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THE COMING TOGETHER OF THE ASSEMBLY

FER The subject which the apostle takes up from chapter 11, verse 17 is the coming together of the Assembly. It is a great thing to see that in Scripture there is no such thing as an Assembly-meeting.

Ques. What do you mean?

FER There is no such thing as an appointed order of meeting, a system of meetings arranged and settled; prayer-meeting, reading, etc., all that kind of thing is not known in Scripture.

Rem Please explain a little.

FER The idea presented is of the Assembly come together in one place.

Ques What is the difference between an Assembly-meeting and the Assembly come together?

FER The Assembly-meeting is a certain appointed order of things which we stick to.

P “Upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread”.

FER Well, they were rallied by the Lord’s supper, you do not want any arrangement save as to time. The Assembly is brought together by the Lord’s supper. I do not see such a thing as an assembly prayer-meeting or an assembly worship meeting. I have seen circulars passed about among saints fixing prayer-meetings and soon. I do not see it in Scripture, nor do I think it is the right idea.

HD'AC Once gathered we have the Head to order as He sees fit. We cannot lay down any order.

FER There is only one thing fixed, the Lord’s supper. There are many points of detail. I do not like to see the box passed round at the end of the meeting, but in connection with the Lord’s supper, neither do ^[p. 2] I like to see anyone closing the meeting in a formal way praying for the gospel.

P We do not think the meeting over unless that is done.

Ques Do we ever come together in Assembly except on Lord’s Day morning?

FER No.

Ques. Ought we to?

FER We must take into account the state of things. In a ruined state of things we cannot expect anything magnificent, we must be thankful that anything is preserved to us.

GC The danger is that we drop the thought of the Assembly after the meeting is over.

FER Where is the authority to arrange any system of meetings? I do not think of an Assembly prayer-meeting but a meeting of those interested in the Lord’s work coming together to pray. If the Assembly comes together you cannot lay down any form it will take, but you must give place to the Head, to direct and order. If I come to lecture, I come with something before me, otherwise I should not be doing honour to the saints. But I would not have anything before me in the Assembly. The purpose of the Supper is to give the Lord His place as Head, that is the proper work of it. So the Supper in chapter 11 gives the Lord the prominent place. In chapter 12 we are baptised into one body by the Spirit. In chapter 13 we get the principle which excludes the flesh ... anything that is uncomely in the Assembly.

Ques Do you think that in the early days when they came together they began with the breaking of bread?

FER It seems so in apostolic days, but later it seems to have settled down to the first day of the week.

Ques Could we come together in the week without breaking of bread?

FER I should look at that as a continuation of the Lord’s Day meeting, e.g., a discipline meeting is ^[p. 3] called on testimony. No one brother can do it. It must be in the mouth of two or three witnesses. So in regard to persons desiring to break bread. You do not call a meeting together to discuss whether a person should break bread. Persons break bread with us on testimony. They are accepted on testimony.

Ques Suppose there is any special difficulty with any case, would you call the Assembly?

FER No. I would call two or three to pray about it. I find there are those that bear the burden of the meeting and they would be the people to pray.

Rem I should like you to say a little more about receiving.

FER I object to receiving because some have a difficulty about it; every Christian known to be orderly has a title to be there. If so, how can you talk about receiving? We have not an exclusive fellowship. It may be called that, but we do not seek to make it so.

Ques What do you mean about being accepted on testimony?

FER It must be known that they are Christians and not connected with evil.

Ques “Not forsaking the assembling”, etc. Does that take in week-day meetings as well?

FER I think the Hebrews were in danger of neglecting to come together for fear of persecution. If a brother only appears at the Lord’s supper, it shows he has little interest in the Lord’s things. If he had he would come together with his brethren to pray about them.

Ques You would not object to fixing an evening for a prayer-meeting?

FER Oh no! The principle of the Assembly: “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee”. You must give the fullest place to Christ. On the other hand you can come together on Matthew 18. The Lord says, “There am I in the midst”. It is not as in ^[p. 4] Assembly. I rather doubt if many of us could give a distinction between Head and Lord. Christ is Lord to the individual; He is Head to the Church.

Ques Would you speak of a meeting breaking bread as gathered in Assembly?

FER Well, the Lord’s Supper is what brings them together. Having taken the Supper they are then in Assembly. I take chapters 11 - 13 as describing what is proper to the Assembly. When convened you get instruction in the principles which are to guide and govern in the Assembly. The instructions were given to the Corinthians to remedy the confusion.

Ques Would you think that the Assembly coming together as such at other times than Lord’s Day an indication of spiritual power?

FER We have to accept things as they are. It is no use to fret and vex ourselves about the state of things. People who look for great things are doomed to disappointment. In meetings for prayer you can count on His presence, “Where two or three”, the Lord is universal — so they have a sense that He is supporting and they have His countenance also in readings, but it is not the same thought as the Assembly.

Ques Would it be correct to say that the Assembly, as such, took the place of the sanctuary?

FER Yes, in a spiritual way. The prayer-meeting may be two or three exercised about difficulties, and their outlet is the Lord. They come together for prayer and they have the Lord with them in their exercises. There are few things less understood than the sanctuary.

Ques The prayer-meeting is not connected with priestly or levitical service?

FER It is more as common people. “Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people”. “Men ought always to pray”. It is not gifted men only.

Ques Is there a gift of prayer?

FER I am afraid so. I only judge so because ^[p. 5] many brothers pray at such great length. There are two things very trying in a meeting — long prayers and long pauses. Some pray about everything. There are few amongst us who can really do that. That hinders others taking part. I do not care to pray about some things that have already been asked.

Ques Do you object to pauses?

FER Long pauses, specially in the prayer meeting, indicate a great spiritual deadness.

Ques Will you say something as to the service of the sanctuary?

FER For the service of the sanctuary you must have saints divested of the flesh. You cannot have flesh in the sanctuary. The only ground on which you can have priests is risen with Christ, you cannot have a priest after the flesh, not even the Lord on earth. If you are risen with Christ you are outside of flesh, outside of every order of man, whether religious, philosophical, sentimental, educated. We may not know much of what a risen man is like, but he is clear of every order of man here. You may judge that if you get sentimentalism or eloquence in the Assembly, it is not priestly work. The spring of everything must be God Himself else it is not the divine nature. In chapter 13 you get the practical exclusion of the flesh. In the early part every movement of the flesh is excluded, the second part brings you to God outside of all knowledge, etc. That is where love brings you.

Rem If we were built up more in the divine nature we should know more of the Father in Assembly. Why is the Lord brought in in the beginning of chapter 9?

FER It is the Lord as Administrator, because it is in regard of gifts. The Lord bestows them. What I understand by gift is, a divinely given impression of Christ to be expressed. If a gift were anything else it would not be something expressed of Christ. I think the great thing in the chapter is to give Christ His place in the Assembly, the place of pre-eminence in love.

^[p. 6] That is the practical working of the Supper if rightly understood. In chapter 11 it is His side, in chapter 12 our side.

Ques What is the meaning of remembering the Lord?

FER It is calling Him into presence; His death is the vehicle, the means, and is so because death is the expression of His love. The death of Christ is an incident in the pathway of love, the most important incident, and so through death we call Him to mind. Love was there before death, and after death just as really as at His death.

Ques Is it the remembrance of His death in the past or the remembrance of Him as absent?

FER The latter. You call Himself to mind yet are sensible of His presence. You could not remember another death in that way. You might remember the death of the Duke of Wellington, but you could not call him into presence. The Lord makes His presence felt to hearts prepared for it. They get Him as Head and He is pre-eminent. In pre-eminence the point is He is one of us.

Ques Does that correspond to the great Priest?

FER Yes, so He is the Firstborn of many brethren. If we are speaking of the Lord, He is not one of us, but is Lord on God’s side, as Head He is on our side therefore He is pre-eminent, anointed above His fellows — that is where you join the Lord.

Rem People may get to the breaking of bread and never join the Lord.

FER That may be so, but that is where you get the Assembly.

Ques Should we not come together as risen with Christ?

FER There is no other ground. There is no idea of the Assembly coming together in Romans. The important point in the Assembly is to be done with all that is formal, the passing of the box and ^[p. 7] notices. I would give out the notices after the passing of the box, not at the close of the meeting.

Ques Why not at the close?

FER Because no one has authority to close the meeting, there might be the feeling that spiritual power had declined.

Ques Why should all that is formal take place first?

FER Because it is only then that you come to a true sense of the Assembly. The Lord is called into presence by the Supper and thus it is that the Assembly begins. In the midst of the church will I praise thee.

Ques It is after the breaking of bread that the Lord takes His place as Leader?

FER I would not say that. Chapters 12 and 13 are the exclusion of the flesh and the bond that which holds together. There is no such thing as a brother feeling his responsibility in the Assembly. The object of chapter 13 is to shut out the pre-eminence of man. Take the idea of the body, the head is not pre-eminent in the human body. By one Spirit are all baptized into one body. As Head He identifies Himself with us; in the kingdom He is Lord; He becomes leader of the praises in the great congregation, it is a different idea from Lord — that is administration. The bread and wine are separate emblems of death. Announce His death till He come is incidental, you cannot think of His death without thinking of His love, and you cannot think of His love without thinking of Himself — it is an undying love. The love abides although He went into death. Look at the pleasure He had in coming into the company of His disciples during those forty days — as much pleasure as before, or more.

Ques What is the connection of the breaking of bread with the two going to Emmaus?

FER It is significant, though that is not the Lord’s supper. He was known unto them in the breaking of bread. It was an act very familiar to them — He had ^[p. 8] always taken that place among them as pre-eminent. If you go to take a meal at a friend’s house, he takes the place at the head of the table, but he is not lord. A man is not lord to his wife, he is head, she reigns with him.

HD'AC When Christ is before us, no one in the Assembly has any pre-eminence.

FER The effect is that there is no such thing as clericalism in the Assembly.

Ques On that ground can you sing every hymn given out in the Assembly?

FER I would not like to be compelled to sing every line of a hymn given out, but I would not give public expression to my inability to do so.

Ques Would putting on the new man have any connection with the Assembly?

FER No. It is not connected with testimony, it comes out in the walk towards the saints and towards all; God’s testimony is that He has set up a new man in new creation here. Chapter 13 is a great study — it brings out what man’s spiritual stature is. Most men know their physical stature, you can find that out by standing against the wall; but it is a great thing to know your true height in the Assembly.

Ques Can we find that out for ourselves?

FER Yes. It is very important to find it out. Gift and abilities do not indicate your stature. Chapter 11 bears intimately on it especially where people in the Assembly maintain almost hatred to one another. Love is our measure. You must have faith, but that is not your measure. It is impossible for man to be less than nothing — then the chapter tells us the characteristics of love. The practical working is to exclude the flesh. Love is the divine nature. It is exclusion not correction of the flesh. In the most advanced Christian that ever was, you do not find the flesh improved, the only way is to exclude it. At the end of the chapter you are brought to God above ^[p. 9] all knowledge.

Ques. Why in part?

FER It must be so when things are imperfect. Knowledge implies that everything is not known. There is something to be learned. It is that which is placed within the reach of man to acquire. It is important to see that this chapter is not an exhortation but a description. You can only love as affected by love; you cannot get love up. If we are really affected and controlled by the love of Christ thus, verses 4 to 7 is the effect in the Assembly. When the heart is affected by the love of Christ I lose sight of everything that would tend to bring in distinction of flesh. I do not want to love those only that are agreeable to me. As an individual you may have to return to those distinctions but in the assembly you are above them.

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