wide. It has been latterly reinforced by a variety of hyper-Calvinism, and those meetings of the followers of Mr. Raven in which an evangelistic party is still to be found seem generally, as far as I can learn, to be divided into two hostile factions; and in several important instances men of marked zeal and success in mission work have been converted from ultra-fervent supporters of the system into its resolute opponents.
I have not spoken of all the divisions. The secession of Mr. S. O. Cluff and his supporters within Darby’s life-time was perhaps the most important of the lesser schisms. The Cluffites had anticipated the Stuartites and Grantites in dropping the Bethesda discipline. Mr. Cluffs divergence for Darbyism was doctrinal, and connected itself with some phase of the so-called “higher life” teaching.
Enough, at any rate, has been said to amply illustrate the disintegration of the system. A certain Brother, meeting a friend of former days after the great division of 1881, put the caustic question, “To what section of the disorganisation do you belong?” He can little have thought how much additional force the sarcasm was destined to gain within the next ten years.
The contents of this chapter are not satire, but simplest fact. Yet, if I were the enemy of the Darbyites (which I am sure I am very far from being), I should consider that their unvarnished story was a satire to which the genius of a Swift could hardly add point. It is devoutly to be hoped that they may yet themselves attend to the lessons that it teaches.
In the case of many there is good ground for such a hope; indeed, not a few eyes have already been opened. But with some it is far otherwise. While the
