It may be the reader feels disposed to ask, How is it possible for the state of one believer to affect those who know nothing about it? The answer is, "If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." All the members of what? Is it of any mere local assembly or company who may happen to know or be locally connected with the person concerned? Nay, but the members of the body wherever they are. Even in the case of Israel, where it was only a national unity, we have seen that if there was evil in any one of their cities, all were concerned, all involved, all affected. Hence, when Achan sinned, although there were myriads of people totally ignorant of the fact, the Lord said, "_Israel_ hath sinned," and the whole assembly suffered a humiliating defeat.
Can reason grasp this weighty truth? No; but faith can. If we listen to reason, we shall believe nothing; but, by the grace of God, we shall not listen to reason, but believe what God says because He says it.
And oh, beloved Christian reader, what an immense truth is this unity of the body! What practical consequences flow out of it! How eminently calculated it is to minister to holiness of walk and life! How watchful it would make us over ourselves--our habits, our ways, our whole moral condition! How careful it would make us not to dishonor the Head _to_ whom we are united, or grieve the Spirit _by_ whom we are united, or injure the members _with_ whom we are united!
But we must close this chapter, much as we should like to linger over one of the very grandest, most profound, and most powerful formative truths that can possibly engage our attention. May the Spirit of God make it a living power in the soul of every true believer on the face of the earth.