In Choice Sayings, a compilation of Robert Chapman's sayings, we read: "The titles given to the church in Scripture bespeak heavenly unity, such as the body, the vine, the temple of God, a holy nation, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. Such words set forth the church of God as a witness for Him in the world; but the names which have been invented by men are names of sects, and declare our shame."

Chapman very likely developed this attitude many years before the Brethren movement, to which he was a part after 1932, for when he was twenty years old he was brought tot he Lord by an uncommon man who held this conviction. This man was James Harington Evans.

Evans wrote to his father in a very tender letter at the end of 1816: "As to John Calvin, I am no follower of his. I desire to follow One indeed whom John Calvin followed, but this is all. Oh! When will those days come, when party names, party distinctions, party separations shall cease?

Evans established what became the John Street Chapel near the center of London, England, in 1818. The new congregation at John Street was not affiliated with any existing Christian denomination or organization. As a result of Evan's powerful preaching, which spoke to the people's spiritual needs, the church grew rapidly. The attitude at John Street was one of openness; all believers as well as inquirers were welcomed.

In 1823, Chapman attended a meeting at the John Street Chapel. Many people filed into the chapel coming from many walks of life. The service was conducted with dignity by a man of evident culture who expressed every confidence in what he said. Here Chapman heard for the first time a sermon that opened the eyes of his heart. Never before had justification by faith and the atoning work of Christ been so clearly stated to him. As Evans preached, Chapman's intellectual reservations, melted under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. He accepted Christ as God's Son and as the One who had taken his own sins upon Himself.