A chasm is opening between men who believe their Bibles and the men who are prepared for an advance upon Scripture. The house is being robbed, its very walls are being digged down, but the good people who are in bed are too fond of the warmth, and too much afraid of getting broken heads, to go down stairs and meet the burglars . . . Inspiration and speculation cannot long abide in peace. Compromise there can be none. One way or the other we must go.
Decision is the virtue of the hour.
Yes, we have before us the wretched spectacle of professedly orthodox Christians publicly avowing their union with those who deny the faith, and scarcely concealing their contempt for those who cannot be guilty of such gross disloyalty to Christ. To be very plain, we are unable to call these things Christian Unions, they begin to look like Confederacies in Evil . . . It is our solemn conviction that where there can be no real spiritual communion there should be no pretense of fellowship. I doubt not that their motive has been in a measure laudable, for they desire to preserve peace, and hoped that errors, which they were forced to see, would be removed as their friends advanced in years and knowledge. I do not understand that loyalty to Christ which is accompanied by indifference to His words.