Page:Neatby - A history of the Plymouth Brethren.djvu/107

Rh At all events, Darby was animated, even to the apprehension of his adversaries, by an unwearying, disinterested and self-sacrificing enthusiasm; and this may at least avail to distinguish him in the present instance from the common troublers of churches with whom some would wish to identify him.

At the same time, we must deplore that Darby should have lost the opportunity of strengthening the hands of the men who, in the middle of last century, were effecting such a gallant stand in Switzerland on behalf of the evangelical principles that he most truly loved. Only the lack of a tolerable theological perspective prevented Darby from becoming the welcome and powerful ally of the Rochats and Oliviers of Vaud, and of the more famous, and not less devout, Merles and Gaussens of Geneva. As it was, he waged against them all, in pamphlet after pamphlet, a warfare that left an incurable feud behind it. Happily we may believe that his followers, however self-limited, have really exercised a genuine influence for good on the Continent by maintaining a high standard (as I believe) of devoutness and evangelical simplicity. I understand that their meetings in Switzerland and the adjacent parts of France, twenty or thirty years ago, were very numerous, well attended, and in many cases fervent and spiritual.

A brief account must be added of the formation of the first Brethren’s meeting in Germany. The story is short and simple, and it owes its interest chiefly to the fact that the successful apostle of Brethrenism in this instance was George Müller.

In May, 1843, Müller received a letter from a lady at Stuttgart to whom he had recently been serviceable when she was on a visit to Bristol. During the visit she