of God is wiser than men.’ Hence the expression, ‘Destruction and death say, we have heard the fame thereof with our ears. God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the place thereof.’ But as regards man, this is wisdom — divine wisdom — ‘the fear of the Lord;’ and divine understanding in man is ‘to depart from evil.’ But let me ask you, what clue is there here to guide to a solution of his difficulty about church position? About which, after all, there is no difficulty, if people will take the plain guidance of New Testament Scripture. But when people have some dogma to propound which they are conscious that plain Scripture knows nothing about, the invariable resort is to some mystical principle which lies beyond the vulgar ken.”[1]
This is, by no means, an unfair example of their method of quotation on most of the subjects on which they write. The consequence is, that since there are very many who do not trouble themselves to verify the references, simple minds are often seduced into doubts concerning their own position, because they have been told that it is condemned by Scripture. Again, they are very careful in their modes of attack to conceal their own distinctive beliefs. They single out the weak points in other systems for attack―and they ask, Can these be justified? Thus, on one occasion, “brethren” stationed themselves at the entrance of all the places of worship in a certain town, and gave a tract to all, entitled, Twenty Questions for Plain Christians. Some of these were difficult to answer; but, if I had drawn up twenty questions for “the Brethren,” I must have repeated some of these, and they could not have answered more easily than ourselves. But it is their business by every spiritual as well as Scriptural agency, to get us into our true position in the assembly of “the brethren.” Ah! that word spiritual covers a great deal, and is made to serve, in this case, some very unspiritual uses. I
- ↑ Letter iii., pp. 12 and 13.
