Ministry in Edinburgh and Removal to London

Roxburgh Church, situated in the south-eastern quarter of Edinburgh, in the heart of a densely peopled district, had been occupied by an able and worthy minister, Mr. Johnstone, in connexion with a section of Nonconforming Presbyterians.

Owing to some peculiarities in the tenure of the church or the sentiments of the congregation, no successor was appointed at the demise of Mr. Johnstone, and the continuity of the congregational life was not maintained.

After a period of collapse an arrangement was made by which the chapel, free of debt, with some remnants of the former congregation still adhering to it, should be attached to the Established Church, and placed under the immediate care of certain members of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, The attention of the trustees, as soon as they were ready to nominate a minister, was directed to Mr. Hamilton. As their invitation providentially coincided

1 In the Presbyterian churches that are free, the uniform rule is that a minister is chosen by the congregation; but in cases like this, where there is not an organised congregation, the first appointment is made by the trustees or promoters.

in point of time with the shutting of his door at Abernyte, the preliminaries were soon arranged, and he was ordained as minister of Eoxburgh church by the Presbytery of Edinburgh on the 21st of January 1841. The only record of this event which I find among his own papers is a single line in a calendar of daily occupations opposite the date, Sabbath, 24th January: — “Introduced by Mr. Candlish; church crowded.”

After the novelty of the first day had passed, the congregation, as a matter of course in the circumstances, was very small; but soon after, hopeful symptoms began to appear. A distinguished professor of the medical faculty in the University, Mr. Spence, who was himseK at that period a frequent worshipper in Eoxburgh church, has informed me that Hamilton’s ministrations had begun to be appreciated, and were already attracting discriminating listeners from distant parts of the city, when they were suddenly brought to a close. He was only five months in this charge, and during the latter two of these it was known that he was about to be removed. In these circumstances it is obvious that whatever talents he might possess or lack for acquiring an influential position in Edinburgh, the trial was never made. Another sphere was provided for him, and another course providentially marked out. Of date 25th April 1841 a jotting occurs: — “Communion Sabbath; 148 communicants. A refreshful day to all the serious people to whom I spoke. Eears mercifully disappointed. Mr. Arnot and Mr. Sommerville on Fast-day. Mr. Proudfoot on Sabbath. Mr. Pollock on Monday. 30th May, admitted three elders.”

“Edinburgh, Feb. 2, 1841,” My dear Uncle, — After having met my new congregation on two Sabbaths and at one prayer-meeting, I may venture to say that I like them well, and hope for much enjoyment among them. The church has been well attended hitherto, but I cannot expect people who are already attending able and edifying ministers to give up their present places of worship and come to me. My hearers are still, as lawyers say, Jieri. They are latent in the closes and lanes all round. I wish I had strength to go after them.

“The Presbytery were very kind on this occasion. I believe so great a number had never been present at an ordination before. I did not value this token of regard the less that with many it proceeded from respect to my father’s memory. Last Wednesday I attended a meeting of Presbytery. It is an interesting consideration to feel one’s-self a member of the most venerable Presbytery in the Kirk. John Knox’s Presbytery — Dr. Erskine’s, Sir Harry’s, Dr. Andrew Thomson’s Presbytery.

“And what are you saying to our position now? It is long since you feared that it would end in the overthrow of the Scottish Establishment. The most sanguine have now their fears. If the Lord turn this captivity, we will be as men that dream.”

Two letters written by Mr. Hamilton at subsequent dates from London may be most conveniently introduced here, as they refer exclusively to his brief pastorate in Edinburgh, and throw an interesting light on the character of the relations which subsisted between him and his little flock there.

The assembly of ministers, usually called the Convocation, at which the Disruption was irrevocably determined, held its sittings in Roxburgh chapel in November 1842. Mr. Hamilton came from London to attend the meeting, and preached in the chapel on the Sabbath that occurred in the course of the sittings. On that occasion he was a guest in the family of Mr. Johnstone, his predecessor, who had been members of his congregation. Soon after his return an intimation of the death of Mrs. Johnstone’s sister followed him to London. The first letter is written in reply to this intimation: —

“7 Lansdowne Plack, London,
Dec. 1, 1S42.

“My dear Mrs. Johnstone, — Who can tell what a day may bring forth! There have been few breaches in our congregation since I came, but within this week two aged members have died. I was much struck when, on Sabbath, I was told of the death of Mr. Robert Johnstone’s brother, who was ill before I left Edinburgh. But I little thought that so solemn an admonition was to be added to all these warnings as that which came in Miss Johnstone’s letter yesterday morning; for to me it is a solemn admonition, and seems to lessen the space between me and the grave’s mouth, to think that almost the last hand I should have shaken that morning before leaving Edinburgh is cold in death already. And a kind and gentle hand it was.

“But I do not sorrow for Miss Home. It is well with her. Whilst yet she saw Him not she loved the Lord

OF ROXBURGH CONGREGATION. I7l

Jesus; and just as Christ was precious to her, so I am persuaded she was precious to Him. Her tender feelings and strong affection, and quiet fireside dispositions, will make her be long missed in the lessening circle; but every principle and affection which the Spirit of God implanted here will get abundant and eternal scope where she now is. The sorrow was all on this side. It was no sorrow to leave the body of sin and death, or to find that she was no longer in the vale of tears. And just as the Lord Jesus has taken away the sting of death, so in her case He took away the bitterness of dying. The fetters were softly broken. Miss Charlotte will remember what we were speaking of on our way home from Lady Glenorchy’s that Sabbath evening. The night has come. It is with a tender satisfaction, and with more solemn feelings, that I think that her last Sabbath in this life should have been a Sabbath in the sanctuary (a day truly spent in the courts of God’s house), and the Sabbath when I preached; and I am thankful that it was made a day of refreshing to her soul. She then wished ’ to follow the Lord fully,’ and I know she has her wish, for she is following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.

“I thought of writing a few lines to say that I got safely home, and to thank you for all the great kindness you bestowed on me during my sojourn with you. That visit I shall now remember with deepened interest, because of what has happened since. The Lord the Spirit impress it on us all, that we may work while it is day! With our united affectionate remembrance and sympathy, I remain, my dear Mrs. Johnstone, ever yours most truly,

“James Hamilton.”

The next is addressed to Mrs. Johnstone’s daughter, wife of the Free Church minister of Maxwellton, Dumfries, in reply to an intimation of her mother’s death: —

“48 EusTON Square, London,
Jan. 28, 1864.

“Deak Mrs. Purves, — It was not without emotion that I received the intimation so kindly and thoughtfully forwarded to me. It sent back my thoughts to that pleasant sanctuary, so much more identified with your father than it was ever to be with any one else, and to quiet evenings in Buccleuch Place, when your mother and my own did not seem so very old, and when your good and gentle aunt was stUl alive, and when you still had a sister, and I too had one. Now all except ourselves have gone into the holy place, and joined the white-robed company, where our hope and prayer are that, through the same grace, we ourselves may join them. Truly that alone is life which is lived within the veil: on this side it seems like a dream.

“It was your great happiness and hers that your dear mother spent her closing days under your roof. From under that roof all the more prayer has therefore ascended, — prayer that will be abundantly answered to those who still are its inmates.

“I hope you and Mr. Purves will some day visit London. I should like to show you our children, five of them, the oldest as tall as yourself — With kind regards to Mr. Purves, believe me, yours most truly,

“James Hamilton.”

As an appropriate conclusion to these tender memorials of his ministry in Edinburgh, it may not be out of place to submit the following letter, addressed to him, in 1860, by a young person whom he had baptized there. It will tell its own tale: happy the minister who receives such simple and hearty testimony regarding his work in any sphere twenty years after he left it: —

“Edikburgh, Z>ecemier 3, ISGO.

“Dear and Rev. Sir, — My grandmother desires me to write you these few lines, hoping you will not think me too bold in doing so. Perhaps you will remember us when I try to tell you something about us. Perhaps you will yet remember Mr. and Mrs. Todd who lived in W. Adam Street, and whom you used to visit frequently. They attended your church in Eoxburgh Place, and they enjoyed your company very much when you visited them. My grandfather has now gone the way of all the earth. Many a time he used to speak about you. And now that my grandmother is left all alone, she seems to think more of the past. Last night, being Sabbath, she was telling me pieces of sermons you used to preach, so you may take encouragement from that; for it seems that both of them did derive much benefit from your ministrations while you were with them. My grandfather was seventy-eight years of age when he departed from this vale of tears, and we have the good hope, through grace, that he is now in glory. My grandmother is seventy-four years of age, and one cannot think that she will be long among us here. She has a longing desire to hear you preach, and perhaps that may never be, yet we may hope that you will yet be in Edinburgh, and if spared she may yet hear you. If you have not the prospect of being here, would you be kind enough to drop a few lines, as it would cheer her much by the way. You will not take it amiss, I hope, when I take the liberty of asking you. My grandmother being up in years now, I like to try and please her in all things as far as I possibly can, so therefore I hope you will excuse the liberty which I have taken at this time. — I remain, your very affectionate, Janet Hamilton.”

“9 West Adam Street, Edinburgh.”

As the National Scotch Church, Regent Square, London, comes here into the foreground of our narrative, it is necessary to take some note of its origin and early history.

A chapel in Cross Street, Hatton Garden, was acquired from the Swedenborgians by a Gaelic Society, with the view of establishing a service in that language, according to the forms of the Church of Scotland. It was subsequently made over to the Caledonian Asylum upon certain conditions, one of which was that the minister should be always ready to preach in Gaelic when required; and on the 18th of June 1818 the Rev. James Boyd was ordained by the Presbytery of Edinburgh as the first minister of the “Caledonian Church.”

Mr. Boyd proved an acceptable and effective preacher, and under his care the congregation made most satisfactory progress. In those days, however, even to a greater extent than at present, England was considered a land of exile for ministers of the Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Boyd soon accepted a presentation to the parish of Auchinleck, in Ayrshire, whence he was translated first to

Ochiltree, and subsequently, in 1843, to the Tron Church in Glasgow, where he continued to minister till his death.

The next incumbent of the Caledonian was Mr. A. M’Naughton. Disheartened by the decrease of the congregation, he, too, returned to Scotland, becoming minister successively in Campbelton, Arran, and Lesmahagow in Lanarkshire.

Hitherto the Directors of the Caledonian Asylum had been disappointed in their expectation of deriving a revenue from their adopted church. On this occasion, therefore, they directed special attention to that subject in their inquiries after a pastor. Whatever other good qualities their next minister might possess, it was essential that he should be an attractive preacher, for the church must be filled: “Money must be obtained to feed and clothe the orphans, and we must, if possible, get high seat-rents.” In this matter these benevolent gentlemen succeeded to their hearts’ desire, and far beyond their expectations. They fixed their eyes on Edward Irving, then acting as assistant to Dr. Chalmers in Glasgow. They invited him to preach in the church; and, with more penetration than had yet been exhibited in Scotland, instantly perceived that he was their man. As parties on both sides were willing, the negotiations soon reached a favourable issue. Even the formidable condition of being always ready at call to preach a Gaelic sermon proved no barrier in the way of the stalwart son of the Solway, who had never heard a Gaelic word pronounced in his life. He would reside six months in the Highlands, and on his return would charm the Celts of London with the bewitching accents of their aative hills. This characteristically chivalrous offer, however, it was not found necessary to accept, as the parties wisely consented to cancel the embarrassing condition. Ordained in Scotland by the Presbytery of Annan, Irving was inducted into his charge by the Presbytery of London, on the 16th of October 1822. The city was soon filled with the fame of the mighty Scotchman. His eloquence, his earnestness, and his commanding presence combined to attract a crowd, and to rivet the attention of the worshippers. A fire in his eye, and a prophetic -like dignity in his whole manner, made people hold in their breath while he spoke. The church became inconveniently crowded. The ordinary congregation could not find their places. Persons of the highest social rank were drawn to the spot along with the multitude. Royal Dukes did not disdain to occupy a pew in the Presbyterian meeting-house. As many as thirty-five carriages, with coronets, besides those of commoners, were counted at the door one Sabbath morning.

The directors had obtained what they wished, and more. They were now embarrassed with their own riches. The place was too strait for them, and it became necessary to take measures for obtaining a more capacious str;licture. A committee was formed, subscription lists were opened, a suitable site obtained, and on the 1st July 1824 the foundation-stone of the National Scotch Church was laid in Regent Square. So highly honoured, or so ambitious had the Kirk in London at that time become, that his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William iv., had consented to preside at

IN REGENT SQUARE CHURCH. ] 77

the ceremony, and the documents enclosed in the foundation actually bear that it was laid by him; but when the time arrived the Prince failed through indisposition, and the function was discharged, perhaps more appropriately, by a genuine Presbyterian, the Earl of Breadalbane. Some delay occun-ed ere the work could be got fairly under weigh, and the church, which cost, including the site, upwards of £21,000, was not completed till May 1827. On the 11th of that month it was formally opened by Dr. Chalmers. Dr. Gordon of Edinburgh occupied the pulpit on the succeeding Sabbath, and thereafter the ministrations were conducted by Mr. Irving.

The new” church, being very spacious, was never inconveniently crowded; but during the whole of Mr. Irving’s pastorate the audience continued to be both numerous and distinguished. Besides the ministrations of the Sabbath, his week-day lectures on prophecy, especially at the period when controversy regarding Catholic Emancipation was running high, attracted very great attention in the metropolis.*

“When a body at once weighty and tall moves forward with great rapidity, its momentum becomes dangerous to itseK and its neighbours. As long as the motion proceeds in a perfectly straight line, a catastrophe may be avoided; but if the engine cannot be slowed when it is about to take a curve, it behoves all who are interested to look out. Something will probably happen. And about the

1 These facts have been obtained from an address by Alexander Gillespie, Esq., then a member, and at this day an honoured and beloved elder, of the National Scotch Church, Regent Square, printed in one of the Annual Congregational Reports.

M year 1830 something did happen to the ardent and eloquent minister of the Scotch National Church. Impelled by the fire of his own spirit within, and drawn by the plaudits of an admiring multitude without, Mr. Irving’s momentum became too great. He could not stop; he could not even slow. From expounding prophecy, he allowed himself to be drawn on almost to the point of prophesying on his own account. The machine became overheated by the rapidity of its own motion, and went plunging and hissing forward, defying drags and drivers. Satellites, as generally happens when really great stars go wandering, began to cluster round the chief, burning more fiercely than himself, and diverging further from the normal orbit of sober, commonplace worlds. It is not expedient to examine and develop here the doctrinal aberrations which the Presbytery, in the exercise of their duty, charged against Mr. Irving. The events have long since passed away; and such parts of them as still linger in life amongst us, have gone far ahead of their own beginnings. Not of purpose prepense was Edward Irving a heretic: the heresies were perhaps not a proper brood of the intellect at all. They seem to have been a sort of spontaneous generation favoured by immense fervour of spirit, and immense velocity of motion. But, however generated, when they did reach the region of the intellect, they were owned and held, and not recanted. Then the issue became inevitable, for the accused was a Presbyterian. There is sense in the head of the Presbyterian system, and a bone in its sleeve. What it professes it practises; what it begins it goes through witL Not to speak of the higher affairs of Scriptural order, it understands the first principles of self-preservation. It will not permit a member of the body to defy the authority of the head. It looks with sorrowful pity on a church, how great and venerable soever, that lacks the will or the power to sever a member who denies its doctrines, and yet eats its bread. The Presbyterian Church, at all events, under the softening influences of modern Christian thought, is slow to note a stumble; it would rather wink at an eccentricity or two, in the hope of spontaneous recovery; but when it does arise to judgment, it carries out its own rules without fear or favour. If the safety of the body does demand the severance of a diseased member, this surgeon will not sicken at the sight of blood. The health of the Church has in this generation often been greatly promoted by the firmness of its discipline.

In the beginning of May 1832, Mr. Irving was excluded from the National Church by the sentence of his superiors. What followed with him personally, we are not bound to narrate here. With a tender sorrow we follow the memoiy of a great and good man. Flung by wayward impulses, which he counted heavenly inspirations, from a solid position of usefulness, he never afterwards was able to get a firm influential stand-point. Broken in health, and separated from the friends of his youth, who still loved and revered him, he soon dropt out of the front rank, and was early taken away from the evil to come.

When it escaped from his hands, the movement which his force first generated became wayward enough; and now it marches, and bends and bums candles with as much childish earnestness as any of its neighbour ritualists, whether Anglican or Romish.

The rise and fall of Edward Irving, briefly sketched by Dr. Hamilton at a later date, will find here its most appropriate place.-’

“Towards this hot and hazy capital was tending, during the dog-days of 1822, a genial and magnificent spirit, such as is rarely found amongst the sons of men. No mere spirit, however; for the eye was met by a splendid colossus, which towered head and shoulders above Cockaigne. He was a preacher. He regarded himself as a messenger from the living God to dying but immortal men; and there was nothing which any preacher had ever been — Luther, Chrysostom, the Baptist — but, in the name of his God, he believed that he might venture, and, with the help of his God, repeat. With a great forthgoing towards the common p’^ople, he did not despair of standing before kings; and he liked to entertain, as a possible consummation, the prospect of martyrdom. Loyal to God, he was impatient at the scanty justice which the truths of God — all save some two or three — receive at the hands of the modern ministry; and reverential towards the past, his contemplation of Christianity as it existed in his Albigensian and covenanting forefathers, made him disdainful of the cozy, self- coddling ways of modern professorship. It is a great thing to have life, and to have it more abundantly. Superior insight makes a cold nature cynical; it only made Edward Irving an idealist. With a physical overflow, which in its prodigal excess courted toU

1 Evangelical Christendom, Marcb 1866.

and feared no exhaustion, he had a heart which held the whole of London. Accepting the call of his fifty Caledonians as an invitation from the united million, on a high spring-tide of hope and gratitude he flowed in upon the capital, and, in proud consciousness of the wealth which could enrich it, at once began to unlade his argosy. It did not matter that London was out of town, or that Hatton Garden was a name unknown in the haunts of fashion; He who had given him his talents and his commission, had also given him an open letter of introduction to all mankind, and confident in their goodwill, and assuming their actual presence, he instantly began.

“Before going southwards he had mentioned to a friend his great desire ’ to make a demonstration for a higher style of Christianity, something more magnanimous, more heroical than this age affects.’ The purpose was in keeping not only with his exalted conception of the Christian character, but with the grandeur of his own spirit; and with a little more practical wisdom the effect, which waa for the moment unprecedented, might have endured to this day. By bringing out the fulness of the boundless, all-embracing Bible, and by carrying hearers who had hitherto rested in texts right into the truths which these texts contain, he relieved evangelism from the reproach of intellectual poverty, and whilst extorting from many minds their first homage to the Gospel, he made others feel as if under his leadership they could start afresh and go on to perfection. And he himself went grandly. Living in the presence of the King of kings, and never

1 His letter to Dr. Martin, quoted in Mrs. Oliphant’s Life, vol. i. p. 1-11.

182 ihving’s early greatness

for a moment forgetting his high calling, his bearing was august, and from before the steps of his straightforward faith mountains and sycamine trees were removed. And whilst walking with God thus loftily, it was a marvellous fund of loving-kindness which he carried forth among his fellow-men. Taking the little children in his arms, and blessing them as no one had ever done since his Master said, ‘Let them come unto me; ’ casting the spell of his own transcendentalism over commonplace people, and leaving them thenceforward on a higher level

“Looking to the gifted men who crowded to his church, and who from his profuse, suggestive sermons received new germs of thought, as from his valiant, outspoken faith they derived new impressions of divine realities, for the first three or four years it was an unprecedented ministry. At last, yielding partly to his own excursive instincts, partly to the temptation to tell some new thing to an excited throng, who returned Sunday after Sunday expecting a new sensation, historical themes, like John the Baptist, were exchanged for prophecy, and speculations regarding the source of the Saviour’s sinlessness, such as racked Oriental ingenuity in the early ages, took the place of the lively oracles. The higher that the speculation soared, and the further behind that it left the personal and the practical, the better it suited that class of hearers who think nothing so tiresome as the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments; and the wilder that it grew, the more it was enjoyed by those devotees who mistake for pious feeling a sort of spiritual galvanism. Such persons now became Irving’s inner circle. They closed around him, and appropriated him; they shut out friends who were not the less affectionate because they were sober-minded; and surrounded by a coterie of charlatans and moonshiny mystics, visionary men and hysterical women, who domineered and flattered by turns, nothing remained but to drift helplessly on in the dizzy, imperious vortex. The buoy which good sense flung in to his rescue he hurled back with disdain, and when, with the tear in its eye, ancient friendship held out its hand, the offer was tearfully declined. Sermons were preached on the restoration to the church of miraculous gifts, and weird prayer-meetings were held in the dark cold mornings, followed by strange colloquies and expoundings throughout the day; till the natural upshot was that outburst of ’ tongues ’ which, in the words of Carlyle, brought ‘Bedlam and chaos ’ into the new church in Regent Square.

“The humiliating, heart-breaking sequel we need not trace. The dupe of his own imagination, still more the victim of misplaced affection — for all along much of his creed had been absorbed into the system through the fancy and through his cordial, admiring tendencies — the idealist had become the simple visionary. Up the sides of the gallant ship there swarmed a motley crowd; old and loyal friends were sent ashore; and all landmarks lost, all autonomy completely gone, enthusiasts in their folly and coxcombs in their arrogance took the helm by turns, till the shattered hull was drawn ashore, and the mournful voyage ended where * the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest,’”

Our business lies with the English Presbyterian Church in general, and with the National Scotch Church of London, in particular; to it accordingly we return.

At the termination of Mr. Irving’s connexion with the church, the congregation found themselves reduced to a handful, and burdened with a debt of £10,000. So far from succumbing to their difficulties, however, they determined to obtain relays of eminent ministers from Scotland to supply the pulpit, and in the meantime to reduce, by one-haK, their pecuniary liability. In both efforts they completely succeeded. The debt was reduced by subscriptions to £5000, and the diminished burden was then cheerfully sustained. By obtaining supplies in succession from Scotland, the congregation enjoyed for a time such a variety of gifts as compensated in some measure for the want of a settled ministry.

After a protracted vacancy, Mr. Peter M’Morland was ordained pastor of the church on the 17th of April 1835. During his ministry the congregation was largely increased in numbers, but he too, after serving about four years, retired to a charge in Scotland, and left the much-tried congregation once more as a flock without a shepherd.

During the whole of this sifting period, a band of leal-hearted and devoted men held office in the National Church. By their high character, and mutual love, and patient energy, they steered the vessel through all the storms. Holding by faith to the Head, and by love to one another, they never lost hope, and never slackened their exertions, until, by God’s good hand upon them, a day of prosperity returned. In their case, as in the experience of many others, man’s extremity was God’s opportunity. It is ordinarily “out of the depths” that the keenest cries ascend to the throne of Grace; and, in answer to the request of those who saw no help in man, the Lord did at length send a qualified labourer into that portion of his harvest-field.

In the spring of 1841, a deputation from the Church of Scotland had occasion to visit London, in connexion with some of the great ecclesiastical questions that were then agitating the public mind. The elders of Regent Square seized the opportunity of laying their case before the men who were in a position at once to comprehend the nature of the claim, and to suggest the method of meeting it. In an interview with Dr. Candlish, Dr. Buchanan, Mr. Dunlop, and others, they explained their position, and requested aid. The Scottish brethren intimated on the spot that they had their eye on a young minister who, if he could be induced to accept a call, would, in their judgment, more than compensate for all the disappointments that the congregation had experienced. As this minister had only been a few months settled in his first charge, they were not certain of success, but they would do what they could on their return to Scotland. In the course of a few days, as the result of this negotiation, the elders of Regent Square learned from their friends that Mr. James Hamilton, of Roxburgh Church, Edinburgh, had consented to come to London, and preach for two Sabbaths to the congregation. One of the sermons preached on that occasion in Regent Square was subsequently published under the title “The Opening of the Prison.” I have been informed, on very good authority, that this discourse made the deepest impression, and largely contributed to determine the choice

Morgan and Chase, 38 Ludgate Hill.

186” THE OPENING OF THE PRISON.

of the congregation. In these circumstances, it becomes a matter of interest and importance to look into that little tract as a specimen of his style at the period. It differs considerably from his ordinary methods in his later years. It is probable that it fairly represents his manner of presenting and pressing the gospel at Abernyte, and in Edinburgh; and this supposition goes far to explain at once the deep impression made on all the more susceptible spirits of his flock in the country, and the opposition successfully made by a smaller, but more influential class, to his permanent settlement in the parish. The “Opening of the Prison” reminds the reader at once of Bunyan and of Baxter. The leading conceptions, from first to last, are allegorical, and the appeals are peculiarly solemn and searching. There is a plainness and pungency, amounting in some places almost to roughness, in applying his lesson to the conscience, which forms, in some measure, a contrast to the gentleness and delicacy which characterized his subsequent ministrations.

Nothing can be more interesting in the natural history of the spiritual life than the study of this sermon in connexion with the date of its origin. It bears unmistakable marks of William Burns and Robert M’Cheyne, and the revival in Dundee. It glows with the spirit; and is more concerned to strike hard than to refine the sentiment.” On the outer door of the prison-house were not only the bolts and bars which Satan had put on, but there was the adamantine lock of eternal justice also. Jehovah himself had put it on. In the day that Adam sinned, Jehovah shut the sinner in, and justice locked the door, and flung the key into the ocean of the wrath of God. It sank into

MR. Hamilton’s earlier style. 187

the mighty waters, and before Immanuel could open the brazen gates, he was seen to plunge headlong into that tide of wrath, and then, emerging from its abyss, he went right up to the gates of the devil’s stronghold, and as the wards of that inviolable lock recognised the long-lost key, the bolt of justice flew back. That achievement cost Immanuel his life,” etc., etc. Such is the conception, expressed in bold, sharp terms, with no attempt to make the angles easy, which sank into our informant’s ear, and remained written on his memory after an interval of nearly thirty years.

Everything is beautiful in its place and time. It is rougher chiselling, and bolder features, that you expect from the ardent youth, fresh from the quickening converse of apostolic men, and the strong cries of awakened sinners; in quieter and more experienced years substantially the same forms will emerge, with more rounded outHnes, and mellower tints.

Mr. Hamilton had considered the whole case, and substantially decided it before he agreed to this preliminary experiment. He was well aware of the awkwardness and inconvenience of breaking up his connexion with the Roxburgh congregation, when it was only a few months old; but, on the other hand, he comprehended thoroughly the superior importance of London, and saw that the less ought to yield to the greater. Besides, the recency of his settlement in Edinburgh might tell also on the other side. If he should leave that sphere at all, it might be as well to leave it before his roots had gone deep into the soil. After a year or two the removal might have been more difficult.

Nor can it “be overlooked or denied that the metropolis presented to Mr. Hamilton various attractions, bearing both directly and indirectly on his ministerial work. His literary tastes, and his consciousness of power in those departments, contributed legitimately to the determination which was ultimately adopted. The happy visit paid to his uncle in 1838 had providentially prepared the way, by giving him many glimpses of insight into the mighty stream of life that flows through London. He was enabled to measure the influence which the city exercises on the empire and on the world; and with an enlightened and patriotic ambition was willing, when an opportunity occurred, to contribute his own life and talents to the service of God and man on that field where they could be laid out to the greatest advantage.

When sounded on the subject in London, at the close of his preliminary visit, Mr. Hamilton frankly acknowledged that though nothing could be finally decided at that date, he was prepared to consider favourably any call that might reach him from the congregation of Regent Square. A harmonious call accordingly, with the necessary presbyterial formalities, was immediately sent, and in due time accepted. The various steps required in the case of a translation were taken in the usual way without any remarkable incident; and after being formally inducted by the Presbytery of London, Mr. Hamilton was introduced to his new charge on Sabbath, 25th July 1841, by Dr. Gordon of Edinburgh, in that year Moderator of the General Assembly.