Beloved Mother,
How often have I longed, in bygone days, to find for my church position as clear warrant of faith as I had for my soul's salvation. It did seem so strange that God should have left it all indeterminate in His Word, and that nothing better remained for one than a weighing and balancing of human opinions, built on a few inferences from isolated Scripture texts, and only an opinion as the result, after all. I cannot express to you the sense of deliverance and repose with which I now rest on God's own Word about it all. It is all so plain to me now in Scripture, and it seems so marvelous I should have had an open Bible in my hands so many years, and yet have failed to perceive the truth now so simple to me. I can only compare it to what I experienced when first I was converted; when salvation by the blood of Jesus became so evident and precious that I marveled I could have missed it so long. Well, praise be to God, He has led me into His plain path at last, however late, and it has opened the Scriptures to my understanding in a way that nothing else has ever done since my conversion.
Once the ruin is recognized and felt in the soul, the eye turns naturally to God, and the heart asks, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" If corporate responsibility has broken down, it becomes one to act in the sense of personal responsibility, and to clear one's self as before God.
The first question to be dealt with in such an hour is, What is the standard of truth? What is the divinely appointed test? Where is the mind of God to be learned with certainty?
A most noteworthy care has been taken by the Spirit of grace to give unmistakable clearness to this subject, in the very places of Scripture where the ruin is foretold. It is so gracious, so loving!
Examine first Acts 20. Remark how the apostle closes his solemn admonition. He has set before them the danger: grievous wolves were coming to ravage the flock, perverse men from among themselves were about to arise and draw away disciples from the truth. What then? What safeguard can he point them to? Is it to an infallible pope or to an infallible council he bids them look for security? Is it to a bishop, or college of bishops, to a synod, or a presbytery? Alas! out of the presbytery itself evil men were to arise and pervert the disciples. How could any of these prove a safeguard against evil? No! not one such thought or suggestion has the apostle to proffer. But "I commend you to God, and to the Word of His grace," says the apostle, to God and His Word—not one thing more! God present by His Spirit, in terms of the precious promises in John 14-16—the Word present in their hands as His instrument for their guidance (Heb. 4:12; Eph. 6:17).
But not only is this all: he distinctly affirms it is enough. "Able to build you up." Yes, able, potent, adequate, in the face of the foreseen need; not merely sufficient for ordinary times, but for those "perilous times" that were coming. Could anything be plainer, simpler, or more to the point?
Look next at 2nd Timothy, the epistle whose special burden is the ruin. How carefully has the gracious Lord again brought in His clear testimony there to the all-sufficiency of the Word—mark, not its supremacy merely, but its all-sufficiency. "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived"—a perilous time, truly. How shall "the man of God" keep himself from the contagion? "The Holy Scriptures" are able to make him wise unto salvation, that he may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. What needs he more?
Peter is another prophet of the ruin, and in the very opening of his notes of warning he is careful to point to the "sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place."
So Jude points out as the antidote "the words which were spoken before of the apostles." Observe, not traditions, but words spoken in their own hearing. "How that they told you"—the apostles' own words, the equivalent, to those who heard them, of their writings to us.
One must grasp, then, this truth firmly and resolutely: Scripture is God's own word, and that word is, in the Spirit's hand, our all-sufficient guide. It is God's own voice—the Shepherd's voice (John 10) for the guidance of His sheep; and He has promised that whoso followeth Him shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. "I commend you to God, and to the Word of His grace." One must have such faith in God, and such grounded conviction of the sufficiency of the Word, that one shall be ready to walk by it alone. So sure that in it one hears the Master's call, that one can be ready to go forth to meet Him without the camp—outside of all that which, while calling itself by His name, dishonors Him—bearing His reproach (Heb. 13:13).
Once the mind is settled in this conviction, all grows clear. The pathway of faith and obedience is indicated with great precision in 2 Tim. 2:17-22. Confusion was at hand. The overgrown building, weakened by the wood, the hay, and the stubble that had been built in among the living stones, was ready to crumble and break down. What then? The foundation of God would still stand sure—immovable, unchangeable as Himself; and the Lord, amid all the confusion, would still know His own.
But how should these discern each other, and stand together so as to glorify Him, in such a day? A very simple course of action should bring it all to pass. Has the time for separation arrived? Is iniquity recognized by the man of God as pervading the Church and ruling the house? Is every man doing what seems right in his own eyes? Is man's will prevailing, and God's will set aside? "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity!" And not from evil deeds alone, but from the men who do them he must separate. The courts of the house are polluted by the presence of impure vessels—men who by their self-will dishonor God. Would the man of God be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master's use? He must "purge himself from these." "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you," is now the Master's call.
But what if the mass of the Lord's people fail to see with him, and remain behind? Must the man of God detach himself from these as well? God's word answers, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil." The Master must be followed rather than all others. The disobedience of others must not be made an excuse for disobedience on my part. Is it clear to me that things are wrong, and hopelessly so? I must not waver, but depart from iniquity, if even I have to do so alone—if I shall seem as solitary in the path as Elijah deemed himself of old. And this, moreover, is true love. If one would help another out of a miry ditch, one must not place one's feet beside him in the mire; one must look first of all to one's own foothold—must plant oneself firmly on the solid ground, and then one can reach the hand to lift one's neighbor out.
Yes; the Lord's direction is plain, and he who would be found faithful in these times must follow it at any cost, and quite irrespective of consequences or results; the issue of these rests with God.
Mark, now, how God's wisdom brings about, when man is obedient, those very results which obedience seems to renounce and abandon.
Man's wisdom says, Stay where you are, and try to bring all your influence to bear on others to effect the reform of abuses; or, worse, Stay where you are and make the best of things. God's wisdom says, Come out, as I bid you, and leave the consequences to Me.
Suppose, now, that my mind has been brought to bow at last to the Word, and I obediently resolve to “depart from iniquity," to have nothing more to do with man's expediencies, cost what it may. I look again to Scripture that has guided me into this position, and I find another injunction following close upon it. I am to "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." Does this mean persons quite free from sin? Assuredly not, for John has warned us, that "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart are not sinless beings, such as are only to be found in glory, but persons who also have submitted themselves to the Word in obedience, and departed from iniquity, purifying their hearts from all known offense against God.
If, then, I can meet with any whom the grace of God has already led into the path of obedience, my place is with them. If I stand aloof from these I shall be as truly disobedient as in my old position. It becomes me, therefore, to inquire whether there be any such, and, if found, to take my place among them. If I can hear of none, then I must stand alone with God, till He shall show them to me. Some one must be the first, but God will add.
It is thus that the faithful obedience of individuals results, under God's hand, in a witnessing body (only a remnant indeed), as has been His wont towards the close in each of His dispensations (Rom. 9:27; 11:5; Gen. 6; 1 Kings 19:18; Ezek. 9:4; Mal. 3:16, etc.).
What now will be the character of this witnessing remnant? And how far will it represent the "one body" of Christ, whose unity has been so long lost sight of?
We must be careful to understand the case we are dealing with. It is not a question of salvation—not of what saves souls, but of the way in which souls already saved by grace shall glorify God on the earth, and so fulfill the end of their vocation, "that they should show forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light." It is a question for souls who desire, like Enoch, to "have this testimony, that they please God."
When a group of believing persons, each of whom has been led in obedience to the Word to depart from iniquity, find themselves, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, gathered into association, what is there left to them?
First: They have "the foundation of God," standing sure as ever, Jesus Christ, on whom they, as living stones, are builded together.
Secondly: They come without the camp to the Lord, not to each other; and as it was loyalty to His name that led them to depart from iniquity (2 Tim. 2:19), so they have that sacred name as the one center to whom the Spirit gathers them.
Thirdly: Being now "gathered to His name," though in number, it may be, not exceeding " two or three," they have Himself in their midst, in terms of His own special promise (Matt. 18:20).
Fourthly: They have the presence of the Holy Spirit —a divine Person, not a mere influence—in their midst, as our Lord has promised (John 14:16, 17).
Fifthly: They have His gifts for ministry, in terms of Eph. 4:8-13; Rom. 12:6-8; 1 Cor. 12:28.
Sixthly: They have the Word of God.
By that Word everything is now to be weighed and tested, whether for corporate action or the individual conduct. Whatever finds not authorization there is left behind, and the result of this sifting reduces assembly or Church-order within wonderfully small and simple limits.
1st: There is the obligation to assemble themselves together plainly laid before us in Heb. 10:25, without any special prescription of times or seasons.
2nd: As the assembly is, in the very nature of its constitution, a gathering of believers, by profession at least (Acts 2:44, 47; 1 Cor. 1:2, etc.), and as all believers are to be baptized (Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:41, etc.), so the assembly is under obligation to receive into its communion only believers who have been baptized. Since, however, baptism is nowhere in the Word made a thing to be done in or by the assembly, or of its authority, but is always a matter between the evangelist and his converts (Matt. 28:19; Acts 8:27-39; 9:10-18;10:34-48, etc.), and since no divine precept marks out the mode or time for baptism, so the when, the where, and the how, belong not to the assembly's responsibilities, but to those of the individuals before God. Rom. 14:5 comes in in such cases.
3rd: There are two divinely-prescribed objects proper to the assembly: the breaking of bread (Acts 20:7) with accompanying ministry in the Holy Spirit (as seen in 1 Cor. 12-14); and discipline, as pointed out in Matt. 18:17-20, and 1 Cor. 5.
In regard of the first of these, not one hint being given in the Word of any such thing as a humanly-appointed person to whom the breaking of the bread, or any kind of presidency in the assembly, shall be committed, they must not take upon themselves to make any such appointments.
In regard of the second, it is a painful and humiliating thought that among believers in the Lord Jesus Christ—called saints, or saints by calling— needs be that it be kept pure-there should ever arise any such manifestations of evil as should call for discipline or excision. However, while the flesh is still present in God's children, and the devil ever ready to tempt and draw into sin or error, we must ever watch against it, and deal with it when it appears. "It must needs be that offenses come," said the blessed Lord, "but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." Unfaithfulness in the discharge of this painful duty has been, alas, the occasion of much of the evil that has defaced the Church of God, and hindered its usefulness. What solemn admonitions were sent by the Lord to the churches of Ephesus, Pergamos, and Thyatira, for their negligence in this respect! (See Rev. 2.)
The Church is the dwelling-place of the Holy God, hence the needs be that it be kept pure-nothing unworthy of His sacred presence to be condoned within it.
A few plain and simple directions mark off the assembly's duties on this point.
A teacher of doctrine destructive of foundation truths, or those who share in it, must be put away as leaven; for one who associates with him who brings not the doctrine of Christ, makes himself partaker of his evil deeds (2 John 11). An immoral person must also be put away (1 Cor. 5:13).
Such, in brief, is the substance of Scripture teaching with regard to the order of God's assembly or Church; whatever is of man's invention, the outgrowth of his self-will, is to be refused. How simple are God's ways as compared with man's, and how blessedly superior in practical results! But this I leave for the present.
I want now to draw your attention to the way in which the divine principle of the "unity of the body" recovers its practical manifestation through this simple obedience to the Word.
If you will weigh carefully and compare with the Word the few items I have just set down, you will at once perceive that there is not one but has direct divine authorization. Now, no Christian can possibly object to anything divinely appointed, so that no Christian can hesitate about the propriety of doing any or all what Scripture directs upon this question. On the other hand, no Christian has a right to insist on other Christians doing anything that is not clearly and distinctly set down by divine prescription. He may draw inferences from what he finds in the Word, and these inferences will properly bind his own conscience and control his own conduct; but he has no right whatever to insist that his inferences be accepted by the assembly of God, or anything set up there on the ground of them; if he does, and either leaves the assembly because they will not adopt his views, or drives others out by setting up what their consciences cannot sanction, he is guilty of the sin of schism; and that is most seriously stigmatized by the Word (1 Cor. 1 and 12, etc.).
Whatever is set up in the assembly all the members have communion (i. e. joint participation) in; hence, the need for, and the divine wisdom manifested in, the fewness and simplicity of the regulations. If any single item be added, which the very weakest conscience in the assembly cannot have fellowship with, sectarian ground is taken up. Alas man has deemed himself wiser than God, and, thinking to improve on His arrangements, has brought in all kinds of confusion.
Take, for instance, baptism. Suppose any local assembly undertakes to make rules for the administration of that ordinance, and adopts either infant or adult baptism as its rule; it becomes a sect forthwith; it has taken upon itself to do what the Lord has nowhere authorized it to do; it has added a term of communion that is not of His making, and so excluded from its fellowship saints who cannot see with it in its view of the case.
There is one other point to be considered: it is, whether any divinely-prescribed thing is omitted. If any divine command for the assembly be left out, the charge of schism will lie against it as truly as if an unauthorized addition were made; for every obedient Christian has a right to demand that all God's will be obeyed where it has fellowship. I believe Scripture will be searched in vain for anything prescribed of God for His assembly, beyond what I have indicated, and that the ground on which the path of scriptural obedience conducts is one on which all Christians can and ought, nay, must meet, if they would prove faithful to the Lord. Not to do so is sin.
The name of Christ becomes the one center of gathering for the faithful, and this is laying the ax to the very root of sectarianism.
What is a sect? It is, as the term implies, a portion cut off. The sects are each cut off or separated from others owning the Christian name, by those peculiarities either of organization, doctrine, or discipline, whose mutual reception forms the bond of union among its members, and, consequently, their center of union or rallying-point.
Take the Presbyterian church. Here is a body of people, all of whom may be Christians, but who are bound together, apart from other Christians, on the ground that they are all agreed that the Presbyterian mode of church-government is the right or the best thing, and therefore they unite in the setting up of that form, in doing which they separate or cut themselves off from all Christians who do not see it.
Here is a Baptist church. It is a body of people, all of whom may be Christians, as the others before-named, but who are agreed in the opinion that the baptism of adult believers, by immersion, is the only right mode of baptism, and on the ground of this common belief they have associated themselves into an organization or body, in separation from all other Christians who think differently from them on that particular subject.
This, then, is the principle of sectarianism; the setting up of terms of communion or centers of organization which God has not appointed, which stand on no higher ground than man's institutions, or at best man's inferences from Scripture, as distinguished from God's express prescriptions. It is the principle rebuked in its first stage by the apostle in 1 Cor. 1.
I have instanced only two prominent denominations; you will easily apply the test to all others, as Episcopalians, Methodists, and the like.
Now, let us suppose a Presbyterian, a Baptist, an Episcopalian, an Independent, and a Methodist to get together and take into consideration on what terms they could all be united in one body; what must be their course? Clearly each would have to lay aside all that was peculiar to his denomination—the separating barrier—which would bring them on to the common ground I have indicated. Having laid aside the things they took their names from, the names themselves would no longer be needed, it would leave only the name of Christ. They would no longer be Presbyterian Christians, Baptist Christians, Episcopalian Christians, Wesleyan Christians, but simply CHRISTIANS —brethren in the Lord—as of old.
Exactly such must be the case could one suppose the Lord Jesus Christ to come down once more amongst us, to set things to rights according to the Word, and restore the unity of the Church. Can you suppose He would take position with any one of the denominations to the exclusion of the rest? No. He would go outside of all, as Moses (who pitched his tent outside the camp when Israel had failed), and to that place all who loved Him must go to gather around Himself, leaving all their sectarian crotchets behind; and there they would be gathered in His name, with Himself and His Spirit in their midst; with "gifts differing according to the grace given," and His word in their hands marking out for them the few simple, practical, corporate obligations we have already seen. If the Lord were then pleased, of His own direct authority, to restore ordained elders, or any other kind of officers, He could of course do so, but it must be of His own direct personal authority, for He has provided for nothing of the kind in the Scriptures for His Church.
Now, although the Lord is not bodily present on earth, the principle is divinely set forth in the Word for us to act upon; and it is quite manifest that its practical adoption by all true Christians would result in the manifestation once more of the Church of God in the midst of the world as one united body, having no name but that of Christ; no center of union, no head but Himself; no creed, articles, or standards save His word; no ministry save that of His own direct gifts; no rules and regulations for the assembly, save the few simple ones by Himself laid down.
But then the difficulty is to get all to agree to this. Exactly! But the point to be seen is, that the measure of our personal duty is not the hopefulness of success, but of simple obedience to God. We are to do our part in obedience and leave the rest to Him. An old proverb says, "The city is soon clean when every man sweeps before his own door."
Such are the principles which led me out of all "denominations," and brought me into association with "Brethren," whom I found acting on the same principle, in the fear of God. In another letter I will tell you
something of what I have found among them in the shape of practical results.