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MEMOIRS
OF
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL,
EMBRACING
A VIEW OF THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE RELIGIOUS REFORMATION WHICH HE SA DVOCATED:
By ROBE RL KRPCHAKDSON.
More sweet than odors caught by him who sails Near spicy shores of Araby the blest, A thousand times more exquisitely sweet, The freight of holy feeling which we meet, In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gales From fields where good men walk, or bow’rs wherein they rest. WORDSWORTH.
e ey ~ r ji o WAL Dve P.O
RELIGIOUS BOOK SERVICE 722 N. Payton Road Indianapolis, Indiana 46219
Entered, according to Act of Congress. in the year 1897, by
ROBERT RICHARDSON,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of West Virginia.
AUD PR EIS EMENI
Tus edition of the Memoirs of A. Campbell is designed to meet the wishes of many who desire to have the work in a more condensed form and at a less price than the fine edition, in two volumes, on toned paper. The Memoirs are here given entire, without abridgment, in one volume; from which, for the sake of compactness, the Preface, Appendix and Table of Contents are omitted, the place of the latter being supplied by a full Index, as well as by the headings of the chapters and the pages. The opportunity has been taken, also, to correct some inaccuracies which escaped notice in
the former edition.
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MEMOIRS
OF
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL
CHAPTER I.
Birth and parentage- -Lineage of his mother—His father’s ancestry- 4 na- racter and early life of Thomas Campbell.
LEXANDER CAMPBELL, the subject of the
following memoir, was born in the county of Antrim, Ireland. His father, Thomas Campbell, hav- ing been united in marriage with Jane Corneigle, in June, 1787, their first child, Alexander, was born Sep- tember 12, 1788, where they then resided, near Bally- mena, in the parish of Broughshane, and about one mile from the site of the ancient and once beautiful Shane’s Castle, whose mouldering towers, upon the northern shore of Lough Neagh, still attract the notice of the passing traveter.
His mother’s ancestors were French Huguenots, who, having fled from their native country upon the revoca- tion of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV., sought refuge, it appears, first in Scotland, from whence they subsequently migrated to Ireland. The entire connex- ion, the Corneigles and Bonners, seem to have moved in a body, and, being pleased with the fertile and gently undulating lands in county Antrim, are said to have
purchased conjointly an entire townland upon the bor- 19
20 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
ders of Lough Neagh, where they devoted themselves to agriculture, and established schools in which the Bible was carefully taught, and where they strictly maintained the forms and services of the Presbyterian Church. It was here that Thomas Campbell, while engaged in teaching school, and in preparing himself for the ministry in the Secession Church, became ac- quainted with the descendants of these exiles, and was subsequently married, in his twenty-fifth year, to Jane, an only daughter of the family of the Corneigles. In personal appearance she was tall, but well proportioned, exceedingly erect and dignified in her carriage, but, at the same time, modest and remarkably retiring in her manners and disposition. Her features were strongly marked, and, in this respect,-her son Alexander bore a striking likeness to her. The Roman nose, the ex- pression and color of the eyes, surmounted by promi- nent frontal developments, the outline of the mouth, and the general form and character of the face, so characteristic of the son, were equally so of the mother. though softened by the greater delicacy of the feminine features. Her complexion was extremely clear and fine, contrasting agreeably with her abundant dark brown hair. She had been left an orphan in her sev- enth year by the death of her father, and, as the only daughter of a pious mother, had been brought up with tender affection and in the nurture and admonition of the Lord from her early infancy, so that she had be- come noted for her sincere devotion to religious duties. At the time of her marriage she was in her twenty- fourth year, having been born September, 1763. ; Her husband, Thomas Campbell, was of medium stature, compactly built, in form and feature eminently handsome. His forehead was somewhat square and
PATERNAL ANCESTRY. 21
massive, his complexion fair and ruddy, his soft gray eyes full of intelligence—the whole expression of his countenance indicative of deep reflection and of kindly tecling. His ancestors were originally from the West of Scotland; on this account claiming clanship, if not kindred, with the race of Diarmid, the Campbells of Argyleshire, from whence the family are supposed to have em grated at some former period. His grand- father, Thomas Campbell, it is known, was born in Ireland, near Dyerlake Wood in county Down, and lived to the great age of one hundred and five years. His own immediate father, Archibald, was in early life a Romanist, and served as a soldier in the British army under Gen. Wolfe. After the capture of Quebec he returned to his native country, and, abjuring Romanism, became a strict member of the Church of England, to which he adhered until his death in his eighty-eighth year. He is said to have been somewhat eccentric, but peculiarly social and genial in his habits and warm in his feelings. He had a fair complexion, with remark- ably clear blue eyes, was energetic and brisk in his movements, and, though of a quick and passionate temper, was readily appeased. He lived in county Down, near Newry, and gave to his four sons, Thomas, James, Archibald and Enos, an excellent English edu- cation at a military regimental school not far distant. He had also four daughters, who all died in their in- fancy, and, what is rather unusual, each one of them was, in succession, called Mary.
Of the sons, Thomas, who was the oldest, having been born in county Down, February 1, 1763, seems to have been, from his mild and thoughtful disposi- tion, particularly dear to his father, and to have had considerable influence over him, yet not to have him-
32 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
self always escaped the effects of his father’s hasty temper.*
Of the remaining brothers, James and Archibald engaged in teaching, along with Thomas, when quite young, near Sheepbridge, two miles from Newry, and both of them became members finally of the Secession Church. James seems afterward to have led rather an unsettled life, emigrating finally to Canada. Archi- bald and Enos, however, devoted themselves to the business of teaching in the town of Newry—a profes- sion in which they were eminently successful.
As the life and labors of the oldest brother, Thomas, blend themselves so intimately with those of his son Alexander that it is impossible to separate them, it will be necessary to detail, with some minuteness, the earlier history of this remarkable man, and to give a succinct but definite account of those religious struggles which occupied the greater part of his long and laborious career.
It appears that, in his early youth, he became the subject of deep religious impressions, and acquired a most sincere and earnest love for the Scriptures. The cold formality of the Episcopal ritual, and the apparent want of vital piety in the Church to which his father belonged, led him to prefer the society of the more rigid and devotional Covenanters and Seceders, and to attend their religious meetings. As he advanced in
been permitted to conduct worship in his father’s family, and that, on one occasion, when he had prayed unusually long, the old man, whose kneeling posture had become painful to him on account of his rheumatism, was no sooner upon his feet than, in a sudden gust of passion, he began, greatly to the surprise and scandal of all present, to belabor poor Thomas with his cane because he had kept them so long upon their knees.
RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 23
to experience great concern for his salvation, and the various doubts and misgivings usually presenting them- selves when the sense of sin is deep and the con- science tender, pressed very heavily upon his mind. For a long time his distress seemed continually to increase. By earnest and diligent prayer, and the con- stant use of all the means prescribed by sympathizing and pious friends, he sought, apparently in vain, for those assurances of acceptance and those tokens of forgiveness which were regarded as necessary accom- paniments of a true faith and evidence of ‘effectual calling.” While in this state, and when his mental distress had reached its highest point, he was one day walking alone in the fields, when, in the midst of his prayerful anxieties and longings, he felt a divine peace suddenly diffuse itself throughout his soul, and the love of God seemed to be shed abroad in his heart as he had never before realized it. His doubts, anxieties and fears were at once dissipated, as if by enchantment. He was enabled to see and to trust in the merits of a crucified Christ, and to enjoy a divine sense of recon- ciliation, that filled him with rapture and seemed to determine his destiny for ever. From this moment he recognized himself as consecrated to God, and thought only how he might best appropriate his time and his abilities to his service.
It is unnecessary to pause here in order to consider the nature or the value of such a religious ‘‘ experi- ence” as is here related, as this subject will hereafter come under review in its appropriate place. The facts, at least, were as above stated; and it is certain that Thomas Campbell believed himself to have been spe- cially ‘‘called” at this time, and that he regarded the feelings and the sudden change which he then ex-
34 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
perienced as proceeding from a direct divine influence, which imparted to him a saving or justifying faith.
Having a strong desire to devote himself to the min- istry in the Secession Church, the matter was broached to his father, who proved by no means favorable to it. He, indeed, had but little sympathy in his soms relig ious change, being attached to the Church of England, and determined, as he used to say, ‘‘to serve God ac- cording to act of Parliament.” Having also rathe extreme views of paternal authority in religious as well as in other matters, it may well be supposed that his son’s position was rather embarrassing. So excellent was the young man’s character, however, and so ex- emplary his conduct, that opposition to his fixed pur- pose could not long continue. Meanwhile, pending any positive decision, filled with ardent desire to benefit his fellow-beings, and hearing sad accounts of the un- enlightened condition of the people in certain portions of the south of Ireland, Thomas Campbell resolved to make an effort in their behalf; and having procured the necessary means of introduction, he went down into one of the most benighted parts of the province of Connaught, and established there an English academy. He obtained a large number of pupils, and applied himself to their improvement and elevation, intellect- ually, morally and religiously, with the greatest assi- duity. In the midst of his labors, however, he was suddenly and peremptorily summoned by his father to return; and as soon as he could free himself from his existing engagements, he bade adieu to his friends and pupils, who gave him the parting hand with many tears, so much had he endeared himself to them by his in- cessant efforts for their education and happiness.
Uvon his return to the North, a good school was
MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 25
vbiained for him at Sheepbridge, near Newry, through the influence of Mr. John Kinley,* who resided there, and who conceived so high an opinion of Mr. Camp- bell’s abilities, that, after some time, he urged him to carry out his design of entering the ministry, and kindly proffered the necessary means to defray the expense. His father having finally acquiesced in his purpose, he soon afterwards proceeded to Glasgow, where he became a student in the University. Here with that exact punctuality and strict attention to method which characterized him through life, he devoted him- self to the prescribed studies, which, for students of divinity, then occupied three years. He also, during his stay at the University, attended the medical lec- tures, it being regarded proper for ministers to have, in addition to a knowledge of their own particular profes- sion, such an acquaintance with medicine as would enable them to render necessary aid to their poorer parishioners who might not have the services of a regular medical attendant.
After having completed his literary course at the University, it became necessary for him to enter the theological school established by that branch of the Secession, the Anti-Burghers, to which he belonged. As the number of those preparing for the ministry was not great, the class usually consisting of from twenty to thirty members at this period, this school was under the
* Mr. Kinley was a Seceder, and married a sister of Thomas Carr, of Newry:. Thomas Campbell’s brother Archibald afterwards married a daughter of Thomas Carr, and one of James Campbell’s sons, also named Archibald,, married another daughter, so that the families were thus connected. While: Thomas Campbell taught at Sheepbridge, one of Mr. Kinley’s daughters was a pupil, and became in the year 1800 the wife of Robert Tener, whose useful labors in promoting the cause of relijzious reformation may be hereafter noticed.
3
26 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
charge of a single professor, who was appointed by the Synod. In order to admission into Divinity Hall, it was required by the Synod that the candidates should be first examined, as to their proficiency in Latin and Greek, by the Presbytery within whose bounds they resided. They were examined, likewise, on the various branches of philosophy they had studied at the Uni- versity ; and also on personal religion. The appointed course of attendance at the Hall was five annual ses- sions of eight weeks each, with some exceptions in the case of missions and of a scarcity of preachers.* Mr. Archibald Bruce was at this time the Doctor of Divin- ity, and the school was at Whitburn, where Mr. Bruce officiated as minister to a congregation, it being then the custom to transfer the Divinity Hall to the place where the professor appointed was living at the time. t
* The course of business in Divinity Hall was, with occasional variations, as follows: One meeting a day at twelve o’clock. On Monday, a miscella- neous lecture by the Professor. On Tuesday, discourses by the students. On Wednesday, a lecture by the Professor, in Latin, on the system of The- ology, using Markii Medulla (a treatise on Systematic Theology by the celebrated Mark of Leyden) as a text-book. On Thursday, examination of the students on the Theology taught. On Friday, discourses by the students. On Saturday a lecture on the Confession of Faith, with conference on some practical subject stated by the Professor. In addition, the students had debating and other societies among themselves, in which theological ques- tions were discussed.
t Mr. Bruce was a professor highly qualified, very pious and amiable, and greatly venerated by the students. He was the second Professor of Divinity since the division of the Seceders into Burghers and Anti-Burghers, having been preceded by Mr. William Moncrief, who was appointed roth February, 1762, and died 4th August, 1786. Mr. Bruce was appointed September, 1786, and held the office for twenty years, up to 1806, at which time he sepa- rated from the General Associate Synod, and superintended the theological class connected with the “Constitutional Presbytery,” until February 28 1816, when he suddenly expired, after the exercises of the pulpit, in his sev- entieth year. For the number and variety of his publications, he holds a high place among Secession authors. Dr. McCrie says of him: “For solidity and perspicacity of judgment, joined to a lively imagination ; for
OFFICE OF PROBATIONER. 27
After having completed the course required, and sub- mitted to the usual examination and trials for license vefore the Presbytery in Ireland, Thomas Campbell be- came what is called a probationer, whose office was to preach the Gospel, under the supervision of the Synod,* in such congregations as were destitute of a fixed min- istry. So far as can now be ascertained, it was prior to his engaging in these labors, and while passing to and fro to attend his studies in Scotland, or while, during vacations, he occupied himself in teaching, that he be- came acquainted with the descendants of the Huguenots who had settled on the borders of Lough Neagh, and ultimately married one of them, Miss Jane Corneigle, as already stated in the early part of the present chapter.
profound acquaintance with the system of Theology, and with all the branches which are subsidiary to it, and which are ornamental as well as useful to the Christian divine; for the power of patient investigation, of careful discrimination between truth and error, and of guarding against ex- tremes, on the right hand as well as on the left ; and for the talent of recom- mending truth to the youthful mind by a rich and flowing style, not to men- tion the qualities by which his private character was adorned,—Mr. Bruce has been equaled by few, if any, of those who have occupied the chair of Divin- ity, either in late or in former times.”
* The Associate Synod of Ireland was first constituted at Monaghan, October 20, 1779, eight or nine years before. When organized, it consisted of three Presbyteries—those of Monaghan, Down and Derry.
CHAPTER chi:
Boyhood—Schooling—Religious training—Influence of his father’s cha- racter.
FTER the birth of his son Alexander,* Thomas Campbell remained but a short time in county Antrim. He seems then to have returned to the neighborhood of Sheepbridge, where he resumed the business of teaching school, preaching also for the Seceder congregations in the vicinity. After some years
* It is proper to notice here a slight discrepancy that exists in relation to the age of Alexander Campbell. The records, it appears, were lost in a shipwreck when the family were emigrating to the United States, and long afterward some were inclined to put his birth in the year 1786. Even his father, in an account written about 1847, gives the date 1786. But at this time his father was eighty-four years old, and, with a memory always very defective as to dates and names, could not be regarded as decisive authority. On the other hand, the evidences in favor of his having been born in 1788 are numerous and conclusive: 1. All agree that his father was born February 1, 1763, and that he was in his twenty-fifth year when he married, which could not have been, therefore, until 1787, and Alexander was born the year after, 1788. 2. The birth of Jane is recorded in Thomas Campbell’s diary as occurring in 1800, and she (still living) states that it was always the under- standing in her father’s family that she was about twelve years younger than her brother Alexander : this again gives 1788. 3. James Foster, who is yet living in the full exercise of his faculties, and who has always been remark- able for his power of memory, states that the first time he saw Alexander was at Rich-Hill, and that he was then a mere lad of fifteen or sixteen years of age, and engaged in boyish sport, having in his hand a long pole with a net attached, with which he was catching small birds along the eaves of the thatched houses in the outskirts of the town. James Foster himself was, he says, then a young man grown, and he knows he could not have been less than three and a half or four years older than Alexander. James Foster was born March 1, 1785, and adding to this three and a half years, we are brought
28
CALL TO AHOREY. 39
spent thus, finding Market Hill, in county Armagh, a more convenient place of residence while engaged in the labors of a probationer, he removed to that town, where he occupied himself, it would appear, for a por- tion of the time, as a teacher of private classes in families. Meanwhile, another son, James, was born, who died in infancy; and afterward, a daughter, who was called Dorothea, a name which, like the corre- sponding ‘‘ Theodore” given to males, and Dieudonne in French, signifies God’s gift. About the year 1798 he accepted a call from a church recently established
to September, 1788. 4. In confirmation of these evidences, there is direct and positive proof from a diary which Alexander kept while in Glasgow. It begins in these words: “I, Alexander Campbell, in the twentieth year of my age, being born on the 12th of September, 1788, do commence a regular diary from the Ist of January, 1809, and intend prosecuting it from this time forward, at least for some time, Deo volente. Glasgow.” Now, admitting that the family records were lost in the shipwreck which had occurred but a few weeks previous, it is not likely that he would so soon have forgotten the year of his birth, especially so near majority—a period which young men are wont to mark with accuracy. Besides, his mother and brothers and sisters were all with him, and he had all the means necessary for exact information, had he felt any doubt on the subject. He entered it down carefully, probably because the records had been lost, and the slight error he makes in using the ordinal instead of the cardinal number, only serves to make the case stronger. He says, “in the twentieth year of my age,” when he was in fact in his twenty-first. He had been twenty on the 12th of the preceding September, and did not, at the moment, notice that he had passed into his twenty-first. To say that he had been born in 1786 is to suppose that he had come of age more than a year before in Ireland, without knowing anything at all about it, and with the family records before him ; which is an absurd supposition. From these and various other proofs which might be adduced, there can remain no doubt that he was born in September, 1788, the date which he himself en tered down in his own family Bible at Bethany. In this, the following are the entries with respect to his father’s family: Thomas Campbell, born in county Dewn, in 1763; Jane, wife of Thomas Campbell, died at Jane Mc- Keever's, aged seventy-two; Alexander Campbell, born at Ballymena, Sep- tember, 1788; Dorothea, born July 27, 1793; Nancy, September 18, 1795 ; Jane, June 18, 1800; Thomas, May 1, 1802; Archibald, April 4, 1804, Alicia, April, 1806. ge
30 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
at Ahorey, four miles from the city of Armagh, to become its pastor, and accordingly removed to a farm near Rich-Hill, which is about ten miles from the flourishing town of Newry. This region is one of the most beautiful portions of Ireland. The soil is rich, the farms are highly improved, and the roads are ex- cellent, though the face of the country is much more broken and diversified than in county Antrim. It is said that William the Third, upon reaching the neigh- borhood of Belfast, was greatly pleased with the appear- ance of Ireland; but that when he had advanced to Newry, on his way to the Boyne, he was so delighted with the fertility of this region, with the rich green of the earth, with the beauty of the scenery, and with the bays and rivers so admirably suited to commerce, that he exclaimed to his officers: ‘‘ This is indeed a country worth fighting for!” The country about Rich-Hill, where Thomas Campbell now settled, is particularly admired. From a high hill near his farm a magnifi- cent prospect presents itself, extending over several counties, and embracing landscapes of the most varied and picturesque character, the beauty of which is en- hanced by a distinct view of the waters of Lough Neagh,* which, toward the north, exhibit their silvery brightness in the distance.
It was in this charming region that Thomas Camp- bell now fixed his abode, and was, in due time, with the usual solemnities, ordained as the pastor of the
* This lough is the largest body of fresh water in Europe, except the Lake of Geneva and one or two of lesser note in Russia, being twenty-two miles long and seven or eight miles wide. A canal, constructed for the first nine miles in the bed of the river Bann, passes from its southern extremity to Newry, and thence to the sea, an entire distance of twenty-four miles. The waters of the lough are celebrated for their power of petrifying wood and other organic substances placed in its waters or buried near its shores.
YOUTHFUL PURSUITS. 3)
congregation. It was here, also, that the youthful days of Alexander were chiefly spent. For some time he was continued at an elementary school in Market Hill, where he boarded in the family of a Mr. Gillis, mer- chant of that place. He spent also some two or three years of his boyhood at school in the town of Newry, where his uncles, Archibald and Enos, had opened an academy. Upon his return home, his father endeavored to superintend and continue his education. He found him, however, so exceedingly devoted to sport and physical exercise that it was difficult to fix his attention upon books. This uncommon activity of disposition seems at this time to have been his most striking trait. There was in his constitution no tendency to precocious mental development, nor did his peculiar intellectual powers begin to manifest themselves strikingly until he had nearly attained his growth. His extreme fondness for sport rendered him so averse to the confinement re- quired in order to acquire learning, that study became to him a drudgery, and the tasks with which his over- anxious father constantly supplied him became dull and wearisome. About his ninth year, the French lan- guage was added to his other studies, but in this he appears not to have made a very satisfactory progress, if we may judge from the following anecdote, which he himself, in later life, used to relate amongst his friends with great glee: Having gone out on a warm day to con over his French lesson in ‘The Adventures of Telemachus,” under the shade of a tree, he finally dropped asleep. A cow that was grazing near ap- proached, and seeing the book lying on the grass, seized it, and, before he was sufficiently awake to prevent, actually devoured it. Upon making report of the loss, his father gave him a castigation for his carelessness,
32 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
and enforced it by telling him that ‘the cow had got more French in her stomach than he had in his head,” a fact which, of course, he could not deny. Certain it was, at least, that this was the /as¢ of the Adventures of Telemachus!
On account of his great disinclination to confinement, his father at length concluded to put him to work on the farm along with the laborers, in order to subdue his love of sport, and, as he said, ‘to break him in to his books.” He seems to have found field-labor much more congenial, and to have worked hard for several years, until he had become a stout lad, full of health and vigor. At this time his intellectual nature began to assert its claims. He manifested a love for reading and less inclination to outdoor-exercise ; and, with his father’s approbation, betook himself to his studies again, filled with an ardent desire for literary distinction, and determined, as he said, to be ‘‘one of the best scholars in the kingdom.”
There can be no doubt that the course pursued by his father in this case was extremely wise. As the plant at a certain period, after seeming repose, rapidly throws up its flower-stalk, whose unfolding buds demand its entire resources, so there is a time in youth when the rapid development of the body demands, and seems to monopolize, all the energies and resources of the brain and nervous system. Nature seems, at this time, to impel to bodily activity, in order to assist in this neces- sary development and expansion of the muscular sys- tem and of the framework of the body, and to deny, for a time, to the brain the capacity for much intel- lectual labor. It is hard for boys, in this transition state, to fix their attention upon study, or to pursue any train of connected thought, or take pleasure in saber
MENTAL ACTIVITY. 33
learning. The memory perhaps suffers less eclipse than any of the other powers of mind, but even this is sluggish ; and if this or any other faculty be now artifi- cially forced to exertion, most serious evils are likely to arise, not only in regard to the proper growth and vigor of the body, but to the constitution of the mind itself. It is hence important that parents should allow their children, at this period, to occupy themselves in such labors as tend to unfold and invigorate the bodily powers, and defer intellectual toil until the proper period shall be indicated. It was unquestionably largely due to this prudent foresight on the part of Thomas Camp- bell that his son Alexander owed his almost uninter- rupted future mental and bodily vigor.
He now began to display a very active mind, an eager thirst for knowledge, and a remarkably ready and retentive memory. On one occasion he is said to have committed to memory sixty lines of blank verse in fifty-two minutes, so that he could repeat them without missing a word. He was, from this time forward, ac- customed to memorize, frequently, select extracts from the best authors. as well in compliance with his father’s wishes as from his own appreciation of their merit, so that his mind became stored with the finer passages of the British poets, which he was enabled to retain through life. He was extremely fond of reading, and became gradually quite conversant with many of the standard English authors, especially with such as were of a moral, philosophical or religious cast. As he advanced in age, he learned greatly to admire the cha- racter and the works of Locke, whose ‘‘ Letters on Toleration” seem to have made a lasting impression upon him, and to have fixed his ideas of religious and of civil liberty. The ‘‘Essay on the Human Under-
voL 1.—C
34 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
standing” he appears to have thoroughly studied under the direction of his father, who was earnestly desirous that his son should make all possible advancement and preparation, trusting that he would be able, after some time, to send him to the University. Hence he labored to perfect his son’s knowledge of the preliminary Eng- lish branches, to instruct him in Latin and Greek, and, as time wore on, even to anticipate in part the usual college course.
Although thus diligently engaged, under his father’s guidance, in literary and grave pursuits, it is not to be supposed that Alexander’s natural disposition was so much altered as to render him either very serious or very sedentary. On the contrary, his naturally active and lively temperament, full of vivacity and sportive- ness, still demanded a sufficient amount of physical exercise, and he still delighted to engage occasionally in the games and amusements of youth. Having an athletic frame, and a hand unusually large for his years, he soon made himself noted among his com- panions for the large size of his snow-balls and the force with which they were hurled. For the same reasons he was expert in sowing grain, and loved to practise the art with the neighboring farmers at the proper seasons. He was extremely fond also of fre- quenting the streams for the purposes of fishing and of bathing, and became, by dint of practice, an excellent swimmer. But his greatest delight was to traverse the fields in search of game, to capture birds with nets, or with dog and gun to rouse them from their secret coverts.* His indulgent parents freely sanctioned such
* He was so fascinated with the sport of gunning, and his ammunition was at times so scanty, that he once conceived the idea of manufacturing gun- powder for himself. Having found out its composition and obtained the
FAMILY TRAINING, 35
recreations at proper times, believing them conducive. if not absolutely necessary, to health and vigor. While carefully superintending the literary education of his son, Thomas Campbell was by no means negli- gent of his religious training. It was made an essential part of his ministerial duty, as it was no less the dictate of his parental affection, to bring up his children ‘‘in the nurture and instruction of the Lord,’’ in order that his family might be a pattern to others. To this end, it was prescribed by the Synod that the minister ‘‘should worship God in his family by singing, reading and prayer, morning and evening ; that he should catechise and instruct them at least once a week in religion ; endeavoring to cause every member to pray in secret morning and evening ; and that he should remember the Lord’s day to keep it holy, and should himself maintain a conversation becoming the gospel.’’ Of all these obligations Thomas Campbell was carefully ob- servant, and in all his regulations and efforts for the improvement and welfare of his family he was earn- estly and ably seconded by the estimable woman he had married. Like her ancestors, she had very de- cided religious convictions, and gladly co-operated with her husband in the moral and religious instruction of the family. It was their rule that every member should memorize, during each day, some portion of the Bible, to be recited at evening worship. Long pas- sages were often thus recited, but if only a single verse was correctly repeated by the smaller children, it was received with encouraging approbation. Attention was
ingredients, he set to work with his experiments; and finally, while drying the mass he had formed, succeeded in producing an explosion, from which he narrowly escaped personal injury, and which, of course, brought his manufacturing operations to an abrupt conclusion.
36 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL
usually called to the important facts or truths presented in each recitation, questions were asked in regard to them, and appropriate remarks briefly offered. Finally, the Scriptures repeated during the week were again rehearsed on the evening of the Lord’s day. This sacred day also was faithfully observed. Every mem- ber of the household was expected to go to meeting, and it was understood that each one was to give, upon returning home, an account not only of the text, but of the discourse itself, embracing its leading points. This was designed to secure, on the part of the young espe- cially, a proper attentzon to the services of public wor- ship, so that the church might not be a place tor the observance of cold and lifeless forms, but in reality a house of prayer and of true religious edification. In carrying out these regulations,.as in all his family dis- cipline, and indeed the whole conduct of life, Mr. Campbell was most punctual and methodical. He was by no means exacting, but made his appeal, as far as possible, to the heart and conscience, showing the most affectionate interest in the welfare of all the members of his household. When called away, as he frequently was, to assist other ministers at a distance, his pious wife constantly labored to keep up the regular order of religious worship and instruction in the family.
It was under such influences in the domestic circle that Alexander Campbell passed his early years; and it cannot be doubted that they had a most important bearing on his future life. To this fact he himself bore testimony in his declining years, and, long after the death of his mother, paid to her memory the following tribute of affectionate remembrance: “ Having a pecu- liarly ready and retentive memory, she treasured up the Scriptures in early life, and could quote and apply
MATERNAL INFLUENCE. 37
them with great fluency and pertinency from childhood to old age. She, indeed, also possessed a mental inde- pendence which I have rarely seen equaled, and cer- tainly never surpassed, by any woman of my acquaint- ance. Greatly devoted to her children, and especially to their proper training for public usefulness, and fo their own individual and social enjoyment, she was indefatigable in her labors of love, and in her attention to their physical, intellectual, moral and religious training and development. * Md d : 4 She made a nearer approximation to the acknow- ledged beau ideal of a Christian mother than any one of her sex with whom I have had the pleasure of form- ing a special acquaintance. I can but gratefully add, that to my mother, as well as to my father, I am in- debted for having memorized in early life almost all the writings of King Solomon—his Proverbs, his Eccle- siastes—and many of the Psalms of his father David. They have not only been written on the tablet of my memory, but incorporated with my modes of thinking and speaking.”
While the character of Alexander Campbell was thus, in early life, moulded in a large degree by the family training to which he was subjected, an important forma- tive influence was also exerted by various other circum- stances which deserve to be considered. Among these, his father’s personal character and example, his reli- gious views and his public ministerial life, may be par- ticularly mentioned. This excellent man, though pos- sessed of all the gravity and thoughtfulness becoming his position, was eminently social in his disposition. having much of that genial warmth of temperament so common in the Irish people, and along with it a ready flow of ideas, which rerdered his conversation and his
4
38 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
company very agreeable. There was nothing in his deportment forbidding or austere. He preferred, in- deed, serious and religious topics of discourse, and corstantly contrived to lead the conversation in that direction; and though he seemed to enjoy an occasional polemical discussion with his friends, his favorite themes were the completeness of Christ’s salvation and the infinite goodness of God. Nevertheless, he manifested great interest in the secular concerns of his parishioners, and sympathized with them in their cares and labors. He had withal an excellent relish for genuine humor, and was himself not unskilled in the use of jocular pleasantry, with which he sometimes sought to enliven conversation. In his manners he was extremely cour- teous and refined, blending a perfect self-possession with an easy and graceful affability, and having about him a peculiar attractiveness and dignity which secured the respect of all who approached him.
It is the unanimous testimony of those who were familiar with his labors that, as a pastor, no one could be more faithful or diligent. He was himself ‘a pat- tern of good works;” ‘hospitable, sober, just, holy, temperate,” visiting and ministering to the sick and afflicted, and rendering assistance to the poor—duties to which Mrs. Campbell was also particularly devoted. He sought to introduce into all the families of the con- gregation the same course of regular scriptural instruc: tion and worship which he pursued in his own house- hold. In addition to his ordinary visits, he made a parochial tour regularly twice a year, in company with one or two of the ruling elders, inquiring into the state of religion in every family ; catechising the children; examining the older members upon their Bible-read-
REVERENCE FOR THE BIBLE. $9
ings; praying with them, and giving such admonitions - and exhortations as seemed appropriate.
In the character of Thomas Campbell there was no one feature more strongly marked than his exceeding reverence for the Bible. This seems to have made a profound impression upon the mind of his son Alex- ander, even in his boyhood; for he relates that, when entering his father’s study, in which he had a large and well-assorted library, he was wont to wonder on seeing, with a very few exceptions, only 47s Bible and Con- cordance on the table, with a simple outfit of pen, ink and paper. ‘‘ Whether,” he adds, ‘‘he had read all these volumes and cared nothing more for them, or whether he regarded them as wholly useless, I presumed not to inquire and dared not to decide.” Fettered as he was by his theology, he was thus accustomed to consult the Bible itself, and to bring his mind into direct communion with its teachings. The bonds of doctrinal and eccle- siastical authority were, doubtless, by this means, to some extent, insensibly relaxed; but he remained con- scientiously attached to Presbyterianism, as the sim- plest and most orthodox form of Christianity. He had, under its banner, taken into one hand the Gospel trumpet, and into the other the lamp of Divine truth, which, however, was enclosed within the earthen pitcher of scholastic theology. The time had not yet come when this pitcher should be broken and the light be displayed abroad. Many hours of darkness were yet to pass, and many trials to be encountered, before, under the guidance of Providence, he was to give the signal for an important religious reformation, based on the Bible alone. It is worthy of record, however, that he had at this time learned to prize the sacred volume so far above all human compositions, and recognized so
40 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
fully its supreme authority, as to be extremely jealous of any departure from its exact expressions. Hence it was, that when he found, after some time, the children of the congregation confounding, in their answers, the language of the catechism with that of Scripture, he began to dispense with the catechism, fearing lest they should assign to the latter a degree of authority equal to that of the Bible.
As a preacher, Thomas Campbell was popular with the Seceder denomination. He possessed fine didactic talents, and was much given to generalizing his sub- jects, so as to refer many particulars to a single head or principle. He was brief and accurate in defining terms, and skilled in making a complete and exhaustive division of his theme. The protracted services of pub- lic worship among the Seceders naturally led to a habit of frequent and sometimes tedious recapitulation on the part of their ministers; but Mr. Campbell’s sermons, while sufficiently doctrinal and elaborate to suit the taste of the times, were enlivened by many apt though homely illustrations, and he was able, by pointed re- marks and occasional changes of manner, to keep the attention of his audience constantly engaged. At the same time, the evident and heartfelt earnestness with which he spoke, and his own personal piety, gave weight and authority to his teachings.
In his intercourse with religious society he manifested the utmost kindness and charity for those who differed with him in their views, often bewailing the unhappy divisions that existed, and striving to promote, as far as practicable, Christian union and peace. He was care- ful to give cause of offence to no one, to speak evil of no one, and was prompt to repress in others any ap- proach to detraction or tale-bearing. In regard to the
POLITICAL ISOLATION. 4!
theme of conversation, indeed, as well as to all other matters, the inquiry with him was ever, ‘ What will it profit?” and nothing could receive his sanction that did not at least promise to be of practical utility.
From politics he kept entirely aloof, a position at that time extremely difficult; for his ministry in Ireland extended through all the years of those civil commo- tions which issued in the rebellion of 1798, and the attempt of Emmet and others in 1803. The society of Orangemen was first formed in 1795 in county Ar- magh, and seemed to have for its object to drive by threats and nocturnal outrages the entire Catholic peas- antry from the country. Great alarm seized upon this unprotected class, who could obtain no redress from the magistrates. Many of them were compelled to abandon their cabins and their all, and seek refuge in the fields, and the utmost consternation was excited throughout the country by threats and exaggerated reports. Vari- ous other parties of contending rioters, as the ‘‘ Defend- ers,” the ‘‘Peep-o’'day Boys,” &c., disturbed different parts of the province of Ulster. Numbers went about in the night searching houses for arms. This becom- ing generally known, the houses were opened upon the first summons, and this easy mode of admittance was taken advantage of by common robbers, who plundered the people of their property.
In the midst of these troubles, and chiefly through the agency of Theobald Wolfe Tone, a Protestant and lawyer in Dublin, a remarkable secret association, called the ‘‘United Irishmen,” was formed, having for its object to erect Ireland into a separate and independ- ent republic. By an ingenious ascending scale of rep- resentation from decenaries and hundreds, to baronies, to provinces, and thence to the whole kingdom, such a
49
42 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
combination was formed, and such a force prepared, as had never before, in modern times, been accumulated in the face of an existing government. Each member was bound by the sanctity of a solemn oath, and the mysterious workings of the association produced an effect more marked and general than any of those secret tribunals which, for a time, kept a portion of Germany in awe. The Catholics united with it to obtain protection against the Orangemen and a redress of grievances, and the Presbyterians because they were earnestly desirous of effecting a reform in Parlia- ment and securing equal representation and equal taxation. These political objects, however, as well as others, soon became perverted to insurrectionary pur- poses.
The greater portion of the Presbyterians became con- nected with this secret organization, and constituted, indeed, its chief moral strength, owing to their supe- riority in intelligence and social position. In the six northern counties they formed, in fact, a very large part of the population, and it may readily be conceived that Mr. Campbell’s utter refusal to take any part in the movement, and his conscientious opposition to secret associations, were well calculated at a period of such excitement and party spirit to bring him into disfavor with his people. On one occasion, amidst the heated discussion of these subjects, he was requested to deliver a discourse upon the lawfulness of oaths and of secret societies. Having consented to do so, he presented so candidly and earnestly his views in condemnation of them that a large portion of the audience became ex- cited and exasperated. At this crisis, however, a pro- minent member, fearing lest he should be insulted, courteously took him by the arm and conducted him
WISDOM JUSTIFIED. 43
safely through the crowd. Such was his character for piety, and such the guardianship of Divine Providence, that, through all the existing troubles, he remained entirely unmolested, retaining the confidence of the community, and in a marked degree securing the esteem of the Governor, Lord Gosford, who had him- self labored to check the persecution of the Catholics, and who became so impressed with the propriety of Mr. Campbell’s course, and with the excellence of his character, that he importuned him to become the tutor of his family, with a large salary and an elegant resi- dence on his estate. This offer, however, he declined, fearing lest his children should be ensnared and fasci- nated by the fashions and customs of the nobility, and preferring, on this account, his comparative poverty and his humble ministerial life.
There is no doubt that Mr. Campbell’s complete isola- tion from all political agitation, and his entire devotion to the interests of religion, had a most beneficial influ- ence. The Presbyterians who had become enlisted as ‘ United Irishmen” began themselves to fear, from the great numerical preponderance of the Catholics in the island, and from certain intimations they received— among which may be mentioned the dying declarations of Dickey, a rebei leader executed at Belfast—that if the rebellion should even prove successful, they would as a minority be unable to obtain the liberty and toleration they desired. Hence it was that when the Catholics in Wicklow and Wexford, on the eastern coast, looking for immediate aid from France, were precipitated into insurrection, committing the most shocking barbarities in retaliation for their injuries, the United Irishmen of Ulster, reckoned at 150,000, and organized for rebel- lion, remained quiet, with the exception of some insig
44 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
nificant risings, which were quelled in a few days. It was at this period of excitement and military violence that Mr. Campbell was one day preaching to a congre- gation, when the house was suddenly surrounded by a troop of Welsh horse, notorious for their severities and outrages upon those they conceived to be rebels. The captain, conceiving that in this remote place he had come upon a meeting of rebels, dismounted and in a threatening manner marched into the church. It was a moment of awful suspense. The audience were panic-stricken, expecting every moment to be subjectec to the fury of the soldiers. Just at this crisis, as the captain stalked up the aisle, casting fierce glances upor all sides, a venerable elder sitting near Mr. Campbel called to him solemnly, ‘‘ Pray, ser!” Whereupon, i response to the call, and in a deep, unfaltering voice he began in the language of the forty-sixth Psalm “« Thou, O God, art our refuge and strength, a very pre- sent help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” No sooner was the first verse uttered than the captain paused, and apparently impressed, bent his head, listened to the close, then bowed, and retracing his steps, mounted his horse and dashed away with the entire troop.
Another incident, which tends to show Mr. Camp- bell’s entire trust in God and submission to his dispen- sations, occurred some time after his removal to Ahorey He was just about to enter the meeting-house on the Lord’s day to attend to the public services, when < messenger arrived in haste from Newry, to inform hin that his youngest brother, Enos, who was greatly be- loved, had during the night lost his life by a fall inte an open excavation in one of the streets. Humbly
SECRET ASSOCIATIONS. 45
resigning himself to the Divine will, he passed into the church and proceeded with the duties of the day, giving to the sympathizing audience no evidence of his emotions, except in the deeper solemnity of his prayer and the pathetic earnestness of his sermon. For one of feelings so tender, it was no small trial thus to calm all perturbation of mind, and, in view of his ministeria] office, to rise superior to earthly affections. Unlike Aaron, who under sudden affliction was unable to fulfill the duties of his station, Mr. Campbell neglected no part of the usual services; but when these were fully completed, he immediately set out for Newry, where he found universal mourning and his father grieving as David over Absalom, and hardly to be comforted He was already eighty-five, and survived the death of his son Enos only three years. Such con- stant manifestations of unshaken trust and of exem- plary and consistent piety on the part of Thomas Campbell did not fail to fill the mind of his son Alex- ander with the utmost reverence for him. Nor was he, in common with the entire community, less impressed with his father’s wisdom in opposing political agitation and gecret societies, when the unhappy results of the rebellion vindicated the correctness of his principles. In regard to secret associations, Alexander fully adopted his father’s views, and continued through life to oppose everything of this nature, as inconsistent with the Chris-
tian profession.
CH ACP ete eet re:
Thomas Campbell—Opens an Academy in Rich-Hill—Alexander as Assist ant—Religious awakening—Theological stadies.
HILST Thomas Campbell was thus, amidst civil commotions, devoting himself to the care of his congregation and to the education of his children, his family continued to increase. Soon after his removal to Ahorey, a daughter, Nancy, was born; and about twenty months afterward, June 25, 1800, another, named Jane. To these were added subsequently a son, who was called Thomas, and in process of time an- other son, named Archibald. Finding his expenses greatly augmented, and the farm he had leased un- profitable, as he had but little knowledge of farming, and his attention was almost entirely engrossed by higher matters, it became necessary for him to adopt some other method of improving his circumstances and
making up the deficiencies of his ministerial salary.* It was his earnest wish that his son Alexander should
* The salaries of Seceder preachers were usually from thirty to fifty pounds, but in some cases so scanty that the Regium Donum became almost the entire source of support for the ministers. This tund originated in the act of that wise and just sovereign, William the Third, who, on his visit to Ireland, in June, 1690, authorized the Collector of Customs at Belfast tc pay every year twelve hundred pounds into the hands of some of the princi- pal dissenting ministers of Down and Antrim, who were to be trustees for their brethren. This fund which was afterward increased, when distributed among the ministers of Ulster, yielded to each some fifty or sixty pounds annually.
46
SCHOOL IN RICH-HILL. 47
be well educated, and his sincere hope that he would be led to devote himself to the ministry of the Gospel. Finding that, with all his sportiveness, he possessed a marked conscientiousness and a sincere reverence for Divine things, he was the more encouraged in this fond hope, especially when he observed in him, as he grew older, evidences of increasing seriousness. His own time being already considerably occupied in teaching his family, he concluded it would be most advantageous to open a public academy, in which his own children might be pupils; and as Alexander, now .n his seven- teenth year, had by this time become quite proficient in the ordinary branches, he thought he would be compe- tent to act as assistant. These matters being conse- quently arranged, and a suitable house procured, the whole family removed to the town of Rich-Hill, two miles distant.
This town is situated upon a very high but fertile hill, and commands on all sides charming and extensive prospects. Upon the broad summit there is a neat public square, around which, upon three sides, the houses of the village are built. Upon the remaining or north-eastern side of the square, appears, surrounded by beautiful shrubbery, an ancient and capacious man- sion, at that time the residence of the Hon. William Richardson, M. P., and lord of the manor. These beautiful grounds are separated from the public square vy an elegant iron railing, before which at a little dis- tance stand some magnificent trees. On the opposite side of the square, at the corner, Mr. Campbell had found a plain two-story house, which served as a resi- dence for his family, and also afforded room for the academy. His character and his ability as a teacher being well known, he soon had a flourishing school
MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
which brought him an income approaching two hundred pounds per annum, and was regarded as an important benefit to the town and its neighborhood. To carry on such a school, in connection with his usual pastoral labors, was, indeed, an undertaking of no small magni- tude; but his son Alexander entered into the work with so much spirit and success that he proved a most valu- able assistant, while with unflagging energy he con- trived to pursue, as usual, his own special course of studies under his father’s guidance.
While thus engaged, his growing years and the cir- cumstances of his position as a teacher gave to him a more manly character; and, though still full of sportive- ness when with his youthful friends, he was observed to be much more thoughtful upon religious subjects and to have a deeper religious feeling. These indications were extremely gratifying to his father, who did not fail to urge upon him, with affectionate solicitude, the importance of his becoming a communicant and mern- ber of the church. As he had an excellent knowledge of the Scriptures, and as the chief points in the divine plan of salvation had been long familiar to him, he, in the course of his meditations, became awakened to a livelier consciousness of their importance, and began to feel an unwonted personal and individual interest in them. As his convictions deepened, he underwent much conflict of mind, and experienced great concern in regard to his own salvation, so that he lost for a time his usual vivacity, and sought, in lonely walks in fields and by prayer in secluded spots, to obtain such evi- dences of Divine acceptance as his pious acquaintances were accustomed to consider requisite; it being uni- versally held by the Seceders that ‘‘an assured persua- sion of the truth of God’s promise in the Gospel, with
RELIGIOUS AWAKENING. 49
respect to one’s self in particular, is implied in the very nature of saving faith.” Of this particular period in his religious history he himself gave, many years afterward, the following account: ‘‘From the time that I could read the Scriptures, I became convinced that Jesus was the Son of God. I was also fully per- suaded that I was a sinner, and must obtain pardon through the merits of Christ or be lost for ever. This caused me great distress of soul, and I had much exer- cise of mind under the awakenings of a guilty con- science. Finally, after many strugglings, I was enabled to put my trust in the Saviour, and to feel my reliance on him as the only Saviour of sinners. From the moment I was able to feel this reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, I obtained and enjoyed peace of mind. It never entered into my head to investigate the subject of baptism or the doctrines of the creed.”
Shortly after this he was received as a regular com- municant in the church at Ahorey, and being aware of his father’s wish that he should devote himself to the ministry, though he had not as yet fully made up his own mind upon this subject, he began to bestow a con- siderable portion of his attention upon theological stud- ies, and particularly ecclesiastical history. While thus engaged, he was filled with wonder at the strange for- tunes of Christianity, and at the numerous divisions o1 parties in religious society. He found the Catholics, numerous in his own country, for the most part an ignorant, priest-ridden, superstitious people, crushed, as it were, to the earth, as well by their own voluntary submission to an unrestricted spiritual despotism, as by the pressure of the social and political burdens resting upon them, and which were esteemed by the Protestant and Anglo-Saxon part of the population as necessary
voL. 1.—D 5
5o MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
safeguards against the repetition of such abuses of power as had occurred during the rule of James the Second and his deputy, Tyrconnel. The young student, in contem- plating the whole system of Romanism in its supersti- tions, its ceremonies, its spirit and its practical effects, conceived for it the utmost abhorrence—a feeling which remained with him through life. On the other hand, the lordly and aristocratic Episcopalians, who looked down upon the dissenters, and seemed, with some ex- ceptions, to have but little piety, and to be fond of en- joying the pleasures, fashions and follies of the world, were, notwithstanding their Protestantism, scarcely less disliked as a religious party. It was, however, when he came to consider the history of the Presbyterian Church, with its numerous divisions, in one of which he was himself a member, that. he was enabled to form a clearer conception of the power and prevalency of that party spirit which it became afterward the labor of his life to oppose and overthrow. As his relations to some of these divisions were important, it seems necessary here to take a brief glance at certain points in their history.
The martyrdom at St. Andrew’s on 29th of February, 1528, of the youthful friend of Luther and Melancthon, the devoted Patrick Hamilton, who first introduced the Lutheran Reformation into Scotland, followed, in 1545, by that of Wishart, and, in the following year, the assassination of Cardinal Beatoun. were amung the earliest of those scenes of violence which marked the progress of the Reformed doctrine, until it was at length, about the year 1560, firmly established through the influence and labors of the intrepid Knox. No sooner, however, had this triumph been attained, than a pro- tracted and almost equally fierce struggle commenced
ABSOLUTISM OF STATE RELIGIONS. 51
between the two forms of Protestantism itself—the Pres- byterian and the Episcopal. James the First and his suc- cessors, the first and second Charles, disregarding the fact that the Scottish people were strongly attached to that form of the Reformation which had been first set up among them, and that the nation had, as was pleaded in their public memorials, ‘‘reformed from Popery by presbyters,” endeavored repeatedly to impose upon them, in whole or in part, the system of English Episcopacy or Prelacy. For a brief period, during the civil wars with Charles the First, Presbyterianism was predominant ; but it was not until the accession of William the Third that the Scottish Estates or Parliament, in 1690, secured the permanent abolition of Prelacy, by placing a clause to this effect in the ‘‘Claim of Right” submitted to that monarch as the terms of Scottish allegiance.
When Presbyterianism had thus attained the suprem- acy it so long had sought, it began, in a short time, to furnish a fresh illustration of the fact that all established national religions, whether Greek or Mohammedan, Papal or Protestant, have in them the essence of Popery —the principle of absolutism. Conscious of power, and confident in the possession of glebe and manse, the Parliament as well as the General Assembly managed affairs in so arbitrary a spirit that many, even of their own party, became disaffected, and the minds of a large portion of the community were alienate. from the ecclesiastical establishment. Oaths of office and of abjuration were required, which were thought to abridge Christian liberty, and acts were passed which seemed to many to set aside the national covenant* which they
* This famous covenant was entered into by the greater part of the Scottish people in 1560, and engaged its subscribers, by oath, to maintain
52 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
regarded as the true constitution of the empire, and for which the forefathers of many of those now connected with the National Church had formerly bravely fought under the name of Covenanters, and for adhering to which they had undergone the most cruel persecutions. A considerable number, indeed, of those stern, uncom- promising Presbyterians, who strenuously adhered to the covenant, had refused to consent to the settlement made by King William, or to admit in anywise the right of civil rulers to meddle in religious matters. These were termed Society-men, as, being without a ministry for some time, they formed themselves into societies. They were also termed Cameronians, Mountain-men, Cove- nanters, &c. After some years a Mr. John McMillan, a minister in the National Church, united with them, for which act he was deposed by the General Assembly. He continued afterward, however, to labor among the Covenanters, who increased in number, and formed con- gregations in various parts of Scotland, as well as in the north of Ireland. From the worthy pastor who had thus, first after the revolution, gathered the scattered flock into the fold of Churchdom, they were sometimes called McMillanites, but the title they themselves adopt
their religion free from all innovations. After having been at various periods again and again subscribed, and with unusual unanimity and zeal in 1638, it was afterward, during the civil war with Charles the First, presented to the English Parliament by the then dominant Presbyterian party in Scotland, who insisted on its being signed by the English Parliament as a preliminary to the granting of assistance by Scotland. This was finally acceded to, after some modification in the terms of the covenant, in order to satisfy the Inde- pendents, who, under the leadership of Vane and Cromwell, were then rising into power ; and it was accordingly, on 25th September, 1643, signed by the members of both Houses, and also by the members of the Assembly of Westminster Divines, then sitting in London. From this time the natianal covenant of Scotland was known as “The Solemn League and Covenant” of the three kingdoms.
ORIGIN OF THE SECESSION. 53
is that of ‘‘ Reformed Presbyterians.” They have, how- ever, become nearly extinct, having in 1819 only sixteen small congregations in Scotland, six in Ire- land, and nine in the United States, according to Black- wood.
The National Church, meanwhile continuing its un- popular proceedings, attempted at length, in 1712 and subsequently, to enforce the existing law of patronage, so as to deprive congregations of the privilege of choosing their pastors. It having been settled by the early Reformers, and inserted in the first Book of Disci- pline, that ‘no minister should be intruded upon any particular kirk without their consent,” this course, and the violent scenes to which it gave rise, naturally occa- sioned great dissatisfaction amongst pious and consci- entious members. Remonstrances and arguments, on the part of several eminent ministers, having been re- peatedly presented, with no other effect than to provoke new acts of oppression, four of the ministers, with Alexander Erskine at their head, formally seceded from the prevailing party in the Establishment in the year 1733, and, forming themselves into a Presbytery under the designation of the Associate Presbytery, became the nucleus of a new party called Seceders. They were soon joined by two other ministers, Ralph Erskine and Thomas Mair, and rapidly increased, chiefly by defections from the National Church, until in a short time they numbered more than forty congregations. As there were many Presbyterians in the north of Ire- land, and the division extended to them likewise, an application from Lisburn for ministerial aid was sent over to Scotland as early as 1736. It was not, how- ever, until 1742 that the Synod was able to comply
with the request, when Mr. Gavin Beugo was sent as a 6
54 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
missionary, through whose labors, and those of others, a number of churches were formed in Ireland.
This secession was the first great schism in the Church of Scotland. Soon after its occurrence, how- ever, and for similar reasons, Thomas Boston, author of «The Fourfold State,” separated from the National Church, and, uniting with Messrs. Gillespie and Collier, constituted a distinct party and Presbytery, called the ‘¢Presbytery of Relief,” professedly organized ‘‘ for the relief of Christians oppressed in their Christian privi- leges,” especially in reference to the violent induction of ministers into parishes. This party differed scarcely at all from the Seceders, except in being more liberal in their views in regard to communion. They increased rapidly, and have since constituted a very respectable body of dissenters. i
The ‘‘Associate? or Secession Church, previously mentioned, continued in a prosperous condition until 1747, when it became divided into two parties, upon the question whether certain oaths required by the burgesses of towns, binding them to support ‘‘the re- ligion presently professed within the realm,” did not sanction the very abuses in the National Church against which the seceders had constantly protested. Both divisions of the Synod claimed to be the true Church, but those who considered the oath unlawful came to be called Ant:-Burghers, the other party being termed Burghers. This division spread at once through the churches in Scotland and Ireland, and the controversy was maintained with considerable bitterness for many years.
These two parties of seceders continued for more than half a century to maintain each its separate “testimony” and its distinct organization. They were
BURGHERS AND ANTi-BURGHERS. 55
distinguished for the tenacity and zeal with which they maintained the ground they had respectively assumed, for the strictness of their religious life, and for the rigidity of their discipline. That hatred of prelacy which prevailed amongst them in common with all Presbyterian parties was at first intense, and gave rise to some singular decisions ;* but it became gradually softened down, and after the lapse of thirty or forty years gave place to the milder spirit of toleration. But the disposition to confound matters of opinion and questions of expediency with the things of faith and conscience still continued to display its power; and in 1795 a question arose among the Burghers as to the power of civil magistrates in religion, as asserted in the twenty-third chapter of the Westminster Confession,
* A case of discipline came under the consideration of the Associate (Burgher) Synod in October, 1750, which shows the sentiment entertained by the Seceders and other Presbyterians in regard to Episcopacy: A stone- mason, Andrew Hunter, who was a Seceder, had undertaken in the exercise of his calling to build an Episcopal chapel in Glasgow. This gave great offence to his brethren, who called him to account for it. As he still per- sisted, however, the case came at last before the Synod, which decided that the building of an Episcopal meeting-house was at least equal to the build- ing of the “high places” mentioned in the Old Testament ; and after reheurs- ing the judgments denounced against those who assist in setting up a false worship, the “deliverance” of the Synod proceeds as follows: “ And further, considering that by the National Covenant of Scotland, and by the Solemn League and Covenant of the three kingdoms, we are bound to reform from Popery, Prelacy, superstition, and whatever is contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness, and to endeavor the preservation of the Reformed religion of the Church of Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline and government ; and that Seceders, in a particular manner, profess to own these solem. obligations ; and the said Andrew Hunter, by his above practice, is so far from endeavoring reformation from Prelacy and superstition, that he is encouraging the same, contrary to his profession and solemn ties, therefore, for all the above reasons, the Synod were unanimously of the judgment that he said Andrew Hunter was highly censurable, and particularly that he ought not to be admitted to any of the seals of the Covenant till he profess his sorrow for the offence and scandal that he has given and been guilty of.”
56 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
and also in regard to the perpetual obligation of the ‘Solemn League and Covenant.” This controversy nad the usual effect to subdivide them into two parties, distinguished from each other as the ‘‘Original” or ‘Old Light Burghers” and the ‘‘ New Light Burghers.” About the same period this controversy prevailed also among the Anti-Burghers, the “Old Light” party being headed by Archibald Bruce, Thomas Campbell’s former teacher of theology, who, with some other ministers, organized in August, 1806, a new Presbytery, called the Constitutional Associate Presbytery. There were thus at this time no less than four different bodies of Seceders, each adhering to its own ‘‘testimony,” but all professing to adopt the Westminster Confession. In addition, there were not wanting various minor defec- tions of those who, during the heated discussions of Synods and Assemblies, flew off like sparks from the iron heated in the forge, but, as these were transient and of little moment, it is unnecessary to detail them.
Schooled amidst such schisms in his own denomina- tion, and harassed by the triviality of the differences by which they were maintained, it is natural to suppose that one of so catholic a spirit as Thomas Campbell conceived the greatest antipathy to party spirit in all its workings and manifestations, and that his son Alex- ander fully sympathized with him in these feelings. The existing division between the Burgher and Anti- Burgher Seceders had, indeed, been to him a source of so much regret that he had often urged, as oppor- tunity offered, upon these parties, the duty of attempt- ing a reunion.
Moved by his representations, and those of others favorable to such a measure, an effort was at length made to accomplish this desirable object, and a com-
EFFORTS TO EFFECT UNION. 57
mittee of consultation having met at Rich-Hill, in Octo- ber, 1804, a report with propositions of union was prepared by Mr. Campbell, and presented to the Synod at Belfast,* by which it was very favorably received. In March, 1805, a conjoint meeting was held at Lurgan, and there seemed to be a unanimous desire, on both sides, for a coalescence, based particularly on the ground that as the Burgher oath was never required in Ireland, there was therefore nothing in the state of things existing there to warrant any division. The General Associate Synod in Scotland, however, hear- ing of the incipient movements in reference to union, took occasion to express their dissent in advance of any application, and the measure consequently failed for the time being.
In the following year an application was made to the Scottish Synod, by members of the Provincial Synod of Ireland, requesting them to consider whether it would not be expedient to allow the brethren in Ireland to transact their own business without being in immedi- ate subordination to that court. It appears that Thomas Campbell was deputed to visit Scotland and lay this matter before the General Synod. When he set out on this journey, Alexander seems to have accompanied him as far as Belfast, which he then visited for the first
* The Anti-Burghers had constituted a Synod in Ireland in May, 1788, at which time the Scottish Synod concluded to establish different Synods in subordination to one General Synod, and accordingly arranged the different Presbyteries in connection with the association into four Synods, viz. : three in Scotland and one in Ireland. The Irish Synod was formed of the four Presbyteries of Belfast, of Market Hill, of Derry, and of Temple-Patrick, which, with the usual elders, formed the Associate Synod of Ireland. At that time the Presbytery of Market Hill consisted of the ministers of the congregations of Market Hill, Tyrone’s Ditches, Newry and Moyrah, with a ruling elder from each of the sessions. The church at Ahorey was formed at a subsequent pe iod, and Thomas Campbell became its minister in 1798
58 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
time. His father, proceeding to Glasgow, fulfilled the duty assigned him, and presented the case to the Synod with great earnestness and force.* The Synod, how- ever, decided that it was inexpedient to entertain the proposal, and matters were accordingly left as before. These movements, nevertheless, were not without some effect. The question, having been thus brought up, was generally discussed, and the propriety of union gradually became more and more evident, while a greater amount of fraternal intercourse took place be- tween the two parties. Finally, some of the town councils abolished the religious clause of the Burgher oath; and it may be added that on the 5th of Septem- ber, 1820, long after the Campbells had abandoned all sectarian establishments, and were diligently engaged in the New World in promoting the cause of a uni- versal Christian union, the two Synods, Burgher and Anti-Burgher, formed a cordial reunion amidst general rejoicings and impressive exercises. This event was consummated in Bristo-street church in Edinburgh, in the very house where the division had occurred seventy- three years before.
* While Alexander was in Glasgow as a student, four years afterward, he was one day returning from church, when he was interrogated as to his parentage by a gentleman who accompanied him. Upon naming his father, the latter said: “I listened to your father in our General Assembly in this city, pleading for a union between the Burghers and Anti-Burghers. But, sir, while in my opinion he out-argued them, they out-voted him.”
CH A BADER SHV Independency—Toleration—Missionary moven ents.
ATURAL history teaches that there are certair. species of polyps which reproduce themselves by a gradual division of their bodies into parts, and that these parts speedily acquire all the deficient organs and become distinct and perfect individuals. There are others among these singular creatures propagating their race by buds, which appear upon the body of the parent, and, after a sufficient degree of development, become separate and complete animals. Speaking ana- logically, it would appear that religious sects combine both these methods of increase, for not only do they divide themselves frequently into new parties, but like- wise produce, occasionally, offsets, which, after adher- ing to the parent for a time, become so far developed as to be capable of assuming an independent life. Of the first method examples have already been given. Of the second mode, the Puritans or Independents and the Methodists are exemplifications, both having been off-shoots from the Church of England, with which they remained connected long after they were distinctly recognized as new productions of denominational fe- cundity. Of the above-named parties, the Independents had a most important influence upon the religious views of both Thomas Campell and his son Alexander. There
59
60 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
was at this time in Rich-Hill a congregation of Inde pendents, with whose pastor, Mr. Gibson, and many of the members, they were on terms of friendly ac- quaintance. It was not unusual for Thomas Campbell, after his return from the Lord’s-day services at the country church of Ahorey, to go to the meeting of the Independents at night. Among the Seceders it was not allowable for any one to neglect his own meetings to attend those of others, but when there was no Se- ceder meeting within reach at the same hour, it was not particularly objected to that members should go to other meetings. This was called the privilege of ‘‘oc- casional hearing,” which was conceded, but by no means encouraged, by the clergy. The members of the Independent Church were always much pleased to see Mr. Campbell come to their meetings, as they had a very high esteem for him as one of the most learned and pious of the Seceder ministers, but as he came only after dark, they were wont to compare him face- tiously with Nicodemus, ‘‘ who came to Jesus by night.”
The Independents being more liberal than others in granting the use of their meeting-house to preachers of various kinds, an opportunity was thus also afforded of hearing occasionally persons who were distinguished in the religious world. On one occasion the celebrated Rowland Hill preached with great acceptance. James Alexander Haldane also visited Rich-Hill, and preached during Mr. Campbell’s residence there. Alexander Carson, too, who left the Presbyterians and joined the Independents in 1803, preached about this time at Rich- Hill. Another individual who visited and preached at Rich-Hill was John Walker, whose abilities and learn- ing made quite a strong impression on the mind of young Alexander. He had been a fellow and a teacher
VIEWS OF JOHN WALKER. 61
in Trinity College, and minister at Bethesda Chapel, Dublin; but becoming grieved with the prevailing re- ligious declension and the worldly conformity of most of the parties of the day, he resigned his fellowship in 1804, threw aside the clerical garb, and formed a sepa- rate society in Dublin. He taught that there should be no stated minister, but that all members should exercise their gifts indiscriminately. Baptism he regarded as superfluous, except to those who never before professed Christianity. He was Calvinistic in doctrine, but car- ried separatism so far that it was a special point with him strictly to prohibit the performance of any religious act without removing to a distance (if in the same room) from every person who refused to obey a pre- cept that could be generally applied; insisting that true worship could be rendered only by those who receive and obey the same truths in common. It may be re- marked that views not very dissimilar were held at various times by others. Roger Williams, for instance, the founder of the Baptists in America, held that it was wrong for professors of religion to hold worship with the unconverted, or to sit at the communion table with those who did not perfectly agree with them in religious sentiments. Mr. Walker was accustomed, at his meet- ings, to give a cordial invitation to all inquirers to call upon him next day at his room for religious conversa- tion, and, as he was extremely affable and communica- tive, these interviews were usually very agreeable. Thomas Campbell, in company with one of his elders, called upon him, and Alexander also came in during their conversation, in which he became much interested. This singular man sold his carriage and traveled on foot through Ireland, and also through England, and
gained here and there a few proselytes to his views, 6
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especially in Plymouth, from whence they have become known as the Plymouth Brethren.*
The origin of the Independents as a religious body may be dated at least as far back as the reign of Eliza- beth, when a number of intelligent English, exiled during the preceding reign of Mary, returned from Geneva, imbued with Calvinistic and republican senti- ments. In 1566, a number of clergymen and others, who had adopted these principles, repudiated the Book of Common Prayer, and substituted the Geneva Service- Book. It was not, however, until about 1580 that a real separation occurred from the Church of England, under the leadership of Robert Brown, who, with a number of his followers, was compelled to leave Eng- land. Being subjected to various disabilities and per- secutions, others, at different periods, fled to foreign parts, especially to Amsterdam and Leyden. These, again, under the reign of James the First, were fol- lowed by a considerable number, under the guidance of their pastor, Mr. Robinson. A portion of these exiles, under Brewster, Bradford and others, emigrated in 1617 to America, and landing at Plymouth, became the founders of the colony of Massachusetts, and the pioneers to others by whom the chief New England colonies were established. It is a singular fact that these exiles had no sooner obtained possession of power than they began to exercise the very same system of persecution of which they themselves had been victims.
* These “Brethren,” however, it is believed, do not accord with all the views held by Walker. They practice immersion, but do not make it a term of communion ; have no officers in the church, and conceive that “ the unity of the Spirit” is shown by each member rising, as he may be moved, to per- form public functions. They have small churches in England at various points, as at Leeds, Liverpool, etc., and the philanthropist Müller, author of the “ Life of Faith,” was immersed by them.
INTOLERANCE OF STATE RELIGIONS. 63
They whipped, branded, banished or executed Quakers and others who refused to conform to their views, thus affording another proof that a state or national religion is necessarily Popish in its spirit, for at that time, in these Puritan colonies, the Church was essentially the State.*
* Among other acts of tyranny, they banished from Salem, for the free ex- pression of his opinions, Roger Williams, who was himself a Puritan. This champion of free opinion fled to Rhode Island, where he purchased territory from the Indians ; and in 1643, returning to England, obtained a charter of incorporation. After spending some time in England, he came back to Providence, and, having become a Baptist, founded there the first Baptist church in America. In 1662 he obtained a second charter from Charles the Second, in which it was declared that “religion should be wholly and for ever free from all jurisdiction of the civil power ;” so that to Roger Williams belongs the high honor of having founded the first political State in Christen- dom that embraced, in its constitutional provisions, the principle of universal toleration—a noble grant, the germ of civil liberty in the United States.
It is true that the theory of toleration had been advanced by individuals at former periods ; and that some degree of religious freedom had at times been practically conceded, as in Bohemia, by the Emperor Rodolph, in 1609. Upon the burning of Servetus at Geneva in 1553 a work was published at Basil, attributed to Sebastian Castalio, denying the expediency of attempting to repress heresy by the civil power. Another publication on the same sub- ject, by James Aconzio, appeared in 1565 at Basil, of which, in 1648, a translation was printed in England by John Goodwin, an Independent minis- ter. These treatises, however, opposed persecution only on the ground of inexpediency, not denying the abstract right of the magistrate to punish here- tics; and, even as to inexpediency, making an exception of atheists and apostates. The earliest English publication asserting religious freedom in its widest sense was made by Leonard Busher in 1614, in a tract entitled “Religious Peace—a plea for Liberty of Conscience.” In this the author advocates the most complete toleration for all opinions and all religions, and would forbid any punishment of those opposed to religion. This was re- printed in 1642, and may have fallen under the notice of Williams, who was in England the year following, and himself published in London, in 1644, his noted tract to the same effect, entitled: “ Bloody Tenet of Persecution for cause of Conscience, discussed between Truth and Peace.” This bold cham- pion of liberty died in 1683, and it was not till 1691 that Locke published his celebrated “Letters on Toleration”—a right, which, as just stated, had been already, though less ably, advocated by others, and was then actually in practical operation in Rhode Island. Craik’s Hist. England, vol. iii. p. 785
64 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
Whatever philosophical explanation may be made of the conduct of the Puritans, on the ground that self- preservation, in their then feeble condition, overrode all other considerations, since to oppose the Church was, in their case, tantamount to sedition against the State, one thing is certain, that the course they pursued was wholly inconsistent with the fundamental principle of Independency, and with not only the practice of their party in England, but with their own course subse- quently, so soon as the Church was relieved from its false political position, and human rights became some what better understood.
It was this fundamental principle of Independency, the right of private judgment, that seems at this time to have particularly engaged the attention of Alexander Campbell. It was the natural tendency of his mind to seize upon principles, and this doctrine, so consonant with his own native independence of thought, was par- ticularly agreeable to him. He does not appear, how- ever, to have fully or practically adopted this principle, so entirely at variance with that of the denomination to which he belonged, and with the religious authority he had been taught to revere. Before taking this step, it was necessary that he should have a little longer time to observe the working of the religious systems of the time.
All these may be classed as Episcopal, Presbyterian and Congregational—to the last of which belong the Baptists and all others holding that each congregation iz independent. In the Episcopal (including the Romish) and the Presbyterian systems no liberty whatever is granted to the people to interpret the Scriptures, this being entirely confined to the clergy. Hence, among Presbyterians, though the Scripture is
RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 65
recommended to be read, the reader is carefully in- formed, as in the Acts of Assembly, ‘‘ that the charge and office of interpreting the Holy Scriptures is a part of the ministerial calling, which none, howsoever other- wise qualified, should take upon him in any place, but he that is duly called thereunto by God and his kirk.” No such thing, in fact, as liberty of private judgment is allowed in the Church of England or in Presby- terianism, any more than in the Church of Rome. With the Independents, however, the right of every member to judge for himself as to the meaning of Scripture is the great distinguishing feature, and the basis not only of their congregational form of govern- ment, and their entire repudiation of the authority claimed by Presbyteries, Synods, Assemblies, Conven- tions or other church-courts, but also the reason of that tolerant spirit they so strikingly manifested when they attained to political power in England. In the Long Parliament, headed by Sir Henry Vane, they pleaded with the Presbyterian majority for such a degree of toleration as would at least include all holding Protest- ant doctrines. This, however, was abhorrent to the Presbyterians. <‘‘ Toleration,” cried one of them, ‘‘ will make the kingdom a chaos, a Babel, another Amster- dam, a Sodom, an Egypt, a Babylon: toleration is the grand work of the devil, his masterpiece and chief engine to uphold his tottering kingdom; it is the most compendious, sure way to destroy all religion, lay all waste, and bring in all evil. As original sin is the fun- damental sin, having the seed and spawn of all sin in it, so toleration hath all errors in it and all evils.”* The Independents, however, having got the control of the
# Craik’s History of England, Book vii, c. 2. VOL L—E 6*
66 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
army, and, finally, of the government under Cromwell, were enabled to put, to a considerable extent, their views into practice, so that during the Protectorate, for eleven years, a degree of peace, toleration and pros- perity was enjoyed by all parties which had before been unknown. Although the toleration then granted was neither complete nor firmly founded, it greatly redounded to the credit of the Independents, and had an important influence upon the world at large. These singular but stern and religious men were, to use the language of Macaulay, ‘‘engaged in the great conflict of liberty and despotism, reasor. and prejudice. That great battle was fought for no single generation, for no single land. The destinies of the human race were staked on the same cast with the freedom of the Eng- lish people.” Opposed as well to Presbytery as to Prelacy and Popery, and regarding each congregation as independent and supreme in its jurisdiction, their views naturally made them republican in civil affairs, while their principle that every one should enjoy the right of private judgment in religion, released them from that spiritual despotism which all the other systems labored to establish.
For, to take the Presbyterian system as an example, their idea of a complete church is not by any means that of a single congregation, but of a number of con- gregations, with Sessions, Presbyteries and Synods sufficient to constitute a General Assembly. Each wnember of the congregation is subject, in conversa- tion and doctrine, to the Session; the decisions of the Session to the Presbytery; those of the Presbytery to the Synod, and those of the Synod to the General Assembly. Thus, with them, the Church consists of congregations, with all the required church-courts.
SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM. $7
comprising a complete system of absolute clerical domination.
Among these courts, it is the General Assembly which is the true exponent of the nature and animus of the entire system. This supreme court is the eye and ear and efficient head of the whole body. For, to use the vision of Assyria’s king, if the Session be the legs of iron, emblem of popular strength, mixed at the feet with the miry clay of the unofficial laity, if the Presbytery be the belly and thighs of brass, and the Synod the breast and arms of silver, it is the General Assembly that constitutes the golden head, which is the crowning glory of the Presbyterian image.
No despotism, indeed, could be more complete than that sought to be established by the Church of Scot- land, which exercised, by means ot its clerical ma- chinery, a real inquisitorial authority over men’s minds and consciences, and, when called into question by the government for usurpations, or for preaching up sedi- tion and rebellion instead of the gospel, would plead the divine commission of its ministry as the proof of its superiority to the civil power, and claim to be ex- empt from the jurisdiction of the courts in regard to everything said or done by its ministry in discharging their spiritual functions, whose extent, meanwhile, they asserted the right of determining for themselves.* When to these assumptions, we add the control of the
* When Andrew Melvin, one of those sent by the General Assembly to admonish James the First, proceeded to address the king, he informed him that of Christ’s kingdom (which, with him, was only another name for the Presbyterian kirk) he was “neither a king, nor a head, nor a lord, but a member ; and they,” he added, “ whom Christ has called and commanded to watch over the kirk and govern his spiritual kingdom, have sufficient authority and power from him so to do, which no Christian king nor prince should control or discharge, but fortify and assist, otherwise they are not
68 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
sword of the magistrate which they constantly sought indirectly to acquire, and often really exercised, we have a dynasty quite as imperious as any ever main-
faithful subjects to Christ. Sir when you were in your swaddling clcuts Christ reigned freely in this land, in spite of all her enemies.”
The same individual, on another occasion, when arraigned before the coun- cil for words spoken in a sermon he had delivered at St. Andrew’s, at once declined the jurisdiction of the court. “After the giving in of the declina- tion,” says Calderwood, “the king and the Earl of Arran, then chancellor, raged. Mr. Andrew, never a whit dashed, said in plain terms that they were too bold, in a constitute Christian kirk, to pass by the pastors, prophets and eoctors, and to take upon them to judge the doctrine and to control the ambassadors and messengers of a greater than was here. ‘That ye may see your own weakness and rashness, in taking upon you that which ye neither ought nor can do (loosing a little Hebrew Bible from his girdle and laying it down before the king and his chancellor upon the table), there are my in- structions and warrant: see if any of you can control me that I have passed my injunctions.’ Here we see flaming out the true spirit of Presbytery, which, while opposed to any representation of the clergy in Parliament, had always sought to erect the Church into a power, independent of, and, in its own province, superior to the State—an arrangement which would afford an abun- dant compensation for the denial of political power of the ordinary kind.”
As an illustration of the pertinacity with which the Presbyterians clung to their intolerant measures, and to those church-courts through which they con- trived to embarrass and endeavored to control the civil power, it is well known that even Cromwell was unable to establish general toleration in Scotland, or maintain it there “with any chance of an hour’s quiet to the country,” as the historian remarks, “without putting a gag upon the Church. Accordingly,” he continues, “when after many heats the General Assembly had met as usual at Edinburgh, in the summer of 1652, and was about te proceed to business, Lieutenant Colonel Cotterel suddenly came into the church, and standing up upon one of the benches, informed them that ne ecclesiastical judicatories were to sit there but by authority of the Parliament of England; and without giving them leave to reply, commanded them in- stantly to withdraw themselves ; and then conducted the whole of the rever- end body out of the city, by one of the gates called the West-Port, with a troop of horse and a company of foot. The Assembly did not dare to meet again so long as Cromwell lived.”
They knew too well the character of this remarkable man, who was in- tolerant only of intolerance, to try his patience farther. So liberal was he that he allowed the benefices and the pulpits to be occupied by all parties— some by the former Episcopal incumbents, some by Independents, and some even by the minor sects. For some time, indeed, the pulpits were oper. to
OPPOSITION TO REFORMS. 69
tained by Papal Rome. Happily, the example of the United States, the progress of liberal ideas and the great increase of dissenters had gradually checked the arrogance of the National Churches of Great Britain, and compelled them to hold in abeyance claims which, from their very constitution, it is impossible they should ever relinquish.
Although the spirit of these parties was thus, at this period greatly subdued, and no very arbitrary acts on the part of the Irish Synod had occurred to awaken discontent, the observant mind of Alexander Campbell perceived so much of a grasping spirit and of clerical assumption in the ministry, and such tendencies to a rigid exercise of power, as led him to reflect more seriously upon his future course. He had been repeat- edly grieved to find that the occasional earnest overtures of his pious father in regard to various reforms, and especially in relation to a more frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper, then attended to only semi-annually, were treated with indifference, and rejected by the Presbytery and the Synod; and that there seemed no disposition whatever, on the part of those in authority, to admit of any changes or reforms. When he con- trasted these things with the freedom of opinion and of
any of the laity who seemed to have an edifying gift of utterance. To guard against an extreme here, “Cromwell,” we are informed, “appointed in March, 1653, a Board of Triers, as they were called, in all thirty-eight in number, of whom part were Presbyterians, part Independents, and a few Baptists, to whom was given, without any limitations or instructions whatever, the power of examining and approving or rejecting all persons that might thereafter be presented, nominated, chosen or appointed to any living in the Church. This was tantamount to dividing the Church among these different religious bodies, or so liberalizing or extending it as to make it comprehend them all. + æ Æ # This Board of Triers continued to sit and to exercise its func tions at Whitehall till a short time after the death of Cromwell.” Craik’s History of England, iii. p. 481.
Jo MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
government enjoyed by the independents, he was led to examine more carefully into the principles upon which the system of Independency was based. He found that the English Congregationalists differed some- what from those called Scotch Independents, whose principal champion then was Robert Sandeman. Their rise is attributable to John Glas, an eloquent and able minister of the Church of Scotland, in the parish of Tealing, near Dundee, who abandoned the Establish- ment about the year 1728, and adopted Independent views, which he derived mainly from the works of John Owen. He formed churches in most of the large towns in Scotland, where his followers were called Glasites. About the year 1755, Robert Sandeman developed and sustained their views, and engaged in a spirited controversy with Hervey in regard to the leading doc- trine in his ‘Theron and Asgpasio,” the appropriating nature of faith—a controversy which not only greatly promoted the circulation of Hervey’s work, but gave celebrity to Sandeman, from whom this particular branch of Independents have, in England, been usu- ally called Sandemanians. He afterwards came to America and founded societies in New England and Nova Scotia.
His doctrines were—that faith is merely a simple assent to the testimony concerning Christ; that the word faith means nothing more than it does in common discourse—a persuasion of the truth of any proposition : and that there is no difference between believing any common testimony and believing the apostolic testi- mony. He advocated the weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper; love-feasts; weekly contributions for the poor; mutual exhortation of members ; plurality of elders in a church; conditional community of goods,
VIEWS OF SANDEMAN. 71
ew. He also approved of theatres and public and pri- vate diversions, when not connected with circumstances really sinful.
The Independents at Rich-Hill, though in connection with those of Scotland, were Haldanean in sentiment, and did not adopt all the views of Glas or Sandeman. They attended weekly to the Lord’s Supper, contribu- tions, etc., but were opposed to going to theatres or such places of public amusements ; to the doctrine of com- munity of goods; feet-washing, etc., as advocated by Sandeman. They were also, in a good measure, free from the dogmatic and bitter controversial spirit so characteristic of Sandeman and his followers. It does not appear that Alexander acquired at this time any- thing more than a general knowledge of the history of these parties. If he became at all acquainted with the peculiar views of Sandeman in regard to faith, it is certain that he was far from adopting them; and that, even after his emigration to the United States, he con- tinued to hold essentially the views of this subject entertained by Presbyterians. He seems, in addition, about this time to have read and to have been much pleased with the works of Archibald McLean, espe- cially his work on ‘‘The Commission,” of which he was wont ever after to speak in the highest terms.
In order to complete this brief account of the religious influences surrounding Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander at this period, it is necessary to notice a movement then in progress for the promotion of a sim- pler and, as it was termed, a more ‘‘ evangelical” style of preaching, with the view of creating a greater general interest in the subject of religion. The reader is doubtless familiar with the history of the great excite- ment produced in England by the preaching of White-
72 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
field and Wesley about the same time at which the Seceders left the Kirk of Scotland, some sixty years previous. By their earnestness and zeal, by the intro- duction of the custom of field-preaching (unused since the time of the monastic orders, if we except the case of the persecuted Covenanters), as well as by the Wesleyan system of lay-preaching and itinerancy, the existing ecclesiastical establishments were roused from their state of frigid formality and apathy, and an un- wonted religious fervor was diffused throughout all classes of the community. The same excitement was introduced also into Scotland, to which Mr. Whitefield was invited by the Seceders through the agency of the Erskines. As he was a Calvinist, they entertained hopes of winning him to their party, or at least of attaining to such doctrinal agreement with him as would justify them in availing themselves of his extraordinary powers. Immediately upon his arrival, therefore, at Dunfermline, they called a Presbytery, and proposed to set him right upon the matter of Church government and of the Solemn League and Covenant. He very properly declining to enter upon any disputes about what he regarded as trivial matters, and determining to adhere to his course of preaching Christ, free from the shackles of any party, the Seceders immediately be- came hostile and refused to hear him, denouncing him as ‘‘an enthusiast who was engaged in doing the work of Satan,” while he, on the other hand, charged them with ‘‘building a Babel which would soon come down about their ears.” Upon this, a number of the minis- ters of the Church of Scotland espoused Mr. White- field’s cause and admitted him into their pulpits. Great excitement and extraordinary manifestations of swoon- ings, convulsions and cataleptic seizures attended Mr.
MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 73
Whitefield’s labors, especially at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, where at one time the assemblage was esti- mated to consist of at least thirty thousand persons. These singular cases had previously occurred under Mr. Wesley’s preaching ; and have several times since been noted, as in the revivals under the preachings of Jonathan Edwards in New England, and of James McGready, B. W. Stone and some other Presbyterian preachers in Kentucky, in 1801.
The intense religious interest awakened in Great Britain and Ireland by Wesley, Whitefield and their coadjutors, had, toward the close of the century, given place to a great degree of indifference and worldly conformity. The diffusion of infidel principles from France, political commotions and a variety of circumstances connected with the American and French wars, seem to have been chiefly instrumental in indu- cing a change which was deeply lamented by pious and earnest men in the different religious communities. It was resolved, accordingly, tc make a united effort to arouse the people to greater religious activity, and, for this purpose, to employ those agencies of open-air preaching and itinerancy formerly so successful.
Among those conspicuously engaged in this work were the Haldanes of Scotland. A considerable mis- sionary society, called the Evangelical Society, was formed for the above purpose, consisting in part of members of the Episcopal Church in England. As Thomas Campbell warmly sympathized in the proposed object, he became a member of this Society, and took great pleasure in aiding its operations. Many liberal and earnest preachers were sent out by its means through the country, who were accustomed to convene the people in the most public places in towns, or wher-
74 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
ever they could obtain an audience, and to address them with great earnestness upon the subject of religion.
{n this species of mission there was something very pleasing, and certainly the position of such laborers was highly favorable to a fair and effective presentation of the general truths of the gospel. Like missionaries in heathen lands, they felt themselves freed, in a good measure, from the sectarian necessities and constraints of party-preachers. They were left, as it were, alone with the Word of God and the souls of men; and as far as it related to the general truths of the scheme of redemption, their addresses were most profitable in rousing the careless and thoughtless to inquiry, and in removing doubts and difficulties from the minds of the ignorant and the skeptical. ‘The more pure and free,” as Neander well observes, ‘‘and unmixed with human schemes Christianity is, the more easily it makes its way into the hearts of men, and the more easily can it preserve in undiminished vigor its divine attractive power over human nature.” It was, however, impossible for them, consistently with the nature of their mission and their views of religion, to recommend any very definite or particular course to anxious inquirers. The nature of faith; how Christ could be put on by faith; how the sinner could obtain an assurance of justifica- tion,—these were questions of the highest practical im- portance, to which different parties gave conflicting answers, and which, with matters of ecclesiastical organization, constituted the burden of polemical dis- cussions and the ground of party differences. Their work was, however, a favorable omen of the approach of a better era, and served practically to break down the prejudices of religious society and to depreciate the value of those speculative theological dogmas and of
FORMATIVE INFLUENCE. 75
those sectarian distinctions by which pious believers were separated and alienated from each other.
Such, then, during the years of youth and of forma- tive research and observation, were the religious snflu- ences which surrounded Alexander Campbell, and such the lessons of instruction which history afforded him. The effect of the whole was to increase his reverence for the Scriptures as the only infallible guide in resigion, to weaken the force of educational prejudices, and to deepen his conviction that the existence of sects and parties was one of the greatest hindrances to the success of the gospel.
CHAPLE Rip,
Alexander Campbell’s industry—Close observation— Failure of Thomas Campbell’s health—Voyage to America.
[* human life there may be a second childhood, but never a second youth. As, in the natural year, the spring mingles its soft breezes with the chill blasts of winter, and the blue red-breast returns to warble from the leafless branches, and the tiny snowdrop blossoms or the crocus unfolds its gay petals amidst cheerless desolation, so, in wintry age,-may childish thoughts and childish sports again delight, and dotage assume the guise of infancy, when the eye is weak and the memory defective, and the step unsteady, not from immaturity, but from decay. But youth, with its unspent energies, its keen perceptions, its earnest hopes, and its unfilled capacities, shall return to man on earth no more. As though deeply impressed with this conviction, it was in this, the seed-time of life, that, with unwearied industry, Alexander Campbell labored to store his mind with useful learning, and to avail himself of every accessible source of knowledge. He was accustomed to pursue his studies to a late hour in the night, and usually rose at four in the morning to resume them. Books were his constant delight, and self-education became with him a passion, as there seemed but little prospect of his being enabled to attend the University, owing to his
father’s large family, now increased with another daugh- 76
INTROSPECTIVE SCRUTIN?1. 77
ter, named Alicia—making seven children living, three others having died in early infancy.
[n addition to his duties in the public school, he was induced at this time to become private tutor to the daughters of Hon. William Richardson, giving lessons at certain hours in the day. This caused but little in- convenience, as Mr. Richardson’s mansion was near at hand, surrounded with finely-improved grounds, where Alexander’s sisters were accustomed often to walk on a pleasant evening to enjoy the beauty of the shrubbery and of the flowers. Amidst all his labors, however, he still found time for an occasional gunning excursion. On one of these expeditions an incident occurred, which, though trifling in itself, may serve to show how acute and introspective were his powers of observation, and how strong his objective tendencies, since, even in the midst of sportive recreation, he could readily make the operations of his own mind the object of analytic scrutiny. Having gone out on a Saturday, with two companions, in search of corn-crakes (a migratory land-rail abundant in Ireland), after a long walk their excursion seemed likely to prove unsuccessful. Upon their return they came into a meadow, and it was pro- posed that Alexander should take one end and his companions the other. In a little while one of the latter fired and shot a corn-crake. Alexander happened to have a gun with a worn pan, which sometimes al- lowed the powder to escape. Upon hearing the shot, he examined and found that there remained in the pan only one single grain of powder of large size. Not expecting to see any more game, however, he did not think it worth while to prime, and proceeded on his way; but had gone only a few steps when a hare started out of its form almost at his feet. As he was at
7e
78 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
the end of the meadow near to the house of a tenant who had a license to take game, the first thought which struck him was, that he was in full view of the house. and, secondly, that the tenant might regard him as tres- passing. He reflected further, that this man was very strict about the game; but it then occurred to him that, as he was a teacher in the family of the lord of the manor, he might be regarded as entitled to the privi- lege. He then recollected, however, that he had not primed his gun, and that it was not likely to go off, as there was but a single grain of powder in the pan. He perceived further, that the hare had but a very little way to go until it would reach a hedge and be hid from view, and that there was hardly time to take aim. But, lastly, considering that it was a risk all round, he concluded to try the experiment, and accordingly, put- ting up his gun, fired and killed the hare before it had gone twenty steps. He then discovered that at least eleven distinct thoughts had successively been present to his mind in that immeasurably brief instant—a cir- cumstance which filled him with wonder as he reflected upon it, and became to him an illustration, which he never afterward forgot, of the inconceivable rapidity of the mind’s action.
After several years spent in teaching at Rich-Hill, the excessive labor and confinement to which his father was subjected in fulfilling his duties to the congrega- tion and to the school began seriously to impair his health. He grew extremely pale, dyspeptic and de- bilitated, and finally, after having for a long time tried various remedies in vain, he was informed by his phy- sician that his life would be the forfeit if he persisted in continuing his unremitting mental toil; and that an absolute change of present pursuits, and such relief as
DEPARTURE OF THOMAS CAMPBELL. 79
a protracted sea-voyage might afford, were indispensa- bly necessary to his recovery. This decision was ex- tremely distasteful to him. He could scarcely endure the thought of leaving his position and his family to undertake a voyage across the Atlantic, as was pro- posed to him by his friends, some of whom were almost constantly emigrating to the New World. At length, Alexander, seeing the critical state of his father’s health, resoived to forward earnestly the proposed measure, and he therefore told his father that he would take the entire charge of the school until all existing engagements were fulfilled, and that he thought it highly important for him at once to visit America and see the country. As his father still hesitated, he at length told him that it was his own determination to go to the United States so soon as he came of age, and that all the circumstances seemed to him providentially to indicate the propriety of the course recommended, in order that a suitable location might be found for the entire family. Yielding at length to these representa- tions and to the advice of his warmest friends, and especially of the Acheson family, Thomas Campbell gave his consent, and it was arranged that, in case he should be pleased with the country, he would send for the family ; and, if otherwise, he would himself return to Ireland. As Miss Hannah Acheson was desirous of going out to her relatives, who had previously emi- grated and settled in Washington, Pennsylvania, she gladly availed herself of the opportunity to place her- self under the escort of her esteemed pastor. Accordingly, a few days afterward, on the first day of April, 1807, Thomas Campbell, having taken an affecting farewell of his congregation, assembled his own family, to the members of which he delivered suit-
80 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
able counsels and instructions, after which, amid many prayers and tears, he bade them adieu, and set out with his company for Londonderry, the port from which he had concluded to sail. Hastily viewing the fine harbor, and some other points of interest connected with this ancient city, so celebrated in history for its heroic de- fence against James the Second, he took occasion, before embarking, to address a letter to his family, the following extract from which will show how highly, above all the things of the present life, he prized their spiritual welfare :
“ Come out, my dear son,” he wrote, ‘‘ from the wicked of the world and be separate, and ‘ touch not the unclean thing,’ saith the Lord, ‘and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.’ My dear children, look to this divine direc- tion and promise, and the Lord will be with you and be your God; and ‘if God be for us, who can be against us? Now, if you attend to this, and do really come to and embrace the Lord Jesus for repentance and reformation, you will have good ground of confidence for all things necessary, in his mercy, for your comfort here and your future felicity, that he will make my journey prosperous for deliverance to you and your friends, and that he will not be wroth with me for your sakes. Live to God; be devoted to him in heart, and in all your undertakings. Bea sincere Christian—z. e., im- bibe the doctrines, obey the precepts, copy the example, and believe the promises of the gospel. And that you may do so, read it, study it, pray over it, embrace it as your heritage, your portion. Take Christ for your Master, his Word for your instructor, his Spirit for your assistant, interpreter and guide. Be always conformed in your heart and practice with it. Live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, both ‘for wisdom, right- eousness, sanctification and redemption.’ Above all things,
attend to this, for without him you can do nothing, either to the glory of God or your own good.”
EMIGRANTS To THE UNITED STATES. 81
Such were the affectionate counsels of Thomas Camp- bell to his family, and especially to his son Alexander, whose appreciation of them may be inferred from the fact that he carefully copied them into his note-book, that he might have them constantly before him. Mean- while, his father had embarked on the ship Brutus, Captain Craig, master, bound for Philadelphia; and on the eighth of April, 1807, the wind being favorable, the vessel set sail, and passing out of Lough* Foyle, rounded Malin-Head, the most northern point of Ire- land, where Thomas Campbell gazed for the last time upon his native shores as they faded from his sight in the dim mists of the eastern sky.
There was at this time a large and constant emigra- tion to the United States. The political troubles; the religious dissensions; the oppressive tyranny of landed proprietors over tenants; the almost hopeless prospects for those with large families, and for the young, as to success in life; together with many other evils existing in this fertile and beautiful, but sadly-misgoverned country, led great numbers to seek a happier home under the free institutions of the New World. Several families of Thomas Campbell’s acquaintance in the vicinity of Rich-Hill had, at this time, already made their arrangements to set out for the United States. Among these may be mentioned the family of the Hodgens, of which some of the younger members had been Mr. Campbell’s pupils. Thomas Hodgens, hav- ing sold out his land for three hundred guineas, resolved to emigrate and purchase land in America; and one of his daughters being married to James Foster, he urged
* The word /ough has in Ireland and Scotland a wider signification than the word Zake, embracing not only inland sheets of water, but bays which have a narrow outlet to the sea.
voL. 1.—F
82 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
his son-in-law to accompany him. This James Foster was destined to take no unimportant part in Thomas Campbell’s future religious movements. He was one of those men who, from a retiring disposition or other circumstances, do not put themselves prominently for- ward, but who exert, nevertheless, an important influ- ence within a limited sphere, and often make that in‘iuence widely felt through other minds.
He was a member and the precentor in the church of the Independents at Rich-Hill, and a young man of more than ordinary piety and religious attainments. Possessed of a remarkably retentive memory, and de- voted to the study of the Bible, his mind became a complete treasury of the Word of God, so that he could, with the utmost accuracy, repeat from memory its sacred teachings at his pleasure. Having become convinced that there was no authority in Scripture for the baptism of infants, he would never consent to its administration in the case of his own children; but he was not, on this account, less esteemed among the Independents, with whom considerable latitude of opinion was allowed. His extreme conscientiousness, indeed, was so well known, and his character and religious worth so highly appre- ciated, that he was one of the most influential members in the church, and was often invited to the house of the pastor, Mr. Gibson, where he met, occasionally, some of those eminent preachers who visited Rich-Hill. At one of his visits he met with John Walker, and heard him discuss with Mr. Gibson various religious topics, on which occasion Mr. Gibson seemed to him to be a mere child in the hands of the learned and acute Walker. He heard Alexander Carson also, and thought him the finest religious teacher to whom he had ever listened. It was his habit not to speak from a text, but
NEWPY AND WARREN-POINT. 83
to enter into the train of thought presented in an entire connected portion of Scripture, so as fully to develop the actual meaning of the passage.
When James Foster was urged to go to America, he hesitated to leave his recently widowed mother, until she herself urged his emigration, lest his wife should pine after her relations. Upon this he was induced to consent, and the whole party having made their ar- rangements, set out about two weeks after the departure of Thomas Campbell, and proceeded to Newry.
This town occupies a part of three counties—Lowth, Armagh and Down. It is connected with Lough Neagh by a canal, chiefly in the bed of the river Bann, and also with Carlingford Bay by a canal, through which vessels reach its fine spacious quay, so that it is a centre of considerable trade. It is built upon the side of a steep hill, at the foot of which is the Narrow Water, an inlet from Carlingford Bay, but not suffi- ciently capacious for large vessels. Along the margin of this Narrow Water, upon the left, a fine road passes down from Newry, five miles, to Warren Point, which is much resorted to as a watering-place. On the oppo- site side of this narrow inlet, in the county of Lowth, lofty and precipitous hills arise as out of the very water, presenting a magnificent appearance. Passing down, accordingly, to Warren Point, where the bay is about a mile and a half wide, James Foster and his companions embarked on a vessel bound for Philadelphia.
As though to attract the foreigner and detain the emigrant, Nature seems at this point to have grouped together the most enchanting scenery. Looking sea- ward, along the shores of tne widening bay, high hills of beautiful forms rise up from the water’s edge on each side. Two miles below, upon the left, nestling between
84 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
two mountains, is the village of Rosstrevor, celebrated for its picturesque beauty and connected with the demesnes of General Ross, who was destined to fall, a few years afterward, in the attack on Baltimore, and in whose honor an elegant monument, in the form of an obelisk, has since been erected a little above the village. Below Rosstrevor a majestic mountain lifts, to a great height above its green and wooded slopes, a bare and rugged peak, upon whose side appears a perpendicular rock of immense size, distinctly visible from Newry, and to which parties frequently resort to enjoy the mag- nificent view which it affords. On the opposite side of the bay is seen Carlingford Castle, a large and impos- ing structure, often visited by the tourist, and possessing many interesting historical associations. Still further down, at a distance of about four miles, and on the extreme point where the bay at length opens into the sea, stands the light-house, like a friendly hand stretched out from the shores of civilization and hospi- tality to ‘* welcome the coming” or ‘‘ speed the going guest.” To all these charming scenes, and the cher- ished associations of their native land, the emigrants were now compelled to bid a final farewell, as the vessel, weighing anchor and steering down the bay, entered the Irish Sea, and taking a southerly course through St. George’s Channel, along the coast of Wales. whose lofty mountains became distinctly visible, passed out at length into the broad Atlantic.
A departure to a distant land, with its last farewells to beloved friends and familiar scenes, has in it much of the bitterness of death. Tt brings, at least, home to the heart, the griefs, unce.tainties and fears attendant upon a protracted separation; and the radical idea in death is separation, of which, to the Irish emigrant and
NEWS FROM A FAR COUNTRY. 85
his fanily, the trackless ocean, with its seemingly bound- less extent and unfathomed mysteries, becomes at once the emblem and the instrument. These feelings were most fully realized in the family home-circle at Rich- Hill, in which a once honored seat remained vacant, and the venerated form of a beloved father was seen no more. In all the buoyancy of youthful hope, Alex- ander Campbell nevertheless addressed himself to his labors, conducting the school energetically according to arrangements, and assisting his mother in the care of the family, managing everything with such vicacity and cheerfulness as to revive the spirits of all, like a plea- sant sunshine after a day of gloom.
After some three months had passed away, he re- ceived with great joy a letter from his father announ- cing his safe arrival at Philadelphia, after a prosperous voyage of thirty-five days, which, at that time, was reckoned a speedy trip. It stated that he had been so highly favored as to find the Anti-Burgher Synod* of North America then assembled in the city, and had been very kindly received by the members upon pre- senting his testimonials from the Presbytery of Market Hill and the church at Ahorey. This letter is dated May 27, 1807, and continues as follows :
«What a debtor am I to the grace of God! and what a debtor are you, my dear Jane, and you, my dear little ones, for whom I am ardently praying to that gracious God that hears and helps and saves all that call upon him in truth! for these kindnesses conferred upon me are also for your sakes, that, through his mercy, we may yet praise him together in the congregation of his people. To call this in question would
* The only Seceders in the United States were attached to this Synod, as the Burghers neve- had any distinct organization in America.
86 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBEL...
be to belie his goodness. And you, dear Alexander, upon whom the burden lies at present, and must for some little time longer—I hope not longer than we expected at our part- ing—be sure you make it your chief study to do all to please and nothing to offend that great God who has raised such friends and conferred such friendships upon your father, both at home and abroad, and especially when he became a stranger in a strange land. But what do I say? A minister o1 a member of Christ’s Church is a citizen of the world, as far as the Church extends. * * * æ My dear Jane, let nothing discourage you. Turn to God; make his word and will your constant study, and rely upon it that as ‘the days wherein you will have seen and years you grief have had,’ so the Lord will make you glad, and satisfy you with his tender mercies. My dear children, let me address you together: if you have any sympathy, any sincere affection for a father who cannot cease to love you and pray for you so long as his heart shall beat or tongue be able to articulate, see that you follow the directions that I gave you at my parting, whether by word or writing. Be a comfort to your mother; love, cherish and pity one another. Love the Lord your God; love his Son Jesus Christ, and pray to the Lord constantly and ardently for me your poor father, who longs after you all, and who cannot rest, if the Lord will, till he has prepared a place of residence for you all, where I trust we shall spend the rest of our days together in his service.”
This letter also, together with others breathing the same affectionate and religious spirit, Alexander rever- entially copied upon the pages of his note-book, in which. he had already numerous selections from Young, Johnson, Buffon, Beattie, and other esteemed authors: for it was his custom to write down, for his future use, and in order to impress them the more upon his
memory, those passages in the books he read that particularly pleased him.
CHAP LE REVII:
Merited Confidence—Preparations for Departure—Delays—Embarkation.
T is the sense of what we seem to others that moulds and fashions human character. This may be rough- hewn by Nature, but it is the consciousness of the judgment of others, the praise of those we esteem, the criticism we fear, the model we admire, that will modify its form and determine its features. Hence the opinion which a friend entertains of another’s virtues or abilities becomes to him often a standard to which he insensibly labors to conform; and the confidence reposed in him becomes one of the most powerful motives to deserve it. In the education of youth, therefore, encouragement and trust are needed, rather than censure or suspicion ; and the ‘‘love that believeth all things” and ‘‘hopeth all things” will accomplish more than the skepticism which doubts or the austerity that chills the most generous emotions. It was upon this principle—which, indeed is the same which underlies the profound phi- losophy of the gospel itself—that Thomas Campbell acted both as a parent and as a teacher ; and the frank confidence now reposed in Alexander, in committing to him so important a charge as the management of the academy and the family, became to him not only a flat- tering evidence of his father’s high appreciation of his abilities and his principles, but a powerful incentive to him to show that this confidence was not unmerited. 87
SS MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
He continued his labors, therefore, with that careful punctuality to which he had been accustomed, and con- ducted the school successfully to the close of the term.
No other letters being as yet received from America in reference to removal, and his uncle Archibald at this time greatly desiring his assistance, he now went over to Newry and took charge of a number of private classes. Here he continued, frequently seeing the family at Rich-Hill and providing for their comfort, until the month of March, 1808, when a letter was at length received from his father, urging immediate de- parture, and referring, for general advices, to other letters written in the preceding November, but which, as it now appeared, had failed to reach their destination. He learned, by the letter now received, that his father had been, at his request, assigned by the Synod at Philadelphia to the Presbytery of Chartiers, embracing Washington county, in Western Pennsylvania, where some of his former neighbors had already settled, and whither James Foster and his party were bound. After spending a short time very pleasantly with the Seceder ministers and the acquaintances he had formed in Philadelphia, he had proceeded over the mountains to Washington, Pennsylvania, from which town the letter was dated, January 1, 1808. James Foster and his friends, it appeared, had landed at Philadelphia five weeks after his arrival there, and, coming on to Wash- ington county, had found him there already engaged in ministerial labor. The following extract from his letter will show how earnest and unceasing were the aspira- tions of this excellent man for entire consecration of heart and life to the service of God,
‘“ I have been encompasse with mercies from the day l
LETTER FROM THOMAS CAMPBELL, Sg
left you until this day—not the slightest accident by sea oy land has befallen me. * * * * My confidence toward God in behalf of you all, to whose gracious providence and merciful protection I have heartily resigned you, keeps my mind in perfect peace. I feel greatly comforted in pouring out my heart’s desire to the God of all mercy for the pre- servation and salvation of my family. I do not know but that I have felt more solemn, elevated pleasure in this grateful exercise since I set my foot in this land of peace, liberty and prosperity, than I could have done in the same time had I remained in the midst of you, all things considered. In those happy exercises I have enjoyed a gracious and triumphant confidence in that unlimited power, wisdom and goodness to which nothing is difficult, much less impossible. I have been enabled to cast all my care upon the Lord, so that I feel neither anxious nor afraid of anything upon earth. I per- ceive myself in the arms of Almighty Goodness, and am greatly comforted. I hope the receipt of this will find you all in like happy circumstances. If you knew the solid and adequate satisfaction that the clear apprehension of the great gospel of the grace of God is calculated to afford, and does actually afford to all that truly know and embrace it, you would earnestly covet this happiness and spare no pains to acquire it. Neither is it hard to acquire. Only be devoted to God; give up yourselves to the diligent study and practice of his holy word, looking to and leaning upon the promise of his Holy Spirit, which he freely and graciously gives to all them that sincerely and heartily seek it, to enable them to know and to conform to his will in all things; and you shalk know the truth of his promise, ‘ You shall not walk in dark- ness, but shall have the light of life? You shall know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent; then shall you feel yourselves impregnable as the Rock of Ages, in whom you put your trust. ‘All that know thy name shall put thei. ‘rust in thee, and they that put their trust in thee shall never be confounded.’ Let us rejoice; the Lord reigns! and his servants need fear no evil. Be of good comfort 8e
gO MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
through his grace, and cautiously avoid danger. Omit no opportunity of removing, as the Lord may graciously permit. The merciful providence of the Lord be with you. Wishing you a happy new year under his gracious auspices, adieu.
“« THOMAS CAMPBELL.”
Immediately upon receipt of this letter, the family began to make the necessary arrangements for the contemplated voyage. When nearly ready, however, an unlooked-for visitation occasioned further delay. That dreaded disease, the small-pox, happened just at this time to visit Rich-Hill. Alexander, with his ac- customed promptitude, at once suggested to his mother the propriety of having inoculation performed upon all the members of the household who had not yet had the disease. This was the méthod of protection then generally employed, as vaccination had not yet come much into use. The discovery, in fact, had been pub- lished by Jenner only in 1798, and it was several years before its efficacy was fully confirmed, the British gov- ernment not taking it under its protection until 1808. It happened, however, that before the necessary pre- paration could be made, some of the younger children were found to have caught the infection. Fortunately, most of the cases assumed a mild form, Jane being the only one who had it very severely. She was then in her eighth year, and a beautiful child, extremely fair and blooming, with light flaxen hair; but her beauty was considerably marred and her face deeply marked by the disease.
As soon as all were convalescent, preparations for departure were resumed , but it was August before they were completed. On the 20th of this month Alexander set out on horseback for Londonderry, to make ar- rangements for their embarkation. The distance being
VISIT TO LONDONDERRY. 91
sixty miles, he was occupied two days in making the trip, greatly admiring, as he passed along, the beauty of the scenery, now enhanced by the contrast of the golden grain-fields with the green meadows and pasture lands. Upon reaching the city, he stopped at an inn belonging to a Mr. William Wilson, merchant, and proceeded to make inquiry in regard to vessels for America. He took this opportunity to visit also those parts of the city and its vicinity which had been ren- dered interesting by the memorable siege. The place was shown where Lundy, the treacherous governor, who was disposed to surrender the city, let himself down from the wall by the assistance of a pear tree, and made his escape to the enemy, to avoid being torn to pieces by the citizens. Upon his departure, Baker and Walker were elected governors, and the most vigorous measures adopted for defence. For many weeks all the efforts to take the town by storm were gallantly repulsed; upon which the siege was changed into a blockade, and all the avenues of assistance care- fully secured. The supplies in the city were short, yet the people manfully held out, even when they had to assuage their hunger by gnawing salted hides, when rats became dainty fare, and dogs, fattened on the blood ot the slain, were luxuries that few could pur- chase--the price of a whelp’s paw being, as Macaulay informs us, five shillings and sixpence. At length, at the end of one hundred and five days, the boom stretched across the Foyle, a mile and a half below, was broken by ships bearing provisions, and the city, which by no art could have held out two days longer, was happily saved. Alexander found the walls very high, especially next the sea, and so broad at top that a coach and four could be driven upon them, though,
93 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
at the time of the siege, the defences were in a very poor condition. He was pleased with the wide streets, the old-fashioned houses, and particularly with the fine public square, upon which fronted some of the best houses in the city. He visited the place where the great boom had been stretched across the Foyle, and saw the rugged mass of rock to which it had been attached upon the left bank by a cable a foot thick. Near by was aiso the well from which the besiegers drank, and the burial-ground where they laid their slain, and where the spade of the gardener occasionally still turns up some of their mouldering bones. Having completed his examinations, and visited the vessel in which he expected to sail, he made a conditional en- gagement with the captain, and returned home after what was to him a very pleasant excursion.
As the vessel was not likely to sail for some time, and some of his acquaintances were about to visit Dublin, he concluded to accompany them, in order to have a better idea of his own country before leaving it, and to be enabled to compare it with other lands. He set off, accordingly, for the metropolis by stage on the 2d of September, and arrived safely at half-past six in the evening. Dublin is a very old city, having been spoken of by Ptolemy, who flourished in the reign of Antoninus Pius, about A. D. 140, and who then called it a city—Eblana Civitas.* From the elegance of its architecture, the number of its public buildings, the magnificence of its quays, docks, and many of its streets, Dublin is regarded by tourists of discrimination as one of the finest capitals in Europe. There are few points,
® It is thought by many that in Latinizing the word Dublin, the initial D was accideataí y omitted, and that Eblana should be Deblana.
VISIT TO THE CITY OF DUBLIN. 93
in the approaches by land, which afford a good view of the city; that from Phoenix Park being perhaps the best. The scenery, however, on entering the bay between Howth and Dalkey Island, is extremely fine. Bold promontories, green sloping pastures, neat villas are seen, and especially among the latter, the elegant seat of Lord Charlemont. Several beautiful islands present a picturesque appearance, while, behind them, appear the Rochetown hills, and, still further back a varied prospect of villas, woods and pastures, terminated grandly by the distant Wicklow Mountains. Within the city itself there are some charming prospects, especially that from Carlisle Bridge. On the right is Sackville street, one of the most splendid in the world, terminated by the Rotunda and Rutland Square. On the left, Westmoreland street, with elegant buildings, terminated on one side by Trinity College and on the other by the Bank of Ireland. In front is the river Anna Liffey, which passes through the midst of the city, with its eight beautiful bridges and spacious quays, parapetted with granite, and extending for two miles and a quarter along the wide open space which passes quite through the city, and in the centre of which the river flows with a lively current. In the distance, the Four Courts are seen on Inns-Quay; the Phoenix Park also; while, toward the east, the magnificent Custom-House ap pears, and the fine harbor, crowded, as far as the eye can reach, with vessels of all descriptions.
The morning after his arrival he sallied forth to view the city. As he kept a journal of his visit, his impres- sions may perhaps be best learned from his own words:
“The principal things that drew my attention this day were the Linen-Hall, the infirmaries, hospitals and other eleemosynary superstructures. The Linen-Hall is a very ex-
04 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
tensive and elegant building, built in long squares, with doors opening into a very wide common hall. In the rooms there are offices and other accommodations for the merchants. * * * * The poor-houses, infirmaries and hospitals are numerous and elegantly conducted. In one of the foundling hospitals I saw about a thousand male and female children dine together in one apartment. Their repast consisted of white bread, with a portion of bursted barley, which is not their usual repast. One of the children, about twelve years old, gave thanks in a small pulpit before and after dinner; and before they dispersed the female part sang a part of a hymn. * * * * From the whole I observed the good and happy effects of economy, regularity and good discipline. The next thing that engaged my attention was the cradle, where I admired the care that was taken of the infants of a hundred parents—poor children whose hearts shall never glow with filial affection, who shall never feel the benign effects of parental love, and whose souls shall never be knit together by the ties of brotherly affection or tender regard. Yet even these are not forgotten by the Almighty Father. They have been snatched from the hand of cruel parents, whose awful wickedness might have led them (were not this means appointed for their preservation) to imbrue their hands in their innocent blood.
“ Next day, being the Sabbath, we went to Back-lane and neard the Rev. Samuel Craig deliver a very elegant discourse from these words: ‘ Fear not, little flock; it is my Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.’ Monday I spent walking up and down for amusement, viewing the canals, bridges, etc., and going out of the city a few miles to where I might have a good prospect. I also visited the Royal Ex- change, and saw the most respectable part of the merchants oi Dublin assembled to do business.
“ Tuesday I went with a party to the Botanic Gardens, where we saw the vegetable world in miniature. The Gar- dens contain about sixteen acres. Here are the productions of the torrid zone, reared by the ~ost assiduous care under
DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA, 95
glass—the herbs of sandy Africa and all the plants of the Indies. Here are themes sufficient for the naturalist, the horticulturist and the botanist. Wednesday, I paid a visit to the Museum, where I was greatly delighted with the elegance of the appearance, the vast variety of curiosities that presented themselves to my view. Birds of every species, preserved in full form, drew my attention on one hand ; on the other, the beasts of the forest and the tenants of the main. Add to these, the great variety of terrene and marine produc- tions; the works of nature and of art; the whole tribe of insects; the medals and coins of other years, and specimens from the mines and minerals of many nations. * * * >» Same day, I took a walk round the College and the College Green, and conversed with one of the students. The College is one superb square, and the Green delightful. The public buildings in Dublin are elegantly magnificent: the most superb street is Sackville street, where there was a monument erecting in memory of Lord Nelson. Dublin is a little world in itself. The inhabitants are numerous, and in general hospitable and generous. During my stay, I stopped at the house of Mr. Lukey, a respectable and worthy gentleman.”
On Thursday he returned home and continued his preparations for the voyage, which being completed by the 20th of September, the whole family set out that day for Londonderry, where they arrived safely in four days. Their ship, the Hibernia, was, however, not yet ready to sail, and they were detained here eight days waiting upon it. At length, on the 28th of September, the vessel weighed anchor in Lough Foyle, with the design of putting out to sea, but, the wind soon proving adverse, cast anchor again. On the rst of October (1808), wind and tide being favorable, she hoisted sail and took her departure, firing off, by way of adieu, the ten pieces of cannon with which she was armed. Toward evening, when near the mouth of the Lough,
96 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDEK CAMPBELL.
the wind failed and the anchor was cast for the night. Next morning, which was the Lord’s day, the wind again favoring, they passed out into the Atlantic, but came to anchor again not far from Innishowen, from which place some of the passengers desired to obtain their supply of whisky. It began now to appear that the ship, though strongly built and a good sailer, was very poorly manned and managed. The captain, Jacob Jumer, was self-willed and given withal to drink. The sailors were mostly young and inexperienced. The mate, Mr. Ryan, was evidently the only good seaman on board, and he and a Dutchman, who was a good hand, seemed to be equal to the half of the crew, which consisted of twelve, including the cook’s mate and cabin-boy. A large number of passengers had been taken on board, many of whom were Catholics, having a priest along with them. Comfortable quarters had been obtained, somewhat apart, for Mrs. Campbell and her family, where they read books, conversed with each other, attended to their usual family duties, and where Alexander conducted their worship regularly morning and evening. He had now just entered upon his twenty-first year. He was tall, athletic and well-pro- portioned, with much of that bloom and freshness in his complexion so common in the youth of Ireland. He had an air of frankness about him, blended with decision and self-reliance, which at once inspired re- spect; yet he was affable and fond of conversing with others and eliciting information. The next in age, his sister Dorothy, now in her sixteenth year, was some- what tall and slender, but erect in Carriage, with regu- lar features, having an intelligent and thoughtful expres- sion. She was well versed in the Scriptures, having a fine memory and a strong, masculine understanding,
FAMILY ON SHIPBOARD. 97
resembling in this respect her brother Alexander more than any of the family. Next to her was her sister Nancy, about thirteen, more like her father in figure, and of a very quiet and retiring disposition. Jane was the next in age, and now in her ninth year, had just re- covered from her tedious confinement with the small- pox, which, though it had destroyed the beauty of her complexion, left still a very engaging face, with hand- some features and bright, expressive eyes. Thomas, a boy of over six years, of an extremely active and restless temperament, with the two younger, Archibald and Alicia, of four and two years respectively, as yet mere children, were their mother’s especial care to guard them from the unaccustomed dangers of the ship. All of them, in the novel circumstances in which they were now placed, realized more fully than ever the fam- ily and social ties that bound them to each other, and endeavored to make each other as happy as possible, in the expectation of soon reaching Philadelphia, to which port the ship was bound. But a very different destina- tion awaited her. voL L—G 9
CHAPTER VII
At Sea—Scottish Coast—Imminent Peril—Determinations—Rescue— Views of Prayer.
O abandon for ever one’s native land, with all its
endearing associations, naturally gives rise to emotions of sadness. Such were the feelings of Thomas Campbell’s family when the vessel, setting sail again on the following morning, gradually left the shores ot green Erin in the dim and misty distance. But the remembrance of a beloved husband and father waiting to receive them in the Western World, the hopeful buoyancy of youth, and the strange groups and ever- shifting scenes on board the vessel, soon gave rise to other and more cheerful thoughts.
The wind in the early part of the day was fair, but toward evening, off Malin Head, it became adverse, and increased so much in force that the ship was unable to make head against it, even when close-hauled. It became necessary, therefore, to take in sail and run before the wind all night. Next morning they found themselves near the coast of Scotland, which, from their position on the previous day, lay only about thirty miles to the north-east. As they approached the shore, it appeared very rocky and dangerous, but the captain succeeded in running the vessel into a very crooked bay which happened to be near. Neither he nor the
sailors appeared to know precisely on what part of the 98
PREMONITIONS OF DANGER. 99
coast they were; but some time after daybreak pilots came on board and informed them that they were in Lochin-Daal Bay, on the coast of the island of Islay ; adding that this part of the bay was very unsafe, many vessels having been wrecked there. They therefore advised the captain to proceed on further, to a better harbor near a small village called Bowmore, which was the chief town of the island. The captain, however, being resolved to go out to sea again as soon as ever the wind would permit, concluded to remain for the present where he was, and accordingly cast anchor.
Here they remained for three entire days, the wind continuing still unfavorable. During this period, Alex- ander occupied himself in observing the motley crowd of passengers, in conversing occasionally with the more intelligent, and in reading some of the books he had selected for the voyage. Some of the Catholics on board, having heard him engage in prayer with the family at morning and evening worship, seemed in- clined to show their contempt for Protestants by occa- sionally requesting him, in a bantering tone, to pray for them. To such jeers, however, he paid no attention, knowing well the ignorance and the bigotry by which they were dictated.
On the evening of the 7th October, the ship still riding at anchor in the bay, and no appearance of any threatening danger, a singular circumstance occurred tohim. After having attended to family worship and Scripture recitation as usual, he had reclined upon one of the sofas, and was reading aloud to his sister Doro- thea in ‘‘Boston’s Fourfold State.” Finding, after some time, that she was becoming drowsy, he ceased read- ing, and soon afterward himself fell into a somewhat uneasy slumber. At length he started up with evident
100 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
marks of alarm, and told his mother and sisters that he was confident a great danger was impending, and that he feared they were about to be shipwrecked. He said he had just had a most vivid dream, in which he thought the ship had struck upon a rock, and that the water came rushing in and nearly filled the vessel. He thought he had been making the most strenuous exertions to save the family and secure their luggage ; and so strong was the impression made upon his mind that he said, “I will not undress to-night. I will lay my shoes within my reach, and be ready to rise at a moment’s warning; and I would advise you all to be prepared for an emergency.”
All having at length retired to their berths, the decks and cabins became quiet, and no noise was heard but the dull sound of the waves as they dashed against the sides of the vessel, the whistling of the wind through the rigging, or the creaking of the cables as the ship began to strain upon them more and more. Finally, about ten o’clock, the wind, veering toward the south, increased rapidly to a severe gale, blowing directly into the bay. Ina few moments the passengers were sud- denly aroused by a violent shock, accompanied with the crashing sound of breaking timbers and the rushing of water into the main hold of the vessel. Instantly all was commotion and terror. The ship, ıt appeared, had dragged her anchors, and had been dashed upon a sunken rock, which had penetrated her bottom, while the force of the wind and waves had thrown her almost upon her beam-ends. As the passengers scrambled to the upper deck, they found the captain calling up all hands to cut away the masts. In the confusion, how- ever, but a single axe could be found. With this the sailors commenced to hew at the masts, while some of
DECISION IN TIME OF PERIL. tor
the passengers who had broadswords assisted witk these in cutting away the stays. The masts being at length cut and falling overboard, the ship righted to some extent, fortunately still remaining upon the rock, upon which she seemed to settle more firmly as she gradually filled with water. All the passengers, with whatever baggage they could rescue, were now crowded upon the upper deck, exposed to the fury of the ele- ments, as wave after wave of immense size ap- proached and broke upon the vessel, sweeping the deck and threatening instant destruction. The captain now ordered minute-guns to be fired in token of dis- tress, but such was the noise of winds and waves that it seemed impossible that they could be heard on shore. The situation, indeed, appeared to all to be desperate —the violence of the storm continuing, the long and dreary night before them, and no prospect of any human help.
It was now that Alexander, having done all that was possible for the present safety of his charge, abandoned himself to reflection as he sat on the stump of the broken mast, and, in the near prospect of death, felt, as never before, the vanity of the aims and ambitions of human life. The world now seemed to him a worth- less void, and all its attractions a vain, delusive show. Kingdoms, thrones and sceptres could not, he thought, if offered, excite one wish for their possession. The true objects of human desire and the true purposes of man’s creation now appeared to him in all their excel- lence and glory. He thought of his father’s noble life, devoted to God and to the salvation of his fellow- beings, and felt that such a calling, consecrated to the elevation and everlasting happiness of mankind, was, indeed, the highest and most worthy sphere of action
y»
102 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
in which any human being could engage. It was then, in that solemn hour, that he gave himself up wholly to God, and resolved that, if saved from the present peril, he would certainly spend his entire life in the ministry of the gospel. It was at this moment that he, for the first time, fully decided upon adopting the ministry as his profession.
Calmly submitting himself to the dispensations of Heaven, he now began to observe the conduct of the other passengers. Most of them presented the aspect of extreme terror, as they hopelessly gazed at the careering clouds above or into the surrounding gloom, or shrunk away from the fury of the dashing waves. The Catholics, especially, manifested the most abject fear, and now, no longer in a jeering tone, but in all sincerity and humility, besought him to pray for them. Some of them were telling their beads and muttering prayers to the saints; others were calling aloud on the Virgin Mary and the angels to ‘‘fall the winds and save our bodies ;” strangely enough, never offering a petition for the salvation of their souls. Others were busy confessing their sins to the priest, who was grant- ing them absolution and endeavoring to prepare them for what seemed their inevitable fate.
Among the passengers, however, there was one un- known female, who, amidst all the dreadful noise and turmoil of the elements and the contagious sympathy of fear, sat quietly by herself, nursing her babe. This, under the circumstances, appeared to the Campbells very singular, and it indicates their comparative calm- ness that they noticed her particularly, as she sat ap- parently unconscious of the raging winds and waves and the imminence of the danger, sheltering, as best she could, her helpless infant.
EFFORTS FOR RESCUE. 103
Meanwhile, upon the ill-fated Hibernia, the rushing waves and the pitiless tempest continued to beat with unabated fury, and the dismal hours of the long and dreary night passed slowly away. About five o’clock, the captain, with the Catholic priest and some of the crew, resolved to make an effort to get ashore in the long-boat. They succeeded in launching the boat and getting clear of the ship, but upon nearing the shore the boat upset in the surf, and it was with great diffi- culty that, by swimming and wading, they at length succeeded in reaching the land. But the captain and most of the sailors had become so much intoxicated by the time they reached the nearest houses that they acted in a rude and boisterous manner, and were un- able to represent properly the exigency of the case, so that it was not until daylight revealed the situation of the vessel that a few inhabitants began to collect upon the beach.
At first, the passengers doubted whether the people who appeared on the barren and rocky coast were disposed to befriend them, or, as is often the case, to act the part of common wreckers, who plunder the un- fortunate. It soon became evident, however, from the signals they made, and their strenuous efforts to launch the boats they gathered from various quarters, that their intentions were to rescue the passengers and crew. All their efforts to board the vessel by means of their boats proving abortive, in consequence of the force of the wind and waves driving shoreward, the passengers were instructed by signals to tie a rope to an empty cask and allow it to drift on shore, while they retained the other end. The cask being caught on shore, its rope was immediately transferred to the prow of one of the boats, which, by the assistance of those on board
[04 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
the ship, was then successfully dragged through the surf, and finally, to their great joy, brought alongside. It was now decided that the women and children should be taken first ashore, but some men seeming resolved to accompany their families, the more resolute passen- gers, drawing their swords, stood at the gangway, and threatened to cut down any man that dared to go until all the weaker portion of the passengers were landed. The arrangement was then carried out, and as each boat-load reached the shore, the boat was drawn back as before for others.
Alexander concluded to remain for the last boat, and while the others were going ashore, perceiving that there was now but little danger of loss of life, he began to think about the property they had on board. Their trunks and boxes, he found, were floating about be- tween-decks, and among them a large cask in which he had packed the books. He at once determined to save these if possible, but as there was now no tackle or means of hoisting the cask to the upper deck, he managed, with great difficulty and at the imminent risk of his life, to break it open with the axe and throw the books upon the deck. After all, however, he found it was impossible to convey them ashore at that time, and as he left the ship with the last of the passengers, he was reluctantly compelled to leave them to the mercy of the elements. It was now about two o’clock, and the tide was at the ebb, so that the boat ran upon a rock a good distance from land, and Alexander, with the rest, had to wade ashore with no little difficulty and danger through the surf. He immediately sought out his mother and the family, and found them assembled safely upon a large rock, where they all rejoiced to- gether at their merciful deliverance, while the rest of
KIND RECEPTION IN ISLAY. 105
tue passengers, gathered around in groups, were con- gratulating each other with the liveliest demonstrations of joy. The people of the island were extremely kind, supplying food and drink to warm and refresh the be- numbed and exhausted, and bringing carts to convey to the village the luggage which was from time to time brought ashore, and which they safely deposited in the store-room of a Mr. Hector Simpson, a merchant of the town.
Every arrangement having been made to secure as much as possible of the property from the wreck, the passengers began to disperse to look for lodgings. Alexander repaired with the family to the nearest and most respectable house he saw, and all were very warmly received by the owner, a widow lady possessed of a respectable fortune, and having a family of grown- up daughters. Her hnsband had been a clergyman, and was said to have translated from the Gaelic many of the fragments regarded as the poems of Ossian. This lady’s maiden name was Campbell; and when it was discovered that her guests were of that name, she, as well as all the rest of the people, seemed to redouble their attentions, for as it now appeared, instead of going to America, they had been thrown directly among the Campbells of Argyleshire, from whom they de- duced their lineage. Having, in this hospitable man- sion, got themselves warmed, dried and refreshed, along with many others of the passengers they pro- ceeded to the town, which was about two miles off, where they obtained lodgings in the house of a Mr. McCallister. Here they meditated with grateful hearts upon the eventful scenes through which they had just passed, and recalling the premonition given by Alex- ander, were assured by him that the reality, as it
106 MEMO/RS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
occurred, was precisely what appeared to him in the forewarning. The appearances of things in his fancy had been verified in the facts, and he had done the very things he supposed himself to have done in his singular dream. He was a very firm believer in special provi- dences, and was the more impressed on this occasion as, in his previous history, he had found his presenti ments several times strangely verified. With him, these were simply facts which he did not pretend to explain upon natural principles, but regarded as indica~ tions of God’s watchful care and interest in the affairs of his people.
He was busily occupied for some days afterward in obtaining from the wreck, as the weather would permit, such books, clothing and other property as had not been washed overboard or otherwise destroyed, and in dry- ing his books and preparing them to be repacked. Laird Campbell, of Shawfield, chief owner of the island and member of Parliament, observing his books, invited him very cordially to his house, and treated him more like a relative than a stranger. Here he spent many pleasant hours, as well as at the house of Mr. Simp- son, whose wife was possessed of much intelligence and piety, and for whom he conceived a very high respect. She was very fond of reading religious books, and seemed to feel a deep interest in the prosperity of Christ’s kingdom. Laird Campbell had appointed Mr. Simpson to take charge of the wreck and secure the property of the passengers, to whom he endeavored to render every service in his power. Alexander got acquainted also with a Mr. Fulton, a very godly man, who taught the principal school, and also kept a Sun- day-school for the benefit of the people.
A portion of his time he spent in viewing the island,
THE HEBRIDES OR WESTERN ISLES. 107
which is, in some parts, hilly, but contains a consider- able amount of arable land, which had been improved by the energetic and skillful management of Laird Campbell. Islay has, indeed, been always noted as the most fertile of all the Hebrides, or Isles of the Gael. These extend along nearly the whole western coast of Scotland, and are about two hundred in number, of which at least thirty of the more southern appertain to Argyleshire. Of these latter, Islay is by far the most important. In former times it was the chief abode of the ‘‘ Lords of the Isles,” who often maintained an au- thority independent of the Scottish Crown, and the ruins of whose castles and strongholds, situated gene- rally on cliffs overhanging the ocean, are seen at various points, as along the coast of Mull and Ardna- murchan. In the centre of Islay there is a lake about three miles in circumference, called Loch Finlagan, from an island situated in it, in which the great McDonald, King of the Isles, formerly had his resi- dence. Here also was held, we are told, the high court of judicature, consisting of fourteen members, to which there was an appeal from all the courts of the isles, the chief judge receiving, as his fee, the eleventh part of the sum in dispute. The ruins of the ancient edifices, and the traditions of celebrated chieftains who had lived in Islay, as lords of Innisgael,* such as “¢ good John of Islay” and ‘‘ Ronald of the Isles,” who, in his castle of Dunnaverty, protected Bruce in his distress, could not but excite a deep interest in the mind of a youthful traveler, himself not unrelated to the people among whom these relics and histories were fondly cherished.
* Isles of the Gael. They also ruled over Ross-shire and other parts of the adjacent mainland.
108 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
On the second Lord’s day after the shipwreck, the first having been necessarily occupied in attending to the property at the wreck, he visited early in the morn- ing the Sunday-school taught by Mr. Fulton. The children read the Scriptures, repeated psalms and the catechism, after which Mr. Fulton gave an exposition of some Scripture, sung, prayed and dismissed with a benediction. Afterward, he went to hear the Rev. Mr. McIntosh, the Scots’ Church minister of the parish. He seems at this time to have been growing more and more doubtful in regard to the claims of the clergy, and more careful and critical in observing their pro- ceedings. ‘‘ He was entertained,” he remarks, ‘* with a specimen of good old Scotch divinity,” and was pleased with the ‘* aspect, pronunciation and gravity of the venerable parson.” He preached from the text ‘*Let us come boldly to the throne of grace” in the forenoon, and in the afternoon addressed his audience in Gaelic. At the morning service the laird and his family were present in their pew, situated in the most conspicuous place in the church, and Alexander noticed that the minister made a particular mention of them all in his prayer, with earnest petitions on their behalf. On the following Lord’s day they were absent, as the laird was about to take his seat in Parliament, and Alexander noticed that they were equally absent from the prayers of the parson. This made quite a forcible impression on his mind, and, as he remarked after- ward in his Christian Baptist, ‘‘ became a subject of curious reflection.”
“I had not, however,” he adds, “ traveled very far till I found it was a general practice in all parish churches, when the patron was present, to give him a large portion of the opening prayer, but always when absent he was forgotten. Being
COMPLIMENTARY PRAYERS. 109
but just arrived at the period of reflection, and determined to study men as well as things, I became very attentive to the prayers of not only the parish clergy, but of all others. I observed it to be a general rule that when two or three n.inis- ters of the same party happened to be present in the same pulpit, whichever one prayed he made particular supplica- tions for his ministering brethren. Thus the parson A prayed very ardently for his brothers, parsons B and C, when they were present; but when B and C were absent, A asked for no blessings for them. I do not know that I ever saw it otherwise in any sect or in any country. I noted this fact in my pocket-book of memorandums, and placed it under the same head with those of the parish ministers for their patrons. I think I headed this chapter, in my juvenile fancy, with the words ‘ COMPLIMENTARY PRAYERS, or prayers addressed to human beings not yet deified.”
In the same article he goes on to detail a subsequent similar experience. ‘In processof time,” he remarks, ‘* I happened to make a tour with a very devout divine, and as he always spent the night in the house of some of his ‘ lay brethren,’ in offering up his evening sacrifice, or what is more commonly called ‘leading in family worship,’ he never forgot to pray in an especial manner for his host, earnestly desiring that the family among whom he spent the night might be peculiarly blessed. During fourteen days and nights which I spent in his company, he never once forgot to pray for the proprietor of the house that gave him his supper and bed. In justice to his devotion, I should remark that one evening was spent at an inn, where he asked the liberty of attending upon family worship, and there he also prayed as fervently for his land- lord and landlady as if in a private family. In justice to the landlord, too, I should observe that he remitted to him his bill in the morning, with an invitation to give him a call when convenient. * * œ> œ This I also noted down under the head of ‘complimentary prayers.’” In order, however, to prevent misunderstanding, he adds: “ I would not be under stood as censuring the practice of one Christian praying for
16
110 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
another when it is by request, or when, trom any considera- tion, it becomes necessary, or of a whole church praying for another church, or for one member or for those that are not members, either in their presence or absence. But this is quite a different thing from those prayers which we call complimentary, which, if not intended as a mere compli- ment, most certainly appear so in the above instances at least, and in many others which might be adduced. * * * =»
“It is usually allowed that it is one of the greatest and best of blessings that we should be admitted to lift up our voices to the throne of the Universe. But if ever there be a moment in a Christian’s life when humility and sincerity be- come him well, this is the moment, when he is speaking to that glorious and mighty One, before whose throne ‘ seraphs veil their faces and angels prostrate fall? Our words, as- suredly, should be few and well ordered—no pomp of lan- guage, no vain parade of words, no compliment to men when we claim the audience of our Almighty Maker.”
He always thought it incongruous for any one lead- ing in prayer with others to offer special petitions for one or more of those who are supposed to unite in the prayer, while he uses at the same time the first person plural, ‘‘ we ask,” ‘* we pray,” etc., thus including the person prayed for in the terms employed, while in point of fact he is necessarily excluded from the address offered by others on his behalf. He therefore carefully avoided the practice which he condemned, and neither he nor his father were in the habit of offering up special peti- tions for any who, at the time, united in the prayer. By both of them, prayer was regarded as a sacred priv- ilege, to be exercised with a very strict regard to the proprieties of the occasion. As to their style, it may be well to observe here, while the subject of prayer is under consideration, that Alexander generally used great plainness and directness of expression, while his
MANNER IN PRAYER. 111
thanksgivings and petitions were comprehensive, scrip- tural and appropriate to the circumstances. His father went more into detail, was more diffuse, and his thoughts, as well as his sentences, were sometimes in- volved. He was disposed to make a rather redundant use of adjectives, both in his prayers and sermons, and when quoting Scripture, as he constantly did in both, he could not in some cases forbear adding epithets, in order, if possible, to enhance the force of the language. Thus, when at the close of his prayer he would some- times embody in it what is commonly called the Lord’s Prayer, instead of the simple words, ‘‘thy will be done,” he would say, ‘‘thy blessed and holy will be done.’ Again, instead of asking for ‘‘mercy” and ‘‘ grace,” he would pray for ‘‘ sin-pardoning mercy and sanctifying grace.” With the exception, however, of those cases in which his feelings led him thus to endeavor to exalt and magnify the Divine perfections, he was careful to quote the exact language of Scripture. Alexander, on the other hand, seemed often to prefer a paraphrase, though he was fond of using a new version if it ren- dered the sense more clear. Thus, instead of saying, ‘“ Lead us not into temptation,” he would say ‘‘ Aban- don us not to temptation ;” instead of ‘‘ Deliver us from evil,” “ Deliver us from the Evil One.” With regard to the Lord’s Prayer, both regarded it as a model rather than a prescribed formula, and thought it, at least in regard to one of its petitions, as being specially de- signed for the time at which it was given. At that time Christ’s kingdom had not yet been fully set up on earth, and there was a propriety then in the petition ‘thy kingdom come.” But when the kingdom had come, and had been publicly set up and established, as re- corded in the second chapter of Acts, this petition
,
Lo Se MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
ceased to be appropriate, at least in its original applica- tion. If, then, the expression ‘‘thy kingdom come” happened to be used by Thomas Campbell, he was careful to apply it to the second coming of Christ in his kingdom, and to say, ‘‘thy kingdom come, in its ulti- mate fullness and glory;” while Alexander perhaps would say, ‘May thy kingdom be established in the hearts of the children of men.” Both were given to amplification. The father was disposed to enlarge the expression ; the son to amplify the thought. The former would enforce by means of epithets and repetition; the latter by extending the idea in connecting it with its antecedents or its results. Both were characterized by fluency, solemnity, fervency and manifest sincerity. In neither was there any tendency to ornate or pompous diction, or to a loud and boisterous delivery. To some, indeed, Alexander’s style of prayer might at first appear too composed and calm; but his manner was the natural expression of a high intellectual nature, necessarily un- demonstrative, as holding the feelings in abeyance, but not on that account less deep, fervid and sincere. Ina word, his manner was reverential without being abject; deliberate, but not frigid; earnest, but not impassioned ; while his dignified and solemn bearing, the distinct intonations of his clear and silvery voice, his forcible emphasis, his truly scriptural petitions, his evident realization of his true position, and his self-posed con- sciousness of the nature of the duty in which he was engaged, all contributed to render his prayers most edifying and impressive.
CHAPTER. VIII.
Journeyit gs—Jura—Iona—Account of Columban—Glasgow—Kind recep tion by Greville Ewing.
Sagan providences are seldom properly compre- hended at the time of their occurrence. Events which are afterward recognized as blessings are, at the time, often thought to be disasters; and seeming blessings are found subsequently to prove the greatest evils. When Simeon was detained in Egypt, the patri- arch Jacob said: ‘‘Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.” But these apparent privations were only the appointed means through which he himself and his house were to be reunited and preserved. Rachel thought the possession of a child would be the highest joy on earth; but when Benjamin was born, she found occasion to call him Benoni, ‘‘son of my sorrow.” The shipwreck which Thomas Campbell’s family had suffered seemed to be a complete disappointment of all their hopes, as it was an entire frustration of their plans and purposes. But there was an important work for Alexander to accomplish, needing special preparation both of heart and mind; and this seeming calamity was afterward seen to be one of the most important of that train of events by which that preparation was secured. Already had it led him to a final determina- tion as to his proper field of labor; and the circum- voL .—H io* 113
[14 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
stances in which it directly involved him were those precisely adapted to qualify and guide him in that future life-work.
While the family were engaged in securing, drying and packing up whatever portion of their property could be recovered from the wreck, it became an im- portant question with them what course to pursue. Their passage-money had been at once honorably re- funded by the owners of the vessel, and by going to some shipping-port they might have renewed their attempt to cross the ocean. But the season was now far advanced, and even if new preparations had been made, which would have required some weeks, Mrs. Campbell and her daughters were unwilling to tempt again so soon the dangers- from which they had just escaped. It became evident, therefore, that their em- barkation for America would have to be postponed until, at least, the stormy winter months were past, and they thought it best to remain, in the mean while, in some suitable place in Scotland. The selection of such a place was not difficult, for, as Alexander felt an ardent desire to spend some time at the University where his father had been educated, it was at once determined that they would all proceed to Glasgow.
From Bowmore, it was necessary to travel about one hundred and thirty miles by land and water in order to reach Glasgow, owing to the somewhat circuitous nature of the route. Accordingly, all things being in readiness, on Monday, October 24, the most of the baggage was forwarded to Greenock by the Bowmore and Greenock packet, the family concluding to go by a more comfortable and direct way. Before starting, Alexander obtained a letter of introduction from Mr. George Fulton to Rev. Greville Ewing; one from Mr.
THE ISLAND OF JURA. a15
Hector Simpson, merchant, to Mr. William Harley, manufacturer; and one from the Rev. Mr. McIntosh, the parish minister, to Rev. Mr. McKenzie of Glasgow. A conveyance being obtained for his mother and the younger children, with the remainder of the baggage, he sent them forward to Port Askeg, about ten miles distant, on the eastern side of the island, from which place all were to take a boat to Tarbet. He, himself, with a companion, walked down in the evening and found all safely arrived, though his mother and one of his sisters had been greatly endangered by a fall from the vehicle on their way. Port Askeg is a small harbor in the narrow sound between Islay and Jura. Near the edge of the high bluff which here forms the coast of Islay, a large building had been erected for the accom- modation of passengers, and from this point a boat sailed, usually twice a week, for Tarbet, about thirty- five miles distant on the way to Glasgow.
On the opposite side of the sound lay the island of Jura, whose shore is shelving and less steep than that of Islay, but the interior of the island seemed to pre- sent nothing except great mountains and rocky cliffs. Having waited in vain, on the following day, for the packet, which was detained by contrary winds, and finding that on the morning of the 26th there was still no sign of it, Alexander, pleased with the majestic aspect of the mountains of Jura, determined to cross over the sound to visit them. He found the island wild, rude and almost uncultivated, there being but few houses and very little arable land. He ascended some of the lofty peaks called the ‘‘Paps of Jura,” and was greatly delighted with the bold and romantic scenery presented to his view. Covered mostly with heath, these lofty elevations and rugged slopes furnished a
116 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
scanty pasturage for a species of coarse-wooled sheep recently introduced with great advantage into the High- lands. He admired greatly the flocks of these animals, so clean and white and marked with black spots upon their foreheads, grazing like herds of deer amidst the wild scenery. He viewed with a degree of awe the precipitous cliffs which presented themselves as he toiled up the steep ascent, and contemplated with de- light the rills of limpid water which, issuing near the summits, fell from rock to rock like tiny streams of liquid silver, until they disappeared in the deep and silent glens.
Alexander had an excellent appreciation of the beau- tiful, and especially of the grand, in Nature, and was always pleased with extensive prospects and fine land- scapes. In these respects he differed much from his father, who seemed to pay little or no attention to any- thing of this kind. If he were called to see a fine view, he would readily acquiesce in the admiration of those who had directed his attention to it, but the next moment he would be found engaged in what seemed constantly to occupy his mind—the goodness of God and the salvation of men. Upon Nature around him he seemed ever to look with the eye of a utilitarian, and if directed to the beauty of a flower, would begin to inquire respecting the uses of the plant, and es- pecially if it possessed medical qualities. To cure or alleviate the evils, both physical and spiritual, to which man is subject, to fear God and keep his command- ments, seemed to be his whole concern. The esthetics which claimed his attention were, so to speak, those of the human soul—the beauty of virtue—the charms of godliness and the attributes of the Creator, glorious in holiness and infinite in all his perfections. But Alex-
TASTE FOR MUSIC AND POETRY. 114
ander, while he was impressed, perhaps as profoundly as his father, with spiritual excellence and beauty, and the sublime revelations of Deity, seemed to superadd to this, from a wider range of thought and feeling, and his more acute perception of the resemblances of things and of their relations, a considerable taste for the beauties of Nature and of Art. With him, these gave rise, however, to a calm feeling of enjoyment, rather than to enthusiastic admiration, nor was their contem- plation usually unmingled with considerations economi- cal and practical. In regard to the strictly imitative arts, as painting and sculpture, his taste had received no culture, and he made no pretensions to a critical judgment. In music, especially sacred music, he took great pleasure, and was visibly affected by it, often calling, when the occasion permitted, for the singing of psalms and hymns, and, though unable to carry the air alone, uniting in the singing with a clear, musical voice and evident enjoyment. In regard to poetry, to which he had already paid considerable attention, his taste was more developed, and his judgment even criti- cal, though he was more disposed to exercise it upon the sentiment, which in poetry is secondary, than upon the expression, which is primary, and much more sensi- ble of defective imagery than of defective rhythm.
He was, at this time, quite an admirer of the poems of Ossian. Whether or not, with Drs. Blair, Gregory and many other Scotch critics, he believed in the genu- ineness of these poems, he was at least much taken with the tenderness and sublimity so characteristic of them, and had been at the pains of copying into his common-place book extended extracts from them. As much of the beauty of these poems is derived from local associations, it were easier to imagine than to
t18 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
describe his feelings now, when, upon the summit of one of the lofty peaks of Jura, he found himself amidst the very scenes described by the poet, where ‘‘the mountains showed their gray heads,” ‘* the blue face of ocean smiled,” and ‘‘the white wave was seen tumbling round the distant rock.” In fancy, he might almost hear the ‘‘ murmur of the streams of Lora,” or see in the distance the ‘‘ halls of Selma” and the groves of ‘* woody Morven,” for it was but a few leagues across the arm of the sea which washes the northern shore of Jura to the isle of Mull, with its towering Bein Vore visible to the distant islands, and but a few miles further to the narrow sound, where, upon the mainland toward the right, a district of Argyleshire still retains the name of Morven, and where, amidst the finest and most romantic natural scenery of the Western Isles, and the ruins of ancient castles upon the rocky cliffs, both his- tory and tradition serve to enhance the enjoyment of the present through the associations of the past.
But we cannot suppose his thoughts confined to themes of mere scenic or poetic interest or to those of legendary lore, for close to the isle of Mull, off its western coast, lay the isle of Staffa, with its basaltic pillars and its celebrated Cave of Fingal, and directly opposite the opening of this cave, at a distance of some seven miles, the island of Iona, most of all likely to awaken the reflections and to enchain the attention of the youthful and religious student. This, as Dr. John- son observes, is ‘‘ that illustrious island which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavored, and would be foolish, if it were
MONASTERY OF IONA. 119
possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and from my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery or virtue. That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Jona.” Here are still to be seen the ruins of an august monas- tery and cathedral, and of three royal chapels, with extensive cemeteries, filled with numerous graves of those now unknown, but who, as Dr. Johnson observes, ‘did not expect to be so soon forgotten.” For it is in this hallowed earth, to use the language of Scott,
“ Where rest from mortal coil the mighty of the isles ;”
and tradition makes it also the place of sepulture for the kings of Scotland, and even for the monarchs of other lands, brought hither to rest in the consecrated soil of the Holy Isle.
There is not a more charming or interesting portion of history than that which records the life and labors of Columban, who, in the sixth century, rendered the little island of Iona a brilliant centre of learning and of pure religion amidst the darkness and idolatry that then brooded over Great Britain, when an imperfect and Popish Christianity, mingling itself with the bar- barous superstitions of Scandinavian mythology, led Redwald, King of East Anglia, to place a Christian altar by the side of the statue of Woden. Intelligent and noble youths here assembled from various regions ; some, like Oswald, to be educated for the discharge of
{20 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
kingly duties; others to be prepared, by a course of discipline and study, usually of eighteen years’ duration. to be ordained as missionaries and instructors, not only to enlighten their own country, but to labor in other fields both dangerous and remote. After all the con- troversies that have been waged in reference to the history of these Culdees of Iona, it is generally ad- mitted that their doctrines and their lives were pure and simple; that they rejected the Romish ceremonies, doctrines and traditions; that, as even Bede admits, though himself indignant at their repudiation of the authority of the Bishop of Rome, ‘‘they preached only such works of charity and piety as they could learn from the prophetical, evangelical and apostolic writ- ings ;” that they boldly asserted the exclusive authority of the Scriptures, and that their modes of worship and their forms of church government were primitive and simple.*
* The labors of that remarkable missionary, Patrick, had prepared the way for those of Columban. Patrick was a Scotchman, born in the fourth century, in the village of Boneven (since called in honor of his memory Kilpatrick), between Dumbarton and Glasgow. He led a wild, thoughtless life till about seventeen, when, with many others, he was carried off to Ire- land by pirates, and sold to an Irish chieftain. While herding his cattle he became deeply impressed with religion, and the spirit of devotion glowed within him. Making his escape after six years, he returned home to Scot- land; but meditating upon the unenlightened and barbarous state of the people in Ireland, he found no rest in his spirit, but experienced an irresist- ible desire to carry the message of salvation to those among whom he had passed so many years of his youth. “ Whence did I receive,” he says, “so great and blessed a gift, to know and love God, to leave native land and parents, although many gifts were offered to me with tears if I would remain there? And against my wishes I was forced to offend my relations and many of my well-wishers. But, according to God’s guidance, I did not yield to them at all; not by my own power, but it was God who conquered in me, and withstood them all; so that I went to the people of Ireland to publish the gospel to them, and suffered many insults from unbelievers and many persecutions, even unto bonds, resigning my liberty for the good of others.
LABORS OF COLUMBAN. 13)
Columban was an Irishman, born in the village of Garten, in county Donegal, about A. D. 565. It was while at the monastery of Bangor, which contained three
And if I am found worthy, I am ready to give up my life with joy for His name’s sake.”
He is supposed to have gone to Ireland about 431, and for the rest of his life continued to preach Christ amidst many persecutions and trials through- out Ireland, reclaiming the people from idolatry and barbarism, and estab- lishing monasteries distinguished for strict Christian discipline, for industry, for a knowledge of the Scriptures and the best learning of the age, so that Ireland became, for a time, under these influences, the most enlightened country of Europe, and acquired the title of the “ Isle of Saints.” Patrick himself, afterward, when Popery became fully developed, was canonized and became the tutelar saint of Ireland with the Catholics.
Although the devotion and purity of purpose of the eminent men to whom Ireland owed this distinction can hardly be exaggerated, the effects produced by their labors was great, not so much in itself as in contrast with the dark- ness and degradation that prevailed among the people; and, though their influence undoubtedly enlightened and civilized many, it never pervaded the mass of the population, who remained barbarous and uneducated, and soon afterward fell an easy prey to the superstitions of the Church of Rome. On this point, Southey remarks, in his Life of Wesley: “Melancholy and anomalous as the civil history of Ireland is, its religious history is equally mournful and not less strange. Even at the time when it was called the Island of Saints, and men went forth from its monasteries to be missionaries, not of monachism alone, but of literature and civilization, the mass of the people continued savage, and was something worse than heathen. They accommodated their new religion to their own propensities with a perverted ingenuity at once humorous and detestable, and altogether peculiar to them- selves. Thus, when a child was immersed in baptism, it was customary not to dip the right arm, to the intent that he might strike a more deadly and ungracious blow therewith, and under an opinion, no doubt, that the rest of the body would not be responsible, at the resurrection, for anything that had been committed by the unbaptized hand. Thus, too, at the baptism, the father took the wolves for his gossips, and thought that, by this profanation, he was forming an alliance, both for himself and his boy, with the fiercest beasts of the woods. The son of a chief was baptized in milk; water was not thought good enough, and whisky had not then been invented. They used to rob in the beginning of the year, as a point of devotion, for the pur- pose of laying up a good stock of plunder against Easter; and he whose spoils enabled him to furnish the best entertainment at that time was looked upon as the best Christian.”
11
(22 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
thousand monks, that Columban became impressed with the earnest desire to go out amidst difficulties and dan- gers to publish the gospel and to establish Christian discipline among savage nations.”
“O that God would grant,” said he, as quoted by Ne ander “ (since, insignificant as I am, still I am his servant), that he would awaken me out of the sleep of indolence, and so kindle that fire of Divine love that this Divine flame may always burn within me! O that I had the wood with which that fire might be continually nourished, that it might never more be quenched, but always increase within me! O Lord, give me I beseech thee, in the name of Jesus Christ thy Son, my God, that love which can never cease, that will kindle my lamp, but not extinguish it, that it may burn in me and enlighten others. Do thou, O Christ, our dearest Sa- viour, thyself kindle our lamps, that they may evermore shine in thy temple ; that they may receive unquenchable light from thee—the unquenchable light that will enlighten our darkness. and lessen by us the darkness of the world! My Jesus, I pray thee, give thy light to my lamp, that in its light the most holy place may be revealed to me, in which thou dwellest as the eternal Priest, that I may always behold thee, desire thee, look upon thee in love, and long after thee. It belongs to thee to show thyself to us thy suppliants, O Saviour full of love, that we may know thee, love thee alone, think of thee alone day and night, that thy love may fill our souls, and that this love so great may never more be quenched by the many waters of this earth ; as it is written, ‘ many waters cannot quench love.’”
Permission having been granted by the abbot, Colum- ban first fixed upon the island of Iona as a suitable place of retirement and seclusion, and with twelve companions established there a monastery and school, which soon became widely celebrated. Though mo- nastic rules were adopted, and Columban inculcated strict obedience to them as evidence of Christian hu-
TEACHINGS OF COLUMBAN. 133
mility, he seems to have encouraged individual freedom, and to have directed the thoughts of the brotherhood to the greatest attainment of the Christian life—the sur- render of the will to God.
“We must willingly surrender,” says he, ‘+ for Christs sake, what we love out of Christ. First of all, if it is neces- sary, our bodily life must be surrendered by martyrdom for Christ. Or, if the opportunity be wanting for such blessed- ness, the mortification of the will must not fail, so that they who live henceforth live not unto themselves, but unto him who died for them. Let us therefore live to him who, though he died for us, is the life. Let us die unto ourselves, that we may live to Christ. For we cannot live to him, if we do not first die ourselves, that is, our own wills. Let us be Christ’s, not our own; we are bought at a dear price, truly so; for the Master gave himself for the servant, the King for his attendants, God for man. What ought we to give in return when the Creator of the universe died for us sinners, who yet were his creatures? Believest thou that it is not necessary to die to sin? Certainly thou must do that. Let us therefore die; let us die for life, since he who is the life, died for the dead; that we may be able to say with Paul, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, who died for me;’ for this is the language of the chosen. No one can die to himself, if Christ does not live in him. But if Christ be in him, he cannot live to himself. Live in Christ, that Christ may live in thee.”
Such were his sweet lessons in relation to a true union with Christ, nor were his warnings against speculations in religion less remarkable. Speaking against idle subtleties about the Trinity, he says:
« Who can speak of the essence of God? How he is everywhere present and invisible, or how he fills heaven and earth and all creatures, according to these words, ‘ Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?’ Jeremiah xxiii. 24.
124 MEMOIF'S OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
[he universe is full of the Spirit of the Lord. ‘ Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool.’ God therefore is every- where in his own infinity ; everywhere altogether nigh, ac- cording to his own testimony of himself. ‘Am I not a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? We there- fore seek after God not as one who is far from us, since we can apprehend him in our own inward souls, for he dwells in as as the soul in the body, if we are not dead in the service of sin. If we are susceptible of this, that he is in us, then we are truly made alive by him, as his living members. ‘In him,’ says the apostle, ‘we live and move and have our being.’ Who shall search out the Most High accordi.ig to this his unutterable and inconceivable essence? Who shall fathom the depths of the Godhead? Who shall boast that he knows the infinite God, who fills and surrounds all things; who penetrates all things, and is exalted above all; whom no man has seen as he is? Let no one then venture to inquire into the unsearchable essence of God; only believe, simply but firmly, that God is and will be what he was, since he is the unchangeable God. God is perceived by the pious faith of a pure heart, and not by an impure heart and vain dis- course. Art thou disposed to investigate the unutterable with thy subtleties? Then wisdom will be further from thee than it was. Ecclesiastes vii. 24. Dost thou, on the contrary, apprehend him by faith? Then wisdom will stand before thy doors.”
Thus many of the important things that have dis- dnguished the Lutheran and other great religious re- formations were taught and practised in this lonely isle, under the influence of that Divine light which, at sundry times and in various modes, and in different places, has strangely and unexpectedly shone forth amidst the darkness of the nations. This light, how- ever, has long since departed from Iona. When Dr. Johnson visited the island in 1773, he found its fertile but limited area of scarcely three square miles in-
PASSAGE TO TARBET 125
habited by a dense but gross and neglected population, without a school for education or a temple for worship, with but two among them who could speak English, and not one who could read or write. But that light of truth has shone forth in turn in other lands, and the youth who now, from the mountains of Jura, gazed upon the surrounding scenes and thought of former times, was himself destined in a few years, like his countryman Columban, to establish, in a secluded valley of the far-off Western World, a religious reformation based exclusively upon the Bible, and embracing the same striking points of personal trust in Christ and opposition to human speculations which characterized the teachings of Columban; and to found there, like- wise, a literary institution free from the perverting influences of a sectarian theology, and from which youthful and devoted missionaries have already borne a pure apostolic gospel, even to the shores of California and to the distant regions of Australia.
After spending most of the day upon the rugged mountains of Jura, Alexander rambled over other parts of the island, and called at the residence of the pro- prietor, whose name was Campbell, where he was very kindly and hospitably received. As evening ap- proached, he recrossed the sound and returned to the inn, where, though greatly fatigued, he slept but little during the ensuing night. Next morning, about ten o’clock, the packet arrived, and soon after the family embarked with the other passengers who were waiting, and, sailing down the sound with a side wind, arrived, after a rough passage of twenty-four hours, at Art-Pat- rick, ten miles from Tarbet. Here, the wind being ahead, they had to cast anchor. Laird Campbell had a very handsome seat at this place, and his family, who
ne
126 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
were there at this time, learning that some of the ship- wrecked passengers had arrived in the packet, and were detained by a contrary wind, very kindly sent a large row-boat to convey them to Tarbet. As the boat was very heavily laden, having in it twenty-four pas- sengers with their luggage, Alexander found it neces- sary to row without intermission for the whole ten miles, in order to assist its progress. From the place of land- ing there was a land carriage of two miles across the peninsula of Cantyre, in order to reach the packet. In assisting the passengers out with their luggage, he happened, by a sudden movement of the boat, to be thrown into the water, but got out without any other inconvenience than a complete wetting, which, how- ever, might have proved very injurious had he not possessed a vigorous constitution, for, as there was not a sufficient number of conveyances to take all the pas- sengers and their baggage, he, in courteously giving place to others, was finally obliged to remain himself, wet as he was, with his own baggage, very uncomfort- ably upon the lone and rocky shore, until a conveyance could return from Tarbet. He often, in after life, re- ferred to the hours thus spent, when, chilled with the ocean breeze, he paced alone the deserted strand, as among the most dreary he ever passed. But the con- veyance having at length arrived, he was carried to Tarbet, where he got himself dried, and, having ob- tained some supper, went to bed and slept soundly. The next day, being the Lord’s day, October 3oth, he spent chiefly in family duties and in reading, and on the following morning they all set out from ‘the small, uncouth village of Tarbet,” as he styles it, in a packet bound for Greenock. The wind being fair, they made about half the distance in eighteen hours; but the wind
ARRIVAL AT GREENOCK. 127
now failing, and the captain and sailors becoming drunk. there was a very uncomfortable delay. A Captain Campbell, who was on board with his sisters, growing uneasy, ordered some of the best of the sailors to ferry him ashore. While they were gone the wind rose and was favorable, but having to await the return of the boat, which was long detained, no advantage could be taken of it; and as it soon after failed again, they had to remain in the same position all night. Next morn- ing all the male passengers went ashore, having re- solved to walk to Greenock, nve mues aistant. Here Alexander engaged lodgings, and immediately returned in a boat for his mother and the family ; and after much fatigue and trouble, owing chiefly to the drunken cap- tain, succeeded in getting them all with their luggage safe to Greenock. This he found to be a considerable town, with an excellent harbor filled with ships from foreign ports, as the greater part of the commerce of Scotland was carried on from Greenock and from Glasgow Port, three miles above. Here, too, ended the harassing difficulties of their transportation, which contrast so strongly with the speed and comfort now enjoyed through the agency of steam vessels, first introduced upon the Clyde in 1812, little more than three years afterward.*
* Tt was a native of Greenock, James Watt, who, in 1764, while instrument maker to the University of Glasgow, there first gave to mankind the stean: engine as an effective motive power. This noble invention seems to have been first successfully applied to navigation in the United States by Johi Fitch, upon the Delaware, 12th of October, 1788, in the “ Perseverance,” which made a trip from Philadelphia to Burlington, and attained a speed of six and one-third miles per hour against the current. Fulton’s successful experiment on the Hudson did not occur until 1807. Fitch used paddles moved by steam, but Fulton introduced the paddle weel, which is said to have been previously invented by Mr. Miller of Dalswinton, Dumfrieshire Scotland.
428 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
Deeming it advisable to reach Glasgow in advance of his mother and sisters, in order to have suitable lodgings in readiness, Alexander, on the 3d of Novem- ber, after having made arrangements for the passage of the family, next day, on the fly-boat plying on the Clyde between Greenock and Glasgow, set out on foot for Glasgow, twenty-three miles distant, where he arrived in the afterpart of the day. After obtaining some refreshments at an inn, he concluded to present his letter of introduction to Mr. Ewing, in order to obtain his advice as to a suitable place of lodging. Calling, therefore, at his house, No. 4 Carlton place, he was most kindly received and hospitably entertained. Next morning, having received Mr. Ewing’s advice and a note from him to the Rev. Mr. John Mitchel, he called and breakfasted with Mr. Mitchel, who rendered him some assistance in finding lodgings, which were at length obtained in Broad street, Hutchinsontown, ready furnished. Here the family, who arrived safely next morning, were duly installed, designing here to spend the winter, while Alexander would attend the classes at the University, and happy in being once more quietly settled after the dangers, fatigues and trials of the past month.
CHA PRE REX: Glasgow University Classes—Essays—Religious Life—Scripture Meditations.
LASGOW, in which the Campbell family were
now to reside for a time, is the chief city of Scot- land as regards wealth, commerce and population. It then contained about one hundred and fourteen thousand inhabitants, and was noted for its extensive manufactures, for which it possessed great facilities, being placed in the midst of a coal deposit averaging fifteen feet in thickness and extending over one hundred and ten square miles. It is adorned with many public buildings and churches, and its venerable cathedral, the only one that escaped the iconoclastic rage of Knox and his ad- herents, is regarded as the finest specimen of Gothic archi- tecture in Scotland. The college extends along the High street more than three hundred feet, and occupies an area of more than two acres. In an elegant building is contained the Hunterian Museum,* a very valuable collection of specimens in natural history, anatomical preparations and medals. The Town Hall is another fine building, much admired for its magnificent front. South-east of the city, on the banks of the river Clyde,
* Dr. William Hunter was a native of Kilbride in Lanarkshire, a pupil of Dr. Cullen, and elder brother of the celebrated John Hunter. He spent a large fortune upon the collection of this splendid Museum, which now enriches the University of Glasgow. Died in 1783, ten years before his brother John.
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130 MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
the “ winding Clutha” of Ossian, there is a fine park of about one hundred and eight acres, adorned with trees, and with more than three miles of graveled walks for the recreation of the citizens. Many interesting per sonal and historical associations cluster around this ancient city, which is supposed to have existed for more than twelve centuries.
Through the courtesy of Mr. Ewing, Alexander was introduced to the different professors of the University, and on the 8th of November, immediately after the ‘*town sacrament,” the time at which the course com- menced, he entered his classes. He had but fairly begun, however, when Mr. Ewing, who seems to have taken a special interest in the family, ascertaining that their place of lodging was incommodious, sought out, of his own accord, a more eligible situation in Youngs- land, Broad street, Hutchinsontown, to which they all removed in the latter part of November. Here they remained during their stay