The unity of Christ's body being the ground assumed, all Christians have, in principle, a title to be there, the Lord's name being maintained as to doctrine and discipline. If you insist on a certain standard of intelligence beyond Christ, before receiving them, you prove that you are not intelligent, and you abandon your own (namely, God's) principle.
At the same time, it is all well that young converts should wait; it would do them no harm. The great requisite for receiving, is satisfaction as to membership of the body of Christ.... The principle is "one body and one spirit;" the resource, now that all is confusion and inconsistency, is Matt. 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20).
[1864.]