HOW A DISCIPLE ADVANCES

THE METHOD OF ADVANCEMENT

            The subject of this article is not intended to suggest the idea that all the "preliminary lessons" with which the last article dealt are to be realized to the full, and that not till then progress may be made beyond. The thought is rather that of advancement in those first great lessons. They contain a statement of the full possibilities of character in these days of probation on this earth, and therefore it would be impossible to go beyond them in this respect. At the same time, it must be remembered that Jesus said very much beyond this to His disciples, giving them to know and understand many of the things of God that had to do with their ultimate destiny and the divine purposes for the race; and after all His teaching at the last He had to leave them, saying, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." The teaching of the first lessons is for the creation of that character, to which the deeper things of God become intelligible, and advancement in the understanding and realization of these fits us for receiving and understanding whatever else may be beyond. The consideration of this article includes both these things, though directed principally to the former. How, then, can we advance?

            1. RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE TEACHER MUST BE MAINTAINED. Failure to understand this is perhaps one of the subtlest dangers to which the disciple is exposed. The idea is common that at some set time, through some special season of blessing, one enters into right relationships with Him, and that therefore, through all the coming days, these relationships abide. It is absolutely false. There is nothing in all the realms of life more delicate, easier to interfere with than these relationships. As the most tremendous forces of which man knows anything are set in operation by simplest methods, and may be hindered by means equally simple, so in relation to this greatest of all forces — the cleansing and illuminating force of contact with Jesus. By the simple method of cessation of activity I come into living contact with it, and by a moment's self-assertion, I may hinder its working. Hence the need for living daily and hourly and every moment at the very place of beginnings, ever as a child depending upon Him, and ever as one of the weakest of those who love Him, abiding in Him.

            It is a glorious thing to know that my cleansing and illumination depend upon Him, and that the whole of my responsibility in this matter is marked by my maintaining personal relationship with Him. This, however, is unavoidable. Daily personal communion there must be, and the means of such, study of His Word, waiting upon Him in prayer, the cultivation of close fellowship, by telling Him everything — joys as well as sorrows — and the periods of silence in which the soul simply waits and listens in the stillness for His voice as Adam in his early days, these cannot be neglected without a film, a veil, a cloud, a darkness coming between the soul and Himself, and so hindering the possibility of advancement as in Adam’s later days.

            All this specially needs emphasizing in an age, characterized by its rush and unrest, its loss of the old spirit of meditation and quiet, a characterization that applies to Christendom today as evidenced by over-organization, never ceasing rounds of societies, meetings, doings, and the lessening of the seasons of retirement and true worship. Personal relationship cannot be maintained in crowds. The Master and I alone, must be a perpetual need, and for its realization opportunity must be made as Adam in the cool of the day, every day.

            2. THE TRUTH TAUGHT MUST BECOME INCARNATE IN THE DISCIPLES. As we insisted at the outset, discipleship is not a condition for amassing information. Every doctrine has its issue in some clearly defined duty; every theory taught reveals a practical application and responsibility. To the soul in right relationship with the Teacher, He reveals some new aspect of truth, and straightway there occurs some circumstance in which that doctrine may be tested by duty; and as we are most real in ordinary circumstances, ­our true selves appearing then, rather than in the heroic and extraordinary days of life, — it is in the simple and commonplace experiences that these testing places are mostly to be found. All the circumstances and surroundings of the disciples are in the hands of the Supreme Lord who teaches, and these He manipulates and arranges for the purpose of the advancement and development of His own. This is a great comfort. He knows the capacity and weakness and strength of everyone in His school, and His examinations do not consist in a common testing for a common standard, and so are not competitive. They are rather individual, special care being taken with each one, and Peter will learn the utmost lesson of love with John, but the opportunity for manifesting it as a force in life will be separate and special in each case.

            Now, advancement is dependent always on our obedience in these hours of testing, in our manifesting in actual practice the power of the truth we have heard in theory. No lesson is considered learned in the school of Jesus, which is only committed to memory. That lesson only is learned which is embodied in the life, and becomes beautiful in its realization and declaration in that way; and until this is so there can be no progress. "If any man willed' to do his will, he shall know of the teaching" (John 7:17). This is so, because the teaching of Jesus is cumulative and progressive. To attempt to learn the lessons of tomorrow without knowledge of todays would be the utmost foolishness. Just as no boy can intelligently do a problem in geometry until he knows the definitions and accepts reasonably the axioms, and takes each successive step to the one in hand, so surely no disciple can possibly make progress in the truth of God, except as the first steps are taken. You cannot leave first principles and go on unto perfection, unless these first things have become principles, and not merely theories.

            Here we touch the secret of much of the failure in Christian living today. The powerlessness in service  the unattractiveness in life, what do they mean? Has the system of Jesus failed in these lives? Have the great lessons He came to teach humanity broken down in their application to human life? Take any single example — it may be that of your own experience. When you first became a disciple, your days were days of delight and joy, the words and will of the Master thrilled and comforted you, and you walked in His ways with a joy and gladness that filled the days with song. The people you touched in daily life saw the beauty of Jesus in you. Gentle, long-suffering, strong and pure, you internalize His lessons, and your heart was glad, and other lives were influenced God-ward  All has changed. Prayer is a duty. The Scriptures are dull and burdensome. You have no quick sense of the Lord's will. Your Christianity has become a restriction through which you would like to break, an encumbrance of which you would gladly be rid. These are confessions you never make, but they tell the true inner story of your life. Now what does this really mean? Just this. Somewhere back in the past you will find a day when the Teacher gave you some new vision of truth that straightway revealed an opportunity for you to know the glory of that truth in the pathway of obedience.   Something to be given up. Something to be done. Some word to be said. You paused, argued, disobeyed. No other lesson has been given, nor can be. All that follows depended upon that. That was not final. It was preparatory, and until that is learned by obedience there can be no advancement, and so for weeks, perhaps months, and, even years, you have been a disciple making no progress, and there is no wonder that you are weary of it all.

            The Teacher's love is marked in your case by His fidelity to Himself and His own lessons. Time after time, in meetings, in conversations, in loneliness, He brings you back to that old point, and reiterates with persistence and a patience passing all human understanding: "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching."

            3. ADVANCEMENT CAN ONLY BE WITHIN THE LIMIT OF DIVINE PURPOSE. While it is true that God has for an ultimate purpose, some place of high service on down the road of life, and out of sight, a glory and fruition beyond these days of learning and probation here on earth, a being and a doing for which all the teaching and discipline of today are preparing us, it is also true that, as part of His great progressive movement, He has an immediate purpose in every life, something for us to accomplish for Him here and now. It is today we are workers together with Him. There is no waste of time or material in the divine methods. Every step He takes us, every word He speaks to us, every testing He permits us, contributes something toward the development and progress of all. Joseph sold into slavery, David exiled from his kingdom, Job crouching under the whirlwind, Paul bearing the buffeting of Satan's messenger, and all are examples. These experiences were dark and mysterious for the time, and while they formed part of the individual training of these men, they were also in each case a necessary part of the divine dealing with the larger circle. At the time, the principal consciousness was that of limitation, and consequent longing for larger revelation  but at last they all came to understand that for the sake of others they suffered and bore, and that was to them more than compensation for all the restriction and waiting. There are many things we know not now because the greater issues would be hindered by our knowing. So what is best, the Teacher holds in reserve, that we may moment by moment bear our share in this march of God to ultimate triumph and light.

            This section of this article is a most solemn one. So many disciples in name have ceased to be taught of Jesus, and we are all in such perpetual danger of slipping out of the real circle of discipleship, that we ought to ask ourselves the questions suggested by these three points on the subject of advancement. These questions should be asked regularly and always in the hour of loneliness with the Master.

            1. Am I in right relationship with the Teacher today? Have I talked with Him today? What was He teaching me that I had read in His word Am I still living at the cross and know the power of its cleansing moment by moment, and so am I walking in the light, without which all the words of Jesus are dark sayings, and His testing, crosses, burdens out of which I can only gather reasons for murmuring?

            2. If I am not in this place of maintained fellowship  where did I depart therefrom? What word of His have I disobeyed? To that point let me return, whether it be but an hour ago, or years, and there let me absolutely surrender, at whatever cost, and do what He requires, however small, or however irksome it appears to be.

            3. Am I content to wait when His voice does not speak — and I cannot find the reason in myself — until He has accomplished His present purpose in me, even though I understand it not just now?

            With matchless patience and pity, and tender love beyond all attempts at explanation, this Teacher waits, and stoops, and woos us, and ever for our highest good and deepest peace. Let us then, by consecrated watching, maintain the attitude of advancement  and so, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, as we are able to bear, He will lead us on, until we come to the perfect light and life and love of God.