CONTINUANCE

CONTINUANCE

As to your question about communion, I think I should distinguish between communion, and walking in communion. I think it is quite possible to have had communion with God as to a certain part of His purpose and grace, and to have made no advance from that part; and yet it was true communion as far as it went, and one might even revert to it, as a known moment of power and enjoyment. I think, for instance, a soul may have a true sense of the value of the blood in the sight of God, and can always refer to that moment with delight and assured blessing; but he has to revert, which in itself proves that he is not in communion as a present thing, for if he were, he would connect the past with the present, and be conscious that the stream, small at the source, only widens and deepens as it proceeds, the first drop swelling by every fresh acquisition, but the present part of the stream imparting a force and sense of power and blessing which the first drop could not alone. If I have to revert to the first drop in order to prove that I have tasted of water in the desert, it proves that I am not now in full concert with the mind and thought of God in my course and journey, or in company with His interests and counsels, and thus through grace shaping myself in keeping with them. In the latter case I am walking in the light and have communion with Him. In the former case I only revert to a time when I was true to my calling, and had a sense in my soul of enjoying a certain blessing. That blessing was according to God’s mind, and in that mind I was for the moment, and so far I had common mind with Him, and such was the impression it made on me, that I always can revert to it; but the fact of my reverting to it thus proves that I have never known any like it since. I quite believe that there may be and is a great distinctness about the first drop to a parched soul in a weary land; but then this great era (begun with this distinct taste) is to be continued. It is only the beginning of a stream of endless blessing which communion with God necessarily is, for in all His counsels and interests I find strength and cheer. It is, I admit, a great thing to have had a taste of it, but I fear that there are many who comfort themselves by the past taste (remaining in its value) instead of being daily invigorated in the deep, full stream of His love and purposes, and which necessarily cannot be known but in His own region, namely, the light, which is also our only region. Hence, if we walk in it, we have fellowship with one another.