A Breach In The Wall

The Breaches In The Wall

Isaiah 22:5-14

This passage depicts a night day in the history of Jerusalem . Information technology was "a day of trouble" and "perplexity." The walls of the city were broken down and the enemy was "at the gate." The inhabitants of Jerusalem saw their choice valleys filled with chariots, and the horsemen of their enemy at the gate. To defend themselves they looked "to the armour of the house of the wood ." They saw also "the breaches of the urban center of David ," and fabricated the about desperate efforts to end the breaches, even breaking down the houses to fortify the walls.

Alas, in the day of their trouble, they missed the mind of the Lord, and this in a threefold way.

Start, they entirely failed to run across that the "trouble" and "perplexity"- the enemy at the gate and the breaches in the wall - were "past" or "from the Lord God of Hosts." They overlooked the first great cause of all their problem and, looking merely at 2d causes, could only see that an enemy had made the breaches. They did not come across that the Lord was behind all, and that, in His righteous judgment He had allowed the enemies of Israel to make the breaches in the wall because of their sin and folly.

Secondly, though they made the most strenuous efforts to repair the breaches, yet, in their problem and perplexity, they did not await to the Lord. The Lord has to say, "Thou didst look in that day to the armour"... "but ye have non looked unto the Maker thereof, neither had respect unto Him, that fashioned information technology long ago."

Thirdly, the Lord chosen "to weeping and to mourning," and instead they abandoned themselves to feasting and drinking, for they said, "Let u.s.a. eat and drink for tomorrow nosotros die." They pursued their course, every bit if all would be well, with utter indifference as to results and without a thought equally to the future.

In this, the close of the Christian dispensation, the people of God again find themselves in "a mean solar day of trouble" and "perplexity," according to that word which tells united states of america "in the last days difficult times shall come up." We may truly say the enemy is at the gate e'er seeking to break up and besprinkle the people of God, and our hands are weakened for resisting the enemy by reason of the breaches in the wall. Hence the words of the prophet still carry with them alert, every bit well equally guidance, for those who are in a like condition, and who have ears to hear, for "whatever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that nosotros through endurance and encouragement of the scriptures might have hope."

Earlier, all the same, we seek to apply the lessons of Isaiah 22, information technology may be well to take a general view of the status in which the people of God detect themselves to-day, and the distinct activities of the Spirit of God during the by four centuries. In this period in that location accept been, we judge,

THREE GREAT MOVEMENTS of the SPIRIT of GOD

First, no true laic can e'er cease to thank God for that mighty piece of work of the Spirit in the early office of the sixteenth century past which we have gained an open Bible in a language to be understood, and the general cognition of gospel truths by which the soul is saved and established in its individual relationships with God. The peace and religious liberty nosotros bask to-mean solar day, we owe, under the good hand of God, to that noble band of reformers who in the face up of deadly opposition, proclaimed the truths which in many cases price them suffering, persecution, and a martyr's expiry.

Nosotros must non, however, make the Reformation the measure of divine truth. The motility, in the hands of men, essentially took a reforming grapheme. Information technology left believers associated together in reformed churches, merely it in nowise attempted to gather believers after the blueprint of the primitive Church. Indeed the question of the true nature and graphic symbol of the Church was never directly raised past the Reformers. The Church building was non in whatever true sense separated from the world; on the contrary, the reformation placed the Church building, in general, under subjection to the State in order to free it from subjection to the Pope. The movement did not requite Christ His identify, in heaven, as the Head of the Church which is His torso, nor did it give the Holy Spirit His place on earth as dwelling in and with believers equally the House of God. National churches were instituted and, every bit it has been truly said, "Churches finding their limits in the circumference of the countries inhabited past those of whom they formed part, is that which the Give-and-take of God makes not the to the lowest degree allusion to. Such Churches cannot either in fact or in amore be the Helpmate of Christ. They are necessarily in relation with the country wherein they are formed. The unity of the trunk of Christ is lost to them."

With the nationalisation of Churches there rapidly set in the disuse of vital power. The name and doctrines of Christianity were still adhered to as a creed, to which the natural man could subscribe, but only a few names left in the book of life (Rev. 3: 5). The great reformation movement has resulted in a vast number that profess Christ with insufficiently few that take life in Christ. The movement which, in the power of God, commenced so brightly soon degenerated in the hands of men, into a system of orthodox profession of which the Lord has to say, "Thou hast a proper noun that grand livest, and art expressionless."

A second great movement

At the dawn of the eighteenth century this lifeless profession had reached its deepest depths of darkness and decline. "Natural theology without a single distinctive doctrine of Christianity, common cold morality, or barren orthodoxy, formed the staple didactics both in church building and chapel. Sermons everywhere were little better than miserable moral essays utterly devoid of anything likely to awaken, convert, or save souls." But when all was at the worst there was amongst English speaking races, in the early on function of the eighteenth century a second great movement of the Spirit of God, who wrought in mighty saving ability. Evangelists were raised upwards to proclaim the glad tidings. Whitfield, Wesley, Grimshaw, Berridge and very many other earnest and devoted servants of the Lord went throughout the land warning sinners of judgment to come up, arousing consciences to a sense of need, and bringing relief and conservancy to thousands upon thousands through the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. We may truly thank God for this devoted band of preachers without shutting our eyes to the weakness of the movement in the hands of men. Information technology is manifest that at its all-time it did not become beyond a gospel that aims to come across the need of man. It stopped brusque of that fuller gospel preached by the Campaigner Paul that, entirely setting aside man in the flesh, links the believer with Christ in the glory, thus constituting the Christian a heavenly man. It brought approving to the sinner, but left him in the world with the idea of making it a better and a brighter place. The result has been that worldliness, ecclesiastical and political, has become a prominent characteristic of the evangelical movement. In the sincere desire to accomplish the masses, every endeavour has been made to popularise the truth and arrive more or less attractive to the natural heed. Every effort has been made to impress the natural man by the assistance of music and other human ways. Hence the levity, and oftentimes even vulgarity, that so largely disfigures this movement in the present day. Moreover, another groovy weakness of the move is its individualism. Its corking aim and stop is the blessing of individuals; it presents no true formulation of the Church whether in its formation, its present administration or its future celebrity. All these essential truths of Christianity are entirely outside the telescopic of the Evangelical movement. Souls are truly converted, for which we may thank God, merely the movement as such leaves the converted souls in the various religious systems of men.

A third movement

Coming now to the early function of the nineteenth century we find a 3rd movement of the Spirit of God. Between 1829 and 1830 a few devoted Christians in Dublin seceded from the established Church and met together, at start in a private way, to remember the Lord in the breaking of bread and for prayer and study of the Word. Very shortly, in unlike parts of the United Kingdom, others separated from the National Church building and contained bodies, and met together in a similar way in simple faith in God without any human leadership. Taking the Scriptures every bit their only and sufficient authority and in dependence upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they speedily learned the neat truths apropos "Christ and the Church building" which had been lost to the Lord's people from the days of the apostles. They realized that Christ is the Head of the Church, and that all believers are members of one Body on earth united to the Caput in heaven, and to one another, past the Holy Spirit. Having thus discovered the neat fundamental truth of the dispensation, at once every other truth received a fuller and deeper meaning. The gospel was seen and preached in its fulness. The prophetic Scriptures were opened up more than fully and the coming of the Lord was seen to be the immediate hope of the Church. In connexion with the revival of these truths there was a corresponding life of "good works" and separation from every form of worldliness.

It is, however, of the first importance to run across the distinctive character of this move. It was essentially a separative movement. Hitherto the true people of God had been held captive in the great religious systems of men whether Papal, National, or Nonconformist. Though converted they remained in these religious systems. Now, for the first time, big numbers were set gratis from the chains of these man-fabricated systems. The reason of this separating action of tbe Spirit of God is articulate. The moment had at final come when God, in His mercy, was about to revive the truth concerning Christ and His Church. Anyone instructed, according to Scripture, will at once run into that it was impossible to remain in connection with the systems of men, and, at the same time, agree and practice the truths concerning the Church whether viewed as the body of Christ or the Business firm of God. It was indeed equally with Israel of sometime; when the moment came to rebuild the House of God, information technology became an absolute necessity to set costless a remnant of State of israel from the mass of the nation in captivity, and bring them back to the Land, the truthful ground for God's people in that day.

Moreover, as with Israel of sometime the adversary attacked, both by subtlety and open up hostility, the petty remnant that sought to build the House of the Lord, so the enemy set up to work to mar the testimony of those who were once again seeking to walk according to the principles of the Business firm of God. Alas! he has so far succeeded that this little remnant of God's people, who were one time united in the truth, have by numerous divisions, been scattered and broken up into various companies. What then we may ask has been

THE CAUSE OF DIVISIONS?

We may well ask ourselves how is information technology that the enemy has been allowed to bring about these disastrous divisions amidst this piddling remnant of God'south people? In order to understand the underlying causes of sectionalisation allow usa remember there are two great facts on which hang all the distinguishing truths of Christianity which were recovered past this last movement of God.

First that Christ is seated as Son of Man in the glory of God;
second that the Holy Spirit equally a Divine Person is habitation in and with believers on the earth. Nosotros do not forget that every blessing enjoyed by the saints in this dispensation, also as in the past and in the future, is secured past the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, just the particular blessings which vest exclusively to Christianity are secured by these ii immense facts, only true in this dispensation, that there is a Man in the highest place in glory, and a Divine Person on earth. By the Holy Spirit believers on world have been united to i another to grade that mystic body of which Christ in heaven is the Caput.
Then, equally we take already seen, these truths, and all that they involve, tin merely be known in ability by those who have taken a identify in separation from the peachy religious systems of men which, by their constitution, their education and their practise, are a denial of the truth of the Church as unfolded in Scripture.

In the low-cal of these truths we estimate the root causes of all divisions volition exist found to lie in three solemn facts:-

1st. Nosotros have failed to walk in the Spirit.

2d. Nosotros have not held the Head.

3rd. Nosotros have not maintained that holy separation without which information technology is impossible to act in accordance with these truths.

This, withal, calls for farther explanation. The move of the final century to which nosotros have referred was essentially a spiritual motility. The return, in whatsoever measure, to the principles and practice of the keen truths of the Assembly, every bit unfolded in the epistles, was a return to ground on which there was no room for the activity and devices of religious flesh. Information technology was ground which, being divine, could only exist taken and maintained in the power of the Spirit. Nosotros cannot read the early capacity of the Acts without being struck by the fact that the Church on earth was not only formed by the Holy Spirit, simply was maintained by men who were filled with the Holy Spirit, and interim in the power of the Spirit by spiritual means. On the solar day of Pentecost the disciples were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues every bit the Spirit gave them utterance. Brought before the rulers, Peter is filled with the Spirit when he confounds his opponents. Subsequently we read "they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the give-and-take of God with boldness." To meet the temporal needs of believers, men were appointed total of the Holy Ghost. The adversaries of Stephen could not resist the Spirit by which he spoke, and at his martyrdom "he being filled with the Holy Spirit looked up stedfastly into sky, and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the correct hand of God."

From this rapid survey of these early scenes it is manifest that whether it was the formation of the Church, or the maintenance of the Church building against the attacks of the enemy; whether it was preaching to sinners or ministering to the saints, all was one in the power of the Holy Spirit, and past men who were filled with the Spirit. There was an unabridged absence of all the religious machinery and carnal methods by which the varied religious systems of today seek to conduct their services and retain their hold on the people.

It must be plain that if all were walking in the Spirit, nosotros should be perfectly joined together, in the aforementioned heed and in the same judgment. There would be no occasion for a divided judgment. There may indeed be unlike apprehensions of divine truth,-some see farther than others, - only if controlled by the aforementioned Spirit all wait in the same direction. There may be dissimilar views of the same object even as the gospels present unlike views of the life of Christ yet all are in perfect accord because presented by the aforementioned Spirit. (i Cor. 12: four, 8, ix, xi).

What and then is the crusade of strife and divisions? Does information technology not prevarication in the fact that in the Christian in that location are ii opposing powers, the mankind and the Spirit, and these are contrary the one to the other. To be in agreement with one another we must exist controlled by the same ability. If two Christians are controlled past the Holy Spirit they will be in accord. If both are controlled past the flesh they may be in accord. But if 1 is controlled by the Spirit and the other past the flesh there must be conflict, for "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." At that place must exist strife when the flesh and the Spirit come into standoff whether it be in an individual or in a visitor (Gal. 5: 17).

At present the move to which we have referred called for and necessitated a spirituality for which the mass were not prepared. Then information technology came to pass with the increase of numbers there was a decrease of spirituality. The flesh acted and fleshly methods crept in with the upshot that at that place was collision between those seeking to walk together in the line of the Spirit and those interim in a more fleshly way. Information technology has been truly said "the more we investigate, the better we shall see that the cause of strife generally between any ii Christians is, that one has allowed human considerations of some kind to sway him, while the other, with a more unmarried centre, considers for the Lord just."

Here so lies 1 great root cause of all divisions. We have not walked, nor held the truth, in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit; nor submitted to His guidance and control, with the result that there has been the increasing intrusion of the flesh, and its methods, leading to countless strife, confusion and division.

There is, notwithstanding, as we have said, another great crusade of divisions; we have non held the Head. One has said "while we take theorised most Christ every bit Head (and consequently equally our Resource, instead of the machinery of the denominations) we have never known how to use Him when difficulty has come up in. Where we should have referred the matter to Him, and waited for His solution, there has been the impatience and zeal of the flesh that would put along its hand for the steadying of the Ark with the resultant smiting from the hand of the Lord." We accept held the truth of the Head, nosotros would accept died for the truth, and nevertheless all the fourth dimension it may be, we have non held the Head. To hold the truth of the Head is merely to concord the doctrine, then far correct; just to hold the Head is to plough to the One who is the Head and utilize the resources that are in Him as the Head. We have fabricated the mistake of looking for power and wisdom and guidance in the Church and our conceptions of it; and thus in our difficulties and perplexities we have looked to teachers, leaders, and gifted men in the Church building, rather than to the One who is the Head of the Church and in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead. We have not turned to Him and spread out earlier Him all our difficulties and differences of judgment. With a measure out of knowledge of divine principles nosotros have assumed competency to apply these principles in the difficulties that have arisen, forgetting that however correct our principles they can just be rightly practical under the direction, and by the wisdom and perfect cognition of the Head. We take discussed difficulties amid ourselves, and trusted in men rather than in Christ the Head; with the event that nosotros have been left very largely to our own devices. Equally nosotros read of the godly Hezekiah, there came a moment in his history when "God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his middle" (two Chron. 32: 31). Nosotros have failed to hold the Head and we have been "left" to do what is correct in our own eyes, and the upshot has been sorrow upon sorrow and division upon sectionalisation.

Moreover, have we not failed in the maintenance of that holy separation which in the beginning was such a prominent marker of this spiritual motility, and without which all else is in vain? In the history of the remnant who returned from the captivity to build the house of the Lord, the first assail of the enemy was an effort to break downwards their holy separation by the endeavour to grade an unequal brotherhood to do the piece of work of the Lord (Ezra 4: ii). So also in regard to those who, in obedience to the Give-and-take, have gone along from the bang-up religious systems which have been formed past sincere men after the pattern of the Camp (Heb. 13: xiii), has there not been a abiding endeavor by the enemy to entangle them again in these systems, and thus lead them to surrender or nullify the dandy truths concerning Christ and the Church building which can only exist held and enjoyed past a separated people? As we have seen with the remnant in the days of Ezra, the plea of service to the Lord'due south people and furthering the Lord's work, has been constantly advanced in order to justify a return to, or service in connectedness with, these corrupt religious systems in which so many of God'southward love people are held in bondage. Those caught by this snare forget that the measure out of our preparation for the Principal'southward use is the mensurate of our separation from all that is reverse to the Lord outwardly and inwardly (2 Tim. 2: 19-22). We do well to remember that if we have separated from these systems in spite of true people of God beingness in them, information technology cannot exist right to render to these systems because they are there. Furthermore, nosotros must not forget that the Lord knows full well how to care for His beloved sheep wherever they may be found, and that He volition not let them endure because nosotros, in obedience to His word and faithfulness to Himself, reject to go back to the systems in which they may be found.

These then are, we believe, the dandy root causes of sectionalization - we have not maintained separation - we have non walked in the Spirit - we accept non held the Head. Moreover, a little thought will testify that the root causes of the divisions that have marred this terminal great motion of the Spirit of God, are the aforementioned causes that brought all the ruin into the early Church building. The practical setting aside of the Holy Spirit by fleshly expedients, the absolute ignoring of the Church's Caput in heaven by setting up a visible head on earth, and the formation of unholy alliances with the world, are the outstanding sins of Christendom, which have involved the ruin of the Church on earth and are leading to the final apostacy. As we have seen, the Spirit of God, in the last century, led a swell number of the people of God to separate from the systems of men to walk in the low-cal of the truth as taught in the epistles, and maintained in the Church at the kickoff; but, alas, very soon in that location came breakdown in practice by falling into the failures of the Church in its early on days, when information technology departed from first love and allowed the globe a place inside. The consequence is, as with Israel of old, the enemy is at the gate and there are breaches in the wall.

EFFORTS TO HEAL THE BREACHES

Like Israel of old many have fallen into the snare (that looks then commendable and plausible) of endeavouring to heal the breaches past human efforts and human expedients. These efforts have taken two forms.

First, an effort has been made to heal the breaches by leaders in different sections of brethren conferring together in the hope of removing difficulties and coming to some understanding.

2d, an effort has been fabricated, and is nevertheless being made, on the role of more or less gifted individuals to bring virtually healing by ministering in meetings where they would not or could not break bread.

Both are the worldly methods adopted by the religious globe with the hope of removing the scandal of the great religious sects, and of arriving at some course of religious unity. The 1 past ecclesiastical conferences and the other by exchange of pulpits. Seeing the truthful grapheme of these methods, as existence merely human expedients savouring of the world and its principles, there can be little wonder that both have signally failed.

The reason of this failure is fairly obvious. Equally to the first method - the attempt to stop the breaches past fashion of briefing - it must be clear that if any healing could be accomplished on the ground of a few leading brothers having settled their differences it could hardly exist anything simply an affiliation of parties which would prepare bated the great principles of the Church building of God, and leave the consciences of the mass totally unexercised. Moreover, such conferences have been almost wholly occupied with discussing details of doctrines and practices in the past which were believed to be the master crusade of these divisions. The inevitable result has been that each sought to justify his ain position. In a discussion, these conferences were concerned with 2nd causes rather than with the bang-up first causes of division to which we take already referred. Occupied with 2d causes information technology is easy to find much that is right, and much that is wrong, on all sides. Occupied with first causes we should accept found in our common failure a common ground of confession earlier the Lord.

As to the second method - certain brothers essaying to government minister where they cannot break bread - it may well be advanced that to associate in preaching and ministry with those with whom I cannot identify myself in the breaking of bread in their community is to identify the need of man, and the care of saints, on a college plane than the glory of Christ. If some solemn affair has arisen which prevents my having fellowship with saints in the highest and holiest of Christian privileges, how can I consistently have fellowship with them in service? To ignore the higher claim while endeavouring to conduct out the lower is surely putting a slight upon Christ. Moreover, those who act upon this principle are generally, sooner or later, drawn back into the cracking systems of men from which they formerly separated, under the plea of helping the Lord's people in these systems. They ask, "What damage is at that place in joining in the work of the Lord with those with whom nosotros cannot break breadstuff?" Only it is non long before such reverse their question and, with every show of reason, ask, "Why not suspension breadstuff with those with whom we work?" The result being that such slip back into the worldly religious systems from which they had nominally separated. They may plead it is a affair of service, and to their own Principal they stand up and fall. This may exist said in all sincerity, but too often we fear, maybe unconsciously, the Lord's holy name is being used to embrace the solemn fact that they are doing what is right in their ain eyes. Alas! how many names can be recalled of those who, under the plea of wider service and greater usefulness, have abandoned the path of separation and have been lured back into the great systems of corrupt Christendom, or into a wider and more conscienceless association with representatives of every organization, while claiming that they do not belong to whatsoever. Such are at present edifice again the things that once they destroyed. They picayune idea to go the lengths that they have gone, only, starting on an inclined airplane they found circumstances too powerful for them. This is because such take confused "testimony" with "fellowship." It is indeed our privilege to testify the truth to saints and sinners, but if we are to remain faithful to the truth and to the Lord, it must be autonomously from all fellowship with the systems m which many of the saints may exist plant; otherwise we shall drop into a class of "independency" and self-will which on the function of some fifty-fifty gifted men, has caused so much distress and confusion among the Lord's people.

Thus we fearfulness that both these efforts to stop the breaches accept not just signally failed, but. worse, they have tended to further besprinkle the Lord'due south people, have accentuated their differences, and enlarged the very breaches that they desired to stop. Like Israel of old, they take broken down houses to build upwards breaches. If and then all these efforts have failed, information technology may well exist asked

WHAT ARE Nosotros TO DO IN THE PRESENCE OF DIVISIONS?

In the first place we must ever call back that if "brethren" so-called had never divided, or if, past some miracle of grace, they were all together again, they would nevertheless exist but a little remnant. The Church would withal be cleaved and ruined. The mere coming together once more of brethren would very well content many, only would it content the Lord? Viewing things from our standpoint our vision becomes contracted, our interests limited, and our affections cramped. Did nosotros but come across things from the Lord'south standpoint we should feel more deeply the condition of the whole Church building, and our part with it in all the evil and confusion that has come up into the house of God through our failure in responsibleness.

However, just as the remnant in Haggai's day, though forming part of all Israel, were distinguished from their brethren in captivity, and had special messages from the Lord, and were dealt with in a special way by the Lord, and then may nosotros not say that those in our day, who accept received the light of the Church, and seek to walk co-ordinate to this light, are in a place of special privilege with special responsibilities, though united with all Christians to form the house of God, and sharing in the ruin of that house?

With this reminder, permit us confine our thoughts, for the moment, to the divisions among those called "Brethren." Once again we ask, does Scripture requite us any calorie-free every bit to what is the correct form to pursue in the presence of these divisions? Doubtless many Scriptures comprise principles that will guide united states, and amongst others may nosotros not say that the passage we take quoted from the prophet Isaiah, has great instruction for us in the presence of our failure, as indeed it had for Israel in the 24-hour interval of their failure?

We have seen that the prophet reproaches Israel in the day of their perplexity with not discerning the hand of the Lord in all their troubles. If the enemy was at the gate, if in that location were breaches in the walls, they failed to see that it was "past" or "from the Lord." First and so, learning by their failure, let us unreservedly own that because of our folly the hand of the Lord is upon us in subject. In the address to Laodicea, presenting the terminal stage of the professing Church on world under the gaze of the Lord, He sees on the 1 paw the great mass of unreal profession which He is nearly to spue out of His mouth: on the other manus He sees His own - those whom He loves - and such He chastens. Has not the twenty-four hour period come when we either vest to those who are loathed and spued out of His rima oris, or to those who are loved and chastened by His paw? Looking beyond all 2nd causes which may instrumentally have brought virtually division, allow us see clearly, and definitely admit, that because of our failure these breaches are "from the Lord." It is not that, past so speaking, we charge the Lord with our sin and failure merely behind all these troubles and because of our sin and failure, we see the manus of the Lord. No one would charge the Lord with the sin of stirring up strife among the Lord's people, and yet considering of the low status of the Ezra remnant the Lord says, "I set all men everyone against his neighbour" (Zech. 8: 9, 10). Moreover, if nosotros are broken and divided nether the chastening of the Lord information technology behoves united states to beware lest we "despise" the chastening of the Lord on the ane manus, or " faint" under information technology on the other. To say, equally some do, "Divisions are all wrong and therefore we ignore them, and government minister, or even interruption bread, wherever we can" is to ignore the fact that divisions be under the chastening of the Lord, in a discussion, to despise His chastening - an intensely solemn thing. On the other hand to surrender divine principles and abandon the path of separation because of our failure, is to "faint" under the chastening of the Lord. Nosotros have been besides apt to view division in relation to our brethren and the way they have treated us, or we have treated them, rather than view them in relation to the Lord and the fashion we accept treated Him. We have said, "We are divided because and then-and-and so did a wrong deed or propounded a wrong doctrine," instead of saying, "We are divided because we take failed to give Christ His identify as Head in whom is all the fulness of the Godhead, all power and all wisdom for every possible difficulty that could arise in the history of the Church building." The Lord has allowed us to discover that it is much easier to divide than to come together again.

Secondly, we accept seen that in the day of Israel 's problem and perplexity they made efforts to stop the breaches, and they looked to their armour, just they did not look unto the Lord. Hither surely we have another great lesson - not only let us ain that all that has come up upon us is "from the Lord," but, abandoning our own puny efforts to stop the breaches, let the states whole - heartedly turn to the Lord. The signal of departure must of necessity be the point of recovery. Equally nosotros have seen, "Non holding the Head" was the point of departure, to turn to the Head, as our all-sufficient resources is the manner of recovery. It should securely bear upon united states of america that the very Ane we have and so deeply wronged - whom nosotros have slighted and grieved - is the just I to whom we can plow in our sin and shame. It is far easier to set to work to repair the breaches than to bow earlier the Lord in confession of the sin.