MR. MASTON BELL, a successful Western Australian business man, has served the Brotherhood both at State and Federal levels. For many years he has been a member of the Federal Aborigines Mission Board and has occupied the position of Chairman of the Board for a long period. He has also done a great deal to guide the administration of an interdenominational mission for aborigine children at Roelands, W.A.

FIRST--LIBERTY

      In this pamphlet the writer wishes to present an honest look at the privileges we claim under the guise of LIBERTY. In a civilised community how much liberty do we have? A careful study of our much prized democratic way of life reveals infinitely more restrictions than liberties from the toddling stage to old age. I may not speed, drive on the wrong side, go through red lights, cross the corner on foot except when the lights say "Walk." I may not screw the necks of my neighbour's turkeys which constantly fly the fence to scratch my garden, nor disturb my neighbour's rest by suiting myself with a party for my friends. My work regiments both my time and talent. Subconsciously I adjust myself to every restriction while boasting of how much liberty I possess. So liberty even in a democratic community is not only severely restricted, but becoming increasingly so by a growing volume of laws in a mounting pile of statute books.

      Then it is surprising how much licence is taken with the liberty we are allowed. Teenagers put on all sorts of escapades going as far as they can until the law intervenes. Bathers go to the limits of minimum dress until beach inspectors have to insist "cover up or get off the beach." Every new missionary discovers that our Native children will test each one to find how much liberty they can take.

      We conclude that human nature of itself knows no stable standards. It recognises no bounds except those placed by the society in which it, resides. These may be relatively high or may, with succeeding generations, seriously deteriorate in both morals and ethics.

      But the Christian is in possession of a regenerated life. In his unregenerate state, "dead in trespasses and sins", he is bound by no other standards than those of the level of society around him. Now, in his new estate, "the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord searching all the inward parts." Professing Jesus Christ as Lord, and baptised into Him, mind, emotion, and will have been surrendered. He is "BONDSLAVE." How much liberty has a bondslave outside his master's commands and wishes?

      The apostle Paul expressed his liberty in 1 Corinthians 8:13, "If my eating a food is cause of my brother's falling or of hindering his spiritual advancement, I will not eat such flesh for ever" (Amplified New Testament).

      The Christian's Saviour, Lord and Master, retains all the perfection of the Godhead bodily, and freely grants the gift of the Holy Spirit to every penitent baptised believer (Acts 2:38 ff.). From then on, outside the Divine Will, imparted by the Holy Spirit, how much liberty does he have? NONE! Except at peril of reducing himself to the level of the carnal life so severely dealt with by the Apostle in his Corinthian letter. He can refuse the "EARNEST" of the Spirit. He can "GRIEVE" the Holy Spirit. He can "QUENCH" the Holy Spirit. But only at great cost.

      The recent Australian Ministry of Major Ian Thomas, ably brought into prominence the state of relationship

as practised by Christ with the Father, and therefore incumbent upon His disciple. Fulfilment is consummated by a total surrender of self (the flesh) to a total dependence on God. From scripture, Major Thomas taught, with expositional constance, that Jesus, of Himself as perfect man, did NOTHING.

      "I can of mine own self do nothing" (John 5:30). "I do always those things which please Him" (John 8:29). "The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me" (John 14:24). Jesus rejected the liberty to think, say or do anything apart from His Father's will, even to delaying to perform good works until "the fulness of time." If such was the restriction of liberty for the Son of Man, how much liberty belongs to the disciple who professes allegiance to the Lordship of such a Master?

      We invoke the thoughtful attention of the reader to the principle here enunciated and practised by the One we sometimes too lightly affirm as Lord and Master. We shall show later, through application, how this principle supplies the solution to distress, tension and division, in both the Church and Christian life.

MAJORITY RULE

      There are times when God does work through, and uses, majorities. But no assurance is ever given that He will do so. History, and especially Biblical history, demonstrates that more often His purposes are achieved, and His truth maintained through very small minorities, and sometimes, even through a single person. Any majority that fails to maintain the course of faith and obedience set down by His revealed truth in the performance of His purposes, is rejected by God in His own way and in His own time. Scholarship is important and desirable, but if it veers from the path of revealed truth into speculative unbelief, it carries no authority, no matter how great its majority. God has a special reason for resisting the self-inflating tendencies of humanistic majorities. Listen to His word to Gideon--"The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me." (Judges 1:2).

      A growing and worldly practice of Majority Rule seems to have taken possession or, and to be making havoc in, much of Church and Christian life. Unwittingly, and in ignorance, many Church Boards take for granted that this practice of the world is the principle on which to administer and conduct the affairs of the Church. Younger and inexperienced Deacons and congregations easily fall into this trap. Important local church decisions will be made on a majority vote without any regard for unanimity in the Will of God.

      Maybe a Conference is approaching. Certain matters will be raised on which to confer. After conferring, a vote of Conference will be taken. But beforehand, Deacons' Boards, without hearing the pros and cons, have "instructed" delegates how they must vote. Minority representation of the Church is ignored. The conscience of the minority deacons is violated. Pressure may be strong enough to dictate "Vote with the Majority or vacate as delegate." Here is Party Politics in the very heart of the Church! It is not right, even in politics, to compel a man to vote against the dictates of his conscience, and it certainly has no scriptural warrant for such practice. The principle formulated in the New Testament is UNITY OF HEART AND MIND. But first let us see where Majority Rule can take us.

      Here are thirteen churches who form an Association. They are spiritually warm, strongly united

and fundamentally sound at the time of incorporation. Later one or two Churches introduce something which makes the rest uneasy. Wisdom from the Song of Solomon says, "Take (catch) the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards (of our love), for our vineyards are in blossom" (2:15). Suppose it may be a loose attitude towards Baptism in relation to Church membership. This, for Churches of Christ, immediately comes into question by the scriptures. In a spirit of love and harmony, disturbed consciences remain silent, or are urged to keep silent.

      In due course, perhaps in another generation that may have received more instructions from theologians than in what "the Bible says," the issue comes to a head to be voted upon. By now, seven churches, each with a 60%-40% majority local vote and with delegates "instructed," carry the issue against the remaining six. Open Membership is then to be accepted by the whole Association on what could be as low as a 40% against 60% individual conscience earnestly desiring to hold the Scriptural standard.

      Meantime, other "little foxes" have been doing their mischievous and destructive work. In time, by majority consent, belief in the Virgin Birth, a literal Heaven and Hell, the ultimate raising of the Body, a last judgment of all human beings, and other doctrinal standards, have all gone.

      Where do we go from here? Majority Rule has decided it all. The disciple who determines to stand by the scripture--how much can he take? When he makes a stand for the Truth, he is labelled divisive. When six churches decide to continue in the original paths of the Association they are charged with causing a split. The inevitable end result is a stultifying of the real work of the Evangel, to win souls into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. So Majority Rule, outside Faith and Obedience, is unscriptural, dangerous, divisive, and even destructive.

      There is no justification for believing that God is the slightest bit interested in man's method of conducting His affairs merely through weight of numbers. Neither in His Church nor through mass pressure on world governments. Just this very minute, while writing, a radio message has come from Roman Catholic's top authority, announcing its moves towards union of all Christians. It gave as the specific reason for union that one united church voice will then be able to deal influentially with world governments.

      One voice under the power of Rome? "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh." Weight of numbers at prayer YES. Weight of numbers to govern--NO! "The government shall be upon His shoulder."

      How much of the gospel would we have had from Peter and John had they given way to the rule of the majority (Acts 4:19)? Seventy men in the Sanhedrin, against two in the dock! Their unhesitating reply was, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." God constantly champions His truth through the Gideons, Elijahs, Jeremiahs, Daniels, Luthers, Wycliffes, and an innumerable host in every generation.

UNITY OF HEART AND MIND

      We turn now to the scriptural principle for all success for coworkers with God. The follower in the Saviour's way can only remain a true disciple at the price of Eternal Vigilance in matters of Faith and Obedience. The penitent baptised believer has received the gift of the Holy Spirit. If we may use simple phraseology, the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit in relation to the believer's living is:-

      1. to discover for the believer the Mind of Christ for his thought:

      2. to energise towards response in accepting the Will of Christ for his action

      3. to provide the wherewithal to perform that which is desired by Christ.

      It follows logically that there is only one Mind of Christ. If two believers differ critically on anything pertaining to the Kingdom of God, both could be out of the Mind of Christ. One could have failed to know the Mind of Christ. It is impossible, while they still disagree, that both have found the Mind of Christ. God normally gives correction through prayer and the reading of His Word. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." But only if read earnestly, without, prejudice, seeking the Holy Spirit's illumination upon it. To the reader rejecting the terms for illumination, the Bible can be a closed and dead book, no matter what his scholastic attainments.

      We have no quarrel with scholarship. Indeed, it is a growing essential to confront the ever increasing clever knowledge of man, with the deep ravines of revealed truth, which alone can supply the sure foundation for his faith and his eternal security. But scholarship, run to seed in its own importance, untempered and unguided by a complete surrender to the Holy Spirit of the Omniscient God, provides no safe course for the disciple of Christ. The poorest widow, or most humble saint, may enjoy the experience of an illuminated life of victory and peace, while the misguided, profoundest scholar wilts in disappointment and defeat.

      The distinction is exceedingly simple. Yet it is surprising how many sincere and earnest Christians fail to find it. The proposition, as shown above, from the perfect humanity of Christ, devolves itself into whether the disciple attempts to do God's work with his own resources, in his own way, or, whether he makes himself unconditionally available for the Holy Spirit, with His illimitable resources, to do the work for which He, the Holy Spirit, has been Divinely commissioned. In short--exactly as the disciple's Lord lived.

      So the solution for the two who disagree, is to surrender to the terms required to find the single Mind of Christ until there is UNITY OF HEART AND MIND UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. What stands for two, applies with equal relevance to any committee, or large numbers, or congregations.

      How often waiting is harder than working! How often the fruit could have been a hundred-fold instead of seed falling by the wayside! How often soul-winning work for the Kingdom is crippled by man-organised programmes outside the Mind of Christ! How often a Church could be prolific in its fruitage under this Divinely instituted principle! Why don't we restore the spirit and the practice of the early New Testament Church which "turned the world upside down!" "They continued daily with one accord" (Acts 2:46). "The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul" (Acts 4:32).

BRETHREN, IT WORKS

      Of course it works. Because it is God's method. Many consecrated missionaries, ministers, Bible School teachers and youth workers, sometimes the lowliest of saints, and a host of others, sense this unity of spirit in service. It crosses all barriers of local Church, society or denomination. Some enjoy a high standard of real fellowship upon this very foundation. IS IT NOT HERE THAT WE FIND THE TRUE SECRET OF UNITY?