d ripening, the work
of the Spirit within us, forming the life of Jesus, and bringing down
the flesh into the grave. In its scattering we see shadowed forth the
Spirit upon us in His power of reaching other souls. There is no
needs be with us that this double work should be consecutive as in
the plants--it may go on simultaneously. There is never a moment,
from the first receiving of Christ as Saviour, when the full
outpouring of the Holy Ghost may not take place--never a moment when,
in figure, the seed may not be set free. There are some few who leap
down, as soon as they are saved, to the simple, bare, lowly faith
which liberates God's power, and He can use them mightily all along,
but they are very few. Practically in most cases there is time
involved, because we take so long to unlearn our own sufficiency and
our own resources, and even after we have received the promise of the
Spirit through faith, we are puzzled, it may be, by a want of
continuity in His outflow.

It is because, before God can get us to the place where He can send
Him through us in a steady tide, we have to go lower than we dreamed
of at first: and He may have to stop using us for a time, that He may
deepen this work within, and bring us to utter brokenness.

Look at the last stage in the plant, before the inwrought life is
free for use. There is a breaking-up and a breaking-down such as it
never had before. Such brittleness comes as the seed ripens that it
is almost impossible to pick some of the stems without cracking them
in two or three places. The ripened seed-vessels share the same
brittleness: you can hardly touch them without the whole crown
falling to pieces in your hand.

Conscious weakness, as a preparation for service, is one thing:
brokenness is another. We may know that we are but earthen pitchers,
like Gideon's, with nothing of our own but the light within, and yet
we may not have passed through the shattering that sheds the light
forth.

This does not mean something vague or imaginary, but intensely
practical. Read the description that Paul gives of the life of
ministry--the apostolic life--and see what it is to be a shattered
seed-vessel; it is no dreamy experience in the clouds!

"Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and
stewards of the mysteries of God... . We are made a spectacle to the
world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but
ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye