EXTRACTS

“Behold, we heard of it at Ephratah” (Psalm 132: 6). It was no new thought. He thought of it when he was an obscure man, a little man in a little place. His father does not know him. Jesse had a splendid lot of sons, but there was one unknown. God has His eye upon him. David’s brothers were finer men than he, but God looks not on the outward appearance but at the heart. I wish we could remember this. And what was in his heart? He says, Where is the ark? Where is God’s resting place? You have here his devotedness in connection with the habitation. Let me put a question to you, Are you exercised about your place in the assembly? Every one has a place. My little finger has a certain function with regard to my body, and the other fingers cannot do its work.

W. Johnson (‘Meditations in the Psalms’, p.144)

It is an immense thing for us that we are in a body of humiliation. God intends that we should be broken and humble. He has taken us up in this way in order to perfect our spirits. We are learning wonderful lessons in these bodies, we are made to feel things. Then, too, we have to be exercised as regards how we dress, feed, where we go, and how we take care of the body. In short, our bodies should be held for the will of God, and I feel myself that we should be wonderfully supported by the Spirit of God if we were on that line, so that we might be pleasurable to God in spirit, soul and body. He will be magnified in our glorified bodies, but what about our mortal bodies? Do we use our bodies to perform good works, to visit .the weak saints? The apostle says, “These hands have ministered unto my necessities”, “I have shewed you ... ye ought to support the weak”. If we could think of all this in relation to and in the light of the rapture, it would have an immense effect upon our lives.

‘Memorials of the Ministry of R. Dunn’ (Vol. 1, p.73)

Where there are elders there are elders, and they are to be respected as elders, and on their side, they are to do the work of eldership, and that means suffering. There are two words used, one is ‘elder’, the other ‘overseer’; they should be combined; an elder has moral weight, an overseer oversees and attends to things; they really refer to the same person. So there is no ground at all for episcopalianism or presbyterianism, the two ideas really refer to the same person, the looking after of things. “If one does not know how to conduct his own house, how shall, he take care of the assembly of God?”, 1 Timothy 3: 5.

J. Taylor (Vol. 85, p.216)

Beloved friends, do not let the world occupy your attention. Let your attention be diverted from this world, and the things of this world, and let it be directed to God’s scene, where there is no confusion, and where the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, have no place. Christ, in that scene, is the Sun of Righteousness, and He fills all things with the light of reconciliation, and with the warmth of love.

F. E. Raven (Vol. 14, p.287)

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