To people who are accustomed to see the columns of newsjDapers filled day after day with close, lengthened, and, it may be, tedious arguments concerning the true meaning of the Articles of the Church, it will be almost inconceivable that any decision, bearing weight in law, could be come to upon grounds so trivial ; yet such was the case ; and the extraordinary recklessness which could stake an honorable man's character and position upon the opinions or impressions of a group of fellow-clergymen, supported SCRAPS OF THE CONFESSION. 487 by the merest shreds of quotation from those Articles by which, and by which alone they professed to be guided, has never, so far as I am aware, been so much as remarked by the community most interested. If he was to be judged by the standards of the Church, it must be apparent to every one that the merest superfi- cial rules of justice required a close examination of those stand- ards, a patient and detailed scrutiny, care being had to arrive at the true meaning, and to put aside the individual and local cir- cumstances which so evidently and avowedly color those produc- tions of a belligerent age. Nothing can be more evident, for ex- ample, than that the extract from the Directory above quoted re- Wns, simply to the irreverent behavior in church of a half-enlight- ened people, and is entirely innocent of any allusion to utterances of either real or pretended inspiration ; and few people will im- agine that, apart from other evidence, the declaration of the West- minster divines that "those former ways of God's revealing His will to His people have now ceased," could either finally settle the question, or was ever intended by those very divines them- selves to settle it. The Presbytery decided that to suffer unau- thorized persons to speak in the Church was a capital offense against the laws of the Church of Scotland, in direct opposition to those directions quoted by Irving for the exercise of "prophe- sying or interpreting the Scriptures," which appear in one of the authoritative books of that Church, and which point to an assem- bly almost identical with that over which Irving presided, with the exception that the former laid claim to no miraculous gifts. " This has just exactly the reverse meaning of what the reverend defender had endeavored to extract from it, not to mention that there is nothing here about these prophets speaking on a Sun- day," says the Moderator, with a simple and amusing dogmatism which attempts no proof; and the other members of the court give forth their opinions with equal looseness, each man using a few inapplicable words out of the Confession, as if it were a charm which could convert his personal notions into a solemn judgment. I neither assert nor imagine that there was the least dishonesty in the conclusions so strangely arrived at, or that the judges were not quite conscientious, and convinced that they were doing their duty ; but, so far as law and justice are concerned, the entire pro- ceedings were a mere mockery, only rendjered more palpably fool- ish by the show of legal form and ceremony with which they were conducted. Had the matter been argued before a civil court, it 488 CHARACTER OF PRESBYTERIAN WORSHIP. might, indeed, have been decided that the proceedings complained of were contrary to the usage of the Church of Scotland, no doubt an important point; but it must have been satisfactorily estab- lished that no ecclesiastical law* forbade them, and that no direct ordinance of the Church had been in any way transgressed. At the same time, while this is very evidently the case, it is necessary to admit that the spiritual manifestations then taking place in Irving's church were, though contrary to no ecclesiasti- cal canon, yet thoroughly contrary to the character and essence of Presbyterian worship ; and that only the existence, not to be hoped for, of an imperturbable judicial mind, resolute in the maj- esty of law, and beyond the influence of feeling, in the court th* judged him, could have made a different result possible. Those outbursts of prophetic voices, exciting and unexpected, were pal- pably at the wildest variance with the rigid decorums of that na- tional worship which has so carefully abstracted every thing which can influence either imagination or sense from its austere services. And a body of men trained to the strictest observance of this af- fronted order of worship, totally unaccustomed to the exactitude of law, and important in the exercise of an authority which they would have unanimously declared it an infraction of Christ's sov- ereignty in His Church had any qualified adviser attempted to guide, were scarcely to be supposed so superior to Presbyterial precedent as to conduct this trial on the cautious principles of civil equity. They quoted ecclesiastical law as uninstructed con- troversialists quote texts, by way of giving a certain vague author- ity to their own opinions, but the idea of examining scrupulously what that law really enforced and meant, or wherein the actions of the accused were opposed to it, never seems to have entered the minds of the hasty Presbyters. The Confessions of Faith and Books of Discipline, to which Irving referred so often, had, in fact, nothing to do with the matter. Apart from all disputed doctrine and irritated theological temper, a simple matter of fact, visible to all the world, had to be dealt with ; a startling novelty had sud- denly disturbed the sober composure of the Scotch Church, which was no way to be reconciled with its habitual reserve and grav- ity, and somehow had to be got rid of Scotch observers, looking back at the present moment, regretful of the necessity, still ask, * That this is the case, and that no such rigid adherence to the proprieties of cus- tom binds the Church when she chooses to be tolerant, might be proved by the many irregularities permitted iu connection with the late " revivals." THE VERDICT. 489 What could they do ? And I can not tell what they could have done except examine, and wait, and tolerate — three things which the national temperament finds more difficult than any action or exertion. " I do not dissent from your assertion that the Scotch Consistory had no choice but to expel Irving from the body," writes the Eev. F, D. The verdict — elaborately enveloped, as will be seen, in the per- plexing obscurity of Scotch law terms, which,^taken in connection with the wonderful lack of law in the proceedings themselves, throw an air almost of absurdity upon it — was as follows : "At a meeting of the London Presbytery, held at the Scotch Church, London Wall, this 2d day of May, ISSfOL- " Whereas the Trustees of the National Scotch Church, Regent Square, having, on the 22d day of March last, delivered to the Mod- erator of this Presbytery a memorial and complaint, charging the Rev. Edward Irving with certain deviations from the doctrine and discipline of the Church of Scotland, in the said complaint particu- larly set forth, and praying that this Presbytery would forthwith take the same into their consideration, so as to determine the question whether, by such breaches of doctrine and discipline, the said Rev. Edward Irving hath not rendered himself unfit to remain the minis- ter of the said National Scotch Church, and ought not to be removed therefrom, in pursuance of the conditions of the trust-deed of the said church. And whereas the said Rev. Edward Irving, having previous- ly been delated and convicted before this Presbytery on the ground of teaching heresy concerning the human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, has been declared to be no longer a member thereof, yet, in respect that the trust-deed of the said church, legally drawn and concluded with the consent of the said Rev. Edward Irving, and the said trustees as parties thereto, expressly provides not only that this Presbytery shall or may act and adjudicate in all cases of complaint brought in the manner therein specified against the minister of the 490 IRVING "UNFIT TO EEMAIN A MINISTER." said church for the time being, by certain persons tlierein specified ; but tliat the award or decision of this Presbytery in all such matters, so referred to them as aforesaid, shall be final and conclusive. "And further, in regard that the trustees of the said church, being of the parties competent to complain as aforesaid, have laid before this Presbytery, in the manner prescribed by the said trust-deed, the me- morial and complaint hereinbefore-mentioned or referred to, against the said Rev. Edward Irving, charging him as aforesaid with certain deviations from the doctrine and discipUue of the Church of Scotland, as mentioned in the said complaint particularly, in as far as he has permitted and publicly encouraged, during public worship on Sab- bath and other days, the exercise of certain supposed gifts by persons being neither ministers nor licentiates of the Church of Scotland, in contravention, as well of his ordination vows, as of the true intent and meaning of the said trust-deed, Avhich, in the governing clause thereof, provides that the said National Scotch Church, of which the said Rev. Edward Irving is the present minister, shall, at all times hereafter, be used, occupied, and enjoyed as a place for the jiublic re- ligious worship and service of God, according to the doctrines, forms of worship, and modes of discipline of the Established Church ; an account of all which deviations and innovations the said trustees, of- fering proof of the same, have petitioned this Presbytery to decern in the premises, according to the provisions of the said trust-deed. And farther, in regard that the said complaint has in all respects been orderly proceeded in. And that on the 26th and 27th days of April last, and on this 2d day of May instant, the said trustees on the cue part, and the sai^ Rev. Edward Irving on the other, having sev- erally compeared before this Presbytery, and probation having been taken on said complaint by the examination of witnesses uj^ou oath, and by documentary evidence lodged in process, and parties having been heard and removed ; therefore this Presbytery, having seriously and deliberately considered the said complaint and the evidence ad- duced, together with the statements made in court by the said Rev. Edward Irving, and acting under a deep and solemn sense of their responsibility to the Lord Jesus Christ as the great Head of the Church, do tind that the charges in said complaint are fully proven; and therefore, while deeply deploring the painful necessity thus im- posed upon them, they did and hereby do decern that the said Rev. Edward Irving has rendered himself unfit to remain the minister of the National Scotch Church aforesaid, and ought to be removed therefrom, in pursuance of the conditions of the trust-deed of the said church. James Reid Brown, " Moderator of the Presbytery of the Established Church of Scotland in London." The following morning had scarcely dawned when the triumph- ant press echoed and celebrated this decision. Never before was a Presbytery out of Scotland so watched and so applauded. The Times itself opened with a discharge of its great guns in honor of the victory, devoting a leading article to the subject : TRIUMPH OF THE PRESS.— "TIMES" AND "RECORD." 49I "The blasphemous absurdities which have for some months past been enacted in the Caledonian Church, Regent Square," says the leadiug journal, " are now, we trust, brought to an eflectual conclu- sion. The Scotch Presbytery in London, Avho are, by the trust-deed of the chapel, appointed to decide on any alleged departure of its minister from the standards of the Kirk of Scotland, to which, by the samp deed, he is sworn to adhere, last night, after a lahorioics inves- tigation, declai'ed that the fooleries which he had encouraged or per- mitted Avere inconsistent Avith the doctrine and discii)line of the Scotch National Establishment. It Avould, indeed, have been a sub- ject of Avonder had they come to a different conclusion, though they had had the benefit of a concert upon the ' tongues' from the whole male and female band of Mr. Irving's select performers. So long as the reverend gentleman occupied the stage himself," continues this great authority in religious doctrine, " he Avas heard with patience — l)erhaps sometimes with pity ; . , . . but Avhen he entered into part- nership Avith knaves and impostors, to display their concerted ' mani- festations'— when he profaned the sanctuary of God by introducing hideous interludes of 'the unknown tongues,' it was impossible any longer to tolerate the nuisance." Sucli terms bad Irving, with his lofty sense of honor and chiv- alrous truthfulness, to hear applied to himself and to endure. The Record, with milder, but not less triumphant satisfaction, fol- lows in a similar strain, emphasizing its rejoicing by congratula- ting its readers not only upon Baxter's recantation, but upon the timely withdrawal of Irving's assistant and missionary from the falling house — that gentleman having not only had his eyes open- ed to the delusion of the gifts, but also to the " awful heresy in re- gard to our Lord's humanity, which it has been the privilege of this journal steadfastly to resist." Such were the pasans with which the perfectly illogical and indefensible decision of the Lon- don Presbytery was received in the outside world, and such the accompaniments with which this heavy blow fell upon Irving. The assistant who deserted him at so painful a crisis had been his companion for but a short time, and appears but little either in the history of the struggle, or in those all-demonstrative letters in which Irving, incapable of concealment, reveals his heart and soul. It is a relief to turn from all this misrepresentation and injust- ice ; from the reckless Presbyters who refused to examine either their own law or the real question at issue ; from the contemptu- ous journalists, to whom this matter was only one of the wonders of the day, a fanaticism as foreign and unintelligible as heaven ; from disenchanted prophets and failing friends, to Irving himself, spending the next day after, morning and evening and at noon, in 492 THE FAST-DAY.— CLOSING OF THE CHUKCH. the labors and devotions of that dedicated day preparatory to the communion, which Scottish piety still calls ])ar excellence the Fast- day, totally as the ordinance of fasting has disappeared from the nation. He did not intermit those services, although it was now uncertain whether the church would be open to him on the next Sunday for the celebration of the sacrament. " The tokens* were given, to be kept (if not delivered up on Sunday) as a bond of union till such time as the Lord shall guide the flock to some oth- er place of refuge," writes a lady, whose diffuse woman's letter deepens into momentary pathos when, speaking of Irving in that day's services, she exclaims, " I verily believe he offered to God the sacrifice of a hrolcen heart." It was the last sacrifice of his ever to be offered in that place where " the ashes of his children rested," as he himself mournfully said. The next morning, in the early May sunshine, before the world was half awake, the daily congregation, gathering to their matins, found the gates of the church closed upon them. Perhaps it was that " wrath with those we love," working " like madness in the brain," the bitter anger of a brother offended, which moved the trustees to so ab- rupt a use of their power, "I strongly urged them to allow the church to remain open till after the dispensation of the sacra- ment," writes Mr. GKAY'S INN ROAD. 493 pugnant to tlie judgment, taste, and feeling of all the members than the asylum to which they were driven. A barn or a cow- shed would have been preferable, but none such were to be ob- tained." This was a large room in Gray's Inn Eoad, occupied at other times by the well-known Kobert Owen, and which was not -| — only desecrated by that association, but too small to hold the large body of Irving's adherents. In this place, however, in that dis- mal centre of London life, the holy feast was held on the 6^ of May, by almost the entire Church, about eight hundred communi- cants ; and here, for some months, the more solemn services of the Church were celebrated ; while Irving preached out of doors in various places, sometimes in Britannia Fields, sometimes in Isling- ton Green, to the multitudes who assembled wherever his presence was known. Such was the first step he had to make in that new world, out- side what his followers call "the splendid towers of Kegent Square," outside the ancient circle of companions and counselors who had deserted him. Of the pangs of that parting he hence- forth says not a word, but goes on in sad grandeur, feeling to the depths of his heart all the fullness of the change. Between the church he had founded and watched over as stone upon stone it had grown into being, and round which, in his fond imagination, the venerable prestige of the Church of his fathers had always hovered, and the big room in that squalid London street, where foolish-benevolent Unbelief* shared the possession with him, and played its frivolous pranks of philanthropy under the same roof which echoed his religious voice, amid all the sneers of the preju- diced world outside, what a difference was there ! But after the struggles of the so-called " trial" were over, not a word of com- plaint or reproach comes to his lips ; he proceeds with those " un- exampled labors." Multitudes stand hushed before him on those summer days, as on the parched suburban grass, or under the walls of the big prison, he preaches the Gospel of his Master, with an eloquence deeper and richer, a devotion more profound and perfect, than when the greatest in the land crowded to his feet, and all that was most wise and most fair in society listened and * I may notice here, so strong is the power of even a momentary and fortuitous connection of two names, that some friends of my own, entirely ignorant otherwise of Irving, have confidently assured me that he had something to do with the infidel Owen, as I was sure to find out on examination ! This is, I need not say, the entire amount of that connection. 494 OUT-DOOR PREACHING.— THE LOST CHILD. thrilled to his prophet voice. But not his now the j^rophet voice ; by his side, or in the crowd near him, is some obscure man or woman, to hear whom, when the burst of utterance comes upon them, the great preacher pauses with rapt looks and ear intent ; for that utterance, because he believes it to be the voice of God, he has borne "reproach, casting out, deprivation of every thing save life itself," writes one of his female relatives, with aggrieved andf)athetic indignation ; and there he stands, in the unconscious splendor of his humility, offering magnificent thanks when those strange ejaculations give, what he believes a confirmation from heaven, to the Word he has Jpeen teaching ; a sight, if that voice were true, to thrill the universe ; a sight, if that voice were false, to make angels weep with utter love and pity ; any way, whether true or false, an attitude than which any thing more noble and af- fecting has never been exhibited by man to men. One of those outdoor sermons was distinguished by a thorough- ly characteristic and beaiitiful incident. It was shortly after his ejection from Eegent Square, on a summer Sunday morning, when surrounded by a little band of his own people, and raised in "a temporary pulpit or platform made for his use by one of his flock," Irving was preaching to the dense crowd which had gathered round him. The subject of his discourse was, as the lady from whom I have the information believes, that doctrine of regenera- tion in baptism with which so many pangs of parental love and an- guish were associated in his mind. Suddenly he was interrupted by an appeal from the crowd ; a child had been lost in the throng by its parents, and was now held up by the stranger who had ex- tricated it, and who wanted to know what he should do with the forlorn little creature. "Give me the child," said the preacher; and with difliculty, through the multitude, the lost infant was brought to him. " Mr. Irving stretched out his arms for it," says my informant, " and in a moment it was nestling (just as we used to see his own little baby do), with the most perfect confidence and contentment, against his broad shoulder. It was a poor child, and poorly clothed, but he was not the man to love it less on that ac- count. We shall none of us ever forget the luonderful manner in which Mr. Irving could hold an infant. This one appeared to be perfectly happy from the moment it was in his arms, while he continued to preach with as much ease and freedom as before ; and interweaving at once into his discourse (to which it was, of course, most appropriate) our Lord's own lesson about the little AFFECTIONATE RECOLLECTION. And in these preachings, with but here and there a scattered individual who retained, or ever had known, allegiance to the Church of Scotland near him, and in the room in Gray's Inn Eoad — and still more strangely in the chapel where the Eev. Nicholas Armstrong, not long before a clergyman of the English Church, and of fervent Irish blood, established the first dependent congre- gation of the new sect — one sign of Irving's influence, as remark- able as it is affecting, accompanied the services. So far as the London Presbytery could do it, the great preacher had been cast out of the Church of his fathers ; he had been pronounced unfit to occupy any longer a pulpit bound to the Church of Scotland ; but, wherever Irving's friends and followers sang the praises of God, it was that rugged version of the Psalms of David which we, in Scotland, know from our cradles, and — all poetic considerations out of the question — cherish to our graves, which ascended from the lips of the unaccustomed crowd. Those rugged measures, by times grand in their simplicity, by times harsh and unmelodious 496 THE SCOTCH PSALMS. as only translated lyrics can be, wliicli cheered the death-passion of the Covenanter, and which Carlyle, with an almost fantastic loy- alty (in rebellion) to the faith that cradled him, puts into the mouths of his medieeval monks, Irving, in actual reality, put into the mouths of his English followers. When his bold disciples in- terposed their Gospel into the din of every-day life in the heart of London, and preached at Charing Cross in the heat of the labori- ous hours, it was not the smooth hymns of modern piety, but the strange songs of a sterner faith, which mingled with the confused noises of the life-battle. To find those harsh old verses, sometimes thrilling with an heroic touch, but at all times as unlike the effu- sions of devotion in our days as can well be conceived, preserved amid records of "manifestations" and sermons, upon neither the speakers nor the hearers of which they had the least claim of as- sociation, is a singular memorial of the affectionate reverence with which all his followers regarded Irving. I can not tell how long this lasted j* but in these days of excitement and commotion, when the expelled Church had no refuge, but snatched its solemn cel- ebrations in the obnoxious concert-room which Eobert Owen shared, and wandered out about those noisy suburbs to find space for its preaching, it is always the old Psalms of Scotland which rise quaint and strange upon the air, used to smoother, if not to nobler measures. And throughout this summer there is a con- tinual changing of scene and place. The old green of Islington, swallowed up out of all village semblance in the noisy centre of population ; the still less pleasant space overshadowed by Clerk- enwell prison — nay, even, as we have said. Charing Cross, which sometimes, in insular arrogance, we call the centre of the world, all saw the wandering nucleus of devoted worshipers, the gather- ing crowd, the preaching evangelist, Nor was there always the same veneration shown, even to the great preacher himself, as in the instance we have quoted. PRINCELY HOSPITALITY. 497 sneers and contemptuous self-congratulations on having foreseen the depths of the " foolery" into which this new fanaticism had fallen ; but I can not help thinking that this summer conveyed, amid the labors that refreshed his soul, a little repose to Irving, who, at last, was done with all the harassing cares of daily contest — the struggle with his friends. It was over now ; and if desert- ed on many sides, he was comparatively unmolested. After the morning services the worshipers pour^ into his house, which was still in Judd Place, and which, in that moment of transition, had no certain provision even for its own necessities, and crowded round the breakfast-table, where the man who knew how to live by faith exercised, as Mr. Drummond described to me, "a prince- ly hospitality." During the entire summer, the Morning Watch informs us, the members of the expelled Church had been "inde- fatigable in seeking to purchase, hire, or build a chapel." None eligible offered for the former purpose ; and when it was resolved to erect a building, and money had been collected toward defray- ing the expense, the Spirit expressly forbade it, saying " that the Lord would provide in His own time." And, in fact, a place adapt- able for the purpose was found in the beginning of autumn, in the large picture-gallery which had belonged to West, the painter, and which was attached to his house in Newman Street, where, accord- ingly, after a little interval, the changed congregation established itself, remodeled and reorganized. That was a year almost as momentous and exciting to the na- tion at large as it was to Irving and his people. It was the year of the Eeform Bill, and half the periodical literature of the day was awful in prognostications which one reads nowadays with incred- ulous smiles ; and still more closely interesting and important, it was the year of the cholera, when men's hearts were failing them for fear of the uncomprehended plague, which stole, insidious and sudden, alike through crowded streets and quiet villages. In the June number of the.Mormng Watch appears a letter from Irving, touching an attack of this malady to which he himself had been subject, and the manner in which he had surmounted it, which is remarkable, as all his letters are, for the simple and minute picture it gives of his own heart and emotions. The idea that disease itself was sin, and that no man with faith in his Lord ought to be overpowered by it, was one of the princi- ples which began to be adopted by the newly-separated commu- nity. Il 498 HOW TO OVERCOME DISEASE BY FAITH. " To the Editor of the ' Morning Watch.' "My dear Fkiend, — As you have asked me to give you an ac- count of the gracious dealings of our heavenly Father with me, His unworthy servant, on the occasion of my being seized Avith what was in all appearance, and to the conviction of medical men, when de- scribed to them, seemed to be, that disease which has proved fatal to so many of our fellow-creatures in this and other lands, I sit down to do so with much gratitud«|of heart to my God, who enabled me to hold fast my confidence in "Him, and who did not forsake me when I trusted in Him, nor suffer the adversary to triumph over me, but gave me power, through faith in Christ my risen Head, to overcome him when he endeavored, by his assault in my flesh, to shake my faith in my God, and to prevent me from fulfilling that day to two difierent congregations the office of a minister of Christ. ... I feel I ought to mention that, on the evening preceding my attack, I had preached from the words in the 12th of 1 Cor., 'To another the gifts of heal- ing by the same Spirit.' I was led in discourse to show out to my flock that the standing of the members of Christ was to be without disease, and that this had ever been the standing of God's people. . . . And I added that if disease did come upon them, as in the case of Job, it was either for chastening for some sin, whether in them- selves or in the body of Christ, for God ever views us as one, or per- mitted as a trial of our faith. Having stated these things out fully, I exhorted the saints of God before me to live by faith continually on Jesus for the body as well as the soul. . . . Or, should their faith be put to the test by disease, I entreated them to hold fast their con- fidence, and to plead the Lord's own many and gracious promises to the members of His Church, and in faith to go about the occupations which in His providence they were called to perform, ever bearing in mind that whatsoever they did should be for His glory, and that I had no doubt but they would ever experience that the Lord hon- ored their faith in His word. " On the following morning I arose in perfect health at the usual hour, and was in the church by half past six o'clock. During the prayer-meeting I began to feel pain, but was able to go through the service. A number of friends accompanied me home to breakfast. On reaching home I became very chill, and had very severe pain. . . . After resting a while I felt a little relieved, and entered the room where my friends were, and sat down by the fire, unable to taste any thing. The hour's pain I had endured, and the other trial of my con- stitution, had even then had such an effect on my frame that my ap- pearance shocked my friends. I could take no interest in the con- versation going forward, but endeavored to lift uj) my heart to my God, having a presentiment that I was called upon to show forth the faith which I had on the preceding evening been led to exhort my people to have in their heavenly Father. In the strength of God I proceeded, when my friends had finished breajifast, to conduct family worship, which I was enabled to do, though my body Avas so enfee- bled that I could neither kneel nor stand, having tried both positions, but had to sit while I prayed. I then retired to my own room, in SUFFERINGS.— RESOLVED TO FALL AT HIS POST. 499 order to search myself in the presence of God, to confess ray sins, to cast myself entirely on the mercy of my Father, and to seek for strength to perform the duties of that day, having to preach that forenoon at half past eleven o'clock, and again in the evening at sev- en. I Avas now very sick, with a feeling of wringing or gnawing pain through my whole body. ... I was so weak that I could not sit up, and in sore pain, with a painful chill all over my body. I therefore wrapped me up in blankets and laid me on my bed, desii'- ing to be left alone until a few minutes befoi-e the time for setting out for the house of God, Avhere I should minister to His people. My orders Avere obeyed, and my wish attended to. My wife entered my room about a quarter past eleven o'clock. I felt so exhausted that I did not attempt to speak to her. She saw my Aveakness and spoke not, but hurried doAvn stairs to prepare a little arroAA^-root and bran- dy for me, and to desire that ray fellow-laborer, the raissionary of our Church, should go and take ray place, as she thought there was little hope of ray reaching the church at the hour Avhen the service should coramence. When my wife had left the room, though I Avas no bet- ter, I said in the strength of the Lord I Avill rise and do my duty. I arose, and came down stairs in tottering weakness, but holding fast my assurance that, though brought very Ioaa^, the Lord Avould not for- sake me. . . . My sunken eyes and pallid cheeks, and altogether my ghastly appearance, ray Avife afterward told rae, rerainded her of her grandsire of eighty-four, Avhose frame had been Avasted Avith disease. . . . With sloAV and difficult steps, accompanied by ray Avife and a young friend, I proceeded to the church, about a quarter of a raile from my house ; and on entering, found ray friend and fellow-laborer standing and rainistering in ray roora. All things terapted me to shrink back from my office ; but I felt no hesitation to instruct ray faithful beadle, though he remonstrated much, to go up to the pulpit and inform my brother that Avhen he had finished the first prayer I Avould take ray place, and by God's help perform ray own duty. Meanwhile, I stretched rayself on three chairs before the fire in the vestry, barely able to keep myself in heat, and, by perfect stillness in one position, a little to abate the pain. Ever as I shifted my posi- tion I endured much suffering, and Avas alraost involuntarily impelled to draw up my limbs in order to keep the pain under. Nevertheless, Avhen I stood up to attire myself for the pulpit, and went forAvard to ascend the pulpit stairs, the pains seemed to leave me. Over and over again my kind and true-hearted brother besought me to let him proceed ; but ray raind was raade up to fall at my post, which I had an iuAvard assurance my Master would not suffer me to do. I began to read the chapter, expecting the poAver of spiritual exposition, which was wont to abound to me in this above all ray other services ; but, to ray astonishment, I had no thought in ray heart, nor Avord upon my lips, and felt it Avas all I could do to keep on reading. About the sixth verse ray Avords began to be indistinct in the sound. I could not strike thera shrill and full out; they fell short of ray usual utterance all I could do. My eye becarae dim, and the woi'ds of the book looked hazy. Then ray head began to SAvira, and my heart to become faint ; and I laid bold on the pulpit-sides, and looked Avist- 500 VICTORY OVER THE BODY. fully about, Avondering what was to befall me. But the most painful symptom of all was that I felt it a great effort to draw my breath. At this moment, when the disease was come to a crisis, and all na- ture was sinking down within me, I had only one feeling, for the hon- or of Jesus, my Lord and Master, that he should be put to shame through my unbelief, and that I should fall before the enemy in the place of testimony and in the sight of all the people. One thought, one prayer, shot across my spirit, which was this : ' Surely Thou, oh Jesus, art stronger in my spirit than Satan is in my flesh !' That in- stant a cold sweat, chill as the hand of death, broke out all over my body, and stood in lai*ge drops upon my forehead and hands. From that moment I seemed to be strengthened. My reading, which had not been interrupted by all this, though strongly affected so as to be sensible to all present, proceeded more easily to the end of the chap- ter, but all without my being able to add one word of exposition. Nevertheless, after the singing a few stanzas of a Psalm, I undertook to preach on the last verse of the 3d chapter of John's Gospel, which came in order. According to my custom I had premeditated noth- ing, and, as hath been said, while reading the chapter, found myself utterly incapable of originating any thing. But I knew the Master whom I serve, and set out on His charges. Slowly and with great weakness the words dropped from me, and I was ill able to indite sentences or bind them into regular discourse ; but I gave myself to the Spirit, and went forward. I had not proceeded many minutes until the Holy Ghost, in one of the prophets, burst in upon my dis- course, speaking with tongues and prophesying. This brought me rest and refreshing, and some of the words Avere made to me spirit and life, so that I resumed with fresh strength, but still as a dead man both in respect of body and of mind, alive in respect of the Spirit. I continued my discourse for about an hour with more unction, as it appeared to myself and all who spake of it, than I had ever preached before. After the service I walked home and conversed with my friends, and took a little simple food, expecting to strengthen my body for my evening duty by eating heartily at dinner. But God was resolved that for this day the glory of my strength should stand only in Him ; for I was able to eat little or nothing, yet had more power given me in preaching to about two hundred poor people in a crowded schoolroom than I ever remember to have had. And next morning I rose to my duty before the sun, and was enabled to go for- ward with renewed strength unto this hour. For all which, let the glory be given to Jehovah by His name — ' I am the Lord God which healeth thee.' JIdwd. Irving." The perfect simplicity of this narrative may, perhaps, bring a smile upon some faces ; but I can not pretend to offer any excuses for a man who felt the everlasting arms always under him, and recognized no dull intervening world between himself and bis God. The occurrence thus described evidently took place before his expulsion from Regent Square, and at a time when men's minds were highly strung, and as delicate to deal with as the. A REMAKKABLE PASSAGE. 501 wavering bands of an army in the first thrill of panic, which the merest stumble of the leader might throw into mad rout and de- struction. Perhaps the steadfast, pallid figure, holding by the sides of the pulpit, and maintaining its Christian sovereignty over the body and its pangs, did more than much philosophy to strengthen the hearts of the watching multitude against that panic which is the best aid of pestilence. Notwithstanding Irving's declaration that, according to his cus- tom, he had premeditated nothing, he had by no means given up the composition of sermons ; but still, and to the end of his days, continued to dictate to the writing of here and there a joyful amanuensis, honored to feel her female pen the medium of record- ing his high thoughts and burning exhortations. Nor does it ap- pear that the "falling off," which is so commonly alleged against him at this agitated period of his life, was in any respect more true than suppositions framed upon general probability generally are. On the contrary, Mr. Hamilton, who, deeply affectionate as he was, would not perhaps have been sorry could he have seen a momentary feebleness visible in the brother whose convictions carried him into paths so strange and dangerous, could not say that the bewilderment of the manifestations, or the undue 'xaith with which Irving regarded them, had any effect upon the force and fullness of his preaching. " His ministrations in the pulpit," wrote this trusty witness, dating the 4th of May, "have for some time past been extremely powerful, and I believe instrumental in winning many souls to Christ." Certainly his few printed pro- ductions of this period give little sign of any decay of intellect. One of these, published in the Morning Watch of March, 1832, en- titled, A Judgment upon the Decisions of the late General Assembly, contains a very remarkable passage in reference to the future fate of the Church of Scotland, which, uttered without any prophetic pomp, has verified itself more absolutely than any of the profess- edly inspired predictions to which Irving himself gave such un- doubting heed : " That the General Assembly, Synods, Presbyter- ies, and Kirk Sessions, with all the other furniture of the Church, are about, like the veil of the temple, to be rent in iivain, or to be left, like the withered fig-tree, fruitless and barren, I firmly believe, and yet would do all I could to retard it," he says; regarding steadfastly, not any premonition of a rising controversy about Church government, nor even the restless, absolute spirit entering into a wild struggle with all the conditions of nature, which took 502 THE SICK CHILD. SO readily to deposition and anathema, but, what to his intent eyes was a thousand times more significant, the practical denial of the love of the Father and the work of the Son, which he believed the Church of Scotland to be guilty of. After the event which has left so deep a scar upon the heart of Scotland, it is startling to meet with such words. The Morning Watch, notwithstanding its dignity as a Quarterly Eeview, and its oft-repeated declaration that the majority of its readers were members of the English Church, occupied itself, throughout those exciting months, in the most singular manner, with the ecclesiastical prosecution, which only the great fame of Irving, and the remarkable character of the spiritual question in- volved, prevented from being a merely local and individual mat- ter. Though a periodical of the highest class and most recondite pretensions, it palpitated with every change in the fortunes of the Kegent Square Church, and was as truly the organ of that expel- led band, large as a congregation, but small as a community, which followed Irving, as its adversary the Record was the organ of En- glish Evangelicism ; and not only abounded in discussions and expositions of the miraculous gifts and cures, and of the doctrines specially identified with Irving, but went so much farther as to represent "J/r, Irving' s Church as The iSign of the Times,^'' and to discuss the position of the body in its temporary and disagreeable refuge as " The Ark of God in the Temple of DagonP Perhaps the presence in the new community of a man so rich, so determined, so swift, and self-acting as Henry Drummond, sparing no cost, either of money or labor — a potentate considerable enough to have an " organ" in his own right — goes far to explain the pos- session, by a single Church, of a representative so magnificent as a Quarterly Keview. 