Once it was the blessing

We have at least ten hymns in our hymnal that were written by A. B. Simpson, such as, "I am crucified with Christ" (Hymns, #482), "Once it was the blessing, / Now it is the Lord" (Hymns, #513), and "Jesus only is our message" (Hymns, #511). Hymns, #255 speaks of breathing the Lord in stanza 7, saying, "I am breathing every moment, / Drawing all my life from Thee; / Breath by breath I live upon Thee, / Lord, Thy Spirit breathe in me." The experience of this hymn is very rich; the author was breathing continuously, drawing his life from the Lord. Although many of God's children have gone astray, there is a practical, simple, convenient, and proper way to breathe in and receive the Lord's life every moment.

If we are one with Christ and blended together with Christ, it is easy for us to receive healing when we need it. But we do not pay attention to the healing but to the Healer. We do not pay attention to the gift but to the Giver. Of course, when we have the Healer and the Giver, we have the healing and the gift. We do not pay attention to the power, to the might, but we are satisfied and happy with the mighty One. It is not some thing, but a living Person whom we possess. It is not something of Christ, but Christ Himself (see Hymns, #513 by A. B. Simpson). This is the reality of the Christian life. This is also the reality of the church life. This is what God is seeking and what Christ is looking for. We have to realize that He is such a One living within us so that we may experience Him in such a living and experiential way. May God be merciful to us.

Hymns, #513 also expresses this view. It begins by saying, "Once it was the blessing, / Now it is the Lord." We have no good beyond the Lord, beyond God Himself (Psa. 16:2). God is our grace. To be sure, when God comes, every good comes, because God's life includes all good things. If we receive the good apart from God but do not receive God Himself, the grace that we receive is superficial, and we have not touched the inner reality. In saying, "Grace to you," Paul meant, "May God become your enjoyment."

Every meeting has an opening, and there are hymns for this purpose. Selecting a hymn for opening the meeting requires careful consideration. We not only need to know the hymns according to their categories, but we also must learn to touch the feeling of the hymns. Hymns are refined utterances, and they convey a feeling. They are expressions of human sentiments. It is hard for a person who is unrefined to sing with much feeling. We must learn to taste the different hymns, because each one has its particular feeling and taste. Hymns, #127, "Hark! Ten thousand voices crying," is majestic and powerful. Hymns, #95, "O Head once full of bruises" and Hymns, #101, "When we survey the wondrous cross," are both on the Lord's suffering, and their feeling is fine. The chorus of Hymns, #513, "All in all forever," written by A. B. Simpson, expresses the feeling in the brothers and sisters in exalting Christ. Hymns, #33, "Father, long before creation"; Hymns, #47, "Father, Thy name our souls would bless"; and Hymns, #52, "Father, to Thee a joyful song we raise," are all superb hymns of praise to the Father from His many sons. After singing these hymns, it is difficult to follow with another one. The best thing to do is turn the hymns into prayer as a conclusion to the meeting. Only by identifying the feeling and flavor of the hymns can we use them at the suitable time.

There is always an atmosphere when the saints gather together. We need to learn to sense the atmosphere, the feeling. When we touch the atmosphere, the feeling, we can select an appropriate hymn from our memory that matches the feeling we sense. At the end of a meeting, if we sense that the feeling of the brothers and sisters is that the Lord Jesus is exalted, we should sing "All in all forever, / Only Christ I'll sing" (Hymns, #513, chorus). This hymn can express the feeling of the brothers' and sisters' exaltation of Christ.

A. B. Simpson was a very spiritual person. He received a great revelation of spiritual matters, seeing that everything is in Christ and does not depend on man's struggle. He wanted only the Lord Himself, and the Lord was his everything; this is to have the experience of Isaac. His ministry emphasized that everything is in Christ. The first stanza of a hymn he wrote speaks of his experience: "Once it was the blessing, / Now it is the Lord; /... All in all forever, / Only Christ I'll sing;/ Everything is in Christ, / And Christ is everything" (Hymns, #513). Later, he wrote another hymn, speaking of Christ being his only, message: "Jesus only is our message, / Jesus all our theme shall be; /... Jesus only, Jesus ever, / Jesus all in all we sing" (Hymns, #511). His experience of the riches of Christ was very deep.

We no longer need to follow the detour today, for the Lord has opened the way to the tree of life. However, the condition of most Christians is that they are still in the detour. If we do not have a revelation of the tree of life, we will exhort people saying, "Brother, you need to be watchful. Sister, you should be subject to your husband. We must deal with the flesh, accept the breaking, and accept the cross. We need to be like Madame Guyon." Such exhortations are in the detour of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Even Madame Guyon was in this detour. She pursued the Lord and was built up, but eventually God still had to strip everything away. When she was stripped by God, she could say, "I am as nothing, and rejoice to be / Emptied, and lost, and swallow'd up in Thee" (Hymns, #546). There is no need for a redundant step. It is better to not build than to build up and then tear down. God stripped her of everything and left only Himself. Therefore, she said that she was lost in Him. However, these words do not hit the mark. Man is not lost in God but mingled with God. By God's mercy Madame Guyon touched this reality, but she did not have sufficient light and did not know the confirming word in the Scriptures.

A person who takes the detour must eventually come out. The detour is about doing things. The Lord has enlightened us to see that we do not need to take this detour. The Lord said, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst" (John 6:35). He also said, "He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing" (15:5). These verses reveal that there is no need to stay in the detour. We need only to eat and drink the Lord: "He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me" (6:57). How I wish I could repeat these verses until every believer sees that man needs nothing but to eat and enjoy the Lord. A. B. Simpson said that everything is in Christ and that Christ is everything (Hymns, #513). Healing is Christ, power is Christ, and patience is Christ; everything is Christ. But his words did not yet hit the mark and are not very clear. No one has ever told people, "God needs man to eat Him; man needs to eat God." Only this word hits the mark and is clear.

In these last days we believe that the Lord will gain a people who are free from forms, teachings, and gifts. In one of His hymns A. B. Simpson testifies, "Once His gift I wanted, / Now, the Giver own; / Once I sought for healing, / Now Himself alone," and, "Once the pow'r I wanted, / Now the Mighty One" (Hymns, #513). The living Christ is not in forms, teachings, or gifts; He is in our spirit, dwelling there quietly. We need to deal with Him in our spirit continually, taking care of Him in our family life, our job, our studies, and our shopping, and experiencing Him in all our daily affairs. In this way we will keep ourselves constantly on the cross and become a person whose self, natural life, old man, soul, and soulish nature are on the cross. We will not give up the cross or come down from it but will remain there, learning to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord Jesus, who is the Spirit dwelling in our spirit. As we contact and experience Christ, we will realize that within us there is a bountiful supply sufficient for every circumstance (Phil. 1:19). We will be able to declare as the apostle Paul did, "I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me" (4:13). The source of power within us, the bountiful supply, is the living Christ in our spirit.

Christ has gained us not that we may gain gifts, but that we may gain Him. In one of his best hymns, A. B. Simpson says:

Once it was the blessing,
Now it is the Lord...
Once His gift I wanted,
Now, the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing,
Now Himself alone.
(Hymns, #513)

As this hymn indicates, the governing principle of the Christian life is not gifts or healing—it is Christ Himself. Realizing this, A. B. Simpson also put out a tract on this theme entitled "Himself."

I appreciate Hymns, #513, written by A. B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Stanza 1 says, "Once His gift I wanted,/Now, the Giver own;/Once I sought for healing,/Now Himself alone." The Healer is different from the healing. We may have healing, but we may not have the Healer. As long as we have the Healer, we have everything. Likewise, to have the gift is superficial, but to have the Giver is something deep and solid. As long as we have the Giver, we do not need to worry about the gift, just as when Rebecca came to Isaac, she inherited everything that he inherited. We need to realize that we build up the believers and the church not by anything other than the Triune God Himself.