When brethren came out, what were they? Nothing. What was their feeling? They took up the interest of the church of God, desiring to see all who loved God manifested in it. A large measure of blessing followed; numbers joined. Then came trouble and trial within, and that plentifully occupied their hearts and practically became their circle, consequently not the church of the living God.
We ought to be humbled—ah! humbled in the dust, if you please, but not discouraged. A truly humbled man is not discouraged; the discouraged man is not a humble man, for he has trusted, as man, to something besides God; true nothingness cannot.
People say we have been too narrow—we must mix up a little. No, never—I cannot go back. If I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. I have nothing to go back from.
The one desire of my heart is the beauty and the blessing of the church—the bride of Christ. That will make me earnestly love all saints, for they are of it. I desire its (the church’s) entire separation to Christ to whom she belongs—espoused as a chaste virgin, my feet in the narrow way—my heart as large as Christ’s.
J. N. Darby