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interests. So the apostle Paul could say of Timothy, “I have no

one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get

on. For all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus

Christ”. Now if we are bondmen, the book of Revelation has a

peculiar interest to us; for it concerns the rights of God on this

earth and the place Christ is to have in relation to them. As we

look around us, whether in Christendom or in the heathen

world, we might reasonably enquire, How is all going to be

brought under the rule of Christ and into agreement with the

will of God? The book of Revelation answers that question;

and in addition to this it gives us the mind of the Lord as to

what professes His name on earth today. He scrutinises all

and pronounces upon all He sees. He does not come before

us in that book specifically as the One who loved the

assembly, though He be such, but as the One who views all in

holy discernment.

The question arises at times with us as to how we ought to

deal with matters that concern the Lord’s name. How should

things be done? We have often felt, I expect, that though we

have tried to serve the Lord in this connection it has needed

perhaps a more skilful hand than ours has been, to do so

rightly, and we have blundered in attempting to do what we

thought was the right thing. It is a very necessary process to

learn to disentangle things in our own hearts.

If we are to act for God, we must first learn how to discern the

movements of our own hearts; we must learn to discern good

and evil there. What were the motives in that action which

caused sorrow? There can be no greater favour than that the

Lord should give us spiritual power to judge ourselves. A

spiritual man judges himself. If we are rightly to deal with the

Lord’s things we must be morally near to Christ; and if we are

near to Him, we shall come under His influence and thus the

features that are seen in Him in perfection will be

found in us according to our measure. Let us look, then, at

some of the features brought before us in this passage, as