MUSINGS

“BE VIGILANT” You may have read a month or two back about the yachtsman whose boat was wrecked in a single-handed round-the-world race. He was only 250 miles from the end of the 6,900 mile Cape Town—Sydney section of the race when, exhausted, he set the automatic steering and settled down for a nap. The wind changed and he was awakened by the crash when the yacht smashed into a rocky island.

It is like a parable, reminding us of the need for constant watchfulness and vigilance in the Christian course. Whether we have just begun the race, or are farther on in it, we can never afford to relax. We have many examples to warn us. For instance, who would have thought that, after the wonderful experiences with the Lord in John 20, seven of the disciples, led by Peter, would have gone off on that misguided and fruitless fishing expedition? Some of the greatest men in Scripture had sad failures, some of them in their old age.

Let us ever remember the words of the Lord to the disciples in Gethsemane, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation”, Matthew 26: 41. We need to watch, to see where the attack is coming from, what the danger is. We need to pray for power and grace to resist the temptation and meet the danger. Peter says, “Be vigilant, watch, Your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist, stedfast in faith”, 1 Peter 5: 8, 9. We used to sing at school—

Principalities and powers,

Mustering their unseen array,

Watch for thine unguarded hour

Watch and pray!

FCM

EXTRACTS

I have got away from grace if I have the slightest doubt or hesitation about God’s love. I shall then be saying, I am unhappy, because I am not what I should like to be. But, dear friends, this is not the question: the real question is, whether God is what we should like Him to be, whether Jesus is all we could wish. If the consciousness of what we are, of what we find in ourselves, has any other effect than, while it humbles us, to increase our adoration of what God is, we are off the ground of pure grace. The immediate effect of such consciousness should be to make our hearts reach out to God and to His grace as abounding over it all.

J. N. Darby (‘Coll. Wrtgs.’. Vol. 12, p.194)

In moving about in this world and noting what exists among the saints, what one observes—and one includes oneself—is that we are so unfeeling, and hence there are no tears that can be put into God’s bottle … tears that are fit for God’s bottle are rare. But these tears (Luke 7: 44) were such; they were such as could wash the feet of the Lord. And then her hair is used to wipe His feet; it is the complete devotedness of all that she might treasure for the refreshment of Christ ... Christ was supreme in her heart; He had won a place down there in the very depths of it.

J. Taylor (N.S. Vol. 75, p.16)

The great mark of having been baptised with the Holy Spirit would be that we should work together harmoniously as members of that body into which He has baptised us. The baptism of the Spirit is not exactly an individual matter; it puts all the saints vitally together in a living organism, and the great evidence of the power of the Spirit is that we function properly as members of the body. To function properly as a member of the body of Christ is morally greater than to work a miracle or speak with tongues.

C. A. Coates (‘Outline of Luke’s Gospel’, p.53)

I have referred before now to the three women who were martyred at Wigtown. On their monument it says, ‘They died to maintain the rights of Christ in the assembly’. I do not know that anything more noble could be said of any saint than that.

C. A. Coates (‘Outline of Luke’s Gospel’, p.242)

Published by F. C. Mutton, 22 Christchurch Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 4QY, England Printed by C. Ellis, Billericay, Essex, England