EXTRACTS

Every feature of the testimony will be brought in publicly when the Lord comes, and His coming is the goal towards which all spiritual movements tend. Everything in the testimony is really, like the Lord’s supper, “until he come”. Moses, and Aaron and his sons, encamp

“before the tabernacle eastward”. The priestly company is on that side of the testimony, representing those who with spiritual intelligence and affection can serve in relation to it as understanding that it ever has “the sun-rising” in view.

Every movement of the testimony is in that direction. God has one thing before Him in relation to the world; He is going to bring the Firstborn into it (Hebrews 1: 6), and His testimony ever moves towards that. It must be so if it is God’s testimony. So when an alarm is blown “the camps that lie eastward shall set forward”. The first movement is with those who are nearest to the sun-rising, representing those who love His appearing, and look in the most distinct way for His coming. Such will be alert, and ready to “set forward” at the first blast of the trumpets.

C. A. Coates (‘An Outline of Numbers’, p.128)

Now I mention these thoughts, which I regard as important, so that all may be moving on in the truth, that we may be lovers of the truth. The truth is a great point

with John, and he tells us that the Lord Jesus said of Himself, “I am the truth”, John 14: 6.

The Lord Jesus is the truth, so that evidently, if it is a question of truth to be decided, we must refer to what He says, or His apostles. If other scriptures seem to us to disagree, because of our lack of understanding, we must defer to the teaching of the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit through the apostles. I read these two verses so that the elder brethren amongst us may see the responsibility attaching to us, for I find myself amongst them, and I am glad of this, glad to have a place with them. I am speaking now to my elder brethren here as to the responsibility of paying attention to what is written and what is ministered, to see that the Scriptures have their place in what is ministered, that the saints thus may be brought up in the truth as loving it. John speaks to the elect lady as one loved in the truth; he speaks to her as a person who was herself loved in the truth, and of her children as walking in truth. I wish to bring forward the importance of experience amongst us, experience in the truth, whether it be teaching the truth, or following it, so that, as having this experience, we can be relied on. One of the greatest features is that we should be reliable in what we commend to the brethren, that the brethren may be sure of what we are saying.

J. Taylor (Vol.60, p.161)

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