II

ROBERT BROWNE

1.—THE MAKING OF A CONGRE
GATIONALIST


THE supreme importance of Robert
Browne as a pioneer arises, not from
the greatness or worth of the man him-
~If, but from the value and vitality of
the truth which he rediscovered. “That so
powerful and intelligent a body as the Con-
gregationalists,” says Dr. Jessop, “should
strive to affiliate themselves to so eccentric
a person as Browne, .. . will always appear
somewhat strange to outsiders.” But no Un-







biassed student of his strange and stormy
career could rest his claim to veneration on
any other ground than that ‘he reached a
truth which men, vastly superior in character
and learning, failed to grasp. It was a truth
p•o less precious because, in later days, he fel.l