FIVE

Outside the Camp

Moreover, the Word of God not only presents the realization of these two great facts in the case of an individual believer, but we are permitted to see companies of saints governed and characterized by these facts. In Acts 9: 31 we read, "Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, were multiplied." Here we have Christian assemblies marked by two things: they walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Opposed and persecuted by the religious world of the day, they were directed and supported by the Lord in glory and guided by the Holy Spirit on earth.

Not many wise after the flesh, nor many mighty or noble were found in these assemblies. For the most part those who formed these companies were drawn from the foolish, the weak and the base of this world, who like Peter and John were unlearned and ignorant men. And yet in the sight of the Lord they were the excellent of the earth in whom He finds His delight and with whom the Holy Spirit is content to dwell. Without worldly wealth, without humanly devised creed or articles of religion, without visible head or guide, with nothing indeed that appealed to sight or which nature could appreciate or in which flesh could boast, they pursued their pilgrim way as the ransomed of the Lord, with songs and everlasting joy, for they were on their way to the city which has foundations in company with the Lord in glory and the Holy Spirit on earth.

Without Christ and the Holy Spirit they had nothing, for earth was closed behind them, but with Christ and the Spirit they had everything, for heaven was opened before them. Little wonder that they enjoyed rest and edification, comfort and multiplication. How far, alas, has Christendom travelled from this simple and beautiful picture. The assemblies have not held the Head in heaven and have ignored the Holy Spirit on earth. As a result there is among the people of God unrest and starvation, distress and disintegration.

Yet Christ in the glory remains the same yesterday, today and forever, and the Holy Spirit abides with us forever. There is no change in Divine Persons. If then, in separation from corruptions of Christendom, even a few will yet look to Christ in heaven as their only resource and submit to the control of the Holy Spirit on earth, will they not in the end of the Church's history find, even as at the beginning, some measure of rest, edification, comfort and multiplication?

SIX