QUES. 40.-What course should the Assembly take toward a brother in a case similar to 1 Cor. 5, if he had confessed his sin before it became known, and they were satisfied he was broken about it? Had it become public, and he was charged with it, and he confessed it, and the assembly was satisfied he was truly repentant, should he then be put away ?

ANS.-Discipline in the house of God has two principal objects :the holiness of God, and the restoration of the offender. In connection with this the principle of God is, " If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." If the offender therefore judge himself, who can judge him ? What is there to be judged ? This is the principle of salvation itself:If the sinner condemns himself,
he has Christ for his Saviour, and there is therefore no condemnation for him. So it is with the saint who offends. It may be far more painful for him to judge himself, because, when he sins, he sins in the light, and this is great guilt. But when he does judges himself, Christ is on his side-his advocate. Who then will be his accuser? 2 Cor. 12 :20, 21 illustrates this. It seems evident by the language of verse 21 that the apostle would have no thought of discipline in his mind if the sins mentioned were repented of by the offenders.

Of course, in the sins which come to the knowledge of the assembly, it is the assembly's responsibility to determine if the offender has truly judged himself. In the first phase of your question there is little to be feared as to genuineness of the repentance. None would be likely to confess a sin which no one knows unless his conscience were in exercise before God. In the second occasion mentioned, much greater care would be required. The offender might well be placed as one in the Old Testament suspected of leprosy (Lev. 13) until it is evident to all that the sin is judged not only because it has been discovered, but because it is seen in the light of the holiness of God. What concerns the assembly most deeply is sin working-sin that is unjudged, active. It was active in Achan, therefore his judgment; also in the man of 1 Cor. 5, therefore his judgment also. 2 Cor. 2 :6, however, gives also the thought of "punishment" in discipline. There may be cases therefore in which the offender has brought such great public dishonor on the name of the Lord that only a public judgment by the assembly will meet the requirement. But whatever kind of sin it be, whether judged by the offender himself or not, it is ever cause for humiliation and confession in the assembly-the only right mind in which discipline of any kind can be exercised. Nothing, perhaps, tests the state of an assembly more than discipline. 2 Cor. 2 :9 shows that its exercise is required partly in view of this. Insubordinate Christians cannot exercise it aright. They are either opposed to it, or tyrannical in it.