We have come to our final reading from the discussions and the spiritual insights of the evangelical ministers who regularly met in London as “The Eclectic Society.” It seems fitting therefore to end with its final entry. I hope you will find the time to read further around in the minutes of the meetings, especially with the original volume waiting for you in Google Books/Google Play. You can find the text by clicking this link.
When the ministers gathered for their last recorded meeting on January 17, 1814, they did so in a state of relief and joy because news had reached England that Napoleon Bonaparte was deposed ending the many years of war in Europe. The treaty was signed in July with the seventh set apart as a national day of thanksgiving. We have studied their discussion of how best to apply the annual days of fasting and repentance, now was a time of rejoicing. It would seem strange to us to read that the final meeting did not dwell on the international news, but on the extent to which a minister should admonish and exhort his church members on minor points of their morality.
The argument in the affirmative seems to suggest that if a committed Christian were to consider the minor points of morality, they would strengthen their resistance to more serious lapses. Although not quoted in the minutes, the ministers would have recalled verse 1 of Psalm 1 that begins with the description of the blessed man:
Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
In C. S. Lewis’ famous book The Screwtape Letters, he describes the road to hell as a gradual decline rather than a cliff face, and similarly, in the same way, the psalmist presents a gradual descent into evil. The blessed man does not walk, stand, or sit with the wicked, sinners, or scoffers. In other words, a person's engagement with the wicked begins as he walks with them becomes more involved as he stands with them and finally results in a close relationship as he sits down with them. It is not hard to imagine that many of the ministers present that day would have heard confessions from many people both within their churches who testify that they never thought they would be neck-deep in the sin they were in. They began in a seemingly innocent manner, only to find themselves later drowning in their sin.
