By Faith Ye Stand
By a somewhat strange coincidence two printed papers were put into our hands at the same moment a few days ago. Both were anonymous. The shorter of the two, “Government in the Assembly,” seems scarcely likely to help towards the “healing” desired in its closing paragraph. Government there may be, and alas, has not infrequently been, and that, too, in the House of God, which, nevertheless, could in no way be said to be according to God. It was so in apostolic times. There was government (or rather misgovernment) in the days of Diotrephes, who not only refused himself to “receive the brethren,” but forbade them that would, even casting them “out of the Church.” All this brought dishonor on the Lord, and distress to the saints, who had to suffer until such times as the Lord gave power and grace to rectify it.
The larger pamphlet we are glad to see reprinted after sixty years. Had its instructions been heeded, how much of sorrow might have been spared us! We heartily commend it to our readers’ notice. It most powerfully and strikingly brings out how anxiously the apostle Paul labored to bring the conscience of the saint into living contact with God Himself, and to interpose no authority other than that of His Word between the soul and God—not even the God—given authority of the apostle himself. “We do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying” (2 Cor. 12:1919Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. (2 Corinthians 12:19)).