p456 [Hayhoe] MY DEAR BROTHER, - The case is evidently an exceptional one. Other considerations too enter into it, as to which I have no information, as whether the providence of God carried them to a place where they have no opportunity of breaking bread, or their own will, or worldly motives. Of this I say, because I know, nothing. But it would affect the question. The presence of one sister, if not sought, would not affect me much. They ought not, I think, to do it as a regular gathering so to speak; if they could occasionally get a brother to come, they might wait for such an opportunity. But if all this be impracticable I could not say that they should for ever be deprived of it. But in a country where other opportunities may evidently occur, they should do it only when their souls felt the need of it, and assuming that there were no other means of meeting that need, with no teaching or pretension to be a regular assembly. It is only a case of meeting a need when there is no other means. There is neither male or female in Christ Jesus; but everything has its place and order in the church of God. And I repeat, it should not be as a regular assembly, but as meeting a need which could in no other way be met. May the Lord keep them near Himself.

Your affectionate brother in Christ.

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