If one imagines that just because men are bound together by ties of fellowship and mutual obligation they will naturally get along better with one another, he knows little of the perverseness of human nature. It is quite the reverse; to be true to such ties and obligations becomes a real test of the heart. When a woman asked her husband, "Why can't we get along peaceably like that cat and dog under the stove?" he replied: "That is nothing. Tie them together and see what they'll do." We have also heard of the "angel abroad, devil at home." It is easier, somehow, is it not, to be kind and sweet and considerate where we are not especially obligated to such conduct? On the same principle the mutual obligation of the members of God's church and the tie wherewith [187] God bound them together may tend to chafe us. We do not take from the brethren what, when it comes from the world, we take with little complaint and patiently pass over. There have been church troubles over matters which, if they had occurred in worldly intercourse, would have caused no disturbance. We are more irritable toward one another; we expect more and endure less of one another than we do of men of the world. And God knew "the tie that binds" would not be without its friction when so many differing dispositions would be brought together. Hence, the constant admonition to keep peace, to forbear, to walk in love, to humble ourselves one to another; to put away anger, wrath, malice; to be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, even as God also forgave us.

[TAG 187-188]