BROOKLYN, N.Y., JANUARY 27TH, 1934
BROOKLYN, N.Y., JANUARY 27TH, 1934
Mr. Faithful Luke.
Beloved Brother, — It was indeed a pleasure to receive your letter; others and myself have enjoyed reading it, noting therein the brotherly spirit and affection which are in accord with our Lord’s injunction: “Love one another”. There is also an evidence in it of love in the truth, which is of the last importance in our day, when the truth is either being given up or perverted on all sides. The apostle John says of the elect lady and her children and of Gains “Whom I love in the truth”.
I much appreciate your desire to meet me and I assure you it would be a pleasure to me and my wife to meet you, and if you are free to come to New York we shall be glad to entertain you. As regards pamphlets, etc., of mine, a good few, I believe, were sent to Shanghai last year, which you may have opportunity of seeing; but I shall gladly send you others if you so desire.
That you had left Shanghai was not known to me when I wrote you, but I also sent a copy of the letter to the brethren to Mr. Nee, and he handed it to them. It was no doubt ordered of the Lord that you should also have a copy, especially as you obtained help from it.
Enclosed is a copy of a further letter the brethren here believe should be addressed to our Shanghai brethren. It seems of [p. 428] the Lord that they should have these additional facts as to Mr. Nee’s actions here and in London before them. I trust this will be your mind also and that you will be enabled of the Lord to arrive at a judgment according to His mind as to this very important matter.
Your remarks as to the correspondence between the position of the dear brethren in China now and that of brethren in Great Britain and some other countries 100 years ago call forth my sympathy. The many with you in China are just emerging from heathen darkness and cannot be regarded as seeing all things clearly (Mark 8: 25). They deserve therefore the tenderest consideration. But there is this important difference between the brethren in China now and those in Great Britain and other countries 100 years ago; you — especially Mr. Nee, yourself, and others who speak English — have opportunity of profiting by the experience of those in whom and through whom God wrought during the last century.
This is an immense advantage, for the history shows how scriptural principles and human principles have respectively worked out. The latter took root in Plymouth, where clericalism through the example and influence of Mr. B. W. Newton, became established. Mr. J. N. Darby and others withdrew from the meeting there because of this and other evils there; and later deadly evil doctrine against Christ was shown to be held by Mr. Newton.
The brethren in Bethesda Chapel, Bristol, knowing all these sorrowful things, deliberately took the ground of receiving persons coming to Bristol from the meeting in which Mr. Newton was, providing they professed not to hold his evil doctrines — ignoring the solemn statement of Scripture that one receiving into his house or greeting one who brings not the doctrine of Christ is a partaker of his wicked works (2 John 2). Breaking bread with a man expresses fellowship with him and so those who broke bread with Mr. Newton, although they might not actually hold his doctrine, were partakers of his wicked works and so were unfit for Christian fellowship. We are enjoined to “come out from the midst of them, and be separated, ... and touch not what is unclean” 2 Corinthians 6: 17. We are to hate the garment spotted by the flesh, while seeking to save some with fear (Jude 23). “Garment” would be surrounding circumstances, such as human religious organisations, unscriptural principles, false doctrine, etc., etc. Bethesda brethren [p. 429] ignored these solemn divine requirements in receiving from Mr. Newton’s meeting, and the leaven involved in this has worked among ‘Open Brethren’ ever since and has spread far and wide.
On the other hand, those who stood loyal to Christ and the principles governing the house of God, especially as to fellowship, refusing Bethesda’s principles and conduct, have been steadily blessed of God in a gracious ministry of the Spirit given through and to them — a steady stream through all the years which have elapsed, and it still goes on. The truth as to Christ and the assembly, eternal life, the gospel of the glory of God, the service of God in the assembly, fellowship, and more recently, of the absolute and relative features of the Persons of the Holy Trinity — indeed the whole system of truth has been coming before the saints with a clearness and definiteness unknown since apostolic days. The evidence of this is, of course, more apparent through those whom the Holy Spirit used, but any one who has not had this privilege may readily verify it by examining the written ministry of the period mentioned. What I am writing is no question of boasting in men — God forbid — but of owning and showing what God has done in honouring His own truth and those who, having His commandments, keep them. I am not, of course, ignoring that sorrowful things have happened through human unfaithfulness, but I speak of what God has done in relation to the maintenance of His own principles.
This ministry with the divine formations more or less in keeping with it, in hundreds of gatherings of saints throughout the world is your heritage, my beloved brother, and that of all the dear brethren in China, as it is ours in Europe and America, and you are obligated to the Lord to embrace it, profit by it, and stand firmly by it, refusing what is not of God until He comes for us all.
Latitude allowed to persons breaking bread to retain their links with human religious organisations, and others of a worldly nature, may give you larger numbers, as is witnessed among ‘Open Brethren’, but it involves the spirit of the world and material unsuited for assembly formation — a state of things that the Lord cannot identify Himself with and in which the Holy Spirit will not have liberty to operate. 2 Timothy is especially the scripture for our day as regulating us in reference to Christendom as it is, and the “seal” there is, “the Lord knows those that are his; and, Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”, (2 Timothy 2: 19). Iniquity is evil, unrighteousness, in various forms; and then there are vessels “to dishonour” (verses 20 - 22), and these (persons) have also to be separated from. To allow people to break bread until they have thus cleared themselves is to link ourselves on with the evil — for this is the significance of the word fellowship — with which they are linked. The types — important instruction from God — such as Leviticus 11, show that if one touches an unclean thing he renders himself unclean.
What you mention as done at Foochow in allowing persons to break bread — some for eight years — who retained their links with the ‘churches’ is certainly not in accord with 2 Timothy 2. Nor was it in keeping with the order of the truth in 1 Corinthians. There, fellowship (communion is the same word) (chapter 10) comes before the Lord’s supper (chapter 11). The former is exclusive of what is inconsistent with the death of Christ; the latter is inclusive of those that are consistent with it. The principle of Scripture as to these matters is, “Cease to do evil, learn to do well”, Isaiah 1: 17. The principle governing you at Foochow was to get people to do well with the hope that they would cease to do evil. Thus you had some in fellowship with you there for eight years who had not ceased to do evil!
Please pardon so long a letter, but the spirit and tone of your letter encourages me to write freely and I trust that what I have written will be of service.
With love in Christ to you and the brethren. I am,
Affectionately in Him,
James Taylor.