Page:Darby - A narratives of the facts.djvu/52

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all would be well from the spirit in which I had spoken. It was at that assembly that I stated, in the narrative I gave, that the two printed tracts already referred to, had stopped my ministering three months before my leaving. I brought no accusation against Mr. Newton in general at all. So far from it, that facts, many many facts, which I thought much worse of I did not allude to, because they had nothing to do with my leaving. These had stopped my ministering, and I stated them. I shall just now state one of the other facts, because it also was one of the most public points in the affair. The rest I shall pass by. But I will first close the matter of the meeting. As to the appendix and the letters, I stated that the first thing that made me uncomfortable was the circulation of three out of the five letters which had been sent forth against the brethren, with an appendix, which related to the last two, given at the end of the third, and professing to relate to the first, while much related to the two last which were not there. Mr. Newton was not mentioned in this statement, though, as Mr. Naylor remarked, he being connected with this part of the subject, it would naturally be referred to him, which so far is true. I did not mean to appropriate particularly the measure of wrong, as I knew the copy I had was in a sister’s hand writing. It has been alleged, and Mr. Newton made it a public charge at a meeting he held after the brethren were gone, that I stated he had altered the letters, and that I stated he had altered them after I had been told he had not,―and a great fuss was made about it. A Miss H., it was said, had been authorised to say he had not. Miss H.’s statement, made to me by letter, is totally incorrect.[1] Of this I have absolute proof. I never said the letters were altered. Had they been it would have been no sort of subject of complaint. Mr. Newton had a perfect right to alter them if he pleased. Had I any thing to complain of in this respect it was

  1. I have no doubt, whatever, in saying this of her entire uprightness, I merely state the fact.