Robert Cleaver Chapman of Barnstaple

Preface

With Introduction by James Wright

“I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”

Glasgow:

Pickering & Inglis, Printers and Publishers.

London: H. A. Raymond, 16 Paternoster Square, E.C.

Printed by Pickering & Inglis,

73 Bothwell Street,

Glasgow.

This Photograph was taken as Mr. Chapman was standing at the desk giving an address in the Barnstaple Annual Meeting. He did not know of its existence for some time, but afterwards gave his consent to its being sold, if the proceeds went to help the Lord’s work in other lands.

Preface.

I am not insensible to either the privilege or the responsibility of preparing this small volume. It is simply an endeavour to record some features of the character and service of a “man of God” who was esteemed wherever he was known, and to relate a few facts concerning his early years, with which, perhaps, few are acquainted. The chief value of the Book will be found in the reproduction of some of Mr. Chapman’s own words, both in the brief Memoir and in the subsequent pages. One less occupied could probably have arranged available materials in a more orderly manner, and also have thought of matters that will not be found here.

Some repetition can scarcely be avoided in notes of addresses given in different places and at different times, and in a final reading I have observed that one extract on page 125 is very similar to a paragraph on page 133. This I scarcely regret, as it leads me to call special attention to the truth, so clearly stated, as to what the Son of God emptied Himself of and what He did not; for a specious perversion of the teaching of Philippians 2:7 is being much used to deprive the Lord’s words concerning the earlier Scriptures of all authority.

Thanks are due to friends who have kindly sent notes of utterances or incidents, even though all I have received could not be used. Where two or three versions of an incident have been given, and no one could supply exact details, it has seemed better not to relate it.

The Introduction, which Mr. James Wright has kindly written, will be appreciated by many. His fellowship would be valued in any service; but a consciousness of the inadequacy of this brief Memoir makes me the more grateful for these supplementary words from the pen of one whose knowledge of and friendship with Mr. Chapman date much further back than my own.

W. H. Bennet

Yeovil, November 24, 1902.

Introduction

As will be seen by reference to page 51 of the following Memoir, the Author deemed the few remarks regarding the late Mr. R. C. Chapman which I made in this year’s Report of the “Scriptural Knowledge Institution” worthy of insertion in his book: and to this favour he has added another in very kindly requesting me to write a few lines by way of introduction to his work. I cannot decline the opportunity thus afforded me of expressing my sense of the gracious influence which the godly walk and testimony of our beloved, departed brother has, for more than sixty years, exercised on my own spiritual life, and of commending this Memoir (which I have read with great interest) as presenting a very fresh and life-like portrait of a spiritual guide, given by our ascended Lord to His Church, whom we do well to “remember,” and whose faith we do better still to “follow.”

My own personal acquaintance with Mr. Chapman commenced, so far as I can remember, in the winter of the year 1841. I think it was on the evening of a Lord’s Day, after he had been addressing a Sunday School in the afternoon in another part of the city, that he met a few believers of varying ages in an ante-room of Bethesda Chapel, Great George Street, Bristol, before the evening meeting, and conversed with us about the manifestation of Himself, by the Lord Jesus to His disciples, after their night of fruitless toil, as recorded in the twenty-first chapter of John’s Gospel; and the peculiarly tender and sympathetic tones with which he recited the words “Children, have ye any meat?” are, after all the years that have since elapsed, still fresh in my memory and heart.

Since then, again and again, has his mere reading aloud of the Word of God edified me, and I fully endorse the remark of a Christian friend who once said to me, “To hear Mr. Chapman only read a psalm is as good as a sermon!”

Is it not well to enquire, “What was the reason of this impressiveness of his mere reading or recital of the words of God?” Doubtless the flexibility and skilful inflections of his voice had something to do with it; still more, his unusual grasp of the deeper meanings of Holy Scripture; but these do not, I think, fully account for the fact referred to, which is testified to by so many. I believe the true explanation is to be found in the intense reverence for and love of the God-breathed words with which the Holy Spirit endowed him. In a fuller sense than is true of most of us, Psalms 19 and 119 were the expression of his soul’s habitual attitude towards the “living oracles.” One result of his listening so intently to the Voice of God was that Mr. Chapman excelled in the habit of speaking to God in prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving; and so his holy intimacy with the Father grew more and more. He “walked with God,” like Enoch. He “considered the Apostle and High-Priest of our profession” with unwearying diligence, and he yielded himself to the leading of the Spirit of God with strenuous endeavour; and thus it came to pass that, in reply to any loving enquiry after his own welfare, he could, out of a full heart, habitually say (as he said once to a few of us who encountered him in the streets of Leominster, as we were all on our way to breakfast at the “Waterloo House,” and asked him how he was), “Satisfied with favour, and full of the blessing of the Lord!”

The silence of this man was golden. He could be silent, and, when he was, one hesitated to break the silence, remembering that “waters that babble, in their course proclaim their shallowness, while, in their strength, deep streams flow silently.” If one could wait till he broke the silence, what followed was well worth listening to!

Yet, he could be as innocently playful as a child. It was a rare treat to see and hear Mr. Chapman and Mr. Hake together. I remember once (it must have been in the “sixties”) when both were dining with us one Lord’s Day at Sydenham Hill, Bristol, Mr. Chapman looked across the table at his Brother Hake and enquired, “Why were you so silent at the meeting this morning, dear Brother?” Promptly Mr. Hake replied, “Because, dear Brother, I judged that there were those present who could speak more to edification than myself.” Mr. Chapman took no immediate notice of this answer; but presently, addressing myself with a merry twinkle in his eye, said, “Dear Brother Wright, do you remember that very humble man named Saul, who when he was wanted could not be found, for he was so very humble that he had hidden himself amongst the stuff? And, dear Brother Wright, you will remember that, not long after, that very humble man seized a javelin and would fain have pinned David to the wall, because he was jealous of him! “This indirect but most plain hint that pride may sometimes ape humility, was not lost upon Brother Hake, who turned imploringly to his seemingly unmerciful friend and exclaimed, “Oh, Brother Chapman, Brother Chapman, this is too bad!” while the righteous smiter chuckled aloud at the effect which his parable had taken, no doubt of opinion that he had administered to his well-beloved brother an “excellent oil that would not break his head.”

It was my happiness once to hear Mr. Chapman expressing his views of biographies, and one of his remarks fixed itself in my memory. “If you want,” said he, “the perfect model biography, you may find it in Genesis 5:21 to 24 and Hebrews 11:5, where we have the Holy Ghost’s biography of Enoch.”

Three things, I believe, constituted in Mr. Chapman’s judgment the excellence of this biography. First, its brevity; secondly, its simplicity; thirdly, its heavenly point of view. Again and again, whilst reading the following pages, have I thought how the present Memoir is conformed to this inspired ideal. It is not too long, it is artless in construction, and it views the whole life and course of its subject from the standpoint of God’s sovereign, rich, and unfailing grace. Applying the pregnant thought so beautifully expressed on page 109, lines 8 and 10 from top, it may be truly said that throughout this concise Memoir one sees, not so much Robert Chapman, bat the Lord God of Robert Chapman. Thus the servant of God is not glorified, but God is glorified in him.

The selections from Mr. Chapman’s addresses, hymns, and weighty sayings will, through the blessing of God, continue the precions result of the teaching, of his lips, and “feed many.”

James Wright

13 Charlotte Street, Park Street,

Bristol, Nov. 22, 1902.

Mr. Chapman’s Best-known Hymn.

Oh, my Saviour crucified!

Near Thy cross would I abide;

There to look, with stedfast eye,

On Thy dying agony.

Jesus, bruised and put to shame,

Tells me all Jehovah’s name;

“God is love,” I surely know

By the Saviour’s depths of woe.

In His spotless soul’s distress

I perceive my guiltiness;

Oh, how vile my low estate,

Since my ransom was so great!

Dwelling on Mount Calvary,

Contrite shall my spirit be;

Rest and holiness shall find,

Fashioned like my Saviour’s mind.

Robert Cleaver Chapman

The last time, probably, that Robert Chapman and Denham Smith were in the same meeting (October, 1884), Mr. Denham Smith expressed the wish that Mr. Chapman’s “Life “might be written. Mr. Chapman’s ready reply was: “It is being written, dear brother, and will be published in the morning.” Only on High is it truly written, and only there can it be fully appreciated. But the exhortation to remember our guides who have spoken to us the Word of God, to consider the end of their conduct, and to imitate their faith (Heb. 13:7), is a warrant for seeking to recall, as far as possible, some of the features of a life in which God has been so truly glorified.

As a man of faith and prayer and devotedness to God, the name of R. C. Chapman is known far and wide, though few are left who knew anything of his early Christian course except by hearsay, and fewer still have any knowledge of his earliest years. The few facts concerning him that follow are fully reliable, having been kindly communicated by one who knows them well—his sister—the only one who could give them. This sister, Miss Arabella Chapman, of Clifton, is the only survivor of a large family, and, though in her ninetieth year, she was at her brother’s side from the time he was taken ill, June 2nd, 1902, till he was called to his rest. Being one with him “in the Lord,” she found it “a great comfort to be with him to the last, and likewise to be among so many dear brethren of one heart and spirit.”

Boyhood and Youth

Robert Cleaver Chapman was born in Denmark, January 4th, 1803, where his parents resided at that time. His mother felt the importance of a child’s early years, and taught and trained her children herself till they were nine or ten, seeking to instil high principles and a love for learning. While in Denmark Robert Chapman had lessons from a French abbé, and he was then sent to a school in Yorkshire, where he made good progress. He studied European languages, and purposed to acquire Eastern ones. He had a passion for literature, and desired to give himself to it; but though the Chapmans had been rich, the position of his father—Mr. Thomas Chapman—had in this respect undergone some change, and it was needful for the son to pursue a course that would bring remuneration; therefore, though with some reluctance, he studied law and became a solicitor. In this profession he soon occupied a good position, and had he pursued the course on which he started, there is little question that the high honours to which it can lead might have been his. But God had honour in store for him, great and abiding, such as the world cannot give.

In later years Mr. Chapman was a frequent visitor at the Firs, near Wellington, the residence of Mrs. Hanbury, who recently fell asleep at the great age of 108, and Miss Charlotte Hanbury in her Autobiography writes of him:

“He told me much about his boyhood. He was devoted to his mother, whose company was his greatest pleasure. It was a matter of entire indifference to him who was present at the table, or who was absent, as long as she was there. She was a lady of influence and decided character, and her conversation was his great delight. Others in the home-party used to say: ‘Robert is a philosopher; Robert won’t do much.’ He listened to what were declared to be his incapacities, and believed what he heard, which hindered the development of his talents. Thus he was told he could not sing, but later in life his ability was known to all his friends. He was an excellent student, and he admits that he was a learned youth, modestly adding: ‘I would not say a learned man.’ At sixteen he turned his earnest attention to the study of the Bible, and continued this with such diligence for four years that he gained a thorough acquaintance with the whole Book. Then its subjects began to impress his heart.”

As further evidence of the good use Robert Chapman made of his early years, the following may be added:

“In his travels abroad he can easily preach in five languages… He used to tell me much of Italian literature, and notable people of Italy, as well as of the history of other countries; indeed, his fund of literary knowledge distinguished him, independently of his great spirituality.”

At the time when his mother’s influence specially affected him, she had been brought under the power of teaching that was not evangelical, and therefore she did not teach him the Gospel, though she always said it was her chief prayer that all her children might be led to love the truth. Though he was a great attraction at evening parties in London, to which he was often invited, he was a religious youth, and his state at this time seems to be described in one of his hymns:

“Blind from the birth, I would be wise,

And all the mystery know

Of fair Creation’s ceaseless groan—

Of man’s estate and woe.

“I toiled and spent my strength for nought,

I vexed my soul in vain,

Till I beheld the risen Lord—

Thy Son, the second Man.”

He expressed it in another way by saying he made it his business to judge the Bible, and did not allow the Scriptures to judge him.

The following, which is taken from a letter written in 1894, to the late Mr. W. E. Gladstone, then about to retire from office, who courteously acknowledged it, is a fuller record of Mr. Chapman’s early efforts, and of his first knowledge of Christ, while it contains expressions of his maturer acquaintance with Him:

“The undersigned, in his years of youth, sought diligently, and with strong purpose, to establish his own righteousness, in hope thereby to obtain eternal life. In the eyes of all who knew him he had become a blameless young man, religious and devout; but, by the Spirit of God and the Scriptures that were his early morning meditation, he was taught to weigh himself in the balances of God, to see his own guiltiness in the light of God’s justice, his own uncleanness in the light of God’s holiness. Then by the Spirit of God was revealed to him Christ his righteousness, Christ his sanctification; he was taught to call God his Father, and to make the pleasing of God his business in life. In this path walking, he has been for threescore years and ten drinking a cup of true blessedness (earnest of the eternal), and making every bitter thing sweet in that cup, with soul at leisure to seek the welfare, temporal and eternal, of all around him.

“Since the entrance of sin and death into the world, the demands of the human conscience are such that nowhere can the conscience find peace but in the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God, and such are the cravings of the heart after happiness, that only in the fulness of the Godhead, dwelling bodily in Christ, can the heart be satisfied; yea, that peace, that rest, can neither man find nor God bestow, save in the once crucified Son of God, now the Great High Priest at the right hand of God, able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him.”

From Darkness to Light

The turning-point in Mr. Chapman’s life came when he was about twenty. He was invited by Mr. John Whitmore—an elder and greatly valued Christian worker at John Street Chapel, Bedford Row—to hear the well-known James Harrington Evans, and in a few days a great change was apparent to those who knew him. Dr. G. F. Maberly, whose recollections of Mr. Chapman date back to 1844, says the account he heard was as follows:

“One evening as Mr. Chapman was walking near John Street Chapel, Bedford Row, in evening dress, one of the deacons or elders standing at the door felt that he must go and speak to him. Apologising for his intrusion as a stranger, he asked him if he would kindly come into the chapel to a meeting. Mr. Chapman responded to the invitation, and the Lord met with him.”

Another account is that he became acquainted with Mr. Whitmore in the way of business; but, however it was, it is certain that God used him and Mr. Evans to accomplish His gracious work of calling the self-righteous young man out of darkness into His marvellous light, and that it was through the ministry of Mr. Evans that he received his earliest instructions in the Gospel of God’s grace and the things that pertain to life and godliness. This being the case, a brief notice of Mr. Evans and his ministry cannot be out of place, and, indeed, is necessary if we would see how Robert Chapman—as a “genuine son”—followed out to their legitimate conclusion those principles on which Mr. Evans sought to act, which so greatly affected his course as a servant of Christ, and for which he endured not a little. Let us remember that links between different generations of God’s children—links of a true succession—such as that between Mr. Evans and Mr. Chapman, are links for eternity; let us also, as servants of Christ, take to heart the fact that the after-life of those brought to God is often affected by the character of the one whom God uses in their conversion, as well as by the way in which he deals with the Word of God.

James Harrington Evans

Dr. Evans — a clergyman at Salisbury — took great interest in the education of his son Harrington, who was so forward in his studies that he obtained a scholarship at Oxford at the age of fourteen; he gained his degree of B.A. so early that he was known as “the boy bachelor”; and he proved to be a man of great ability. According to his father’s purpose he became a clergyman, and though at Oxford he was for a time foremost in worldly pursuits, his early training, and especially “the power of a mother’s love,” had their restraining effect. He obtained a curacy in Staffordshire in 1809, and the rector, telling him he took too much trouble with his sermons, and should read printed ones as he himself did, sent him a volume, which had a result he little anticipated, for the perusal of it led him “to comprehend and embrace the blessed and fundamental doctrine of justification by faith alone.” Thus proving for himself that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, he preached that Gospel as few did in the early part of last century. Removing the next year to Milford, in Hampshire, he was zealous in his work, but, while souls were converted and godly persons were attracted to visit the place, such strong disapprobation of his plain preaching was expressed that the rector, whose sentiments were entirely opposed to those of his curate, gave him six months’ notice to leave.

Mr. Evans had already become exercised before God as to his position in the Church of England, and, though some of his friends sought to help him to view matters in a different light, “it was all in vain; the baptism of infants, the union of the Church with the State, and what he considered to be the consequent absence of holy discipline in that Church,” caused him to leave it. This he did m January, 1816, when he and his wife were baptised by immersion at Taunton. After a time Mr. Evans went to London, and Mr. Henry Drummond, M.P., erected for him spacious buildings in John Street, where his preaching attracted many from all parts of London. As connected with Robert Chapman’s subsequent course, it is interesting to observe how Mr. Evans sought to be guided by Scripture. His son, the author of his Memoir, himself a clergyman, says:

“Whilst Mr. Evans himself held the doctrine of believers’ baptism, … he always firmly maintained that he could not be the pastor of a Baptist Church, as it would involve the rejection from Church fellowship, and from the table of the Lord, of many whom God had received, and who might, from their holy character, be advanced to higher rewards in heaven than many who agreed with him on the subject. He, however, invariably suggested a candid and prayerful consideration of the subject, … leaving it to the decision of conscience and judgment, as in the sight of God.

“A careful examination of the Word of God on the subject of the Lord’s Supper had satisfied Mr. Evans that the family of God should meet around His table every Lord’s day, and the Lord’s Supper was therefore celebrated every Sunday evening… These were always peculiarly happy seasons, in which he enjoyed much of the Master’s presence… In the admission of members into the Church, he was most cautious that they should first give satisfactory proof of vital godliness; but, if he were assured of this, he considered that, however weak and feeble they might be, they ought to be united with the saints of God in order to their being nourished by the means of grace, and associated with other believers.

“Mr. Evans judged ‘the calling an untried, unproved, and therefore unknown man to the title and office of pastor, although the individual might be most richly endowed with both gift and grace,’ to be ‘ most hazardous,’ and he considered that ‘ if anyone in the Church shall prove himself, by the exercise of gift and grace, to be possessed of any one or more pastoral gifts, such as visiting to edification, expounding the Word,’ etc., ‘ such an one ought to be welcomed as an especial gift of God, received, and valued.’ ‘While the usual plan most commonly proves a failure, this can scarcely be anything short of a great blessing, through the power of the Holy Ghost’.”

This sketch would be incomplete without an indication of the character of the preaching and teaching which must have made a great impression upon so young and ardent a listener as Mr. Chapman, and had no small effect upon his course and ministry. The following summary, though condensed, is given in the words of the Memoir. Mr. Evans was for a little while fascinated by Sabellian error as to the person of Christ, on account of which he never ceased to be humbled. Being by God’s grace delivered from this, “His mind was gradually but firmly fixed in the conviction that the Son and the Holy Ghost are, with the Father, truly, properly, personally God. He fully declared the total and entire depravity of man by nature, without ability to turn himself to God; the free, sovereign, electing love of God, flowing through the Cross of Christ; and the absolute need of the power of the Holy Ghost to commence in regeneration and carry on in sanctification His work in the soul. He was fettered by no shackles of human system, and felt himself at full liberty to proclaim the Gospel as free to every creature under heaven. His standard of holiness was a very high one; he deeply felt the importance of a decided separation from the world in the Christian, and thought it ought to be manifest in the dress, furniture, table, and domestic arrangements of the child of God. Union amongst God’s people was always his avowed and cherished object, and his longing for it thus found expression in a letter to his father: ‘ Oh! when will those days come when party names, party distinctions, party separations, shall cease?’”

These quotations give some idea of the man under whose influence God was pleased to bring Robert Chapman, when in grace He called him to reveal His Son in him.

The Oil of Joy for Mourning

The experience through which the newly-awakened one passed when God’s light shone into his soul seems to be recorded in his Hymns and Meditations. Dwelling on the words, “The winter is past” (Song of Solomon 2:11), he writes:

“Lord, I remember Thy dealings with me! When Thy hand at first arrested me, and Thy Spirit convinced me of sin, my cup was bitter with my guilt and the fruit of my doings; my joy was turned into mourning; my soul was like a salt land, accursed of God; the hail and storm swept away my refuge of lies! I was alive without the commandment, once; ignorant of the holy law of God, while yet I was under it; but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

“Then all was dreary winter within, and therefore it was winter without. Sick was I of the world, hating it as vexation of spirit, while yet I was unable and unwilling to cast it out. I found no city to dwell in—I wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way.

“In the good and set time Thou spakest to me, saying, ‘This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing.’ And how sweet Thy words,’ Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee!’

“How precious the sight of the Lamb of God! and how glorious the robe of righteousness, hiding from the holy eyes of my Judge all my sin and pollution!

“Then did the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb did sing. In Jesus crucified—in Thee, my Lord, my soul found rest, and in the bosom of Thy love.

“Ere I knew Thee I had no stay to my soul; my every cistern proved broken. I had no kind and faithful Friend, almighty, all-wise, unchangeable, to soothe my grief and bear my burden.

“But in all that dismal path I now see Thy hand! I was under the curse, but Thy truth has made me free. The winter is past, for I am in Christ Jesus, walking no longer after the flesh, but after the Spirit—the rain is over and gone.”

Thus was he called by God “into the grace of Christ,” and taking his stand at once and decidedly as a confessor of His Name, and owning Him as Lord, he was baptised as a believer and attached himself to the assembly of Christians in London in which Mr. Harrington Evans ministered the Word. Having learned from the Scriptures that it was the will of God that believers should be baptised, he went to Mr. Evans and expressed his desire to carry it out. With commendable caution Mr. Evans said, “You will wait awhile, and consider the matter.” “No,” said Mr. Chapman, “I will make haste, and delay not, to keep His commandments.” How blessedly he adhered to his purpose through his long life is well known. Not many years ago he said to a friend, “Beloved brother, I have no time to be in a hurry; and the only thing I make haste about is to keep the commandments of God.”

Those who have in any measure been led in the same path know that the step just referred to could only be taken at some cost:

“The offence of the Cross has not ceased; no sooner did I know Thee and confess Thee, than I became a stranger to the sons of Hagar (who genders only to bondage), whose child I was by nature. Thy love drew me aside from the path of the worldling, whether wicked or devout; I became an offence to those I forsook, even those of my own flesh and blood.”

But he had begun to learn of Him who said, “I have set My face as a flint,” and with “purpose of heart” he followed on to know the Lord, with a dread of dishonouring Him. On one occasion he said:

“I remember the time when I was afraid to die, and this fear should follow every unconverted person; but on coming to Christ, and being saved by Him, I passed from that state to another, that of being afraid to live, for I feared that if I lived I might do something that would dishonour the Lord, and I would rather die a hundred times than do such a thing. But, thanks be to God, I did not remain long in this state, for I saw clearly that it was possible to live in the world without dishonouring God. I understood that when Christ died we who believe died in Him, were buried with Him, and rose again with Him to be seated with Him in heavenly places. As such He sends us into the world, according to that word, ‘As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world’ (John 17:18). Hence our character below should be that of persons sent down from heaven. Here we should have no inheritance, for our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour. Such was the purpose of God in saving us, and such is mine in this world.”

Gain counted Loss for Christ

As he thus fell in with the purpose of God, all other literature—in which he had so delighted— at once gave place to the Holy Scriptures, which were now read in a very different spirit, and he became, and continued to be for well-nigh eighty years, a man of the one Book. When at the seaside with some of his young relatives he would say, “Let us come to the Bible.” That Book he read in its original languages, and possessing an acquaintance with the very letter of it beyond that of many of the so-called Higher Critics, and discerning its spiritual lessons by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, he only saw increasingly the perfect harmony of the whole. He proved the truth of the word, “Great peace have they which love Thy law: and they shall have no stumbling-block.” Few men since the days of the Apostle Paul, we may say, more fully followed his steps in counting loss for Christ what previously had been gain to him. Indeed, with a little variation of language as to his course before he knew Christ, Philippians 3 is a true picture of his experience. His mother used to say, “Robert always has a passion, whether literature or the flute, and whatever he takes up he pursues diligently.” There is little question that the same thing might have been said about Saul of Tarsus, and we may well thank God that in the man of the nineteenth century, as in the man of the first century, that passion was by His grace laid at His feet. As in Paul’s case, earthly ambition gave place to heavenly—the one great ambition of being well-pleasing to Christ his Lord.

Robert Chapman evidently soon learned what “pure religion and undefiled” is, for, separating himself from the world, he found delight in visiting the poor. He was particularly interested in a poor, old, blind woman who had no one to take her to the meeting. Thus walking humbly in the path of service at hand, he was soon led of God to further service appointed by Him. Mr. Pugsley, of Barnstaple, who married one of Mr. Chapman’s cousins, went to London to visit him, and being much struck to see this young man thus interesting himself in the poor, soon felt that Robert Chapman had learned and possessed something of which he himself was ignorant; this led to his conversion. They prayed and read the Word together, and Mr. Pugsley returned to Devon a changed man, whose true devotedness to the Lord became evident to all.

Mr. Chapman felt that he was called of God to give himself to the ministry of the Word. When his friends told him he would never make a preacher, his reply was, “There are many who preach Christ, but not so many who live Christ; my great aim will be to live Christ.” It was by God’s grace that resolution was made, and by the same grace it was kept (Phil. 2:13). That he did live Christ, over seventy years, no one who knew him can question. Many have heard how J. N. Darby, when on one occasion he heard some brethren speaking of R. C. Chapman as a good man, but deficient in knowledge of the heavenly calling, reproved them with the words, “You leave that man alone; he lives what I teach!” As a result of that life of devotedness, which can be fully estimated by the Lord alone, his ministry has borne fruit which could never have resulted from any measure of mere human eloquence.

Early Ministry at Barnstaple

It was on the invitation of Mr. Pugsley that Mr. Chapman visited Barnstaple in 1831, which led to his taking up his abode there in April, 1832. His own account—given to Mr. G. F. Bergin a few years ago—of his connection with the chapel to which he first went, and of its being left for the building which will always be specially associated with his name, was as follows:

“When I was invited to leave London and go to minister the Word of God in Ebenezer Chapel, then occupied by a community of strict Baptists, I consented to do so, naming one condition only—that I should be quite free to teach all I found written in the Scriptures. This I continued to do for some time with blessing from the Lord. A brother who visited me in those days urged me to set aside the strict rule that none but baptised believers should be allowed to break bread. I replied that I could not force the consciences of my brethren and sisters; and I continued my ministry, patiently instructing them from the Word. I well knew at that time that I could have carried the point with a large majority, but I judged it to be more pleasing to God to toil on to bring all to one mind. I was enabled to bear with their unduly pressing a right course; I could not have thus waited had they been pressing a wrong thing, such as infant baptism. In due time, through patiently waiting, and by the blessing of God upon us, we were brought to be all of one mind.

“A little time after that some Christians resident in Barnstaple, who held the strict views which we had abandoned, demanded that we should give up the use of the chapel. I carefully examined the Trust Deed, and found that in not one particular did we set aside its provisions. Yet we gave them the chapel, just as I should give my coat to a man who demanded it. You will not be surprised when I tell you that ere long the Lord gave us a much better chapel. He will be no man’s debtor.”

The grace and patience with which Mr. Chapman acted in this matter is further expressed in a letter, written in 1893, which should have special attention in days when division is lightly thought of:

“When, sixty years since, I came to this place, I waited for unity of heart and judgment among the company who called themselves Baptists; and when, by the power of the Scriptures, the greater part of them were minded to throw down their wall, we waited on in patience for fulness of unity of judgment. For this I was blamed by men of much grace, who at that time were endeavouring in the south of Devon to bring about a joint testimony of saints to the full truth of God. What we now enjoy here of mutual love and the Spirit’s unity would never have been our portion had any other course been taken.”

The interest Mr. Harrington Evans took in Mr. Chapman’s work at Barnstaple, where he sometimes visited him, and the high esteem in which he held him, found expression in some of Mr. Evans’ letters, which greatly contribute to our knowledge of what he was at that period of his life. Three years after Mr. Chapman settled in Barnstaple he had a serious illness, concerning which Mr. Evans wrote to the church at John Street in the following touching manner:

“September, 1835—This day brings a letter informing me of the dangerous illness of our beloved Brother Chapman. What a lesson as to the uncertainty of all things here below is thus afforded us! It is not long since I felt the need of a caution, lest I should glory in his strength, so strong did he seem as to bodily strength. And now, it may be, as a flower of grass, which a breath of wind scattereth, so may he fade. This will be received (d.v.) at your church meeting; need I suggest that it be especially set apart for him and the dear people committed to his charge? Absent from each other in body, yet present with each other in spirit, between seven and eight to-morrow evening we may meet at the throne of grace together, and beseech the Father of all our mercies, and our support in all our troubles, on his behalf, with a simple, childlike confidence that, if for the Divine glory, he may be restored to health and prolonged usefulness in the service of Him whom he loves. To the praise and honour of God’s most free grace I say it, and with a deep remembrance that but for the atonement of the Son of God he could have nothing before him but the blackness of darkness for ever, that, among those whom it has been my mercy to have known upon earth, I have seen few indeed like him: a child so loving, a servant so ready, poor in spirit above most, and withal bold as a lion, and gentle as a nurse. What he was, I know the grace of God made him, and I trust in my heavenly Father’s love that it will be our mercy to see him yet abounding more and more to the praise of that grace for ever.”

The answer to these prayers may still call forth our thanksgiving to God (2 Cor. 1:11), and remind us that we cannot estimate the far-reaching effect of believing prayer.

From various references it is evident that whenever Mr. Chapman visited London his ministry was much valued:

“May 30, 1842.—R. Chapman has just left us. He slept here last night, after preaching for me at John Street. Oh, what a man of God he is! What grace does he exhibit! Courage, meekness, love, self-denial, tenderness, perseverance, love for souls—all springing out of love of Christ and God—seem beauteously blended together in beautiful symmetry. But by the grace of God he is what he is, and by the grace of God (may we not add?) we can be what he is.”

How these words confirm the statement in Mr. Evans’ memoir concerning himself: “In reviewing his private character as a Christian, perhaps the distinguishing feature was humility”! On September nth, 1846, Mr. Evans writes:

“I found beloved R. Chapman all that he ever was, and more—more like Christ, more self-denying, gentle, and full of love—one of the most remarkable instances of Divine grace, especially showing itself in this, a strong stimulant, or rather stimulator, to lead others to covet and aim at the greatest grace, and the most patient encourager of its very weakest display.”

In the same year, m conversation with a friend, Mr. Evans, in speaking of the power of influence, referred to Mr. Chapman as an example, adding:

“He is one of my stars. I hold him to be one of the first men of the age He has no ebbs or flows. He can always realise his acceptance. But then he is indeed a child, ready for anything, everything—it matters not what—to wash your feet, or go and preach Christ in the market-place within a stone’s throw of a baited bull; it is all one to him, if he can do his Master’s will.”

Thank God, this was true to the end, above fifty-five years later.

Fellowship with other Servants of Christ

But we must go back in thought to 1832, and it is interesting to observe that in the very year that Robert Chapman went to Barnstaple, with the stedfast purpose of seeking to learn and carry out all the will of God, George Müller and his friend and fellow-labourer, Henry Craik, took up their abode in Bristol. These servants of Christ had already been exercised about many things at Teignmouth, and on the evening of August 13th, “at Bethesda Chapel, Mr. Müller, Mr. Craik, one other brother, and four sisters—only seven in all—sat down together, uniting in Church fellowship, ‘ without any rules, desiring to act only as the Lord should be pleased to give light through His Word’” (Dr. Pierson’s George Müller, page 99). Thus, though unknown to one another, these dear brethren, then comparatively young, were being led in the same path of subjection to God’s Word, and in the course upon which they entered God sustained them till He called them higher—Mr. Craik in 1866, Mr. Muller in 1898, and Mr. Chapman in 1902—the path of each being truly that of the just, shining “more and more unto the perfect day.” Though evidence of the exact date is lacking, it seems clear that Mr. Chapman and Mr. Müller must have met soon after 1832.

Early in the same second quarter of the last century, some servants of Christ in Dublin and other places were moved to give themselves to the diligent study of the Scriptures, and made an effort to carry out what was written. This, as we have seen, Mr. Chapman had for some time been doing; consequently, when he and they were in God’s providence brought together, they found themselves in many respects of one mind, and thus new links were formed.

In the matter of Christian fellowship he gladly went where there was room for the whole Bible, and a readiness, so far as he knew, to carry out the will of God according to the Scriptures. Where this place was given to the Scriptures he felt there should be no hindrance to fellowship, but he would allow no compromises; indeed, at a Conference at Leominster on one occasion he surprised those present by saying that rather than make any compromise in this matter he would prefer to die. He would not acknowledge sectarian titles, and if the name of a religious denomination was mentioned to him he would say that it grated upon his ears. But his heart went out to all who are Christ’s, and such, whatever name they bore, were welcomed by him, even as in his intercessions he embraced the whole Church of God. Speaking of the oneness of all believers he said:

“Unless we have a spiritual understanding of this Divine unity we cannot rightly grieve for the divisions of God’s people. By looking into this glass we discover the nature and the guilt of schisms and divisions.”

Though he never failed to give baptism a high place as expressing the believer’s burial and resurrection with Christ, and was accustomed to baptise in the river Taw at Barnstaple until he was eighty (when he thought it well to leave this service to others), no one ever more strongly withstood the teaching that there is anything saving in it. His mind on the subject in connection with fellowship is very clearly expressed in Mr. Muller’s record of his own exercise of heart about it. In Some of the Lord’s Dealings with George Müller vol. i., page 202, he writes:

“In August of 1836 I had a conversation with Brother R. C. on the subject… This brother put the matter thus before me: Either unbaptised believers come under the class of persons who walk disorderly—and in that case we ought to withdraw from them (2 Thess. 3:6)— or they do not walk disorderly. If a believer be walking disorderly, we are not merely to withdraw from him at the Lord’s table, but our behaviour towards him ought to be decidedly different from what it would be were he not walking disorderly, on all occasions when we may have intercourse with him, or come in any way into contact with him. Now, this is evidently not the case in the conduct of baptised believers towards their unbaptised fellow-believers… The Spirit does not suffer us to refuse fellowship with them in prayer, in reading and searching the Scriptures, in social and intimate intercourse, and in the Lord’s work; and yet this ought to be the case were they walking disorderly. This passage (2 Thess. 3:6), to which Brother R. C. referred, was the means of showing me the mind of the Lord on the subject, which is, that we ought to receive all whom Christ has received (Rom. 15:7), irrespective of the measure of grace or knowledge which they have attained unto.”

His attitude towards those who are known as “Exclusive Brethren “was characteristic. Any who knew him would never thus describe them in his presence. He sometimes spoke of them as, “Brethren dearly beloved and longed for,” and sometimes described them as, “Those brethren whose consciences lead them to refuse my fellowship and to deprive me of theirs.” By this expression he meant that they were acting conscientiously, but that their consciences were not guided by the Spirit: of God through the Word, and therefore were not fully under the power of the love of Christ. He mourned that a servant of Christ should by his dictum lead, and that other servants and children of God should be led, in a course so contrary to love and righteousness, and did his utmost to hinder it; but he deemed it far better to suffer rejection than himself to reject those who were walking in the fear of God and in subjection to His Word.

Mr. Chapman’s mind with regard to divisions in God’s Church is well expressed in the following circular-letter, which was dated January, 1846. Had this been taken to heart (instead of being criticised, as it was) the evil which developed, and still prevails, would have been nipped in the bud, and many would have been saved from untold disasters through fresh divisions, of which they have had such painful experience:

“Certain Brethren in the Lord in different parts of the kingdom having agreed to set apart the second Wednesday of the next month for prayer and humiliation, on account of the divisions in the Church of Christ, it is proposed to all to whom those divisions are a grief to join in the above service.

“If, as is commonly confest, the present low estate of the people of God be the bitter fruit of their having so long time grieved the Spirit of God, then is it not the highest aggravation of their guilt that they have so little mourned, either jointly or singly, publicly or privately, for grieving the Holy Ghost?

“Manifold, indeed, are the evils that have grieved Him; and it becomes saints to seek of God a spirit of judgment concerning all those evils. In the meekness and gentleness of Christ, it is urged upon the consciences of saints to consider especially the dishonour done to God by different opinions and judgments among His children concerning His truth, inasmuch as the unity of mind between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—which the unity of the Church should represent is a unity of wisdom as well as love, and of counsel as well as of operation.

“Different degrees of attainment in grace and knowledge, and differences in gifts and offices, must of necessity have place among the members of Christ; but such diversity is of God, and works unity; contrarieties of judgment concerning the truth always check the fellowship of saints, and, if not mourned before God, gender strife and division.

“Will not God set His seal of approval to any attempt of His children, however feeble, to seek of Him, in His own way and order, unity both in judgment and in love?

“If any company of believers be found thus aiming with godly perseverance at unity, will not strife cease among them, and brotherly love wax fervent?

“Who shall set a limit to the progress of unity among the true members of Christ, if that unity is first sought rightly, even by a handful of saints?

“Meanwhile, happy they who, like Daniel, chasten their souls before God in secret, confessing their own sin and the sin of fellow-saints, not seeking their own things but the things of Christ, and not discouraged by the unbelief or indifference of others, knowing that God, who seeth in secret, shall, at the latest in the day of Christ, reward them openly.”

Life at New Buildings, Barnstaple

It was this spirit, with a hearty carrying out of the exhortation to be “given to hospitality,” that characterised the humble residences at Barnstaple, Nos. 6 and 9, on opposite sides of the short street called New Buildings. These abodes of peace and love are known to many throughout the world, and remembered with gratitude. No servant of Christ ever went there without finding a loving welcome and true sympathy, and few can have left without carrying away some deeper sense of the blessedness of trusting God, and seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness. No. 6 was from the beginning Mr. Chapman’s dwelling, and in one of the rooms of this most simply furnished abode he who was truly “great in the sight of the Lord” breathed his last. Some time back a friend offered him the use of a better house, and desired him to occupy it, as being more suitable, but he declined the offer, saying he desired to continue where any Christian, even the poorest, could come to him without hesitation.

When he first took the house, he asked the Lord to send him some of His servants, to whom he might show hospitality. Some came, and his heart was filled with joy; but after a while he was left without anyone, which so grieved and perplexed him that he was led to the Lord in self-examination, and said: “Why, Lord, dost Thou not send Thy children to me?” When speaking of this some years after he added: “I have never had to repeat that question, for since then I have had no lack of visitors under my roof.” For many years Mr. Chapman cleaned the boots of his visitors, and put them at the doors of their rooms. Once, when this was referred to, he said: “It is not the custom in our day to wash one another’s feet; that which most nearly corresponds to this command of the Lord is to clean each other’s boots.” We well know that he only named this as a sample of the loving and lowly service to one another inculcated in John 13.

Mr. Chapman rose very early; but he retired early as well. For a long while he prepared his own breakfast and took it alone; but in later years he joined others at breakfast at 7 o’clock, dinner being at 12 o’clock. There was great cheerfulness at the table—words of wisdom and grace were constantly heard; but no room was given for conversation to degenerate into frivolous talk. It was also a rule of the house that no one should speak ill of an absent person, and any infringement of this rule called forth a firm though gracious reproof. After breakfast, Mr. Chapman gave an exposition of Scripture—preceded by a hymn, and followed by prayer — which was greatly valued. A hymn was sung after dinner, and one after tea was followed by a brief portion of the Word and prayer.

Guests at Mr. Chapman’s table ever found a plentiful supply; but nothing was allowed to be wasted. Once when the table was being cleared he was heard to say, “Take the crumbs and give them to the birds, for ‘your heavenly Father feedeth them’.” Ten or twelve years ago, when he had been grieved by hearing of some rather wasteful habit, he put his thoughts into a verse, which he repeated at the breakfast table of the house in which he was staying, remarking that it was the principle he desired to express. It was at once said, “That should be printed.” A heading being suggested, he was well pleased with it, and at once accompanied his host to a printer’s. As first printed it was as follows:

The Fragments (John 6:12).

If mustard or salt I take more than I use,

Let straightway my conscience the waster accuse;

My Lord who redeemed me, whose Name is my boast,

Said, “Gather the fragments, that nothing be lost.”

Mr. Chapman’s Fellowship with Mr. Hake

Before the two houses at New Buildings were so closely linked together, No. 9 was for some years occupied by Miss Paget. In Anthony Norris Groves’ Memoir mention is repeatedly made of two devoted sisters in Christ at Exeter—the Misses Paget. One was taken to be with the Lord; the other removed to Barnstaple, and became well known there for her godliness and readiness to every good work. Mr. Groves writes of visiting her there in 1852, and says, “I slept at dear R. C.’s, and they were all most affectionately kind.” When she fell asleep, nearly forty years ago, Mr. William Hake, of Bideford, removed to that house, and thus became more closely linked in fellowship and service with Mr. Chapman, till he too was called home in November, 1890. At the back of No. 9 some new rooms were added, including a large one for meals and meetings. In this room was held the weekly meeting on Thursday evening known as the District Meeting. It was so called because Christians in fellowship at Grosvenor Street were invited in turn, according to the district in which they resided, to tea and a Bible-reading after. This meeting was much valued; friends often came to it from neighbouring towns, and visitors would try to make their stay include a Thursday evening. For many years it was both pleasant and profitable at the meetings to hear conversation chiefly carried on between “the patriarchs,” as Mr. Chapman and Mr. Hake were called, though others joined in it In this room, at a special meeting for young men, Mr. Hake was present the very evening before he was called to be with Christ.

Mr. Chapman so deeply felt the parting with his fellow-labourer that he was not able to be present at the burial, and on that day only saw two or three friends in his own room. His account of the last day of their long service together, and the peaceful departure of dear Mr. Hake at the ripe age of ninety-five, as given in The Golden Lamp for December, 1890, will be read with interest:

“Barnstaple, Nov. 5th, 1890,

9 New Buildings.

“On Tuesday morning, November 4th, my beloved fellow-labourer, Brother Hake, joined us at our early breakfast hour, seven o’clock. In the afternoon he rendered loving service by bearing me and others company to the station to cheer a visitor who was leaving us. Returning together, we held in my room our usual Tuesday afternoon prayer-meeting, in which beloved Brother Hake took fully his part. At our tea-table at six o’clock we had a goodly company of young disciples of Christ, to whom Brother Hake spoke joyfully on the words, ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.’ The meeting afterwards began with:

‘We go with the redeemed to taste

Of joy supreme that never dies.’

All who sang, and some who heard outside the room, felt that the singing was heavenly, the deep bass of the dear aged one perfecting the harmony. After prayer, the first Psalm was read. Brother Hake took occasion to draw contrasts with the walking, standing, and sitting of the first verse: ‘Enoch walked with God; Elijah stood before the Lord; David sat before the Lord.’ After he had thus for about an hour been the brightness of the assembly, his speech failed, but with support he walked to his bedroom. Our dear young Brother Idenden sat up with him. I joined them about four o’clock in the morning. Brother Hake grasped my hand, and held it until he could hold it no longer, and breathed out his spirit to the Lord at 7.10.

“His beloved daughter Mary is sustained of God. Surely our God is the Father of mercies and the God of comfort. He is ‘ wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working’.”

The following brief account of the fellowship of these two men of God, also from Mr. Chapman’s own pen, bears date November 30th, 1890. It was not printed.

“It pleased God in the year 1831, in this neighbourhood, to bring together the dear departed one and myself at the house of a relative—a child of mine in the faith.

“Our hearts were presently knit together in the fellowship of the Spirit, according to the words of the Lord, ‘ That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us.’ Each found the other a lover of the Scriptures, and bent upon obedience to the Lord without reserve.

“Brother Hake was then residing in Exeter. In April, 1832, I left London to reside in Barnstaple, giving myself altogether to the work of the Lord. Some years after, in answer to our joint prayers, he came to Bideford, where he had a school; thus communications became more frequent, and fellowship closer. In 1863 he came to Barnstaple, since which time, up to the hour of his departure to be with Christ, we have been yoke-fellows in the work of the Lord, our two houses, Nos. 9 and 6 New Buildings, making together a home of rest for the servants of God, and of resort for young disciples, where we, their elder brethren, have sought to cheer them on their way.

“Our fellowship has been ever growing, and during its fifty-nine years’ continuance, never was strife or bitterness between us. The dear departed one was wont to say, ‘Ah! dear brother, we never had a jar.’ It was given us by God’s grace ever to hold fast God’s truth—His whole truth—in the Scriptures, also the form of sound words devised by the infinite wisdom of the Spirit of God. Our hearts were assured of the fulness of the Word of God, and that, while colour can be found in it for well-nigh any false doctrine, any error, no error can abide the test of the whole Scripture. Thus we daily contributed each to the other’s treasure of grace and truth.

“In regard to the Scriptures that have been fulfilled, our unity of judgment was blessedly complete; as to what is yet to be fulfilled, we attained to an excellent measure of unity, which was growing to the end.

“Touching

The guidance of our steps,

The ordering of our ways,

The rule of our household, we always waited on God together for His mind. If, on conferring together, we found ourselves of one mind, we laid our unity before God for His perfecting; we remembered the fault of Nathan and David, who, knowing in part the will of God as to the building Him a temple, failed to lay the matter before God for the perfect revelation of His will. If judgment did not agree we waited on God to give us oneness of mind, and neither of us ever took a step against the judgment of the other—hence no strife, no bitterness!

“The obligation of John 17 to oneness between the children of God, like unto the oneness between the Father and the Son, will be fulfilled in a coming day; if not now fulfilled, the obligation is immutable as the Fountain Head—God the Father’s love in His Son.

“We have endeavoured, in foreview of the Judgment-seat of Christ, to tread the path in which the whole Church of God should be found walking. The fruit of such obedience could not but be a keeping of the unity of the Spirit, in lowliness, meekness, and love; schism and division being far away!”

In a volume called England, Home, and Beauty, H. B. Macartney, M.A., the son of Dean Macartney of Melbourne, gave a lengthy description of a brief stay at New Buildings in 1878, when visiting this country.1 He left greatly impressed with Mr. Chapman’s profound knowledge of the Scriptures, but not less with his kind considerateness for all with whom he came in contact, and his true lowliness of mind. Mr. Macartney’s conclusion, that “communion with God makes him childlike,” was an evidence that he himself could appreciate what was spiritual. He said Mr. Chapman reminded him of Moses, and Mr. Hake of “Aaron, the saint of the Lord,” and he describes the lessons in humility that he got, both at the tea-table and in more personal intercourse with Mr. Chapman.

This shows part of one side of the short street called New Buildings, A Christian woman is standing between the door and window of No. 6, which was Mr. Chapman’s humble abode. It was from this house that devout men carried the body to the cemetery.

Interest in Mr. G. Müller’s Great Work

Two incidents may be given here, one connected with Mr. Chapman and one with Mr. Hake, and both with Mr. George Müller, with whom, as has been intimated, they were always closely linked in bonds of fellowship and service.

In Mr. Müller’s narrative, under date of Feb, 19th, 1842, he tells that means were “again completely spent.” When he went to the Orphan Homes before breakfast he found a letter containing is. which had arrived the previous evening. “This was not only a sweet proof that our Father remembered our need, but it was also like an earnest that He would supply us this day with all that we required.” In the box he found 1s. another letter came with 1s., and one of the labourers gave 4s. 10d. Thus the day was provided for, but evening came, and there was no bread for the next day, the Lord’s day. Mr. Müller left the Orphan Homes, for, he writes, “I expected Brother R. C. to arrive a little after eight at my house”; but he took a brother with him, that he might send back anything the Lord supplied.

“A few moments after, Brother C. arrived, and he had not been more than five minutes in my house when he gave me half a sovereign, which he had brought for the orphans;…and then, between nine and ten o’clock, sufficient bread could be bought.” Mr. Miiller adds: “Observe! for the trial of our faith, the Lord had allowed us to be kept waiting so long. When, however, Brother C. had arrived, having money for the orphans, he could not delay giving it at once, a matter most worthy of notice.”

This brings to mind what Mr. Hake once told me of those early days. Mr. Müller went to meet him, and took his bag. To all offers to “carry your bag” he replied, “No.” When they reached his house Mr. Hake gave him some money he had for him. “Now,” said Mr. Miiller, “I will tell you that the reason I did not allow any one to carry the bag was that I had not anything to give for doing so.” Such incidents may well encourage faith and prayer, and to these one other reference to Mr. Chapman in Mr. Midler’s narrative for the year 1845 may be added:

“On 15th November Brother R. C. arrived, to labour for a little while in Bristol. I communicated to him my position with reference to having to remove the orphans from Wilson Street, and I had his judgment also as to its being of God that I should build. This dear brother’s judgment greatly encouraged me. His visit was to me of great help in this particular, especially in stirring me up yet more to bring everything in connection with this matter before God. He also laid it on my heart to seek directions from God with reference to the plan of the building. He said: ‘You must ask help from God to show you the plan, so that all may be according to the mind of God’.”

In 1848, when the first of the five Orphan Houses—which stand as a witness to the fact that God answers prayer — had been erected, Mr. Chapman wrote from Bristol to Mr. H. Heath, who was at Barnstaple:

“Pray, dear Brother Heath, with your helpers, for what is needed to fit up the new Orphan House. God has begun to send.”

Though it may seem going on a long way, this seems the most suitable place to quote—from the Report of “The Scriptural Knowledge Institution” for 1902—the testimony of Mr. James Wright to the fact that Mr. Chapman’s prayerful interest in this great work never failed. After stating that it “owes its existence, and largely its history, instrumentally, to the effectual, fervent prayer of one man, whom God raised up to accomplish it,” Mr. Wright adds:

“The phalanx of praying souls that the Holy Spirit has banded together to sustain and forward it by their believing supplication and intercession, have become, like David’s supporters of old, ‘a great host like the host of God.’ But, as in that ‘host,’ there were some preeminently ‘mighty,’ so also with the modern parallel, there have been amongst the secret pleaders with our ‘Father, who seeth in secret,’ the mighty, the mightier, and the mightiest. One whom, I believe, I may safely class with the last named has just passed away from earth, and it is his decease that leads me to make these remarks. Robert Cleaver Chapman, late of Barnstaple, Devon, was one of George Müller’s oldest and most intimate friends. More than once, in critical periods of this work, Mr. Müller sought and obtained his valuable counsel. This confidence Mr. Chapman responded to by always showing the liveliest interest in the progress of the Institution. Throughout the sixty-eight years of its existence he has been its helper by continuous intercession. It was the knowledge that he was such a mighty spiritual helper that led me, in the spring of 1901, to visit Barnstaple for the purpose of gaining the expression of his judgment upon our contemplated alteration of the conditions of admission of orphans; and I need hardly say that it was no small confirmation that we were really led of God in the matter, to learn, as I did, from his own lips, that he most heartily and unreservedly approved of our modifying the conditions by receiving orphans bereft of only one parent. Well-beloved, single-eyed ‘servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,’ thou hast ‘fought the good flight, thou hast kept the faith, thou hast finished thy course’; may grace be given to us to follow thee as thou didst follow thy Lord!”

A Visit to Ireland

In the year 1848, when Mr. Chapman wrote to Mr. Heath the words before quoted, he was on his way to Ireland, being accompanied by a brother named Shepherd, though how long this brother was with him is not clear. The following, written from Bristol, February 1st, shows how he valued the fellowship of his brethren:

“I leave to-day at half-past two, it God will, for Cork, with the prayers of the saints here as well as yours to strengthen me. It was a precious meeting for prayer last evening. Brother Müller asked everything for Brother Shepherd and myself that we ourselves could have mentioned; he is well in body, though not so strong in body as in faith. Peace, peace be with you all!”

His letters from Ireland, some of which, it is hoped, will be given in a separate volume, tell of the darkness of the people through the power of Romanism, of many opportunities of speaking of Christ, of much opposition from some who were influenced by priests, and of great comfort in visiting children of God. He contrasts as well as compares Ireland with Spain, which country he had already visited:

“The Roman Catholics here, both priests and people, are very far above those of Spain; there both deride their own religion and scoff at all religion, here a false religion (which is yet not pure error but the truth corrupted and perverted) is ignorantly held in reverence. I found in Spain indifference and scorn; here is a vexed and troubled conscience seeking rest and not knowing how to obtain it. I reckon myself favoured of God to speak to such consciences.

“I gave a small sum to a farmer’s wife to distribute among the poor in her neighbourhood; she said, ‘May the Almighty God and the almighty Virgin Mary bless you!’ These blasphemous words are not always on the lips of Roman Catholics; but almost always the blasphemy and idolatry of them are in the heart. Still, Ireland is better than Spain. Superstition is better than profane irreligion. Conscience speaks here and afflicts men with dread of death, and generally they hear me with reverence when preaching Christ.”

The previous year had been one of severe famine in Ireland from the failure of the potato crops through disease, and Mr. Chapman speaks with much tenderness of the sufferings of the people.

“It is a great mercy that a penny procures a pound of Indian meal, and that turf is plentiful. Thus I have great comfort in distributing alms, and have not seen a cottage without a fire. I have heard from eye-witnesses such tales of the misery and death that reigned during the famine as I hope not to forget; yet only grace can make God’s judgments profitable. This may be seen, alas! by the spiritual condition of the poor Irish in these parts. The land looks desolate; but the inhabitants who have made it so—how barren, how dreary and gloomy the state of their souls!”

These letters show how Mr. Chapman breathed the atmosphere of prayer, and how truly he had learned to fulfil the word, “Set not your mind on high things, but condescend to things that are lowly” (Rom. 12:16, R.V.).

“At this place (Castle Island), I found no child of God; but I have not been alone, and have been the rather making intercession for the saints and the world, because I have not had the brethren with me… I am at a plain but cleanly inn, not unsuited to a pilgrim; it has been a house of God to my soul; its inmates hear me willingly.”

Mr. Chapman was always a great walker; and in his early days would walk to Mr. W. Wreford’s, twenty-five miles from Barnstaple, to breakfast. This power of walking he made good use of in Ireland. On one occasion he writes:

“I was obliged to use conveyances; but, oh! how much rather do I choose to travel on foot for the work of the Lord, and communion with Him! “…On Thursday I walked to Nenagh, in Tipperary, speaking of Jesus by the way; the distance about twenty-four or twenty-five English miles. His rod and staff comfort me; I fear no evil. There is no better means of access to the hearts of Roman Catholics than by talking with them on the highway: they are not then restrained by fear of priests or of each other.”… “A poor man whom I overtook a little way from Dunleer offered to carry my knapsack, and for the first time since I came to Ireland [over two months] I parted with it to another. He was a Roman Catholic, and told me that he had twice been compelled by priests to put away the New Testament, which he had taken pleasure in reading.”

Mr. Chapman laments that in many places he met no child of God; but in some he speaks of earnest Scripture-readers and their labours, and occasionally of a godly clergyman, one sentence being very characteristic of a man with whom relationship to God was of supreme importance: “A brother who, I think, was a clergyman of the Establishment.”

Perhaps enough has been said about Ireland; but two thing’s more may just be noticed. Mr. Chapman spoke of the trials of the rich in the South and West as being in some respects beyond those of the poor, and while he found greater quietness in the North, with “the light of the Scripture, and many temporal blessings,” he lamented that the form of godliness was generally held fast while the power was denied.

“And no less faith is needed to sustain me in preaching the Gospel and conversing with these than in the darkness of Popery in the West and South.”

Some Features of his Life and Ministry

From his early days until he had reached a great age, Mr. Chapman was diligent in open-air preaching, and through his preaching at the annual fair at Barnstaple, and still more frequently in the town and neighbourhood, he became well known. But it was especially his life that told on the people of that town, and made him such a true witness for God. Many, it may be, who had little regard for the gospel he preached knew that he lived what he taught, and that he was a “man of God.” In the days of travelling by coach it is said that one morning the coachman remarked to a number of passengers, “You need not insure your lives today, gentlemen; Mr. Chapman is going with us.” Mr. J. S. Anderson, of Italy, when in Barnstaple, in 1900, visited a Roman Catholic, who asserted that all Protestants must be lost, because they are outside the true Church. But he suddenly paused, and added, “Well, let me tell you there is one Protestant in Barnstaple who will get to heaven, if anybody will.” “Who is that? “said Mr. A. The reply was, “I don’t know his name, but he lives in New Buildings. He is the oldest and holiest man in Barnstaple.”

Dr. Case, of China, mentions that in June, 1901, he accompanied Mr. Chapman to see a man who had sent for him. This man was not one of Mr. Chapman’s usual hearers, but he had watched his godly life, and, now that he was ill, desired that he would visit him.

Some years ago Mr. F. S. Arnot, off the coast of Africa, met a company of soldiers returning from India, and one of them told how he was led to Christ. He lived at Barnstaple, and often returned to his mother’s house early in the morning after “a night’s spree.” He at times met an old man who spoke to him about his sins, and he would push himself into the hedge or anywhere to avoid him. He enlisted into the army, and sailed for India, and when he was ill and thought himself dying he remembered the old man, and wished he could see him. He had observed that he carried a Bible in his hand, so he asked a nurse to bring him a Bible, by means of which God was pleased to reveal Christ to him.

Mr. Chapman would sometimes say, “I have had a large congregation this morning,” and on enquiry-it was found that he had been speaking to some solitary person, or even a child, as he took his walk. He esteemed it a privilege to speak to anyone, and made much of what he called “a Sychar-well ministry” (John 4:5-30). In journeying he watched for an opportunity of bearing witness of Christ; but his words to fellow-travellers and others were always gracious and wise, and never abrupt or forced; he would not interrupt one who was reading or otherwise occupied, but would lift his heart to God and wait; and, when he spoke, his unfailing courtesy generally secured him a hearing. It was doubtless natural to Mr. Chapman to be courteous; but certainly grace strengthened this trait in his beautiful Christian character. He did not regard abruptness or austerity as evidences of spirituality, for he found no traces of these in Him whose character, as set forth by the “fine flour” offered in God’s sanctuary, was perfect. No little service was taken for granted, or allowed to pass, unacknowledged by him; indeed, in this respect he made much of little. Let no one imagine, however, that courtesy means softness, for enough has been said to show that he who was always so courteous was equally firm and courageous to do or suffer the will of God. Neither does genuine courtesy imply any sacrifice of truth; rather must it be said that such service as that described above could only be rendered by one who was pre-eminently true. Horatius Bonar’s forcible little piece, “Be True,” written by Mr. Chapman on a fly-leaf of one of his own Bibles thirty or forty years ago, may be taken as a better portrait of himself than a photographer could give:

“Thou must be true thyself

If thou the truth wouldst teach;

Thy soul must overflow, if thou

Another’s soul wouldst reach:

It needs the overflow of heart

To give the lips full speech.

“Think truly, and thy thoughts

Shall the world’s famine feed;

Speak truly, and each word of thine

Shall be a fruitful seed;

Live truly, and thy life shall be

A great and noble creed.”

Thoughtfulness for others is very closely related to courtesy, and this, too, was very marked in Mr. Chapman. No one who ever had the privilege of staying with him needs to be told how he cared for the comfort of his guests, especially if out of health, and left nothing undone to make them feel at home. But his thoughtfulness extended to little things of life. To save trouble in his own house, he kept a good mat at the door, with a politely worded request that visitors would use it, and he was equally careful himself in entering any other house. When visiting he carried something to put down if he used a bath in his room, that no injury might be done to the carpet, and the tray on which things were placed for his use in the early morning, he would carry down and hand with a kind word to a servant. It was his constant care to give as little trouble as possible; and when he said, “Remember, I am nobody,” he meant it. He often remarked, “I find I am treated as a man of high estate”; and in later years, “I find everywhere friends conspire to make me think I am an old man.”

In addressing an envelope one day, Mr. Chapman said, “I am always careful not to make the postman swear”; but at one time his letters were not so easily read as in later years. In former days he used to write a good deal on Scripture (though he invariably tore up what he had written), and this caused his writing to become somewhat illegible. One day Mr. Hake took him a note he had sent, and asked him to read it. Being thus made conscious of the habit he had fallen into, he took it to heart, and made it a matter of prayer that he might not again try the patience of his brethren or waste their valuable time by indistinct writing—with what result those who were favoured with his letters know.

Mr. Chapman was a man of remarkable self-control. During his long course of service in the church he at times had great provocation, yet was he never moved, except to sorrow for those whose spirit and words were so contrary to Christ. When he was opposed he bore the opposition in patience, and when any turned from him he pursued them with his prayers, and any expression of love it was possible for him to give. Those who knew him longest bear witness that they never heard a hasty or ungracious word escape his lips. A common saying at his house was, “It is better to lose your purse than your temper.”

It is no wonder that a visit from one who was so full of “the meekness and gentleness of Christ,” and at the same time so faithful in his adherence to the truth of God, was esteemed a great favour, whether to an assembly of Christians or to a household. Mr. J. R. Caldwell, in kindly writing the following brief notice of such a visit to Scotland, bears a testimony which many would endorse:

“Some twelve years ago we had the great privilege of a visit from Mr. Chapman. Although at that time well-on in the eighties, he was mentally and physically fresh and vigorous. He rose early as was his wont, yet was able to address meetings nearly every evening, and his ministry was such as to leave a lasting impression upon all who heard. It was indeed ministry of Christ; ‘grace and truth’ were combined Mr. Chapman chiefly emphasised the reading of and meditation upon the whole of the Scriptures. He used to say: ‘Every error may be based upon some part of Scripture taken from its connection; but no error can stand the tes of all Scripture.’

“His was no monkish austerity. A bright, genial, loving and attractive spirit drew out the confidence even of the little ones. He used to play with our little girl, then two or three years old, in the afternoons at a childish game on the carpet, just as if he were a child again himself; and one morning before the household was awake, he had made a paper kite for our son, then about six years old, and was out with him by nine o’clock helping him to fly it. Truly the memory of his visit remains with us as a precious illustration of how far God can reproduce in a believer even here the image of His Son.”

Mr. Chapman often asked, “How do you read your Bible?” and, as before intimated, he sought to cherish in all, especially the young, the spirit of reverence and love for the whole Bible, and the habit of reading it regularly, and of prayerfully meditating upon its blessed truths, for nourishment of soul and strength in conflict. The following are some of his weighty words on the use of the Holy Scriptures:

“The Book of God is a store of manna for God’s pilgrim children; and we ought to see to it that the soul get not sick and loathe the manna. The great cause of neglecting the Scriptures is not want of time, but want of heart, some idol taking the place of Christ. Satan has been marvellously wise to entice away God’s people from the Scriptures. A child of God who neglects the Scriptures cannot make it his business to please the Lord of Glory; cannot make Him Lord of the conscience; ruler of the heart; the joy, portion, and treasure of the soul.

“If the Word of Christ dwell in me richly, it will teach me to do everything and to look at everything in relation to God. And remember this, if the Bible be used aright by anyone, it will be to him the most pleasant book in the world. If I serve it well it will serve me well. The children will say: ‘What a lovely book the Bible is!’ And they will not want anything to please and interest them in comparison with the Scriptures, when handled by one whose heart is full of the love of God. Beloved, remember it is one thing to read the Bible, choosing something that suits me (as is shamefully said), and another thing to search it that I may become acquainted with God in Christ; that I may be fashioned like unto Christ; that I may first of all please God by my affections to Him; that I may find in Him my deepest joy; and that He may find His banqueting-room in my heart. If I read the Bible with this end in view, the Spirit of God will always make it to me better than thousands of gold and silver, and sweeter than honey and the honey-comb (Psa. 19:10). But supposing I do not, then I turn the Gospel of Christ into the law of Moses without knowing it, and, instead of paths of pleasantness and peace, the Gospel of Christ becomes bands of iron.”

Mr. Chapman’s judgment of what is known as Higher Criticism is well expressed in a little allegory which the mention of the subject one day at table drew from his lips:

“One day, while walking in the noon-day light of a mid-summer sun, beneath a cloudless sky, I was accosted by a person wholly a stranger to me, who, with kind, condescending air, made offer to show me the way. I saw in his hand a lantern, and in it a lighted farthing candle. Pity checked my rising laughter; so, as gravely as I could, I declined his offer, and went on my way. I was afterwards told that his name was Higher Criticism.”

In his ministry it was his habit to dwell much upon the great things of God, as some of his own words in subsequent pages will show. Above all things, the Cross of Christ was his theme—the love and the wisdom therein expressed—hence his deep and true humility and his unfailing spirit of worship. It was his delight to enlarge on the varied glories of Christ—as the Son of God in His eternal fellowship with the Father; as the Word revealing the Father; as the Lamb of God atoning for and putting away sin; as the Surety of His people, drinking for them the cup of wrath; as the First-begotten from the dead, whose resurrection is a pledge of theirs; as the High Priest after the order of Melchizedec, full of the tenderest sympathy for the tempted, and ever living to intercede for us; as the Head and Bridegroom of His Church, who will soon come to receive her to Himself; as the King of Israel, under whom all God’s promises to that nation must be fulfilled; as “the last Adam,” in whom and under whom, as Head, all things in heaven and earth are in the fulness of the times to be united (Eph. 1:10). Especially was that eternal state of glory, in which the full value and results of the Cross shall be seen, ever before his mind, so that dear Henry Dyer used to say he was “a man of Eternity.” But this is what he himself said every Christian should be—a man of Pentecost, filled with the Spirit; a man of the Scriptures, ever feeding on them; and a man of Eternity.

The Lord’s Coming and the Eternal Future

It was, indeed, as a man of Eternity that he dealt with the great matter of stewardship, setting a high value on the time and opportunities the Lord may give for service here, with the assurance that all our time below is a time of sowing, and that with the sowing the harvest must correspond. In the same spirit he looked at and spoke of the coming of the Lord, showing how truly he entered into the mind of Christ as expressed in two utterances of John 17, which to the natural man may seem contradictory: (1) “/ pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil”; and (2) “Father, 1 wilt that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am.” Thus concerning the hope of the Lord’s coming he writes:

“That hope to me, how cheering—

Else hopeless and forlorn!

Oh, hasten Thine appearing,

And bring the cloudless morn!”

But his patience and his readiness to continue in service are set forth with equal clearness:

“Patient, His coming will I wait,

Content awhile in tears to sow;

Sure is the harvest, rich and great,

Of all my sorrows here below.”

And his expressions even to the last day of his life were in full accord with what was written long ago:

“I would not wish my battle done

Ere he shall bid me to be gone:

Already is the victory won—

The spoil, the triumph, mine.”

The following words were spoken at a private meeting in 1887:

“There are two ways of looking at the coming of the Lord. If I be in the constant spirit of worship within the veil, according to Hebrews, I shall see the future as does Christ. Over 1800 years ago He said, ‘I come quickly.’ And whereas, in point of desire, I put nothing whatever between that object and my soul, because Christ puts nothing; yet, on the other hand, if you ask whether the fervency of my love to the Lord and the brightness of that hope are diminished, because I see that He must take time to make that coming worthy of Himself, I say, No: He waits patiently, and so do I.”

Some will be glad to have also Mr. Chapman’s carefully expressed thoughts as to the difference between what we usually call the millennium— that is, the thousand years of Revelation 20:4-7— and the final, perfect state that lies beyond it:

“The next coming time is only a glorious porch to what lies beyond, and we ought to consider it more distinctly than we do. If Scripture were more accurately read, we should see that the golden sceptre of Christ’s rule on earth will be more excellent in its nature than in its extent. Any thought of universal peace throughout the world will not bear the test of Scripture. That the nations will learn war no more will be true only of those who learn from Israel to love God. Israel’s faith will be as great then as their unbelief has been in the past: they will practice no arts of war, nor will they build walls round their towns and villages. Those nations that learn of Israel will be like Israel; but my persuasion is that for those outside the limits of the golden-sceptre rule, it will be the dominion of the iron rod, according to Psalm 2, to break in pieces and consume, even till the setting up of the great white throne. The millennial state also is a corruptible state, whereas the new creation will be incorruptible.”

“I judge that it was given to the Apostle Paul to carry us invariably into the final state, wherein God will have His perfect rest. In Ephesians 1:10 we read, ‘ That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth.’ This I take to mean that when all preparatory times have run out, God will head up everything in Him who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. He brings in a new creation which can never be marred, and in which God will be all in all, and the creature nothing. Romans 8:20-23 speaks of that new creation, the glory of which is above our comprehension. ‘The liberty of the glory of the sons of God’ I cannot but take to be the incorruptible, final, and perfect state, which shall perfectly glorify God and be His everlasting rest, being secured from corruption in the immutability of the last Adam. If we are to be in full fellowship with God, that which is His chief desire must be ours, and we must ever have mind and thoughts fixed on that state in which God keeps everlasting rest.”

On the weighty subject of God’s dealing with the lost, Mr. Chapman was accustomed to speak with great solemnity and deep feeling:

“God, in judging men, never executes His judgment without long-suffering shown, and abused; witness the flood and the nations of Canaan. But when he does begin He makes it a short work. Not till the mystery of iniquity has come to its height will God interfere, and the consideration of these ways of God increases our faith and love in adoring Him, and fills us with pity for the world. It becomes God to give Satan and man full time for their perfect manifestation, in order to the manifestation of His equity in dealing in final retribution with the devil and his angels and with man. In the Scriptures the retribution of God in final punishment is far more spoken of than the eternal torments of hell, and we should never speak of these apart from the manifestation of the equity of God.”

The High Estate of God’s Children

As inseparably connected with the high and holy truths referred to above, Mr. Chapman was wont to dwell upon the calling of believers, the reality of being justified by Christ, “made the righteousness of God in Him,” being “born of God,” and thus standing towards Him in the true relationship of children, and being owned by Christ as His “brethren.” No one ever taught more plainly the utter ruin of all men in Adam; none could ever have dwelt more upon the high estate to which the redeemed are raised in Christ. He pressed the importance of distinguishing between the past and the present—what we were as children of Adam, and what those who have received Christ are as children of God. The word unworthy did not find much favour with him; he deemed it not strong enough to describe our lost condition by nature, and he did not think it befitting that children of God should speak of being unworthy to draw near to Him. Many have heard him put the question, “Can you think too highly of yourself?” He believed that only as we see the dignity of our standing in Christ can we feel the unworthiness of our ways, judge ourselves aright before God, and make true confession of our sins. One secret of holiness is a true judgment of sin, and a constant dealing with God about it; not simply about sinful actions, but the sin that dwelleth in us. The following words from Choice Sayings and Meditations should be pondered:

“The sinful thought of the heart is, in the sight of God, the act: evils in life always proceed from evils nourished in the heart.”

“Can I, or any other creature, search out all the depths of sin that dwelleth in me? Ah, no! But, Lord, I give thee thanks that I was crucified with Thee, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that I might no longer serve sin.”

“After we have been able, by the grace of God, to subdue any besetting sin, and it seems to be dead, let us still be confessing to God that it is within us. By thus doing we shall show that we are not living on the victory, but on God Himself.”

Mr. Chapman did not simply contrast the state of the redeemed with that of those still in their sins, but also with that of Adam in Eden. He would never allow that Adam’s original condition could be correctly described as one of fellowship with God, and insisted that our portion is far higher than that of Adam in innocence. God as Creator, Adam could know and worship; but the fellowship to which we are called necessitates a knowledge of God as Father, which could only be given through Christ’s redemption, and a nearness to God as children by heavenly birth beyond that which any creature, even an archangel, could have on the ground of creation. Hence, if anyone spoke to him of getting back to Adam’s state, he would say, with energy: “Back to Adam’s state! I would not change places with Adam before the fall for a hundred thousand worlds.”

The following are some of his words on the subject:

“The elect of God in Christ are distinct from all other creatures of God, in that they have life derived from Christ, of which we have a type in the woman’s derivation of life from the man (Gen. 2:21-23). She, as distinct from all other creatures, had life from her husband. The life derived from Christ is a life of new creation, and that distinguishes all who are made the righteousness of God in Christ. The glory and beauty of the new creation is, of necessity, in the feeblest babe in Christ, and such an one is worthy of God’s love and delight: ‘Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me.’ Such must be one in point of relationship to God, and together make up the Church, or assembly, of God. There must, indeed, be diversity, in consequence of diversity of character, according to the relative position of the members in the body; but all have the common life, all are children of God, and constitute the wife of Christ” (Rev. 19:7; 21:9).

The mention of Adam naturally recalls the fact that Mr. Chapman made much of the title of Christ as “THE LAST Adam”; and connected with this it may be remarked that while some, whose fellowship he highly valued, dwelt almost entirely upon dispensational distinctions between saints of different periods, it was his habit to give greater prominence to the essential and eternal oneness of all the redeemed of all times.

“It was specially given to Paul to set forth Christ as ‘the last Adam.’ It seems to me that the word ‘all’ is used in the same way in both Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15:22. “All” in Adam die through Adam, and ‘all’ in Christ have life in Him. This must be common to the elect of God of every age, every one being created anew. All have life derived from the Son of God, whether before or after He had come in the flesh; all have one common relationship, being children of God, which no creature, as such, can be; all are raised up out of creatureship to a standing in Christ. The distinction between the smaller measure of understanding and communion [before Christ came], and having life ‘more abundantly’ [since His coming (John 10:10)], is one thing; but the relationship to God must be true of every one created anew, and there is that in which God cannot but delight in the feeblest of His children.”

But we must not fail to remark, also, that the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God was ever prominent in Mr. Chapman’s teaching. He insisted upon the truth that only by the teaching and regenerating grace of the Spirit can a proud sinner become a poor sinner, and receive the knowledge of God as the God of grace. And often did he exhort children of God to consider what hindered the working of the Holy Spirit, and affirm that if unhindered the Spirit must do what He delights to do—unfold from the Scriptures the things of Christ, the deep things of God.

“Take heed, my soul, and watch and pray,

Lest thou the Spirit grieve,

Who makes thee know the Father’s love,

And in the Son believe.”

And to help in this he affirmed that the example of Christ in His walk on earth should ever be before us, as the one only standard of holiness. If we set up a standard of our own, we may soon pride ourselves on the thought that we have attained to it; but if we take God’s standard we shall see how far short we ever come, and be truly humbled.

Mr. Chapman often used to say that if we neglect the consideration of Christ as our Example, we shall not greatly value Him as our High Priest. Of late years more than ever, perhaps, he constantly referred to the priestly ministry of the Lord, and one of his favourite messages to others was: “It is not said: ‘There is such an High Priest’; but,’ We have such an High Priest’.” He distinguished between the advocacy of the Lord according to 1 John 2:1, and His intercession as set forth in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and taught that while the child of God who yields to temptation is the object of the Lord’s compassion and advocacy, it is given to the one who resists temptation to prove His sympathy as High Priest. A question was once put to him which has doubtless at some time or other arisen in many hearts: “Seeing that Christ had not a sinful nature, how could He be tempted? “to which his reply was as follows:

“To an unregenerate person temptation cannot cause pain of a heavenly or spiritual kind; to one born of God it does. The more like God His child is, the more keenly he feels temptation to sin. To the Son of God—who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and undeniable; who was separate from sinners; who knew no sin; who was without sin— the darts of temptation must have been inexpressibly painful. He suffered, being tempted, and in that He was tempted He is able to succour them that are tempted, who, being born of God, can feel, as the unregenerate cannot feel, the pain of being tempted to evil. There was nothing in the Lord Jesus to respond to temptation.”

Value of Mr. Chapman’s Hymns

As the experiences and characteristics of David may be gathered from his Psalms, so the special features of Robert Chapman’s experience and ministry found expression in his Hymns, some verses of which have already been quoted. Many of these were written for use at Barnstaple, and were published in 1837; but additions were made in more recent editions, though the theme of all is the same—“the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow.” His sister remarked most truly that it is only those who knew him that can fully appreciate his hymns, for they alone know how fully his life corresponded with them. Meditation on these hymns will be found very helpful to communion with God. The tendency of the day is to turn to hymns of a lighter character, but let us remember that nothing more influences our habit of thought than the hymns we constantly use.

No one can read his hymns without being impressed with the deep reverence of every expression, and those who knew Mr. Chapman are aware that this spirit characterised all his utterances and all his ways. Intimacy and familiarity are quite different. He could say to the Lord, “Lord, Thy glory doth not confound us,” and of Him, “He loves not to keep stately distance.” His thirst for knowledge of the love of Christ thus finds expression:

“I would, my Lord and Saviour, know

That which no measure knows;

Would search the mystery of Thy love,

The depth of all Thy woes.”

His response to that love, of which indeed he knew not a little, is forcibly expressed:

“Lord Jesus, my soul loveth Thee! my heart locks Thee within it, as its precious jewel, and rejoices in Thee as those that find great spoil. Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee… I am bold to say, I love Thee, Thou gracious, glorious, and lovely One! and Thou, hearing me, dost approve my words.”

Here is the intimacy of deep love and communion; but we can no more imagine Robert Chapman addressing the Lord, or speaking of Him, in those free and familiar terms that sometimes grate upon the ear in these days, than we can think of Paul or John doing so. To him, as to them, Christ was THE LORD, while he and they alike proved His deep and true sympathy as One who was partaker of “flesh and blood,” and knew the reality of “being tempted.”

It will be noticed, too, how many of Mr. Chapman’s hymns are addressed to God the Father. Mr. W. Lincoln used to remark how difficult it was to find hymns of this character in modern hymn books, and Mr. Chapman felt the same lack. It was natural to him to speak thus to the Father, because he so fully entered into the truths that the Son came to declare the Father, and then to be the Way to the Father. Faith cannot stop short of God Himself, and we truly honour Christ when we draw near to the Father through Him. His ideal of a hymn was that it should lead the soul through the Cross of Christ to God Himself. Those who heard his prayers in public will remember that in them also he chiefly addressed the Father. Yet let no one imagine that he did not also address the Son; indeed, some of his truest expressions of adoration and worship are spoken to the Lord, as in the beautiful hymn beginning, “My soul amid this stormy world Is like some fluttered dove, And fain would be as swift of wing To flee to Him I love.’’

Sir Edward Denny—himself the author of some of the choicest hymns in the English language—describes it as “sweetly expressive of the heart’s longing for Him.” The same may be said of many other hymns, though few are so well known as, “O my Saviour crucified!

Near Thy Cross would I abide;

There to look with steadfast eye,

On Thy dying agony.”

It is difficult to select from Mr. Chapman’s hymns, because all are so rich, but two or three may be given which seem truly to bring the man himself before us. The following shows how he turned from present things, because his eye and heart were fixed on the invisible and eternal:

“The worldling’s portion I refuse,

His glory I disdain;

My God was pleased His Son to bruise—

The Lamb for me was slain.

O’er Eden lost I sorrow not—

The garden marred by sin;

To me is given a happier spot,

A Paradise divine.

My heavenly Father wakes mine ear;

His Holy Spirit’s voice

Proclaims the day of glory near,

And greatly I rejoice.

God works at leisure and at ease,

In time and season due;

The pathway of His deep decrees

Jehovah will pursue.

The heavens and earth that wax not old,

Exulting faith surveys,

Where God shall all His Name unfold

And justify His ways.

His mansions are before mine eyes,

Where discord ne’er is known,

His pleasant land, His paradise,

His city with His throne.

Now Jesus reaps His full reward—

His joy is now complete:

The Lamb the universal Lord,

His foes beneath His feet.

Now God my heavenly Father’s Name

Is hallowed evermore,

His glory shining in the Lamb—

I see it, and adore.”

It is well known that Mr. Chapman did not occupy himself much with the news of the day. One day a boy asked him to buy a newspaper. “Does it give yesterday’s news?” “No, sir.” “Has it to-day’s news?” “Oh, yes, sir.” “And has it to-morrow’s news? “The boy’s surprise at the last question may be imagined; but Mr. Chapman holding up his Bible said, “This Book gives me the news of yesterday, and to-day, and of to-morrow as well.” We may be sure he said a kind word to the boy; and the incident may remind us of the comparative value of man’s news of the passing moment, and God’s tidings concerning His Son, which have reference to the future as well as to the past and the present.

Everybody thinks specially of Mr. Chapman as a man of prayer. His delight in prayer, and his joyful looking forward to the unhindered fellowship of all God’s children in the future, both find expression in the following hymn:

“O how I love in solitude,

Great God, to speak with Thee,

For Thou, whose grace my soul renewed,

A Father art to me!

With Thee how sweet to be alone,

And in full tide of prayer,

Lord God of Hosts, before Thy throne,

To lay the bosom bare!

From Thee no secret thoughts I hide,

No mysteries of my soul;

To Thee, whose Son was crucified,

With joy I tell the whole.

Thus surely Thy confiding child

Thy close embrace obtains,

And by Thy friendship is beguiled

Of all his griefs and pains.

For freedom to rejoice and grieve,

Where none but God is nigh,

All other friends full oft I leave,

Though not without a sigh.

But soon the Bridegroom shall appear:

Then shall each wedding guest

Unfold to his companions dear

All secrets of his breast.”

The blessedness of access to God was used by him largely in the way of intercession. He said:

“It is well for a child of God to pray for himself, but a more excellent thing to pray for others. God honours the spirit of intercession.”

This he regarded as his special ministry. He prayed for “all men,” from the King on the throne to the humblest of his subjects. Our late beloved Queen knew not that throughout the whole of her long reign she had the unfailing intercession of one man in her kingdom! Only the day of Christ will show what she and many more owe to his prayers. But in this, as in all else, “the household of faith” had the first place; servants of Christ and families of God’s children known to him were much on his heart, and he took in, as has before been remarked, the whole Church of God on the earth.

On the day of Mr. Chapman’s burial, a lady remarked that she said to Mr. Chapman, “I should be thankful if you would kindly remember our children in prayer.” He replied, “I cannot begin to pray for your dear children.” She said, “Oh, of course you have so many to pray for”; but he made haste to assure her that he had already begun, which was indeed a comfort to her heart.

Mr. Chapman never failed to take notice of children and to speak some kind words to them, and he sought to encourage parents in training them for God. One of his questions was, “What do you seek most for your children?” to which the usual answer was, “Their conversion.” “Is that all? “would be his rejoinder, and he would press the importance of opening the mouth wide to God on their behalf. “Ask not merely for their conversion, but that they may be well-pleasing children of God and servants of Christ.” One of his last messages by a father to his boys was: “There are so many people who are satisfied with just knowing they are saved. Tell them not to be satisfied with this. I want them to study the Word, and grow in the knowledge of God. Tell them I want them to become intimate with the Lord Jesus Christ.” Many will remember his searching question concerning a little one, to which he seldom got an affirmative reply: “Does he obey at the first word?” This was his idea of obedience, and the question was natural to a man who in all his ways sought to deal thus with his heavenly Father.

One other hymn may be given which expresses so fully the heart and mind of Christ towards His people, as exhibited in the beloved apostle of the Gentiles, and also in himself as one of his true successors of later days:

“Thy brethren, Lord, are my delight,

I love them strong or weak;

They all are precious in my sight,

The froward with the meek.

I serve them, Lord, for they are Thine,

The Father’s gift to Thee;

The Spirit, by Thy Blood divine.

From prison set them free.

Since love will crave return in kind,

And prize it more than gold;

If my due recompense I find.

My joy can scarce be told.

Then with new strength my loins I gird

To magnify Thy name,

Thou Son of God, the living Word,

The Father’s spotless Lamb.

But if I be the less beloved

While I love more and more,

For froward saints to sorrow moved,

Still I Thy name adore.

And still the froward ones I serve—

Thy members, Lord, are they;

Hold Thou me up, nor let me swerve

From Love’s excelling way.”

Helping and Encouraging Younger Brethren

Though scarcely needful, it may be as well to say that Mr. Chapman did not regard the public ministry of the Word as a light matter. No one could press more strongly than he did that every one who has by grace been made a child of God should be a witness for Christ; by life continually, and by speech as God may give opportunity and ability. Once, when asked if it would not be well always to teach young believers to do something for Christ, he replied: “Oh, no; I would not teach them to do something, but to do everything as unto the Lord.” He would encourage younger brethren to go on quietly with God, seeking, by prayerful meditation on the Scriptures and the help of elder brethren, such knowledge of the grace and the will of God as would give preparation of heart and mind for any service to which God might lead them, whether in this land or other lands. But he would discountenance haste in giving up any occupation, even for more time in service, unhesitatingly judging that this should never be done until there was full assurance of God’s will, with the fellowship of godly brethren in such a step. Mr. Henry Heath was a striking example of one thus taught and led of God. The power of his life and ministry was known to many; but it may not have been so generally known that in his younger days he was specially linked with Mr. Chapman—as Timothy was with Paul—and that his progress in the heavenly school was such that in 1846—when he was only thirty-one—Mr. Chapman’s account of him was that “through his grace and gift he has so commended himself to all that he is received as a peculiar boon of a Father’s love.”

Mr. Chapman’s estimate of what a servant of Christ, who is called to give himself entirely to the work of the Gospel or shepherd-work in the Church, should be, was a very high one:

“The servant of the Lord Jesus must be instant in season and out of season, knowing that he is the Lord’s messenger to every one with whom he has to do, and ever learning of the Lord; seeing that he is to be continually ministering to others, he must be receiving fresh supplies from the God of all grace through all channels. Meditation on the Word and prayer should occupy the chief part of his time. In his public ministry and in his private conversation he should aim at hearts and consciences, seeking in every way to magnify Christ and abase the creature. In short, he should set the Lord always before him, and so walk in His steps as to represent Him to every eye.”

As Mr. Chapman himself could not fail to do things reverently, so he encouraged others to aid in doing all things “decently and in order.” He was always punctual in beginning meetings, and equally desirous that they should be closed at the proper time, so that household matters might not be disarranged or servants be made late. At the annual meeting at Barnstaple the time was fixed for closing, in a becoming manner, before it was necessary for those from other places to leave for trains. In such meetings it was his great desire to promote fellowship and edification. To his mind these were inseparable, for no one taught of God will consider that fellowship is ensured by the mere fact of a number taking part in a meeting. Only in the measure in which speaking to God and speaking to one another are in the grace, wisdom, and power of the Spirit of God, can there be true fellowship, and this must result in edification. He regarded the assembling of God’s children in the name of the Lord Jesus as one of the greatest things in God’s account, and equally so in the judgment of the powers of darkness; as that in which God specially delighted, and that against which Satan directed his most subtle attacks.

An extract from a letter from Ireland (1848) shows how he endeavoured to keep things in their right place, and desired that no account of himself should be allowed to hinder the great matters of worship and ministry of the Word:

“Beloved Brother Heath will take heed as to the time when he reads my journal, that greater matters may not give place to it—I mean, the worship of God and the ministration of the Word.”

The help Mr. Chapman rendered in Conferences, and in special meetings of servants of Christ before the word “Conference “became so general, it is impossible to estimate. His words were always weighty; but his influence—the very atmosphere his presence created—was even more powerful. He used to say that whilst he gladly gave himself to intercession for larger meetings of which he heard, he specially valued those smaller ones in which it was possible really to confer over the Word of God. Many gratefully remember his help at Leominster and Yeovil. He did not cease to attend such Conferences until he was over ninety; and when he could no longer be present, he still welcomed notices of them for prayer, and often wrote some words of greeting and help. The following is one of his letters:—

“9 Nev Buildings,

“Barnstaple, August 29th, 1900.

“Dear Brother Bennet,—The purposed meetings at Yeovil are a solemn matter before God, our Heavenly Father, as you and I well know. In spirit and in prayer I shall be present.

“Let me say that now, more than ever, I find rest in beginning and ending my every day with God. We, a royal priesthood, are thus true to ourselves, who are one with our Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God enthroned. Our matters we know are His, from greatest to smallest; His greatest and least are, in like manner, ours—as we grieve not the Comforter who dwelleth in us.

“‘He shall be satisfied’—how precious the truth! Christ is glorified; but not satisfied. Only in the new heaven and new earth can this come to pass.

“Looking on to this, my heart, dear brother, is more and more yearning over the blind, self-deceived, unre-.generate world, praying for them, and, as God gives opportunity, speaking to them. What they deride must come to pass—judgment, severe and terrible (Rev. 9:20, 21), and that, alas! will bring on, we know, the final, eternal judgment (chap. 20:15).

“Oh, the grace that makes us to differ! How unsearchable the riches of that grace!!! Farewell, beloved brother.—Yours affectionately in Christ Jesus, Robt. C. Chapman.”

Probably his last message to a conference, written for September 3rd, 1901, was as follows:

“He that at supper-time had leaned on the bosom of the Lord Jesus, afterwards (see Rev. 1.) fell at His feet as dead; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

Delight in Discovering God’s Grace in Others

In his exhortations to the children of God, he never took the position of being above them in attainments; he never spoke as one who thought he knew or experienced something which others had not entered into; he did not, so to speak, beckon them from a height, but sought to lead them on as one by their side. And in personal intercourse, doubtless, many felt humbled by the fact that he gave his brethren credit for so much grace and obedience, while their very intercourse with him made them conscious that he was, indeed, far above them in spiritual experience and devotedness to God. It is the “poor in spirit” who make much of Christ, and they alone will be true helpers of others. This blessedness was Robert Chapman’s.

Of Jehovah’s Anointed One it was said: “His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord “(Isa. 11:3, R.V.); not only was He Himself the great Example of “the fear of the Lord,” but wherever He saw any evidence of that fear He delighted in it, and such evidence He found where others would have overlooked it (Matt. 12:20; Mark 12:34). In this respect, also, His servant, Robert Chapman, was His follower. Like Barnabas, when he saw any evidence of the grace of God he was glad, because, like him, he was “a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” I remember the pleasure with which Mr. Chapman once read a free translation he had just made of a sonnet by the great Italian painter and sculptor, Michael Angelo, of which a friend has kindly sent me a copy:

“My life, a voyage o’er a tempestuous sea

In a frail bark, draws near the common end

Of all men. I, as others, must descend

Into the grave. What profit now to me

Pencil or chisel? Where the gain to be

In highest art a monarch? Can I bend

God’s sin-avenging justice to befriend

My helpless soul that would of guilt be free?

Nor saints nor angels can my ransom give

From the two deaths that are before mine eyes—

The first at hand; the twain my righteous doom—

But on the cross, the sinner to receive,

God’s Son spread out His hands. He hears my cries;

To Him I look and triumph o’er the tomb.”

A True Bishop

Mr. Chapman was a true bishop in God’s Church, or, as he would have said, a shepherd of the flock. In Barnstaple he gave himself much to visiting, and when staying elsewhere would always enquire for sick ones, and, if time permitted, go to see some. He made much of family life as the sphere in which heavenly relationships might be displayed, and taught many lessons of wisdom as to the ordering of a household. He believed that “there is more glory brought to God by a man ruling his family according to Christ, than even by a just potentate ruling a kingdom,” because for the ruling of a kingdom no pattern is found in the path of Christ on earth, nor are there any instructions in the words of Christ or His apostles.

“Rule in the family should be according to Christ. It is required of the child of God as a husband that he should represent Christ. Is he a father? Then it is required that he show the very image of God the Father to his children. Is the wife a child of God? She has a favour from God such as is not to be found in any relationship which rulers bear to each other—even to show forth the future Church in glory in her subjection to Christ, for surely Ephesians 5:does not refer to the Church now, but to the Church as she will be, and that is the pattern for us to aim at. Again, are there children? Christ is their pattern. Are there servants? He is their pattern in subjection. Christ is also the pattern of rule to the master.”

Mr. Chapman’s sympathy in all family matters was so well known that not a few went to him for counsel in difficulty. The good fruit resulting from his wise and gracious help in some painful cases cannot, of course, be widely known; but a Christian lady has entrusted me with the following, which may be taken as a true example of his godly care and wisdom. Though written in the third person, it is her own experience that she records:

“Over twenty years ago a young Christian husband and wife so disagreed that each became a great trouble to the other, and separation was the result. The wife, in the kind providence of God, was taken by her sister to see Mr. Chapman and Mr. Hake, but when she went she was in such a rebellious state of mind that, on leaving them, she said to herself, ‘Never more will I go to see these old men.’ Subsequently, however, she had a very kind invitation to visit them, and the Lord led her to accept it. Nothing could have been kinder than the welcome she received.

“The evening she arrived was that of the District Meeting, and dear Mr. Chapman, taking James 3 as the subject, dwelt on the evils of which the tongue could be guilty. Lack of love and patience with her husband were sins in which she had indulged, so she remained in the room till all but Mr. Hake and Mr. Chapman had left, and then said, ‘It was too bad to expose me before all those people!’ ‘Dear sister,’ answered Mr. Chapman, ‘I had not a thought of you when the Lord led me to the subject of this evening; the Holy Spirit has no doubt been speaking to you.’ This evidently was so. Very heavily had the case of the separated husband and wife been laid on Mr. Chapman’s heart, and afterwards on Mr. Hake’s, and many were the times they united in believing prayer for them; and the loving, gentle ways in which the wife was encouraged to pour out her trouble, and was prayed with and counselled, could not have been surpassed. Mr. Chapman did not deal with the wrong of the husband; he sought to point out and convince her of where she had erred, so that in humility and repentance for her part in the evil she might take her right position before God, always assuring her that when she could through grace quite acquiesce in His will, and thank Him for chastening her, He would take up her cause and give her what had become the desire of her heart—re-union with her husband.

“Some months later Mr. Chapman, being in the Lord’s service in the town where the husband lived, called upon him, and asked him to go for a walk with him. In speaking of this afterwards, Mr.—— said: ‘The singular part of it was this, Mr. Chapman never said one word to me of my conduct, but in the presence of such a holy man I felt how base I had been.’ He sought his-wife, and each desiring forgiveness of the other, reconciliation and re-union followed; the dear husband with tears asked his children’s pardon for his treatment of their mother, and she also confessed her share in the evil.

“Some years after, Mr. Chapman conducted the service when their three children were baptised, and both parents and children were on different occasions happy visitors to him. Greatly did he rejoice in having been a peacemaker.”

The wisdom shown in dealing with this husband and wife characterised Mr. Chapman in dealing with difficulties in the Church. On one occasion, when he visited a town in Devon to seek to render help in some serious trouble in an assembly of God’s children, he made no reference to the difficulties in the first meeting that was held, but dwelt much upon the calling and responsibility of the Church. He afterwards remarked that his aim had been to -give special help in present troubles; doubtless lie had done so.

Faith and Thanksgiving

For the supply of temporal necessities, Mr. Chapman looked to God alone. In this respect, also, his life was a life of faith in God. Whatever he possessed he gave away, and whatever came to him he used for the Lord, meeting, of course, the expenses of his own house, which was generally pretty full of visitors. On one occasion, when a sum of money came by post, he took it, as it was, to an aged servant of Christ who had long been an earnest evangelist, and was dependent upon the Lord for himself and his family, all being in feeble health.

Mr. Chapman has been known to go to the railway station with the assured conviction that God would have him take a journey, and on the way, or at the station, has received the money needed for the ticket, though the one who gave it knew not that his purse was empty. Various incidents of this kind are told, and his experience of God’s care must have been great in his many journeyings; but the only ones of which I have details are the following. The first has been narrated to me by Mr. W. Marriott, who heard it from Mr. Hake, and the second by Mr. G. Fisher, who, for a time, rendered help to Mr. Chapman, and accompanied him when travelling.

Many years ago Mr. Chapman and Mr. Hake were on a visit to South Devon, and, as usual, they had very little money. Before the time for their return to Barnstaple Mr. Hake handed Mr. Chapman his railway fare, retaining his own. Knowing his loving readiness to impart to others, he asked him more than once if he had the money all right, but only received the reply, “Our Father knows all about it.” On the way to the station Mr. Hake again asked about it, and, with some hesitation, Mr. Chapman confessed that he had been to see Sister B——, who, being ill, was in need of some little luxury, and he had given her what money he had to procure it. Mr. Hake said, “I expected you would be doing something of that kind; what are you going to do? “He received the same reply, “Our Father knows all about it.” Just before the train drew up a friend came hurrying to the station, and, expressing regret for being late, said, “Here’s a guinea for you, Mr. Chapman, and one for you, Mr. Hake.” Mr. Hake said he felt greatly ashamed to think that Mr. Chapman had so much more faith than himself.

On one occasion, when Mr. Chapman and Mr. Fisher were leaving Leominster, neither of them had any money. Mr. Chapman had received some money while there, but had given it to a needy brother in the meeting. They walked to the station, and on the way Mr. Fisher said, “I have no money.” Mr. Chapman with his usual calmness answered, “To whom does the money belong, and the cattle upon a thousand hills? “When they reached the station a gentleman got out of a train, gave Mr. Chapman a five-pound note, saying, “I have had this in my pocket for you for some time, and am glad to meet you,” and got in again. Mr. Chapman said to his companion, “Dear brother, will you take the tickets?” and, after a time, said again, “To whom does the money belong?”

The “spirit of faith” always leads to thanksgiving, and those who had but little acquaintance with Mr. Chapman must have heard him affirm that thanksgiving should be the constant business of the child of God. Often did he ask the questions, Do you count up your mercies? Do your thanksgivings keep pace with them? On one occasion, at a meeting of a few believers, after he had dwelt upon Ephesians 5:19, 20, a spiritually-minded sister said, “I do give thanks; but why am I not always singing and making melody in my heart to the Lord? “The answer was, “If I be not giving thanks always for all things to God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the cause must be that I have some little concern of my own in a corner.” By this he meant that if we walk in true fellowship with the Father and the Son, by the Spirit, and recognise that all our matters are ordered by our Heavenly Father in perfect wisdom and love, we must be giving thanks; but if we treat our matters simply as our own, seek to deal with them by our own wisdom, have regard to their results only as they concern ourselves, and fail to bring God into them all, in the spirit of faith, with the assurance that He controls them for His own glory and our truest blessing, our harp will soon be hung on the willows.

Having proved the reality of trusting God himself, Mr. Chapman was able to encourage others to do the same, and no one could more earnestly have pressed the truth that it is not only those whom God leads to give themselves entirely to the ministry of the Word and the care of His people who have occasion for the exercise of constant faith in Him. All God’s children are called to walk by faith, and faith is needed to deal aright with property or business, or to fill any position in a manner worthy of Christ. We can only carry out the Lord’s exhortation, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” as we truly receive the promise that follows, “And all these things [which, He had just said, your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of] shall be added unto you.” One great object—it may be said the great object—of Mr. Chapman’s ministry, public and private, was to encourage and strengthen faith, and to show the folly as well as the sin of unbelief. He was told of a sister in Scotland who had once been in “easier circumstances,” but having used her all in the service of Christ, said she had now nothing to look to but the Living God. Mr. Chapman calmly replied, “Tell that sister from me that I would not give up that but for all the gold in the Bank of England.”

Best Days and Circumstances

We often speak of the difficulties of the times, and with truth; but Mr. Chapman insisted that the present times are the very best for us, and that as our lot is cast in them there is abundant grace to enable us to fully please God. In the closing years of his life he would often say that these were his best days; he had prayed that his last days might be his best, and God had made them so. The mention of “best days” brings to mind Mr. Chapman’s words about the best circumstances for the believer:

“Those are my best circumstances that best serve to try faith, help humility, and check self-will.”

With this a few of his utterances with regard to trials may be given:

“It is the greatest misfortune that can happen to a child of God to have no trials. Trials are sent to lead to the Word of God, and entire dependence upon Him.

“Why did Christ suffer being tempted? Was it not that He might be able to sympathise? What practice would there be for the skill of the able physician if he settled down where there was no disease?

“If you have no trials, how can you comfort others with the comfort wherewith you yourself are comforted of God?

“Take out of life the bitterness of unbelieving fears, the bitterness of mortified pride, and the bitterness of disappointed self-will, and there will be very little left that is not sweet.”

Quoting such words naturally leads to the mention of the little book called Choice Sayings— known by many, and greatly valued. It has been translated into French and German, and one of the Indian languages. C. H. Spurgeon, who was always a lover of Robert Chapman, remarked on seeing this little volume, “The gold of that land is good,” quoting Genesis 2:12. It need scarcely be said that its title was not given by himself; indeed he would not recognise the book for a long while, until Mr. Hake said that, as these sayings went forth as his words, he ought to read them, and, if he deemed it needful, revise them. The sisters in Christ who enriched many by jotting down these weighty words from his public ministry have long been with Christ, but their service remains. A, volume of choice deeds might easily be compiled if even all still remaining who have known our beloved brother were to tell what they know; but for the full knowledge of them we must await the judgment-seat of Christ, when the good works that are not manifest now will no longer be hid, and God will be truly glorified by all that His grace has wrought here below.

Visits to Spain

One special and continuous subject of prayer with Mr. Chapman was the spread of the Gospel in all lands, and visits to New Buildings were paid by servants of Christ from many countries; but in the Lord’s work in Spain he took special interest. Accompanied by two brethren (Mr. Pick and Mr. Handcock, of Barnstaple), he had visited it in 1838, when it was fast closed against the Word of God, and journeyed from place to place, speaking of Christ as God gave opportunity, and praying that God would yet open Spain to the Gospel. In 1863 he had the joy of guiding into that land Mr. W. Gould and Mr. G. Lawrence, whom he left there. Concerning Mr. Chapman’s first visit to Spain, Mr. Henry Payne, who, through hearing Mr. Chapman speak of that country, had his heart drawn to it from his youth, and went there to labour in the Gospel in 1869, writes as follows in his Spanish paper, El Evangelista:

“When Mr. Chapman determined to visit Spain, his relatives and friends used all their efforts to dissuade him from such a course, for at that time Roman Catholic unity was established by law, and they feared for his life if he ventured to proclaim the Gospel in the land of the Inquisition, when the power was in the hands of the clergy. But nothing moved him from his purpose. He told his friends that he counted on God for help in all circumstances, that he was persuaded it was the will of the Lord that he should go; and even if an assassin took his life, though the act would be a violent one, it would, nevertheless, give him entrance to his Father’s home above.

“He travelled through the country, generally on foot, in order to have better opportunities for speaking to persons alone. He found the people, as a rule, ready to listen to him when no one was near to overhear what was being said. Even then the people hated the clergy, but fear caused them to be exceedingly reserved. No doubt Mr. Chapman’s countenance, which revealed his kindness of heart, was a great help to him in securing the ear of the people. He told me that one day when he was seated in a diligence in Spain, though he had not opened his lips, a man and a woman began to quarrel furiously in French, and at last the woman said, ‘I affirm that I am as innocent of that of which you accuse me as is that holy man of God sitting in the corner, who anyone can see is going straight to heaven’.”

An incident related by Mr. E. H. Glenny in North Africa is worthy of record. Though it is not quite clear which visit is referred to, the time would indicate that of 1863. A gentleman, who was in Spain as a pioneer representative of a missionary society, when going in a diligence to the city of Seville, found himself seated by an elderly gentleman who quietly commenced to read his Bible. What followed is related in his own words:

“I soon introduced myself, and quickly found that we were on the same errand. And as I had travelled far and wide in many lands, I proffered my services as travelling companion. Mr. Chapman at once expressed his thanks and handed me his purse; this greatly took me by surprise, and I thought I was in the company of a very good man, but a little ‘touched in his upper storey.’ On our arrival in Seville, we were surrounded by a crowd, and a man demanded money to convey our luggage to the hotel. This was provided for in the funds already paid, so I stoutly resisted the imposition. In the midst of the altercation I felt a hand gently tapping me on the shoulder, and, as I turned, Mr. Chapman said, ‘Pay the man the money.’ Hotly I replied, ‘Indeed, Mr. Chapman, I shall not. Here is your purse, and you can do as you like, but I won’t be taken in like that.’ Never shall I forget the scene which followed. Quickly taking from his purse the amount demanded, Mr. Chapman took the man’s hand in his, and, as he placed the money in it, told him that he was quite aware that it was an imposition, but that he had come to his country to tell the glad tidings of salvation, that ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.’ The money must have burned in the man’s hand as he stood there and listened to the Gospel story.

“A great change already began to pass through my mind as to the one who was my travelling companion, and instead of feeling my own importance as a great and accomplished traveller, I felt more as a child compared with him.

“After tea Mr. Chapman asked if I would like a walk, to which I readily assented, and we spent some time together in passing from one part of the city to another. Presently, Mr. Chapman turned to me with the question, ‘Brother, do you know the way back to our hotel?’ ‘Know my way back! Why, no, Mr. Chapman; I have never been in this city before.’ ‘Very well, then, let us ask God to guide us.’ Instantly, and before I had time to exclaim (which I did), I found myself drawn to the entrance of a side street, and heard Mr. Chapman in prayer, telling the Lord that we were in this city as His servants, and asking Him to guide us to the hotel, and to give us an opportunity of speaking to someone about his soul. I was dumb. I knew nothing about this intimate intercourse and spirit of constant dependence upon God, and I just followed on. Presently, as we went down the street, Mr. Chapman, who had been scanning the names over the shops, stopped, and said, ‘That is an English name; let us go in.’ It was a bell-hanger’s, and, as we entered, a man in a paper cap came out from an inside room. Going towards him, and holding out his hand, Mr. Chapman said, ‘You are English?’ ‘Yes, that I am, and right glad I am to hear my mother tongue.’ Mr. Chapman then said, ‘We are here to preach the Gospel,’ and asked the bell-hanger if he was converted. ‘This is the first time since I came into this country any one has asked me such a question, or cared anything about me. If that is your errand, you had better come inside.’ I followed, wondering what would come of it. Mr. Chapman’s Bible was out at once, and soon a most interesting conversation over the Scriptures was going on. The man was deeply in earnest, and prayer followed. Then, on rising from his knees, Mr. Chapman said, ‘We are strangers in the city; will you kindly direct us to —— Hotel?’ ‘Direct you, sir; I’ll go with you every step of the way,’ was the ready response, and he did so, whilst I was deeply impressed with the character of the man of God into whose presence and companionship I had so unexpectedly been brought.”

The gentleman who related the above said that some years after, when he was in Seville again, he sought out the bell-hanger, and found that, as the result of the interview described, he was truly-converted, and was seeking to serve God by living and preaching the Gospel. He speaks also of the indelible marks Mr. Chapman had left behind him. Mr. Chapman himself once said that on his landing in Spain some Government official recognised him, and told him that he had been led to Christ through his speaking to him some years previously. His last visit to Spain was in 1871, when he wrote to Christians at Barnstaple:

“Your prayers for me have been answered step by step in my journey, by inward comfort of the Spirit and by outward leadings of God… My heart is full of joy to see what God has wrought, and the tokens of yet greater things.”

With reference to a place at which Mr. Chapman stayed for a night, Mr. Lawrence wrote:

“We were warned against speaking to the landlord about our ‘religion,’ as he was such a Carlist. In the morning Brother Chapman said to him, ‘There is one thing which English and Spanish people need more than anything else.’ ‘What is that?’ ‘Peace with God,’ Mr. C. replied. ‘Have you that peace, my friend? I have had that peace through our Lord Jesus Christ for many years.’ The man seemed astonished, and asked if we had any little books like those we gave away in the train, which he saw in the hands of some people. We soon supplied him.”

This is the small Workshop in which Mr. Chapman used the Lathe, and often occupied himself in other ways, for so many years. His apron is seen hanging on the door, and his cap is on the bench Mr. Chapman left Barcelona January 15th, 1872, and the next day wrote to the friends there from France:

“How precious to us, beloved ones all, is the remembrance of your love. Truly our parting was at the mercy-seat. We send you ‘Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever’; ‘Great High Priest’; ‘Great Shepherd of the sheep.’ Both on the Spanish side of the border, and on the French, we had good opportunities. The Lord opened the mouth; may He open the ear! The French are willing to listen, and do not seem hardened in indifference; at least, those we have met. Farewell. God bless the little ones!”

Bodily Exercise

It is “Veil known that Mr. Chapman never saw visitors on Saturday, and until quite recently he did not take food on that day. Much of the day was spent in meditation and prayer; but he also spent a good deal of it in his workshop, finding in exercise of body rest of mind. He was very expert in the use of the lathe, and, though he gave more time to it on Saturday, it was his habit to take this kind of exercise regularly, which, doubtless, contributed not a little to his usual good health. The workshop—like everything else with which he had to do—was kept very clean and orderly. He continued his habit of rising between three and four in the morning to give himself to prayer and meditation on the Word almost to the end, but latterly he needed rest at intervals during the day.

Until quite recently Mr. Chapman’s voice was heard in public, and occasionally his address was given in full in a local paper, the editor of which highly esteemed him. At the Barnstaple annual meeting in June, 1901—the last which he attended—he stood on his feet exactly one hour; he gave out the opening hymn from the desk, and then prayed, read several portions of Scripture, and spoke with much vigour. When it was suggested to him that it would be wise not to go out in the evening, he said he could not remain away; but he did not take any part.

Closing Days

On June 2, 1902, he rose as usual, but it was evident that he was poorly, and in the afternoon he fell with a slight stroke of paralysis, affecting the left side. From that time he was quite helpless, and was lovingly cared for by Mr. E. Pearce, who had, first with his wife’s assistance and then with that of his sister, long and faithfully ministered to him.

Mr. G. Hake, of Bideford, and Mr. G. Fisher, who had both been constant visitors, with readiness to render help, were much by hisl side, and took their turn in sitting with him; and Mr. Wilson and Mr. Idenden kindly came some distance to minister to him. During most of the ten days he was very restless, and constantly desired to be moved, but showed no impatience. He said to Mr. Pearce, “If you’ll be pleased to give me a helping hand, you’ll do me good and yourself no harm.” For all attention he was very grateful, and said his comfort was that he had a great Surety. Another expression was, “Be of good cheer, for you shall see all this as it is, in the glory”; and another, “Such kindness never was shown to a man whom I have long since named, ‘Good-for-nothing’.” The following utterances, taken down by those who were at his side, tell how God’s comforts delighted his soul (Psalm 94:19) during these days of absolute helplessness as regards the body; some of them were often repeated.

“I often think the thought: The members of Christ will never come to the end of ‘It is finished’. We shall be learning from day to day more and more, but what we.shall come to will be the unsearchableness of the work.”

In reply to, How are you this morning? he said, “God is dealing very tenderly, very lovingly with me.”

“I can lie quiet now by faith.”

“My times are in Thy hands.”

In prayer: “Heavenly Father, Thou knowest Thine aged servant’s needs; Thou considerest; Thou pitiest.”

“Remember that, as you are a member of Christ, He is your wisdom.”

With reference to those gone before, he said: “They are waiting for what is perfect and satisfying to God.”

“My heavenly Father is dealing well with me! but the question is, How am I dealing with Him?”

Asked if in pain, he replied: “Oh, no, not in any pain; but it has been so ordered that I should be made perfect in weakness.”

“Let the hand be full of love and diligence; it is worth something.”

One said: “You are longing to go home.” “Yes! but I am full of purpose to please God.”

“Did you ever find the wisdom of God make any mistake?”

“God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (This was spoken slowly, deliberately, and with special emphasis on the leading words.)

“Oh, how precious the Gift of God! and to be brought into His light and liberty!”

“We have the whole heart of Christ. It is all ours.”

A message of love being given to him, he replied:

“Dear Brother S—— has shown me deeds of love, and now he has sent me words of love.”

“They shall be all taught of God.”

“The worst thing on our part is unbelief.”

“‘I believe God,’ said Paul in the shipwreck; and what beloved Paul says I am repeating continually.”

“Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

“In the 17th of John we have our likeness to Christ.”

“The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” (This Scripture was often repeated.)

“We are taught to be one with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection.”

“Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved? “

“Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.”

“Thou art with me.”

“I shall see Thee as Thou now art.”

“It is finished.” (This he said many times.)

“Of all the works of God, the deepest is the cross and resurrection “

“‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Thou art with me I’ll fear no evil’—but why? ‘Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me’—that is, Thy guidance and Thy strength.”

“The only wise God knows exactly what is my case, and is ordering it.”

“So He giveth His beloved sleep “To the question: “Are you His beloved? “he promptly answered, “Yes, certainly. And so are you.”

“The work is finished: nothing to be added. I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do.” These words were said several times.)

“That I may glorify Thee.”

“On the third day God did raise Christ.”

“Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”

“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?”

“We have borne the image of the first Adam; we shall bear the image of the Last.”

“The dead in Christ shall rise first.”

“The knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.”

“Made the righteousness of God in Christ.”

“He was made sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

“That we might be made—What? ‘The righteousness of God in Christ’.”

“We could not be made the righteousness of God in Christ without the Spirit of God dwelling in us.”

“We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Whom He predestinated, them He also called— whom He justified, them He also glorified.”

“God grant us to be strengthened with might in the inner man.”

“And to wait for His Son from heaven.”

“No rest but in Christ Jesus.”

“We know not yet what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He now is.” (This was the most frequent of all his utterances during his illness. He placed special emphasis on the word know, and usually added the word now.)

Some of his words in prayer were:

“Accept thanks for our great High Priest.”

“Oh, heavenly Father, great is Thy loving kindness, and Thy care for me.”

“Oh, heavenly Father, in the smallest matters, help!”

Mr. Chapman was, of course, quite unable to be at the annual meeting at Barnstaple, June 11th, from which, it was said, he had not been absent for seventy years, except in 1871, when he was in Spain; but his state of feebleness gave a special tone to it, and there was much thanksgiving and prayer for him. The clearness of his mind on the things of God, even to the end, may be judged by the following words, spoken that very day and repeated at the meeting. When Mr. Pearce, referring to 1 John 3:2, said, “Dear Mr. Chapman, do you long to go home to see Him?” he replied, “I bow to the sovereignty of God my heavenly Father; I have no will but His”; and added, “We know that God is love, and if, with love of which there is no measure, there be conjoined wisdom which makes no mistakes, what becomes us, His children, but to be full of thankfulness.”

On June 12th serious symptoms manifested themselves, and about 8.50 that evening this beloved servant of Christ entered into his rest,, to await with Him the blissful moment when the body itself shall be raised, and he shall in every sense be conformed to the Lord whom he so faithfully served. In his own words:

“The spirit from its house of clay

Is fled, and dwells with Thee;

Both what is gone and what remains

Were ransomed on the tree.”

The following words fell from his lips after 7 o’clock on the evening of his departure:

“‘Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.’ In my advanced years I am happy in God.”

“I have peace with God.”

“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

“Peace within and rest.”

“Whom He justified, them He also glorified.”

“That we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.”

“The peace of God that passeth all understanding…”

This—at 8.20—was his last utterance. Thus the end was in beautiful harmony with the whole life, and a fulfilment of the promise, which, when quoted to him that very day, he with energy finished, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee!’

Concluding Remarks

If we would characterise Robert Chapman in a sentence, surely we should say, “He was a man of faith.” He was a man of prayer because he was a man of faith. “Unbelief lightly esteems both our own prayers and those of others,” while faith sees that “it is a high place that is given to the prayers of saints.” Faith accepts the testimony of God, both concerning ourselves and concerning Himself. Faith apprehends Christ as the Saviour of the lost, and as the One in whom we have acceptance before God. Faith thus enters into the reality of things unseen, and, reaching on to what God has prepared for His own, makes us pilgrims and strangers here. Above all, faith takes hold of God Himself, and leads to a walk with Him—a life moulded by diligent and prayerful meditation in the Holy Scriptures, such as is portrayed in Psalm 1.

This is not an age of faith. But as on the darkest night the few stars that shine may be even more conspicuous, so, thank God, in these days of feeble faith He still has His witnesses to the fact that He is the living God, and that the faith which lays hold of Him as such can lift men above the pursuit of wealth or fame, and enable them to walk with Him in true humility, as becometh those who “look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” prizing the opportunity given for service amidst present difficulties, and rejoicing in the promise that “His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face, and His Name shall be in their foreheads.”

Prominent amongst such was Robert Chapman, and we cannot but feel the loss of one who had a heart for every burden, sympathy for any one in sorrow; whose life was given to the service of Christ in His members, and to constant intercession on their behalf. But our comfort is that, whoever may be taken, “Jesus Christ [abides] the same, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” Let us profit, too, by the example of Elisha, who, when he smote the waters, said not, “Where is Elijah? “but, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” and his faith was honoured. The Lord knows the need of His people, and is able to supply it; they who set their hope in God and cleave to His Word will never be ashamed.

For him who has been taken we rejoice, because the “far better” portion is his. Though, to a man whose fellowship with God had been growing for nearly fourscore years, the change was more one of locality and surroundings than of heart and mind, yet it must have been very real. He now enjoys in fuller measure that communion with the Lord which he so prized; all feebleness and suffering are for him things of the past, and the worship he loved to render to God his Father and to Christ his Lord will never be interrupted. In faith and love he “walked with God” here, and God has taken him to continue that walk in a higher sphere. And while, on the one hand, God’s holy Paradise is enriched by the reception of such a worshipper, on the other hand, we can say of him what cannot be said of the holiest on earth, that sin no longer troubles him, and that Satan can no longer assault him. As he himself expressed it:

“No guilt can there benumb the soul,

Escaped from Satan’s wiles;

Atoning blood perfumes that place,

And nothing there defiles;

Ceaseless my new and holy song,

And sung with heaven-born skill,

Of Christ the Lamb that soon shall be

Enthroned on Zion’s hill.”

Thus, in deeper communion and untiring worship, he still waits, waits with the Lord, in fuller intelligence and with more ardent anticipation than he knew here—though not, it may be, with more assurance—for the fulfilment of his expectation that—

“Jesus at His appointed hour

In glory shall appear;

Then, fashioned by His mighty hand,

We shall His image bear.”

And not for this alone; but even as Christ is expecting till His enemies are made His footstool, so those with Him are waiting in holy fellowship for the kingdom of the world to become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, who shall reign for ever and ever. Seeing, moreover, that—as Mr. Chapman often reminded us — the Millennial Kingdom of Christ is to the Eternal State but as the porch to the building, we may rest assured that those above, in their joyful looking onward, do not stop short of the time when “He that sitteth upon the Throne” will say, “Behold, I make all things new,” and when, in the fullest sense, the Lord who died on Calvary “shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.”

May this brief sketch of Robert Chapman (whose life, as already said, no one can write) and his own words, both in the preceding and the following pages, minister to the faith and hope of many! May we be followers of him as he followed Christ, and know more of his experience, as expressed in the following verses!

“No more we seek a resting-place

Where thorns and briers grow;

No Eden now is found on earth,

But sin and every woe.

Faith sees the Paradise of God,

The better heavenly land;

That holy city faith espies,

Not built by human hand.

O earth! we only ask of thee,

When saints in Jesus sleep,

A grave which, till the Bridegroom come,

Our brethren’s dust shall keep.

We ask thee no inheritance,

For we are pilgrims here;

Our God new heavens and earth shall make—

Our Father’s house is there.”

Burial in Barnstaple Cemetery, June 17th, 1902

It was only natural that Christians should assemble from all the neighbourhood at the burial of one who was so highly esteemed, and who, in fulfilling the charge to “feed the flock of God,” had been the helper of so many; but from distant places also—even as far as Dublin—servants of Christ had journeyed to be present. A large number of the inhabitants of Barnstaple, besides those accustomed to worship at Grosvenor Street, in like manner gave expression to their respect for one who had lived such a lowly life of godliness amongst them longer than almost any of them could remember.

As many as could find a place in the good-sized meeting-room—where Mr. Chapman’s presence had been familiar from the time of its erection—joined in praise for God’s grace to His beloved servant, and for the gift of him to the Church for so long; and some of his own hymns were sung, expressive of that hope which was so dear to him. Of the many present who might with profit have taken part, few only could do so in the allotted time; but words were spoken as to his being a man of the first psalm, and as to the simplicity of his walk with God, the faithfulness of his testimony, and the constancy of his intercession.

Not a few, however, were able to render the last service of carrying the body from the house to the meeting-room, and then some distance to the cemetery. About eighty brethren—six at a time— esteemed it a privilege to bear the precious burden to its final earthly resting-place.

At the grave believers were reminded of Mr. Chapman’s love to the Scriptures and confidence in them, and an earnest appeal was made to any of that large company who had not received Christ. Dr. Henry Soltau also spoke specially to the many children present, as one who had himself, when a child, been commended to God by Mr. Chapman, and had also known him and been helped by him from his earliest years. With further thanksgiving and prayer, and some hope-inspiring words from 1 Cor. 15, the body was committed to the dust to await the blessed moment of resurrection glory.

It may be of interest to mention that Mr. Chapman was buried in the grave in which the remains of Miss Paget were laid forty years ago. By the rules of the Board that grave might have been appropriated and used for a second burial after the lapse of twenty-one years; but without effort on the part of those interested, it had been preserved for its present occupant.

Some of Mr. Chapman’s beautiful verses, which follow, will form a fitting conclusion to the first part of this little volume. They may have been suggested by the expression of the desire of a servant of Christ, who fell asleep many years ago in North Devon, that his name, which was written in heaven, might not be engraved on any tombstone. The lines will find a response in the hearts of those who, knowing “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,” are rejoicing in hope of that “redemption of our body” which the Lord by His power will soon bring to pass.

The Pilgrimage Finished

Beloved! why garnish the tombs of your dead?

Why grave ye the name on the stone?

Behold how the traveller rests in his bed,

His pilgrimage finished, right well has he sped,

To Jesus the spirit is gone!

The finger of Mercy has written each name

In durable letters of blood;

Go, read it by faith in the Book of the Lamb,

The record for ever and ever the same,

Laid up in the bosom of God!

Companions depart in the watches of night,

To meet us at dawning of day;

The Bridegroom is coming with power and might,

The ashes are ransomed and dear in His sight;

Then why at the tomb will ye stay?

Once Jesus could weep—He forbids not the tear

At winding the clay in the shroud;

Yet speaks from His throne to the circumcised ear,

Reminds us how quickly the Lord shall appear,

And points to the bow in the cloud!

1 As Mr. Macartney’s reference to Mr. Chapman’s father has been widely copied, it seems needful to remark that both as to name and official position it was incorrect.

In Loving Memory

Oh, what a welcome from the friends of years,

Dear, aged Father-brother, thou would’st have

Within the gates of pearl! The golden street

Would echo and re-echo with their song—

“Ten thousand welcomes, aged pilgrim, home!”

For nigh a century thine arms and heart

Were opened wide to welcome every saint

Who loved the name of Jesus Christ thy Lord.

Those whom thou didst embrace, embrace thee now,

And many more besides, for in that home

Love beams in every eye and fills each heart!

And He whose welcome would them all excel—

The Guard and Guide of all thy pilgrim days,

Whom thou didst pray: “Leave me not long to roam

An exile from my home,” hath given thee place

In His own presence: rest and joy complete!

We view thy life, the distant and the near:

What hast thou wrought?—Two pillars towering high

Are left as landmarks in thy history;

One, “God is light,” the other, “God is love.”

Thy lip and life together testified

God’s “righteousness” and “love” in harmony.

His Word was deeply pondered in thy heart—

Esteemed more necessary than thy food;

Pondered to be obeyed: and thus God’s peace

Kept calm thy heart, and showed upon thy face

‘Mid many a storm; till, with thy latest breath,

“Peace passing understanding, God’s own peace,”

Told out the unruffled peace which dwelt within!

The Church—yea, all the world—is poorer now!

How we shall miss thee at the mercy-seat!

Thy constant intercession, morn and eve,

Will rise for us no more! Yet, God be praised,

Christ “ever lives “for us to intercede!

Thus, one by one, the great and good depart,

The longest earthly life finds here an end; (An end which but begins the bliss of those Who trust in Jesus’ blood and righteousness;)

But Christ, the “First and Last,” for aye remains.

—M. M. D.

Home Reached at Last.

Thy Lord’s sweet call obey—

Go, brother, go!

He did thy ransom pay:

Waiting thou long hadst been,

Feeding on pastures green;

Now to the long-loved scene—

Go, brother, go!

Love bound our souls in one—

Love from the throne!

Still, still that love flows on;

Now with Himself to dwell,

Whose grace thou long didst tell,

As an o’erflowing well—

Jesus alone!

Long life was thine to know,

Yet quickly past!

Bright the declining glow;

Meet for the glory band,

Ripe for the heavenly land,

Rest! ’tis thy Lord’s command—

Home, home at last!

Albert Midlane.

Select Extracts and Sayings

Over sixty years ago someone said, “Robert Chapman is always dropping pearls wherever he goes.” A few of such pearls are given in following pages; but a further brief statement of his own experience, as carefully written by himself after he was ninety, may be acceptable.

For some years in early youth I diligently sought eternal life by the works of the law, works proceeding from myself, hoping that by God’s mercy in Christ I might be saved. According to Romans 7:9, “I was alive without the law once”; but when the Spirit of God revealed to me the holiness of God and the glorious rigour of His justice, I discovered that, whatever my righteousness was between myself and my neighbour, I was, as between myself and God, utterly destitute of holiness or righteousness.

Thus reduced to beggary, and having nothing to call my own but sin and its wages, which is death, I took my place according to 1 Samuel 2:8—which verse the Spirit of God has been engraving upon my heart with deeper and yet deeper assurance of its truth—“He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from-the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory.”

Through the Great High Priest I am enabled, by the teaching of the indwelling Spirit of God, to know that my worship and service are well-pleasing to God, who hides from His holy eyes my imperfections, while He reveals them to mine. Thus I cannot but reckon myself to be less than the least of all saints, and chief of sinners.

I am ready at any moment to depart and to be with Christ; but, according to the good pleasure of God, willing to tarry here awhile to be doing good to all men, specially to the household of faith.

My heart inclines more and more to depart and to be present with the Lord; but I am more and more happy in being here.

The following, selected from Mr. Chapman’s Meditations, give a little glimpse of his experience when comparatively young:—

It is by grace I differ from those whom the god of this world has blinded, lest the light should shine into their hearts. Once I, with the rest, was his slave, his faithful servant, his captive. I hugged my chains! I would not—could not—hear the voice of Jesus!

But Thou, Lord, didst teach me by Thy strong hand. Gentle and gracious was the still, small whisper of Thy love! and yet mighty! for it broke my bonds and melted my heart! The lawful captive was delivered, and the prey of the mighty and terrible taken from him.

How glorious the revelation of Thy Spirit! When He declares Thy name to mourners Thy cross becomes their joy and salvation. And shall they not sing and be glad, and take their harps from the willows?

How much of the proud Pharisee cleaves to me still, who washes the outside of the cup and the platter, heedless of that which is within!

Thou knowest, Lord, I hate with perfect hatred this host of inward foes; they rise up against Thee, and I count them both Thine enemies and mine. Chiefly, Lord, I hate and dread the pride and spiritual wickedness of the flesh, its worship, faith, repentance, prayers, and praises.

The entrance of Thy words, my Lord and Saviour, giveth light; Thou art the Sun of Righteousness, and wherefore this? Because Thou art the Lamb of God. Thy blood speaks peace, purging the conscience.

In Thy blood of redemption am I justified; Thou dost present me in Thyself. For ever am I accepted before God, Thyself my robe of righteousness.

In vain I sought my guiltiness to hide,

While I was blind and void of holy fear;

I hewed out broken cisterns; had no ear

For truth that makes man free. I walked in pride;

My wisdom scorned the Christ once cruciffed,

The Saviour pierced with the soldier’s spear.

My life was only death; yet I could sneer

At Jesus’ name, and Jesus’ grace deride.

Now, O my God, I enter into rest,

Led by Thy Spirit to the spotless Lamb,

In whom I glory, smiting on my breast:

Thy Son for men a sacrifice became,

Of savour sweet, and I, in Jesus blest,

My God and Father, praise Thy holy name.

By grace teach me to purify myself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and to walk in white with Thee, that so Thine image may be seen in me; and what though the world hate and revile? all is well if Thou commend and bless.

Thou, Lord, art my joy and heaven; and here in my pilgrimage I am a stranger and sojourner with Thee. My soul followeth hard after Thee, allured by Thy beauty and excellency, O Lord Jesus, who art altogether glorious, altogether lovely.

Here a sojourner, happy am I, for Thou art my portion, O Lord; I am glad in heart, for I dwell within the veil. I rest in Thee who sittest, Prince of Peace, upon Thy priestly throne, showing Thyself there for Thy Church’s admiration and praise.

To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain; for to depart and be with Christ is far better, in the balances of my love and admiration of Thee, than to abide on earth. But patience and submission whisper in mine ear that waiting my Lord’s time is His will and best for His glory. I know, Lord, Thou dost commend my longing, as also my patient waiting—both Thine own work within me.

Lord! I wait for the time—I wait for it more than they that watch for the morning—when I shall behold Thee face to face! I long for Thy glorious appearing; but my waiting is patient, for Thou art indeed swift to succour me.

Salvation and Happiness

The natural man turns his back upon God; yet it is not only impossible for man to be happy without God, but (I say it with reverence) God Himself cannot make us happy save in Himself.

The property of sin is to blind the eye of the sinner to its guilt.

The Blood of Christ to cleanse is available for every poor and needy one who stands self-condemned before God.

By the infinite justice, greatness, holiness, and grace of God no poor sinner can be lost. Sinners are as plenteous as stones; poor sinners are as diamonds and rubies.

No sinner who has weighed himself in God’s balances, and has heartily and unreservedly come to self-condemnation before God, can ever be lost.

Our dependence is on the work of Christ for us, not the work of God in us.

If I look away from everything to Christ, that is a proof that I am born again.

The scanty apprehension of the word justification lies at the root of all the evil in the Church of God; right thoughts of justification sanctify our affections.

Religious men who are not born again have perhaps “a humble hope,” but no certainty of eternal life, and they charge us who trust in “It is finished” with presumption. It is presumption for the child of Adam who has not learned that the heart is desperately wicked to have any hope, and it is presumption for the child of God to have any doubt.

A Heavenly Conscience

When anyone obtains peace of conscience through Christ, it then becomes him to make pleasing God his great business.

If there be a spot of guilt on the conscience it spoils the heart for heavenly music.

It is not a little matter for our consciences to be readily judging all self-will, and to see whence it comes and how abominable it is to God. The natural conscience never sees the filthiness of pride; we can only see it by the Spirit of God revealing Christ to us. If we walk in integrity before God, we do not rest in a conscience that does not accuse us, though we cannot do without it.

The Church of God cannot be reached with the truth for lack of a heavenly conscience.

The heavenly conscience is always judging thus: “Is this like Christ?” “Is the Lord in fellowship with me in this?”

A believer who neglects the Scriptures must certainly be a sufferer, going on in what is not like Christ, and.thinking himself quite right.

The heavenly conscience should judge in a moment, not needing any consideration at all, just as the eye discerns the light of day without effort or question.

Keep your conscience as you keep your eyesight, with great care. How we watch against the least speck of dust!

I would have my soul as a looking-glass in which God can see His Son.

There may be a hardening of the conscience which makes it insensible to the guilt of sin.

The more tender in conscience I am, the more tender I am towards the faulty and weak ones.

We should be the first to find fault with our own work, and the last to find fault with the work of others.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue”; we do more good or evil with our words than with anything.

How best can we be under the power of unbelief? By talking to ourselves and bewailing it. How can we get rid of unbelief? Talk of it at the mercy-seat with the God of grace; tell Him the worst; tell Him the truth, just as it is.

It is impossible for faith to be what it should be without the constant reading of the Word.

Trial and Discipline

In my trials I often pray that when God does send delivering grace it may honour my faith and not rebuke my unbelief.

There are perpetual fogs of unbelief rising up in the soul unless the beams of God’s truth scatter them.

Which do we most think of—getting out of the furnace or pleasing God in it.

Faith always carries with it its title to be heard; the perfect token of faith is that we speak to none but Cod.

In any trial I always cut matters short if only I say, “Thou didst it.” If in a little provocation we are ready to say, “Thou didst it,” we shall never be ruffled.

The Lord “sat down to meat” (Luke 7:36), and did not take offence at the way in which Simon treated Him. He was too great and too lowly to take offence. That should be our mind as those who are one with Christ; love is “not provoked.”

There is great reason for the manifold ways in which we find ourselves tried, sharply and sorely, and often by continuous trial. I pray to be conformed to Christ, and my flesh is full in itself of all evil in seed or root; there is not a sin that my flesh is not capable of if unrestrained — hence the need of discipline. Suppose I walk in integrity before God, I shall always find in myself that which can account for the heaviest discipline. I may not know the particular reason, but I can always find sufficient reason for any trials God may send me.

Our greatest difficulties are not outside but inside. Did you ever see any iniquity of which you were not capable? The open iniquity of the worst is as nothing compared with the iniquity which is shut up in the best. The sharpest conflict is in the soul of him whose life is the most blameless. Keep a spiral spring pressed down, it resists. It is by resisting the flesh that we learn its guilt experimentally.

The third heaven could not change the flesh (2 Cor. 12). In glory we shall need no thorn: now each one needs it in some way to help grace. We should begin where Paul ended: “My grace is sufficient for thee.” We need ballast, and our obligations are according to the revelations we receive. Had not a thorn been given to Paul he would have made one out of his pride.

Philippians is an epistle of fellowship; the bane of fellowship is pride and self-will. Philippians 2:12 means working out our salvation from all that is unlike Christ and like Satan, and “work out” means “accomplish thoroughly.”

Conflict and Obedience.

Those who are called to the warfare of Ephesians 6 are contending for obedience according to the mind of Christ. The strife between ourselves and Satan is not about our title. We contend for obedience without reserve, and communion and friendship are inseparable from the soul’s obedience. The state of the Church shows that obedience without reserve has been set aside.

The obedience of love to the Word is friendship with the Lord. If I obey I am a friend of the Lord’s, and my heart is tender towards that heavenly Friend; but His heart is much more tender towards me than mine is towards Him. His heart is more pained by my lack of friendship than I am by my failure. He has far more pleasure in my company than I have in His.

It is very much now with the people of God as in Judges 2, when Israel made a league with the Canaanites; they were not defeated, but they gave up the fight. The great fault with us is not that we are so low, but that we make a league with that which displeases God, and we give up the conflict.

Let us, each one for himself, seek to be what the whole Church should be; the Lord will own it in His day, and will value it the more, because there are so few to hold up our hands.

Every sunset should see me a more apt disciple at the feet of Jesus.

Full obedience to God and to Christ will always bring trial.

The greatest success is being like Christ and pleasing God, and none can hinder this but ourselves. I am a blameless child, not because I succeed in my service, but because I am always aiming at pleasing God.

Pilgrims in the World

In the world we are pilgrims—in it, not of it. As the sons and daughters of the first man we have ceased to be. We are dead and buried, whatever the warfare within to remind us of what we once were. Now we have come down, not only from God’s footstool, but from God’s very bosom, where is our place with our ascended Lord, and whatever inducements we have to look for His coming, surely the chief is that we may know His unsearchable love in His sufferings unto death.

Let us be thankful for the kind, tender, patient way of God in training us for glory.

To be well-pleasing children we have nothing to do but to walk in fellowship with the Father and with His Son, to walk in separation from the world, and, like Abraham, to pitch our tent outside and away from Sodom.

The Lord always brought things of Eternity into Time; He was the Man of Eternity.

Let each one see to it that he is doing his work in the corner of the vineyard where he is placed; then it will be easy to go to any other corner of it, for we shall look upon the whole world as a foreign land.

Let us fear the patronage of the world more than its persecutions.

Christ Equal with, yet Subject to, the Father

“He made Himself of no reputation.” The Son of God emptied Himself of the state in which He was not a servant, but God’s equal. He had as the Son of God all the properties essential to Godhead and dominion over creation. While He could never empty Himself of Godhead, in which He was equal with the Father, He could empty Himself of the state in which He was equal, and so having taken upon Him “the form of a servant,” He is now for ever subject to the Father. He never will, and never can, return to the state of being simply God’s equal. He is eternally co-equal and eternally subject to the Father. In 1 Corinthians 15:28 we read: “Then shall the Son also Himself be subject,” and in Revelation, “The throne of God and of the Lamb.” He is for ever the Shepherd and for ever the Lamb, and it is the lowly or little Lamb, the diminutive being used. There is an infiniteness in the lowliness of the blessed Lamb, and He is now at the utmost of His lowliness. Satan took upon himself the form of a master, being created a servant; instead of serving in obedience he would be lord, and “the condemnation of the devil” is in his self-will; he chose to take to himself what belonged only to God.

What a rebuke to the devil the exaltation of the Son of God will be to all eternity—a mirror in which to see his own folly!

Acquaintance with the Cross of Christ brings me to nothing. Let any thought of self-exaltation be to me as a serpent; I have nothing to do but to kill it.

Depths and Shallows.

Do not “the deep things of God “(1 Cor. 2) stand in contrast to what we read of in Rom. 1:19, 20, which we may call the shallows of God? It is the shallowest things of these shallows that “the princes of this world” spend their lives upon—the things of creation; the depths of God are the secrets of His bosom, the nature and the ways of Christ; of these they know nothing.

The work of redemption is infinitely more glorious than that of creation.

It is only through redemption that we can know creation.

All the mysteries of creation will be explained in the new creation; not till then.

Nothing that God has created can ever cease to be; there is no warrant to suppose this.

Whoever wrote such a book of Natural History as Psalm 104, or astronomy as Psalms 8 and 19? “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” —see Him in everything. I never had such delight in the world that God has made as I have now, nor such fellowship of spirit in it with Him who said, “Consider the lilies.”

All the speakers in the Book of Job, including God Himself, take for granted all the things that are now called in question by man.

It is not a little matter for young disciples of Christ to learn that they are more in danger from the men that are called philosophers than from any other set of enemies, except those we have within. Next to them come the religious men; but the first of our enemies are the wise men. They are our greatest enemies, because, as a whole, the Church of God has not learned to see how low and shallow they are.

Serving the Lord.

(From Choice Sayings.)

The Lord Jesus always finds service for willing hearts and willing hands: Let us desire only that service for which He has fitted us.

It is a mark of steady progress in the ways of God when a servant of Christ, like his Master, makes no choice of service, seeking only to please his Lord.

If by walking before God we rise above the praise of men, we shall not be vexed or disappointed by their disapproval and blame.

He that is humble, and ever desiring to serve others, will surely find others desiring to serve him.

The joy and triumph of faith are only to be found in the way of unreserved consecration of ourselves to God and diligent service to Christ.

Though God marks that which is wrong in His servants, notwithstanding all their faithfulness, He never forgets that which is right in them, notwithstanding all their imperfections.

God’s Dealings with Israel

I find my faith increased by looking at God’s dealings with Israel.

I rejoice in hope of the fulfilling of the promise, They shall look on Him whom they pierced and mourn. Israel—chief in rejecting Christ—will by-and-by be the Israel of God, the chief witness in the earth for Him whom their forefathers rejected.

I ponder the unbelief of Israel, the seed of Abraham, Thy friend; and look onward, with loving hope, to the morning without clouds—to the day when Israel shall say, “Lo! this is our God; we have waited for Him “: and Thou shalt say, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” How long, Lord? Thou wilt hasten it in Thy time.

If while my soul draws nigh to God by night,

I see the stars in clustering myriads shine,

I mark how all their glories they combine,

A host well ordered, marvellously bright.

I listen to their silence—they unite

A skilful choir to sing of love divine;

And are to me a picture and a sign

Of good things promised, hidden still from sight.

My Father, says my heart, Thou wilt not leave

Israel for ever scattered and forlorn:

They that shall soon the wilful king receive—

Israel, who slew Thy Son with rage and scorn—

Shall, in the land, to their Messiah cleave,

A countless people of Thy Spirit born.

Notes of Addresses

The Grace and Glory of the Cross

Isaiah 6:9-13; John 12:35-41; Rom. 3:19.

In Romans 3 we have the common state of all mankind Godward, but in Isaiah 6 we have God’s judgment when the light has shone, and men have shut the eyes of their heart against that light. Terrible was the blindness of the Jew in Isaiah’s days, more terrible still his mind and heart when Christ came. The Jew, when the Son of God came, was first in crucifying the Lord of glory; the Roman governor would not have done it but for his fear of man. In John 12 we learn that the people refused His word, and therefore were, in judgment, given up to blindness.

In Acts 17 we find that when Paul, that especially fitted servant of God, was sent to Athens, the chief place in the world for earthly wisdom, the voice of the prince of darkness by his true disciples was, “What will this babbler say?”

Has the world grown better since then? There are better weapons of destruction, and inventions of every kind, but man has only gone forward in evil and farther from God, and is therefore more ready than ever to welcome the Man of Sin. All the cavillings of the wise of this world, and of religious men, against the truth, are only a fulfilling of the Scriptures; the Scriptures would be falsified without these cavillers and blasphemers.

The state of the child of Adam is especially seen in Romans 3:19; his mouth is shut as touching any reason for finding fault with God; but his very guiltiness blinds him. Because man has shut out God from his heart, and set up his own will in God’s place, the state of every child of Adam is one of blind subjection to the power of darkness. Satan is called the god of this world. Why? Because he can govern? No; he can do nothing save as God wills: but in man’s heart he is enthroned in the place of God. What is the fruit of this? Man is ignorant of God’s holiness, and of his own guiltiness. He has a conscience that can never die, and it demands some religion. What then? Satan becomes the teacher, God is shut out, and man has a religion of his own. If you try all the religions of man in any part of the world you will find them made up of two lies of Satan. First, some remnant of goodness in man; second, some mercy with God that will dishonour His justice. These two are the warp and woof of the whole garment. There are only two religions: Satan’s and God’s; but I will not call God’s a religion. Man is so the tool and slave—the willing, self-consecrated slave—of the devil, that he cannot rise above Satan’s religion.

God’s truth and God’s Spirit reveal man’s state before God. “The carnal mind is enmity against God,” was said by the Spirit through Paul, but what was the judgment of God ages before, “Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Man’s religion never judges thoughts to be actions; but God’s Word does, and in the great day the natural man will have to give account of thoughts of the heart as deeds of iniquity. This should produce pity in our hearts, not only for the drunkard, but for the Pharisee who is going on the clean side of the broad road to everlasting destruction.

Now if this be what the Word of God tells about man’s state, what about God’s mercy? The natural man goes to- sleep on the brink of hell; that is the meaning of the word, “the whole world lieth in the wicked one”—lulled to sleep by him, with a hope of mercy that is contrary to justice.

Turn to Matthew 26:39—“And He went a little further.” Who is the He? The world’s Creator come in the flesh. Three times in Matthew and also in Mark we read, “Not as I will.” In Luke 22:43 we read of an angel; but no tidings were brought by the angel that He could be spared. No! the angel was sent to strengthen Him. What do we read if Ave turn again to Romans 3:26? “To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just and the Justifies of him that believeth in Jesus.” Is there any mercy here that treads under foot God’s justice? God’s two great truths are the perfect opposites to the two great lies of the devil. Some’ goodness in man is the devil’s lie; no goodness in man, not a jot or tittle of it is God’s truth. Mercy dishonouring God’s justice is Satan’s second lie; whereas God’s truth is, God’s sword of justice sparing not His Son. In Genesis 22 all was yielded by Abraham that could be; when the knife was in the hand, all was offered; therefore the knife in the hand of the father was enough. But God’s only Son could not be spared, for God could not save one child of Adam without the death of His Son.

Godly men have spoken about God’s choosing this way out of others. I affirm, with reverence, that God had no choice. Choice to save us or leave us like the sinning angels He had; but if He would reconcile man to Himself, He had but one way. These truths are very simple, very clear; yet how unsearchably deep, how infinitely glorious, how holy and sanctifying they are! But they hang together, just as the devil’s lies hang together.

We never can think ill enough of what we were, and we never can think well enough of the grace and glory of the Cross of Christ. Let us, beloved, take heed that we grieve not the Spirit, so that He may reveal a little more each day, and that every sunset may see us a little more humble than when the sun rose; that is life, and life worth living.

Let us now turn to Hebrews 9:13. The sin-atoning, life-giving death of the Son of God upon the cross is what is always meant by “the blood of Christ.” The figure is taken from the type of the priest’s sacrificing knife plunged into the vitals. In the case of the Lord the shedding of the blood did not actually take place till after death, for we should not speak of shedding of blood in connection with the wounds in the hands and feet. The “blood of Christ” is explained by the sword of God’s justice in Zechariah 13. The secret of all walking with God is apprehending what the one atoning sacrifice of the Son of God was to Him, the Father, and the conscience accepting the atoning sacrifice as God accepts it. If I do that I break the power of every sin; there is not a single evil that I have not under foot. But have I no conflict? Oh yes, I do not expect to cease from the warfare until I put off this body. I must bring down sanctification from above.

With regard to justification—Does a sinner know himself a poor sinner? Is he willing to take his place among the beggars on the dunghill? Then God will lift him up by the forgiveness of his sins. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” All such are in a common state of justification before God, as safe from condemnation as the blessed Son of God with whom they are one; but as to sanctification, they have a warfare, and what is the secret of power to overcome? “In the blood is the life.” Let me deal from day to day with the Sacrifice, as God’s justice deals with it, and I have power over sin. I resist the devil, and he flees from me. We, the children of God, have more power over the devil now, than was put forth by the Lord in the days of His flesh. After the forty days’ temptation in the wilderness it is said the devil left Him for a season—not fled from Him. In Gethsemane we hear the blessed One saying, “This is your hour and the power of darkness”; but when on the cross He said, “It is finished.” He had a title to take His throne, and now the power of the risen Lord against Satan is more gloriously put forth in my weakness than it was put forth in the days of His flesh.

But, beloved, what are we, the children of God, called to? Turn to Philippians 2, “He emptied Himself”—not of His Godhead, but—of a state to which He will never return, the state in which He was not a servant. Satan by creation was God’s servant, and was only happy as he served; but by disobedience he became for ever degraded and miserable, having hell in himself: on the other hand the Son of God took the servant’s place, never to leave it—see Rev. 22:3: “The throne of God and of the Lamb.” Why will there then be no curse? Christ will ever conjoin in Himself equality with God and subjection to God; He will always be the Lamb. The great and proper business, therefore, of every child of God now is to show the mind of Christ.

If this were accepted by each one, as becomes us, there would be a conversion of the whole church. We should net be found in any earthly place of glory; ours would be the great business of representing Christ to God, Christ to the world, and Christ to each other. Let us bring this mind into all the daily duties and circumstances of life; then, sorrowful we may be, yea must be, but happy we shall always be. “Let every one abide in the same calling wherein he was called”; let him make no self-willed change or choice, but make the best of his actual circumstances: where God found him, there make the best for God.

Read Ephesians 2:6-9, and 1:8-14. Our expectation is that of those raised up with Christ. I take the purchased possession to mean the new creation, that is the final hope of the children of God., the new creation which will be worthy of the last Adam. What will this world be to us, if that be kept before the soul? Only a field for serving God and showing the mind of Christ. The world to come is our property and inheritance.

Let us take heed, beloved, that we are no party to the ruin of those around us by our unlikeness to Christ. In Romans 11:20, 21, we have both promise and warning; let us take heed to the warning, “Be not high-minded, but fear.” Christendom is full of this high-mindedness; but let us be found walking in holy trembling, compassed around, as we are, with the powers of darkness, and having within us our own evil hearts. Let us walk with God and not be grieving the Spirit, so shall we become day by day a little humbler; then shall we truly live to purpose, for we shall live unto Him who died for us and rose again.

Self-Will And Sovereign Grace.

Psalms 90:91

In Psalm 90 we have the name “Lord”—that is, the God of sovereign grace; also the name “Jehovah,” which means “The I Am that I Am.” The unchangeableness of God in His grace is the burden of the Psalm, which is manifestly prophetical. The Spirit of God by David tells out the heart of His people Israel when that time shall come of which the Scriptures are so full—“They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:10).

Verse 13 is a quotation from Deuteronomy 32:36. Moses forewarns of judgment for their disobedience, and, when that is spent, the Lord will fulfil this word. God’s promise in Deuteronomy 32:36 is here turned into a prayer. God delights to be reminded of His own promises in Christ, and they are all of them the property of the people of God. Happy should we be if we were all now like unto what Israel will be by and by, as seen in this Psalm.

In verse 8 we read, “Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance.” What is the meaning of secret sins? It means that the guilt of the sins that our consciences do not discern and our hearts do not feel is naked and open before God. One great mark of the poor sinner (and every poor sinner cannot fail to be a saved sinner) is this: he does not look around to compare himself with his neighbours, but, forgetting all the judgment of his fellow-creature, he sees himself in the eye and holiness of God to be from head to foot a leper.

The carnal mind being at enmity with God is at constant war with God in every word and thought. Wherein lies the enmity? In self-will. Every child of Adam in every thought of his heart is at. variance with God, and every such thought in the eye of God’s holiness is a sins; hence that language in Genesis 6:5, “Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually.” Before the flood, violence filled the earth; that violence was only a branch—the heart is the great root of evil. If men go on the clean side of the broad road to everlasting perdition they make God a liar; but if they truly confess their sins, the blood of Christ cleanseth them from all sin. That blood, which is as precious to God as Christ Himself, God has accepted; and Christ having presented the sacrifice of His own death to God, the sinner that trusts in Him is justified and accepted as Christ Himself is.

Note the marvellous work of God in Israel when this Psalm is graven upon their hearts. I often find my faith confirmed by looking to what God will do for that people; they who were chief in enmity against Him will be chief in their obedience to Him. They here ask for much more than, the forgiveness of sins; they ask the very best that God has to give; and so they take the sure way to get things of smaller value. They pray, “Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.” The words, “beauty of the Lord,” are more than once mentioned in the Scriptures. What do they mean? Nothing less than the manifestation of the mind and ways of Christ, and the unfolding of what God’s Spirit would have us understand by those words in Isaiah 52:14, “His visage was so marred more than any man.” The beauty of the Lord comes out of the depth of His sorrows, and they as much as say, “Let us be filled with the Spirit, and let us so walk in Christ that all the surrounding nations may see the beauty of the Lord upon us.” And so it will come to pass that there will be elect ones from among Gentile nations, wholly one with Israel, by God making Israel His ambassadors throughout the earth, according to Isaiah 66:18-20, when the full blessing of the prophet Joel will be fulfilled in them, of which Acts 2 is only an earnest.

The Jews now are a covetous nation; then they will be the heavenly opposite, fulfilling the book of Proverbs and the Song of Solomon—the dutiful son making glad the Father’s heart, and the “spouse leaning on the arm of her Beloved”; and the Lord will be able to say of them, “How beautiful are thy feet with shoes.” I do not wish to rob you of these books, but let us look at the glorious things which God will do for Israel, as in these books foretold, and let us take heart concerning both the Church of God and the unbelieving world around us; and if we open, the mouth wide, God will fill it.

At the end of the next coming time, the unbelieving world will rise in deliberate, furious enmity against God and His people—that people filled with the Spirit of Christ—and so make manifest that the judgment of the “great white throne” is a judgment to which the obstinate rebellion of man has driven the justice of God. In the judgment of wrath on Satan and his angels the equity of God will likewise be made manifest. Oh, that we did duly consider all that the Spirit of God would teach us out of the Scriptures, of what we ourselves have been redeemed from—the everlasting wrath awaiting the world—to increase our gratitude to God, and to move our hearts to pity and prayer for our unbelieving fellow-creatures around us!

Treasures of Grace.

Genesis 3

It is to be observed, and to be borne in solemn remembrance, that one intent of this chapter is to show that sin must be measured by the holiness of God, and not by damage done by man to his neighbour. Man’s will is always in opposition to the will of God. Thus we read: “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” A man may be most amiable, most commendable, and full of good works, as between himself and his neighbour, but the root of all within is enmity against God. We know this is written in our Bibles, and more or less on our hearts; but how deep is it there? In Gen. 6:5, 6, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.” Has man been growing better since? On the contrary, man has been advancing in wickedness and in opposition to God. To go back a little, I would say that word has come true, “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness” (Job 5:13). God takes Satan in his own devices.

Observe in this third chapter of Genesis, verses 9-12, that a guilty conscience and pride caused Adam not to think of confession; enmity with God, and despair, made him, as far as he dared to do it, cast the blame upon God. And what of the woman? “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” Why no confession? Because they were shut up both in pride and condemnation; their conscience shut out all possibility of salvation. But how the Sovereign Grace of God here shines out! He does not cast them into punishment, nor does He ask any confession from Satan. Oh, no! But His word is, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” God’s justice visited our Surety, Christ, so that now it can be said that He is “just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” No earthly sovereign has a title to his glory and dominion that can be compared with ours to heavenly glory! As between our guiltiness and God’s justice, not a crust of bread, nor a drop of water, do we deserve; but, as between us and our Surety, Christ, we have a title that is one with His to eternal glory, and are raised far above the highest angels as one with the Son of God.

The everlasting harvest to be reaped by the wicked from seed sown in this life is a matter that greatly concerns the family of God. Satan has been taking advantage of the wisdom of this world, misleading even saints, and, without their suspecting it, diminishing their love, their thankfulness to God for their own redemption. In order to deal aright with this solemn truth, left us begin with those mighty creatures of God that were brought into being before the world was made—that is, the angels of God. Turn to 2 Peter 2:4: “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” “Chains.” God’s hand made the chains and creatures cannot break them. Jude 6: “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” Observe that God never provided for those mighty creatures a Mediator, a Redeemer; but we find wicked spirits in the days of Christ’s flesh saying, “Art Thou come to torment us before the time? “In the book of Revelation we read: “Satan is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” More and more is Satan prevailing to blind man, and there is a steady advance in his power over an unbelieving world that welcomes his lies, which will end in this, that when the “everlasting punishment “is nearest, men will be saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? “Then sudden destruction shall come, and, what the Apostle of the Gentiles could say, everyone of us should be able to say, “I am pure from the blood of all men”; and again, “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish.” Satan’s title, “The god of this world,” means that men have set God aside, and have put up Satan in His place.

From the time that God said to Satan that the woman’s seed should bruise the serpent’s head, and clothed our first parents with skins (their fig leaves were not carried out of Paradise) telling of Christ, the Lamb of God, their righteousness, the revelation of Christ has been growing. It was a marvellous advance when it was said before the destruction of Sodom, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” Abraham was dealt with as a friend by the Son of God appearing to him in human form; it was as much as to say, I can’t destroy Sodom without bringing Abraham into My counsel. Then we remember His dealings with Moses at Mount Sinai, after Israel had sinned in making the golden calf. What a marvellous condescension of grace! The living God puts Himself into the hands of His friend, as much as to say, “Unless you ‘let Me alone’ I can’t destroy this people.” If we go on to John 11:5, we read, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus,” that is, He loved as a friend; but what says He, in chapter 17, of the love of the Father to us? “Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” We should bear in mind that obligation to God is measured by revelation. Now, where is He that said on the cross, “It is finished”? What has he done for us? He has fulfilled His promise of sending the Comforter. Reverently would we say that no operation of the Godhead could be without the co-operation of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Through the Spirit He became the Son of Man, and “through the Eternal Spirit” He “offered Himself without spot to God.” Thus has He obtained the title to become the Melchisedec Priest at the right hand of God, and the anointing He has we share, and the state of the Church of God, if that were believed, would declare it. We should all naturally flow together, and our heart and conscience ought to agree with the fulness of the revelation given to us.

Supposing the family of God did but remember that the ungodly world has rejected Christ, and that in this land they have corrupted the Gospel, setting Christ aside, and yet are calling God their Father, what manner of spirit would foe; ours who are saved from Satan’s power, to be God’s witnesses in the midst of it? “Among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” Are we considering wherefore we are saved, and wherefore we are left in this world? Is it to be first seeking the things of the world, or seeking first the Kingdom, of God and His righteousness, as those who have the promise of everything needful in this life —all that He in His wisdom accounts good?

God Revealing Himself.

How is it that we have no record of the creation of angels, or of the revolt of Satan and his fallen spirits? Because the great intent of God is to reveal Himself in Christ; and the mention of angels, elect, and fallen, comes in by the way. In Gen. 1 and 2 we have more than the record of creation, we have in type the new creation. In Gen. 2:20-24, with Eph. 5, we see what in that creation was the chief purpose of God. God’s great intent in the six days’ work was to set up in Adam a type of Christ as the last Adam, and in the woman taken out of him, a type of the Church of God, whose life is taken out of the wounded side of the last Adam. It is well worthy to be remembered, that while the creation needs God, God needs not the creation. Suppose there had been no creation, no man or earth in being, there must have been an infinite blessedness and glory in God Himself, Father, Son, and Spirit, All-sufficient and Self-sufficing. The only Self-sufficing Being is God, the only Being that has a right to a will of His own. Man, takes God’s place. The whole life of the natural man is one of self-will. The child of Adam takes to himseilf that which belongs only to God—“Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us?”

How glorious is it that God, taking occasion by man’s low estate, gives us by the life-giving death of His Son—us self-murdered, self-degraded ones—life eternal! Self-degraded we are, lower than the ox or the ass, but raised by God higher than the holy angels. These, though in the sovereign pleasure of God they were preserved from sin, were never made children, but are attendants on God’s children. I know they are twice called sons of God in Job, but this is in contrast with the rebel Satan. They have a right to be in heavenly places, as ministers to us, but no right to say, “Abba, Father.” The vilest of the human race are taken up, and, through the death of Christ, taught to say, “Abba, Father.” All the family of God, from Adam downwards, are equally children, though before the manifestation of Christ they were not taught “Abba.” There is a marvellous advance in the privileges of believers contained in that great word “henceforth,” of John 15:15. God in His own nature is self-sufficing; but having stooped to raise us by the cross of His Son, no father upon earth ever had such delight in the affections of his children, as God has in ours. In Prov. 30 we have mention of the horseleech which cries, “Give, give.” We are too much like that, always thinking of getting from God more than of giving to Him. What! we poor ones give to God? No, but we rich ones; the fulness of Christ is all ours. Every one of us ought to be a giver, to make it the business of his life to give pleasure to God.

While the first man was blameless, God, revealed to him as his Maker, was enough; there was no guilt, and no need of redemption, Adam was at once a worshipper of God; he did not learn to be so, but it was as natural to him as to breathe. Now that we are out of paradise we need more than God the Creator, we need God the Redeemer. Such a complete revelation of God we have in Christ crucified, the brightness of the Father’s glory (Heb. 1:3). Sun, moon, and stars, tell a little about His glory; the cross tells the whole. Consider that this one Book contains a full and complete revelation of Christ. It is the only book that does or can lay open the heart of man, and it lays open the heart of God. The Spirit of God has been given to dwell in us, and He is the Teacher of all that are willing to learn—not of the self-willed. He does not undertake to teach them that have will and wisdom of their own. But if I live to do the will of God, not only is the Spirit my Teacher, but, if I love to learn, He unspeakably more delights to teach. If we—I mean the whole family of God—were not selfish there would be no sects or divisions, but we should be one, as Israel will be in a future day. Israel, when filled with the Spirit, will be the subject, loving spouse of the Song, and then will be fulfilled Zeph. 3:17, “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.”

Every child of God ought to make his Father glad. Every one of us, in his own place, outward condition and circumstances, his own advance in years and in the journey of life, has peculiar opportunities of pleasing God from day to day. Men are taken up with doing good to creatures, instead of pleasing God; but that is the very way to miss the mark: while reforming the drunkard they let all kinds of evil come into their own hearts and ways. But if my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work; if this be the main business of the child of God, it matters not what or where he is, he will be a preacher of Christ, not perhaps by gift and office, but by example in daily life the best of preachers, and in the day of the Lord it will be abundantly manifested that no such one has lived in vain.

The New Creation

Romans 8 and 12

One thing to be especially observed in this epistle is the mention in chapter 4 of the words borrowed from Psalm 32. The Spirit of God by the apostle opens up this forgiveness—non-imputation of sin. Oh that we did all consider the word “justified “—it is a marvellous word! But how does that come to pass? In verse 3 we read, “God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”; and in chapter 5, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” The word “justified” shows that we have, in the very righteousness of God, a title to eternal life and glory. Do the people of God consider this, and do they in living faith call it to mind? Does it not lie at the root of all walking with God, and behaving as we should in this present world? For to be justified is (1) to be cleared of all blame, and (2) to be presented as we should be in the eye of God.

This is far above all natural thoughts, and it is totally contrary to the religious man, for it cuts to pieces all his own religion; and does it not as much abase me as comfort me? For how came I by it? God’s own Son bearing my sin brings me to nothing as the creature and the sinner, whilst it raises me above the highest angel of God. Ought this not to be from day to day the bread of my inner man? I have been more than seventy years reading the Bible, and to-day it is more new and glorious than ever. All God’s angels count it joy and honour to wait upon us. They do not appear before God in union with Christ. We, on the other hand, are made as near as it is possible for God to make us. What manner of persons, then, ought we to be? And what manner of hearts should be ours towards the God of all grace? Is it not very beautiful in this chapter to mark the Spirit’s love? Christ having through the Spirit offered up Himself, now that Spirit not only quickens us, but reveals to our hearts Christ already glorified. What a joy it is to the Spirit of God to do this!

The Spirit groans for the same event that creation groans for—the new creation—and whereas the first creation was worthy of the first man taken out of the earth, the new creation will be worthy of the last Adam. The glory of it we cannot tell, but we are heirs of it, and nothing can affect our title. Is it not so, that if we all thought highly enough of ourselves we should all behave aright? We never can think ill enough of ourselves unless we think well enough. It is through redemption we learn to think thus; to be truly lowly before God we need to know how near we are and how dear we are to God.

The Spirit was in perfect fellowship with the Lord in His groaning at the grave of Lazarus. The Spirit sees in us two things—what we shall be in the new creation and what we are now. Our groan is for the new creation, whether we have any pain or not. It is very lovely to see the Holy Spirit longing on our behalf for that time; the love of the Spirit is so manifest in this, as well as His sympathy and fellowship.

The blessed Lord in His rule of all creatures is every day and hour moving onwards and ordering all things to that end, and if I have a mind in fellowship with Christ I shall be looking on to the new creation, and I shall have a mind always to say, “Thy will be done.” That is holiness. This will help us, not to indifference about the things of God, but with a tender spirit to behold the family of God as joint-heirs with Christ, and to care for others even if they care not for us.

Now may we cast a glance at chap. 12:1—“I beseech you.” Did Moses at Mount Sinai beseech Israel? He not only did not, but could not. And what does the apostle beseech us to be doing? “To present your bodies a living sacrifice.” Then I am not to be my own at all? The reason why the apostle says this is, he will have the whole man for Christ. We not only “belong to our God and Father by creation, we are bought—a very far higher title.

God calls our struggle against self-will a victory. If He sees me not making any peace with it He is well pleased with me. God, who prepared a body for Christ on our account, now asks a body from us in return. He has given all He can give; what ought we to give in return? Our true happiness in this world hangs upon our pleasing God. We can never present the flesh as a sacrifice to God, but the body is purchased, and if we use the members for any other purpose we are prostituting what belongs to Him. “He is the Father of mercies,” and as such full of pitiful-ness, and when He sees us unfeignedly desiring to please Him He is well pleased with our little.

There is also in this chapter an admonition to us to remember that each of us is a member of a body. Angels were never bound up in that way; they lost nothing by the fall of those who fell. We are bound up as members one of another, and therefore the grace in my brother or sister is my property and my joy, and the fault in my brother or sister is my fault. Is not that the right way to look at it? It is well for us to remember that evil which has become a custom is, in the judgment of the common conscience, no evil at all. It is hard for us to sea in God’s light the things which the Church of God practise from day to day. How much we need the affections of Christ for all the family of God! We now have opportunities for pleasing God that we shall not have in the new creation. There are often complaints in the world that workmen well skilled are out of employment; but in the Church of God there ought not to be any out of employ.

Two Sons And Two States

Luke 15 and 16

The two sons represent the whole house of Israel. In Exodus 4:22 we read: “Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn.” The title “son” has misled even many godly persons to speak of them as both regenerate. This greatly mars the interpretation. They represent the two classes of the people—“the elder son” showing us the proud Pharisees, and “the younger son” the publicans and sinners. In this we have the key to the whole three parables in this chapter. Nationally, Israel is God’s son, and never to be cast off. In speaking of “the unjust steward” the Lord pursues the business of rebuking the Pharisee. According to Romans 9:4, God had entrusted them with the law, but they had wasted His goods, and proved themselves unfaithful. The state of the Jew is here set forth by the lost sheep and the lost piece of silver; then more fully in the third parable, and in the way of perfect heavenly revelation, God’s dealings with such as were called out from those who rejected and crucified the Lord. The great intent is to show the riches of grace toward the called-out ones, and the righteous judgment of God against those who proudly reject Him. How precious to God are the elect! “Thine they were; and Thou gavest them Me.” Is it not true that a thing of small worth given by one we love becomes of great value? This is set forth by the lost sheep, and the pains taken to pursue and get it back; so also the lost piece of silver.

Is it dwelt upon sufficiently by the family of God that the holy angels have joy in our salvation, in our regeneration, and in God’s raising us above them? The whole company of the angels have life by creation, but we have a life derived from the crucified, slain Lamb, and are created anew in Christ Jesus. If we better understood what we are made to God in Christ we should better understand why the holy angels delight in ministering to us.

Christ came in the fulness of time for not only had the wickedness of man been made manifest, but also the state of the Jews had never been so wicked as then. They were puffed up, in the midst of all their guiltiness, by the pride of self-righteousness. When, in their own esteem, they were at their best, in God’s sight they were at their worst.

The poor worldlings, and even many Christians, are talking of the world getting better; but what saith the Scripture? “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” On looking round we see men self-destroyed, yet God saves such, as we learn from this chapter; but if men reject the truth they are given up to receive error.

What wickedness there is in the words of the elder son—“Thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends”—and in his turning his back upon his father! God is shut out. And his saying, “I never at any time transgressed thy commandment,” shows that the conscience of the Jew had been thus trained by Satan instead of accepting the judgment of God. “The carnal mind is enmity against God”; man accepts the devil’s lie, and as much as says, “Will God punish a sinner with everlasting wrath?” If God could not spare His Son, how could He possibly spare the sinner that could not make any atonement? God could not justly forgive without His own Son bearing our sin.

In the end of chapter 16 the two distinct states of men after death are set forth. The younger son is now the saved sinner, but is pictured by Lazarus, full of sores, to furnish another illustration of the state of soul which, by the Spirit of God, such were made to feel. But “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill.” This is as he is seen by the eye of God, and also in his own eyes as taught by the Spirit. It is remarkable that the rich man always calls Abraham father, but Abraham only once calls him son. The silence of Scripture, how loudly it speaks! It is as much as to say, “I know thee by natural birth to be one of my family, but spiritually I disown thee.” We, the redeemed, will not only have joy immediately from Christ, but we shall joy and delight in each other’s joy. The opposite of this is an awful truth—those who have been confederates in enmity are seen to be companions in punishment.

God’s Purpose In Redemption

Remarks on Proverbs 8.

This chapter reminds us of John 17:5, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” Also of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” I find in reading it that love shines forth before me, and I say to myself, “God is love.” Before the world was He set up His own Son to be what He now is: as we read in verse 22, “in the beginning of His way, before His works of old.” Does not this agree with, “In the beginning was the Word,” and with 2 Thess. 2:13, “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation”? Does it not tell that the chief purpose in the mind of God (when as yet there was not any creature in being) was the setting up of Christ to be the Head of all things, which we know He has now actually become? The creation of angels and men—even the whole creation—is like the spokes of a wheel; it is upon Christ as the axle that everything hangs. It was the purpose of God to reveal Himself in Christ; not only to glorify Himself, but to provide Himself in Christ with objects of affection, in which He could delight, and in which He could rest. Does not this agree with Eph. 1:5: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ, to Himself? “And is not the force of that of His own choice, for His own delight? In verse 6 it is, “To the praise of the glory of His grace;” but before mention is made of glory, we read “to Himself.” If we look thus at God as purposing to delight Himself in Christ, and in His children in Christ, does it not follow that He is Love, and that the one demand upon us is, “My Son, give Me thine heart? “It is not only for our comfort, but chiefly for God’s delight and joy.

Some speak as if God’s chief design was the salvation of the lost. That is, indeed, a glorious design; but instead of its being the chief end, it is but a step towards it; that end being the revelation of God’s glory. As truly as an obedient son gives joy to his father whom he loves and reveres, and in whose counsel he delights, so truly is that child not only the glory but the joy of his father. And thus it is that we, walking humbly with God, give joy to God; and should it not be the chief business of our hearts to consider what we can give to God, rather than what we can get from Him?

What could we as creatures give God? We were the children of wrath—dust and ashes; and we are still, as touching the flesh, dust and ashes. But we are not now loved as enemies—we were loved when we were enemies—but now we are loved as children, and our obedience and our delight in God are a delight to God; and if I delight in God it is not possible to envy any man:. There is an exhortation which puts one’s faith to the test: “My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine; yea, my reins shall rejoice when thy lips speak right things” (Prov. 23:15, 16). Lest any should question whether this is spoken to us, turn to Prov. 3:11, 12: “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of His correction; for whom the Lord loveth He correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth,” and compare Heb. 12:5: “Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked of Him,.” If any one had any question as to Proverbs being for the children of God, surely this would answer it.

In the 9th chapter we read, “Wisdom hath builded heir house;… she hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.” In the “killing” and the “wine,” we are doubtless reminded of the cross—“Christ crucified.” Then the title “Wisdom” is very precious—it has much the same significance as the title “Word,” in the beginning of John’s Gospel. The force of the title the Word” is that unless God had revealed Himself in Christ, His works could never perfectly reveal Him, though there is enough, by God’s works in creation, to show man his obligation, and to leave him without excuse.

If a man had not speech he could not tell out his heart, and hence the tongue is called the glory of a man: “Awake up, my glory.” Every revelation of God by other means than by Christ, is as nothing in comparison with that which would have remained unrepealed. Christ is the Word of God; by Him He tells out His bosom secrets. “The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” Now we have all that God can possibly reveal of Himself. “God is light,” and “God is love.” And if He be love, how precious to Him must be the affection of His children) towards Him, and how grievous to Him must be the lack of affection.

If God unfolds His heart in Christ, then how reasonable the demand, “My Son, give Me thine heart! “and ought it not to be our chief business every day to obey the command, or rather to fulfil the wish, “My son, give Me thine heart!” God as a Father has everything in Christ that He delights in John 17:23, “I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou has sent Me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me.” It is not merely with love akin to the love wherewith God the Father has loved Christ; there is no difference between the love He bears to Christ, and the love He bears to us. Not only is it a matter of faith to believe this, but it is the highest obedience to believe it.

We were children of Adam, but now we are children of God. Strictly speaking, Adam before his fall had no fellowship with God, though he had such a knowledge of God as was necessary for his blessing as a creature. Nor, indeed, if we apprehend it, is it possible for God to have fellowship with any creature as a creature; but He must have fellowship with us as sons; and if we be one with His Son, He must dwell in us. We are not only made to sit together in heavenly places for the security of our salvation, but for the communion of love. Our affections should be there, because God, as it were, looks for us to be there in affection, “together with Christ”; not only in point of security of salvation, but in the Spirit’s fellowship: “Builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

The Holy One Bearing Our Sins

Psalm 40

“I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto Me and heard My cry.” Every word of this psalm breathes out the soul of the Lord Jesus, and speaks to God and to us of His perfections. In verse 8 we see holiness, perfect holiness, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart.” In His case no allowance for imperfections could be made, and, blessed be His name! none was needed. In Him there was no law in the members warring against the law of the mind; there was nothing in the Son of God come in the flesh that did not give perpetual, unspeakable delight to God who sent Him. And it was He alone—the Son of God, the Word of God, the Creator of heaven and earth and all things therein—that could become Surety of the everlasting covenant (Heb. 7:22). It is as such that He speaks in this psalm, saying “Mine iniquities” (v. 12), for as Surety He made our iniquities His own.

The difference between His confession and ours is unspeakable. In Psalm 51 David, going to the root of the matter, speaks of himself as utterly evil, incurably evil; but when the Son of God speaks, even though as Surety, He says “Mine iniquities,” He can only as to Himself personally speak of holiness— perfect, immutable holiness—the spring of everything that can please God. Then again, we are forgiven our sin on confession, for sin cannot be truly confessed without being instantly forgiven and cleansed away. But Christ could have no forgiveness, and He needed no cleansing. He could only be justified by full payment of the debt, and on that ground He can justify others.

The only death Christ could die was the death of atonement. That death He died, and now He lives at the right hand of God, and is the source of life and power to His people—all being due to His cross. The sinner dies a death of enmity to God; Christ died a death of infinite love to God. The sinner dies a death of despair; Christ died with the sure hope of resurrection. The sinner’s death is no death of atonement, hence deeper and deeper must he sink. The death of the Son of God was the full revelation of all the perfections of God; it is therefore the perfect rest of God, and the perfect rest of faith.

And now, beloved, what is the song—the “new song”? “He hath put a new song into My mouth, even praise unto our God.” We sing acceptably to God, and our song is more acceptable to God than to our own ear. Why? Because Christ is the chief theme. Let us observe the contrast between “our God” and “Mine iniquities.” Our transgressions became His, and as they have been for ever removed from Him, so they are for ever removed from us, by His one sacrifice. And now, being raised out of the depths, He sings the new song, the melody of which takes hold of and possesses the heart of God. In this song we can join, and all through the sorrows of the cross. Therefore no song can ever be so joyous or so solemn as ours.

The Glory Of Christ’s Obedience

Psalm 91:14-16; John 18:4-8; 19:30.

Beloved, by and by the justice of God must make an end of the season of God’s long-suffering towards His enemies. Every moment that long-suffering is exercised through the atoning death of God’s Son; and when justice shall be administered, by whose hand shall it be executed, and who shall be the judge? The once-judged One. And what is to be the rule of that justice which will at once be rigorous, admirable, and wise? The rule and measure by which the Son of God was judged is to be that by which He will Himself judge, and this will be the never-ending death of the enemies of God—a death from within them, a death of enmity against God, a death wherein conscience shall perfectly justify the sentence against them. It will be an execution of death, without God and without hope. They will be raised to be dealt with in justice.

From that death we have been by death for ever redeemed. But by what death? By a death in which was manifested infinite love on the part of the dying One—God’s Son, the world’s Creator, come in the flesh. His was a death always bearing with it a title to resurrection—“Because He hath set His love upon me, therefore will I deliver Him.” It was a life-giving death, a death wherein was fulfilled that word—“I have declared Thy name.” And when the blessed Lord said, in John 19:30, “It is finished,” the great intent of the words which filled His heart was, “I have perfectly declared Thy name.” The glory of the Son’s obedience is seen in every step of His life, and preeminently in the death of the cross, and far transcends creation glory. God the Father’s name is declared, God the Father’s love is satisfied, and “therefore doth My Father love Me” is fulfilled.

While God executed His righteous judgment upon His Son He did so not in the character of Father, but in the character of sin-avenging Judge; yet while the sword was in the hand of the sin-avenging Judge all the heart and love of the Father delighted and rested in that Son, and in the deed of that Son. And if it was said to Abraham, “Take now thy son,” thine only son, thine Isaac, thy joy, “whom thou lovest”—if that was true when they went up the mount together, oh, was it not as much, true when they came down from the mount after the weapon of slaughter had been in the father’s hand? What yearnings there must have been in the father’s heart towards him who had been laid on the altar, had been bound to the altar, and who in purpose was slain! So do we see our heavenly Father’s delight in the Son, whom He smote and slew, in the character of sin-avenging Judge—smiting, bruising, shutting out all mercy in the cup which He gave that Son to drink. At the same time we see the perfect trust of the Son in the Father, according to those words in John 16:32, “I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”

Beloved in Christ, never was there such a fulfilling of such a promise as, “There shall no evil befall thee”—never such a fulfilling of a promise by the seemingly perfect breach of it. But He trusted, and the sustaining of His faith was the fulfilling of the word, “I will be with Him.” “The Father is with Me,” He said. Put that side by side with “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Let us never forget, beloved, the one or the other—the wrath and anger of offended justice spent upon Christ, and the Father’s love at the same time delighting in the Son; the Son forsaken, and at the same time trusting in the Father, even when uttering those words in Psalm 22. Infinite justice and infinite love together wrought the work on mount Calvary. Eternity will never finish the unfolding of the sufferings of the Son of God on the cross. The suffering on the Son’s part was the expression of perfect faith in Him at whose hand He suffered. In comparison with His sufferings there can be no other.

We shall never bear the curse, because He has borne it. We can never be forsaken, since He was forsaken for us. We may forsake Him,, but He never forsakes us. And if His rod smite us, it is as those raised up together with Christ, and as being under the discipline of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And let us remember that while our trials are never to be compared to the trial of Christ on the cross, yet are we to be admonished by two great things that we see there. One is, that when God is excellently keeping His promise, He will often begin by a seeming breach of it; the other is, that we are to seize the occasion, for trusting the love, the faithfulness, the wisdom which we see in the cross. We are to trust Him as doing us no evil, nor suffering any to befall us. Whatever be the occasion of the trial—be it personal, be it in the Church of God, or in the state of the world around us, whatever it may be—let us take heed to this one thing, to keep Christ before us, and to copy His example in trusting the hand that bruised Him, trusting the love that did not spare Him, and trusting the wisdom that led Him out of death into the glory which He now has and shall for ever have.

What Christ Is To God

Hebrews 10:19; Ephesians 2:11-22.

I take these two portions in order to bring specially before us what Christ is to God. Let us ask, What makes heaven full of fragrance at this moment? Whence came it? Who brought it into heaven? The answer is, The Son of God by the fragrance of His atoning sacrifice has filled the holiest of all. Now, I would ask a question—Is this the first thought of the morning? Is this the thought wrapped up in the heart, and in faith carried through the day? It is a question for old and young whereby to test the state of the soul. We are never fit for things below until we bring fitness down from above, not fit to handle matters of the family, or the church, or the house of business. And why not? Because we get a heart for God within the veil, and it is only as God in Christ is with us in all our occupations that they are of any account with God as to acceptance and blessing. Blessed be God, I look forward with joy, though with solemn conscience, to the day of Christ. I know that the judgment to which the natural man is subject I have passed through in Christy and now., because the iron fetters are struck off, the golden chains of God’s eternal love are around me; and I love my chains. If you ask what is the single eye, I answer, It is an eye that looks steadily on to’ the day of Christ, “having boldness to enter into the holiest.” This it not what is commonly called a privilege; it is a right, but a right that carries with it obligation. Every child of God is bound to be a constant worshipper within the veil. He has not a right of access now and then; he has a right of acceptance always, and no license in point of spirit and conscience to leave that place of worship at all. Let us see to it that our consciences are kept within the veil. Ten thousand questions would vanish away were the conscience thus true to our Priesthood—our real Priesthood as one with Christ.

Let me just say a word upon Ephesians. I cannot but affirm what many will accept: what perhaps some will be startled with; but let them consider what I say. I affirm that, commonly, amongst the true, heaven-born children of God, the Lord Jesus Christ and His redemption are regarded much more with respect to the advantage brought thereby to the creature than the glory and joy thereby brought to God. If we have been turning things upside down! may we let our former things be accounted as nought, and broken in pieces. Ephesians 1:4—“That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love”—means that we should become fit objects upon which in Christ, and as one with Christ, the love of God can find its everlasting rest. If we look at ourselves as sinners, or if we look at ourselves as mere creatures, what are we? As creatures, we are things of the dust; as sinners, worse than nothing. But, as God’s children, our life is derived from the crucified Son of God, whose atoning sacrifice is life, and the nourishment of life, as He says, “He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me and I in him.” There is not only life, but communion. That life is worthy of God’s delight. Let us never forget what we were; but it is a common mistake for God’s people to have such an undistinguishing conscience! that they do not separate what they were from what they are.

Let us watch and judge ourselves, let us be dealing with all the workings of the flesh aright. Let us remember that every striving of the flesh would send us to hell but for the blood of Christ. We do well to lay to heart that God has no reason for anything He does but in Himself; and He will never fail to make it manifest that what He does can be done by no one but by the Son of His love. Let us lay this to heart and let us copy our God in respect to Christ. He found His rest in Him; let us do likewise. All our desires would then be fulfilled for labourers in the harvest, for let us remember that if the Church of God were all worshippers within the veil, we should have the listening ear to the speaking Lord, and He would never say, “Whom shall I send?” without receiving the answer from the proper, fitting person, “Here am I, send me.” It is as much my duty to go when I hear His voice as not to go if He is silent. After Pentecost there is no such word as “the labourers are few.” It is our reproach that such should be the case. If we were living in the energy of the Spirit, we should always be carrying the Gospel to needy ones.

Turn to Eph. 2:16-19. If in fellowship with Christ the Priest, and Christ the Head over all things unto His Church, which is His body—if in fellowship with Him we work, and in fellowship with God our Father we find our rest in Christ, we shall never fail to embrace in our affections all the Church of God. You remember that after the taking of Jericho there was the charge, “Israel hath sinned.” Then came the enquiry, and the lot fell upon the covetous man. He was stoned, and Israel gained by the death of the malefactor. But in the Body of Christ every member is necessary. The Body has need of the Head, the Head has need of the Body. But there is a vast difference. The members often forget their need of the Head, and rely on strength and wisdom of their own: the Head never fails to embrace all the members as the gift of God the Father. Our affections should be the very counterpart of the affections of Christ and of God towards the whole Church. What then? Of necessity we should have the bowels of Christ towards the whole world. But that is not all. We cannot have the affections that please God towards the unregenerate if we have not God’s affections towards His own Church. If it were so, we should never be discouraged, for, though tempted to discouragement, we should overcome the temptation. We ought never to be discouraged in the church, because we shall find our recompense in God, and in labouring in the Gospel we should never be faint or weary, because the love of God will always be our rest and recompense whatever the behaviour of men.

In Timothy the exhortation, “Fight the good fight of faith,” was addressed to one who was in a special office in the Lord’s House, but in Ephesians 6 the word to the soldier is to the whole body. In Timothy it is addressed to us all indirectly, but here immediately, “Put on the whole armour of God.” What is the matter of contention? It is not for eternal life—that we have. When Joshua entered the land he had a title to it; but for possession and the fruits of the land he contended with the seven nations. We do not contend in order to be members of Christ, but we contend for obedience according to our calling. Communion is the fruit of obedience and gives joy to God, and the obedient one will receive the crown by and by at the judgment seat of Christ.

“We Have A Great High-Priest.”

In Hebrews 5 we are reminded that He who is the Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec offered up prayers and supplications not only in Gethsemane, but “in the days of His flesh.” In Psalm 22:2 we read, “O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.” We are assured that the Lord Jesus could not but pray, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me”; and in Gethsemane we have a special example of His sorrow of expectation; but this expectation filled His heart all along, though it grew as the hour approached. Psalm 88:15 shows this: “I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up.” How immovable was the love, how immovable the justice of God! If it were possible to remit sin without vengeance being taken, we can be sure that was the time, when the Son of God made such supplication as “If it be possible.” The cross shuts out any “if “after that. Hope lay in resurrection.

How glorious are the two words “justified” (in Romans) and “sanctified” (in Hebrews). Am I the guilty one? I am justified by faith in Christ Jesus. Am I the unclean one? I am sanctified by the blood of the Son, of God. My title is not only to life eternal, but to all that God gives in His Son because I am joint-heir with Him; my title is one and the same with that of Christ Himself. Let us, therefore, not be as the “babes” spoken of at the end of Hebrews 5, but let us enter fully into the encouragement given at the end of Hebrews 4. The apostle writes, “Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered.” Why? They are plain as the noonday sun; but “ye are dull of hearing.” Let us take heed not to need this rebuke, but to obey the commandment, “Come boldly unto the throne of grace.” Let us come, telling out all the heart; and let us remember that Christ delights to show side by side the greatness of His cross and the tenderness of it. Let us go through and through into all the little things of our daily life and course of service, and make them matters of faith and then we shall find that we shall not err and stumble even in very great matters.

How glorious a thing it is to rejoice1 in the truth of chapter 4:13, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight”! If we look at the natural man—at his picture as given in his first father —we see that when he became guilty the voice of the Lord in the cool of the day was to him no inviting voice; he could not “come boldly,” but fled and hid. Now, though all the family of the human race are equally guilty, Satan has taught them, to be more crafty than Adam. He was stubborn, full of pride, and full of terror at once; but he did not tell lies; he uttered no lies to God. Afterwards, a more practised sinner said, in reply to the question, “Where is Abel thy brother?” “I know not.” As the first man, guilty and fearful, fled from God, so do the whole race of men every day of their lives, but they cover it up with a cloak of religiousness, and say their prayers. The blasphemer, who says, “There is no God,” and the Pharisee, are twin-brothers. But as children of God we possess a great High Priest. Oh, let us remember the difference between “there is” and “we have”!

Let us, then, use aright what we have. “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.” It is strictly, “through the heavens”; i.e., the heavens that are under sentence of dissolution. He has passed through these; but thei heaven that is worthy of Christ, and alone worthy to be called heaven, is God the Father’s house, where He displays the brightness of His glory. God our Father seeks us and our worship there. The joy He has in Christ is the joy He has in us, and in our hearts’ true affection. If we seek to be true worshippers of God our Father, we shall put all our matters as they now are into the hands of Christ; and whether we have to do with the Church of God or aught else, we shall begin and end with pleasing God in Christ. We have no business on earth that is not summed up in pleasing God. Our highest success, which we are bound to attain every day, is the doing the will of God. We are not bound to make the crooked straight in the Church or in the world; but we are bound to please God, according to present opportunities or trials, present sorrows or joys, in little matters and in great, in things of time and in things of eternity. Let me hold fast this, and I shall go on in any service committed to me, and never be discouraged, but shall get great gain, and great strength, though as touching the “outward man” I may be weaker and weaker.

The Meek And Lowly One

Matthew 11:29.

Let us remember, beloved, that we walk in the midst of men in this land who are far more guilty than the men of Sodom. We need hearts full of hopeful affection, full of sympathy with Christ. Why is not the judgment executed now that was executed upon Sodom? It is because of Christ’s presence on high that judgment is delayed and long-suffering displayed. I desire to bring this before our thoughts and hearts, that the meek One in the days of His flesh, when He uttered those lovely words, “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls,” had not as yet sunk down to those lowest depths of self-abasement which He reached on the cross, when He uttered the words that begin Psalm 22. He is the meek and lowly One still, and as, in one sense, faith is past when sight comes, that state of faith has ceased to the Lord. But all that our eye sees tries faith, and is contrary to it. Faith means ceasing from the creature and trusting only in the living God. In the old covenant proud man would accept the terms and meet the demands— “All that the law saith we will do’.” On the other hand, we have said, “Nothing the law saith can we do.” But standing in the everlasting covenant of the eternal God, we shall always be trusting, and shall always be secure. In Hebrews 5:7-9 we read that He who had nothing to unlearn, yet “learned obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect”—that is, fitted to be the priest—“He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.” He learned obedience, and His faith grew with the demands upon that faith; and now, in the glory at the right hand of God, He is the meek and lowly One still, and His meekness has passed through the fire of the cross. May we learn lowliness of Him in His life 00 earth and in His glory.

Our Use Of The Word Of God.

The precious promise of our Lord regarding the Comforter, “He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you,” is fulfilled to us through another promise, “He shall guide you into all truth”; to which we must add, “Thy Word is truth.”

The solemn, obligation of all God’s children is to deal with all God’s truth. In order to please God fully—after that blessed pattern, “I do always the things that please Him”—the believer must have respect to all the will of God as in His Word revealed; and each one should seek to have this testimony. We rightly pray, “Search me, O God”; but if the prayer is to be answered, it must be by our being searched through the Word.

God’s Word is a whole, its parts being in perfect harmony with one another. If we deal with the whole Scripture, we shall find all that is needed for the vigour and comeliness of the new man. And the same Word which will strengthen and mould the new man, will certainly be killing the old man.

Let us examine ourselves, old and young, teachers and hearers. Do we deal with all the Word of God, as before God, desiring, longing, thirsting that it may do its work upon the new man, and especially upon the old? We are always in great danger, when we read for comfort, of stopping short of being searched by the Word in our hearts and consciences. The Word is often compared to light, and this is one of the titles of our Lord. But what is needed besides the light when the sun is risen? The faculty of sight, and the opened eye. As it is said of the Lord, “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” so has the Word of God all fulness for our need; all the light we require for perfectly pleasing God is to be found in the Scriptures. Supposing there were faith’s full, unreserved, constant obedience in the hearts of God’s children, then we should just as naturally see the light of God in the Word, as our outward eye discerns the light of the sun. All sin and divisions (those most unnatural things in the children of God) would vanish away before the Word of truth like mists before the sun.

Every child of God is accountable for using aright the time that God gives for the reading of the Word, and while we cannot be called to give the account which the unregenerate man will have to give, inasmuch as we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we yet have to give account of the things done in the body, as God’s children and Christ’s members. Shall we not have to render an account for these two inestimable gifts—God’s Word, and the Comforter, the Teacher?

The iron chains of guilt and curse are for ever gone, and the golden chains of love are upon us; let us ever be found wearing them. While we make it our business to be serving God—not according to our imagination, but according to His mind—we shall find it more easy to please God than to satisfy the cravings of our hearts. Our perfection consists in pressing on; but there must be no league with the Canaanites, no reserves in our obedience. The test must always be the written Word.

If we walk in the Spirit, we cannot do the works of the flesh, as does the natural man (Gal. 5:16); and this walking in the Spirit should be all the day. We are to judge ourselves by the example of Christ, and by the commandments of Christ, in the closet, in the family, and in our callings. The performance of one duty will help another. But if I fail in seeking God in the closet, my prayer afterward may be only like the cry of distress; it will receive an answer from a pitiful Father, but it will not be communion.

Let everything that God says in the Word be dear to my heart, and then the outpourings of my heart will be music in the ear of God. Whatever be the outward calling, let our walk be in the Spirit, as those whose ear, hand, and foot bear the marks of atonement and the Spirit’s unction. So soon as the heart of anyone is made up to this, he will discover his own imperfection, and be driven to the atoning blood; but he will have the comfort of the Spirit, and prove that nothing in the world, the Church, or the family, can come in between his heart and fellowship with God in Christ.

The Wisdom Of This World

Whatever these so-called men of science may find out—and very admirable things do they discover, very marvellous—put all their discoveries together, set them by the side of the mystery of God’s love, His mind, His counsels, His holy name as in Christ revealed, all is but nothing, and these wise men are but grubs in the old creation. It is God’s new-born “babes, nourished up with the unimingled milk of the Word, that have the enlarged understanding; these men of science, the narrow and the strait. Of them it is true, “In much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow “(Eccles. 1:18); but be that increaseth knowledge of Christ increaseth joy and peace, and every precious fruit of the Spirit of God. Moreover, when the conscience is purged by the blood of Christ, the eyes of the heart are enlightened to see God in every work of His hand, from the greatest to the least. The firmament above, and earth and sea, to the pure in heart are ever telling forth the glory of God the Creator, and the grace of God the Redeemer (Ps. 19:1-14).

The Two Books

Psalm 19.

In the eleventh of Hebrews, and the beginning of the twelfth, the records of the deeds of faith are given, and the Spirit of God commences with, “The worlds were framed by the Word of God; so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” The world, in the pride of wisdom, seeks to rise from nature up to nature’s God; but so debased is man, that he can never truly apprehend the Creator until his conscience is cleansed by the blood of the Redeemer. One of the most precious attainments for a believer is, to maintain a conscience void of offence toward God and man. And then to him the book of Creation will be full of the voice of God, as his Father. Even among saints there is little understanding of man’s accountability to God, apart from the revelation of Christ and the preaching of the Gospel. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” The savages that hear the Gospel are accountable for it. But had they no opportunity of hearing it, they would “be accountable to hear the voices that day and night sound in their ear—the works of God. Man made himself a sinner, and is therefore accountable. Although it is most true, that “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,” yet it is not until the fifth of Romans that we have the mention of Adam; but first of all (in chapter 3) each child of Adam is brought in guilty before God. And, beloved, it would be a mighty help to us, in caring to send out the Gospel, if we understood the accountability of mankind apart from the Gospel. We should not only be diligent to read the book of Nature, that tells us of the Creator, but we should enter into this by Him, for whom and by whom all things were created. And then, beloved, how blessed to be able thus to make the outward Bible and the written Bible continually tell the same tale. Everywhere the book of Creation is open to us; it speaks to us in a still small voice. I read Psalm 19 for the sake of pointing out the voice which this double book gives—the one the outward book of Creation, and the other the written page of Scripture. Jonathan had to break his father’s commandment in order to get his eyes enlightened, but “the commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring for ever.” The effect of this double book on every divinely-taught reader is, to make him cry out about his sin, “Cleanse Thou me from secret faults”; and also, “Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins”—outward sins of action—“let them not have dominion over me.”

“His Workmanship”

In the Epistle to the Ephesians God’s delight is seen in chapter 1:4—“That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love”; and Christ’s delight is seen in chapter 5:27—“That He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish.” In chapter 1:12 we read, “to the praise of His glory”; but in verse 5, “to Himself.” Glory is a servant to love. All that God can give us is a token of something higher, namely, the love of His heart.

In chapter 2:10 the apostle says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Being His workmanship, we desire to be less than nothing in our own sight. God delights to make the best and highest uses of us if we are only fit to be used. Here among men there are golden vessels, clean and of exquisite workmanship, yet unused and only for ornament; but there is no such thing in the house of God; there all clean vessels are used. The same vessel may be put to different uses, as Paul when in prison was put to use in one way, and Paul when preaching, in another way. If a vessel be but clean, used it must be, and that for honourable purposes. Let us not only bear in mind how we were made nigh—by a life derived from the Son of God, the remembrance of which will help to bring us low —but let us see how high we are in God’s sight. “We are His workmanship.” How pleasant then must we be to God! The wonder of wonders is Christ offered up; yet we are beautiful to the eye of God and of angels as one with Christ. If I verily believe this I cannot be otherwise than well-pleasing to God, as created anew in Christ Jesus. What then will my great business be? First, to have God’s thoughts in my heart, as we see in Psalm 139:17, “How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” We are so one with Christ in God’s thought and affection that His thoughts should always be as music to us.

Our prayer should be according to Eph. 3, as well as according to Eph. 1. The knowledge of the greatness of the power that is toward us should lead us to seek to know the greatness of the love that is bestowed on us. We are only at home in the Father’s house, and as to our place on earth we are always abroad, wherever we may be. This needs to be understood by anyone who has a desire to labour in another land. If the affections of Christ possess us we shall always find a field of labour at hand; everywhere we shall find room, for the mind of Christ to reveal itself. If we know one another as Christ commends us to God, the very look and greeting which we give one another will be a sweet savour of Christ. “We are His workmanship.” If we were more humble we should say ten times, How worthy we are in Christ, to one mention of our own unworthiness. If like Isaiah, in chapter 6, our lips are cleansed and our consciences purged, we shall say most humbly, readily, and quickly, “Send me.” We shall begin and end with pleasing God, regardless of the question of numbers, whether we go to the thousands or the few. The “good works” in which we are to walk are “ordained “of God. David received his anointing to be king when he kept his father’s sheep, and it was all one to him whether he bore cheeses to the camp or kept the sheep at home. He was taken up with pleasing God. If we realise this it will take many difficulties out of our path.

Kept Amid Temptations

1 Peter 1.

The word “precious” is remarkably used by the apostle in this epistle, but the chief use is here, “precious blood”—only the Spirit of God can tell how precious. Having learnt to utterly condemn ourselves, we trust only in the life-giving blood of Christ, and glory in the Cross, as did the apostle Paul. It is remarkable that in writing to those who were by natural birth the seed of Abraham, but through persecutions by their unbelieving brethren, were cast out and deprived of everything they naturally held dear, the apostle begins with joy. Not first with condoling, but singing, so that he as good as said, You have lost everything as Jews, but gained everything as God’s children, being “begotten to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” We can apprehend something of the meaning of this word “precious,” but to comprehend it we shall have an eternity to grow deeper and deeper in the knowledge of it.

Then mark the words in verse 5—“who are kept.” One glorious point of difference between the Old Covenant and the New is that the Old had no surety. As soon as Moses had given his message to Israel, they, being ignorant of themselves, said, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” And how did they do it? By worshipping the golden calf: and from that day to this we see their continued disobedience. They were ready to crucify the Lord, and then they rejected the testimony of the Spirit, and they will go on to receive and set up Anti-christ, until they are made to bow and own Jesus as the crucified Son of God.

Suppose that on a stormy night anyone saw a naked candle in an open square, and that candle not blown out, but steadily burning, would he keep the secret to himself? Ah no, it would be published abroad in the papers. I don’t know how many farthing candles are in this room! How is it we are kept? Under the New Covenant God’s power takes occasion by our weakness, and against the power of the Devil, to keep us; our being kept day by day is a perfect miracle: let us magnify together the preserving power of God. The work of God the Father, Son and Spirit in creation is great, but which was the greater? Creating sun, moon, and stars, or the quickening one child of Adam from death to life? His glory in creation is as nothing compared to His glory in saving us. Miracles we are. Every saved one owes life to the world’s Creator. When Israel was brought out of Egypt Moses sprinkled them with the blood of bulls and goats; that sanctified them outwardly. But we have been sprinkled in conscience by the blood of the world’s Creator.

In verse 6 the apostle speaks of “manifold temptations.” Job’s three friend’s concluded that it was not possible for God to deal with a righteous man as He dealt with Job. Had they seen the truth of his case, they would have reasoned thus, “Ah, Job: God has put great honour upon you in thus putting you into the furnace.” But their calling him a hypocrite was the filling up of his cup, hence his “manifold temptations” and he came out of the furnace as gold refined.

We have all proved something of trial in our cup to make it good medicine; in verse 7 Peter goes on to the wiping away all tears. Our present behaviour, in patience and faith, in the trial, will be to our praise in the day of the Lord. Could we have the praise without the trial? It came to pass after Abraham’s fifty years’ experience that God did try him, and the end of the proof was this, “Now I know that thou fearest God.” So that, whether the trial be great or little, we have to watch against any allowance of an anxious thought, which is the child of unbelief; to feel and to be sorrowful is one thing, but to be unbelieving is quite another. The best way to kill the serpent is to crush the egg: it is a great matter for the child of God to learn that no circumstances of trial can possibly justify an anxious thought. The whole of Hebrews 11 is written to show the guiltiness of unbelief and the great honour God puts upon faith. Should there be anyone in this room without trial, we had better stop our reading and pray for such an one. A brother was asked—“What becomes of stagnant water?” The answer was: “It breeds corruption.” We all need some trial of faith. We may have little trials for which we need faith, and if we deal aright with God about them, we shall be prepared for the greater ones, and be found ready to give thanks for them. “Giving thanks always for all things,” is like pulling the string of a shower bath; countless are the blessings He will pour out upon us.

The Cross is the complete revelation of God in all His perfections. “He that spared not His own Son”—after this, the least spark of unbelief we should tread under foot; we should consider that our opportunity for trusting God in the dark will be over when we are gone to be with the Lord. If we were caught up to the third heaven could we find a better reason for trusting God? Free from temptations we should be, but we should have no better reason for trusting God there than we have here. Is it not a favour from God that we have these opportunities here for fully trusting Him, whereas in our unregenerate state Satan taught us nothing but distrust. Now if in my weakness I entirely trust in Christ’s power, the adversary must flee. “Resist the Devil and he will flee from you”—that is, if I rest fully upon Christ, I don’t look to the adversary, but to Christ. We little think what power is ours, if only we are kept weak and humble: it is our strength that hinders the power of God.

Let us, beloved, make the most of our opportunities. The time is very short that is allotted to any one of us. In order to trust Him fully about earthly things, I must trust Him fully about things eternal. Whereas the worldling makes his greatest things small by shutting out God, we make our little things great by our communion with Christ, and we are to watch every day against allowing little things to ruffle the temper, and so max our countenances; whereas our countenances should speak of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). If in the little things that try us through the day we are kept in peace within, it will be seen in our faces and shine out in all our ways. Oh, the advantage we have above the saints who lived before Pentecost! the full noonday light is ours: therefore our obligations are according to the revelations we have received. We ought not merely to look at Abraham and admire him for his faith and trust in God; we ought rather to outstrip him. Supposing that instead of the Ethiopian eunuch coming to Jerusalem after Pentecost, he had come up to worship in the days of Isaiah, and had asked him the meaning of his 53rd chapter, could Isaiah have explained it? No; “they saw them, afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”—if we do not confess ourselves as those did in Hebrews 11, if we build our nests down here, surely their strangership puts us to shame.

In the case of God’s servant Daniel, we find that when he wept over the sins and sorrows of his people, the angel Gabriel was sent with God’s message to him saying, “Thou art greatly beloved.” What is the meaning of “greatly beloved”? It is more than being God’s child. It is rather that he was in affection a pleasant child to God. Let me learn, therefore, that whatever be my trial, if I am one with God in the matter, I please Him. Holy angels delight to see us obedient, and no father so delights in the affections of his children, as God our Father does in ours, “My son, if thine heart be wise, My heart shall rejoice, even Mine. Yea, My reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things” (Prov. 23:15, 16). If we keep the heart, we control the tongue—“for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” That leads us on to the second chapter of this epistle; let me beware of how I speak of others, and especially when dealing with their faults: if it be not done in the bowels of Christ, I am guilty of evil speaking.

The Life Of Trust

Psalms 16 and 17.

Oh the fulness of the word of God! Oh the unsearchable riches in these two psalms! “Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust” (Ps. 16:1). Man as created was a worshipper; to be, and to worship, happened both at the same time, but he was every moment dependent upon God. He had no need to find out God, although He was but scantily revealed. We, on the other hand, through sin, need all the fulness of God in Christ, in whom it dwelled bodily.

“Thou art my Lord,” my Sovereign Lord (v. 2), “my portion” (v. 5). Adam knew nothing of the fulness of such fellowship. Oh, how blessed it is to put in contrast the two men—the man made out of the earth and the Son of God who took upon Him the form of a servant—the only one who could ever do that. Satan could have had glory as a servant, so also could Adam; yet both failed. But the Son of God took upon Him the form of a servant, and in obedience went down to the lowest depths, which we can never fathom.

In verse 1 the Lord gives us what characterised His whole life—“In Thee do I put my trust.” “I live by the Father” was His word in John 6:57, and in chap. 10:15-17, He said, “I lay down my life”; not the life which Adam possessed, but the life which He had in the bosom of the Father. The death must be estimated by the life.

Faith is almighty with God, because He so delights in it. Do we like to be trusted? Let our delight in the confidence which others place in us, teach us to learn of Christ, whose all-sufficient plea before God was, “In Thee do I put my trust.” Whatever be my failing, let me deal truthfully with God and confess it; but let me put far from me that worst of all evils, the limiting of God, who is the God of all grace. When David’s men lost their wives and children at Ziklag, they spake of stoning him, but David went at once to God, and the answer came with a double portion of blessing. After confession is made, God must honour faith which does not limit His grace.

In Rev. 4:6-8, we have a wondrous picture of the living ones with eyes before, behind, and within. Jesus had all these, looking back at the glory, forward to the cross, and inward. “My reins also instruct me in the night season,” He says in v. 7, and in v. 11 He looked beyond the cross to “fulness of joy,” and “pleasures for evermore.”

In Psalm 17:15, we learn to say, “I shall be satisfied”—satisfied when, having Thy likeness, I shall be capable of enjoying Thy presence. Jehovah Elohim had all joy in Himself, Father, Son, and Spirit. But the Father having deigned to extend the fulness of that joy by the giving up of His Son, He now seeks the fellowship of His redeemed sons and daughters. But, in order to please God, I must in my thoughts entirely separate the first Adam from the Last Adam, the Second Man. Let us also remember that no tender-hearted earthly parent is so easily pleased as is our Father in heaven by His children’s trust. What a pattern the Lord Jesus presents to us in this, beloved, and as we exercise ourselves to have a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man, the more shall we hear the voice of God, not as the voice of thunder, but as the still small voice from off the mercy-seat. If the Lord has to stand at our door knocking, knocking, we ought to think more of His loss than our own; and let us bear in mind that since it has pleased God in His grace to make us His own., He needs us as His children. Christ also needs His brethren, His members, and will not obtain His full satisfaction till He receives us unto Himself.

Walking By Faith

It is a great matter for every disciple of Christ to settle in his heart that he is called to walk by faith, and not by sight. To come to this conclusion, and nothing less, is prudence. The world knows nothing of faith; all its courses are the fruit of this thought: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” His must be a course of folly whose life is a life of unbelief; but ours is to be a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Has God made provision, for the life of faith to which He calls us? He never makes a claim on us without reason. The revelation He has given us of Himself is His claim, and His provision for us is, that He has done His utmost and His best in Christ.

Moses chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” Christ was but dimly revealed to Moses; but God “has provided some better thing for us,” and has revealed to us in fulness that same Christ whom Moses dimly beheld.

The examples of faith in Hebrews 11 are not given to us to admire only, or even to copy, but to excel. God lays us under this obligation because He has given us a revelation of His Son. There is no wisdom but that of living by faith on things unseen. Whether we are engaged in the closet with God’s Word and prayer, or in the work of our hands, our wisdom is to walk by faith and not by sight.

The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light, but we should seek that this might not be true of us. The saved should be the wise, the happy, the holy; and we have provision for this to the full in Christ, if we do not give way to self-will. Christ is as willing to save us from all that would harm us as He is to save a sinner from hell. His Word is, “Come unto Me … and I will give you rest”—rest from anxious forebodings, from the wounds of offended pride or thwarted self-will.

Remember that the fulness of Christ is all ours, and that faith has a right to all that fulness. In Heb. 5:9 we read that Christ was “made perfect”; that is, perfectly fitted to be the Priest for us, the Aaron and Melchisedec. He has presented His one perfect atoning sacrifice, and perfection excludes repetition. Angels cannot claim brotherhood with Him, but He is not ashamed to call us “brethren,” and He is perfect in sympathy. He feels for us more than we can feel for ourselves. The apple of the eye is tender, but the heart of Christ is much more tender. Our treasure in Him is complete, infinite, and eternal.

Heavenly Integrity

Remarks on Psalm 26.

The whole burden of this Psalm is “integrity.” Beloved, one of the highest and richest blessings from God is to have what the Scripture means by “integrity.” It is indispensable to our growth in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, and to the careful maintenance of peace of soul—indispensable to our dealing in true and living faith with our daily trials and matters. But let me say, beloved, that what God means by integrity is not what the word generally implies; nor, alas! alas! is it the integrity that very commonly contents the consciences of God’s children. Oh, if God’s people did but wake up to this—that God reckons nothing to be integrity that will not bear the test of His Word! For the most part, the world is quite content if its dull, blind conscience does not rebuke, does not condemn; and, as conscience sinks in the man, in the family, in the nation, so that man, that family, that nation, may hold on the path to certain ruin, and yet be as quiet as if walking in ways pleasing to God. When once the devil succeeds in leading to the undervaluing of God’s Word, and we have little of it sounded in the ears of the people, depend upon it, God will smite the people. They will care nothing about the acknowledgment of God in public or in private; then there will be an end of this great empire. But, alas! the grievous neglect of this treasure of treasures by the people of God is too common. They are dealing with God’s Word as they would not deal with a bag of copper! Their consciences become adapted to custom, and do not rise above the level of what is the universal practice. Hence many of the things which Christians are zealous of will be but ill commended at the judgment-seat of Christ. Oh! my dear friends, when the Psalmist speaks about “integrity,” he means “integrity” as judged by God, according to God’s Word.

Beloved, this is a peculiarly precious portion of the Word of God. I call it the Psalm of heavenly integrity. “Examine me.” You will observe it is very like the fourth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self; for I know nothing by [i.e., against] myself; yet am I not hereby justified.” That is to say, my conscience, instructed by the Word of God, testifies to my integrity; but I do not rest in that, I will say, “He that judgeth me is the Lord,” and, while I am thankful for the testimony of a good conscience, I seek to have it rectified more perfectly by the Word of God. This is what Paul means when he says, “Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and men.” “I will wash my hands in innocency” is an allusion to the brazen laver and its pure waters; and it is good to remember that Aaron and his sons were not only to wash their hands, but they were to wash and to worship. Just as the Psalmist, so the apostle exercises himself. He knows how true it is that none cam understand his errors; and if we are truly walking with God as our Father—justly, blamelessly walking—then this will be a mark of it. God judges me not according to the law of Moses, but as a Father in Christ. God marks my walk. I have made Christ my best robe, to answer the demand of His justice, so as to cover all my sins and guilt. He earn see what I cannot see; and I say, “Examine me for what I do not now see.” There is no cleansing of the sin of ignorance without blood; and there is no sin of a child of God but would cast him into hell, did not the blood of Christ prevent. What a blessing it would be if God’s children everywhere sought to rectify their consciences by the Word of God! Now, note the 11th and 12th verses. No child of God ever grew in grace without exercising himself to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men; and there was never a child of God, that did so exercise himself, who did not grow in grace.

As in Psalm 25, so here, the Psalmist has respect to all God’s people—the whole congregation: “My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the Lord.” No one can be wrapped up in himself or in his own service; the heart gains by a custom of fellowship that thinks much of other servants of Christ. Their service for God is my service, their joy my joy, their honour my honour, and their blessing my blessing—whether it be teaching in the Sunday-school or any other service. Oh! beloved, let us think with tender hearts of all in like manner serving. Are we endeavouring to preach the Gospel of Christ? Let us remember all our fellow-servants. Do we hear of their winning souls? Let us thank God, and then we shall have abundance of comfort from God in our own service; we shall be assisted in it, we shall be a savour of Christ to God; and as to success, the Spirit of God will take care of that, and we shall not lack it. Beloved, let us seek in our daily occupation to maintain a good conscience before God, and then the very trials of our outward occupation will help on our growth in grace, and increase our delight in God on the first day of the week. It is because of doing things to ourselves, and not to the Lord that service does not help our faith and increase our joy. We bear cur burdens ourselves, and they become too heavy for us.

On Pleasing God.

The great pattern of perfectly pleasing God is our Lord Jesus Christ (John 8:20). In Matt 3:16, 17, Christ, having come up out of the waters, was in type what He now is at the right hand of God. What a joy, and rest, and comfort it is to think that God, whom we call Father, has had One upon this earth who has perfectly pleased Him! Does it not become each one of us to begin above with God the Father resting in Christ? And while we are considering that, do we not share something of that rest? The eye of God the Father was upon Christ step by step, reading every thought of His heart, and hearing every word from His lips, and everything from Him went up as a sweet savour to God.

Before we consider how far we please God, we must begin with Christ, the Priest at the right hand of God, and what we are in Him, and be on the watch lest we get under the law. Our conscience should always begin with “It is finished.” We begin where the law ended, and now His acceptance and ours are one. Supposing the adversary did not hide that from the saints, there would be at once a flowing together of all the family of God. A truly spiritual conscience will first consider that God’s eye is always upon Christ, and never looks at my disobedience but in Christ, and then with the eye of a Father—” the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.” He is unspeakably more pitiful to me than I am to myself; and if I am endeavouring to please Him, He is more readily pleased than I am myself.

God sees holy angels through Christ, but not in Christ. Sonship belongs to regeneration. They are servants, and it is high promotion for them to serve Christ and His members. We ought to remember, too, that they are witnesses to our obedience or disobedience; therefore the words in 1 Tim. 5:21: “I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels.”

Our pleasing the Father hangs upon our obedience to that Father. Our conscience looks directly upon our inward state: the eye of God never does that, but always upon Christ, but He leaves us to see our failures and judge them, and if we do so He won’t see them. He makes room for His approval of my obedience, which He could not if I were under the law. If I have the assurance that God is pleased with me, although my circumstances may be full of trial, it makes me walk upon the waters. I ought to be dealing with Him according to Ps. 19:12: “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.” Here we have the steps of one truly led by the Spirit of holiness and the Spirit of liberty—first by the Word, and next by the conscience. This is the language of a soul that entirely pleases God, a soul within the vail where the holiness of God is revealed to the conscience as through the atoning sacrifice, which is the very perfume of the presence of God. The children of God ought to have the Epistle to the Hebrews graven deeper and deeper on the heart and conscience, and the more closely we follow God the more fully we see our imperfections.

How precious is the Spirit’s testimony concerning Enoch in Heb. 11:5, that “before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” I have often made offer of £1000 if anyone will prove from this chapter in Hebrews that Abraham denied his wife. That there is no reference to it is only to be accounted for in one way. He comes in after the Great High Priest at the right hand of God. I would bring to your remembrance what God says of David in 1 Kings 14:7, 8. How can you explain this without Hebrews, and Christ the Great High Priest? It is very similar to “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob; neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel” (Num. 23:21).

Is it possible for any natural man ever to have penned such words about David? This is a sample of how God deals with those who truly judge their sin; and it is written as a great principle of God’s dealing with His children, for through the Great High Priest, as one with Him, we have a title to forgiveness according to 1 John 1. And all my confessions, all my repentance now, will be to my praise in the day of the Lord. It won’t be possible for me to forget my debt. If it were, away would go my gratitude. Let me now make no league with the Canaanites, nor with those in the valleys—the enemies within; if you make no league with them God is well pleased with you.

The ladder to climb up to the communion of the Epistle to the Ephesians, I always say, is the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Thoughts On Holiness.

Holiness is likeness to God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the great pattern, of holiness, and we can only attain it by being imitators of Him.

There may be a lack of holiness and yet great uprightness in outward walk, but holiness shines forth in the life just in the measure in which Christ dwells in the heart. Mistakes often arise from our confounding what is naturally right, with what is pleasing to God. The judgment of the natural conscience must not be trusted, for it may greatly deceive us, and we always need the sure Word of God. The flesh at its best is but a tiger in chains, and the law of Moses must not be confounded with the law of Christ. Holiness can only be ours through the blood of Christ, for “in the blood is the life.”

If we find our rest where God finds His—even in Christ—we shall never be disturbed or at a loss, and never be at the mercy of circumstances. We shall rather prove the fulfilment of the Word, “The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

We often hear of practical holiness. But was not Mary at the feet of Jesus, for that time at least, a more practical person than Martha? It is a false holiness which does not begin and end with pleasing God.

Let us always seek to distinguish between emotion and affection. Affection toward God is a peaceful stream, clear as crystal, enabling the soul to endure, and to persevere. Emotion is a more occasional thing, and may be the fruit of special circumstances, as we read in the Acts, “The disciples were filled with joy.” Our blessed Lord Himself, both on the mount and in the garden, had emotions that were not ordinary, but His affection flowed on in unbroken strength, and continuance. Affection, not emotion, is the true test of sanctification.

We all need special help from God for special seasons, but this may surely be left to the sovereignty of Him who knows our need.

The “whosoever” of John 3:16 is most precious but let us go on to the “whatsoever” of chapter 15— “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you”; then the “whatsoever ye shall ask” (v. 16) will be ours also.

If the command in Rom. 6:11 be obeyed—“Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord”—it will ensure a holy, blameless walk in the sight of God and man. If I fulfil my relationship to God in Christ, I shall never do or say an unworthy thing. Entering into my oneness with Christ, my affections must necessarily run in the same channel as His. Strong and true affection to Him will not let me rest if one of His precepts be transgressed; but mere natural uprightness will give me no such exercise of heart. If we walk with God we shall always say, “The good that I would I do not,” even though our walk be unblameable before our fellow-men. Our thoughts will be occupied with Christ; it is Christ that died—that is, once for all; “who also maketh intercession for us”—that is continually.

Let us be on our guard against lowering the standard of holiness. “The law is spiritual; but I am carnal.” Yet we can say “I delight in the law of God after the inward man,” even as the Son of God said, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God”; but He needed no allowance to be made for imperfection. By God, by men, by devils, He was called “The Holy One of God.”

If I cannot see my own imperfection I must fail to be perfectly pleasing to God; and any believer who thinks he has reached a state of perfection is under a sad delusion.

If we walk in the light as God is in the light, we shall see imperfections which the grosser conscience of one not walking in the light, cannot discern; but we shall know that God does not see them, for He sees us in Christ.

Yielding Ourselves To God

Psalm 63

This psalm naturally follows, and is the fruit of, the sixty-second. We remember, “He only is my rock… The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us.” And Psalm 63 begins, “O God, thou art my God!” But without further examining it, let us just take it as the psalm of the rightful king, anointed, but persecuted by the king then on the throne. Let us for a moment consider it as the heart utterance of the son of Jesse, suffering at the hand of Saul. Beloved, taken thus, will it not help us in fully yielding ourselves to Him to whom we belong? You observe that with all his persecutions David sees the future as the thing present. Beloved, let us see ourselves in glory with Christ, and we cannot but behave ourselves aright. “Whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.”

Our great business is seen in verse 5, “My mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.” Our business is not so much to get from God as to give to God. We have received so much that He expects us to be givers, especially of praise. And while we give thanks for benefits bestowed, for His precious consideration of us in smallest as well as greatest matters, let us remember that what God chiefly delights in is our praising Him because of His ways in grace by Christ. This is the chief sacrifice, and is an indication that we have indeed given ourselves unto God, as Christ gave Himself for us unto God, who sent Him.

The Intent Of Romans 7

Instead of treading underfoot the justice of God in saving souls, Christ magnifies the law and makes it honourable. In 6:11—“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin”—we have a command, the neglect of which should affect our consciences as truly as if we had been guilty of stealing. In so far as we do not obey it we slip away from Christ, and put ourselves under the law. To be Surety He must be in Himself guiltless; but being Surety He must by imputation be guilty. As Aaron carried the sweet incense into the holiest (Lev. 16:12), so Christ carried into heaven the very fragrance that fills the heaven of heavens. We are to “reckon ourselves to have died” in our Surety, and to be alive unto God through and with Jesus Christ our Lord— in both states we are to reckon ourselves to be with Him—and we are to regard ourselves as worshippers with Christ enwrapped in that cloud of incense. All the seventh of Romans is so framed as to keep us where the sixth chapter has set us. The one intent of the whole chapter is to keep us on the ground of grace, and from going back to the law.

Right Affections Towards All The Family Of God

Ezra 10:2; John 17:8, 12, 16.

Beloved, we have been entreating God to give us right affections towards all the family of God, affections that please God. We never can regard others aright unless we first regard ourselves aright; and for this we have need to understand better what we were, and also what we now are according to the eternal counsel of God. We must have God’s affections, and understand with the understanding of faith in order to be able to persevere in our affection towards the family of God.

I only remind you of what you all know, that we need to watch our own hearts lest there be some affection which is not like God’s. We are apt to look at ourselves only in regard to our salvation from the pollution of sin, its guilt, and condemnation and ruin; but we are little apt to consider that we are not only saved from sinnership, but also from mere creatureship. Creatures we ever must be; but let us remember that we now stand in Christ, and not only accepted, but loved in Christ, and worthy of all God’s love. No creature can be that, simply considered as a creature. Be he holy or unholy, it is the same. The sinner, the sinning creature, angel or man, is worthy of wrath; but the upright creature, simply as a creature, is never worthy of God’s love. On the other hand, we are infinitely worthy in the Son of God; and as He is loved, so are we—“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.”

I am bold to say that it lay in God’s counsel to will our salvation or not; but if He would have us in Christ His love must be upon us even as it is on His Son. Now if I look on every child of God, whoever he may be, remembering that he is saved from creatureship as well as from sinnership, the Spirit of God claiming him, and possessing him for ever for the rest and joy of God the Father, it is impossible for me so to look without embracing him as God the Father does. This is the great secret of our love to one another.

I see the world’s declension, and, oh, let us seek better and better to see it, and more powerfully deal with it! But, my beloved brethren, we shall never have right affections towards the world if they are not first right towards the saints of God; and if we have right affections towards the saints we cannot fail to have right ones towards the world, and our behaviour will be right too.

Just turn a moment to Jeremiah 9:1, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears!” Now look at verse 23, and mark that there is no mention here of the sin of the drunkard, or of the whoremonger, or of the idolater; there is no mention of aught that the natural conscience condemns; but there is mention of the chief sins that are now in favour in the hearts and minds of God’s children— sins which make the Church of God the sport of the harlot, and the jest of the Philistine. “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches.” It was man’s wisdom that rent the church of God at Corinth, and it meets with high approval now, as earthly power and glory also do. God’s saints are contending for the highest place, running the race with the world for earthly honours; and the love of money is a root of all evil. Ah! there would be no poor members of Christ in the workhouse if the love of money were rooted out. These are the great sins of the day—the pride of wisdom, the pride of power, the pride of wealth; and in chap. 7:4 we read of another, the pride of religion, “The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.” Oh, beloved, let these things not be nourished in our hearts, but let them be seen as God our Father sees them, as Christ saw them in the days of His flesh! What then? “There is hope in Israel “touching our difficulties; and all our dangers of dividing those who are in the body, and hold Christ the Head, are gone.

If it be asked, How shall the lost sinner be saved? have you any answer? If I look at God’s justice, or at God’s law, I have no answer. On the contrary, I have Scripture for me to say there is none. “In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die”; and, “Cursed be; every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.” But there is an answer, and but one possible answer; it is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” But how is it possible that the Church of God can ever keep the unity of the Spirit? The answer is easy. Cease from those things which grieve the Spirit of God. Has God less delight in saving us from the hands of Satan? Surely not. There is “hope in Israel” touching these things. But let us remember that God has provided no armour for the back; therefore, let us trust, and we shall see what God will do for us.

Progress In Divine Love

In the first Epistle of John, Christ as the risen and ascended One fills up that discourse of His in John’s Gospel, which is contained in chapters 14-17. In the Gospel we have Christ speaking to us in the days of His flesh; in the Epistle He speaks through the apostle from the bosom of the Father. In John 15:14 we find the path to the communion of His love wherein to walk in the fulness of the friendship of our God: “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.”

When God is most a Father He is most a Sovereign, and these commandments of Christ are surely our highest authority. The obedience of love aims far higher than the law as given from Sinai. Love has an iron will. Love is the only term or condition of communion, and cannot be dispensed with. Christ’s love is always the same. Suppose any member of Christ be found like Lot in Sodom, His love toward such is the same, but the communion is not; for His love cannot then go out in bosom friendship.

The fairest things of the flesh are the greatest enemies of faith. You may put down drunkenness, and unseat covetousness, which is far worse, but “philosophy and vain deceit,” of which we read in Col. 2, are worse than both; and to meet them we need heavenly wisdom. The crucified Son of God is made unto us wisdom, because He unlocks the bosom secrets of the Father. If we are to learn and to be imitators, we cannot follow afar off. Imitators must follow closely. If I am an imitator of God and of Christ, it is not possible for me to imitate anyone else. Follow saints only as they follow Christ. “Be followers of me,” said Paul, and every servant of Christ ought to be able to say the same. Let us beware of our tendency to copy the faults rather than the excellences of one another. All the excellences of Elijah’s character were in Elisha. A double portion was given, that is, plenitude for his ministry. How was this? He kept his eye on God.

The longing of Christ to have us is according to His love in dying for us. We shall as far exceed holy angels in capacity as we do in. relationship. The “body of humiliation” is to be “fashioned like unto His glorious body.” When we have the fulness of our capacities we shall have the whole book of His Glory unfolded to us.

Now is the time when our Lord is preparing the work “without,” and making it fit for Himself: then He will build His house (Prov. 24:27). “In due time Christ died” (Rom 5). “Why not before?” man asks. God took time. Infinite wisdom could not suffer it to take place before, and so also “in due season we shall reap if we faint not” (Gal. 6:9). There will then be a due winding up of the things of God. There is a reaping time now, but it is only an earnest.

The present course that God is taking with the world is in order to justify His way by and by. God will not be content with being righteous in His own eyes, or in the eyes of the holy angels; He must have a testimony even from His enemies (Ps. 31:17, 18; Jude 14, 15). Every hypocritical prayer, every irreverent work, every scoffer’s gibe and jest about Him must be brought out. God will convince all that are ungodly of their ungodly deeds and their hard speeches, and the sinner will be made to give a testimony to the equity of God, and the equity of his everlasting destruction. God takes time as to sending His Son again. Meanwhile, if self-wisdom and self-will do not hinder and unfit us, it is natural for God to pour into us His love in Christ. Let us be so guided by the Word, that we may know how to represent Christ fitly before all with whom we have to do.

Members One Of Another

Romans 12.

This is God’s code of laws for His redeemed people. The wise men of the land have their laws and statutes innumerable. This code comprehends all the possible laws of the King of glory. Let me first, for your profit, read the whole; then let me put forth some things which have been upon my heart, which flow from the great truths that we have been dealing with.

Beloved, we have been endeavouring in our meetings to help one another to high thoughts of what we are to God in Christ. We have been endeavouring to bear in mind what we were, and what we are through God’s grace. I doubt not but that all hearts have had the truth impressed upon them (it was there before, but it has been engraven deeper) that we are precious, to God. We cannot think with too much self-abasement of what we were; and we cannot think too highly of what we are in Christ. The more lowly we are, the truer will be our gratitude to God. What I was I see in the light of the redeeming death, the sin-bearing, curse-enduring death of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ; and the fruit of redemption is love to God, “because He first loved us.” Redemption is the channel of love and wisdom whereby God makes Himself known, and He pours out His love by the Spirit into our hearts. We are God’s children by new creation; and as the Son of God is infinitely worthy of God’s love, so we as one in Christ are infinitely worthy of that love in Christ. That is what distinguishes us from the world. But let us carefully bear in mind that there is no distinction in John 17 between branch and branch, between member and member. But “they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Be it Demas or Paul, they are alike partakers of God’s love; and being God’s children), are joint-heirs with Christ, and members one of another. Do we not very often hear God’s children say, “God can do very well without us”? No, He cannot. Oh, no! To say so is to do grievous wrong to Christ. He neither can nor will do without us, and He is always on the watch to use us, because we are His members. But our business is to be well-pleasing children, chiefly for God’s delight; and if we be so minded, we shall be fitted to be used for God in the profiting of others, be they the saints or the world.

So bound up are we in the bundle of life with the Son of God, that each of us is a vessel which God by His Spirit takes up for His use in the new creation. As members one of another we are always called upon to have thoughts of love in fellowship with Christ’s heart towards all His members, and therefore in fellowship with the Father, by the Spirit.

Beloved, when that breach amongst God’s angels happened, and God cast down the angels that sinned, no preserved angel was a loser thereby. The life of the one was not bound up with the other; the happiness of the one did not depend on the obedience of the other. They could not but approve the act of justice when God cast down the offending ones into hell. But it is true of Christ that, as the Head, He cannot do without His members, any more than as the Bridegroom He can do without His spouse. Now if we are pleasing to God we are sure of success when we take God’s way. One great hindrance is that we are tempted to wish we were what God has root made us. I would say that every child of God is required by God’s love as well as by God’s justice and wisdom to be true to himself. If I desire fully to please God, let me ask that He would teach me perfectly what is my place in the body, and then let me seek to do my part, whatever it may be.

Let me say again that, in the spiritual creation, every child of God is, in one sense, what he was as God’s creature by nature. Take Saul of Tarsus for example. When born again he was the same man that formerly breathed out threatenings against the disciples of the Lord. Who made him breathe out these threatenings? The prince of darkness, by working upon him through his religion. Remember that as touching the righteousness in the law he was blameless. I have no doubt but he obtained dominion over all the lusts of the flesh, over all the evils that the natural conscience could possibly condemn; but the great engine in the hands of the devil was his conscience and his religion. Natural conscience may guide aright as between man and man, but between the soul and God it will always go wrong. As God’s creature Paul was the very same man when he wrote, “Most gladly will I spend and be spent, though the more abundantly I love you the less I be loved.” He who was once under the dominion of pride and unbelief, the power of Satan working self-exaltation in him, was now under the dominion of Christ by the Spirit—his conscience cleansed by the blood of Christ, his heart filled with the love of God in Christ, the power of Christ strengthening him, the Spirit of God dwelling in him; and he walked in the fear of God and the comfort of the Spirit; yet he was the very same man, considered apart from the moving spring of action—the Spirit of God. Everyone of us has been baptised by the Spirit of God into the body of Christ, and occupies the place in the body in which God has placed him. Let me know the place, let me fill the place. What then? If I do, this will be the result: My thoughts will run in the channel of Christ the Head. I shall always be considering the welfare of others, and I shall always have the joy of pleasing God, shall have the testimony of God’s Spirit that I please Him. I shall never do anything but that which shall be to the profit of my brother, and I shall never be a stumbling-block to the world.

Rejoicing And Mourning

Nehemiah 8:9, 10; 9:1.

In the glorious revelation of God’s counsels in Ephesians, we learn that God has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; that is, in the blamelessness of resurrection; and that God’s purpose is to put all things under Christ as the head of the new creation, that God may be all in all. Does He not therefore make a claim upon us to take part with Him now? These are the worst times that the sun has ever shone upon, because the truth is being corrupted; and those who are quickened by God’s grace and Spirit, those who are redeemed and called, even they are taking more part with the world than with God, and approving rather the ways of human wisdom than the Scriptures of truth. Oh, let us seek to see and judge of everything as God sees and judges.

Now if I do not take part with God, and with the Spirit of God, where am I? And what is my state? My knees are weak, and my hands hang down; and I shall be ready to say, “Take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers”; but if I take part with God, then I shall say, “These are the best of times.” Taking part with Him who is the Head of the new creation, I shall see that the guilt of sin must begin and end with the creature; but I shall also see that God is working out His own purposes by the risen Lord, and I shall make melody in my heart to the Lord.

In Nehemiah 8 we read, “The joy of the Lord is your strength…mourn not nor weep”; and then, in chap. 9, we find the remnant assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and with earth upon them. The truth taught is, that we are never fit to mourn unless we begin with rejoicing. First, we are to eat the fat and drink the sweet, and neither to mourn nor weep, for the joy of the Lord is our strength. Then let our mourning be in perfect fellowship with God. And what will be the fruit of it? We shall have right thoughts towards the poor, foolish, distracted Church of God; we shall know what to say, and what not to say, because we shall be taking part with God and with Christ.

Let us remember, beloved, the joy of our blessed Lord, as seen in Psalm 21:6, “Thou hast made Him most blessed for ever: Thou hast made Him exceeding glad with Thy countenance.” Why this gladness? According to Prov. 8 He said, “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was… Then I was with Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before; Him.” But when He said, “Glorify Thou me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was,” He also said, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” He now has a joy which, before He came in the days of His flesh, He had not—the joy of having glorified the Father’s name. Beloved, we are sent into the world to do the like. “As Thou has sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” This is true, not of a few only, but of every child of God, of every member of Christ; and as we know it, so shall we be making melody in our hearts to the Lord. And in that heavenly joy—springing out of the death of the cross, the life-giving death of the Son of God—we shall be fitted to do and bear anything, small or great, that God may put in our way.

All God’s Children Are Sent Ones

2 Cor. 4:10; Heb. 12:1, 2; John 17:15-20; Isa. 6:8.

Beloved, how needful it is for every child of God to be on the watch that be forget not in what character the eye of God his Father sees him in this world. Have we not all need to examine ourselves and see whether the settled mind in us, wrought by the Spirit of God, is this, that we regard ourselves in everything, and at all times, as the sent ones of the Lord Jesus Christ, even as He was Himself the sent One of the Father? God cannot possibly see us in the world in any other character. And we need also to remember that out of the brief sojourn of Christ here on earth, thirty years were spent in doing what would be accounted in the eyes of the world as nothing. But everything He did was great, because He did it by the Spirit; even the bread He ate, and the water He drank, were partaken of in communion with the Father; and all His thoughts were full of God’s love to Him, and His love to God. While we care for what we are pleased to call missionary work, must we not begin with each child of God (a sent one by the Lord Jesus) according to those words in John 17, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world”—that is, before the appointed time —“but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” And everything is evil—not in the eyes of the natural man, nor in the eyes of Moses, nor in the eyes of disciples in the days of Christ’s flesh, but everything is so to us as raised with Christ, and taught by the Spirit—if it be out of character with God’s thoughts of us. Now, beloved, let us bear in mind that whereas Christ ever walked in perfect faith, and made every little thing great, because He did it to the Father, we make little things great, not because of what we are, but because we do them in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by faith in His name. And we cannot possibly be engaged in little things unless self-will make us little people.

I would bring before you the very precious example and the very great faith, of our Lord Jesus in Psalm 16. Verse 1 really gives us the whole course of perfect faith of our blessed Lord, “Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust.” Then verse 8 is, “I have set Jehovah always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” The wonder of our Lord’s faith and hope is, that the death of the cross is not made mention of. “My heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth.” Oh, what a name for the tongue, “My glory”! Let our hearts be full of Christ, and our tongues will be a glory. “Moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope.” The heart of Christ was set on the fulness of joy before Him. What a perfect pattern of faith therefore we have before us! It is our highest obligation to count ourselves as having died and risen with Christ, and as living by Him and with Him to God. Now if we have death behind us, under foot, as our servant (“all things are yours … life or death”), what manner of persons ought we to be, to do our part as missionaries from the heaven of heavens, sent down, every one of us, into this strange land? We do not often hear of a man being a missionary on his own estate; but that was the case with the Son of God. In that very land that belonged to Him He was a stranger, a pilgrim, and a missionary. Beloved, the world is ours, and we ought to be missionaries on our own estate; and it is indispensable to us to know that God never regards us in any other character; not as Adam’s children, but as His own children by the operation of His Spirit, and the atoning blood of His Son, according to His purpose before the world was.

Beloved, let our eyes be opened indeed to the necessity of having a loving heart for all men; but we must begin where God has been pleased to put us—in a foreign country; we must begin by doing our part here, if we are to be fit to go to Asia, Africa, or elsewhere. Now if we have the truth and faith and cleansing of Isaiah 6, we shall surely hear the still small voice saying, “Whom shall I send? and who will go for us?” We are never to rest without a testimony in our hearts by the Spirit that we are pleasing God. And to please Him is to walk in the Spirit. This will not make us sluggish but diligent. We shall not talk of courage, but be as lions; but first as doves and lambs. Further, I would say, if we are to be sent only and fully of God, we should always crave for fellowship and fellow-helpers. And God will give them. You remember the words, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul.” The Holy Ghost never said, “Separate me Barnabas from Saul.” Sad breach that! But turn to Acts 16. Paul neither would nor could do without fellowship. “A certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, who was well reported of by the brethren at Lystra and Iconium: him would Paul have to go forth with him.” And the whole epistle to the Philippians is not merely one of service, but it is one of service in the spirit of fellowship. And let us entreat that God would give us hearts so furnished by the Spirit, that there might be abundant fellowship here; and that brethren going to other lands might never go single-handed. Wherever there is a heart that is a counterpart—as it ought to be—of the heart of Christ, there will be a craving for fellowship; and God will not suffer that craving to go unsatisfied. Whatever the trials of those who go forth—and they will be troubled, afflicted, and tempted to discouragement; yet they will never give way to it, so long as they have this mind—“My judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.”

Looking For The Lord’s Coming.

In looking for the coming of our Lord, it does not become us to think of it merely as putting an end to our sorrows; for that would bespeak little communion with God. We should rather think of it as fulfilling God’s pleasure and unfolding what His counsels have planned. The fragrance of the highest heaven was brought up by Christ from His death. As the result of His Cross all God’s dealing with the world and with Satan will be one great matter, and will fully please Him. God’s bruising of His Son will be the joy and delight of the world to come.

Paul says, “In due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6); and Peter says, “Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6). Let us give thanks every day that we are left on earth. The true secret of never being disappointed or weary is to begin where Jesus began—with God the Father. “I do always those things that please Him.” The pattern of the mind of Christ is to be seen in the apostle’s words regarding his own nation. Paul says not to God, as Moses did, “Blot me out of Thy book” (Exod. 32:32). Paul had learnt better, having had the Son of God so fully revealed to him, and says in effect, in Romans 9, “I could endure any wrath, any curse, if my people might be saved.” His love to Israel arose from his love to God, and from his delight in Christ as doing God’s will. The higher and deeper our reverence for God becomes, the more shall we be content that God, as the Potter, should do as He pleases with the clay, and the more will our affection to our fellow-men, and particularly to our kindred, be nourished. See how Paul dwells on the sovereignty of God’s will, even regarding his own nation, in Romans 9; and yet in Romans 10 his “heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved,” and he then delights to dwell on the fulness and freeness of the Gospel. The Jews were continually plotting against Paul’s life, but his love burned all the stronger towards them. We must learn to rise above all other springs of action to God Himself; then we shall always find occasion for praise and service. Let the heart be able to say, “Hath not the Potter power over the clay?” and we shall them pray for the work of the Lord far and near; but let us not forget a well of Sychar ministry. Christ’s heart is especially seen in John’s Gospel. The majesty of the “I Am” comes out in the other Gospels, but not His tenderness, as when He says to the solitary sinner, “Give me to drink.” May His love continually fill our hearts, and may we be ready to begin with small matters!

David Numbering The People

2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21.

Two thoughts come up before me as I read these portions of God’s Word: (1) We are not, as saints, called to be in the high places of this world as matter of duty, and if believers seek them they act out of character, and only weave a net for their own feet; and (2), We now have that great teacher of lowliness, the Cross of Christ, and the “Great High Priest” at God’s right hand “able to succour the tempted.” In the New Testament we have no record of saints as kings or judges; but we are to be subject to and to pray for them, and not to speak evil of them.

How solemn is this record! David had penned the 51st Psalm, and had also gone through all the sorrows that came by the hand of Absalom. After that time of repentance and self-judgment we should have thought it was not possible for David to have acted thus; but in pride of heart he did what the great nations of the world do, and think they are quite right in doing. The sin of a nation is oftentimes corrected by the foolishness of its king.

How singular that that wicked murderer Joab should have had light, whilst the king’s eyes were blinded. Joab was a man singularly enlightened, but, like Balaam, he was never a poor sinner. As a man, he was always faithful to David until he thought David’s end as king was come; then he would have set up Adonijah.

Moses numbered the people twice to show the faithfulness of God, but David would have it done against God, and without the atonement money. A child of God out of fellowship with God may do what a worldling would shrink from doing; Satan never could have moved David to number Israel had not David given him room to do it. If we fall into “the snare of the devil,” we shall come into “the condemnation of the devil.”

How precious it is to see in David a readiness to discover his sin; his heart smote him, and he said, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done”; and how it shows his deep acquaintance with God when he says, “Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord.” From early days he had been wont to deal very closely with God, and now, after years have rolled away, and he has become the greatest king in all the world, we find him still the same at heart. How thankful we ought to be that we are not in David’s temptation! But compare him with Nebuchadnezzar. He had a warning against pride, but how did he treat it? At the end of twelve months we find him saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?” And how solemn was the judgment! but he knew not David’s God. When the judgment came upon David, it brought him into communion with God.

As regards moral condition and character, David always dealt truly with God; hence the record we have of him in 1 Kings 14:7, 8, “Thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes.” How true are the words, “If we judge ourselves we shall not be judged! “He made a thorough work of his repentance, that went on and grew deep. God judges His people by the general tenor and character of their life, and not by an isolated action. Now observe that as David honoured God, so God honoured David in His public answer by fire from heaven (1 Chron. 21:26). What a sample is this of the fulfilment of the words, “Them that honour me, I will honour.” It is impossible that I can judge myself for any wrong done without the Lord honouring my repentance. When David says, “Let Thine hand be upon me,” it reminds us of the prayer of Moses, “Blot me out of Thy Book”; but in neither case could it be accepted; there can only be one Mediator. One fruit of David’s repentance is that, when natural strength is gone he is twice the man of God within, and he puts down the rebellion of Adonijah by the word of his mouth. When weakest he is strongest.

In 1 Chronicles 28:2 we see David’s heart God-ward and also towards the people. As a king he might have sat down, but the old man stood, and he said, “Hear me, my brethren, my people”—not my people, my brethren. All the honours that could be bestowed were his, for God promised that he would make Christ of David’s seed. Another of the honours put upon him was his penning the book of Psalms, and he also had the pattern of the Temple. When we see David in the glory, shall we not tell him what blessings we have received through the book of Psalms? He, with us, will then know more of their fulfilment.

The discipline under which our flesh writhes is our preservation. As I look back over my long life, those dealings of God that were bitterest at the time are, in the remembrance and understanding of His dealings, the sweetest. If the Church of God saw the sin of self-will and pride, and were truly humbled before God, as was David in his day, lowliness and love would be the fruit. How much greater is our sin, seeing that we have the manifestation of lowliness and love in the Cross of Christ, and the Spirit of God indwelling us. One practical lesson to be learned from this record is, that sin unjudged by us must bring judgment from God; but sin judged and confessed makes way for honour from God.

Jehoshaphat.

2 Chronicles 17, 18, 19, 20.

It has always been in my mind that the story of Jehoshaphat both encourages and also solemnly warns. How solemn, after the prosperity according to chapter 17, to find him not pursuing the course that was right! For if he had been dealing aright with the Scriptures which they then had—the boots of Moses, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and many of the Psalms, a very large revelation of God—if, after having swept the land of idols, he had gone on diligently searching the Scriptures, he would have been preserved from striking hands with wicked Ahab.

One great lesson from this story is, that we ought to be trying our ways by the Scriptures. He began in the Spirit and ended in the flesh, but, considering the time in which he lived and the temptation to which he was exposed, Jehoshaphat was a marvellous man of grace.

Then, also, we see this, and it is a vast advantage to see it, that God never will or can forego the claim He has upon our conscience for obedience. I have always had sorrow in reading the account of this man of God; it is full of warning against resting in any obedience we have attained to. The whole family of God stop at a certain point, and do not search and try their ways, and so are overcome. How much easier it is for the fly to get into the spider’s web than out of it! Psalm 26 should have been a guide to Jehoshaphat. He sincerely feared the Lord, but did not search into the Word, for had he, it would have been impossible for him to be in fellowship with Ahab. His eye was not single, and therefore his body was not full of light.

Then how solemn is the story of his son! Jehoshaphat’s affinity with Ahab encouraged his son to marry Ahab’s daughter, and the fruit of this was that he murdered all his brethren. Let us remember Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 6:17: “Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” Let your fellowship with God be such that you may not be defiled with a touch of the dead.

But the eye of God never passes over anything that is good in His child, which we are apt to do. The commandment is, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” In Philippians 3:15 there is a promise to those, and those only, who do not rest content with any measure of obedience. The mark of the perfect man is a keen eye for his own imperfection, and, if we have this, any of our ways not pleasing to God will be revealed to us. The great pattern Psalm of self-knowledge and heavenly integrity is the 119th. How instructive are the first eight verses! the very path that Jehoshaphat should have pursued. This is the diligence that ought to have been in him; but what shall we say of the Church of God in the present day? Christ the Great High Priest and our Leader in worship is not generally considered, and if the hearts of most of God’s people were examined, the Epistle to the Hebrews would not be found there. Then there is the code of laws in Romans 12. If our ways were tried by them would they stand the test? We ought to have as tender a conscience about the body of Christ as we have quickness of feeling if a grain of dust gets into the eye. One fruit of the diligence in Psalm 119 is love to the Word (v. 97). Then how does this Psalm end? With a depth of self-knowledge, which leads not to exalting myself above others, but to my taking the lowest place.

Mr. Chapman’s Hymns

These have been referred to in the Memoir, and a few have been given from the valuable little book, Hymns and Meditations, which contains 165 pieces, with meditations on the first two chapters of the Song of Solomon. The following six are newer, and are not in the volume. The piece on Love’s Excelling Way was once published as a leaflet.

Resting in God

My God, who gavest Thine own Son

The curse for me to bear,

Thy Well-beloved, Thine only Son,

Thy justice did not spare!

Thy Spirit teaches me Thy truth,

And leads me in Thy ways;

On Christ the Lord my burdens all

I cast, with songs of praise.

Thy Spirit gives me fellowship

With Thee and with Thy Son;

His glorious beauty I behold,

With joy my race I run.

To Him, Thy First-born, Thou didst give

Thy Church—His joy and Thine;

I pray Thee, Father, let Thy will

Be altogether mine.

Countless Thy thoughts of love to me,

Beyond all searching deep;

E’en as the apple of mine eye,

Father, Thy words I keep.

Shall not my lips of Jesus’ cross

And glories ever tell,

Thy Spirit showing me that I

Please Thee, my Father, well?

Amidst a world of restless pride,

I rest in Thy decrees;

I taste of pleasures evermore,

And in Thee dwell at ease.

God’s Care and Discipline

Beneath the shadow of Thy wings,

My Father and my God, I rest;

Seeing unseen, eternal things,

My portion soon to be possest.

Thy Son, Thy First-born from the dead,

Jesus, how excellent is He!

Thy joy and rest—Thy Church’s Head—

Father, Thou gavest Him for me!

Sealed by Thy Spirit, I am Thine,

Raised up to sit with Christ the Lord;

Forth from His face Thy glories shine,

Unveiled in Him the living Word.

Thou provest faith, in wisdom deep,

To nourish faith, to save from pride;

’Tis Thine alone the heart to keep

Of each who with the Lord has died.

Thy rod of discipline I kiss,

And bitters turn to sweet; Thy child

Would e’er be blameless in Thine eyes,

With harp in hand, all undefiled.

According to Thy riches Thou

Wilt ever for Thy servant care;

Joyful before Thy throne I bow,

And Jesus’ bliss and glory share.

But when shall we, who now are clad

In heavenly garments, all unite

To make our God and Father glad,

Midst darkness, children of the light?

Oh, let the world, as once of old,

Ere the Redeemer come to reign,

Sure tokens in Thy saints behold,

That Jesus died and rose again!

Conformity to Christ

God of all grace, the Only Wise!

Before Thy Throne I wait;

Thy furnace throughly proves my faith;

Thy love can ne’er abate.

In patience I possess my soul;

The gold must be refined,

The image of Thy Son to show;

Mine be His perfect mind.

The cup Thou givest me I drink,

Blessing Thy holy Name;

No gall I taste—the curse, my due,

Fell on the spotless Lamb.

One thing, my Father and my God,

Desires Thy weaned child—

May I be found in Thy great day

Blameless and undefiled!

Answered Prayer

To Thee, my God, for answered prayer

My lowly heart would bring

Meet sacrifice of thanks and praise,

Through Jesus, Priest and King.

In trouble deep I bowed my head

Before Thy mercy-seat;

My bitter cup—Thy gift—I drank;

The bitter turned to sweet.

Beneath the covert of Thy wings

I rested through the storm,

Till Christ the Lord said, “Peace, be still,”

Thy counsel to perform.

I trusted—waited: Thou hast wrought

Salvation for Thy child;

Therefore my heart with thankfulness

And songs of joy is filled.

My Father and my Portion Thou,

I am sufficed in Thee!

All things together work my good,

All things are gain to me.

I bear my Lord and Saviour’s yoke,

I prove His burden light;

His Word and Spirit comfort me,

And guide my steps aright.

To me to live is Christ—let Him

Shine forth in all my ways,

Whose Cross declares Thy holy Name,

Thy riches all displays.

Thy saints redeemed by Jesus’ blood,

In Jesus’ beauty drest,

With Christ their Head shall be Thy joy.

Thine everlasting rest.

Thy Son, for us to intercede,

In highest heaven appears;

Quickly shall He full harvest reap

Of all He sowed in tears.

Then shall Thy opened records show

Thy wise and tender care

Of those who glory in the Lord,

Thou God that hearest prayer.

A Stranger Here

Heavenly Father, in Thy wisdom,

Thou art giving day by day

What is best for me, a pilgrim,

Best to speed me on my way.

In this present world a stranger,

I the path of life pursue,

Waiting for Thy Son from heaven;

Send Him, Lord, in season due!

Him beholding, by Thy Spirit,

Now enthroned at Thy right hand,

With that heavenly Friend I banquet

On the first-fruits of the land.

With His bread and wine He makes me

Strong by faith to run my race;

Crucified with Him and risen—

Oh, the mysteries of Thy grace!

From His hand my crown receiving

I shall cast it at His feet;

Him adoring, with the myriads

Made like Him, in Him complete.

Ruling well the new creation,

Thine own Son Thy rest shall be;

By Him all Thy children gathered,

In Thy house shall rest with Thee.

Head and members the rich harvest

Of their sowing then shall reap;

By Thy Spirit sing Thy praises,

And eternal Sabbath keep.

Love’s Excelling Way

Dost Thou for Jesus’ glory care?

Wouldst thou escape the subtle snare,

And quench the fiery dart?

He that his race would nobly run,

Must watch, and pray, and daily shun

A lukewarm, selfish heart.

Just Lot of old chose Sodom’s plains,

For herds and flocks, with carnal pains,

Rich pastures to provide;

Without the city, first he dwells,

But afterwards his prudence feels

He must within abide.

Yet nothing prospers—friends and foes

Disturb that righteous man’s repose—

Grief, losses, shame, he reaps;

But Abraham is Jehovah’s friend,

Princes and kings before him bend;

The paths of love he keeps.

Love hearkens to the kind reproof

Of Christ her Lord, who stands aloof

When jealous or displeased;

And many tears her cheeks o’erflow

Until His face unclouded show

His anger all appeased!

The purest mind may be defiled;

The truest heart by sin beguiled

Can stray from Jesus’ side;

But love ere long the error mourns,

And, smiting on the breast, returns

To Christ her heavenly Guide.

Thus, if the bee her busy flight

Should stay, on some gay flower to light,

Where honey is not found,

A little while she sits in vain,

Then spreads in haste her wings again,

And touches not the ground.

All Jesus’ members to their Head,

Since by His Spirit they are led,

Some little love must bear;

But, oh, for Abraham’s fervent love,

Far off from Sodom to remove,

And walk in Godly fear!

May we like him ourselves deny;

Believe and look with steadfast eye

To Christ the Son of God!

The love that well the fire endures,

And Jesus’ close embrace procures,

Springs from the Saviour’s blood.

The saints alike by grace are saved,

Their names on Jesus’ hands engraved,

And borne upon His breast;

Whence is it some more brightly shine?

More sap they draw from Christ the vine,

And thus excel the rest.

The hymns which follow are from Mr. Chapman’s Hymns and Meditations.

The Pilgrim’s Hope

Another world, my God, I see,

Where Thou art all in all;

Thither I haste, Thy pilgrim child,

Obedient to Thy call.

There every knee shall bow to Him

Who put my sins away,

Who died Thy mysteries to reveal,

Thy riches to display.

Jesus Thy Son shall quickly come—

Faithful is He and true;

He did the heavens and earth create,

And shall create anew.

Joint-heir with Christ the Lord, I wait;

He soon will end the night;

His yoke is easy to the neck—

I prove His burden light.

A child of dust, far off from Thee,

An heir of wrath was I,

When by Thy Spirit and Thy truth

Quickened and set on high.

My God and Father,

I adore Thy name, for I am Thine;

Thou art my portion and reward,

Let all Thy will be mine.

Following the Lord

By Thy counsel, Father, guide me;

By Thy word and Spirit lead,

Show me Jesus crowned with glory,

Christ the First-born from the dead,

Who once suffered

Death, my wages, in my stead.

More than conqueror, I am warring

’Gainst the foes He overcame;

Hold me up, my God and Father,

Keep me by Thy holy name:

He declared it,

He, Thy Son, the spotless Lamb.

Thou art Love, and therefore lovest;

Let my heart and mind be love:

Let the Bridegroom by His Spirit

All I am possess and move,

Dwelling in me,

By that holy, heavenly Dove.

Let me keep the path and footprints

Of my Shepherd, Christ the Lord;

Thine own Son came from Thy bosom—

Son of Man—to keep Thy Word;

He fulfilled it,

Slain by Thine avenging sword.

Cross enduring, shame despising,

Jesus leads me in the way;

As He trusted, I would trust Thee,

Pleasing Thee from day to day,

And Thy riches

By my love and joy display.

“We See Jesus”

Now is our life no more a dream,

Nor shadows we pursue;

The world a thing of nought we deem,

Our joys are now a living stream,

Our song is ever new.

The Lord who stooped from heaven to die,

The Mighty One to save,

Hid for awhile from mortal eye,

Now sits with God enthroned on high,

Triumphant o’er the grave.

The Prince of Life by faith we see,

His saints with Him are one;

Our Father! who is like to Thee?

For us Thy justice on the tree

Did bruise Thine only Son.

We have no home nor city here,

This earth is all unblest;

Let Christ the Lord again appear,

And wipe away our every tear,

And give us perfect rest.

Our God, Thy holy name we bless,

And drink our cup of woes;

For in our manifold distress

Hope makes this barren wilderness

To blossom as the rose.

Eternally Satisfied

The hour decreed hastes on apace,

When children who in tears have sown,

Shall see their heavenly Father’s face,

And know their God as they are known.

But how before the creature’s eye

Shall God without a veil appear?

The Lamb once slain on Calvary

Shall the great mystery declare.

Jesus the servant’s form did take,

The Son of God for sinners died:

In Jesus’ likeness we shall wake,

With Jesus’ fulness satisfied.

Soon as a dream or tale that’s told

The heavens and earth must pass away,

While we the Son of Man behold,

Nor in one thought from Jesus stray.

The heavens and earth shall be renewed,

To show His death upon the tree;

To Him must all things be subdued,

To Jesus all must bow the knee.

Our city God Himself did build,

The Lamb its everlasting light;

No tears, no curse—’tis un defiled,

All blameless in Jehovah’s sight.

Books By R. C. Chapman

Choice Hymns and Meditations:

A Collection of Hymns on many portions of God’s Word, with Meditations on the First and Second Chapters of the Song of Songs.

The Hymns Include:

· The Blood of Jesus Shed on Earth.

· My Soul, Amid this Stormy World.

· Once the Lamb of God was Offered.

· With Jesus in our Midst.

· Jesus in His Heavenly Temple.

· No Bone of Thee was Broken.

· Oh! My Saviour Crucified.

· The Lamb of God to Slaughter Led.

· Go, Behold the Tomb of Jesus.

· The Lord of Glory, Who is He?

· “No Condemnation”—O My Soul.

· Hail! Star of Morning.

And 150 other Pieces of refreshing and reviving power to the soul. Blur Cloth, Bevelled Boards, 1/6; (For Presentation, 6 Copies supplied for 6/, or 12 for 10/, post free;) Leather, Gilt Edges, 2/6, post free.

Seventy Years of Pilgrimage:

The only Book Edited by Mr. Chapman.

Being a Memorial of William Hake, by R. C. Chapman, his fellow-labourer for fifty-nine years, with select Papers by Mr. Hake. Incidents concerning these two men of faith, Instructive Remembrances, and Spiritual Thoughts, Poems, Music, &c.

Blue Cloth, Bevelled Boards, 1 6, post free.

Choice Sayings:

A Collection of over 800 Striking and Profitable Comments on Great Truths. Revised by Himself.

Cloth Limp, 1/; boards, 1/6; Leather, 3/.

Precious Portions for the People of God, from several Addresses to Believers. Selected by J. R. Caldwell. Cloth, Gilt Title, 6d.

Testimony of R. C. Chapman. His Conversion Story, with Photo. A Gospel Message. 1/per 100, post free.

Cabinet Photographs. Full Face or Profile, 1/6 each, post free.

Glasgow: Pickering & Inglis, 73 Bothwell Street. London: H. A. Raymond, 16 Paternoster Square, E.C.

And Through All Booksellers.