he was negligent in it; and cursed be he who doeth the work of the Lord negligently. Of course every position is not open to me. It is not a true one unless I have a divine warrant for it. But having a divine warrant for it, though I cannot enjoy the fruition of it, yet it is strength to maintain it, even though the opportunity for declaring it be long deferred. It was so with Caleb and Joshua, and so with Daniel. It was so with Paul, though his eye only by degrees opened to the grandeur of the position to which he was called. Yet faithfulness to the position that he saw, gave him power to go on. "To him that hath more shall be given." It has been said "I ought not to take position without power." Now what ought to be the answer to this? Is it not the enquiry whether the position I am called to be of grace or not? If it be and I take it, I know the power in the act that made it mine; for it is faith that leads me to do soand that is Christ in me. Let us not excuse ourselves from a position to escape the responsibilities of it. There are inalienable ever-existing rights and privileges to the Church, of which by failure it may lose the enjoymentstill repentance always puts us at the open door to possession. Sorrow does not this, though repentance be thus produced, for godly sorrow produces it; but it is not the sorrow, but the fruit of it rather, which restores the church to the enjoyment of her unalterable position with Christ. Repentance is a change of sentiment from conviction. To the errant and faithless this always ensures recovery, because it proves the value of the ways of God instead of one's own. The church has never lost its right to the affections of Christ, or the privilege of His Lordship. It has failed to maintain these blessings; and thereby has forfeited power and commission to maintain subordinate glories. The moment it occupies a true position, be its state ever so low, it is in the power suited to it. The church at Corinth was low enough-their condition one of disorder and defilement-yet the word to them is, to come together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Taking their proper position, though weak and defiled as they had been, they are empowered to abide therein and get rid of whatever offended. I do not allude to this for the purpose of arguing that we may reckon on the same kind of power if we take the same position; but I do so to shew that the needed power follows or flows from taking our true position. I think the position cannot cease, for it is secured in Christ, but there might be, and there is, a different order of power required at different times. All that I desire to insist on is, that my taking my proper position irrespective of former failure is the place of power. We see, in every revelation of God to man, that there are relations established between them which no weakness or infidelity can disannul; though during the season of weakness or infidelity, they are not, or they could not be, enjoyed. But restoration when that was sincere, was always marked by a return to these unchangeable relations, and an acknowledgment of them. When Abram returns from Egypt, he builds an altar where he built one at the first. If his restoration be a perfect one, it reinstates him with God, and more, because it is grace restores. God never restores without engaging us more intimately with Himself. Jacob added to his trials even in Canaan, because of his tardiness and forgetfulness to go back to Bethel and there to revive his soul in the grace which visited him on the first night of his exile. Shalem and the altar there, El-elohe-Israel, is the halting-place of the slothful soul, one who will not roast that which he took in hunting: eager to obtain, but with energy expiring when results were to be enjoyed. It was thus with Jacob; it is thus with many a one; but there is no power in such a condition, for it is not the place of grace, and so, after deep and sore trial and disappointment, Jacob is taught that, though he may have done much in the interval unworthy of the blessing revealed at Bethel, yet it is with God, as he had revealed Himself, he has to do, and not with his own fitness, and therefore Bethel is his ground; and being there it was not merely Bethel engrossed his soul, but El-Bethel the god of Bethel, which was the power of his position. If we turn to the book of Judges what do we find? Though Gilgal be Bochim, each deliverer's power is that Israel was God's people; and hence Deborah could praise for the avenging of Israel, and sing praises to the Lord God of Israel. She saw God in all His terrible greatness and majesty as the God of Israel, as if Israel had never departed from the vigorous devotedness at Gilgal. The earth trembled-the heavens dropped-the mountains melted before the Lord-even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel. To see what God is to His people, and to own it, is the secret of power. Barak could not receive the instructions of Deborah according to their nature and tenor; for doubtless he looked more at the people and their deserts and their condition, than at God as the God of Israel. And here is the clog to us all. Gideon's mind had to be cleared of misgivings on this point before he is in efficient service; but when confirmed in it how great was his power. Perhaps no thought so invigorates the soul in reading the book of Judges, as the ease with which each deliverer counts on God's favour towards His rebellious and fallen people. Though vanquished and enslaved, the deliverer's power always lay in his regarding God as their King. Appearances were against it on every side; but faith counted on it and took that place, and there was power accordingly. David gets rid of Michal when he brings back the ark-the effect of true position. Could the soul do a worse thing than seek a lower place than the one assigned it by God? Certainly not. And it is not humility. See Ezra and Nehemiah-how eagerly and unhesitatingly they, not only in their hearts but in practice, return to the position to which God had called their nation! True, they had to endure a long and a painful captivity; for God is not unrighteous, though He be very gracious; and if we rightly know Him, we shall receive the punishment of our iniquity and submit to His righteous hand, but never forget His grace nor where His honour dwelleth. True also they returned to Jerusalem shorn judicially of the physical power with which they were once honoured. But though conscious of all this (yea, calmly submitting to it), yet they confidently resume their old position with God, and though there be many enemies, yet as long as they retain it they have power and blessing. Let them say (see Haggai), "The time 66 is not come;"-Let them refuse to take the position, and what is their power and blessing? It was, you looked for much and it came to little; and when ye brought it home 1 did blow upon it." But when they were admonished and resumed, it is, "from this day I will bless you." Now we learn here what has been a sore evil to the people even in this day, namely, that because they are not able to present as great and as powerful a front to the world as they once were permitted to do, or were endowed with, that consequently they have no light, that the time is not come for them, as they revive or are restored from Babylonish thraldom to resume the place with God to which He originally called them, and thence all their weakness, I am persuaded. We want to learn from the foundation all that God has called us to; nothing short of His vocation will satisfy Him nor bless us. May our souls indeed learn that if we would have power to serve Him we must own the place, and take the place, His grace sets us in. To go back to a lower position or to tarry in one, is to have the Lord to "blow on what we bring home." The church can never cease to be the body of Christ; bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh; and now nourished and cherished by Him, and the Holy Ghost ever present to reveal Him. As it owns and takes this position, it proves its confidence in Him-realizes the blessing of it-and is thus confirmed in it. The church may have lost her ornaments, but not the affections nor nurture of her Lord, nor His Spirit that waits on her. She may be feeble and faltering, but she is loved in spite of it all; and she but crowns her sin when she owns it not. In like manner each believer should own and abide in the place where Christ's full work has set him. There cannot be power in the soul if it be not so. The less we own Christ's supremacy over all power, the less power practically can we expect, and the less deliverance from under Satan's power can we enjoy. If we have conflict with wicked spirits in heavenly places, it is because we are in heavenly places; and fellowship with Christ's victory over all the power of evil, can alone give us ease and dignity in passing through the world that lieth in the wicked one. The true soul always wants the sense of this victory; and as long as it owns the full service of Christ and where His grace sets it, it is satisfied and progresses with energy. But if it lose its place, as in this dreary journey we are apt to do, though it retains the sense of former relief, it will become occupied with expressing its own victory or giving proofs of it more than with Christ's. The end of this always is that such attempts are found unsatisfying, and so powerless that there is an insensible but decided return to worldliness once renounced. Nothing but true position is power, for nought else is grace; and may we praise our God for it, and evermore rejoice in His love in and by our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. THE DISPENSATIONS. GENESIS informs us that Creation was completed in six days, and that God rested on the seventh. This corresponds with the dispensations: the millennium forming the seventh period. The eighth day, in scripture, always has reference to the resurrection, or new state: so with the eighth or eternal period. Observe this: we have 1. The Adamic dispensation. Man in innocency. 2. Man fallen. God's grace in giving promise. 3. Noahic. Government after the judgment of the flood. 6. The Gospel. Heaven opened to faith. Heb. x. 19–25. 1 W. C. B. |