association. And even now churches should remember that not all men nor all churches look upon the sale and use of liquors as our churches do. Some are nearly where our fathers were, of whom we may use the words: "Of some have compassion, making a difference" (Jude 22). For love will win them to the principle of total abstinence, when harshness and discipline will only harden.

Hence the duty of discipline is under discretion, in some degree, and the highest wisdom and gentleness are needed in a church in dealing with offences, lest the best intended discipline fail of reaching its true ends through rigor or through laxness.

§ 165. This liberty of discretion keeps ever before a church the ends of church discipline. Were the duty without discretion, there would be no need of asking, What end should ever be had in view in dealing with offenders? But now all cases are to be conducted with reference to a double end.

(1) Discipline should aim first at reclaiming the offender. This is true of all proper discipline, private or public, parental or civil, ecclesiastical or providential. In this it differs radically from punishment. Discipline in the church is therefore a potent means of grace when properly conducted. It aims at recovering the wayward, never at expelling him. It should not, therefore, be entered upon in haste, in malice, in revenge, but after patient waiting, much prayer, and with the most earnest and tender desire and purpose to bring the wayward member in penitence back to an orderly life and sound belief.

In

(2) But the ultimate end of discipline is the purity of the church. This end is best secured by the reclamation of the offender; but, that failing, it requires his expulsion. either result the Church protects its purity and vindicates its character as a holy body. The moment that a church, through fear or ambition or policy or indifference, covers sin, it is shorn of strength and vacates its mission in part.

It must thereafter tread like Samson in the mill of the Philistines. Its discretion in the duty of discipline (§ 164: 3) has respect to the best way of securing the ends of discipline, not how to avoid it. As purity is essential to the power of the ministry, so purity is essential to the power and permanent prosperity of any church.

§ 166. So important did Christ regard the ends of discipline that he detailed the steps by which those ends can best be attained. He gave a rule of discipline with steps of progress (Matt. 18: 15-18).

(1) The first step in the process of discipline for private offences is this: "If thy brother sin against thee, go, shew him his fault between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother" (v. 15). The margin says: "Some ancient authorities omit against thee;" this. would make the rule universal, if these two words should be omitted. This first step is so plain that it would seem to need no explanation; but the history of discipline enforces the necessity of dwelling upon it with the greatest particularity of detail. (a) The injured party must begin the process. He takes the initiative because he has suffered wrong. If the wrong-doer shall first come and confess his fault, the process can not begin. The case is closed. (b) The wronged goes to the offender. There is special significance in that little word "go;" a casual meeting will not do. An interview must be sought and obtained, if possible. The injured does not meet the requirement if he write a letter or send another person to the one who wronged him. (c) The interview must be secret or private, "between thee and him alone." No third person should be present. This rests on human nature. A man will relent and confess and make amends in such an interview, who would not if a third person were present. (d) The injured must show the wrongdoer his fault, without enlarging it or diminishing it, by giving a fair and full presentation of it. It is not merely to be told him it must be shown him, that he may see it.

:

(e) And all in a tender spirit of love. To go in any other spirit might increase the injury. To go to him in order to reach the next step is itself a wrong. There must be a love that forgives, if need be, seventy times seven (Matt. 18: 21-35), and it will probably win the man. (ƒ) "If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." The end has been gained. To gain, and not to cut off, is the aim. (g) His penitent confession and reasonable reparation ends the case. Purity is secured in penitence. The grace of God has triumphed. No more should ever be said or done about it.

(2) But a second step is sometimes necessary. Hence it is given in these words: "But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established" (v. 16). (a) Here the spirit and end are the same as in the preceding step. Forgiving love trying to reclaim inspires the interview. (b) The one or two taken along are witnesses of the loving fidelity of the party wronged and the conduct of the wrong-doer. They should be discreet, full of wisdom and love, having the confidence of all, especially the wrong-doer. (c) In the presence of these witnesses the fault must be shown again, for the purpose of bringing the offender to see and confess it. (d) His confession before these witnesses ends the case, and all are to keep silent about it.

(3) If this interview fail, then comes the third step: "And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church," or

congregation" (v. 17). (a) This shows what part the witnesses take in the preceding interview. They must use all Christian endeavor to reclaim the offender; for it is only when he refuses to "hear them" that (b) the offence must be told unto the church, or congregation. This must be done in an oral or written complaint. (c) This church, or congregation, is the local church to which the offender belongs (§ 99: 1). The whole membership must now hear the

case.

(4) The fourth and final step is this: "But if he refuse to

hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican" (v. 17). (a) The offender reveals his incorrigible heart in refusing to hear first, the wronged; second, the witnesses; and third, the whole Church; all laboring to save him, not to cast him out of their fellowship. (b) Hence they have no alternative but to cast him out of the Church, to excommunicate him. He is thence to be as a Gentile and a publican; that is, cut off from all privileges of membership in the Church of God, and denied participation in the Lord's Supper (§§ 155: 2, 3; 156). (c) Further than this the Church may not go; nor should the State interpose to punish him.8

(5) These steps are complete, and make a final end of the case so far as authority to discipline goes. (a) The offender is dealt with step by step until reclaimed or cut off, with no appeal from the beginning to the end. And the issue is final and complete exclusion from church privileges. The four steps leave the process finished. (b) This issue is ratified by Christ, the Head and King: "Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (v. 18). This estops all right of appeal (§ 99: 2, 3). (c) Yet if wrong is claimed to have been done in thus issuing the case, the church and the aggrieved may ask the advice of churches in a council (§ 194: 10), what redress, if any, is required, and may act on that advice. This advice is not of the nature of a command, for it has none of the authority of discipline, which was permanently committed to local churches alone (§§ 99: 1, 3; 106, 107, 108). (d) If the offending member be also a minister, another principle comes in (§ 162: 2) to modify his discipline by a church. He has been recognized in ordination as a minister called by

The General Court of Massachusetts, in 1638, "ordered, that whoever shall stand excommunicate for the space of six months, without laboring what in him or her lieth to be restored, such a person shall be presented . . . and proceeded with by fine, imprisonment, banishment, or further, for the good behavior, as their contempt and obsti. nacy, upon full hearing shall deserve." But the law was repealed the next year. Records, 1, 242, 271.

the great Head of the Church unto the preaching of the Word. His excommunication by a local church impairs, if it does not destroy, his character and influence as an ambassador of Christ, which, as his call to the ministry was not recognized by one church alone, ought not to be jeopardized by the action of one church alone (§§ 121, 122, 124). But both these apparent exceptions are treated elsewhere (§§ 200, 201, 202).

Such is the plain interpretation of Christ's rule for church discipline; but many queries arise, which we will consider under the head of

SOME QUESTIONS RESPECTING CHURCH DISCIPLINE.

same.

§ 167. Should all cases of discipline be treated alike? There is a great difference between a private offence and a public scandal, and must they always be treated the same? We reply: (1) The ends of all church discipline are the The guilty are to be reformed, if possible, and the church kept pure either by reformation or by exclusion. In no case should this dual end be overlooked. (2) Yet public scandals should be treated more summarily than private offences. The private steps (§ 166: 1-4) may not always be required; hence Paul indicates public action at once (1 Cor. 5: 4, 5, 13), which our Platforms recognize.9 The reason is that such offences are known to the community, and the church may hasten to clear itself of complicity with the crime. (3) Such scandalous offences are those which are “infamous among men," "condemned by the light of nature," which are "of a more heinous and criminal nature.” § 168. When should the first private step in discipline be taken? It should not be taken in a hurry. Passion should have time to cool, and conscience time to assert its claims to control. This may require a full year or more. The most favorable time for gaining the wrong-doer must be chosen. Not until after a full year was Nathan the prophet sent to

Camb. Plat. xiv, 3; Boston Plat. part ii, viii, 4.