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“UNION—CENTRAL SECRET OF THE UNIVERSE” Remarks of Norman P. Grubb August 3, 1954
I told you last night that the special line that the Holy Spirit impresses on me to share with you this week is not in the form of a series of addresses, but rather one continuous examination of one theme, moving on from meeting to meeting starting again, as it were, where we left off the previous meeting. So those who are able to attend right through will probably get more than those who can only attend intermittently, the reason being, as I also told you, that for so many years the Lord has so greatly burdened my heart to find the solid road of the Spirit under my feet, that way, that high-way, of holiness—the way that “. . . wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein,” as Isaiah said (Is. 35:8); to find a fool-proof, a sin-proof, a devil-proof way of life; to find an understanding of, a knowledge of the mystery, as Paul said, of God and of the Father and of Christ which completely meets all aspects of the problem of living.
As we all know, it isn’t an easy task, and it’s the burden and the life search of my life to a large measure. Inspired thereto, mainly I suppose because, in my early missionary days, of the shock of meeting so many who so lightly professed and seemed to possess so little—of course there may have been some blindness on my part in looking at it that way, I can’t tell. But the great burden was on me that there should be the fruit of a ministry which satisfied the travail of His soul, which would also satisfy the little bit of a travail of my soul. And of course there could not be such a fruit poured out of a life which was not that itself, for we know how consistently the Apostle said, “You can follow me, as I follow Christ”—the only safe form of missionary service.
So I am sharing those revelations of God’s Word with you, although in some sense, I have a difficulty in doing so because I know that, in such a congregation as this, I am pursuing familiar paths that can only be, to many of us here, but refreshments of what are the precious things of God already. Still, I feel led to pursue that path.
I brought to your attention last night some of the outspoken, or out-written, one might say, challenges that have met one in the pages of the New Testament, pointing to experiences which should be the experiences of the full life in Christ, and the effect which those challenges have had upon me at various times up to the present day of my life, such as: the pure in heart; a pure heart; perfect love; perfect holiness; perfecting holiness in the fear of God; a life in which no single sin had dominion. “Sin shall not have dominion over you” (Ro. 6:14). No sin in any form or any aspect should have dominion. The rest of faith, the service which proceeds out of a permanent rest, a fulness of joy and peace which was continuous, not discontinuous, an inner rapture, an inner ecstasy which isn’t the occasional experience of the spirit, but the continual experience of the spirit.
Permanent abiding. I don’t think I mentioned that one last night. That was one of the earliest challenges I got through that mighty channel of God’s Word here in Japan. Years ago I read one of Paget Wilkes’ early books, “The Dynamic of Faith,” and he brought to my notice that Jesus said in John 15, “Abide in me.” The problem was how to abide. I thought, “Exactly. That’s exactly it.” The problem is how to abide. An abiding life is a life continuous in the presence of God, of power, and of service which produces fruit. So these are some of the challenges straight out of the pages of God’s Word, which I mentioned to you last night.
I pointed out to you also the stages of Christian growth plainly outlined to us in God’s Word, suggesting too that God’s Word shows us that there are three phases which are to be experienced as well as mentally apprehended. Infancy, adolescence, and adulthood—the infant being in the condition in which it only knows how to receive forgiveness of sins for His Name’s sake; adolescence being the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God; adulthood being the experience of a self-sufficient life. That word of course needs further interpretation. I’ll leave it at that at the moment. A life which in itself has in itself discovered the secret of continuing strength “because ye are strong,” and has discovered how to win every battle, “I have overcome the wicked one,” twice over, and which has a fixed, inner understanding and ingrafted apprehension of the way of God, the Word of God abiding in us.
So we walk according to our nature. Christianity is to be natural, even as natural life is to be natural, and I think we can always test our Christianity on that basis. The whole point of natural life is that it is natural. You don’t think of it; you just live it. That’s very important.
What I mean is this:
• I have a body. Now the whole point of the body is that you forget you have a body. If you don’t forget you have a body, you go to a doctor.
• I speak to you now. I’m not trying to find out how my vocal chords work. I let them work. I don’t realize I’ve got any vocal chords because they are invisible inside, and the whole of the wondrous structure of the body is like as if you don’t know you’ve got it.
Wonderful isn’t it? The thrill of physical life. You just live. That’s nature. Perfectly natural. Not a single scrap of strain.
The first moment of strain, “Hullo,” better take one of those famous pills you’re dosed with today. When I was on the mission field, we had one bottle of pills called quinine. Today I find people have 25 bottles in rows in front of them on the breakfast table! This is a new world I’m in. You see what I mean? The whole point I’m getting at is this. “Super-nature” acts the same as “nature.” The new nature, the divine nature, acts the same as the old nature and should be as automatic as the former one. Therefore do we have an automatic rest of soul, an automatic consciousness of Jesus which never leaves us, an automatic ability to apply power as needed, an automatic knowledge of how to get the guidance and know that is the mind of God against my own mind, and so forth? Unless we’ve got an automatic life which is natural on a new level, we haven’t got there. We’re still in the medical stage, needing some nursing and sewing up and so on. You see what I mean.
That, I understand, is what was meant concerning adolescence, or we may say the graduation out of adolescence, the young man who has become strong and can overcome the wicked one. He has the Word of God abiding in him so it’s now his natural way of living. He naturally lives the spiritual life, he’s perfectly at ease. That frees him from other activities. Now he can carry the burden of God instead of his own burden. Infancy and adolescence are all centred on the growth of the young life. Fatherhood has forgotten his own growth and is occupied with the growth of others. It becomes free from its own concerns, in the main. It has to have a few meals every now and then, but otherwise is not supposed to bother about itself. It is occupied in its ministry, in its service, in its family, and so on.
So fatherhood is a person who has become liberated from his own concerns and he is now contributing to the concerns of others. He knows Him that is from the beginning. God doesn’t live for Himself. God is the everlasting Servant of His own creation in infinite grace, an endless stream of Self-giving. God isn’t concerned about Himself, is He? In His infinite grace He is concerned about us. And so, to know Him that is from the beginning is to have His exact character, and to have that by nature. That is the third stage, the fatherhood out of which flows the power and the grace and the life to others.
So we looked at that as being one way of looking at what we are seeking in our standards, at that into which we are to enter, examining how far we have entered. And as I say, the whole point is, where you have entered you live by nature and don’t question it. Just the same as you don’t question justification by faith—you never think of it. No question. You live by nature in the justified life, by the new nature, of course. So in these other phases.
I. CENTRAL SECRET OF UNION
Now, having taken a brief look back on thoughts that were before us last night, I want to proceed. And what I proceed to now I know, as I say, is preciously known to the great majority of us here, but we must refresh ourselves in it. We must refresh ourselves in the central secrets of history. There is only one central, absolute, final, vital secret of history—it’s called that in the Bible. That’s the very centre. All the rest we are to find out how this is so.
So we will plunge straight in there. It’s to be found in the letter to the Colossians, a letter which peculiarly elevates our glorious Christ because there was danger of the attention of the Colossian church being diverted from Him to the opinions, or judgments, or criticisms, or influences of the philosophies of man.
In Colossians you are turned back to behold the Head—that’s the point that we notice from this great letter. It is, of all letters, a Christ-centred, Christ-magnifying, Christ-glorifying letter. Most of us know in our own minds this outline, and we know how it starts glorifying Him as the Father’s dear Son—He is the Father’s Son before He is ever our Saviour. He’s where the Father’s heart is fixed, where the Father’s joy is through all eternity—His dear Son. And then, having pointed out that we have been translated into the Kingdom of His dear Son in the first chapter, it goes down the line of some of His indescribable glories—the glory of His original creation, the Creator and the sustainer of all; the glory of His final reconciliation. He is not only the Creator of all, He is the Reconciler of all. And then in between the revelation of Him being the Head and the Firstborn, the Author of God’s supreme miracle in history, the creation of the Body of Christ (the millions of redeemed souls who form the Body), He is also the Head of the Body which is the Church, “that in all things He might have the pre-eminence, the firstborn from the dead.”
And so I suppose it is safe to say that we all know and have often read and used this precious description in Colossians 1 of the unique glory of this unique Person. We are told many other things. Colossians 2:3 tells us that, “in Him is hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Hidden, got to be found, they’re hidden. In Him is “hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:9, “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Again and again it shoots in statements which go to the extreme limit of the language in magnifying that Person.
And then, in the midst of it all, He exposes to us the mystery, and the mystery is more than that—more than that, it’s not just that, it’s more than that. He said it was such a privilege to reveal this mystery that he even gives it a higher status in his ministry than the Gospel. That’s a strong statement. In Colossians 1, verse 23, he said he’s a minister of the gospel, middle of verse 23, “hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.” And so he’s to minister the world wide gospel.
Well, that we would say is a high enough privilege for any man, but then he goes on to say that he was minister of something else which he considered higher even, and which he considered the peculiar privilege to suffer in giving it—it cost him to give it. And so he said in Colossians 1, verse 24-26, “who now rejoice in my sufferings for you.” This is not for the world now; this is for you. “And fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: whereof I am made a minister.” That’s the second ministry. But the emphasis put on the second ministry on this occasion is bigger than the emphasis put on the first—“whereof I am made a minister “according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; even the mystery . . .” (such an expression as this is never used anywhere else in Scripture) “which has been hidden from ages and from generations.” It always was there.
A higher calling isn’t a new thing; it’s a thing that has just been hidden and not been discovered except by those who search for it. There’s been a hidden mystery all the way; it’s been the hidden purpose of God all the time, “hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to the saints.” It’s unintelligible to any who are not redeemed, the natural man.
“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col. 1:27. Christ joined to you, not Christ by Himself. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
So the central secret of all history is the union of the creature and the Creator, not just the Creator, certainly not just the creature, but the union. We’ve found the whole meaning of life in time and life in eternity when we’ve found that. It’s probably beyond intelligible apprehension by the finite mind, as well as beyond intelligible description. Probably our minds cannot completely compass this infinite glory, but thank God our hearts can experience it, and they do.
And to some extent our minds can compass it—union. We’ve got to think around that. We know that that’s life, for that is what eternal life is. There is only one eternal life, of course, God or Christ, but God is Three. God is Three dwelling in Each Other. So original life is not one Person, or still less one thing, it’s Three living People living in each other and proceeding out from Each Other in their several offices.
So original life is union, and that which proceeds from union in that balance which is so hard for us to understand or apprehend or experience—a unity which still leaves us a separate person.
It’s more than a union, it’s a unity. It’s tremendous when, in any sense, it is imparted to me. A unity, so that there is never a sense of even a one percent division between myself and the Living God again. They’ve become one Person—“He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit,” not two. I Cor. 6:17. And yet within that mystery we retain our individuality. That’s where the difficulty comes, which we need to examine. That’s where the whole tension of holiness comes; the whole problem of sanctification hangs around that fact, what we might call that paradox.
But the first point is the unity; become one person. We’ve got so used to the curse of the fall which is separation that it’s a very, very long job for us. Who of us does entirely attain to a continuous recognition of this unity? It was the great cry of the saints of the ages.
Through the ages they put it under a certain terminology which is impressive to some of us, a way to unity which they called purgation, illumination, and union—three phases; which to some extent is what we said before—“little children, young men, and fathers.” It doesn’t exactly fit there but it’s some where near it. Purgation to make this union. The great cry of their hearts was union, and if you read the lives of great saints you always find that when they came to union they came to liberation. You find that as soon as they came to union out came a great humanity, a great love, a great power, a great service. They found the secret liberation. But when we think and go into it a little further, how separatist we are in our thinking—for instance, when a crisis comes to you or to me, a sudden sorrow, a sudden disaster, we say, “God permits it.” No. God shares it! God doesn’t permit it. That means that God is up there and we’re underneath. God isn’t up there at all; God is in here. I never lift my eyes one single time to heaven to try and get Him up there, do you? I don’t waste my breath, or my eyes, or my looks, or anything else. Why should I waste my time trying to get a Person to come down when He lives in here? And why should I waste my time trying to get a Person to come up here when He lives in me? I never allow that. I can see Him where He is, in a common bit of human flesh, redeemed by His Precious Blood, packed full of the Holy Ghost.
You see what I mean? It makes the whole attitude of life different. A crisis comes to me? No, no, it doesn’t! It comes to us not to me. To us. And I’m a mighty little part in the us and He’s a mighty big part in the us. It comes to Him. “Well, if it comes to Him, He meant it to come. And if it comes to Him, he’s going to turn it out for His own purposes. “Come on Lord, handle it now. Praise the Lord!” It’s perfect. “Come on, carry it out now. I’ll watch You.” And it’s a great watching life. We sit on the side lines and clap when the goals are kicked, that’s all. The goal is the devil. That’s it!
But you think for a moment, as I think to myself—my! we’re caught out 99 times out of a 100! We say, “Why did God allow that?” He’s up there and poor I am down here. No, He’s not! I’m caught out almost every time. I’m so familiar with the separate outlook, I almost cannot look upon life from the union point of view! I look at it from separation! And there’s where weakness comes, there’s where my shocks and sorrows come. Of course they do. Was it God? Was it the devil? Was it this? Was it that? And we begin to look around. It happened to us. We speak that we do know.
“I’ve got a shared life,” He said, as I’ll show you a little later on from Scripture. Jesus had a shared life. We have a shared life, a united life. Christ in you, we in Him, that’s the other side of it.
I can’t say this moment that my mind can compass it. I in Him. He in me. I can’t say I can compass it. I’ve spent hours seeking to compass it—perhaps I haven’t sufficient light yet. Thank God, I know I know it. In other words, I know Him! I can see a little. Brothers, the Cross is not the centre and is not the objective. This is the centre and objective. The Cross is the gateway. The Cross isn’t the end; the Christ is the end. And the Christ is this One—joined to me forever and I am joined to Him forever. There are astounding statements in God’s Word.
Our brother gave us a glimpse this morning of what it means to see the Holy Spirit in a brother when he gave us that blessed word on Attitudes. I was struck in this very letter when, in Colossians 3, verse 11, I was reading about our relationships, with the Christ ascended with Him, and so on, where it speaks about the new man, and the new man being that in which “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free.” Then it says, “Christ is all, and in all.” If Christ is all in me, what’s left? My mathematics don’t leave me much. If Christ is all in all, how much is left?
And in the final eternity, when even the Son becomes subject to the Father and hands over to the Father “that God may be all in all.” I Cor. 15:28. Pretty extreme, isn’t it? I like to emphasize this as an extreme Book—it entitles us to live an extreme life and preach an extreme message. Praise His Name!
It certainly is extreme. If we wrote that they’d say we were Pantheists or some queer name. But God said it. That doesn’t leave me with much bother with myself, does it? If a common little horrible little piece of a thing like this can say, “Christ is All,” it doesn’t leave me with much bother with myself. I just say, “all right, God, carry on then. If a disease happens to me, it happens to You as well as to me—fix it up then. If a sorrow happens to me, it happens to You as well as to me—carry it out then. It’s your business.”
Oh the burdens go off there! You’ll find all our burdens are upon us because we have this separate instinct instead of the united instinct—every one; every sorrow we carry; every burden we bear. I shouldn’t like to say every tear we shed—because we are human and He shed tears—but every tear of self pity we shed (and there’s an awful lot of self pity in our tears) comes out of separation instead of union. Every weakness we feel comes out of separation instead of union. Oh, I share them with you. No one feels more weak than I do when I’ve got to speak. I have such an easy life. I’m always glad God has given me one cross to bear, and that is the hatred and horror of speaking. Pooh! I hate it.
I say, “Well Lord, it’s a good thing I’ve had such a mighty good life, and it’s a good thing you’ve given me one cross. I’m not worth sending to heaven at all.” I don’t mean you go to heaven by your crosses, but I mean you like to carry your cross for Jesus occasionally. So, “Oh, I feel weak,” but that’s all nonsense. Weak, of course I’m weak, but there’s Somebody inside me Who isn’t. And the devil knows that if I don’t, thank God.
God can give us a real glimpse, a glimpse which is a fixture. What we are after is a fixed life—I told you before, a natural life, to live naturally. By God’s grace in a measure I have learnt, but there’s much more: I must learn to live naturally in a continuous Christ-consciousness, so that it’s natural to me, fixed in me. The Word of God abides in me, not comes into me from outside—it may have started that way. It abides in me. That’s the point. It’s the fixed life. “O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise.” Ps. 108:1. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts,” not visit occasionally, “dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:17)—a permanent residence, not a visit. That’s the same thought. And that, mind you again, is the “farther on” that was Paul’s prayer in the third chapter of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 3 is perhaps the deepest prayer he prayed. That wasn’t the first prayer he prayed. That was the final prayer he prayed. He prayed the highest things he could pray in Ephesians because he talked the highest language.
But you see, don’t you, that I’m not unfair when I say to you that Paul, by the Holy Ghost, put a new unique emphasis on this fact. He didn’t even mention the Cross here. I’m not saying that he belittles the Cross—because the only way into this is by the Cross, as you’ve got to learn. But I say that because sometimes we can even give the Cross the wrong place. It’s the Christ of the Cross Who must have the centre place. It says in Him; in us, therefore. As one person we, in a certain proportion in the union, and He in a certain proportion. We can look at that later on.
But those proportions matter very much. What proportion is me, and what proportion is Him, matters very much. I’ll take that home to you further in case you have any doubt, not that you would. I was very struck with this. I don’t know if it has struck any of you. Of course there are such measureless riches in the Bible, different things strike all of us, praise the Lord. That’s why we can preach sermons to each other! But, I was very struck with this about Galatians—we all know that wonderful letter, the great apologetic we might say, that rescued us from the wretched business of so-called Salvation by works and planted our feet, and the feet of the Church of Jesus Christ, once and for all on justification by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ alone. It’s a grand warrior’s letter. He withstood Brother Peter to the face, wouldn’t be subject for an hour—though I always think Brother Peter got one back. He was meek and took it because in II Peter later on he talks about, “Our beloved brother Paul who wrote things . . . ,” then he said “. . . a little hard to be understood,” which twists some of you up. He got one back on him. That’s the way of meekness.
But all the same, it’s a warrior letter isn’t it? Now, at the same time, generally speaking, you’d call it more of an objective than a subjective letter. It’s defending the outer defenses of man’s soul and the Christian faith against the assaults from the circumcisers and the legalists and all the rest of it. That’s our general outlook, and probably it’s right to say it’s the general message of that mighty letter. But what struck me with such surprise is that Paul every now and then flashed in a word of his own testimony. Every time he uses his own testimony he says something quite different, and he went clean out of the objective into the subjective. I want to point it out to you because it fits right up the line of what I have just quoted to you out of Colossians 1. The first time is in Galatians 1, verses 15-16, when he gives us a touch on his conversion, his regeneration. I don’t know my dates but we’ll say it was written say 15 years or 20 years after his regeneration on the road to Damascus. He said, “it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son” to me? No, “in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen.” I remember in such a simple way how I was caught out. I did a translation of the New Testament in my early days into an easy language in Africa—needless to say it was easy, or it wouldn’t have been translated. They were primitive days, so people didn’t mind so much what you put, so long as you put something. (I put a few funny things too! However, it got the Word of God out to them.) But I remember, I caught myself out here, and found that I had translated those words as, “to reveal His Son to me.” I just instinctively put, “revealed His Son to me.” I looked again and it didn’t say that at all. It says, “revealed His son in me.”
Therefore, regeneration is a first revelation of an indwelling Person. Of course it is! In other words, you are not regenerated until the Spirit opens your heart to know Him within, so that you know within you an indwelling Christ—the first touch of it. An inner sense is opened in which He is come to your heart. That’s the real proof of regeneration, or one of the proofs. It’s proof to your own heart, anyhow. So you see straight away you get the first touch. That is the Salvation letter. II. CHRIST LIVES HIS LIFE IN ME
Now it passes on from that to what, I am sure, is a great favorite of hundreds of us here. To me it’s the outstanding verse in the whole Bible to the saints of God, because it’s the perfect analysis of a balanced life—Galatians 2:20. It’s a marvelous bit of spiritual psychology as well as penetrating insight by the Holy Ghost into the heart of the matter. Galatians 2:20. I am sure it’s written on the heart of many of us here. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
You see the oscillation? I told you the problem is to find the correct balance between the two personalities in the one. We are one person, yet we’re two. That’s the problem. So Paul oscillates. He says, “I’m crucified with Christ—no, no, I’m here—no, no, I’m not here, Christ lives in me—no, no, I live—no, no, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” He swings to and fro. That’s all you can do. That’s the best human language can do. It’s the best finite mind can do, if I may put it that way, endeavoring to put in human terms the “un-putable.”
Christ at the centre. Look at that—what surrounds it. We’ll go on too because it’s important meat for the present.
Christ liveth in me. I saw something there. I don’t know if you have. I saw that it means that Christ doesn’t live my life. He lives His own life! I saw a big difference there. If Christ lives in me, He isn’t living my wretched little bit of life, He’s living His life. I saw the escape there from the great snare in many of our lives which ties us up in lack of power and lack of all sorts of things. Why? Because we seek abstraction, we seek a thing called life, a thing called power, a thing called light, a thing called meekness, a thing called anything you like, a thing called faith. But there are no abstractions. They are put like that in the Bible for our intelligence’s sake to explain what things are.
But listen, the only faith there is is a person believing. There is no faith in the universe except the person who is believing. Faith is a person believing. There is no love except a person loving. God is love and God is a Person. There is no meekness, except a person who is meek; there is no power except a person who is powerful.
Now there’s the secret. It’s never that He’s going to impart love to me; He’s going to be the loving Person inside me. He is Himself inside me. He’s the Loving Person inside me, and I share in some of it, and His love comes out through my love faculty. He’s loving through my love faculty. And He doesn’t impart faith to me. He’s a believer. He doesn’t have any kinks in His faith, Praise the Lord. He believes in Himself. The I AM, THAT I AM. He believes in Himself, in the totality of faith. And in part He is just believing in me.
So my believings are the Holy Ghost’s believings every time. If I believe a thing, it isn’t I who believes, it is the Holy Ghost believing in me. He just puts it through my faith faculty. That’s the whole key. When you understand that, you don’t moan and groan and long for things called power and faith. You must recognize the believing Person inside you. He’s plenty for you. You don’t need any more if you’ve got Him. That’s the key.
It goes right back to what Brother Carroll told us on Sunday; it’s the Person. There are no “things” in the business at all. There’s no holiness. The only holiness there is a holy Person, and the Holy Person is Jesus. And when He’s His Holy Self in me, He’s a Holy Person in me. And He comes out through my character, He’s coming out through me. That’s this spiritual union, observable in a sense to the human eye. It is Jesus coming out through us.
Now see, that so wonderfully simplifies life if I know that this Person is the “do-er” in me. Let me show you a few texts along that line. Were you ever struck by this one? You probably have been—Matthew 10:20, “For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” Not “speaks to you” but “speaks in you.” In other words, the Person Who speaks inside my voice is the Holy Ghost, so it isn’t my words at all. “I’m the voice of one crying . . . .” John 1:23. John wasn’t the one who cried. John was the mere voice of it. He was the voice; the One who cried was the Holy Ghost inside him. He was just the voice, and out through that voice came that mighty word. I’ll prove that to you further on in other ways, but you see what I mean.
How marvelous that is! The old devil says that you’re no good—anyhow your language is no good. They can’t understand you, and they don’t make anything of it, and when you preach the Gospel, they ask you why you’ve got such white teeth or something; and at the end of it all the devil laughs at you! No, no! The Person has spoken through you. There’s a Person speaking. It is God speaking, and it’s God Who speaks to them of Jesus through you. It’s the Spirit of God Who speaks the Blood of Calvary through you. That’s the point. But you see the old devil steals our faith away, and even that is not our faith, it’s really His believing. You see he gets us off, and then we go all pale and confused and frustrated and all the rest of it. Let’s understand this. This One is the Speaker inside.
Look at another—they are common to us. I Cor. 2:16, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” Christ, the Thinker. He doesn’t think my thoughts. He thinks His own thoughts. I’ve got a thinking Person inside me, that One in Whom is all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and He’s thinking His thoughts in me. Now then, how that simplifies life! We have the Mind Who thinks His thoughts through my mental faculties. And that’s guidance, my brothers and sisters. That’s why I told you yesterday, guidance is to shutting your eyes, spinning your finger around and saying, “That’s the text, therefore I’ll go by it.” Guidance is a Thinker inside me. Check it by the Word of God, but there is a Thinker inside me and He is thinking His thoughts and His purposes inside me. And as I am quiet enough and detached enough from myself and others (I’ve got to learn some lessons there), that Person conveys His thoughts to me.
And the safeguard is always the Word of God. If the thought isn’t inside the Word, throw it overboard. That’s the way He thinks. It makes life so wonderful.
Many of you have responsibilities. Well, I have responsibilities as Secretary of a Mission, and—you know what some dear old ladies are—in their kindness they say, “Oh, Mr. So-and-so, you must carry heavy burdens. No wonder you’re so tired, and so on, making decisions.” I say, “Brother and sister, I don’t make any decisions in my life. I have a wonderful lazy life. I’ve got Someone Who makes decisions for me.” Dear, oh dear. I wouldn’t waste my breath, and the missionaries would chuck me out tomorrow if I made my decisions! They’d soon smell them out all right. My decisions have a smell about them. That won’t do. I’ve got a Person inside me Who makes decisions, and the confirmation of these decisions is that He makes these decisions inside them too! That’s fellowship. That’s the mind of Christ coming out through the body. That’s the only way we find the mind of Christ. I hope you do in the Mission—it’s in the body; let it come out through the body. It’ll come out.
And let me tell you this, to the glory of God, very rarely do we have dissension. Very rarely do we not find the mind. We were having discussion two weeks ago when we had our little conference on points of which, some said after that, they never dreamt we could ever come to one mind. It wasn’t a controversial matter. It wasn’t a quarrel or anything, but merely certain matters on which we never thought we could come to one mind. And we came completely to one mind after about four hours. And all around the place we were praising the Lord. Oh, yes, we all see that this is absolutely God’s Word. That is the mind—as easy as anything.
So that life is enjoying it all the time. Enjoying Him. Sure it is. There are laws of liberation which we have to examine. Of course there are. Christianity—no. Life is a Liberated Christ inside a liberated personality. That’s the whole of life—a Liberated Christ inside a liberated personality. A liberated personality is a person who has been freed from himself. You’re free when you’re free from yourself; and you’re free then to—what?—to have a Liberated Christ free inside you. And if He gets free inside you He does a few things—not what man thinks He will do. That’s why Christians are queer people. He does what He thinks He’ll do— but He does it. Philippians 2:13.
That’s the whole end of eternity, a Liberated Christ inside a liberated glorious body through whom He’ll do His own eternal purposes forever and forever. He’s the do-er. That’s why we never have a single thing we can take to do ourselves. Everything which ever happened to us, He is the do-er. Every scrap of faith I ever had, He is the believer. Every praise I ever give to Him, He is the praise-er. Every scrap of love we have, He is the lover. I often hear people say in their prayers, “Oh, Lord, I know you love these people much more than I do.” No, He doesn’t, because you haven’t loved them at all. If you have a single one percent of love, that is still His love. That’s a silly prayer. We all pray silly prayers. I don’t grumble at you, I pray them myself. But it’s a fact. You see, that’s the old fact of separation. I love a bit, and He loves more. No, you don’t. There’s only one love and one Lover, and any single flicker of love you have is His love in you. So every single thing is Himself glorifying Himself. Himself to Himself. That’s the end of it, the indescribable mystery of it in the end. But it’s blessed. Look at this one. II Cor. 6:16, “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them.” I like that. I’m marching along the road—it isn’t I at all; God is walking in me. That’s a great one! I remember people used to say—of course Mr. Studd used to say queer things—and people used to say, “Ooh, he must have a devil or something, saying things like that.” And I used to hear him pray in his zeal for the Africans, “Lord I’m only out here for one thing; that is to see Jesus Christ running about inside black bodies.” Well, I came to this text, and it says He walks in them anyhow. So I suppose He can run in them too if He wants to, praise the Lord! Jesus Christ running inside black bodies. And it’s Scriptural, mighty near Scripture anyhow. We haven’t got to stretch it too far. “I will walk in them,” you see; can I possibly get it? When this little “worm” is walking along the road, Christ is walking in it. God is walking in that place. Marvelous, isn’t it? And yet, here’s the Scripture, a common place we all know.
I think it’s about the last I’ll refer to Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” It doesn’t come out quite so clearly there, but it comes really to the same thing. The Will within us is God’s Will. That’s why our naturally weak will has become strong since we’ve become regenerated. We are able to look back and see how weak-willed we were. Something has happened to us now. So now a commission has come into us from which neither man nor devil will deflect us. We are going to fulfill it. That’s God willing inside us, not this wretched thing. God willing. When God wills, He’s going to do it, and He puts that sense of Divine constraint and imperative desire upon you and me. That’s the glory of this life—and God does it. I’m just touching on that.
Now we’ll just go back to where we were in Galatians—I haven’t completed there yet. But that’s the central one. That’s the sanctified life in its very essence. We’ve got a good deal more to say about that as we proceed in the next evening or two. That’s the very centre of it. The sanctified life is, of course, Christ living in me, because He is the Sanctification. There is no holiness except Jesus Himself, a Holy Person living inside me; that’s all there is. But that does involve certain relationships between Him and me which we’ve got to examine closely. There’s our problem. It’s the “me side” which is the problem, not the “Christ side.” That’s what He’s got to get at. That’s why Paul, of course, talks about being crucified, which we’re going to examine later.
But there’s the very centre of it. Christ living in me, and the Life I’m now living, I’m living by what? By the faith I have in the Son of God? No, by the faith of the Son of God! His own believing is in me! I’m living by Him now. He’s the believing Person in me. And He imparts His believing to me so I’ve got a positive, optimistic faith, instead of a lot of dragging pessimistic business, as if the devil is on the throne instead of Jesus. I can’t take that stuff. I’m not going to be a devil magnifier. You can, if you want to—it’s up to you.
But look at the next one. I was struck by this, Galatians 2:8—now he’s just discussing incidentally about the ministry concerning Peter, and so on—“For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was [or “is”, the same thing] mighty in me toward the Gentiles.” Isn’t that a striking sentence? Not that He has made me mighty—do you see the difference? He hasn’t made me mighty. He is the mighty One, and He is so mighty in me He gets out through me and the others get it. In Galatians 2:20 He is the wonderful Person in me, and He is so holy in me, He imparts His holiness into my faculties. He’s the meek Person in me, and I become meek along with Him; and He’s the Loving Person in me, and I become loving along with Him. But here is more—it comes out through me here. And here is the standard for missionary work: that same Person is mighty in me, and He comes, but through me, to others. It’s nothing to do with my mightiness—it’s His mightiness in me which comes out and gets the Gentiles.
There we have the third phase: Service, or intercession, intercessorship, priesthood, or whatever you like to call it. Little children, “reveal His Son in me.” Young men, “Christ liveth in me.” Fathers, “mighty in me towards the Gentiles.” Coupled with that you get the same statement which is interesting, and takes you a little farther in the 4th chapter.
Now I like this because once again it shows where Paul’s aim was set in his converts. It’s the same thing, exactly the same thing. He has given these three flashes of testimony concerning himself. Now he gives a flash of testimony concerning his heart about others. We know it. Galatians 4:19: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” In other words, you’ve got an embryo Christ inside you—like a little embryo inside you. Now, I’m going to travail in birth until you have a formed Christ, a full man, Christ inside you, Who acts like a man, like the God He is—a formed Christ inside you, Who can speak His mature thoughts, love with His love, that incomparable love flowing through us. A formed Christ. You can only have a formed Christ when you are out of it, of course, a Liberated Christ in a liberated personality. Christ will be formed in you.
Now, I point this out to you as the standard, as an evident testimony of what he has said in Colossians 1, the major message he has. And the glorious Cross of Christ is the gateway to that, but it’s not that. It’s the essential background but not the foreground. We don’t live in the death—we live in the Person Who is the life, and the death is the way to the life. It is the essential way, the absolute only way. And for all eternity the glorious fact of the unity of the Head and Body will be the foreground to the invisible thrones and principalities and powers—the hidden background will be the Cross. We have to preach the Cross and to remain on it because it takes us such a long time to get through it. That’s the trouble. But the full-orbed message preaches the Christ in us as an outcome of the Cross.
III. MAN MADE CAPABLE OF UNION
I just would give you one touch here. Now this is just a technical touch and it may not mean much to you, but I want to go on to something of importance—if I have time tonight—that lies even behind this.
This may not interest you, but it did me, to find out and see in what sense God has made man so he was capable of union. Now, when I saw it, it helped me because, when I saw that God had made man so that he could only be a united person, I saw something further. I saw further authority in the whole thing. What I’m getting at is this—it just caught me a couple of years ago or so, and I pass it on to you.
We all know John 4, for instance—we’ll start there and I’ll just refer to about 5 texts and that will clear the matter up. In John 4, in verse 24, Jesus makes that amazing statement to an ignorant woman, one of the profoundest statements He ever made where in just one word: He says, “God is a Spirit.” The original is just “Spirit.” There isn’t any definite article in Greek so you can just put “Spirit” or “a Spirit” as you like. So it’s right to say “God is Spirit” or “God is a Spirit.” Perhaps it would be more complete to say, “God is Spirit.”
Now what I’m getting at is, if God is Spirit, He’s not body. Of course, we all know that. If He’s Spirit, He hasn’t got the outer clothing of body. What does that mean? It means the Spirit is the personality, because if ever there is a personality it is God. Isn’t that so? If there ever is a Self, it’s God. God is the Self of all selves. He’s Spirit. Therefore, the essential self is spirit because God is a Spirit, and He is the essential Self. The essential ego is spirit. Now that’s important. I’ll show you why. Now link that up with that remarkable little phrase which falls out again quite incidentally in Hebrews 12 where Paul . . . oh, I don’t believe Paul did write it, I think Apollos wrote it! Apollos said in Hebrews 12:9, where he’s contrasting fathers of the flesh. What did he say? “Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits . . . ?” Therefore, that which God really fathered when He fathered humanity was spirits. The rest was only clothing. Spirits, because the spirit is the essential ego, the essential.
I’ll give a little more proof of that. Look in the same Hebrews 12 and in verse 23 when man loses his body for a time. We come to that wonderful Mt. Zion and get a vision of it, “. . . and to the spirits of just men made perfect.” Well, they haven’t lost their personality, they’re justified men stripped of outer clothing.
So the essential in man is a spirit, you see. The spirit of a just man, a justified spirit. Or look back to I Cor. 2. There you’ve got an interesting touch. In I Cor. 2:11, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” In other words, the knower is the spirit, so of course he is the inner ego.
There’s a centre in me you can’t reach. I can talk about myself, can’t I? I myself. But there’s something down there you can’t get at. It’s I. There’s something in you I can’t get at. That’s right in the centre; that’s the spirit, the spirit of man that knows a man. That’s the very centre. Now, why am I saying this? Because the whole point is that the nature of spirits is to unite, whereas bodies are separate. So the essential nature we have is the united nature. That’s the danger with the devil, because the devil is a spirit also—“the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience”—that’s the danger. (Eph. 2:2). Therefore, the heart, the very centre of our being, is a uniting faculty and the proof of that, of course, I have already quoted, I Cor. 6:17, “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” And, of course, you can add to that the fact of the Holy Spirit—whenever the Holy Spirit is spoken of He is spoken of as a uniting Person. He always comes in, doesn’t He? Always He is the Indwelling Spirit. “The Spirit itself bears witness with our Spirit.” So you see what I am getting at. We are made for union. It may not interest you, but it does interest me to know that I have a strong foundation for recognizing that the very innate faculty of man, or function, or character of man’s innate self, is union. My inner ego is the thing which you like, against my body. So it is a picture where I can see all this union truth of Him Who is a Spirit, and I the marvel of grace; of the Creator and Redeemer’s Spirit with a created and redeemed spirit. My time is really up, but I want to take up one more thing so as to pick up again tomorrow. It’s a thing that struck me very much. I think I can prove it to you. I want to ask this tremendously important question, “What is the proportion in the relationship between the two spirits who are one? How much I, and how much He? In this union, this cooperation—I sometimes use the word “interpenetration,” I don’t know how to put it— spirits living in each other, touching each other, interpenetration, union, unity—yet we don’t lose our individuality, or personality. Now in that union and cooperation which makes us a “we” in grace, how much “I” is there, and how much “He”? Now that is most important, and that’s where the trouble lies. Too much I and too little He is the trouble.
IV. MAN MADE TO BE CONTAINER OF ETERNITY LIFE
Now I was struck with this, very struck. I never saw it before about 18 months ago, I should think. I don’t know if you know how you suddenly see things. When I state it to you now you may question it, but I don’t think you will question it when I go a little further into it.
Turn in your minds to the Genesis record—the record of the creation, the record of the making of man and the planting of him in the garden of Eden. This is what it says in Genesis 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Well, there we are. Man is alive. We all know that, a living soul. Now what puzzled and struck me was this. The next verse, Genesis 2:8, says, “And the Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man . . . .” Now then, Genesis 2:9, “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden . . . .” Therefore, the most important point about the whole garden was something unusual and magnificent, whatever it was, to the eye—the Tree of Life, not the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It then goes on to say, “and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” But the midst of the garden was occupied by the Tree of Life.
Now, I asked myself this question. Why has God in one verse said that He made man a perfect living soul, and two verses later gives them a Tree of Life? What did He need a Tree of Life for if He’s got a living soul? I suddenly saw: the living soul of man is only made to be a container, not a do-er. He’s only a container. His outer life is only one through which Another Life is to express Itself. The proof of that is this: what is the Tree of Life? We are told in Genesis 3, after the Fall, that the cherubim are put there to prevent Adam and Eve getting at the Tree of Life, eating and living forever—so the Tree of Life is eternal life. What’s eternal life? There’s only one Eternal Life—Him, Jesus. He is Eternal Life.
There’s only one Eternal Life. Therefore, the meaning of the Tree of Life was that Adam was to know that he was made to be a container of Jesus Christ, and his created spirit was to contain the Creator Spirit. In other words—this is the important point—the lesson Adam had to learn was his innate helplessness! Now, that’s tremendously important. Why? Because many of us, including myself anyhow, always regard it like this: “Well, Adam could have resisted temptation if he’d liked. He was innocent. He was good. The whole Fall of Adam is that he was tested and could have resisted but didn’t resist. In other words, a man can do a thing by himself. No, he can’t! Adam couldn’t resist the devil one second by himself. He wasn’t made to do it. What God was after was this: because we are sons of God, because we are intelligent creatures, we must do a thing intelligently and willingly. We aren’t automata. God doesn’t turn a tap and we squeak or something; we’re not like that. He wants fellows who do things understandingly, and desiringly, and of necessity, because they want to and love to do it. Therefore man had to discover his nature, and had to discover his need. And that’s why Adam never took one look at the Tree of Life, because he never discovered his need. And that’s our whole trouble. We never discover our need. What was the consequence? God knew Adam would be tempted. I can’t go back into the original ego. We can’t go into that now. But He knew Satan was going to come at him via the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and He warned him and said, “Now you mustn’t touch that; that would be disobedience.”
Now that was the point. If Adam had been sensitive at all when the temptation began to come to him and to Eve—when he began to find himself wanting to do something which this Perfect One Who had made him told him not to, wanting to doubt, wanting to deny and disobey this Perfect One—he would have said, “What’s up; what’s happened to me? I wanted to do a thing I shouldn’t do; what’s the matter, God?” God would have said “I give you permission to eat of the Tree of Life.” And if he had taken the counteracting Person into him, he would have sacked the power of the devil in a second, because that’s what He does with us.
What he needed to know was that he couldn’t resist temptation. Now, you see, unless you and I learn that lesson we’ll never learn the real lesson because the whole failure of our Christian life is the idea that we can do things, that we can conquer Satan, or conquer sin, or do anything. We’ve got to learn our basic helplessness, our basic inability.
You see, man was made helpless, not made helpless in the new creation, but made helpless in the old creation. He was originally made unable to do anything worth doing. “In my flesh dwelleth no good thing”—unable to do it. And that’s the lesson God tried to teach Adam. He never learnt it, and you never see that Adam took any notice of the Tree of Life. Out he went into the self-centred life—which is our problem—into the separated life, the egocentric life, which of course was derived from the other spirit, which got into him, who is the devilish ego, Satan.
V. CHRIST LIVED BY UNION
Now, the Second Adam, the Lord Jesus, was God manifest in the flesh. Now, of course, we cannot discern or divide into the exact relationship between deity and humanity. That’s never been known. I don’t suppose we ever shall know “this side” the exact balance. But for all purposes I need now, I want to see that Second Adam, as He was, a real man, in my place. He was God, but He was man in my place. We all know that because Peter said, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good.” Acts 10:38. Like a man, He was anointed with the Holy Ghost. He went about doing good.
Now, as a man, what does Jesus say about Himself? It absolutely proves my previous point. The only Gospel which reveals it to us is John. I think it is most interesting that the Gospel which magnifies the Deity of the Savior and the totality of His humanity—the two are both in the same Gospel. And in John we get those self-revelations which give the whole secret.
Now look at John 5. I’ll just give you three or four of them and then we’ll stop. They challenged Jesus on one of His mighty works. What does he say? John 5:19, “Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do”—the lesson Adam ought to have learnt. See? This is the Perfect Adam called the Last Adam. The Son, the Last Adam, cannot do a single thing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do. We’ll explain that in a minute. “But what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” Look at verse 30—they had challenged Him on opinions He expressed and judgements He gave—“I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge.” The opinions I give you aren’t mine at all. I’m hearing them and then giving them. I’m an empty vessel.
This is God manifest in the flesh. This is the perfect One become the perfect Man for our sins. He said, “I’m as empty as a drum; I’m as empty as a drum. I can do nothing of myself. I can hear nothing. I can say nothing by myself.” Look at John 7:16, “Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.” Now John 7:17, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” At John 8:28, “Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.” So it is exactly the same again.
Now let’s hurry on to the end and the most important thing of all. I want to direct your attention to what to my mind is the most important conversation ever held on earth. It was the first time in history that this great hidden secret, that mystery hidden from ages and generations, was revealed. It was in that last conversation held with His disciples before Gethsemane. Now as you know, He knew His disciples couldn’t get it because you can’t teach inner things except by inner light; and therefore until the inner Person, the Holy Spirit, came they couldn’t know these things. But He said, “I’m going to tell you certain things now and hammer them home to your head, so that when that One does come inwardly then you will say, ‘Oh yes, of course, that is what the Saviour taught us,’ so that you won’t think it is some new false doctrine come in. You say, ‘Oh, I remember now, it’s the very thing he said.’ That is why I’m telling you.” So at that time it could only come to external ears as more or less—who knows what?
But look what He said—and I think this is the most tremendous revelation ever made. The whole thing is fascinating, but I can’t go into it all. But look at John 14 for a moment, when He was attracting their attention to the fact that He was going to the Father: “In my father’s house are many mansions,” and so on. John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” All those things in themselves are wonderful, of course, and more in them than appears on the surface too. Now then, He got the question, which I think in a sense He was asking for. John 14:8, “Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Now it is obvious what he meant. He said, “Now look here, Saviour, you’ve been with us, we adore you, we love you, we’ve followed you all these years. You keep telling us you are sent by the Father and going back to the Father. Now what are we to do when you leave us? We have no proof of where you are or who you are or where you are going. What are we to do? If you would just open Heaven once, and let us see, then we can go to the world and say, ‘We know where He’s gone; we have seen Him!’ Just open Heaven once.” That’s common sense, what Philip meant.
What did Jesus say? John 14:9, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Now if you would stop there and look back after all our years, we could say, “He meant they were both Gods and the names were interchangeable. He said, If you see Me you see the Father. We are one person.” No, He didn’t mean that. Look at the next verse—here’s the key, John 14:10: “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” “Now,” He says, “I have shown you the secret. I told you not long ago that the Son does nothing but just what He seeth the Father do, whereas you thought perhaps I had some long distance telescope or something and I could see up there. No, no. I see inside here. I see what that One is doing in me and, as I see Him doing things, I do them along with Him.” That is what Christian work is, just doing what the Father is giving us to do. And He said, “I have told you that I only say the things I hear Him say, and you thought I had telescopic ears or something. But no, no, no. He lives here. I just listen for the voice, and as He speaks, I say—Union!
So do you see? The only perfect Adam Who never has fallen from His perfection lived by union. He knew two things. He knew His complete helplessness and His complete fulness by the Father. He knew His basic helplessness. “I can do nothing, hear nothing, say nothing. I am nothing. I am made like that. I am Adam.” Adam was made like that. The human spirit was made like that. But it could contain all divinity, and all diety. It could contain the Living God. And when the Living God condescends to join Himself to created spirits, things happen. Words are spoken, deeds are done, lives are lived which are God Himself coming out again. That’s the secret.
So you see what I’m saying? This is not a secret which came by redemption. It’s the secret which came by creation. Therefore—I want to get this over to you—there is no other way of living life. There is no other life. Eternal Life is union, and the other is not life. Therefore poor humanity that tries to suffer itself by its own wisdom is simply not life. It’s simply an illusion. Of course, the angels in hell were left like that because that’s what the devil is. The only life that is really life is a life lived by Another within us.
So you see we are only just beginning to crawl in our Christian life if all we know is justification by faith. Unless we have had imparted to us—not only in the head, but in the spirit, in the heart—a working union, we haven’t got there. This is the heart of life. This is the heart of the Gospel. The rest is only the gateway to the Gospel. We must understand that man has only been made like that, and can’t be anything else but that, an indwelt Person. And my, the devil is in you if God isn’t. He is the great deluder, but humanity doesn’t know that. The devil was in us when we were fallen. We didn’t know that, but that is another point. But in this union life, the only life there is, we are permanently joined. Now, owing to the consequences of the Fall, that union cannot take place in its fulness so easily as we might think. That is what we have got to look into. That’s this other problem. That’s where the Cross comes in, not so easily as we think because of all the contortions of the Fall and the effect they left on us. So we just don’t walk into this as easily as we think we do. It’s one thing to hear it and another thing to know it. And that is what we have got to talk on.
I am only going stage by stage. I haven’t taken you to any specific point tonight. Just opening up point by point till we get on to the heart of the matter. That is going to come perhaps tomorrow, perhaps the next day, as we move on. So may God just bless His word in its different manifestations to us day by day, through those precious words we are hearing in the mornings, and in the early morning prayer meeting I am sure too, and in the evenings. May God go on blessing. Amen.
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