FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES
OF friends, in the usual sense of the term, John Nelson Darby had few. His ardent devotion to our LORD, and firm renunciation of much that most men crave after, very effectively hedged his pathway of service from deflection through lesser loyalties. He was a lonely man in many respects, and at times felt conscious of this though never regretting what led to it. As an old man of seventy-nine he gave expression to this in writing Echo of Songs in the Night:
" O! dwell with me; let no distracting thought
Intrude to hide from me that heavenly light:
Be Thou my strength! Let not what Thou hast brought
Be chased by idle nature's poor delight."
And when Darby said: " CHRIST has been the only object of my life. It has been CHRIST to me to live," his character, conduct and conversation certified it as not a mere platitude but simple truth.
When traveling in Italy on one occasion, being then an old man, he reached a very uncomfortable inn where he was to stay for the night. Weary and worn, he leaned his head on his hands, and was heard to say softly: " Jesus, I my cross have taken, All to leave and follow Thee."
Yet he found friends without seeking them, people who were attracted by his decision of character and indifference to worldly advantages of birth, fortune and position. One of them was the Rev. J. C. Philpot, M.A., an Anglican clergyman, one time Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, who was himself a remarkable man and one who had a somewhat adventurous ecclesiastical career. He met Darby when the latter was staying at his brother-in-law's house in Ireland, Philpot being at the time resident tutor there. He was deeply interested in Darby's spiritual exercise when passing through what mystics term " the dark night " of the soul, to which reference has been made in an earlier chapter.
This kind of distress Philpot, who had become a Hyper-Calvinist, could appreciate; but quite failed to understand Darby's subsequent joyous sense of complete deliverance, peace with GOD, and assurance of eternal salvation. In 1849 Mr. Philpot became sole editor of the magazine of the Gadsby branch of the Hyper-Calvinistic school of Strict Baptists, The Gospel Standard. It was to this paper he contributed his impression of his old friend. " Darby," he wrote, " was generous to the wasting of his substance, and possessed of more than martyr courage." Their paths had, however, long widely diverged, Darby having forsaken Anglicanism for a simpler Scriptural path of worship, fellowship and service, of which more anon; while Philpot having discarded Infant Baptism as unscriptural (or at most inferential so far as Scripture teaches), had become Pastor of a Strict Baptist Chapel, where for many years he exercised a great ministry.
During his visits to Oxford in 1830/I, Mr. Darby made contact with two men who were destined to play an important part in his future career. One of these, a Fellow of Exeter College, was Mr. B. W. Newton, a man already recognized as one of learning, piety and ability. The other was Mr. G. V. Wigram of Queen's College. The former was to become many years later Darby's chief opponent ecclesiastically, the latter to become a most intimate friend and collaborator for nearly fifty years.
Mr. Newton is described as a man of grave, sober manners, tall and dignified in bearing, polished and scholarly who unconsciously (at least at first) wielded considerable influence over a certain class, especially over people of leisure. The learned textual critic Dr. Tregelles was very greatly drawn to him and warmly supported his views on certain subjects of speculative theology upon which Newton later embarked.
Mr. Newton was one of the earlier laborers at Providence Chapel, Plymouth, and his ability, piety, learning and energy largely contributed to the gathering of a congregation in 1840 of 800 persons, which in the next five years reached a total of over 1,200, all of whom were " in fellowship," " communicants," or as the usual phrase was, were " breaking bread " there.
Almost from the first however he was observed to court isolation, and to hold aloof from other ministering brethren. He would hold Bible readings, to which he would not allow other laboring brethren to be present, saying that, " it was bad for the taught to hear the authority of the teacher called in question."
It soon became evident that he and Darby were hopelessly at variance, both on prophetic teaching and in regard to the nature, calling and order of the Church of GOD. His views on Christian ministry completely changed, and after his entire separation from those commonly known as " Brethren," Newton became the Pastor of an independent congregation in London holding his particular views of prophecy and church order. He lived to be ninety-three years of age, and it is said as years passed had a " patriarchal bearing with the calm of heaven on his brow, and the law of kindness on his lips."
Till the great rupture took place an American writer says: " He remained at Plymouth with the avowed intention of making that place (Providence Chapel) a center and model for other assemblies, and by printing press and public meetings he sought to oppose what many believed to be the special work of the HOLY SPIRIT in recovering precious truth long lost through the Church's declension and partial apostasy."
But let Darby speak here: " I sorrowed over this unhappy trait of isolation, and love of acting alone, and having followers for himself. I had no suspicion of any purpose of any kind, and bore with it as a failing, of which we all had some. I should not so have 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 I left it.... Mr. Newton, speaking of ministry and 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 should hold them fast to the end."
At a later date he advanced a peculiar heterodoxy which seemed the fruit of his prophetic speculation in making CHRIST have the experience of an unconverted Israelite, in order to sympathize with a future Jewish remnant in that state.
It is singular that it was in resisting the error of Edward Irving, Newton himself fell into a modified and subtle Irvingism.
The other man to whom reference has been made at Darby's visits to Oxford in the early thirties, Mr. G. V. Wigram of Queen's College, became as we have noticed a life-long friend of his. Though never great as a writer or a speaker, in both of which his friend Darby excelled, Wigram was characterized by a singular spirituality and devotedness of life; by decision where CHRIST was concerned and love for His flock. These qualities together with his moral power gave him justly a very high place in the esteem of J. N. Darby, and indeed of many others who knew him. His chief published works were The Englishman's Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance to the Old Testament, and a cognate one to the Greek New Testament. He was a wealthy man, and expended fifty thousand pounds upon the production of these volumes which took ten years to be completed by a band of the ripest scholars in the United Kingdom. Yet so truly humble-minded was he that this great sum of money expended by him was referred to by him as only money passing through his hand, reckoning himself simply GOD'S steward in the matter. Another rather unusual work of his was The Present Testimony, a learned periodical edited by him, in which critical papers on the Divine Names in the Psalms appeared and their appropriate designations. These Papers and Letters were afterward published in three volumes. In later life he traveled to the West Indies and New Zealand where his kindly gracious pastoral work was greatly valued. The friendship formed with Darby nearly fifty years earlier was only interrupted when his home call came in 1879.
An even earlier friend of Darby's was Mr. J. G. Bellett who made the acquaintance of Darby at Trinity College, Dublin. They were both strong classical scholars and both intended to become lawyers and indeed were called to the Bar in Dublin where Bellett practiced for a short time. In spiritual things, while Darby as we have seen eventually took Holy Orders, Bellett devoted his leisure to Christian work as a layman. Their close friendship remained for forty years, and in his last letter Mr. Bellett writes to Darby: " I may never see you again my dearest brother; but I must tell you, as from a dying bed, how deeply from my heart's soul, I bless the LORD that He ever revealed to me the truth. I came to know you, not as slightly before, but in an apprehension that instinctively bound me to you; and this, now for forty years, has never abated.... I have loved you as I suppose in a certain sense I have loved none other; and now, after so long a time, we are found together in the dear fellowship of the same confession. The LORD be with you, dearest brother, while you assert and adorn the doctrine."
One who was even earlier than John Nelson Darby in learning Christian liberty, ecclesiastical and ministerial, but only in the germ and much simplicity, was Edward Cronin (afterward the last Canterbury M.D.). By birth a Roman Catholic, he early came under the rough and ready discipline of his Bishop. It was in Cork that this Roman shepherd finding Cronin reading a Protestant copy of the Scriptures actually knocked him down on the spot, and thus served to open the door for escape. He proceeded to Dublin as a medical student, and here learned from his study of the Bible that Christendom was very anomalous, and very sturdily refused to join himself to any sect. He was allowed to take the Communion in the LORD'S Name by the Independents for a while, but later was excluded because he declined to become " a member " of their Church like the rest. GOD gave him soon afterward to take the simple Christian stand. His memory is revered by many to this day. After a long life of devotion and fidelity to the LORD and His people, he passed away in 1882 to be with Him Whom he had devotedly loved and served. His end was more than peace, for constantly upon his lips was the Name of the LORD, and almost his latest utterance was the well-known verse: " Glory; honor, praise and power Be unto the LAMB forever!
JESUS CHRIST is my Redeemer!
Hallelujah! Praise ye the LORD."
Another with whom John Nelson Darby came for a while into association was Mr. George Muller of Bristol. At one time we find Mr. Muller writing of " two Swiss brethren who have learned the way of truth more perfectly through our brother John Darby "; and during the winter of 1843-44 there occurs in his correspondence the following: " There is one brother among us, who through dear John Darby learned the way of GOD more perfectly in Switzerland "; showing thereby the fellowship in and appreciation of Mr. Darby's labors felt by Mr. Muller at that period. Would that it might have so continued. But alas! history repeats itself in the ecclesiastical sphere as surely as in the secular; hence, before many months passed we find, if we may be allowed so to say, Paul again withstanding Peter because he was to be blamed. In apostolic times it was pretty evident who was at fault, and if CHRIST Himself and His honor had been equally paramount in His servants' lives, this sad spectacle would not have been exhibited either at Antioch in the first, or Bristol in the nineteenth century.
Mr. Darby last saw Mr. Muller in July 1849, and they never met again on earth.
It has been well remarked that both were men of GOD in their respective spheres. For to charge Mr. Darby with selfish ambition and the spirit of Diotrephes is as sinful and absurd as to question Mr. Miller’s love for CHRIST and desire to glorify GOD. What in the retrospect clearly stands out is that Darby had CHRIST before him, and Muller, Christians. Also it is well to remember that " the best of men are only men at the best," and national characteristics complicate matters often. Darby was an Irishman, and Muller a Prussian, and both typically so. Their differences were as sad as those that separated John Wesley and George Whitefield a century earlier, but were fraught with even more disastrous consequences the repercussions of which are still felt on the Continent, and all over the English-speaking world.
The greatest of Darby's friends in every way was the late Mr. William Kelly of Blackheath, London. They first made acquaintance in Plymouth in a bookseller's shop in Whimple Street, and though Kelly was twenty years the junior his reputation as a thoroughgoing Christian brother and writer had already been remarked by Darby. So, as Kelly himself when referring to their meeting says, " very frank and cordial was his (Darby's) greeting." They were singularly like-minded, truly taught of GOD in the same school. They had their differences, but not in doctrine, or fundamentals, for everything that was best in John Nelson Darby's teaching and practice found its ablest exponent and advocate in William Kelly.
Spurgeon in Lectures on Commenting and Commentaries (of the College Series) referred to him as " an eminent Divine of the Brethren School "; is " sorry to see such a mind as Mr. Kelly's so narrowed to party bounds "; feels it" a pity that a man of such excellence should allow a very superior mind to be so warped "; and finally, says, " Kelly, a man for the universe, has narrowed his mind by Darbyism."
As hinted above, Mr. Kelly did not, however, blindly follow his eminent friend, or approve all his ecclesiastical actions, yet some of Darby's last words on his death bed, taken down by those who did not approve of Kelly's refusal to acquiesce blindly in an ecclesiastical decision, were: " I should particularly object to any attack being made on William Kelly." As to Kelly himself, who survived his friend by a quarter of a century, his constant advice to inquiring Christians was, " Read Darby! " so highly did he value his writings. Which of the two was the greater it is not possible to say, for both were spiritual giants, good soldiers of JESUS CHRIST each of whom might have truly said, what neither did say, and yet some even do venture to say: " My all is on the altar."
They lived lives of sacrificial service, surrendering all for the sake of Him Whose bondmen they were proud to be. We have already noted the renunciations made by Darby in early days, and may close this chapter by relating how his dearest friend Kelly, having taken highest classical honors at the University, when approached by one with an offer of a post in which he " would make his name in the world," turned it down with the characteristic inquiry, " which world? "
" O GOD to us may grace be given,
To follow in their train."