from the same cause, Mr. Turpin did not feel able to join any other section of the Brethren, and ultimately resumed his ministry in the Church of England after the interval of half a life-time. He had been one of the most deservedly popular of the preachers of the Brethren. Few of their leading men have gained the ear of the public of Brethrenism—above all, of its youth—in the same degree; and his loss was a very serious one to the party.
A tendency already referred to, which made itself powerfully felt in Darby’s time, and to which he opposed his vast influence with only partial success, seems now to be asserting itself triumphantly on all hands amongst the Ravenites. I refer to the tendency to discountenance and to suppress all energetic evangelistic action. Though the Exclusive Brethren have undoubtedly had very powerful evangelists, whose success under the disadvantages that they accepted was remarkable, people who plumed themselves on their spirituality considered that the labours of such men bore a humiliating resemblance to the labours of “the sects”—that is to say, of all evangelical denominations except their own. The leader of this anti-evangelistic movement was naturally Mr. Stoney. Possessing no popular gifts himself, he had gathered an esoteric school in whose eyes he stood entirely alone. Amongst these ardent disciples, he systematically depreciated aggressive evangelistic effort. The eccentricity of his exegesis may be measured by a single instance. He said that he had no doubt that Demas forsook St. Paul in order to go on a mission tour, and that it was on this conduct that the apostolic censure was based. That is to say, apparently, that Demas’ love of the present world (αίων) was a love for the souls of its heathen millions. This kind of folly spread far and
