QUESTION AS TO FELLOWSHIP, THE CROSS AND THE GLORY
QUESTION AS TO FELLOWSHIP, THE CROSS AND THE GLORY
We cannot ‘cut off’, but we can refuse to have any fellowship; the latter we have done; we have placed ———— on the same footing as Bethesda. We cannot put any one out of the house, we cannot unchurch any assembly; but when an assembly has professed to be on the ground of the church of God, and has departed from it, we do not receive from it or commend to it. We receive from all Christian denominations, Church of England, Baptists, etc., but never from Bethesda, or any who are on that ground.
The misrepresentation given to my words springs from a mind determined to obtain authority for its own laxity. I believe that where the heart is simply set to vindicate the honour of the Lord, and preserve the truth of the gospel to His own, there is increase of vigour in word and conversation. When self-vindication in any form engages the attention, there is a lack in heart and walk. ———— tells me that ———— says that I overlook the cross, and that he spoke on Moses and Elias on the mount of glory speaking of His decease as a proof that the cross is the subject of the glory. This is quite misapplying scripture. There the saints are speaking of a thing not yet accomplished in connection with the glory manifested to the [p. 96] earth. I speak of glory being my place with Christ because of the cross, and what it has accomplished, and hence in glory the slain Lamb will ever be the witness of it and the subject of praise to the redeemed for ever in the glory. Before the cross saints on the mount of glory could speak of His decease anticipatively as the greatest event in the history of the world and of man, and so it will always be; but as yet saints had no title to the glory because the cross had not removed the hindrance on God’s side....
The burnt offering is a great relief to the heart in all the din and dust of human strife. Christ in glory is necessarily the centre of everything to the heart. He was in the glory and He came down to us to bring us to a place that He knew, but which was quite unknown to us. Aaron only knew the holiest as he went in. Moses knew more, he knew it better, because he came out from it. Our blessed Lord is both Moses and Aaron. He knew what was within before He came out, and He came out to bring us in; and where He is there shall we be also. But down here He was the meat offering: 1, in private life; 2, in serving suffering man; 3, as He was to the sinner (see John 4 and Luke 7); 4, as He was to His own (see Matthew 8; John 11) and at the cross committing His mother to John — how He counted on them! 5, to Israel; 6, to God.