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to the theology of the Roman Catholic | the consternation of some, and the astonishChurch, Mr. Irving was a most determined ment of all. Prophecies were spoken; reand violent opponent of Catholic emancipa- bukes were administered; exhortations were tion. In the course of this contest, an applied by this agency. Thus the victim of amusing incident occurred, which we cannot honest heresy, was also suspected of wild forbear narrating :fanaticism; and on both grounds was treated with a harshness of discipline and a superciliousness of contempt that are sadly inconsistent with the spirit of true Christianity, and yet more sadly consistent with the common practices of ecclesiastical bodies. Irving eloquently, and with true dignity of spirit, defended himself, but without avail; and he had so long honored, on a pretence of having was first of all thrust out of the pulpit he violated the proper discipline of the Church by the encouragement with which he regarded the speaking in unknown tongues, and was afterwards cut off from the ecclesiastical body with which he had been associated throughout his life, on a charge of heresy. The outcast divine now proceeded to the fuller development of his opinions. The "Apostolate was set up, and other modifications (elaborated and completed in the "Catholic and Apostolic Church") were introduced. But the strange author of these changes was approaching his own final change. He was sent on a mission to a new church in Edinburgh, early in the spring of 1834. He accomplished this undertaking. The following summer he spent in London, suffering, secluded, and gradually going towards his grave. Again he was sent on a visit of ecclesiastical purport to Scotland, and died on the way thither on Monday, December the 8th.

"When the Catholic Relief Bill had entered its final stage, Mr. Irving determined to address a remonstrance to the king against giving it the royal assent. The document is said to be a masterpiece of objurgatory composition. Accompanied by two of the heads of his congregation, its author presented himself, according to appointment, at the Home-office. They were ushered into an ante-chamber, in which were a number of such miscellaneous personages as are haunting the outer rooms of Downing-street. Having waited about ten minutes, Mr. Irving proposed to his elders that they should pray for grace in the eyes of the ruler, and for a blessing to accompany their petition. One can easily conceive the amazement of a company of place-hunters and officials on beholding the gaunt and almost grotesque figure of Edward Irving upon his knees, pouring out a fervid prayer for the king and country. When the deputation had risen, and were admitted to the presence of the gentleman commissioned by Mr. Secretary Peel to receive them, he would have taken the petition at once. But Mr. Irving, putting himself into one of those imposing attitudes which his limbs assumed as readily as his tongue moved itself to speak, begged the honorable gentleman to hear first a word of admonition. He then commenced reading and commenting on the petition, and addressed himself to the Secretary's heart and conscience with words and gestures that made him pale and tremble. At length, he released his unwilling auditor, on his giving an assurance that the memorial should certainly reach the throne."-Pp. 197. 198.

Soon after this, Mr. Irving published an opinion contrary to the orthodox doctrine that Jesus Christ was free from the taints of hereditary sin; maintaining that he was absolutely and truly human, and that he was only saved from actual iniquities by the triumphant supremacy of the Divinity, which dwelt within him. This finally resulted, after long and bitter conflicts, in the expulsion of this noble man from the church he had raised to such prosperity, and in his excommunication from the loved and well-served Church of his native land. Consentaneously with these proceedings the manifestation of supernatural gifts began to appear. Having heard that at Port Glasgow the strange phenomenon of speaking with unknown tongues" had been realized, Mr. Irving despatched one of the elders of his church to make observation thereof. The report was favorable. Soon the same "gift" was received by members of his own church, to the amusement of many,

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Such is a brief outline of the life of Edward Irving; and if it indicate nothing more, it at least proves that he must have been a man of power. Success in life is only the reward of some prominent virtue or virtues, or of some distinguishing endowment or endowments. A man gets no permanent fame unless he be more or less unusually good or great. Now, without doubt, Edward Irving did what scarcely any other preacher of modern times has done-he attracted the wise and the honorable of all classes: the poor loved him as a friend, and trusted him as an advocate; the learned respected him for his erudition; the polite admired him for his refinement; the exalted in rank, power, ` and station were so fascinated by the charms of his eloquence, that they continuously sustained the severity and integrity of his counsels and appeals; critics left the usual spheres of their activity to test his excellence; the idle followed him to satiate their curios

ity; the earnest and the devout in crowds |
became his disciples. The sensation he made
was the product of something real. He con-
descended to no mere ingenious vagaries.
He never became a pantaloon or a clown in
the pulpit. He did not degrade the sanctity
of his office by assuming the tricks of the
stage. He appealed to more sober faculties
than those of wonder or of inquisitiveness.
He subdued, converted, thrilled, alarmed, as
well as astonished, his countless and diverse
auditors. He wrought-not by the assump-
tions of audacity, nor by the devices of affec-
tation, but by the magic of some native and
actual qualities to which the world had long
been growing unaccustomed, and by which,
whenever their manifestations have appeared,
it has been deeply and widely moved. It
may be worth our while to inquire what were
the main secrets of his power.

We have already specified many of the things to which his extraordinary popularity could not fairly be attributed. But there is one grand feature of his life, to which, perhaps, his posthumous fame among the superficial may be chiefly owing, which, we think, however, does not account for the vital influence he exercised when living. Many seem too ready to suppose that, if a man grow fanatical, and claim peculiar correspondence with Heaven, and deal in the solemn and startling phenomena of the supernatural, it will be very easy to bring together a band of credulous and superstitious mortals who never yield to independent and rational inquiry, and who are by constitution and by education prepared for such impositions as quacks, and adventurers, and false prophets, or self-deceived enthusiasts, will adopt. Now, this theory-the general correctness of which we have no motive to dispute-does not touch the case in hand. Its utter inapplicability is demonstrable on several obvious grounds. In the first place, it is ungraceful and unfair thus easily to assume that because a man appeals to the supernatural he must be either an impostor or a fool. Certainly, the whole of Edward Irving's life-every feature of his character, is a protest against the ascription of either of those titles to him. He was never calmer, never more patient in his investigations, never more thoroughly transparent, serious, or manly, than when he maintained the doctrine of the gift of tongues. He argued the point without dogmatism; he submitted to tests without timidity or impatience; he asserted his point without arrogance; he pursued his course with a tranquil and enlightened conviction that the Bible

justified it; and appealed to the events which rendered it so mysterious and questionable, with the full assurance that they were facts in which the Spirit of God was active-the bonâ fide revelations of Heaven. Let it not be supposed that we endorse that belief of his. At present, we have nothing to say either as to the philosophy in which it had its origin, or the phenomena which were pleaded in its confirmation. But we do most solemnly protest against this off-hand method of setting aside statements the veracity of which is well attested, and of damning the character of a man who was well known and dearly loved for the virtues which glorified his private and his public life.

In the second place, the character of his followers was absolutely adverse to the supposition that he succeeded by appealing to the credulity or the superstition of the world. Who were they? Not the ragged, ignorant, impulsive, and uninquiring mob. They were men distinguished for intelligence, occupying positions of the highest respectability, and separated by every mark from the usual victims of religious imposture. They were the statesinen, princes, professional gentlemen, critics, literati, and thinkers of his day. The easy, lazy, and thoughtless, undoubtedly were among his casual hearers; but his friends, his frequent attendants, and his permanent disciples, were honorable, intelligent, and disinterested men. Judging by his earlier labors in the metropolis, we might say that for splendor, information, and true moral respectability, his congregations were unrivalled in modern times. In his later life, when the first flush of his triumphs had somewhat subsided, he was associated with the great and good of the Church to which he belonged; and many, even those who took a part in his excommunication, separated from him with tears of affection and protestations of respect. The denomination to which he gave birth the Catholic and Apostolic Church-considering its numbers, is perhaps the freest from ignorance, fanaticism, and ostentatious spir itual follies, of all the sects of Christendom. True, they have dogmas which can only be accepted as necessary inferences from more rational and important principles: true, they contend with overwrought earnestness for the trivial elements of organization, dis cipline and worship: true, they celebrate the service of God with elaborate and august ceremonies: but, whilst they enthrone little dogmas-such as that relating to the second advent-they are illustrious for their practical catholicity as well as for their large ac

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reproach, these were his misfortunes and his mistakes; but he is entitled to be had in everlasting remembrance for that he blew God's trumpet of salvation in ears that had never before heard its tones, and with a power which startled into activity those who had been long familiar with its solemn music.

quaintance with, and their reverence for, the elicited supernal displays of religious aniScriptures whilst they are rigid in the main-mation; if his memory deserves any possible tenance of the precise ecclesiastical machinery they have instituted, their many officers are wonderfully free from the conceits and assumptions of priestcraft; and, whilst they resort to every resource of art and taste to make their worship splendid, they discriminate with unceasing care between the symbol and the soul of devotion-between the poetic forms and the spiritual reality of godliness. So that, whether we judge him by his first achievements, his maturer faith, or his posthumous renown, Edward Irving was no simpleton, and no knave.

Moreover, it is worthy of especial notice, that, in so far as his life was a success, it was so in spite of those characteristics which are usually cited in explanation of the fact. The real moral power of the man was sensibly and largely diminished by his lapsing into the ecstacies and dreams of supernaturalism. Till he began to talk about miracles and prophecy, the whole Church of Christ throughout the three kingdoms revered his name: then, many began to laugh, to doubt, and to pity. When he talked in solemn naturalness and severe simplicity to the people, they listened to him with rapt and unsuspecting attention-they yielded up unquestioningly to his strange control conscience, imagination, and heart. But when he perplexed them with his theories of "interpretation," and paused in his speech that the "possessed" might utter their unintelligible jargon, they stared in wonderment, and shed tears of compassion. He retained many followers, by whom his character and memory are not disgraced; but he lost many over whom he had long exercised a healthy influence, and through whom he communicated to his country his real and his richest religious bequests. For we seek not the full measure-no, not even the chief elements, of Edward Irving's spiritual power, in the events and the associations of his later days, nor in the repute, the resources, or the enterprise of the sect which is popularly known by his name. The true work done by him was concluded before his unusual proceedings commenced. He had revived religious thought in the land. He had, by his quiet yet mighty labors, inaugurated a grand, deep, moral movement, which had a consummation far nobler, and a dominion far wider, than the peculiarities of his subsequent faith, or the number of nominal disciples he left behind him. His glory consists not in the fact that he invented a new ecclesiastical system, or

Yes: Irving was a sincere, earnest, deeply religious man. He had high intellectual powers. He was mighty in speech. His imagination was intimate with the beautiful, the mysterious, the magnificent in the universe, and in life. His reason could grapple with stout difficulties; and, when they were mastered, it was clear, distinct, and certain in the comprehension of the themes on which it was exercised. But these were not bis power. Others were more learned, more logical, more versatile, if not more eloquent. Few had a more fascinating authority over words, perhaps; but many could boast a correcter insight into systems. His eloquence and his thought were but the instruments of a fervid, devoted, and sanctified soul. God gave him power. The Spirit witnessed unto him. He spake as a man having authority. He had the heart of a prophet, and the presence of a master. His words were like tears, and prayers, and groans. He agonized with men. He wrestled, and fought, and commanded. He let out in his address the holy sympathies of his rich nature. He traded with realities, and not with shams; and he was upright in his business. His sword was sharp as truth; his spear, pointed as love. Whenever his lips moved, you could hear his great heart beat. He was the proud ambassador of the Almighty, and you should know his message. came before the people ever fresh with the vigor, the sanctity, and the charms of the Infinite. His home was in the Eternal, and, when he appeared, its awful sanctions, symbols, and furniture still clung to him. He came direct from Jehovah to the sinner man. He was a mediator between a yearning Creator and an aspiring creature. He was the interpreter of the Ineffable. When he told the great and the proud of their sins, he did it as though it were their own consciences speaking to them. His fine old phrases about judgment, were mysterious and awful as the intuitive forebodings of the convinced and conscious soul. Every thing he said and did was actual. It was a "Verily, verily, I say unto you." His prayers were the abandonment of piety; and his sermons the

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abandonment of honest, faithful, constant love. In the name of God he went on his way. He knew it was all a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. His zeal was apostolic, and he had the valor of a hero. Ever ready for martyrdom, he lived grandly; carelessly as to himself-all anxJously as to others. The world felt, when he fairly came into it, that he was its true and magnanimous friend; and therefore it respected, admired, and loved him. Not often does the world get such a friend! Ages sometimes pass away, and not one such appears. By the scarcity of the honor, and the fulness of the privilege, when such an one appears, in gratitude and in reverence the world embraces him. Oh! if all the preachers talked thus boldly, naturally, and truthfully to the heart of man, how changed would soon be the aspect of affairs! But among the priesthoods, the force of example is weak, because the fire of emulation burns dimly. Many who are too proud to imitate, are not degraded enough to envy. Many who industriously ignore the living, industriously malign the dead. But the living are mighty in spite of them; and, in spite of them, the dead are not forgotten; and thousands who are weary of the tame platitudes of their contemporaries, resort with pious pleasure to the traditions and records of the departed to save themselves from absolute spiritual starvation. Thus Edward Irving is a power to many who knew him not. Being dead, he yet speaketh. He died in the Lord, and his works do follow him. But the power of his fame is the same as was the power of his life. It is the power of moral beauty, of absorbed devotion, and of earnest love-in short, the magic omnipotence of sincerity

Edward Irving had illustrious friends. He was great among the great. The noble ennobled him by their fellowship. Dr. Chalmers, who won from him the affection of a son, felt towards him the love of a brother. Frederick Denison Maurice, and Thomas Carlyle of our own day knew him intimately, and loved him well. And Coleridge delighted

him not seldom with his monologues of philosophy, and his uncomely but impressive tokens of esteem. Why did a man thus guarded, go off into such wonderful eccentricities? That he should have been encouraged to independence of thought by these mighty men and ministers, we should have expected. But Chalmers believed only in the supernatural of the Past-Coleridge, in the supernalism of the Eternal-Carlyle, in the glorious naturalism of history, religion, and life-and Maurice, in the poetry and the power of supernaturalism-but, we suppose, hardly in its philosophy at all. The stolid orthodoxy of the Scotch divine, counterbalanced by the profoundly religious catholicity of the rest, might have seduced the impetuous but stately mind of the inquirer from the established forms and prominent theological angles of his faith; but surely they could not have had any share in the responsibilities of his inexplicable and unaccountable extravagances of faith?

No: Irving was independent, and, therefore, he did not conform even to his honored companions, with whom he often took sweet counsel, and at whose feet he was proud to sit. He was docile, meek, and ready to learn. But he must follow only the light within. Capable of great faith, he knew no skepticism, and, therefore, he believed more than the common sense of the world can generally take in. He never had reason to distrust the Book: he had all trust in the God of the Book: and what God had been reported by the Book to have done, why should He not do again? What He had given to Paul, why should He not give to him? What He had once instituted, why should it not stand for ever? These questions it is not for us to answer. We only ask them by way of suggesting, generously to our hero, and respectfully to his despisers, that upon the answer which shall be given to them depends his consistency or inconsistency; his greatness or his imbecility; his goodness and piety, or his dishonesty and the worthlessness of his soul.

From Fraser's Magazine.

SIAM AND ITS PRINCES.

THE kingdom of Siam is known to most Europeans as a territory situated in the "crop" of that vast peninsula which, like the head and claw of a bird, stretches down into the Eastern Archipelago. Of its inhabitants the only specimens we have ever seen are "the Siamese Twins," and its most remarkable production people generally imagine to be "white elephants.'

Recent events, however, have rendered the kingdom of Siam of more importance to Englishmen and other maritime nations than heretofore. Civilization having, by means of the sword, coasted its way round the peninsula of India, attacked Burmah, and opened the hitherto hermetically-sealed ports of China, as it will speedily of Japan, can no longer be kept at arm's length by the customs of any eastern people; and Siam and Cochin China must speedily undergo the same kind of revolution which China is experiencing at the present moment.

Such a revolution, only of a perfectly peaceable character, has in fact for many years been going on in Siam, and we may expect its acceleration from the accession to the throne of the present ruler, who promises to be far more than a Toussaint L'Overture of the East.

The country of Siam is one of the most productive upon the earth. Well watered, and possessed of a magnificent alluvial soil, the land absolutely overflows with luscious fruits and vegetable productions. The chief river of the empire, the Menam, flows through the land from its most northern boundary, until it empties itself in the Gulf of Siam, and, like the Nile, by periodical overflows,

enriches its banks for a distance of four

hundred miles. This splendid valley drained by this arterial stream averages thirty-five miles in breadth, and here plantations of rice, indigo, sugar, and coffee, seem incapable of drawing out the full productive force of the soil. The Menam is navigable for the largest ships and junks for a hundred miles from the sea, far above the capital, Bangkok.

This curious city is another Venice, or

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"Yet another tack, and one more turning in the river, and lo! the glories of the floating city burst upon our admiring gaze, like some resplenIt was night-dark night; neither moon nor stars dent ray of sunlight through an envious cloud. were in the heavens. But what cared Bangkok, with its millions of globes that lighted the river's broad surface from side to side, for night or darkness? It was like that fairy-land where houris dwell, whose eyes shed lustre-lustre such as made the stars decline to keep their wary watch, and Madame Moon to hide her face behind a silvery cloud. As far as the eye could reach, on either side of the river, there was one endless succession of lights-lights variegated, and of every imaginable color and shape, and such only as Chinese ingenuity could ever invent; every little floating house had two or more of these lights; the yards and masts of the vessels and junks (and these were by no means few) were decorated in a like manner. The lofty pagodas or minarets of the walls were one blaze of light. It was the most striking, the most beautiful panorama I had ever witnessed: nor, had we been a day later, should I have enjoyed the spectacle, for the night of our arrival chanced to be that of one of the feast-days in China-the Feast of Lanterns."

Doubtless much of this couleur de rose

appearance was owing to the poetical aspect which night throws over nature, hiding vulgar details, and leaving much to the imagination; but even these details, in the broad glare of day, were interesting and perfectly novel, for Mr. Neale, speaking of the sober view of things the next morning, says,

Narrative of a Residence in Siam. By Frederick Arthur Neale.

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