Gems for the Week
December 29 - 30
"He (Jesus) riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples feet, and to wipe them with a towel wherewith He was girded."
(John 13:4,5)
The whip and the scourge may be righteous, but there is no winning the heart of man with these. Nor is it righteousness which reigns among the saints of God, but grace, through righteousness, unto eternal life. Alas! how many sins that might have been washed away (John 13) have been retained! How many brethren alienated for all time, that might have been won back to God, because we have hammered at the conscience merely, with the heart ungained - with the heart, I might say, almost unsought! We have not overcome evil, because we have not overcome it with good. We have taken readily the judge's chair, and have got back judgment; but the Master's lowly work we have little done.
But how little yet do we understand that mere righteous dealing - absolute righteousness, as it may be - will not work the restoration of souls; that judgment, however temperate, and however true, will not touch and soften and subdue hearts to receive instruction, that, by the very facts of the case, are shown not to be in their true place before God. Man is not all conscience; and conscience reached, with the heart away, will do what it did with the first sinner among men - drive him out among the trees of the garden (Genesis 3:8), to escape the unwelcome voice. (J.N.D.)
N.J. Hiebert # 3202
"Remember them which have the rule (leaders) over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God . . . Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls . . . Salute all them that have the rule over you. . . ." (Hebrews 13:7,17,24)
It is a fatal mistake to speak against the very feeblest and humblest of God's servants. If the servant does wrong - if he is in error, if he has failed in everything - the Lord Himself will deal with him; but let the fellow-servants beware how they attempt to take the matter into their hands, lest they be found like Miriam (Numbers 12:1), meddling to their own hurt.
If we have not been able to discover the good thing in our brother and fellow-servant; if our eye has only detected the crooked thing; if we have not succeeded in finding the vital spark amid the ashes - the precious gem among the surrounding rubbish; if we have only seen what was of mere nature, why, then let us with a loving and delicate hand, draw the curtain of silence around our brother, or speak of him only at the throne of grace. ". . . speak evil of no man." (Titus 3:2) (Food for the Desert)
N.J. Hiebert # 3203
