OCTOBER 19TH, 1896

OCTOBER 19TH, 1896

I am beginning to get into the thick of things in London and am thankful to notice the apparent absence of any contentious spirit. I trust that through God’s mercy we may be allowed a moment of quiet. The fortnightly readings are being looked forward to with a good deal of interest and there is general satisfaction at Romans being taken up. It has brought home to me the importance of resurrection, as the great principle of God’s actings in blessing. It is by resurrection, first in Christ, then in those that are Christ’s, and then figuratively in Israel, that God will set aside the whole existing order of things which is under the power of Satan, sin and death. In Romans 3 ^[p. 125] righteousness is the basis; in chapter 4 Christ is risen on the ground of righteousness; in chapter 5 we get the setting forth of all that is established in the Lord Jesus Christ for man, in contrast to sin and death, and we are in the light of it; then in chapter 6 we accept death to sin and account ourselves alive in the One risen from the dead; it is a wholly new order.