Mistaken Zeal

A somewhat radical brother thinks it strange that in our "Notes" of a former number we should speak of "Christ's sheep" among the congregation of a Baltimore minister who receives not the Bible as the Word of God. Similar thoughts having recently been expressed, it may be profitable to take note of them here for general profit.

We fully recognize with these, our brethren, that the Lord would have His own separate from evil; that a clear distinction be made between the people of God and the world, and every link of fellowship between them broken, as 2 Cor. 6:14-18 forcibly enjoins. This we hold to be essential to any circle of fellowship according to God.

But we must remember that when the house of God has become "a great house," with vessels of every sort, "some to honor and some to dishonor," the apostle himself falls back upon the Lord, as it were, and says:" The Lord knoweth them that are His; " then, as to God's path, it is, " Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness " (2 Tim. 2:19). And in Laodicea, the Lord, as outside of it, yet appeals to any who may open the door to Him, that they may yet sup with Him and He with them (Rev. 3:17-20).

When "Babylon the Great" is about to fall under God's overwhelming judgment, we hear the call, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Rev. 18:4). Who would have thought to find yet any of God's people there ? The consideration of these facts will not lessen our fear of sin, nor the desire for a holy walk with God, but will free us from a hard, censorious spirit, and maintain in our souls the yearnings of love and grace which marked the pathway of our Lord Jesus here.

Then, as to the circle of God's true people, we find that ,rank evil may insinuate itself there too; nor does it cancel its validity as a divinely owned circle unless the evil is known and allowed.

The presence of evil, and the allowance of evil are very different things. A Judas was among the twelve until he finally manifested himself as not of them. He had been permitted to be there to fulfil Scripture, no doubt, but this does not affect the principle. In Corinth we see how evil had slipped in the assembly, and the apostle labors to the end that they may clear themselves from it, that he might not have to come with the Lord's rod among them, according to the authority given him by the Lord (i Cor. 5:6-13; 2 Cor. 2:1-9; 12:20, 21; 13:i, 2). As long as we are in this evil world we may expect the presence of evil in the most sacred places; nor does it cancel the Lord's relations with His own where evil may be in hiding, which the allowance of it, when manifested, most surely would.

Elijah, the "man of God," becomes a lesson of warning to us when a censorious spirit leads him to say, " I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts:for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left" (i Kings 19:10), while Obadiah had hidden and cared for one hundred of the Lord's prophets from the wrath of murderous Jezebel. Obadiah knew them as prophets of the Lord when Elijah did not. May we be earnest and devoted as Elijah, never compromising with truth and righteousness, while gracious as Obadiah, recognizing and encouraging what is still of God though mixed with the evil. May this Christian character and spirit mark us as the followers of Christ.

"They have defiled my sanctuary the same day" -Ezekiel 23 :38.

It is not merely of the fact that in Israel had committed great evils, that Jehovah complains here.

They had indeed done great evil, for they had intermingled with the nations around them and bowed down to their idols. But what God complains of here is that, while they did this, they still .presented themselves before Him as though everything were right between them and Him. "For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it" (ver. 39). This was utter absence of conscience.

What an awful thing when God's people can thus mingle light and darkness; associate the pleasures of sin and devices of Satan with the holy things of God, thus causing to be despised what should be reverenced in the minds of men. This mixture, in figure, developed among the antediluvians (Gen. 6:4),and the judgment of God soon followed.

Gold-seekers

They who seek for gold find it in clay, in gravel, or in rock; therefore the need of water, or of crushing. to separate it. They also find it amalgamated with lower metals, therefore the need of fire. And they also who seek for souls find them in sin:therefore the command to "preach the Word;"for as water separates the gold from the clay, so does God's word when it enters the soul of man in the power of the Spirit separate him both from its guilt in the sight of God, and from its practice in the sight of men. It also acts as a mighty hammer, breaking the stubborn will, and bringing it in subjection at the feet of Jesus. There is no end of pains taken where gold is found, to procure water to secure the gold; and they who love souls according to God will jealously guard the word of God as God's means to humble and subdue man's will and haughty spirit, and cleanse and sanctify his defiled conscience and heart.

Gold-seekers are not usually men who consult their ease. One passion rules them-to find gold. If they are so earnest who seek the gold which they may lose the next day, what manner of men should they be who seek the gold which is never to perish, and is to be for God's and our eternal enjoyment! The shapeless little masses of the "precious metal" are molded, polished, and stamped with the image or emblems of the Power to which it belongs. Conversion, like the finding of the gold, is therefore but the beginning of care and labor to be bestowed upon the precious souls which are to shine in the likeness to Christ-to bear His image, even here.