(Continued from page 40.)

10. THE ASSEMBLY, IN ITS PRACTICAL WORKING.

We come now to consider the assembly itself in its living operation,-as filling (in the power of the Spirit, as alone it can) the place for which God designed it. This place it must, of course, fill, in order to satisfy and to be practically owned of Him ; and the ruin of the Church, which all that have the mind of God must acknowledge, has not lowered His standard for it, nor set aside one word that has gone out of His lips. Gracious too, He is, and will be, or who could stand before Him ? but this does not imply the toleration of even the least departure from His word, which would mean the giving up of His holiness and truth, and of His love itself.

That the Church has failed, miserably failed, is a solemn truth indeed ; and this failure has altered largely the circumstances in which we are placed to-day, and encompassed our path with difficulties, while it has deprived us largely of the help that we should have gained from one another. But it compels no one of us to disobedience to the least word that God has spoken, nor deprives us of either the wisdom or power necessary to "stand perfect and complete in all the will of God." Difficulties are only means for us of realizing the more what He is for us :as the spies said of the gigantic enemies that Israel would be called to encounter in taking possession of the land that had been promised them, "they shall be bread to us":for faith is strengthened by those demands upon it which only expose the weakness and bankruptcy of unbelief.

We are to look at the assembly, then, according to the character which the word of God has given it, quite unhindered by any reasonings derived from changed conditions of the time in which we live. And the assembly of which we are now to speak is not the Church of God at large, but the local assembly:which in God's thought, however, is that which represents it in the locality, being those who alone can actually assemble, the practical gathering together of the members of Christ as such.

These members, were they gathered all together, would show us the whole assembly as the body of Christ, and thus each assembly is the body of Christ in the place in which it is:a divinely-constructed organization, that is:-the only organization God ever owns as of Him, and all-sufficient to give us as Christians all that can be rightly expected or desired in organization.

Of this, more presently:the first thing we have to notice now is the individual members, who are spoken of individually in such terms as the whole body is. That is to say, as the whole body is joined together and united to the Head by the one Spirit which pervades it all, and brings every member into living and practical relation with every other and with Christ,- so each individual also is in his own person a picture of the whole. Indwelt of the Holy Ghost, "he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit," with this effect, that "your bodies are the members of Christ" (i Cor. 6:15, 17):each and the whole of every individual belongs to Christ, and there is no one, and no part of any one, permitted to be secular or self-controlled. Thus not only is the white garment of practical righteousness to cover us completely, but the "ribband of blue," the heavenly color, is to be seen upon the borders of it, just where it comes in contact with the earth (Num. 15:38).

If we are not thus, in the sincere intent and purpose of our hearts, recognizing our whole lives as to be lived for Him,-our every faculty of mind and body to be His,-ourselves taken out of the world by sanctification to Himself, to be sent into it again as His representatives (John 17:16-18), – then the moral basis of all right fellowship is lacking with us, -of fellowship with Himself, and necessarily with one another. In this case we do not and cannot fill our places in the assembly, however much we take part with the rest in the meetings of His people :for the place is essentially a spiritual one, and can only be spiritually filled.

Let us remind ourselves that there is nothing that is merely negative in our lives and ways, but that our Lord's words are true in particular as in general, that "he that is not with Me is against Me." If in any one habit or practice of our lives we are not with Him, we are in that respect against Him. We are in the miserable condition thus of being divided against ourselves, and as a consequence shall find a loss of vigor and competency, a lack of ability to make progress in the things of God, and even to stand in the presence of the enemy. It is as to things that (abstractly considered) were lawful enough, that the apostle marks off things that were "not expedient"; and immediately he adds, as applying to these :"all things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of any" (i Cor, 6:12), Lawful things might thus develop a power to which even such an one as he might have cause to fear becoming captive.

Now here begins the question of fellowship with one another. Are we in true and whole-hearted fellowship with Christ ourselves ? Have we no fence fencing Him off from certain portions of our lives ? Has obedience with us no secret limitations ? Have we no division between mine and Thine with Him, but do we know the blessedness of realizing that to have all ours His, is the only way ourselves to enjoy it and find satisfying sweetness in it ?

Thus indeed will our bodies be the members of Christ. Our hands will be for His work, our feet for His errands, our lips for His communications and His praise. Our entire lives will be the expression of communion.

Now, whatever shortcoming we may have to confess in actual attainment, this, and nothing less than this, must be our honest desire and aim, or how can there be a walk with God ? for how can He consent to other terms than these ? would it be for His glory or our good, that He should do so ?

Think, then, of what is implied in the "body of Christ," where the Spirit of Christ links all together in harmonious subjection to the will of the Head, and so in a living unity of the members with one another. And this is plainly the practical "unity of the Spirit" which the apostle bids us to "endeavor to keep." It is certainly not the unity of the body simply that he means ; but it is assuredly the unity of that which makes it in any proper sense the body -the body fitted to Christ the Head. And this is what is to be seen in the assembly of God, if this is to fulfill its proper character,-a living, speaking, working unity of obedience, inspired by devoted love. What a testimony to Him of "two or three" gathered together in this spirit ! and it was thus at the beginning, when it could be said that "the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither said any of them that aught of the things that he possessed was his own"-:the true spirit at all times, whatever may be the difference as to the manner of its expression.

Where something like this is not, already men have "their own things" to seek, and "not the things of Jesus Christ"; the various interests lead in various ways, the wisdom of the world comes in to secure them, and the door is opened for every kind of departure. It is only the sense of what is ours in Christ, where all have all in common, and the joy is but increased by sharing it with others,-ours, where all abides and no room is left for the cares which make man a weary worker for himself, the hardest of masters :it is only here that the heart is fenced from the close-surrounding evil, and fenced in for flower and fruit for Him who looks to find in us "the travail of His soul." Thus we may again see why Philadelphians are emphasized as those that keep Christ's word. Communion can only exist where the heart is held by the revelations of God's grace; and the soul that is kept in communion is that which is sustained by the fresh manna, gathered every day.

The reading-meetings are thus a great test of the state of an assembly; for it is there, if things be right, that the knowledge gathered in whatever way is tested and made sure by that personal conference and comparison which help so largely in making it the realized possession of the soul. Here we may learn, too, if there be the freedom and candor of brotherly love, the needs to which the truth ministers, and the ability to use it for real edification. It is of immense value to test in this way how far we have got the truth, while by this means what has been learned by each is thrown into the common fund, to enrich the whole. Those who know least would be surprised to realize how much the questions suggested by their own need may help in various ways the very people who answer them. And this is only one of the many modes in which the waterer is watered-the minister is ministered to.

The reading meeting is never, therefore, made needless or of little value by whatever multiplicity there may be of more detailed and connected teaching. Nay, all this creates a special need for the reading-meeting, in order that the food laid before the whole may be individually digested and assimilated. Here, however, any lack of nearness to and confidence in one another will be surely felt as a hindrance, and need of another sort manifested to those who have eyes to see.

"The children of this world are" indeed "wiser in their generation than the children of light." Persons brought into the inheritance together of large worldly possessions would soon realize the necessity of becoming acquainted with what they had so much personal interest in. How few are there who, in the case of spiritual wealth which God has made their own, have boldness and earnestness to lay hold of what is theirs by any means available to them ! When, over sixty years ago, the Spirit of God began to move freshly in the hearts of His people to recover them to one another and revive the almost lost idea of the assembly of God, the reading-meetings were a marked and prominent sign of the awakened interest in His word, and that the people of God as such were awaking to claim for themselves their portion in it. No class of men could be allowed, however gifted, however educated and sanctioned by the mass, to stand between their souls and the possession of what was needed alike by all and designed of God for all. Now, alas, the decay of the reading-meeting means nothing else but the subsiding of that eager enthusiasm for the truth that then was, the lessened consciousness of the Spirit of God, in each and all His own, to give each for himself the power to acquire possession. The flood-tide is gone, and the diminished stream begins to confine itself to the old channels.

We need to proclaim again that God never designed "theology" to be for a class of theologians, but all the treasures of His word to be for all His people,- not a thing in it to be hidden, save from the eyes of the careless and indifferent, those who are willing to exchange their heavenly birthright for a mess of the world's pottage. We need once more to assert that teachers are only a pledge, on God's part, of His eagerness to have all to know,-not that He has restricted to these the possession of any kind of spiritual knowledge. Teachers are only to show that there, in the living fount from which they drew, is the living water for all, as free for others as for themselves. They are only the truth of God's word made to stand out in blazon before the eyes of those who have not yet found it there where He has put it for them, and with this for a motto of encouragement to those who have faith in a God that cannot lie :- "Every one that seeketh, findeth."

The success of teachers is shown by their ability to make others independent of them; when men say to them as the Samaritans to the woman of Sychar, "Now we believe, not because of thy saying"; and in proportion as the Church of God by their means is made to realize its ability for self-edification. As the apostle says that Christ has given gifts unto men,-"some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry, unto the edification of the body of Christ, until we all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:11-13). That is, the "work of ministry"-and this is left open to the largest construction-is what the saints as a whole are to be perfected unto. Every saint is free to "covet earnestly the best gifts" (i Cor. 12:31), and responsible to use all the ability that he has, of whatever kind, to enrich others with it. "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal" (verse 7); and if there are special evangelists, all are free and called upon, each in his measure, to evangelize; if there are special teachers, all are free and responsible to communicate to others what God has given them of His truth. Love to each other, love to souls, is to have liberty and be encouraged everywhere.

How blessed would be an assembly of saints in this condition ! every one realizing that the fullness of all spiritual knowledge was open to him to enjoy, -the best gifts were his to covet,-that he was, by the simple wondrous fact of his endowment with the Spirit, the ordained minister of Christ to the world, the ordained servant and helper of his brethren ! How intolerable is the thought of class restrictions to limit and hinder the grace of God in His people ! yet, alas, into which, sensibly or insensibly, they so readily sink down ! The development of all gift is necessarily hindered by it; and this is largely the reason why so few among us are going forth to labor in the ample fields on every side, and why the gatherings develop so little strength and stability. We need not talk about a "laity," to have one. Let God's people sink down into indolent acquiescence in their inability for their spiritual privileges, and little gift of any kind is likely to develop among them. Those that can be fed only with the spoon are infants or invalids.

On the other hand, where spiritual life is strongest we shall be most fully conscious of our need of one another. For spiritual feebleness means always a strong world-element, and occupations, aims, pleasures, in which as children of God, we can have no fellowship-can be no help to one another. Our spiritual links become proportionately theoretical, formal, sentimental. But where life is practical and earnest, its needs will be felt and the grace realized which has united us together. Life is, wherever we find it in nature, in conflict with death ; and organization, which is its constant accompaniment, is the embattlement of its forces against this. Nor is organization a sacrifice of individuality:every part of the body is distinct from the rest, has its own work and responsibility ; and only by maintaining this individuality can the welfare of the whole be maintained. Every one
has a place to fill that no other can fill:every one is necessary. Good it is to remember this, as to ourselves and as to every other. If we forget it, we cannot by this escape from the consequences.
F. W. G.

(To be continued.)