LETTER IV.

CHRISTIAN BRETHREN,

IT is admitted on all hands by those who receive the Bible as the word of God, that the gospel of Jesus Christ furnishes the best remedy for the evils which exist in human society. It is a system of peace, and love, and in proportion as it prevails, discord and contention will cease. Until the arrival of the Millenium, however, we are not to look for the entire prevalence and triumph of Gospel principles over the corruptions of human nature. Even in the church, and amongst the followers of Christ, the jarring elements of corruption will occasionally break forth, and disturb that concord which ought to prevail among the members of the same spiritual family. Such seems to be the necessary result of remaining corruption in the human heart, "for it must needs be that offences come. 99* This our Lord well knew, and in wisdom has provided for the adjustment, and disposal of such difficulties. In the eighteenth chapter of Matthew's gospel, he has given detailed instructions for the management of those of fences, which are of a private and personal nature, and which sometimes occur amongst his professed followers. *Matt. 18. 7.

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The agency of the church in the disposal of such of fences, shall be the subject of examination in the sent Letter.

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The whole passage relating to the management of private offences reads thus: "Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two, or three. witnesses, every word may be established. And if he shall ́neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church; but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man, and à publican. ` Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in Heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in Heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth, `as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there' am I, in the midst of them.”*

In this passage, we find the authority of the church recognized, and its application to a particular species of offences asserted. The preliminary steps to be pursued by the members of the church, antecedently to the intervention of church authority, are, however, so important in a practical point of view, that I shall claim your indulgence, while I offer some remarks on the whole process, as marked out by the Saviour himself.

* Matt. 18. 15-20.

In the case which is here detailed, you will observe that it is a brother," a fellow christian, who is suppos ed to have given the offence. You will observe also, that the offence, or trespass, is represented as having been committed against an individual. From the nature of the case, therefore, it is supposed to be a private concern ; a matter, for the present, entirely between the brother offending, and the brother offended. It is one of those cases of too frequent occurrence, in which professing christians come in conflict with each other, and in which the bonds of christian harmony are broken. Something is said or done, which either is, or is supposed to be offensive-offence is taken, and ́unkind, and discordant feelings usurp the place of the spirit of christian affection. Now, in this state of things, what is to be done? How is the difficulty to be disposed of? According to the direction of our Lord, it is made the duty of the person offended, or against whom the trespass has been committed, to go, and in a private manner, tell the other of his fault. In this direction, there are two things, which I apprehend, are not sufficiently attended to.-These are, the person on whom the duty of seeking explanation is imposed, and the manner, in which this explanation is to be sought.

With regard to the first of these points, persons frequently reverse the rule in the text. They take offence at their brother, and without ever going, and telling him of his fault, they insist upon it that their brother shall come to them, and make reparation; and if he does not, they consider it as an aggravation of the offence. Now to say nothing of the unreasonableness

of this course, it is sufficient to observe, that it is in the very face of our Lord's direction. And we need not ask whether a statute of the Saviour, or the dictate of irritated feeling ought to direct our conduct. For, I apprehend, we will all agree, that where the instructions of Christ are explicitly given, they ought to be implicitly obeyed. And as to the manner in which explanation ought to be sought, it is notorious that the rule is also frequently violated. How often do men pursue a course directly at variance with the Saviour's injunction to tell their brother his fault between them, and him alone ?" The offence is no sooner given than they make it a point to publish it wherever they go, and that too, with all the colouring and aggravation which can be given to it by irritated feelings. And it sometimes happens that the whole country are in possession of the matter, before the individual who has been so unfortunate as to be the occasion of the offence, knows any thing about it. This, we must be permitted to say, is a most mischievous practice, and cannot be too strongly reprobated. It is attended with great injustice to the individual from whom private explanation ought to have been sought, as it is enlisting public sentiment against him, before he has had an opportunity of a hearing. It disturbs the peace of the church; and it wounds and injures religion in its most vital parts." In such a crim-inal point of light did the framers of our Book of Discipline view this practice of spreading the knowledge of an offence, "unless so far as shall be unavoidable in prosecuting it before the proper judicatory, or in the due performance of some other indispensable duty," that they have provided, that the person guilty "shall