THE GOSPEL LIMITED TO THE SATISFACTION OF THE CONSCIENCE, THE ASSEMBLY, ETC.

THE GOSPEL LIMITED TO THE SATISFACTION OF THE CONSCIENCE, THE ASSEMBLY, ETC.

I am thankful that you see your way to give up taking ————. I believe that it has lapsed from the testimony to ^[p. 173] which the church has been called. The intention which there was at first to help on souls into full light has not been followed up. To relieve the sin-burdened conscience is I apprehend the utmost of its aim now, without any reference to the responsibility of saved sinners here for Christ. First we have to learn that He has served us, then our calling is to serve Him. A soul set fully in the gospel must be here in testimony, led by the Spirit of God, and a channel through which the Spirit speaks of Christ; “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7: 38). When the satisfaction of the conscience is the measure of grace, there is no growth, for then it is my conscience that is to determine the measure, or the sufficiency of grace for me; when it is so, I never get beyond my conscience.

But the truth is, that I am brought to God. If I can measure God I can measure His grace, and then I am to glorify God in my body which is His. If the gospel be limited to man’s feelings, however true and right, he never gets beyond himself — the sin-offering side of the gospel. This is all of the gospel that is in the Book of Common Prayer. ‘Justice asks no more’! Judgment is escaped as in Exodus 12. When I rise to God in the burnt-offering my delight will be to be here according to His pleasure. I have tasted of the joys of His house. “Strength and gladness are in His place” (1 Chronicles 16: 27). I seek now to be well-pleasing to Him in all things. The tendency of the day is to make man’s benefit the scope of everything, even of the gospel. The Salvation Army is the full-blown expression of it. I hope I have made all this clear to you.

As to the hidden manna, I understand it to be the grace which only the eye of God could see in Christ’s walk down here. It is most wonderful to apprehend even in any degree that the Son of God was in our daily life down here — that He came into such small things as our sorrows and our joys here; the latter He refused, though like turning the water into wine, He promoted them for us.

I have been much interested in the subject of the assembly on the earth. It is the place for saved souls not for anxious ones. If your own interests are not secured perfectly how could you undertake the interests of another? In the assembly you are responsible for Christ’s interests.

^[p. 174] If you have not real peace and are not in the enjoyment of His life, how can you devote yourself heartily to His interests? The assembly is, I might say, God’s parliament. It is for Him you are to consider there. You are a constituent part of the most august assembly ever on the earth. It is very interesting the difference between association with Him where He is, and His coming into our midst where we are. In the former we lose everything that is unsuited to Him, in the latter we are helped and influenced by His presence where everything is opposed to Him.