JOHN NELSON DARBY was a singularly voluminous author, whose works are well worth reading, and yet little likely to be read. He was a man of lofty, lovely character, of simple consistent unostentatious adherence to truth, who cheerfully endured the countless troubles such a man is bound to meet in a world like this. Scandal had no charge to make against him, esteem and love of intimate friends could not say enough in praise of the unworldly devoted life much of which from his twenty-fifth year was lived in quite unsought publicity.
His life covered the momentous period when the foundation of religious life in England seemed shaken by the birth of Tractarianism, the sapping and mining of Higher Criticism, the propagation of Evolutionary theories, and the waves of Revivalism, Irish and American.
Darby was no detached observer of any or all of these movements as will appear in the course of explicating the religious questions and controversies in which he was more immediately involved.
Foremost amongst his works is his Translation of the Holy Scriptures (an entirely free and independent rendering of the whole original text, using all known helps), into German and French, and of the Greek into English. The Revisers used his New Testament, and were astonished at an amount of painstaking research exceeding that of most, if not of all, as two of the best in the company wrote to the late Mr. William Kelly, who had himself revised Darby's Synopsis of the Bible, and edited his other writings, some thirty to forty volumes in English, French, German, Dutch and Italian.
In the translation of the Scriptures the literary was made to give place to the literal, and hence it is characterized by a certain abruptness of style. This, however, is more than compensated for by the invaluable notes with which it is furnished, and which in the judgment of competent critics betoken true scientific scholarship.
From his twenty-eighth year, till his death at the advanced age of eighty-two, he produced in quick succession works of marked spirituality covering literally the widest field of Scriptural inquiry. He laid bare both Irvingism and Puseyism; the skepticism of Professor Francis Newman and the subtlety of the Cardinal his brother. He exposed Mr. B. W. Newton's Thoughts on the Apocalypse, as well as his more subtle errors as to CHRIST. He refuted the " perfectionism " of John Wesley, to the delight of the Swiss Free Churchmen, who were, however, not so pleased with his criticism of the spurious Free Churchism and its eldership of Dr. J. H. Merle D'Aubigne. He was as unsparing on Popish error in several works of much research as he was in helping the Free Church of Scotland against the rationalism of the late Mr. W. Robertson Smith. Then, again, the fearful errors as to sin and its penalty which are abroad, and have been spreading so rapidly-such as annihilationism, non-eternity of punishment, and the various vagaries of eschatological skepticism and infidelity-were fully refuted by Mr. Darby. Dr. J. Milner, Archbishop Whateley, Bishop Colenso, as also the writers of Essays and Reviews, were carefully examined, their sophistries exposed and arguments refuted by this fearless, well-instructed, independent student of Holy Scripture.
His expository works are of the highest value, the Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, in five volumes, being a case in point. This was recommended by Bishop Ellicott to theological students of his diocese. Where is there any single work of any author affording such help to the study of Scripture? Yet several others are comparatively of only inferior worth, Evangelical, Practical, Doctrinal, Ecclesiastical, Prophetic, Miscellaneous, etc. His Critical Volume is a fund of thought for the student. All are able and scholarly, though some from the nature of the case are profound while others are of quite simple character. They are alike stamped with devotion to CHRIST and faith in GOD'S Word, and surely never was an author more indifferent to literary distinction. He recommended " thinking in Scripture."
But Mr. Darby's expression no doubt was difficult to the uninitiated, and many published pieces are but mere notes of readings or lectures taken by others.
His paper on the Progress of Democratic Power, and its Effect on the Moral State of England made a deep impression on some in high political circles, one of whom Sir T. D. Acland (perhaps Mr. Gladstone's most intimate friend from Oxford days until death) described it as the most wonderful forecast and just appraisal he ever read of what is come and coming. Yet Acland did not see the paper until years after Darby had written it.
At the time when the Hampden Judgment was creating intense controversy among churchmen of all schools of thought, a relative by marriage of Darby, the pious and learned Dr. O'Brien, Bishop of Ossory, joined in the fray and, though an Evangelical, wrote a strong defense of Baptismal Regeneration. This drew from Mr. Darby a vigorous reply in which he proved that the argument on the formularies as well as Scripture was simply and grossly a begging of the question.
One tiny volume of Spiritual Songs is all that stands to his credit in versification. But the twenty-six matchless pieces, a metrical life of our LORD, a sonnet, some hymns and spiritual songs are a revelation of a devotion, deep, true and tender; the breaking of an alabaster box of choice spiritual perfumes; the outpouring of heartfelt piety in chaste and beautiful expression, which while it enchains the Christian heart constrains it to join its delightsome melody. While comparisons are proverbially odious, yet the same haunting strains and celestial fragrance which cling around the compositions of some of the mediaevalists Bernard of Cluny, Bernard of Clairvaux, Abelard, Andrew of Crete (to mention but a selection at random) are here. But here there is no cloying sweetness, no mists of supersitition, but a clear spiritual atmosphere where no breath of earthborn clouds intrudes.
This Collection will afford rich enjoyment and blessing to every spiritual mind; but the hymns being the free utterance of what the heart learned with GOD, are without that careful finish that would have been given to mere composition. This, however, increases their reality, and hence their attractiveness, for all who will appreciate their intrinsic excellence.
It is interesting to note that they cover fifty years of a life lived in active service in many lands, by one who was often the unwilling storm-center of ecclesiastical strife, knowing fully what " scenes of strife and desert life " actually meant; one who voluntarily sacrificed the ordinary comforts of domestic life, and disbursed a fortune in the service of the LORD, all with scant recognition from many who benefited by his self-abnegating piety.
In 1832 he bursts into song with:
" What powerful, mighty Voice, so near
Calls me from earth apart
Reaches with tones so still, so clear,
From th' unseen world my heart?
" LORD, let me wait for Thee alone:
My life be only this
To serve thee here on earth unknown;
Then share Thy heavenly bliss.
"O rest! ineffable divine,
The rest of GOD above:
Where Thou forever shalt be mine
My joy, eternal LOVE! "
Three years later during the intervals of a prolonged and severe attack of gout in the eye, while confined to his bed in a dark room he dictated what is probably his most popular hymn. Its jubilant strain of worship, inspiring and exultant, in no way reveals the distressing malady from which Darby was then suffering, but it clearly indicates the habitude of his spirit. It is entitled " The Endless Song."
" Hark! Ten thousand voices, crying
' Lamb of GOD! with one accord:
Thousand thousand saints replying—
Wake, at once, the echoing chord!
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" Grateful incense this ascending,
Ever to the FATHER'S throne;
Every knee to JESUS bending,
All the mind in heaven is one."
Two years later, when a large number of Christians left the Swiss Free Church, after a course of lectures given by Mr. Darby on the Book of Exodus, he wrote the well-known hymn:
" Rise my soul! Thy GOD directs thee;
Stranger hands no more impede:
Pass thou on; His hand protects thee
Strength that has the captive freed.
" In the desert, GOD will teach thee
What the GOD that thou hast found;
Patient, gracious, powerful, holy—
All His grace shall there abound!
" Though thy way be long and dreary,
Eagle strength He'll still renew:
Garments fresh and foot unweary
Tell how GOD hath brought thee through! "
When in the year 1845 Mr. Darby returned from Switzerland, he found himself literally the storm-center of a most serious ecclesiastical conflict in which he took a great and active share. But here is a significant thing; at the center of his own life he must have been in the enjoyment of perfect tranquility, for it was then that two of his most nobly conceived pieces of verse were issued as a leaflet for the cheer and comfort of the saints. They are entitled " The Saints' Rest" and " Unchanging Love."
" Rest of the saints above,
Jerusalem of GOD!
Who in thy palaces of love,
Thy golden streets have trod
To me thy joy to tell?
Those courts secure from ill,
Where GOD' Himself vouchsafes to dwell,
And every bosom fill!
Who shall to me that joy
Of saint-thronged courts declare—
Tell of that constant, sweet employ,
My spirit longs to share?
There, only, to adore
My soul its strength may find—
Its life, its joy for evermore,
By sight nor sense defined.
GOD and the LAMB shall there
The light and temple be;
And radiant hosts, forever, share
The unveiled mystery! "
The companion song is of exquisite spiritual beauty, and one of the sweetest things that he ever penned. He was on a journey; and, as an outside passenger on the coach, while trying to recall a familiar hymn by his friend J. G. Deck (himself a most prolific hymn writer) commencing " 0 Lord Thy love's unbounded," the thought of the unchanging love of CHRIST, so filled his mind, that there and then he jotted down some eight verses of which we give the concluding three:‒
" Still, sweet 'tis to discover,
If clouds have dimmed my sight,
When passed, ETERNAL LOVER,
Towards me, as e'er, Thou'rt bright.
Oh guard my soul, then, JESUS,
Abiding still with Thee;
And if I wander, teach me
Soon back to Thee to flee;
That all Thy gracious favor
May to my soul be known,
And, versed in this Thy goodness,
My hopes Thyself shalt crown! "
It was in the year 1867 that Mr. Darby, then traveling in Canada, was taken with a severe illness, and became so much worse that the friends with whom he was staying besought him to let them bring medical aid as they feared he was dying. After a while feeling better he, although extremely weak, got up and poured out his soul in the poem which was published as The Man of Sorrows.
This is really a metrical life of our LORD from the manger-cradle to His coming again for His own; but the whole of the two hundred lines are charged with such a reverent affection to the Divine Object of the author's devotion as cannot fail to thrill the heart of the Christian reader.
The briefest excerpt will illustrate this:‒
" Thou soughtest for compassion—
Some heart Thy grief to know,
To watch Thine hour of passion—
For comforters in woe:
No eye was found to pity—
No heart to bear Thy woe;
But shame, and scorn, and spitting—
None cared Thy Name to know.
The pride of careless greatness
Could wash its hands of Thee:
Priests that should plead for weakness,
Must Thine accusers be!
Man's boasting love disowns Thee;
Thine own Thy danger flee;
A Judas only owns Thee—
That Thou may'st captive be.
O LORD! Thy wondrous story
My inmost soul doth move;
I ponder o'er Thy glory,—
Thy lonely path of love! "
Mr. Darby immediately after finishing these beautiful lines had a severe relapse, and was again compelled to take to his bed for a considerable period.
One curious fact in connection with Mr. Darby's hymn-writing is that many of the finest and most deeply spiritual of them were produced during seasons of very great strain and stress. As we have already noticed, The Saints' Rest was published during a period of tremendous ecclesiastical unrest and discord, and strangely enough his most exquisite lyrical composition, " We praise Thee glorious Lord!" was written when, as an old weary veteran in 1881, he had again become the unwilling storm-center of ecclesiastical partisanship, and was written as a cheer for a sick friend; its last stanza expresses what then more than ever was the attitude of J. N. Darby's heart:—
JESUS, we wait for Thee!
With Thee to have our part:
What can full joy and blessing be,
But being where Thou art! "
Not many months later, in the November of the same year, we find him writing to another friend about a new hymn, which accompanied the letter: " I send you a hymn, suggested by one you like: but that brought you down to being often weary.' This goes up to where there is no weariness."
" I'm waiting for Thee, LORD;
Thyself then to see, LORD!
I'm waiting for Thee,
At Thy coming again:
With Thee evermore, LORD,
Our hearts will adore, LORD:
Our sorrow'll be-o'er,
At Thy coming again."
To many who view John Nelson Darby as a teacher who has raised up a school of his own, committed to a view of the Church's calling and character which, whether considered a restoration or an innovation, is certainly revolutionary in its character and results, the foregoing extracts, breathing as they do the simple ardent devotion of his inner life, may appear somewhat strange. But the career of Mr. Darby is full of strange and strongly marked contrasts. The tender devotion of a St. Bernard of Clairvaux, linked with the fiery dominant personality of a St. Dominic in his zeal for truth and hatred of heresy; the mystic engrossed in the heaven-lies, and yet so truly the ecclesiastic, that as one remarked in a strain of pleasantry, " He always had his surplice in his pocket "; a leader of matchless sagacity, yet with an impetuous impulsiveness that was occasionally a source of embarrassment to other leading brethren, his life resembles a landscape with its towering rocks and solitudes; its verdant meads and meandering streams; its rushing torrents and calm lakes; each of which in turn stand out upon the canvas as the arresting feature of the picture. As a man, as a Christian, and as a scholar he was and is held in the highest respect by all who knew him, save indeed those who permit themselves to be blinded by prejudice or invincible party feeling. His unchallenged consistency, sincerity and unwearied service to the faith to which his soul was yielded in his early years commands the reverence and admiration of those who recognized in him a spiritual guide. But there is always need for caution lest this admiration of a Christian leader's intellect and spiritual qualities should be allowed to pass (unconsciously perhaps at first) into an unwarranted and dangerous deference to his authority, or even into a passive acquiescence in all his teachings, as though it were impossible for such a man to err in any point of faith or practice.
As Writer-Theologian-Poet, Darby, with some forty volumes of prose and one of exquisite verse, left a legacy of sound doctrinal literature, in which the devout scholar and simple believer alike, may find edification, exhortation and encouragement.
His conception of the Church, noble and sublime, differs widely from that advocated by many in high ecclesiastical positions, but cannot fail to appeal to the spiritual mind. He says, " The Church... a lowly heavenly body... has no portion on earth at all, as it was at the beginning-suffering as its Head did, unknown and well known-an unearthly witness of heavenly things on earth."