Page:Balthasar Hübmaier.djvu/286

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214
Balthasar Hübmaier
[1524-

"Leonard—What are grounds for exclusion?

"John—Unwillingness to be reconciled with one's brother, or to abstain from sin.

"Leonard—For what should we exclude?

"John—Not for six shillings' worth of hazel nuts, as our papist friends have been wont to do, but on account of an offensive sin, and for the sake of the offender, that he may reflect, know himself and abstain from sin.

"Leonard—If he abstains from the sin, avoids the paths by which he might again fall, and does better, what position is the church to take?

"John—She is to receive him again with joy, as the father the prodigal son, and as Paul the Corinthian, opening heaven to him and welcoming him to the fellowship of Christ's supper."

On the question of singing hymns the Anabaptists were as much troubled and divided as some modern Presbyterian sects. Some opposed the use of anything but the psalms for this purpose, yet on the other hand some of the oldest Anabaptist compositions extant are hymns. Hübmaier took a moderate and sensible view of this, as of most practical questions.

"With singing and reading in the churches I am well contented (but not as they have hitherto been conducted), when it is with the spirit and from the heart and with understanding of the words and edification of the church as Paul teaches us (1 Cor xiv., 15; Col. iii.,