p431 Dear G C Makrow, - I have long had the conviction, and expressed it, that half the gatherings on the paper should be off. Some since then are. This has been the real evil; the thing was cumbersome, and, what was worse, factitious and fictitious. … I should not think of hindering any brother from these places coming on Saturday evening if he wished. In many cases it might be desirable, as so near London people move more about. At the beginning of these meetings, when they were young and weak, desiring the help of older brethren in London, and there were only one or two gatherings, it was all well; but they are grown up, and letters of commendation, as from any other gathering, should be given.

As to the printing I am indifferent. I should prefer writing, because more connected with personal intercourse in giving them in, and less routine; because, too, if sent to printer, then they are without any consultation at all, and if the visitors do not come, which is then very likely, they must be given out without more, or struck out without communication with those who send them. But all these are merely instrumental means of getting things done, and if it all works well I am content. … The printing is to gain time; if all non-London meetings were off, half the time would be saved, and more real work done; and the casting of the responsibility on the different gatherings in each place I believe to be most important. In London we are all in one place, however large. I never could have said, If the papers are given up - I might have said that if they were made independent churches - I could not go with them. The papers were a real means of hindering this, and with all defects they had worked well. …

The meeting had lost its true character, it has ceased to be real. If brethren who cared for saints in each gathering in London, met to carry out that care in unity, as servants to the different gatherings, it would be a most useful meeting, while admission and exclusion I hold to be the act of the whole assembly and not rightly done otherwise. Practically, as I said in the letter you sent me, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it is the local gathering which has come to the conclusion, but unity is maintained by intercommunion in it; and in such a place as London it is a great safeguard, and in special cases all are actually concerned in it together - a person may have been teaching false doctrine in many gatherings or troubling them in other ways. … A little patience, and weighing the matter before God, and all would be straight.

It is not by much discussion, but readiness to serve, and wisdom as to practical plans, that such things are carried out. But it is not so much plans as work in love that is required. My old letter (I do not know who printed it) I still believe perfectly just.

Your affectionate brother in Christ.

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