But now the question might be asked, How are we to know those with whom we are to walk in company? This leads us to enquire, What is to be the character of this company that is separated from the corrupt mass around? What is to direct their path? This I consider to be of immense importance for saints at the present day, especially for those who really feel before God the state of confusion and evil around us. I will state the principle therefore plainly, that it may guide all who really desire to follow the Lord. A company thus separated are to maintain in its integrity the purpose of God in setting up that to which they belong. I hope this is sufficiently clear to be understood by all. It will make it still more plain, however, to go briefly into what the form of God’s testimony is at the present day, as at the beginning. It is neither national nor individual. It is a collective company gathered from out of all nations, where nationality ceases to be acknowledged, and Christ is all. It is, in fact, the Church. This is what is to be maintained, the truth of God’s Church. The unity of its nature, and the separateness from evil which is its character, are to be practically maintained. Hence those saints who have separated themselves in the manner I have spoken of, are to be found “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” according to the exhortation in Ephesians 4, for “there is one body, and one Spirit.” Therefore any company, no matter what its pretensions or professions, not gathered on that ground and principle, has no claim upon the faithful saint.
But here I may be met with the objection, that in order to do this you would need the whole Church, because all believers are “baptized into one body,” and all are formed into this unity. I fully admit that the Holy Ghost, coming down at Pentecost, did baptize all believers into one body, and that now as then there is but “one body and one Spirit.” This is exactly my reason for saying that independency is so thoroughly opposed to the mind of God, for a person who is not walking in fellowship with others is not maintaining this unity, but practically denying it; the same is true of a company walking independently, whatever they may profess. It is by their practice, not by their profession, that I am to judge. The Lord did not say, “By their words ye shall know them,” but “by their fruits.”
In answer to the objection that the whole Church is necessary in order to keep the unity of the Spirit, I say, “If we had the whole Church gathered on the principles named, we would have restoration.” But it is not restoration that we can truly look for, because it is cutting off, and not restoration, that Scripture declares to be the consequence of failure. Besides, it is not at all a question of numbers, but of principles, and it is as competent for the smallest plurality (“two or three”) to act on the same principle as if all the saints of God in the world were gathered in one locality. This is not a mere opinion of mine, for we have the Lord’s own statement of it in Matthew 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20), with which, no doubt, most here are familiar: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Now observe in the preceding verses that the Lord connects with this, matters of the most serious importance, and that to the action of the two or three thus gathered to His name He attaches all the validity of the action of the Church. In reality it never was a question of the number of persons thus together, but the fact of the Lord’s presence in their midst. It is to Him that importance attaches. Hence, if you have the Lord in the midst of two or three, the same authority attaches to their actions as if you had all the saints on earth together. The saints may be just like so many ciphers; it is the unit before them that makes them of value, if I may so speak. This is the Lord Himself.