Many of us have had abundant cause to thank God for the exercise on our behalf of pastoral care. Our souls by it have been fed, and our faith strengthened; healing has reached our wounded spirits, and on many occasions we have thereby been saved from selfish and sinful tendencies, which might otherwise have brought us under the righteous government of God. We have thus learned to value its exercise on our behalf. This should lead each one of us to seek grace to enable us to exercise the same care on behalf of others-a service greatly appreciated by Christ Himself, and invaluable to His people.

A real pastor would watch for, and seek to feed and encourage those precious movements of affection (which spring up in the hearts of those he loves and cares for) towards Christ, and those that are His. His eye would be quick to observe any serious falling off of these movements, and he would endeavor at the earliest opportunity, in dependence upon "the Chief Shepherd," to exercise affectionate, individual, pastoral care. Nor would these ministrations cease when sin had been committed, and the Lord had intervened in discipline. Months after David had sinned, Nathan visited him, and was used by the Lord to bring conviction home to his soul. David had "kept silence" (Ps. 32:3) until he had seriously suffered in health, so intense had been his unhappiness (Ps. 51 and Ps. 32); but the Lord used the visit of Nathan, the long "silence" was broken, and David was able to describe in Psalm 32 the blessedness which resulted-a psalm which has led many sinners to be converted to God (see Ps. 51:13).

Like David, Job was under discipline, and God used the skill of Elihu to bring conviction to him, after all the efforts of his three "friends" had failed. Elihu interpreted God's ways with Job, thus helping him to submit himself to God, and to judge himself in His presence (Job 33:23; 34:31, 32). The result was, that Job took his true place before God, who Himself vindicated him, and blessed him greatly. All his friends returned to him, and he was received and comforted.

Should all other resources fail, and it become necessary to separate from any brother or sister, this should undoubtedly be done by all; and as a consequence of this united action, the assembly can do no more, save that all will look to the Lord for restoration of the erring one, and will bear in their spirits before the Lord, deep sorrow that one of themselves should have to be separated from, and feel humiliated on account of their having been unable to recover such through pastoral care.

We may gather, however, from 2 Cor. 2:6,7, 8, that even in such a case, individual pastoral care may come into exercise; for it is evident" that the apostle was acquainted with the true condition of the one who had been under the discipline of the assembly. He wrote of him as in danger of being "swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." How did he know this? Was it only by direct revelation from the Lord, or had pastoral care been in exercise? Evidently some one with the heart of a shepherd had personally got into touch with him.

The fact is, that Scripture abounds with encouragement to exercise pastoral care, to seek to help those who are in trouble, quite irrespective of the cause of that trouble; for our blessed Lord Himself, when the Pharisees and scribes complained that He received sinners and ate with them, asked the question, "What man of you… if he lose one.. .doth not.. .go after that which is lost until he find it?" the simple fact that it is lost being alone sufficient ground for the search. Doubtless there are many dear to Christ who have been under discipline, who would appreciate and respond to pastoral care on their behalf.

There appears only to be one case mentioned in Scripture of a man being put away or separated from, and this is in 1 Cor. 5. There are two other cases where the apostle (in the exercise of apostolic power) "delivered unto Satan," and In all these cases the object was restoration-"that the spirit may be saved, and "that they may be taught by discipline not to blaspheme." From this we gather that such a course is quite exceptional, and only to be taken when all other means (including rebuke where possible-see 1 Tim. 5:20 and Titus 1:12,13) have failed.

In the Epistle to the Galatians the apostle wrote, "I would that they would even cut themselves off
who throw you into confusion" (New Trans.). These men had troubled the brethren far more seriously than did many of those from whom, in our day, we have separated, for the foundations of Christianity were assailed by their legal teaching, yet no instructions were given to separate from them. John, in his first Epistle, wrote of those "who went out from us," and in another epistle wrote very strongly of one who cast the brethren "out of the Church," thus reminding us that the same God who uttered Isaiah 66:5 still regards such conduct with abhorrence.

In 2 Tim. 2 each one is enjoined to purge himself, by separating from vessels to dishonor, and to "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call upon the Lord out of a pure (purged) heart."

The fact is, that to separate from one who "is called a brother" is to take the ground-

1. That all other resources have been exhausted, and

2. That the person from whom we have separated is quite unfit for Christian fellowship.

Then, when it has at last become necessary to take such a course, the objects are-

1. In order that which is more precious to us than life itself may be preserved, viz., the company and approval of our blessed Lord; and

2. That the one separated from, may by that means be recovered.

This leads us to reflect that the real reason why assembly discipline has so frequently to be resorted to, is that pastoral care is often at so low an ebb that there is no power to recover otherwise. H. B.