(Vol. viii., p. 18.)
In communicating a few particulars about Alexander Clark, I must disappoint
your correspondent PERTHENSIS; _my_ subject answering in no respect to
Peter Buchan's "drucken dominie," the author of the _Buttery College_.
Alexander Clark, who has fallen in my way, belongs to the class of "amiable
enthusiasts;" a character I am somewhat fond of, believing that in any
pursuit a dash of the latter quality is essential to success.
Clark was by profession a gardener; and as my friends in the north always
seek to localise their worthies, I venture to assign him to Annandale. My
first acquaintance with him arose from his {518} _Emblematical
Representation_ falling into my hands; and, pursuing my inquiries, I found
this was but one of some half-dozen visionary works from the same pen. In
his _View of the Glory of the Messiah's Kingdom_, we have the origin of his
taking upon himself the prophetic character; it is entitled:
"A Brief Account of an Extraordinary Revelation, and other Things
Remarkable, in the Course of God's Dealings with Alexander Clark,
Gardener at Dumcrief, near Moffat, Anandale, in the Year 1749."
"In the month of August, 1749," says he, "at a certain time when the
Lord was pleased to chastise me greatly in a bed of affliction, and in
the midst of my great trial, it pleased the Almighty God wonderfully to
surprise me with a glorious light round about me; and looking up, I saw
straight before me a glorious building in the air, as bright and clear
as the sun: it was so vastly great, so amiable to behold, so full of
majesty and glory, that it filled my heart with wonder and admiration.
The place where this sight appeared to me was just over the city of
Edinburgh; at the same instant I heard, as it were, the musick bells of
the said city ring for joy."
From this period, Clark's character became tinged with that enthusiasm
which ended in his belief that he was inspired; and that in publishing
his--
"Signs of the Times: showing by many infallible Testimonies and Proofs
out of the Holy Scripture, that an extraordinary Change is at Hand,
even at the very Door,"--
he was merely "emitting what he derived directly, by special favour, from
God!"
"The Spirit of God," he says on another occasion, "was so sensibly
poured out upon me, and to such a degree, that I was thereby made to
see things done in secret, and came to find things lost, and knew where
to go to find those things which were lost!"
This _second sight_, if I may so call it, set our author upon drawing aside
the veil from the prophetic writings; and his view of their mystical sense
is diffused over the indigested and rambling works bearing the following
titles:
"A View of the Glory of the Messiah's Kingdom." 1763.
"Remarks upon the Accomplishment of Scripture Prophecy."
"A Practical Treatise on Regeneration." 1764.
"The Mystery of God opened," &c. Edinburgh. 1768.
"An Emblematical Representation of the Paradise of God, showing the
Nature of Spiritual Industry in the Similitude of a Garden, well
ordered, dressed, and kept, with Sundry Reflections on the Nature of
Divine Knowledge, 1779."
In his _Address to the Friendly Society of Gardeners_, Clark gives some
account of his worldly condition; of his early training in religious
habits; his laborious and industrious devotion to his profession, with
which he seems to have been greatly enamoured, although poorly paid, and
often in straits. Subsequently to the great event of his life--his
vision--our subject appears to have come south, and to have been in the
employment of Lord Charles Spencer at Hanworth in Middlesex. Like most of
the prophets of his day, Clark was haunted with the belief that the last
day was approaching; and considering himself called upon to announce to his
acquaintance and neighbours that this "terrible judgment of God was at
hand," he got but contempt and ridicule for his pains:--more than that,
indeed, for those raising the cry that he was a madman, they procured the
poor man's expulsion from his situation. Under all these discouraging
circumstances, he maintained his firm conviction of the approaching end of
time: so strongly was his mind bent in this direction, that "I opened the
window of the house where I then was," says he, "thinking to see Christ
coming in the clouds!"
"I was three days and three nights that I could not eat, drink, nor
sleep; and when I would close my eyes, I felt something always touching
me; at length I heard a voice sounding in mine ears, saying 'Sleep not,
lest thou sleep the sleep of death:' and at that I looked for my Bible,
and at the first opening of it I read these words, which were sent with
power, 'To him that overcometh,'" &c.
Poor Clark, like his prototype Thomas Newans, laboured hard to obtain the
sanction of the hierarchy to his predictions:
"I desire no man," he says, "to believe me without proof; and if the
Reverend the Clergy would think this worth their perusal, I would very
willingly hear what they had to say either for or against."
The orthodoxy of the "Reverend the Clergy" was not, however, to be moved;
and Alexander Clark and his books now but serve the end of pointing a
moral. With more real humility and less presumption, there was much that
was good about him; but letting his heated fancies get the better of the
little judgment he possessed, our _amiable enthusiast_ became rather a
stumbling-block than light to his generation.