LETTER SIX

Blackheath, January 1875

My Beloved Brother,

The examination, I have just detailed, was carried on during the period which was included between the announcement of my resignation and my actual retirement from the ministry at L.R. Apart, therefore, altogether from the truth I taught, which had been called in question, my conclusions, which soon began to dawn upon me, as to the office I held constrained me to adhere to my decision. If indeed I would be faithful to the Lord in the matter, I had no option but to turn a deaf ear to the many affectionate entreaties addressed to me - by many - to continue with my people. All my temporal interests, humanly speaking, were bound up with my continuing, if not at L.R., yet elsewhere, ‘in the ministry’; but I dared not place considerations like these in the balance against the plain indications of the word of God, and hence it came to pass that I preached to my beloved people for the last time on September 27th. At the close of the morning sermon I told them that ‘I could not now with a conscience void of offence toward God remain; for since the evening on which I had announced my retirement, I had gone afresh to the word of God, and I felt compelled to say that I could no longer uphold our practices as to ministry and worship’, etc.

Four days after the trials and sorrows connected with my separation from my people, I was enabled to set off for Scotland, that I might be in quiet for the settlement of further questions which were rising up in my mind. I shall not easily forget our conversations upon further striking coincidences in the Lord’s dealings with us, and I still cannot but believe that our affliction was sent in reference to our position, to awaken heart-searchings before the Lord. Not only had we occupied the same position in relation to denominationalism, but we had both become associated with a particular doctrine - which I am only too thankful to have been enabled to renounce - and, as before said, we were both afflicted, both sent away to the Continent; we both returned last spring, desiring to remain with our people, and by different causes we were both compelled to resign our posts, and, without any mutual arrangement in the case, we both preached our ‘farewell sermons’ on the same day, and within a week we both found ourselves together in a strange city. May the Lord graciously incline us to hear the rod, and who and why He has appointed it, and give us grace and strength to be obedient to all His will. But to return. Seeing then that I could not again accept a ‘pastorate’ amongst Dissenters, the question with which I had now to deal was, With what Christians ought I to be identified? You will remember that I already held that believers should be gathered together on the first day of the week to break bread; and hence my attention was once more directed to ‘Brethren’; for I knew that, notwithstanding the generally-admitted scriptural character of this practice, they were the only Christians, saving some individual congregations, who gathered weekly around the table of the Lord.

The very first thing, therefore, that I determined to examine more thoroughly, and to test by the Scriptures, was their theory, or ground of worship. You are sufficiently acquainted with it to know that it presents an entire contrast with that of Dissenters. With us at L.R. the worship, so called, was all under my direction; and the plan into which we fell was much the same as that which obtains at chapels in general. We commenced with prayer and singing; then had two readings from the Scriptures, divided by singing and prayer; then came, after singing, the sermon; and we concluded with singing and prayer. Now I can truly say that I never believed that this was worship. Individual believers indeed often apprehended and enjoyed the presence of the Lord; for faith can always count upon His aid; but few of us ever thought that we were worshipping as an assembly; for, in fact, we knew that the assembly was not composed of God’s people. Another thing I may safely say, and that is that the majority - not to say all - of the believers who meet on that principle never look for any operation of the Holy Spirit while so met, excepting through the channel or instrumentality of the minister. Hence if the minister be full of the Holy Ghost, he is very often the means “ministering rivers of living water” to God’s children but if he is not; there is an almost utter lack of blessing and, indeed, it is often noticed that the spiritual state of any such congregation is determined largely by the spiritual state of the minister. The reason I am convinced is that the system makes everything depend upon the old man.

Let us then turn, on the other hand, to what I found to be the principle or ground of worship as understood by ‘Brethren’. In the first place, they are gathered together unto the name of Christ, and around His table, to break bread according to His command, every Lord’s day, Matthew 28: 20; 1 Cor 11: 23-26; Acts 20: 7, etc. That is, they gather around the Lord Himself in dependence upon and subjection to Him as Lord, knowing that He is faithful to His promise, and is present in their midst, when they are assembled to “show the Lord’s death till He come”. In the second place, and this is of primary importance, they hold from the Scriptures that the Holy Ghost, having been sent down from heaven after the ascension of the Lord Jesus, dwells now in the Church of God, and that consequently He is the power both for worship and ministry. Many Christians profess to believe that the Holy Spirit dwells in the individual believer - though this is often contradicted in the hymns they sing; and this is a most blessed truth. But the truth contended for is not only that He dwells in us individually, but that He also dwells in the Church, and the following passages may be cited in support of the statement: “In whom”, says the apostle, writing to the Church at Ephesus, “ye are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit”, Ephesians 2: 22. Here it is plain that the apostle is not speaking of the Spirit as the Spirit of adoption in believers; for he says, “ye are built together as an habitation of God through the Spirit”; i.e. together they formed the dwelling-place of God. Again, the same apostle uses these words: “The house of God, which is the Church of the living God”, 1 Timothy 3: 15; and writing to the Corinthians, “Ye” [the word is in the plural] “are the temple of the living God”, 2 Corinthians 6: 16. In the first epistle we find the other truth that our bodies - the bodies of believers - are the temple of the Holy Ghost.

We have thus the solemn truth taught, that the Holy Ghost is now on earth dwelling in the Church of God; that according to our Lord’s promise, the other Comforter is come to abide with us for ever, John 14: 16-17. Whenever, therefore, believers are gathered together unto the name of Christ, seeing that God regards every such assembly as an expression of the Church, they know, on the testimony of Scripture, that the Holy Ghost is in their midst, guiding and controlling all for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.

Lastly, there is another thing they teach - in common, one might hope, with all Christians, except, indeed, as to its application - and that is, that since the veil is now rent we have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus”; and therefore that our place of worship is above - within the veil - Hebrews 9: 11-14; 10: 1-22 - whither Christ, as our High Priest, has already entered, to appear in the presence of God for us - Heb 9: 24 - the “minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man”, Hebrews 8: 2.

Several consequences flow from these fundamental principles. First, that believers are gathered together, not as agreeing upon a certain doctrine or doctrines, or as belonging to the same denomination, but as members of the body of Christ. Anything short of this would, indeed, fail to express the Church of God; for there surely ought to be a place at the Lord’s table for every believer who is not under Scriptural discipline. In making this statement to you, dear brother, I quite admit that we aimed to secure this; but, speaking for myself, I could never succeed in the object; for some with whom I was associated had a strong objection to any breaking bread with us who were not members of other churches. They did not acknowledge that to be a member of Christ was in itself the title to the Lord’s table. Secondly, gathered as the members of the body of Christ, the priesthood of all believers is recognised, because the Lord Himself is the centre of the gathering. I had often read that passage in Peter which says, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”, 1 Peter 2: 5; and as I read it, I could not but think that the apostle had some reference to the common exercise of our priesthood when assembled. I knew that every believer could act as a priest in private; but I saw also, that if one man was appointed to pray for those assembled, there was practically a denial of our common priesthood; that, in fact, though not in profession, it was a subtle form of clerisy. And I am sure that many a Dissenting minister would confess that often - when in coldness of heart, or distress, or bitterness of soul - he has felt the necessity of being the mouthpiece of the prayers of the congregation an intolerable burden. One, indeed, I knew who so shrunk from the task that, knowing no better way, he rushed into the Establishment to find relief from his felt inability and unfitness in the printed prayers of a book. On the other hand, gathered together as described around the Lord in the power of the Spirit, bowing together in common adoration, the Holy Spirit opens as He wills the lips of one and another to pour out before the throne of grace the feelings which He Himself, has begotten in our hearts; and in this way, having an high priest - not one of ourselves - over the house of God, and knowing the Holy Spirit within us, and in our midst, as the power for worship, we “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith”, etc, Hebrews 10: 19-22. Thirdly, gathered on this ground, and - not to hear sermons or to be led through a humanly arranged ‘service’ but - for worship, the only recognised Minister is the Lord Jesus Himself within the veil. For it is through Him, and through Him alone, that our worship and praise ascend to God the Father; and the consequence is that our eyes are directed to Him, and everyone is made to feel that as the Lord alone is the centre of the gathering, so is He the only medium of the worship which is rendered in spirit and in truth, as His redeemed ones rejoice together before God in the perfect salvation which He has wrought out for them through the gift and work of His well-beloved Son.

To sum up, then, in a few words, the difference between the two ‘principles’ - if I may so express it - is this, that ‘Brethren’ are gathered together as members of the body of Christ unto His name in the recognition of the presence and power of the Spirit of God; whereas Dissenters meet as agreeing upon certain views of truth, or of ecclesiastical polity, and in unconscious denial of the presence and power of the Spirit. For their human arrangements must of necessity shut out the action of the Holy Ghost according to His sovereign will, excepting in so far as He, in tender patience and long-suffering, may be pleased to work by such arrangements for the good of souls. In other words, the Scriptures teach that believers should be gathered together as members of Christ, in dependence upon the power of the Holy Ghost, who is present in their midst; but Dissenters meet as Dissenters, looking for blessing through the channel of the minister they have appointed. Reduced to their simplest elements, the two principles resolve themselves into a belief, in the one case, in the presence and action of the Spirit; and in the other, into a practical and unconscious denial of this blessed truth.

I hardly expect that you, dear brother, will be prepared to accept these statements; but I assure you that I find them fully sustained by the Scriptures. If, however, I have overlooked any passage which is material to the argument, I shall only be too thankful if you will point it out; for the one thing I desire is to ascertain what is the revealed mind of God on this subject, and hence my prayer, as I am sure yours also, is, “Give me understanding according to thy word”, Psalm 69: 169.

Believe me, dear brother,

Yours affectionately in the Lord,

E.D.

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