Page:Neatby - A history of the Plymouth Brethren.djvu/240

 and conversation, have been moulded and coloured by this belief. Even their evangelistic preaching, strange as this may seem, partook largely of it; indeed, great results were expected from its use; nor does it seem to have occurred to them that, as long as the Church was in no sort of agreement on the subject, it was not likely that the doctrine would be widely influential on the world without. In utilising it as a basis of evangelistic appeals, they relied on the affirmation that, from the moment of the Rapture, the day of grace for Christendom will be over. This view is indeed separable from their main doctrine on the subject, but none of the Brethren separated it; and they found themselves in consequence committed to the very precarious inference that the period of gospel probation is to close long before the coming of Christ to judgment.

With a strange want of all theological perspective this was taught, even to the children of the community, as a truth no less certain than the most momentous facts of revelation; and grievous was the havoc that it often made of infantine peace of mind.

Everybody that has a practical acquaintance with the Brethren must have noticed how strong a tendency there is amongst them to substitute for St. James’s formula—“If the Lord will,”—a formula of their own—“If the Lord tarry”. And more and more the persuasion gained ground that the “tarrying” would not last long, and a suggestion that several years might yet intervene would be disapproved, not indeed as theoretically inadmissible, but as indicating an unworthy attitude of mind towards the great Hope.

But, speaking generally, the doctrines to be discussed in this chapter are those that illustrate the attitude of Brethrenism towards the larger world of evangelical