Though Thou art God, most glorious, high

We need to learn how to enter into the particular atmosphere of each Lord's table meeting and stay on one line. Once the meeting begins, we should sense the atmosphere and follow it. We should not have more than one beginning by trying to change the atmosphere or direction of a Lord's table meeting well after it has begun. There should be a smooth transition from one hymn to the next. We should not take this word in a legal way, but we need to exercise our spirit and our mind with its function of understanding to recognize, enter into, discern, and taste the flavor and atmosphere of a meeting. This requires learning.

We should not call hymns and offer praises in a table meeting according to our personal feeling but should follow the corporate flow and atmosphere. In a particular Lord's table meeting, someone may call Hymns, #86, which is not high but is deep and tender. This hymn praises the Lord for His human living. Many Christians do not know how to enter into the feeling of such a hymn because they do not know how to appreciate and praise the Lord for His human living. There will be a lack of continuation if soon after we sing this hymn in a Lord's table meeting, someone calls a hymn such as Hymns, #142, which begins, "Crown Him with many crowns." After a hymn has been called, we should spend some time to taste and digest the hymn. At least four or five prayers of praise are needed to digest most hymns. The dishes in a feast are not served in rapid sequence; instead, there is time between each dish for enjoyment. To call a hymn with a different feeling soon after another one has been sung is to not sense the atmosphere but only take care of one's personal feeling. Our hymn calling should build up a proper spirit of remembering the Lord in His presence. We all need to learn, but no one should be discouraged or take this fellowship as a legal regulation.

There was a human living on this earth not just by man but by God in man. This was God's living in humanity. In Christ's human living, the divine life was mingled with the human life. In the previous message on God's incarnation, we saw that the purpose of the incarnation was to mingle God with man that God and man might be one. We can see the mingling of God and man in the type of the meal offering (Lev. 2:4). Stanza 5 of Hymns, #86 says, "Thou as a man art tender, sweet,/Balanced in every way, complete,/Meal-offering to the Father meet;/Lord, I remember Thee!" In the meal offering, there were two elements. One element was the fine flour made of wheat. The other element was the olive oil. The meal offering was made of fine flour mingled with oil. The word mingle means to combine two elements together to be one entity without a third element being produced. The two elements are combined together, but they still remain distinguishable. God and man are mingled together as one, but they still remain distinguishable.