APRIL 29TH, 1940

APRIL 29TH, 1940

^[p. 280] BELOVED BROTHER, — ... There can be no doubt that in all parts of the Christian profession there are those who seek, according to their measure of light and gift, to preach the gospel so far as they have apprehended it. And God answers the prayers, and blesses the labours, of earnest persons wherever they are, and even when they are in associations which are not at all in accordance with the truth. We can be thankful that in the sovereignty of God’s mercy it is so, for if God did not work anywhere save where things were all in accord with His mind, how small would be the area in which He could work!

But if we felt free to identify ourselves with all who in any measure preach the grace of God, and get conversions, there would be no separation at all. We should find ourselves mixed up with every kind of spiritual disorder, and with many vessels to dishonour. We should thus be acting in disobedience to the will of the Lord, and we should drop out of line with His testimony.

Satan seeks to corrupt what is of God very largely by mixing it up with what is not of God. And he even uses what is of God to accredit institutions and associations which are not of God. For example, every earnest clergyman who preaches some measure of the truth accredits by it the system with which he is connected. The wrong system derives some sanction from the fact that earnest and godly men remain in it. They ought all to withdraw from unrighteousness, and to purge themselves from vessels to dishonour by separating from them. If they do not do so they are in a false position, even though God in the sovereignty of His mercy may use them to bring some measure of light and blessing to souls. It would not be right for us to go to them in a false position — a position which God has shown us to be contrary to His mind. It would be giving up what God has committed to us for testimony, and we should inevitably drop down to the level of what we associated with.

I trust you will see clearly that what God does in His sovereignty is not a guide for us as to what we associate with. We must be guided by obedience to what He has made known to us; our path must be determined by the light which He has been pleased to give us.

^[p. 281] We pray for the work of God universally, but I do not know that I should feel free to pray in the prayer meeting specially for any work which I could not recognise as furthering the unity of the Spirit....

Yours affectionately in Him,

April 29th, 1940.