1 Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren;

2 The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.

ARE sisters' classes a blessing?

Yes, when they are properly managed and enthusiastically supported. The objections which are sometimes raised against these classes are founded on misconception. Women, it is said, ought not to speak in the ecclesia. True, but a sisters' class is not the ecclesia. It is a private gathering of sisters.

Can this be wrong, particularly when the object of the gathering is spiritual upbuilding and comfort? What would Christ say? What would Paul say? The little incident respecting Martha and Mary suggests what the Master would reply, and Tit. 2:3, 4, reveals what the answer of his worthy apostle would be.

Again, it is quite wrong to say that the classes are calculated to create in sisters the unscriptural spirit of the age as touching public speaking. As one who has watched with interest and pleasure the sixteen years' growth and influence for good of the class held in South London, the writer can say that the fear in this direction is groundless.

Those who have faithfully plodded away at the work connected with this class have not been found to be noisy, cantankerous, or obstructors of anything that is of real service to the truth. On the contrary, they are among those who have been first and foremost in every good work—in supporting the meetings, in distributing lecture cards and leaflets, in visiting the absent and sick.

Let us not throw cold water on these classes. Among the blessings that accrue from them is the incentive that they form to Bible study. We want more enlightenment and more spiritual-mindedness among our sisters (not that the brethren are perfect in this respect, far from it).

Women are not cyphers, They exercise a potent influence for good or evil, both in the home and in the ecclesia. Let us not deprive them of any help that tends to make them what God would desire them to be. Let husbands be kind and considerate, and, if possible, contrive a way by which their wives can attend these classes.

At any rate, let them not ridicule or wrongly criticise. Let those brethren who can only say nasty things about these classes, examine themselves, and see that they are not actuated by selfishness, envy, jealousy, or a disrelish to have their own pleasure in some way or other curtailed.

If our wives can outstrip us in ability and usefulness, let us rejoice, and not show ourselves disagreeable and unkind, as has been the case with the seed of the serpent all along the ages.

Bro AT Jannaway

The Christadelphian, May 1910

6 But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.

Pleasure Fairs and the Heavenly Calling

Is it right for brethren to attend pleasure fairs?—H. H. K.

Paul says that a sister who

"liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth."—(1 Tim. 5:6).

In this matter, there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus. Brethren given to "pleasure" are no more alive to Christ Jesus than pleasure-following sisters. The effect of "pleasure" is blighting to the new man. Speaking of those who are hurt in this way, Jesus says they are

"choked with cares and riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection."—(Luke 8:14.)

This is not the saints' time for pleasure. They are defined by Jesus as those who "weep now," and "hunger now," and are poor now (Luke 6:20–23.) It is the world's turn now to be "rich," to be "full," to "laugh," to be "spoken well of:" and as to these, Jesus says woe awaits them—(verses 24–26.)

The joy of the world is not on the right foundation, and, therefore, cannot be shared by the saint who groans a pilgrim, waiting the promise when all shall be holiness to the Lord, and

"the redeemed of the Lord shall return unto Zion with singing."

His part in the present is to

"live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope" (Tit. 2:12), "having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reproving them."—(Eph. 5:11.)

If a saint indeed, he will

"redeem the time because the days are evil" (Eph. 5:16),

refusing to stand in the way of sinners (Psalm 1:1) or to assemble with vain persons.—(Ps. 26:4.)

What is a "pleasure fair" but a riotous herding together of the shallowest and unholiest and most frivolous of mankind?—to whom the Spirit's words emphatically apply:

"The wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous. Thy judgments are far above out of his sight."—(Psalm 10:3–5.) "The laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns under a pot."—(Eccles 7:6.)

Shall saints patronize this thorn-crackling when performed on the pleasure-fair scale? When they can imagine the Man of Sorrows in a "penny gaff," or looking round with satisfaction among the gimcracks of a market rabble, they may feel at liberty to go and do likewise. Saints who can reach such a soaring height of imagination, will find, at last, that in their hopes of the kingdom, they have been building castles in the air.

The Christadelphian, Nov 1872

18 For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.

There was no stipulated fee or reward.

What they received leaped out of the purses of brethren, whose inner man was imbued with the truth, and whose hearts overflowed with gratitude to their elder-brethren for their kind and gratuitous vigilance in those times of tribulation and peril.

Eureka 2.3.7.