that the then position was wrong, and the present right. But all I see in this is, that whilst you occupy the place of only witnessing against those things which the Divine life within themselves recognised as evil, and separating from them only so far as they separated from Christ, you established them as judges of themselves, and of themselves they were condemned; and at the same time you conciliated their heavenly affections, by allowing all that really was of the Lord, and sharing in it, though the system itself in which you found these golden grains you could not away with. … There is no truth more established in my own mind than this; that to occupy position of the maximum of power, in witnessing to the consciences of others, you must stand before their unbiassed judgment as evidently wishing to allow in them more than their own consciences allow, rather than less, proving that your heart of love is more alive to find a covering for faults, than your eagle eye of light to discover them.”
An argumentum ad hominem follows. It must be remembered that Darby almost alone among the earlier Brethren remained a pedobaptist.
“Some will not have me hold communion with the Scotts, because their views are not satisfactory about the Lord’s Supper; others with you, because of your views about baptism; others with the Church of England, because of her thoughts about ministry. I receive them all and join with them. On the principle of witnessing against evil, I should reject them all. … I make use of my fellowship in the Spirit, to enjoy the common life together and witness for that, as an opportunity to set before them those little particulars into which, notwithstanding all their grace and faithfulness, their godliness and honesty, they have fallen. … I naturally unite fixedly with those in whom I see, and feel most of the life and power of God. But I am as free to visit other churches where I see much of disorder as to visit the houses of my friends, though they govern them not as I could wish.”
The closing words of the letter have a great moral beauty. They are also valuable as showing that an observer of no common shrewdness recognised in Darby a moral elevation such as many in the present day are unable to conceive that he possessed.
