I was greatly exercised as to leaving Switzerland, having the conviction that troubles, which nobody else then believed, would certainly break out, and I lingered there till violence and revolution took place, and all the brethren judged me better away than there. Ministry was impossible, and I should have rather occasioned trouble to them, as well as been particularly obnoxious myself, as having been the active person there.
I returned to England, and came directly down to Plymouth.
I may now relate what took place then, and what had been going on with others before my arrival.
About four years ago Mr. Newton and Mr. Batten held meetings at Devonport, on ministry, where the following statements were made. That there had been, indeed, the fisherman system, and that Christ had previous to His resurrection chosen poor men to be His instruments: but that after his resurrection that was all changed, the Paul system was then set up, and the Lord chose educated gentlemen, as Paul was. This had been the case at the reformation, as Luther and Calvin proved; at the modern revival, as Wesley and Whitfield shewed; and now recently, Mr. Darby, and I know not who else, proved. The result of this was that one poor man who had preached among the Methodists, and still did at times, went out of his mind, and was in that state for a couple of years from the conflict of feeling, pressed to declare the Lord’s love for sinners, and harassed by the thought, as he had been now instructed, that it was wrong for poor men to put themselves forward. The application of the Word of God to his soul, in the hands of one who then knew nothing of the circumstances, but who entered into his then state, has happily restored this poor brother.[1] To finish with Devonport, which was a
- ↑ These statements were at first denied, then explained, and then confessed and apologised for. I add this note on account of the last circumstance. The person concerned freely forgave Mr. Newton, and thinks no more about it as a wrong to him. But that does not effect the historical state of things, and it is in
