“The All-wise is my judge.” “So much the worse, if you are in the wrong!” “It is the only good, whether I be in the right or the wrong. Would I have my mistakes overlooked? What judge would I desire but the Judge of all the earth! Shall He not do right? And will He not set me right?” “That is a most dangerous confidence!” “It would be if there were any other judge. But it will be neither the Church nor the world that will sit on the great white throne. He who sits there will not ask: 'Did you go to church?' or 'Did you believe in this or that?' but' Did you do what I told you?'” “And what will you say to that, Mr. Ingram?” “I will say: 'Lord, Thou knowest!” The answer checked George a little. “Suppose He should say you did not, what would you answer?” “I would say: 'Lord, send me where I may learn.'” “And if He should say: 'That is what I sent you into the world for, and you have not done it!' what would you say then?” “I should hold my peace.” “You do what He tells you then?” “I try.” “Does He not say: 'Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together?'” “No, sir.” “No?” “Somebody says something like it in the Epistle to the Hebrews.” “And isn't that the same?” “The Man who wrote it would be indignant at your saying so! Tell me, Mr. Crawford, what makes a gathering a Church?” “It would take me some time to arrange my ideas before I could answer you.” “Is it not the presence of Christ that makes an assembly a Church?” “Well?” “Does He not say that where two or three are met in His name, there is He in the midst of them?” “Yes.” “Then thus far I will justify myself to you, that, if I do not go to what you call _church_, I yet often make one of a company met in His name.” “He does not limit the company to two or three.” “Assuredly not. But if I find I get more help and strength with a certain few, why should I go with a multitude to get less? Will you draw another line than the Master's? Why should it be more sacred to worship with five hundred or five thousand than with three? If He is in the midst of them, they can not be wrong gathered!” “It _looks_ as if you thought yourselves better than everybody else!” “If it were so, then certainly He would not be _one_ of the gathering!” “How are you to know that He is in the midst of you?” “If we are not keeping His commandments, He is not. But His presence can not be _proved_; it can only be known. If He meets us, it is not necessary to the joy of His presence that we should be able to prove that He does meet us! If a man has the company of the Lord, he will care little whether another does or does not believe that he has.” “Your way is against the peace of the Church! It fosters division.”