Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader - Plough

Consequently, our sin must there be hidden; and wemust always be ready to testify as to where that sin has beenplaced.Many times a person can push through to faith by himself...Butin difficult cases, a person cannot do this on hisown. Consider, my friends, I am nothing in myself; I amwhat I am only through this sort of community. If there areno brothers and sisters who understand me, I am nothing...In the kingdom of God, no one exists for himself. We existthrough God’s grace—and to do that is to exist for othersand with others and to have ever more of the sense ofcommunity so that we can become a single instrument ofpower.all the bonds of secular society, whether among heathenor Christians, represent imprisonment insofar as menare bound to men. In this way, a person becomes entangledwith other people, finally achieving a human sort of unionin which one individual pulls at another at his pleasure. Andsad to say, that which generally is called “the church” has notkept free or been spared from this danger.What comes under the generic term “church” and constitutesso-called “Christendom” has become simply a collectionof sects and parties. And in that setup, one alwayshas a bad conscience before others or is embarrassed beforethem; one goes “the way of men” along with the others towhom he has bound himself. Consequently, anxiety is cre­4