THE PERFECTING OF PRAISE
THE PERFECTING OF PRAISE
Matthew 11:16 - 19; Matthew 11:25; Matthew 18: 2, 3; Matthew 21: 15, 16
JT This gospel is somewhat marked by the prominence given to children. These scriptures I have suggested are illustrative of this and show how the perfection of praise is seen in them. In the last Scripture read, the one thought in the prominence given to children seems to be to set aside traditional religious influence. Anything of the kind, however small, entering into a meeting tends to weaken the service of God and the liberty that belongs to us as sons of God. The idea of children and what marks them characteristically would be set over against a fixed condition already existent in older ones, especially in Matthew, because of the assembly’s place and function as developed in that gospel. A condition brought about by traditional teaching and influence must be inimical to the service of God, however orthodox it may be or according to accepted principles. The people had gone out to see John, which of course was so far right, but then the Lord challenges them as to what they went out to see, in order to bring out what John really was, and the condition among the Jews was so apathetic to what was fresh and direct from God at the moment that the Lord has recourse to this parable. He said: “It is like children sitting in the markets, which, calling to their companions, say, We have piped to you, and ye have not danced: we have mourned to you, and ye have not wailed. For John has come neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon. The Son of man has come eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a man that is eating and wine-drinking, a friend of tax-gatherers, and of sinners — and wisdom has been justified by her children”. There were those there who were different.
WF Is that the thought of another generation, wisdom’s children, “To whom shall I liken this generation”?
JT Quite so. It is a new beginning. Verse 25 brings it down to babes. It is a new thought being inculcated at the very lowest growth so as to be entirely unsophisticated by traditional influences. Hence the importance of the children being with us in our readings and imbibing the right thoughts, breathing the right atmosphere from the beginning. The Lord gives His own example by calling one such in chapter 18. It is significant as coming in after the assembly is introduced, and as the disciples, seemingly disregarding the wonderful teaching of chapter 17, which shows the status on to which they are brought as sons, have their minds imbued with rivalry or ambition in verse 1, so that the Lord calls a little child to Him and sets it in their midst, saying, “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”. So that it is brought in there as the exclusive way into the kingdom of heaven. It requires conversion, resulting in this character of little children. Then finally in the temple where the service of God should be prominent, the praises of Israel are only found in the children, and the Lord defends them and points out from the Psalms that it is a divine thought that the praise of God should be perfected in them, a most interesting thought now, because we are getting near the end, and God is perfecting us in this way.
AHG Would what is traditional render them insensible to ministry as indicated in the first scripture read, the piping and mourning?
JT That is what I was thinking, that the piping and mourning of children would be real feeling, and [p. 3] their companions in the parable would point to persons listening to the ministry of John the baptist and the ministry of Christ. It was a real feeling appeal in both persons — in John the baptist and in Christ — but there was no response at all, save the worst kind of opposition. John the baptist, they said, had a demon, and the Son of man, because He ate and drank, was a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners.
WOH Have you anything in mind when you speak of what is traditional in connection with our meetings?
JT I mean anything that has come down to us that we are clinging to as over against what is fresh and current. Many are hindered by the traditional side from going in for and appropriating what is current by the Spirit and fresh, because the traditional feature cannot be the perfecting of the thing, inasmuch as it is past and gone. It has not perfected anything. The children in chapter 21 are spoken of by the Lord as perfecting praise. God is perfecting the thing in them and if we hold back from that we shall never be perfected.
RGC Making of it none effect through their traditional teaching.
WF That brings in man, human thoughts, traditions. It would not be looking for divine communications, would it?
JT Not at all. That which had the mark of divine approval even may not have been on the line of perfecting. It may not have been the perfecting side of the matter, and if we cling to that we shall never be perfected. The perfecting must come in at the end.
Ques Would chapter 11: 15 suggest the line on which we are perfected? “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”. Would we need to maintain that attitude?
JT Quite so. “If ye will receive it, this is Elias, who is to come”. There was Something there that any Jew or Israelite should recognise, that is Elias. He is past but his ministry has the character of continuance and may be taken on by others. So that John the baptist was that, if they would receive it. If they did not, it would have to be deferred. The little children were there current, not a reincarnation of Elijah or of his ministry, but what is current, the natural growth of the moment. Elijah must go forward and, according to the prophets, will reappear; that is, he presents a full thought, but to take form in another than himself.
AHG It says, “Wisdom has been justified by her children”. Is this generation of children the product in that way of wisdom?
JT That is the thought, the children; the word in that particular verse carries the thought of dignity, of growth; it is not of little children such as the earlier reference to the little children in the markets. Children of wisdom is a full thought. The thought of children is, of course, in relationship to the father, but it might apply to persons of very advanced years.
WF The Lord seems to bring it in in contrast with this generation; they did not take in John’s ministry.
Ques You were speaking about the full thought to be reached in chapter 21 in relation to the praise and service of God. I was wondering if it begins by the getting of wisdom: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding”, so that we might understand what is spoken to us in relation to these things, as over against all this tradition. Is that what is in your mind?
JT The last scripture finishes with really the highest note up to that time, the highest note developing out of the work of God. We have the thought of [p. 5] sonship earlier in the book, but the Son of David was a note developing out of the work of God. In chapter 20, the two blind men did not speak in an orthodox sense, but from their own feelings and spiritual intelligence. The Lord was entering on His own territory at Jericho and without anyone telling them they say, “Lord, Son of David”. That was a note for that particular time, and the children carried that note forward. It lasts, it is carried through, and it is perfected in the temple, in the children. So that I think the teaching for us would be that whatever is the note for the moment, whatever phase of the truth is coming out, whether the outcome of the work of God in His people, or whether by the teaching of the Spirit, whatever is the note or theme for the moment, what the Spirit is saying, that is what enters into the perfecting. The word the Lord uses, the perfecting of praise, is in relation to the note that began with the two blind men, who were of no religious status at all, but it came out through them and was carried through into Jerusalem by way of the ass and the colt. These children are taking it up and they are perfecting it; they are carrying it forward; they had to do it, the perfecting must involve that, not what had preceded. That is the point, I think, at the beginning of chapter 18.
WSS Would the truth of sonship as at the end of chapter 17 be the note for the moment? In chapter 18 we read: “In that hour the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of the heavens?”, as though there was something in them which was hindering them from apprehending just what was being presented at that moment.
JT They missed it. It was spoken most clearly, the Lord bringing Himself into the matter to fill out the truth, “Take that and give it to them for me and thee”. It is most palpable that though Peter [p. 6] was brought on to the same ground as Christ (he could not have had any greater honour than to be brought on to that ground) he so soon lost sight of it in wondering who is greatest.
WSS Does the Lord taking the little child indicate the way in which we are brought into the truth of Sonship?
JT Yes, whatever the truth be that is in mind. The truth of sonship is in chapter 17 and, of course, that brings in the assembly because chapter 17 is the filling out of chapter 16, to show the personnel, the kind of persons that form the assembly. The subject is really finished in that sense at the end of chapter 17, but chapter 18 shows that the disciples were not up to it and hence the little child shows them that they could only learn as taking that attitude. But chapter 21 stands in another relation. It is not the Son of God but the Son of David. That is the truth for that time because the Lord was entering His capital, Jerusalem, and bringing in the question of His rights to it as the Son of David. The blind men inaugurate that principle and the little children are not behind. The thing comes down and is perfected.
WF Was it in your mind to connect the response of praise with the revelation to babes in the verse we had in chapter 11?
JT Just so. The Father began at the bottom with the babes. In chapter 21, it is now the Person of the Lord entering into His capital, but the little children are in the temple, and you have this thought in verses 15 and 16, “When the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David ...” they did not go beyond that; the crowds added from Psalm 118, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (verse 9), but the little children kept to what the blind men said in the end of chapter 20. They cried out saying, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David”. Why did they say that? They are blind men and evidently not men that would have much learning as had the Pharisees and scribes, but they say the words, bringing in just the note according to the position; it is what belonged to that particular position that Christ was in.
WSS You mean He was going to Jerusalem?
JT Yes.
WF Presenting Himself in that particular sense.
JT Yes. So that the word in chapter 21: 5 is a quotation from the prophet Zechariah: “All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass”. And then the crowds in verse 9, who went before Him and who followed, cried, saying, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”. The scriptures therefore were fulfilled at that time in principle, but the little ones carried what the blind men said, and that is the note the Lord is specially interested in now. What comes out in that way is being perfected, and we want to be in that. We want to be amongst those who are perfecting praise. That is what the Lord is helping in relation to, that His praise might be perfected.
BS What would represent, in the assembly service today, these children and the features seen in them?
JT It is a state of freshness and readiness to take in what is current. They are wholly free from traditional teaching, and from what would hinder them in fully taking on what is current. This note had come in in chapter 20; the temple feature is earlier and it runs on to chapter 18, but this is the testimony at the moment. The blind men introduced it, and chapter 21 brings in the ass and colt. There are two blind men in Matthew, only one in Mark and Luke;
[p. 8] also the ass and the colt are in Matthew instead of the colt as in Luke and John. So that it is the testimony carried through in a full way, not simply in one but in two, and then eventuating in children; that principle is suggestive of a fresh energetic state in the saints, a readiness to take on what is current by the Spirit, because that is the perfecting of the thing.
AHG Children would not represent then that which is immature or not full grown?
JT It may be one or the other. There are several words which are used for children. The one used in Luke is rather the diminutive, but this one would point to a state ready for instruction, the state in the saints ready for taking in things that are current.
WSS Would the fact that it says, “Jesus having called a little child to him” help in this connection? Elsewhere it says He took a little child.
JT Yes, he was intelligent, he answered.
JFLS Does the idea of smallness have to be maintained by us in order that the state might be produced?
JT It goes with it. All the senses normally are in action in young people. When we get older our senses become dull, and if we are governed by traditional things we hardly take in current things.
Ques I would like to get clear what is in your mind in the thought of being perfected. The note that had begun with the blind men by the wayside was, “Lord, Son of David”, and what the children said in the temple was more or less the same; in which way was the perfecting seen? In that it was in the temple?
JT In that it was spontaneous and as indicated in the Lord’s own comment.
WF “Hosanna to the Son of David”; it is in that way a response contrasted with the adversaries in Psalm 8.
JT There was music [p. 9] in it.
LDM It is striking, too, that apart from any sense of need in the children as with the blind men, there is a merging connected with what they introduced. It seems to be a fuller thought and more spontaneous in the children in the temple.
JT Yes, and it is in keeping with David, the musician, the sweet psalmist, ‘Hosanna’ is a beautiful touch; the blind men do not say that. They are in the sense of need and they are asking for mercy. They say, “Lord”; they are subject to Him. Instead of that the little ones say, “Hosanna to the Son of David” — a lovely note. I suppose there would be a little piety when they uttered it.
WF It seems to link with Psalm 118: 25: “Save, Jehovah”.
RGC The children are moved to spontaneous response. The city is moved in regard to questioning who this Person is, but the children are moved to response in surroundings out of which they would be kept in the ordinary way, but they move there in a sphere which is kept open to them in the power of the Son of David. The tradition of the temple would have kept them out.
JT And it seems a fixed thing in their minds. They are not questioning, but taking on what is already current. Hosanna is music of instruction, a feeling matter, and fits in perfectly now. God is speaking to us about His service and about the perfecting of it. Paul would say the perfecting is going on, for God has His way. Paul says, “To ... present every man perfect”. Perfection is a thought that is very much stressed in Colossians, and the perfection of praise is one of the most interesting things, and that it should be found in these children is very striking.
AHG It says, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise”. Why are the babes and sucklings referred to in that [p. 10] connection?
JT It is children in the very beginnings. Peter uses the expression “newborn babes”. He would stress the thought of keenness of taste, so that “the mouth of babes and sucklings” is suggestive. It is not the modern musical instrument, for musical instruments of old were simply typical of what comes out of the mouths of the sons.
Ques How would the thought in chapter 18 of being converted and becoming as little children apply to us now?
JT It applies to all unconverted christians, a very paradoxical phrase, but there is meaning in it, for we all need conversion from time to time. If we have been held, for instance, in traditional things, we need conversion. If we are rivals one of another, we need conversion. Conversion is going on all the time among the saints, but sometimes we do not admit of it, and hold on to old things. ‘Which of us shall be the greatest?’, anyone who says that needs conversion.
WWSF Does 1 Peter present it at all? He speaks of newborn babes and of living stones, and then he speaks of a spiritual house. I was wondering if that was on the line of perfecting that you have in mind.
JT Yes, all those remarks in 1 Peter 2 lead on to perfection, for he says, “to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”. That is the perfection of the thought of sacrifice, and the spiritual house is the perfection of the thought of house, and praise is the perfection of the thought of worshippers or offerers. Then Peter himself is the best illustration you can get of a man converted after he was a believer; and he must have needed conversion to some extent when he came under the influence of judaising teachers at Antioch.
AS Is there the thought of dependence in the thought of babes and sucklings? The Lord speaks [p. 11] of praise being perfected in them, but just previously He has referred to the house being a house of prayer. I wondered if the two went together.
JT I suppose so. Dependence would mark a babe. The Lord speaks Himself in a most feeling way, “Thou art my God”. He said, “I was cast upon thee from the womb; thou art my God from my mother’s belly”, Psalm 22: 10. A suckling is the very expression of dependence on somebody else — the mother.
LDM Do not tradition and formality effectively shut out the Spirit, and hinder the bringing in of the mind of God? We need dependence in that way on the Spirit and to maintain self-judgment.
JT It certainly enters into every item of service and walk in a christian. He is dependent on another, and there can be no doubt that the Lord has that in mind. Children represent that side.
WSS Is this set forth for us in perfection particularly in Christ in this gospel, where He is presented to us as a little Child? Would the apprehension of that in our souls help us to be delivered from what is merely traditional, to overcome that on those lines?
JT Yes, we see that in the very beginning He was with His mother; that is where He was found — meaning that He was where He could draw on another at that time. So that the word to Joseph was, “Take to thee the little child and his mother”, because in that state He needed His mother. I suppose that gives you the clue to the great prominence given to children in Matthew, and the introduction of Rachel into Matthew is very suggestive, because it is the tenderness of motherly feeling coming down, that is, Rachel weeping for her children. She is viewed in a metaphorical way in Matthew 2, carried down through the prophet Jeremiah, as representing right motherly feeling as [p. 12] to children.
AHG Would that give a significance to the action of Herod in relation to children, as though the enemy would blot out this line?
JT That is the idea exactly. Just as in Pharaoh, the enemy would attempt in Herod to nullify the great work of God that was coming in in children, not simply little children, but the saints taking that ground. That is what the Lord meant, I am sure, when He said to the Father, ‘You have taken up the babes’. That was what was going on.
WSS I suppose that every influence around us militates against the maintenance of the spirit of the little child. As has been remarked, when they that sought the life of the little Child were dead, He was to be brought back from Egypt. The deadly influence was all around, but the little child was going to overthrow all that system of things.
JT Yes indeed, so the dragon was ready to devour the man child. It was all for the same thing — to interfere with the work of God.
AEM-o Have you in mind in the perfecting of praise the adjustment necessary with many of us in regard of the service of God?
JT That is what I was thinking of in suggesting these scriptures, that we may discern anything that interferes with the perfecting, with what God is going on with. It is a wonderful moment for us: He is perfecting the saints, and perfecting us in praise, so as to have us for ever for His praise, “To him be glory in the assembly”. And the moral side is to disallow whatever it may be that hinders one in coming into this, in joining with these little children in the temple in this note: so that the next thing is, it is not that I am there to be alongside these priests and scribes. It says, “When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders which he wrought, and the children crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were indignant, and [p. 13] said to him, Hearest thou what these say?”. Why did they not call the Lord’s attention to the healing of the blind? They would not dare to attempt that, but they were against Christ, and they took the line of least resistance. A lot of people around would say, It is not right that these children should be saying that; but the Lord defends them. We can well afford to accept the ridicule of the priests and scribes if the Lord defends us.
AEM-o It would be very pleasurable to Him to have the note at that moment, would it not?
JT It must have been the sweetest note He had heard since He heard the blind men. The crowds spoke the truth, and the Lord no doubt ordered that they should, but these children refer to a state which the word ‘crowds’ would not in that connection.
AHG Would that be one feature of the perfecting, the intelligence to keep to the note of the moment, and not to introduce another note?
JT That is right, though there is great variety in the praise of God, of course. The Lord says, “the praises of Israel”. God inhabits those. The great variety in our hymn-book is very good, we have got much that can be used in that way, but the praises to the Lord Jesus, which are always right, overshadow by far the praises to the Father in our book, and that needs balancing. I mean the perfecting will lead to that balance.
RGC I would like to ask, does the perfecting of holiness go along with the perfecting of praise, the Lord clearing the temple in that way, the perfecting of holiness making room for right response in the children? You were saying that there is no true response without feeling being brought in.
JT So that He goes out to Bethany. According to verse 17, He went forth to Bethany, and there He passed the night. I think the night there would be in keeping with the note of these children. He had [p. 14] to go outside the city. The children’s praises were not supported: the religious predominating element was not supporting the truth. They ridiculed and persecuted, you may say, those who were perfecting the praises of God. He went out to Bethany, and spent the night, that must have been a very happy retreat for Him. The Lord needed that, and then, as it says, early in the morning we have the cursing of the fig tree and the questioning of the leaders. Earlier He “cast out all that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those that sold the doves. And he says to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer”. So that we see the necessity for all that if this praise is to be continued. All refuse, and all that is unsuitable in the service of God, is to be cast out. The cursing of the fig tree is very solemn, because it shows the ultimate end of all this opposition.
LDM Would you think the book of Proverbs would help as to the discernment of what might come in to hinder God’s getting His portion? It opens in a striking way, the “Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: to know wisdom and instruction”. I was wondering whether there is much teaching in the first nine chapters as to what would come in to hinder God’s getting His service of praise.
JT Quite so. Wisdom builds her house.
LDM Wisdom subjectively.
AHG Would the word ‘perfected’ indicate a process?
JT It is what God is doing. I think the blind men show in what they say that they were subject; that would be the basis of divine operations; unless we are subject God is shut out. They said, “Lord, Son of David”. That makes way for the Lord’s operations, so He proceeds and the beginning of chapter 21 shows what agencies He would have to [p. 15] enter into His city, and how He cleansed the temple and then the opposition there in the priests and scribes, but whilst interfering they do not question what He is doing but they question what the children are doing; that is the thing. They would make the Lord condemn the children, if they could, as Balaam would make Jehovah curse Israel. It is that sort of thing, to condemn what God’s people are doing that is right.
WSS It is very much like the public profession today, where the outward benefits and effects are taken account of; nobody speaks against that, but what would be suggestive of little children, the instinct which appreciates Christ, is spoken against and comes under reproach.
JT Yes, so with Saul’s daughter Michal, the point she takes notice of in despising David is the uncovering of himself. Why did she not talk about the mode of his dancing? He knew how to dance spiritually; why did she not talk about that?
WSS What she treated with contempt was the spirit of a little child in David.
AS Does it mean it was really the Person they were attacking, the Son of David?
JT It was really Christ, as elsewhere they say you ought to bring people to be healed at other times, not on the sabbath. They blame the persons who brought the needy ones; in truth they were blaming Christ.
AEM-o The enemy would be bound to be behind the opposition to what was so pleasurable to God.
JT Quite so.
WF Further on in the chapter they challenge the Lord as to His authority in doing these things. There is opposition there.
JT Yes, but they give Him an opportunity to answer; they do not give the children an opportunity [p. 16] to answer. If we despise or slander a person to another, it is worse than speaking to the people themselves. Why did they not go to the children if they were wrong; why did they not speak to the children and educate them if they needed it? but they really meant to attack the Lord.
BS Would gladness be seen in these children normally and enter into what they were saying?
JT Yes, what we had this morning. The gladness is a state; if it be not with spiritual gladness we are just singing, “Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord”.
BS Gladness is essential for the service of God; do we sometimes try to go on without that?
JT Yes, I think we just tax the hymn-book and make it do the work. The drinking of the cup, I believe, enters into that. The breaking of the bread brings the Lord in, but the drinking of the cup is the completion of the thought of memorial, the Lord says “As oft as ye drink it”, not ‘as oft as ye eat the bread’, but ‘as oft as ye drink the cup’; the real point in the cup is the drinking of it, it is the gladness and satisfaction that it affords and qualifies us to go on with the Lord.
WF The thought of the cup of blessing, which we bless? We speak well of it.
JT It is worth eulogising, you mean. It sets up a state of spiritual happiness which is essential in the house of God.
WSS I was thinking of the scripture you have often referred to in regard of Aaron going forth to meet Moses; he was glad in his heart. Is that the kind of gladness you are referring to?
AHG Would you just say a word as to the bearing of chapter 11: 25, “Hast revealed them unto babes”? Has the revealing to babes a bearing on the perfecting of [p. 17] praise?
JT It has. The Lord would no doubt include the revelation to Peter in this. He would have that sort of thing in mind. So that we must understand the word ‘babes’ is more symbolical of persons who are converted to God beginning at the bottom in the exercise of the sense of taste, and capable of receiving divine thoughts, because babes in this way would hardly receive a revelation; so that it is a man, it must be regarded as referring to ourselves. In fact the Lord was referring to the disciples when He said it, and adds, “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight”. So the Father enters into this matter and has pleasure in it.
LDM Is there the suggestion of sovereignty in the revealing? The truth of the assembly and all that is connected with the service of God seems to imply that the thing is given in the nature of revelation. Is that on the line of sovereignty?
JT Yes, and then the question is if you receive a revelation from God, whether you can take care of it. How do you value it? That is the next thing. Those that saw the Lord Jesus go up must have been wonderfully impressed, because stress is laid on the way He went up. It was an impression, and it says they went into the upper room as coming into the city. Luke in the gospel would show that they carry on the thought of going into the temple after the Lord went up, and were there continually praising and blessing God, full of gladness; that was a testimony to Israel. It was because of their state, because they were fit to bear testimony to Israel. But in Acts 1 it is not that side; it is there the impression they receive spiritually in view of the assembly, for it is all in view of the assembly in Acts, that the impressions should be where they can be conserved. They went to the upper room. Going into the temple would not mean they would be conserved there. These impressions would be lost. That is what is [p. 18] happening with most of our brethren in system, they get an impression of God in the gospel and they are linked up with some human organisation and their impression becomes lost or damaged. There is no such thing as a treasury in any of these organisations.
LDM So their spiritual instincts took them to the upper room where these holy impressions would be conserved.
JT And immediately we are told who were in that upper room.
Rem Every spiritual impression is kept and guarded by the Holy Spirit.
JT That is the importance of getting young people into fellowship in the true sense of the word, not adding to another sect, because that is what the enemy would like to make any who are in the truth of God. The fellowship is a safeguard; hence we can see the importance of getting young people into fellowship from that point of view, because they are where any impression will be conserved and developed. But if you go to the Church of England you will get it beclouded, and it will not develop. That is, I think, what is meant by children, maintaining the character of children, that you are ready to receive any divine impression, and the first chapter of Acts shows that they had certainly got a wonderful impression when they saw Him go up, ‘You shall see him coming back as you saw Him go up’. They kept looking into the air too long; He had gone out of sight. There is no more to see but to keep to that impression, and so they went to the upper room and then these people are staying there, the eleven. Mary the mother of the Lord, and His brethren, and the other women.
Ques Is the assembly the sphere where we get one living impression after another of Christ?
JT Yes, and you know where to go with your impression. I think it is helpful to let them out, tell the brethren about them. I am not saying that [p. 19] Paul does not set an example in keeping for fourteen years the impressions he had in heaven; the question is whether he ever really uttered them, because they were not intended to be uttered, but the effect of them was seen in his ministry through all those years, the brethren got the gain of them, but ordinarily I believe it helps us to let the brethren know what you have, and the Lord will become enlarged to us. It speaks in 1 Corinthians 14 of everyone having a psalm, some experience, and it is to be given out to edifying.
LDM So the service of God is enriched in that way by the bringing in of spiritual impressions? The whole assembly is enriched.
Ques Is there a tendency to leave that kind of meeting too much to spiritual gift instead of the brethren generally feeling encouraged to bring out these impressions?
JT That is right, if a man has a psalm it is not primarily the thought of gift; it is what he has experienced with God.
WSS This giving out we are speaking of is the feature of a little child; a child wants to communicate immediately any fresh knowledge it gains.