Results of a True Ministry.

 I AM sure there is blessing to an assembly when it is cast upon the Lord Himself.  And one would desire to see and acknowledge the wise purpose of the Lord in the temporary absence (from sickness or other cause) of any gifted brother from the midst of his gathered saints, if this is to cast them more directly on Him.  As Paul in effect says to the Philippians, "You have hitherto leaned on me, but now that I am cast into prison, you will have to bear trials and temptations alone, which I am assured you will do much better able to do than when I was present with you."  I have learned, I trust, that the secret of all true ministry is to cast the saints from ourselves upon the living Lord, so that they can do without us when we go.  For it is a lesson we all need to learn, that to lean directly on the Lord Himself, is the true way of real spiritual progress.  And as for ourselves, who seek to minister to and guide the saints, may the religious activity and human arrangements, which practically shut out the Spirit of God in the originating and exercise of such ministry as He knows is seasonable to God's people, be kept out of our ministry, and the saints taught by our practice as well as our words, to lean upon God.  May He more and more lead us to covet the human weakness which leaves room for the display of that Divine power which made Paul “triumph in every place," and left abiding witnesses wherever He preached, that his ministry was not in the wisdom or cleverness of men, but in "the power of God."  This is our greatest need in this day of many activities.  And this sort of ministry is what God will use, to produce and maintain a true testimony for His Name, in the individual lives of His saints, and to sustain a clear and shining light and a godly testimony in the assemblies of His Own. 
“The Believer’s Magazine” 1918