p470 [E R Storey] MY DEAR BROTHER, - There is no doubt but Edom is the special object of judgment in the last days; but the passages you quote refer to the time when Israel will be in their land, and the Lord has come down to judgment. Though Ezekiel 35 refers directly to the time of the Babylonish captivity, when Edom who was rival of Jacob rejoiced cruelly in the desolation of Jerusalem. Though it go on to the final desolation of Mount Seir, Isaiah 63 is clearly Christ's personal coming. Isaiah 34 is equally entirely at the end. You can look at Psalm 83 for the conspiracy that leads to this final judgment. Genesis 36 is merely the original historical condition of Esau. That Russia's possession of Togarmah, or north-eastern Asia Minor, will help her on to Palestine I do not doubt, and I suppose that is doing now, though I do not see the newspapers, and do not know how they have settled it. …

I have no doubt the Lord is leading you in the right way; He always does, He may stop us if we go our own, but He makes all things work together for good to them that love Him. I have no doubt your lying aside a while for your family will be a blessing, and mature you in your own soul for work. Do not lose sight of work, however. Wait patiently till God opens the way, but keep it in view. It is all right you should support your family. It is God's way, too, to set people aside after their first start, that self-confidence may die down. Thus Moses was forty years. On his first start he had to run away. Paul was three years also, after his first testimony, before he entered on his work as sent. Not that God did not approve the first earnest testimony. In both cases He did, but we see how Moses, at any rate, carried much of the flesh with him into it, and then afterwards was afraid to go on; but, after all, when he was before Pharaoh there was neither: he stood in God's name and power. We must get to know ourselves and that we have no strength; for in the end of Romans 7 is learning that we have no strength. So in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul has to learn his own weakness that the power of Christ may rest upon him: and this conscious weakness only casts itself on the Lord. When Paul went to Corinth it was thus it began, "I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling"; but the Lord had a great people there. Thus we must learn, and then leaning on the Lord we can with more maturity, and more experimentally, deal with souls. …

The Lord be with you and keep you near Himself! Diligence in your business is all right, but do not let it get between your soul and God. If you are not as bright with Him, and more and more so, search out why, and look to Him, for He gives more grace.

Kind love to the brethren. I was very glad to hear of them.

[1878.]

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