Brethren Archive

American Darby Letterbook - Page: 58


Transcript:


professedly such, inordinately wicked, yet I doubt not many Christians & some really devoted ones. Scripture has little authority, not that it is openly denied, on the contrary, it is respected & owned to be the Word of God & so on. But giving truth & quoting it to prove & unfold truth will not do. You must reason about it or the sermon will not do. The ministers more skeptical than the hearers, as in such systems is generally the case. But there are souls who sigh over the state of things & cry for something better. My object was to visit the French & Swiss Brethren which, save in one locality, I through mercy affected, & was out in the prairies living among them as in old time in France, & glad indeed to see them as they are. And it has renewed bonds with the saints, in general cheered them, & I trust been directly healthful to them. The system of coming to America, taking up land without being able to pay for it, which they gradually fell into, as it is the custom, had brough(t) them spiritually low, pushing, as they must, to pay, or careless in paying. But they have felt it, & there has been a reaction in conscience, which has had a most healthful effect on them, & there is a lively desire of profiting by the Word. Many neighboring French came & their meeting-house could not hold the people. On the whole I was very glad to have been allowed to see them. At St. Louis it was German. Some godly Brethren, the most active inclined to be narrow, but a dear & godly man who saw he was wrong. In Detroit I was among the French who have been suffering from the same causes & from one having taken the place of the regular minister; but here there was much awakening of heart, & as it is more accessible to me I hope to try & visit them again. I quite trust the Lord






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