RESPONSIBILITY AS TO DISCIPLINE
RESPONSIBILITY AS TO DISCIPLINE
It is very clear that discipline is connected with the house of God, and that each one in the local assembly is responsible for any disorder there. See Numbers 5: 2. Every one is responsible for preserving the dwelling-place of the Lord fit for Him. There can be no doubt about this. But while the responsibility to preserve is definite, I do not see that one brother or more, though most faithful to their responsibility, can cut off those who are not faithful or [p. 64] alive to their responsibility, until every effort has been used to awaken them to it. I think a brother is justified in abstaining from breaking of bread, because the dishonour done to the Lord in the assembly has not been avenged; but I do not see that he has any right to conclude that his brethren, who are still insensible to the dishonour, are beyond recovery, and that the Lord has left them, and that, so to speak, the ark of the covenant is with him, and that he is warranted to break bread. Every one is responsible for every dishonour known to him. I cannot give up my responsibility because others do not see it, but I am not to disown that assembly until, after the most patient expostulation, they persist in their indifference to the Lord. I do not agree with you as to the statement in the note. I think any brother caring for the Lord’s interest is at liberty to take part in a discipline case in any place. Woe betide him if he be an Uzzah! Woe betide him if the Lord has not sent him! But I do not question his right — not as a member of the body, but as one of the guardians (as each Israelite was) of the dwelling-place of the Lord. If I were privy to a case of leaven, and if I could not awaken the responsibility of the brethren to it, I feel I might be led to stand aside, though I should not break away from fellowship or from any opportunity to work on their consciences. I must give space to repent.
I agree in the general tenor of your paper, but the difficulty in agreeing with a paper of this kind is, that it is too much like an opinion of counsel, given with reference to a certain case.