The Doctrinal Controversy at Plymouth
The early summer of 1847 afforded Darby the opportunity of dealing his already discomfited rival a crushing and decisive blow. A manuscript, purporting to be notes of a lecture by Newton on the Sixth Psalm, was lent to Mrs. J. L. Harris, whose husband, since the secession from Ebrington Street, had openly taken Darby’s side. Harris, on reading it, was shocked at the experiences it ascribed to Christ. He addressed to a staunch supporter of Darby’s, Mr. Christopher McAdam, a long letter containing very severe strictures on the manuscript, and gave his correspondent permission to print them. They were accordingly published in July, along with the incriminated manuscript. A very surprising circumstance—if anything in this controversy could surprise us—is that Harris did not apply to Newton to know whether he acknowledged the notes as containing a trustworthy report of his lecture. Harris thought that ‘after making every allowance for imperfect note-taking and misapprehension,” the doctrine was “so clearly defined” as to be “capable of being stated without misrepresenting its meaning”. George Müller was afterwards greatly blamed by the Darbyites for calling Harris’s act a “work of darkness”; but surely the term may be justified, however much we regret that so excellent a man as Harris should have shared, in an evil moment, in a policy that denied to Newton the common
