THE HIGHER WE ARE, THE SAFER WE ARE

THE HIGHER WE ARE, THE SAFER WE ARE

I think you are right as to the distinction between the Lord’s presence to two or three (Matthew 18: 20), and His manifestation to the one keeping His word (John 14: 21); though to both, His presence would supply whatever He knew each needed from His presence. You see we all need something or gain something from the presence of one on whom we are dependent, whether for care, counsel, or service of any kind. He, blessed be His name, is equal for any and all. He supplies all, but to each distinctly as each requires.

I am greatly impressed with the conviction, that unless we keep in the highest place near Him (a barn-door fowl, however high the perch, always goes to the top round), we shall neither be equal for the difficulties of the day, able to steer our way through the maze and confusion, nor be preserved ourselves from the influence it would exert over us. We must overcome the darkness with light; and if we do not overcome it, it will swamp us. It is not that we can go partly with it and still be light. The principles are completely antagonistic. If this were clearly seen, saints could not expect or attempt to go on, in any degree, on the world’s level.

The Lord’s rejection, accepted by Him in Matthew 22, tells you the moral state of the world, and of man, when He closes His ministry. In the first place, they ^[p. 38] were under Caesar, instead of being under the true King of Israel. Secondly, they denied the resurrection, as men practically do now. Thirdly, man asks what is the commandment, instead of looking to God for mercy as a lost one. These were the three religious elements of the world, when the word of Psalm 110 reached the ear of our blessed Lord; and surely these principles are as active this day as they were in that day. As a saint, I am not under Caesar but under Christ (the dues to Caesar are quite another thing; I do not count them as my property; it is here looked at religiously, not in a temporal way), and as Christ’s I am looking for the resurrection, as the vindication of all that God is in His grace and power. The Lord is rejected, and has sat down, until His enemies are made His footstool; and I am either with Him above all these religious elements, or I am coalescing with that which is against Him. If I follow Him I am as light, overcoming the darkness, and I am myself preserved in the very separation which the light imposes on me. I take part with Him, I am of His Spirit. I find things here as He left them - the world as unwilling to accept me when I am like Him, as it was to accept Him; opposing, hindering, baffling me, as it did Him. And seeing that it is in order that we should represent Him here during His absence that He has left us here, how imperative it is that we should walk in His steps, and expect only to know His joy as our feet fall into His very footprints.

Saints so little take in the idea that they are to live Christ, not merely to belong to Him. He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit. We are now members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. People ought to be able to say of us, there is a part of Christ, not partly of Christ; and it ought to be the joy of our hearts to occupy this place, as no doubt it is when we in any little measure occupy it. Who knows the virtues and invigoration of any climate who has not been in it;

^[p. 39] and who can speak of its virtues and value but the one who has lived there and experienced it for himself? If we do not rise to Christ’s level we must be on the level of His enemies. The two levels are very distinct, and remote, too, from one another; and the only way to get power to rise above the low level, is by maintaining practically in faith, because it is truth, that we do belong to the high level; and thus when in faith we accept our true place, God in His grace makes us to be in power, what is true respecting us in His purpose. If we accept the low, we ignore faith; and there is no rising to the place which in truth belongs to us, because there is no faith in us respecting it. When faith is in action, it knows that the low level is not my place; and there is no rest till I am landed in the high level which is my place.