JANUARY 26TH, 1899

JANUARY 26TH, 1899

MY DEAR BROTHER, — I have received your letter of the 24th inst., and I am very sorry to learn from it that Mr. — persists in a course which alienates him from the confidence and fellowship of many brethren who would gladly have the fullest fellowship with the gospel. I have no fellowship whatever with a course which can only be justified on the supposition that theatres, placards, and newspapers are essential to the furtherance of God’s work in this world.

If these things are not essential, and Mr. — might admit that they were not, I think it is a very ungracious spirit which thrusts them to the front and forces them upon saints in spite of repeated protests. I regard the self-willed spirit which this betrays as being more serious in itself and in its effects upon the saints than the methods which it pursues. It is a spirit which will sacrifice unity and fellowship rather than abandon its own methods, and which works on lines of expediency rather than spiritual judgment and intelligence.

Mr. — knows very well what I think on these matters, and if he represents me as having fellowship with his course, all that I can say is that he has much mistaken what I have said to him. It is quite possible that at some time he may have mentioned in writing to me that he was going to preach in a theatre, and I may have said in reply that I hoped God would bless souls through his ministry of the gospel.

I would go a long way in forbearance with the methods of an earnest evangelist, and would be the last to seek to put him in bondage as to the detail of his service. But when it comes to the wholesale adoption of worldly means and methods, and the principle of expediency is exalted above the essential ^[p. 23] principles of Christianity, I feel bound to protest against it.

I think God has been graciously helping us to see that all the true power of Christianity lies in unseen things — Christ being at the right hand of God, and the Holy Spirit here to act in power and to give effect to God’s gracious thoughts of blessing. If this were truly apprehended I am sure it would make us all very independent of human machinery. We should get away from the littleness of man and his methods, and we should have more true power for the service of the Lord.

I trust that the brethren may be gracious and wise, and that nothing like the spirit of party or division may be allowed to come in, but that all the saints may be kept together in growing acquaintance with God’s mind; their love abounding yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence, that they may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent.

With much love in the Lord,

January 26th, 1899.