The Quarantine
If those who follow the dictation of unsound teachers, to whom monied institutionalism has given a power that they could not have on their own merits, do not cease their "quarantine" against all who oppose human institutions taking over the work of the churches, they will land with the "digressives." No man can oppose instrumental music and the United Christian Missionary Society and then turn around and advocate any human institution to do any part of the work that God has committed to the church.
Instituting a "quarantine" against any one who is "anti" any practice that the apostles did not teach, is the antithesis of a congregation withdrawing fellowship from a brother walking disorderly in an effort to save him. In no sense is the "quarantine" a warning against receiving a false teacher, or bidding him God-speed. It is not a marking of them that cause division and turning away from them. The ones running the "Quarantine" are the false teachers, teaching things that the apostles did not teach. They are the ones who have divided the church.
An executive of a "Christian" college warned a young preacher that if he did not support the policy of the college, they would make it impossible for him to find a place to preach. They would "quarantine" him and warn the churches that he is "anti" human institutions taking over the work of the church. With every church in the land dependent upon its "minister", and every "minister" afraid not to support the policy of the "Christian" College, it becomes obvious that "as goes the 'Christian' Colleges, so go the churches."
The "quarantine" has convinced a few preachers, who formerly had strong convictions that the local congregation is the only working divine institution on earth, and that it is complete, perfect, and thoroughly furnished to do every good work, that they can do more good by going with the popular crowd, than they can by suffering the "quarantine," because of their being "anti" human institutions taking over the work of the local congregations. The "quarantine" shows who are faithful. It distinguishes between the men and the boys.
An institutional organization, collecting money f m thousands of churches, centralizes a power o r the churches that no man should be permitted to exert. The head of a "Christian" College, or of an Orphan Home, exerts more power over the churches than a score of elders. To oppose either of them is to endure some hard going.
The oversight of the elders of a congregation is confined to that congregation. No organization can be established through which to pool either the money, or the work of two, or more churches. Every church is completely and thoroughly furnished by the Word of God to do its own work. With every congregation, in every nation, all over the world, guided by the Word of God, speaking where it speaks, and silent where it is silent, there is a perfection of congregational cooperation that is impossible for all human institutions. With every church, in its own neighborhood, in every nation, all over the world, doing its own work, the world would soon be evangelized. Centralized institutions can never evangelize the world.
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