JANUARY 6TH, 1899

JANUARY 6TH, 1899

... I have been thinking a little lately about the difference between the sympathy and succour of Christ, and the help and support of the Spirit, as illustrated in Peter (Matthew 14) and Stephen (Acts 7).

It seems to me that the priestly grace and succour of Christ are active to the end that we may be with Him. The result of Peter getting succour was that He walked with Christ upon the water. Our blessed Priest would have us sustained above the influences and pressures and weaknesses here that we may be with Him. He supports with a view to our being free to enter into conscious association with Himself in His own circle.

On the other hand, the Spirit is here to support us for Christ in the place where He is not. And this we see fully exemplified in Stephen. In the power of the Spirit he was able to present in testimony in the very place of Christ’s rejection the brightest conceivable setting forth of the grace and glory of Him whom heaven had received, and in whom the glory of God is fully declared.

In John 13 we learn something of the priestly grace in which that Blessed One is active with a view to our having “part” with Him — the full and holy privilege of the assembly. In John 15 we get the other side — the power of the Spirit to maintain us for Christ in testimony here. John 14 happily links the two, presenting, as it does, the Spirit as the maintaining power of those affections by which alone we can be qualified either for entering into assembly privilege, or for testimony here.

January 6th, 1899.