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ON MULTIPLICATION

W.E.Ellis

The thought in mind in reading these scriptures is that of multiplication, and in this respect one feels that God delights in numbers. We are hoping to have our numbers increased this week, so that we will be a large number of brethren together compared with what we normally are. It reminds me that we often sing, 'Where the saints in glory thronging' (hymn 206). Somebody said to the Lord, "Are such as are to be saved few in number?", Luke 13: 23. Well, dear brethren, they are not few. The heavens are going to be filled with myriads of blissful beings secured on the ground of redemption through the work of Christ. So we need, one feels, in these days of outward smallness, to have our eyes upon the divine thoughts of addition and multiplication. We are thankful for additions we hear of, and God has in mind multiplication.

At the outset of the passage we read in Genesis God said to the man and the woman when He blessed them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth". So He has in mind that there should be fruitfulness and multiplication. In these days we are thankful for the brethren meeting in outward smallness but held in relation to the truth. We thank God for this, for we have to be governed by the truth and that may result in reduction in numbers. We keep the full thought before us, however, and the local assembly is adequate to fill out every situation. We are reminded of what Mr Taylor sen ministered, too, on the Lord causing the companies to sit down by fifties. That was one matter which came up in the history of the testimony. We also think of the twelve men at Ephesus, a good number for the working out of the service of God and the testimony, so that there can be the manipulation of love. If we have not the twelve men in any particular gathering, the features appropriate to the twelve need to be maintained there. Then we have the multiple thought in 1 Corinthians 12 where it says to one is given a word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to a different one faith, and so on. It indicates that there are at least nine persons in the local assembly able to function, which is an interesting point. But then we remember that in remnant days we may be down to two or three. Mr Darby was comforted at the beginning of the recovery with the scripture, "Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them". So that whatever may be the features which properly govern the local assembly these can be maintained in those who walk in the truth even though they may be few.

But we would look, I think, for increase of numbers, not at the expense of increase in power. We do not want quantity at the expense of quality. In these days God would have quality but, nevertheless, I think He delights in numbers. So we get God saying not only to Adam, but to Noah and Jacob, "Be fruitful and multiply". God spoke also to Abraham and He said that his seed should be as the stars of heaven and the sand which is upon the seashore. We know that God will have the answer to this and that His promises, too, will come to pass; but the question is as to whether there is anything on our side which can promote the multiplication which God brings forward. He brings it forward to Abraham in answer to faith and to Isaac consequent upon his making room for the Spirit.

I read this passage in Hebrews 11 because it speaks of faith. It says "By faith also Sarah herself received strength for the conception of seed, and that beyond a seasonable age". In many of the gatherings, even in this city, a good number of the saints are, you might say, beyond seasonable age, so the question may be asked: Is the position hopeless? It is not. It appeared hopeless so far as Abraham and Sarah were concerned, but the matter is not hopeless in relation to God. So we desire the continuance of the testimony in each gathering and this can be arrived at and reached on the same basis as it was reached with Sarah and with Abraham, that is on the principle of faith. It says that "By faith also Sarah herself received strength for the conception of seed". I suggest this is a matter of exercise amongst us that there might be increase. This is on the principle of faith, that we might receive strength so that there might be fruitfulness in the local assemblies. It says that "she counted him faithful who promised. Wherefore also there have been born of one, and that of one become dead, even as the stars of heaven in multitude". What was brought in in relation to Sarah was Isaac, who is suggestive of Christ. This is the subjective side in Sarah; there is the other side in Abraham which was in accord. Strength is received by faith in order that there might be increase through the bringing in of Christ. As Christ is brought in there must be increase, certainly in quality and in freshness and what is for the pleasure of God. I trust there might also be increase numerically, as it says "of one become dead, even as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the countless sand which is by the sea-shore".

It was just this thought which was in mind, dear brethren, that there might be fruitfulness, addition and multiplication, as faith is in operation and as there is inward exercise and power by the Spirit. There is the need of receiving strength by faith on the same principle as Sarah, and this is brought forward objectively so that the saints may take account of it. May the Lord help us thus to appropriate God's thoughts for His people at the present time and work them out, for His Name's sake.

LONDON

15 October 1974

EXTRACT

Now is the time to go in for the reality of the truth of Christianity, whether it be the privilege or the fellowship of the assembly. There are, I fear, a good many in a path of pretension and assumption; they boldly say, We are the assembly, we are the church. On the other hand there is the ignoring of the truth of the assembly - utter independency! And the only thing that will preserve from either the one or the other is the truth of the assembly. If I find a few people who are in the truth of the assembly, I am glad to have the opportunity of being with them, but we want to stand for the truth in these days.

J.Pellatt

before 1913

(from Closing Ministry of J.Pellatt, vol 1 p.17)

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