Preaching in Edinburgh--The Free Church--Dr. Chalmers--A Specimen
of his Preaching--The Secret of his Eloquence.
Edinburgh has ever been distinguished for its preachers. In former times
the classic Blair, the fervid Walker, the impassioned Logan, the
judicious Erskine, the learned Jamieson, the exquisite Alison, the
candid Wellwood and the energetic Thomson delighted and instructed all
classes of the community. To these have succeeded a host of learned and
truly eloquent men, some of whom are members of "the Kirk," others of
the Episcopal communion, and others of the various bodies of
Presbyterian "Seceders," Congregationalists and Baptists. Among the
clergymen of the Free Church, Dr. Chalmers of course is "_facile
princeps_;" Dr. Candlish, in effectiveness and popularity probably
stands next, while Drs. Cunningham, Bruce, Gordon and Buchanan, the Rev.
James Begg, and one or two others form a cluster of influential and
eloquent preachers. Among the Congregationalists, Rev. William L.
Alexander is the most learned and polished. He has written ably on the
Tractarian controversy and on the connection of the Old and New
Testaments, and recently received a pressing invitation to become
associated with Dr. Wardlaw of Glasgow, as assistant pastor and
Professor of Theology. He is a fine looking man, being some six feet
high, with expressive features, dark penetrating eyes, and massive black
hair, clustering over a fair and lofty forehead. His manner is dignified
and agreeable, but not particularly impassioned.
Among the "seceding" Presbyterians, Dr. John Brown, minister of
Broughton Place, and one of the Professors of Theology in the United
Secession Church, the Rev. Dr. Johnstone and the Rev. James Robertson of
the same communion are among the most effective preachers in Scotland.
The Baptists are justly proud of the learned and polished Christopher
Anderson, author of an able work on the "Domestic Constitution," and an
elaborate "History of the English Bible"--the Rev. William Innes, one of
the most amiable and pious of men, and the Rev. Jonathan Watson, whose
earnest practical discourses are well appreciated by his intelligent
audience. Mr. Innes at one time was a minister of the established
Church, with a large salary and an agreeable situation, but abandoned it
for conscience' sake, as he could not approve of the union of Church and
State, nor of some of the peculiarities of Presbyterianism. His pious,
consistent course, and liberal, catholic spirit, have won for him the
admiration of all denominations of Christians.
Bishop Terrot of the Episcopal Church is somewhat high in his church
notions, but is regarded as an amiable and learned man, while the Rev.
Mr. Drummond and others of the same church, are able and influential
preachers. Among those who adhere to "the Kirk" as it was, the Rev. Dr.
Muir is one of the most accomplished, and the Rev. Dr. Lee, of the
University, the most learned and influential.
Taken as a whole, the Edinburgh clergy are fair representatives of the
Scottish preachers generally. Those therefore who wish to form a just
estimate of the spirit and power of the pulpit in Scotland, have only to
hear them repeatedly, in their respective places of worship. They hold
doctrinal views somewhat diverse, though essentially one, adopt
different styles of preaching, and in certain aspects different styles
of life. Yet they manifestly belong to the same great family, and preach
the same glorious gospel. They are remarkably distinguished for their
strong common sense, laborious habits, pious spirit and practical
usefulness. Occasionally they come into keen polemical strife; but it
amounts to little more than a gladiatorial exhibition, or rather a light
skirmishing, without malice prepense, or much evil result. Generally
speaking, they are not pre-eminently distinguished for their learning,
though certainly well informed, and devoted to the great work of their
ministry. They are more practical than speculative, more devout than
critical, more useful than renowned. They live in the hearts of their
flocks, and the results of their labors may be seen in the integrity,
good order and industry of the people. It is not our purpose to say much
on the subject of the recent "break" in the Scottish church, in which,
as the members of the "Free Church" assert, the supremacy of Jesus
Christ is concerned. The intrusion by lay patrons, of unpopular
ministers upon the churches, is certainly a vicious practice, and ought
to be abolished. But this is only a fragment of a greater and more vital
question, pertaining to the spirituality and authority of Christ's
church, which must be settled one of these days. The Free Church
movement has developed much fine enthusiasm, and no small amount of
self-denial; and the results will doubtless be favorable to the progress
of spiritual freedom; but this is only a single wave of a mighty and
ever increasing tide, which is destined to sweep, not over Scotland
alone, but over the world. In this place, however, we cannot refrain
from expressing our conviction that this division in the Presbyterian
ranks is not properly a schism or a heresy. It breaks up an existing
organization, but affinity remains. The doctrines and discipline of the
two churches are essentially the same. The one may be purer and stronger
than the other, but they are members of the same family, professedly
cherish the same spirit, and aim at the accomplishment of the same ends.
This, too, may be said of nearly all the other sects; so that in
Scotland, there is more real unity among Christians than there is in
Papal Rome. The latter is one, only as a mountain of ice, in which all
impurities are congealed, is one. The unity of the former is like that
of the thousand streams which rush from the Alpine heights, proceeding,
as they do, from a common source, and finally meeting and blending in a
common ocean.
But enough of general speculation and description. Dr. Chalmers is to
preach at Dr. Candlish's church, so let us go to hear him. He has lost
something of his early vigor, but retains enough of it to make him the
most interesting preacher in Scotland or the world. Let us make haste,
or we shall fail of obtaining a seat. Already the house is filled with
an expectant congregation. The Doctor comes in, and all is hushed. He is
dressed in gown and bands, and presents a striking and venerable
appearance. His serious, earnest aspect well befits his high office. He
is of the middle height, thick set and brawny, but not corpulent. His
face is rather broad, with high cheek bones, pale, and as it were
care-worn, but well formed and expressive. His eyes are of a leaden
color, rather dull when in a state of repose, but flashing with a
half-smothered fire when fairly roused. His nose is broad and lion-like,
his mouth, one of the most expressive parts of his countenance, firm, a
little compressed and stern, indicating courage and energy, while his
forehead is ample and high, as one might naturally suppose, covered with
thin, straggling grey hair. He reads a psalm in a dry, guttural
voice--reads a few verses of Scripture, without much energy or apparent
feeling, and then offers a brief, simple, earnest, and striking prayer.
By the way, the Doctor's prayers are among his most interesting
exercises. He is always simple, direct, reverent, and occasionally quite
original and striking. You feel while joining in his devotions, that a
man of genius and piety is leading your willing spirit up to the throne
of God. How striking, for example, when he calls us to remember "that
every hour that strikes,--every morning that dawns, and every evening
that darkens around us, brings us nearer to the end of our pilgrimage."
Yet he has no mouthing or mannerism, in this solemn exercise. He is not
_making_, but offering a prayer. His tones are earnest and solemn; most
manifest it is that his soul is holding intimate fellowship with the
Father of Spirits.
But he announces his text--1 John iv. 16. "God is love"--a text from
which he has preached before; but no matter for that.[17] He commences,
with a few broken sentences, pronounced in a harsh tuneless voice, with
a strong Scottish accent. The first feeling of a stranger would be that
of disappointment, and apprehension that the discourse was to prove a
failure. This was the case with Canning and Wilberforce, who went to
hear Dr. Chalmers, when he preached in London. They had got into a pew
near the door, when "the preacher began in his usual unpromising way, by
stating a few nearly self-evident propositions, neither in the choicest
language, nor in the most impressive voice; 'If this be all,' said
Canning to his companion, 'it will never do.' Chalmers went on,--the
shuffling in the congregation gradually subsided. He got into the mass
of his subject; his weakness became strength, his hesitation was turned
into energy; and bringing the whole volume of his mind to bear upon it,
poured forth a torrent of most close and conclusive argument, brilliant
with all the exuberance of an imagination which ranged over all nature
for illustrations, and yet managed and applied each of them with the
same unerring dexterity, as if that single one had been the study of his
whole life. 'The tartan beats us,' said Mr. Canning, 'we have no
preaching like that in England.'"
[Footnote 17: In looking over the Doctor's printed works, we have found
this discourse in a somewhat different garb from that in which we have
presented it. We were not at first aware of this, or we might have
selected some other discourse; for it was our good fortune to hear the
Doctor frequently. This and other delineations, however, are taken from
personal observation.]
It may be well to state here that Chalmers is a slavish reader,--that
is, he reads every thing he says,--but then he reads so naturally, so
earnestly, so energetically, that manuscript and everything else is
speedily forgotten by the astonished and delighted hearer.
He proceeds with his subject--_God is love_. His object, as announced,
is not so much to elucidate the thought or idea of the text, as to
dislodge from the minds of his hearers, the dread and aversion for God,
existing in all unregenerate men. He insists, in the first place, that
it is not as a God of love, that the Deity is regarded by mankind--but
simply as God, as a being mysterious and dreadful, a being who has
displeasure towards them in his heart. This arises from two causes--the
first, that they are ignorant of this great and awfully mysterious
Being--the second, that they have sinned against him. This feeling then
is displaced first by the incarnation of the Deity in the person of his
Son, so that we may know him and love him as a Father and a friend; and
secondly, by the free pardon of our sin, through the sacrifice of the
Cross. The division is rather awkward; but it serves the purpose of the
preacher, who thus brings out some of the most sublime peculiarities of
the Gospel, and applies them with overwhelming force and pathos to the
sinner's heart. Under the first head, he shows, in language of uncommon
energy, that it is impossible for man, in his present state, to regard a
being so vast, so mysterious, and so little known as God, except with
superstitious dread. "All regarding him," says he, "is inscrutable; the
depths of his past eternity, the mighty and unknown extent of his
creation, the secret policy or end of his government--a government that
embraces an infinity of worlds, and reaches forward to an infinity of
ages; all these leave a being so circumscribed in his faculties as man,
so limited in his duration, and therefore so limited in his experience,
in profoundest ignorance of God; and then the inaccessible retirement in
which this God hides himself from the observation of his creatures here
below, the clouds and darkness which are about the pavilion of his
throne, the utter inability of the powers of man to reach beyond the
confines of that pavilion, render vain all attempts to fathom the
essence of God, or to obtain any distinct conception of his person or
being, which have been shrouded in the deep silence of many centuries,
insomuch that nature, whatever it may tell us of his existence, places
between our senses and this mighty cause a veil of interception."
It is not unnatural to dread such a being. Nature, though full of God,
furnishes no clear and satisfying evidence of his designs; for sunshine
and shower, green fields and waving harvests are intermingled with
tempests and hurricane, blight and mildew, destruction and death. "While
in one case we have the natural affection and unnumbered sweets of many
a cottage, which might serve to manifest the indulgent kindness of him
who is the universal parent of the human family; we have on the other
hand the cares, the heart-burnings, the moral discomforts, often the
pining sickness, or the cold and cheerless poverty, or, more palpably,
the fierce contests and mutual distractions even among civilized men;
and lastly, and to consummate all, the death,--the unshaken and
relentless death with which generation after generation, whether among
the abodes of the prosperous and the happy, or among the dwellings of
the adverse and unfortunate, after a few years are visited, laying all
the varieties of human fortune in the dust,--these all bespeak if not a
malignant, an offended, God."
But this vague uncertainty and dread are corrected and displaced by the
incarnation of the Deity in the person of Christ--"the brightness of the
Father's glory and the express image of his person." "The Godhead then
became palpable to human senses, and man could behold, as in a picture,
and in distinct personification, the very characteristics of the Being
that made him."
Upon this idea, a favorite one with Dr. Chalmers, he dwells with the
profoundest interest, presenting it with a strength of conception and
exuberance of illustration which makes it clear and palpable to the
minds of all. How his heart glows, almost to bursting, with the sublime
and thrilling idea that God is manifest in the flesh. How he pours out,
as in a torrent of light, the swelling images and emotions of his
throbbing spirit. "We could not scale the height of that mysterious
ascent which brings us within view of the Godhead. It is by the descent
of the Godhead unto us that this manifestation has been made; and we
learn and know it from the wondrous history of him who went about doing
good continually. We could not go in search of the viewless Deity,
through the depths and vastnesses of infinity, or divine the secret, the
untold purposes that were brooding there. But in what way could a more
palpable exhibition have been made, than when the eternal Son, enshrined
in humanity, stepped forth on the platform of visible things, and there
proclaimed the Deity? We can now reach the character of God in the human
looks, in the human language of Him who is the very image and visible
representative of the Deity; we see it in the tears of sympathy he shed;
we hear it in the accents of tenderness which fell from his lips. Even
his very remonstrances were those of a deep and gentle nature; for they
are remonstrances of deepest pathos--the complaints of a longing spirit
against the sad perversity of men bent on their own ruin."
Not content with this clear and ample exhibition of his views, he
returns to it, as if with redoubled interest, and though presenting no
new conception upon the point, delights to pour upon it the exuberant
radiance of his teeming imagination. The hearers, too, are as interested
as he, and catch with delight the varying aspects of his peculiar
oratory. In fact, their minds are in perfect sympathy and harmony with
his; and tears start to every eye, as he bursts out, as if applying the
subject to himself, in the following beautiful and affecting
style:--"Previous to this manifestation, as long as I had nothing before
me but the unseen God, my mind wandered in uncertainty, my busy fancy
was free to expatiate, and its images filled my heart with disquietude
and terror; but in the life and person and history of Jesus Christ, the
attributes of the Deity are brought down to the observation of the
senses, and I can no longer mistake them, when, in the Son, who is the
express image of his Father, I see them carried home to my understanding
by the evidence and expression of human organs--when I see the kindness
of the Father, in the tears that fell from the Son at the tomb of
Lazarus--when I see his justice blended with his mercy, in the
exclamation, 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!' by Jesus Christ, uttered with a
tone more tender than human bosom or human sympathy ever uttered--I feel
the judgment of God himself flashing conviction on my conscience, and
calling me to repent, while his wrath is suspended, and he still waiteth
to be gracious!"
But a more distinct and well-grounded reason for distrust and fear in
reference to the Deity arises from the consciousness of guilt. In spite
of ourselves, in spite of our false theology, we feel that God has a
right to be offended with us, that he is offended with us, and not only
so, but that we deserve his displeasure. This he shows is counteracted
by the doctrine of the atonement: "Herein is love, not that we loved
him, but that he loved us, and sent his Son into the world to be a
propitiation for our sins." By the fact of the incarnation, a conquest
is gained over the imagination haunted with the idea of an unknown God;
so also by that of the atonement, a conquest is gained over the solid
and well-grounded fear of guilt. This idea the Doctor illustrates with
equal force and beauty, showing that by means of the Sacrifice of the
Cross, justice and mercy are brought into harmony, in the full and free
pardon of the believing penitent. By this means the great hindrance to
free communion with God is taken away. Guilt is cancelled, for the sake
of Him who died, and the poor trembling sinner is taken to the bosom of
Infinite Love. "In the glorious spectacle of the Cross, we see the
mystery revealed, and the compassion of the parent meeting in fullest
harmony with the now asserted and now vindicated prerogative of the
Lawgiver. The Gospel is a halo of all the attributes of God, and yet the
pre-eminent manifestation there is of God as love, which will shed its
lustre amid all the perfections of the Divine nature. And here it should
be specially remarked, that the atonement was made for the sins of the
whole world; God's direct and primary object being to vindicate the
truth and justice of the Godhead. Instead of taking from his love, it
only gave it more emphatic demonstration; for, instead of love, simple
and bending itself without difficulty to the happiness of its objects,
it was a love which, ere it could reach the guilty being it groaned
after, had to force the barriers of a necessity which, to all human
appearance, was insuperable." With this fine idea the Doctor concludes
his discourse, presenting it with a mingled tenderness and vehemence of
style and tone perfectly irresistible. "The love of God," he exclaims,
"with such an obstacle and trying to get over it, is a higher exhibition
than all the love which radiates from his throne on all the sinless
angels. The affirmation that God is love, is strengthened by that other,
to him who owns the authority of Scripture, that God _so_ loved the
world--I call on you to mark the emphatic _so_--as to give his
only-begotten Son. 'He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for
us all;' or that expression, 'herein is love, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and gave his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.'
There is a moral, a depth, an intensity of meaning, a richness of
sentiment that Paul calls unsearchable, in the Cross of Christ, that
tells emphatically that God is righteousness, and that God is love."
Such is a feeble and imperfect outline of a rich and eloquent discourse,
from one of the richest and most expressive texts in the Bible. But we
cannot transfer to the written or printed page the tone, look and
manner, the _vivida vis_, the natural and overwhelming energy, the
pathos and power of tone, which thrill the hearer as with the shocks of
a spiritual electricity. It is this peculiar energy which distinguishes
Chalmers, and which distinguishes all great orators. His mind is on fire
with his subject, and transfers itself all glowing to the minds of his
hearers. For the time being all are fused into one great whole, by the
resistless might of his burning eloquence. In this respect Chalmers has
been thought to approach, nearer than any other man of modern times, the
style and tone of Demosthenes. His manner has a torrent-vehemence, a
sea-like swell and sweep, a bannered tramp as of armies rushing to
deadly conflict. With one hand on his manuscript, and the other jerked
forward with electric energy, he thunders out his gigantic
periods, as if winged with "volleyed lightning." The hearers are
astonished,--awed,--carried away,--lifted up as on the wings of the
wind, and borne "whithersoever the master listeth."