DEVOTEDNESS MORE TO BE DESIRED THAN NUMBERS

DEVOTEDNESS MORE TO BE DESIRED THAN NUMBERS

The account you give of the Lord’s work in ———— is very cheering, but I cannot say I agree with you in supposing that numbers are a sign of usefulness. I think it is a favour from the Lord when one is used to lead His people into true devotedness to Himself.

If there be many of His in a place, as in Corinth, the faithful servant would be used, and kept there to be used.

I see the Lord Himself having more confidence in the few — taking only three with Him to the mount of Transfiguration, dining with seven after the resurrection, and appearing to two as they went to Emmaus. And we always find in scripture that the greatest testimony has been rendered by the few. Ten thousand fearless ones are too many for Gideon. The three hundred only are fit to learn the secret. The secret is to put the lamp in a pitcher, and to do as Gideon did — the treasure in an earthen vessel, and the life of Jesus shining through the fractures of it! We gladly receive the ten thousand, but the three hundred are the working bees. They are keepers at home, that is, housekeepers — the inner circle is all their attention and toil.

^[p. 258] I feel, though little able to maintain it, that every grace is only a means to one great end, and that is simply to live Christ in a world which has refused Him a place, and to reach this, one must begin within, and as one is within at the altar, one will be without with regard to the camp — the angle of incidence equal to the angle of reflection.

Can you say that all the saints under your care are ready for the Lord at His coming? Well, if you carry them all to the “inn” in this scene, they will be ready for ‘home’ when the Lord comes.