THE BRETHREN

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William Kelly

William Kelly (1821-1906) was born into an Episcopalian family from Ulster, Northern Ireland. As a young boy he was left fatherless. This misfortune did not rob him of his buoyant sense of humor, but did spur him to diligence in all areas of life. A hard worker and a vigorous student, he graduated at the top of his class from Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied classics.


At age 20, on the isle of Sark, he was shaken out of a religious slumber by reading Revelation 20:11-12 , "And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God..." Years later, Kelly commented on the verses that God used to give him assurance of salvation. "'For three are those that bear witness, the Spirit, and the water and the blood, and the three agree in one'--three witnesses, but for one united testimony. 'If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.' May I recall the divine relief and deliverance these words gave more than sixty years ago to a soul converted but harassed and deeply exercised through a sense of sin which clouded his soul's rest on Jesus?...It is not my seeing as I ought the efficacy of the blood, but resting by faith on God's seeing it, and God's valuing it as it deserves."


Soon after conversion, Kelly left the established church and threw in his lot with a small fellowship of believers. For the next thirty years, he lived in and near Guernsey, and for the last half of his pilgrimage he lived at Blackheath. Kelly's first wife was a Miss Montgomery of Guernsey. His second wife was the daughter of a clergyman named Mr. Gipps of Hereford. She was a clever linguist with a scholarly bent, giving able assistance in her husband's work.


To measure the caliber of Kelly's learning, consider the massive contributions he made in written and spoken Bible teaching. His expertise was so expansive that when men listened to his lectures, they became convinced that he had actually read all of the 15,000 books in his library! At least he seemed to know what they were about. The titles of Kelly's own writings fill nearly ten pages in the British Museum catalog.


He aided Samuel P. Tregelles in his textual work. For two years he edited a magazine called The Prospect, and then, in 1856, Kelly became the editor of The Bible Treasury which he edited for fifty years. His work with The Bible Treasury brought him into correspondence with keen thinkers across the English speaking world, many of which dreaded what they branded "Plymouthism," or "Darbyism." But despite their prejudices, they admitted that if they wanted to read something which was free of the destructive "higher criticism" which attacked the inspiration of the Bible, and if they wanted ministry that dealt with the serious issues of the Word in a reverential way, The Bible Treasury was what they read. Kelly wrote commentaries on most of the books of the Bible. David Beattie says of Kelly, "His writings, largely in the form of expositions of Scripture, are especially helpful as being at once profound and simple." Some of Kelly's readers will contest the word "simple." Reading him does require some powers of concentration.


The Swiss medical doctor, Henri L. Rossier (1835-1928), was Darby's collaborator across the channel who prepared Darby's Etudes Sur La Parole, which Kelly in turn translated into English as Darby's Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, a work every Bible student ought to have close by. Besides this, Kelly labored for years collecting, editing, and at times translating Darby's Collected Writings, in thirty-four volumes, most of which had appeared in The Bible Treasury.


Kelly saw a grandeur in Darby's works, but was also honest enough to admit that Darby could be unintelligible. Those who have been helped by reading Darby can thank God that there was ever a man named William Kelly to decipher the code. Right to the end of his long life, Kelly would exhort young Bible students to "read Darby!" He had; and it had done him good. Darby once teased Kelly, "Kelly, you write to be read and understood. I only think on paper."


William Kelly varied from Darby on the topics of baptism and some issues of assembly government, but agreed with Darby on most things, so much so that some called him "Darby interpreted." It was Kelly who gave a final defense of Darby's character when an American author tried to link Darby's prophetic teaching with Edward Irving and the prophetess, Margaret Macdonald. In Kelly's excellent article, The Rapture of the Saints: Who Suggested It? (p. 314 of vol. N 4, The Bible Treasury). Kelly draws a comparison from Acts 16 , saying that the notion of John Darby deriving his views of future events from Margaret Macdonald's ecstatic utterance would be similar to saying Paul received his teaching of salvation from the slave girl who had a spirit of Python at Philippi. Did she not say, "These men are servants of the Most High God that announce to you the way of salvation"! If we follow the reasoning of contemporaries like Dave MacPherson, who have labored hard to resurrect this old slander, then Paul's doctrine of salvation might also be an "incredible cover-up."


The cultured linguist, textual critic, and expositor shunned the limelight. Often identifying the author of his articles as simply "W. K.," he hid behind Christ. When his nephew attended university, his Greek instructor was impressed by the young man's facility in the language. When told about his reclusive uncle, the professor made his pilgrimage to Kelly's home bearing an offer to join the faculty in Dublin. Besides the prestigious position, he would "make a fortune."


Unhesitatingly, Kelly replied, "For which world?"


C. H. Spurgeon said Kelly was a man "who, born for the universe, narrowed his mind" by Darbyism. It is hard seeing how such a large-hearted brother as Spurgeon could write such jarring things about men like Darby, C. H. MacIntosh and Kelly. Spurgeon reviewed thirteen of Kelly's books in his book, Commenting on the Commentaries so one has to wonder, if Kelly was so tainted, why did Spurgeon bother to read so many of his books? It is amusing to us today to read Spurgeon's remarks about Kelly's Lectures on the Minor Prophets. "Mr. Kelly finds in the Minor Prophets a great many things which we cannot see a trace of. For instance, he here discovers that we shall lose India. It is a pity that a man of such excellence should allow a very superior mind to be so warped." We can only suppose that Spurgeon thought it was not only warped, but also unpatriotic to tell an Englishman that Britain would lose India. Shocking indeed.


Unlike so many prophetic teachers, Kelly was a Bible student, not a news commentator. This fact enabled Kelly to make many statements about Israel and the nations which were unimaginable at the time of their writing, but have since been proven correct.


Besides exposition, Kelly was enough of an Irishman to engage in the controversial. He even answered the Pope's Encyclical with a forceful rebuttal. Thereafter, H. W. Pontis reported that a number of "interesting cases of converted priests, monks, and others of education and high place have come before him [Kelly] both at home and in France."


When running the marathon, a grueling race of more than twenty-six miles, experienced runners talk about "the wall." Somewhere after the twentieth mile it will hit them. They began to hurt miles ago, and yet they ran on in spite of the pain, through the pain, and beyond the pain. But then they came to "the wall." For instance, in the annual Boston Marathon, toward the end of the course, the runners take a turn and as they do they see an incline rising before them. It has been dubbed "heartbreak hill." Those who make it beyond to the finish line have said it was as though they were not the ones running anymore. They could not run. Their legs refused to cooperate. It was as though something or someone else took over.


How many of God's choice saints met "the wall" as they neared the finish line. And our brother William Kelly was not exempted. All his Christian career he had been a controversialist of the first order. Critiquing the work of the most brilliant scholars of that period. Kelly took on all comers. But would he expect to be attacked by the ones that should have been his closest allies? Yet, in 1881, while John Darby's health slipped away, some of Darby's loyalists took Kelly in hand.


Kelly foresaw this misery. He was increasingly alarmed by an attachment to external forms and practices among the assemblies that he and Darby labored with. A kind of uniformity was being insisted on that tolerated no diversity. Then a disciplinary action was taken at the Park Street assembly in London, and Kelly objected to the action. Explaining his position, Kelly wrote, "Surely our Lord has said, when the preliminaries are done in obedience, 'Hear the church;' but is this His voice when they were not? Has He not also called him that has an ear 'to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches'? To idolize assembly judgments as necessarily right is condemned by His Word" (from Why Many Saints Were Outside the Park Street of 1881).


When Darby realized that his own devotees had given Kelly an ultimatum, either to bow to the Park Street decision, or be excommunicated, he was mortified. Darby's last letter ended: "I do add, Let not John's ministry be forgotten in insisting on Paul's. One gives the dispensations in which the display is; the other that which is displayed. I should particularly object to any attack being made on William Kelly."


But that plea was not heeded. Kelly was excommunicated from the fellowship of so many assemblies which themselves owed a huge debt to him. He was not being shunned because of any serious doctrinal error or moral problem. Rather, he was put out because of ecclesiastical "independence." Perhaps the finest and most able Bible teacher then living heard a host of doors slamming shut against him.


Sorrow upon sorrow came when, in 1884, his beloved wife and collaborator was taken from him. But even then, as he attended her sickbed, he took time to write brother Heyman Wreford, to encourage him in his evangelistic work. Himself suffering from insomnia, Kelly did not allow himself the luxury of wallowing in discouragement. Others would have assumed that it was time to convalesce. But it was during these turbulent years that Kelly's most fruitful work was beginning. After doing and enduring so much, he was not ready to hang up his shield and sword. In the last fifteen years of his life, most of his written ministry streamed out.


With brother Wreford's help, an energetic work was in progress in Exeter. Wreford preached the gospel in Victoria Hall where throngs came to hear him. David Beattie, in Brethren: the Story of a Great Recovery, tells how in "those stirring times, it was not unusual to see an audience of one thousand people at the Sunday evening service. The work was abundantly owned of God, and it is no exaggeration to state that hundreds were led to the Saviour through his preaching."


For twenty-two years, Kelly gave annual series of lectures in the Queen Street Meeting Room and in the Victoria Hall. These lectures were taken down in shorthand and eventually went into The Bible Treasury and are now available in individual volumes.


The man with the small spectacles, an occasional shrug of the shoulders, and a steady smile that seemed engraved into the lines of his sunny face, stood at the door of the doctor's home in Exeter. His barbed witticisms and outgoing ways were still the same, but the spring was lacking from his step. Weary from sleeplessness, a drawn-looking man stepped into Dr. Wreford's home in 1906. Heyman Wreford would take care of brother Kelly till he died. In his last days, as two of his daughters attended his bedside, his conversation was an outpouring of worship and praise to God. It could be said that in his last days he prayed without ceasing. Looking up from his bed at Mrs. Wreford, he said, "The light of my heart is Christ."


Brother Wreford stepped up to the bed and said, "How do you feel, dear Mr. Kelly?"


"Weak enough to go to heaven," he replied.


One of his last expressions became the outline of one of the messages preached at his funeral. "There are three things real--the Cross, the enmity of the world, the love of God."


May God help us not to lose sight of these realities.


John Bjorlie


Material for this article has been taken from:


A Historical Sketch of the Brethren Movement by H. A. Ironside


A History of the Plymouth Brethren by William Blair Neatby


Brethren: the Story of a Great Recovery by David Beattie


Chief Men Among the Brethren by Hy. Pickering


The Autobiography of a Servant by A. C. Gaebelein


John Nelson Darby: A Biography by Max S. Weremchuk


Life and Last Days of William Kelly by Heyman Wreford


The History of the Brethren by Napoleon Noel



First Name

William

Last Name

Kelly


http://www.plymouthbrethren.org/user/332

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JOHN NELSON DARBY

Starting with this post, I am going to give a brief summary, mainly with extracts form different sources, of the life and work of JND.


There are comparatively few among the millions directly or indirectly influenced spiritually by the life and labours of John Nelson Darby who have any clear perception of this man whom Professor Francis Newman described in Phases of Faith as "a most remarkable man, who rapidly gained an immense sway over me."

John Nelson Darby by W. G. Turner
First published June 1944
Second Impression February 1951
C. A. Hammond, 11 Little Britain, London EC1.

http://www.stempublishing.com/author...r/WGT_JND.html



PHASES OF FAITH
- or -
PASSAGES FROM THE HISTORY OF MY CREED.
Francis William Newman, 1874

This was a young relative of his,—a most remarkable man,—who rapidly gained an immense sway over me. I shall henceforth call him "the Irish clergyman." His "bodily presence" was indeed "weak!" A fallen cheek, a bloodshot eye, crippled limbs resting on crutches, a seldom shaven beard, a shabby suit of clothes and a generally neglected person, drew at first pity, with wonder to see such a figure in a drawing-room. It was currently reported that a person in Limerick offered him a halfpenny, mistaking him for a beggar; and if not true, the story was yet well invented. This young man had taken high honours in Dublin University and had studied for the bar, where under the auspices of his eminent kinsman he had excellent prospects; but his conscience would not allow him to take a brief, lest he should be selling his talents to defeat justice. With keen logical powers, he had warm sympathies, solid judgment of character, thoughtful tenderness, and total self-abandonment. He before long took Holy Orders, and became an indefatigable curate in the mountains of Wicklow. Every evening he sallied forth to teach in the cabins, and roving far and wide over mountain and amid bogs, was seldom home before midnight. By such exertions his strength was undermined, and he so suffered in his limbs that not lameness only, but yet more serious results were feared. He did not fast on purpose, but his long walks through wild country and indigent people inflicted on him much severe deprivation: moreover, as he ate whatever food offered itself,—food unpalatable and often indigestible to him, his whole frame might have vied in emaciation with a monk of La Trappe.
Such a phenomenon intensely excited the poor Romanists, who looked on him as a genuine "saint" of the ancient breed. The stamp of heaven seemed to them clear in a frame so wasted by austerity, so superior to worldly pomp, and so partaking in all their indigence. That a dozen such men would have done more to convert all Ireland to Protestantism, than the whole apparatus of the Church Establishment, was ere long my conviction; though I was at first offended by his apparent affectation of a mean exterior. But I soon understood, that in no other way could he gain equal access to the lower and lowest orders, and that he was moved not by asceticism, nor by ostentation, but by a self-abandonment fruitful of consequences. He had practically given up all reading except that of the Bible; and no small part of his movement towards me soon took the form of dissuasion from all other voluntary study.
In fact, I had myself more and more concentrated my religious reading on this one book: still, I could not help feeling the value of a cultivated mind. Against this, my new eccentric friend, (himself having enjoyed no mean advantages of cultivation,) directed his keenest attacks. I remember once saying to him, in defence of worldly station,—"To desire to be rich is unchristian and absurd; but if I were the father of children, I should wish to be rich enough to secure them a good education." He replied: "If I had children, I would as soon see them break stones on the road, as do any thing else, if only I could secure to them the Gospel and the grace of God." I was unable to say Amen, but I admired his unflinching consistency;—for now, as always, all he said was based on texts aptly quoted and logically enforced. He more and more made me ashamed of Political Economy and Moral Philosophy, and all Science; all of which ought to be "counted dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord." For the first time in my life I saw a man earnestly turning into reality the principles which others confessed with their lips only. That the words of the New Testament contained the highest truth accessible to man,—truth not to be taken from nor added to,—all good men (as I thought) confessed: never before had I seen a man so resolved that no word of it should be a dead letter to him. I once said: "But do you really think that no part of the New Testament may have been temporary in its object? for instance, what should we have lost, if St. Paul had never written the verse, 'The cloak which I have left at Troas, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.'" He answered with the greatest promptitude: "I should certainly have lost something; for that is exactly the verse which alone saved me from selling my little library. No! every word, depend upon it, is from the Spirit, and is for eternal service."]


The Project Gutenberg EBook of Phases of Faith, by Francis William Newman
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Phases of Faith Passages from the History of My Creed
Author: Francis William Newman
Release Date: April 15, 2004 [EBook #12056]
Language: English
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/...56-images.html

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Part 1

John Nelson Darby as I knew him.
W. Kelly.

A friend of Mr. Darby's, who was for many years on intimate terms with him, has kindly forwarded the following interesting account of a most interesting career.
As you wish for some personal reminiscences of the late J.N.D., I go back to my first intercourse with him in the summer of 1845 at Plymouth. For though I had been for years in communion before this, it had not been my lot to see him for whom above all others I had conceived, because of his love and testimony to Christ, profound respect and warm affection. I was then living in the Channel Islands, in one of which I began to break bread with three sisters in Christ, before ever looking a "brother" in the face. It was in J. B. Rowe's shop, Whimple Street, that we met; and very cordial and frank was his greeting... But a little matter of a private kind will interest you and your readers, as it gave me (some twenty years or so his junior), a practical lesson. When dining with Mr. Darby, he by the way said, "I should like to tell you how I live. Today I have more than usual on your account. But it is my habit to have a small hot joint on Saturday, cold on Lord's day, cold on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday, and on Thursday. On Friday I am not sorry to have a bit of chop or steak; then the round begins again." I too, like Mr. Darby, had been ascetic as a young Christian, and had been reduced, by general indifference to outward life, so low that the physician prescribed as essential what had been discarded in self-denial. How uncommon to find a mind endowed with the rarest power of generalisation, able to come down like the apostle, and impress on a young disciple, eating, drinking, or whatever is done, to do all unto God's glory!...

I was unable to attend the Conference at Liverpool in the forties, but was present at that which was held in London in 1845. Only on the afternoon of the third day did J.N.D. rise to speak, and this, after a well-known friend had alluded to his silence in singular terms. Mr. Darby explained that he had not spoken because so many brothers had a great deal to say. It was a most impressive discourse; for after many, and not leaders only, had spoken with considerable power and unction, he gave a terse summary, which set their main points in the best position, and then brought in a flood of fresh light from Scripture on the whole theme. During the same Conference a noble personage, who resented Darby's exposure of a foolish and injurious tract by himself, gave way to vehement spleen. But J.N.D. answered not a word. ...

Mr. Darby was deliberate and prayerful in weighing a Scripture; but he wrote rapidly, as thoughts arose in his spirit, and often with scarcely a word changed. He delighted in a concatenated sentence, sometimes with parenthesis within parenthesis, to express the truth fully, and with guards against misconception. An early riser and indefatigable worker, he yet had not time to express his mind as briefly and clearly as he could wish. "You write to be read and understood," he once said playfully to me; "I only think on paper." This made his writings, to the uninitiated, anything but pleasant reading, and to a hasty glance almost unintelligible; so that many, even among highly educated believers, turned away, because of their inability to penetrate sentences so involved. No one could be more indifferent to literary fame; he judged it beneath Christ and therefore the Christian. He was but a miner, as he said; he left it to others to melt the ore, and circulate the coin, which many did in unsuspected quarters, sometimes men who had no good to say of him, if one may not think to conceal the source of what they borrowed. To himself Christ was the centre of all, and the continual object before him, even in controversy; nor is anything more striking, even in his hottest polemics, than his assertion of positive truth to edification. He was never content to expose an adversary, where not only his unfaltering logic, but instant and powerful grasp of the moral side, and above all of the bearing of Christ on the question, made him the most redoubtable of doctors. Yet the same man ever delighted in preaching the glad tidings to the poor, and only paid too much honour to those whom he considered evangelists more distinctively than himself. Indeed I remember one, who could scarcely be said to be more so than he was, happening (to his own discomposure) to preach in his presence at one of the Conferences in the past (Portsmouth); and for months after, this dear simple-minded servant of the Lord, kept telling brethren in private, and not there only, "Ah, I wish that I could appeal to the people as So-and-so does!"

STEM Publishing: William Kelly: John Nelson Darby as I knew him. http://www.stempublishing.com/author.../jnd_knew.html

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Part 2


John Nelson Darby as I knew him.
W. Kelly.


That he exercised large and deep influence could not but be; but he sought it not, and was plainspoken to his nearest friends...
It was my privilege, being actively engaged, to hear him very seldom, and this at great meetings in which he ordinarily took a large part; but I remember once hearing him preach (on Romans 5:20, 21) to a small company of the very poor; and to a more powerful and earnest discourse I never listened, though in the plainest terms, exactly suited to his audience...
Yet was he anything but self-confident. Being asked once to preach in the open air, he begged the younger man to take it; for said he, "I shrink from that line of work, being afraid of sticking in the midst, from not knowing what to say." ... Yet were some weak enough to call him a Pope who would have his way, and bore no contradiction...

No man more disliked cant, pretension, and every form of unreality. Thos. Carlyle loudly and bitterly talked his detestation of "shams," J.N.D. quietly lived it in doing the truth. He often took the liberty of an older Christian to speak frankly, among others to a brother whose love, as he thought, might bear it. But sometimes the wound however faithful only closed to break out another day. "What were you about, -, hiding among your family connections, and not once seeing the brethren around?" On the other hand reliable testimony is not wanting of his ready love in so lowly a way as to carry him where few would follow, especially where known. In early days, among the few at Plymouth a barber brother fell sick; and as no one else thought of his need, J.N.D. is said to have gone in his absence and served as well as he could in the little shop.
Thoughtful for others he was indifferent as to comforts for himself, though he did not mind buying costly books, if he believed them of value for his work. Then he was habitually a hard worker, from early morn devoted to his own reading the word and prayer; but even when most busily engaged, he as the rule reserved the afternoons for visiting the poor and the sick, his evenings for public prayer, fellowship, or ministry. Indeed whole days were frequently devoted to Scripture readings wherever he moved, at home or abroad. But his clothes were plain, and he wore them to shabbiness, though punctiliously clean in his person, which dressy people are not always. In Limerick once, kind friends took advantage of his sleep to replace the old with new, which he put on without a word, as the story went.
In middle life he trudged frequently on foot through a large part of France and Switzerland, sometimes refreshing himself on the way with acorns, at other times thankful to have an egg for his dinner, because, as he said, no unpleasant visitors for certain could get in there! In his own house, or lodging, all was simplicity and self-denial; yet if invited to dine or sup, he freely and thankfully partook of what was set before him. Still he had a vigilant eye for the Lord, particularly with younger fellow-labourers; and I remember that when with me on first setting up house, he deliberately looked at a table-spoon or fork before him. Happily I passed muster; and nothing was said: they were only plated! So he lived himself. Even in such things he hated for Christians the pride of life, and justly felt that one little licence opens the way for many greater.
His largeness of heart, for one of strong convictions and of practical consistency, showed itself in many ways...It was only fundamental error which roused his deepest grief and indignation. Then, as one of these (a heterodox teacher) said to me, J.N.D. writes with a pen in one hand and a thunderbolt in the other...
A great man naturally, and as diligent a student as if he were not highly original, he was a really good man, which is much better. So, for good reason, I believed before I saw him; so taking all in all I found him, in peace and in war; and so, in the face of passing circumstances, I am assured he was to the end. Do I go too far if I add, may we be his imitators, even as he also was of Christ?
W. K.


STEM Publishing: William Kelly: John Nelson Darby as I knew him. http://www.stempublishing.com/author.../jnd_knew.html

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WM. REID’S APPRECIATION


Let us hear a person who was very conversant with JND’s writings. There were
two clergymen named William Reid who wrote something regarding JND. One,
a United Presbyterian, wrote a hostile polemic against J. N. Darby 109 and the
other wrote a ‘eulogy’ called, "Literature and Mission of the So-called Plymouth
Brethren." 110 I will cite some of this paper.
Like Owen, you will find him [JND] involved, discursive, and rather hard to read;
in Mr. Darby’s case with far more reason, as he is incomparably more profound,
as well as more learned. . . .

It is written by Divine Inspiration "when the enemy shall come in like a flood,
the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." Of late years the
enemy has been coming in like a flood and where is there anything in these lands
that can be called the lifting up a "standard against him?" except it be the
intensely spiritual movement and thoroughly Biblical writings of the Brethren?
For, drawing only from the Holy Scriptures have they not displayed a banner
because of the Truth against every great evil that has come in for the past forty
years? Are they not the present day standard bearers of a recovered Christianity?
Who answered F. W. Newman’s "Phases of Faith?" J. N. Darby in his great
work, "The Irrationalism of Infidelity" (see Vol. 6 of his Collected Writings).
Others have replied to it, no doubt, but this had refuted the book. Who has
answered his brother’s -- Dr. Newman’s "Apologia pro sua vita?" None, save Mr.
Darby; and he has done it on its own ground, with a learning which evinces
thorough competency. Who laid bare the showy skepticism of Prof. E. Scherer
on his way from theological chair of Strasburg to the portfolio of the Revue des
Deux Mondes? Above all, Mr. Darby in his "Lettre sur l’inspiration de l’ecriture
Sainte" (translated, for the substance into his English tract On Inspiration) and a
subsequent brochure "de l’oeuvre de Christ." Who has exposed the sophistries
and refuted the arguments of the writers of "Essays and Reviews"? Only Mr .
Darby (Vol. 9, Collected Writings), Dr. Milner’s "End of Controversy" has also
been met and answered by him, and so have Bishop Colenso and Archbishop
Whately.

He has, by anticipation, discussed and settled the Church and State question
fully 30 years ago (Vol. 15, Collected Writings). The Church of God has also
been defended by him in its principles, privileges, spirituality, separateness from
the world, its worship, its destiny and hopes as it has been by us, one writes in
modern times. The doctrine of the Holy Ghost has also been expounded with a
freshness, fullness, and scripturalness in such writings as "Is the Comforter come
and is He gone?" and "The operations of the Spirit of God," by J. N. Darby, and
in the "New Testament Doctrine of the Holy Spirit" by Wm. Kelly, such as you
will find nowhere else, and surely the giving of scriptural views on the Holy
Ghost is a most vital part of the standard against the enemy.
Then the great subject of prophetic truth has found the clearest expounders
among the "Brethren." (Mr. Darby has at least four large volumes on it.) They
have not only simplified the subject, but are at present almost the only parties
who discuss and expound the prophetic word with clearness, fullness and
intelligence. Sir Edward Denny has likewise spent his lifetime in the study of
prophecy and has published extensively on the subject and has issued a series of
prophetical charts which are unique, and full of valuable instruction. "Plain
Papers on Prophetical Subjects," by the late W. T rotter, being a digested
summary of all the best works on prophecy is the best book on the subject for
general readers, as it contains reliable papers on the whole of the prophetic word.
Whatever they teach on prophecy may, as a rule, be relied upon, and will
never need to be unlearned, for it is substantially the truth. Then again, the
fearful error about sin and its punishment which are abroad and have been
spreading so rapidly -- such as annihilationism, not-eternity of punishment, and
all the other phases of eschatological skepticism and infidelity -- have been
answered by Mr. Darby as they have not been by any other man. And, since the
last Oecumenical Council and the proclamation of the Infallibility of the Pope,
Mr. Darby has been writing most learnedly and conclusively against the Roman
dogmas, and giving an awful exposure of Popery from its own chief writers (see
Familiar Conversations on Romanism) with a severe reproof of Archbishop
Manning. The learned labor and research needed to accomplish what he has
done in lifting up a standard against Popery in its last days is quite amazing; and,
though engaged with this great controversy with Rome, and also with infidelity,
he has not overlooked the little controversy about holiness that has been going on
among Christians for some time back, but has settled it, too, for all subject minds,
in his recent masterly pamphlet against Perfectionism a review of R. Pearsall
Smith’s book, "Holiness through Faith," and a letter on the practical
consequences. His "Dialogue of the W esleyan Doctrine of Perfection," might
also be noticed; and his standing against E. Irving and B. W. Newton repelling
their false views.

Perhaps in none of his writings is the weight as well as the acumen of Mr.
Darby more conspicuous than in his masterly critique of Irving’s grand essay, the
"Preliminary Dissertation to Ben Ezra." Irving was then in his zenith before his
sad aberrations, J. N. Darby not 30 years old; yet that most outstanding hero of
the day was but as a child in the hands of a man of surpassing strength, who knew
how to control it for Christ’s sake. Let the reader compare his "Reflections" in
the beginning of Prophetic I with Irving’s "Prelim. Diss. to Ben Ezra." But, his
most searching and sustained criticism is to be found, probably , in his
"Examination of B. W. N.’s Thoughts on the Apocalypse," which he simply and
most fairly crushed to annihilation; (see his Prophetic 3).

From: Darby - Precious Truths Revived and Defended, Volume 3, R. A. Huebner, pages 52-54  

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[testallthings]

SOME OPEN-BRETHREN EVALUATIONS

Some Open-Brethren have expressed themselves in a quite hostile manner also.
E. K. Groves (son of A. N. Groves) wrote:
But if, as I firmly believe, the mischief wrought by Mr. Darby among the children
of God is largely the result of a mental infirmity not unknown in the sister island
-- I mean a quality of mind, however richly endowed, which wholly disables it
from taking evidence in a case when passion has once been roused.129

A. Murdoch approvingly quoted someone saying "He was a Pope in all but
name." 130

Mr. Boardman commented upon ". . . all the pretentiousness of a kind of
‘Secondary’ Apostleship and Prophetship, (see ‘Operations of the Spirit,’ by
JND). . ." 131 Well, read the paper and judge for yourself. G. H. Lang represents
JND in regards to Bethesda this way: "While he was cursing it the Lord was
blessing it." 132

F. R. Coad has the dishonor of being among the most vehement Open
Brethren in this way against JND. He says that "he was arrogant" (p. 112);
"used disingenuous tactics" (p. 143); "descended to the disreputable" (p. 145).
Much of this applies to the controversy with B. W . Newton where JND was
"dangerously unbalanced" (p. 141); used "semantic and doctrinal juggling" (p.
150). He was -- "more ruthless" than B. W. Newton (p. 146); and is guilty of
a "long and viciously worded attack" (p. 149). On p. 162 he says of JND,
"Psychologically, he was obviously abnormal: but so have been many
geniuses," while, interestingly, on p. 113 he says "Yet, small as were his powers
of self-analysis, Darby’s personal counseling had about it something of those
deeper insights into human nature which characterize the psychoanalysts." And
what think you about "Darby’s was a mind impossible to bring to objective
debate" (p. 136)? I suggest that F . R. Coad has not helped at all to
understanding JND, but he has helped us to understand F. R. Coad.



From: Darby - Precious Truths Revived and Defended, Volume 3, R. A. Huebner, pages 62-63 


www.presenttruthpublishers.com