So, from the individual it moves out. It is not just something wrapped up with me, but my concern and my business is to see that the church of God comes into it so far as it is possible by my instrumentality. That means not only that I am standing for the testimony as an individual, but I am standing for the church. This is not only an individual matter, but I have got the church on my heart in this matter.

You can see how true that was of John, how true that was of Paul, how true it was of all here, that their stand was to be reproduced in the people of God. That would take us back to the beginning because John's is a recall to what was made so evidently the Lord's intention at the beginning. There is no doubt about it. You begin the history of the church in the book of the Acts with the testimony of Jesus in fulness, in glory. It was a wonderful thing then. Life - oh, what Life! And what that Life was leading to and resulting in, because of the very divine vitality in the church then. How much happened within their own compass, amongst themselves, and what it led them to: loss of self-interest, earthly interest, worldly interest. And what a lot happened in the world because of that. Yes, it is a mighty testimony. But, by the time John is in Patmos, loss has been sustained, declension has taken place, and it is a call back. He is standing now not for the establishment in the first place of the testimony, but the recovery of it amongst the Lord's people. He is committed to that, but he knows, as we know, what the Lord wanted, because there it was, there was that testimony in real expression originally constituted by the risen Lord Himself through the Holy Spirit and on the principle of Life. It was not bringing in some great organization to propagate some truths. It was the bringing of a great organism to propagate a Life. There is a lot of difference between those two things. To propagate a Life - thus was it constituted and that was what it fulfilled in the beginning.

Things which are Necessary for the Triumph of the Testimony

But that Life became the subject and the object of a tremendous battle and necessitated a deep and continuous work. And so the rest of the New Testament, or the days of the book of the Acts, (that is, the beginning of the book of the Acts on to the Revelation) is a presentation of those things which have to be taken account of in order that this testimony shall fully triumph. And I want very briefly and concisely to point out some of those things without necessarily taking you to the Scriptures. I leave you with your New Testament to verify what I am going to say.