Beloved in the Lord,
If you have been led by the Holy Ghost to own the Lord Jesus as your Savior, allow me to exhort you in some particulars.
Let Him, not the instrument used for your blessing, have all the praise, for He alone is worthy, and His servants would be "carnal" indeed (1 Cor. 3:11And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:1).9) if they allowed you to think of them, when the praise and adoration belong only to Him.
You have been led to see that you know very little of God's Word—so all of us should candidly admit (1 Cor. 8:22And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. (1 Corinthians 8:2)). Then search daily to find in the Scriptures a deeper acquaintance with the Person to whom you are brought. You know what the work has done for your conscience; now learn about the divine
Make it a habit when you meet together to avoid the gossip tendency of the day. The Person of the Christ, as shown to faith by the Holy Ghost in the Word, should be the only theme. This will exclude slander on the one hand, and creature worship on the other.
5. Next to thus living consistently before your relatives, persevere in prayer to God (Eph.
Wait on the Lord to enlarge your hearts toward unconverted persons. To such as you know, watch your opportunity to commend a good gospel tract or book. Respecting this you should feel it your privilege to lay by, as the Lord prospers you, for the scattering of what you believe, according to God's Word, is the truth to help souls. So also, instead of wasting money on needless things, look after the poor—especially those who are the Lord's (1 Timothy
6:17-19).
I would lastly add that you should most earnestly find out what is the mind of the Lord respecting you in these last days. To gather round men—to aid in schism—would be simply to go counter to the truth in John 17, Eph. 4 Cor. 12, etc. If you are willing to do what is right, the Lord will make plain your path (Phil. 3:13-2113Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. 16Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. 17Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. 18(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) 20For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:13‑21)). But surely every saint of God should feel that the present condition of the Church—God's Church—on the earth is anything but what it was when
All were of one heart and soul
And love to Christ inspired the whole;
when no names, and sects, and parties, severed practically, as to outward testimony, the "one body."
May abundant grace, mercy, and peace be yours, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Yours truly in Him,