THE VESSEL AND THE TREASURE, ETC.

THE VESSEL AND THE TREASURE, ETC.

I see very clearly that we have an earthen vessel, but we have a heavenly treasure in it, and while we have to take every care of the vessel as such, the vessel is not the treasure; and the vessel may be subjected to much discipline to render it fit for holding the treasure. Thus every position and relationship in which we are set here, should be with reference to this end — to render the vessel more fitted for the treasure: therefore the rule should be — nothing for the vessel but what is necessary to it as a vessel, but everything I can lay hold of for the treasure!

I have been writing about the two deaths we have morally to pass through — the one our own death, like Jonah in the sea, where he is saved through the intervention and life of another. Death with Christ if truly entered into is a very absolute thing, nothing is left to me but His life which is divinely everything. But after this he has to experience the death of everything down here that would detain his heart from God; the gourd dies. The only way to be preserved from being like Lot’s wife (see Luke 18) is by dependence on God, and by surrendering every impediment to following the Lord; and then you are well compensated. I believe the real loss with every believer is that he does not start as (by grace) a heavenly being; an immensity of disappointment and failure would be avoided if one were to regard this place as the place of discipline and service, but that by calling, nature, and taste, we are heavenly and belong wholly to another country.