Gospel Order
The Lord has shown me that gospel order has been too much
neglected and feared. That formality should be shunned; but in so
doing, order should not be neglected. There is order in heaven. There
was order in the church when Christ was upon earth; and after his
departure, order was strictly observed among his apostles. And now in
these last days, while God is bringing his children into the unity of the
faith, there is more real need of order than ever before. For as God is
uniting his children, Satan and his evil angels are very busy to prevent
this unity, and to destroy it. Therefore men will be hurried into the
field; men without wisdom, lacking judgment, perhaps not ruling well
their own house, and not having order or government over the very few
that God has given them charge of at home; yet they feel capable of
having charge of the flock. They make many wrong moves, and all the
messengers are thought, by those unacquainted with our faith, to be
like these self-sent men; and the cause of God is reproached, and the
truth shunned by many unbelievers, who would otherwise be candid,
and anxious to inquire, Are these things so?
Men, I saw, whose lives are not holy, who are unqualified to teach
the present truth, enter the field without being acknowledged by the
church or brethren generally, and confusion and disunion is the result.
Some have a theory of the truth and can dwell upon argument, but lack
spirituality, judgment and experience, and they fail in many things
which is very necessary for one to possess before they can teach the
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present truth to others. Others have not the argument; but because a
few brethren hear them pray well, and give an exciting exhortation
now and then, press them into the field, to engage in a work that
God has not qualified them for, and when they have not sufficient
experience and judgment for the work. Spiritual pride comes in, and
they are lifted up, and act under the deception of thinking that they are
laborers. They do not know themselves. They lack sound judgment
and patient reasoning. Talk boastingly of themselves, and assert many
things which they cannot prove from the Word. God knoweth this,
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