clergy. Mr. Harris, to whom I spoke, but as to all, made no difficulty, and something was done.
At this time, about three years, I suppose, ago, I was thoroughly unhappy in the meetings. I felt the Spirit utterly quenched, and if I went to the meetings happy, returned miserable. It was only at the last I was at I found it in my heart to pray. I had communication on the subject with Mr. Harris, who remonstrated with me. I returned abroad. While abroad, I cannot here give the date, Mr. Newton wrote to me that I was an[1] apostle. This did not, I confess, inspire me with confidence. About three or four months before my return to England I had a correspondence with Mr. Harris, one of whose letters, from the great change in its tone, convinced me that every barrier was gone at Plymouth : for he had long sought to keep himself free from the influence that ruled most things there. From that moment I felt that conflict and trial awaited me, though I knew not what: but I was satisfied before God that nothing that could be ventured on would be spared. I passed through much more conflict of soul then than after I came to England. Nor was I mistaken in my judgment.[2]
Mr. Harris invited me, however, to come to Plymouth.
- ↑ This explains to me a statement in the letter sent to the London brethren, signed by the five leading brethren at Ebrington Street, saying, that they recognized no one in the position of Timothy now. At the time he wrote the letter alluded to in the text, Mr. N. in England, denounced my views as subverting the foundations of Christianity.
- ↑ Prior to my previous visit to England, Mr. Soltau had issued a tract, holding up a most beloved brother as a public warning, on account of holding prophetic views discordant with Mr. Newton's. I answered this by shewing that Mr. S.'s arguments could not be sustained, hoping to check these attacks on brethren, made as if truth, “the truth” as it has been called since, was at Plymouth alone. What was unsold of Mr. S.'s was suppressed, and the whole of mine, at the instance of a brother who hoped controversy might be ended. I had stated no system of my own. It was a mere effort to check the tide.
