by T. Austin-Sparks
Beloved of the Lord,
Our first issue under the new title, "A Witness and a Testimony"
has met with a wide and encouraging appreciation. We rejoice in
the larger prayer co-operation this must mean, and for the
larger vision it must bring to us.
When Paul complained, "all seek their own, not the things which
are Jesus Christ's," he referred not to a material selfishness,
but probably to that absorption in their own particular
spiritual (sic) interests to which some very earnest people are
prone. Perish the parishes! "The field is the world." We all
need to smash the glass-houses in which we so carefully cherish
our favourite cultures of heart and mind. These would thrive the
more healthfully were they in the free Wind of God. "Awake, O
north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden".
Others we see, it may be, through our glass windows; but we do
not breathe the same air. And this is the great necessity for
the Day of His coming. We must breathe the same air: drink of
One Spirit: be united to the One Head; confederate, because
corporate, for the One tremendous issue. For wherever we be
scattered, we are members of One Body, and therefore of one
another.
So while we entrench for the Lord in our own especial bit of
service, let us listen to His trumpet-call as it peals o'er all
the field. Yes, we must have this hearing, and this vocation of
a world-wide interest for universal prayer for it is in such a
fellowship with all saints that we shall hear "the trump of
God."
Yours in the One and Only Fellowship of the Spirit, that with
the Father, and with the Son.
T. AUSTIN-SPARKS.
T. MADOC JEFFREYS.
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