Fellowship

“ But, if we walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. As the blessed God is the eternal boundless light, and the Mediator is, from him, the light of the world, so the Christian institution is the great luminary that appears in our sphere, and shines here below. A conformity to this in spirit and practice demonstrates fellowship or communion with God. Those that so walk show that they know God, that they have received of the Spirit of God, and that the divine impress or image is stamped upon their souls. ”

“ There every step in the course of development must be carefully considered, vigilantly watched and wisely directed, to the one crowning purpose of ripening the young minds and hearts for that fellowship of love and hope.
A new fellowship, a new order, I say boldly, whose members shall not be bound by any vows, which shall have no convents, no mysteries, but shall make itself an exemplar of the virtues it preaches, a form of the ideal. The perils that attend such organizations are great; we will not attempt to underrate their gravity, but we believe they can be overcome. ”

“ We take, moreover, an oath of fellowship which binds us to help each other in all circumstances, to the utmost of our ability and fortune, within the bounds of reason, to risk life and limb for each other's safety, and most especially to respect the wives, the daughters and the betrothed brides of all who belong to our fellowship. These are promises which every true and honest man can make to his friends, and we agree that whoso breaks any one of them, shall die by the hands of the company. ”

“ With fellowship based upon individualism, and with individualism ever leading to fellowship, America will perform its vital tasks, and its literature will be the unconscious and beautiful utterance of its inner life. ”

“ In low tones, as men who feel a mystic and not-to-be-explained bond of fellowship—with half-closed eyes looking out into the untamed world that lay before them—they spoke of life, of its mystery and meaning. ”

“ When I think of the great assemblies that have surged and thronged around this platform, when I think of the influences that have gone out from this pulpit into all the earth, I feel that less than almost any other man on earth does he need the assurance of fellowship from any but the Son of God! ”

“ He is in humble, trustful fellowship with those above him. He is in hearty, sympathetic fellowship with those around him. He is in serviceable, loving fellowship with all objects that, according to the common gradation, are held to stand underneath him. ”

“ Wherein lies happiness? In that which becks
Our ready minds to fellowship divine,
A fellowship with essence; till we shine,
Full alchemiz’d, and free of space. Behold
The clear religion of heaven! ”

“ But are they in full fellowship when they have been out of the Church ten or twenty years? How can such a man be restored to full fellowship without a time for making restitution to the complete satisfaction of all the parties aggrieved—until we can say, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into our joys and partake of our blessings?" This is my faith. If a person takes a course to injure me, although he might not injure, yet it is the same as though he did: the will is taken for the deed. ”

“ No point of doctrine is made a criterion of fellowship, but Christian fellowship rests alone on the true bias of spirit and practice. They are simple, unassuming, and spiritual in their preaching and worship; the labor of the ministers is to make their hearers good: a great share of singing and prayer is interspersed through their meetings. ”

“ To a remnant of these, my spirit was nearly united in the real bond of Christian fellowship, and our hearts were filled with gratitude to the God and Father of all our sure mercies, that he was graciously pleased to distil the heavenly dew for refreshing the weary travellers, and crowning the several meetings with the glorious diadem of his holy presence; to him alone be the praise, for he is worthy for ever. ”

“ And with this proof I conclude. The universal fellowship of men, the laws which unite one to the other, the most sacred and inviolable duties of civil life, are all founded only on the certainty of a future state. ”

“ I make use of my fellowship in the Spirit, to enjoy the common life together and witness for that, as an opportunity to set before them those little particulars into which, notwithstanding all their grace and faithfulness, their godliness and honesty, they have fallen. ”

“ Every branch of gospel work—the Depot, the Preaching, the Sunday-school—must be carried on in this way. It is all well and most valuable to have fellowship—full cordial fellowship, in all our service; but if we wait for fellowship and co-operation in the starting of work which comes within the range of personal, as well as collective, responsibility, we shall find ourselves very much behind—or the work may not be done at all. ”

“ The helpers in the institutions were allowed to come into such close fellowship and to have such knowledge of the exact state of the work as aids not only in common labours, but in common prayers and self-denials. ”

“ Our religion is meant to bring us together; and though it does so more effectually by inspiring us with kindliness and helpfulness in life than by a formal meeting together for no purposes of active charity, yet the one fellowship aids the other, as many of us well know. ”

“ Ingleby.—"Your remarks, Sir, are quite correct. And [43] here we see the wisdom as well as the love of our Redeemer in grafting our obligations to the most intimate Christian fellowship on the very constitution of our nature, which inclines us to live in social intercourse; guarding us at the same time from the danger of contracting a sectarian spirit by enjoining on us the duty of doing good unto all men, as well as to those who belong to the household of faith." ”

“ All you can offer me is patronage, advice, direction from people whom I don’t know and who don’t know me. The one thing that I want, which is fellowship, I have not got. You have taught me to depend on others. ”

“ Possibly, too, He yearned for a closer fellowship with them. He loved human fellowship, as Peter and James and John, and Mary and Martha and many other gentle women well knew. And there is no fellowship among men to be compared with fellowship in prayer. ”

“ Faith loves to dwell upon the blessed Person, whom faith alone through the Spirit’s power can make a living reality. And God, the faithful God, loves to hear His children speak much of Him, whom He loves, the Son of His Love, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Fellowship means to have things in common. And that is what God has done. He has taken us through His Grace out of the fellowship in which we are by nature, the things we have in common as enemies and children of wrath and has called us into the fellowship of His Son. ”

“ The Church, we say, is a living fellowship—not in the first place an organization, but in the first place an organism—not an institution, but a body, built up of many cells, many individuals, just as the body has cells that grow and change and perform their several functions under the direction of an all-pervading, all-embracing life. That is what a living fellowship means. This life received through direct contact with the Divine life is the one essential of the Christian Church. ”

“ To be in fellowship with him means to take part in his poverty and want, to share in his sorrows, his sufferings and self-denial in this world, as well as to partake of the joys and hopes, the consolations and blessedness of this world, and the hopes and glories of the world to come. We have fellowship with one another because of the mutual participation in each other’s affections, joys, sorrows and needs. ”

“ Nothing can prevent My receiving thee into fellowship. I have taken possession of Heaven for thee, as the Great High Priest, that thou mightest live the Heavenly life, that thou mightest have access into the holiest of all and an abiding dwelling place there. ”

“ And I pray that in this new lease of united fellowship which we have taken out, be it longer or shorter—and advancing years tell me that at the longest it must be comparatively short—I may come to you ever more and more with the lofty and humbling consciousness that I have a message which Christ has given to me, and that you may come more and more receptive—not of my words, God forbid—but of Christ's truth; and that so we may be helpers one of another, and encourage each other in the warfare and work to which we all are called and consecrated. ”

“ Fellowship.—Man is a social being and he seeks contact with his fellow men. Many of the worldly ways in which this fellowship is sought are ways which lead to the wrecking of man, body and soul, or to the obliteration of all the finer feelings. The mission of the Christian Church is to strengthen the social bond by seeking to cultivate all the better impulses and finer feelings in man, and to place society on a firmer footing in love, purity and righteousness (1 John 1:3; 1:5; Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 1:9) . ”

“ There are claims of community in faith and order that should be gladly owned, and perfect understanding and interchange should be cherished between all parts of this fellowship of saints, mutual confidence and the gracious tenderness of a love deeper than any kinship of race should cement us in one. ”

“ But to return to our subject—the fellowship of the world. Unite with them just as far as you require them to unite with you, and upon the same principle. If they are hungry, feed them when in your power. If they are in distress, trouble, or difficulty, relieve them. Take them in when strangers, if they ask you. Be kind unto them and courteous; yet remember that God has given to you His Holy Spirit as a standard, to which the world should come. It is your duty to honor that standard, and to keep it erect. If the world have fellowship and union with you, let it be in the Spirit of the Lord. ”

“ Ah, cherish that word fellowship, my brethren, for without fellowship be assured Christ cannot enter among you: for without fellowship every one standeth for his own lusts, and the strong wax yet stronger, and the weak are pressed to the wall and grow yet weaker and die. But where fellowship entereth among you there entereth Christ also—the strong shares his strength with the weak, and the oppressed arise and lift up their heads. We are told much, fellow-men, [63] of the states of heaven and hell, we are told of the blessings of heaven and the horrors of hell ”

“ Never have we acted so graciously and so in accordance with the spirit of our Gospel. Before us stood—a sickening and never-to-be-forgotten sight—a vast army in deadly and rebellious array—an army made up of men with whom we had gone side by side to victory over a common foe—men our familiar friends, to whom we had extended, and were learning more and more to extend, the right hand of social fellowship—men whom we had not only treated kindly, but, as was reported and believed, had verily spoiled by forbearing gentleness. ”

“ Since our fellow-men are so essential to us and we to them, it is our duty to live in as intimate fellowship with them as possible.—The [105] fundamental form of fellowship is hospitality. By the fireside and around the family table we feel most free, and come nearest to one another. ”

“ Church fellowship is the communion that the members enjoy one with another. The ends of church fellowship are, the maintenance and exhibition of a system of sound doctrine; the support of the ordinances of evangelical worship in their purity and simplicity; the impartial exercise of church government and discipline; the promotion of holiness in all manner of conversation. The more particular duties are, earnest study to keep peace and unity ”

“ Whatever then may be the meaning of this supplication, it is a prayer for Philemon, and not for others. That remark disposes of the explanations which widen its scope, contrary, as it seems to me, to the natural understanding of the context.
[440] “The fellowship of thy faith” is capable of more than one meaning. The signification of the principal word and the relation expressed by the preposition may be variously determined. “Fellowship” is more than once used in the sense of sharing material wealth with Christ’s poor, or more harshly and plainly, charitable contribution. ”

“ No other fellowship offers to men of faith so great an opportunity to make distinctive contribution to the race's spiritual life. In the presence of the Church's service and the Church's need an unaffiliated believer in Jesus Christ is an anomaly. For enrichment, stability, and expression, faith must have fellowship. ”

“ Intimating, that we must pray, not only alone and for ourselves, but with and for others; for we are members one of another, and are called into fellowship with each other. ”

“ They substitute conventional methods—we have had a great deal of that, too—for the natural arrangements which a living fellowship of disciples would make and modify from time to time and place to place. They substitute a cold organization for a warm fellowship, an outward profession for an inward experience, priestly agency for personal responsibility, dogmatic teaching for education, almsgiving for personal social service, sectarian ends for the great purposes of the Kingdom of God. ”

“ In war men need each other more; and where a given point has to be defended, fighters inevitably find themselves shoulder to shoulder. So fellowship grows, so grow the rules of fellowship, which gradually shape themselves to thoroughness as the idea of a common good becomes more complete. ”

“ With hearts filled with gratitude to God, we rejoice in your inspired leadership, in your wise counselling. We revere and cherish your friendship, and assure you that it is our intention to take such action as will unite the churches and societies in this field in the bonds of Christian love and fellowship, thus demonstrating practical Christianity. ”