THE DIVINE PATH IMPOSSIBLE TO MAN

THE DIVINE PATH IMPOSSIBLE TO MAN

... The truth with many is like the old cathedrals, the form correct, but the strength gradually declining. Even with the true-hearted the attempt and desire is too often to carry on Christian things by human means; and with nominal Christians, refinement and luxury, mentally and materially, are sought instead of religion. All this is to give man prominence.

Well, thank the Lord, He is still working. The divine path is an impossibility to man. Minister to, or suit the natural man, and you must diverge from the divine path. God could not propose any path to His own now but one impossible to man. Propose one possible for man, and you have departed from the path in which Christ walked, which is the only one pleasing to God.

As to the difference between “I will come to you” and “I ... will manifest myself to him” (John 14: 18, 21), the first is to the assembly, the latter to the individual. The former is the fact that He would not leave them orphans; the latter, that He would make the faithful one sensible of His company. Paul knew the latter when he said, “The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me” (2 Timothy 4: 17).

I believe the one great hindrance to our progress is the limited measure of our desire and preparation. We often think that we are wishing for and ready for much more than we are. We always get what we value; we may use any amount of adjectives in prayer, but God knows the mind of the Spirit. Christians in general never seek more of Christ than His support down here. You do not touch the old corn of the land until after Gilgal. How ^[p. 24] can any one be in the current of Christ’s present interests unless he knows Him where He is? If you want to know any one as he is, you must be in his company. “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shew it unto you” (John 16: 14).