Page:Dennet - The Plymouth Brethren.djvu/20

 other way. For the rest of our lecture, therefore, we shall confine ourselves to this supreme section—those who, for the sake of convenience, are called Darbyites.  The next thing, then, that falls for consideration is their Practice. — Under this term we are compelled to include the grounds on which they meet, as well as their modes of worship, and the manner in which they propagate what they consider the truth.

(1.) They claim to be “the assembly of God;” that they alone represent on earth the Church of God. This may seem to many a monstrous assertion; and certainly it is one which needs undoubted proof; and the more because they have not always advanced this claim. At the outset they professed to be witnesses of the low estate of the Church, and they loved to express their view of this low estate by the phrase, “The Church is in ruins.” They then met simply as Christians. But as time advanced, and their numbers increased, they were possessed with another spirit, until they brought themselves to believe that their “gatherings” alone represented the Church of God on earth. This belief has found most distinct expression in a book written by Mr. Macintosh, of Bristol, and circulated by the Brethren in thousands throughout the land, entitled, The Assembly of God. The grounds on which Mr. Macintosh advances the claim are, as far as I understand him, that the Brethren alone meet in the name of Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Ghost. I beg pardon for using the word “meet:” he expressly disclaims it. Let him speak for himself: “As Jesus is the only centre, so the Holy Ghost is the only gathering power. The one is as independent as the other. It is ‘where two or three are gathered.’ It does not say ‘where two or three are met.’ Persons may meet together round any centre, on any ground, by any influence, and merely form a club, a society, an association, a 