BROOKLYN, N.Y., DECEMBER 13TH, 1930
[p. 291] BROOKLYN, N.Y., DECEMBER 13TH, 1930
Mr. E. McCrea.
Beloved Brother, — I was glad to receive your letter and to learn through it of your movements among the saints, involving, mutual help and cheer.
I note you are booked to sail for New Zealand on January 7th so that you have still a considerable time to spend in America. No doubt you will visit Seattle and all the meetings in British Columbia. I trust you will be helped of the Lord in your service.
The report that Mr. Myles was printing at the back of his house is not true; so far Mr. Morrish is doing all the printing. No doubt you will be aware of this by this time.
As regard ‘natural ability’ — viewed as covering what one is as a creature of God (his members, faculties, etc.) — it is used in His service, indeed without a body we could not serve. Thus Romans requires our “members” to be yielded up as instruments of righteousness to God. The work of God in us affects the whole ‘moral being’ — we are born ‘throughout’ John 3 — and this works out in our bodies. The natural mind is polluted and so has to be renewed, but the physical organs, including the brain, are used of God. The work of God affects the moral being, mind, affections, etc., and these operate through the physical members.
These latter, involving graded capacity, are necessarily in view as God selects a man for His service; thus we have in Matthew 25: 15 “according to his particular ability”. Paul was an “elect vessel”, and of course the “vessel” would include his physical members. God had, so to speak, gone a long way up the stream of his history to prepare him. He had separated him from his mother’s womb; and he says he served God from his forefathers.
Our son’s children are still very ill, I regret to say, but we are cast on God as to them and we are assured that He will reach His end in the affliction. They are both seriously paralysed, and are undergoing treatment in a hospital in Boston — the best available.
I trust you both will have a good and comfortable crossing and that you will find occasion of encouragement in Wellington and New Zealand generally.
With our united love in Christ to Mrs. McCrea and yourself, I am,
Affectionately in Him,
James Taylor.