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The Irish saint and scholarA biography of William KellyFascinatingTHE IRISH SAINT AND SCHOLAR Meet ‘the chief men among the Brethren’ and you enter a spiritual treat and a fascinating epoch in church history. Many of them appear (passingly) in Cross’s book — J.N. Darby (of course), ‘beloved Mr. Bellett’, the ‘brother indeed’ Robert Chapman, the learned George Wigram, the biblically enraptured CHM, the (let us say) unusual Napoleon Noel, and many more — but his purpose is to give William Kelly the publicity his great intellectual gifts and spiritual/ecclesiastical importance deserve. Kelly (1821-1906) left what he would have called ‘the Establishment’ as a young man, linking with a tiny Assembly in Guernsey. He was soon recognised as a ministering brother and, until within days of his death, exercised a colossal ministry of preaching, lecturing, pastoring and publication. Cross is rightly thrilled by his subject, but his book (sadly) is more a catalogue of activity than a rounded portrait of the man. It goes without saying that Kelly was a Premillennialist, but we would have profited by knowing in more detail, for example, what he meant by ‘Assembly truth’, on what grounds a (worldwide) group became ‘Kelly Brethren’, and how W.J. Lowe came into the picture, giving rise to the Kelly-Lowe meetings. Alec Motyer, © Evangelicals Now - July 2005 |