grace and forbearance had triumphed over self and schism. The grace of the teachers in Corinth was, however, wanting in Plymouth; and regardless of the unity of the body that had been boasted in, and the command to keep the unity of the spirit that had been taught, Mr. Darby meets what he considers the sectarianism of another by a sectarianism of his own, which he consummates by making a division among the saints with whom he had been in fellowship from the commencement; and that, notwithstanding the remonstrance of most of the brethren who came from a distance to investigate the state of things in Ebrington Street. Having effected the division, he spread a table elsewhere on the last Sunday of that eventful year, which was in future to be exclusively “the table of the Lord” around which himself and his followers were to rally. From this meeting we must date the rise of Darbyism, and its development into a distinct and self- excommunicated body, separated on grounds subversive of the great truth around which, as opposed to all sectarianism, “the Brethren” had sought to rally the saints of God, namely, that the Blood of the Lamb was the basis of the union of the family of heaven: for in regard to those from whom Mr. Darby separated, Mr. Wigram, who acted with Mr. Darby in the matter then, as he has done since, gives the most unqualified testimony, and writes, “They are all accredited as Christians, and I can accredit them as such without any question.”
The grounds of this melancholy division were, as we gather from Mr. Darby’s narrative,[1] sectarianism, clericalism, and erroneous prophetic views.
- ↑ We give Mr. Darby’s reasons for separating from Ebrington Street, as given by himself in the “Narrative of Facts,” p.p. 75, 76:—
“First, practically the present hope and expectation of the Lord’s coming was put off and set aside.
“Secondly, the heavenly calling, which brethren had specially been favoured to bring out, and glory of the Church with Christ, is confounded with earth, and subverted and set aside. Our Mother declared to be the establishment of a system, which had been going on from the beginning, in glory in the earth. ‘Christianity supreme in the earth, in Mount Zion and Jerusalem,’ ‘identical with Zion arising in the moral grace and dignity of its high calling in the earth.’ (Thoughts on Apocalypse, p.p. 138, 142.) ‘This is our parent, the system to which we belong,’ Jerusalem.
“Thirdly, unfeigned faith in the presence of the Holy Ghost to guide and minister in the assemblies of the saints, was undermined and subverted.
“Fourthly, the unity of the body of Christ, as gathered by the presence of the Holy Ghost in this present time of the Church on earth, was undermined and subverted too.
