JULY 24TH, 1926

JULY 24TH, 1926

MY DEAR BROTHER, — ... Your “plain question” is, “If a member of the — applied for fellowship would you refuse her?” I know nothing personally of — and I have not been able to gather much from several I have spoken to as to the movement, so that I hardly feel free to answer your question by a definite “Yes” or “No”. I can only speak in a general way of what appears to me to call for consideration in such a case.

I gather from your letter that none of the brethren, save ^[p. 146] those in the family of the one in regard to whom this exercise has arisen, are happy as to the associations in which she is at present found. I should fully share the exercises of the brethren in regard to this, and should have serious doubts as to whether the holding an official place in such a movement could be regarded as consistent with a desire to be in separation to the Lord, and to walk in the truth of Christian fellowship. My exercise as to this would be intensified if the applicant had had opportunity of being instructed in the truth.

If one who was identified with such an organisation asked to break bread I should certainly feel it right to raise the question of her associations, and to seek to exercise her on the line that the truth of fellowship precedes the truth of the Lord’s supper, and that there is but one fellowship recognised by the Spirit of God. I should consider that it was for the good of the applicant to raise this question, with a view to her disentanglement from an association that could not be spiritually helpful. And I should expect the raising of the question to lead to a clearer apprehension of the nature of Christian fellowship. In many cases the only thought is to break bread in remembrance of the Lord, but it is well that souls should understand that they are divinely called to a fellowship or partnership, and that they definitely commit themselves to that fellowship in breaking bread, and that it raises the question of all their associations. It is a bond to which we have to be true at all times.

I have never ceased to be thankful for the months I was kept waiting when I desired to break bread. It taught me to judge my own will, and the workings of my mind, and to see the importance of subjection to the Lord, in a way that was a great blessing to me. Such things become a test as to whether we are prepared to be in subjection as those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. If I only want His will and way it simplifies everything wonderfully.

Our dear young sister, having been brought to know the Saviour for her own peace and joy, is no doubt fully convinced that there is no remedy for the condition of those who are sinful save the good news of God’s salvation in Christ. She knows what will meet the need in the fullest and truest way. There is a divine means by which alone girls, or others, can be guided into the way of peace. It is open to our dear sister to put all her energies into the blessed work of making the ^[p. 147] Lord Jesus known as Saviour, and seeking to bring souls to Him. Paul was “separated to God’s glad tidings”, Romans 1: 1, he stood apart from every other means of elevating men, as knowing that nothing else could meet the case in which the children of Adam were found. I think it would be very helpful for our sister to consider whether the movement she is connected with is God’s way or man’s. The world has its own ideas — partly formed under the influence of Christianity — of what is desirable, and of how to bring it about, and it is not our business to interfere with what they do. But we, as believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, know that what is needed is Christ. We have something infinitely superior to offer.

I think it must be admitted that an organisation of a semi-religious character stands on quite a different footing from what is merely educational, or of the nature of personal influence. To be formally connected with such an association I should regard as a very serious entanglement for a Christian.

I cannot but feel concerned to learn that the exercise which the brethren have had on this matter has not been appreciated by the relatives of the young sister, and that there is even a possibility of their ceasing to break bread with us on this account. This looks very much as if they might be ready to make this association a “test of fellowship” by insisting on its acceptance by brethren. They cannot surely think that to maintain liberty to belong to an organisation of this kind is of greater importance and value than the privileges connected with the fellowship!

With reference to the case of a sister who refuses to meet another sister desiring to break bread I think she ought to do so, or furnish the brethren with some valid reason for her refusal.

For some time there has been desire for a further revision of the hymn book, but nothing of a very definite nature has been done in the matter so far as I know. It is very probable that there are hymns now which it would be a spiritual gain to have available, and there is room for some revision of those in the present book. I do not think brethren are the least bit inclined to take up “fanciful ideas”. I believe there is an increasing desire to subject things very carefully to the test of Scripture.

With love in the Lord Jesus,

Yours affectionately in Him,

July 24th, 1926.