CHAPTER VI.

1833.

THE course of events went on in natural development after the separation of Irving and his little community. To a large extent secluded within themselves, they carried out their newly established principles and "waited upon the Lord," as perhaps no other community of modern days has ever dreamed of doing, guiding themselves and their ordinances implicitly by the teaching of the oracles in the midst of them. In this career of daily increasing isolation, Irving had not only lost the support of his immediate personal friends in London, but also of those much-loved brethren in faith, in whose defence he had lifted his mighty voice, and for whom he had denounced the Church of Scotland. Mr. Scott, though entertaining the full conviction that miraculous gifts were part of the inheritance of Christians, and after doing much to perfect that belief in Irving's own mind, as well as in those of the first ecstatic speakers, had totally refused his sanction to the present utterances; and the two friends were now separated to drift further and further apart through all imaginable degrees of unlikeness. Mr. Campbell, for whose distinctive views Irving had

330

INQUIRIES OF MR. CAMPBELL.

stood forth so warmly, and whom he had embraced with all the overflowing sympathy and love of his heart, was equally unable to perceive any evidences of Divine inspiration. An impression seems to have prevailed, if not in Irving's mind, at least among several members of his community, that both these gentlemen would naturally fall into their ranks, and add strength and stability to the new Church. I have in my possession notes of a correspondence carried on some time later between Mr. Campbell and some members of the Newman Street Church, in which the Scotch minister had to hold his ground against two most acute and powerful opponents -one of whom was Henry Drummond, brilliant and incisive in controversy, as in most other things--and to defend and justify himself for not joining them. To lose the sympathy of these special brethren was very grievous to Irving; and he seized the opportunity of explaining the ground of his faith and that of his people in answer to some questions which Mr. Campbell very early in this year addressed to Mr. David Ker, one of the deacons in Newman Street, and a member of a well-known family in Greenock, in the immediate neighbourhood of which the "gifts" had first displayed themselves. This letter, which I quote, shows that Irving's own faith had needed very absolute props to support it, and that he had not proceeded so far upon his martyr-path without such trial of doubts and misgivings as could only be quenched by a confidence in his own sincerity and utter trust in God's promise possible to very few men under any circumstances. Once more he reiterated with sorrowful constancy his

certain conviction that to His children, when they asked for bread, God would not give a stone.

no

"14, Newman Street, February 22, 1833. "MY DEAR BROTHER,-When our dear David Ker asked me counsel concerning the answering of the questions in your letter, touching the ground of faith in spiritual utterance, I deemed it best to take the matter in hand for him altogether, and do now hope to deliver the mind of God to you in this matter. The view of the dear brethren in PortGlasgow,* to wit, the answer of the spirit in the hearer, is the ground of belief in any word spoken by any man or by any spirit; but it is only the basis or ground thereof, and by means resolves the question in hand. There is a confidence in God which goes far beyond the answer of the spirit, and enables us to walk in the darkness as well as in the light; for His footsteps are not known. This confidence pertaineth to him that is of a pure heart and single eye, and conscious of integrity, and clearness in His sight. I believe that this sustained our Lord in the crooked paths wherein God led him, and that it was, and is, and ever will be, the main, yea, the only evidence by which the prophet, having the word of God coming to him, shall know it is the word of God, and as such speak it; by which also the hearer shall know it is the word of God, and as such hear it. It is true that God leadeth men into temptation, as he did Abraham, and then it is their part to obey implicitly the word of the Lord, and the Lord will bring them out of the temptation to His own glory and to their own good. I declare, for myself and for my Church, that this is almost our entire safety, to wit, confidence that our God will take care of us; for we are not a reasoning people, but we seek to be, and I believe are, the servants of God. Moreover we have great faith in the stability of an ordinance. We look up to the deacons, and the elders, and the angel of the Church, as standing in the Lord Jesus, and we expect and desire to see and hear Him in their ministry, and we believe that it will be to us according to our faith, and we have found it to be so in times past. But forasmuch as the voice of the

* Where the "manifestations" first took place: see ante, p. 132.

332

THE FOUNTAIN OF SWEET WATERS.

Comforter is the highest of all ordinances in the Church, we steadily believe that the Lord for His own name, as well as for His own end's sake, will not suffer, without a very great cause, any breaking in or breaking out therein; and so, when he openeth the mouth of a brother in power, we expect to hear His voice, and we are not disappointed, and so our experience increaseth our expectation, and in this way we proceed and prosper. In respect of signs, we rather desire them not, than desire them at present, until the word of our God shall have delivered us from our carnalmindedness, and from following sight instead of faith. When the Lord permitted the enemy to tempt us, seeing our simplicity, He himself delivered us from the temptation, and we learned the more to trust Him and to distrust ourselves. And, oh brother, the fountain which is opened having yielded us nothing but sweet waters, it would be so ungrateful for us to do anything but rejoice it, that I feel even this letter to be a liberty with my God, which, save for a brother's satisfaction, I would not have ventured to take. There are many things now that I could say, but I refrain lest I should encourage a temptation in you to speculate about holy things, and so lead you into a snare. I pray God to keep you in the faith of Him, in darkness as in light, and no less when in light than in darkness. Farewell.

"Your faithful brother,

"EDWARD IRVING."

Another letter of a similar character was addressed a few months later to Alan Ker, of Greenock, a man who, long confined to a sick room, and at all times in the most precarious health, seems to have secured always the love, and often the reverential regard, of those who knew him.

"London, April 30, 1833.

"MY DEAR BROTHER,-Your brother gave me, after our worship on the Lord's day, a letter of yours to read, which I returned to him on Monday morning after our public prayers,

LETTER TO ALAN KER.

333

with little or no comment, and with no purpose of writing to you myself, nor does he know that I am now about to write; but having a great love to you and to your father's house, and admiring the brotherly love which reigneth amongst you, and being well acquainted with the ground whereon you and others are stumbling, and not going forward with us into the glorious city, I take heart of loving-kindness to write to you, my brother, and do what I can to help you forward.

"The word of the Lord, my Scottish brethren, since Adam fell, hath never been a copy of itself, but always a new growth and form of the same good purpose which the Father purposed in Himself before the world was, and revealeth in His dear Son through the Church, which is the fulness of Him who filleth all in all. And, thou, O Alan, who lookest from thy sick chamber with pious delight upon the works of thy Creator, dost not expect the green blade which now pierces the ground to continue in its beautiful verdure, but to shoot out into the stalk and the ear, and the full corn in the ear. But you will not permit such variety of forms in the growth of the works of the Lord, but go to the Apostolical writings and say, 'It must be this over again,' wherein ye grieve God, not walking by faith but by sight. Ye see the historical notices there written, and ye say, 'Now we will guide our own steps and keep our own way.' Your own steps you may guide; but God's steps are not known. Your own way you may find, but God's by searching you cannot find. Think ye that Abraham took test of God by his dealings with Noah? or Moses by Abraham? or the Apostles, at Pentecost, by the schools of the prophets in Bethel or in Gilgal? If we have the word of the Lord, we have the word of the Lord and nothing else, and the word of the Lord shall shape the work of the Lord, and not thou or I, nay, not Paul, nor Peter, nor Moses, but He of whose fulness they all received-Jesus the Word made flesh who sitteth in the heavens, and speaketh in the midst of us-and of you also, brethren beloved of the Lord. Dear Alan, if there were anything spoken or done amongst us, which is meant, or intended, to abrogate, or weaken one jot or tittle of the Law or the Prophets, let it be anathema! But it is not