THE CANDLESTICK AND THE BRIDE
[p. 203] THE CANDLESTICK AND THE BRIDE
It is plainly set forth in Scripture, that where we have failed in respect to the present calling of the saints, there is no restoration of that which has failed in our hands; and yet there is, according as there is faith, a revival, or an acquisition of fresh power, not by a return to what has failed, but by our deriving new and peculiar vigour from what is coming, and still future. We fail in our calling, when we lose sight of our hope; but when we are revived as to our hope, we become morally in keeping with it, although we do not regain the glory connected with our calling. Abram maintained the calling of a pilgrim and a stranger in the land because he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Lot lost sight of his hope, and failed in his calling. According as Jacob recovered his hope, he was morally reinstated in his calling, though he was never in it as Abraham was. When Israel had failed in maintaining their calling in the land, and were carried captive into Babylon, two things were pressed upon the faithful; one, a release from captivity, the other the hope of Christ’s coming, and the future glory of Jerusalem. Now, this hope really encouraged the returning captives. The calling they had failed in was not restored. There was no revival of their glory and power as a nation, but with the prospect of a much greater blessing than that which they had ever known in their brightest days, they answered to it morally, and were faithful to that which remained. Anna the prophetess (Luke 2) sets forth the characteristics of the true remnant. She was aged and passing away, but she adhered with sedulous devotion to the things that remained. She departed not from the temple, but continued in fastings and prayers night and day. She was ready for the coming Christ, and on His first appearance in the temple, when He was eight days old, she “gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem”.
[p. 204] Every one must admit that the assembly has failed as the candlestick; as the witness for Christ in the world, during His absence. True, all the light there is for God on the earth is found in the assembly, but where, in any part of it, can one find even accurate fragments of the truth, as it was at the beginning, except where our future state as the bride is before the soul, imparting its moral features and power? There is no clear knowledge of what becomes the assembly on earth, or at the present moment, but as it is prepared for what it shall be. The assembly at first was both the candlestick or lampstand and the bride; the one present, the other in prospect; and it is remarkable that as soon as the future was lost sight of by the servants in their hearts and practice, so did the assembly lose its proper energy and moral influence. We read (Matthew 25: 1, 5), “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom... While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept”. A sleeping saint has neither the sense of life nor does he manifest the activity of life. When the assembly lost sight of the coming of the Lord, she lost the sense of internal power, and was no longer the expression of it to man. When the first love waned, when the saints were satisfied with the reception of grace, without the heart going out in the earnest desire to see the Lord, they were no longer the lampstand. Surely they had light still; there was no light elsewhere on earth, but they had forfeited the visible demonstration of the Holy Spirit, because they had failed in being in heart and practice the bride. If they were not active in heart to their absent Lord, they were not to be entrusted with the honour of the Lord on earth; nor would they be invested with His name and rights on the earth where He had been disallowed. While there was a true earnest purpose of heart in watching for His return, the assembly on earth was clothed with Christ’s power, as He said, “I am glorified in them”; but when she became supine, and [p. 205] indifferent to His coming, then there was a distinct withdrawal of visible favour; the office of candlestick or lampstand was no longer entrusted to her, and thus the church went on for centuries. At length, at midnight, there was a cry heard, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him”. This cry reached with power the heart of every one with oil in his vessel - with life through the Holy Spirit. The affection was really there, but it was smothered and inoperative, because not called into occupation with the only object which could feed and enliven it, even Christ Himself.
But now, being awakened, the question arises, Will they be able to regain the position in which the assembly was at first set for Christ upon the earth? I should say, Not. It is contrary to all God’s ways to restore what has failed, as I have already sought to set forth in this paper. But then, if this is impossible, because of the ways of God, a new thing comes out. The cry itself was new. The assembly at first did not need a cry. Now the cry having produced its effect, there is vouchsafed a picture of the bride as she will be. This was not given before the assembly had failed as the lampstand - as the witness of Christ - as the moon to the absent Sun, reflecting His light on the earth before the eyes of men. She forfeited this distinction because she failed in lively fidelity to her absent Lord, and now, when her heart is revived to Him, though she is not reinstated in her former distinction in the eyes of men, she is encouraged and rewarded by a view of what she will be as entirely suitable to Christ. She is shown the dress she will wear in order that she may seek conformity to it now. It is the Bridegroom that makes the bride. It is only in association with Him that the assembly could ever obtain or attain to anything in correspondence with His taste and glory.
Now the first characteristic or feature of the future bride is HAVING THE GLORY OF GOD. (Revelation 21: 10)
The first thing for the saint now is the knowledge of [p. 206] his association with Christ in glory. Until he enters into this there is really no development of that glorious character which the assembly will bear by-and-by; and it is there, in the glory, that the transforming power is experienced. The law was given in glory, and man was repulsed by it (see 2 Corinthians 3); but now in answer to the accomplished work of Christ the saint is by beholding Him in glory, “changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”. (verse 18.) The glory is given now, and as we are conversant with it we are formed by it; when the bride will appear fully robed, she will have the glory of God; and as we are morally transformed, we are adopting for Christ’s pleasure now what we shall be in perfection hereafter.