DISCIPLINE OF THE SERVANT NO. 5

DISCIPLINE OF THE SERVANT NO. 5

The great thing in service is coming fresh from the Master. ———— has had a very marked course of discipline. It is ^[p. 191] most interesting to see the variety of the ways in which the Lord leads us in order to fit us for Himself and things that He suffered us to enjoy at one time are now denied us, or removed, if we are ready to die to them. The marvel is how little we comprehend His meaning; we are more occupied with relief than exercised as to the way we receive it from Him; and often possibly too anxious to find out the cause of it, while the real exercise is being cast upon God in it. Finding compensation in Him for our sufferings, as Jacob, when he left Shalem for Bethel: or better still, Paul learning “My grace is sufficient for thee”. It is a new thing for dear ———— to be an invalid. I trust she may learn much of the Lord to the joy of her heart in this new experience. I consider Jonah’s will was broken when he was in the depths of the sea, but in the loss of the gourd his heart was softened, or at least he had to learn that when the gourd was gone, there was no one to comfort him but God. It is a great thing for the soul when it is in such utter bereavement of every natural attraction that it has nothing nor any one but the Lord. The Lord is one and His name one. What a thing it is to find one’s all in one Person.

About twelve were at the breaking of bread here, and they say there were seventy at the preaching in the barn, which was half filled with hay! I gave them the difference between “goodness” and “love”. Goodness, according to its means, does everything that its object requires. Love does all it can for its object to its own satisfaction. My need is the measure of God’s grace in one; and in the other, blessed be His name, His own heart is the measure.