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1050 THE LEADER. iS*™ ^
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A BATCH OF JSTEW BOOKS. ENGLISH BOOKS. P...
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Irving And Spiritual Revival.. Edward I ...
misconstructions and the injustice , the coldness and the calumny , which are his inevitable portion on the path he has chosen . The history of Edward Irving , of one of the most eloquent and earnest men who ever , in the Church ' s history , while loving her devoutly , mourned over her lethargy , and sought to infuse into her cold and outworn formulas the spirit of the living present , "will ever be interesting on these grounds ; but is especially so while many yet live who can , from personal recollection , verify the portrait drawn in these pages by one who , though an ardent admirer , is not a follower of Mr . Irving . We place it here as a fit preface to any considerations on this Biography . He -was impatient of creeds , and yet -would not altogether dispense with them . His intellect was at once too strong to permit a form of words to fetter it , and too justly distrustful of its strength to refuse such guidance . He would say " I believe , " but would not , therefore , cease to think . The formula which he subscribed was as the
. green sod from which the lark takes its joyful , viewless flight—not as the hole of a Totten tree or ivied wall , from which the owl hoots its terror at the light . He rested his faith and devotion , upon facts that may be expressed in words , but could no more limit them thereto than he could keep his eyes upon the ground that sustained his feet . His was a religion of the heart—and such , a religion has " evidences" as well as beliefs , of which creeds can make no mention- It is its own authority and its own interpreter : it will assert reasons not get down in books , and discern meanings that escape the torturings of commentators . Hence it was that Irving was perpetually at ¦ war with a generation that was nothing if not logical—out of joint with churches that had been shaken out of the sleep of formalism only to be put into the fetters of literalism—could find no rest in that jarring chaos , " the religious world , " where nothing is perfect because everything is content to be alone . He had affinities and sympathies ¦ w itb all—and , therefore , was by all , in turns , attracted and repelled . In all forms of polity , in all sets of doctrine , he recognised a part of himself : and when he claimed
it , was forthwith repudiated by some mndiscenting brother—r as the eygnet , drawn by its own image to the stream , affrights its foster brother fowl . In quick succession , if ¦ not all at once , Presbyterian aud Prelatist , ultra-Protestant and Catholic , Republican And Tory , " he seemed , not one , but all mankind ' epitome ; " The glorious eclecticism of his intellect , delighting equally in mathematics and poetry , in action and in meditation—the breadth of his scholastic training and literary recreations—the keenness of Ills social sympathies and of his love of nature---the intensity of his consciousness , that exaggerated the importance of his every undertaking , and magnified the defects of his every performance—the proud humility -that made him pray rather to- be taken from the service of God on earth , than be too much loved by those he served—the profound piety-which felt a Providence in every incident ^ -the lofty ideas of duty which gave a Spartan rigour to his virtue—the tenderness which gushed out over women and children , beauty , helplessness , and sorrow—all these coloured his religion 4 ill it seemed a fantastic and even lunatic thing to the men who had each some one or two of his qualities , but only one or two .
With the peculiar tenets of Irving we have little to dp ; it is rather by the character of his religion , its earnestness and wide toleration , its rigid standard of self-judgment and Catholic clarity towards the errors of others , its recognition of the Spirit and rejection of the Formula , that our sympathies are awakened . Born in the district of Annan , which the name of Carlyle has rendered classic ground , educated at Edinburgh , and subsequently seZ / " -educated ( the second and the more important education ) , while fielding the rectorship of an academy in the little town of Kirkaldy , there is no outward trace in his early life of the determining influence which gave has energies their peculiar bent . Powers of mind such as his would meet ' with little intellectual companionship—alone he studied , alone he doubted And decided . Till he was thirty -years of age , no career had opened to him , no congregation had recognised Iris power and usefulness . But these lonely y < ears had not been wasted ; he had lived alone with the great departed , the giant intellects of former days had been his companions , and had informed hi « n with their spirit ; and now the time -was ripe , and his inward
consciousness bade him go forth upon his work . The Mission to the Heathen , which has always been so tempting a field to the men of Irving ' s stamp , the energetic and self-devoted , lay open to him , and he hud nearly resolved to eaabrace it , when , an appeal from Dr . Chalmers altered his views * and decided his future destiny . He became the Doctor ' s assistant at Glasgow , and from tbence succeeded to the ministry of the Caledonian Church'in London , where ho stepped at once into a position of the most unbounded notoriety , of popularity as a preacher almost unequalled , and of social and intellectual rank enough to dazzle the eyes and bewilder the judgment of a man less pure of heart , and eai-nest of purpose , less sincere in his personal humility , and less conscious of the dignity of his mission—for a mission indeed he ifelt it . It is impossible to read the extracts from his published " Orations " ( from which the author of the present work has made veiy judicious selections ) without feeling that Irving , without having crossed the sens to find a . congregation , was ever u preaching to the Heathen . " Hear how he spoke to them . We take one extract from a sermon on the duties of all classes :
Merchants , traders , and money people—the possessors of capital for the employ of what they call the " operativo classoa "—aro noxt informed that the wealth which they iliave accumulated fay the labour of hundreds or thousands , from all obligation to whom the employer " considers himself to bo froe when ho has paid them on Saturday night , " doth bear obligations analogous to those of hereditary wealth , A joint-stock . company , it is said , with a graphic truthfulness soon to bo demonstrated by the experience of devastation , is " a . ropo of sand , a rook to wreck on , a quicksand to engulph gooda in . " Tho avarice induced by proaporoua commerce ia declared to bo the root of jtU social evil . " Competency satisfies no man . Every man must have a fortune , nnuafc distinguish himself , must mrnko himself a family . Tho merchant must dwell beside the lord , and tho tradesman must hav « his villa beside tho squire . It in a race i « r gain , a scramble for gold ; und , aa you ojumot servo God and Mammon , it is tlio
jfioroaking of God , . . tho worshipping tho basest spirit which foil from hoavon . TUe manufacturer ia bound to look with cure and concern upon the paoplu who labour tf-or him , wid upon thoir children . He ia bound to guard thorn against extravugamco in good times , and then they shull bo provided aguinttt want in bad times . It is ilia part to look aftor tho comfort of tlioir habitation * ( not tho cleanliness of his faotory . alone ) , tho instruction of thoir children , ami tho spiritual health of thorn all . Oh , What a man , what a noblo man , tho manufacturer mi ^ ht bo I tho ownor , not of fields of the earth , nor of trees of tho wood , but tho nuuttar of ingenious mon , of hundreds of most ingenious mon , who would all render him thoir lovo if h « would ask it . Such manufacturers - \ vero David JDalo and othor » , whoao namo * 1 do not mention , as being of your own time . It were vory easy for any manufacturer , in whom tho fear of God , dwellotli , to earn to himself a orown of glory both in this world ana in tho world Co como , end to Uo ahnoat adored by tho peoj > l « . But how hntlx it bcaomo ? in good
tunes beating up for workmen by beat of drum , aud advertising them to come from distant parts , and immediately in bad times , paying them off to starve if the narish will not maintain them . In good times , allowing them to drink , to ' live in concu binage , to profane the Sabbath , to blaspheme the Lord , to educate their children in infidelity , and club together for all manner of political disaffection - then in bad times , turning them over to their unreclaimed wills , ferocious passions revenue and violent act 3 ; to be repressed only by the sword . That is the way of it . It begins in the adoration of gold—and it ends in the mediation of steel . Gold , the god—the sword , the mediator . That is the religion of Mammon—a hell on earth , the consummation . Oh , it is a system such as the world hath never yet seen ; and it crieth toward heaven fox vengeance . It has been Mammon's sowing time for half a century his harvest is ripe , and his jubilee is at hand . Woe , woe , woe , when he putteth in the sickle ! For your money-lenders and capitalists ( who are the lords of this new creation of political economy ) are bringing things to the crisis of old Rome , when the
people , who bore the burdens of the state in peace and war , were wont to retire to the Aventine Hill , or to dissolve the community altogether ; when the commonwealth went on . plunging through pe ' ace and war , under the government of tribunes of the people , until it ended in the triumvirates , who proscribed aud slaughtered the best blood of Some . They are hasting and longing to work out of our ancient Christian system of the state the fine web of moTal principle , all suspended from the fear of God and the obedience of Christ . They are hasting and longing to work out all obligation of man to man ; all sense of reciprocal duty ; all the dignity , and grace , and obligation of office ; all the grace , and g oodliness , and glory of life ; and to reduce everything fo the increase of money , the accumulation of wealth ; which , from the Commons ' House of St . Stephen ' s , in the West , to the Exchange , in the East , is the great subject of conversation , the great cause of despatches and expresses from nation to nation , the sinews of power , the great end of combination , and , I may say , the answer to the first question in our Catechism , ' What is man ' s chief end ?'— ' Man's chief < end is to glorify Mammon , and to enjoy him while he ean . '"
Of course the very excess of Irving ' s popularity stimulated the vehemence of critics and opponents . The Times went into unqualified opposition , abusing alike style , taste , and doctrine , and denying the orator , whom all London was crowding to hear , the smallest claim even to intellect or originality ! John Bull , and some few other . papers * followed in the Times' wake ; but the Morning Chronicle , a journal of no small reputation , upheld him , and the Exaniiner , —conducted by Leigh Hunt , the liberal arid the truths loving-, —warmly defended the possessor of kindred qualities . We trace with interest this origin and rise of Irving ' s fame , as a very graphic
record of one of those spiritual " revivals , " which form from time to timesuch striking episodes in the history of the ( hurch . They tell , more eloquently than the attacks of any adversary could do , the story of her decadence , under the benumbing influences of formula and conventionalism . Her only chance of retaining her disciples , lies in their indifference ; if they were once stimulated to search and to inquire , they would recognise tlje barrenness of her teachings , and what Irving forcibly calls " the unsanctioniag coldness of her priesthood , " and seek elsewhere for the comfort she can no longer afford them , understanding not their wants and exigencies . From time to time
men are so stimulated , do so search and inquire , and seek for comfort , which , having found ( and be that faith whit it mayj having found it , it is a reality ' to them , and as such , a thing of power , and worthy of our reverence ) , they seek to awaken other men , and lead them to the same source of consolation . Very notable are all such instances , and to be rejoiced over by thoughtful minds . For any sincere and vital belief is better for man than lethargy and indififerentism , will bring forth fruit , elicit truth of some sort , and , if it do no other good , tend to wean men from what Mr . Newman has so noblj termed ¦ " the only true Atheism , " the worship of Self .
Limited in our space , we have necessarily regarded the book from tho point of view which appeared to usinosfc useful and interesting ; but hadwo room , we would gladly make many extracts from a biography so curious . On the doctrines of Irving , on which the sect bearing his name ( which they now repudiate ) have founded their-Church , we would not touch ; but there is many a lesson of humility and patient endurance in the story of his conduct when evil days fell upon him , and he became a sufferer for his faith ' s sake . For the general reader , the account of the singulai ' , and , as that Church holds them , supernatural manifestations , known , usually as tho Unknown Tongues , will , doubtless , possess an interest . Mr . VV'ilks has discharged his office well , and we recommend his little volume to all .
1050 The Leader. Is*™ ^
1050 THE LEADER . iS *™ ^
A Batch Of Jstew Books. English Books. P...
A BATCH OF JSTEW BOOKS . ENGLISH BOOKS . Poetical Works of Edmund Waller . Edited by Itoljert Bell . Parker and Son . Cambridge University Transactions during the Puritan Controversies of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries . Collected by James Heywood , M . P ., and Thomas Wright , M . A . Bolin . Tho > Steam ~ Engine , its History and Mechanism . By Robert Scott Burn . Ingram and Co . The Watering-Places of England . By Edwin Lee . Third Kdition . Churchill . A Visit to the Seat of War in tke North . Translated from the Gorman , by Luscollun Wroxall . Chapman and Hall .
AMlaulOAN IJOOK 8 . Parti ; Leaders ; Sketches of Distinguished American / Statesmen . "By J . G . Baldwin . Trtlbnor and Co . N ~ a Motu ; or , Revf-Rovings in the South Seas . By Edward T . Perkins . Trllbner and Co . lMranA 8 tmABi / v inferior to Oldliam , as a man , and below him also in merit , as a poet , Waller has ,. nevertheless , descended to posterity as a fumous Englishman . Ho wad tho ( irat caruful maker of smooth versos , and the most amorous fino gentleimin of his time , in a pouiiunl way ; and ho ia , in consequence , still far too celebrated a man to require any such introduction
to the reader at ouv hands , ns we vory gladly accorded u few weuks ago to hia lass successful predecessor . In reference to tho last now volume ol Mr . Robert Bell ' s Annotated Edition of the l * oel . i , wo have only , therefore , to report that tho Editor ' i $ labourn continue to bo moat carefully , conscientiously , and intelligently conducted . The tuxt of Waller is yxculloully illustrated by notes , tho poems aro oleurly mul nunaibly arranged , und tho prefatory life , of tl > u Pout ia capocinlly noteworthy for tin industrious collection of biographical fucta , and for a thoroughly yloutmut and readable munnur uf imparting them to others . Members of the general publio -who may meet with the Cambridge Uni-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 4, 1854, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04111854/page/18/
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