Let us now suppose the apostle Paul, in his journeyings, to have reached, at last this country, and to find himself, one Lord's day, in the town where these things have been happening. Where will he go? Will he go to the assemblies he condemned at Corinth? Will difference of locality make a difference of principle for the apostle of Jesus Christ? Not at all. He would have inquired, and on learning that there were assemblies of the sects there, would have turned away with a heavy heart. When first mention was made of "another new sect," that had come out from among the rest, he might have feared that it was only some aggravation of the fleshly evil; but as the particulars of their action were recounted to him, his eye would have brightened, and rising, he would have said, I must see these people; and on seeing them, and finding that, though in great feebleness and with much failure, they were seeking out the old paths, and treading in them, he would have rejoiced to own them, insignificant in numbers though they might be, as the only true representatives of the assembly of God in that place.
If he had found them tolerating known evils among them, however, such as God has made ground of excision, he would assuredly not have so owned them: but though he might have found much failure —want of harmony, jealousy, and envy, and discord, or the like, while he would have spoken loudly against such things, and labored and prayed for their extinction, I feel assured he would not have made them a reason for preferring one of the schismatical sects, even if he could have found among them one entirely free from the evils complained of as existing among those on God's ground. Do you think he would? Do you think he could have acted otherwise than I have supposed, owning as God's church that which had returned to God's ground, and disowning all that was off it?
Let the name of the country be America, the name of the town your town, the epoch the twentieth instead of the first century; and let us suppose that instead of the apostle Paul it were my reader who had to make the selection, what would he do? I leave it with him before the Lord.
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