To the Editor of Help and Food:

Dear brother:-As many speak of difficulties connected with fellowship according to God in the present days, may it not be desirable to restate the basic principles which have always been recognized amongst us? With this in view I would give a brief outline of what we believe and have sought to practice, hoping you might find room for it in Help and Food.

I think we can say we have sought to maintain a testimony free from sectarian principles or practice. In recognizing the unity of the Body, and membership in that alone, we seek to maintain the order and government pertaining to God's house, as established through the apostle Paul-at least so far as possible in the ruin and disorder occasioned by departure from the truth. Do I miss the mark in making the following statements regarding the position we have sought to maintain?

1. As to reception and discipline, we refuse such principles as leave the door open to evil; thus seeking to preserve the sanctity of God's house. In this our associations are guarded.

2. Congregationalism, which makes assemblies independent of one another, we also refuse, as it practically denies the unity of the Body of Christ, reducing the corporate testimony to that of the mere local assembly, or even to that of the individual. We seek to express the unity of the Body, and of the Spirit, which checks man's will, and an unscriptural individualism in place of assembly action.

3. On the other hand we guard against Romish ecclesiasticism which gives the church an authority which belongs only to God's Word, or unduly exalts assembly actions- thus guarding against unrighteous acts, or ritualism. We acknowledge the Lord's authority by His Word, to which the assembly, as well as the individual, is to be subject.

4. Liberty of ministry we recognize, both within and without the assembly, while its fellowship and counsel should be regarded, since we are members one of another, thus guarding against independency even in ministry. Subjection to one another, as well as to the Lord is a scriptural direction (1 Pet. 5:5).

To maintain these things amid the ruin of the Church (in weakness, and failures to confess) is not seeking to re-establish the church, or form our own little church and act as though it were the whole; but it is a recognition of and seeking to obey what has been laid down by the apostle for the church of God to follow at all times. The ruin neither abrogates divine principles, nor lessens our responsibility to act upon them when we know them.

To proceed along these lines cannot fail to unite those who thus act, and so practically to form what is, after all, best described by that much tabooed term, a "circle of fellowship." Certainly to hold faith and a good conscience to-day, we must be obedient to the directions given in 2 Tim. 2:19-22. In separation unto the Lord we find others who are separated, with the result that we walk together. Thus companies are formed, making a circle within which these divine principles are to be exercised This circle is but enlarged when similar companies are added to this unity of believers obedient to the Word.
In closing may I suggest three points which need to be remembered:

1. Fellowship at the Lord's table has a corporate character. It is not only an individual response to the Lord's own request, but an expression of our place in the Body As to relationship. This, however, by no means involves the necessity under present conditions of receiving every member of the Body, for the assembly is responsible to maintain the order and government of God's house. We can only deeply regret that in this day all the members of the body will not subscribe to this.

2. The liberty of the Spirit is to be owned in the exercise of Christian ministry by whom He will among the members of Christ, in whatever gift He may have given.

3. This liberty is to be exercised in a way which will conserve the unity of fellowship among God's people, not as independent of the assembly.

May the Lord enable us to set a just value upon the place and testimony which we, through grace, may yet enjoy in these closing days.

Sincerely yours, John Bloore.