Christian Theology

For some years before the lamented death of Dr. Clarke, he was repeatedly solicited to collect his rich and ample materials, and give to the world a Biblical Dictionary; and Theological Institutes, or a System of Christian Theology, in one or two portable and cheap volumes. He acknowledged that each of these was a great desideratum. He felt strongly inclined to prepare them, and even made a beginning. In one of his letters he writes: — “I have laid the foundation of a Biblical Dictionary.” In another he says: — “I may possibly write some Institutes; but I shall put my Homer into a nutshell.” On another occasion he observed: “If you were stationed in the south, and would assist me, I could do many things, but my eyes will not now bear any intense application.” Such an appointment never took place; and before the worthy doctor had proceeded far, he was called hence. Had he accomplished his object, he would doubtless have produced a volume deserving a place in every Christian library. If it be inquired what induced me to attempt to supply his lack; I answer, my strong affection for the man; my high admiration of his writings; my deep conviction that such a volume would probably prove a blessing to many; and I may perhaps, in proof of the doctor’s confidence and affection, be allowed to refer to the following passage in one of his letters, which to me is sufficiently affecting: “O that my strength were as in days that are past! While writing, it seems as if whispered to me, ‘Your time is at hand — Samuel Dunn shall be your proxy in my work.’ This is enough!” Though painfully conscious of great inability, I have “done what I could.” Others will judge of the manner in which the part of selecting and systematizing has been executed.

That this mannal will be found useful for the purpose of reference, to those individuals who possess the doctor’s other works; and that those who possess them not will be induced, from this specimen, to procure them as soon as possible, is, perhaps, not an unreasonable expectation. The unrivalled Commentary, which is now in course of publication in an elegant and cheap form, — with “multitudinous emendations and corrections from the author’s own and last hand,” — I should like to see in every family, from the Norman to the Shetland Isles.

While I indulge the hope that the short Life in this volume will be acceptable to many readers, I have great pleasure in stating that Mrs. Smith, of Stoke Newington, the amiable and accomplished “member of the family,” to whom the public is so greatly indebted for the preservation of such valuable materials, is preparing a cheap edition of the life of her distinguished father.

Tadcaster, April 9th, 1835.

Grateful for the favourable manner in which the first edition of the “Christian Theology” has been received by the public, I have endeavoured to render the second more worthy of general approval, and of the great and good man from whose works it has been compiled

Samuel Dunn.

May 1th, 1835.

Adam Clarke, from whose voluminous writings the selections in this volume have been made, was born in the village of Moybeg, near Colerain, in the north of Ireland. He informed me, a short time before his death, that he had never been able to ascertain the year of his birth, his mother asserting that he was born in 1760, while his father contended that it was in 1763. Mr. John Clarke, Adam’s father, was a person of very respectable literary attainments; he was educated with a view to the church, and studied successively at Edinburgh and Glasgow, where he took his degree of a. m., and afterward entered a sizer of Trinity College, Dublin, at a time when classical merit alone could gain such an admission. He was of English extraction, and Mrs. Clarke of Scottish. They had two sons and five daughters.

Adam was three years younger than his brother Tracy, and was by no means a spoiled child. He was always corrected when he deserved it, and was early inured to hardship. For this he was ever thankful, and used to say, “My heavenly Father saw that I was likely to meet with many rude blasts in journeying through life, and he prepared me in infancy for the lot his providence destined for me; so that, through his mercy, I have been enabled to carry a profitable childhood up to hoary hairs. He knew that I must walk alone through life, and therefore set me on my feet right early, that I might be prepared by long practice for the work I was appointed to perform.” When about five years of age, he took the small pox in the natural way; but, though covered with pustules from head to foot, he was in the habit of stealing away from his very warm bed, whenever an opportunity presented itself, and running naked into the open air. By adopting this “coal regimen” he had a merciful termination of the disorder, and escaped without a single mark.

Mr. Clarke kept an English and classical school, and also held a small farm. This was cultivated by his sons, Adam and Tracy, one of whom attended to the farm, and the other at the school, alternately, during the day; and thus they shared between them the instruction which one boy in ordinary circumstances receives. They endeavoured to supply this defect by each, on leaving school, rehearsing to the other whatever he had on that day learned.

Adam was rather a dull boy, and was about eight years of age before he was capable of “putting vowels and consonants together.” Having on one occasion failed again and again in his attempts to commit his task to memory, he threw down the book in despair; when the threats of his teacher, who told him he should be a beggar all his days, together with the jeers of the other scholars, roused him as from a lethargy: he felt as if something had broken within him; — his memory in a moment was all light. “What!” said he to himself, “shall I ever be a dunce, and the butt of these fellows’ insults?” He resumed his book, conquered his task, speedily went up, and repeated it without missing a word, and proceeded with an ease he had never known before. He soon became passionately fond of reading. Into a wood near the school he oft retired, and there read the Eclogues and the Georgics of Virgil, with living illustrations of them before his eyes. He also amused himself with making hymns, and versifying the Psalms of David, and other .portions of the sacred volume. He soon conquered the whole of the heathen mythology and biography. Of Littleton’s Classical Dictionary he made himself complete master.

When but six years old, young Clarke was the subject of religious impressions. One day, as he and another little boy, with whom he was very intimate, sat upon a bank, they entered into conversation on the dreadful nature of eternal punishment. They were so affected with the thoughts that they wept bitterly; and prayed to God to forgive their sins, making mutual promises of amendment. Adam made known his feelings to his mother, and told her that he hoped in future to use no bad words, and always to obey his parents. She was deeply affected, and encouraged him and prayed for him. His parents were of different denominations; his father being a Churchman, while his mother was a Presbyterian, though not a Calvinist. To her he chiefly owed his early religious knowledge, and even his early religious impressions. It was her practice, especially on the Lord’s day, to read to her children, catechize them, and to sing and pray with them.

Keep reading