Are the days of Pentecost gone never to return? Have miracles ceased
from amongst men? Cannot signs and wonders still be wrought by men
filled with the Holy Ghost? The larger part of the Christian Church
answers this question in the negative. It teaches that the miracles are
dumb, that the need of them has past away, that in the fulness of time
the Divine will was made known, and that the Church needs not now the
signs and wonders by which that revelation was attested and declared.
A large body, however, has lately sprung up amongst us, holding opposite
views. Enter their churches, and, according to them, the gift of tongues
still exists--signs and wonders are still manifest--miracles are still
wrought. Still, as much as in apostolic times, does the Divine afflatus
dwell in man, and the man so endued becomes a prophet, and declares the
will of God in known or unknown tongues.
For some time past, a magnificent Gothic Cathedral has been in process of
being built in Gordon Square. It stands near where once stood Coward
College, and where still stands University Hall, a Unitarian College, and
not far from the University College, which a certain Ex-Lord-Chancellor
took under his especial care. On Christmas Day it was thrown open for
the performance of the worship of 'The Holy Catholic Apostolic Church,' a
body better, perhaps, known to the community at large as Irvingites, or
followers of Edward Irving. Originally, I believe, the sect sprang up in
Scotland, and Edward Irving merely joined it, and the form of worship
which now prevails was not fully established till after his death. After
Irving left the Scotch Church, the body took refuge in Newman Street,
where they have remained till the present magnificent place was opened.
There are to be seven cathedrals in London; each cathedral is to have
four places of worship attached to it; and to each service in a cathedral
appertain an evangelist, an apostle, a prophet, and an angel. The angel
is the presiding spirit, an apostle seems to be what a bishop is in the
English Church. There is an apostle for England, another for France,
another for America, and another for Germany. To every cathedral there
are twenty-four priests. The angel is magnificently clad in purple, the
sign of authority. The next order, the prophets, wear blue stoles,
indicative of the skies whence they draw their inspiration. The
evangelists wear red as a sign of their readiness to shed their blood in
the cause.
The Cathedral is well attended: upwards of 1000 communicants are
connected with it. Service takes place in it several times a-day, and on
the Sunday evening a sermon is preached, which is intended to enlighten
and to win over such as are not connected with the church. Many
distinguished persons are office-bearers in the church, such as Admiral
Gambier, the Hon. Henry Parnell, J. P. Knight, R.A., Mr. Cooke, the
barrister, Major Macdonald; while Lady Dawson, Lady Bateman, Lady
Anderson, are amongst its members. Henry Drummond, the eccentric M.P.
for East Surrey, has the credit of being connected with this place; but,
while it is true that he is an Irvingite, it is not true that he is an
office-bearer of the church. Those who join the church offer a tenth of
their annual income towards its support, and this promise, it is
believed, year after year is faithfully kept. The Cathedral itself is an
evidence of the liberality of the people. Attached to the church is a
small, but very elegant, chapel, which is to be used on rare occasions,
and which was raised by the ladies, who contributed the magnificent sum
of 4000 pounds in aid of the work. The chief beauty of the church,
however, is the altar, which is carved out of all sorts of coloured
marble, and is superbly decorated. The service-book put into your hands
is called 'The Liturgy and Divine Offices of the Church,' but I do not
learn from the members of the body that they think themselves exclusively
the church, and that there is no salvation out of their pale. They
merely profess to be one portion of the church, to take within their
comprehensive fold members of all other churches; and this, to a very
considerable extent, has been the case. The Irvingites have taken their
converts not from the world, but the church. They have made proselytes,
not Christians: the members of other churches have come over to them. In
their ranks are many Dissenters and Churchmen, and amongst their priests
are many who have been clergymen in connection with the Dissenters or the
Church of England. They profess to be above the common distinction by
which sect is fenced off from sect--Catholic and Protestant come alike to
them.
The Liturgy appears to be compiled from the rituals of the Greek,
Anglican, and Roman Churches, with a slight preponderance to the latter.
The apostle of the church is Mr. John Cardall, formerly a lawyer's clerk,
but called to his present office, as he himself states, about twenty
years ago, by the voice of prophecy. This call is acknowledged by the
community. He rules the whole body with irresponsible authority. He is
the final appeal. On his decision everything rests. He claims spiritual
preeminence over not only the churches in his own communion, but over all
the churches of all baptized Christians throughout the world, nay, over
all bishops, priests, and deacons, Anglican, Greek, or Roman, not
excepting even the Pope himself. The Liturgy and Service-book is
understood to be his compilation. He has also published a work, entitled
'Readings upon the Liturgy,' which is privately circulated, and is said,
by those who have seen it, to be an interesting and peculiar book,
abounding in the interpretations of the symbols and types of the Old
Testament, and an ingenious endeavour to adapt them to the purposes of
the Christian Church at the present day. In the Liturgy, besides what is
found in that of the English Church, there are prayers for the dead,
invocation of saints, transubstantiation. The authority of the church,
the power of the priesthood, and the existence of actual living apostles
to rule the church universal, are acknowledged and enjoined. The chief
minister of the church, or, as he is called, the angel or bishop, is Mr.
Christopher Heath, who, for many years, carried on business in the
neighbourhood of the Seven Dials. He was also called miraculously to his
present post. The other ministers, of whom there are a vast number, are
all well paid for their services, on an average much better than many
London incumbents. Several of them have been military men: they are not
formally educated for their work, but called to it. They are not
man-made ministers--they claim a Divine sanction and power. Nor are they
taken from the well-educated classes. They assert that the Spirit may
qualify any man, no matter how humble his occupation or his birth. Some
of them, I am told, have been tailors, tinkers, shoemakers, barbers, but
are now filled with divine light, and may do the signs and wonders done
by the apostles in an earlier day.
With apostolic pretensions, these men are careless of apostolic
simplicity. They must meet, not in an upper room, but in a gorgeous
cathedral; they must array themselves in grotesque garments; they must
have tapers and incense--Roman Catholic forms and ceremonies. One would
have thought that the name of Edward Irving would have been kept free
from such things; that his followers would have been above them; that
they would as much as most realize the spirituality of Him who dwells not
in houses made with hands, and whose temple is the lowly and contrite
heart. Genius like Irving's would have lent grandeur to a barn; and now
the master is gone, and having no more an orator to enchant them, the
church worships in fretted aisles--treads mosaic pavements--rejoices in
fine music and elaborate ceremonial.
Thus always is it: when nature fails, men have recourse to art. We have
no actors now, but, instead, we have a stage splendidly decorated,
regardless of expense. We put Shakspere on the stage in a way that would
astonish Shakspere himself: but we have no Shakspere. Is not this a sign
of weakness? When a beauty betakes herself to jewellery, and invests
herself with borrowed graces, is it not a sign that Time is dealing in
his old-fashioned cruel way with the rose upon her cheek and the lustre
in her eye? and is it not so with the Irvingite Church? Is not its pomp
and splendour a sign that it is not so rich in apostolic gifts as it
claims to be? Paul, I think, would hardly feel himself at home in Gordon
Square.
Since the above was written, the Census Report has appeared. It has a
sketch supplied by a member of the Catholic Apostolic Church. From it we
learn that that Church makes no exclusive claim to its title. It
acknowledges it to be the common title of the one church baptized unto
Christ. The members of that body deny that they are separatists from the
Established Church. They recognise the continuance of the church from
the days of the first apostles, and of the three orders of bishops,
priests, and deacons, by succession from the apostles. They justify
their meeting in separate congregations from the charge of schism, on the
ground of the same being permitted and authorized by an ordinance of
paramount authority, which they believe God has restored for the benefit
of the whole church. And, so far from professing to be another sect,
they believe that their special mission is to unite the scattered members
of the one body of Christ. The speciality of that religious belief--that
by which they are distinguished from other Christian
communities--consists in their holding apostles and prophets to be
abiding ministeries in the church.