During the second decade of this century God raised in England some eminently gifted witnesses of the truth. One of them, endowed with gifts of an exceptional measure, was used of the Lord to bring to light again the truth of the gospel in such fullness, as had never been known since the days of the apostles. But not only was the gospel in its original purity and completeness recovered by that highly honored witness of the truth, but the pure light of the scriptural doctrine of the church (which in the course of centuries of decline had almost disappeared beneath the heaps of rubbish of human religious ordinances and dogmas) was put again on the stand in England in a clearness and scriptural simplicity, unknown in the history of the church since the days of Pentecost.
What characterized that movement was especially the practical acknowledgment of the presence, authority, and guidance of the Holy Ghost in the assemblies of believers. But that acknowledgment was closely united with the practical recognition of the written word of God and its authority, unlike many religious revivals, so called, where Satan endeavored to conceal the assumptions of the religious flesh set in motion by him, and to set aside, under the pretense of guidance by the Holy Spirit, the authority of the word of God indited by the same Spirit. The believers, referred to above, acted upon the thoroughly sound principle:—"Neither the Spirit without the word, nor the word without the Spirit.”
The Spirit of God, who glorifies Christ, receives of His and shows it to us, dwelling in His own recognized authority in the assemblies of those Christians; His powerful and blessed activity was unimpeded in their midst. It almost seemed as if the glorious days of Pentecost were about to reappear amongst them, to judge from the freshness, simplicity, devotedness, love and unity that characterized them.
“The effect of the truth on the hearts and conscience,” said A. Miller in his excellent “Short Papers on Church History,” “soon was manifest. There was great freshness, simplicity, devotedness, and separation from the world. All was new. They flocked together and gave themselves to the study of the word of God, and soon experienced the sweetness of Christian communion. They found the Bible,—as they said,—to be a new hook. It was no doubt, in those days of virgin freshness 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.”
“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.”
The eminent servant of Christ referred to already, who was God's instrument in the marvelous movement, wrote in those days at the request of a French religious journalist: “We were only four men, who came together for the breaking of bread and prayer, on the authority of the word, Where two or three are gathered unto my Name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20); and not, I hope, in a spirit of pride or presumption, but deeply humbled at the state of things around us; and praying for all Christians, members of the body of Christ, wherever they were ecclesiastically. We thought of nothing else but satisfying the need of the soul according to the word of God; nor did we think of it going any farther. We proved the promised presence of the Lord; and others, feeling the same need, followed in the same path, and the work spread in a way we never thought of in the least.”
“It is very apparent,” says Mr. A. Miller, “from this extract, that they had no thought of constructing a fresh system, or of reconstituting the church of God, as God had constituted it at first,—of restoring it to its Pentecostal glory. They seem to have had no statute, no system, no organization. They held the faith of all orthodox Christians with regard to foundation truths; but having received light from God's word as to what the calling, position and hopes of the church are, they could no longer remain in what man and the world called “the church.” These thoughts and searchings of heart issued in the secession of many individuals from the various bodies of professing Christians, and in their coming together for worship and communion on the ground of the “one body,” as formed and directed by the “One Spirit.”
The secret of this Christian devotedness was their devotion to the Person of Christ in the power of an ungrieved Spirit practically acknowledged as dwelling among them. “They made,” as Marsden says in his “Dictionary of Christian Churches,” “no show of an especial creed. They simply proposed the practice of Christian truth, as taught by our Lord and His apostles in the New Testament. They taught that it is the presence of the Holy Spirit which forms the church. It is the acknowledgment of the Holy Spirit as the really present, sole, and all-sufficient guide of the church during the Lord's absence.” This was a chief feature in the testimony of these Christians.
But the enemy of the truth did not rest. He who in Israel tried everything to counteract the divine testimony of the prophets of Jehovah by means of false prophets, and later on in the earliest days of the church, even during the lifetime of the apostles by false teachers, introduced such also amongst the happy Christians referred to above. Those tools of the enemy sought to paralyze, obscure, and, if possible, put aside those divine truths brought to light again by the above mentioned faithful servant of Christ and his fellow-laborers. Their efforts were, in an especial though indirect way, brought into play against the scriptural truth of the presence, guidance and authority of the Holy Spirit in the church of God, which these “evil workers” sought practically to set aside, supplanting it by the human demands of teachers of their own, and claiming for them absolute authority. Soon evil doctrines, derogatory to the honor of Christ, made their appearance; whence arose the necessity of godly separation from all those who tolerated and adhered to these false teachers and their doctrines according to the solemn words of the inspired apostle of the church: “There must be divisions among you, in order that those who are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Cor. 11:19). The faithful servant of Christ, alluded to above, was again honored at that time by his heavenly Master with being the champion of the truth and chief promoter of this godly separation, however humbling for all.
“Then had the churches rest” —for many years. But the adversary, who never sleeps, did not rest. He resorted to one of his old stratagems, by introducing the demon of religious party spirit, as he did of yore in that so richly endowed but elated church at Corinth, with no less contending parties and consequent moral and doctrinal evils. A second division was the fruit of those machinations of the evil one. “They have sown the wind and they have reaped the whirlwind;” whilst a small remnant, kept by the mercy of our God from being carried away by those party currents and undercurrents, still remains in undisturbed peace on the terra firma of God's own word. May grace deepen the sense of our common shame and humiliation and of the sad havoc amongst that once so happy portion of the flock of God, and of the irretrievable damage to the testimony of divine truth! May the Lord in His mercy grant “repentance not to be repented of,” ere that solemn day appears!
J. C. B