Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

The life of faith in its every stage and every step must be intensely individual. No one can have faith for another, and no one ought to dare to intrude upon another’s path. We may and ought to encourage one another to trust God — to strengthen each other’s hands in God — but for anyone to counsel another to do this or that, unless there be distinct faith for it, is in our judgment a very grave mistake indeed. Hence, dear friend, if you are not thoroughly clear in your own soul as to whether it would be “faith or folly” to abandon your present position, we should strongly recommend you to pause. It is a serious thing to go beyond your depth, to feel the surgings of the tide of circumstances, if your feet are not on the rock. We have no fears on God’s side of the question. He never fails a trusting heart. But from the style and tone of your letter, we have great fears for you.

Could you imagine Abraham asking anyone if it would be “faith or folly” for him to leave Ur of the Chaldees? Could you conceive Moses asking if it would be “faith or folly” for him to leave the court of Pharaoh? We most fully believe that your position would be a false one for us, and that to abandon it would be true wisdom, but you must see this for yourself. You must have it from God and act before Him, else it will all end in confusion and disaster. “Never go before your faith and never lag behind your conscience.” This is a most excellent principle. May we all be enabled to act upon it! The Lord bless, guide and keep you!

We conclude from what you say that your own mind is ill at ease in reference to the matter about which you ask counsel. We would therefore recommend you not to do anything with a doubtful mind. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Look to the Lord for guidance in this thing. See if you can do it to His glory, and if not, lay it aside. It must be between your own soul and the Lord. Do nothing with a doubtful mind. How precious to be able to bring everything, great or small, to Him!

The question you propose is one for your own conscience to weigh in the light of Scripture. It would be of no real use to you for us to say that we could not for worlds occupy such a position or stand in such a relationship as you describe, inasmuch as each one must act according to his light. We believe the servant of Christ ought to stand perfectly free from human influence. He should have to do only with His Lord, both as to his work and as to his support. But in all these things, the rule must ever be, “According to your faith.” It is none of our business to judge others; each one must stand or fall to his own Master.

If your conscience is not clear before the Lord, do not move one inch in the matter. Let not the persuasive arguments of a thousand friends induce you to do anything with a doubtful mind. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” We do not offer any opinion on the abstract question which you have laid before us, but, judging from your own statements, it is very evident that your own heart would condemn you in taking such a step. On this ground, we solemnly counsel you not to move in the matter. May we be faithful to Christ! May we give Him an undivided heart!

The Lord alone can give you wisdom and grace to act in the painful circumstances you describe. If you really wait on Him, He will teach you when to speak and when to keep silence. There is danger of speaking in haste of temper rather than in a spirit of love, when replying to the godless remarks of the unconverted. This is to be guarded against. Further, we must remember there is very often far more powerful testimony in solemn and dignified silence than in talking for talking’s sake. But the Lord will guide the lowly dependent heart. He will tell you when to speak and when to be silent. Then, you may rest assured, the speaking and the silence will each be fruitful in its season.

It is always well to watch our treacherous hearts, even in right things, lest they betray us. But in the matter to which you refer, we would remind you of the exceeding goodness and tenderness of our God. He most graciously allows us to pour out our hearts to Him in the freest manner. He perfectly understands our every feeling and He knows all about our relationships and the right affections which flow out of them. It would be unnatural not to feel unique earnestness in reference to the salvation of our relatives according to the flesh. Unquestionably, we should seek to be ruled in all things by the glory of God. But oh! let us ever abide in the sweet sense of His love and let us beware of a unhealthy analyzing of our poor thoughts and feelings. God bless you and keep you!

We fully sympathize with you in your dread of acting under mere impulse. It is always well to be sure of every step we take, to be able to give a “Thus says the Lord” for whatever we do or whatever we refuse to do. Very much damage is done to the cause of truth and vital godliness by impulsive acting and by what we may term spasmodic devotedness. We greatly value calm, deeptoned decision for Christ — a decision produced by genuine love to His Person and profound subjection to the authority of His Word. These things are most needful in this day of man’s will, man’s judgment and man’s reason. As to the matter which seems to exercise your heart, you must simply act before the Lord. It is entirely a question for your own conscience. Do not act on the judgment of another. If you feel free in conscience before God, it is better to continue as you have done for the sake of others. By all means, keep a good conscience, cost what it may.

We entirely agree with your remarks about the Church. The professing body is a ruin. The Body of Christ is one and indissoluble. It is our holy and happy privilege as it is our bound duty to have our feet on God’s ground and our eyes on God Himself — to see and own our failure, but yet to hold fast the faithfulness of God. It needs a single eye to discern God’s ground and a simple faith to occupy it, but He is always sufficient and His foundation stands sure. There is no reason why we should continue one hour in connection with what is wrong. “Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” This is conclusive. Nothing can justify our remaining in connection with what we know to be false. May the Lord Himself greatly bless you, beloved friend, and make you a blessing!

We see no other course open before you but one of plain decision for Christ, cost what it may. You must cease to do evil before you can expect to learn to do well. Trust Christ and act boldly for Him. “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” But if you are looking at circumstances, weighing consequences or conferring with flesh and blood, your eye is not single and you must be in darkness and perplexity. The Lord can very speedily provide you with a situation. Only wait on Him. Let your exclusive reference be to Him. He never fails a trusting heart. Do, dear friend, seek to prove the reality of sole dependence upon the living God. There is nothing like it. All human hopes are as a vapor that passes away. May the Lord undertake for you in His infinite goodness.

It is a most serious thing to trifle with the truth of God or to refuse the path which His Word plainly sets before us. Blessed be His name, He bears with us in our ignorance, our unbelief and varied infinities. But to sin against light is a fearfully solemn thing. “Give glory to the Lord your God before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness” (Jeremiah 13).

Mark the words! “Before He cause darkness.” Does God cause darkness? Yes, verily, and blindness, if people refuse His light. There is no darkness so profound, no blindness so awfully complete, as that which God sends judicially upon those who trifle with His Word. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2, “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Here we have the future destiny of Christendom. God shall send strong delusion. He will turn their professed light into gross darkness and the shadow of death. All this is most solemn. It should make us tremble at the very thought of refusing to act up to the light which God graciously affords us.

Look at the blessed contrast to all this as given in Luke 11: “No man, when he has lighted a candle, puts it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.” What does God give light for? That it may be quashed, quenched, hindered? Assuredly not; but that it may be seen. But how can it be seen if we do not act upon it? If we, for worldly gain, personal advantage, to please ourselves or to please our friends, refuse to obey the Word of God and thus hide the light under a bushel — what then? It may issue in “gross darkness,” “the shadow of death,” “strong delusion.” How awful!

Our Lord continues, “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single” — that is, when you have but one object before you — “thy whole body also is full of light” (beautiful state!) “but when thine eye is evil, the body is full of darkness. Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.”

How striking the contrast! Instead of stumbling on the dark mountains, the obedient soul not only has light for his own path, but he is actually a light-bearer for others. The moral progress in the above passage is uncommonly fine. There is first the single eye — the one simple, firm, earnest purpose of the heart to go right on in the path of obedience, cost what it may. Then the body is full of light. What more can there be? But there is something more, for assuredly there is no redundancy in Scripture. “If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark” — no reserve, no chamber of the heart kept locked up on account of friends, self-interest, worldly ease or anything else — “the whole shall be full of light.” You become transparent and your light shines so others see it. Not that you think so, for a single eye never looks at self. If I make it my object to be a light-bearer, I shall get full of darkness and be a stumbling-block. When Moses came down from the mount, the skin of his face shone. Did he see it or know it? Not he. Others saw it; and thus it should be with us. “We all, with open face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Lord the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3).

Finally, dear friend, let us entreat you to yield yourself without reserve to the Word of your Lord. Do not permit your “friends” to stand in your way. Will your friends answer for you before the judgment-seat of Christ? Can they now fill your heart with that sweet peace which can only be found in the path of obedience? They do not deserve the name of friends if they stand in your way in following Christ. They are just like the swallows that flutter about us in the summertime, but on the first approach of autumn blasts they wing their way to sunnier climes. Obey, we beseech you, the Word of your Lord. Let no flimsy excuse, no worldly consideration, no thought of personal greatness weigh with you for a single moment. What will all these things be worth in the light of the judgment-seat of Christ? What will you think of them in eternity?

But you will tell us you are saved; you are a “Christian girl”; you have eternal life; you can never perish. Thank God for all this. But surely you do not mean to say that this is any reason why you should not obey what you know to be the Word of God. Is it not rather the very ground of obedience, and the love of Christ the constraining motive? What are all the friends in the world compared with Christ? Would they shed their blood to do you good? No, but they are making you miserably unhappy to please them. You would rather pain the heart of Jesus by neglecting His commandments than pain your friends by obeying Him.

May the Lord help you, dear friend, to lay aside every weight and your besetting sin, and run with patience and true purpose of heart the race that is set before you.

Few things are more solemn than to resist light. Look again at that most weighty passage in Jeremiah 13. “Give glory to the Lord your God before He cause darkness and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness” (verse 16). There is something very awful in the thought of God causing darkness and turning light into the shadow of death because of our not acting on the light when He graciously gave it. The contrast of all this we have seen in that lovely passage in Luke 11:34-36. When we act on the light which God gives, we not only are full of light ourselves, but become lightbearers for others. This is very different from stumbling on dark mountains.

We do not wonder, dear friend, at the dim twilight of which you speak. The wonder is that it is not profound darkness. It would be so but for infinite grace. But we entreat you not to hesitate a moment longer. “How long halt ye? … I made haste and delayed not to keep Thy commandments.” “Let us go forth therefore to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” Let nothing cause you to linger. “To obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams.” It is a fatal mistake to refuse to act on divinely given light under the plausible pretext of usefulness. Our usefulness consists in doing what our Lord commands. Obedience is our work. May God give you grace to be decided for Christ! May He lead you forth into that blessed sphere in which you can walk with Him, lean on Him, work for Him and find all your springs in Him! To Him we earnestly commend you