Amongst the many meetings which sprang up all over the country in these early days, the one at Plymouth became the most prominent. “About the year 1831,” says Mr. Darby in a letter to a friend, “I went to Oxford where many doors were open, and where I found Mr. Wigram and Mr. Jarratt. Subsequently in calling on Mr. F. Newman I met Mr. Newton, who asked me to go down to Plymouth, which I did. On arriving I found in the house Captain Hall, who was already preaching in the villages. We had reading meetings, and ere long began to break bread. Though Mr. Wigram began the work in London, he was a great deal at Plymouth.”
Their first meeting place was called “Providence Chapel,” and as they refused to give themselves any name, they were called in the town “Providence People.” When the brothers began to preach the gospel in the open air and in the villages around, no small curiosity was awakened to know who they were; there was something new in their preaching and in their way of going to work. But as they belonged to none of the denominations, they were spoken of as “Brethren from Plymouth.” This naturally resulted in the designation, “The Plymouth Brethren,” which has been applied to them―sometimes in derision―ever since. “One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren;” here we have the title the Lord Himself gives His disciples. (Matt. 23:8). As the numbers increased, the little chapel was bought and considerably enlarged.
A strong opposition was soon manifested against the new movement, especially on the part of the clergy and ministers of all denominations. Nor need we wonder: the ground these Christians occupied was felt to be a standing testimony against their whole state and practice, and many were stirred up to say hard and untrue things against them, with the view of neutralizing the blessed work which God was doing by their means. But these efforts of the enemy―as they usually are were―over-ruled to increase the general interest in the new preachers, and to attract numbers to their various meetings. The blessing of God evidently rested on their labors at that time; many were led to separate from the various denominations of the day, and gather round the new center, the Name of the Lord Jesus; though on the part of some, it may have been with very little intelligence, or exercise of conscience, compared with those who originally took that ground. But they were dissatisfied with what they had been going on with and longed for something better.
There was great freshness, simplicity, devotedness, love and union, among the Brethren; and such features of spirituality have always a great attraction for certain minds; and many, of course, who united with them had very undefined thoughts as to the nature of the step they were taking. But all was new: Christ was owned as their only center, and the Holy Spirit as their only teacher. Thus they gave themselves to the study of the Word of God, and experienced the sweetness of Christian communion, and found the Bible―as they said―to be a new book. It was, no doubt, in those days, a most distinct and blessed work of God’s Spirit, the influence of which was felt not only throughout this country, but on the continent, and in distant lands.
The Effect of Separation From the World
It was no uncommon thing at this time to find valuable jewelry in the collection boxes, which was soon turned into money, and given to the deacons for the poor. But this quiet way of disposing of a little finery did not satisfy the devoted spirits at Plymouth. They parted with all that was considered worldly in dress, books, and furniture. These free-will offerings were collected, and when the stripping time seemed nearly at an end, the accumulation was so great that it was necessary to sell them by auction.
Many will now be disposed to inquire, What were the motives that led the young community―scarcely nine years old―to make such a surrender of their worldly goods? As some, then in communion, were still alive when this book was written, the author made every possible inquiry as to the origin and object of this remarkable instance of devotedness. The following quotation is from the last letter received, and given on the testimony of more than one witness. “Respecting the quantity of goods, jewels, books, furniture, &c., given up and sold during early days at Plymouth, there was no call of any particular kind, no special need for which it was done. It was done quite simply and freely, as desiring to express their then indifference to the world, their separateness to the Lord, and their waiting for His coming from heaven.”
It would be no lack of charity, notwithstanding this testimony, to believe that some who had thus stripped themselves, may have merely followed others, or acted under the general feeling, and afterward regretted what they had done: but from all we can learn, the general movement seems to have been the holy action of the Spirit rather than the excitement or sympathies of nature. Although we have no wish to make more of this instance of indifference to the world than Christian prudence would suggest, yet we would desire to speak of it as an illustration of the power of the Spirit when the heart is separated to Christ and waiting for His coming from heaven. There are no doubt numbers of individual cases of a similar character constantly occurring, only with less formality and publicity. It was the simultaneous movement of the whole meeting, and in the most open and positive way, that makes the Plymouth case remarkable.
The Spirit of Clericalism
It is painful, deeply painful, to reflect on a scene of such wonderful freshness, simplicity, and genuine devotedness, being blighted and desolated by the subtle wiles of Satan, through a false but influential teacher. The Spirit of God had wrought mightily at Plymouth, and produced the most marvelous fruits of His gracious operations; but the archenemy had his evil eye on those who were bearing such a bright testimony to the truth and church of God, and found, within their own gates, a ready instrument to do his ruinous work. “It now appears,” says one who passed through the sifting, searching period from 1845-8, “that almost from the very first there were elements of evil introduced by the enemy, very slowly and gradually manifesting themselves for a time, but in the end assuming a distinctness and working with an energy which left no room for doubt as to whence they came and to what they tended.”
As it was in the beginning, when the kingdom of heaven was preached, men slept and the enemy sowed tares where the good seed had been sown; so it was at Plymouth. In the very midst of the Brethren themselves, and by one of their principal leaders, the enemy was early and steadily at work. Mr. Newton, a man of grave manners and of considerable influence over a certain class, and one of the earliest laborers at Plymouth, was observed by some, almost from the outset, to isolate himself from the other Brethren. “He held reading meetings, and would not allow the laboring brethren to be present, saying it was bad for the taught to hear the authority of the teachers called in question, as it shook confidence in them.” This was the beginning, the creeping in of clericalism, which gradually grew up into a definite system. But no one at that time seems to have suspected any serious evil springing from it, and for years no voice was raised to arrest its progress. “I sorrowed over this unhappy trait of isolation,” says Mr. Darby, “and love of acting alone, and having his followers for himself; but I had no suspicion whatever of any purpose of any kind, bore with it as a failing of which we all had some, and left perfect individual liberty complete and entirely un-trenched on. I should not have so acted without my brethren. I should have rejoiced to have my views corrected by them when I needed it, and learn theirs; but there it was, and there for my part I left it. At the Clifton meeting Mr. Newton, speaking of ministry and the points connected with it, told me that his principles were changed. I replied that mine were not, that I felt I had received them from the Lord’s teaching, and with His grace I should hold them fast unto the end.
“As to the teaching I heard in Ebrington Street from Mr. Newton, the one undeviating object seemed to be to teach differently from what other Brethren had taught, no matter what, so that it set their teaching aside. This was so marked in many cases as to draw the attention of others besides myself.”
Those who have carefully marked the origin and early days of Brethren, will have no difficulty in seeing the craft of Satan in the system thus introduced by Mr. Newton. “That which characterized their testimony at the outset was the coming of the Lord as the present hope of the church, and the presence of the Holy Ghost as that which brought into unity, and animated and directed the children of God; and they avowed their dependence upon it. The distinct condition of the saints of the present dispensation, as having the Spirit abiding with them, and risen with Christ, marked their teaching, while the great truths of the gospel were held in common with other true Christians, only with the clearer light which God Himself directly, and these other truths, afforded. The distinct heavenly character of the church was much insisted on.”
The Character of Mr. Newton’s System
We now return to the details of Mr. Newton’s system and here we prefer to quote from the writings of one, who, previously to the mischief coming before the public, knew something of its secret workings behind the scenes. In the following paragraph the writer, Mr. William Trotter, probably refers to the appearance of things from about the year 1841 to 1845, when the numbers in communion had reached to nearly a thousand, including Davenport and Stonehouse.
“Such was the course pursued by Mr. Newton, that it issued in all the other Brethren who had labored there leaving Plymouth to work elsewhere. Mr. Darby went abroad, Captain Hall to Hereford, Mr. Wigram to London, and Mr. Newton was left almost alone at Plymouth. A beloved brother, Mr. Harris, who was not identified with the movement at first, became associated in labor with Mr. Newton, and those identified with him. His presence for several years was the only hope that Brethren elsewhere had of any check being put to Mr. Newton’s course. However, at a very early period of the present trouble he withdrew from association with Mr. Newton. The system thus introduced, and most speciously disguised for a time, was directed to the undermining of all the truth by which God had acted on the souls of Brethren, and to the setting up afresh in other form all that had been renounced.
“The coming of the Lord as an object of present hope or expectation was denied, and there was substituted for it the expectation of a train of events, many of them nowhere foretold in scripture, and only existing in Mr. Newton’s imagination. The real unity of the church as one body indwelt and governed by the Holy Ghost was denied; and instead of it the doctrine was asserted of a kind of independent churches―so independent indeed, that when division took place at Plymouth, and godly, experienced brethren from Exeter, London, and elsewhere went down to aid by their prayers and counsel, Mr. Newton and his party peremptorily rejected them; and on the ground that they were not of Plymouth, and had no right to interfere. For the present and sovereign rule of the Holy Ghost in the church was substituted the authority of teachers, and the authority claimed for them and by them was so absolute, that when Mr. Newton was charged with untruthfulness, and it was sought by one and another that the charge should be investigated before the whole body of the brethren, this was steadily refused on the ground that he could not be tried, but by those who with him were the teachers and rulers there, and as they acquitted him, there was no further appeal and no remedy.
“Besides this there was the steady systematic absorbing of all ministry in the Word, or even participation audibly in public worship into the hands of one or two, with the effectual exclusion by one means or another of all others. There was also the zealous unwearied endeavor to form a party distinguished by Mr. Newton’s views of prophecy and church order, to which the appellation, ‘the truth,’ was arrogated, and means were found to keep away from Plymouth any brethren whose views were known to be adverse to these. Such were the leading features of the system which silently grew up at Plymouth, and I was quite aware of its existence and of the concern felt by many brethren respecting it from the time that I became acquainted with the Brethren between six and seven years ago.”
The first question which seems to have been raised at Plymouth as to Mr. Newton’s teaching, was on the ground of its sectarian tendency. Nothing more serious was of first charged against him. Several of the leading brethren waited upon him at different times, and remonstrated, but he answered them with the greatest violence, and “declared that we were destroying the fundamentals of Christianity; that he was justified in what he was doing against us, and should continue.”
Some time after this, Mr. Newton agreed to meet a few of the brethren to inquire whether secretarianism had been introduced into the meeting. There may have been about eighteen in all. Mr. Darby, who had been urged to return to Plymouth, was present. He was asked to state what he objected to at Ebrington Street. He replied, that, “As to an inquiry into sectarianism, any could inquire as well as he; that he would not enter on the prophetic question as a doctrinal thing; that was a moral question with him; what he objected to on the present occasion was sectarianism.”
“Mr. Newton broke out in great anger, saying, that he waived all formal objections, that he did seek to make a focus of Plymouth, and that his object was to have union in testimony there against the other brethren, and that he trusted to have at least Devonshire and Somersetshire under his influence for this purpose; and that it was not the first time Mr. Darby had thwarted and spoiled his plans.” After this declaration of Mr. Newton’s from his own lips, there was no further need to inquire into his sectarianism. Several of the brothers present so expressed themselves; and Mr. Darby called upon them all to say, “If this was what Plymouth was to be; as, if it was, I should not go next Sunday.”
The Division at Plymouth
Mr. Darby having labored for several months within the meeting at Plymouth, “and using what means he could to awaken the consciences of Brethren, was obliged to withdraw from the assembly.” Mr. Newton and his friends, in attempting to meet the charges which were brought against them, acted in so unscriptural and so untruthful a manner, as to decide many of their former friends to separate from them. About a hundred or more withdrew from communion at Ebrington Street, and began to break bread first in a private house, afterward in Raleigh Street; and thus the division was completed at Plymouth.
Brethren from all parts of the country, on hearing of these events, flocked to Plymouth; many of them were friendly to Mr. Newton and nearly all of them thought that Mr. Darby had acted rashly and prematurely. But they had not been inside the scene, and so knew but little of the real state of things there. When a meeting was spoken of for investigating the charges, Mr. Newton strongly objected to any interference on the part of Brethren from a distance, and would only consent to an investigation on the principle of arbitration, he appointing four of his friends and Mr. Darby appointing four of his. Mr. Darby objected entirely to the worldly principle of arbitration: this, he felt, would be taking the case out of the hands of God and His church, as well as making himself the head of a party. He offered at the same time to meet Mr. Newton before the whole assembly, or, if it was preferred, before a number of the most grave and experienced brothers. To none of these would Mr. Newton consent, and to no other tribunal would he allow the case to be referred, save to the arbitration proposed. Many of the brethren who had gone down to Plymouth, with the godly intention of trying to heal the breach, finding things so much worse than they had any conception of, separated from Mr. Newton and his party, and the division extended to other parts of the country.
Meetings were held in London and other central places for common humiliation and prayer. Many pamphlets were published on both sides; many fondly cherished friendships were broken up; much sorrow and trial were endured both by individuals and families for more than two years, when this mournful history assumed a new and still graver aspect. Not merely was the ecclesiastical fabric assailed, but the very foundations of Christianity by false doctrines concerning the blessed Lord Himself.