(We draw your attention to this pertinent article. If we forget that we carry within us the seeds of
the leavened and corrupt conditions of Christendom which we profess to have separated from
outwardly; if the overcoming within does not accompany the overcoming without, we need not
wonder at, our present lack of spiritual freshness, and zeal, and power and growth. Will we not
confess that such has been the case largely?

The writer points out what he considers the cause:"resting in present attainment." The effects are
further touched upon. Then, what is of greatest value, the means of deliverance from this, is ably
and simply presented. Ed.)

If we would get the Lord’s watchword, I believe it is, "To him that overcometh" (and that is
within), and if we would know what it is that is to be overcome, I believe it is indicated in that
word, "Thou hast left thy first lave." To suppose that we have not to overcome even within,
because we have taken a position of separation, even if it were separation sevenfold, would only
entirely betray us, and perhaps plunge us in the same corruption. If we then search from the Word
of God, what are the cause* and principles of corruption, what the preservative, I believe we shall
find them singularly simple.

Resting in present attainment, I believe we shall find to be the whole, that is, the general secret
of it.

Look at Israel, and how distinctly do we find it traced! In Deuteronomy 32, after all the marvelous
grace of_"He found him … in a waste howling wilderness, He led him about … made him to
suck honey out of the rock; butter of kine . . . and the pure blood of the grape"_how comes in
the corruption?

He rests self-complacently in the goodness of God to him, instead of resting on, and walking with
God Himself, as a present thing:"Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked:thou art waxen fat, thou art
grown thick, thou art covered with fatness"; and, as a natural consequence, "he forsook God,
which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation." That whole song is of the last
importance; it is, I think, God’s anatomy of man’s corruption.

We get, I think, the same account of the process, and God’s pain at this leaving of the first love,
in Jeremiah 2:2. "Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; I remember
thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the
wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the first fruits of
His increase. . . . Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in Me?" etc. He
reminds them of the desert land He led them through:"I brought you into a plentiful country, to
eat the fruit thereof, and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled My land, and made
My heritage an abomination (v.7)." "They have forsaken the fountain of living waters, and hewed
them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water (v.13)."

Turn now to the Gentile (Romans 11). Its snare would be, "Be not high-minded." In Revelation

2 we get Christ’s own delineation of the corruption. Every evil which you get in Thyatira, Sardis,
or Laodicea, has, I believe, its germ in that simple word at Ephesus "Thou hast left thy first love,"
amidst all the height, to which the Ephesian Epistle evidently shows God had brought them, and
Christ’s address bears witness to (v.2,3).

Surely, then, these things are written before us with a pencil _ of light; and it must be of no slight
importance to the saint to take heed to them. If we would get the preservative, "Christ’s love"
supplies one, and Philippians 3:13, another aspect:_ "Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended:but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth
unto those things that are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded" (i.e. perfect in not being
perfect, but aiming at it). This, therefore, should be our spring, kept simple and fresh to the end.

"The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all
dead (or perhaps "all died," i.e., all believers died in, or with Him*):and that He died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them,
and rose again." This, I say, should be our motive, simple and fresh to the end. And then, as the
Apostle says, "forgetting those things which are behind." When this is not the case, when the soul
rests in attainments made, it becomes self-satisfied:it rests in the knowledge, perhaps, previously
heaped up, which, like the manna, only breeds worms, and becomes corrupt for want of being
gathered day by day. And I would remark that all knowledge of truth gathered beyond our present
communion, is not only not a blessing, but an injury. We can place no limit to the extent to which
the Lord may teach and lead us on, but when once knowledge becomes an object to me apart from
the Lord Himself, I may as well, and better, be employed about some other object.

*This is the writer’s view (Ed.).

The hardest conscience of all often to deal with and arouse, is that which knows everything. You
can tell them nothing new. Their previous knowledge without Communion, is like a foil put upon
"the sword of the Spirit," it makes it dull, ineffectual. Further, the being thus laden with vain
knowledge, makes the saint restless, like an overloaded stomach, that does not know what is the
matter with it. He has no longer an appetite for simple things. He must have something new and
overpowering, or something to meet his particular taste. Well does the wise man say, "The full
soul loatheth the honeycomb, whilst to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet." Oftentimes
he mistakes this restlessness and dissatisfaction for spirituality, not knowing that the complaint is
in himself; he is not at the right point for satisfaction (John 6:35), and therefore dissatisfied with
everything and everyone.

May we not well look to our own hearts; how is it with ow hearts as to this? Are we as simple and
fresh as we once; were? The example of Ephesus is full to the point. May we then cultivate that
simple taste, cherishing, loving, and receiving all that is of God, be it weak or strong (for one may
err either way, Ex. 23:3-6). Let us love the whole Word of God, not forming to ourselves
particular tastes, and choosing particular parts, for "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine . . . that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished";
neither having particular tastes in the saints we select for intercourse_this leads to a clique and

self-righteousness, and one-sided Christian character:further, the doing diligently what we have
to do of worldly calling, the doing diligently whatsoever God enables us to do in any way of
spiritual service, not critically discussing about gifts; for real ability from God is gift.

"Preach the Word," says Paul to Timothy, "reprove, rebuke (2 Timothy 4:2), do the work of an
evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry" for the love of Christ, for the work of Christ. Do we
take as much delight in His Word, for its or His own sake, not for mere knowledge? Surely there
ought to be an appetite about this _"as new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that
ye may" feed thereupon, and grow_and, in connection with that, putting away evil from our
hearts, for it is impossible to grow without that; "laying aside all malice, and all guile, and
hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings" (I Peter 2).

I have endeavored to show then, that the root of all apostasy and corruption (and we know not to
what length that may go_the more has been the knowledge, joy, and devotedness, the deeper it
sinks when corrupted), is to be found in resting in present attainment/’ instead of being kept
freshly in the love of Christ.

Nothing is more healthful to one’s own soul than the carefully bearing forth of the Gospel,
publicly or privately. Distaste for that is a bad sign indeed. "He that watereth others, shall be
watered himself." Finally, the acknowledging of the poorness of our endeavors, and the
hopelessness of the ruin, which we still seek in grace to overcome, holding forth the word of
life_to wait for that which alone will put all right:that "blessed hope, and glorious appearing of
our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ."

And if our poor hearts at all feel that we have slipped back, and fallen under the power of this
corruption, 0 how blessedly still; does Christ meet us. "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in
the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed." To Him be
glory!