Stop, Look, Listen!
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"I would to God you would stop, look and listen before it is too late...If you continue on the course you are on you will do more damage to the brotherhood than anyone has ever done before. I would to God you had never started a paper."
I have a deep sympathy for brethren who thus write. Through the years we build up a traditional pattern of thought. We erect walls and barricades about it, and hedge ourselves in. We feel secure on the inside with those who conform and who thus constitute "the brotherhood." We worship as our heroes those who are aggressive champions of the partisan position. We honor an editor who creates a journal which can be used as a mouthpiece to defend our views. We are happy, content, and sometimes smug, in our little realm. Eventually we come to regard it as the kingdom of heaven. It is the one body. The sovereignty of Jesus extends only as far as its walls.
All goes well until someone scales the wall, and rising above partisan views, glimpses the fields beyond, and realizes that truth can no more be contained within walls of our construction, than sunlight can be caught in cans, or the atmosphere confined to bottles. When such a person advocates that fellowship is brotherhood in Jesus, that it is the result, not of agreement or endorsement, but of a common spiritual parentage, he is regarded by the party as a traitor, and the truth he proclaims is branded as heresy. But, brethren beloved, we ought to realize that the walls we build cannot keep truth out. They merely keep us shut up and shut in.
God's purpose will be accomplished on this earth. His will must be done. If this little journal had never been started, or if it ceases to exist now, God will raise up other and nobler men than this editor to send forth greater and better papers. "The brotherhoods" we have constructed need to be shaken. The walls we have erected need to fall down. The party spirit is sinful. Sectarianism is wrong. We need to awaken to our sense of destiny. Let us stop only where God tells us to stop. Let us look on the fields where he has told us to look. Let us listen to His voice, regardless of cost. Let us crusade for unity with Christ our Lord!