HOW WOULD AN OUT-OF-TUNE MEETING AFFECT THE SPIRITUAL?

HOW WOULD AN OUT-OF-TUNE MEETING AFFECT THE SPIRITUAL?

Your question is - How would the spiritual be affected by the meeting being out of tune?

I believe the nearer you are to the Lord, the more would you feel every disturbance in the meeting; but at the same time you would be more restful in Him who is perfect, and above it all. If you lose your comfort ^[p. 192] because of the want of harmony in the meeting, it is to the meeting you are looking for comfort, and when it comes not, you only add to it by your fretfulness and disappointment. You expected some help or cheer from the meeting; there is disturbance, and you are disturbed, and you thus increase the disorder, because you feel the disturbance only on account of your own loss; whereas, if you are near the Lord, though you will be conscious of the smallest disorder, you are dependent on Him, and therefore you have a warmth in yourself which cannot be chilled by the atmosphere of the room. If you come to the meeting suitably, you come to communicate; you are happy in the Lord, and, as a member of the body, you naturally come to contribute to its general good. If there be disturbance, the more healthy you are, the more you feel it, but you do not add to it; on the contrary, by your health you actually check the spread of it. You rest in the Lord, and know Him afresh, as “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isaiah 32: 2), you see the storm, while you are under the shelter of His presence.

It is a very interesting and important question, because its answer accounts for the different ways in which different saints view the same meeting. The spiritual one will feel the discord of the meeting, because he is so sensible of what suits the Lord, from being under the cover of His wing, and the more he is in the secret place of the Almighty, the more he feels and sees what is not in keeping with it; but while he is very sensitive, he only gets closer under the wing, though he sings not, because there is a storm! He is like the lamb that cleaves closely to its mother’s side, when there is any noise or alarm of danger, more sure of its place and protection, though at the same time aware of the presence of trial; while the one who is disturbed, is like the lamb that has sought pasture at a distance from its dam, and which, when the danger arises, increases the panic and disorder by its own perturbation.