" To take pleasure in iniquity" is iniquity-the sure sign of the presence and power of the Evil One. To the man of God, testimony against evil, if needful, will always be humbling; for he testifies against that which he knows and feels is but natural to, and characteristic of, his own heart and circumstances as a fallen man. Other springs, doubtless, will yield their tribute, too, to his soul; for his testimony flows upon the ground, through unmerited grace, of service to God and His Christ, by the Spirit. Of all the solemn, painful, and heart-rending responsibilities, that which is most so, perhaps, is the duty of raising the voice for God and the Lord, while proclaiming in the presence of men of this world the failure of brethren beloved; and worst of all, when the conviction is-that a delusion of Satan has been allowed to lead them captive. Yet, silence at such a time would be wrong, because inconsistent with self-preservation, the welfare of God's people, and the vindication of the holiness of His name, and the truthfulness of His testimony before man. " Let God be true, but every man a liar." Surely, if Satan is in the field, misleading any of the flock of Christ, one may say" Cursed is the man that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully."
As for the world, its pleasure, as in idle talk over the failure of God's children and of professors, is the sure token as to it that its damnation slumbereth not. "Idle words" it shall give account for to God in the day of judgment. Does that which dishonors God and Christ, grieves the Spirit, pains the brotherhood, and stumbles the world, delight the heart of Satan? The worldling, too, can find pleasure therein. Woe to them whose pleasure is as that of the devils. But the church of God, and, when it fails, the man of God, is nevertheless bound to vindicate the holy name of the God of mercy, and to renounce every work of "the world, the flesh, and the devil," as not fruits of faith or the Spirit, and as inconsistent with the mercy as with the holiness of God.
No veil covers us. Myself I avow, I desire to bear the shame of my own and my brethren's nakedness, and that all our sins may go before to judgment. Better to have the testimony of the Spirit and of one's own conscience, and the sneer of the world, than to lose these and retain the approbation, or even the continued communion of brethren. To continue in fellowship with any gathering which persisted against testimony, in still lying under such an evil, ought to be felt to be morally impossible where there is faith. The nature of the evil, too, must painfully affect the character of intercourse with those who are individually accomplices. Better for all, however, to be forced to confession, than subjected still to the leavening plague of such an evil.
One word as to church position:-What is that, if it is not a position in the light, where all is made manifest, and nothing can be hid. Impossible the thought, that where the Holy Ghost is, there, unconfessed sin should be covered over; or that where life in Christ is, it should not detect and confess every evil inroad of Satan. Let the confession be in the same circle as was the sin, and the knowledge and fruits of it. God loves the members of Christ's body too well to cover up sin without judging it. What is the church on earth, if thought of as a place exempt either from the moral government of God, or from the holiness, truthfulness and purity, which become the habitation of God?
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