CHAPTER III.
We now come to the second stage of the inquiry in connexion with Bethesda. The charges made by Mr. Darby and his party were: 1st, that Mr. Newton’s doctrines and those holding them, had been admitted into fellowship, and 2ndly, that, as a church, they had refused to judge and condemn the tracts. The first charge we have shown to have been without foundation, and as for the second, the course had been justified for the reasons given in the “Letter of the Ten.” Towards the latter end of the year, however, the aspect of things had altered. By the unceasing efforts of the Darby party, the tracts which in April, May, and June, were comparatively unknown, had been so circulated, that all had become more or less conversant with the subject; and the brethren were further charged with indifference to the Lord’s honor in connexion with the introduction of error. The result of this was, that the minds of very many were disturbed and perplexed. The discussion of questions which it had been wished to prevent, had thus been introduced by the actings of others, over whom the Bethesda brethren had no influence. In July, 1818, also had appeared another tract of Mr. Newton’s, in which the erroneous statements of the tracts then under reconsideration had been reproduced, only in a somewhat modified form. This removed much of the uncertainty as to the views held by Mr. Newton, and facilitated the investigation of his doctrines. These considerations led Mr. Müller, Mr. Craik, and the other leading brethren, to regard it as needful to take up as a church matter, that which before it had not been deemed desirable to do; and in consequence several special meetings of the church were held, commencing on Nov. 27, and ending on Dec. 11, 1848. At the first meeting, Mr. Müller after prayer, stated the reasons which had led them to call the church together, to investigate the painful subject of Mr. Newton’s tracts, and explained the reasons which now led them to do that, which in the middle of the year they had declined doing.
At the first two or three meetings Mr. Müller spoke almost exclusively, reading from the tracts, page after page, pointing out as he went along, what inferences were legitimately deducible from what was read, and which, if they were allowed, the Lord himself would need a Saviour; and while these influences might have been disallowed by Mr. Newton himself, in
