Page:Neatby - A history of the Plymouth Brethren.djvu/94

82 of the former speakers or by turns with them. … People said that no one had ever preached in a manner so thrilling, so edifying, so clear and so consistent, the free grace of God in Christ for the salvation of sinners. That, they said, was the characteristic merit of Darby’s preaching. We are of the same opinion, without approving of the extravagant eulogising of Mr. Darby. … Indeed it would be hard to understand how discourses that shone by no kind of literary or rhetorical merit, and that were addressed to so religious an audience as Mr. Darby’s, could have made such a sensation if they had not borne the stamp of a truly evangelical impress.”

Great as the revolution in Lausanne was, it seems to have been almost silently effected, by dint partly of the mere popularity of Darby’s ministry, partly of changes that he gradually introduced on his own authority. The old effective watchword, Union of the Children of God, was rallying men rapidly to the standard of Darbyism.

“All this was preparing for the ecclesiastical revolution projected by our able doctor; or rather, it was not perceived that the revolution was already partly accomplished. Darby had in effect placed himself of his own accord at the head of the congregation, and had taken to exercising pastoral functions, without so much as dreaming of justifying his assumption of the office of an ecclesiastic by his ordination to the ministry in the Church of England. The ministers whom the congregation had had till then were virtually deposed. It is true that they still at times occupied the pulpit, but the office that the congregation had conferred on them had come to an end, and they saw themselves forced to divide its functions not only with Darby, but even with laymen.

“Mr. Darby administered the Lord’s Supper every Sunday after the ordinary service, without troubling about the disciplinary