Unity in the Church
401
that their minds have been cast in a mold inferior to his own and that
to receive their opinions and counsel as worthy of attention would
be a great condescension. This self-confidence has shut him away
from the love and sympathy of his brethren and from union with them.
He feels that he is too wise and experienced to need the precautions
which are indispensable to many. He has so high an opinion of his
own abilities and such a reliance upon his own attainments that he
believes himself prepared for any emergency. Said the heavenly angels,
pointing to Brother B: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall.” Self-confidence leads to neglect of watchfulness and
of humble, penitential prayer. There are outward temptations to be
shunned and inward foes and perplexities to be overcome, for Satan
adapts his temptations to the different characters and temperaments of
individuals.
The church of Christ is in constant peril. Satan is seeking to destroy
the people of God, and one man’s mind, one man’s judgment, is not
sufficient to be trusted. Christ would have His followers brought to-
gether in church capacity, observing order, having rules and discipline,
and all subject one to another, esteeming others better than themselves.
Union and confidence are essential to the prosperity of the church. If
each member of the church feels at liberty to move independently of
the others, taking his own peculiar course, how can the church be in
any safety in the hour of danger and peril? The prosperity and very
existence of a church depend upon the prompt, united action and mu-
tual confidence of its members. When, at a critical time, one sounds
the alarm of danger, there is need of prompt and active work, without
stopping to question and canvass the whole subject from end to end,
thus letting the enemy gain every advantage by delay, when united
action might save many souls from perdition.
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God wants His people to be united in the closest bonds of Christian
fellowship; confidence in our brethren is essential to the prosperity
of the church; union of action is important in a religious crisis. One
imprudent step, one careless action, may plunge the church into diffi-
culties and trials from which it may not recover for years. One member
of the church filled with unbelief may give an advantage to the great
foe that will affect the prosperity of the entire church, and many souls
may be lost as the result. Jesus would have His followers subject one
to another; then God can use them as instruments to save one another;