NO WITNESS WITHOUT SEPARATION
NO WITNESS WITHOUT SEPARATION
The body is formed by the Holy Ghost, each member being baptised by Him into one body. The Spirit’s work and therefore the servant’s business is to see that each member knows what he is called to. I cannot see how any one could drink of the selfsame Spirit and not have instincts for membership; but the servant does not put them there. Do you understand the body as one held together by the Holy Ghost? Not by any set of privileges or blessings or even by Christ as Lord. He is Head of the body, but He is not the bond of union. We are bound to Christ as Head by the Holy Ghost, and baptised by Him into one body; so that when I come to understand [p. 13] the body I am not careful merely as to what suits the members; I must take into account what suits that which binds us together — to Christ and to one another. It is the Spirit who incorporates a member into the body; no putting them in a room together with the most spiritual or breaking bread with them would do so. In this day of confusion we have had to learn what the body is, and we have had to learn the holiness of the house of God; we have had to purge ourselves from the vessels to dishonour in the systems, not merely by withdrawing from that which would immediately affect the members, as far as we could see, but from what would grieve and hinder the Spirit. Could any reprobation or separation be deemed too much? This is really the question; we see from the word of God that a simple usual act of courtesy couched in “farewell” involves us in the evil deeds of the utterer of a heresy. See 2 John 10,11. A saint may not hold it, but if he be indifferent about it, he disrespects the feelings of Christ, and the holiness of God’s Spirit, and grieves and hinders Him in himself and in the body. We charge this indifference on B———— Street. We do not charge it with heresy, but with indifference; and I see that in not one of that way is there power or knowledge of the truth which we have lately been enjoying together. I am confident before the Lord that if I were not exclusive, seeking (and it cuts home I know) to maintain what becomes the house of God here, the habitation of God through the Spirit, I should lose, as so many of my brethren have lost, those truths which are nearest to the heart of Christ. Can any true-hearted soul hesitate as to on which side he would be, on the side of indifference, or that of faithfulness to maintain the honour of Christ and that the Spirit should be unhindered? It is a very narrow issue, and alas! for the servant of Christ who cannot at once make his election. But you are, thank God, in the hands and heart of our Lord, and I trust in Him to lead you, as He has hitherto so distinctly done, as His witness in this evil day.
In unfeigned love your brother in Christ.