EXTRACTS

F.E.R.

... You see how the working of things would be if you got the love of Christ in a person, the desire of that person would be to bring the testimony of Christ into this world; well, if you unfold that you will very soon bring yourself into antagonism with the world. The Lord Himself was sent in divine love by the Father, but then He could not acquiesce in the state of things here, and love was therefore brought into antagonism with men. It is impossible that divine love should acquiesce in what

was here, and that makes good what the Lord says, “They have both seen and hated both me and my Father”. A great many people fancy that love would lead a man to acquiesce in what he finds here, to accept what is here, but divine love could not accept it. The Lord would perform an act of mercy on the Sabbath day, for instance, for mercy could not be bound by the Sabbath day, but then that brings Him into collision with the Jews. The secret comes out in His answer, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”.

Rem.

And now the cross has come in and separated us from the world, and put everything, too, into its place.

F.E.R.

Yes. You see, a Christian might be amiable and, as far as he could, anxious to go on in peace, and desirous not to offend, but that is not love. There might be every possible desire to go on with men, and not offend, he might do all that, and people would admire one’s amiability and all that, but what I think is, love would carry you further than that, it would prevent your acquiescence in things here. People like Christians well enough as long as they do not interfere, or come forward in testimony; it is the testimony that stirs up the opposition and enmity. What the world says very generally is, ‘Let every man alone, let a man act according to his conscientious convictions—let a Jew be a Jew, and let a Christian be a Christian, let every man act according to his conscience and so on’; but there is no divine love in that, and, too, it involves the giving up the idea that there is such a thing here as divine truth. Love must be faithful, and if the testimony comes in—“Thy word”—I am very well convinced it will very soon bring a person into collision with the world. The apostles were bound to recognise this, on the word of the Lord, that they were not of the world, even as He was not of the world. They had another origin altogether, and the world hated them because they were not of the world. The word was given them for testimony, as I understand it, not simply for their own intelligence and comfort; and then really, to be effective in testimony, at all events in the word of the Father, they had to know

that they were not of the world, even as He was not of the world.

F. E. Raven (Vol. 5, pp.417, 418)

Well, now he says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”. Oh, it needs your prayers! “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”. Some of the dear saints make much of the nice brother; of course, a nice brother is a nice brother, but they make more of the brother than of what he says, his doctrine and his principles. You want to get the principles first. Get the principles before you make up your mind about a brother. Find out his principles and how he applies them. That is the order of God. If you look at the book of Numbers, chapter 4, you see that the Levites are in three families, and the sons of Kohath have a service in connection with the most sacred things. The second is Gershon and he has to do with the principles; he has to look after these things. He comes in before the sons of Merari, who are porters and builders. This is the only place where it says the instruments to be carried were dealt out by name (Numbers 4: 32); that is, they are persons. These are under the hand of Merari. But Gershon’s work comes before this. Get the principles first! Insist on the principles before you make much of the persons. Make much of the persons, of course; they will be in heaven, the saints will be, but the principles should come first as down here. That is the reason why I am stressing the idea of care as so important and that all should be brought into it and all should understand that he has to do his part in looking after things.

J. Taylor (Vol. 99, pp.244, 245)

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