10, CROOMS HILL, GREENWICH, JANUARY 30TH, 1899

10, CROOMS HILL, GREENWICH, JANUARY 30TH, 1899

Mr. F. Fentiman.

My Dear Brother, — Many thanks for your letter. I have not written to Allinson, as the brethren are moving in the matter, and I do not want to give him the impression that I am taking up his cause. Apart from the question of his state I should think he has been roughly handled. When one charge breaks down, it is hard to deal with a man on another — it gives an impression of a determination to get him out. I am always a little doubtful of charges of railing — the term is made to do duty for things hardly included in the idea. Railing means reviling — as they reviled Christ — or as Paul reviled the high priest speaking to him as “thou whited wall”. If a man spoke of the Queen as a wicked immoral person I should call that railing. But we do not put a person out for railing, but as a railer — that is as one commonly given to it, and in that way unfit for fellowship. If a man has any light or conscience, so that when put out he is unable to turn to the sects or systems, it seems to me that excommunication (in its effects on a man’s family) is a most awful punishment, and ought only to be resorted to in the last extremity. From what you say I should think brethren might have marked their disapproval of Allinson’s course and conduct in some way short of that. I am very glad to hear a better account of yourself, and remain, with love in the Lord,

Your affectionate brother,
F. E. Raven.