SANCTIFICATION THROUGH HIS WAYS AND THROUGH HIS WORD
SANCTIFICATION THROUGH HIS WAYS AND THROUGH HIS WORD
I do not think that the order of suffering indicates the exercise one is subjected to in it; we all are so differently exercised by the same kind of sufferings. Hence it is [p. 162] the exercise which really indicates the object or need of the suffering. Farmers would tell you, wind for a lamb, rain for a calf, and sun for a foal. The exercises from each of these influences are needed by each, and though one is quite different from the other, the same effects are produced. The results are brought about by very different agents; but the object of it all is to produce strength, and a better development of life. Chastening is to effect this; holiness is the standard; “that we might be partakers of his holiness” (Hebrews 12: 10). “The knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Proverbs 9: 10). We are divinely intelligent, that is, we have reached the highest point of intelligence when we are holy; “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7: 1). It is the “path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen” (Job 28: 7).
I do not think that we are sufficiently interested in the subject of sanctification and how it is produced. The Father’s chastening is to this end. Christ’s present ministry is to this end, but He effects it by the word, from the place in which He is as the sanctified One; so that everything affecting us in the old creation, and every word connecting us with the new creation should all tend to this great consummation. The action of both these processes is very interesting; one detaching us by a dying process from everything here, and in us, which would hinder holiness, and the other by the living word leading our hearts intelligently into the mind and ways of Christ who is not here, but who has sanctified Himself that we might be sanctified truthwise, that is, not only by the truth but bearing the colour of it.
I think the washing by the word and the sanctifying by the word differ in this - the former is effected when the mind and conscience are diverted from things here to Christ; the latter when we are in association with Him after the order of His sanctification, or what the word produces; that is its own proper [p. 163] atmosphere (it imparts an oxygen of its own); there is no sense of the beautiful and perfect apart from purity, and divine purity is necessarily holiness: that is, distinct separation from evil - where evil is. Thus everything great and intelligent is connected with holiness. There is something wonderful in knowing oneself in this school, graduating into the highest intelligence, and into all that is beautiful and perfect; everything that acts on me, wind, rain, or heat, and every whisper of the still small voice that sounds in me, is to educate me in the path which to faith is distinct and plain, and most blessed, but unknown to the cleverest and sharpest intellect of the mere creature.
May you learn your lessons every day. You have only two books to learn from; one is, how His ways act on you; the other, how His words act in you. May you be an attentive scholar, and may you rejoice His heart in the fruits of your education to the glory of His name!