SERVICE AND COMMUNION NO. 1

^[p. 56] SERVICE AND COMMUNION NO. 1

... I am sure that I am in my right place and that is a comfort. Every one here is naturally running counter to God. Providence is God ordering for man doing his own will, but when I am led of the Lord, I am no longer doing my own will, but I am in concert with Him in the midst of the universal contrariety here. He supports me because I coincide with Him. How happy for each of us to move along this scene in concert with the Lord and serving Him. A saint who truly serves is like a hound; he comes from his home and rest, where he is fresh and happy, to enter on the chase; he enters the plain or the forest of this world to follow the game. I mean, it is not some pre-conceived service or routine; he goes forth ready to capture whatever may arise; he finds his pleasure in implicitly pursuing, as he is directed. He delights in the chase, but he delights in his master more, and he returns in the evening whatever has been the day’s success, in the simple enjoyment of being beside his master. This is just an illustration of the way we should live to serve. If we are not fresh and happy in secret with the Lord, as the home of the heart, we are not fit for the chase. The first and the greatest thing is my own restful condition with the Lord. This is a happiness entirely independent of service. I may know my duty is to hunt, but I am perfectly happy in my home, the home of my heart — happy there par excellence. I enjoy service, but service over is over, but the love and nearness to my Master is not over; that I return to as paramount when the hunting is over. I enjoy the hunting or service, but it is not my home nor is it the solace of my heart. No; I am ready to drop it all and retire to the rest of my heart near my Master, from which rest I started. My happiness is not that I have hunted well, served well, but that I have a Master who delights and satisfies my heart.