Page:Dennet - The Plymouth Brethren.djvu/9



"“I know something of the early days of the Brethren in this and in other places. I believe that I have a general acquaintance with the facts connected with those who have assembled for communion at Plymouth. I was associated with the Christians meeting here, when they were about eighty in number, in the early part of 1835. From those who were then united in fellowship I received much information as to what had taken place during the four previous years.”"

He then gives the principle, as stated above, of their meeting.

"“Those Brethren who assembled in Plymouth for communion, in 1831, had the thought prominently before them, that the Word of God gave them the liberty of meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for fellowship, in obedience to His word, ‘Do this in remembrance of Me.’”"

- Three Letters, etc., p. 4.

In this simple way “the Brethren” sprang into existence. There are two names connected with the movement that cannot be omitted―Mr. J. N. Darby and Mr. B. W. Newton. Mr. Darby was, we believe, a clergyman, and Mr. Newton was a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. They were both diligent students of the Bible, and being both singularly gifted as expositors or teachers, and taught to regard themselves as responsible to the Lord for the exercise of their gifts, they devoted themselves to the ministry of the Word among “the Brethren.” Mr. Darby seems to have been peripatetic in his labours, though at the outset he was more constantly at Dublin; while Mr. Newton is found, soon after the commencement of the meeting, resident at Plymouth. Both obtained great influence with “the Brethren,” and were, not unnaturally, consciously or unconsciously, looked up to as leaders, as well as teachers. Other prominent names are often found associated with Plymouth, such as Mr. Wigram, Mr. Harris, Mr. Soltau, &c.; but, it must be remembered that all the teachers circulated