READINGS ON THE CORINTHIAN EPISTLES (2)
READINGS ON THE CORINTHIAN EPISTLES (2)
Ques Will you kindly say why the universal headship of Christ is brought in here?
FER I do not know at all, except that it indicates the relative position of things. “The head of every man... God”, 1 Corinthians 11:3. But other than that I do not know at all. I think the apostle takes up a point of detail as to devotional exercises on the part of the woman, and brings the truth of that in just to give a basis, a right foundation for it. In the early part of the chapter it is evident you have not come to the assembly. It is a question of devotional exercises in which a woman may take part.
Ques Is that verse where we began to read where we touch the assembly?
FER I think so; it takes up that subject; “When ye come together”, 1 Corinthians 11:18; it is the coming together. As has been said — and I do not know a better expression — it is the assembly in function. The great point in chapter 10, as I understand it, is separation. It is not coming together. But when you come to chapter 11 it is seclusion, and I do not think you can have seclusion if you have not separation.
Ques What do you mean by seclusion?
FER I think the assembly is seclusion. When you come together in assembly it is seclusion.
Ques Do you mean by that that no one not forming part of it should be there?
FER No, I do not mean that; but I think that [p. 307] in principle, when the disciples were gathered round the Lord, it was seclusion. They had come in for the seclusion of Christ, and I think it is the character of the assembly. In coming into the assembly you come into seclusion, but you cannot have seclusion properly without separation; therefore you must come to the Supper through the table.
Ques I suppose you get an idea of it practically in John 20, a company separated from all around?
FER I think so; they were in separation with the Lord: “The doors were shut ... for fear of the Jews”, John 20:19. I think you get the same in Luke 24. It is very interesting to me, because I see two things there which are good for the assembly. The first is He expounds unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. He is the Expositor in regard to Himself, and then He brings before them God’s testimony; and if I understand it, these are the two activities of the Lord in the assembly. That is, He directs your attention to Himself. He opens your understanding to understand the Scriptures in their application to Himself, and at the same time He interests and exercises your hearts in God’s testimony.
Ques Where in the chapter do you get that?
FER It is as plain as daylight. You have only to read the passage in Luke 24. I think if what I said was accepted, it may not be quite understood, we should see how distinctly we are marked off from all that is going on in christendom. I do not think there is any idea at all of either separation or seclusion in the common order in churches and chapels. The churches and chapels are part of the common order of things, part of the age in that sense. The idea of separation on the one hand, and of seclusion with Christ on the other, is totally absent.
Ques Where that is the case you would say that all knowledge and consciousness of the assembly is lacking?
[p. 308] FER I do not think they ever had it. You and I did not know it until we learnt separation. We had to learn separation first.
Ques Is it not really a fact that we had really learned the assembly very little?
FER Yes; well, some of us have been now a pretty good long time at it, but I do not know that we have made very much headway!
Ques There must be a reason for that; what do you think it is?
FER Well, I have a strong impression that we have lacked in separation; we have been defective there — separation in all the extent of it in what is spoken of in chapter 10 as the fellowship of His death. Do you not see, you can never understand separation if you do not understand Christ’s death. That is the measure of it. Death is the measure of separation.
Ques Do you think that all acknowledged as in fellowship are really in chapter 10?
FER No, not a bit.
Rem That is really the secret of it, of getting on.
FER I think so. All I feel thankful about is to be identified with those who do not refuse the truth, even if they do not understand it. I am thankful they do not refuse the truth,
Ques I suppose to get consciously into Christ’s company you must be practically outside of that which is contrary to it?
FER I look at it from another point of view, too, namely, that every one who does not believe in the Lord is more or less an idolater. And idolatry I understand to be all that in which the god of this world is acknowledged. You may say it is rather comprehensive, rather sweeping, but I think it is true.
Ques You do not limit the thoughts of idolatry to unconverted people?
FER Ah, well, in my own mind, I think that [p. 309] even christians may in a certain sense be unwittingly entangled in it.
Ques Is that what we have in Thyatira — eating things in connection with idols?
FER Yes, there is the acknowledgment of the prince and god of this world.
Rem The Corinthians were warned to flee from idolatry, and John says, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols”, 1 John 5:21.
FER Yes; both quotations prove now the thing is at hand, how you are beset by it. It seems to me (I do not know whether I go too far) that the death of Christ has closed up the present course of things morally, socially, religiously, and politically, and perhaps in many other aspects. That is the effect of the death of Christ really to the christian. It has closed up the present course of things in every aspect of it.
Rem I do not understand how anybody could contest that rightly.
FER Everything from the scarlet to the hyssop was cast into the burning of the red heifer.
Ques What is the power for it?
FER Well, I know people ought to be more affected by the death of Christ. They ought really to be in communion with it. It is the basis of communion really. I think people ought to be more affected by it in testing everything by the death of Christ. Do you not think so?
Rem Yes, I am sure of it.
FER When you come within it is more dreadful. You would have thought however things might be without, that everything would be right within, but things are not at all right within. “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play”, 1 Corinthians 10:7. Somebody has said it was a very dreadful thing to do in the absence of Moses. That is what the people did, and that is practically what christendom has done in the absence of Christ. It is a question of idolatry. If [p. 310] christians or those who profess to be such conform to the present course of things in the absence of Christ, I really think they are idolatrous. Now you take what used to be the case with a great many people in system — really evangelical, godly people — they tried to be personally separate and personally pious, but they did not understand separation, because they were not separate in point of association. Lots of people are there now, do you not think so?
Rem I do. I suppose it never occurred to them that their associations were wrong. They seem to have taken it as a matter of course.
FER Yes, I know it used to be, and I have no doubt a great many know it far better than I do, that there were great numbers of people who were personally pure, personally seeking to walk with undefiled garments, and all that kind of thing; but who did not understand separation in point of association.
Ques Do you not think there is also a danger of people who have that understanding about separation in point of association, but who lack on the side of personal piety of walk with God?
FER Yes, I do. I think a great many people have been content in a way with the separation in point of association, and have failed in the other. I quite believe that.
Ques “Come out from among them and be ye separate”, 2 Corinthians 6:17. What is that from?
FER Well, that is from unequal yokes. I think that it goes to the root of the matter — it refers to everything which gives a place to the god and prince of this world, or in which the god and prince of this world is acknowledged — anything which is connected with the existing course of things, the existing age.
Ques When you use the expression ‘the course of this world’, you mean by that the things which go to form [p. 311] the world?
FER Exactly. It is what you may call the age, the existing course of things.
Ques Do you think the Lord’s supper was intended to affect the saints in that way, by its renewal, in bringing them again and again to the sense of the fellowship of His death?
FER The apostle takes them on their own act and deed, on the ground of what they were accustomed to do; but I am much more inclined to think that the Lord’s supper proper is introductory to the assembly. It really brings you into what I spoke of just now as seclusion with Christ. I think you know even with us (with the greatest respect to people) there is a vast number of people who come to our meetings very much in the same spirit as those who go to church and chapel. They come on Lord’s day morning as a habit just like others. They have more light, but I do not think they really come with the idea of seclusion with Christ.
Ques How are you to help them? You would not have them outside, would you?
FER Oh, no; that is not my thought at all. But I would try to affect them in some way.
Ques If one was in the sense of seclusion oneself, you would help other people?
FER Yes.
Ques Would the religious element be rather a dangerous element as to association?
FER Yes, I should suspect it is there that separation becomes more difficult. There were not very many of us who very much cared to separate from the different associations in which we were found. I know I did not. It cost us a wrench to separate from the christian associations in which we were found. But then another question comes in, have we maintained the separation?
Ques But then do you not think a great many are in fellowship that have never been in [p. 312] these associations?
FER Well, that is the peculiar difficulty of the present moment. A great many young people have come in that have never had the wrench at all — that have never indeed been exercised. They become millennial, they seek their enjoyment here. The tendency with them is not to go back to what we came from, but, combined with the truth, to have all the best things of this world.
Ques Do you not think this question of association is touched in 2 Timothy 2 where it speaks of vessels to dishonour?
FER Yes, only I think it is presented there rather more in the way in which it affects the servant. It is hardly so much the assembly and the saints, as the way in which the servant is affected.
Ques But if the servant is not clear, would not that be a very serious point as to the people to whom he ministers?
FER I do not think he will be a very good guide to others.
Rem We ought to try to affect our fellow believers.
FER Yes, but I think we have to affect them by what we are very much more than by what we say.
Rem I think in former years there was a good deal more of gathering them together — inviting them to some house and reading the word with them. I do not think there is very much done now to help them in that way.
FER I think the weak point is that we can show them so very little power in the meeting — I think that is very true. But those of whom I am particularly thinking you do not get them to the meetings.
Ques If we were right in the meetings, would there not be attractive power?
FER We have to look to the state of the meetings as a first consideration.
Rem Of course the state of the meeting is the state of the individuals who [p. 313] compose it.
FER Exactly, and therefore what it comes to is that every one has got to look to himself.
Rem I suppose there is so little that outside christians get when they do come to the meetings, that is the sad point.
FER Yes, I think the great characteristic of the assembly, as far as I understand it, is not faith. Of course you could not be there without faith, but the great point in the assembly is the divine nature, in other words — love. I think that every saint in the assembly ought to be deeply conscious himself of Christ’s love, and in that way effective in love to Christ and to one another. I think that is the first principle of the assembly.
Ques That would rectify a great many things?
FER There would be nothing uncomely or unsuitable in the assembly — on the contrary I think the assembly would be characterised by supreme happiness.
Ques I suppose that is why chapter 13 is brought in here?
FER Yes, because the Corinthians lacked it. They were taken up pretty much, they came together in the assembly with their own things instead of being taken up with the things of Christ. Every man had his own supper. They did not take the Lord’s supper. They were all occupied with their parties, schisms, etc.
Ques I suppose the great idea of the Lord’s supper is that we are to become affected by the Lord’s love to us?
FER I think so, and it is the only way we call the Lord into presence.
Ques Would you please explain that phrase to some of us simple folk?
FER Well, my full belief is this, that the Lord makes us conscious of His presence where His love is appreciated, and people never will be conscious of the presence of the Lord if they do not appreciate His love.
Ques And [p. 314] it is His love to us as saints?
FER Well, I think it is His love to us as those who have been given to Him of the Father, I think that is the peculiar link; that He regards the saints as having been given to Him of the Father in the time of His rejection — of His death to Israel, so to speak.
Ques So many seem to be occupied with the Lord’s love to them when they were away at a distance, and how He met them in that distance, but so few have the sense of the Lord’s love to His own. Am I not right?
FER I think so; you do not want to bring your individual things into the assembly. In assembly we are all on one common ground, that is, Christ is the centre and every one of us is there as having been drawn by the Father to Christ. It is expressed in the line of a hymn:
‘Thou gavest us in eternal love
To Him to bring us home to Thee’. (88:1)
It is given of the Father to Christ; you do not want to bring your individual things there. We have all been given of the Father to Christ. Christ claims your affection, that is, He reminds you of that in which His affection was expressed. The object is that He might have the response of your affection, and that is what calls the Lord into presence. In John 20 He was in the midst of a company, and in the midst of a company that He specially speaks of as having been given to Him of the Father. He says, “Thine they were, and thou gavest them me” (John 17:6), and “all mine are thine, and thine are mine”, John 17:10.
Ques Is “my body given for you” collective in the assembly? It has been said that it is individual.
FER That is the old form in the church service ‘Christ’s body given for thee’. And so you have a little piece of bread all to yourself.
Ques There are no individuals in the assembly?
FER I think not. I think you have all that outside.
[p. 315] Ques Do you think the saints come together to the Lord’s supper as individuals and then learn what the assembly is?
FER Well, of course, we all come there as individuals, the Lord’s supper is the rallying point. But the moment you come into the presence of the bread and wine there, I think you drop your individuality.
Ques Would not that be left outside?
FER Yes.
Ques You think of yourself as one of a company in there?
FER Yes, and more especially in the light of a company who have been drawn of the Father to Christ. But all these precious things want to be wrought in the Lord. If there has been a careless walk in the week there will not be any enjoyment of them on the Lord’s day.
Rem There is a good bit of difference between intelligence and enjoyment, so that, while a person may be very intelligent as to things, it does not follow that he is in the enjoyment of them.
FER He will only get enjoyment as affection is in exercise. Do you think the Lord values anything in us but affection? He does not value what a person knows. I believe love is the real way into intelligence in divine things. There cannot be a doubt for a moment that the disciples loved the Lord. It was their affection that the Lord set so much store on. Their intelligence was not very great.
Ques Do you not think that the impression made on the saints would be very different if they knew the Lord was there?
FER I think so. I only want that every heart shall be touched with affection to Himself that every one shall be so deeply conscious of His affection to us, that they will be touched. His death is the expression of His affection, and the moment you call Him to [p. 316] mind in His death, you call Him to mind. His love had not changed. His death was only a circumstance in the pathway of love.
Ques I suppose that is in view of the passage “I lay down my life for the sheep”, John 10:15? That is the idea?
FER Yes.
Ques I do not know if I am right, but I do not look exactly for the idea of atonement there, though He wrought atonement when He did it; but it is His love. Is not that the point?
FER That is my conviction. Now take the circumstances under which the Supper was instituted. The Lord had been with the twelve, they had had the experience of His unfailing care and consideration. Now the Lord brought something entirely new before them: that is He brings before them His death and His death was the expression of His love for them. The moment it is recalled in that way, you recall Himself, because death did not change His love — it did not affect it. He was the same in resurrection as before He died. The instant you recall His death as the expression of His love, you must recall Himself, “This do in remembrance of me”, 1 Corinthians 11:24. It is Himself, not what He has done.
Ques You may find affection for Christ, and a very small measure of intelligence. Now do you not think when you visit people who are seeking to take their place among us, that it is very much more important to be able to discern their affection for Christ than to have regard to their intelligence, and their position and so on?
FER Well, I for one do not care two pence for their position! I think affection is the point! You may very often judge more what a person is by the very way in which they pronounce the name of the Lord than by anything else. I think there is one thing that has been a little overlooked. It appears to me that by what is presented to us in the bread and wine, everything the other side of the Lord’s death is precluded.
[p. 317] What I mean by the other side of the Lord’s death is that in the Lord’s supper you begin with death, not accomplishing, but accomplished. I think that is an important point in regard to the Supper.
Ques You mean, the Lord looked at here on the earth?
FER Yes, it is precluded by the fact that we have before us the symbols of death, not accomplishing but accomplished. The bread and wine are separated, and speak of death, that is, the body and blood separated. We do not sit there to remember His sufferings. The very fact of the symbols presenting to you death accomplished, precluded everything on the other side, the days of His flesh.
Ques But you cannot forget, can you, what all the cross and the things connected with it were to Christ?
FER I do not think that is the thing at the Lord’s supper. The great point is that death is the expression of His love and that our souls enter into that greatness of what has been given for us. It seems to me that if you exclude all that, I find it a little hard to understand what the Lord means when He says, “In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”, Hebrews 2:12.
Rem Well, but that is the resurrection side.
FER That is quite true.
Ques But when you exclude from memory all the gloom and darkness of the terrible night that it was to Christ, how can you enter very much into the joy of Christ when He reached the moment when He sang praise?
FER Well, but “I will declare thy name unto my brethren” (Hebrews 2:12), etc., brings before me very much more John 20.
Ques Do we not begin when all the gloom and all the darkness and sorrow is over?
FER We begin with what is set forth in the bread and wine — death accomplished — not the accomplishment of death.
[p. 318] Ques But it seems to me that if you preclude all that, you preclude all that which powerfully affects the spiritual affection of the saints?
FER I do not think that. What affects me is this, that I see in death not the judgment of God in death, but that Christ in love came into that place that He might bring me there as the trophy of divine love.
Rem But when I see He came into that place, I pause to think of what all that means — what it involves.
FER My impression is that this is very much more suitable for individual meditation.
Rem Yes, but the assembly is made up of individuals.
FER Yes, but we have to see the individual in his individuality as offering priest. There is a certain sort of individuality connected even with priesthood, but I do not think that is the way in which we come to the assembly.
Ques Would you object to the thought that the assembly is made up of individuals and they are in harmony with Christ who is in the midst to lead them into the consciousness of association?
FER No.
Rem The unhappy thing is that most of the hymns are all on that side.
FER Yes, but that is very intelligible when you think that the bulk of the hymns were written by people who had no sense of the assembly. Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it Ephesians 5:25. You get that. What occupies me really in that sense in connection with the Supper is the greatness of the One, the excellency of the One, who gave Himself for me Galatians 2:20.
Rem When you say ‘who gave Himself for me’ — that involves very much.
FER You may say ‘for us’. If we were on individual lines we might reflect on what our brother said; the meeting of sin and all that.
Rem I was looking at it apart from the blessed [p. 319] results that flow to us either Godward or manward. I was thinking of all that that night was to that blessed One. I can only just touch the surface of it, but I have found that nothing more powerfully moves the affections.
FER I do not object to that a bit in your own individual meditation, but when you come to the assembly, you are on one common ground. Christ is Head of the assembly, and you have to count upon Him to direct. He declared the Father’s name to His brethren, and in the midst of the church He sings praise unto God; Christ takes charge of the assembly; that is the proper idea of the assembly.
Rem Are we not right in looking at things from another standpoint? We are on another platform, the platform of His company, of His own — of those who were given to Him by the Father, whom He counts dear to Himself because He died for them.
FER If it were possible for you to enter fully into the worth and excellency of what Christ is, then you could understand what Christ has given for you, and I think you would be very much affected by it. “Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it” Ephesians 5:25. Death is not sufferings, death is death. What sets forth that is the bread and the wine. They are presented to us separated from the very outset, that you may have a complete figure of death accomplished before you.
Ques Why is verse 26 brought in?
FER It is the gravity .... But it is incidental to it.
Rem A thought so common at the Lord’s table is substitution, and hence sins are brought in.
FER But then the question of platform is raised at once. It strikes me that the beginning of this chapter is not the Lord’s supper; but the assembly. The Lord’s supper is brought in as introductory, that which rallied, but the prominent point is the assembly, when you come together in assembly. All the experimental [p. 320] side is what is true to the individual, but when you come to the assembly it is completely a new platform.
Rem And the assembly never has a back history.
FER Never; we all had as individuals, but do you not see in the assembly the practical difficulty is in the power of the Holy Spirit to abstract yourself from your individuality and to realise what you are according to the counsel of God.
Ques Well, now, does not the priesthood help you through?
FER Yes; I never was a priest after the flesh, and the only position in which a man can be a priest is as risen with Christ.
Ques Why is “the same night in which he was betrayed” (1 Corinthians 11:23) brought in?
FER It is the characteristic of this time. It refers to the moment, the night of His betrayal. The important bearing of it is that you come to the sense that there is no heart to be trusted but the heart of Christ. You cannot trust the hearts of the saints even. But then when you come to trust the heart of Christ, you are practically divested of yourself, and look at the saints, not according to your love, but according to His love. It brings this before you that everything was over after the flesh. When treachery broke out in that circle there was nothing left. It was the very worst defection that came out down here. We come together in the consciousness of it, that the present time is the time of His betrayal. I do not understand how you can bring in the thought of sorrow on resurrection ground. The recalling of that which is painful and sorrowful and humbling, and all that, seems to me to be painfully out of place.
Ques Shall we never do so in heaven?
Ques I was going to ask whether that was not individual — shall we be sorry in heaven?
Ques But then do you forget [p. 321] all that?
FER I think you will only recall that which the Spirit recalls to you, and nothing by natural memory.
Rem I think the Spirit will bring that to mind.
FER Well, but we do not know very much about that. We had better talk about what we ought to know. We are here and have to do with the assembly, and that is a very pertinent question as to what our thoughts and standpoint should be. A very important point in the assembly is to reach Christ as Head. If you do not, you will never understand very much of the assembly. The practical result of that will be that you refer to Him. I think the instant you recognise His pre-eminence, you recall Him as Head: He is brought in as Head. He is Head; but it is one thing for God to make Him Head, and another thing for you to reach Him as Head; but the moment you acknowledge Him as Head, you reach Him as Head. Then you come to the assembly. Then you see when we reach Him as Head we are in the sense that we derive from Him, and that He is one with us.
Ques Is not that the basis of worship?
FER I think so, because it is only on that side that you worship. It is the constituted order according to God; and it is really only on that side that you can worship. “In the midst of the church will I sing praise”, Hebrews 2:12. It is the only ground of worship.
Ques Then does it not say something about discerning the Lord’s body?
FER Quite so. His body is discerned in the symbols and expression of His death. There is nothing in the bread and wine as such. They are not eaten as natural food by common agreement; they present the death of Christ to us, and it is through His death really that we are reminded in that way of His love. His love was shown in what He appeals to; that He gave Himself.
Ques “Discerning the Lord’s body” (1 Corinthians 11:29) is not death [p. 322] accomplished? Does the accomplishment of the will of God come in?
FER I do not think it is that side exactly. I think it is the way in which His love has been expressed to those who were given to Him of the Father. “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again”, John 10:17. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”, John 15:13. Sometimes you hear the contrast in prayer which spoils the whole thing. It is very often said that His life was laid down for His enemies. We are not there as His enemies. Christ’s love was never expressed in that way for His enemies.
Rem You get the expression in Romans 5.
FER But that is the love of God.
Ques Would Galatians 3: 28 refer to the assembly, “There is neither Jew nor Greek”?
FER Quite so, “Ye are all one in Christ Jesus” Galatians 3:28.
Ques With regard to that thought about friends and enemies, we have it contrasted in one of the hymns. “Thou for Thine enemies wast slain, What love with Thine can vie?” (341:3)
FER I am not gainsaying the truth of it, but they have lost the sense of it altogether. Nobody wants to put anyone under bondage but it is not the assembly.
Rem What you were saying is very important — it is a completely new platform when He takes the place of Head to us, and the old history is completely closed up; you are risen with Him and you are also quickened with Him.
Rem The assembly had no previous history.
FER Not as such.
Ques What is the idea of the Lord showing His hands and side in John 20?
FER It was of all moment that He should be identified. They were full of fear. The great point was that they should identify Him.
Rem He added the beautiful words “It is I myself”, Luke 24:39.
FER Yes, but I fully believe this, that no one can understand the assembly if they do not see what Christ was in the midst of His own as here upon earth. I do not say that this is the assembly in John 20, but at the same time I am perfectly confident that you do not see the assembly if you do not see what Christ was in the midst of His own upon earth. It is a wonderful thing to see what the Lord was in the midst of His own. It is most perfect and exquisite!
Ques Do you mean in John 20?
FER Wherever the Lord was in the midst of His own, whether in John 20 or Luke 24 or at the Supper. I have not the shadow of a doubt that they were there as those who were given to Him of the Father. They were the nucleus of the church. Death has come in as a necessary circumstance in the Lord’s path, but it left the Lord wholly unchanged morally. The Lord was just as tender and affectionate in John 20 as He was before He died. There was not a bit of change.
Ques Does not that appeal to our affection when we come together on the first day of the week?
FER In the recalling the Lord’s death, you recall afresh His love. You give Him His proper place of pre-eminence as Head. My impression is this that the Lord claims pre-eminence in love, not in point of authority. I think everybody would accord Him that.
Rem It is very difficult to eliminate from one’s own mind the thought of suffering.
FER Do you not suppose for a moment that I am complaining of people being occupied with the sufferings of Christ.
Ques Do you mean the atoning sufferings?
FER I mean His sufferings generally; they are food for the soul of the priest, the individual priest. When you come to the assembly to the presence of Christ, then we have Aaron and His sons. There [p. 324] should not be the least divergence between Christ and you. One often hears that verse in Lamentations 1:12 read at the breaking of bread, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow”, etc. Well, I should open my book and listen attentively. I should not behave badly in any way; but I should not read it myself. It is really Jerusalem speaking there, but I think the Lord went through it.
Rem Certain psalms are often read bearing on His sufferings.
FER I should listen to them with reverent attention, but I should not read them myself.
Ques Is your thought that with the grace and favour of the Lord in John 14. before one, those scriptures would not be read?
FER Just think of what the Lord says in John 14: “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”. What comfort that brings! His presence brings in the greatest comfort.
Ques Is it not what He communicates also? “In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee”?
FER Yes, and if you want the pattern you will get it in Luke 24. The Lord comes in, we get all our spiritual understandings quickened, to understand the force and bearing of all the scriptures in relation to Himself.
Rem But take for example a scripture which undeniably refers to the Lord, such as Psalm 22, where the Lord’s unparalleled sufferings are brought before us.
FER I would not object at all to reading the latter part of the psalm.
Ques Do you not think we must make allowance for different states of soul in the meeting?
FER I make the fullest allowance for that, but when we come together like this we come that we may get a just idea of the true ground of the assembly.
[p. 325] Rem What you said about not shutting your book if a scripture is read which perhaps you do not think very suitable, or a hymn given out which may be very far from the mark, I think is very important. We should behave ourselves decently in the meeting because of the Lord’s presence.
FER We ought not to dissociate ourselves from the meeting, if the meeting is not able to rise very high, we ought to be with it; only we ought to seek to help it, if possible.
Rem I suppose most of us have been tolerably guilty at one time or another. If the Lord’s presence is realised and He gets His place, it makes a very great difference.
FER I am sure it would; that is the great thing, for the Lord to get His place.
Rem If He had His place in the meeting it would be the most wonderful meeting that was ever held down here!
FER It would not be ourselves in any way, because He has so entirely separated us from all that side, that He has fitted us to be with Himself. He has brought us into all that He is in now, as Man before God, but then He is Son of the Father, and as Son of the Father He would lead us to know the Father in the affections, between Himself and the Father. And one thing to be said which is very important is that you only love the Father in proportion as you love Christ.