Living Together in Unity

The following insightful and instructive words are from D. E. Hoste's biography by Phyllis Thompson.   It is the voice of experience and reminds us of the practical outworking of Psalm 133:1:  "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!"  (Hoste was one of the Cambridge Seven and succeeded Hudson Taylor as the General Director of the China Inland Mission.)

"Colleagueship calls for an orientation and method different  from the direct rule over juniors and subordinates.  Capacity to recognize and assimilate what is sound and helpful from important men and, at least in part and with modifications, to apply it, seems to be a more difficult and complex matter.

"I feel more and more that it is a mistake to suppose that different personalities from one's own which have the defects of their qualities do not possess also positive requirements, both as to insight and expression, in which I myself am lacking.

"If we give our confidence to our fellow workers, Chinese and foreign, they will give us theirs; on the other hand, a mistrustful, grudging spirit begets a like attitude in those around us.  Again, if we are open to the influences and opinions of our companions, they will be so towards ours. 

"Force of habit and egotism, more or less unconscious at times, may lead us to over-estimate our own powers, and under-value those of others, and so to prevent the latter from freely exercising their gifts.  Such a course, persisted in, often leads to a rude awakening to the fact that our own ministry is not wanted.

"There is a need of constant prayer and watchfulness against the tendency insensibly to become narrow and stereotyped in our judgment of men, weighing them in balances in some respects more in accord with our own prepossessions than with those laid down in the Scriptures."