CHURCH TRIALS by Jos. Clarke

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 1, 1879

CHURCH TRIALS.

By Jos. Clarke

A church trial originates in some wrong doing on the part of one or more, which, not being righted at the proper time, grows up and increases in strength, until it becomes a burden and hindrance to the cause, and something must be done.

Now if all would watch closely the beginnings of evil, and guard carefully the heart and tongue, or if offenses arise see to it that they are thoroughly confessed and forsaken, then the demand for trials would not exist, and all church trials would be prevented by each one holding a daily and hourly court in his own heart.

It is bad enough to commit a wrong, and to be under the necessity of humbling one's self to make confession; but to add to this the tenfold disgrace of being held up in a church trial to the gaze of the congregation, and to the shame of the cause, and to the pity of God and his angels, until a confession is wrung from an unwilling tongue, is far more trying. If people would always keep this principle in view, it would save many a long and tedious church trial.

JOS. CLARKE.