p433 [To the same.] Dear G C Makrow, - It is fair to tell you that reflection has made me much more averse to printed papers than I was. I have not heard anything new from others which acted on me; the grounds of my increased objection have arisen in my own mind. I do not enter into details, for my difficulty has arisen from details in the first instance, and then from the whole tone and bearing of the thing. The mere fact of printing, or writing, is still nothing in itself to me. I still insist on all being put off the list who are not within London itself - I have long done so. Not doing so was all very well to help little assemblies, newly formed, where no principle was concerned in it in any one's mind; but it subverts, as it stands now, the whole principle of local unity, which is the scriptural one as to localities - holding the unity of all saints, as gathered into one, with that local unity. Helping, as a matter of grace, an assembly that was weak, was all very well, and all that thoroughly maintains general unity. Now the question as to the principle has been raised. … Grace will settle it peacefully. But my objection to the printed papers is quite other than it was when I wrote the reply to your letter.

Your affectionate brother in Christ.

[1875.]

[53319E]