Section 3
From Solitude to Ecclesiastical Fellowship
Section three traces the period from J. N. Darby's learning truth while in solitude (Dec. 1826-Jan. 1827) until four persons began to break bread, on a scriptural basis, near the end of 1827. It is shown that he had separated from the Church of England in 1827, before the breaking of bread began.
3.1 The Truth of Separation
It was the truth we have been tracing that led to Darby's separation from the Church of England, as he says in the following extracts. Notice also, once again, the interconnectedness of the various truths which were made good to his soul.
It was the unity of the assembly of God, of those who were united to Christ by the Holy Ghost, which forced me to leave the Anglican church, and prevented me from joining any other; and I have found in the word of God all the directions needed for walking according to the will of God, amid the ruin and confusion which surrounds us. I own then every true Christian as a member of the body of Christ, but I cannot walk with them when they do not walk according to the will of God, according to the word.
We began to meet in Dublin, Ireland, 1827-28. It was not dissatisfaction with the apostolic succession of the English national episcopal body [that led to the separation]. I had found peace to my own soul by finding my oneness with Christ, that it was no longer myself as the flesh before God, but that I was in Christ, accepted in the Beloved, and sitting in the heavenly places in Him. This led me directly to the apprehension of what the true church of God was, those that were united to Christ in heaven: I at once felt that all of the parish was not that. The tract I then published [in 1828] was no attack upon anybody, but [was written] upon the unity of the church of Christ. When I looked around to find this unity I found it nowhere: if I joined one set of Christians I did not belong to another. The church, God's church, was broken up, and the members scattered among various self-formed bodies. I found membership in Scripture was not membership of a voluntary association on earth, but membership with Christ, a hand, a foot, etc.. And as the Holy Ghost had formed one body on descending on the day of Pentecost (1 Corinthians 12), so ministry was those whom he qualified for such a service. So in Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4:10. At the same time Acts 2 and 4 made me feel how dreadfully far we had all gone from the true effect of His presence. I found, however, that whenever two or three were met in Christ's name He would be in our midst, and acted on the promise with three other brethren and the wife of one of them; and never thought to go beyond thus meeting the need of our consciences and hearts according to the word. God was doing a work I had no idea of myself, and it spread over the world....
Section 3.2 The End of Solitude to The Resignation of His Curacy
Feb. 1827 -Sept. 1827
J. G. Bellett's Account
Previously we noted that in a letter dated January 31, 1827, J. G. Bellett said he would see Darby the following Saturday and on that occasion found that Darby had already learned much, independently of what was transpiring in London.
Following J. G. Bellett's visit to Darby in February 1827, both Darby and J. G. Bellett were still connected with the Church of England. J. G. Bellett's daughter's opinion was (without pin-pointing it exactly) that it "must have been about this time that my father withdrew from the Communion of the Church of England."
Probably it was not quite yet. J. G. Bellett himself says,
I continued, however, in Dublin, and he [Darby] was more generally in the County of Wicklow, but he had introduced me to dear F. Hutchinson, whose memory is very dear to me and much honored by me. He and I found we had much in common. Dissatisfied as I was, we went occasionally together to the dissenting chapels, but we had not much sympathy with the tone prevalent; the sermons we heard had generally, perhaps, less of the simplicity of Christ in them than what might be heard in the pulpits of the Established Church, and the things of God were dealt with more as for the intellect and by the intellect than, as we judged, suited the proper cravings of the renewed and spiritual mind. I believe I may say this for him as well as for myself, so we held on, loosely as it was, by the Established Church still.
One day in 1827 J. G. Bellett was talking with A. N. Groves.
Walking one day with him, as we were passing down Lower Pembroke Street, he said to me, "This, I doubt not, is the mind of God concerning us, that we should come together in all simplicity as disciples, not waiting on any pulpits or minister, but trusting that the Lord would satisfy us together, by ministering as He pleased and saw good from the midst of ourselves." At the moment he spoke these words I was assured my soul had got the right idea, and that moment -- I remember it as if it was yesterday, and could point you out the place -- it was the birthplace of my mind, dear James, may I so speak as a brother.
Edward Cronin had been by profession an Independent, and a member of York Street, but his mind at the same time was under a like influence, I may say, with us all. In a private room he had the Lord's Supper with, I believe, three others, while I was going still to Sandford Chapel and Darby was still in County Wicklow as a clergyman. In this summer of 1829 [1827] our family was at Kingstown, and dear F. Hutchinson at Bray. We saw each other occasionally, and spoke of the things of the Lord, but where he went on a Sunday at that time I cannot tell. I attended the Scotch Church at Kingstown, where all who were understood to be new-born were welcome. But on returning to Dublin in the November of that year, F. Hutchinson was quite prepared for communion in the name of the Lord with all, whosoever they might be, who loved Him in sincerity, and proposed to have a room in his house in Fitzwilliam Square for that purpose. He did so, designing, however, so to have it that if any were disposed to attend the services in the Parish church or Dissenting chapels they might not be hindered; and he also preached a certain line of things as to the service of prayer, singing and teaching that should be found among us each day. E. Cronin was prepared for this fully. I joined, but not, I think at all with the same liberty and decision of mind. Several others also were ready, and just at this time we first knew William Stokes.
Thus we continued from November, 1829. [1827].
Here, as elsewhere, J. G. Bellett has assigned the wrong year (in this case 1829 should be 1827) to certain events. Notice that he assigned November as the month when the breaking of bread began. It was at the end of 1827 that the breaking of bread began as we shall see in Chapter 3.3. Some of the histories and articles err by following J. G. Bellett's two-year errors instead of what Darby repeatedly stated. At any rate, J. G. Bellett's account provides us with a little idea of what was transpiring after his visit with Darby in early February, 1827. It was between then and when the breaking of bread began at the end of the year that Darby left the Church of England.
When in 1827 Did Darby Resign His Curacy?
It appears that for a short time after the period of solitude (December 1826/January 1827) he continued in ministry to the Irish mountaineers among whom he had been serving since he was ordained deacon in February 1825.
As soon as I was ordained [1825], I went amongst the poor Irish mountaineers, in a wild and uncultivated district, where I remained two years and three months, working as best I could. I felt, however, that the style of work was not in agreement with what I read in the Bible concerning the church and Christianity; nor did it correspond with the effects of the action of the Spirit of God. These considerations pressed upon me from a scriptural and practical point of view; while seeking assiduously to fulfill the duties of the ministry confided to me, working day and night amongst the people, who were almost as wild as the mountains they inhabited. An accident happened which laid me aside for a time; my horse was frightened and had thrown me against a door-post. During my solitude, conflicting thoughts increased; but much exercise of soul had the effect of causing the scriptures to gain complete ascendency over me. I had always owned them to be the word of God.
The reference to the two years and three months refers back to his ordination as deacon in February 1825. This shows that he left the ministry in the mountains in May 1827. It was subsequent to this that he left the Church of England.
In a letter dated February 27, 1901, W. Kelly said that Darby left the Church of England in 1827. Some other references that show 1827 was the year are:
I have been walking in this way for 50 years....
My idea is that he is aiming at Christians gathering together without knowing where God will lead them -- just as I did 39 years ago, only I had got the idea of the church, one by its union with Christ.
I have worked unceasingly 49 years. I was set to it as positive ministry four years before: I preached nothing but Christ, and had not peace, and had no business to be in any public ministry.
The 49 years refers to 1827 and the other " four" to 1823. Speaking a little more generally, on February 20, 1869 he wrote:
We cannot mix ourselves up with evil and testify against those who are in it. But grace and patience are needful. "If thou take forth," God said to Jeremiah (chapter 15), "the precious from the vile, thou shall be as my mouth." This verse acted powerfully upon my mind 50 years ago, when I began; for in a few days it will be 50 years since I left the camp.
Peace be with you, dear brother; may the Lord sustain you, and keep your dear children under the shadow of his wing.
Belleville, Sept. 21st.
F. Gill has directed our attention to September of 1827:
Evidently here Mr. Darby erred by a year, but his "in a few days" clearly identifies the time of his withdrawal from what he viewed as unscriptural with the end of September; the year,as indicated by other references, was 1827.
The evidence, then, points to September 1827 for the resignation of his curacy. Speaking of when he left the Church of England Darby wrote:
When I left it, I published the track on "The Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ."
This does not mean immediately upon leaving, but states the order. He published that paper in 1828. He left in 1827. Concerning this paper, another writer said,
... "Considerations on the Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ." (Dublin, 1828). This is as fresh and distinct as possible, and in a practical point of view. It would be impossible for any godly soul who accepted that paper as a just application of divine truth to the actual state of Christendom, to continue a churchman or a dissenter. And in fact neither the writer nor those who felt with him as to this remained at that date in the denominations of which they had previously been members or ministers.
3.3 Holy Separation Led to Scriptural Fellowship
When Did the Breaking of Bread Begin?
A. Miller wrote,
In the winter of 1827-1828, four Christian men, who had for some time been exercised as to the condition of the entire professing church, agreed, after much conference and prayer, to come together on Lord's Day morning for the breaking of bread, as the early Christians did, counting on the Lord to be with them, namely, Mr. Darby, Mr. (Afterwards Dr.) Cronin, Mr. Bellett, and Mr. Hutchinson. Their first meeting was held in the home of Mr. Hutchinson, No. 9, Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin.
From the following letter, F. Gill suggests that Darby commenced breaking bread in December 1827, since Darby wrote this in December 1877 (a letter of J. G. Bellett places the commencement in November).
I have the fullest persuasion that the testimony we have is God's testimony for the last days -- the gospel Paul preached, brought out to light -- what I never suspected when I began in this city, just 50 years ago now. I sought to walk for my own conscience as the word taught me.
Elsewhere Darby said:
We began to meet in Dublin, Ireland, 1827-28.
Thus, he began breaking bread in December 1827 (or November 1827 at the earliest) -- after he resigned his curacy in September 1827. In one letter he mentioned this sequence of events:
...when I left the Episcopal church, there was no one with whom I could walk; I was lead on and guided simply by the word of God. Afterwards four of us met together; I thought only of satisfying my conscience according to the word of God.
Darby neither approved of the Church of England, which he later said was really the world in its constitution, nor dissenting bodies, because their principles of association did not meet the test of the Word of God. At Darby's proposal (see below) the above four men began to break bread in December 1827.
In the citation below, the words and brackets are annotations by W. Kelly in his W. B. Neatby's, History..., (p. 17). Finding fault with A. Miller's much more correct account, W. B. Neatby wrote,
... but the idea conveyed by that narrative, that this particular meeting became a nucleus around which Brethrenism at-large gradually gathered, could scarcely be more erroneous [Not so]. It is evidence that Bellett and Hutchinson "held loosely" to the Established Church through the greater part of 1828... [This may be true of H .? of B .]
In a footnote W. B. Neatby continued his effort against Darby,
Darby's churchmanship did not, in the judgment of such warm friends and supporters as Bellett and Cronin, terminate with the resignation of his curacy. Bellett brings it down to 1834 [This is? error], when, he says, Darby was "all but detached from the Church of England." [Preaching is not "churchmanship"].
Yes, preaching is not the same thing as churchmanship. The fact that at first Darby preached everywhere (and also later in some churches) does not prove he was attached in some way to the Church of England. It's so happens that we have something by Darby about this preaching,
It is very often the question whether the way of doing a particular thing is right. By the manner you may do a great good, or a great deal of evil. Am I to accept the evil in order to do good, or am I to trust the Lord? What God is now doing is separating the precious from the vile; and this is not a matter about which I have no feeling. It is often pressed upon my spirit, Am I to put water in the wine that people may drink it? At first, I did not care where I went -- into a church or elsewhere -- to preach the gospel, or into a Methodist Chapel, and so on. I have no principle that directly hinders me, but one day, at Plymouth, they brought me short up, for I had in the vestry to write down who ordained me, and this brought me to a point. There was the question straight out: Am I to accept that, in order to get an opportunity to preach to 5,000 people?
Thus, Darby continued to preach in the Church of England for a time but that does not show he was a member of it.
'Who Started The Movement?'
Why, the Spirit of God started this 'movement'! However, as to human instrumentality, we may review the following.
In a letter to Professor Tholuck Darby wrote:
Four persons who were pretty much in the same state of soul as myself, 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.
He speaks here of them being " pretty much in the same state of soul as myself." Notice that he did not say that they had developed the same degree of understanding as himself. There is a clue here to a difficulty, for some had been meeting before this, and this indicates a fresh proposal and meeting. More on that point below. Darby remarked,
I was myself the beginning of what the world calls Plymouth brethren though we began in Dublin. The name Plymouth arose from the earliest publications which attracted attention issuing thence, and was so far harmless, as no human name was attached to them; one cannot help the world giving some. The great question is, what the word of God's says....
According to an old copy of a printed letter by Darby entitled "Heart to Heart," it was the last letter Darby wrote to J. G. Bellett. In it, Darby wrote:
Besides the value I had for you, it was not a small thing to me that you, with dear C. [E. Cronin] and H. [F. Hutchinson], were one of the first four, who with me, through God's Grace the fourth, began to break bread in Dublin, what I believe was God's own work: much weakness I own in carrying it out, little faith to make good the power which was and is in the testimony, that God's owned testimony I am assured -- in every respect, even as to the gospel to sinners, what He was doing. I knew, for one, in no wise, the bearing and importance of what I was about, though I felt in lowliness we were doing God's work. The more I go on, the more I have seen of the world, the more of Christians, the more I am assured that it was God using us for His testimony at this time.
At this point those used to (erroneously) hearing that A. N. Groves was "the founder of the movement" will be wondering where he fits in. That is discussed in Appendix 3.
Did Darby Joined a Previously Established Meeting?
Previous to the commencement of the breaking of bread at Mr. Hutchinson's house, 9 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, Dec. 1827, E. Cronin and a few others had been meeting together. He made the claim that that was the commencement. The question now before us is this: What is the bearing and relationship of these prior meetings to the beginning of the breaking of bread in December 1827? Andrew Miller tells us something about these prior meetings.
Here we have to notice before going farther, the existence of a small meeting with the measure of intelligence as to the church of God being one body, previously to the meeting in Fitzwilliam Square. They had been Independents; but it does not appear that they left that body so much from principle as from dissatisfaction with their ways. Nevertheless, God was working in their hearts by His grace and overruling the discipline of that church for their spiritual blessing. And how often this has been the case with individuals in all similar movements, of whom it may be said, "they went out, not knowing whether they went." But the Lord was guiding, and their dependence was in Him. It happened in this way: --
A young man, a medical student -- afterwards Dr. Cronin -- had come up from the south of Ireland to Dublin for his health, about 1826. He applied for communion as a visitor, and was readily received at the different tables of the Independents; but when they learned that he had become a resident, this liberty was refused. He was then informed that he could no longer be admitted to the table of any of the congregations without special membership with some one of them. This announcement made a deep impression on his mind, and was no doubt used of God to turn his attention to the truth of the one body. If, he thought, all true believers are members of the body of Christ, what can that strange expression mean, special membership with the independents? He paused, and after much exercise of conscience and prayer, he refused to submit to their church order. This forced him outside the gates of their Zion, and exposed him to the charge of irreligion and antinomianism. He remained in this outside place for several months, feeling deeply his loneliness and separation from many that he loved in the Lord. It was a time of trial in this way, and might have proved most injurious to soul; but the Lord overruled it for blessing. To avoid the appearance of evil he used to spend the mornings of the Lord's day in secret. These seasons he found to be a great blessing spiritually, and also of deep exercise as to his future path. Such is the Lord's way with the instruments He is preparing for future testimony and service.
They young student was at length publicly excommunicated by name in a chapel, of which the Rev. William Cooper was the minister. This greatly affected him: he found it no light thing to be thus publicly denounced and avoided by those whom he esteemed as Christians. But the church had gone far beyond its proper jurisdiction. She had authority only from her Head in heaven to cut off those who have proved themselves to be wicked persons. "Put away from among yourselves that wicked person." (1 Corinthians 5). Thus the church in so acting received a deeper wound herself. One of the deacons, Edward Wilson, secretary to the Bible Society, was constrained to protest against this step, which led to his leaving the Congregational body.
These two brothers, Messrs. Cronin and Wilson, after studying the word for sometime, began to see their way clear to come together on Lord's day morning for the breaking of bread and prayer. They first met for this purpose in the house of Mr. Wilson, Sackville Street. They were joined in a short time by two Miss Drurys, who left Mr. Cooper's where they were members; and also by a Mr. Tims, bookseller, Grafton Street. Mr. Wilson leaving soon after this for England, the little meeting was transferred to Mr. Cronin's house in lower Pembroke Street, where several were added to their number.
The existence of this meeting, it may be said, was the result of circumstances, not a divine conviction. We believe both concurred. They were no doubt forced into the place of separation by the mistaken conduct of the Congregational body, but they were also led to fall back upon the sure word of God to act under their divine instincts, and the unerring guidance of the Holy Spirit. This little meeting never formerly broke up, but they united at once with those who began to break bread in Fitzwilliam Square; the accommodation was greater, and the principles of meetings substantially the same.
Concerning the breakup of the meeting at E. Cronin's house, "formally" is the key word here. It never formerly broke up, but none-the-less, the implication is that those previous meetings had ceased. A. Miller indicates that the meeting was held at Fitzwilliam Square because of larger accommodations. But E. Cronin had more than four persons for meetings as his house. I suggest that E. Cronin's going to Mr. Hutchinson's house indicates that the meeting at his house had, in reality, dissolved. Moreover, the last sentence, above, is in error in saying that "they united at once...." However, "they" did no such thing. The fact is that only E. Cronin broke bread at Mr. Hutchinson house, not "they." I am surprised that A. Miller said that the "principles of meeting were the same." Perhaps the outward form was similar, but Darby, at least, was acting on truth that he had learned. There is more to meeting together been merely the outward form. Besides these contradictions, Darby said that at the time they commenced breaking bread at his suggestion he had not known about the meetings at E. Cronin's house, likely because they were not then being held. In Interesting Reminiscences... (p. 14), the following item appears:
Note by Mr. Darby
All I have to remark is, that on their returning to Dublin, 1827, I was laid up in Fitzwilliam Street with a hurt.
We had reading meetings, and these things came up among some others.
Five of us met at Fitzwilliam Square -- Bellett, Cronin, Hutchinson, the present Master Brooke (who was frightened away by Hutchinson), and myself. As Hutchinson was willing, I proposed meeting next Sunday.
We did at H.'s house. Brooke did not come. I have read since that Cronin had already met with Wilson and some others, but they had broken up. Of that I knew nothing. I afterwards went down and worked at Limerick, where it began next, Tom Mansell living there. It was subsequently after July, 1830, I went to Oxford (where Wigram was at Queens) and joined him and Jarratt, and thence went to Plymouth, where it soon began in England, and immediately afterwards, through Wigram, in London. I was not in Dublin when they went to Aungier Street, but I went there afterwards.
Since coming to the above conclusions, I came across a comment by W. Kelly on W. B. Neatby's remark, "according to Cronin, as we have seen, his meeting never broke up at all." W. Kelly's annotation in his copy of W. B. Neatby's book is: "It [i.e., the break-up] is confirmed by the fact that only C.[E. Cronin] remained to take part in the Hutchinson Company." That E. Cronin's meeting had broken up is the logical conclusion from the fact that only Cronin himself came to Fitzwilliam Square.
In a more accurate assessment A. Miller stated:
We now return to what may be fairly called the first meeting of "the Brethren," held in Fitzwilliam Square.
The fact is, then, that Darby did not join the meeting of E. Cronin's, but rather that E. Cronin came to the breaking of bread at Fitzwilliam Square, which Darby had suggested beginning. That E. Cronin likely felt that there was a connection between the two meetings, or a sort of continuity, and so worded his comments, is how he thought of the matter.
Darby's statements are confirmed, by implication, in the reminiscences of J. G. Bellett, who wrote,
Edward Cronin had been by profession an Independent, and a member of York Street, but his mind at the same time was under a like influence, I may say, with us all. In a private room he had the Lord's Supper with, I believe, three others, while I was going still to Sandford Chapel and Darby was still in County Wicklow as a clergyman. In the summer of 1829 [1827, obviously] our family was at Kingstown, and dear F. Hutchinson at Bray. We saw each other occasionally, and spoke of the things of the Lord, but where he went on a Sunday at that time I cannot tell. I attended the Scotch Church at Kingstown, where all who were understood to be new-born were welcome. But on returning to Dublin in the November of that year, F. Hutchinson was quite prepared for communion in the name of Lord with all, whosoever they might be, who loved Him in sincerity, and proposed to have a room in his house in Fitzwilliam Square for that purpose. He did so, designing, however, so to have it that if any were disposed to attend the services in the Parish Church or Dissenting chapels they might not be hindered; and he also prescribed a certain line of things as to the services of prayer, singing and teaching that should be found among us each day. E. Cronin was prepared for this fully, I joined, but not, I think at all with the same liberty and decision of mind. Several others also were ready, and just at this time we first knew William Stokes.
Note that the reference to November would point to December as the start of the new meeting -- and that J. G. Bellett returned to Dublin after Darby had separated from the Church of England. So from the summer of 1827 until sometime in November it is likely J. G. Bellett did not see Darby, and likely that Darby did not know what E. Cronin had been doing.
The remark, "E. Cronin was prepared for this fully," implies he was not currently attending the same kind of meeting elsewhere. The implication is that E. Cronin and J. G. Bellett joined in with what Darby suggested. This substantiates what Darby said about these things and makes Darby's lack of knowledge at that point in time concerning E. Cronin's previous meeting quite reasonable.
The conclusion is, then, that E. Cronin's meeting had broken up. I repeat what W. Kelly remarked in his annotations to W. B. Neatby's History ... regarding the break-up of that meeting:
" It is confirmed by the fact that only C. [E. Cronin] remained to take part in the Hutchinson meeting."
In a letter dated February 22, 1901, W. Kelly speaks of "the fresh start by which began two or three years later [from when E. Cronin began meeting with a few] when Mr. Darby and others began."
I suggest that the evidence noted above shows that the commencement in December 1827 was not connected with, or the continuation of, the previous meetings that E. Cronin had attended. Moreover A. N. Groves whom Open-Brethren, and some others, claim was "the founder of the movement," was not there at the commencement at Fitzwilliam Square. It is difficult to ascertain when he first broke bread with these brethren. Not only do the above facts show that A. N. Groves was not "the founder of the movement," Appendix 3 adds more evidence for this conclusion. It was God using Darby, acting on the truths he had been learning, that brought about the commencement of the breaking of bread and the spread of the recovered truth.
Additionally, I note here that W. B. Neatby's construction of these early years is quite unreliable, as are those who more or less follow him, namely those who did not, and do not, trust Darby's word -- which means most except A. Miller, notes in The Bible Treasury, N. Noel and F. Gill. No doubt it will be clear to the reader that I have vindicated the integrity of J. N. Darby's word regarding the beginnings. His integrity concerning this matter has a bearing on the preposterous charge that he obtained the idea for the pre-tribulation rapture from Manuel Lacunza, or an Irvingite prophetess or from Miss Margaret McDonald (each discussed in section 7). And this establishment of his integrity regarding his word concerning the recovery of truth lays the foundation for his vindication against the charges of allegedly similar dishonesty viciously leveled against him regarding the Plymouth/Bethesda controversies. It seems to me that animus is the father of such treatment of Darby in both these cases.
Section 4
The Testimony in Ireland and England
Section four briefly traces some of the early spread of recovered truth in Ireland and particularly Plymouth, England, from which the name Plymouth Brethren was attached by others to those who identified themselves with the four who first broke bread together in 1827.
4.1 The Testimony in Ireland
Darby described what followed the initiation of the meeting in Fitzwilliam Square, Ireland, in December 1827:
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.
Before the meeting in Dublin moved to 11 Aungier Street, "there were four or five other small meetings in Ireland."
In the following remarks concerning the change in location of the meeting room at Dublin, J. G. Bellett again has some error in dates. November 1829 should read 1827 because he met J. Parnell some time before the commencement of breaking of bread -- which began in late 1827.
Some time before this [the commencement of breaking bread] I had become acquainted with J. Parnell (now Lord Congleton), and in that month (November, 1829 [1827]) and through the spring of 1830, he was occasionally in Dublin and frequently amongst us. He became very familiar with Edward Cronin, and in the month of May, proposing to let the Lord's Table in the midst of us become somewhat more of a witness, he took a large room in Aungier Street belonging to a cabinet maker. There the meeting was transferred during that month. This tried me still more -- the publicity of it was too much for me. I instinctively shrank. F. Hutchinson, as I remember, would also rather have continued in the private house, so that I believe I did not join them for one or two Sundays, and I am not sure that he did, but the others were there at once. J. Parnell, W. Stokes, E. Cronin and a few sisters, and shortly several were added.
A Miller says,
This strange-looking place for the holy service of the Lord may be taken as a sample of what Brethren's rooms have been in all parts of the country ever since. In order to clear the place for the meeting on Lord's day morning, three or four of the Brothers were in the habit of moving the furniture aside on Saturday evening. One of these active Brothers, referring to their Saturday night's work, after a lapse of nearly 50 years, says, "These were blessed seasons to my soul -- J. Parnell, W. Stokes, and others, moving the furniture, and laying the simple table with the bread and wine, -- and never to be forgotten; for surely we have the Master's presence, smile, and sanction, in a movement such as this was." We have heard some describe the strangeness of their feelings on their first visit to this room, having been accustomed to all the properties of "Church and Chapel," but what they heard was entirely new to them, and is remembered to this day. Such love to speak of the particular freshness, unction, and power of the word at that time.
Once more we will hear J. G. Bellett regarding Dublin:
In the summer of 1831 [1830], the mission party to Baghdad was formed. Mr. Groves had been there for some months previously [having previously sailed from England on June 12, 1829], and E. Cronin and his sister and J. Parnell with two or three more were desirous of joining him .
They sailed, [Sept. 18, 1830] and we continued our room in Aungier Street. It was poor material we had, dear James, and we had one or two solemn and awful cases of backsliding. There was but little spiritual energy and much that was poor treasure for a living Temple, but we held together in the Lord's mercy and care, I believe advancing in the knowledge of His mind. The settled order of worship that we had in Fitzwilliam Square gave place gradually, teaching and exhorting were first made common duties and services, while prayer was restricted under the care of two or three who were regarded as elders, but gradually all this yielded. In a little time no appointed or recognized eldership was understood to be in the midst of us, and all service was of a free character, the presence of God through the Spirit being more simply believed and used. In the year 1834 [1832?] many more were added and that year Darby being in Dublin, it was a question within whether he should come and help us, as God might give him grace, in Aungier Street, or preach, as he had been invited, at the Asylum in Leeson Street, but he was all but detached from the Church of England. He visited different places either that year or the next, and amongst them Oxford, Plymouth, Cork and Limerick, ministering wherever he might the truth which God had given him from His Word, and I doubt not, from what I remember, he found in all these places other evidences of the independent work of the Spirit of God on the hearts and co of move for the of the nsciences of the saints of which I have spoken. In Limerick and Cork occasionally preaching in the pulpits of the Established Church, he also met Christians in private houses, and the influence of his ministry was greatly blessed, light and refreshments visited many a soul, and that, too, of an order to which they had before been strangers; and by invitation going from Wexford to Plymouth, he found the same there, and that in those distant places which had, perhaps, never been combined before in any one kindred influence, this grace was magnified, and happy, promising little groups of saints, who saw relief from their heaviness, were found in these places.
Concerning these early activities in Ireland, Darby wrote,
... my occupation is traveling and preaching two or three times a day, or as here, standing out on the question whether the gospel is to be preached, in spite of the clergy, or not; and now that the Lord has opened the minds of the people, lecturing to a nightly, and expected to answer all the questions and hold every ground that anybody might question. Nevertheless, the Lord is wonderfully at work here, but this, of course, does not make the labor less. I suspect the real difficulty is hardly come yet, for the Lord has allowed no felt difficulty yet, but set the tide one way as regards those around me. In the meanwhile, the meeting at Powerscourt, as it has wrought conscious desires, and inquiry and prayer too, in the minds of many of the evangelical people in this place, there has been a considerable plunge made into the minds of this country by it, and this has partly exercised me, as interested in this country.
Aungier Street, too, as you know, through the captiousness of one person, has caused trouble. But the Lord worketh still His own way. There is a little church here which has caused in an idle town great trouble and confusion of thought, where the preaching of the gospel was made a crime before; yet I communicate there, preach the gospel, and none to hinder me. We have set up weekly Scripture reading meetings, two of them in the most worldly houses of Limerick. Our only present difficulty is to keep people out. Pray that the Lord may turn this to His own real blessing in truth.
J. B. Stoney made some interesting comments about the effect of Darby upon himself.
I first knew the brethren in 1833 [when he was 19]. I had, in anxiety to serve the Lord, given up going to the Bar in order to take orders [to become a clergyman], thinking it the only true way of doing so. I at first very reluctantly went to hear at Aungier Street, but my "chum" in college, a Mr. Clark, was a constant attendant (since gone over to Irvingism).
I was eventually much interested in the teaching there. I particularly remember Mr. Darby on being "Accepted in the Beloved," and Mr. Bellett on Mark v.; but I did not think of joining them -- I was expecting great things from Mr. Irving. Mr. Bellett brought Mr. Benjamin Newton to see me in my rooms in college, in order to disabuse my mind of Irvingism. I was constantly hearing of Darby, and at length heard him on Joshua viii.: "Wherefore liest thou upon the ground? Up, sanctify the people." Get rid of the evil first, God cannot be with us until we are separated from the evil. I was broken down. I felt for the first time the immense step of leaving the Established order for the unsightly few in Aungier Street. This was in June, 1834.
Darby made an interesting comment in 1833 concerning a young sister in Christ who was instrumental in 'setting afloat' some Scripture reading meetings for him:
We have also some very nice Scripture reading meetings, to which any of the clergy who hold the truth, have fallen in, though quite mixed, and everyone at liberty to speak. It is chiefly, of course, on what may be called first principles, but I trust thorough ones practically. It was a remarkable circumstance, that a dear young lady, who was instrumental in setting them afloat for me, and at several members of whose family they were held -- who had been only called about a year by the Lord, but was very decided ever sense -- was suddenly called away the other day in the midst of it all. The people in Limerick felt it a good deal, and I trust it may be the instrument of good to many. The whole family, which was a principal one here, had been all thoroughly worldly a year ago, and herself and her sister at the head of all idleness.
4.2 The Beginning at Plymouth
Darby Visits Oxford
Concerning Oxford, we do not know how many times he visited there. We will note two visits. It was F W. Newman who first asked Darby to come to Oxford.
When I had returned to Oxford [from Ireland], I induced the Irish clergyman to visit the University, and introduced him to many my equals in age, and juniors. Most striking was it to see how instantaneously he assumed the place of universal father-confessor, as if he had been a known and long-trusted friend. His insight into character, and tenderness pervading his austerity, so opened young men's hearts, that day after day there was no end of secret closetings with him....
Another visit follows the commencement of the breaking of bread in December 1827 and his labors at Limerick, Ireland, apparently rather later than the one noted above:
I afterwards went to Limerick, where I began next. It was subsequently, after July 30th, I went to Oxford, where Wigram was at Queens (College); and I found him and Jarrat. I then went to Plymouth, where it soon began in England; and immediately afterwards, through Wigram, in London. I was not in Dublin when they went to No. 11 Aungier Street (in 1830); but went there afterwards.
This seems to refer to July 30, 1830. The "(in 1830)" is probably and explanatory note by N. Noel and should likely be "(in 1829)." The date of this visit to Oxford has been determined by F. R. Coad to be during 1830.
Darby's correspondence gives varying dates for this visit, but other evidence fixes it as mid-1830. In one place Darby dates it after July 1830, but we know that Newton and Wigram, whom Darby met on the visit, were both absent from Oxford at the end of that month, as there is a letter extant written from Newton in Plymouth to Wigram in Scotland dated 31st July 1830. (This is in the Fry collection.) Neatby suggests that the visit must have been between July and Newman's departure for Baghdad in September -- but the descriptions make it plain that it was not in vacation-time. We are thus left with the early summer months of 1830. (Since the first edition of this book appeared, Mr. T. C. F Stunt has confirmed that Darby was in Oxford by May 1830 -- The Harvester, May 1968, p. 78).
Wm. Kelly said,
It was at a much earlier date (1831 [1830?], I think) that F W. Newman invited Mr. Darby to Oxford: a season memorable in the public way for his refutation of Dr. E. Burton's denial of the doctrines of grace, beyond doubt held by the Reformers, and asserted not only by Bucer, P. Martyr, and Bishop Jewell, but in articles IX-XVIII of the Church of England. With a smile he said to me, 'That is the only pamphlet by which I made any money.' The same visit of his acted more privately (not on Mr. W. E. Gladstone, who saw and heard him then) but on G. V. Wigram, Sir L. C. L. Brenton, B. W. Newton and W. Jarrett, as well as others too halting in faith to make a decided stand and endure the consequences. It was characteristic of those young man that, when once at a conversazione some one remarked, 'May the Lord give me a living in the beautiful country' (and he had more than his desire in a Scotch bishopric), Mr. Wigram immediately exclaimed, 'May He give me to follow and serve Him at all cost!' He too had his heart's desire.
Darby's habit at this time was to preach anywhere. J. G. Bellett wrote,
In Limerick and Cork occasionally preaching in the pulpits of the Established Church, he also met Christians in private houses, and his ministry was greatly blessed; light and refreshment visited many a soul, and that of an order to which they had before been strangers. Going by invitation from Oxford to Plymouth he found the same there, so that in those distant places, which perhaps had never been combined before in one kindred influence, this grace was magnified; and happy, promising little groups of saints who sought relief from their weakness, were joined in those places.
In 1875, Darby remarked upon this preaching everywhere:
For a year or two, and at the beginning, I preached everywhere they let me, and others have done it, but it was, after all, another thing; though the trumpet gave an uncertain sound, it resulted in bringing out, even if the gospel only were fully preached. Now the question is fully raised, and the testimony has to be clear, yet the fullest preaching of the gospel and of the assurance of salvation.
G. V. Wigram's Preparation
Another servant of God, specially being formed, was G. V. Wigram. In a previous citation it may be observed that the work in London, said Darby, began "immediately afterwards, through Wigram, in London." We shall shortly see that it was G. V. Wigram that initiated the breaking of bread at Plymouth also, prior to doing so in London. N. Noel cited this from G. V. Wigram:
Two, or three or four of us had broken bread together when I was at Oxford, before Edward Cronin went with others to the East [in September 1830] and, from that time, wherever I might be on Sunday, there I was wont to break bread, though it might be only I and Snook [his valet] and my wife might join. This I did at Ridgeway [about five miles from Plymouth], when I had left Ireland, and had gone to Devonshire for the work's sake, chiefly in the gospel.
We may wonder, perhaps, why G. V. Wigram left Oxford. And why did he go to Ireland? Who did he contact there? The answers to these questions are found in this extract from the Fry MS:
Wigram had been in the Guards, but left it and came to Oxford and studied and in due time went to Dr. Blomfield, Bishop of London, to be ordained -- but he wouldn't accept him (Why not?). Well, it was because Wigram was too evangelical. So, I said I would get him "a title" and meanwhile Wigram went to Dublin. He there got under the influence of the Powerscourt circle and made up his mind to leave the Church. He went to Plymouth and was there six months before Darby and I went there.
G. V. Wigram left the Church of England "soon after Bulteel's University Sermon (February 1831)" at Oxford denouncing the Church of England. So it was in 1830 that he was affected by the Powerscourt circle, probably at one of the meetings for study near Dublin, that was held before the larger Powerscourt conferences began at Powerscourt Castle in 1831 (see chapter 5.3).
There are also two interesting references in G. V. W.'s letters:
What a contrast now everywhere to what it was in 1827, when I began to work and had to pray and wait, take a step, and be content to stand and let Satan try to undermine it, and let men break themselves against it! But God is God in every way, and there is no work worth much but what is in Him and under His Spirit.
For three years or more, after I began to break bread, there were but three of us together -- I only name this as showing that I know the difficulties of the twos and threes; then we were nine, and a pause; then about sixteen.
It is evident that since he left Plymouth soon after the breaking of bread started there, this last reference must refer to London where he began that assembly.
When Did the Breaking of Bread Began in Plymouth?
The settling of dates of events connected with beginnings at Plymouth has been difficult, as we saw above. Concerning a later visit to Oxford, in 1830, Darby remarked:
I went to Oxford where many doors were open, and where I found Mr. Wigram and Mr. Jarrett. Subsequently in calling on Mr. F. Newman I met Mr. Newton, who asked me to go down to Plymouth, which I did. On arriving I found in the house Captain Hall, who was already preaching in the villages. We had reading meetings, and ere long began to break bread. Though Mr. Wigram began to work in London, he was a great deal at Plymouth.
We do not know how long Darby stayed in and around Plymouth after he arrived they are in May 1830. He was there in January 1831, as indicated by the fact that his Collective Writings (2:42) has a letter of his dated 'Plymouth January 13, 1831.' The following remarks, concerning G. V. Wigram, from the Fry MS, may help us in our dating of events.
Shortly after his leaving the Church he said to B. W. N. that he wished to give some lectures on Prophecy, and there was a Dissenting Chapel to be sold for a few hundred pounds and he decided on buying it. And he did.
P. L. Embly has given the dates regarding this purchase and the beginning of meetings in January 1832. The Chapel was used,
"for expository meetings for some little time." Those first few weeks, when only Monday evening meetings were held, had more the character that Mildmay [prophetic conferences] now has. All the Evangelical clergy came, and that might have continued. The moment a union and a corporate standing was taken, the clergy broke with it of course."
Darby came there with B. W. Newton and, according to B. W. Newton,
"... Wigram proposed that on Sunday evening we should have the Lord's Supper in the vestry. We did so. There were but six or seven of us. The following Sunday evening it was laid in the Chapel itself and we (Darby and I) were startled and said we were not expecting that. Darby was living with me for a time and had walked together with me from my house. However we joined, which we ought not to have done. It was very wrong, for I had not left the Church of England (and was a member of the University). Capt. Hall used to preach Sunday evenings, and being an eloquent man, highly imaginative sort of mind, large numbers of persons were attracted, and thus a 'Meeting' was soon formed.
We retained that Chapel after we took the other. In one (Raleigh Street) we had Gospel, and in -- teaching, and that arrangement prospered, people knew where to go and whom to hear."
It appears that these things transpired in the first half of 1832. A reminiscence of B. W. Newton says that "The 'Powerscourt-Garden' breaking of bread was six or eight months after we began at Plymouth." That would be at the large, 1832 Powerscourt meeting (see chapter 5.3) held in the later part of the year.
Growth at Plymouth
While this is not history of "the Brethren" as such, since the name "Plymouth Brethren" derived from the fact that Christians were gathered together to Christ name (Matthew 18: 20) at Plymouth, which became well-known, and also it was the place that in the early 1840s became, under B. W. Newton, the focal point of attack upon the recovered truths, we will note here the arrival of certain persons to Plymouth.
Darby said that "Mr. Newton remained Fellow of Exeter for some time after we began to meet in Plymouth." After a little time he changed his residence to Plymouth and became one of the early laborers at Plymouth. He married in April (?) 1832 and thus could no longer be a Fellow of Exeter. Probably he withdrew from the church of England about this time. It may interest some readers that B. W. Newton said that by the third, fourth, fifth or sixth meeting at Plymouth, J. G. Deck was present. And, interestingly, in 1832 Darby went to Bristol where G. Muller and H. Craik were working on Baptist lines.
The Lord sent us a blessing, and disposed the hearts of the saints much towards us at Bristol, and many also to hear. The Lord is doing a very marked work there, in which I hope our dear brothers M. and C. may be abundantly blessed, but I should wish a little more principle of largeness of communion. I dread narrowness of heart more than anything for the church of Christ, especially now.
Alas, in 1848 their principle of communion became so large as to transgress the holiness due God's House.
We turn now to an account of the early days of the Plymouth meeting. A. Miller wrote,
Their first meeting place was called "Providence Chapel," and as they refused to give themselves any name, they were called in the town "Providence People." When the brothers began to preach the gospel in the open-air and in the villages around, no small curiosity was awakened to know who they were; there was something new in their preaching and in their way of going to work. But as they belonged to none of the denominations, they were spoken down as "Brethren from Plymouth." This naturally resulted in the designation, "The Plymouth Brethren" ....
A strong opposition was soon manifested against the new movement especially on the part of the clergy and ministers of all denominations. Nor need we wonder: the ground occupied by Brethren was felt to be a standing testimony against their whole state and practice, and many were stirred up to say hard and untrue things against them, with the view of neutralizing the blessed work which God was doing by their means. But these efforts of the enemy -- as they usually are -- were over-ruled to increase the general interest in the new preachers, and to attract numbers to their various meetings. The blessing of God evidently rested on the labors of the Brethren at that time; many were led to separate from the different denominations of the day, and gather round the center, the name of the Lord Jesus ....
There was great freshness, simplicity, devotedness, love and union, among the Brethren; and such features of spirituality have always a great attraction for certain minds; and many, of course, who united with the Brethren had very undefined thoughts as to the nature of the step they were taking. But all was new: Christ was owned as the only center, and the Holy Spirit as their only teacher. Thus they gave themselves to the study of the word of God, and experienced the sweetness of Christian communion, and found the Bible -- as they said -- to be a new book ....
It was no uncommon thing at this time to find valuable jewelry in the collection boxes, which was soon turned into money, and given to the deacons for the poor. But this quiet way of disposing of a little finery did not satisfy the devoted spirits at Plymouth. They parted with all that was considered worldly in dress, books and furniture. These free-will offerings were collected, and when the stripping time seemed nearly at an end, the accumulation was so great that it was necessary to sell them by auction.
It was here at Plymouth that clerisy and "modified Presbyterianism" was introduced, the heavenly hope was set aside and blasphemous doctrine was insinuated through B. W. Newton during the 1840s. Before we consider this we will trace Darby's apprehension of the truth through 1840. Darby spent much time in Europe from late 1837 to early 1845 working especially among Swiss non-conformists, and while there, wrote some valuable papers on the church, gift and office, as well as delivering lectures on the hope of the church. That will be discussed in section 6, so that we can concentrate next on the truth that was recovered to the saints through Darby.