BROOKLYN, N.Y., JUNE 10TH, 1918
BROOKLYN, N.Y., JUNE 10TH, 1918
Mr. J. G. Deck.
My Dear Brother, — It was good to get your letter of April 6th and enclosure. All the contents are very interesting. I had heard of the difficulty at the Timaru meetings. It is but a repetition of what one has met with in America and Great Britain. Under these circumstances (Timaru) saints are apt to bite and devour one another, and so what enters their mouths and stomachs is anything but nourishing! What is needed is priestly service. There is need for isolation until the occasion of the sorrow is judged before God, but it is doubtful that this can take place unless some nourishment is introduced. The eating of even the sin offering nourishes. What the poor saints need undoubtedly is a ministry of Christ so that, as built up in their souls, they may be able to turn away from, as judging them, the wretched things that have occupied them. It is evident therefore that anyone who can help the saints at Timaru should be free to visit them so as to render a ministry of Christ.
The discrepancies which you observe in current ministry are regrettable. There can be no doubt, however, that in spite of them the Lord is meeting the needs of His people, and [p. 159] this is what should engage us. There is great weakness, and this will continue, but at the same time the Lord is sustaining, and will sustain His people. Faith sees what He does and is sustained. I was struck today with the prominence given to unbelief in Mark 16.
As regards the matter of ‘putting away’ I think it is well to bear in mind that what was addressed as the “assembly of God” at Corinth has now expanded into what we know as Christendom — a corrupt state of things — alluded to as a “great house” in 2 Timothy 2. As distinct from Judaism and heathendom, it contains all the real and unreal professors, or callers on the name of the Lord, and no one can get outside it except by apostasy. Strictly ‘putting away’ would mean putting outside the professing sphere, and we cannot undertake this! The principle taught in 2 Timothy 2 as to sin is withdrawal from it or those who practise it. I need not quote the passages. But this in no wise negatives 1 Corinthians which epistle is, as it were, “the law of the house”. Indeed it is remarkable that 2 Timothy 2 insists on the authority of all Scripture. Those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart value 1 Corinthians, only they humbly accept that conditions have changed, and so while they insist on the holiness and order of the house of God, they act according to the instructions in 2 Timothy, reinforced by the instructions (1 Corinthians) that governed the house at the beginning. The principle is the same, only the saints seek to rightly divide the word of truth and act wisely. In taking the ground of ‘putting away’ I am afraid of the danger of assuming that there is a special circle of fellowship (which would be within a fellowship), with assembly prerogatives. There is but one true fellowship which is Christian fellowship, and I would not like to assume that all ‘outside’ those with whom we walk are unfit for this. In judging sin in a person we judge it in the light of (indeed for) the whole church. That person is not fit for the society of true Christians, and so we cannot walk with him. But I must not say more now.
I thank you much for the printed paper ‘Choice Gleanings’. I hope you will not delay so long again in writing.
With love,
Affectionately yours in Christ,
James Taylor.