In these “last days” when “the wolf (the Devil) scattereth the sheep” and when there is such a multitude of denominations, gatherings and independent groups, it has become a great difficulty to discern a Scriptural gathering of Christians. Therefore each believer should the more earnestly desire Divine guidance in this matter.

Three things will be necessary for one to receive such guidance.

1. Be willing to yield to Divine guidance. “If any man will do His will, he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God” (John 7:17). If one is willing to obey Divine guidance, no matter what the cost may be, God will direct him.

2. Study the Word. Many are blindly following their traditions, ancestors or relatives. But those who seek a scriptural gathering must first know what the Scriptures teach concerning the gathering together of Christians. Read the Word carefully and prayerfully so that you will know you are obeying God’s Word in this important matter.

3. Submit to the Guidance of the Spirit of God. “When He the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). The truth of the church is of the highest spiritual character; it is a “great mystery” and therefore it can never be understood by natural arguments. The Spirit of God is alone able to reveal the true teaching of the Word of God on this subject.

In God’s Word we find both doctrine and practice. In the matter of doctrine, the Bible is insistent, while in the matter of practice, we find constant evidences of the Lord’s lingering grace as He seeks to correct the wrong practices of His people. Therefore let us (1) INSIST upon Scriptural principles and (2) DESIRE to promote Scriptural practices.

(It is to be remembered that any apostate sect, such as the Russellites, the Adventists, the Mormons, the Modernists, etc., is to be considered antichristian, though they pretend to be Christian, even adding that word in denominating themselves, as “Christian Scientists,” “Christian Adventists,” etc. Denying the person of Christ, the work of Christ, or the words of Christ, they are antichristian, and a true believer should shun them as devilish.)

I will suggest four Scriptural principles which should be insisted upon.

First—The gathering should recognize the LORDSHIP AND HEADSHIP OF CHRIST over the church. The church belongs to Christ, being “purchased by His Own blood” (Acts 20:28; Eph. 5:25,27). He is the Head of the Church (Eph. 1:22,23; Col. 1:18) and the church is to be subject to Him (Eph. 5:24). A Scriptural gathering of Christians will never permit a pope, bishop council, conference or clergyman to rule over them and thus rob Christ of His Headship over His church. Such a gathering will gather together in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, according to Matt. 18:20. They will not meet as Lutherans, Calvinists, Wesleyans or Baptists, or as followers of any other human leader or name, but giving Christ His place as head over His church, they will meet as Christians in the Name of their one Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second—The gathering will recognize the ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY OF THE WORD OF GOD. Before the New Testament was written, the Lord vested authority in the apostles, but since the completion of the New Testament and the death of the apostles, entire authority is vested in God’s Word alone. A Scriptural gathering of Christians will ignore all creeds, regarding them as unnecessary and dangerous (Mark 7:7-13). They will test everything by the Word of God, believing it to be sufficient as it is, without amendment or substitute (2 Tim. 2:16,17).

Third—The gathering will be SUBJECT TO THE LEADERSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. When Christ ascended to heaven, He sent the Spirit of God to take control of His people. The Spirit enables us to worship, and He is to lead the church in worship (Phil. 3:4; 2 Cor. 3:17,18). He creates and preserves the unity of the church (Eph. 2:22; 4:3). He gives and preserves the unity of the church (Eph. 2:22; 4:3). He gives the gifts and is to control their ministry (1 Cor. 12:4,11). He is to control in service, sending missionaries and directing the Lord’s servants (Acts 13:4; 16:6,7). In brief, He is to lead and control the gathering in their worship, prayer, ministry, service, etc. A gathering that is subject to the leadership of the Spirit will not tolerate the system of “clergy and laity,” nor will a clergyman or any one man be permitted to usurp the leadership of the Holy Spirit by administering the Lord’s supper” or by “leading the prayer meeting,” etc. Instead they will hold to the truth of the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:5) and will gather for worship, prayer and edification with one Leader, the Holy Spirit, and as He leads, so they will participate.

Fourth—The gathering will meet as fellow members of THE ONE BODY OF CHRIST (1 Cor. 12:12-27). They will believe in the one church over the whole world and that every believer is put into that church, the body of Christ, by the Holy Spirit. In their local gathering they will hold to this as did the Corinthian gathering (1 Cor. 1:2; 10:16,17). Therefore they shall never organize together, but they shall “assemble together” according to Heb. 10:25. They shall regard one another (every one saved) as brethren and sisters in Christ, and count membership in His Body the only membership to be acknowledged. With this they shall be very careful to keep from the Lord’s supper all unsaved persons, those not living a godly life, and those associated with doctrinal and moral evil.

The word “church” is translated from the Greek word “Ecclesia” which means “that which is called out.” The church is to be separated from the world (John 17:14,16). The recognition of the headship of Christ, the authority of the Word of God, the leadership of the Holy Spirit and the brotherhood of all believers, will put us in a gathering that will not have one thing in common with the world and we shall find such a gathering far different from the immense organizations where the worldly-wise control.

Where these four great principles are set forth and help, there you will find a Scriptural gathering of the Lord’s people—an assembly of believers that is a testimony to the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 1:12; 2:1) and with them you should assemble in obedience to Heb. 10:25. If that gathering be but the “two or three,” let your lot be cast in with them. As you thus gather with them you may find some unscriptural practices that will need the correction of the Word of God, even as was found in the “Church of God at Corinth” (1 Cor. 6). If you are looking for perfection of practices, you cannot find it in one single Christian, so certainly do not expect to find it in a gathering of many Christians. Finally, INSIST on Scriptural principles and DESIRE to promote Scriptural practices. Stand with those who adhere to Scriptural principles and seek to help them into a fuller conformity to Scriptural practices.

—D.B.

It should be joy to anyone who loves the Lord Jesus to think of having His individual peculiar approbation and love; to find He has approved of our conduct in such and such circumstances, though none know this but ourselves who receive the approval. But, beloved, are we really content to have an approval which Christ only knows? Let us try ourselves a little.

Are we not too desirous of man’s commendation of our conduct? Or at least we desire that he should know and give us credit for the motives which actuate it. Are we content, so long as good is done, that nobody should know anything about us—even in the church to be thought nothing of? that Christ alone should give us the “white stone” of His approval, and the new name which no man knoweth save only he that receiveth it?

Are we content, I say, to seek nothing else? Oh! think what the terrible evil and treachery of that heart must be that is not satisfied with Christ’s special favor, but seeks honor (as we do) of one another instead! I ask you, beloved, which would be most precious to you, which would you prefer, the Lord’s public owning of you as a good, faithful servant, or the private individual love of Christ resting upon you—the secret knowledge of His love and approval!

He whose heart is specially attached to Christ will respond, “The latter.” Both will be ours, if faithful; but we shall value this most; and there is nothing that will carry us so straight on our course as the anticipation of it.

—J.N. Darby

TEN POINTS AS TO PERSONS GATHERED ON THE GROUND OF GOD’S ASSEMBLY …

1. Consist of believers only (1 Cor. 1:2);

2. Permit the free action of the Holy Spirit when gathered as an assembly (1 Cor. 14). This would certainly be impossible if an individual or any number of individuals presided there;

3. Are gathered on the Lord’s day to break bread, thus showing the “Lord’s death till He come”; remembering Him and manifesting the ONENESS of the body in the one unbroken loaf (1 Cor. 11:23-26; 10:16, 17; Acts 20:7; John 20:19; Luke 24);

4. Are guided by the Word of God only;

5. Are gathered to the Name of the Lord Jesus, as they would be to His person if He were in the world (Matt. 18:20); refusing every other name as sectarian;

6. Carefully exclude moral evils (as 1 Cor. 5), and doctrinal evils (1 Tim. 6:3-5; 2 John 1:9-11), and those in association with them, knowing that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (1 Cor. 5:6; Gal. 5:9), and “evil communications [or, associations] corrupt good manners” (1 Cor. 15:33);

7. Mourn over the present ruinous condition of the Church testimony with large-heartedness towards all Christians, but stand apart in separation from what the Word condemns, and seek to “follow righteousness, faith, [love], peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:19-22); own God’s “within and without” (1 Cor. 5:12), but they never imagine themselves to be THE body to the exclusion of other believers;

8. Own the unity of the gatherings of God’s saints, and recognize the discipline of each other, believing that, apart from the necessary separation from what the Word condemns, only distance should separate the people of God (1 Cor. 1:2; 7:17; 11:16; 14:33);

9. Own God’s ministry in evangelists, pastors, and teachers raised up by GOD, and approving themselves as such (Eph. 4; 1 Timothy 4:14-16);

10. Own the God-given guides in the local assemblies who seek to bear oversight (1 Thess. 5:12, 13; Hebrews 13:7,17,24; 1 Peter 5:1-3).

THE BODY OF CHRIST AND MEMBERS EACH IN HIS PART

How blessed is the communion of saints! Redeemed from judgment by the precious blood of Christ, and separated from the course of the world, theirs is the joy of a common salvation. They are brethren of the same family, for they are children and sons of the same Father. They are “members one of another,” for, being “baptized by one Spirit into one body,” they are alike members of the body of Christ. Hewn out of the quarry of the old and ruined creation, and quickened by the voice of the Son of God, they are living stones of the same “holy temple,” which is “builded together for AN HABITATION OF GOD through the Spirit.”

Sealed by the Holy Ghost they are brought by the same Spirit into fellowship with the Father and the Son, and also into fellowship one with another. Receiving grace upon grace out of “the fulness” which is in Christ, their hearts are filled with joy; they overflow with love, and break forth in united praise. Thus the communion of saints on earth is a real anticipation of the blessedness of heaven.

Their joys are doubled by being shared; their sorrows lessened by being divided. According to the divine standard, whatever each has, he has for all; and whatever all are possessed of, is possessed for each. Each has a part in the enjoyment of all. One with each other, and joint-heirs with Christ in His inheritance, it is truly said of them “all things are yours.” Incorporated into the “one body,” and animated by “one Spirit,” they are bound together by the sympathies of that one living Spirit. One, therefore, prays for all, and all for one. The whole body is nourished by that which each member, each joint, supplieth “for the edifying of itself in love.” There is no place for haughtiness or personal strife among saints; for why should I envy that which is my own? Why should I despise that which serves for my necessary assistance? And why should I strive against and harm him whose hurt is my own hurt? Is there any strife between the members of the natural body? By no means; they all serve and assist one another. If one be injured and suffer, all the rest sympathize with it, and lend relief, and are neither tried nor angry if the healing doesn’t immediately follow. So should it be with members of Christ’s spiritual body; each seeking to be the servant of all, and like his Master, to take the lowest place.

O Lord, unite thus Thy saints in hearty fellowship, and in tender sympathy for each other. Remove dissensions, and, by Thy Spirit, knit our hearts together in love. Suffer not the spirit of the world or party spirit to influence the members of Thy body; but grant us to be clothed with humility. Let the joy of each be in the prosperity of all. Make us more like Thyself, and so happy in Thyself, that we may love each other unfeignedly for Thy sake. Then, indeed, shall it be manifested that we are thine.

—Selected

QUESTION: Can Infant Baptism by immersion be proved from Scripture having in mind the six households mentioned where baptism would have taken place?

ANSWER: Firstly, as to the mode of baptism, we are informed in Scripture that it is to be with water, unto Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:3) in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost (Matt. 28:19). We are not told anywhere how the water was applied. Arguments from the word “Baptizo” are quite inconclusive. Baptism signifies burial with Christ and therefore immersion may be the most suitable method. On the other hand it also signifies washing (Acts 22:16) putting on Christ as a garment (Gal. 3:27). Obviously one method cannot symbolize things so different as burial, putting on a garment, washing. As Scripture tells us nothing about it, the way the water is applied cannot be very important.

One cannot find six cases of households being baptized, only three definite cases—Lydia, the jailor, and Stephanus—and two possible ones—Crispus and Cornelius. There is nothing in Scripture to justify indiscriminate baptism of infants, but when Christians had households, the Scriptural practice was for the households to be baptized. There is nothing to show that these households contained small children and nothing to prove that they did not. We must judge whether believing parents should have their children baptised by our understanding of the meanings of baptism. It is an individual matter and need not affect fellowship between Christians in any way. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind and put what he believes into practice.

The Baptist view can be easily obtained, but the case for so-called Household Baptism is not so easily found in print. Accordingly I will quote from some notes by the late Mr. A Jacob, not hitherto published.

“I should judge that there are few who would deny that baptism is a figure of death (Rom. 6:4). But death of what? Is it death of me—if so, that would be the end of me and this it cannot be, because I am to walk in newness of life. Verse 6 explains that it is the death of “the old man” called elsewhere “The flesh” (that is in my view). I, therefore, am buried with Christ in death that the “old man” may die and the “new man” live in the power of the Spirit.

“But the sign is not the reality and must not be confused with it. A man may have been immersed in water as an adult believer and yet be an utterly unchanged man in heart. We have a clear case of this in Acts 8:13. Before he was baptised Simon Magus was a heathen—what was he after it? In my judgment he was a professing Christian—he had been identified with Christ in baptism and it was not until after-events showed that there had been no real change within him that Peter said, “Thy heart is not right in the sight of God,” because it is with the heart that man believeth unto righteousness (Romans 10:10). Peter in effect said he was not a child of God which is a very different thing.

“There is an exact parallel to this under the old covenant. In that case every Jew was circumcised and he might claim to be and was recognised as an Israelite—but he was no true Israelite unless there was also an inward work of the heart (see Rom. 2:28-29).

“This brings me to another point. Col 2:11-12 declares that a true believer is circumcised. Now we know that circumcision is not preached by Christians (in a literal sense) at all; but the Apostle goes on to say that the believer’s circumcision is baptism. Some who fear the force of those verses deny this, but for me the words are clear and the point settled. Baptism is thus to us what circumcision was to the Jew. What did circumcision do? It marked off by a ceremony a race of people from all others. That rite also signified, spiritually, the putting away of the flesh or the old man. Every circumcised man was admitted into the covenant with God and he was recognised as such by God whether he was Jew or Gentile, but it did not (as shown before) make him an Israelite inwardly. Spiritual things can only be brought about by spiritual means—otherwise we would soon be in the company of those who profess baptismal regeneration.

“Water, a visible thing, can only accomplish a visible result—identification with the Christian profession. Death with Christ (a spiritual thing) accomplishes a spiritual result—the death of old man—in so far only as we are truly dead with Christ; and we then walk in newness of life.

“Now who was circumcised? Abraham and Isaac. Romans 4:9-16 gives a beautiful exposition of this. In those days to the Jew it was all important that they were Isaacs, the seed of Abraham, and circumcised on the eighth day as babes, and they could hardly bear the thought that anyone might be of the real seed of Abraham and be circumcised as an adult! They did let in some proselytes however.

“So Paul is pressing hard the case of the despised adult-believer! He goes on to show that Abraham himself was circumcised as an adult as a sign of the faith he had. This is stressed to show that all who are baptised as adults (after faith has come) are to share equally with the Isaacs who are born in the household of faith and were baptised as babes. In this way Abraham becomes father of all the faithful (verse 16). Fancy having to write half a chapter of the Bible to establish the right of adult believers who are thereafter baptised to equality with those who are baptised as babes!

“Where the Gospel is preached to those who have not heard it before and they believe, those who believe are baptised. They are ‘Abrahams.’ Later on children are born to believers and they will have their children baptised and they (the children) will be ‘Isaacs.’

“But people say, ‘Oh but supposing they don’t believe afterwards.’ Well we have shown that circumcision did not make a true Jew and neither does baptism make a true child of God, but both rites did have an outward effect. Circumcision made a Jew outwardly and baptism makes a Christian outwardly. Is that not clear?

“My judgment therefore is that if I had children I should most certainly baptize them in the faith and expectation that such children would in due course be born of the Spirit and become the true children of God. I would endeavor to keep before their eyes, mind and hearts what had been done to him and why: he could not have known otherwise.

“Sometimes the foolish question is asked: ‘In what way is your child who has been baptised better off than mine who has not?’ It would be equally easy to ask as foolish a counter question, ‘In what way are you who have been baptised as an adult believer better off than I who have not?’ No power of the Spirit enables one believer to discern whether another has been immersed as a believer or not.

“As a matter of fact, if there is spiritual perception in the parents, I think there is a very important difference and that is their own approach to the presence of God on behalf of their child and the instruction the child receives. If believing parents bring their child unbaptized to God they bring them in the flesh unjudged, and as such subject only to condemnation; if they bring them baptized in virtue of the death of Christ, they acknowledge that death with Christ is the only way of deliverance and that in His Name they acknowledge that death with Christ is the only way of deliverance and that in His Name they seek a blessing through the new man. This is what I would do anyway, but none can act in another’s faith.”

—W.R. Dronsfield

2 Timothy 2:20-22

IT IS a very simple, and yet a very important thing, to realize that the path for each of us must be an individual one. Many may, in fact, be in company with us, but to be right it must be the identity of the path that brings us together, not the any wise the desire of companionship, save with One alone. If others walk with Him, then we shall be together; but this is not, and must not be, ever what makes the path for us; this must be before God, and with God alone.

It should be needless to insist upon it, but doctrine and practice, alas! may be widely asunder; and conscience may be at a much lower level than the theory (for it is then really that) of which we have got hold.

And there will be a great many delicate points to consider, which nothing but real nearness to God will enable us to have settled; for are we not members of Christ’s body together, and not mere individuals? And does not this impose limits on the individuality of the path? Here we must answer, No; in no wise. It is by the careful preservation of our individuality alone that the church’s welfare can realized and maintained.

But our dissociations and associations are both prescribed for us in the text which heads this paper; and that in full view of the disorder which so soon came in and disfigured, and has never ceased to disfigure, the church of God on earth, while it has made the path of the true saint only more manifestly individual, as this scripture speaks it. For if “in a great house” (such as Christendom has now become) “there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor; it results that only “if a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” Thus our associations, of which it is the fashion of the day to think so lightly, are put in the forefront here, as affecting our own spiritual condition and fitness for being used of God. There may be, and are, vessels to honor, which are mixed up with the vessels to dishonor, as we know, but you cannot say, according to this scripture (and “scripture cannot be broken”), that they are “sanctified and meet for the Master’s use” while in such a condition. Sovereignly he may of course use them, as He can use a vessel to dishonor even, if He will; but that is a totally different thing.

Who can say, then, that a man’s own condition may be godly, while in open-eyed association with ungodliness around? The second Epistle of John is no plainer than the second Epistle to Timothy is here. Both say we are responsible for, and partakers of, the sins of others, with whom we knowingly associate ourselves. Concord between Christ and Belial there cannot be—this will be granted. Then, for half-hearted following, which would in effect unite them, toleration there cannot be. The fiftieth link with evil is as real an one as the first; and to maintain our link of fellowship with Christ, we must refuse the fiftieth as we would refuse the first. Dissociation is the first thing here enjoined, that we may be free to walk in that individual path with God to which the Apostle is here exhorting.

Now as to association on the other side, “Follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” How are we to find these? How are we to test the heart? Why, by their ways. And I find my companions as I walk myself in the path of righteousness, and faith, and love, and peace, to which I am called. Suppose I wanted to find the people going by a certain train to the next town, what’s more simple than to put myself in the train? Ourselves upon the road, we find the people that are upon the road, and it is the only practical way. The individuality of my path is preserved with distinctness, and that path it is which governs my associations, not my associations the path.

Now what am I to follow, if I may not follow people? I am to “follow righteousness, faith, love, peace.” Leaders I may own, and rightly if, and only as, they can shew me that the path they lead in has these marks. But I must be shewn the marks of refuse the path, no matter what else may commend it to me. Nor will it do to take counsel with humility, and walk by the judgment of others, when God is bidding us hearken to His Word.

Now for the marks: the first is “righteousness.” Here, as it is our own path that is in question, we cannot be too rigorously exact. We are under grace, blessed be God, as to our relationship with Him, and to be witnesses of that grace to others, but wherever our own path is in question it is no matter of grace at all; the first and peremptory demand we must make upon ourselves is, is it righteous? This will be as far as possible from leading to hardness as to others; for even from this side of righteousness we must take them into account. Exaction is not this, but its opposite. On the other hand, no real love to others will ever lead me to put my foot down there where I cannot be sure it is of God, or according to Him. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.” It must not even be doubtful if we are keeping His commandments; to doubt and do is to make light at least of disobedience; and if we should thus stumble, even in the right path, we should not ourselves be rightly on it.

We are to judge our own ways. If in this the judgment of others becomes necessary, the necessity is its sufficient justification. “Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth; wherefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” He was among themselves, and being among them their association with him gave sanction to his wickedness. Toleration was thus unrighteousness in them, and even to eat a common meal with such was this.

Righteousness is then the first requisite here, and the severity we have to exercise is upon ourselves rather than others. If it be really upon ourselves rather than others. If it be really upon others we are sitting in judgment, we are not really righteous according to the standard of the kingdom of heaven: “I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?”

Righteousness being secured, there is still further question. Not every righteous way is a way of “faith.” Here then the path becomes still further narrowed. “Faith” supposes a having to do with God as a living God; with Christ the Shepherd of the sheep as a living Guide. It supposes, not a “king’s highway,” such as Israel might have had in passing through the land of Edom (Num. 20), but that trackless desert path which was God’s choice rather for them; there where the pillar led, fire by night and cloud by day, that they might go, independent of nature, by day or by night.

A righteous path merely may, after all, be of the nature of the “fold,” a hemming in between certain limits, outside of which I may not be, but within which I may do my own will. A path of faith is a path which I recognize as God’s for me, not my will any longer, save as following His. This makes it, looking from one point of view, as narrow as it can be. For as there can be but one step at any time, which He really has for me to take—one and no other—there is no permission for self-acting for single moment. This for the legalist would be intolerable legality. Only grace can make it as broad a way as it is safe; for it is always broad enough for another to walk with us, whose presence is all for strength, for comfort, for satisfaction; and our own will means sorrow, defilement, and the ditch. Think of the eye of love never withdrawing its tender interest in the path we take! Would we desire it? Are we wiser, better, or more careful for ourselves, than He Who counts every hair of our heads?

Yet a path of faith is just the one for plenty of exercise and searching of heart. It is one as to which more seldom than we think can one pronounce for another, and when the need for spirituality is absolute and necessary. “The spiritual man discerneth all things.” He “discerns.” It is not internal feeling or blind impulse which controls but the knowledge of one whose mind and ways of thought are formed by the word, and who is in the presence of God, so as to be guided by His eye. This guidance infers present nearness and knowledge of Himself—the instruction of the word; but where the soul waits upon God, and occupies itself with Him, so as to see and interpret every look of His.

Faith then requires God’s word to justify it, in a path whence self-will is absolutely excluded. It thus guards the “love,” of which the Apostle next speaks, from being taken for the liberality,” so miscalled such on every hand. True love finds within the sphere which the word thus marks out for it, its amply sufficient field of exercise. “Seeking not its own,” it teaches no soul to do its own will or to show large-heartedness by setting aside even for a moment, its Master’s constant claim. It supposes no possible accomplishment of good to others by swerving from the good and the right way oneself; and this whether it be in one line of things or in another; “faith” having taught it, there is, and can be, no matter of “ecclesiastical policy,” if you will, or anything else which affects His people in any way which He, who has thought of the covering of a woman’s head, has not thought of and provided for. To swerve from His mind by way of accommodation to others, or for whatever way of accommodation to others, or for whatever purpose, would be but the unseemly “liberality” of a servant in things that appertain to his master—not liberality, but carelessness or worse.

Righteousness and faith however being maintained as to our course personally, “love” is next surely to be followed—safely under these conditions. Our hearts are to embrace not only the brethren, still less only those whom we find walking on the path with ourselves, but, as in “fellowship with the gospel,” all men. There is nothing however in which we are so apt to make mistake as we are with regard to “love:” there are so many and subtle imitations. We like people who please us—who minister to our selfish gratification, and we call that “love.” And if these are the people of God, this may help still more effectually to deceive us. How often does this kind of feeling betray itself by fermenting, on occasion given, into the most thorough animosity! True love, seeking not its own holds fast its objects with a pertinacity of grasp which never fails: “having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” We may be forced to separation, forced to walk alone, forced to judge and condemn the ways of those whom nevertheless we cling to before God with desire which will not admit of giving them up even for a moment. Thus if judgment, where it is not that of an enemy but of a friend; and blessed they who in the spirit of mourners find themselves thus in company with the “Man of sorrows.”

We must be content here to point out the order, and the meaning of the order, in which “love” occurs in connection with our path. It does not form this (divine love has formed it for us, not our own): it is the spirit which is to animate us rather in the path—not the rails, but the motive power—and here, of course, love to God first, as that from which all other springs.

“Peace” closes the catalogue. It is the necessary issue to which all this tends. “The fruit of righteousness is peace.” While love seeks the peace of the objects of it, and satisfies itself with what it finds in blessing for them. Every way peace is reached; and only here as the end of the rest—guarded and defined by what precedes it—can it be true or safe as an object to be sought after. Here it comes in seemly order and due place. May God grant us more attainment of it such as it is here presented.

—F.W. Grant

IF IN this meeting each heart were set upon the living God, how the power of His presence would be realized amongst us! In prayer, the most important thing is to get to the ear of Him to whom we speak; it is better not to offer a petition unless fully conscious of this. Waiting on God, with hearts bowed in humble and silent acknowledgment of His holy presence and nearness, is the first and best beginning for a prayer meeting. Then, ere we begin, there will be blessing that often we only get towards the end. If, from the very beginning, we are face to face with God, and His presence is the controlling power, there will be prayer “in the Spirit.” The prayers will not be long. All the prayers of Scripture are short. Solomon’s, at the dedication of the temple, is the longest, and it can be repeated deliberately in less than seven minutes. Long prayers kill a prayer meeting quicker than almost anything. We may pray all night in our closets, if we wish. Prayers edify most when brief. Better pray twice, than “wear out the saints” with lengthy discourses delivered in a kneeling position. A revival in our prayer meetings would result in still greater blessing. Shall we heed the words in Psalm 62:5, “My soul, wait thou only upon God,” and take time to be still before God?

“When thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

1 Samuel 14

“And Saul answered, … thou shalt surely die, Jonathan” (1 Samuel 14).

Jonathan had vanquished the enemy in the service of God, and had tasted of honey with the blessing of God; but Saul’s decree was disregarded, and he is condemned. It is a solemn example for all time—the disastrous effect of human will thrusting itself in as religious authority between the true servant and God. The Spirit of God has made it very plain for our warning and instruction.

Jonathan is led by the Spirit of God, but Saul’s decree condemns him. But there is more than this—the people rescue Jonathan, manifestly by the good hand of God. “And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan, that he died not.”

The people had been distressed in seeking to obey the foolish decree—toiling in battle, but unfed. God allows matters to come to a head, and the unrighteousness and folly of the decree is openly manifest when Jonathan must die. True instinct rouses them to indignation, and the misused authority is spurned by the people, as before it had had no control over Jonathan. We must obey God rather than men. It was open resistance to authority, but a resistance approved of God. Submission would have been folly worse than Saul’s.

Such a true instinct in an emergency is noble—it is love, and is of God. To talk of submission and docility at such a time is craven and nerveless, and would simply have left full sway and swing to evil and shame; it is not love, nor the true spirit of subjection, but paralysis and confusion, or a perverted mind.

The lack of a ready instinct to reject evil is a thing to be heartily ashamed of. It is the coldness of a formalist, or a judgment perverted, and God has not His place of authority. What He is—light and love—is not apprehended in governing power over the soul for the time being. The senses are not exercised to discern good and evil. Then evil triumphs, and God is dishonored. This is Satan’s victory—the success of his wiles.

Note how God allows the lot called for by Saul between himself and the people to fall upon himself and Jonathan, and then between himself and Jonathan it falls upon Jonathan. We might have thought God would give no answer, but it is the answer of condemnation, not of fellowship. Saul had made the decree, and now was in the place of authority. Step by step he is allowed to push on to the shameful but consistent result of his first departure.

While it was merely irksome to the people, it was borne; but when the end of it was, to “condemn and kill the just one,” God was with His people to abhor and reject it. “Abhor that which is evil: cleave to that which is good.” Again, in John’s third epistle (which is short, but full of solemn import,) when casting out was in progress, and John himself was rejected—”Receiveth us not, … neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the assembly”—the word for guidance is, “Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good.” The same divine principle is found in 2 Timothy 2—”Depart from iniquity.” Whether it be Diotrephes, or Saul as king, or a whole assembly that would bind unrighteousness upon the saints, it is no virtue to hesitate to “Abhor that which is evil.” “And this is love, that we walk after His commandments.”

Let us be humble, and willing to have our conclusions tested by the Word at every step, and seek to make all allowance in love. But there is such a thing as a lack of discernment of evil when manifest, and the seeking of peace before righteousness—which is neither love nor spirituality, and unfits for doing battle when the enemy is encroaching in power, and has gained a foothold amongst us.

“But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath: wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in a honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened. Then answered one of the people, and said, Thy father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint [the effect of legality]. The said Jonathan, My father hath troubled the land: see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened [“Christ hath made us free,” Gal. 5:1], because I tasted a little of this honey. How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found? for had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?”

Behold the effect of human decrees and creeds—they fetter the conscience and the heart, and they famish the soul—and not a servant of Christ has been raised up to stand in the gap for the truth in a day of shame and trembling but this imposing power of Satan would intimidate and drive him from the path of faith, and turn victory into confusion and defeat; stirring up even the devout and honorable to array themselves unwittingly against their own souls’ interest and the purposes of God for blessing.

“Let brotherly love continue,” but let us have our eyes open and the heart undeceived. Saul got no answer from God, and none from the people, before appealing to the lot. It was his own will he was pressing to the bitter end.

Saul sets forth the Pharisee in power at Jerusalem when the Lord was crucified, and “the burdens which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear” corresponds to the fainting of the people under Saul’s decree.

Step by step, in the Lord’s life of service and manifestation of Himself—of the truth,—was manifest also increasingly the irreconcilable and bitter enmity of the traditions of the Jews against Him and what He did. He could not deny Himself, and tradition and the carnal mind could not change; therefore, the cross was the result. So Jonathan goes through death in a figure, and is delivered by the power of God. How much it costs to bear witness for the truth! How plainly it indicates who is behind the scenes in opposition!

So deceived may be the heart that the ruler of the synagogue can rebuke, and put in the place of an offender the Lord of glory, as a breaker of the Sabbath.

There is something truly precious in the word, “Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with an oath.” The diligent soul, in happy liberty, occupied with God and the Word of His grace, is not imposed upon by human decrees, nor hindered by tradition from receiving and declaring the whole counsel of God.

He was “without the camp,” and heard not the legal decree.

Let us beware of tradition. In every age it has thrust itself in between the saints and the free enjoyment of the Word of God. We easily become drowsy, and prefer the old wine, and rest in what is in vogue among us, clinging to it tenaciously, until error is so enthroned that it cannot be called in question—but at the peril of the one who would question it.

But there are dangers in more than one direction. Therefore, let us apply these principles and lessons from Scripture with moderation and judgment and self-distrust, as ready to go to extremes; and if we have escaped one extreme, as specially liable to the other. The Lord give us wisdom and humility here. But let us not fear to obey God and to follow Christ, though Satan raise a storm that makes the waves mount up high above the ship.

—E.S.L.

At all times and under all circumstances the Christian should realize that God is behind the circumstances through which he is passing. It is God with whom the saint of God “has to do,” not merely the circumstances.

When we come to really know God, we know Him as love. Then, knowing that everything comes to us from Him, though we find ourselves having to pass through pain and sorrow and trials as part of His discipline; but everything that comes from God comes from a source and spring in which we have fullest confidence. We look through the circumstances to Him, knowing that nothing can separate us from His love.

Is it not quite true, however, that we often look at the circumstances in which we find ourselves placed and consider only our feelings and judgment about them? What we should be occupied with is, not the circumstances, but what God intends by them. There may be some secret evil (one of the thousands of things that, if allowed, hinders the enjoyment of God) working in our hearts without our realizing it. It is good that God sends some circumstance that shows us the evil, in order that it may be put away. Is not this a blessing? The circumstance does not create the evil; it only acts upon what it finds to be in our hearts and makes it manifest to us. When we discover the evil and put it away, God’s purpose for the circumstance is seen, and the trials are all forgotten.

If there are circumstances that try and perplex our hearts, let us realize it is God with whom we “have to do,” and all He has in mind for us is done in divine love. The moment the heart is brought into the recognition of God’s presence, it can submit and God’s work is done. The soul finds itself in communion with Him about the circumstances.

—J.N. Darby

(1 Corinthians 2:13)

Many Christians fully believe that the very words of Scripture are inspired; that is, that not simply the sense of Scripture was directly from God, leaving various writers to choose very much their own words, but that also caused the writers to use His own words.

Without entering at any length into the question of inspiration, it may be well to just quote a few passages that bear upon the verbal inspiration of Scripture.

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away” (Mark 13:31). “The words I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:36). “He that is of God heareth the words of God” (John 8:47). “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled” (Matt. 5:18). “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth” (1 Cor. 2:13). These passages may suffice, when taken with the passages usually quoted for the inspiration of the whole of Scripture.

But those who disbelieve in the inspiration of the words of Scripture, say, “Of what use is your belief in verbal inspiration, when we are not sure that we have the very words God caused to be written? The hundreds and thousands of variations in the manuscripts destroy your theory, or render it useless.”

Now, in the first place, we must insist upon it that there are two separate and distinct questions to be considered—questions which should not be allowed to interfere with one another.

The first question is—Did God so control the writers of the Scriptures that they wrote His words? We say, Yes. We have quoted some passages that speak of “words;” and we must hold this truth firmly. To give it up is to allow the thin edge of the wedge of skepticism to come in between us and God as to His Word. What distinct thought can we have, in speaking of a jot or tittle of the law not failing, if it is sufficient to consider its general sense? And how are we to arrive at the sense of Scripture except through the words used? We consider that a Christian must hold to “verbal” inspiration, or he virtually gives up inspiration altogether—at least in a way that is at all worthy of God, in giving us an infallible guide amid the surrounding darkness and error.

Now, if this point is once settled, it greatly simplifies the other, namely, “Have we a correct copy of that which God caused to be written?” Suppose for a moment I am obliged to say, “No, we have not a correct copy;” that in no way touches the other point, namely, that there were correct copies once. And if I believe that there were such, I naturally say, “I wish I had a correct copy.” But, on the other hand, I have nothing to wish for if I deny that there ever were copies of “the words of God.” If Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John gave only the sense of what God intended them to write, I have that in almost any Greek copy: why search any more? Why spend years of labor, and thousands of dollars, to get at that which never existed, namely, “the words of God”? I may labor diligently to get accurately what Paul wrote; but of what use is it, if, when I have arrived at it, I have PAUL, and not God, except as to the general sense? This I have already in the common Greek text, and in the Authorized Version.

Thus we see that by believing in the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures is given the impetus to search after a correct text; but it surely is not worth the time and labor, if I have nothing to gain but the words of those who were merely the instruments. It is because God caused the writers to use His words that gives us the earnest desire to have a correct copy of these very words.

Now, with this desire before us, we must candidly admit that we may not have every word God caused to be written; that is what desire and labor are for. But if we have not every one, we have nearly all; there are places where we have not yet been able to say with certainty that we have the exact words. In some places the weight of evidence for two or more readings is so nearly balanced, that it is not for anyone to dogmatically say what it was in the original.

As we have seen, the various readings do not touch one of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. These all stand out in their full lustre, as they came from the finger of God. But because it is the word of God, we want to know the words He used in every place. We do know them in the main; in thousands of passages there are no variations worth speaking of, nothing to disturb the commonly received version which has been in use in the church for so long. With the exceptions that have been named, we have the “words of God” as given in the New Testament. On these we hang our souls’ salvation, and in these is the hope set before us, of so seeing our blessed Lord, and being with Him, and like Him, forever.

This is “Our Father’s Will”: let us receive it devoutly; believe every word of it; and seek to obey it in all things.

(From “Our Father’s Will”—A Short History of the Text of the New Testament.)