ASSEMBLY DISCIPLINE NO. 1

ASSEMBLY DISCIPLINE NO. 1

There is no subject more difficult to make a rule about than discipline in the assembly. No two cases are alike, and the course which it is quite of the Lord to adopt in one case would not answer at all, that is, would not be His pleasure for us to follow, in the next, or in any other ^[p. 58] case, however similar in character and name, because, as I have said, no two are really alike. The great principle is that the leaven should be purged out, that is the end in view, because it is the holiness of God’s house with the welfare of the saints which is the end desired. The assembly is defiled by unjudged leaven. I cannot sanction it until I know it. The Corinthians knew of it, but were indifferent to it. The leaven therefore worked. If I heard of a saint who had transgressed, and if on expostulation I was assured that the leaven had been judged, I should not think it necessary to name it to the assembly; but if I were not assured, I should name the case to another, and if he agreed with me that the leaven was still there, it must be brought before the assembly. I believe everything should be done to arouse the conscience and produce self-judgment before the assembly is called upon to purge out the leaven by excision. As soon as the man in Corinth was repentant, the apostle was as strong with regard to his restoration as he was before as to his excision.

As to the scandal in the world, no church discipline would satisfy their ideas of morality. The only way to silence the world, or to obtain exoneration from it, is by a strict and unremitting separation from the former manner of life.

If a transgressor desired to confess to the assembly, I do not see how any one or two could interfere.

Where there is an assembly meeting to consider a case of discipline, and the discipline has been there and then decided on before the Lord and the assembly, there is no need to mention it at the Lord’s table. But in London, where there are many assemblies, the decision can only be in one, and therefore it is necessary to mention the decision there, as the assembly is there present, but it is not necessary to do so in the place where the decision was arrived at in the meeting for discipline.