The Glory of Descending Love
and other
Ministry by P. H. Hardwick
– Part Two

1. The Glory Of Descending Love
   
2. Opened Eyes
   
3. God's Reserves
   
4. Restfulness
   
5. The Acceptable Year Of The Lord
   
6. Young Men … Are Strong
   
7. All Night Unto The Morning
   
8. Awaking Out Of Sleep
   
9. The Coming Of The Lord
   
10. The Greatness Of The Saints
    
11. Renewal

G.A.R.

Besides what is indicated in the scriptures we have read, there are many others which help in this subject. We must not limit God in what He can do sovereignly when He has a mind to show what He thinks of His people, and what He is going to do with them.

I might speak also of the Lord Jesus, of whom it says that He is above, sitting.

• "Seek the things which are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God", Colossians 3: 1.

• He has never come back publicly to see how things are being managed, either by the nations or even by the assembly. He is content to wait. Scripture has the expression
  • "the patience of the Christ", 2 Thessalonians 3: 5, and

    He Himself says "the word of my patience", Revelation 3: 10.

• What a wonderful thing to think of the Christ sitting, waiting patiently until the right time comes, until the Father gives the word. Then He will move and descend, but for the moment the Lord Jesus is content to sit according to the Father's word.

• I might also mention the saints as being seen in this attitude, according to John's vision in Revelation 4, the twenty-four elders are seen sitting on their thrones. The most drastic of judgments are about to be poured out on this poor world, and the saints are about to be taken into the confidence of divine Persons.

• John himself is told to write, and yet on the very threshold of all this, we find the saints, as typically presented in the elders, quietly sitting in undisturbed repose.

Now what a lesson there is in all this for us. It is not supineness, it is not the rest of the sluggard, which means that everything is neglected and nothing is done.

• It is the rest which comes of knowledge, we might say intelligence, and understanding of what God has in His mind. So this great matter of sabbath is to come into all our minds. Not that we are to break off exactly what we are doing, to celebrate a kind of sabbath with ourselves, but it is the principle of a cessation, affecting our minds, often in the midst of the most arduous toil.

• We find that there are many tasks which we can do, and yet at the same time be going on in our thoughts in restful communion with divine Persons. Let us start on and cultivate this great feature of restful communion.

• Let us, for instance, allow to rest in our minds some feature of the truth that we have heard, or read, or which may have come to us today. Keep it in our minds, turn it over, observe its scriptural connections, and see how it will enlarge before us. That is the idea of the sabbath, alongside of what may rightfully call for our practical attention.

Now, under this heading of sitting, I hope to speak of these passages briefly.

• The first one attaches to us all in soul history. It is a very searching thing to have to face the fact that we are very much like this man, independent, lawless, almost intractable; it refers to what we are in ourselves.

• That is where we need control, we need taming, we need clothes, we need a sitting attitude, and we need the renewed mind. This is a wonderful chapter and you can understand, as you read it, the fitness of this man finding his place in it, for it is a chapter of command.

• The Lord has just commanded the winds and the waves;
  • "Who then is this", they said, "that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him", verse 25.

• Who else but a divine Person could command such fluid, uncontrollable elements? He is doing it all the time, every day, even while He appears to be asleep. It is not necessary to awaken Him, although if we do so, as by our prayers and may be in the weakness of our own faith, He will listen, and He will come in for us.

• But the great point, I judge, is to see who it is who is there and can do it. "Who then is this?" they say. We may well take note of that, rejoice in it, that we have such a great Person to do it.

• At the end of the chapter He commands that something be given to the young girl to eat. These commands indicate urgent necessity, for the Lord is seeking persons of a good, honest heart, as in the opening of this chapter. He wants room for the word of God. He is prepared to do a great deal to secure the persons for it.

• So He will even secure this demoniac, even commanding before the man said much, as if the Lord would urgently come in and command the devil to go out of the man, so that He might have the man for Himself.

• And He would secure us, for we need to understand that our own minds naturally are lawless and our clothes (that is, our associations) may be all wrong.

• The Lord is prepared to come in quickly to deal with us and He does. The outstanding moral element needed particularly is preparedness to be transparent in relation to our own condition. Luke is full of that, full of people who tell the truth.

There is another woman in this very chapter who falls down and tells all the truth before the Lord.

• When the Lord asked the man of his name, he said, "Legion". A legion in the Roman army might contain anything from 2,000 to 6,000 men. Think of that! Let us apply it in moral power to our souls. See the satanic influences under which men may be held.

• Are we prepared in real joy to tell the Lord what the situation is? If we are prepared to be transparent, the Lord is prepared to take us on and make us usable, and I would say make us ornamental in what He has before Him.

• So that this man eventually is found sitting at the Lord's feet, clothed and in his right mind. That is a very great victory, for although Luke does not mention the assembly, so far as I know, here is assembly material.

• This is the kind of man that is wanted in the assembly. Not the one who can never sit, is never restful, can never be tamed, can never wear proper clothes, a subject in itself, is the divine wardrobe for men. But this is the kind of person that is wanted, and let us see, dear brethren, that we offer ourselves to be this kind of material.

• As the chapter goes on, other persons come in. A notable woman and a notable girl, so that we have the man, the woman and the child. Thus you might say, certain features of the testimony, and certain furnishings for the assembly are assured, and they come in largely on the principle of submitting to the Lord in transparency and being conscious of His command.

But now as we go on through Luke, we find that the standard is getting higher and that we are brought fully to our own day. For by the time that we read of Mary, sitting at the Lord's feet and listening to His word, we have passed by many other things.

• I do not engage you with them in detail, but I would remark one thing; that is, that the Lord Jesus has been seen in glory, on the mountain. As He is there transfigured, the Father draws attention to Him, and says,
  • "This is my beloved Son: hear him", Luke 9: 35.

• That is, the standard is getting higher. And so it is not a matter now of just being relieved of demon possession, and the like, but it is a question now of giving ourselves with positive attention to what the Lord has to say. Other things coming in show what the Lord is prepared to do to help us.

• Luke speaks of many things, of the Person of Christ and His sonship, of His rejoicing, and the dark period accompanying His service when everything seemed contrary. He mentions the peculiar blessedness of the eyes and ears of the disciples. He portrays the poor man on the Jericho road; recovered and cared for bringing in the great wealth and comfort of the Holy Spirit.

• All these things come in between, but particularly, I would single out the Lord in His glory as 'The Speaker'. That is a word for the present time.
  • "See that ye refuse not him that speaks", Hebrews 12: 25,

• for He is speaking from heaven, the glorious Speaker.

We are to read the following incidents in the light of that. So that Mary and Martha, divided in their behaviour in the house, are treating well, or treating badly, the speaking of this glorious Person.

• I would submit to the brethren that a touch of that is to be found in our own time. We are tested, in our houses, as well as in the meetings, by the attention to the glorious speaking of the Lord Jesus. Martha complained,
  • "Martha was distracted", it says.

  • The Lord said to her presently "thou art careful and troubled about many things; but there is need of one".

• We can easily get anxious and careful, distracted about many things, and they will divert us completely from what the Lord is saying.

• The Lord's word about it is that one thing is needed and Mary has chosen it. She has weighed things up and has chosen what she is going to do, so the end of it is that she is listening to the Lord's word. That is what it says: Mary
  • "having sat down at the feet of Jesus was listening to his word".

• What a word it must be, proceeding from such a glorious Person. How great must be the things that the Lord has to tell us. Think of what has preceded, think of what there is to come, think of our own day.

• The glory of His Person, the glory of His service, the glory of God, the glory of the saints, all these things are to be understood by us as having a part in the Lord's word to Mary.

• The chief point here being, not to describe the details of what He would say, although we would bring much into it, but to insist on her attitude of restfulness and listening.

It would be good to understand that we must get things restfully. It seems to help us in all that is before us whether in our houses, or relative to the great things which are unfolding in the service of God, and our place in the testimony.

• It is on the principle of keeping sabbath; lying fallow. It means that every heavenly influence is to be allowed to play upon us. Speaking agriculturally, we submit ourselves to every heavenly influence from the Lord of glory; as we may say, the rain, the wind, the frost to break up the ground, and the glorious sunshine to quicken all. Thus features of heavenly glory may find their way into our souls.

• I am well aware that Martha changed, and later served on a great occasion. These thoughts are always very inviting, for they show that in this day of grace we need not stay long under limitations. We can always change, we can always improve, and a Martha may in this sense become a Mary.

• Let us not, through many cares and distractions, miss what the Lord is saying at the present time. How much of commanding importance has been said in the special meetings recently. May we be deliberate, yet restful in our attitude, in order that the impression of it all may reach us and abide with us.

In engaging you now with the other passages, I desire to show their connection, for both Mordecai and David are seated in service. The former in watching the welfare of the king's interests; the latter as fully in the flow of the worship of God.

• Mordecai's attitude sets out our attitude towards what we might call, perhaps, matters of administration; while the other scripture refers to our going in to God with great wealth in our souls. These two things are more nearly connected than many would think.

• For matters of administration call for a good deal of spirituality if they are to be taken up rightly, and we shall find that such matters are stronger or weaker according as we ourselves are in spiritual power enabled to approach God.

• The two go together, as is seen in the heavenly city. The heavenly city comes down with Christ to rule; that is, it is administration that is in view, but the heavenly city has already been in to God.

• She comes down, we read, out of the heaven, from God, having the glory of God. She has been in to God and she comes out as having had a great and intimate place with Him, coming out now to rule, in her own peculiar light, most precious. In principle, therefore, these two scriptures are not to be too much divorced.

Mordecai is a very interesting character. Most know, I expect, that the book of Esther is one of the post-captivity books. Its place is in between chapters 6 and 7 of Ezra, which helps us to place what God is doing at the time.

• Yet this book speaks of comparative seclusion. It is not in Babylon, it is in Shushan, meaning that further weakness has come in to remind us that we are in days of captivity, days of difficulty. Yet days when principles are being carried through and all that is genuine amongst the people of God is being cared for.

• That is a great thought to carry, as it were, relative to the book of Esther, the thought of genuineness. The Jew in the book is a genuine person. He is not the opposer as in other passages. He belongs to the people of God, and as such is worth saving. Mordecai is one of them and Esther is another, and the two together provide a very complete expression of care for the people of God in difficult and somewhat obscure circumstances. We are reminded of the need for watchfulness; Mordecai suggests that, and we always need it.

• Absalom understood in earlier years, the importance of being near the gate. All the active affairs of the city take place in connection with the gate. Absalom stood in the way of the gate and as people approached to get the king's ear, his sympathy and advice, Absalom waylaid them with false words, with flattering and delusive speech. So we read he "stole the hearts of the men of Israel", 2 Samuel 15: 6.

• It is said of certain men that they went after Absalom in their simplicity, not knowing. God would not let us go in our simplicity, not knowing our right hand from our left, for God has given us the Spirit that we might know; and we are not to be captivated by a false man with delusive, persuasive speech. We are to keep ourselves, we are to take on, not the spirit of Absalom, as the men did that followed him, we are to take on the spirit of Mordecai, the watcher.

The watchful, protective idea is conveyed in the badger's skin which covered the whole of the tabernacle and the furniture when being carried. The outside covering being badger's skin speaks of watchfulness in defence of all that is so precious.

In the first scripture read, Moses had, as it were, descended already, and I believe it would not be wrong to say that this made it morally pleasing for God Himself to come down.

• "I am come down", He says, "to deliver them".

• In referring to the movement of love in Moses, I have in mind that he was tending the flock; not his own flock, but he was carefully looking after the flock which belonged to someone else. It says,
  • "Moses tended the flock of Jethro his father-in-law",

• and we would gather that this had been his character of behaviour all the time he had been in Midian. It was characteristic of Moses in his love, particularly for God's people.

• I believe that our love is tested more that way than in any other, as to whether we can give ourselves unselfishly to the care and attention of that which belongs to Another; not to Jethro now, but to God. If we love God's flock at all, how far does it extend?

• What we read about Moses is that he was prepared in his love to lead this flock into the very best, into the region of the mountain of God, at Horeb.

• We may love our brethren a little, perhaps, and pass on in ministry something that will just do, but the persistence and patience and depth of our affection for God's people are tested by how far and how long our service of love will go on.

I mention this to indicate that love was already working in Moses, and that made it, may I say again, morally pleasing for God himself to come down in love and tell Moses what He was going to do.

• This great matter of God appearing in the bush is a foreshadowing of the incarnation, nothing less.

• I know that, immediately, it refers to God coming down and dwelling amidst Israel. Malachi 3: 6 refers to it,
  • "For I Jehovah change not, and ye, sons of Jacob, are not consumed".

• That is, we might say, a reminder of God in the burning bush, God amongst His people without consuming them, but dwelling there complacently. It is but a foretaste, in type, of what God would do as He came down in Christ.

• It is really the incarnation which is before us, and the wonderful descent in love seen there. Who could measure it? That God should come down in manhood's form, as Paul says in Philippians 2: 6-7,
  • "Christ Jesus; who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God; but emptied himself, taking a bondman's form, taking his place in the likeness of men".

• In the contemplation of such love we can readily understand Moses being told that it was holy ground: he must keep his distance, as it were. Who could share that with God?
  • "We have contemplated his glory", we read in John 1: 14,
    "a glory as of an only-begotten with a father".

• They could have no part in that, the incarnation glory: it is a thing apart, holy, inscrutable: whether it be the Babe in the manger, or the Child in the house being worshipped, God is there, and that is what lays the basis for christianity.

• God is there in a Man, in Christ; the greatness of His Person entirely unencompassable. It lays the basis for worship in our souls, that God Himself has thus come down, not in wrath and judgment, but in unspeakable grace.

Now the foreshadowing of this is seen here, and the deliverance out of Egypt of all that belongs to God. God speaks to Moses and says,

• "I have seen assuredly the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and their cry have I heard on account of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good and spacious land, unto a land flowing with milk and honey".

• I wonder, dear brethren, with all the light we have, whether we all understand from this point of view why God has come down, and what His love will do for us.

• The incarnation was not just to touch us and leave us where we were. God has in mind to take us out of that place entirely and to bring us into
  • "a land which Jehovah thy God careth for;" as it says in Deuteronomy 11: 12, "from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year".

• He has in mind to bring us into the land, the inheritance, ultimately into heaven itself. God has before Him Christ glorified, and the saints with Him and like Him, every enemy turned out and defeated, and everything secured for His own pleasure eternally.

• As we consider the love of His own heart which moved God from the very outset, from before the foundation of the world, to prepare a land of this kind for His own, it raises an enquiry as to the uniqueness of the company that God has in mind to enjoy this land.

• So I would speak to you now, not of Israel, but of the church, the assembly, and the unique place which is being prepared for her. The Lord Jesus says in John 14: 2,
  • "In my Father's house there are many abodes … I go to prepare you a place".

• It is a special place, the Lord using His own careful preparation on account of the assembly.

• In connection with the Lord's supper, too, the Lord Jesus says,
  • "This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me", 1 Corinthians 11: 24.

• The breaking of bread is unique to the assembly, never taking place in the temple or any other Jewish association.

Let us take these things in and enjoy them. The Lord Jesus, the Son, is preparing a special place even in glory for the assembly, as if not even glory in the general sense would be sufficient, it must be special,

• "I go to prepare you a place".

• The point is what love is doing; and this love is seen, in the typical foreshadowing of it, in God saying,
  • "I am come down".

• What a story begins there! God not only came down, but He stayed down; when David proposed to build Him a house of cedar, something magnificent, He took occasion to tell David that He had walked in the wilderness with them in a tent and in a tabernacle. This is what divine love will do as it comes down. What a lesson for us!

• The desire of the natural heart is to ascend. Satan spoke like that, as we read in the typical language of Isaiah 14: 13,
  • "Thou that didst say in thy heart, I will ascend into the heavens, I will exalt my throne".

• And lest you should think that such an attitude is confined to Satan, we are told of Adonijah who
  • "exalted himself, saying, I will be king", 1 Kings 1: 5.

• He represents in a certain sense, typically, the rebel, lawless antichrist. That is the spirit of the natural man in contrast to the Holy Spirit of God. How His descending love should affect us!

As I continue this, I refer to the Hebrew bondman, speaking to us of the true Bondman, Christ. Notice where he comes in in this very suggestive book, Exodus 21.

• Love has already been mentioned in chapter 20, God speaking of shewing mercy unto thousands of those that love Him. That is the secret of mercy intelligently enjoyed; only those that love God can intelligently receive and profit by His mercy.

• Are there any here at cross-purposes with God, not prepared to go down and judge themselves? I believe God would have a controversy with such; He would obstruct their path. I do not think we can count on the fulness of His mercy, in the way we are speaking of it, without self-judgment on our part, because it can never be said that we love Him if we do not judge ourselves – never.

• But there are the thousands of those who love Him, and this beloved bondman comes in in chapter 21. It is true that in this chapter it is not stated as a historical event which had actually happened, the passage beginning, "If thou buy a Hebrew bondman", but the type remains there and is filled out in all its blessedness in Christ. He it was who said distinctly,
  • "I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free".

• He said it, as it were, in the upper room. He said it in the garden. He said it on the cross. Did He not say in the garden,
  • "Abba, Father … take away this cup from me; but not what I will, but what thou wilt"? Mark 14: 36.

• "I love my master". That is ascending love, ascending to God the Father. Then we have love on the level, horizontal love, as it were,

• "I love … my wife;" that refers to the assembly – she is on His own level.
  • "Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it", Ephesians 5: 25.

• "I love … my children" involves descending love, which comes down into the smallest details of the lives and circumstances of those who belong to Christ. How tenderly He cares for His children. In John 21: 5 He says,
  • "Children, have ye anything to eat?"

• In chapter 14: 18 He tells His disciples, as the house-father, that He will not leave them orphans,
  • "I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you".

• This is the fatherly care of Jesus, speaking of His descending love in consideration for His children, "I love … my children".

• He says it pre-eminently on love's occasion, the Lord's supper; those of us here who have an interest in the Lord's supper, and partake of it, will understand fully that the Lord is near; this is His voice to us,
  • "I am coming to you".

All this lies hidden in this incident, and the secret of it is love. Let us take it on, dear brethren, for the time is short, the end near, the Lord is coming.

• And when He comes, will He find love? He left it here, and He looks for it; love amongst ourselves.

• It is set out in Himself in this type, and it involved suffering. His death is the seal of His love, love which among other things has descended because it has set itself upon us.

• I would ask you whether the love of Christ means anything to you personally, whether as you go along by yourself you ponder over the love of Christ. Does it affect you, or is it only something that the brethren speak about?

• Should there be anyone here who is not going on very well, love will go as far as needed. There was the case I have already referred to, the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho; a moral descent indeed.

• It was the road trodden, no doubt, by the younger son in Luke 15. Jericho, the city of palm-trees, has been rebuilt in latter times and represents the world of enjoyment away from God. There is many a christian on that road today, going down, although knowing better.

• They say, in effect, We are settled as believers, nothing shall ever take faith out of our hearts, but we are going our own way. They would hardly tell the Lord that, or the brethren, but that is what they do; they go deliberately down, morally. What marvellous love that the Lord Jesus should go after such a one!

Then, alongside of that, to refer to Acts 20, we see in Paul the love that is prepared to descend. And that is the time we are in, dear brethren, the time when love is prepared to come down and help.

• Whether it be like the case of the man on the Jericho road wounded and half dead, needing oil and wine, support and comfort, needing his brethren; or whether it be as Eutychus, who had not been attending to what was going on;
  • there is available now the spirit of descending love in the brethren to do all that can be done, so that all might be recovered.

• I do not need to fill out these details, they are so well known, but I would challenge myself as to where I fit into these pictures. Is it a matter of real turning aside, or lack of attention in these last days?

• Acts 20 indicates the end of Paul's ministry. Here he is exercising himself in the most affectionate and descending way that somebody may be helped; and you might say
  • the mind of the saints is that the breaking of bread shall take in recovered persons; that is the bearing of the incident.

• The breaking of bread takes place in the presence of Eutychus recovered.

Someone may think that all these things going on among the saints are ordinary. Maybe, that is just what Eutychus was doing; he was in the presence of it all, but was utterly lacking in attention. So he fell.

• Thank God, he was recovered, for Paul says, his life was still in him:
  • "Be not troubled", Paul says, "for his life is in him".

• t is a question as to whether we are recoverable; we cannot guarantee that our life will remain in us. A man may not be recoverable, a solemn thought! God said of Ephraim,
  • "Ephraim is joined to idols: leave him alone", Hosea 4: 17.

• What a terrible word for God to have to say, "Leave him alone"! Yet He waited for a move on Ephraim's part, and there comes a day when
  • Ephraim says,"What have I to do any more with idols?"

    Then God says, "I answer him, and I will observe him".

    And Ephraim continues, "I am like a green fir-tree".

• There is recovery to life and freshness.
  • "From me is thy fruit found", says Jehovah, Hosea 14: 8.

• That is recovery. But it is for us to ponder this matter of being recoverable so that we are actively taking our part in every feature of the truth.

Thus love descends and recovers; the love which began in God, and which has shone out manifestly in Christ, and which is, thank God, being continued in the saints.

• Think of Mark being recovered! It is one of the most beautiful expressions of grace in Scripture that Timothy, who took Mark's place, is the one sent to bring him back, to bring back the man whom he had replaced. That is grace indeed.

• But then Mark was recoverable, and that part of the matter leaves us with a good probing exercise as to what there is in our souls. Is there anything living?

Then we have this reference to the assembly seen in Revelation 21,

• "coming down out of the heaven from God".

• It is wonderful to think of this, the assembly coming down in love. She comes down, with the Lamb; He is not far away. As we read in 1 Thessalonians 4: 17, where Paul is speaking of our being raptured,
  • "and thus we shall be always with the Lord".

• So we may say that if the city is seen coming down, the assembly, the Lamb's wife, that He is there too. I am sure He is. He is coming down to exercise an influence for good, bringing in an administration of power and goodness and love, and the assembly is to be with Him.
  • "Coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God".

• The shining of the glory of God is there; sonship is there. Sonship, I believe, lies behind this great expression, "having the glory of God". God's sons are going to appear again, this time in glory.

The Lamb's wife is to appear in glory with Him, to take up what is in His mind, so she comes down shining.

• The light that will be seen literally then is morally here now, the transparency and the love. It is made up of persons; the transparency is to be seen in us, and the light and the love. It raises the question, is there transparency now?

• There is only one street in the city; the street refers to the movements of the saints, and it is
  • "pure gold, as transparent glass".

• We do not have to tell anyone all that we are doing in our movements, but there should be no moral reason why this could not come to the light. Personally, domestically, assemblywise, and in our practical part before God, there is one street in the city, one set of movements, transparent as glass. The walls, too, and the whole city are on this principle.

We sometimes think of transparency as meaning that what is shining one side can be seen on the other, but here it is not that merely.

• What is inside the city shines through, and what is there is all of holy, precious worth. And it is being wrought out at the present time, the time of faith, wrought out in the grace of the Spirit, in love for Christ, love for God, devotedness and loyalty in testimony, love for the brethren, and love for the truth.

• These things may never be seen, or written down here on earth, but in the eyes of heaven they are full of substance.

• These blessed, glorious persons who make up the city are those who have the glory of God; they have it substantially, and they have it forever. Is it not marvellous to think of a world that is going to be enlightened by a company like that?

But there is something still better to come, for what we have just been referring to is not the eternal setting, it is the millennium.

• The eternal side still remains, but it was not my thought now to go into that, but just to express a little of the blessedness of having part in the city which comes down from God out of heaven.

• She has no embarrassment in being in heaven in the presence of God: she is not a stranger in God's presence, and He is not a stranger God. All are well known. God is known, the Lord Jesus is known, the Spirit is known, and the saints are known. We shall know them all, and we shall know them as they are known; that is, as God knows them. They are known in heaven and are worth knowing.

• The assembly's place is up there, her origin is up there, her destiny is there, and she is coming down from there majestically. What a day, oh! what a day, a literal day when the city comes down out of heaven from God! I rejoice to anticipate having part with the saints in that wonderful time.

Now these are all movements of love, dear brethren, and we have been formed in love ourselves, so that we can happily rejoice in having our part in it.

• The point now, I would say, is that love might have its way with us, in our minds, and in our souls.

• The Lord in the gospels, in answer to the question raised as to which is the great commandment, says,
  • "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy understanding", Matthew 22: 37.

• Have you noted that, "thy understanding"? Meaning that our love is not blind or unintelligent; it is intelligent, understanding love, so that the mind and the heart go together in these great matters.

Well, it is only love that will come down, dear brethren.

• Whether it be to reach a needy soul, or in the great matters of administration, love as formed in us is always ready to come down; its moral greatness is seen in its descent.

• In closing I would just refer the brethren to two of the names in Genesis 5 in the great line of God's people;
  • Mahalaleel, meaning the shining of God; and then Jared, meaning descending:

• a wonderful thing, these two are put together to help us in our souls. The shining of God in all His splendour is seen in His descending love. Love is the secret of it all.

May the Lord help us in it.