We see both glories and
humilities in our Redeemer. It is important that we do so for we need each.

 

We are aware in how many
different ways our fellow disciples try and tempt us, as, no doubt, we do them.
We see, or think we see, some bad quality in them, and we find it hard to go on
in further company with them. And yet in all this, or in much of it, the fault
may be with ourselves, mistaking a want of conformity—of taste or judgment—with
ourselves for something to be condemned in them.

 

But the Lord could not be thus
mistaken; and yet He was never "overcome of evil," but was ever
"overcoming evil with good"—that is, the evil that was in them with
the good that was in Himself. Vanity, ill-temper, indifference about others and
carefulness about themselves were some of the things in them which He had to
suffer continually. His walk with them, in its way and measure, was a day of
provocation, as the forty years in the wilderness had been. Israel again tempted the Lord, but again they proved Him. He suffered, but He took it patiently. He
never gave them up. He warned and taught, rebuked and condemned them, but never
gave them up. Rather, at the end of their walk together He was nearer to them
than ever.

 

How comforting to us this is.
The Lord’s dealing with the conscience never touches His heart. We lose nothing
by His rebukes. And He who does not withdraw His heart from us when He is
dealing with our conscience is quick to restore our souls, that the conscience,
so to express it, may be enabled soon to leave His school, and the heart find
its happy freedom in His presence again.

 

I would further notice that time
made no change in the Lord. He is "the same yesterday, and today, and
forever" (Heb. 13:8). Sometimes we may be grieved at changes; sometimes we
may desire them. In different ways we all prove the fickle, uncertain nature of
that which constitutes human life. Not only circumstances, but also
associations, friendships, affections, and characters continually undergo
variations which surprise and sadden us. We are hurried from stage to stage of
life; but unchilled affections and unsullied principles are rarely borne along
with us, either in ourselves or our companions. But Jesus was the same after
His resurrection as He had been before, though late events had put Him and His
disciples at a greater distance than companions had ever known or could ever
know. They had betrayed their unfaithful hearts, forsaking Him and
fleeing in the hour of His weakness and need; while He for their sakes
had gone through death—such a death as never could have been borne by another,
but would have crushed the creature itself. They were still but poor, feeble Galileans;
He was glorified with all power in heaven and on earth.

 

But these things worked no
change. Love defied them all, and He returned to them the same Jesus whom they
had known before. He was their companion in labor after His resurrection, just
as He had been in the days of His ministry and sojourn with them (Mark 16:20).

 

In John 3 He led a slow-hearted
Rabbi into the light and way of truth, bearing with him in, all patient grace.
And the same He did again, after He was risen, with the two slow-hearted ones
who were finding their way home to Emmaus (Luke 24).

 

In Mark 4 He allayed the fears
of His people before He rebuked their unbelief. He said to the winds and the
waves, "Peace, be still," before He said to the disciples, "How
is it that ye have no faith?" And He did the same as the risen One in John
21. He sat and dined with Peter in full and free fellowship before He
challenged Him and awakened his conscience by the words, "Simon, son of
Jonas, lovest thou Me?"

 

The risen Jesus who appeared to
Mary Magdalene was He who in other days had cast seven devils out of her—and
she herself knew the voice that then called her by her name, as a voice with
which her ear had long been familiar. What identity between the humbled and the
glorified One—the healer of sinners and the Lord of the world to come! He that
descended is the same also that ascended!

 

(From The Moral Glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ.)

 

The soul that walks with God is
not hard, but submissive. There is no softer spirit nor one which is more
sensitive to every feeling than the spirit of submission. This spirit takes the
will out of the affections, but does not destroy the affections. So it
was with Christ. He felt everything, His tenderness was perfect, and yet how
perfect was His submissiveness.

 

God exercises the heart by means
of trials. Often when the heart is brought into the presence of God who is
dealing with us, all our ways, all the interior of our heart, all His ways with
us, and all His appeals to us rise up within us. If the will is unbroken, or no
clearness as to God’s grace be known, a perplexed and anxious response to the
trial results. A real knowledge of God’s grace will produce a humble and lowly
judgment of self.

 

Even in a man who is gracious
and righteous in the main of his life, there often remains a sediment at the
bottom of the heart which the rod of God stirs up when He thrusts it in. This
sediment—consisting not merely of faults but of a mass of unjudged material of
everyday life, a living under the influence of the things that are seen, or
unjudged affections of every kind—often underlies all the contents of the
heart. But this sediment is always carried off by the living stream of the
waters of His grace. If we respond rightly to God’s stirring up of our hearts
through trials, all that is not up to the measure of our spiritual height will
be judged in its true character as connected with the flesh.

 

When grace is fully known and
when there is full submission to God, the practical result of the Christian’s
trial will be a sweet odor of willing bowing before God—and even
thankfulness—in the midst of sorrow. God, too, is very present in the trial,
and it is thus we make real progress in such experiences. It is astonishing
what progress a soul sometimes makes in a time of sorrow. The soul is more in
God’s presence at such a time. There is much more confidence, quietness, and
absence of the will; much more walking with and dependence on Him, intimacy
with Him, and independence of circumstances. A great deal less lies between Him
and us, and so all the blessedness that is in Him can come to act upon the soul
and be reflected by it. How sweet this is! What a difference does it make even
in the Christian who, perhaps, was generally blameless in his outward walk!

 

A first trial of this kind is
always very painful, for the heart has not been in it before. God comes and
claims His right on our tenderest affections. We are in His hands, and our
sorrow is a result of God’s love—the best that the wisdom of His love can send.
If the needed work can be done without sorrow, we can be assured that He will
not send the sorrow. In any case, His love is far better than our will.

 

Let us trust Him; He has given
His Son for us and proven His love. Let us present our requests to Him. He
would have us do this and then lean fully on His love and wisdom. If He
strikes, be assured He will give more than He takes away.

 

(Revised from "The Tender
Sympathy of Christ.")

 

FRAGMENT. When we look back to a
past life, we have more to be thankful for our trials than for anything else.         J.N.
Darby

 

(1 Kings 17:2-9)

 

The way the Lord would have us
spiritually is that He never gives us a stock of anything—of grace or of
gift—so that we can say, "I have got enough to last me so long at
least." That would be taking us out of the place of faith, and depriving
us of the blessing God has for us. He covets to show us what He is:His power,
His love, His unforgetfulness of us. As it is said of the people whom in His
love and His pity He redeemed:"He bare them and carried them all the days
of old." It is a great thing to get this in a real and practical way for
ourselves with God. If He keeps us low down here—and you know it is His way in
more senses than one to call and choose the poor—it is not because His hand is
niggard, God forbid, but that we may not miss realizing this great blessing of
His care. Often, all we think of is having our need met; but how little a thing
is that with God! It would cost Him nothing, we may say, to meet the need of a
lifetime in a moment; and a lesser love than His would supply it at once and
get rid of a constant burden. But that is not His way. To supply the need is a
small thing; but to supply it in such a way as to make us feel in each
seasonable supply the Father’s eye never withdrawn from us, the Father’s heart
ever employed about us, that is what He means. "Give us day by day our
daily bread," is the prayer the Lord taught His disciples; and thus we ask
Him continually to be waiting on us. Is it not much more than to ask,
"Give us now, that we may not have to come again"?

 

Scripture speaks of our having
both peace with God and the peace of God. It is the latter which
perhaps is more directly connected with the third fruit of the Spirit found in
Gal. 5:22, although it is our peace with God which provides the basis
and motivation for all spiritual fruit.

 

In Romans 5:1 we read:
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ." This verse refers to the results in our
consciences of knowing that Christ has died for our sins and has been
resurrected and taken to glory as a sign of God’s acceptance of His work of
atonement for sin. The hymn writer, J. G. Deck, has expressed this truth so
well:

 

"And now we draw near to
the throne of grace,

For His blood and the Priest are
there;

And we joyfully seek God’s holy
face,

With our censer of praise and
prayer.

The burning mount and the mystic
veil,

With our terrors and guilt, are
gone;

Our conscience has peace that
can never fail,

‘Tis the Lamb on high on the
throne.

 

We can draw near by faith to an
infinitely holy God without fear of rejection or judgment, since Christ has
borne the judgment for us. Thus, we have peace with God, and not terror
in His presence.

 

The peace of God involves
a further step, having to do with our daily lives. In His closing address to
His disciples, the Lord Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I
give unto you" (John 14:27). What is the nature of this peace which Christ
gives to us? It is the very peace which He possessed as He walked through this
scene. We think of the time a great storm came up while Jesus and His disciples
were in a ship. The disciples were terrified as the wind and the waves buffeted
the ship; but where was Jesus? He was in the bottom of the ship—asleep! He was
at peace about all things because He knew that nothing happened without God His
Father allowing it, and He was perfectly subject to His Father’s will. The Lord
Jesus also experienced all sorts of slighting, opposition, reproach, and
rejection by man; but none of these things ruffled Him, troubled Him, or led
Him to try to defend Himself. Not that He did not feel the reproach and
rejection—no doubt He felt these things far more deeply than we ever could
because of His perfect, sinless nature. But He committed all to God, trusted in
Him, had perfect, unclouded rest in Him, with the result that "when He was
reviled, [He] reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not" (1
Peter 2:23). The Lord Jesus was at peace in the presence of all the things
which were so much against Him. And this peace which characterized His life He
gives to us—amazing grace!

 

Note, again in John 14:27, the
result of this peace which He gives to us:"Let not your heart be
troubled, neither let it be afraid." The apostle Paul brings out a similar
thought:"Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in everything by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:6,7). Do we become angry, or
irritated, or peeved, or sullen when things do not go our way? Do we
fret and worry when we find ourselves in adverse or uncertain circumstances?
How often this is so with each of us. And do we not often excuse ourselves on
such occasions by saying, "We are only human," or "You would do
the same if you were in my shoes"? But when we respond this way we forget
that Christ offers us His peace—"the peace of God which passeth all
understanding"—for such circumstances. We should rather ask, "Would
Christ respond this way if He were in my shoes?" The answer is obvious—
and it should humble us.

 

Another writer gives the
following comments on Phil. 4:7:"Paul was in prison when he wrote to the
Philippians, unable to build up the churches or to labor in the gospel. He
might have been cast down in spirit, but he never was more happy in his Me. How is this? Because, instead of being anxious and troubled about the danger to the
Church and the afflictions of individuals, and about souls that were perishing,
he looked at them in connection with God, instead of looking at them as
connected with himself. If God was in peace about these things, why should
not he also be? Thus the simple resource of spreading out all before God
and casting it off himself into the bosom of his Father had for its effect that
God’s peace kept his heart and mind. Nor was it special to the apostle. He puts
it before the saints as that which ought to be equally their portion. It is
evident there is no room left for anxiety. God would not have His children
burdened or troubled about circumstances. Till the Lord come, this is the
blessed source of relief. God is here working, and His peace keeps our hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus, where we give Him His honor and our trust"
(from Lectures on Philippians by W. Kelly).

 

One frequent reason for our
failing to realize the peace of God in our lives is our allowance of unjudged
sin in our lives. Whenever we sin—that is, when we do what we want to do
rather than what God wants us to do, or when we have the consciousness
of liking anything that God does not like—a barrier comes up between us and God
our Father. It is not that we have lost our peace with God, for
"Our conscience has peace that can never fail." But, just as with
human relationships in which we tend to avoid one whom we have offended, we
feel uncomfortable in God’s presence as long as we have not judged our sin. And
when a trial comes our way while we are in such a condition, our unjudged sin
prevents us from drawing near to the throne of grace and drawing upon the
infinite reservoir of God’s peace. The only solution is to humble ourselves and
confess and judge the sin in God’s presence; then communion with the Father is
restored and His peace can once more flow unhindered to us and thus "keep
[our] hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

 

As we walk in the Spirit and are
filled with the Spirit, we will manifest this fruit of the Spirit—peace—in all
of the circumstances of our lives. And as we do so, we will find people
wondering at us, curious as to how we can remain calm and at peace in adverse
and trying circumstances. This is because it is the peace of God which
we have, and that peace "passeth all understanding."

 

 

FRAGMENT. Anxiety reflects upon
God, weakens and discourages our souls, and gives Satan an occasion against us.
If God is our Father, and if His promises are true, He will provide for us and
supply our needs. Why then should we be anxious?

 

We have but little conception of
what an assembly would be were each one distinctly led by the Holy Spirit, and
gathered only to Jesus. We would not then have to complain of dull,
heavy, unprofitable, trying meetings. We would have no fear of an unhallowed
intrusion of mere nature and its restless doings—no making of prayer, no
talking for talking’s sake, no hymn book seized to fill a gap. Each one would
know his place in the Lord’s immediate presence; each gifted vessel would be
filled, fitted, and used by the Master’s hand; each eye would be directed to
Jesus; each heart occupied with Him. If a chapter were read, it would be the
very voice of God. If a word were spoken, it would tell with power upon the
heart. If prayer were offered, it would lead the soul into the very presence of
God. If a hymn were sung, it would lift the spirit up to God, and be like
sweeping the strings of the heavenly harp. We would have no ready-made sermons;
no teaching or preaching prayers, as though we would explain doctrines to God;
no praying at our neighbors, or asking for all manner of graces for
them, in which we ourselves are lamentably deficient; no singing for music’s
sake, or being disturbed if harmony be interfered with. All these evils would
be avoided. We would feel ourselves in the very sanctuary of God, and enjoy a
foretaste of that time when we shall worship in the courts above, and go no
more out.

 

We may be asked, "Where
will you find all this down here?" Ah! this is the question. It is one
thing to present an ideal on paper, and another thing to realize it in the
midst of error, failure, and infirmity. Through mercy, some of us have tasted,
at times, a little of this blessedness. We have occasionally enjoyed moments of
heaven upon earth. Oh, for more of it! May the Lord, in His great mercy, raise
the tone of the assemblies everywhere! May He greatly enlarge our capacity for
more profound communion and spiritual worship! May He enable us so to walk in
private life from day to day as to judge ourselves and our ways in His holy
presence, that at least we may not prove a lump of lead or a waster to any of
God’s assemblies.

 

Even though we may not be able
to reach in experience the full expression of the assembly, yet let us never be
satisfied with anything less. Let us honestly aim at the loftiest standard, and
earnestly pray to be lifted up thereto. As to the ground of God’s
assembly, we should hold it with jealous tenacity, and never consent for an
hour to occupy any other. As to the tone and character of an assembly, they may
and will vary immensely, and will depend upon the faith and spirituality of
those gathered. Where the tone of things is felt to be low, when meetings are
felt to be unprofitable, where things are said and done repeatedly which are
felt by the spiritual to be wholly out of place, let all who feel it wait on
God—wait continually and believingly—and He will assuredly hear and answer. In
this way the very trials and exercises which are peculiar to an assembly will
have the happy effect of casting us more immediately upon Him; and thus the
eater will yield meat, and the strong sweetness (Judges 14:14). We must count
upon trials and difficulties in any expression of the assembly, just because it
is the right and divine way for God’s people on earth. The devil will
put forth every effort to drive us from that true and holy ground. He will try
the patience, try the temper, hurt the feelings, cause offence in nameless and
numberless ways— anything and everything to make us forsake the true ground of
the assembly.

 

It is well to remember this. We
can only hold the divine ground by faith. This marks the assembly of God, and
distinguishes it from every human system. You cannot get on there save by
faith. And, further, if you want to be somebody, if you are seeking a place, if
you want to exalt self, you need not think of any true expression of the
assembly. If the assembly be in any measure what it should be, fleshly or
worldly greatness in any shape will be of no account in it. The Divine Presence
withers up everything of that kind and levels all human pretension.

 

Finally,
you cannot get on in the assembly if you are living in secret sin. The Divine
Presence will not suit you. Have we not often experienced in the assembly a
feeling of uneasiness, caused by the recollection of many things which had
escaped our notice during the week? Wrong thoughts, foolish words, unspiritual
ways—all these things crowd in upon the mind and exercise the conscience in the
assembly! How is this? Because the atmosphere of the assembly is more searching
than that which we have been breathing during the week. We have not been in the
presence of God in our private walk. We have not been judging ourselves; and
hence, when we take our place in a spiritual assembly, our hearts are detected
and our ways are exposed in the light; and that exercise which ought to have
gone on in private— the needed exercise of self-judgment—must go on at the
table of the Lord. This is poor, miserable work for us, but it proves the power
of the presence of God in the assembly. Things must be in a miserably low state
in any assembly when hearts are not thus detected and exposed. It is a fine evidence
of the power of the Holy Spirit in an assembly when careless, carnal, worldly,
self-exalting, money-loving, unprincipled persons are compelled to judge
themselves in God’s presence, or, failing this, are driven away by the
spirituality of the atmosphere. Such an assembly is no place for these. They
can breathe more freely outside.

There is a gain which many of
God’s dear children have not yet obtained, and a lesson some have not learned.
Paul had both found the gain and learned the lesson. May we follow him.

 

"Godliness with
contentment is great gain" (1 Tim. 6:6). "I have learned, in whatsoever
state I am,. . . to be content" (Phil. 4:11).

 

Many of the people of God
manifestly lack the peace, and rest, and satisfaction which there is for them
in this. While learning many and wonderful lessons from our Teacher, the Holy
Spirit, how slow we are apt to be to learn the great lesson of being content,
no matter what our state, or condition, or position in the world.

 

Paul had learned how to be
abased, or to abound; to be full or to be hungry—to abound and to suffer need. Everywhere
and in all things he was instructed in this (Phil. 4:12). Oh, that we
all might learn this lesson, on which so much depends for the formation of our
Christian character. If things do not go according to our ideas, if business or
household cares trouble us, and plans do not mature as we expected, how often
there is impatience and worry, then hasty or angry words. If to "get on in
the world" possesses the mind, there follows a struggle for those things
which prove unprofitable even when obtained, and the destruction of
spirituality. It is sad to see so many of God’s dear people struggling for
place, or favor, or money, or enjoyment in the scene in which the blessed
Saviour we confess was "a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."

 

The children of Israel burned incense to the brazen serpent because God had put power in it for a little
while. Hezekiah broke it in pieces, calling it "Nehushtan"—meaning,
"a piece of brass." Such are the things of this world. They have
value but for a day; yet people struggle and fight for them. Should the
"heirs of God" do so?

 

Solomon drained to the dregs the
cup of this world’s enjoyments, honors, and glories. He made him great works,
built houses, planted vineyards, gardens, and trees; had great public works and
buildings; had servants, cattle, gold, silver, and the peculiar treasure of
kings; he proved his heart with mirth and pleasure; he gave his heart to wine,
while yet acquainting himself with wisdom as well as folly; so that he became
great and increased more than all who had preceded him in Jerusalem. In fact,
whatsoever his eyes desired he kept not from them and withheld not his heart
from any joy (Eccl. 2). And what was the result? Was he happy, content,
satisfied? No, it was all Nehushtan! Behold, all was vanity and vexation
of spirit, until he hated life. The child of God can find nothing in this world
to satisfy the soul. "For all that is in the world … is not of
the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away" (1 John 2:16,
17).

 

The Lord Jesus Christ alone is
sufficient to satisfy—to fill with contentment and joy—the souls of God’s
people.

 

A trusting saint said lately,
"I am going to try to live just from day to day trusting God. My income
has been cut down this year and I have been worried and full of care about
making ends meet, and tried to rush things along in my own impetuous way. I am
in the habit of pushing things along by myself when I want them done, and
accomplishing everything for myself. This year I could not succeed. I seemed to
be up against a stone wall. Now, when I have given up and left it with God, here
today comes just what I wanted and could not obtain for myself."

 

Why do we not know with the
apostle "that all things work together for good to them that
love God," and so let God work while we look up to Him and trust? (Rom.
8:28). Why are we not "content with such things as [we] have" when He
is with us and has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee"?
(Heb. 13:5). "Having food and raiment let us be therewith content" (1
Tim. 6:8). And that does not mean all the delicacies out of season, nor the
latest freaks of fashion in clothing. We brought nothing into the world, and it
is certain that we can carry nothing out. Why then should we be burdened with a
lot of excess baggage which must be left behind?

 

Do we feel our wages are not
enough? (Luke 3:14) Let us do our work, not with eye service as men pleasers,
but conscientiously as in the sight of God, remembering we serve the Lord
Christ. Our employer must recognize merit where it is possessed, and
prayer to God will bring increase in salary, if needed, quicker than any
earthly means. "My God shall supply all your need" (Phil. 4:19).

 

Why should we worry about the
things we miss here, when "all things are yours, and ye are
Christ’s"? Here is the answer—we forget Christ. In the multitude of cares
and worries we heap up for ourselves, we forget Him. "He satisfieth the
longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness" (Psalm 107:9),
and no one and nothing else can. He not only satisfies us, but "abundantly
satisfies" (Psalm 36:8).

 

"Will the Lord indeed care
for me?" some one may ask. "It seems as though I am such a feeble,
stumbling child of His, that He might not care much about me." But yes He
does. He cares for every member of His body, even the weakest.

 

There is sweet assurance in Eph.
5:30:"We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones."
Here is the closest, most intimate connection between the feeblest member of
the Body and its great and powerful Head. As long as you are His, the care of
you is His care; and right well will He do it if you will let Him have His way
to do it. It is when we take that care for ourselves and put Him aside that we
run into difficulty. What then shall we do? Simply rest in Christ.

 

God finds His rest and
satisfaction in His beloved Son. "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased" (Matt. 3:17). Would that we all might say as to our
experience, "Christ is all" (Col. 3:11), and be careful for nothing,
thankful for anything, prayerful in everything.

 

"The Lord is at hand. Be
careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus" (Phil. 4:5-7). May the Lord lead our hearts into the patient
waiting for His dear Son, for His name’s sake.

 

(From Help and Food, Vol.
23.)

 

FRAGMENT.
Satan is constantly trying to awaken or strengthen within us a high opinion of
ourselves, knowing that this will weaken our sense of dependence on Jesus,
making us unloving toward each other, and put us off our guard.

My life is but a weaving between
my Lord and me,

I cannot choose the colors He
worketh steadily.

Oft times He weaveth sorrow and
I in foolish pride

Forget He sees the upper and I,
the underside.

 

Not till the loom is silent and
the shuttles cease to fly

Shall God unroll the canvas and
explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
in the Weaver’s skillful hand

As the
threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.