We reproduce the substance of a private letter, reinforced and expanded in places to make it intelligible to every

reader, and only published now at the pressing request of a number who feel the matter to be one of extreme

We are encouraged to hope that what we have said will not make us appear dogmatic or unyielding. We extract

from a letter made by a valued reader upon seeing the original correspondence:

`It teaches us all a lesson. With great kindness, yet frank and without compromise, it points out from Scripture

the clear responsibility of those who believe the marvellous truth of the Mystery; and what happens when they

fail to meet it by failure to follow through.

Your clarification of the two dispensations now in operation should be very enlightening to many who do not see

the distinction, and ignorantly assume that all believers today are in the same calling'.

Dear Brother in Christ,

How shall I attempt to write where the subject is so intimately connected with the private conscience of a

believer? I so strongly believe in individual responsibility, the Berean spirit in life as well as in doctrine, that I have

never usurped the prerogative of the Lord, nor dared to anticipate the verdict of the Judgment Seat of Christ.

I am exercised deeply, however, whenever I know that a ministering brother, who believes the Mystery, is being

tempted to compromise in a denomination and yet hope to be counted a faithful teacher in line with the committal of

2 Timothy 2:2.

Perhaps if I turn to a portion of Scripture it may point the moral, and we can hope that He Who inspired the

record will once again use it in His own good way. So I turn to the book of Exodus, and there learn the message

given to Moses:

`The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey ... ` (Exod. 5:3).

This is repeated in Exodus 7:16 without diminution. Pharaoh for the time relented (Exod. 8:8), but later went back

on his word (8:15). At length Pharaoh offered a series of compromises:

Go ye ... IN THE LAND (Exod. 8:25).

Go ye ... NOT VERY FAR AWAY (Exod. 8:28).

Go ... but WHO? (Exod. 10:8).

To all this Moses had but one reply:

`We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our

herds will we go' (Exod. 10:9).

Pharaoh lengthens the rope:

Go ye that are men ... not the little ones (Exod. 10:10,11).

i. e. be influenced by the needs of `wife and children' left behind.