The Millennium and the Tate Edward Irving.

ONE of the most mysterous sources of extravagant and erroneous sentiments-in the declining days of many eminent men-is the hard-working and over-taxing of the mental powers. It is a fact that men of God of a rough, ready, and often reckless mind, live many, many years, without evincing the slightest evidence of any defective change in their sentiments, experiences, or expressions; while the finely-wrought texture of other men's reflecting and thinking powers are often found, toward the end of the journey, to spring a leak somewhere; and the waters of error overwhelm the spirit, and to a certain extent as regards time, the vessel is lost. Let the living and laborious students of the present day lay this fact to heart.

In Mr. Grant's new volume, "The End of All Things," he gives the Millenarians the following solemn lecture. He says:

"The Millenarians proudly claim the late Edward Irving as having been one of the most earnest believers in the personal reign of Christ, and among the most zealous in the promulgation of that article of his Christian creed. Their claim is just. In his latter days he was a Millenarian in the strictest sense of the word. From the years 1827 to 1830 the Millenarian question attracted a measure of attention it never had done before. It was brought under the notice of thousands of Christians, who, though remarkable for their knowledge of Scripture on other points, had never bestowed a single thought on the question of Christ's personal reign on earth. The cause of this was the prominence given to it by the Rev. E. Irving, at that time at the summit of his popularity. Solely with the generous view of assisting a Spanish friend, he had in the previous year studied the Spanish language, and made such progress in his knowledge of that language as to be able to translate it into English. Just at this time a book written in Spanish, entitled The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty,' came into his hands. As this work struck him much, and powerfully expressed his own views on the more important aspects of the Millennial question, he at once set to work and translated it into English. It excited great attention, and gave an impulse, in conjunction with his own preaching on Millenarian topics, to the hypothesis of a personal reign of Christ on earth, surpassing, most probably, anything known in the Church since the second or third centuries. The book which Mr. Irving thus translated from the Spanish was written by an author who professed to have been a Jewish convert to Christianity, and who gave the name of Juan Josaphat Ben-Ezra on the title-page. He was, however, a Spanish priest of the order of Ignatius Loyola, and his real name was Lacunza. In this matter the author of the work in question acted on the Jesuit maxim that the end sanctifies the means, and therefore the false representation which he made of himself did not cause him a moment's uneasiness. Whether Mr. Irving was aware of the fraud which had thus been practised on the readers of the book I have no means of knowing, not having access to the work itself as it came from Mr. Irving's hands. How much he admired the book may be inferred from

some of the phrases expressive of praise he applied to it. He said that he found in it, as Mrs. Oliphant mentions in her Life of Edward Irving, 'the hand of a master,' it was the 'chief work of a master's hand,' it was 'a masterpiece of reasoning' which he felt assured God had sent him at that particular time for the love of his Church, ‘and it was a gift which he had resolved well how he might turn to profit.'

"But, in addition to the impulse which Mr. Irving gave to Millenarianism through the publication of this book, he did much to promote its progress in various other ways. He established a quarterly journal called the Morning Watch, almost the same size as our leading quarterly reviews, for the sole purpose of advocating Millenarian views. That journal lasted for several years; but the extravagance of some of the collateral notions which Mr. Irving intermingled with simple Millenarianism, rather impeded than promoted the doctrine of the personal reign of Christ on earth. The doctrine, too, of speaking with tongues, the assertion of the peccability of Christ's humanity, the zealous advocacy of the opinion that the power of working miracles was still vested in the Church, and not the expectation only, but, from time to time, the repeated assertion, in terms the most emphatic, that Christ would come immediately to reign personally on the earth, all these and other sentiments no less confidently advanced, and earnestly and frequently inculcated, both from his pulpit and through the press, injured rather than benefited the cause of Millenarianism among the more soberminded men in the religious world.

"It was my happiness to know Mr. Irving personally, as well as often to hear him preach; and I would be doing violence to my feelings if I made any reference to his name without saying, that I have never met with a man in whom there was such a striking combination of intellect of the loftiest order, with great simplicity of character, extreme geniality of nature, and ardent piety. It was impossible, unless there had been an utter absence in one's bosom of all the sympathies of humanity, to be in that great and good man's society for many minutes without regarding him with a love and admiration too great to be expressed. But, while I say all this, and say it with a depth and sincerity of feeling which could not be surpassed, Mr. Irving's greatest friends and admirers will concur with me when I state, that for the latter six or seven years of his life his judgment was not to be depended on in reference to any religious matter. And as he lived during the last few years of his existence on earth in the full belief of the momentous errors to which I have alluded, so he retained them till his dying hour. Even more than this, he added one more error to them a very brief period before his death. When his physicians and friends, seeing him in the last stage of consumption, prepared him, in the spirit of affectionate faithfulness, for the solemn event which was at hand, he would not believe that he was dying, or ever would die, but that he would be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and, in a transformed body, made unspeakably glorious, be caught up to heaven. I have received this statement from one who saw him when on his dying bed. The Millenarians therefore do not strengthen their cause by quoting the name of Edward Irving as an authority in favour of their views.

"The intensity of the enthusiasm with which Mr. Irving entered into the notion of a personal reign of Christ on earth is well described

in his Life by Mrs. Oliphant. 'The conception,' she says, 'of a second advent nearly approaching was like the beginning of a new life. The thought of seeing his Lord in the flesh cast a certain ecstasy on the mind of Irving. It quickened tenfold his already vivid apprehension of spiritual things. The burden of his prophetic mystery, so often darkly pondered, so often interpreted in a mistaken sense, seemed to him, in the light of that expectation, to swell into divine choruses of preparation for the splendid event which, with his own bodily eyes, undimmed by death, he hoped to behold.' This biographer more than hints that the extravagances which, towards the close of his career, proceeded both from his lips and his pen were to be traced to a mind which, through its prophetic studies, had lost its balance. That was, I believe, the general conviction of his personal friends. It was mine also from what I heard from him in private conversation, as well as from his pulpit ministrations. Yet, notwithstanding all this, he made, up till the last, many proselytes to his Millenarian notions and advanced views respecting the circumstances under which the second advent would take place.

The

"I see it stated in some recent Millenarian publications, that the idea of Christ, with his saints, remaining and reigning in the air after he has caught up his people to meet him there, instead of reigning literally on the earth, was unknown until some fifteen or twenty years ago. This is an error. The statement is historically incorrect. notion had its origin with Edward Irving. So, too, did another doctrine which has made great progress of late, and is, I am sorry and surprised to say, making a daily increasing progress at the present time. I allude to the doctrine of what is called the secret rapture. To this doctrine I shall in a future part of my work advert at some length. Suffice it, in the meantime, to say that the doctrine consists in the assumption that Christ will come and take his people who are alive up with Him into the air when he raises the saints who are in their graves and summons them to meet him in aerial regions. So deeply did this notion take possession of many of those who adopted Mr. Irving's Millenarian views, in conjunction with this other idea, that Christ's second coming might be looked for at any hour,-that they were as firmly persuaded they would not see death, as they were of any truth in the Word of God. I speak from personal knowledge here. I conversed with persons, just towards the close of Mr. Irving's life, who were equally remarkable for their intellectual attainments and high social position, who lived, and died too, in the belief that they should never taste of death, but be individually caught up by Christ to dwell with him in the air, hidden from the world's view until the time should come for the manifestation of his visible glory. But I must not anticipate what I shall hereafter have to say when I go formally and fully into this part of my subject."

Are we indeed running the heavenly race? then there is no avoiding spectators, to wit, angels, devils, and wicked men. The latter may reproach, vex, and threaten us, yet it becomes us not so much as to turn our head to notice them, seeing we are in a race which demands all attention and speed.

Footprints of a Traveller to Canaan.

"And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one." John i. 5, 8.

MR. EDITOR,-You having given insertion to my remarks on "Enoch having God's testimony in his soul before he was translated," fearing some of the exercised children of God might say I had not sufficiently cleared the subject, my mind has been led to this important portion of the Word of God, as containing some very sweet evidence of the work of grace in the heart of God's people.

By the word "earth," here I understand the heart and conscience of God's people. For it is in the heart that the work of grace is begun, carried on and perfected. I never heard them spoken from but once, nearly twenty years ago, by the late Mr. Arthur Triggs, at Zion chapel.

The confirmation of the faith of God's children is a very important part of experimental preaching or writing, and I would say to those of your readers who know the power of these witnesses in their own soul, what a confirmation of the truth of the preceding verse, it must be to them, "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. Again, "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." God gives His children the greatest gift he could bestow, and secures the gift in the person of His beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord." Also He hath declared, "He that believeth hath the witness in himself," and hath here given three witnesses to prove it.

I will endeavour to write upon it in the following order, and may the Lord the Spirit indite the word. 1. The Spirit; 2. The Water; 3. The Blood.

I. "THE SPIRIT." We must remember 'tis God the Holy Spirit that is here spoken of. Even He who worketh in God's children, to will and to do according to His good pleasure, and hath said, "I will work and who shall hinder?" and when he worketh the soul is conscious of it, for he is a powerful witness to every redeemed soul. Does He convince of sin? We feel its burden and its guilt, and our utter inability to remove it from our spirit. Does He lead the soul into an apprehension of the holy and righteous character of God, seeing His inflexible justice, and His hatred of sin? We discover that without the righteousness of the Son of God we can never stand with acceptance before Him. Does he lead the soul into communion and fellowship? We realize the holy and sanctifying power of His indwelling grace. Does he reveal the Person

of Christ as the Head of the body, and the eternal union of Head and members, by which revelation he raises a hope of interest in Him? The soul is conscious of this working, having once realized the blessing it hungers and thirsts for a renewed token, and though it may be tried as with fire, there is a secret persuasion that it came from God. Well do I remember once, after a sermon at Little Rehoboth, by good W. Webb, the clerk gave out this sweet verse of the late W. Gadsby's, and

with what sweet power it came confirming the blessed testimony of his servant,—

"Tis no precarious light

That shines on Zion's hill,

"Tis God, essential light itself,

And therefore cannot fail."

Our Lord said when on earth, "No man lighteth a candle and putteth it under a bushel." No foolish man is wiser than this. Even so when God the Spirit planteth the light of life in the souls of His children, it maketh itself manifest first to the partaker and then to those around who possess the same light. The beloved John wrote, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth." He meant total darkness, not the hidings of his countenance, which the children experience from time to time.

"This sacred unction ne'er decays,

But kindled once remains the same;

Burning to everlasting days,

For God Himself maintains the flame."

II. "THE WATER." By the water, I understand "The Word," the Word of Eternal Truth, spoken by the Holy Spirit in the souls of God's children. "The water that I shall give you shall be in you a well of water springing up into everlasting life." And again, "Ye are clean through the Word I have spoken unto you." And again, "The washing of regeneration by the Word." Now, our Lord gave a positive and a negative on this very important point, "He that is of God heareth God's Word," and contrariwise, "My Word hath no place in you;" solemn separation by the Judge of quick and dead! The Lord said to Jeremiah, "If you separate the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth." Consider this, ye that labour in word and doctrine, your Lord and Master so preached and so spake. "And who shall abide the day of His coming? for He is like a refiner's fire." And oh, ye hearers, where there is not this separation there is no savour in the ministry, "I speak as unto wise men, consider ye what I say."

There is a little mark of God's children, given by the Holy Spirit, in Hebrews xi. 33, "Who through faith obtained promises," which, if the Lord enables us to set our seal to, is very precious. Has faith ever revealed a promise in thy soul, and grace to lay hold of it by the witness of the Spirit been given thee, then it is thy promise or testimony as much as it was Abraham's or Enoch's. I remember once hearing Mr. Philpot, speaking of the word and promises of God, say, "When the Life Guardsman's sword is in the Tower of London it is the Queen's sword; but when the commanding officer gives it into the hand of the soldier 'tis his sword, even so the word and promise of a gracious God." Well do I remember, when a little boy about ten years old, on the banks of the Surrey canal, these words sprung up in my spirit, "There He commanded the blessing, even life for evermore," and the blessedness that accompanied it. It was a sip of the good old wine of the kingdom, it is the same now as fresh as ever, though I was ignorant of it then; yet my little heart leaped for joy, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his mercies."

And now a word to those who are resting in the mere letter of truth. Did it ever occur to your mind that the memorable mention of