ALLEGIANCE TO CHRIST

^[p. 36] ALLEGIANCE TO CHRIST

I do trust that the quiet will be of great profit to you. But the only place of real safety for a servant in this world is being like Joseph, a bondman, and nothing but bondmen. The moment he is anything but a bondman of Jesus Christ, the door is opened to the stranger that flattereth with her lips; he is ministered unto, and not ministering, and that from things here. I believe rest and retirement are both most useful, but when required by a servant, it can be viewed in no other light than that of a prison. I think it is anomalous when a servant seeks recreation. Our blessed Lord took from the night His praying time, that He might not curtail His working hours. Of course, no one can come up to this, but it is important to keep the one only true standard before us. There is an old saying, that the Israelites were more earnest and zealous in getting clear of Pharaoh than they were in exploring and enriching themselves with the goodly things of Canaan; that is, that they grew inactive and indolent as their blessings increased; as they were more within their reach they valued them less. This is my fear now for you. The tendency is, and this with the most energetic, like the hare in the race, to think oneself entitled to go, as they say in the army, into ‘winter quarters’, fighting being suspended for the rest of the year. I believe for every conscious possession of things above there is an increased power required, in order to keep all our members tributary, rendering homage unto the Lord. The more your heavenly possessions increase, the more must all in you be under the control of the Spirit, in order that all may yield tribute to the Lord. The more a saint consciously possesses of the Lord, the more untiring and laborious must he be in His service, for the more you have the more demand there is on you. A high position imposes increased labours on the servant, and he must dread more than ever the fly in the apothecary’s ointment. To him to whom much is given, more will be expected, and it is only in the increased keeping under the body, and bringing it into ^[p. 37] subjection, that one proves that one is qualified for the post to which one has been appointed. If when I am promoted, I do my work more indifferently it proves that I am resting in the greatness of my position, and not seeking to commend it by sedulous attention to it, feeling that the higher I am set the more devolves on me, so that instead of reaching a spot where I might claim a respite, the very advance conferred on me obliges me to deny myself all round and in many little ways, which I had not felt necessary before. All I want to press is this, that the more we appropriate our portion in Christ, the more must we be practically displaced, and refuse everything that is merely pleasing to ourselves. I believe the man who appropriates most is the man most careful that nothing should be allowed that would hinder, but that every door should be protected from the inroads of the flesh in true and faithful allegiance to Christ. I believe such a man never feels he is right before the Lord unless he is increasingly impressed with the sense of the need of His help, and that far more so than in his first cries to Him out of the depths. It will be a sad day when those who have accepted and who teach our heavenly calling are found in any posture but on their knees; on the one hand in complete dependence on God, and on the other in armour, protecting themselves against the enemy in solid squares. The greater your possessions the more must you be here in the armour of God, seeing you are encompassed with a relentless foe.