THE DISCIPLINE OF LOVE IS ONLY UNDERSTOOD IN NEARNESS
THE DISCIPLINE OF LOVE IS ONLY UNDERSTOOD IN NEARNESS
It is very interesting to bear in mind that the body is the Lord’s. David even had some idea of this truth when he preferred pestilence to any other suffering. To be under the hand of One who so perfectly loves us and owns us. “The body is the Lord’s”. One can speak to Him so easily about it; much more so than about one’s circumstances. They (circumstances) are more in the Father’s hand, and I suppose discipline in the way of bodily suffering is from Him. Bodily suffering from the Lord is, I think, on account of laxity; we are judged of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11: 32). I conclude there must be a sense of reserve between the Lord and me when He chastens me through the body. Whereas when I suffer in my body as the Father’s discipline, I am sensible, and the more so as I am near Him, that it is to make me partaker of his holiness to detach me from some hindering influence. For instance, if I were passionately fond of singing, He might send me hoarseness, and this would be a proof that I was progressing (”we who live are always delivered unto death”);
[p. 116] whereas if I were not progressing — not seeking to get on — He might let me fall into some snare through my singing — meet with company that would injure me in some way.
How delightful to be near enough to Him to understand His love! He likes our company, and it is His work that has made us fit to be His companions. He fits us for Himself first, as the steward ornamented Rebekah before she came to Isaac; but it was with Isaac’s ornaments. It is interesting to see that in the type she is in nature the same as Isaac; so Christ makes us of His nature, before we are united to Him, or rather to fit us for union with Him. How little we enter into this union! What restfulness it would give, what peculiar interest in all that is His it would lead to! May we truly grow into it.
I wrote to ————, ‘I should rejoice to see you in the forefront for separation.’...
The Lord bless you much. You are very dear to us, and may He keep you for His own service.