[testallthings]

WM. REID’S APPRECIATION


Let us hear a person who was very conversant with JND’s writings. There were
two clergymen named William Reid who wrote something regarding JND. One,
a United Presbyterian, wrote a hostile polemic against J. N. Darby 109 and the
other wrote a ‘eulogy’ called, "Literature and Mission of the So-called Plymouth
Brethren." 110 I will cite some of this paper.
Like Owen, you will find him [JND] involved, discursive, and rather hard to read;
in Mr. Darby’s case with far more reason, as he is incomparably more profound,
as well as more learned. . . .

It is written by Divine Inspiration "when the enemy shall come in like a flood,
the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." Of late years the
enemy has been coming in like a flood and where is there anything in these lands
that can be called the lifting up a "standard against him?" except it be the
intensely spiritual movement and thoroughly Biblical writings of the Brethren?
For, drawing only from the Holy Scriptures have they not displayed a banner
because of the Truth against every great evil that has come in for the past forty
years? Are they not the present day standard bearers of a recovered Christianity?
Who answered F. W. Newman’s "Phases of Faith?" J. N. Darby in his great
work, "The Irrationalism of Infidelity" (see Vol. 6 of his Collected Writings).
Others have replied to it, no doubt, but this had refuted the book. Who has
answered his brother’s -- Dr. Newman’s "Apologia pro sua vita?" None, save Mr.
Darby; and he has done it on its own ground, with a learning which evinces
thorough competency. Who laid bare the showy skepticism of Prof. E. Scherer
on his way from theological chair of Strasburg to the portfolio of the Revue des
Deux Mondes? Above all, Mr. Darby in his "Lettre sur l’inspiration de l’ecriture
Sainte" (translated, for the substance into his English tract On Inspiration) and a
subsequent brochure "de l’oeuvre de Christ." Who has exposed the sophistries
and refuted the arguments of the writers of "Essays and Reviews"? Only Mr .
Darby (Vol. 9, Collected Writings), Dr. Milner’s "End of Controversy" has also
been met and answered by him, and so have Bishop Colenso and Archbishop
Whately.

He has, by anticipation, discussed and settled the Church and State question
fully 30 years ago (Vol. 15, Collected Writings). The Church of God has also
been defended by him in its principles, privileges, spirituality, separateness from
the world, its worship, its destiny and hopes as it has been by us, one writes in
modern times. The doctrine of the Holy Ghost has also been expounded with a
freshness, fullness, and scripturalness in such writings as "Is the Comforter come
and is He gone?" and "The operations of the Spirit of God," by J. N. Darby, and
in the "New Testament Doctrine of the Holy Spirit" by Wm. Kelly, such as you
will find nowhere else, and surely the giving of scriptural views on the Holy
Ghost is a most vital part of the standard against the enemy.
Then the great subject of prophetic truth has found the clearest expounders
among the "Brethren." (Mr. Darby has at least four large volumes on it.) They
have not only simplified the subject, but are at present almost the only parties
who discuss and expound the prophetic word with clearness, fullness and
intelligence. Sir Edward Denny has likewise spent his lifetime in the study of
prophecy and has published extensively on the subject and has issued a series of
prophetical charts which are unique, and full of valuable instruction. "Plain
Papers on Prophetical Subjects," by the late W. T rotter, being a digested
summary of all the best works on prophecy is the best book on the subject for
general readers, as it contains reliable papers on the whole of the prophetic word.
Whatever they teach on prophecy may, as a rule, be relied upon, and will
never need to be unlearned, for it is substantially the truth. Then again, the
fearful error about sin and its punishment which are abroad and have been
spreading so rapidly -- such as annihilationism, not-eternity of punishment, and
all the other phases of eschatological skepticism and infidelity -- have been
answered by Mr. Darby as they have not been by any other man. And, since the
last Oecumenical Council and the proclamation of the Infallibility of the Pope,
Mr. Darby has been writing most learnedly and conclusively against the Roman
dogmas, and giving an awful exposure of Popery from its own chief writers (see
Familiar Conversations on Romanism) with a severe reproof of Archbishop
Manning. The learned labor and research needed to accomplish what he has
done in lifting up a standard against Popery in its last days is quite amazing; and,
though engaged with this great controversy with Rome, and also with infidelity,
he has not overlooked the little controversy about holiness that has been going on
among Christians for some time back, but has settled it, too, for all subject minds,
in his recent masterly pamphlet against Perfectionism a review of R. Pearsall
Smith’s book, "Holiness through Faith," and a letter on the practical
consequences. His "Dialogue of the W esleyan Doctrine of Perfection," might
also be noticed; and his standing against E. Irving and B. W. Newton repelling
their false views.

Perhaps in none of his writings is the weight as well as the acumen of Mr.
Darby more conspicuous than in his masterly critique of Irving’s grand essay, the
"Preliminary Dissertation to Ben Ezra." Irving was then in his zenith before his
sad aberrations, J. N. Darby not 30 years old; yet that most outstanding hero of
the day was but as a child in the hands of a man of surpassing strength, who knew
how to control it for Christ’s sake. Let the reader compare his "Reflections" in
the beginning of Prophetic I with Irving’s "Prelim. Diss. to Ben Ezra." But, his
most searching and sustained criticism is to be found, probably , in his
"Examination of B. W. N.’s Thoughts on the Apocalypse," which he simply and
most fairly crushed to annihilation; (see his Prophetic 3).

From: Darby - Precious Truths Revived and Defended, Volume 3, R. A. Huebner, pages 52-54  

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