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“Oh, the joy of having nothing and being nothing, seeing nothing but a living Christ in glory, and being careful for nothing but his interests down here.”

“If Darby had occupied Abraham's position, he might have left behind hardly less than Abraham's fame. It is easy to picture him dwelling in the land of promise as in a strange country, the contented heir of the promises of the world to come; or communing with God in the night-watches, by the lonely tent and altar that mark the stages of his faithful pilgrimage; or despising the gifts of the King of Sodom, and extending a covenant of peace to Philistine Abimelech.”

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The Early Life

Darby’s Character and Principles

Darby’s Negative Aspects

Darby with The Poor and Children

Darby’s Writings, Natural Gifts, and Views on Baptism

Darby’s Death and Funeral

Professor Francis William Newman & Benjamin Wills Newton

Some Other Prominent Early Brethren

Many centuries ago the Roman writer Cicero said that ‘not to know what took place before you were born was to remain forever a child'. In studying history we embrace the past in the present. It is also said that consciousness of the past alone can make us understand the present.

Christianity is essentially a historical religion. Within the historical framework of its growth, there were many revivals. Nothing is more thrilling than to read the stories of great revivals. Revival is a special season of spiritual refreshing when many believers simultaneously experience s deep moving of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. One such revival took place in Britain early in the 19 th century (around the year 1825). The belief and convictions of a handful of young people expanded into a worldwide faith commonly known as the “Brethren” Movement. John Nelson Darby became the foremost of the early Brethren in Ireland and Benjamin Wills Newton was his counterpart in England.

Born in London (1800) of wealthy Irish parents, Darby received his middle name from Admiral Lord Nelson. In 1815 Darby returned to Ireland and entered Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in 1819 as a classical gold medalist. He was trained for the law and was called to the Irish Chancery Bar in 1822. But later he gave up a career in law to enter religious ministry in the Church of England. But Darby along with other dedicated young men shared a deep concern at the spiritual degeneration and divided state of the church. They eventually disregarded all denominational barriers and gathered together “unto the Lord's name” to break bread, to study the Scriptures and to enjoy Christian fellowship. This was the beginning of the “Brethren” Movement.

The volume before us is a concise biography of J.N. Darby - one of the greatest Christians who ever lived. My friend and dear brother in the Lord, John Mathew Thekkel (usually known by his pen name Dr.Sunny Ezhumattoor) has spent many years of his life to produce definitive studies through books, pamphlets and articles on the history, doctrine and the spiritual contributions of the Plymouth Brethren. He has earned himself a reputation as a prominent Christian writer, historian and researcher. The biography of JND is indeed a crowning achievement for the author in the area of biography and historical theology.

The thirteen chapters of the book provide a basic analysis of the life and times of JND with special emphasis on his spiritual contributions. Chapter 9 (Darby and Children) was of particular interest to me, because I have never thought of Darby's affection and tender thoughtfulness for children. The author has beautifully and powerfully presented to us Darby's attitude towards the poor and down-trodden; things about which we seldom think of in JND. The most attractive trait in him was the greatness of his character along with the humbleness of mind. While Chapter 6 highlights Darby's character and principles, chapter 7 deals with the negative aspects of his personality – his stubbornness and tendency to depart from Scripture in certain areas. The author is to be appreciated for his factual and true portrait of his hero.

Students of theology will find Chapter 11 (Darby's Writings) particularly interesting and informative. Most of his papers and articles are gathered in 34 volumes of the Collected Works of J.N. Darby edited by William Kelly. One of his most influential writings is his Synopsis of the Books of the Bible . He is acknowledged as the father of modern dispensational pre-millennialism. His contributions in the area of ecclesiology (doctrine of the Church) and eschatology (doctrine of last things) have made a profound impact on systematic theology.

I should say that this book provides a splendid resource for serious students in the areas of biography, history, and theology. The author has excelled himself in pointing out the past and contemporary influence of J. N. Darby. He believes that history serves as a window to the future. The generation that has lost a sense of history has also lost their understanding and appreciation of a great and precious Biblical heritage. Let us know the facts and make radical efforts to come back to our Scriptural heritage.

What is the most profound thing about JND? You will find the answer in this biography. In my estimation it is his unswerving commitment to the Word of God and his spiritual dynamism, which altered the image of 19 th century Christendom and made a profound impact upon world Christianity. William Kelly's tribute to JND effectively captures the essence and spirit of this book: J. N. Darby was “…A saint and a servant with deeper insight into God's mind in Scripture than any other I ever knew or heard of in any age since the apostles…”

I believe that brother John Mathew has written this historical biography for our encouragement, instruction, challenge and motivation. May God bless it to that end and guide us to more spiritual dynamism and revival as exemplified in the life of John Nelson Darby.

The Brethren Movement, which is a divine movement, is at a cross roads of history. According to Wilbur M. Smith, “Of all the groups of Christian believers that developed in the English speaking world in the nineteenth century, the one which produced the greatest number of gifted writers was the Brethren.” Very few Christians who hold to fundamental truths realize how much the Church is indebted to the movement of a somewhat obscure group of believers, which began in the early part of the nineteenth century. Even an average believer at that time had great knowledge and insight in the word of God, but today the situation has changed drastically.

The spiritual globalization has convoluted the entire Christian world as many doctrinal boundaries have been erased. Some outsiders and insiders scorn the emotionless worship of the brethren as dead and dry. Many brethren postulate that the present system of worship and church administration is detrimental for its future progress. Some charismatic sympathizers have infiltrated the movement and they proclaim that the brethren are dead.

This writer believes that a correct understanding of history in all walks of life is paramount and a correct historical acumen will equip a person to make sound judgment. Some brethren clamor for change only because of their lack of historical perception. From my analysis, I have delineated three groups of believers in the Brethren movement.

The first group consists of believers who have been converted from other nominal Christian denominations. Among them, the majority of believers studied scripture and the history of the “Movement” and assimilated. A minority of the converts however, did not learn the uniqueness of the Assembly movement. They came with their own ideas and are trying to make some changes. They are attracted to loud music and scintillating speeches. They consider lifting hands and uttering Amen, halleluiah, and expressing emotions as the mark of a living and sprit filled worship. A keen observer will find that the emotional worshippers do not exhibit superior characters in practical life compared to other brethren. The fruit of the Spirit is the mark of a true spiritual person. In 1827, the early brethren understood the folly of emotional worship as superfluous and thus selected meditation worship.

The second group is comprised of believers, who are born to Brethren parents, but were never taught the real New Testament formula of worship. They are among the first group to castigate the assembly practices. The first two groups cite the incident of King David who danced in front of the ark as a true pattern of worship.

Since the inception of Christianity more than two thousand years ago, there were thousands of martyrs and great men of faith, and it is obviously impossible to focus on all of those heroes in one preacher's speeches and writings. That being said, one should notice that the men usually left out of preachers' writings and teachings are somehow the Brethren. Although the Brethren movement is young, they are the ones who recovered the precious truths, which were lost for two thousand years. This small movement produced more than one hundred of the greatest expositors that ever lived. This movement sent missionaries throughout five continents, which transformed Christianity all over the world in the nineteenth century. The Brethren movement has great heroes of faith with great history, so does it make any sense for some of our Brethren to ignore all the Brethren scholars and heroes of faith while only uplifting D.L. Moody, C. H. Spurgeon (a Brethren despiser), John Wesley, George Whitefield, etc? Of course they were great men and we should definitely read about them, but my question is why have most brethren never heard of F.W. Grant, William Kelly, Jim Elliot, C.H. Mackintosh and numerous others? We should not feel ashamed to identify with Brethren and their great men.

The third group is comprised of believers who are converted and believers who are born in the assembly families. This group has a clear grasp of scripture and history of this great movement.

My goal is to provide true historical facts about great men who gave great contribution to Christian Church and served our Lord with great sacrifices .

This work is a result of great desire from my heart to write a factual and true picture of J.N Darby to 21 st century readers. Most historians present him in an unfavorable light. Modern fundamental Christians derive their energy from the teaching of J.N Darby. Even many brethren who dislike Darby are following the doctrines and practices recovered by him. Let me quote Roy A. Huebner a Darby specialist. “ J.N. Darby has been the object of the most bitter calumny and animus. It is a disgusting, fleshly, and unholy polemic to blacken a man personally so that people will not listen to him. Thus, the integrity of J.N.Darby has long been under attack regarding his statements- in this case, about his having been taught of God, directly from His Word. It was his principle not to defend himself against personal attack, as often happened in his life. Such personal attack continues to this very day by some who dislike the teachings recovered to the saints through his instrumentality.”

Dispensational theology.
Prophecy
The priesthood of every believer
The pre -tribulation rapture.
The distinction between Israel and the church.

D.L Moody and C.I Scofield were influenced by Darby. Darby is the father of dispensational theology: a theology made popular by the Scofield and Ryrie study Bibles. The Dallas Theological Seminary and The Moody Bible Institute were founded by the principles of dispensational theology.

A.C. Gaebelein considered Darby, Kelly, F.W. Grant, and a few other men next to the apostles in their sound and spiritual teachings. Gaebelein also speaks of four saints named “John” who will be present at that great celestial meeting with Christ when He returns - John Calvin, John Knox, John Wesley and John Darby.

All modern prophetical writers base their works on J.N. Darby. Dr. Billy Graham (known as America 's pastor), Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, and almost all modern fundamental evangelical preachers base their prophetic theology on Darby's teachings. In the last decade, Tim LaHay's “Left Behind” series sold more than any other book in the world. “Left Behind” emerges from a dispensationalist and fundamentalist framework. Tim LaHaye has written a book called “The Rapture” defending vehemently Darby and his teachings. The world trade center attack on September 11 2001 and the Iraq war have re-kindled the interest in Biblical prophecy and the end time events. According to a Time magazine survey, 36% of Americans believe that the Bible is the word of God, and is to be taken literally. Also 59% believe the prophecies in the book of Revelation will come true. The word “apocalypse” comes from a Greek word that literally means, “Lifting of the Veil”. More people in the U.S and around the world believe history is accelerating and that ancient prophecies are being fulfilled in real time. It changes the way people feel about their circumstances, and the way they act. The grays are beginning to fade out of the way people view the world, and they are now seeing things in more black and white terms.

America , a country born with a sense that divine providence was paying close attention from the start, has always had an affinity for prophecy.

The rise of Hitler, an embodiment of evil who murdered millions of Jews, read like a Bible story. His destruction, the subsequent return of the Jews to Israel after 2000 years, and the capture of Jerusalem 's old city by the Israelis in 1967, were taken by devout Christians and Jews alike as evidence of God's handiwork. Israel once again controlled the temple mount, a site holy to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism as well. The temple mount is the location of Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, and is also the very place where Christians and Jews believe a new temple must one day be rebuilt before the messiah can come.

“The Late Great Planet Earth,” written by Hal Lindsey and published in 1970, became the best selling non fiction book of its decade; Time Magazine called Lindsey “The Jeremiah of our Generation” The election of Ronald Reagan brought “Christian Zionism” deeper in to the White House. (Regan was a dispensationalist and believed Biblical prophesies. Critics wrongly made allegations that Regan would start World war III in order to fulfill Bible prophecies. Now we all know that those accusations were baseless. The current U.S. president, George W. Bush is also a believer of end time Bible prophecy. The left in America ridicule Bush for his stand about the status of Israel in the overall peace plan.) Lindsey says that he was called a false prophet for saying that there'd be a “United States of Europe” back in 1970, but there is one now. American Evangelical leaders have declared that support for Israel has moved to the very top of their agenda. Christian groups are spending millions on everything from armored school buses for Israeli children to halogen lights for the army's emergency rescue service. There are email chains, prayer ministries, and grass roots efforts to get the word out that the U.S. must stand united with its allies on the war on terror.

“Calamity is the mother of end- of- the world prophecy. This is true as millions of Americans, many rattled in to an end times frame of mind by September 11, line up to buy the latest installment in “The Left Behind” series, The Remnant. It was true when the first prophecies of the End appeared in the Hebrew Bible in response to a great national catastrophe in 586 B.C. And it was true in between, when an Irish preacher (John Nelson Darby) changed the course of American religious thought by bringing a stark apocalyptic vision to a nation that was reeling from the civil war, its own fratricidal foretaste of Armageddon. Notions of a divinely choreographed end to history are almost as old as western faith. They appear first in the Jewish Bible books of Isaiah and Ezekiel. In 586 B.C., after a brutal siege, the kingdom of Babylon conquered Israel and forced its elite in to exile. The prophets defiantly proclaimed the opposite:

The establishment over all nations of a Jewish Kingdom under a divinely anointed messiah, set at the end of days. It was so resonant to a nearly annihilated people that it became a central part of their tradition. The high water mark of Jewish apocalypticism is in the book of Daniel, which contributed a kind of timetable for the End and a vivid symbolic language. (“And four great beasts came up from the sea”).

Eventually Jewish fascination with a militant restoration of God's Kingdom faded, but Christianity embraced it. Jesus' thoughts about the end are expressed in Matthew 24, in which he hints that it might happen in his disciples' lifetime. After his death, his followers developed scenarios keyed to his anticipated second coming.

The fullest of these is the techni-color spectacle called Revelation. The book is usually attributed to John of Patmos and dated around A.D. 95. John was responding to the horrific persecution of early Christians under the Roman emperor Nero. The book incorporates the harsh yet finally hopeful scenarios now familiar to believers: The earthquakes and plagues, the four horsemen, the seven seals, and the battle against the Anti-Christ. Christ's 1000 year earthly rule of peace and righteousness is called the (millennium). And then these lines of scripture: “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Then I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” John's vision became the bible's final book.

There was one problem: The vagueness of Revelation's imagery almost immediately inaugurated a nearly 2000-year End Times guessing game. Some of the most heated speculation has been about precisely when the apocalypse would start (wrote an annoyed St. Augustine: “To all those who make calculations—Relax your fingers and give them a rest”) and when they were not guessing the date, denominations, and nations tried to figure out what long-term role they might play in the great final drama.

No nation though itself more of a player than the U.S. From as early as the 17 th century many had seen the new world as the linchpin of a particularly optimistic End Times scenario. Unlike earlier believers who thought humans were helpless to influence God's cosmic plan, they though they could trigger Christ's millennium by purifying and perfecting America . Ministers preached America as Revelations' New Jerusalem. Many colonists saw the revolution in millennial terms, with George III as the Antichrist. Those most convinced, whom we would now call Evangelicals, helped shape the nations' culture of civic engagement, founding movements to abolish dueling, drinking, slavery, and other sins. By the mid-1800's, some announced confidently that the millennium might be a mere three years away. By 1865, those dreams lay in bloody ruins on the civil war battlefields. Far from a millennial peace, Evangelicals found themselves fighting their brothers in America 's homemade taste of hell. Afterward, they fell helpless to alleviate the misery in fast growing cities and threatened by arrival of Catholic immigrants. As it did in ancient Israel , Calamity demanded a rethinking of the End Times.

The man with the plan was an Anglican priest turned traveling evangelical preacher named John Nelson Darby, who arrived in the U.S. in 1862 for the first of seven visits, bearing a radical new eschatology. Darby and Minister Cyrus Scofield, who would expand the evangelist's ideas in the vastly influential Scofield Reference Bible, divided God's relationship with man in to seven ages (The current sixth began with the death of Christ) (Darby is the father of dispensationalism so it is called Darbyism. Darby traced eight dispensations. Scofield modified it and traced seven dispensations.)

Their vision grimly upended the previous wisdom. Far from getting ever better, things on earth would progressively worsen, until the Antichrist, also known as the beast, arose. A seven-year, hell-like Tribulation would begin, survived by only a small human remnant. Not until then would Christ return, defeat the Antichrist and commence his millennium. (Postmillennialism is diametrically opposite to the above view. Postmillennialism teaches that the gospel already operative in the world will win a victory throughout the earth in fulfillment of the great commission. During this time the majority of men and nations will be Christianized, righteousness will abound, wars will cease, and prosperity and safety will flourish. Christ will return at the end of the present millennium. If you read newspapers, you will understand the terrorist scare and all other calamities sweeping the globe. Post-millennium view is not only wrong but also a poor understanding of scripture and world history. )

Darby's most striking innovation was the timing of a concept called the Rapture, drawn from the apostle Paul's prediction that believers would fly up to meet Christ in heaven. Most theologians understood it as part of the Resurrection at time's very end. Darby repositioned it at the Apocalypse's very beginning, a small shift with large implications. It spared true believers the tribulation, leaving the horror to non-believers and the doctrinally misled, thus moving Christianity's “us vs. them” concept of heaven and hell in to a new and exciting theater.

In the post-civil war decades, American Evangelicals seized on Darby like a life preserver. At the time of the Scofield Bible's publication in 1909, they were establishing a set of “fundamental's” which included painstaking interpretations of scripture. Darby's scheme became a pillar of the new fundamentalism. It merely confirmed for evangelicals the Darbyite assumption that the world was getting progressively wicked-beyonder any help but the conversion of new souls to Christ.

(The Scofield Bible can still be found in churches across the country)” Many think that Fundamentalism received a great blow at the monkey trial in 1925. “

In 1859 Charles Darwin published “The origin of Species.” Darwin argues in his introduction “the view which most naturalists entertain, and which I formerly entertained – namely, that each species has been independently created – is erroneous.” In 1871 Darwin published his second book, “The Descent of Man.” In this work, Darwin directly addresses the debate over the origin of mankind; a hairy tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant of the old world.

In 1921 a former U.S. congressman and ex-secretary of state, William Jennings Bryan becomes a leader in the anti-evolution movement, delivering speeches entitled “The Menace of Darwinism” and the Bible and its enemies. Bryan declares that it is better to trust in the Rock of Ages, than to know the Age of the rocks; it is better for one to know that he is close to the Heavenly Father, than to know how far the stars in the heavens are apart”

In January 27, 19 25 , the Tennessee House of Representatives approves the Butler bill. It prohibited the teaching of “any theory that denies the story of Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach in stead that man has descended formal lower order of animals” By 1925 states across the South had passed laws prohibiting the teaching of evolution in the classroom. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought lawsuits against the Bill and in 1927 the Tennessee Supreme Court rules that the Butler law is constitutional.

In fact, pre-millennial Dispensationalism (Darbyism's Official name) was, and remains one of the narrowest and most inward-turned strands in American religious belief.

The Balfour Declaration was an official statement issued on behalf of the British government in 1917, announcing its support in principle of a proposed home for the Jewish people in Palestine . It was drafted by British Foreign Minister Arthur J. Balfour in concert with prominent Jewish leaders and the British cabinet and was issued by Balfour in the following communication to the 2nd Baron Rothschild on November 2, 19 17 :

"I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of his Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations, which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

"His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object. It being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine , or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. "I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation."

This declaration, which Zionists interpreted as a promise for a Jewish state in Palestine , was formally approved by representatives of the Allied governments at Versailles in 1919 and was the basis of the League of Nations mandate for Palestine .

John Darby, whose Biblical teachings as to Israel being restored to their land influenced Balfour and others in the British government at the time, wrote this:

"A very clear prophecy of Israel 's condition in the last days is contained in Isaiah 18. They shall be restored by means of some powerful nation, outside the limits of their then national relationships; but Jehovah stands apart from His own relationship with them, though ordering all things. Then, when Israel shall begin to bud as a vine in the land, they shall be given up as a prey to the nations. Nevertheless in that time they shall be brought as an offering to Jehovah, and shall themselves bring an offering too."

I would be a great ingrate if I failed to mention the saints who over the years have helped and encouraged my ministry. Christy Varghese is an integral part of my written ministry. She has contributed her time and talents in publishing all my books. I write everything in an almost indecipherable long hand, and Christy edits it in readable format. I would like to add my special thanks and gratitude to Rob and Mary Terrill for correcting and editing this work.

Roy a. Huebner is a well-recognized Church historian and Bible expositor. Great men like Charles Ryrie, Dr. John Walvoord, Thomas Ice and many others have used his research materials in their works. He provided enough materials to use in my work, for which I am grateful. I am grateful for his support. I also wish to thank Dr. Alexander Kurien for writing a foreword. He has become a global speaker and evangelist. My youngest son Cyril Mathew organized the final draft and collected all the necessary photographs of prominent brethren. I am thankful for his endeavor also. C.V. Vadavana of Sathyam publication was instrumental in printing this book on time. He is a great visionary and organizer and has accomplished great things for the Lord within a short span of time. I thank him for his support.

The following brethren have also encouraged my ministry over the years. Br. Mathew M.Thomas (Kochu Baby, Houston), Bro. Frank Martin and Sid Ray are the elders of Colonial Hills Bible Chapel. I am grateful for the financial support and encouragement of Colonial Hills Bible Chapel. Bro. Alexander Daniel, Bro.P.T.Philip, Bro. Samkutty Philippose, Sam Abraham and Ponnachan Daniel have consistently provided financial support for my ministry. I am grateful for their support and encouragement.

It is amazing to know that only a few in advanced levels of their theological studies have heard the name of J. N. Darby. If we examine Bible related catalogues, we cannot find a book written by J. N. D. Although his name is obscure, it may be diametrically opposite in heaven.

J. N. Darby was a man with imperfections just like any other Christian. When we study the history of Paul we can see his obstinate nature by not giving John Mark a second chance. Likewise Darby also had flaws and shortcomings. Similar to Paul and great other Christian heroes, Darby never married and consecrated his whole life for his beloved master Jesus Christ.

His contribution to the Christian church is unique, and he is the greatest theologian that ever lived after the apostle Paul. The following statement is made by William Kelly about J. N. D. (William Kelly was universally recognized as a great theologian who possessed one of the greatest minds of all times):

The late Mr. Darby was a highly educated as he was an extremely able man, of rare attainments in almost all branches of knowledge, of pre-eminent logical power, of moral and metaphysical analyst hard to match, to say nothing of his linguistic skill ancient and modern . . .. But what characterized our honored brother as a saint and servant was a deeper insight into God's mind in Scripture than any other I ever knew or heard of in any age since the apostles approached: such was his spiritual power of bringing in Christ to decide questions great or small.

John Nelson Darby was born at Westminster in his father's London house, on November 18, 18 00 . He was the youngest son of John Darby, of Leap Castle , Kings

County Ireland . His uncle, Admiral Sir Henry Darby, commanded the Bellerophone in the Battle of the Nile under the general command of Lord Nelson, the British hero. John Darby received his middle name as a compliment to the naval hero Lord Nelson. His mother was of the Vaughan family, well known in Wales , whilst on his father's side he was of Norman extraction. It was in boyhood that the greatest misfortune that can befall a child happened to him in his mother's death; and the impression made upon him was very deep; so much so that, in spite of a stormy ecclesiastical career, the tender memory which he cherished in his heart of her sometimes found expression on unexpected occasions. When fifty years of age, he writes of her as follows; “I have long, I suppose, looked at the portrait of my mother, who watched over my tender years with that care which only a mother knows how to bestow. I can just form imperfect thought of her looks, for I was early bereft of her; but her eye fixed upon me that tender love which had me for its heart's object-which could win when I could know little else- which had my confidence before I knew what confidence was-by which I learned to love, because I felt I was loved, was the object of that love which had its in serving me-which I took for granted must be; for I had never known ought else. All that which I had learnt, but which was treasured in my heart and formed part of my nature, was linked with the features, which hung before my gaze. That was my mother's picture. I recalled her, no longer sensibly present, to my heart.”

Darby received his early education at Westminster school. At the age of fifteen, he matriculated from Trinity College in Dublin . Here he made rapid strides, becoming a classical gold medalist at the shorter time of a fellow commoner for his degree in his nineteenth year. He first entered the legal profession and was called to the Irish Bar; but being converted to God, he abandoned it out of conscience motives. This was a great shock to his father. It is said that his father was not in agreement with his actions, and thus disinherited him. Perhaps Mr. Darby had great plans for this one son, in the hope of his making a splendid career in law and enhancing the Darby name- plans that were ruined by his son's entering the service of the Church. It was also a great disappointment to his brother-in-law, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland (then Sergeant Pennefather), who hoped not only for his rise to the highest honors in that profession, but also that his penetrating and generalizing genius would have done much to reduce the legal chaos to order.

From the age of eighteen to twenty-five, Mr. Darby underwent much spiritual exercise. Archbishop Magee ordained him a deacon in 1825. After one year, he became a priest. Soon he left the Church of England due to doctrinal principles. A fellow clergyman asked Darby why he left the Church of England. He received the following answer from Mr. Darby:

“I find no such thing as a National church in Scripture. Is the Church of England-was it ever-God's assembly in England ? I say then, that her constitution is worldly, because she contemplates by her constitution-it is her boast-the population, not the saints. The man, who would say that the Church of England is a gathering of saints, must be a very odd man, or a very bold one. All the parishioners are bound to attend by her principles. It was not the details of the sacramental and priestly system, which drove me from the establishment, deadly as they are in their nature. It was that I was looking for the body of Christ (which was not there, but perhaps in the entire parish not one converted person); and collaterally, because I believed in a divinely appointed ministry. If Paul had come, he could not have preached (he had never been ordained); if a wicked ordained man, he had his title and must be recognized as a minister; the truest minister of Christ unordained could not. It was a system contrary to what I found in Scripture.”

Although Mr. Darby was so young, he received great insight into the Scripture and had extreme courage to stand-alone against the establishment. Determined at all costs to go outside the established religion, he recognized the name of the Lord Jesus alone to be the original, abiding, and only true center for His own.

In the beginning of his conversion, Darby had been attracted to the Church of Rome, but Hebrews chapters nine and ten made it impossible for him to follow her.

John Darby was converted at the age of twenty-one. His conversion took place, as he himself testified, through the reading of God's word alone and not with the help of man. Darby faithfully executed his assignment. Every evening he would go out to teach in the cabins, traveling far and wide over mountains and bogs in the fulfillment of his duties. Arriving back home before midnight was a rare thing. Long walks through the wild countryside, and being among the poor people inflicted severe privation on him. Darby ate whatever food offered itself- food that was often tasteless and indigestible. All this served to give his wasted frame the appearance of a monk of La Trappe. The money that he had before his ordination he spent on building schools and giving alms. One can be sure that this man greatly excited the poor Romanists (Roman Catholics) in the area, which looked upon him as a genuine saint of the ancient breed. The stamp of heaven seemed clear to them in this frame so wasted by austerity, so superior to worldly pomp- in this man who shared in all their needs.

Mr. Darby arrived in Dublin during the winter of 1827-28,he had the joy of meeting with three men who had the same opinions about the nature of true worship and gathered on the Lord's Day to “break the bread” according to the Word upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread (Acts 20:7). The other men were J. G. Bellett, Dr. Cronin, and Mr. Hutchinson.

Money never played a part in his life although he inherited enough wealth. He felt that workers in the Lord should be dependent on the Lord alone for their support.

In 1826 Dec., Mr. Darby was violently thrown from his horse and suffered severe injuries. While recuperating from the accident, Darby began his deep study of the Scripture and meditation. Darby states:

“When I came to understand that I was united to Christ in heaven; and that, consequently, my place before God was represented by His own; I was forced to the conclusion that it was no longer a question with God of this wretched “I” which had wearied me during six or seven years in the presence of the requirements of the law. It then became clear to me that the Church of God , as He considers it, was composed only of those who were so united to Christ. Whereas Christendom, as seen externally, was really the world and could not be considered as “the Church”, save as regards the responsibility attaching to the position which it professed to occupy-a very important thing in its place. At the same time I saw that the Christian, having his place in Christ in heaven, has nothing to wait for save the coming of the Savior, in order to be set, in fact, in the glory which is already his portion “in Christ”. The careful reading in the Acts afforded me a practical picture of the early church, which made me feel deeply the contrast with its actual present state; though still, as ever, beloved by God. At that time I had to use crutches when moving about, so that I had no longer any opportunity for making known my convictions in public. Moreover, as the state of my health did not allow me to attend worship, I was compelled to remain away. In the meanwhile, there grew up in my heart the conviction that what Christianity had accomplished in the world, in no way answered for the needs of a soul burdened with the sense of what God's holy governmental dealing was intended to effect. In my retreat, the thirty-second chapter of Isaiah taught me clearly on God's behalf, that there was still an economy to come of His ordering; a state of things in no way established as yet. The consciousness of my union with Christ had given me the present heavenly portion of the glory, whereas this chapter clearly sets forth the corresponding earthly part. I was not able to put these things in their respective places, or arrange them in order, as I can now. The truths themselves were then revealed of God, through the action of His Spirit, by reading His Word.

What was to be done? I saw, in that Word, the coming of Christ to take the Church to Himself in glory. I saw there the cross-the divine basis of salvation, which should impress its own character on the Christian, and on the Church, in view of the Lord's coming. Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit was given to be the source of the unity of the Church; as well as the spring of its activity, and indeed of all Christian energy.

I saw in Scripture that there were certain “gifts” which formed true ministry, in contrast to a clergy, established upon another principle. Salvation, the Church, and ministry all were bound together, and all were connected with Christ, the Head of the Church in heaven; with Christ, who had accomplished a perfect salvation, as well as with the presence of the Spirit on earth uniting the members to the Head and to each other, so as to form “one body”, and He, acting in them, according to His will. In effect, the cross of Christ, and His return, should characterize the Church and each one of the members. What was to be done? Where was this “unity”, this “body”? Where was the power of the Spirit recognized? Where was the Lord really waited for?

Nationalism was associated with the world; in its bosom some believers were merged in the very world from which Jesus had separated them. They were besides, separated from one another, whilst Jesus had united them. The Lord's supper, symbol of the unity of the body, had become a symbol of the union of this latter with the world; that is to say, exactly the contrary of what Christ had established. A word in Matthew chapter eighteen furnished the solution of my trouble. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. This is just what I wanted. It is there He has recorded His name, as He had done of old in the temple at Jerusalem , for those who were called to resort there. Four persons, who were pretty much in the same state of soul as me, came together to my lodging. We spoke together about these things, and I proposed to them to break bread the following Sunday, which we did. Others then joined us.

I left Dublin soon after, but the work immediately began at Limerick , a town in Ireland , and then in other places. Two years later (1830), I went to Cambridge and Oxford . In this latter place, some that are still engaged in the work, shared my convictions, and felt that the relation of the Church to Christ ought to be that of a faithful spouse.

By invitation I went to Plymouth to preach. My habit was to preach wherever people wished, whether in public buildings or in private houses. More than once, even with ministers of the national church, we have broken bread on Monday evening after meetings for Christian edification; where each was free to read, to speak, to pray, or to give out a hymn. Some months afterwards we began to do so on Sunday morning, making use of the same liberty, only adding the Lord's Supper, which we had, and still have, the practice of taking every Sunday. About that time also, some began to do the same thing in London . The unity of the Church, “as the body of Christ”, the coming of the Lord, the presence of the Holy Ghost here below in the individual and in the Church, an assiduous proclamation of the truth, as well as the preaching of the gospel on the ground of pure grace, and that of an accomplished work, giving in consequence the assurance of salvation when received into the heart by the Spirit, practical separation from the world, devotedness to Christ as to Him Who has redeemed, a walk having Him only as the motive and rule, and other subjects in connection with these; all this has been treated of in separate publications, as well as by means of periodicals, and these truths have been largely spread abroad.

A good many ministers of the national church left nationalism in order to walk according to these principles; and England became gradually covered with meetings, more or less numerous. Plymouth being the place where most of the publications originated, the name “Plymouth Brethren” became the usual appellation given to such meetings. In 1837, I visited Switzerland , and these truths began to be known there. I returned there more than once. The second time, I remained a considerable time at Lausanne , where God worked in conversions, and gathered a number of the children of God out of the world.

At the same time, quite independently of what was going on in Switzerland , a brother who was laboring in France had awakened an interest in a considerable district where the people were, in general, plunged in infidelity and darkness. A few young believers went to work in France . God raised up others also. God has blessed these laborers by numerous conversions, thank God, especially in the south of France . From the beginning I have visited these countries and shared with joy the troubles and fatigues of these brothers; but it is they who have actually labored at the work.

Almost about the same time in the eastern part of France , a like work had begun independently of this one. More recently, the work has begun to get established in Holland , and also in the south of Germany .

Gospel preaching in Switzerland and England has led to the formation of some meetings amongst emigrants to the United States and Canada . The evangelization of Negroes led to others in Jamaica and Demarara, as also amongst the natives of Brazil through a brother who went there and has since died. The English colonies of Australia have also meetings, but this sketch will be sufficient for you.

Brethren do not recognize any other body but the body of Christ, that is to say, the whole Church of the firstborn. Also, they recognize every Christian who walks in truth and holiness as a proven member of Christ. Their hope of final salvation is founded on the Savior's expiatory work, for whose return they look, according to His Word. They believe the saints to be united to Him already, as the body of which He is the Head, and they await the accomplishment of His promise, expecting His coming to take them to Himself in the Father's house, so that where He is, there they may be also. Meanwhile, they have to bear His cross and to suffer with Him, separated from the world, which has rejected Him. His person is the object of their faith, His life the example that they have to follow in their conduct. His Word, namely the Scriptures inspired of God, that is to say the Bible, is the authority, which forms their faith. It is also its foundation, and they recognize it as that which should govern their conduct. The Holy Ghost alone can make it effectual both for life and practice.”

Some historians think that Dr. Cronin is the founder of this movement. In History of the Plymouth Brethren by W. Blair Neatly, 1902, it claims that “Dr. Cronin learned certain things before J. N. Darby, but only in the germ and much simplicity.” Napoleon Noel, another historian, asked this question, “But could every person who had watched the steam raise the lid of a boiling tea kettle claim to be the inventor of the steam engine? There were many gliders, but no airplanes until the Wright brothers invented them. Benjamin Franklin attached a brass key to a kite string and discovered electricity, but is he to be credited with all that Thomas A. Edison later accomplished? If these writers claim that Dr. Edward Cronin was the first to learn Christian liberty, ecclesiastical and ministerial in his own heart and for himself individually, I do not think that anyone could either prove or disprove such a claim.” But as far as the Church of God was concerned, there was chaos as to these and many other matters, until J. N. Darby was used of God to bring cosmos out of chaos.

No one can honestly dispute the fact that Mr. Darby was used of God in the recovery for the Church of a vast amount of most precious and important truth that had been lost and forgotten almost from the time of the apostles, but as these writers have thought fit to compare others of his time with him, yea, place others before him, we need only reply that it can be said of him as it could of no other one of his time, that the Lord used him to bring cosmos out of chaos for the Church of God.

From what they say, this impression might easily be gathered. “These three men were breaking bread together in Dublin in 1827. Therefore when Mr. Darby came there, he had the privilege and joy of meeting with them.” But nothing is easier to prove than that it was at Mr. Darby's suggestion that they broke bread together, and this definitely marked the beginning of a continuous testimony, which has not broken up to the present day.

In many striking respects, Darby's work resembles that of John Wesley. John Wesley could never conscientiously bring himself to separate from the establishment. John Darby, on the other hand, could not conscientiously bring himself to remain within her pale. There was much resemblance between these two giants in missionary zeal, earnestness, devotedness, and thoroughgoing evangelism. In Mr. Darby's case, there was along with the most enthusiastic and ardent evangelism, a clear and definite teaching as to the Church of God in the areas of: the body of Christ, the coming of the Lord, prophecy, dispensational truth, the Word of God, the operations of the Spirit, and the calling and privileges of the Church.

In the early days of his ministry at Powerscourt Castle and subsequently in various centers of England , great attention and interest was aroused by this teaching. Sixty or seventy of the most devoted clergymen, and some dissenting ministers attended the meetings and enjoyed the truth together at one time, until they became alarmed as to where this would grow. Then the inevitable reaction followed.

J. N. Darby, like any other human being on earth, had some shortcomings. When someone is converted, certain changes take place. In some people we can see a great transformation; however in others we may not find any changes outwardly. Although a Christian becomes a new creation, they still retain their personal traits.

We often hear Hebrews 13:7 quoted in reference to men of God who have taken a leading role among Christians. But that verse says to imitate their faith, not to imitate their peculiar manners and habits. These habits may be good or bad; good for the original brother, but bad for the pretender.

“I heard of a group of Brethren who while praying had the habit of clearing their throats repeatedly because Brother Darby apparently used to do so. Is this what the Lord wants? It is important to see the difference between imitating a person's characteristics and habits and imitating his faith.”

Darby described an incident to discourage unnecessary imitation. His spectacles had been broken in a Canadian trip and someone gave him a gold pair of glasses. Then a brother in Barbados seeing this began to wear gold rings on his fingers and commented like this, “Oh, they are not a bit worse than Darby's spectacles.” So Darby went and got another pair of glasses. These types of behaviors are more prevalent among Indian people. Many young preachers imitate the voice, mannerisms, and many habits of their particularly favorite leader. Do we not often justify things that we do by taking a spiritual brother as our standard? We think that if such a spiritual brother can do this or that we can, too. Darby did not think twice about the glasses being gold, but the other brother thought he was therefore justified in wearing gold rings. Thus the gold glasses were a stumbling block that Satan was eager to take advantage of. If the other brother had imitated Darby's faith, he would have acted very differently. Darby saw such things as wearing rings as a hindrance and indulgence of the flesh.

Many critics had labeled Darby with many negative descriptions. However, he was just like anyone else. To present him as faultless would be nonsense. If he had been an ambitious man, anxious to build up a great and prosperous society, with a view to illustrate his own name rather than the glory of Christ, he might have compromised with Mr. Newton and thereby saved the society from the schism which followed.

Darby was lion-like against all that assailed Christ's person and work, or undermined God's Word. His simplicity was touching and edifying. An old Christian woman who sought fellowship visited him. Her account was that several young gentlemen called to see her, whose learned talk she hardly understood. But a dear old man visited her with whom she felt quite at home: “He was so plain.” It was J. N. Darby. He was straightforward and was able to listen to evil stories told him by rash and self-seeking persons whom he credited with honesty.

J. N. Darby loved the poor and downtrodden. Despite his immense learning, his humility was very striking. One brother remarked like this, “Christ still hung crucified under Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.” So learned and pedantic was the preaching of that day. This was not so in Mr. Darby's case however, for how few ever heard an allusion to the Hebrew or the Greek in his addresses. So much so those expectant strangers wondered and said, “What! Is this the great Mr. Darby?”

A common instance of his greatness of character and humbleness of mind occurred at a reading meeting, where a brother advanced a particular theory, professedly based upon a quotation from J. N. Darby's collected writings. After a pause, Mr. Darby replied, “Then J. N. D.'s writings are entirely at fault, for it is obvious that the theory is quite unscriptural, and therefore unsound.” Needless to say, the brother had misread and misquoted Mr. Darby; he had in fact read his own ideas into the book, which is not difficult.

His tender thoughtfulness and consideration for children was markedly displayed during one of his many visits to the United States . A poor brother, whose children kept tame rabbits, was extremely anxious to entertain the great man to dinner. The long- wished for opportunity arrived. Mr. Darby, with his usual Christian courtesy and tact, declined an influential brother's invitation to dine, but proceeded to the poor man's house. The household was all on the tiptoe of expectation and pleasurable excitement with the sole exception of one downcast little fellow, whose tame rabbit had been requisitioned as the principal dish for the honored guest's reception. While the dinner was in the process of being served, Mr. Darby, noticing the little lad's downcast demeanor, inquired the reason.

The little fellow (contrary to previous instructions) blurted out the whole truth, with the result that J. N. D. expressed his sympathy with him in a practical manner. Declining to eat any of the little fellow's pet, as soon as the meal was over, he took the boy to where there was a large tank of water, and producing some mechanical toy ducks from his pocket, the great man played with the little boy for an hour or so. Thus he conferred all the honor of his company upon a little child in the hope of partially consoling him for the loss of his pet.

A conference was held in London in 1845. Only on the afternoon of the third day did J. N. D. rise to speak, and this, after a well-known friend had alluded to his silence. Mr. Darby explained that he had not spoken because so many brothers had a great deal to say. It was a most impressive discourse; for after many of the leaders had spoken with considerable power and unction, he gave a terse summary, which set their main points in the best position. He brought a flood of fresh light from Scripture on all of them. William Kelly, Darby's personal friend for almost forty years, said, “I have ever regarded J. N. Darby otherwise as a great and good man; and the terms rarely go together.”

Julius Anton Von Poseck, who worked with Darby on the German translation of the New Testament, and knew him for about thirty years, wrote of him; “You could not be in his presence more than a few minutes without soon feeling that you were in the presence of a great man and even greater servant of God. I have often wondered at God's grace in J. N. Darby, which was able to sustain him in such healthy spiritual simplicity for so many years, in spite of the increasing amount of human praise surrounding him.”

Walter Scott, best known for his Handbook of the Bible and Exposition to the Revelation of Jesus Christ , wrote in connection with Darby's death:

“It has been the experience of most men brought into personal contact with Mr. Darby, that the influence exercised over them was overwhelming. His marvelous power in grappling with principles and tracing their applications to their legitimate results; his simple and unaffected piety; combined with the ripest scholarship and unequalled ability in expounding the Word of God, accompanied by a generous appreciation of the good and excellent outside the ecclesiastical sphere in which he moved fitted him to become, as he undoubtedly was, a recognized leader in the Church of God.”

Darby had a very strong character and personality. His followers spoke almost exclusively of his positive traits – his enemies of his negative traits. Von Poseck wrote that Mr. Darby had, as many men of great natural mental abilities, a strong indomitable natural will and an untamable energy.

It is interesting to note that while in Chicago on one occasion, Mr. Darby was invited by D. L. Moody to give a series of Bible readings in Farwell Hall. These were attended by many lovers of the Word of God, but unfortunately suddenly came to an abrupt end as the two clashed over the question of the freedom of the will. Mr. Darby held to what Moody considered extreme Calvinism on this point. Darby affirmed that so perverted was man's will, he could not “will” even to be saved. He based his contention largely on the texts; “which were born not of the will of the flesh, but of God; and It is not of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy.” Mr. Moody insisted that man as a responsible person was appealed to by God to turn to Him, and he would be condemned if he did not.

“Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life,” Jesus said to those who refused this message. “Whoever will” is the great gospel invitation. The controversy became so heated one day, that Mr. Darby suddenly closed his Bible and finished his visit with Moody. Another American leader whom Mr. Darby met was Dr. Daniel Steele, the great Methodist divine, and advocate of Wesleyan perfectionism. He was at first greatly delighted with Mr. Darby's downright earnestness of purpose and vast knowledge of the Word. He attended many of Darby's readings in Boston . However, he could not accept the doctrines of grace, and considered Mr. Darby's teaching on the two natures and the believer's eternal security to be utterly false.

One day when Mr. Darby was expounding on 1 John 1:7 showing that the subject dwelt on there was “where you walk – not how.” Dr. Steele interrupted with the question, “But Brother Darby, suppose a real Christian turned his back on the light, what then?” “Then, replied Darby, the light would shine upon his back.”

Later, Dr. Steele wrote a book against the Brethren called Antinomianism Revived or Plymouth Brethrenism Exposed . F. W. Grant ably answered this in Christian Holiness: Its Roots and Fruits . Mr. Darby, however, had the greatest patience with the poor, unlettered, simple believers. At his Bible readings, he was frequently known to help an uneducated brother out with his questions, and to go over the same ground again until the difficulty was cleared up. Occasionally, his stock of patience ran out with those of another class whom he thought were inclined to temporize with the truth under consideration.

The Reverend Sir Charles Brenton commented that he never knew a man in whom the “two Adams ” were so strong as they were in Darby. The negative side of Darby's character is undeniable, and it would not be honest to try to play it down. Darby was an Englishman by birth and upbringing, but he also had an Irish background. The people of each land have some distinct characteristics. Darby bore characteristics of his background as we all do, but as a Christian, he sought to bring the negative ones under Christ. The Lord Jesus was Darby's one and all. He gave up all for Christ, and he held fast to all he considered true, regardless of the cost. Like Paul, he stayed single, and consecrated his life for Christ. Someone once said that Darby was the most gullible man in all of England . Darby often made mistakes in trusting men who were unworthy of his trust, especially if he believed that they had suffered for Christ and for the truth. Darby was too easily deceived. He had the habit of believing the first person that came to him with a story.

Darby was also well known for his consideration of the needs of others. Once he heard of a poor brother who thought of going to America because he was no longer able to support himself in England . Darby gave him a check to cover his expenses. During a conference, Darby stayed as a guest in a large house. At bedtime, he was missing. The others finally found him sleeping in a loft so that a poorer brother, whose loft bed he now occupied might have his more comfortable quarters in the house.

Darby sought to be a help wherever he could, even helping out in a barbershop that belonged to a brother who had been taken ill.

Darby had a great affection for the poor, and preferred to stay with them when traveling abroad rather than with well-to-do believers. This is all the more interesting when one considers the fact that he had been brought up in a rich family, and had certainly never known any want as a child.

Neatby recorded the following incident: Darby had arrived at the railway station of a continental town where he was expected to make some little stay. As he stepped from the train, he found himself face to face with a formidable contingent of the local Brethren. Several ladies of good position were there, all jealous for the honor of becoming his host. It was a delicate situation, but Solomon could not have been more equal to it. Darby asked who generally hosted the visiting ministering brothers. All eyes turned upon a very humble looking brother, who had hitherto kept modestly in the background. Darby walked up to him and informed him that he would stay where the ministering brothers are in the habit of staying. And the entertainer of obscure itinerants became the host of the great man himself.

Darby and Kelly were once invited to a sister's place for the study of the Word of God. When they arrived, Darby was very disappointed to see that all the other guests were of the higher class. This grieved him very much, and when he was asked to give thanks, he begged Kelly to do so. He felt that the sister's act had been contrary to the mind of Christ since she had not given the more lowly saints an opportunity for hearing the Word.

Once, Darby was traveling in Switzerland and he visited a brother who owned a factory. This brother was in the habit of offering strangers and poor people something to eat and a place to rest. Darby arrived and used the back entrance, which was used by the poor. He was not recognized by the servants and was treated as the rest. Darby took this in stride, without revealing his identity. After refreshing himself, he continued on his way. Perhaps the thing to be feared most is the desire to be rich, as 1 Timothy 6:9 warns us. If one is already rich, then he might be able to use his wealth for the Lord and the Lord's own, but there is an admonition for him too, in 1 Timothy 6:17-19.

Kelly says that Darby lived out his faith. He hated for Christians to have the pride of life, and justly felt that one little license opens the way for much greater ones. True spirituality does not necessarily mean great intellectual understanding of all the doctrines of Scripture. In fact, true spirituality is often found in the simplest brothers whose all is Christ. Darby again said, “True spiritual superiority does not assert itself, but makes itself felt. It does not look for acknowledgement, but is acknowledged because real.” Darby did not seek for him a high place among believers, at least not in the way his opponents seemed to think. He wanted only to serve. Christ was everything to him, and others recognized this. It was for this reason he held such an important place in the hearts of so many of the Lord's own. They saw something of Christ in him.

Darby was well known for his great love for children and understanding them. While laboring in Eastern France and Switzerland , Darby often stayed with poor mountaineers. When the mothers would be working out in the fields, he would be half occupied with his studies because of the children who sat about him. He helped them with their work, and he played with them. Darby was known to have rolled up his overcoat to be used as a pillow for a sleeping child whose uncomfortable position had attracted his attention while he was addressing a meeting. On one of his many sea voyages, Darby was seen at night walking up and down the deck with a restless child in his arms, so that the worn-out mother might be able to sleep.

George Campbell Morgan, a well-known preacher and author of over sixty books, said that one of the cherished recollections of his boyhood was meeting Darby, who had come to visit his father. Morgan recalled the almost reverential awe that came over him in the presence of such a great man. His awe disappeared, but his reverence remained as the visitor spoke kindly to him about his studies.

Regarding the conferences that took place during the 1870's in Vinton , Iowa , Anne Mabel Roberts wrote:

As I am not able to speak worthily of dear J. N. D. as a teacher and servant of God, of his long years of devoted ministry, of his many and valuable writings and translations of Scripture, I must content myself with telling you a little of him as a man, and especially of those things which appeal to the young. Mr. Darby was a grand old man, in the vigor of manhood, although his hair was almost white. His features were rugged, but noble. He would have made a kingly king, so great was the dignity of his bearing; and yet he was as simple as a child, and had a fine sense of humor.

Your Aunt Anna (Mrs. Fleming) was not three years old. She was a little mischief, running all around and quite at home all over the house. Mr. Darby occupied the parlor bedroom. Going there after a meeting, he could not find his keys. At once he thought of Anna. Taking her by the hand, he began to hunt in the grass where he had seen her playing. He soon found them – and then! – such a funny scolding he gave her, while she stood laughing all the time. I have heard that he was great at playing bear with little folks – growling to their delight and terror.

Darby wrote a touching and comfortable letter to a young boy on the loss of some pet birds. He reminded him of the Creator's care even in small birds, and His overall purpose.

Darby had an appreciation for music. According to William Kelly, Darby had a sweet voice and a good ear, but he feared music would become a distraction.

We may not be able to agree with all the details of this letter, but there are some divine principles found in it:

I am very thankful your conscience has been exercised about the music. I can sympathize with you, for as far as the ear goes; music had the greatest power over me, though I was never taught to play. But the ground of those who wrote you to keep it up is all wrong and not true. It is not for Christ they wish you to keep the harmonium, and that decides the case. I am not a Jew, nor am I in the New Jerusalem where all will be to God's glory, though not in the highest way, for the Father does not come in here. I could suppose a person earning his bread by music, though I think it a very dangerous way, as Peter did by fishing, which is no excuse for a person spending his time fishing to amuse himself.

All these pleas of “gifts of God” are bringing in nature – when it is fallen – into the worship or service of the new man and the Lord, and spoiling it. I have known hunting justified by the hounds having scent. No instrument can equal in effect (says Haydn) as the human voice. Besides, as I said, it is not true. It is merely helping the pleasure of fallen nature, not a thing evil in itself, but connecting sensual pleasure with spiritual life. It is not the thing to begin with a ruined soul, but we have to live by God's Word. Harps and organs down here began in Cain's city, when he had gone out from the presence of the Lord. In point of fact, artistic musicians as a general rule are not a moral class; the imagination is at work, not the conscience, nor the heart.

John Nelson Darby was a most voluminous and original writer of theological books and tracts. Foremost amongst his works was his translation of the Bible (an entirely free and independent rendering of the whole original text, using known helps). It was translated into German, French, Greek, and English. The revisers used his New Testament, and were astonished at the amount of painstaking research exceeding that of most, if not all, as two of the best in the company. In itself, this would have been the life work of any ordinary man. Darby knew ancient Latin, Hebrew, and Greek and modern French, German, and Italian. He could also understand Dutch. While visiting New Zealand , he learned the native language, Maori, and was able to preach in it.

His first pamphlet, which he wrote at the age of twenty-eight was entitled “The Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ .” He continued in his publications until his death at the advanced age of eighty-two.

He lay bare both Irvingism and Puseyism; he demolished the skepticism of Professor Newman, and the faithlessness of his elder brother, the Cardinal John Newman. He exposed Mr. B. W. Newton's thoughts on the apocalypse as well as his more subtle errors as to Christ. He refuted the “perfectionism” of John Wesley.

Darby possessed a highly critical faculty, but carefully refrained from exhibiting it in his ordinary ministry. His works are not popular in style or method, but they are solid, spiritual, and profound, and abundantly repay careful study.

The largest of Darby's published works is his collected writings in thirty-four volumes. William Kelly performed the difficult task of collecting and editing all the articles Darby had written, and all the transcriptions of his lectures.

Darby's writings also include three large volumes of his letters, some excellent hymns, and poems as well. Darby's writing style was very hard to read and understand, making them not very attractive to most believers. He was careless in his writing, although he knew how to write well. Darby's writings are often studied as carefully as the Scriptures themselves and usually in the same way – that is, searching for hidden meanings. Many believers considered Darby a special servant of the Lord, fitted with great natural abilities and spiritual gifts for the accomplishment of an important task within the Christian church. When Darby saw false teaching, regardless of any personal feelings or friendship, he ruthlessly dealt with them. After an exchange of letters of a controversial nature, one writer remarked that Darby wrote with a pen in one hand and a thunderbolt in the other.

J.N.Darby and F.W.Grant taught household baptism. They taught believers baptism for new believers. William Kelly favored only “believers' baptism.” Though Darby held strong views on baptism, he favored the stance taken by the apostle Paul, “Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.” 1 Corinthians 1:17. Darby did not try to persuade others about his views regarding baptism, but left it up to each believer's conscience. The theory of household baptism is that when a father or mother of a family is saved and baptized, each member of that family should also be baptized, including infants and servants. Furthermore, that all children subsequently born in to the family should also be baptized. These baptized persons are introduced in to a place or “circle of privilege,” or in to “the kingdom of heaven,” or saying they are, by baptism, brought on to “Christian ground. However, they do not believe those who are baptized are thereby regenerated, but simply introduced in to a sphere of privilege that the children of unsaved parents do not enjoy.” “Household Baptism” is often wrongly called infant baptism. Here is a quote by Bro.A.C Brown. “ The view called household baptism understands that baptism is the divine ordinance of reception in to the sphere of Christian privileges on earth. Thus, baptism is not looked upon as a public testimony to the salvation of the soul already accomplished; rather, it has in view, as in Romans 6, a walk for the believer that comports with the meaning of baptism.”

On April 29, 18 82 , Darby went to be with his beloved Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.

J. N. D. had been brought to Bournmouth some weeks before his death, to the house of Mr. Hammond, an ex-clergyman of the Church of England.

On the morning of the funeral there had been a prayer meeting at Sunbridge House (Mr. Hammond's), at which a farewell letter of Mr. Darby's to the Brethren was read, and subsequently copied for private circulation. The distance from the cemetery gate to the grave was considerable. The pallbearers were changed several times, so as to give as many brethren as possible the privilege of carrying the body to the grave. Many people gathered and every voice was hushed. Nothing was heard but the tread of many feet – almost as regular as the measured tread at a military funeral.

After a minute's silence, Mr. Adam gave out the hymn “O Happy Morn” sung to praise. Mr. C. E. Stuart of Reading , read from Matthew 27:57-60. In a few words, he pointed out the contrast between the burial of the Master and the burial of the servant. To the few around the Lord's grave, it seemed that all their hopes had been cut off. How different it is to us today in committing the servant's body to the grave through the death of the Master. Next Mr. Hammond prayed and then Dr. Wolson of Edinburgh read from Genesis 48, part of verse 21, “ Israel said unto Joseph, Behold I die but God shall be with you.” More passages were read from Philippians 2:12,13 and Revelation 1:17,18. Mr. Blyth gave out the one-verse hymn, “Soon Thou Will Come Again”. Then Mr. Charles Stanley read from John 14:1-3 and 1 Thessalonians 4: 14 -17, the Father's House and the Rapture of the saints. In a few words he referred to his departed brother as having the means of reviving the truth as to the Lord's coming. Another hymn was sung, “Lord Jesus Come,” given out by Dr. Christopher Wolston. The Brethren then lowered the coffin into the grave. Mr. Roberts of Worcester prayed. “Brightness of Eternal Glory” was then sung to Alma , followed by the doxology “Glory, Honor, Praise, and Power” which closed the funeral.

There were a large number of friends present from all parts of the country. The S. W. Railway ran a special trip to London in the evening to take back those who had come from the city. There was erected a large, plain stone to mark the resting-place of the richly gifted servant of the Lord. Darby's epitaph read as follows:

Professor Francis William Newman, Benjamin Wills Newton, Dr. Edward Cronin, George V. Wigram, George Muller, and William Kelly were all at one time friends or intimately associated with Mr. Darby.

Almost every writer on Darby has felt it incumbent upon him to incorporate in his narrative Professor Newman's striking pen-portrait and appraisal of John Nelson Darby. Professor Fancis William Newman (brother of Cardinal Newman) was associated with Mr. Darby in rather early days, but alas, widely drifted from his teaching. He had won an unusually high double First-class at Oxford , and became resident tutor at Sergeant Pennefathers. But ere long, after a brief missionary journey to the East along with Mr. A. N. Groves and others, Newman returned to England and lapsed into a form of skepticism or Deism, at least as soon as Mr. Darby's personal influence was withdrawn. Professor Newman's reminiscences of those early days are interesting, as he states:

After taking my degree, I became a Fellow of Ballial College, and the next year I accepted an invitation to Ireland , and there became a private tutor for fifteen months in the house of one, now deceased, whose name I would gladly mention for honor and affection, but I withhold my pen. While he paid me magnificently for my services, he behaved towards me as a father, or indeed as an elder brother, and instantly made me feel as a member of his family. His great talents, high professional standing, nobleness of heart, and unfeigned piety, would have made him a most valuable counselor to me; but he was too gentle, too unassuming, too modest; he looked to be taught by his juniors, and sat at the feet of one whom I proceed to describe. This was a young relative of his, a most remarkable man, who rapidly

gained an immense sway over me. I shall henceforth call him ‘The Irish clergyman'. His bodily presence was indeed ‘weak'. A fallen cheek, a bloodshot eye, crippled limbs resting on crutches, a seldom-shaved beard, a shabby suit of clothes, and a generally neglected person, drew at first pity, with wonder to see such a figure in a drawing room. It was currently reported that a person in Limerick offered him a halfpenny, mistaking him for a beggar; and if not true, the story was yet well invented.

This young man had taken high honors at Dublin University , and had studied for the Bar, where, under the auspices of his eminent kinsmen, he had excellent prospects; but his conscious would not allow him to take a brief, lest he should be selling his talents to defeat justice. With keen logical powers, he had warm sympathy, solid judgment of character, thoughtful tenderness, and total self-abandonment. He before long took holy orders, and became an indefatigable curate in the mountains of Wicklow.

That a dozen such men would have done more to convert all Ireland to Protestantism, than the whole apparatus of the Church establishment, was ere long my conviction; though I was at first offended by his personal affectation of a careless exterior [never was a greater mistake: it was his unworldly principle and practice.] I soon understood that in no other way could he gain equal access to the lowest orders, and that he was moved, not by asceticism nor by ostentation, but by a self-abandonment fruitful of consequences. He had practically given up all reading but the Bible, and no small part of his movement soon took the form of dissuasion from all other voluntary study. In fact, I had myself more and more concentrated my religious reading on this one book; still I could not help feeling the value of a cultivated mind. Against this my new eccentric friend (having himself enjoyed no mean advantages of cultivation) directed his keenest attacks.

I remember once saying to him, ‘The desire to be rich is absurd; but if I were a father of children, I should wish to be rich enough to secure them a good education.' He replied, ‘If I had children, I would as soon see them break stones on the road as do anything else, if I could only secure to them the Gospel and the grace of God.' I was unable to say amen; but I admired his unflinching consistency.

For now, as always, all he said was based on texts aptly quoted and logically enforced. He made me more and more ashamed of political economy and moral philosophy and all science, all of which ought to be counted dross for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.

For the first time in my life, I saw a man earnestly turning into reality the principles, which others professed with their lips only. Never before had I seen a man so resolved that no word of the New Testament should be a dead letter to him. I once said, ‘But do you really think that no part of the New Testament may have been temporary in its objects? For instance, what should we have lost if St. Paul had never written, The cloak that I left at Troas bring with thee and the books, but especially the parchments? He answered with the greatest promptitude, ‘I should have lost something; for it was exactly that verse which alone saved me from selling my little library. No, every word, depends upon it, is from the Spirit and is for eternal service.'

In spite of the strong revulsion, which I felt against some of the peculiarities of this remarkable man, I for the first time in my life found myself under the domination of a superior. When I remember how even those bowed down before him who had been in the place of parents-accomplished and experienced minds- I cease to wonder in the retrospect that he reverted me in such bondage.

Mr. Benjamin Wills Newton and J. N. Darby first met at Oxford in 1830, where Newton was a Fellow of Exeter College. Of his character some suggestive words of the late C. H. Spurgeon are illuminative. He says, “That in matter and spirit, Mr. Newton is far removed from the Darby school.” He was a scholarly man, of grave, sober manners and of very considerable influence over a certain class, especially people of leisure. B. W. Newton was perhaps the man whose learning ability and piety outshone all others in England . It was he who was used of God to begin the work at Plymouth . Newton invited Darby to visit him at his home in Plymouth .

The work had great success in Plymouth , and it was said that there was not one household there without at least one representative attending the meetings. In fact, the theater had to be closed for three years because no one seemed to be interested in this sort of amusement or entertainment anymore. The general desire among many was to live in separation from the world. Contrary to what might have been expected, the owner of the theatre, who had suffered great external loss, did not become embittered, but joined the others who had chosen this path of separation and devotion to the Lord. There were no distinctions between rich and poor. All was happiness and peace. Their dress was plain, their habits simple, and their walk was distinguished by separation from the world.

The meetings of the assembly were calm, peaceful, and hallowed; their singing was soft, slow, and thoughtful; their worship evinced the nearness of their communion with the Lord; their prayers were earnest for an increased knowledge of God, and they had deep searching of the Scriptures under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, while the exercise of the varied ministry under the power of the Spirit.

These believers also lived a great deal in each other's houses and company, so that there was no such thing as domestic privacy among them. The designation, Plymouth Brethren, so well known today, came from the fact that the believers in Plymouth had no name, did not belong to any particular denomination, and so they were spoken of by others as brethren from Plymouth ; this led naturally to Plymouth Brethren. Also, it was in Plymouth that the movement first came into public notice.

Darby did not remain long in Plymouth . He visited Oxford several times in the next two years, and also went to London and Scotland . The purpose of his visit to Scotland was to investigate what had been called a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit, accompanied by gifts of healing and speaking in tongues. Darby's verdict was negative. He felt that in the early Church the sign gifts- including healing, miracles, and speaking in tongues- were given so that the world could see a demonstration of God's power and blessing upon Christianity (I Corinthians 14:22). Miracles were linked to the original establishment of a new testimony of God, and were meant to be temporary. What would be their value today when, according to his view, the Church was in ruins?

Newton , of the original four, was left alone at Plymouth , where he soon exercised a great influence. As a teacher, he was very attractive and convincing, possessing great natural gifts. The striking appearance of his eagle- like face only added to his impressiveness.

This all proved to be a danger. In the beginning the danger was not so apparent, but in time, Newton would turn against the teaching of the Brethren. He later held and taught fundamentally false doctrine as to the person of Christ.

Mr. Newton had attended a number of the conferences in Ireland , until it became evident that he and Mr. Darby were hopelessly at variance, both on prophetic teaching and in regard to the nature, calling, and order of the Church. The learned Dr. Tregelles warmly supported Mr. Newton in his views.

In 1835, Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, who would become so well known as a Biblical textual critic, joined the Plymouth meeting. Tregelles assisted Wigram in the early stages of his work on the Englishman's Greek (1839) and Hebrew (1843) concordances. Wigram himself provided money for this work, a sum fifty thousand pounds, and spoke of it as simply passing through his hands. In this work he rendered an eminent service to the whole Church of God .

Mr. Newton was a voluminous writer. He lived to be ninety-three years of age, and after his separation from the Brethren, became the pastor of an independent congregation characterized by his particular teaching, in the city of London . This was the man who was destined to be the means of rendering the Brethren asunder. In the minds of many even today, he is the very incarnation of iniquitous teaching.

Newton viewed with extreme disfavor any departure from Puritan theology, except along eschatological lines. For him, the Church included all the faithful from Abraham down. He considered Mr. Darby's dispensational teaching as the height of speculative nonsense. He was vehemently opposed to the idea of the Church being a special company of whose calling and destiny the Old Testament knows nothing- a line of things emphasized by Mr. Darby.

At the Powerscourt meetings, Sir Edward Denny and Mr. Darby suggested the idea of the cancelled seventieth week of Daniel, beginning after the rapture of the Church. G. V. Wigram and J. G. Bellett readily accepted it as the key to the prophecies. It was, however, utterly rejected by Mr. Newton, who maintained that the Church must go through the final Tribulation, and that the Rapture would be coincident with the “appearing.” Other differences gradually led to Mr. Newton's absenting himself from these gatherings in after years.

Christ came by birth into man's relative condition as a sinner, and into Israel's condition as under a broken law, making part that, of an accursed people; that He was exposed to and threatened by the consequences of this position – not vicariously, but being one of them; that He had the experiences which an unconverted electman, if he felt rightly would have; that He had to work His way up to a point where God could meet Him; that He preserved Himself in a measure, from the consequences referred to above, and extricated Himself out of that condition by His life under the law; that subsequently He underwent what was due to it, vicariously on the Cross; that is that Christ was under the doom of death, and subject, not vicariously, but as associated with us, to condemnation and wrath; but He freed Himself from that position by keeping the law; that what He suffered when in this position during the first thirty years of His life was the infliction of God upon His soul; not entering into the condition of man merely in spirit, though this might be true too, and that He got out of this condition-this relation to God, at John's baptism (though in this Mr. Newton contradicts himself).

Irvingism taught that there was no personal sin in Christ, but that there was in the nature He took; so that He was exposed and liable to death.

• The Lord Jesus at His birth, and because He was born of a woman, partook a certain consequences of the Fall, mortality being one, and because of this association by nature, He became an heir of death, born under death as a penalty.

• The Lord Jesus at His birth stood in such a relation to Adam as his federal head, that guilt was imputed to Him; and that He was exposed to certain consequences of such imputation- as stated in Romans 5:12, “By one man's offense- by one man's disobedience . . .”

• The Lord Jesus was born as a Jew under the broken Law; and was regarded by God as standing in that relation to Him; that God pressed upon His soul the terrors of Sinai as due to one in that relation.

• The Lord Jesus took the place of distance from God, which such a person so born and so related must take, that He had to find His way back to God by some path in which God might at last own and meet Him.

• So fearful was this distance, and so real was this relationship by birth, and so actual were their attendant penalties of death, wrath, and the curse, that until His deliverance, God is said to have rebuked and chastened Him in His anger and hot displeasure.

• Due to these dealings from God and Christ's sufferings under them, the language of Lamentations three and Psalms six, thirty-eight, and eighty-eight, etc. has been stated to be the utterances of the Lord Jesus while under this heavy pressure from God's hand.

• The Lord Jesus extricated Himself from these inflictions by keeping the Law; and that at John's baptism the consequent difference in Christ's feelings and experience was so great as to have been illustrated by a comparison of the difference between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion , or between law and grace.

• Therefore, it was stated that He had the experience of an unconverted, though elect, Jew. Later, Mr. Newton retracted most of the aforesaid doctrines.

Question: Could it be said that although the Lord Jesus never relinquished communion with His Father, yet it was in abeyance during the three hours of darkness on the Cross-, when as the sin-bearer He was forsaken by God?

Answer: We do not believe that there is any Scriptural support for the thought that during Christ's three hours of darkness on the Cross, communion between the Father and the Son was in abeyance. The gospel of John especially shows that there was perfect and unbroken communion between the Father and the Son- always-perfect union and perfect unanimity (John 10:30 ). It should be remembered in this connection that Scripture does not say that the Lord Jesus was forsaken of His Father, but of His God. The communion of the Son with the Father rests upon their eternal relationship in the Godhead, and being founded upon their essential Being, it could never be interrupted, nor be in abeyance.

DR. EDWARD CRONIN

Dr. Edward Cronin learned Christian liberty, ecclesiastical and ministerial, even before Darby, but only in the germ and with much simplicity. He was born in England , and being a Roman Catholic, he came early under the rough and ready discipline of his bishop. It was in Cork, England, that a Roman shepherd, finding Cronin reading a Protestant copy of the Scriptures, knocked him down right on the spot. This served to open the door for his escape from Catholicism. He proceeded to Dublin as a medical student, and here learned from his study of the Bible that Christendom was very anomalous, so he very sturdily refused to join himself to any sect. He was allowed to take communion in the Lord's name by the Independents for a while, but later was excluded because he declined to become “a member” of their church like the rest. Soon afterwards, God led him to take a simple Christian stand based upon the N. T pattern. Some historians believe that he is the one who received this new light first.

After a long life of devotion and fidelity to the Lord and His people, he passed away in 1882 to be with Him Whom he had devotedly loved and served. His end was more than peace, for constantly upon his lips was the name of the Lord. One of his last utterances was the well-known verse:

Be unto the Lamb forever

Jesus Christ is my Redeemer

K.V. Simon of India

K.V. Simon was born at a time when the dawn of renaissance in life and letters was yet to break on the Kerala horizon, in a small village called “Edayaranmula.” There was little facility for formal education beyond the primary level. Young Simon's formal schooling came to an end when he was just thirteen and at that tender age he was obliged to accept the post of a teacher in the local school. However his elder brother K.V. Cherian, a distinguished scholar, had given him a good start in “Sanskrit,” one of the ancient languages of the world. It is amazing how with his meager background, Simon was able to reach great heights as a scholar, poet, singer, and preacher during the 61 years of his life (Feb, 7, 1883 to Feb 20, 19 44)

He not only witnessed historic changes in the political and cultural life of India , but also outgrew his shell fast and came to be recognized as a beacon light, enhancing the quality of life around him

Mahakavi (great poet) was a polyglot who knew many languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindustani, English, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Syrian. In his mastery of Sanskrit he can be compared with any great scholar in India . In his native language, Malayalam, he was a gifted poet who combined in himself classical grandeur and lyrical flavor. He was also a prose writer of rare charm, a composer of soul-stirring Christian hymns, an eloquent and scintillating speaker, an outstanding teacher, and an invincible debater. Besides all of this, he had a profound knowledge of the Hindu religion and a remarkable mastery over Christian theology. Above all, he was a towering spiritual leader who lived a life of Great sacrifice with steadfast faith in his master for whom he worked with great zeal and devotion.

It was in 1931 that he published his “Veda Viharam” or “Rambles in the Bible,” an epic in Malayalam poetry. In style, this work follows closely the model of the “Ramayana” and the “Mahabharata” of Ezhuthachen, the father of Malayalam poetry. By its beauty of diction, superb flights of imagination and general grandeur, it reminds one of Milton 's Paradise Lost .

Mr. Simon not only wrote poetry and hymns, but also recited with sweetest voice and style to the delight of his audiences as he mesmerized them.

It is not easy to explain these great achievements unless one considers him a versatile genius and a chosen instrument of God. Such extra-ordinary men appear in life but once in a while. Indians are fortunate to have had one such man in the history of India .

George Vicesimus Wigram was born in 1805 in England . He was the twentieth child (hence his middle name) of Sir Robert Wigram, merchant and ship owner. Two of his brothers were distinguished men; James was Vice Chancellor in the Old Court of Chancery, and Joseph Cotton was the bishop of Rochester .

Mr. Wigram became an associate of Messrs. James Harris, B. W. Newton, and J. N. Darby. He was one of the pioneers who founded the Brethren movement. He was deeply impressed with the unsatisfactory results of Scripture study using the aid of Cruden's concordance. It gave him no clue as to what word in Hebrew or Greek lay behind the English translation. He poured forth his troubles to a clergyman who was well acquainted with both languages. This resulted with his interests becoming centered on the preparation of concordances, which would help Bible students who

Possessed little or no knowledge of the original languages. He spent more than fifty thousand pounds to finish this work. Christ, and he alone, was dear Mr. Wigram's one object in life. Mr. Wigram died at

William Kelly was one of Christ's special gifts to the church. He was born in May, 1821, in England . He was educated at Downpatrick and Trinity College . In his studies at Dublin University , he had the highest honors in the classics. He was brought into Christian liberty through a lady in the Acland family who directed him to I John 5:9-12. He was twenty-four years old when he first met Mr. Darby. He later edited Darby's thirty-four volumes of collected writings, and also Darby's five volumes of the Synopsis . He was a man of recognized erudition, with powers of original research. He possessed rare logical skill, fine precision, and keen controversial force, with high moral power, and spiritual culture.

Kelly was editor of the periodical entitled, “The Bible Treasury”, which commenced in 1856. This journal is replete with the writings of the Brethren's leading expositors; making it a half-century's reliable testimony to the restored truths of practical Christianity. He aided Dr. Tregelles in his investigations as a biblical textual critic; and in 1860, published a critical edition of “The Revelation”. Professor Heinrich Ewald of Gottingen declared it as the best piece of English work of the kind he had seen.

It is impossible to divide or even enumerate the many works of a learned character that proceeded from Mr. Kelly's pen. Some outstanding are his lectures on the Revelation, in which he analyzed Elliott's Horae Apocalpticae . Also, his Doctrine of the Holy Spirit was an exposition of rare value, and declared by Dr. Bledsoe as the best discussion extant on the subject.

Mr. Kelly had a remarkable library of fifteen thousand volumes, which was said to weigh seventeen tons. It included the Great Codices (some in facsimile); all the great polyglots, the works of the Fathers, and the great schoolmen. It was replete in departments of science, philosophy, and history. It was especially rich in the classics, ecclesiastical history, and theology, including many very rare items connected with biblical research.

He has been the subject of frequent suggestive comments from the pen of C. H. Spurgeon, who in his commentary refers to Mr. Kelly in the following terms:

First, as a leading writer of the exclusive Plymouth school. Secondly, as an eminent divine of the Brethren school, which sometimes expounds ably, but with a twist towards the peculiar dogmas of his party. Thirdly, Spurgeon remarks, “We are sorry to see such a mind as Mr. Kelly's so narrowed to party bounds.” Fourthly, “It is a pity that a man of such excellence should allow a very superior mind to be so warped.”

And lastly, he speaks of him as a man “who was born for the universe, has narrowed his mind by Darbyism.” Mr. Kelly highly valued Mr. Darby's writings, and circulated them as widely as possible. He looked upon Darby as unapproachable for Scriptural unfolding of long-lost truths, and for dependence upon God and His Word. “Read Darby”. he used to say, to the last. He often spoke of Darby, and always with great affection. He loved to speak of all that he had done for Christ, of his great abilities, and his consecrated life. Mr. Kelly passed away on March 27, 19 06 .

Perhaps there are comparatively few English-speaking Christians in any part of Europe or America widely read on Scriptural subjects, who are not familiar with the initials, C. H. M.

Mr. Charles Henry Mackintosh was born in Ireland , in October 1820. At the age of eighteen, he experienced a spiritual awakening through letters received from his sister after her conversion. He obtained peace through the perusal of a paper entitled, “ Operation of the Spirit”, by J. N. Darby; being specially helped by words to the effect that it is Christ's work for us, not His work in us that gives peace.

In 1844, he opened a secular school at Westport . In 1853, however, he gave up his scholastic duties. He then went to Dublin and came in contact with J. G. Bellett and other devoted saints of God. The influence of his writings cannot be estimated. He died in November 1896.

Mr. George Muller was born in Prussia , and in his youth plunged into sin and folly. His conversion was sudden. His life appears at once to have turned wholly to God, and rapidly grew in the knowledge of the Scriptures. He was led to reside in Devonshire , and soon became associated with Mr. Henry Craik in the ministry.

In 1832, Messrs. Muller and Craik both came to Bristol and ministered together at Bethesda Chapel. Already in Devonshire , they had learned to lay aside the traditions of “congregationalism”, such as infant baptism, pew rents, a separate ministerial order, and a stated salary. They saw that the Lord's Table was for all believers, irrespective of denominational views and distinctions.

Mr. Muller's heart was led to care for orphans. In the beginning, he had laid down for himself the role that, beyond making known the existence of the institution, he would never apply in any way to man for help. Furthermore, he would never reveal to any human being, outside of those associated with him in the work, the state of the funds, however pressing the need might be. The aim he set before him was not merely for the benefit of the orphans, but much more that it might be a witness to all that God is, as

Encouraged by God's manifested help, he sought to enlarge his ministry. He made a decision early in his ministry that not under any circumstances would he go into debt. He built altogether five orphanages, with accommodation for 2050 orphans and the staff. For seventy-five years he looked up to God only for his needs. He never asked others for help and the Lord miraculously supplied all that he needed. The money that passed through his hands for the orphans in answer to prayer, considerably exceeded a million sterling. Leaving his son-in-law, Mr. James Wright, in charge at Bristol during his later years, from 1874-1892, he traveled and preached in Europe , North America , Australia , India , China , and many other countries.

The secret of Muller's useful life was his simple faith in God and His Word. At the age of ninety-three, in 1898, this man of God was suddenly called from his service on earth into the presence of the King above.

After the interview between Mr. Darby and Mr. Muller in July 1849, a report was put forth by a Mr. W. H. S., who was a leading brother in the Bethesda fellowship, purporting to give the conversation that took place between these two brothers. It is said that Mr. Darby, speaking of B. W. Newton's tracts, remarked to Mr. Muller, “As you have now judged the tracts, the reason why we should not be united no longer exists.” To this Mr. Muller is reported to have replied, “I have only ten minutes now free, having an engagement at one o'clock , and therefore I cannot now enter on this subject; for you have acted so wickedly in this whole affair, that many things have to be looked into before we could be really united again.” With this, it is said, the interview closed. This conversation has been taken to prove by some that in Mr. Darby's judgment, all ground for separation was removed in 1849, and that henceforth it was only personal feeling between the leaders that kept up the breach. From this it is argued that we can safely ignore the personal element, and act upon Mr. Darby's reported statement that, “The reason why we should not be united no longer exists.” Mr. Darby has denied the above-mentioned conversation.

John Gifford Bellet was born in Dublin , in 1795. In Trinity College he met John Nelson Darby and they remained as loyal friends until their death. Both were strong in classical scholarship and both read for the bar-Bellet in London and Darby in Dublin .

By the year 1827, Darby and Bellet started to attend the famous “powerscout prophecy” meetings. In 1828, Bellet, Darby, Hutchinson, and Cronin started breaking bread together. Bellet was the author of many famous books. He passed away in 1864.

Anthony Groves was born in 1795. His father was part owner of a ship, the “Royal George” that sank with many men. Anthony was a very successful dentist. He went to Baghdad to preach the gospel. Famine, plague and pestilence killed thousands of people in Baghdad . During his three-year stay there, his wife, Mary Groves, died of the dreadful plague. From Baghdad , Mr. Groves and his family went on to India . Christians in south India are indebted to Mr. A. N. Groves. His ministry is responsible for the great revivals in

Andrapradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. J. C. Arulappan was Mr. Groves' disciple. After Arulappan died, Mr. Handler Bird visited and helped them. He went to be with the Lord in 1853.

F. W. Grant was born in London , on July 25, 18 34 . He went to Canada when he was twenty-one years of age. He and his brother, R. T. Grant, were both Church of England clergymen in Canada . At first, they were much opposed to the Brethren, and considered their teachings subversive of sound theology and proper ecclesiasticism. But through the literature, they were led to change their viewpoint. Both resigned their parishes to take their places among the despised Brethren, who gave no recognition to clerical titles, and

looked with disdain on costly, ornate houses of worship and set forms of worship.

Grant came to the United States and lived in Brooklyn , and then in Plainfield , N. J. until his death. He had been a diligent student of the book of Psalms for years. Not only was he attracted to the Psalms contents, but also the form in which they were written: their divisions in the Pentateuch, the acrostic form of a number of them, and their evident relation one to another in var