Next morning, as he walks in the street, he meets a Paulite with whom he has had some previous acquaintance but has not seen for some time. Knowing him as a godly, Christ-loving man, though of another denomination, he greets and stops for a word with him. He broaches, with some hesitation, the subject which has brought on him so many hard words from those of his own sect, and, to his surprise, is met with hearty response. He finds that his friend has been passing through similar exercises to his own, and, like him, had absented himself on the previous day from his accustomed place, and had spent the time alone in the summer-house of his garden. The question arises, Is there any real reason why they should not meet next Lord's day, and remember the Lord together according to the simplicity of the Word? They know no reason, and it is agreed on. Before another Lord's day comes, each has found another friend in similar case, so that four of them are gathered that morning simply to the name of the Lord; and having laid aside all that pertained to their respective sects, they looked to the Lord for guidance through the Word, and find it. They have got on to God's ground. The Spirit has led them thither through the Word.
When this is known a terrible hubbub is raised; they are rated as self-righteous, as presumptuous, as schismatics, as formers of another sect, as despisers of God's order, and what not. Still, their stand has led some to reflect and to search the Scriptures, and by and by one and another own that they are right—that they are following the written Word, without addition or subtraction, and so are on the ground which they now recognize as that on which the Scriptures show the Church to have been originally set. From four, they have grown to about twenty persons.