" Behold a man running alone. … If he be alone, there is tidings in his mouth" (2 Sam. 18:24, 25).

David's throne seemed tottering to its fall. His own son, Absalom, whom he had treated with such clemency but a short time before, doing as unrepentant men will ever do when a time comes, had become his benefactor's worst enemy, and now had plotted and seemed on the eve of successfully carrying out a rebellion which would result in the overthrow of his father and placing himself upon the throne. David had fled from the city and had it not been for the mercy of God in turning the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness, would soon have been cut off. But, through God's goodness, a little time was allowed to intervene which gave him the opportunity of collecting his force of faithful followers to meet Absalom's army. David is not allowed to engage in the actual combat, and anxiously waits in the city for news of the battle. At last a runner is descried. "Behold a man running alone," and at once the king replies:"If he be alone, there is tidings in his mouth." The fact of a man running alone made clear to the king that he must also be a messenger, and so it proved, with his message of victory for the king, and yet of sorrow to the father's heart.

But leaving the historical connection, may we not gather here a few thoughts as to message bearers in general and as to ourselves as messengers with tidings weightier far than Ahimaaz and Cushi brought to David? Two thoughts are suggested here,- "running" and "alone." The first gives Us the thought of an object of an object of sufficient importance to lead one to press on, and the second suggests that it is responsibility which, in a certain sense, can be shared by no others.

In a certain sense the whole Christian life is a race, as the apostle puts it in Phil. 3:" This one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind and reaching forth unto those which are before, I press toward the mark." Paul not only gives this as the normal attitude of a Christian, but as his own. He himself was the racer, "This one thing I do;" and while it includes, as we said, the whole Christian life, the whole course of which he could say later, "I have finished my course," yet in a very distinct sense it describes his course as a messenger, nor is the reason far to seek. In a very true sense our Christian message and our Christian course are identical. We are messengers because we are Christians, not in that sense in addition to it. The very fact of being Christians constitutes us messengers, and for that reason that which describes our Christian course would also describe our course as messengers. The passage in Philippians gave Paul's own experience, but surely each of us in our measure must correspond with him who is in a very marked way the sample sinner and the sample saved man, and the sample servant. Hear him as he speaks to the elders of the Ephesian assembly, nearing now the close of that which had been a large chapter in his service:"Now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall there befall me, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." Here his course, which will end only with his life, is identified with that ministry which is described in one word, "to testify the gospel of the grace of God." So Paul was a messenger, and, as such, a racer with a course prescribed, as well as with a definite message, and we in our measure are to follow him.

Then, too, the messenger runs alone. Messengers do not run in companies. The message is entrusted to each individual and with him is the responsibility for its swift and sure deliverance. To run in companies would be to distract, to cause one to lag and to lose that very intentness which makes the messenger. Here again Paul is our example. In Galatians, where he is recounting what the grace of God has done for him, we find him very remarkably identified with his message. Paul the saved man is Paul the apostle too, and what he emphasizes there is that he must be alone as to the message which he has received. "When it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus." It was not that he despised those who were apostles before him, nor that he did not feel the need of fellowship with them, but so far as his message was concerned, he had received it directly from God. It was by the revelation of God's Son in him. Christ who appeared to him on the way to Damascus in the excellent glory, also shone into his dark heart and there gave him not merely the peace -and the joy of his own salvation, but that which must be ever after a message that he should preach to perishing men. And so he could not confer with flesh and blood. He could not ask human permission or authorization for delivering a message like that. He must go alone, as it were, and run with swift and beautiful feet to bring good tidings of peace to many a weary heart.

Let us look back a moment now. What have we said that the messenger is? One who runs and one who runs alone. Are we not in danger of distorting God's truth, of giving a wrong idea? Is not man naturally a social being? Does he not crave inter- . course with his fellows? And above all, are not Christian men social? Are we not, by virtue of the Spirit's baptism, united not only to Christ in glory, but to one another, to receive all the aid which comes from the mutual ministry of the members to one another? Undoubtedly this is so, and its importance cannot be overestimated. See a Christian who despises fellowship with his brethren and you will see one who will soon pine and wither. See one who is indifferent to the responsibilities which he owes to his brethren and you will see one who becomes selfish and hardened until fruit is a thing of the past.

We are made for one another, made to have sweetest intercourse together, and yet that does not affect what we have been saying, as to messengers for God in the world, those who must run and run alone. Before we can have to do with one another we must "always have to do with God. This, of course, applies first of all to our salvation. We cannot be saved in companies. The children cannot be saved merely because the parents are. Each must be saved individually, and so all through our Christian course, there is ever that hidden life which has to do with God alone and into which the nearest and dearest of the Lord's people cannot intrude. Nor will this be found at all to interfere with the social side of Christian life. It will fit us for ministering one to another that which we have received. As the apostle puts it in the second chapter of Colossians, it is by holding the Head that all the body has nourishment ministered to it by the joints and bands and is knit together with the increase of God. There must be thus Christ pre-eminent, Christ alone enthroned in the heart, the Object of faith. There must be secret prayer, secret meditation, secret communion with God and pondering over His word as though there were not another of our kind in all the world, before we can be truly fitted to enjoy fellowship or to minister help to our brethren.

Let us then, bearing in mind that these two characteristics are to mark us as messengers, look very simply at our message and the manner of our bringing it to others. That, of course, reminds us that if we are message bearers there must be a message. Ahimaaz was hindered because, as Joab said, he had no tidings ready. Surely if we had no tidings ready, it would be vain for us to run or to run alone. But have we not a message? As we said before, the very fact of our knowledge of the grace of God, as the apostle says, having Christ revealed in us, surely is the message. Might we not sum it all up in one word, that Christ Himself is the message? -the gospel of salvation, precious emancipating truths connected with Christ's death, His resurrection, His place in glory for us and His intercession there – who can limit all the fulness of divine truth that has its center and its meaning in Him? Yes, Christ is our message, and as He was sent by the Father into the world, and His message, we might say, was the Father, so He tells us He has sent us into the world, and our message is Christ. How blessed it is to look at it in this way ! Our message is not different from our Saviour, from Him who is our life, in whose communion and in the sunshine of whose presence we are to pass our time. And how blessed it is to know that which will make us messengers is simply the enjoyment of the fullest fellowship with Him who is our message!

Need we wonder, need we go" further to ask why it is that we are such feeble messengers, why it is that our course is so flagging and so uneven, and why we sometimes seek a companionship which is the reverse of that running alone which is the mark of the true messenger? If Christ be not enjoyed, if His love is not fresh in our own souls, it is utterly impossible for us to carry to others what we are not enjoying ourselves. That is the secret of being a messenger. Be filled with Christ. Let Him, as the apostle puts it, dwell in our hearts by faith; not merely be the Object of faith but the One who abides, who has His home in hearts filled and satisfied with Himself, and there will be small difficulty about either running or walking alone. We will not miss the company which now we crave. We will be intent upon our message and yet scarce conscious of being messengers, but rather conscious only of the Lord's presence and of His sufficiency for our souls.'' That sums it all up. If we grasp that truth that Christ is our message, we have said all, and yet it may be well just in a very simple way to divide our message, to look at it in various ways.

There is, first of all the message of testimony. This closely connects with what we have been saying. Testimony is declaring the truth, bearing witness, and every believer is a witness bearer, – not an evangelist, or teacher with a special and marked gift ; in fact, these may be comparatively few, but every one of us has a distinct message of testimony, and that testimony is the life, the fruit of the grace of God received in the heart and showing itself in the life. How beautiful it is when the world sees a man running alone! It can say, "There are tidings in his mouth. Such a man preaches as he walks, in his daily business, in his home, with his acquaintances. 'They are" conscious there is a purpose of heart in him suggested by the running, as there is a separation in him suggested by his being alone. He is not a recluse. He is not indifferent to the beauty that is about him in this world. He is not careless or thoughtless as to the claims of friendship or neighbors, and yet there is a spiritual isolation of soul which makes itself felt, and the tidings that it brings are unequivocal. People know a heavenly man without his telling them that he is heavenly. They know a man who has something to tell, without his lips moving. They know it in his life, and surely we may pray one for another and crave one for another that we may be message bearers in our daily life in such a way that there shall be no uncertainty in our testimony. We need only let conscience do its work to remind us how far short and in how many ways we have failed in our testimony, some of us in one way and some of us in many ways. We have all need to be patient with one another and to pray for and help one another, but we must not be indifferent to one another as if it were a matter of no importance. Are we witness bearers? Is Christ so real in our souls, is the word of God that upon which we live, that the world knows that we are different from itself? Solemn and searching question for many of us! Let it search our hearts indeed, and if we have lagged and if our isolation has been lost, let us go to Him who is just as ready to-day as He was when first He entrusted us with a message, to restore its brightness and its weight and to send us speeding on our way, witnesses for Christ.

And then we are ready for the gospel testimony in a more specific way. How is the world ever to hear the gospel? one sometimes wonders, as we look about us, the teeming millions ever increasing. The mass of humanity! How are they ever to hear the gospel? The pulpits can only at best reach a few. The press, alas, has other gospels then that of the grace of God. How is the world to hear the gospel? – not necessarily the heathen world, but the world about us, in our places of abode. Surely we all are to be messengers with the gospel, and here again these same two truths of "running" and "alone" are to be our guide. If we are to be messengers with the gospel, there must be that earnestness of purpose that love of souls suggested in the running, and that separation from the world in heart suggested in the word "alone." What is needed today is not more gospel preachers in the ordinary sense of the word, first of all. There would be abundance of these, were all. else right. But what is needed to-day is the gospel spirit in every man and woman who has been saved, every one realizing that he has a message to people, he knows not how often and how soon. It may be to deliver to the man he meets on the street and who asks his way, or in the store or wherever business may call. Great crowds are not necessarily the sign of a wonderful gospel work. A true revival of the gospel amongst the people of God would be shown by carrying the gospel wherever they went, and how soon the world would hear of it! Men running! Oh, as we think of the value of souls do we not need to run? As we think of the shortness of time, of the nearness of eternity, of the speedy close of the day of grace, do we not need to run? Do we not need to press after men with this message of life and peace ? They are running. Ah, in quite an opposite direction,-running after position, wealth, power, honor, pleasure; running they know not whither nor how soon their feet may lead them over the precipice into gloom and darkness forever. If they run, shall not we? And shall we not be so absorbed, shall we not put such a value upon our message that we shall be alone with God about it, alone in our own souls, seeking not to see how faithfully our brother delivers his message, nor to imitate him in his manner or method of service, but each of us for ourselves and for God, bearing witness?

And then again we are messengers to the people of God. How varied is that message! "A word spoken in due season, how good is it;" and how many seasonable words need to be spoken! Hearts hungry for that which the word of God alone can give! Poor, dear wanderers away from the Lord to whom we might be sent with a message of recovery! Saints tempted to go astray to whom we might give a word of warning! How varied is the message to our brethren with which we are entrusted! What mutual help, what mutual edification there would be if we realized our privilege and our responsibility more in this regard! How many closed lips there are amongst the saints of God! We speak not of the meetings of saints, but how many closed lips as we meet together; free enough it may be, to speak of the things of this world or of matters of temporal interest, but how slow to speak of that which should be indeed a message in our heart, God's word of comfort, of help, of cheer, or warning if need be, to His own dear children. There is much to overcome, natural diffidence on both sides, the fear of man, the fear of being thought obtrusive, and surely we need discretion in all this; but that brings us back again to the fact that we must be runners if we are to have a message for our brethren, and that we must be running alone with God if we are to have that independence of soul which will enable us to speak to a brother, irrespective of how he may receive it. All this is so simple that we need only to mention it to suggest that which it is hoped will be a fruitful and profitable line of thought with many of us.

We have already answered our next question,- who are the messengers whom God would send? And yet it may be well here again just to classify, in a simple way and see how wide-reaching God's thought as to it is. First of all, there is the individual saint. As we have been saying, no man was ever saved without being entrusted with the message that saved him; and so every individual, no matter how feeble,-and the feebler the better if it but casts him upon Christ,-is a messenger for the Lord. We must be careful to carry our message in the way He would have us. We must not run along another's course. We must not be imitators, and hence the importance of running alone, we are messengers individually, each of us.

Then again, and in apparent contradiction to what we have been saying, the assembly of the people of God as a whole is a messenger for Him. Corporate unity here individualizes all. We are one in a certain sense, one soul, one mind, one heart. As the apostle says, we are to mind the same things and to speak the same things, so that which marks the individual is also to mark the fellowship of individuals. The Spirit of God produces one testimony, and the people of God as united together form a unit, and as such, a messenger, we might say, with a distinct, specific message. Of course, that message includes in a certain sense all that of which we have been speaking, but which must necessarily refer more particularly to that which is distinctive and characteristic of a company of the people of God. To what then should a company of the people of God bear witness? If they are divinely gathered, according to His word, and in the energy of the Spirit of God, their witness must surely be a witness to the gathering power of the Spirit of God according to His word. It will include then all that we understand by corporate testimony. It will be an exhibition, feeble indeed, and with many a blemish, but still an exhibition of what is God's mind for His people as united together. There will be that which is distinctive in its message; the truth of the Church of God, to the blessed fact of the indwelling of the Spirit amongst the people of God, to the responsibility of every Christian to maintain a testimony with his brethren to these truths.

And here again the two characteristics of the messenger will mark the assembly as they do the individual. There will be that which answers to the running, an intense earnestness, a divine purpose of heart, not a foolish zeal, but on the other hand, not a careless indifference to the responsibility of all God's people to hearken to this message. If its importance fills our own hearts, above all, if we see it linked as it should be, with Christ Himself, so that Christ Himself becomes our message corporately, as He should be our message individually, shall we not run? Shall we not as a company of the people of God press forward and not swerve from side to side, nor drift carelessly and aimlessly until the world sweeps us away from true scriptural moorings? How important all this is! Then, too, need we more then mention that this running must be alone? Whatever constitutes our message isolates us from those to whom the message is brought who have not yet received it. If we have a message to other Christians, for instance, which they have not yet heard, can they hear it, can they understand it, except as there is, not that Pharisaic "stand by thyself, I am holier than thou," but that true Nazarite separation unto Christ that bears its witness and cannot fail to be understood?

Passing back again to that which is more individual, and yet which is intensely important, there is the family message bearing. "He setteth the solitary in families," and in the government of God, He has never removed from the family a responsibility to bear a distinct witness for Himself. A Christian home! who can overestimate its influence? Who can overestimate the power of a family testimony to the truth of God? Here all, undoubtedly, are witness bearers if each is in his proper place,-the parents as head, bringing up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, keeping them separate from an ungodly and pleasure seeking world, seeking to show that there is enough in Christ and in the things of God to give pleasure as well as salvation. What a testimony all this is in the world! And if there is to be this testimony, must we not have the earnest running and the measure of lonely separation from what is not according to this? Must there not be deep exercise, a strong, kind hand on the one side, and distinct refusal on the other to be mingled with that which is, alas, only too common among the professed people of God, until the line of separation between the Christian and the world is well nigh obliterated? Let us, then, be witness bearers, messengers as families of Christians, and in this threefold way, as individuals, as members of the assembly of God and as Christian households, let us both run and be separate from all that would hinder our bearing a clear and unequivocal message to the world that perishes without it.

We spoke at the beginning of Paul as a racer. Let us return to that thought, not now in connection with the witness bearing, which surely he ever faithfully did, but with the bright and happy goal in view. Is Christ before the heart, is Christ before the eye of faith as " the prize of the calling on high"? Are we looking for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven? Ah, that makes racers and that makes witness bearers, and how good it is to think that our earthly course here of witness bearing will end in the bright and happy meeting with Him who has sent us on our errand and who waits now to receive us to Himself, and says to encourage us, if our steps should falter, "Surely, I come quickly."

"As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him:for he refresheth the soul of his masters."S. R.