Early Contentions for the Faith
– G. W. Ware

In introducing to the Reader the following papers I desire to add somewhat to that which is stated in them, feeling that

• it is important that there should be on record an account of all the conflicts for the truth which have taken place during the last hundred years or so,

• for the sake of those who are imperfectly acquainted with what has transpired during that period.

We shall find that it is well, in considering these matters, to avoid details as much as possible, and confine ourselves to the moral issues involved in each conflict.

• It is this which is of importance for us today, for we shall, I think, see as we proceed that there is in them a present voice to each one of us.

Ever since the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost it would appear that it has been the effort of Satan to defeat the present purpose of His coming by inducing the people of God to grieve Him.

• In no way, perhaps, has he been more successful than by leading men to accept, and act upon, unholy principles.

• When he achieves this end, the Spirit is hindered in His positive work of engaging them with Christ, and building them up after Him,
  • and consequently has to betake Himself to leading them to judge and depart from that which is hindering Him in His operations.

Another consideration, and one of grave concern for us, is that during such times saints are incapable of assembly privileges and hence of joining in those songs of praise to the Father which the Lord Jesus raises in the midst of the Assembly.

May we not say that the object of the Spirit is to build us up after Christ so that there may be praise for God in the Assembly and pleasure for Him and testimony to men in the world, and that Satan's object is to defeat this.

• It has been the crux of the conflict from Pentecost onwards, and it is raging today as fiercely as ever,
  • perhaps more so in view of the nearness of the coming of Christ to receive the Church to Himself.

In all the siftings to which reference is made in the following pages and which the Lord has allowed to take place, the underlying question before Him has undoubtedly been that of state among His people, both collectively and individually.

• Unless this be discerned and judged there can be no real recovery. No doubt these siftings have been necessary to preserve the testimony from corruption, and it is surely only the grace and mercy of God which has kept any one of us from being carried away.

• The history of the dealings of God with Job affords important light in this connection, and in his case as in ours, the Lord has over-ruled these assaults to bring increased blessing to those who are exercised before Him, by delivering them from that which had a tendency to affect the general state injuriously.

Another thing which we must ever keep in mind is, that if Satan is at any time defeated in what we may speak of as his main attack, he does not give up what he had in view in it, but seeks incessantly to gain his end by wiles and artifices of the most insidious character.

• It was so in the case of his attack upon our blessed Lord. We may regard the temptation in the wilderness as the main attack when Satan was utterly put to rout but, if we read the Gospel narratives carefully,
  • we can see that behind the cavillings and suggestions of Scribes and Pharisees, there was the constant attempt on his part to involve the Lord Jesus in the wilderness snares.

• If He had been induced by any of these artifices to depart from His place of dependence upon God as Man and to use His Godhead power without word from God, then Satan would have triumphed.

• And it was not only that he sought to use wicked men to effect his ends, but at times even the Lord's disciples and friends.

• Take, for example, the incident in connection with Peter, recorded in Matthew 16: 22-23, where, behind his good-natured remark, the Lord detected the devices of Satan and exposed them.

Again is this most marked in John 11 where we have recorded that appeal to His affections which reached Him from those deeply-tried sisters at Bethany, "Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick".

• He had rolled back the stroke of death from the centurion's servant, as also from the child of the nobleman at Capernaum, why not roll it back from the beloved circle at Bethany?

• He had only to speak the word and it would be done, but He had no authority from God to speak it, and it therefore remained unuttered and Lazarus dies.

• Did He feel it? He felt it intensely; but it was just one of those occasions in His life here below in which "he learned obedience by the things which he suffered", and in which "he suffered being tempted".

• From the first use made by Satan of those words in the wilderness, "If thou be Son of God" to the last one on the cross, there were constant attempts on his part to induce the blessed Lord to use His Godhead power in order to obviate the difficulties of His path as a dependent Man.

• In that way he dared to attempt to introduce the terrible principle of self-will into that Holy Vessel, as he had succeeded in doing with Adam in the garden. But he met in Jesus the spirit of dependent obedience and was completely foiled.

• With us his attempt is to awaken its activity in defiance of our having written on the flesh the sentence of death, passed on it by God in the cross of Jesus.

It is well, moreover, for us in approaching the subject of havoc wrought among saints, to bear in mind that there is no disruptive principle which ever showed itself among the people of God, of which we have not the seeds in our own souls, and that,

• if through the artifices of the enemy, these seeds germinate, they produce as fruit, principles which have always put those who have fallen under their influence outside the communion of the Holy Ghost, at any rate for the time being.

It may be safely said, that though the Gospel began to shine out again more or less in its simplicity, from the days of the reformers onwards,

• there was no recovery of the truth as to the Assembly until about 100 years ago [from 1927], when the light of Christ in glory, as the Church's Head, once more fell upon the saints.

• At Pentecost, Peter had proclaimed Him as Lord and Christ, and Stephen, having sealed that testimony with his blood, it became manifest in the ministry of Paul that
  • the centre of God's interests had been transferred from earth to heaven, and that everything now circled round a blessed living Man there, who had laid in His death the foundations on which all the counsels of God might be established.

It is clearly shown by the writers of the following papers that alongside of the recovery of the original light, there came into prominence the true import of the presence of Holy Ghost on earth,

• to establish conditions in which God could find His present delight – a people responding to the intents of His love, consciously united to Christ in glory, and bearing His moral characteristics in testimony here below.

With the fresh outshining of these rays of divine light, the whole volume of truth began rightly to affect the souls of God's people.

• The practical consequences soon became manifest in those who obeyed the light, and they withdrew themselves uncompromisingly from everything adverse to it in the profession of Christianity around them.

It is evident that Satan saw that this fresh move of the Spirit would bring about among the people of God conditions such as were present at the beginning of the Church's history,

• when his world-system, which he had set up for the ensnarement of souls, had been shaken to its very foundations.

• So effective had been the testimony rendered by the Apostles, that their opposers had been compelled to speak of them as "those who have turned the world upside down", Acts 17: 6.

• He had learned by experience that it was of no use for him to attempt to deny the session of the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God.

• He might murder the witnesses to it, as he did in the case of Stephen, and thousands of others, but the great fact remained indisputable.

• When therefore, this original light was again exerting its influence among the saints of God, about 100 years ago [from 1927], he at once reverted to the devices which, in early days, he had found far more successful than murder,
  • and proceeded to implant in the souls of God's people principles which were contrary to the mind of the Spirit.

• He knew well that those who received them would put themselves outside the communion of the Holy Ghost, and that thus, for the time being – so far at any rate as they were concerned – the intent of the Spirit's presence here below would be frustrated.

• He knew that the practical consequences which must result from the light of the glorified Head in heaven reaching the hearts of His saints on earth could not possibly be present, when the Spirit is grieved and hindered.

• It is not difficult to see that in every conflict which has occurred during the last 100 years in connection with the truth, Satan has persistently acted on these lines.

  "Before proceeding to the further consideration of these matters I now give the reader an important message sent by Mr. Stoney to brethren assembled for the annual meetings at Quemerford in Wiltshire, in June 1896", G.W.W. For that message, see History: A Review of Truth. "Immediately upon the reading of Mr. Stoney's message, Mr. Raven rose and, with much feeling, delivered the … address 'Responsibility as to the Maintenance of the Truth' ", G.W.W. For that address, see Ministry: F. E. Raven.

G.W.W.

With this in view let us now consider the controversy which arose in connection with: Plymouth, Bethesda and 'Open' Fellowship.

Much has been said by the writers of the papers, which have been under our consideration, as to this conflict and there is perhaps, little which can be profitably added.

I was not personally acquainted with any of the details of it, though I knew in my earlier years, nearly every one of the brothers referred to, but I am told by one who preceded me by several years and knew these brethren intimately, that

But I will not suppose this, my heart would not; nor will I suppose that the influence or reputation of individuals will induce them to do in one case what they would not do in another.

• I press therefore the position of Bethesda on brethren.

• It is at this moment acting in the fullest and most decided way as the supporter of Mr. Newton, and the evil associated with him, and in the way in which the enemy of souls most desires it should be done.

• The object of Mr. Newton and his friends is not now openly to propagate his doctrine in the offensive form in which it has roused the resistance of every godly conscience that cared for the glory and person of the blessed Lord,
  • but to palliate and extenuate the evil of the doctrine, and get a footing as Christians for those who hold it, so as to be able to spread it and put sincere souls off their guard.

• In this way precisely Bethesda is helping them in the most effectual way they can: I shall now state how.

They have received the members of Ebrington Street with a positive refusal to investigate the Plymouth errors.

• And at this moment the most active agents of Mr. Newton are assiduously occupied amongst the members of Bethesda, in denying that Mr. Newton holds errors,
  • and explaining and palliating his doctrines, and removing any apprehension of them from the minds of saints, and successfully occupied in it.

Mr. Müller has declared openly that Mr. James Harris was doing a work of darkness, the steps he took in exposing Mr. Newton's error,

• though he had not given himself the trouble to enquire, from those acquainted with them, the circumstances under which it took place.

• Mr. Müller stated to the saints that Mr. Newton had retracted publicly before God and the world, with the fullest confession, the error he had held;
  • which every one acquainted with the facts knows to be as contrary to those facts as any statement can possibly be.

• And I must add that Mr. Müller, in justifying Mr. Newton in this way, without informing himself by either studying the tracts or reading the answer to, or enquiring of those who were dissatisfied with, Mr. Newton's retractation,
  • was evidently acting with the utmost prejudice, and misleading the saints by it.

• It is remarkable to shew the practical working of it that as Mr. Muller was stating this in the assembly, a member of it present said to one sitting by them,
  • That is not so, for Mr. Newton was diligently persuading me of the truth of his doctrine, as I was sitting by his side at tea the other evening.

A paper was read, signed by Messrs. Craik and Müller, and eight others, to the body at Bethesda, in which they diligently extenuate and palliate Mr. Newton's doctrine,

• though refusing investigation of it, and blame as far as they can those who have opposed it.

• I do not charge Mr. Müller with himself holding Mr. Newton's errors. He was pressed to say in public what he had said in private of Mr. Newton's tracts, and at first refused.

• Afterwards he declared that he had said there were very bad errors, and that he did not know to what they would lead.

• Upon what grounds persons holding them are admitted and the errors refused to be investigated, if such be his judgment, I must leave every one to determine for themselves.

• I only ask, Is it faithfulness to Christ's sheep?

Further, while it is true that Mr. Craik may be by no means prepared to assert that Mr. Newton's doctrines are all according to the truth of God, and that I have no reason to say that he is not sound in the faith,

• yet it is certain that he is so far favourably disposed to Mr. Newton's views, and in some points a partaker of them, as to render it impossible that he could guard with any energy against them.

The result is, that members of Ebrington Street, active and unceasing agents of Mr. Newton, holding and justifying his views, are received at Bethesda;

• and the system which so many of us have known as denying the glory of the Lord Jesus – and that, when fully stated, in the most offensive way – and corrupting the moral rectitude of every one that fell under its power –
  • that this system, though not professed, is fully admitted and at work at Bethesda.

This has taken place in spite of its driving out a considerable number of undeniably godly brethren, whose urgent remonstrance was slighted;

• in spite of the known confessions of the brethren once involved and teachers of Mr. Newton's doctrine, and now through the Lord's mercy delivered from it;

• in spite of the strong and urgent statements of Mr. Chapman, of Barnstaple, who above all enjoyed the confidence of the brethren at Bethesda;

• and in spite of all that has passed in the way of discovery of moral dishonesty connected with it.

I had nothing whatever to say to the original movement of the brethren who objected at Bristol, and was long wholly ignorant of it,

• but having stated to Mr. Müller that I should gladly go to Bethesda, I was, on learning the facts, obliged to write and say I could not.

• This led to a correspondence, and at last to my seeing the brethren, Müller and Craik, so that all this has been, as far as I am concerned, fully before them.

There has a great deal taken place and passed very painful and unsatisfactory;

• but I go on the broad ground of faithfulness to the whole church of God, and each individual sheep beloved of Christ, that – as far as we are concerned –

• they may be guarded against what so many of us know to be horribly subversive of His glory, and all moral rectitude in His saints.

Now, beloved brethren, I see in scripture that one effect of faith is – whatever difficulties it may produce, or however it may seem to obstruct the removal of them, thereby forcing us to wait on God – to make us respect what God respects;

• I do not therefore desire in the smallest degree to diminish the respect and value which any may feel personally for the brethren Craik and Müller, on the grounds of that in which they have honoured God by faith.

• Let this be maintained as I desire to maintain it, and have maintained in my intercourse with them;
  • but I do call upon brethren by their faithfulness to Christ, and love to the souls of those dear to Him in faithfulness, to set a barrier against this evil.

• Woe be to them if they love the brethren Müller and Craik or their own ease more than the souls of saints dear to Christ!

• And I plainly urge upon them that to receive anyone from Bethesda – unless in any exceptional case of ignorance of what has passed –
  • is opening the door now to the infection of the abominable evil from which at so much painful cost we have been delivered.

It has been formally and deliberately admitted at Bethesda under the plea of not investigating it – itself a principle which refuses to watch against roots of bitterness – and really palliated.

• And if this be admitted by receiving persons from Bethesda, those doing so are morally identified with the evil,
  • for the body so acting is corporately responsible for the evil they admit.

• it is well they should say so, that those who cannot may know what to do.

I only lay the matter before the consciences of brethren, urging it upon them by their fidelity to Christ. And I am clear in my conscience towards them.

• For my own part I should neither go to Bethesda in its present state, nor while in that state go where persons from it were knowingly admitted.

• I do not wish to reason on it here, but lay it before brethren, and press it on their fidelity to Christ and their care of His beloved saints.

Ever yours in His grace, J.N.D.

P.S. While I go upon and press the plain broad ground of the bounden duty of guarding the sheep of Christ from the secret bringing in of that which horribly denies His glory and corrupts and demoralizes His saints,

• I ask if it is not a monstrous thing that the brethren at Bethesda, on the ground of refusing to investigate, should force hundreds of brethren and numerous gatherings of them,

• to receive those from whom they have separated after the most painful and trying enquiry, as holding doctrines subversive of Christ, and guilty of conduct unrepented of, and which Christians could not associate with?

And they have gone farther than not investigating it – they have allowed the most elaborate eulogies of Mr. Newton before the assembly, and refused permission to touch upon the doctrine or shew its evil.

At the risk of seeming to repeat what has already been before us, I feel constrained to place, in extenso, a paper which has just come to hand from the pen of Mr. W. J. Young, of Melbourne,

• which bears out in a striking manner the principle of separation from unclean associations, to which the Spirit is undoubtedly calling special attention at the present time. It is as follows:

G.W.W.

The article 'Separation' on Nehemiah 13: 7, 16, 23, from 'Counsel' No. 1, 1928, edited by W. J. Young, now appears in Doctrine: The Unequal Yoke.

This led Mr. Darby to the writing of these papers in which he sought to show that there were three classes of sufferings that the Lord Jesus passed through.

1. Those which He endured in love in connection with the atonement and the laying of those mighty foundations of redemption, in view of the settlement of the whole question of evil, the banishment of sin from the universe and the bringing in of everlasting good in that scene where a redeemed people will, in virtue of redemption and in their various family relations – Ephesians 3: 15 – share with Him the enjoyment of the Father's love without let or hindrance according to eternal counsel.

2. All that He endured at the hands of men for righteousness' sake as the One who did not refrain His lips from preaching it in the great congregation of the people. Psalm 40: 9.

3. Those other sufferings which were not atoning sufferings, which came upon Him all through His life here, the sorrows of perfect, yea, divine love, in the presence of all the havoc wrought by sin, sorrows which caused His visage to be "more marred than any man, and his form more than the sons of men", "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief".

Though all these sorrows merged in the deeper sorrows of the cross, these things were said of Him as One who was despised and not esteemed by men, who in their blindness regarded Him as "stricken, smitten of God and afflicted".

Mr. Darby sought to show that among other things which Christ suffered in this class of His sorrows,

• He entered in grace, at the close of His life, when in Gethsemane, into the position which the godly remnant of Israel will occupy at a later day; that, in doing so He,

• on the one hand entered in the fullest way into the sense of Jehovah's displeasure with the nation of Israel, which had forced Him to write Lo-ammi upon them

• while on the other hand He presented to God in His own holy soul, as a Man, that which He had a right to expect and demand from the remnant before they could come nationally into New Covenant relations with Him,
  • that in those hours of intense sorrow and suffering He acquired ability to sustain the remnant sympathetically as their Great High Priest, when they will pass through their exercises in the day of the Great Tribulation;

• that Moses in his day – Exosus 32: 31 – and Paul in his – Romans 9: 1-5 – and the prophets in theirs, showed a deep concern about the covenant relations of the earthly people,
  • but that none could take up the position of being a sympathising succourer of them in the last days – a position which will be filled by Christ alone, as the result of what He voluntarily entered into in Gethsemane.

Let the reader note carefully, the difference between Mr. Newton's view and Mr. Darby's which I give in Mr. Darby's own words, as quoted from the 1904 edition of his papers.

G.W.W.

• "… the doctrine which I denounce as evil … teaches very specifically that the sufferings of the blessed Lord during His lifetime … were the consequence of His association by birth with man and with Israel, and that Christ had all the experiences which an unconverted man ought to have.

• "It teaches that Christ was dried up and withered by Jehovah's anger, not vicariously, but by reason of the place He was in. This is what I abhor …

• "But we must not confound voluntary sympathy with sorrows, and entering into them in love, with lying under sorrow by His own position.
  • "If He lay under the chastening Himself, He could not enter into it in voluntary love alive as a Man on earth, because in that case He was under it already Himself.

  • "Here is just the danger – denying the entering into, because of the fatal doctrine of His being necessarily under.

  • "It is just the doctrine of Christ's being necessarily and by birth, when a Man, under these sorrows and chastenings for sin, which renders impossible the truth of His graciously and freely entering into them in love; which is just what gives all its value to these sufferings.

  • "He could not, as Man on earth, enter in grace and tender goodness towards us into that by sympathy, which He was lying under by necessity, in His own Person as Man, or more than other men were …"

• "The inquiry made is, What is the difference between the doctrine of the paper and Mr. Newton's? The question shows the need of making the matter clear to those who have been occupied with it. The answer is very simple. The doctrine of the paper is exactly the opposite of Mr. Newton's.
  • "Mr. Newton taught that Christ, as born an Israelite and a Man, was at the same distance from God as Israel and man, because He was one of them, was exposed to the consequences of it, and passed through the experiences an unconverted elect man ought, escaped much of what He was exposed to by being in their position, by prayer, obedience and piety, but still had the fierce displeasure of God resting on Him as born one of the people.

  • "Hence He listened with glad attention to the gospel under John the Baptist, and passed then for Himself as from the law to the gospel. Most of this terrible anguish to which He was exposed, as born one of the Jews and of the children of Adam, was before His baptism by John.

• "I believe, on the contrary, that – though suffering from man and feeling for all the sufferings of man, and Israel, and the sorrow of love resting continually upon His heart – the sunshine of God's favour was on Him and was His delight and His joy continually, and thus there was no divine displeasure resting on that Holy One, nor was His frame wasted by the anguish of it. I detest it as a false abomination.
  • "But I believe that, in grace, at the close of His history when His life-work, as presented to Israel according to promise and gracious service towards man, was brought to a close, He, the object of divine favour, entered into the sorrows of His people …

  • "Mr. Newton's doctrine was that He was born under it and sought to escape it by prayer, and obedience and piety, and partially did;

  • "mine, that He was not born under it at all, but instead of having to seek to escape it, entered into the sorrows in love and grace for the deliverance of others.

  • "That is, one is exactly and essentially the opposite of the other. The question of 'How long?' is as to this in itself immaterial, but the point that He was entirely free as born into the world, His state the opposite of what Mr. Newton says,

  • "and that by grace He entered into it, makes the difference of a false Christ and a true One – a true One who, being free, perfectly free, can care for others; and a false one who, being subject to it himself, must think of himself and not of others in love".

J.N.D.

Mr. Newton's Views Differ From Mr. Darby's

Fri, 16 Jan, 2004: Gordon Simmonds writes: Around 1970 I went to the British Museum library and did a bit of research on B. W. Newton. … I noticed he strongly repudiated that Mr. Darby's thoughts on the sufferings of Christ were anything like his own. Had they been anything like his own one would have thought that Newton would have said: 'You are now saying what you earlier condemned me for'. The brothers who were attacking Darby were written to by Newton saying they were quite wrong. I have the extracts in manuscript and have now typed them out. Mr. Darby denied that his views were akin to those of Mr. Newton, and, significantly, Mr. Newton also denied that his views were anything like those of Mr. Darby. "You are altogether mistaken, trusting to the misstatements of others, in supposing that I ever held doctrines the same, or substantially the same, as those attributed to Mr. Darby … I have always maintained that the life he had as man was pure and holy; and that the same life He laid down, that very life He took again", 'An earnest expostulation' by John Cox, Jnr, 1869 on page 24. The author of the paper from which this quotation is made says further on: "The way in which you have associated the name of Mr. Newton with that of Mr. Darby, in your paper, is most unwarrantable; their views, as contained in their published writings, are as strongly contrasted as light and darkness", page 33. In another paper by the same author – 'Judge Righteous Judgment' – the 'Record of 1866' is quoted as saying: "It is one of the favourite efforts of the Darbyites to assail the doctrine of our Lord's passive righteousness, and to make the Atonement only to consist in His sufferings on the cross … Mr. Newton argues against the error … he also shows that the error arises from the dangerously false notion that the Son of God's relation to the Father was on the cross changed, and that then for the first* time He was treated as a sinner subject to the curse of a broken law". In speaking of Mr.Darby's views the author of the paper suggests that his "meaning may be misrepresented" by those who were identifying his views with those of Mr. Newton. Pages 9-10. * Evidently Mr. Newton still held that Christ was treated as a sinner subject to the curse throughout his life here.

Let it not be urged that there is no moral voice arising from these considerations at the present time.

• One would desire that our souls might be impressed with the importance of feeding upon the holy sufferings of the Lord Jesus in every aspect of them – whether in life, or when making atonement.

• We may well pay reverent attention to all that the Spirit indicates to our souls by the contemplation of the Lamb, kept from the tenth to the fourteenth day of the first month, and then killed and eaten.

• One feels that in the secret of our closets the Spirit would have us more often, and more deeply, engaged with the sorrows and sufferings of the Lord Jesus, whether detailed for us in the gospels, or "in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the psalms".

If we neglect these holy considerations, we are in danger of becoming contracted in our affections toward the Lord Jesus, and of losing spiritual sensitiveness,

• or of becoming harsh on the one hand or callous as to lawlessness on the other.

• This is a condition which militates against that which the Spirit is seeking to effect and we must not allow ourselves to be distracted by the outcry raised in certain quarters.

• Surely it is of immense moral value that we should have the apprehensions of our souls enlarged as to all that wonderful pathway of suffering love, which led from the manger to the cross, and through death, by way of ascension, into the glory of God.

• One feels how much more truly we should be able to approach the Supper if our affections were more under the influence of these holy considerations.

May the Spirit enable us to eat the flesh  – roast with fire – Christ enduring in His holy soul the judgment of God against sin, in order that He might deliver those who were dear to Him from its thrall, and bring them to God;

– or boiled in the cauldron – Christ entering into death to give effect to the purposes of divine love;

– or the cakes baked in the pan – Christ's sufferings under the eyes of men;

– or baked in the frying-pan or oven – Christ's secret sufferings under the eye of God.

G.W.W.

Shortly after this a difficulty arose owing to the teaching of a Mr. Cluff, who applied what the Scriptures say of us as in 'the flesh' to what we are in nature.

• The Lord Jesus always recognised nature and the claims of relationship as having been ordained of God, unless they interfered with discipleship – Luke 14: 26 and other passages –
  • but Mr. Cluff advocated the adoption of an attitude of being 'dead to nature' – a wholly unscriptural proposition.

• This led him and his followers to assume a hyper-spiritual condition, involving fancied superiority to their fellow saints, which exposed them to disastrous consequences.

He taught, moreover, that the church having failed corporately in the hands of men everything now was on individual lines, that we had passed the period indicated in the epistle to Philadelphia

• and were 'in Laodicea' – Rev. 3: 14-22 – and that there was, therefore, no longer any ground on which assembly privileges could be enjoyed, or corporate testimony rendered.

Now, while rightly rejecting these erroneous views, we must, as to the first of them, be careful that we are not robbed of the spiritual significance of such a scripture as Colossians 2: 11 which is parallel to our Lord's own teaching of John 5,

• that the purpose of God cannot stand in man after the order of nature, sin having invaded that condition in us, but in Man after a new order altogether, set forth in Christ as risen and ascended – conditions of manhood which were ever before the mind of God in eternal counsel and purpose.

• As we "eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man" – John  6 – we already enter spiritually into this significance of His death, and discern in His cutting off – circumcision, Col. 2: 11 – from the whole condition in nature – in Him wholly pure and incorruptible –
  • the precursor of our own actual cutting off from it, when we too, in glorified bodies like His, reach the "resurrection from among the dead", the moral anticipation of which is to be known now in the acceptance of Christ's death.

• In this way, we are led to see that even nature itself will not subsist eternally before God, and we are taught to walk in it for the time being as those who are not to be dominated by it, but by what is spiritual.

• What havoc has been wrought in the assembly by the disregard of this, ever since that day when Barnabas allowed nature to dominate him when he insisted on taking Mark, his "sister's son", as his companion in the work of the gospel. Acts 15: 38-40.

• Let us, therefore, take heed that while giving to nature due recognition as that which was established by God, we do not allow it to dominate us, but keep it in the place of subservience to that which is spiritual and connected with the new order and conditions of Manhood set forth in Christ risen from the dead.

• We find this principle illustrated in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad, who were to hold the desires of nature in subjection to the claims of the inheritance. Numbers 36: 6.

Then as to the second error of Mr. Cluff's teaching, it is important for us to notice that in the epistle to Laodicea, as also in those to Thyatira and Sardis,

• the days through which the assembly will pass until the close of the present dispensation are indicated as being marked by principles of evil from which it is evidently the mind of the Lord that His saints should be morally apart.

• In the epistle to Philadelphia, on the other hand, we have the Lord expressing His mind as to that which is pleasing to Him in the midst of these prevailing conditions.

• May we not say that in the moral state indicated in it we have a present answer such as the Spirit would produce in the souls of saints, to the Lord's desires for His own as expressed in His prayer recorded in John 17,
  • and that the taking away of the believer's crown in Philadelphia is effected by his being induced to abandon a responsive attitude to those desires?

• This was manifestly the consequence of Mr. Cluff's teaching on this point. At the present time, as in the day when the error was being pressed, how we need to be prayerfully on our guard lest we also lose our crown.

It only remains to add that though for a time Mr. Cluff affected quite a number with his views and considerable confusion ensued,

• the falseness of his propositions was eventually clearly exposed, and those who had fallen under his influence were for the most part delivered.

G.W.W.