My Dear ______,
It is very important for you to have a clear conception of the
presence of the Lord in the midst of the assembly; but the condition on
which His presence is promised ought never to be forgotten. He has
never said that He is wherever saints are assembled; that all
alike who professedly meet for worship can reckon upon His promise. His
words are: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there
am I in the midst of them." Thus the essential condition is that saints
should be "gathered together in His name"; and unless this is fulfilled
the promise clearly is not binding.
Our first aim then must be to explain what this condition means.
I may say that the more correct translation would be "unto my name";
for the preposition which is rendered "in," is one that invariably has
the significance of "into" or "unto." Here therefore "unto" will be its
sense. Again, it may be needful to point out that that name is not used
merely as an appellation, but, as is usual in Scripture, is expressive
of all that Christ is in this connection. Thus when the Lord, speaking
before the Father of His disciples, says, "I have declared unto them
thy name, and will declare it" (John 17: 26), He does not mean that He
had merely revealed to them that God also bore the name of Father; but
that He had been teaching them all that God was to them in that
relationship. Hence He adds, that He had done and would do this, "that
the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them."
What He desired therefore was that they should both know what God was
to them as the Father, and that they should be brought into the
enjoyment of all the love which He had for them as such. In like
manner, "name" in the passage before us expresses all that Christ is as
the glorified man and Lord in the relationship which He now sustains
towards His people. I say "which He now sustains"; for it is very
evident that these words look on to the time when He should be absent.
Thus in Matt. 16 He says, "I will build my church" (v. 18), pointing on
to a future time; and the passage in which the word "name" occurs is in
connection with church action (v. 17). Indeed, while He was upon the
earth the disciples could not be gathered to His name; for they were
with Him as their Master and Lord.
We may then take the "name" to be expressive of the person of
Christ--Himself, indeed, in all the truth of His person, as the risen
and glorified One at the right hand of God. It is clear therefore that
Christ is the only object that draws us together, and our centre when
gathered; for the Holy Ghost will never gather believers to anything
but Christ. If anything is added-whether it be a particular doctrine,
or a particular form of church government it is not simply the name of
Christ, and the gathering is not according to His mind. If, for
example, I agreed to meet with certain other believers of like views,
we could not be gathered alone to the name of Christ, for something has
been added or excluded; but if I am gathered with those who acknowledge
that. Christ Himself is the only attraction, with those who own His
authority as Lord, who bow to His word, and regulate everything by it
when assembled, then the gathering would be to His name. And only then;
for where man's authority, man's traditions, or man's regulations are
recognized, whatever the individual piety of those who recognize them,
the meeting cannot be of this character.
Now it is in the midst of His people so gathered that the Lord
has promised to be. "There am I in the midst of them." This very fact
shows the extreme importance of being gathered unto His name; for, as
we have said, if the condition be disregarded, we have no ground for
reckoning upon His presence. Nor is it enough to say that we
fulfil the condition. The essential point is, Does the Lord recognize
it as fulfilled? He is the Judge; and therefore it were presumption
indeed to expect Him in our midst if. assembled according to our own
thoughts--without respect to His word. But "where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
We know therefore that He is in the midst of such on the
authority of His own word. Not only so; but, as if to meet us in our
weakness, He has given us a sample of the manner in which He comes into
the midst of His own. Thus on the evening of that first day of the
week, when He arose from the dead, the Disciples were found assembled
together (John 20: 19). He had sent Mary to His "brethren" with this
message: "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and
your God" (v. 17). According to Psalm 22, He thus declared God's name
unto His brethren, and in so doing revealed that He brought them
through His death and resurrection into His own place before God.
Henceforward His God and Father was their God and Father. They were
thus associated with Him on resurrection ground in these relationships.
This message gathers them together unto His name; and when thus
assembled, "He came and stood in the midst, and said unto them, Peace
be unto you." Thereby He has given us an example of the manner in which
He comes into the midst of His people, so that we might have the
certainty of His word verified to our souls.
Should any one therefore be tempted to say, Is it possible
that the Lord should be in the midst of His people when gathered now
unto His name? the doubt is anticipated by this striking record of His
presence in the midst of His disciples on the first day of the week. It
meets, indeed, a greater difficulty and a more subtle danger. One might
be inclined in unbelief to object, If now we could see Him with our
eyes as they did, then we could receive it. The Lord knew the weakness
and the subtlety of our poor feeble hearts, and thus in tender love has
provided for this snare. One of the disciples, Thomas, "was not with
them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We
have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe" (v.
25). Eight days after, all, including Thomas, were once more assembled,
and, as on the former occasion, 49 came Jesus, the doors being shut,
and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith He to
Thomas" (for He had heard every word which Thomas had uttered), "Reach
hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and
thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." Thomas,
overwhelmed by His tender grace, and the sense of his own sinfulness,
could only exclaim, "My Lord and my God." Thereupon "Jesus saith unto
him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are
they that have not seen, and [yet] have believed" (vv. 24-29). Thus the
Lord had those in view (without entering now into the application of
this scene to the conversion of the Jewish remnant, when they shall
by-and-by look on Him whom they have pierced) who should believe
through the word of His disciples, and pronounces their greater
blessedness. And this blessedness is ours; for though we see Him not,
we believe that, according to His own word, He is in our midst when
gathered unto His name.
It should be remembered, moreover, that it is He Himself who
is in the midst-not "in spirit," as is often said, but He Himself; for
the words are, "There am I," and the term "I" expresses all that He is.
Christ then--not the Holy Ghost, but Christ is in the midst of His
gathered saints. The Holy Ghost acts through the individual members of
the body of Christ, ministering for the edification of the saints by
whom He will, and dwells in the house of God; but it is Christ, I
repeat, who comes into our midst. His presence is only apprehended by
the Spirit; that is another thing. But He is in the midst, whether
apprehended or not, where two or three are gathered unto His name. How
wondrous His condescension and grace!
Never forget therefore that it is around the Lord Himself that
we are gathered. If there be only two--for His words are, "Where two or
three are gathered together in my name" there He is in the midst of
them. As soon as two are thus met, they can rejoice in the knowledge
that the Lord is there. Our faith may be weak, and our apprehension
feeble, but the fact of His presence remains; for it is not dependent
upon our feelings or experiences, but solely upon our being gathered
unto His name. How could we forsake the assembling of ourselves
together, as the manner of some is (Heb. 10: 25), if we remembered that
the Lord is the centre of the assembly; that He is as truly in our
midst as with the disciples on the first resurrection day? For why was
Thomas absent on that first occasion? Because he did not believe in the
resurrection of his Lord, and therefore did not expect His presence. So
now, if any absent themselves (I do not speak of those whom the Lord
detains by affliction, duty, or other circumstances) from the assembly,
it can only be because they do not really believe in the fact of the
Lord's presence in the midst. And when assembled, what reverence, what
affection, what worship would be begotten in our hearts, if through the
power of the Spirit of God we more fully apprehended that He who went
down into death under our sins, and has thereby redeemed us to God by
His blood, has come back out of death, and now, as the risen and
glorified One, delights to come and to lead the praise of His people in
the midst of the congregation. (Ps. 22: 22).
Believe me, dear ______,
Yours affectionately in Christ,
E.D.