Proverbs 20:10,23.

To those who are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone-who have "gone forth unto Him without the camp" (Heb. 13:13)-the scripture"Holiness becometh Thy house, O Lord, forever" is familiar. We rightly own that there must be separation from evil among those so gathered; who, though only a tiny part of that "holy temple in the Lord" (Eph. 2:21), would seek to carry out the requirements, the principles, suited to such a privileged place as a habitation of God; for "the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet …what house will ye build Me saith Jehovah, or where is the place of My rest ?"Yet to this very place of blessing and privilege He has called His Church, His temple! (1 Pet. 2:5, i Cor. 3:16).Now to this truth we hold tenaciously, and against all parleying with evil we are ever ready to quote the above scripture, "Holiness becometh Thy house, O Lord, forever." But if the Church is the temple of God, is the individual saint any less really the temple of the Holy Spirit ? (i Cor. 6:19.)Do we quote this verse with equal zeal as to our individual responsibilities ?We see saints who put us to shame in consecration, and yielding of their bodies to God as His (Rom. 12:i), yet who know absolutely nothing of Church truth, and take no notice of it, or of God's will as to worship. Will their individual devotedness excuse them for passing over the equally plain scriptures as to separation from evil collectively ? He that said the one said the other (see Jas. 2:ii).We pity their ignorance of truth, but, on the other hand, will the fact of our seeking separation from evil ecclesiastically count with the Lord if we are not also seeking to "cleanse ourselves from every pollution of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God"? (2 Cor. 7:1:) He says, "Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?" Though we may thus be "beguiling ourselves," a "just weight and balance are the Lord's."There are saints ecclesiastically in confusion, who yet set Him apart in their hearts and practical ways; and there are saints ecclesiastically separated from evil, who can enjoy their newspapers, and"good" fictions, and jokes, and can talk at the same time of those who do not "see separation."It is a delusion! It is this sort of deceitful balancing with which Satan deceives, and which eats away the vitals of spiritual life. Was it for the disciples only, or also for us that the Lord said "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees ? "Satan allows others to be right individually, if he can keep them ecclesiastically leavened :as he will let us be right ecclesiastically, if he can deceive us by leavening our individual walk. In like manner he will let others be most loving, if they can be kept leavened with false doctrine as to Christ -we may be sound in doctrine for all Satan cares, so he can succeed in getting us to lose the balance as to love. Are we ignorant of his devices ?Nothing but the balance of the truth will avail us. So throughout all Scripture, there is ever the balance. The sword of the Spirit is two-edged, 1:e., cuts this way and that :not two-pointed as some would explain it-cutting the one who uses it as the one against whom it is used:this is not the figure, though it is true the one who uses it must first have felt its power, but it is two-edged.

Again, the Spirit's leading in the assembly (i Cor. 12:8, 11) is insisted on as all important, and rightly so; but does Scripture speak of His leading in the assembly any more really than individual believers are to be "led of the Spirit" in the daily path ? Here is another instance of divers balances, yet we look down on poor saints in "the systems of men" who own"one-man-ministry," etc., yet seek to follow the Spirit's leading in the daily path. So also as to the Lordship of Christ, which must be owned absolutely in the assembly if there is to be blessing; yet as soon as meeting is over, how many of us speak as though we might say with the wicked, "our lips are our own; who is Lord over us?" and how often is this so all through the week! Many of us deplore it in ourselves and others, and forget again, alas. How many more seem to play with the truth; but it is self-deception, and Satan is at the bottom of it. The Lord is near.

Is it not high time to awake to these things ? for "divers weights are abomination to Jehovah." If this is so in business matters, how much more so in spiritual things ? Shall we go on wondering why the meetings are cold, and why we are not used to deliver our brethren; deceiving ourselves as in the days of Judges-when idols could be allowed individually, and in a whole tribe, and at the same time pious phrases, long in use, continued in:"before Jehovah is your way" (Judges 18:6), yet "the whole tribe of Dan set up the graven image all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh:"for "there was no king in Israel," though Jehovah was King in Jeshurun. To faith, now, "ye are the living God's temple," and "holiness becometh Thy house, O Lord, forever."But what gives all the value to the house is the One who dwells in it. Yet we hear sometimes more of the body than we do of the Head in these days, and the Church spoken of as "the mystery." Scripture speaks of Christ and the Church (Eph. 5:32)-"this mystery…which is Christ in you" (Col. 1:27). Christ is all, and in all, "Insomuch as He who hath built the house hath more honor than the house!" (Heb. 3:3; Matt. 16:18.) Some are so pre-occupied with the Church, that if they are asked the question " What is the mystery ? " they at once answer, The Church! As well might they say that God's institution of union (Gen. 2:, Eph. 5:32) was "Eve!" " He called their name Adam," and "so also is Christ" (i Cor. 12:12). It is most blessed and helpful to trace through the Word how the sword of the Spirit is two-edged; and how the like weight is in the balances. As has been often said, nearly all error is based on one side of truth. And first, the truth as to the Son of God. The truth of His person is God and Man. Leave out either, and fatal error as to our salvation is the result. So the Spirit and the Word:leave out either, and error again is the result. So above all as to God, and what He has revealed of His own being:"God is light,"-" God is love." To leave out either would be ignorance of God, and blinding error. So in the cross, "Mercy and Truth met together," and " righteousness and peace " also.

So in the epistle of John. Who reading there can separate the truth as to Christ's person, and love to the brethren ? They are inseparably joined and perfectly balanced! So "grace and truth" in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. As to our path how we need the balance! It is " watch and pray :" as one has said, one of these without the other is mockery on the one hand, or presumption on the other. " Trust in Jehovah and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land." "I will put my trust in Him;" and "He learned obedience." One (recently called home) once asked the following question, " Which is better, -to be ecclesiastically right and morally wrong; or to be morally right and ecclesiastically wrong ? " The person he asked replied "Better to be ecclesiastically right!" What delusion! What deceitful balances! Few would say this (which turned the hearer aside), but the Scripture balance is "Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine." May the Lord stir up our spirits in His mercy (even now-as dawn is nearing) by His Spirit's power.