Lots of interesting historical comments from P23 onwards;
It refers to Christians whose _fellowship consists of an affiliated number of meetings in various parts of the world, and formed into_ a corporation, with practically no connection with other children of God. That, dear reader, is the mighty “we” our brother referred to. If you have ever been, within the radius of that circle, and are no longer there, no matter how ignominiously, or 23DIVINE FELLOWSHIP unrighteously, you have been _ expelled, you are viewed ' t d s unfit for recognition, in any proper Christian and trea e a _ u sense, and are ‘ ‘no longer in fellowship. There are hundreds 't t tli truth of this living who will sorrowfully bear wi ness o ' e indictment ' it is one of the saddest spectacles that disgraces the House of God today and the pity—the supreme pity of it is—that this propaganda is carried out under the plea that “God wills it.” The very constitution of such a “fellowship” is sectarian to the core, and has been the cause of heart-breaking grief among the people of God and of deep dishonour to the One who died” to gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad." (John 11 : 52.) Fellowship according to the divine idea is not one of meetings but of “one with another”—saints with saints— not meetings with meetings. The Holy Spirit has baptized each believer into the unity of the body of Christ, “whether he be Jew or Gentile, bond or free, and has made them all to drink into one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12 : 13). Scripture knows nothing of a unity of assemblies, but knows everything of the unity of the members of Christ’s body. There are not two spiritual corporations contemplated in the Word, one being the living organism of that mystic body com- posed of all believers, quickened, redeemed and sealed—— and another, the miniature imitation of it composed of an affiliated circle of meetings, bound together by an eccles- iastical cordon. The former is united to its Living Head in glory and to all who are His below, and they united to each other _in the eternal bond and power of the Spirit of God; for we are not only members of His body, but also members one of another (Eph. 5 : 30 ; Rom. 12 : 5). Mem- bership of a meeting, or of a consolidated number of them, is foreign both in language and -in fact to divine revelation. There is no desire to make undue capital out of a mere term, or to make a man “an offender for a word.” I-lad a local gathering of saints been intended by the “we” no special objection could have been taken; but that is pre- cisely what was not meant. No ; it is not the “we” of a few of the Lord’s people assembling together but the “we” of a self-constituted corporation embracing those only 24DIVINE FELLOVVSHIP within its own special jurisdiction. This humanly con- structed instrument lias expelled scores of meetings, with multitudes of its former adherents over whom it had no more administrative authority than Ephesus had over Sardis, or Smyrna over Thyatira. Such is the force of this ecclesiastical weapon that it has become possible to excoinmunicate some of the saintliest of men, the devoted servants of our Lord : Men, too, of unquestioned gift and ability conspicuous for Christ-likeness and of uiitiring en- ergy in His service. “No matter,” says this perverted use of power “the principle of the unity of the body” must be maintained and all must submit or be discarded and treat- ed henceforth as unfit for Christian communion; in fact, relegated to the place of the unclean and unbelievino‘ And this, Christian reader, claims to be “discipline in uié House of God.” This wholesale expulsion of saints and honored servants of Christ is the necessary result of the “circle fellowship.” Its fruit is consistent with its root; neither of which have any foundation in Scripture. Each local assembly derives all its blessings, and authority from the fact that “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18 : 20.) Any assembly pre- suming to control, or adjudicate in the affairs of another, is setting authority against authority, which can only end in disaster, besides being an unwarrantable intrusion into that realm where the Lord Jesus Christ alone is the Ad- ministrator. “W'liere are you now ‘?” inquired a brother of repute as he entered the apartment of the train in which the writer was travelling : I replied “with the Lord’s people.” This I knew would not satisfy my interrogator and again the query was repeated. “No, but where are you ?” My reply was to repeat the previous statement remind- ing him that those he was “with” had cast out some whose shoes neither of us were worthy to dust and naming one such whose praise was in all the assemblies I The formula adopted in the dismissal from this favored circle as “being no longer in fellowship” or “put away-from amongst us” are probably superseded by others of a more generous tone such as “the want of aflinity," or “unable to walk 25DIVINE FELLO\VSI-I IP any longer with them.” But this is only dust thrown ' 't f th arlie in the eyes to escape the onus and severi y o e e r, but more honest formula ; the change is only in the label, the prescription is the same, resulting in the _victim or victims being “outside” no longer to be recognized as of the family of God. Comparatively recently a letter was ' d from one (converted through the instrumentality receive _ of his correspondent) saying how grieved he had been to . . . . . . 1. d f pass him in the street without recognition. Tins {III o treatment meted out to large numbers of the redeemed of the Lord, whilst arousing feelings of indignation, and strong resentment, should also bring the blush to the cheek, and tear to the eye, and put us flat on our faces, before God in humiliation, all round. After this somewhat lengthy digression, we return with deepened confidence to the Spirit’s assertion that “we have fellowship one with another ;” this includes all the family of God ; it is a part of the three- fold blessing set forth in the verse at the head of this article. “In the light,” “Fellowship one with another,” and “Cleansed from all sin.”