THE REMNANT CHARACTER
THE REMNANT CHARACTER
To one with any spiritual discernment, it must be evident that the number of the true and zealous, in comparison with that of professing christians, is small indeed. It is not want of charity to arrive at this conclusion; nay rather, the more love there is, the more one sees how much is lacking in oneself and in others, and it is as we seek to be true that we see how much that which is not true is tolerated on all sides. As soon as I am faithful to my light, I see that I have to turn [p. 110] aside from many things which hitherto have been tolerated or excused. When Jacob goes up to Bethel (Genesis 35) the idols must be put away. According as I feel it incumbent on myself to wash my hands in innocency, so must I feel it good and necessary for my fellow christians; and as I proceed in the work of emancipation from the superstitions in which we have been involved, the more do I seek the release of my brethren still entangled; and the more faithful I am, the more will they be led to enquire and be encouraged to walk in the path of faith. The one that surmounts the fence which separates the flock from the better pasture, not only secures the good feeding for himself, but encourages and stimulates the whole flock to follow him. Now if we admit that the true and faithful are but a little flock in the midst of a multitude of professors, among whom they are greatly mixed up, with hardly any distinction, we cannot fail to acknowledge the declension of the church; and if we do, we cannot but seek to emerge from the unhallowed state of things which we deprecate and disallow. No spiritual one will deny that the church has fallen from the high and blessed estate in which it was set up, and those who mourn at this declension, and seek to walk apart from every corruption in the house of God, are this remnant. In a word, if there be any faithfulness in the time of apostasy, there must be a remnant; Revelation 2: 24.
The character of this remnant we will now consider. The original body took its place in all the freshness and beauty of its appointment. It had no antecedent, it was newly inducted into high estate. The past clogged it not; the present only claimed it, nay, it ruled. All was brightness and hope. With the remnant it is far different. The past has entailed heavy encumbrances on them, and as they labour to be free of them, they feel their weight, and cannot rejoice in any measure of deliverance without being increasingly conscious of the sin and folly which entailed the encumbrances [p. 111] with which they are now chargeable, though they had not personally incurred them. They are like the frugal heir of an encumbered estate who labours by self-abnegation to retrieve his condition; and yet no embarrassment can be surmounted but with the sad and painful sense that it could have been prevented, and hence a deeper sorrow for the present condition. Joseph suffered in Egypt for his people and for their gain; but every progress he made only presented their evil in a stronger and sadder light.
The remnant is only a handful escaping from the perplexities and degradation in which they with their fellows were involved; and as they rejoice in the mercy to themselves, so must they feel the state to which an original, once so fair and beautiful, has been reduced, and their separation from so many of their fellows still undelivered. The character of a remnant must necessarily be a sorrowing one, as connected with the scene where the failure has occurred, though there be increased joy and rest in God, as there is increased light and power to extricate oneself from everything dishonouring to Him. The character must be that of a widow as to what was, because the brightest thing here is gone; but this with a heart so true to the Lord that there is an uncompromising purpose to devote all one’s energies to “strengthen the things that remain”, Revelation 3: 2.
The widow of Luke 21 teaches us the true character of the remnant. For herself personally there was no interest here, yet all her energies, all her living was devoted to the maintenance of the testimony of God on earth. In a word, she had no interest of her own; the interests of Christ commanded all her attention and all her energies.
She describes the Jewish remnant of that day, and characteristically, the remnant who purge themselves from the corruptions of the “great house” in the present day. If saints in every dispensation had continued true and faithful to the calling of God, there would have [p. 112] been no remnant. If there had been no declension or apostasy, there would have been no need for any to stand forth and declare their purpose, through grace, to separate themselves from all the disorder around, cleaving to that which is of God, and energetically devoting themselves to the maintenance of it. The remnant never regain the original, but they refuse everything unworthy of it and of the calling of God. And hence at every time their character is one of great solemnity and great fervency. They are aware of the terrible blight that is upon everything dear to them, but they are increasingly devoted to God and confident in Him. As they see how everything here has failed in man’s hand, their heart finds full resource in Him, even as the remnant of Psalm 74 exclaims, “The day is thine, the night also is thine; thou hast prepared the moon and the sun”.
There are two classes of sufferings which I may just note in passing; one which the earnest one endures in reaching the path of faith on earth, as Jacob in Genesis 35; the other what the faithful one endures as Christ’s witness in the path. The one, the suffering in reaching the path, Jacob sets before us; the other, the suffering in the path, Joseph, or the widow, presents to us. Joseph in Egypt is the first remnant faithful to God, whether as a slave or as a prince, in the prison or in the palace. His brethren had departed from God, and had cast him out; but he remained true, and God was honoured; and though he never regained the original standing, his faith was such that in dying he gave commandment that his bones should be carried back to the land. He never surrendered his calling, though he never recovered it fully. And this is the great work of the remnant, though I speak not of that here, but of the character that becomes them. The remnant occupy no light place; and as they realise it, there must be a sense of it about them. They bear upon them the mark of God (Ezekiel 9: 4), and they [p. 113] sigh and cry for the abominations committed in the holy places. The remnant are a grave company — fasting with Ezra beside the river Ahava; Ezra 8: 21. They are necessarily self-denying; they must not eat of the king’s meat or drink of the king’s wine (Daniel 1: 8); and the furnace of fire or the lion’s den may await them for their faithfulness. They are like Anna the prophetess (Luke 2: 36, 37), a widow of fourscore and four years, who departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayer night and day. If any one has any true sense of the declension of the church as it was first set up on the earth, and if there be a heart for the Lord, must there not be a deepening sense of the wretchedness of everything connected with man, but through grace a deeper and fuller confidence and joy of heart in looking up and resting in God? And this will impart the true remnant character, namely, a complete widowhood as touching everything of earth and man, but a more devoted zeal for everything of God; desolate indeed here, but confiding and joying in God; of no expectation from man, but of great expectations from God; passing through this scene with the deep solemn step of sentinels who, amid the ruins of fallen greatness, watch with sleepless eye for their Lord, that they may open to Him immediately, and who meanwhile guard His name and honour through the long and dreary night.
The Lord lead His saints to wait on Him, that they may not miss the path in which He would have them walk for Him in this evil day.