Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle
[dove] and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My
people know not the judgment of the LORD

Yea, the stork in the heaven
knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle [dove] and the crane and the
swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know not the judgment
of the LORD. How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us?
Lo, certainly in vain made He it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise
men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken:lo, they have rejected the word
of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them? Jeremiah 8:7-9

 

The end of the year is near. The
swallows are gone; the cold blasts ,of winter are come; but not one swallow is
left behind. We saw them gathered together, and they  were seen to fly higher
as the time to depart drew nearer. No one saw them go. But they are gone to
sunny lands of the south. The frost and the snow, the sleet and piercing winds
of winter never reach them there. Very remarkable is this instinct of the
birds. "Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the
turtle [dove] and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming;
but My people know not the judgment of the LORD."

 

Is there not a lesson for us in
this instinct of the birds? It was pleasing to watch the swallows as the winter
drew near, gathering in companies, seeming to wait for the wanderers. Then they
would fly high as wanting to be gone. We thought, Is not the Holy Spirit now
gathering Christians together in little companies to Christ? Now here, now
there, a wanderer is coming in. Should we not fly higher? We, like the
swallows, are about to leave this scene below. Already signs of this world’s
judgment begin to flit across its autumn sky. And now every swallow soars ready
to depart, moved by one common instinct. Oh that every Christian were seen
manifestly ready to depart, moved by the Spirit of God.

 

But will it be with the whole Church of God as with the swallows? Yes, the Holy Ghost is already gathering souls in
little companies to Christ. He has revealed to them afresh, after many
centuries, the heavenly Bridegroom and the heavenly calling of the Church. He
is leading their thoughts and hearts higher and higher yet. And soon, very
soon, though the world will not see them go, every believer shall be gone, not
one left behind. "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:and the dead
in Christ shall rise first:  then we which are alive and remain shall be caught
up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air and so shall
we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). Are not these the inspired
words of sober reality? Yes, brethren, we shall all be gone — not one left
behind — to be forever with the Lord. As the swallows gone to more sunny
shores, oh, what will it be to be caught up away from the scenes of this world’s
wintry woes, and judgments, and in peaceful rest enter the glory of our Lord!

 

And if God never fails to take
at the appointed time, the stork, the crane, and the swallow, can He possibly
fail at the appointed time to take the saints to meet their Lord? Is it not sad
and humbling that the Lord should have to complain that though the swallows
know their appointed time "[His] people know not the judgment of the
LORD"? Is not this as true now of Christendom as it was of Israel then? What profound ignorance there is on this important subject "My people
know not." Men go on dreaming of continual summer, yes, of increasing
sunshine, peace, temperance, prosperity — just at the very time when the saints
are about to be gone like the swallows of autumn, and the storms of this
world’s wintry blasts are about to take all that remain by surprise ( 1
Thess.5:1-9).

It is incredible how utterly
unaware the learned of this world are of the wintry judgments about to be
poured out on the nations of the earth. "How do ye say, We are wise, and
the law of the LORD is with us?"

 

Never was there a day of more
boasting:"We are wise." It is quite true that the Word of God is in
men’s hands, but who believes it? The rapture of the Church before the day of
the Lord is clearly revealed. God has said it. He has made perfectly clear both
the departure of His saints to meet the Lord in the air and the terrible
judgments that shall follow. Has He made it clear? Yes, but “Lo, certainly in
vain made He it; the pen of the scribes is in vain;" Yes, in vain has God
spoken in His Word; men will not believe Him. "Making the word of God of
none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered:and many such like
things do ye" (Mark 7:13).

 

Let us now pass on to the
December of this world before the new era of the millennial kingdom begins
(Jer. 8:9). "The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken:lo,
they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?"

 

Let us anticipate what these
learned men, these rejecters of the Word of God will say:"How strange
this is; those Christians we despised are all gone, like the swallows of
autumn. Not one of them can be found on earth. How we laughed and hated their
gathering together! What fools we thought them because they would fly higher;
for they said their Lord was coming to take them. They spoke of their heavenly
calling and would have nothing to do with our earthly societies and politics.
We scorned them because they would not join our various schemes for the
improvement of man. We hated the thought that we were not to glory save in the
cross of Christ. They gathered together — poor little despised companies —- and
told of the coming Saviour to the wanderers all around. No one saw them go, but
they are gone. And now the world’s wild, fierce, wintry blasts are blowing.
Where is all our boasted wisdom? Peace is taken from the earth. All that we
hear on every side is that men are killing one another. Famine and pestilence,
sword, hunger, and death are all around. Woe, woe to us, the winter of this
world is come.

 

"And the kings of the
earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains . .  hid
themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the
mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb" (Rev. 6:15,16).

 

"We rejected the Word of
the Lord, but now the Christians are gone, and the great day of His wrath is
come; we seek death and do not find it (Rev. 9:6). Where is now our boasted
wisdom? We are worshiping devils and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and
stone, and of wood’ (Rev. 9:20). And what is the end of all our politics? What
strange events since the winter set in and the Church is gone! It is not yet forty-two
months since the new last head of the Roman Empire appeared. But oh, what
months. The dragon has given him his power. Ten kingdoms have sprung up and
given their power to this Satanic head. When he opens his month it is to
blaspheme. All that dwell on earth worship him; all that refuse are boycotted
and put to death. It is true that all this was distinctly foretold in
Scripture, but we were far too wise then to believe what God said to His
servants in Revelation 6, 9, 13, and 17. Certainly there never was such a
winter as this since the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be. Jesus
said it would be so, but we did not believe Him" (Matt. 24:21).

Yes, "The wise men are
ashamed, they are dismayed and taken:lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD;
and what wisdom is in them?"

 

And now, beloved reader, where
are you, and what is the condition of your soul? Are you cleansed by the blood
of the Lamb, and ready to be gone like the swallows in autumn? Are you
following the wise men of this world, who will so soon be ashamed and
confounded? Is Christ the center of attraction? Are you separated to Him and
waiting for Him from heaven? Great is the last effort to draw Christians from
Christ to join the confederacies of men. Oh, let us seek to get higher and
higher. The Word of God is utterly disregarded. On no account will men have
Christ alone. They would have Christ and circumcision, Christ and the world’s
various confederacies, or even Christ and profanity. All these things hide the
coming of the Lord to take His saints. Every doctrine of human improvement
denies the utter ruin of man through sin and the fast approaching winter of
divine judgment on the rejecters and despisers of the Word of God. It is
solemnly true of the great men and the wise of the world, “They have rejected
the word of the LORD.” The mark of a Christian is, "Thou. . . hast kept My
word and hast not denied My name" (Rev:5:8). Which is true of you,
beloved reader? Whatever name you may bear, if you have not kept His Word you
are not a Christian and will surely be left behind when the Christians depart
like the swallows that are gone.

 

Can you for a moment admit that
the instinct of a bird is more sure than the words of the Saviour? As this
world’s winter approaches, let us then dwell on the words of Jesus. He cannot
fail to fulfill His promise. We may not know where the swallows go; but Jesus
says to us, "In My Father’s house are many mansions:if it were not so, I
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare 
a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I
am, there ye may be also" (John 14:2,3). Do we hear you saying, ”Yes,
Jesus says so, but our learned, wise teachers do not say so"? Remember the
word, "They have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in
them?"

 

It is a solemn fact that God by
His Spirit has sent forth the midnight cry, "Behold, the bridegroom; go
forth to meet him" (Matt. 25:6, J.N.D. trans.) and they have rejected the
Word of the Lord. God grant that we may not put our trust in man, for what
wisdom is in him?

 

May the saints of God be now
gathered together like the swallows in autumn, May we love to dwell on His
sweet words of promise. Has He not gone to prepare the place? Oh, those scenes
of radiant glory, far away from earth’s cold wintry blasts! And will He not
come to take us to Himself? With Himself! How soon, like Moses and Elias, shall
we be talking with Him! Glorious reality! Soon we shall be gone; not one will
be left behind,; and poor deceived apostate Christendom will be left to
"become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a
cage of every unclean and hateful bird" (Rev. 18:2). Blessed comfort—-
"the Lord knoweth them that are His" (2 Tim. 2:19), and none shall be
left behind.

 

"Wherefore He saith, Awake
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee
light" (Eph. 5:14).

 

Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to
the churches of Galatia, even so do ye

Now concerning the collection
for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as
God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come, 1 Cor. 16:1,
2.

 

The apostle lays down a weighty
exhortation as to collections for the saints. He puts it on the ground of their
being prospered in any degree and connects it with the special day of Christian
enjoyment, when they gather together for the communion of saints, "Upon
the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath
prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." Need it be said
how human influence has dislocated the truth there? No doubt this was precisely
what the apostle, or rather the Holy Ghost, discerned to be at work at Corinth. The same mistake that has wrought so malignantly in Christendom, that is to say,
personal rank, learning, eloquence, or a great name (as of an apostle for
instance) is invoked to call out the generosity of the saints (perhaps even of
the world) and increase the proceeds by all these or like means.

 

But is there not another danger?
Is there no snare for us, beloved brethren? When persons are more or less free
from the ordinary burden of tradition, when they are not so much under the
influence of excitement, and of those appeals to the love of being known and of
pleasing this or that man, or the cause, or any of those human motives that
often do operate, I apprehend that they are exposed to danger in a wholly
opposite direction. Do we sufficiently make it a matter of personal
responsibility to the Lord to give, and that in connection with the first day
of the week and its blessed surroundings and objects when we meet at His table?
Do we every one of us give as we are prospered by the way?

 

It is very well to keep clear of
human influence, but let us see to it that we do not forget that "the Lord
has need" of our giving for the proposes He loves here below. And of this
I am sure, that if we have rightly cast aside mere human calls, and if we do
thank God for the deliverance from worldly influence, and from the power of
custom, and public opinion, it would be a deep reproach if we did not give
twice as much now under the grace
that confides in us as we did under the law that used to govern us. Your own
consciences must answer whether you can meet the Lord about this matter. I
believe that we are in no small danger of settling down in the conviction that
our old way was quite wrong and simply keeping the money in our pockets. It
does seem to me, I confess, that bad as human pressure may be in order to raise
money, bad as may be a variety of earthly objects in this way or that, bad as a
worldly lavish expenditure is, after all, a selfish personal keeping to
ourselves of what we have is the worst thing of all.

 

I am
quite persuaded that the danger of the saints of God who have been brought
outside the camp lies here — lest, delivered from what they know to be wrong,
they may not seek in this an exercised conscience. Standing in the
consciousness of the power of God’s grace, they need to be continually looking
out that they be devoted to Him. To cease doing what was done in a wrong way,
and sometimes for wrong ends too, is not enough. Let there be zealous and
vigilant exercise of soul, and inquiry how to carry out right objects in right
ways, and so much the more, if indeed a simpler, fuller knowledge of God’s
grace and of Christ’s glory has been given us.

How much the future has before us

How much the future has before
us! What is hidden in this year on which we shall soon enter, if the Lord
tarry? We know not what a day may bring forth. But we do know this, that there
are good things to come in the future. The good things of Christ will be
sufficient for us for the rest of our lives. Look on down the whole vista of
your life until the very last moment when you will be ushered into the presence
of the Lord. Is it not only good things to come all the way through? And then,
dear brethren, as faith looks upward, and we think of the glory that is just
beyond, where He is, that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, surely the good things are yet to come. As
eternity rolls on, we will never, never exhaust the fulness of blessing that
the heart of God and the love of Christ have secured for us. And you can write
over the portals of heaven itself, GOOD THINGS TO COME. There will be perennial
enjoyment and fresh surprises as we share with our blessed Lord the fruits of
what He has won for us.

 

Contrast
those "good things to come" (Heb, 9:11), the fruit of redemption,
with that awful word of judgment, "wrath to come." {Luke 3:7). (Some
may need just such a word.) You remember John the Baptist said to those who
insincerely came out to his baptism, "Who hath warned you to flee from the
wrath to come?" There is wrath to come. Fortunes may be increased,
pleasures may be indulged in, but there is "wrath to come." Years of
God’s patience, years of mercy despised, of warnings unheeded are treasuring up
wrath against the day of wrath. And when comes the end of time, looking back
upon a Christless life and forward into a Christless eternity, oh awful
thought, it is wrath to come! Ah, dear friends that place of wrath, in the outer
darkness where there is weeping and the gnashing of teeth, is no temporary
banishment nor purifying fire. It is no place from which he will one day emerge
a wiser man, ready to accept the finished work of Christ. The day of grace will
be eternally past, and throughout eternity, solemn and awful thought, it will
be still WRATH TO COME. As you think of it, should it not fill the heart with
yearning, with longing for the salvation of souls? Should it not make us
instant in season, out of season? Daily we meet men who are going on to the
wrath to come and we are going on to the good things to come. Shall we not,
knowing the terror of the Lord, persuade men? Shall we not entreat them, yea,
shall we not go out and compel them to come in?" "Turn ye, . . . for
why will ye die?" (Ezek. 33:11)

Ecumenism, a new word not found in older dictionaries, is the cry of the
day

Ecumenism, a new word not found
in older dictionaries, is the cry of the day. What does it mean? As it applies
to the Church it means a church of world-wide influence and scope. Ecumenism is
the spirit of the day attempting to reunite Christendom.

 

The Church, as man sees it, is
divided into many fragments such as denominations. These divisions have
occurred from basic differences in teachings from the Bible, various practices
in conduct, acts of discipline not acceptable to all, and a host of other
reasons. Each division serves to mar the unity of the outward testimony of the
Church. The lack of unity in Christendom causes shame to every humble Christian
as well as adds perplexity to the earnest inquirer. We can surely say with the
householder, "An enemy hath done this."

 

Many attempts have been made
toward Christian unity. Until recent years these have generally met with
failure and resulted in added confusion. However, in recent years various
national and world councils of churches have been formed giving a broad basis
for co-operation and partial unity of action. The apparent success of at least
a partial unity has been widely acclaimed as a great stride in Christian
brotherhood. We are supposed to believe that heaven is pleased with the progress
toward unity so far realized here on earth. Certain church mergers have been
consummated; others are in progress, and who knows what is in the planning. We
recognize all these mergers as efforts to make the church more world-wide or
ecumenical. The obvious end, when the goals are realized, will be a Babel-like
unity representing all Christendom under one head — not Christ in Heaven but a
presumptuous earthly vicar.

 

There is little cause for fear
that Bible-believing, God-fearing Christians will be ensnared in the more
glaring apostasies and the more obvious unholy alliances. Yet, we have
perceived "ecumenical movements" among just such groups of Christians.
The spirit of the day is one of uniting human forces, instead of casting
ourselves on God, in order to combat the influence of the National Council of
Churches and the larger World Council. Even these smaller church councils seem
willing to unite with too many in order to increase the power of their voice.

 

We have said little of the place
the Word and truth of God are given in these unitings. We rarely, if ever, hear
of an occasion where God-wrought repentance and confession of error form the
basis for such comings together. The common basis of merger seems generally to
be that a political face-saving is arranged by the hierarchy, and the doctrines
stated so broadly as to encompass both previously opposing views on various
issues.

 

Confessing, as we must, our part
in the failure of the Church as committed into the hands of man, we can only
lament all these compromises between truth and error, uniting the precious with
the vile, under light so dim as to make the difference between sheep and wolf
hardy perceptible. What shall we say, however, when the leaven of the spirit of
ecumenism has influenced some among the Lord’s people such that one
occasionally hears the plea to forget the past (and it does cause distinct
sorrow to review or remember it), letting bygones be bygones, and come together
or unite simply as Christians?

 

The history of the Church cannot
be reviewed without a sense of sorrow as to the many failures of God’s people.
But let us not be tricked by subtle conceit to think that our presence in
earlier days would have altered the course of events. We who are perplexed by
present problems are not in any wise inherently more immune to repeating past
failures than those who were involved in them. That certain separations between
Christians should never have happened, most readily admit. But it is another
matter to confess our part in that failure in much humiliation and repentance.
God in His sovereignty may see fit to bless such penitent confessors with a
true healing of some of the breaches of the past. But we cannot return the
testimony of the Church to the earlier pristine brightness and unity of
Pentecost. The word of God to Rehoboam as to the division between Israel’s tribes was, "This thing is from me" (1 Kings 12:24). Although not
pleased with the resulting division in itself, we are persuaded that God
allowed it. It also seems that the Lord will suffer the blemishes of division
to remain on the visible Church until He raptures His own to Himself,
presenting His bride then without spot or wrinkle or any such thing as
division.

 

In the
meantime, while He tarries, as we watch and wait, may our hearts be enlarged to
love and help all who are fellow members of that body while keeping our feet in
the path of separation and ourselves free from the spirit of the day — even
ecumenism.

William Farel was a faithful man of God during the struggle of light
against spiritual darkness in Switzerland

William Farel was a faithful man
of God during the struggle of light against spiritual darkness in Switzerland. In the year 1536 he learned that John Calvin had come to Geneva.

 

Farel had been long praying for
help; he believed that God had now sent it. He had read Calvin’s Institutes,
and in his mind Calvin was the very man to consolidate the work so well begun.
Farel contacted him and learned to his dismay that Calvin could stop only one night.

 

"Why seek elsewhere for
what is now offered you? Why refuse to edify the church of Geneva by your faith, zeal, and knowledge?"

 

Calvin shrank from it, saying at
last, "I cannot teach:on the contrary, I have need to learn. There are
special tabors for which I wish to reserve myself. This city cannot afford me
the leisure I require."

 

"Study, leisure, knowledge!
What, must we never practice? I am sinking under my task:pray help
me."

 

Calvin said he was weak and
needed rest.

 

"Rest! Death alone permits
the soldiers of Christ to rest from their labors;"

 

Calvin said he was timid. He
could not battle with such strong spirits as the men of Geneva.

 

"Ought the servants of
Jesus Christ to be so delicate as to be frightened at warfare?"

 

Calvin was moved at the thought
that he should be a coward but begged to be let go his way.

 

Farel reminded him of Jonah and
the punishment he received but still could not get Calvin’s consent. Then
Farel, as if inspired, put his hand on Calvin’s head and with a piercing look
said, "May God curse your repose! May God curse your studies, if in such a
great necessity as ours you withdraw and refuse to give us help and
support"

 

Calvin broke down and shook in
every limb. He felt as if God had seized him. He must obey. He was won for Geneva,

 

Calvin, once settled in Geneva, soon took the lead. He had a very difficult task. The whole populace was now
supposed to be Protestant and nominally Christian, but many were unconverted.
Calvin attempted to enforce at least morality on the people, but many rejected
even this. They desired to please themselves and to be religious only as far as
it suited them. On this account Calvin with Farel and Courad (a minister from Paris) said they could not give the Lord’s supper to some of the people. The council, being
appealed to, met and ordered the three ministers to leave Geneva.

 

The foregoing, slightly altered,
taken from Lights and Shadows of the Reformation presents briefly the
conditions existing in those stirring times. The exercises of these men, who
sought to be faithful with the light they had, brought them into conflict with
the almost overwhelming tide of Romish tradition and practice. God in His mercy
delivered many from mere religion to salvation through Christ and His work on
the cross of Calvary.

 

It appears from records,
however, that Calvin was not clear on some vital doctrines, teaching that by
baptism all became a part of the church and insisting that baptism was "to
give us an entrance into the church of God" and the Lord’s supper was
"to keep us in it."

 

Farel’s faithfulness toward
Calvin, leading him to step into the crisis that then existed when he felt his
great weakness and would excuse himself to less strenuous work, is worthy of
recognition. William Farel was not martyred as so many of God’s faithful ones
were in those times. But he often suffered for the truth’s sake, and had not
the Lord come in and protected him he would have been killed on a number of
occasions.

 

Farel’s pronouncement of a curse
upon Calvin’s lethargy and self-consideration reminds us of what we read in the
song of Deborah and Barak after the battle and victory over the Canaanites
recorded in Judges 5:23. "Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD,
curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of
the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty." They could sit by
complacently and let others carry on and fight for the Lord.

 

Oh, how much the Lord’s people
might do to help the cause of Christ even in this day, by prayer communication,
and helpful encouragement.

 

Zebulun and Naphtali jeoparded
their lives and were commended (Judges 5:18).  Two women, Deborah and Jael (the
wife of Heber), were also commended for faithful service in their own spheres.

 

 

In our July issue, we reviewed Shall Never Perish by J

In our July issue, we reviewed Shall
Never Perish by J. F. Strombeck. In trying to unravel the apparent double
talk of the author on the subject of free will or man’s "free moral
agency," we fear our own tongue got somewhat twisted. This issue should be
clarified for the reader and some of our statements on pages 87 and 88
corrected.

 

"Free moral agency"
for man means that he has the free and unaffected ability to choose and act as
he may desire. It does not necessarily imply the knowledge of good and evil as
we previously stated. In the garden of Eden before Adam fell into sin, he was innocent
and knew neither good nor evil, but he did know God’s will for him. Dominion
over creation was given him; he was to dress the garden and eat its fruit
except that of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He was and acted as
a free moral agent until he disobeyed God. Adam did not cease to be a moral
agent after his disobedience even with the newly acquired knowledge of good and
evil. But he was no longer free and found himself estranged from God and
enslaved to sin and Satan. Men have not descended from Adam when he was
innocent (as a free moral agent) but rather from Adam fallen in sin.

 

The following Letter on Free
Will by J. N. Darby may further clarify the truth.                                     

 

If the
Son therefore shall make, you free, ye shall be free indeed. Joan 8:36

Elberfeld, October 23, 1861

Elberfeld, October 23, 1861

           

Very dear brother,

 

I had a little lost sight of an
important subject of your last letter solely through the multitude of my
occupations. This fresh breaking out of the doctrine of free will promotes the
doctrine of the natural man’s pretension not to be entirely lost, for that is
really what it amounts to. All men who have never been deeply convinced of sin,
all persons with whom this conviction is based upon gross and outward sins,
believe more or less in free will You know that it is the dogma of the
Wesleyans, of all reasoners, of all philosophers. But this idea completely
changes all the idea of Christianity and entirely perverts it.

 

If Christ has come to save that
which is lost, free will has no longer any place. Not that God hinders man from
receiving Christ — far from it. But even when God employs all possible motives,
everything which is capable of influencing the heart of man, it only serves to
demonstrate that man will have none of it, that his heart is so corrupted and
his will so decided not to submit to God (whatever may be the truth of the
devil’s encouraging him in sin) that nothing can induce him to receive the Lord
and to abandon sin. If, by liberty of man, it is meant that no one obliges him
to reject the Lord, this liberty exists fully. But if it is meant that, because
of the dominion of sin to which he is a slave, and willingly a slave, he cannot
escape from his state and choose good (while acknowledging that it is good, and
approving it) then he has no liberty whatever. He is not subject to the law,
neither indeed can be; so that those who are "in the flesh cannot please
God."

 

And here is where we touch more
closely upon the bottom of the question. Is it the old man that is changed, instructed,
and sanctified? or do we receive, in order to be saved, a new nature? The
universal character of the unbelief of these times is not the formal denying of
Christianity, as heretofore, or the rejection of Christ openly, but is the
receiving Him as a person, it will be even said divine, inspired (but as a
matter of degree), who re-establishes man in his position of a child of God.
Where Wesleyans are taught of God, faith makes them feel that without Christ
they are lost, and that it is a question of salvation. Only their fright with
regard to pure grace, their desire to gain men, a mixture of charity and of the
spirit of man, in a word, their confidence in their own powers, makes them have
a confused teaching and not recognize the total fall of man.

 

For myself, I see in the Word,
and I recognize in myself, the total ruin of man. I see that the cross is the
end of all the means that God had employed for gaining the heart of man, and
therefore proves that the tiling was impossible. God has exhausted all His
resources, and man has shown that he is wicked, without remedy, and the cross
of Christ condemns man — sin in the flesh. But this condemnation having been
manifested in another’s having undergone it, it is the absolute salvation of
those who believe; for condemnation, the judgment of sin, is behind us; life
was the issue of it in the resurrection. We are dead to sin, and alive to God
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Redemption, the very word, loses its force when one
entertains these ideas of the old man. It becomes an improvement, a practical
deliverance from a moral state, riot a redeeming by the accomplished work of
another person. Christianity teaches the death of the old man and his just
condemnation, then redemption accomplished by Christ, and a new life, eternal
life, come down from heaven in His person, and which is communicated to
us when Christ enters us by the word. Arminianism, or rather Pelagianism,
pretends that man can choose and that thus the old man is improved by the thing
it has accepted. The first step is made without grace, and it is the first step
which costs truly in this case. I believe we ought to hold to the words but,
philosophically and morally speaking, free will is a false and absurd theory.
Free will is a state of sin. Man ought not to have to choose, as being outside
good, Why is he in this state? He ought not to have a will, any choice to make.
He ought to obey and enjoy in peace. If he ought to choose good, then he has
not got it yet. He is without what is good in himself, anyway, since he has not
made his decision. But, in fact, man is disposed to follow that which is evil.
What cruelty to propose a duty to man who has already turned to evil! Moreover,
philosophically speaking, he must be indifferent; otherwise he has already chosen
as to his will — he must then be absolutely indifferent. But if he is
absolutely indifferent, what is to decide his choice? A creature must have a
motive; but he has none, since he is indifferent; if he is not, he has chosen.

 

Finally, it is not at all thus:
man has a conscience; but he has a will and lusts, and they lead him. Man was
free in Paradise, but then he enjoyed what was good. He used his free choice,
and therefore he is a sinner. To leave him to his free choice, now that he is
disposed to do evil, would be a cruelty. God has presented the choice to him,
but it was to convince the conscience of the fact that in no case did man want
either good or God.

 

I have been somewhat oppressed
with sleep while writing to you, but I think you will understand me. That
people should believe that God loves the world — this is very well; but that
they should not believe that man is in himself wicked, without remedy (and in
spite of the remedy), is very bad. One does not know oneself and one does not
know God.

 

. . .The Lord is coming, dear
brother; the time for the world is departing. What a blessing if my God find us
watching and thinking only of one thing — the One of whom He thinks — Jesus our
precious Saviour. Salute the brethren.

 

Your very affectionate brother,                                                                                                             

 

J. N. Darby

 

FRAGMENT:It is not my mind at
work on God’s truth it is God’s truth at work on my mind. If you have the
unction from the Holy One, you need to look to God to have His truth so brought
home to you. A person may be holding truth himself, instead of having it as a
girdle round him. There is all the difference possible in our grasping at
truth, and truth holding as.

 

The more Christ is objectively
our portion and occupation, the more shall we resemble Him subjectively.