During this time there was a clergyman in the Anglican Church by the name of John Nelson Darby who was very dissatisfied with the position of his own church, believing that it was not scriptural. He also met frequently with the brothers, although at that time he still wore the uniform of the Anglican clergy. He was a man of God, a man of great power, and a man willing to suffer. He was also a spiritual man who knew God and the Bible and judged the flesh. In 1827 he officially left the Anglican Church, put off the uniform of the clergy, and became a simple brother meeting together with the brothers. Originally what the brothers saw was rather limited, but when Darby joined, the light of heaven poured down like a torrent. In many aspects the work of Darby was similar to that of Wesley, but his attitude toward the Anglican Church was entirely different. In the previous century Wesley felt he could not leave the state church with peace; a century later Darby felt he could not continue in the Anglican Church with peace. But as to zealousness, wholeheartedness, and faithfulness, they were alike in many aspects.

It was in that same year that J. G. Bellett also attended the meetings. He also was an exceedingly deep and spiritual man. This kind of meeting, which was simple yet scriptural, moved him greatly. Concerning the condition at that time, he had this to say:

A brother has just been telling me that it appeared to him from Scripture that believers, meeting together as disciples of Christ, were free to break bread together as their Lord had admonished them; and that, in as far as the practice of the apostles could be a guide, every Lord’s day should be set apart for thus remembering the Lord’s death and obeying his parting command.

At another time J. G. Bellett said:

Walking one day with a brother as we were passing down Lower Pembroke Street, he said to me: “This I doubt not is the mind of God concerning us—we should come together in all simplicity as disciples, not waiting on any pulpit or ministry, but trusting that the Lord would edify us together by ministering as He pleased and saw good from the midst of ourselves.” At the moment he spoke these words, I was assured my soul had got the right idea, and that moment I remember as if it were but yesterday, and could point you out the place. It was the birthday of my mind, may I so speak, as a brother.

This was how the brothers groped gradually onward, received revelation gradually, and saw the light gradually. After one year in 1828, Darby published a little book called The Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ. This little book was the first among thousands of books published by the brothers. In this book Darby clearly declared that the brothers had no intention of setting up a new denomination or union of churches. He said:

In the first place, it is not a formal union of the outward professing bodies that is desirable; indeed it is surprising that reflecting Protestants should desire it: far from doing good, I conceive it would be impossible that such a body could be at all recognized as the church of God. It would be a counterpart to Romish unity; we should have the life of the church and the power of the word lost, and the unity of spiritual life utterly excluded…True unity is the unity of the Spirit, and it must be wrought by the operation of the Spirit…No meeting, which is not framed to embrace all the children of God in the full basis of the kingdom of the Son, can find the fulness of blessing, because it does not contemplate it—because its faith does not embrace it…Where two or three are gathered together in His name, His name is recorded there for blessing…

Further, unity is the glory of the church; but unity to secure and promote our own interests is not the unity of the church, but confederacy and denial of the nature and hope of the church. Unity, that is of the church, is the unity of the Spirit, and can only be in the things of the Spirit, and therefore can only be perfected in spiritual persons…

But what are the people of the Lord to do? Let them wait upon the Lord, and wait according to the teaching of His Spirit, and in conformity to the image, by the life of the Spirit, of His Son. Let them go their way forth by the footsteps of the flock, if they would know where the good Shepherd feeds His flock at noon.