CHAPTER XV

1830. A new Light.

FROM year to year, as Irving proceeded farther on his course, the tide of thought and emotion had been hitherto rising with a noble and natural progress. He had now reached almost to the culmination of that wonderful and splendid development. Every thing he had uttered or set forth with the authority of'his name had been worthy the loftiest mood of human intellect, and had given dignity and force to the high position he assumed as a teacher and ambassador of God. All his discoveries and openings up of truth had operated only, so far as his own mind was concerned, to the heightening of every divine conception, and to the increase and intensification of the divine love in his heart. But another chapter of life had commenced for the great preacher. That a man whose thoughts were sublimated so far out of the usual way, and whose mental vision was so vivid as to elevate every thing he clearly perceived entirely out of the region of compromise into that of absolute verity, should have gone on so long without coming in contact at some point with the restrictions of authority, is more wonderful than that the common orthodox understanding, long jealous of a fervor and force which it could not comprehend, should at length set up a barrier of sullen resistance against his advances. The conflict had fairly set in when the year 1830 commenced. No longer the politico-religious journals of London, no longer stray adventurers into the world of controversy, but the authorized religious periodicals of his own country, and the divines of his mother Church, were now rising against him; and while the storm gathered, another cloud arose upon the firmament -another cloud to most of the spectators who watched the progress of this wonderful tragedy, but to Irving himself another light, still more beautiful and glorious than those which had already flushed his horizon with the warmest illuminations of gratitude and love. Since that summer-day of 1828 when he preached at Row, and agreed with Mr. Alexander Scott to come to his assistance in London, and work with him entirely unfettered by any pledge as to doctrine, that powerful and singular spirit had been his close companion and fellow-workman, and had not occupied that place without influencing the open and candid heart of his leader. I do not know what thread of unity ran through Mr. Scott's beliefs at this time, and gave his faith coherence. All that is outwardly apparent of him through the long vista of years is a determined resistance to every kind of external limitation, and fastidious rejection of all ecclesiastical boundary for his thoughts, combined with a power of impressing other minds around him not only with his own marvelous powers of understanding, but with his profound spirituality and perception of divine things. To a man of so questioning and unsatisfied a mind, slow to believe what any body told him, and apparently rather stimulated to con. tradiction than to reverence by the utterances of authority, the hope of direct communications from heaven afforded, no doubt, a gleam of possible deliverance out of the ever-increasing problems and perplexities of life and thought. It was an idea which already, in a kind of grand prophetic reverie, had crossed the mind of Irving. So far back as 1828, he himself says he had become convinced that the spiritual gifts so largely bestowed upon the apostolic age of Christianity were not exceptional, or for one period alone, but belonged to the Church of all ages, and had only been kept in abeyance by the absence of faith. Yet with the lofty reasonableness and moderation of genius, even when treading in a sphere beyond reason, Irving concluded that these unclaimed and unexercised supernatural endowments, which had died out of use so long, would be restored only at the time of the Second Advent, in the miraculous reign, of which they would form a fitting adjunct. Such had been his idea for some time, when the restless soul beside him began to work upon this germ of faith. " He was at that time my fellow-laborer in the National Scotch Church," writes Irving some time afterward, in his narrative of the Facts connected with recent Manzfestations of Spiritual Gifts, published in Fraser's Magazine for January, 1832, "And as we went out and in togethel, he used often to signify to me his conviction that the spiritual gifts ought still to be exercised in the Church; that we are at liberty, and indeed bound, to pray for them as being baptized into the assurance of the'gift of the Holy Ghost,' as well as of' repentance and remission of sins.'.. Though I could make no answer to this, and it is altogether unanswerable, I continued still very little moved to seek myself or to stir up my people to seek these spiritual treasures. Yet I went forward to contend and to instruct whenever the subject came before me in my public ministrations of reading and preaching the Word, that the Holy Ghost ought to be manifested among us all, the same as ever He was in any one of the primitive churches." Mr. Scott's influence did not end here. About the same period at which he was engaged in quickening this germ of expectation in the breast of Irving, circumstances brought him in the way of sowing a still more effectual seed: "Being called down to Scotland upon some occasion," continues Irving, "and residing for a while at his father's house, which is in the heart of that district of Scotland upon which the light of 1Mr. Campbell's ministry had arisen, he was led to open his mind to some of the godly people in these parts, and, among others, to a young woman who was at that time lying ill of a consumption, from which afterward, when brought to the very door of death, she was raised up instantaneously by the mighty hand of God. Being a woman of a very fixed and constant spirit, he was not able, with all his power of statement and argument, which is unequaled by that of any man I have ever met with, to convince her of the distinction between regeneration and baptism with the Holy Ghost; and when he could not prevail, he left her with a solemn charge to read over the Acts of the Apostles with that distinction in her mind, and to beware how she rashly rejected what he believed to be the truth of God. By this young woman it was that God, not many months after, did restore the gift of speaking with tongues and prophesying to the Church." This singular transaction connects the history together in its several parts with wonderful consistence and coherence. The preaching of Mr. Campbell, of Row, which had stirred the whole country-side with its warm and single-minded proclamation of an uncomplicated Gospel; the proceedings against him,* then going on before the ecclesiastical courts, which quickened the tradesmen and laborers of Clydesdale into a convocation of learned doctors deep in metaphysics and theology; the repeated apparition of Irving-then, perhaps, the most striking individual figure in his generation, and who spread excitement and interest around him wherever he went-had combined to raise to a very high degree of fervor and vividness the religious feeling of that district. Several humble persons in the locality had become illustrious over its whole extent by the singular piety of their lives-piety of an ecstatic, absorbing kind, such as in the Catholic Church would have brought about canonization, and which, indeed, does every where confer a spiritual local rank equal to canonization. Such was Isabella Campbell, of Fernicarry, a youthful saint who had died not long before in an odor of sanctity which no conventual virgin ever surpassed, and whose life had been published with immense local circulation by Mr. Story, of Rosneath. It is unnecessary to describe more fully the singular condition of mind into which the entire district seems to have been rapt at this special period, since it has already been done with fuller knowledge and more perfect detail in the Memoir of the admirable minister of Rosneath,t written by his son. But religion had at this crisis taken a hold upon the entire mind of the population which it very seldom possesses. It was not only the inspiration of their hearts, but the subject of their thoughts, discussions, and conversations. They seem not only to have been stimulated in personal piety, but occupied to an almost unprecedented degree with those spiritual concerns which are so generally kept altogether apart * The report of these presbyterial proceedings, being the trial of this saintly and admirable man for heresy by his Presbytery, in the very centre of the district which had been instructed and influenced by him, with its full testimony of witnesses for and against the orthodoxy of the reverend " defender"-witnesses of all descriptions, plowmen, farmers, small shopkeepers, Dunbartonshire lairds-is perhaps one of the most singular records ever printed; each man of all these miscellaneous individuals being evidently, not only in his own estimation, but in that of the Presbytery, a competent informant on a nice point of doctrine; and their testimony of the different senses in which they had understood their minister's sermons, and their opinions thereupon, being gravely received as influencing the important question of a clergyman's character and position in the Church. Nowhere but in Scotland could such a body of evidence be brought together. t Memoir of the Life of the Rev. Robert Story, by Robert Herbert Story, Minister of Rosneath: Macmillan and Co. from the common tide of life. On such a state of mind Mr. Scott's pregnant suggestion fell with the force that might have been expected from it. A master of "statement and argument," as Irving declares him to have been, he bent all his powers to laying this train of splendid mischief. I trust no one will consider that I speak with levity, or in the slightest degree prejudge what was to follow, by using this word. But the position is so remarkable, and the results were yet so much more so, that it seems to me a justifiable expression; all the more, as the singular man who dropped this seed, obeying-his fastidious instincts, as might have been predicted of him, afterward rejected the phenomena which his own exertions had shaped into being. With this smouldering fire beginning to glow in unsuspected quiet, and with a longing expectation beginning to rise in the mind of Irving, both fanned by one powerful hand, the year began. Nothing as yet had come of that expectation. But no one can watch the progress of events, marking how Irving's heart grew sick over the opposition of his brethren, and how the deep conviction that this antagonism was against a fundamental doctrine of Christianity, and involved the Church in a practical denial of her Head, overpowered him with indignation and melancholy, without perceiving how open his troubled spirit was to any thing which appeared like the ineffable joy of direct support and vindication from heaven. In January.his tract, entitled the Orthodox and Catholic Doctrine of Our Lord's Human Nature, made its appearance ?the first distinct and separate publication on the subject which he had given to the world since the Incarnation sermons which first broached the question. It was a controversial reassertion, strongly defensive and belligerent, of the doctrine: which he had before stated with calm exposition and lofty argument. I have heard many competent authorities say that there are rash and unjiustifiable expressions in this little book. It may very well be so; and, considering that his faith in this respect was the very heart and soul of his Christianity, it is not wonderful if he defended it with even an excessive vehemence.' But no one can read this, or any of his publications on the subject, without observing how he pa-uses now and then at every point of his argument, lays down his weapons, restrains his excited action, and with a simplicity and moderation that- becomes pathetic as one observes how it is repeated, states over'again the plain text of the question at issue. That self-control and affecting earnestness prove, much more effectually than any heat of argument, how profoundly important he held it, and how deeply bent he was on conveying the true statement of his ~ cherished belief to every ear that could be induced to hear. To a man so deeply human, there was no comfort in the passive immaculate image of a Savior, set aside from our temptations by a flesh which could not feel them, and only by some divine fiction of sympathy entering into the more heavily burdened way of His hapless creatures. But his whole nature expanded with love and consolation when he saw that Savior sensible to those assaults which rend the human' soul asunder, yet keeping perfect, in his strength and inspiration of Godhead, the flesh, which he held against all the forces of evil: * "I believe," cries Irving, with the deepest emotion, " that my Lord did come down and toil, and sweat, and travail, in exceeding great sorrow, in this mass of temptation, with which I and every sinful man am oppressed; did bring His Divine presence into death-possessed humanity, into the one substafice of manhood created in Adam, and by the Fall brought into a state of resistance and alienation from God, of condemnation and proclivity to evil, of subjection to the devil; and bearing it all upon His shoulders in that very state into which God put it after Adam had sinned, did suffer its sorrows and pains, and swimming anguish, its darkness, wasteness, disconsolateness, and hiddenness fromn the countenance of God; and by His faith and patience did win for Himself the name of the Man of Sorrows, and the author and finisher of our faith." This was the very essence of his belief. And when, from unexpected quarters every where round him, he discovered that other men-that his fathers and brethren in his own Church, disowned this central truth which gave life and reality to the Gospel, it went to his heart like a personal affliction. It was not that they differed with him on a controverted subject; the matter was different to hisgrieved and wondering perception. To him it appeared that they denied the Lord. The deepest heart of divine grace and pity, the real unspeakable redemption, seemed to Irving overlooked and despised when this wonderful identity of nature was disputed. He stood' wondering and sorrowful, always in the midst of his argument turning back again to simple statement, as if, like his Lord, he would have asked, " Do ye now believe?" And not only increasing controversy, but actual events, began to intensify'the character of this conflict. The first parallels of actual warfare were opened by two younger men than himself, both, I presume, his disciples, on this question'at least; one being the Rev. H. B. Maclean, of London Wall, and the other his chosen friend, Mr. Scott. Mr. Maclean received a presentation to a Church in Scotland, and Mr. Scott was chosen by the little Scotch congregation at W7Toolwich as their minister. The two events seem to have been almost simultaneous. Writing to his father-in-law about the prospects of a young minister in Scotland whom he seems to have sought an opportunity to befriend, Irving thus refers to them both: "There is likely to be a vacancy at London WVall soon, but for me to interfere in it would be to mar the prospects of any one; for they have foolishly taken it into their heads that I have had a great hand in making Mr. Maclean a Churchman and a Millenarian, instead of a Liberal and a Nothingarian, which is the thing that goes best down in these latitudes. The Lord's hand hath indeed been manifest in the settlement of Woolwich. Almost unanimously hath Mr. Scott been chosen, who had not a man, no, not one, to speak for him. But he had firiends in a higher court; it was like a thunder-stroke to us all. I praise God for it above all measure; it is decidedly the most striking instance of an overruling Providence which hath occurred in my day." So Irving imagined in his hopeful and brotherly heart. It came to little save controversy and discussion, but it brought closer and nearer the turning-point in his own career. Mr. Scott, who was only a probationer, had to go through his " trials" for ordination, which necessitated the preaching of various discourses before the Presbytery, whose ears it may be supposed were specially quickened and critical. I Mr. Maclean had to be subjected to the still more severe ordeal of presbyterial examination in Scotland. And thus the field was cleared for action. Just at this time Irving seems to have received an offering from his Edinburgh friends and followers, conveyed. to him by the friendly hands of Mr. Matthew Norman Macdonald; a sum of money, nearly a hundred pounds, which he proposes to make use of in a characteristic fashion. "My present feeling is," he writes, "that it should go to the purchase of books which are profitable for the understanding of the Holy Scriptures.... I look upon it as a gift of the Church of Christ to one of her poor ministers, which he should lay out for the greatest profit of the Church which gave it. Your letter, which expressed the sentiments of my unknown benefactors, did my heart much good in-the midst of this fearful conflict which I have to maintain for the faith once delivered to the saints. "I have one desire yet unaccomplished, which is to expound the Epistle to the Hebrews in the metropolis of-my native land and mother Church. But the time and opportunity must be left to God. Meanwhile, I am perfecting myself in the understanding of that most wonderful book. I perceive that the controversy which is now arising in the Church is not merely for the person of Christ, but for the very name of God, whether He be Love or not. I am a most unworthy man, but while I live I will defend the honor of my God, and, above all places of the earth, in the land of my fathers. I am a most diligent observer of what is proceeding there. If at any time I can be of service with lip or with pen, I am ready unto the death to serve the Church of Scotland, which I believe in her constitution to be the most apostolical of the churches existent on the earth. I entreat you all to reverence her ordinances, and to stand by her in the perils which are at hand." The mingled love, alarm, and indignation with which he began to regard his country also gleams forth in a letter to Dr. Martin, in which he gives the following advice to a young Scotch clergyman who had consulted him: " Tell him from me it is a great advantage to be out of Scotland for a while; Knox and Melville, and almost all the Reformers, were so; and there is rising in your quarters a commotion which will give forth, if I err not, fearful issues." To these northern quarters, where, indeed, it did not require much prophetic foresight to perceive the gathering of a storm, Irving's eyes were now turned with; ever closer and closer interest. The Christian Instructor, a periodical published under high sanction, and in some degree the organ of the evangelical party in the Church, had now entered the lists against himself. The criticism in which it indulged was, I understand, sharp and unfriendly; and to the author of the papers in which he was specially assailed, the Rev. Marcus Dods, Presbyterian minister at Belford, in Northumberland, and afterward known as the author of a work on the Incarnation, partly, I believe, originating in this controversy, the following letter, a production, perhaps, almost unique in theological controversy, was addressed: another proof, if any were wanting, of Irving's inability to conceive of a nature less candid, manful, and brotherly than his own:' London, 13 Judd Place, East, March 8, 1830. "MY DEAR BROTHER,-It is reported to me (and, indeed, without any signification of doubt, a friend, who- wrote me the other day a letter from Edinburgh,:approving what you have written, speaks of it without even an allusion to uncertainty) that you are the author of two critiques in: the Christian Instructor upon some of my writings. "I do not ask you whether you are or not; indeed, I would rather not know by whom they are written, for I am told they are very severe in their language and in their spirit, though I can only speak from report of others, not being in the habit of reading that work. The object for which I write is to ask the favor of your setting down, in a brief form, what is the doctrine you hold on this subject, that I may leisurely consider it in my own mind.;: for I am assured you would not write on such high subjects without having well considered them. And I will set down for your perusal the sum of the doctrine which I hold; of which, let me say, till within these two years, I never knew that there were two opinions in any orthodox creed and true Church. I believe, then, "1st. That all things, with man as their lord, were created holy and sinless. "2d.: That since the Fall they have all, with man as their head, become altogether sinful, without the power of redeeming themselves. "3d. That the Eternal Son of God, very God of very God, by incarnation unto death, and resurrection out of death, redeemed man the head, and man's inheritance. "4th. That flesh in human nature was created all good, then it became all evil, then in Christ it became all holy, and by the Resurrection it became all glory. "5th. That by generation our nature is all sinful, as Adam's was after the Fall; that by regeneration it is strengthened of Christ the regenerator, the second Adam, to overcome all sin, and that by resurrection it is changed into Christ's glory. " 6th. That sin in the regenerate ariseth, not from the weakness of the Spirit of Christ in them, but from their own moral wickedness, which they give place to, and so contract guilt, which needs a continual atonement or forgiveness, whereof we are assured in the good work of God's having united himself to our nature and sanctified it. "'7th. With respect to the experience of the Son of God in our nature, I am content to say: that He was tempted in all points like as we are, and yet never sinned: when I want to have this truth expanded I study the Psalms and the Prophets, which testify of Him. "Now, dear sir, and fellow-laborer in the ministry of truth, I shall take it very kind if you will set down in a form somewhat similar to this the views which you hold upon these subjects, that I may consider them at my leisure. " For God knows, who knoweth all things, that I have no desire upon this earth but to know His truth and to declare'it. I would rather that you exhibited your views in a summary form, than that you entered into criticism upon mine, although I should take it very kind, if you should notice any thing wrong, that you should mention it. If you lived nearer me, I should think nothing of coming to converse with you at large upon these great points of our common faith. It is not the first nor the second time that I have traveled 100 miles to converse with men who were making the deep things of God their meditation. "Though, certainly, the having heard that these articles, so severe on my writings, as I am informed, were written by you, was the occasion of this letter, I beg there may be no reference whatever to that subject, for what I do not know I do not need to think about, and, if I did know that you had said, or written, or done the severest things to me, what is that but a call for me to forbear, and endeavor either to know your truth or to make you know mine? If you say, Why not read the articles? my reason is, that for many years I have walked by the rule of not reading any thing personally addressed to me, unless the name of the person who writes it be subscribed. And this I do as the only way of honoring our Lord's rule, given in the 18th chapter of Matthew, for the redress of all personal offenses, requiring that the persons should know one another. "Let, therefore, every thing connected with that subject be as far from your mind, when you answer, as it is from mine while I write this letter. Let us just regard each other, as, in truth, we are, two brethren-two fellow-laborers in the vineyard of -our Lord. I write this without the knowledge of any one, my wife lying asleep upon the sofa beside me, and my porritch cooling before me. "If ever you come to London we shall talk this matter over at large: you shall be welcome to my house, as every brother is: Farewell! May God bless you and bless your labors, and lead us. into all truth! This is the prayer of your faithful brother and fellow-l'aboier. " EDWARD IRVING, "Minister of the National Scotch Church." I am not informed what answer Mr. Dods made to this remarkable letter, but its noble charity and candor certainly did not in any way change the character of the violent opposition offered to Irving and his doctrines, gradually increasing, as they were more fully known, and rising into public prosecution, directly after, in the cases of Messrs. Maclean and Scott. Though his labors continued abundant as ever, and though, amid all the gathering tumult of controversy, glimpses of the much-laboring man appear in the domestic letters of his relatives at this period, in which we can perceive him as deeply absorbed in pastoral duties as if these alone were the occupation of his life, yet a deep sadness was henceforth visible in his own estimation of his warfare. To the bottom of his heart he was disappointed with the decision of Scotland against him; and from the time that he began to foresee that decision, a tone of melancholy pervaded all that he said of himself. "Sufferings and trials, my dear friend, are the good of faith," he wrote, during this spring, to an old and beloved companion: "they work patience, and patience is the way to perfection. I have a fiery conflict; my enemies have now become those of my own household, the members of the Church of Scotland; but I am only the more confirmed in my faith of a present Savior and of a future reward. Oh, my dear William Graham, let your disappointments and trials in this world wear you into the fold of the grace of God, our blessed Lord and Savior!" This was the result his own disappointments and trials produced: they threw him more and more upon that Divine sympathy, which, more and more as it consoled him, he felt to come from the human bosom of a Savior who knew in all their reality the troubles of the flesh -the sick heart and the disappointed soul.'To the correspondence of this period, while still the only public assaults upon himself were by means of the press, and while no authoritative censure had been yet proclaimed upon either of his followers, belongs also the following letter to Dr. Chalmers-a letter of confidence and friendship so undoubting, that it is wonderful to believe that it met with little response. It is prefaced by a petition from the Session of Regent Square, that the distinguished Scotch preacher, who was to visit London during the summer, should preach in their Church. After preferring which request, Irving proceeds to unbosom himself with all the freedom of friendship: "I need not say how unabated is my esteem of you, and how sincere my gratitude to you; and I believe that the wicked- and shameless attacks upon me-have no great effect upon your mind. You are a professor of theology; I am a theological minister, orthodox to the faith, and who can discern the unsoundness of a multitude as well as an individual. If those papers in the Instructor, of which I have heard scraps, and seen extracts, and know the substance, be the opinions of the ministers of the Scottish Church, then it is time that you, the professor of theology, and all orthodox men, should join together to resist the tide of error. I feel a dependence upon the largeness of your comprehension and the charity of your-heart, and your cautiousness to take offense, which is refreshing to my spirit forecasting the future. And really I am ashamed, in the sight of English scholars, to see a man, pretending to judge these great questions, talking about MIonothelos himself, and O AXo'Cs AvOpw7roc, signifying an ordinary man.... These things ashame me in the presence of English scholars. I know not what apology to make for the Christian Instrutctor, confounded as it generally is with my worthy and kind friend, Dr. T ?. If he is ever to become your colleague, get him at least better instructed in the nomenclature of the heresies, so that he shall not mistake the name of an opinion (one-willer) for the name of a man [Monothelos]. "I remember, when I dined with you, you opened to me your views concerning a first theological class, which should open the subject as a branch of liberal education. It is curious that, in looking over the printed acts of the Assembly from 1690 to 1720, I should find a recommendation or act to the same effect. I can not lay my hand upon it now, being in the country; but before you come to town I will. When you come to town, I will be glad to be of all service to you that I can. My family are at present at Bayswater, hard by Kensington, where Wilkie lives, for the health of my wife and youngest child. I hope the Lord is restoring them. I have many things to bear, but the Lord and His truth sustain me. I gather strength and confidence daily. The Lord prospers my ministry. The addition to my church within the last year has, in communicants alone, been near to one hundred and eighty persons; and great, great fruit have I of my labors among the clergy of the Church of England. There is not a corner of this part of the island where the subject of Prophecy and the Second Advent have not in the Church firm and able supporters. And for the heresy of our Lord's humanity, when a friend of mine, passing from one diocese to another, had to give an account of his faith on that head, they would not believe that any one could doubt that our Lord took humanity under the conditions of the Fall. These were the Bishops of Gloucester and London; and yet the present most zealous prosecutor of Mr. Maclean preached to the people of Irvine a whole sermon to prove that He took man's nature before the Fall; and others of his co-presbyters did the same.... Oh, if there be any truth in the land, if the Church of Scotland be not given up of God, these men will be yet made to pay for it.'Let nothing be done through vainglory.' You see how, being now a professor of theology, and I aspiring to become a doctor thereof, I write accordingly. Farewell, honored and beloved sir.... I pray God to strengthen you for all His will, and to endow you for your most momentous station.... "Your faithful and dutiful friend, EDWARD IRVING." Nothing can be more remarkable than the contrast between Irving's repeated appeals to his friend's standing as professor of theology and the conduct of Dr. Chalmers during the' eventful and momentous period which had just commenced. During the following year, several men, of the highest character and standing, were ejected from the Church of Scotland on theological grounds -grounds which Dr. Chalmers, occupying the position of Doctor, par excellence, in the Scottish Church of the time, should have been the foremost to examine, and the most influential in pronouncing upon. Dr. Chalmers quietly withdrew from the requirements of his position in this respect. That he pursued his special work nobly, in the face of all the agitation of the period, is a small excuse for a man who was so little of a recluse and so much of a statesman: it is, perhaps, the chapter in his life least honorable to the most eminent Scotch Churchman of his day. He was not bold enough, at that crisis, to put that "largeness of comprehension and charity of heart," in which Irving trusted, into competition with the vulgar fervor which swept the popular Assembly into anathema and deposition. "Amid this conflict of opinion, of which he was far from being an unmoved spectator, Dr. Chalmers preserved unbroken silence," says his biographer. It seems exactly the course of procedure which Dr. Chalmers ought not to have adopted; and this becomes all the more apparent in the light of Irving's frank appeals to the professor of theology ?he whose business it was to discriminate most closely, and set forth most authoritatively the difference between truth and error. The conflict which had begun in the Irvine Presbytery against Mr. Maclean, and that which was. in full course in the Dunbarton Presbytery against Mr. Campbell, were, however, matters with which authority or learning had nothing to do; no council of doctors or fathers, no gravely-elect judicial body, examined into those delicate and difficult questions. The country-side sat upon them in its array of witnesses; the Presbytery, an indiscriminate and miscellaneous crowd of ministers, by no means distinguished (as, indeed, no mass of men can be distinguished) for clearness of perception, theological learning, or judicial wisdom, decided the matter, or else referred it to the decision of a synod and assembly equally miscellaneous and indiscriminate. Meanwhile, the chief representative of what is called in Scotland the theological faculty, sat apart and preserved unbroken silence, leaving the ship at a crisis of its fate, the army at the most critical point of the battle, to the guidance of accident or the crowd. It is impossible not to feel that this abandonment of his position at so important a moment was such an act of cowardice as must leave a lasting stain upon the reputation of one of the greatest of modern Scotsmen. In March the first steps of ecclesiastical prosecution were taken against Mr. Maclean. This gentleman, the same to whom Irving's noble Charge was addressed at his ordination, had been presented to the Church and parish of Dreghorn, in Ayrshire, in the beginning of the year, where his coming was hailed by the presentation of a petition from some of the heritors and members: of the Church to the Presbytery, calling their attention to his heretical opinions. The appeal of these theological critics was met by the ecclesiastical court to which it was presented in the promptest manner. Their action was rapid but singular. They drew out a series of questions, which the young'clergyman was called upon to answer; entering fully, and in an artful, suggestive way, likely to lead him to the fullest committal of himself, into the doctrine in disputeor, rather, into their own statement of the doctrine in dispute-'in which it was called "the peccability of our Lord's human nature," and specially insisting upon explanations as to what our Lord might have done had he not been possessed and anointed by the Holy Ghost-a possibility wholly disowned and rejected by the assailed individual, who was thus placed at the bar under compulsion of criminating himself. Mr. Maclean was inexperienced, and perhaps not overwise, perhaps rash and self-devoted, as is seemly for a young man. He accepted the questions, and answered them in detail, with natural effusiveness and a want of prudence which is very obvious, thouigh it is difficult to condemn it. A harassing process immediately commenced. No information upon the state of the parish which possessed a population so ripe for controversy, and thoroughly prepared to take the field at a moment's notice, is afforded us; but the theological parishioners held to their protest, and from Presbytery to Synod, and from Synod to Assembly, the case was dragged and combated. The interest of Irving in this matter was naturally of the deepest kind, yet, perhaps, scarcely so exciting as the more immediate contest, in which he himself was called upon to take part, in the ecclesiastical court of which he was a member.. There Mr. Scott, being called to go through the trials necessary for his ordination to the Scotch Church at Woolwich, stumbled upon the same point, and kept the Presbytery to repeated meetings, which, by a chance perhaps unparalleled before in the annals of the Presbytery of London, were, in right of their connection with the distinguished name of Irving, reported anxiously in the newspapers, the Times itself pausing to remark and comment upon the proceedings of the Scotch ecclesiastical tribunal. These proceedings, indeed, seem, according to the newspapers, to have made a wonderful ferment in the perplexed world, which stillwatched the progress of a man in whom it could not choose but be interested for good or for evil. Mr. Scott, being in delicate health; had requested that his trial discourses might be delivered to the Presbytery alone, without admitting the public, and his desire had been agreed to. This fact, which looks innocent enough, is taken up and commented upon by the various papers of the day with an interest and vehemence amazing to behold. It is denounced as a violation of the Toleration Act by various voices of the public press, little apt to interest themselves in the proceedings of Scotch Presbyteries; and the.Recod, with pious spitefulness, does not hesitate to add, that " the privacy was adopted at the suggestion of Messrs. Irving and Scott, as the means of concealing from the public the actual views and feelings of the Presbytery: illustrating the truth of Scripture, He that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God.' " The same paper declares that, " If the Presbytery refuse Mr. Scott ordination, they must necessarily call upon Mr. Irving to recant, or resign his charge. It is gratifying to find so much firmness, intelligence, and faithfulness in the Presbytery of London." This commendation, however, seems, from the point of view adopted by the Recorc, to have been somewhat premature, as the immediate conclusion of the Presbytery was one which, without deciding the question so far as Mr. Scott was concerned, gave equal satisfaction and consolation to Irving. He gives the following account of it in the preface to a little work, entitled Christ's Holiness in the Flesh, which was published in the following year:' About this time it pleased God to try the faithfulness of the ministers of the Scotch Church in London by this great question. A preacher being called to one of the churches in connection with the Presbytery, applied to them for ordination, and his trials proceeded with approbation till they came to this question of our Lord's human nature,. and there they stuck fast. It was thought good to have a private conference of all the brethren, both ministers and elders, upon this question, at which we came unanimously to the conclusion of doctrine which is embodied in the third part of this tract, in the drawing up of which I had no more hand than the others, and none at all in the submitting of it. It was the pure and unsolicited deliverance of the unanimous Presbytery. By that deliverance I am willing that every sentence which I have written should be tried." A more full account of the same satisfactory deliverance is given in the two following letters, the first of which, addressed to Mr. Macdonald, is chiefly occupied with the twin case of Dreghorn: "'London, 13 Jadd Place, East, 21st May, 1830. " MY DEAR FRIEND,-To set your mind at rest with respect to the orthodoxy of our opinions on the great subject of the human nature of our blessed Redeemer, I need only to report what was the conclusion to which we came in our Presbytery last night, with one consent' That the human nature of our Lord was of the virgin's substance, perfectly and completely sanctified or purified in the generation of it by the work of the Holy Ghost, and underwent no process or progress of purification.' I fear there is a point of difference between us and some of the Edinburgh theologians, who look upon this work as a physical work, changing the natural substance of His humanity, whereas it is the whole truth to believe that it was a divine indwelling of Godhead power, and not a physical change in the created thing, in the creature part. But as to the holiness of it, flesh and soul, there is no question, and ought never to have been any, were it not that the Church had been asleep, and awaked in bad humor, and spake angrily, and about things before her eyes were well opened. This is all to be borne with, and will, if you prevent things from being precipitated. I write to you as a lawyer at present, to give you my views, not of the theological, but constitutional doctrine of this momentous case. " No one will doubt that a Presbytery has power to put questions to a preacher, even after he has been ordained; but how jealous the Church is of this power is evidenced in her instructions, even at ordination, not to insist afresh upon the catechetical questions which have been already gone through at licensing, and likewise in this, that it has never been done, that I know of, since the time that Principal N* was removed from London to Edinburgh. Study that case, and see how cautiously both the Presbytery and the Assembly conducted themselves. God grant the same discretion to the Assembly now sitting! Granting the power to put questions for their satisfaction, I doubt very much their power to put a series of written questions, and require written answers in any case whatever. I do not know an instance of it, and, if permitted, I see it would lead to this-that the ruling powers of a Presbytery may put every probationer or student into the condition of either giving way to their opinionativeness, or standing the issue of an ecclesiastical process.... To ask the accused party to purge himself by declarations, what is it but inquisition, pure inquisition?... Next, what have they made of their answers? They resolve themselves into a committee of the whole house, in order that they may have freedom from restraint and from responsibility, and then they report to themselves. What is the use of a committee? It is to give grave consideration to the matter, to afford delay, to explicate it thoroughly, to deal with it wisely, and to prepare the matter for the judgment of the whole court. Ah me! that Maclean had taken my advice, and done what John Campbell has wisely done; but should not a young man and inexperienced be protected from oppression? Now is the time for the Assembly to intrench itself behind the forms of justice, in order to protect justice from that tempest of public opinion which Satan, through his ministers, the press-gang of anonymous writers, has raised. Oh, my friend, the son of faithful men, stand for substantial justice in this case, and, if no more can be done, postpone the matter till the storm be over. It ought to be treated as Boradale's case, and Nisbet's, and Simpson's, and Campbell's were, by appointing a committee of discreet and temperate divines to converse with Mr. Maclean, and to report to the Assembly, and, if their report be satisfactory, the Presbytery of Irvine should be required to proceed according to the rules of the Church, and to erase these questions and answers from their minutes. With a petition containing grave charges before you of a most excellent minister of the Church, tried and proved, to proceed by putting him to the question, and condemning him upon his own declaration, is, granting the grounds were good, the most pure piece of inquisition ever practiced. Remember, the question of orthodoxy is at issue; I maintain the spirit of the Irvine questions to be thoroughly heterodox; and, if God spare me, I will prove it to be so. The question * The name is illegible in the MS., and I do not know what is the case referred to of orthodoxy is at issue; now, when was a question of orthodoxy settled at a sederunt of the General Assembly? The rule of the Assembly's orthodoxy is not Wilson of Irvine.... The rule of her orthodoxy is the Confession of Faith; this Maclean is willing to subscribe.... God appear for the right and for the truth! Say to the Prophetic Society that I will come and preach for them whenever I can get away, and they can get a church. My wife is well, the children but delicate, and poor Scott is sick; the Lord tries me sore, but gives me not over to death. The work of the Lord prospers mnightily. Your faithful friend and the friend of your dear children, " EDWARD. IRVING." The next, which treats of the same contest, but, as it had occurred in London in Mr. Scott's case, is addressed to Dr. Martin, and refers, at the commencement, to the stupid commotion raised about the Presbytery's private meeting, and supposed breach of the Toleration Act:' 27th May, 1830. " MY DEAR SIn,-You may have been concerned about these most foolish and false reports in the newspapers about our Presbytery, and about me personally. The simple truth was that, according to the custom of, I believe, most Presbyteries, we permit the young men to have their questionary trials private, if they please, which Mr. Scott desiring, to the custom we deferred; although a young man so learned and accomplished in all kinds of discipline I have never met with, and as pious as he is learned, and of great, very great discernment in the truth, and faithfulness Godward and manward.... But in the correspondence I have taken no part. Mr. Hamilton merely contradicted the falsehoods. However, I am such rare game that I believe it has furnished all the provincial and even metropolitan newspapers with a rare hit at me, and I have the blessed privilege of being evil spoken of for the Lord's name sake. Nevertheless, I was afraid that our Presbytery should have been brought under the influence of the idol'public opinion,' and also that they should have drunk into the form of heterodoxy, which is working among the Dissenters here, and I think in some parts of our Church also, though, I am glad to say, utterly rejected by the Church of England. This, however, proved groundless, when we came together this day week for conference in committee, and found that we could unanimou ly agree upon the much disputed subject in this proposition-' That the human nature of our Lord was of the virgin's substance, sanctified and purified by the work of the Holy Ghost in the generation, and sustained always in the same state by the same work of the Holy Ghost, and underwent no process or progress of purification.' That is to say, was holy at the first as at the last; and from the first to the last only by the work of the Holy Ghost, and that the same work always. So, what I have been contending for, I have the happiness of seeing at least our Presbytery unanimous to receive. They have attempted to fasten upon me the charge of making our Lord's human nature undergo a process or progress of sanctification; that is, that there is.a time at which it was not so holy as it was at another time. It is a false charge, and most of those that bring it know that it is false, if they have read my writings like honest men. For the rest, I have not time to say any thing, except that T am more and more shocked and ashamed at the state of verbalism in which the Church reveals itself to be. I think, so far as this generation of believers is concerned, the Incarnation had as well never have been: a word would have done it all. But these things can not stand. There must either be a more vital, real, and matter-of-fact theology, or no church, no holiness. I have sought to put a system of facts and of God under their system of words and lessons; and for this they call me a blasphemer! Woe is me! woe is me! God send us better days! Farewell! The Lord strengthen you for the maintenance of His truth. "Your faithful and affectionate son, EDWD. IRVING." While these struggles were progressing at different points of the compass-Maclean, at Dreghorn, entangled in a mean and harassing series of examinations, in which his orthodoxy was tossed from hand to hand of two parties of peasant witnesses, whose recollection or non-recollection of his sermons was the sole ground on which to prove him guilty or not guilty; while Scott, more fortunate in his judges, had fallen sick, and brought the complicated argument, as regarded himself, to a temporary suspensionthe other influence to which I have referred was rising upon the stormy firmament. In the little farm-house of Fernicarry, at the head of the Gairloch, the saintly Isabella Campbell, whose name has been already mentioned, had lived and died a life of such unusual and expressive sanctity as to draw pilgrims to her couch and to her home from many quarters, and to confer upon her haunts a singular and touching local celebrity. The spot where this peasant-girl-elevated by simple devotion and holiness into one of those tender virgin-saints whom Nature, even under the severest Protestant restrictions, can scarcely choose but worship -was accustomed to pray is still one of the shrines of the district. It was at one time a retirement of delicate simplicity-a lonely nook on the hill-side, close by the devious and picturesque channel of a tiny mountain stream. The burn still leaps in tiny waterfalls down its ledges of rock undisturbed by that gentle memory; but some enthusiast pilgrim has built a wall, a memorial of rude homage and affecting bad taste, round the mountain ash and little knoll, which the girl-saint had made into a sanctuary. When Isabella died, a portion of her fame-her pilgrim visitors-her position as -one of the most remarkable persons in the country-side, a pious and tender oracle-descended to her sister Mary. This was the young woman " of a very fixed and constant spirit," as Irving describes, whom Mr. Scott, a few months before, had vainly attempted to convince that the bapti sm with the Holy Ghost was distinct from the work of regeneration, but was as much to be looked and prayed for as the ordinary influences of the Spirit. Mary Campbell seems to have been possessed of gifts of mind and temperament scarcely inferior to genius, and, with all the personal fascination of beauty added to the singular position in which her sister's fame had left her-visited on terms of admiring friendship by people much superior to her in external rank, and doubtless influenced by the subtle arguments of one of the ablest men of the day-it is impossible to imagine a situation more dangerous to a young, fervid, and impressionable imagination. For the circumstances under which that spark took light, I call only refer my readers again to the Memoir of Mr. Story, of Rosneath, where they are fully and with great graphic power set forth. The actual event is described by Irving as follows: " The handmaiden of the Lord, of whom he made choice on that night (a Sunday evening in the end of March), to manifest forth in her His glory, had been long afflicted with a disease which the medical men pronounced to be a decline, and that it would soon bring her to her grave, whither her sister had been hurried by the same malady some months before. Yet, while all around her were anticipating her dissolution, she was in the strength of faith meditating missionary labors among the heathen; and this night she was to receive the preparation of the Spirit; the preparation of the body she received not till some days after. It was on the Lord's day; and one of her sisters, along with a female friend, who had come to the house for that end, had been spending the whole day in humiliation, and fasting, and prayer befbre God, with a special respect to the restoration of the gifts. They had come up in the evening to the sickchamber of their sister, who was laid on a sofa, and, along with one or two others of the household, were engaged in prayer together. When in the midst of their devotion, the Holy Ghost came with mighty power upon the sick woman as she lay in her weakness, and constrained her to speak at great length and with superhuman strength, in an unknown tongue, to the astonishment of all who heard, and to her own great edification and enjoyment in God;' for he that speaketh in a tongue edifieth himself.' She has told me that this first seizure of the Spirit was the strongest she ever had, and that it was in some degree necessary it should have been so, otherwise she would not have dared to give way to it." It was thus that the agitating and extraordinary chapter in the history of the modern Church, which we -have hereafter to deal with, began. It is not in my province, happily, to attempt any decision as to what was the real character of these marvelous phenomena. But the human circumstances surrounding their earliest appearance are remarkable enough to claim the fullest exposition. The first speaker with tongues was precisely the individual whom, under the supposition that they were no more supernatural than other elevated utterances of passion or fervor, one would naturally fix upon as the probable initiator of such a system. An amount of genius and singular adaptability, which seems to have fitted her for taking a place in society far above that to which she had been accustomed; a faculty of representing her own proceedings so as, whether wrong or right, to exculpate herself, and interest even those who were opposed to her; a conviction, founded perhaps upon her sister's well-known character, and the prominent position she herself was consequently placed in, that something notable was expected from her; and the joint stimulus of admiration and scoffing, all mingled with a sincere desire to serve God and advance his glory, were powerful agencies in one young, enthusiastic, and inexperienced spirit. And when to all these kindling elements came that fire of suggestion, at first rejected, afterward warmly received, and blazing forth at last in so wonderfully literal an answer, it is impossible not to feel how many earthly predisposing causes there were which corresponded with, even if they did not actually produce, the result. In saying so much, I leave the truth or falsehood of the " tongues" entirely out of the question. I do not judge Mary Campbell, much less the numerous others who, without the excitement of Mary Campbell's special surroundings, afterward exhibited the same power. But I should not be fulfilling the task I have undertaken if I did not point out the dubious cradle from which so wonderful a development proceeded, and the singular position of influence and universal observation occupied by this young woman-her consciousness that she stood full in the eye of the little world that surrounded her-her personal fascination and mental powers. Such an opportunity of acting upon what, in a limited horizon, seems the universal mind, scarcely occurs to a member of the humbler classes once in a generation; to a woman, perhaps not once in a thousand years. Altogether this youthful female figure, appearing out of the troubled expectant country as with a message from heaven; this inspired creature, fair, and delicate, and young, with all the hopes and purposes of youth removed into superlative spiritual regions'nothing more earthly than a mission to the heathen occupying her solitary musings-is one which nobody can turn from without wonder and interest, and which naturally awoke the highest excitement in the already agitated district to which she belonged. Nor was this all. On the opposite shores of Clyde, in the little town of Port Glasgow, dwelt a family distinguished, like these two young Campbells, for a profound and -mintly piety, which' had marked them out from their neighbors, and attracted to them many friends out of their own condition. The leading members of this household were two brothers, according to all report, men of the soberest steadfast life, quietly laboring at their business, and in no way likely to be the subjects of ecstatic emotion. But with results more startling and wonderful still,'the newly-awakened power glided over the loch and river to the devout and prayerful house of the Macdonalds. Touching first upon an invalid sister, it then burst upon the elder brother with an impulse more extraordinary than any mere utterance. James Macdonald'had returned from the building-yard, where he pursued his daily business, to his midday dinner, after the calm usage of a laboring'man. He found the invalid of the household in the agonies of this new inspiration. The awed and wondering family concluded with reverential gravity that she was dying, and thus accounted to themselves for the singular exhibition they saw. "At dinnertime James and George came home as usual," says the simple family narrative, " whom she then addressed at great length, concluding with a solemn prayer for James, that he might at that time be endowed with the power of the Holy Ghost. Almost instantly, James calmly said,' I have got it.' He walked to the window, and stood silent for a minute or two. I looked at him, and almost trembled, there was such a change upon his whole countenance. He then, with a step and manner of the most indescribable majesty, walked up to -'s bedside, and addressed her in these words of the 20th Psalm:'Arise, and stand upright.' He repeated the words, took her by the hand, and she arose." After this wonderful event, with inconceivable human composure, the homely record continues, " we all quietly sat down and took our dinner;" an anti-climax to the extraordinary agitation and excitement of the scene just described, which no fiction dared attempt, and which' nothing but reality, always so daring in its individual opposition to recognized laws of nature, could venture to have added to the description. The young woman was not merely raised from her sick-bed for the moment, but cured; and the next step taken by the brother so suddenly and miraculously endowed, was to write to Mary Campbell, then apparently approaching death, conveying to her the same command which had been so effectual in the case of his sister. The sick ecstatic received this letter in the depths of languor and declining weakness, and, without even the hand of the newly',spired to help her, rose up and declared herself healed. I do not pretend to account for these extraordinary circumstances. Whatever natural explanation they may be capable of, I do not believe it possible to account for them by supposing any thing like trickery or simulation beneath. They take their place among the many other unrisolvable wonders which have from time to time perplexed the world; but, whatever the cause, the result was real. Mary Campbell, who before this time had been confined to bed, from this moment, without any interval, returned to active life; became, as was natural, the centre of double curiosity and interest; spoke, expounded, gave forth the utterances of her power in crowded assemblies, and entered into the full career of a prophetess and gifted person. The Macdonalds, less demonstrative and more homely, went on upon their modest way, attracting crowds of observers, without being thereby withdrawn from the composed and sober course of their existence; and thus a new miraculous dispensation was, to the belief of many, inaugurated in all the power of apostolic times by these waters of the West.: When these extraordinary events became known, they reached the ear of Irving by many means. One of his deacons belonged to a family in the district, who sent full and frequent accounts. Others of his closest friends-Mr. Story, in whose immediate parish the wonder had first arisen, and Mr. Campbell, whose teaching had helped to inspire it-looked on with wistful scrutiny, eagerly hopeful, yet not fully convinced of the reality of what they saw. Mr. Erskine, of Linlathen, went upon a mission of personal inquiry, which persuaded his tender Christian soul of the unspeakable comforts of a new revelation. Almost every notable Christian man of the time took the matter into devout and anxious consideration. Even Chalmers, always cautious, inquired eagerly, andh would not condemn. On Irving the effect was warmer and more instantaneous. Assured of the personal piety which nobody could gainsay, and doubtless moved with a subtle, unconscious propitiating influence, conveyed by the fact that his own distinctive teachings were echoed in what seemed divine amens and confirmations through those burdens of prophecy, he does not seem to have hesitated for an instant. One of the immediate circle round him, an Englishman and a lawyer, went down to Port Glasgow to examine and report. A subtle agitation of hope, wonder, and curiosity pervaded the Church, which, under Irving's half-miraculous realizations of every truth he touched, must have been fully prepared for the entirely miraculous whenever it should appear with reasonable warrant and witness. The future palpitated before the earnest leader and his anxious followers. If their controversies did not slacken, broken lights of a consolation which, if realized, would be unspeakable end beyond the hopes of man, came, to brighten that troubled, laborious way. It was a moment of indescribable hope and solemn excitement, when, to the strained eyes and ears, and throbbing hearts which stood watching on the threshold of revelation, nobody could predict or conceive what wonderful burst of glory any moment might bring. The following letters appear, however, to have been written in the suspense of this crisis, before any absolute manifestation of the new gifts had been made in England. In this interval Dr. Chalmers once more visited London, and seems, according to the details in Irving's letters, to have preached not only on a Sunday, but also at some week-day services in the National Scotch Church. At this moment Irving's much-tried household was again in deep anxiety and distress.'The little Samuel had been for some time ill-so ill that the tro ubled house was unable to offer the ordinary hospitalities to the visitor, but had to fulfill those duties, so imperative to the habits of Scotsmen, vicariously through Mr. Hamilton; and the anxious father was even afraid to be out late in the evening, his dying baby holding stronger to his heart than even his much-prized friend, to whom once more he thus expresses affection: "Believe me when I say that in regard to the preaching also, it is the entire love and high admiration which I have of you that makes me feel it so desirable. I am sore beleaguered, and have almost been beaten to the ground; but my God hath sustained me, through your means. The time will come, and perhaps is not far distant,'vhen I shall begin to be understood and valued according to the sincerity of my heart; but if not, let me die the death of the righteous One, who was crucified as a blasphemer, and let my latter end be like His." This was the last encounter, so far as mutual help and sympathy were concerned, of these two singularly unlike men. They went together once more, before they parted, to visit. Coleridge, as they had gone together to visit him when life and hope were at their brightest for Irving, and every thing seemed possible. Strangely different must this second visit have been. Seven years before, Chalmers, half-wondering, half-amused, had watched the young preacher in the early flush of his fame, sitting at the feet of the sage; both of them equally curious, and half-decipherable to the eyes bright with characteristic genius, which yet did not know that development of uncongenial and mysterious light. Now the two elder men watched the younger with regret, amazement, and impatience equal to'their mutual incomprehension. He had left the calm regions of philosophy far apart and behind. He had left the safe limits of ecclesiastical restraint.. The divine and the philosopher gazed at him with a certain mournful admiration and affectionate anger. Coleridge "poured out an' eloquent tribute of his regard" into the ears of Chalmers, " mourning pathetically that such a man should be throwing himself away." They did not comprehend, neither the one nor the other, that nothing in this palpitating human world could be abstract to that passionate, splendid human soul; that it was as truly his mission to render up love and life, to break his heart, and end his days in conflict with the shows of things, and vehement protestation for the reality, as it was theirs to dream, to ponder, to legislate, to abide the bloodless encounters of argument and thought. They watched him going on to his passion and agony with wondering hopes that advice and remonstrance might yet save him, unperceiving that the agony and passion by which this man was to prove the devotion of a loyal heart to his Master's name and person, and unspeakable certainty of spiritual verities, was indeed the true object and purpose of his life. While Chalmers was still in London, but apparently on the eve of quitting it, and after they had taken leave of each other, the following letter seems to have been written. "13 Judd Place, East, June 2d, 1830. " MY DEAR AND KIND FRIEND,-I have at last found the document I referred to. You will find it in the printed Acts of the year 1 704, Act xxviii., and from the 6th of certain' Overtures concerning Schools and Bursaries, and for instructing youth in the principles of religion,' and is as follows:* " There are very many Acts of the Church scattered through these * It is unnecessary to quote the extract made by Irving, which bears reference to Chalmers's idea of making theology one of the branches of liberal education. 385 years following the Restoration concerning the advancement of learning, which would, I think, strengthen your hands very much in any undertaking to that effect. " I had thought to see you, to thank you in person for your great kindness to me and my Church on this occasion; but the state of my poor boy's health prevents me leaving home for a night. Accept of them now, and be assured of my willingness to repay unto Christ and His Church the kindness which by you He hath shown unto me; and whenever any opportunity occurs of serving you personally, be assured of my readiness. "I perceive two things in Scotland of the most fearful omen: First, self-sufficient ignorance of theological truth, and a readiness to pride themselves in and boast of it, and to call every thing speculation which proposes to advance the bounds, or rather narrow limits of theological knowledge. My doctrine on our Lord's human nature is as literally the doctrine of the Confessions of the Church as can be, viz., That He took the human nature of the Virgin, that it was thoroughly and completely sanctified in the generation by the work of the Holy Ghost, and underwent no process or progress of sanctification. Yet, through ignorance of the person and office of the Holy Ghost, I perceive the greatest horror to prevail against this truth, and a readiness to adopt one or other of the errors-either that His nature was intrinsically better than ours, or that it underwent a physical change before its assumption into the person of the Son. If you would see, within a short compass, the three opinions brought to the test of the Confessions of Faith, I recommend to you a short anonymous tract, entitled The Opinions circulating concerning the Hiumans Nature of our Lord brought to Trial before the Westminster Confession of Faith. You ought to give some study to this point, and stand in the breach for the truth. I have thoroughly gone through the subject of the Incarnation, and if it served you, could at any time give you the history from the beginning of the controversies on this subject, and of its present form. The second thing which grieves and oppresses my heart with respect to poor Scotland is the hardness of heart manifested in the levity and cruelty with which they speak of others; the zeal and readiness with which they rush to overthrow such men of God as John Campbell; the union of all parties to this end; the scorn with which they regard the signs of the Holy Ghost beginning to be again vouchsafed to the Church; and, if not scorn, the mere juryman way of considering them, as the House of Commons might, without any respect to any existing promise, or probability, or doctrine of any kind upon the subject-also without any regard to the discernment of the Holy Ghost in us, and even as if the Holy Ghost were merely a sharpener of our natural faculties to detect imposture or to know sincere persons. The substance of Mary Campbell's and Margarget Macdonald's visions or revelations, given in their papers, carry to me a spiritual conviction and a spiritual reproof which I can not express. Mr. Cunningham, of Lainshaw, said to me the other day that he had seen nothing since the apostles' days worthy to be compared with a letter of Mary Dunlop's which is written to a person in this city. Thomas Erskine and other persons express themselves more overpowed by the love, and assurance, and unity seen in their prayers and conversations than by the works. Oh, my friend! oh, my dear master! there are works of the Spirit and communions of the Spirit which few of us ever dream of! Let us not resist them when we see them in another. - Mind my words when I say,'The Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland will lay all flat if they be not prevented.' I desire my true love to Mrs. Chalmers and Miss Anne. May God give you a prosperous journey! "Your faithful friend and brother, EDWARD IRVING." To all these appeals, the man whom Irving addressed, with touching loyalty to the past and its associations, as "my dear master," seems to have made no response whatever. If he examined that momentous question at all, or re-examined it at the entreaty of his friend, whose very life was involved in its consideration, no record remains to prove it. He left the controversy to be settled by the nameless Presbyters of Irvine and Annan, voluntarily making his own learning and influence useless in a controversy most deeply momentous to the Church, and which only the doctors and fathers of the Church ought to have given any deliverance upon. At the crisis then existing, I repeat, Chalmers and his equals permitted this matter, and also the equally important process of Mr. Campbell, of Row, to be discussed and virtually settled by an untrained country population; a manner of procedure, I presume, justified by the laws of Presbytery, but in the profoundest discordance not only with reason and justice, but with the true spirit of a system which professes to hold its authority, not from the people, but from God. As, I believe, they never met again after this year, I add, though a little out of chronology, the farewell mention which Chalmers makes in his diary of their final parting.' Oct., 1830. Had a very interesting call from Mr. Irving between one and two, when I was in bed. He stopped two hours, wherein he gave his expositions; and I gave, at greater length and liberty than I had ever done before, my advices and my views. We parted from each other with great cordiality, after a prayer which he himself offered with great pathos and piety." So the two made everlasting farewells, so far as this world was concerned, and parted in life, spirit, and career, each retaining a longing love for the other. The friendship of Chalmers, which was not strong enough to draw him personally into the conflict, or to give him any sympathetic understanding of the entire devotion with which Irving abrogated reason itself in obedience to what he believed the voice of God, was yet enough to raise him above the vulgar lamentations which broke forth, at Irving's death, over his misused talents and sacrificed life. The great Scotch divine knew well that his friend's life was not wasted; and with cumbrous but grand phraseology, and a laboring of tears in his voice, made that eulogium of " the Christian grafted upon the Old Roman," by which he acknowledged his consciousness, notwithstanding separation and estrangement, of this primitive heroic soul. In the mean time, however, all the tumults in Irving's life were veiled over, and all its hopes subdued by the fluttering of a baby life, as it waned and declined toward the grave, which already had swallowed up so many blossoms of his existence. This profound domestic anxiety gave him, as was natural, a deeper trernbling interest in the miraculous reports that reached him. The command of intense and undoubting faith which had raised Mary Campbell from her sick-bed might still raise that declining infant, whose baby days were numbered. From the little bedside he gazed out wistfully upon the horizon, where miraculous influences seemed hovering, but had not yet revealed themselves; hoping in the prayers of the Church, in the faith of the saints, in the intervention of the Lord himself, when earthly hope was over. It is not possible to enter into this phase of his life without perceiving the heart-breaking glimmer of terrible hope and expectation which mingles with the elevated and lofty anticipations of a new outpouring of the Spirit, and gives a certain color to the father's hopes and prayers. "My darling boy," he writes, " is very poorly. We have no dependence upon human help. Nothing but that power of hearing and answering prayer offered by the Church, for the testimony of which, as still resident in the Church, I have stood these many years, and for which these despised Row people are now suffering, can bring my dear Samuel friom his present weakness back again to strength. Oh, my dear A ?, tell me when this distinction of the works of the Spirit into ordinary and extraordinary arose? There is no such thing in the Scriptures. I believe the Holy. Ghost is as mighty in the Church, and, but for our unbelief, would be as apparent, as ever He was. I pray you to be upon your guard against speaking evil of any mighty work which you may hear of in the Church, for in the last days God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh." Such seems to have been as yet his attitude in respect to the supernatural commotions in the west of Scotland; and there is no evidence that as yet they had extended to London, or appeared in his own immediate surroundings. Those surroundings, however, had modified and changed as the years grew. New friends, bound together by the close and peculiar links of prophetic study; new followers, detached out of other churches by his influence, and adhering to him with all the closeness of choice and personal election, had joined the old friends and faithful Churchmen of former days with a more jealous and fervid allegiance. Minds, to whose latent enthusiasm his eloquence gave the quickening thrill, and who had followed him so far with ever-rising thoughts, that it became natural now to follow him whithersoever his fervent inspiration might lead, and to believe in every thing he thought possible, had glided into the circle closest to him, surrounding his anxious soul, in its troubles, with a dangerous readiness of sympathy and assent. Among them were men on whose friendship he reposed with all the characteristic trust of his nature, and women who served him unweariedly with willing pen as amanuenses, proud of their office. These closest friends watched with himself, with kindred eagerness, the flushings of light upon the distant firmament. And to him it was always easier to believe the miraculous than the mean and common. By right of his nature, he understood a thousand times better how God could bestow and lavish the extraordinary gifts of'His grace, than how the poor practicabilities of human nature could limit the Divine profusion. It is indeed important to remember, while entering upon this most momentous period, how much attuned to the miraculous was his fervid genius and absolute lofty tone, and how much the sublimation of his mind gave to all the course of nature that aspect of daily miracle which its wonderful successions present more or less to every thoughtful eye. In July another prophetical meeting was appointed to be held at Albury. His child was still ill, indeed hourly progressing toward his end; but supported by the thought that this was a sacred duty, and the direct service of his Master, and also by the assurances given him, by many of his anxious friends, of the prayers they had presented, with full assurance of faith, for the infant's life, Irving ventured to leave the troubled household, where his wife was supported by the presence of her mother and sisters. With what tremblings of love and faith he went will be seen from the following letters: " Albury Park, 1st July, 1830. "MY DEAREST WIFE,-While I am serving God in the house of our common Husband, Christ, you are serving Him in the house of me, your husband, and both of us together fulfilling the portions which our God hath allotted us.... Much have I thought, and much have I prayed to God for you and our dear children, especially for our beloved Samuel; and though I can not say that God hath given me assured faith of hisrecovery, I can say that He hath given me a perfect resignedness to His will, which I believe to be the precious preparation for the other. For, until our faith and prayer spring out of resignation,'Not my will, but Thine be done,' it is asking amiss to gratify, not the life of God, but the life of nature, which in us, and all the members of Christ, ought to be crucified and dead. Last night I was troubled with some visions and dreams which afflicted me; but this morning, having arisen early, I found great consolation in prayer to God. In my prayers I seem to forget my own trials in the trials of the Church. I am carried away from my own pain to the wound of the daughter of my people. It is very curious how I am always brought back to the children through you, my partner in their care, and now the whole bearer of it.'Be careful for nothing,' but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, make your request known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep you. We arrived here at half past four, not in time to write; and I took up the time till dinner in expressing some thoughts, preparatory to my next number of the Apocalypse... The subject to-day has been the Jews, which always yields much matter. MIr. Leach opened it, and several have spoken this forenoon with very great power. I feel as if far more light had been afforded me upon this subject than at any time heretofore. I would say there has been more of the spiritual, and less of the literal-more of the results of wisdom, and less of mere knowledge or learning. I trust it will so continue. Ah me! how little do they know who speak evil of this meeting, what it really is! To me it is the greatest spiritual enjoyment in this world. I try to devote myself with entire heart to my Father's business, and to repose you and my dear babes with entire confidence upon His care. If I am often invaded by the thoughts and fears of a father, I lift up my soul to Him who is the Father. What a blessing to have a faithful wife! Had you not been what God's grace has made you, I would not have been here. Had you signified your wish that I should remain, or even faltered in your consent, I should not have been here. To you, my dear wife, the Church owes whatever benefit I may be of now; and surely I never felt more the duty of addressing myself to the Lord's work. Indeed, but for your bearing and forbearing with me, what might I at this day not have been, who am now your devoted husband, and desiring to be the faithful servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. God reward you with much enjoyment and profit in your love to me, for it has been very great! It has come to rain most fearfully for the last hour, and is now pouring down in torrents. God pity the beasts of the earth, and let them not want. The hay is very much damaged here. I desire my most dutiful love to your mother, and my heartfelt thanks for her love to us all;.... and, oh, remember me lovingly to dear Maggie, and tell her to stir up the gift of the Holy Ghost that is in her! and for dear Samuel, God rest and restore him! Farewell, my well-beloved wife. I desire you always to think of me as entirely one with you, even as. you are with me. My kind consolations to Dr. Carlyle, and my affectionate love to George. Also remember me with kindness to both the servants. "Your faithful and affectionate husband, EDWD. IRVING." "Albury, 2d July, 1830.'" MY VERY DEAR WIFE, ?I desire to be thankful for the consolation of the letter of the two physicians, and I pray you to thank them both for me for all their care and kindness. Also I am satisfied to know that Dr. Farr agrees with the judgment which they have formed and been acting on; and I desire that George and Dr. Calryle should consult together, and do for the dear babe whatever they can, and do it in faith as far as they are enabled; joining prayer of faith to their use of means. Withal my confidence is with the chief Physician, and I feel only the more trust as I see the case to be the more extreme. One thing I know, that my soul hath been much humbled, and my hard heart much melted by this visitation of the Lord. All the brethren here seem deeply to sympathize with us, and I think there is much grace upon the brethren.... Mir. Cunningham is gone away. His company has been very pleasant and profitable. He is in very deed a man of God. He considers himself to have been put out of the Church of Scotland for the testimony of the universal atonement. If indeed it be so, he is honored. My dear, we must not treat Christ as a common physician, or believe that He has not remedies because the physicians have none. May the Holy Spirit grant us strong and lively faith for our dear child! My love, you must take care of yourself, and lPot undertake so much without looking up for very much strength by much faith. Let not your much labor for dear baby proceed of carefulness, but of a confidence in God for strength; and if God weaken you, consider it as His sign that you should confide more to others.... Mr. Hawtrey, IMr. Bayford, and I come in to-morrow, taking a chaise from Ripley. I shall be home about nine o'clock in the evening. " Your faithful and affectionate husband, EDWD. IRVING." On the 3d of July he appears to have returned home, and on the 6th this child of prayer gave up its little life, and left another blank in the household so often invaded. Miracle did not interpose to give joy to God's devoted servant. During the whole of this last dread discipline of his life, he served God divinely " for naught," receiving none of the extraordinary graces he believed in. Already the last trial had begun. Miraculously from the edge of the grave, Mary Campbell and Margaret Macdonald in Scotland, and others in England shortly after, near and visible to his eyes and his faith, were brought back in safety to fulfill their existence. But it was not so that God dealt with His loyal and forlorn soldier. The draught of joy, of glorious proof and assurance, that would have refreshed his soul, was withheld from his lips. If he turned away sighing, with a pang of disappointment added to his sorrow, he never paused or slackened on that account in the faith which did not depend upon personal blessings, but watched, with an interest unabated, the new miraculous dispensation, which had not saved his child, but which yet he trusted in as divine and true. It was this child, I think, who died so late in the week as to leave no time for the afflicted father to find a substitute for his Sunday duties. He preached in his own church the day after, taking for his text the words of David-" I shall go to him, but he will not return to me." Persons who were present have described to me, almost with a sob of recollection, the heart-breaking pathos and solemnity of this service; and no one can have read his letters at the time of his first child's death without being able to realize in some degree the outburst of ineffable anguish and rejoicing which must have been wrung from him by such a necessity. They say he went tearless and fasting through that dark Sabbath; and coming in from his pulpit, went straight to the little coffin, and flinging himself down by it, gave way to the agony of a strong man's grief-grief which was half or wholly prayer ?an outcry to the one great Confidant of all his troubles, the faithful Lord who yet had not interposed to save. Shortly after, Irving took his mourning wife and the one little daughter who was still spared to him, and whose health seems to have been fragile enough to keep them anxious on her account also, to Albury, from whence he writes to Mrs. Martin an account of their journey and welfare;, after arriving "in the cool of one of the sweetest evenings which was ever seen," as he says with a sacramental hush of grief breathing from his words"Maggie has been running about with all manner of cheerfulness and joy. The day is delightful, and the scene one of the most enchanting you ever saw. The house is large and cool; the manners of it put every one at their ease; and I fondly hope it may be the means of restoring my wife and child. I desire to express my great sense of your kindness to them and to us all during the late trial of divine Providence, as during others which you have witnessed and shared with us. We must not murmur, but seek to know the end of the Lord, and to submit to His gracious will. Many a time I desire to be with my children, and I hope we shall be all gathered to His congregation ere long;, for I believe the day of His coming draweth nigh, and- that before these judgments fall out we shall be taken to Himself and receive the morning star. I can not but feel the greatest interest in the things taking place in Scotland. The Church of Christ is recovering from a long sleep, and the false brethren who are mingled with the true are ready to resist her new activity; and a third party of worthy and pious people are perplexed what to think of it. I pray you, and all who wish well to the Church, but can not clearly discern your way in the conflict of opinions, to observe the fruits of the two parties, and in this way to discover the true from the false prophets. This is the counsel of our great Counselor,'By their fruits ye shall know them."' The melancholy family took their autumn holiday sadly, and, so far as Irving'was concerned, laboriously as always. From Albury they went to Ireland, to visit Lady Powerscourt, from whose house Mrs. Irving writes to her sister. The first portion of the letter refers to Mr. Scott, who had apparently, by this time, quite withdrawn from his contest with the London Presbytery; his difficulties lying not in the way of one doctrine alone, but branching out into many varieties of doubt and hesitation. Hie had objections to being ordained, objections to the Confession of Faith, objections indeed, apparently, to every limit which restrained his own powerful but wayward thoughts. "1 On the Wednesday before we left for Ireland," says Mrs. Irving, " we dined at Miss F's, to see and hear our dear friend. What wonderful power the Lord gives him! His complaints are no better, in some respects; but he is enabled to speak, to teach, and exhort for many hours every day, to the edification, and comfort, and awakening of many of the body of Christ. Many feel, while listening to him, that they are listening to a dying man. Well, be it so; let us in every thing be given up to the good will of God. To our short sight there appears much need of him, and such like; and if there be need of him for the Church's sake, he will be spared. He preached a most powerful discourse that evening, besides having expounded and exhorted for between four and five hours during the day. If able, he takes all the Wednesday evenings while Edward is absent. On Monday we left London at 7 A.M., and reached Bath before 7 P.M.. -. Shortly after, some gentlemen, whom Mr. E ? has induced to study the Scriptures with him, assembled to spend the evening with us. These kind friends had made arrangements for Edward preaching at Bath. He did preach, and was said to have had a larger congregation than was ever seen before at Bath in a morning. We dined early, and our kind host accompanied us in his own chaise to Bristol. Several other friends followed us.... Here again Edward preached to a large and crowded audience. The packet was not to sail for Dublin till 5 P.M., so we spent part of the morning walking about; and Edward passed a pleasant hour with the Rev. Robert Hall.... " We landed about 10 P.M. on the Dublin quay; so we went to a hotel for the night, and next forenoon proceeded to Powerscourt. Here we met a kind, hearty welcome.... Next morning we drove out a few miles to visit a waterfall... On our return at three o'clock there was a great gathering to hear Edward preach. After dinner, Lady Powerscourt and Edward set out to a Mr. Kelly's, near Dublin, where he met many clergymen. On Sabbath he preached twice in Dublin: on Monday he again preached twice, and came here to a late dinner; there were several clergymen to meet him. Tuesday he preached at Bray. On Wednesday he attended a clerical meeting; upward of thirty clergymen, some laymen, and a few ladies present. Lady Powerscourt and I staid at a clergyman's near Dalgony, where dear Edward arrived at half-past five o'clock, snatched a hasty dinner, and preached at a little after six to a large and most attentive audience ?a most delightful and profitable discourse, and which, we have since learned, made a very deep impression on many, and was understood by the poorest of the people..... On Thursday morning we went together and attended a meeting of the Bible Society at Wicklow. Edward preached thirteen times in eight days." This gigantic holiday work seems to have been imposed upon him, without the slightest compunction, wherever he went; parties assembling to make all they could out of the great preacher, after a twelve hours' journey, and private conferences filling up every hour which was not occupied in public labor. "You know well from my feeling and acting with regard to dear Edward," says his wife, with wifely simplicity, "that I am not one who am continually in fear about health when a man is doing the Lord's work." And, indeed, there seems no leisure, in this incessant round of occupation, either for fears of health or precautions to preserve it. An account of his preaching in Dublin on this occasion is given in one of the Irish papers of the time (Saunders's News-Letter, 18th Sept., 1830), as follows: "The Rev. Edward Irving, who our readers may recollect is minister of the Caledonian chapel in London, preached an able and admirable discourse yesterday at the Scots chapel.... This place of worship was not only crowded to suffocation, but several hundreds assembled outside on benches placed for their accommodation in the yard. The reverend preacher was placed at the southwest window, the frame of which had been previously removed, from which he was audibly heard by the external as well as internal portion of the congregation. We observed many highly respectable Roman Catholic gentlemen present; among them were Messrs. Costello, Nugent, and other members of the late Catholic Association." A month later, on his return to London, Irving himself thus related the most beautiful incident of his Irish travels to his sister-in-law Elizabeth, who was then at Kirkealdy, in the paternal house. "London, 13th October, 1830. "MY DEAR. SISTER., ?Tough I have but a very short moment, I will not let Mr. Hamilton go without sending you my love and blessing. I leave to him to inform you how our matters in the Prfesbytery at present stand, both with respect to Mr. Scott and myself. Of this I have no fear, that the Lord is the strength of all His faithful people, and that we are contending for the foundation of the truth when we maintain that Christ was holy in spite of the law of the flesh working in Him as in another man, but in Him never prevailing as it does in every other man. It was my turn to preach before the Presbytery, and I spent two of the most gracious hours of my life in opening the subject of the Church as a co-essential part of the purpose of God, with the Incarnation of the Son, unto which this was the preparation and likewise the way, and all the means and all the life of it. IMr. Brown, our missionary,* sees in all respects with me, and said there was not a word in my discourse wherein he took not pleasure, and that the statement on the humanity was in every tittle satisfactory to him. "My dear Isabella and Maggie are at Lady Olivia Sparrow's; Miss Macdonald is there also: they are well.... What do you think of this little song? "' Come, my little lambs, And feed by my side, And I will give you to eat of my body, And to drink of the blood of my flesh, And ye shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, And whosoever believeth not on me Shall be cast out; But he that believeth on me Shall feed with me Beside my Father.' "It has not metre nor regular measure, and yet there is a fine rhythm in it, and I dare say your father would say it might be very well set to music. You will say, who made it? I will tell you. When the Countess of Powerscourt, after her noble and Christian entertainment of us, thought it good to bring us in her own carriage to the waterside at Kingstown, and the boat was not arrived by reason of the terrible west wind, we went into the inn; and Isabella, as her case required, was resting on the sofa, Lady Powerscourt sitting before the fire with Maggie on her knee, and I between her ladyship and my wife. Maggie broke the silence; for God had given us all three much love for one another, and we were silent, being loth to part. Maggie said:'Lady Powerscourt, shall I sing you a song?''Yes, Maggie,' said her ladyship. Whereupon the child, modulating her voice most sweetly, poured forth these divine words. When she was finished, her ladyship said,' Does not that comfort you?' But I wist not it was the child's making, and understood not what she meant; but perceiving she wished not to explain farther (it was for fear of begetting vain conceit in the child), I said no more; but Maggie left her ladyship's knee, and went to the other side of the room. * This gentleman had succeeded Mr. Scott when the latter was called to the Woolwich Church, and was in reality Irving's assistant or curate. Then I said to Isabella,' Where did Maggie learn that song, and who taught it her?' She said,'Nowhere, and no one taught her.' I called the child and said,'Maggie, my dear, who taught you that song?' She said,'Nobody. I made it one day after bathing;' and so I thought upon the words,' Out of the mouth of babes and of sucklings I have ordained praise,' and I was comforted. Read it to your father and mother, and tell my dear sister Margaret to set it to a tune and sing it of an evening at her house when she goes home; and think of the sweet and of the sad hours she, as well as you, dear Elizabeth, have passed with us. Give my love to your dear parents, as also mine, and to all the family. Be filled with love, my dear child, to all men, and have the mind of Christ. Think not of yourself, but of your Lord, and of the glory of your God.... Be steadfast and immovable in the truth, and give up all things for it. Farewell! God be with you, and bless you and your husband, and bring you back in safety! "From your faithful brother and pastor, EDWARD IRVING." Thus the five-year-old Maggie, sole blossom at that time of the two saddened lives she cheered, comforted her father's soul. He paints the little picture with minute quaint touches, which would be like Dutch painting were they not always full of a pathetic tenderness which has no accordance with that name. The scene lives before us in all its profound simplicity and silent emotion, distinct and vivid as reality. It is pleasant to know that this child was very like her father; grew up to have his voice, his features, something of his power of winning hearts; and died in full womanhood, but in youth, untouched by any vulgar fate. The " dear sister Margaret," whom he exhorts to sing this touching childish utterance, was then a bride, just about going to her new home in the hereditary manse of Monimail, where her venerable grandsire had died not very long before. To her and to her husband the following letter of congratulation was shortly thereafter addressed: "Brampton Court, October, 1830. "MY DEAR MARGARET AND JAMES, ?I am just setting out to preach at Huntingdon, and take up my pen, before starting, to give you my benediction. May the Lord fulfill upon you the prayers which we have prayed for you, and make you as those that preceded you at Monimail! I can not present to you two better examples. Dear Margaret, be in dutiful subjection to your husband, and strengthen his hands in every good work-' good works in her husband to promote' Dear James, be a loving husband, a guardian, and a guide to our Margaret; she is a precious person. God be your guide and your portion! His truth is your common rule, and His love your communion and fellowship... "Your faithful brother, EDWARD IRVING."

From Brampton Court, from which this letter is written, he was, as usual, overwhelmed with supererogatory labors. "Dear Edward hurried down from London again, to be with me as soon as possible," writes his wife. "There are a goodly number of hearers, and hearers all day long here, so that yesterday Edward spoke almost constantly from nine in the morning till eleven at night, what with expositions, dictating for an hour, and answering questions." How either mind or body sustained this perpetual pouring forth, it seems difficult to imagine; but, though this very letter proves that he still wrote, dictating to some of his faithful amanuenses, it is a relief to believe that much of this must have been extempore. Years before, he had written a brief and striking note on Samuel Martin's Bible. " My brother, no man is furnished for the ministry till he can unclasp his pocket Bible, and wherever it opens, discourse from it largely and spiritually to the people." Nothing but such a capacity could have carried him through the incessant calls upon him, which, indeed, are curious exemplars how those pious nobles who are nursing fathers and mothers to religion, having laid hold upon such a notable and willing laborer, do their best to work him to death. It is very evident, at the same time, that he never had a thought or conception of saving himself. A glimpse of another unsuspected branch of labor gleams out in a speech reported in the newspapers as having been made at one of the May meetings in this year, a meeting in behalf of the Destitute Seamen's Asylum, at which the great preacher appeared to "bear testimony to the excellence of the institution from personal observation, having been accustomed to minister to the seamen once a fortnight. He had witnessed," he says, "' the spectacle of six or seven houseless seamen herding at the bottle-works at Shadwell for the sake of the warmth," but had afterward found "from 130 to 150 seated in comfort to a homely meal, with such a spirit of order maintained among them that never in one instance had his holy avocation been disturbed by any act of irreverence." So far as any one can see, he had.nothing in the world to do with these sailors, with all his own manifold affairs in hand; but to a soul never in any difficulty to know who was his neighbor, such brotherly offices were more restful than rest. On his return to London from these laborious wanderings, he writes to his wife, "The Lord has preserved my flock in love and unity, and we assembled on Sunday as numerous as at any former period. Our meeting of Session was very delightful. Mr. Henderson and Dr. Thompson are fully convinced of the reality of the hand of God in the west country work, and so is Mr. Cardale. Pray for Mary Campbell; she is under some temptations." But while this was a matter of constant reference and anxious expectation, and while restoration to health, as miraculous and extraordinary as that which happened at the Gairloch, had startled into still warmer excitement the believers about London in the wonderful case of Miss Fancourt,* Irving's mind was still much more entirely occupied with the momentous matter of doctrine, on which so great a commotion had lately risen. Mr. Maclean's case was not yet decided; but Mr. Scott had, as has been mentioned, formally withdrawn his from the consideration of the Presbytery of London, by the objections against ordination, and indeed against most matters distinctive of an ecclesiastical organization, which had arisen in his mind. The Presbytery of London was reduced in number at the moment. Several of those ministers who came to the conclusion, which a few months before gave so much comfort to Irving, seem to have left its bounds. The little ecclesiastical court was balked but emboldened by the discussion, which had been rendered fruitless by the withdrawal of Mr. Scott; and now a bolder move suggested itself to one of its members, who resolved upon bringing the great preacher himself to the bar. Irving had just been entertaining dreams of another apostolic visit to Edinburgh, when this threatened stroke arrested him. Always drawn, by a fascination which he seemed unable to resist, toward his native country, he had written to Mr. Macdonald: "I desire very much, if possible, to come to Edinburgh for one fortnight, to preach a series of discourses upon the nature and acts of the Incarnation. I wish it to be during the sitting of the college, and in the evenings, or evenings and8 mornings, when the divinity students might attend. Ask Mr. Tait if he would risk his pulpit, or could you get another?" The arrangement even went farther. In December Irving wrote again to the same friend: "Mr. Maclean comes up this very week, and to him, with our most devout and devoted missionary, I can with all confidence commit my flock; so that in the Christmas recess I can, and, God permitting, will be with you to keep the feast.... Mr. Carlyle's counsel is good, and I take as the subject of my evening discourses the Epistle to the Hebrews ?' A series of lectures upon the Epistle to the Hebrews.' * See Appendix A. But my wife has suggested, and I have faith to undertake besides, if you think it good, a series of prophetic expositions, in the forenoon of each day, upon prophetical subjects connected with the signs of these times, the restoration of the Jews, the coming of the Lord and His kingdom. For many ladies and infirm people might come out in the morning who could not venture in the evening, and some might desire both. In this case I would make Sunday a resting day, and show my dutifulness to the Church in waiting upon the ministry of my brethren. Now I could set off from this so as to be in Edinburgh on the eve of Christmas day, that is, Friday night; and, if you please, you might advertise the lectures to begin on Saturday. At the rate of a chapter each night, it would occupy me just a fortnight, after which I might find time to visit my friends in various parts for another week, and so return, having been absent three Sabbaths. Judge and decide, and send me word by return of post. When my dear brother Alexander Scott comes to Edinburgh (he is to be married this day, God bless him!), would you say that if he were to remain and go over the subjects with me privately, I should deem it a great help? but let him be free.... My flock is in great peace and harmony, and I think concentrating more and more, praised be the Lord!" He had, however, no sooner arranged thus particularly the details of a Christmas holiday so much after his own heart, when the apostolic enterprise was put a stop to, for the moment, by the course of events which brought him, in his own person, before the bar of the Presbytery, and began the series of his ecclesiastical persecutions. This process and its issue he himself describes, with his usual minuteness, in the preface to Christ's Holiness in the Flesh, from which we have already quoted. After reference to the discussion in Mr. Scott's case, the narrative goes on as follows: "Some time after this, one of the brethren of the Prebytery signified to me by letter his purpose of calling my book into question the next day after he wrote, when the Presbytery was to meet; to whom I replied that this was to proceed against the divine rule of Christ,::which required him to speak to myself privately, and then with witnesses, before bringing a matter before the Church. In this he acquiesced, and did not make any motion concerning it; but another brother did, when I solemnly protested against the proceeding; and the Presbytery would not entertain it, but required that I should be privately conferred with. Many weeks passed, but no one of them came near me, until the next meeting of the Presbytery was just at hand. Then the first mover of the matter waited upon me, and I laid before him the tract, instructing him to point me out the objectionable parts, when, to my amazement, he either would not or could not; for, though he shuffled over its leaves, he could not alight upon any thing; and then at length he said he would write what he objected to. But he never did it. I stood engaged to be in Ireland, and could not be present at the next meeting of the Presbytery; yet in my absence he sought to force it on, and was again prevented by the Presbytery. When I returned, being appointed with two other members of Presbytery (for besides myself there were but three ministers in all) to confer with the young preacher referred to above as desiring to withdraw his application for ordination because he could not sign the Westminster Confession of Faith, when the conference was over, these two brethren did request that we might converse together upon the tract, and they pointed out two or three passages in it to which they objected, for which kindness I was very thankful. But still, the brother who had stood forth from time to time as my accuser took no opportunity of conferring with me whatever. And when, at the next meeting, he brought forward his motion indicting my book, and reading from it many passages to which he objected, I stood forth, and having first disabused the Presbytery, and also the people, of the errors laid to my charge, as if I taught that Christ sinned in instead of sanctifying our nature, I moved that the contumacious brother should be censured for setting at naught'both the canon of the Lord and the order of the Presbytery, and be required to proceed regularly. But, to my astonishment and vexation, I found the very same Presbytery willing to indulge him, and these very members who had themselves sanctioned their own order by conferring privately with me. I then rose the second time, and signified to them what I could and what I could not submit to the adjudication of that body of three ministers and as many elders, from whom I had no appeal. Every thing which affected my conduct among them as a brother I would submit to free censure and rebuke if necessary, but nothing affecting my standing as a preacher and ordained minister of the Church of Scotland, and as the minister of the National Scotch Church in Regent Square, who, by the trust-deed, must be ordained by a Presbytery in Scotland, and not by the Presbytery of London. It was argued that I stood wholly and entirely at their tribunal; and when I perceived that there was nothing for it but either to give up my standing as a minister of Christ to the judgment of these six men, or to dissolve my voluntary connection with them, I resolved of the two evils to choose the least, and not to submit the authority of the Church of Scotland to the verdict of any six men in Christendom. And though I have tried my conscience much, I feel that I did right. But, before taking this final step, I rose the third time, and conjured them by every tie and obligation to Christ, to the Church, to myself personally, to my large and numerous flock, to the memory of my brotherly labors with and for them, to my acts of service and kindness to them individually, which I will not here, and did not there, enumerate, to take the regular process of the Lord's appointing, and I doubted not all would be well: which when they would not do, I arose and went forth from them, appealing my cause to the Church of Scotland, who alone have rightful authority over me and my flock... The Presbytery, notwithstanding my solemn separation from their association, and likewise the separation of the elders of the National Church, and the whole Church with us, proceeded with their measures against me, and carried things to the utmost stretch of their power; for all which they are answerable at the bar of the Head of the Church, and not to me." Another account of the same event, in which a greater degree of personal feeling and excitement appears, was contained in a letter which-a few days after the one previously quoted, in which he had arranged all the preliminaries of a Christmas visit to Scotland-he addressed to Mr. Macdonald: " MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,-I have now had an opportunity of consulting both my session and other influential men of the congregation, and they are all of one mind, that, even though it should precipitate the present mixture of good and evil in the Church, and bring down upon my head wrath, I should do it;* but not immediately, because of our own trials. The Presbytery of London, that is, three members, one of them just taking his leave, and another of them having oftentimes declared his agreement with me, and two elders, one of them having done the same-these five persons, in the face of my protest against their power, Mr. Hamilton's against their injustice, and the elder of Woolwich and the elder of London Wall's entire disapprobation, have condemned my writings, excommunicated me from their body, and recommended their sentence to be read from the pulpits. Our session met last night, and drew up, and subscribed with their hands, a solemn testimony to the truths taught by me and held by us; and I have added a brief explanation of the principles on which I acted by the Presbytery, and the Presbytery by me; and it will be published in all ways, and read from our pulpit next Sabbath. We are as one man, blessed be the Lord, and so is all my flock. What a grace! " Nevertheless, some thought that I should be at my place for a few Sabbaths, and I wished every day to visit the flock and establish them; so that we must pass from the Christmas recess, and without at present saying when, hope and pray that it may be as soon as possible.... If you should see any likelihood of its being perverted, send me instant notice, and I will come at all hazards rather than lose the opportunity, which I perceive to be a golden one.... My plans are the same for the subjects as in my lastiletter. If any change arise I will communicate. Now pray much for us here, because there are many enemies; but oh, what a wide door, and effectual! The Lord has given me the honor of being the first to suffer; blessed be His-name! "Your faithful friend and brother, EDWARD IRVING." This somewhat willful and lofty step of denying the jurisdiction of the London Presbytery left Irving in an isolated position, which, though it did not in any respect, as yet, injure his external standing, touched his brotherly heart. He seems to have intrenched himself stoutly, like the impracticable visionary man he was, behind that divine rule of procedure, which has long ceased * Referring to his projected sermons in Edinburgh to be, if ever it was, the rule of ecclesiastical proceedings. To require men to do, even in Church matters, exactly and literally what their Lord tells them, is a thing few think of attempting; and the ordinary spectator will doubtless sympathize to some extent with that hapless Presbytery of London, whom the great preacher, in the simplicity of his heart, called to private conference with himself before they ventured' on public condemnation. He was not aware, as his unfortunate accuser was, that in private conference, the weaker man naturally goes to the wall; nor could comprehend, in his ingenuous greatness, how antagonists, so unfit to cope with him individually, might be glad to huddle together, and express, in what language of condemnation they could, their confused sense of something beyond them, which they could neither consent to nor understand. Nothing can be more expressive than that pertinacious agreement which, when they were thus put to it, united the alarmed presbyters, each man of whom well knew that, in private conference, he must infallibly break down and yield. They seized their opportunity with a vulgar but wise perception of it, refusing the perilous ordeal of'private personal encounter; and with a lofty indignation, which might be almost arrogance, were one to name it harshly, the accused arose and went forth. He had no insight into that expedient of weakness. He called that harshly injustice which was mere fright and natural human poltroonery, and so left them, giving, in his own elevated thoughts, a certain grandeur to the petty persecution. Henceforth he was alone in his labors and troubles; no triumphant gladness of conscious orthodoxy, because the Presbytery had so decided, could hereafter give assurance to his own personal certainty. They of his own house had lifted up their heel against him. Notwithstanding all his independence, the profound loyalty of his soul was henceforward balked of its healthful necessities. The only authority which could now harm or help him-the sole power he recognized-was distant in Scotland, apart from the scene of his warfare and the knowledge of his work, judging coldly, not even without a touch of jealous prejudice. He was cast unnaturally free of restraint and power; that lawful, sweet restraint, that power endowed with all visionary excellences and graces, to which the tender dutifuluness so seldom wanting to great genius naturally clings. It was hard-it was sad-it was almost'fatal work for Irving. He could not live without that support and solace; and when this disjunction was accomplished, he found his Presbytery, at his authority, the needful concurrence and command which were indispensable to him, in other things. The statement drawn up by the Session, to which he refers above, was as follows: " London, 15th December, 1830. " We, the Minister, Missionary, Elders, and Deacons of the National Scotch Church, Regent Square, feel it a duty we owe to ourselves, to the congregation to which we belong, to the Church of Christ, and to all honest men, no longer to remain silent under the heavy charges that are brought against us, whether from ignorance, misapprehension, or willful perversion of the truth, and therefore we solemnly declare " That we utterly detest and abhor any doctrine that would charge with sin, original or actual, our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whom we worship and adore as'the very and eternal God, of one substance, and equal with the Father; who, when the fullness of the time was come, did take upon Him man's nature, with all the essential properties arid common infirmities thereof, yet without sin;''very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man;' who in the days of His flesh was' holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth;''who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God;''the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the' world,''a Lamb without blemish and without spot;' in.which offering of Himself' He made a proper, real, and full satisfaction to His Father's justice in our behalf.' And we farther declare that all our peace of conscience, progress in sanctification, and hope of eternal blessedness resteth upon the sinlessness of that sacrifice, and the completeness of that atonement which He hath made for us as our substitute. "And, finally, we do solemnly declare that these are the doctrines which are constantly taught in this church,-agreeably to the standards of the Church of Scotland and the Word of God. EDWARD IRVING, Minister. DAVID BROWN, Missionary. ARCHIBALD HORN, CHARLES VERTUE, DAVID BLYTH, ALEX. GILLISPIE, JUN. WVM. HAMILTON, Elders. JOHN THOMSON, Deacons." DUNCAN MACKENZIE, J. C. HENDERSON, JAMES NISBET, J THoS. CARSWELL, DAVID KER, In the midst of these personal agitations and ecclesiastical troublesj a quaint and characteristic public incident diversifies the history. The congregation at Regent Square, under Irving's inspiration, had decided upon presenting a petition to the king, calling upon him to appoint a national fast. The petition itself, a powerful and eloquent production, like all Irving's personal appeals, is now only to be found in collections of the tracts and pamphlets of the period. Accompanied by three of his elders, he went to Lord Melbourne, by appointment, to present this singular address. While they waited in the anteroom the premier's leisure, Irving called upon his somewhat amazed and embarrassed companions to kneel and pray for "favor in the sight of the king's minister," as a private letter describes it. When they were admitted to the jaunty presence of that cheerful functionary, the preacher read over to him at length the remarkable document he came to present, during the reading of which, we are told, "Lord Melbourne was much impressed, and also by some solemn things Mr. Mackenzie (one of the elders) said, on the only means of saving this country." When they took leave, the minister "shook hands heartily" with Irving, who, holding that hand in his gigantic grasp, " implored the blessing and guidance of God on his administration." A scene more remarkable could scarcely be. On one side an impersonation of the good-hearted, cheerful man of the world, bland by temper and policy, to whom most things were humbug, and truth a fluctuating possibility; and confronting him the man of God, in utter loyalty and simplicity, mournful over falsehood, but little suspicious of it, to whom all truth was absolute, and hesitation or compromise unknown. They confronted each other for a moment, a wonderful spectacle; the prophet soul bestowing lofty benedictions upon the awed and wondering statesman. It is a picture with which we may well close the record of this momentous year.