great danger to be feared from the Plymouth Brethren is, that they have ingeniously mixed up some very important truths with the most pernicious and fatal errors. This is often done in such a guarded manner that ordinary readers are not very likely to discover the combination till they have actually imbibed the poison.”
This witness is true, for when they are seeking to convince other Christians of their error, their own peculiarities are kept in the background until their converts are introduced to their fellowship, and then, as several have confessed, their hearts have died within them as they discovered that they have connected themselves with worse evils than those they had abandoned. The effect has been diverse. Some, for very consistency’s sake, have kept their ground, but have sunk back into formality and lifelessness; some, content to take their views from others, and gratified with the authority and influence they enjoy as assumed teachers—those “restless men who will be at something,” whom Mr. Macintosh so pathetically describes—have been filled with ardent zeal to propagate a system from which all their importance is derived; some, losing faith in all forms of Christianity, have abandoned even the Christian profession, and are seen in all parts of England, swelling the number of that saddest of all classes of men—backsliders; while a few have gone back to the churches whence they were seduced, and rejoice to-day at their escape from the bondage of a system which was fast destroying the peace of their souls.
A minister thus wrote to Dr. Carson on the appearance of his tractate:—
“Allow me to express to you the great pleasure I have had in the perusal of your pamphlet, aid my deep conviction that you have laid the Church under great obligation by its timely appearance. … Allured by the appearance
