The World, Its Politics and
God's Government
– J. N. Darby, C. A. Coates and J. Taylor

What I purpose doing is to review briefly the course of events, and state what seem to me their results.

• Parties are all alike to me; they are all alike guilty, and have all alike had their part in what is going on.

• Lord Derby it was who banished the scriptures from Irish schools and set up the Irish national – really, Popish – school system.

• He stated that there was no proselytism, but that "the use of scripture" was a fatal objection, because it was displeasing to the Priests.

• We must remember that politicians have no idea of principles, but only of existing influences to which they must be subject.

The next step was that of that most short-sighted man, however great a general he might have been, the Duke of Wellington.

• I take no side with any party – I distrust them all; but he was a Tory as they call it, aristocratic in principle.

• He, with Sir R. Peel, passed the Catholic Emancipation bill, so called, which admitted some sixty or seventy violent democrats into the House,
  • and by that party – as it is well known – the Reform bill of 1832 was passed; the majority of English members were against it.

• Now, for a State with a political machinery like that of England to work smoothly, a large portion of influential masses must not be outside its institutions.

• The Duke of Wellington declared the system perfect which did shut them out, after introducing elements which made it impossible to hold that ground.

• He thought to stem it by the House of Lords, and nearly brought on an open revolution;
  • and Lord Harrowby and the waverers – as they were then called – gave a majority to the Reform bill in the House of Lords.

That bill was a revolution. That is, it was not an admission of excluded influences into existing institutions, but a total change in the institutions themselves.

• Democracy became ascendant, and possessed the power. The Lord's House became insignificant, and populous boroughs acquired the power once wielded by the land.

• Old habits modified the effect, but every one knows that this is what took place. The ancient institutions of the country were in principle overturned.

With this, railroads and the commercial movement, and the refusal of landlords to increase the population on their lands, concurred to throw the population into the towns.

• Vaunted education ministered immensely to general infidelity, Satan in that being let loose in that respect, and by the growth of this and of dissent, which predominates in the great towns,
  • the clergy were, on the one hand, thrown into ritualism and popish principles, or, on the other, adopted infidel or semi-infidel principles; and – the bands of the Establishment and its general hold on the population of the country loosened –

• infidel notions acquired a powerful influence over the mental activity of the country, and exercised a very great power in the governing body, the House of Commons.

• Morally speaking, the Protestant church was gone, and rationalism and popery, in principle, divided the country. Evangelicalism became practically null in the Establishment.

In this state of things the democratic influence has acquired an immense accession of power by the new Reform bill.

• It is an immense stride in legally revolutionising the country; checks, and balances, and reckoning on the English character and history is all nonsense.

• Power is put into hands which will use it. The forms are immaterial; they will probably be changed immediately or ere long.

But my object is to notice the effect on the state of society.

• God cares for the poor. But the poor have ceased to be so in the scriptural sense of the word. They are masters.

• The effect on the masses and on the active minds of the country will be infidelity, exalting man.

• Even popular religious preaching will take this character. It will keep up the name of Christian, but will exalt man in its statements, not Christ –
  • despising government, says the apostle, presumptuous, self-willed, not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

• Human reason, not God, will be the arbiter of good and evil. What already prevails so largely, will be open to a vast party in the country.

• The will of the people, confidence in man, his rights, his general perfectibility, will be the banner of all this class.

• The aristocracy, on the contrary, having lost power will seek to compensate themselves – vexed and dissatisfied in heart – by luxury and pleasure.

• To maintain quiet – principle having gone in both classes – and some influence, some barrier against the strong will of the people, they will rapidly seek to increase the influence of the clergy –
  • the only one remaining over those that constitute the bulk of those around.

• In the country it will be the body of the poor subject to priestcraft, and in the towns a very large increase of popery, so as to have an integral place in the population –
  • the bulk of those who are not so, or who do not side with them, being infidel.

It may be thought that I have not sufficiently allowed for the influence of religious dissenters.

• It is, really, next to nothing, and will be always becoming less.

• Already exalting man is the system that most widely prevails, going on with the age.

• But there is another thing, they will join with the Roman Catholics in putting down the Establishment, which has little or no political hold on the country.

• The Episcopalian must then, as against dissenters, base itself on its distinctive character, in alliance with – not in the form of – popery, successional grace and sacraments, and the clergy the only channels of it.

• I do not expect Protestantism nominally to cease, but it will be really infidel.

• You may find individual ministers, Independent or Episcopalian, preaching Christ, but
  • the disruption that is taking place is a disruption into infidel radicalism or popular will, and popery in the aristocracy and in all that they can bring under its influence, as a check upon that will.

• I have no doubt that God will keep every faithful soul, and maintain every needed testimony; but it is well that Christians should know what is before them, as time goes on more rapidly, perhaps, than we are aware.

I do not look for violence, because I believe there is no courage anywhere to resist the course of events.

• I do not pretend to say how long it may take to bring these things about. God knows, and God holds the reins or looses them; but I have no doubt as to what is coming on.

• The Christian may walk in peace through it all, waiting for God's Son from heaven, and keeping the word of His patience;
  • yea, he may have a specially blessed place of testimony in the midst of it all, but a lowly one, content to be nothing in a world which has rejected Christ and is ripening for His judgment.

• Our part is to keep His word and not deny His name.

The result as to the western world will be, as known to students of prophecy, that

• the Babylonish or idolatrous power, with which the kings of the earth had committed fornication, will be utterly destroyed,

• and the popular will in the same sphere will give itself to the beast destroyed, with the false prophet, by the Lord Himself coming from heaven.

The present result of what is now enacting will be: the aristocratic part of the community giving itself up to luxury and pleasure,

• and, with the dependent part of the population, to Popery;

• the independent and mentally active part, to infidelity.

• The opposition to Popery will be infidel, not Protestant.

• The general public effect will be a great and rapid increase of centralisation or despotic power, and loss of personal liberty.

• Individual personal independence of character will disappear almost entirely. Men must go with others to be anything.

• Protestantism having lost its integrity and energy, God allows infidelity as a check on Popish power.

If things go smoothly, I apprehend the first move towards centralisation will be the substitution of a paid for an unpaid magistracy;

• to set aside, nominally, local territorial influence and gain efficiency, but throwing a vast increase of power into the centre of government,

• and being the first move towards despotism or central power, as a counter-balance to multitudinous self-will or anarchy – personal liberty and independence being proportionately set aside.

• Other social questions, as primogeniture, will soon come in; the importance of money and luxury, the necessary consequence of its abolition, will rapidly increase,
  • and the moral degradation and dissipation which go with it.

• All this will be modified by existing habits, no doubt, and the love of something aristocratic is inherent in the human mind –
  • in New York, liveries and armorial bearings are coming in, and carefully studied genealogies where there are any

• – but this will not materially affect the result.

It seems to me so simple that the Christian, not being at all of this world, but united to Him who died and rose again, has no business to mix himself up with the most declared activity of the world,

• by an act which affirms his existence as belonging to the world, and his identification with the entire system which the Lord is about to judge;

• that I think the truth has only to be presented in order to be acknowledged by those who have understood their position;

• so much the more that these events [the Revolution] place the world more manifestly – not more really – on its own ground, but more really near the great catastrophe which is about to fall upon those who rise up against God.

• Oh how my soul longs that His people should be separated to Him, and even with understanding of what is awaiting the world, and still more of what they ought continually to await themselves!

• May God give the grace to be faithful in bearing this testimony, and everywhere, according to the door that He will open, in season and out of season; for His own, so dear to Him, need it.

Events are hastening on, dear brother, and yet as to us we are waiting for but one, that our Beloved, our Saviour should come.

• His coming becomes a resource, as it has long been a joy to us, and a reality still more precious, and more near. May we expect it continually; God alone knows the moment.

• The Christian takes cognizance of the events which are taking place, as a testimony to the one who understands; but his thought, his desire, his portion, is much more within the sanctuary than all that.

• But is it not true that this voting, as an act of identification with the world – in the very forms which it assumes in the last days – ought to be avoided as a snare by all Christians who understood the will of God and their position in Christ?

• Always true – I have been acting upon it for twenty years – it is doubly true now.

• May peace, grace and mercy be with you, dear brother, and be multiplied to you, and may the presence and the joy of the Lord be with all the brethren who surround you.

• Probably I shall set out immediately for England, but in the hope of returning. Salute affectionately all the brethren.

Your very affectionate, [J.N.D.].

I think that at the end of Philippians 3, the way in which we wait for Jesus Christ as Saviour, is to deliver us finally from the whole course of this world, such as it is.

1. literally, it means the order or system according to which human affairs are managed on the earth.

2. The earth itself is called the world, because it is the platform on which the world-system operates,

3. and the people who live according to this world-system are called the world also.

• They may thus be distinguished: the world-space, the world-people, the world-system.

When we read that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, it may be understood that He came into the world-space,

• and in so doing He necessarily came in contact with the world-system which hated Him.

• He said to His disciples,
  • "Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world",

• that is, you are not under the system governed by it, finding your life in it.

• He that is a friend to that system is an enemy to God, because it is self-governed, not subject to God.

Take, for an illustration, the military system. When a man enlists in the army he finds everything provided for him:

• the paymaster's department supplies his funds, the quartermaster's department clothes him, the ordnance department arms and equips him.

• It is arranged for him that he shall go here, and lodge there; there are regular hours for drill, dress, parade, roll-call, etc., etc., and to this system he is bound when he enters the army.

• It is very significantly called a little world in itself, so complete and systematic are its arrangements.

• This is but a faint illustration of the all-governing system called the world, where every want of man is provided for-every faculty brought into exercise.

Man wants society; the world provides the social system; this is a perfect study in itself.

• Position is everything, it is sought for at great trouble, and no expense is too great to secure it.

• Behold the great ladder, 'Society', with its countless myriads; some striving to climb higher and higher, others to hold creditably their present position.

• What a tremendous power to absorb heart and mind the social system possesses!

• Again, man wants political government, protection of life, property, rights; this necessity the world-system fully meets.

• And what a complete arrangement there is for what we call business. The working system of the world is perfectly amazing.

• Men of mere muscle find work, inventive minds have full scope for their 'genius';
  • artistic souls revel in their world of sculpture, painting, music, poetry; students sit and study problems; writers write books;

• the very lusts and luxury of some furnish means of livelihood to others.

• It takes all kinds to make a world, men say.

Man is a very complicated creature. A good many different things taken together are needed for most;

• a little business, a little politics, a little society, a little study, and a little religion. Man is naturally religious.

• The word religion, which we use so much, only occurs five times in the whole Bible.

• Religion is not godliness, for worshippers of idols are religious.

• Religion is as much a part of man's nature as his intellect or memory; being therefore so important a part of the man – nature, the world-system has a special provision for its necessities, complete in every part.

• One is very sensitive to tender impressions – has a love for the beautiful; fine music, imposing ceremonies, and religious rites are provided for such an one.

• Another is free and outspoken in his nature; he must have opportunity to give vent to his feelings unrestrained.

• Another is cold, reserved, reasoning; a stern orthodoxy just suits him.

• One of a conscientious, self-depreciating disposition, must do penance in some shape or other, and his requirements are also met and provided for, and so on.

• There are creeds and doctrines and sects for every variety of temperament, for every shade of the fleshly religious feeling.

Could any system be more admirable and complete? Nothing left out.

• Enough of joy and satisfaction to keep this great moving mass of humanity thoroughly occupied, and measurably contented;
  • their hearts are kept busy; their minds are kept busy; if one thing fails, another is provided;

• even death and bereavement are not left out of the calculation, for the world-system has its arrangement of funerals, mourning attire, visits and notes of sympathy, and all the varied accessories;
  • and so the world is able to tide over sorrows before long, and occupy itself just as before.

Now God is leading some, a very few, to see that

• all this business, politics, education, governments, science, inventions, railroads, telegraphs, social arrangements, charitable institutions, reforms religion and all, are of the world-system.

• And this system is becoming more and more perfect every day.

• 'The progress of the age' is only the worldly element developing itself.

• Whatever Christ's present relation to the world is, that is the Christian's too –
  • the place which the Lord is in above, and the place that He is not in below, defines our place.

• Whence is all this? – Will it surprise any one to hear that Satan is the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air, and manager of this stupendous system?

• His is the energy, his the presiding genius, he is its prince.

• When Jesus Christ was on earth, the devil came and offered Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, for, said he, that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it, if thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

• Here we have the curtain lifted, and the real object of all human religious worship exposed.
  • Scripture describes him as "full of wisdom, perfect in beauty", arraying himself "like an angel of light".

• Who can wonder if unthinking men, yea, and the more thinking ones, are deceived and deluded?

• How few have their eyes opened to see, by the word of God, and the anointing of the Holy Ghost, what the world really is.

• Some think they have escaped from the snare of worldliness, if they have given up the so-called worldly pleasures, and become members of churches, or religious associations,
  • not discerning that they are just as much in the world-system as before,

• only Satan, its prince, has shifted them from one department to another, to quiet their uneasy consciences and make them better satisfied with themselves.

The question now arises, if these things are so, what is the remedy?

• How are those who are in the broad way, and living according to the world-system, to escape from its control?

• How shall we know what is of the world, and what is of God?
  • The apostle says, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God".

• The Christian's normal mode of life is being governed by Christ, as a man's body by his head; where there is health, there is no motion of hand or foot, except as the head says 'move'.

• In just this way Jesus Christ is the Christian's Head, and he is under His immediate direction in all things small and great.

• This is how Christianity cuts at the very root of worldliness, for man's free-will is the foundation principle on which the world-system is constructed,
  • just as the principle of the christian life is dependence on God and obedience to His will.

• Satan's great aim is to get up a system for man which will be a perfect substitute for God's Spirit-leading;
  • this will be his final master-piece, and this is the prominent feature of the great apostasy fast approaching;

• Satan openly, and in his own person, will declare himself to be god of this world; a full revelation of what is now hidden in mystery.

• Is it not high time then for Christians to awake out of sleep, and to see to it that they are not in any way associated with a system so fast ripening for judgment?

• But you say, how can we help it? Are we not bound by necessity to these things by our trades and professions, as members of government and of society?

• 'Business must be attended to'. Yes, this is a necessity that everybody admits; but mark, the very fact that everybody admits it, stamps it as not of God.

"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith".

• Faith does not look at outward circumstances, at what is possible or not possible; faith disregards what seems, and looks at God.

• People all about, on every hand, will tell us what it is necessary to do, and not to do, here among men, for what suits man is their standard and measure;
  • but the child of God walks right along, paying no attention to what they say, for what suits God is His standard and measure.

• They have the way all marked out as plain as can be, and perfectly reasonable and satisfactory, but that is nothing to one who walks by faith;
  • he knows that whatever is universally agreed on as the right way must be wrong – Luke 16: 15 – that is the broad way.

For instance: everybody says that a citizen of the country, a Christian, should be interested in the government of the country to which he belongs, and ought to vote, so as to help to put good men in power.

• God says differently; in many places and ways He tells me that, as His child, I am not a citizen of any country, or a member of any society;
  • my citizenship is in heaven, and I have henceforth to do with heavenly things;

• the cross of Christ has crucified me to the world, and the world to me; if I give my mind and heart to these earthly things I shall be the enemy of the cross of Christ.

• Be not conformed to the world. What then shall we do with governments?

• Why, submit to them, since God orders them; and when they impose tax, pay; and make supplication to God for kings, and all in authority.

• All therefore that a Christian has to do with politics is to be subject to the powers set over him, not only for wrath but also for conscience sake.

• It is true that in Christ he is heir of "all things", including the earth in which the world-system has now its operation, yet – as to Abraham in the land of Canaan – God gives him not so much as to set his foot on for a present inheritance,
  • "The just shall live by faith".

• If, then, the true child of God refuses to vote, it is not so much that he thinks voting in itself wrong, as that
  • he has given his vote and interest to the Man in heaven, whom God has exalted as King of kings, and Lord of lords.

• He has, beyond it all, lost his interest in these things, by virtue of something he has found which is far more attractive.

• He sees, too, that the world in spirit and essence is ungodly, that its boasted reforms and improvement are all tending to shut out God from the heart of man.

• He desires to stand as a witness for the truth! and for God, and of the coming judgment, at the appearing of Christ, when men are congratulating themselves on peace and safety.

• He desires that by these means others may learn through him to escape the snare by which Satan is entrapping the mass of mankind.

We who are saved are to be distinct, as taking side with a rejected Christ, against the world which has crucified Him;

• and marked as men of a heavenly race, blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom shine ye as lights in the world.

• This is the great mission of God's children. But to live in this way costs something.

• It is to be like a single rock in a rapid river. Everything around it is on the move, all tending strongly one way; there is constant pressure, pressure, pressure, but there it stands amid an endless opposition, which would surely sweep it away, if it were not Rock.

• When we learn to take the words of God and practise them, and bear testimony to them in our lives, then the storm comes.

• To belong to a so-called church is easy enough, and to do as others do – to be an honest man and good citizen brings no persecution, one may be all that and yet go with the current;
  • but to shine as lights in the world for God, provokes the world's enmity; wherever Christ is seen, just so far is He hated; if He is seen in me I am hated on that account,

• but if I enjoy a fair reputation, if no one has anything against me as a Christian, what then?

• If the life of Jesus is not made manifest in my mortal body, Christ is not discoverable in me.

The matter stands thus. When once a person has really come to know God, or rather to be known of Him,

• he is drawn upward, by union with Christ on high, from participation in the things of the world-system,

• and it is a fitting question, how can he turn again to the weak and beggarly elements?

• Now he has become a son of God, and has life, eternal life, in Christ, and is one with the Head revealed to him through the word, by the Spirit,
  • how can such an one who has come to know God, be interested in the world?

• Should we see a boy eating bitter, worthless fruit in an orchard, while on the very next tree there were delicious apples, we should judge that he did not know of the good apples.

• So likewise if a man is heartily engaged in any of the things that make up the man-system, can he, we ask, can he know God?

• And this is why the words of God come not as definite orders: thou shalt not vote, thou shalt not be honoured in this evil age, thou shalt suffer shame.

• No, but they are just in such a way that the loving disciple, whose selfish heart is broken, and who only wants to know the mind of the Lord, may find out the secret by being more with Christ, in order to be more like Him, and transformed from this present evil world;
  • not like the old commands in the Levitical law – thou shalt, and thou shalt not – yet plainly there, and easily discerned if the eye is single.

• This is a wonderful provision, that the heart of love finds no difficulty in discovering the will of God,
  • while the heart that is not sincere can do nothing else than find excuses and invent ways of passing by a distasteful path.

• A good illustration of this may be found in a family: here is a loving, dutiful son, who learns the ways and mind of his father, and all is very easy and natural for him;
  • but another son, left in the same way, takes ever so many advantages, he knows, or might know; but since he cares only to please himself, he can say, I did not know, you never said I should not do so and so, or that I should not go to this place.

To conclude. You must needs be in contact with the world-system to some degree, but this contact is never to be one of fellowship; what concord can there be between Christ and Belial?

• "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil".

• Jesus, who was not of this world, suffered and was straitened; the loneliness and tribulation were real to Him and they will be real to us just as we follow in His steps.

• Are not too many of us taking a comfort and satisfaction, and enjoying a home feeling that is entirely unwarranted under this godless world-system?

• Home here, where Christ is not? We are homeless wanderers and weary pilgrims, yea foreigners, if we be Christ's.

• Contact with the world there must be, while we are in it, but are we not brought into contact at many points where there ought to be no contact at all, and would be none if we were bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus?

• Many are the deceptions wherewith the enemy allures the heart, even of God's children: religious meetings, service, christian fellowship, in all of which the flesh can participate, are substituted for living by faith in the Son of God.

• The godly of old, whose report has come down to us that they pleased God, were despised; the offscouring of all things, even unto this day, having their conversation in the heavens.

• In contrast with them we are honourable. We live too much according to the world-system to be brought into conflict with it, and the result is we are disloyal as subjects of Christ, and we escape the cross and its reproach.

• The word stands unalterable. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. There is a narrow way; may we be of the "few" who find it.

• We carry our passports with us. We are sealed by the Holy Ghost, and are only waiting for the shout to be caught up into the air, to meet our Lord and be for ever with Him – What a blessed hope!

It is noticeable that, in divine wisdom, the injunctions of the early part of this chapter have a wide application.

• It is right for "every soul" to "be subject to the authorities that are above him".

• The believer finds himself in the sphere where divine government is set up, and he has to respect it,
  • but "every soul" is called upon to recognise that authority is from God.

• This epistle does not leave out of its view any of the relations that subsist between God and men, and one of those relations is that He has set up authorities and rulers.

• The institution of government after the flood – Genesis 9 – was one of the greatest mercies that God has shown to men.

• Authority may be abused, and often has been in the hands of man as a fallen creature, but its character is to be a terror to what is evil and to favour what is good.

• The Christian is to recognise that all authority is from God. This delivers him from the lawless spirit which despises authority.

• We have the personal testimony of the Lord in this matter, as declaring that Pilate's authority was given to him from above – John 19: 11.

"For there is no authority except from God; and those that exist are set up by God".

• If one government was overturned, and another set up in its place, faith's estimate of it would be that it was the act of God.

• God's ways in government are retributive. If governments cease to praise what is good, or to be a terror to evil,
  • they no longer serve the purpose for which they were set up, and God's retributive ways may act in setting them aside.

• There are moral reasons for what God does in this way. He may scourge a nation by setting up an oppressive rule, or He may use other nations to check wickedness or ambition.

• And, behind all, God ever has in view His own work and testimony, though often His government works out in unexpected ways.

• For example, Paul was imprisoned by the authorities, though he was no evil-doer, but he tells us that it turned out rather to the furtherance of the glad tidings.

• The Lord took a remarkable way to bring out "the most of the brethren" in a fearless and abundant speaking of the word of God. He put the chief preacher in prison!

• I suppose the courage and confidence of Paul – even as an imprisoned man – stirred up the brethren to be more bold than they otherwise would have been.

• The action of the authorities was really subservient to the designs of grace.

• Even persecution has often furthered the testimony of God, so that it came to be a saying that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church".

• But it may be noted that governments have not persecuted generally save as incited to do so by religious leaders.

• And God has used the cruelties of persecution to bring about a revulsion of feeling in the minds of men, and to secure in that way greater liberty for His people.

• God has used things, severe and terrible in themselves, to further His testimony.

The authorities which exist are not viewed in Scripture as having intelligence of a spiritual order.

• They are represented as "beasts" [Daniel 7]; they do not generally perceive what God is doing by their means, though Nebuchadnezzar, and particularly Cyrus, may have been personally conscious that they were directly raised up to do certain things.

• Cyrus was a very remarkable person, mentioned try name by the prophet Isaiah generations before he was raised up. Isaiah 44: 28; 45: 1.

• God would set up a government favourable to what He had in His mind with regard to Jerusalem and the temple.

• It is of much interest to note that the four empires of Daniel 7 – the Babylonish, the Medo-Persian, the Greek, and the Roman – have covered that part of the earth where God's people have been chiefly found, whether the Jews from the time of the captivity, or the Gentiles as visited by grace later.

• All authority has to be owned as being of God, but the authorities which have a distinct place in prophecy, as seen in Daniel 7, are those which exist in the area where God's people and testimony are chiefly found.

• The Greek empire followed the Medo-Persian, and prepared the way by the diffusion of the Greek language over a wide area, for that extension of the divine testimony which was intimated by Greek being the chosen language of inspiration for the New Testament.

• Then God had in mind to spread His testimony westward, and He allowed the Greek empire to be succeeded by the Roman.

• The special sphere of His action in government has corresponded with the special sphere of His actings in grace.

• All has had in view what God was doing, or going to do, in relation to His testimony. God has ordained these things.
  • "So that he that sets himself in opposition to the authority resists the ordinance of God".

Government is God's minister to every one of us for good if we practise what is good, but if we practise evil it will make us suffer.

• So that with all right-minded persons it is not merely on account of wrath that they are subject – that is, as being afraid of the consequences of insubjection – but on account of conscience.

• Their consciences approve of the objects which government has in view.

So we pay tribute as to God's officers. In the light of this it is not becoming for a Christian to grumble – as other men often do – about rates and taxes, or put off until the last minute paying what is due.

• The Christian should not, surely, be amongst the last to render what is due to those whom he has been taught to regard as God's officers!
  • Indeed he is to "render to all their dues".

• This is one great feature of practical righteousness.

• There is, indeed, one debt which can never be so discharged that we are free from its claim, but all other debts are to be paid as they fall due!
  • "Owe no one anything, unless to love one another".

• This is to mark those who are in subjection to God. God is much dishonoured, and His way evil spoken of by men, when these things are neglected.

• If a brother or sister has had to incur expenses of illness, or the like, and is not able to pay, it is a fine opportunity for verse 13 of the previous chapter to be acted on by the brethren!

• God does not exempt His people from misfortunes, and sometimes believers may get involved, through no fault of their own, in liabilities which they cannot meet.

• I have known believers fail in business, but turn to God in real exercise, and get His help so that they have been able to pay all their creditors in full.

• It is clear from this chapter that God regards His people as competent to render all that is due, and faith would be concerned to answer to this.

"Love works no ill to its neighbour: love therefore is the whole law".

• This is a standard of conduct applicable to babes in Christ. It is, as people say, negative; it does not go beyond that we work no ill; but this means a good deal.

We own God's government through the existing authorities in the world,

• but we have also to do with God's direct government as those who are in relation to Him. Peter gives us that side:
  • "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears towards their supplications; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil", 1 Peter 3: 12.

• As to men in the world, so far as they do what is right in the sight of God, they get a present recompense in His government, but if they do what is wrong the government of God is retributive.

It is important to observe that there are no instructions to believers as to how they should exercise authority in the world.

• Their place is to submit themselves to authorities which exist.

• They have nothing to do with establishing the authorities; they recognise them as set up by God.

• We are exhorted to subject ourselves to the authorities, and to pray for them [1 Timothy 2], but we have no instructions to vote for them.

• To vote is to take the place of deciding what the powers shall be; it is really to join with others in ruling the world.

• But the Christian is here to confess that all the rights of rule pertain to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to wait in patience for Him to come and take up His rights.

• And in the meantime to be in subjection to the powers that exist in the ordering of God, and to honour them as God's ministers.

"This also, knowing the time, that it is already time that we should be awaked out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed".

• None but believers know the time. We know that the day is just about to dawn. It is time to awake – to rise to greet the dawning day!
  • "We boast in hope of the glory of God", Romans 5: 2, and

    "we have been saved in hope", Romans 8: 24.

• The whole epistle has in view that "the day is near"; the morning is about to break on this world by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Salvation will be completed then, when all the light and power of God come in, and Satan is bruised under the feet of the saints.

• The prospect here is not of dying and going to be with Christ, or even of being caught up at the rapture according to 1 Thessalonians 4: 17.

• It is rather looking out for the day according to 1 Thessalonians 5: 4-11.

• The rapture is in view of our having our part with Christ in the day that is about to dawn. It is time to get up and dress in readiness for the day!

• The works of darkness are to be cast away; all that belongs morally to the night is to be repudiated, and the armour of light put on.

• It is a military figure – the church militant in shining armour! All that properly belongs to the day is to be put on as a protective coat of mail.

• So that the saints, as in that shining armour, are invested with the light of the coming day; they are already "in the day".

• They act and move on principles that are suitable to the day; they "walk becomingly".

Is there not need for much exercise, dear brethren, that we should walk becomingly as in the day?

• "The day" means complete emancipation from every phase of the power of evil. That is to characterise the saint: as it were, beforehand.

• But there is more than freedom from what is evil! The Lord Jesus Christ is to be put on! It is a remarkable exhortation, as bringing in His full title.

• The believer is to be invested with Him, so that he sets forth here that glorious Person who is the Sun of the coming day.
  • He wears the Lord in giving evidence in all his ways that he is in subjection to Him;

  • he puts on Jesus as having those precious qualities of obedience, dependence, meekness, and lowliness which marked that blessed One;

  • and he is invested with Christ as taking character from the Anointed Man of God's pleasure who is about to bring in publicly all that is for God's delight.

• All this is not only to be in the believer, as cherished in his affections, but it is to be seen on him in a practical way for testimony.

• Paul was a beautiful example of it. Who could help seeing that he was in subjection to the Lord? that the life of Jesus was manifested in his mortal flesh? or that Christ was magnified in his body?

• It was "no ordinary miracle", but one can understand that there was something morally suggestive in napkins or aprons being brought from his body and put upon the sick, so that diseases left them; Acts 19:11-12.

• One would like to be touched by the garments of one who had put on the Lord Jesus Christ! They would drive away moral diseases and wicked spirits!

"The day is near". We do not look for outward indications.

• I am afraid many occupy themselves far too much with things that are going on in the world as signs that the Lord's coming is near.

• The great spiritual indication of it is that the day is dawning, and the Day Star arising, in the hearts of the saints.

• The events seen in the world are, after all, only features of the night.
  • But what is going on in the hearts of the saints stands in immediate and spiritual connection with the day.

• The fact that the day has been dawning in a remarkable way in the hearts of saints during recent years, and the Morning Star arising there,
  • is a far greater indication that "the day is near" than any events that happen in the world.

• Do not, look for signs of the times! Keep the eyes of your heart fixed on the right hand of God! The first move will be there!

• The Spirit has come from there to bring the glory of the Coming One nigh – to cause Him to arise as the Morning Star in our hearts.

In the light of "the day", how unbecoming and base it is to be taking forethought for the flesh to fulfil its lusts! Let us not be found doing it! It is no time for such things.

My Dear Brother – ... I can sympathise with your exercise as to the question of paying rates for meeting rooms, as some years back the same exercise arose in my mind,

• and I was much inclined to think that it would be well to pay them and avoid any appearance of being favoured in a religious way by the government of the country.

But I must say that further consideration of this matter, and more information as to how it really stands in the law of the country, lead me to doubt whether anything in the way of divine principle is really involved.

• It has seemed good to the powers that be to decide that buildings used for religious purposes shall not be liable to payment of rates. This is their ordinance, with the making of which we had nothing to do.

• We did not seek it, but if they say that a building used for what they call religious service shall be exempt from rates it is clearly not according to the law of the land that rates should be paid for such a building.

• That this is a certain benefit to us is clear, but so is also the liberty to meet at all.

• We value the latter privilege, and gladly use it as granted to us in the mercy of God through His ordering by way of the laws which secure to us this liberty.

• We own with thankfulness that government takes a course in this respect which is very favourable to us, and it is different from what obtains in some countries.

If the non-payment of rates necessitated that we should take the place of a religious denomination we might well have serious misgivings about it.

• But the law distinctly recognises those who decline to be known by any particular name, and extends to them the exemption from rates.

• This exemption does not put those to whom it applies under any obligation to the State.

• It does not confer upon them any claim to State-aid, nor are they even required to have the voting lists affixed to their doors.

• I am aware that this is often done, and it gives the impression that the building is in some way part of the machinery of the State.

• But I am informed that the law which requires this only applies to chapels of the Established Church, and that the authorities have no right to affix them to the doors of other buildings.

The State does not interfere with us religiously, but grants us full freedom.

• It requires nothing but that we shall be law abiding, which of course we are most ready to be.

• And if the State decides that it will not rate buildings which are used for such purposes as our rooms are used for, this is their ordinance, and I do not see any good reason why we should not accept it.

• It is simply the order and rule of the country in which we live, and I think it is matter for thankfulness that that order is in so many ways favourable to us as seeking to follow the Lord.

I do not know that I need add more, save my much love in the Lord.

Yours affectionately in Him,

G.A.T. You are told to pray for them, not to look to them.

J.T. Yes, you would not ask a policeman to protect you while preaching.

G.F.W. Praying for them was really with God's people in view, was it not?

J.T. Moreover you recognise that they are men, and it says

God "will have all men to be saved", 1 Tim. 2: 4.

G.A.T. Would you vote for them?

J.T. I think if you vote for a man you assume, in principle, to be greater than he.

• You assume authority to put him into office, so that you are greater than he; and then, that is evidently disputing God's rights, because
  • "power belongeth unto God", Psalm 62: 11.

R.S.S. In connection with asking police protection when preaching, some time since we had a tent where we were greatly harassed by boys.

• We thought of asking for protection, but concluded there was not much faith in that.

• We looked to God about the matter and tried another meeting. The trouble began again, but suddenly stopped.

• We found the police had come on the scene of their own accord and apprehended the troublers.

• One of them said to us: 'As long as your tent is here you will have no further trouble'. We got relief without asking it from man.

J.T. I would not depend on that too much.

R.S.S. Do you not think the Lord intervenes in that way?

J.T. What I think we need in service for Christ is to experience His power, which is spiritual.

• You feel there is something surrounding you that is irresistible.

• If you are witnessing for Christ, you feel that His power is surrounding you, and that is what you get in the end of 1 Samuel;
  • the exercise of the power of the kingdom by one who is not outwardly acknowledged king, but nevertheless has the power.

R.S.S. That is on a little higher platform than what we are thinking of.

J.T. I think it is. You were glad to get relief in that way, but you would rather see them restrained by divine power.

J.L.J. Would you say the apostle sees that in Hebrews 2, when he sees Jesus crowned with glory and honour?

J.T. He does not see all things put under Him, but he sees Him crowned. I think that is a wonderful thing for Christians to realise.

• David says: "with me thou shalt be in safeguard"; and, "he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life", 1 Samuel 22: 23.

J.T. That is the power that the kingdom evidences. And in Stephen:

• "they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake", Acts 6: 10

J.S.A. There are many who keep clear of politics as regards actual facts, but who get under the spirit that is in the world; for instance, those who take part in voting.

Rem. Someone has said, very truly, that you cannot avoid in a certain way forming a judgment about things;

• but if your heart, as has been said, is set on another Man altogether, the Man of God's thoughts, and all that belongs to Him, you discover that His politics are entirely apart from everything here.

J.T. I think it is quite right to have a judgment as to what is going on in the world, because the elements that are active are simply what God is holding in abeyance.

• The world is still the sphere of God's government.

• It is extremely interesting to see how God comes in from time to time to modify things for the sake of the assembly.

• One has often observed how the spirit of lawlessness has been restrained for the sake of the assembly; and our prayers should be in that connection.

• Whilst you have a judgment of things, and you see the development of the antichristian system, and that all is about to be manifested,
  • yet you are thinking of Christ; and you are living in a world that is centred in God's Anointed.

• It is very interesting to see in Acts 4 how the early saints recognised what God did.

• In the presence of the combined hostility against the Lord and against His Anointed they prayed to God; the God that created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.

• They were not restricted; they recognised the divine sovereignty of God, and they prayed, and the place where they were assembled was shaken.

J.S.A. And they also owned that nothing could be done except what God had ordered should be done.

L.M. How are you to become acquainted with things in the world?

J.T. It would be a very bad result if what we are saying would encourage the saints to read the newspapers.

• The book of Revelation contemplates a knowledge of passing events. The number of the beast has to be counted, for instance.

H.D'A.C. You cannot help hearing of passing events. Why then go out of your way to get the knowledge of them; if things are forced upon me I seek to contrast them.

• It is an immense thing to contrast the things that are forced upon you with our system, the system of God's Christ.

J.T. The man to whom God revealed His mind, and with whom God's testimony began, was a very unpatriotic man;

• he forsook his country, and his kindred, and his father's house; hence he declined all that which men aspire to in this world.

H.D'A.C. But he was a great politician for

• "he looked for a city which hath foundations", Hebrews 11: 10.

J.T. And God answered that. As enlightened by God you have certain aspirations.

• Abraham looked for a city, and God proposes for you what you look for, that you get position in the divine system for what you may think you lose in abandoning the present order of things.

J.S.A. Man desires knowledge, power, and place. Well, the apostle says,

• "that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings", Philippians 3: 10.

• There you have knowledge, power, and place. God answers your prayers in His way, not in yours.

J.T. I think what Mr. C. referred to is very helpful, and that is, that the things about us being forced upon us enable us to take account of the contrast in what God presents; the contrast becomes very real to you.

J.H.B. Is it your thought that the first part of the chapter has to do with indirect government, and the last part with the more direct government?

J.T. Yes.

J.H.B. Would you open out a little the figures used, the mountains, and the horses of different colours?

J.T. From the time of Noah the principle of magisterial government has existed.

• The thought was introduced in Genesis 9, and there was food given suitable to sustain such a responsibility – flesh was allowed to men in addition to herbal food.

The government God intended, in taking up Israel, was to be direct.

• The providential government of God is under angels, and direct government in and through Israel; both of which are mentioned in the heavenly city in relation to the gates.

• There is nothing in the gates of the heavenly city to correspond with these horses and chariots, for they are provisional;
  • that is, from the time of Israel's failure and consequent captivity to its reinstatement through the sovereign mercy of God.

• Until direct government is re-established God resorts to what these horses and chariots represent.

C.O.B. Are you referring to Elisha's remark as to the chariots of Israel?

J.T. “The chariot of Israel” is a greater thought than these.

• “The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof”, “the horsemen” refer to the power of direct government in Israel.

• These in Zechariah are indirect; the riders are not mentioned.

J.A.P. Would the chariots in this chapter correspond with Daniel's four kingdoms?

J.T. Quite so. The chariots and horses would represent a systematic government.

• There would be energy as in the horses, and the chariots would allude to what is subservient in the way of principles and means. They are regarded as standing before God.
  • “These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth”.

• They are not presented as governed intelligently by men in their movements, but as if needing external pressure to order them.

H.B. What is the thought in the mountains of brass?

J.T. The judgment of God is involved. The principle is the same as it is in Christ. It is a question of righteous judgment. Evil is to be dealt with.

R.S.C. Do we get the contrary element in Job, where Satan goes to and fro?

J.T. That is right. These horses and chariots are to restrain or check that movement.

• After the millennium the opposition comes up under Satan
  • “on the breadth of the earth”, Revelation 20: 9,

• meaning that there is no restraint. That is not existing now; there is no such latitude given to evil.

• The breadth of the earth implies undisputed right of way. These chariots signify that that is checked: they are God's ministers; Romans 13: 6.

W.R.P. What do you mean in saying that this is only provisional? Do we see it exercised in the millennium when the heavenly city comes down?

J.T. It is not a primary thought in government.

• It is provisional, pending that time when God will take up the reins in Christ. He will judge the world in righteousness.

• These chariots do not represent what God has in His mind for government; He intended it to be direct as seen in Noah.

J.H.B. Is it your thought that indirect government has become necessary because of the failure of those to whom direct government was committed?

J.T. Yes. God committed Himself openly to David and Solomon, for instance, in relation to rule, but it is not open committal here.

• It is mysterious; they are spirits that stand before Him.

• They represent provisional government, pending the day when God will take up direct government in the world in Christ.

• In the meantime, the testimony of this is in the assembly.

• The second part of Zechariah 6 shows direct government, and every Christian should know that he is directly under the government of God, not only under these powers, but directly under Christ,
  • “legitimately subject to Christ”.

W.R.P. Is that where judgment beginning at the house of God would come in?

J.T. That is where the direct government of God is.

Ques. Will the direct government of God end in the millennium or will it go into eternity?

J.T. It is stated that when Christ has subdued all things, He delivers up the kingdom

• “to him who is God and Father”, 1 Corinthians 15: 24.

• There will always be government, but finally in His hands who is said to be God and Father. The thought of “Father” means that love will prevail – but government will be there.

• The Son Himself it is said
  • “shall be placed in subjection to him … that God may be all in all”, 1 Corinthians 15: 28.

W.R.P. Would you make any difference between rule and government?

J.T. Not much. The Lord is said to rule, and the promise to the overcomer in Thyatira is,

• “he shall rule them” [the nations] “with a rod of iron”, Revelation 2: 27.

• Government is a great general principle that belongs to God.

• Although it awaited Noah for magisterial government to be formally committed to man,
  • the principle of government was present at the very outset in the relation of Adam to the lower creation. He was to have dominion over them.

C.A.C. There is a certain divine check upon evil in view of the testimony going through to the end, in spite of its weakness.

J.T. I was thinking that. For instance, this great empire in which we are is evidently held together to maintain a highway for the testimony, that is, for those who would continue in it. That is what the first section of the chapter represents.

C.A.C. Would it answer to the Lord's word to Philadelphia,

• “I have set before thee an opened door, which no one can shut”? Revelation 3: 8.

J.T. That is good. These great powers are used of God to maintain the public highways, but then there are the spiritual highways, too, belonging to the Priest on His throne.

C.A.C. That would be the purely spiritual side of the matter.

J.T. Yes. That comes into our care meetings. I thought we might see through our inquiry,

• how the direct government of God is carried on, and whether any of us are capable of wearing crowns in our executive service.

This fourth great power seeks to walk to and fro. No doubt there were other influences to check it, but in the main it did succeed in going to and fro and making its great roads.

• Even the great Roman roads which we see in this country and the continent of Europe are a standing witness to this sort of thing.

• They check Satan's direct action against God's people, not that they are intelligent as to that, but that is the divine intent.

• Satan walks up and down evidently with a view to damage the people of God; Job 1: 7.

C.A.C. But for that we should not have assembled thus today.

J.T. That is what I thought. This peculiar power referred to in verse 7 will be more or less permanent until the coming of the Lord,

• either in the old imperial form of rule, or under the ten kings, throughout the assembly's history on earth.

• It represents what God uses to check the direct action of Satan. He goes about, Peter says, as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

• Anything that checks that is of God, and it keeps the way open.

• For instance, in Romans, where you may get the leading allusions to this side of the truth we get Phoebe, a lone sister setting out to travel from Cenchrea in Greece to Rome. How could she get to Rome unless the highways had been kept open?

• How could Paul have carried on the service of the gospel, fully preaching the gospel of Christ
  • “from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum”, Romans 15: 19

• – an immense distance – without these highways?

• So today the principle remains; even in pagan countries the principle is there.

J.N.L. What is the reference to those that go forth to the north quietening the Lord's spirit in the north country?

J.T. It refers to the overthrow of Babylon by the Medes and Persians.

W.R.P. In 2 Thessalonians 2: 6, there is

• “that which restrains”,

• and “He who restrains”, verse 7 N.T.

J.T. “That which” is probably the very thing we are thinking of.

• “He who” would be more personal, referring, it may be, to the presence of the Spirit here.

C.A.C. The one is the external, and the other is spiritual power.

R.S.C. Does this correspond with what the servant of Elisha saw? His eyes were opened to see the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

J.T. “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them”, Psalm 68:1 7.

• That is the spiritual side, which we think of in conflict for the truth.

• But we reckon on the great external powers in a subordinate way; no doubt Paul prayed for them, although he suffered from them. The Lord suffered from Pilate.

• But what the young man saw was the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire: that is what we need our eyes open to, as seeking to maintain the testimony here.

J.H.B. You would scarcely call these chariots in Zechariah 6 the chariots of God; they are powers which are being used.

J.T. No, God would not call these His chariots. They are, however, subservient to Him and used in His providential government.

J.H.B. Is it your thought that a recognition of this would be a comfort to us in days of external pressure and difficulty?

J.T. This passage ought to be a comfort to us that there are spirits standing before God, or as the margin says,

• they “present themselves”, as if they are there and held accountable by God; so that the highways are held open.

• The great oceanic and continental highways are held open through God's ordering, so that we can move about and hold meetings and serve the Lord – a great matter.

• But then, in addition to this power, we have “the chariots of God”, which are invisible,
  • but known to those who have their eyes opened by God; 2 Kings 6: 17.

J.R.U.B. Would the earlier part correspond with 1 Timothy 2: 2, praying for kings and all that are in authority?

J.T. That is what is in mind –

• “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty”.

• The bearing of the testimony in this section is very distinctly on ourselves.

“Take of them of the captivity, even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and of Jedaiah, which are come from Babylon, and come thou the same day, and go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah … then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest; and speak unto him, saying,

• "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The Branch; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.

• "And the crowns shall be to Helem, and to Tobijah, and to Jedaiah, and to Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple of the Lord”.

The Lord may help us to see from these verses, that certain who returned from Babylon, from the captivity, had silver and gold of which crowns were to be made.

• These persons had returned from the captivity, it says; and the word is,
  • “come thou the same day, and go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah”.

• It is when they had come from Babylon.

• They have means, too, silver and gold, and they have come to a particular house: what they had was to be made into crowns.

• I think the Lord would help us to see something of this, and search us too, as to whether we are really returned, and as having returned what house we have come into.

• Then, as the crowns are made for the high priest who sits on the priestly throne, there are also these crowns for Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen. Three had come back from Babylon, but there is a fourth person.

J.H.B. What do you mean by having returned?

J.T. That I am thoroughly out of the system of captivity. It is alluded to elsewhere as

• “the pit wherein is no water”, Zechariah 9: 11.

• That is a place where people are not regarded as swallowed up by judgment; there is hope for them; they are called,
  • “prisoners of hope”.

• The question here is as to whether we are really returned and into what house we have come.

H.B. What would be the thought of Josiah's house?

J.T. It is evidently a spiritual place, a suitable house like Lydia's. There are many who are professedly delivered from Babylon, but what are their associations?

J.H.L. What would be the distinctive features of those who have left Babylon?

J.T. Those who have left definitely and are in such a house as is suggested here, are available for the Spirit.

• The great moral point of the chapter is that all this shall come to pass
  • “if ye will diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah your God”, and in this way

  • “ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto you”.

• That is the great moral point in the chapter, that the divine will pervades; there is somebody moving under the divine will. The point is that one is “sent”. That is seen in the gospel of John.

• We are not to do what we like; there is so much disregard of divine rule and the will of God.

• The great principle running right through the gospel of John is that there is one who is sent. A man who gets his eyes opened, is one who goes to Siloam, meaning Sent.

• What is effected is not of our own planning or doing at all; all is of the sovereign will and power of God.

• Our position is a question of the will of God, one has been sent by Him, who does all God's will; that is the point to make clear; all will come about on the principle of men hearkening to the word of God.

Ques. Is it the continuation of Exodus 3: 15?

J.T. Moses was sent; “I AM hath sent me unto you”.

• That was his commission, and the more one adheres to that the more one is like God. Moses was to be for God to Aaron, Exodus 4: 16.

H.B. David said, “was it not laid upon me?”

J.T. Exactly. His father had sent him.

J.A.P. Do you mean that in the recovery of the truth, the temple has been built in that way?

J.T. Yes. The builder is Christ. That is the great general principle.

• “He shall grow up from his own place, and he shall build the temple of Jehovah: even he shall build the temple of Jehovah”.

• Note the repetition.
  • He “shall sit and rule upon his throne”.

• Kings of today sit, but they do not rule, upon their thrones – not that I am saying a word against them.

• But here it is direct rule that is contemplated. He sits and rules.

• The lesson is, that the persons returned from the captivity go to a certain place, a house; they are available there and they have wealth, they are known to be there available to God;
  • and their wealth is available for a purpose, for making crowns for the high priest.

• These crowns being for the high priest are the recognition that everything that has been done, is done by Christ. Whether He uses any of us, he has done it. He is doing a work, and He will do it.

• Then four men come in after that and crowns are for them. I was thinking of those words and whether one in any little way corresponds with the Lord in this sense.

C.A.C. It is most wonderful to think that there should be a spiritual government in the sphere of holy things, which corresponds with the government of God and expresses His government.

J.T. The only assembly that is definitely said to have a crown is Philadelphia.

• In that case there is a danger of losing it.
  • “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown”, Revelation 3: 11.

• The point is, let no one take it. The crowns will go on, somebody will wear them, but we want to keep what we have.

C.A.C. Is that what we need in view of local difficulties and exercises?

J.T. That is what I had in mind in regard of the care meetings; the Lord is making much of them lately.

• Earlier, the elder brethren used to hold things more than they do now.

• Care meetings imply experienced brethren; but it is important to see that these crowns are priestly, and the priestly side includes all the saints, brothers and sisters.

• It is a throne, but it is a priestly one, so that all are brought into administrative matters.

F.W. I think you drew attention to the fact that these horses in Zechariah 6 had no horsemen. Now the thing seems to be established in men.

J.T. It is all a question of men in the second part of this chapter; it supposes spiritual intelligence in the handling of the things of God.

• It is the thought of spiritual intelligence and sympathy. Priests are supposed to be sympathetic as well as intelligent.

• Our conclusions in care meetings will be greatly augmented by bringing in all the saints; that is, in assembly.

• If any sin is discovered, let him that discovered it be the first to cast the stone. Supposing a sister comes into the knowledge of something that should be dealt with in the assembly,
  • she should put the information where it should be, but she does not say, It is your matter now – it is still her matter.

J.A.P. Is priestly rule in that way in contrast to the rod of iron?

J.T. It is. We are moving in sympathy. The sin is not modified, but it is dealt with in a gracious way.

• The shirking of responsibility is what must be dealt with. The person who finds out the evil should cast the first stone.

• If that person is a sister, she cannot stand up in the assembly and declare what she knows; but the fact that somebody else has to do it does not relieve her of having to cast a stone.

F.W.W. Would the household of Chloe be an illustration on that line?

J.T. Yes, they showed the matter to the apostle Paul. What do you think, Mr. C., about bringing in young brothers and sisters in the exercise of judgment?

C.A.C. I think it would lead to a great development of exercise. The failing is to let everything of the nature of government rest with the brothers, perhaps the older or gifted brothers, but we should bring them all in.

J.T. The sister John addressed as “the elect lady” is brought into the exercise of discipline.

J.H.B. How do brothers or sisters qualify for the wearing of a crown?

J.T. In the exercise of priestly authority. Anyone who has the Holy Spirit is a priest – a person with priestly authority as to the discipline of the house of God. Priesthood includes all.

C.O.B. You would encourage every brother to be present at the care meetings.

J.T. Yes, and all the sisters to enquire as to what happens. There is a great deal of weakness because the sisters do not make inquiries.

• Of course in the exercise of discipline they should be present. Scripture shows that the exercise of discipline belongs to the assembly.

• Where it is exercised in Acts 5, which is the most drastic discipline we have in the New Testament, it speaks of all the saints being in Solomon's porch after that, as much as to say, We are all in this: we are thoroughly with what has happened.

• Solomon's porch suggests the place of judgment. Are we all going to be there? There is so much need for this kind of dealing with evil amongst us.

Eu.R. Do you mean that every brother and every sister should show their practical sympathy and support with what is done?

J.T. Yes; and all in a locality should be present in a meeting for discipline.

Rem. That judgment would continue in our attitude towards the offender.

J.T. Yes, and that is one of the conditions for addition. There may be a cutting-off, but it is a condition for addition.

• A multitude of believers, both men and women, were added to the Lord after that discipline in Acts 5.

• God honours discipline; it maintains conditions suitable for addition.
  • It is “added to the Lord”, in Acts 5: 14.

• The authority of the Lord was vindicated in the discipline.

Eu.R. Do these two features run parallel, the recognition of spiritual ministry and the maintenance of government in localities?

J.T. Yes. The prophetic word is greatly needed, and hence the ministry meetings are owned of God.

• The intent of them is the prophetic searching of hearts. The ministry of prophecy is shown to produce that effect. One falls down and owns that
  • “God is in you of a truth”, 1 Corinthians 14: 25.

• These meetings are of great value if we take them up in that way. God searches our hearts through the ministry.

C.A.C. Would that give us silver and gold for the crowns?

J.T. Yes; I think silver would indicate the redemptive rights of Christ over us.

• Every one would feel that the Lord had bought him, that he is not his own; his body belongs to the Lord, and the Lord has a right to wear that crown in dealing with him.

• Silver here is a question of love. It is a crown of that kind. It speaks of the death of Jesus, which is the full expression of love.

• But there is also the gold, that is the divine side; what is distinctively of God. This would involve His authority as asserted in the prophetic word.

J.H.B. What would be the difference between the crowning of the high priest and the crowning of these four men?

J.T. Joshua is Christ typically. Whatever wealth we have, we use it to make a crown. We say, What is being done, Christ is doing it.

• Everything we do that God owns, you say, The Lord is doing that. The more you know yourself, the more you attribute it to the Lord, but He gives you credit for it.

It is instructive to see here that locality is in view; in that

• “he shall grow up from his own place”.

• That is where one is known. One does not use his own will to spread abroad his own influence, he grows up out of his own place.

• The word “Branch” would mean that He is a dependent Person; it might be rendered “Sprout”, there is the thought of freshness in it. This must be worked out now mediately.

• We see Christ coming out, as Paul says,
  • “a proof of Christ speaking in me”, 2 Cor. 13: 3.

• He lived by Christ, and Christ lived in him towards the Corinthians. It is what Christ is in this respect. But He is in view here personally also.

P.S. Why are these four crowns spoken of as being for a memorial in the temple of Jehovah?

J.T. First, it is said that

• “the crowns shall be for Helem, and for Tobijah, and for Jedaiah, and for Hen the son of Zephaniah”;

• these four men are distinguished by them.

• You will observe the change of names here. There are two changes; the first one, Helem, evidently alludes to Heldai, and the fourth one, Hen, alludes to Josiah.

• There are changes without any notification, which are to be understood spiritually.

• It shows how a man changes in his service if there be this energy of life which is contemplated here.

• Brethren will change, and their names will consequently change;
  • for a name expresses what one is.

• So that we have four persons for whom the crowns are for a memorial; three persons with wealth, and one with a house in which they were. The one with a house becomes a fourth person to be honoured.

• We are in the presence of the activity of life in the second part of the chapter, illustrated by the Branch, or Sprout, which is the energy of life in which Christ is seen;
  • and then the individuals in service, two of them with their own names changed, showing how energetic life is.

Ques. Do you connect what is said in verse 12,

• “He shall grow up from his own place”,

• with Luke 4: 16, “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up”?

• Does that not bear on us as to growing up in our own place?

J.T. It does. It works out in what God has so stressed in recent times, local responsibility. What a man is, shines out in his own place.

• “The Branch” means a person who is dependent, fresh, as drawing from his normal source.

Rem. We read in verse 11 of the previous chapter, that the women carry the ephah

• “to build it a house in the land of Shinar … upon its own base”.

J.T. There we see evil in its own place, in the same way as the man of sin will go to his own place; it is what is proper to him in an evil sense.

• But the thought in the Branch is someone growing up, that is life.

• A brother is changed; he is not what he used to be. He has a name now and a memorial in the temple of God, as to what he has done to honour Christ.

• The name signifies that he is worthy of a crown. How could he have a crown for a memorial if he had not a name? It is a question of life.

J.T. They are more official than these. These are persons come from Babylon, but they are rich and people of means, and you know where to find them.

• Their names are available to honour Christ. What they have reflects back on themselves. These men are known; the crowns are for them
  • “for a memorial in the temple of Jehovah”.

• What is going on is not forgotten. The history of God's work in His people is wonderful! Nothing of it shall be forgotten.

• You sometimes hear exaggerated stories of those who have served before us; but here what you get carried forward is accurate, not legends we cannot be sure of. The temple is enriched by these things.

R.S.C. What does “the counsel of peace” refer to?

J.T. It refers to Jehovah and Christ. That is how things are carried on.

R.S.C. Is it the unity between the Father and the Son?

J.T. Exactly. The one on the throne is in perfect accord with Jehovah. The Lord says,

• “I and my Father are one”, John 10: 30.

• The great source of all in our service, is that infinite unity between the Father and the Son.

C.A.C. Is it something like

• “him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God”, Revelation 3: 12?

• Are the crowns on that line?

J.T. I thought so. What you cherish is your crown.

• Our chapter contains the most important instruction for the present time:
  1. the first part treating of the wise provision of God in government during the times of the Gentile;

  2. the second part dealing with God's direct government, seen, as applied today, in His discipline and care generally of the believer, and more particularly in and through the assembly.

• “The four spirits of the heavens”

• are employed generally for the restraint of evil in the world and the maintenance of such order as is needed for the continuance of the testimony of God, including livable conditions for His people in carrying on His service here.
  • “The mystery of iniquity”

• has worked from apostolic times, as we learn in 2 Thessalonians 2, but these powers check it.

• From time to time, indeed, certain leaders among the nations have arisen more or less uncontrolled, representative of this mystery, and foreshadowing him who is to come in his own name, but they were held in check.

• So it is today, and this service by agencies provided of God will continue until the time fixed for the translation of the assembly to heaven, 1 Thessalonians 4, and the termination of this dispensation.

• We are steadied and quieted by these comforting facts as considering current events among the nations.