There is perhaps no greater trial a man can be called upon to face than to take, through grace, a
position he has seen from the Word of God to be scriptural, and then to be rudely awakened to
the realization that the people who were in that position before him are not what he had hoped to
find them. It may even be that they are less spiritual, less devoted, less zealous for God, than
some he has left behind him in systems where quasi-darkness prevailed. In such circumstances,
one needs to be firmly held by the truth or he is likely to be altogether overcome and completely
disheartened. Many an unstable soul has, by such a test, been utterly swept away from his
moorings. Such often go back in despair to the unscriptural positions they had abandoned, and
give out a bad report of the land, thus hindering others from following the light vouchsafed to
them. Some, with too much conscience to build again the things they had destroyed, become what
one might call spiritual free lances. And some, sad to say, become spiritual Ishmaelites, their hand
against every man, and every man’s hand against them; criticizing, fault-finding, restless and
unhappy; occupied with evil; lamenting the conditions of the times; bewailing the unfaithfulness
of anybody and everybody but themselves; and so falling into a spirit of pharisaism that is helpful
to no one, and a hindrance to all they come in contact with.

Now all this results from occupation with persons instead of with Christ. It is supposed that
because people occupy a position of peculiar favor, and have been blessed with special light, they
must personally be more reliable than the generality of Christians, and the flesh is less likely to
act in them than in others. Often one hears of people "coming out to certain brethren," or
"joining" this or that company of saints. All this is bound to result in disaster.

It is to Christ alone we are called to go forth, without the camp, bearing His reproach. He, blessed
be God, never disappoints. If the eye be fixed on Him, if the heart be occupied with Him, if He
be recognized as the one only Center, then, let saints be what they may as to their spiritual state,
there can be no lasting disappointment, for Christ abides.

If I see it to be according to Scripture to gather with fellow-believers to the name of the Lord
Jesus, owning that "there is one body, and one Spirit," the behavior of those already so gathered
cannot alter the truth for one moment. Rather does it call for exercise of soul on my part that I
may be a help to them, stirring them up to fresh devotedness and renewed zeal in self-judgment.

It is far easier to stand aside and point out the low state of the rest_even to withdraw altogether
from their company _than to emulate Ezra who, by his personal faithfulness, lifted the whole
company to a higher plane. There will be less trouble, less perplexity, less concern, if one simply
turns away and leaves the rest to go on as they will; but God is not thereby glorified nor are
failing saints recovered.

The position of gathering to the name of the Lord in simplicity as members of the one body is not
one in which there is no trouble. Far from it. But it is a place where all trouble can be set right
and every difficulty met by the Word of God alone; and this is what cannot be said of any sect in
Christendom. There human ingenuity, man-made regulations, and carnal laws and ordinances are
relied on to keep things in order and to settle disputes. But those who turn, in faith, from all this

to Christ alone as Center and to the Word alone for guidance and disciplinary instruction, find that
Word all-sufficient if there be but obedience to its principles. Of all this the last two chapters of
Ezra furnish us with a most blessed illustration.

The first burst of praise and worship over, Ezra received this rude awakening to which I have
referred above. One can imagine the awful disappointment, the poignant grief that were his when
the sad state of affairs that had developed among the separated Jews was revealed to him. No
description can bring it before us more vividly than his own words.

"Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel and the
priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, doing
according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites,
the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their
daughters for themselves, and for their sons; so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with
the people of those lands:yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass:
and when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my
head and of my beard, and sat down astonied" (Ezra 9:1-3).

Devoted and faithful steward of God! How our hearts are moved by his bitter grief when he is thus
brought to realize the low condition of the people who are in the only right position. Could one
be surprised if he had turned heartsick away from them all, and in lofty seclusion of spirit
endeavored to go on alone with God, giving up all hope of corporate testimony? But this he does
not do. In faithfulness to God he cannot forego the position, and he loves the people of the Lord
too much to give them up.

Almost heartbroken, Ezra manifested all the signs of deepest distress of spirit, and sat down in
bitter astonishment. That such things prevailed in Babylon would not have amazed him. That they
could be tolerated among those gathered to the place of the Name, dumbfounded him.

But at once the news of his grief spread among the people with a blessed and soul-cheering result.
That all were not in sympathy with the looseness that had come in soon became evident. "Then
were assembled unto me," he tells us, "every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel,
because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonied until the
evening sacrifice" (verse 4). God had said, long before, by Isaiah, "To this man will I look; even
to him that is poor [humble] and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word" (Isaiah 66:2).
Such there were still among the remnant, and upon them the Lord could look in blessing. These
men and Ezra, acting with God, would be a majority, however few in number. Such men are
likely to be regarded by the unspiritual as troublers and "old fogies"; but where there is real
exercise of soul, God can be depended on to show whom He recognizes, in due time.

(From Notes on the Book of Ezra.)