54

EXCESS OF HEALTH.

society, and by the fact that Harrogate was so far on his way to the North, whither he was anxious to go to bring home his wife, of whose prolonged absence he began to be very impatient, he seems to have persuaded himself to the contrary, and went accordingly. From Harrogate he writes as follows:

....

"9th September, 1828.

"MY DEAR ISABELLA, -We arrived here last night about twelve o'clock, and now that I have paid my respects to the well and breakfast, I sit down to write you with Mr. Drummond's pen, ink, and paper, but with my own heart.. I do trust this my coming here is ordered of the Lord for the restoration of my strength, that I may serve Him with more diligence and ability during the winter. Lately, there has been too great a sympathy between my head and my stomach, so much so as to cause slight headaches ever after eating. . . . . I doubt not that the root of the matter is study, which of late has been with me of a deeper, intenser, and clearer kind than at any former period of my life, as I think will appear in the things which are now in the hands of the printers. Besides the conclusion of my book on the Last Times, I have written 150 or 160 of Miss Macdonald's pages upon the Method of the Incarnation. It will be a body and centre to the whole discourse, which now has a perfectly logical method: 1. The origin or fountain head of the whole in the will of God. 2. The end of it unto His glory. 3. The method of it by the union with the fallen creature. 4. The act of it by the life and death of the Godman, and His descent into hell. 5. The fruits of it in grace and peace to mankind; and, finally, conclusions concerning the Creator and the creature. If I mistake not, my dear Isabella, there is much more to God's glory in that volume than in all my other writings put together. .. I have been strongly impressed, at the conclusion of the book, with the necessity of undertaking a work upon the Holy Spirit and the Church, but whether in the way of a completion of the introduction to Ben-Ezra, or in a separate treatise, I am not

yet resolved; and then, if God spare me, I undertake a work upon the Trinity. What most blessed themes these are! They ravish my heart, and fill me with the most enlarged and exquisite delight. . . . Oh, my dear Isabella, how I long to be with you again, and to be one with you, unseparated by distance of place or interruption of vision, and to embrace my dear children! God grant me patience and constancy of affection, and a heart of more tenderness."

"17th September.

"I dare say this water would do me good, if I were to stay long enough, for it seems to enter into strong controversy with my complaint, and I think in the end would overcome it. But stay I cannot, for my communion hastens, and my duties call me to London. This is truly my chief reason for not delaying my journey to Scotland so long as you seem to have desired. To remain separate for a whole half year from my wife and children is to me no small trial. When God requires it, I trust I shall be able to submit to it; but when there is no such call, I freely confess myself little disposed to it. . . . Besides, though we know differently, such separations lead to idle speculation, which it is good to prevent. That it is possible to prevent intrusion in London I have found during the last two months; and if London do not agree with you, I should be glad to take a place for you. wherever you please, but I confess myself very loath to be separated from you and my children longer than is necessary, and shall be slow in consenting to it again.

"The other day the new Bishop of Chester, Dr. Sumner, confirmed about two or three hundred persons. He had been instituted, or consecrated, only the day before at Bishopthorpe, the residence of the Archbishop of York, and made this his first duty. It was to me very impressive, and I hope very profitable. ... His brother, the Bishop of Winchester, bore him company, and I was much impressed with the episcopal authority and sanctity of their appearance. Indeed, the more I look into the Church of England, the more do I recognise the marks of a true Apostolical Church, and desire to see somewhat of the same ecclesiastical dignity transferred to the office-bearers of our Church; which hath the same orders of

56

A TRUE APOSTOLICAL CHURCH.

bishops, priests or presbyters or elders, and deacons, whereof the last is clean gone, the second little better, and the first hath more of worldly propriety, or literary and intellectual character, than of episcopal authority and grave wisdom. Oh, that the Lord would revive His work in our land! In what I have said I do not affect the ceremony, or state, or wealth of the English Church, but desire to see some more of the true primitive and Scottish character of our Church restored. I would wish every parish minister to fulfil the bishop's office, every elder the priest's, and every deacon the deacon's; and I am convinced that, till the same is attempted, through faith in the ordinances, we shall not prosper in the government and pastorship of our churches.

I

"To-day I have received a copy of Dr. Hamilton's book against Millenarianism, and have been reading it all this morning I think it breathes a virulent spirit, and seeks occasions of offence. I receive my share of his censure. said to your father I would answer it, but as yet I have found nothing to answer, save his attempt to expose my inconsistencies with others, and theirs with me. Now, verily, I am not called upon to be consistent with any one but God's own Word. Still, if I had time, I would, for the sake of the Church of Scotland, which I love, and to which I owe my duty, undertake an answer to it; but at present my hands are filled. I wish Samuel would break a spear with him.

"I shall drink the waters till Friday morning, and then proceed on my way to York, from which I will take the first coach that I can get to Edinburgh. On Monday, I trust, the Lord willing, I will be permitted to embrace you all. Tell Maggy that she must make herself ready to set out on this day week for London. My dear Samuel is oft on my mind at the throne of Grace. God alone can convey my messages to him."

So concluded this separation, which at length made the solitary head of the house impatient, and produced the nearest approach to ill-temper which is to be found in any of Irving's letters. He conveyed his family home to Miss Macdonald's house in the end of September,

THE YEAR'S WORK.

57

not only his own

where they seem to have remained for a considerable time, their kind hostess forming one of the household. The ceaseless occupation of this year is something wonderful to contemplate. The Homilies on Baptism, the three volumes of sermons, and the Last Days, were but a portion of the works so liberally undertaken, and so conscientiously carried out. In the intervals of those prodigious labours he had pastoral work to carry on from week to week, but, by way of holiday, indulged in a preaching tour with sermons every day; threw himself into the concerns of the time with a vehemence as unusual as it was all opposed to the popular tide of feeling, and became the centre of a description of study, known, when it throws its fascination upon men, to be the most absorbing which can occupy human intelligence. In this height and fulness of his life men of all conditions sought Irving, with their views of Scripture and prophecy. He heard all, noted all, and set to work in his own teeming brain to find place and arrangement for each. The patience with which he listens to every man is as remarkable as the cloud of profound and incessant thought in which his mind seems enveloped, without rest or interval; but his perpetual human helpfulness is equally notable. When the Presbytery of London, doubtless moved by his own exertions, sends forth a pastoral letter to the Scotch community in London, it is Irving who takes the pen and pours forth, like a prophet, his burden of grief and yearning, his appeal and entreaty, and denouncing voice, calling upon those baptized members of the Church of Scotland who have forgotten their mother, to return to her care and love;

and scarcely are these grave entreaties over, before, at a friend's impulsion, he is again devoting his leisure hours— those hours full of everything but rest-to that grave picture of the martyr's son, which must have startled the ordinary readers of Annuals into the strangest emotion and amazement; -while conjoined with all this is the entire detail of a pastor's duties-visits of all kinds, meetings with young men, death-bed conferences, consultations of session and presbytery; into all of which he enters with an interest such as most men can only reserve for the most important portions of their work. So full a stream of life, all rounded and swelling with great throbs of hope and solemn expectation, seldom appears among the feeble and interrupted currents of common existence. It is impossible to understand how there could be one unoccupied moment in it; yet there are moments in which he reads German with Miss Macdonald, or enters into the fascinating gossip of Henry Drummond, or consults with the young wife Elizabeth over her new plenishing, and what is needful to her house. Though they meet in solemn session in the evening, upon the high mysteries of Ezekiel, he makes cheerful errands forth with this sister to look at houses, and prepares by anticipation for the return of those still dearer to him, and has domestic tidings of all his friends to send to his lingering and delicate wife. Amid all, he feels that this time, so full and prosperous-this period in which he has come to the middle of life's allotted course, the top of the arch, as Dante calls it,-is a time of wonderful moment to himself no less than to his Church. He feels that his studies have been "of a deeper, intenser, and clearer