"The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." [Revelation 19:10.]
"For if I do this thing willingly, I have my reward; but if against my will, a dispensation of the Gospel is committed to me." [1 Corinthians 9:17.]
I have been much instructed in the full and beautiful definitions the Scriptures give of the truths and testimonies of the gospel, which we will find to every question as it really needed, and wisdom sees best, not by searching, but by the good remembrancer.
So it is as to ministry, and every feature of it, as it so instructively occurred to me this morning with an exercise to put it in writing.
As to the willingness and constraint Paul further says, It is of necessity, "yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel" [1 Corinthians 9:16.]
Here lies the key of our safety, necessity; it can not be avoided. A fear of outward persecution, a knowledge of standing alone in the exercise of what we feel, a realizing sense almost of losing life in our faithfulness, none of these is to hinder, there is only one thing that may, the willingness of another to bear the burden for the time, which if a right one cannot be long done, if we abide in the patience until the Heavenly Master makes the way.
Then still further than the necessity is the woe. "Woe is me if I do not." "He that seeketh to save his life shall loose it." [Matthew 16:25.](1) Peace of spirit is at stake, condemnation is before us, God's displeasure at hand. We are to be governed by no idea of present needs in the Truth, how urgent soever they may appear, or the likelihood of the ark falling, or any danger, do much as the evidence within us, in the mount before the Lord, of His divine will, the will of God being the rule of faith and practice, which so often brings us into unlooked for places, and to us the most unlooked for openings. Thus bearing witness to the Truth, "man looketh on the outward, but God looketh on the heart." [1 Samuel 16:7.] "He seeth not as man seeth." [Ibid.]
Then it must be out of emptiness, and a feeling of knowing nothing, that the true gospel can arise or be brought forth.
"It is not ye that speak, but my Father that speaketh in you." [Matthew 10:20.] "Who is so blind as my servant or so deaf as the messenger whom I send." [Isaiah 42:19.] "But tarry ye at Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." [Luke 24:49.] All illustrating it is not we, but the absence of ourselves in ourselves, of wisdom, former knowledge, experience, etc., all, but that which is for the present, and furnished, though in human wisdom not understood. Then as to the time:--"when I bid you shout, then shout."[Joshua 6:10.] "What He saith unto you to do, do it." [John 2:5.] It has seemed to me, this is the most necessary point, and on which lies our continuing at any 1ength on the right ground, in the Life. The exercise may be ours, the material, the need for it very evident, weary in withholding, and yet the bidding to do lacking, the time not fully come; or it is for ourselves, or just merely to be borne in secret, or to try us to see if we are not willing to move in a matter however urgent, until the true Prophet comes; which provings if we abide greater gifts are bestowed; for to this end is the proving.
"My time is not yet come." [John 7:6.] He could not go, even if it was right for the disciples.
Then when the silence is rightly broken, the cross taken up, the command received, He who has commanded requires obedience. Every subject that presents is not to be carried out to the full, and viewed from all sides, and enlarged upon indiscriminately. The commander knows the needs, the woe and the necessity still being the watchword at every turn. There may be another that sitteth by, and let the first hold his peace, which the true servant must be alive to, and even also to wait sufferingly for a brother or sister lo go before.
True gospel order how precious, how beautiful! Jonathan loved David, so he preferred him, evidently knowing he was chosen, and he loved the real chosen, whoever he might be. For Jonathan was a true servant, not partaking of the sins of his father, but in the same way could not David prefer Jonathan, if the Lord had not.
What does it matter to the true disciple? When rightly concerned, he desires simply this, the Lord's will, may that be done. "Here am I do with me whatsoever seemeth unto thee good;" [2 Samuel 15:26] swallowed up in this love, submissive. But when his will is crossed, no matter how good it may seem, then there is grievous cause for mourning. Then the experience, "Every man to his tent, oh Israel"(2) King David himself hiding as it were in mourning, when seemingly for him and the cause a righteous man was slain.
I have felt deeply exercised on this subject, and feel now to repeat the testimony prophetic of dear departed Caleb Pennock, with the searching query directed to each one at all times, "Is it I?" This will not frustrate the real call. The enemy has gotten up a counterfeit, and not only got it up, but got it to pass. Now, a counterfeit to pass, must nearly resemble the genuine, but it will not bear close inspection. But, Friends, the real thing will. How original, how true!
Those nearer the Truth are more apt, and more continually concerned to examine, and feel the searchers of the candle of the Lord the most. But there is a ministry, which has come through the river of judgment to the bottom; not once, but again and again; and bears witness to itself, and does not need proving. This does not call forth praise so much as to beget thoughtfulness closing the mouth in the dust. "The Lord is in his holy temple, let the earth keep silence." [Habakkuk 2:20.]
As we live as though we were as we really are, continually in the presence of the Almighty One, watching Him at every step, He will keep and preserve us, as there has been an entering in at the narrow way, which always begins at the garden of Gethsemane, and is characterized with watching and waiting, at the feet of the lowly One. I have felt concerned toward a little exercise of this kind for The Friend for some time; and though we might feel a concern lest we come under judgment ourselves and shrink from that view of fear, yet atop of this comes the necessity, the woe, which causes the other to disappear. With the fervent desire that He who can will take care of that which has been committed, and which will be to everyone by watchfulness unto prayer.
1. 1.... Also Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24 and Luke 17:33. -pds
2. 2.Reference unclear; possibilities include 1 Samuel 4:10, 13:2, 19:8, 20:1; 2 Kings 14:12; and 2 Chronciles 10:16 or 25:22.