THE LORD, OUR FIRST OBJECT

THE LORD, OUR FIRST OBJECT

I am much interested in seeing (2 Timothy 4) that the apostle who had been in the brightest place ministerially, now in the lowest in the sight of men, was in nowise discouraged. The Lord was his resource, though often when there are some to lean upon, His all-sufficiency is not realised. The more divinely beautiful anything is the less it is appreciated by the human mind.

I do not believe we shall reap in joy unless we have sown in tears. The obstruction must be displaced in order that Christ may have His place, and this is always with sorrow at first, but there is joy in the end.

I think there are some who do not know what deliverance is, others know it but do not seek to be in it continually, and a third class who, “always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4: 10), are in the joy of deliverance. I do not believe it is possible to be delivered and yet to walk in the flesh, or in the things from which you are delivered if you walk in the Spirit. I should say a saint does not know deliverance if he is walking in the flesh. As you are with God so you will be from God; you cannot rise higher with man than you are with God, and the way to advance is to go to God, rather than to try to improve towards man. Your ^[p. 439] worship, too, is the measure of your moral power. You must go to God before you can increase your power, as we see with Jacob at Shechem and at Bethel.

A sentence in your letter fills my heart with joy and thankfulness, that is, your longing to have the first man displaced and to be down here in the grace and manner of life of the Man out of heaven.

As the Lord sets the stars in the sky so does He raise up a light for Himself in places. If we would make others lights, we must first be lights ourselves. I have been greatly helped by seeing the effect of coming from the Lord. When you come from Him you are full of Him, He is your first object, even in the smallest duty. The heart’s object reigns in the heart! If you sing or give out a hymn, it is all about Him, and not merely about your own blessing. The nearer we are to the Lord the more sensitive we should be to even a word which would not suit His ear.

I long to see you, like Ruth, cleaving to the best company - though it may be a poor, sorrowful old woman. If you value the best company you know of, you are sure to come to the best there is!