The same psychological reaction may be characteristic of spiritual dwarfs. Little men may appear big if they can rationalize all others into inferiority. A small faction can appear of tremendous importance if its members can be made to believe they constitute the sole survivors of the Israel of God, and are the exclusive recipients of God's grace, while every other person on the face of the earth is doomed to damnation because he does not see eye to eye with them on every minute point of practice. But such delusions of grandeur are fatal to the intellect and deadly to the heart. Indicative of the effect of such attitudes is the wresting of certain scriptures which may be twisted to justify schism and the party spirit in direct contradiction of those passages which forbid and condemn it.
Men now love the party spirit.
They advocate disunity and preach division among brethren. Under such circumstances any passage which seems to condone separation is seized upon with joyful abandon. A short time hence I was in correspondence with a brother who was contending that one could not scripturally engage in the Lord's Supper, except with fermented wine. He was bitterly partisan. I asked him for the scriptural ground upon which he made this a test of fellowship.