"A Candlestick of Pure Gold: of Beaten Work" Exodus 25:31

"The Testimony of Jesus" Revelation 1:9

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EDITOR'S LETTER

Dear friends of this ministry,

With this issue of the little paper we conclude another year of its ministry. We do so with gratitude to the Lord for His enabling to "continue unto this day", and to you who have given us so much encouragement to go on. So many of you have written appreciative and sympathetic letters. Although it is not possible to write personally to all such friends, let me say that every letter is read, and I take this opportunity to thank you most sincerely. Your prayers have been answered in that the ministry, both of the magazine and the literature, have been in continually enlarging demand, more this year than ever. It is our true desire, not just to have something kept going, but that this may be a ministry of Christ to the Lord's people who are needing such. From many letters we realize that so many of the Lord's people are knowing spiritual pressure and stress in an increasing measure. It may help you to know that you are far from alone in this conflict, and perhaps this knowledge will stimulate you in "prayer and supplication for all saints". We have had our share in this conflict. It takes the various manifest causes or reasons; opposition and cruel criticism and allegations without foundation in truth; and involvement in teachings and practices amongst Christians with which we could never agree. There are many strange and abnormal movements and it is quite a battle to keep free from entanglements, because many who are known to have been associated with this ministry have gone off into these strange things. We know that there is much "strange fire" about (Leviticus 10) and we grieve that, through sheer hunger, many dear children of God are "led away", for we know that the end will be disillusionment. We do want this testimony to go on unsullied, although we are so well aware of "many adversaries".

Among the ministries of the year two are outstanding. The Eastern States Convocation in Maryland, U.S.A., in July. A wider range than ever before was represented, there being friends from a large number of States, including far West California, and Canada. There was a clear atmosphere and we feel that the Lord was working with purpose. [117/118] Then there was Aeschi in Switzerland. Friends gathered from many parts and nations, including Czechoslovakia and Jugoslavia. Quite a contingent of young people was present this year. While we believe that the ministry was its chief value, the fellowship was a tremendous asset. This gathering together unto the Lord is something of great value to His people, not only at the time, but afterward. But not only those gathered, but God's people everywhere are prayed for in times of intercession.

Much prayerful help is needed for the future. Changes are pending and much wisdom is required in making decisions and resolving problems. So, stand with us that there may be no loss of the Divine deposit, and that one's "bow may remain in strength".

Greetings in His most worthy Name.

Yours in His grace, T. Austin-Sparks
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THE CUP AND THE FIRE

3. THE POSITIVE NATURE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

"I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straightened till it be accomplished!" (Luke 12:49-50).

"Being assembled together with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, said he, ye heard from me: for John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence" (Acts 1:4-5).

WAIT for the promise of the Father ... not many days hence." The thought that I want to pass on to you concerns the positive nature of the Holy Spirit. We know that the Holy Spirit is the answer to the words of the Lord Jesus: "I came to scatter fire". The baptism of the Holy Spirit was a baptism of fire. Now fire is always positive; and if the Holy Spirit corresponds to the fire, it means that the Holy Spirit is also positive. Fire is neither cold nor neutral: fire is positive. When you touch it, or when it touches you, or when you get near it, you know that you are in the presence of an element that is positive.

THE SPIRIT ABHORS A VACUUM

Now here in these words at the beginning of this book, which we might call 'The Book of the Scattered Fire', we have a pause, a suspense, a kind of parenthesis. The Cross with all its meaning is an accomplished fact. The work of redemption is finished. Everything has been done as to the basis of the future. And everything has been foreshadowed and foretold as to the purpose. Here it is: "Ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem ... Judaea ... Samaria ... unto the uttermost part of the earth" (1:8). Meeting His disciples after the Resurrection, He had given them the great commission and told them what was to be their future ministry and work to the nations, to the remotest parts of the earth. Everything foreshadowed and foretold, as to the purpose: and yet, a pause, an interlude, with a big question hanging over it: a waiting. They can do nothing, with all that. With all that, it is still negative, it is still all in suspense, it is still in this state of question. And the Holy Spirit was the answer. The Holy Spirit moved right into that 'neutral zone' and turned it into a positive; changed the whole thing from negative or neutral or question, into a mighty, positive affirmative. The rest of this book is just the story of the positive activity of the Holy Spirit.

That may seem very simple; it may not strike you as having very much in it, or being very profound. But in fact there is a very great deal in that that we ought to think about, we ought to recognize. Let me say again: wherever you come upon the Holy Spirit in the Bible, you will find He is positive. He does not believe in vacuums. The Bible opens with a vacuum -- and immediately it says: "the Spirit of God". "The Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters". The Spirit of God is reacting against a vacuum. 'Without form and void empty ... and the Spirit of God ...' You begin your Bible with this very positive characteristic of the Holy Spirit.

And so it is all the way through. If you run through your Bible, even from memory, with this thought in mind, when you come on the Holy Spirit in any expression, whether in symbol or in action, you will find that He is always tremendously positive. You have only to recall the beginning of Ezekiel's prophecies. The living ones, the wheels, and [118/119] the Spirit -- and they go! They go, and they go straight forward; they turn neither to the right hand nor to the left. It is the Spirit who is the Goer; the Spirit of the positive, who is against all that is negative, all that is neutral and all that is empty, always seeking to be on the move forward towards the great and consummate end. He is the 'Goer-Spirit', if I may coin that phrase. He is always the executive of the Godhead, the energy of God in the things of God. He is always in action. So this book ought to be 'The Acts of the Holy Spirit', for it is that.

A POSITIVE WALK

Now, this law of the Spirit is the principle of the walk of the Christian. The walk of the Christian is supposed to be a walk in sanctification; there must be a sanctified walk. That is what it means to walk in the Spirit. The definite statement is: "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:6). Are you struggling, striving, fighting, not to fulfil the flesh? That is negative; you will get nowhere along that line. The way not to is to do something positive. The positive is the answer to the negative. "Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not ...". It is a great principle of deliverance. God's way is always a positive way. We are occupied so much with the negative, striving and wrestling not to do this, to stop this and that. And we do not find that we get very far in that, do we? The provision of the Lord is: "Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not ...".

What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? Well, it means to consort with the Spirit. You say, what does that mean? It is best understood by recognizing what we do. We, by nature, consort with the flesh: we are all the time consorting with ourselves -- our poor miserable selves; occupied with ourselves, talking about ourselves, praying about ourselves; keeping ourselves, our miserable selves always in front of us. When we are so continually occupied with what we are in ourselves, that is consorting with ourselves, is it not? How far do we get that way? Nowhere at all! We make no progress at all by consorting with ourselves.

And I am afraid there are some Christians who consort with the devil. It is not always easy to distinguish between ourselves and the devil, but you know he is always talking to us through ourselves. If there is something that is wrong with us, he lets us know it. If there is something that troubles us, he adds to the trouble, he accentuates. Give him a little bit of his own ground, that he himself created for himself -- for he created that ground of the old fallen Adam for himself and for his own purposes, to work out his own designs -- give him a little bit of that which he has made for himself, and see what he will do with it. He will make everything of it, and it will not be long before people who do that will find that they are in terrible bondage to the devil through their own selves -- their own make-up and faults and weaknesses and sinfulness. And that is consorting with the devil. He comes and accuses, and you listen; he makes a suggestion, and you take it on -- you almost enter into a discussion with him. You consort with him, or you consort with yourself: and that is walking after the flesh.

Don't consort with the flesh, don't consort with the devil, have no truck with them at all! Consort with the Spirit! The Spirit is the One who has come alongside: the very meaning of His Name, 'Advocate' or 'Comforter' (Gk. parakletes) is One who is called alongside. Consort with the One alongside. Have your communion with the Spirit. Challenge yourself, and challenge the enemy, on this: Is this really of the Spirit, does this correspond to the Word of God, is this true according to the gospel of grace? If the answer is: No, of course it is not! then repudiate it! That is consorting with the Spirit, always moving on the ground of grace, the Spirit of grace.

That is a very simple beginning, but it indicates that the Holy Spirit is positive. All that other is negative: it is pulling back, it is draining, dragging; it is all a big 'No'. The Spirit never comes on that ground; He is against anything like that. As in the first creation He moved against the void, so in the new creation He has nothing to do with, and no interest in, vacuums, voids, or anything that is negative. Take positive ground, and you will find the Holy Spirit is with you. Forsake your negative ground in your spiritual life.

POSITIVE TESTIMONY

This, in the next place, is the law of service, or testimony. Notice quite simply: "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses ...". The principle of service or testimony is being positive. How many Christian lives get tied up in knots because they do not testify! They do not witness, they do not let their light shine; they are just negative. They are all the time thinking of what people will think or say what the reactions from others will he. All sorts of considerations come in, in that way, and they just neutralize us, get us all tied up -- and what poor specimens of Christians we are then!

Now note here: "They therefore that were scattered abroad upon the tribulation that arose about [119/120] Stephen ..." (11:19) went everywhere, testifying. There was no ordination service, no putting on of special uniform, or a badge -- 'Christian Worker!' It was spontaneous, because the Holy Spirit is positive, always. And again, while this may be very simple, I know of many lives which are tied right up on this very thing: they are not positive; they are negative, or they are neutral. The Holy Spirit is therefore not moving on His own normal and natural basis in their life; they are limiting Him. Be positive, and you will find the Holy Spirit is with you, and you will get surprises. Just take notice! That is what is in this very book of the Acts: 'the Spirit said ...' (10:19, 13:2), 'an angel of the Lord spake ...' (8:26), and the men responded. When Philip responds to the Spirit, when Peter responds to the Spirit, oh, what tremendous things happen! -- to their surprise, to their amazement! The Spirit is positive. You be positive, and you will find that He is positive, He is with you in that.

POSITIVE FELLOWSHIP

Thirdly, this is the principle of fellowship. The fellowship of the Spirit is the spirit of fellowship: but, again, it is positive. Fellowship is not a passive thing: it never can be a passive thing, because all the hosts of hell are out against it. If there is one thing that hell is against, it is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the fellowship of the people of God. Unceasingly, by any and every means, those evil powers will seek to destroy that fellowship, because that fellowship spells their final undoing. Therefore fellowship can never be a neutral, passive kind of thing. You have got to fight for it, you have got to stand for it, you have got to be positive about this. Let some rift go on, and just see the havoc that delay over putting that right will work!

If you have the Spirit -- and of course I am addressing those who are supposed to have the Spirit -- you should know that, if you are out of joint with another member of the Body of Christ to which you belong, it is, as it is with a dislocation in the natural physical body: there is an ache, a perpetual ache. The Holy Spirit sets up this ache in the spiritual Body, where there is a dislocation. And you know what happens in the natural body if that is not attended to. Two things happen. One is that the longer you leave it, the more difficult it becomes to put it right; and the other is that adhesions set in -- something extra. Extra things begin to come in and complicate the whole situation, so that it is no longer a straightforward thing to put that joint back. The same thing is true in the spiritual. If you let it go on, it becomes very much more difficult and more complicated. All sorts of other things -- accretions and adhesions -- have bound themselves round that thing, to make it a very complicated thing now. The inflammation is there and the ache goes on.

By that inflammation and ache the Holy Spirit is giving a positive witness against this thing. But if you go on long enough, the Holy Spirit will withdraw and leave you to it, just because He is positive. He will not brook persistent negatives on these things; He just will not have it. He is going on and saying: 'All right, if you are determined to stay there, you can do so. I am going on.' And there arises a very, very serious situation. That is, of course, grim and terrible. But it all gathers round this truth that the Holy Spirit is positive on the matter of fellowship. The Spirit says: 'Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is, but so much the more ...' (Hebrews 10:25). That is not a legal thing -- that you must, under legal obligation, attend all the meetings, and so on. That is your very life, that is a spiritual thing, that is the way of the Holy Spirit. You are violating the very movement of the Spirit, if you detach yourself and live an independent kind of life. That which you call 'legal', which you are seeking to throw off, is really spiritual. There is a liberty which is not the liberty of the Spirit -- it is the licence of our own souls.

If the Spirit is inactive, quiescent, not doing anything, not moving; if there are marks and signs that the Spirit is not at work, that is an abnormal situation. It means that, from the standpoint of the Spirit of God, there is something wrong, something is not right. If everything were right, the Spirit would be active; He would be doing, going; there would be movement.

The Spirit will always be positive if He has His own ground. And what is His ground? It is the Cross -- it is the cup. The cup and the fire, the fire and the cup, go hand-in-hand. The mighty energy of the Spirit, that positive element in the Spirit that is like fire -- you know it when it comes near, or when you touch it; it is alive -- that positive element of the Spirit goes hand-in-hand with the cup, which rules you out and rules me out in nature. His ground is the Cross applied deeply to us. If the Spirit has that, then He goes on, then He moves. His ground is always the Cross.

We must challenge our hearts about this. The Holy Spirit, normally , is always positive -- I could almost say aggressive. He is never negative, He is never neutral. If He has to pause, it means that He is waiting for something; for it is not His nature to do that -- He would go on. May the Lord fill us with the mighty energy of His Spirit! [120/121]
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THE FIELD AND THE HOUSE

A message given by Mr. W. E. Thompson at the conference
in Aeschi, Switzerland, in September, 1968.

Reading: 1 Corinthians 3:1-17.

I BELIEVE this is a very critical period in the history of the world, and these meetings which we are having this week are at a vital period in God's dealings with the world. We are living at a point in the history of the world where we have the accumulation of centuries of evil. We are living in days when the forces of humanism are gathering considerable momentum. This covers the whole range of man's activities in the field of science right over to the field of philosophy. And the third thing is that we are living in a world which has become concentrated into what has been described as a 'global village'.

Now against this background I believe there are two things that mark the work of God and the men of God today. One is conflict, and the other is confusion. I am sure that most of you here are experiencing something of one or other of these two factors. If the devil is not plaguing you with conflict he is doing so with confusion. That is why I believe we must get right to the heart of the issue and ask: What is God doing, and what are the kind of men He is using? l think we shall find the answer to those questions in the chapter which we have just read.

THE SPHERES IN WHICH GOD IS WORKING

The first thing I want us to notice is the spheres in which God is working. From verse 6 of this chapter to the middle of verse 9 we read of the field , and from the middle of verse 9 to the end of verse 13 we read of the building.

These are two distinct spheres in which God is working, and we confuse them to our peril. We must learn to distinguish between the work in the field and the work on the building. The work in the field is evangelism. It is going out and sowing the seed, reaping the harvest and bringing it in. The building is the House of God, which God is building for Himself, the end to which He is working.

The work in the field is very different from the work on the building. There is a breadth of activity; it is a realm of work that is vastly different from the work on the building. Concerning the field, Paul could say in chapter 9 of this Letter: "By all means save some", but when it comes to the work of the building things are very different. There is no latitude here, no "by all means"! The only "all" that can apply to the building is the precise plan of the Heavenly Architect Himself.

We find in the commission the Lord Jesus Christ has given us in Matthew 28:19 reference to this very thing: "Go ... make disciples ... baptize them ... teach them all things whatsoever I have commanded you." We cannot take anything away from that commission from the Lord. There are some who say: 'All we must do is to preach the Gospel. We must have big campaigns, preach the Gospel and get the unsaved people saved.' There are others who say: 'No, we must only consider the House of God, the local church. We must give all our time to that.' But I believe we must keep both in perfect balance. We must understand something of the fields that we see today white for harvest. There are tremendous opportunities in the world today for preaching the Word of God, but, you know, the Lord sees those fields in a vastly different way from the way in which we see them. When the Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples in John 4: 'Look on the fields', He did not expect them to arrange a 'city-wide campaign' with a whole lot of human activity! He could see fields that were ready in those Samaritan towns and villages, but how did He reap the harvest from them? How did He meet the need of those fields that were ready? It was through one poor, sinful woman! If the Lord wants us to see the fields, He wants us to see also the way in which they can be reached, and His way of reaching them is sometimes surprising to us. It is not always through the big, massive effort that appeals to man's outlook.

It is also very important that we see the work of the building. The Lord Jesus Christ said: "I will build my church." One of the tragedies that faces India today has been the failure to build the House of God. I believe that missionary work, as we have known it, is coming to an end in India. That is true of many other parts of the world as well; missionaries are having to leave, and they are crying: 'What are the Indians going to do now? What is going to happen when we leave?' I have seen many cases where there has been failure to work on the building and believers have gone right back from the things of God. In contrast to that there is the work that our brother Bakht Singh and others like him have been doing for the last twenty-eight years where the fruit of the field has been brought in and built into the House of God. These men have no worries about missionaries leaving! Nothing of this [121/122] kind of work is going to collapse, because it is built according to the heavenly plan.

God is out for a building -- not one made with bricks and mortar, but an holy temple in the Lord -- a spiritual house!

THE KIND OF MEN GOD IS USING

God uses men, not machines, nor methods, but men. I believe there are three things which should mark a man of God, and to see this clearly will help us to cut through much of the confusion we have mentioned.

One is GIFT. We must have a distinct gift from God. You cannot find this in a Bible School, nor can you acquire it from any human source. It is a gift of the Risen Christ, and we must see that we have men who possess true gift.

The second thing is CALLING. We must ask: Why do I preach? Does someone pay me? Is it because I cannot do any other job? Is it because someone told me to do this long ago? No, it is because of an irresistible "calling " in my heart and soul from God.'

The third essential is UNCTION. There are some people who can preach and give a marvellous message, but without unction it is of no spiritual value whatever.

These are the things that we must look for today. More than that, if we seek to be the Lord's servants we must be sure that these things mark us -- and this applies whether we are young or old.

Now in this chapter there are some descriptions of the kind or men God seeks and uses. The first is in verse 5:

MINISTERS

That is not some professional title. It means a servant and is the word used concerning our Lord Jesus Christ in Mark 10:43 -- the One who came to serve, and the One who shows the quality of humility. If we want to be ministers we have to be prepared to do a lot of humble work. We have to be prepared to do many things that may test our pride. We will have to go into the humblest home to seek out the simplest child of God. We have to be prepared to do the most menial service and not always be seen on the platform, wanting a position, a place. Paul could say that he was a minister through whom these people had believed, and there may be people who believe through your serving them in humility rather than just through your preaching.

The second thing about men of God is in verse 9. They are

GOD'S FELLOW-WORKERS

I think that is wonderful! GOD'S fellow-workers! You know, during these last twenty years in India people have sometimes asked me: 'Who sent you to India? What mission has sent you?' I have replied: 'No mission. God Himself has sent me!' But that does not seem to satisfy them. Their God is so small that He alone cannot send people to India! You have to have something big and human, with a lot of money. I say: 'No, I am God's fellow-worker.' I have never ceased to marvel at that -- that God should call me to work with Him! Well, it certainly affects every way in which I behave. Sometimes in Bombay we get people coming into the office and asking for free literature. We ask: 'Who are you?', and they usually say: 'I am the Lord's servant.' They are dirty, their clothes are smelly and they have an old ragged bag -- and they say they are the Lord's servants! Many times I have told them: 'If you were my servant I would dismiss you!'

The fact that we are God's fellow-workers also affects our attitude to money. I have heard of one of the Lord's servants in England whose car once broke down, and he went to the garage to have it mended. He knew the garage man and said to him: 'Please don't charge me too much! You know I am only a Christian worker.' Do you know what the garage man said? -- 'You shouldn't complain. You have a richer Master than I have!' Oh, how we need to know the dignity of being God's fellow-workers! We make an impression for good or bad by our very conception of this point.

Now the third thing that Paul refers to here is in verse 10:

BUILDERS

He talks about all his building work. Now, a builder must know exactly what he is doing. He must have a clear understanding of the plan to which he is working, and he must know where to get the right materials in order to build. This is a very important factor, because what is being built is going to be tested one day. I believe that which marks the builder is quality . I went into an office in Bombay last year and the walls looked just like beautiful panelled teak, which is a very expensive wood. It looked very nice! A week or two afterwards I went into the same office and all this panelling had been taken down. The white-ants had destroyed much, leaving only a very thin layer -- but you know, white-ants never destroy real teak, because it is very hard. This was just a cheap imitation. It looked like the real things and many people [122/123] thought it was the real thing, but the white-ants knew it was not and they soon destroyed it.

We are living in a day of imitations, and there are many, many imitations in the work of God. They look like the real thing, but they are not, and they are vulnerable to attack. I know many of the Lord's people just seeking the various sign-gifts, or seeking an experience. They get such an experience and say. 'What a wonderful spiritual experience I have had!' Perhaps a lot of people get concerned and ask: 'What is this all about?', but it is soon proved to be false.

Now the test is this: Does it belong to the foundation? The foundation of this building is Christ, and the test is very simple. Does it glorify me or Christ? Does it build on Christ or on me? If it glorifies our Lord Jesus Christ it is real and true. The material that we gather for the House of God must have its origin in our Lord Jesus Christ, and there can be no imitation Christ. Paul, writing to the Galatians, said: 'If a man preach another gospel, if a man preach another Christ, don't just disagree with him, and don't just let him carry on. Let him be accursed!' There can be no other foundation than Christ. We must gather the material for the House of God from the Lord Himself.

It is said of David that he 'gathered gold in his affliction'. David gathered gold to build the House of God, but it was in his affliction. If the Lord gives you a little bit of trouble, if He sends some problems into your life, and He blesses you with difficulties, just be thankful, because by this you will get material for the House of God. It will not be cheap, nor will it burn -- it will survive the fire, the test of reality.

I am sorry there is not the time to say all I would like to about this section, but I will just refer you to the other two descriptions of the man of God which Paul mentions here. The fourth is in chapter 4:1:

STEWARDS

A steward is one who has been left with a treasure to look after, and I wonder if we realize the value of the treasure that has been entrusted to us by the Lord? It is not something cheap -- it is the unsearchable riches of Christ! Do we have a conception of those unsearchable riches? If we do, we need to be faithful in handling them, and in our dispensing them to others.

The last reference is in chapter 4:15, and it refers to the greatest need that I believe there is among the people of God today:

FATHERS

Oh, there are lots of teachers, and all kinds of other men. They may be called elders, pastors, and other names, but Paul says: "You have not many fathers". There is a need for men with a fatherheart, men who can guide the Lord's people, not as directors and 'bosses', but to lead them and feed them as fathers. And here we need the gift of 'pity' -- "Like as a father pitieth his children ...".

May the Lord make us like that, and the House will be built and stand.
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THIS PRESENT EVIL WORLD

BEFORE we proceed with the message, for the sake of any young Christians who may read it, and who have not yet studied the use of words in the New Testament, let us explain the one which is now to occupy us -- the 'World'.

There are three main ways in which this word is used:

1. As to the material sphere which we call the earth.

2. As to the people who live on the earth.

3. As to the spiritual and moral system, order, economy, and principles which govern the people.

Peter has things to say as to the climax and destiny of No. 1. John three sixteen relates to No. 2: "God so loved the [people of this] world."

It is No. 3 that is the occasion of what follows here.

A reading of such passages of Scripture as John 17, John's Letters, Colossians 2:20, 3:1-2, Galatians 1:4, and many others such, will leave us in no doubt whatever that the New Testament designates this world system as evil, and that any spiritual relationship with it lies under God's judgment. It has always been so since the beginning, but we are now living in the full development of the fact, so terribly and shockingly, that it is ripening fast for final destruction. The following message is very timely, and we trust that it will serve the solemn purpose of leading many to save themselves from "this present evil world", and will explain the spiritual conflict through which many are passing.

We shall gather up certain things which we find running through the whole of the Scriptures, and [123/124] what we find throughout the Scriptures is, for our present purpose, an eightfold thing:

1. AN ABIDING ANTAGONISM AND CLASH BETWEEN GOD AND THIS WORLD

I think that needs very little enlarging upon for the moment. Anyone who has any grasp of the Scriptures will be able instantly to recognize that that is so. From Cain -- the man of the earth -- right on through the whole of the Scriptures, you are brought to recognize that abiding antagonism and clash between God and this world.

2. AN ABIDING EXPRESSION OF THAT ANTAGONISM BETWEEN THAT WHICH IS SPIRITUALLY RELATED TO GOD AND THIS WORLD

Anyone, any company, or anything spiritually related to God is found to be in the expression of that antagonism and that clash between God and this world, and that very relationship to God spiritually involves in the clash, involves in the antagonism.

3. A NEW CONSTITUTIONAL AFFINITY WITH THIS WORLD IS SEEN TO BE IN MAN'S NATURE,

gravitating toward the world, like the point of the compass to the magnetic North. There is that which is in the very nature of man now as fallen which has an affinity with this world, and gravitates towards it, and the Scriptures reveal that that gravitation is of an inveterate character.

May I stay to make a parenthesis? No one is thinking that when I use the word 'world' I am just meaning the geographical sphere. You understand that the word 'world' is a very much bigger word as we use it spiritually than this geographical sphere. We use that word in its fullest meaning -- an order of things here separated from God, organized and controlled by the evil one. That is the full meaning of 'kosmos'.

4. A SPIRITUAL SYSTEM OF INTELLIGENCE

as revealed by the Scriptures to be bent with all its might upon maintaining that affinity, and that relationship between man and this world.

5. SPIRITUAL DEATH IS THE LAW WHICH GOVERNS THAT RELATIONSHIP,

and is the mainstay and master-hold of that system of spiritual intelligences. Let me repeat that: spiritual death is the law which governs that relationship, the relationship between fallen man and this world, and spiritual death is the mainstay and master-hold of those spiritual intelligences which are out to maintain that relationship between fallen man and this world.

6. TO SEVER THAT BOND, TO DESTROY THAT AFFINITY, TO INTRODUCE A COUNTER LAW OF GRAVITATION, IS THE ESSENCE OF THE WORK OF CHRIST

If you get that you get the heart of everything. That will explain everything. The work of the Lord Jesus in coming from heaven and fulfilling His mission here is, in its very essence, the severance of the bondage of man to this world, the destroying of fallen man's affinity therewith, and the introducing into man of another law, which counters man's gravitation toward this fallen world, another law of gravitation, which is not world-ward spiritually.

7. THIS SEVERANCE, THIS INTRODUCTION OF THE NEW SPIRITUAL LAW OF HEAVENLY GRAVITATION, IS ALWAYS MARKED BY A MOST INTENSE CONFLICT AT EVERY STAGE AND POINT

It is always fraught with deep spiritual suffering. You will never emancipate a people spiritually from this world except by intense conflict and through deep suffering.

8. THE METHOD IS THAT OF GOING INTO DEATH IN ORDER TO DESTROY DEATH, AND BEING IN THE WORLD IN ORDER TO OVERCOME THE WORLD

That is an outline, and if you were able to sit down with that prayerfully I am sure you would see that you have touched something which is of primary importance. Within the range of that everything with which you and I, as the Lord's children, have to do is gathered up. Now I am going on to take up one point. The work of Christ, the Cross in the work of Christ, and the purpose of His coming. That again is gathered up into eight things.

THE EFFECT OF CHRIST'S PRESENCE

Firstly: To once and for all register in an absolute and pre-eminent way that collision, that mutual antagonism between God and this world . Christ's coming into this world, and Christ's work in this world in a way unparalleled, unprecedented, registered, made manifest, dragged out into the light, threw up into clear relief that fact that there is a mutual antagonism between God and this world. [124/125] You can trace it through the Old Testament. It is quite clear there, but it is more or less local or localized in the Old Testament. When you come to the Lord Jesus coming into this world you have the universal factor, a universal Person set down in the midst of the universe, and universal forces focused upon Him. And because of who He is, because God is there in Christ, because this is no mere man, as in the case of the Old Testament, because this is "God with us", you find that from the very commencement of His career, His course, His time here on the earth, there broke out that smouldering volcano of antagonism: first through Herod, and then by another, and another, and another means, until in the end it seems that everything has conspired and converged to cast Him out of this world, as having no place in it, as being a menace to it.

Demons betrayed secrets, the full explanation of which is not in the Word of God: "Art thou come to destroy us before our time? I know thee who thou art, the Holy one of God", betraying deep mysteries concerning the destiny and the doom of that spiritual world, that world of spiritual intelligences. Men and demons worked together, and this hate showed itself. What a great deal He had to say Himself about it, and to what lengths He carried it, and into what realms -- right into the heart of Judaism and its spiritual, religious citadel, the Scribes and the Pharisees: "Ye are of your father the devil"; "The works of your father ye do"; "Ye are from beneath; I am from above"; "If ye had known the Father ye would have known Me."

You see, He carried it right there into the highest realm of religious life as this world knew it, and finding there this deep-rooted antagonism, and dragging it out, making it impossible for that thing to go on being hidden, until at last, stung by His presence, it broke loose, and from that realm came His doom, so far as his course here on the earth was concerned as a man. Oh yes! everywhere this universal focal point: God in Christ making manifest as never before not locally, but universally, not merely on the earth, but in that spiritual realm -- that there is a clash, a deep-seated and terrible clash between God and this world. And His coming was for that purpose. It is important for us to realize that it was necessary to expose that thing. It was essential that that thing should be dragged out, but, oh, that the people of God had sufficiently recognized and grasped and apprehended this thing !

Oh, dear friends, you and I, before we are through, will see the utter impossibility of that contradiction called 'a worldly Christian', 'a worldly Church'. If we do not see that now, well, the Lord help us! The very coming of the Lord Jesus into this world was, firstly, to manifest, as had never been manifested before in a universal way, that there is, right at the very heart of things spiritually, an antagonism between God and this world, and that world can never be reconciled to God. You have to use the word 'world' in another sense when speaking of reconciling the world; that is a more limited usage of the word, but that world of which we are speaking is beyond reconciliation. We shall see that as we go on.

Secondly. His coming was, while to register in an absolute and pre-eminent way that mutual antagonism, to rescue an instrument from this world , to secure an instrument in this world for this age, embodying that antagonism . Do you get the force of that? Did Christ come, first of all, to make the antagonism absolutely apparent? Yes! Then equally He came to secure an instrument in this world, for this age, which would embody that antagonism. That is, the instrument which Christ secures in this age, in this world, is going to be an age expression of the antagonism between God and this world. That means that if you and I are a part of God's instrument in this world, resultant from the work of the Lord Jesus in His Cross, you and I are going to be the embodiment of that antagonism; that is, there is going to be something about us which can have no compromise with this world, and which for ever stands in a position similar to that which the Lord Jesus occupies in relation to this world in the spiritual antagonism. And that instrument is going to feel the antagonism which He met, and is going to be conscious that this place, this world, is by no means a place of rest and abiding. "In the world ye shall have tribulation ...". To get rid of that is to undo the work of the Lord Jesus: to try to get popularity in this world for Christianity, to escape the world's bitterest antagonism, is to counter all that the Lord Jesus came to do.

Now that is a terrific thing to say, but it is true. I made a note in my Testament from Martin Luther. He had a pictorial way, as you know, of presenting truth, and he did it both for the devil and for the Lord. In speaking about Matthew 5:10-12 he pictures the disciples of the Lord, the believers, arriving at the gates of heaven and being met there by the Lord Himself: and one of the questions which He asks each one who arrives, with which He interrogates every professed disciple, is this:

"Wert thou an abomination to the whole world as I and Mine have been from the foundation of the world?"

Well, the Lord's coming was to secure an instrument [125/126] in this world for the age which would embody that mutual antagonism between God and this world. You see your calling, brethren. Does that explain something? I think it explains a lot. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews has a way of putting it: "Of whom the world was not worthy." That is his verdict on the whole matter.

Thirdly. His coming was to destroy for such (that is, such instrument) that law of death. Note: firstly, to bring out into the clear light, which He Himself was, the reality, the depth of that mutual antagonism between God and the world; secondly, to take out of the world a people for Himself, yet to be in the world for the age as a representation of that antagonism; then, thirdly, to destroy for such that law, that mainstay, that master-hold of the powers of evil, to destroy him that had the power of death and to deliver them; to destroy the power of death for His own. He came to do that. It would be impossible for us to live here on God's side and on God's behalf, to meet all that antagonism of hell to God, unless Christ had accomplished the destroying of that masterhold of the devil -- spiritual death.

Dear friends, you and I are becoming more and more conscious, are we not -- many of us are -- that the only possibility of staying in this world and on the earth is by the life which is triumphant over death, and unless we know more of that, this place is going to be impossible spiritually. Is that not true? It is! There is a real spiritual world with which we are in touch, but which we so dimly understand. What is the spiritual experience of those who are really going on with God? It is, on the one hand, of an intensified consciousness of death, and, on the other hand, a growing emphasis on the power of His resurrection. Is that true? I do not think there is any doubt about it. And this is not something which touches merely the spiritually aged and fully matured. I believe that the Lord would teach the younger folk this thing: those of you who would, perhaps, think that you are not old enough to understand and enter into these great spiritualities. I believe the Lord would teach you that you can know deliverance and victory in the realm of death by coming into a full apprehension of Him as your life, and, while the phraseology, the terminology may be difficult for you, the experience may be as clear and as simple as anything could be. The fact that those who are children of God -- whether mature or immature -- are children of God brings them into experiences which they might never have if they were not the Lord's children. The Lord does not save from going into those experiences, but in them draws out to Himself by a strong taking hold, when something very critical is threatened, and then Himself comes in, and it is something which is above what man can do, and they have learned their lesson. They have discovered that it is possible to live in this world, where death reigns, and to know victory in Christ by taking hold of Him as their life. He came that for His own He might destroy that law of death by which the god of this world, the prince of this world, holds his own in bondage, and by which he operates against the saints to try to bring them back into bondage, the bondage of death.

Fourthly. His coming was to set up His instrument, redeemed from the world, that counter-law of a heavenly life, to introduce something else into their constitution. The constitutional law of the unredeemed from the world, of those who are of this world, is bondage to the world. They see nothing beyond the horizon of this world, and all the time the world holds them and carries them on. The tides of worldliness carry this world on, and to try to stem those tides is an impossible thing until something has happened by which there comes about the realization of this: "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world", the introduction of that which is an adequate countering to the mighty gravitating affinity in man's nature toward the world. He came to set that up in His own, and here that big difference is recognized, which has been so often pointed out -- that if you really do become begotten of God, born from above, there is put into you the life of God. You do not have to give up the world, there is not a struggle to break with this anew that and something else, and you never have to sit down and say: 'I suppose now that I am a Christian I have to give up this and that, and I must not go here and I must not go there.' You never have that sort of thing at all: you find a counter-gravitation, you find that something else has come in which has made that kind of gravitation comparatively weak, and your heart is now in other directions, drawn to other things. You may test your spiritual life by that.

Now, young people, let me say a word to you. Perhaps sometime in your superficial thinking and imagining you think the world has a better time than you do, and that you would like to have a little more of what the world has. I put it to you: make up your mind to go and have it. If you are a true Child of God, start off, and see how far down the road you get. You will not get there. You will turn round and come back. What is the matter with you? Well, something has happened in spite of your thinking and your imagining and those superficial feelings -- many of them, perhaps, the fruit of the severe time which you have because of spiritual [126/127] antagonism. In spite of all that you cannot go very far in that way. You know the parable of the squirrel; you know that the gravitation is upward. Although you might just jump down to get a nut, it is not your place. The Lord came to do that, and it is the strategy of the Lord never to say that you must not go there and you must not do this. He puts something into you -- a counter-gravitation, a mighty work, which the Lord has accomplished.

Fifthly. To gather out from the world spiritually a people for His coming Kingdom. Not to take them away from the world. That would be very nice, but He would take them out from the world spiritually, so that He has here in the world His Kingdom spiritually represented by them. And He is gathering out from the nations spiritually now; a spiritual out-gathering, detachment, a people for that coming Kingdom. He came to do that, and He has made it perfectly clear that His Kingdom is not of this world and is not of things seen and handled. "I would have you know, brethren," said the apostle, "that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom." His Kingdom is now a spiritual thing in the hearts of those who have been taken out of the kingdom of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. That is a thing already done. A day will come when He will translate them from this world while He deals with the rest, and purges this world and makes it fit for the habitation of saints, without any antagonism. He came to do that. He is doing it. We know it in our own hearts. That is exactly what has happened with us. We are not of the world. Our life "is hid with Christ in God." We look for a Saviour.

Sixthly. The whole course of spiritual experience is progressive detachment from the world and attachment to Christ. It is a course of spiritual history. It is a progressive thing, and not that in the very commencement of our spiritual life we were not severed from the world. We were fundamentally and originally separated from the world, but you and I know quite well that our experience has been all in the direction of this world becoming less and less, and Christ becoming more and more and more. "Whom having not seen, we love." "Where our treasure is, there our heart is also." We know something of the words: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is ...". "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." We know that that is going on in us.

Seventhly. The death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and the gift [127/128] of the Holy Spirit are the basic factors in this work of Christ. Let me repeat it. The death, the resurrection, the ascension of Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit are the factors, the basic factors, in this work of the Lord. His death is basic, and we are told that His death is to be entered into by us in faith. "Ye died ...". That means we were crucified to the world and the world unto us in Christ. The resurrection of Christ is a basic factor in this work. It means that we stand on resurrection ground and are outside of the world. He never appeared personally to the world again after His death. He will one day, but He has not done so yet. So far as this age is concerned, He is not on that level at all. He is outside of the world, and for the age all His own, standing with Him in resurrection, are there spiritually. His ascension means that everything now for this age for His own is heaven-ward and not of this world. The anointing of the Holy Spirit will lead us progressively, ever more and more, away from the world to Christ, revealing His things. These are the basic factors in this great work which He has come to do.

Eighthly. The Church is called to be the collective embodiment of all that truth. The Church is called to be the collective -- the corporate -- embodiment of that full, absolute antagonism between God and the world. I realize that is a tremendous thing to say in the face of what is called the Church, in the face of what we know to be associated with what is called the Church. One hesitates in the almost hopeless situation that immediately confronts you when you raise the standard like that. Are we to conclude that what is called the Church is not the Church? At any rate, let us challenge ourselves on that. We can do no more than proclaim the truth and seek that it shall be realized in ourselves. It is not for us to go out and denounce or to judge, we must proclaim. But, oh! it does raise some very serious questions for many of the Lord's people. To be in any way entangled with that thing, that awful thing spiritually, against which God as in Christ has been revealed to be so utterly set! To be entangled in that through religion, through Christianity, through what is called the Church! You know quite well that if you stand on that ground you will meet the antagonism of the scribes and pharisees.

The Church is called to be the corporate expression of that antagonism, of that impact, by which Christ has destroyed the power of death, and living in the power of His resurrection. The Church is called to reveal in itself that it is not of this world and that it is moving steadily further and further away from the world, because Christ is becoming more and more its life; to be the embodiment of all that is meant by the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is no doubt but that that is how it was at the beginning. Are we to say that that is gone for ever, and that that can never be? No, we cannot say that. We may have to come within a very limited realm, but I verily believe that when the Lord comes, and there is that blessed movement toward Himself of the overcomers, He will have in them the embodiment of all that. They will represent all that.

For myself I cannot see translation possible on any other ground. Is the Lord going to translate this world to heaven? Never! If you are spiritually bound up with it -- when I say 'spiritually' I mean bound up with it in heart, a heart link -- I do not know what will happen. It seems to me to be so distinctly contradictory to the law of Christ's work. The work of the Lord Jesus marks the utter detachment from this world, and the consummation is simply the crown of that which has already taken place spiritually, the seal upon what has been done spiritually. That is how I see it, but I know the many difficulties that come up there.

Now let us close, so far as this broad survey is concerned, by just putting our finger upon one or two points. Do you see now why there must be no personal interests on the part of the people of God? What are personal interests? They are worldly in essence, in nature. It is what Paul spoke of when he said: "All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." That personal element runs out into so many directions, and is so imperceptible in many things, that only the Lord can bring it to light and destroy it. Do you see, on the face of it, why there must be no personal interest, and that there must be such an utterness of abandonment to the Lord's interests, and that anything other than that is a spiritual link with this world? The enemy can come in and destroy your testimony if you have any personal interests, even in the work of the Lord. Deeper than we recognize there are those things which represent our like and our dislike, our want and our not want, our going to have and our not going to have, all of which give rise to suspicion of others, and then suspicion moves silently and imperceptibly on to jealousy, and jealousy on to a breakdown in fellowship. Tracked right down to its source it was some personal element, wanting it as we want it, wanting it ourselves, and not the utter emptying of self; and in the long run, sooner or later, the enemy has made an awful havoc because there was his link. Do you now see why?

When the Lord really gets a complete mastery of the life, He works to have everything carried on to resurrection ground. That is, He takes everything through a depth and a death, where we lose it, and then in a deep crisis, in which we are brought to the point in heart of letting that go to God, not reproaching God, not rebelling against God, not refusing to accept God's way, but where we come to the place where our heart is one with the heart of God over that matter; then so often the Lord gives that back, but it has come back in a new realm. It has gone through death and it comes back by resurrection, and there is something in it now which is not of this world. It is not a time thing, nor merely an earthly or natural thing. There is something about it now which has God in it. It is on resurrection ground, and the world factor in it has been destroyed. Now that is a true spiritual law. Do you see why the Lord must have it that way?

Let me put that in another way. This is why everything must be brought through to the place where it is wholly for God. Everything has to be wholly for God. The apostle had something to say about the shortness of the time, and those who had wives being as those who had none. Do you think he meant that literally? Ignore your domestic responsibilities, or ignore something which was of God, or ride rough shod over it for what you call spiritual things? Never! A thousand times, never! What the apostle meant was this: you have to hold everything in the light of God's interests, and if you are holding domestic relationships, or anything else here on this earth, on a natural level, where they are for yourself, for time, and for what they mean to you merely in this life -- and that is the range of things -- well, that is wrong. Everything has to be held for God, in the light of the Lord's interests. Why? To have that link with this world and the natural life absolutely destroyed so that the power of spiritual death cannot operate there. Do you not know that when you as a believer, as a spiritual person, or I, touch things naturally we touch spiritual death? Have you no experience of that? The power triumphant over death is in having everything wholly for the Lord and not for ourselves, not for this world, not for this life. Everything has to be held for the Lord.

It is so easy to sing hymns of consecration. We can sing about being all for the Lord, and having everything for the Lord, and we can answer to such challenges, but now let us face it. Are we holding everything for the Lord? Have we got something which, if we would only let that go, would in some other life give the Lord larger interests? Are we taking this attitude: 'Now, while this thing means much to me, while in a natural way I have deep sentimentalities with this, and it is not easy to let things go, nevertheless, if the Lord is going to get more by my letting go, giving up, well, that is the [128/129] thing that counts and that matters.' That is holding things for the Lord. Are we holding things for the Lord? If we are holding things for ourselves, if we are holding things in this life before those heavenly interests of the Lord, we are opening the door to spiritual death. We cannot grow spiritually; we become earthbound, and our spiritual progress is delayed, if not utterly arrested. Everything must be carried over on to resurrection ground, and be wholly for the Lord, wholly for heaven. "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." There is so much bound up with this.

Now do you understand the meaning of suffering? I ask you, those of you who have suffered as the Lord's children, what has been the effect of your suffering? That is, inasmuch as you have not been persistently rebellious and hard because of the suffering, but inasmuch as you have sought to be one with the Lord in your suffering, what has been the effect of it? Answer me: has it been to make this world much less and the Lord much more, the things of heaven much more? Is that not true? This world has lost its grip, perhaps its charm, its hold. She things which are above have become far more to you through your suffering. Well, do you see the meaning of suffering? Do you see what the Lord is doing? Why does He empty us out? Why does He pour us out to the last drop? Just so that He can pour in, that is all. Just so that heavenly things may take the place of natural, earthly things. The Lord permits His people to suffer in order that that gravitation world-ward might be weakened, and that that power of death might be destroyed: that they may become a heavenly people, living by a life which is His own life, and which it takes full spiritual intelligences to appreciate.

That is the testimony of Christ triumphant, but you cannot recognize that with the human mind. You need a full spiritual intelligence to grasp that. It is only principalities and powers who are able adequately to register the power of His resurrection. They recognize it. So the Church goes on in suffering, in weaknesses in infirmity "in deaths oft"; but the Church will finish its course, and the issue will be that the full measure of that law of death operating in this world was taken by Christ in His Church and triumphed over. He is doing something through our weakness. We do not see it nor feel it, and we very often forget all about it in the presence of the suffering, but He is doing something, that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies should be displayed this manifold wisdom of God. That is the meaning of suffering -- the raising of a heavenly testimony: getting us away from the world and making us live by a life which is hid with Christ in God.

Do you see the utter impossibility of being all the Lord's and having any kind of heart association with this world? That ought to come home to us in a new way.
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FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

THE UNUSUAL MESSENGER

[Harry Foster]

THE circus had only recently arrived at its new pitch outside a Danish village. The great tent was pitched, the ring was ready and all the troupe was dressed up ready for their publicity march to invite the villagers to the first performance, which would be that night. Suddenly somebody began to shout: "Fire! Fire!" It was true. Already the fire was beginning to spread among the caravans and so threatening to destroy the whole circus. If this happened the flames might pass down through the nearby corn fields and spread to the village itself.

It was a nasty moment, and the Ringmaster quickly realized that he would need the help of all the villagers if the fire was to be put out in time. They needed men, women, yes, and children, too, to fetch buckets of water, and they needed those who were strong and could beat out the flames. So he called for someone to hurry down to the village and ask for everybody to come quickly and help. But who could go'? Not the strong man, for he was helping to look after the elephants. Not the lion tamer, for he had his own wild animals to care for. All the attendants were rushing to get the horses to safety so none of them could go. The only one who seemed to be available was the clown, who was all dressed up for the show.

"Run down quickly to the village," he shouted to the funny man, "and tell them we need their help at once if we are to save the circus, yes, and their own homes, too." So off he ran, with his funny hat, his big red nose and his clumsy great boots, and he burst into the village street crying: "Fire! Fire!"

Of course, everybody came out at the sound of his loud voice, but when they saw him he looked so funny that they all burst out laughing. He tried to tell them that he was not being funny this time but [129/130] was very much in earnest, but the more he tried the more they laughed. To them it was just a publicity stunt; he was trying to get them to go up and see the circus. They admired his cleverness but nobody made any attempt to move.

He pleaded with them and begged them to hurry before their own homes were destroyed by the cruel fire, but his face and his clothes were so queer that the more he pleaded the more they giggled and laughed. He was in deadly earnest, and the tears ran down his painted face as he appealed to first one man and then to another, asking them to take action at once and help to put out the fire. "Come with me!" he pleaded, "Come quickly! or else it will be too late." Alas! they only thought that it was a very good joke and they did nothing but laugh. All this had taken time, too much time in fact and by now the Ringmaster was watching helplessly while the flames took possession of everything. The fire came raging down the hillside, caught the first wooden houses on the outskirts of the village, and then passed on from house to house until the whole place was a mass of flames.

Too late! The villagers now realized that the clown had been in earnest and had really meant what he said, but it was too late. They had to run for their lives, leaving their houses and all their possessions to be destroyed by the flaming fire. If only they had taken the warning seriously! But then the messenger seemed so funny that they had not been able to believe that there was any real danger until now it was too late.

Of course, they blamed the circus for the calamity. "Why did not the Ringmaster come himself?" they reasoned. "We would have believed it if he had come himself. Or if he had sent some more suitable messenger, the lion-tamer, or one of the trapeze artistes. Anyone but the clown." The truth was, of course, that the clown was the only one available and that he had done his utmost to convince them. If they had only taken the trouble to enquire if his warning were true, then they might have been in time to put out the fires while they were still small.

Sometimes when God sends His messengers to us we do not take them seriously. Perhaps they are not the best messengers, but they may be the only ones whom He can send. The sad thing will be if we think that the matter is all a joke instead of realizing that the matter is really serious. Great and lasting loss can come to us if we do not pay attention to the call of the Gospel "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3). - H. F.
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"THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER,
AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER"

6. THE GLORY

WE have said much in these evenings about the Kingdom, but, of course, as is always the case in these conferences, we have twelve basketfulls over and we have more at the end than we had at the beginning. Someone said to me this evening: 'We had better stay for another week!' Well, you may have different views about that, but there is so much more to say about the Kingdom.

We have also said something about the power and the same is true about the power as about the Kingdom. There is far more to be said than we could say in a week.

Now for the last word in these evenings we shall say something about the glory.

ALL GOD'S WORKS AND WAYS ARE WITH GLORY IN VIEW

Glory is the supreme and all-governing thing in all God's works and ways. The order of words here is quite correct: not 'the glory, the kingdom and the power', nor 'the glory, and the power and the kingdom', but 'the kingdom, and the power, and the glory'. We have said that the Kingdom is the Sovereign rule of God, and the sovereign rule of God and the power of God are all directed toward the glory of God. It is not the rule alone. It is true that God rules, but He rules with a purpose. It is true that the power belongs to God, but He does not just use His power to no purpose. His rule and His power are for His glory.

GOD'S NEW BEGINNINGS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

We have said that glory governs all the ways and works of God. Glory governed God in the creation. He made all things for His glory, and when He surveyed His creative work He said: "It is very good". I have said before that if God looked upon us and said: 'It is very good!' that would be glory for us. [130/131] Some of us hope that at the end He may be able to say: Well done, good and faithful servant!', and that is only another way of saying: 'It is very good'. If He could say that to us it would indeed be glory for us! Glory, then, was the governing thing in the creation.

Then you will see that all through history every new beginning of God was with glory. It was indeed a great and wonderful new movement of God when He visited Abram in Ur of the Chaldees. Stephen tells us that "the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham" (Acts 7:2), which means that God had glory in view when He took hold of Abraham.

Everything was not good in the days of Noah, but when God made a new beginning after the flood Noah built an altar upon the new earth, and in so doing he said: "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof". In other words, he meant that the earth was for the glory of God, and after judgment God comes back to claim the earth for His glory.

We move on to the great movement of God with Israel as a nation. God visits the nation in Egypt to bring out that people to be a people for His glory. I think that one of the most beautiful phrases in the Old Testament is that one which came through the lips of God when He said: "Israel my glory" (Isaiah 46:13). His new movement with Israel in Egypt was in order to have a people for His glory, and having got them out of Egypt into the wilderness, He took the next step. He gave Moses the pattern of the tabernacle, and when 'all things were made according to the pattern shown in the mount' (Hebrews 8:5), the glory descended and rested upon the tabernacle and it became the tabernacle of glory.

We move on hundreds of years. God gave the pattern of the temple to David, and when all things were made according to the mind of God we read that "the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord" (1 Kings 8:11).

We move on still many years and come to the time of the prophets. When we have summed up all the voices of the prophets they are resolved into one thing -- the cry for the recovery of the glory amongst the people of God.

GOD'S NEW BEGINNINGS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Over we go to the New Testament, and to the little town of Bethlehem. He who is called 'the Prince of Glory' is born there, and that night the angel choir sings: "Glory to God in the highest" (Luke 2:14). This is indeed a new movement of God, and He breaks into this world in glory. The birth of Jesus was with glory, and all the works of Jesus while He was here had one object in view -- they were all for the glory of God. In John's Gospel we have the seven 'signs' that He performed and then an eighth and the last one gathers up all the others into itself -- and, of course, it had to be the eighth, for, as you know, the symbolic meaning of eight is resurrection. In it Jesus said: "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God" (John 11:4). All His works were unto glory.

What shall we say about His resurrection? Yes, His own resurrection is the crown of everything, but it was a new movement of God. God is going on in the power of resurrection, and there is no one who will question that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus was a glorious thing.

Then what about His exaltation? He was received up into glory . John said at one time: "The Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified," so that the supreme thing about Pentecost is that Jesus is glorified. Pentecost is not something in itself -- it is what it means.

And on we go still. What about that coming glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ? Indeed it will be glory when He comes!

GLORY IN THE CHURCH

That all has to do with Himself, but we step back a bit and think of the Church. The Apostle Paul said that in the end Christ would "present the church to himself a glorious church" (Ephesians 5:27). The Church came in with glory on the Day of Pentecost. It commenced its pilgrimage here with glory, and those early chapters of its history are chapters of the Church's progress in glory. Born in glory, progressing in glory, and to be consummated in glory: "not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27).

THE INDIVIDUAL BELIEVER

Let us get closer still and come to the individual believer. The birth of the new believer is with glory, and if there was no glory about the beginning of your Christian life, you had better ask the question as to whether you are a Christian! Every true Christian looks back upon his or her beginning with praise to God, for it was such a glorious thing. Born in glory.

Are you going to agree with me when I say 'Progressing in glory'? Have you some question about that? How long have you been a Christian? One year -- five years -- ten years -- twenty years -- fifty years? Whether it has been one year or fifty [131/132] years, has it all been very easy? Have you had no times when you feared that your faith would fail? Have there been no times when you wondered whether you would be able to go on at all? Has it all been so very easy? Have you not had many difficulties? Why are you here tonight? It is all to the glory of God that you are here, not because you were so strong, nor because you had such a wonderful faith but "kept by the power of God" (1 Peter 1:5, A.V.). "Thine is the power and thine is the glory." Our very going on in the Christian life is all to the glory of God. Born in glory, kept by glory, to be crowned with glory.

Well, have I said enough to prove that all God's works and ways are with glory? Christianity is a system of glory. It begins with glory and the last picture in the Bible is that symbol of the people of God in the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, "having the glory of God" (Revelation 21:11).

THE GLORY OF GRACE

But we have to stop and think again. What is the glory of God in this dispensation? It is the glory of grace. Have you noticed how often 'grace' and 'glory' are put together? Even in the Old Testament it says: 'The Lord will give grace and glory" (Psalm 84:11), and in Paul's Letter to the Ephesians grace and glory are brought together in a wonderful way. Grace is always the basis of God's glory. He shows His glory and the riches of His glory by the way of grace. That relates to our salvation, for God saves us for His glory, not first of all for our glory, but for His own glory, and in order that He may get the glory it has to be by His grace. It is not by works of ours that we are saved, but solely by the grace of God. Why is it that so many people have such a bad time in order to be saved? Because they have been trying to save themselves. They have been struggling with their own sin. They have been trying by all manner and means to find salvation in themselves, and if they could do that in the smallest way they would take the glory. So, whether it is an unsaved person or a saved person, God lets them get on with it as long as they wish to try, and when, sooner or later, they come to the place when they say: 'I can do nothing about it. If I am going to be saved at all it can only be by the grace of God', it is then that God steps in, because now He is going to get the glory.

Some of you Christians think that is very elementary, and yet, you know that it is not elementary. You know that all through the Christian life that principle is at work. Again and again we come to the place where we say: 'Well, but for the grace of God I will never get through.' We may not think so, but that is the most helpful position to come to. We sang when we started this meeting:

"'Tis the Church triumphant singing

Worthy the Lamb!"

and it will never be 'Worthy me', or 'Worthy you', or 'Worthy this preacher and that teacher'. God takes great pains to steal the glory from us, and it is "Worthy the Lamb!" In our salvation all the glory will come to God.

And what is true of our salvation is also true of our service. All true service to the Lord is governed by this one law -- God being glorified. God has given us a great example of that in history. I do not think that I am exaggerating when I say that the Apostle Paul was the greatest servant that the Lord ever had -- of course, we except the Lord Jesus. That man Paul had great natural gifts and qualifications. He had tremendous natural resources, but there has never been a man who more readily acknowledged that all his work was by the grace of God, and God took great pains to keep that man on the basis of grace. He emptied him of physical strength -- Paul spoke often of his physical infirmities. He emptied him of all intellectual strength, and Paul often did not know what to do or which way to turn. He had to get all his direction from the Lord. I think I need not work this out in detail, for it is so evident. Paul summed it all up with one statement: "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Corinthians 12:9). Human weakness, Divine strength and Divine glory. The Lord keeps the power and the glory to Himself.

Well, we could spend a lot of time on ministry to the glory of God, but we just touch it and pass on, and we come on to something which is perhaps still more helpful.

The same Apostle spoke very much about his sufferings, and the attitude of the Apostle Paul toward his sufferings was just wonderful. I wish that I were more like Paul in this matter! He gives us some long catalogues of his sufferings -- sufferings in his own body, sufferings in his circumstances, sufferings in the world, sufferings on land and sufferings on sea, sufferings from enemies without and sufferings from false brothers within. It is a long list of sufferings, but how did he look at them? Oh may the Lord help us in this matter! Paul gathers them all together and then he says: "Our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17). That must have [132/133] meant this: 'Oh, here is another bit of suffering. This is very hard for the flesh to bear, but there is something of the glory of God to be realized in this. I cannot see it for the moment, but it is going to work out for the glory of God ... "As always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by death"' (Philippians 1:20).

Don't you wish you were more like that? I wish that every time some trouble came I said: 'This is for the glory of God'! Whether we take that attitude or not, God means it for His glory.

THE BACKGROUND OF THE GLORY OF GOD

Now, the glory of God is always over against a background of what is contrary to the glory of God, and that is where grace comes in. "That I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn (or stake) in the flesh, a messenger of Satan" (2 Corinthians 12:7). Paul said that it was something driven right through his flesh to keep his pride down, and he says: "Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee ..." and then Paul said: "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses." Suffering ... grace ... glory.

OUR CHRISTIAN VOCATION

Now I have a lot more that I wanted to say about this, but I want to close with one thing. All that I have said leads us to one thing: it shows us what is our Christian vocation. What is the Christian vocation'? That means your vocation and my vocation. The Christian vocation is the vindication of Jesus Christ. We are here to vindicate Jesus, and first of all to vindicate the present livingness of the Lord Jesus.

"He lives! He lives! ...

You ask me how I know He lives --"

'Oh, the New Testament says that He died and rose again two thousand years ago.' No, that is not an up-to-date vindication of the living Lord Jesus!

"He lives within my heart!"

It is "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

We are here for the vindication of the livingness of the Person of Jesus Christ and for the vindication of the reality of His work in men and women. It is quite true, according to the record, that He did some wonderful things in men and women when He was here, and that is a wonderful story of long ago, but the vindication of Jesus Christ is that He does just as great a work in us today as He did then. He has opened very much more important blind eyes than the eyes of the body. When we were singing that chorus yesterday -- "Turn your eyes upon Jesus" -- our brother told us why it was so precious to him, but I can carry his story a little further.

When I was once in Los Angeles, Mrs. Helen Lemmel, who wrote that hymn, sent a message to me to ask if I would go and pray with her. I went to her home and there was the dear old lady sitting in her blindness. She had a writing pad on her knee and was writing choruses. She said: 'Mr. Sparks, I have a problem, and I want you to pray about it. The surgeon has told me that if I will have an operation on my eyes, he thinks that possibly I may recover my sight. My problem is this: If I were to recover my natural sight would I lose my spiritual sight? I have learned so much of the Lord in my blindness, and I would far sooner remain blind naturally and keep my spiritual sight. Will you pray for me that I may know what to do?' Before I prayed I said to Mrs. Lemmel: 'Mrs. Lemmel, what does your heart tell you to do?' She answered: 'I think I have already decided. I am not going to have an operation.' Well, I did pray, but I had no faith for asking for her sight.

Now, if you want to argue about that, you can go and argue, but what I am saying right up to date is that Christ opens more important eyes than the physical ones, and in that way, among many others, we are here to vindicate the works of the Lord Jesus.

And we are here to vindicate His grace in suffering. Paul said: "The sufferings of Christ abound unto us" (1 Corinthians 1:5). Now I hesitate to speak in this way because I know the weakness of my own heart, but it is true, is it not, that Christians have a lot of sufferings that other people don't have? Have you not often said: 'Why should this come to me? It does not come to these other people. Why is it like this?' Because it is through grace that we are to come to glory by way of suffering. God is glorified by grace in our sufferings. Paul spoke of the time when he was 'pressed beyond measure', and had "the sentence of death within ourselves" (2 Corinthians 1:9). Now here is a word that you did not expect to hear from the lips of the Apostle Paul. This man of great faith, of great spiritual strength, said: "We despaired even of life." Paul in despair? Well, he said it, but then he added: "In order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead." 'We were brought right down as low as that in order that the God who raises the dead might get the glory.' It is not the strong people [133/134] who bring glory to God, nor the clever people, nor the important people, but "God chose the foolish things of the world ... the weak things of the world ... the base things of the world," and if that is not enough, "the things that are not" (1 Corinthians 1:27-28). You know that that is what Paul said. Why? "That no flesh should glory before God."

So, dear friends, everything in the ways and works of God is for His glory. Let us bind that to our hearts. As we go back down into the world of conflict and into experiences of suffering, let us hide this word in our hearts and ask for grace to say: This is unto glory.'

"For thing is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever." Do you say "Amen"?

(Concluded)
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DIVINE ORDER -- IN CHRIST (4)

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHRIST IN HIS CROSS

WE have been giving ourselves to a seeking to see and to grasp something of the significance of the Lord Jesus Christ and His work in relation to the whole created universe. We are really gathered around one thing: that He is the key to everything, and that only as He comes into His place will the creation find the explanation and answer to it existence. That has taken us out along several lines. We have seen that there was a primeval order in the creation, of which He was the centre and the sphere as the Son eternally appointed the 'heir of all things'. There was an order expressive of God, who is the God of order. We have seen that all progress, all fruitfulness, all satisfaction, all fullness, is a matter of Jesus Christ; and that, so far as we are concerned, Christians or mankind, it is a matter of knowing Him.

We have dwelt much upon this matter of order as essential to life, to progress and to the realization of God's end. Order is a key to everything.

We went on to see something of the disruption of that order, the interference with it and the breaking in upon it. The result: disorder, and all its baneful consequences -- pain in the creation, spiritual pain as well as physical pain. The Apostle has put it like this: "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain" (Romans 8:22), because things are out of order. We traced the course of that disruption and dislocation, which began, apparently, somewhere outside of this present world -- in heaven where there was an uprising of a leader with a great following of angels, apparently in revolt against God's destined place and purpose for His Son as 'the heir of all things'. It was a bid for that position of equality with God, a bid to displace God's appointed One. That brought disruption in that realm and the leader and his followers were cast out -- "angels which kept not their first estate' (Jude 6). We saw the leader of them, no doubt with his fold following, invading this earth and breaking in, so that the beautiful order of the creation was upset. In the first place, the order in the man; the balance, the symmetry, the beautiful harmony in the man's own life and constitution were upset and disorganized. Then immediately to the corporate -- in the man and his wife, so that you can, in almost the first mention, detect something that has come into their fellowship. The one blamed the other for what had been done, and that momentous ordinance of God, with so much bound up with it in His purpose -- the two as one -- is severed. And then, of course, the family. The family has this schism in it, working out to one brother murdering the other. Jesus went right back to that and said of Satan: "He was a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44). From the family to the race, and that book which records all this brings us to the whole race in confusion in every way. The order, universally, in the upper realms of this earth, in the lower heavens, the earth and its environs, what we mean by the cosmos is shot through and through with this disruption, this schism, this strain, this conflict, and is just shattered to pieces. Spiritual progress in the purpose of God is arrested and all the beauty of the Lord is marred. Well, that is where we were in our earlier chapter. Now we come to the significance of Christ in His Cross in relation to that. The Cross of the Lord Jesus stands right at the very centre and heart of that whole cosmic disruption. The Cross is the heart of redemption, but redemption relates to the whole range of Satanic interference with the order of God. The Cross, and redemption, and salvation are far, far greater things than dealing with men's sins. They deal with sinfulness, which is much, much more than sins, and sinfulness is traced right to that one who made this assault upon God's appointment, God's economy and God's order. The Cross of the Lord Jesus stands related to that [134/135] whole realm and range of disruption and disorder from centre to circumference. The Cross is not a small thing; it is an immense thing, and it reaches as far as this thing that has happened in the universe reaches. And we must look upon the Cross and upon redemption in the light of this once existing Divine order, then its upset and disruption, and then its recovery and eternal establishment beyond any more fear of the thing happening again. So far the Cross reaches, and so far Christ crucified has His significance.

THE REALMS OF DISRUPTION

1. The Cosmic Realm

The redemptive work of the Lord Jesus in the Cross follows the whole path of this mischief. It follows that very course, and it is important that you and I should recognize the order and sequence of this thing. The very first realm in which the Cross has its application is the realm of the spiritual hierarchy of evil. It begins there. On the day of our Lord's crucifixion, or death, the very heavens were affected: "Darkness was over the face of the earth"; "there was a great earthquake", "the veil of the temple was rent, from top to bottom". Heaven is involved and is breaking in, and there is a tremendous thing happening in that realm. When we read the Gospel account, of course, we only have the events and the associated happenings, but there was a man who was given an insight into something more. This was not in the Gospels and could not at that time be revealed. He tells us that in the Cross 'He stripped off principalities and powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it' (Colossians 2:15). That is where redemption begins. The very heavens (by that, I take it, the lower heavens, not God's Presence) were defiled by this revolt, and they were purged by the Cross. The disrupting forces of the order of God were met in the spiritual world by God's Son on the Cross. It is far too deep and full a matter for us to dwell upon at length, but there is a very real practical value in this, for, after all, we are not dealing in the first place with circumstances, nor conditions, nor with effects and results. We are dealing with causes. When there is a breaking in, in any realm, of those disruptive, schismatic, disordering forces, in an individual life, or in a community, or anywhere, the usual way is to find a scapegoat, to blame somebody, to begin to look at one another, to put it down to this, and that, and something else, and in so doing we are missing the point and missing the way, and we will never clear it up like that. We will only make it worse. We have got to get behind it, for there is something behind it all -- ah, there is someone behind it all.

I do not know what you feel about it, but with all the desire that we may have -- and it is a very real one -- not to become demoniacal-minded, you are just more and more forced to realize that there is a whole system of iniquity and animosity to the things of God at work in this universe, and it seems that these forces are more and more at work. They come very near and are like a blanket upon you, especially when there is something of the Lord on hand. It just recurs like the seasons when the Lord has something more in view. It just happens. It is not coincidence, nor chance, nor imagination, for the thing is far too desperately real; it is calculated to put you right out of the fight, and strategically so, at a very, very important moment. Well, we could say much about it, but this is in a realm that is over things, that encompasses 'things', circumstances, happenings, feelings, and all that. They are secondary. It is what is around as the source of them that it is important to recognize.

Now, the Lord Jesus, in His Cross, has something to say to that realm, and you and I will never know victory over things until we know the value of the Cross and the Blood of Jesus in that ground and realm. The victory has got to be won in that realm, or applied in that realm, before 'things' will give place. Oh, take that to heart! Remember that! For we are just being 'played with' by these evil forces, and being made to do just as they want us to do, because we have either lost, or never have had, this key to the situation: that Calvary touches the cosmic realm of evil. That is where the path of redemption begins, as that is where the trouble began.

2. The Realm of Man

The next thing on the way, as you noted, is man. This whole thing, great and far-reaching in its range, and terrible in its nature, is focused down upon man. He is the next point of assault, to disrupt him, divide him, and make him, in himself, incapable of functioning simply because he is divided. You know that it is true, if you are divided in yourself, or amongst yourselves, you cannot do anything. You are just paralysed and cannot get anywhere. That is a fact, and the devil knows it, if you do not! And so he comes in from the outside and brings this disruption down to man himself, and man becomes a paralysed creature simply because he himself is in division. His nature is divided. The order, the beautiful order, balance and symmetry of his own personality is upset. Man was created in an order. I am not staying with the order of spirit, soul [135/136] and body, but there is an order, and if that order obtains in Christ, you have a man in peace, in rest, in strength, and a man who is accounted for something. Upset that man in himself, in his own constitution, and throw him all out of gear and out of order, and where does he get? Well, that is what the Bible means by vanity. "The creation", says Paul, "was subjected to vanity" (Romans 8:20). That is, 'You shall not get through!' It is imposed and you cannot get anywhere.

Redemption by the Cross of the Lord Jesus is intended, dear friends, to come to us individually to recover and restore a harmony in ourselves. It may be a long process, but we do know that a beginning is made when new birth takes place, when we come to the Cross of the Lord Jesus as to our condition, our need as to ourselves, and that Cross becomes effective just at the beginning of the Christian life. The testimony of all that have come that way is that there is a wonderful sense of peace that comes into the heart. Peace is only another word for harmony, you know. It is not just that everything has quietened down. Oh, no! It is that now you have got into true line with the purpose for which you were made. You are on the path now. You have been all over the place, but now your feet are on the way and something of the peace of the end comes into the beginning. You are going to have many conflicts presently, but the beginning is like that. Even with a little child it is wonderful. A child does not understand all your theology and doctrine of atonement and justification, but a little child can know what it means to receive Jesus into the heart. And when that is done with a little child you at once see something. Something has happened, and it is not imagination. It is the beginning of a life re-adjusted, reharmonized. The conflict has gone out, so far as the person is concerned. It is like that in new birth. It is the beginning of the new creation which, in its completion, will be a beautiful reproduction of a lost harmonious order.

The Christian life, from that beginning, from that starting point, is just the school in which we learn the way of harmony, the way of life. What is it? It is everything centred in, and governed by, the Lord Jesus. You see, we have these statements here. We are so familiar with them that they have almost lost their real meaning to us. "In him all things hold together." He is the integrating centre of this universe. He brings the broken parts together, and forms again He takes hold of the chords which are all out of tune and tunes them again into a harmony. 'In Him all things consist.' When Jesus has His place, things begin to be like that. There is a reconciliating. And, I say, the Christian life is the school of learning to let Jesus have His place, and when He has His place you know, as well as I do, that, so far as our inner life is concerned, things are far more restful, more sure, and certainly more fruitful. It is just that, but that is a tremendous thing, because we say: 'Jesus has His place!' It sounds so elementary, but you see how comprehensive it is. He is the centre of a harmonized universe, and when He has His place, He begins to harmonize the inner life. And the more place He has, the more unified we are, and the more at peace we are. We know quite well how true it is in the opposite: that when He is not getting His place in everything, everything is under a strain.

For the individual, and His significance there as the unifying of the heart -- one heart, not a divided heart -- it is a deep work, a great work, and perhaps it is a long work, but that is the business of life: the unifying of everything in Christ. That is, Christ becoming the single Factor who makes of everything a single factor: 'For to me to live is Christ,' a single factor unifying the whole life. Satan is not going to leave that alone. He is going, by every possible means, to assail it, to interfere with it if he can. But, you see, he cannot, for he just cannot destroy Christ. He has been destroyed by Christ! And the work of the Cross of our Lord Jesus is the ground upon which we stand, and must stand, against all that interfering work of the evil forces to bring us again into inward confusion and uncertainty. Satan is trying it all the time. Stand your ground on the Cross! Stand your ground under the Blood when he tries to rob you of that quiet assurance that all is well, because of what the Lord Jesus has done in His Cross.

3. The Marriage Realm

You move from the personal into the corporate life. This is the pathway of the evil forces, and this is the pathway of the Cross. Yes, into this most sacred relationship which was the true ordinance of God at the beginning -- husband and wife. Is it necessary for me to say to young people who are contemplating that union: 'Be sure that it is in Christ! Be sure that it is in Christ to begin with!' There is no guarantee or even hope for all that it means in the purpose of God unless it is in Christ. And there are tremendous things bound up with that relationship in Christ. But, if it has taken place, this is one of the sacred things that the evil forces and the evil one will never cease to assail. You, perhaps, have not realized the tremendous damage that the devil can do when he can separate two in that relationship. It is a focal point of his constant attack to divide there. That relationship is a real [136/137] battleground through life, for there is so much for the Lord in it. If it has in any way been interfered with, how are you going to put it right? Not by mere human attempts. You have got to get back into Christ, for it is only getting back on to the ground of Christ that will put that right. It may be that the man is pulling in one direction and the woman in another. There is no real togetherness. One has one mind, and the other has another, one will, and another; one interest, and another, one like, and another. And you know it is weakening, it is frustrating and it is desolating. It is only when the two get on to the ground of Christ crucified that that thing can be dealt with and put right. Every one has got to let go their natural ground and take the ground of Christ crucified as to themselves.

But, dear friends, the Word of God makes it perfect]y clear to us that, in the beginning, that ordinance of God, that relationship, was a representation of something far greater. This, in its testimony, is a Church matter. 'I speak of Christ and the Church', says the Apostle in speaking of that relationship. The real principle is the principle of 'corporate life' anywhere, anyhow, in Christ -- maybe the two, the three, the local company, or the larger company of the Lord's people. The principle is one principle. The enemy will stand at nothing to get in between, to divide. And the only -- but the sure -- means of preserving that unity is the Cross of the Lord Jesus at work in an inward way in us all. That is a tremendous thing! But it will do it. If only that Cross becomes really a subjective reality in all concerned, that is the end of all divisions.

4. The Realm of the Church

We can easily see, without dwelling upon it, that this extends, beyond the individual, beyond the two and three, beyond the little group and company, to the Church universal. We can see that, eventually, it will reach the whole inhabited world, when Christ has His place. 'All the great multitude, out of every diversity of nationality, and tongue, and clime, and kindred' will be on the ground of the Lamb slain, the Cross of the Lord Jesus. They will be 'singing one song' in harmony. The high notes, the low notes, and all the notes between will be ascribing worth to the Lamb. Glorious chorus! Redemption follows that course. The Cross of the Lord Jesus relates to that one thing, to an end where all is reunited in Christ.

We have placed John 17 as the foundation of this message, and you know the great, perhaps the highest, note of that chapter is in a little clause: 'that they may be perfected into one'. Perfected into one! That is the end of His prayer, the end of His travail, the end of His redeeming work -- perfected into one! Then the great arch-adversary of the Divine order can do no more. His work is finished, his power is destroyed, for the Cross stands victorious over this long history of disruption.

I see no hope for unity anywhere other than in the Cross of the Lord Jesus: Christ crucified, put in His place. And although the battle goes on, and the enemy is always trying to make a show of disruption and disorder, if the Cross has really done a work in human hearts, there is a basic something that will triumph over all that.

(To be continued)
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"THAT YOU MAY BE ABLE TO STAND YOUR OWN GROUND
ON THE EVIL DAY"

(Ephesians 6:13)

What is this "evil day"? The context shows.
Inclusively: "The strategies and deceits of the devil". (verse 11)
In detail: Attack upon truth. (verse 14)

Attack upon right standing with God. (verse 14)

Attack upon stability. (verse 15)

Attack upon faith. (verse 16)

Attack upon the mind. (verse 17)

Attack upon the Word of God. (verse 17)

Attack upon the prayer life. (verse 18)

This is the nature of the "evil day", or 'day of danger'. [137/138]
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We acknowledge with gratitude the following gifts received during the period 22nd July to 30th September 1968:

Aberdare £3; Airdrie £1; Amersham £1; Auckland, N.Z. £1; Bath £1; Bedford, Ind. £10 7s. 6d.; Blackburn £5; Brisbane, Australia £4 12s. 11d.; Bristol 10s.; Bromley £6, £6; Burnley 5s.; Colwyn Bay £1; Congleton £2, £4; Copenhagen, Denmark £10, £1 12s. 11d.; Coulsdon £1; Dublin £1; Edinburgh £1 3s.; Ewell 19s. 8d.; Glasgow 15s.; Grimsby £1; Gy, Switzerland £5; Hastings £5; Haverhill £2; Hull £2; Ilford 10s.; Ingwiller, France £4; Inverness £2; Ipswich £3 5s. 6d., £3 12s.; Isleworth 7s.; London, N.6 £3; N.W.3 £5; S.E.2 10s.; S.E.15 £10; S.E.23 £5, £5, £4, 10s.; S.W.18 £10; S.W.19 5s.; Manchester 2s. 6d.; Newcastle 10s.; Newton Abbot 10s.; Niagara Falls, Ont. £1 18s. 7d.; Norwich £3; Oldham £2; Paris, France £3; Piet Retief, S. Africa £2; Pontypool 10s.; Porth 13s. 6d.; Pretoria, S. Africa £5; Rayleigh £3; Sale £2; Sandown £2; Shenfield £1; Simmozheim, Germany £3; Southampton £2; Swansea £1; Toronto, Ont. £2; Ventnor 10s.; Vryheid, S. Africa £2 18s. 2d.; Whitchurch £1; Wolverhampton £1 2s. 6d.; Woodford Bridge £1; Worthing £1 1s.; Yeovil £2. Total: £180 1s. 9d.

Bergenfield, N.J. $5; Birmingham, Ala. $10, $10; Boulder, Colo. $20; Chatsworth, Calif. $10; Cleveland, Ohio $1; Collingwood, N.J. $10; Heidelberg, Germany $25; Indianapolis, Ind. $1; Martinez, Calif. $10; Matthews, N.C. $5; Newport News, Va. $2; Oceanside, Calif. $3; Orlando, Fla. $5; Pitman, N.J. $20; Plainville, Conn. $5; Richmond, Va. $4.50; St. Paul, Minn. $10; Stirling City, Calif. $10; Tulsa, Okla. $8.25; Westchester, N.Y. $5; Winona Lake, Ind. $5; Yaphank, N.Y. $10; Zürich, Switzerland $1. Total: $195.75.

Cape Town, S. Africa Rands 2.00; Crawford, S. Africa Rands 1.00. Total: Rands 3.00.
Copenhagen, Denmark Kr. 70.00.
Montpellier, France Fr.Fcs. 100; Nimes, France Fr.Fcs. 150. Total: Fr.Fcs. 250.00.

Amstelveen, Holland Fcs. 10, Fcs. 10; Bennekom, Holland Fcs. 20; Bern, Switzerland Fcs. 20; Brenzikofen, Switzerland Fcs. 19; Cappelle-la-Grande, France Fcs. 10; Corcelles, Switzerland Fcs. 10; Glarus, Switzerland Fcs. 10; Gümligen, Switzerland Fcs. 20, Fcs. 20, Fcs. 20, Fcs. 10, Fcs. 10; Lausanne, Switzerland Fcs. 30; Marseille, France Fcs. 10; Neuchâtel, Switzerland Fcs. 20; Paris, France Fcs. 10, Fcs. 20; St. Gallen, Switzerland Fcs. 20; Schlieren, Switzerland Fcs. 20; Winterthur, Switzerland Fcs. 14; Zeist, Holland Fcs. 20; Zürich, Switzerland Fcs. 20, Fcs. 36. Total: Swiss Fcs. 409.00.
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THE MOTTO CARD FOR 1969

"The God of hope"

"The God of peace"

"The God of grace"

"God which raiseth the dead"

"Shall himself ... strengthen you"

Large size -- 8d. each (7s. per dozen)

Postage and packing -- on one card: 6d.; up to a dozen cards: 1s. 2d.

Small size -- 4d. each (3s. 6d. per dozen)

Postage and packing -- up to a dozen cards: 4d.; up to 3 dozen cards: 6d.

The postage on cards sent overseas is a little higher than the above rates. [138/139]

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WITNESS AND TESTIMONY LITERATURE

The books and booklets listed below can all be ordered by post from the addresses given at the end of the list. More detailed information about the literature is available on application to the Witness and Testimony office in London.

[139/140]
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A WITNESS AND A TESTIMONY

The six issues of the magazine, bound together, to form a volume with light blue art paper cover, are available for the following years: 1956 to 1961, 1964 to 1967. Price per volume (1 year): 5/- ($0.70).

Certain back issues of the paper are also available and will be sent to those who desire them at cost of postage only. Please indicate the date of the issue(s) required.
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POSTAGE AND PACKING: For postage and packing please add the following to the total amount of the books ordered:
Orders totalling less than £1 -- please add 2d in the shilling.
Orders totalling more than £1 -- please add 2/6 in the £.
To the U.S.A.: Please add 10 cents in the dollar.
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Orders for literature and requests for "A Witness and A Testimony" should be addressed to:
WITNESS AND TESTIMONY PUBLISHERS,
30 Dunoon Road, London, S.E.23, England.
Telephone: 01-699 5216
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Witness and Testimony literature can also be obtained from:

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Printed in Great Britain by Billing and Sons Limited, Guildford and London [140/ibc]
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[Inside back cover]

LITERATURE IN FRENCH

(translated from English)

The above literature in French can be obtained from: Mr. J. C. Lienhard, 12 rue des Peupliers, 92 Bois-Colombes, France. Telephone: 242 93-32.
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[Back cover is blank]