CHAPTER SIX

What church should I join?

The week following the events that took place at the schoolhouse was an important one in the life of Robert and Mary Davis.  Having put their hands to the plow, they could not look back.  Already, they were aware that the steps they had taken religiously were separating them from the people about them.  Robert’s bold stand for a holy Christian life made him the butt of many a joke, and a laughing-stock.  They began to hunger for companionship and spiritual fellowship with those of like mind and hope.  The gradual separation taking place, which was throwing over their neighbors a coldness toward them, accentuated the question of which church they were going to join.  Their hearts were hungry for soul-food, for spiritual nurture; there was a longing within which was acutely felt, but which was unsatisfied.  The intensity of this desire for the fellowship of saints increased as Robert and Mary studied the Scriptures and beheld glimpses of the path which was being so clearly marked out from therein.  They were willing to be martyrs for the truth, but how their souls did long for someone to whom they could unburden their hearts and in whom they could confide!

There is inherent in the human heart a desire for fellowship and companionship.  God has recognized this desire.  Jesus Christ soon gathered around him chosen men, who were one with Him in heart and soul, one with Him in His grand purpose to lift a world out of sin.  The story of Christ’s and the apostles’ lives reveals a most remarkable affinity of spirit between Christ and them.  They became so much at one with Him that they gladly forsook every earthly prospect, and became willing to die for Him, even as He died for them.  Jesus made a class called his “disciples,” which was an inevitable result of His salvation work.  They were the members of the spiritual kingdom which He founded.  They were the members of the church which He built.  With His infinite love He had sought them, and with His atoning blood He had bought them.  He found them dying, and He gave them life; He found them sinning and doomed to a devil’s hell, and He redeemed them.  Having received so richly of Christ’s blessing, all these saved ones were drawn into a unity of soul and heart unknown in any organization of man.

It was exactly for this that Robert and Mary Davis were longing, at the time of our narrative.  They had expected soon after their conversion, to join some denomination.  They had purposely set out to see which church was right.  They had supposed that it would be a matter of a few weeks only, and then they would be safely housed in their church home.  But the more they searched, and the more of the Bible they read, the less inclined they were to join any of the churches about them.  God was leading them, but it was some time before the hand of the Lord was seen.