Loading...
Larger font
Smaller font
Copy
Print
Contents
The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3 - Contents
  • Results
  • Related
  • Featured
No results found for: "".
  • Weighted Relevancy
  • Content Sequence
  • Relevancy
  • Earliest First
  • Latest First
    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents

    CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: Irving’s Contribution Marred by “Utterances”

    I.Irving-Brilliant Triumphs End in Tragic Shadows

    EDWARD IRVING (1792-1834), most colorful figure in the British Advent Awakening, was born in west Scotland. Brilliant in schoolwork and religiously inclined, he attended the Presbyterian seceders church in his boyhood. He was graduated from the Edinburgh University in 1809, and became master of the mathematical school at Haddington in 1810, while studying for the ministry. In 1812 he was made master of a newly established academy at Kirkcaldy, and it was there that he formed close friendship with Thomas Carlyle, who had been called to head an opposing school. In 1815 Irving obtained a license to preach, but in 1818 he resigned his schoolwork and repaired to Edinburgh, where he continued his studies, his favorite being church history.PFF3 514.1

    In 1819 he found another opportunity to preach, and soon Dr. Thomas Chalmers arranged for Irving to be his associate at St. John’s, Glasgow, where he was ordained. Feeling himself entirely eclipsed by Chalmers, Irving accepted an invitation to a chapel in Hatton Garden, London, in 1822. 1Fraser’s Magazine, January. 1835 (vol. 11. no. 61). pp. 99-103;Dictonary of National Biography,vol.10.pp.489-493. Piety was his out standing characteristic; fasting and prayer, his habit. Deep sympathy and understanding of their joys and sorrows endeared him to his people. He was ever the minister, ever the ambassador for God.PFF3 514.2

    Irving’s oratory, plus his good reputation from Glasgow, soon filled the little chapel with the most brilliant members of London society. 2Robert Baxter, Irvingism, in Its Rise, Progress, and Present State (2nd ed.), P. 5. It was there that Drummond was attracted to him. Crowds flocked to hear Irving. Men of letters and rank attended. The seats were occupied for hours in advance, with admission by ticket only. The speaker was tall and stately, with bushy black hair hanging down in ringlets. He possessed a deep voice with a broad Scotch accent and had a solemn manner and impressive gestures. From the very first a tone of authority characterized his preaching. Just at this time the fervor of the great Advent Awakening was spreading, and the events of the French Revolution were regarded generally as a fulfillment of prophecy. The impending end of the world was anticipated, 3Edward Miller, The History and Doctrines of Irvingism, vol. 2, pp. 2-5. and the advent note rose from many a pulpit. Though interested earlier in the prophecies concerning the advent, Irving’s entire absorption in them dates from 1826, when he became acquainted with Lacunza’s book on the coming of Christ and resolved to translate it.PFF3 515.1

    Picture 1: <EL>
    ondon’s Famous Regent Square Presbyterian Church Echoed to the Prophetic Expositions of the Distinguished Pulpit Orator Edward Irving
    page 516
    PFF3 516

    Irving had a revulsion against the narrow ecclesiasticism of his day. He yearned for a mighty cure for the grievous diseases of the world. The first result of this concern was a three-hour sermon preached before the Continental Society, and published in 1826 under the title Babylon and Infidelity Foredoomed of God. It was a popularization of Frere’s expositions in his Combined View.PFF3 516.1

    Meantime Iiving’s congregation had grown to be large and wealthy, and was housed in a new church in Regent Square. 4See John Hair, Regent Square, Eighty Years of a London Congregation, and J. C. S. Brough, The Centenary of Regent Square, 1827-1927. There a thousand persons packed the church Sunday after Sun day to hear Irving’s extended expositions of prophecy. In 1828 he undertook a tour of Scotland to proclaim the imminence of the advent. The overcrowded galleries of the largest churches could not accommodate the crowds, where he was heard with enthusiasm. The people of Edinburgh came out to hear him at five o’clock in the morning. At Holywood and Dunscourse he preached to open-air congregations of 10,000 to 12,000. 5Washington Wilks, Edward Irving, pp. 188, 189, 203. early in 1829 The Morning Watch, the quarterly journal on unfulfilled prophecy, was established by members of the Albury Conference.PFF3 516.2

    Another journey to Scotland followed in 1830. But living’s tract on The Orthodox and Catholic Doctrine of our Lord’s Human Nature (1830) brought charges of heresy. Irving stopped his writing and with weeping and prayer examined his heart anew. But he was persuaded of his own soundness. Then the “unknown tongues” were first manifest in his congregation in October, 1831. The discourse was interrupted by an out break of the “utterances.” Controversy developed over the origin of the phenomenon-whether of divine or demonic pos session. The attempted prosecution for heresy in December, 1830, had led to Irving’s withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the London Presbytery. But he was soon removed from his pulpit by the church trustees, in 1832. 6The Trial of the Rev. Edward Irving, pp. 87, 88 (A shorthand report). The larger part of the congregation-about 800-adhered to him and were forced to seek temporary quarters. They then formed the “Holy Catholic Apostolic Church,” popularly known as the Irvingite church.PFF3 516.3

    Irving was deprived of his status as a clergyman in the Church of Scotland after an ecclesiastical trial in 1833, by the presbytery of Annan, on the charge of heresy. After traveling in Scotland, preaching to crowds in the open air, he returned to London to find himself suspended, virtually deposed by his own congregation, and occupying a minor position. His health declined rapidly, and he died in Glasgow in 1834. All the ministers of Glasgow attended his funeral service, as that of a minister of Christ.PFF3 517.1

    He was one of the pre-eminent Christians of his time, with a spirit of humility, consecration, and spiritual perception which most of his contemporaries neither possessed nor were capable of assessing. He was “other worldly” but never a fanatic. 7See Lillian W. Kelley, “Edward Irving, ... a Portrait,” The Journal of the Presbytertain Historical Society of England, May, 1932 (vol. 5, no. 1), pp. 21-30. His humility and his tolerance betrayed him into allowing, and in some degree countenancing, the excesses into which some of his followers ran. His over solicitude led him to fear to grieve the Holy Spirit, which he thought might have inspired the “tongues” and the healing. But he himself never “spoke with tongues” nor assumed to heal by magnetic power. 8Thomas Carlyle was Irving’s friend, and wrote: “One who knew him well, and may with good cause love him, has said: ‘But for Irving, I had never known what the communion of man with man means. His was the freest, brotherliest, bravest human soul mine ever came in contact with: I call him, on the whole, the best man I have ever (after trial enough) found in this world, or now hope to find.’” (“Death of the Rev. Edward Irving,” Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, vol. 4, p. 82.) But Carlyle’s eulogy did more to damage Irving’s reputation than the attacks of his foes. A fine tribute to Irving was paid by the Presbytery of London North a century after his death. “Edward Irving was a man misled by false lights; but he was not himself false to what he believed to be the light. He was deceived; but he was not dishonest. He listened to voices which were not of truth; but he was sincere when he declared that he was condemned because he ‘refused to allow the voice of the Spirit of God to be silenced.’” (Presbyte an Messenger, December, 1934.) See also Jean C. Root, Edward Irving, Man, Preacher, Prophet. (Picture appears on p. 515.)PFF3 517.2

    The Irvingite church still survives, with a fine Gothic structure built by Drummond in 1854. Irving was one of the most striking ecclesiastical figures of his generation, of high character, and exempt from every taint of charlatanism. 9Fraser’s Magazine, January, 1835 (vol. 11, no. 61), pp. 99, 100.PFF3 517.3

    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents