PAIGNTON, JUNE 18TH, 1937
PAIGNTON, JUNE 18TH, 1937
Beloved Brother, — Thanks for yours of the 14th and 16th inst. and enclosures.
I shall look into the reference to Obed-Edom when the Notes come to hand. There can be no certainty as to the matter, but Edom in the compound name is not unworthy of notice. It may denote grace as Deuteronomy 23 shows.
I have qualified the remarks in the Notes as to the candlesticks. They are said by the Lord to be seven assemblies and as seven is evidently symbolical of the whole assembly we have to conclude, it seems to me, that the public position of the assembly as the light-bearer for God in the world is in mind. “Thy lamp” would thus be what it had or was at the outset. That Ephesus — that is, the early phase — did not repent and do the first works is clear from the subsequent epistles, hence its status in this sense ceased. Jezebel judged as non-repentant marks this, a remnant being owned with no other burden but to hold fast what they had. The overcomer is henceforth put before the appeal to the hearing ear, and the Lord having the [p. 86] seven stars and the seven spirits of God instead of holding the former in His right hand and walking in the midst of the seven golden lamps.
That the light of God is still here in the assembly is, of course, true and will remain so until the end. But silence as to the golden lamps after Ephesus, and a remnant directed to the Lord’s coming and the millennial reign, show that the whole outward position is changed, that morally it is judged. The Lord says “I am about to spue thee out of my mouth”, although He is offering counsel and standing at the door knocking. The spiritually instructed believer knows the position: the assembly remains here and the Spirit; inwardly all is thus secured, but he will not speak of things as if no sorrowful departure has taken place, and so will recognise that the removal of the lamp as the Lord spoke of it must have taken place. The thought remains and will find expression later, but the assembly viewed in this way has lost its place, although the responsibility of its having had that place still attaches to the public body.
The remarks made in the reading on the Silver Trumpets do not furnish support for the suggestion that an announcement of a care meeting is the blast of a trumpet. The point stressed is the importance of such a meeting — of our getting to the Lord as to the need of care among the saints. The brother who furnishes information to the saints as to what has been determined is not blowing a trumpet in the sense of Numbers 10. The principle of the latter might enter into the considered decision of the brethren to meet in ‘care;’ it would certainly enter into a decision to call the saints together to deal with sin.
I shall, God willing, return the two books and other belongings of yours which I have. I am looking for the remaining two readings, the others are revised, only I wish to look over them again. Mr. Weiske is remembered by us in prayer — his work on the Notes is unusually good.
Affectionately yours in Christ,
James Taylor.