Part 3

Communion with Christ can only be kept up by constant watchfulness. Where there is much love between friends, a cold look is matter of complaint. Let us be very jealous over ourselves for the Lord; watching against the least shyness between the soul and Christ. Keep up constant intercourse with Him; be quick and dexterous in taking small matters to Him; and the fruit will be growth of communion.

Though in a season of temptation we may see nothing in ourselves but what is vile and hateful, our very struggles of love after Christ betoken His Spirit dwelling within us.

If we would have experience of the sympathy of the Lord Jesus, we must be much at His cross, and be much occupied with the sorrows of others.

There is a short road to comfort in affliction that few of God's people tread; it is to be thinking much more of Christ's blessedness than of our own sorrow; but, alas! sympathy is for the most part all on one side. Christ has perfect sympathy with us. Oh that we had fellowship with Him in His joy at the right hand of God!

Though Christ can be grieved at a thousand things in us that no eye but His can see, yet none so easily pleased as He by our little endeavours of love.

Our joy in Christ speaks a language that all hearts can understand, and is a testimony for Him, such as mere knowledge and utterance can never give.

It is but a small proof of love to visit a friend who lives next door, but to go to a distance over hill and dale bespeaks love indeed. Let us show our love to Christ, by sparing no pains, no labour, in order to seek Him in prayer, in reading the word, and in meditation thereon. Let us joyfully surmount all difficulties, and joyful communion will be our recompense.

If we do anything without taking counsel of God, we—to speak of Him after the manner of men—hide the matter from Him our Father, and so grieve His Spirit. We do Him wrong, and ourselves also, if in anything we have not fellowship with Him.

When it is whispered by the Spirit of God, that He who is at God's right hand would be honoured if we do such a thing, or if we do it not—if we disregard the still small voice, although we may not be put to open shame, we shall miss the smile of approval so precious to the obedient child.

The cause of lack of communion with God is summed up in this -- disobedience. Another may take away my substance, or my life, but cannot spoil me of my communion with God; if I lack this, I am myself the thief and the robber.

We ought to be always happy in God, and in His ways; if we are not, we mar the quality of our obedience.

We are never so well prepared for effectual service to man, as when we are holding fellowship with God.

Let us be skilful to make God's matters ours: then shall we see that He makes our matters His.

Those who know what it is to deal much with God, know that their hopes and desires must, as it were, be buried, and that they must leave it with Him to bring about a resurrection in His own time and way.

God measures out His communion of love according to diligence in seeking Him.

It is well for us to shut up our desires within the compass of trusting and pleasing God.

If our fellowship be with the Father and His dear Son, we shall know from the character of our Father what are His wishes. Errors in judgment spring more or less from lack of fellowship with Him. Acquaintance with His heart of love will enlarge ours.

We have access to God with boldness and confidence through Jesus, the Son of the Father. Do we tell out our tale at the throne of grace? Fellowship signifies the opening the heart on both sides, and that without reserve.

Christ

Christ twice passed the angels by. He sank far below them in His humiliation; He rose far above them in His exaltation.

If Christ be the life and beauty of our days of sunshine, so is He the brother born for our adversity; and His love shall gild and strike through the darkest cloud. Having been once a sufferer, He communes with His suffering members, and instructs us to put our trials into a just balance; to call our affliction light and momentary. (2 Cor. 4:17.18.)

Resting wholly on Christ; ceasing wholly from the works of the flesh—is the secret of abiding in Him.

Growing acquaintance with Christ makes Him more and more precious to our souls. If Christ were anything less than unsearchable, He could not satisfy us—could neither fill the heart, nor give peace to the conscience.

The strength of love is shown in great things; the tenderness of love in little things. Christ showed the strength of His love on the cross by dying and bearing the curse for us; the tenderness of His love when He said, "Behold My mother!" "Children, have ye any meat?" "Woman, why weepest thou?"

There was an immeasurable difference between the state of Christ on the cross when He said, under the terrors of the Judge, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" and when He said, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit."

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). He could not sink lower than His cross: we can no more fathom the depths of His humiliation than comprehend the glory of His Godhead. His exaltation answers to His cross. He cannot rise higher than the right hand of God, nor find sweeter resting-place from His sufferings and His toil than the bosom of the Father. His rest and exaltation we must share, being joint-heirs with Christ; nor will He be satisfied until His members be seated with Him on His throne. Then let this mind rule and reign in us which reigned in Christ Jesus (see Phil. 2:5-15); and since the humble mind, so hard of attainment, must needs go before honour from God, let us be thankful for all God's discipline, however bitter, without which pride will not stoop, nor vain man come to knowledge of himself.

May the fulness of Christ replenish our enlarged hearts day by day. By communion with Him the soul grows more and more capacious, and yet acquaintance with Him makes us feel more and more our own littleness.

Let it be our habit to feed daily upon Christ in secret; thus shall we eat and drink, discerning the Lord's body, in the assembly for the supper of the Lord.

Would we be filled with love towards Christ—let us consider Christ's love towards us in the death of the cross.

Christ and the Church

"How precious, also, are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!" (Ps. 139:17). This is the language of Christ, the Head, regarding the members as one with Himself. The Epistle to the Ephesians is the beating out of this piece of gold.

Never take a winding path to look for acceptance with God -- go straight to Christ; but when you would look at the children of God, look well at _Christ first_, and then see the saints in Him.

Christ calls Himself the Husband of His Church, because the bond of marriage is the closest and tenderest of all human ties; and to show the purity of His love, He calls her at the same time His sister. His tenderness delights to take occasion by the infirmities of His spouse. She leans on Him, not only for support, protection, and guidance, but also and chiefly for communion; and leaning is melted into adoring love, which is to Him as spiced wine. He sees His own image in the Church, and this is among His chief joys.

It was the Bridegroom who bare the sins of His spouse in His own body on the tree. What other burden will He not bear? Even the troubles that our own folly brings upon us are occasions to His love, if we do but cast the burden upon Him; but if we do not judge ourselves, He knows how to chasten us to bring us to self-judgment, that He may comfort His mourners with His immeasurable grace and love.

The lonely, the mournful, the friendless, the tempted, the dejected, the despised, the forsaken, the outcast, Christ will wait on each one of them, whatever his case, as though that one were His only charge. By this exact and special oversight of each member of His body, how precious, how lovely, how glorious, does Christ appear!

If Christ will not be satisfied with His present glory at the right hand of God without having His Church, the members of His body, with Him, how can we be content without Him in this valley of the shadow of death, this present evil world?

The candlestick in the temple was a type of the Church. It was for the high priest to supply the oil, to trim the lamp, to watch and tend it; the light must be ever brightly burning.

The ruin of a kingdom is a little thing in God's sight, in comparison with division among a handful of sinners redeemed by the blood of Christ.

When the body is in perfect health, there is a noiseless, perfect co-operation of the members; so was it with the church at Pentecost, and so it ought to be with us now.

To reform the Church of God we should always begin with self-reform. Schisms and divisions will increase so long as we begin with reforming others. Wisdom is only with the lowly.

Every kind of self-pleasing is rebuked and put down in the 2nd of Philippians; but, alas! the Church of God in these days is more like the carnal, puffed up, schismatic Corinthians, than the lowly saints at Philippi, whose fellowship in the Spirit made glad the heart of Paul.

The new creation is God's delight; of that new creation Christ is the Head; as one with the Church Christ stands before God.

The Church, the body of Christ, cannot rise above its present low estate, until there be a conscience in the members of fulfilling each one his office in the body.

While I mourn over schisms and divisions in the Church of God I justify God, and bless Him for the wisdom and equity of His discipline: He gives us to reap as we sow.

The titles given to the Church in Scripture bespeak heavenly unity, such as "the body," "the vine," "temple of God," "a holy nation," "a chosen generation," "a royal priesthood." Such words set forth the church of God as a witness for Him in the world; but the names which have been invented by men are names of sects, and declare our shame.

The Church of God is a field that needs double ploughing.

Christ ever enjoys perfect communion with His Father; He craves also communion with us His members (Rev. 3:20); and when this is denied Him by our ways of selfishness, He turns to the Father, and finds joy and rest in communion with Him. The mourners in the Church of God over its low estate must in like manner betake themselves to the Father and the Son, for fellowship by the Spirit, when they cannot find what their hearts long after among their brethren.

The ark of God at Jordan went before the people—was in their midst—followed after. Christ is the leader, the rereward, and the glory in the midst of the Church; their life, and bond of fellowship.

As Christ is the brightness of the glory of the Father, so is the Church the brightness of Christ's glory. He, as the Sun of righteousness, sheds forth, through the church, the beams of His light.

As without Christ the perfections of the Father were not manifested, so the glory of Christ was not shown until His body the Church, which is His fulness, was manifested. But the Church does not shine by native excellency; she is made up of those who, being by nature vile and of the earth, are created anew by the Spirit of God. The life, beauty, and glory of the Church are all from Christ her Lord derived. Whereas Christ is by nature the brightness of the Father's glory.

The Holy Spirit

How sure a teacher is the Spirit of Truth! He "searcheth all things: yea, the deep things of God" (1 Cor. 2:10). He comprehends the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, and all the windings of the heart of man. He is the Paraclete within us, pleading for Christ with our heart, printing the name of Jesus on its fleshly tables, and causing us to increase in the knowledge of God. We never give up what by His anointing we have once embraced; it is graven on the heart as with the point of a diamond.

The Spirit of God, who is of one mind with Christ, the Son of God, dwells in believers by virtue of their oneness with Christ; and, although so often grieved, will never give up to destruction any one, even the weakest, of Christ's members.

God always dwells by His Holy Spirit in His people. Let us be careful not to grieve this glorious Paraclete. Let us be looking continually at the blood of Christ, and watch against little trespasses, little breaches of love, suspicions, rash censures, and coldness of heart.

By the mere natural understanding men may learn much of the truth of God, but afterwards renounce and deny it. If by the Spirit's unction we learn anything, we hold it fast. His true teaching carries with it assurance to the soul that it is God's truth we are learning. Of this assurance Satan has his counterfeit, and only by walking humbly with God shall we detect the fraud.

Christ's Example

"He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked" (1 John 2:6). Christ's Example is our rule. It is to the Christian what imperial weights and measures are to men of traffic: from that standard there is no appeal.

It is not in every _act_ of the blessed Lord that we should follow Him; but the mind of Christ is always our pattern. Instance: His forty days' fasting. His precepts will guide us to discern His mind in considering His acts.

Adam, by creation God's servant, brake away from the yoke: Christ, the Son of God, took on Him the servant's form.

The children of God cannot grow in the knowledge of their own hearts, unless they be accustomed to set the Example of Christ before their inward eye. We ought to try our spirits, aims, thoughts, and desires, by the example of Christ. If we do this, we shall discern the current of self-willed pride running through our corrupt nature. A great discovery!

The Saviour was especially pleasing to God when He was dumb, and opened not His mouth—doing nothing, only suffering the will of God. It is well with us when treading in our Master's steps.

The child of God proves the strength and grace of His heavenly Father only as he walks in the ways of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Trial of Faith

We are to distinguish between Trial of Faith and chastisement: in the former case we readily bow, and bring forth fruits of grace; but if we be rebellious, we are under correction.

Paul's thorn in the flesh was God's gift to preserve him from pride, although it was the messenger of Satan to buffet him. Thus God uses the Wicked One for our profit, for the glory of His all-sufficient grace, and for the Tempter's confusion.

Our trials are needful now for the exercise and growth of faith, and no less needful for our joy and glory at the appearing of the Lord.

Temptation to sin is painful to us only as we are sanctified by the Spirit of grace, and walk with God.

We ought not to wish for deliverance from trial until the trial has done its office. Shall the gold be taken out of the furnace before the dross has been consumed?

Faith's expectation in the day of trouble is large showers of blessing.

Sorrow and temptation (Pet. 1:6.7) are the seeds of joy and praise. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy" (Ps. 126:5).

Confidence in God proves itself in time of Trial; it grows in the day of battle. David, in the valley of Elah, was most bold when the giant cursed him, and drew nigh to slay him.

God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: we have oneness with Christ; we have faith and the Spirit: what more, then, do we need but the Trial of Faith and the Spirit's fellowship?

If we have a steadfast purpose to overcome temptation, sooner or later we surely prevail. Abraham, through the weakness of the flesh, did not leave his father when God commanded him to go into the land of Canaan; but it was his steadfast purpose to obey God; so that at the last, when he offered up Isaac, he conferred not with flesh and blood.

Are we content to leave our cause in the hands of God? Job should have done this at the first; but by justifying himself he increased his trouble.

James 1:2. "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." There is grace in Christ for our fulfilling the precept.

If, being tried, I am entangled in unbelief, I cannot count my Trial joy; so to do, I must by the Spirit's power resist the Tempter.

Satan has no pity on us, be we sick or well: if he leave us for a season, it is because the time decreed is spent, and he cannot exceed his commission.

Faith never expects to learn _deep_ lessons without _deep_ difficulties; therefore she is not surprised by strange and dark providences.

How many are apt to say, "My temptation is peculiar!" But we should remember that it is the peculiar aggravations which make a trial effectual, and should not forget the word, "There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man" (1 Cor. 10:13).

Our faith is greatly strengthened when we are brought to see that no arm but God's can help; no wisdom but His can guide; and no love but His can satisfy.

The thickest cloud brings the heaviest shower of blessings.

Those very circumstances which make unbelief despond are meat and drink to faith.

Satan is employed for God's people—for their discipline, their correction, their sifting, but not for their destruction.

Christ often wounds in order to heal; and if He give pain it is that we may find peace and rest in Himself. His wounds are full of kindness, and always tend to life, and health, and peace.

We often make this great mistake—we expect in the kingdom of patience what is only promised in the kingdom of glory; and we ask God rather for deliverance from the warfare than grace for it as long as He is pleased that it shall last. Our impatience for victory often increases the heat of the battle.

To preserve _purity of life_ in time of temptation, we must take constant heed to _purity of thought_.

God has settled in heaven certain Trials of our Faith, which will as surely befal us as the crown of glory be given us at Christ's appearing. God's purposes of grace are a golden chain; not a link must be missing.

Temptations which find us dwelling in God are to our faith like winds that more firmly root the tree. (James 1:2-4.)

How much of adversity do we need in order to bring down the lofty thoughts within us! A knowledge of our own weakness is generally learnt through humiliation and suffering.

Those trials which put our wisdom to confusion, thwart our pride, and starve the lusts of the flesh, best fit and enable us to trust the living God. Let us, then, not suffer such trials to pass without making right use of them, giving thanks to God for them all.

He is most likely to fall into temptation and sin who most slights a warning. He who most truly depends upon the Lord for succour in the time of temptation, will be the most thankful for counsel or reproof.

When a trial comes upon me, let me look upon it as sent for a peculiar blessing. If I receive it thus, I shall not consider "how heavy it is!" nor ask "when will it be removed?" but "how much advantage shall I gain through it? and how shall I turn it to the best account?"

Often when saints, by right steps, bring afflictions upon them, they are _tempted_ to think their course wrong; but faith seizes the opportunity of glorifying God. Thus the _apparent_ loss becomes great gain. (Esth. 4:13-16.)

How much will our trials weigh when this mortal shall have put on immortality, and we shall appear with Christ in glory? (2 Cor. 4:17.18.)

The troubles of the way do us good service, if they raise the eyes of our mind to look at things unseen and eternal.

Present faith, not past experience or comfort, keeps us from fainting in the hour of trial.

Which of us can be kept near to Christ without some thorn in the flesh?

Faith, patience, and prayer, can overcome all difficulties.

Affliction coming upon God's people is no proof that they are displeasing Him. Is God with them or not? is the test. Jeremiah was cast into the dungeon, and sank in the mire; but God was with him. (Jer. 38.) So was it with Joseph. (Gen. 39:21.)

We can never walk with steady step in the time of trial of our faith, save as we are looking onward to the resurrection of the just. In 1 Cor. 15:58, the apostle, in view of it says, "Be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

Difficulties and ill success encourage me; for "the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

Do we meet with unkindness from brethren? Instead of shooting our bitter words at them, let us _judge ourselves_; and endeavour, in love and wisdom, to overcome evil with good.

Is the child of God overwhelmed by the trials of the way, and ready to turn his back in the day of battle, because of the rage of hellish powers? Let me remind him that Samson first slew the lion, and afterwards out of the same lion got honey and to spare.

When God gave Paul the thorn in the flesh, he knew not at first the value of the gift, and would have cast it away, had he been left in his own hands. The Lord was his keeper, and taught him, and us by him, that the strength of Christ is made perfect in weakness.

The Calling of the Church