directions for
everything, even the most minute affairs of this life. It commands us,
"Be thou not one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties
for debts." (Prov. xxii. 26.) The way in which Satan ensnares persons,
to bring them into the net, and to bring trouble upon them by becoming
sureties, is, that he seeks to represent the matter as if there were no
danger connected with that particular case, and that one might be sure
one should never be called upon to pay the money; but the Lord, the
faithful Friend, tells us in His own word that the only way in such a
matter "to be sure" is "to hate suretyship." (Prov. xi. 15.) The
following points seem to me of solemn moment for consideration, if I
were called upon to become surety for another: 1. What obliges the
person, who wishes me to become surety for him, to need a surety? Is it
really a good cause in which I am called upon to become surety? I do not
remember ever to have met with a case in which in a plain, and godly,
and in all respects scriptural matter such a thing occurred. There was
generally some sin or other connected with it. 2. If I become surety,
notwithstanding what the Lord has said to me in His word, am I in such a
position that no one will be injured by my being called upon to fulfil
the engagements of the person for whom I am going to be surety? In most
instances this alone ought to keep one from it.
3. If still I become surety, the amount of money for which I become
responsible must be so in my power that I am able to produce it whenever
it is called for, in order that the name of the Lord may not be
dishonoured.
4. But if there be the possibility of having to fulfil the engagements
of the person in whose stead I have to stand, is it the will of the Lord
that I should spend my means in that way? Is it not rather His will that
my means should be spent in another way? 5. How can I get over the plain
word of the Lord, which is to the contrary, even if the first four
points could be satisfactorily settled?
CHURCH LIFE.
ASSEMBLY OF BELIEVERS.
It has been my own happy lot, during the last thirty-seven years, to
become acquainted with hundreds of individuals, who were not inferior to
apostolic Christians.
That the disciples of Jesus should meet together on the first day of the
week for the breaking of bread, and that that should be their principal
meeting, and that those, whether one or several, who are truly gifted by
the Holy Spi
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