in the garden of Gethsemane, and when upbraiding the cities in which His mighty works were done. We then see what the Lord felt, the outbreaking of that which was pressing on our Lord's soul. But, ordinarily, in the Gospels, while glimpses often break through the veil, it is the grace and perfectness of Jesus in the midst of, and in spite of, His sufferings that is shown - the perfect grace of the Man; and all the scorn and sorrow which was heaped upon Him we see only made His love shine the brighter. But the Psalms bring out what was passing within. The individual soul often finds comfort in the Psalms, in a measure in having something of the same feeling; and God can look at these very expressions of sorrow with delight, even though they are often mixed with unbelief, though they may be groanings that cannot be uttered. He that searcheth the hearts knoweth the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to God; but we must look at them in Jesus to look at them aright, to get all the comfort of them. It is an evil thing to be always groaning, but it is a blessed thing to know that Jesus groaned. Those who are weary and heavy-laden in a world of misery are in circumstances to understand the blessedness of Jesus feeling with them.

The perception of Jesus being the Son of God in these sufferings is shown, in Matt. 11: 25, to be, by the grace of God, revealing these things to our souls. Jesus having come into this world of sorrow, and having found no rest in it, says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." "If there were any rest here I should have found it; if there had been any spark of love to be found in man's heart. But there is not, therefore you must come and bow; but know the sympathy, too, of Him who bowed first." Jesus says - "I sought the Lord and he heard me," etc.; the Spirit takes it up - "This poor man cried," etc. God does not say, " Stay in sorrow till I bring you into a condition where there is no sorrow," by and bye, but comes down into the sorrow; but His love is found where the want of it is so much felt.

There was in Jerusalem the concentration of all wickedness - there was Herod and Pontius Pilate, and the one, so to speak, next to our blessed Lord - Judas, just the type of Antichrist. Amidst all the sin and sorrow of the world - sin, but sin when God had taken all the pains outwardly to bring man out of it, when "God looked down from heaven to see if there were any that would understand," etc. - where should He look if not to that nation whom He had chosen for His own? "a nation so great who hath God so nigh," etc. Where expect anything good but here?

But when He came there was no man - when He called there was none to answer. The place where the Lord Jesus was, as among these, was a place of special grief, for all the pains that God had taken with His special people only brought home to the Lord the perfectness of the enmity of His creatures towards Him. "What could I have done more to my vineyard that I have not done!" etc.

The Lord's name, too, was in Jerusalem, and the place where His name was He saw trodden down by the Gentiles, and He could not interfere in the matter; and why? Because God's people had departed from Him and His ways - they were become worse than the heathen, and therefore, by virtue of His own character, it was impossible for Him to deliver these, His own people, on the earth, because He would have been vindicating depravity. The feeling of holy indignation there must have been in our blessed Lord in seeing His Father's name so dishonoured, was shown when He made the scourge of small cords, anticipating the day of judgment, and drove the sellers of merchandise out of the temple, saying, "Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise." This was truly being angry and sinning not. Because of the iniquity which was defiling His Father's house, judgment must begin at the house of God.

The spirit of Jesus was bowed down under the universal depravity - "the wickedness of His own people," etc. - and He could not, in one sense, deliver His own people but by giving His back to the smiters. He found His spirit pent up - entirely shut up in Himself. There was nothing to meet or answer it - none in whom He could find an answer, even His holy feelings of love none could enter into, which really is sorrow; and they found vent only in prayers and supplication to God. And all this wretchedness and sorrow was felt according to the purity and love of Himself.

In the Gospels we see the unfailing exhibition of grace toward man. In the Psalms we get the expression of His pent-up feelings of love and holiness and righteousness to Jehovah, when for His love He only received hatred. When the spirit of Christ is in us we enter into all this, though feebly, perhaps. The heart that felt this is just the same. Our hearts may spend themselves in feeling, God's never can; we are only the stream - God the source, unexhausted, inexhaustible. His love is ever fresh. When we get to the Lord we find one who now enters into our feelings of sorrows because He knows and understands them quite well. According as we know Jesus, daily we find sympathy. He is the pillow on which to rest the aching head. But it does not end here. Jesus was still looking out for the great result of all these sufferings "for the joy that was set before Him he endured the cross, despising the shame." Our proper portion is joy, but as in a world of sin and Satan we also find sorrow.

These two Psalms are the expression in two different ways of the interest that the soul of man could take in Christ and His deliverance (Ps. 21) The spirit of Christ, the remnant of the Jew hereafter looking to Christ in sorrow and suffering, see Him through the resurrection in joy and glory (Ps. 21) and look to him as coming back again in glory - we identified with Him. This shows the place we are in - the Church begins after the resurrection of the Lord. The Jews looked in amazement that Messiah should suffer. The thing that met all this was Jesus being received up into heaven. The Holy Ghost then comes down from heaven to form the Church, witnessing that the atonement has been made, that, "having by Himself purged our sins," etc., the place of the Church, begins in the joy and glory of Christ.

Of this Paul was the type - he had been no companion with Jesus in His sorrows, but the first thing that was shown him was the glory, to show the riches of grace, called in his sins to be an apostle. The Church is one with Christ in glory; like Paul it begins by the revelation of glory, and then it is taught that it is to be a partaker of His sufferings. Ananias had to show Paul (after he had seen the glory), how great things he must suffer for Jesus' name's sake. He was able to testify that his calling was all of grace - This Jesus whom I have been persecuting and killing in His members has taken me and made me an apostle - this must be of grace. Here (Ps. 20: 1,) the remnant of the Jews are looking at the Lord in trouble, and they say (ver. 2), "The Lord hear thee out of Zion." Zion had been the place where they had been accustomed to look to for help, as God's being there; but all there was very dark - he found only trouble. Zion was the place where the heart's core was shown to be enmity against God. The council-chamber of Jerusalem was the place where counsel was taken against God and His Anointed. Then in the next Psalm we have "Thou hast given Him His heart's desire." The desire must have been in Christ's heart, or there would never have been any desire in our hearts towards Him. "Grant Thee according to Thine own heart." This could be said of none but Christ, "We will rejoice in Thy salvation." In our hearts there is too much evil. They could ask this, but knew not what His counsels were. The resurrection begun to be understood. They look now at the resurrection as the sign of the exercise of power on His behalf, and say, "Now know I that the Lord saveth His Anointed; " from thence He will hear, though not from His earthly Zion. "Save, Lord," etc. And then we have all the expression of the joy of the Jewish remnant in the discovery of the manner of their deliverance by the resurrection of their king.

The Church begins with the knowledge of this deliverance and salvation. Having the testimony that Jesus is on the right hand of God, we can tell what His counsel is - that He came to give Himself as a ransom for us, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. What the remnant will be looking for, the Church has - knowing Jesus as ascended gives the Church its peculiar character, "as He is, so are we in this world." This makes them know the glory to be theirs, and makes them willing to suffer now. The Church stands as the representative of Christ on earth (and it should be so practically), and bearing His reproach as united to Him in glory, as Jesus bore His Father's reproach, as united to Him in the glory. The remnant see Him coming back as King, we by faith see Him now. We see Jesus crowned with glory and honour at the right hand of God. The Jews shall see Him then. Thomas is a type of the Jews; "Blessed," etc. - the Church. God's mind and thought is to set out Jesus in this blessed glory, and the thoughts and counsel of His heart shall be fulfilled. "His glory is great in thy salvation, honour and majesty hast thou laid upon Him." But ver. 8 will be in righteousness on those who have rejected all His love. It is not till men become adversaries that the fire of the Lord destroys them (ver 9.) We were once the children of wrath, even as Thy grace only makes us to differ. (ver. 10.) Judgment of the quick specially. Now is the time between those two psalms, that, as regards us, the glory is ready and the Lord not slack; He waits - "long suffering," etc., "not willing that," etc., "now is the accepted time," etc. It is hard for the saint to say whether he delights most in the cross or in the glory, in the sufferings of Jesus or the glory. He looks at the suffering, and can say, "It was for us"  - this shame and grief of heart to see His suffering, and the saint looks at the glory. Still it is (John 13: 31), and he can say "it is for us."

The Standing and State of the Believer

J. N. Darby.

{The Standing and State of the Believer is Part 2 of a three part, 32 page booklet published by A. S. Rouse, London, Part 1 can be found in Practical No. 1 page 179 and Part 3 in Evangelical No. 1 page 361.}

The possession of eternal life in Christ Jesus risen and glorified, and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, are blessings which characterize Christianity, and it is consequently of the utmost importance for the child of God to apprehend these truths. The two are intimately connected, as we shall see.

As to what we are by nature there is no room for doubt: "They that are in the flesh cannot please God." Nor will improvement or reformation gain acceptance with God, for "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Even the knowledge of forgiveness of sins does not touch the root of the evil in us. Supposing the fruit of a tree is offensive, to strip off the fruit may remove the offence for the time being, but will not prevent a fresh crop appearing. Just so; many a soul truly trusting in the blood of Christ, but knowing only the forgiveness of sins, fails to enjoy settled peace. Fresh sins and daily failure trouble the soul, and there is a constant recurrence to the blood to get relief for the conscience. What, then, is needed, is not only forgiveness for our sins, but the judgment of our state, and a new nature given - a new life capable of enjoying God, and of bringing forth fruit pleasing to God. All this we have in Christ. He has not only borne "our sins in His own body on the tree," but God has condemned sin in Him on the cross (1 Peter 2: 24; Rom. 8: 3), so that faith can say, "I am crucified with Christ:" adding also, "nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." (Gal. 2: 20.) This, and nothing less, is our place in virtue of the work of Christ. "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have" - not merely forgiveness of sins, or even the new birth - but "eternal life."

What is it to have eternal life? It is to have Christ. "He that hath the Son hath life." "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Observe, it is the gift of God, and it is "in His Son." It is not in our keeping, but is secured for us in Christ. (1 John 5: 12.) So we read, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear." (Col. 3: 4.) Faith believes the record of God, receives Christ, and passes from death unto life; as JESUS says, "He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation" [judgment, it should be], "but is passed from death unto life." (John 5: 24.) How simple! May it be yours, dear reader, if not sure of your portion in Christ, to receive what God gives in the simplicity of faith. He has given His word for the purpose of removing every difficulty. "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.)

It is important to observe, that eternal life is in a risen Christ. It could be said of Him in incarnation, "In Him was life;" but man could not be brought into association or union with Him except on the ground of redemption. As He walked here below He was ever the holy One - "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." How could any link be formed between Him as such and those who were "dead in trespasses and sins"? Obviously it could not be. There must be the entire setting aside in judgment of all that pertained to the first man ere there could be living association with "the second Man, the Lord from heaven." So Jesus says, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." (John 12: 24.) In marvellous grace He took our place, and died in our stead. But that is not all. He rose again, and we are brought into His place before God - that comes out in John 20. Immediately that He has risen from the dead He can say, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God," thus placing them in the same position as Himself with reference to God. How sweet to hear Him thus, at the earliest possible moment, associating His loved ones with Himself! Can we doubt that He looked forward with joy to that moment? We hear Him saying, "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" This was now over: the pressure of that hour was removed; sin was gone from before God; redemption was accomplished; and now the love of God could flow out with unhindered force. What is the result? In the first place peace - "Peace be unto you." Blessed result! And then "He breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost."

This remarkable scene reminds us at once of the manner in which Adam received life. The Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. We know how soon the life was forfeited, and how, as fallen, Adam became the head of a fallen race.

Jesus, then, as the risen One, Head of the new creation, communicates resurrection-life to His disciples - a life, too, that was to be in the power of the Holy Ghost. This is more than being merely quickened or born again. The new birth was always essential before a soul could have any knowledge of God. The disciples were already quickened souls, yet Jesus says, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10.) The life more abundantly is now being realized - but it is in resurrection. It was something quite new in character and quality. It would not now be divine life struggling with difficulties, producing desires after God, and groaning with the pressure of evil surroundings, but life in the power of resurrection, where nothing can enter to disturb the peace or destroy the relationship which He who is the life has brought the objects of His love into. Yet, in the present day, is there not many a soul truly quickened that does not know the peace which John 20 unfolds? Although born of God, it sees no further than the cross as meeting its guilt, and consequently is troubled with all sorts of difficulties and fears. This surely is not the Christian state; for life in resurrection, consequent upon the complete judgment of the old man, is unknown. Such a soul has really never entered upon Christian ground. It is a stranger alike to the privileges and the experiences of that state.

But while the scene of John 20 resembles in some respects that of Genesis 2, it is also its contrast. Adam's life was held under conditions, and rightly so. This life is one that has already been fully tested; and not only so, but is made good for the believer on the other side of death and judgment - therefore, beyond the reach of either. This is what we get in Romans 8, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." Why? Because judgment has already been executed on the cross. Sin has been condemned in the flesh, and the One who bore its judgment is alive again. The believer, therefore, who is "in Christ" is "not in the flesh" (Rom. 8: 9); that is, is not in the condition or state to which sin and judgment attached. He has died with Christ, and with Him is out of it. He is now under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which has made him free from the law of sin and death. (Rom. 8: 2.) Practically, he must learn to "walk in newness of life," reckoning himself to be dead unto sin. (Rom. 6: 11.) The flesh is in the believer, and will be so long as he is here; but faith is never occupied with it, save as judging it, but always with Christ. This gives power for walk, and in so far as the flesh is practically kept in the place of death, the lovely fruits of the new life will appear. But as to the standing, faith gives to me to see what I am in a risen Christ, and judges self, or the old I, according to the measure of its utter condemnation in the cross. Christ on the cross is the answer to my old state, and Christ in the presence of God is the expression of my present standing and condition. (Col. 3: 1; Eph. 2: 6.)

Let us look now at the connection between such a condition and the presence or indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

In John 14: 16, 17, Jesus, speaking of going away, declares that the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, would come to them to abide with them and to be in them. Thus, not only must resurrection be accomplished as a matter of fact, but He must go away ere the Comforter could come. (John 7: 38, 39.) So really were the two things connected, that in John 16 He adds - "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." What would be the result? "At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." (John 14: 20. ) "We know" is what the Holy Ghost enables us to say; "and hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us." (1 John 3: 24.) Founded on death and resurrection, the believer is in Christ, and Christ is in the believer, and the Holy Ghost is sent down to make us know it; hence, "at that day ye shall know."

Turning, now, to the Epistle to the Romans, where the whole question of our condition is taken up in detail, we find that the Spirit is not once mentioned until the fifth chapter, fifth verse, when peace being known, consequent upon death and resurrection, " the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us;" and not again until the eighth chapter, which opens with the believer "in Christ." Then, however, the complete standing of the believer in Christ having been established, the Spirit of God is introduced again and again, and shewn to be the energizing power of this new order of things. It was not always so; but the scripture does not recognize anything short of this now; for we read, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Rom. 8: 9); and it is added, "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His;" that is, he is not stamped with that which distinguishes a Christian. If "in Christ," then the Spirit of God dwells in you; and if not, you have still to learn practically this distinctive characteristic of Christianity.

Into the various aspects of the truth of the presence of the Holy Ghost in the individual believer, and in believers as the body of Christ, we do not now enter. Suffice it to say, that the whole energies and desires of the new life are carried out in the power of the Holy Ghost. He is the living power of the new state into which the believer is introduced, and in which the flesh has no place. As the believer cannot lose eternal life, because his life is hid with Christ in God, so the Spirit does not cease to dwell in the believer as the seal, until the day of redemption. (Eph. 4: 30.) Hence the exhortation, ever applicable, not to grieve the Spirit, by the allowance of that which is dishonouring to Christ. Further, the Spirit always exalts Christ, and delights to engage our hearts with a risen and glorified Christ, whereby we become transformed into His image - "changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. 3: 18.)

Finally, the Lord Jesus was "that Eternal Life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." (1 John 1: 2, 3.) If, therefore, we want to see the practical exhibition of eternal life, we find the perfect manifestation of it in Him, who was the obedient and dependent One. Thus, He is not only our object as the exalted One, but as the lowly One He is our pattern, and if the Spirit engages our hearts with Him in glory, it is that "the life also of Jesus might be made manifest" in us down here. (2 Cor. 4: 10, 11.)

True Greatness

J. N. Darby.

Learn to grapple with souls. Aim at the conscience. Exalt Christ. Use a sharp knife with yourself. Say little, serve all, pass on.

This is true greatness, to serve unnoticed and work unseen

Oh, the joy of having nothing and being nothing, seeing nothing but a Living Christ in Glory, and being careful for nothing but His interests down here.

The Temptation of Christ

Matthew 4: 1-12.

J. N. Darby.

{These are faithful, but unrevised, notes of an address given in 1872. Ed.}

{Christian Friend 1888, pages 57-64.}

I desire to speak to-night of the practical bearing of these verses, and also of the grace of the Lord in it all: how man in Him is brought into this place with God; and it is the model of our place, as we get in the previous chapter where the heavens are opened, the Holy Ghost descends on Him, and the voice comes, "This is my beloved Son." What is remarkable in it is, that where He brings out the model of the place into which He brings us, there is the first revelation of the Trinity. It is in the blessed Lord becoming a man that we have the full revelation of all truth. Redemption alone could bring us into this place. What characterizes Christianity is the revelation of the Godhead - sovereign grace of course. In virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ becoming a man, comes this revelation, and that gives the place He brings us into by redemption. In the first part I read, the other side of our place comes out; that is, the conflict with Satan down here on the earth; but the conflict does not begin till He gets the place of Son. We must distinguish between slavery to Satan and conflict with Satan. The saint is never in slavery, and the sinner is never in conflict. Here the Lord is binding the strong man; now he is bound, so that if any man resists him he will flee; but at the same time we have to pass through temptations and difficulties, and here He gives us the model of how we can overcome.

We get first the place to which we are brought by redemption; that is, as regards our relationship to God. We are now servants of God, and obedience is our path. Adam ought to have obeyed; everything was blessing around him; there was one test of his obedience, and he failed. Supposing a man is brought to this place by redemption, there is still the disposition to do His own will; temptation is there, and then comes the exercise of heart about this obedience in the relationship of sons with God. In this place of sons - Christ's place - sealed by the Holy Spirit, the place that was His by right and title, I have everything to learn, but the relationship is settled. I have to learn and to judge what is in me; but I have now God's will as the source of all my conduct, not the rule only, and there is a real difference.

The flesh never has God's will as the source of its conduct; it may be checked and stopped by it, as the rule. A person may have a will of his own, and the Lord may stop it; it is checked; but that was never the way with Christ. His Father's will was the origin and source of all He did. We have to be stopped sometimes, but that is not Christian obedience. Christian obedience is the will of God being the motive. The Christian starts in the place of a son, and the question comes, How he, being a man, can be consistent with this relationship? and there exercise of heart comes in.

We have to notice, and it is exceedingly sweet, how completely the Lord takes this place with us, how He takes us into His place with Himself as sons, and then comes to our condition and circumstances - sinlessly, of course - and to the conflict. We are often led by the flesh, but He was led of the Spirit, just as He tasted death by the grace of God, and we by sin. But it is a wonderful testimony to the grace of the Lord, how He is interested in us and has taken up our cause. On the cross He was alone; in all the rest He takes us into His place, or else comes into ours. "We have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (rather, sin apart). He can give intelligent service, because He has gone through it, and His perfectness came out in it. Mark how thoroughly He came into our circumstances, not sin. When Adam was tempted, he was in the enjoyment of all the blessings God had given him, and he laid it all aside for a bit of self-will. He lost confidence in God; and if I have not confidence in God to make me happy, I must make myself happy. The will comes in, then lust, and then transgression. Men do not trust God's will for their happiness and blessing, and that is the principle of all sin.

Christians fail in it often, and the exercises we get are to lead us into it. Here Christ is where everything is to try a man - forty days without food, with the wild beasts, in every respect the opposite of paradise. Then mark, as everything hung on Adam's obedience (if he failed everything was gone), so here everything hung on Christ's obedience. He could not fail; but if He did fail in that desert spot - passing His time with Satan, so to speak - everything was lost to man. The trial was to be made, and He must overcome. Adam failed in spite of every blessing; Christ comes in grace and overcomes. Then He is hungry; there is no sin in that. God has put hunger into our natures as an intimation when to eat. Then Satan comes (v. 3) and says, "If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." Satan takes the ground of His being Son, he does not call that in question; nor does he with the Christian: when he raises that question we have not settled our affairs with God. The place revealed to us is that of sons; redemption has taken us out of the old place and put us into that of sons. The question is what God thinks, not what we think. And God has made us sons. Then it is a question of conduct in the relationship, not of responsibility as to my state. I cannot be a naughty child unless I am a child; and the temptation of Satan here is founded on Christ being a Son.

Note that the snare and temptation and difficulty is how to walk down here in this relationship. See if your souls stand in faith in this place with God. It is the place of every Christian. It is another thing to be in the consciousness of it. Satan assumes it here, and says, "Command that these stones be made bread." It is a subtle thing; he does not show himself out as Satan. There is no sin in being hungry, and the Lord could turn the stones to bread. It is a wile of Satan; he comes with that which is "no harm." But it IS harm if it is my own will; for I am to eat and drink and do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. If I am doing it merely because it is my own will, it is harm; but the Lord keeps the consciousness of His place as a servant. The devil uses the testimony of His being a Son (chap. 3: 17) to get Him out of the place of a servant; but He had come to obey, and to do whatsoever His Father commanded, and He says, as it were, "It is not my Father's will to make these stones bread." The perfection of His place makes the will useless. It is not a long chain of reasoning, but if I, with the consciousness of being a son, keep in the place of a servant, Satan can do nothing. The whole thing was to get Him to do His own will, and that is the whole principle of sin. Having left God, we do our own will. What meets Satan completely is, that I am a servant, and servants are not to command, but to obey. I have no word from God, and therefore I don't do it. What is remarkable is, the Lord says at once, "It is written." That word of Scripture, a single text, is enough for the Lord, and for the devil. Satan has nothing to say; he is dumb, and does not attempt to take up the question. The spring and power of life come in: we are begotten by the Word, and we live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Satan must either drop his will and show himself Satan, or hold his tongue, and he was not ready to show himself. The Lord is in the place of a son, and does not go out of that of a servant. He does what He is bid, and till the word is there, there is nothing to do; and that is living by it. He says, "I have no word from God about it." That is the character of Christian obedience; not a rule that checks the will, but the word of God producing it. Do you not like to do your own will in little tiny things, that are "no harm," as we speak? God has taken up this life we live in the flesh, and He has a will for us all the way along. In the wilderness, where there is no way, there is a way - a divine way - that the vulture's eye hath not seen; but the simplest believer that follows God's word has this way, and lives by it. The word of God is that by which we live in active positive life.

Satan drops that and takes up another thing - "Cast Thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee," &c. (v. 6) It would have been His own will if Christ had done it. Satan takes up scripture, and says, "It is written," to make Him do His own will. But He says, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." People abuse this often; they use it as the very opposite of what it is. When people talk of "tempting God," they mean trusting Him too much. Satan says, "Throw yourself down, to see if God will be as good as His word." "I have no need to throw myself down. I know He will do it when the time comes. Of course His word will be fulfilled. Why am I to see if it will be?"

In obedience there is perfect confidence in God; no uncertainty as to whether God will be as good as His word, but perfect obedience and entire and absolute confidence. I don't act to try if God will be as good as His word; but when the time comes, I have entire courage to obey. If I die, I go to heaven. So much the better. But we know little of that - being martyrs, I mean. If you see some sacrifice before you, this or that to give up, there ought to be such confidence in God that you obey without the smallest question. He makes all things work together for our good. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without Him. Whatever comes, I have entire confidence in the Lord's faithful love, and courage to do His will. What matter if the cities are walled up to heaven, if they fall at the blowing of a ram's horn? No matter what comes, it comes from the Lord for our good. He puts us in the wilderness to exercise us on these points; but I start with His will for the source of my conduct, and I need not hesitate, having absolute obedience and confidence in God.

Satan has no more to say. His wiles are done; and then he shows himself, and asks the Lord to take the world. (vv. 8, 9) He likewise presents the world to us, and says, "If you will follow me, the prince of it, you will get riches and honour and position." But everything is Christ's, and everything is ours - "Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Satan wants me to take it from him in this way, by my lusts, as something the flesh desires here; but "all things are ours: life, death, things present, things to come," &c. Then the Lord (v. 10) addresses him as Satan, and sends him off. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." He knows flesh does not resist him; it is Christ, and he is off.

If you find something that has a claw in your heart, and you cannot tear it out, it tears your flesh too much, you cry to the Lord, and it is gone. It is positive deliverance from another, not progress. In cases where some certain thing has power over the mind, it is not you, you hate it, and you cry to the Lord, and find it gone. Christ has bound the strong man. Could you say in all you have set about and done to-day, it was the will of God set you about it? There is weakness and infirmity in us; but when we get our eye fixed on Christ, all is joy and blessedness in Him.

Satan leaves the Lord, and angels come and minister to Him. (v. 11) There was all the host of heaven serving Him, and so they are serving us: "Ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation;" ministering to us in every way that it is God's will they should minister. We have to overcome; but there is the blessedness of this host - He directing - to help and strengthen us in the path.

It is a great thing to get the consciousness of the place we are in. Being in it, we are set to make our way through the world as befits sons in it. We have to learn not to have a will here and a will there, and we are exercised and tried - and meant to be. The things that Satan ensnares the world with offend the new nature. I would just ask, Are you prepared to take the word of God as that by which you are to live every moment? Content in your heart to say, Whatever pleases God is for me? Are you willing? I don't ask if you do it. If you are not willing, you want deliverance from that which is between your heart and Christ being every thing to you. We are redeemed out of the power of the strong man, and if we resist, we keep him out. The Lord give us to see the grace of His giving us this place, and the way He showed how the heart is to be exercised in passing through this world. The time is coming when we shall find that every thing, where He has not been, has been folly and wretchedness!

That I may

win

Christ

Philippians 3

J. N. Darby.

(Notes of an Address.)

{Helps in Things concerning Himself Vol. 2, 1892, pages 14-24.}

This epistle is not one of doctrine. We get, of course, in this chapter, the foundation laid (v.9), but, as often remarked, it is an epistle that gives us the proper experience of the Christian, that is, the power of the Spirit of God working in him in his path; and consequently, we get the spirit and character in which a Christian should walk down here. In chapter 2 we see the graciousness of the spirit in which Christ walked. He always went down and humbled Himself, even down to the cross, and then God exalted Him as man to His right hand: even as Antichrist exalts himself, and is abased. Christ is the bright and perfect example of "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." In chapter 3 you get the energy of the Spirit.

Now, we cannot have too distinctly and clearly before our souls the great basis of the completeness of redemption. In the first place, the putting away of sins, and sin too - the putting away of all that the first Adam produces, and then our introduction into a totally new place - an entirely new standing - we have peace with God. Jesus "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." That is not all. Our peace is in Christ, and there is no possibility of condemnation for a person in Christ. We see the efficacy of the work of Christ, we get the certainty of sins put away, are sealed by the Holy Ghost; consequently we are only waiting for Christ to come and take us to glory. That is our place, and all our duties flow from the place we are in, even as in natural things. We are brought into Christ - made children of God, sons of God; then our duties flow from that place. "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as dear children." Again, "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk, even as he walked." Therefore, the first great thing is to know our place: not only that we are forgiven (though that is the first thing we need), not only that we are guilty, but the believer finds out a great deal more than that, he finds out that he is lost. Guilty brings in the thought of judgment; but if we are lost we do not think of judgment, because we are ruined already. I speak not only of what I have done, but where I am - outside Paradise, and totally ruined already. We are lost in our own condition. "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." So that I do not say merely that I am justified, but that I am saved, and in Christ. I do not believe we get into full liberty till we understand we are totally lost and saved - not only what we have done, but what we are.

It is important that the Christian should distinctly get hold of that, for it is what redemption means. As with Israel in Egypt - the blood upon the door-posts saved them from the judgment of God; but besides that, God took them out of Egypt, and put them into Canaan. "We are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." It is a new condition and place altogether, and this is deliverance - not only forgiveness and justification, but deliverance; and, therefore, in Romans 7 it is not "How shall I get forgiveness?" but "Who shall deliver me?" The answer is, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." He finds his sins blotted out; defiled, he is washed; having offended, he is forgiven; guilty, he is justified; God has made that perfectly clear for ever. But the old man is dead before God, and the new man is in Christ. Christ is my righteousness. I was lost, without hope in myself, but now I am in Christ before God. That is deliverance. In Romans 5 you are justified; but in Romans 8 "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." To find out, practically, that I am lost, is a very different thing from finding that I am guilty; because, if lost, I have finished my whole history, and I must get my whole condition made new (thank God it is, in Christ). If I am guilty, I may hope to get forgiveness; but if I am lost, I must get a new condition altogether - a totally new creation in Christ Jesus. When I have this redemption, the effect is to leave me, as a matter of fact, down here, being thus delivered, and then I begin to run the race; for you and I have in this world to go through the wilderness (to find ourselves in heavenly places too). God has minded that we should be thus exercised to discern good and evil, and what we get in this chapter is power in that course. We have to "run with patience the race that is set before us looking off unto Jesus." It is the expression, in Philippians 3, of the experience of one who was running the race faithfully.

Sin is never mentioned in the epistle; what you find in Paul was, that the power of the Holy Ghost was there. It was not that the flesh was not there, for he had a thorn in the flesh, but there was power to keep it down. You get complete deliverance here, entire freedom, for he was running his race free; and another thing you see is power, Christ's power. He was perfectly free, or he could not have run on in that power, and also (which is practically a great thing), he had an object, which gave him singleness of eye and purpose. You get the man set perfectly free: "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." The principle of sin, in which I was lost, is dead and gone for faith, because Christ has died, and, therefore, I can say I died: "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." The life that I have in Christ, and as to the flesh, I say, "I died upon the cross." That is the place the apostle was then in, and there was power, because "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death". There is Christ's power. His grace is sufficient for us; therefore we can never excuse ourselves if we commit sin, because Christ's grace is sufficient for us - His strength is made perfect in weakness. It is not that the flesh is not there; but a dead person does not act. We fail; but the christian condition is, "Ye are dead." If there is carelessness and want of prayer, failure does come; but there is no excuse for it. If Christ is in me, there is life and power, and the flesh is a dead thing. It is not only that Christ has died for your sins, but you have died with Christ; that is where real freedom comes in, and power comes in too, because Christ is there.

You will always find, that where Christ's power is in us, Christ is the object of our life, as in Galatians 2, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;" and then he adds, "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." There is the object: wherever Christ is the power of life in us, Christ is the object of that life. Christ having become a man, and gone into glory, God has given the object of His delight to be the object of our delight also, and given us His Spirit to enable us to make it so. It is a wonderful thing to see that God has so set Christ before us, and given us His Spirit, and a new nature, to be able to enjoy Him, linking us thus with himself.

The next thing is, "I want to win Christ." That is what he means by "That I may apprehend (or lay hold of) that for which also I am apprehended (laid hold of) by Christ." Christ had laid hold of him, that was all settled; he had learnt Christ, and now he says, "I want to possess Him." He is not looking at the salvation wrought out by Christ, but at the end; and therefore he says, at the close of the chapter, "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." It is the salvation we are expecting that he speaks of now.

We have the man freed, and with power; and we have the man with Christ as his object and nothing else: and there is where we all are, and it is just a question of our faith as to how far it is true of us practically. It all depends on how far Christ is our object. You have the graciousness of deportment in chapter 2. Here we get the active energy of the Spirit of God; and mark, it is where there is one single object that there is practical energy and power. "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." In some things, he acts like a Christian; in others, he does not. If he has two or three objects, he is unstable, but if he has one object he walks with energy.

Now what characterised the apostle was that he had given up all things; not "did count them but dung," but "do" now! Can we say that? At the moment of our conversion we all felt that all we had in the world had been deceiving us, and leading us to hell and its horrors. The pleasure, wealth, riches, ease, everything that was gain to us as men in the world, can we say of them, "I do count them but dung that I may win Christ?" Paul was not satisfied with having counted, but he says, "I do count," and further than this, "All this will only hinder me." Like a man running a race, he has on a beautiful cloak, we will suppose; he finds it hinders him, and he throws it off.

It is the object we have that always characterises us - blest be God, we have it in Christ unto everlasting life. It was not any uncertainty with the apostle, it was not that he doubted that Christ had laid hold of him, but he wanted to get Christ. There was this honest purpose of heart - the man was free, he had Christ's strength; and then there was this purpose of heart - spiritual energy and activity. There are two things which go together. The first, "That I may win Christ," and then our resurrection from the dead, that is, our own glory, which comes in as the second thing. First, "That I may win Christ," it was Christ Himself who possessed his heart; still he says, "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."

Well, I can have but one thing as my object. If I am making tents, as Paul did, I shall do it well; it is our duty as Christians to be patient and gracious in meeting with hard men - wrong doers. You will find that everything is judged of entirely by the object a man has. If he wants to get a thing, he will spend his money without stint to get it - he estimates everything by his object. An avaricious man will say of a spendthrift, "Did you ever see such a fool!" And the spendthrift will say of one fond of money, "He might as well have a stone, for his money is no good to him." The moment I get Christ as my object everything else will be as dross and dung, and there will be no want of lowliness, because the nearer we get to Christ the less we think of ourselves. I want to know Him, and the Spirit of God is not grieved. The path of the just grows brighter and brighter until the perfect day. His heart is more capable of knowing Christ, and he knows him better - he is not thinking of self. It is a privilege held out to us that we shall be so perfect that we shall only think of the Lord, and in any measure as we are near Him now, we think of Him and not of ourselves. The Christian looks at himself not only as forgiven, as justified, but as perfect, and going to be like Christ and with Christ. He has a new place; he is in Christ; he has it by the Spirit in faith now, and he wants actually to possess it.

Now how far can our souls say we are actually delivered, not only forgiven, but delivered? I do not mean that if you are careless you will not slip into sin, but there is a positive deliverance; we are not in the flesh at all. The world is there, Satan is there, and I have to watch every moment to have Christ sufficiently before my mind. You will find that nine-tenths of the things that are temptations to us would be no temptations at all if we walked with Christ. See a mother who has heard that her child has met with an accident on the railway, and lies at the station suffering; how hastens to the spot, and does not even think of the show and vanity in the shop windows she may have to pass. Another time she might linger there, but not now. If our souls are filled with Christ, as I said, nine-tenths of the things that are temptations to us we shall not think of at all. It is living as Christ - "By the words of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer." The great mass of the temptations we should escape altogether, because we should be thinking of something entirely different. God has called me up to be with Christ and like Christ, and now I am after that, and am looking for nothing else. We all have some object that we follow with energy and life, and can we say that it is Christ, and that that is the one thing that governs our hearts from day to day?

The Lord give us, beloved, to know what that true liberty is; "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty" - liberty with God and from the things around: though we still have to contend, and shall have, too, yet it is with the joy of Christ in our hearts as we go on. God has called us in sovereign grace to be with Himself, like and with Christ forever, and where the soul is full of the Holy Ghost, there is joy and sustained freshness.

Grace and Glory

Titus 2

J. N. Darby.

{Help in Things Concerning Himself Vol. 1, pages 197-209.}

Even in the common things of life, the motives that govern us are what give character to the things we do. The apostle turns at once to the motive, which is Christ; and the moment he touches that spring ("that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Saviour, in all things"), all wakes up in his soul. That is the motive; and then he goes on with the whole history of Christianity till Christ's coming again.

It is a blessed thing in our common every-day life, that we can get Christ as our motive. If a man is fond of money or pleasure, it is the motive he has; that is what he is. If he is full of Christ, that is what he is. You may get two men doing exactly the same thing, only with different motives. With the Christian, Christ is his only motive, or ought to be. There may be a thousand things he has to do, common duties of life, but he can serve Christ in them, and there I get a motive powerful enough. Perhaps you have a froward master; well, you can glorify Christ in that. It is everything that the Christian should understand that he has no motive but Christ; many a thing to do, but no other motive but this. The common things of life do not unspiritualise a person; I must attend to them, and do them properly; but if my motive in doing them is Christ, it is a mistake to think that they hinder my soul in spirituality. Supposing I was making anything for Christ, do you think I should not make it as well as I possibly could? Well, then, we ought to do everything for Christ. It is every-day walk that characterises the Christian: "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus," because, if I cannot do it in His name, I ought not to do it at all. If I can do it in His name, there is the motive.

To be guided, this is the thing: "They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way." There is no way in this world. How did the Israelites get any way - the way which the vulture's eye hath not seen? Why, the cloud went before them. The fact that we have to find a way in which to walk, is a proof that we are all away from God. It is a world contrary to God, and I have to find my way. "When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them." I get a way then, but it is a divine way, and I am following Christ in it. I get it by having Him going before me; and all I look for is the way here, because I am a pilgrim and a stranger. Christ has given Himself for our sins, to deliver us from this present evil world; but He has left me in it, and He has left me His own spiritual pathway on my way to rejoin Him up there. If I have a single eye, it will be a bright path; and Paul said, I count all dross and dung, that I may win Christ. If we have not made up our minds to follow Christ, then it is not an easy path. In following Christ, of course there are difficulties; but a man with one object, it has been remarked, always has energy.

"God our Saviour," is the particular character of God in the epistles to Timothy and Titus. It is the blessed name He has taken, that He is God our Saviour; it implies that we needed to be saved. Why did I need to be saved? Because I was lost: not only that I had done some wrong things, but that I was lost; and it is just in understanding that, that we get the full, blessed, clear apprehension that we are saved. I find that God has interfered, and done a work entirely His own; and the question then is, what is the value of that work? Well, I say, it is finished, and Christ is in glory in consequence.

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." (Ver. 13.) Grace has appeared (ver. 11), teaching us to look for the appearing of the glory, and teaching us how to walk in this present world. There I get the Christian between these two points: the grace that brings salvation has appeared: but the glory has not. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." This appearing of grace teaches us how to walk, whilst we are waiting for the appearing of the glory. The Christian stands between the first coming of Christ (who revealed God the Father, and accomplished the work for our salvation) and His coming again, when He will take us into the full result in glory - we receive the Holy Ghost meanwhile. First, I get what this grace is, and what its character is. It has appeared - a full manifestation of it in the gospel. It is God's sovereign goodness to His people, when they were sinners, it is the love of God, when there was nothing loveable. "For a good man some would even dare to die: but God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." That is, for what is vile and hateful, I find God giving the best thing possible that heaven could give, and that is, His own Son. I get to know God; and it is a blessed thing to say I know God. If I believe in the coming of Christ, I ask, what put that into God's heart? It came from His heart, and that is the way I know God. "Who by him do believe in God - that your faith and hope might be in God." I know really what God is, in His unsought love; it is simply and entirely the spring of God's own heart that has done all this, and this is the grace of God. I know God, for I know His love. He is a judge, and a righteous and holy One, too; but, still, I get this blessed truth, that, when I was a mere sinner, I have got to the spring in this perfect love (in its nature sovereign above all evil), which has brought Christ into the world - that is what I have learned in the gospel. The gospel is that blessed truth, that He did not wait, and say, You behave yourselves, and then come up to me; but He came down into this world where we were. Oh what a blessed thought it is (though it may be humbling, too), that the Son of God has been down in this world in the midst of evil; it was nothing but love that brought Him, and that is how we begin to know God.

Then, I get what it brought me. Help to a man as he is? No - how can you help a man who is lost already? He came to sinners in their sins, and brought "salvation" to them, because they were lost.

Let us see what that character of "lost" is. There were the two things; I was guilty before God (not merely lost, though "lost" goes a great deal further), and besides that, there was the state I was in. "Guilty" refers to judgment; but when I say "I am lost," I speak of my present state. My carnal mind is enmity against God, so "they that are in the flesh cannot please God." I am "guilty" by reason of what I have done; but I am "lost" by reason of the state I am in. I am not in the earthly paradise in which Adam was, nor am I in the heavenly paradise where God is. Where am I? Totally away from God. It is not in the first moment of that awakening we learn the extent of this - that it is all over with me (not that God cannot take me out of that place). You must make the tree good, as well as its fruit. It is not merely that I have done wrong - the fruit - by which I am "guilty" - but the tree is bad. God is holy, and I am unholy; so I never can be with Him - though, of course, grace comes in - but that was our condition.

Christ came into the world, after men were sinners, and after they had broken the law, when it had been given them. He did not wait till the judgment. But men would not have Him, and proved more completely that "the carnal mind is enmity against God." Christ proved that a divine Person was in the world, for every power of evil fled before Him. He was there winning the confidence of men's hearts, but when He had shown all this, they crucified Him. You never see a person ashamed of a false religion: but the moment it is the true God, he is ashamed - even the disciples were ashamed to confess Christ. What a deal that tells of man's heart! God is light, as well as love, and that brought out things in their true light, and "men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." Christ has come in love - not to judge the world, but to save it - and however bad a person was shewn to be, if he cannot have confidence in a human being, he may have confidence in God. He came to win back the confidence of man's heart to God. He came to where man was. Take the cross as the expression of it all; there I get man's hatred, and God's love in His Son, in the same act. God is not covering over my sins, they are all shewn out in the light; and there I am in the presence of One who loves me perfectly, when they are all there - that is salvation. God is the spring of His own heart, and He deals with my state of sin, not hiding it from me: and He manifests that He has sent Christ for me. God has dealt with my sins already; He has not waited till the day of judgment. What did Christ die for, if it was not for our sins? Did not God deal with Him at the cross about them? And what has He done with them? He bore them in His own body on the tree. But has He got them now? No; they are all gone; and Christ is "sitting" now, because He has nothing to do. I am not speaking as to our walk now, because we need Him every moment, but as regards the work - it is all done. Seeing the Lord Jesus sitting at the right hand of God, shews me that God dealt with my sins when Christ bore them. The Person who is going to be the judge, is the One who has put away my sins. I have this blessed, true, infinite love, that did not even spare His own Son, and Christ took all my sins upon Himself and put them away. I am "in Christ" before God; not according to what I have done, but according to what Christ has done. I am not in my Adam-standing before God. Where are you then? I am in Christ. I have an entirely new place, condition, and standing before God. Just as Israel, not only had the blood on the door-posts, so that God did not touch them, but they were brought out of Egypt - brought to God: so we have been redeemed out of the condition in which we were in Adam, and brought to God: as it says in Romans 8, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."

Verse 12 is grosser sins; by which the world ensnares us. I am to live "soberly" with regard to what is within myself; "righteously," because I have to do with other people; and "godly," because I have to do with God. I walk subduedly before God, instead of in my own will and lusts. Look at the standard given us - to "walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory." But I must know God, or how can I walk worthy of Him? Are you going to commit sin with that which is a temple of the Holy Ghost? We are to walk worthy of God, because we are to manifest Christ. You are dear children; well then, go and walk like your Father. It raises the standard, because it raises the motive. We get the standard of walk in association with these things.

Well, the Christian has salvation; and the Holy Ghost, who makes him know it; and he cries, "Abba, Father," for he knows he is a son of God, and thus he gets his place consciously, all founded on the unutterable love of God: Christ being his life, he reckons himself dead, as regards the flesh. There we have the past and present sins put away - all that the flesh produced, done with - and I am loved as Jesus is loved; "that the world may know that thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." It is all flowing from this blessed unthought-of and unsought love of God.

Then, where is our future? It is not merely dying and going to Christ, but the heart is set upon Christ, and I am "looking" now "for that blessed hope." What blessed hope? Why, Christ Himself. Christ has become precious to me. He has loved me beyond all my thoughts - "to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." Ah, I say, I want Christ Himself, when shall I get Him? We are not "looking for" death, but it is a profitable thing to look it in the face, and see that it is pure gain. We belonged to death in the first Adam, and in the second Adam death belongs to us. For the Christian, the only thing that death is, is that he has done with temptation, sin, and sorrow, and he has begun with Christ; but death is not what we are looking for, for scripture says we are "predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son." The worth of what Christ has done, in putting away sins and glorifying God, is such, that it puts us into God's glory. Christ has entered as my forerunner - the witness that I am to be there too: "where I am, there shall also my servant be." When He comes, it will close this scene of grace that is going on now; therefore "He is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering." As long as He sees a soul to be gathered in, He does not come, but the promise is, I will come Myself. He is not content to send for us, but He must come Himself. "Our conversation is in heaven" - that is our present condition. We look to be with Him - and to be like Him too - but the best of all is to be with Him. The thing by which He comforts the hearts of the disciples is, that He was coming again to have them in the same glory as Himself - it is the first thing that will happen. It may be happier to die, and so wait in heaven; but whether we are there or here, we shall then altogether be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ. He has accomplished the work needed for it in His first coming in grace; and what He does now by the Holy Ghost, is to make us wait for Him, which is the original calling of the church of God. "And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord." Have people been doing this? No, they have not; they went out to meet the bridegroom, but the wise virgins slept as well as the foolish.

Supposing I know salvation, what am I waiting for? For mortality to be swallowed up of life - to be changed into the same glory as Christ - to be raised, if I am dead - I am looking to be like Him in the glory. I need two things to be able to call it a "blessed hope:" first, the grace that bringeth salvation - that He has redeemed, purified, and saved me, and I have the certainty of His love. The second thing is, that He is the object of my delight. We must know the perfect salvation, but we must have the love of Christ in our hearts, to care about it.

Only one other thing I would desire should rest on our hearts, and that is the full, thorough, complete interest He takes in us. What satisfies Him? He is waiting in perfect, earnest love to us, but His heart will never be satisfied till He has us in the same glory with Himself and His Father. I know, poor unworthy creature as I am, that He will not be satisfied till He has me in the same glory as Himself, because He loves me. "Not as the world giveth, give I unto you." How is it that He does not give like the world? If I give away a thing I no longer possess it - is that the way Christ gives? Never! The way He gives is to bring us into the enjoyment of all He has Himself. Everything that Christ has (except His divinity) He brings us into, and then He is satisfied.

And now, beloved, is that the way you think about the Lord Jesus Christ? What made Him give it all to us - did any one ask Him? It was the perfect love. And is that unrevealed? It is not; He has loved us and given Himself for us, and it is revealed from Christ in the glory and we have the Holy Ghost. If I am thinking of the things in the world, of course I cannot see the thing up there, for the eye is dimmed and cannot see afar off. Are you content to have such a place as that with Christ in glory? Are you content to be purified to Himself - to give up the world? Are you content to have Christ your one and only object and motive? Of course it tests the flesh and heart of man, and God means it to be tested. Are you content to follow Christ? The apostle says that that is the whole bent of his mind, "That I may win Christ" - and to know Him better. The secret of all that is the constant sense of dependence. "My strength is made perfect in weakness," We are redeemed from this present evil world. It is a world that has rejected the Son of God already. Man is a judged being, but there is salvation for him. Christ's work entitles me to the glory; and now, says Christ, I am come to have you for Myself, like Myself, and with Myself in glory. Beloved, are our hearts there? Have we tasted the love of Christ in all His life and death down here? And it is not wearied, or exhausted, or cooled, for He loves and cherishes us as His own flesh.

The Lord give us only to remember that the fashion of this world passeth away; but there is one thing that abides for ever, and that is the word of God - that through His grace, we may follow hard after Him. Oh, it is a wonderful thing that the Son of God became a man, on purpose to win us back to God.

Treasure in Earthen Vessels.

2 Corinthians 4

J. N. Darby. (1872)

{Christian friend 1887, pages 121-8.}

It is a great thing to remember - what Christians too easily forget - that we are called to the enjoyment of heavenly things, and we live by the revelation of them. God has not introduced grace and His Son and Spirit to make us get along easily in this world - it was not needed - but to bring us to the enjoyment of heavenly things, and to live in them. What characterizes a man is what his mind is on, and then all his ways flow from that.

The apostle says that we "in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened;" that is, all we have of this world. The Lord uses it as an occasion of His dealings with us; but He does not take that up until salvation is settled. Redemption being settled, we find difficulties and exercises come in, and the apostle gives us here and in chapter 12 what the principle and power of his walk were. What we are called to is the manifestation of the life of Christ; your whole life is to be nothing but that. God is revealed, we have life, and the Holy Ghost is our power; we are set here as the epistles of Christ, for men to read. Whilst waiting for Christ to manifest Himself in glory, we have to manifest Him in grace.

It is not pleasant to "do well and suffer for it;" but is not that what Christ did? It is what we have to do in lowliness and meekness. He first gives us a place in heaven, Christ our life, and then sets us down here to do that. We have the revelation of God Himself in the person of His Son. He dwells in us, and we in Him; and we know it, for He has given us of His Spirit. Our place before God is settled; Christ is our life. We have the knowledge of God, and power to walk in this world; and, another thing, heavenly things are revealed - the things that belong to the place in which we are. "We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given us of God." There we are to live, and get the motive that characterizes us as Christians. If that were always so, we should be always really epistles of Christ - in our houses, our dress, in our every-day life, in all the things that are the expression of a man's heart. Is Christ the motive in every thing we do? If not, we leave Him for some vanity or other. What every Christian has to do is to commend himself "to every man's conscience in the sight of God" (v. 2), that if they judge him, it should be for consistency.

Verse 6. "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts," &c. That is where every Christian is. The glory of God is revealed in my heart, and I am thus to manifest it in the world, that they should see it in my words and ways and in my gift, if I have one - that all I say and do should give out the light of the knowledge of God in a world of pitch darkness. It has been revealed in our hearts to make it shine out in the dark of this world. It is a blessed place, but a very distinct and definite one. If Christ is revealed, He has brought in the knowledge of God; all the glory of God, His holiness, His majesty, His love, has shined into our hearts, that we may give it out. That is very simple if it were all; but it is not all. It is God's way to put this in an earthen vessel. The apostle does not speak here of wickedness, but weakness. We have to get the flesh put down, and we get chastening. We know that, but the apostle does not go on that ground here. It is not a question of sin or failure, but of the path of the Christian as such. The first element is, he has the whole glory of God revealed; but in this "earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power may be of God" - constant dependence.

Great, excellent, and wonderful as the treasure is, He has put it in a place which, to man's eye and mind and thought, is unfit for it - as to power, I mean. Therefore in your life, even when you are going on right, you get these two elements - all the glory of God revealed in your heart; but put purposely in an earthen vessel, because there is a great deal for us to learn as regards what poor, weak, wretched creatures we are. Peter says, "I will go to prison and to death for Thee." "Will you?" the Lord says. "I will see." We all know what it was. You may say he had not the Holy Ghost. No, but the flesh is as treacherous now as it was before the Holy Ghost was given; of course there is more power to keep it down. We may learn slowly what it is, but learn it we must. It comes out even when we are seeking to serve Christ honestly, as Peter was. It is the thought of God to put the treasure in this vessel that it may learn itself what it is, and we must learn it. We may earnestly and honestly go and preach Christ, and heartily; but if we have not learnt ourselves there is some confidence in self, and we make mistakes. It is lovely to see Moses going down and associating Himself with the poor brickmakers; but he had not learnt himself, and he killed an Egyptian, and then ran away.

I must keep watching the flesh, for I know what it is; then I lean on a strength that is not mine, and wait for God's direction and guidance; for I know myself in such a way as to have confidence in Another, not in myself. By the discovery of my weakness I know I have no power but in God. Paul had a thorn in the flesh. He had been put down when he was converted, but he had to be kept down that he might know it was not the capacity of Paul, but that the power of Christ might rest upon him. God says, "It is I working in you. Cannot I work through your boggling?" "Oh, then," says Paul, "I will keep it! Most gladly will I glory in mine infirmities." Here he says, "We are troubled on every side, but not distressed;" for we have God to look to. "Perplexed, but not in despair." I cannot see a way out for myself, but I have God, and He is a sure way. "Persecuted, but not forsaken;" for God is with me. "Cast down, but not destroyed." He lived in the consciousness that the Lord was always there, and that he wanted Him. Even in truth and sincerity of heart we are apt to go on as if we did not want the Lord. If for one instant I have not Him with me I am nothing. Where we are seeking to serve Christ we have to learn our own lesson; but where there is not that dependence there will be failure. In small things or in great things we cannot do anything without Him, and we are not to do good in the strength of our own thoughts; we are slow to learn it.

There are two remedies for this. First, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus." (v. 10.) The apostle applies it to himself, and that goes very far, though it is not all; but if you applied the cross to every thought that arises in your heart, you would find how many thoughts the cross would crucify. The flesh would never put up a thought at all. What thought could a dead man put up? Of course, we have to be gentle and courteous as Christians; but the old man has been put to death, and I have to reckon myself dead. Here he is carrying it out every day. I might fear there are many here who do not so apply it to every thought and feeling and purpose; who do not so distrust the flesh, and everything in mere human nature. If I let my body live, there is flesh. But he says, I bear about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifest in my body. In order to manifest Christ always, I hold the flesh dead. That is his part in faith. Then comes the second thing - God's part. "We which live are alway delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." However faithful he was, God had to help him. He could not trust him, and He cannot trust you. He puts you through circumstances where the flesh comes out, and then says, There now. Paul could say all this trial and exercise was for Christ's sake. With us very often it is for flesh's sake.

The fulness of the glory is ours. The glory has shone into our hearts; but He puts it in an earthen vessel, because our hearts have to learn what we are. No will can be allowed; no self-stirring, no flesh, no thought from the vanity of this world can be allowed - nothing that does not suit this treasure. But do not thoughts come into your mind, and allowed there, that do not suit the treasure of heaven? Things that do not take the form of gross evil, but a quantity of things that are not Christ? Take the day's conversation, Has there been no vanity, no idleness? Is your speech "alway with grace, seasoned with salt"? If you take up a newspaper and read of the vanities of the world, do you then turn to read of Christ and His glory, and not find your heart dull? If you do not find it out, you may be sure it will get duller and duller. It hinders the preciousness of Christ to you. You have lost power. You do not go and read your Bible and pray with the same freshness. When I apply the cross of Christ, it stops the moving of my heart. The Lord puts me through circumstances that put me to the test. If death came and found me a dead man, what effect would it have? What is killing a dead man? With the apostle the flesh was kept down, and he was looking to God. He says, "We were pressed out of measure, beyond strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life;" but we trusted in God, who raised the dead. Would their killing him prevent God's raising him? It would bring it nearer. We can bless God for it. He puts down the flesh that wants putting down. "Death worketh in us, and life in you." Death was working in Paul, and nothing but life worked as regards others. Oh that it were so with us!

The practical effect of it is, "All things are for your sakes." When self is down, I begin to think the thoughts of God, and every thing is for us. I see "all things are yours - life, death, things present, things to come - and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." Do you believe that "all things are for your sakes"? that all that happens in the world, no matter what the motives that govern men in it, every thing is for your sakes? He makes every thing work together for your good, every circumstance in your life. They may not be pleasant, but we have not to be occupied with them as the world is. God overrules all. He lets man go on, but "makes the wrath of man to praise Him." Peter says, in Acts 2 - You, by wicked hands, crucified and slew Him - but it was by the "determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." We want only to have confidence that He has a purpose, and that purpose is to glorify His Son. Whatever is needed for that He will do. If my eyes are straightforward to glorify Him, every thing goes right. If I go against His path, He will knock me over. If I am in His path, He helps me on; but I must be there with His strength. Paul says, "We faint not." I do not go on in my own strength. I may be weary or weak, but it is God. I may be faint in my mind; but "when I am weak, then am I strong" "The inward man is renewed day by day." Dependence is renewal. You never get in the grace of to-day strength for to-morrow. If I have learned in it more of Christ, it is profit for eternity, of course; but if the manna was kept a day it stank - it became self-righteousness. You must be dependent every instant. (v. 17.) Every trouble gives the apprehension of what is to come. "Never mind," he says, "it is a 'light affliction.'" The inward man is not touched, it is "renewed day by day;" and we get blessing by these very things.

I would ask you, Are you ready to take this place, willing to be under God's hand, cleaving to Him with purpose of heart, saying, "I want to get Christ, to win Him, and here I have one thing to do - to manifest Christ"? Are you willing to have your flesh put down? It is singleness of eye. What Satan is at is to get us to have, if it were ever so little, confidence in the flesh. Do you say, "Let the vessel be dealt with as He will, in whatever He sees needed, so that Christ may be manifested, whether by life or by death"? Is that the desire of your hearts?

The True Grace of God wherein we stand.

1 Peter 5: 12.

J. N. Darby.

{Similar to, perhaps extracted from, 'Why do I groan?' C.W. 12 Evangelical vol. 1, page 186.}

God is made known to us as the "God of all Grace," and the position in which we are set is that of "tasting that He is gracious." How hard it is for us to believe this, that the Lord is gracious. The natural feeling of our hearts is, "I know that thou art an austere man"; there is the want in all of us naturally of the understanding of the Grace of God.

There is sometimes the thought that grace implies God's passing over sin, but no, grace supposes sin to be so horribly bad a thing that God cannot tolerate it: were it in the power of man, after being unrighteous and evil, to patch up his ways, and mend himself so as to stand before God, there would be no need of grace. The very fact of the Lord's being gracious shows sin to be so evil a thing that, man being a sinner, his state is utterly ruined and hopeless, and nothing but free grace will do for him - can meet his need.

We must learn what God is to us, not by our own thoughts, but by what He has revealed Himself to be, and that is, "The God of all Grace." The moment I understand that I am a sinful man, and yet that it was because the Lord knew the full extent of my sin, and what its hatefulness was, that He came to me, I understand what grace is. Faith makes me see that God is greater than my sin, and not that my sin is greater than God. . . . The Lord that I have known as laying down His life for me, is the same Lord I have to do with every day of my life, and all His dealings with me are on the same principles of grace. The great secret of growth is, the looking up to the Lord as gracious. How precious, how strengthening it is to know that Jesus is at this moment feeling and exercising the same love towards me as when He died on the cross for me.

This is a truth that should be used by us in the most common everyday circumstances of life. Suppose, for instance, I find an evil temper in myself, which I feel it difficult to overcome; let me bring it to Jesus as my Friend, virtue goes out of Him for my need. Faith should be ever thus in exercise against temptations, and not simply my own effort; my own effort against it will never be sufficient. The source of real strength is in the sense of the Lord's being gracious. The natural man in us always disbelieves Christ as the only source of strength and of every blessing. Suppose my soul is out of communion, the natural heart says, "I must correct the cause of this before I can come to Christ," but He is gracious; and knowing this, the way is to return to Him at once, just as we are, and then humble ourselves deeply before Him. It is only in Him and from Him that we shall find that which will restore our souls. Humbleness in His presence is the only real humbleness. If we own ourselves in His presence to be just what we are, we shall find that He will show us nothing but grace. . . .

It is Jesus who gives abiding rest to our souls, and not what our thoughts about ourselves may be. Faith never thinks about that which is in ourselves as its ground of rest; it receives, loves and apprehends what God has revealed, and what are God's thoughts about Jesus, in whom is His rest. As knowing Jesus to be precious to our souls, our eyes and our hearts being occupied with Him, they will be effectually prevented from being taken up with the vanity and sin around; and this too will be our strength against the sin and corruption of our own hearts. Whatever I see in myself that is not in Him is sin, but then it is not thinking of my own sins, and my own vileness, and being occupied with them, that will humble me, but thinking of the Lord Jesus, dwelling upon the excellency in Him. It is well to be done with ourselves, and to be taken up with Jesus. We are entitled to forget ourselves, we are entitled to forget our sins, we are entitled to forget all but Jesus.

There is nothing so hard for our hearts as to abide in the sense of grace, to continue practically conscious that we are not under law but under grace; it is by grace that the heart is "established," but then there is nothing more difficult for us really to comprehend than the fulness of grace, that "Grace of God wherein we stand," and to walk in the power and consciousness of it. . . . It is only in the presence of God that we can know it, and there it is our privilege to be. The moment we get away from the presence of God, there will always be certain workings of our own thoughts within us, and our own thoughts can never reach up to the thoughts of God about us, to the "Grace of God."

Anything that I had the smallest possible right to expect could not be pure, free grace - could not be the "Grace of God." . . It is alone when in communion with Him that we are able to measure everything according to His grace. . . . It is impossible, when we are abiding in the sense of God's presence, for anything, be what it may - even the state of the Church - to shake us, for we count on God, and then all things become a sphere and scene for the operation of His grace.

The having very simple thoughts of grace is the true source of our strength as Christians; and the abiding in the sense of grace, in the presence of God, is the secret of all holiness, peace, and quietness of spirit.

The "Grace of God" is so unlimited, so full, so perfect, that if we get for a moment out of the presence of God, we cannot have the true consciousness of it, we have no strength to apprehend it; and if we attempt to know it out of His presence, we shall only turn it to licentiousness. If we look at the simple fact of what grace is, it has no limits, no bounds. Be we what we may (and we cannot be worse than we are), in spite of all that, what God is towards us is LOVE. Neither our joy nor our peace is dependent on what we are to God, but on what He is to us, and this is grace.

Grace supposes all the sin and evil that is in us, and is the blessed revelation that, through Jesus, all this sin and evil has been put away. A single sin is more horrible to God than a thousand sins - nay, than all the sins in the world are to us; and yet, with the fullest consciousness of what we are, all that God is pleased to be towards us is LOVE.

In Rom. 7 the state described is that of a person quickened, but whose whole set of reasonings centre in himself . . . he stops short of grace, of the simple fact that, whatever be his state, let him be as bad as he may, GOD IS LOVE, and only love towards him. Instead of looking at God, it is all "I," "I," "I." Faith looks at God, as He has revealed Himself in Grace. . . . Let me ask you, "Am I - or is my state the object of faith?" No. faith never makes what is in my heart its object, but God's revelation of Himself in grace.

Grace has reference to what GOD is, and not to what we are, except indeed that the very greatness of our sins does but magnify the extent of the "Grace of God." At the same time, we must remember that the object and necessary effect of grace is to bring our souls into communion with God - to sanctify us, by bringing the soul to know God, and to love Him; therefore the knowledge of grace is the true source of sanctification.

The triumph of grace is seen in this, that when man's enmity had cast out Jesus from the earth, God's love had brought in salvation by that very act - came in to atone for the sin of those who had rejected Him. In the view of the fullest development of man's sin, faith sees the fullest development of God's grace. . . . I have got away from grace if I have the slightest doubt or hesitation about God's love. I shall then be saying, "I am unhappy because I am not what I should like to be": that is not the question. The real question is, whether God is what we should like Him to be, whether Jesus is all we could wish. If the consciousness of what we are - of what we find in ourselves, has any other effect than, while it humbles us, to increase our adoration of what God is, we are off the ground of pure grace. . . . Is there distress and distrust in your minds? See if it be not because you are still saying "I," "I," and losing sight of

God's grace.

It is better to be thinking of what God is than of what we are. This looking at ourselves, at the bottom is really pride, a want of the thorough consciousness that we are good for nothing. Till we see this we never look quite away from self to God. . . . In looking to Christ, it is our privilege to forget ourselves. True humility does not so much consist in thinking badly of ourselves, as in not thinking of ourselves at all. I am too bad to be worth thinking about. What

I want is, to forget myself and to look to God, who is indeed worth all my thoughts. Is there need of being humbled about ourselves? We may be quite sure that will do it.

Beloved, if we can say as in Rom. 7, "In me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing," we have thought quite long enough about ourselves; let us then think about Him who thought about us with thoughts of good and not of evil, long before we had thought of ourselves at all. Let us see what His thoughts of grace about us are, and take up the words of faith, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

___________

The Lord's Testing and Love

A number of years ago a Christian blacksmith who suffered much was challenged by an unbeliever to account for it.

His explanation was this: "I don't know if I can account for these things to your satisfaction, but I think I can to my own. I am a blacksmith. I often take a piece of iron and put it into the fire and bring it to a white heat. Then I put it on the anvil and strike it once or twice to see if it will take temper. If I think it will, I plunge it into water, and suddenly change the temperature. Then I put it into the fire again, and again I put it in water. This I repeat several times. Then I put it on the anvil and hammer it, and bend it, and rasp and file it, and make some useful article which will do service for many years. If, however, when I first strike it on the anvil, I think it will not take temper, I throw it into the scrap pile and sell it for a few cents a pound.

"I believe my God and Father has been testing me to see if I will take temper. He has put me into the fire and into the water. I have tried to bear it as patiently as I could, and my daily prayer has been, 'Lord, put me into the fire if You will; put me into the water if You think I need it; do anything You please, Lord, only don't throw me into the scrap pile.'"

Our life is like the face of a clock. The hands are God's hands passing over - the short hand of discipline and the long hand of mercy.

Slowly and surely the Hand of discipline must pass, and God speaks at every hour; but over and over passes the Hand of mercy, showering us sixty-fold of blessings for each stroke of discipline and trial; and both hands are fastened to one secure pivot - the great unchanging heart of a God of love.

". . . The trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1: 7).

{Grace & Truth, 215 Oak St., Hillery, Danville, Ill. 61832.}

True Nazariteship

Luke 22: 14-30.

J. N. Darby.

{Christian Friend 1888, pages 281-4.}

At the table, where the Lord in the institution of the supper was speaking to the disciples of His humiliation even unto death, they were disputing amongst themselves as to which of them should be accounted the greatest. They did not understand that the principle of the child of God, of the disciple, is to be a servant - servant of all by the power of the love of God acting in him. To be great down here is the opposite of Christian principle. In the world one erects monuments in memory of human benefactors; the only monument which the world ever raised to Christ was the cross. But in the cross I see grace. Grace blossoms in the valley of humility; it is not on mountain summits, but in valleys, that prosperity abounds.

The flesh always exalts itself; but, more than this, it is never able to meet a difficulty. It knows, as in the case of Peter, how to lead us into the thick of danger, but never how to extricate us. It makes us fall before obstacles, or else go to sleep. And yet of these very disciples Jesus says that they have continue with Him in His temptations.

As long as He is down here, the Lord shows Himself as a Jew and Messiah to the Jews; but, ascended to God's right hand, everything changes. It is important to understand that we have to do with Christ in glory, not Christ on earth. Even if Paul had know Him after the flesh, he would not afterwards have known Him so. To confound these two things is to apply Jewish principles to the present economy. Riches, which for the Jews were a blessing, are a snare to the Christian. Ours being a heavenly vocation, the less we are tied to earth the freer we are. Glory, honour, and riches are only chains which, binding us to earth, weaken our true link with heaven.

When Christ the Creator was put on the cross, all the foundations were overthrown. This side of the cross, man is henceforth ruined and lost; salvation is his in the cross. But we must go beyond the cross. What the Jews possessed was external and earthly; rudiments of the world. Christ gave Himself for us to deliver us from this present evil age. Thus the world is judged by the cross of Christ. The world condemned itself in condemning Christ, and everything is broken between it and God. Henceforth grace alone is the principle on which God can act.

In the Lord's supper, Jesus gives a token of love to His disciples; but previously, having enjoyed with them for the last time the memorial of Jewish deliverance, He takes another character. He receives a cup, not that of the supper, and He distributes it to the disciples without Himself drinking of it, adding: "For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come." (v. 18.) He takes henceforth openly the Nazarite character - that of separation from sinners. Himself without sin, He had come amongst sinners, seeking them. Now He takes the position of separation, of holiness, to sit at God's right hand. It is in resurrection that Jesus has been declared Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness. This resurrection is a public proof of the power of the life of God, and of the holiness of Christ. (Rom. 1: 4; Heb. 7: 26.) Christ is now openly separated from sinners. When He returns, He will appear "without sin" for His own, and will drive out sin from His presence; whereas on earth He was the Friend of publicans and sinners.

Numbers 6 depicts the character of the Nazarite. Wine is a sign of union and fellowship amongst guests. That is why it says, "Wine which cheereth God and man" (Judges 9: 13); but the Nazarite did not drink it. The Christian should love sinners, but be separate from sin; he is, like Jesus, a Nazarite. His holiness corresponds with the place the Lord now occupies, with Him who says, "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." It is by death and resurrection that Jesus has taken this place of separation with regard to the world and sinners. When the kingdom of God shall have come, we shall be all together in the joy of the Lord with Him. To be sure the Christian is joyful now, but afflicted. He cannot be joyful down here with the world which has killed his Saviour. A great deal of time has since elapsed, but time does not alter it. The character of the world remains the same. One must be converted not to belong to it. If our hearts belong to Jesus, it is impossible to be otherwise than sorrowful in the world. The world amuses itself; it dances on the tomb of our Saviour.

But on the other hand the Christian rejoices in the Lord, and in his heavenly portion of which the world is in ignorance. The joy of the Christian is a hope full of glory; but down here he is always a Nazarite, and cannot share in the glory of this world. He invites and beseeches sinners to be converted, but he cannot have communion with them. Jesus has been rejected by the world, and received in heaven; this is also the Christian's place. Our High Priest has been made higher than the heavens. He has left us a token of His love in the breaking of bread. If He is no longer present with us on earth, it is because He gave Himself for us. His absence does not betoken indifference; for the Lord's Supper is the memorial of His perfect love to us.

Christ brings us into the heavenly kingdom by a totally new life. We are not transported into the kingdom of the Son of His love without possessing His life - that of the last Adam, who is a quickening Spirit. We are made partakers of the divine nature. Conversion is not only a change, but the communication of a life unknown to us before - a life hidden in Christ, separate from sinners, separate from the world.

Two Brief Articles

J. N. Darby.

{The following are extracted from 'Words of Faith' 1883. G Morrish. I presume the initials at the end of the first one refer to those responsible for the notes.}

Brief notes of a reading with J. N. D. on "The unity of the Spirit."

J. N. Darby.

Ephesians 2: 18 is not yet the one body, but both Jew and Gentile are together before the Father in communion, and this is "the unity of the Spirit." It begins here, but from this it goes a great deal farther.

The three great principles of the unity of the Spirit are: (1), one new man; (2), access to the Father by the Spirit; (3), builded together for an habitation.

It is the power of the Spirit which keeps saints in the realisation of the whole of the relationships in which they exist in one body. This secures the manifestation of the one body on earth.

The unity of the Spirit is gone - was in Acts 5, 6, but the power for the manifestation of it is here.

It is an abstract idea, and the difficulty comes from making it an absolute fact.

It is when your mind and mine go on together with the mind of the Spirit. Where we do not see together it is not realised, but one could not say it was broken.

If you and I are quarrelling, are we doing it in the unity of the Spirit?

But, apart from all ecclesiastical ideas, I am to go on with you, and if you are naughty, I am to forbear with you in love. Then the unity of the Spirit is kept on my part, whatever it is on yours.

Two godly baptists might be morally endeavouring to keep it, but they have broken it by being strict baptists.

Taking it in its completeness, you cannot separate it from the one body.

There are three unities in John 17: (1), apostolic - "one as we," one thought and purpose; (2), "one in us," like 1 John 1: 1-4 - the true fellowship of saints - is the unity of the Spirit viewed practically; (3), entirely future - unity in glory - "perfect in one."    J. A. T.

Croydon, September, 1881. G. H. {The text says 1882 but this was corrected, see page 168 of the magazine}

Utter Ruin - the ground of complete blessing

J. N. Darby.

I believe that which greatly keeps us from the strength of our joy, is our ignorance of the utter ruin of man. Not merely should we be acquainted with the evil into which the ruin has brought us, but also with the ruin itself. The moment that this ruin came into the world, everything went wrong. Not only has man gone wrong, but all his activities have gone wrong also.

Now, Christ has provided for us a way wherein the activities of the new man have their exercise. This is our own proper and peculiar portion; to have the mind of Christ, and to be brought into fellowship with God. But for the enjoyment of this, it is essential that we should be introduced into a knowledge of the complete apostasy of our own natural will. The purpose of God for His children is, that they should be associated with Him in His own joy, and to this end we must know Him. Now, the main sorrow of Christ's life was man's ignorance of God. God was never understood; but the poor sinner understood Him much better than the self-righteous Pharisee. Jesus came forth from the bosom of the Father, having the knowledge of His mind, knowing that God loved the poor sinner; not merely the sinner's joy in being blest, but God's joy in blessing him; and this is the joy in which God would have us to be associated with Himself. Another most blessed truth is, that we should be associated with Christ in His sufferings, "That the trial of our faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1: 7.)

The first departure of the believer from God, is a departure from the knowledge of his fulness in God and nearness to Him, his conscious sonship with God. If I am one with Christ, I must be as He is. If I have anything at all it must be what He has - what He is. There is no medium between being nothing in ourselves and being everything in Christ.

If I have no title of my own, if I am nothing but wretchedness in myself, and have no natural understanding of God's good-will to man, where is my claim? Therefore true humility is the knowing what I am in Christ. So the moment I say, I am not as Christ, I lose the knowledge of my glory in Him, and I stoop down to the flesh. This we see in John, when he fell down and worshipped the angel. Here was that voluntary humility and worshipping of angels which the Apostle warns us against. Had John remembered the glory he had in Christ he would not have done this; for "As he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17.) J. N. D.

The Unsought Love of God

J. N. Darby.

{Pamphlet}

Is there anything that marks the insensibility of souls more than the carelessness they evince about their state before God; or anything that shows how far they are from God, than the utter indifference they manifest to the things of heaven and Christ?

Adam gave up all that God was to him for the sake of eating a fruit: and this is what sinners are doing every day. They are giving up God for the things of the world continually. Any vanity or amusement has more power over them than all God's beseeching love - than all the grace of Christ! Like the young man with the great possessions, they go "away sorrowful" when they hear of the reality of their state; but still they go away. This brings out the utter ruin of your heart - that there is not one atom for God there!

The Holy Ghost is pleading with sinners, "Be ye reconciled to God," and sinners do not care. But when God is revealed to my soul, I discover that there is sin there, which must in itself shut me out from God for ever! But then I discover that sin is the very thing for which Jesus gave Himself - for which He bore the wrath and died, - thus accomplishing for me, and revealing to my heart, the unsought love of God! God has come in in mercy and dealt with the very sins and state which troubled me, in His own Son in righteousness, in order that He might be free to express His love - to deal with me in grace! He has dealt in holiness against my sin, and that before the day of judgment comes, so that I can say I "have peace with God"! Romans 5: 1.

How dreadful, then, in the face of all this, to find a sinner going on with sin; with that for which Christ has been delivered - that which caused the death of the Son of God! Think of being the cause of Christ's death! and yet if I was, which is true, He died to put my sins away! Wonderful for a sinner to be able to say, "I believe that this blessed One did drink the cup of wrath and died; and that so surely as He drank it, He is at God's right hand, my Saviour!" This is what brings the heart back to confidence in God - the very thing that Adam lost. What He wants you, sinners, to believe is His love. Did He spare a poor apple from a tree for you? He spared not His Son! That Son gave Himself that you might be with Him for ever.

This perfect grace takes the guile out of the heart: there is no need for any concealment of your state - no need for guile. You can rest in Divine and perfect favour, and know God better than yourself; and the way you will know yourself best will be to look at God. Can you not then say, "I believe unfeignedly that He gave His Son for me; and I am at peace with God, and rejoicing in the hope of His glory"? Then you can boast in God - joy in Him through our Lord Jesus. This gives full Christian character!

Oh, what a God we have to do with! One who commends His own love to us as sinners - His unsought love - makes us feel we need that love, and that He desires we should enjoy it, and be at peace with God. One who sheds His love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given to us. It is peaceful joy to the heart to think of what He is to us - poor, lost, self-ruined sinners - rising in the triumph of grace above our wretchedness. 'Tis thus the Holy Ghost ever reasons - downward from what God is in His goodness, to us who are in ourselves nothing but evil. Blessed for those who find in truth that the cross of Christ has answered every claim of God upon them, as it has also been answered to all His glory! Solemn the state of those who are satisfied to sit in darkness, and in the unbelief and insensibility of sin.

"We have known and believed the love that God hath to us"

1 John 4: 16

Have you?

The Service of Women

J. N. Darby.

{From a card printed by Morrish.}

We find that the service which would commend widows to the bounty of the church were these: "If she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work." (1 Tim. 5: 10) All are not qualified for teachers or church office; but all are qualified to minister to the Lord, in ministering one to another. There may be those whose ministry will be, in being given to hospitality, and distributing to the necessities of the saints: there may be others whose ministry will be in being "obedient to them that are their masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as unto Christ; not with eye service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men." (Eph. 6: 5-8.)

White as Snow

{From a booklet 'The Blood of the Lamb and Other Papers' published by C. A. Hammond.}

"But we all, with open [unveiled] face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor. 3: 18

Good character, useful and indeed necessary in human affairs, avails nothing with God for salvation. There is not a man that would have all he has done, thought and said, written on the wall of his house. But it is all out before God. Leave a man alone for two or three hours, and he must think of something, but he will never think of Christ. When you come to know the real condition of man's heart, Christ has no place in it. It is not Christ he loves at all. Christ came and passed through this world to carry God's love to every one. He came to sinners in their sins because they needed Him. Christ comes and shows us what we are. The law shows us what we ought to be. If the light comes in, the person is convicted, but Christ is there in perfect grace. I was under death, sin, the curse and wrath: and on the cross He came under death, sin, the curse and wrath.

When I come before the judgment-seat of Christ, whom shall I see there? The Man that put away my sins. God would have us happy, happy in a holy walk, happy with Himself; and in order that I may be happy, He has put away all my sins and made me WHITE AS SNOW. Then I can walk with God happily.

The glory is in the Person who bore my sins. I like to look at the glory now; every ray of it is the proof that my sins are gone. I look at it, think of it, delight in it, and then I am changed into the same image from glory to glory.

My heart has confidence in Him; that is faith; and I follow Him and see where He is and get practically like Him. God has proved His righteousness by taking Christ to His right hand. My sins are not only put away, but I am in Christ, made the righteousness of God in Him. I have sins, but God says: "I have righteousness for you." Don't tell me I can't know it. Why Christ says I shall. "At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. I believe what Christ says.

Christ is coming, and I believe the moment is hastening on. Supposing He came to-night. Well, I say, "Thank God, His first coming redeemed me. He is coming again to take me to be with Him in the same glory as Himself."

What we want to learn is the wonderfulness of this love. "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us." (1 John 4: 16). We shall see Him face to face whose visage was more marred than any man's. He washed me from my sins the first time He came, and He is only waiting to come and take me to Himself. Have you seen Christ in glory in this way? God Himself has interfered and made me as white as snow. Christ took the fruit of what I did, and I get the fruit of what He did. I am the fruit of the travail of Christ's soul. He is my everything, and I must seek to please Him in everything I do. The more we look at Him, the more we shall see what poor weak creatures we are; but let those of us who are Christians make it our business to glorify Him in everything, remembering how He has loved us and given Himself for us.

The blessings which Characterize Christianity

{From a booklet 'The Blood of the Lamb and Other Papers' published by C. A. Hammond.}

The possession of eternal life in Christ Jesus risen and glorified, and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, are blessings which characterize Christianity, and it is consequently of the utmost importance for the child of God to apprehend these truths. The two are intimately connected, as we shall see.

As to what we are by nature there is no room for doubt: "They that are in the flesh cannot please God." Nor will improvement or reformation gain acceptance with God, for "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Even the knowledge of forgiveness of sins does not touch the root of the evil in us. Supposing the fruit of a tree is offensive, to strip off the fruit may remove the offence for the time being but will not prevent a fresh crop appearing. Just so: many a soul truly trusting in the blood of Christ, but knowing only the forgiveness of sins, fails to enjoy settled peace. Fresh sins and daily failure trouble the soul, and there is a constant recurrence to the blood to get relief for the conscience. What then is needed, is not only forgiveness for our sins, but the judgment of our state, and a new nature given - a new life capable of enjoying God and of bringing forth fruit pleasing to God. All this we have in Christ. He has not only borne "our sins in His own body on the tree," but in His death God has condemned sin in the flesh, so that faith can say, "I am crucified with Christ"; adding also, "nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2: 20). This, and nothing less, is our place in virtue of the work of Christ. "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have" (not merely forgiveness of sins or even the new birth, but), "eternal life."

What is it to have eternal life? It is to have Christ. "He that hath the Son hath life." "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Observe, it is the gift of God, and it is in His Son. It is not in our keeping, but it is secured for us in Christ. (1 John 5: 11, 12). So we read, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear" (Col. 3: 4). Faith believes God's record, receives Christ, and passes from death unto life; as the Lord says, "He that heareth My word and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation" [judgment, it should be], "but is passed from death unto life" (John 5: 24). How simple! May it be yours, dear reader, if not sure of your portion in Christ, to receive what God gives in the simplicity of faith. He has given His word for the purpose of removing every difficulty. "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)

Treasure in Earthen Vessels

2 Corinthians 4

{From a pamphlet of that name published by Morrish.}

Scripture speaks of man in his natural state in two ways. Alive in sins, as in Romans; and dead in sins, as in Ephesians. As to sins, and as having sinful lusts, man is alive enough. Plenty of activity and energy for self-pleasing, and for sin, but nothing for God. Every vanity, amusement, dress, or what not, preferred to God. For sin, he is alive: for God, dead. "Dead in trespasses and sins." It is the same condition, only looked at in different aspects, and in order for there to be deliverance from this condition two things are needed. As dead in sins, he must be quickened: it is a "new creation" that is necessary. As alive in sins, death must come in; he must die. There is no other remedy or way of deliverance before God, but death. This side of the truth we get in Romans, where the death of Christ is presented as meeting man's guilt, and death with Christ, as the deliverance from our state.

Chapter 6: 2-11. When a man is dead you cannot say he has evil lusts and passions, or a will of his own. "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin," &c. There is no remedy for being alive in sins but death. Ephesians gives us the other side of the truth: there we are seen as "dead in trespasses and sins," and God quickens, and raises us up together with Christ. (Chap. 2) It is an entirely new creation. Colossians gives both aspects. (Chap. 2: 11, 13) As alive in sins we have died with Christ, and are buried with Him, as in Romans; thus getting clear of the state we were in, for we have died out of it, and are brought into a new place in righteousness, by virtue of Christ's resurrection. As dead in sins we are quickened together with Him, as also taught in Ephesians. Thus the Epistle to the Colossians goes, as it were, between the two. We are taken farther than in Romans; because in chapter 3 we are spoken of as being raised with Him, which Romans does not teach. But it does not present us as seated with Christ in the heavenly places, as Ephesians does. It directs us to Christ as there, and tells us to seek those things which are above, "where Christ sitteth."

Now all this, and more, was revealed to Paul, and declared by him in the gospel he preached. There was no veil on the glory of God, as in Moses' case: if hid, it was in the minds of unbelievers; the effort and work of Satan to blind men's minds to it. In verse 4, "Blinded the minds of them that believe not." This is the action of the "god of this world," and he does it by means of man's evil lusts, &c.

The gospel is "the gospel of the glory of Christ," (not the "glorious gospel of Christ," but) the revelation of His glory, who had been on the cross bearing sins, but is now glorified at God's right hand. The glory of God shines in His face, and there is no veil on this. All about God has come out: He no longer hides Himself as formerly He did; dwelling in "the thick darkness." So that if God is not seen and known, the veil is on man's heart, not on God's face. The blinding of Satan is not exactly because of the rejection of the gospel, but rather in leading man to reject it. The point is, that there is no veil now, except on the human heart, and it is in contrast with Moses, who put a veil over his face. When he came out to the people from the presence of God he put it on, because they could not bear the "glory of his countenance;" not even that little reflection of the glory of God which shone in his face. Man "came short of the glory of God;" and when only its reflection was brought before him, he could not endure it connected as it was with the law, or God's claim on him. But now the glory shines "in the face of Jesus Christ," and there is no veil upon it. Moreover there is not, nor do we need, a veil upon our face, but are like Moses, in Exodus 34: 34, who had no veil on when he went in before the Lord. He turned to the Lord, and took the veil away. Israel's heart shall turn to the Lord, and then the veil shall be taken away from them. (2 Cor. 3: 16.) But we do not wait for that day, but even now, "with open (or unveiled) face," behold the glory of the Lord. And not only are we free to do this, but we love to do it, for it shines in the face of Him who died for us, and put away all our sins! Every ray of it tells how completely the work was done, for, though He was once on the cross, and our sins "were laid on him," He is now in the glory, and certainly has not got our sins there. In Moses the glory connected itself with the law - requirement from man, and therefore man could not bear it; but in the gospel it shines in the face of Him who died for us. Christ has been "made sin" for us. He is now in the glory; and we, beholding with affection and intelligence the glory in Him and taking delight in it, are "changed into the same image, from glory to glory." We see this in Stephen, when being stoned. He was stedfastly looking up into heaven, and saw "the glory of God, and Jesus standing." Christ filled his vision, and see how like he is to his Lord. He is not thinking of the stones, but calmly prays the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit, as Jesus committed His spirit to His Father, and prays for His murderers, as Jesus did.

Israel "could not look to the end of that which is abolished." (Chap. 3: 13.) They could not understand even the glory which was in the ordinances, as a figure of that which was better and permanent. The whole system ordained by the hand of Moses was veiled to their eyes, and the people fell under the letter that "killeth," even in that part which was a testimony of things to be spoken afterwards. Occupied with "the letter" of the covenant under which they were they did not see that all the types and shadows - the legal ordinances - pointed to One yet to come. "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (Ver. 6.) "Now the Lord is that spirit" (not Spirit, ver. 17), and this they did not apprehend. The institutions under the law looked on to Christ, though even in the grace part of them there was the veil, a standing witness that God had not revealed Himself, and there was no way for man to approach His immediate presence. Under the law God did not come out, and man could not go in. The law came out, and the prophets came out; but God Himself was hidden behind the veil. In Christ, of course, God had come out, as He says in John 12: 46, "I am come a light into the world." There God had come out, but man could not yet go in. Faith could say, "We beheld his glory," but redemption must be accomplished in order to enable man to go in before God. This having now been done, we see a Man in the glory, "crowned with glory," and God's glory in His face. Now all is out: God is fully revealed, and man enters the glory. The veil is rent "from the top to the bottom." God has come out, and man is gone, and can go in.

Chapter 4: 12. Paul gave out the things of the gospel as pure as he received them in. He did not corrupt the doctrine, but manifested it in all the purity and brightness in which he had received it. Not only was the glory of God fully revealed with open face in Christ, but it was also manifested without a veil in the pure preaching of the apostle. This ministry, which was the power of the Spirit of God acting in the chosen instrument, made man responsible for submission to this glorious Christ; and when Christ was thus proclaimed, there was either submission of heart, or the blinding of Satan. We cannot take this ground as to the power of our preaching - as to the subject of it we ought to be able to do so. I may preach the gospel in a place without effect, and another may come and present it with greater power, and the people be saved. Still I might, in a general way, say, If you do not receive the gospel I preach, you will be lost for ever.

In 1 Corinthians 2 we see (ver. l2) the apostle received these things in by the Spirit: verse 13, he told them out by the Spirit, so that we get them as pure as he received them, both being by the Spirit. And then (ver. 14) it is also by means of the Spirit that the things are received by those to whom they are addressed. "Comparing spiritual things," is not the thought: it should be "communicating spiritual things by spiritual means."

God has shined into our hearts, in order for there to be the "shining out" of the knowledge of His glory. This is the meaning of "give the light," in verse 6 of the chapter before us. (2 Cor. 4) It is something like lighting a candle in a lantern that the light of it may shine out through the glass; and what Paul could say was, that the light shone out as clear and pure as God had caused it to shine in. The treasure was in an earthen vessel and the only way for the light of the lamp to be seen, was by the pitcher being broken, and Paul did not mind the vessel being knocked about, and hardly pressed, so that the light shone out all the more. In chapter 1: 8, he had been "pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that he despaired even of life," but what of that? He had the sentence of death already in himself. It was realised already in his mind, and its coming outwardly only gave the consciousness of it greater vividness. He could fully say, as in this chapter, "Death worketh in us." Hence Paul as a mere man had ceased to exist in his service. He was a vessel. For the Corinthians it was only the power of life in Christ which worked in him. Their gain was in all his trouble, as he says, "but life in you."

"Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." (Ver. 10.) This is practically reckoning myself dead continually in order that the body may be simply a vessel through which the life of Jesus manifests itself. If the body is anything but a vessel, it is sin. When I walk as one dead with Christ, the flesh is not allowed a place. A person may even cultivate the flesh making a provision for it (Rom. 13: 14), but that is bad indeed! He is a bad gardener that cultivates the weeds!

He says (ver. 11), "alway delivered unto death." (see also chap. 1: 8-10.) Here the circumstances Paul was in helped him the more completely to realise himself as dead with Christ. God makes Paul realise these things by the very circumstances he has to pass through, in order that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in his mortal body. Thus death wrought in the apostle: what was merely of man and natural life disappeared, in order that life in Christ, developing itself in him on the part of God, and by the power of God, should work in the Corinthians by his means. The flesh must be kept down, and not allowed to move or act, and when one is in earnest the Lord passes him through circumstances which help him in it. Paul learns in an honourable way, for if the circumstances were trying, they came upon him for Christ's sake. With us the Lord has often to send discipline, because we have been allowing the flesh.

"All things are for your sakes." (Ver. 15) What a wonderful thing for Paul to say! How much like his Master here, as also in what he says in 2 Timothy 2: 10, and other places.

Christ in glory is my righteousness: Paul had no better, and no one had any other; and it is Him I am following after, to be with Him, and like Him. My life ought to be like a man in a long passage, going towards a bright lamp at the other end of it. I do not get the lamp till the end, but I have the light of it all the way, and the nearer I get to it, the more brightly it shines upon me, and in that sense I get more of the lamp every step I take. The nearer I get in my spirit to the "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," the more I can afford to regard the trouble on every side as "light affliction," and "but for a moment." All present things become less to me, the more really I am looking at eternal things. Positive persecution I find to be less hard to bear when it actually comes, than it seems in looking forward to it. When it is before me I look at it - when I am in it, I look out of it at Christ and find relief in God. And thus we do not faint.

What Characterises the Christian and secures his blessing.

Romans 8.

J. N. Darby.

{A booklet published by Morrish.}

It cannot but be remarked how that, in this chapter, the whole condition of a Christian is identified with the Holy Ghost. What constitutes him a Christian is the sealing of the Holy Ghost - and this really characterises him as such. The first part of the chapter gives us the Spirit in life-giving power; then, secondly, God in us; and in the close we find the security of the blessing, "God for us." What gives us our character is, God in us; what secures us is God for us. It is entirely individual, for here we have not the church formed by the presence of the Holy Ghost. The first four verses form a summary of the earlier part of the epistle.

In chapter 5 we are shewn how God in grace had made peace for us, justified and brought us forgiveness of sins; and then the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. There alone He had been spoken of previous to chapter 8. This answers to verse 1.

In the subsequent part (chaps. 6, 7) we have the way in which we find deliverance from our state as children of Adam, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Then (ver. 3) "sin in the flesh" is "condemned" in the cross. Forgiveness and justification are thus founded on Christ having been delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification; thus as regards deliverance from a sinful nature, by its being condemned in the cross: "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." As regards power, "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Then the practical result, in virtue of not being under the law, is, "that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us" by walking "after the Spirit." There is a great deal more in this than in walking right according to the law. We have Christ as our righteousness, "Who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness," in contrast to law, which would be our own righteousness. Then we have walk manifesting the life of Christ, the Spirit of God as power for this, in contrast to the law. The law did not give the righteousness it required, and gave no power over sin. In contrast with the righteousness of the law, I have Christ as my righteousness; and consequently, in contrast with sin dwelling in me, I get the power of the life of Christ by the Holy Ghost dwelling in me, and now am to walk "not after the flesh."

The law condemned what was evil, but left me walking in it. But now I walk after something else, "the Spirit." And what is of the last importance to us is, that we have an object for our hearts. The law gives no life, no strength, no object. It tells me I must love God. What is He? Perfect silence! It tells me nothing of the God I am to love. It is His perfect, just claim of obedience. That is all it can tell me of God - that He claims obedience. It was an obliged obedience, and a curse in case of failure. It judges me if I do not obey, but gives me no object. The heart must have some object - either a good object or a bad one. Now I get the Spirit's object - Christ. He takes of the things of Christ and shews them unto me. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." There people generally stop. It is a reference to Isaiah 64, and what the apostle is stating is that it is not true now: "but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." That is just the opposite; for "we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." I have not only got life, as born of God, but I have got one who (through this blessed word as the means) reveals things suited to this life. It is the Holy Ghost who takes these things and gives them to me as the objects for the new nature to live and feed upon. God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things.

Of course, life must be there first. It supposes this, but is more. Suppose I am born of God, that does not reveal anything to me. But every nature feeds on that which belongs to it, and is suited to it: as animal nature, for example. Here I find, not a law to me as man in the flesh, but a new nature and new life, the life of Christ in us, which has certain desires, affections, and hopes. But where are the things that answer to them?

Then the Holy Ghost is given as the revealer of the things that belong to the new nature. Whatever a father has, belongs, in a certain sense, to his child; the child talks naturally of "our" house, "our" carriage, and the like, yet he has nothing of his own. This is all quite right.

Thus we have been brought as children to the Father, and have the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, that we may enjoy the things which belong to the relationship.

This is a wonderful thing to say, and is a different thing from being born of God; it is more than the possession of life. Each has its place, and a different way in which it works. The Spirit is the spring and source of life, and then dwells in us. I get the truth itself from scripture: we are all the sons of God, as born of God, by faith in Christ Jesus: then, "having believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit." We become sons by believing, and then after believing are sealed. God cannot seal an unbeliever. Seal sin and wickedness! It cannot be. He seals a believer. "He that believeth on me . . . . out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given], because that Jesus was not yet glorified." We find the secret here of how and why we get the Holy Ghost, and why He gives liberty and joy too. "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." The coming of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost is a distinct and definite thing, and must not be confounded with His working in a divine way previously. The Son created the world, but did not come into the world till incarnation. The Holy Ghost wrought, but did not come to take a place in the world until Pentecost. This depended on the Lord going away and being glorified. What was His being glorified? An immense thing! It was God taking man, the being that deserved being cast out of the presence of God, into the glory of God, in Christ Himself, and those that believe on Him. After the accomplishment of the perfect work of redemption, then He can send the Holy Ghost down as a witness that the thing is done. The moment Christ has gone up and taken His place, in righteousness, in the presence of the Father, the Holy Ghost comes down here as the consequence of Man being in the glory of God. Why is He there? Because the work of putting away sin was perfectly accomplished, and He sat down, having Himself purged our sins. Now the Holy Ghost can come down to make us sure of it. The place where He leads to is evidently the glory, because Christ is there. Christ and the saints get their portion in the same way, one after another. He whom the world rejected, God has set there; and He says, "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am." "Ye are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus," and "because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."

In the Old Testament type the man was first washed with water, then sprinkled with blood, and then anointed with oil. This is the way in which we get the Spirit of God. The Comforter comes down when the whole thing is accomplished; Christ having gone up on high, when He had purged our sins. Of this the Spirit is the seal, being in us the revealer and earnest of all that Christ has gone into. When I have found the work of Christ as an effectual work of deliverance, being made white as snow, I am sealed by the Holy Ghost, who has borne witness to me of the blood of Christ, and is then the power of life in Christ dwelling in me, for liberty and joy.

Then the Spirit is the power of life, because of righteousness. You get this unfolded till we come to verse 11 of this chapter, where He is also the power of our final deliverance - the body being renewed for the glory. You have the Spirit first as giving the objects of this life. The law tells me what is right, as far as it goes, but the Holy Ghost gives me objects to satisfy and fill the new man. He produces righteousness, for "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace," &c. He does it by taking of the things of Christ and shewing them to me, thus giving me a divine object, so that I live by the faith of the Son of God, "who loved me, and gave himself for me." "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified through the truth." All the things that are true I get in the person that I love, and I am attached to them. There are qualities that I may admire. When I find them in my father or my mother, do I coldly estimate them? No, I delight in them, because they are in my father or my mother. So with the things of Christ. I find the qualities in the person that I love. The Spirit takes of them and shews them to me, and I am changed into the same image, growing up into Him in all things, whom the Spirit keeps before me. So the apostle was labouring to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus - taking of what is in Christ and planting it in my heart, that Christ may be formed in me - to make me grow up to Him in everything.

What are "the things of the Spirit"? Could the Holy Ghost take the things of the world and make them objects for you? It would be blasphemy to say so. "To be carnally minded" is not a state of mind, but the nature. "To be spiritually minded is life and peace." There is joy and delight in these things of the Spirit; the conscience has nothing to say against them, and the heart delights in them; and the character of the Christian is formed by them. All these traits in Christ become objects on which the heart lives, and thus become characteristic of the Christian.

This is what James calls the law of liberty. Supposing my child wanted to run into the town, and I tell him to stay and do his lessons instead. He obeys; but this is not the law of liberty: that would be to tell him to go into the town. The law says, Do your lessons, instead of what you like. Grace says, Go to heaven, and gives me power to go! The heart and the commandment go the same road. This is the Christian in his path. As far as he is governed and ruled by the Spirit of Christ, he has this perfect law of liberty to walk in: his desires are not according to the flesh.

There are three ways in which the Spirit is presented in connection with the Christian. Though born of God, until I know the completeness of redemption I have the thought of meeting requirements, and looking at what my state will be. This is not liberty, but bondage. But I have been redeemed by Christ out of that condition, and through grace have got into this place of liberty. I have learned that I am not in the flesh at all, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in me. I am in Christ, and in the Spirit, and there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. You are in what is perfectly contrary to the flesh in your position before God - in the Spirit, not in the flesh at all. What is of God is in contrast with the flesh; hence "the Spirit of God."

The second way in which He is spoken of is as the Spirit of Christ: "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." This is not purpose or election, but character. We are brought into Christ. You cannot say a man is a Christian until Christ dwells in him. Till the prodigal came to the father he had not the robe - did not belong to the house, but was on the road to it. So in Egypt; when the blood was on the door-post they were sure to get out, but they were not out, and were frightened out of their lives! They had not salvation till they were clean out of Egypt. They were afraid of death and judgment, the very things that brought them out. But when they had passed the Red Sea into a new condition, delivered by God, they sing of the "salvation" of Jehovah. This is complete deliverance, and I have found this new place; I am in Christ, or rather "of" Christ. And if Christ be in me, the body is not allowed to live. I say to the flesh, I have nothing to say to you; the body is dead. If it moves, it is sin. What life is there then? The "Spirit is life," as that which will produce righteousness - the formative power of it.

Then, thirdly, as "the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead." It is the same Spirit always, but with different results. Here my resurrection is a consequence of the Holy Ghost dwelling in me: the actual body is delivered. We have had, first, the nature of God in contrast with the flesh. Secondly, as forming Christ in me. Thirdly, for final deliverance - not short of the body being glorified. The cry, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" is all answered; delivered in spiritual power; then we are given objects belonging and suited to it; and, lastly, completely and finally in body of glory.

Now comes another thing, the second part of the chapter. It is my personal condition; but in that condition personal relationship that is treated of now; still founded on the Spirit. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God; for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." It is not that you are to see whether you are sons by the Spirit; but "we are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus." The Old Testament saints had not this, though as faithful as we are. "The heir as long as he is a child differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all, till the time appointed of the father; but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." So here we are sons of God, as many as are led by the Spirit of God; and if sons, then heirs. Of whom? of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. We have not received the spirit of bondage to fear - like the Old Testament saints dreading death. We are sons, and know our place as such, according to the word of the Lord, "my Father and your Father, my God and your God" - and the Holy Ghost now becomes the earnest of the inheritance.

What is the consequence of this? "We suffer with him." We cannot have the Spirit of Christ without suffering. I must in my measure have the thoughts and feelings of Christ. He could not be in the world and see sin and misery, and not suffer. We cannot but suffer. It is not suffering for Christ, that is a privilege given us; for "unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." It is with him. We cannot but sorrow, if there is any heart, as the consequence of the consciousness of sonship. Yet we reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed to us. This is the time of the "earnest expectation of the creature," not yet the "manifestation of the sons of God."

Just see now what the consequences are. First, relationship with God is settled; secondly, I am an heir in whom the glory is to be revealed; I am a son, I am an heir, I am going to have all that Christ has; not only the Father's house, but the kingdom, the inheritance in heaven of all things.

They are revealed to my heart now, and they are His; there is the great and blessed thing.

Take the Mount of Transfiguration, the New Jerusalem, the Father's house; all these things tell me what I have got, and my heart is bounding onward in the power of the Holy Ghost, rejoicing in the Lord always. The Spirit of adoption shews me all the blessed things Christ brings me into: they are not manifested yet. I belong to heaven, and am yet in a body that belongs to earth, so that I must and ought to feel things here. What brought the creature into the bondage of corruption? How did it get in? Through us. And how will it get out? Through us, when the glory comes! It is a beautiful thought! The effect of the glory of the new creation is to make me feel what the old creation is. We brought them into it, and shall bring them out of it. (vers. 20-22) We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, waiting for the liberty of the glory of the children of God. It cannot get into the liberty of grace - the body cannot; I have to keep it down. But when the deliverance of glory comes, this is all over. We get the glory, but creation gets deliverance. This body connects me

with all the sorrows of this world (ver. 23); "Ourselves also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body." We are not wishing for the soul to be saved, but for the body to be delivered.

Meanwhile, what does the Spirit do? He helps our infirmities. We groan within ourselves. It is not selfishness: it is the Holy Ghost puts us into it. It is the Spirit of love, of God, that feels the evil in the way of love. Is it merely selfishness to feel what it is to be in a world like this? Not a bit. Christ sorrowed in love. In virtue of the very joy and glory as the first-fruits of the Spirit, I groan. What is that groan? It is the Spirit of God. Our hearts become the voice of a groaning creation going up to God. And He that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit. What a word is this! What does He find? Does He find sin in it? No; but the mind of God: that is like Christ. He comes and searches my heart, and there He finds the mind of God - what is "according to God"! It is the Spirit of God in me feeling things in divine love as in Christ, and He carries up the groan to God. Where does it come from? From the Spirit of God. While I am waiting for the redemption, I have got the relative condition of son and heir, which makes me the vessel of the sympathies of God, having a link to connect me with it all. The very consciousness and knowledge of all this blessedness make me conscious of the state of the groaning creation till the power of God delivers it. I do not know what to ask for, or how to ask, but I do know this, that God makes all things work together for good to them that love Him, to them who are the called according to His purpose. I cannot pierce through the trammels of evil in the world, but God holds the thread. I have got the Master of the whole scene, although I have a heart that cannot enter into all, and He makes everything work for good.

Now God is for me. This is not a work in me, but for me: not God in me, but God for me. What shall we say to these things? When Paul has considered the whole case, felt the joy and felt the evil, well, he says, I know through the Holy Ghost that He has given His Son for me when a sinner; and the conclusion is, God is for me. There may be plenty of adversaries, but what of that? God is for me.

One word for the closing part, to point out that what we get in it is good for us, and nothing of the work in us. It is the gift of the blessed Son of God. "How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" In the gift of His Son God gave the very best thing in heaven already, and of course He will give me everything else that is good for me. Do I want a proof that He loves me in something less? He freely gives me all things. That is all very well; but what about sin? Here God is not giving, but it is God that justifies; who shall condemn? Thus I have learnt it all. There is an end to that question. All is well. But death is in the way, and life is awfully dangerous. Death? Christ died; O then death is the very best thing for me. Life? He is my life. Height? Christ is on the right hand of God, the very place where I learn all the blessing. Depth? He has descended into it for me. What shall separate me from the love of Christ? "Of Christ," because He is a man. The moment I say Christ, I take it from the throne of God to the depths of earth, and from the earth up again to the throne, and I find nothing but Christ!

Further, nothing can separate me from the love of God. All else is a creature, and God is necessarily stronger than that which He has created. It is divine love. Though Christ as man was in all my circumstances passing through the power of evil - all I might think would separate me from His love. He has come into and triumphed over everything that might be against me.

Thus we have had the Spirit as the power of life to walk in righteousness; then taking part with me in all the sorrows of the path here; and, finally, we have been brought to "God for us." What I especially desire is that our hearts should apprehend what it is to have the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, because we are washed by the blood of Christ. Are you going to use your body for sin, if it is the temple of the Holy Ghost? There are a thousand things flowing from it. Even the resurrection of the body is because of His dwelling in me. This is what characterises Christianity. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." May we abide in the consciousness of this, knowing that Christ dwells in us, and we in Him.

"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." (Rev. 5: 9, 10.)

What the World is; and how a Christian can live in it.

J. N. Darby.

{Published originally by G. Morrish, London; and R. L. Allan and W. B. Horner, Manchester (Manchester Series - No. 128.): currently by A. Poots, Belfast.}

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2: 15.

"Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God." James 4: 4.

To the serious and thoughtful, the question comes up often and earnestly - What is the world? What is it from which we are to keep ourselves unspotted? There are three senses in which the word world can be used; literally, it means the order or system according to which human affairs are managed on the earth. The earth itself is called the world, because it is the platform on which the world-system operates, and the people who live according to this world-system are called the world also. They may thus be distinguished: the world-space, the world-people, the world-system. When we read that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, it may be understood that He came into the world-space, and in so doing He necessarily came in contact with the world-system which hated Him. He said to His disciples, "Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world," that is, you are not under the system governed by it, finding your life in it. He that is a friend to that system is an enemy to God, because it is self-governed, not subject to God. Take, for an illustration, the military system. When a man enlists in the army he finds everything provided for him: the paymaster's department supplies his funds, the quartermaster's department clothes him, the ordnance department arms and equips him. It is arranged for him that he shall go here, and lodge there; there are regular hours for drill, dress, parade, roll-call, etc., etc., and to this system he is bound when he enters the army. It is very significantly called a little world in itself, so complete and systematic are its arrangements. This is but a faint illustration of the all-governing system called the world, where every want of man is provided for - every faculty brought into exercise.

Man wants society; the world provides the social system; this is a perfect study in itself. Position is everything, it is sought for at great trouble, and no expense is too great to secure it. Behold the great ladder, "Society," with its countless myriads; some striving to climb higher and higher, others to hold creditably their present position. What a tremendous power to absorb heart and mind the social system possesses! Again, man wants political government, protection of life, property, rights; this necessity the world-system fully meets. And what a complete arrangement there is for what we call business. The working system of the world is perfectly amazing. Men of mere muscle find work, inventive minds have full scope for their "genius;" artistic souls revel in their world of sculpture, painting, music, poetry; students sit and study problems; writers write books; the very lusts and luxury of some furnish means of livelihood to others. It takes all kinds to make a world, men say.

Man is a very complicated creature. A good many different things taken together are needed for most; a little business, a little politics, a little society, a little study, and a little religion. Man is naturally religious. The word religion, which we use so much, only occurs five times in the whole Bible. Religion is not godliness, for worshippers of idols are religious. Religion is as much a part of man's nature as his intellect or memory; being therefore so important a part of the man-nature, the world-system has a special provision for its necessities, complete in every part. One is very sensitive to tender impressions - has a love for the beautiful; fine music, imposing ceremonies, and religious rites are provided for such an one. Another is free and outspoken in his nature; he must have opportunity to give vent to his feelings unrestrained. Another is cold, reserved, reasoning; a stern orthodoxy just suits him. One of a conscientious, self-depreciating disposition, must do penance in some shape or other, and his requirements are also met and provided for, and so on. There are creeds and doctrines and sects for every variety of temperament, for every shade of the fleshly religious feeling.

Could any system be more admirable and complete? Nothing left out. Enough of joy and satisfaction to keep this great moving mass of humanity thoroughly occupied, and measurably contented; their hearts are kept busy; their minds are kept busy; if one thing fails, another is provided; even death and bereavement are not left out of the calculation, for the world-system has its arrangement of funerals, mourning attire, visits and notes of sympathy, and all the varied accessories; and so the world is able to tide over sorrows before long, and occupy itself just as before. Now God is leading some, a very few, to see that all this business, politics, education, governments, science, inventions, railroads, telegraphs, social arrangements, charitable institutions, reforms, religion and all, are of the world-system. And this system is becoming more and more perfect every day. "The progress of the age" is only the worldly element developing itself. Whatever Christ's present relation to the world is, that is the Christian's too - the place which the Lord is in above, and the place that He is not in below, defines our place. Whence is all this? - Will it surprise any one to hear that Satan is the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air, and manager of this stupendous system? His is the energy, his the presiding genius, he is its prince. When Jesus Christ was on earth, the devil came and offered Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, for, said he, that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it, if thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. Here we have the curtain lifted, and the real object of all human religious worship exposed. Scripture describes him as "full of wisdom, perfect in beauty," arraying himself "like an angel of light." Who can wonder if unthinking men, yea, and the more thinking ones, are deceived and deluded? How few have their eyes opened to see, by the word of God, and the anointing of the Holy Ghost, what the world really is. Some think they have escaped from the snare of worldliness, if they have given up the so-called worldly pleasures, and become members of churches, or religious associations, not discerning that they are just as much in the world-system as before, only Satan, its prince, has shifted them from one department to another, to quiet their uneasy consciences and make them better satisfied with themselves.

The question now arises, if these things are so, what is the remedy? How are those who are in the broad way, and living according to the world-system, to escape from its control? How shall we know what is of the world, and what is of God? The apostle says, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." The Christian's normal mode of life is being governed by Christ, as a man's body by his head; where there is health, there is no motion of hand or foot, except as the head says "move." In just this way Jesus Christ is the Christian's Head, and he is under His immediate direction in all things small and great. This is how Christianity cuts at the very root of worldliness, for man's free-will is the foundation principle on which the world-system is constructed, just as the principle of the christian life is dependence on God and obedience to His will. Satan's great aim is to get up a system for man which will be a perfect substitute for God's Spirit-leading; this will be his final master-piece, and this is the prominent feature of the great apostasy fast approaching; Satan openly, and in his own person, will declare himself to be god of this world; a full revelation of what is now hidden in mystery. Is it not high time then for Christians to awake out of sleep, and to see to it that they are not in any way associated with a system so fast ripening for judgment? But you say, how can we help it? Are we not bound by necessity to these things by our trades and professions, as members of government and of society? "Business must be attended to." Yes, this is a necessity that everybody admits; but mark, the very fact that everybody admits it, stamps it as not of God.

"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." Faith does not look at outward circumstances, at what is possible or not possible; faith disregards what seems, and looks at God. People all about, on every hand, will tell us what it is necessary to do, and not to do, here among men, for what suits man is their standard and measure; but the child of God walks right along, paying no attention to what they say, for what suits God is His standard and measure. They have the way all marked out as plain as can be, and perfectly reasonable and satisfactory, but that is nothing to one who walks by faith; he knows that whatever is universally agreed on as the right way must be wrong (Luke 16: 15), that is the broad way.

For instance: everybody says that a citizen of the country, a Christian, should be interested in the government of the country to which he belongs, and ought to vote, so as to help to put good men in power. God says differently; in many places and ways He tells me that, as His child, I am not a citizen of any country, or a member of any society; my citizenship is in heaven, and I have henceforth to do with heavenly things; the cross of Christ has crucified me to the world, and the world to me; if I give my mind and heart to these earthly things I shall be the enemy of the cross of Christ. Be not conformed to the world. What then shall we do with governments? Why, submit to them, since God orders them; and when they impose tax, pay; and make supplication to God for kings, and all in authority. All therefore that a Christian has to do with politics is to be subject to the powers set over him, not only for wrath but also for conscience sake. It is true that in Christ he is heir of "all things," including the earth in which the world-system has now its operation, yet (as to Abraham in the land of Canaan) God gives him not so much as to set his foot on for a present inheritance, "The just shall live by faith." If, then, the true child of God refuses to vote, it is not so much that he thinks voting in itself wrong, as that he has given his vote and interest to the Man in heaven, whom God has exalted as King of kings, and Lord of lords. He has, beyond it all, lost his interest in these things, by virtue of something he has found which is far more attractive. He sees, too, that the world in spirit and essence is ungodly, that its boasted reforms and improvement are all tending to shut out God from the heart of man. He desires to stand as a witness for the truth and for God, and of the coming judgment, at the appearing of Christ when men are congratulating themselves on peace and safety. He desires that by these means others may learn through him to escape the snare by which Satan is entrapping the mass of mankind.

We who are saved are to be distinct, as taking side with a rejected Christ, against the world which has crucified Him; and marked as men of a heavenly race, blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom shine ye as lights in the world. This is the great mission of God's children. But to live in this way costs something. It is to be like a single rock in a rapid river. Everything around it is on the move, all tending strongly one way; there is constant pressure, pressure, pressure, but there it stands amid an endless opposition, which would surely sweep it away, if it were not Rock. When we learn to take the words of God and practise them, and bear testimony to them in our lives, then the storm comes. To belong to a so-called church is easy enough, and to do as others do - to be an honest man and good citizen brings no persecution, one may be all that and yet go with the current; but to shine as lights in the world for God, provokes the world's enmity; wherever Christ is seen, just so far is He hated; if He is seen in me I am hated on that account, but if I enjoy a fair reputation, if no one has anything against me as a Christian, what then? If the life of Jesus is not made manifest in my mortal body, Christ is not discoverable in me.

The matter stands thus. When once a person has really come to know God, or rather to be known of Him, he is drawn upward, by union with Christ on high, from participation in the things of the world-system, and it is a fitting question, how can he turn again to the weak and beggarly elements? Now he has become a son of God, and has life, eternal life, in Christ, and is one with the Head revealed to him through the Word, by the Spirit, how can such an one who has come to know God, be interested in the world? Should we see a boy eating bitter, worthless fruit in an orchard, while on the very next tree there were delicious apples, we should judge that he did not know of the good apples. So likewise if a man is heartily engaged in any of the things that make up the man system, can he, we ask, can he know God? And this is why the words of God come not as definite orders: thou shalt not vote, thou shalt not be honoured in this evil age, thou shalt suffer shame. No, but they are just in such a way that the loving disciple, whose selfish heart is broken, and who only wants to know the mind of the Lord, may find out the secret by being more with Christ, in order to be more like Him, and transformed from this present evil world; not like the old commands in the Levitical law - thou shalt, and thou shalt not - yet plainly there, and easily discerned if the eye is single. This is a wonderful provision, that the heart of love finds no difficulty in discovering the will of God, while the heart that is not sincere can do nothing else than find excuses and invent ways of passing by a distasteful path. A good illustration of this may be found in a family: here is a loving, dutiful son, who learns the ways and mind of his father, and

all is very easy and natural for him; but another son, left in the same way, takes ever so many advantages, he knows, or might know; but since he cares only to please himself, he can say, I didn't know, you never said I shouldn't do so and so, or that I should not go to this place.

To conclude. You must needs be in contact with the world-system to some degree, but this contact is never to be one of fellowship; what concord can there be between Christ and Belial? "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." Jesus, who was not of this world, suffered and was straitened; the loneliness and tribulation were real to Him, and they will be real to us just as we follow in His steps. Are not too many of us taking a comfort and satisfaction, and enjoying a home feeling that is entirely unwarranted under this godless world-system? Home here, where Christ is not? We are homeless wanderers and weary pilgrims, yea foreigners, if we be Christ's. Contact with the world there must be, while we are in it, but are we not brought into contact at many points where there ought to be no contact at all, and would be none if we were bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus? Many are the deceptions wherewith the enemy allures the heart, even of God's children: religious meetings, service, Christian fellowship, in all of which the flesh can participate, are substituted for living by faith in the Son of God. The godly of old, whose report has come down to us that they pleased God, were despised; the offscouring of all things, even unto this day, having their conversation in the heavens. In contrast with them we are honourable. We live too much according to the world-system to be brought into conflict with it, and the result is we are disloyal as subjects of Christ, and we escape the cross and its reproach. The word stands unalterable. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. There is a narrow way; may we be of the "few" who find it. We carry our passports with us. We are sealed by the Holy Ghost, and are only waiting for the shout to be caught up into the air, to meet our Lord and be for ever with Him - What a blessed hope!

"What hath God wrought?"

Numbers 33: 23

J. N. Darby.

(Notes of an Address)

{Help in Things concerning Himself Vol. 2, 1892, pages 40-5.}

The thought here is that our state should answer to the state into which we have been brought. Where the conscience is good this is the case: we enjoy the thing into which we have been brought in the measure in which we enter into it. The soul must be broken down; the pride of man, that would meet God face to face, must be broken down - that pride which is the worst of all. (I am not speaking of brutish sins.) In his natural course man has no idea that sin separates him from God.

But when we come to righteousness, it is another thing. We all know we have sinned, and that heaven is a holy place, and yet we expect to get there. Call it mercy, or what you will, but man would rather be something else than what he is if going to be judged now. The conscience must be awakened by a present revelation of God. The light comes in, and makes everything manifest, and puts us just as we are in the presence of God. There is no pride in the conscience when we are before God; pride of heart is just being without God altogether. Whom am I to be afraid of if God is not in all my thoughts? When I have to do with God there is fear, right fear; that is the beginning of wisdom. There is never any pride in the conscience when we have to do with God.

In these verses we find the most absolute justification; God sees no sin at all.

When you look at it as it is here - an absolute judgment outside of what we have done - what hath God wrought? I do not prescribe any particular course of experience, but the pride of heart must be gone to enjoy this.

All the failures of the wilderness had gone before this. (Chap. 23) Could the enemy, the accuser of the brethren, take up all that Israel had done, and make it a barrier to their entering the land - hinder our getting into heaven? - for this is heaven for us. He could not. (Deut. 9).

They were there at the same moment as when this question was raised by the accuser, Can you go in or out? Well, what is Moses' account? Incessant murmuring. "Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you." What is the normal state of a Christian? The Christian's path is clearly living up to his privileges - Christ our life, walking in the Spirit, accepted in him.

We must either be before God in the lowliness of the sense of the grace of God, or meet a God who breaks us down. What is man's place with God? - Lowliness. And that being so, all the man's delight is being nothing, and receiving everything.

The judgment of the Spirit in a saint is another thing from the judgment about him. By the Spirit of God I see such a thing was not meekness, not gentleness on my part. The Spirit of God judges me according to what I am; that is all right, but when God judges me it is according to what Christ is.

The Spirit of God judges everything in us that is contrary to God; but when the question arises with the accuser, you see what God's judgment actually, absolutely, is about me, and that is according to what Christ is and what He has wrought. "God is not man that he should lie." All the hostility comes to nothing. Why? Because it met God (ver. 21) "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel." Why, Moses had seen nothing else! In one sense God had seen it all. Why hath He not seen it? Because He hath put it away Himself. There is no such thing seen when you come to the judgment of God about us.

It was not that He allowed the evils. He had humbled the people, and proved them, to know what was in their hearts. They had gone all through the wilderness thus. He had chastened them about their sins. You get all God's gracious dealings with them in Deuteronomy 8. But here it rests upon God Himself, and I find Christ there, the Lamb that was slain, in the presence of God. Suppose I am broken down, and humbled, and go to God about it, what do I find there? I find the Lamb slain there; a man there.  What tale does that tell? That Christ has finished the work and gone back there, and put our sins away. "Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."  If I come at the beginning or at the end, I find Christ there. God does not see iniquity in me. Why? Because Christ has put it away. It is - what God has wrought. He undertook that work, and there I find that "by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Christ could not allow sin. Well, then, did He put me away? No; He put my sin away!

We cannot judge ourselves too much and too earnestly. The converted man loves holiness. The question is now, Is God satisfied with what He has wrought? That, of course, is simple. It over-rides all experience. Experience is the work of the Holy Spirit within us, but that is desert work. "Thou hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed." Experience is right; but when you come to the end of all experience, it is - what has God wrought?

Chapter 24: 6: "As the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted." Well, He has wrought in our hearts that we should follow Him in righteousness and true holiness. When God has wrought, that is the effect. He has taken me in hand, brought me out of Egypt. Who is to condemn? Condemn yourself when you are wrong. But what matter who condemns if God justifies; that is  the true side. Are you satisfied with yourself? Then you do not know God at all. Satan may accuse, so as to bring chastisement for our good, but no judgment.

Verse 24 - Now you get strength. "Behold the people shall rise up as a great lion."

There I get power. "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Consequent on this we get power against the evil.

Reader, is your heart or conscience on that ground? When you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, are you there in your heart according to what God has wrought? or are you looking to the ground of your acceptance for what you have done yourself? Are you judging of yourself, by yourself, down in the wilderness, or by God, up in the mount? It is God that justifies; the whole thing is God's work; that is a blessed thing.

Our hearts are able to rest and see there is an end, an utter condemnation of all that is of the old Adam state. The whole thing for the heart to rest in is, "What hath God wrought." The human heart kicks against that, for man likes to be something. The more we look into it, the more we shall see the value of it. Let us judge ourselves, and walk according to what God hath wrought in practical holiness. I am going to be like Him. Well, I must be like Him here, bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

The Lord break us down thoroughly; empty us of ourselves, of all thought that we can do anything; and keep us in His presence, that we may know that joy now; that we may stand there in peace!

"Where I am ye cannot come"

John 7

J. N. Darby.

{Notes of Addresses Vol. 2.}

The whole of this chapter is founded on the fact of the entire separation of God from this world. It is a solemn truth that Christ has left this world for good, and His own words are, "Where I am ye cannot come" (ver. 34). He has gone, and the world will never see Him again. He will come in judgment, when every eye shall see Him; but as He then was dealing in grace with man - looked at as coming into the world and associating Himself with men as Adam's children - that is entirely over. God had something better in store, which has come in for us who believe. The work of redemption was wrought out, but it is important for us to get hold of the fact, that what saves us condemns the world.

God has tried man in every way. Adam sins, and the wickedness goes on increasing till God destroys the world, but saves Noah, who fails himself afterwards. After the flood God began to deal with man when he was separated from Him, having been driven out He gives him the law, which man breaks. When man was a sinner and a lawbreaker, then God comes in in Christ, as a last resource, so to speak. "I have yet one Son; surely they will reverence my Son." God comes down in Christ to reconcile the world unto Himself, and man says, "This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours." So they took Him and cast Him out of the vineyard, and killed Him, and it was all over. Christ leaves the world, and in His aspect of grace to it they never see Him again, and cannot go where He has gone - that is, the world as the world has lost Him for ever. (It is, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself" - not "God is.") They would not be reconciled. They cast Him out.

At the commencement of the first three Gospels we find Christ presented to be received; but this Gospel begins with a rejected person, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not," we find in the very first chapter. It is not Christ presented to men to see if they would receive Him, but grace working when it was clear that they would not receive Him. In this Gospel it is always the world, and not the Jews, that is spoken of. The Jews are put aside. "God so loved the world." "Light is come into the world."

There is a distinction between chapters 8 and 9. In chapter 8 His word is rejected; in chapter 9 His work is rejected; and in chapter 10 He will have His sheep for all that. In chapter 7 the truth is settled, "Where I am ye cannot come." They were left, and could not follow where He was going. What I press upon you from that is, the total separation of the first man from God, judicially and morally. Before the law man gave up God, turned to idolatry, and God gave them up to such sins and vileness as could not even be named; God saying, as it were, "If you degrade God, you shall degrade man too." That is what "without law" came to. Law comes in, and brings out transgression. Christ comes in grace, and grace in its way of dealing, man would not have. The result is manifested separation between God and man. Chapter 7 brings this out: "The world seeth me no more." His leaving the world was death and judgment to them. In that sense of grace, grace was rejected, it was all no use; therefore the testimony of the apostle is, "The carnal mind is enmity against God. . . . So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Either the tree must be good, and its fruit good; or the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt. Man is now seeking to improve the tree, but poor fruit he makes of it. He may embellish it. Interesting things come out as regards the mind of man, but there is no return of heart towards God.

There was a kind of supplement consequent on the intercession of Christ, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," in Stephen's testifying to Him as seeing Him at the right hand of God. They would not have that either, and shut his mouth by stoning him. The history of the gospels is just our history. We cannot kill Him with our hands now; but when He was presented to us, we preferred our own pleasure, we would not have Him. There is no natural connection with Christ, but a proved impossibility of it. How many there are who have a kind of hope of getting into the second Paradise in a far worse state than man was in when God turned him out of the first! It is true of you naturally now that you have not got Christ, and where He has gone you cannot go; but not finally true of you, I trust, for there is mercy, and grace, and salvation for the vilest - the very vilest. But this is true of the world, as the world to which you belong. It is not true merely of wicked persons, for they are often more easily convinced, - but of respectably living, decent people. You have not got Christ where you are, and where He is you cannot go. The world is doing what Cain did, when he went out from the presence of the Lord, built a city, and called it after his son's name. Then he had his artificers in brass and iron, and tried to make the world pleasant without God. Sin as sin was complete then (I do not mean the rejection of Christ now), but Adam sinned against God; Cain sinned against his neighbour, and gave up God entirely.

In that which is really salvation to us, the cross of Christ, we had no part but the hatred that rejected Him, and the sins that He had to bear. I am entirely separated from God in my Adam life, and I need a new life; but to be quickened in itself is not sufficient for me. Of course, every quickened person will be saved, and we must be quickened - must have a new life - be born again; but being quickened does not take away guilt, and give me righteousness. It gives the sense of sin, desire for holiness, longing after God, and desire for His favour; but the soul cannot say, "I am in His favour," because it sees the sin. If, however, I have learnt that I am guilty, I am lost, then I see God doing a work all by Himself for me, and the question for the soul then is, What is the worth of this work? - what has God wrought? I say, the Man who has borne my sins is in glory without them. If I am convinced that I am entirely lost, the question for me is, Am I saved? I see a work done entirely outside me and for me, and then the query is, Has God accepted that work? The answer to that is, The One who did the work is at the right hand of God. If Christ is not risen, I am yet in my sins. If He is risen, I am not in my sins. God puts His seal on the work by raising Him, and I am satisfied. I, as a believer, set my seal, not on the work, but on the truth of the testimony to the work - "set to my seal that God is true."

Suppose I have offended a person dreadfully, and a friend goes to try and make peace for me. He does make it all right, and comes and tells me so. I believe him, and it is all right and over. I had nothing to do with making the peace, but I believe the truth of the testimony that it is made, and thus what alone can give the troubled soul rest, is the knowledge that God has accepted the work done, consequent on the glorifying of Christ. Christ, who was made sin for me, is now in the presence of God without my sin, the whole work being finished. He is in the glory, having borne my sins; but He could not carry my sins there. Aaron went inside the veil by virtue of the blood, but until he came out Israel could not tell whether he had been accepted or not, for he might have died there. I know that Christ has not come out yet, but the Holy Ghost has come out, while He remains there, and is given to those who believe, that they may know now that the work is accomplished and accepted, while Christ is hidden as Man up there - much more than Man, but still Man.

I am not only quickened, then, but I have received the Holy Ghost, and come to know that I am in Christ. That is much more than knowing that He died for me. If we are in Him, He is in us, and then comes the manifesting Him to the world. If He is in me, I am to let others see Him.

In this chapter (7) it is the Feast of Tabernacles - that is, after the judgment. The harvest and vintage must first be past, both symbols of the judgment (compare Deut 16: 13, and Rev 14: 14-20). So, then, the Feast of Tabernacles has never yet been fulfilled. Christ was not going to fulfil it at that time. His time was not yet come. His brethren said, "Manifest thyself unto the world;" but He could not do so, for His time was not come. He could go up to the Passover, for He was Himself the Passover, so that was fulfilled. Pentecost, too, was fulfilled when the Holy Ghost came down. The Feast of Tabernacles is yet to be fulfilled; but Christ says, If you believe, you will get your time of glory before that Feast of Tabernacles comes.

The first effect of the Holy Ghost in me is connection with God. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; but love, joy, and peace come first - that is, our place with God must be and ought to be the first thing. Then, of course, we should be seeking to testify of Him in our walk, and we shall get the long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, &c.

Now, I ask, beloved friends, how is it with you? Have you anticipated the day of judgment, and owned fully before God now that you are lost, and that to be judged must be to be condemned - for God's being full of love does not make Him pass by sin. He sent His Son to put it away. Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree, is in glory without them, and, all being settled, the believer is sealed by the Holy Ghost.

Then, I say, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit;" that thus the fruits of the Spirit may be seen coming out in you. In chapter 3 we are quickened, born again; in chapter 4, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life;" in chapter 7, "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." - that is, when he is sealed by the Holy Ghost (ver. 39).

The Lord give you to remember that your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, to be led by the Spirit, to walk by the Spirit - that whatever you do, in word or in deed, you are to show out the Lord Jesus - in buying or selling, in your dress, or in everyday duties of any kind, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. What is not that is sin, because it is self-will, self-pleasing. The Lord give those who are His to glorify Him in all things.

Unpublished letter, dated July 1850, and sent from France.

J. N. Darby.

{From 'Current Objections and their Fallacy, etc.', pages 62-3.}

"Dearest Harris,

I thank you very much for your letter; it has convinced me how much I have been led of God in not taking any part in the affairs in England. Had I been there I could not, of course, have avoided a testimony. Perhaps I should have felt called on to put myself more forward than even I have done - as it is, I am outside a mass of movements which are but the writhings in false position, of those who cannot see the simplest thing possible.

"What are protracted investigations to me as to Bethesda when I do not admit the avowed basis of their meeting as consistent with the first principles of faithfulness to God? They have denied (to me) the only ground on which the Church of God stands. Hence Bethesda has ceased to exist, to my mind, as an assembly - on the same grounds on which I am a Christian, they avow they are NOT bound to see whether Christ be denied or no - I exist because He is what He is, and nought else; and they maintain the righteousness of the principle, when they avow the doctrine to be such that if it were true, Christ would need to be saved as much as the Church. The further I go, the clearer I am that in not owning Bethesda at all as a saints' meeting, I am going on the first principles of Christian life. All who have countenanced Bethesda have mismeasured their strength, because their path is not of faith. The Lord, I believe, is consolidating souls on the ground of truth. All the investigations possible would not make me own Bethesda. I am satisfied it is no want of charity (my charity might be greater), but that which produces it produces my decision in this matter. A person simply looking at Christ and His glory cannot say anything, but that it is a question of first principles, as to saints' conduct in this day. I am satisfied a very decided sifting is going on through this means, and that persons who walk on ground incompatible with the unity of the Church, as based on the witness of Christ, will not stand. Were it my duty to be in England at this time, I should feel perfect peace and liberty; but my work for Christ is here I doubt not. What investigation could change a judgment founded on the letter of the ten? That letter is the basis on which I go, though I know some of its statements to be unfounded, and mere subterfuges, but I have investigated that letter, and cannot own what is based on the principles contained in it. The joy, the simple joy of the brethren; is my delight and life. I have no doubt blessing is preparing for those who walk faithfully, in more simplicity than ever. My heart is much with the brethren in England, but I am in peace. L- C- will bear a sad burden. It is a sorrowful thing to be the instrument of sifting and chastening God's people, but Christ's love is perfect and unfailing - feeble as I am I feel it. I never enjoyed the consciousness of it so much, and the intelligence, the wonderful living depth of the Word of God. I suspect our associations were not enough in Christ. The Church has had a large place in my heart for the past twenty-two years. I lived, and sorrowed, and joyed with it if I could. I believe there was singular blessing for the brethren, but they took it too much for themselves. God would have the Church in more direct association with Himself. I feel myself excessively weak and feeble, and unworthy of anything, but full of hope. In these dark days it is the time to show Christ's infallible love to His Church - He Himself bears it according to the counsels of God.