Page:Neatby - A history of the Plymouth Brethren.djvu/351

 have shared in it. But what I have ventured to call the “haphazardism” of the system is not wholly due to that tendency. Rather, that tendency itself is to be traced to an underlying principle that is strictly fundamental. Brethrenism is the child of the study of unfulfilled prophecy, and of the expectation of the immediate return of the Saviour. If any one had told the first Brethren that three quarters of a century might elapse and the Church be still on earth, the answer would probably have been a smile, partly of pity, partly of disapproval, wholly of incredulity. Yet so it has proved. It is impossible not to respect hopes so congenial to an ardent devotion; yet it is clear now that Brethrenism took shape under the influence of a delusion, and that that delusion was a decisive element in all its distinctive features.