Brethren have had, at all events in the days that are gone by, more than their share of saintly lives, but also that the general level of devoutness has been, after making every deduction, exceptionally high.
The intensely Biblical element that has been spoken of as underlying the ecclesiastical life of Darbyism equally underlay its social life. The minds of the Brethren were saturated with the words of Scripture; they talked of them when they sat in their houses and when they walked by the way, when they lay down and when they rose up. Conversational Bible-readings were their principal recreation, and in the older days an invitation to tea might almost be taken to imply an invitation to social Bible study. Their leaders, and to a great extent many who scarcely aspired to such a title, were thoroughly drilled in Darby’s comprehensive system of divinity, and were prepared to expound without notice any passage on which light might be desired. Consequently, the equally prudent and courteous practice was common of leaving the choice of a subject for a conversational reading to any enquirer or neophyte who might be present. The result of this system was the formation of “a church of theologians”. In the present day, knowledge has greatly decayed, without, unhappily, any corresponding decay of self-confidence; yet even now, measured by the attainments of their neighbours, the knowledge of the letter of Scripture amongst the Brethren is more than respectable.
I am confident that I do not overstate the case for the Brethren; and surely nothing could be more futile
and the system as it can only be seen from within, are two totally different things. The present writer knew it from within before he studied its history, and is perhaps on that account the more able to judge its virtues fairly.
