These meetings are good stopping places. We require them. Most of the time, we are like men in a crowd, rushing all one way. It is not possible under such circumstances to consider where we are going, and if we do not consider where we are going, we shall run on to a catastrophe if it should happen that that is what the crowd are running to. That that is just what the crowd are running to, there is no manner of doubt. Jesus tells us plainly that-

In the Psalms, we read that God looked down from heaven to see if there were any that did understand and seek God; the verdict was certainly unfavourable.

John, the apostle, declares by the spirit that such was the state of things in his day:

“The whole world lieth in wickedness.”

That there was no change in Christ’s absence, we know from the visions of the Apocalypse which show us wicked nations found in darkness and receiving judgment at the day of the Lord’s coming. The same thing Jesus himself plainly said, when he was upon the earth, that the Son of Man at his coming would find the world as it was in the days of Noah. We require then to “consider our ways.” God commands it: our well-being demands it. We shall be despised by the common run of men for it. Never mind:

Folly consists of acting according to feeling and not according to fact. The world acts according to fact in a certain superficial way: but these facts don’t go deep enough. It is the fact of the moment they consider, and that only on the surface. What man thinks, they take into account; what God thinks, they leave out of calculation. How things seem to work for the present moment, they give great heed to: how that same working will work out in the long run, they do not consider. That they are alive and have appetite, they note with avidity: it concerns them not to think what they were made for or for what use their faculties were bestowed. They remember neither the day of birth nor the day of death. They are forgetful of the past, and heedless of the future. They say the future will take care of itself which is not true; future grows out of the present. They say God will take care of us all: which is also not true: for-

“He putteth away all the wicked of the earth like dross.”  (Psa. 119:119).

We require to step aside every other now and then and consider what we are living for and where we are going. We know what the world everywhere around us is living for, and unless we keep ourselves up to wisdom’s standard, we shall be infected and affected by the world’s thoughts and ways. Jesus has told us what “all the nations of the world seek after,” namely, saith he, “what shall we eat, what shall we drink and wherewithal shall we be clothed.” John, the beloved disciple, has told us what prevails in the world: “all that is in the world,” he says is “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,”-the pride of life-great ways-high and lofty. All these, he says, “are not of the Father.” They are not according to His mind. In a sense, all things are of Him; for all are the works of His hands; but there is a difference between things and their misuses. “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” are the misuse of faculties good in the right use which is divinely permitted us. Used as they are in the world, they are wrong and evil. Faculties and impulses that were only intended as servants are exalted to the position of masters. The faculties intended for the mastership are dethroned and chased into the street. The fear of God, the love of righteousness, compassion for neighbour, truth and mercy, faith and hope, were all intended to hold the flesh and the eye and self-importance in the place of subjection. In the world these things are upside down, and in that sense, “are not of the Father.”

Now, however distasteful the doctrine may be to some, it is true that as Christ was not of the world so we, if we are his, are not of the world. He said so. He described the disciples as “the men that thou, Father gavest me out of the world.” (John 17:6). Paul says that the aim of Christ’s whole work was “that he might purify unto himself a PECULIAR PEOPLE.” (Titus 2:14). God’s own command is,

“Come out from among them and be ye separate and I will receive you.” (2 Cor. 6:17).

When we have complied with this command we are not of the world. We are not of their way of thinking, nor of their way of acting. We are a new sort of people altogether, as it is written,

We see the reasonableness of this, and are strengthened to maintain the position when we take all the facts into view-the facts presented in this breaking of bread. What these are we quickly get at when we ask a few simple questions. Why are we here? Because Christ commands it. Why does he command it? Because he desires that we keep him in memory. Who is he that it should be so important that we keep him in memory? A complete answer here would be a large one, for as the apostles declared, “To him give all the prophets witness.” As Jesus said, “The prophets testify of me.” They testify much. Let us select one element of the answer-that one which is appropriate to the present occasion-the one represented on the table. Here we have bread and wine, representing the body and blood of the Lord, offered in sacrifice-Christ is our Passover sacrificed for us-the God-provided lamb offered to take away the sin of the world. Whence arose the necessity for this extraordinary arrangement, that a man without sin, “the only begotten Son of God”-Son of man only by his mother’s side-the only man without fault before God-should be crucified and slain and presented in standing memorial of that event to all generations? The answer is, because of another man before him, in whose wake all generations of men have since followed. He is classed with that man in federal contrast with that man.

Christ the sin-taker-away brings before us Adam, the sin-bringer. This is the apostolic association of the work of Christ, however unfashionable it has become: and the apostolic system of truth will stand when whole generations of learned sinners will have disappeared like the decayed leaves of autumn. For the apostles were not teachers of their own ideas. They taught the wisdom of God by revelation, and in words prescribed by the Spirit. (1 Cor. 2:13). Popular theologies and moralities and philosophies are the mere gas of human thought and sentiment. The table of the Lord, then, around which we are assembled, takes us away back to Adam at a stride. We are not done with our questions yet. Why did God place Adam on the earth? As in the case of Christ, so in this: there are many ingredients in the answer. Let us take the leading one. God has told us by Isaiah that he has not made the earth in vain. To what purpose will He mainly turn it then? He informed Moses:

In the Apocalypse, we are permitted to have a glimpse of the earth when His purpose is accomplished. What do we see? The tabernacle of God with men: they, His people, serving Him: no more curse, no more pain, no more death: everyone ascribing with a noble and intelligent sincerity, Glory and honour to Him that sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb. This is the climax of the work. We are looking for this, and when it comes, it will be glorious.

But meanwhile, as concerning ourselves, it is of the first importance that we catch up the principle involved. God placed Adam on the earth that God might be glorified. This does not bring with it the harsh and unpleasant thought that unbelief associates with it. It is not that God, in what might be called a selfish sense, seeks His own glory; but that He insists upon a condition that He knows to be essential to well-being-satisfaction to God and happiness to man-for God is capable of satisfaction, however foreign the idea may be to human philosophy. When God is glorified man is blessed. This is well illustrated in the case of Israel. Read these sublime addresses of Moses to Israel in Deut. 28, Lev. 26, and other places:

“It shall come to pass if thou shalt hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all the commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God shalt set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these BLESSINGS shall come upon thee. Blessed shalt thou be in the city. Blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in. Blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out,” etc. etc.

We have only to look at the depressed position of Israel’s race at the present day, and at their afflicted history for weary centuries past to see what comes of the reverse operation of the rule. Glory to God means the highest good to man. Rebellion against Him means the utmost misery.

When therefore we say that God placed Adam on the earth for God’s glory, we also say in the same breath that it was for the highest good of the race so introduced: only the latter must not be separate from the former. It cannot be separated from the former. It cannot be separated in fact. But men separate it in their thoughts and theories. They think of philanthropy as a thing separable from the service of God. How vain their thoughts are is seen in the present miserable state of man upon the earth. This bad state has prevailed ever since man was upon the earth. Universal history bears witness. It dates from Adam’s expulsion from Eden. It cannot end but with man’s return. The process is begun. But it operates only with a few in all the generations of darkness, and in the case of these few, it is a process necessarily attended with self-denial and suffering, because they are called to obedience in the midst of a disobedient population.

The disobedient hate the obedient class, as they hate no other class. Cain’s murder of Abel is the type of the attitude of the one class to the other all the way through history. Violence is restrained by the institutions providentially established, but the hatred is there and would vent itself in the same way if it could. The apostolic cry is,

“We pray you, be ye reconciled to God.”

“Let the time past of our lives suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles.”

Those who respond to the cry become “obedient children”, “walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” By this very act and fact, they become separate from the world who are the children of disobedience. Fools make a mock at sin, and to them everything connected to God is distasteful. How is it possible for the children of God to “walk with” such?

Those who embrace these conclusions should follow them out with thoroughness. Compromise will necessarily be a failure.

“Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.”

A man desiring to please God who does not keep himself unspotted from the world will please neither God nor the world. He will exemplify the case of the man falling between two stools. It is better to die serving God than to live by denying Him. It is denying God to make friends with the world who live at enmity with Him. We are in the world, but we are not of it. It is very inconvenient: What shall we do? There is only one wise course: put up with the inconvenience and persevere at all hazards. The crown is for the man who overcomes. The victor does not strike the flag in the presence of the foe. Victory in this case is something worth the effort. Its nature is not manifest to those who do not “consider their ways”, and therefore they fail in the motive that lends strength to the arm in the battle.

This is a mental state superinduced by the knowledge of what God has done and said. This knowledge is the thing not cared for: therefore the people perish. You have only to live long enough to see how foolish is this aversion to wisdom and how-

Sooner or later there comes the inevitable change-the sudden snap in circumstances-the death of friends-the visitations of disease-the summons of death. Then the fool wakes up to curse himself. How common it is for people to say when they come to die: “I have been a fool. If I had my time to live over again I would do differently.” It sometimes happens, but how rarely that the man lies down who can say: “I have had my faults and blemishes to an extent that leads me sincerely to say with Jacob, ‘I am unworthy of all the mercy, and the truth that God has shown me,’ but I have striven my life long to do the will of God, I have loved and served Him to the utmost of my poor ability. If I had my time to live over again, I could not do differently.”

It is in the power of all sane men with the knowledge of the truth, received in the daily reading of the Scriptures, to live a life that will enable them to make this declaration at the last: but it is not to be done without the effort that men put forth to secure the objects of this life. The popular mind has become demoralised on this point through a false theology. Victory means battle, and battle is a more than common effort. The prize means the winning of the race, and this is no ordinary running. In measure-some in small measure and some in larger, everyone of Paul’s brethren will be able to join in Paul’s closing declaration,

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