THE STONE BEFORE THE WHEEL
THE STONE BEFORE THE WHEEL
It is most profitable and interesting to review the past, to remember all the way the Lord has led us. There are epochs in our history, the gentle and blessed way by which He has led you from one step upwards to another, the surrender He has led you to make for Him, and the consequent gain. But when we review our history we see how slowly we have surrendered all of the old man, and through Gilgal, the only entrance to the place where He is, have found our all in Him. The progress is slow; but we know that it is real; not from the gain at first, but from the sense of relief in the removal of the obstacle as a mote from the eye.
If you are true to yourself you will find that there is some link to the earth, and that by it you are held back; the last link is the one most difficult to break. The one in the ascendant is the stone before the wheel, and when you are in the energy of the Spirit, it shows itself in the removal of this obstruction.
There is nothing more interesting than the way the stone is rolled away. Go back to your conversion, and recall the exercises before the Saviour displaced [p. 379] the sinner to the joy of your heart. Then what a step, what a surrender, and how great a gain when you separated from the world and found yourself in company with His own gathered to His name! Well, countless have been the surrenders since.
It is when you become a young man, a strong intelligent capable man of God, that the conflict begins from without. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 John 2: 15). Surely it is a fine sight to see a saint refusing everything here which suits and attracts a man. Then you are a father; you have found compensation, or the manifold more in Christ. I might be at the door of heaven, as at the door of a garden with the key of it in my hand, when a picture or a worry might hinder me from entering. My title is unquestionable, but I am diverted from entering, and there will be no entering until the stone be removed; though there may be increased vigour, yet health is not re-established until the distraction, be it pleasure or pain, be removed.
I do not think that improvement in spiritual health is the same as progress. I do not see how any one can really progress but inside the door of Gilgal. I may be gaining health in the enjoyment of life outside, but inside I grow in heavenly tastes and ways. I dare say you have surrendered as much as any one, yet you might be detained outside, or diverted, as a Barnabas was, and as even a Paul was. All I press upon you is that surrender must go on. “We which live are alway delivered unto death” (2 Corinthians 4: 11).
The most disappointing people possibly are those who made a great surrender at first, in the way of separation, and are so satisfied with their one great achievement that they think no more is necessary. They are like ancient towers, monuments of greatness in another day, covered with ivy; earthly, neither fitted nor capable for the exigencies of the present hour. I do not say that you should be occupied with surrender,
[p. 380] but sensibly in the Spirit, inside Gilgal, all of the old is left outside; consequently the more you are educated and imbued with the new - with Christ “everything, and in all”, the more separate you must be from the old when you return to it. The Lord, I believe, is always preparing the loving heart for some advancement, and this advancement cannot be without the surrender of the carnal, which would neutralise it. Hence surrender is a prelude to advancement; “He, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus” (Mark 10: 50). Paul was in prison, John was in exile, before either was sufficiently dissociated from earthly things to be fully occupied, one with the things in heaven, and the other with the Lord’s ways on earth. I have written a long letter, and have indifferently expressed what I desire may characterise you.
To advance be your one great thought - going on to perfection; not merely happiness and usefulness, but increasing with the increase of God; and for this you must daily forget the things that are behind. May your divine stature greatly increase to the joy of the Lord.