DATE UNCERTAIN

DATE UNCERTAIN

[^[p. 414] J S Oliphant] DEAREST BROTHER, — Discipline is not merely for restoration, though it be one object. It is to keep the Table pure. It is sometimes a very delicate question to settle whether the individual is so thoroughly restored as that the conscience of the assembly is not engaged, and that specially in a recent case. An old case, where I was thoroughly convinced the person was, I should not bring up, and clearly not where it was before conversion, unless in some special circumstances ... . If ‘there were serious evidences’ against genuine repentance, clearly these few should not have taken it on themselves. There seems to have been effort in this case all through to conceal it — a bad sign. Bringing up evil needlessly is a bad thing, it defiles: but without — at this distance, or hearing those concerned — pretending to judge the case, I confess there seems here to have been, where the consciences of many were engaged, an effort to screen more than to purify. The assembly remains pure, as it has not been engaged in it. If it has cognisance of it, it has to decide if it be satisfied with the report of these four. If not, it must take the case up. Bringing out sin is neither grace nor purity, but slurring it over is not the way of blessing to an assembly.