d a conversation with
brother H. C. on the subject of receiving the unbaptized into
communion, a subject about which, for years, my mind had been more or
less exercised. This brother put the matter thus before me: either
unbaptized believers come under the class of persons who walk
disorderly, and, in that case, we ought to withdraw from them (2
Thess. iii. 6); or they do not walk disorderly. If a believer be
walking disorderly, we are not merely to withdraw from him at the
Lord's table, but our behaviour towards him ought to be decidedly
different from what it would be were he not walking disorderly, on
all occasions when we may have intercourse with him, or come in any
way into contact with him, Now this is evidently not the case in the
conduct of baptized believers towards their unbaptized fellow-believers.
The Spirit does not suffer it to be so, but He witnesses that
their not having been baptized does not necessarily imply
that they are walking disorderly; and hence there may be the
most precious communion between baptized and unbaptized believers.
The Spirit does not suffer us to refuse fellowship with them in
prayer, in reading and searching the Scriptures, in social and
intimate intercourse, and in the Lord's work; and yet this ought to
be the case, were they walking disorderly.--This passage, 2 Thess.
iii. 6, to which brother R. C. referred, was the means of showing me
the mind of the Lord on the subject, which is, that we ought to
receive all whom Christ has received (Rom. xv. 7), irrespective of
the measure of grace or knowledge which they have attained unto.--Some
time after this conversation, in May 1837, an opportunity occurred,
when we (for brother Craik had seen the same truth) were called upon
to put into practice the light which the Lord had been pleased to
give us. A sister, who neither had been baptized, nor considered
herself under any obligation to be baptized, applied for fellowship.
We conversed with her on this as on other subjects, and proposed her
for fellowship, though our conversation had not convinced her that
she ought to be baptized. This led the church again to the
consideration of the point. We gave our reasons, from Scripture, for
considering it right to receive this unbaptized sister to all the
privileges of the children of God; but a considerable number,
one-third perhaps, expressed conscientious difficulty in receiving
her. The example of the Apostles in baptizing the first believer