THE IRVINGITES, OR APOSTOLICAL CHURCH.
If the absence of brotherly love for religious people, if a scorn of all
who worship God different from themselves, constitute heresy--and surely
the Apostle John shows that it does very clearly--then there are no such
heretics in London as the Irvingites, who worship in a very magnificent
cathedral in Gordon Square. Irving, I imagine, with all his genius, had
a very uncatholic spirit. Take, for instance, his celebrated missionary
sermon. Requested by the directors of the London Missionary Society to
preach the annual sermon at Surrey Chapel--how did he begin?
When he ascended the pulpit he entered on a kind of audible soliloquy.
Said he, "How shall I encourage myself to address the thronging multitude
by whom I am surrounded? I will even cast about for a few examples.
There are three of a notable character which now strike me: that of the
Apostle Paul preaching before the Jewish Sanhedrim, that of Bernard
Gilpin preaching before the Court of King Edward VI., and, that of a
Scottish Divine preaching before the Commissioner of the General
Assembly. On these three examples, as on a sacred tripod, I feel my
spirit propped; but especially the last, the Scottish Divine preaching
before the Commissioner of the General Assembly. If he could venture to
encounter the hoary-headed eldership and substantial theology of the
North, surely I may, without fear, address myself to the flimsy
evangelism of the South." In this kind and flattering way did Irving
speak of the great body of English Dissenters.
Of the Irvingite Church, the late Drummond, the banker, M.P. for Surrey,
was also an elder, and the same spirit lent bitterness to his sarcastic
and biting tongue. It was a treat to see and hear him, especially when
the topic was at all theological. Irving describes Drummond as one "who
hath taken us poor despised interpreters of prophecy under your wing, and
made the walls of your house like unto the ancient schools of the
prophets." But out of his own house Drummond seemed to have taken little
else or nothing under his wing. His mission apparently was to preach
that in nothing was there anything--that we were all whited sepulchres.
The Egyptians placed a skeleton at their feasts to remind them of their
mortality. The Sultan Saladin, it is said, had a similar message dinned
daily into his ears by a herald especially appointed to that purpose.
Mr. Drummond voluntarily took that duty on himself. In his eye we were
all morally dead; all virtue was gone clean out of us; the Church was in
darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death. Nor had Dissent one
ray more of Gospel light. Under the mask of patriotism he saw the
grovelling soul of the placeman; in the love of liberty the desire of
licence; in the rulers of the land a lamentable lack of understanding; in
the people a blind, senseless, untaught mass. Drummond was such a one as
Tennyson describes:--
"Thou shalt not be saved by works;
Thou hast been a sinner too.
Ruined trunks on wither'd forks,
Empty scarecrows I and you."
Thus did he perorate with the thinnest of voices, and gentlest manner, to
a House of which, for many sessions, he was the delight and puzzle, all
the while he was a member of the Irvingite Church.
A great claim is set up by this Church. Like Aaron's rod, it is to
swallow up all the rest. So great is its hatred of sects, it forms a new
one. While calling itself the holy and Apostolic Church, it makes no
exclusive claim to the title. It acknowledges it to be the common title
of the one Church baptized unto Christ. It claims to be no body of
separatists from the Church of England. The members recognise the
continuance of that Church from the days of the Apostles, and of the
three orders, bishops, priests, and deacons, by succession from the
Apostles. They have no sympathy with Dissent in any of its forms. That
is schism, and is to be condemned accordingly. They meet in separate
congregations, but they are not open to the charge of schism, on the
ground of their meeting being permitted and authorized, so they say, by
an ordinance of paramount authority which they believe God has restored
for the benefit of the Church. At once their ecclesiasticism strikes the
most superficial observer; the idea of the Church, that it is a mere
assembly of believers, is rejected by them on every occasion and in every
way. Their great glory is that the Apostolical order exists and is
manifested in them.
Their special teaching is something more. It is often asked, Are the
days of Pentecost gone never to return? Have miracles ceased from among
men? Cannot signs and wonders be still wrought by the Holy Ghost? As a
rule, the Church answers this question in the negative. It teaches that
the age of miracles is past; that they are no longer necessary; that in
the fulness of time the Divine will was made known to man; and that the
Church needs not now the signs and wonders by which that revelation was
attested and declared. A large, or rather an active body, some few years
ago sprang up in Scotland, crossed the Border, and extended to England,
and enrolled amongst their members many in what may be termed an
influential position in life. Enter their churches, and you learn,
according to them, the gift of tongues still exists, signs and wonders
are still manifested to the faithful, miracles are still wrought by those
upon whom God has conferred the gift. Still, as much as in Apostolic
times, does the Divine afflatus dwell in man, and the man so endowed
becomes a prophet, and declares the will of God. "The doctrine of
Christ's reign upon earth was at first," says Gibbon, "treated as
profound allegory, was considered by degrees as a doubtful and useless
opinion, and was at length regarded as the absurd invention of heresy and
fanaticism." A similar process has been in operation with regard to the
power of working miracles and speaking in unknown tongues. Against this
process the Irvingite or Catholic Church is a living protest.
It is now many years since a magnificent Gothic cathedral was commenced
in the corner of Gordon Square, between what at one time was Coward
College and the handsome building erected by the Unitarians, and known as
University Hall. Architecturally the new church may take high rank. The
cathedral, still unfinished, is perhaps the most extensive modern work of
the kind that has been undertaken. The Early English style has been
adopted generally for the exterior, but inside the style of the roof and
stone carvings is Decorated. The flat ceiling of the aisles, with rich
traceried bosses and spandrels, is very effective. The ornament
throughout, of which there is a considerable quantity, displays careful
design. Indeed, in the opinion of competent critics the execution could
not be surpassed. There are daily services in the church; on Sunday
there are four. In the evening there is a sermon addressed to strangers.
It may be added here that, under the title of Catholic Apostolic
churches, there are in all seven buildings registered in London. To
each, I believe, appertain an evangelist, an apostle, a prophet, and an
angel; and as each officer is peculiarly distinguished by his dress, in
the cathedral in Gordon Square an effect is sometimes produced almost as
scenic as any in a Roman Catholic cathedral. There are chairs for some,
and benches for others; as much as possible they come and go in
procession. All that is wanted to make you believe that you are in a
Roman Catholic place of worship is a little incense, a few more banners,
a little more life in the pulpit, and, above all, the presence of
considerable numbers of the poorest of the poor. Here, indeed, the
resemblance fails; there are no poor, comparatively speaking. Everyone
is distressingly genteel; and I could swear more than once when I have
been present, the preacher, so fashionable has been his lisp, has been,
if not Lord Dundreary himself, at any rate his own "brother Thwam." The
hearers must be wealthy and liberal--the service of the church, and the
church, all indicate this.
I do not here enter into the question how far Church authority extends,
whether apostolical gifts are to be looked for in our day rather than the
apostolic spirit. I am not even definitely able to sum up the teaching
of the lights of Gordon Square. They avoid putting their doctrines in
print--and seem to seek to make converts by sly insinuation rather than
by open statement. All I can say is--and any outsider can see it--that
with apostolic pretensions these men avoid every appearance of
apostolical simplicity. They must meet not in an upper room, but in a
gorgeous cathedral, where they must clothe themselves in every variety of
ecclesiastical millinery, and appeal to the senses, to the eye and to the
ear, rather than to the brain or heart. Thus is it, when genius fails,
men have recourse to art. Irving would preach for hours to enraptured
audiences. The church has no Irving now, but rejoices instead in mosaic
pavement, fine music, man millinery, and elaborate ceremonial.