MAY 8TH, 1941
MAY 8TH, 1941
BELOVED BROTHER, — ... It is many years since I saw the paper, “Righteousness in the last Days” (see pp. 91 - 104) but I believe the statements in it were intended to warn against the setting up on the part of the saints of any formal claim to be “the assembly”. Well known servants of the Lord, such as J.N.D. and F.E.R., had spoken in a similar way when circumstances [p. 293] seemed to call for it. But these honoured servants spent their lives in labouring that saints might be brought into the truth of the assembly, and might walk together according to it in spiritual reality. So that the warning against assuming in a formal way to be “the assembly” is quite consistent with the earnest desire that not one iota of the truth in regard to the assembly shall be a dead letter. I believe that the Lord intends us to walk in the light of every part of that truth. He has, in wondrous mercy, revived a testimony to what is in the mind of God, and I believe that He will maintain it.
I cannot understand saints who have had light as to the assembly, and who believe that the divine thought of fellowship, and of assembly features and privileges, has been revived in mercy, and that these things are known in a practical way by thousands of saints the world over, taking the ground that assembly administration in dealing with evil is not to have any place. Matthew 18: 15 - 20 is clearly part of the truth as to the assembly; it is a divine provision for matters which the Lord knew would arise. It may, of course, be said that the assembly is not in evidence in a concrete way as it was at Corinth. But if a few saints are in the light of the assembly, and in suitable moral conditions, assembly features will be there without any formal claim to be “the assembly”. My impression is that, without any pretension, there is an increased cherishing of every part of the truth concerning the assembly, and increased desire to maintain it in a practical way. In order to this there must necessarily be the feature of assembly administration.
The Lord appears to have had a day of departure in mind when He added Matthew 18: 19, 20 to what He had said before as to “the assembly”. “Two of you” would be two of the assembly — two who hold assembly ground spiritually, however great the general departure may be. If only “two” are available they can maintain what is due to the Lord in the assembly, in dependence upon His Father, and with the support and sanction of His presence. This, when the conditions of Matthew 18: 19, 20 are found, is not a pretension but a spiritual reality, and it can be carried out in faithfulness to the Lord without any formal claim to be “the assembly”.
I fully admit the weakness of things in the present day. It is manifested by the fact that I, or any other brother, may maintain the truth at one time and discredit it at another.
[p. 294] You have had humiliating evidence of this in your own locality. But I cannot think of saints as able to take up in a practical way the fellowship, and the spiritual privilege of the assembly, and as having the Lord in their midst, and yet as unable to act with His sanction and authority in the matter of dealing with evil.
I am sorry to hear that some who have been withdrawn from claim that they are still in fellowship, for this seems to indicate an unwillingness to face the issues that have been raised, without which there cannot be a restoration of confidence.
I am not able to write as fully as I could wish, but I hope I have written enough to make clear what is in my mind. I fear that the statements in “Righteousness in the last Days” may not have been sufficiently guarded, and it may be they would need to be balanced by the statement that assembly truth and principles can be maintained, by the grace of God, without any formal claim to be “the assembly”, There has been a good deal of ministry which bears upon this with which I am in the fullest accord.
We have had our worst local raid of the war this morning. The principal destruction has been at the local hospital where a number of deaths have occurred. A brother’s house near by escaped without injury, and none of the brethren are hurt.
With much love in the Lord,
Yours affectionately in Him,
May 8th, 1941.