3 . WHY SO-CALLED ‘BRETHREN’ CANNOT UNITE WITH OTHER CHRISTIANS IN SERVICE

Blackheath, August, 1876.

My Dear Brother,

I now will answer your question why so-called brethren cannot unite with other Christians in service. Many are asking continually the same question; and recently, during the evangelistic work of Messrs Moody and Sankey, it was thought strange, if not a proof of our being outside of the current of God’s thoughts, that we did not actively take part in the movement. It is indeed argued by some that, even supposing we have the Lord’s mind as to His Church, there is not sufficient reason - as it appears to them - why we should not have fellowship with others in service, when no church principle is involved. Such is your own difficulty, and I will try to meet it according as the Lord may enable me.

1. Pray for All

We can and do pray for many a servant of the Lord with whom we cannot have fellowship. I remember once, while abroad, that an evangelist was preaching the gospel in the very house where some in fellowship were staying, and, though they could not attend his meetings, they met to pray for him every time he preached. It is my own case at this very moment. I am writing these lines in Germany. In this town a well-known English Christian is preaching the gospel, and I most sincerely and earnestly pray that God may use him for His own glory in the conversion of souls. But there are many reasons why I could not attend his meetings. In like manner, when Messrs Moody and Sankey were in London, they were continually prayed for by the saints at Blackheath.

You will thus see that it is not from any indifference to their labour that we stand apart. Indeed, it is a sore trial to be compelled to be separated from many whose zeal and devotedness we admire, a trial that could not be borne had we not been taught the precious lesson that the glory of Christ is the one thing to be considered, that He alone must be our object. I am sure you will confess that dear as His people are to us, He Himself is dearer than all others.

2. Supporting Evangelists

Let me take first the case of evangelists, for these present the greatest difficulty to many minds. Nothing can be clearer from Scripture than that the service of the evangelist is individual. He receives his gift from Christ as ascended into heaven, and to Him alone as Lord is he responsible for its exercise, Eph 4: 8-11. It is important to be clear upon this point, as there is much confusion about it.

I read last week a speech by one of your own ‘ministers’, and he declared that the main work of the church was in saving souls. No, I reply; it is not the work of the church at all. It is God’s work through the preaching of the gospel; and He has committed the preaching of the gospel not to the church, but to evangelists: - to all who with any measure of gift can preach the gospel. The preaching of the gospel is therefore, entirely an individual service. There is still another point. The evangelist is also a member of the body of Christ, and has his place as such - I am speaking now of the normal condition of things - in the assembly of God. While his service is individual, and no one can be permitted to come between him and his own personal responsibility to the Lord, he yet goes, or should go, out for service from his place in the assembly. As a consequence of this, if the Lord uses him in the conversion of souls, he will lead those who have been saved through his preaching back with him to their place in the assembly. For as soon as they have believed, they are sealed by the gift of the indwelling Spirit and are members of the body of Christ, and have their place as such at the Lord’s table. Surely the work of the evangelist is not done until those who have been converted by his instrumentality are guided into their true place as believers.

We have the fullest fellowship with all evangelists who thus labour. If we had not, we would not have fellowship with God in this respect, for, labouring according to His own mind, they can count upon His presence and rest in the confidence that His name will be glorified, whether men receive or reject their message.

Do the majority of evangelists labour in this manner? Take again the recent evangelistic movement in England and Scotland. What was its starting point? The agreement to have nothing to say as to ‘church’ differences and to endorse all sects that combined in its support! The method of operation was as follows: Before the two evangelists would go to any place, there had to be agreement between the ministers of all denominations. ‘Evangelical’ clergymen, Dissenters of all shades, and Wesleyans met side by side, forming a committee in support of the movement. The evangelists on their parts would have nothing to say to church or chapel; they would send their converts to all alike. So it was done. If God in His grace converted a sinner, he was sent back to the church or chapel which he had previously attended. Names were duly catalogued and forwarded to their respective ministers.

Can any one pretend for a minute that this was according to the mind of God? If the churchman thinks that dissent is schism, can he conscientiously recommend, or join in the movement that recommends, a soul as soon as he knows the Lord to go into schism? Can the dissenter, who holds the state-church to be an abomination, conscientiously unite to send a young believer back into that system? And yet they both did it; for a short time holding a truce as to their differences. “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in that which is much”, a divine principle which ever abides, but whoever will act upon it must often stand apart from the activities of his fellow-believers.

3. Other Movements and Activities

I have mentioned only one movement, but the same characteristics pervade most of our modern religious proceedings. It was the same with ‘the higher life’ movement. Many societies are founded upon the same tacit or avowed agreement, to ignore the Church of God; and many individual labourers, those whose names command most public attention, professedly take the same ground. Permit me then, dear brother, to ask you, in all plainness of speech, if you think it can be pleasing to God to be silent as to the question of His Church? Could the true Head of the Church look with complacency upon any man-made agreement, could He be silent upon arrangements which practically affect the unity of His body? There cannot be any doubt as to the answer. There is our ample justification for declining association with those who thus act.

The case is still stronger. It is not only indifference I charge upon those of whom I have spoken, but hostility - open opposition to the true ground on which God would have His saints assembled. This is a very grave position to assume; for if there is only one ground on earth - as the scriptures teach - upon which believers ought to be gathered, it is a solemn thing indeed to be hostile to it, i.e. to be willing to endorse all the grounds of sectarianism, but not the true ground of the Church. Therefore, we could not, without being false to the truth, join hands with those who oppose gathering only on that ground.

There is yet another aspect of the case. While we are condemned by fellow-believers for standing alone, those who condemn us don’t desire our communion unless we will give pledges which they have no right to exact, and which we could not give without being unfaithful to the Lord. Some time back I was asked to preach the gospel in an undenominational building. Before I could reply, it was added, ‘Of course you will not mention any of your peculiarities’. Would one, for the sake of going to a particular place, agree beforehand to keep back anything the Lord might lay upon his heart to speak? No, it comes back to the point already touched upon in the last letter. Is it the Lord or my fellow-believer that I have to set before me? The apostle says, “If I yet pleased men” - make this my object - I should not be the servant of Christ”, Gal 1: 10.

I would like to go a little farther into this question. As we have seen before, our place is “outside the camp”, Heb 13: 12-13, and therefore a place of separation. Are these servants of whom we have been speaking, inside or outside the camp? They are not outside, for they either tacitly sanction or openly link themselves with all the sectarian systems which man has organised and reared, these very systems which in their totality form the camp. If then, I, by God’s grace, have been led outside the camp to Christ, must I return into it or associate with those who are in it, for the sake of fellowship? I must either lose fellowship with Christ or avoid fellowship with those who are in this position. This being the case, you will see the necessity of our continuing in separation; that indeed, fidelity to Christ and loyalty to the testimony He has committed to us, forbids our taking any other path.

But, People Are Being Saved

You will, perhaps, argue, ‘But consider how many people are being saved; and if people are being saved, surely such an object demands our active co-operation’. There are two answers to this question. First, it is sad to notice how continually man and his blessing exclude or subordinate the thought of God and His glory. It is true that souls are being saved by the ministry of the Word, and we are very thankful that God in His tender mercy is thus gathering in such numbers before the coming of the Lord. But are we to rest in this? Is He, by whose grace the blessing is received, to have no glory from those who have preached the Word or from those who are being saved? Not for one minute do I desire to insinuate that the preachers and converts will forget the source of the blessing, but what I mean is this: Is not the claim of God over the saved ones to be asserted? Are they not to be reminded that, being saved, they are saved not for their own blessing merely, but for God’s glory and that God will be glorified in their entering upon the path of separation and taking the place of obedience and testimony? The desire of God’s heart for them is not accomplished until they have come forth without the camp unto Christ, bearing His reproach.

It seems almost cruel to say to newly converted persons, in answer to their question, ‘What is my next step?’ that we must refer you to your own study of the Scriptures. Recently I asked one who had just been converted, ‘Are you at the Lord’s table?’ His reply was, ‘There are so many tables, I do not know which is the Lord’s’. This is only a sample of the many believers who are ‘wandering as sheep without a shepherd’. Let the evangelists, therefore, take their stand upon the Word of God, being prepared at all costs, even at the expense of the co-operation of many beloved brethren, and of popularity too, to have God’s glory before them as the first thing in their own labours.

Let them also put it before those who are saved by their ministry. As long as this is not the case, I cannot be in association with them. In the early years it was common to speak of being at the Lord’s table but, apart from being an unscriptural statement, it has led to pretentious claims by some groups.

Secondly, if I am to co-operate with all who are used in the conversion of the unsaved, I will have to associate with Catholics, ritualists and every other section of Christendom. The fallacy lies in supposing that God endorses the position and ways of every one who is so used. Many are thus deceived. I read a letter from a minister to a believer who had been led outside the camp, in which he took this very ground. He said it was a very solemn thing to oppose a ministry which God had so manifestly owned by the blessing He had granted through it. But the question is this - and surely a teacher of the Word should have remembered it. Is the particular ministry sanctioned by the Scriptures? If it is, we are bound to receive it; if it is not, we are equally bound to reject it. So with one who is used in the conversion of souls. While I honestly bless God for the display of His grace, for my own guidance I have only to ask, Are the ways and position of the labourer according to the Word of God? If they are, I can heartily join hands with him; if they are not, I cannot associate myself with him in his false position, in his disobedience. For disobedience it is, though he may be unconscious of it.

Religious Societies

If I am constrained to be apart from many devoted labourers, how much more from the ‘religious societies’ which extend throughout the world, with their elaborate machinery for the raising of funds and their diverse activities, one of the saddest symptoms of the corruption of this evil day. I am intimately acquainted from my past position, and from having served on many committees, with their modes of action. But I do not desire to draw the veil that conceals so much that is alien to the mind of Christ, and it will be enough to say that no instructed Christian could be connected with such.

Take up certain copies of the ‘religious’ newspapers or church-sponsored magazines, and you will find bazaars advertised, many of which are rendered more attractive by military or other bands, and lotteries. Advertisements of sermons by notable men, with collections afterwards; meetings so arranged as to attract by the repute of the speakers the largest number of people. All these things are done professedly in the name of Christ.

Oh, my brother, to mention these things is to reveal their character, as well as to show the hopelessly corrupt condition into which the professing church has fallen! Can you wonder then that we stand apart or that we urge continually the need of separation from all these things which are so utterly opposed to the mind of the Lord?

I know the path of the believer, and especially of the servant, is increasingly difficult in this evil day. But we have been forewarned, and our resource has been provided. “This know also”, says the apostle in writing to Timothy, “that in the last days perilous times shall come”, 2 Tim 3: 1; and if you will examine the whole chapter you will find mainly three things. First, the characteristics of “the perilous times”, vv 2-9; second, that persecution must be the lot of the godly, vv 10-12; and finally, that the word of God is our only resource, vv 14-17. I commend this chapter to your earnest prayerful study, with the hope the Lord may use it to untangle you from all that is contrary to His will and give you confidence in Himself to take boldly the place of separation.

Having the Lord’s Mind

In conclusion I may add that the essential thing in service is to have the mind of the Lord concerning that on which we are engaged. It is impossible, therefore, to lay down absolute rules which will meet every case, but if I am in communion with Him who deigns to send me, the path will be plain, however difficult it may be to walk in it. To be, however, in communion, I must be both obedient and dependent. Our Lord thus said to His disciples - and surely also to us - “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you”, John 15: 7. The order is significant: abiding in Him first, i.e. living in constant dependence upon Him, and then His words abiding in us, controlling and governing us altogether; yea, forming Christ Himself in us; that is, first state of soul, and then the walk, life, activity, formed by the Word. Begin with Christ, and then there it not much difficulty in knowing what is suitable to Him in our path and service. May I ask you then, dear brother, to look away from your own thoughts, from your own service, and from the thoughts and face of your fellow-believers, and let your gaze be directed singly to Christ as you cry, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” For “if thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light”.

Yours affectionately in Christ,

E.D.

____________________