EXERCISES OF THE WILDERNESS

EXERCISES OF THE WILDERNESS

The variety of exercises to which we are subjected in our journey through the wilderness is very interesting when we go through them with the Lord. They are not often what we might have predicted for ourselves,

^[p. 157] but they are the suited ones to deepen the work of grace, or to sever us from what would interfere with it; and as we are exercised by the trial, we find out, or at any rate reach the intention of it, even though often we could not define it to any one, or to ourselves. In the exercise we are brought near the Lord, and there the needed grace is acquired, the hindrance is checked, and while it is checked, the heart is drawn to the Lord, and the feature which He would impart is produced in us. The checking or breaking away of the old leaf is not enough, it is only preliminary to the other, namely, the gift of a new one. It is not enough that the gourd should perish. Its perishing really only makes place for Christ, but this is acquisition in the stead of the loss; and many are conscious of losing the old leaf, who do not apply themselves to the Lord to obtain the new one, that is, the feature of Himself which He would substitute for the old one which has been cut off. And this makes tribulation an occasion for joy, because when I come near Him, widowed of what meets me as man, He shews me what especially suits me in Himself, and I find a compensation in Him, the perfect Man - the Son of God - for the lost leaf, or broken branch of the poor weak man here. I grow in knowledge, and in possession too, of the one perfect One, and this is an unspeakable charm to the heart; because He lives I live also, and the joy of the Lord is my strength - “My joy fulfilled in them”. What a picture on earth to see one Man threading His way through all the defilement and labyrinth of this world, well pleasing to God, and His delight always. It attracts the heart beyond anything ever seen by, or shewn to man on earth.