CHRIST OR ADAM

^[p. 58] CHRIST OR ADAM

I am greatly impressed that the test question for everything is, ‘Is it for Christ or for Adam?’ I believe it is the happiest day here when you so prefer Christ to Adam that you heartily acknowledge His absolute title to you. When Isaac is in his place, Ishmael will not be tolerated, he will be cast out. I believe it is a most joyous moment when Christ is acknowledged in His place, and though you may swerve from this through temptation, yet you will never have a good conscience unless you give Him His rightful place. I do not believe any one can progress until he prefers Christ to Adam. The thing coveted most by the eye of Adam is unattractive to Christ. His tastes are altogether outside of man’s most refined tastes. Man has made Christianity a lever to elevate himself, and now that he has, by means of the Bible, reached an elevation hitherto unknown, he seeks to arrive at independence of God. The secret thought of the typical man of the day is, that there is a great destiny for man on the earth, and to this end he is working. Babylon will be the consummation, even that man, independent of God, can possess the earth in unbroken satisfaction. The only way we can meet this terrible inroad is by persevering fidelity to Christ, because the heart prefers Him to Adam.

The first step consequent on justification is, you prefer Christ to Adam; the next, you have His company. That is Hebrews. Then you get the assembly — the only place where He is to be found on earth. All is easy to you when you take the first step.