than ever the central place of His own name for our gathering together, no less than our salvation.
Thus, we may leave all fears and anxieties. If the Lord be our helper, why fear? What will man do?—Then, as for charges of sectarianism, presumption, or disorder, it were easy indeed to show that those are really guilty who are quick to raise and scatter them. We know that Scripture condemns every church association that is not based on and governed by the name of Christ. It is not a mere question of wrongs here or there; but are they Christians gathered to the name of Christ? Neither is it a question of the amount of evil; for what did not slip in at Corinth through ignorance and unwatchfulness? The refusal to judge known evil is no doubt fatal. But supposing the absence of every- thing gross, the true question is, Are we where the Lord would have us be? Then happy are we, if but “two or three thus:” were we ten millions anywhere else, all must be wrong, because Christ is not the acknowledged and exclusive centre ecclesiastically. The who is the only adequate and rightful object for all the saints on earth, deigns to be the centre of but “two or three,” as He says, that are “gathered together unto His name.”
