UNKNOWN

UNKNOWN

... My impression is that in the present state of things there are many matters which have to be left to individual exercise and conscience, and I think the holding of shares in companies is one of them. Personally I should not feel free to be a shareholder, on the ground that it is really a partnership, and as a matter of principle, I do not see any difference between being in partnership with one or two unbelievers, or one or two thousand or more. I should think the latter just as undesirable as the former. This is how it presents itself to me, and I would seek grace to walk in the steps of my own exercise. The fact that very many Christians — and amongst them very many who are probably more spiritual than I am — feel quite free to take up shares in industrial and other companies, is a ^[p. 358] matter which I would leave as between them and the Lord. But I have no doubt that voluntary links of partnership with those who are unbelievers are spiritually enfeebling, and not without their effect upon the public testimony. Satan works in subtle ways to draw believers into associations which are not of God, and the whole trend of things in the modern world tends to make it appear desirable, or even necessary, to have one’s part in such associations. But if the men whom the Father has given to the Son are not of the world even as He is not, it draws a broad line of separation, and spiritual enlargement depends in great measure on that line being maintained in integrity, 1 Corinthians 6.

Where there is genuine personal exercise as to such matters, I think we may fully count on the Lord to make plain the way in which He would have His own to walk with reference to them.