Reading At Parkstone
THE SOWER AS PRESENTED IN MARK'S GOSPEL
I have read this scripture with a good deal of exercise. It is simple enough to present to you what will interest, but the point is to give that which is necessary and needful for the moment. That is where the exercise comes in. I have on previous occasions brought before you, in the first instance, the features of the man of God and the sensibilities of the man of God; that was my first subject, and last week I brought before you the servant of God. I endeavoured to shew you the features of the true servant of God, and we traced it through. We were chiefly occupied with Isaiah 53 in connection with that subject.
Now this evening I want to bring before you the sower. It may not be a joyful subject exactly, but it is a very important one. I hope you will follow me in what I am about to say in regard to it. I feel deeply impressed with the importance of the subject, because we are living in very superficial days and I think there is a call to reality. If I know the movement of the Spirit at all there is a great call to be real. The times are so serious, things are so working up that we must be serious.
My point has been in my previous addresses to shew you the necessity of intense individuality in a day like this. I have called attention to the advice that was given by a beloved servant of Christ when he was dying, to a personal friend of his; his last dying advice to him was, ‘Be intensely individual’. You cannot go down in a current - I beg your attention to this - you must be intensely individual. The character of the times demands intense individuality. You cannot go swimming down a current with other people and think you are right; outwardly you may be, but there is such a thing as personal history with God, real soul history, and if you have not that, then I do not know where you are. I do not want to cast you on yourself, but on the grace of God.
In taking up the sower I think I may say speaking as one who has been in the gospel for a good many years - that we have very much neglected the parable of the sower. Everybody should pay attention to it because the neglect of it has been disastrous. It is a most important thing to see what this sowing means - exceedingly important.
Now the subject is a large one, but you will observe that in the three synoptic gospels the parable of the sower is presented, and it is always seen in its own connection. In the Gospel of Matthew it is connected with administration. The Lord disclaimed anything that is natural; He refuses what is natural. That is, He says in each case that these are His brethren - My brother, My sister, My mother - those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven. That is the way it is put in Matthew. Here it is the same thing, only it is not the Father in heaven, but he that does the will of God, those are the people that God recognises; He will not recognise any one else. They are the people who do the will of God.
In the previous part of chapter 3 the leaders of the nation said He was a blasphemer, and His own friends - His own relations after the flesh - said He was mad, and this is what precedes it. Here we find the Lord, who has with Him the twelve disciples who surround Him - He is surrounded by those who are listeners, those who hearken to Him, those who are attracted to Him and hearken to Him - and His brethren are without, and they say to Him, ‘Your mother is without’. Then He looks round on His people - we are around Him this evening, I trust, through grace we are within that circle; once we were without, but now we are within, we are listeners, we are Christians - He looks around and says, ‘These are my brethren, those who do the will of God’. That is how it is put here.
One other distinction I should like to make. You must remember that in each gospel the parable is presented according to the line of each gospel. In Matthew it is dispensational, but here it has its own peculiar setting. In Mark’s gospel, as in Luke's, it has a deep moral setting. Here it is presented in connection with Christ as the perfect Servant, the Son of God. It is very blessed in Mark, that the man who broke down in service, after he was restored was used by the Spirit to speak of the Lord in the way in which he had failed - and I think I can read between the lines - if I may be allowed to express it - his pen is tremulous as he writes with his own deep feeling; he is glad to write about the Lord in the way that he had failed. The Lord never condones failure; He is above all our failure and promotes our spiritual welfare through failure; so that when we are restored we have a deeper appreciation of Christ.
I think I can see Mark's appreciation of Christ as he presents Him in the character in which he has failed. Just like Peter, who was conscious of abundant mercy. It is very sweet to get the feelings of the writers as it is presented in scripture, and the Spirit can give you the sense of that; it cannot be explained in the letter, but the Spirit will give you the sense of it. If I am reading the gospels I want not only to understand what the words mean, but I want the tone of voice in which He said it, and the Spirit can give it me. That is spiritual advancement; not only to be able to explain what He is saying, but as He utters those things the Spirit can give you the sense in your soul of the way in which He said them.
Mark writes in appreciation of Christ; he is glad to write; he has been restored and he can write it. One's heart is touched when the man is restored - it is a very great thing to remember that in restoration there is real, positive advancement.
Well now, he presents the Lord here as the Servant; the Lord is the Servant, the Son of God. He is God; He is in touch with heaven; He is in conscious Sonship; and He is victorious over Satan. Those are the qualities which mark the Lord. That is what we want, to be in keeping really with what we say. The blessed Lord went into the synagogue - as presented in Mark - and the moment He goes there where the scriptures are read every sabbath, there is a moral power brought in which exposes the condition of the man who is there. Reading the scripture did not expose it, but the presence of the Lord exposed it. We need power to be morally identified with what we say; that is what exercise does. I do not want only to say true things, but I want to be morally in the power of it.
We say things that are true - absolutely true - but there is a lack of force in what we say because we are not in keeping with what we say. This has come home to me with peculiar force and I take it to myself. There He was, morally with God; He was entitled to be there; He was in conscious Sonship - “My beloved Son” - He was victorious over Satan. So must it be. He calls those disciples: Peter, you come, and John, you come; follow Me and I will teach you how to serve.
Remember this, you must follow the Lord in order to know how to serve. Peter left his fishing to be a fisher of men, and John left his father, and their avocations marked their service afterward. That is very important to remember. Peter was a fisherman; John was not exactly a fisherman, his father was a smack-owner and he was socially in advance of Peter. John was the man who maintains communion. You have Peter and John going together; they were very fond of each other, but they were entirely opposite men in their characters. John keeps your nets mended so that your service bears the constant marks of communion.
In Mark there is the sphere of service and the style of His service. Sweet it is to read it. There was a special touch about His service in Mark. It gives you the style of the Lord and the way He did things. What marked His style was deep sympathy; He felt it all. There was a wonderful touch; He was marked by divine compassion. How I would like to preach the gospel, not only in clearness doctrinally, but in the power of divine compassion. That is the thought. We are often lacking in it. It is the Spirit of Christ that we want in our service; the mere exposition of things, clearly putting it before a man, effects nothing; but the true servant is marked by compassion.
Now as the Servant He is the Sower. He went out to sow, and the sowing is to produce a nation for God's pleasure; the effect of the sowing is that there should be something for God down here. The reason why you have been made the recipients of the grace of God is this, that you should be for God's pleasure down here in this world. I beg your attention to it. That is the way to be happy; if you are here for God's pleasure you are a happy Christian, to do the will of God; to be found down here in the way of God's will is what the sowing produces in people; that there should be those moral features which are well pleasing to God. Are you here to make a fortune, to make yourself comfortable in your latter days? No, you are not here for that. Rouse up and see what you are here for. He will take care of you; He has numbered the hairs of your head and He will look after you; you are not here to make yourself comfortable, but to be for the pleasure of God; and just in the measure in which you are here for God lies the measure of your happiness.
I have said here before that no one in the early days of the gospel ever said to any audience that if they believed the gospel they would go to heaven. There is no such mere proposal in it. What then is the nature of the proposal? That people should know God, and that they should know Him in such a way that it will constitute their happiness here - the knowledge of God.
The sower went forth to sow, and this sowing was to produce a generation for God's pleasure. The action is - He gets into the boat. There are peculiar features in Mark; He is “in the house”, “in the boat”, “in the way”; all these are straws - if I may use the expression - which shew the way the wind blows in Mark. Pay attention to these little things. He goes up by the sea, He sits in a boat, and then He says, “Hearken”. I cannot go into details, it is too great, but what I want to shew you is what the sowing really is. The Sower sows the word, and the word is the revelation of God. The second point is the reception - that is a large subject the way in which this word is received. The next point is the realisation; that is, where it is properly received there is a blessed realisation in the heart; that is, it is vital in you.
Then fourthly, there is what I should call reflection - God reflected - that is, where the word is known in the soul there is light for other people; light, not in speaking exactly but in living; and then fifthly, the administration - I will shew you what that means directly. If I may set it out on those five pegs you will follow it better.
First, the word - the revelation; secondly, the reception; thirdly, the realisation in a true reception; fourthly, that it becomes light for other people; and then fifthly, the communication of it in the power of divine love. You see what a large subject it is. We will now proceed.
The first point is, the word is sown; and remember, in this precious part of Scripture again I call attention to it - the One who sows is the One who reaps. There is no question of preaching here, but it is the thought that He who is the Sower becomes the Reaper at the end. The word was sown when He was here; it has remained here in all its vitality up till now, otherwise where should we be; the word has been maintained here in spite of all the efforts of Satan to crush the testimony. It is here tonight; what a wonderful miracle! The word sown by the Lord has reached us in its vitality or we should not be here as Christians.
He who is the Sower and He who sows the word according to Mark, is the One who will reap. In that way it is put as the one who sows and falls asleep, and then by-and-by he will come back and reap it. He went forth to sow. He wept. What divine sympathy. No mere doctrine, no mere unfolding of doctrine. He wept. Think of the Sower. He wept. What made Him weep? The hardness of men's hearts.
They refused the blessing, refused the knowledge of God, and He wept; but He shall doubtless come again rejoicing; He who wept shall come back rejoicing because there will be marvellous fruits. Here we are, all of us, what an occasion of joy to Him; He will come back and reap the fruit of what He has sown. Do not put preaching in here; it is the quality of the word itself and the vitality of it. I beg you to think of it. The word sown by the Lord is vital, it reproduces itself; it has gone on producing in a perfectly marvellous way, and He who sows becomes the Reaper at the end.
Now what is this word - the word of grace? It is God revealed in His attributes and His nature. That is the word. He Himself was the expression of it. He is the Word. He is the Sower and the Word - God revealed in His attributes. What is the subsequent part of it? The suffering part of the revelation? There was no relief. I may allude to it in the next chapter where the relief is found. It is the deliverance of certain people in conditions which mark the next chapter. There was the man under the power of Satan; there was the woman defiled by sin; and the child in the deadly grip of death. These people all needed deliverance, but here it is not deliverance, it is revelation. He is revealed. Hence chapter 5 immediately follows, both here and in Luke's gospel. The moment you get the parable of the Sower you get these narratives which set forth the conditions in which the people were in whose hearts the word was sown.
You have the cleansing of sin; we have had to be delivered from the power of death; that is the deliverance, and we appreciate that side.
One of the most fascinating chapters in the Bible to me is Mark 5. I could preach from it all the year round and never exhaust it. The way it is put gives a wonderful idea of the Son of God as the Deliverer from Satan, from sin and from death. The Sower is a more blessed side, more positive; the sowing is the word, the word which brings God in.
What has the gospel done for you? Has it revealed God to you? Never mind about going to heaven, all that is self. If we make that a point we are never sure of it. If you get over to God 's side of things you are sure of your side. If we move in the circle of our own need we are never quite sure of having our need met; but the moment we get into God's side of things we are sure of our need being met.
If you had said to Mary, ‘Are you forgiven?’ and she had said, ‘Yes’. ‘How do you know?’ ‘I know the Lord who has done it. I am sure of my forgiveness because I know the One who has forgiven me. That is where my assurance lies - I know God’. The Word is the revelation of God and is sown in our hearts. How blessed it is to know God. He has sown the seed. I cannot go into details, but I draw a contrast between those who anon with joy received it, and I want to shew the difference between natural sentiment and divine sentiment.
A little remark here before I proceed. The moment the seed was sown, then came the devil. What drew him? The word of God. What for? To nullify it; to destroy it. He is the enemy of God, and his efforts are always to frustrate the purpose of God. Then came the devil. What drew him? The word. What for? To destroy it; to destroy its influence; to destroy its vitality.
Then there was the reception - anon with joy. I have had some experience in this matter and I am pretty wary when people are very jubilant and very joyful; they rejoice in the proposal, who would not rejoice in the proposal of going to heaven, of being saved for heaven; I want to be in the place of happiness which is the nature of the proposal; there is a kind of rejoicing in the proposal.
It is accepted, but there was no divine work; it fell on stony ground and there was very little earth, very little subjective work. Many times have I seen it, those who have confessed Christ so joyfully; I have had to sit down in my sorrow and see how easily it has been given up when the test came. My brethren, pay attention to the Sower, I beg of you. It will give you wisdom and discernment. I wish I had known this about forty years ago. I look back and see those who anon with joy received it.
What do you expect in your children? I should look in my children for conscience. How easy it is for the dear children to speak of Jesus, but that is not a proof of divine work. You see a tender conscience, and often there is a restlessness in children who are under the Spirit, and we misunderstand it. No one ever was or could be taught to love Christ apart from righteousness; much forgiveness, much love. We must not confuse this with sentiment.
The first experience of the seed falling into good ground is a painful experience, because it exposes you. If the word brings the knowledge of God there is deepest exposure; you go down with deep pain; but if you go down through the pain of self-knowledge, it is that you may find that the good that is in God is greater than the evil that is in you. What a joyful thing - true, deep joy in the knowledge of God.
I have to learn the evil that is in me, and it is a painful experience, but it ends in the wonderful gladness of finding that God is better and greater than the evil in me - that blessed God. You may overcome evil with good, but I must learn the evil that is within myself, in the very nature of things. Then a deep joy, the heart wells up - broken and humbled, oh! so humbled - to find God. I find Him in the midst of my wretchedness, and the goodness in God is greater than the evil I find in myself.
There is the joy - deep, true joy of finding God. So I ask you, I do not merely say, Are you resting on a text of scripture? but, have you got in your heart the gladness, the true, solid gladness, of knowing God?
When the apostle wrote to young converts in the early days - three months only converted - the Epistle to the Thessalonians, he said, “Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven”, 1 Thess 1: 9, 10. He did not say, ‘You are justified’. He said, “Ye turned to God”. God was presented in the gospel and they turned to God from idols. To from. Not from - to, but to God from idols. You cannot turn from anything, you must turn to first and then you turn from. You turn to God to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven.
What fine moral power is in that. That is where we are so defective, all of us. What accounts for much of the disaster that we have to deplore is the defective knowledge of the gospel, making the gospel an accommodation for ourselves, that is where the moral lack is surely.
If you are prudential people you will want your children to do well now and in the future. Perfectly natural; you like to secure them for the present and for the future, and have pleasure in the thought that you will all be in heaven by-and-by. I ask you, What is there in that for God? I call your attention to it. The Sower sowed the seed that there might be a people down here for the pleasure of God - His own generation. Well now, has that been realised? That is, realising the word there will come in us a gradual deepening and progressing into it; that is, there is life, and so there is light for others. Life in you becomes light for other people.
We may think if people come to our meeting rooms that they are in the position to believe our testimony. That is a poor thing. The testimony lies in vitality, nowhere else. In vitality. You may have people in the position without the condition. It is common enough for people to take the position, but are you satisfied with the position? I would not be satisfied with anything less than a condition which is in keeping with the position. That is the testimony, so that there shall be light for other people to see.
Philippians 2: 13 says, “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure”. God working efficaciously in you, presenting Himself to you, and working by the Spirit that which answers to Himself, to His nature and His character, so that we become children; in the midst of a perverse nation we are found in the way of God's will.
Let me put it in a very simple way thus Everything I think of God - I speak with reverence - I am, I will, I do. That is, I am, that is His being. I am. I am love. God is Love. I am, and because I am, I will and I do. Behind the will of God is love, always love. Get hold of that; love is His being. Therefore He wills and He does. Now follow me, that is the way for us, do you not see? It is the being that we want to be exercised about. Your growth in the divine nature, in the knowledge of God, is your true spiritual stature. ‘I am’, ‘I will’, ‘I do’.
We are constantly thinking about the doing, but we need to be exercised about the ‘I am’, the being; that is, you take in in your soul what God is. The word is already there, or you would not be a Christian, but there is a growing appreciation, and so there is the willing and doing of His good pleasure.
Now I want to call your attention to the administration in verse 21. He speaks of the candlestick and says, “Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick?” It is not to be hidden by either. A bushel is selfgratification. People go on to the line of gratifying themselves. I ask you not to resent it - I am coming to the close of my story down here - take it from the Lord; is your bushel claiming you? - or your bed? Do you know what you are left here for? We are down here to set forth God.
How are people going to know God if they do not know Him through His people? The angels might be envious of us - it is a most wonderful thing to be here for God. There must be a realisation in your soul of what God is before there can be an outgoing of light.
I come now to the next point. “Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath”.
Now I will tell you what that means. Whatever you receive from God produces a feeling in your heart of desire to give it to others; you cannot possibly receive any blessing from God without its creating this desire in your heart, that others in like manner should receive it. It produces that divine feeling - the same feeling that God had in giving it to you is reproduced in your heart and you want to give it to others. That is the extraordinary part of it. The principle of it is this, the more you give the more you get. Do you think that God has given us light for ourselves? No; He has given us light to diffuse to others, and the moment you stop you lose what you have. If you are not active in divine love, in desire that others should be the recipients of it, you may depend upon it you will lose it. That is a most important thing. That is the administration of it.
One other thing I would like to say. The blessed Lord said to His disciples later on, “Let us pass over unto the other side”. A gracious invitation, “Let us pass over unto the other side”. ‘Let us go’. What does that mean? What does the other side mean? The world to come where all these principles will be publicly displayed. “Let us pass over untoto the other side”. We belong to that other world where all these principles that have come to us shall be in full display.
How the heart longs for a world that will answer to God. How one's heart gets pained by the confusion that is here. If we lived nearer to God we would feel it more, we would have the pleasure of God sensibly in us because we felt as He felt. We are too much at home with the will of man and the self-gratification of man. If we were nearer to God and under the power of the testimony we should feel things. We should be growingly sensitive as to what is contrary to God. “Let us pass over unto the other side”.
He has taken us to the other side. “They took him even as he was in the ship”. They took Him as He was. Why? The testimony was there. I wish I were beginning now, I could say more about it, but they took Him as He was in the ship. He was the rejected One, but He was the One who was for God's pleasure. The testimony was in Him - the Son of God. As the apostle could speak of it in his line of things in Corinthians; they had accused him of vacillation, but he turned to his testimony, he did not defend himself; he was so engrossed with Christ he did not care about himself, but says, We preached to you the Son of God; “in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God”. They took Him as He was in the ship. In Him is the yea and in Him the Amen - it is the triumph of God - it cannot be defeated. I want to be in the ship where He is as to the testimony of God.
The devil blew with his winds, he would sink that ship where the testimony was. That is what he was doing; he would bring all his power to bear upon that which holds the testimony, but that ship could not sink for Jesus was there. Sometimes you feel the waves will come up and overwhelm us - what will become of the testimony? No power on earth or in heaven can sink the ship where Jesus is. I want to be where He is as the testimony of God. In Him is the yea and in Him is the Amen. Everything is established in His blessed Person. Let us keep close to Him then.
They say, ‘Do you not care?’
He cares. He thinks of us constantly; we are never out of His thoughts - never. That which is dear to Him on the earth and we are never out of His thinkings not for a single second. No ship can sink where He is. So He goes to the other side.
I trust that what I have said may be of help to you. I feel that to my own soul it is very beautiful, but my presentation of it is poor, but the Spirit of God can make it good to you and I trust He will, so that there may be some moral result. I ask you again to consider what a wonderful thing it is to be down here for God's pleasure, and that which is for God's pleasure becomes testimony for men. What God finds pleasure in becomes testimony to men.
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Before any go, I would like to say this: I have had very considerable exercise in regard to these meetings. I have delivered the three subjects which I feel the Lord brought before me as the result of my exercise, and since I have been here I have been very exercised and I have to say this, that I greatly desire to preach the gospel in this hall next Friday. I will tell you why I have had exercise. There are a great many people around us who are exercised; if we were nearer to God we should find them out. They are exercised as to their relationship to God and they want the gospel.
I was away in the country a while back I say it for encouragement - and we had some very good meetings, and I suggested that we might have a gospel meeting on the Friday. It was a sort of experiment, if I may use the word; but the place was crowded; far more came to hear the gospel on Friday than on the Lord’s day. A great many people are prejudiced, but they will come to a place like this. I hope I have the sympathy and prayers of all here.
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READING AT PARKSTONE
THE LAST MINISTRY TO THE SAINTS OF OUR LATE BELOVED BROTHER,
W. JOHNSON
He suggested reading Philippians, as following Ephesians, which we had just finished.
This is not a doctrinal epistle, but experimental, and the writer was a living expression of the truth he brought forward: “For me to live is Christ”, v 21. Therefore, he does not address himself to them as an apostle, nor does he address them as an assembly as such, although recognising assembly order, but links himself up with Timotheus, as “servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons”. Paul is like a class leader, giving his experience to help and encourage the saints.
It is important to see that in all Paul's epistles he addresses himself to state, always touching the weak spot, chap 4: 2. But before the defect is mentioned there is the ministry to meet it.
Hence it is most helpful to see the structure of the epistle. Chapter 1 is introductory: chapter 2, one love, one will, which delivers you from the will of man. In chapter 3 the glory of Christ eclipses the glory of man: and in chapter 4 you are superior to all circumstances down here, rejoicing in the knowledge of God's care over you - which is present salvation.
In the Epistle to the Thessalonians; you get the May-day or spring-time of Christianity. But here you get the autumn, when the mature fruit is in evidence, v 11.
Speaking of verse 11, a sister asked a few days ago what righteousness was. I referred her to John 7: 18: “He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him”. Therefore, if I glorify myself, I rob God of His glory, and I am not righteous. The first act of righteousness is to own that I have none.
Special attention should be given to the prayer in verses 9-11, which embraces the whole scope of Christianity. You will find in the epistles there are more prayers for the saints who are in a good state than for those who are in a bad state.
The apostle was encouraged to pray for them on account of their spiritual prosperity. A prosperous state naturally is most dangerous, and such need our special prayers. How often do we pray for the saints who are going on, that their love may abound more and more. We are too often occupied with failure and weakness, and saints in poor circumstances. But how many brothers who have been going on well for years, and who are open especially to the attacks of the enemy, have become shipwrecks before they finished their journey? The apostle's desire is for them to continue sincere and without offence till the day of Christ, which is the display of His glory, when the whole earth will be under His beneficent influence as Head. The Philippians being in the light and present enjoyment of this, brought them into conflict, and the conflict is the confirmation of the gospel. (v 7)
We are inclined to act on prudential lines, and to consider for our own safety. Paul was a prisoner at Rome, over a thousand miles from Philippi, and at the time when Nero was casting two and three hundred saints a day to the wild beasts. Notwithstanding this, the Philippians did not content themselves with merely meeting in a room to pray for the apostle, but sent Epaphroditus, who, at the risk of his own life, conveyed comforts to the prisoner at Rome. They were not fearful, shutting themselves up in a room, but came out into the open to meet the necessity of the apostle, thereby bringing themselves into conflict. Suffering was to them a part of Christian privilege. (v 29)
Ephesians prepares you for the conflict, for which you require the whole panoply of God. Philippians gives you proper Christian state. In all the epistles is found a model brother, and in this epistle Epaphroditus is held up as one.
Beloved brethren, doctrine is not enough, important as it is, but what matters is life and vitality. “For me to live is Christ”, which brings to mind an incident in connection with G.V.W. when travelling from Australia to New Zealand in company with Captain S. They had just left the boat when Mr W-- turned round and said, ‘I've left my Greek Testament in my cabin, underneath the pillow’. The captain immediately turned back to fetch it, and asked the officer in charge whether he had seen a Greek Testament belonging to Mr W-. He said ‘Yes’, and remarked, ‘There never has been a man on board like him’. ‘Why?’ asked the captain, ‘Did he have anything to say?’ He replied, ‘Not much, but he was just like Jesus’. That is testimony. We often hear the preaching of the gospel, and holding meetings in a room like this, spoken of as testimony. Testimony lies in vitality, not merely in what we say. What precedes the expression of life is the enjoyment of it.
Paul trusted that in answer to their prayers he might be released from prison, in order to visit them again; that was far better than writing a letter, but the longing desire to depart and be with Christ was very great with him, nevertheless to abide in the flesh was more needful for them, and he had confidence that for their sakes he would be preserved.
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One of the last remarks made by our beloved brother was, ‘I am going to heaven because love wants me there’.
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From ‘Mutual Comfort’, 1921