The Word of God should not
only be a check on our thoughts, but the source of them, which is a far deeper
thing. We see it in Christ, the only perfect One. He, only, could say, "By
the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer"
(Psalm 17:4). "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin
against Thee" (Psalm 119:11).

 

There is a preserving power in
the Word to keep the feet from sliding, which only those know who receive the
truth in the love of it. Merely having the Word hid in the memory and mind will
not do. There is no preserving power in that. There must be the action of the
truth on the heart and conscience, separating from all defilement, otherwise
its preserving power cannot be experienced.

 

Whenever there is a surrender
for Christ’s sake of what the flesh holds dear and cleaves to, there is
blessing; and the soul that dares to mortify the flesh and resist its claims is
ever rewarded by a clearer revelation of the Lord Himself. The displacing of
the lower, as it were, makes room for the development of the higher and purer
affection.

 

The reason that there is often
so much darkness and uncertainty as to God’s will among us,
is that the flesh is allowed to work, and the result is dimness of spiritual
vision. It costs us too much when we cannot say "No" to the clamorous
demands of our fleshly natures. Never, until we see it in the light of the
judgment-seat of Christ, shall we know how much we have suffered in soul, and
how much we have lost of eternal reward by our weakness and cowardice in
resisting the flesh and its claims. People complain of weak faith:they would
speak far more truly if they complained of their weak obedience. "Light is
sown for the righteous" (Psalm 97:11). "If any man will do His will,
he shall know of the doctrine" (John 7:17).

 

See in Christ—the perfectly
dependent, perfectly obedient One—our heavenly Pattern, the path of the just, which
shineth more and more unto the perfect day. How
little like Him we are—independent, disobedient, every one turning naturally to
his own way. The Lord help
us!                 

 

FRAGMENT:
"Behold, I come quickly:hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take
thy crown" (Rev, 3:11).

 

Then, hold fast! When it is no longer a question if it be the truth, but only of its
consequences. Hold fast though those who have held it with you, or
before you, give it up; though it separate you from all else whomsoever; though
it be worse dishonored by the evil of those who profess it; though it seem
utterly useless to hope of any good from it; in the face of the world, in the
face of the devil, in the face of the saints — "hold that fast which thou
hast, that no man take thy crown"!

 

"For they all
made us afraid . . . Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands" (Nehemiah
6:9).

 

"And when He had taken the
book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb,
having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the
prayers of [the] saints" (Rev. 5:8).

 

That latter clause is very
peculiar, as connected with the grace of God in eternity. There are things His
people suffer from that He never forgets. All their prayers are treasured up
before God; their tears are put in His bottle and treasured up. What! the
sorrow I have forgotten, has God put that down? Is that one of the things that
will shine? He can use all for His glory; but can the prayers and groans of a
saint be kept and have a special place, be an odor of a sweet savor to God? The
sinner does not know this; but a poor broken one can say, "Not only does
God remember my prayer, but He puts it by on His throne, like the pot of manna
which He wanted to be laid up, to be remembered as a trophy of the way He
carried His people through the wilderness."

 

So will their prayers tell there
what their special need of His presence was here. The prayers of the saints are
likened to "golden vials full of odors." Gold marks the divine
character of that by which they are kept:the odor — a fragrant incense going
up — ever the same. Is that said of the prayers of the saints? Yes, not one of
them is lost. The Lord Jesus knew them all; they are ever before God.

 

FRAGMENT "Let my prayer be
set before Thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening
sacrifice" (Psalm 141:2).

 

In Genesis 19 we read of the
sorrows of a believer who has given up the separate path and walks in
association with a judgment-doomed world. We see, indeed, that Lot is delivered, but so as by fire, and passes out of the story under a cloud, leaving
behind him the memory of a life of shame. Centuries pass before the Apostle
Peter declares him "just Lot."

 

The opening verses of Genesis 18
and 19 evidently set Abraham and Lot in striking contrast. In chapter 18:1,
Abraham comes before us as sitting in his tent door. In chapter 19:1, Lot is
seen sitting "in the gate of Sodom." One believer is outside the
world in his true pilgrim character with his tent. The other is not only in the
world but actually taking part in its administration, for he sits in the
gate—the place of judgment.

 

Once Lot was in the outside
place which depicts the call of God, but there only as a follower of others. A
little trouble arose and at once he gave up the path of faith and separation,
chose the well-watered plain, and "pitched his tent toward Sodom" (13:12). Next we learn that he "dwelt in Sodom",14:12). Now at last we
read, "Lot sat in the gate of Sodom."

 

But the city in which Lot has an honored place as a magistrate is a doomed city, and the time has come when the
city is ripe for judgment. From the Lord’s own words in Luke 17, we know that
the solemn scene of God’s destruction of Sodom is a foreshadowing of the
judgment about to fall on this present evil world. There we read, "As it
was in the days of Lot . . . thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is
revealed" (Luke 17:28, 30).

 

We are living in the days just
before the Son of man is about to be revealed, and we are warned by the Lord
Himself that in these, our days, we shall find a terrible condition similar to
that which existed in the days of Lot. This is of immense practical importance
as presenting the true character of the world around us, and, above all, as
setting forth conditions so hateful to God that at length He has to intervene
in judgment.

 

What then were the conditions in
Sodom that brought down the judgment of God? Two things characterized the
city. First, the men of Sodom were "wicked and sinners before the Lord
exceedingly" (Gen. 13:13). Secondly, a true believer was holding a place
of honor in the city, associating with sinners in seeking to judge and maintain
order in the world. It was, then, a city characterized by the association of
sinners before the Lord with believers in the Lord. It is this condition, so
hateful to God, that marks the world of today and that will very soon bring the
present period of grace to a close. It is not simply the wickedness of the
world that ends the day of grace. The wickedness of the world may show itself
in different forms at different times, but it cannot be greater today than when
it perpetrated the crowning sin of crucifying the Lord of glory. It is rather
the breakdown of the Christian profession (whereby even true believers are
found in the world, not as witnesses to the grace of God but in closest
association with the world) that God will not tolerate and that makes the
judgment so imminent. When those who were left to be a witness to the grace of
God settle down in the world and cease to be any witness for God, the end is
not far off.

 

We have the warning challenge of
the apostle in clear and unmistakable words:  “Be ye not unequally yoked
together with unbelievers:for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord
hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an
infidel?" (2 Cor. 6:14, 15).

 

In spite of these plain words,
what do we see on every hand today? Not only a world filled with violence and
corruption— this has ever been—but on every hand we see true believers in
flagrant disregard of the Word of God, associated with unbelievers and those
who mock at divine things. It has been truly said, "Evangelical leaders,
even, can now take their place openly on public platforms with Unitarians and
skeptics of almost every grade; societies, secret or public, can link together
all possible beliefs in the most hearty good fellowship. It is this that marks
the time as so near the limit of divine longsuffering, that the very people who
are orthodox as to Christ can nevertheless be so easily content to leave Him
aside on any utilitarian plea by which they may have fellowship with His
rejecters."

 

When those who profess to be
ministers of Christianity cease to be witnesses for Christ and, sinking down to
the level of the world, become themselves the leaders in all worldliness, then
indeed the salt has lost its savor, and the Christian profession, having become
nauseous to Christ, will be spewed out of  His mouth, and the judgment will
fall upon the world.

 

Surely then, the destruction of
Sodom should speak to every conscience and lead us to take heed to that word
which says, "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).

 

Visiting a Christian friend one
day, I noticed that he did not look as bright as usual, and soon learned the
reason. "Do you know," he said, "I sometimes think I am
deceiving myself and that I am not a child of God at all. When I was saved
about ten years ago I felt such a load of sins taken off me, and then I was so
happy, but I have not at all the same feeling now, so perhaps after all I have
been self-deceived."

 

I saw at once that the fault
here was self-occupation, looking in instead of "looking off unto
Jesus." "I am not surprised," I said then to him, "at what
you say; it is the natural result of basing your acceptance with God on your
experience, and not on what He says in His Word, I have gone through the same
experience, and, therefore, I can feel for you. After I was saved, I had times
of great joy followed by corresponding feelings of depression, during which
times, of course, I was most miserable. But I came to enjoy perfect peace when
I began to rest calmly and quietly upon what God says in His Word about Christ,
and to give up taking into account my own feelings altogether. He ‘was
delivered for [my] offences, and was raised again for [my] justification’
(Romans 4:25). Therefore, I concluded, if Christ has indeed been delivered for
my offenses, there is no need for me to be delivered for them; God is too just
to demand payment over again for a debt already paid. If He has been raised
again for my justification, no one can ever lay anything to my charge, for His
resurrection has set me down righteous in the presence of God. By His death and
resurrection my sins were put away, and I am constituted righteous before God.
I stand before God righteous as He is righteous. I believe this, and,
therefore, however much my feelings may change,  I never doubt that I have
peace with God."

 

"Well," my friend
replied, "I see what you mean all right, and I am sure it is all right
with you, but how am I to know that He died for me?"

 

I quoted to him Romans 5:6,
where it says that "Christ died for the ungodly," and then verse 8,
that He died for ”sinners." I told him that Satan never yet could
persuade me that I was neither a "sinner" nor "ungodly,"
and, therefore, I always have the assurance of God’s Word that He died for me;
putting two and two together, if He died for me, I know that God is satisfied,
and, therefore, not a shadow of a doubt as to my acceptance ever crosses my
mind. I am able to "joy in God" by whom I have received this Wondrous
reconciliation.

 

"I
certainly shouldn’t doubt anymore," said my friend; "I can see that I
ought to enter more into what God has done for me, and what Christ is to me,
and not be occupied with myself."

I now consider the objectionable
contrary things which are substituted for this path (i.e., the path of
separation and Assembly truth) in the "helps" referred to in the
Scofield Reference Bible.

 

First and foremost, observe the
endorsement of the sectarian, interdenominational and independent realms and
activities, repeatedly brought before us.

 

In the "Introduction,"
paragraph V., the "definitions" carry the approval of many leading
"students and teachers of all the evangelical bodies." What is that?
"All the evangelical bodies." How many bodies of Christ are there (1
Cor. 1:13)? Which part of "the whole teaming of Scripture” about the
Assembly provides for "evangelical bodies"? Does their endorsement of
these "definitions" serve to deliver them from the sects and unto
Scripture ground? Not at all; they remain in their various "evangelical
bodies."

 

The conclusion, then, is that
when we want "definitions" for the "great words" of the
Bible, we should go to the "evangelical bodies" for them; when they
have been defined, the evangelical bodies still exist, and the definers remain
in them. Nothing in the great words of Scripture serves to draw them to
anything that expresses unity:for they are "bodies"—not one body.

 

A few paragraphs farther on we
read of "the results of the study of God’s Word by learned and spiritual
men in every division of the church," etc. These results the editor
summarizes in the "helps." But he appears without exercise over the
tragedy of "every division of the church." What did these learned and
spiritual men find in their Bible study about divisions of the church under the
apostles? What authority did they find in that Bible for continuing in their
"every division"? The statement is unaccompanied by any expression of
agony that such divisions exist, any acknowledgment that the Word should act
upon the consciences of learned and spiritual men so as to promote unity, any
indication that these men or the editor yearned to see those who studied their
writings delivered from human systems and brought together outside the camp
according to God.

 

Not with such unconcern does
William Kelly, for instance, write on Luke 11:23, to cite one of many:

 

“A man might himself; be really
with Christ, but yet in his labors he might build or prop up what is of the
world. Such a person, no matter what the apparent effects may be, may become
the most popular of preachers and produce wide-spread effects, philanthropic
and religious; but "he that gathereth not with Me scattereth," says
the Lord. There is no scattering so real in the sight of God as the gathering
of Christians on false principles. It is worse than if they were not gathered
at all. There is a deeper hindrance to the truth, because there is a spirit of
party and denomination that is necessarily hostile to Christ. A false
gathering-point substitutes another center for Christ and consequently makes
greater confusion. "He that gathereth not with Me scattereth."

 

In the Scofield introductory
notes to the Third Epistle of John, page 1327, we are told, "Historically,
this letter marks the beginning of that clerical and priestly assumption over
the churches in which the primitive church order disappeared." Mark
that—"the primitive church order disappeared." Well, are we to settle
down to that, accept the substitute, be content? Who can settle such a matter?
On the preceding page, we are told, "The Bible, as the only authority for
doctrine and life, is the believer’s resource in a time of declension and
apostasy."

 

Does not John, in his first
epistle, chapter two, press upon us "that which ye have heard from the
beginning"? The Scriptures— "the believer’s resource," even when
the primitive church order has disappeared — keep before us that which was from
the beginning, that which God set up. Are we to conclude, then, that He will
give His help and blessing to efforts that aim at the "intelligent use of
the Bible" according to an order that represents something other than
"the primitive church order," but would not do so if we sought that
which was from the beginning.

 

In the same note (page 1327) we
have presented to us the idea, of the believer as a member of the local
church." Had the editor given better attention to the some 100,000 pages
or more of "brethren’s" writings which had been circulated before his
Reference Bible was issued, he would have found that there are those who disown
membership in the local church and claim that the only membership known to
Scripture is membership in the body of Christ. This note, for example, does not
represent any "summarizing, arranging, and condensing" of their
important contribution to the "mass of material" produced during the
latter half of the nineteenth century — but rather a refusal of it in favor of
that which has taken the place of "the primitive church order."

 

It might be said that we should
not make a man an offender for a word; that we should understand his use of
word ”member" as simply meaning that one was in the character of local
responsibility. But that is not the way the word is habitually used and
understood in the sphere in which Mr. Scofield spent his life. One is not a
member of those societies until he joins specifically; when one so joins one of
"the evangelical bodies," he is thereby absolutely not a member of
any other "division of the church." We must understand his use of the
word "member" according to the way it was and is understood where
"the primitive church order" has disappeared.

 

In the note at the bottom of
page 1257 we find that a local church should be "perfected in
organization." Mr. Ridout’s book on The Church does not agree very well
with that language. And where does Scripture agree?

 

I quote the whole sentence from
Mr. Scofield:"When perfected in organization, a local church, consists of
‘saints, with the bishops [elders] and deacons.’”  These last words are drawn
from Phil. 1:1.

 

A few observations are in order.
First, the words "organize," "organization," etc., are not
in Scripture. No form of the word "organize" do I find in the
concordance.

 

Second, "perfected in
organization" is an expression strongly suggestive of human activity
looking towards such a result. The inference is that some local churches may
not be "perfected in organization." Unless God acts directly to
"perfect" its organization, there being no apostles to establish
elders today, what remains—if official elders are to be had— but for the local
church to take things into its own hands and appoint them? And this is
precisely what is done habitually in the realm where the Scofield Bible editors
moved. A business meeting is held; balloting takes place; the person or persons
receiving the required number of votes is (or are) elected; thereafter such are
considered to be what the Bible calls "elders." Not that there is
uniformity, however, among "all the evangelical bodies,"
representative leaders from among which approved the "definitions." A
Methodist "bishop" is over many churches; while an "elder"
is the so-called pastor of a local church. The Scofield "helps,"
however, provide for this action of the local church in "perfecting"
its organization. The note on page 1285 advises that "in Titus and 1
Timothy the qualifications of an elder become part of the Scriptures for the
guidance of the churches in such appointment" (1 Tim. 3:7).

 

Thus Scripture is read into the
organization arrangement of our day in the midst of which these editors moved;
consciences are quieted which might become concerned about the confusion that
exists over this matter as well as others.

 

The fact of the matter is that
it is now impossible to establish official elders as a very interesting series
of papers, found in volume No. 4 of Collected Writings of J. N. Darby, makes
clear. The impossibility consists in the fact that no authority now exists
which is competent to constitute them official. It remains, however, that the
unselfish labors of spiritual men who have "elders’" hearts may be,
ought to be, and are found to be, apart from any claim or desire, thought of as
"official" elders in scriptural gatherings. I pray daily for such.

 

I would add that this
"organization" idea is by no means confined to that which
"perfects" it, according to the Scofield note, in the societies with
which these editors identified themselves. Organized bodies of various kinds
abound among them. And Scripture is appealed to in the expectation of divine
blessing upon them all.

 

If we endorse the Scofield
Reference Bible, I suppose we could scarcely reject its idea that it presents
"the whole teaching of Scripture" on the Church. That teaching,
accordingly, brings "organization" into the local gathering. We had
thought the Holy Spirit was sufficient.

 

If we endorse this treatment, we
ought to take it seriously, and let it have its effect upon our consciences. It
might be difficult, indeed, to find an "intelligent use" for
"the whole teaching of Scripture" about the Assembly in a time long
after "the primitive church order disappeared"—especially if that
primitive church order was also according to the teaching of Scripture; but
surely, we ought to "organize"!

 

Then we must unlearn the things
that have put us where we are. We must build again the things we have
destroyed. We must go back to "the camp." The "helps" seem
to be lacking at Hebrews 13:13 and 2 Timothy 2:22. (To be continued.)

 

FRAGMENT You may be separated
from loved ones by distance; oceans may roll between you and someone whom you
love much. You wonder whether they are in spiritual, mental, and physical
health. "Is it well with them?" your heart asks. "Let not your
heart be troubled." Remember the words of David in Psalm 139:8-10:
"If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there …. If I take the wings of
the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy
hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." The omnipresent God is
where your loved ones are, and He is a very present help in trouble.