by Tim Twinam
Portions of “Old Habits Die Hard” were first published in 1998 on the ‘Wyman Website‘ – a website forced to close in 2003 due to Exclusive Brethren litigation.
The first scene I ever saw in the cinema - it terrified me!
The first time I ever went inside a cinema, I was with my school mates. We didn’t pay. Well, we did, but we had nowhere near enough for 12 individual tickets. So, with a plan worthy of the Marines, we improvised. We had enough between all of us for two tickets, so a brief lottery ensued.
The winners entered by the front door and a group of ten early teenagers stood quietly in the shadow of a fire exit doorway.
A few minutes passed and then the door clicked open. “Don’t come in all at once!” he hissed, “It’ll look too suspicious.” Frankly, one boy going to the mens room and eleven coming out, sounds fairly miraculous. We had one distraction on our side and that was the film: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
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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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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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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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J N Darby (1800-1882) - Architect of the Exclusive Brethren
Originally published in 1866, Groves produced two later editions (1876 and 1880) explaining “It has been my aim to soften what seemed harsh … endeavoured to avoid all judgment of motives.” So in this edition, the reader is receiving the softest version possible. (We know how some of you will appreciate this.)
Groves outlines the history leading up to Bethesda and the aftermath very succinctly. By creating a narrative of facts and by the use of quotations from published words by the participants, Groves has produced a concise explanation of the doctrinal components in a fairly readable form.
There are some rare extracts and quotations which are difficult to locate elsewhere. The one constant of Plymouth Brethren early history that all commentaries of the time agree upon is the immense influence that J. N. Darby accumulated.
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The Exclusive Brethren today physically enforce the biblical concept of spiritual Separation
This 19th century document is probably the closest thing to a Constitution for the Exclusive Brethren. To this day, the Exclusive Brethren verbally use the title of this pamphlet in response to questions about their anti-social activities.
John N. Darby taught that a physical separation from the world was necessary for the Exclusive Brethren and this philosophy, together with his insistence upon central administration of the ‘Assembly’, were some of the early major influences behind today’s cult.
In typical Darby form, he broaches no criticism and allows no deviation. It must be done this way. His way is right. This is why many years later, Alfred J. Gardner, a London-based senior member of the Exclusive Brethren, wrote a paper on The Recovery and Maintenance of the Truth which extolled the development of the philosophy described in the attached document.
To those unfamiliar with the ways of the Exclusive Brethren and who baulk at the thought of trying to understand Darby’s words, we will attempt a quick paraphrase:
The established Church (Roman, Anglican, in fact most other established churches) has fallen into Apostasy (disagree with our teachings – this is Bad).
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John Nelson Darby by Edward Penstone
These notes cover Darby’s ‘Apostolic’ travels and church planting activities in Europe where he spent a great deal of his time during 1840′s and 1850′s. These notes were taken at “The Tea Meeting at Rawstorne Street, 24th November 1853″.
The raw energy of Darby should not be overlooked and these notes speak of the way in which he worked, whether in the peat bogs of Ireland or deep in the civilized centers of Europe. His mission was to create a new church by calling out congregants from other churches. Note his frequent use of the term ‘the truth’ and ‘infidel’ applied even to clergymen. The ‘Irish Clergyman’ certainly held no punches!
The most noticable aspect of the report, which reads like a contemporary version of Acts, has to be the assumptive tone implying that there was no real light outside of the new movement. This characterization of the Darbyite movement would become even more focused in years to come as new Exclusive Brethren leaders followed in Darby’s footsteps and even those few cracked-open doors began to be closed and padlocked.
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The title page to an anonymous 1852 pamphlet deriding the teachings of Darby
This anonymous 1852 pamphlet is written by someone with considerable ‘inside’ knowledge of the Plymouth Brethren and, as it is published just 4 years after Bethesda, some may consider it an important addition.
The last section of the pamphlet contains a controversial theory – it builds upon the Darbyite belief that the Exclusive Brethren represented the ‘One Assembly of God’ and the author presents these principles in full.
The author then suggests that the Plymouth rift was seen as an opportunity by Darby to establish himself and his pre-millenial rapture theories – by linking together Newton and his alternate prophetic versions and branding them as “evil”. It is a section worth reading twice – if you can deal with the intense doctrinal debate.
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