Twelve Rules for Promoting Harmony among Church-members.
1. To remember that we are all subject to failings and infirmities of one kind or another. 2. To bear with and not magnify each other's infirmities. 3. To pray one for another in our social meetings, and particularly in private. 4. To avoid going from house to house for the purpose of hearing news and interfering with other peoples' business. 5. Always turn a deaf ear to any slanderous report, and to lay no charge brought against any person till founded. 6. If a member be in fault, to tell him of it in private, before it is mentioned to others. 7. To watch against a shyness of each other, and put the best construction on any action that has the appearance of opposition or resentment. 8. To observe the just rule of Solomon, that is, to leave off contention before it be meddled with. 9. If a member has offended, to consider how glorious, how Godlike it is to forgive, and how unlike a Christian it is to revenge. Eph. iv, 2. 10. To remember that it is always a grand artifice of the Devil to promote distance and animosity among members of churches, and we should therefore watch against every thing that furthers his end. 11. To consider how much more good we can do in the world at large, and in the church in particular, when we are all united in love, than we should do when acting alone, and indulging a contrary spirit.