EXTRACTS

Well, I pass on to the fourth scripture. I want to dwell on the power to measure discriminately. Discrimination is a great matter amongst us. It is worked out in the types in connection with feeding and the kinds of food we are to eat; that contemplates discrimination. It runs right through Scripture—the exercise of our senses as in Hebrews “to discern” or to discriminate “between good and evil”. Now this is a matter which is very practical and in which I desire to appeal to every one of us as to whether we are discriminating in our measurements of public religious organisations. Each one has to decide and challenge himself as to where he is ecclesiastically. I am not using the word as in the ordinary current use, but in the sense of the church, the assembly, as taken from the original word. Each of us is to determine before the Lord as to where he is ecclesiastically; that is, where he is in regard of the assembly, where he is in regard of Christ as Lord in this present corrupt Christianity in which we find ourselves publicly. For we cannot leave Christendom, except to apostatise! It is a great house, and every Christian is called upon to discriminate as to this great house. In John 14 the Lord speaks of manifesting Himself to the person who keeps His word “He that has my commandments and keeps them ...”. One says, “Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us and not to the world?” and the Lord answers, “If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him”, John 14: 21–23. I apprehend that that means that the Lord comes to one where one is ecclesiastically; for the keeping of the commandment of Christ has separated him from the public corrupt body. “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. The words kept bring me into the tabernacle condition, that is the condition in which God may dwell. How great is that thought! And yet what He may be to one person!—it is to a person who by the keeping of the words of Christ is in tabernacle condition; he is in the structure; he has come to apprehend the structure, the dwelling place of God, what is suitable for the Father and the Son. How great that is!—“We will come to him and make our abode with him”.

J. Taylor (Vol. 96, pp.417, 418)

The Lord says, “He shall testify of me”. The Holy Spirit has come down, not only for our comfort, but to testify of Christ. Now, do you ever consult the Holy Spirit about the testimony of Christ? Is it the Holy Spirit who is the great source and leader of the testimony as to means, as to ways, as to persons? If you believe that He is present, do you consult Him as to all this? There is a prayer we very often make use of—“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ”; thank God, we all know something of that; “and the love of God”; of that too we can say we are not strangers to it; “and the communion of the Holy Spirit”; how much do we know of that? A man would not have the unblushingness to state that he had walked down the street with a great sovereign, or that the sovereign had done so with him, if it were not true; but we talk quite lightly of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and how much do we know of it?

J. B. Stoney (Vol. 4, p.307)

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