AFFECTION JOINS CHRIST WHERE HE IS, ETC.

AFFECTION JOINS CHRIST WHERE HE IS, ETC.

How very little the natural heart can solace itself about absent friends, while we have (may we use it better) the deepest consolation in speaking to the Lord for one another, according as we are bound to, or interested in one another.

I was speaking on Matthew 14, the Lord walking on the water — above all the power of evil here — entirely new ground. Peter, from affection to the Lord, desires to join Him there, he says, “Bid me come”, and Jesus replies, “Come”, and he walks on the water to go to Jesus. He is in figure a pattern for us. Jesus is above everything, as Stephen in reality found. We have the power to go to Him there through the Spirit, but we often lack the affection which would make us eager to use our power. When a young bird is fully fledged and has never used its wings, the parent bird rises a little distance from it, and the young bird, in its desire to reach the parent bird, makes an effort to rise too, and then it finds out for the first time that it has wings. We have the power — the Spirit of God, but we often lack the longing to join Him, and hence we do not know the power and blessedness of being with Him and united to Him. It is entirely new ground, and where faith alone can keep us.

I find in seeking the Lord’s sympathy that it is not the way I feel in the trial but the way He would feel in it, that does me the real good. The care of the Father comforts you and binds you to Him. The sympathy of Christ mellows you; for it imparts to you His own feelings and nature.

As to your questions — I have always considered that it was the same woman in Matthew, Mark and John, who anointed our Lord. There are some differences in the account of it in each, but this is necessary because the Spirit used the incident to convey a distinct and different ^[p. 128] truth in each; as has been said — there is no repetition in scripture; each gospel is perfect according to its own subject, and in giving the woman’s act, the way and connection in which it is given is to enforce and support the subject of each. It is important to see this in reading scripture....

As to those who came out of the graves after Christ’s resurrection, I believe they were to testify to the people of the reality of His resurrection, and it may be, as you say, that there will be a public testimony of a like kind — when the Lord comes for the church....

I understand that the saints will be all gathered to the Lord in the air, and that the world will not know what has become of them, no more than they knew what had become of Elijah in another day.