In the year 1848, while Brethren from all parts were holding meetings in different places for prayer and humiliation because of the sad work of the enemy, the rulers of Bethesda received to the Lord's table several of Mr. Newton's devoted friends and partisans who were known to hold his heresy. This rash and most unhappy step on the part of these rulers, and their deliberate defense of it, proved most disastrous; it rent the Brethren asunder, entailed indescribable sorrow and trouble on individuals and families, many of which are not healed even unto this day, besides the great damage done to the cause of truth and dishonor to the name of the blessed Lord Jesus. This is the real source of all the strife, divisions, misrepresentations, heart-burnings, and evil surmisings, which many Brethren still feel, and which has put so many weapons in the hands of their enemies. Mr. Newton and his followers might have been easily disposed of; but the complication of Bethesda was hopeless. And this act, apparently so regardless of the Christian feelings of others, was not the result of accident or of ignorance, but was done deliberately in spite of the remonstrances of godly Brethren among themselves, and of others at a distance, who warned them of the character and views of the persons in question.
Seeing things had taken such a decided form, a few faithful brethren on the spot, members of the Bethesda meeting, protested, and entreated that such doctrine should be examined and judged, and its teachers put out of communion. But, their remonstrances being unheeded, they were obliged, in order to avoid fellowship with what they knew to be evil, to withdraw from the communion at Bethesda. This they did; one of them printing, for private circulation, a letter to the leading Brethren, explanatory of his reasons for seceding. This.brought forth a paper, signed by ten chief persons at Bethesda, vindicating their conduct in receiving Mr. Newton's followers, and in rejecting all the warning and remonstrances which had been addressed to them.
As the question of fellowship was first raised at Bristol, and from thence extended to almost every place on the face of the earth where there happens to be an assembly of Brethren, it may be well to look for a moment at the antecedents of this meeting. It was simply what is known as a Baptist congregation, presided over by Mr. Miler and Mr. Craik, and meeting for worship in a chapel called "Bethesda" in Bristol. Some years previous to this testing time, this entire congregation was received into fellowship with Brethren-received as a body. " The whole assembly," says Mr. Mackintosh, "professedly and ostensibly, took the ground occupied by Brethren. I do not mention names or descend into minute details; I merely give the great leading fact, because it illustrates a most important principle.
" It has been my conviction for many years, that this reception of a congregation was a fatal mistake on the part of Brethren. Even admitting, as I most heartily do, that all the members and ministers may have been most excellent people taken individually; yet I am persuaded that it is a mistake in any case to receive a whole body as such. There is no such thing as a corporate conscience. Conscience is an individual thing; and unless we act individually before God, there will be no stability in our course. A whole body of people, led by their teachers, may profess to take certain ground; and. to adopt certain principles; but what security is there that each member of that body is acting in the energy of personal faith, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and on the authority of the word of God? It is of the very last importance, that, in every step we take, we should act in simple faith, in communion with God, and with an exercised conscience....
" The fact is, Bethesda ought never to have been acknowledged as an assembly gathered on divine ground; and this is proved by the fact that, when called to act on the truth of the unity of the body, it completely broke down. "