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CHAPTER 7
 

THE HUNTER, THE FOX AND THE LAMB



It was  only a little lamb. It was not one of the two-tooth, rather rambunctious sort of ones, which can show quite a degree of athleticism and determination. It was little, and lamb, and when you put those two things together, you see before you a certain modesty, gentleness, perhaps a grace of manner, a poignancy of vulnerability, together with a little inclination to gambol.

That in any case, is what the fox saw. To him, it was a pretty sight, not the moral or pseudo-moral attributes of the life, but the succulence of the flesh in anticipation. Further, there was something about this particular lamb which aroused in him a desire for conquest, to overcome, to rule, as well as relish. It had strangely been separated from its little flock of companions, and seemed so unspeakably attractive.

The lamb for its part, was not because modest, deprived either of sight or of wisdom. This life has many features and facets, and the foxiness of the fox is one of them. It is not in any way an admirable quality, but it gives voice near the ear of the wise. Foxes are detestable because of their slyness, but then again, those who hunt them may not be the highest of moral contenders, sportively using overwhelming force to exhibit the shining craft of a solitary foe. It is not cricket, though those who play it, often hunt as well.

In any case, the lamb also gained an impression. From the fox's viewpoint, this was undesirable, for when a fox comes into the open, as they occasionally do on the Stock Exchange, it is not always a pretty sight: how to make more from others who make less, with the worst of selfish intentions, and if necessary, the greatest of rewards for the least of effort. Not all do this, for some may simply wish to protect their savings from inflation, assist others to do so, show initiative in developing minerals or whatever else, and participate in production without being entrepreneurs themselves. But foxiness! why was it then created ?

The lamb knew. It was there to teach you to beware, not to imagine that innocence is foolishness, or that the prettiest of features is the end of the story. So the lamb was wise and knew foxiness, as that test of pride, that exposure of foolishness, that subtlety which galls, but which should be overcome. Overcoming is a good thing, and seeing the danger is a good thing, evacuative of pride, leading to concentration of thought, care in action and reminders of vulnerability, adapted to the increase of lowliness, the realisation of the devil's lairs and cares, and the detestation of the same in such a fashion that it helps virtue and enlightens the love of righteousness, with an even increased lustre.

The lamb saw what was afoot. The fox saw that it knew. It knew that it saw. It decided to be foxy, for that, after all, is what a fox generically  is.

How is life these days ? he asked, not because he was in the slightest degree interested in a welfare sort of way, but because he wished to preoccupy the lamb. It may be thought that this was not at all a wise move, if butchery was his belligerent desire, but foxes have their own ways. There could be worked into the equation the following: the lamb would not expect a conversation, but a leap. It would be surprised; surprise could lead to being disconcerted, and then, in the social milieu the fox created, it was not impossible, that under the influence of very natural and predictable fright, the lamb would begin to move automatically in social ways, and then, with the bewildering mixture of features, would be rather at a loss, and, the fox might have thought, being at a loss is only one step from being lost. So it spoke.

The lamb was used to foxes. It had often watched fox hunts. Allegorically, fox hunts are far better than real ones, which, you may say, combine utility with sport! But is it a kindly sport, or a blessed utility made grievous to boot!

However, it had often seen them in action, with the unspeakable advantage that the foxes it saw were, shall we say, fully occupied in their goings, and their next feed was not in those sleek and swift moments of escape, a major concern. It therefore had an advantage of truly vast proportions. The fox did not know this, so that its foxiness was at a considerable disadvantage, as we shall see. Besides, whoever imagined that lambs as such are foolish. When one has watched them on bush walks, sometimes they are to be seen in small numbers, where the occasions of large herding do not apply, and they can seem enquiring, intelligent and of very pleasant disposition, active and energetic.

Their eyes on such occasions have so very different a look from those herded indifferently, and treated merely numerically. Lambs can be very appealing creatures.

This one was.

I am finding it rather demanding! said the lamb.

Now the fox had not thought of this. It could have been rather a deft reference to its present predicament, and so have penetrated to the fox's inner thoughts, which concerned, to be sure, his own inner being; but that inner being, not being the inner being of thought, the sheer appetite for results disconcerted the fox. This put him at another disadvantage which, since he was too keen to think clearly in that domain, was one of which he was unaware, which was yet another defect in his position.

The lamb did not need to ask himself WHY the fox did not leap. That was intuitively obvious. Lying with proper wisdom, near to a back fence, just slightly lower, the lamb was well placed, in one or two leaps, to clear the fence on the descending slope beneath it, and being in the backyard of the hunter, to present to the fox a domain less appealing, and a cost of appetite perhaps not worthy of payment. Both knew of this possibility, but the lamb, being a lamb, was not foxy, merely alert, and it did not let this advantage go to its head, for headiness is not good for life.

Have you ever, asked the fox, considered the advantages of rest ?

Have you ? retorted the lamb.

That, barked the fox, is not to the point of my question, and I shall have to ask you to beware of insolence.

This was not mere braggadocio. After all, it was rather a stern rebuke from an older and much larger creature, sinewy and strong, and rebukes can help the meek to become weak, a consideration which may have entered into the mind of the fox.

Two questions, said the lamb, are companionable. Which one shall be answered first ? As a courtesy, let me suggest you take the lead.

Not at all! yapped the fox. It was I who asked first, and if you do not answer first, I shall be barking up the wrong tree, which, in view of the dangers associated with my life, would not be form (for it was an English sort of fox).

The lamb saw the brewing confrontation, and being vulnerable, and unfoxy, decided to oblige.

Might I suggest, said the lamb, that my present location and disposition of limbs are suggestive of rest, and that hence it might appear to the point to consider the possibility that rest could have entered my mind ?

To be sure, said the fox, it might. The precise object of my question, however, was not to enter into the problems of probability, but to be enlightened on the actions of actuality.

Indeed! said the lamb. Let me then enlighten you, at your own request, on this actuality. My present posture is indeed indicative of rest rightly, for it was restful to be here; but my present situation is less so.

Insolence! roared the fox, hurting its throat in the process, since roaring is not quite typical for a fox. I asked concerning the advantages of rest, not whether you were recently engaged in enjoying them.

Then in part you answer your own question, retorted the lamb, for if I was enjoying them, as you seem to imply has been made clear, then that IS one of the advantages.

It is to be confessed that this fox was not abnormally deficient in the patience patently required for foxiness, but he was finding this lamb trying. It ... he, seemed to have too many answers. Slavering with a strange combination of hatred, admiration and appetite, he desisted temporarily.

What is the point of being foxy ? asked the lamb, We both know that you are a fox, that foxes have appetite, and that the coincidence of that appetite with the proximity of lambs, is not normally a friendly synthesis. Why then prolong our occasions ?

Rightly anticipating that the fox would be somewhat nonplussed at this sudden blush of frankness, and that this was a state not well proportioned for instant foxy action, the lamb without delay, leapt over the fence and despite a few problems with the top palings, which were only two feet higher than it was, because of the slope, it nevertheless was clear in the backyard of the hunter's property before the fox could collect his scattered wits, overcome his anger, endure his frustration, concoct a plan worthy of landing right in the midst of the hunter's land, and leap.

However the plan, well proportioned as it was in a foxy sort of way, did not allow for the hunter being in the back yard at that time, seeking fire wood for his wife. This could be excused on the ground of the speed of the unexpected action of the lamb, except for one thing, that this was not the real reason, and it is always better to deal with truth, since this is the case, and imaginary cases, fine though they may be for thought, when confused with real ones, tend to make for error, sometimes fatal. That is fully understandable, for man's imagination is a gift, and his power to find truth, another, and to sacrifice one for the other, is neither useful nor necessary.

The reason for the fox's oversight was quite simple. It was passion. It was frustrated, humiliated, out-foxed by what was not EVEN a fox itself, and this in such a very natural way that it did not have the contemptible character so readily attributed to foxiness, that its resentment destroyed, temporarily, its rationality, and it omitted this highly pertinent point in its plan: WHAT IF the hunter is there now!

Leaping into the arms of a hunter is no work for a fox, so seeing the predicament which, just now the lamb's, was rapidly becoming his own, he flashed past the hunter, left the lamb with bruised heart (the fox's heart was bruised, the lamb having merely bruised its front paw), and in the highest of dudgeons evaporated into the wood. It did not really evaporate, since this is mere figure; but there is a sense of departure so radical, so foxy and so temporary, that the term seems here applicable. Further, the heat of his thoughts is so consistent with this condition, that it helps one understand, for evaporation, while not foxy enough to appeal, was not far from the mental temperature which found impact in his being, in sympathetic physiological repercussion. He seethed as he breathed, and breathed as he seethed.

Now it is true that in this allegory, the fox represents the devil, and of course, the Lamb the Lord, and the Hunter the Father. The Lamb was separated from His companions, when arrested, if you want to interpret the allegory in its plain sense, and He was a fatal decoy for the fox, who, aspiring with a strange desire to rule, wanted more than anything to GET that Lamb (cf. Matthew 4 and the temptations). In seeking the Lamb, and failing (since in the resurrection, in fact, he only the more attested the power of the Lamb), the devil was broken in power (Hebrews 2:10-17), so that Christ saved His flock, being crucified in penalty payment for all who were His (Romans 8:32, John 10:11,14,26, Matthew 20:28). No condemnation is now available for them. The devil is running in ruin, but with mad aspiration the more fostered by frustration and folly.

In our allegory, the forepaw of the Lamb represents the bruising of Christ for His people, and the escape of the fox, unlike that of Judas Iscariot, which was purely negative, so that he died in disgrace, represents the continued presence of the devil in this world, frustrated but ambitious, lusting and unlovely, foxy and furious, for the devil, being cast out of heaven, as Revelation 12 exhibits, is not in a pleasant mood.

Having been outwitted by a Lamb, one vulnerable, one able to bleed, and having become an unwitting partisan in the process of salvation (I Cor. 2:8), by occasioning the death of the Lamb, only to find that this is central to the salvation of those who love the Lamb in His wisdom and wonder, he is spitting with rage. This fact explains why so many seminaries are splitting from the faith, and attacking Christ as if they were His enemies, which in many examples, is the case.

Why however have a fox ? How NICE if the lamb had rested in the wood, and merely been asked by other creatures if it had rest, and then told them that it had it to give away, and they having loved this, had taken the rest, and it had been a restful universe altogether, no fox, no foxiness, all present and correct, not evil, only good, getting better and better, as those naturally inclined to goodness, took more of it, and so it all grew like a highly moral garden and flowered, and flourished, and looked fuller and fuller of the beauty of holiness: and the rapture being complete, a nice day was had by all concerned.
 
 

THE DAY OF FRAY
AND THE WAY OF THE DAY

First, let us notice from the word of God tells us that God has DEPRIVED the ostrich of wisdom, in its egg laying habits. This is found in Job 39:14ff., and the lack is explained. This does not appear in the least a confession, but a declaration of robust style. Why ?

Again, why is Leviathan, scientifically related to dinosaurs with some address (as in Ken Ham's The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved) so vast, with such foci of strength and magnificence, and yet without some of the more beautiful and svelte attributes shared by so many of the other creations, that the omission seems clearly deliberate ?

Again Job shows something of the reason. These creatures show things: in the latter case, strength, majesty, originality, and qualities of endurance, physical resource and sheer prodigality of power. You see this in Job 41. Why, then, our question would become, did God choose to show prodigalities of power, as well as precision of articulation, deftness of little things, like ants (Proverbs 30) which are explicitly ensigns of industriousness, and the sloth, which is not*1 ?
 

Why did He CREATE, is what the question soon becomes. In other words, why did He not limit His imagination, and make only THIS or THAT sort of thing ? (Cf. News 74.)

Clearly His liberty and power are such that it did not seem good to favour your thoughts of mine, your desire for littleness, or mine for grandeur or majesty, yours for restful, or mine for wise, or both as limits, and so on. Instead, He made them ALL have exemplification in creation, myriads of facts and facets, features and instructive devices, exposures and exposés. The sloth teaches the humour and misery of such lethargy, the ant the combination of laughable industry which hardly seems to live, with enormous and even prodigious work which makes construction rear up like a skyscraper (speaking in ant-wise comparabilities), and defence a thrill of planning and anticipation (except that if the instincts help the latter, then so be it, it is creation, not thought which is the present issue, and in any case, in creation, in the first instance, always, it is the thought of the Creator which counts - that is, in ABSOLUTE creation).

So we learn. The question then tends to become this: WHY then should we learn ? Who WANTS to learn about power and precision, defence and industry. Who wants exemplification of grossness and gravity, prodigies and prodigalities of form and capacity, the great creatures of which Genesis speaks, and of which our eyes often are the witnesses, the small in intricate extrication of thought thrust into format, to make the head reel or the thoughts rise like stars in their reflections on just the brilliance of it, the versatility, the limitless wonder of it all.

No! you may say. Why not just be lazy and lax, and kick about like crocodiles, lolling between meals, or tortoises in their more dormant modes ?

But you see, this is readily becoming a desire for self-indulgence, and the reason why this is not a good idea is simple. Self is merely a name for a special and distinct kind of creation, more especially a conscious one, equipped with some powers of choice. If indulging of such a particle of creation is the aim, why this merely denies the sense of the rest of creation, for obviously if every self does whatever it wants to do, without limit, war is declared, selfishness rears its lordly head, hauteur is not far off, envy and emulation are at our heels, and with war, revenge.

We could go on (and Paul discovers more of the anatomy of it all in his pathology reproof of II Cor. 12:20, and it is still worse in Galatians 5:19-21 and Ephesians 4:17-19), but why try, for the world does all this, and you can look at history for yourself, or even the newspapers, or the TV illustrations of atrocities.

But, it might be pursued, WHY did not God make everything nice! We have already answered that question in The Flashing Falls of Freedom, so will not duplicate. Suffice that the testing, the trial, the exhibition of reality past appearance, form and fashion, to the heart, are not horrors but manifestations; and their performances under test are indexes of truth. Without truth, you have the lordly capacity for lie, and with truth, you do not.

Further, there is no room for rebellion based on pretence in a kingdom where the realities have been shown and known, and not merely awarded and applauded, as so often happens in human society, where the rapacious, who improve on selfishness by making it a religion, often talk of surviving as if it were a god, which for many it is.

Naturally when it IS a god, it is clear that your ultimate character is ZERO, in parallel, your morals are NON-EXISTENT, and your part in love is only as an absentee, or a selection phenemenon of your OWN, if you pursue this matter to its logical conclusion. Of course, many people do not like to pursue things to their logical conclusions, and would rather attack logic than do this.

This is quite understandable, since looking like a rat is fine for a rat, but not nice for a human; and when you want to be one, but not to have the anti-accolade which goes with it, then attacking reason may seem a foxy sort of thing to do, and many do it. However it has the inbuilt problem that if you DO attack logic, and try to divest it of force and place in thought, then your own thought is instantly disabled and your speech has all the validity of roast onions which were overcooked and exist only as perhaps slightly moistened ashes.

WHY then should things be tested ? Because the display shows the reality and the reality stills the pretender, and enables the contender in truth, and because God is worth it.

You are subjected to "various trials", says Peter (I Peter 1:6), indeed some will be "grieved" by them, so that "the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than god that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honour and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ..."

One thing that is pre-eminent in this, it would seem, is CLARITY. FAITH needs testing. Its manifestation is important. Do we look at a likely lad and say, Don't worry about your exams, you are a likely lad and it is clear what would happen! Just lie around!

Now here, it is to be confessed, the reason for our NOT saying this, may with some, be that they want money and power and prestige and the like for their son or pupil, and therefore point to the way to get it, in terms of being likely, and the a sure thing. But this is not the case with all.

Some want it to go on because the qualities must be made sure and stable, themselves, and the income is merely incidental, and this to such a degree, that like Tyndale, for example, their lives are spent, not in the ivory towers of academic prestige, but darting daringly about the Continent, being pursued by papal detestation, until the condemnation from that amiable body led to the death by violence of the gifted New Testament translator, who adorned history and helped battalions of the blessed with the results of his work.

In other words, the manifestation of reality, the expression of talent, the qualities of heart with it, the nobility of desire, the ambition to please God, the sheer courage of continuation in peril, and the wisdom of overcoming it (Tyndale used funds from the Bishop of London, who bought one edition of his work in order to suppress it, burning it, in order to progress with more and better ones), these things are real, reliable, expressible, the better for being expressed, attest sincerity, rebuke cynicism, attest faith; and faith has love, when it is in God, since God IS love. This, it is lovely, like a painting of a scene of pastoral content, with lakes and oak forests and little streams, and little lambs, and picturesque sunset.

Or is it a very different case! : No lambs, no streams, no sunset ... because no sun, no heat, trying heat ... and no picture. The picture of history is one which - let us be frank - began with disaster. Man fell from a beatific present into a horrendous present, undergoing the transition from an environment of apt and authorised beauty, to one of cursed test amid purposely made difficulties. We make little golf courses like that, and even big ones! They test. This test having failed, other types of test were framed. One of these held intrinsic problems, and allowed extrinsic performances in conditions so notable in test, that what was within became increasingly obvious in what occurred without.

Test shows truth, and when truth is LOVELY, then what is shown is magnificent. When the test at the first is failed, this is the second step, and not the first; so that in part answers the initial question of WHY, but the second step itself answers most fully, for then, though its very existence is a penalty, yet in the penalty and the problem, is the opportunity for wonder, the provision indeed even of redemption, so that those who come to receive this, may experience UNDER TEST what is best.

In simple reality, one finds that the experience of the IMPOSSIBLE (in human terms) -

as one is slandered and libelled and dismissed and made the butt of inconceivable and conceivable wickedness, because one insists on presenting the BIble and the Christ and the truth and the reason for it, and piercing the balloons of folly which masquerade as truth, and doing the work of the Christian minister -

becomes the OPPORTUNITY of the wonderful. The higher the bar, the greater the help from God.
 
 

SECONDARY AND PRIMARY CONSIDERATIONS

This SECONDARY SITUATION then (cf. Biblical Blessings Ch. 7, Beyond the Curse), is a blessed one, though it be a trial. For one's own part, better infinitely to be tried than tossed out; better to see the wonders of the Lord as He SHOWS that He is "able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or thing, according to the power that works in us", than to bask in indolence, sit in pride, receive large incomes or live for self, sin or Satan, the world, the lord of death, or self-satisfaction, society approbation or any other intrinsically foolish and inadequate substitute for reality.

The scene of our contemporary test, and it is by now one of long standing,  is inhabited by all the relevant powers in just the right scope to make testing real, and results palpable, so that that arrestingly horrible creation, also fallen and hence horrid, the devil, with his love of panache, power lust, exhibitionism and rebellion, insane ambition that does not seem so in his condition, has his place for his day (cf. Revelation 12:7ff, 12:12)

As you see in the book of Job (Job Ch. 1  cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 31, pp. 265-269, SMR pp. 95, 358, 372), the devil can indeed test, under close scrutiny and supervision, though because God is really all powerful and love, his efforts routinely fail, except of course, where they demonstrate fraud by securing pseudo-spiritual people as co-workers, which in one sense, is success, for it exhibits reality!

The PRIMARY situation was lost. The fall became fact: man erred, amid incontinent ingratitude and intemperate spiritual lust. That led to a question of both punishment and reconstruction, like wary in Europe, which suffered, and needed reconstruction, both in and after World War II. It does not seem, incidentally, to have learned what it had to learn! Hence it bids fair to find the place appointed in Daniel (cf. Biblical Blessings Ch. 1 and SMR pp. 885-925), and in fact, this will be as it is predicted categorically).

But let us return to the condition of man as such. HE too failed his first test which, unlike that of Europe, was executed in dramatically precise conditions, simple one, ones in which obedience and understanding were poised, through faith if it were there, against discrediting the word of God, and the self-confidence that is mere shallow vanity and deception (Genesis 3). It was a good test, both primary and crucial, the initial one.

That first test is however long over.

This is the next one. As next ones go, it is fantastic, for redemption is the new name. If you are not redeemed, then of course the test means trouble, and trouble means questions and so on, and indolence, pride or ambition are perhaps not unduly happy about it.

When however you are  redeemed, then test means covenantal mercies in operation and power, questions of clarity about duty, performance of the same, for the best of all possible masters, who indeed became a Lamb and outfoxed the fox, with wit, not scurrilousness - with spiritual service, not the servility of scurrility. It is He who thus with wisdom

Test is then a particle of life, and power is the presence of the Lord, whose word still rules. Suffering is a test, as with Job, can DEMONSTRATE the reality of love for God: or it can show the faithfulness of God, or the love of God through one to others, and many more things, exquisite in finesse, or in cardinal in simplicity; but it is not in vain (see (see Pain, Suffering, Evil).

Again, love that is not called forth is not as manifest and its loveliness is not as plain as love that is required to act, as God's love with wisdom was set in action (I John 4:7-9), when He sacrificially sent the Christ, who not content with coming as a sacrificial act, BECAME a sacrifice to redeem those who so received Him. Not only is this so, but He showed in the humility of His life BEFORE He actually became the sacrifice, the grace and the triumph in LITTLE THINGS which goes with love, and power and grace from God, definitive in expression in HIM, but to be exemplified, albeit imperfectly in US.

That now, to be ABLE to show in practice the love of God, while knowing it and having it, and receiving the power necessary to overcome problems, even what, humanly are obviously impossible ones: this is something which would never have been possible in the mere shallow content which some might have preferred. However, when the actual case is this, that we are in STAGE TWO, POST-FALL lands, then this is a wonder of wonders, that it could be so free, so liberal in grace, so characterised by charity, so testing in opportunity to glorify God and show to others what He is like!

Of course, if you do not love God, then this would not seem so very great: for how, after all, would you show the love of God in yourself, if it is not there. THAT would simply be a lie, and lying in ANY purpose is not so very good, as we saw. Reality being perfect, in God, lying is merely a departure, as well as a provocation, like the arrogance and self-regard which can condemn it, while doing worse itself (Galatians 6:1 - for love here also, is a testimony among all). Humility and truth are essential, and it is precisely this, as we see in Zephaniah 3:11-13, which is affirmed of the returning remnant of Israel, when it comes to Christ, for these things are in substance characterisable in actual Christians.
 
 

MORE THAN OIL PAINTINGS: VITALITY WITH REST

Their presence is like oil paintings of spirit, where the gallery lives, and the figures come out from their frames, and walk about and act, giving a delight the gallery could never achieve, for this is in life, tested life, tried life, life eternal like a stream through the woodlands, wolves or none, foxes or not. Whoever heard of a stream through woodlands in a gallery. We are not then in stilted, stunted or at any rate limited pictographic mode, but in vitality, reality and exhibition of truth.

The final results are lovely though the means are testing; and in eternity, there is no room left for protest. It is a tested thing, and the gold has been in the fire. And that, it is not a little thing, though our world is little in comparison with the domains of space which God in His magnitude of conception has invented (cf. That Magnificent Rock, Ch. 7, Section 7), and our hearts are little in this, that they occupy, in the spiritual reality, no space at all.

Spatially nothing, yet spiritually their importance is profound; and they are to be guarded, like other invisible things, which being reality as distinct from location and time and deployment and depiction, are so insignificant to the coarse or deadened eye, that they seem scarcely to exist at all.

Yet so vast are these in importance, that for the chronically lost, the mere formulations of matter will in the end seem occasion for remorse, that their message was not seen, their portent not discerned, their test delusively thought of as if piling it up or moving it about, investigating it or selecting the things more attractive,  were all. This will it be for all who disregard that God who IS Spirit, who desires those who worship Him to do so in spirit and in truth.

Nor is merely  ANY spirit THE SPIRIT WHO IS GOD (II Cor. 11:4), and delusive deceptions do not lie only in matter, but in heart itself, and not only in heart, or in the spirit for which it is focus, but in its placement, toward or untoward relative to the God who is there, who acts for those who wait for Him. He does not delight in worship of gods who ARE NOT, sovereign selves or suggested idols,  let alone this in the presence of the love which IS,  rejected by indifference, casualness or preoccupation with one's own inventions or intentions (Deuteronomy 32:17,21, Psalm 78:36,40-41,57, 106:29,39).

The Lamb became little, that His grandeur might ennoble life; and He became a sin offering, that His purity might enable it. There is no other whose actions match, whose meaning masters, whose power provides, whose prophecies proceed unblemished, whose performance was itself fulfilment, and who offers a redemption not dependent on man or on his will (Romans 9:16, John 1:12-14, 15:1ff.), but on God who gives, and knows all, and loving, receives ALL WHO COME TO HIM on these His own terms (Revelation 22:17, John 4:14), and keeps them.

Little is the time He spent to do it; great is the worth of it. Little was His domicile, great that which He provides (John 14:1ff., II Corinthians 5:1ff.). Great is the rest of spirit in the midst of directed life, the protected spirit, the fearless audacity of fidelity to Christ.

Trusting in the gospel which is not there is not merely vain: it does not work. Nullity does not save. It is necessary to find the Redeemer where He is, and His goings have been clear (Galatians Chs. 1 and 3), announced, confirmed, verified, applied and fulfilled in all things. Faith has wings, but breaking one's wings is not wise.