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The Expansion of Brethrenism—Darby in Vaud—Müller at Stuttgart
The Expansion of Brethrenism—Darby in Vaud—Müller at Stuttgart
Widely different is the spectacle that Darby’s work in the Canton de Vaud presents, and of vastly greater consequence in the development of Brethrenism. Darby was nothing if not an ecclesiastic, and all his operations subserved ecclesiastical ends. His work in Switzerland began in the earlier months of 1838, and his very appearance was the signal for an initial success, a permanent meeting being formed in Vevey within the first half of the year.[1] It was some two years later, however, before he got a footing in the far larger and more important
- ↑ The evidence for this date is practically conclusive. I have before me a note in which M. Cavin, a member of the Vevey meeting, notified his retirement from association with it, on account of its acceptance of “the Park Street test”. The resignation was “to be read to the assembly of the Brethren meeting together for worship on Sunday, July 8, 1883,” and its opening sentence is as follows: “I have belonged to this assembly from its origin, that is to say, for more than forty-five years”. The letter goes on to speak of the meeting in question as having “walked in peace during the whole of that time”. It is evident therefore that the date is given with care, and an elderly man’s recollections of the momentous events of his youth—and the first establishment of Brethrenism must have seemed momentous indeed to a young man who took part in it—are very seldom unreliable. Moreover, in resigning his membership, he was acting in concert with one of the best known of Swiss Brethren, the late J. B. Rossier of Vevey, who had himself joined the Brethren in 1840. Vevey, therefore is doubtless entitled to the honours, such as they are, of having had the first Brethren’s meeting (or at least the first of any importance) in Switzerland, or perhaps on the Continent.
