William Blair Neatby

“ It is into this position, dear Darby, I feel some little flocks are fast tending, if they have not already attained it. Making light not life the measure of communion. ... Was not the principle we laid down as to separation from all existing bodies at the outset this: that we felt ourselves bound to separate from all individuals and systems, so far as they required us to do what our consciences would not allow, or restrained us from doing what our consciences required, and no further? ”

“ There is no truth more established in my own mind than this; that to occupy position of the maximum of power, in witnessing to the consciences of others, you must stand before their unbiassed judgment as evidently wishing to allow in them more than their own consciences allow, rather than less, proving that your heart of love is more alive to find a covering for faults, than your eagle eye of light to discover them.” An argumentum ad hominem follows. It must be remembered that Darby almost alone among the earlier Brethren remained a pedobaptist. ”

“ The Brethren sought to effect a fresh start without authority, precedent, or guidance beyond the letter of Holy Scripture. For them, essentially, the garnered experience of eighteen Christian centuries was as though it were not. Such an experiment in the hands of eminent men could scarcely fail to yield a considerable harvest of interest and instruction; and it has actually shed, if I mistake not, a flood of light on many of the obscurities and incredibilities of the history of the Church. ”

“ His churchmanship died slowly. “I was still,” he tells us, “so far attached to the Church of England, that I went to London, to arrange my going out as a layman, for the Church Missionary Society; but as they would not allow me to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, when no other minister was near, it came to nothing. My mind was then in great straits; for I saw not yet my liberty of ministry to be from Christ alone, and felt some ordination to be necessary, but hated the thought of being made a sectarian. ”

“ To apply a very simple test, which of all the smaller sects of Christendom has enrolled amongst its enthusiastic adherents such a company (to limit ourselves to men that are gone) as John Nelson Darby and Francis William Newman, George Muller and Anthony Norris Groves, Benjamin Wills Newton and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles?
In yet another respect special interest attaches to the story of the Brethren. On their narrow stage there are few of the tendencies of universal church history that have not been illustrated, and not many of its movements that have not been reenacted in little. ”

“ I have seldom, I think, conversed with any one not intimately acquainted with the Brethren, but what I have found that he understood Open Brethren to be so called because they admit Christians who are not ‘Brethren’ to the communion table, and Exclusive Brethren to have earned their title by the exclusion of all who did not belong to their own sect. ”

“ For the first time in my life I saw a man earnestly turning into reality the principles which others confessed with their lips only. That the words of the New Testament contained the highest truth accessible to man,—truth not to be taken from nor added to,—all (as I thought) confessed: never before had I seen a man so resolved that no word of it should be a dead letter to him. ”

“ And in this freedom did we not feel brethren should not force liberty on those who were bound, nor withhold freedom from those who were free?” The Brethren have always been apt to measure their fidelity by the opposition and reproach that they have encountered. ”

“ From seeing his action and influence I have learnt, that if it be dangerous to a young man (as it assuredly is) to have no superior mind to which he may look up with confiding reverence, it may be even more dangerous to think that he has found such a mind: for he who is most logically consistent, though to a one-sided theory, and most ready to sacrifice “self to that theory seems to ardent youth the most assuredly trustworthy guide. ”

“ In later days, Darby exercised his ascendency over men who, though very far in many cases from personal insignificance, were for the most part little known outside their own sect. It is therefore the more important to remember that, at the very beginning of his career, he brought into almost servile subjection the mind of one of the most remarkable men of the nineteenth century. This was Francis William Newman, the younger brother by four or five years of the more celebrated (not, I think, the abler) J. H. Newman, the Cardinal. The younger Newman was a man of prodigious versatility. ”

“ The Expansion of Brethrenism—the Movement in England However debateable the honours of the foundership of Brethrenism may be, no question can be raised in regard to personal preeminence when once we pass on to the period of expansion and consolidation. One figure stands out unmistakeably; at times it fills the canvas. Brethrenism was destined to exercise a world-wide influence; to establish itself as a force to be reckoned with in every corner of Christendom ”

“ I attended the Scotch Church at Kingstown, where all who were understood to be new-born were welcome. But on returning to Dublin in the November of that year, Francis Hutchinson was quite prepared for communion in the name of the Lord, with all, whoever they might be, that loved Him in sincerity, and proposed to have a room in his house in Fitzwilliam Square for that purpose. ”

“ But I would wish it to be understood that I do not think that any man can, with strict propriety, be spoken of as the founder of Plymouthism; though it seems fair to say of Groves that he had a larger share in its foundation than any one else, if we confine our attention to the very earliest period. It is necessary to add a word of warning against the first chapter of The Brethren, Their Origin, Progress and Testimony. Its author derived his information largely from Darby, but it may be charitably hoped that he extensively misunderstood his authority. ”

“ I remember once saying to him, in defence of worldly station,—‘To desire to be rich is unchristian and absurd; but if I were the father of children, I should wish to be rich enough to secure them a good education’. ”

“ You must not, however, dear brother, think, from anything I have said, that I shall not write freely and fully to you, relative to things in India, feeling assured in my own heart, that your enlarged and generous spirit, so richly taught of the Lord, will one day burst again those bonds which narrower minds than yours have encircled you with, and come forth again, rather anxious to advance all the living members of the living Head into the stature of men, than to be encircled by any little bodies, however numerous, that own you for their founder. ”

“ Cronin seems to intimate a considerable expansion in his company before it came into touch with the circle in which Groves, Bellett, and Darby were leading spirits.
“It there [i.e., at Lower Pembroke Street] became noised abroad, and one another became affected by the same truth, which really was the oneness of the Body and the presence of the Holy Spirit, also seen by us very clearly. Here Francis Hutchinson joined us, and as we were becoming numerous, offered us the use of his large room in Fitzwilliam Square.” (Italics my own.) ”

“ Some will not have me hold communion with the Scotts, because their views are not satisfactory about the Lord’s Supper; others with you, because of your views about baptism; others with the Church of England, because of her thoughts about ministry. I receive them all and join with them. On the principle of witnessing against evil, I should reject them all. ... ”

“ I make use of my fellowship in the Spirit, to enjoy the common life together and witness for that, as an opportunity to set before them those little particulars into which, notwithstanding all their grace and faithfulness, their godliness and honesty, they have fallen. ”

“ But even if we limit ourselves for the moment to Dublin, we are still confronted by conflicting claims. Three names at least have been put forward in answer to the question, who was the founder, ostensible or virtual, of the new school. These are the names of A. N. Groves, J. G. Bellett and J. N. Darby. In addition to these, the name of Edward Cronin ought to have found some supporters, as his claim is at any rate much better than Darby’s. ”

“ Groves wrote, “which I cannot detail, and feel it impossible to write about. One, however, very especial one, is to become united more truly in heart with all the missionary band there, and shew that, notwithstanding all differences, we are one in Christ; sympathising in their sorrows, and rejoicing in their prosperity. ... My purpose is to visit as many mission stations as I can before I return, should the Lord spare me.” In many respects no man was ever better fitted for the task ”

“ But his mind was independently moving in the common direction of the early Brethren, and connexion with an organised society soon became impossible to him. Groves’ early pamphlet on Christian Devotedness fell into his hands, and influenced him powerfully. In 1830 Müller accepted a call to the pastorate of a church at Teignmouth, at a stipend of £55 a year; and it was here that the principles soon to be known as those of “the Brethren” began to take definite shape in his mind.
He became extremely suspicious of “human direction” in “the things of God”. ”

“ The new principles were introduced at Bristol by one who may well be called the most illustrious man ever associated with the Brethren. The story of George Müller (1805-1898) is too well known through his own narrative to require to be told again in detail. He was of Prussian birth, and after a youth of precocious wickedness became the subject of a profound spiritual change. Desiring to devote himself to mission work among the Jews, he came as a very young man to London for training. ”

“ On the one hand, there has been a very natural tendency on the part of the adherents of the movement to invest its first days with the glories of a heroic age, and to magnify the heroes by assigning to individual light and energy a far greater and more decisive part than the ascertained facts at all warrant us in doing. This has even been pushed to the length of claiming the honours of at least a virtual foundership for Darby. ”