There are many aspects to this work that deserve consideration. The writer draws upon quotes and writings from Brethren, ex-Brethren and other authors. His focus is not upon the ‘Open’ Plymouth Brethren, but upon the Darbyite followers of J.N. Darby – the original Exclusive Brethren.
Key quotations:
“The first thing which strikes us on marking the piety of Brethrenism, is its exclusiveness. The theory of those composing it is, that all the churches are wrong – that all sects are unscriptural – that Christendom is in ruins. Were it so, the natural conclusion would be, to set to work and build up what has fallen, and reunite what is scattered. But no. To end sectarianism, as John Duncan used to say, the Brethren began by making a new sect, and that sect, of all sects, the most sectarian.” – William Reid
“Have you tried these brethren – the Darbyites? I have tried them (try the spirits whether they are of God), and found them false prophets – in every sense of the word, false. They are false in what they say of their brethren, they are false in doctrine, and they are false in their walk” – Lord Congleton
“Your union will daily become one of doctrines and opinions, more than of life and love; Continue reading »
Your government, unseen perhaps and unexpressed, will soon become one wherein is overwhelmingly felt the authority of men;
You will be known more for what you witness against, than by what you witness for; and practically this will prove that you witness against all but yourselves.”
- Anthony Groves (historical founder of the Brethren)
James Grant carefully traces the progress of the Plymouth Brethren and the major figures involved from the origins in Ireland to Plymouth and then to Bethesda. He quotes from the tracts and pamphlets of the time and leaves the reader in no doubt who was in control and by whose orders the Bethesda division was instigated.
Grant has a number of unique insights and information about the Darbyites following Bethesda, not least of which is a remarkable chapter dealing with Brethren Hymnology.
The publishers of the first Brethren hymnals were apparently adept at taking a well-known hymn and altering the words very subtly so that the Brethren doctrines would be thus embedded. Grant provides a number of examples of this practice – which seem to be an early form of subliminal advertising?
Grant proves his point and states: “There lies against the compilers of the Darby hymn book the double charge of transposition and unjustifiable mutilation …”.
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by Tim Twinam
“We now move into Assembly” was first published in 1998 on the ‘Wyman Website‘ – a website forced to close in 2003 due to Exclusive Brethren litigation.
The Exclusive Brethren create spiritual and social refugees as dramatically as any regime in history
I have a horror of arriving late for an appointment. I believe that this minor psychosis has its origins in the acute embarrassment of arriving late for an Exclusive Brethren meeting.
If you arrived late for the Lords Supper in the late sixties, you would have a problem – unless you possessed a key to the locked door. If determined to enter, you would have to knock on the door to alert an investigating brother.
A gentle tap on a window to attract attention would fail miserably today as anyone that knows the structure of a modern Exclusive Brethren Meeting Room would understand. Further adding to access problems are the padlocked steel gates and perimeter security fences.
One could slip fairly anonymously into a Preaching, in the 1960′s, as long as only the lectern faced the door, but as most gatherings involved a circular arrangement of chairs, you were almost certainly going to be noticed. Arriving late therefore was not an option and only bearable in dire emergencies.
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London in the 1870's - PAUL-GUSTAVE DORÉ (1832–83)
An unusual and fascinating compilation of one man’s journey through a wide variety of sects, religions, faiths and weird places during the 1870′s in London. This is a large book with over 450 pages and we recommend a rainy weekend to fully appreciate and enjoy. The articles were mostly originally published by the author in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ with the instruction: “they should be strictly descriptive articles, expressing no opinion pro or con.”
Rev. Davies visits two groups of particular interest: a Plymouth Brethren group and Mr. Newton – we supply those below as an extract.
The writer has the opportunity to watch a Plymouth Brethren Communion Service, listen to William Kelly and then to hear Mr. Newton teach on prophetic matters. As to whether the Priory, Islington is exclusive by nature, Rev. Davies answers that by remarking on their ‘calm’ self-description: ‘The One Assembly of God in London‘.
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Peter Mearns was a Presbyterian minister who was attempting to protect his parishioners from Plymouth Brethren proselytizing in Northumberland and Berwickshire in 19th century England. Rev. Mearns gives many examples of the ways in which the ‘Darbyites’ attempted to infiltrate and lure members from congregations into their meetings.
Although the Exclusive Brethren today do not attempt to recruit from the outside, in the early days of the Brethren, this was how they increased their numbers. It generated intense bad feeling among many churches and their ministers at the time.
“Among all the Christians I ever met, I never saw such intolerance and bigotry – such denial of the right of private judgment, and such miserable oppression, as among this sect.”
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by Tim Twinam
Let the Priestly Visits Begin was first published in 1998 on the ‘Wyman Website‘ – a website forced to close in 2003 due to Exclusive Brethren litigation.
I was probably the only member of the Brethren who fantasized over the benefits of being ‘shut up’: no meetings; no noisy meals with five sisters; treated like royalty with meals on a tray; I’d be able to read with every meal! As a teenage boy, I could only think of advantages.
Sure, I’d miss my friends, but it wasn’t as though it was for ever, was it? I didn’t know anyone who had not been allowed back in eventually. It was just the thought of all that time to myself. I once calculated that travelling to the meetings and the meetings themselves occupied more than 22 hours in a 7 day week. It would be like being given an extra day each week!
I knew that the ‘holiday’ could not last too long. There would be the standard series of visits by the priests – two, maybe three brothers from the local assembly. They would come and visit to check on the state of my ‘leprosy’ to see if I was feeling repentant yet. I would imagine mentally checking the calendar … I would be shaking my head slowly at them if it was any time during the long summer vacation. I’d plan to start nodding by mid-September.
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by Tim Twinam
‘Be Ye Separate’ was first published in 1998 on the ‘Wyman Website‘ – a website forced to close in 2003 due to Exclusive Brethren litigation.
Being Separate always was fundamental to the Exclusive Brethren. As a child it was an unquestioned part of our existence, I knew of no other way. The family was enough because it was a huge Family. The Family was more than my parents and five younger sisters, it included all Exclusive Brethren everywhere.
As a teenager, long before the Aberdeen fiasco, I was aware that I could travel to almost any UK town and to many other countries around the world and would always be able to find a friendly door upon which to knock. Once announced as a brother belonging to the Sevenoaks Local Assembly, I would be given a welcome and immediate unconditional hospitality.
This was always the greatest aspect of the Little Flock. We shared a commonwealth of each other. We were the Church. We were the Bride. We, the ‘Un-named’, were the lonely banner-wavers of the only Truth in an evil world. We looked after each other.
From the time that an invited audience of local brethren gathered in a room to witness the complete immersion in warm water of a week-old infant, a new member of the church was added to the list of the Beloved. Each child was nurtured and became the spiritual responsibility of the wider community. I answered to my parents of course, but I was also expected to be subject to all members of the assembly. Well, some more than others if I’m honest.
From the earliest age the boundaries were carefully explained. I remember the time that an older relative told me firmly not to use a drinking fountain in the park because “Unclean people drink from there, dear.” I must have been between three and four years old. Evil was portrayed as a disease that we would be damaged by, if we allowed ourselves to come into contact with it. Eating with others was not a problem in the pre-school years because we were only ever in the family environment. But all that changed when we entered the public school system. At that time, during the Taylorite 1960′s, there was no such thing as an Exclusive Brethren school.
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An almost nostalgic series of recollections by a number of the early brethren including J.G. Bellett, G.V. Wigram, J.N. Darby, E. Cronin and J.B. Stoney.
Dr. Cronin makes the important historical point that Darby, Bellett and Wigram “… did not constitute the embryo of it” when referring to the birth of what became known as the Plymouth Brethren. This contradicts popular misconceptions that Darby is somehow the ‘father of the Brethren’. Bellett makes the point that later [following Bethesda] many of the Brethren were also called Darbyites for obvious reasons.
The fact is that J. N. Darby was certainly the architect of the Exclusive Brethren – merely an offshoot of the much larger and vastly more evangelical Plymouth Brethren.
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The Errors of the (Exclusive) Plymouth Brethren
Feelings ran high in the established churches as disaffected parishioners left to taste the Plymouth Brethren during the early to mid-19th century.
It wasn’t so much that they were leaving other churches or the fact that the early Plymouth Brethren actively prosetalyzed established churches and their members. It was the fact that many saw errors in their doctrine and already, the public testimony of the now multi-split Exclusive Plymouth Brethren, was anything but attractive.
This is an 1869 transcript of three sermons delivered by one Rev. James Carmichael in Montreal, Canada.
The Right Rev. Carmichael was eventually the 4th Bishop of Montreal. He was born in 1835 around the time that the ‘Brethren from Plymouth‘ began to be noticed. Rev Carmichael died in 1908.
“Once it was a compact body, composed soley of believers … now its ranks are broken; its body of believers split up into antagonistic parties, who not only will not commune together, but who speak in anything but a Christian way of each other.”
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by Tim Twinam
Of Microphones and Politics was first published in 1997 on the ‘Wyman Website‘ – a website forced to close in 2003 due to Exclusive Brethren litigation. Of Microphones and Politics is a continuation of the earlier: The Lords Supper – a teen in 1968.
A view inside a recent Exclusive Brethren Meeting Room
The Exclusive Brethren Sunday ‘ Lords Day’ schedule in the late 1960′s was increasingly busy. Maybe a year earlier, Sevenoaks had merged with Tunbridge Wells, just 12 miles away. I had found some wonderful friends there, teenage boys of my own age, and it was a treat to travel through the Kent countryside to the larger town. The Tunbridge Wells hall was larger, although in a rather dismal area of the spa town.
The novelty wore off a little when it was realized that an Exclusive Brethren ‘merger’ also meant combined weekday schedules too, but the immediate impact was a geographically extended Lords Day. Prior to Maidstone being nominated a regional Exclusive Brethren City, Tunbridge Wells hosted a Bible Meeting at 9:00am, followed by a break for lunch, when we dashed back to Sevenoaks for a quick bite, prior to returning for the joint Gospel Meeting at 3:00pm. Eventually, we would all return to Sevenoaks for a 6:00pm Local Gospel Meeting, followed by a well-earned early night. So much for Sunday being a ‘Day of Rest’!
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