capable of producing an effect so strong and irresistible as his." Carlyle, though he speaks very disparagingly of the erudition of Chalmers, evidently thought highly both of his general ability and his oratorical gift, as may be judged from this sketch: "He was a man of much natural dignity, ingenuity, honesty, and kind affection, as well as sound intellect and imagination. A very eminent vivacity lay in him, which could rise to complete impetuosity,-growing conviction, passionate eloquence, fiery play of heart and head,—all in a kind of rustic type, one might say, though wonderfully true and tender. I suppose there will never again be such a preacher in any Christian Church." 2

As an outgrowth of his keen and broad common sense, Chalmers possessed scarcely less of sober business faculty than of oratorical talent. Proof of this was given in the unwonted vigor with which the enterprise of church extension was carried forward when it came under his leadership. Largely through his instrumentality over two hundred new churches were added to the Establishment in the course of a few years. Still more signal was the proof which he gave by so directing the finances of the Free Church that from the start its ministers had a fair security against want, even when laboring amid poor and scanty populations. Something of the same aptitude for practical activity was shown in his plans and efforts for the evangelization of the unchurched poor in the cities. He was no friend of the official dole. The Church, as he claimed, ought to come into intimate contact with this class, invading its terri1 Quoted by Fraser, p. 44.

? Reminiscences, pp. 126, 127.

tory with persistent and organized effort, teaching, encouraging, and directing the indigent, and promoting in them a spirit of self-help. Both in Glasgow and Edinburgh he gave a worthy specimen of what he deemed the proper method of home missionary work.

The name of Chalmers is not associated with any theological peculiarities. He was content with the general framework of doctrine contained in the Westminster Confession. As respects polity, he occupied a liberal position, not regarding any one form as having exclusive right. He favored the idea of an Establishment, and by request delivered in its defence a course of lectures in London, which won extraordinary applause. This has sometimes been counted inconsistent with the part which he took in the great secession from the Scotch Establishment in 1843. But a closer view will show that Chalmers was entirely consistent here. As appears in the London lectures themselves, he was never tolerant of a connection with the State which should hamper the Church in its proper functions as a religious organization. The chief advantage which he associated with an Establishment was its capability of providing every part of the country, however poor, with religious ministrations. When he went out of the Scotch Establishment he still kept this end in mind, and sought to secure it by means of a central sustentation fund.

While Chalmers was preaching in Glasgow he had as assistant, for a season, a young man whose genius for pulpit address was of no usual order. This was Edward Irving, who became preacher of the Caledonian church in London in 1822. In the metropolis his fame rose rapidly, and large throngs, from curiosity or admiration,

attended his ministrations. The singular style of his preaching has thus been described: "It is a strange blending of exposition, exhortation, poetry, pathos, and scorn; now, in lofty speculation, speeding like a meteor high overhead; now, as though it were the forked lightning, cleaving at our very side some hoary erection of human fraud or folly; and now melting in the softest tears of human sympathy."1 Carlyle remarks: "Irving's discourses were far more opulent in ingenious thought than Chalmers', which indeed were usually the triumphant on-rush of one idea with its satellites and supporters. But Irving's wanted in definite head and backbone, so that on arriving you might see clearly where and how. That was mostly a defect one felt in traversing those grand forest avenues of his, with their multifarious outlooks to right and left." 2

With a great fund of kindliness, Irving united a genuine devotion. But he was somewhat lacking in mental poise. His leaning to mysticism, which provoked the apprehension of Chalmers, left him ill-guarded against religious eccentricity. He gave too ready an ear to those who were ambitious to unfold the mysteries of prophecy, and was led to overvalue the miracle as a means of advancing Christianity. Accordingly, when a strange spirit of prophesying broke out in his congregation (1831), he encouraged it, under the supposition that the gift of tongues had been renewed.

The phenomenon appears to have been analogous to the various forms of overpowering physical impressions, which have occurred in seasons of great religious excite1 Charteris, in St. Giles Lectures.

2 Reminiscences, p. 128.

ment. "The actual utterances," says the biographer of Irving, "as they were introduced in the full congregation, were short exhortations, warnings, or commands, in English, preceded by some sentences or exclamations in the tongue, which was not the primary message, being unintelligible, but only the sign of inspiration. The character of the sound itself has perhaps received as many different descriptions as there are persons who have heard it. To some the ecstatic exclamations, with their rolling syllables and mighty voice, were imposing and awful; to others it was merely gibberish shouted from stentorian lungs; to others an uneasy wonder, which it was a relief to find passing into English, even though the height and strain of sound were undiminished." 1

The babel of strange voices at the Caledonian church was a source of derision to some and of grief to others. The matter tended seriously to compromise the position of Irving. In 1832 he was excluded from his pulpit, and the following year he was deposed from the ministry by the Presbytery of Annan. An alleged heresy on the subject of christology - namely, the view that Christ, though actually sinless, took corrupt human nature — was the expressed ground of the deposition. Worn out by agitation and misfortune, Irving died near the close of 1834.

The movement which was started in the Caledonian church in London issued in the founding of the so called "Catholic Apostolic Church," which has gathered a number of congregations on the Continent as well as in England. Aiming to reproduce in its entirety

1 Mrs. Oliphant, Life of Edward Irving, p. 430.

the primitive Christian ministry, the Catholic Apostolic Church has apostles, prophets, evangelists, angels (or bishops), presbyters, and deacons. It holds to the continuance of the apostolic charisms, and emphasizes the speedy coming of Christ. Its worship is of a highly ritualistic cast, its theory of the sacraments akin to that of the High Church party in the Anglican Establishment.

Among the writers who diverged from the beaten path of Scotch theology before the middle of the century, Thomas Erskine of Linlathen and Macleod Campbell have attracted special attention. Like Schleiermacher and Coleridge, and independently of them, Erskine was an "apostle of the inner consciousness." The credentials of Christianity he found chiefly in the internal evidences, or in the manner in which, when truly contemplated, its truths and facts approve themselves to the human spirit. In some of his particular views he anticipated Maurice, who confessed his obligations to the saintly layman. The following passages, for example, will have a familiar sound to one who has read the works of Maurice: "Unbelief is the far country: we never move out of our Father's hand; and as soon as we know Him as He is revealed in Jesus, we know ourselves to be in our Father's house. . . . When it is said that Christ does this or that thing for us, it is not meant that He did or does them as our substitute, but as our head. He does them for us as a root does things for the branches, or as a head or heart does things for the body.

. . Christ suffered for a purpose directly opposed to the purpose which is implied in the doctrine of substitution; He suffered not to dispense with our suffering, but to enable us to suffer, as He did, to the glory of God