THE HUMAN AND THE DIVINE

THE HUMAN AND THE DIVINE

The devotedness of one is a help to the whole church of God. What an encouragement and incentive to be devoted! “If any man serve me, him will my Father honour” (John 12: 26). There is nothing so important for the church as personal devotedness. All the light of heaven will be in vain without the fresh energy of the Spirit in continued surrender. The sin of Canaan is more worldliness, that of the wilderness, earthliness.

Death comes in, in one form or another, and this is only right, for we have brought it on ourselves. In Christ all heaven and its eternal delights are thrown open to us, with capacities to enjoy them; but in the flesh I am entitled to nothing but death. Hence every mercy is an instance of divine favour.

The danger of brethren is lest they should be satisfied with the creed, as I might call it, of the evangelicals - namely, gospel, good conduct, and good works. This ^[p. 314] never carries us beyond the earth. Christ’s joys and hopes, His body on the earth, His ways ours here; this is spiritual, and is as remote from the former as heaven is from the earth.

There is no use in trying to make a man change his opinion until he first changes his place. Is it from man’s scene you view things, or is it from God’s scene? If from man’s, your view will be earthly and natural; if from God’s, it will be spiritual and divine. You will see things as He sees them: “I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end” (Psalm 73: 17).