William Blair Neatby

“ Once the great world beyond was fairly shut out, Brethrenism really offered a carrière ouverte aux talents; and, above all, it offered a full ministerial career to capable men who were unwilling or unable to make the ministry their profession. And the great world was very thoroughly shut out by the genuine Darbyite. The world might not value his treasure; but the least insight into it was more than the world could buy from him. The contempt with which others too often looked down upon the Brethren contained a suspicious alloy of anger ”

“ I am confident that I do not overstate the case for the Brethren; and surely nothing could be more futile than to seek to account for a movement that has exercised an influence so deep and wide, without the frankest acknowledgment that it must have contained elements of high excellence. The problem is to explain how a system, labouring under such great and palpable drawbacks, has for seventy years been draining the churches of a not contemptible proportion of their most spiritual members ”

“ To do the common things of life as under the lordship of Christ, and as so many acts of service to Him, was certainly the ideal of the Brethren, as it was of the Jansenists and of other excellent men whose High Churchism is not doubtful. But the Brethren, like the Jansenists, placed Christian perfection, and indeed Christian duty, in as total a seclusion as possible from the common pursuits of men, even in the case of pursuits that are lawful, and indeed necessary. ”

“ The scandals, however, were the inevitable outcome of the system. To require of every man who devotes himself exclusively to the ministry that he should possess a considerable measure of George Müller’s faith can only produce one result. Highly suitable men, who deal too strictly with their consciences to pretend to a faith that they do not possess, will be excluded. On the other hand, a great amount of spurious faith is bound to be manufactured, and light-minded or feebly enthusiastic men will press in on the strength of it. ”

“ The lofty sentiment only too readily and too frequently degenerated into a mere supercilious contempt for others. But the calm assurance of superiority, whether well or ill founded, seldom fails to ensure a corresponding bearing; and even in their decadence the Brethren have not altogether ceased to exhibit the traditional bearing of happier days. ”

“ A very little reflexion suffices to show how complete an innovation such principles in the midst of Protestantism involved. The Quakers, to whom in mode of worship, simplicity of dress, and general unworldliness, the Brethren bore a strong resemblance, seized on the first opportunity of playing their part in political life, and have played it to this day strenuously, to the unquestionable profit of the nation. ”

“ Turning to the social sphere, and comparing Darbyism with the common standards of Protestant practice, we find it Protestant in respect of the loyalty and tenacity with which it cherishes the life of the family; but in its attitude towards national life we must seek all its affinities in the more strongly marked phases of High Church Christianity. High Churchism ceaselessly tends to regard the Church and civil society as competing spheres of interest, and thus to erect an imperium in imperio, and to prefer of course the claims of the spiritual imperium to those of the secular. ”

“ The result of this system was the formation of “a church of theologians”. In the present day, knowledge has greatly decayed, without, unhappily, any corresponding decay of self-confidence; yet even now, measured by the attainments of their neighbours, the knowledge of the letter of Scripture amongst the Brethren is more than respectable. ”

“ It is surely uncandid to deny that every scheme ever yet devised for ministerial support is encumbered with more or less serious disadvantages; but it is necessary to record the verdict of experience that deliverance from them is not to be sought along the lines of the well-meant, but eminently ill-conceived, procedure of the Plymouth Brethren. ”

“ There is very little pure theory anywhere, and it is probable that the Brethren were largely influenced by what they saw, or thought they saw, of Christians almost secularised by absorption in political aims. Granting, as we surely must, that this is a real danger, it may be doubted if the Brethren took the best measures to heal the disorder. Total abstinence is not the universal panacea. ”

“ The tastes of the community and its canons of good breeding put such proceedings out of the question.
It can scarcely be necessary to say much of one particular in which the conduct of the Brethren has often been severely assailed. No one can deny that their numerous schisms have been carried through with in- credible bitterness and scurrility. ”

“ The Brethren were not without a professional ministry, but it was exercised under conditions that were liable to be insupportable to a self-respecting man, unless he were buoyed up by no common vigour of faith. Consequently the position of the cultivated youth of Darbyism was not altogether an enviable one. Unless their bent was scientific, a professional career was scarcely possible. ”

“ Some few municipal offices may be imposed on a citizen without his consent, and he may be compelled to serve on a jury. In these cases the Brethren held it not lawful to resist the civil power, from which it may be inferred that they considered only the voluntary discharge of civil functions to be sinful. ”

“ But no one can make even a beginning in understanding Brethrenism who does not keep in mind that the system as it may be observed from without, and the system as it can only be seen from within, are two totally different things. ”

“ Men otherwise amiable and large-hearted would refuse to shake hands with old and valued friends who had differed from them on some of the numerous and intricate questions that commonly formed the basis of their divisions. ”

“ It was often remarked how refining an influence association with the Darbyites exercised upon people of an uncultured class. It is a very imperfect explanation to say that the aristocratic infusion was very strong, and gave colour to the whole, although that is true as far as it goes. ”

“ Of course no body of humane men could carry out such principles consistently; but the Brethren at least avoided countenancing anything that could be called a philanthropic movement. I have heard as good a man [3] as ever adorned their ranks distinguish between one of their leaders and a well-known philanthropist bearing the same name, but belonging (if I remember rightly) to the Society of Friends, in the following extraordinary terms: “Oh, no! ”