"The Christian was never meant to be a kind of Robinson Crusoe living on his own desert island." The above sentence which I recently read struck me as so true and highly significant as to be well worth repeating and enlarging upon. For, though "never meant to be," Christians are not infrequently found playing a Robinson Crusoe part as regards fellow-Christians, fellow-members of "the body of Christ." Attending nowhere in particular, either to church, chapel, or meeting of any kind, they describe themselves as "unattached," "unsectarian," or other such term.

But whatever the term used, there is no justification in Scripture for self-isolation. The believer in Christ is not a mere unit, having responsibilities only towards God, and no other link with other believers than that of a common Fatherhood, or mere spiritual sympathy. These ties do indeed exist between believers, and naturally draw together the children of God scattered abroad in this cold and hostile world; but there is a closer tie, a stronger bond that links one believer with every other on earth. For not only are all Christians members of the one redeemed family of God, but they are members of "the one body" of which Christ Himself is the head:"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body" (1 Cor. 12:13).

This being so, what excuse has any Christian for withdrawing himself from any formal attachment to his fellow-members in Christ? The thing I would press is that no Christian may say that he will walk alone, or, if not entirely alone, have his "man Friday" (to follow the figure of Defoe's tale), or several of them, as his own select-company.

This is all a mistake; for if a Christian voluntarily shuts himself off from the fellowship of his fellow-disciples he will suffer from it in his spirit, and instead of his soul being "as a watered garden," it is more likely to be as the "heath of the wilderness." It could not well be otherwise, for not one member of the body can say of any other, "I have no need of thee," as 1 Cor. 12 clearly shows.

If asked why he maintains a position of separation or aloofness from other believers, one "Robinson Crusoe Christian" will say that his brethren are so difficult to get along with that it is best for him to walk alone; another will answer that the professing church is in such utter ruin there is nothing left but to live apart from it; still another will tell you that he once did seek to walk in united testimony for the Lord with his brethren, but was badly treated by them; and others, to their shame, will confess that they prefer quiet to conflict, peace to war, and so choose to stand alone. They like not the toil and exercises inseparable from a collective "striving together for the truth of the gospel," or, standing shoulder to shoulder, "contending earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints." They leave to others the burdens and cares connected with the maintenance of a collective testimony for God and His Christ in the world.

We may learn a lesson here by what happened to the inhabitants of Laish, who dwelt "careless (care free)… quiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land that might put them to shame in any thing… and had no business with any man" (Judges 18:7). They had taken themselves away from their fellows, preferring the quiet seclusion of their valley to the trials connected with the body politic of the nation; they were not amenable to the discipline of the government, and no magistrate was there to shame or call them to account for their misdeeds. They thought to dwell unmolested and secure in their insular Utopia. But this very desire to shirk all responsibility was their undoing; for when the fierce Danites fell upon them, they fell an easy prey to their invaders. Complete extermination was the result, and the world, we may well believe, was none the worse for their disappearance.

So it often happens that Christians in isolation from their brethren become easy victims of the enemy. They frequently fall into error, are given to riding hobbies, or in other ways pay the penalty of disobedience to the Word of God, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another:and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching" (Heb. 10:25). How little of that quiet ease and joy in the Lord do such souls really come to enjoy, let those who were once there and are now by grace recovered testify.

A few plead that they can be more useful in God's work if unattached; that they have access to many places where they could not otherwise preach or teach if they were identified with any particular church or gathering. But putting service before obedience to the Lord and His word is a great mistake, as the "judgment seat of Christ" will reveal. God's servant cannot free himself from the responsibilities connected with "the house of God… the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15). And since this is the office or character of the house, "the church of the living God," how can any servant of Christ ignore its claims and remain guiltless?

There are very practical reasons, too, why the Christian should avoid isolating himself from his fellow-believers. This is forcefully stated in the following words of another:"Fellowship is essential to the development of the Christian life. There is an element in the collective experience of the Church which cannot be attained by the individual experience in isolation… The highest graces and virtues of the Christian life cannot be grown in solitude. Anchoritism has always proved a deadly failure, and Monasticism has invariably carried within itself the seeds of decay.. .No man can exercise his fullest capacity for service except in co-operation with others. Two units always count for more than two when they are united in common work:so we read, "How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight' (Deut. 32:30)." Thus arguing from the mere standpoint of utility, the Christian should seek to walk and labor in fellowship with his brethren.

Then, too, as to worship-the highest employment in which the Christian can be engaged-the detached, independent believer is largely deprived. For that which is distinctively Christian worship, peculiar to the dispensation in which we live, can only be rendered in assembly or in company with others. There is of course a worship which can always be offered to God by the individual:Abel, Noah, Abraham and others rendered such worship. But the full Christian-worship may be exercised only in the assembly of saints, and by separation from my fellow-Christians I am robbing myself of this peculiar joy and privilege, where Christ, "in the midst of the assembly," as the leader of our worship sings praises unto God (Heb. 2:12).

There is also a ministry, as exercised in the assembly according to 1 Cor. 14, to which the independent Christian must remain a stranger-a ministry rendered through the various gifts for the up-building of the body.

There are many and good reasons, therefore, why the Christian should not remain separate from his brethren; he needs them as they also need him. Christ followed the two to Emmaus, not to "abide" with them, but to recover them and turn them back to the company of their brethren from whom they had separated. There He appeared to them all as they were assembled together in the upper room, and gave them His parting instructions; and He led the little flock out as far as to Bethany, where, lifting up His hands in blessing, He was parted from them and carried up to heaven. What would the two have missed had they not returned to the company of the disciples! See Lk. 24. C. Knapp