To the same.]
* * * God gently clears the way, I believe. From the beginning I have felt that God was sifting the meetings in Kent, and when that is done adequately in God’s eyes there will be peace. But the evil that was at the root of all this, besides a party spirit that had long existed, was that there were brethren, and dear brethren, who, from what I believe was want of faith, judged it was all over with brethren, and London broken up, and that they must as standing on higher ground start afresh as a new body. Now I admit that the brethren had got into a low worldly sleepy state, but I do not think it was faith to think the Lord could not rouse them up, nor that it was grace to set up themselves to be the cream of all… I cannot say, sorrowful and humbling as it may be, that I regret that the sifting has come. It was from the hand of God because in grace He saw it was needed… While I acknowledge in the party who take the ground of purity many dear and true saints, some to whom I am even personally attached, and their uprightness as the governing principle of their lives, I do not believe faith or grace to have been the source of the pretention I have referred to. The enemy profited by the evil, which I admit, to produce the pretension and schism of heart, varying I acknowledge in degree and form. The course of Abbot’s Hill I still judge to have been thoroughly wicked, and I have not seen that the conscience has been reached… I believe God is working, but He does not heal slightly the hurt of the daughter of His people, as Jeremiah says. I do not believe that hurry in acting is the way of God. I look for conscience being reached and so the root of the evil; then there will be lowliness and the path be plain.
* * * * *
To the same.]
* * * As to the act of exclusion by A. Hill: I look upon it as I always did as an act of wickedness, a false pretence to be the discipline of God’s house when it was a violent party act: it was not even truthful. If it was discipline which had God’s glory, the holiness of God’s house and righteousness as regards evil for its motive, as that discipline should, how can they talk of withdrawing it in grace when other people objected: does grace mean giving these up? Other saints not engaged in these questions in any direct way were unanimously struck with the spirit of their conduct from their own documents. I knew some of those concerned in it, which made it worse… But I go on none of these things, but that their act was a very wicked act: I believe it impossible to be with. God and not see it. And they have haughtily refused to meet upon the ground of common failure and confession. Mr. —— says it is the Lord’s matter. The act was his, not the Lord’s: that it is the Lord’s to judge it I admit; but people can know by His word whether it is right or wrong before He manifests Himself.
Your affectionate brother in Christ.
1880.
* * * * *
My dear Brother,—I was very glad to hear from you and get news from you all, and surely so much the rather that they are happy ones. I was very thankful you could say that you were going on now, not occupied with your old trials and evil. We may be forced to go through it and be sifted by it, but it never feeds nor builds up the soul; and when it is no longer necessary to do so, it only distracts and tends to irritate, to turn away from the bright and blessed apprehension of Christ and the love of God. I rejoiced greatly that you were getting on with positive blessing; but we have to watch, for the enemy always does, and if we are not looking actively to the Lord we lose our safeguard, and when distracted from Him he gets in, and often unconsciously: duties, occupation of heart with them, loss of spirituality, and the sense of the preciousness of Christ, worldliness, and then all the feebleness of walk which flows from the heart not realising Christ as motive and power, the light of His presence, and the soul in the light before Him. The Lord has been very gracious to you, having cleared you out from all your difficulties, not merely as a part, but not leaving a trace of what might have rested as a regret on your spirits—haste in leaving, and returning while the evil was still there—for you have been left clear of it all, and all that went before clean out of question. Now it is only the straightforward conflict with self and the world that we always have here.
You know we have gone through a great conflict here, but the Lord has been very gracious, and shewn that He governs— a great comfort. There is a great desire to hear the word, I may say in a general way, everywhere. I have some fifty young men to read with me every Saturday evening, with only the word to draw them; and the brethren who have been faithful in our trials are more knit together. Altogether, though all wounds are not healed as to individuals, we have much to bless God for, and the work goes on externally as usual. It is increasedly blessed in Italy: we have lost a very dear man who was the efficient labourer, nor on account of the language can his loss, humanly speaking, be easily supplied, but God is above all difficulties.
What I fear everywhere is the world—often unsuspected. We have need of positive diligence in seeking His face, so as to prove He is with us. “The secret of the Lord is with those that fear him.” Our salvation is accomplished and settled, but the government of God which goes on according to His nature and holiness and wisdom, is a most important thing. He is faithful and full of love; but oh, what a difference to walk in the light of His countenance, to be in His secret! It would be a great joy to me to see you all again, but I am now in my eightieth year, and though my mind is as fresh as ever, that is no help to long journeys. Kindest love to the brethren, some of whom I do not know, and all your family. ——I trust will learn that Christ is worth a lot of lumber, and gold too, and, what is a great thing, worth it for ever and worth it now too. I have not had a shoe on these four or five weeks with the gout, but it has given me quiet.
Ever affectionately yours in the Lord.
London, March 11th.
* * * * *
Dearest——,— … I trust you will have been guided in your path. —— has been used to such questions, but only the Lord can guide us in His path; if we have His secret and work with Him, having His approval all is well. May He so guide you! In England we have much for which greatly to bless the Lord… There remain some whose activity is of the enemy, I doubt not, and not of God. I feel it a solemn thing that they should be there, or, if there, should not be wholly in the shade. But I have felt all along that, save a positive testimony when called for, my part was to leave it entirely to God, for it was not a case of ordinary discipline, but an effort of the enemy to set aside brethren’s testimony altogether. He has come in, and I trust Him for all the rest. Details have to be redressed… All is not straight, but, as I said, He who has done much will, I trust, finish the work of His goodness. That is what we have to seek, for San Francisco and London and heaven.
I have been writing in French on John, began for myself, but gone on for publishing, but have found rich blessing in it; what the Lord was really doing and His position in the midst of the Jews comes out so very clearly; His position, indeed, in the midst of the world as the light of God and the life of those who followed Him. He is all to us now, will be for ever. It is a great joy to me, that we shall be eternal witnesses of the efficacy of His work for the whole host of heaven, and even for the Father—the fruit “of the travail of his soul”—and not one (oh, how glad will it be!) who will not be exactly what His heart would desire, and so presented to God—a bright and blessed time. But I must close… May the Lord guide you in all, and those who seek His face; do not be in a hurry, He must do the work, and sometimes does the work slower than we fancy doing it; but He does it well.
Hereford, April.
* * * * *
My dear Brother,—Truths are sometimes simpler, when we take them simpler and do not make a system. Thyatira clearly goes on to the end, and the kingdom and the Morning Star— the church and heavenly Christ—are substituted for her. She is the great successional church on the earth, and Popery as such—the ecclesiastical system that has had space to repent, and has not. Here, however, she is reviewed in her religious character. Babylon is more the civil corporate power which she exercises over the beast; but she is Rome, influences the masses, committing adultery with the kings, etc.: the horns— the power of the ten kings—and the beast hate and destroy her. But she is the persecutor of the saints, and is judged, not by the Lamb, but by God, and providentially as I suppose.
Laodicea is quite different in this respect: she is in a bad state, nauseous to Christ. It is her religious state, descending religiously from Protestantism—Sardis; and Christ hay done with her: she is nauseous and cast out of Christ’s mouth, disappears as a religious system, before the dealings with Babylon. What the individuals become is not stated, they may be infidels or anything else; but the corporate testimony is rejected by Christ or any in it. The civil political influence of Babylon remains to be destroyed: the blood of all saints was found in her, as in Jerusalem when she was destroyed. Thyatira is judged religiously, namely, for her religious state: she rather becomes Babylon, as judged in Revelation.
This you may meditate on, but I cannot, in haste, form any defined system of interpretation where it is not defined in scripture.
Your affectionate brother in Christ.
Your correspondent is much more modest. Titus and Timothy were occasional messengers of Paul, going and clothed with his authority for several objects, and no sign of local episcopacy; and John was at Ephesus after and such a delegate could not supersede and govern him, and Revelation 2:13, 24, etc., prove they represented the body or those faithful among them—not an individual, nor [do they] suppose such.
April 15th, 1880.
* * * * *
* * * The Seven churches are the external state of Christendom; and Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, all go down to the end. All the speculations as to it are mental reasonings. The first three are judged by comparison with what the commencement was, as we with innocence, and the last four in view of Christ’s return. This principle runs through all: Israel, Isaiah 5, 6; man; the church. Am I what Adam was? Can I meet the second Man, the Lord? Our part as regards the state of the church is faithfulness to the direct word of God everywhere, but as to special days, 2 Timothy, Jude. What is called the new lump principle is just what is condemned in Jude. They were in their feasts of charity, but separated themselves. The word applies to the state the word speaks of. If that applies to me, the exhortation does too; but in 2 Timothy, the directions are full—“from such turn away.” I cannot turn away from Christendom: I should be an apostate. I purge myself from evildoers, false doctrines and those who hold them.
For myself I have all along been very isolated, but I have never seen God so manifest Himself for those who are faithful as in the last few months or even weeks. I do not say all evil is purged as it should be, but it is not only that conscience is roused as it has been this year and a half, but that God has acted and met faithfulness. It is felt by all attentive souls occupied with it. And never has a door been closed (even before this), and the work went on as really never before, but now in the heart of the evil itself He has set to His hand. With us here in London it has been truly marvellous. I do not think His work is finished, but when He is at work, trusting Him for the issue is a simple matter. Trusting the Lord is always the ground, yet I feel on new ground when I see God acting, and He is.
I trust your dear child may again gain strength. But it is a world where sorrow and death is come; but the Lord is come in after it, and that is our comfort, and has suffered all needed—“crucified in weakness,” but is out of it in power. The Lord sustain you both in looking to Him.
1880.
* * * * *
My dear Brother,—I had heard there was trouble in New York, but was greatly grieved when I read the cause in your letter, if I have rightly understood what you say, that some, —— among them, cannot worship the Lord. There is nothing new in it: a case happened in England, but the person was refused communion. It is a deep grief to me; I have written to him, which I thought the best way. Anything that touches the glory of the Lord, and our heart-estimate of Him, is of the last moment, and must be near the heart of him who loves Him. The case I referred to soon shewed other thoughts derogatory to the Lord.
As to myself, I am much better; I had a very severe cold from coming into the fogs of London, and it turned into a fit of the gout, from which I begin to be free; but have only put my shoes on these last few days, and that on going out, but I left London for a journey to see the brethren and work. I have had very free, nice meetings, well-attended at several places, and felt the Lord with me. All this trouble in London, which in principle threatened all the brethren, has done me and all of them a great deal of good—roused their consciences and made them feel the need of looking more to Christ and being more wholly for Him. It was not a mere question of discipline, but a regular effort to break up brethren, which I had long felt was going on, but which came fully out, with very corrupting elements. God has graciously broken that up…
It is generally a time of blessing… But here it will be still toil and labour, in the midst of opposition, till He comes who shall take us up to be with Him in God’s rest. If we can only glorify Him meanwhile, all is well. What else have we to do? At the close of life, we see that only is life; but faith sees it all along by His being all: hold fast this, dear——, and the secret and guidance of the Lord will be with you. It will be soon all over, and His approbation will then be everything. The time of my lying by was a time of rest I was greatly craving, and could hardly have found if I had been able to go out. I must close. We are in His hands, and thank God we are.
Your affectionate brother in Christ.
It may be merely an idea taken up by dear ——, which, with a little gentleness and scriptural proof he may drop; he seizes points rapidly, and I trust he may be delivered from this, for it affects morally all our estimate of Christ. It affects, in the thoughts and the feelings as to Him, the divine nature; only I hope, by dealing gently with him, he may come straight.
April 16th.
* * * * *
My dear Brother,— … I have sent several sheets of John, and they have begun to bring it out at Vevey. This has greatly interested myself. The way in which this gospel wholly sets aside man—law as efficient for him, promises—and presents Christ, God manifested in flesh, light, connected with what is divine, eternal, and heavenly, is very striking. I believe we have to take up man on his responsibility, and press it upon him in grace, for he has a conscience, the true 15Anknüpfung-spunkt of God with man, putting man in his place, and, as to this, God too. But if we want to know the truth of the matter, it is that man, cultivated of God so that He could do no more for His vineyard, meets the manifestation of Himself with inveterate enmity, and all is new, and sovereign grace and salvation, and then the Holy Ghost that we may know it. While it is the character of all the gospel, chapters 8 and 9 bring this out distinctly. The word leading to the revelation of “I AM,” then brings out the stones to stone Him. What a scene! The incarnate Son is but clay on blind eyes, making innate blindness externally a hiding of light. The pool of Siloam, “the Sent One,” gives sight, and the light is seen, and God known. The word is the instrument, for, rejected as it was by the Jews because He told them the truth, and their consciences, I think, evidently uneasy, their wills would none of what pressed on those consciences, and these would know when He was gone into new and other scenes; while the impression on the blind man was “he is a prophet”—so with the Samaritan woman. The word has divine power on us, and so divine authority: then all can be received with divine faith. Then, chapter 10, He has His sheep: chapter 11, He is going to His Father, His hour was come. But we must begin by conscience.
We have everything to bless God for… I feel it is springtime with brethren, though with gracious sunshine we have March winds betimes; still, as I trusted, God is working, and I wait for Him. My path now here may not please men; but if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Jesus Christ. I have long, if poorly, served Him; but I believe I trust Him as I never did before. I feel I am a different person, not in myself as if there was good there, but trusting Him; and it is good, dear brother… The discipline of what has passed (and I never suffered so) has been most useful to me: He does all things well. The world passeth away and the fashion of it, but he that does the will of God abides for ever. The Lord be abundantly with you and all the dear brethren.
Reading, April.
* * * * *
To the same.]
* * * I have often pressed that, while God must open the way, the power of Christianity is not in what it finds, but in what it brings; but it is true that Christians are constantly exposed to follow the influences which surround them. But we must be with God, and so from Him, without ceasing to be with Him in all our dealings with others, representing Him, and acting for Him, in all the service He has given to us; and if we are content to be nothing, and seek Him, this is happily accomplished without effort, for He will be with us. He is faithful and gracious, and the result will be sure in His own time: in general, in these days, we have to await this, to have it solid. Still, we see cases, where the Spirit of God works manifestly; and though revival work is often shallow and superficial, I do not judge it as severely as some do, for I find when the blessed Lord speaks of Himself as sowing, only one out of the four lasts to bring forth fruit. You will be glad to hear that the desire for the word seems everywhere manifest… They are dark times, but wherever Christ is fully preached, there are attentive and, through grace, receptive souls. We have only to work on.
Dublin, May.
* * * * *
Dear——,—I know no one who does not think that all who believe in Christ are washed in His blood: but washed in His blood is not the same as redemption, though they may be identified as necessarily going together. Peace is not simply a matter of experience, though peace is experienced. “Having made peace by the blood of his cross”: that is not experience. And when I began to preach peace by Jesus Christ, fifty or sixty years ago, it was very rare indeed for any believer to have it. I object entirely to its being called mere experience: there is faith in the efficacy of Christ’s work as well as in His Person, though all who believe in His Person have part in His work. The “therefore” of Romans 5 is lost in the note you send me, and the connection with chapter 4: the writer is not aware of it, but he denies justification by faith as stated in Romans 4, 5. No doubt if I believe in Christ, God sees me clear, but that is not justification. Peace is the consequence of justification by faith. I insist that all that believe in Christ are justified (washed in Christ’s blood). But your correspondent leaves out justification by faith in consequence of Christ’s being risen, and confounds peace and justification, or rather drops the latter, leaving all as what is in God’s mind, or the experience of peace. It is for souls very dangerous teaching, leaving out all exercise of soul, and the reality of faith connected with the sense of sins. Conscience and responsibility are left out of the question and hence so much hollowness of profession. The best gospel preached when I began was, You must be born again, and now examine whether you are in the faith; and three quarters of evangelists are there yet, and object to assurance, though there is an immense change; but very few have the faith of Hebrews 10. Your correspondent shuts out faith as to this. I do not believe he means any harm, but I fear there is too little experience, and too much learned.
* * * * *
My dear Brother,—I do not take up ——’s objection to your tract, not from any slight of him, but because I have discussed the subject with him heretofore, and I think him the opposite, to say the least, to being clear on the subject, On that point I do not listen to him. But I am not quite satisfied with your tract: the mediatorial character of Christ on the subject of life disappears too much, and the life of God becomes too much the God of life or life in God. I agree with your tract in the main, though it does seek to make mentally clear what can be only spiritually clear, as it seems to me. I do not believe that “the life of God” is merely character of life. It involves, as indeed it always does, a true life which bears that character.
But in John 5:26 I have what makes me hesitate. It is not said life in Him, as in the Father Himself—“hath,” and “given to have,” at once makes a vital difference. You could not say any one gave God to have life in Himself, and that, because He has it in Himself. It is not a question with me of Christ’s true eternal Deity—it is none, but of ejkevnwse (Phil. 2:7), and taking on Him the form of a servant, and so being dependent and obedient, a place He carefully and perfectly continued in. ‘That life,’ you say, ‘which is proper to God, dwells as fully in the incarnate Son as in the Godhead itself.’ I do not say anything of ‘as fully,’ but in the same way is not true, for the Father has given to the Son (incarnate) to have life in Himself. This is not true of Godhead. You could not say that God lives diav any being. Christ says I live diaV toVn patevra (not tou' patrov") John 6:57. And the subject here is just this descent of life, and our living by Christ; and the flesh of Christ is distinctly brought in and His’ death. In John’s gospel this reception from the Father is most carefully everywhere retained, while His own proper Deity shines all through most strikingly. Hence your phrase, ‘is none other than the life of God—the life which is proper to God, and which at the incarnation took up its abode, in all its divine fulness, in the Person of the Lord Jesus,’ has hardly a clear sense. It never took up its abode in God, and it is never so said in scripture, but that the Father gave to the Son (incarnate) to have life in Himself. This leads me to add here, that “That which was from the beginning,” in 1 John 1 is not for me eternal, but the incarnate Word down here, as chapter 2 clearly shews. Further, remark that in John 1, where we have abstractedly what Christ was—“in him was life,” and, I doubt not, divinely and eternally—as such it is light, which is not received at all.
I do not agree with your interpretation of “gave power to become sons”;16 for we are sons uiJoiv by faith in Him—quickening power was needed to receive Him.
I admit the life is never ‘detached from its source’; “because I live, ye shall live also”: but ‘enjoyed in common’17—this tends to destroy its mediatorial character at the other end, for ‘in common’ is as if we had both received it alike from some common source: Hebrews 2:11 goes the farthest. And you go so far as to say, ‘in common with God its fountain.’ (P. 34.) Now scripture goes very far in this direction, though not so speaking of life: we dwell in God and God in us. But here again mediatorship is left out. True it is that Christ and God are identified in John’s epistle: still, in chapter 4:9, we get the mediatorial character. I have no difficulty as to divine nature. Christ is our life, and he who has the Son of God has life; and he has the life of Jesus, which if shewn out is there to be shewn out. All this I should insist on, and have long and largely so done, and as I fully admit and. thank God for it—never detached: but ‘in common with God its fountain’ you will not find. Christ is our life: but Paul connects this with another truth you have not touched. We are raised with Christ, He having become, as to life down here, a dead Man; and in Colossians we are raised with Him; in Ephesians— quickened with Him and raised, Jew or Gentile, and seated in heavenly places. But here He is looked at, not as a source of life, but as raised by God’s power.
I could not say that life was not communicated, for surely if a man is born, life is communicated, only I admit not life in us as a separate thing. “He that hath the Son hath life”: God’s “seed remaineth in him.” In speaking of vegetable and animal life as you do, conscious, voluntary action in mind or body, and important and reflectively only in man, is left out; and, to say the least, it greatly characterises life itself, if not a definition.
Growing up to Him who is the Head, has scarcely its place in your account of holiness. Christ is eternal life: we have Him as life; and it will be complete when like Him in glory, and we “are changed into the same image from glory to glory.” So He has sanctified Himself that we might be sanctified through the truth. The nature which grows is holy, I admit, in itself. Your account of sealing (p. 39) I doubt the exactness of. When examined in detail, I find it based on faith in the blood and its efficacy in remission; so in the type of the leper. I do not think tevkna and uiJoiv quite so distinct as you make them (p. 40), though I admit the difference: Galatians 3 is uiJov"; John uses tevkna, but Romans 8:14-17 shews it is not merely characteristic style.
—— sent me ‘New Creation.’ I think nature’s relationships are too much lost in it. God holds to all He created in the first creation. “From the beginning it was not so.” “God made them male and female.” “What therefore God hath joined together”: this holds good as long as man, in the body and natural life, is there. I do not know what you mean by the new creation being complete and perfect in Christ.
I have not quoted Christ’s breathing on His disciples in connection with life, as it may be disputed; but we have Him “come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” I rejoice with all my heart, both for your own sake and the Lord’s goodness in the blessing He has given you. In general there is much thirst for the word now, so that brethren are a good deal encouraged in faithful service.
Dublin, May, 1880.
* * * * *
Dearest——,— … Everywhere I find the saints springing up in fresh growth, and happier, and conscience much more alive, and thirst for the word, and the soberest minds feeling the difference. Persevering firmness in holding a true moral ground, and bearing the humiliation of the saints on the heart and not setting up to do something especially excellent oneself, is the path of faith. If God casts the brethren off, it will be time enough to start afresh with something from Him. I prefer trusting His goodness, acknowledging how greatly we have failed. We shall see in result where God will bring us. What I feel is that the whole tone of the spiritual state of brethren has to be raised; and it is rising, though, I doubt not, much remains to be done. But it is by occupying them with Christ and His glory and sufferings, with all that is before us, and the truth as it is in Jesus, that this is to be done. The more I think of it, the more I see that the plain maintenance of moral integrity, and then trusting God, is of all moment now. The former had been so shaken and forgotten, that, unless gross cases of morality, godly judgment of evil was impossible. Many have still to learn that want of moral integrity is not to be borne, but the sense that the Christian must so feel has been widely awakened, and this is a great point. But I say no more—but this is what is on my heart, was from the beginning. Worldliness will, I trust, have its wings clipped too. Many details pass before my mind, serials and the like; but I go no further.
I trust and pray that God may graciously spare Mrs. ——. A mother, be she ever so sick, is always an immense loss: the bond of the house or family is broken. An eye and a heart are there which, even if they cannot do mach, those that make the family refer to, and run in solicitude through all. A man cannot be this in the same way, however kind a father. Still God does all things well, and can turn, however deeply felt, an evil into real and better blessing. Still no one can be a mother but a mother, but God can be everything to us and towards us in all our cares.
Here there is very fresh interest in the word. I am growing old and my gout is a hindrance, still I work away, and all, all is well. If He works, how should it be otherwise? My kind remembrance to Mrs. ——. I trust and pray she may have the Lord very near her in her weak state: weak or strong, it is what we need, and, weak or strong, sufficient for us. Affectionately yours in the Lord.
Dublin, May 20th.
* * * * *
Dearest——,—As regards the brethren, it is not only that I have enjoyed my visits, but grave, sober men, like ——, I found quite cheery as to the way they saw God working among brethren. I do not doubt a bit that there is still much to do, and only One who can do it. I am not surprised at those you speak of labouring to support evil; perhaps I expect such things too much…
Now if God is pleased to set aside brethren, I bow to it; but I do not believe it, though we may have deserved it. God has interfered, and checked the tide of evil. I quite recognise there are remains, but I trust Him as to these, as to the body of the evil…, Wait awhile and you will see the issue of God’s dealings… The brethren had let things get into a state in which corporate action was very difficult, but God has acted, and will act… Brethren had morally declined, and the question was, Had God given them up? Well, I felt faith would not say Yes, and I stayed where I was; but the whole state had to be raised for permanent blessing, and that was an individual, moral thing. Many were ignorant of what was at work…
I have no doubt many are sealed who could not explain it, and would fear, from bad teaching to say too boldly they were sons; but an unsealed Christian is unknown to scripture. It is not conversion, but the Holy Ghost coming to dwell in us so that our bodies are temples. In general, it is said, “having believed [Ephesians 1 “the gospel of your salvation”] ye were sealed.” If we come to details, I believe it will be as believing in the work and its efficacy as well as the Person of Christ.
“Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart.”
Dublin, 1880.
* * * * *
* * * I know well how few know deliverance; but it is a great thing to know that I, a poor worm, should be before God and the Father in the same acceptance and favour that Christ is, loved even as He is loved. But it is the greatness of infinite love. Then it is not generally preached with intelligence; next, it is experimental; and, above all, we must be in earnest to have it. Who is willing to be dead to what nature and flesh would desire? Yet that is the only way of deliverance. People will tell you it is our standing in Christ. I admit it as Colossians 3, and as faith owns in Romans 6 and Galatians 2; but who is willing to be in the standing? It is standing, or else we are in the hopeless effort of Romans 7, or an honest monks’ labour, which I have tried; and even if we have experimentally learned, as it must be learned, who is carrying out 2 Corinthians 4, so as to have the conscience living in it by an ungrieved spirit? But if experimentally taught, it is of the greatest use to souls; and the joy of being blameless in Christ before God is exceeding great, and one that is eternal and divine in its source and nature—a wonderful thing; “for he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” The world is a terrible snare, and a subtle one, and greatly hinders this deliverance. A soul enjoying deliverance has its object elsewhere. (See Rom. 8) Then we must remember, “the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.” I press, when souls are in earnest, “My grace is sufficient for thee, and my strength is made perfect in weakness.” For we learn we are without strength for deliverance, and walk in the sense of it if we can be used in service; but His grace is sufficient. Knowing we are nothing is the place of blessing, for then God is everything; and the place of strength, for then Christ can put forth His strength. In this 2 Corinthians 12 is a most instructive chapter. Strength for service may be found, in what is within alone between us and God, [and] may be found, in the third heavens; but strength in it is found in Christ, when we are kept in the abiding consciousness that we can do nothing. We all know it. If we have not a permanent thorn in the flesh, we must at any rate return to the camp at Gilgal.
Dublin, May 28th.
* * * * *
My dear Brother,—These of discipline are always difficult, and test the state of the assembly. I do not pretend to have much gift for them, and it depends on the spiritual discernment of those who deal with it. I have no doubt an annihilationist should be put away: it always really denies the atonement, responsibility, the immortality of the soul, and every just sense of sin. The main question is, Does he hold it now?
I would say that dear——, whose devotedness I know, is apt to deal rapidly and harshly in discipline, yet I cannot think it an evil that the assembly has given thereby a plain testimony, that it will not accept those who hold such doctrine: but this testimony it has given, and I am very thankful for it. The question, whether he held it then, does not affect this one way or another. The only thing that affects my mind is the subtle infecting poison of these doctrines; and hence the getting assured that not only the open holding of the doctrine, but the infection of the doctrine, does not remain, for it chimes in with the flesh and human nature. But if he be perfectly clear now, the assembly did clear themselves, for which as to it I am very thankful; and I see no reason why he should not be received. It is a good sign that he justifies the assembly, but I may say, that we have no right to keep out God’s children if they are sound in doctrine and godly in practice. The point is, Is he really clear, and does he judge the doctrine as evil, and really the denial [of what is] fundamental for souls; for, I repeat, if we have only animal-living souls, responsibility and atonement are gone. If God gave a dog eternal life he would not have to answer for what he had done, nor [need] a Saviour either; and I never met one who had not lost atonement: even if Christians their minds had lost it, and I have had to say to plenty of them. Besides, if death is ceasing to exist, as they hold, Christ ceased to exist, and the foundations of faith are gone; and this was admitted to me by two of the most respectable of them at Boston. Does he, then, clearly judge the evil? Only seek [that there should not be] any breach of unity, for questions of discipline always tend to that. But our trust is, as you say, the Lord is above it all…
Kindest love to all the brethren. I am eighty if I live a few months, and I can hardly hope to see them—a sorrow to my spirit, but it is a going home to them as to me, and not an unwelcome one, though as long as He has work for me here, I am content to stay, and would rather have His will, whatever it be. I shall be always glad to hear from you and of all the brethren.
Affectionately yours in the Lord.
Dublin, June.
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Dearest Brother,—It is a long while since I wrote to you, and I have been some good while purposing to do so. It is not that I have a great deal to say, but I do not like dropping my intercourse with you. My soul draws nearer home: I want but a few months of eighty, and, though fresh in mind, through mercy, that home breaks more and more into my spirit. I feel more and more how ignorant our hearts are of it; yet, strange to say, I am sometimes afraid of being too familiar with it—not sufficiently adoring affections. And surely that is true: yet one thing I know with joy, that Christ is all.
I had been going through the hymns we have, for a new edition, and the question of hymns to the Father presented itself, and the study of our relationship with the Father was much blessed to me, developing it to my heart. How gracious He is!
I have been laid up with the gout, fruit of over-fatigue in France; but the Lord’s hand was in it, for I craved being quiet on my return to London, and it precluded my going out. But, though yet barely able to put on a soft shoe, I worked my way from London here, holding meetings in many places, and found everywhere thirst for the Word. Here also we have had most interesting meetings, reading John, and a great number coming. We read John’s gospel, and Christ came personally before us, not our privileges, but Christ Himself.
There are three things I find in the often trying and toilsome life of faith: first, trusting God that nothing can hinder His accomplishing His purpose. All that his brethren did to frustrate the accomplishment of Joseph’s dreams, just led to that accomplishment. They sent him to Egypt. The hard and wicked accusation against him in Potiphar’s house put him in prison, where he met the butler and baker who brought him where the dream was fulfilled. Next, for us, simple obedience, taking God’s mind for wisdom, and doing His will. He has a path for His saints in this world; in it they find Him and His strength, though perhaps the life of faith be dark: then, if we know the purpose of God, light is in the soul. But the path He will guide us in. It may seem dark, but, if His, it is the way of arriving at His rest. But a single eye seeking nothing but Christ is the secret of certainty of walk, and firmness as having the secret of the Lord with you. But what a calling! we have to walk worthy of God who has called us to His own kingdom, and yet what a joy to be thus associated with Himself! And we know His purpose is to glorify Christ, and so we seek that, in walking worthy of Him and serving Him in love.
Did you ever notice Luke 12, the two things looked for in us? First, watching; its reward, making us sit down to table in heaven, and ministering the blessing to us; and then serving in what He sets us to do, and the reward of that, ruling. But the first is wonderful, that He remains for ever our servant in love. How blessed to have Him, and be His! There is progress in the Song of Songs. First, He is ours; next, we are His; and then I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is towards me. That is wonderful to say! The riches of scripture, both for knowledge and for affections, is beyond our thoughts—no wonder, as it comes from God; but it is all ours. But the perfectness of our place is wonderful; and I do not mean now as to glory, true as that is, but morally. He is given to be the Object of our affections who is sufficient for the Father’s; and to have Him in His path down here even is the food of the soul. Energy comes from seeing Him up there (Phil. 3), likeness to Him from feeding on Him down here (Phil. 2)
We are drawing on to the end, and I look to the Lord to keep His own to meet Him in that day. The Lord be with you, dear brother, in your soul and in your work.
Dublin, June 10th.
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Dear Brother,—I do not at all accept the exposition of the Bible Herald.18You might as well say the great day of atonement was for those already cleansed. Besides, the anointing the leper was not recalling the sealing of the Holy Ghost to mind, but doing the thing when he was cleansed: he had never been anointed before, and the blood put upon him was the ground of its being done. It is an old interpretation, I judge, and a false one. Besides it confounds everything, imputation and uncleanness with loss of communion. The red heifer is the rite that refers to restoration, nor is it a question of discipline —which is for restoration, not for cleansing by blood.
Dublin, June.
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Dearest Brother,—I was very glad to get your news, and that thus far the Lord has helped. My conviction is that, though we might like increase of numbers, yet, from the state of Italy, very godly care—not suspicion—should be exercised in receiving into communion. Some may stay back thus who ought to be in, but testimony to Christ is maintained in its integrity. Deliverance from popery is a great blessing, and at first it took that character, and I doubt not there are many scattered converted souls, but gathering is another thing: “He that gathereth not with me scattereth.” Very ignorant souls may be rightly gathered, if there is godliness and integrity and lowliness; but we are called to walk with those who call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart.
Here the Lord has added another to the list of places where thirst after the word has been marked: we have had, at their desire, reading-meetings three evenings a week, very well attended, and liberty amongst the saints. We have read John’s gospel with unabated interest; and I think the blessing has specially been from its being the blessed Lord Himself that has been before us: not even, however confessedly precious, the church privileges of Ephesians, and the like. Most precious they are, and to His glory, still they are as to us, and not Himself, and there is nothing so precious as that—Himself. Life, righteousness, power, are all in Him; but that is for us. But in Himself objectively, it is purely Himself. You know I was studying and writing for myself on John at Pau, and it enlarged my apprehensions very much, but even so it was comparatively teaching, and led me on, perhaps, to what we have enjoyed here; for much of what we enjoyed was old truth.
May He keep you—us—near Him!
Dublin, 1880.
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Dear Mrs. ——,—I hardly know how to answer you, save to say to you to look to the Lord, and to do so myself; but that is a great comfort. Labourers in the harvest we have a crying want for here, and the Lord recognises it as a kind of known want, and tells us what to do. For who can send them but He, or raise up such as can go? I know none. In these countries there is far and wide an open ear, and very few to tell the glad tidings of salvation and a Saviour’s love, yet there ought to be a sense of it which would urge us to bring it forth to others. After all, you are better off than many a place; yet I recognise the need, and earnestly pray the Lord to supply it. He cares for His church better than we know how. Yet I do not at all deny our responsibility in being exercised before Him for called-for blessing. It would have been a great joy for me to see you all at Boston, and indeed elsewhere, again; but I am forced to remember that I am within a few months of eighty, and have had the gout to boot, and though, thank God, fresh and happy in spirit, and labouring as usual, long journeys become a greater burden, but one is nearer home—not, I hope, weary of what is here, certainly not of His service, but feeling it the deepest grace and mercy to be allowed to serve when I know what I am, though all around brings the presence of evil home to me, but—the thought of seeing Him, being in my Father’s house and where holiness is and evil cannot be, where every saint will be exactly what Christ would desire they should be, the manifested proof of the travail of His soul, an eternal witness to the efficacy of His redemption.
The door is very open in these kingdoms for the word of God, and everywhere I hear of there is a thirst for it; so that besides study work there is plenty for all the labourers there are, and more too, if the Lord were pleased to send such as He would have.
Belfast, June 19th.
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Dear——,——’s notion is nothing new; it is held by many mystic evangelicals in a somewhat different shape, perhaps, but it is only a notion… The general notion I have alluded to is, that there is a kind of essence or germ of the body which remains, and is glorified, which would involve the exuviæ. But I have a horror of all notions, they are not Christ, and His unsearchable riches, and if the soul is full of Him, notions do not rise or suggest themselves. 1 Corinthians 15:38 answers it: “God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him,” and what is sown in corruption is raised in incorruption, and what is sown in dishonour is raised in glory; and if we pretend to go further, we go beyond what is written, and are in danger of being designated a fool. There is no such minuteness of comparison as this notion would find: it takes it to shew generally a resurrection in incorruption and glory, out of the grave of corruption and dishonour; but the exuviæ is a thought man’s mind adds; but, as has been said of old, we are to bring ideas from scripture, not to it. It was a natural body, and becomes a spiritual body. When the living are changed there are no exuviæ: Christ could shew His hands and feet pierced. It is a change; the corruptible puts on incorruption, and what is mortal, immortality. These notions are the product of men’s minds, and not what flows from the fulness of Christ, and that is the evil; and if we harbour them, it tends to shut Him out. But we have to bear with idle notions, and not strive. The best thing is to bring in Christ, and they fall or collapse by their own emptiness.
——has begun to break bread. —— is greatly troubled: I cannot say it did me. I could not ask them to go to A. H. till they gave up their false position, and I could hardly expect them to abstain for ever, and if they acted in starting with precipitation after the action of A. H., there was no way out but one God might open. But there was not the sober weighing of all before God that we ever need, and there was in some degree the pretension to start something extra. ——wrote to me of a prayer-meeting they had in London: but I answered that I had nothing against a prayer-meeting; but I could not be a party to a party, even to resist evil. But it will all get right, but as to men, I fear their seeking their own ease, not simply waiting on God for all.
The Lord be with you! He it is who works, and His Father too. May we lean constantly on Him!
Belfast, June, 1880.
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Dear——,— … The first resurrection I believe to be one whole thing, as contrasted with the second. (Rev. 20:4, 5.) Verse 4 brings in those killed under the beast. You have the general fact, there are sitters on thrones; then you have those who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and “those who” —not, and who—had not worshipped the beast. These all form part of the first resurrection, the Old Testament saints “made perfect” with us. Chapter 6:9 answers to the first specific class in this verse; those of the beast’s time to the last, for whom those of chapter 6:9 wait. In this last verse there is nothing expressly of resurrection; the question is the execution of vengeance; for this, they have to wait for the last class, who are slain under the beast (such as the two witnesses), who are a kind of supplementary class, and are the saints of the high places of Daniel 7. When judgment is given to the saints (Dan. 7:22) their trials are over; the same characteristic is found in Revelation 20:4. The patience of the saints goes on till then. This is over when the Ancient of days comes. (Rev. 14:13, 14.)
Affectionately yours in the Lord
Dublin, June 24th, 1880.
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My dear Brother,—As regards division, I am as decided as possible… I wrote that I would no more go with a party against evil than with the evil itself, and quoted Isaiah 8:12, 13. I knew before I left for France, but found it much more forward than I was aware of when I returned. I do not believe it is either faith or godliness. I am pretty well aware of the springs which have moved in it. It would be still a question whether God was going to set aside the brethren: if He does, certainly I should not go with any party in it. I have long felt that this party that assumes to be the godly one is the one to be feared. They are tried with evil, I admit, but this is not faith… Suffice it to say, with no party action will I have anything to do save to reject it. But the conclusion come to at Cheapside favoured no such action.
Dublin, July 1st.
My dear Brother,—I am always glad to hear from you, though I am a bad correspondent, and, I suppose, a bad one from pre-occupation with much work that lies before me…
Spiritual life wants cultivating; it is this we must look to, that there may be a true testimony. The brethren in England are somewhat aroused, but we have still much to seek that the Spirit of God and the life of Christ may pervade the mass. For this not only the privileges of the church must be held out, but Christ Himself. The other is all right, needed to clear us as to the mixed deadness of the name of Christian, and brighten our hopes; I should ever insist on it, it is what brought me out; but it is not what sustains life and forms the affections. “He that eateth me shall live by me.” This alone gives singleness of eye, and fixes the mind as to its object. It is never said of the church, but of Christ, He is all. “Christ is all, and in all” —“all” as object, “in all” as power of life to enjoy Him, and know the Father.
I have had, through mercy, a good time in Ireland, and in Dublin a great desire after the word. The brethren have been greatly interested in reading it; indeed, we have found it commonly thus. Kent remains unsettled, but I have heard nothing of it since——began to break bread. It is not what in itself tries me, but a party right in their desire for good, but pretending to set up something new and holy, and, I think, despising God’s patience with what I admit has greatly failed; but I feel one must take this, as all else, as under His hand; but I do not see them to be guided of God. I do not believe it is faith. I have to learn, in them, for myself, that patience may have its perfect work. After all, God continues blessing in spite of it all. I dread the world; and a nourishing with Christ, and cementing power of the Spirit is needed, so that both the object and the power should bind all together, and the truth spread by a divine testimony. To His working we must look.
It is a great comfort to think He is always right, and always does right. He loves the church, and in the midst of all our failures carries on His work of loving grace towards it, to “present it to himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” And, individually, such a High Priest became us as was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens,” yet we have not One “who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, sin apart.” We belong to there, yea, go in boldly; but are here sanctified in spirit for that place which He has prepared for us by His entry there, and exercised and helped here by a sympathy and mercy which, while it is met by dependence in us, is a living and gracious sustainment, and gives blessed confidence. On Him we can count; He loves the church now as ever, and though our hearts are weak, how often have I seen His hand come in where all seemed hopeless. As men have said, ‘Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity,’ and so it is, and even in our souls—where to know deliverance is, that we must have learned we cannot deliver ourselves. Peace be with you.
Your affectionate brother in Christ.
Dublin, July, 1880.
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My dear Brother,—I was glad to see your hand and name, and answer you at once. I object altogether to the question. What benefit does the world get from [propitiation]? It puts everything on a false and low ground, as if the end and only object of God’s ways—leaving out the claims of His glory and nature in that which angels desire to look into. I agree in general with what you say; but “the Lord’s lot” was not for the sins of the people, as guilt, though God’s holy and righteous nature was met in respect of their sin. The blood was sprinkled first, on and before the mercy-seat—God’s throne in the most holy place where God dwelt—and the altar of incense. The atonement was for the “holy place… that remaineth among them.” “That is for the people,” (ver. 15) is in contrast with Aaron and his house. But what was cleansed and hallowed was the holy place, and the altar, no doubt, because of the tabernacle being among them. As meeting God’s nature and character, it was the basis of all. (Compare Heb. 9:23-26 and 27, 28.) The taking away the sin of the world was to have “a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness”—is the fruit of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Thank God! our sins are taken away, too, but that is a different thing from putting away sin.
It is deplorable to make putting away our sins, true and blessed as it is, the end of all God has been glorified in Him (John 13) in such sort, that Man is in the glory of God. In the scapegoat, God’s people were represented in their head—the high priest—and those only who, as such, were identified with him. In the other there was no such representation—a most important principle. Though the people’s uncleanness were the occasion of it, it was the Lord’s lot, His dwelling-place which was in question, and transgressions not in question, save as the means of its defilement; and the blood was under God’s eye as the ground of all God’s dealings till, and making the security of, the new heavens and the new earth. (See John 13:31, 32.) Through the cross, God Himself has been fully glorified, and in virtue of it Christ Himself has entered into the glory of God as Man, though He had it before the world was. (So Philippians ii.) Man’s sin was absolute, Satan’s power over all the world, man’s perfection absolute in Christ when absolutely tested, God’s righteous judgment against sin displayed as nowhere else, and perfect love to the sinner, His majesty made good. “It became him.” (Heb. 2) No doubt our sins were borne too, thank God! that we might have part in the results; but blessed as this is for us, it was really a secondary thing to the basis of the glory of God in the universe, and the bringing all into order, according to what He is fully displayed. So John 17:4, 5. But in John’s gospel there is not a word of the forgiveness of our sins, save as administered by the apostles.
Finally, the people were not represented in the blood on the mercy-seat and holy place; their sins gave occasion to its being done, but the cleansing was of God’s dwelling-place, that that should be fit for Him, and what He was, perfectly glorified by Christ’s death—to be for ever before Him as eternal redemption. The two goats made but one Christ in different aspects. But propitiation alters the whole ground of God’s dealings with man. It is the display of God’s mercy maintaining God’s righteousness, but opening the door to the sinner—the ground on which I preach the gospel, and can say to every sinner, The blood is on the mercy-seat; return to God, and it will be His joy to receive you: it is not necessary for Him to judge you if you so come, for His righteousness is fully glorified, and His love free. This may bring out the evil will in man, but it is then “ye will not come to me that ye might have life.” There is death in substitution—He “bore our sins in his own body on the tree”—“died for our sins according to the scriptures”: as I have said, the two goats are one Christ.
The word “lost” is not a different word. Christ came to seek sinners, not repentant sinners. God leads to repentance. We have the repentant sinner in the third parable—the seeking in the two first. (Luke xv.) The “lost” in them has, of course, a physical sense as a figure, but there was no thought of their disposition to return. It is a miserable denial of the gospel; “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The figure of their being carried clean away, not to be found, may be given, but that forgiveness and redemption are by blood-shedding is stated everywhere—no remission of sins without it. “We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Luke 19:10 is also “lost”—the same word…
Dublin, 1880
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Dear——,—First, I do not think you have put in adequate prominence, at starting, Hebrews 10, distinguishing the Spirit’s work which gives us the sense of our sins at conversion (and can only of past ones) and Christ’s work when all were future, and the efficacy of which was not only up to the day of our conversion. Next, I believe 1 John 1:5-10 to be abstract—the message received from Christ come. Chapter 2:1, as you say, is clearly believers; but confession of sins is at the beginning and all along. Walking in light, fellowship, and cleansing, are the three elements of the christian state. Chapter 2:1, as you say, begins with the saints: it was for them he wrote what went before, but what he wrote was abstract truth, the message. But I think chapter 1:9 is present application: uprightness in confession brings forgiveness in relationship—not merely justification.
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Dear——,—1 John 1:7 I believe to be an abstract statement, as I might say, Quinine cures intermittent fever: it is its quality and effect. Abstract, absolute statements characterise John: “he cannot sin;” “the wicked one toucheth him not.” As to verse 9, it is the same, only it is subjective—the state and act of the person. If a person confesses his sins he is forgiven: his soul must be in that state to be forgiven. Only when it is at the outset, it is justification once for all, afterwards governmental: in the first case, non-imputation; in the second, the dealings of God with His people or children. And the difference is important, connected with the revelation made in Christianity.
I thank God for the blessing He has bestowed upon your work. May He keep us near Himself, and that Christ may be all, so that our life may be the production of Christ, and nothing else. His coming will indeed be joy. Our full happiness is laid up in treasure there. We wait for it till He comes. Till then it is the word of His patience and serving Him.
Affectionately yours in the Lord.
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Dublin, 1880.
My dear Sir,—I have received your tract, and am glad to have done so, as it affords me an opportunity to give a little more fully the scriptural evidence of the Deity of the Lord. How much it pained me to read it, I cannot tell you; but I apply myself at once to the point. The rash expressions of individuals are nothing to the purpose: the question is, what does scripture say? No Christian denies he should pray to the Father, but it is equally certain the Lord is prayed to—nay, calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus is, so to speak, a definition of a Christian in 1 Corinthians 1:2. Stephen called on the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit, and Paul that the thorn might be taken from him. A child prays to his Father, but the administration of the house is in the Lord’s hands.
It is a strange assertion that the scriptures do not say that Jesus is God: and I pray you to note that the question connects itself directly with that of—What was He before He was a man? “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” You will not deny that that was Jesus: did God, for such the Word was, cease to be God? He was “in the form of God,” laid aside His glory, “and took upon him the form of a servant;” but He is called God: Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. (Matt. 1:23.) The scriptures do therefore call Him God. Again, Jesus means Jah, or Jehovah the Saviour; His name states that He is Jehovah: is not Jehovah God? Jesus received it, because He was to “save his people from their sins”—whose people? Hence, in John 12, the evangelist cites a passage from Isaiah vi., where the highest glory of Jehovah is displayed, and says (ver. 41) the prophet saw Christ’s glory and spake of Him. Hence the Lord says to the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Your question as to the Son of David is nothing to the purpose; no one says God is the Son of David: all Christians own that Christ was born into the world as a man: what they say is that the Son of David was also God. Take the end of 1 John 2 and beginning of 3—in chapter 2:28, “he shall appear;” that is, Christ: in verse 29, saints are “born of him;” but they are “sons of God” in chapter 3:1; but the world “knew him not”: that is, the same Person is Christ on earth. In verse 2 we are “the sons of God,” but, “when he shall appear;” now it is Christ. No one can read this passage and not see that Christ and God were one Object or Person before the apostle’s mind; and so at the end of the epistle, “We are in him that is true, that is, in his Son Jesus Christ: this [He] is the true God and eternal life.” And even the Old Testament knows this. In Daniel 7 the Son of man comes to the Ancient of days (ver. 13), but further on in the course of the chapter, the Ancient of days comes. (Ver. 22.) So in Revelation 1:17: “The first and the last” is “he that liveth and was dead.” In chapter 1:8, Alpha and Omega is the Almighty; in chapter 22:12, 13, it is Christ who comes. In 1 Timothy 6:14, 16, “the blessed and only Potentate” is “King of kings and Lord of lords,” but in Revelation 19:16 this is Christ. In John 17 He looks to be glorified with the Father, but He had had it before the world was. What He says is that He does and can do nothing as originated by Himself, ajf* eJautou' (John 5:19.) The same is said of the Holy Ghost (chap. 16:13), “He shall not speak of himself”— ajf* eJautou' —
“from himself” as a source. No Christian denies He took the form of a servant, and always so lived on the earth: but who “took upon him the form of a servant”? Not an angel; he is a servant, and cannot leave his first estate. Christ “made himself of no reputation” when He was in the form of God: was it a false form? The Lord forgive the question: I put it for your sake, dear sir. He could say, “before Abraham was I AM.” The fulness of the Deity, you admit, dwelt in Him. The Son of David was much more than the Son of David: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” Whose thoughts and words were Christ’s? were they not a man’s, yet whose? He could say “the Son of man who is in heaven.” What was He before He came down? Was the Word which became flesh (saVrz ejgevneto) before [He became so] God or not?
Proving He was Man, proves nothing; we all believe it as fundamental truth: but was He only a man? Clearly not: He was “the Word:” He “came down from heaven.” What was He then before He became a man? He claims to be One with the Father (John 10:30)—can a creature? If He was not a creature He was God; or we have one not created at all, of independent existence in Himself, yet not God, which is confusion and impossible. “By him were all things created:” who did that? He is the Firstborn of the creation, because He created it; all things, moreover, consist by Him. (Col. 1:16.) He was “in the beginning,” and then by him were all things made that are made. (John 1:1, 3.) He, then, was not made: are there two Gods? He laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of His hands; they perish, but He remains. (Heb. 1:8, 10, 11.) All the angels of God are to worship Him. (Ver. 6.) “Blessed are all they that put their trust in him” (Psa. 2:12), but “cursed be the man that trusteth in man.” (Jer. 17:5.) He and the Father are one: can any creature say that?
I find, then, that He is called God before He came into the world (John 1), after He came into the world—“God with us.” He created all things, and “by him all things consist,” is to be worshipped as the first and the last, Alpha and Omega—which is the express title of the Almighty, King of kings and Lord of lords, the Ancient of days: and, lest we should think Him some inferior God, we are told that all the fulness of the Godhead (qeovthto") dwelt in Him bodily. (Col. 2:9.) The moral teaching of scripture confirms it. “Christ is all” to the Christian, so that if He be not God, God is nothing. The object of the supreme devotion of the heart, I am to live to Him (2 Cor. 5:15); is this to a creature? This is the real question: Is He the creature or the Creator? No Christian denies that He is true, very Man, and that He has taken a place inferior to the Father; but for this He made Himself of no reputation when in the form of God, and took upon Him the form of a servant: no creature could do that; he is one by nature.
He was, as you say, the foreordained Second Adam, but that Second Adam was the Lord from heaven. (1 Cor. 15:47.) He came not to do His own will surely; as Man, obedience and dependence was His place, but He came into a prepared body, having offered Himself to do it. You may say, He is Son of God. What do you mean by that? “Kiss the Son lest he be angry.” God spoke ejn uiJw'/ (Heb. 1:1.) The exaltation of Jesus, of which you speak, was after He had been “made a little lower than the angels [whom He had created] for the suffering of death,” being “made like to his brethren in all things.” He “maketh his angels spirits … but unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God”—He does not make Him anything. Would the blood of a mere man cleanse from all sin?
How you can say the scriptures do not say He is God, I do not understand: they do over and over again, directly and indirectly, in equivalent terms. I have not quoted “God manifest in the flesh,” “Christ who is over all, God blessed for ever,” as critics may reason about them. The last, however (Rom. 9:5) is as plain a testimony as can well be conceived, and the language such as makes it impossible to apply it to any one but Christ. Is it not singular that you should have passed over all the passages I have referred to, and only quoted what shews that Christ was truly a man, which nobody denies—without which, indeed, His Godhead is of no avail to us? I cannot in the compass of a note pretend to discuss fully such a subject. But all scripture confirms the truth, that Jesus is Jehovah. John the Baptist was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord”—that is, Jehovah (Isa. 40): so Luke 7:27, from Malachi 3:1: so Luke 1:76: so when He says to the leper, “I will, be thou clean.” In Isaiah 66:15 Jehovah comes with fire and the sword, but we know it is Christ who comes. What is the meaning of Micah 5:2? Who is Jehovah’s fellow? (Zech. 13:7.) The cleansing of the leper was Jehovah’s work: the feeding of the five thousand, a reference to the Psalms speaking of Jehovah; and though done as Son of man (Luke 9:10-17 and following) accomplished Psalm 132:15, spoken of Jehovah. He not only works miracles, which God can enable any one, if He pleases, to do, but He confers the power of working them by His own power on others, which man cannot do. (Luke 9) All these I refer to as confirmations of the direct statements of scripture that He is God, and they are consistent with no other doctrine. And they might be multiplied by reference to every page of the gospel. He quickens whom He will (John 5:21); can that be said of a mere man, a creature? The Old Testament declares that Jehovah was to come, and His way be prepared, but this was Christ. Hebrews 12:25, 26, shew positively that Christ is the Jehovah of mount Sinai.
I do not write in a controversial spirit, and beg you to weigh the passages, because it is the greatest of all comforts to know that God did thus come down and become a man—reveal Himself to us so near us. I know God in knowing Christ, find Him grace and love, and cannot in any other way know Himself. May the gracious Lord give you to see it!
[Date unknown.]
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My dear Brother,—Mr.——assures me, for I had written to him, that he is quite sure that he joins heartily in praise and worship to the Lord Jesus Christ. He has only wanted the full sense of sonship to be known and of nearness to God in Christ. Now this is right and many fail in it, and have the feeling they can approach Christ, and trust in His love, but not God. The spirit of adoption is greatly wanting in many. When there was a man at Auburn in Maine (I forget his name) with whom I also had to do, and who opposed prayer and praise to the Lord Jesus, ——had also a correspondence with him to shew him he was wrong, but then both our efforts were useless.
It is possible some may have objected to it really. If they will not worship a Man, the angels will, and moreover, every knee bow to Him, of men and infernal beings. While scripture puts us into the glory with Christ and like Christ, it carefully guards the personal glory and title of Christ. Moses and Elias were seen in the same glory as Christ, but the moment Peter would put them on a level, they disappear, and the Father’s voice is heard declaring He was His beloved Son. The heavens were as open to Stephen (through Christ’s death) as to Christ when He came up from Jordan; but Stephen looks at Him as an object, as Son of man, and is changed morally into His likeness: heaven looks down on Christ, and, instead of conforming Him to anything, the Spirit seals Him as He is, and the Father owns Him as He is. It is down here He says, “the Son of man who is in heaven.” It is He who came in in subjection by the door, the Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep, who says, “I and my Father are One.” If there is the divine and human nature in Him, there is only one Person. And he who says, I will not adore a man, is, to say the least, in danger of denying the unity of the Person. He who has seen Him has seen the Father. The Man who spoke to Philip and washed his feet, could say, and did at the same time, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me?” Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, addressed himself to the Son of man, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Authority is given to Him to judge “because he is the Son of man;” but it is “that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father.” Is that refusing to worship Him? See John 5:18; the Jews were more consistent.
To separate the Son of man and Son of God is to dissolve Christ. See John 3:14, 16. See again, 1 John 5:20, “We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This [He,ou\to"] is the true God and eternal life.” But Jesus is the name of Him who was born of the virgin Mary, and Christ is the anointed Man. And the apostle emphatically adds in contrast, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” There is a most striking passage in 1 John 2:28 and 3:1, 2. The inseparableness of personality and the distinction of nature is very striking—” Before him at his coming,” “is born of him” in verse 29, so that we are “sons of God” (3:1), and yet the world “knew him not”— “sons of God” (ver. 2), but we like Him when He shall appear. All this blessed truth is lost if we dissolve, as I have called it, Christ. And yet I must know Him as a man: that is the distinctness of the nature, for He prayed to God and died, and yet He “was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death”—when in the form of God, “made Himself of no reputation” (eJautoVn ejkevnwsen), yet, being thus, could say, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” “No man knoweth the Son but the Father.” But he who loses these things loses the Son. Speaking of worshipping a man is losing the Person of Christ. And if the angels are to worship Him [Heb. 1:6], worship is a just service as to what is—for it is not our being exempt which is in question, but His being entitled to it. And there it is Christ, though His Godhead is brought out, yet as incarnate; for it is said, “when he had by himself purged our sins,” and He is “the first begotten” (not the “only begotten”), and Psalm 2 is quoted where He is distinctly celebrated as Messiah—Christ, or, as in English, “His anointed.”
But I fear there has been too much discussion: refusing to worship the Lord is a very serious error, but discussion about His Person seldom leads to much fruit. I have spoken as plainly as possible, that there may be no mistake about my judgment of refusing to do it. But you or others may have wrongly estimated what Mr. —— wished to put forward. It is not only in replying to me, but in his controversy with the man at Auburn, that he rejected the thought of not worshipping the Lord—to whom “every knee shall bow” (and that puts Him in the place of worship, as “have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal” shews). But his statement to me is quite clear. It is possible some, not inclined to worship Christ as is due, may have profited by expressions to support their false state of heart. Hasty conclusions are not always wise. Firmness against false doctrine is always right. But there are a great many who are in the Martha state—“what thou askest of God,” who, as not really free, cannot go directly to the Father, nor worship anybody rightly, and cannot worship under the conviction the Father Himself loveth them—not questioning God’s love in sending His only begotten Son, but who do not enter into the present privilege of direct address to the Father, as those who are in His presence and enjoy His love there— loved as Jesus Himself is loved, wonderful as such a word is, this love being in them…
Affectionately yours in the Lord.
Dublin, 1880.
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My beloved Brother,—It is time I wrote to you, and seek withal to cheer you also, for I-hear that you have had trouble. My letter I had headed to begin some weeks ago, but only now could continue. I have not lost my interest in Barbadoes, nor in your work, dear brother; but I have been incessantly occupied travelling and visiting the gatherings, besides claims in study work. I have been looking over the hymns for a new edition, have my Testament on hand for a new edition, an English translation of my German to look over, am writing on John’s gospel for the French, and on Komans for the Germans, and have been laid up in the gout to boot, not to say that I am within a few months of eighty; but enough of myself, only to excuse myself for my delay in writing. And now I must begin again for the third time, with the same excuse, having had two meetings, if not more, daily up to this (Edinburgh); besides the same work as far as possible while travelling, but Christ more precious than ever. I wonder sometimes how in sovereign grace God has revealed Him to me. I feel nearer, more at home in the Father’s love, yet conscious of unworthiness, but more in the sense that all is pure grace. That there was no good in me I learnt, in one sense thoroughly, that is as a fact, some eight and fifty years ago, and I have, I hope, a deeper, clearer sense of it now, not seeing it, of course, as God does—for who does?— but at least with Him; but thus more in the sense of present, sovereign goodness in Him. And that is blessed, for that is what will be for ever, when no sin will remain and where sin can never enter; but that love is a sanctuary in which we walk while passing through a world of snares, “the provoking of all men … from the strife of tongues,” and the more the crossing and entanglement of what is without, the sweeter the rest of His presence; and soon there will be nothing else, and even here He makes all things work together for good to them that love Him: but the rest is better, but the other leads to it even here.
We are not at the end of our troubles here, at least locally, for in the mass in the country they only need ministering Christ to them. And there is a great thirst for the word, so that a door of blessing is richly opened. But besides the positive evil in worldliness, a class had sprung up of true hearts, many of them, but where will, and, in some, pretension was at work, who, tired of the evil which I think they had not faith to meet, would have thrown, as we say in French, the handle after the axe, and cut the connection altogether, and set up afresh—not pretending exactly to make a new body, but that it was hopeless trying to go on. I had been deeply tried by this question before the evil broke out, but had concluded before God that it was not faith thus to leave, that “the hireling fleeth,” and I stayed and served, though away in France from the London disturbances… Where there has been faithfulness there is more life than before, sensibly so I think, and they are more closely united; but there is wanting a bond of general confidence which, I trust, may grow with time, and is growing; but there is still the feeling, and locally the effect, of the class I mentioned —the last not large, but it tends to keep the sense of uneasiness alive. One has to have faith for everybody. Yet God is so good; for the work goes on with as much blessing as usual. Except in the locality referred to, a stranger would perceive little amiss; it is the general bond which is wanting: for one’s work in testifying of Christ it is quite happy.
I thought you would like, dear brother, to know how things were here, and I have given you as plain and true an account as I could. Those who went wrong are disposed to make and represent all as bad as may be, but as to that I trust God. I have little uneasiness as to that. They feel I believe, when there is a little soundness, that God is not with them in it. I fear more what I believe is the unbelief of those who have felt and judged the evil, and with whom, as to that, I sympathise. The real truth is, God has been sifting us, but I believe in love, and when needed; and in that love I trust, and in this matter I never trusted anything else.
Kind love to the brethren: may God abundantly bless you and them.
Affectionately yours in Jesus.
Edinburgh, 1880.
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Dear ——,—Christ has a priesthood which calls us above, Hebrews 7:26. Such an one “became us” because we belong there; but a priesthood which can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, because we are down here. He enters into all these as knowing them, and so lays hold on our hearts, but to lead them up to higher and holier associations where God dwells. How gracious! There as an object we see Christ glorified, and are led on, for we are to be like Him and with Him. This gives energy to spiritual life. We look back to Him in humiliation, and this engages our affections and forms our heart and christian character—gives us delight in His perfection —“let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Thus feeding on Christ, and eating His flesh and drinking His blood, we abide in Him and He in us. The heart finds its food, its strength, its everything in Him, and our responsibility and the desire of our heart—so that it is the law of liberty—is to please Him, and walk as He walked, worthy of the Lord. What a calling! As He is so are we before God; as He walked so would we walk. Would that we could! In one sense we can, for His grace is sufficient for us; but we soon find, in looking at Him, how far we are behind. Cleave to Him. John 14:19, 20.
1880.
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Dear Mrs. ——,—I was very glad to get your account. I need not say how thankful I am for the blessing God has bestowed on the work… I do trust the Lord may continue His blessing on the depot and on the saints. As to me, I am growing old, past eighty, and my activities somewhat more burdensome; but till to-day, and some days of travelling, I have had two meetings daily these six weeks or more, and when in London it is yet harder work. In general there is a very open ear for the word, and we cannot complain of want of blessing. There is nothing very new, but the thirst for the word is striking, nor are conversions wanting. The shake brethren got in London has aroused consciences; they needed it, but the Lord has been very gracious, and though there are local traces of it, God has not allowed His testimony to fail. But there is not the same deadness to the world as at first, but more than a while back: I do trust there may be yet growth in this respect…
What I still dread is worldliness; it weakens the spring of all. For what is there but Christ? He reveals the Father; He is eternal joy, and present life too. We do not enough feel that what is not seen is revealed to us. See 1 Corinthians 2 How could we look upon it if it were not, or how set our affections on things above? Perhaps as one draws nearer we see clearer, or are more occupied with it, but it seems to me all. People go on around me with their occupations, and I suppose must, and I know ought in one sense; but it seems to me another world which ends in nothing. At any rate, the fashion of it passes away—Christ, and His word, and they who do God’s will, never. All that is eternal; only we have to seek His guidance to serve Him, with His wisdom and according to His will.
Kindest love to the brethren. It would, were it possible, be a joy to me to see them, but it is hardly likely now.
Aberdeen, September, 1880.
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My dear Brother,—It will be impossible for me to get to Lerwick; indeed, I am already a little uneasy at the time I am kept from getting back to London, and I am getting old, too, though most mercifully kept. I have work claiming completing I can only do in London, and shall probably have to go to France this autumn, and am thus pressed up for time. The Lord has been graciously with me in my work, as I trust He may be with you, as I know indeed He has. Christ is everything. May you be given to keep Him constantly before your eyes. Our strength is to know our own nothingness, and have Him as everything. He never fails, cannot fail, and, if we walk in His path and words, manifests Himself to us, so that we should have joy in our souls and strength in our service. I hear you have been unwell, but a time of retirement is a very good thing in our service; it puts us before God instead of our work before us, and makes us feel, too, that our work is in His hands and not our own. I remember when I used to be ill every year, I always felt if I had been near enough to God I should not have needed it; but it is always grace; but I trust you will be better.
Your affectionate brother in Christ.
Aberdeen.
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15 ‘Point of contact.’ German.
16 ‘Christ, or the Last Adam, a quickening Spirit, gives power to as many as receive Him to become children (tevkna) of God, by their being born of God.’ [‘Eternal Life,’ p. 33.]
17 ‘This… the believer has, not as a gift which on its bestowal becomes detached from its source or spring, but in inseparable connection with Himself, where it is enjoyed in common or in communion with Him.’ (Page 20.)
18 Vol. 4:161. ‘This portion [Lev. 13, 14] treats of discipline toward a Christian, or one who has been reckoned as such, and not of the salvation of a sinner.’ ‘In thought we must go back to the Lord’s death and resurrection as often as restoration is required … for by His blood atonement is effected and by His resurrection all who believe in Him are cleared from all charge of guilt.’ (P. 165.) ‘But for the atonement we cannot receive the Holy Ghost: without the Spirit we have no power to serve God: of these things the action of the priest [chap. 14:17] here reminds us… The restored one has need to be reminded,’ etc. (P. 168).