In another place Darby said:

Because our table is the Lord’s table, not our table, we receive all whom God receives, all poor sinners fleeing to the Lord for refuge, not resting in themselves, but only in Christ.

At that same time God worked simultaneously in British Guiana and Italy to raise up the same kind of meetings. In 1829 there were also meetings in Arabia. In 1830 in Great Britain’s London, Plymouth, and Bristol, there were also meetings. Later, many places in the United States had meetings, and in the continent of Europe there were also many meetings. Not long afterwards, in almost every place in the entire world, all those who loved the Lord were meeting in this way. Although there was no outward union, yet all were raised up by the Lord.

One feature that marked the rising up of these brothers was that those who were titled and lorded gave up their titles and lordship, those with position gave up their position, those with degrees forsook their degrees, and everyone abandoned any worldly class or rank in the church and became simply the disciples of Christ and brothers one to another. Just as the word father is widely used in the Roman Catholic Church and reverend in the Protestant churches, so the word brother is commonly used in their midst. They were attracted by the Lord and thus met together; because of their love toward the Lord, they spontaneously loved one another.

Within the scores of years, from among these brothers God has given many gifts to His church. Besides J. N. Darby and J. G. Bellett, God granted special ministries to many of the brothers so that His church could be supplied. George Müller, who established an orphanage, recovered the matter of praying in faith. In his lifetime he had over 1,500,000 answers to prayer. C. H. Mackintosh, who wrote Notes on the Pentateuch, recovered the knowledge of types. D. L. Moody said that if all the books in the entire world were to be burnt, he would be satisfied to have just one copy of the Bible and a set of C. H. Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch. James G. Deck gave us many good hymns. George Cutting recovered the assurance of salvation. His booklet “Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment” sold thirty million copies by 1930. Other than the Bible it was the most widely sold writing. William Kelly wrote many expositions; he was described by C. H. Spurgeon as one whose mind was as big as the universe. F. W. Grant was the most learned of the Bible in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Robert Anderson was the man who best knew the book of Daniel in the recent age. Charles Stanley was the one who best brought people to salvation by preaching the righteousness of God. S. P. Tregelles was the famous New Testament philologist. The book on church history by Andrew Miller was the most scriptural among the many church histories. R. C. Chapman was a man greatly used by the Lord. These were the brothers at that time. If we were to recount in detail others among the brothers, the number of all who were greatly used by the Lord would exceed at least a thousand.

Now we will see what these brothers gave us: They showed us how the blood of the Lord satisfies the righteousness of God; the assurance of salvation; how the weakest believer may be accepted in Christ, just as Christ was accepted; and how to believe in the Word of God as the foundation of salvation. Since church history began, there never was a period when the gospel was clearer than in their time. Not only so, it was also they who showed us that the church cannot gain the entire world, that the church has a heavenly calling, and that the church has no worldly hope. It was they who also opened up the prophecies for the first time, causing us to see that the return of the Lord is the hope of the church. It was they who opened the book of Revelation and the book of Daniel and showed us the kingdom, the tribulation, the rapture, and the bride. Without them, we would know a very small percentage of future things. It was also they who showed us what the law of sin is, what it is to be set free, what it is to be crucified with Christ, what it is to be raised with Christ, how to be identified with the Lord through faith, and how to be transformed daily by looking unto Him. It was they who showed us the sin of the denominations, the unity of the Body of Christ, and the unity of the Holy Spirit. It was they who showed us the difference between Judaism and the church. In the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant churches, this difference could not be readily seen, but they made us see it anew. It was also they who showed us the sin of the mediatorial class, how all the children of God are priests, and how all can serve God. It was they who recovered for us the principle of meetings in 1 Corinthians 14, showing us that prophesying is not one man’s business but the business of two or three, and that prophesying is not based upon ordination, but upon the gift of the Holy Spirit. If we were to enumerate one by one what they recovered, we may as well say that in today’s pure Protestant churches there is not one truth that they did not recover or recover more.