often like a bow and arrow in the hand of an archer. God is aiming at something which the saint cannot see. He stretches and strains, and every now and then the saint cries, ‘I cannot stand any more!’ God does not heed, He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly!” Those words describe very well some of the trials of faith of the be liever. It is a real help to realize what process is going on. We cannot see Him clearly; we cannot quite un derstand what He is doing, but we know Him. Only by such a trial of faith is deepest fellowship developed. “That they might be with him.” As He said later: “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temp tations.” They were there in body but how far off they were in real sym pathy and understanding! When, “offended” at the truth “many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him,” (John 6:66), Jesus cried: “Will ye also go away?” Then though Peter made a sincere and im portant declaration, “Thou art that Christ,” yet when the Savior spoke of His inevitable cross, Peter, only willing for the crown, protested: “Be it far from thee, Lord!” So, refusing to discuss His death, Peter failed Jesus in His need. Later at the trans figuration, sent by God to revive their fainting faith, Moses and Eli jah spoke with Him concerning that very “departure” He was to make on the cross, and so supplied the dis ciples’ lack of understanding. But why prolong the recital of the disciples' failure and the Saviour’s isolation? Only after Pentecost and the gift of the Spirit did the dis ciples and believers really begin to enter into “the fellowship of his sufferings.” Was there any sorrow like His sorrow? Can we not make amends today? He has promised to enable us to abide in Him. Thus by the Spirit’s aid we may walk in un broken communion and fellowship with the Saviour. Then, day "by day, He may “see of the travail of his soul and . . . be satisfied.” “And . . . sent them forth to p r e a c h.” Believers “were called Christians first in Antioch.” The peo ple knew they were actually dis ciples and converts,of Barnabas and Saul, yet those were not the names by which they were designated. Be cause of their evident likeness to their Saviour, they were called Chris tians. The change was wrought by Him and not by men. Today lives must authenticate lips. Because they do not, many sermons are in vain. “From church and creed the light goes out, The saintly life survives; The blessed Master none can doubt, Revealed by saintly lives.” TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
sympathy and understanding. Even then Psalm 69:8 was being fulfilled, “I am become a stranger unto my brethren . . . an alien unto my moth er’s children.” There remains then Mary His mother. Could He -make a real con fidante of her? We know that at His miraculous birth "Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). As to Jesus’ experience with the doctors, when He was twelve, Mary “kept all these sayings in her heart.” (Luke 2:51). More we are not told. The scene at Cana does imply Mary’s perfect con fidence in her Son and His power. May we infer from it that she was His confidante? Had He been able to unburden His heart to her as to His person and mission, and His com ing death as a sinbearer? Did He find in her that solace for His soli tude, that human sympathy which later on He sought? It scarcely seems so even with Mary, for as Psalm 69:20 states: “I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.” So for about thirty years Jesus lived in Nazareth, the solitary Saviour, cut off from human sympathy and un derstanding, unrecognized, unknown. It has been well expressed: “The come and go of busy feet, With sound of hammer down the narrow street; • A little two-roomed house with scarce a breath Of air; in busy crowded Naz areth, Yes, here for love of thee, through silent years, Oh, pause and see, if thou art wise, The King of kings dwelt in dis guise.” There indeed, day after day, the Lord had been living the Sermon on the Mount years before He preached a word of it. Yet strange to say, that perfect sinless life lived as an example, changed no other lives. The cross was necessary for that. Later, when His ministry had be gun, Jesus paid’a visit to Nazareth, where alone in all the world a per fect life had been lived; and with what result? We read that in His home town of Nazareth: “He did not many mighty works . . . because of their unbelief.” Pathetic verdict! Thank God He has changed His home town, and now dwells in the heart of every believer! Yet, alas, though His abode is different, only too often the home conditions are the same. There is unbelief in the heart, hence no mighty work, to His eternal sor row, and our eternal loss. “Lord, In crease our faith"! Then came His public ministry, and the time when, kindly and de liberately, He had to divest Himself PAGE TWELVE
of His earthly relations. For now these natural ties had to be super seded by supernatural ties, and brethren after the flesh had to be replaced by brethren in the Spirit. So, to the seeking mother and brethren, He decreed: “Whosoever shall do the will of my Father . . . the same is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matt. 12:50). So, He turned from His natural family to His adopted family. Twelve of them He called to be His disciples, and the function and purpose of these newly adopted relatives is carefully and for all time set forth in Mark 3:14: “He ordained twelve, that [1] they should be with him, and that [2] he might send them forth to preach.” Those words set forth the order of importance of their pur pose and call. Their office was to be twofold: They were to share His joys and sorrows with Himself, and they were to share His salvation with the world. “That they should be with him.” Earliest man “heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day." Even then He was seeking fellowship with His creature man. He has been seeking it ever since. So the disciples were called “ that they might be with him.” We too are called “unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). For the high est function and possibility of man must ever be the fellowship of God. Service, however exalted, is after all but a by-product of Christian life. The main, the highest function, is fellowship. Of course we need preparation for this experience, even as believers. When the prodigal came home, the father did not invite him to sit at the feast in rags. It would not have been fitting, nor was it necessary. The loving father could, and did, fall on his neck and kiss him, in spite of all his rags. They did not prevent reconciliation, but they did prevent communion. Likewise, there is a fel lowship with God 'which cannot be enjoyed by any believer without suitable preparation and apparel; the robe of Christ’s righteousness must be donned. As with the prodi gal, this is supplied free, on the terms that we do “put . . . on the Lord Jesus Christ,” day by day. This preparation for fellowship is often long and costly. Many lessons had to be learned by the disciples in their school of prayer. Many must be learned by us, yet how well worth the learning! Many indeed are the “strange ways” and acts of God. Time, too, is needed, and there is often bewilderment at delays. Yet there must be patience and trust in the dark. It has been written: “A saint’s life in the hand of God is
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