Page:Groves - Darbyism - Its Rise and Development and a Review of the Bethesda Question.djvu/87

 to bear on all that we believe, for it concerns not the first act of saving faith alone, it concerns every act in the life of him who is born of God, for by the living actings of a living faith we are told “The scripture was fulfilled, which saith he believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.” That which is reckoned for righteousness, needs to become a fruit fulfilled in righteousness, and thus the mighty act of Abraham’s faith recorded in the twenty-second chapter of Genesis fulfills the glorious announcement of God concerning him in the fifteenth chapter. The Lord enable all to seek after having all that we believe fulfilled in us, and then shall we stand before the church of God and before the world as the friends of God, and the second chapter of James will be fulfilled, in the fifteenth of John realized.

We cannot close this subject without a few remarks on Mr. Darby’s conduct in reference to it. He had frequently been spoken to by those of his followers who had courage to do so, on the similarity between his views and those held formerly by Mr. Newton. This was a subject spoken on at a meeting in Portsmouth some few years back, when Mr. D. replied, that those who could form such a comparison, were either “fools or knaves”!! Mr. Dorman tells us how again and again he brought the subject before him, and he seems at one time to have received “assurances of his willingness to correct any faulty expressions in the writings complained of”; but whatever promises may have been held out by Mr. Darby, they were not to be realized. Strong representations had been made to him by others while abroad as to the painful effects his teachings had had on the minds of many in fellowship with him, but he returns to London from the continent, and rather than retract or alter anything he had written he determines to leave his party if necessary. This they could not allow. The result was that the whole question was hushed up, there was no examination, no retractation, and the doctrines in question virtually received the sanction of the leaders of the party, nine of whom, including Mr. Wigram, wrote the following letter to Mr. G. B. Gilpin, who had written strong letters of remonstrance against the allowance and tacit consent given to Mr. Darby’s views.

“,

“We have read and considered your letter to our brother Mr. J. N. Darby, and his letters to you. We are not aware ‘that the subject of the sufferings of Christ is everywhere rife, or at least in many places or in many minds.’ So far as we know this statement is unwarrantably strong. Here the state of things is the very contrary, and we cannot be content to allow our brother J. N. D. to withdraw