lies underneath. These circumstances do not produce the evil—they only make it manifest; for God sees, and will make us to see likewise, that a hidden evil is more deadly in its results to the creature, and more dis honouring to God in the end, than an open evil that bears its condemnation on its face; even as the whitewashed Pharisee is further from the kingdom, than the outcast publican. When we are deceived as to our real attainment, God in love comes in to detect and point out the evil he would have us to judge. If we learn the lesson and judge ourselves, well: if not, He will come in, in judgment, and put his people to an open shame, selling them as He did Israel of old, into the hands of an oppressor—it may be to one of the Canaanitish kings around them, or it may be to one of themselves—an Abimelec,[1] the son of the bondswoman, a true Ishmael, having his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him. The saints often need much exercise of soul to understand the Lord’s ways with them, and to see the Lord’s hand towards them, for which a single heart and a single eye are essential; but where these are found, and the broken heart acknowledges the Lord’s righteousness in laying open the evil, and exposing the deception, there can be healing, and He will again bind up those who walk in lowliness; but where this is the case, the saints of God will not be found sacrificing “righteousness, judgment, and mercy” to “mint, anise, and cummin," by making a boast of that which is easily accomplished, to the neglect of that which calls for self-sacrifice and self-renunciation.
Mr. Darby was during this period little in Plymouth: Mr. Newton’s ministry was permanent, and he gradually drew around himself a large and influential number of those in fellowship. The differences between the teachers gradually augmented, their views became more and more antagonistic, and the partizanship of the taught was every year becoming more and more apparent. While grace was declining, dogmatism on both sides was on the increase, and, as a necessary result, that forbearance which can alone enable saints—encompassed with infirmity on all sides—long to walk together, grew less and less. One result alone can follow such a state of things, and that took place in 1845. It will be unjust to regard the leaders as solely responsible for the consequences that followed. Where there is no fuel, the fire goes out; and the unholy flames that were kindling, would have been early extinguished, if the pride and partizanship of the body, had not added fuel to the fire lighted up by the teachers. The fire, however, was taken into the bosom, and will burn on
- ↑ Read the solemn warning contained in Judges, vi. vii, viii. and ix.
