CHAPTER XIII

1828. Sermons on the Trinity

THE year 1828 commenced amid those domestic shadows, and had not progressed far before the public assaults, in which Irving's life was henceforward to be passed, began. In the early beginning of the year he had prepared for publication three volumes of his collected sermons; the first volume setting forth the very heart and essence of his teaching, his lofty argument and exposition of the Trinity, and its combined action in the redemption of man; the second, his conception of the manner of applying Divine truth as symbolized in the Parable of the Sower; and the third, his views on national and public subjects. When this work, however, was all but ready for the press, one of the spies of orthodoxy hit upon a grand and unthought of heresy, in the splendid expositions which the congregation had received without a suspicion, and which Irving himself had preached with the fullest conviction that the sentiments he uttered were believed by all Up to this period his works had been arraigned before less solemn tribunals; failures in taste, confusion of metaphors, and an incomprehensible and undiminished popularity, which no attack could lessen, and which piqued the public oracles, had been brought against him, one time or another, by almost every publication in the kingdom. But even when a man is fully convicted of being more eloquent and less cautious than his neighbors, when he is proved to fascinate the largest audiences, and utter the boldest denunciations, and give the most dauntless challenges to all opponents, with the additional aggravations of a remarkable person, and some peculiarities of appearance, these things are still not enough to make him a heretic. The religious world had long been shy of a man so impracticable, but yet had been forced, by way of availing itself of his genius and popularity, to afford him still its countenance, and still to ask anniversary sermons, though with fear and trembling, from the greatest orator of the time. These anniversary sermons, however, were so little to be depended upon-,were so much occupied with the truth, and so little with the occasion, or the subscription lists-that he was not, and could not be popular among the religious managers and committee people, who make a business of the propagof the f the Gospel.. He was a man of a different fashion from their favorite model, by no means to be brought into conformity with it; and they regarded him afar off with jealous eyes.: At last the inevitable collision occurred. Irving's sermons on the Trinity were uttered to an audience so unaware of any error in them that, by special desire of the office-bearers of the congregation, they were placed'first in the volumes which their author prepared as a complete manifestation of his varied labors. The sermons themselves had been preached. some years before; they are mentioned in Fraser's Magazine, in the e'loge pronounced upon him after his:death, as having been first delivered in Hatton Garden, where no man hinted heresy; and Irving himself describes the gradual composition of several of them in his journal-letters in 1825; they were not, however, ready for publication till the beginning of the year 1828, and seem to have been selected in all simplicity, and, as the preface relates, with no controversial meaning, " as being designed for the instruction of the Church committed to my ministerial and pastoral care, of whom I knew not that any one entertained a doubt upon that great head of Christian faith." These sermons, though of a very different character from those bursts of bold and splendid oratory by which the preacher had made his great reputation, are perhaps more remarkable than any of his other productions. How any man could carry a large audience breathless through those close and lofty arguments, and lead them into the solemn courts of heaven to trace the eternal covenant there, preserving the mighty strain of intelligence and attention through hours of steadfast soaring into the ineffable mysteries, is a question which I find it hard to solve. But he seems to have done it; and all unaware of the fact that underneath, in the cloudy world below, certain sharp eyes, unable to follow him, could yet follow and discern where his brilliant way cut through divers floating clouds of doctrine, he pursued his eagle's path straight into the sunshine. That loftiest, splendid theme unfolded before his intent gaze into a grand harmonious system of God-manifestation. It was not doctrine that he unfolded. It was the vivid reality: of the sublimest historic facts, a Godhead in combined and harmonious action, working forth, not the salvation of individual man by any expedient, however sublime, but the grand overthrow and defeat of evil in a nature which had sinned. In this light the man who embraced his Lord with all the fervor of human affections, as well as with all the spiritual love and faith of which his soul was capable, perceived, with a depth of tender adoration not to be described, that wonderful reality of union which made his Lord not only his Savior, but his brother and kinsman, the true everlasting Head of the nature He had assumed. Controversy was not in his mind, nor any desire after a novel view of the truth he uttered. He " knew not that any one entertained a doubt upon that great head of Christian faith." And with all the simplicity of undoubting belief and confidence, he set forth the Savior in whom he trusted-a Lord noways abstracted from the life-blood of humanity, but rather its fullest spring and fountain-head, a man without guilt, but with every thing else that belongs to man —an existence not of itself secure and unassailable, but held like a fortress in immaculate purity by the Godhead within. Such was the form in which the Redeemer of his life-and Master of his heart appeared to Irving. He set forth the Lord so, before all eyes, with outcries of joy and tears, finding in that utter brotherhood of the flesh a culmination of grace, and love, and unspeakable Divine tenderness such as heart of man had not conceived. This was the preacher's view, standing above the crowd with Mis eyes and his thoughts in the heavens; but other eyes and thoughts were in the cloudy regions underneath, watching that lofty perilous career into the Divine mysteries without either light to lead or faith to follow. An idle clergyman, called Cole-of whom nobody seems to know any thing but that he suddenly appeared out of darkness at this moment to do his ignoble officeheard by the wind of rumor, which at that time was constantly carrying something of the eloquent preacher's lavish riches about the world, of what appeared to him " a new doctrine." The immediate cause was an address delivered by Irving in behalf of a society for the distribution of Gospel Tracts, in which some of his audience discovered that the preacher declared the human nature of our Savior to be identical with all human nature, truly and in actual verity the "seed of Abraham." This, coming to the ears of Mr. Cole, apparently, at the moment, a man at leisure, and in a condition to set his laborious brethren right and find out their errors, filled the soul of that virtuous critic with alarm and horror. To him the world seems to be indebted for the disingenuous statement of this new view, if new view it was, which, by giving the name of the "sinfulness of Christ's human nature" to that which in Irving's eyes was the actual redemption of humafi nature through Christ, inevitably prejudiced and prejudged the question with the mass of religious people. Few can follow those fine and delicate intricacies and distinctions which encompass such an important but impalpable difference of belief, but every body can be shocked at the connection of sin with the person of the Savior. This was the unfair and deeply disingenuous method of representing it which Cole first hit upon, and which all who followed him' on that side of the question, in spite of countless protests and denials from the other, obstinately maintained. The novel means which Mr. Cole took to satisfy himself about the new doctrine we are fortunately able to give in his own words, which, in the form of a letter to Irving, he published shortly after the event he narrates. "I had purposed," says this candid divine, "ever since the delivery of your Society Oration, to hear you myself, that I might be satisfied personally whether you really did hold the awful doctrine of the sinfulness of Christ's human nature or not - but six months elapsed before my continued purpose was realized. I did not like to leave my usual place of worship to hear you, and yet there appeared no possibility of accomplishing my desire without it. On Sunday evening, the 28th of October last, however, I was returning home rather early, about eight o'clock, and it occurred to me that, if I went to your chapel, I might find your oration not quite concluded, and that I might, perhaps, hear something that would enable me to arrive at the desired satisfaction. I accordingly proceeded to the Caledonian chapel. When I entered, I found your oration not concluded; I therefore sat down, and heard you for about twenty minutes.'I had not been seated above a minute or two when I found that you were dwelling much upon the person and work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; and I had hardly arrived at a perception of the train of that part of your discourse, when you made me tremble from head to foot by thundering out the expression,'THAT SINFUL SUBSTANCE!' meaning the human body of the adorable Son of God! You were declaring'that the main part of His victory consisted in His overcoming the sin and corruption of His human nature.' You stated'He did not sin.''But,' you said,'there was that sinful substance against which He had to strive, and with which He had to conflict during the whole of His life upon earth.' TWhat I felt at hearing such awful blasphemy against the person of the Son of God declaimed, with accompanying vehement gesticulations, before upward, I should suppose, of two thousand persons, I can not describe. And the whole superstructure of the remaining part of your oration was more or less of a piece with and built upon this terrifically awful foundation... Nevertheless, to put myself beyond the reach of error in so momentous a matter, and at the same time to give you the most fair and full opportunity of unsaying any unguarded expressions, and also to ascertain whether what you uttered was your considerate and real belief, I resolved, if practicable, to speak to you in person. Having understood from one of your attendants that you would favor me with a conference, I waited till you were disengaged, and was at length admitted into your presence. My address and questions, and your answers, were as follows:'I believe, sir, a considerable part of the conclusion of your discourse this evening has been Upon the person and works of Jesus Christ?' You answered in the affirmative. I added,'If I mistake not, you asserted that the human body of Christ was sinful substance?' You replied,' Yes, I did.' I continued,' But is that your real and considerate belief?' You answered,' Yes, it is, as far as I have considered the subject.' And hereyou produced a book, which I believe was some national confession of faith, to confirm your faith and assertions, in which you pointed out to me these words (if I mistake not),'The flesh of Jesus Christ, which was by nature mortal and corruptible.'..'This, sir,' I observed,' is to me a most awful doctrine.' And, after making other remarks upon the awfulness of the doctrine, and asking you once or twice if such was your deliberate and considerate belief, which you answered in the affirmative, I put this final question to you:' Do you then, sir, really believe that the body of the Son of God was a mortal, corrupt, and corruptible body, like that of all mankind? the same body as yours and mine?' You answered,'Yes, just so; certainly; that is what I believe.' Upon which I departed." The inquirer departed, after so unwarrantable an invasion of another man's privacy, to bring against the sincere and patient preacher who had borne this catechising, and had not resented it, the charge of serious heresy. Such a method of getting at the facts on which the indictment was to be framed has fortunately been seldom resorted to, and it is not an example which many men would like to follow. Irving himself gives a much shorter account of the same interview in the preface to a volume entitled Christ's Holiness in the Flesh, published in 1831. He says: "Of the man I know nothing, save that a stranger once solicited conversation with me on a Lord's-day night, after public worship, of which conversation I found what purported to be the substance standing at the head of this publication (Cole's pamphlet). Whether it be so or not I can not tell, for it was at a moment of exhaustion that it was held; and I gave the stranger an invitation to come to me at leisure on the Thursday following for the farther satisfying of his conscience. He did not think it worth his while to do this, and could reconcile his conscience to the betrayal of pastoral and ministerial confidence, and to the publication of a conversation, without even asking me whether it was correctly reported or not.... I shall never forget," he proceeds, "the feeling which I had upon first hearing my name coupled with heresy. So much did it trouble me, that I once seriously meditated sending a paper to the Christialn Observer in order to contradict the man's false insinuations. But I thought it better to sit quiet and bear the reproach. When, however, I perceived that this error was taking form, and that the Church was coming into peril of believing that Christ had no temptations in the flesh to contend with and overcome, I felt it my duty to intercalate, in the volume on the Incarnation, a sermon (No. III.), showing out the truth in a more exact and argumentative form, directed specially against the error that our Lord took human nature in its creation, and not in its fallen estate; and another (No. VI.), showing the most grave and weighty conclusions flowing from the true doctrine that He came under the conditions of our fallen state in order to redeem us fiom the same. This is the true and faithful account of the first work which I published upon the subject." In the preface of that work itself, he refers us simply, but with less detail, to the same occurrence: " When I had completed this office of my ministry," he explains, when giving forth the contested sermons for the first time to the world, "and, by the request of my flock, had consented to the publication of these, and the other discourses contained in this.book, and when the printing of them had all but or altogether concluded, there arose, I say not by what influence of Satan, a great outcry against the doctrine which, with all orthodox churches, I hold and maintain concerning the person of Christ; the doctrine, I mean, of His human nature, that it was manhood fallen which He took up into his divine person, in order to prove the grace and the might of Godhead in redeeming it; or, to use the words of our Scottish confession, that His flesh was, in its proper nature, mortal and corruptible, but received immortality and incorruption from the Holy Ghost. The stir which was made in divers quarters, both of this and of my native land, about this matter, as if it were neither the orthodox doctrine of the Church, nor a doctrine according to holiness, showed me, who am convinced of both, that it was necessary to take controversial weapons in my hand, and contend earnestly for the faith as it was once delivered to the saints. I perceived, now, that the dogmatical method which I had adopted for the behoof of my own believing flock would not be sufficient when publishing to a wavering, gainsaying, or unbelieving people, and therefore it seemed to me most profitable to delay the publication until I should have composed something fitted to re-establish men's minds upon the great fundamental doctrine of the Church; which having done, I resolved to insert the same as two other sermons, the one upon the method of the Incarnation, and the other upon the relations of the Creator and the creature, as these are shown out in the light of the Incarnation. And for this timeous interruption by evil tongues, I desire to give thanks to God, inasmuch as I have been enabled thereby not only to expound, but to defend the faith that the Son of God came in the flesh." Such was the simple and straightforward course adopted by Irving at the first whisper of the accusation brought against him. Instead of rushing into sudden encounter with his darkling assailant, he waited until nearly the end of the year, in order to add to the plain statement of his belief its fuller defense and support; and after adding these careful productions to the already printed volume, issued it, with the explanation given above, without even referring to the obscure originator of the sudden outcry. The dedication to the third volume of this work is dated January 10th, 1828, while the similar preface to the first is not written till November 10th of the same year, ten months later. The difference of these dates bears notable and -simple testimony to the way in which this matter affected him. The work, prepared with all care and deliberation, and just on the eve of being given to the world, was postponed, not that he might soften down or clear away the doubtful expressions, but that, with more distinct force and clearer utterance, he might disclose the belief that was in him. Having no doubt in himself, he was only anxious to be understood clearly, that his doctrine might be proved. In this patient and candid manner, not hastily, but with the postponement of all an author's expectations, and all the natural indignation of a man unhandsomely assailed, he answered this first charge of heresy. He himself bears witness that it was echoed on all sides around him. It was " a great outcry"-" a stir in divers quarters." He delayed answering for a year-a year so full of other occupations that it is hard to conceive how he can have had the patience and composure necessary to take up the threads and extend the high argument; and then soberly asserts his cherished truth and vindicates his character.' The. point at issue is simply this," he says with dignified gravity and moderation, "whether Christ's flesh had the grace of sinlessness and incorruption from its proper nature, or from the indwelling of the Holy Ghost; I say the latter." With this statement of the matter, we may, in the mean time, like Irving, leave the question. The cloud, like a man's hand, had risen out of the envious mists, when the religious spy entered the little Presbyterian sacristy at Regent Square to bring the ingenuous soul there to account, and betray its frank and unstudied explanations. All unconscious of the object of his questioner, Irving spoke forth the truth he held then as always; and when he became aware of the brewing storm, faced it, all candid and undisguisable, but with a patience and lofty composure which few men could have equaled. And with that, for the present, the matter closed. An angry wind of assault and accusation raged without; but within, his beloved Church, always ready enough to note deviations in doctrine, was yet unroused and unstartled. And Irving went on his way, full, not of one truth, but of many, and believing himself, first and above all, called upon to proclaim the coming of that Lord whom he all but saw-the approach of one who was no abstraction nor embodiment of doctrine to his fervid spirit, but his very God and Lord, flesh of his flesh land bone of his bone. In the spring of the same year he preached a Fast-day Sermon, it is not recorded upon what occasion, before the Presbytery of London, which was afterward published under the title of an Apology for the ancient fullness and purity of the doctrine of the Church of Scotland. This work I call only speak of from the fragmonts contained in an adverse and ill-natured review; but it was evidently not only a fervent eulogium on the mother Church, but an assertion of higher claims on her behalf than the so-called democratic and popular Church of Scotland is generally supposed to have ever made; and he seems to have founded his views, as Irving was always disposed to do, upon the ancient Confessions of the Church, and not upon the modern Westminster Confession, which is now its chief recognized standard. Upon these old confessions he always made his stand, reaching across the controversial age to those ancient and loftier days when the primitive creed was set forth simply and without argument. There is, indeed, a certain willful independence in the way in which he eludes all mention of the later declaration of doctrine which has been identified with his Church, and fixes his tenacious regard upon the elder utterance, which he never ceased to maintain, and quaintly inflicted upon his English disciples in after years with a pertinacity which would be amusing were it not deeply pathetic. "I do battle under the standards of the Church under which my fathers fell," he says with touching prophetic sadness in this Fast-day sermon. "I am a man sworn to discipline, and must abide by my standard, and may not leave it, but fall beside it, or fall above it, and yield to it the last shelter and rampart of my fallen body." These words were laughed at by some of the critics of the day as "mouth-valiant tropes." The progress of time, however, throws sad and striking illustrations upon them; for it is certain that, whether right or wrong in his interpretation of their meaning, Irving did standby those standards till he fell in the heat of battle, and never relinquished them, even to the death. In May, Mrs. Irving, whose health was still delicate, went to Scotland to her father's house, and about the same time Irving himself left London to travel by the slower route of Annan and his native district, preaching as he went, to Edinburgh and Kirkcaldy. His object in this journey was not relaxation or pleasure. He went, counting himself "most favored of the Lord," to proclaim in Scotland, as he had already done in London, the coming of his Master. "Walk, dear David, in the fear of the Lord-the time is short," he writes in one of those friendly letters, now becoming rarer and rarer. And, penetrated with that conviction, he went to Scotland to warn, first his father's house and kindred, and the country-side which had still so great a hold upon his heart, and then universal Scotland through her capital, of that advent which he looked for with undoubting and fervent expectation. This journey was in many respects a very remarkable one, being occupied entirely in the work to which he had no inducement or persuasion but his own profound belief of the great event about to happen —of which, indeed, nobody can doubt that the world had, if it were so near at hand, most strenuous need to be advertised. No way could he have better proved the perfect reality of his own belief. "' Edward is in excellent health," writes Mrs. Irving, on the 16th of May, from Kirkealdy, to Mr. Story, of Rosneath. " He has gone to bear his testimony for the truth in his native town, and purposes being in Dumfries, if the Lord will, next week, and to commence his labors in Edinburgh on Thursday next..... His time is wholly occupied. His course of discourses will not be finished in Edinburgh until Wednesday, the 4th of June, when he proposes starting immediately for Glasgow, and, if they choose, preaching there on the following day; then at Paisley on Friday, at Greenock on the Saturday morning, and, crossing to Rosneath, doing all the service you may require on Sabbath and Monday. He desires much to preach for Mr. Campbell on Tuesday evening, again at Glasgow on Wednesday, at Bathgate (my brother's parish) on Thbrsday, and be here at the communion on Sabbath the 15th. All being well, on Tuesday after, we expect that your acquaintance, William Hamilton, will be united to my sister Elizabeth. After this, God willing, Edward visits Perth, Dundee, and Monimail." Such was the course he had determined for himself before setting out from his labors in London; and when it is understood that he did this without inducement or stimulation, except that of the message with which he was bursting, something of the fervor of the spirit which could not keep silent may be apprehended., One joyful domestic incident-the marriage of his sister-inlaw to his bosom friend, a marriage quaintly suggested years ago, before the pair had ever met, to the present bridegroom-gave a point of tender human interest to the laborious journey; but such a holiday few laboring'men, few workers errant in such an agitating field as that of London, would have thought of or could have carried out. From the first point in these apostolic travels he writes as follows to his wife: " Annan, Saturday, 17th May, 1828. "MY DEAR WIFE, —I arrived here on Wednesday night, and found all our friends well. Next morning I waited on the minister, who most graciously gave me my request to preach the three week nights as well as the Sabbath. This I published in the market as I came down the street, and in the evening the church was thronged, as also last night. I opened the seventh chapter of Daniel, and the second and third of Acts, laying out the whole subject, and this night I open 2 Peter, iii., and Romans, xix. and xx. Indeed, I have been most favored of the Lord to open these great truths first in Scotland to my own kindred and townsmen, and in the church where I'was baptized. To-morrow I preach at Kirkpatrick, in a tent, I suppose, when I intend throwing all help aside, and preaching a regular sermon from R-om., viii., 1, 2, 3, trusting to Christ's own most helpful and blessed promise. In the evening I return and preach for the Sabbath-schools; I know not what sermon yet; perhaps, however, it may be a discourse of baptism, from Rom., vi., embodying the doctrine of the homilies, and this also' extempore. On Monday I proceed for Dumfries, resting a few hours with our Margaret, and proceeding thence to Cargen, to meet some clergymen there; but, finding the minister of the parish to be my nearest of kin, I wrote a letter to him, inclosed to Cargel, to say, that if he would gather the people after their work at seven o'clock, I would preach to them. On Tuesday, at one o'clock, I preach for the Society; and in the evening, at seven, for Mr. Kirkwood, at Holywood, if it please him; and then, on Wednesday morning, I proceed with Margaret to Edinburgh by the earliest coach... These things I write that you may remember me at those seasons when I am engaged in the Lord's service; for it is the strength yielded unto the prayers of His saints which is my strength. I am nothing but a broken reed. I desire to be still viler in my sight. I ant His worthless instrument, whom He will use for His own glory, either in saving me or in not saving me; and, so that His glory is promoted, I desire to be satisfied. Oft I have the feeling of the apostle-lest I also be a castaway. God bless you and dear Margaret....The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be upon thee, and upon all the house of thy father. Farewell. "Your affectionate husband, EDWARD IRVING." Thus laboring, he made his way through Dumfriesshire. The wonderful apparition of that great figure, with which Annan had grown unfamiliar, pausing in the street where the weekly market of the country town was going on, and proclaiming with audible voice to all the rural crowd of farmers, and cottagers, and homely country-merchants the night's preaching, is a scene well worthy any painter's skill. There where, as his old companions boast, no man has ever had " an ill word" to say of Edward Irving, he appeared out of the halo of distant metropolitan grandeur, familiar, yet strange, a distinction to his native town. The countryside, stirred with an impulse warmer than mere curiosity, arose and went to hear the message he brought them. On the Sunday when he preached, neighboring ministers shut up their churches, and went the long Sabbath-day's journey across the Annandale moors to hear him, along with their people. Such a scene as Tennyson touches, with one wistful stroke of his magic pencil, must have been common enough in those days in that southland country. Many a countryman, roused by the sound of his old schoolfellow's name, like him who " In his furrow musing stands, Does my old friend remember me?" must have given his Sunday's leisure to listen to that voice which had no equal in Annandale. For once the proverb seems to have failed. He had honor in his own country, where gentle and simple flocked to hear him, and where, when the church would not contain his hearers, he preached in the open air from the little wooden pulpit, traditionally known as the "tent," to which, on extraordinary occasions, the rural ministers resorted. That he had been able to carry his message thus to his own people seems to have been a refreshment to Irving's heart. Then he went on to Edinburgh, where he had already arranged to deliver twelve lectures on the Apocalypse. Here he was to live in the house of Mr. Bridges, now a friend of some years' standing, who lived in Great King Street, one of those doleful lines of handsome houses which weigh down the cheerful hill-side under tons of monotonous stone. The mistress of the house awaited in some trepidation the arrival of her distinguished guest, doubtful whether one, of whose eccentricities and solemnities every body had heard, might be sufficiently of human mould to make him an agreeable visitor. She sent away her children hurriedly when she heard his arrival at the door, and listened with a little awe for his stately approach. But, while the mother stood palpitating by her drawing-room door, the children on the stairs encountered the stranger. He stood still immediately to greet them, to make himself acquainted with their names, and'give them the blessing, without which he could not pass any head sufficiently low to have his hand of benediction laid upon it. I am not sure that one of them:was not mounted aloft on the mighty altitude of his shoulder when he confronted the mother, alarmed no longer, and received the welcome, which came' from no hesitating lip. It was May, and the clergy of Scotland were all in Edinburgh. Of all times to deliver the message of Elias, this was the best time for the Presbyterian nation, and it was on that special account that Irving had chosen it. He began his lectures in St. Andrew's Church at the extraordinary hour of six in the morning, in order to make sure of the ecclesiastical audience, busied all day in the affairs of the Church, which he particularly sought. In the sweet but chilly freshness of those spring mornings, a dense crowd filled the area of George Street. I have heard a clergyman of the mildest aspect and most courtly manners describe how, roused by the idea that favored persons were being admitted by another entrance, he, despite all the proprieties of his clerical character and the suavities of his individual disposition, was so far roused as to threaten an official.in attendance with a personal assault, and descent over the besieged railing, if admittance was not straightway afforded. Nothing in our day seems fit to be compared with that wonderful excitement. Half of the audience would, on ordinary occasions, have been peacefully reposing in their beds at the hour which saw them, all animated and anxious, pressing into the gloomy church. The very accompaniments which would have repelled them from another-his indifference to ordinary comforts and regulations-his selection of an hour of all others least likely to tempt forth the: crowd-seem to have attracted them to Irving. Hosts of people cheerfully made themselves uncomfortable for the chance of getting admittance; and those who came, came not once, as to an unparalleled exhibition, but time after time,.as unable to escape from the spell. " He is drawing prodigious crowds," Dr. Chalmers writes. "We attempted this morning to force our way into St. Andrew's Church, but it was all in vain. He changes to the West Church for the accommodation of the public." In that vast building, fitted up with three hideous galleries, the wonderful invention of the eighteenth century, the crowd did not lessen. " Certainly there must have been a marvelous power of attraction that could turn a whole population out of their beds as early as five in the morning," adds Dr. Chalmers. " The largest church in our metropolis was each time overcrowded." And the enthusiastic hearers took the younger members of their households with them, when it was practicable, through the crowd, by way of impressing that wonderful eloquence, so unlikely to appear again in their day, upon the minds of the new generation. It was altogether an extraordinary new chapter in the preacher's life. Perhaps to disturb the equilibrium of the composed society of Edinburgh, and draw an immense congregation of his sober-minded countrymen from their morning: slumbers and home comfort into such a crowded assembly as the rising sun rarely shines upon, was the greatest triumph to which he had yet attained. It does not seem, however, that he looked at it at all in this vulgar light. " I have fairly launched my bark. God speed us!" he writes to his wife; and, without another word of comment upon his extraordinary audiences, proceeds to report his progress through Dumfriesshire, and to diverge into purely domestic matters, telling how one of the Kirkcaldy sisters, then in his native country, " is dear to all who know her;" but, " being of the Reformation school by education," he perceives that the family with whom she resides is "but evangelical;' and sending to another sister —the bride Elizabeth —the tender regards which her circumstances call forth: " My brotherly love and ministerial blessing upon her virgin head," he writes; his heart evidently touched with the tearful joy of that crisis of youthful life. Nor could any one guess, from this brief correspondence, that the writer was at the height of popular applause, followed, lauded, and commented upon by the whole disturbed town, in which he had appeared like a sudden meteor; the agitating popularity which encircled him leaves no trace upon his hurried and simple communications. And now the objections which had always risen against him began really to take a form grievous to his heart. London criticism had not dismayed the dauntless orator; but he was now among friends, and exposed to animadversions of a heavier kind. Again Dr. Chalmers comes in, puzzled and full of doubt, yet speaking plainly the opinion for which his mind had evidently been preparing since his visit to London. "For the first time heard Mr. Irving," he notes in his brief journal; " I have no hesitation in saying it is quite woeful. There is power and richness, and gleams of exquisite beauty, but, withal, a mysterious and extreme allegorization, which, I am sure, must be pernicious to the general cause. He sent me a letter he had written to the king, on the Test, etc., and begged that I would read every word of it before I spoke. I did so, and found it unsatisfactory and obscure, but not half so much so as his sermon." At the discussion upon the Abolition of Tests in the General Assembly of that year, Chalmers again describes the apparition of Irving, making himself visible among the assembled spectators, and doing all that a by-stander could to make his own strenuous opposition apparent. "Irving is wild on the other side from me," said the calm and liberal divine, who supported with all his force of practical wisdom the abolition of a safeguard proved to be useless, and who had read, without being at all influenced by it, the eloquent letter to the king, in which the idealist opposite him set forth his splendid impracticable vision of a Christian nation bound under God to be swayed by only Christian men; "he sat opposite to me when I was speaking, as if his eye and looks, seen through the railing, were stationed there for my disquietude." He, by the way, had a regular collision with a Dr. H., a violent sectarian, who denounced him as an enemy to the Gospel of Christ. The colloquy that ensued was highly characteristic; Mr. Irving's part of it began with "Who art thou, 0 man, that smiteth me with thy tongue?" Nothing could better illustrate the characters of the two men, whom it is always interesting and often amusing to see together, than this odd juxtaposition: the one, clear-sighted and executive within the legislative area; the other, impatient, eager, visionary, outside, spending his strength in vehement appeals and protests against the inevitable tide of things which was, visibly to his eyes, sweeping down the lofty claims and standing of his country. Chalmers puts the impracticable optimist aside with a mixture of impatience and compassion-finds his impassioned protest "obscure and unsatisfactory," and proceeds, in spite of the brilliant gaze fixed upon him " through the railing," to clear the modern wvorking ground for modern action and practical necessities. Irving, wvith a certain loving, noble scorn, all unaware of the different direction in which his friend's eyes are turning, and totally inaccessible to all considerations of practicability, watches the formation of the commonplace road, shaped according to compelling circumstances, and burns to rush in and establish the eternal ideal track, deviating for no compulsion, which neither he nor any other man can ever fix upon the surface of this earth. Yet, let nobody think that the ideal protest outside was of less use to humanity than the operative sense within. Chalmers helped on the course of modern affairs, and smoothed and widened the national path; Irving, with extravagance, with passion, with convictions which knew no middle, course, stirred the hearts in men's bosoms, and kept alive the spirit of that sublime impracticable, which, never reaching, every true man strives to reach, and which preserves an essence of national and spiritual life far beyond the power of the most perfect organization or the highest political advantages to bestow. Whether Chalmers's conclusion, that the lectures of this course were " quite woeful," was shared by the Edinburgh public, seems very doubtful; for, to the last, that public, not overexcitable, crowded its streets in the early dawn, thronging toward that point where the homely West Church, with its three galleries, stands under the noble shadow of the Castle Hill; and his wonderful popularity was higher at the conclusion than at the beginning. Nor is it easy to believe that the same year which produced the splendid oratory of the Last Days, could have fallen so far short in the special mission with which he felt himself charged. But Chalmers's disapproving eye did not perceive nor recognize the overpowering force of that conviction which had taken possession of his friend. The second Advent was, to him, a doctrine open to discussion, possibly capable of proof; to Irving, a closely-approaching stupendous event, of which woe was unto him if he did not warn his brethren. The one man was not able to judge the other with such an astonishing gulf of difference between. Other encounters, telling upon his future career, happened to Irving at this remarkable era of his life. It was one of the critical periods of religious thought. Here and there, throughout Scotland, one mind and another had broken the level of fixed theology, and strayed into a wider world of Christian hope and love. Departing from the common argumentative basis of doctrine, such minds as that of Mr. Erskine, of Linlathen, and Mr. Campbell, of Row, afterward notable enough in the agitated Church, h.ad concentrated themselves upon one point of the bountiful revelation of divine truth, and declared, with all the effusive warmth of Christian love and yearning, the " freeness of the Gospel." According to their view, a substantial difference had taken place in the position of the world since the great act of redemption was accomplished. It was not a problematical salvation, only real when faith and conversion came to the individual soul, but an actual fact, entirely changing the position of the human race, which was manifest to them in the work of our Lord and Savior. It was not that salvation might be, as man after man believed and received it, but that salvation was, for God had accomplished and revealed that greatest demonstration of His love. Leaving to other men the task of balancing with all those wonderful mysteries of limitation, which, whether called divine election or human resistance, show visibly, in gloom and terror, the other side of that glorious picture, they addressed themselves to the joyful utterance of that unquestionable universal proffer of love which God makes to all His creatures. This delicious gleam of light, opening ineffable hopes of universal safety, and emboldening the preacher to summon every man, as in the position of a redeemed creature, to the assurance of that love and forgiveness which dwelt in God, had begun to brighten the pious soul and laborious way of the young west-country minister, with whose name, as a system of doctrine, these views were afterward identified in the early autumn of 1828. Dreaming nothing of heresy, but anxious to consult a brother in the ministry, of older experience and more vivid genius than himself, about this tremulous dawning glory which had brightened the entire world of truth to his own perceptions, John Campbell, of Row, saintly in personal piety and warm in Celtic fervor, came, with the natural diffidence of youth, to seek an interview with Irving. He found him alone in the drawing room at Great King Street, with one of the children of the house playing on the carpet at his feet-a tender domestic accompaniment to the high reverie and musings of the interpreter of prophecy. The stranger-less a stranger as being the dear friend of one of Irving's dearest friends-told his errand modestly: he had come to ask counsel and help in the midst of his hopes and diffi-,culties. Irving turned toward him with the natural gracious humbleness of his character, and bade him speak out. " God mnayhave sent me instruction by your hands," said the candid heart, Slways more ready to learn than to teach. It is not hard to imagine what must have been the effect of these words on the young man, shy of his errand. They sat down together to discuss that high theme, with the child playing at their feet. Nobody will doubt that their after-friendship lasted till death. I am not able to estimate what effect Mr. Campbell's views had upon the mind of Irving. As one part, and that a deeply important one, of the truth, great and wide enough to deserve any man's special devotion, and, indeed, the most clear demonstrative exhi. bition of the Gospel, it is evident that he entered into it heartily; and holding, as he himself held, that Christ's work was one which redeemed not only individual souls, but the nature of man, no one could be more ready than he to rejoice in the fullest unconditional proclamation that Christ died for all. His own sentiments, however, on other subjects, and the higher heroical strain of a soul which believed visible judgment and justice to be close at hand, and felt, in the groaning depths of its nature, that the world he contemplated was neither conscious nor careful of its redemption, make it apparent that Irving's mind was not so specially bent upon this individual aspect of the truth as that of his visitor. But it is a curious and significant fact, that many men-I had almost said most men, at all able to think for themselves, who ever crossed his path-seem to have entertained an impression that they, in their proper persons, had instructed and influenced Irving. To the outer world, the great preacher appears drawing after him a crowd of lesser luminaries; but each individual of these, when one comes to inquire into it, retains a conviction that he was the leader, and Irving, always so lavish and princely in his acknowledgments of benefits received, the follower. With the open heart and eye of simple genius, always ready to hear and receive, he seems somehow to have convinced all with whom he came in close contact that light had reached his mind through their means, and this notwithstanding the high position he always assumed as a teacher. But Mr. Campbell commended himself entirely to Irving's heart. He was too visibly a man of God to leave any doubtfulness upon his immediate reception into the fervent brotherhood of that tender nature. From Edinburgh, as soon as his lectures were finished, the preacher went to Glasgow, from whence, about a week after, he writes the following brief account of his labors to his wife: "Collins' shop, Glasgow, June 10th, 1828. " I have a moment's time, and embrace it, to let you know that I am here, well, and about to proceed to Carnwath to-morrow morning. I have had much of the Lord's presence. I preached here on Matt., xiii., on Thursday. On Friday, on the Regeneration, when the apostles are to sit on thrones. On Saturday, on the Resurrection. On Sabbath, at Rosneath, in the tent, on Psalm ii. for lecture, and on the name of God, Psalms ix. and x., for sermon. At Row, on the 24th of Matthew. To-morrow I preach on Matt. xxv., first parable; at Bathgate, second parable; and in Edinburgh, on the Last Times. I was much delighted with Campbell and Sandy Scott, whom I have invited to come with you to London. I trust the Lord will deliver him out of his present deep waters. I have much comfort in these extempore expositions, and, if I mistake not, it will constitute an era in my ministry; not that I will hastily adopt it, or always, but for the propagation of this truth by exposition. It is a great delight for me to find that I can preach every day with little trouble, with no injury. I trust the Lord preserves you in faith, and peace, and love. By the blessing of God, I will see you on Saturday morning..... Farewell, my beloved wife!" This brief record supplies little except the facts of the rapid but apostolic journey. I have no'information as to the effect of his appearance at Glasgow; but when he arrived at the little westland paradise of Rosneath, and under the rich sycamores and blossomed laurel set up the tent, or wooden out-door pulpit, familiar to all eyes on great ecclesiastical occasions, and close by the little church, all too small for the overflowing audience, yet occupied by a portion of the hearers, thrilled the soft air and listening crowd with his herald's proclamation of the coming King, the whole. district, hereafter to bear a notable part in his own history, was stirred by his approach. Doubtless the singular young woman who was first to receive that wonderful gift of " tongues," which had so great an influence on Irving's future fate, was there from the head of the loch to have her mysterious imagination quickened with words which should reverberate to the preacher's undoing. All the agitations and distractions of his latter days lay there in the germ by the sweet half-Highland waters, on the shore of which, as eager to penetrate the rural stillness as to charm the greater ear of cities, he delivered his startling message. Next day at Row, on the opposite shore, almost within hearing of his Sabbath-day's station, a similar scene was repeated. A witness describes, with a certain unconscious poetry, the aspect of the loch, bright with boats, conveying from all points the eager congregation, and Irving's generous spontaneous divergence from his special mission, to take up, and illuminate, and enforce the equally special and earnest burden of the young brother who had unfolded to him his heart. There he met, not for the first time, but with an important result, another man, who can not be dismissed with the familiar mention given him in the letter above: Alexander Scott, now of Manchester, the son of Dr. Scott, of Greenock, a licentiate of the Scotch Church —a man whose powerful, willful, and fastidious mind has produced upon all other capable minds an impression of force and ability which no practical result has yet adequately carried out. A Scotch probationer, but characteristically recalcitrant and out of accordance with every standard but his own, this remarkable man, then young, and in a position in which any great thing might be prophesied of his visible powers, attracted, I can not tell how, notwithstanding his total dissimilarity and unaccordance, the regard of Irving. A greater contrast could not be than between that fastidious fancy, which seems to reject with disgust the ordinary ornaments of language, winning a kind of perfection of simplicity by the disdainful finesse of art, and the fervent and glowing imagination, swelling into irresistible lyric strains by intuition of nature, which inspired the eloquence of Irving, unless it were the contrast between the profound and sublime faith which turned belief into reality in the heart of the great preacher, and that questioning, unsatisfied, always fastidious philosophic soul, which seems to delight in undermining the ground on which the other great intelligence holds a precarious standing, and lessening one by one the objects of possible faith. Notwithstanding this vast difference, so visible nowadays, these two dissimilar natures had somehow fallen into warm and sudden friendship; and Irving, all truthful and ingenuous, desiring no pledges about doctrine, and confident in the piety and truth of the young man, engaged the doubtful probationer to join him in London, and be his assistant in his ministerial labors. Such an offer, perhaps, no man in the Church of Scotland but himself would have made; but the bargain seems to have been concluded at this Row preaching; and for some time after, this strangely-matched pair labored together with such agreement as was possible, and with friendship unbroken. Passing through Glasgow, Irving then went to Carnwath, in the wilds of Lanarkshire, where his wife's cousin, the Rev. James Walker, was minister of the parish, and from thence to Bathgate, not far off, to his brother, Samuel Martin, another well-known and honored parish priest. Another sermon in Edinburgh seems to have concluded this laborious week. On Saturday he crossed the firth to Kirkcaldy, to join his family and share the household joys and conferences of the family home, then excited by all the agitations of an approaching bridal. It was the eve of the communion besides, always a time of solemn yet pleasant stir in a Scotch manse. The tenderest, touching conjunction of family emotions was in that manse of Kirkcaldy on the expectant Saturday, and the solemn cheerful dawn of the sacramental morning: one of the daughters a bride, another a delicate expecting mother-sweet agitation and religious calm. But darker shadows were to fall over the wedding-day. On Sunday evening, after the sacramental feast was over, a prodigious concourse of people gathered in Kirkcaldy church. They had come from all quarters to hear a preacher so renowned for his eloquence, who had long been familiar to all the neighborhood, whom once the popular mind of Kirkcaldy had scorned, but whom now the entire neighborhood struggled for a chance of hearing. In the sweet summer evening, when Irving, all unaware of any calamity, and having just left his ailing wife, was on his way to church, he met a messenger coming to warn him of the terrible accident which had just occurred. The overcrowded galleries had fallen, and, besides the immediate inevitable loss of life, which, fortunately, was not great, all the horrors of a vulgar panic had set in among the crowd. Irving immediately took up his post under a window in the staircase, and, conspicuous by his great size and strength, helped many of the terrified fugitives to make their way out, lifting them down in his arms. Such a scene of popular panic and selfish cowardice is always an appalling one. Dr. Chalmers, whose wife and child were present, reckons, in his account of it, that "' at least thirty-five people" were killed, two or three only by the actual fall of the gallery, and the rest "'by the stifling and suffocation toward the doors of the church." The dead and dying were lifted out into the church-yard, the latter to receive such help as might be possible, and terror and lamentation filled the neighborhood. In the midst of this heart-rending scene, one of the crowd, with a bitterness, perhaps, excused by some great loss, turned upon the preacher, and taunted him cruelly with being the cause of the terrible event. The reproach, bitterly unjust as it was, went to Irving's heart. He is said to have withdrawn from the melancholy scene to his own chamber with tears of anguish and humiliation. And when this dreadful disturbance of the evening's calm had come to an end, and the troubled family, after having exhausted all possible efforts for the relief of the sufferers, were at last assembling to their evening prayers, his grieved soul broke forth into words. "God hath put me to shame this day before all the people," he said, with a pang of distress all tlhe more sharp and terrible from the love of love and honor that was natural to his heart. The short time he spent in Kirkealdy afterward was entirely occupied by visits to the injured or bereaved people, and, to such of them as needed pecuniary help, his purse as well as his heart was open. But the whole calamitous event seems to have been embittered by a wholly unreasonable and most cruel resentment against the preacher, which it is hard to account for. It is said that in some excited local coterie there was wild talk of offering uzp the author of all this calamity as a deodand. And even the fact that the marriage, thus sadly overcast, was not postponed, increased the popular indignation. Dr. Chalmers himself, with inexplicable bitterness, exposed as he himself was to all the accidents common to the gathering together of immense multitudes, describes this calamity as "the most striking and woeful effect of Irving's visit." It gave a tragic conclusion to the triumphant and exciting course of his brief but incessant labors. Just at this eventful and exciting period, another infant son came into the world in the Kirkcaldy manse, and, as soon as Irving could leave his wife, he returned to London, making a brief divergence into the North before setting out on his homeward journey. In this short expedition northward he reappears out of the darkness in the following vivid glimpse, for which I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. J. W. Taylor, of the Free Church, Creich. This gentleman writes: " My own remembrance of Edward Irving is thirty years old, yet is the impression as fresh as the day on which it was made. I remember the very bend of the pavement where first I saw him: the raven locks flowing down to his broad shoulders, his magnificent erect figure, the cloak thrown over his arm, and the giant air with which he marched, are ineffaceably present to my mind.... He had come to Perth to preach. Midday sermons were not popular entertainments then, and the Kirkcaldy church catastrophe was fresh in people's thoughts; but the East church was filled. His text was taken from the 24th chapter of Matthew, regarding the coming of the Son of Man. I remember nothing of the sermon save its general subject; but one thing I can never forget. While he was engaged in unfolding his subject, from out of a dark cloud, which obscured the church, there came forth a bright blaze of lightning and a crash of thunder. There was deep stillness in the audience. The preacher paused; and from the stillness and the gloom of his powerful voice, clothed with increased solemnity, pronounced these words:'For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.' You can imagine the effect." The next that we see of him is in London, returned to his post, and plunging, without any interval, into his ordinary labors. He went, not to his own house-it being, indeed, a transitionary moment, in which he seems to have had no house, having ended his tenancy of one, and not entered upon another till his wife's return-but to that of Miss Macdonald, a daughter of Sir Archibald Macdonald, once Lord Chief Justice, a woman of great accomplishments and wonderful self-devotion, who had been for some time the warmest friend of his family, and his own zealous assistant and amanuensis. From her habitation-then, it is to be supposed, a more refined locality than it appears now-he writes to his wife: "6 Euston Grove, Euston Square, London, I "' Friday, July 3d, 1828. "MY DEAREST WIFE, —This is merely to announce to you my safe arrival. I have a long sheet begun, but there is not time to close it until to-morrow, for which I have a frank. I found Miss Macdonald well, about one o'clock; after washing, etc., we sat down to our old work* for about two hours, after which we have gone forth to visit the schools, which are thriving.... As I passed through Cheapside, I called to inquire after our friends both there and elsewhere. Alex had received a letter that morning to say that they were on their way, and would be here either to-morrow or on Monday. The Lord bring them in peace and safety! For myself, I am in good health, and slept well all the voyage. It is really a matter of some importance to come by the Jctmnes Watt, and I would have you to bear it in mind. I fondly hope, before this time, you are so far recovered as to be able to be up and to enjoy yourself, and that the dear boy is thriving well. God make his soul to prosper and be in health! And for dear Margaret, say that little Stewart inquired af* Miss Macdonald writing to his dictation. ter her, and all rejoice in her health. But, no! guard against her vanity and egotism. It will become very great unless it be kept down. I pray you to bear this in mind. Dinner is on the table, and Campbell is to spend the evening with us —going off to-morrow. My love to you all. God bless the homes of our fathers all! " Your affectionate and dutiful husband, EDrWARD IRVING." Mr. Camphell, of Row, had either accompanied or preceded Irving to London, and had preached in his church, not only in the ordinary course, but an extraordinary Gaelic sermon, carrying back the minds of the changed congregation to those old days of the Caledonian Chapel when Irving himself volunteered to learn Gaelic, if need were, rather than give up that post which he felt to be his fittest sphere. And it is evident that the profound piety and fervent love to God and man which he found in the heart of his new friend had already made Irving a partisan in his favor, as was natural to the man. The correspondence proceeds, not with the closeness or fullness of the journal-letters, which made the former separation between husband and wife memorable, but still conveying the best picture that can be given of his life and thoughts: "14 Westbourne Terrace, Bayswater, 19th July, 1828. "' MY DEAREST ISABELLA, —I find it impossible, for some few days yet, of getting my plan carried into effect of finishing my long letter, so much lies to my hand; and, that you may not be disappointed of the regular communications which you so well deserve and I so much desire to make, I must send you these light pilot-boats before my great galleon. William and Elizabeth arrived last night about half past eight o'clock. They are both looking uncommonly well; Elizabeth a great deal stronger than at the time of her marriage, and both, as you may well conceive, glad to get home. We were holding a session, and so I did not arrive here till toward or after ten o'clock. The session were loud in their acknowledgments to IMr. Campbell, and none more so than Mr. Mackenzie, who, before, had been in some doubt of his doctrines. Now I think the judgment of so many pious and intelligent men, supported, as it is generally, I may say universally, ought to have its weight among the gainsayers in Scotland. I wrote for Campbell two letters, as I said, and saw him off on Saturday night. On Sabbath I preached my sermon on'Jesus,' and in the evening I opened the period of the provocation from the making of the covenant unto the turning back into the wilderness. Next Sabbath, God willing, I open the name'Christ' add the Church in the wilderness. The services were both well attended, and the people seemed most glad to see me back again, as you may be sure was I to be back. I caused thanks to be returned for you, and I am glad, by your father's letter, to find that we have such good reason for the continuance of thanks. "I have read Mr. Evil's second tract, which contains a good deal of matter.... I write these things because I know you love to meditate on them. Von Bfilow called yesterday afternoon; he has been hunted out of Scandinavia as they would a man-destroyer, but not until he had been instrumental in raising up two or three preachers in his stead, and he is now bound on his way to Poland, still in the service of the Continental Society. His wife is with him, and they have now three children.... I have finished this day my dedication, which, as Miss Macdonald was writing it, containing a review and narration of God's dealings with the Church, we found we were writing on that day six years on which I set out from Glasgow to go to London to take up my charge. Next Sabbath is the first of my Sabbatical year. God grant it may be a year of free-will fruitfulness! I have several curious things to send to you, but I must wait for a frank. Mr. Percival and his brother were in church on Sabbath morning..... I forget whether there is any thing else of news, but I forget not to assure you of my tender love and constant faithfulness. God grant me to prove myself your worthy husband! I bless my children, yours and mine. I pray God to bless all the house. Remember me with all affection, and pray for me always. E. I." The dedication mentioned in this letter was that of the splendid volume, entitled the Last Days, a work which one naturally places beside his Orations, and which, apart from prophetical researches, or the deeper investigations into doctrine of his Trinity sermons, is perhaps more likely to preserve his literary fame than any oth: er of his productions. The dedication was to his session, and especially to William Hamilton, now so nearly connected with him by family ties, and his old elder, Mr. Dinwiddie; and contained a history of his coming to London, and all the difficulties connected with it, from which I have already largely quoted. It is one of the chief of those many brief snatches of autobiography in which he revealed himself fromn time to time with unconscious simplicity, and which, unlike prefaces and dedications in general, are of an interest in many instances superior, and always equal to, the book itself thus introduced. But his wife's health had again raised fond anxieties in his heart: " London, Boro', Scotch Church, 15th July. "MY DEAREST ISABELLA,-I write this from the Presbytery-room, after a long meeting, merely to express by this post the satisfaction which I have in not having received any letter, and the hope to which I have been raised that it was only an affection of the stomach.... I trust it has been a profitable, though a most overwhelming night to me, last night. God willing, we shall not separate again, save at the command of God, and for the needful duties of His Church; and this experience convinces me of the propriety, of the duty, of not leaving Margaret in Scotland. Ah! dear wife, you see how hope takes wing! I am speaking as if you were all beside me again, when, perhaps, you may be in sore affliction and trouble. If so, God be your help and comfort, your health and your portion! You were remembered in the prayers of the Presbytery, and shall be remembered to-morrow night in the Church. I can not go to dine with my brethren, but go home to Miss Macdonald's.... My blessing upon our children, and my dearest love and blessing to yourself, my most dear and affectionate wife." "6 Euston Grove, Euston Square, 15th July. "MY DEAREST ISABELLA, — This letter of your father's afflicts me exceedingly, but yet I have a good hope that the Lord will be gracious to us, and restore you to your bodily strength for a consolation to me and to his people..... Miss Macdonald assures me that her sister has frequently had similar attacks. This is some comfort to me in my present absence and great distance from you; but my chief comfort is in knowing that where God is there is peace. His presence be with thee and give thee rest! It was a very great delight to me to receive a letter written partly by your own hand, and I had begun to count over the weeks before your return. But the Lord suffereth me not to be high-minded; I am kept in poverty of spirit and in affliction; would that I may be found bowed down for my sins, and the sins of my house, and the sins of the Church! Lately I have been very much exercised with the consciousness of indwelling sin, and, by God's grace, have attained unto some measuir'e of self-loathing; but much, much I lack of this grace, which cometh only through the apprehension of God's beauty, and holiness, and loveliness, seen in the face of Jesus Christ. To you, now lying on a bed of sickness and weakness, how sweet must be the thought that the Son of God himself bore your infirmities, and carried your diseases and sorrows, and that He is able to succor you in your temptation; yea, that He is suffering with you, and will be a strength in you to overcome your suffering! Oh, my dear wife, how glad were I at this moment to stand beside your bed and speak comfort to your heart! But He, who is the head of all the members, heareth my prayer, and will minister grace unto you by His Spirit, or by some one of His saints. I am very troubled in my spirit at present, but yet I will trust in my God. The other night I was enabled to make a very full confession of our sins as husband and wife, and the heads of a family. I desire to be before the Lord in great lowliness and poverty of spirit until He is pleased to comfort me with the tidings of your recovery. If you be able to attend to other things, I know you will desire to know all our state, and how we prosper together. The enemy seems stirring up the lukewarm and formalists to speak more and more against the blessed hope of our Lord's coming, but among us I find it findeth room and bringeth peace. I had a good deal of controversy this morning with —, who came out with such an expression as this:'I wish you were done with that subject altogether.' The ears of men are fast shutting, and we will soon be reduced to the necessity of giving ourselves wholly to the ear of God.'I gave myself to prayer.' Yesterday I preached upon'Christ,' the anointed, showing from Exodus, xxx., that the holy oil was the symbol of the anointing spirit, and the things anointed the symbols of  Christ's humanity therewith anointed. First, the tabernacle of His humanity, as the inclosure of divinity and of the worshiper of Godthe middle thing between the Creator and the fallen creature, the ground of all intercommunion; second, the ark of the covenant... third, the shew-bread.... To you, dearest Isabella, that which is of most concern is to look with faith to those cherubim upon the mercy-seat. They are what we hope to be, and what we now believe ourselves to be-souls saved by grace, and resting upon Christ, our propitiation, which is the same word with mercy-seat, or propitiatory. In the evening I preached upon the wilderness state of the Church, having written a new discourse for that purpose, in which I showed how the Jewish wilderness experience was to teach us of the Gentile Church how few, how very few would be honored to come into the Sabbatical rest. Even Moses and Aaron fell in the wilderness, though doubtless glorified saints, and many more; but only these two men came through to inherit the land. We are all sealed with the new covenant in the Lord's Supper; and if this generation should be the one which receives the judgment, how few will be brought through, for how few see the new covenant in the cup! But we do, my dear Isabella, therefore let us be strong in faith. I am again comforted. I feel a hope that the Lord will long spare us to go forward together through the wilderness, and that He may bring us and our little ones with us unto our rest.... Meanwhile, I am employing myself in finishing the work upon the latter days, and... shall engage myself with my work on the Lord's Supper, which I see to be daily more and more important..... We have great love and harmony, blessed be the Lord!... I wish we were together: this is a poor substitute for personal communion; but all was done for the best. Abide in faith, my dearest wife, and be not disappointed at His appearing. The Lord bless our two children." "17th July. "I have received with much gladness, and, I trust, thankfulness of heart, this letter of dear aunt's, which Mr. H-I- sent out from town immediately on its arrival. I trust you will exercise over yourself much care, and walk by the rules of your physician, to whom I will be very much indebted when he gives you permission to set out on your voyage. I wish you would ask him how long it is likely to be till then. Let me know also in what way you would like that we should put up till we get a house of our own, for which I will now be looking out, somewhere in the neighborhood of the church. "I spent the first part of this week at Miss Macdonald's, engaging ourselves chiefly with the finishing of a long discourse upon' Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,' in the handling of which, to establish the fact of the abounding hypocrisy, I have gone over every one of the characteristics* again, which makes it likewise serve the end of a recapitulation. Upon the whole, I begin to think that you and Mr. Drummond think more correctly about these sermons than I do myself. May God accept them as an offering of the faith and faithfulness of His Church!... I have had a letter from -, of Edinburgh, remonstrating with me for not having preached the fundamental truths of the Gospel when I preached my twelve discourses. I take it as a precious oil from him, though it proves to me how dark the time is in which such a one should be held up for a light. I doubt very much whether he apprehends any more than the altar and the laver, which was open to all the people and under the open heaven. The Church of the first-born-the elect ones in the holy place-he very dimly perceives, if at all. However, if you should see him, let him know that I am beholden to him for his kindness, and take it in good part..... The Presbytery were very kind to me when I presented my apology for my absence. I have had several visits of Miss C-, whom I call'my little nun.' She fasts every Friday, confessed herself to me before the Sacrament, is most earnest that we should all league and covenant over again, and.is a most pure-minded creature, but somewhat of a devotee... I shall observe what you say of Von Billow, but I fear he is gone. In the paper before yesterday there was an address from Wolff, the apostle of the Sews in Palestine, to his countrymen in Alexandria, being chiefly taken verbatim from our Ben-Ezra. I liked it well; he seems growing in the knowledge of the truth. They say (the evilspeaking generation)'Wolff has separated from his wife.' You see what you have to expect if you do not haste back again.... Farewell, mytister, my spouse! When are we to meet again? Make no tarrying. My blessing upon the children.... Farewell! The galleon is hardly yet on the stocks." " 19thl July. " Miss Macdonald and I snatch a moment before dinner, in the midst of Saturday occupations, to let you know how happy we were made, and all your friends, on account of your restoration, which I dare say hath abounded in many thanksgivings to God. May the Lord continue to preserve you and the dear children by His mighty power until our union and forever!... Yesterday we had a call, at Bayswater, of Captain Gambler, who opened to me his interpretation of Ezekiel's three chapters of Tyrus, making it out to be this land.... I am deeply impressed with it, but have not yet had time to examine it. I am writing upon Christ, the altar of incense, the brazen altar and the laver, and upon Korah and his company.". This hurried break in his Saturday's labors is accompanied by a letter from his kind and gentle amanuensis, insisting on Mrs. Irving taking possession of her house as soon as she is able to come to London, and declaring her own intention of going to the country, and leaving it entirely to her friends, whenever she knew their arrangements. The author and the scribe mutually paused -the one from the deepest ponderings of judgment and mercy, the other from the absorbing yet tedious labors of the ministering pen-to send messages of comfort to the patient wife in her sickchamber. These intimations of the joint labors of the preacher and his amanuensis are sufficient to show that his delight in the faculty of extempore preaching, which he seems to have discovered in himself in his travels in Scotland, by no means interfered with his habitual studies. The fatiguing home voyage from Edinburgh was no sooner accomplished than he plunged into this habitual occupation; and throughout all this summer, through the fervid months which most people find unbearable in London, his pastoral labors are constantly kept in balance by intervals of close composition. The lonely man, with his heart and its treasures at a distance, divides his time between the new-formed home of his sister Elizabeth and that warm centre of friendship and good offices where Miss Macdonald's pen was always ready to save him half his toil. Very interesting is the picture of the interrupted occupation presented to us for a moment in the letter above: the man, all fervent and loving, turning from his work to rejoice in the safety of his distant wife, yet with a delicate consideration, even in that most sacred tenderness, for the friend beside him, connecting her name with his own; and the sympathetic woman, adding her congratulations and invitation, glad, yet not without a sentiment of contrast, as she writes that "all times are alike to a disengaged person like myself," while anticipating the joyful return of the wife so deeply longed for; such a vignette of the many-sided life, which can only be seen of other eyes when it concerns the gifted, is enough to throw a certain gleam of pleasant interest even over the noisy purlieus of Euston Square. The next letter from Kirkcaldy contained still better news: "22d July, 1828. "MY DEAREST WIFE,-The anxiety with which I heard the two knocks of the postman was amply repaid upon my breaking the seal and seeing your own hand. I hope the Lord will enable us to be thankful for all His mercies..... Lord Mandeville came last night, and passed three hours with us, opening to me his views, which are not new to you or to me, though to himself so much that he almost doubted the evidence of his own most patient inquiries. Ist. That we are not yet living under the New Covenant, which is to the Jews primarily, and through them to others, against the day of their restoration. 2. That we are still under Abraham's covenant of imputed righteousness. 3. That we enjoy it in a testamentary form..... I have now his Lordship's papers. He is gone down to Huntingdon, to the Bible Society meeting.... Mr. Dinwiddie is in great trepidation at being put at the head of my book,* and he tells me Mr. Hamilton is of the same mind. I hope to persuade them better. I have a strong conviction that this boastful land is soon to be humbled. Oh, my dear Isabella, make no tarrying, but hide yourself and our children under the shadow of His wings, which is the Almighty... Pray for me often and diligently, and pray for us altogether in * The Last Days was dedicated to these two gentlemen. 'Our Father,' and pray much that we may have a sweet sense of the forgiveness of our sins. It is too good for me to be used as the Lord's instrument in these perilous times, though but little believed. Oh, God, grant me to be thy faithful servant, in the spirit of a son,'though a son learning obedience.' Coleridge and Wordsworth are gone to Germany in company; is not that curious?... I remember nothing farther to mention, except what I would never forgetmy love to all your house, and my blessing upon my children, and upon my tender and devoted wife." "25th July. "I have received the sermons, and, as usual, there is now nothing wanting, and what I am to do with them I have not yet determined. I wish* your father would make me a good bargain with some of the Edinburgh booksellers, and so implicate their purse that they would be forced, by self-interest, to push them, for I see no other way of getting such interested. I would give them an edition of the series, consisting of 1500 copies, two vols. octavo, for ~500. I'll tell you what, my good chancellor, I will give you all you can get for them, in full possession, to do with it whatever seemeth to you good. Try Blackwood, or some of those worldlings; for truly there is no longer any grace or honor, and hard justice must be the rule with such. I wish sadly you were back again. I miss you very sore, although Miss Macdonald does every thing which one not a wife can do for my comfort, and I have great reason to be thankful. She desires her kind love, and rejoices in your recovery. Tell Maggy she must come to her own papa, or I will come and carry her off across the seas. But now keep of a good heart, that I may see you the sooner." "'Blackheath, 25th July. "I write this from Miss Stubbs' cottage, whither Miss Macdonald and I have come in order to see and enjoy its beauty before it pass into the hands of another owner.... Lord Mandeville came to us on Saturday night, and Elizabeth was with us. Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Mackenzie dropped in, and we spent a very sweet evening, being chiefly occupied with the Epistle to the Hebrews, upon which his Lordship and I have come to very similar conclusions.... He had been at the Bible Society at Huntingdon, and had to stand in the pillory of Public Opinion. He had written, when invited to take the chair, that he had resolved within himself never to take the chair in any meeting which was not opened with prayer, and, hearing nothing farther, concluded they had come to that resolution; but when he found himself in the committee-room, all but two opposed it violently...'So,' he said,'there remain only two ways to proceed, and I leave you your choice: either I will not take the chair and allow the county to put their own construction upon it, or I will take the chair and begin the meeting. by an explanation of all that has occurred.' They preferred the last, to which he was not disinclined, lest it might seem that he was acting from ill temper. And so, having opened the matter by this act of lecturing, the meeting proceed* This is apparently a reference to the three volumes of Sermons already mentioneded, every speaker leveling against his Lordship's view of the matter, and apologizing for and justifying the Society.... during which exposition they were so given over to an ungovernable mind, that they shut their ears with their hands, and even stamped with their feet, and did not refrain themselves from any other expression of disgust and disdain..... But so it is, dearest, this religious world will outdo the French Republicans in their rage against the true servants of the Lord, who shall be faithful enough to withstand them. Yesterday, though rather weakened in body, I was much strengthened in spirit for the Lord's work, to open, in the morning, the mystery of Christ the first-born from the dead, and therein preferred above all creatures to be the High-Priest; and in the evening, to open up the mystery of Baptism as shadowed forth in the judgment and preservation of the Deluge.... There is a curious piece of information connected with the Record newspaper, which I resolved-to communicate to you, in order to prepare you for that opposition which we are destined to from the religious world. It had come to a standstill, and was going to be given up, when Mr. Drummond and Haldane, and Lord Mandeville, and a few others, resolved to take it up and make it a truly Christian paper, adopting jure divino doctrine with respect to Church and State at home, and Protestant principles with respect to our foreign affairs, such as Cromwell taught Papal Europe to fear. The moment it was heard by the religious world (the Evangelical) that it was coming into the hands of such men, they rallied themselves, subscribed plentifully, and are resolved to carry it on.. Such is the idea entertained of us, and such is the present standing of the Record religious newspaper. Prepare yourself, my love, for casting out of the synagogue. I am sure it will come to this, and that, according to our faithfulness in testifying to the death, will be our acceptancy and admission into the kingdom of the Lord.... Beloved, I desire you to love me as I love you, and let us love one another as one self; not as one another, but one-the same." "31st July. "However short the time I can snatch, I know, though it were but a line that I wrote, it will yield you pleasure as a token of my affection, and therefore I do not hesitate, in the midst of my many occupations, to send you these hasty and most insufficient letters.... In the mean time, I have been slowly working out Mr. Drummond's book; for, as usual, I always feel myself pressed with a superfluity of matter, which I take as a gracious token of the Lord's goodness, and a call, at the same time, not to slacken in my endeavors to arouse the Church. It would have pleased you to see almost the whole body of the church full last night, listening to the exposition of the last part of the nineteenth chapter of the Revelation. I believe the Spirit can not now be quenched. I feel the assurance of it, that the Lord's people are destined to make a stand in this place for His truth. The Dissenters are showing signs of fear in beginning to organize a lecture for next winter upon the subject of unfulfilled prophecy; and I hear they are prevailing against me in various parts, and that I am generally reported among them as a man wholly mad. I trust there is enough of method in my madness to expose all their treachery to Christ and His Church. About fifteen of the chief Protestant noblemen, with the Duke of Gordon at their head, have begun to organize among themselves a Protestant Association, to act, not as a body, but with a mutual understanding in their several parts of the country. They begin now to perceive the sanctimonious mask of Satan concerning the Sacraments when it is too late..... Elizabeth was with us a good part of yesterday. We went out and looked at some houses, but as yet I see none to my mind; and, indeed, I am rather disposed, if I could bring it about, to take a lodging for you and the children somewhere in the neighborhood of town, and to come in and out myself for some months until you are strong. I would like to hear your mind upon this subject..... Miss Macdonald and I amuse ourselves among hands with reading a very curious German book of travels, full of beautiful plates —above all measure interesting. I think I shall be beyond you in German when you return, for I begin to like it very much: it is a rare book for Maggy, the plates are so magnificent. I heard from George the other day by Mr. R,and I have remitted him ~30 in clearing of his expenses and enabling him to return.... Would you believe it, that the Baptist minister refused to baptize Miss C- because she declared that she expected the grace of the Holy Ghost in the ordinance? Indeed, there is no saying to what lengths they will go. They will now stop at nothing.... God preserve my Margaret and Samuel unto the eternal kingdom! I often think woefully of the pair that are gone before; but I ought not. The Lord preserve me from all murmurings; but I am a very wicked man. The Lord alone can keep me in peace and tranquillity."' "Mornington Terrace, Hampstead Road, 4th August. " On this day and at this hour, thirty-six years ago, I entered into this sinful world, and very evil have been the days of my pilgrimage, and sore grieved am I this morning to look out upon the past. Nothing could comfort me but the blessed revelation that it is so ordered of the Lord that our flesh should be full only of sin, and that by this ordinance His glory is advanced. This is not,' Let us sin that grace may abound,' but it is,' The grace of God aboundeth by my sin,' and therefore, I am born a sinner, and, being so, I am not to be discontented or murmur against God, but betake myself to the remedy which He hath provided, which remedy will only lay open the disease more, and force us out of ourselves into the Redeemer. The number of sins which I have committed are to me profitable to reflect upon only as they confirm the truth, which, by faith, I have received and hold, that the whole race of mankind is fallen, and, as such, can not cease from sin. He that hath believed this is farther advanced than the greatest spiritualist, who seeks and sighs that he may be torn up with racking emotions and painful workings of remorse. The work of the Spirit, in convincing of sin, is not by agonizing convictions, and bringing of us, as it were, to hell's mouth, but by a calm and settled avoiding of ourselves and the fallen world, always for the preference of Christ and the world to come. I therefore desire and pray, both for myself and for my own dear wife, that we may at all times prefer the glory of God in Christ revealed to that temporary well-being of the creature which is to be found in this fallen world. There is a well-being and perfection ofrhe creature to be found here, otherwise there would be no glory to God in our preference of that eternal perfection which we have in Christ. In this way the Holy Spirit acteth in and upon us, not by making us insensible to the worldly well-being, but, while we are alive thereto, by leading us to prefer our better being in Christ. He hath not a pleasure in cruelty, or torturing us with what so many seek to have worked up in their experiences of a great and grievous sort, but He delighteth in our peace and joy, and giveth us to set the excellency and loveliness of our blessed Jesus, who hath been tried with every infirmity of the fallen creature, which in us becometh sin, but in Him stayed at infirmity and temptation. In perceiving that our Lord's flesh was altogether such as ours, we may well be comforted, dear Isabella, to abide in this flesh, all-sinful though it be, and await the good pleasure of the Lord. So may we, having a body conversant only with wickedness, and in itself competent only to the suggestion of sin, be so possessed with the Spirit of Christ (not the Holy Ghost in his unlimited divinity, but the Spirit of Christ, that is, the Holy Ghost, proceeding through the man-soul of Christ, and bringing with Him the humanity of Christ, His holy humanity, to bear up against, and overcome, our wicked humanity. Oh, blessed mystery!) that we may, notwithstanding of the flesh animated only to evil, be able to love and obey God from the heart. In all these thoughts, instructions, and prayers to and for my beloved wife, I have my sweet children in my mind no less than their mother, whom God beholdeth all represented by me. So may I bear them forever on my heart! " Our dear friend, Mr. Paget, of Leicester, was in church all yesterday, and kindly came down to converse during part of the interval. I wish you knew him. He is truly a divine-more of a divine than all my acquaintances..... He also, like Campbell and Erskine, sees Christ's death to be on account of the whole world, so as that He might be the Lord both of the election and the reprobation, and that it is the will of God to give eternal life by the Holy Ghost to whomit pleaseth Him. I first came to the conviction of that truth on that Saturday when, at Harrow, after breakfasting with a bishop.and a vicar, I sat down to prepare a meal for my people. He thinks the Calvinistic scheme confines this matter by setting forth Christ as dying, instead of, whereas there is no stead in the matter, but on account of, for the sake of, to bring about reconciliation. He also thinks that the righteousness of Christ which is imputed to us is not the righteousness of the Ten Commandments, which He kept, and which is only a fleshly righteousness, but the righteousness into which He hath entered by the resurrection-that super-celestial glory whereof we now partake, being one with Him, and living a resurrection life. This I believe; and I take it to be a most important distinction indeed. " Mr. Drummond was at church last night, and brought me as far as Miss Macdonald's in his carriage. He was telling me a very extraordinary piece of intelligence, if it be true, namely, that the Tribes have been discovered, twenty millions in number, inhabiting the region north of Cashmere and toward Bokhara, in the great central plain of Asia. It would seem that fidere came men from them to Leipsic fair who brought this intelligence. They were trading in Cashmere shawls... I will let you know more of this when I hear farther concerning it. I am to dine with M1Vr. Drummond this day week, to settle who are to be of the Albury Conference. Hle seems to think that we must select with more caution, as some of the people last year have not been very faithful. I hope it is only malicious report. Oh, that we were filledl with the love and the life of Christ! I have had but a restless night, and I write this fasting. It is just striking twelve upon the Somers-town church, which is almost right opposite my window, with a green grass-park full of milch cows* between, which I overlook on this sweet autumn-like morning. My dear brother! oh, my brother! how oft, on such mornings, have we rejoiced in our childhood together; and behold, thy visible part moulders in the dust far away, and mine abideth here still. May we meet at the throne of the glory of God! This is not a prayer for the dead, but for the living. Miss Macdonald is to come at twelve to write. What excellence is wrapped up in that name-right-hearted, tender-hearted woman! Thou art, indeed, a comfort to me, in the absence of my wife and children, worth many sisters. Farewell, my dear Isabella; make no tarrying to return; our time may be short together, let it be sweet. I bless the children in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." " 15th August. "God hath enabled us, my: dear wife, to be in perfect resignation to His will, and in much affliction to say,'Thy will be done!' His actings in Providence are the declarations of His sovereignty, and our receiving them with thankfulness is our thankful acknowledgment of the same. Therefore, to me and mine be it according to the will of God. I did rejoice exceedingly when I found that He had been pleased to shine on us with His face, and I trust He will continue to do so more and more. It is very sweet to me to receive your letters, and to bear the share of your burdens. I have thought it might conduce to your health and the children's to try the air of Monimail, and, if that did not recruit you, might it not be advisable to try the very mild air of Annan or Moffat? But act in this matter as you judge. best. I think our desires are equal, to be separated no longer than is absolutely necessary. "6 Your prayers concerning my books have been answered, in one respect already, that yesterday and to-day I have been directed, I think, in great wisdom, and delivered from great perplexity. You know how the book for the Church hath passed to three volumes. It is now my purpose to make it three complete volumes, and not to burden the Church with the risk, but to give them Mr. Drummond's book,t which I think will come into immediate and wide circulation, * This description will startle the present inhabitants of that crowded and busy district. t' By " Mr. Drummond's book" Irving evidently means the Last wDays, Mr. Drummond, it would appear, having specially suggested or the expense being already provided for. And now, having the other work on my hand, I propose adding to the first part another discourse upon the'Method of the Incarnation,' which will complete the whole doctrine.... and this done, I offer the thousand copies to any bookseller in Edinburgh, being resolved to bring it out in the heart of my mother Church, as containing the whole doctrine on which she is become so feeble, and containing, besides, much prophetic matter, and much natural and ecclesiastical, which may prepare the way for the other work, upon which I find I must at least spend a diligent winter. This, therefore, I intend immediately to arrange for, by means of my friend, Mr. Bridges, to whom I will write, and ask him to negotiate with the booksellers for me. This I think a very great deliverance, and humbly trust to see prosperous unto the Church of Christ and the glory of God. The additional discourse will bring the first volume up to the size of the other two, being 400 pages; and I will distinctly state the reason of it to be my becoming aware of the existence of the heresy in the Church. Be of good cheer; the Lord is not raising a controversy about these things for naught. " I am now sleeping at Mr. Hamilton's, but working here with my most faithful fellow-workman, and I trust attaining to deeper and deeper insight into the mystery of God, as also is my flock. To-night we begin Ezekiel at Mr. Tudor's, and I trust the Lord will be with us. Mr. Marsh intends to be of our party; and Miss Macdonald has consented to accompany me..... Mr. Drummond told us that the new London College was an idea of the archbishop's thrown out to the king, without thinking he would approve it. But he did at once, and the archbishop pledged the bishops, who were invited to Lambeth, knowing not wherefore, as a bishop told Mr. -. When they were come together, the archbishop told them he had pledged them to the king. They were loth, but could not draw back, and consented, in the hope it might come to nothing. The Lord leads men blindly; it is now come to ~100,000, and will go on, I hope, to the defeat of the infidel, or to the showing out the Dissenters as the opposers of religion established, and the preferrers of infidelity unestablished, and the establishers of it. Dr. Sumner, now Bishop of Chester, was in Hatchard's, and said to a clergyman whom he met there,' I have a note here to wait upon the Duke of Wellington; tell me where he lives.' He went, was back in about ten minutes, and the clergyman was still there.' You have soon got your business over.'' Yes, and in so short a time I am promoted to the see of Chester. I was shown into a room; in came the duke: Are you Dr. Sumner? I am commanded to offer you the bishopric of Chester. IDo you accept it or not? Yes? Then put down your name here. Goodmorning.' And so he left him. This is from good authority, Mr. Drummond says. I send it to amuse you and your father... The Lord bless you and my children, and all your house." "' 18th August. "I am glad to-day to have no accounts from you, concluding that dear Samuel is recovering, and that the mild weather will be blessed to the speedy restoration of your strength; yet, while I thus hope and pray, I desire to submit myself and mine to the great Sovereign  Disposer, who ordereth all according to the pleasure of His own will. I feel that this is, indeed, to feel and to act upon my election of God, to surrender all things unto Him as a righteous and tender father, in which I know you labor along with me. By the blessing of God, I continue equal to my duties.... I am, indeed, very anxious that you should remove before those cold winds, which proved in God's hand fatal to our dear Edward. Whenever you do propose it, you should begin to have preparations made for your removal in such time as to leave you nothing to do for a day or two before, but to take leave of your family and step into the carriage or the boat... You may think this is shooting far ahead, but I am, indeed, desirous that you and my children should be with me as soon as is consistent with health and safety, for I dread these east winds, and long to be your nurse, if not in bodily, at least in spiritual matters. "I have signed a contract with Seeley for the three volumes, to the first of which I intend to add a fifth sermon, demonstrative of Christ's true humanity. I take all the risk, pay the printers, and have a guinea for each copy, allowing him ~5 per cent., which, if they sell, will leave me ~1000, and the expenses of printing, etc., will be about half of it. It is provided that I may have separate agents for Glasgow and Edinburgh, with whom (Collins and Oliphant, I propose, with your judgment) I will make a similar contract for those which they may sell. Miss Macdonald has already pressed upon me ~300, which she has no use for at the banker's, to pay the printing. It is a book for much good or evil, both to the Church and myself, I distinctly foresee. I intend to read it all over with the utmost diligence, and correct it with the greatest care. The other book is proceeding fast-we are now about the 350th page; it will be about 450. I have the sweetest testimonies, both from Ireland and from Mr. iMaclean, to my book on Baptism-or rather, I should say, yours-for to you, I believe, the thoughts were given, as to you they are dedicated. My little tale is now completed, about eighteen pages, and I have asked a revise, that I may send it to you under cover. We have had apro-re-nata mfieeting of Presbytery, and I am much exhausted. I shall now close with my blessing-the blessing of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be upon the head of my dear wife, and my two children, forever and ever." The "little tale" here referred to was a quaint and graceful little narrative, entitled a Tale of the Times of the Martyrs, which his countryman, Allan Cunningham, then engaged in the arduous occupation of editing an Annual, had persuaded him to write. The Annual in question was the Anniversary, a publication which, I believe, lived and died in one appearance. Irving's story is a fine piece of writing, in the same style of minute and simple narrative as his journals, but is chiefly remarkable as his only attempt in the lighter form of literature, excepting, indeed, another brief narrative, equally minute, quaint, and melancholy, entitled The Loss of the Abeona, which appeared in Frazer's Magazine nearly about the same time. Both are true, detailed, and simple to the last degree, and convey the reader into a primitive world of heightened, but profoundly reserved Scotch imagination, very remarkable and impressive in its way. How he could have found time for such elaborate, minute cabinet pictures, amid all his great labors and studies, is more than one can understand. His next letters are occupied with a project of visiting Harrowgate, which Mr. Drummond had proposed to him. Irving's health was shaken at the time; at least, he was in such a condition of discomfort as the strongest frames, shut out from external nature, and pursued by an incessant flood of thought, are naturally liable to. His doctor told him that, "as my complaints proceed rather from an excess of health and disarrangement of the functions through much thought, they (the Harrowgate waters) would be of little good or evil to so robust a person;" yet, tempted by Mr. Drummond's society, and by the fact that Harrowgate was so far on his way to the North, whither he was anxious to go to bring home his wife, of "whose prolonged absence he began to be very impatient, he seems to have persuaded himself to the contrary, and went accordingly. From Harrowgate he writes as follows: "9th September, 1828. "MY DEAR ISABELLA,-We arrived here last night about 12 o'clock, and, now that I have paid my respects to the well and breakfast, I sit down to write you with Mr. Drummond's pen, ink, and paper, but with my own heart..... I do trust this my coming here is ordered of the Lord for the restoration of my strength, that I may serve Him with more diligence and ability during the winter. Lately there has been too great a sympathy between my head and my stomach, so much so as to cause slight headaches ever after eating..... I doubt not that the root of the matter is study, which of late has been with me of a deeper, intenser, and clearer kind than at any former period of my life, as I think will appear in the things which are now in the hands of the printers. Besides the conclusion of my book on the Last Times, I have written 150 or 160 of Miss Macdonald's pages upon the Method of the Incarnation.... It will be a body and centre to the whole discourse, which now has a perfectly logical method: 1. The origin or fountain-head of the whole in the will of God. 2. The end of it unto His glory. 3. The method of it by the union with the fallen creature. 4. The act of it by the life and death of the God-man, and his descent into hell. 5. The fruits of it in grace and peace to mankind; and, finally, conclusions concerning the Creator and the creature. If I mistake not, try dear Isabella, there is much more to God's glory in that volume than in all my other writings put together.... I have been strongly impressed, at the conclusion of the book, with the necessity of undertaking a work upon the Holy Spirit and the Church, but whether in the way of a completion of the introduction to Ben-Ezra, or in a separate treatise, I am not yet resolved; and then, if God spare me, I undertake a work upon the Trinity. What most blessed themes these are! They ravish my heart, and fill me with the most enlarged and exquisite delight... Oh, my dear Isabella, how I long to be with you again, and to be one with you, unseparated by distance of place or interruption of vision, and to embrace my dear children! God grant me patience and constancy of affection, and a heart of more tenderness." "17th September. "I dare say this water would do me good if I were to stay long enough, for it seems to enter into strong controversy with my complaint, and I think, in the end, would overcome it. But stay I can not, for my communion hastens, and my duties call me to London. This is truly my chief reason for not delaying my journey to Scotland so long as you seem to have desired. To remain separate for a whole half year from my wife and children is to me no small trial. When God requires it, I trust I shall be able to submit to it; but when there is no such call, I freely confess myself little disposed to it.... Besides, though we know differently, such separations lead to idle speculation, which it is good to prevent. That it is possible to prevent intrusion in London I have found during the last two months; and if London do not agree with you, I should be glad to take a place for you wherever you please, but I confess myself very loth to be separated from you and my children longer than is necessary, and shall be slow in consenting to it again. "The other day the new Bishop of Chester, D)r. Sumner, confirmed about two or three hundred persons. He had been instituted, or consecrated, only the day before at Bishopthorpe, the residence of the Archbishop of York, and made this his first duty. It was to me very impressive, and I hope very profitable.... His brother, the Bishop of Winchester, bore him company, and I was much impressed with the episcopal authority and sanctity of their appearance. Indeed, the more I look into the Church of England, the more do I recognize the marks of a true Apostolical Church,. and desire to see somewhat of the same ecclesiastical dignity transferred to the officebearers of our Church, which hath the same orders of bishops, priests or presbyters or elders, and deacons, whereof the last is clean gone, the second little better, and the first hath more of worldly propriety, or literary and intellectual character, than of episcopal authority and grave wisdom. Oh, that the Lord would revive His work in our land! In. what I have said I do not affect the ceremony, or state, or wealth of the English Church, but desire to see some more of the true primitive and Scottish character of our Church restored. I would wish every parish minister to fulfill the bishop's office, every elder the priest's, and every deacon the deacon's; and I am convinced that, till the same is attempted, through faith in the ordinances, we shall not prosper in the governiment and pastorship of our churches. " To-day I have received a copy of Dr. Hamilton's book against Millenarianism, and have been reading it all this morning: I think it breathes a virulent spirit, and seeks occasions of offense. I receive my share of his censure. I said to your father I would answer it, but as yet I have found nothing to answer, save his attempt to expose my inconsistencies with others, and theirs with me. Now, verily, I am not called upon to be consistent with any one but God's own Word. Still, if I had time, I would, for the sake of the Church of Scotland, which I love, and to which I owe my duty, undertake an answer to it; but at present my hands are filled. I wish Samuel would break a spear with him. " I shall drink the waters till Friday morning, and then proceed on my way to York, from which I will take the first coach that I can get to Edinburgh..... On Monday, I trust, the Lord willing, I will be permitted to embrace you all.... Tell Maggy that she must make herself ready to set out on this day week for London. My dear Samuel is oft on my mind at the throne of grace. God alone can convey my messages to him." So concluded this separation, which at length made the solitary head of the house impatient, and produced the nearest approach to ill-temper which is to be found in any of Irving's letters. He conveyed his family home to Miss Macdonald's house in the end of September, where they seem to have remained for a considerable time, their kind hostess forming one of the household. The ceaseless occupation of this year is something wonderful to contemplate. The Homilies on Baptism, the three volumes of sermons, and the Last Days, were but a portion of the works so liberally undertaken and so conscientiously carried out. In the intervals of those prodigious labors he had not only his own pastoral work to carry on from week to week, but, by way of holiday, indulged in a preaching tour with sermons every day; threw himself into the concerns of the time with a vehemence as unusual as it was all opposed to the popular tide of feeling; and became the centre of a description of study, known, when it throws its fascination upon men, to be the most absorbing which can occupy human intelligence. In this height and fullness of his life, men of all conditions sought Irving, with their views of Scripture and prophecy. He heard all, noted all, and set to work in his own teeming brain to find place and arrangement for each. The patience with which he listens to every man is as remarkable as the cloud of profound and incessant thought in which his mind seems enveloped, without rest or interval; and his perpetual human helpfulness is equally notable. When the Presbytery of London, doubtless moved by his own exertions, sends forth a pastoral letter to the Scotch community in London, it is Irving who takes the pen and pours forth, like a prophet, his burden of grief and yearning, his appeal and entreaty, and denouncing voice, calling upon those baptized members of the Church of Scotland who have forgotten their mother to return to her care and love; and scarcely are these grave entreaties over, than, at a friend's impulsion, he is again devoting his leisure hours-those hours full of every thing but rest-to that grave picture of the martyr's son, which must have startled the ordinary readers of Annuals into the strangest emotion and amazement; while conjoined with all this is the entire detail of a pastor's duties-visits of all kinds, meetings with young men, death-bed conferences, consultations of Session and Presbytery, into all of which he enters with an interest such as most men can only reserve for the most important portions of their work. So full a stream of life, all rounded and swelling with great throbs of hope and solemn expectation, seldom appears among the feeble and interrupted currents of common existence. It is impossible to understand how there could be one unoccupied moment in it; yet there are moments in which he reads German with Miss Macdonald, or enters into the fascinating gossip of Henry Drummond, or consults with the young wife Elizabeth over her new plenishing, and what is needful to her house. Though they meet in solemn session in the evening upon the high mysteries of Ezekiel, he makes cheerful errands forth with this sister to look at houses, and prepares by anticipation for the return of those still dearer to him, and has domestic tidings of all his friends to send to his lingering and delicate wife. Amid all, he feels that this time, so full and prosperous-this period in which he has come to the middle of life's allotted course, the top of the arch, as Dante calls it-is a time of wonderful moment to himself no less than to his Church. He feels that his studies have been " of a deeper, intenser, and clearer kind than at any former period of my life." He " distinctly foresees" that one of the books he is about to publish is "a book for much good or evil, both to the Church and myself," though convinced that there is also more for God's glory in it than "in all my other writings put together;" he has, in short, come to the threshold of a new world, which yet he can not see, but which vaguely thrills him with prophetic tremors-a world to him radiant with ever-unfolding truth, persecutions, glories, martyrdoms, one like unto the Son of Man in the midst of the fiery burning with him, and the Lord visible in theflesh, vindicating his saints at the end. Such was not the future which awaited the heroic devoted soul, but such was the form in which his anticipations presented it now. I may be pardoned for lingering on this splendid and overflowing year. Irving had already controversies enough on hand; vulgar antagonists, whom he scorned; assaults from without, which could not harm him, having no point of vantage upon his heart; but nothing which touched his life or honor. IHe had enemies, but none whose enmity wounded him. Every thing he had touched as yet had opened and sublimed under his hand, and no authoritative voice had yet interfered to drive back to doctrine and forms of words a man whose faith seized upon a Divine reality instead, and converted dogmas into things. He stood, open-eyed and eager, trembling on the verge of an opening world of truth, every particular of which was yet to gleam forth as vivid on his mind as those which he had already apprehended out of the dim domain of theology. And other men, who had also found light unthought of gleaming out of the familiar text which use had dulled to most, were gathering round him, bringing each his trembling certainty, his new hope. Whether they were right or wrong had as yet come under the question of no serious tribunal. Wrong or right, it was the love of God glowing radiant over the human c&eatures he had made that inspired them all; and to many an eye less vivid than Irving's, this wonderful combination seemed the beginning of a new era, the manifestation of a higher power. For himself, he was at the height of his activity and the fullness of his powers: his anticipations were all grand, like his thoughts. He looked for suffering on a heroic scale, not the harassing repetitions of Presbyterial prosecuti6n; and he looked to be splendidly vindicated at the last day by the Lord himself, in glory and majesty. His heart swelled and his thoughts rose upon that high tide of hope and genius; shades of passing ailment might now and then glide across him; but it was " excess of strength" resisting the intellectual and spiritual commotions within, and not any prevision of bodily weakness. HIis friends stood round him close and cordial, an undiminished band; and every vein throbbing with life, and every capacity of heart and mind in the fullest sway of action, he marched along in the force and fullness of his manhood, prescient of splendid conflict and great sorrow, unaware and unbelieving of failure or defeat. In the beginning of winter he paid a hurried visit to Leicester, to his friend Mr. Vaughan, whose life was then nearly drawing to its close. The short time they appear to have had together was spent " conversing about the things pertaining to our high calling as ministers of the Gospel and Church of Christ." And the letter in which Irving records this is ended by an amusing conjugal advice, more in the strain of ordinary husbands than is common to his chivalrous and tender heart: "I will hope to be with you, under Miss Macdonald's roof, on Thursday evening, which let us have quietly together," he writes. "And therefore be not overwearied, for nothing afflicts me so much as to see you incapable of enjoying the society and love for which you do not always give me credit, but which I trust I always feel," And in a postscript, he adds a message to the little daughter, now, at three years old, capable of entering into the correspondence. " Tell Maggy," he says, "that at Dunstable a man would have sold me twelve larks for a shilling, to bake into a pie, four-and-twenty blackbirds baking in a pie; and that at Newport-Pagnell one of the horses lay down when he should have started to run, which is like Meg, not Maggy, when she will not do ma's bidding, but stands still and cries. Not Maggy, but Meg; for Maggy is like the other three, who would have gone on cheerfully, except when Meg is restive." This is the first appearance of the little woman in the father's letters, which afterward contain many communications for her. A week or two later he writes from Albury, where the second prophetical conference was now taking place; and, after a brief announcement to his wife of his arrival, devotes his second letter from thence entirely to his three-year-old correspondent. I find no more serious account of this second meeting than the one Irving thus sends to his child: "MY MAGGY,-Papa is living in a great house with a great many men who preach. The house is Mr. Drummond's and Lady Harriet Drummond's. They have two daughters and two little boys... This house where we live is all round with great trees, like greatgrandpapa's, and the black crows build their nests, and always cry caw, caw, caw. There is a sweet little river that runs murmuring along, making a gentle noise among the trees. And there is a large, large garden.... Now, my Maggy, tell your papa what he and the great many preaching gentlemen are doing at Albury Park, where Mr. IDrummond and Lady Harriet live? We are all reading the Bible, which is God's Word —the book we read at worship. God speaks to us in that book, and we tell one another what He tells to us. Every morning, about half past six o'clock, a man goes round and awakens us all. Then, soon after, comes a maid, like Elizabeth, ana puts on a fire in all our rooms, and then we get up..... Then we go down stairs into a great room, and sit round a great table, and speak concerning God and Christ. Here is the table, and all the gentlemen about it." (Here follows a rude drawing of the table, with the names of all the members of the conference scribbled in, in their places, Irving's own seat being distinguished by the title, " My Papa.") "But it is time for dinner. Farewell, my dear Maggy. Mamma will tell all this to you, and you must tell it all to Miss Macdonald and little brother. "The Lord bless my Maggy! "Your Papa, EDWARD IRVING." The Albury Conference once more produced its volume of records, travestied by a lifeless form and obsolete treatment out of all human interest, but in Irving's domestic chronicle retains no memorial but this simple description. Immediately after its conclusion his father-in-law, Dr. Martin, writes thus to one of his younger daughters: " We had a long letter from Isabella the other day. All with her seems to be well. Edward's visit to Albury had not, she thinks, done him much good, in body at least. The vehemence with which he goes after every object that impresses him is extraordinary. Some things stated at Albury had impressed him much with the ignorance of the poorer population of London, and with the sin of those who are more enlightened in not doing more for their instruction; and he has resolved to preach every night to the poor of London and its vicinity, while Mr. Scott is to do, or at least to attempt to do, the like in Westminster. The Lord be with them! But there are limits to mortal strength; Mr. Scott's is not great, and Edward's, though more than ordinary, is not invincible. I suppose his conviction of the near approach of the second Advent has been increased by his attendance on the late meeting; and viewing it as the hour of doom to all who are not reconciled to God, he feels it the more imperatively his duty to warn all to flee from the wrath to come. After giving the subject the most careful and impartial consideration I can," adds the soberminded Scottish pastor, " I am unable to see things as he and his friends do; nay, I am more and more convinced that they are wrong. But, supposing them to be right, and they doubtless imagine they are, his conduct, which many will be apt to represent as that of a madman, is that of a generous lover of his fellow-creatures and a faithful embassador of Christ." Such was not the spirit, however, in which Irving's deviations from the ordinary views were to be generally received. He concluded this year with enough of these deviations to alarm any prudent friend. On the subject of the Millennium, and on that of Baptism (his doctrine on which differs from that commonly known as Baptismal Regeneration by the most inappreciable hair's-breadth), the authorities of the Church seem to have had nothing to say to him, and to have tacitly admitted these matters to be open to a diversity of opinion. How, doing this, the much more abstruse question concerning the Humanity of Christ should have been exempted from the same latitude and freedom, I am entirely at a loss to conceive, seeing it is, of all disputed questions, perhaps the most unfit to be argued before a popular tribunal. But the mutterings of the storm were already audible; and Irving visibly stood on a tremulous elevation, not only with dawning lights of doctrine, unseen by his brethren around him, but even more deeply at variance in spirit with the time and all its ways. As if his own responsibilities, in the shape of doctrine, had not been enough, he had identified himself, and thrown the glory of his outspoken, unhesitating championship over that which was shortly to be known as the Row Heresy. Every where he had "' committed himself," thought or calculation of prudence not being in the man. But at present, though his friends did not all agree with him, and though the scribblers of the religious press were already up in arms against him, no one seems to have feared any interruption of his triumphant and splendid career. Like other invincible generals, he had inspired his army with a confidence unconquerable in himself and his destiny. Some of the very closest in that half ecclesiastical, half domestic circle which gathered warmly round him in the new Church at Regent Square were afterward to turn upon him, or sadly drop from his side in horror of the heresy, to which now, in its first unconscious statement, they had given in their delighted adhesion. They did not know it was heresy for long months, almost years afterward: they believed in him with a unanimity and enthusiasm seldom paralleled. Downfall or confusion, as it seemed, could not approach that fervent and unwearied herald of God.