THE BODY OF CHRIST

THE BODY OF CHRIST

1 Corinthians 12:5, 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; 2 Corinthians 11:1-4

WJH It is hoped the Lord might lay upon us definitely an apprehension of the great thoughts of God for His people in any locality, affording there the education for working out what is of God, which in its fullest application applies to the whole church, but is worked out in local assemblies, so that things become living and expressed, rather than theoretical as they are so apt to do. Previously we were looking at the Apostle’s word to the assembly of God in Corinth. While the assembly of God in its fullest thought is the whole assembly universally, Paul does not hesitate to speak of the assembly of God in Corinth; and Christians in Corinth would embrace that thought, that they belonged to the greatest assembly possible, and they belonged to it in the city where they were. Then we observed that the Apostle says to them, “Ye are God’s husbandry” — that God had a vineyard in that city, soil in which He was growing plants for His own delight. So that no other plantation would properly ever appeal to the Corinthian; no other garden would occupy his heart but the plantation in which God was working. Then we touched a little on the fact that the Apostle said to the saints at Corinth, “Ye are temple of God.” “Ye are.” In this city God had His temple, where every enquiry as to the truth could be answered, and where there would be an assertion of His holiness, so that if anyone attempted to defile the temple, God would destroy him. So that a Corinthian would understand that there would be a means of reaching a solution to every moral question that ever arose, by reference to the temple, and he would be concerned that none of his associations or practices should shut the door of access to that temple.

These thoughts are the thoughts of heaven and the thoughts of God for His people in this city and in every city where Christians are; and if the young, especially, could be helped to grasp them it would lead them to feel that the only thing that counts is to stand whole-heartedly committed to divine interests in the city where God has set them; not to hold these interests as subsidiary in their lives, but as dominating them.

I feel that perhaps we may get some additional sense of the grandeur and glory of Divine thoughts by considering what the Apostle says to the Corinthians, “Ye are body of Christ.” While the body of Christ in its totality embraces the assembly from Pentecost to the rapture — for nothing else than this is adequate to express Christ — yet he does not hesitate to apply the thought to the assembly in Corinth so that the great truth which is universal is worked out in a living way in one city; and one would desire that the Lord would help us to grasp our part more definitely as of His body here in this city.

EE Would you tell us what is the salient thought connected with the body?

WJH I think there are two great truths connected therewith, as indeed with the thought of the human body. One is that the body of a person is the vehicle for the expression of what that person is; without his body no one can know him, nothing comes into expression. While the spirit and the soul are the sources of everything that is done in the body, yet without a body nothing can be seen or known, so that the body of Christ, whether universally or in a city, is the vehicle for Christ to express Himself. Then the second great thought of the body is that of unity, for while the body is composed of many members, it is one, all the members functioning for the good of the body, and not independently. Independent action of a member is never contemplated, and it is not to exist in the body of Christ. Does that answer your inquiry?

EE Yes, it does. So that at once we are brought into touch with what is very great and blessed to have any part in, and I suppose every true believer belongs to it by the Spirit.

WJH In its universal character everyone who has received the Spirit of God is thereby baptised into one body; it is the great living bond that unites Christians together universally, but the thing is not apprehended, and therefore many Christians live as if this were not true.

GAvS Would you say then that the reason for the body of Christ being here is to provide the means for the expression of Christ which will bring out the interdependence of every saint upon every other under Christ, and also the unity and coordination which exists in that which expresses Christ?

WJH Quite so. If we apprehend our place in the body, and if features of the body are with us, how it must cast us on the Head, on Christ, and make us feel our need for each other; for everything that is expressed in the body is derived from the Head.

NBS Is the expression of Christ in the body public or under the eye of God?

WJH Primarily it is for the divine pleasure. “A body hast Thou prepared Me,”

“Lo, I come to do Thy will.” That was the prime thought as to the body of Jesus. It was prepared for the expression of the divine will. But that being so, and being apprehended by some, it led to many devoting their all to His body, as Mary did. “She has anointed my body,” the Lord says. And the woman of Luke 7 anointed His feet and did not cease to kiss them, as apprehending something that had come into expression in His body.

GAvS Are you suggesting that every local company is in the thoughts of God made adequate by the presence of the Spirit here to carry out in its spiritual measure what is expressive of Christ in that locality?

WJH I understand that to be the bearing of the words, “Ye are the body of Christ,” for in that city Christ would express Himself in His body. To be at all adequate, this requires all the members, and all functioning livingly. Hence we are at a very great disadvantage by the absence of so many of the members; but the thing is not to give up divine thoughts; they are going to stand, and our help and blessing will depend on standing in relation to them.

Ques Is the Lord the source of what is expressed in the body?

WJH The Scriptural word is, “He is head of the body, the assembly,” and from Him comes all the supply that the body requires, whether in its local or in its universal setting.

Ques Would the body be the perpetuation of Christ here in this scene? He could say, “Why persecutest thou Me.”

WJH Quite so. I think that word shows how the Lord was observing the expression of Himself in His people so blessedly at the outset, and identifying Himself with that body. It is “Me.” Though actually persecuting Christians, the Lord said, “You are persecuting Me.” The thing is to stand by the divine thought. We are painfully conscious that many of the members are practically missing, but the Lord desires His thoughts to be maintained in our souls and outlook. And if one brother today commits himself to this great thought it is going to revolutionize his life.

EE And we may well do so. One feels when God is presenting His thoughts to us He makes them appeal to our affections. So that in Colossians where the glory of the Person of Christ is brought before us, he mentions that part of His glory is that He is Head of the body. Such is the body in the divine mind that it is one of Christ’s glories to be Head to it.

WJH Quite so. If the Lord’s personal body were here in Sydney — if He were here in His body, or even if His body in death were here,

what would any lover of Jesus not do? Indeed, what would the angels of heaven not do? For it says, “There were two angels sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain,” though it was not there, but that it had been there, was a matter of profoundest regard to these angels. They sat there.

GAvS Would the development of these affections, in each of us, contribute to our functioning efficiently and according to God, in spite of the absence of so many who are necessary to complete the thought of the body?

WJH It is a great matter to seek, with all the help the Lord would give us, to provide what is lacking. We know it cannot be fully made up, but the Apostle speaks of filling up what is lacking, and if fresh affections arise in our hearts to contribute something to what is lacking in this city, it would be a great help.

GAvS Then affections wrought in the soul would preserve us from every sense of frustration or discouragement?

WJH Quite so. But God’s thoughts are going through; there is no possibility of them breaking down.

Ques Would you say there is encouragement for the young in that there is no pre-eminence in the body?

WJH I suppose nothing is more blessed than to fill our own part. In your body and mine, each member has a function that God has given it, and its true health depends upon fulfilling that. If it is an ear, what better? If it is an eye, what better? If it is a hand, what better? Because it is only functioning for the good of the whole. There is no idea of pre-eminence of a member. It is for the good of the whole, that each member of Christ’s body acts, so that Christ might be expressed.

DJM Why is the Spirit, rather than the headship of Christ, so prominent?

WJH Because the subject is the body, and the power that makes the body of Christ a living organism here on earth is the Spirit of God.

DJM Would “drinking into one Spirit” mean that every heart is satisfied?

WJH The Spirit of God would so satisfy every heart, that you would not want anything else. That is what the Lord said to the woman with the water pot. He would give her living water, so that she would never thirst for ever. Some of our young greatly need this, and we all need to face it. Are we satisfied, or do we want something different? We rightly want more of what we have got, but do we want something different?

NBS Every heart that loves Christ would delight to see the features of Christ expressed in the body. One would desire that we might have more as an object, that Christ might be expressed.

WJH We can certainly say that there is not a Christian in this room but if the Lord were here in His body, he would allow the fact to govern his life. If He were in Sydney in His body, then every true Christian in this room would say — all that matters is that I must subordinate my affections, my time, my home, my leisure, my money, to Christ. The Lord, when He was in Bethany, said of one, “She hath done what she could,” as to His body.

Rem There is no need for envy. Each has his own work. One cannot do the other’s work.

WJH You have only to look at your own body; you have never heard of envy in it, have you?

RS Coming under the lordship of Christ, we would move rightly, would we not?

WJH We need His Lordship before we can get the gain of His Headship, that is, we need to be subdued. The great minister of this truth came to this, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” That is, he subjected his will to the Lord, and then he was available to the body.

EE As we approach this great subject, are you making an appeal to our affections, that we should give ourselves up to what is so dear to the heart of Christ?

WJH Quite so. What I feel is lacking for oneself, and for many who are growing up, is caused through divine things being subsidiary; I fear they are not the controlling thing.

GAvS Is that reached on the line of sacrifice?

WJH Quite so. Mary of Bethany brought what was very costly. The Spirit of God said, “very costly.” She anointed His body. His body was so precious to her, that she kept what was precious for Him. She did not give to Him the fragments of what was precious. The Lord says, “Against the day of my burial hath she kept this.”

HSH Would you say of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea, that with them, the place of Christ had been subsidiary until after His death, but His dead body brought their affections into movement?

WJH That is very helpful. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night before. The Lord had a place in his heart, but he did not come out openly as fully identified with Him. And Joseph of Arimathaea was a disciple secretly, but as the preciousness of the body of Jesus came home to their hearts, they brought the best they had; and Joseph surrendered his own tomb which he had hewn out of a rock, doubtless with great labour and exercise; it was all handed over to Christ — to His body.

Ques What would you say is the appeal to us in the fact that the Apostle says, “One body, so also is the Christ”?

WJH That touches very closely what we have been saying, that the Spirit of God actually speaks of the saints as “the Christ,” so inseparably connected livingly with Him, that they are said to be “the Christ.” Not the Christ personally, but characteristically here.

GAvS It is a challenge how far we are leaving room for the introduction of anything that is not expressive of Christ, which must be a very discouraging feature for the people of God When a matter comes before one as to one’s associations and friendships and reading and the like, we could ask ourselves “Would this come out in Christ?” “Is this in keeping with what would be seen in His body here on earth?” If it is, let us go in for it, for it is well worth while, but if it is not, we are ignoring the fact that we are members of Christ, that we are part of His body.

GHW Saul of Tarsus used his body to persecute the saints, but afterwards he could say “that Christ might be glorified in my body, whether by life or by death.” So that he was brought into accord with this thought.

WJH What an excellent member of the body of Christ, whose only desire, whether he lived or died, was that Christ should be greater in the eyes of the saints, than hitherto.

JSD I suppose if I allow in my life that which is not in accord with the body of Christ, I damage not only myself, but the body!

WJH So that an attack upon the saints in this city or any other city is an attack on the body of Christ. It is not a question of what is personal at all. The enemy sought from the birth of Jesus, through Herod, to destroy His body — that the Lord should not be here in that body, and he is against that in every city.

GHW Is it in suffering, that these qualities are brought out in the body?

WJH It is in the sufferings of Jesus that the affections of those who loved Him were brought out, and it is in the sufferings of the saints that we find the same thing; the love that was in the heart of such as Mary, and the woman of the city, and Joseph of Arimathaea, came out in relation to His body.

Ques It says of one, that “She has done what she could.” Is that important in relation to each one of us?

WJH Very important. That touches the teaching of this chapter; we are to find out what is our function in the body, and to fulfil it.

NBS So that the Apostle puts it in a beautiful way to the Ephesians — “According to the working in its measure of each one part.”

WJH That touches a matter, I am sure, that many are deeply concerned about, and that is, how much loss there is to the Lord and to the body in this city, and in nearly all places through the non-functioning livingly of members.

GAvS Would you mind explaining to us what we are to understand by that word you have used — “functioning”?

WJH One could speak sympathetically to you. You know well how much you suffer through the lack of perfect hearing, you are suffering all the time, because one member is not fully functioning. That is what is grieving the Lord, and the saints in this city — for there are many not normally functioning according to the measure of the service committed to them of the Lord.

GAvS Would you say that the lack of functioning on the part of any individual saint is curable?

WJH The ministry the Lord has sent us the last two or three years has in view that each of us should begin to function and be maintained thus. Ministry is, of course, to cleanse the channels and to strengthen the heart, so that we go on with what we are doing and take up what we are not doing, but should do.

DJM This follows on the supper. Would drinking into one Spirit be drinking into the covenant?

WJH Which satisfies. It is a covenant that satisfies God. He does not find fault with it; He did with the old, but not with the new. And it satisfies us as we drink into it. Two things are needed by all; one is food, and the other, joy; and they are provided in the supper.

TH Would you say that every member is important? In Revelation it says, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.” Would you say the ear is very important”?

WJH Surely, but as remarked, it is not a question in this setting of making one more important than the other, but seeing that all contribute for the good of the whole — the ear only listens for the body, the eye only sees for the body, and so on.

Ques Is that the reason why the head is spoken of as a member here? The whole body is necessary to set Christ forth, including the head as a member.

WJH Christ, being Head of the body, is not a reference to the head as part of the body, but Head, in the sense of commander or controller — as head of an army — that is the idea of headship, as head of an army — every soldier being part of the army, controlled by its head.

JP When you speak of members not functioning, do you mean those whom we know are not conscious of their part in the body of Christ, and if so, how are we to fill up what is lacking?

WJH Of course it puts greater responsibility on other members. When one member is not functioning in the human body, the other members have to rally somehow, to support the situation. The thing is to help one another to function by seeing the divine thought and embracing it as being worthy of our all.

GAvS Do you think that in the case of Timothy, when the Apostle said, “Do the work of an evangelist,” he was encouraging him to do anything that was lacking?

WJH Something like that. Probably he was not an evangelist by gift, but the need was there, and if others did not come forward to fulfil it, he was to do what he could, which is about where most of us are in the preaching.

NBS There is another feature here in Corinthians which is very important. The Apostle exhorts them to have the same concern for one another. We have thought that the brethren ought to care for us, but everyone is responsible to care for the other members.

WJH What a field, lies at our door — those who are in moral trouble, in troubled circumstances, in exercise of soul; sheep that are lame and sick all round, available to us, but do we take it up, or are we leaving it to one or two or three? And so in the public service of God, brothers and sisters alike have a part to fulfil, and what wealth there would be if we fulfilled it.

Rem Is it a question of what is in the household, in regard to non-functioning? The Apostle, at the end of the Epistle, refers to the household of Stephanas as the first fruits of Achaia.

WJH You mean if things are not right there, the flow is blocked, is clogged; but where things are right in the household, such persons are free to function in the body.

EDL What do you understand by “God has tempered the body together”

WJH What beautiful symmetry there is in the human body — every member put in its place perfectly — everything ordered to provide a complete whole according to divine wisdom, and that is true spiritually. He has given each his own place; He has given sisters their place, and brothers, theirs, and each one, his own, and our happiness and health, and the health of the body depends on fulfilling that.

GAvS In the light of this, would you suggest that breakdown in the functioning, in anyone, is a very serious matter for the saints in that locality?

WJH It is really a possible disease spot, for when a brother or sister ceases livingly to function, you never know what disease will break out in that spot.

GAvS Does not that put a very grave responsibility upon the youngest as well as the oldest here?

WJH That is what I feel. That the young men especially, could be helped to feel their responsibility to find their part, and to fulfil it with all the heart! If I become stagnant and disinterested, it will not be long before a germ of disease will lodge within me, and not only will I suffer, but the body will.

GAvS Then is every one here to consider for Christ’s body?

WJH Would we do otherwise if His body personally were here? I do not think one Christian here would do otherwise than consider for His precious body, if it were personally here.

EE So, today, the response to this is not so much a matter of quantity, or of numbers, but of quality. When decline and confusion come in, it is not a matter of quantity, but of what is available?

WJH Which really means it is a matter of overcoming, as in Philadelphia, and being true to the Lord’s thoughts for His assembly. The Lord says, “I will make them know that I have loved thee.” The Lord loves to see assembly features held and maintained, even if it is with little strength or in fewness.

EE One feels that it is a word of encouragement to our brethren who, through circumstances allowed of God, are placed where there are only a few. Now He desires not so much numbers — we would be thankful for that, and accept it — but He is looking for quality in the few.

WJH If such brethren hold tenaciously to divine thoughts, the Lord will help and support them, and the Spirit of God will see that they are supplied with what they need.

Ques It speaks of those who call upon the name of the Lord, both theirs and ours, in 1 Corinthians 1. Would that bring in the authority of the Lord in relation to the kingdom, so as to qualify them for the assembly?

WJH Very good. The Lord is available in every place. If, in any place, you have persons who really call on the name of the Lord, and are prepared to obey Him, that opens the door for the truth of the assembly of God, of God’s husbandry, of the temple of God, of the body of Christ, as in Corinth. But it has its beginnings and bulwark in calling on the name of the Lord, involving subjection to Him.

NBS So that these things are the Lord’s commandment.

AC Would you say then, that Christ is continued here on the earth in His body? God having introduced Him into this scene, although rejected and cast out, He is continued here in the body?

WJH God would not be God, if He introduced one thought and let it go. If you can find one thought introduced, and later disappearing from the earth, then such a thought has not come from God.

HSH So, when the Lord said to Saul of Tarsus, “Go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou shalt do,” he had an expression of Christ there.

WJH Quite so, and in Ananias a member ready to fulfil his part and recognise another member. So he says, “Saul, brother, the Lord, even Jesus” — “Saul brother.” And Paul says afterwards, “I looked on him” — on Ananias; he was conscious of a spiritual link with Ananias, for they were both members of the body of Christ.

GAvS Something more than curiosity.

WJH “I looked on him.” As if it were something which many years after he never forgot; he saw a member of the body of Christ for the first time in his life.

HG What would you say about those members that are never seen?

WJH I do not know what I would say; one could say a little about those that are never heard.

HG I was thinking of the need to accept the place the Lord gives me.

WJH Sisters as such, largely occupy the place of hearing, and of smelling, and a great deal, no doubt, of what is not seen, depends on them. The state of things in the sisters largely determines how far the features of the body come out, and if what is going on secretly in the homes is not in keeping with the body of Christ, much damage will ensue.

GAvS That is because the Spirit is grieved. If the Spirit is grieved, then that brief must indirectly affect the whole constitution.

WJH Quite so.

EE It may be helpful, at this point, to ask you to say a word as to “He is the Saviour of the body.” This follows quickly upon the fact that, He so loved the Church that He gave Himself for it. Then it says, “He is the Saviour of the body.”

WJH I suppose it looks on in its fulness to the removal of this wonderful vessel. The Lord was received up in glory. But it is also true that the Head will save the body by putting His wing of protection over it, as He did by rebuking and converting Saul of Tarsus.

EE Would the Scripture allow that we are to be helped in understanding how the body lies in the affections of Christ, when we think of how much we think of our bodies? It is first in our minds, generally.

WJH “No one has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as also the Christ, the assembly.” It is impossible to hate your own flesh. And the Lord loves His body here; He loves it in this city, as we have proved remarkably, in recent times, and He still does, and He wants us to love His body in Sydney, as if He were here personally in His body.

Ques Would it be right to say that in functioning in the body, we are really functioning as deriving from Christ? The assembly is “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.”

WJH Which has reference to the whole assembly from Pentecost to the rapture. That wonderful vessel brings into display the excellencies of Christ, like the fulness of the earth brings out the treasures that are in the earth. As we look at the flowers, the trees, the grass, the fruit, we say, “What wonderful properties there are in the earth.” As you look at the Church, the fulness of Christ, you get some little sense of what there must be in Christ.

Ques Would the truth of Romans 12, received and acted upon, help us to find our place intelligently, in the body?

WJH There is no possibility of finding it otherwise. Before we can function in the body of Christ, we must know how to use our own bodies aright. Romans always precedes Corinthians and Ephesians, and the young need to grasp this. What are we doing with our bodies? Could what we do with our bodies be connected with the body of Christ?

HSH So that the first suggestion of the body follows immediately on Romans 12 — the believer offering his own body.

WJH Quite so. The Apostle says, “Ye are one body in Christ.”

RD Would you say that on account of sin, man lost the power to function?

WJH Surely; and Romans, therefore, is the preparation for functioning; by learning the ruin of man; by the enshrining of Christ in the heart; by being married to Him and receiving His Spirit. Then you present your body a living sacrifice. What was remarked as to Romans 12, needs to be grasped. The Apostle says, in Corinthians, that our bodies are members of Christ. Would that not settle many matters as to the modern fashions, both for men and women? Could anything unreal or immodest be attached to Him?

GAvS I was wondering whether the second Scripture referred to does not cover that in the word “chaste.”

WJH Quite so, perhaps we could move on to that.

JSD I would like, before we do, to ask as to the matter of functioning, whether efficiency increases, and perhaps even the range of function may increase.

WJH The Apostle speaks of those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. You may have a member you do not use, and it is not long before it is unhealthy. But use it, and its serviceability increases with use; and it is so in the assembly.

How we have all seen and known this to be so. We have heard young brothers giving thanks in a few words. If going on with God, their part in the functioning increases with use, until there is hardly a meeting but that such a brother has something to contribute.

JP Is it a right thought, that where there may be only a few in a city who are holding to the thought of the body, the Lord is pleased, even with that, and His thoughts are not frustrated?

WJH And He says of such, “They shall be mine when I make up my treasure.” Such are peculiarly precious to Christ, and He has a book written in relation to them.

AC How it behoves us to keep within the region of the Holy Spirit — “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.”

WJH Quite so — that the body is a temple or shrine for the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is the bond that links me with the body of Christ. These things need to be ever remembered in relation to our bodies.

GHW Would not the way of surpassing excellence help us in connection with this?

WJH Surely, because all true functioning in the body is in the power of love, not in envy. It is impossible to be effective if envy exists. Love is the great power for normal functioning of each member. I read 2 Corinthians 11: 1-4 to indicate another feature in the local assembly. The Apostle says to the assembly at Corinth, “I have espoused you to one Man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ.” The great thought of espousal leads up to marriage, which of course relates to the whole assembly, but has a local bearing here in Sydney according to the divine thought.

EE Is it the Spirit’s work to espouse us to Christ?

WJH Ministry, of course, is operative by the Spirit. But the Apostle says, “I have done this.” He had come to that city and secured a company that was espoused to Christ — that entered into an engagement, committing themselves as entirely for Him pending marriage, not allowing their affections to go out to any other.

GHW What is the thought of simplicity as to Christ?

WJH There is no other. The serpent brought another into Eve’s heart; he really brought himself. He deceived her, suggesting God was no longer to be her only object; there were other objects, self and Satan’s world really.

NBS It is a solemn thing that that is referred to here.

GAvS Would you connect it in any way with the second chapter of Jeremiah. He says, “Thus saith Jehovah, I remember for thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown”?

WJH Very good. “I remember for thee,” not “of thee.” The Lord is holding for His people, those early days of their espousal, and He is going to bring us back to it. He has held those days for us, to bring us back to the espoused position.

DJM Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the first-fruits of all His increase.

WJH What a situation this suggests, that in many towns and cities the Lord has chaste virgins waiting for the marriage, with their heart only for Him. I am not speaking of individuals. It begins in Romans with the individual being married to Christ, but this is what was true in Corinth, and is collective.

AC Would you say the local assembly is looked at as an individual?

WJH The Apostle speaks of the company as ONE. There were not two assemblies in Corinth, only one; not two temples, not two husbandries.

GAvS Cultivation of purity of heart collectively.

WJH Quite so. In earthly relationships,

once espousal is established, that governs the life. The person may go on with his or her occupation, duties and other matters, fulfilling them righteously, but the espousal governs the position, and everything is subordinated to it. Now that is what existed in Corinth. The Apostle says, “I have espoused you to one Man that I may present you a chaste virgin.”

Ques Would the question of the Lamb’s wife making herself ready, enter into these exercises which you are presenting to us?

WJH The process of making ready is what is going on. In the passage “She has made herself ready,” the making is finished, the trousseau is made. But it is being made now.

EE Does the Song of Solomon help us to see how the Lord views the bride as being His love, His undefiled, His only one?

WJH Quite so, and should He come and present Himself and the espoused not be ready, how He feels it! That is what is, alas, sometimes true. He would come and have communion with His own in this city, but are we ready? Or have we put off our tunic so that our own ease is so important that we cannot disturb ourselves?

NBS Would not the sense of the preciousness of this in our hearts make us, like the Apostle, jealous that nothing should come in but what is of Christ?

WJH We need this holy jealousy. The only excuse for another to have the hearts of the saints in this city, is that there is another Jesus and another Spirit and another gospel. If there is, then let there be another for our affections. And as there is not another Jesus, not another Spirit, not another Gospel, then the Lord is jealous that He should have our complete affections for Himself.

GAvS I suppose that if the saints, looked at collectively, were in the enjoyment of the love of Christ in that way, they would very soon be able to say that what is different could not be attractive?

WJH If God’s people are giving their love to another, it really means that they are saying that there is another Jesus, and there is another Spirit.

GAvS There may be divided affections, but there is no such thing sanctioned in Scripture as divided affections.

WJH The Old Testament recognises such a man as David having several wives, and indeed Abraham, Jacob and Moses, but no Scripture recognises any women having more than one husband. That is to say, the Lord is great enough to hold every local assembly as espoused to Him. He is great enough to hold every human heart as married to Him. But from Genesis to Revelation there is no suggestion of more than one husband recognised by Scripture.

HSH So the Lord seeks to bring Ephesus back to the espousal?

WJH The Lord says, “I have against thee that thou halt left thy first love.” You have not been true to the espousal, you have another Jesus, and I resent that, and all light will disappear if this is not judged.

EHG Does not the thought of a chaste virgin carry the thought of an affection that has never been given to another?

WJH Yet the passage in Jeremiah says that the Lord is so wonderful that He can bring back those days to His people. “I remember for thee the love of thine espousals.”

JSD You spoke earlier of ministry as that which would help the development in us of these chaste virgin affections. Does the passage in Genesis 24, where the servant goes to fetch Rebecca, and what he has to say to her in regard to Abraham and Isaac, correspond with this service?

WJH Eliezer’s ministry was so successful that when Rebecca saw a man coming, she said, “Who is this man?” Eliezer said, “It is my master.” So she takes a veil and covers herself.

She says, “Nobody else ever shall see me now.” “I am entirely for him.” That is the effect of the ministry, the espousals being complete. And then Isaac took her and she became his wife, and he loved her.

HG Would the experience on the mount of transfiguration be equal to that? It says, “They saw no man, save Jesus only.”

WJH Quite so — “Jesus only” is the position of espousal.