124 Chastisement the way to Restoration. CHAP, vi 



such flagrant sin in a brother a fellow Christian 

 to be dealt with \ For it must be remembered that 

 the words of the Apostle are directed to those who 

 are members of the Christian Church, sharing in the 

 privileges of the common life. The answer follows 

 naturally from a view of the normal efficacy of 

 Christian intercession. The power of prayer avails 

 for those who belong to the Body. But for those 

 who are separated from the Body for a time, or not 

 yet included in it, the ordinary exercise of the energy 

 of spiritual sympathy has, so far as we are taught 

 directly, no promise of salutary influence. The use 

 of common prayer in such cases is not enjoined ; 

 though it must be observed that it is not forbidden. 

 St. John does not command intercession when the 

 sin is seen, recognised by the brother, in its fatal 

 intensity; but on the other hand he does not 

 expressly exclude it. Even if the tenour of his 

 words may seem to dissuade such prayer, it is be- 

 cause the offender lies without the Christian Body, 

 excluded from its life, but yet not beyond the 

 creative, vivifying power of God. 



"We can understand in some degree how such 

 sins, either in men or in nations, must be left to 

 God. Chastisement and not forgiveness is the one 

 way to restoration. The book of the Prophet 

 Jeremiah is a divine lesson of the necessity of puri- 

 fication through death for a faithless people. And 

 the fortunes of Israel seems to illustrate the character 

 of God's dealings with men." 



