Page:Neatby - A history of the Plymouth Brethren.djvu/295

 world of pities that, for the sake of the leader whom he loved ”not wisely but too well,” he should so often have rushed into it. Yet it is simple justice to him to say that in all his polemical pamphlets, bad as they are, there is never a sign that the writer is fighting for his own hand; nor yet of that assumption of superior spirituality from which Darby’s controversial writings are by no means free. Wigram’s character was marked by a fine simplicity; with a singular dignity of bearing he combined a perfect ease and geniality, and whatever his errors may have been it is not to be questioned that he was a devout and earnest man.

Though anxious minds had their forebodings, Darbyism at the time of its downfall presented a successful and flourishing appearance. In 1875 a rather absurd puff appeared on behalf of the Brethren, under the title of Literature and Mission of the so-called Plymouth Brethren. It came from the pen of a Scotch minister, who soon after took the only consistent step, and formally associated himself with the objects of his panegyric. This tract contains the following tribute to the prosperity of the sect. “‘Plymouthism in ruins!’ says a foe. Why, they are perhaps increasing even more solidly than any; for their numbers are being constantly augmented by drafts of the most spiritual, intelligent, conscientious, decided, and devoted, from all the churches: a startling fact, especially for ministers.”

A good deal must be allowed for the dithyrambic