FEBRUARY 10TH, 1926

FEBRUARY 10TH, 1926

^[p. 139] BELOVED BROTHER, — It was a pleasure to me to have your letter, for you have been very much in my thoughts and prayers since I heard of your being so seriously out of health, and of the necessity for complete rest. I have no doubt that this check comes in the way of mercy, and as a timely warning that you need to curtail your work, and go at a slower pace for the future. And I trust that the Lord’s hand is over it all to give you more leisure for Himself and His service. I pray that it may be so, and that your desire to serve His interests may be abundantly gratified.

I am glad that you have enjoyed the opportunity for a little quiet reading and meditation, and it interests me to know that you have been going over some of the things which we have had before us here. There is a peculiar kind of restfulness when one has to lay aside one’s regular activities through bodily weakness. It is altogether different from the relaxation and change of a holiday, and the spirit seems to be quieted in a special way when the exercise of it is taken up in piety, and I am sure that such seasons have a very special spiritual value and importance.

I can fully appreciate, and sympathise with, all that you express in your letter as to the tendency with so many of us to go beyond the measure of spiritual power in the part which we take in public service. I can truly say that this is a continual exercise with me, and it casts me much on the Lord for His grace. The remedy lies, I think not in withdrawing from the service, for there never was a time when every bit of faithful service which it lies within one’s ability to render was more needed, but in being more prayerful, and earnestly seeking to eliminate every merely natural element from what we do. 1 Corinthians 15: 58 has often strengthened my hands when they have been inclined to hang down through the consciousness of my spiritual feebleness. For I see that Paul by the Spirit of God encourages even the Corinthians to abound in the work of the Lord. There was much which was serious in their condition, and a great deal which required adjustment, but it is striking that he does not say that they should cease from the work of the Lord until they got all right. He presses their abounding in it, and I have no doubt that on this line of devotion to His service they would find practical deliverance from the self-gratification and self-importance which was natural to them. We are here to serve the Lord and His ^[p. 140] people. We do it very feebly and with many evidences of our spiritual limitations, but it is better to do it in the feeblest way than not to attempt to do it at all. We need to be “in diligent zealousness, not slothful, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord”. But I am sure that accepting in uprightness of heart the responsibility — and surely the cherished privilege — of this blessed service would lead to much deep exercise that it should be rendered in spiritual freshness and power, and unmixed with any merely formal elements. The more completely one is free circumstantially for the Lord’s work the more necessity there is for preservation in freshness of soul, and that nothing should be carried on in mere natural ability, and even distinct gift, that we might contribute more definitely to the edifying of the assembly.

With much love in the Lord,

Yours very affectionately in Him,

February 10th, 1926.