THE SERVANT IS FEASTED, ETC.

THE SERVANT IS FEASTED, ETC.

I fully agree with you that the Lord feasts us in the service which is after His own mind. Thou shalt not ^[p. 233] muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. He, blessed be His name, fully adheres to this in any service to which He calls us, and we know it as we render it to Him. When we serve as Martha, we are not ‘feasted’, we are cumbered with much serving. It is a very happy evidence that we are threshing, treading out the corn as He would have us, when we are feeding or being fed concurrently ourselves. I am glad you were able to preach, and that you enjoyed it — were feasted! I never preached from your text; you had to go to the New Testament to find or christen the king and Jonathan’s son! There is a danger of limiting the gospel by taking texts from the Old Testament. Even Isaiah 6, which is fine as far as it goes, is not the gospel. It is only clearance before the throne. In 2 Corinthians 3 you are not only cleared, but the righteousness of the One who cleared you is yours, and you are transformed into similarity to the glory; you are in moral correspondence with the Lord of glory, no disparity, you are “as He is”, fit for the Father’s love. Love satisfies itself as to its object. I am glad that you feel interest in the souls of the saints. There is much need of the pastor everywhere. If there were more devotedness there would be more pastors. I was pointing out yesterday the two marks of devotedness. Devotedness to a loved one is a delight, and not an obligation. The first mark is that, like Elisha, I want His Spirit to serve Him in His absence, and that only. The second, I want now (in the very time of the winds and the waves) to be with Him where He is. No true heart but must long to be in the place where its object is. That His place is ours determines everything whether as to the gospel or as to the church. I enjoyed very much last evening seeing how God delights not only in saving us, but in having us. Nothing can satisfy love but company. I believe the defect in many preachers of the gospel is in being too much occupied with the sinner’s guilt — not connecting his guilt with his lost state. There is nothing about lost in the Old Testament (Jonah may present a sample of it). If all my sins were forgiven, I am still lost. Redemption includes state for God, and His grace begins with the sinner from the finish — to bring him from the greatest distance up to it.

^[p. 234] it is a wonderful thing to be interested, with the feeling of the nearest relation, in the progress and prosperity of Christ’s own, and to be able, as you say, to lead them on to the higher branches of the truth. It is the Lord’s own work, nourishing and cherishing inwardly and outwardly.