NAMES
l John 1: 1, l1, 12
2 Timothy l: 1-15
I read these scriptures with the desire to express a few thoughts on the subject of names, having in mind that every believer has a name according to divine purpose and grace by which he is known and loved, but also bearing in mind that each of us may, and I suppose each does, in greater or less degree, acquire a name in connection with our relation to the testimony here, a name that may be honourable or that may be the reverse; but each of us will acquire a name of some sort.
Now the idea of names appears early in Scripture and goes right through. You will remember that at the outset when darkness covered the face of the deep, God said, “Let there be light”. And there was light. And God saw the light that it was good; and God divided between the light and the darkness. Then He gives names. It says, “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night”, thus indicating at the outset that He intended that things should be well defined, that there should be no mingling of things that are morally different, which is one great idea connected
with a name. A name is that by which the person or ting named is known, and can be identified. In the thought of God a name is descriptive of a person or thing, so that our names according to God not only designate us, but will be descriptive of us. It is well to bear in mind that God loves distinctiveness and we should be concerned as to distinctiveness, for many of us are apt to be very indefinite in our thoughts of divine things, and in our exercises, but God loves definiteness and distinctiveness, and that is one great thought connected with names.
Even God Himself has been pleased to take various names in order that His people should get distinct apprehensions of His glory. I suppose the greatest name is that which is characteristic of the present moment, The Name (one Name) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A very blessed name that is? Involving in its meaning, the way that divine Persons have moved with thoughts of love which They have Themselves conceived; the way They have moved, taking up relative positions and relationships with a view to God being known in the character and relationship of Father, and with a view to ourselves, the sons of men, being brought into the knowledge and enjoyment of this relationship, and given ability to respond to it with the affections and
intelligence that are proper to it. A marvellous conception of the blessed God! A conception, the only explanation of which is that God is love, absolutely; and hence divine Persons having conceived such a thought, have moved out, each taking His own relative place and position in the scheme of divine revelation, and in so doing, showing that love was active, love moving divine Persons in perfect unity of mind and thought. So that one divine Person became a Man, and as such took up the relationship of Son to His Father, and having accomplished redemption secures the ground on which sonship may be given to the sons of men; another divine Person comes in as the Spirit, to indwell those whom God takes up, to bring home to their souls the blessedness of the light in which God is revealed, and to cause them to respond to that light according to the desire of the blessed God. So the more we dwell on this precious name of God, as it is said, “baptising them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, the more we are impressed with how really and blessedly God is love, and God intends that it should be known by us. He desires that we should be “rooted and founded in love”; and again it says, “he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him”. God has nothing less in His mind than
that His people should be brought so
consciously into the knowledge of Himself that they dwell there in a fixed, immovable way. ow that is just a little of the blessedness connected with that Name; one of the many names which God has taken, but I think you will see that it illustrates the idea of definiteness connected with the thought of names, and God desires that our knowledge of Him should be definite in accordance with the thought of His own heart, and that we should be brought into that knowledge with ability to respond to it suitably.
Now coming to the scripture I read in Luke 10, the Lord says to the seventy who returned with joy because the demons were subject to them through His name, “I give you the power of treading upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall in anywise injure you. Yet in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subjected to you, but rejoice that your names are written in the heavens”. The Lord would have us rejoice in this. He says to the disciples, You are known in heaven, you are known there by name, “rejoice that your names are written in the heavens”. Indeed we know each one of His own is known personally by name, as it says, “he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out”, and further that the names of His people are borne before God upon the shoulders of our great High Priest—the names according to their birth, but here the Lord
says, “your names are written in the heavens”, and He would have us rejoice in it.
And then as though He would set out the idea, we immediately read, “In the same hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit”. What did He rejoice in? He rejoiced in the sovereign will of His Father. He says, “I praise thee, Father ... for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight”. He would indicate that first of all, above everything, He would have His people here rejoicing in the sovereign thoughts of love of the blessed God. This is a word for us, surely, because this section of Luke’s gospel, chapters 10 and 11, has in view what the Lord is going to secure in places—in “every city and place where he himself was about to come”. It has in view what is to be secured in places where the ministry comes—what there is to be for God in London, and in every place where the testimony has come and how it is to be cared for, enriched, and prayed for. And here the Lord indicates that whereas we might be inclined to rejoice at success in service, at blessing in the gospel, or anything connected with the power of the Lord’s name, we are rather to rejoice that our names are written in heaven. He would have the saints preserved in their assembly exercises and service, in the place where they are, in the light and joy of their heavenly portion according to divine purpose, and so He speaks of the
wondrous revelation which has come to light in His own Person. He says, “All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is but the Father, indicating who He is in His Person, and there is that in His Person which is inscrutable, but He says “no one knows who the Son is but the Father and who the Father is but the Son and “he to whomsoever the Son is pleased to reveal him”. He is speaking there in manhood, and speaking of the wondrous revelation that has now come out in His own Person according to divine purpose, and as regards ourselves as taken up in relation to it, our name are written in heaven. It is purely according to divine purpose and grace, but He would have us rejoice in it. “In the same hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit”. He would set the example for the assemblies; they are to be formed as a result of the ministry, and to be characterised by a rejoicing which has as its spring the light in our souls of the blessedness of God. This is one side of the truth connected with names.
The subject of names is a very extensive one in Scripture, but I wanted particularly to speak of another side connected more with our responsibility, or how we are conducting ourselves in relation to the truth of God here on earth. The fact that the testimony of God is here, and that it is here in conditions of reproach
and testing, becomes the great test, the great touchstone, so to speak, of all those who are brought into contact with it. We stand or fall, if one may say, from this standpoint, the standpoint of responsibility, by reference to the way we move in relation to the testimony of God here, and in that connection we acquire a name, either a name that is honourable, or a name that may be the reverse.
When one speaks on the line of a name that is acquired, I need hardly remind you, dear bretl1ren, that there is one Name that is above every name. It is put in that way in Philippians 2, as given, granted, to Jesus. You remember the passage, it says, “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God; but emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form, taking his place in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”, and it goes on to say “Wherefore”, that is to say, on which account, “also God highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings”. Now it is put in that way, beloved, that the name there given to Jesus is
not taken by Him of personal right, nor exactly is it connected with the height of exaltation according to divine purpose as we have in Ephesians I, where it says, “he set him down at his right hand in the heavenlies, above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named”. It is not put in that way in Philippians. It is put as being the divine answer to the exceeding moral excellence set out in Jesus, and it is put that way in order that the impress of it might rest upon our spirits, and might become rooted in our minds, in order that, as the apostle says, “ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent”.
It has been said by one who was honoured in the testimony of the Lord that the scriptures that are most familiar to us are those that yield the most, and this scripture is very familiar to us. Let us think it over, and dwell on the power of that word “Wherefore”. Think of the immensity of the position, every heavenly, and earthly and infernal being is going to bow at the name of Jesus, in order that it may be demonstrated publicly throughout the whole of creation that the mind which is in Christ Jesus is a mind of such moral excellence that God has decreed He must have the highest place in the universe. It is intended to have a present formative effect upon us in our coming already to delight in it as excellent.
In the remainder of the chapter we get two names, Timotheus and Epaphroditus—names of brothers who had come under the impress of the mind which was in Christ Jesus, and were moving somewhat in the same spirit, and hence they could be named; named as marked by those features that God records as so excellent that He has decreed that even infernal beings shall bow to that Name. Those who have figured largely in the history of man’s world, who may have acquired empires by might and conquest, by bloodshed, even they will bow to the name of the One who “humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”. Now the light of this is intended to have its effect upon us. If we have in our souls the light, as in Jesus where He is, of what is morally excellent, it will preserve us from any kind of self-seeking, either in the world or in the assembly. We shall come to recognise that what is morally excellent in the sight of God, is the mind that has been delineated in Christ.
I now turn to the other scriptures. What I had in mind in the passage in Revelation 2 is that before there can be any acquiring of a name that is approved of God in connection with the testimony here publicly, there must be the
acquiring of a name that is connected with secret and private overcoming. That is what comes out in Revelation 2; the great value and importance of what is secret and what is hidden as underlying all that is public if this is to stand. ow the address to Pergamos, from which this verse which I read is taken, is a very important section of Revelation 2 and 3. It is true it refers historically to a phase in the assembly’s history that is past, but we are to listen to the Spirit’s voice to the assemblies, i.e., the Spirit has always a present living voice and can always take up and apply that which may have had its bearing primarily years ago; and the address to Pergamos is of great importance because it contemplates that phase in the assembly’s history when worldliness began to come in, for God says to Pergamos, “thou hast there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a snare before the sons of Israel ... and commit fornication”. It was not as yet openly taught. In the next assembly, Thyatira, it was openly taught, but at this stage it was just held by some; the seed was there in the hearts of some of God’s people, that friendliness with the world was permissible, and possibly even desirable, because that was the doctrine of Balaam, and Satan was behind Balaam’s action. He taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the people of God. Satan was behind this
doctrine; it came from a prophet, from one who had a standing publicly as having the mind of God, but he became the tool to introduce elements of corruption among the people of God. It may be there are some among us who secretly hold such a doctrine, who would not perhaps publicly proclaim it, but hold it. If there are such, the Lord would open your eyes to understand that Satan is behind that thought. Satan is behind it with the desire to corrupt the people of God. Balaam had been compelled by the Spirit of God previously to say in regard of God’s people that they should dwell alone. God, who separated light from darkness, intends that His people should be separated completely from the world in all its phases, and anything contrary to that is the suggestion of the enemy.
Now where these things were obtaining, the Lord finds an overcomer, and one would remark that there is a man named in the letter to this assembly, “Antipas my faithful witness”. It is remarkable that he should come in in an address to an assembly at a time which was not specially marked by persecution—for the world was beginning to patronise the church. I suppose it shows that however the world may outwardly change its attitude towards the saints, however it may take on a fresh garb of friendliness, its attitude is really unchanged, so that where there
was an overcomer at Pergamos, the real attitude of the world as hostile came into evidence, and it is well for us to understand that. We live in days when the world is very appealing and when Christianity may appear comparatively easy, yet the world is just as much opposed to the saints of God as it was when they were persecuted. This faithful witness comes to light in Pergamos. Now to the overcomer the Lord says, “To him that overcomes, to him will I give of the hidden manna; and I will give to him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he that receives it”.
The Lord would encourage us to cultivate that which is secret and hidden, that which has its springs in what is solely between the Lord and ourselves; that which is hidden and secret must underlie anything that is public, if it is to stand. So the Lord speaks of the overcomer that he should be given to eat of the hidden manna; that is, Christ appreciated and cherished in the soul in a private way, appreciated in that way in the grace and lowliness, and dependence, in which He moved through this scene in which we are, uncorrupted by it, living daily by the word of God and glorifying God in His dependence and obedience. Now the Lord sees the overcomer, and that one shall be fed with the hidden manna, and not only so, He will give him a new name,
“and I will give to him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he that receives it”. What is there to be more coveted, dear brethren, than to have the sense in secret of the Lord’s approval, “a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows but he that receives it”. The outcome of going on in. private and personal appreciation of Christ, feeding on Him who has been here wholly for the pleasure of God, ill the very scene m which we move, is not only that one becomes an overcomer but such an one will have that which is greatly to be cherished, the secret sense of the Lord’s own approval.
In the other scriptures we come to that which is more public, and I read 2 Timothy 4 because that epistle shows that individuals come into evidence and are taken account of by reference to their relation to the testimony of our Lord. The apostle urges energy. He says to Timothy, “Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me”. In the closing days of the testimony here he would urge diligence on every one of us.
While on the subject of diligence I would remark that Peter, too, in his closing epistle, when days were darkening, emphasises the thought of diligence. Here the apostle says, “Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me: for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this
present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica”. What a name to have, beloved! I suppose Demas was a true saint, having his name according to divine purpose, having his own place in the heart of Christ; but what sorrow he would cause to Christ! “Demas hath forsaken me”. Not that he had done anything outwardly wrong, but he judged the path to be too narrow, and gave up the distinctive feature of Paul’s ministry, the heavenly calling of the assembly. He had ceased to rejoice that his name was written in heaven. “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world”. Is there anyone here possibly thinking that the path is too narrow? God forbid that you should come under such a designation as this—“Demas hath forsaken me”. Is it not better to covet that we should acquire, through divine grace, a name that meets with divine approval?
Notice the names that follow. The apostle says, “Only Luke is with me”, and then, “Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry”. It is remarkable that these two men should be brought together. Four gospels were written, two by apostles and two by servants who were not apostles, and these two are found with Paul at the close. They are men who have been feeding on Christ, for only by feeding on Christ would they be qualified under the Spirit’s hand to write gospels to
present Christ according to the light in which they had apprehended Him. Only one who had closely followed Christ could write a gospel; and what a man Luke was! I think we may safely assert that Luke was a man who would pray. He speaks of Jesus praying, more than anyone else; he tells us that Jesus withdrew Himself into the wilderness, and prayed, Luke 5: 16, and on another occasion that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God, chap 6: 13. In chapter 9 he tells us “he went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed the fashion of his countenance became different”. It is only Luke who tells us that it was as Jesus was praying that He was transfigured, and he had doubtless received by the Spirit a distinctive impression of the kingdom of God. The Lord had said to the disciples that there were some standing there who should not taste death until they had seen the kingdom of God, and as Peter and James and John went up the mount of transfiguration they would expect to see the kingdom of God, and they saw Him praying, and would receive the impression that the power of the kingdom of God would connect itself with a praying man. Luke records it for us, and Paul in his service insists on the necessity for prayer, and I have no doubt he found in Luke a man who went
through right to the end in the intelligent
appreciation of the truth of the heavenly calling, and supported the apostle in unceasing prayer.
Now as to Mark. He was, I believe, one who
had learned in Jesus absolute purity of motive. He had had to judge in himself impurity of motive; he had, alas, failed, he turned back from the work and had going back to Jerusalem. He had not been marked by purity of motive when he started out. His uncle, too, had not been marked by purity of motive when he went to Cyprus and took him with him. But Mark
writes his gospel. He does not tell us Jesus was praying on the holy mount. He gives us the feature that impressed him, and he tells us, “his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them”. He was impressed with the exceeding purity of Jesus, the absolute singleness and purity of heart in all His movements, and as judging what
was contrary to this in himself, he became profitable to Paul. It is well for us to covet names like these. Luke is named in an honourable way here, in connection with continuing with the testimony right to the end, and Mark is named, and Tychicus is named, and then another man is named Alexander the coppersmith. The apostle said, He did me much evil. How terrible to think of it. How challenging the testimony of our Lord is, and it tests us where we are, as to whether we are
single-hearted or whether, alas, we may even be opposed. Anyone who is not single-hearted who like Demas turns aside, gets a name accordingly. He becomes known by that name, a name that must cause grief to the heart of Christ. The name of Alexander the coppersmith has been handed down century after century, that all the saints may understand that the names of those who oppose the testimony of our Lord are recorded.
In the epistle of John it is not so much the testimony publicly in connection with the truth of the heavenly calling of the assembly as given to Paul, but here it is a question of the truth of the children of God here on earth, and the affections proper to them as here expressive of God, and in this epistle, too, we get names. Gaius is named in an honourable way, but he was not, so far as we can gather, a prominent servant, but one who was walking in the truth, not only stating or teaching it, but walking in it. The truth as to God, that He is love, had taken hold of Gaius, and he was walking in it. He was receiving without partiality the servants who came along, showing them hospitality and sending them on their way worthily of God. He was one who supported the truth in that way, and he is named in an honourable way by the Spirit of God in order that we may see that the presence here of the truth of God involves a
challenge to us, as to the extent to which we ourselves are walking in it. Then the apostle makes mention of another man—Diotrephes. It would be a sad thing for any of us to have a name like that. His name is placed on record that we may be warned against the tendency with us to seek a place of dominance among the people of God, when the One in whom the light of God has come to us is One who made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him a bondman’s form. But Diotrephes acquired a name that was the very opposite of that way of love.
But then, what is our attitude to be? The apostle’s word to Gaius is very encouraging. He says, do not allow his action to make you resentful in your spirit, do not let it raise in your spirit a kind of condemning spirit. He says, “Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good”. With the light of God as it has come to us in Christ, let it be that which we follow after, that is what is good; that which is evil will be exposed, but the apostle’s word to Gaius was to—go after that which is good. “He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God”. Then he brings forward another name, “Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record; and ye know that our record is true”. He does not give us much as to
Demetrius, but he was so in keeping with the truth that he not only had a good report of all men, but also of the truth itself. He was a brother who in his movements was expressive of God.
That is all I had to say: it is only touching the fringe of this great subject of names, but I hope it is enough to induce a desire with us to have a name that God can approve. There is no thought in these names of ourselves being glorified. You remember in Revelation, the twenty-four elders each have a crown, which they cast before the throne and bow before Him that sits upon it. Whatever distinction the saints may acquire from fidelity in the testimony, all is made contributory to the glory of Christ, and so when the Lord Himself comes He will come to be glorified in His saints and admired in all them that believe. Any distinction that is of God that may be secured by anyone of us is a part of that in which the Lord Himself will be glorified when He comes, and at the same time a part of that in which God Himself will be expressed when the holy city comes down from heaven having the glory of God.
This address is taken from a pamphlet in which the place and date when it was delivered are not given.
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SHARING THE FATHER’S DELIGHT IN CHRIST
I think these scriptures would give us an impression, dear brethren, first of all of the positive delight which the Father has in Christ, and then how He would share that with us. That is a wonderful thing to contemplate, how the Father is prepared to share with us the pleasure that He Himself finds in Jesus. So we find in this third chapter of Luke’s gospel that Jesus was baptised, “baptised and praying”. It says, “all the people having been baptised and Jesus having been baptised and praying”. Well now, these are simple statements but they mean a good deal; “Jesus having been baptised”, it is a wonderful thing that Jesus should be baptised. There was no necessity for it from a personal point of view, but the people had come in a spirit of repentance and had accepted baptism as the expression of that repentance, and Jesus in wondrous grace identifies Himself with them, so that He Himself was baptised. It says, “and Jesus having been baptised”; and then it adds, “and praying”. Jesus having been baptised in identifying Himself in wonderful grace with the repentance that marked the people who had come to be baptised, and then it says, “and
praying”: “Jesus having been baptised and praying”.
Well now, prayer, if it is genuine prayer, is the expression of dependence on God; but where do you get the most complete expression of dependence on God? I believe you get the most complete expression of dependence on God when Jesus came into the world as a newborn Babe. That has impressed me greatly, dear brethren: I doubt if you can find anywhere any greater expression of dependence on God than you see in a newborn babe. A newborn babe is dependent on others for everything, everything, and hence a newborn babe is the absolute expression of dependence; and when One of the Godhead came into human condition He came in in that way: not in self-confidence, not in self-sufficiency or self-assertiveness but as a newborn Babe. Now that should impress us, dear brethren; if any of us tend naturally to be self-sufficient, self-reliant, self-assertive, let us recognise that the way that Christ came into the world was as a newborn Babe; and that means that dependence, I think I am right in saying, is the first feature of moral excellence in the human condition. You might say, ‘Well, surely obedience would be the first expression’. Well, I would not quarrel with that, but you do not expect a newborn babe to be obedient. You cannot look for obedience in a newborn babe; it
is not capable of it; it needs to be developed a little before the sense of responsibility is there. But a newborn babe is essentially an expression of absolute dependence; and that shows that dependence is the first feature of moral excellence in the human condition that God looks for. What a contrast to the world around where men are self-assertive and self-reliant, and what God loves to see is dependence.
Well now, let us just allow that to sink in, dear brethren. I realise that as I say these things you may say to me, ‘Well, are you dependent?’. And that is the normal result of having these
things brought before us; they present a challenge to us, and we seek grace to accept the challenge; because if God sets out that a certain feature of things is morally excellent in His sight in manhood, then it is for us as His creatures taken up in infinite grace to see to it that the Spirit is allowed liberty to develop those features in us. So it says here, “Jesus having been baptised and praying, that the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him; and a voice came out of heaven. Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”. But now, that is a positive statement on the part of God that He found in Jesus positive delight, and it was in Jesus in human condition and as praying; notice that, as praying. “Jesus having been baptised”, that is He identified Himself in baptism with the repentant people. A wonderful thing—He has done that in the most absolute way when He gave Himself for us, and bore those sins that repentance expresses acceptance of, a wonderful thing, and so Christ has gone that way. And then it says, “a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”.
But then Peter, in his epistle, carries us somewhat further; he says, “he received from God the Father honour and glory, such a voice”, such a voice; not merely a voice, but such a voice, as though on the holy mount Peter and James and John were privileged to hear the very tones of the voice in which the Father spoke to Jesus; “such a voice being uttered to him by the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son”. At
the baptism of Jesus the voice says “Thou”, but now on the holy mount the voice says “This”; that is to say, the Father is addressing Peter, and James, and John; He is, if I may so say, addressing us and calling our attention, calling the attention of others, Peter, and James, and John, to the pleasure which He Himself found
in Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. So Peter says, “this voice we heard uttered from heaven, being with him on the holy mountain”. Before that he says, “such a voice”. When we think of what actually
happened on the holy mountain, we can see the change that has come over Peter. What actually happened on the holy mountain was that Peter said, “it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one
for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what
he said” (Luke 9: 33); that is what scripture says, “not knowing what he said”. But Peter
rejects all that, he lets all that sink into oblivion, and so we do not want to bring it back again from that point of view; what we want to concentrate on is the exceeding moral glory of what actually happened when it is divested of all the wrong thoughts that Peter at one time attached to it. We are allowed now to see that Jesus “received from God the Father honour and glory, such a voice”—such a voice, the Father’s own voice and the Father’s own tones of voice, “being uttered to him by the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight; and this voice we heard uttered
from heaven, being with him on the holy mountain”. Well, we have not been literally with Him on the holy mountain, but I think in this day of the Spirit we are privileged to have some entrance into what Peter, and James, and John were given entrance into. We can get
some impression by the Spirit of what that voice was—“such a voice”, and of what it said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my
delight”. It means that the Father is willing to share His own pleasure, His own joy in Christ; He is willing to share it with us. He wants to share it with us. That is the wonderful thing; that is what is possible in virtue of the indwelling Holy Spirit; wonderful thing.
The more we touch of these things, dear brethren, the more we increase in our appreciation of the Holy Spirit Himself, that He has taken His abode in us in order that these holy things of God might be known by us in actuality. Well, that is our portion through grace. We can well rejoice in it, and God grant that we may increase in our appreciation of it. We do not want to be occupied with things that are not worth being occupied with. Christ has already gone “up above all the heavens, that He might fill all things”, Eph 4: 10. That day is not far distant, and there is not going to be room for anything that is not of Christ. Let us bear that in mind. Let the younger brethren here bear that in mind that it may regulate their outlook that there is not going to be anything remaining that is not of Christ. He has gone up already “above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”.
So let it be that He obtains the place in our
hearts that the Father intends that He should obtain, and as He does obtain that we shall find that we are more and more at home in the
Father’s presence because we are being given to share by the Holy Spirit that in which the Father Himself finds His full delight.
ABERDEEN
September 1969
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