DISCIPLINE OF THE SERVANT NO. 18

DISCIPLINE OF THE SERVANT NO. 18

It is interesting to connect the two ministries by which sanctification is promoted — the ministry of the word within, and the ministry of circumstances, health or otherwise, outside. Cut off from the external interests to be more exclusively engrossed with the things of our Solomon within.

Dear ————. It is indeed ‘grievous’, but no servant ever advanced without the Father’s discipline. “We which live are alway delivered unto death” (2 Corinthians 4: 11). It makes a great difference whether it is our idol which is our scourge (our idol is where we have most vitality), or that God in His own way removes it from us by death. For instance, a man might be greatly ensnared by singing, and it might become a rod to beat himself, but if he honestly desired to be free from it, God would roll in death on him, and he might become unable to sing. The servant must be a sufferer. My kindest love to him. May the Lord comfort him much; we all learn that the end of the Lord is very pitiful. Though He is so great, His mercy endureth for ever. He loves to come down to our weakest point, and then to make manifest the strength of His arm.