Page:Neatby - A history of the Plymouth Brethren.djvu/330

 the expression of eternal life, though He was Himself that eternal life”. Mr. Kelly, who was induced to take the field by the application of some of the belligerents themselves, mentions that a similar limitation was also expressed with regard to Christ in weariness at the well of Sychar, or weeping at the grave of Lazarus, or commending His mother from the Cross to the care of St. John. A very small amount of spiritual perception, or, failing that, a very slight theological sense, would have enabled these speculators to see that they were frittering away the significance of the Incarnation. It would have been well if they had attempted an answer to the question, Were those acts of Christ which they could not receive as “expressions” of Eternal Life, true expressions of Himself or not?

Mr. Greenman, a transatlantic Brother, considers Mr. Raven’s doctrines “the direct outcome of Mr. J. B. Stoney’s ‘higher life,’ or ‘the Brethren’s Perfectionism’”. He adds that “with Mr. Darby’s and other solid teaching off the scene, Mr. R. carries all before him”. The following passage illustrates the point:—

"“When a Christian has done with the responsible side of his course down here, it is the end of priesthood; we don’t need it any more as connected with infirmities. That part of our christian course will be over, and we shall no longer want the help of the high priest in that sense. It will come to an end in regard to us. And this is true now in so far as our souls enter on the ground of divine purpose. The priest is known in another light.”"

It will be judged that Mr. Raven’s language is not always readily intelligible. On another occasion he thought fit to put his thoughts before his hearers in the following form:—