Page:Neatby - A history of the Plymouth Brethren.djvu/87

Rh , and such like, respecting which his opinions differed somewhat widely from mine; but I knew that he was a proved man of God, who had jeoparded his worldly interest, and even his life, in seeking to promote the cause of the Redeemer in the world. …

“ … If in our past friendly and brotherly discussions, Mr. Groves was naturally apt to consider me, at times, as unconsciously warped in judgment, through the prejudices of education, and the influence of ecclesiastical habits; so, on the other hand, I was apt to consider him, in his honest zeal, as a reformer of glaring and confessed abuses, as, at times, unconsciously carried away to the opposite extreme, in the suggestion of appropriate remedies. … Apart altogether from his peculiar views, or even in spite of some of them, I could not help regarding him as one of the most loving and lovable of Christian men, while the singular fervency of his spirit made it quite contagious; diffusing all around the savour of an unearthly sanctity and self-consuming devotedness. … The Lord grant that professing disciples in this luxurious age of self-pleasing and self-indulgence, may at least learn from his example the lesson which they preeminently need, and which he was honoured of God preeminently to teach, and that is, the lesson of real Scriptural self-denial, the divine lesson of taking up the cross, forsaking all, and following the Lord !”