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vessel of mercy. Then the precious stones, their shining, .their

beauty, every one of them different, every one of them rich,

having a shining and lustre of their own. It is wonderful to look

at the saints in that way. The precious stones have to do with

what is priestly among us. The stones on the breastplate are

beautiful. They have to do with how the saints are held in

priestly feeling.

All this has to do with the wonder of the local assembly. It

makes the local assembly a very stable and ornamented

place. You look at the saints, your local brethren, and you love

them.

It is a fine experience, and a wonderful privilege, to be able to

move about in any way to see the brethren, but there is

something very precious about coming back to your local

meeting.

We need to take care how we build in our localities. Let all

things be in relation to Christ, Jesus Christ, this order of Man,

this kind of an that God has promoted; not the proud man, not

the ambitious man, but Jesus Christ, the perfect, blessed, holy

One, in whom is displayed manhood according to God. That is

the order of man that is to be in our local gatherings. We need

help, skill, wisdom, and care, as to how we do that. Paul goes

on to speak of the temple of God. He opens up this whole idea

of the temple; that the holiness of God is there; it is the place

where there is understanding. From this chapter he develops

the features of the local

assembly.

In Ephesians we come to an additional thought, the family.

That too belongs to our gatherings. Paul says, “Through him

we have both access by one Spirit to the Father”. That

involves the liberty of family affections, family feelings, the

liberty of sonship. Beloved brethren, think of it, that “through

him we have both access by one Spirit to the Father”. How