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REVIEW OF HOW THE TRUTH, WHICH THE LORD REVIVED TO THE CHURCH IN THIS CENTURY, HAS BEEN OPPOSED AND HOW LITTLE ACCEPTED.

The Lord was pleased to revive through dear Mr. Darby, while he was still in the Church of England, the truth that Christ is the Head of the body. Almost concurrent with this the opposition began. Dr. Pusey, who was of his own age, brought into force the great clerical opposition, called Ritualism. At that time some of the leading men at Oxford — Mr. Newton and Mr. Harris — left the Established Church, and consorted with Mr. Darby. He having also left the Established Church, now propounded the light which he had received, having first learnt the gospel which enabled him to apprehend the truth himself.

I did not know Mr. Darby until after he was in Plymouth in 1833. After leaving the University, I went to stay with him at a brother’s house at Cork, where I was his constant companion; and just to give an idea of the truth that came out, I mention an attempt of mine to compose a hymn, entirely a new idea to me, as a divinity student, raw from the University, and before I was twenty.

^[p. 528] Hark! happy saints! loud lift your voice,
Tell to the world how ye rejoice -
Yon heaven is your home.
There lives your Head with glory crowned;
Ye — members, for His kingdom bound, All cry — “Lord Jesus, come”. (7:1)

You may see from this how very clearly was brought out the fact that our place is heaven, and that Christ is our Head there.

Not long after this there was a great movement in Plymouth on prophetic questions, to which Mr. Newton gave his exclusive attention, and most were carried away by it. During the few months that I was with Mr. Darby I used to hear him complain of what was going on as to the line of teaching. When I was in Plymouth in 1844, they had become a large number, with a very large building to meet in, holding 1,200 people. That was before the division. I want to point out how this prophetic teaching first diverted saints from the line of truth which the Lord had given. The division actually ensued (before the evil doctrine as to the Lord’s Person was discovered), because the course of Mr. Newton and his adherents denied that the saints in one place are one with the saints everywhere, and are practically one body.

The next opposition was from Mr. Dorman, and was joined by Mr. Darby’s own brother and others, who condemned him for saying that the Lord bore sufferings which were not atoning, and that He gave up the life to which sin attached. So much was Mr. Darby affected by it that he proposed to cease to break bread; but a few of us met him at a brother’s house, and dissuaded him from such a course. Thus we can easily see how low an idea was prevalent among brethren as to the Lord’s humanity and work.

This discussion was a great help to me, because when I looked through Scripture I saw that there were many sufferings which were not atoning sufferings. And then came the question as to the judgment ^[p. 529] of sin. There could not be really the judgment of sin if the life was not given up. If the judgment is really borne, the man must be given up — not only the sin, but the man in whom the sin was. Mr. Dorman and others would not have it that Christ bore the judgment; they held that He only bore death. This was in May, 1866.

At a large meeting in Manchester in 1873, I remember calling the attention of brethren to the way the enemy had endeavoured to spoil the pure stream given by the Lord, first by one thing, and then by another. I then referred to the subject — speaking on the passage, “Not holding the Head” (Mr. Darby was present). I was tracing how the truth came out, how it was refused, and how little it had been accepted. I showed that the opposition of the enemy at that moment took the form of proclaiming the gospel without the church — limiting the truth to the salvation of souls. We know what a wave of gospel excitement prevailed at that time. I remember also calling the brethren’s attention at a large brothers’ meeting in London to the fact of how the gospel was set forth without separation from the world, and an assumption of holiness without separation from ecclesiastical system — just the difference between El-elohe-Israel and Bethel. The one, where there is no sense of His presence, the other-where the presence of God affects you down to the smallest detail of your family. The leaven has spread from that day to this, namely, that you can have professed nearness to God (the right ground and the right blessing) and yet have no sense of His presence. It is really the effect of accepting and exclusively adhering to objective truth without the corresponding subjective state, which is the Spirit’s work in us.

Subsequent to this the new creation was denied at Reading. It was said that old things became new, and from that day to this great ignorance of what is the character and nature of new creation has marked ^[p. 530] the opposers, and I am afraid there is still a very imperfect sense of what new creation really is — “the new man which after God is created, in righteousness and true holiness”. Those who dwell exclusively on objective truth can never know experimentally what new creation is — that it is the great grace of God to give us a state fitted to the reception of His grace, as the best robe fitted the prodigal for the great supper. Thus God fits us for the new position which His grace has secured to us.

There is, thank God, a better and clearer idea now of what the new creation is than there was thirty years ago; but many of the evangelists do not really apprehend fully that the old man is removed from the eye of God in judgment. If this were truly apprehended they would not address the old man by seeking to work on his feelings. It is quite right to awaken souls to their lost condition, but the grace of God is that He has removed that man in judgment. But I believe that what is not understood is the nature of the Man, the unique character of the One who has superseded the first man before the eye of God; and until this is apprehended, and that we derive from Christ, as members of His body, there can be no apprehension that He is our Head — the source of all life and power, or of what it is to be united to Him.

Anyone acquainted with the details of the controversy from Witney in 1888, on to the present time, must be convinced of the ignorance of some of the most advanced teachers as to what it is to have Christ formed in you. This was foreseen by Mr. Darby when he recommended the study of John’s writings, which in a great measure are subjective.

The Lord give grace to His saints to awaken them to their immense loss in not making more of the great truth which He has revived among us. I see everyone’s power is in proportion as he approaches to it.

June 1st, 1896.

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