FIRST DAY. The One Thing Needful.
第一日 我們需要的一件事
“An Humble, Earnest and Affectionate Address to the Clergy,” was the dying legacy of William Law to the Church. He had corrected the proofs of the greater part when he was taken away. He invites the clergy to its perusal with the assurance that he desires “not to call their attention to anything but the one thing needful, the one thing essential, and alone available to our rising out of our fallen state, and becoming, as we were at our creation, an holy offspring of God, and real partakers of the Divine nature.”
“If it be asked, What this one thing is; IT IS THE SPIRIT OF GOD BROUGHT AGAIN TO HIS FIRST POWER OF LIFE IN US.
“Everything else, however glorious and divine in outward appearance, everything that churches or reformations can do for us, is dead and helpless, but so far as it is the immediate work of the Spirit of God, breathing and living in it. The end and design of all that is written in Scripture is only to call us back from the spirit of Satan, the flesh, and the world, to be again under the full Dependence upon and Obedience to the Spirit of God, Who out of free love and thirst after our souls, seeks to have His first power of life in us. All love and delight in Scripture, which is merely human, is but the self-love of fallen Adam, and can have no better a nature till it proceeds from the inspiration of God, quickening His own life and nature within us, which alone can bring forth a godly love. For if it be an immutable truth, that ‘no man can call Jesus, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,’ it must be a truth equally immutable, that no one can have any Christlike temper, or power of goodness, but so far as he is immediately led and governed by the Holy Spirit.”
Let us remember that it is of little profit to know the meaning of what we read; the great question is, whether we have taken the instruction to heart. Do we indeed believe that this is the one thing needful for the Church and ourselves, the deep conviction that God’s one desire is that the Holy Spirit should have the place in us that He had in Adam before the Fall, so that the only thing that gives value to our religion is that it is the immediate work of the Spirit of God.
這是威廉勞遺留給教會同工一篇“謙和、誠摯並親切”的信息，他去世前已將較重要的部分校對過，他懇求同工細讀：“不是要他們注意其他任何事，而是有件對於攫升我們離開墮落狀況，而恢復到起初被造像神性情的樣子，也就是神的兒女所需要，必備的事務，而且可單獨奏效。”
“假如你問我那是什麼？那就是再次帶到我們裏面生命最重要的能力。”
“但是每件榮耀而神聖的事怎樣彰顯在我們身上！教會或更新能為我們帶來什麼？這些原本是死的，無助於事，由於神的靈的運行，立刻又是活生生的了！在聖經內所寫下的目標和計劃，就是呼召我們脫離撒但、肉體、和世界的權勢，再回到向神的靈信靠順服的光景，有誰不愛慕神起初生命的大能在我們裏面！在聖經內一切的仁愛和喜樂是為人所有，但在亞當裏的墮性無法使我們變的，只有靠神來感動，將祂的生命和性情放置在我們裏面，才能使我們有神聖的愛心。假如“若不是聖靈感動就無人認耶穌”的真理是不改變的真理，那除非是聖靈的引導或管理，我們也無法有基督的性情和神聖的大能。
讓我們切記並明白這小段對於我們有益的話，而最大的問題是我們有否存記在心中，我們是否確信這是我們和教會最需要的事，深信神渴望將祂的靈運行在我們裏面，而我們必須是聖潔無罪的，所以唯有將這件事放於我們宗教觀念中重要的地位，神的靈才會立刻在我們裏面運行。
