FEBRUARY 9TH, 1908
FEBRUARY 9TH, 1908
MY DEAR —, — ... I feel much for you and desire that in spirit you may be free for engagement of heart with Himself, and be able to sit, Mary-like, at His feet and hear His word. The highest occupation that we could possibly have is to “honour the Son”, and we do so by hearing Him. No outward circumstances of weakness can take away from us the holy joy of being able to honour the Son. Nay, such circumstances are often a help to us in this direction, for they deliver us from many things which might otherwise distract us from Him.
I have been thinking of the marriage supper in this connection. It is “a marriage for his son”, and every guest brought in was there to honour the Son. Land or merchandise hindered some from coming in, and so the natural tendency of our hearts is to get absorbed even with things that are mercies or duties in themselves and not to be free to honour the Son of God.
[p. 52] Every guest is to be marked by this that he honours the Son. The man without the wedding garment was not honouring the Son. He was outwardly at the supper, but he was not in tune with the spirit of the feast at all. God has called us in to be witnesses of all that He is doing by His Son and for His Son that we may honour Him in all the offices which He fills for God’s glory and the blessing of men — in all the forms of love which He wears. It seems to me that the “marriage” signifies that God is going to make all things glorious and happy and fruitful by connecting His Son with them. The assembly is the first to prove this, and she is in a very peculiar and special way the bride. But Israel will also be connected with the Son of God, and the nations of them that are saved, and, indeed, “all things”. And whatever is connected livingly with the Son of God comes into true blessedness. Now God has called us in to behold One who can make divinely happy and fruitful all who are connected with Him. What blessed occupation of heart to sit down before Him to learn His glory and love, and to prove the happiness of which He becomes the minister to those who believe on Him! Is it not a festive occupation? We honour the Son by allowing our hearts to explore with unchanging fresh delight all that He is as the joy-bringer of God’s universe. He can hush the long groan of a disordered creation, and bring in unalloyed happiness. We, in spirit, anticipate this, and while all around is the sorrow of divorcement from God we come into those joys which belong to the land of Beulah.
That such joys may be always and increasingly your portion and mine is the prayer of your affectionate brother,
February 9th, 1908.