A Letter Regarding the "Morning Meeting."
I trust you will forgive me for my use of the expression "Morning Meeting," but it is used in this book and also by many "Brethren commonly so called" in general conversation.
I am presently re-reading the little book entitled "The Brethren;" (commonly so called) written by Andrew Miller near the close up of the nineteenth century. It includes a letter from the same period, apparently November 1891, written by a brother styling himself "C.H.H." (Perhaps Charles H. Hall?) The book having been edited with some revisions and omissions by G.C. Willis in 1963.
It is a beautiful insight into the manner in which the "Breaking of Bread" meeting was conducted. It thrilled me as answering to my own souls' appreciation of this precious portion divinely made available to the Lords' people still. Its simplicity and reverence, its profundity and rapture, shine through in clearest light and with a sense of the redolence of the fragrance of the Lords' presence in the midst of His own. The letter gave me afforded me a confirmation of that which I hold dear in connection with these halcyon moments in this scene overshadowed by the absence of the Lord Jesus having be despised and rejected by men at large, those He came in infinite love to seek and save.
A further section is entitled "The Effect of Separation From the World," and must cause the reader some intense exercise as to this scriptural principle. The sacrificial giving manifest early in this "movement" mirrors that of the early church as recorded in Acts 4:32-37. I suppose such a path would be considered untenable or impossible today, but one wonders why!
The little book is not without its failure; the discussion of the Christ-dishonouring "division" that shattered the unity of the believers at that time, appears to me to be convoluted and ambiguous in the extreme, and to increase the difficulty of making any clear judgement. The authors' argument is in places both irrational and beclouded. His conclusions are biased and will not withstand any real counter to them.
I feel so sad to express myself in this way about a brother dearly beloved, who has rendered such spiritual bounty for Gods' people in his other writings. His lovely commentary on the "Song of Songs" is exquisite, the most Christ-centred I have ever had the joy to read.
