THERE is no half-way fellowship to which we can receive persons, and allow them all the privileges we enjoy, and they not in full fellowship. It is not a question about our receiving a person, but the Lord receiving the person. The very act in which the penitent sinner comes and is received by the Lord is baptism. When he comes in full assurance of faith and penitence, and is immersed into Christ, the Lord receives him. All we do in the matter is to execute the law of Christ. The entire matter of inquiry is about how the Lord receives persons. This is all we inquire about.
When we turn aside from the way the Lord receives persons, and receive them in some other way, it is no difference what that other way is. It may be styled more liberal than the way in which the Lord receives persons, but the Lord does not propose to present something more liberal than men; but he is a Law-giver, and lays down the law on which he will receive men, and if men desire him to receive them, they must come in the way laid down in his law. But if we only desire to be received by men, we can consult them and learn the terms on which they will receive us; but when we act thus we must not deceive ourselves, and think we are becoming servants of the Lord in so doing. We are simply becoming servants of men.