Church Discipline—Question.
By Editor
"A BROTHER has been disfellowshipped, but still attends the meetings, and frequently speaks in social meeting, exhorting the brethren to holiness of life, etc. His attitude toward the church is rather boastful and defiant, and his influence tends to discord. Should he be silenced, and if so, how?" This question presents to our notice an evil which is often found, and which needs to be dealt with decidedly and promptly. It is the duty of the elder to protect his church from an influence which tends to discord. It is his duty to see that the vote of the church in disfellowshiping a member shall be respected. 1. We are to take for granted that the action of the church in disfellowshiping him was right and necessary; that the church was justified in so doing. 2. It is the duty of the church to stand by its own action. By suffering its action to be disregarded, or by sympathizing with those who disregard such action, the church virtually says that its action was wrong; in effect, it places itself under condemnation. This is too plainly the case to require argument. If the vote to disfellowship was wrong, it ought to be rescinded and confession made. But if it was right, then consistency and justice require that the vote be maintained in letter and spirit; justice to the215church, to the cause of truth, to the community before which they act, and to the erring individual. 3. It is the duty of the elder to see that the action of the church is properly carried out. If a person persists in speaking in the meetings after being disfellowshipped, when it becomes evident that strife and discord will be the result, he should be requested to desist, or, if necessary, he should be rebuked. And of course the church should uphold its officer in administering the rebuke. Care should be exercised that it be done in the right spirit; if it is not, the enemy will take advantage of it, and the discord and strife will be increased. 4. We have known, as we have elsewhere noticed, an individual to be disfellowshipped when there could not exist a single doubt that the action was right, and yet he was permitted to speak in the meetings until, by his insinuating and plausible method of pleading for sympathy, he gained control of the feelings of almost the entire church. The consequence was just what was to be expected; the church was nearly destroyed. 5. In the case in question, there can be no doubt that the action of the church was right. If the church had erred, if the man were in the right, he would pursue a far different course from that described. He would then show that he valued the privileges of church membership, and the importance of church discipline; in a brotherly, Christian manner he would try to convince the brethren of their wrong, or present the case to his Conference for investigation. 6. If he had the spirit of a brother indeed, and really valued the privileges of the meetings, he would manifest humility under the action of the church, whether that action were right or wrong. He would examine his own heart and take no step to injure the church by intruding upon it in a manner which he could but know would prove repulsive. If a person is disfellowshipped and assumes a defiant air, manifesting self-confidence and a spirit of self-justification, we think no further proof is needed to show that he has no place in the church, until, by humility and confession, he has proved that he is converted. 7. We request those who are specially interested in such cases to read again our remarks on church organization being necessary to carry out the New Testament directions, and concerning those who think they live good Christian lives just as well out of the church as in it. The church being the body of Christ, all his members must be in it. He who stands outside of God's order and assumes a boastful and defiant attitude toward those who are in that order, manifests great pride of heart, and shows that he is self-loving, and not cross-bearing. We pity the person; we pity the church and its officers who have to deal with such restless spirits.