EXTRACTS

The idea in Scripture connected with children seems to be always that of a company—‘we’ and ‘us’. It is not the idea of the privilege of an individual; it is the common privilege of a company, because the Spirit that bears witness that we are children of God is one Spirit the same Spirit in all, and the effect of it is this—it of necessity leads to the assembly. It compels saints to come together. I cannot understand a person choosing isolation and talking of what he gets from the Lord at home. I am certain that person never enters into the privilege of being a child, because if he did, the craving of his soul would be to get into the company of the children, for the children are all one band. It is “one flock, and one shepherd”. The children are one band, and stand thus in Christ. ‘In Him we stand, a heavenly band’.

Therefore if you want to realise the privilege of the children of God, you must get into the circle of the children, you must really get into the assembly, for it is in the assembly that we realise the privileges that are proper to the children of God.

F. E. Raven (Vol. 9, p.9)