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LETTERS OF

THOMAS ERSKINE

OF LINLATHEN.

Edinburgh : Printed by Thomas and Archibald Constable,

FOR

DAVID DOUGLAS.

LONDON . HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.

CAMBRIDGE MACMILLAN AND CO.

GLASGOW JAMES MACLEHOSE.

Letters of thomas erskine

OF LINLATHEN

EDITED BY

WILLIAM HANNA, D.D., LL.D.

AUTHOR OF 'MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS,' ETC.

SECOND EDITION

EDINBURGH

DAVID DOUGLAS

1878

[All rights reserved.]

PREFACE.

Ihe late Bishop Ewing, who knew Mr. Erskine inti-
mately, has said, " Should any one attempt to write
the life of Mr. Erskine, the difficulty must ever present
itself to him that what he has to depict is spirit and
not matter, that he has to convey light, to represent
sound — an almost insuperable difficulty. Perhaps it
can only in a measure be overcome by giving his very
words, his thoughts, as they came fresh from his heart,
in letters, memoranda, and such like materials."1 This
is what the Editor of this volume has attempted ;
confining himself to the task of arranging Mr. Erskine's
letters in such order, giving such information, when
necessary, as to the persons addressed, and interlacing
them occasionally with such illustrative narrative, that
by its setting the mirror may be made to reflect, as
clearly and fully as possible, the pure bright image of
one who moved so lovingly and attractively among his

1 Present Day Papers, Third Series, p. 1 1.

PREFACE.

fellow-men, who walked so closely and constantly with
God.

The utmost interest attaches to the origin, progress,
and development of Mr. Erskine's religious beliefs. To
such as desire to trace their history I have either care-
fully presented or indicated the materials out of which
such a history, to be faithful, must be drawn. But I
have not attempted what would have involved an
analysis of Mr. Erskine's mental, moral, and spiritual
idiosyncrasies, as well as a consideration of those laws
which the evolution of his later from his earlier ideas
obeyed. Nor have I entered on the still more in-
teresting and important topic of defining the place he
held in, and estimating the influence he exerted over,
the religious thought and life of his age ; confining
myself to the office of the Editor, and waiving that
of the critic or the historian.

W. HANNA.

16 Magdala Crescent,

Edinburgh, February 1873.

Note. — By omitting some of the Letters, and shortening
the connecting narrative, the two volumes already published
are now made one.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAP. I.— ANCESTRY AND EARLIER YEARS, ... 1

II.— LETTERS TO DR. CHALMERS, AND PUBLICA-
TION OP "REMARKS ON THE INTERNAL
EVIDENCE FOR THE TRUTH OF REVEALED
RELIGION," . . 17

III.— LETTERS FROM THE CONTINENT DURING

THE YEARS 1822-24 . .29

IV.— LETTERS AT HOME, 1825-26, .... 51

V.— LETTERS FROM THE CONTINENT, 1826-27, . 61

VI.— CASE OF THE REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL OF

ROW— LETTERS OF 1828, 1829, 1830, . . 100

VII.— THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS— LETTERS FROM 1830

TILL 1835, ... ..... 129

VIII.— LETTERS FROM 1834 TILL 1837, .... 168

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAP. IX.— DOCTKINAL LETTERS, 184

X.— LETTERS OP 1838 AND 1839, . . . .196

XL— LETTERS FROM 1840 TILL 1844, . . . 244

XII.— LETTERS FROM THE CONTINENT, 1844-46, . 274

XIII.— LETTERS FROM 1847 TILL 1852, ... 283

XIV.— LETTERS FROM 1853 TILL 1856, . . .301

XV.— LETTERS FROM 1856. TILL 1862, . . . 325

XVI.— RECORDS OF A VISIT TO LINLATHEN IN

THE AUTUMN OF 1865, .... 348

XVII.— LETTERS OF 1865 AND 1866, . , . . .368

XVIII.— LETTERS ON SELECT SUBJECTS, ... 382

XIX.— LETTERS OF SYMPATHY AND CONSOLA-
TION, 440

XX.— REMINISCENCES BY A. P. STANLEY, D.D.,

DEAN OF WESTMINSTER, .... 454

XXL— DEATH OF HIS TWO SISTERS, . . . 463

XXIL— LETTERS OF 1867, 1868, AND 1869, ... 475

XXIII. —THE CLOSE, 499

XXIV.— REMINISCENCES BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP, 509

CONTENTS.

APPENDIX.

PAGE

1. Extracts from " The Unconditional Freeness of the

Gospel," 543

2. Extracts from " The Brazen Serpent," . . ... . . 547

3. Extracts from "The Doctrine of Election," etc., . . 553

4. Notice of Mr. Alexander J. Scott, 567

5. Writings of Mr. Erskine, 573

INDEX, 579

LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

CHAPTEE I.

Ancestry and Earlier Years.

The great-grandfather of Thomas Erskine was the Hon-
ourable Colonel John Erskine of Carnock, great-great-grand-
son of the distinguished Earl of Mar, the wise Eegent of
Scotland, and the faithful counsellor of King James VI.
Driven, like his elder brother, the third Lord Cardross
into exile under the reign of the last of the Stuarts,
Colonel Erskine repaired to The Hague, took part in the
expedition of the Prince of Orange into England, and
largely contributed to the settlement of the new govern-
ment in Scotland. One thing however interfered with
the public recognition of his services. Imagining that he
would thereby be held as approving of the constitution
of the Church of England and the manner of its connection
with the State, he could not be persuaded to take the
oaths of allegiance and abjuration. Surprised at not find-
ing Colonel Erskine's name in a list which he had asked
his confidential advisers to present to him of friends
in Scotland entitled to recognition and reward, King
William inquired, and was told the reason of the omission.

^

LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

"It may be so," was the King's reply, "but I know
Lieutenant- Colonel Erskine to be a firmer friend to the
Government than many of those who have taken that
oath." Fifty years' faithful discharge of all the duties of
a good and loyal subject proved that the King's judgment
was correct. In the last Scottish Parliament he repre-
sented the town of Stirling; in 1707 had a seat in
the United Parliament of Great Britain ; and, at the
general election in the following year, was chosen as
member for the Stirling district of burghs. There was,
however, another assembly in which he found a more
congenial sphere of public usefulness. For the long
period of upwards of forty years he was returned annually
by the Presbytery of Dunfermline, within whose bounds
his estate of Carnock lay, as one of their representatives to
the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland ; and it
was one of the many tokens of the confidence which that
Church reposed in him, that when, in 1735, three special
Commissioners were despatched to London to urge upon
the Crown and Government the rescinding of the Act of
1712, which restored the rights of Patrons, he was one of
the three — the single layman — selected to take part in
this important mission.

Universally respected as he was, the Black Colonel (so
called from his complexion, and to distinguish him from
his nephew, the White Colonel) had his own peculiarities.
During the last ten years of his life1 he was afflicted
with asthma. One day, when he was suffering from an
attack which put a fresh edge upon a temper naturally
somewhat inclined to irritability, fires for burning kelp had
been kindled under authority of the magistrates upon the
beach of the Firth of Forth, which lay immediately below

xHe died at Edinburgh on the 13th of January 1743, in the eighty-
second year of his age.

ANCESTRY AND EARLIER YEARS.

his house at Culross. Imagining that the smoke aggravated
his asthma, the Colonel sent down peremptory orders that
the fires should be put out. They were not obeyed. Un-
able to walk, he at once called for his horse, drew his
sword, and handed it to his grandson, a youth of fourteen,
then living with him. Down through the steep street of
the village they went, determined with their own hands to
extinguish the fires. The magistrates were too quick and
too many for them. Gathering their retainers, they sur-
rounded the Colonel and his grandson, and took them
prisoners. The falseness and awkwardness of the position
revealed themselves to him in a moment. Another fire,
that of his own quick passion, was at once extinguished.
" This is all nonsense," he said to the magistrates ; " we
are all in the wrong ; come along to the inn, and let us
dine together and forget this folly." The invitation was
as promptly accepted as it had been given, the best dinner
the innkeeper could produce was supplied, and the evening
spent in perfect good-humour. The youth who upon this
occasion filled the somewhat ludicrous position of sword-
bearer, marching before his grandfather, was no other than
Dr. John Erskine, who afterwards became the eminent
divine, and whose father, the Colonel's eldest son,1 was
then practising at the bar in Edinburgh.

This son in his character and life was a singular contrast
to his father. Thoughtful, retiring, diffident, taking little
interest in public matters, whether of Church or State,
he gave himself to the study of law, and was called to the
Scottish bar in 1719, in his twenty -third year. In 1737
he was appointed Professor of Scottish Law in the Uni-

1 Colonel Erskine was four times married : first, to a daughter of Mure of
Caldwell, without issue ; second, to a daughter of Dundas of Kincavel, by
whom he had four sons and a daughter ; third, to a daughter of Stirling
of Keir, without issue ; and fourth, to a daughter of Stuart of Dunearn,
by whom he had one son.

LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

versity of Edinburgh ; and for twenty-eight years he
taught with pre-eminent ability and success, drawing
around him a larger number of students than had ever
previously attended such a class. In 1754 he published
[his Principles of the Law of Scotland, intended chiefly
as a text-book for the use of his students. In 1765 he
resigned his Professorship and retired to Cardross, an
estate lying near the Lake of Menteith. He purchased
this property from his cousin, the lineal representative of
his ancestors, the Lords Cardross, and from which they
derived the title. Here for the last three years of his life
he occupied himself in perfecting The Institutes of t^.L§w
of Scotland, a work which for a huhdreoTyears has kept its
place of eminence and authority as one of the ablest exposi-
tions in theory and practice of the Law of Scotland, and
has earned for its author the well-merited title of the
"Blackstone of Scottish Jurisprudence."1

The Professor's only child by his first wife, — a daughter
of the Hon. James Melville of Balgarvie,2 was Dr. John
Erskine, of whose life and writings so full an account has
been given by Sir Harry Moncreiff. For fifty years
Dr. Erskine was the centre of a large religious circle —
having among his correspondents Bishops Warburton and
Hurd in England, Jonathan Edwards andJJr. Cotton Mather
in America, and many distinguished divines of the Conti-
nent, in whose labours and their results he took so lively an
interest, that in his sixtieth year he acquired the Dutch and
German languages, then little known in Scotland. More,
perhaps, than any other individual, he contributed to what-
ever progress theological literature made in Scotland during
the last half of the eighteenth century. But it was chiefly

i John Erskine died at Cardross on the 1st of March 1768, in the
seventy-third year of his age.
2 Brother of the second Earl of Leven and third of Melville.

ANCESTRY AND EARLIER YEARS.

as a devout Christian, a devoted pastor, and a zealous
ecclesiastic, that he was known. In the latter character
he acted for many years as the leader of the popular or
Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland. The friendly
and affectionate intercourse which he through life main-
tained with the leader of the opposite party, Dr. Robertson
the historian, tells what the spirit was in which that leader-
ship was conducted. For twenty-three years they, were
associated as colleagues in the pastoral charge of the church
and parish of the Greyfriars in Edinburgh. They were
men of opposite principles, sentiments, and pursuits, yet
they lived in unbroken harmony. Of Dr. Erskine's sermon
on the death of Dr. Robertson, Dugald Stewart has said
that " it would be difficult to say whether it reflected
greater honour on the character of the writer or of him
whom it commemorates." Sir Harry's full-length portrait
of Dr. Erskine is now looked at by few — its colours are
fading away ; but so long as Guy tMannering survives, that
other picture, which Sir "Walter has drawn of the form and
attitude and action of the aged minister in the pulpit of
Greyfriars, will be hanging in the world's galleries before
all eyes, and Pleydell's truthful testimony to Dr. Erskine's
character and worth be listened to.

The eldest son of the author of the Institutes by his
second marriage, with a daughter of Mr. Stirling of Keir,
was James, who succeeded to the estate of Cardross, and
who married a daughter of the Earl of Elgin. The second
son was David, who practised as a Writer to the Signet in
Edinburgh, — " allowed," says Sir Harry Moncreiff,1 " by all
competent judges, to have been one of the ablest and most
honourable men whom his profession has ever produced."
His success corresponded with his ability and integrity,
one fruit of which was the purchase of the estate of
1 Life and Writings of John Erskine, D.D., p. 11.

LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

Linlathen, in the neighbourhood of Dundee, possessed now
by his grandson. From the family record the following
abstract is taken : —

David Erskine and Ann Graham, married 29th April 1781.

John, born 22d February 1782 ; died 3d August 1789.

William, born 1st October 1783 ; died 30th May 1784.

Ann, born 4th September 1786 ; died 5th May 1804.

James, born 2d November 1787 ; died 26th August 1816.

Thomas, born 13th October 1788 ; died 20th March 1870.

Christian, born 19th October 1789 ; died 1st December 1866.

David, born 1st October 1791 ; died 23d March 1867.

Accompanied by his wife and his cousin, Miss Ann
Erskine of Cardross — leaving his children in charge of
their grandmother at Airth — the father of this family
went to Italy in search of health, and died at Naples on
the 5th April 1791. On her return from laying her hus-
band in the grave ther% Mrs. Erskine resided for about a
year at Airth, and it was there that her youngest daughter
was born, to whom in consequence her father's name —
David — was given, rather an unusual one for a female to
bear. On leaving Airth, Linlathen was of course open for
their residence, but Mrs. Erskine, for the children's educa-
tion, preferred remaining in Edinburgh.

The first glimpse we get of Thomas is one given by
himself. " I remember," he once said to the Dean of
Westminster, " in 1793 — I was then five years old — the
immense impression produced by the death of Louis xvi.
Bruce the traveller came in a snow-storm to call at the
house where I was staying. Mrs. Henderson, the house-
keeper, being asked who it was that had arrived — ' Wha
is it 1 ' she exclaimed ; ' why, wha should it be but Kin-
naird, greetin' as if there werena a saunt on earth but
himsel' and the King of France.' "

ANCESTRY AND EARLIER YEARS.

The place where Thomas was at this time living was
Airth Castle, near to which Kinnaird House lay. Mrs.
Graham of Airth was the only grandmother that he ever
knew ; and deep indeed must have been the impression
which one in every way so remarkable made upon his
childhood. He saw in her a striking variation from that
type of strict Presbyterian piety which a long line of his
paternal ancestry had exhibited, and of which a living and
most attractive specimen had been before his eyes in
that venerable uncle around whose knees from infancy
he had played. Mrs. Graham of Airth, a Stirling of Ar-
doch, was an Episcopalian, and a Jacobite of the highest
and purest type. For the Georges she never prayed.
Every Sunday, at the hour when the bell of the parish
church summoned her neighbours to the Presbyterian wor-
ship, she had the Episcopal Service read in her own
dwelling, the windows of which looked into the church-
yard. But there was no austerity either in her politics
or her religion, and the spirit of a deep and gentle piety,
in varying forms, appears to have spread among her
daughters, of whom Mrs. David Erskine, Thomas's mother
was the eldest.

Mrs. Graham's second daughter, Mary, married John
Stirling of Kippendavie and Kippenross, whose home sup-
plied no" less than thirteen cousins to Thomas Erskine ;
one daughter of the family, Katherine, becoming the wife
of his brother James, and another, the youngest daughter,
Jane,1 his own peculiar friend. He was accustomed in after
life to associate her and the Duchesse de Broglie as the two

1 In her later life she lived much in Paris, and counted among her many
friends there Ary Scheffer. In his " Christus Consolator," this eminent
artist had presented in one of the figures his ideal of female beauty, and
was greatly struck, on being first introduced to Miss Stirling, to find in
her the almost exact embodiment of that ideal. She was introduced after-
wards in many of his pictures.

LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

most remarkable women he had ever met. The only one
of this family who survived Mr. Erskine was Captain James
Stirling of Glentyan ; who was not only his much-loved
friend through life, but was closely associated with him
in his religious history and love of art. In the days
of his boyhood, Thomas was often at Kippenross. One
can easily imagine how warm the welcome was that
greeted him — sympathy with his widowed mother giving
tenderness to his uncle's and aunt's embrace ; bright and
happy groups of winning cousinhood gathering around
him, carrying him off to sport under the shadows of
Kippendavie's noble trees, or perhaps to wander to the
old Cathedral of Dunblane, which lay quite near, and to
tread along the good Bishop's Walk. Thirty years after-
wards he writes, " I live at Albano, on the road to Eome.
The whole district is beautiful to the utmost wish, and full
of delicious shade from immense trees, chiefly evergreen
oaks, of which there is one as large as the Kippenross tree,
indeed much larger — thirty feet round at four feet from
the ground."

Other and stronger links than those of its loveliness bound
his heart to Kippenross. " I am at dear Kippenross," he
writes to his cousin Eachel on his return from Italy in 1828.
" It is a profound enjoyment to me, for its loveliness has
been mixed up with many of my earliest and most endur-
ing impressions, with many joys and many sorrows, with
things of earth and things of heaven, and the sight of it
recalls them all and gives a freshness to memory, and
surrounds me anew with those who are dead or distant. . . .
I need not speak to you about it, but there is a spell in it
on my spirit beyond what I have experienced from any
other spot on earth."

Our next glimpse of Thomas is in his seventh year.
Ann, his eldest sister, had a spinal affection. Her mother,

ANCESTRY AND EARLIER YEARS.

hearing that there was a person in Hinckley in Leicester-
shire who had effected many wonderful cures of that
disease, took her daughter there, and finding that in order
to accomplish her purpose she would have to remain in
England for some months, sent for James and Thomas.
Mr. and Mrs. Hay of Dunse Castle brought the boys up to
Leicestershire, taking with them a daughter of their own,
whom they left at Hinckley. This daughter, Miss Hay of
Kingston Grange, writes to a friend on 17th October
1876: "I lived a year in the family of Mr. Erskihe's
dear mother, and was treated like one of her own children.
I was between seven and eight years old when I went,
and Mr. Erskine six months younger, and to us that
year seemed an age, and laid the foundation of a life-long
friendship." Miss Hay's mother was one of an older
group of cousins than those of Kippenross ; the children
of that uncle of Cardross and Lady Christian his wife,
spoken of with so much veneration in the following
letters. Their eldest daughter (Janet) married Mr. Hay
of Dunse Castle, and their fourth daughter (Matilda) Mr.
Graham of Gartur, a place in the neighbourhood of Stirling.
Marion (Manie) and Rachel were two unmarried daughters;
the latter, the " dear dear cousin Eachel," to whom so
many of the letters given in this volume were addressed.

Writing from Gartur in 1825, Mr. Erskine says, "I am
going to Cardross to-day; I have not been there for
nearly twenty years, but I passed some part of my child-
hood there, and it looks beautiful and venerable to my
memory. "I remember," he says twelve years later, in
1837, "the last vacation that James and I spent at Car-
dross with our little dog Jemmy. I had not been well, and
Ave came out before the regular time ; they were cutting
the lawn for hay, and I remember my uncle and aunt
walking among the hay-makers, looking so kind and so

10 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

venerable, and so much loved and so much honoured."
"What are you doing?" he writes from Paris to dear
cousin Eachel in 1838. "Enjoying lovely Cardross, fair
and noble Cardross, with its grave square tower, and its
trees, under which our fathers' fathers have played, and its
beautiful extent of grass, and its seclusion, and its simple
peasantry." Death had removed Mrs. Hay, and Rachel
writes to him that her sister Mrs. Graham was dying at
Gartur, when in 1839 he writes from Geneva to his sister :
" Our three cousins have a place to themselves in my mind,
quite apart from all other people ; they are connected with
my early remembrance of their father and mother and
of Cardross, which is the purest remembrance that I
have."

On returning from Hinckley to Edinburgh, Thomas and
his brother were sent to the High School, then under the
Rectorship of Dr. Adam. Of their course and progress
there nothing is now known. Two memories of his school-
boy days Thomas carried with him, vivid to the close of
life — one of profound regard for, and tender sympathy
with, the Rector ; the other of recoil and indignation at
the sufferings he had seen inflicted by one of the Masters
— the Willie of " the peck o' maut " — who, as Sir Walter
tells us, was "inhumanly cruel to the boys under his
charge."

In 1802 the boys were sent to a school _at Durham,
returning from which, Thomas entered as a student" "in
the- University of Edinburgh. Of his life at College as little
can now be known as of his life at school. We know more
of his daily recreations than of his daily studies, it having
been his practice to walk every day to and from the top of
Arthur's Seat, a distance which he made a point of accom-
plishing always within an hour. Having attended the
Law classes, and passed the necessary trials, he was admitted

jet. 22. ANCESTRY AND EARLIER YEARS. 11

a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1810, and re-
mained in Edinburgh for the next six years.

The years during which he attended the Parliament
House formed one of the most brilliant periods in the
history of the Scottish Bar. Walter Scott was then daily
to be seen sitting at the table as one of the Clerks of
the Court of Session, wondering eyes fixed on him, as
Wawrley, Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, The Tales of My
Landlord, appeared in quick succession, the mystery of their
authorship gradually unfolding itself. The Edinburgh
Review, established a few years before, was at the height of
its popularity and power : Jeffrey, Cockburn, Fullerton,
with all of whom our young advocate was on terms of
closest friendship, now at the height of their fame as
pleaders. His brother's marriage in 1811, and residence
at Linlathen, removing from his side the influence
hitherto the most potent, threw Thomas Erskine in
his twenty-third year into the very heart of a society as
peculiarly fitted to impress as he was open to the impres-
sion. One of the effects he has himself recorded. " I was
brought up from my childhood," he says in the latest of
his writings, "in the belief of the supernatural and
miraculous in connection with religion, especially in
connection with the person and life and teaching of
Jesus Christ ; and like many in the present day, I came,
in after life, to have misgivings as to the credibility of
this wonderful history. But the patient study of the
narrative and of its place in the history of the world, and
the perception of a light in it which entirely satisfied my
reason and conscience, finally overcame these misgivings,
and forced on me the conviction of its truth."1

Those misgivings came to him at the time of his close
association with men, few of whom made any profession
1 The Spiritual Order, and other Papers (2d Edit.), pp. 82-3.

12 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSK1NE.

of a faith in Christianity. Other things beside patient
study conspired to re-establish him in the faith of his
childhood. His cousin, Patrick Stirling of Kippenross,1 to
whom he was much attached, was a few years his senior.
After serving for a short time in the Peninsula as captain
of the 14th Light Dragoons, he had married, the same
year that Thomas Erskine was called to the Bar. When
but thirty-three years of age a mortal malady fell upon him.
He went to the south of England in vain. Death drew near,
and he longed to see before he died, his youngest child,
an only daughter, little more than a year old. Thomas
Erskine willingly undertook the task of conveying her.
They reached Hastings in time for the dying father's wish
to be gratified, and to witness such singular manifestations
of trust and peace, and lively hope on his part, as carried
home to his cousin's heart a profound impression at once
of the power and preciousness of Christian faith. Not
only was his own faith so fixed thereby as not again to
falter, — for the first time a zeal to awaken a like faith
in others was kindled. A short time afterwards another
dear friend was on his death-bed, to whom he ventured to
speak of that faith. His doing so was so promptly and
keenly resented that he was instantly turned out of the
room. But the word spoken had not been in vain. His
dying friend relented, sent for him, and begged him to
remain with him to the last, which he did. Then followed
the death of his only brother James, of typhus fever, at
Broadstairs. They had been close companions from
infancy till 1805, when James joined the 41st Eegiment,

1 In Dunblane Cathedral there is a marble tablet with the following
nscription : — "Sacred to the memory of John Stirling of Kippendavie,
and Patrick Stirling, his eldest son, who, ' with a lively hope of an inherit-
ance incorruptible,' departed this life, a.d. 1816. Patrick at Hastings,
30th March, aged 33 ; John at Kippenross, 17th June, aged 73, and are
interred in one grave in the family burying-place."

ANCESTRY AND EARLIER YEARS. 13

with which he served in Canada till 1808. He served
afterwards as captain of the 87 th Kegiment, in the
Walcheren Expedition, and retired in 1810. In 1811 he
married his cousin Katherine Stirling of Kippenross, and
went to reside at Linlathen. Five happy years were
spent there. During those years Thomas was often with
them. Four children were born, all of whom died within
four days after birth. Looking back over fifty intervening
years Thomas wrote afterwards to his friend Dr. Wylie of
Carluke : —

" There are few now living who knew Linlathen when lie,
and she lived there ; but no one who was ever privileged
to see it could forget it. I think my brother was the most
remarkable man I ever knew. On looking back through
a long vista of years, during which I have come in contact
with many remarkable, unforgetable persons, he stands out
by himself, as one in whom worth of moral character,
manliness, truth, and perfect regard for the rights, interests,
and feelings of every human being, accomplished more in
producing the sentiment of veneration (I would even say)
than I have known produced by all the talents in the
world, accompanied even by the average amount of moral
endowment. I never knew a young man venerated except
himself.1 He was only a year older than myself, and I
venerated him from my infancy ; and dear Mrs. Erskine
was a most fitting wife for him. That upper world must
be a wonderful meeting-place — meeting in God. — Yours
ever truly, T. Erskine."

1 " This young man must have made a strong impression on others than
his own family, for, many years after his death, General Elphinston, our
Commander-in-chief in the Afghan war, on hearing Mr. Erskine's name,
asked if he were brother to Captain Erskine of such-and-such a regi-
ment, and, on being answered in the affirmative, said, ' He was the best
soldier and the best man I ever knew.' I shall never forget the voice in
which Mr. Erskine repeated these words." — Contemporary Review, May
1870.

14 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. ' 1816.

Sir Harry Moncreiff, who must have known him well,
says of James Erskine, that " he died in the prime of life,
equally regretted for the good sense and affectionate
manners, and for the genuine piety and purity of mind,
which eminently distinguished him."1

It were vain now to attempt to estimate the kind and
extent of that moulding power which such an elder brother
must have exerted, and equally vain to estimate the depth
of the impression his death must have made. The only
letters connected with that event which have been preserved
are the following : —

Sept. 2, 1816.

My dear Cousin,2 — God's thoughts are not as our
thoughts, nor His ways as our ways. May He by His
Holy Spirit conform our wills unto His holy will.
Katherine is wonderfully supported, but it is an awful
blow. Pray for us, that this dispensation may be sanctified
to us, that we may look more to Christ, that we may look
wholly to Christ. Oh ! there is nothing else of any conse-
quence. We live in the midst of shadows, and we think
them realities. Lord, open Thou our eyes that we may
see the truth, and that we may be assured that Thy love
is better than life. We hardly know yet what has happened
to us, — it seems a troubled dream ; but we know that it is
the Lord, and that He doeth all things well. K. is quite
resigned, quite peaceful. How good is God ! I need not
write any more. Let us pray. — Yours most affection-
ately, T. Erskine.

Dundee, Sept. 17.
The remains of my brother are to be interred on Satur-
day at one o'clock. ... I left our mourners really well,
and resting on the Rock of Ages.

1 Life of Dr. Erskine, p. 11 .

2 Mrs. Burnett of Kenmay, daughter of Dr. Charles Stuart of Duneam.

jet. 27. ANCESTRY AND EARLIER YEARS. 15

Sept. 22.
Your letter grieved my soul. If I had such another
brother to lose, I would willingly give up my earthly joy
in him to cure such a sorrow as yours. But it cost more
to redeem a soul. ... I have only returned from paying
the last duties to the kindest of friends and brothers
merely mortal ; my heart is stunned ; I have lost a Chris-
tian friend, a spiritual guide. But thanks be to God, I can
look to the Good Shepherd, and can trust Him for the
supply of all my wants, for remission of sins, and for
renewal of heart, and for faith that I may see His wise
love in all His dispensations towards me. Many new duties
are indeed imposed on me, and I beg the prayers of my
friends for grace to discharge them to the glory of the
Imposer. I have just written to. my poor sister, from whom
I received a letter yesterday. She is well. — Farewell,

T. Erskine.

The new duties imposed on him by his succession to the
estate of Linlathen, induced Thomas Erskine to leave
Edinburgh and bid farewell to the Bar. He did not like
to do so without some expression of his own deep and
ardent faith. He drew up a paper, which he thought of
putting into the hands of his companions at the Bar when
he parted from them. Though fully and carefully written,
this paper was never used as originally intended. It lay
bye unthought of, till he became so well known and so
highly esteemed as a writer, that he was asked to furnish
Introductory Essays to some of Chalmers and Collins'
Series of Select Christian Authors. He bethought him then
of the paper — headed " Salvation " — which he had drawn
up some years before, and handed it to the publishers. It
appeared in 1825 as an Introductory Essay to the Letters
of the Rev. Samuel Rutherford. It merits special regard at

16 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

once from the date and the object of its composition. The
reader not only will find in it the same purity, ease, and
gracefulness of style, and the same felicity of illustration, by
which his after writings were characterised, but that key-note
of doctrinal theology struck which ran through them all.
"It follows," he says, "that a restoration to spiritual health,
or conformity to the Divine character, is the ultimate object
of God in His dealings with the children of men. Whatever
else God hath done with regard to men, has been subsi-
diary, and with a view to this ; even the unspeakable work
of Christ, and pardon freely offered through His cross, have
been but means to a further end ; and that end is, that the
adopted children of the family of God might be conformed
to the likeness of their elder brother, — that they might re-
semble Him in character, and thus enter into His joy. . . .
The sole object of Christian belief is to produce the Chris-
tian character, and unless this is done nothing is done."1

1 Letters of Samuel Rutherford. Introd. Essay, pp. xiii., xxv.

*T. 29. DR. CHALMERS. 17

CHAPTEE II.

Letters to Dr. Chalmers, and publication of ' ' Remarks on the
Internal Evidence for the Truth of Revealed Religion."

The first incident of the new life at Linlathen was the
marriage there, on the 14th October 1817, of Mr. Erskine's
sister Christian, to Charles, fourth son of William Stirling
of Keir. Cadder House, in which the newly married
couple took up their abode, lay in the immediate vicinity
of Glasgow. The house of a sister to whom he was so
tenderly attached was as a second home to Mr. Erskine,
and his earliest visits to it brought him to the neighbour-
hood of Glasgow at the very time when Dr. Chalmers was
at the height of his fame there as a preacher. Acquaint-
ance quickly ripened into friendship, and it so happens
that the only letters of Mr. Erskine during the years 1818
and 1819, which have been preserved, are those addressed
to his new friend. It was after a first visit to Dr.
Chalmers, in the autumn of 1818, that the following letters
were written : —

1. TO DR. CHALMERS.

My dear Friend, — I am under the government of others
at present, so you must excuse the fluctuation of my plans.
I am afraid that I cannot have the pleasure of seeing you
again at this time. I am sorry for it, but I hope soon to

B

18 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1818.

meet you here or elsewhere. I hope that I have benefited
by my visit to you. Certainly I was much struck with
some circumstances in your conduct, and I will tell you
what these are. You have been much followed, by great
and small, by learned and ignorant, and yet you listened,
with the meek candour of a learner, to one whom you could
not but consider as your inferior by far. If you had opened
to me all mysteries and all knowledge, you could not have
brought to my conscience the strong conviction of the
necessity and the reality of Christianity with half the force
that this deportment of yours impressed upon me. . . .

I need not say how delighted I should be were you to
favour me with a visit at Linlathen. I never expect an
answer to my letters from you, so anything in that way
will be only an unlooked-for pleasure, as I know the scan-
tiness of your time. — Yours, with much affection and
respect, T. Erskine.

2. TO DR. CHALMERS.

Linlathen, 5th Sept. 1818.

My dear Sir, — I am much gratified with the prospect
which your letter holds out to me of hearing from you
occasionally. To those whose hearts are apt to get slack
and cold amidst the difficulties of the narrow way, every-
thing which acts as a stimulus is most desirable, and the
sympathy of our fellow-travellers does stimulate ; although
I know also by experience, that there are few things which
require to be connected with a sterner guard over our own
hearts, because there are few things which tend more to
self-deception, as we easily imagine ourselves to be in the
right way while we are talking about it. ...

It seems to me of great consequence to remember that
the connection between the Christian faith and character
is not arbitrary but necessary, — that it is not the con-

yET. 30. DR. CHALMERS. 19

nection which subsists between the fir and the ship in
which it is inserted as a mast, but the connection which
subsists between the fir and its root before it is cut down.
And this constitutes the closeness of the union which sub-
sists between Christ and His people; His work of love
received by faith becomes the principle and root of spiritual
life within them. This principle is not subject to the in-
fluence or condemnation of sin, it is the immortal tie which
binds the Father of spirits to all His family throughout the
universe. It is sweet to think of those who, having by
mercy been made partakers of this new and interminable
life, have departed from this scene of death to a nearer and
fuller enjoyment of the fountain of their spiritual being.
They are like Him, for they see Him as He is. The veil
being removed, like mirrors they reflect back His own char-
acter, and thus partake His joy.

On this day three years ago I witnessed the departure
of a friend who I hope is now with the Lord. What a
comfort it is to think that your father according to the
flesh is a branch of the true vine ! x . . . — Yours with
much regard, T. Erskine.

3. TO THE SAME.

LlNLATHEN, 21st Nov. 1818.

My dear Sir, — I am afraid that you will begin to think
my correspondence rather troublesome, especially if occa-
sionally interlarded by such packages as that which has I
hope already reached you by the Perth coach. It is a con-
siderable tax upon your kindness and patience to ask you
to read that paper, but yet I entertain hopes that you will
do it. It contains views of divine truth which have of late
very much commended themselves to my understanding —
solving many apparent difficulties, and exhibiting a beauti-
i Dr. Chalmers's father died 26th July 1818.

20 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSK1NE. 1818.

ful consistency through the whole scheme. With those
views also I think the internal evidence of religion is inti-
mately connected. In this manner : — The Christian char-
acter, however much it may be despised or hated in prac-
tice, yet in theory commands the approbation even of the
natural reason. Supposing it to be perfected, it is neces-
sarily accompanied by perfect happiness. But then the
formation of this character is opposed by the strongest and
most active principles of our constitution. Pride, the pas-
sions, and the appetites, are in constant operation, and are
in direct opposition to the formation of this character ; and
even the perception of the evil of sin, which is the first
element of holiness, drives us from it by producing despair.
Now the gospel presents us with a history of facts, the
belief of which must by the nature of things produce this
character, bringing our thoughts and wills into union with
the Supreme Will, and increasing our sense of the evil of sin
whilst it annihilates despair. In short, the gospel is most pre-
cisely suited to the wants and the diseases of the human soul.
My soul is diseased — I see to a demonstration that the
gospel is every way calculated to remove this disease, that,
if accepted, it must remove it. I can discover no other
cure. The gospel is then the true remedy, and nothing
but a refutation of what now seems to me an axiom can
tear me from it. I must be shown some other remedy
superior to this, or I must be shown that this is no remedy
— all other argument is irrelevant. I may be told about
difficulties attending the facts, but I still insist that it is
true in morals ; it is true in nature, it is true in the con-
stitution of man, it is true in the character of God. " Whe-
ther he be a sinner, I know not ; one thing I know, that
whereas I was blind, now I can see." And it is not only
after the cure that I see this ; it was the sight of this suit-
ableness which attracted me. I saw that it was a pearl of

iET. 30. DR. CHALMERS. 21

great price ; its value was stamped upon it by Him whose
image it is. It is this suitableness which converts the
infidel, as well as confirms and advances the believer. . . .
I entreat your prayers for me, that my heart may be
broken and contrite, deeply impressed with a sense of sin,
and with the view of the freeness of Divine grace. May
your Master direct and prosper your labours for others,
and at the same time keep your own heart and mind in
the knowledge and love of Him. — Farewell. Yours affec-
tionately, T. Eeskine.

When you have done with my packet you may send it
to my sister.

The package which accompanied this letter was the first
draft of the " Remarks on the Internal Evidence for the
Truth of Eevealed Eeligion." It thus appears that the
first use to which Mr. Erskine turned the leisure and quiet
of his residence at Linlathen, was to exhibit as lucidly and
impressively as he could, and for the benefit of others, that
proof of the Divine origin of Christianity by which he had
himself been so peculiarly and powerfully attracted, con-
vinced, impressed. The personal interest thus attaching to
the earliest of his publications is enhanced by what is told
us in the latest of them : —

" When I ask myself," he says, " what reason or right I
have to believe that a man who lived in Palestine 1860
years ago was the Son of God, in order to be certain that
in this belief I have hold of a substance and not of a mere
shadow, I must discern in the history itself a light and
truth which will meet the demands both of my reason and
conscience. In fact, however true the history may be, it
cannot be of any moral or spiritual benefit to me until I
apprehend its truth and meaning. This, and nothing less
than this, is what I require, not only in this great concern,

22 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1820.

but in all others ; for the only real instruction is that which
helps us to perceive the truth and meaning of things, not
that which merely asserts that such and such things are
true, and insists on our accepting them as such.

" It has been the chief aim of my life to possess such an
apprehension of the truth of Christianity as this; and it is now
forty-five years since I ventured to give through the press
an utterance to this desire, and to accompany it with a sketch
of the meagre progress I had then made in realising it." 1

The "Eemarks on the Internal Evidence," etc., was
published in 1820, forty years before this passage was
written. It met with an immediate and universal welcome
— nine editions having been called for within nine suc-
ceeding years.2 Its peculiar charms of method, style, and
illustration, were new to the public. There was much
in the volume to attract interest and kindle admira-
tion, nothing that awakened any suspicion or distrust.
The Edinburgh " Christian Instructor," 3 prompt as that
organ of the Evangelical party in Scotland was to detect
the slightest deviation from Calvinistic theology, found
nothing to find fault with, had nothing but lavish and
unlimited praise to bestow. And yet many of those
views which, when more fully expressed afterwards, met
with so severe a condemnation, are to be found here in
more than their germ. It was in his happiest manner
that this new writer indicated what the kind of evidence
in favour of Christianity was which he intended to unfold.

" I shall suppose that the steam-engine, and the appli-
cation of it to the movement of vessels, was known in
China in the days of Archimedes ; and that a foolish lying

1 The Spiritual Order, p. 82.

2 It was translated into French by the Duchess de Broglie, and published
at Paris in 1822 under the title, " Reflexions sur 1' evidence intrinseque de
la verite du Christianisme."

3 See an elaborate review.

jet. 32. -REMARKS ON THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 23

traveller had found his way from Sicily to China, and had
there seen an exhibition of a steam-boat, and had been
admitted to examine the mechanical apparatus of it, — and
upon his return home, had, amongst many palpable fables,
related the true particulars of this exhibition, — what feel-
ing would this relation have probably excited in his audi-
ence. . . . Some of the rabble might probably give a
stupid and wondering kind of credit to the whole ; whilst
the judicious but unscientific hearers would reject the
whole. Now, supposing that the relation had come to the
ears of Archimedes, and that he had sent for the man, and
interrogated him ; and, from his un orderly and unscientific,
but accurate specification of boilers, and cylinders, and pipes,
and furnaces, and wheels, had drawn out the mechanical
theory of the steam-boat, — he might have told his friends,
' The traveller may be a liar ; but this is a truth. I have
a stronger evidence for it than his testimony, or the testi-
mony of any man : it is a truth in the nature of things.
The effect which the man has described is the legitimate
and certain result of the apparatus which he has described.
If he has fabricated this account, he must be a great philo-
sopher. At all events, his narration is founded on an un-
questionable general truth.' . . . We reason precisely in
the same way with regard to men and their actions. . . .
If an intimate and judicious friend of Julius Caesar had
retired to some distant corner of the world, before the com-
mencement of the political career of that wonderful man,
and had there received an accurate history of every circum-
stance of his conduct, how would he have received it 1 He
would certainly have believed it ; and not merely because
he knew that Caesar was ambitious, but also because he
could discern that every step of his progress, as recorded
in the history, was adapted with admirable intelligence to
accomplish the object of his ambition. His belief of the

24 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. - 1820.

history, therefore, would rest on two considerations, — first,
that the object attributed by it to Ceesar corresponded with
the general principle under which he had classed the moral
character of Caesar ; and, secondly, that there was evident,
through the course of the history, a perfect adaptation of
means to an end. He would have believed just on the
same principle that compelled Archimedes to believe the
history of the steam-boat.

" In all these processes of reasoning, we have examples of
conviction, upon an evidence which is, most strictly speak-
ing, internal, — an evidence altogether independent of our
confidence in the veracity of the narrator of the facts. . . .

" The first faint outline of Christianity presents to us a
view of God operating on the characters of men through a
manifestation of his own character, in order that, by lead-
ing them to participate, in some measure, of his moral like-
ness, they may also in some measure participate of his hap-
piness. . . .

" The object of this Dissertation is to analyse the com-
ponent parts of the Christian scheme of doctrine, with
reference to its bearings both on the character of God and
on the character of man ; and to demonstrate, that its facts
not only present an expressive exhibition of all the moral
qualities which can be conceived to reside in the Divine
mind, but also contain all those objects which have a
natural tendency to excite and suggest in the human mind
that combination of moral feelings which has been termed
moral perfection. We shall thus arrive at a conclusion
with regard to the facts of revelation, analogous to that at
which Archimedes arrived with regard to the narrative of
the traveller, — viz., a conviction that they contain a general
truth in relation to the characters both of God and of man ;
and that therefore the Apostles must either have witnessed
them, as they assert, or they must have been the most mar-

Mr. 32. REMARKS ON THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 25

vellous philosophers that the world ever saw. , Their system
is true in the nature of things, even were they proved to
be impostors.

"This theory of internal evidence, though founded on ana-
logy, is yet essentially different in almost all respects from
that view of the subject which Bishop Butler has given, in
his most valuable and philosophical work on the Analogy of
Natural and Eevealed Religion. His design was to answer
objections against revealed religion, arising out of the diffi-
culties connected with many of its doctrines, by showing
that precisely the same difficulties occur in natural religion
and in the ordinary course of providence. This argument
converts even the difficulties of revelation into evidences of
its genuineness, because it employs them to establish the
identity of the Author of Revelation and the Author of
Nature. My object is quite different. I mean to show
that there is an intelligible and necessary connection be-
tween the doctrinal facts of revelation and the character of
God (as deduced from natural religion), in the same way
as there is an intelligible and necessary connection between
the character of a man and his most characteristic actions \
and further, that the belief of these doctrinal facts has an
intelligible and necessary tendency to produce the Chris-
tian character, in the same way that the belief of danger
has an intelligible and necessary tendency to produce fear.
"... The doctrine of the atonement through Jesus
Christ, which is the corner-stone of Christianity, and to
which all the other doctrines of revelation are subservient,
has had to encounter the misapprehension of the under-
standing as well as the pride of the heart. ... It has
been sometimes so incautiously stated, as to give ground to
cavillers for the charge that the Christian scheme repre-
sents God's attribute of justice as utterly at variance with
every moral principle. The allegation has assumed a form

LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

somewhat resembling this, ' That according to Christianity,
God indeed apportions to every instance and degree of
transgression its proper punishment; but that, while he
rigidly exacts this punishment, he is not much concerned
whether the person who pays it be the real criminal or an
innocent being, provided only that it is a full equivalent ;
nay, that he is under a strange necessity to cancel guilt
whenever this equivalent of punishment is tendered to him
by whatever hand.' This perversion has arisen from the
habit amongst some writers on religion of pressing too far
the analogy between a crime and a pecuniary debt. It is
not surprising that any one who entertains such a view of
the subject should reject Christianity as a revelation of the
God of holiness and goodness. But this is not the view
given in the Bible."

Professor Noah Porter, of Yale College in the United
States, when in Scotland in 1866, addressed a note to Mr.
Erskine, from which the following is an extract : —

"Dear Sir, — Excuse the liberty taken by an entire
stranger, of whom you have never heard, and who is from a
distant land. I have been in Scotland twice, once in 1853,
and once about a week since. In both instances I have
inquired respecting yourself and your writings, but have
not been able to learn those particulars which something
more than curiosity excited me to wish to know. If it had
been possible I would have sought to see you, but I was
prevented from so doing by circumstances which I could
not control.

"I wished to say to you that your little work on the
Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion has been in
America a work highly esteemed and of potent theologi-
cal influence. My father, who has been the pastor of one
flock for nearly sixty years, once said to me that that book
had done more than any single book of his time to give

LETTERS ON THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 27

character to the new phase of theology in New England,
which began about 1820, and in which Dr. N. W. Taylor,
Dr. L. Beecher, Dr. Moses Stuart, and many others, were
prominently concerned.

" This new theology pervaded the Presbyterian Church,
and eventually led to its disruption into two bodies, the so-
called Old and New School bodies, in 1836 or 1837. The
volume still is esteemed very highly for its argument and
its just discrimination between the theology of the schools
and the theology of the Scriptures. Your later writings
were not received with such general favour, but candid and
friendly critics understood how you were led to adopt the
views asserted in them, by the extreme and cast-iron
rigidness of the Scotch theology."

M, Vinet, in a letter to his friend M. Leresche, of
date 19th December 1823, referring to the work on the
" Internal Evidence," says : —

" J'ai lu en entier, avec un plaisir bien pur, le livre
d'Erskine; je compte bien le relire. Tu as raison, la
methode y manque. Mais quelle simplicity! quelle con-
viction ! quelle vraie chaleur ! quels apercus nouveaux et
int6ressants ! La qualite de laique de l'auteur a singuliere-
ment contribue au plaisir que m'a fait ce livre ; elle lui
donne me"me un merite et un caractere particuliers. Si je
ne haissais par principe ces expressions : ' Je suis d'Apollos
et de Cephas,' je me laisserais aller volontiers a dire : Je
suis d'Erskine. II n'enveloppe pas l'Evangile de tenebres ;
il nous fait bien sentir que si Ton ne peut concevoir le
comment des mysteres de la religion, le pourquoi est par-
faitement accessible a notre raison, qu'il doit l'e'tre, et qu'il
n'y a point de vraie foi sans cela. L'oeuvre de la redemption
est bien developpee d'apres ce principe; 1' operation du
Saint-Esprit egalement bien presentee, non pas toutefois
d'une maniere qui puisse plaire a tout le monde, mais ce

28 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

n'est pas un defaut. En un mot, ce livre me parait sin-
gulierement propre a ouvrir les yeux a ces malheureux
hommes du monde, qui meprisent ou repoussent l'Evangile
parce qu'ils ne le connaissent point du tout. Dieu veuille
que cet ouvrage produise les bons effets qu'a d6sir6s son
auteur! . . ." l

1 Alexandre Vinet, Histoire de sa Vie et ses Ouwages, par E. Rambert
(troisi^me edition ; Lausanne, 1876), tome premiere, p. 47.

jet. 33. LETTERS FROM THE CONTINENT. 29

CHAPTER III.

Letters from the Continent during the years 1822-24.

On the 4th September 1821, Captain James Paterson1
was married to David, youngest sister of Mr. Erskine.

Captain Paterson on his marriage not only left the army,
but consented to take up his residence at Linlathen. This
opened the way for Mr. Erskine carrying out a long-cher-
ished intention of visiting and making a prolonged stay
on the Continent.

In August 1822 he left London and crossed over to the
Netherlands. The autumn months were given to North
Germany, the mid-winter months to Geneva. The spring
of 1823 was spent in Paris; summer saw him in the
south of France. From Bordeaux he passed by the foot of
the Pyrenees and the coast of the Mediterranean through
Montauban, Toulouse, Montpellier, and Nismes, to Pied-
mont, and thence to Geneva, for a short second visit.
Crossing the Alps in October, and lingering for a few weeks
in the north of Italy, he proceeded to Rome, where he
passed the winter of 1823-24. After a third and longer
visit to Geneva he returned to Linlathen in the summer
of 1825.

The following letters belong to this period : —

1 Youngest son of Mr. Paterson of Castle Huntly.

30 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1822.

4. TO DR. CHARLES STUART.1

Hamburg, Id Nov. 1822
(my brother's birthday).

My dear Friend, — Your letter which I received at
Berlin was most acceptable to me. I have often during
my journey had you upon my mind, and would have given
for an hour's conversation with you what a pilgrim through
the desert would give for a draught of water. I have, how-
ever, met with many green spots through the desert ; and
springs and palm-trees, and many hours of pleasing and
profitable conversation too, though not with you, my dear
friend. I am at present very comfortably situated. My
friends are Mr. Merle d'Aubign6, of whom Mr. Haldane
will tell you. He is an estimable man, a faithful preacher,

1 He was a lineal descendant of the Regent Murray, and stood at one
time third in succession to the earldom. In earlier life he entered the
Church of Scotland, and was presented to the parish of Cramond, near
Edinburgh. Having adopted views on Church Establishments and other
subjects which he considered inconsistent with his position as a clergyman
of the Church of Scotland, he resigned his charge, studied medicine, and
took his degree as a physician. A lover of all good men, he was a pro-
moter of every enterprise which had for its object the diffusion of the
gospel. He co-operated with Mr. James Haldane, Mr. Christopher Ander-
son, Dr. M'Crie, and others, in the formation of the Gaelic School Society.
At the first annual meeting of that Society after Dr. Stuart's death, Dr.
M'Crie, in moving that a notice of that event should be entered in the
records of the Society, said, "It is well known that the first idea of a dis-
tinct Society for promoting the education of our countrymen in the High-
lands and Islands originated with Dr. Stuart. ... I had the honour and
happiness of an intimate acquaintance with him during a considerable
number of years, — I always found in him the honourable feelings of the
gentleman, the refined and liberal thinking of the scholar, and the un-
affected and humble piety of the Christian." Dr. Chalmers shared the
sentiments so expressed. " I feel the utmost gratitude," he said to Dr.
Stuart in 1814, "for the friendly attention and fatherly care I have ever
experienced at your hands." As the relationships were closer, deeper
still were Mr. Erskine's attachment and gratitude, of which the reader
will find a most touching and beautiful expression in the letter dated
14th June 1826, infra, p. 54.

jet. 34. MRS. STIRLING. 31

and, what is rare here, an unprejudiced and unmystical
student of the Word of G-od. Mr. Mathews is the pastor
of an Independent church here. At Berlin, I made the
acquaintance of a young Professor who lectures in their
University on theology, and on the books of the Old and
New Testament. He loves the truth, and will, I hope, be
more and more enlightened himself, and blessed in his
instructions to others. Our ambassador at Berlin, who
takes an interest in all these things, introduced me to him.
This Professor, whose name is Tholuck, is a self-taught
linguist, one of the Murrays and Leydens. I should like
well to study the Oriental languages under him. My want
of German is a great want, and a great stupidity moreover,
which I am endeavouring now to correct as fast as I can.

5. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Dkesdek, 1th Dec. 1822.

My dear Christian, — At Leipzig we went over the
field of battle in which about 900,000 men were engaged
in mortal contest for five days. Mr. Campe (a correspon-
dent of Mr. Baumeister) conducted us in his carriage. He
was in Leipzig at the time, and saw everything which could
be seen. He saw Bonaparte both before and after . the
action. He says that he bore his fate with exceeding calm-
ness ; that there was not the slightest appearance of agita-
tion on his person ; and he was standing close to him as he
mounted his horse to go away, four hours before the allied
monarchs met in the town. To-day we visited the picture-
gallery here, which is one of the richest in Europe. One
of Raphael's chefs-d'oeuvre, a Madonna, the most lovely
picture I ever saw — several beautiful Titians and Annibale
Carraccis and Carlo Dolces.

Oh ! what a secure peace we should have were we really

32 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1822.

resting on the gospel ; but it is just taken by the by, and
then it produces no fruit either of holiness or happiness.
Let us set to it in earnest, my dear sister, for nothing else
will last. Eead that sermon of Leighton's entitled " The
Believer a Hero." The text I think is, " He shall not be
afraid of evil tidings ; his heart is fixed, trusting in the
Lord." I used to read that sermon very often, and always
with pleasure. I wish that I had the volume with me.

6. TO DR. CHALMERS.

Hebrnhut, \1tli Bee. 1822.
My dear Sir, — I have often thought of you since we
parted, and of the promise which I made to you of writing;
and this place has recalled both very forcibly to my recol-
lection. "We have often conversed about Moravianism,
and here I am in the metropolis of Moravianism. Here I
am an eye-witness of the order and tranquillity and gentle-
ness and cleanliness of Moravianism, and I feel convinced
that the mere date at the top of my page will make this
letter acceptable to you. Every person you meet in the
street bows, or wishes you good-morning or good-night
with the air of a brother or a sister. There is a repose in
every face and in every action that you see. The burial-
ground, Gottes acker (God's acre, or field), is a most inter-
esting spot, close by the town, which seems to give a lesson
of silence and peace to the whole district. There may,
however, be a mannerism in all this. It is very beautiful
no doubt, but surely Christianity was never intended to
interfere with the natural relations of life, and to form
men into artificial communities, but rather to infuse its
own character and life into those relations which already
existed. Herrnhut is a Christian Lanark or Sparta — in
some measure at least.

DR. CHALMERS. 33

I have seen many most valuable people on the Continent.
There is a great deal of cordiality in Germany, and I have
been received as a brother by many of them, and they are
all anxious to furnish me with further introductions. In
general I find the Calvinistic points in great disrepute
amongst evangelical Germans. They do not seem to un-
derstand the distinction between moral and natural neces-
sity, and they imagine that they can distinguish between
foreknowledge and predestination in God. For my own
part, I do not find predestination directly in the Bible, but
I could no more separate the belief of predestination from
my idea of God, than I could separate the conviction of
moral responsibility from my own consciousness. I do
not, to be sure, see how these two things coincide, but I
am prepared for my own ignorance on these points. We
know things, not absolutely as they are in themselves, but
relatively as they are to us and to our practical necessities.
I understand both these things as they relate to me, but I
don't see their relation to each other, because I don't see
them as they are absolutely. Arminians have no right to
attribute reprobation to Calvinists, and Calvinists have no
right to attribute self-righteousness to Arminians. Both
inductions may be just in metaphysics, but religion is not
a piece of metaphysics.

I find the distinction of objective and subjective religion
very important. Some of the Christians whom I have seen
here make their religion entirely an interior thing, i.e. en-
tirely subjective. In the Bible it is objective, i.e. it consists
of the history of God's dealings chiefly — but objective for
the purpose of producing subjective religion. The Mora-
vians are objective — they don't talk of faith, but of the
cross and the glory of Christ.

I see also the great importance of stating the facts of
revelation rather than the dogmas which are educible

0

34 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1823.'

from these forms. This also the Moravians attend to. I
desire to be a little child. I have seen many very infan-
tine characters, not affected simplicity, but genuine unin-
tentionalness and humility, with excellent understandings.
They are not so practical as the English, but they are
cleverer in thought. I have formed some friendships, which
I hope will last for ever. There is a Heubner at Wittenberg,
a most delightful man — he lives close by the place where
Luther studied, and where the Spirit of God came mightily
upon him ; a Leonhardi at Dresden, with whom, however,
I am obliged to speak in Latin ; a Merle d'Aubigne at
Hamburg, the descendant of the friend of Henry IV. of
France. I need not tell you names, but I wish you knew
the persons. My dear sir, I recommend myself and my
friend Mr. Stirling to your prayers. Mr. S. met me at
Hamburg. — Yours most truly, T. Erskine.

I feel afraid of Baxter's Saints' Rest.1 You could do it
well. I cannot command my time at present. A letter to
Geneva, poste restante, will be acceptable.

7. TO DR. CHARLES STUART.

Paris, 10th March 1S23.

My dear, dear Friend, — I fear that you think me for-
getful, but I have had cause. My companion has been very
unwell, and this has kept me in such a state of anxiety for
some months, I may say, that I have been able to do little
in any way. Never a day passes in which I do not think
of you ; and in which I do not commend you and your con-
cerns to the Keeper of Israel.

I am sorry to find by the appearance of the second edi-
tion of my Essay,2 that a letter which I wrote to Mr. Innes

1 The reference here is to the Introductory Essay to Baxter's "Saints'
Rest," which he supplied for Collins' "Series of Select Christian Authors."

2 The " Essay on Faith," the first edition of which had been published

xr. 34. DR. CHARLES STUART. 35

from Hamburg has miscarried. It contained a division into
sections, which is very much wanting, and many additions,
and some subtractions. I shall set about it again, but it
is not so fresh to me as it was then. Will you tell Mr.
Waugh to remit to Mr. Ewing, for his Academy, any share
of the profit of the work which falls to me, and that soon 1
I have met here with Mr. Noel,1 and my dear friends the
Moneys,2 of whom I have spoken to you. Their Christian
intercourse has been a great comfort to me, and I stood
much in need of it. Mrs. Money is one of the most ami-
able Christians I have ever seen. Every look, and word,
and action savours of the gospel. There is a Mr. Wilder
here, of whom you may have heard. It was he who found
out the Christian people in the mountains near Lyons, and
who wrote the letters about them which appeared in many
of the magazines. He is very useful here. Not long ago
he made a very bold, and yet wise attack on the supersti-
tions which, contrary to the feelings of the people, have
been re-introduced by the Jesuits here. There was a pro-
cession of pilgrims up Calvary, a hill in the neighbourhood
of Paris. This had existed before the Revolution, but had
been abolished by Bonaparte, along with all useless public
ceremonies. At the foot of this hill Mr. W. took his
stand with 1500 tracts, which he gave to the pilgrims as
they went up, and which they received with great readi-
ness ; and next day these pilgrims recommended him to
give some of these little books to the Jesuit missionaries
who were preaching there, for that they required them at

the preceding year. " My object in this Essay has not been to represent
faith as a difficult or perplexed operation, but to withdraw the attention
from the act of believing, and to fix it on the object of belief, by showing
that we cannot believe any moral fact without entering into its spirit, and
meaning, and importance." — P. 142.

1 The Honourable and Rev. Gerard Noel.

2 W. Money. Esq. , was consul at Venice.

36 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1823.

least as much as anybody else. The police came to stop
his proceedings. They asked, " By what authority doest
thou these things % " He answered, " By the authority of
my Lord Jesus Christ," and forced a New Testament on
the acceptance of the officer, who was so taken by the ready
and intrepid manner of Mr. W., that he could not refuse it.
He has meetings at his house every Sunday evening for
prayer and reading the Scriptures.1 I have made the ac-
quaintance of a few French. Certainly there is a readi-
ness in this country to receive the gospel, but the political
circumstances are very unfavourable. Additional Bible
Societies are prohibited. How little do the Governments
of this world perceive their own interests in relation to the
gospel ! They know not that whoever falls on that stone
shall be broken. Mr. Money tells me that Wilberforce
thought the Essay on Faith very obscure. I think that its
undivided state gives it that character. But if he finds
it obscure, how many must there be who will find it so
too !

The people of this country are much cleverer than our
people, but they seem to want sense very much. The pro-
ceedings of their Chambers are quite absurd. T. E.

8. TO DR. CHARLES STUART.

Paris, 3\st March 1823.
My dear Friend, — . . . You ask me on what ground

1 Mr. Wilder writes from New York to Mr. Erskine in 1851, twenty-
eight years after they had met in Paris : — " I need not say that I shall ever
retain the liveliest recollection of the happy hours my family and myself
have been privileged to pass in your agreeable company, nor of the edifica-
tion which we have so often, with numerous Christian friends, derived from
your able expositions of the Scriptures under our roof at Paris. Never
shall I forget the manifestation of your friendship and courtesy towards
me in coming expressly from Brussels to Paris to bid me and my family
an affectionate farewell at the period of our departure for this country, nor
of the delightful whole night we passed together conversing of the things
which pertain to our present, future, and eternal peace."

^et. 34. DR. CHARLES STUART. 37

Malan charged me with Arminianism. I maintain that
guilt in man always supposed 'power — that there could he
no guilt unless there existed the power of doing or abstain-
ing. I admit that no man ever believes or obeys except
by divine teaching and divine support. But I affirm that
no man in the ordinary exercise of his faculties lies under
any natural incapacity of believing truth, or obeying what
is just and reasonable, or, if he does lie under any such
natural incapacity, that it is impossible to suppose that
any guilt can attach to him in consequence of unbelief or
disobedience. This doctrine Malan condemns, that is to
say, he condemns it in words ; for I am persuaded that
neither he nor any one else can differ from me in reality
on this point. I love Malan; there is something most
apostolical in his whole deportment, and his mode of
instruction I think in general very scriptural. His minis-
try has been much honoured by God. Wherever he goes
an impression is made. I think his fault as a theologian
is that he is too fond of dialectical language. He was
quite frank and most affectionate ; but our conversation
was not of that kind which could be very profitable to
either of us, for we were arguing. My chief society here
has been the Money family, who are most amiable. They
grow upon my affections very much. Yesterday Mr. Noel
gave us two excellent discourses on the resurrection : " If
ye then be risen with Christ," etc. We had a meeting of
seventy-five English in the Hotel, and a most attentive
audience they were. In case there should be a demand
for a new edition of the Essay on Faith, I wish you would
send me any hints that you may think important. I
admire Mr. Russell's Letters1 very much. I am getting

1 Letters, chiefly Practiced and Consolatory. By David Russell, Minister
of the Gospel, Dundee. Mr. Russell was minister of the Independent
Church there. These letters had this additional interest to Mr. Erskine,

38 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSK1NE. 1823.

some of them translated for France and Switzerland.
Farewell, my dear friend. May the blessed Spirit of peace
dwell in you, and bestow on you largely the earnest of
future glory. — Yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

9. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Geneva, 9th September 1823.

My dear Christian, — . . . This day had been fixed
by Mr. Noel and me for an expedition to Chamouni, Mont
Blanc, and the glaciers ; but Mrs. Noel is very delicate,
and the day was not very promising. I hope to make it
out to-morrow, either with them or alone. The Jeffreys,
and Cockburn, and Eichardson are here. Harry1 looked
so like home, that I could scarce help thinking myself in
Charlotte Square. He is much fatigued, however, and has
got a little cold in crossing the Alps ; but don't mention
this, for it might give needless uneasiness to his wife.
Jeffrey is like a game-cock ; — you know that his wife is a
great favourite of mine. Her father, Mr. Wilkes, was here
with them, but has left them. He was much attached to
our James. I never knew anybody who was acquainted
with James without loving him. There was a mixture of
gentleness, and melancholy, and sensitiveness, and manli-
ness, and modesty, and intelligence, and truth in his com-
position, that I never saw except in himself.

You may suppose that Mr. Noel is a great comfort here

that a number of them were originally addressed, with the happiest effect,
to one of his sisters.

1 "My dear Tom, — I was much gratified by your letter. It breathed the
affection which I have ever received from you, and which I can truly say
I have always been delighted to return. We have been more separated
throughout life, both by distance and by pursuits, than at earlier periods
I thought likely. But this has never cooled my regard, nor yours. I do
not think that we ever had a word of personal difference, and I am uncon-
scious of one moment's alienation, throughout an acquaintance not far
short of forty years. God bless you, my dear Tom." — Extract of letter
from Lord Cockburn to Mr. Erskine, dated 19th October 1830.

tet. 35- MRS. PATERSON. 39

to me. Mrs. Noel is certainly much better than she has
been for years. My host and hostess, Mr. and Mme.
Cramer, are two excellent kind people, who make their
house quite a home to me.

This is a lovely land, — oh, most lovely ! My dear
sister, I hope you are finding happiness and strength in
Christianity, and that you know what it is to be sensible
of the presence of God. Religion seems to me to consist
in that. Give my love to your husband, and to Archibald,
-and our friends at Keir, and Linlathen (write them, for I
have not written for some time, waiting for letters), and
Airth. Is the bonny Spat looking bonny % and the canal,
and the Lago Kelvino,1 and the pheasants, and what not 1

10. TO HIS SISTEK MRS. PATERSON.

Milan, 10th November 1823.
My dear Italy,2 — How does that northern climate suit
Tour sunny constitution ; and how does the stunted vege-
tation on the Tay supply the want of the luxuriant life
tvhich exults and wantons in every leaf and every flower
in this fair land 1 I left Geneva and its much-loved con-
tents three weeks ago. I coasted the lake, and ascended
the Upper Ehone, and arrived at the Simplon in splendid
weather. I slept on the top, and admired, I cannot tell
you how much, the magnificence of the descent. Different
small streams have chosen or found out the most conveni-
ent way of getting down the mountain, and the road is
guided by those streams ; but our small scale of mountain
scenery can give you no idea of the tremendous chasms,
and overhanging precipices, and desolate ravines, and ever-
lasting snows; and all this mixed with sweet woodland

1 Cadder stood on the banks of the Kelvin, which supplied this garden-
lake with water.

2 A name given to her among the family, in allusion to her sunny
temperament.

40 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1823.

scenery, which, when I passed, showed every tint that
nature owns.

I have since visited the Lakes Maggiore and Como, both
lovely — how lovely ! You know the beauty of the foliage
of the sweet chestnuts ; but you cannot so easily conceive
the effect of a continued grove of them of every fantastic
and venerable shape, upon the side of a hill — intermediate
spots clothed with vines trained on trees in the Italian
mode, and the ground strewed with the leaves and fruit
of the chestnut. The Maggiore is softer in its character
than Como ; but the magnificent range of the Alps behind
perhaps gives it more variety. The Lake of Como U
bounded by its two sides as by two walls, in some cases
almost perpendicular. There is not even a mule road on/
either side ! And on one side the steepness of the rocks'
does not admit even of a footpath the whole way, or even
for a considerable way. But you see olives, and vines, and
laurels, and chestnuts, etc., in overflowing and rich redund-
ance. The gentlemen who inhabit the numerous villas on
its banks keep each a boat instead of horses and carriages, ,
which could not come there, and would be of no use if they
could. Some of these villas are most superb, and belong
to the first and richest nobility of the north of Italy. I
saw some of Canova's finest pieces of sculpture in one of
them; and I saw myrtles in blossom at the same time
[November] in a hedge before the house ! Write to Christian
that, after the Lago Kelvino, I do not believe there is any-
thing more enchanting than Como.

I am writing over anew my Essay on Faith for a French
translation. I hope to improve it much, particularly in its
arrangement.

I have been in absolute solitude for three weeks. I don't
know even the name of a creature in Milan. But I am
very comfortable and happy when I can keep near God ■

jet. 35. MRS. STIRLING. 41

and solitude is not adverse to that, though, and at the
same time, it will not produce it. We are as much led
away by our own imaginations as by those of others. The
constant sense of the Divine presence is the important
thing and the delightful thing, and, at the same time, won-
derful to say, it is the great difficulty. . . . There are some
very fine pictures here of Guercino, and Carracci, and
Guido Reni, and Salvator, and one Raphael, and Leonardo
da Vinci's great piece of the Supper much defaced (fresco) :
his colours are oil, and it appears that water-colours stand
best in these frescos. The Cathedral is immense — all
white marble — it is really unutterable. I go soon to
Genoa, where the Noels are for the winter. I shall stay
there a week or two, and then Florence. You may write
to Florence. . . . Farewell. The Lord's blessing be with
you all.

11. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Florence, Feb. 1824.

My dear Christian, — My dear sister, what a strange
world it is ! It seems most extraordinary to myself that
I can, in the midst of such a world of death, and sin, and
sorrow, find enjoyment in marble cut into certain forms,
and colours laid on canvas ; and yet I really find immense
enjoyment in it — I feel almost as if I had gotten a new
sense.

There must have been a most surpassing genius in these
old Greek sculptors. It is not merely perfect beauty and
perfect grace which they have drawn out from the secret
treasures of nature, but they have transmitted to us their
highest thoughts and their loveliest sentiments, all fresh,
and living, and breathing as when they first appeared to
their own inspired souls, in a form that cannot be mistaken,
and infinitely more eloquent and imposing than any Ian-

42 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1824.

guage. No words can describe the Niobe, that union of
all that is desolate and all that is noble — the desperation
proceeding from the knowledge that her enemies were
deities, and yet that heroism which never even glances at
her own personal danger. The Venus is very beautiful,
though I prefer the Mobe infinitely. The perfect modesty
of the Venus is at least equal to her beauty ; you could
really scarcely imagine it possible that an unclothed figure
could be so naturally and unaffectedly modest. There are
many most delightful pictures too, several very fine Eaphaels
and Titians, which last rise daily in my judgment in spite
of Sir Joshua Reynolds. I cannot sympathise with Sir
Joshua either, in his admiration for Michael Angelo. . . .
I have just been interrupted by a visit from a descendant
of Michael Angelo, who has asked me to his house to see
some of the remains of his illustrious ancestor. Cumming
Bruce is here, whom I like much ; and young Mure of Cald-
well, a fine young man. — Yours affectionately, T. E.

12. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Rome, 25th February 1824.

My dear Christian, — It is never from forgetfulness,
and far less from indifference, that my letters to you are
unfrequent ; for there is no person in the world that I like
better, or think oftener of, than yourself ; but really the
business of seeing sights is a full occupation of time, and a
most fatiguing occupation too. . . .

This place from which I write is just a mighty monu-
ment of the uncertainty of human things — it is a home for
the afflicted and ruined and disappointed ; for here they
will see the traces of a heavier affliction, and a deeper and
more widely extended ruin, and a more unlooked-for blight
than their own. Here they do not see the tombs of indi-
viduals, but of empires — they walk over the ashes of all

mt. 35. DR. CHARLES STUART. 43

that this world has produced of mighty, and glorious, and
enduring, of cheerful, and prosperous ; and they may thus
have the consolation of thinking that, when they suffer,
they only share the common inheritance of man. Thank
God, we have better and more solid consolation than the
mere knowledge that we have the whole of our race, past
and present, as our companions in sorrow. We have
learned that according to the plans of Divine wisdom, sorrow
is the seed of joy, and that out of the fragments of this
life a higher life is to be formed. . . .

The Noels have gone this morning for Naples. They
pressed me very hard to go with them, but I want to see
more of this place, and to get more into its spirit. Eome
is not a place to see in company with others. It is too
solemn and overwhelming in its principle to admit ever of
being felt by a number of people together. Ten people
can admire a column or a statue together ; but ten people
cannot look together into the abyss of past time and glory
and genius. It is like looking into a grave, or conversing
with a departed spirit. I cannot tell you anything which
you do not find better in books ; only that the half of the
truth can never be told you of the general interest of the
scene, or of the magnificence of St. Peter's, or of the magic
of the Apollo. . . . My dear Christian, I hope Charles is
not feeling his arm troublesome ; if he does, come away,
and I shall be your cicerone. It would be an immense
delight to me to see you, and I know that both you and
Charles would delight in it. Take a lesson in Italian now
and then by way of preparation. Give my best love to
all friends, especially the Laird himsel'. — Yours affec-
tionately, T. E.
1 3. TO DE. CHARLES STUART.

Rome, 19t7i April 1824.

My dear Friend, — . . . This city on the seven hills

44 LETTERS OT THOMAS ERSKINE. 1824.

is really a wonderful place. It is full of history and pro-
phecy— full both of the past and the future : and the reli-
gious system which has been concocted here fills up the sum
of its marvels. Yesterday was Easter Day, and the way
of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord which has been
adopted here, is to illuminate St. Peter's from the ground
to the Cross on the cupola, and to set off artificial fireworks
from St. Angelo ! This was the work of the evening, and
in the forenoon the Pope gave his benediction from a bal-
cony in the Quirinal, which was announced to those who
were not present by the firing of cannon ! My astonish-
ment is, that the thing goes on, for all the people seem to
regard it with perfect levity; they like it merely as a
spectacle, and surely they could easily have the same
spectacle, without the expense, and load of the system to
which it is attached. Assuredly there is not a place on
the earth which is better fitted to be considered as the
representative of human nature in all its efforts, and espe-
cially in its rebellion against Heaven ; and as such it stands
forth in Scripture. There we see it set up as the mark of
the denunciations of God. It is the great theatre on which
man has exhibited his powers, and his weakness, and his
corruption ; he has endeavoured to do everything without
God, and the ruins of the Forum and the Palatine tell the
success ; he has endeavoured even to be religious without
God, and that experiment I should think is drawing to its
conclusion. I suppose that you have heard by this time of
the measures which have been taken by the Government
of the Canton de Vaud against the Momiers as they are
called, i.e. against real religion. The common people are
against it, i.e. serious religion in Switzerland, which is not
a usual thing (although the Wesleys found the same thing,
to be sure, in England), and the Government, leaning upon
this feeling, has forbidden all meetings for religious pur-

xr. 35. CAPTAIN PA TERSON. 45

poses amongst the Momiers, under severe penalties. I
have a great mind to send the narrative which Empeytaz
(a friend of Lady Carnegie) has written to me of the trans-
actions to Mr. F. Gordon, in case any statement on the sub-
ject should be required. But it is not wise nor safe to raise
much cry in England about these matters, — it only exas-
perates the Continental Governments, without effecting
any change. So if I send, there must be no use of that
sort made of it. . . . — Yours affectionately,

T. Erskine.

14. TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, CAPTAIN PATERSON.

Rome, Ylih May 1824.

My dear James, — I have just received the intelligence
of dear Ralph's death.1 I desire to return thanks for the
mercy of God towards him, in giving him a clear sense of
the necessity and the sufficiency of the great atonement.
I don't think that there was one of my relations to whom
I felt so much brotherliness as to Ralph ; he had a noble
heart and a gentle heart, and self seemed to have little to
do in his composition. It is a heart-breaking blow to his
family. Oh may it be blessed to them, and, if their hearts
are broken, may they have new hearts given them from
above ! It is a purpose of love, however, we know — Ralph
and Jeannie, the eldest and the youngest. The root must
shake, whilst the branches fall. Mr. Dundas will feel it
strongly.

I am going to Naples to-morrow : I wish to see the place
where my father died. There is a poor Swiss here who is
dying. I leave my servant here to look after him when I
am at Naples, and if he is alive when I return, I must stay
with him. He has no earthly friend here but me. I shall
write to my mother at Harrogate from Naples. Give my
1 His cousin, Ralph Dundas, eldest son of James Dundas of Ochtertyre.

46 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1824.

love to Davie and the children, and to the Dundas family
most particularly and affectionately. I wish we were all
fairly grafted into the true Vine, and then, come life or
come death, all would be well. Farewell, my dear brother.
The sight of your hand from Paris gave me a start ; it is
a hand I should like well to clasp again. . . .

I intend to be back at Geneva by the end of June ;
but that will depend on the life of the Swiss. He is a
thorough Christian. — Yours, etc., T. Eeskine.

15. TO DR. CHARLES STUART.

Rome, 27th June 1824.
My dear Friend, — . . . I am preparing to leave this
capital of the world now, and to return to Geneva. This
is a place for collecting the materials of future thought
and feeling ; and I do not think that in this respect I have
altogether lost my time here. Providence has called me
to be the witness of a most interesting scene lately — the
death of a poor Swiss artist, a peaceful and faithful follower
of Christ. His lungs had been attacked some years ago.
In this situation it pleased God to make him acquainted
with that truth which comforts the mourner and strengthens
the faint, through the instrumentality of a very worthy
man, a Mr. Perrot, whom I know. Since that time he has
been sustained, and enabled to walk on in the narrow path .
Last autumn, when Mr. Noel left Geneva for Italy, he was
requested by Mr. Perrot to take this poor sick artist along
with him, which he did as far as Florence, from whence he
proceeded alone to Rome. The winter was very severe,
and the health of this poor man (I should not say poor, for
he is rich) evidently declined apace. He was without
friends, without comforts, without sleep, for whenever he
lay down the cough seized him, and in a country whose
language was strange to him ; but he was not without God,

jet. 35. DR. CHARLES STUART. 47

and God was to him friends, and comfort, and rest, and
home. I arrived here about the middle of February, and
got acquainted with him, and saw him occasionally. He
could go about and walk a little then, and he used to come
and sit with Mr. Noel and me from time to time ; and we
always found him most edifying, as far as his extreme
modesty would permit him to communicate to us his
Christian experience. For long he had been in the habit
of living much alone, and of speaking more to God than to
man ; and this high intercourse had left its traces on him
— its blessed traces of holiness and peace. As the spring
advanced he got worse and weaker, and in April he became
unable to leave his room. I saw a great deal of him then.
I was particularly struck with the exceeding seriousness
of his mind. He was much afraid of thinking or speaking
of religion in an unfit or unawakened state of mind, or
rather, I should say, without intense feeling. His conscience
went so far on this matter that he would not allow me to
read to him, unless his mind could come to the stretch.
He was afraid of dishonouring God by not giving Him the
whole effort and exertion of his spirit. He used to tell
me that his sleepless nights were delightful opportunities
of communion with God. The joy which filled his heart
received very little abatement from his disease. On the
day before his death he told me that he had had moments
that day which he could not express — " des moments inex-
primabhs." You who are in health, he said, can scarcely
conceive the manifestations which God makes to His people
as they stand on the brink of the grave. He has finished
his course, and kept the faith, and received the crown.
My dear R. D. has also, I rejoice to hear, been made a
bright monument of the grace of God. Let us then be of
good courage and follow the pillar of cloud and of fire, as
it conducts us into the promised land. My dear friend, I

48 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1824.

long to see you again. I have many friends, but few fathers.
When Mr. W. Erskine1 from Bombay arrives, I hope that
you will see him. I am sure that he must be a very amiable
and a very able man.- — Yours affectionately, T. E.

1 6. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Geneva, 22cZ Sept. 1824.
My dear Christian, — . . . . You were well off for
weather in crossing the Simplon, and I am sure that you
have enjoyed it much, and that you are satisfied that even
Switzerland cannot show anything superior to it in sublim-
ity. You were also delighted with Baveno ; I am sure you
could not be otherwise. And [I am sure] that you have
been struck with the appearance of rich production through
Lombardy. Virgil calls Italy " the bounteous mother of
men and fruits." You are at present surrounded by the
purple vintage. I delight in that exuberance of nature
that pours itself almost unasked over these sunny hills,
and vales, and plains. I shall direct this to Florence.
You must go to the Gallery about twelve, when one of the
custodes, who are gentlemen, and do not receive money,
commences the round of all the camere or chambers. The
tribune, in which the chiefest specimens, both of sculpture
and painting, are assembled, is generally open. There are
the Venus de Medici and a beautiful Apollo. There are
several Baphaels. Now, just begin and study Raphael.
Remark the goodness, and the worth, and the piety of his
faces, separate altogether from the fine art and execution.
There are two little Madonnas, or rather Holy Families, on
the left hand as you enter, in his early style, with blue
landscape behind them. Observe the face of the young

1 Sir James Mackintosh's son-in-law, author of the "History of India
under the two first Sovereigns of the House of Taimur."

jet. 35. MRS. STIRLING. 49

Saviour in one of these. The St. John in the Desert is
very striking. Observe Domenichino's portrait of a Car-
dinal, very like Dr. Chalmers, I think, when he appears
gruff, in which predicament you perhaps have never seen
him. In the Pitti, hunt Raphael without remorse or shame.
There are several in all his manners. Observe Ezekiel's
Vision ; what a colossal and imposing strength he has con-
trived to represent in that small compass ! Madonna della
Seggiola — the loveliest head I ever saw, except the one
at Dresden. The St. Mark by Fra Bartolomeo : that was
a great painter ; attend to him. A portrait of Hippolito
de' Medici, by Titian, in one of the back rooms, over the
door — a splendid thing, look for it. Ask for the room
where two Salvator Rosas hang. It is not usually shown,
but ask. There are also beautiful Poussins there. Go to
the church of Santa Croce, where the great men of Florence
are buried — most interesting. Go to the Annunciata Vesti-
bule to see the frescos of Andrea del Sarto and his scholars ;
he was a great painter too. Go also to the Santa Maria
Novella — curious old frescos. There is an Irish padre
named Padre Tomaso (Father Thomas), who likes to show
the English the sights there. You may ask for him if you
are curious to see the oldest frescos. Go to the chapel of
the Medici. Observe the statues of that family by Michael
Angelo. There is something very imposing and solemn in
those two statues — very unlike the antique, but fully giving
the idea of the baronial character and chivalry of the mid-
dle ages. The Church of the Medici itself is much more
rich than beautiful. Admire the baptistery, especially the
door towards the Cathedral. Admire also the bridge of
Santa Trinita, which is most beautiful in its form. Fare-
well, my dear sister. In the midst of all that, keep near
God. Draw nigh unto Him, and He says that He will
draw nigh unto us. . . .

D

50 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1824.

17. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Geneve, 27th Oct. 1824.

My dearly beloved Christian, — . . . Do you find
yourselves at home now in Kome 1 Have you got the
camere of Eaphael by heart 1 Have you drunk the spirit of
the Apollo and the Mercury (falsely and foully degraded
into Antinous), and the Laocoon 1 There is an eternity
in all these things — a vivacious principle of beauty and of
nobleness — which knows no age. And the Grand Juno,
and the Minerva in the Braccio Nuovo, and Thorwald-
sen's John the Baptist and his hearers, and Christ and the
Apostles. But I always haver when I commence on these
things, and they'll trot me at home if I don't take care of
myself. There is no trotting on the Continent. I hope
you go to the Vatican as often as you can, and that you
expand your spirit in St. Peter's. There also, there is an
eternity — and a different world from that which is without,
and a different climate. And the splendid mosaics, and the
tall beckoning silent figures of the saints and martyrs, and
the light and the air which play so freely through it.
And observe how beautifully the dome rests upon the
four arches ! There is a Prophet Isaiah, by Eaphael, in St.
Augustine. Go often to St. Andrea della Valle, and taste
Domenichino, the St. John especially. I hope that you will
enjoy all these things for your own sake, and for my sake
in the way of companionship when you come home — mats
U dejeHner est servi. The Cramers and Vernets inquire
most kindly always after you.

Try, Christian, and connect these works of art with the
religious sentiment. That seems to me the great secret of
taste as well as of enjoyment. God is the source of beauty
— in Him you find the spring and fountain-head. My
dear sister, may He bless you, etc. ... T. E.

vet. 36. LETTERS AT HOME. 51

CHAPTER IV.

Letters at Home, 1825-26.

In the spring of 1825 Mr. Erskine returned to Scotland,
taking up his headquarters at Linlathen, where his " mother
and sister and household " were — in the summer months
making a round of the cousinhood, the Dundases,1 the
Grahams, the Stirlings, etc. ; in autumn exchanging visits
with Dr. Chalmers, now resident at St. Andrews ; giving
a large part of the winter to his sister Mrs. Stirling, at
Cadder; and in August 1826 leaving Linlathen again for
another visit to the Continent.

The following letters were written during this period : —

. 1 His mother's sister, Elizabeth, third daughter of Mr. Graham of
Airth, had married James Dundas, Esq., of Ochtertyre. Throughout
Mr. Erskine's life at College, and his attendance at the Parliament House,
the two families lived within a few doors of each other, the Erskines in
St. David Street, the Dundases in St. Andrew Square. Their intercourse
was as affectionate as it was close and constant. His uncle's hospitality
and his aunt's sparkling wit brought to the supper parties in St. Andrew
Square many distinguished and agreeable visitors, among whom the young
advocate found himself at home. With one of the younger sons of the
family, George, Lord Manor, the daily intercourse of earlier years was in
later life renewed, to Mr. Erskine's special gratification. One only of
the large family of the Dundases now survives, Mrs. J. Stirling of Glen-,
tyan, of whom Mr. Erskine was wont to say that he could not remember
the time when he did not love her.

52 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1825.

1 8. TO MADAME VERNET.

Uh June 1825.
My dear Friend, — Though I feel that the voice of
human consolation is absolutely nothing in a grief like
yours, yet I cannot but express to you how deeply I condole
with you, and how earnestly I desire for you that He who
alone can comfort may comfort you and your mourning
family, and sanctify to you this solemn and heartrending
event. " Be still and know that I am God." Within a
month God has taken from you your father and your son,
but it is God — the God of love, the God who so loved the
world as to give His only-begotten Son to die for it. Let
your wounded spirit rest on this. Here is a balm for the
broken heart. Take refuge in God. Abide in Him.
Trust in Him and you shall not be disappointed or con-
founded. He who restored to life the son of the widow at
Nain (Luke vii.) was standing by your son at the awful
moment, and ordered every circumstance. He loved your
son as He loved the son of that widow, and if it were good
for him and for you, would restore him as He did the other.
He loved your son, for He made him and died for him, and
He says to you as He did to that mourning mother, " "Weep
not." Oh, what a word is that, coming from the heart of
omnipotent love ! Oh, may He graciously speak to you
Himself, and say, " Be of good cheer, it is I ; be not afraid.
Daughter, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee."
And may He open the ears of your heart, that you may
hear His voice and feel the sweetness and the power of
His consolation. Trust your son with unhesitating con-
fidence in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ ; His hands
are kind and tender hands. Your affection for your son
is only a faint shadow of the fatherly love of God. Leave,
then, all your anxieties in regard to him with God, and

jet. 36. MADAME VERNE T. 53

receive this event as an invitation to yourself and your
family to enter into a closer communion with Him. I
know that I cannot enter fully into the feelings of a mother,
but I am persuaded that there is not a pang the heart can
endure which may not, by the blessing of God, become the
seed of holiness and happiness. Our way to the heavenly
city lies through a wilderness, through a vale of tears, and
our Master walked this road before us. He was a man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief whilst on earth, and
now He reigns in the blessedness of God. This double
inheritance He leaves to His people : " If we suffer with
him, we shall also reign with him."

Oh, my dear friend, my heart bleeds for you, although I
know that all things work together for good to those who
love God. And your husband — may the Holy Spirit, the
Comforter, show to his soul the unspeakable love of
Christ, and turn his natural sorrow into spiritual joy.
And your other children, may they all seek and find a
brother in their Saviour. God's end in afflicting is to
draw us to Himself and to make us partakers of His holi-
ness (Heb. xii.), to show us the vanity and insufficiency of
created things, and thus to lead us to choose Himself for
our portion. Nothing can separate us from His love.
Oh, precious words ! Let, then, this love be the great
desire and perpetual prayer of our souls. Let the language
of our heart be, " Whom have we in heaven but Thee 1 and
there is none upon earth that we desire beside Thee."

" Give what Thou canst ; without Thee we are poor,
And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away."

God is all. We are His. He ought to be the first and
the last in our hearts. Let Him then take His great
power and reign within us. This alone is peace; this
alone is heaven. I beg to be remembered by you all as a

54 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1826.

friend who is willing to weep with you, though he cannot
comfort you.

19. TO MISS STUART.1

Cadder, \U1i June 1826.
My dear Miss Stuart, — I wish to let you understand
that my love and reverence for your father have not died
with him, but that he still holds his place in my affection
and in my gratitude. I have to bless God for my acquaint-
ance with him. I found in him a friend, and a father, and
a guide. The intercourse which I had with him Was a
continual incitement to me in the search after God, and I
regard it as one of the talents of which I have to give in
an account ; and I now feel hownegligent I was in the
use of it. I did not know a human being on this earth on
whose faithful and affectionate friendship I more confi-
dently relied, and he is now in glory — in the second part
of the inheritance. He suffered with Christ I believe here,
and now I feel a joyful assurance that he reigns with Him.
His soul had the mark of God upon it. The desire of his
soul was after God, and his business was to understand the
will and word of God. I think that it was on the Monday
after he was taken ill that he said to me, as I was pressing
his hand on taking leave, " i" hope to spend an eternity with
you." Amen.

20. TO M. MERLE D'AUBIGN^.

Linlathen, Dundee, 26<7t June 1826.
My dear Friend and Brother, — Grace, mercy, and
peace be unto you ! Perhaps you think that I have been
ungrateful and forgetful of the claims of friendship with re-
gard to you, but there is not a man breathing on the earth
whom I love more than you, or think of more frequently.
1 Daughter of Dr. Charles Stiiart.

mt. 37. MERLE D'AUBIGNE. 55

Take this assurance in place of a regularly sustained
epistolary correspondence. Well, how are you getting on
in the pilgrimage 1 Oh, what I wish is, that spiritual
eye, and ear, and heart, that might see, and hear, and
feel God in everything — in every object of nature, in every
event of time, in every duty, every difficulty, every sorrow,
every joy. Enoch walked with God, and God took him.
What a history of a life below, and a removal to a life
above ! Such a life below let us try to lead, my friend, and
let us daily learn to count all things but loss for the excel-
lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. I should like well
to be with you for a little while ; it is. a pleasure to me to
feel with you, and to think with you, and to know also
that you have a pleasure in letting your spirit walk with
mine. It is possible that I may be on the Continent soon
again, and you will be one of my attracting points, but I
stall let you know before, and arrange with you our times
of meeting. I know not what may have been your lot
slice I parted with you, whether sorrowful or joyful, but I
trist that it has been accompanied with a Father's blessing
to your soul. As I look upon you as one of God's children,
I may presume that you have had sorrow, for the promise
is " In the world ye shall have tribulation ; in Me ye shall
hive peace." How sweet the promise is ! How consoling
tc receive tribulation as the fulfilment of a Father's promise
—as the private cipher agreed on between the Saviour and
tie saved ! I have been seeing a good deal of sorrow
htely, and I have myself drunk a little of that salutary
cip — Ye shall drink of the cup that i" drink of. Is it not
? high privilege to partake with the King of Righteousness
md the King of Peace — the friend of the friendless, my
:efuge, my portion? You will have felt with the poor
Moneys, both in their sorrow and in their consolation with
vhich our gracious Lord has visited their wounded hearts.

56 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1826.

Remember me kindly to the M — family. My sister,
whom you saw at Brussels, and Mr. Stirling, are in the
same house with me at present, and they send you their
kindest regards. You gained their affections very much,
and I liked them the better for liking you so well. Fare-
well, my dear friend. Eemember me before the throne
where the answerer of prayer sits, and ask for me what you
feel that you need for yourself — a heart devoted singly to
God, breathing after communion with Him, and consecrating
all its movements to His service. When you write to yc(ur
mother, give her my affectionate regards. — Yours, in the

bond which endures, T. Erskine.

/
21. TO MRS. MONTAGU".

Linlathen, Thursday, Idth July 1826. /

My dear Mrs. Montagu, — . . . Malan has been a
good deal in Scotland. I daresay he has been a good
deal disappointed with many things and persons that he
has seen here. Religion in Scotland is too much a thiig
of science, and too little a thing of personal application
and interest. His reality pleases me very much; but I
cannot go along with his continual demand of assuranie
of salvation from every person that he meets. I thiijk
that he confounds two things which are distinct — jpardh
and salvation. Pardon is a free gift, without respect if
character in those who receive it; salvation respects t«
character, and is in fact only another name for sanctificatioi
it arises from the spiritual understanding and belief of tl
pardon revealed to the soul by the Spirit of God. I believi
that I have the first, viz., pardon, for I read that the blooq
of Christ cleanseth from all sin ; but I cannot believe thai
I have salvation, when I feel the evil heart of unbeliel
opposing the will of God within me.
. Prayer is our business in this world — prayer for that

jet. 37. MISS CHRISTIAN ERSKINE. 57

all-efficient Spirit, who can make, and who alone can make,
all things new. I need that operation. I feel that I can
do nothing. — Yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

22. TO MISS CHRISTIAN ERSKINE.1

Linxathen, 9th August 1826.
My dear Cousin, — I hope you don't think that I have
forgotten you because I have never inquired after you since
I left you. I can assure you that it is not with me, " out
of sight out of mind." But my heart has been sore occu-
pied with many things — with parting from my friends and
from my duties. I sometimes question whether I am right,
and that is a heavy question when the answer is not per-
fectly clear. I think I am right, but yet I desert a post which
cannot be otherwise filled. I trust that the Good Shep-
herd will lead me, and make me to hear His voice, and
follow it. My heart often wanders down your lane, and
enters your quiet dwelling, and sits down with you, and
escapes into the past and the future, the two great eter-
nities between which the present stands as an agitated
point. The past is with God, and the future is with God,
and so also is the present, but we don't feel this so much.
There is too much emotion connected with the present to
allow us to see it as it really is. Eternity is to my mind
just the same thing as God, and when I lose myself in
eternity, I feel that I lose myself in God. That is a good
way of losing ourselves, is it not 1 That loss is great gain.
I remember you at least twice a day — in connection with
eternity, and in connection with some earthly friends whom
you love. I have given you Dr. Stuart's place. No, I

1 The Rev. Dr. John Erskine had nine sons and five daughters, of whom
only one son and three daughters survived hiin. The eldest daughter,
Mary, was Mrs. Stuart of Dunearn— the youngest, Christian, was the
cousin to whom this letter was addressed.

58 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1826.

cannot say that ; he shall keep his own place in my heart,
though he "wants not the prayers of his friends. I hope
that you are getting on pretty well in spirit, and, if it be
God's will, in body also. Do you hear from Eachel occa-
sionally? She is a faithful correspondent and a faithful
friend. I like to say that of her to one who knows how
true it is. How is Miss Stuart 1 I trust that she is reap-
ing the precious fruits of affliction, and that she drinks
more of the Fountain now that her chief cistern is broken,
I expect to be in town in about a week, when I hope to
see you a little before I go hence, and to take another tack
of my key, and another turn in Heriot's Green. Farewell.
Believe me, with love and affection, to be yours, T. E.

23. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Sept. 1826.

My Kitty, — ... I saw Warwick Castle and Kenil-
worth, and a very beautiful country about Wellsbourne.
The day that we arrived from Hinckley there was a shower
of hail that broke a great deal of the glass of the neigh-
bourhood, killed partridges and poultry, and cut cucumbers
in two. William is a devoted fox-hunter. Lord Mackenzie
says that a man might as well be hanged as be a fox-hunter,
for he is utterly lost to the use of life. Lord M. may have
a right to speak, for he is useful ; but I think an idle tra-
veller is as much lost, and might be taken up and hanged
on equally good grounds. Write to me to Paris, chez
Lafitte ; I shall send also to Poste Eestante, of course ; and
let me know your plans for the winter. If we lived nearer,
we would be mutual helps. I hope to improve my absence
at present by cultivating the opportunity of intercourse
with God, uninterrupted by the creature; I desire to
know what that life is which is hid with Christ in God

xr. 37. MISS CHRISTIAN ERSKINE. 59

— to know it experimentally as my own life, to feel Christ
as the fountain-head of my life, a fountain out of the reach
of danger. That is the only safe life, is it not, my dear
sister % Oh, let us not be half Christians ; I have been
that. Kitty, I hope it may please God to give you and
me to know what flesh and blood cannot reveal to us.
The thought of you is to me always a cheering, pleasing
thought ; you are a part of all my expectations of worldly
happiness. Oh, may we be conducted to one of those
mansions ! Love to Charles ; I love him. T. E.

24. TO MISS CHRISTIAN ERSKINE.

London, *]th September 1826.
My dear Cousin, — I must pay you one more little
visit before I leave the country. I sleep, or more properly
spend, this night on board the steam-packet for Boulogne,
and then the sea will separate between me and you, and
much of what is dear to me on this earth. I have been
detained beyond my purposed time by different circum-
stances. Indeed, I expected to have been in Geneva before
now ; but it is always soon enough to leave one's country.
London is to me at present a desert. I have hardly a
friend in town. Mrs. Rich,1 and Christy, and Maria, make
up my account, with a few stragglers. I am just going to
try Mrs. Oliphant. I expect to meet on the other side of
the water with the Torphichens 2 and dear Katherine and
Jane.3 The Continent had something of the home feeling
about it as long as they remained there, and now I have
friends there — real friends — friends for eternity. But the

1 Daughter of Sir James Mackintosh.

2 Mr. Erskine's cousin Margaret, second daughter of John Stirling, Esq.
of Kippendavie and Kippenross, married James Sandilands, tenth Lord
Torphichen.

3 His sister-in-law and cousin Mrs. James Erskine, and her sister Miss
Jane Stirling.

60 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1826.

home feeling is wanting, the charm of blood-relation-
ships grows upon me very much. I love my kindred, and
much reason have I to thank G-od that so many of my
kindred according to the flesh belong to the family of
heaven. Christy and Maria, I am glad to find, like Edin-
burgh, and will probably return there soon to reside. You
are one of their chief points of attraction. There is some-
thing very interesting to me in their silent unexpressed
affection. They are true people, but their loss is that they
have never had anything either to do or to think of. They
seem to be without excitement. Would you prefer having
too little or too much excitability %

Hold me in your memory as I do you, near and dear.
Give my kind regards to Miss Stuart, whom I often think
of as her dear father's representative. When and where
shall we meet again? In the Lord, and in the Lord's
time. Eemember me kindly to your brother and any
friends. I could send friendly words to your garden, and
your sun-dial, and your elder-bush, and your quiet Lane.1

1 Dr. Erskine's family lived in Lauriston Lane.

jet. 37. LETTERS FROM THE CONTINENT. 61

CHAPTER V.

Letters from the Continent, 1826-27.

25. TO HIS SISTER MRS. PATERSON.

Paris, 2d October 1826.
My dear Davie, — Yesterday was your birthday, and
it was also Sunday, and I thought much of you and yours
during its services. For the first time in my life, I re-
ceived the sacrament twice on one day : first, according to
the Church of England, at Mr. Way's ; and again in the
evening, at a small reunion of French Protestants, under
Mr. Olivier, one of the exiles from the Canton de Vaud.
This last service was very simple and very sweet. It was
between 8 and 9 o'clock at night. It was a supper ; the
meeting was assembled just to break bread and pray.
Olivier's address was on the duty of purging out the old
leaven when we keep this feast. The characteristic of all
these persecuted Christians is reality, and oh, reality is
everything ! They have found religion to be a thing worth
suffering for, they have found it a support under suffering ;
and they speak of it to others, not as of a logical system,
but as of a new life, a heavenly strength, a very present help
in trouble, and a medicine and a remedy for every evil
under the sun. My dear Davie, I knew that you would
be thinking of me, and thus we met together. May the
Lord unite us in the bond of Christian love, and faith, and
hope ! . . . I read the 53d Psalm this morning, and I

62 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1826.

thought how many fools this vain world holds. I felt my
heart condemn me as one of them. . . .

I have been walking in the Tuileries with Merle, and
talking with him about many things. You remember he
had written to me about a proposal that he should be the
tutor of the Prince of Orange's family. He has been hesitat-
ing about accepting it, from conscientious motives ; for there
is another governor, and he fears that he may not have
full liberty in giving such religious instruction as he may
think proper, in consequence of the interference and opposi-
tion of this man. As we came home, we met Mr. Lewis
Way, who was coming on horseback to call on me. He was
looking up at the column in the centre of the place Ven-
d6me, and he repeated a tirade of thirty or forty blank
verses on the subject, composed on the occasion ; very good
indeed. He told me that the colossal statue of Napoleon,
which was made to stand on the top of it, was now at the
foot of the Duke of Wellington's staircase. . . . Farewell.
I am going to my table-d'hote. — Yours affectionately.

Oct. Uh. — I intend to set out for Geneva to-morrow.

26. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Coppet, 1st November 1826.
Dear Cousin Rachel, — It is near midnight, and I
set off to-morrow morning early for the Simplon. It is
not therefore with the idea of writing a long letter at
present that I sit down now, but with the view of begin-
ning one, which may bear some marks of my journey from
this to Venice, and which may bear testimony to you of
my love for you, whether I am in England, or Switzerland,
or Italy. I leave several real friends here — most interest-
ing, affectionate, confidential friends ; and there are in fact
as many of them as might satisfy any moderate appetite for
friendship. I certainly could not have thought it possible

■jifcr. 38. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 63

for a stranger to have furnished himself with such an assort-
ment of that article in so short a time. This house, for
one, has been a home to me, and the family have been my
brothers and my sister. There has been sorrow here also
amongst my friends ! indeed, my friends have a sort of
luck for sorrow ; but good-night, you shall have a little
more from the Simplon.

Friday night, Brigue. — I left Coppet on Thursday morn-
ing. There are very few people in the world, at home or
abroad, that I like half as well as I like Madame de Broglie,
there is such a truth about her, such a superiority to every-
thing that is little and low in character, such an activity
of occupation with the thoughts and interests of eternity,
such an expansion of fine and high mind dedicated to Him
from whom it comes, and such a depth, and, at the same
time, a ndiveU of sentiment. And I have received from
her the kindness of sisterly friendship. She, and her hus-
band, and her brother were up to bid me adieu at 7 in the
morning. . . . You have often heard me speak of Madame
Vernet,1 whom I like second best here. I wish you knew
her. She has all the warmth and energy of heart that
cousin Annie had — a continual spring-tide of strong and
generous feeling. She always puts me in mind of the well
of waters springing up unto everlasting life. I have con-
versed many hours with her, and I never felt her feeling
flag for an instant, — it is an unfailing stream from the "
fountain above. Her intellect is far from being of the first
order, naturally, and it has not been much cultivated; but
her heart, impregnated by religion, is full of genius. I have
said that I liked her second best, and yet were I permitted
and required to change altogether with any other human
being — character, hopes, feelings, for time and eternity — I

1 One of the Pictet family, mother-in-law of Diodati and of the Baron
de Stael.

64 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1826.

think that I should name Madame Vernet. You will think
it curious that I should make any comparison between her
and cousin Annie when I tell you that she has not a single
particle of merriment in her composition. She is essentially
serious. You remember what Bishop Burnet says of Leigh-
ton, that he had known him twenty years, and that he had
never all that time known him to say a word or do an ac-
tion that he would not wish to have been the last word or
action of his life. I have not known Madame Vernet
twenty years, but in other respects, I could say the same
thing of her. I arrived here this morning and made an
attempt to get up the mountain, but there has been and is
a heavy fall of snow, and I was forced back again. Sir N.
and Lady Mildmay are fellow-prisoners with me here.
We dined together as fellow-sufferers. Oh ! it is a land of
beauty this — of beauty that thrills the heart. I can weep
at will whilst I look at it. There is a deep melancholy in
the highest order of natural beauty, and a holiness. It
seems to recall the original state of man, and to reproach
him, and yet to compassionate him for having lost it. . . .
Saturday, Ath November. -Still at Brigue. The moun-
tain is still inaccessible, but the snow has ceased to fall,
and the sun has shown himself. I have been walking and
wandering at this place in the midst of the Alps. I went
into a churchyard, and was attracted by a lighted candle,
at the end of a low long vault. I found that the candle,
as usual, was standing before a crucifix ; but the walls of
the vault on each side were lined with human skulls, piled
one above another, from the ground to the roof. It is a
shocking sight. The eyeless holes have such a fixed stare,
and the jaws grin so ghastly, — the palace of the soul, with-
out its tenant. My friend Gaussen, at Geneva, holds that
the spirit is in a state of total insensibility from the instant
of death until the instant of the general resurrection. The

mt. 38. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 65

interval between death and judgment is in this way abso-
lutely annihilated for them. Their last thought in this
world will be instantaneously followed by the sound of the
last trumpet. Their eye has just before death rested on
the face of a friend on earth. The eye is closed, and instan-
taneously opened to behold the Saviour descend from
heaven with clouds and great glory. If this be the case
(which, however, I cannot make up my mind to entirely)
when we look on the spectacle of death, it is striking to
reflect that our accountable existence is passing during a
period which is to the dead absolutely nothing, and that
the first thought which will stir the beings to whom these
trappings once belonged, and still belong perhaps, is to be
a thought excited by the sight of Christ coming in power.
Sunday, 5 th. — Still at Brigue. I have spent this day
among the sanctities of nature — amongst glens, and green
glades, and water-falls, and towering rocks, and autumnal
colours, and fallen leaves, and gushing springs. There is
something delightful in coming upon a fine water-fall by
surprise, as it were, unconducted to it even by a footpath,
so that you may almost consider yourself as the discoverer
of it. Many such I saw to-day living in their own loveli-
ness, unseen and unadmired. God made them and He
pronounced them good, and the smile of His approbation
seems still to dwell upon them, unpolluted and unmixed
with the stupid gaze of man. The Ehone (before entering
the Lake of Geneva) passes by this place, soon after issuing
from the glacier; and as he hurries along, he receives supplies
from the mountains which line his route. Each of these
supplies forms a beautiful glen, branching off, higher up,
into smaller ones, and exhibiting every variety of beauty ;
and then the vegetation, though vastly inferior to the south
side of the mountain, is still very rich, fine sweet chestnuts
and walnuts, and every kind of bush and shrub. I read

E

66 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1826.

several psalms in these little sanctuaries. Forty-second
psalm, " deep calleth unto deep," water-fall calleth to water-
fall. His afflictions followed so hard one upon another, that
they seemed to call to each other. Do you ask for a heart
which pants after God, which thirsts after Him, which
renounces every other dependence, which chooses Him for
its portion 1 . . .

This day was a festival. The people are Roman Catholics,
and whilst I was out on my travels, and in the very midst of
all the adorations of nature, I came across a procession, con-
sisting of the greater part of the population of this neigh-
bourhood (as I should imagine), clergy, and laity, in cowls,
and gowns, and coats of divers colours, carrying the host,
and banners, and flags of every description. Sometimes
they sung, and sometimes they knelt ; and ever and anon
there was a discharge of musketry, and then a peal of
church bells. It is a woful business. Their picturesque
appearance amongst these rocks and thickets is a very
poor compensation to the heart for the delusion out of
which such scenes proceed^ and which is strengthened by
them. These mummeries are so little like intercourse
with the God of holy love, and that is our God and our
Father. . . .

Tuesday, 7th, Simplon. — I remained Monday at BrigUe,
and had a delightful walk. I thought cousin Manie would
have been enchanted with it, but it requires strength to
have the full enjoyment of that country — muscles fit for
climbing, and practised in it. The roads by which we
must penetrate into its beauty and its mystery are more
like chamois-paths than .man-paths. The character of
adventure and enterprise that belongs to these walks adds
much to their interest in my estimation. If I had had
paper and ability, I should have liked to have taken a sketch
of a most curious scene which I came upon — a branch of

^ET.38. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 67

the Rhone coming out of an immense hole, that recalled
to me both the crater of Vesuvius and the Coliseum. I
need not attempt to describe it, but it is worth going a
good way to see. And now I am on the top of the Simplon,
surrounded by eternal snows. The ascent was very diffi-
cult. The road was very poorly cut through the snow,
rather trodden indeed than cut ; and even that barely wide
enough for one carriage, so that it was a prodigious embar-
ras the meeting with other carriages coming down. I
don't believe that more than two feet of snow had fallen, but
the road was in many places covered with avalanches to the
depth of several feet. The views were very magnificent,
as you may suppose. Our wheels were taken off, and we
were placed on traineaux or sledges, which slide more easily
along the snow, and have the advantage of not sinking.
The are still my fellow-travellers. They are remark-
ably civil, but I have been accustomed to such a different
style of society, that I don't find them at all satisfactory
— they know nothing of God or eternity. What an extra-
ordinary, and what an awful thing to say of anyone born and
educated in England, the land of Bibles- — of any one born to
die, and whose happiness through eternity depends entirely
on the nature of his relation with God ! Blessed is the man
whom Thou choosest, 0 Lord, and causest to approach
unto Thee. Grant to us that we may approach near unto
Thee, that we may dwell in the secret of the Most High, and
abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Good-night, my
dear, dear Bachel. May God bless you and repay your
kindness to me a hundred-fold in the blessings of eternity.
8th, Wednesday. — I hail you from Italy. I am now at
Baveno, on the Lago Maggiore. I have been here twice
before, and I have always stopped a day or two. The
scenery is enchanting, the sky without a cloud, and the
moon reflected by the lake and the distant Alpine snows.

68 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1826.

The descent from the Simplon, on the Italian side, is much
more striking than on the Swiss side. The immense masses
of rock, thrown together and piled one above another,
give the idea of the ruins of a world. Nothing of man is
to be seen, except the road on which we travel, which is,
to be sure, a wonderful work. The snow lay thick till near
the foot of the mountain. The road follows the course of
a torrent which bursts its way through a narrow ravine, in
many places scarcely wide enough to admit of the road.
The precipitous rocks on each side are the very image of
irresistible strength. Sometimes they rise like a wall, per-
pendicularly for many hundred feet, and sometimes they
assume the varied shapes of ancient battlements and barti-
sans. As the torrent seldom runs many hundred yards
perfectly straight, the road which coasts it is just a succes-
sion of glens shut in at both ends. The dashing of the
torrent is the only sound which interrupts the silence of
nature, if, indeed, it can be said at all to interrupt it. Well,
I am on the south side of the Alps once more. As I look
at them, I feel that they rise between me and my native
land, and all the friends that I have in the world. Their
immense forms, covered with snow, seem to xforbid all inter-
course ; but that they cannot do, nothing but God can do
that. I am perhaps at this moment thinking of the same
thing with you, and is there not a perpetual spiritual inter-
course between those who trust in the same Saviour, who
love the same Father? Yes, the day is near when these
" mountains shall depart, and these hills be removed ; but
my kindness shall not depart, neither shall the covenant
of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, who hath mercy
on thee." Good-night. I saw the star of evening set to-
night, and I thought of Holywell, where last I looked at
it with you. Do you remember 1

9th, Thursday, Baveno. — I have passed the greater part

jet. 38. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 69

1 of this day in walking about this beautiful place. The

have gone on to Milan, with all the Brigue party

except myself. One of the party was a young Bolognese
officer, who had been with Bonaparte at Moscow. I ad-
mired the perfect simplicity with which he answered any
questions that were put to him on the subject. It is a
great deal for a man not to be a coxcomb in such circum-
stances. My dear cousin, do you remember how to find
out the north polar star by the indication of the two stars
in the Great Bear called the Pointers % I told you once,
and I have just now been looking at it, and thinking of
you and other friends in the north. I like to associate my
friends with particular stars, there is something so sweet,
and intimate, and confidential in a star. The sun and the
moon, but especially the sun, are too universal and general
for particular friendship ; but you may consider a star as
your own. The moon is shining, and the white Alps, by
her pale light, look like the ghosts of past ages as they
mark their wild and livid tracery upon the deep blue of
heaven. I would call them " their high mightinesses," were
they not so unlike the beau-ideal of a Dutchman. . . .

Baveno, 1 Oth, Friday. — I know it must be a great bore to
get pages filled with phrases about lakes, and mountains,
and blue skies, especially if one's good-nature makes it a
matter of conscience to read them. What a blessing it is
that there are things so good and so delightful that no re-
petition of them can convert them into bores ! Were there
not some such things, eternity would be but a melancholy
prospect for us. The song of heaven is called a new song,
although I suppose its elements must always be the same
to express its unwearying nature. The affections are always
new, and, to say the truth, whatever weariness my descrip-
tions of the aforesaid mountains may produce in you, the
mountains themselves, and the blue sky into which they

70 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1826.

push their pointed tops, and the rising sun, and the setting
sun, and the shining hosts of heaven, and the lake in whose
glassy surface all these reflect themselves, never tire me.
Their silence, and their simplicity, and their beauty are
ever new to me ; there is no over-excitement in them. I
went to-day to see a little lake a few miles from this — il
Lago d'Orta. It is very beautiful, as everything is here.
I enjoy the solitude of these expeditions very much. I am
thoroughly free. As I rowed past a large chateau in a
delicious situation, I had the curiosity to ask whose it was.
The boatman told me, and then added, la contessa 4 morta
sta notte. — the countess died this very night! Yes, the
great spoiler is on the earth following the steps of sin. It
is a lovely place, but death entered it last night and carried
away his prey. It was a solemn night for her. How was
she prepared 1 Did she know Him, whom to know is ever-
lasting life 1 " He that believeth on me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live, and he that liveth and believeth on
me shall never die." This is just the reality after which
Poussin painted his Arcadian tomb (of which I have sent
you the engraving by Catherine). My heart often, returns
to the Ochil hills, and your grand western boundary lighted
up by the setting sun, and the view from the Castle, and the
Links, and the Meadows, and the Pentlands from Heriot's
Green. And oh! how memory delights to revive the
various feelings of earthly or heavenly origin which have
been associated with these sweet scenes ! But the night is
coming, on which some one will say of us what the boat-
man said of the countess, " he — she died last night." My
dear friends, may our God grant unto us that we may find
mercy of the Lord on that day !

Como, Sunday, 12th. — I came here yesterday. Though the
mountain boundary is fine through the whole of this Alpine
country, yet there are points and stretches superior to the

jet. 38. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 71

rest, and certainly I saw one of the finest yesterday in
passing by Varese, between the Lago Maggiore and the
Lake of Como. " Thy faithfulness standeth like the great
mountains." I should like to think that you are at Mrs.
Greig's to-day, and hearing (as I did once there), " In me
ye shall have peace ; " but wherever you are, I hope that
your spirit may be touched from on high, and that your
soul may be fed by words from the mouth of God.

Venice, 2d January 1827. — It is a real pleasure to me to

write to you. . . . is dead. Oh ! do you not feel

how true that word is, " Blessed are the dead that die in
the Lord." I don't know what the state of his mind was,
but I have a hope (which I would not willingly think con-
trary to the revelation of mercy) of the ultimate salvation
of all.1 I trust that He who came to bruise the serpent's
head will not cease His work of compassion until He has
expelled the fatal poison from every individual of our race.
I humbly think that the promise bears this wide interpre-
tation. You think not, I know. Well, the Judge of all

the earth will do right. The Lord reigneth. has

entered the invisible world. Oh that the living could
realise the estimate which the dead form of things — things
temporal and things eternal. My mother has given me the
particulars of — — 's last days. We know not what the
Spirit of the Creator says to the spirit of the creature at
that awful time. I hope for the departed (I hope in that
unmeasured love which gave the Saviour; in fact, my soul
refuses to believe in final ruin when it contemplates the
blood of Christ), and I rejoice for the weeping friends that
the last scene had so much of peace and promise in it. I
have been reading over your letters again, and I cannot
express to you what I feel for your affection. May God's

1 One of the earliest expressions of a hope which he had cherished for
some years.

72 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1827.

love dwell in your heart and give you peace eternal. ...
When I pray for my friends, I always pray that their
prayers for me may be heard. . . . What is the honest
language of your heart 1 not of the conscience, but of the
heart. I know no book of man's composition that goes
more to the quick than Adam's Private Thoughts. He re-
ceived the testimony of the Bible concerning the depravity
and deceitfulness of his own heart, and he took part with
God against himself. That is what I should like to do truly
and decidedly, to take part with God against myself. . . .
4th January. — I like to put several days into my letters
to you, that you may better understand how often and
how dearly I think of you. I hope my friends are all
well. I had a heavy, superstitious apprehension darkening
my mind yesterday. All things are in my Father's hand.
Oh for a right childlike dependence on His love ! I have
been picture -hunting to-day. Almost all the good pictures
which were in the hands of individuals are sold out of
Venice. And at this very time there is a negotiation
going forward for the sale of the Barberigo collection, the
last good collection of genuine Titians. I saw to-day the
sou of the last Doge, the same who abdicated passively,
and thus basely terminated a high carder of fourteen
centuries. I don't like the character of the old Venetian
state. It was a dark, bloody, selfish aristocracy. It was
a government of spies and informers. It had neither
virtue nor generosity. It had not even the chivalry that
belonged to almost all other aristocracies. The Doge was
nothing, and the people were nothing, the council of ten
was all in all. They were the state inquisitors, they spied
upon the Doge, they spied upon the people, they had their
midnight examinations and consultations, they had the
bocca di Leone, the lion's mouth, for receiving calumnies,
and suspicions, and lies of every sort, and woe to those who

jet. 38. MISS RACHEI ERSKINE. 73

fell under their jealousy ! The torture was always ready
to force confession from weakness, and agony from the
brave. And then there was the Bridge of Sighs, and the
deep dungeons, unvisited by a single ray from heaven,
under the level of the canals. I am not sorry that they
are gone ; but were I a Venetian, I should prefer a native
despotism to a stranger's. Happy those who are citizens
of that city which has no need of the sun, nor of the moon,
for the Lord God and the Lamb are the light thereof. All
human governments must be bad, more or less, until men
cease to be bad. But you know that I am a lover of liberty
in its largest meaning.

January 5. — There are many fine pictures in the public
buildings and churches. There are four or five magnificent
Titians, and a splendid Paul Veronese in the Pisani Palace,
in which the portraits of the family of the Pisani are in-
troduced in the characters of Darius' s family presented
to Alexander the Great. But to my mind the Venetian
school is generally uninteresting, in consequence of the
want of ideality and delicacy ; they are too like nature in
its coarseness. I can forgive an aberration from nature
when the wanderer strays into a higher country and a
purer atmosphere. The expression of Domenichino's St.
Cecilia at Cadder is more a feeling in my heart at this
moment, than all the magic of this school of colourists.
Titian has mind too, undoubtedly immense mind, but not
a beautiful or poetical mind.

January 6 (1827). — This is the Epiphany, you know, or
the feast of the three kings, who have been substituted by
the Catholics in the place of the Magi or wise men from
the East, who brought gifts to the new-born Saviour. They
were conducted by a star. He himself calls himself the
bright and the morning star. I love the stars. I wish
they conducted me to Christ. Sometimes they do. Oh

74 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1827.

where is that eternal fountain of light from which their
lovely lamps are filled ! Even as the heart panteth after
the water-brooks, so would my soul pant after that Foun-
tain of life, and light, and joy. I saw one of their cere-
monies in St. Mark's, and heard some of their music. The
church itself is most imposing with its many arches and
its gilded mosaics, representing all the saints, and martyrs,
and hermits that ever lived ; but their ceremonies are dis-
gusting to common sense, and their music is not to my
taste. The patriarch is a very good sort of man. I have
dined with him twice. There is a kindness in his manner
which is very attractive. He is most unbigoted, and I
have caught myself often speaking to him about the foolish
idolatries of his Church, as if he had been a Protestant.,
He answered me to such observations by saying that it was
more difficult to build up than to pull down, and' that, in
the present state of ignorance in Italy, the discontinuance
of these ceremonies would probably lead to entire irreligion
amongst the people, — that he did what he could towards;
erecting schools and extending the advantage of education..
He is reported to be the natural brother of the Emperor^,
He certainly has considerable influence, which he uses
humbly and beneficently. He is going away to another
archbishopric in Hungary, much to the regret of the people
of Venice. He comes to Mr. Money's occasionally, and
seems to enjoy the quiet domestic society that he finds
there, ... I have bought two or three pictures here, but
no great things. I am quite nauseated, in fact, with the
Venetian school at present. .. . .

This is indeed a very remarkable place, the narrowest
wynd leading from the High Street to the Cowgate is much
broader than the generality of the streets here. In some
of them two persons have difficulty in passing, and then
they don't run straight, so that it is extremely difficult to

mt. 38. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 75

know the way. When the inhabitants of the better class
go from one place to another, they generally go in gondolas,
so that they have no occasion to get acquainted with the
streets (or mill as they are called), and hence, in fact, many
persons who have lived all their lives in Venice are as little
acquainted with it as you are, with the exception of the
Piazza di San Marco, the Ponte di Eialto, and the Eiva
leading to the public garden. They go to bed about three
in the morning or so, and get up pretty early too ; but
they sleep a little during the day, and in truth their life is
a long sleep, or at least a dream. They have nothing to
do but to pass the time, which they do, by drinking coffee
a. dozen of times in the day, by attending the theatres,
walking on the Piazza or Piazzetta, and evening parties.
Crood-night, my dear, dear friend.

January 9. — I have heard lately from my friends in
Switzerland, from Coppet, and from Carra, the Vernets'
place. The Baron de Stael is just about to be married to
a daughter of Madame Vernet. The friends on both sides
are much pleased. I am a friend of both sides, and I am
much satisfied (forsooth), She is an amiable, well-minded,
and well-hearted girl. Sbe is pious, and I reajly believe
that that is the reason of their marriage. I used to think
that he would have liked to form some high political con-
nection by his marriage, and I regard this fact as an evi-
dence, and a tolerably strong evidence, that he has chosen
for himself a portion which is not temporal. Dear Madame
Vernet is well pleased, and Madame de Broglie is delighted.
I like that absolute freedom from ambition that I see in
these people. I have got a portrait of the blind old Dan-
dolo, the Venetian Doge, who at the age of eighty scaled
the walls of Constantinople, or at least was the first to dis-
embark for the attack of that place, painted in 1500 or so,
by the brother of Titian's master, taken from an older por-

76 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1827.

trait. You don't care for that. Well, my heart is with
you. May the God of peace be with you ! Write to Rome.
I go in two days.

27. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Bologna, Feb. 1827.
My dearest Kitty, — . . . When I was at Venice I
bought many things out of sheer idleness — some not much
worth, but there are two portraits in my gallery which are
rarities. They are by Gentil Bellini, but their interest does
not arise from that circumstance ; one is the portrait of
old Dandolo, the eighty-year-old Doge who took Constan-
tinople : this portrait was painted in 1480, copied from
another, probably the original. Dandolo lived about 1220.
This portrait has been in the Dandolo family till lately,
and I have got their attestation of its genuineness. The
other portrait is still more curious ; its history is this.
Soon after Mahomet the Great had taken Constantinople,
he took a fancy to have a picture of himself, and as he
knew that his allies, the Venetians, had skilful painters,
he desired that one might be sent who could do him justice.
The Venetian ambassador at Constantinople then was a
patrician of the family of Zen; he was the patron of
Gentil Bellini, and in return for this good office Bellini
gave Zen a present of the original draught which he made
of the Sultan, and from which he afterwards copied the'
portrait which remained in Constantinople. The Zen
family, like almost all the other Venetian families, is at
present in great poverty, and I bought from them this
most curious and living painting for sixty base sequins.
It is very thin and sketchy, but life itself — and such grand
life. I have been at Bologna for some days, and have
been enjoying the Academy very much ; these Domeni-
chinos, especially the Martyrdom of Sta. Agnese, are the

jet. 38. MRS. STIRLING. 77

works of a fine heart and a high genius. I would not
give the Sta. Agnese for the two best Correggios in
Parma, though I know that I am speaking treason against
the established authorities in the kingdom of the fine
arts. The lights of Correggio are indeed wonderful, but
Domenichino seems to me to speak a fuller language to
the heart. Correggio is too fondling, I think. After I
had been here three or four days, my domestico di piazza
took me to see a Sta. Cecilia. When I came out I told him
that a friend of mine, about eighteen months ago, had
bought what I was sure was the original of this picture ;
he immediately asked me, with great keenness, if it was
not Signor Carlo Stirling that I meant. I told him yes,
when he informed me that he had also been your cicerone.
I said to him that I had often heard you speak of him
with great approbation. He spoke of you most warmly,
always calling Charles Signor Carlo, whose rapid manner
of settling with the picture-dealers he could not sufficiently
admire — erafuriosa, he repeated. I have been endeavour-
ing to do a little myself here ; I have been probing for a
very fine Titian ; I don't think I shall get it ; the man asks
1200 louis, and I have offered 1200 scudi, according to
that good lesson which you gave me, and which I wish that
I had always followed. Whilst this great negotiation is
going on, I have been lying on my oars — till this day,
when I could not resist making a little purchase, which is
now perched on a chair before me, or rather, I should say,
two purchases, a very fine sketch, which I hope is original-
issimo, of Ludovico Carracci, for his great picture of the
Transfiguration, in the gallery, and a beautiful abbozzo of
Paolo, with a sky and architecture worth thrice what I
paid for it. Venice is not so good a place for buying
pictures as Bologna. I think that I rather threw away my
money there upon Barbini. Do you know, my dear Kitty,

78 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. , 1827.

just two or three days before I left Venice the thin Barbini
died suddenly from the rupture of a blood-vessel — carried
away from the pictures, and shows, and shadows of things,
to look on the great realities. I find that the solitude and
tranquillity of my evenings are very necessary to repair the
distractions of the day. I hope that you and dear Signor
Carlo have quiet wherever you are, and that you are ad-
vancing in the race set before us. ... I have an acquaint-
ance here, a Marchese di Grudotti, who is a handsome gay
young man, very fond of England ; he wonders why I
don't take advantage of his acquaintance to get into society
here. I told him that my business was to keep quiet.
He was with Bonaparte at Moscow. I met him crossing
the Simplon, when he gave me his address, and requested
me to call on him when I came to Bologna. He took me
to the public library, and introduced me to Mezzofanti,
the great linguist, who was very conversible and modest,
with all his fame ; I shall see more of him, I hope.

28. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Rome, 13th March 1827.

My dear Cousin, — ... I have been here a month
nearly. Rome is a home to me, so vast, so desolate, so
beautiful, so full of the past and the future, and so cut off
from the present. It is an image of eternity. ... I live
next door to my old residence, on the Monte Pincio, which
commands a view of the whole city, is. the modern city,
. for the situation of the ancient city is different, 180 steps
of stairs above the level of the ordinary habitations. This
is a tolerable security for solitude. My visiting friends
would need to be strong in body and willing in mind.
My occupations here are quite different from what they
were when I was here last. I go rarely to see any of the
galleries. I remain a good deal in the house, where I read

jet. 38. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 79

and write ; and when I go out it • is on horseback, which
enables me to traverse the wilderness of the ancient city
without fatigue or consumption of time. Oh ! it is a place
full of instruction and inspiration. The handwriting
which Belshazzar saw is to be seen here on many a wall,
and ruined arch, and broken column. Man was here taken
in all his pride and all his glory, and weighed in the
balance, and found wanting ; and this mighty queen of
cities is now the sepulchre of past fame. I went the other
day to the burying-ground of the Protestants to see Mrs.
Erskine's tomb. There her body lies, beside that of Miss
Bathurst, who was drowned whilst I was here. I had
often spoken to Mrs. Erskine about her (Miss B.'s) death,
so suddenly torn from the society of time, and hurried into
the society of eternity in a moment, without the slightest
previous warning. Mrs. E. was extremely kind to me, and
she liked to hear of heavenly things. The monument and
the inscription are very proper. Not far from her is the
body of my poor Swiss friend, Baillod. My dear friend,
every hour is bringing on that solemn conclusion, when the
mighty angel, with one foot on the land and one on the sea,
shall swear by Him who liveth for ever, that time shall be
no longer. I know not what bodies may yet be buried
here, but I know that the dead who die in the Lord are
blessed — blessed not for a day, but for eternity — pronounced
blessed not by the weak and ignorant voice of man, but
by Him who cannot lie. Oh ! how blessed ! I was struck
this morning by a passage in Adam's Private Thoughts.
He says, " I never look upon a dead corpse, and yet my
soul perhaps must one day behold my own. What an
awful moment ! how happy will be the sight, if soul and
body have lived together for eternity ! how dreadful if
they have not ! and what a call is there in this thought
to make sure of rejoicing then ! "

80 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1827.

I left Venice about the middle of January, in weather
as wintry as Scotland could have furnished, bitter frost
and deep snow. I went by Parma to Bologna. At Parma
they have got the finest work of Oorreggio. It is a Holy
Family, with St. Jerome standing beside them. There is
something very absurd in that entire disregard of dates,
of which all these great painters were guilty. St. Jerome
lived, I believe, in the fourth century, but there he is with
his lion, which is his symbol as well as St. Mark's. So far
for its nonsense, but it might have been ten times as much
nonsense with perfect impunity, for there is a loveliness in
it which enchants and subdues. Mary Magdalene, who,
according to the established custom of those gentlemen,
almost always makes a part of the holy family, is kissing
the foot of the infant Saviour' with an expression of holy
and gentle love unutterable. ... I have been reading
Doddridge. I am much struck with the deep seriousness of
his expostulations and entreaties. I have never read him
through before. I believe that there are few books of
modern times that have been so signally blessed to the
conviction and conversion of sinners. It was composed
by a praying man, and his prayer has been answered ever
since. . . .

God seems in this world to bring things out of their
opposites — life out of death, joy out of sorrow, holiness
out of pollution, glory out of shame. The cross is the
King's highway to His kingdom. He went Himself that
way, and amidst all the darkness of nature, the light of
His countenance still shines on that way, and on those who
walk there. . . .

29. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Home, 5th April 1827.
My dearest Cousin Rachel, — So Lady Oswald has

xv, 38. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 81

"been called away from her important post, to give an
account of her stewardship. I never saw her, but from
what I have heard of her, I cannot but consider her removal
as a most solemn and dark dispensation. The mother
of a young and numerous family, a supporter of the name
and character of Christianity, a wife, a friend, — a friend too
of some who have few friends to lose. Well, the Lord hath
done it, and He doeth all things well. He does not need
instruments in His work, and sometimes He seems to intend
to make His own fatherly love, and care, and power more
manifest and more felt by removing intermediate instru-
ments. When the disciples heard that their Lord was
about to leave them, they gave themselves up for lost, but
He told them that it was for their advantage that he should
go away, as otherwise the Comforter would not come unto
them. Even so now God can make darkness light before
these mourners, and crooked things straight. He may
speak through this event to the widowed husband's heart,
and He may draw the eyes of the orphans to himself. He
took little children in his arms and blessed them when he
was upon earth, and he changeth not. He yet takes them
in his arms. May it please Him to do so now, and to
attract every friend she had to himself, to fill the void in
their affections. The Bruces will feel this deeply.

I have just returned from a funeral. I think I mentioned
to you a young Irish clergyman who had come abroad for
his health ; but the disease was beyond the reach of climate.
He continued to sink during the whole winter. When I
came to Eome, Dr. Peebles introduced me to his room. I
feel it always a great privilege to be with the dying, and
I have enjoyed this privilege. I have conversed with him
upon the things of God, and the riches of divine grace
treasured up in the Saviour. I have heard him express
his hope in that love which brought that Saviour from

F

82 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1827.

heaven to save us, and he has now, I trust, entered into
peace. He had a narrow range of ideas, and had no
imagination to assist or mislead his religious feelings. His
spirit had never strained itself to apprehend the things of
infinity, but he was conscientious and faithful to his light,
and he never shook. He saw death approaching with the
most perfect calmness, and he retained his self-possession
to the very last moment. I don't believe that the thought
of death ever quickened his pulse a single beat. Death
lets in the light of eternity on life, and passes a true judg-
ment on it. Happiness is not to be sought, but holiness ;
unhappiness is not to be shunned, but sin. What does
Lady Oswald, or my poor friend G-resson, think of earthly
joy or sorrow now 1 Oh ! how they will despise and won-
der at that folly which puts a value upon anything but the
favour of God ! His love might have been sought and
enjoyed in every event, in every duty, at every moment ;
and what paltry things drew us from Him ! Thus the
highest saint in heaven will think on the review of life.

6th April. — My dearest, I have just received your letter,
full of sorrow, alas, alas ! His sisters will feel it deeply,
but my sympathy follows the dead more than the living.
You know the universality of my hopes for sinners. I
hope that He who came to bruise the serpent's head and
to destroy the works of the devil, will not cease his labours
of love till every particle of evil introduced into this world
has been converted into good. When I was in Paris our
common walk together was a burial-ground at the top of
his street ; and I had sometimes the hope that God would
speak to his heart out of these graves. I loved him well,
and I ought to have written more to him. He wrote to
me, and he received kindly at least anything that was said
to him, however contrary to his own notions or feelings.
There was much true-heartedness in him. I trust that in

jet. 38. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 83

the records of eternity there is an hour fixed when his
spirit shall look on the Sun of Eighteousness, and be con-
verted into his likeness ; and even I should wish to hope
that the God of all grace had, before He called him hence,
given him a preparation for it. Every person who knew
him must know that his feelings were always far above his
expressions, and he talked lightly sometimes of things
which he did not feel lightly. . . . The churchyard (bury-
ing-ground, I mean) is increasing its associations for me.
Mrs. Erskine, Baillod the Swiss artist, Scholl, another
Swiss, whose family I know, Mrs. Colquit's daughter, and
now Gresson. The situation is most beautiful, and the
weather lovely. The sun and the blue sky so pure, and
beautiful, and melancholy, and the young leaves coming
out : the mystery of nature's yearly resurrection spreading
its charm over the earth. I have not yet lost my delight
in nature. I don't go to see pictures and statues now; but
I can look at the blue of heaven, and at the clear deep
shadows of the mountains, and at the sun which sets just
before my windows, and I can mourn with the ruined walls.
Well, " the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed,
but my kindness shall not depart, neither shall the cove-
nant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath
mercy on thee." That is something worth repeating. It
is from the mouth of God, and it is said to you and me. It
is something for a living hour or a dying hour, or an hour
beyond time. I have talked with Gresson about these
things, and I have often repeated to him those words, and
now he knows all about it. Perhaps he remembers our
conversations, and wonders at the deadness and darkness
of them. I had a little copy of the Psalms with me at the
funeral, which I opened, and read the concluding verses
of the 73d Psalm, from the 23d verse, and I pulled some
leaves of which I send you two. My darling cousin, God

84 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1827.

bless you ! You are probably retired to your room just
now. I hope you do not allow your mind to feed uselessly
upon sorrow, not that I expect you are ever to be free of
sorrow, but that you ask the knowledge of that blessed
secret which is contained in that word, " As sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing." ... I would join your prayers, that
God would comfort the mourners, and sanctify unto them
their afflictions, and that he would give us to know his
holy love in Christ Jesus. That is life eternal, whether
in this world or in another. That is the only portion.
It is about midnight here, and time is little more than an
hour earlier at G-artur. It is about eleven now with you.
I like to think of you. I know the shape of your room,
and the chair. I know some that you pray for, and many
that you think of. What are you thinking of now % The
sorrows of the living, or the blessedness of the dead who
die in the Lord, or that blessed remedy which heals all
evil — the blood of Christ ? Good-night. . . .

30. TO MISS CHRISTIAN ERSKINE.

Rome, 12th April 1827.
My dear Cousin, — I am away far from you in body,
but I have confidence in you that your affection does not
depend altogether on your eye. I know that you love many
whom you do not see, and whom you will never see until
the resurrection day. The spiritual world is just near or
distant, according to our own thoughts of it. It is always
near and close to those whose hearts are upon it. That
ladder which Jacob saw in his dream at Bethel is Jesus
Christ. On Him, as on a ladder, the soul can mount to
God, and to the place where God dwells, surrounded by the
love and praise of blessed angels and redeemed sinners, and
down the ladder the blessing of God, the gifts of the Spirit,
and the intimations of His loving-kindness, descend to us.

jet. 38. MISS CHRISTIAN ERSKINE. 85

It is good exercise to run up and down that ladder, and,
my dear cousin, thank God we may do this though confined
to a bed or a sofa, and there we may meet our friends out
of the body or in the body. I hope you sometimes think
of me when you are upon the ladder, and that you look
about for me. Ah ! there is a time coming, I hope, when
we shall go up and come no more down, but be pillars in
the temple of our God, and go no more out. There is one
thought that I am sure connects you and me very much
together, a thought partly of earth and partly of heaven,
and that is the thought of Dr. Stuart. I often feel a wish
to write to him, to ask what he thinks of certain things,
for I have no friend now of the same kind on earth. I
have excellent friends, but none who take the same vivid
interest that he did in some subjects that occupy me. I
have this instant received a letter from Christian and her
husband, mentioning the death of Mary Graham.1 Alas !
alas ! my poor uncle and aunts. She was a sweet and
beautiful flower, and I hope now transplanted into the
paradise of God. And Charles Hay too ! Dear Mary's
removal had been long expected. She had herself for
long had it from time to time presented to her mind by
faithful friends who counselled her, and prayed with her,
and kept her from deluding herself. Katherine2 was there,
and were I dying, I should like to have Katherine at my
deathbed. But there was no Katherine at Charles's bed-
side. I saw a great deal of him when I passed through
Paris in the end of last September. He was full of kind-
heartedness and true-heartedness. And Eobert3 so far off !
His sisters must feel very severely. They have not been
permitted to receive the last words and looks of any of

1 Only daughter of his uncle, Thomas Graham, Esq. of Airth.

2 His sister-in-law and cousin, Mrs. James Erskine.

3 Eobert Hay.

86 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1827.

their brothers. May God bless these wounds to the spiritual
good of those who suffer from them ! Young spirits : how
many are now dead whose births I remember, gone to be
added to the generations of past time ! I have been read-
ing lately Irving's book on the Prophecies, and a very strik-
ing book it is. He writes evidently with the fullest con-
viction that his interpretation is right. If he is right, we
are on the eve of a tremendous catastrophe, in comparison
with which all the calamities of the French Revolution are
as nothing. Infidelity is to destroy Popery, and to break
up the very foundations of all the civil and political in-
stitutions of Europe, and then infidelity itself is to be
destroyed with a fearful destruction. I have only got one
volume yet, but really I think he marks the coincidence of
the prophecies, and the events of the last forty years, very
fairly. According to his view, our blessed Lord is Him-
self to appear on earth in forty years. Our eyes shall be
opened from the dust of death to behold Him. Miss Traill,1
who took Dr. Stuart's miniature for me, lent me the book.
Give my kindest regards to Miss Stuart, and to any friends
who inquire about me. I think often of your lane, and
your garden, and your gum-cistus plant, and the key of
Heriot's Green, and of the venerable forms that I remem-
ber moving there, but are now no longer seen by the mortal
eye. I wonder whether we are ever to see each other in
this world. I should like it ; but let us meet on the
ladder, and meet in the upper sanctuary. God grant it,
for Christ's sake. Remember me kindly to your brother
and to the Burnetts, through Miss Stuart. T. E.

31. TO DR. CHALMERS.

Rome, 19th April 1827.
My dear Sir, — This letter will probably find you in the

1 Daughter of the minister of Panbride.

DR. CHALMERS. 87

midst of the business of the General Assembly, harassed
considerably both by friends and foes. In the meantime
I am quietly looking upon the seat of the Beast, and won-
dering at him, at the manner of his existence, and at his
duration. I have met here with Irving's book upon the
Prophecies. I don't suppose that any mere interpreter of
prophecy has ever before assumed such a tone of confidence
and authority. I am a little surprised that the fate of
former interpreters has not warned him. He is scarcely
meek enough. He seems to intend to brave and insult
such of his readers as hesitate about yielding their entire
consent ; but it is a magnificent book, full of honest zeal.
There is a Eomish priest here, who in the reign of the last
Pope wrote a book on the Prophecies, in which the year
1830 is fixed as the termination of all the wrath. He car-
ried his MS. to the regular licenser, who showed it to the
Pope before granting leave to publish : the Pope desired
that licence should be given him to publish it in the year
1831. I have an Italian master, who is a true, honest,
believing Catholic, and who cordially pities the souls of the
Protestants. He tells me that the study of the Prophecies
here is becoming much more general than formerly, and
that there are many expecting a great crisis.

I am almost a believer in the nearness of the end, and I
like to encourage in myself any idea which leads to watch-
fulness and prayer, and which gives a greater prominency
to spiritual and eternal objects. I desire to look and wait
for the coming of the Lord, and to long for His appearing.
I wish you were here for a month now, instead of making
your usual tour. The Mobe of nations is a happy name
for Rome. She is full of beauty and interest and sorrow,
but there is a lie in her right hand. I have met with
some good specimens of Christianity from our own country
here at Rome. I have never yet seen a Catholic who was

88 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. ' 1827.

deeply spiritually-minded. I have not found any in the
style of a Kempis ; they are formalists even when they are
honest believers, which is not a very usual thing amongst
the tolerably educated classes, and never at all in France.
The functions of the Holy Week are just over, and such
mummery to be sure ! and then the celebration of Easter
by an illumination ! The existence of such a system,
ecclesiastical and political, is a fact as unaccountable, or
more so, than the continued separate preservation of the
Jews, — the government of a corporation of priests sub-
mitted to during the military turbulency of the middle
ages, and the enlightened revolutionary scepticism of the
present day, and a system of imposition, and which im-
poses upon no one, and is yet opposed by no one. It is a
very strange thing. I was out at Tivoli the other day ;
though the cascades are ruined, yet it has beauty enough,
and to spare. They are trying to repair them. There are
olive trees there above a thousand years old — five would
reach to the flood. The time since Adam's creation looks
very short when measured in this way — a succession of six
olive trees. The obelisks (Egyptian), of which there are
many here, bring us still nearer. My eye at this moment
rests on the Pantheon, the most beautiful thing in Home.

Give my best regards to Mrs. Chalmers and your chil-
dren. Farewell. Many thanks for your letter. — Yours
most truly, T. Erskine.

32. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Rome, May 2, 1827.
My dear Cousin, — I know that I cannot hear from you
now for some time, so I must even write to you instead of
it, as the next best thing. I have been now nearly three
months in this place, and I don't tire of it. ... I met
yesterday with Sir William Gell, one of our unfortunate

jet. 38. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 89

Queen's attendants ; he is a man of great antiquarian lore,
and delights in communicating it to any who will take
interest in it. He is a reader of hieroglyphics : he says
that the oldest obelisk in Rome, that at St. John Lateran,
is contemporary with Abraham. What do you think of
that 1 — a few hundred years later than the deluge. The
human race is a very recent creation. It was only the
other day that Adam and Eve were in Eden walking with
God, and I hope we shall all be walking with God again
soon, for oh it is a dull thing as well as a wicked thing to
walk without Him. I have got a very beautiful little
drawing of the first appearance of our parents before God
after their offence, by a German artist here. It is one of
a series intended to be engraved for a Bible. The Deity
is represented in the human form, which perhaps you will
be a little shocked by, but in that form there is a compas-
sion, and a regret, and a holy dignity, which will soon
reconcile you to the apparent impropriety. If I had a
good opportunity, I daresay that I should send it home to
you to keep for me till I came to claim it. Good-night,
my dear cousin. The weather is lovely, and the acacia
trees in fullest blow and beauty, the Campagna clad in
the richest green, all the vegetable world in the beauty of
its youth, and the sun and the sky in glory. I saw a fire-
fly to-night as I was coming home. Good-night again.

del May. — I rode to Gabii to-day, — one of the earliest
conquests of the Republic, and the great quarry of their
earliest buildings. You know that most of their massy
stone buildings, and especially in that early time, were made
without cement of any kind — one immense block was laid
above another — well fitted in surface to receive it, and so
they remain some of them in spite of time, and earthquakes,
and fires, and floods, and wars, and Pagans and Christians.
You know that Miss F. Mackenzie is here now. I don't

90 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1827.

see nearly so much of her as I ought to do, or as I wish to
do, for she has the attraction of unhappiness as well as
many other good qualities. This night I have been taking
leave of friends who are going off to-morrow morning for
Naples. You tell me not to go to Naples, but just to come
home, but I have engaged to go : however, I intend to make
but a short stay there ; I wish to see the islands, I did not
visit them when I was there last, and they have the fame
of exceeding beauty. Also my courier is engaged to be
married to the daughter of the innkeeper at Mola di Graeta,
and as he has made me his confidant through the whole
affair, I must go to Naples that he may see her in passing.
He is an excellent servant, and very much attached — to
his master I mean — for as to the ragazza di Mola, as he
calls her, though I have no doubt that he will be a good
husband, yet I don't think that he would lose a night's
rest by the engagement being broken off. Good-night.
This is very incoherent gossip to send to such a distance.

My dear cousin, there is more worth in , she is most

conscientious, and she has real friendship in her as well as
real piety, that I can answer for. Is the Limekilns man in
this earthly prison yet 1 Blessed are the dead who die in
the Lord. I have been reading a very curious book lately
by Law, the author of the " Serious Call ;" it is entitled
the Spirit of Prayer, most mystical it is, but most beautiful.
It is not the gospel, but I think it may be profitably read
by those who know the gospel. Those passages which I
admired so much in the translator's preface to a Kempis
are taken from it. Perhaps I mentioned this to you
before.

6th, Albano. — I came here yesterday on my way to
Naples, and have passed my Sunday here. Albano is a
fairy land, and the season is enchanting. The air is full
of fragrance from the flowers, and of music from the birds.

jet. 38. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 91

The nightingale is the chief minstrel. All the other birds
seem to be listeners and learners for the time ; occasionally
the cuckoo is heard. Ariccia is close to Albano, you know.
. . . Law in his latter days took to reading the works of
Jacob Bohme, a German divine, and from him he learned
much. I should like to read him too, but I must re-
learn German in order to fit myself for it. I like the
German mind better than the mind of any other nation,
our own not excepted. We are very meagre in comparison
of them. I like the Prussian chargS d'affaires at Rome.1
The last time I saw him, he was telling me of cases of som-
nambulism, or animal magnetism as it is called. He says
that many extraordinary instances have been quite authen-
ticated. They are as extraordinary as the most remarkable
cases of second sight in the Highlands. Good-night.

7 th, Mola di Gaeta. — The Mediterranean is spread beneath
my eye. The shore is covered with the remains of ancient
villas. The lemon-trees are loaded with fruit, and the
orange-trees with blossom. The productions of the south-
ern climates are becoming more frequent. I have seen
several palm-trees to-day, beautiful things they are, chil-
dren of the sun, and associated in my mind with Abraham
and the patriarchs who sat under palm-trees, and Deborah
who judged Israel under a palm-tree. Did not I mention
Irving's book on the Prophecies to you 1 It is worth your
reading. Do the Keir ladies take interest in the signs of
the times 1 Give them my best love — I love them well,
and I do not wonder at any degree of friendship between
Jeannie and Lady M., for friendship is a thing of the
heart, and it may exist amidst many dissimilarities when
there is so strong an agreement, as there is between them,
in love to God.

8th, Mola. — It is a lovely morning. The bay so sweetly
1 Chevalier Bunsen.

92 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1827.

curved — the ripple of the clear water on the shore. The
islands, which have not yet thrown off their morning veil
of mist, if anything so light can be called mist, and then
Vesuvius stretching to the west and south, and the pro-
montory and town of Gaeta, and many an olive-clad hill,
to the north. It is not six o'clock yet in your country.
How fresh everything is, and these warblers that fill the
air with music. For a moment one might forget that
solemn word, " Cursed be the ground for thy sake," but the
appearance of the people recalls it. The earth was cursed
not for its own sake, and no curse can be severe which is
not deserved — it is the evil desert itself which is the curse
— except in one instance, where the righteous suffered for
the wicked ; and blessed be His name, the day is coming
when that sacrifice of His shall have its perfect work, when
sin shall be no more, when the waters of human bitterness
shall be healed, when there shall be no more curse.

9 th, Naples. — I arrived here yesterday, and I am now
sitting in the house where my father died — the Crocelle —
in 1791. I have often wished that I had the slightest trace
of him in my memory, but I was just two years old when
he left home. I know nothing of my father's mind, except
very general traits. I don't know how he felt when he
knew that he was on the borders of the invisible world.
There is something very striking in the relation between a
father and a child when death prevents any personal ac-
quaintance between them. When he parted from me, he
knew as little of me as I did of him, and yet no doubt he
felt an interest in me ; but when he looked at me he could
no more conjecture what was within me, or what my des-
tiny might probably be, than he could conjecture what was
going on in the moon. What a strange interest that is
which we can thus take in beings that we are absolutely
ignorant of! I feel a love for my father, and a deep inter-

jet. 38. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 93

est in him. Are these earthly connections to extend beyond
this world in any shape 1 . . . — Yours ever, T. E.

33. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Island of Ischia, 4th June 1827.
My dear Cousin, — . . . This is a beautiful place. The
view from the house where I am living is, I think, the very
finest that I ever saw. I have found here a poor man who
took the fever of the country in Sicily about a year ago,
and he has been in a state of constant suffering ever since.
Bodily pain is a great trial. It interferes with the mind's
power of thought, that power on which we pride ourselves,
and which we convert into an idol, although it is a gift
from God. He tells me that he is seeking God, but cannot
find Him ; and that he reads the Bible, but cannot get
satisfaction from it. Alas ! alas ! I was at Capri the other
day, the island where the Emperor Tiberius had a palace,
where he spent much of his time in profligacy, and in
cruelty, and in misery. Jesus was in Judea when that
building was erected. It is a very singular island, divided
into two parts by a range of rocks, so lofty and so steep
that there is no communication, except by means of a stair
cut in the rock (of immense antiquity it must be) of 535
steep steps, and there is no landing-place on the upper part
from the sea either. Every foot of the island which is not
under cultivation is covered with myrtles, which were just
coming into flower. Good-night. — I have been tempted to
stay two or three days more here. I enter into the spirit of
its beauty — it is not like anything else I have ever seen.
La Sentinella is the name of my inn ; and it received its
name from its being the post of an outlook who gave notice
of the approach of Saracen corsairs, who used to ravage this
country some centuries ago, and carry off the inhabitants
as slaves. It commands the whole view of the Neapolitan

94 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKTNE. 1827.

coast, from Vesuvius northward to Terracina — a coast of
most picturesque, and bold and various form, and then the
island of Procyta, dividing that part of the sea into lakes,
and then the unbounded ocean to the west — and the home
scenery" of the island, which is rich and wild beyond fancy.
The house is situated on the point of a narrow ridge of very
elevated ground, and overlooks the sea ; on each side of the
ridge, about 20 yards on the one side, and not so much
as one yard on the other, the ground sinks down into a
beautiful theatre, covered at present with one mass of
verdure.

Rome, 23<#. . . . — : Within the last six weeks I have seen
much misery in different forms. I wonder now how life
ever could have appeared to me a sunny thing. There is a
heavy cloud over it. I really wish to be home now, but I
know not when I may be permitted. Farewell, my dear
cousin. May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ bless
you with the spirit of holy unworldly peace, extinguishing
in you the life of the old nature, and giving you a new life,
yea, becoming Himself your life. Will you ask Mr. G-reig
as a particular favour, that he would conscientiously, as
unto the Lord, and not as unto man, assist my friends
in finding some proper person for the Ferry Chapel 1 1
Farewell.

34. TO HIS SISTER MRS. PATERSON.

Aleano, 26th July 1827.
... It is warm here, but I have never yet felt the heat

1 A chapel in the village of Broughty-Ferry, which lay near Linlathen,
huilt originally by the Haldanes as one of their missionary stations. It
was then the only place of worship in the village, and the services in it,
conducted generally by laymen, had been irregular, and growing more
infrequent. Mr. Erskine bought this chapel, and invited ministers of
different Churches to occupy its pulpit. Occasionally on Sunday even-
ings he delivered an address in it himself.

jet. 38. MRS. PATERSON. 95

oppressive, not so much so as when I was at Gartur last
year. There are woods, and valleys, and lakes, and
mountains so near that they maintain a perpetual fresh-
ness in the air ; but they say that it is dreadful in Eome.
I have bought a horse, and make constant use of him in
conveying me over this lovely country. The two lakes of
Albano and Nemi were, at some period beyond the memory
of man, the craters of two immense volcanos, in form very
like the crater of Vesuvius. These craters are not above
half way up filled with water, and the banks (which are
very precipitous from the water edge) are covered with
wood of every age, and boldly broken by immense volcanic
rocks; and their top ridge is crowned by picturesque
villages, and convents with white walls, and lofty pines,
and cypresses, and ilexes. At sunset the bells from these
villages and convents, as they answer each other from the
different points of the ridge, and as they sink or swell on
the breeze, produce that effect which Mrs. Radcliffe in-
tended to produce in many of her descriptions. Humboldt,
in his descriptions of the South American scenery, compares
it with this district from Nemi to Tivoli, which he thinks
the finest in the Old World, It wants, however, the magic
light of Naples. The view from the Sentinella at Ischia
is of a higher order, in my humble opinion. The Appian
Way, the queen of the old Roman roads, passes through
Albano. Its course is marked by the massive antique
pavement, and by the ruined monuments of the forgotten
dead, which line it on both sides. I think that it was a
fine idea in the old Romans (and it was the custom also in
Greek cities) to erect their tombs by the sides of their
principal roads and approaches to their towns. It is far
better than Westminster Abbey, especially when you are
obliged to pay half-a-crown to see them there. These
tombs were magnificent towers, round or square, almost

96 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1827.

solid through, from twenty to thirty or more feet in
diameter. Many of them, Adrian's tomb, now called the
Castle of St. Angelo, for instance, and the Cecilia Metella,
were employed as military positions in after-times. I am
reading German and Dante, who has been very well trans-
lated into English lately by — I forget his name just now.
I am at present occupied with the Purgatory, in which
there is much beautiful poetry. The idea of great present
suffering, enlightened by the assurance of future eternal
blessedness, is a fine subject for poetry and for thought
(which poetry ought to be). In truth this world is pur-
gatory to a spirit that knows God ; and the terms which
Dante addresses to the spirits with whom he converses
in purgatory may properly be addressed to every Chris-
tian : —

0 creatura che ti mondi,

Per tornar bella a colui che ti fece.

0 creature who thyself unsoilest,

To return beautiful to Him who thee made.

27th. — The Secretary to the French Embassy here, a
friend of mine, tells me that he is going to-morrow to Paris
with despatches ; and as a motive to give him letters, he
says that he goes quicker than the post. I should like to
go myself, but I cannot leave the poor invalid. I have just
returned from a delicious ride, part of the way through a
forest of fine old chestnut trees. They look like ante-
diluvian patriarchs. ... I expect the Prussian charge"
d'affaires out in this neighbourhood immediately, which I
look to with pleasure, for I really like the man. He has a
fine, wide, adventurous, metaphysical German capacity, and
is, I believe, a Christian. He is married to an English
woman, a very good woman. I shall ride with him and
learn German philosophy. God bless you.

jet. 39. MISS RACHEI ERSKINE. 97

35. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Albano, 31st July 1827.
My dearest Sister, — . . . I am living a very regular
life here. I get up early, between four and five in the
morning, for the mornings and evenings are the only times
for exercise. I ride out till eight, when I breakfast, and
then remain in the house till six in the evening, with the
exception of an hour in the middle of the day, which I
pass in a delicious bosco here close to my house, under the
shade of oaks and ilexes. I have a great deal of time at
my disposal by this division of the day, and I read and
study a good deal. I am learning German, which is much
to my taste, and this very day M. Bunsen, the Prussian
charge" d'affaires, is coming out from Borne to reside for the
summer at Castello Gandolfo, which is a pleasure to me,
for he is an instructive, excellent man, and is very friendly
with me. — Yours ever, T. E.

36. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Linlathen, 10th November 1827.
My dear Friend, — . . . How reluctant we are that
any of our friends should get into the promised land, whilst
we are in the wilderness. Ay, and what a hold we take
of the wilderness in spite of all its barrenness and fiery
serpents. This arises from a want of spirituality. Don't
you think so 1 I wish you would read the " Spirit of Prayer"
and the " Spirit of Love," two works by Law, the author of
the " Serious Call," and tell me what you think of them.
I have been much struck by them. There is a great
spirituality in them. I really like them much better than Mr.
Irving's " Prophecies." They are, however, very mystical,
and if your taste is much averse to mysticism, you may not
like them. But I think that you can scarcely help liking

G

98 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1827.

them, such a view they give of the love of our God, and of
that intimate, and blessed, and glorious union with Himself,
to which He hath called us. But what is the use of recom-
mending books to those who are taught of the Spirit to
read the Bible, and to see in it a message from their loving
Father to their own souls 1 Happy the heart that has
learned to say my God! All religion is contained in that
short expression, and all the blessedness that man or angel
is capable of.

Dr. Chalmers is appointed to the Divinity Chair in the
Edinburgh University. May the Lord bless His work in
the hand of His servant !

37. TO DR. CHALMERS.

Linlathen, 10th November 1827.

My dear Sir, — I cannot express to you how much I
have been delighted by your appointment to the Divinity
Chair in Edinburgh. I have felt it to be a matter of much
thankfulness and much hope. It is the situation to which
the wishes of many have long destined you, from the con-
viction that you have a particular gift for the discharge of
its high duties. May the Lord answer the many prayers
which have been and will be presented on your behalf on
this occasion, and send an awakening spirit to arouse and
vivify the torpid Church of Scotland, and employ you as
an honoured instrument for exciting and preparing many
who may be zealous and wise pleaders for God with the
coming generation.

I am loath to miss your preliminary lectures this year,
but I must go to the west to see my friends at Cadder. I
hope, however, that you will think seriously of publishing
your Moral Philosophy lectures, or at least the views
which you have given of the subject, so far as they differ

/et. 39. DR. CHALMERS. 99

from those which have been prevalent in this country for
three quarters of a century back. Moral Philosophy and
self-conceited infidelity have long been near neighbours,
and may in fact be expected to be so whilst man wishes
to form a system in which God can be dispensed with, i.e.
whilst man continues as he is.

On my return from the west country, I hope to be able
to pay you a visit. All here desire to be remembered by
you. Give my best regards to Mrs. Chalmers and your
children. — Yours most truly, T. Erskine.

100 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1828.

CHAPTEE VI.

Case of the Bev. J. M'Leod Campbell of Row — Letters of 1828,
1829, and 1830.

On returning to Scotland in October 1827, Mr. Erskine
lost no time in committing to the press a work the pre-
paration of which had engaged his leisure hours on the
Continent. " The Unconditional Freeness of the Gospel "
was published early in 1828.1 It excited so immediate
and wide an interest, that a second edition was called for
before the end of the year. Its author was not prepared
for so cordial a reception of this volume by some, still
less for so severe a reprobation of it by others. Dr.
Chalmers, though dissenting from one of its positions,
went cordially in with its leading principles, and said, over
and over again to his friends, that it was one of the most
delightful books that ever had been written. There was
another reader of it, the impression made on whom was
destined to have wide effects. Frederick Denison Maurice,
in 1852, dedicating the volume on "The Prophets and
Kings of the Old Testament " to Mr. Erskine, says, " The
pleasure of associating my name with yours, and the kind
interest which you expressed in some of these sermons
when you heard them preached, might not be a sufficient
excuse for the liberty which I take in dedicating them to
you. But I have a much stronger reason. I am under
1 See Appendix, No. I.

jet. 39. FROM F. D. MAURICF. 101

obligations to you, which the subject of this volume espe-
cially brings to my mind, and which other motives, beside
personal gratitude, urge me to acknowledge. . . . Have
we a gospel for men, for all men 1 Is it a gospel, that God's
will is a will to all good, a will to deliver them from all
evil ? Is it a gospel that He has reconciled the world unto
Himself 1 Is it this absolutely, or this with a multitude
of reservations, explanations, contradictions ] It is more
than twenty years since a book of yours brought home to
my mind the conviction, that no gospel but this can be of
any use to the world, and that the gospel of Jesus Christ
is such a one. . . . Many of my conclusions may differ
widely from those into which you have been led ; I should
be grieved to make you responsible for them. But if I
have tried in those sermons to show that the story of the
prophets and kings of the Old Testament is as directly
applicable to the modern world as any Covenanter ever
dreamed, but that it is applicable because it is a continual
witness for a God of righteousness, not only against idolatry,
but against that notion of a mere sovereign Baal or Bel,
which underlies all idolatry, all tyranny, all immorality,
I may claim you as their spiritual progenitor."

The following letter was at the same time addressed to
Mr. Erskine : —

My dear Friend, — You will see by a book which will
reach you by this post that I have taken a great liberty
with your name. I was afraid you would refuse me if I
asked you beforehand, or that I should make you re-
sponsible for what I said. I have longed to do what I
have done for many years, when an occasion should offer.
I wished to tell others how much I believe they as well as
I owe to your books, how they seem to me to mark a crisis
in the theological movement of this time. I would rather

102 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1828-31.

take another, less public, way of saying what I owe to your
personal kindness and your conversation, but you will, I
hope, forgive me and believe that I did think it a duty to
express what I feel towards you, in connection with the
task which God has shown me that I am to perform for
His Church, that of testifying that the grace of God has
appeared to all men. Accept our best and most cordial
Christmas greetings to you and all your circle. . . . — Ever,
my dear friend, yours very affectionately,

F. D. Maurice.

December 21, 1852.

It was long after its publication before Mr. Erskine knew
that his book had rendered such a service in such a quarter.
But it was not long till he was surprised and delighted to
find that the ideas of the love of God in Jesus Christ as
embracing the whole human family, of the incarnation and
death of the Redeemer as having removed all obstacles to
the immediate, free, and full forgiveness of every sinner of
our race, almost in the very form in which he had himself
in this volume expressed them, were already being fervently
proclaimed by at least one minister of the Church of
Scotland. If not before, it must have been immediately
after the publication of the " Unconditional Freeness,"
that he heard Mr. M'Leod Campbell preach in Edinburgh.
Eeturning from the church Mr. Erskine said with great
emphasis to a friend who accompanied him, "I have
heard to-day from that pulpit what I believe to be the
true gospel."

Hearing his own favourite ideas unfolded and enforced
with such intense earnestness, and learning at the same
time of the gathering storm which was so soon to burst
over the preacher's head, Mr. Erskine in the summer of
1828 made his first pilgrimage to Row, a parish lying on

jet. 39. CAMPBELL AND SCOTT. 103

the banks of the beautiful Gairloch, in Dumbartonshire, of
which Mr. Campbell had been ordained, as the minister
in 1825. Personal acquaintance deepened exceedingly the
first favourable impressions. One life-lasting friendship
began. Here, too, and now, another kindred friendship
had its birth.

One Sunday in the preceding summer (1827) "my
pulpit," says Mr. Campbell, " was occupied by my young
friend Mr. Scott.1 I heard him with very peculiar delight.
His preaching, though his second Sabbath, was with a sober,
solemn composure, that would have seemed a delightful
attainment in a man of much experience. The progress
he has already made in the divine life, the elevation and
clearness of his views, the spirit of love which he breathes
in every word, and the single-eyed devotedness to his
Master's glory, are to me most delightful illustrations of
the power of simple faith." 2

Mr. Scott was with Mr. Campbell again in the summer
of 1828, and there met Mr. Erskine.3 It was quite
unique the triple friendship which had thus a common
birthtime and birthplace ; one peculiar feature marking
it in each case. " That historical independence," Dr.

1 Mr. A. J. Scott, son of the Eev. Dr. Scott of Greenock, afterwards
Principal of Owens College, Manchester.

2 Reminiscences, p. 22.

Edward Irving met with Scott during the same summer (1828), and
arrived as rapidly at the same high estimate of Scott, and invited him to
be his assistant in London. " Sandy Scott," he wrote to Dr. Chalmers
a month or two afterwards, "is a most precious youth, the finest and
strongest faculty for pure theology I have yet met with." Nor did his
after experience of him in one of the closest of clerical relationships alter
this estimate. "A young man," he wrote of him in 1830, "so learned
and accomplished in all kinds of discipline I have never met with, and as
pious as he is learned, and of great, very great, discernment in the truth,
and faithfulness Godward and manward." — Irving' s Life, vol. ii. 68, 126.

3 They met first in 1826 when Scott was attending some classes in the
Edinburgh University, and was acting as tutor in the family of one of Mr.
Erskine's friends.

104 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1828-31.

Campbell wrote a year or two before his death, " which
we mark when two minds, working apart and without any
interchange of thought, arrive at the same conclusions, is
always an interesting and striking fact when it occurs ;
and it did occur as to Scott and myself; and also as to
Mr. Erskine and me, and I believe too as to Mr. Erskine
and Scott."1 All through life each of these three friends
found in the other two what he found in none beside.
Intellectually, socially, spiritually, they moved in separate
orbits ; each having a path of his own, which with abso-
lute independence he pursued. But the paths lay very
close to one another ; and so entirely on the same plane,
sloping upwards to the great central Source of light and
life and love, as to constitute a separate sphere of religious
ideas, aims, and aspirations, apart from and far above that
of many with whom their names came afterwards to be
associated.

For three months in each of the summers of 1829 and
1830, Mr. Erskine, with his brother-in-law, Captain Pater-
son, and family, resided at Row. His personal efforts in
the way of supporting and co-operating with Mr. Campbell
were multiplied and unceasing. Morning and evening at
family prayers he gave a short exposition of Scripture,
listened to by as many as could find entrance. Pen and
press were busily employed.2 Three hours — often more
— were each day given to addressing still larger audiences.

1 Life of the Rev. Mr. Story, p. 152.

2 In 1830 a little volume was issued from R. B. Lusk's prolific press at
Greenock, entitled " Extracts of Letters to a Christian Friend by a Lady,
with an Introductory Essay by Thomas Erskine, Esq., Advocate." This
Introductory Essay contains the clearest and most condensed statement of
all that was peculiar in the teaching of Mr. Campbell and of Mr. Erskine
at this time, and was frequently referred to as such by those who wrote in
opposition to them. See the " Gairloch Heresy Tried," by Dr. Burns of
Paisley ; "A Vindication of the Religion of the Land, etc., in a Letter to
Thomas Erskine, Esq., by the Rev. A. Robertson, A.M.," etc. etc.

jet. 39. MR. CAMPBELL DEPOSED. 105

Mr. Campbell, in truth, needed all the support that could
be given him. From almost every leading pulpit in Scot-
land he had been denounced. Pamphlet after pamphlet
appeared proclaiming the depth and dangerous nature of
the errors into which he had fallen. At first his own
people adhered loyally and almost unanimously to him.
At last, however, on the 30th March 1830, a few of their
number lodged a complaint before the Presbytery of Dum-
barton. A visitation of his parish was appointed to be
held on Thursday the 8th July, and Mr. Campbell was
required to preach on that day before his co-presbyters.
He did so ; keeping back no part of the teaching for which
he had been condemned. Mr. Erskine was present on the
occasion, and has told us of the result. The complainer3
against their minister were instructed to have their charges
framed into a libel (or indictment), the chief count in
which was that Mr. Campbell had promulgated the doctrine
of " universal atonement and pardon through the death of
Christ." In prosecution of this libel a day was named for
the examination of witnesses, among whom Mr. Erskine's
relatives, Captain Paterson of Linlathen, and Captain
Stirling of G-lentyan, gave evidence in favour of Mr. Camp-
bell ; his own headquarters being all the while at Row,
watching the whole proceedings with the liveliest interest.
These proceedings were brought to a close by the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May 1831. After
the counsel for the accused and the representative of the
Presbytery and Synod had been heard, two motions were
laid before the House ; the one that Mr. Campbell should
at once be deposed, the other that he should in the mean-
time be only suspended. The former was carried by a
majority of 119 to 6.

Before the sentence was actually pronounced, which was
done forthwith, some slight discussion as to the order of

106 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1828-31.

procedure took place. Dr. Macknight of Edinburgh, who
held at the time the office of Chief Clerk of the Assembly,
on being appealed to, in the height of his emotion, and
meaning exactly the reverse of what he said, was heard
to declare that " these doctrines of Mr. Campbell would
remain and flourish after the Church of Scotland had
perished, and was forgotten." Mr. Erskine, who was pre-
sent, caught the words. Turning to those behind him, he
whispered, " This spake he not of himself, but being High
Priest — he prophesied."

The same Assembly that deposed Mr. Campbell deprived
Mr. Scott of his licence as a preacher of the gospel. Mr.
Scott had expressed opinions as to the universality of the
atonement identical with those of Mr. Campbell, and, as to
the Sabbath question, similar to those afterwards adopted
by Dr. Norman M'Leod. ^Though holding the same doctrine
as to the atonement, to Scott it appeared that their view
of this doctrine was contrary to that affirmed in the West-
minster Confession of Faith, to the whole doctrine of which
every minister of the Church of Scotland was bound to
adhere. Campbell thought otherwise, and endeavoured to
convince the Assembly that though not in full harmony
with what he taught, the Confession did not absolutely
contradict it. The two friends were present each at the
other's trial before the Assembly. When Scott's case
closed they walked home together. "After that dreary
night in the Assembly," he tells us, " the dawn breaking
upon us, as we returned at length, alike condemned, to our
lodging in the New Town of Edinburgh, I turned round
and looked upon my companion's face under the pale light,
and asked him, Could you sign the Confession now % His
answer was No. The Assembly was right : our doctrine
and the Confession are incompatible."

jet. 40. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 107

38. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Linlathek, 26th December 1828.

My dearest Cousin, — The feeling that I am unsym-
pathised with by those whose sympathy is dearest to me
is not that which pains me most in the communication I
have received from you. In general, I feel a great demand
for sympathy from those I love, just because I love them,
and because that love gives their sympathy a value to me
beyond the things themselves in which I ask their sym-
pathy. But it is not so here. The thing in which I ask
your sympathy is far dearer to me than any human sym-
pathy ; and I long for your sympathy, merely because I
think I hold the truth, and I wish you to hold it also. I
do not think that you can see the importance or the uni-
versality of Christ's atonement, if you can disapprove of
the proclamation of it, though by a layman. You have
told me that you believe that " Christ is the propitiation
for the sins of the whole world/' in the obvious sense of
these words. You have told me that you believe that this
is G-od's message to this world of prodigals, that this is the
message which is the power of God unto salvation to all
who believe it. Well, do you also know that this doctrine
is looked on as a heresy by almost all the teachers of
religion in this country, and that a directly opposite doc-
trine is preached 1 If you believe in the universality of
the atonement, you must believe that the limitation of it
is a falsification of the record which God has given con-
cerning His Son.

I live in the conviction that the record is continually
falsified in the ears of the people of this country by those
whom they are taught to look up to for instruction, to the
dishonour of God's grace, and to the injury of the souls of
men. God's message to the world is not delivered whilst

108 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1828.

a limited atonement is preached; and so long as this
erroneous interpretation of the message is preached from
our orthodox pulpits, the people may have the Bible in
their hands, but the unfaithful interpretation will be a yeil
on their hearts in the reading of it. There were many
Bibles among the Jews when our Lord appeared amongst
them, but the unfaithful interpretation put upon their con-
tents by the scribes of the time blinded the people to the
truth, and they rejected Him of whom Moses and the
prophets wrote. must know that it is most im-
portant that, even when the people have the Bible in their
hands, there should be some one near to say to them,
" Understandest thou what thou readest 1" I have known
people long possessed of the Bible who never read it, partly
because it was not pressed upon them ; and I have known
many who have long read the Bible without ever appre-
hending, even in theory, its most elementary truths, be-
cause they were accustomed to hear a false interpretation

of them weekly from the pulpit. If 's arguments were

good, there need be little anxiety to have a gospel ministry
in a place well supplied with Bibles. I see people about
me with Bibles in their houses and in their hands (and
who think occasionally of religion too, some of them), to
whom the message that God loves them is a perfect novelty
even in sound. If I can do anything for any of these souls,
these immortals, as an instrument in God's hands, am I to
hesitate because I am classed in the world's list under one
denomination of persons rather than another1? I think
that Christians are too often popular in the world, just on
account of the remaining unchristianity that is in them.
As long as Christianity subordinates itself to the world,
the world will like it, because the world likes to have its
conscience easy as to eternity, and the concurrence of a
Christian gives it that ease. My dearly beloved friend, I

mt. 40. MR. AND MRS. MONEY. 109

love you dearly. I know that I am not to expect full
sympathy in the creation : —

" Each in his hidden sphere of joy or woe,
Our hermit spirits dwell and range apart,"

These are beautiful lines, and most true.

39. TO MR. AND MRS. MONEY.

Llnlathen, Dundee, 23d Jan. 1829.

My beloved Friends, — We have had a longer interval
in correspondence, I think, now than ever we have had
since our first acquaintance, but I have not ceased to love
you or to think of you, and I doubt not of your thoughts
and remembrances. About this time two years ago I was
on the eve of quitting your hospitable house, after a long
and delightful residence in it, for the more southern parts
of Italy. Those days often recur to me — our trips to the
garden and the Lido, and our visits to the Patriarch, and
our quiet friendly evenings. May the Lord Jehovah, the
God of peace, bless you exceedingly, my dear brother and
sister, and all your children, present with you or absent.

I asked the favour of the General to convey to you a
copy of a little work which I published last year on the
Freeness of the Gospel, which I hope you received. I am
aware that at Geneva our dear Malan takes a very different
view of the subject, but in spite of his strong dissent, I
feel more and more convinced that I have followed the
Word of God in describing the Gospel. The Bible always
charges man with being his own destroyer. It always
charges man with resisting and refusing God's love, even
when that love is entreating him to return : Rom. ii. 4, 5.
The Bible declares that God's love embraces the whole
human race, and that Christ is the propitiation for the
sins of the whole world : John iii. 16, 17 ; 1 John ii. 2 ;

110 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1829.

1 Tim. ii. 1-6; 2 Cor. v. 19, 20, 21. Are all then
redeemed or purchased by Christ % Yes. What, are all
saved1? No, only those who believe: Mark xvi. 16.
Are any then of those for whom Christ died lost at last %
Yes, the Bible speaks of such : 2 Peter ii. 1. There we
read of some who brought upon themselves swift destruc-
tion by denying the Lord who bought them. They were
bought or redeemed by the Lord (for the words have the
same meaning), and yet they brought on themselves swift
destruction. And we read in the 1 0th chapter of Hebrews
of those who have trodden under foot the Son of God, and
have counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith they were
sanctified, an unholy thing ; they were sprinkled then with
that atoning blood, and yet they perished. Why then
does one man believe and another not 1 Faith is the
operation of the electing grace of God. No man yields to
the truth until he is compelled by this electing grace
of God. This is the proper place for election ; faith
is given through the channel of election. But the atone-
ment is for all, and the invitation and command to believe
in and to enjoy it is for all. When a man is condemned for
unbelief, you cannot suppose that it is for not believing in
God's love to others ; assuredly it must be for disbelieving
God's love to himself, for disbelieving that Christ died for
him ; and if he is condemned for disbelieving it, must it
not have been indeed true that Christ did die for him, for
otherwise it would not have been wrong in him to dis-
believe it 1 So the Bible says to you and to me : ' God so
loved thee as to give His Son to be a propitiation for thy
sins.' I cannot see how one can arrive at a steady assur-
ance on any other ground, for we cannot know our elec-
tion except from marks in ourselves, and that is not the
way of true assurance. Write to me about you all.

T. Erskine.

XT. 40. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. Ill

40. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Caddee, Wednesday, 11th March 1829.
My dear Cousin, — I was sorry to let the architect
leave this for G-artur the other day without carrying some
palpable testimony of my ever grateful and affectionate
remembrance of you, and therefore I have begun this letter,
that another messenger from us may not go empty-handed
to you. I almost wish that I were with you just now, and
I wish we could feel the pure sap of the true vine so active
within us, and so binding us together by its heavenly
sympathy, that we might have an uninterrupted intercourse,
and might feel each other's presence in the presence of our
Eoot, and Head, and Fountain. A friend of mine told me
that he had been at different times sensible of spiritual
blessings bestowed on him through the prayers of par-
ticular persons at a distance. He was conscious of a
special blessing, and he had a most distinct impression that
that blessing came to him through the prayers of a parti-
cular person; and on asking the person afterwards, he
learned that he had been praying for that very blessing on
him. I like such a story exceedingly. I like to think of
the condescension of our God answering such petitioners
as men to the very letter of their petitions ; and I like to
think of His binding souls so close as to make them channels
to each other of the water of life. And thus there is a
great increase of the spirit of thanksgiving, for each bless-
ing is not only a reason of gratitude to the receiver of it,
but also to those whose prayers of love have been answered
in the bestowment of it. I have Keble lying open before
me. The hymns for the Holy Week are beautiful, — Monday
is exquisite : I think that I like it best of them all. The
use made of Andromache's farewell is quite filling to the
heart, and the theology of the fourth stanza, " Thou art as

112 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE, 1829,

much his care," etc., is worth, in my mind, the whole
Shorter and Longer Catechisms together. Good-night.

41. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

14 Royal Crescent, May 1829.
My dearest Cousin, — . . . Bishop K. is very amiable,
and sees very well that love is the whole matter ; but he
does not show the true way of getting it. He seems to
think that we are to love just by an exertion, a con-
scientious exertion. Now, will you look at the third chap-
ter of John 1 In the third verse our Lord says, " Except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
heaven." He evidently means by that to inform Nicodemus
that no improvement of his present faculties or principles
could introduce him into the spiritual happiness which
was the perfection of man's being, but that a new life was
wanting in order to this. Well, what is this new life, and
how is it to be had 1 For, if I don't know how to get it,
my knowledge that it is necessary is of no use to me, but
rather an aggravation of the evil. Look to the sixteenth
verse, " God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not
perish, but have everlasting life." This is the life that is
wanting. And what is it 1 It can be nothing else than
God's love to the world in the gift of His Son. For what
is it that enters into our hearts when we believe anything 1
Is it not the thing that we believe 1 Thus some friend of
yours does you an unkindness which you know nothing of.
Whilst you are ignorant of it, it does not enter into your
mind, and of course does not affect you in any way. I hear
of it, and tell you. You answer me, " I have known that
person all my life, and I don't believe it." Whilst you
continue to disbelieve it, it does not enter into your mind,
and gives you no pain. I bring you irresistible evidence

at. 40. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 113

— you believe it, and it enters and makes you miserable.
So when a history of love is told, what is it that enters,
when it is believed, but the love % It is thus in man's
dealings with man ; and though different in degree, and
even in kind, yet in many respects it is thus also in our
dealings with God. " God so loved the world," etc. God's
love is the only spiritual life — the only sap of the universal
vine, and it can only enter, as it cannot but enter, by being
believed. I cannot tell you the delight that I have found
in thinking of God's love to man as a disapproving love.
Man confounds love and approbation, or love and inter-
estedness. Thus a man loves those whom he thinks well
of, or who are necessary to his happiness. But God's love
acknowledges and demands nothing either amiable or ser-
viceable in its objects. The love of my God is not dimin-
ished by His disapprobation of me. There is something
remarkable in Christ's substitution for Barabbas in a way
more especial than for any other individual, that he might
be an example of those for whom he died. I hope dear M.
has found God a " rSfuge tres aisS a trouver," as the French
happily translate, " a habitation whereunto I may alway
resort." May He dwell in her as a strength and a peace,
and may she rejoice in Him with an exceeding joy. May
she find Him in everything, for He is in everything, and
then she will rightly find good in everything. . . j — Yours
affectionately, T. E.

42. TO THE SAME.

Row Cottage, Helensburgh, July 1829.
My dear Cousin, — I long to speak with you of the
great things of God — of that life which He hath given to
us in His Son, the great Head, and through whom it is
communicated to all the members, as the blood is com-
municated through the heart to all the members of the

H

114 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1829.

natural body. This is the life hid with Christ in God,
which is brought to light by the gospel ; and it is of the
same thing that the disciples were desired by the angel to
testify, when he said to them, " Go and speak to the people
all the words of this life." Death had entered the world
by the belief of a lie, — this was the work of the devil ; and
He who came to destroy the work of the devil communi-
cated this new life by the belief of a truth. The Word
was with God and was God, and in Him was life, and the
life became light, even the light of men. That is to say,
the invisible life of the Godhead became visible in Jesus
Christ, the Word made flesh. It became intelligible and
palpable in His person and character. And as the light
enters into us by our eyes seeing it, so this life enters into
us by our minds seeing it, i.e. by our believing it or know-
ing it as a truth. Now what does the Spirit testify con-
cerning this light which is life 1 Look over the first
chapter of the First Epistle of John, and the beginning of
the first chapter of his Gospel. John Baptist was said to
bear witness of that Light, and this is his witness of Him,
" Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the
world," John i. 29. And see also what the Light said of
Himself, John viii. 11 and 12, "Neither do I condemn
thee : go and sin no more. Then spake Jesus again unto
them, saying, I am the light of the world : he that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of
life." These two verses ought never to have been severed.
Their meaning consists in their union ; the " Neither do I
condemn thee : go and sin no more," the sanctifying
forgiveness of God manifested in Christ is the light of life,
and he that seeth it hath the life. Precisely the same idea
of the light is given in the first chapter of the First Epistle
of John, 5th verse, " God is light, and in him is no dark-
ness at all, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth
from all sin" (the intervening matter in the sixth and

MT. 40. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 115

beginning of the seventh verses is merely a commentary
on the words, God is light). The light consists in the
forgiving holy love. Now mark, the works of light are
works which proceed from seeing the light of this forgiving
love ; as the works of darkness are the works of those who
do not know that they are forgiven. John begins his
Epistle by saying that he was going to declare that which
his own eyes had seen of the Word of life — even that
eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested
unto us. He tells us that by the knowledge of this life,
or by having seen this light, he had fellowship with the
Father and the Son ; and he declares it to others, that they
also may partake of this same life, even the life which the
Father lives and which the Son lives. And the way which
he takes of introducing us into this fellowship is by simply
declaring to us the characteristics of that light, which the
life had become : " This is the message which we have
heard of him and declare unto you, that God is light, and
in him is no darkness at all, and the blood of Jesus Christ
his Son cleanseth from all sin."

Christ was the New Head of the human nature. Now,
my beloved friend, attend. Suppose we were in a church-
yard, and saw the earth over the grave, where we had seen
a human body interred some time before, begin to move,
and at last we saw the head of that human body in perfect
life elevating itself above the ground, — if astonishment
would allow us to reason, should we not feel assured that
the rest of the members would soon follow the head, —
should we not know that there was life in the body again
because there was life in the head % Christ is the second
Adam, the real unfigurative Head of the human body. He
had suffered death as a partaker of that tainted life which
was under the curse ; and then He rose again with a new
life infused into Him. In the person of Christ risen then,
we see God in fellowship with our nature, even with us ;

116 LETTERS OF-THOMAS ERSKINE. 1829.

and we also see a life which is communicated to all those
who see — " Neither do I condemn thee : go and sin no
more :" for this is the life made light, and those who see
it have the life. In religious books we find the death of
Jesus chiefly, almost exclusively pressed, whereas in the
Bible we find that the apostles were ordained to be wit-
nesses of His resurrection, Acts i. 22. See also Acts ii.
32, 33 ; also Acts iii. 15-26 ; Acts iv. 33 ; Acts v. 31, 32 j
x. 40, 41 ; xiii. 32, 33. Is it not clear that the resurrec-
tion is pressed on us by the apostles in a way quite
different from what it is by ordinary religionists since their
time 1 — Yours most affectionately, T. E.

In the death of Christ the old life was exhausted, and
in the resurrection the new life was infused.

43. TO MADAME DE STAEL.1

25 St. Andrew's Square, Edinburgh,
4th Sept. 1829.

Gaussen is quite right in telling you that I do not forget
you before God. But I am much ashamed of my negligence
as a correspondent, especially when I consider what God
has given us to correspond about. My dear friend, we may
speak to each other about God's love — God's forgiving love
in giving us His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
He has given His Son to you and to me, and in Him He has
given us all things. When the Bible says, "Acquaint
thyself with God and be at peace," it means to say that
there is something in God which necessarily gives peace
to every one that knows it. If a soul is not at peace, the
only reason is because it does not know God. If Joseph's
brethren, as they stood before him, and not knowing who
he was, but hearing him speak roughly to them, had been

1 Daughter of Madame Vernet, and daughter-in-law to the celebrated
Madame de Stae'l.

JET. 40. MADAME DE ST A EL. 117

told, "This is your brother Joseph," they would immediately
have been filled with terror, thinking that he would now
take vengeance on them for their treatment of bim ; but if
they could have looked into his heart, and had seen there
a forgiving love which yearned over them, and which was
not in the smallest degree affected by their unkindness to
him, it is evident that although they would have reproached
themselves far more than ever they had done before, yet
they would have had a perfect deliverance from all personal
fears on their own account, they would have seen a ground
of confidence in their brother's character which must at once
have given them peace. If Joseph had loved all of them
except one, then it could not have been said to that one,
" Acquaint thyself with Joseph and be at peace," for the
knowledge that he was really excluded from Joseph's love
would have given him terror and not peace. And so if
there were a single being whom God did not love, then it
could not have been said to that being, " Acquaint thyself
with God and be at peace." But as it is said generally to
all, it must also be true to all that God loves them, and
that it is only necessary for them to know God's feelings
towards them, and to look into God's heart, in order to
have perfect peace. This is the meaning of being saved by
faith. If God did not love, and had not forgiven us, our
salvation could only be produced by our doing something
which mighty make a change in God's feelings towards us ;
that would be salvation by works, or by our doing some-
thing. But since God does love us and has forgiven us,
we need not do anything to change God's feelings, and all
that is necessary for our peace and confidence is to know
what the actual state of God's feelings are toward us, and
this is salvation by faith, dest cc dire, salvation by knowing
our real circumstances. All human religions are founded
on the principle that man must do something or feel some-

118 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1829.

thing, or believe something, in order to make God love
him and forgive him ; whereas God's religion just contains
a declaration that nothing of the kind is necessary on our
part in order to make God forgive us, for that he hath d6jh,
already, loved us and forgiven us, and given us His Son,
and in Him all things. He hath declared this to the whole
race without any exception, as a truth to each individual ;
so that the difference between the most miserable hater of
God and the happiest child of God does not consist in this,
that God loves the one and does not love the other ; but
in this, that the one knows l God's love to himself and the
other does not. It is the same difference as there is between
two men standing with their faces to the sun, the one with
his eyes shut and the other with his eyes open. . . .

And why has God taken such pains to satisfy us that
He has indeed loved and forgiven all men % Just in order
that every individual might see in God a perfect ground of
confidence. Unless you know that God has forgiven you, and
that He loves you, you cannot have any confidence in Him ;
and unless you have full confidence in Him, you cannot have
peace with Him, you cannot open your heart to Him, you
cannot love Him. It is the belief of His forgiving love to
yourself which can alone open your heart to Him. This
is the true meaning of the doctrine of personal assurance.
It is not that God saves a man because he has an assurance
•of his own personal salvation, but that our hearts cannot
open to God until we are satisfied that He loves ourselves
with a forgiving love. Until we are satisfied of His love
to us, we cannot love Him ; and therefore we cannot obey
Him, for there is no obedience without love. This is the
meaning of John vi. 28, 29. When the multitude that

1 The last words of Frederick D. Maurice to those around his deathbed
were — "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the knowledge of the love of
God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all ! "

iET. 40. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 119

. were following Jesus asked Him, What shall we do that
we may work the works of God1? He answered them,
'<' This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom
He hath sent." Their question was, " How are we to obey
the commandments of God ? " and His answer was, " You
must begin by believing in God's forgiving love to you in
sending His Son to be the propitiation for your sins." For
until you believe this, it is impossible for you to obey the
least of God's commandments, because the least of His com-
mandments requires love, and you cannot love Him until
you are assured that He loves you. The knowledge of our
own personal forgiveness and of our being personally em-
braced in the love of God is the first step in Christianity.
No one is a Christian until he knows this. And how may
every one know this] See John i. 29, 2 Cor. v. 19, 1 Tim.
ii. 1-6, 1 John ii. 2. The personal assurance rises out of
the general declaration of forgiveness to all, and peace and
joy and love rise out of the personal assurance.

I long much to see both Madame de Broglie and your-
self, but it seems to me that God has called me to be a
witness for the truth at home. I am continually engaged
in preaching to small congregations at present — three
hours every day, and often much more. If God lets me
see it to be my duty to cross the Channel this autumn to
see you, it will be a great delight to me. Give my most
brotherly love in Christ Jesus to Madame de Broglie and
to your dear mother. Give your child a kiss and a blessing
from me, as from one who loved his father. Talk over
this letter with Madame de B., and let me know how you
feel about it.

44. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

15th September 1829.

My dear Cousin, — ... I should be very sorry indeed to
be the means of depriving of such a friend as . I

120 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1829.

doubt not that God will make them channels of good to
each other, although they may seem to injure each other
at present. Both of them misapprehend altogether the

nature and object of personal assurance. talks of it

as an asserting of one's confidence of an interest in God's
forgiveness in spite of doubts and misgivings. I don't
quote her words, but the idea is hers. She evidently re-
gards it either as a self-satisfied conclusion to which one
is led by a discovery of some supposed good in one's-self,
or a wordy boldness of expression belied by an internal
apprehension. And she supposes that the person who
arrives at it imagines that he has arrived at something
which may be approved of by God, and on which he may
rest a further confidence. Now, there is nothing of all this
in the doctrine. No man has a right to believe anything
about his relation to God, except on God's own authority.
If God has not told a man that his sins are forgiven him,
it would be presumptuous in him to believe that they were
forgiven ; but if God has told him that they are forgiven,
then the presumption consists in disbelieving or doubting
it. You would not think it presumptuous in a man to
believe that God loves and forgives him, unless you thought
that God's forgiving love was limited to a particular class
of characters, for instance, to those who believe, or who
repent, or who amend; and therefore, when you hear a
person say, " that he knows that God loves and forgives
him," you immediately suppose that he assumes to himself
to belong to one of these classes, and you are inclined to
question him. " Are you sure now that your belief, or re-
pentance, or amendment is real 1 " He might answer you,
" God's forgiving love is declared not to any class, not to
any character, but just to sin, and to the world, and to all
men ; and God says that those who don't believe in God's
forgiving love to them make God a liar." Read that

^et. 40. M/SS RACHEL ERSKINE. 121

account on the proclaiming of God's name to Moses given
in the 33d and 34th chapters of Exodus, "The Lord, the
Lord God, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, with-
out clearing the guilty " (which last expression refers to the
sacrifice of Christ, and just means through an atonement).
As soon as Moses heard it, he thought, This is just the God
that we want, for the people are continually committing
sin, and this is a sin-forgiving God ; and Moses made haste
and said, Go with us ; for this is a stiff-necked people.
That for is an extraordinary word. Read also the 14th
of Numbers, where this name is repeated.

But what is the use of faith in Christ at all 1 Is it that
God forgives or loves a man for believing that Jesus Christ
died for him, to take away his sins 1 No one can believe
such an absurdity who exercises his reason at all. No, the
use of faith is just that a man, by knowing the actual
state of God's feelings towards him, by knowing the reality
and intensity of His forgiving love to him, may have perfect
confidence in God, and thus that his heart may open and let
God's living Spirit enter. Now, what is it that makes man
distrust God 1 What is it that makes a man start at the
idea of " this night thy soul shall be required of thee " 1
What is it but the witness of conscience telling him that he
has deserved and incurred God's anger and condemnation ?
And what is it that can do away this distrust 1 Nothing
but the authentic information that God has forgiven him.
The belief of this information as written in the death
and resurrection of Christ is the faith of the gospel ; and
the use of it is, that it makes the character of God the
ground of confidence. If the confidence is not produced,
nothing at all is gained for the man, and the information
of God is evidently rejected ; for the belief of that would
have given confidence, and was intended just for that end.
My distrust of God arises not from the belief that another

122 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1829.

person is under condemnation, but from the apprehension
of my own condemnation, and therefore my confidence is
restored, not by the belief of the pardon of another person,
but from the belief of my own pardon. Any faith short
of this is a faith below man's need, as it is a faith below
God's testimony. Any faith which is not personal con-
fidence appears to me a mere fallacy. I have precisely the
same authority and obligation for believing that Christ died
because I had sinned, and rose again because I was pardoned,
that I have for believing that He died and rose at all. The
Bible goes upon this ground, that no man ever did, or ever
could perform one act of obedience to God until he believed
that his sins were forgiven him. Till a man knows himself
pardoned, he will work for his pardon, he cannot help
doing it. And so when God calls on him to work for God,
to love God, to glorify God, He tells him at the same time,
" You need not work for pardon any more, for I have
pardoned you. Now you may work for God." It is thus
that self is destroyed. A man who is working for pardon
appears religious, and is thought religious by the world ;
but it is just the religion of self as much as if he were
working for £1000. Will you compare the 32d Psalm
with 2 Cor. v. 19 ] To every man the word of reconcilia-
tion declares the same thing, viz., that God is not imputing
sin unto him ; but it is only the man who believes it who
tastes the blessedness of it. It is only he who knows God
as his hiding-place. It is only he whose ear is opened to
hear God's voice saying, " I will teach thee," etc. My be-
loved Rachel, I feel this most deeply interesting

May the Spirit of holiness and of power accompany it.

45. TO DR CHALMERS.

Linlathen, 20th October 1829.
My dear Sir, — You know that I consider the proclama-

jet. 41. DR. CHALMERS. 123

tion of pardon through the blood of Christ, as an act already
passed in favour of every human being, to be essentially the
gospel. I consider this to be the only gospel, because this is
the only intelligence the belief of which will immediately
give peace to creatures under condemnation, when they
know their true condition. When it is supposed that the
pardon is not passed into an act in favour of any individual
until he believes it, no one can have peace from the gospel
until he is confident that he is a believer ; and further, his
attention is entirely or chiefly directed to that quality of
belief in himself which entitles him to appropriate the
pardon to himself, so that his joy is not in God's character
but in his own. You object to all this by asking me,
" Where is the pardon if the man continues an unbeliever
to the end ?" Now, my dear and much respected friend, I
think that I distinctly see the answer to this in the Word
of God, and I pray God that He may cause you to see it
also. It is this. The penalty pronounced against Adam's
race at the fall was death, or the separation of the soul and
body. There is no more said of it in the Bible. The death
temporal, spiritual, and eternal is an invention of man ;
death spiritual is just sin, for it is the shutting out of God
from the heart, who is the only true life, and therefore it
is as improper to say that death spiritual is the punish-
ment of sin, as to say that sin is the punishment of sin.
Under the Adamic dispensation there is no other punish-
ment mentioned in the Bible than death. Whilst therefore
this penalty of the broken law lay upon man, no human
being could rise again — that penalty must have lain upon
him like a weight keeping him in his grave, and the rising
of any human being is a proof of the removal of the penalty
in regard to him. But we are informed that every human
being is to rise again, unbelievers as well as believers ; that
is to say, all men are to be delivered from this penalty or

124 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1830.

curse of the broken law. How is this 1 " Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made
a curse for us," Gal. iii. 13. "For as in Adam all die, so
in Christ shall all be made alive," 1 Cor. xv. 22. " There-
fore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men
to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the
free gift came upon all men to justification of life," Kom.
v. 1 8. " And for this cause He is the mediator of the new
testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of
the transgressions that were under the first testament, they
which are called might receive the promise of eternal
inheritance," Heb. ix. 15. All are redeemed from the
penalty of the law, and the act by which they have been
redeemed is an act in which G-od's character is so mani-
fested, that the soul which sees it lives by it, i.e. receives
the eternal life which was in the Father and was manifested
in the Son, even that eternal life which consists in knowing
the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.
The soul which believes not in this act which manifests
God's holy love is guilty of refusing the testimony of God
concerning His Son, and shuts out the eternal life, and falls
under the sentence of the second death — second, because the
first death is done away. — Yours most affectionately,

T. Erskine.

46. TO MISS EACHEL ERSKINE.

Cadder, 1st February 1830.

My dear Friend and Cousin, — It has pleased God to
take our beloved friend and brother Charles Stirling to
Himself. And it pleased God also of His abundant grace
to make this scene of death a glorious victory. From the
beginning of his illness he anticipated the result, and he
welcomed it as his Father's summons calling him home.
God did great things for him, and during the last days

jet. 41. CAPTAIN JAMES STIRLING. 125

of his life, whilst the struggle was going on, the Good
Shepherd never left him for a moment. I was with him
the last two days, and heard him say many sweet things,
which are now like balm to poor Christian's heart. He
said often, " Beloved and glorious Eedeemer." " No per-
plexity, no alarm." "I see the splendour before me." "Oh
that He should have done this for such a worm as I am ! "
Once he said, " This is a sweet dispensation, is not it 1 "
But it is impossible to convey by words any idea of the
peace and willingness and childlike confidence which every
look and every tone of his voice expressed. This is the
Lord's doing, and He is very gracious to Christian also.
He has given her songs in this affliction. He has con-
strained her heart to give Him thanks and praise for the
wonderful works which He hath wrought for lost sinners.
She is much exhausted, however, for she never left his bed
for a minute. My clear friend, we have a God in whom we
may well rejoice ; a just God, and yet a Saviour. Blessed
be His glorious name for ever and ever. Charles said once,
" You see in me what sin has done, and what the Saviour
has done." It is right that a world of sin should be a
world of sorrow, and God is glorified by bringing light out
of the creature's darkness, and holiness out of the creature's
pollution. . . . — Yours affectionately, T. Eeskine.

47. TO CAPTAIN JAMES STIKLTNG.

Cadder, Is* February 1830.
My dear James, — You have before this heard of the
death of beloved Charles. He died the death of the
righteous, giving glory to God — not of constraint, but
willingly. He saw the whole truth fully and distinctly,
and rejoiced in it. Davie and I arrived here at four o'clock
on Friday morning, and he survived till Saturday night,
between nine and ten. He gave us a loving and cheerful

126 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1830.

welcome ; he told us that his soul was full of peace and
joy in the Lord, that God was all light, and no darkness
at all ; he then said to me, " It has just come to me like
a flash of light that you were right ahout these things ;" 1
and then, turning to Christian, he said, " And James and
Mary spoke a great deal about it to us also." God thus
put a testimony into His servant's heart and mouth at that
solemn moment ; and I trust that dear Christian has it
fully in her heart too. She told me just now, when I was
up with her by her bedside (where she is lying very weak),
that her eye never lost sight of Christ, and that her peace
and even rejoicing had never failed. Blessed be God who
giveth the victory, and who always maketh those who
trust in Him to triumph. It was most edifying to see how
his sense of the evil of sin grew upon him, without ever
shaking his perfect confidence in the redeeming work of
Christ. It was indeed a scene most glorifying to God.
You will rejoice Eliza's heart by telling her these things.

Behold what manner of love the Father hath showed us.
I have had some sweet views of the Creator manifested in
the Eedeemer ; and I have tasted the grace of God in that
" God has so loved the world," etc. — Farewell, my dear
brother in Jesus ; give my Christian love to Eliza.

T. Erskine.

48. TO MRS. MACHAR.2

Edinburgh, 7th July 1830.
I AM going to Helensburgh to-morrow, with the view of

1 The universality of the atonement, etc.

2 The daughter of a minister of an adjoining parish, who, in 1829, came
to reside in the immediate vicinity of Linlathen. Mr. Erskine had
ministered gi*eat comfort to her in a season of great distress. A mutual
and strong attachment was formed which lasted for life, unbroken by the
circumstance that in 1832 Miss Sim married the Rev. John Machar, D.D.,
Minister of Kingston, and removed with him to Canada, where she has
ever since resided.

mt. 41. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 127

being present when Mr. Campbell preaches before the
Presbytery on Thursday. May he be given a mouth and
wisdom by the Holy Ghost ! I have been seeing much more
into the character of our present dispensation, our supply as
the groundwork of future judgment. The supply is God's
forgiving love and favour. This belongs to each one of
us. In this time, which is the accepted time and day of
salvation, we are dealt with not according to what we are,
but according to what Christ our Head, the Head of every
man, is. But when the judgment comes we shall be dealt
with according to what we shall then be in ourselves.
And thus that favour which is upon every man now, if
not received into him so as to become his life, will be
his condemnation. — Yours, etc., T. Erskine.

49. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

14 Royal Crescent, \Uh July 1830.
Dearest Cousin Eachel, — I know that Davie has
written to tell you how the Lord ordered things, and per-
mitted things on the occasion of Mr. Campbell's preaching
before the Presbytery. You would be much struck with
this thing in particular, that they had left all general
charges against Mr. Campbell, and fixed on one point, and
that point the love of God in Christ to every man. The
expressions whTcEThey animadverted on were, " Tha.t_the
agony of Christ expressed the measure of the love of God \
to every man," and " that no man could act as a peace-
maker between God and man, who could not tell man that /
God had made peace with him." They have entered it /
into their record that they regard these statements with/
abhorrence and detestation.1 Jehovah is God and not

1 " We have learned that the Presbytery, by a great majority, re-
corded their detestation and abhorrence of the doctrine contained in two
sentences in the sermon, which we believe are to the following purport :

128 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1830.

man, therefore are we not consumed. He loves these
men with a love that seeks to enter into them, and to make
them the habitation of God through the Spirit. He loves
them with a love that has brought Him into the flesh to
taste death for them, that He might destroy in them the
works of him who had the power of death, even the
devil. . . .

I* God loves every child of Adam with a love the measure of which is to be
seen in the agonies of Christ/ and that ' the person who knows that Christ
died for every child of Adam is the person Who is in the condition to say
to every human being, Let there be peace with you, peace between you
and your God.' " — The Whole Proceedings in the case of the Rev, John
M'Leod Campbell, pp. xix., xx. The two sentences are given in almost
exactly the same words in the "Notes of a Sermon preached in the
Parish Church of Row on Thursday, being the day of the Visitation of
that Parish by the Presbytery of Dumbarton, by the Rev. J. M. Campbell.
Taken in short-hand. Greenock, 1830." Pp. 23 and 25. These two
sentences formed one of the counts in the libel.

jet. 41. THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 129

CHAPTER VII.

The Spiritual Gifts— Letters from 1830 till 1835.

In a cottage at the head of the Gareloch, Isabella Camp-
bell had lived that saintly life told with such beauty and
pathos by her devoted pastor, the late Mr. Story of Rose-
neath. Her death had made her home at Fernicarry a
shrine of resort to which the pilgrim steps of many were
directed, who gathered round her sister Mary, upon whom
the mantle of the departed seemed to have fallen. One
Sunday evening in the end of March 1830, as Mary lay
in weakness upon a sofa, suffering apparently under the
same disease which had carried her sister to the grave,
whilst those around her were praying for the restoration of
the gifts bestowed upon the primitive Church, suddenly,
as if possessed by a superhuman strength, she broke forth,
speaking in an unknown tongue, in loud ecstatic utterances,
for more than an hour.

On the other side of the Clyde, opposite the Gareloch, lay
the town of Port-Glasgow. A family of the name of Mac-
donald was living there at this time ; James and George,
twin brothers, with their sisters. Two years before, the
brothers, shipbuilders, staid and orderly men, had become
exceedingly devout. Their religion was of a quiet and
unobtrusive type. " Their doctrinal knowledge was at
first very limited. They procured no religious books, for
years they scarcely read one ; the ministry under which

1

130 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1830.

they sat was unimpressive, and if they did adopt peculiar
views of divine truth, it was from no heretical writings or
preaching, but from the Bible alone that they derived
them. For instance, although they soon became classed
among the disciples of Mr. Irving, who at that time was
beginning to be stigmatised as heretical, the fact was that,
so far as I can ascertain, they never read a single volume
of his, or at least not for years after their own views were
established. And although after a time they began to
attend the preaching of the Eev. Mr. Campbell of Eow,
it was because they had previously been taught of God the
same truths, and were attracted to Row by their love of
them. . . . Until the eve of the miraculous manifestations
in them, the subject of spiritual gifts did not at all
occupy their attention, much less their expectations
and desires; nor did it even when their prayers, in
common with those of other Christians, for an outpouring
of the Spirit, began to be answered by the pouring out of
a very extraordinary if not marvellous spirit of prayer
upon themselves."1 In March 1830 an event occurred in
this family which one of the sisters thus describes : " For
several days Margaret had been so unusually ill that I
quite thought her dying, and on appealing to the doctor he
held out no hope of her recovery unless she were able to go
through a course of powerful medicine, which he acknow-
ledged to be in her then case impossible. She had scarcely

been able to have her bed made for a week. Mrs.

and myself had been sitting quietly at her bedside, when
the power of the Spirit came upon her. She said, ■ There
will be a mighty baptism of the Spirit this day,' and then
broke forth in a most marvellous setting forth of the
wonderful work of God ; and as if her own weakness had

1 Memoirs of James and George Macdonald of Port-Glasgow, by Robert
Norton, M.D., pp. 58, 59, 78.

jet. 41. THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 131

been altogether lost in the strength of the Holy Ghost, con-
tinued with little or no intermission for two or three hours
in mingled praise, prayer, and exhortation. At dinner-
time James and George came home as usual, whom she
addressed at great length, concluding with a solemn prayer
for James, that he might at that time be endowed with the
power of the Holy Ghost. Almost instantly, James calmly
said, ' I have got it ! ' He walked to the window, and
stood silent for a minute or two. I looked at him, and
almost trembled, there was such a change upon his whole
countenance. He then, with a step and manner of the most
indescribable majesty, walked up to Margaret's bedside, and
addressed her in these words, ' Arise and stand upright.'
He repeated the words, took her by the hand, and she
arose." x

The same evening James wrote to Fernicarry. Let
Mary Campbell herself tell us of what happened on the
receipt of this letter : " I had scarcely read the first page
when I became quite overpowered, and laid it aside for a few
minutes ; but I had no rest in my spirit until I took it up
again and began to read. As I read, every word came with
power, but when I came to the command to arise, it came
home with a power which no words can describe ; it was
felt to be indeed the voice of Christ ; it was such a voice
of power as could not be resisted. A mighty power was
instantaneously exerted upon me. I first felt as if I had
been lifted up from off the earth, and all my diseases taken
off me. At the voice of Jesus I was surely made in a
moment to stand upon my feet, leap and walk, sing and
rejoice. 0 that men would praise the Lord for His good-
ness, for His wonderful works to the children of men."2

1 Memoirs of James and George Macdonald of Port-Glasgow, by Robert
Norton, M.D., pp. 107, 108.

24 Vindication of the Religion of the Land, etc., by the Rev. A.
Robertson of Greenock, pp. 251, 254.

132 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1830.

After her recovery Mary Campbell lived during the sum-
mer of 1830 at Helensburgh. There meetings innumer-
able were held, manifestations extraordinary were made.
To the speaking was now added writing in the unknown
tongues. When the moment of inspiration came Mary
seized the pen, and with a rapidity "like lightning"
covered sheets of paper with characters believed to be letters
and words. The gift of prophecy too was largely exercised,
a gift not to be confounded with foretelling of future events!
or ordinary Christian teaching, but consisting in inspired
exalted utterances, opening up some obscure passage of
Scripture, or enforcing some neglected duty, or break-
ing forth ecstatically into prayer and praise. Crowds
gathered round the young attractive rapt enthusiast.
" Among their number," says one who wrote in the midst
of the excitement, "they can reckon merchants, divinity
students, writers to the Signet, advocates. ... I have
known gentlemen who rank high in society come from
Edinburgh, join in all the exercises, declare their implicit
faith in all Mary Campbell's pretensions, ask her concerning
the times and seasons, inquire the meaning of certain pas-
sages of Scripture, and bow to her decisions with the utmost
deference as those of one inspired by Heaven."1

From Edinburgh, Dr. Chalmers wrote to his friend
Mr. Story of Roseneath, eagerly asking information, desir-
ing especially to have a copy of some of the writing in the
alleged unknown tongue. Mr. Story, in order to supply
himself with the required information, paid a special visit
to Mary Campbell. " I had just taken her by the hand,"
he writes to Dr. Chalmers, " to bid her adieu, when, obvi-
ously possessed by some irresistible power, she uttered for,
I should suppose, nearly an hour, sounds altogether new to

1 A Vindication of the Religion of the Land, etc., by the Rev. A.
Robertson of Greenock, p. 311.

jet. 41. THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 133

my ear, but which seemed certainly to be language. . . .
I recognise in none (of the written characters) the signs of
any language I know, but many have seen her note them
down, and it is with inconceivable rapidity, and as if she
herself were unconscious of the exertion. Both in speak-
ing and in writing she describes her words and movements
as in every respect independent of her own volition. . . .
The greater jealousy manifested by you and others the
more will you serve the interests of truth, and the more I
am persuaded you will be prepared to conclude that these
things are of God and not of men."1

In Port-Glasgow the area of manifestation was enlarged.
The gift of interpretation was added to that of the tongues.
By both the Macdonalds these two gifts were in constant
exercise. They were bestowed also upon others. Pro-
phetic utterances abounded. The excitement grew, the
visitors from a distance increased. " Ever since Margaret
was raised and the gift of tongues given," writes one of the
sisters (May 18th, 1830), "the house has been filled every
day with people from all parts of England, Scotland, and
Ireland." Special interest was awakened where special
hopes in this direction had for some time been cherished.
Five delegates came down from London, who stayed three
weeks at Port-Glasgow, and had every opportunity of see-
ing all that was going on, and of becoming personally
acquainted with those engaged in it. One of these,
a solicitor, recognised and quoted as an entirely com-
petent witness by the writer of an article in the Edin-
burgh Review? closes his description of what he witnessed
thus : —

1 Memoir of the Life of the Rev. Robert Story, pp. 209-211. Two years
afterward Mr. Story, like Mr. Erskine, saw reason to think differently ; see
pp. 213-224.

2 "Pretended Miracles — Irving, Scott, and Erskine." First article in
No. 106 of the Edinburgh Review, June 1831.

134 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1830.

" These persons, while uttering the unknown sounds, as
also while speaking in the Spirit in their own language, have
every appearance of being under supernatural direction.
The manner and voice are (speaking generally) different
from what they are at other times, and on ordinary occa-
sions. This difference does not consist merely in the pecu-
liar solemnity and fervour of manner (which they possess),
but their whole deportment gives an impression, not to be
conveyed in words, that their organs are made use of by
supernatural power. In addition to the outward appear-
ances, their own declarations, as the declarations of honest,
pious, and sober individuals, may with propriety be taken
in evidence. They declare that their organs of speech are
made use of by the Spirit of God ; and that they utter that
which is given to them, and not the expressions of their
own conceptions, or their own intention. I had numerous
opportunities of observing a variety of facts fully confirma-
tory of this.

v In addition to what I have already stated, I have only to
add my most decided testimony, that, so far as three weeks'
constant communication, and the information of those in the
neighbourhood, can enable me to judge (and I conceive that
the opportunities I enjoyed enabled me to form a correct
judgment), the individuals thus gifted are persons living in
close communion with God, and in love towards Him and
towards all men ; abounding in faith and joy and peace ;
having an abhorrence of sin, and a thirst for holiness, with an
abasement of self, and yet with a hope full of immortality
such as I never witnessed elsewhere, and which I find no-
where recorded but in the history of the early church :
and just as they are fervent in spirit, so are they diligent in
the performance of all the relative duties of life. They are
totally devoid of anything like fanaticism or enthusiasm,
but on the contrary are persons of great simplicity of char-

/ET. 42. CAPTAIN PATERS ON. 135

acter and of sound common sense. They have no fanciful
theology" of their own : they make no pretensions to deep
knowledge : they are the very opposite of sectarians, both
in conduct and principle : they do not assume to be teachers :
they are not deeply read, but they seek to be taught of God
in the perusal of and meditation on his revealed Word, and
to 'live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and
honesty.'"1

Mr. Erskine followed in the track of these delegates from
London, staying no less than six weeks in the house of the
Macdonalds, witnessing the manifestations and taking part
in the daily prayer-meetings. A misrepresenting rumour
as to what had happened at one of these meetings having
reached his ears, he sent the following letter to his
brother-in-law : —

50. TO CAPTAIN PATERSON.

9 Brandon Street, 15th October 1830.

The account given by Mr. C. of the prayer-meeting at
Port-Glasgow during which the words disco capito were used
ind interpreted is very incorrect.

The facts, as far as I can recollect, are these : — I had been
present along with you at one of these meetings before, and
we had been both much impressed with the supernatural
character of the prayers as well as of the speaking with
tongues. In conversing on the subject next day, you re-
marked to me that there had been, on the preceding even-
ing, a neglect of the Scripture directions for the exercise of
the gift of tongues, and in proof of it you pointed out the
rule, 1 Cor. xiv. 28, "If there be no interpreter, let him
keep silence in the church."

When I returned to Port-Glasgow I mentioned this to
them, and their answer was that as interpretation had in
1 Norton's Memoirs, pp. 146-148.

136 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1830.

some cases been given, they considered themselves per-
mitted to use the tongue when the Spirit gave them utter-
ance, on the faith that interpretation would also be given.
They said also that they felt it to be their duty to pray
much for interpretation, according to that word, " Let him
that speaketh in a tongue pray that he may interpret."
Just before the meeting commenced we were conversing
on this subject, so that it was impressed on the minds of
those persons who spoke in prayer.

It was a very remarkable meeting. There was a mani-
festation of the presence and supernatural working of the
Spirit of God beyond anything that I had witnessed. The
voices struck me also very much, perhaps more than the
tongues. It was not their loudness, although they 'Were
very loud, but they did not sound to me as if they were the
voices of the persons speaking ; they seemed to be uttered
through them by another power.

After J. Macdonald had prayed a considerable time,ifirst
in English and then in a tongue, the command to pray fdr
interpretation was brought to his mind, and he repeated-4-
" It is written, ' Let him that speaketh in a tongue pray thai
he may interpret.' " He then prayed for interpretation witE
great urgency, until he felt that he had secured the answeri
and when repeating over the concluding words of what he!
had spoken in the tongue, which were "disco capito," he
said, " And this is the interpretation : the shout of a Kingj
is amongst them." The impression which I received from
this was, that the passage spoken in the tongue had con-
cluded with the prophecy of Balaam, in which these words
occur. I conceived that the words disco capito meant
simply the shout of a King, and that they, along with their
interpretation, had been given to us as words of reference,
directing us to the beautiful passage of which they form a
part, Numbers xxiii. 19, 20, 21.

.jet. 42. CAPTAIN PATERSON. 137

I am quite sensible, as you must be after what you have
witnessed, that it is impossible to convey in words any idea
of what took place that evening. Though there had been
no new tongue spoken, the supernatural character of the
meeting would have been just the same; the tongues scarcely
added to it at all.

Some time after, in conversing over the proceedings of
the evening with one of the Macdonalds, I remarked to
him that I had observed after the conclusion of the meeting
two of the females apparently in great joy embracing each
other, and I asked him if he knew any particular cause for
it. He told me that for some days back their meetings had
been remarkably dead, and thus there had been a great
deal of prayer on the subject, and that these two persons
had, especially in the forenoon, been much engaged in prayer
together about it, and that the outpouring which had taken
place that night bore to them a more decided character of
being an answer to prayer, inasmuch as they had particu-
larly asked of God "that the shout of a King might once
more be amongst them." One of these females was his
own sister.

He did not tell me this of himself. I asked him the
explanation of the circumstance I have mentioned, which
was of the most unobtrusive nature possible, and which
indeed was done in a corner, and he answered me most
simply ; and I felt my own astonishment not a little re-
buked by his quiet reception of this direct and literal
answer to prayer, as a thing to be at all times confidently
looked for.

I gave this history in Mr. C.'s hearing, explaining at the
same time my reason for doing so, viz., I thought that those
who recognised the moral integrity of the parties would
in this remarkable coincidence recognise something super-
natural, and that those who had formed no opinion as to

138 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1831.

their integrity, either on one side or another, would from this
case feel that the charge of imposture against them involved
in it the charge of such a multiplication of fraud and of blas-
phemous lying against the Holy Ghost that it was really
difficult to believe that any creatures could be so abandoned
as to be guilty of it.

There are some things so bad that one would require
tolerably strong evidence for their authenticity before
believing them. And surely this is one.

Mr. Erskine's immediate convictions and impressions
were embodied in a tract, " On the Gifts of the Spirit,"
published at Greenock at the close of 1830. "Whilst
I see nothing in Scripture against the reappearance, or
rather the continuance, of miraculous gifts in the Church,
but a great deal for it, I must further say that I see a
great deal of internal evidence in the west country to
prove their genuine miraculous character, especially in the
speaking with tongues. . . . After witnessing what I
have witnessed among those people, I cannot think of any
person decidedly condemning them as impostors, without
a feeling of great alarm. It certainly is not a thing to be
lightly or rashly believed, but neither is it a thing to
be lightly or rashly rejected. I believe that it is of God."

Still more fully did Mr. Erskine deal with the whole
topic of the gifts of the Spirit in the volume published in
1831, entitled " The Brazen Serpent, or Life coming
through Death : " not the most popular of his writings,
yet the one which goes most fully and deeply into doctrinal
theology. It was to this book, even more than to the one
on " The Unconditional Freeness of the Gospel," that Mr.
Maurice was in the habit of expressing his indebtedness.
In its second chapter will be found the seeds of many of
those ideas as to the moral character of the atonement, and

jet. 43. DR. CHALMERS. 139

the manner of its operation in the formation of Christian
character, which, transplanted to other soil and subject to
other treatment, germinated after fashions not altogether
such as the first sower relished. In this volume, after
stating at length the scriptural grounds on which it might
be concluded that the miraculous gifts were "the permanent
endowment of the Church," and that " had the faith of the
Church continued pure and full these gifts of the Spirit
would never have disappeared," he says, " The world dis-
likes the recurrence of miracles. And yet it is true that
miracles have recurred. I cannot but tell what I have
seen and heard. I have heard persons, both men and
women, speak with tongues and prophesy, that is, speak
in the spirit to edification, exhortation, and comfort."1

In 1832 his faith in the reality of some at least of the
Port-Glasgow manifestations remained unshaken, as appears
from the following letter to Dr. Chalmers : —

51. TO DR. CHALMERS.

24 Drummond Place, May 1832.

Dear Sir, — . . . Feeling as I do the vast importance of
the subject of our conversation the other evening, I cannot
go through the common form of forwarding you this note
without referring you to some of the passages of Scripture
at least which belong to that subject.

Our Lord is especially designated by all the Evangelists
as " He who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." Compare
this title with Acts i. 4-8, that you may be convinced that
the gift of the Holy Ghost does not mean regeneration,
but that which was manifested on the day of Pentecost —
for the disciples were already regenerate persons. Com-
pare it also with Ephesians iv. 8-16, where the purpose of
the gifts is declared to be — not to give a miraculous attes-

1 The Brazen Serpent, p. 203. See Appendix, No. II.

140 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1832.

tation to the doctrines, but — to edify the body and pre-
serve unity, and the duration of them is declared to be
" until we all come in the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." You
yourself remarked that evening that the promise of the
Spirit was prominently held forth through the New Testa-
ment as the great characteristic and privilege of our dis-
pensation, as in Mark xvi. 17, and that this promise is
never recalled, nor, I may add, is any cessation of it hinted
at, except in 1 Cor. xiii. 8-10, where these gifts are promised
to endure until that which is perfect is come.

You said that the sanctification of the heart is a greater
manifestation of the power of the Spirit in man than any
miracles. To this I cordially agree. "The greatest of
these is charity, — the more excellent way;" but the gifts
are not reckoned of as substitutes for that chief end, but
as means to it. And if the Lord gives these things as
means, surely it is not a genuine humility which says, " I
am satisfied without them." When the Lord desired Ahaz
to ask a sign, he answered, " I will not ask, neither will I
tempt the Lord," but he is severely rebuked for this appa-
rent humility, Isaiah vii. 12, 13.

The 14th and 15 th verses of the fourth chapter of
Ephesians are very remarkable. One of the objects to be
answered by the setting of the gifts in the Church is there
said to be, " that we henceforth be no more children tossed
to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine,
by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they
lie in wait to deceive ; but, speaking the truth in love, may
grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even
Christ." There must be some principle of unity in a church,
in order to the existence of a church. God's scheme for
this unity is the manifestation of the gifts ; man's scheme

jet. 43. THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 141

in the absence of the gifts is a Confession of Faith. We
must either have the one or the other in order to keep the
Church together. Now, is it the sin of the Church, or
only her misfortune, that she is without the gifts, and
therefore obliged to have recourse to a Confession for the
purpose of unity1? Surely the Westminster divines did
not exhaust the Bible ; and if they had the Spirit, surely
the divines of our day are not excluded from the Spirit,
and if so, they ought to thank God for what light was
seen before, and press on to further light in the strength
of the Spirit. If it be the sin of the Church to be without
the gifts, then the necessity of the Confession is a sinful
necessity, and ought not to be pleaded against any man who
appeals to the Word and the interpretation of the Spirit.

I pray you to forgive this letter, if you think that it
needs forgiveness. It is the principle in the Scripture
that I press, not the particular instances, though I have
the fullest conviction of the reality of several of them.

Again I say, forgive what seems to you to need forgive-
ness in this letter, and believe me to be, with true respect
and affection, yours sincerely, T. Erskine.

The chief theatre of the supernatural manifestations
had by this time shifted from the west of Scotland to
London. With the change of place there came a change of
their phase and office. They were no longer regarded, as at
the first, simply or mainly as supernatural exhibitions of the
Divine presence, expressions of the Divine will, intended to
infuse fresh life and fervour into the faith and worship of
the Church. To quote from a book of much ability, held
in high repute among the members of the Holy Catholic
Apostolic Church : — " By repeated words it was gradually
made clear that what the Lord meant to show was that the
only remedy for the evil condition of the Church universal,

-142 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1833.

which we had so much lamented, was the restoration of the
form and order of the Christian Church as one body, as
originally" constituted, with the ordinances of that body, —
the long-lost means of unity and channels of truth, viz.,
apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors."1 Slowly,
out of that strange confusion which disturbed at first
the worship of the church in Regent Square, at com-
mand of those strange voices before which the grand
humble heroic spirit of Edward Irving bowed and was
broken, the form and order of the Holy Catholic
Apostolic Church arose — a Church eclectic in doctrine,
charitable in spirit, devout in worship, utterly refusing to
be called a new branch or sect, yet claiming to be the one
and only existing Christian society fashioned in all respects
after that perfect model said to be set up in the Jewish
Tabernacle and the Apostolic Constitutions. This was not
" the healing of the hurt " which Mr. Erskine had been
looking for with such intense anxiety and eager hope.
And the more that this new remedy revealed of its character
and the manner of its working, the more inclined was he
to doubt and distrust its efficacy.

It is evident from the following letters to Lady Elgin,
who became a member of the new society, that already in
the spring of 1833 he had detected what appeared to
him a fatal flaw in that society. At the same time his
confidence in the heavenly origin of the gifts was other-
wise shaken, so that before the end of that year he had to
announce to his dear cousin Rachel a change of belief
regarding them.

52. TO LADY ELGIN.

Edinburgh, Saturday.
Dear Lady Elgin, — The distinction which Mr. Bruce

1 The Purpose of God in Creation and Redemption, p. 163.

MT. 44. LADY ELGIN. 143,

draws between a dispensation of principles and a dispen-
sation of statutes is exactly the distinction which I was
desirous of pointing out to you as existing between the
dispensation of Christ and the dispensation of dyyekot
(Hebrews i. and ii.) The dispensation of Christ embraces
in it a oneness with the mind of God — not merely a
readiness to do His will when we know it, but a participa
tion in His mind, so that, by a participation in the Divine
nature, we enter into the reasons of His will, and do not
merely obey the authority of His will. If I had a person
living in the house with me, so gifted by God that, when
he was asked whether the will of God were so or so in any
case, he always returned an answer of truth in the power
of the Spirit, I should in such circumstances have it always
in my power to know the will of God, and I might con-
tinually obey it in the spirit of ready submission ; and
yet I should be living in the low dispensation of angels
or statutes, and out of the dispensation of the Son or of
principles, if this were my only way of learning the will
of God. And if I were without this apparent privilege,
and though I often mistook the will of God, yet if my
imperfect and defective knowledge and obedience arose
from an inward light, by which I saw the Tightness of a
thing as God sees it, then, though my outward manifesta-
tion of God would be much less in this case than in the
former, yet my real manifestation of Him would be
much greater, and I should be living in the dispensation
of the Son and of principle, and not of messengers and of
statutes.

There is an expression which I have been in the use
of applying to the Christian religion, which corresponds
exactly to this distinction of principles and statutes, viz.,
that it is a religion of centres, and not of circumferences.
There is a seed of God in the man, which he may cultivate

144 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1833.

or neglect. It is manifest that if I were living with such
an oracular person as I have supposed, I should just be in
the condition of the Jews with regard to Moses. Moses
had met God, and they met Moses. I should be living
under a messenger certified by Grod. I should have my
circumference determined for me, and nothing would be
left for my own perception.

In one of my letters to you, I remember applying this
doctrine of principles and statutes to the two degrees of
conscience. I think perhaps you may now see better what
I meant by it ; and by the remarks which I made on the
two first chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The
second degree of conscience is the real freeness of the will;
for " if the Son make you free, you are free indeed."

53. TO LADY ELGIN.

LlNLATHEN", 19 th April.

Dear Lady Elgin, — ... I may here mention what
has struck me as to the nature of miraculous works gen-
erally. Look into the 4th of Exodus, and read there the
account of the two first signs of which there is any record :
—Moses' hand becoming leprous and then being cleansed,
and his rod becoming a serpent and then returning into the
form of a rod. In these two signs we have the history
and the prophecy of the world : — 1st, human flesh to be
sown in corruption, and to be raised in incorruption — that
is, the fall and the glorious restoration of man's nature ;
and 2d, the serpent gaining a terrible dominion over man,
and then being overcome by man's hand. The prophetic
part of these facts is that which I believe constitutes the
true character of a sign, and that part is the cleansing of
the flesh and the paralysing of the serpent. We have here
the signs of Christ's kingdom — in the purity of the resur-
rection-body, and in the binding of Satan. Compare the

Mr. 44. LADY ELGIN. 145

wondrous works of our Lord whilst on earth with these
two. The fulfilment in reality of these two signs will be
the realising of the 24th and 8th Psalms. I have mis-
placed them, for the serpent precedes the leprosy in the
history, and it does so as the cause precedes the effect.
These signs were types and prophecies of the kingdom,
just as the sacrifices of the law were types and prophecies
of the atonement. The miracles, as well as the sacrifices,
are never final things ; they do not terminate in themselves ;
they are signs of the kingdom. They are signs of that of
which righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost
are the reality. The attestation which they gave to God's
messengers was that these messengers bore a message re-
lating to the establishment of the kingdom. The raising
of a dead man to life, if that man was to die again, was
nothing at all to our intelligence except as a sign of per-
manent resurrection ; and so the cure of sickness, etc.
We are not to look for permanent cures then, or perfect
cures, or cures in every case where they may be asked ;
their very nature as signs is inconsistent with this. In
this day of grace the power of God's kingdom as manifested
comes forth merely in signs ; the real work of the day of
grace is the spiritual cleansing — the kingdom of God within
us. The sign refers us always to the coming kingdom, and
thus any resting in the sign is a refusing of its true import.
Holiness and love are no signs ; they are the things them-
selves ; they are the actual workings of that kingdom of
which healings, etc., are the signs. The Sabbath was a
prophetic sign of the coming Rest, and most of our Lord's
wondrous works were done on that day to connect them
with the same thing. His answer to John's disciples in the
7th of Luke, compared with Isaiah xxxv. 5, is very instruc-
tive. The prophecy was not then fulfilled, but there was
a sign of its fulfilment given. This is an explanation to

K

146 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1833.

my mind of many disappointments in the expectation of
restoration of sick and dying persons. God would say to
us, " The real miracle does not consist in patching up the
old vessel, but in making it a new vessel ; the patching up
of the old vessel is but a sign, a prophetic sign, of the new
creation. Don't lay such a stress upon the sign ; you shall
have the real everlasting cleansing of the leprosy." The
dealings of God through Moses with Israel are a wonderful
series of signs ; they are the pattern of the heavenly real
things. When Moses held the rod over the Eed Sea, he
was the sign of man holding up the serpent in triumph to
the view of the creation, and in right of his victory
exercising dominion, long lost but now recovered. That
is still a prophecy. The final restoration is the purpose of
Wisdom, and whatever be the means employed by the
wisdom of God, this purpose of His wisdom is recognised
by all her children : Wisdom is justified of her children.
The power by which this is now carrying forward is the
spirit of Christ in man's heart. This is the true preparation
for the cleansing of the leprosy and the binding^of Satan :
and the signs are prophetic pictures to animate hope, and
to indicate at the same time the actual presence and real-
ity of that power which on the 'day of manifestation, when
all things are ready, will come forth, not in signs but in
permanent realities. I am happy you sent that letter to
Lady Matilda. Any letter I send you, and which you
think would interest her, you may most freely send to her.
I appreciate your scrupulousness on that matter.

It is written, " Whosoever will do the will of God shall
know of the doctrine whether it be of God." This is the
casting down of man's pride of independence; it is the
same thing as that word, " I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."

jKC 44. LADY ELGIN. 147

It is with the heart that man believeth unto righteousness.
Let us remember these things, and receive them as the
wisdom and love of God to our souls. We are to receive
nothing about God at second-hand. The serpent seduced
man to go out of the limits of God's will in search of
knowledge, and God would have us to know that it is only
within those limits that we can have any true knowledge.
We are creatures, and not independent.

I am happy to hear that your son's indisposition is re-
moving. I can easily understand, from a few words which
dropped from you incidentally as you were mentioning
some conversation which had passed between you and him,
that the relation in which you stand to each other is not
common. An honest, unfettered, confiding intercourse be-
tween mother and son, on the great interests of man, is a
blessing enjoyed by few mothers and few sons.

54. TO LADY ELGIN.

Linlathen, \Wh May 1833.
Dear Lady Elgin, — There is a particular application
of that subject on which I have written to you, which I
wish to draw your attention to. The healing of diseases,
whether by the manifest immediate agency of God, or by
what we call natural means, is simply a sign of resurrection
to come, and it is given not to rest in, but to nourish faith
and hope ; not to give a satisfaction in the flesh, but to
give an encouragement to crucify the flesh now, through
confidence in God, who by this sign shows His will and
power to raise up in incorruptible immortality the flesh
which has thus been willingly crucified during the day of
grace. We all feel that we need a deliverance, and the
flesh calls for it immediately, whilst those who walk in the
Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness. Thus the flesh
would always convert the sign into the permanent miracle;

14S LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1833.

it cannot receive the truth that the promised deliverance is
through blood, that is, through death. Our true deliver-
ance is on the other side of death, and we must pass
through death to get it. So our Deliverer is a crucified
and risen man, and it is by this way that He leads many
sons to glory. He is the way, and those who abide in Him
are those who are dying daily to the flesh and present
things, in the hope of the future glory, and in the sense of
the righteousness of the condemnation which is laid upon
the flesh — the idolatrous flesh. Every acting of the flesh
is a seeking of gratification to itself on this side of death ;
it may acknowledge God as the giver of its happiness, or
the guard of its happiness, but God is not its happiness
Himself; as a man may look to the police of the town in
which he lives as the protector of his happiness, but he has
no happiness in the police; he would be happy to be able
to do without it. This is idolatry; for that which is our
happiness is really our God. And this will be the natural
acting of the flesh until it is raised up a spiritual body.
And therefore the life of holiness here is a life of hope of
a future glory, a righteous kingdom to come, detaching us
from the actings of the flesh and the power of seen things,
and thus, by making us partakers of Christ's cross, fitting
us to be partakers of His glory.

Whenever we think that we may innocently and safely
take the natural desires for our guide, whenever we think
that we may without sin and danger make the present
gratification of the flesh our object, we are receiving that
error which is condemned in 2 Timothy ii. 1 8, " saying
that the resurrection is past already." Eead the whole
chapter carefully, and you will see that this is the spirit
of it : it is not until the resurrection is really past, and
these bodies have ceased to be bodies of sin and death, that
we can safely cease from living by hope of good things to

jet. 44. LADY ELGIN. 149

come, and from crucifying the flesh through that hope. The
condition of all men is represented by the two thieves who
were crucified with Jesus, for all are upon the cross in one
way or other — pain, anxiety, doubt, etc. etc. — and all men
desire a deliverance ; but ,some insist upon it now, others
are content to wait : those who live in the flesh will have
it immediately, — " If thou be the Christ, save thyself and
us." They have little taste for a crucified Saviour; for
they think as the priests did, " If thou be the king of Israel,
come down from the cross." They do not wish to be de-
livered from sin, they wish to be delivered only from the
cross. But the other thief did not ask to be taken down
from the cross ; he felt the righteousness of the punish-
ment : " "We indeed justly, for we receive the due reward
of our deeds ; but this man hath done nothing amiss ; "
and he was content to wait for deliverance until the coming
of Christ's Kingdom, — " Lord, remember me when Thou
comest in Thy kingdom." He made up his mind that he
was to continue on the cross whilst he continued in the
flesh ; he felt that it was righteous, he knew that it was
but for a very little while, and he saw an eternal weight of
glory, — " joint heirs with Christ," if in suffering, so also in
glory (Luke xxiii. 39-43, Eom. viii. 1 6-26). Popish penance
is the mimicry of a root-truth. Look at the 13th verse of
that chapter. It is through the Spirit that the flesh is
to be crucified, through love of God and the hope of His
Kingdom. , . .

There is another thing which I may mention to you. I
think that there is a risk sometimes of losing hold of the
great principle and kernel of prophecy through occupation
with its details, although the opposite evil has certainly
been the prevalent one in our days. Is it not the great
object of prophecy that, through faith and hope of the
glory of G-od, we should be content to forego present

150 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1833.

things, and enter into God's plan of condemning and cruci-
fying the flesh % " Heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ,
if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be
glorified together," seems to me the kernel of prophecy,
like the object of healings, etc. . . .

The object of prophecy is to draw our view forward out
of seen things to the permanent triumph of God's righteous
cause. What I meant by the details of prophecy is rather
when the prophecy is more considered than the thing pro-
phesied, as when the sign is more considered than the
thing signified. I feel a jealousy of the Morning Watch in
this respect.

55. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Linlathen, Saturday, 21st Dec. 1833.

Beloved Friend, — My mind has undergone a consider-
able change since I last interchanged thoughts with you.
I have seen reason to disbelieve that it is the Spirit of God

which is in Mr. , and I do not feel that I have a

stronger reason to believe that it is in others. This does
not change my mind as to what the endowment of the
Church is, if she had faith, but it changes me as to the
present estimate that I form of her condition. God is our
all, and having God, we have lost nothing. These gifts
are but signs and means of grace ; they are not grounds of
confidence; they are not necessarily intercourse with God;
they are not holiness, nor love nor patience ; they are not
Jesus, But surely they shall yet appear, when God has
prepared men to receive them. Mr. and Mrs. Scott and
Mrs. Rich are here. I have much sympathy with much
that I meet in them. They fear that the outward forms
and magnificent utterances have that in them from which
the carnal mind draws nourishment, and that there is a
temptation to put these things between God and the soul,

jet. 45. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 151

and to take them on trust that they are of God, although
the hearer himself personally may not be conscious of
meeting God in them. The truth and substance of religion
is the spirit of Christ manifested in the heart, and con-
sciously recognised in the heart, as the light and life of
God communicated to us — the conscious possessing within
our hearts that Seed of the woman, who bruises the serpent's
head, and to whom all the promises of God are made.

You know that Mr. Scott is entirely separated from Mr.
Irving and his church,1 believing it, as I understand, to be
a delusion partly, and partly a spiritual work not of God.
He conceives that there is a disposition to yield to spiritual
influence, as in animal magnetism, which lays one open to
such possession : but don't say anything in his name, except
that he is separate as not believing it. We are in the
midst of unexplained things ; but he that dwelleth in the

1 Mr. Scott had early noticed a tendency in Mr. Irving with which he
could not sympathise. "He had from the first," to quote Mr. Scott's
own words, " a strength of ecclesiastical, I might say hierarchical, feeling,
impossible with my convictions." This feeling was enlarged and deepened
by his intercourse with several of the most eminent of the High Church
clergy in London, whose sympathy with his prophetical views increased
their attraction. It became dominant, and embodied itself in action as the
new Church began to be organised. As things progressed in this direction
Mr. Scott stood more and more aloof, doubting first, then disapproving,
till the divergence between the two friends became extreme. To both this
was singularly distressing. Scott's health gave way under it, " to such a
degree," Mrs. Scott tell us, "that Mr. Irving sent for me, that I might be
the bearer of the earnest expostulation he desired to send to his dear friend,
and at the same time save him the greater excitement which their con-
versation then might occasion. It was the most solemn interview I ever
had with any one, and in binding up in my own mind all that he desired
me to be the messenger of to my husband I said, ' You believe that
organisation produces life ; Mr. Scott believes that life alone can organise :
does this then express your great difference ? ' He assented. After an hour's
audience, in which with awful but affectionate seriousness he stated to me
what were my husband's heresies, I said, ' It is very clear to me that the
antagonism of the two views is as the north to the south pole, — that they
are totally and purely opposite.' He said, ' It is so. Mr. Scott or I am in
dangerous error. The end will show.' "

152 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1834.

secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. The true connection of man with the
Spirit of God is seeking to know and do His will — " Yea,
rather, blessed are they that know the will of God and do
it." I cannot believe that there has been no pouring out
of the Spirit at Port-Glasgow and in London ; but I feel
that I have to wait in every case upon the Lord, to receive
in my heart directly from Himself my warrant to acknow-
ledge anything to be of His supernatural acting, and I have
erred in not waiting for this. ...

56. TO LADY ELGIN.

Linlathen, 18th March 1834.

Dear Lady Elgin, — I know that you will not mis-
interpret my delay in answering you. I have often wished
to do it, but have never been able ; and even now, I do
not feel that I am sitting down to answer your letter, but
rather to thank you for it, and to express to you my sense
of the Christian love breathing in it. I cannot answer it,
because, as I have not in me a light which confirms it,
so neither have I a light which distinctly condemns it
altogether — I mean as to its recognition of the church in
London to be indeed a church ordered and gifted by the
Spirit ; although I see much against believing it, which I
shall mention. At the same time, my conscience responds
fully to all that you say of the domestic order of the
families of that church, and I enter into the distinction
which you make between the general calls to general
holiness and the special calls to the detailed duties of life
connected with station and relation, so much pressed in
that church ; and I do feel that holiness consists in hearing
Christ and following Him step by step in the minutest
part of the minutest duty, and in acknowledging an ordin-
ance of Christ in all the natural and social relations. And

jet. 45. LADY ELGIN. 153

I recognise such teaching to be according to the mind of
God ; and where I see the teachers of such things teaching
by their lives, as well as by their words, I feel that they
possess weighty credentials. And I feel that we need a
church so ordered by the Spirit, and that we have it not.
But even were all the teaching that came out from that
church such as found a witness in my conscience, I require,
besides that witness to the teaching, an equally distinct
witness within me to the power whose utterances they
follow, before I can feel myself warranted (or rather I
should say capable) to receive it as the supernatural power
of the Spirit of God, or to receive its ordering as the order-
ing of God. When I heard of the second mission of
Messrs. Drummond, Cardale, Armstrong, and Thomson, from
London, I wentToTEdinburgh. I remained there Thursday
and Friday last week. There were two meetings on
Thursday and one on Friday. Dr. Thomson came down
as the Instructor of Mr. Tait and his people as to the
nature of the church. I heard him speak twice in the
chapel, besides meeting him once (unintentionally) in
private. X heard Mr. Armstrong preach once. I heard
also several utterances through Mr. Cardale and Mr.
Drummond, which were very striking, and to which, with
two exceptions, my conscience witnessed fully; but whether
the power by which they spoke was really the power of
God or not, I feel myself perfectly incompetent to say. I
have a witness within me which, I am conscious, tries
truth ; but I do not know a witness within me which tries
power. I have once already yielded myself to the acknow-
ledgment of a power, mainly on the credit of the truth
uttered by the power, and I have felt that this was sin,
and that it was laid upon me to take nothing as of God,
except from Himself and in His own light. The utterances
were very sweet and pleasing, even in rebuke, especially

154 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1834.

through Mr. Drummond, whose finely modulated English
voice contrasted, even to the natural man, most favourably
with the harsh and distressing sounds which I have heard
in that chapel before ; but the shake which I have received
on this matter is, I find, very deep ; or rather it would be
a truer expression of my feeling to say, that I am now
convinced that I never did actually believe it. My con-
viction that the gifts ought to be in the church is not in the
least degree touched ; but a faith in any one instance of
manifestation which I have witnessed, like the faith which
I have in the righteousness and faithfulness of God, I am
sure I have not, and never had, as far as I can judge on
looking back — that is, the only true faith, even " the sub-
stance of things hoped for." I think that I mentioned to
Lady Matilda at Cadder the circumstances which shook me
with regard to the Macdonalds at Port-Glasgow, that in
two instances when James Macdonald spoke with remark-
able power, a power acknowledged by all the other gifted
people there, I discovered the seed of his utterances in the
newspapers. He had read there a foolish rumour about
the time of George iv.'s death, that the Ministers would
probably find it convenient to conceal that erent when it
took place, until they had made some arrangements. This
had remained in his mind, and it came forth at last as an
utterance in power, but wrapped in such obscurity of
language as not to expose it to direct confutation ; but on
reading the paragraph I recognised such a resemblance that
I could not doubt it, and I put it to him ; and although he
had spoken in perfect integrity (of that I have no doubt),
yet he was satisfied that my conjecture as to its origin was
correct. The other instance was a prophetic utterance of
a war in the north of Europe — the language taken much
from the 11th of Daniel; but the seed of it also was a
newspaper paragraph. I thus see how things may come

jet. 45. LADY ELGIN. 155

into the mind and remain there, and then come forth as
supernatural utterances, although their origin be quite
natural. James Macdonald could not say that he was
conscious of anything in these two utterances distinguishing
them from all the others ; he only said that he believed
that these two were of the, flesh. Taplin made a similar
confession on being reproved through Miss Emily Cardale
for having rebuked Mr. Irving in an utterance. He
acknowledged that he was wrong ; and yet he could not
say where the difference lay between that utterance and
any other. Is there not a great perplexity in all this ?
Does the control of a church solve it 1

What I heard from Dr. Thomson, both in public and
private, seemed to be at variance with all that I know and
feel of the first elementary principle of true religion. In
his zeal for a church, he seemed to me to lose sight of the
individual personality of that intercourse with G-od through
His Spirit within us, which is the basis, and the only basis,
of religion. He frequently repeated that Christ was only
to be met with in the church, and that the light in man
only answered to the ministrations of the ordained
ministers in the church. I know that this is not so. But
if it were so, how could I even be in a condition to discern
the true church % They say, " Come into^the church and
you will see." The first step, according to this direction,
must be _made in the dark. The first step is a petitio
princvpii, a begging the question ; it is taking for granted
the very thing of which I need evidence : that this is the
true church. I feel the desolateness of being without a
church; I feel the weakness and meagreness, and selfishness
and speculativeness, that arise from our isolated condition;
but I dare take nothing for granted in this weighty matter,
and I feel very jealous of the urgency with which the
teachers of that church cry down the sovereignty of the

1 56 LE TTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1 834.

internal witness of the light in every man, and claim sub-
mission to themselves on the ground of utterances which
need a further evidence, and which do not carry to my
mind any character distinguishing them in kind from other
utterances which have been manifested to be delusive.
One of the two cases in which my heart gave no response
to the utterance (I don't recollect whether through Mr. D.
or Mr. C.) was, when a seal was given by it to Dr.
Thomson's expression, " Christ is only to be met with in
the church." I cannot know the true church without the
true light, and if the true light does not guide me until I
am in the church, and even then only under its ministra-
tions, where is my guide to the true church % I do not
wish to press their words beyond the meaning which they
themselves attach to them. And they allow regenerating
light before being in the church, — that men may be Chris-
tians out of the church. I know in some measure the evil
of being without a church : but I feel that, if this were so in
its full extent, I should be without a God. I cannot express
to you how much I feel of atheism in putting anything,
whatever its name may be, above or in place of the
witness of God in my own heart, the true light which
lighteth every man. . . .

I feel certain that the individual personality of religion
is not to be lost or diminished, but strengthened and con-
firmed, by a church ; and that it is by our connection with
Christ that we are to be brought into a church, and not by
our connection with a church that we are to be brought
into Christ. We are commanded to prove all things, but
we can only do this in the light of Him who is the true
light enlightening us personally. And I am sure that we
can escape from the ignorance and darkness which are
upon us, only by keeping close to that light, and receiving
instruction from without only as witnessed to by, and in

jet. 45. LADY ELGIN. 157

communion with, that light ; for that light is also the True
Life ; and no instruction can be life to us, except as it is
witnessed to and received by that life. Now it seems to
me, that it is against this they teach. I know, indeed,
that if the question were put to them, whether they would
have a man to disregard the witness within him, they would
say, No ; and whether a man might not be a Christian out
of their church, they would say, Yes ; yet still they would
have him come into their church, though he had no witness
to its being the true one, and after he was in, they would
have him trust the pastor and elders, even in opposition to
the light within himself. I am sure that I do not wilfully
misunderstand them, but what I have lately heard from
them gives me always the impression that they regard the
ordinances of the church rather as appointments and in-
stitutions of Christ, which are to be obeyed and reverenced
and submitted to, and on account of obedience to which a
blessing will be given, than as open channels through which
the Spirit of the Head is to flow into us personally, and as
meeting-places where we are continually to have personal
contact with Him. I know that they would not allow
this ; but I daresay many Papists would not allow a similar
charge against Popery. I feel as if there were a deep
Popery in their system. Christ is the true Priest, because
He does not stand between us and God, but we meet God
in Him. That seems to me the true character of an ordin-
ance. I see so much good and beauty in their order and
teaching that I am afraid to reject their claims, and yet I
feel also afraid that they are putting men and forms between
God and the people. The charge which God by His pro-
phets brings against His people in the last days is the
taking His ordinances instead of Himself — see Isaiah i. and
all through Jeremiah. They said not, " Where is Jehovah?"
but " The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." I

158 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1834,

feel that my part is to wait to be taught of God the mean-
ing of 1 John iv. 2, 3. I cannot believe in its verbal in-
terpretation notwithstanding the Probyn children, there
are so many opposite facts. I desire to lie at the feet of
Jesus, and learn of Him to be meek and lowly in heart ;
and not to refuse what He gives, and not to snatch at what
His own hand does not give. I hope that I shall not be
led to shut my ear against the true voice because I have
been deceived by a false one ; but I am bound to be on
my guard. I believe that an evil spirit, or the flesh even,
may speak of the deep things of God, although in a way
that the true life and light in us might detect it, or at
least guard us from suffering by it. Pray read the trac-
tate in Penington on " laying the axe to the root," etc.,
page 184. There is a remarkable verse, which I once met
on a remarkable occasion, that I would also refer you to —
Ezekiel xxvii. 17. Tyrus may. buy Judah's finest wheat ;
yea, her balm and oil and honey. What is the meaning of
this ? You would know what part of the parcel properly
belonged to yourself. Those who are weary are apt to get
impatient, and, in the absence of the sun, to kindle a fire
and to compass themselves about with sparks ; and in my
weariness, which has been great, I have done this ; but I
am now learning that " all the days of the afflicted are
evil f but yet, in the midst of that evil, " the merry heart
hath a continual feast " in eating the will of God. — Yours
very truly, T. Erskine,

57. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

April 11, 1834.

Dear Friend, — The Israelites were doomed to journey

through the wilderness until all those who had rebelled

against the Lord by refusing to go into the promised land

died. That evil generation was just the type of the flesh,

jet. 45. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 159

which must be worn down and broken and wasted before
we are meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. Our
carcases must fall in this wilderness, and the life which
belongs to these carcases must be shed out either drop by
drop or by effusion. This life is in the blood, and without
shedding of blood there is no remission — there is none.
The life is in the blood, and the will is in the life ; the
rebellious, independent will of man must be shed out, for
in it the fall consists, and in the shedding out of it redemp-
tion consists.

How often things appear to happen for no other end
but to provoke and to distress, and, indeed, things do
happen to consume and wear out the carcases that must
fall in the wilderness. Until they fall we cannot enter into
the promised inheritance, and this is the manner of our
Father's love therefore — to consume and waste that which
hinders our entering in; and in all that consuming and
wasting and wearing out there is a love hidden, and that
love, which is God's will in everything, and which is con-
tained in everything that happens, as the kernel is con-
tained in the shell, is the food which God giveth us that
our souls may eat and live. This is the manna which
is rained round our tents. The people, when they were
desired to take it up and eat it, said, What is it % (for that
is the meaning of manna) : it did not seem to them to be
bread from heaven, yet it was bread from heaven, though
only the type of that true bread which our Father giveth
us — the meat which Jesus ate, as He says — "My meat is
to do the will of Him that sent me." How often, when my
Father has given me this meat to eat, have I said, What is
it 1 Is this the bread of heaven 1 We would eat our own
will — that is, the flesh-pot of Egypt — and God would have
us eat His will, that we may be of one mind with Him, par-
taking of the Divine nature. Beloved friend, how much

160 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1834.

easier it is to say this than to do it ! But it is more sweet
and more blessed to do it than to say it. It is an awful
judgment — " Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee,
thou wicked servant." I have often felt this judgment in
my own heart ; but I know that it is blessed in this day
of grace to yield the heart to judgment, for thus it is pre-
pared for the day of judgment, being already purged by
the spirit of judgment. What a wonderful thing it is for
poor weak worms of the dust to be invited to take hold of
the will of God, and to make it their own will, and thus
to be united to Omnipotence. This is the meaning of that
word, " Great peace have they that love thy law, and no-
thing shall offend them." . . .

I have since heard from James Macdonald, Port-
Glasgow, that the spirit amongst them had testified against
the London mission, saying that " they were deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of
Christ." . . . The blessing of the Lord be upon us all.
The oneness of the opened ear and the prepared body is
very striking : consider it in connection with John x. 14
and 15. We are all well — old and young — thanks to the
Preserver.

58. TO THE REV. EDWAED IRVING.

Liklathen, \<6tli Oct. 1834.
My dear Brother, — It is one thing for a man to have
a light given him by which he may discern all things, and
it is another thing for him to use that light. Man's re-
sponsibility consists in his having that light, and in his
possessing the power of using it or of refusing to use it.
For the true light is the light which lighteth every man,
" and this is the condemnation, that that light hath come
into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than
light." This is the condemnation, the only condemnation,

jet. 46. REV. EDWARD IRVING. 161

and thus he that denies that light in man denies the only
condemnation.

I never dreamt of limiting man's responsibility by his
actual discernment ; on the contrary, I desire, and have
desired, to justify God in all the dark wanderings of man,
by acknowledging that there is in each " man's hand a price
to buy wisdom," and that no man needs to say, "Who
shall ascend into heaven, or descend into the deep to bring
Christ to him'? for that the word is nigh him, in his
mouth and in his heart, that he may hear it," Rom. x. ;
and when I said in my letter to you that men were often
very loose in their profession of faith in the Bible, for
that they did not truly believe in any truth of God which
they had not been taught by the Spirit of God, I was in
my mind referring to the 17th verse of that same tenth
chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, where it is written,
" Faith cometh by hearing, even hearing through the word
of God," evidently pointing to that same word which is in
the heart (mentioned in the 8th verse), and limiting the
true meaning of faith to the witness of that inward word.
The natural man understandeth not the things of the
Spirit, for no man understandeth the things of the Spirit
but by the Spirit, and this is his sin, that he will still
live on in the flesh, instead of living in the Spirit which
God hath given to him in Jesus Christ. Do I say then
that his ignorance of the things of God is his measure of
responsibility 1 No ! I justify God in saying that God
hath given to him a spiritual light and life in his Son,
whereby he may know and do the things of God, and
therefore that his ignorance as well as his disobedience has
sin in it. He may, however, in the midst of an entire
want of spiritual teaching, have arrived at a conviction that
the Bible is an inspired book, either by receiving it on
the authority of those about him, or by his own historical

L

162 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1834.

researches and reasonings thereon, and this he may consider
faith, but surely you would consider it a contradiction to
say that such a person could exercise faith, for faith " seeth
Him who is invisible." He has not received God's witness
in it, but man's or reason's ; he has not received the witness
which "is greater," and so he has not "the witness in him-
self." Surely his conviction, however conscientious, is not
to be confounded with the spiritual faith of a child of
God — his conviction is a carnal thing, for it does not see
God, which is the true mark of Christian faith. " This
is life eternal, when they know thee, the only true God."
And how is He known but by faith % He that believeth
hath life, just because faith sees and receives God. An
unspiritual man cannot have faith in the Bible, just be-
cause he does not meet God in it. And in like manner
a spiritual man has only true faith in that part of the
Bible in which he sees and receives God. To confound
these two beliefs is to confound the greater witness with
the less. The fact of a man's being without the greater
witness is no apology for his being without it, but it
proves that he has not divine faith in the thing, for he
that believeth hath the witness in himself.

Wherever I find the authority of God commanding or
forbidding, although I may not enter into the spirit of the
ordinance, I am bound to yield my submission • but in this
case I am, from some carnality, shutting myself out from
the liberty of children. Even so, as I recognise the Bible
as a whole to be the inspiration of God, the want of the
internal witness and light to any part of it does not lift
me from under its obligation ; but only I feel that in that
part I am untaught and unprofited, although my Father
gave it to me for teaching and profiting. I acknowledge
its inspiration, but I am not receiving in that faith which
is of the operation of the Spirit. But unless there be an

jet. 46. REV. EDWARD IRVING. 163

internal witness to the things of God in man, man can
have no responsibility at all. . . . Is it on your authority
that I am to risk my soul % You may speak a thing
which I had never conceived, nor imagined, nor heard
before ; nay, it might be opposed to all my preconceived
thoughts on the subject, and yet I may find a witness
in me to it contending against all my own theories on the
subject, and showing me a glory to God in it, which I
cannot gainsay, so that I am compelled to acknowledge
the word you have spoken as the word of God, quick and
powerful. From whom do I receive this 1 Certainly not
from you, nor on your authority, but through you. If I
acknowledge the same word, not from the same inward
witness to it, but because I believe you to be an ordained
pastor, I get nothing that is quick and powerful ; I receive
it as a servant, not as a son ; I get it not from God
through you, but from you, and on your authority, as a
recognised pastor of God's ordination. The faith of the
Jews in the construction of the tabernacle was a very
different faith from that which we are called to exercise,
and very different from that which Abraham had in God,
and which doubtless many of those who understood not
the meaning of the tabernacle had in God. But for that
outward second-hand faith they had an outward founda-
tion in the miracles they saw. Now, you require this
outward faith, but without any outward foundation. The
patterns of the heavenly things could only be understood
by those who knew the things of which they were the
patterns, and the most absolute and unquestioning submis-
sion to these pattern ordinances was a very different thing
from that faith which is " the substance of things hoped
for, and the evidence of things not seen." This is the faith
of the new covenant ; it is itself the grain of mustard-seed,
the kingdom of heaven within. My dear friend, what I

164 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1834.

feel in your letter is the entire annihilation by it of all
true personal, spiritual religion or conscious communion
with God. If man has not that in him by which that
which comes from God can be distinguished from that
which comes from another quarter, he is incapable of
religion, and if men are to be taught not by the Spirit of
God, but by a man, what is the use of your pressing on
your people that they should not take their pastor as a
substitute for Christ, or as a third party bearing a message
to them from Him, but that they should meet Christ in
their pastor ! I conceive that this expression of meeting
Christ in the pastor is susceptible only of two different
meanings. The one meaning is that the people should
look to their pastor as the Jews looked to their high
priest, whether he was a man of God or not, yet as an
ordinance of God to them, through whom they were to
expect a blessing. This is, however, not properly meeting
Christ, it is only meeting Christ's appointment ; that is, it
is meeting Christ's substitute, or a third party acting for
Him, and there is no such thing recognised in the new
covenant. The other meaning is, that the people should
discern Christ's own teaching in the teaching of their
pastor, by the Spirit's witness within them. The first of
these meanings belongs to the patterns of the heavenly
things ; the second belongs to the heavenly things them-
selves, to that Church in which all are taught of God. I
believe that you would take the first meaning; because
I think that under spiritual names you are returning to
the patterns, although you have none of those outward
signs to show on which the authority of that outward
Church was founded ; and although your warning of the
danger of taking the pastor as a substitute for his Lord
appears so contradictory to it, God manifest in the flesh is
no official or conventional thing, it is a blessed reality.

MT. 46. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 165

59. TO MISS STUART.

Cabder, Saturday night, Dec. 13, 1834.
You will have heard of the death of Irving. You can-
not enter into my feelings on this event, as you did not
. know him or regard him as I did. He has been a remark-
able man in a remarkable age. He was a man of much
child-like feeling to God, and personal dependence on Him,
amidst things which may well appear unintelligible and
strange in his history. — Yours most truly, T. E.

60. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

6th Feb. 1835.
Dear Friend, — James Macdonald is to be buried this
day at one o'clock. This is another very solemn thing. I
believe that to the very last he felt assured that the voice
which spoke by him was the voice of the Spirit. He was
a servant of Jesus Christ, and his trust and joy were in the
Lord, and he was a witness for God. He died on Monday.
I had a short letter from his brother telling me of it, and
telling me that before his death, but when he felt its
approach, he spoke to them many things which would be
a consolation to them whilst their pilgrimage lasted. This
event has recalled many things to my remembrance. I
lived in the house with them for six weeks, I believe, and
I found them a family united to God and to each other.
James especially was an amiable and clean character —
perfectly true.1 And those manifestations which I have so

1 George Macdonald died in the year following, and like his brother
continued to the last in the assurance that the power hy which the utter-
ances was given was supernatural and divine. The narrative given by
Dr. Norton of the last days of both brothers conveys a deep impression
of the simplicity, humility, and fervour of their piety. That they both
died in early manhood, of the same disease which carried off Isabella
Campbell, may so far account for the peculiarly vivid and ecstatic form
which their piety at times assumed.

166 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1837.

often witnessed in him were indeed most wonderful things
and most mighty, and yet — I am thoroughly persuaded —
delusive. The partakers in these things are now dropping
off, called one after another to give in their account. Dear
Christian would have her history recalled vividly to her
by the return of the season when the Lord took her
husband to Himself, blessing his soul with His own blessed
light, and blessing her by showing that He had thus
blessed him. " It is all light to me, the dark valley."

The following Note was appended by Mr. Erskine to
his treatise on Election, published in 1837 : —

" In two former publications of mine, the one entitled,
A Tract on tJie Gifts of the Spirit, — the other, The Brazen
Serpent, — I have expressed my conviction, that the remark-
able manifestations which I witnessed in certain individuals
in the West of Scotland, about eight years ago, were the
miraculous gifts of the Spirit, of the same character as those
of which we read in the New Testament. Since then,
however, I have come to think differently, and I do not
now believe that they were so.

" But I still continue to think, that to any one whose
expectations are formed by, and founded on, the declara-
tions of the New Testament, the disappearance of those
gifts from the Church must be a greater difficulty than their
re-appearance could possibly be.

" I think it but just to add, that though I no longer be-
lieve that those manifestations were the gifts of the Spirit,
my doubts as to their nature have not at all arisen from
any discovery, or even suspicion, of imposture in the
individuals in whom they have appeared. On the contrary,
I can bear testimony that I have not often in the course of
my life met with men more marked by native simplicity
and truth of character, as well as by godliness, than James

jet. 48. ' THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION: 167

and George Macdonald, the two first in whom I witnessed
those manifestations.

" Both these men are now dead, and they continued, I
know, to their dying hour, in the confident belief that the
work in them was of the Holy Ghost. I mention this for
the information of the reader who may feel interested in
their history, although it is a fact which does not influence
my own conviction on the subject.

" To some it may appear as if I were assuming an import-
ance to myself, by publishing my change of opinion ; but I
am in truth only clearing my conscience, which requires
me thus publicly to withdraw a testimony which 1 had
publicly given, when I no longer believe it myself."

With reference to this Note, Mr. Duncan of Parkhill,
Arbroath — who was a chosen associate and friend of
Mr. Erskine all through the period to which it refers — in
a letter dated December 30th, 1876, says, "Looking into
the Memorial of the Macdonalds brings many things
vividly before me. Norton says they were gentlemanly
men, which is most true ; and what he says of George's
face shining as you can believe Stephen's did, I once saw,
when he was speaking in that power, when we were quite
alone on the hill above Port-Glasgow, when I had made a
remark on the beauty of the sun setting on the Clyde, and
he broke out about the new heavens and the new earth.
I could never agree with what Mr. Erskine said in his
note, although I doubt not that their own spirits came in
at times. From conversations with Mr. Erskine I am
satisfied that he would have been glad that he had not
said so much as he did say."

168 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1834.

CHAPTER VIII.

Letters from 1834 till 1S37.

Early in 1834 there arrived at Linlathen the portraits
of Mr. Erskine of Cardross and his wife, Lady Christian,
sent by their daughters Miss Eachel Erskine and her sister.
Their receipt was thus acknowledged : —

61. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE AND HER SISTER.

Linlathen, lid April 1834.
Beloved Friends, — I am very thankful for your love,
and I can say that I could scarcely devise any expression
of love more gratifying to me than these pictures, The
most distinct feelings of veneration that I have ever experi-
enced towards human beings are associated with those two
portraits. I never saw anything in either of them that my
heart ever ventured to blame ; they stand in my memory
in perfect purity, surrounded with an admiring love. I
remember, when I heard of my uncle's death, I cried the
whole day without any intermission. And though she died
after my days of weeping were much past, yet she held her
purity in the judgment of my heart — after that judgment
had begun to venture to act on all, without respect of per-
sons. Their memory is most sweet to me — far sweeter
than all the genius of Raphael. And I know what a gift
of affection it is from you, and of confidence ; for you could
not allow them to go anywhere but where you were sure

jet. 45. LETTERS FROM GAUSSEN AND A. MONOD. 169

they would find reverence and love. They will find rever-
ence and love from me, you may rest assured. . . .

In the autumn of the same year (1834) Mr. Erskine had
the gratification of receiving the two following letters
written on the same sheet of paper : —

LETTERS FROM MM. GAUSSEN AND ADOLPHE MONOD.

" Les Grottes, Mercredi, 1 Oct. 1834.
" Mon CHER Frere, — Ayant eu la douceur de poss6der
quelques jours Adolphe Monod sous mon toit, j'ai d6sir6
que deux amis qui aiment tant a reporter sur vous leurs
conversations ne s^parassent pas sans s'etre eux-meimes
rappelis a vos prieres et aux souvenirs de votre amitie
chr^tienne. (II part demain matin.) Quant a moi, je puis
vous dire combien souvent mes pens^es me ramenent aux
momens que j'ai passes avec vous depuis notre premiere
priere a Eoyal Circus jusqu'a celle de notre separation le
1 7 de Novembre dans l'hdtel de Glasgow. Je d6sire que
tous ces souvenirs aussi se resolvent en prieres et en
actions de graces devant Celui qui a prie" pour nous le front
contre terre. Je ne saurais vous exprimer, cher ami, avec
quelle joie fraternelle j'ai ou'i dire que votre foi 6tait
devenue plus simple, et que votre conversation, toujours
pleine de sentiment, se reportait sur l'ensemble des v6rites
et des espe>ances de la foi, sans vous laisser aller a des
presomptions qui en isolent quelques unes. Vous pourrez
faire beaucoup de bien quand, avec les dons qui vous ont et6
confies, vous vous attacherez humblement a d6velopper l'une
apres l'autre les sentences du Saint Esprit, telles qu'elles se
presenteront sous vos mains dans la Sainte Ecriture, et sans
vous embarrasser d'y etablir ou d'y confirmer des systemes.
" Cher frere, je me sens uni a vous par des liens indestruc-
tibles, parceque je les sens rattach^s a Celui qui est la te~te

170 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1834.

toujours vivante de son Corps, a Celui qui 6tait, qui est, et
qui sera. Votre nom revient souvent sur mes levres
devant Dieu et devant les hommes, et cette saison rappelle
plus souvent mes pensees sur les souvenirs de l'autonine
1832. J'aime a penseravec reconnaissance a votre accueil,
non pas m6me tant a cause de ce qu'il eut d'affectueux,
qu'en memoire de ce que j'y trouvai d'6difiant. Que le
Seigneur vous multiplie ses consolations, et vous gouverne
toujours plus par son Esprit ! Adieu en Lui. Quand je
prie pour vous, j'y joins votre mere. Vous apprendrez
avec inter^t que la mienne est en bonne sante, et que son
ame est benie. Merle est malade de la poitrine; priez
pour lui et pour nous. Je lui ai fait lire les deux lettres
que j'ai recues de vous et ou vous parlez des doctrines :
j'aurais voulu qu'il vous ecrivit. Marc Vernet part demain
pour l'ltalie avec son pere et Anna. Madame de Stael et
sa belle sceur sont a Coppet. Nous avons plus d'une fois
elev6 notre voix en priere dans cette famille pour Madame

Erskine et pour vous dans le terns de la maladie de

Elisabeth. Recommandez-moi au souvenir chretien de
Scott, de Madame Rich, de Capitaine Stirling, et de vos
parents a G-lentyan. Adieu encore. Demandez pour moi
la sanctification. — V. affectionne, L. G-AUSSEN."

" Aux Geottes, \er Octobre 1834.
" Bien Cher Frere, — II m'est doux de me joindre a un
frere aussi aime que G-aussen pour 6crire a un frere aussi
aim.6 que vous. C'est par vous et par lui, plus que par
aucun autre homme, je crois, que sous la benediction d'en
haut j'ai ete amen6 des tenebres a la lumiere, et de
l'angoisse a la paix. Que le Seigneur vous rende au double
le bien que vous m'avez fait de sa part ! J'ai recu dans ce
temps la lettre que vous avez eu la bonte de m'ecrire en
reponse a la mienne. Je recommande encore a vous, et

jet. 45. HOUSEHOLD AT LINLATHEN. 171

par vous a vos amis, l'ceuvre que le Seigneur a commencee
a Lyon, et qui s'y continue avec un succes, non eclatant,
mais solide et croissant, autant que j'en puis juger — plus
specialement en ce qui concerne les Catholiques ; et s'ils ne
peuvent l'aider par leurs dons, qu'ils l'aident par leurs
prieres, et combattent le bon combat avec les pauvres de
Lyon. Que le Seigneur vous benisse dans vos voies, bien
aim6 frere, qu'il se glorifie en vous ! qu'il vous garde de
toute erreur, qu'il vous en retire pour sa gloire en vous et
par vous. Je fais pour vous du fond du cceur, et vous prie
de faire pour moi, la priere de Paul, 1 Tbess. v. 23, 24.
Saluez pour moi, dans le Seigneur, toute votre maison. Ma
famille, ma femme, mes trois enfans, dont le dernier, n6 le
2 9 Aout dernier, est un fils, sont bien. Gaussen vous aura
peutetre entretenu de l'objet de mon voyage a Geneve.
Priez le Seigneur de me conduire, en sa lumiere et en sa
paix. Que la paix soit avec vous ! — Votre tendrement affec-
tion^ et reconnaissant frere, Adolphe Monod.

" P.S. — J e ne puis trouver, en particulier, votre doctrine
du pardon universel dans l'Ecriture lue avec V esprit du petit
enfant, Jean iii. 36. Mais que le Seigneur nous eclaire les
uns et les autres Lui seul; et nous donne de ne pas juger
mais de nous aimer !"

At the opening of the year 1835, the family at Lin-
lathen consisted of Mr. Erskine, his mother, Captain and
Mrs. Paterson, and their four children. Within the next
two years four of these eight were removed by death : Ann
Graham Paterson, the eldest of the children, died on the
3d of May 1835, in her thirteenth year; Mr. Erskine's
mother on the 10th of March 1836 ; George Anna Pater-
son, the second child of the family, on the 3d of June
1836, in her thirteenth year; and David Charles Pater-
son, the youngest child, on the 26th of October 1836.

172 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1835.

62. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Linlathen, 30th April 1835.
My dear Friend, — About the time that I wrote you
Ann's symptoms became worse, and have continued very
bad, leading us to apprehend that it may be the will of our
Father to take her hence. . . . The dear child seems aware
of her situation, and further, she seems to hear her Father's
voice, and to have some feeling of His nearness. Her aifec-
tion for her earthly father, and her remarkable confidence
in him and delight in his presence, seem given to teach her
what is due to the Father of her spirit. She said to her
mother the other day, speaking of her father, " It is just
life to me to see his face." . . . Ever yours, T. E.

63. TO THE REV. ALEX. J. SCOTT.

Linlathen, 5th May 1835.

My dear Scott, — Our dear child is taken away. Her
brief history, as far as this step goes, is concluded. I feel
that Jesus has been doing that to us through her which
He so often did to His disciples. He took a little child,
and set him in the midst of them. The continual giving
up of a naturally very strong will was the lesson which he
had been continually giving her to learn, and which she did
learn, and she found it to be the entering in by the door
into the sheepfold. Her heart was made glad with that
joy which no one taketh from her, and she departed in the
sense of that joy. All the other children continue very ill
of the same malady, hooping-cough. You will let Mrs.
Rich know, and Miss Farrer. At the last it seemed as if
a ray of the eternal light filled her. She died on Sunday
morning the 3d May.

I wish to know particularly about Mrs. Rich's health. —
Yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

jet. 46. MISS RACHEL ERSKWE. 173

64. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Linlathen, May 1835.

Dear Cousin Rachel, — I know how much you are all
with us at this time. . . . When I look at Ann's counten-
ance, still radiant with that light which filled her spirit
before she departed, I feel that I can desire nothing higher
for the other children than that they should be partakers
of the same blessedness. This is the sixth day since her
death, and yet the face is most pleasing, as if to remind us
where the spirit is. The parents are much supported, but
it is a great breaking up. Ann was no common child.
Her activity and friendship, and kindliness and zeal, brought
her continually into the eye and thought of all the house,
and how much more of her parents, who moreover had a
constant anxiety about her in consequence of the fervour
of her nature, as well as of the delicacy of her frame. Yes,
Henrietta was right : happy child — happy, happy, happy.
Blessed be the God of all grace for His wonderful works to
the children of men. But we can only receive the true
comfort from the belief of her happiness, whilst we our-
selves are living in the spirit of that blessedness. A mere
name won't comfort under a real heart-break. Davie and
the father must be touching that happiness in their own
hearts if they would escape desolateness. My mother is
pretty well, and Jane Stirling's presence has been a great
blessing. She was a special favourite of Ann's, and Ann's
loving heart rejoiced in the sight of her. Farewell. — Ever
yours, T. Erskine.

65. to the same.

Linlathen, Wih March 1836.
Dearest Cousin Rachel, — My beloved mother is dead.
What a solemn event — to her, to us, to me 1 What a

174 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1836.

history it recalls, of kindness how unrequited, of offences
so freely and fully forgiven ! There is nothing so like our
relation to God as our relation to a mother. There is none
who has borne so much from us ; there is none whose for-
giveness we have looked upon so much as our due. Sweet
mother, she is now looking so sweet, so undisturbed, so
pure, sleeping in Jesus ! . . . — Yours affectionately, most
affectionately, T. Erskine.

66. TO THE REV. JOHN M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

Linlathen, March 14, 1836.

My dear Brother, — When I parted from you the
other day I little thought that the first letter I should
write to you would be to tell you that my affectionate and
revered parent was gone hence.

I think I had mentioned to you that she had had a
slight inflammatory action on her windpipe, but I thought
nothing of it, as the Patersons thought nothing of it, and
yet it was the Lord's summons to her.

On Wednesday night for the first time they apprehended
danger, and on Thursday morning at half-past seven she
fell asleep.

My dear brother, I feel very thankful to be without
fear concerning her soul. She was of a very nervous, agi-
tated nature, and I had always the thought that the time
of death might have been a very trying time to her, but
the Lord gave her quietness of spirit, and delivered her
from seeking refuge in those about her whom she loved,
and taught her to lean upon Himself. My beloved mother
has lived very much in the spirit of a little child, meek and
lowly in heart, learning, I trust, from Jesus Himself, and
most willing to learn from any one.

She has been to us, in her relation of mother, a most
instructive type and witness of the love of God.

XT. 47. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 175

I feel in looking back that there is no one except God
who has had to bear so much from me, or who has borne
so much, and I feel that though I have often grieved her
affection, I never could quench it. I can now think of her
patience and long-suffering, and whilst I feel much self-
reproach, I can bless God that He hath shown me so much
of His own heart in her. ... As I look on her counte-
nance, so pale and still and sweet, the history of my past
life is. brought much before me — the vanity of all things,
the vain show. My sister bears it better than I expected.
There is not so much bitterness of heart connected with
this bereavement to her as there was in Ann's. It makes
an immense change on the world to me. She was the
recaller of past histories to me, in which my sisters had
no concern even. Mrs. Erskine is with us, and Miss Stir-
ling went to Cadder.

There are many things which, if it be the Lord's will
that we again meet, I shall be happy to tell you of her.
Farewell. Remember us before God. — Yours affectionately,

T. Erskine.

It is a bitter part of this to me that I was still in
Edinburgh.

67. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Cadder, 13th May 1836.
Dearest Cousin Rachel, — I don't think for many
years I have had so little intercourse with you as for these
few months past — these few months, crowded with so many
things. We have had to-night a note from Davie, dated
Monday last, containing rather better accounts of Georgie.
We don't feel much encouraged by them, however. She is
in her Father's tender hand, dear child, and nothing incon-
sistent with His fatherly love will ever befall her. That is
our encouragement, but I don't expect her recovery, and

176 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1836.

it will be a bitter cup to her poor mother, whose nature
feels those things dreadfully.

I often feel that there is one heart that used to be
anxiously and actively interested in all these concerns that
has now entered into enduring peace. My dear mother is
at rest. I was happy to see dear cousin Manie at Airth.
I feel an increasing value for those loves and friendships,
which I never earned myself, but which were given to me
in my birth. I remember when the self-conceit of my
heart used to make a different estimate, but I have fully
come back to the unearned system.

68. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

[Linlathen], Sunday, 5th June 1836.

My dear Cousin, — On Friday morning little Georgie
was removed from the valley of the shadow of death,
knowing and trusting her Leader and Shepherd. Her
voyage home was less painful than they had expected ; but
from the time of her return home the progress of her
disease was much more rapid than it had been before.
She suffered much, both from pain and breathlessness, but
she was kept in perfect patience and quietness of spirit ;
and the Lord showed her much of His fatherly heart, as
He had done before to her sister, so that she was very
ready and willing to trust herself alone into His hands.

Davie is very delicate, and the uninterrupted watching
which she has gone through on this occasion has, I have
no doubt, made a breach in her constitution. James
(Capt. P.) is better than I expected. He takes his full
share in all these things, you know, not only being a very
loving father, but also very anxious to save Davie. They
were thankful that they were left to themselves to nurse
and attend Georgie ; for she was so timid, that their two
faces were the only faces that gave her no constraint.

mt. 48. M. GA US SEN. 177

Dear Davie is most sweet. I had hoped to have been
to see you all by about this time, and I hope yet to see
you. I hope to spend an eternity with you in the kingdom
of our Father. . . .

69. TO MRS. BURNETT.

Linlathen, 5th June 1836.
My dear Cousin, — On Tuesday morning the little
sufferer ceased to suffer for ever. I believe that the desire
of the heart of God toward the child has been largely
accomplished. She knew Him, young as she was, and His
love, and that shod her feet with the preparedness to walk
any way that He called her to walk, though it was unto
death. The parents are very down-broken, though com-
forted with unspeakable comfort. Little Georgie's two
passages were Isaiah xli. 10 and xliii. 2. I send them to
you. What strengthened her in crossing that mysterious
boundary may strengthen you in the way which leads to it.
The Lord be very near to you. — Yours most affectionately.

After Georgie's death, the youngest child showing symp-
toms of delicacy, they took him to Clifton. In vain. He
died there on the 26th October. Mr. Erskine was living
at the time with his sister Mrs. Stirling.

On hearing of this death they hastened to join their sister
at Clifton. Leaving Mrs. Stirling there, Mr. Erskine re-
turned to Cadder, and shut himself up there in almost
entire solitude, devoting himself to the preparation of his
work on Election, which was published in London, and
appeared before the end of the year 1837.1

70. TO MONSIEUR GAUSSEN.

Cadder, Glasgow, 21st Dec. 1836.
Dear Friend and Brother, — I received your very

1 See Appendix, No. III.
M

178 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1837.

affectionate letter, relating to my mother's death, and felt
that it came from a brother's heart. I thank you for your
love, and I thank Him who is the fountain of love that He
hath taught you to love. 0 friend, let us seek to grow in
love by entering deeper into our Father's love towards us.
That is the source, and we cannot get it otherwise than by
receiving it from that Fountain. I answered your letter
immediately, that is to say, I wrote an answer to it, but I
did not send it. I find it difficult sometimes to write to
you and Merle and Adolphe Monod, because I wish to say
things to you all which require more explanations than a
letter will allow, and more mixing of love with them than
ink will express. If I were conscious of being able to stand
unwaveringly in the love of Jesus towards you in convers-
ing with jrc-u, I think that I should not delay many weeks
to be with you in Geneva. I should like once more also
to see your mother and Merle's, whose embrace to me, when
I came from Hamburg, from the presence of Le brave Henri,
I shall never forget. And now since my own dear mother's
departure, I feel my heart drawn to all mothers, and an
obligation of reverence towards them all laid upon me for
her sake, to whom I cannot any longer pay it, in the out-
ward form. . . .

71. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Cadder, 12th January 1837.

My dearest Christian, — . . . Will James ask Strong if
he could get me a Chrysostom, the Benedictine edition 1 . . .
You will find Smith * most interesting, but your ignorance
of Greek and Latin and Hebrew must interfere very much
with your enjoyment of him. I almost wonder that, con-
sidering what is under the lock and key of these languages,
you do not make the attempt. I read the Hebrew Bible
1 Smith's "Select Discourses."

jet. 48. MRS. BURNETT. 179

with greater ease now ; I am reading Genesis — what a
wonderful history ! What an impression it leaves of there
being something under that simplicity of an immense magni-
tude and depth. This is your season of the year. Your
remembrance of life and death and immortality are written
on all the days of the month. . . . Most affectionately
yours, T. E.

72. TO MRS. BURNETT.

C adder, 15th February 1837.
Dear Friend, — . . . We straiten our own spiritual educa-
tion within limits which God never intended, when we con-
fine our learning to His dealings with ourselves personally,
instead of partaking in the schooling of others, which, if it
did nothing else, would exercise and increase the spirit of
love. I have often intended to write more to you about
accepting our punishment. I shall try a little now. It
seems to me clearly the meaning of the Bible that the
great things which Jesus Christ has done for us, namely,
His coming into our flesh, and suffering and dying for us,
are only then properly and fully beneficial to us when they
are in a measure wrought and reproduced in our hearts by
His Spirit within us. Thus, though He has tasted death
by the grace of God for every man, yet those only who are
conformed to His death have the full blessing. And
although it is the blood of Christ that cleanseth from all
sin, it is only when that blood is sprinkled on the conscience
of an individual that that individual is purged by it, so that
he is fit to serve the living God — Rom. vi. 5-8 ; Heb. ix.
14-22. There is one passage on the subject that I would
particularly direct your attention to at present, Phil. iii. 9,
10, in which the true righteousness is described — the right-
eousness which is of God by faith. Now, the main point
of this righteousness consists in being made conformable to

180 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1837.

Christ's death. Now, what was Christ's death 1 It was a
willing surrender of Himself into the hands of the Father,
knowing at the same time that it was the Father's pleasure
to bruise Him. It was a willing pouring out of all the
hopes of the flesh founded on the idea of the continuance
of present things ; it was an acknowledgment of the right-
eousness of the judgment of sorrow and death, which, on
account of transgression, God had laid on the flesh of which
He had become a partaker. And at the same time, while
it was a surrender of Himself in filial confidence into His
Father's hands, it was also in full assurance that He was
to be gloriously rewarded, by being raised triumphantly
from the dead as the new Head and Fountain of life to the
Eace, by taking hold of whom every child of Adam might
be saved. . . .

Dear friend, you little can understand how often I think
of you. You represent to me your father's house and your
grandfather's ; and now whilst I am preparing for the
press, I never sit down to write without thinking of the
most affectionate heart that ever beat. After a small num-
ber sacredly related to me, I feel your father's friendship
cleave closest to my heart.

I hope you will understand what I have written, but you
will need to read it over twice to do so — not that it is diffi-
cult, but that it differs from common teaching.

73. TO THE REV. ALEX. J. SCOTT.

Cadder, 21st April 1837.
My dear Friend, — I am much obliged to Mr. Maurice
for sending me these letters,1 which contain much precious
matter. I do not think I ever saw an example of so high
an appreciation of objective and formal Christianity joined
with such a true sense of the value of what is subjective.
1 Forming the volume on The Kingdom of Clvrist.

jet. 48. REV. ALEX. J. SCOTT. 181

In fact, no one can value the objective correctly who does
not know the value of the subjective ; for it is the sub-
jective only that is valuable, and the other is valuable as
conducting to it. I ought to have written to you long
ago. Your letter to me whilst I was yet at Clifton was
very interesting to me, and I am happy to think that the
same perception (and sensation too) of the power and life
of the argument of the Epistle to the Eomans is still con-
tinuing with you, as I judge from my sister's account of
the Sunday that they passed at Woolwich.

I am getting on very slowly with my work, but I am
getting on. I often feel fettered by not feeling myself
permitted more plainly and fully to introduce the final
purpose of God towards all men, as the explanation of His
present dealings with them. For instance, I am at this
moment at the expression, " Shall the thing formed say to
Him that formed it?" etc. Now I believe that this word
is intended as a general reference to the 29th chapter of
Isaiah (which speaks of the punishment of Israel, and the
sin which was the cause of it), where something like it
appears at verse 16, and that there is a twofold meaning
intended. 1st, Wilt thou think of blinding God with thy
vain reasonings, as thou wouldst do to one of thy fellow-
creatures, forgetting that thy Maker sees in thee that which
thou thyself art conscious of, namely, that thou hast been
living in a resistance to His will 1 Shall the thing formed
speak a lie to him who knows all about it 1 And secondly,
And now that thou hast corrupted thyself, wilt thou dis-
pute with thy Creator about the best way of dealing with
thee for purging thee and bringing thee back 1 The end
of chapter xxviii. belongs to the same subject, indeed the
whole chapter. The Potter in Jeremiah xviii. is to the
same purpose. With what perfect confidence can we look
upon men lying in the hand of God, even whilst He is

182 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1837.

acting towards them as an executioner, if we really re-
cognise as true that " all the fruit is to take away sin," and
that finally this fruit shall assuredly appear. The stoppage
of the process for the individual, whilst it is going on only
for the race, is a heart-breaking thought.

I have been living perfectly alone since ever I returned
from Clifton. I took influenza almost immediately, and
have been confined a tolerably close prisoner till the pre-
sent time, in a house full of remembrances and shadows,
but inhabited only by myself and two or three servants,
with whom I have the fellowship of great kindness. I have
been reading Plato with immense interest and astonishment.
In Gorgias I find the doctrine of the atonement in its prin-
ciple applied to the conscience, better than in any religious
book I ever read : I mean the principle of " accepting
punishment," which is the fond of the doctrine. I have
also been reading Augustine with pleasure, and finding in
him not only living water, but also many things in his
forms of thought and interpretation, much more real and
less conventional than the system of those who have built
upon his foundation. — Yours affectionately, T. E.

74. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

C adder, Friday, 23d June 1837.
... I propose, as soon as I have finished my book and
received Davie home, to go south. I am writing my con-
clusion, and I find it very difficult to say what I wish to
say, without giving more offence than is necessary. From
the way in which the first half of the book was written —
by fits and starts — I am afraid that it will have very great
faults as a work. It is also deficient in arrangement and
in proportion ; which will make it drag in the reading, to
all except those who are really interested in the subject.
And then it is, throughout, in direct opposition to the

MRS. STIRLING. 183

received views of Christianity. So that I cannot doubt
but that the most truly religious people in the land will
be startled, and even shocked, by many things in it. And
then there is not a break or a chapter in the whole book ;
it goes on as if in one sentence, through 550 pages ; which
of itself would make even the most interesting book heavy
and dull. . . .

75. TO THE SAME.

Cabder, 28th July 1837.
My dearest Christian, — . . . Yesterday I read an
article in a late Number of the Quarterly on Cathedral
Establishments. It is written by one who is both a sweet
singer and a wise man of Babylon. There is much in it
which Burke himself might have written ; but it proves
that, although the views and intentions of the Church
party are most disinterested and patriotic — and religious,
I may add, — yet these views are most markedly confined
to the improvement of the flesh, and the building up of
the national character, by the outward operation of institu-
tions. The Church of England is a beautiful thing, but
it is very unlike the carpenter's Son and the fishermen
of Galilee. In these latter was exhibited the power of
spiritual truth, and of faith, which, in the absence of all
outward support, took hold of God. In the former there
is a wise and well-proportioned combination of outward
supports. And accordingly the advocates of the Church of
England always go back to the Jewish theocracy as their
model, forgetting that that was a type of the spirit rising
out of the crucified flesh. And yet, as a political event, I
should regard the overthrow of the Church of England as
the opening of floodgates to let the universal confusion on
the nation. The Lord is our shepherd, we shall not lack.
. . . — Most affectionately yours, T. E.

184 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1830.

CHAPTEE IX.

Doctrinal Letters.

To an unknown correspondent who desired to know
Mr, Erskine's views as to the Sacrifice of Christ, the
following letter was addressed : —

76. EXTRACT FROM A LETTER.

Jan. 15, 1830.

The virtue of Christ's sacrifice is intimately connected
with His being the root of the humanity. He did not take
hold_of_.a branch, He took the very root. He came into
the place which Adam had occupied^ He came into that
place where the sap of the tree was as in its fountain.

He became the heart where all the blood was. And
when He offered Himself as a sacrifice, and then entered
the heavenly holy place, with His blood in His hands, He
presented not the blood of an individual, but the blood of
the race — the heart-blood. He said, The penalty pro-
nounced upon the humanity was death ; and here the
penalty has its execution, for this is the life-blood of the
humanity — the life-blood of the heart drained out — the
sap of the root drained out. Well, but what of this %
As far as Christ was merely the representative (although
a full representative) of the whole humanity, His death as
a sacrifice could not be a reason or ground for bestowing a
blessing on the humanity. The old corrupted sap was

jet. 42. THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 185

strained out under the penalty, and in fulfilment of the
penalty ; but this was no more than what was due, it was
bare right. And the fulfilment of this penalty contained
no reason in it why a new sap should be poured in, to
carry life and health through those veins which had been
so long the conveyers of poison through all the branches.
The great secret is, He was in the world, but He was not
of the world. He was in our fallen nature. He took part
of the same flesh and blood of which the children partook,
but| He sinned not. He-fulfilled all righteousness. He
kept-^he Law. And as the curse came through the first
Adam in token of God's abhorrence of sin, so it behoved
that the blessing should come in token of God's love of
righteousness.

"Well, it was He who entered into the root of the fallen
tree^of human nature, poured out His life an offering for
sin, even the life and ^heart-blood of the human nature.
He Himself as an individual also had fulfilled all right-
eousness ; not being subject to the penalty, but being the
Head of the fallen family, He freely subjected Himself to
the penalty, and thus acknowledged the justice of the
sentence on the family. He put to His seal that God was
righteous in his judgment, and that this universal view
was no more than sin deserved.

And He did all this and suffered all this, that God's
holiness might be fully manifested, and honoured, and
vindicated in the exposure and condemnation of the sin-
fulness of sin in the flesh on the human nature, and that
thus the barrier might be removed which dammed up the
love of God, and prevented it from flowing freely forth on
the sinful race.

In all this doing and suffering Jesus gave such glory to
God, He so met and fulfilled the desires of God's heart,
the longings of His love, and the purity of His holiness —

186 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1832.

He so declared the righteousness of God in condemning sin
and in forgiving the sinner, — that it became God, as the
God of holy love, to bestow the blessing through Him,
that is, to make Him the foundation of a new life to that
nature which He had assumed, and for which He had made
atonement.

And that life is nothing less than the very life which is
in the Father, and was manifested in the Son. That life
is the Holy Spirit.

In the summer of 1832^o»ideuxJ[jaiissBa™.visited this
country and spent most of his time in Scotland with Mr.
Erskine at Linlathen and at Cadder. The one was in the
full fervour of his zeal for those wider views of the love
of God, the holding of which had so lately brought down
deposition upon his friend Mr. Campbell. The other was
firmly attached to the old Genp-vair faith- What to the one
were confining, cramping fetters, to the other were the
needful links by which a coherent, compact, consistent
system of divine truth was bound together. What seemed
to the one to be a mere fabric of human thought imposed
upon the representations given in Holy Writ, obscuring the
direct and full perception of God's love to all men in
Christ, the other looked upon as the faithful setting forth
of the divinely instituted mode by which the sinner was
to be reconciled to God, and brought into His fellowship
and likeness. Lively discussions between the two ensued.
Soon after Monsieur Gaussen's departure the following
letter was despatched to Geneva : —

77. TO MONSIEUR GAUSSEN.

(Postmark, 7 th Dec. 1832.)
My dear Brother, — Although I have had much enjoy-
ment in meeting you once more in this world, yet I have

jet. 44. M. GAUSSEN. 187

also suffered much, chiefly because I am sensible that in
witnessing for God's truth to you, I often sinned against
the law of love and meekness and patience. May the
Lord forgive the sin, and mercifully overrule, so that it
may not act in your mind as a reason against any truth
which you heard from me. May the good Lord give you
the spirit of a little child in waiting upon Him for light
on those things which were the subjects of our conversa-
tion. My dear brother, it appears to me clear from Scrip-
ture that the blessing which God holds out to man through
the work of redemption is a real and substantial restoration
to the image of God, which is to be effected by man
becoming the habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph.
iv. 24, ii. 22, and 2 Cor. vi. 16). This is not a fictitious
righteousness, for then it would be also a fictitious blessed-
ness, but it is a real conformity to the will of God. This
is the mercy which God promised from the beginning,
" that He would grant unto us that we, being delivered
from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our
life" (Luke i. 72-75). See to the same purpose, Acts iii.
26 ; and amongst innumerable passages in the Old Testa-
ment let me specially direct your attention to Jeremiah
xxxi. 33, and to Ezekiel xxxvi. 25, 26, which most
strikingly declare this truth. And there is but one kind
of true righteousness, namely, the character of God, for
" none is good save one, that is, God " (Luke xviii. 1 9),
and therefore, in order that a man should be righteous or
good, he must have God dwelling in him ; and thus Paul
writes, " that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled only in
those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit,"
which is God dwelling in man (Rom. viii. 4). That the
righteousness which God desires to see in us is a real
substantial thing is manifest also from those passages

188 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1832.

which speak of the judgment to come ; thus Kom. ii. 6,
2 Cor. v. 10; read also to the same purpose 1 John ii. 29,
iii. 7, 8, 9, 1 0. " Christ came not to destroy the law, but
to fulfil" (Matt. v. 17). It is quite manifest that there
can be no true blessedness without this true righteousness,
and that the fulfilment of that word, " Enter into the joy
of thy Lord " (Matt. xxv. 2 1 ), requires the fulfilment of
those other words, " partakers of His holiness," and " par-
takers of the divine nature" (Heb. xii. 10 • 2 Peter i. 4).
And thus we are brought to that mighty thing which is
the great object through all the Bible, namely, the mystery
of godliness, the wonder of ungodly creatures becoming
godly, the manifestation of God in the flesh, which is the
true restoration of the image of God to man.

When man hears of such a perfect righteousness, instead
of rejoicing at the tidings of it, he is quite cast down, say-
ing, How am I ever to arrive at it? Has not God said,
" The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not sub-
ject to the law of God, neither indeed can be "1 This fear
and dejection arise from his ignorance of God's righteous-
ness, for he thinks that he has to build up this perfect
character for himself before he is entitled to have any con-
fidence in God ; and as he feels his inability to come up
to this high standard, he either endeavours to lower the
standard of duty down to what he believes himself capable
of, which is the antinomianism of the Sadducee, or else he
substitutes a doctrine in its place, or rather the perversion
of the doctrine of justification by faith, because he thinks
it easier . to believe something .than to have the perfect
righteousness in reality, which is the antinomianism of the
Pharisee. The Sadducee supposes that he is to open the
door of his Father's house, which has been shut against
him, by doing certain moral duties ; the Pharisee thinks to
open it by certain religious opinions ; whereas the blessed

jet. 44. M. GAUSS EN. 189

truth is, that God has Himself opened the door by rending
the veil of the flesh of Jesus, and now calls every sinner,
not to the task of opening the door, but to the privilege of
entering by the opened and blood-sprinkled door, and of
looking to God as a Father indeed, and of being a member
of His family, partaking in all the interests and prospects
of the family, namely, the advancement of Christ's kingdom
on earth, and the expectation of the coming glory. This
is the right place for a man to be in, c'est h dire, in his
Father's family, and occupied with his Father's interests ;
this is his right place, the place for which he was created
and redeemed ; this is his righteousness, and in him is ful-
filled the word spoken in Luke i. 74, 75, and in Acts iii.
26. But now, is this righteousness to be the foundation
of his confidence 1 So far from it, that this righteousness
can only be produced by a confidence already existing.
Confidence is the root of everything good in man, and as
it thus precedes everything good in man, it cannot be
founded on anything in man, but must be founded on
something out of man (au dehors de Vhomme). And what is
it then that man's confidence is to be founded on 1 God.
God has revealed Himself as the foundation of the sinner's
confidence, and now in Christ He invites and commands all
the sinners of the earth to give Him their confidence, be-
cause He is worthy of their confidence, " having made Him
who knew no sin to become sin for them, that they might
become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. v. 21).
God is the blessedness of the creature, and the punishment
of sin in the creature is to be shut out or cut off from God ;
and as the punishment is pronounced in these words,
" Depart, ye cursed," so the forgiveness of sin is pronounced
in the words, " Eeturn unto me, for I have redeemed you."
No creature which had sinned could have any right to
come to God, or to enjoy God, or to trust in God, unless

190 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1832.

God had put away that condemnation of " Depart, ye
cursed," which is due to every sinner, and had said, " Come
unto me all ye that labour," etc. ; but God is saying during
this day of grace to all sinners, " Come unto me," thus
assuring them that they may well put their confidence in
Him, because He loves them, and confirming this to them
by revealing to them the blood and resurrection of Jesus
as the ground on which this invitation is addressed to all
men. God laid on Jesus the iniquities of us all, Jesus died
under this weight, and God raised Him from the dead,
thus declaring sin condemned and punished and the sinner
freed. On this ground it is that God says to every sinner,
" Trust in God." Trust in Him as your Father, your guide,
your guard, your everlasting rest. Take no step without
Him, take no joy without Him. Let Him be your hope,
your only hope, not that by thus hoping in Him you are
to make Him what He was not before, but that by know-
ing what He is to you, you may be blessed in Him. " God
hath raised Jesus from the dead, and given Him glory, afin
que our faith and hope may be in God." Those who know
what God meant when He raised Jesus from the dead have
faith and hope in God, and those who are without faith
and hope in God are those who do not know the mind of
God declared in the resurrection of Jesus (1 Peter i. 21).
" It is life eternal to know God as revealed in Christ," be-
cause it is in knowing Him that we enjoy Him and become
partakers of His nature (2 Peter i. 2, 3, 4). Every man
who knows God truly has eternal life in that knowledge,
and every man who has not eternal life is without it, in
consequence of his ignorance of God (Eph. iv. 18). Now
surely it would be great dishonour to God to suppose that
we change Him by our knowledge or ignorance ; we must
therefore acknowledge that the heart of God towards every
man is such that, if the man knew it, he could not but

jet. 44.

M. GAUSSEN. 191

rejoice in it ; for how else could it be life to him to know-
God ? What then is to make me rejoice in God 1 A sight
of God's heart as loving me, a knowledge of God's good-
will concerning me 1 And how am I to get this sight and
this knowledge 1 Jesus Christ hath come forth from the
bosom of the Father to show us the heart of God. " He
by the grace of God tasted death for every man " (Heb. ii.
9) ; and then He said, " He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father." It was this that made Jesus " the light of
the world." He declared the Father to the world, to the
end that whosoever knoweth the Father through Him might
live by that knowledge. He came to seek and to save the
lost, by declaring to them the Father's heart, and as soon
as they know that heart they are glad, they rejoice in sal-
vation ; but whilst they continue ignorant of God's heart
they continue to be without eternal life in them. He came
to seek and to save the lost. God raised Him from the
dead and gave Him glory, that the lost might be saved by
putting their faith and hope in God. These lost souls,
that is, all men, are called to put their faith and hope in
God ; they are called to trust in God, not because they
have faith, but because God has raised Christ from the
dead. A poor sinner rising from the murder of his brother
is desired and invited to trust in God, to see God's for-
giveness in that word, " Come unto me," and to put his
faith and hope in God, because He hath raised Jesus from
the dead. " God is the Saviour of all men, specially of
those who believe" (1 Tim. iv. 10). God's heart is a heart
of forgiving love to us before we believe, but we cannot
enjoy God, which is full salvation, without knowing or
believing what His heart is to us.

You seem to me to rest not on what God is, but rather
on what God has said, as distinct from God. Before the
coming of Christ men might have made a distinction be-

192 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1832.

tween God and His Word ; but now such a distinction is
Socinianism, for God has declared that the Word is God.
When it is not God Himself that we meet and trust in His
Word, we are breaking the second commandment. Faith
has become to the intellectual Protestant churches what
the idols of silver and gold were to the Jewish and Popish
churches. Why is a poor sinner to trust in God 1 Is it
because God is good, or because he has faith 1 Am I to
trust in God because " God was in Christ reconciling the
world unto Himself, not imputing unto them their tres-
passes," or because I am justified by faith 1 Read the 78th
Psalm, marking specially verses 7, 22, 35. God was always
" their Rock and their Redeemer," but whilst they believed
it not, they put away His salvation — (as the sun is always
our light, but when we shut our eyes we are in darkness).
He was always their loving, forgiving Father, even in His
punishments ; they were like the famine in the far country,
sent to bring back the prodigal to his father's house. Do
you not believe that the heart of God does indeed grieve
and yearn over every sinner that continues at a distance
from Him 1 and is not that grief the grief of love, which
desires the holy blessedness of the sinner 1 Yes, it is the
grief of love. God created man to be the image of God,
and holiness and blessedness. And God did this, because
God is love. And this purpose of God towards man
hath not changed, but has followed every individual man
through every moment of his life, desiring that he should
yet be the image of God. And God hath revealed
this purpose fully in Jesus Christ, who by the grace
of God tasted death for every man, and was raised from
the dead into glory, that every man might have con-
fidence in God's purpose, and might yield himself unto
God to have that purpose accomplished in him. This
restoration of the image is salvation. Salvation is not for-

JET. 44.

M. GAUSS EN. 193

giveness of sin ; it is not the remission of a penalty ; it is
not a safety. No, it is the blessed and holy purpose of
God's love accomplished in the poor fallen creature's re-
storation to the divine image. And as this could only be
effected by God dwelling in man, so the work of Christ has
been God's taking possession of a part of the fallen nature
and uniting Himself to it, without separating it from the
rest of the mass of the nature, and in that part working
perfect righteousness, and so ordering it that this part of
the nature so possessed by God should become the new
root and head of man, from which the Holy Spirit, given
to Him without measure, might flow forth, seeking entrance
into every part of the nature wherever it can find an open
heart. And to this end is the news of God's love in this
great work declared to men, that they hearing it may have
confidence in Him who hath thus loved them, and so open
their hearts to let in His Spirit. So we have no need now
to go out of our nature to meet God, and to get the eternal
life (which is God's life), for God is in our own flesh, and
the eternal life is in our own flesh, and we have but to
know this loving God, and the longings of His heart over
us, and to give Him our confidence, in order to receive His
Spirit into us.

And Christ's work of atonement was perfected by His
death, not^only testifying the love of God to every man to
be a love which would die for every man, but also testifying
that when God would restore man He would not restore
that natural life in which man had sinned, He would not
remove his condemnation from that life on which He had
pronounced sentence of death, and that He could not look
on man well pleased until man had consented to the
righteousness of this sentence and had willingly given up
that natural life which had rebelled against God. The
man Christ Jesus did this, and thus He manifested the

N

194 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1832.

express image of the Father, and so He was raised to be
the second Adam, the mediator between God and man,
between the God-nature and the man-nature. It is upon
this ground that every man is invited and demanded to
delight in God, and to drink out of the fountain of life
which is in His love. Now, can it be said with propriety
that any creature is a condemned creature, whilst it is
commanded as well as permitted to enjoy such a God as
this, and to drink out of such a fountain as this % Can any
creature be said to be unforgiven for whose blessedness God
is at this very moment working with a love passing know-
ledge 1 0 fortunati nimium, sua si bona ndrint ! Eead the
1 07th Psalm. The only true condemnation consists in being
shut out from that fountain to which we are all urged and
entreated to come that we may drink abundantly.

iAnd surely when persons can acknowledge that God has
given Christ for men and to men, and yet refuse to
acknowledge that the Spirit has been also given as widely,
they forget that Christ is God, and that in Him not one
person only of the Trinity, -but -the whole- . Trinity , was
manifested. I feel that to separatejbetween the work of
Christ ..and the character of God is Socinianism. So also I
feel that to suppose Christ given and not the Spirit is not
less Socinianism. It is denying that the Word is God.
Do you not believe that every man is in a very different
condition now from what he would have been had Christ
not come into the world 1 The word to every man, if
Christ had not come, would have been, "Depart, thou
cursed," and now, in consequence of Christ's coming, the
|word to every man is, " Come to the waters," " Come unto
me, thou weary one, and I will give thee rest." My brother,
if the condemnation consist in the word " Depart," tell me
what is contained in the word " Come." When Paul
declared this change of address, was it too much to call it

MT. 44. M. GAUSSEX. 195

the forgiveness of sins 1 Acts xiii. 38. Compare this verse
and the following one with 1 Timothy iv. 1 0. These two
verses are a commentary on the two words in Timothy,
" The Saviour of all men, specially of those who believe."
No man could approach God through Christ, unless Christ
had eternal life or the Holy Spirit for him, for no man can
come to God except in the Holy Spirit ; thus every man
has eternal life in Christ, and he has also the natural life ;
the first of these is holy and sinless and without con-
demnation, and the man who walks in it is righteous ;
the second is sinful and under a condemnation, and he who
walks in it, whether he has been a believer or not, walks
under a condemnation. God does not change his judgment,
nor does He call evil good, nor does He call good evil.
Abiding in the faith of Jesus is abiding in the eternal life
— leaving Him is falling under condemnation. Beloved
brother, this is the concluding sentence : May the God of
peace fill you with peace in believing, and make you to
abound in the knowledge of the love of Jesus.
Eead 2 Peter, 1st chapter. Farewell.

T. Erskine.

196 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1837.

CHAPTER X.

Letters of 1838 and 1839.

Mr. Erskine left Scotland at the close of the year
1837, with the intention of paying another lengthened
visit to the Continent. He lingered for three months in
London, passed over in April to Paris, where he remained
during May, June, and July, having as his close companion
for two of these months the Eev. J. M'Leod Campbell,
and for a week the pleasure of acting as escort to Dr.
Chalmers. In October he proceeded to Switzerland,
making a tour of the Bernese Alps with his friend Mr.
Scott, and taking up his abode at Geneva, which he did
not leave till midsummer of the following year. The event
of this period which overshadowed all others was the death
of the Duchess de Broglie, to which several affecting allu-
sions are made in the letters which follow.

78, TO HIS SISTER MRS. PATERSON.
Osborne's Caledonian Hotel, Xmas Day [1837].
My darling Davie, — I am so far on my way to see
you, but I shall be here for a few days yet. ... I arrived
on Saturday night and thought of going to Woolwich on
Sunday, but I was not quite up to it, so I went to the
church in the Temple, and enjoyed the peaceful prayers
exceedingly. I really prefer the Church of England service
to any that I know, it brings us all so much into one, and

jer. 49. MRS. STIRLING. 197

it makes the minister so much the mouth and the leader of
the people, instead of lifting him out from the people, and
making him the only doer of anything in the Church. . . .

79. TO HIS SISTER MRS, STIRLING.

Shanklin, 19th Jan. [183S].

My dearest Christian, — It is wonderful to myself
that I have been able to refrain so long from writing to
you ; I have had so many reasons for writing to you, so
many things to tell you, which I knew would interest you.
Soon after I came to London I had a visit from a Mr.
Dunn (perhaps I told you of him before), who was a friend
of Knox and Jebb -,1 he had read, I believe, my book on
Election, and had sympathised with it a good deal; he
thought that it brought out something which was wanting
in their system, namely, the necessity of the cross to be
received and borne by every one. He told me that many
read Knox's book who did not find it condemn the most
worldly life. I think he said that Lord Melbourne had
liked it. It seems to me to imply a great defect in any
work on religion, that it should be able to be read by
those who walk without God, and to be read with pleasure
by them. Mr. Dunn agreed with me in what I have re-
marked to you of Knox's ignorance of the meaning of the
Atonement.

At Mr. Dunn's house I met first (along with Scott) with
two young men, sons of that Mr. Woodford, an Irish clergy-
man, who published a letter addressed to Lord Stanley, in
which he separated himself from those who were complain-
ing of the loss of their tithes, and declared that he felt it
to be a great privilege to be put in circumstances by which
he might prove to the people that it was not theirs but

1 « Thirty Years' Correspondence between John Jebb, D.D., and Alex-
ander Knox." 1834.

198 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

tliem that he sought. These young men gave a most can-
did and conscientious attention to many striking things
which Scott said. Mr. Dunn, himself a clergyman, and in
the presence of these two young men, both clergymen,
asked Scott to read and expound the Scriptures. Another
day I was at Dunn's, but without Scott, who was not quite
well, and met the same young men, and Maurice, who is a
very metaphysical man ; I have not got into him yet ; I
hope, when I return to London, to know him better. . . .

80. TO HIS SISTER MRS. PATERSON.

Caledonian Hotel, Adelphi, Qth Feb. 1838.
Dearest Davie,- — . . . I hope James will read the review
of Sir Walter Scott's life : I think that the reading of it
would urge him to the reading of the History of the French
Revolution, which, I am afraid, he will not read without
some new impulse. I wish very much that he would make
conscience of reading them both ; I think that it would be
good for him — tell him so, with my love. It is good, in
the first place, to be brought in contact with a mind like
Carlyle's, so unconventional in all matters ; and I also think
that it would be good for him to come in contact with
some of his deep elements of political science, which in his
hands is one with religious obligation. . . . Farewell. —
Yours most lovingly, T. Erskine.

81. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Caledonian Hotel, Adelphi, 8th Feb. 1838.
Mv dearest Christian, — I have been returned from
Shanklin about a week, and I have again got implicated
with engagements to meet or to dine or to see. I have
just been at the British Museum with Scott, Mrs. Eich,
and Lady Inglis. I was much struck with the Elgin
Marbles ; expression of countenance you have not — for you

jet. 49. 'MRS. STIRLING. 199

have no face but one, Theseus's, and that a mutilated one, —
but there is immense expression of form and attitude and
movement ; immense dignity and grace. The Egyptian
remains are very curious — so ponderous and enduring, and
generally so unbeautiful. Scott mentioned that the form
of the old Egyptian head resembles the modern European
more than the Greek or Roman, and, phrenologically, was
superior to them, as ours is also. There is a lady's wig,
with the hair plaited beautifully, in great preservation ; and
tliere is a lady herself in a remarkably entire state. It is
wonderful to see these people raised from their graves after
three thousand years. We also saw Mrs. Rich's reliques of
Babylon and Nineveh there, which recalled to her bypast
times, as you may suppose.1 I like Lady Inglis very much ;
she is a most true and tender-hearted friend to Mrs. Rich,
and she seems to have a tender conscience towards God. I
hfcve received much kindness from Sir Robert and her.

Good old Mr. Dunn, whom I have mentioned to you
before, continues his kindness. I was there dining yester-
day He was offered a bishopric once and declined it, on
some conscientious ground. Wedgwood was there, and
Mairice, who went home with me at night. . . . Wedgwood
is a delightful man, full of truth of heart to God and man,
and well endowed intellectually also. However, although
thers were good materials for general conversation (for Scott
was there too), yet there was none. We continued all
in separate parties, which I always regret in such cases.

82. TO THE SAME.

Caledonian Hotel, 27th Feb. 1838.
Mr dearest Christian, — I shall begin with your
quesion about Knox's view of the Atonement. The reason

1 Inthe year following Mrs. Rich edited the " Narrative of a Journey to
the Sie of Babylon by Claiidius James Rich, herjate Husband. "_

200 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

why I think that he took a wrong view of it is, that fre-
quently he repeats in the course of his book that our con-
cern is not with what Christ did once for all of us, but
that our concern is with what may promote our personal
sanctification. It is evident from this often-repeated
maxim of his, that he did not see that in the atonement —
that work which Jesus accomplished once for all for men —
there is a manifestation of the purpose of God towards us,
fitted above all other things to promote our sanctification.
In the atonement, we see a man suffering to the full what
we are called to suffer, and acknowledging it all to be right-
eous, and giving his back to the smiter, without resisting,
and submitting himself to the whole will of God in
thwarting man's will, both in doing and in suffering, and
then we see this man rising out from the death so endured,
and ascending up into heaven, and saying, Be not afraid
to follow me ; for whoso follows my steps in patient obedi-
ence shall ascend up to where I now am, I don't thuk
that Knox saw that the atonement of Christ, besides^ beiiig
a righteous reason with God for bestowing on man fhe
participation in the divine nature, was also the patteri] of
all righteousness in man, and the encouragement to) all
righteousness in man. It seems strange that a thing shculd
be so frequently introduced in the Bible if we have hot
much concern in it. I have not the book here, so thjtt I
cannot refer to it, as I should like to do ; but you will and
the maxim of which I speak at the beginning of somfc of
his more important letters or essays. . . . — Yours ever[

T. ErskinJ.

83. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

H5tel Wagram, 28 Rue »e Eivoli, 26th April [1831]
My dearest Christian, — Here I am in this g'eat
Vanity-fair ; and my heart turns to you as to a realitr of

jet. 49. MRS. PATERS ON. 201

sympathy and love, from the evident outsideness and show
and meaningless noise which is going on in the Tuileries,
outspread beneath my windows ; for I am amongst the
slates in the top-story of a H6tel Wagram, 28 Eue de
Rivoli, whence I see the kingdoms of the world and the
glory of them. And I am endeavouring to learn, from this
vantage-ground, more fully the lesson, that he who offers
us these things is not to be worshipped, and that He who
offers us Himself, if we will part with all other things, is
to be worshipped. My dear sister, there are few people
whose company I could wish just now, or to whom I could
very cordially offer a room in my house amongst my slates,
but you are one, whom I could know sitting by me, with-
out being fatigued by the knowledge, at least for a limited
number of hours. I say that, in case you should accept —
you understand.

It is long since I have written to you — too longj con-
sidering our near bond ; and considering also that our
mother is no more seen amongst us. Her image recurs
often to me. I feel anew the blank ; for always, when I
was abroad, I felt that there was one who did not cease to
think of me and to pray for me, as she was enabled. And
at that time you had your honest-hearted, loving-hearted,
cheerful-hearted husband to occupy you ; and Davie had
her sweet rising nursery of immortal flowers, attracting
her by their mystery of love and hope and fear. But now
it is all changed — a change has come o'er the spirit of our
dream — that dream which will continue changeable and
troubled, until we awake up in His likeness, and shall be
satisfied with it. . . . T. Eeskine.

84. TO HIS SISTER MRS. PATERSON.

[Paris], lUh May [1838].
Dearest Davie, — . . . So you arrived on the 3d of May,

202 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. , 1838.

the day that dear Ann arrived at her Father's house. How
time goes on ! How many millions since then have passed
through that strange dark passage, which she found so full
of light. It remains for us still to pass through it ; and
the True Light, who lighted her through it, is waiting to
be gracious to us also. I thought you would like Sartor ;
the chapter on natural supernaturalism, Book iii. chap,
viii., is a wonderful thing. . . .

The Broglies have left Paris, which makes Paris a very
different place to me. I had the pleasure and the profit
of three weeks of her [the Duchess's] society, however,
and found her what I never see nor saw anywhere else.
Mr. Campbell saw her twice, and was much delighted
with her. He is certainly better. . . .

\7th May. — . . . I had F. Monod dining with me yester-
day ; a very widowed man he is, and full of sad yet sweet
recollections of his wife. He is to send me a memoir of
her, containing her own journal, which he says is the most
interesting thing, next to the Bible, that ever he read. I
doubt not it is so to him. He had imbibed some doctrinal
suspicions of me, which to a certain degree kept him in a
defensive attitude against me, and made him afraid of
agreeing with me, lest he should be caught in some trap.
He is a good honest man, labouring faithfully in the Lord's
vineyard. . . . His brother Adolphe has more of the Scott
and Eutherfurd class of intellect than any person that I
know in France. ... T. Erskine.

85. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

71 Rue G-renelle, St. Germain, 22d May 1838.
Dearest Christian, — Many thanks for your long-looked-
for letter. You know how long the time seems, when one
arrives at a new place, among new persons and circum-
stances. This made me feel apprehensive that your letter

mt. 49. MRS. STIRLING. 203

had met some mischance. So you are at Cadder, and the
Patersons at Linlathen, and I am here ; but He with whom
we have to do is not far from any one of us, and our near-
ness to Him is our true nearness to each other. The spiritual
life knows neither time nor space ; and it is by living in it
that we escape in some measure from the bondage of time
and space. It is not by the exercise of imagination or the
intelligence that we can get this liberty, of which Carlyle
speaks so interestingly in one of the concluding chapters
of Sartor ; but only by living in the spiritual life, the life
of the conscience, the life of God. . . . Houstoun has had
relief, but he also, within the last two or three days, has had
dreadful returns, with more suffering than he ever remem-
bers ; poor man, he is an example of meekness and patience,
most edifying to behold. He and Ann are very friendly ;
and in spite of the delight that I have in my new house,
which is a perfect palace, I am sorry to be separated so far
from them by my removal across the river. I used to go
there in the evening and have a causer with them; and
now that Charles is away, I was become of more value to
them. En revanche, I am near the Elgins, and near
Madame de B., who, alas! however, has left town for
Normandy ; and near one other of my ancient friends. I
love Lord Elgin very much, and the two girls, who are as
fine creatures as ever I saw in my life ; I am not sure that
ever I knew girls of their age that I could so readily make
companions of. Dear Lady Augusta1 is a perfect angel.
Lady E. is full of knowledge and curiosity and discussion,
and kindness to whomsoever it is needful ; she is an up-
right woman, who speaks the truth. Lord Elgin is much
better, and went to England on Sunday. I have this morning-
had a long conversation with the French Protestant pastor
of Bordeaux. I spoke to him about conscience ; he was
1 Afterwards Lady Augusta Stauley.

204 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

much struck by different correspondences which I mentioned
to him between the outward recorded history of Christ and
the inward conscious history of conscience. . . . Yesterday
I had a most affectionate note from Broglie, another from
Madame Cramer, from Geneva, and another from Guizot,
thanking me for a copy of Carlyle's History of the French
Eevolution which I had sent him. All these notes would
interest you, both on account of the writers and for their
substance. . . . — Yours ever, T. Erskine.

86. TO MONSIEUR GAUSSEN.
71 Rue G-renelle, St. Germain, 28th May 1838.

My dear Friend, — Thanks for your welcome. They
have been indeed eventful years, the five years that have
passed since we last met ; but what years are not eventful
which any man lives in this wonderful life ! — undergoing
a training for eternity, invited to direct personal communion
with God, and with the power given him of resisting God
and grieving the Holy Spirit, or of causing joy in heaven
on account of his repentance. I shall be most happy to
see you, both here and at Geneva ; of course that formed
a part of my plan in coming to the Continent. I thank
you for your hospitable invitations, which I am sure I
should have much pleasure in accepting, but I have already
received an invitation from my dear hostess, Madame
Cramer, so that if my circumstances allow me to take up
my abode in a private house, I am engaged to her.

Dear A. Monod is indeed a most interesting sufferer.
God has revealed the emptiness of the creature to him —
which is a great revelation — and the sufficiency of God,
which is still a greater far. How many there are who stop
short at that first revelation !

I beg my best regards to all your family circle.

Give my love to Merle ; I was indeed happy to see his

aw. 49. MADAME DE BROGLIE. 205

honest face, though but for a few minutes. — Farewell, dear
brother, yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

87. TO MADAME DE BROGLIE.

Rue de G-eenelle, St. Germain, Paris,
4th June 1838.

Dear Friend, — ... A lost sorrow is so sad a thing.
A sorrow in which God has spoken to His creature, and
called it to feel that there is no Helper but Himself,
and that He is there present to comfort, and sustain,
and bless, — such a sorrow to be neglected and thrown
off by the creature, and forgotten as soon as possible,
is it not wonderful, and as sad as wonderful 1 And it is
even so with all sorrows, and all joys too, and all events,
when we read them aright. My dear, dear friend, I feel
that this is the element of religion, there being only one
thing deeper, which one thing is truly implied in this,
namely, our own conscious meeting with God in the secret
of our own hearts, and knowing Him there, our own per-
sonal God, loving us, longing over us with fatherly long-
ings, and speaking to us so that we may hear and know
His voice, and distinguish it from all the other voices
within and without us. " The slothful man roasteth not
that which he took in hunting, but the substance of the
diligent man is precious" (Prov. xii. 27). All the circum-
stances which God appoints for us contain in them the
bread of life, which is the will of God ; but we often re-
ceive the circumstances, and even acknowledge that this
precious thing is in them, without converting it into nour-
ishment for our souls : " we roast not that which we take
in hunting." And our fault in this respect seems to me
always to be the consequence of our not listening. Lis-
tening is connected with patience and waiting. We have
two classes of counsellors within us, the one good, being the

206 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

voice of the Spirit of Jesus in the conscience, the other
evil, being the Calls to self-indulgence, self-acting, self-judg-
ing, etc. The first is a still small voice, which requires
listening and attention if we would hear it at all or get
acquainted with the speaker. The others require no
attention, and are attended to in the absence of an opposite
attention. These two are the spirit, and the flesh. Chris-
tianity consists in living to the spirit, and subduing or
crucifying the flesh, that is, it consists in listening to
and following and cleaving to the spirit testifying in the
conscience ; and ungodliness consists in going forward with-
out attending to this voice of God. Our Christianity is
not out of us, but in us. It is not in a book or in a. dis-
course, it is in us ; and the book and the discourse are so far
profitable to us, as they awaken up, and train, and nourish
this precious seed which the Son of Man has sown in all
hearts. In every action of my outward or inward man, God
sets before me the choice of right and wrong, of His will
and my own selfish will, and my action contains my answer
to God's counsel. So it is said in Prov. xv. 28: "The
heart of the righteous studieth to answer," — that is, con-
sidered the counsel of God before acting, — " but the mouth
of the wicked poureth out evil things," that is, instead of
listening to God, he acts from his own impulse or wisdom.
Then again, Prov. xviii. 1 3, " He that answereth a matter
before he heareth, it is a folly and shame unto him." Our
wisdom is to listen to God at each step, so that we may
have His wisdom to direct us. See Psalm xxxii. 8 : "I
will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou
shalt go, and I will guide thee with mine eye. Be not like
the horse or mule, which have no understanding." He that'
answereth before hearing is he who refuses to listen to this
instructor, and is like the horse and mule, which have no
such voice within them. It is an inward voice, and a per-

jet. 49. MADAME DE BROGUE. 207

sonal voice, that is, it comes from God personally, — to me
personally, as one person might guide another person by
the eye, — which is personal in its fullest intensity. Pro v.
xx. 5 : " Counsel in the heart of a man is like deep water, but
a man of understanding will draw it out." This counsel
is evidently the Wisdom that speaks throughout the whole
Book of Proverbs, and it is also the Word that was with
God, and was God, in St. John i. 1-9, which is also " the
true Light which lighteth every man." And who is the
man of understanding that can draw out this deep water ?
" To depart from evil is understanding." The man who'
will cease from his own wisdom is he who draws up God's
counsels from the great deep. We are placed above this
great deep, with an apparatus, a mental apparatus, for draw-
ing it up. And what is this apparatus 1 It is the same
thing in the spiritual world as in the physical : we must
create a vacuum in our pump, we must cease from our own
wisdom, then the great deep rise3 up into us. The verse
immediately following agrees with this solution (Prov. xx.
6) : " Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness,
but a faithful man who can find 1 " Most men are so pos-
sessed by themselves that they have no vacuum into which
God's deep water may rise ; the faithful man is he who,
knowing that he is a dependent creature belonging to his
Creator, refuses to be his own guide, or his own end, and
thus he creates the necessary vacuum. These things are
very interesting to me. I know not whether you will find
them so, but I write them in the hope that you may.

I have seen little of any of your friends and mine, but
I have seen them, and what I have seen I have been
profited by and pleased with. I have called on Madame
de St. Aulaire often, but have only seen her once; she
lives near me, so that I can easily go. I have seen dear
old Madame Guizot, whom I love exceedingly. I have

208 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

also met Madlle. Chabaud at Madame Pelet's, and liked
her well, also M. Grandpierre.

The more I think of our conversations about the different
places, which belong to the subjective and the objective
in religion, the more I am persuaded that it is impossible
that we can mean different things. I think only that
you insist too much on conventional language, which I
feel called on to avoid, because I find that it is so often
used to stand in the place of the thing itself.

. . . I am reading your husband's book with great
interest ; I shall write you about it when I have finished it.
It is always a great delight to me to hear from you even
a few words, though the more the better. I am myself
a bad letter-writer, and I have also a good many letters
to write, besides having on my hands and my conscience
the correcting of my book, in which any word of help from
you would be most welcome. — Yours ever. With best re-
gards to Madame de Stael. T. Ekskine.

88, ■ TO HIS SISTER MRS. PATERSON.

71 Hue Grenelle, St. Germain, Paris,
5th June [1838].
My dearest Davie, — What means your silence ? Are
you too much absorbed by memory, aided by the return of
the season, and the sight of places associated with those
dear spirits ? The acacia-trees here are in superb beauty,
if such sweet simplicity can ever be rightly called superb ;
and they recall to me our acacia-tree, and Joseph the cat,
and those who used to delight to carry Joseph about, and
to watch his gambols about the tree. " Blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness " all the day
long. It is the only business that stands out the burden
and heat of the day, and finds bread that endureth amongst
all the husks of life. We are not our own, but God's ;

ass. 49. MRS. PATERSON. 209

and we are under His guidance. If I were alone just now
I should leave Paris and go to Switzerland, or perhaps to
Broglie rather, for a little while first. Paris evidently dis-
agrees with me. . . . We live in a most beautiful lodging,
as quiet as if this great Babylon were a hundred miles off
— serenaded not with fiacre-wheels and drivers, but with
sweetest blackbirds, which have an undisturbed possession
of garden and grove ground to a considerable extent be-
hind us. We have a balcony which hangs over and looks
over this pleasure-ground, on which we can walk at our
ease. The weather has been remarkably backward, cold
and wet. Mr. Campbell sometimes suffers from the heat,
I always from the cold, sometimes wearing my heavy
great-coat in the house to keep me warm.

6th June. — The last letter which I received from you
reached me on the 1 3th May, and Christian's last was on
the 1 6th. I have written to you both since ; and some-
times think that something has happened which prevents
your writing ; or perhaps that you have mistaken my
address.

At Lady Olivia's, Marbc&uf, Lord Mandeville, her son-
in-law, has a meeting for conversing on the Scriptures
every Friday. I was there last Friday alone ; Mr. Camp-
bell was at Hahnemann's. The chapter was the first of
First Peter. Mr. L. presides. He began with election, and
carried on some conversation on the subject with Lord M.
and the others. At last I felt that I ought to speak on it ;
so I did. They received it very gently, but as a very
strange doctrine. Mr. Campbell's heart longs to say some-
thing for God; I believe that he will speak at these
meetings. I never heard anything more fearfully Calvin-
istic than Mr. L. He denied that man was here in a state
of probation : this world is merely a school for the elect,
and preaching is only intended to call them and train

0

210 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

them. How different from Wisdom in the Proverbs, whose
voice is to the sons of man — the sons of Adam in the
original I should feel thankful to be used to deliver any
soul from the yoke of such a system. There is a man here
whom I like very much — the Lutheran minister. He is
a great friend of Madame de B. ; he is German, and is
large and wide and full of heart. — Ever yours, my dear
Davie, with love to James, T. E.

89. TO MADAME DE BROGLIE.

71 Rue de Grenelle, St. Germain,
Paris, \Mh June 1838.

Dear Friend, — Dr. Chalmers is desirous to see you —
and also to see a little more of the country. He is very
much obliged to you for your invitation, and will probably
be with you either the end of next week or the beginning
of the week following. I shall accompany him.

I was at Taitbout on Sunday, and heard the regular
minister preach on that word of God to Abraham : " ]STe
crains point, Je suis ton bouclier et ta grande recompense."
I wish you had been there along with me, as it would have
given us an opportunity of mutual explanation as to the
distinction and connection between confidence in God and
consciousness of what is in one's-self. The preacher said,
" We ought to consider the character of the man to whom
this address was made, for it does not belong to any but
to those who possess this character. Abraham was the
type and model of the faithful, a devoted servant and
friend of God, etc. etc. Unless, then, we can recognise
these qualities in ourselves, we cannot appropriate the
address to ourselves." Now, this appears to me to be
erroneously stated, for the character of man depends on
that which is his confidence. The man of covetousness
expects happiness from money : he is covetous, just because

MT. 49. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 211

money is his confidence ; so of the man of pleasure and
ambition, etc. Their confidence in pleasure and in power,
as causes or sources of happiness, is the root of their faults.
If you change their confidence you change their character.
If you can persuade a covetous man that money is not son
bouclier ni sa grancle recompense, but that God is, you change
him from a covetous man into a pious man. So it seems
to me that the word spoken to Abraham may well be
spoken to every man, in this sense, " Created things are
not ton bouclier and ton bonheur — mats moi Je les suis." The
thing in which I put my confidence for happiness has
necessarily a directing influence over my whole being ; it
communicates its own nature to me in some measure. Con-
fidence in a guide insures my following that guide, it binds
me to him. Confidence in God makes me one with God,
in a measure, and in so far it is righteousness. Con-
fidence in God does not give me confidence in Him. My
confidence rests upon what I know of God's character, but
my confidence, inasmuch as it binds me to a righteous God,
is itself a righteous thing. The only righteousness of man
is to receive a righteous Leader, a righteous confidence, a
true Guide. Man is merely a receiver, it is the conscious-
ness of this which prevents the consciousness of his having
made a right choice from producing self-conceit.

When God says to man, " Well done, good and faithful
servant," He does not mean to flatter him, nor to injure
his spirit, by self-exaltation. If the consciousness of
righteousness is inconsistent with humility, man must
remain in a false position through eternity. — Yours ever,

T. Erskine.

90. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

71 Rue de Gbenelle, \§th June 1838.
Dearest Cousin R, — ... Dr. Chalmers has come to

212 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

Paris, and is over head and ears with delight ; he has an
honest, natural, unsuppressed pleasure in seeing everything
and every person. My entire want of curiosity makes me
an unfit companion for him ; but I see a good deal of him,
and cannot but love his honest bigness (a cognate probably
of highness). ... I am sorry to see young women of our
land brought up in this country. There is an externalness
in all things here, beyond what there is with us, which is
an unwholesome element, most difficult to be guarded
against. . . . Mr. Campbell is not making much progress,
but he is certainly better and stronger on the whole. When
I was formerly on the Continent I was always alone. Soli-
tude was my habitual condition, out of which I emerged
into society ; but Mr. C.'s company changes that state. I
believe that it is not wholesome for the mind to be habitu-
ally alone ; it produces selfishness, or at least nourishes it.
Mr. Campbell is a profitable companion; he is occupied
with the one thing needful, and his mind is a very think-
ing and original one. . . .

91. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

71 Rue de Grenelle, St. Germain,
10th July 1838.

Dear Cousin, — . . . Dr. Chalmers is to leave Paris
this day, after having had a month of great enjoyment, see-
ing everything with a freshness of interest and curiosity
that astonishes me ; he leaves Paris quite delighted with it.
I had a week of him, making a tour, going first to Broglie,
and from that to Alengon, Tours, Orleans, Fontainebleau,
and home,, visiting beautiful cathedrals, and passing through
rich and varied scenery. I was very happy to have an
opportunity of recalling former relations, which had rather
fallen into desuetude. I found him most amiable, most
true and infantine, and quite disposed, I think, to give me

MT. 49. MADAME DE BROGLIE. 213

back the place which I used to hold, with him. . . . The
activity of his intelligence is very great, and gives him a
continual interest; but it works, not about persons, but
about things, which is to me a diminution of the interest.
There was a considerable party at Broglie, of very pleasant
intelligent people. They all liked the Doctor very much,
his naivete and benevolence were so striking. Dear Madame
was much pleased with him, and the Duke and he had many
a long discussion on political economy, the law of primogeni-
ture, the advantage of having large properties in a country,
etc. ... I went to Pere la Chaise to see dear 's monu-
ment again. What a comfort it is to think that God is
the finder of all lost things ! . . . Beloved cousin, fare-
well. Love to all. — Yours most affectionately,

T. Eeskine.

92. TO MADAME DE BROGLIE.

Hotel Castellane, Rue Grenelle, St. Germain,
1\st July.
Dear Friend, — ... I have read the Duke's book
through with much interest, and it has created a strong
desire to see the remaining volume. Is it lithographed
yet1? The distinction which he draws between the
religious man and the theologian is exceedingly good,
and beautifully illustrated. I hope you will let me have
the sequel as soon as you can; it relates to what has
occupied my own mind for many years — the connection
between man and Christianity, and the relation of that
which is positive in religion to that which is principle.
When I look at the four Evangelists I see a great difference
between John and the others, and in like manner I see a
great difference between the various Epistles. In some I
see the positive almost passed over altogether, in some
strongly pressed, and I sometimes feel disposed to think

214 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

that the one class is more intended for one age, and the
Other for another. In my own mind, I don't feel that I at
all lose the positive by identifying it with principle, and
that which is matter of general consciousness. I don't lose
fche personal character and relation of Christ to me by
identifying Him with my conscience ; on the contrary, I
find my apprehension of that personal character and relation
increased by it. If the Bible is given to us "for our
instruction in righteousness," it is certainly intended to
address our moral conscience, as otherwise it could not be
for our instruction in righteousness. I cannot too strongly
express to you the conviction which I have, that man can do
no good thing of himself, and yet I cannot too strongly ex-
press my conviction that the Spirit of God is always pre-
sent to him, and that he may take hold of that strength if
he will. I believe that the first step is made by God to-
wards all men, but that they may and do accept or refuse
according to something in themselves, — a personal choice
which belongs to the very essence of their natures. The
frequent recurrence throughout the book to the inward test
of truth, moral and intellectual, is most pleasing to me, —
the intuitive perception of truth, the glance that one
sometimes gets into the truth of a fact or a principle
which is followed by sudden darkness, and yet remains as
a counterpoise against all the darkness, although it is
only a memory. I have perfect sympathy with all such
things. I hope I may yet have some real conversation
with him upon this subject, which is to me the most in-
teresting of all subjects, except the actual thing itself, the
life of God in man's soul.

We paid a very pleasant visit to Broglie ; both the Doctor1
and I enjoyed it very much. I saw Madame de Stael as
she passed through. Mr. Duparquet has called for me, and
1 Dr. Chalmers.

jet. 49. MADAME DE BROGLIE. 215

has asked me to see him at Etiolles, which I hope to do.
Dear fellow-pilgrim, the Good Shepherd be with you,
strengthening and comforting you. Mr. Campbell begs to
be remembered to you. — Yours in much love,

T. Erskine.

93. TO MADAME DE BROGLIE.

Hotel Castellane, Rue de Grenelle, St. Germain,
2d August 1838.

Dear Friend, — I do not expect in this world to be de-
livered from a heavy weight of sorrow. We are called into
a union and participation with Him who was a man of
sorrows, and who, though a Son, yet learned obedience by
the things which He suffered. Beloved friend, faint not,
neither be weary ; take up your cross and follow Him unto
the same place whither He hath gone before. I believe
that it was the experience of what you express in your
letter, — I mean the experience of an insupportable burden
of grief, which I could by no means cast off, — which first
led me to take the view of the atonement which I now
take, and to consider Jesus not as a substitute, but as the
Head and Fountain of Salvation, supplying us with His own
spirit, so that we may use the discipline of life, the sorrow,
the agony of life, as He did, to learn obedience, to learn to
find in the will of God, which appoints our path, a union
with the mind of God. Jesus found that will to be meat
indeed, as He walked His weary, sorrowing pilgrimage ; He
felt that it was all tender love, and He would have us feel
it also, for we cannot otherwise be made meet for the rest
and glory of God. And as He puts the cup of sorrow into
our hand, He says, Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of 1
And shall we refuse or hold back from this fellowship with
Jesus, in the sorrow which kills sin when it is received in
the spirit of Jesus, in the filial spirit 1 " These light afflic-

216 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.'

tions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more
exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory, whilst we look
not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are
not seen." The sorrow is not merely a difficulty which we
are to endeavour to pass through as easily and as quickly as
we can, it is the thing which works out the eternal weight
of glory, — not at all in the way of a price paid for it, but as
the wise education and medicine of God. We are like the
Israelites travelling through that dreary desert, until our
carcases, our fleshly thoughts and desires, fall in the wilder-
ness; but in the meantime we have the manna to feed on,
the will of God in all things, and we have the pillar of
cloud and of fire, the presence of God in our consciences
directing us in the way. And shall we say that we are with-
out comfort % And have we not a hope full of immortality %
Dear sister, you have often been a channel of comfort to
me. I pray God for you, that you may meet a living will
of God in every sorrow that bows down your heart, and
that you may find your Father's love in your Father's will.
Read the 3d chapter of the Lamentations of Jeremiah in
the English Bible. I have often found it a precious word
of comfort. Accept your punishment, not the punishment
of a Judge, but the chastisement of a most tender Father,
who afflicteth not willingly, but for our profit. Will you
look at my book, pp. 103-1 05, if you are not afraid 1 I was
out at Etiolles seeing Madame Duparquet. They had just
heard of the death of Mr. Cuvier, which seemed a very sore
affliction to Madame Duparquet, whose heart is very tender.
The discipline is going on in every house, and in every
heart. Let us take part in God's work with us. Let us
enter into His plan. Dear friend, I do not say that the
inward revelation in conscience makes us independent of
the outward revelation, but I say that we never rightly
receive or believe the outward revelation until we learn it

^T. 49. MADAME DE BROGUE. 217

«

from the inward, and that the use of the outward is to
foster and educate the inward. I believe that they are
duplicates by the same hand, with this difference, that the in-
ward, being a living thing, and being mixed and surrounded
with things of a nature opposed to it, is liable to be
mistaken, and even to remain altogether undeveloped, or
choked in the heart, whereas the other remains always the
same unmixed pure announcement of truth.

94. TO MADAME DE BROGLIE.

Rue Grenelle, St. Germain, 13th August.

Dear Friend, — I have heard from Dr. Chalmers. He
tells me that he has sent a copy of his works, now reprinting,
for you, and another for Mademoiselle Pomaret. He had not
written to you, because he did not like to do it, until he
had been invited to do so by yourself. If you have received
his books, I doubt not that you have already written to
him, and if you have not received them — that is, if they
have not yet arrived, — you may perhaps write to tell him
so. I should like to hear how Mademoiselle Pomaret is ; I
heard from M. Duparquet that she had been unwell.

When I received your last letter, I was so much occupied
that I entirely overlooked the criticisms which you make
in it on the views which you suppose my book contains.
I often feel discouraged from expressing my thoughts, by
finding that I do it in so imperfect a manner as to give
an entirely false impression of them. I see that I have
given you an impression perfectly foreign to my meaning.
My object is not in the smallest degree to say what the
conscience might do for man without the Bible, but to
say that all that a man learns from the Bible, without its
awakening within him a living consciousness of its truth,
might as well not be learned, — that is, I believe that there
is a real correspondence between the truths of the Bible

218 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

and the spiritual part of man's nature, in the same way as
there is a correspondence between the outward relations
of life (as parent and child, husband and wife, brothers,
sisters, friends, neighbours, etc.) and the feelings of
man's heart; and that as a man could not comprehend
these relations of life if he had not a consciousness in his
heart corresponding to them, so I believe that a man could
not really believe the truths concerning his higher relations
unless he had a consciousness in his heart corresponding to
them, and that in fact he cannot truly be said to believe
them unless that consciousness be awakened. I wish to
guard people against supposing that they believe a doctrine
of the Bible, or have faith, merely because they believe
that the Bible is true. I believe also that there are
different depths of meaning in the same truth, and that
according to the degree of spiritual discernment of the
deeper meaning so is the profit from the doctrine. . . .

I have never supposed the case of a man possessing a
Bible and yet putting it from him, on the ground that
conscience was sufficient. I think that a man who did so
would be found to be sinning against his conscience. But
I never suppose such a case ; it does not form any part of
my argument. I do not oppose the conscience to the Bible,
but I say that the Bible is meant and fitted for the con-
science, as a telescope is meant for the eye. The conscience
is the eye, the Bible is the telescope ; and as the telescope
does not change the faculty of sight, but brings more objects
within its range, so does the Bible to the conscience.

I believe that God has left no man without the means
of salvation, and that a man without a Bible has still a God,
and a God whom he can get acquainted with through his
conscience, and I believe that salvation means a growing in
acquaintanceship with God and in conformity to His will.

Remember me with much regard to Mademoiselle

jet. 49. MISS RACHEL ERSKINE. 219

Pomaret and your husband, and Monsieur Doudan, and to
your daughter and her husband, if they are with you. —
Yours ever, T. Erskine.

I intend to go to Geneva next week, early in the week
— on Wednesday perhaps. Write a word.

95. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Paris, \5tli August 1838.
My dear Cousin Rachel, — ... I had a letter from
Dr. Chalmers the other day, proving to me that he had
completely misunderstood my book. I need not think of
writing another book to explain the book which I have
already written. What are you doing1? enjoying lovely
Cardross, fair and noble Cardross, with its grave square
tower, and its trees, under which our fathers' fathers have
played, and its beautiful extent of grass, and its seclusion,
and its simple peasantry — simple, that was, but that is no
longer, for simplicity has left our land 1 It is possible that
on the whole there may be a higher standard of moral
feeling in Great Britain than in France at this present
moment ; but it seems to me that we are going down-hill
and that France is rather ascending. The thought of my
country is a very melancholy thought to me. The whole
social system is sick ; there is no brotherhood. I some-
times feel as if I could enter into the feelings of the French
nation, when, conscious of the entire want of brotherhood
amongst them, they raised their frantic cry of Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity, or Death ! They felt they needed these
things, but they did not know how to set about getting
them. They felt the want of brothers, and the only way
that occurred to them of manufacturing brothers was to
set the guillotine agoing, and cannons and muskets and
bayonets agoing, and saying to all men, Be our brothers,
or die !..'..

220 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

96. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Been, \Wh Sept. 1838.
Dearest Christian, — I am often recalled to the re-
membrance of you and Charles at present, by the sight of
places which we all looked at together; for I am now making
with Mr. Scott the same tour that I made with you in the
'24. These remembrances now must carry us out of the
visible and the finite, if we would, even in imagination,
follow our companions, as almost all our remembrances must
do ; for what can we remember that is not connected with
some one who has ceased to be a part of our visible cir-
cumstances 1 And the chief character of interest which
the lofty peaks (which I am now searching for amongst the
clouds) possess, is just that same quality of carrying us up
out of the visible and the finite. The meeting of heaven
and earth, of the Creator and the creature, is the true
thing symbolised by the scenes before me, and from which
they derive their intense interest ; as it is also the thing
which is at the root of the interest which we feel in follow-
ing a departed friend into his unseen habitation. ... I
met at Lausanne with an old friend of mine, who was
pastor of the Eeformed Church at Frankfort when I passed
through that city with Begbie, before Archibald joined me
at Hamburg ; he is apparently dying now ; he is a man of
very remarkable talents and great amiableness. We had
been great friends at Frankfort, and although we had had
no correspondence of any kind since that time, he met me
with much affection and much emotion ; he told me that
he would wish to live, if it were the will of God ; he had
been, he thought, a gainer by his illness, in respect of his
qualification to teach others the way of salvation ; he also
said he had been so happy at Lausanne; he loved and
admired his country exceedingly, and he felt that the loss

jet. 49. MISS JANE STIRLING. 221

of life would be a great privation. Poor fellow, lie does
not look as if he could survive long ; lie remembered every
word that had passed between us at Frankfort, and went
over it all with an affecting interest.1 I also made a new
acquaintance at Lausanne — with M. Vinet, the most re-
markable man in the French Protestant Church ; he seemed
to me large and free, and yet deeply serious. I was
delighted with him ; he has not the Calvinism of Gaussen
or Merle — at least he has some other thing which balances
it, which they want. I also saw Scholl, whom you, I think,
saw — an amiable, excellent man. The sight of Vinet, and
the reading of some of his books, gave me a hope for the
Swiss and French Protestants which I scarcely had before.
I am convinced that nothing but infidelity can be the con-
sequence of holding that Calvinistic logic so prevalent
through Scotland, and which is preached also, though in a
more living way, through the French and Swiss Eeformed
Church. Men require something now which will commend
itself to the conscience and the reason, and if that is not
given them, they have only superstition and infidelity to
choose between, and I think that they are showing that
infidelity is their choice.

I wish you could get Vinet ; he is more of Scott's calibre
than any person that I know. I shall in a future letter
tell you how you may get it. I met Tom Dundas and his
wife at Geneva ; I was happy to be met with so much of
the feeling of relationship by him. . . . We intend to go
to Interlachen to-morrow. T. E.

97. TO MISS JANE STIRLING.

7th Oct. 183S, Geneva.
. . . You will by this time have received the news of
the death of Madame de Broglie. To many it is a deso-
1 Monsieur Manuel.

222 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

lating blow ; to her poor husband and children, and to
Madame de Stael, it is a desolation, a withering of life.
You knew her, and you loved her, and she loved you ;
and you will feel that there is not another creature in
creation that could fill her place to you. I feel that ; but
I know that she has entered into peace, and that this blow,
so severe to others, so drying up of the life of many hearts,
has for herself broken in pieces the gates of brass, and cut
in sunder the bars of iron. She died by a brain fever, as
her brother did, brought on, I doubt not, by the continued
wearing down of the material by the immaterial. She
took a slight cold, as she thought, about the 7th September;
on the 11th it appeared serious ; on the 22d, at five in the
morning, her spirit flew away and was at rest. The fever
affected her head very soon, but it had no power over her
heart, over her free spirit ; she prayed without ceasing, she
loved without ceasing — beloved spirit. I saw her last on
the 21st August. I left her that day with a solemn feeling,
an indistinct feeling of the uncertainty of time-things ; but
little indeed did I realise that she was so near her deliver-
ance. She urged me much to go back to Broglie when she
did, which was two days afterwards ; she said she wished
much to commune on the things of eternity, and she said
" II faut du temps, vous savez, pour parler des choses de
Feternite." When I paid my visit at Broglie with Dr.
Chalmers, he occupied her entirely, so she required a visit
for myself; she pressed it so much that, if it had not been
that I did not like to trespass on Mr. Scott's time, I should
certainly have gone. As I was going out of the room, she
said, " Am I ever to see you again in this world V I hope
to pass eternity with her. It is wonderful to me to think
what a place she has occupied in my life, since I have
become acquainted with her. Her husband has been sup-
ported in a wonderful manner. He and Madlle. Pomaret

MT. 49. MRS. STIFLING. 223

never left her bedside after the fever decidedly took posses-
sion of her. Madame Vernet yesterday read me a letter of
Madlle. Pomaret to Adele,1 in which she speaks of him as
of one who has consecrated himself to God ; she says, " Au-
pres de lui, je me trouve comme dans une 6glise ; il est
saint." The impression that she herself made on all the
servants and doctors that came was remarkable ; they felt
that she was holy. And now she is no more seen of men;
her feet, which here were shod with the preparedness of
the gospel of peace, now stand in the gates of the New
Jerusalem. Her son was absent on a walking expedition,
so that they did not know where he was, or how to reach
him. Louise was at Milan ; since she heard of it her grief
has been violent. The God of blessing give them all a
blessing in this bitter cup. I have seen old Madame
Necker, to whom she was as a daughter, the most affec-
tionate of daughters

98. TO HIS SISTER MRS, STIRLING.

Geneve, Oct. 10, 1838.
My dear Christian, — I have lost a great friend, a dear
friend, since I last wrote to you. Madame de Broglie's
death has changed the world for me a good deal. Her
acquaintance has been a considerable feature in my life,
more so, indeed, than that of any person whom I have not
known from infancy. There was an activity in her friend-
ship— an activity both of heart and of intelligence — that I
never met with except in Dr. Stuart, and an activity which
was continually directed upwards. Her character had un-
dergone a great change since I last saw her ; she was not
more occupied about eternal things, but her occupation with
them was much more healthy ; she seemed to me to live
much in the spirit of prayer, enjoying the love and peace of
1 Madame de Stael, sister-in-law to Madame de Broglie.

224 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1 838.

God to a great degree, and making it her business to learn
His righteousness. I wish you had seen her ; although I
believe you will soon see her, and see her in a form which
will still more perfectly utter that spiritual beauty which her
Creator intended her to utter than the form in which I have
known her ; but yet I wish you had seen her, that you might
understand what I mean when I say that she and our
brother James were the two most perfect symbols, in their
persons, of a spiritual being, having a mission to "fulfil in
this world, and not belonging to it, that I have met with
in my pilgrimage. I always thought James most beautiful,
and I thought her most beautiful. They were both like
what I can suppose glorified humanity will be. There was
an unspeakable charm about her ; such a truth of heart,
which used a most remarkable intelligence only for the
purposes of truth. I may have as much intercourse with
her still, of the most profitable sort ; but I cannot help
feeling the earth much emptier for her removal.

Oct. 14. — I have been at church, where I met Madame
Vernet, who told me that yesterday she had a letter from
M. de Broglie himself, poor man. I intend to go out to
Carra (her campagne) to-morrow, to see more of her, and
to hear of these mourners. I am now living by myself,
which I have not done since I left England, having first
had Mr. Campbell and afterwards Mr. Scott for my com-
panion. They are both remarkable men ; but Scott is, in
point of intellect, one of the first, if not the first, man that
I have known. I had an interlude of Dr. Chalmers for
some days as a variety. He went with me to Broglie,
where he was delighted with her, and she with him ; that
is, with his honesty, and his naturalness, and his kindliness;
dear woman, when we took our leave, she told me that she
did not consider that as a visit from me, for that she had
been so entirely occupied with Dr. Chalmers ; she said, " I

jet. 50. REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL. 225

know you will not be hurt by it." The last day that I
saw her was the 21st of August ; there was something in
our meeting like a farewell, like a leave-taking ; she spoke
of the danger of being carried away by particular ideas ;
she expressed her fear for me in that respect, saying at the
same time that, although younger than I was, she felt some-
thing like a maternal care for me, as well as a sisterly, and
she gave me a lithograph etching of one of Overbeck's little
pieces — Jesus standing at the door and knocking ; she wrote
the date under it, 21st August, and "II n'y a point d'autre
Sauveur que moi." He was indeed knocking at the door for
her, in a sense which neither of us thought of at the time ;
though she told me that she often felt a most remarkable
longing for death. All her outward relations were happy,
and yet she had a deep melancholy that perpetually weighed
upon her heart. I had a letter yesterday from cousin
Kachel ; I am glad to hear good accounts of her invalids.
. . . Yours ever, T. E.

99. TO THE REV. JOHN M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

Geneva, 11th Oct. 1838.

Dear Brother, — I heard of your marriage from my
sister, Mrs. Paterson. May the Lord abundantly bless
you and her in your relation to each other, and make you
instruments of righteousness in the church and in the world.
I hope you may both prove in your own hearts that your
union is of the Lord.

Your marriage took place just four days after the death
of Madame de Broglie. I think I showed you that little
engraving which she gave me that last day that I saw her
in Paris, representing Jesus standing at the door and knock-
ing. How little did I realise at the time that Jesus was
so soon to open the door of her clay prison, and give a full
release to her blessed yet wearied spirit from the conflict

p

228 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

of this world ! I cannot express to you what a gap her
removal makes to me in this visible order of things. She
was connected in my mind with every subject of thought,
and she possessed that idiosyncrasy, that individuality that
prevents the possibility of her idea ever being confounded
or mixed up with the idea of any other being. No other
creature could fill the place which she filled in the minds
and lives of those who knew her.

Her husband has received the stroke as from God, and
though desolate is supported. I can conceive no resource
for a human heart that has lost what he has lost but in an
entire surrender of itself to God. In the meantime this
seems to be his own feeling ; he seems to desire simply to
do and to receive the will of God. Her friendship has
been to me a great gift. She has been a witness to me for
God, a voice crying in the wilderness. She has been a
warner and a comforter. I have seen her continually
thirsting after a spiritual union with God. I have heard
the voice of her heart crying after God out from the midst
of all things which make this life, pleasant and satisfying.
She had a husband whose thoughts were large and high,
and whose character was noble, affectionately attached to
her. She had amiable, promising children. She had her-
self all the gifts of mind and character — intelligence, imagi-
nation, nobleness, and thoughts that wandered through
eternity. She had a heart fitted for friendship, and she
had friends who could appreciate her ; but her God suffered
her not to find rest in these things, her ear was opened to
His own paternal voice, and she became His child, in the
way that the world is not and knoweth not. I see her
before me, her loving spirit uttering itself through every
feature of her beautiful and animated countenance.

Eemember me most kindly to your brother and his wife,
and to the Macnabbs. Farewell. T. Erskine.

iET. 50. MRS. PATERSON. 227

100. TO HIS SISTER MRS. PATERSON.

Geneva, 15th Nov. [1838].
Dearest Davie, — I have just returned from a visit to
Lausanne, where I had much enjoyment. Vinet is a
delightful man, simple and natural, with a kindly sense of
the ludicrous in him, and most candid. Manuel, the other
eye of Lausanne, is dead. He was my first continental
friend — in 1822.1 I made his acquaintance when your dear
Ann was four months old. Vinet was very willing to con-
fer with me, but he is so continually besieged with visitors
that it is not easy to get him for any length of time alone.
I saw others of the Lausanne pastors and professors and
young ministers, and I observed Vinet's mark upon them
all. There is no narrowness about them, and they are
more natural, apparently living less by rule than by a living
instinct. The successful candidate for one of their theolo-
gical chairs within the last two months, acknowledged his
belief of a universal final restoration, and this to the judges
on whom his election depended. Vinet drove me out (in
a char) to a family in the country, the lady of which had
translated one of my books, but had been prevented from
publishing it by hearing that Madame de Broglie was
engaged in the same thing. I found her a very interesting
person, full of heart and simplicity. I promised to send

1 "Le pasteur Manuel etait un de ces hommes dont ne cessent de
parler tous ceux qui les ont connus, mais dont les generations suivantes
savent a peine le nom. ... La sagesse et la poesie decoulaient de son
ame, ' comme le miel d'un rayon trop pleine.' Le mot est de Vinet, qui
ne peut assez dire le bien que cet homme a fait en causant. ' Le charme
de sa conversation etait si grand, dit-il, qu'on ne croyait d'abord avoir que
du plaisir ; mais en revenant par le souvenir sur une heure delicieuse
passee aupres de cet incomparable causeur, on etait surpris de se trouver
riche d'une vertu de plus, s'il est permis d'appeler ainsi toute puissance
qui porte vers le bien et vers la verite.'" — Alexandre Vinet, Histoire de
sa Vie et de ses Outrages, par E. Rambert. Troisieme Edition. Laus-
anne, 1876.

228 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

her the book on Election. I "wish to re-write that book,
to make it more compact and more orderly, and I think
that I could probably do it better in Switzerland than in
Italy. Madame Cramer, dear, kind woman, is urging me
very much to come to her house. ... T. Erskine.

101. TO MADAME FOREL.

Geneve, I9t7i Nov. 1838.

Dear Madame, — I send you my book on the doctrine
of Election, or rather on the doctrine of Conscience, for
that would be the truest description of its contents, and at
the same time I would commend it to your patience, and
indulgence, and candour. You will often feel surprised
and even shocked in reading it, — you will be sometimes
tempted to think me a mere rationalist, but I know that
I am not so.

The leading idea of the book is that each individual man
is a little world in which that whole history which took
place in Judea 1800 years ago is continually reproduced.
Each of us is, or has been, that world spoken of in St. John
i. 1 0, " He was in the world, and the world was made by
Him, and the world knew Him not." I believe that the
light which shines in each man's conscience is the real pre-
sence of Jesus, " the Word which was with God, and was
God," and that the egoism and vanity and hypocrisy, and
worldly and fleshly desires within us, are represented by
the Scribes and Pharisees and Saclducees, Herod and Pilate,
etc. I believe that the presence of Jesus in us, with His
quickening (vivifiant) spirit, gives to each of us the power,
whether we use it or not, of joining and taking part with
Him against the evils of our own hearts, and I believe that
in as far as we do so we become partakers of His nature
and members of His body. I believe that Jesus is the one
Elect, and that those who by thus taking part with Jesus

jet. 50. MADAME FOREL. 229

become members of His body, become also members of the
election, and that those who continue to resist Him shut
themselves out from the election. In this way also I be-
lieve that, as Christ was really given to men immediately
after the Fall, all are elect in Him, He being in them all,
and all are reprobate or rejected in the first Adam ; but
that we can make either our election or our reprobation
sure by joining ourselves either to the one party or the
other. I believe that God takes the first step to every
man, and draws every man by His Spirit, and that man's,
part is acceptance and yielding.

I am sensible that many readers may be tempted to
think, from my dwelling so much on the internal history
of Christianity in the individual, that I overlook or under-
value the external facts ; but my desire was to restore what
I conceived the lost equilibrium by drawing the attention
to that part which had been generally neglected. I also
wished to show that we really do not and cannot under-
stand the outward history of Christ until we recognise its
correspondence with this inward history. The very same
mysteries which appear in the outward history of Christ
are to be found in our own hearts ; and when we find them
there, although we do not comprehend them the more on
that account by our understanding, yet we feel that we
get the explanation of them. I believe also that as each
man is a world, and a resemblance of the large world, so
the whole mass of individuals constitute another unity,
another world, and that as Jesus is in each man, so He is
the new and heavenly root of spiritual life to this larger
Avorld, and that what He did outwardly for the larger was
for the purpose of bringing this life and light inwardly to
all the individuals. But I need not go over these things.
After you have read it, if your patience holds out so long,
I shall be most happy to converse with you about it. I

230 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1838.

feel very much obliged to M. Vinet for having introduced
me to the acquaintance of yourself and Mr. F. Indeed,
my visit to Lausanne was altogether most gratifying to me,
I met with so much fraternity and so much candour. Fare-
well for the present, and I remain, with much respect and
regard, your obedient servant, T. Erskine.

102. TO THE REV. ALEX. J. SCOTT.

Geneva, Id December 1838.

My dear Friend, — I ought before now to have acknow-
ledged your letter. You see that I am still here. I am
still, however, in the expectation of spending at least a
part of the winter at Rome. I have a wish to see that
world's grave again, and to listen to the voice which comes
out of it. You will have heard that Sir John Hay died
there a month ago ; poor Lady Hay will be a very desolate
widow. Manuel also is dead. Both of these men had a
great enjoyment of life, though in very different ways.

I passed a week lately at Lausanne, and saw a good deal
of Vinet and of some of the others, pastors and professors.
Vinet is very amiable, very natural, and has that basis
of thought in him on which thoughts from all quarters can
find a footing or a rooting. I like him so much that I
could be tempted to spend the winter at Lausanne, if I did
not see that he is in such continual request as would prevent
much quiet personal intercourse. His sermons, Discours
sur quelques sujets religimx, are very interesting. He is
always aiming at the terrain commun, though I do not find
that he hits it. It is obvious that the pastoral and pro-
fessorial society there is much influenced by him. Some
of the young clergy I liked very much ; they are simple-
hearted and free, and undogmatical. There has never been
any distinctly avowed heterodoxy at Lausanne, so that
they have had no call to define their faith, like our Gene-

at. 50. P£V. ALEX. J. SCOTT. 231

vese friends. I was present at a public disputation, at
which a dissertation by a candidate for the philosophical
chair in the Academy was attacked and defended. The
title of the dissertation was Science et Foi, and its avowed
object was to show that philosophy rightly pursued would
reproduce the truths of Christianity, so that the objects
of faith would be verified by the intelligence. The dis-
putation was not interesting, but I have read the discourse
with considerable interest ; and if I return to Lausanne I
think I shall try to see the writer. His discourse contains
a history of philosophy, which he considers as the history
of the development of the human mind. Schelling and
Hegel are, according to him, the men who have put the
top-stone on the building commenced by Descartes on the
subjective side and by Bacon on the objective, for he com-
mences his historical sketch with these moderns. I shall
quote for your behoof one, of his theses which he undertakes
to defend : " La justice est composee de deux el^mens, la
justice qui punit et la justice qui pardonne. La mis6ricorde
est un devoir de la justice, comme la s6v6rit6 et la peine ;
ou plutdt la peine n'a pour but que l'absolution."

Dear Mme. Cramer is full of kindness, and her whole
family, so also is Mme. Vernet ; but I have little inter-
course with Gaussen and Merle, etc. ; they are occupied
with their Academy. I must copy another thesis of this
philosophical candidate: "C'est aller contre l'esprit du
protestantisme que d'envisager la Bible comme la base et
le principe unique de notre foi."

I see something more of Diodati,1 but he also is very
busy, having engaged to give a course on the revival of
philosophy. I heard his opening lecture, which was very
good. Give my affectionate regards to your people, your
own household, Wedgwood, etc. T. Erskine.

1 Married to one of the Vernets.

232 , LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1839.

103. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Geneve, 3d Jan. 1839.

Dearest Christian, — ... I have just returned from
a visit to Lausanne, where I have spent a week very plea-
santly in the society of some very estimable people, who
have shown me much friendship. If Davie has sent you
Vinet's book, you will be able in some degree to" judge of
his interesting mind ; but his humble and gentle and sensi-
tive character gives his personal intercourse a charm which
cannot be communicated by any book containing merely
expositions of trains of thought. When I was there, he
and many more whom I saw were much occupied with the
project of a law for new-modelling in some respects their
ecclesiastical constitution ; his reputation for wisdom and
conscientiousness forces him into situations of trust and
responsibility, which he would thankfully keep out of, and
he is at present at the head of an ecclesiastical commission,
which is charged with the appointment of ministers and
assistants through the Canton, which makes great demands
on his time and on his peace. His wife is a very pleasant,
intelligent, unpretending person ; they lost a daughter last
year, grown up, and their only child now is a son of nine-
teen, who has been deaf since he was nine or ten, and whose
development, in consequence, has been much stopped. I see
this is a great trial to them ; and she seems to desire to find
the broken body of Jesus meat indeed, and His blood drink
indeed. The question of the eternity of punishments has
been stirred at Lausanne, by the circumstance that a can-
didate for one of the theological chairs refused to subscribe
to the common doctrine ; notwithstanding this refusal, he
was elected. Vinet only says, " La lumiere me manque."

There is a very singularly interesting young man whose
acquaintance I also made, of a profoundly mystical charac-

mt. 50. MADAME VI NET. 233

ter, as Avell as understanding, a disciple of Jacob Boehme,
who gave me a sketch of a work to which he has devoted
his life ; he spoke to me for I daresay three hours without
intermission, opening up to me a fine heart and a rich
understanding. I found him agonised in his spirit about
the destiny of the fallen angels ; there is something very
interesting in this for the heart, and his love for these
beings does not interfere with his love for his own kind.
He considers this world and the constitution of time as a
remedial dispensation, arising out of the fall of an angelic
race — a parenthesis in the midst of eternity — and his work
is to be a history of time. . . .

104. TO MADAME VINET.

Geneve, 6th Feb. 1839.
M. Bost has brought me the little brochure, and the very
welcome letter which accompanied it. I have been enter-
ing into the feelings which, I knew, the late proceedings
in your Canton on the subject of religion would excite in
you. It is a call to humiliation and prayer, not to dis-
couragement ; for the results are in God's hands, and He
maketh all things work together for good to those that love
Him. The present condition of things at Zurich is a re-
markable instance of good coming out of apparent evil.
What I fear most, in Switzerland as well as elsewhere, is
that the contest should become a contest of opinions, a con-
test between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, instead of a con-
test between the spirit and the flesh, between spiritual life
and spiritual death. Our business is to give utterance to
that voice which the Spirit of God speaks in our consciences,
and this utterance is to come not out of our mouths only
but out of our lives. Each man is called to be a member
of the Incarnate Word ; that is, to have the will of God
expressed in his flesh, and so written in his flesh as to be

234 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 18394

seen and read of all men. What a fearful difference be-
tween what we ought to be and what we are ! Our call-
ing is to be like Christ ; filled with the spirit of Christ ;
uttering in our words and actions the mind of God ; and
what are we ? Alas ! I know for myself how little of all
that is accomplished in me ; and how little the witness
which my mouth gives for God's truth is supported by
living holiness in my inward and outward history. We
are then true witnesses for Christ, and then only, when we
are ourselves experiencing and showing forth in our per-
sons His death and resurrection ; the dying unto man's
will, the living unto God's will. The comfort is, that the
cause of true religion in man's heart, and in the world, is
the cause of God. God's heart yearns over it, and God's
power sustains it. We forget where our great strength
lies, when we look to any human strength for the support
of the church. Our strength is in our Head, in Him' who
said, " I have overcome the world," and faith is really a
confidence in the unseen strength of God, supporting us in
opposition to all appearance of outward strength against us.
I like very well what you say on the subject of my book,
although I don't agree with the application of it. The
question is, What is the meaning of election in the Bible 1
You say, " We had better leave the matter as it is left
in the Bible — the two extreme points stated — without
attempting to reconcile them." My answer is, I think
that I have followed the Bible ; for it seems to me that the
Bible is at special pains to deny the doctrine of personal
election in its ordinary acceptation, and to make us under-
stand that the true doctrine is, that those who live in the
Spirit are the children of God, and that those who live in
their own independent will cannot have fellowship with
God, and that all have to choose between these two condi-
tions. The difficulty in the intellect is nothing ; but the

jet. 50. MRS. SCOTT. 235

difficulty in the moral conscience is not nothing. I believe
that all the fundamental spiritual truths are out of the
sphere of the reasoning faculty, but that they are in the
sphere of conscience, and that we do not apprehend them
at all, unless we apprehend them in our consciences. When
Jesus says to us, " Without me ye can do nothing," He
means to persuade us to depend upon Him for our spiritual
life; that is, He means to dissuade us from making the
wrong choice of depending on ourselves, for surely He does
not mean to say, You have no power to choose between
dependence on me, and dependence on yourselves. My
conviction of the importance of the subject is a very deep
conviction. . . .

I am very happy that you like the article on Sir Walter
Scott. I agree with you in thinking that the views in it are
admirable. You are the first foreigner (as we call all but
ourselves) whom I have found capable of admiring it. The
name of the author is Carlyle, a man of most original
mind. I hope to profit by M. de Breule's obliging offer to
be acquainted with me, when I return to Lausanne. Dear
friend, I hope that this is not the last letter that I shall
receive from you. I feel much obliged to you for your
kindness. I feel the blessing of having Christian friends,
friends who have communion with God, and who, when
they think of me will pray for me. I beg my respectful
and affectionate regards to your husband. Farewell. —
Yours most truly, T. Erskine.

105. TO MRS. SCOTT.

Geneva, 20th February 1839.

Dear Mrs. Scott, — . . . We have all been much

scandalised and shocked here by the election of Strauss (the

author of that strange and much talked-of-book, " The Life

of Jesus") to fill one of the chairs in the Theological School

338 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1839.

of Zurich. This is the most bare-faced profession of infi-
delity that has yet been made in Switzerland. At Lausanne
also some very unpleasant demonstrations against piety
and religion in general have been made in the Council of
State and amongst the people, on the occasion of proposing
a change in the ecclesiastical law, of which the giving up
of the old Helvetic Confession of Faith was to form a part.
And here at Geneva, in an appointment to one of the
Theological chairs, my friend Diodati, son-in-law of Madame
Vernet, has been defeated by a man who is acknowledged
to be in all respects his inferior, simply because he holds
the Divinity of Christ and the doctrine of the atonement,
which the other rejects. . . . I have made the acquaintance
of Mr. Hare, the English clergyman, whom I like exceed-
ingly. He is a simple-hearted man, very quiet and yet
zealous. He has been brought up in the evangelical
school, but he does not refuse to go into the meanings of
the words. He is no connection of the Hares that we
thought he belonged to. I was delighted to see Wedgwood
appointed to the office which replaces my friend. I hope
it is something comfortable in point of salary, and unper-
plexed, at least morally, in its administration. . . . —
Yours, etc., T. Erskine.

106. TO CAPTAIN PATERSON.

Geneva, 21si! March 1839.
My dear James, — Davie's short letter is a large record
of the goodness of God. I have the conviction, which I
have just been expressing to Mr. Hare, the worthy English
clergyman here, that there is no such thing as a sudden
death, in the strict meaning of the word ; I believe that
God always, in some way or other, warns the spirit of death
before He sends it. We know not what had passed in
's heart before he passed into eternity ; but we see

MRS, PATERSON. 237

that His Father's care was following him, and that the
loving message which He sent him through his mother was
accompanied with an inward voice, which had been received
into his conscience. My belief in the continuation of the
process of spiritual education beyond this life relieves me
at all events from the agonising thought that twenty-six
years of negligence are to fix the eternal condition of the
soul for good or evil. I cannot read the passage contained
in the 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Komans, verses
30-33, without wondering that any should think that the
Bible decidedly teaches that doctrine. . . Farewell. — Your
affectionate brother, T. Erskine.

107. TO HIS SISTER MRS. PATERSON.

Geneva, 21th March 1839.
" Mais lors meme qu'une pauvre mere croit, et ne mur-
mure point, elle souffre ; les jours passent, les nuits revien-
nent, le soleil se leve tous les matins. Quelquefois, il semble
qu'il vient nous dire, que ce n'est pas grande chose, que la
souffrance d un petit &tre d'un jour, tel que nous ; d'autre
fois, il semble nous dire de la part du Tres Haut, Je suis
toujours le mime ; rien ne pourra diminuer mon pouvoir, ma
compassion, ma tendresse pour les enfans des hommes;
courage, ma fille, ton fils n'est pas mort, mais il dort ; et a ce
langage, si r£el quoique silencieux, notre ame se releve, elle
est soutenue, elle se ranime : elle sent que le Seigneur est la."

Dearest Davie, — The sentence which I put at the head
of my letter is an extract from a letter which Madame Ver-
net has given me to send to Mrs. Patrick [Stirling].1 You
know that Madame Vernet lost a son fifteen years ago, in a
most distressing way. There was afire in the neighbourhood,
and young Henri Vernet, about twenty years of age, along
1 Whose son had been killed in an accident.

238 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1839.

with several of his companions, went to give their assist-
ance. Madame V. saw her son enter the burning house, but
she never saw him come out ; he and most of his com-
panions were crushed by a falling beam. Mrs. Patrick's
story awakened all her sympathy, you may suppose, and she
has written her a letter, from which I have transcribed this
sentence, which appears to me to contain a very touching
and beautiful thought. . . . There was something exceed-
ingly tender in the appointment that Mrs. Patrick should
have written to her son as she did, and that he should have
answered her as he did. There is a continually watchful
care over us, ordering all our lot, every step. 0 ye of little
faith ! How my conscience answers to that word ! How
reasonable it is to trust ourselves to the keeping of infinite
love, and infinite wisdom, and infinite power ! We feel
that we cannot choose rightly for ourselves, and that He
cannot choose wrongly ; and do we not know that all the
end is to take away sin ] Blessed end ! 0 for its accom-
plishment ! Farewell.

108. TO MISS RACHEL ERSKINE.

Geneva, 26th April 1839.
Dearest Cousin, — ... I have much pleasant inter-
course with Madame Vernet, who overflows with love to
God and man. I like this country exceedingly; I like
the simplicity of their way of life. Very few people here
have a man-servant, except their gardener, who is also
their c/jar-driver. You see no fine furniture, no show in
any department ; and yon often find great friendships
between their highest people and their lowest. There is
a much deeper civilisation here than with us, which makes
the minds of all ranks more capable of comprehending
each other. But it is a civilisation which carries simpli-
city along with it, because it is a more mental thing than
it is with us. T. E.

jet. 50. MRS. STIRLING. 239

109. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

Geneve, 22d May 1839.
My dear Christian, — ... I think that I shall go to
the other end of the lake very soon, that I may see a little
more of Vinet before I leave the country.1 I have just read
a most exquisite piece of criticism by him, on Lamartine's
last published work, in the Semeur, a periodical which often
receives contributions from him. There is to be published
immediately an important work of his, on the connection
between the Church and State ; that is not the title, but
it is the subject. Madame de Stael has come to Geneva since
I last wrote you ; she is to me a recaller of many things.
She feels herself a remnant, for she had completely adopted
her husband's family ; and she feels herself alone, although
her own most amiable family open their hearts to her. She
has brought little Paul de Broglie with her, who has been
committed to her by the Duke ; he is a beautiful boy, liker
his mother than any of the rest in the form of his face and
in the colour of his eyes, but he is full of gaiety, which she
never was, from the beginning. . . . Paul not only recalls
his mother to Madame de Stael, but also her own Auguste,

1 " II n'etait point rare que des etrangers de distinction, en sejour ou en
passage a Lausanne, souvent attirees par la renommee de Vinet, vinssent
ajouter a l'eclat modeste et au charme de' ces reunions cordiales. Un
de ceux qu'on y vit le plus souvent fut l'Ecossais Erskine, qui avait une
maniere si originale et en meme temps si profonde de comprendre le chris-
tianisme. ' 11 est grandement heretique, dit-on, ecrivait Vinet ; mais c'est
un bien bon chretien.'1 11 n'avait rien dans l'esprit d'agressif, rien qui
appellat la discussion ; sa conversation etait serieuse san raideur, nourrie
de faits et d'apercus, et il etait rare qu'on le quittat sans etre riche de
quelque idee nouvelle. Quand il reprit le chemin de l'Ecosse, en 1839,
apres un sejour de plusieurs mois a Lausanne, Vinet et lui etaient amis
pour la vie." — Alexandre Vinet, Histoire de sa Vie et ses Ouvrages, par
E. Rambert (Troisieme Edition ; Lausanne, 1876), tome second, p. 45.

1 Lettre a Mdlle. Elise Vinet, du 10 novembre 1S39.

240 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1839.

who was born after his father's death, and who lived till
he was nearly two years old — a magnificent, matured child,
she says. She has also brought with her a most striking
portrait of Madame de B., taken from memory, Avith the
assistance of a very poor portrait, by a lady who knew her,
and who, I should judge from the expression, must have
appreciated her. There is an expression of sadness in it,
such as I scarcely ever saw in a picture, and at the same
time she seems to have hold of a strength which sustains
her under it, and seems to draw her up from it. It is a
holy-looking thing, and yet there is a most agonising inter-
est in it, which would seem incompatible with its holiness.
It makes one understand the worship of saints and relics.
I have written to M. de B. to ask him if he will allow me
to get it copied here by a lady who does these things re-
markably well, and he has answered me in the very kindest
manner, giving me the permission. . . . — Yours ever,

T. E.

110. TO HIS SISTER MRS. STIRLING.

. . . My present wish and endeavour is to turn my whole
mind and strength to do God's will — not to look forward
or behind, but giving myself up, practically up, to Him
whom my soul loveth.

There are many parts of the Bible from which I have
too often revolted, when setting my heart on things below
— those parts which tell that tribulation awaits us here,
and bid us raise our souls to heaven. Now, they are my
delight, and my comforters, and my prayers. I have not
yet that spirit — the spirit of a pilgrim, yet a willing servant
— but I aim at it, and I feel confident God will give it, for
Jesus' sake. I wish to be very busy in the duties God has
given me to do, I would make it my meat to do His will,
and pray earnestly that I may so be brought to abide in

jut. 50. MRS. STIRLING. 241

Christ that His character of holy separatedness, yet con-
tinued exertion, may be given to me. When I can fix my
mind on this object of my existence, I feel it fills it ; I feel
happy and refreshed.

There is a young man dying in L whom I go to see

when I want peace. His is a singular instance, so all agree.
Seldom does that peace which Jesus left us reign so purely
in the spirit. His life has been short, but important. For
some time the conviction of sin, and an unutterable sense
of the holiness of his divine Judge, drove him to such de-
spair as to unhinge his mind. But a sight of a crucified
' Saviour dispelled the gloom. One cannot look on him with-
out recognising whose he is and whom he serves. The image
of the Lamb of God is stamped on his spirit, and shines
through the very expression of his countenance. To see
him is to see verified the promise, " Peace I leave with
you." He says little, but that little emanates from deep
feeling, and is as opposed to a wordy profession as light
to darkness. He assents to nothing that he has not felt
and been influenced by. He is not well enough to read to
himself, but his mind dwells on the promises which are hid
in his heart. I bid him repeat to me what comforted
him; he repeated the last verses of Ps. lxxiii., and then the
two last of Eom. viii. He does not suffer ; his peace never
varies. Every thought, every hope, hinges on the Saviour.
He abides in Him, and oh, how richly does Christ abide
in this dying saint ! I but once heard him sigh ; it was
when I asked him if he would be satisfied yet to live a long
life here below. He sighed and paused, and hesitatingly
said, " Christ would give me grace to be resigned to His
Avill, but oh, to be with Him would be far better." . . . Yet
blessed be God, I think that I feel more that my only hope
and my satisfying portion is in heaven. I think I in some
degree close with that covenant which says, " In the world

242 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1839.

ye shall have tribulation ;" because in Christ I find peace.
Yet oh, how dependent at each moment am I ; and I am
willing to be so. I cast myself on Jesus ; Lord save me. . .
. . . The very Rev. old Ebenezer Brown1 I have twice
heard preach, and a most interesting exhibition it is ; he
is a specimen of old Presbyterian eloquence and style.
There is something very dignified in his energetic yet sub-
dued manner; his old broad Scotch, his deep sonorous
voice, rendered very inarticulate now from old age, but
famed in his youth for reaching a mile at tent preachings ;
and oh how fain would he that it reached many and many
a mile, if he could but bring poor sinners to his loved
Saviour ! Somehow, every word he utters melts me to
tears ; Christ crucified is all his theme, all his salvation,
and all his desire. Humility, simplicity, serene peace, and
that single repose in the Saviour which has brought the
spirit of Jesus so eminently and so purely into his heart
and life, are what characterise this aged saint. The pathos,
the spirit, the unction of his preaching, surpasses all elo-
quence, and is overcoming to an unutterable degree ; none
could imitate it, none could ever equal it, unless imbued
with the same spirit from on high. . . .

111. TO CRAMER MALLET.

Veytaux, 22d June 1839.
Dear Friend, — . . . This place is surpassingly beauti-
ful ; it speaks of " Him who in His strength setteth fast
the mountains, who is girded abet with power." The lake,
which is so sweet and gentle, and so full of light, adds its
testimony that the Mighty One is also the Loving One. You
know the villages that are scattered so beautifully along

1 Of Inverk&thing. See the exquisite sketch of him by his grand-
nephew, Dr. John Brown, in a letter to John Cairns, D.D., in the Iloroe
Subsecivce, Second Series, pp. 270-276.

^T. 50. CRAMER MALLET. 243

the foot of the mountains, detached from each other, and
surrounded each by its own forest, and yet united together
by their simple footpaths and by their common connection
with one church, which calls out their peaceful families by
its well-known bell, and collects them for one common
purpose.

I am at Veytaux in the parish of Montreux, in the
Maison Masson. Excellent quiet people. Under me
lives the suffragan of the minister of Montreux, of whom
my landlord's son (who was my guide in a beautiful walk
this morning) gave me a very pleasing account. Write
me a note like a good man, and tell me about dear Merle
and his wife. Give them my most affectionate regards
and fullest sympathy. I like to think of them and to
grieve with them, hoping that all their sorrows will one
day be turned into joys. Farewell, dear friend, and with
best regards to your own good family, mother, sister,
daughter, — I remain, yours ever, T. Erskine.

244 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

CHAPTEE XL

Letters from 1840 till 1844.

The twenty years of Mr. Erskine's life from 1840 to 1860
were in striking contrast with those immediately preceding.
From 1828 till 1840 pamphlet after pamphlet, volume after
volume, was published ; meetings were held, addresses
delivered, means of all kinds, public and private, employed
for the dissemination of his favourite ideas. On his return
from the Continent in 1840 all this was changed. The
pulpit of Broughty-Ferry Chapel was never again entered ;
the servants' hall at Linlathen no longer used for other
than strictly domestic purposes ; not a single volume from
his pen appeared. It was not that his thoughts were
less intently occupied with the great truths of Christianity,
or that his faith in them had failed ; it was not that the
ardent desire to have those forms and aspects of these truths
in which they presented themselves to his own mind wel-
comed by others had in any way abated. But it does look
as if his experience had satisfied him that it was not in the
direction either of controversy or outward activities of
any kind that his strength could be best employed — as if
his hopes of influencing thereby the opinion or action of
the Churches had collapsed — as if he had lost heart even
for the quieter method of speaking through the press. The
entire cessation from authorship seems the more remarkable

jet. 51. JAMES MACKENZIE. 245

considering the exceptionally favourable circumstances in
which he was placed, — in the full maturity of his powers,
with no domestic or professional demands upon his time,
no political or ecclesiastical entanglements to warp or
bias his opinions. He had always indeed a very lowly
estimate of his own writings, and of any power over
others they might possibly exert, and this may in part
have restrained him from publishing. If, however, in con-
sequence of his retirement into private life and abstinence
from authorship, the sphere of his influence in one way
became narrower, in another it became at once wider and
deeper. Putting aside his friends on the Continent, his
letters up till 1840 were addressed to immediate relatives
or personal friends. The circle, it is true, was not only a
large but a somewhat remarkable one. It may be doubted
whether, in the range of Scottish domestic life, there ever
was, before or since, in the same class of society, so many
fitted by culture to appreciate, and by deep religious faith to
sympathise with him, as Mr. Erskine found within the circle
of his own cousinhood. Nor did he ever afterwards form
two stronger or more congenial friendships than those which
bound him to Scott and Campbell. From the time, how-
ever, that he may be said to have relinquished public life,
a far more varied sphere of intercourse and correspondence
opened up to him, especially with some remarkable men
of the highest literary ability, and with ideas and senti-
ments congenial with his own. This will growingly appear
in the letters which follow.

112. TO JAMES MACKENZIE, ESQ.

C adder, Glasgow, March 7, 1840.
My dear Signore, — . . . T am glad that you like Vinet.
You may keep him for six months if you like. He is a most

246 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1840.

amiable, excellent, tolerant man, who understands the differ-
ence between the spirit and the letter. He has written several
other things ; an essay Sur la Libert^ des Cultes ; Essais
de Philosophie Morale et de Morale Eeligieuse, which last
I shall also lend you. It contains reviews by him of
different works of modern French literature, very good and
original. He is a thinker, and a Christian thinker. He is
the Professor of Theologie Dogmatique at Lausanne, and
his large unsectarian spirit is a great blessing to the place.
He is acknowledged as a man of real piety by the highest
Calvinists, and yet he is no Calvinist. . . . — Yours ever
affectionately, T. Erskine.

113. TO MADAME FOREL.

Linlathen, October 14, 1840.
Dear Friend, — It was a real enjoyment to me to receive
a letter from you, and to be enabled by it to think and feel
along with my much esteemed friends at Lausanne. I am
very undeserving of the kind and flattering things which
you say h mon tgard, but I gave a grateful and cordial
welcome to the love which dictates them. I am happy to
think of your husband and yourself, and of any of your
friends, as maintaining the conflict, to which we are called
in this world — the conflict of the invisible against the
visible, of the spirit against the flesh, of eternity against
time. It is a sore conflict, and much we need all the
warning and encouragement that the experience of others,
our fellow-soldiers, can give us. You are in the midst of
dissensions, and we are in the midst of dissensions, and
there is amongst us such a difference of opinion as to the
way of arriving at righteousness, that we almost forget that
it is the same end which we are all aiming at ; hence much
uncharitableness. There is a party in the Church of
England at present who are so impressed with the evil of

jet. 52. MADAME FOREL. 247

setting up the right of private judgment too much that
they would forbid private judgment altogether, and place
religion in submission and obedience merely. This is good,
as it is necessary, for the infancy of the Christian life, as it
is also for the infancy of human life, but surely there is
something higher than this intended for us by Him who
said, "I call you no more servants, but friends, for the
servant knoweth not what his lord doeth, whereas all things
that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto
you." Yet these men are pious men, and some of them are
highly gifted intellectually. If the Quarterly Review comes
to Lausanne, you will find a curious and interesting article
in the last number, written by one of that party, as a
criticism on Carlyle's works. There are many true things
in the article, but that exaggerated idea of blind submission,
without discerning the Tightness of the thing submitted to, is
so much pressed that it injures the effect even of what is true.
I am entirely of your opinion as to Madame Guyon,
and to that class of religious writers. I am formed to be
a receiver and a continual receiver, but at the same time I
must judge and choose what I ought to receive. A simple
passivity must end in pantheism, as you rightly observe.
The great lesson to be learned in life is to make the right
choice — to refuse the evil and to choose the good, to
distinguish between them and to prefer the one to the other.
You are pleased when you see in your child just rising out
of infancy a readiness to obey you in everything, but you
would be sorry if you saw that as he grew older, he con-
tinued still entirely dependent on you for direction, and
did not himself learn to know the right way through the
wilderness of life. The child does not give to the parent
the highest honour when he merely gives him submission,
and does not perceive the Tightness and wisdom and love
of the precept to which he submits.

248 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1840.

Dear friend, I wish I were sitting beside you, that I
might make sure of your not misunderstanding me,
for I feel that on this subject there is great risk of
misunderstanding one another; it is so difficult in words,
and even in thought and feeling, to preserve the true
equilibrium. When we see one part of a truth generally
overlooked, we are disposed to become its champions,
and like the old knights, to claim from all the world
the acknowledgment that it is best and fairest. The
Wesleyans have been generated by Calvinism, of which
they are the supplement. Calvinism, by what I cannot but
think a very absurd misconception of the meaning of the
7th chapter of the Epistle to the Bomans, teaches that a
man may be in a safe state, and may be a true believer,
whilst he continues carnal, and sold under sin, according to
the 14th verse. The Wesleyans, seeing the evil of this,
have set up their doctrine of perfection, which is certainly
true in the main, for a man may hold fast the grace of God,
and that grace is sufficient to keep him from evil, but their
statements of it are not always wise or right. Again,
Calvinism teaches that if a man is once in Christ, he will
certainly continue so to the end. The Wesleyans see the
evil of this, and its inconsistency with many of the warnings
of the Bible, and so they teach that a man may fall from a
state of salvation and recover it again half-a-dozen times in
the course of an hour, giving that place to temporary
movable feelings which belongs properly to principles, or
habits founded on principles, and elevating affections above
the sense of duty, which nevertheless is the true basis and
substratum of everything that is really good and high in
morals or religion. I believe that the Wesleyans have done
much good in England, and in the English colonies, as
missionaries ; but the individuals of them whom I have

jet. 52. MADAME FOREL. 249

known seem to me not fully to apprehend that the way of
the cross is not only the way in which Jesus walked for
us, but also the only way in which we can walk with Him,
and that He was a man of sorrows, not that we might be
exempt from sorrows, but that we might suffer with
Him and sorrow with Him, in the same spirit and to the
same result.

As Wesleyanism rose out of Calvinism, so Quakerism rose
out of Puritanism. The doctrinal creed of the Puritans
appeared to George Fox, the apostle of Quakerism, to
smother the spirit under the letter ; against this he pro-
tested, and in his protest he threw away forms and letters
altogether, making religion to consist in the simple relation
of each individual soul with God, independent of positive
facts, including truths revealed by God in any other way
than that of the individual conscience. I can understand
in the same way that Madame Guyon, and the race of
mystics that have risen up in the bosom of Popery, have
been generated by the over-working and outside-working
of the Eoman Catholic system, and they teach over-passivity
in opposition to over-activity. Thus man oscillates. What
a comfort it is to know that God really desires the good of
every soul that He hath made, and that He really guides
every soul that waits upon Him in humility and sincerity,
notwithstanding its imperfect or fallacious theories. Let
us not make haste, but let us abide in Jesus, desiring to be
educated by God, so that we may not only wish to walk in
the way of righteousness, but that we may also discern
wherein righteousness consists, and patiently and lovingly
walk in it.

I am very grateful for M. Vinet's letter, and when I
think that I have anything to say to him, which is worth
telling him, I shall write to him. I feel most deeply for

250 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1840.

Mm in his present circumstances, and I remember him
before God, asking help for him according to his need. I
love them both most affectionately, and I believe that he
seeks not his own glory, but the will of God, which gives
me confidence that he will be guided in that wisdom
which is from above. I am very anxious to see his book.
I seldom meet with any striking thought without thinking
of him, and wishing to convey it to him. I have just now
a sentence before me which I shall transcribe for him :
" The will to the deed, the inward principle to the outward
act, is as the kernel to the shell ; but yet, in the first place,
the shell is necessary for the kernel, and that by which it
is commonly known ; and in the next place, as the shell
comes first, and the kernel grows gradually and hardens
within it, so is it with the moral principle in man.
Legality precedes morality in every individual, even as the
Jewish dispensation preceded the Christian in the educa-
tion of the world at large." . . . — Yours most affection-
ately, T. Erskine.

114. TO MRS. BURNETT.

Linlathen, Feb. 2, 1841.
. . . What a wonderful scene this world is, considered
as a school in which God is educating immortal beings for
eternity ! Look to Africa, to Asia, to America, even to
Europe, even to England, London, Manchester, Glasgow,
Dundee, as schools for eternity ! It is a great mystery.
The God of infinite love, who so loved every individual
man as to give His only-begotten Son to die for him and
to be his living Head, who has all wisdom and all power,
He looks on this strange sight and lets it proceed.
Assuredly then there is a purpose of wise love in all
this which will yet be manifested. That is the blue
sky beyond the clouds. We must by faith pierce the

iET. 52. REV. J. M. CAMPBELL. 251

cloud, and strengthen our hearts by looking to the end of
the Lord ; or, as Gambold says,

" Thus all the sequel is well weighed.
I cast myself upon Thine aid,
A sea where none can sink."

" He hath shut in all under unbelief, that He might have
mercy on all." No wonder that such an idea drew from
the apostle the exclamation which follows, " 0 the depth,"
etc. . . .

We have had a great many deaths lately amongst our
friends. One of my first continental friends, a Genevese
lady, died of a paralytic stroke lately.1 She was on her
knees praying before going to bed, and she was one who
prayed in spirit and in truth. It was a sweet way of
dying. . . . — Yours affectionately,

T. Erskine.

115. TO THE REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

Linlathek, Feb. 27, 1841.

Beloved Friend, — I cannot tell you how grateful to
my heart your love is, and all the expressions of it. I like
ties of kindness — outward and visible signs of the unseen
spirit of love — special motives for prayer, binding souls
together in the spirit.

My dear brother, I value your love much, both as your
love and as God's love. I have confidence in the truth
and stability of your love, and all here are of one mind in
the appreciation of you and your affection.

Give my affectionate love to your dear wife. We do
indeed not find it difficult to rejoice with her and you on
this event.2 May the good Father bless the parents and

1 Madame Cramer.

2 The birth of a son called Thomas Erskine. See ' ' Memorials of
J. M'Leod Campbell, D.D.," vol. i. p. 159.

252 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1841.

the children, and make your Thomas Erskine a better
man and a wiser than him after whom he is named.
I should be sorry to see myself reproduced entire in any
human being • and if I thought that the name could effect
such a thing, I should positively object to its being imposed
on the young immortal; but I have the trust that the
names into which he is to be baptized, is the name which
will be the mould of his character and the fountain of his
spiritual life — the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. . . — Yours ever most affectionately,

T. Erskene.

116. TO THOMAS CARLYLE, ESQ.

Linlathen, March 23, 1841.

Dear Mr. Carlyle, — Your kindly thoughts are highly
valued, and your expression of them always most acceptable.

I thank you for your sympathy in the matter of my
eyes, which I should not feel so heavy an affliction as I do,
were I able to hold that converse with my own thoughts
for which you give me credit. I believe that it is to teach
me that lesson that my present circumstances have been
allotted to me ; but I am a slow scholar, most apt to fall
into some form or other of castle-building, the resort and
the nourishment of an indolent mind. I think of that
word of Jesus Christ, "I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do ; and now, 0 Father, glorify thy
Son," etc., and am compelled to conclude that my life is
no following of His life.

Proceed with your Puritans, it is the work given you to
do. Blessed are they who see a work set before them, and
are conscious of a capacity to do it. It is a great under-
taking to lift them out of the rubbish ; if you love them
well enough you will find out their mystery of life. Why
do you love them 1 If you could explain to yourself and

iET. 52. THOMAS CARLYLE. 253

to others that why, the business would be well advanced,
for it is no dead thing that you love. Of course you know
Baxter's Life by himself. One feels provoked that he does
not tell us more of the things which he saw and touched
every day, especially about Cromwell himself. It is a
curious thing that he says about "his natural hilarity
being such as other men have only when they have taken
a cup too much." He says also, what seems opposed to
other testimony, that he " was of excellent parts for
affection and oratory." He was one of the Jotuns, or
what do you call the Norse Titans 1

When you make your escape from London, pray come
down, you and dear Mrs. Carlyle, by a Dundee steamer —
they are the best — and come here and inquire after
mountains and ocean places, which can make the mind
free, if such places there are. In this neighbourhood the
industrial Jotun has blown his poisonous breath upon
everything. We have a stream near the house, which I
remember clear and sweet, and full of active joyful life ;
now it is like the sentina of an apothecary's or chemist's
establishment, foaming with unhealthy artificial froth, and
reeking forth evil smells, and substituting ill-omened rats
for the gay mottled par; and tall chimneys vomit out
pestiferous smoke. Enfin, this is to be explained and
received on the same principle as the failure of eyesight.

We have a sea near us, the Firth of Tay, along which
run for many miles delicious links, of sweet sward and
most fantastical miniatures of hills and valleys, through
which I used to ride and walk, holding intercourse with
nature as best I might; but the Jotun has practised a
railroad through the heart of it, which has plucked out
the heart of its mystery. Nevertheless there are still
trees and fields here, which in the appropriate season
become green and tell their wondrous tale, as others of

254 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1841.

their kind do elsewhere, and we have the blue vault and
the high stars, and liberty of access to the Highest,
debarred only by our own evil.

I am very sorry that Mrs. C. is invalided. I feel grati-
tude and affection to you both for your kindness to me.

I have got your Lectures, and my sister Mrs. Paterson
kindly reads to me, so I have the use of eyes, though not
my own. There are advantages as well as disadvantages
in this way of it. Did you hear any of Scott's Political
Lectures I1 I think they must have been very good ; words
in them for the masses of Manchester and Glasgow, as well
as for the rulers. — Yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

117. TO MADAME FOREL.

London, June 28, 1841.
Dear Friend, — I have received your packet, and return
you many thanks. I have also received Vinet's Nouveauz
Discours,2 into which I have looked a little with much
pleasure; but as I am at present alone, separated from
those of my family to whom I am obliged to be indebted
for much of my knowledge of books, in consequence of the
weakness of my own eyes, I have not made much progress
in them yet. I was very much struck by the second,
"Le merchant et le jour de la calamit6." The certainty,
the inevitable, infallible certainty, of the connection
between moral good and happiness — moral evil and
misery — is an immense doctrine, full of important results.
The gospel does not weaken this doctrine ; faith in Jesus
Christ does not deliver us from this eternal law, that
" verily it must be ill with the wicked," but teaches us to
approve and love that law, even in its application to

1 On Chartism and Socialism. See Discourses by Alexander J. Scott,
pp. 130, 160.

2 " Nouveaux Discours sur quelques sujets religieux." Paris, 1841.

jet, 52. MADAME DE STAEL. 255

ourselves, and carries us safe through it, to the other side,
where its fruits grow. Let us be patient, dear friend, and
trust in the Lord with all our heart, for in due time we
shall reap, if we faint not. I am very sorry that your
eyes are troubling you; I have nevertheless sent you a
book, a work of my own, which I have spoken to you
about, and from which that extract about " accepting our
punishment" is taken — The Brazen Serpent — which you
may let dear Mme. Vinet see. I have also sent a book
for M. Vinet, called " The Kingdom of Christ," which I
am sure he will read with interest, although he will
disagree much and often with it. The writer is a friend
of mine, whom I value highly, as a man of great worth
and great intellectual power.1 . . . Alas ! dear and
honoured Madame Necker :2 "The path of the just is as
the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the
perfect day." . . . — Yours ever affectionately,

T. Erskine.

118. TO MADAME DE STAEL.

8e.pt. S, 1841.
We must be in earnest in the business of crucifying the
flesh. We must die with Jesus. His death-pang must
pass through us, that we may truly partake of His life.3
We must not be too tender of our own feelings. . . .

Our wisdom cannot judge God's. Our wisdom is to
acknowledge God's wisdom, and to wait on Him that He
would reveal it to us. What you say of your mother

1 F. D. Maurice. 2 Authoress of "L'Education Progressive."

3 "A ccepting our punishment is just being of one mind with God, in hating
and condemning sin, and longing for its destruction. It is submitting
ourselves to the process of its destruction, and setting our seals to the
righteousness of God in the process. It is the death-pang of the crucified
Head thrilling through the member and accomplishing in it what it did in
the Head."— The Brazen Serpent, 2d edition, p. 48.

256 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1841

praying for me on the 1st June is very striking to me.
I do not recollect anything in particular to mark that day,
but I learn this from her prayer, that on that day, as on
every day, most important concerns for my soul were
transacted without my being aware of their importance.
Every negligence in the inner history of my thoughts and
desires, every conflict between the Spirit of God and the
spirit of self-indulgence within me, every inward con-
fessing of Christ as the Lord of my being, though bearing
no outward sign, is, I am well assured, of unspeakable
importance in the sight of God, and fitted to call forth
the intense prayers of all those in whose hearts the Spirit
of God is acting as an intercessor for others. And it is a
painful indication of the little sense that I have of the
mind of the Spirit concerning me, that such prayers can
be made for me by others, whilst I remain myself so cold
and apathetic. I had another friend, also now dead, who
used to tell me that she at particular times felt constrained
to pray for me, as if I were in great spiritual danger. She
was one who lived very near God, and prayed much, and
I used to wonder that I was not able to connect any felt
state of difficulty in my own mind with those calls to
prayer in my behalf which she experienced. At last I
came to the conclusion that these prayers did not mark
any particular difficulty in my path, but only that the
general and continual difficulty of every day was then
specially made known to her soul, that I might, by
hearing of it, be stirred up to a greater activity of prayer
and vigilance, seeing how critical my condition appeared
to the loving Spirit of God.

119. TO THOMAS CARLYLE, ESQ.

Linlathen, Nov. 24, 1841.

... I HOPE you are proceeding with Oliver's life. He was

jet. S3. CRAMER MALLET. 257

a grand fellow, and full of good English domestic life, I am
persuaded, of which no man could require a better proof
than his calling up one of the maids of his house, whom he
knew to be a Quaker, and telling her that George Fox was
in town, for that he had met him that day. His appoint-
ment of Hale, too, is good. But it is very difficult to
collect specimens of the primary formation of such a man.
It would be pleasant to light on an early or at all events
an inner collection of letters — an interior nota Falerni — to
show what he was before he made the move, or what he
really was after it. There have been a good many rather
considerable breakers of formulas ; do you know any good
makers of them 1 or do they only grow themselves unmade 1
I was struck by a dictum of Coleridge the other day, in his
Literary Remains,1 on this subject ; he remarks that the shell
comes before the kernel, and is the prepared receptacle for
it, to nourish and protect it, in its germination. To get
good shells is still more important, as it is much more
difficult, than to break bad ones. . . . Believe me to be,
with sincere wishes for your welfare, and with much grati-
tude for your kindness, yours, T. Erskine.

120. TO M. CRAMER MALLET.

Linlathen, Feb. 25, 1842.
Mon cher Monsieur, — Je vais vous ecrire en Anglais
afin que je puisse m'entretenir avec vous plus a mon aise,
et parceque je sais bien que Madame ou une de ces dames
aura la bonte d'etre mon interprete. . . .

The distress and poverty in all our manufacturing dis-
tricts are appalling. As yet, the sufferers have shown
great patience, but the question of the Corn Laws is a
very agitating question at such a time, especially as there
is no want of public haranguers who represent to the
1 Vol. i. p. 338.
R

258 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1842.

people that all their present distress arises out of the Corn
Laws, and that these laws are made by the landowners
merely for their own interest. It is a large subject and
an intricate one, and one which is not to be decided without
taking into consideration a great many circumstances which
are generally overlooked by those who look at us from a
distance.

Your account of your own revolution is very interesting
and instructive. This is the age of revolutions ; we may
expect them everywhere. The intelligence, or rather the
intellectual activity, of the lower classes of society has made
a prodigious advance within the last fifty years ; and intel-
ligence is power ; but the moral culture and the religious
culture has not kept pace with the intellectual activity;
and without a right state of morals power cannot be exer-
cised well. Here lies the general difficulty. Men insist on
judging of everything, though they have neither sufficient
extent of knowledge nor sufficient unselfishness to Judge
aright. I believe that we are near some great catastrophe ;
there is no reverence left for anything which has been con-
sidered venerable by our fathers, and love, la charted, the
only true bond for uniting men, either as families or
nations, is fast disappearing, and no bond is left but
selfishness, or sense of common interest, which cannot
stand ; for men's interests, or their views of their interests,
will be continually opposing them to each other.

Farewell, dear friends. I think of you all with much
love, as my brothers and sisters. T. Erskine.

1.21. TO MRS. BURNETT.

2 Gloucester Place, New Road, London,
June 27, 1842.

Dear Mrs. Burnett, — ... I was yesterday at Wool-
wich and heard Mr. Scott. ... He preached on the

;et. 53. MRS. MA UR1CE. 259

words, " If ye be led of the Spirit ye are not under the
law." He showed how little men seemed even to aim
at being in the Spirit; how contented they were, even
.those who seemed religious, with doing things, not in
the love of them, but because they were commanded by
God to do them, and how they carried this same principle
into the doctrines which they held as their creed, for they
thus held them, not because they saw their truth in the
light of the Spirit, but because they conceived that this
creed was prescribed to them by God. He desired that he
might not be misunderstood, as if he had said that a man
was to do nothing, and to believe nothing but what he
himself loved or saw ; but he only wished men to consider
that so long as they were doing it in this way they were
doing it not in the Spirit but under the law.

When a man is not led by the Spirit he ought to be
under the law. It is his next best state, but it is not his
Christian calling. I feel that this is a most important sub-
ject, though perhaps so shortly stated it may not come with
much conviction to your mind. I scarcely ever met with
a person who did not give me the impression that he held
his creed under the law, referring to particular texts, but
not to a Spirit, apparently not even seeing the desirableness
of it. Sometimes I used to feel this even with your loved
and venerated father ; at the same time there was no man
that I had then met with who was half so free, or with
whom I felt so free to say what was the feeling or the con-
viction of my heart, without fear of being charged or sus-
pected of heresy. . . . — Ever yours affectionately,

T. Erskine.

122. TO MRS. MAURICE.

2 Glo'ster Place, New Eoad, 24<A July.
Dear Mrs. Maurice, — I have taken the liberty of
sending you a copy of Madame Necker's work on Educa-

260 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1842.

tion, of which we spoke the other day. It is a pleasure to
me to look back upon the intellectual and sociable and
eminently earnest old lady. She had been for many years
in a great measure withdrawn from society by her deafness,
and a certain desolateness of feeling connected partly with
that infirmity, and still more by a sense of the vanity of
temporal things, and by family sorrows ; the chiefest and
sorest of which was the death of a much-loved daughter,
who, I think, was burned to death. She had a heart for
friendship, and delighted in intimate communions, one of
which she enjoyed to a very great degree, with Madame de
Broglie, the daughter of her old friend Madame de Stael,
who, after the death of her own mother, and increasingly
after the death of Madame Necker's daughter, became a
daughter and more than a daughter to her. The chapter
on married life, in the third volume, is very much indebted
to her hand, I believe.

My acquaintance with this old lady, and my pleasurable
remembrance of it, make me wish to introduce her to you
and Mr. Maurice. I hope to see him and you once more
before I leave London, which I propose doing next week.
— I remain, with great regard, yours most truly,

T. Erskine.

123. TO JAMES MACKENZIE, ESQ.

Linlathen, Sept. 5, 1842.
My dearest Friend, — It is a grief to me to have so
little to do with one whom I love so well. I have often
intended to write to you, when things or thoughts, or per-
sons that interested me came in my way; but indolence or
something else prevented me, and left me the mere longing
to communicate with you. I spent about three months
this spring and summer in London, having gone up primarily

jet. 53. JAMES MACKENZIE. 261

to hear Scott lecture on his old subject, the mutual relations
of religion and philosophy. I felt an increasing value for
his views on the subject, and an increasing admiration for
his talents as a lecturer. I afterwards heard him deliver
two lectures on Schism.1 He began by showing wherein
true unity consists. God is the only real centre, and sepa-
ration from Him the only real schism. Then our union
to Him must be spiritual, and therefore schism cannot con-
sist in a difference of form, as unity cannot consist in a
similarity of form. These lectures were taken by a short-
hand writer, and perhaps you have seen them, through
Miss Paterson or some other. I went down to Woolwich
pretty often to hear him preach on Sundays, always with
great satisfaction.

Madame de Stael came over when I was in London,
which was a great pleasure to me. I have gotten from her
some very beautiful productions of Mme. de Broglie's pen,
which I should like you to read, but of which I cannot give
copies. One is an account of Mrs. Fry's visit to Paris, full
of living spirit. Madame de Stael has also been kind
enough to give me a most striking portrait of her mother,
which I should like you to see. Surely you can spare a
day or two, now when the Queen's visit has necessarily
thrown all loyal subjects idle, so that they may be at least
their own masters as much as the turn-outs at Manchester.
We are in a strange state nationally, — near some great
explosion. There seems to be no law nor government. If
things settle down of themselves, well and good, but there
is no strong hand in the State to put them down. Come
over before the break comes, that we may have a little quiet
anticipation of the joy of the kingdom which cannot be
shaken. — With best regards to your ladies, I ever am, yours
most affectionately, T. Erskine.

1 See Discourses by Alexander J. Scott, pp. 230-280.

262 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1842.

124. TO MISS ANN DUNDAS.

Linlathen, Sept. 25, 1842.
My dear Ann, — I am most thankful for the accounts
which you have received of the circumstances attending the
death of your dearest brother, the most amiable of men. I
believe that his ear would be more open to those with
whom he had never been in the habit of discussing and
disputing about Christianity, than to his own friends, and
therefore, that although it seems to us sad that so loving
a being should have died at a distance from his kindred,
yet it was of the mercy of God. There certainly flowed
through his heart a deeper stream of natural love than
ever I saw in any man, and who can doubt that that stream
is yet to be holy water in the kingdom of God ? I loved
him well, and yet I feel as if I had not made enough of him
when I had him. I hope now to profit by the remembrance
of him, especially in the lesson of love — disinterested, noble
love. Dearest Willy, — I feel for all of you his sisters and
brothers, and desire to have the bond between us strength-
ened and tightened, and not weakened by this event. And
I hope also, my dear friends, that you yourselves may profit
in this same way, by a stroke which is intended by Him
who inflicted it to go very deep. The great lesson of love
is, to die to ones-self. Christ's love is always shown through
death, just because the death of the self is both the great
expression and the only way into love. We cannot love
without dying to self, and we cannot die to self without
love. The two things go together inseparably; in fact,
they are opposite faces of the same thing — and that thing
is, eternal life. I hope you will all pray much, and keep
your hearts and your lips in humility and watchfulness,
not thinking it any degradation to humble yourselves before
each other, and to submit one to another in the fear of

jet. S3- LORD RUTHERFURD. 263

God. 0 Ann, the time past may suffice us all to have
wrought our own will, which is iniquity; and now let us
begin again our journey and our life.

I am thankful to have seen so much of him here, so that
I have associated him with many places in-doors and out-of-
doors. I know.no one except Davie who had the same
delight in living over past days, and recalling past friends ;
the roots of his heart went deep into our common nature,
and entwined themselves with all his kind, beginning with
his relations. It flatters our personal feelings — our vanity
— to oe loved for our own personal qualities, but it is
wholesome to know that we are loved for something not
persoml, but belonging to us as members of one family,
of one race, children of one Father, redeemed by one
Saviou], who is the common Head of all. Dear friends,
Ann, ]V,'ary, Eliza, Jemima — let us be thus minded, and if
in anything we be otherwise minded, let us humbly seek
wisdom aid strength from our Head. Farewell. — Yours
ever affectionately, T. Erskine.

125. TO LORD RUTHERFURD.

LlNLATHEN, DUNDEE, Oct. 7, 1842.

My deai Rutherfurd, — The thought of having you
here is a grat pleasure to me. I have been intending to
write to you % letter of urgency on this matter for some
time back, aid the circumstance to which you refer, the
death of thatnost amiable and most affectionate of men,1
increases in ns the desire of getting nearer and keeping
nearer to old riends. The last time that I was in your
house he was h.ere ; he came separately. I was first, and
Jbhn announcd me under William's name, and when he
came John annunced him under mine. I never knew a
more generous leart, and I have scarcely ever known any
1 William Dundas, Esq.

264 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1842.

one who appreciated, as he did, the value of human kind-
ness in all its gradations. Full of interest intellectually,
and still fuller of interest morally, we shall not look upon
his like again. Those who have known him nearly will
not easily find his place filled. My dear friend, the world
is passing away, but I feel that nothing which is truly
worth keeping can be lost. Faith in God implies faith in
this. God is the element in which we were made to
live, and in that element alone can we breathe freely.
If we lived there, and met each other there, we should
feel that there is in truth neither death nor separation.
The value of any true disinterested affection is immeasur-
able by any earthly measure. . . . — Yours ever, ^. E.

126. TO THE REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

Linlathen, October 15,1842.

Beloved Brother, — We rejoice with you, axd trust
that you will be taught to receive in this new gif/all that
your Father intends for you in it. We are thaikful that
dear Mrs. Campbell is now so well. Are we ^ot in His
hands, and are not His hands a Father's hands!

I had proposed being in Glasgow before noV? and even
I had thought of going to Oban and seeing your iear father,1
and refreshing my spirit by the sight of heather/ mountains,
which I have not looked on for many years But man
does not direct his own way, and it is neiher on this
mountain nor in Jerusalem that we are to/worship the
Father. I have been kept at home by the feling that at
this time of general destitution all those jho have any
property or any capability of being helpful t> their fellow-
creatures by giving them employment or otherwise should
be at their posts. . . . You know that Mrs. f aterson natur-

1 Dr. Campbell of Kilninver, who died in his sleep, frth January 1843.
See " Memorials of Dr. M'Leod Campbell," vol. i. pp. p6, 172.

AST. 54. MR. AND MRS. MAC NAB B. 265

ally cares for you. This is the season of the death of her
Daidie, and she lives over the whole history as the marked
days pass on, marked by sorrow and yet marked by love.

With kindest love from all here to you all, I remain ever
yours, T. Erskine.

127. TO MR. AND MRS. MACNABB.

6 Manor Place, Edinburgh, Dec. 29, 1842.

Very dear Friends, — . . . I have been surrounded for
the last six months with starving unemployed labourers,
and I have been giving them work, to an amount varying
from twenty to thirty ; which being just so much above
my usual expenditure, I find myself tolerably drained ; and
besides, the faces of those whom I have been obliged to
refuse employment to seem to me to reproach me for every
shilling which I spend out of my own neighbourhood. You
can understand this, and also the increased demands of all
the local charities — Infirmary, Clothes Societies, etc.

I intend to go west to see your beloved brother1 before
I return home. It seems as if the Church of Scotland threw
away its peace when it threw him out of its bosom. What
confusion has there been ever since ! What indeed can
unite men together, but the sense of the universal love of
Cod, which that Church rejected in the person of him who
was honoured to preach it %

... Oh what a blessed secret it is that the will of God
is the law of man's being — his true element, out of which
his spirit sickens and dies ; and that, as a water-plant can
only thrive and have its true liberty of growth in the water,
so man has his true liberty only in the will of God. — Yours
(both) most affectionately, T. Erskine.

1 Mrs. Macnabb was a sister of Dr. M'Leod Campbell. Her daughter
married the son of Captain Paterson, who took his uncle's name after his
decease, and is now the proprietor of Linlathen.

266 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1843.

128. TO MRS. BURNETT.

Feb. 4, 1843.

... I rejoice in being the introducer of Vinet to any-
one who can appreciate him. Don't send him back ; keep
him as a friend. I am at present reading a very interest-
ing book of his, recently published, " Sur. la Manifestation
des Convictions Religieuses," which leads him to the ques-
tion, "Whether there ought to be such a thing as an Estab-
lished Church," which he thinks ought to be answered in
the negative. I have not yet reached that part of the book
which treats that subject, but what I have read is admir-
able. He considers the purpose of God in the institution
of society as a spiritual education for all the members of
it, which purpose requires the frank avowal of our moral
and religious convictions. When a thing is said or done
before us which we think wrong, he says that we feel our
own spirits injured if we are prevented by any selfish
motive from expressing our disapprobation, and we at the
same time deprive the other party of the appeal to his
conscience which such an expression would make. He
speaks most feelingly of the heartless state of society, where
everything that is most intimate and inward to the con-
science and the heart is studiously suppressed, and where,
consequently, all life becomes a dead conventionality.

I feel very much for your two depressed and melancholy
neighbours. There is one suggestion that I would make
to you in relation to such cases. I believe that the expres-
sion " promises of the Bible " is often misunderstood, so as to
convey the idea that the love of God to man is conditional
upon his catching at it or taking hold of it. To us is
born a Saviour ; that is no promise, it is the accomplish-
ment of the first promise. When a child is born in a

xi. 54- A MRS. BURNETT. 267

. family lie is by birth the brother of the other children of
the family ; they have nothing to do in order to make him
their brother. They cannot benefit by their relation unless
they receive him as a brother, but the relation itself stands
independent of them. So also God is our Father ; and in
the gift has been manifested the actual and honest pur-
pose of God towards us and all men, which we may
frustrate but not unmake. ... I saw your youths, but
had no opportunity, or, alas ! took no opportunity of
intimate intercourse, such as Vinet speaks of, as the debt
which man owes to man. The fear of doing it wrong
weighs with me now much more than it used to do, so that
I require a very distinct opening to induce me to enter
into anything like religious conversation. If everything
which we thought and said and did were, as it ought to be,
a part of that worship which ought to be the business of
life (for are we not called to be priests, offering up continu-
ally the sacrifice of ourselves 1), it would not be felt to be
a transition when we spoke directly of a truth which was
always substantially uppermost in the mind. I know
" Proverbial Philosophy," and like many things in it.
Have you ever read any of Carlyle's writings % By the by,
I don't remember whether I spoke to you of him when I
was at Kemnay. His History of the French Eevolution and
his miscellaneous works and " Sartor Resartus " are all very
remarkable, sometimes startling. I love the man ; ... he
has a real belief in the invisible, which in these railroad
and steam-engine days is a great matter. He sees and
condemns the evil and baseness of living in the lower part
of our nature instead of living in the higher. He is full
of thoughts, of genius, and of high imagination.

268 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1843.

129. TO JAMES MACKENZIE, ESQ.

Linlathen, June 7, 1843.

Beloved Mackenzie, — Are you really coming to see
us, or are you content, and willing that we should be con-
tent, with speaking of it, or thinking of it ? We are in
the middle of much, and may expect strange results soon,
and it does me good to see or hear a temperate man, who
believes that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without
our Father. I doubt not that a certain kind and degree of
good may arise amongst certain persons out of our Scotch
Kirk separation — more awakened thought, more zeal, — but
I fear also more judging, more spiritual pride, etc. — as in
the much and perhaps overlauded days of the Covenant
and the hill-side.

I have been reading Carlyle's " Past and Present," out of
which two elements he rears a horoscope of the future. He
thinks that our great want is that of a true aristocracy — a
strong intelligent domineering aristocracy in its two forms
of governing and teaching. We need men who will " mak'
us for to know it," like Sir Harry, and who will also " mak'
us for to do it." These are our great desiderata, and he
seems to hope much from men coming to be sensible that
these are our needs. . . . — With best regards to your
ladies, yours ever, T. Erskine.

130. TO THOMAS CARLYLE, ESQ.

Linlathen, Nov. 8, 1843.

Dear Mr. Carlyle, — I received the newspaper ad-
dressed by your hand as a testimony that you had survived
the voyage to London in a capacity, so far, of discharging
the duties of a human being. Soon after you left us a friend
of mine, who would like to know you, and whom you, I
think, would like to know, James Mackenzie, son of the

jet. 55. MADAME DE STAE~L. 269

"Man of Feeling," came here. I spoke to him of your
purposed History of Oliver Cromwell, on which he recollected
having read something rather characteristic of the said
Oliver in the " Coltness Papers," published lately by the
Maitland Club, and he promised when he went home to
look out for the passage, and to send me the distinct
reference, that I might transmit it to you to be used
or abused according to your own judgment. He has
not only sent the reference, but transcribed the passage,
which I enclose to you.1 I think that there must have
been a considerable self-evidencing power in Oliver's
religion which could have in so short a time overcome the
prejudices of the good lady of Alertown. His interest in
the maiger young man and his recommendation of Mont-
pellier are also good from a man who was not brought up
in the kingly habit of buying and paying people by court-
eous words.

Hitherto our winter has been most gentle. Our trees
are at this moment passing through a beautiful euthanasia,
covering the ground with rich mosaic. We expect our
sister Mrs. Stirling home to-day from her long absence at
a house of mourning. This year has made more such
houses in our circle of friends than usual. Give my best
regards to Mrs. Carlyle, and believe me to be yours most
truly, T. Erskine.

131. EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS TO MADAME DE STAEL.

Sept. 20, 1843.

. . . You mistake my character very much if you

suppose that I live free from the influence of visible things.

I am continually called to act amongst them, and I feel it

a continual and a most painful difficulty to determine what

1 "The Coltness Collections," pp. 9, 10, quoted in "Oliver Cromwell's
Letters and Speeches," vol. ii. p. 272.

270 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1843.

is the path of duty. I am thus often in a state of indeci-
sion, and very often also after having acted I condemn the
choice I had made, and wish I had acted otherwise. You
understand all the misery connected with such a temper.
Indeed, it often makes me feel weary and heavy laden, and
it also makes me feel how very little I realise the privilege
of having Jesus as my head and counsellor and guide,
and yet I know that He is indeed all these to me, and that
I shall one day be delivered from this bondage of corrup-
tion into the liberty wherewith the Son maketh free. The
filial spirit, the Son's spirit, is the free spirit which enters
into the Father's mind, and knows His will, and finds that
will its food and joy. The time is short, our redemption
draweth nigh ; let us fight the good fight of faith, and take
hold of eternal life, which indeed is nothing else than the
loving will of our Father, during the few remaining days

of our pilgrimage here.

Christmas 1843.
The history of every family and of every individual is
a deep tragedy ; for sin is in the world, and there is no
other deliverance from sin but by the way of sorrow —
sorrow administered by love and received in love. So
that this life is given up to the development of the sacred
mystery of sorrow. It is by sorrow that God calls the
prodigal to think of his true home, and it is by sorrow
that He perfects His saints.

. . . "When we feel pain or uneasiness in our bodies, we
naturally refer it to some internal malady, and we look out
for a remedy which may remove it. But when we feel
pain or uneasiness in our minds we are disposed to refer it,
not to any malady in the mind itself, but to the circum-
stances in which we are placed, and thus men are employed
rather in attempting to change their circumstances than in
endeavouring to cure their souls.

jet. 55. M. GAUSS EN. 271

132. TO M. CRAMER MALLET.

Linlathen, Dec. 26, 1843.
My dear Friend, — . . . All through Europe the lower
classes of the people have learned that they have rights ;
but they have not yet learned that the real political good
of man is to be well governed, and not self-governed. They
suppose that these two things are one. The gospel that
they would desire is, Every man his own king ; and that
other gospel which is next neighbour to it, Every man his
own God ; whereas the true gospel is, You are not your
own, but bought with a price. Submit yourselves to this
rule. God's promised blessing to the world is a righteous
king; see Isa. xxxii. and Ps. lxxii. and ex. . . . — Yours
most truly, T. Erskine.

133. to m. gaussen.

Linlathen, Dundee, April 10, 1844.
My dear Friend and Brother, — You must think me
very unmindful of all the friendship and love which I have
received at your hands, if you judge of me by my irregu-
larity in writing ; but I hope that you do not so judge of
me. I hope that you have confidence that I feel bound to
you by a tie which cannot be broken — the eternal bond of
God's love. I often go back in memory to Satigny, and
collect there many dear ones : your mother and sister and
daughter, and Perrot and the young missionaries from the
Bale seminary, Miss Greene, and others who have gone
hence. I see your venerable little church, surrounded with
its marronniers. I walk in your garden, and look at your
mountains and your river. Oh, my friend, what a privilege
it is to know Him who is the Maker of all things as our
Father and our God, who calls us to be partakers in His
own nature, by receiving Jesus and walking in Him. I

272 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1844.

hope before long to see you again, but the state of our
country at present makes me feel it to be my duty to
remain at my own post. . . . — Yours ever,

T. Erskine.

134. TO THE REV. A. J. SCOTT.

Linlathen, July 22, 1844.
My dear Friend, — I feel it indeed a great disappoint-
ment not to meet you at this time. We had thought that
you might have made out Perth, and then taken the
steamer down the river ; but I am quite sensible that any
over-exertion might be attended with lamentable conse-
quences. That you have yourself felt it a disappointment
is at the same time gratifying and grievous. If it had been
possible, I wish you had been here this last week, during
which we have enjoyed the refreshing babbling of that
most amiable of men, James Mackenzie. I who weary of
myself in other men's company, find myself always renovated
and restored by his free natural current, which runs out of
him like a child's prattle. If he has the same effect on
you that he has on me, I think the prospect of benefit —
even physical benefit — from his society might almost have
outweighed the risk of a journey here. His tenderness of
nature, his exquisite loving sense of the ludicrous, his besoin
of uttering his thoughts and feelings, not to mention the
infinity of his resources, in taste and intelligence of all sorts,
and in personal anecdote, give a charm to him which I
never saw in any one else.1 He has got a beautiful day, I
am glad to see, for his voyage home. So beautiful indeed
does the weather look, that I feel tempted to take a run

1 Yet another and deeper bond united these two friends. In 1824 they
met at Rome. Mr. Mackenzie, then a thoughtless youth, was prostrated
by fever, and lay for weeks in a critical condition. Mr. Erskine's
attentions were incessant. The happy fruit of them was an entire change
in Mr. Mackenzie's thoughts and sentiments, and a perfect spiritual har-
mony ever after between them.

iET. 55. . DR. WYLIE. 273

to Stirlingshire, where the beauty of the weather is met
half-way by the beauty of the country, that I might shake
hands with you again in our own country, before I leave
Britain for an uncertain time. ... T. E.

135. TO MRS. MACHAR.

Linlathen, May 27, 1844.
The present time is a very trying one. I did not feel
myself called on to take any part in this movement (the
Disruption), but I always expressed my conviction that the
movement was one more of a political than of a religious
character. God is Love. I feel that is what is wanted
universally. I desire to have my own heart ever filled out
of that fountain ; it is a love which rejoiceth not in iniquity,
but rejoiceth in the truth ; but most assuredly it is not the
true love if it forgets tenderness towards those whom we
think in error.

136. TO DR. WYLIE OF CARLUKE.

. . . The great body of the people here have followed
Mr. Miller1 out of the Church, rather (I believe) on the
ground that he is a good man, and making a sacrifice
for conscience' sake, than on any personal convictions of
their own that the principle on which he acts is right. I
believe, also, that it is generally felt that the rights of the
people are asserted by the seceding ministers, which weighs
a good deal. The letters from your elders are most touch-
ing. I hope there are many such people in the ranks of
the Secession ; but I scarcely think that in this county, at
least in the rural parts of it, such are to be found. And
as they are most touching even to me, who know nothing
of the writers, they must be heart-breaking to you. I am
surprised that men like these should have allowed an out-
ward thing to acquire such importance in their eyes.
* The Rev. Samuel Miller of Monifieth.
S

274 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1844.

CHAPTEE XII.

Letters from the Continent — 1844-46.

In the autumn of 1844 the establishment at Linlathen
was temporarily broken up. The experiment had been
tried of making it the home of Mr. Erskine's two sisters as
well as his own. The state however of Mrs. Paterson's
health had become such that this idea was now finally
given up, she and her husband going in search of a
warmer climate. Mrs. Stirling was prepared to part with
her jointure-house of Cadder and live permanently at
Linlathen. Ere setting up the new regime over which she
was for many years so happily to preside, she accompanied
her brother on a visit to the Continent. Partly owing
to her being with him and taking share in the home cor-
respondence, and still more to the letters written at this
time by Mr. Erskine to his " dear Cousin Eachel " having
been destroyed, there are but few letters of this period to
present.

Eome was reached in the beginning of winter, and soon
after his arrival Mr. Erskine received a communication from
Lausanne in which he was specially interested. The
relations betwixt the civil authorities and the Church
of the Canton de Vaud had become so complicated that on
the 11th November 1844 M. Vinet addressed a letter to

.ct. 55. LETTERS FROM THE CONTINENT. 275

the Council of State, informing them that he should feel him-
self obliged at the end of the year to resign the office of
Professor of Practical Theology [in the Academy of Lausanne.
Writing to Mr. Erskine to inform him of this resolution,
after referring to a chronic malady of his son which shut
up against him any public career, M. Vinet says : —

" Et moi qui ai une carriere, je me vois sur le point

d'etre contraint de la quitter. Ma place de professeur

m'impose des fonctions qui impliquent la reconnaissance du

systeme eccl6siastique qui regit depuis cinq ans l'6glise

nationale de ce pays, et contre lequel j'ai protests en

renoncant a ma qualite de membre du elerge. Or je le suis

encore par un bout, et je ne puis le rester sans avoir a me

reprocher une inconsequence que personne, je le crains,

n'expliquerait a l'honneur de mon d£sint6ressement ou de

la fermete" de mes convictions. II est bon de vous dire,

bien cher monsieur, que ma demission de membre du elerge'

national est independante de mon systeme sur l'eglise et

l'etat, et que, quand je croirais a la legitimit6 de cette union,

je ne m'en separerais pas moins d'un gouvernement

ecclesiastique et d'une loi dont le principe est cyniquement

materialiste. II est facheux, pour moi du moins, qu'en

secularisant la facult6 de th6ologie, on ait, par m^garde

peut-etre, laiss6 pendre a nos charges de professeurs un

lambeau d' attributions ecclesiastiques qui font de nous,

malgr6 nous, malgr6 moi du moins, des fonctionnaires de

l'eglise ; mais la chose est ainsi : je ne puis la changer. Ce

n'est pas tout : avant que la loi fut faite, avant que mon

livre fut ecrit, moins d'une annee apres mon entr6e en

charge, j'avais concu des doutes penibles sur ma vocation

au professorat de theologie. . . .

"Laissez-moi vous dire combien je dois a un livre qui vient
de vous, quoique vous ne me l'ayez pas envoye : ' The Brazen
Serpent. (Le serpent d'airain.)' Que de choses qu'il me

276 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1844.

semble avoir toujours pensees ! Oh ! s'il m'etait donne de
sentir avec vous comme il m'a 6t6 donne de penser avec
vous ! . . .

" Voila mon papier rempli et mon cosur n'est pas vid£.
II ne s'y passe rien, ni dans ma t§te non plus, que je ne
voulusse vous dire. Surtout je voudrais vous entendre."

137. TO M. VINET.

Corso, Rome, Dec. 28, 1844.
My dear Friend, — In reading over your most interesting
letter, the only comfort that presented itself to me was
that " not a sparrow falleth to the ground without our
Father," and that " the hairs of your head are all numbered,"
and so utterly unhelpful did I feel myself, that I did not
like even to answer you, but thought that, like Job's friends
at their first meeting him, I should sit silent beside you.
But though I cannot give you any light or strength to
guide and sustain you, I can give you a brother's sympathy,
and I can present your burden along with my own to Him
who has said, " Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will
sustain you." It is indeed a most complicated case of
sorrow and perplexity — your poor position, the feeling that
consistency requires you to give up your professorship, yet
knowing that it is just the place for which your faculties
and character fit you, and that in it you have more apparent
opportunity of doing good than in any other; — all this
aggravated by a nervous state of body, affecting your mind.
I cannot venture to suggest anything, except this — that if
your conviction that you ought to renounce your chair
arises from the apprehension that others may think that
your continuing to hold it is the result of a mercenary
feeling in you, and not from a distinct perception of the
rightness of such a step in your own conscience, you should

mt. 56. MADAME FOREL. 277

take means to ascertain whether such a feeling in others
does exist to any extent. I could not wish you to remain
for a moment in any situation where you could not look
straight up to God, but I should be sorry that you left a
situation in which He has placed you, from any other fear
than that of opposing His will.

I am very thankful that you have got any good out of
the " Brazen Serpent." During the time that I wrote it I
was conscious of communion with God in my own spirit ;
and whether the view which I take of the history be just
or not, I believe that it contains much of the meaning of
Christianity. I think that I was mistaken in my impres-
sions as to the appearances of the spiritual gifts ; but that
is of very little consequence, and perhaps my chief error in
the book is that I give too much importance to them. I
shall be delighted to receive the new edition of your
discourses, having found them already helpful to me, and
always finding your friendship, and every expression of
it, a precious gift from the Giver of all good. I am also
pleased that you have chosen such an occupation as the
translation of a Kempis, the humility and meekness and
heavenly-mindedness of the book are so true and living.
. . . — Yours most truly, T. Erskine.

After passing the winter in Rome, Mr. Erskine and his
sister travelled by a circuitous route to Geneva, which they
reached early in October.

138. TO MADAME FOREL.

Florence, 29^ Nov. 1845.
My dear Friend, — Many thanks for your book, which
I have read with great interest. I think that it is calcu-
lated to be useful to many, the true state of a Christian in
his daily walk with God in the inner man of the heart, is

278 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1845.

so fully and constantly recognised in it, and all departures
from that state are so thoroughly condemned as sins. We
are so apt, through indolence, to form a low standard of
Christianity to ourselves, and to hope that all is well with
us, whilst we are not directly offending against a law of
God in our thoughts and desires, although we are not
entering heartily into His purpose with regard to ourselves
and others, nor endeavouring to be fellow-workers with
Him in that purpose — we are so apt thus to fall asleep,
that it is good for us to hear the voice of a brother-man
deploring and condemning things in himself as grievous
sins, which we may have been allowing to pass unreproved
in ourselves, and thus to be led to consider whether we
have not been voluntarily permitting ourselves to fall
asleep in the midst of our course.

There is an English book written by one John Foster,
a Baptist lately dead, containing many profound and
striking thoughts ; one of the subjects treated is " on
a man's writing memoirs of himself." In this essay
he supposes the man to go through the whole journey
of his life, and to note at each stage any conviction or
habit or taste which he had acquired there in his advance
forward, and to consider what it was that had been the
direct occasion of his making this acquisition. The
writer remarks here, how often, when we came to the
conclusion, we should find on this review that the casual
meeting with a fellow-creature, for whom, perhaps, we had
no great respect, and whom we never saw but once, or the
reading of a book which on the whole we disapproved of,
and had not read again, had left indelible impressions on
our character, whilst we had felt little influence from the
presence of a Being whose relation to us was that of an
ever present, ever loving, ever counselling Father, of whose
wisdom we never presumed to doubt. I remember reading

^T. 57. MADAME FOREL. 279

that essay when I was seventeen or eighteen years of age,
and feeling the truth of it very much ; I felt how life was
necessarily a progressive education of our character either for
good or for evil, and that the responsibility connected with
this our position was of such a solemn and overpowering
weight that a continual receiving of help from on high was
essential to our success, and a continual looking to God
for that help was our first duty and our chief privilege.
I determined also to keep a journal of my own history, but
I gave it up, feeling that I did not do it truly.

... I am here at Florence enjoying the works of art very
much. There are some beautiful frescos by Beato Angelico
di Fiesole, which have given me special gratification, and
edification also I should say; his pictures express the
humility and the heavenly aspirations of a devout soul, far
more than any paintings I ever saw ; it is said that he
never began to paint without praying for guidance and
help. How profitable should we all be one to another if
we thus did everything in the spirit of prayer ; we should
then be fulfilling God's purpose in creating us after His own
image. . . . May the Lord be with you, dear friends. —
Yours most affectionately, T. Erskine.

In the Tyrolese Bavaria, in a miserable little village inn
on the borders of the Tegernsee, Mr. Erskine had in the
preceding summer found an English gentleman, Mr. Wagner,
lying with his leg dreadfully shattered, the carriage in which
he and his family had been travelling having been over-
turned. Mr. Erskine remained some days with them,
sympathising most tenderly, giving such help as he could,
becoming acquainted with Dr. Foster and his wife, — a
daughter of Jean Paul Eichter, who were living in the
neighbourhood.1

1 See "Memoir of Rev. George Wagner" (Cambridge, 1858), pp. 77, 78.

280 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1846.

139. TO MR. WAGNER.

64 Via Sistina, Eoma, Jan. 9, 1846.
My dear Sir, — I hope this letter will find you pro-
gressing onwards towards a perfect recovery. . . . Will you
ask Miss Wagner, with my best regards, to let (Madame
Foster) Bichter's daughter know that I appreciate most
highly the kindness of her intention of sending me her
father's portrait, but that I entirely coincide with her
husband's opinion that it ought not to go out of the family.
In fact, though I should have rejoiced to have received it
as an expression of love, yet I should also have rejoiced to
have sent it back as an act of justice. Let her be told this,
with my true heart-felt love, for such I bear her ; and I
shall remember her and my interview with her on the
sweet shores of Tegernsee. . . .

140. TO MADAME DE STAEL.

Rome, Jan. 1846.
I believe that we should seek to have, and to be satisfied
with, the sympathy of Christ ; that is, the sympathy which
strengthens and girds up the loins of the heart, whilst it
gladdens. We need tonics to fit us for our life-battle —
not emollients. Yet I find it an evil thing for me to live
with those who can give me no sympathy, however good
and worthy they may be ; for they teach me to lock up my
heart and all its feelings, which produces spiritual con-
gestion, as bad for the soul as the congestion of blood is in
any bodily organ. I know the value of Mrs. Eich as a
sympathiser. I have sympathised with her, and been
sympathised with by her, and I know that her love
rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth (1 Cor.
xiii. 6), which gives sympathy its right tonic quality. I
am persuaded that there are many hearts that contain

xr. 57. MRS. BURNETT. 281

much sympathy, as the rock contains the water, without
giving any sign of its presence until smitten by Moses'
rod. . . .

141. TO MRS. BURNETT.

Caelsbad, July 13, 1846.
I CAN see no possible, reasonable, and enduring peace for
any human being in this world, except in the conviction
that everything which happens in this world is appointed
or permitted with a purpose of love to every one. It is a
large school, and there are many scholars, and we are
trained through each other. The parent is educated through
the child, and the child through the parent ; but the great
fatherly Teacher sees and orders all, and does not permit
that the education of the one should be at the expense of
the other. A man injures me either by hurting my
feelings or by evil suggestions, and counsel, and example,
or by that general unsympathising manner which closes, or
rather which has a tendency to close up my heart. There
is an education to him through what he sees and meets with
in me in consequence of his conduct to me, and there is an
education to me also. I am conscious that I have conducted
myself often towards different individuals in a way which
appeared likely to deteriorate or injure their characters,
and to turn them from God ; and the thought would be
intolerable if I did not really believe that God was watch-
ing over all, and that He permitted this in such a way as
to make my bad or unwise conduct an important part of
the education of those individuals. This does not and
ought not to prevent self-condemnation, but it gives light
with regard to consequences. I find an ocean of unfathomed
comfort in that word, " He hath included them all in un-
belief, that He might have mercy on all." Many things
appear, and are, irretrievable to us, but there is nothing

282 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1846.

irretrievable with God.1 This is a great gospel to my heart.
He who knows how to take occasion from the fall to bring
in the redemption, may be safely trusted with each event,
and with every action, good or bad. I believe that love
reigns, and that love will prevail. I believe that He says
to me every morning, " Begin again thy journey and thy
life ; " thy sins, which are many, are not only forgiven, but
they shall be made by the wisdom of God the basis on which
He will build blessings." Beloved friend, lift up your head,
and hear Him who says, " All power is committed unto me
in heaven and earth ;" therefore let us not fear, but rest
assured that for all these things we shall yet magnify His
great and glorious name. It becomes us to go mourning,
but let us mourn in an assured hope that He will overcome
evil with good.

1 A favourite and oft-repeated saying.

iET. 58. REV. J. M. CAMPBELL. 283

CHAPTEE XIII.

Letters from 1847 till 1852.

Those autumn receptions at Linlathen which began in
1847 were continued almost uninterruptedly for the next
twenty years. They owed much to the delicate tact and
graceful courtesy of Mrs. Stirling. Speaking of her after
her death in 1866, Professor Jowett, a frequent guest at
Linlathen, says : — " I have always felt that Mrs. Stirling
had a great hold on all who knew her. Besides her good-
ness and excellent sense, she had a quick perception of
character, and a sort of quiet amusement in things that
struck her, which made her conversation very pleasant."
However varied were the elements around, she had the
happy art of blending them into harmony. Her brother's
gentle geniality and loving sense of the ludicrous rendered
her task the easier. Mr. M'Leod Campbell, in August
1847, having written to Mr. Erskine to ask whether it
would be convenient to receive his brother and son at Lin-
lathen, got the following prompt reply : —

142. TO THE KEV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

Linlathen, 11th August 1847.

Donald will be most welcome, for his own sake and for
your sake. I like to keep up my acquaintance with the
succeeding generation.

Mr. Maurice will be no hindrance, I hope, to the coming

284 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1847.

of your brother and Major Dalzell. I have given up the
idea of sorting people —

Mingle, mingle, mingle,
Mingle as they may.

I leave it to the master of the music to arrange them.

T. Erskine,

143. TO MADAME EOREL.

May 18, 1847.
Dear Friend, — I have heard of Vinet's death, and
desire to know the circumstances of it, and I apply to you
as one able and willing to give the information, and also to
tell me how poor Mme. Vinet is. It seems strange to me
to think that he is no longer in this world, whom I had
regarded since I first knew him, as an instrument that God
had fashioned and fitted for a great and much-needed
work amongst those who spoke his language, — it seems
strange, for he has left his work not half finished accord-
ing to our apprehensions ; but God knows His own way.
The work is His, and He knows how it is to be
accomplished. Vinet was indeed a remarkable man —
remarkable for large-mindedness and humble-mindedness,
rendering to God the glory of His gifts. He was a great
gift himself from God to his country and to his age ; for
such men, such apostolical prophetic men, are indeed God's
most precious gifts. His chief gift was the man-God Jesus
Christ, and His gifts next in value are men filled with the
spirit of Jesus. What a consolation to all who knew his
value, and especially to those who, like you, had the high
privilege of being intimate with him, and experiencing the
genuineness and tenderness of his friendship ! I have
always regarded his friendship as one of my most precious
possessions, gratifying to my feelings and profitable to my
soul, calling me from all low and worldly thoughts to the

^T. 59. MRS. MACNABB. 285

pursuit of what was imperishable. Dear Madame Vinet,
what a blow to her ! May the Lord be her stay and her
consolation ! Indeed, where else is there help in any cir-
cumstances 1 But Vinet was in such a special manner the
life, and pride, and head of his family, and friends also,
that I cannot help thinking of them as sheep without a
shepherd. . . . — Yours most truly, T. Erskine.

144. TO THE SAME.

Linlathen, June 21, 1847/

Dear Madame, — I regret having been so tardy in
getting any information for you with regard to the translat-
ing and publishing of M. Vinet's works in this country.
... I was much touched by dear Mme. Vinet's letter;
there can be but few losses like hers, because there are so
few men like him in the world. Such a combination of
mental power and Christian character is the rarest of all
things. I look round me in vain for anything like it.
. . . — Yours most truly, T. Erskine.

145. TO MRS. MACNABB.

Linlathen, Dundee, Dec. 11, 1847.
Dear Mrs. Macnabb, — You may know that death has
been doing his work within our circle lately. Miss Graham
of Airth, my mother's eldest remaining sister, eighty-four
years of age, died last week. A fine old specimen of natural
character and life, and one whom I remember from the
earliest dawn, a vigorous clear-eyed woman, capable of
being a martyr for any good cause, full of affection more-
over, and full of old traditions and memories, which are
now to be forgotten by all men. . . . With affectionate
regards to Mr. Macnabb, I remain, yours most lovingly,

T. Erskine.

286 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1848.

146. TO MADAME EOREL.

Linlathen, 25th April 1848.

Dear Madame, — When I write to you or to any Chris-
tian friend at present, I am led to realise strongly that in
the midst of all the confusion and tumult which cover the
face of Europe there is still a sphere of peace and safety,
inaccessible to any violence, in which those who trust in
God may dwell securely, and delight to remember that all
things must work together for good to those who love God ;
and even more than this, that all things are so overruled,
that finally the earth, now so full of sin and misery, shall
be full of the knowledge and glory of God, as the waters
cover the sea. The hope of the final restoration, even of
those who are now wandering farthest from God, is to me
a most precious hope. It is a hope also in perfect harmony
with the great principle that we must eat of the fruit of our
own doings, for I believe that no mortal being can ever rise
out of misery except by rising out of sin, and that none can
rise out of sin except by partaking in Christ's death ; that
is, by accepting the due punishment, and by ceasing from
their own will, and living in the divine will.

I cannot look on France without many anticipations of
evil, of the recurrence perhaps of the atrocities of the old
Revolution ; for in case of a collision between the moderate
and the communists and ultras, and even the temporary
victory of the latter, dark deeds would inevitably be done ;
and you see how contagious the spirit is — the spirit of
selfishness and insubordination. I remember, in the year
1838, dear M. Vinet told me that there would probably
soon be political movements in the Canton de Vaud. I
said, " Where every man is an elector, and every man is
eligible to any office in the state, what ground can there be
for a political movement1?" He answered, "It is not

jet. 59- THOMAS CARLYLE. 287

enough for them to be eligible, they wish, every one, to be
elected." . . . — Yours most truly, T. Erskine.

147. TO THOMAS CARLYLE, ESQ.

Linlathen, 1st June 1848.
My dear Mr. Carlyle, — I have read your articles with
the wish that you had some steady organ through which you
might converse with the people of these countries periodi-
cally. I am sure it would be most healthful for many,
and they would receive from you what they would refuse
from any other. ... Is it not altogether a most wretched
delusion to suppose that a half or quarter civilised people
should be legislated for and treated as if they were
civilised 1 England is to be blamed doubtless for selfish-
ness in her dealings towards them in time past, but
not for the assumption of authority, which is just what
they need, were it only wise. After all, I have an appre-
hension that there is something in their blood, which will
make self-government in Ireland as hopeless as in Hayti.
Mr. Combe, the phrenologist, was here yesterday; he spoke
of the Irish as being generally characterised in their physical
organisation by a want of conscientiousness, of discernment
of consequences, and of caution, and by the presence of a
redundant combativeness and destructiveness, to a degree
that made him conceive that it would require many gener-
ations under the best moral training to fit them for what
is called free government. I think there is much truth in
Mr. Combe's deliverance. What do you think of this curi-
ous heroico-pathetic scene at the conviction of John Mitchell
— for madness, I should say, still more than for felony? We
must look to God for a fit man to take up all these loops ;
a strong-hearted and strong-headed man. I felt the kind-
ness of sending me these papers very much. All good attend
you and Mrs. Carlyle. — Yours ever truly, T. E.

288 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

148. TO MR. G. GALLOWAY.1

LnsrLATHEN, June 1848.

Dear Friend, — I am much gratified by your writing to
me at this strange time. The thoughts of any earnest in-
telligent man could never be without interest to me at any
time, but now when there is a universal shaking of all old
recognised foundations, I feel especial interest in listening
to any utterance in reference either to the causes or the
remedies of these movements that seems to proceed from
a true feeling or a true insight. It is quite manifest that
the reign of wisdom and righteousness is the only perfect
government, and that a government is good or bad exactly
as it approaches or recedes from that ideal ; in the same
way as the inward government of a man's own heart is good
or bad according as wisdom and righteousness rule within
him or not ; and freedom and good government mean the
same thing. A man is free in his own spirit when that
which ought to be uppermost in him is uppermost, and
that is subject which ought to be subject, and such a free-
man will desire to see the same freedom in the government
of nations ; but he will not dream of creating it by giving
political power to those who are the slaves of pride, selfish-
ness, passion, and appetite. Freedom is a moral state, and
cannot be produced by mechanical contrivances. Like you|
I cannot separate between religion and politics.

I believe that society and all its combinations is intended
by God to form a school for the education of the indivi-
dual in likemindedness to Jesus Christ, and that no law is
rightly framed which does not originate in this purpose ;
and thus I regret all social and political revolutions as

1 A mason or housebuilder in Glasgow. " It was this George Galloway
of whom Scott said, after being with me to see him, that he was one of
the nobles of nature. " — Memorials of Dr. M'Leod Campbell, vol. i. p. 275.

xr. 59. LORD RUTHERFURD. 289

most speaking advertisements to men and to nations that
they have not yet found the right principle of combina-
tion.

The communists have a distorted idea of the true thing ;
they see that there ought to be a common interest, but they
wish to have the works of love without the principle of
love. Poor fellows, I don't wonder at their zeal ; oh that
they saw the meaning of their own inarticulate cry ! and
that other political sects, radicals, chartists, etc., would but
consider what self-government really consists in, and would
set about having it and practising it in good earnest, and
that they would learn to see and acknowledge the hand of
God in the formation and ordering of society, for thus they
would without a feeling of degradation give reverence to
authorities and institutions; but this, through blindness
to God — practical atheism — they have lost, and in it they
have lost the only principle of union which can stand ; for
true brotherly love supposes the acknowledgment of a
common Father. Spiritual order is the mark toward which
we should be continually aiming, within and without. This
is liberty, and this only — the liberty wherewith Christ
maketh free. Peace be with you. — Yours truly,

T. Erskine.

149. TO LORD RUTHERFURD.

Linlathen, June 29, 1848.
. . . The technical conventionalities of our Scotch preach-
ing seem to me to stifle all the religious life and sentiment
of the country. People are partisans for election and re-
probation— for Free Church or Established Church — and
zealous partisans too : but I see little of yielding up the
will to be a sympathising recipient of the Divine will, and
I hear little preaching which makes that its object. My
feeling on this matter reconciled me somewhat to the youth

T

290 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1848.

of Mr. Robertson; he is not hackneyed in that routine.
I have made it a point of honour not to seek for a man
who might symbolise with myself, in what might be called
idiosyncrasies of mine. I have sought a man of earnest
truth and ability. I hope this man is such, but he is un-
tried.— Ever yours, T. Erskine.

150. TO LORD RUTHERFURD.

Linlathen, Dundee, July 2, 1848.

My dear Rutherfurd, — I have just returned from
church, where I heard Mr. Robertson preach. He is a very
remarkable man. I should not wonder at his being soon
regarded as the first man in the Church of Scotland.
He is quite original, and has that knowledge of the
use and meaning of words which indicates and arises
from the finest kind of intelligence. He looks above
thirty, and is at once self-possessed and unpresumptuous.
I think him a rare man, and should grieve exceedingly at
losing him. I shall send you testimonials as soon as I can
get them — four or five good ones. . . .

My dear R., I am in Edinburgh for a few days, for this
week at 8 Charlotte Square. "What hours are you free %
I hope to see something of you ; to look backwards and
forwards with you. I have been seeing poor Mackenzie.
How many wrecks float around us, marking the track we
have travelled by ! — Yours ever, T. Erskine.

151. TO THE SAME.

Linlathen, July 14, 1848.
My dear Rutherfurd, — I am very thankful for this,1

1 The appointment as minister of the parish of Mains and Strathmartin,
of the Mr. Robertson spoken of in the preceding letter. Dr. Cannan,
the former minister, having resigned the charge, a committee was appointed
to look out for a successor. Mr. Erskine, who as a principal heritor of
Mains was a member of the committee, having had his attention directed
to a young preacher recently licensed, suggested that he should be invited

,<ET. 59. LORD RUTHERFURD. 291

and I hope that those who have had the doing of it may
receive God's blessing for it. I thank you for what was
done for me, hut I thank you much more for what was done
for Eight ; and this last, I believe, really covers the whole,
for your listening to me was simply the consequence of your
conviction that I desired what was right, and in some
measure could judge of it. I never expected any personal
answer from Sir George Grey ; in his circumstances it would
be indeed unreasonable to expect it. I feel for him, and
often pray for light and strength to him, as to one who
needs them much. There surely is light and strength some-
where in an ocean-fountain ; the scanty rills of them which
we find in ourselves seem to indicate an infinite source
from whence they come ; and it is pleasant to find that
source a personal Being — a Father — a Friend in whom we
may trust, to whom we may pour out our hearts. You will
come to this some day, my dear friend, and you will bless
Him who has led you to Himself by whatever means. I,
though most worthy of being neglected by Him, as I have
so, much neglected Him, have yet found Him a real helper
and a real refuge.

I shall count on seeing you in autumn. You cannot
think what a friendship your Irish friends have struck up

to preach in the neighbouring church of Liff. The other members of the
committee who heard Mr. Robertson on that occasion being equally-
satisfied, Mr. Erskine undertook to bring his name before the Government,
with whom the appointment lay. In this, owing to Mr. Rutherfurd's
influence with Sir George Grey, he succeeded. After a ten years' ministry in
Mains and Strathmartin, Mr. Robertson was in 1858 translated to be
minister of the Cathedral Church of Glasgow. Here his health broke
down, and he died in January 1865, not having completed the forty-first
year of his age. His "Pastoral Counsels" and "Sermons and Exposi-
tions " abundantly verify the high estimate which Mr. Erskine had so early
formed. The Dean of Westminster, in his " Essays on Church and State "
(p. 254), speaks of the " Pastoral Addresses " as " an excellent volume,
which, if the style had been equal to the matter, would have entitled their
author to a high place amongst the theological writers of the age. "

292 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1849.

with some of my people; and they have so deep an
affection for Mrs. Rutherfurd, that I should expect some
sympathy on the geometrical axiom — those that are equal
to the same thing must be equal to one another. — Ever
affectionately yours, T. E.

152. TO THOMAS CARLYLE, ESQ.

Linlathen, 1st May [1849].
Dear Mr. Carlyle, — I am ashamed of having been so
long of acknowledging the many proofs of your kindly
remembrance which have reached me in the shape of
Examiners and Spectators from time to time. Many thanks
for them. I have read your articles with much interest and
sympathy, and I wish you God-speed in your endeavours
to stimulate and help our rulers in the great Irish difficulty.
0 for a man ! That is what is wanted, and it appears to
be wanted all over Europe — Democrats and Legitimists —
all wanting a man. May God send him soon ! Besides
Ireland, what think you of our West Indian colonies for a
change ? — exhibiting the results of perhaps the most insane
legislation of which the world has seen an example — down
with slavery, up with slave sugar ! What think you of
Rush and Hudson ] Are they not ominous signs of the
times — like the Due de Praslin and Teste, the forerunners
of the French overturn 1 I have not had a letter from you
since that great earthquake, which has shaken all the
nations, and is still shaking them. It has been a sort of
stethoscopising, trying whether the vital organs were in a
sound state; the discoveries made have certainly been
rather unpleasant. I fear for our own lungs, although we
have survived hitherto, but the increasing mass of idle,
reckless, ragged blackguardism that shows itself on all our
roads is a fearful symptom. In short, the disease is alarm-

MT. 60. THOMAS CARLYLE. 293

ing, and the doctors do not appear to know what to do.
Beloved fellow-men, what is to come out of it 1 There is
One who said with power, " Come out of the man, thou
unclean spirit." No other Healer will do for us. Is not
that true, good sir 1

Notwithstanding all these things (which, after all, we
shall leave behind us in the course of a very few years),
how have you and Mrs. Carlyle passed this winter and
spring ? Have you been solacing yourselves in the country,
or satisfying yourself with Hyde Park and your back
garden 1 I often, in thought, walk down Cheyne Eow and
look in upon you. Our weather is just beginning to relent,
and the buds and leaves are coming forth as if there were
no sin in the world. . . . — Yours, with much love,

T. Erskine.

Your friend Mazzini seems to have made a mess of it in
Italy. He will be hanged yet some day, honest man! Let
me have a line from you giving a good account of yourself
and friends.

153. TO THE SAME.

Linlathen, 22d August 1849.

My dear Mr. Carlyle, — If you are indeed limited in
your choice of days by this present week, I beseech you to
come instanter on the receipt of this notification, Mrs. Car-
lyle and you, there being all needful accommodation ; but
if you could borrow a few days from next week, we would
say Monday, not at all for our own convenience, but that I
might make more sure of a friend of mine whom I had by
anticipation invited to meet you whenever you might come,
namely, James Mackenzie, a most genial man, who, you may
remember, desired me to call your attention to some doings of

294 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1849.

Oliver in the upper ward of Lanarkshire, as recorded in one
of the Bannatyne books. Mrs. Carlyle wrote that you were
in Ireland under the conduct of one of the insurgents, and
I am anxious to have your report, whether you saw any
glimpse of hope for that poor country. I am glad to hear
that Mrs. 0. herself has been gathering health and strength
in Scotland — a little more strength to meet a little more
exhaustion. Is not that the way of it until it is all over ?
You have still a mother to meet and part with. It is a
wonderful manifestation. I had by this very day's post a
letter from a friend enclosing a note from his mother, just
that I might see under what an outpouring of affection he
lived and moved in this world. And have we not all a
real parent, though invisible, who is father and mother in
one 1 not confined either to Haddington or Ecclefechan. I
hope you may long possess yours, as I grieve for Mrs. Car-
lyle's loss of hers, she seemed to need her so much.

Well, we shall expect you every day from this "Wednes-
day forward, until we see you or hear from you, . . . and
with real love from all of us to you and your good lady, I
remain yours faithfully, T. Erskine.

After nearly three years' constant residence at Linlathen,
the winter, spring, and summer months of 1849-50 were
passed in Paris. Writing to Mrs. Burnett on the 10th
January 1850, Mrs. Stirling says —

" The cold here is extreme. To-day I can scarcely hold
my pen. The streets are black with frost, but whenever
the sun does get out, we see it, and feel its cheering
influence. Mercifully my sister has kept free of cough,
but she looks very delicate. My brother's appearance is
much improved, and I think his general health is also
improved. . . . We have enough of visitors, but not
too many. We see dear Mme. de Stael, Adolphe Monocl,

mt. 60. CRAMER MALLET. 295

and some other French friends, and we see Lady Trotter
and her daughter, Lady Elgin and her daughter, and
some others. We see Plymouth Brethren, Irvingites,
Roman Catholics, Puseyites, and Evangelicals. We see
much to admire and love in all, and much to weep over
also. Madame de Stael and Adolphe Monod are quite evi-
dently seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteous-
ness, and are deeply solemnised by the aspect of the times."

The only letter of this period from Mr. Erskine that has
been preserved is the following : —

154. TO M. CRAMER MALLET.

St. GtErmatn-en-Laye, 25 Juin 1850.
Cher ami, — Si nous avions la facult6 de nous transporter
par la volonte seule, nous nous trouverions bientdt aupres
de vous; mais dans ce beau temps, quand la nature et
m6me nos sensations nous poussent vers un pays ou les
lacs et les montagnes offrent perpetuellement l'espoir de la
fraicheur, la difficult6 de voyager s'augmente beaucoup,
surtout pour les personnes agees et dont les forces s'epui-
sent par la chaleur. Je voudrois bien encore voir votre
int6rieur de famille, chang6, comme il doit §tre, par le de-
veloppement du caractere de vos filles, et par le progres des
autres membres de la famille. Nous devons tous avancer
dans le bon chemin. Le terns s'avance, et l'importante
oeuvre de la vie doit aussi s' avancer. Nous avons passe
plus que six mois au milieu de cette capitale de la civilisa-
tion Europeenne, une civilisation qui ne reconnait pas Dieu,
et paratt ne pas etre reconnue par lui. II y a un caractere
de superficialit6 empreint sur toutes les manifestations de
cette nation gaie et legere, qui la distingue de la ndtre, qui
meme dans son impiete parait serieuse. J'espere que le
besoin de Dieu, et d'une communication avec lui, se fera

296 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1851.

senti dans toutes les nations a present. Le besom de
quelque chose est senti, mais l'interprete qui peut expliquer
les cris de la nature ne se trouve pas. Que Dieu envoie
de vrais apStres.

Je suis bien aise d' entendre vos bonnes nouvelles du
caractere de votre gendre. Ou demeurent-ils % II nous
ferait grand plaisir de vous voir chez nous cette ete ; nous
esperons y 6tre apres le milieu du mois de Juillet. Amenez
Clementine, et en passant par Paris, arrangez qu'elle voie
la maison des Diaconesses sous la direction de M. le Pasteur
Vermeil. Nous pourrions facilement recevoir toute la
famille.

J'ai vu un peu M. Adolphe Monod, un homme aimable
et estimable, et admirable par ses talents. La position de
l'Eglise me parait extre'mement mauvaise ici comme chez
vous. Chaque Pasteur doit avoir son propre troupeau, alors
les relations du Pasteur et troupeau pourroient exister. A
present elles n'existent pas, qui est un mal 6norme. Je
crois que M. Monod avait raison, quand il decidait rester
dans l'eglise etablie, et pourtant les difficult^ que rencontre
un pasteur fidele dans les circonstances actuelles sont bien
affreuses. ... T. Erskine.

155. TO LORD RUTHERFURD.

Ltstlathen, 29th March 1851.

My dear dear Kutherfurd, — ... Of course I am
interested in hearing how you get on with Gorgias, and
how you like it. It is an argument against which Voltaire
might have successfully written another Candide, and yet
Leibnitz's principle in the Theodicee, with reasonable modi-
fications, and Plato's in the Gorgias, will, I am persuaded,
form a part of the creed of the most thinking and most
conscientious part of mankind. Both Socrates and Voltaire
laughed, but what different laughs ! Voltaire thought of

xr. 62. MRS. BURNETT. 297

nothing but of pulling down what was wrong, and he did
so much really good and useful work in this way, that he did
not feel the necessity of building up. He was satisfied with
negation ; that is to say, negation with him was so active
an employment that he did not come to feel that in itself
it is a vacuum, and can satisfy no one. There is something
irresistibly comical in the levity with which he treats the
gravest principles — it is like a child pulling off an old man's
wig ; whereas dear Socrates has such a deep and true vene-
ration for everything that is really right in principle, he
feels that without it man and the universe are nothing
more than a dust-storm.

156. TO MRS. BURNETT.

44 Lowndes St., 18th Feb. 1852.

My dear Cousin, — . . . There is something marvellous
in the difference of the lots appointed to different persons.
We somehow or other know more people here than we
know in Edinburgh, so that we have a constant succession
of visitors of all varieties, to the great wear and tear both
of mind and body, and yet with a great interest. The
duty of bearing one another's burdens is a wholesome
exercise to the spirit in such circumstances, preserving from
dissipation and distraction in the midst of the tumult.
Yesterday I met with a clergyman who read me a letter
addressed by 360 Italian peasants to a deputy of their own,
whom they had sent to London to inquire into the condi-
tion of the Church of England, and to see whether they
could enter into brotherly relations with it. The letter
was written in a wise and temperate spirit. These people
were Lombards, chiefly from the Venetian territory. There
is also, as you probably know, a great movement towards
the Bible in Tuscany.

I had a call also yesterday from one of our Scotch bishops,

298 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1852.

Mr. Ewing, Bishop of Argyll, from whom I have received
occasional messages during past years. I liked him ; he
seemed to me of a good spirit, and not at all a slave to
what is the external of his Church.

157. TO MRS. BURNETT.

Linlathen, 23d August 1852.
Christian and I went into Edinburgh the other day to
see our cousins in Manor Place. Cousin Kachel seems fast
breaking up. Her memory and recollection are sometimes
quite gone, so that she does not recognise those dearest to
her. There is something most touching in her condi-
tion. When I was in town for the funeral of Mr. W.
Erskine, I observed the beginning of this, and it seemed
to me like a rebuke of all our sorrow for the death of
friends. I never knew a more loving spirit than hers, and
her expressions now are often just the overflowings of a
heart filled with love to God and man. I cannot say
what sympathy I have had from her at times when I
needed it.1

158. TO LORD RUTHERFURD.

LlNLATHEN, 14:th Oct. 1852.

My beloved Kutherfurd, — How are you 1 Is your
heart finding any rest 1 I should be so thankful for a
word from you, to let me know in what state you are.
There was something fearfully stunning and overwhelming
in the suddenness of the blow at last,2 notwithstanding her
long delicacy. My dear friend, I know no man who has
had to pass through such varied trials as you; none to

1 "And poor Cousin Rachel, she too is passing from the scene on which
she has always looked with such a smile of kindliness and charity." —
(Extract from a letter of the late Lord Elgin, dated Quebec, 23d October
1852.)

2 The death of his wife.

jet. 64. LORD RUTHERFURD. 299

whom the voice from above has come in such different lan-
guages, such sorrow, and such success ; and if in your pre-
sent circumstances I had room in my heart for any other
prayer for you than that you might be supported and com-
forted, I would ask that that oft-repeated voice might not
come to you in vain. Our spiritual nourishment here on
this pilgrimage is broken body and shed blood, a will of
God revealed in a blighted will of man. If you are unable
to write yourself, your nephew will perhaps have the kind-
ness to do it for you. I return him my thanks for his
first letter.

I regret so much that I did not go down with you the
day I saw you at Fullerton's, that I might have seen her
face and heard her voice once again. — Ever affectionately
yours, T. Erskine.

My sisters join their sympathy with mine.

159. TO THE SAME.

Linlathen, 30th Oct. 1852.
My dear Friend, — How is your heart — your burdened
and broken heart 1 Who is living with you, and how are
you occupying yourself? I ask this not with the wish that
you could find something to withdraw you from your sorrow,
but rather hoping that you may be learning its true use.
We are placed amongst dying things that we may be forced
to take hold of the undying, and to discover that this
" undying" is a person with whom it is possible to have
fellowship, and from whom we may derive help and consola-
tion, which is certainly our highest learning. " Come unto
me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give
you rest," is the utterance which He addresses to us in all
the variety of our circumstances ; not calling us from other
things, but teaching us to find Him in them all. I shall

300 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1852.

hope to see you. The burying-ground where the funeral1
is to be is divided from your own by Jeffrey's. — Ever
yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

160. TO MRS. BURNETT.

6th Nov. 1852.
Beloved cousin Eachel is now released from that bond-
age under which the flesh lays us. Her clear, sweet spirit
had been clouded for the last four months, but still under
that mist a blessed inward life from time to time mani-
fested itself. Cousin Manie is wonderfully supported in
her loneliness as far as it has gone yet ; she is the last, not
of her family, but of her generation. . . . Lift up your head,
dear friend. — Yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

1 The funeral of Thomas Thomson, Esq., an intimate friend of Lord
Rutherfurd.

mt. 65. LORD RUTHERFURD. 301

CHAPTER XIV.

Letters from 1853 till 1856.

161. TO LORD RUTHERFURD.

Linlathen, 13th Oct. 1853.
My dear Friend, — This is my birthday. I am this
day sixty-five years of age. I cannot express to you with
what a weight of guilt the sense of unprofitableness lies upon
me. You are now one of my oldest friends, and no one has
ever stood to me in the same place that you have. What
a mysterious thing the history of a man's being — visible
and invisible — is ! Don't you feel it so when you look
back on your own ? Dear friend, God's blessing be with
you. — Yours ever affectionately, T. Erskine.

Is it not interesting to consider and look back on the
different compartments into which life has been divided 1
Certain persons and certain thoughts have predominated in
each of these compartments ; we pass from one to another;
from one set of persons and thoughts to another • many of
those who have been most important to us have disappeared
from the outward picture of our life, but yet retain their
place, or even take a larger, in the inner. The picture
changes, and we — have we changed? and if we have
changed, is it progress, real spiritual progress ?

302 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1853.

162. TO LORD RTJTHERFURD.

Ltnlathen, 8th Nov. 1853.
Dear Kutherfurd, — . . . Have you observed in the
papers that the Council of King's College have deposed
Maurice on account of heretical doctrines, taught in that
volume which I gave you 1 I understand that the point is, the
denial of the unending duration of the future punishment.
I congratulate him on being a martyr in such a cause ; but
I should be sorry if at this day the Church of England, as
a body, confirms such a sentence. If spiritual perfection
consists (as they would all admit it does) in the love of God,
and of men, and of all righteousness, it is not easy to see
how such a doctrine as the eternity of punishment can
lead to it. Men cannot be frightened into love ; and they
cannot easily realise God as a God of love, if such a
doctrine be believed. — Ever affectionately yours,

T. Erskine.

163. TO MRS. BURNETT.

Linlathest, 9^ Nov. 1853.
... I HAD gone to town partly to see Beveridge. . . .
Besides, I wished also to hear the introductory lecture in
the Philosophical Institution by my friend Mr. Scott.1 I
heard it, and liked it very much. He dwelt chiefly on the
distinction between information and education, and on the
greater desire for the former than for the latter manifested
by our population at present. They did not desire a know-
ledge of principles so much as of the results of principles,
which they might turn to immediate account. They did
not want any deep improvement within their own mind,
but a kind of knowledge which would enable them to
make money. Next lecture-evening I heard Euskin, whom

jet. 65. MRS. SCHWABE. 303

I also liked in his measure. You may have observed in
the newspapers that my friend Maurice has been deposed
from his professorship in King's College, on account of
heretical opinions. The non-eternity of future punishment
is, I believe, the point. You know how completely I
sympathise with him in this. I hope the Church of
England will not treat him as the Church of Scotland
treated Campbell.

164. TO MRS. SCHWABE.1

Linlathen, \1tli Dec. 1853.

Dear Friend, — . . . The spirit of Mr. Tayler's2 dis-
course is very sweet. I feel that he has a brother's heart,
and that I can sympathise much with him in the idea he
gives of the meaning and purpose of human life. What I
desire further for him is that he should feel and teach that
there is a sorrow in the heart of God over the resisting of
His purpose on the part of man, and that this loving sor-
row is manifested in Christ, the man of sorrows, bearing all
the burdens of His brethren, the Word, who in the begin-
ning was with God, and was God. I must refer you to
your recollections of our conversations at Glyn Garth, when
we talked of the necessity under which we found ourselves,
when attempting to realise the existence previous to all
creation, to conceive of Him as having within the compass
of His own being the capacity of both giving and receiving
love, and the power of gratifying that capacity ; an absolute
solitariness is incompatible with the idea, or rather feeling,
of self-completeness. This necessity helps us to entertain
the idea of the primal relations of Father and Son being
contained in the Godhead, and we are glad to receive and

1 A German lady resident near Manchester, a person overflowing with
benevolence.

2 John James Tayler, Principal of Manchester New College.

304 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1853.

acknowledge the sentiment connected with this relation-
ship as the source of all creation. The upper hemisphere of
the circle of Deity gives us the spirit of Father, Giver,
Master ; the lower that of Son, Eeceiver, Servant. There
must be a divine in all moral truth ; obedience is as divine
as command, both proceeding from love and duty. This,
you may say, is a human thought about God, but I cannot
think of God otherwise than as an infinitely good man, all-
wise and all-powerful. All good desires in man, therefore,
I conceive to have their deep root in God, and thus I am
forced on the idea of something like a duality in God's
unity, to escape from the terrible thought of an eternal
solitude before creation, and from the idea that God was
driven to create in order to have an object of love.

We see at once the beauty of the idea that the moral
creation is to be formed in the image of the Son, thus
binding the creature and the Creator together, but not
according to the Pantheistic idea, for the moral creature
has a free-will which, with reverence let it be said, omni-
potence cannot compel, but which all-wise love may train
and educate. In the misuse of this free-will man turned
from the worship of God to the worship of self, but still,
as he was created in the divine image of the divine Son,
and had his standing in the Son, the spirit of the Son
within the depths of His being protested against his sin,
and suffered for him, the just for the unjust, that He might
bring him back to God. This is, I believe, that great
work of redemption which is set forth in the history of
Jesus Christ.

If you could suppose the spirit of a loving man like St.
John imprisoned in the breast of a violent murderer like
Barabbas, you could not doubt but that he would feel him-
self agonised and jarred every moment by the contact of
the selfish cruelty with which he was environed. And yet

jet. 65. MRS. SCHWABE. 305

his suffering would not arise simply or chiefly from the
discrepancy between himself and Barabbas, but because
he would feel that Barabbas was still his fellow-creature,
his brother, and he would not be able to endure the thought
that his brother should be under the influence of this fear-
ful' spiritual malady. In fine, it would not be disapproba-
tion merely, but love that would produce his suffering.
And thus, though free leave were given to him to go out
from that prison-house, he would say : ' I cannot go, I must
remain till I bring back this poor brother out of hatred
into love, out of self into God.' And thus would he con- '
tinue in him, suffering for him, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring him back to God. And when Barabbas
melted under this suffering love, when he also began to
suffer in the thought of having outraged duty and outraged
love, when he became partaker of John's sufferings, he
would be brought back to God. What I have supposed
John to do in the case of Barabbas, I believe in truth and
in fact to be done by Jesus Christ in the case of every
human being. I believe that He is in every man, and that
it is His suffering voice which speaks in the conscience of
every man. I believe that He is thus suffering for every
man, the just for the unjust, that He may bring us back to
God. I believe thus that the recorded history of our Lord
in the Gospels *is the outward and objective manifestation
of a great subjective truth which is going on, and which
will go on until every soul of man is brought back to God.
And I am sure that the sorrow which holy love feels for
sin is the true essential and divine medicine for sin. I
believe that the knowledge of the distinction between right
and wrong is a most precious gift ; and yet I believe that
it cannot alone accomplish the task of turning man's heart
from self to God. We need to know that the voice which
in conscience speaks to us of right and wrong is the voice

u

303 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1854.

of a love which suffers when we do wrong, and must con-
tinue to suffer until we return from self to God.

Dear friend, this is a very confused statement, hut I am
confident that the roots of great truths are contained in it.
Our former talks, if remembered by you, will throw a light
on it.

You say that you know I have felt sympathy with Uni-
tarians.1 The truth is, I have thought that they have not
been rightly met. They have been confronted with texts
and traditions, instead of being met with reason and truth
and love. This is my sympathy with them, for I think
them wrong. — Ever affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

165. TO THOMAS CARLYLE, ESQ.

38 Charlotte Sq., Edinr., 22d March 1854.

Dear Mr. Carlyle, — The welcome which I gave to
your kind letter and its accompaniments would have been
more truly expressed by a speedier answer. But my time
has been occupied by various forms of nothing since I have
been in Edinburgh, so that I have been hindered from
doing the things which I most wished. . . . My sister,
Mrs. S., was much flattered by your remembrance and gift,
and would have written herself if she had supposed it pos-
sible that I could have allowed your packet to remain so
long unacknowledged, but she was at Linlathen and I in
Edinburgh, and I did not tell her of my non-doings. During
my absence here the house of Linlathen was entered by
thieves who contrived to take away very little, but left
behind an unpleasant feeling of insecurity.

Drummond's pamphlet is a strange production. The

general condition of dislocation in society seems to me

rather true ; but the remedy, that of entering his church,

does not meet the necessities of the case. I believe that

1 Mrs. Sclrwabe was a Unitarian.

jet. 65. CHEVALIER BUNS EN. 307

nothing short of a right perception of the relation of God
to man, and of man to God, will do the desired work ; but
as to the living machinery which may teach or infuse this
perception the difficulty remains. Your friend, Lord George
Hill,1 has done something,, it appears, and gives occasion to
desire the multiplication of Lord Georges. He and Lord
Ashburton both act on Nelson's signal, " England expects
every man to do his duty," and for my poor part I give
them my best thanks and best wishes, hoping for still
higher and better things. We had a visit from your friend
Kingsley,2 and I heard his lectures on Alexandria, in com-
pany with dear old James Mackenzie. . . , Poor fellow,
he has lost his two sisters . . . which makes him very
lonely ; but he has a fine sociable loving spirit, not easily
to be quenched. Give your dear wife my affectionate
regards, and believe me to be lovingly yours,

T. Erskine.

166. TO CHEVALIER BUNSEN.

Linlathen, Dundee, 8th August 1854.

My dear Chevalier, — Your farewell lines from St.
Katherine's Dock were very gratifying to me, written as
they were from under such a pressure of thoughts as must
have been lying upon you at that time. I now congratulate
you on your escape, not from work, for I can never regard
true genuine work in a great cause to be other than a pri-
vilege and an honour, but from the perplexity of being
called to do work in one way which you thought ought to

1 Referring to Lord George's improvements in an estate in the county of
Donegal. See "Facts from Gweedore," by Lord George Hill ; 1845.

2 Charles Kingsley says, " Mr. Erskine of Linlathen is a charming old
man." During his visit to Linlathen he writes, "This place is very
pleasant, and Mr. Erskine delightful. He gave us a long exposition last
night about the indwelling Word, and I am delighted to find that our
views seem to agree thoroughly." — Life of diaries Kingsley, vol. i. p. 418.

308 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1854.

be done in another. And though I can never congratulate
any man on leaving England, yet T can congratulate you on
being set down at Heidelberg, and on the banks of that
beautiful stream. The Neckar I have always considered
the sweetest feature in Germany. I wish you much peace
there and domestic enjoyment, and much inspiration in true
philosophy and true history, to give value to that leisure
which is given you. I have known you now for nearly
thirty years, and I have always found my intercourse with
you to be a stimulant for good to me, because I have always
found you living under a vocation to use the faculties God
has bestowed on you, for the advancement of light and
truth in the world. I am sure that you will do so in your
present circumstances, and that many will profit by your
retirement.

I hope your ladies are all well, — Madame Bunsen and
her daughter, Miss Amelia, and the rest. The love of God
is everywhere, and so the possibility of peace and spiritual
progress is everywhere also. May this possibility have its
full realisation in your house! Farewell. — Ever truly ,
yours, T. Erskine.

167. TO MR. MAURICE.

7 Forres Street, Edinburgh, 3d Nov. 1854.
My dear and much-honoured Friend, — I cannot
easily express to you the depth of sympathy with which I
have been reading your book which you sent me.1 I have
read the dedicatory letter and the first five sermons. In the
letter, the expression of your feeling is sometimes harrow-
ing ; it seems written in your heart's blood. I was at first
almost surprised that you could feel so unspiritual and, I
might even say, so unintelligent a criticism so deeply ; but

1 The Doctrine of Sacrifice.

xr. 66. MR. MA UR1CE. 309

I soon perceived that your agony was a righteous agony,
which it would be good for me and others to enter into.
" If ye die with Him, ye shall live with Him ; if ye suffer
with Him, ye shall reign with Him." Beloved friend, you
are witnessing a good confession for the God of truth ; and
I am thankful to say, that I feel more and more, in your tone
and manner of expressing yourself, the outcoming of a great
conviction, which uses your faculties for its own purpose.

Were I capable of it, I should rejoice to give my country-
men the true idea of your method of teaching, as well as
of the teaching itself; feeling, as I do, that they are so
much occupied and possessed by another far inferior method,
that they turn away from that higher and purer kind, as if
it were unintelligible ; but I am not fit for the task. I
wished often, during the course of the summer, to have
tried to have persuaded you to spend some quiet time
with us ; but we thought that any place which was not
your own home, or any people which were not your own
people, might be a burden to you. Farewell. — Ever truly
yours, T. Erskine.

I shall be in Edinburgh when you are down, and I would
look out for a resting-place for you, if you would allow me.

168. TO THE SAME.

7 Forres Street, 20th Nov. [1854].
My dear Friend, — I have just read the 1 3th sermon
of the "Doctrine of Sacrifice." As I finished those that
preceded it, I often had the thought of writing to you and
expressing the deep sympathy which I felt, and my convic-
tion that this was indeed the unveiling of our Father's
heart. But after reading " Christ's Sacrifice a Peace-offer-
ing for Mankind," I cannot help writing to say how thankful
I feel to God that such words are spoken to our generation,

310 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1855.

and that they are words of truth and soberness, though
they cast into deep shade all that man, if left to the mere
inspiration of his own desires, could ever have imagined.

If the rash censures which have been passed upon your
Essays have led to this production, good has certainly come
out of evil ; and if your censurer himself reads these dis-
courses, I cannot but think that his heart must smite him
for what he has said.

The paragraph beginning on the 211th page, and ending
in the next, is inexpressibly precious. I hope to speak to
you of some of these things at leisure, or rather to hear
you ; and to this end, I hope you will allow me, as I pro-
posed to you before, to be your host whilst you are in
Edinburgh. . . . — Yours ever truly, T. Erskine.

169. TO MRS. PATERSON.

21 Westbourne Street, London, 14th Feb. [1855].
My dear Davie, — . . . I may as well give you a sketch
of yesterday's proceedings. Before breakfast was well away,
Mrs. Schwabe made her energetic and loving appearance.
She sat with us a good while. . . . Mr. Maurice then came
in, and I almost immediately stated to him the difficulties
and obscurities which had been felt by many readers of his
works, even by those who admired them and loved their
spirit. I told him, that people could not make out whether,
according to him, the sacrifice of Christ had made any
change on the general condition of humanity, or whether
it was only a manifestation of God's character in relation
to man. I pressed on him that he might make this more
distinct, and ought to do it. When he went away, we
went out, and called on the Bishop of Natal, who is a
handsome, young, intelligent, frank-looking man ; he spoke
pleasantly about his mission. . > . — Ever affectionately
yours, T. Erskine.

jet. 66. REV. THOMAS WRIGHT MATHEWS. 311

170. TO THE REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

London, April 1855.
My dear Friend, — . . . I have seen a good deal of
Maurice. I hear him every Sunday with great interest.
He fully apprehends that what has given to earnest
Calvinistic preaching its great power is, that it sets forth
God and not man, as Arminianism has done.1 I have seen
Kingsley too, and Bishop Ewing, and a Mr. Baldwin Brown,
a friend of Scott's, an Independent minister. I also see
Carlyle, whom I really love, there is so much geniality of
heart about him. My sister Mrs. Stirling is struggling
against cold and London oppression, sooty atmosphere,
visiting, etc. — Yours ever affectionately, T. Erskine.

171. TO THE REV. THOMAS WRIGHT MATHEWS.2

5 Duke Street, Portland Place,
London, 12th April 1855.
My dear Friend, — I wish you would get from that
goddaughter of the old lexicographer some documents
authenticating her relationship as goddaughter to him.
Do you think that, in the parish register of her baptism,
any record of the fact could be found 1 For, if the history
could be fairly made out, there can be little doubt but that
something could be done for her. I mentioned the matter
to Carlyle, who immediately said that the Prime Minister
would feel that the bestowment of a small pension, at least

1 Speaking of Calvinism and Arminianism, Mr. Erskine said that the
former was a sheep in wolf's clothing, — the latter a wolf in sheep's clothing.

2 For thirty years minister of the Baptist Church at Boston, in England.
He first met Mr. Erskine at Hamburg in 1822 (ante, p. 31). Looking
hack to their intercourse at that time, Mr. Mathews, fifty years afterwards,
says, in a letter to Mr. Erskine, "I often feel my religion so fresh and
green, and my preaching so young and joyous, that I am surprised, and,
inwardly thanking God, cannot but remember that it is to you, as the
instrument, I owe all my light and life. "

312 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1855..

to the extent of keeping her from want, would be recog-
nised by the whole country as a right use of power. Now,
do- something speedily, my dear man, I heard Maurice on
Sunday. His father was lying an unburied corpse, having
died on Friday before. His text was the sixteenth Psalm,
which he read over three times with excellent comment ;
first, as it must have been understood or felt by David
or his contemporaries ; second, as it might have been used
by Christ Himself; thirdly, as it is to be understood by
ourselves. It was one of the most striking sermons I have
ever listened to. . . . — Ever yours affectionately,

T. Erskine,

172. TO THE REV. THOMAS WRIGHT MATHEWS.

5 Duke St., Portland Place, Wth May 1855.
My dear Friend, — Have I seemed negligent of you and
your commission 1 But not so in fact, for I went down to
Deptford with Carlyle and saw your ladies and their
curious relics ; and Carlyle met almost immediately after
with the Bishop of Oxford, who is the almoner of some
royal bounty, and put down their names (both of them, and
to the survivor) for £10 annually, which is some addition
to their small means. He has hope of something further,
but that is only in prospect. Dear Sir Robert Inglis has
been carried away from the waves of this troublous
world to the rest which remaineth to the people of God.
I have known and loved him long, and have received much
love from him, and so the world is that much emptier for
me. . . . Ever affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

173. TO MR. MAURICE.

August 1855.

My dear Friend, — ... I was called on Friday last
week to attend the funeral of F. Russell's wife ; you re-

jet. 66. M. GAUSSEiY. 313

member him, I am sure. She was an amiable and most
interesting person. ... I met Dr. Hanna of the Free
Church there, who told me that your friend Davis's brother
in the Crimea was very ill- — dangerously so. He told me
also an interesting anecdote of poor Capt. Lyons, who had
died at Therapia under the care of the Mackenzies. Just
before his death, Mrs. Mackenzie carried something to him.
He rallied a little and thanked her, and then said, " Good-
bye," and, as if to comfort her, he added, "You must
expect to lose some of your patients." Dear Russell's
house is darkened. My sisters join me in best regards to
you both. — Ever affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

174. TO M. GAUSSEN.

Linlathek, 27lh Aug. 1855.

My dear G-aussen, — We have just received a letter
from our cousin, Mrs. Bosanquet, in which she speaks of
you and your mother, and your sister and Caroline, in
terms which correspond so well with the impression's which
remain in my own heart of you all, that I feel stirred up
to write a word of brotherly love to you. My visits to
G-eneva, and my relations with many there whom I loved,
and hope always to love, form one of the most pleasing
remembrances of my life. I often pass them in review
before my mind's eye, the dead and the living, and recall
words and looks, which reveal the spirit, and which address
and can only be understood by our spiritual organs.

The beautiful nature, the lake, the mountains, the sun-
risings and settings, the mysteries of light, and colour,
and distance, re-appear also like the visions of another
world purified from all pollutions, declaring infinite love,
and power, and holiness. I should like to pay another
visit to that lovely land, and to converse with you, my
friend, on fhe many wonderful things which our God has

314 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1855.

shown us and taught us since we first met, above thirty-
years ago. For my own part I have much reason to be
ashamed, but I have also much reason to bless the God of
all patience. Dear Merle has lost his wife ; he was my first
Genevese friend, and I have never ceased to love him. Mr.
Haldane had paid his visit to you a short time before that,
and had been the means of stirring up a new life in some
of the young men. The matter of his teaching was what
ought to be the subject of all teaching, " the^free grace of
God~' but he surely did not sufficiently consider the
fearful power in man to resist that grace, and so fell into
the mistake of supposing that those only who manifested
the effects of grace had been visited by grace, or were
I embraced within God's purpose of grace ; and thus man's
1 confidence was necessarily made to depend on something
which he discovered within himself, instead of the purpose
of God revealed in Jesus Christ for every man. I cannot
write to you, my dear friend, without saying something
of this great salvation, which God is working out against
such opposition on the part of man. Give my love to
Merle and my sympathy. Give my love to all the branches
of the dear C — family and to all the Cramers, descend-
ants of my loving hosts, M. and Mad. Cramer ; to the de-
scendants also of Mad. Necker de Saussure — the Turretins.
Farewell, beloved friend. My affectionate regards to each
member of your own family. — Ever truly yours,

T. Erskine.

The following letter of M. Gaussen gives an affecting
narrative of the death of his mother : —

TO MR. ERSKINE.

I/es Grottes, 17 Sept. J855.
Mon cher Erskine, — Depuis hier je n'ai plus de mere
ici-bas. Je me sens le besoin de vous le faire savoir, pour

jet. 66. FROM M. GAUSSEN. 315

que vous vous associez a ma douleur et a mes consolations.
Vous y avez ete" vous nieme, vous aviez connu le prix de celle
que j'ai perdue. Elle 6tait encore Vendredi matin d'une
admirable sante pour son grand age, d'une amabilit6 d'esprit
et d'une tendresse de cceur rarementdonn6es a de plus jeunes.
Vendredi, a 8 heures du matin, mes cousines Puerari, ma
sceur, ma fille, mes quatre domestiques et moi, nous mont-
ames dans sa chambre autour de son lit, pour la priere du
matin, qui devait avoir un interet particulier, parceque c'etait
le jour anniversaire de sa 91e annee. Elle nous dit apres la
priere des mots tendres et charmants que je crois entendre
encore. Nous descendtmes pour dejeuner; mais on vintbien-
t6t appeler ma sceur de sa part (c'etait 9| heures). " Quand
je te vois entrer dans ma chambre," lui difc-elle, " je suis la
plus heureuse des meres." " Je t'aime pour ce que je vois
en toi," ajoata-t-elle (a l'occasion d'un tendre reproche que
lui faisait Sophie), " mais Dieu m'aime malgr6 ce qu'il voit
en moi. Je desire me lever." Et sans attendre la r6-
ponse, elle sortit elle-meme de son lit et s'assit sur un fau-
teuil pour s'habiller de ses propres mains, quand Sophie
vit son visage s'alterer, courut a elle et s'agenouilla a ses
cfites, nous faisant appeler. Ma mere n'etait plus sur la
terre ! Nous fumes quelque terns a ne le pas croire ; car il
n'y eut pas une plainte, pas un effort, pas un soupir ; nous
n'avons pas meme pu dire le moment precis oil son ame
bienheureux s'envolait vers son Dieu. II y a cinq semaines
qu'ayant fait une chute qui n'eut aucune suite facheuse, elle
crut 6tre a son dernier jour et nous fit tous appeler pour
nous donner sa benediction : " Eendez grace avec moi,"
nous dit-elle, "j'avais toujours craint ce moment; mais
Dieu me remplit l'ame d'une paix qui m'6tonne moi-me'me."
Merle, Demale, Bertholet et moi, nous priames tour a tour
hier sur sa tombe ; beaucoup d'amis et de freres chantaient
autour de la fosse ce beau cantique : " Non, ce n'est pas

316 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1855.

mourir que d'aller vers son Dieu. . . ." Je suis tres
afflige ; je sens un grand vide de n' avoir plus ce coeur de
mere occupe de son fils sur la terre ; de ne plus retrouver
a notre table cette bonne tendre et veneree amie qui etait
1'ornement et la joie de ma maison, et qui portait des fruits
de justice j usque clans la vieillesse toute blanche, arbre
plant6 de Dieu dans les parvis de l'Eternel. Je demande
au Seigneur qu'il m'instruise, m'humilie, et me rende plus
aimant— par sa sainte parole et par ses dispensations.

Cher ami, voila bien des details. Pour un autre que
vous ils seraient de trop. Mais j'ai cru les devoir a votre
amitie. Je n'ai jamais oublie ce mot aimable que vous me
dites, il y a 25 ans : " Gaussen, je connais votre mere, et
vous n'avez pas connu la mienne." Ce mot demeure
encore sur mon coeur. Je me sens une fraternite de plus
avec ceux qui aiment et v6nerent une mere. Dieu vous
benisse et vous garde, mon cher Erskine ! Eecevez les
vceux sinceres, serieux et tendres, de mon amitie. Je ne
veux pas controverser avec vous ; vous avez dix fois plus
d'esprit que moi ; je dirai que vous en avez trop. Ne
construisez pas Dieu, cher ami ; reverez-le tel que la Sainte
Bible, divinement inspiree et faite pour les simples, l'a
clecrit, Ce Dieu nous a convertis des idoles de ce monde
pour le servir comme un Dieu vivant et vrai, et pour
attendre des cieux son fils Jesus qui nous a delivres de la
colere a venir. Certainement il y a un colere a venir,
puisque Dieu le dit. Certainement il y a un Fils unique
qui en d6livre les croyants. Certainement celui qui a le
Fils a la vie eternelle, mais celui qui ne croit pas au Fils,
la colere de Dieu reste sur lui. 0 graces a Dieu pour son
don ineffable. Je vous ai garde une vraie affection et une
vraie estime ; j'ai aussi des souvenirs tres reconnaissants de
vous et de votre famille. Saluez, je vous prie, de ma part
Monsieur et Madame Paterson, ainsi que Madame Stirling

jet. 66. M. GAUSSEN. 317

(votre sceur) si elle se souvient de moi. — Votre afflige" et
affectionne, L. Gaussen.

P.S. — Vous auriez bien fait d'6crire quelques paroles de
sympathie a Merle. J'ai eu beaucoup de plaisir a faire la
connaissance des Bosanquet et de tous leurs gargons.
J'aimais, en voyant Madame, a me rappeler sa bonne soeur.
Le mari est un homme fait droit. J'avais connu son pere,
qui me disait de lui, il y a une quinzaine d'ann6es : " J'ai
en Lincolnshire un tres bon fils, tendre et respectueux."

175. TO M. GAUSSEN.

Linlathen, 22d Sept. 1855.

Dear Gaussen, beloved Friend, — So that long life is
terminated, and you have no longer before your eyes that
sweet symbol of the love of your Father in heaven. She
is no longer with you, but I believe, as you do, that these
human relationships have an eternal truth in them, spring-
ing from an eternal root, the eternal relations of the Father
and the Son. He has formed us in His own image, and
our human relationships are parts of that image, and there-
fore in their measure and degree may be expected to
partake in the eternity of their root. Just before I received
your letter, I had been reading at our family worship the
17th chapter of St. John, in which our Lord speaks such
wonderful words about the union of man with God, "I in
them, and Thou in me," " that they may be made perfect
in one." Dear friend, I would suffer with you, and I would
also rejoice with you for her sake, for her release from the
bondage of mortality. I can accompany you in the long-
retrospect of life, in the whole of which she occupies such
a place ; so that her life was a constituent element of your
life from infancy onwards. Dear woman — I see her before
me, her genial, quiet, motherly face and character; her

318 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1855.

look and voice of benevolence and wisdom and solidity. I
know no higher attribution that can be given to man than
that of unselfishness and dutifulness, recognising that the
law of his being does not spring i'rom himself, but comes
to him from God. And this makes the distinction between
the world's love and Christian love. Christian love is un-
selfish and dutiful, whilst the other with all its beauty is
soiled by selfishness in one form or other. And thus we
have our completeness in Christ. The Son comes from the
bosom of the Father to be the ground and law of man's
being, and to know Him as such, and the Father who sent
Him, is eternal life. The eternal death consists in man's
persisting in abiding in his own selfish will, and refusing
that kingdom of heaven a place within him. I love you,
dear Gaussen. The scenes at Satigny return to me like
the scenes of my youth, as do other connections at Geneva.
. . . You speak to me of dear Merle, and say that I ought
to write to him. Since ever 1 heard of his sorrow, I have
purposed to write to him, but my own unmarried condition
made me feel as if I were less fitted to be a sympathiser
with him than I can be in your sorrow. Since my first
meeting with Merle I have never ceased to value and love
him, and I know the exceeding tenderness of his affections.
I have read the little souvenir with deep interest and
thankfulness. . . . Madlle. Sophie and your daughter will
feel this blank along with you, but you will find it
abundantly supplied in Him who is the completeness of
man. — Ever affectionately yours, T. E^skine.

P.S. — I shall write to Merle in a day or two • in the
meantime assure him of my brotherly love and sympathy.
Dear friend, on reading over this letter, I feel as if I had
not given out the tithe of my love to you, or of my gratitude
for your writing to me so soon.

jet. 67. THOMAS CARL YLE. 319

176. TO THOMAS CARLYLE, ESQ.

Linlathen, 20th Oct. 1855.

My dear Mr. Carlyle, — Every token of your remem-
brance is highly valued by me, and the pamphlet itself is
not a little interesting and instructive. A man who would
be helpful to men must be a brother, not a supercilious
dealer out of doles to them. The mercy which expresses
itself in the last way can bless neither him that gives nor
him that takes. Mr. Waddell has certainly some adminis-
trative faculty, but then he was a dissenter, and an un-
authorised unofficial philanthropist, and as such he had no
right nor reason to expect anything but counteraction from
official incapables. It is a comfort, however, to see that an
administrative faculty even in such circumstances can
accomplish something, and most gratifying it is to find
what recognition it meets from those in whose behalf it is
exercised. The complete triumph would be to enlist even
the influential incapables themselves in the service by
peaceful wisdom.

I hope you are now finding the good effects of your silent
and solitary rides on your health both of body and mind.
I take it for granted that you are now returned to London
(although it is rather too soon to leave the leafy lanes,
when they are just putting on their autumnal colours), and
that you are again engaged with the old seven years' man.
A painful wrestle with difficulties he had, and his
biographer, I suppose, must have if he would through him
give faithful instruction to living men. . . . Tell the lady
that I feel it to be very long since I had a line from her.
This with my best regards. — Yours ever most truly, with
all good wishes, T. Erskine.

320 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1855.

177. TO M. ADOLPHE MONOD.

21 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh,
IUIi Dec. 1855.

Beloved Friend and Brother in Christ, — I thank
our God for you and myself and all men, for that eternal
purpose of grace which he hath purposed in Christ, towards
us, in bringing us into being, that we might be partakers of
the divine nature, that we might know His will and find it
to be eternal life. I thank Him that He has given us His
Son to be our permanent eternal Head, through whom
we have continual access to Him, and continual return to
Him after all our wanderings, through whom you have
strength given you to drink the bitter cup put into your
hand, and to find it water of life. " I in them, and Thou
in Me, that they may be made perfect in one" is the
prayer of our Head for us, the prayer of Him whom the
Father heareth alway. May you, my brother, unceasingly
experience the answer to this prayer. May you feel the
reality of that union ever growing and strengthening by
all the sufferings which He sees fit to appoint for you.
God is love. Love is the divine nature.

What a sight shall we have when our eyes are fully
opened ! But we can only be partakers of that divine
nature, we can only become capable of that vision of love,
by an entire submission, by consenting to be receivers.
And that last lesson, I believe, He is now teaching you
by this suffering. You have been always a blessing to me,
a good gift from God to my soul. I hope to know you
and to love you for ever. Now, He teaches us to love by
ministering to us through each other ! Farewell, brother
beloved. — Ever affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

My sisters join their affectionate sympathy with mine,

jet. 67. REV. J. APLEOD CAMPBELL. 321

Avith regard to yourself, dear friend, and also with regard
to your family, especially dear Madame Monod.

178. TO THE REV. THOMAS WEIGHT MATHEWS.

21 Charlotte Square, 13^ Feb. 1856.
Dear Friend, — . ... I have been reading Mr. Camp-
bell's book on the Nature of the Atonement with great in-
terest and sympathy. It is full of precious spiritual thought
expressed in a form more adapted to the generality of minds
(especially in this country of Scotland, and the dissenting
English churches) than Maurice's books. I think it will
influence public opinion considerably on the great subject
which it treats. It deals so lovingly with those whose
theories it condemns, and founds its judgment on principles
which a spiritually -minded man cannot but consent to. . . .

179. TO THE REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

21 Charlotte Square, 22c? Feb. 1856.
Dear Mr. Campbell, — I am afraid that you will find
it difficult to exculpate me, in my protracted silence, of
forgetting that there is a righteous life in man's favour
which it is righteous to desire, and which it is therefore
unrighteous to withhold. But I have been anxious to read
all the book1 with my own eyes, and to read and consciously
understand every clause of it, that I might be able really
to testify to you the immense amount of thankful sympathy
that I have felt with the book, and the spirit of its author.
I have only arrived at the 324th page, and thus have not
the right to speak of the whole book, but the chapter which
I am reading has such a character of winding up and re-
capitulation in it, that I permit myself to anticipate a day,
in which I expect to terminate my reading. I wish I had
noted down as I went along the passages or topics which
1 The Nature of the Atonement, by J. M'Leod Campbell,
X

322 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1856.

more especially struck or pleased me, but this I have done
very imperfectly, and only marking pages and not subjects.

You have been most happy in finding, in such a univer-
sally recognised Calvinistic authority as Edwards, the basis
of your great argument. This will give your book an ad-
vantage which it could not have had . by any mere address
to reason and conscience.

Your intellectual type is also, in a certain measure, re-
cognisable as national, and must attract in this country
much more assent than Maurice's works.

The intercession of Christ you have, I think, specially
well illustrated — the very righteousness of Christ in
humanity, presenting a hope to the Father's mind for all
the humanity, being a manifestation of its capacities. The
10th chapter, and those that follow it, connecting the his-
torical detail of our Lord's life and sufferings with the prin-
ciple of atonement, are excellent, as is the chapter on the
necessary nature of salvation. I had hoped to write a long
letter, but I am obliged to stop. I think and hope that
this work is to produce much fruit, by the blessing of God.
. , . . — Yours ever affectionately, T. Erskine.

180. TO MADAME DE STAEL.

9th May 1856.
Dear Friend, — So Adolphe Monod has ceased to be
seen of men. II a " pass6 au Pere." I had known and loved
him for many years, and I can well understand the void
which his death will occasion amongst his friends in Paris.
His loss as a Christian minister is also very great, and not
easily to be supplied. His ability as a preacher, though
rare, was yet not so rare as the inward character of his
spirit, his deep and tender love, his unselfishness, his un-
worldliness, his noble transparency, his candour, which
always .disposed him to give their full weight to ideas clif-

jet. 67. FROM ADOLPHE MONOD. 323

fering from his own, and at the same time his faithfulness,
which kept him from any compromise of truth. Jesus
wept at the grave of Lazarus to show us the mind of God
in such circumstances. It is wonderful to think that He,
who no doubt wept at the grave of Adolphe Monod, should
yet have seen it needful to lay such a weight of suffering
on his last days. I feel that it could only have been an
infinite love contemplating an infinitely glorious result that
could have inflicted that suffering. Two or three months
before, I had received a letter written to his dictation (by
his daughter, I suppose), but signed by himself, and ad-
dressed to Charles Scholl of Lausanne, Gaussen of Geneva,
and to me, as three friends who had been specially used by
God as helps to him in his spiritual life. . . .

This remarkable letter, having passed through the hands
of MM. Scholl and Gaussen, was left finally in the
custody of Mr. Erskine. This was done by Monod's own
direction. His family have kindly given permission for
its publication : —

A MM. GAUSSEN, SCHOLL, ET ERSKINE.

Paeis, ler D6cembre 1855.
Il y a trois amis dont j'aime a associer les noms, pour la
part considerable qu'ils ont eue tous trois, en des temps, et
a des titres divers, a la conversion de mon kme. Je veux
leur rendre temoignage de ma reconnaissance, aujourd'hui
que je m' attends a passer bientot de ce monde au Pere, et
que je puise toutes mes consolations dans la foi qu'ils
m'ont apprise. Ces sont Louis Gaussen, Charles Scholl, et
Thomas Erskine. Le premier a opere lentement sur mon
esprit par son commerce bienveillant, par sa predication,
par ses exemples, et par ses pieux entretiens de Saligny.
Le second m'a presente l'Evangile dans des entrevues
plus courtes, sous un aspect pratique, si aimable, et

824 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1855.

en mesme temps si sage et si vrai, qu'il lui a gagne
mon coeur. Le troisieme a Geneve a deracine' mes pr6-
jug^s intellectuels en r6conciliant dans mon esprit l'evan-
gile avec la saine philosophic ; apres quoi a Naples il a
mis la derniere main a l'oeuvre autant que cela dependait
de l'homme, en 6clairant et tout ensemble en achevant
d'attrister ma melancolie par le contraste de sa paix par-
faite et de sa tendre charity. Je n'oublierai jamais nos
promenades de Capo di Monte, ni l'accent dont il me
disait, a la vue du soleil se couchant sur le magnifique
bassin de Naples : " Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant
thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." Ces trois amis
n'ont pas ete seuls a travailler pour mon ame, comment
oublierais-je ce que la fidelit6 de Frederic a 6te" pour nous
tous, et ce qu'a fait pour moi l'humble et prudente
Jeannette Picerari, sans parler d'autres amis dans ma
famille ou au dehors a Geneve et ailleurs ! Mais les trois
amis auxquels j'adresse ces lignes ont 6te appel^s de Dieu
a exercer sur moi une influence combin6e dans laquelle ils
se completaient mutuellement, sans le savoir. Je com-
mence par donner toute gloire a Dieu, et puis je leur dis a
eux-m^mes de quel amour je suis p6n6tr6 pour eux, et de
quel coeur je demande a Dieu de les tenir de ses benedic-
tions les plus precieuses dans la vie et dans la mort en leur
6pargnant, s'il est possible, la fournaise par laquelle sa
misericorde me fait passer. En meme temps je me
recommande a leurs prieres, pour qu'ils couronnent le bien
qu'ils m'ont fait en demandant pour moi la gr&ce de ne pas
laisser echapper ma patience, et de glorifier Dieu jusqu'au
bout de mon combat en proportion de l'amertume de mes
douleurs.

Je prie Gaussen de faire passer cette lettre a Scholl, et
Scholl a Erskine ; ce sera comme un lien de plus entre eux,
comme entre chacun d'eux et moi, dans l'amour de Christ.

Adolphe Monod.

iET. 67. REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL. 325

CHAPTER XV.

Letters from 1856 till 1862.

The event of this period was the death of Captain
Paterson. So long as the two families lived together at
Linlathen he had contributed scarcely less than Mrs. Stirling
to the management and the amenities of that happy home,
and ever afterwards it was a most brotherly relationship
that existed betwixt him and Mr. Erskine. It was his
rare self-abnegation — a heart more than ordinarily at
leisure from itself, — which gave him such a hold upon
all connected with him.

181. TO THE EEV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

Monday, Sept. 1, 1856.
Our beloved friend and brother Captain Paterson died
this morning. My sister and I received the information on
Saturday that he was worse, and we lost no time in coming
to the scene of sorrow. We arrived between four and five
o'clock, and found that an oppression on the brain had
already begun, and was thus making the mortal struggle
much more painful to surrounding friends. The fearful
conflict between life and death had been going on since
Friday, and it continued with terrible violence till this
morning a little after eight o'clock. There were occasional
SAveet recognitions and expressions of love unutterable,

326 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1856.

especially to his wife and son, also to Mrs. Stirling and my-
self, and sometimes words and looks which betokened the
highest things. His natural vigour made the struggle terri-
fically severe. But we knew him, and had long known him
as one of the most humble and most faithful of our Chris-
tian brotherhood.1 All who knew him knew this, and will
feel the loss severely; but to his wife, to whom since their
union he had been the most affectionate of husbands, the
loss is of a character which nothing but her knowledge of
the purpose of Him who made them and joined them, and
who had led them through all the events of their pilgrim-
age, could make supportable. The first words she spoke
after the spirit had escaped from the body were words of
thankfulness. How precious is the knowledge of Him who
hath overcome death, and Him who hath the power of
death ! and as His victory was through death, so He leads
us by the same way.

It is impossible not to believe that He had deepest sym-
pathy with His servant during these dark hours, and that
He had not real communion with him, although the lower
nature had no participation in it. Oh friend, pray for us
that we may gain from this sorrow all that our Father in-
tends for us. . . . You will write to her ; you know how
she values your sympathy. — -Ever affectionately yours,

T. Erskine.

182. TO THE REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

Linlathen, 2d Oct. 1856.
My dear Brother, — Somehow or other Maurice's letter

1 "Pour 35 ans il avait ete un membre de notre famille, comme s'il
l'avait ete par naissance. C'etait un homme d'une simplicite et loyaute
de caractere parfait, tendre a sa femme, et affectueux a Madame Stirling
et moi, et a tous nos parents, et surtout le coeur droit euvers Dieu son
Sauveur." — Extract from letter to M. Cramer Mallet.

XT. 68. LADY CAROLINE CHARTERIS. 327

has been lost, which I regret, chiefly because I cannot give
you the words in which he expresses himself on the subject
of your book. His commendation of it however is very
high for its reach of thought, its logical development of
thought, and the wise and loving candour of its judgment
of other views. He is not particular in what he says of it,
and I almost hope that he may have written to yourself
about it.1 . . .

I am reading Plato occasionally with exceeding interest.2
Surely the spirit of Socrates saw a great light, and he was
faithful to his light. If he had lived at the time of Paul's
visit to Athens, I feel assured that he would have embraced
the Gospel, and then what interesting dialogues we should
have had ! . . . — Ever affectionately yours,

T. Erskine.

183. TO LADY CAROLINE CHARTERIS.

Linlathen, 27th Oct. 1856.

Dear Lady Caroline, — I am very much obliged to
you for the kind thought of sending me les adieux of my
dear and admirable friend Adolphe Monod. The sketch

1 This letter was afterwards recovered. In it Mr. Maurice says : — "I
have wished to write to yon about many things, especially about Mr.
Campbell's beautiful and profoundly interesting book. ... It was all
and more than all I had expected. The serenity of it and his sympathy
with those who differed from him were the qualities in it which struck me
most, and made me most ashamed, though I fully recognised its logical
power, and its grasp of that which is above and beneath all logic."

2 " His literary tastes were very refined. Shakespeare was his favourite
author among the moderns, and to hear Mr. Erskine quoting Shakespeare
was no ordinary treat. His favourites among the ancients were Homer
and Plato. He read the Iliad through continuously, finishing about the
year 1838. Plato engaged much of his leisure time during the rest of his
life. On one occasion the Phaedo having been referred to, he read it over,
he said, while at Naples." — (Extract from letter of Dr. Richard Low of
Broughty Ferry, who knew Mr. Erskine well, and to whom he was warmly
attached.)

328 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1857.

of him is exceedingly like, and gives the idea of perfect
peace and patience under intense suffering. I think that
portrait is one of the best sermons in the volume. . . .
I think it probable you may before now have heard of
our loss. Captain Paterson was removed from this world
in the end of August. He was a faithful, affectionate man.
He had been married thirty-five years, and had adopted
all our family connections, and had been adopted by them,
as fully as if he had been of our own blood. He had suf-
fered a great deal for the last few months ; but he knew
the purpose of God, and I doubt not received a large
blessing through his sufferings. His loss to us all is very
great, especially to his wife, than whom no woman ever
had a more devoted or affectionate husband. . . . — Yours
ever truly, T. Erskine.

184. TO THOMAS CARLYLE, ESQ.

38 Charlotte Square, 18th April 1857.
Dear Mr. Carlyle, — The sight of your well-known
handwriting was a real joy to me. I have felt the long
interruption of all direct communication, and had often
purposed writing to you or to Mrs. Carlyle, but had from
day to day deferred it as the manner of man is. This was
the more inexcusable as I had heard from worthy Mrs.
Braid1 that Mrs. Carlyle, in whom she takes a mother's
interest, had been ill. I am glad that she is now better,
and in a condition to benefit by what of spring or summer
may be before us. I really hope that the next visit you
pay to Scotland you will come to us, and before that time
I trust that this weary Fritz may be off your conscience
and thrown on the consciences of other men, as incentive
or warning as the truth of the matter may make him. I

1 A remarkable woman, an old nurse of Mrs. Carlyle, living near Edin-
burgh, whom Mr. Erskine frequently visited.

MRS. SCHWABE. 329

suppose that he shows us what a strong will and a clear
insight without a conscience can do for a man. To me it
is a most unpleasing spectacle — a German king confining
his kinghood to leading armies, and extending frontiers
and setting up par gout as a French wit and a ribald free-
thinker. I would much rather be honest Mrs. Braid
selling flour and bacon, and lovingly bearing the burden of
her bed-rid son.

.Yes, dear Mr. Carlyle, friends are getting fewer and
fewer. Here I have scarcely one now out of my own imme-
diate relations in whom I have the confidence of thorough
intimacy except James Mackenzie, whose memory goes
back and whose hope goes forward in pleasant music. Our
University here narrowly missed getting Scott for Professor
of Logic the other day, which I greatly lament both for
her sake and ours. I believe the Free Kirk bears the sin
of it.

My sisters, especially Mrs. Paterson, are and have been
rather weakly. The loss in that house won't soon be for-
gotten. They think of you both with real affection, as I
do.— Ever truly yours, T. Erskine.

185. TO MRS. SCHWABE.

Linlathen, 9t?i Sept. 1857.
My dear Mrs. S., — I have read the sermon of Mr.
Martineau which you wished me to read, with deep
interest and much sympathy. I have felt along with
him what a hopeless, desolate state men would be in,
were they necessitated to scream out their wants and
sorrows to a being separated from them by an impass-
able gulf; and I have also felt what a deadly chill it throws
over the universe to substitute eternal laws for an infinite
Father. I have indeed found that the only deliverance for
man lies in the living union of God with humanity, and

330 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1857.

not an historical matter, but an eternal spiritual order. If
Christianity be true, it must be the only real natural
religion, that is, it must explain all the true spiritual and
moral consciousness within us, just as the theory of New-
ton, if true, must explain all the phenomena of the heavenly
bodies. The fact of conscience is the great spiritual fact
in man's nature. Well, what is conscience 1 - Is it merely
part and parcel of myself 1 Christianity says that it is the
presence of God's light, and life, and love, met by a spiri-
tual capacity in us of apprehending it ; and that it is there
not as a spy or as a taskmaster, but as a loving guide, and
helper, and comforter — that it is the divine spirit of son-
ship, to assure us of the unchangeable fatherliness of Cod's
purpose towards us, and to accomplish that purpose in all
who will yield themselves to it, making them indeed sons
of God. This presence dwells in each of us, connecting us
with each other, and connecting all with God ; thus we are
all specimens of that wonderful combination, God and man
united, the divine element issuing out of God into us all,
not direct from the great Father, but modified by passing
through a human heart, and thus full of all holy human
sympathies ; that human heart is the heart of Jesus, the
head and root of the race, our elder brother, like us, yet
differing from us in this, that in us is seen the humanity
indwelt by God, in Him is seen God assuming the humanity.
He has passed through human life and human death bearing
all our burdens — the burden of our sins and the burden of
our sorrows — the true Saviour, the true King, connected
with every individual of the race, not only by a bond of
love, but a bond of relation of brotherhood, a bond which
can never be broken. He presents to us our Father's char-
acter, He presents to the Father His own accomplished
idea and purpose in the creation of man ; He stands in
that relation to us, that He may make us like-minded to

MRS. SCHWABE. 331

Himself; that is, that He may bring our wills into confor-
mity with the Father's, not that they should be lost in that
highest will, but that they may become loving and intelli-
gent recipients of it. Thus only can the desire of God for
man be accomplished; for thus only can man become a
partaker of God's life, of God's blessedness ; and all this
without the danger of self-exaltation, for man is to continue
always a receiver. There is, in my mind, something un-
speakably sweet, and loving, and righteous in this consti-
tution of things.

God does not give us each a private stock of wisdom
and strength, by which we may work out an independent
righteousness, on which we may stand and negotiate with
Him and our fellow-creatures, but He creates us with a
capacity of receiving or rejecting, and thus maintaining our
moral responsibility, and then He wells out of His own
infinite fulness the supply of all our needs, thus imparting
to all His gifts the character of loving fellowship, like that
father in the parable who said, Son, thou art ever with me,
and all that I have is thine — were I to give you an inde-
pendent provision it would break this loving bond. One
feels too that it is righteous that the fountain should be
acknowledged as the fountain ; and thus we see that there
is nothing arbitrary in the declaration that faith is man's
righteousness. Faith means dependence, recipiency, and
that assuredly is the only right place for man to occupy,
and thus only can he rise out of the religion of obedience
into the religion of communion, as Mr. Martineau happily
expresses it. . . .

Dear friend, I must ask you not to show this letter to
any one, but just to keep it in your own thought and con-
science. I have written it without any care, and on look-
ing it over I see that it is not very accurate or logical, but
that may pass with a friend ; I believe it to be true.

332 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1857.

186. TO MRS. BLACKWELL.

Linlathen, 10th Sept. 1857.

My dear Friend, — . . . You will have heard of dear Lady
Matilda's1 sudden departure, and I am sure that you would
think of us as fellow-mourners with her own family. She
was a shining light, and many rejoiced in her light, receiv-
ing guidance and consolation from her. It would be well
for us if we could learn to trust God as we trust those of
our fellow-creatures whom we really believe to be good
and loving. We could all name individuals, alive or dead,
in whose love for us we had such confidence, that we should
feel satisfied that our eternal interests would be quite safe
in their hands, if they had only wisdom and power enough.
If we believed that they had the requisite wisdom and power,
we should receive every appointment, painful or otherwise,
with perfect acquiescence, knowing that it must be for our
true good. My daily endeavour is to learn this same lesson
in relation to God. I am sure He created me and all men
to be partakers in His own eternal life. This I believe
is contained in the truth that He created us in Christ.
Now this purpose of God I believe to be unchangeable, and
that He will follow it on, until it be accomplished. The
Shepherd goes after the lost sheep until he finds it. I am
persuaded that this is an eternal truth, and the only founda-
tion on which a man who feels himself a sinner — self-
destroyed — can lay himself down all his length in absolute
trust. . . .

Do not be afraid of what I have written, my dear friend.
It is good news, but not too good to be true. It is the
triumph of truth, and holiness, and love. It is the victory

1 Lady Matilda Bruce, second daughter of Thomas, seventh Earl of Elgin,
became, in 1839, the wife of Sir John Maxwell, Bart., of Pollok.

jet. 69. MR. MAURICE. 333

of Him who says to us, " Be not overcome of evil, but over-
come evil with good." — Ever affectionately yours,

T. Erskine.

187. TO LADY CAROLINE CHARTERIS.

Linxathem-, 19th Sept. 1857.
Yes, dear Lady Caroline, we cannot doubt but that her
removal from this world was an entrance into a happier
and brighter state, yet the loss to those who were used to
lean on her and to get counsel and comfort from her must
be great. I have almost never known any one so univer-
sally approved of, by persons of all descriptions, and
certainly few have possessed so many loving and admiring
friends. All who knew her loved her, and looked to her
as something above the common reach of humanity. Dear
Sir John must indeed be very desolate. I can realise
those looks asking for sympathy and acknowledging it
when given. I am glad that W. Stirling has such a
mission given to him. It is good for the heart to try to
heal such wounds, to soothe such sorrows. He loved and
prized her well, and he must feel that any consolation
which can reach his uncle's heart at this time must come
from behind the veil. , . . Farewell, dear friend.

T. Erskine.

188. TO MR. MAURICE.

Linlathen, 2ith Nov. 1857.
My dear Friend, — It is a long time since I have had
direct communication with you. I am now, however, im-
pelled to send you a word by the grateful feelings produced
by reading your sermons for the day of humiliation and
the following Sunday. I rejoice to read such things, and
to know that they must be read by many. I wish our
missionaries could read and understand them, that they

334 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE, 1858.

might not weary themselves by attempting to displace one
set of dogmas and substitute another, but that they might
commend themselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God, by declaring the common Father, who is drawing
all men into fellowship with Himself by that true light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. If
they claimed all honesty and truthfulness and kindness —
every act of self-sacrificing generosity and uprightness — as
Christianity, they could not fail meeting a response in every
heart. They speak of traces of humanity being most visible
in all faiths and forms — why not say that humanity is
Christianity ? For what else is it 1 Were there not that
true light in man, were not the Son of God in him, where
would his humanity be? And this, every man who feels
the difference between himself and the brutes is not only
capable of apprehending, but has a latent desire to appre-
hend. "Thou hearest His voice, but thou knowest not
whence it cometh and whither it leadeth." And this great
explanation is the charm which frees the man from his
fears and selfishness and slavery to visible things. If Christ
be that Word, that Light, then everything according with
them is Christianity — not like Christianity, but actual
Christianity. . .

I am glad to think that your trumpet gives no uncertain
sound. When shall we begin to realise that Christianity
is not a religion got up either by God or man ; but that it
is the practical acknowledgment of man's actual condition
as a spiritual being, of God's mind towards him, and of the
relation in which he stands to God and to his fellow-
creatures 1 . , . Ever yours affectionately,

T. Erskine.

189. TO MR. MAURICE.

38 Charlotte Square, 6 Jan. 1858.
My dear Mr. Maurice, — Your Christian Ethics, for

/et. 69. LADY CAROLINE CHARTERIS. 335

which I have to give you most earnest though tardy thanks,
have been full of interest to me — good seed I should say,
which I hope may hear good fruit in many hearts. I de-
sire to know more and more the importance of learning
Christ, rather than Christianity ; the living, loving almighty
Lord of our spirits, rather than the logic about Him. I
have also to thank you for the sermons on India. I admire
your unexhausted prolificness, and the beautiful ordering
of the ev and the iroXka through your creation. . . . —
Ever affectionately yours, T. ErskinE.

190. TO MRS. BURNETT.

Linlathen, 13 Sept. 1858.
We have had Mr. M'Murtrie1 with us for some days, and
have been much pleased with his gentle, earnest ways. I
have heard him once, and I trust that he may be a
spiritual awakener and helper to many. We have had a
great deal of conversation on the great subjects on which
a minister has to instruct his hearers, and he seems to feel
deeply that he cannot instruct others in anything which
his own heart has not learned first itself.

191. TO LADY CAROLINE CHARTERIS.

Linlathen, 6th Oct. 1858.2

Dear Lady Caroline, — . . . Poor Dean Ramsay!

He is a kindly, sociable man, and he must feel his loneliness

very much, and at present these painful disputes and trials

amongst our Episcopalian clergy must harass his mind.

1 Mr. Robertson's successor as minister of the parish of Mains, now of
Edinburgh.

2 "1858 was a sad year for the Dean. Mrs. Ramsay had been very ill,
and sinking in strength and spirit till on the 23d July the afflicted husband
makes this entry : ' It pleased God to visit me with the deep and terrible
affliction of taking away my friend, companion, and adviser of twenty-nine
years.'" — Memoirs of Dean Ramsay, by Cosmo Innes, p. 48.

338 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSK1NE. 1859.

Our bishop here did, I think, much evil in stirring the
question,1 which I believe in the minds of many people
means just nothing at all. The consecration of the bread and
wine cannot mean changing their nature, but simply using
them in worship — using them, according to the last instruc-
tions of our Lord, in remembrance of Him. Faith means
trust in our Father's loving purpose towards us in Jesus
Christ, that we should be the living members of His body,
partakers of the Divine nature. This is a faith which
saves us from fear and worldliness and selfishness ; and are
we called to exchange this faith for faith in an unintelligible
mystery, a necromancy, which says nothing either to the
reason or to the heart 1 Such notions must make many
infidels. I am going to Polloc on Friday, I may perhaps
take a look of Noel Paton's picture as I pass through Edin-
burgh. Best regards to Lady Jane. My sister, Mrs. Pater-
son, has been worse these last days. — Yours most truly,

T. Ekskine.

192. TO MRS. SCHWABE.

16 Charlotte Square, \Uh Feb. 1859.

Dear Friend, — How shall I tell you of the affliction it

has pleased God to lay upon us 1 Jane Stirling has been

taken from this world, doubtless to her own great gain, and

doubtless for our good, could we understand it aright. In

the meantime, however, it is a deep sorrow, a removal of

what was the light and joy of many hearts. She was ill

for eight weeks, and suffered a great deal. ... I know you

will feel this deeply, for you could appreciate the purity and

beauty of that stream of love which flowed through her

whole life. I don't think that I ever knew any one who

seemed more entirely to have given up self, and devoted

1 The question as to the Eucharist, raised at this time in the Scottish
Episcopal Church by the Bishop of Brechin. — See Life of Bishop Ewing.

M.T. jo. MR. MAURICE. 337

her whole being to the good of others. I remember her
birth like yesterday, and I never saw anything in her but
what was lovable from the beginning to the end of her

course It is a voice to us out of the invisible eternity,

which we ought to seek to understand.

193. TO MR. MAURICE;

Linlathen-, 28th June 1859.

My dear Maurice, — I have to thank you for the
renewed proof of your much-valued remembrance of me,
which the arrival of Mr. Macmillan's packet has brought
me. I feel the importance of your subject, and hope to feel
it more deeply, more practically day by day. To live in
the Spirit is the right condition of man, his normal condi-
tion, out of which he is out of order ; and to live in the
Spirit is to live with God — hearing Him, and knowing
Him, and loving Him, and delighting to do His will.
When I think how little I know of this order, or see it
known by others, I do not wonder that some should think
that there is no such order ; and yet the man who makes
this denial has occasional thoughts which make him feel
that he has no right to make it ; because, if there is an
unknown God, there is also an unknown self, whose
capacities he has not yet tried or measured.

" Thou hearest His voice, but knowest not whence it
cometh and whither it leadeth ; but he who is born of the
Spirit does." And one may be born of the Spirit for a
day, and relapse again into the abnormal state, and almost
forget what he has seen and known in that day. "Abide
in me," is the perfect law of liberty. I think that, if a man
has once felt what the meaning of that word of our Lord is,
" If thine eye offend thee," etc., that is to say, if he has felt
that there are things in him, roots of evil and memories of
their fruits, which must be cast out — else he keeps within

Y

338 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. i860.

him an unquenchable fire, which no sweet, oblivious anti-
dote can ever purge his bosom of, which no mere forgive-
ness, even of G-od, can rid him of, — he must also feel that
he can only have deliverance through a knowledge of
God, which implies a participation in the divine nature
and the divine righteousness. — Yours ever affection-
ately, T. Erskine.

The voice of His judgments is heard through the nations
and he that hath ears to hear let him hear.

194. TO MR. MAURICE.

LlNLATHEN, DUNDEE, 15th Nov. I860.

My dear Friend, — I knew Irving a little, but not
enough to be able to give much help towards such a work
as Mrs. Oliphant is undertaking. What is in my power,
however, I shall be most happy to do. We intend to go to
Edinburgh, 14 Charlotte Square, about the 1st December,
for the winter. If she will call or send her address there,
I shall wait on her. I should have liked to have seen the
life of Irving written by one who had known him per-
sonally ; for all that ever he did or said, although accurately
given, would be a very inadequate expression of Edward
Irving. Carlyle and Scott knew him well, and have very
living portraits of him in their own hearts. Scott cannot
speak of him without becoming Irving in voice and manner,
even in countenance.

Scott is to deliver a course of lectures in Edinburgh this
winter, and if his time coincides with Mrs. Oliphant's, she
will have an opportunity of talking with him about Irving,
which I am sure will be very gratifying to them both.
Dear Mr. Maurice, could you not be of the party 1 Unless
you come down, I cannot look forward to seeing you again ;
for I cannot go to London, and I feel that there are many
things on which I should like to hear you speak, and to

mt. 72. REV. ALEX. J. SCOTT. 339

speak to you. Yes, this last year has been a wonderful
year for Italy ; and she has many struggles before her still.
God gave her a great gift in Garibaldi, a gift which will
yet more be needed, I doubt not, before long. The world
has had a Some before, but never an Italy, though many
Italians. Will the fall of the Vicar lead to the manifesta-
tion of the Lord 1 — Yours ever affectionately,

T. Erskine.

195. TO DR. WYLIE OF CARLUKE.

... I have been reading over Dr. Carlyle's (of Inver-
esk) autobiography with much shame and disgust. It is
evident that at that time a large proportion of the clergy
of Scotland thought it their chief business to get associated
with a circle of jovial, cheerful, clever companions, with
whom they might eat good dinners and drink good claret
when they could get them, and spend their lives with as
little care and annoyance as possible. Unless one could
hope that the spiritual education of these people was to go
on after death, one could see nothing for them but the
blackest horror. These were the instructors of the people
of Scotland at that period in spiritual things, and they had
no conception of the existence of a spiritual world, no
thought of an actual presence of God in them. " The fool
hath said in his heart, There is no God." I remember the
old man, with his beautiful grey locks ; but what a picture
does he give of himself and his friends ! . . .

196. TO THE REV. ALEX. J. SCOTT.

41 Charlotte Square, 28th March 1862.

My dear Friend, — ... I forget whether you knew

Mr. Cayley ; he was a Parliamentary friend of Sir John

Maxwell, who made us acquainted with him. He had

been brought up a Unitarian, and was a most intelligent

340 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1862.

and amiable man. Sir John has been very weakly for
a long time, and very dependent on society. Cay ley came
down to Polloc always during the Parliamentary vacar
tions, and was his constant companion and never-failing
resource. He was rather delicate, but he never at all
gave me the idea of being near death, yet soon after
he had left this — last month or in the end of January
— for the purpose of meeting his constituents, he became
seriously ill and died. I cannot tell you how much
I was impressed by him whilst he was here in Edin-
burgh for three days, on his way south; he had a joy
in God that filled him continually, and which seemed to
astonish himself as much as it could do others. He had
found the pearl of great price. I have seen such sights,
but they are rare. My sisters would join in affectionate
regards to you all. — Ever truly yours,

T. Erskine.

197. TO LADY AUGUSTA STANLEY.

Linlathen, Dundee, July 20, 1862.
Dearly Beloved, — I have read your kind letter over
with a sense of great unworthiness. It seems to me almost
like wickedness to hesitate about accepting an invitation so
lovingly given, but I remember that I am half way between
seventy and eighty, and I have always a fear upon me that
something may occur which may make me a burden and a
nuisance, and this feeling not only deters me from leaving
home, but gives me a certain restlessness when I break
through my rule. There are few faces that I like to see so
well as yours, not only for its own dear sake, but because
it is to me the in memoriam of another, the outward and
visible sign, as it were, of something holy which has dis-
appeared from this earth ; so that it is from no lack of love
that I decline. The only time I ever saw Broomhall was

MT. 73. MR. MAURICE. 341

very long ago, long before you " had arrived" before even,
I think, your father and mother were married. I went
there with one or two of my Cardross cousins to see your
father and his three little girls, whose faces I remember
well. How many histories have commenced and termin-
ated, outwardly at least, since then !

198. TO THE EEV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

LlNLATHEN, 1st Oct. 1862.

I have been reading over the 1 2th, 1 3th, and 1 4th of 1st
Corinthians. It is a very remarkable passage. Paul seems
to have been almost as much troubled by these manifesta-
tions as Irving was, and he seems to have escaped by seeing
that they did not stand in that authoritative place that
Irving ascribed to them. The 19 th verse of the 14th
chapter gives me the same impression that I used to receive
from a comparison of the Row teaching with the Port-'
Glasgow manifestations thirty-two years ago. He, Paul,
seems really to have set little store comparatively by the
manifestations in the Corinthian Church. — Ever affection-
ately yours, T. Erskine.

199. TO MR. MAURICE.

LlNLATHEN, llth Oct. 1862.

My dear Friend, — We had lately the pleasure of seeing
your young artilleryman1 here, whom we found to be a
very agreeable member of society, full of intelligence and
information. We shall hope to see more of him when we
go into Edinburgh for the winter, which will be in the
beginning of November.

You, I suppose, are much occupied about Colenso's
matters, which no doubt are difficult, and require the
1 Captain Frederick Maurice.

342 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1862.

wisdom which is from above — that wisdom which teaches
us how to bear one another's burdens — the burdens of
Zooloos, and High Church and Low Church, etc. etc.

Our Lord taught men as they were able to bear it ; and
Moses, for the hardness of their hearts, allowed various
things ; but it is difficult to draw boundaries.

If the Bible is a book of teaching, it must contain matter
for beginners as well as for the initiated ; and yet to talk
of degrees of spiritual truth is to some minds an entire sub-
version of authority, and we ought to bear the burden of
such as well as of others.

An implicit faith, however, means no faith at all; it
implies an entire ignoring of what our Lord meant to
teach when He said, " All who are of the truth are my
subjects." ...

A friend of mine died last week at the age of eighty-two,
who had for fifty years suffered uninterruptedly from
neuralgia.1 Many years ago he told me that for twenty
years he had never been so sound asleep as to lose the con-
sciousness of suffering. He died praising God for His
tender mercies, which had led him all his journey through.
— Yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

200. TO THE EEV. THOMAS WEIGHT MATHEWS.

Linlathen, Atli Nov. 1862.

My dear Friend, — What a rest it is to the spirit to
know that the Lord reigneth, and that He will put all evil
under His feet ! We are all getting on now to the end of
our journey, and whilst I have to thank God for His un-
ceasing love and care and goodness, yet I have to agree
with you in saying that I can look back upon nothing in my
whole life that I do not more or less condemn and grieve
over. . . . This publication by the Bishop of Natal on the
1 Ludovic Houston, Esq. of Johnstone Castle.

MT. 74. REV. J. M. CAMPBELL. 343

non-historical character of the Exodus is a remarkable
fact, which may shake much of that faith which does
not rest on God alone. I grieve for it, and yet I believe
the man to be an earnest and good man. I have myself
always been seeking for a self-evidencing light in divine
truth not resting on any authority whatever, but children
must begin by trusting to authority, and throughout this
land 999 out of every 1000 are children. — Yours affec-
tionately, T. Erskine.

P.S. — Dear friend, I am as thoroughly persuaded as I am
of my own existence that God will not be overcome of evil,
but will overcome evil with good, and I am therefore not
much disturbed by one or two difficult passages which
seem to point to a different result. . . .

201. TO THE REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

Charlotte Sq., Edink., 21st Nov. 1862.
My dear Brother, — . . . And now what shall I say
about this most painful subject of Colenso 1 Such things
have been suggested before by enemies ; but here a friend,
though it may be an unwise one, yet certainly one who
desires to be a Christian and to promote Christianity, has
published a work which seems to sap the foundation of
traditional faith. That he has been rash I cannot doubt.
He ought to have kept his MS. unprinted for years, subject-
ing it to the examination of all competent friends and
philologians. His knowledge of Hebrew literature and
philology cannot be great, having begun so lately. Then
every one knows that numerals are most liable to be
corrupted and miscopied. But we shall have opportunities
of talking over these things at length when you come to
• Warriston. . . . — Believe me ever your loving brother,

T. Erskine.

344 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1864.

202. TO THE EEV. ALEX. J. SCOTT.

3 Charlotte Square, 11th Feb. 1864.

. . . What an immense change would be made in the con-
scious personal religion of men, as well as in their theology,
by understanding that they were made to be educated, not to
be tried ■ and therefore that trial is in order to education,
not education in order to trial. Thou wilt not be over-
come of evil, but wilt overcome evil with good. You
were the person that showed me first how all Divine pre-
cepts testified to Divine character, and consequently how
we are entitled to look to God for this optimism. And in
analogy with this, how we are entitled and justified in
applying to God everything that we have experienced of
amiable or conceived of amiable in our fellow-creatures.
I am carried back to the shore of the Gareloch in 1830,
when I walked and talked with you ; and I am carried
farther back, to my own brother, who died in the '16,
and whose memory has been such a blessed help to me in
my relation to Jesus, and my realisation of the character
of God. " If ye then being evil, how much more." Is there
not a real rest for man's spirit in this, — a rest upon a
rock 1

There are many things which I should like to talk with
you about, and at some period there will be opportunity
enough. — Ever affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

203. TO DEAN STANLEY.

3 Charlotte Square, 4th April 1864.
My dear Dean Stanley, — . . . Your Church seems
to be in a sad mess at present,1 — many truly earnest men

1 Referring to the publication of Essays and Reviews, and Colenso On
the Pentateuch.

jet. 75. MRS. A. J. SCOTT. 345

afraid that the foundation of all their spiritual hopes is to
be swept away by criticism, and forgetting that any revela-
tion, whether inspired or uninspired, must owe its whole
value to its being the discovery of truth which remains true
independently of that revelation, and which can be profit-
able to us only in so far as it produces a conviction in our
minds, from its own light, unaffected by the inspiration or
non-inspiration of the revelation.

In this whole discussion there seems to me to lurk the
idea that the dogmas of Christianity are imposed on us not
as helps or guides, but as exercises of obedience and sub-
mission. I believe, on the contrary, that they are given
for the purpose of explaining to us our relations with the
spiritual world. What are the dogmas suited for domestic
life 1 Suppose a man entering as a stranger into a house,
from which he had been carried away as an infant, and
needing guidance for his conduct there. The dogmas
would be, " that old man is your father, that old woman
your mother, these are uncles and aunts, brothers and
sisters, there is an old servant who saved your life in your
childhood," etc. etc. We don't know our duties apart from
our relations, and the knowledge of our relations helps us
to the performance as well as the knowledge of our duties.
To suppose that such domestic truths are, in the case
supposed, given as exercises of faith, and to be received
whether understood or not, would be too absurd ; and yet
it would be less absurd than in the case of the Christian
dogmas, because these are not merely facts, but the vehicles
and expressions of principles, recognisable by our spiritual
understanding, as eternal and necessary truths. Plato's
doctrine of avdfj.vr]crc<i would be a help to them, if they
would use it. . . . — Ever truly yours,

T. Erskine.

346 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

204. TO MRS. A. J. SCOTT.

3 Charlotte Square, 18th April 1864.

Dear Mrs. Scott, — ... I cannot doubt that Mr.
Scott has read Kenan's " Life of Jesus ; " I should have
liked to have talked with him about it. I am not satisfied
with any of the reviews of it. I don't think that Eenan's
criticism is to be met by criticism, but by showing what
an empty gospel he makes of it, and what a real gospel he
puts away, and also by showing what a true rationalism
there lies in what he rejects as untenable in reason.

God's training of spirits endowed with free-will into His
own sympathy is evidently a higher thing than the order-
ing of the material world, and we ought not therefore to
suppose that the plan of that training is to be subordinated
to what we see or know of these lower laws. Eenan has
evidently never awakened to the consciousness of that
tremendous capacity of suffering that exists in the heart of
man, else he would feel the necessity of finding a remedy
and a refuge in the heart of an almighty, all-wise, and all-
loving Creator. Love is to Eenan an object of tasteful ad-
miration, not the one great spiritual power in the universe.

We are at present in a distress. We have the Bishop
of Argyll with us, and he has been taken ill.

Give our kind regards to your sister from us all. — Yours
affectionately, T. Erskine.

205. TO LADY AUGUSTA STANLEY.

31 Charlotte Square, llth Feb. 1865.
Dearly Beloved, — I have received, and read, and sym-
pathised with the lecture 1 which you had the kindness to

1 A lecture on the " Theology of the Nineteenth Century," by the Dean
of Westminster, read at a meeting of the London clergy, the substance of
which appeared in " Fraser's Magazine " for February 1865.

jet. 76. LADY AUGUSTA STANLEY. ' 347

send to me. I should like to have a talk with the author
on the various subjects touched so well and lovingly in it.

There is a point which I have often wished to see more
illustrated and enforced than it is generally, and that is the
adaptation of the Christian dogma (when believed) to pro-
duce the Christian character. Paul speaks of the Gospel
as being the power of God unto salvation, that is, as con-
taining the dynamics, so to speak, the spiritual lever, and
ropes, and pulleys, and wheels by which the human spirit
may be lifted out of the horrible pit and miry clay of sin
and selfishness into a harmony with the mind of God, so
that a real apprehension of the character of God and His
purposes towards us, and our relation to Him, without any
mention of the precepts, would spontaneously produce the
life of them within our souls.

Renan complains of the Christian dogmas as encum-
brances on the beautiful morality of the Sermon on the
Mount, not considering whether it would be possible to
obey those precepts by mere effort, and without knowing
what the dogmas teach of the spiritual relations in which
we stand both to God and man. A man could not possibly
fulfil his duties as the member of a domestic circle, unless
he knew what that circle was composed of, and what the
place which he himself held in it. . . . — With kindest
regards to the Dean, yours most affectionately,

T. Erskine.

348 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

CHAPTER XVI.

Records of a Visit to Linlathen in the Autumn of 1865.

Mrs. Rich, whose name appears often in these pages, was
the eldest daughter of Sir James Mackintosh, and the
widow of one who, but for his early death, would perhaps
have been equally well known. Claudius James Rich was
the precursor of Layard and Rawlinson on the field of
Oriental discovery, and as resident at Bagdad a protector
so prized by an oppressed people that thirty years after
his death a traveller on the Tigris, asking the meaning
of some plaintive dirge sung by the peasants, learned
that it was a lament for him. With him, in exclusion
of all other society whatever but the visits of chance
travellers, Mrs. Rich spent fourteen years of peculiar
happiness and absorbing devotion, and his sudden death
by cholera during a short absence of his wife's con-
verted that happiness into a desolation as intense and
unmitigated. She became acquainted with Mr. Erskine
when the first profound grief had been complicated with
others, and the devout life which had succeeded to the
earlier phase of intense feeling had taken a strong hold
upon her. Fifty years ago all religion which was at once
manifest and intense was of that kind which is generally
described as evangelical, and her first religious associations
were formed with persons professing that form of Christian-

JET. 76. MISS WEDGWOOD. M9

ity. It had much to attract, but much also to repel her, and
her friendship with Mr. Erskine and Mr. Scott was the open-
ing to her of a world where the intensity of belief in the
invisible, the fervent hatred of sin, the profound belief in
the enduring reality and supreme significance of the work
of Christ, which are generally associated with that school,
were joined to a confidence in the universality of the love
of God and of its ultimate triumph in the case of every
buman spirit, which were at that time, and indeed are
more or less at every time, apt to be associated with a low
standard of holiness and a poor estimate of the spiritual
life. Mrs. Eich felt it a great crisis in her life when Mr.
Erskine whispered to her the wide hopes which, in the reli-
gious society of half a century ago, it was not easy and
perhaps not desirable to express openly. She became one
of his dearest friends, though in later life circumstances
kept them much apart.

The following letters were addressed to her niece, Miss
Wedgwood, who, happening to have been born in a snow-
storm, had a name bestowed on her in the familiar par-
lance of family and friends, which the special affection he
cherished for her led Mr. Erskine to employ : —

206. TO MISS WEDGWOOD.

Polloc House, Glasgow, 18th May 1865.
Beloved Snow, — . . . The evidence of a spiritual
state which continually forces itself upon me is the demand
which my conscience makes on me for qualities and feel-
ings which would not be at all necessary, if this out-
ward social order were all. To do actions beneficial to
society and to abstain from actions hurtful to society
would be enough; but love and holiness, and trust in
an unseen, are demanded by my conscience, and are neces-
sary for my peace, still more than any outward actions

350 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSK1NE. 1865.

whatever, and I cannot meet these demands without know-
ing something of the nature of that spiritual world of
which they are the natural laws. My whole being is a
contradiction if there be not a spiritual world and if I do
not belong to it. But it is impossible that my being should
be a contradiction. I feel that goodness and truth and
righteousness are realities, eternal realities, and that they
cannot be abstractions or vapours floating in a spiritual
atmosphere, but that they necessarily imply a living per-
sonal will, a good, loving, righteous God, in whose hands
we are perfectly safe, and who is guiding us by unfailing
wisdom. I have known in my life two or three persons
who, I knew, honestly and earnestly and unceasingly
endeavoured to help me to be a right man; and now, in
looking back on these persons, I feel what a deep confidence
this purpose of theirs inspired me with, and I am conscious
of having a similar confidence in God through all varieties
in His treatment of me, because I have in my conscience
the continual proof that He never for a moment relaxes
His earnest purpose that I should be right.

Dear friend, I write these fragmentary sentences from
the hope that you may catch hold of something in them
which may help you to take hold of God. There is nothing
else which can do us any good. If I believe in God, in a
Being who made me, and fashioned me, and knows my
wants and capacities and necessities, because He gave them
to me, and who is perfectly good and loving, righteous,
and perfectly wise and powerful, whatever my circumstances
inward or outward may be, however thick the darkness which
encompasses me, I yet can trust, yea, be assured, that all
will be well, that He can draw light out of darkness, and
make crooked things straight. Without such a thought of
God, the consciousness of being embarked in an unending
existence, out of which we cannot extricate ourselves, would

jet. 76. MISS WEDGWOOD. 351

be a horror insupportable, but I know that He can make
it not only supportable, but a real and continual joy and
a reason for continual thankfulness.

"Que mon ame vive qu'elle te loue." Dear Madame de
Broglie used to repeat that verse the last year of her life
as the chief expression of her feeling.

Yes, beloved Snow, we shall yet see a moral law of
gravitation doing in the world of spirits that which the
material law of gravitation does in this visible system of
things ; we yet shall see the infinite righteous love of God
attracting all hearts, and uniting them to Himself and to
each other, and filling them all out of His fulness.

Farewell. I may be here for a few days longer ; but
Linlathen will be my proper address through the summer.
— Ever yours very affectionately, T. Erskine.

I am just looking at some beautiful fragrant flowers, and
they seem to me to say so much of the gentleness and
tenderness of their Creator. What do they represent 1
Can we say when they are before us that we have no evi-
dence of the love and righteousness of God 1 But still the
demand of righteousness within us is the chiefest evidence, '
— an evidence which the dismal condition of the human
race does not seem to me at all to shake. God is in no
hurry, and man requires a long and varied process.

207. TO MISS WEDGWOOD.

Linlathen, Dundee, 12th June 1865.
My dear Snow, — I feel that what ought to be, must be,
and is, so that when I am satisfied that a thing ought to
be, I feel justified in regarding it as a reality. A universe
without a right and good purpose in creating, sustaining,
and guiding it, is a thing which I am sure ought not to be,
and cannot be. I believe in good — in the existence of good.

352 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSK1NE. 1865.

I cannot help believing in it ; but I am sure good cannot
exist without a will, and so I find that my belief in good
actually implies my belief in God, the living Fountain of
good.

Is my inner sense, my conscience, less to be trusted than
my outward senses % Have I firmer reason to believe in
an outward world than in an inward % I think not. I
believe in the reality of goodness and rightness, at least as
much as I do in the reality of earth and water. In fact, I
could not feel justified in ascribing reality to the outward
world at all, in a true sense ; it does not seem to have a
necessary existence, as the other has.

The beauty and order of the material world seem to
me to contain an assurance that in the higher region of
creation, in the moral world, a similar order will yet take
place, and must take place. I am sure that if all hearts
were filled with righteous love, all the present confusion
and misery would disappear from the earth. I see a
preparation for this result in the capacity of love as a part
of our organisation, and in the capacity of apprehending
God as a centre of attraction. This is a very refreshing
thought, dear Snow ; look at it kindly and cordially. I
cannot love that which is unloveable, directly, or in itself,
but I can arrive at loving it through another. I cannot
be right or happy till I love all men, and yet there is some-
thing exceedingly unloveable in almost all men. How am
I to get over this difficulty 1 If I see that there is a God,
and that there is a real loveableness in God, so that I can
love Him, and if I see that He loves me and all other
unloveable men with a love which desires to make me and
them worthier both of His love and of each other's love,
I can as it were ascend by the ray of love which comes
from His heart to myself, and from that heart survey, in
its own light, all the objects of its love, entering into its

jet. 76. MISS WEDGWOOD'S JOURNAL. 353

sympathies and longings and desires concerning them.
This ought to be — therefore is.

I have just been engaged in a wonderful history. When
I left Edinburgh three weeks ago, I went, as my habit has
been for some years, to visit an old friend at his house in
the country. He was a sufferer from rheumatic pains
and from injuries sustained by falls in hunting in his earlier
life ; but he was in his usual health, having recovered from
an influenza which had laid him up a short time before.
After I had been nearly a fortnight with him, and when I
was preparing to come away, he pressed me to stay a day
or two longer to see his nephew, an old friend and relative
of mine whom he was expecting. I stayed a day or two,
and saw him in the course of that time hurried out of life
and laid out a corpse on his bed. I have scarcely been
able to realise it — it seems like a troubled dream; the merely
phenomenal character of all outward things has been pressed
in upon me by it, whilst the deep eternal reality of God,
and of our relation to Him, has commended itself to me
more strongly. . . . — Ever affectionately yours,

T. Erskine.

The result of this correspondence was a visit paid to
Linlathen in the month of September, of which a journal
was kept by Miss Wedgwood, and transmitted to London
with the object of bringing Mr. Erskine near to her aunt
Mrs. Rich, as it proved for the last time in this world.
Some extracts from this journal are now presented to the
reader : —

Linlathen, 1865.

I think what I feel specially valuable in him, distinct
from all other religious people I know, is his intense
consciousness and realising of all the difficulties and
mysteries of this life, combined with his perfect trust in

z

354 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

the purpose of this life as education. I know others who
have the last, and of course many many who have the
first, but the union of the two I think I never saw but
in him ; he looks not across the mysterious gulf of evil
merely, but through it. It is not any ignoring, any silence
in his spirit about the hideous abyss, but it is seeing an
object which makes all worth while, and a strength that
can not only bridge it over, but change it. ... I feel Mr.
Erskine is always saying to himself, as indeed he has said
once or twice since I came here, " It is the best thing that
is offered each of us ; we cannot see it, but it is the best
thing." . . .

One thing reminded me of you so much — it was in speak-
ing of the subject you and I have often discussed, of families
separating, — and his words struck me, " It is neglecting the
finger-posts," he said, — which seems to me so exactly what it
is. In some rare cases, no doubt, a person may find a better
path by neglecting the finger-posts, but almost never. I
liked the way he dwelt on the blessing of our circumstances
being made for us, it is so much what one is tempted to
forget just now : " It is a great evil to refuse to understand
our circumstances, but we never shall understand them, or
God's purpose in them, till we have become partners in
effecting it. We do not first see the meaning of our
education, and then yield to it, but we see it as we yield, or
rather as we take up our share, for we must become active
in it. And yet it is not all volition. There must be
something in it that our will cannot produce."

He was speaking at one time of Judas, and the strange
fact that to a sordid nature like his it should have been
allotted to take care of the purse, so that it seemed as if
God had encouraged what was wrong in him, giving him
an opportunity of evil. " But then the opportunity of evil
is the opportunity of good. The temptation may be made

iET. 76. MISS WEDGWOOD'S JOURNAL. 355

the deliverance. A friend of mine once repeated to me a
sentence out of a sermon that he thought utter nonsense,
but to me it seemed to have a meaning in it, — 'What
were rocks made for, my brethren 1 Even that mariners
might avoid them!'" I rather agreed with his friend;
but I saw what he meant by the words, — that there was a
gain in having avoided rocks which there would not be in
rocks never having existed. But he saw the Irishism of
the saying of course very clearly.

Then another time he said a thing that struck me very
much — I don't mean that I had never thought it myself,
but the words as they came from him seemed fuller, —
" Eight is always right, and wrong always wrong, but the
indications of right and wrong are very different, and vary
from age to age ; in our own day what we have to learn is
that the indications of wrong (as we have thought them)
may be found along with right and the indications of right
along with wrong. There was a time when the watchword
of a party was so closely linked with the reality that people
did not see the difference. I do not think it is so now ;
Paul preached Jesus. That word was enough then. Now
it may mean anything." I cannot tell you how it impressed
me, the way he said this ; but perhaps I have hardly
conveyed to you all that it meant for me.

Sept. 5, 1865.
We were speaking of the Bible, and the present critical
spirit towards it. "I think," he said, " we shall learn to
value the Bible more as we grow independent of it. I do
value parts of the Bible exceedingly, but I do not feel
that I depend upon it. When I find a small despised
people from the first asserting a righteousness in the
Divine Being which I do not find in the gods of more
enlightened nations, I cannot feel that this is mere

356 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

accident. This was the teaching of God. But then,
when I come upon discrepancies in the narratives which
are very definite and striking, neither can I ignore them,
and I feel that this is not inspiration. The records are'
the vehicle of principles which are true independently of
the records, and which criticism cannot touch." "But
then," I said, " my difficulty is that I do not see how to
reconcile the spirit that the Bible demands with the
critical spirit of our time, and yet I feel that this last may
be a right spirit ; all that is valuable in our time is critical."
"Yes, we cannot crush it, we must accept it. But the
object of criticism is that which is variable. The object
of faith is that which is unchanging, which is true being.
Now I have no difficulty in receiving the fact of miracle.
But if any one has, I do not conceive that he is thereby
debarred from entering into the spirit of Christianity.
The one is a fact, the other is a principle. The two things
can never come into collision with each other." . . .

" When we are perplexed by the sight of creatures who
seem to be receiving no education, or worse than none,
who are debased by all the suffering they have gone
through, I think the only answer is to reflect upon the
infinite variety of function that we are called upon to fill,
and the infinite variety consequently of education necessary
for this purpose. Christ is the head, and the members are
various, each represented by numbers of human beings,
and sometimes no doubt some seem in a very much lower
position than others ; but when we remember the oneness
of life in which all partake there is nothing of degradation
in that variety. All form one body, and every member of
that body needs a different training. God knows the least
necessities of each. Think of the number of infants that
die under a year old. We cannot suppose they go out of
school. Why should it be any difficulty to us that after a

mt. 76. MISS WEDGWOOD'S JOURNAL. 357

long life many should leave this world as much in need
of prolonged discipline 1 Everything in our experience
seems, if I may saj so, to indicate something very lengthy.
God is in no hurry with us, let us be in no hurry with
Him." ...

" I wonder it is not a greater difficulty in the theory of
Renan, that the fourth Gospel contains no moral teaching
at all. Every word which Jesus utters there refers to
Himself. Now is it possible to feel any admiration for
Him, and not to feel that the being who could speak thus
must be more than man ] If he is not God, he cannot be
a good man. No mere man could use such language of
himself, and retain his right to our reverence." . . .

I asked him about the passage, John x. 34, 36, which
seems a difficulty in connection with this view.

"Yes, it seems like diluting His demands upon their
reverence by taking the meaning of Divinity in a some-
what lower sense. I have never been able to understand
it. But what is certain is, that we must interpret an
isolated passage in harmony with the general tenor of the
book, and not vice versa."

Sept. 6.
" It is no difficulty to me that so many people are placed
in circumstances for which they are not fitted. I have
felt all my life that I was in circumstances for which I
was not fitted, and I see that this is necessary. Education
would stop if we and our circumstances fitted each other.
Failure is no difficulty to me, or rather there can be no
failure ; for the purpose of God is the training of the spirit,
and this cannot fail. All that we are accustomed to value,
all that we make an object of, is just mere gymnastics.
It is nothing if it does not help forward this. For some
the whole period of this life may be rightly taken up with

358 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

learning their own evil, their own weakness. It may he
necessary through many ages to plumb the depths of our
own misery, that we may learn to know what the help of
God means. I believe that we shall come to feel that all
was worth while, that it is not too much to endure, if it
had gone on for thousands of years, to bring us to an
eternity of righteousness. Think of it — the love of God !
We use those words very often, and get no comfort from
them, but think what human love means, — a perfect oneness
of sympathy and will with any very near friends, and
imagine that purified and intensified to Infinitude ! The
depth of our misery now is to me a witness of the im-
mensity of the blessing that makes all this worth while."

Sept. 7.

" I look upon Christianity as the revelation of recipiency,
of the passive side of the character of God. I can conceive
that the first preachers of Christianity understood this very
incompletely. Paul — what a noble, heroic figure that
is ! And yet we see that to him one great idea is the
breaking down of the partition-wall between Jew and
Gentile. That can no longer be a significant idea for us.
There is no partition-wall, there is no caste any longer.
Christianity develops itself to us on a different side from
what he saw. We want to take hold of this ideal of
recipiency. I have sometimes wondered what it is that
makes Unitarians so dry and undevotional, — what great
difference there can be between one form of belief and
another. And I see it is just this, that .they have not the
element of devotion, which is this recipiency. They stand
alone. They leave out the side of God on which He is
accessible to us." . . .

" For my part, a miracle presents no difficulty to me ; I
feel the need of it so much. I feel most literally that there

mt. 76. MISS WEDGWOOD'S JOURNAL 359

is no happiness for me that is not miraculous ; nothing else
would suffice for my happiness but a miracle.

(Speaking of the general notion of eternal punishment,)
" I do not think that with holy men of old it was so much
the idea of death being an end, as it was that we were all
parts of a whole, and that progress was a thing for the whole.
But I do not look upon it so much as a house that is to
be built, as a set of bricks that are to be prepared. It is
not a whole at all ; it is a set of individuals that are each
under special training. . . .

"All religion is in the change from He to Thou. It is
a mere abstraction as long as it is He. Only with the
Thou we know God."

Sept. 7.

Dearest * * *\ — I go on sending you from day to day
what I can remember of the words that I know you so
deeply value, and even if you do not find that in this form
they convey anything, I shall not regret making the effort,
for I find that the attempt to remember these words recalls
them to my mind, and, if not the exact words, so much as
fills out the meaning of what he has been saying. As you
must well know, there is something rather fragmentary and
abrupt about his expression, with so many of those little
grunts interpolated that mean so much when one gets to
know him ; it is as if the words were all too small, and what
meaning overflowed their edge ran into these. I took a
delightful drive with him yesterday to the edge of the ferry.
It is very pleasant to see his great enjoyment in the face
of nature, though he is so blind.

He has been asking about them all. It is rather
formidable sometimes when he says " What is so and so?"
He has great discrimination of character in some ways.

He was talking a good deal of Mr. yesterday, and said

how strange it was that with his great admiration of

380 ' LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

Socrates he had nothing of the Socratic dialectic method
— that he never went step by step with any mind, — that
he did not give him the idea of ever having been intimate
with any one.

Linlathen, Sept. 10, 1865.

Mr. Erskine's mind seems to have been dwelling much
lately on the analogy between the inward and the outward
world, he has spoken so much of the force with which
the spectacle of a universe regulated by the law of gravita-
tion weighed upon him, as a token of the one principle
which was to keep the spiritual world in order — that of
love. . . . He seems to look upon the force of gravitation
as a sort of parable of the influence of love — keeping every-
thing together, keeping everything in movement which
does not interfere with any other movement, keeping
everything in its right place. Judaism, he said, he re-
garded as chiefly occupied with the orbit of the planet —
Christianity as a revelation of its centre. " No human
being," he said at one time, "is without lucid intervals
in which he would allow that the only good thing in life
is love, and that every drop of sweetness comes from
this. Christianity is the revelation of the fountain-head
of all these scattered drops. It tells us that there is abso-
lutely no other righteousness than love."

The greater part of this was said when we were walking
to Broughty-Ferry, and I shall never forget one moment
when he stopped to look up into the blue sky through a
break in the clouds and said, " What a wonderful thing
it is that light should hide I There are the stars — why do
we not see them 1 Why do we not see God 1 He is here."
He was of course thinking of Blanco White's sonnet,1 of
which he spoke with great admiration. He spoke some

1 " Mysterious Night ! when our first Parent knew

Thee, from report divine, and heard thy name," etc.

alt. 76. MISS WEDGWOOD'S JOURNAL. 361

time on this, the unexpectedness of the means by which
the stars were hidden from us, the impossibility of oar
ever guessing that anything was there but blue sky. I
think his mind was dwelling on the possible surprise with
which it might be that some who had looked earnestly for
God and never found Him should see Him emerge as it
were in some other state. He said distinctly, Atheism
might be a misfortune, it might be a stage of education
through which some spirits had to pass — that it might be
the will of God for a time to hide Himself from them. I
had asked Mr. E. how he would look at the mere records of
Christianity. He said, "Though we must of course approach
that narrative just like any other, yet to my feeling
Christianity itself has more analogy with natural science
than with history. It is a revelation of laws that are
independent of facts. There must be a centre of gravity
in the moral world, which when once found we shall be
right, like the planets, not only as to that centre, but to
everything else.",. He dwelt much upon the analogy of
the outward world and the inward world : " The planets
move in orderly circles because they have a right centre —
we have disorderly motions, because we have a wrong
centre. The way to get right is to get into the right
place, not to go on trying very hard to be right where' we
are. It is not that by long trying we acquire the habit of
right, and at last it gets easy to us : it is that we see the
right way. I feel, ' If I had seen that, I could just as well
have done it at first.' "...

I asked him what he felt the evidence of a spiritual
world. He said, "It is that in us which is unsatisfied with
what is necessary for the mere social order. Take the
feeling of revenge. It is enough for my neighbour if I
refrain from injuring him and perform actions beneficial to
him. That satisfies all the conditions of the social order.

362 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

But it is not enough for me. Something within me
demands a feeling which is, for all outward result, utterly
invisible. What is this but a witness that we are inhabi-
tants of a world totally distinct from the mere social order %
Think of it — something may be within us which no human
eye can see, and yet which we are called upon to renounce.
What does this mean % What could it mean, if we were
inhabitants of a mere human world? Here would be a
demand, and no one to make the demand, a summons with-
out a voice. I feel that righteousness implies will, that
goodness is nothing if there is not a good being. The
difference between the teaching of Christ and the teaching
of all others — of the wisest and best, of Plato for instance
— is, that they spoke of justice, and He spoke of the Just
One."

Sept. 13, 1865.

Mr. Erskine spoke of the connection between Matt. vii.
1-5, "Judge not," etc., and the verses which follow, " Give
not that which is holy to the dogs," etc., — and then of the
transition which seems in the ordinary acceptation of these
later words so abrupt and almost contradictory, but which,
as he understands it, is a harmonious development of the
same idea. The instrument of judgment is the conscience ;
we judge ourselves by the conscience, and other men
also, and the conscience is " that which is holy " in us ;
when therefore we pervert this holy thing in us to the
service of malice, or of conceit, we are giving that which is
holy unto the dogs, we are turning the good in us to the
service of the evil in us, we are giving our light for the
use of our own evil passions. The conscience is cast thus
as pearls before swine, the upper is made to serve the
lower, both being in ourselves.

In the same way another text, so often quoted, suffered,
he thought, from being severed from what goes before,

jet. 76. MISS WEDGWOOD'S JOURNAL. 363

" Come unto me," etc. Christ has just explained why He
can give us rest, because " no man knoweth the Father but
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him."
" Therefore " come unto me and I will reveal Him, and
thereby reveal unto you the only rest.

I said that what was perplexing to me in the New
Testament was not a passage here and there, but the
difficulty I felt in reconciling it with the whole fact of
modern civilisation, — that it seemed at times as if this were
condemned by the Bible. " Oh no," he said, " there is no
condemnation of civilisation in the Bible, only of that in
civilisation which is idolatry ;" he did not use that word,
but I know it was something equivalent to it. " Chris-
tianity is uncompromising. It says with an infinite patience,
but it says quite distinctly, ' There is only one good.'
People now want to hear that there are many different
sorts of good. I believe quite literally that it is easier for
a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It needs a
miracle to keep us from living merely in the world of
sense and of intellect, and bring us into that of spirit ; to
teach us that we are not sent here to assimilate the things
about us, but to extract God's meaning from them. I
have no belief in the progress of the species. The lesson
of God does not seem to me so much to be contained in
history as to be got at through history. It is not that by
looking at outward events we shall see any manifestation
of the righteousness of God. That is a common view, I
know, but I cannot entertain it. Looking at things under
that aspect, God often appears to be taking the part of
unrighteousness. We must look upon it merely as the
school for the training of individual spirits, that to each
one individually the message shall come through that which
as a whole seems to have no meaning. . . .

364 LETTERS OE THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

" I am much, more sure of the being of a Righteous One
than I am of the existence of those chairs. If any one
should tell me they were a delusion I should not think it
likely ; I believe they are actual things. But the sense of
this demand for righteousness is much nearer the core of
my being than the outward world."

Sept. 20, 1865.

Mr. Erskine was speaking of Butler's Analogy, asking
me about it, as it was so long since he had read it. He
went on to speak of the unreasonableness of those who
were offended by difficulties in the Bible which unquestion-
ably existed in the world. " Election," he said, " how
unquestionable that is to any one who simply opens his
eyes ! The unamiable man may bend all his energy to
subdue what is wrong, he may never relax the struggle
with his unamiable tendencies, and yet with this utmost
strain he will do a thousand unpleasant things which an
amiable nature avoids without thought or effort. Nothing
can be clearer than " — the inequality of advantage was what
he meant, but I am not sure of the exact words. " Again,
the sins of the fathers being visited on the children. The
world teaches us that just as much as the Bible. The
mind that finds these things in the Bible inconsistent with
the righteousness of God cannot explain them away in the
world. There is the same answer for both, that we are
not to confound the process of education and its consum-
mation. Whatever is righteous is, eternally is — there is
no other faith in God but that — but not phenomenally is.

" I know that some people speak of the history of the
world as exhibiting the triumph of good. I cannot see it ;
I see a process, I do not see it completed. The bricks are
being fashioned, I do not see the house being built." I
asked him if he looked for that ever in this world, and he
said " No. We know in the art of healing how large a

jet. 76. MISS WEDGWOOD'S JOURNAL. 365

part of tlie process consists in making us apparently
worse, how much evil must be turned into suffering
before it can be removed. This is what we see going
on. We see the evil being made manifest. Yet I
believe that those who denounce the Bible as containing
things inconsistent with the righteousness of G-od have
sometimes hold of the most important truth, that all His
doings must be righteous."

I asked him much about the Bible — what his view was
of its standing, as compared with other books. I put
together as much as I can what he said at different times
in very fragmentary sentences. " I look upon the history
of the Jewish nation as presenting a type of the education
of an individual soul, in a sense which would not be true
of other nations. It is not a perfect type of this education.
But yet it approaches it, in a manner which you could not
say that Greek or Boman history does." "That is," said
I, " that it was not specially the purpose of the Greek or
the Boman education to teach those nations to know God f
" Yes, just so. The Jew was taught to recognise a righteous
God. He was no better than his neighbours ; in many
ways he was worse. A Greek David would not, perhaps,
have committed his crimes. But he recognised the righteous
Being as they did not. How much sin there is in those
bequests of David to his son " (the execution of Shimei, etc.),
" but yet if we turn to the Psalms this same man acknow-
ledges God, knows God, as the purer moral natures do not.
And in the same way the Bible is given to us to help us to
know God. We may know the Bible and not God, we
may know God and not the Bible, but this is its aim ;
rightly used, it cannot fail of this."

I went on to ask him if he did not feel that this was
specially the time to assert this true character of the Bible
against the mistaken idea of its accuracy. I do not feel

366 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

very clear of his answer ; he seems always so much attracted
to the one thought of the righteousness of God and our
right attitude as mere recipients of that righteousness, that
it seems difficult for him to avert his attention from it
enough to think of anything that has no direct connection
with it. I said, " Do we not want now to be delivered from
an infallible book, as in the time of Luther from an infallible
Church V He said that certainly an infallible book was
just the same kind of evil as an infallible Church. But
he seemed to think that his one great truth — the recipiency
of man as moral Tightness — was somewhat imperilled when-
ever this book was rejected as infallible, — that where men
turned away from it, it was sometimes as wanting some-
thing of their own.

20S. TO MISS WEDGWOOD.

Linlathen, 5th October 1865.

Beloved Snow, — I thank God that He was pleased
to give you any help through your visit to us. I have
a perfect assurance that there is always infinite help
and comfort in Him, and that all will finally come to
know this; but I often feel desponding enough for the
details. I hope you will learn, what I am always hoping
to learn, to rejoice in God continually, knowing that He is
really ordering all your circumstances to the one end of
making you a partaker of His own goodness and bringing
you within His own sympathy. I thank you for your
love ; it is most precious to me ; and for your offer of
service, which I should like to profit by if I knew how,
but I am so stupid that I cannot receive help from another,
— I need to do things in my own way, and yet I can't
do them.

I am glad you are with Mrs. Eich ; I should like well

jet. 76. MISS WEDGWOOD. 367

to be of the party. Give her our most affectionate
regards. She has not many older friends now, or who
love and value her more. My sisters send you their love.
If we live a little longer we may perhaps see you again
in this world. — Ever affectionately yours,

T. Erskine.

363 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

CHAPTER XVII.

Letters of 1865 and 1866.

"Although there are many delightful residences in
Scotland, and much delightful society, yet I can recall none
which combined the charms of Polloc.. There, particularly
in his later days, Mr. Erskine was frequently to be found,
more especially when, after Lady Matilda's death, Sir John
was left in much bodily suffering to fight the battle of life
alone, a battle which he fought bravely to the last." x And
at the last Mr. Erskine was by his side, — the wonderful
history given in his letter to Miss Wedgwood (see p.
353, 12th June) being that of his visit to Polloc, and Sir
John Maxwell's death, which then occurred. Writing to
Bishop Ewing on the funeral day, June 10th, Mr. Erskine
says, " This is a great affliction. All who knew Sir John
felt he filled a great space in their minds, and will probably
feel this more, now that he is removed, than they had thought.
I was thankful to have been here so as to have met his
love again before he was taken home. But I felt most
deeply my own unhelpfulness."

209. TO LADY AUGUSTA STANLEY.

Linlathest, June, 1865.
You know already that our excellent friend has been
relieved of his heavy burden. . . .

1 Bishop Ewing's Present Day Papers, No. 16, pp. 15, 16.

jet. 76. BISHOP EWING. 369

The conflict was terminated on Monday morning, a little
before six o'clock, and the place which he filled in the world
is now empty. The place which he filled in the hearts of
his friends is not empty, however ; his simple upright
loyalty of nature will never pass from the memories of
those who have known him. He was a brother man, full
of affection1 and full of sympathy for the sorrows and priva-
tions of the poOr. He deeply felt the responsibility of life,
and of all worldly possessions and advantages. It is now
eight years since that dear one2 was taken away. I feel
that it is only by abiding in God, in the spiritual realisa-
tion of His loving presence and care, that we can rightly
receive these events. In that large hand all things are
treasured up, and in that eternal purpose all things are
carrying forward towards their desired haven. Farewell.
— Ever affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

210. TO BISHOP EWING.

Linlathen, June 20, 1865.
My dear Bishop, — Beloved Sir John, his face is seldom
absent from me, and the thought of the way he would look
at things constantly presents itself. I never loved a man
so well, from whom I could expect so little sympathy in
any of the trains of speculative thought which were
peculiarly interesting and occupying to myself. But there
was a substance of goodness and nobleness in his character
which could both give and receive a deeper sympathy than
mere thought could. I had given him a special place in my
habitual prayers ; so that now the remembrance of him
always recurs at the stated times, and sometimes I find I
can commit him to the care and loving guidance of our

1 His nightly habit was to stand at the door after family worship and
shake hands with each of the servants as they passed.

2 Lady Matilda Maxwell, Lady Augusta's elder sister. See p. 332.

2 A

370 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

Father, just as when he was with us. . . . — Ever affec-
tionately yours, T. Erskine.

211. TO MRS A. J. SCOTT.

Linlathest, 6th Nov. 1865.

Dear Mrs. Scott, — I am happy to think of my dear
friend — your husband — in that beautiful country, which
contains so much that is fitted to tranquillise the heart. I
lived once at Veytaux for a few weeks, and the picture of
the head of the lake, and of the opposite side, the Meillerie
I think they called it, often returns to me as a revelation of
mercy and peace from the Creator. I have many cherished
recollections connected with that country — of persons and
circumstances, which make up a remarkable stratum of my
life, to which I can still return with ever fresh interest.
I have several such strata quite distinct from each other
in their character and composition. One is the Gareloch,
with the Row and Roseneath, in which Scott's figure
appears ; and the walks and talks I had with him return,
not as fossil remains, but full of life. No section of my
life, however, has been free from sorrow and remorse ; and
I can only feel reconciled to past memories by the belief
that our heavenly Father has had, through the whole
history, the purpose of educating my spirit, and teaching
me to know Himself, as a friend who was perfectly to be
depended on, and who had brought me into being, with
a capacity of entering into His purposes, and sympathising
with Him in them, and who had been seeking through life
to develop that capacity in me, — I mean the capacity of
sympathy with Himself. We are just preparing to go in
to Edinburgh for the winter. Our summer has been most
magnificent. We have had more fine days in it than in
any year for the last half century at least.

Dear Mrs. Scott, give my loving regards and afi'ec-

mt. 77. DR. M'LEOD CAMPBELL. 371

tionate sympathies to your husband. My sister Mrs.
Stirling adds her contribution of kind wishes, as Mrs.
Paterson would, if she were here, but she is in Edinburgh.
— Yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

Of a visit paid by him to Mr. Erskine during the fol-
lowing month, Dr. Campbell writes : —

DR. M'LEOD CAMPBELL TO HIS SON.

Laurel Bank, 28ih December 1865,

I WENT, I think you know, to Edinburgh in consequence
of an invitation from Mrs. Stirling, who thought her brother
would be the better of a visit from me ; and, in a letter
to-day he says he has been; although feeling (as I too
feel partly) that we had not made the most of our time —
so much was left unsaid. We always breakfasted alone,
and sat together for a while after breakfast, till we went
up-stairs to have the reading of the Psalms and lessons of
the day with Mrs. Stirling. We had had worship with
the household before breakfast, Mr. Erskine always praying.
(I prayed only on Sunday evening, when I also expounded
at considerable length.) We were again alone together at
night for a short time. Each day guests to dinner. Our
parties were not large, and were easy and pleasant. ...

My visit was to him, and its deepest interest was that
which he gave it. We still do not see eye to eye in some
things of deep moment ; as to which my comfort was
limited to the consciousness that I had been enabled simply
to present my objections for his consideration. But in the
great thing — the living faith that God is love — I have had,
as usual, most quickening sympathy with my friend ; and
I have also felt that our intercourse, even when regarding
what we see differently, was such as necessitated on my
part, — as, I trust, on his also, — an inward uplooking in
prayer, which raised one into the Invisible and Eternal,

372 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1866.

and strengthened, by exercising it, direct faith in the
living God. . . .

212. TO THE REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

11 Great Stuart St., Ylth Jan. 1866.

Dear Friend and Brother,— Enclosed is Mrs. Scott's
announcement of her husband's death. To me it appears
a merciful release of a wonderful prisoner, whose life for
long has been a painful struggle. No man whom I have
known has impressed me more than Scott,1 and I have
always received unchanging love from him. Poor Mrs.
Scott will feel as if her occupation were gone.

Our life is hid with Christ in G-od. — Ever affectionately
yours, T. Erskine.

He reckoned you and me his chief friends.

213. TO MRS. A. J. SCOTT.

ISth Jan. 1866.

Beloved Mrs. Scott, — The cap that my Father hath
given me, shall I not drink it 1 What a wonderful history
is man's life! Great gifts given, and then apparently
withdrawn, but surely only apparently, for the greatest
gift of all remains as a pledge and assurance that nothing
good can ever really be withdrawn. Thanks be to God
for that unspeakable gift, in whom all others are gathered
up.

I look back on my first acquaintance with him — in his
youthful beauty — and with that rich endowment of mental

1 " Laurel Bank, Zlst January 1866. — I was for ten days with dear Mr.
Erskine, for which I was very thankful. You did not know our valued
friend Scott, of whom Erskine says ' that he impressed him more than any
other man had, and of whom I can say the same. ' " — (Extract from letter of
Dr. M'Leod Campbell to Bishop Ewing; Memorials, etc., vol. ii. p. 119.
see also vol. i. p. 231.)

jet. 77. REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL. 373

power and spiritual understanding. I recall my walks and
talks with him by the side of the Gareloch ; and the
unfailing, loving, and admiring interest which I have ever
since felt in himself and in his thoughts and movements. I
remember him in that country where you now are, when I
introduced him to Vinet and some of my Genevan friends.
I remember his father telling me, with such approval
and satisfaction, of his engagement to you, and himself
taking me to see your brother, Alan Ker. I felt Mm to be
a precious gift from God ; I felt that he always took God's
side in all his intercourse with his fellow-creatures. Dear
Mrs. Scott ! you know there is a great blessing intended
for you in this deep sorrow. May the God of all grace
help you to open your mouth wide, that you may lose none
of it.

I thank you for writing to me. You will feel that
Susie's being with him and with you at this time was a
gracious appointment — as well as your dear sisters. After
getting your letter I went to my sister, Mrs. Paterson,
and Mrs. Erskine ; how Jane would have felt it ! — Ever
affectionately yours, TV Erskine.

Mrs. Stirling desires to be remembered to you with her
deep sympathy.

Great Stuart Street, Edinburgh.

214. TO THE REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

11 Great Stuart St., 19«A Jan. 1866.
Dear Mr. Campbell, — Our letters crossed. I know
how much you will feel this death, the death of this very
remarkable man, interesting to you in so many ways as a
faithful, loving friend, as a profound thinker, as a spirit of
noble dimensions.1 When I first met him, he opened him-
1 For a short notice of Mr. Scott, see Appendix No. IV.

374 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1866.

self to me, delighted apparently both to give and to receive
confidence and intimacy.

I have found him somewhat changed in that respect, and
yet I believe that it was no change of feeling, but a diffi-
culty in his nature, for I have always felt that he gave me
one of the first places in his friendship.

As to your own letter. When you speak to me of the
love of God, I always feel sure that you mean a love which
includes and implies righteousness, and I had hoped that
you would interpret me in the same way. In fact I would
say that, in contrasting the fatherhood of God with His
judgeship, I meant the first to represent a righteousness
which seeks to communicate itself, and the second a
righteousness which seeks to vindicate itself, and I intended
to say that the second was put in action, in subserviency
to the first.

If you see Dr. Norman M'Leod, I wish you would tell
him that I was much gratified by his sending me his address
on " The Sabbath." I believe that he is contending for
realities against shadows, which is always a good warfare.
I have not answered or rather acknowledged it. I would
do so if I could do it rightly. — Yours affectionately,

T. Erskine.

215. TO THE REV. WM. TAIT.

31 Charlotte Square, 1th Feb. 1866.
Dear old Friend, — Although I never think of you but
as a youth, having before my mind's eye the form in which
I knew you thirty-eight years ago, I am sorry for the
cause that takes you to Pau, yet I hope that it may be for
further good than the restoration of Mrs. Tait's health.
When I hear of such a congregation as that which you
describe, as given over to your ministrations for some
months, I sometimes feel as if I should like to tell them

V
jet. 77. REV. W. TAIT. 375

something myself. It was a curious gospel that Lucretius
preached to the Eomans of his time, " There are no gods,"
— hurrah ! and yet it was a real gospel in his mind. He
meant to tell them that in the government of the Universe
there was no caprice nor favouritism, — no selfish seeking
for honours or sacrifices, no malice nor jealousy to be
gratified, no Venus, nor Mars, nor Juno, who ruled the
affairs of men for their own private views and piques and in-
terests, and not on any general principle of good, — but fixed
eternal laws of justice and righteousness. I have a great
sympathy with the old poet, and am sure that he would
have welcomed a fuller gospel, if it had been suggested to
him, a gospel declaring that not inexorable laws, however
just and righteous, but a Being whose righteousness is
love, guides and rules the Universe, and that His one
unchangeable purpose in creating and sustaining man is to
make him a partaker in His own blessedness, by making
him a partaker in His own righteousness, and that all the
events of life, the infinite variety and complication of joys
and sorrows, and duties and relations, in which we find
ourselves involved, constitute the education by which He
would train and lead us to that great consummation.
Whatever happens to us contains this loving purpose in it,
and so may be welcomed by us as a manifestation of it,
and should be studied by us that we may enter into all its
meaning. For until we enter into it, and become fellow-
workers with God in working out our own education, we
remain unprofited by it. The purpose remains, but remains
fruitless, so long as we remain neutrals or resisters of the
work. There are few religious phrases that have had such
a power of darkening men's minds, as to their true relation
to God, as the common phrase that we are here in a state
of probation — under trial, as it were. We are not in a
state of trial, we are in a process of education, directed by

376 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1866.

that eternal purpose of love which brought us into being.
It is impossible to have a true confidence in God whilst
we feel ourselves in a state of trial ; we must necessarily
regard Him, not as a Father, but as a Judge, and we must
be occupied with the thought how we are to pass our trial.
We know our own unworthiness, and though we know that
we have a Saviour, there must still be a degree of alarm in
the thought of that judgment-seat. But when we have
once realised the idea that we are in a process of education,
which God will carry on to its fulfilment, however long it
may take, we feel that the loving purpose of our Father is
ever resting on us, and that the events of life are not
appointed as testing us, whether we will choose God's will
or our own, but real lessons to train us into making the
right choice. If probation is our thought, then forgiveness
or receiving a favourable sentence is our object; if education
is our thought, then progress in holiness is our object. If
I believe myself in a state of education, every event, even
death itself, becomes a manifestation of God's eternal
purpose ; on the probation system, Christ appears as the
deliverer from a condemnation ; on the education system
He appears as the deliverer from sin itself.

My sister Mrs. Paterson often speaks of you, and likes
to look back on past scenes — as well as forward. She had
enjoyed your tract x very much, as also had Mrs. Stirling.
I shall be most glad to make your son's acquaintance.
Give our affectionate regards to your wife, and receive the
same to yourself. Farewell, dear man. — Ever truly yours,

T. Erskine.

216. TO MISS WEDGWOOD.

11 Great Stuart Street, 16^ Feb. 1866.
My DEAR Snow, — I am glad that it was you who wrote
that article on Scott. I should have welcomed it from any

1 "The Open Latch."

^:t. 77. MRS. MA CHAR. 377

one, but I am happy that it comes from one whom I know
and love as I do you. When I first knew him he was very
open and communicative, but he had then less to communi-
cate, and what he had was less complicated, less dependent
for its intelligibility on the understanding of many other
things related to it. I often wondered at the number and
variety of matters in which he evidently took interest, and
which he had made himself master of, and yet I always
felt that he never lost sight of the relation of each depart-
ment to the great whole, — the place which it held in the
hierarchy of things. I believe that God was a great real-
ity to him. I am happy to think that you have pleasant
remembrances of your visit, and hope that you may be
inclined to repeat it. There are not many from whom I
anticipate the same kind of sympathy that I do from you,
and I feel that it is a great reason for thankfulness to find
in a younger generation those who may in some measure
fill the places that have become vacant.

Well-beloved Snow, may the blessing of God guide and
comfort you. — Ever affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

Give my love to Mrs. Rich, and my best regards to your
father and mother.

217. TO MRS. MACHAR.

Edinburgh, April 1866.
There are few people now alive whom I have known
longer than I have known you, and certainly there are none
in whose regard I have more confidence. True love is
divine love, coming from God and going to God. I am
just now engaged in writing a work which I trust God will
enable me to accomplish for the benefit of some of my
fellow-creatures. I am exceedingly anxious to get through
with it before my eyes fail, which must be soon, as it seems

378 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1866.

the cataract is making rapid progress. I therefore grudge
the time and eyesight spent on writing other things, and I
feel it almost a duty to abstain from work of this kind.
Pray God that I may seek God's glory alone, and may be
preserved from seeking my own glory. I trust it may please
God to scatter those Fenian raiders, and to use them as
inducements for men to take refuge under the shadow of
His wings. Our country is in a strange state. This Reform
Bill seems like the breaking down of barriers so as to allow
the inrush of all disorders. We want wisdom to govern
us, not numerical majorities. . True liberty consists in being
delivered from our own vain passions and appetites and
selfish will, and it would seem that many now think that
liberty consists in the indulgence of these things, and that
the restraint of these is slavery. Farewell, the Father's love
be your dwelling-place. — Yours, etc., T. Erskine.

218. TO THE REV. THOMAS WRIGHT MATHEWS.

Great Stuart Street, Edinburgh, 16th April 1866.
My dear Friend, — You will be almost angry at my
presuming to answer your respectable letter on such a con-
temptible piece of note-paper as this, but my capacity of
writing is now much limited (by cataract in both eyes),
and I am anxious, before I am quite blind, to finish an essay
which I have now under my hand, and which I hope may
by God's blessing be helpful to some of my fellow-creatures.
This makes me brief in letter-writing. I believe that the
fact of Carlyle being my guest whilst he was in Edinburgh
for the purpose of being installed Lord Rector of the Uni-
versity was the chief reason of my being honoured with
the LL.D. degree. Of course nobody calls me Dr., except
for fun. Well, we are in the land of living men, amidst
very wonderful things. Assuredly the light is advancing,

XT. 77. THOMAS CARLYLE. 379

and I believe there are now more men in the country really
devoted to the cause of truth, practically, than there have
been at any former period, but the disorder is very great.
Men forget that they are branches and not trees, and so the
fruit is not of the right kind — wild grapes, . . .

T. Erskine.

MR. CARLYLE TO MR. ERSKINE.

Scotsbrig, Ecclefechast, \*lili April 1866.

Dear Mr. Erskine, — This is almost the first day I have
had any composure; and I cannot but write you a little word
of gratitude, to Mrs. Stirling and you, for your cordial
reception of me in my late shipwrecked state, and your
unwearied patience with me, during the whole of the late
adventure. Now that it is all comfortably over, and a thing
to look thankfully back upon, there is no feature of it
prettier to me than that your kind chamber in the wall
should have been my safe lodging-place (three " chambers"
or almost four, as Cairns well knows !), and that there, with
the very clock silenced for me, I should have been so affec-
tionately sheltered.1 Thanks for this, as for the crown of
a long series of kindnesses, precious to remember for the
rest of my days.

I intend home, probably Monday next — from Dumfries,
my penult and one remaining shift. I sprained my ankle
a week ago, but it is mending; — and otherwise the scene
altogether is touching, tender, and mournfully beautiful
to me. I wrote a little word to Lady Euthven, as you
suggested. I am still deepish in Notes, and ought to be
in the woods of Springkell on my solitary rides of medita-
tion rather.

With many grateful regards to Madam and yourself, I
remain always yours sincerely, T. Carlyle.

1 See page 535.

330 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1866.

219. TO MISS WEDGWOOD.

Linlathen, Broughty-Ferry, \9th Sept. 1866.

Beloved Snow, — I hope you are persuaded of my deep
sense of the filial services which you have rendered me, and
of my devoted love to you. I miss you much, for myself
and also for others. Mr. Campbell is now with us. I
should have liked well that you had met him — he has such
pleasure in communicating himself, and weighing all diffi-
culties and suggestions. I never saw a man so liberal
whose spirit is so solemnised. You rarely meet with these
two qualities in combination.

We have had Jowett also, who is of a different type, but
very good, being full of knowledge and political fervour,
and thoroughly imbued with Plato. — Ever most affection-
ately yours, T* Eeskine.

The day after this letter was written, Mr. Campbell
himself writes : —

to bishop ewing.

Linlathen, 20th Sept. 1866.

. . . Since I came here I have been referring to my
little book, Christ the Bread of Life, in conversation with
Mr. Erskine, and am glad to find that his impression of its
clearness and fulness agrees with my own. So I hope that
in now re-reading it with the benefit of all your recent
thought on the subject of transubstantiation you may find
it satisfying. . . .

It is now the 24th, and I am finishing my letter after
my return to Parkhill. I am thankful for another visit
to Linlathen. I meet in no one the same full realisation
of the gift of God as Eternal Life — the Life of Christ to
be our life — that I see in Mr. Erskine ; and this is a bond
of the most sacred kind. . . .

jet. 78. MISS WEDGWOOD. 381

220. TO MISS WEDGWOOD.

Linlathen, 5th November ] 866.

Well-beloved Governess, — I am most grateful to you
for your enduring love, which, is to me of great price.

I rejoice in Maurice's appointment, thinking him the fittest
man in the kingdom for the special chair, and moreover
thinking that the infusion of his character into the thoughts
of the young Cambridge men would be and will be an in-
valuable element in their education. He is a Felix Holt
divinised, in one portion of his being, and how many por-
tions has he, untouched by Felix 1 In comparing him to
Felix, I mean merely to say that he is prepared to carry
out all his convictions without any cowardly hesitations.
As Erasmus described the difference between himself and
Luther, when some flattering friend was giving him the
first place, by saying, I can write, but Luther can burr,
Maurice can do both. — Ever affectionately yours,

T. Ekskine.

382 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Letters on Select Subjects.
I.— PLYMOUTHISM.

221. TO MRS. BURNETT.

Cadder, 11th March 1840.
. . . What you say about the Plymouth Church interests
me very much. I have not seen much of them, but I
have heard a good deal about them, and have known
some of them. I am inclined to think them very confined,
and too exclusive. They convert spiritual principles into
formal rules, which seems to me a canker in the root of
Christianity. Thus we read, " Love not the world, nor the
things of the world ; " this is a spiritual principle, which
ought to be received into our hearts, so that God's judgment
and favour, and not man's, in all things is to be considered
and sought after under the influence of this principle. If
I am really conscious to myself of a desire to do God's will,
I may conform myself to every human decency, and to
everything that is of good report, and even to every form
or custom which is in itself indifferent and not sinful, and
in doing this I am Christ's freeman, living not under a
letter, but under a spiritual law. But when I interpret
this " Love not the world" into a prohibition to conform
to certain customs of dress or housekeeping or behaviour,
I am turning the spirit into a letter, and although in my
own particular case I may still be in the spirit and free,

jet. 51. MRS. BURNETT. 383

yet in the case of others, who adopt my sentiments, the
probability is that my judgment may in this matter
Aveigh a good deal with them, and when we have formed
a society on these views the general opinion of the society
will in a great measure bind the consciences of the indi-
vidual members, so that in truth the society comes between
them and God, and thus becomes a " world" to them, as
hurtful in its degree to their spiritual condition before
God as the outer world can be.

I should also be disposed to think that the Plymouth
Brethren do not form to themselves a large enough idea of
human nature in its right state, and of the education which
befits it. Thus, I could suppose that they would not like
their children to read Shakespeare. I don't know this for a
fact, but my idea of them suggests this supposition. Now, I
think it is of immense importance to see that every move-
ment towards the extension of man's capacities and faculties
is in itself good, and may and ought to be made by the
person who makes it, and to be studied by the person who
studies it, to the Lord. There is nothing unholy in philo-
sophy, or poetry, or knowledge, or art, or taste whatever in
themselves, but only in prosecuting them in a selfish, in-
dependent, ungodly spirit. Christ has redeemed the whole
humanity, the whole capacities and faculties of man, so that
all our doings should be holy, whether we sing, or paint, or
whatever we do. Religion should be a sap flowing through
the branches of man's life, consecrating the whole of the
products. Life is not divided into religious and secular
parts ; all should be religious, because it is a spirit and not
a mere letter which God has bestowed on us in Christ. The
world is a temple, or ought to be, and the business of life
ought to be the services of a temple. Perhaps I have multi-
plied words here to excess, but I see much bondage produced
by ignorance of this. When I read Plato or Shakespeare

384 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1840.

in a spirit entirely different from that in which I allow
myself to read the Bible, I am wrong. The testimony which
the Plymouth Brethren bear against the conformity of the
Church to the world, and against Christians spending their
money as worldly people do, I entirely approve, and sympa-
thise with in principle and spirit. The individual amongst
them whom I knew best was and is painfully to me Cal-
vinistic in his view of doctrines, limiting the love of God, etc.
I don't know whether this is universal amongst them.

With regard to the extracts from Law, I don't much
wonder at what you say, and yet I cannot help thinking that
your objection is more against words than realities. You
disapprove of saying of an unconverted man that " Christ is
in him," or that " the Holy Spirit is in him." You say
that such expressions are unscriptural, and give false ideas.
But consider a moment Law's meaning. He means to say
that a man who refuses to believe the truth of God, or to
submit to the authority of God, is culpable in so doing.
Now, why or how is he culpable % Simply because he might
do otherwise. If he could not do otherwise we might pity
him, but we could not blame him. The man is capable
then of apprehending the truth and the authority of God.
But how is he capable 1 Spiritual things can only be dis-
cerned by the Spirit. If the Spirit of God is not within
his reach, so that he may make use of it in the apprehen-
sion of divine truth, he is incapable of apprehending it, and
therefore cannot easily be considered responsible for not
doing it. I am thus led to conclude that the Spirit is in such
a way and sense present in every man, that the man, if he
will yield himself up to its instruction, giving up bis own
self-wisdom, may so use it as to apprehend the things of
God by it. And I believe further that the Spirit is there
for that very end, and it is pressing itself on the attention
and acceptance of every man, and that the man's continu-

jet. 51. MRS. BURNETT. 385

ance in darkness and sin is in fact nothing else than a con-
tinued resistance to the Holy Spirit. It is in this sense
that I understand the words of God to Noah, " My Spirit
shall not always strive with man," etc., and Stephen's
words to the Jews, "Ye do always resist the Holy
Ghost : as your fathers did, so do ye." It is in the
same sense also that I understand the whole book of
Proverbs, "Wisdom crying to the sons of men;" "The
spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord," etc. In
this same sense also I understand Jesus standing at
the door and knocking. Now, is it within a man or
without a man that the Spirit strives with him % Where
can he resist the Spirit of God but in his own heart 1 It
appears to me that the difference between an unregenerate
and a regenerate man is mainly this, that the first is resist-
ing the Spirit of God which is striving with him, and the
second is yielding himself up to be led by it. It is in him
in a very different sense from what it was before — it has
got into his will. I become a spiritual man by receiving
the Spirit into my will, but I could not do that unless the
Spirit had been there for me to receive it. It had been in
me before, though not received into my will, the place
which it seeks, the throne of my being, and my sin had
consisted in shutting my will against its urgent knockings.
Suppose the race of man to be one great tree (like a genea-
logical tree) with the roots, Adam and Christ. From each
root a sap ascends and visits every branch and twig of the
tree ; the branches have the power of choosing which sap
they will admit and which they will shut out. The old
sap is in possession to begin with, but the heavenly sap
presents itself at the door, and asks admittance, and has a
witness within each branch that it ought to be admitted,
and by its presence there confers a power on the branch of
accepting its aid in expelling the old sap and giving itself

2 B

386 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE* 1841.

up to the new. Now, the Spirit of God is also the Spirit
of Christ, and Christ is the channel through which all good
things come to us. So that Law does not feel as if he were
much wrong in calling the Spirit by the name of Christ,
especially since it is it that is in us, in order that Christ
may be born and formed in us in the higher sense,
namely, by getting possession of the will. I am not anxious
to make proselytes to phrases ; but to the real presence of
the Spirit of God in every man, striving with him for his
good, and grieved when He is resisted, I do wish to make
proselytes, believing it to be to the glory of God and to con-
tain a loud eall and a great hope for man. I believe that
Law, when he calls on men to look inward, means merely
to warn them of the necessity of applying to the Spirit,
and of the impossibility of knowing anything about God
but by the Spirit. He does not mean to refer them to any
human faculty, far less to any frames or feelings of their
own. — Your affectionate cousin, T. Erskine.

II.— PUSEYISM.

222. TO AN UNKNOWN CORRESPONDENT.

Linlathen, 30th Jan. 1841.

As you are now fairly settled at the fountainhead of
Puseyism, and brought much into contact with persons and
circumstances that may recommend it both to your imagina-
tion and understanding, I have thought that I might be
acting the part of a friend towards you, by writing to you
some thoughts on the subject, which might at least serve
the purpose of making you weigh the matter well before
you give your acquiescence to it.

You must yourself have felt that the first problem to be

jet. 52. PUSEYISM. 387

solved in the formation of a sound system in politics, in
morals, or in religion, is to reconcile the full and vigorous
development of the individual man with that reverence
for the authority of others which becomes him as a member
of society. The right of private judgment, the refusal to
receive simply on authority any principles or rules which
affect our higher interest as moral, spiritual, immortal beings,
the demand for personal satisfaction, the consciousness of a
personal responsibility, which are the elements of individual
development, and without which it cannot exist to any
considerable degree, seem often to be, even by their right
use as well as by their abuse, the occasion of the greatest
confusions and disruptions of public order and tranquillity.
And no doubt they are much exposed to abuse, that is, to
be exercised without the control of principle, the honest
purpose of doing what is right, — and being thus abused,
they tend really to injure the character of the individual,
as well as to hurt society. The thought of this may well
make us hesitate about allowing too much scope to the
individual independent judgment, as tending to strengthen
the selfish independency of the will. We know also that
submission to a rightful authority, as in the case of children
for example, is most favourable to the growth of the char-
acter, intellectual as well as moral, up to a certain point at
least. We see thus that there are two things good for
man, but that it is difficult to have them both. Must we
forego one of them? and if so which of them are we to
forego %

But it may be said, we need not really forego any good
thing, for has it not been admitted that submission to a
rightful authority is, at least in the case of children — and if
in their case, why not in all cases 1 — more nourishing to the
whole character than any independent, ungoverned move-
ments of the individual will. But here another question

388 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1841.

comes in, What is a rightful authority % When I come my-
self to feel the difference between right and wrong, ought
I to regard any authority as rightful which commands me
to act in contradiction to what I feel to be right 1 Does
not this very consciousness of knowing what is right lift
me out, as far as those things are concerned in which I
discern a positive right, from under any other authority
than the Fountain of right — than God? Does not this
consciousness impel me, and strengthen me, in the face of
all human judgment, to appeal to a greater than they 1 and
ought I not to consider this voice within me as claiming me
to be under his own particular authority 1 more especially
if I come from some obscure consciousness within me to
the belief that, although I have only on these few remark-
able occasions heard the voice, yet it is in truth always
speaking in me and assuming a direction of me on the
most minute as well as on the greatest occasions 1 What
right have I then to give myself up implicitly to another
director 1 If God is really speaking to me, I can have a
right to submit to another authority only when it accords
or perhaps does not discord with His authority in my
conscience. Besides, it is surely true that God puts me
whilst a child under my parents, only whilst my conscience
is growing, with the purpose of teaching me the habit of
looking upward for direction and strength, and not with
the purpose that I should never look higher. Surely all
inferior authorities are appointed to train us to the know-
ledge of the Supreme authority, and not to supplant it.
But the habit of taking the opinion or judgment of a man or
of a Church as a sufficient ground for conduct after we have
passed childhood and have arrived at the period when we
ought ourselves to hold communion with God, must tend
very much to keep conscience asleep, or in a very low
condition.

MT. 52. PUSEYISM. 389

My conscience witnesses to me, as a child, that I should
ohey my parents. Well, how far should this obedience
go ] Surely not the length of making me do what I see
distinctly to be wrong. " Children, obey your parents, in
the Lord," — that is, I suppose, as far as you see their com-
mand to be in accord with the Lord's will. Authority is
good and useful when it is used for bringing us into a
condition in which we may ourselves see what we ought to
do, without other direction. It is a part of the education
of conscience. A child's education consists mainly in
choosing between the authority of its parent and its own
inclination, but the education of men consists much in
choosing between the authority of God and the authority
of man. It will not stand us in stead to say, My father is
God's ordinance to me, therefore I may obey him in any-
thing without fear of going wrong.

The use of submission to authority seems to me chiefly
to lie in this, that by it I am delivered from self-will, and
so put into a condition of judging rightly, although that
judgment may be in opposition to the authority to which
I submit myself. Jesus said, I know that my judgment is
true, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of Him
that sent me. When I cease to seek mine own will I am
in a condition to form a just judgment, and the habit of
obedience helps us to that cessation. The parent is an
ordinance, the pastor is an ordinance, the church is an
ordinance, but personal spiritual communion with God,
holiness and righteousness, are not ordinances, but the things
for which ordinances are appointed. The Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. It is not
enough that I see the ordinance to be of God's appointment :
I must see also that that which comes to me through it is
of His will.

I must not take it for granted that because the ordinance

390 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1841.

is of God's Divine appointment all that comes to me through
it is also divine. Here then I must exercise private judg-
ment ; I must judge my ordinance, my pastor, my parent,
etc. ; I must do it whether I will or not, if I do not consent
to have altogether a second-hand religion. I think Pusey-
ism is wrong, in the way which I have now described, in
the view which it takes of authority and ordinances. I
think that its root is the same with that of Popery, only it
has not gone so far. Quakerism is its supplement, its oppo-
site pole — necessary to complete it. • It denies the light
which lighteth every man, and thus it is forced to set up
authority in its place. But when submission to authority
is thus set up in the place of conscience it becomes itself,
not a means but an end — not an assistance to education,
but the condition aimed at in all education, and thus right-
eousness is really annihilated, or at least contracted into
mere obedience. And how, without an original light, can I
judge of the Tightness or wrongness of an authority % Am I
to take the authority that comes first 1 How do the pas-
tors know it 1 have they an inward light, and they only 1
The author of the review of Carlyle in the Quarterly evi-
dently thinks that men ought to have been content to have
remained in the lowest state of degradation rather than to
have taken the initiative of reformation out of the hands
of the Church into their own. This is really denying the
cup to the laity, — the wine, the blood, the life, — and con-
demning them to be merely a passive substance to be
animated by the clergy, the living part.

It appears to me that Puseyism as well as Irvingism is
a return to Judaism; an outside thing instead of an inside
thing. I am well aware that we cannot have a religion so
altogether spiritual as to be independent of outward forms,
but I think that Christianity aims at the highest degree of
spirituality, and that this is the explanation why the New

jet. 52. DR. GLOAG. 391

Testament writers are so sparing in their directions as to
forms of any kind. They wish to implant principles which
may lead to their own results. They put down the centres
of -circles, but they draw no circumferences. I believe that
one form is good for one time, and that another is good
for another. When I read Matthew and John, and compare
them together, I cannot but recognise two very different
intellectual forms at least of the same religion. I am per-
suaded that those who go into Puseyism are either led by
the poetry of it — and there is much poetry in it, — or by
that desire to get rid of doubt and responsibility, and of the
necessity of personal judgment and of a personal exercise
of conscience, which has led many before into Catholicism.
If we wish to be perfect men in Christ Jesus we must
consent to bear our own responsibility — and does not the
apostle say, " Every man must bear his own burden " 1
referring, as it appears to me, to this very subject.

T. E.

III.— THE FORENSIC THEORY OF JUSTIFICATION.

223. TO THE REV. PA TON J. GLOAG, D.D.

March 1858.
Eev. Sir, — I have looked through your works on Justifi-
cation by Faith, and on the Assurance of Salvation,1 and
I venture to communicate to you some of the thoughts
which they have suggested to me, persuaded that you will
receive them candidly and kindly, not rejecting them
unweighed because they do not altogether agree with what
you have been accustomed to consider the orthodox standard.
I observe, from what you say in the beginning of the 184th

1 These works, written by Dr. Gloag, now minister of Galashiels, had been
brought under Mr. Erskine's notice by a common friend.

392 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1858.

page of the larger work, that you have felt the difficulty
connected with the common theory, although you have
got over it. You have felt the difficulty of believing that
there could be anything conventional or arbitrary in God's
dealings with man, in the spiritual education of him.
Every thinking man must have felt it ; and many, I am
sure, have been compelled to reject the common theory,
whether they have arrived at any other which satisfied
them or not. Let me propose a solution. Does not the
true Tightness of man consist in an absolute submissive
dependence on God as a loving Father, who is continually,
by His Spirit within and His providence without, seeking
to bring us into an entire conformity with His own will 1
Does it not consist in such a dependence as the branch has
on the vine, living by the sap thence received 1 Does not
man's wrongness consist in his following his own indepen-
dent will, in acting from his own resources, in living under
the power of self? Faith, confidence, dependence, is the
name for man's turning from himself to God. " Trust in the
Lord with all thy heart, and lean not to thine own under-
standing ; in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will
direct thy paths." This faith is man's right condition, and
it is the righteousness of Christ, as the sap in the branch
is the sap from the vine. When I entirely trust in another,
so as to surrender myself to his guidance, the righteousness
of that other is communicated to me. This is, I believe,
the Sifccuoavvr) which is by faith, the righteousness of
faith. There is a hucaioavvr\ which is on all men whether
they believe it or not, the manifestation of the loving
purpose of God toward them in Jesus Christ, but which
does not become SiKaioavvr), righteousness, until it is
received by faith, the spiritual apprehension.

I believe that the Son of God, the eternal Word, is the
original foundation and ground of man's being ; that man

jet. 69. DR. GLOAG. 393

is in the image of God because created in Him who is the
express image of the Father ; that man's acting as if he
were his own or had anything of his own, and not as
existing in Christ, is his fall and unrighteousness ; but that
does not and cannot get him off the deep original ground
of his being. I believe that as Christ is the ground of
man's being, and is actually in every man as the supplier
of spiritual life, so He is also the Head of man, of the
whole race of man, acting for the race, not at all as their
substitute, but as their Head and root ; doing things, not
instead of them, but for them, as the root does things for
the branches.

I have no belief in the forensic theory, which seems to
me founded on a mistaken conception of G-od's relation to
man. It supposes that G-od's chief relation to man is that
of a judge, and that the relations of Father and teacher
must suit themselves to it, in subordination to it ; whereas
I am convinced that it is just the^ contrary. The forensic
system supposes that God made men that He may after-
wards judge them ; I believe that He judges them that He
may teach them, so that His judgments are instructions.
I believe that God created man that He might instruct him
into a conformity with His own character, and so make
him a partner of His own life, the eternal life which is His
will or character. This view of the purpose of God in
man's creation makes an important change in our feelings
with regard to the Law. Whilst I regard God as my
Judge the law is an object of fear, and the higher its stan-
dard the greater is that fear ; whereas if I regard God as
my Fatherly teacher, seeking to make me a partaker in
His blessedness by making me partaker in His holiness, I
am delighted with the contemplation of the high standard
to which He is using means to elevate me, and instead of
shunning this searching eye, I desire to expose myself to it,

394 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1858.

knowing that it is the eye not of a taskmaster who is seeking
occasion against me, hut the eye of a loving, spiritual physi-
cian who is searching into my disease in order to cure it.
The 139th Psalm is a "beautiful exemplification of the effect
of this apprehension of God and His purpose towards
us. David, conscious of much sin and pollution, welcomes
the gaze of God, assured that His object is to lead him in
the way everlasting. When I am sure that God's one and
sole purpose towards me is to deliver me from everything
that can separate me from Himself and His eternal blessed-
ness, I can lay myself down with absolute security in His
hand, receiving His discipline in whatever form it comes,
saying, " Search me, 0 Lord, and know my heart ; try me
and know my ways, and lead me in the way everlasting."

I believe that this state of spiritual being is the true
justification by faith and the true assurance of salvation,
and that these can never he produced hy any feeling that
we have complied with any condition, either faith or
obedience (which, in fact, come to the same thing), but
that they can only be produced by seeing in the character
of God that thorough fatherliness on which we can place
a perfect reliance, and by discovering that His purpose for
us is just what we most desire for ourselves. I find it
most sweet when I can thus rest on the eternal love of my
Father's heart, sweeter far than to rest on any thought
(most dubious at best) that I have fulfilled a prescribed
condition of either faith or obedience, and sweeter also
than to rest on the idea of a legal transaction by which
my debt to God has been paid. I wish to owe Him all, to
owe Him a debt of love which never can be paid. If I
believed in the forensic theory I should feel that in coming
to it from the 139th Psalm I had come from a higher,
holier ground to a lower and less holy, which I am sure is
impossible in the progress of divine revelation.

jet. 69. DR. GLOAG. 395

Jesus is the Revealer of the Father, and His doings have
their chief value in discovering to us the everlasting Foun-
tain out of which they flowed. It seems to me that at
every step of His earthly course we should hear Him saying,
" He that hath seen me hath seen the Father ; " and what
were all these steps but a varied manifestation of the
desire to seek and to save the lost 1 What were they but
varied expressions of sympathy for man pressed down by
sin and sorrow ] So the miraculous cures are less con-
sidered by the evangelists as acts of power than as acts of
compassion, tokens of sympathy (Matt. viii. 17). And
thus He revealed the Father. And in that touching
invitation which concludes the 11th chapter of the same
book the true meaning of the whole passage is missed
unless we see its connection with the last clause of the
27th verse, " Neither knoweth any man the Father save
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him;"
and now come unto me, for I am the Son ready to reveal
the Father, and so to give you rest.

But I must stop, for I shall be writing you a book and
not a letter if I go on. One thing, however, I should be
sorry to omit, which is, that the forensic theory has a direct
tendency to make men think that salvation consists in the
removal of a penalty instead of a deliverance from sin. I
am persuaded that it has had that effect on the minds of
our population very universally.

And now, dear sir, hoping and trusting that you will
interpret kindly both what I have written and my purpose
in writing, I subscribe myself your obedient servant,

T. Erskine.

P.S. — When I use the phrase " forensic theory," I mean
that theory of the work of Christ which contains the idea
that God is compelled by His own essential justice to

396 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1858.

punish sin, and to punish it as an infinite offence because
it is committed against His own infinite excellence, and
that in order to evade this necessity, which would involve
the perdition of the whole race, He has had recourse to sub-
stitutional imputation. It seems to me that there is a mis-
take at the very foundation of all this. I do not believe
that justice ever is, or can be, satisfied with punishment.
I believe that the justice of God is the righteousness of
God, and that His righteousness requires righteousness in
man, and can be satisfied with nothing else, and that
punishment is God's protest that He is not satisfied. But
it is evident that if this be so the judicial office is incom-
plete in itself, and must be subordinate to the teaching
office, so that the condemnation of wrong may minister to
the inculcation and acquisition of right.

I can see many causes for the marked unfruitfulness of
religious instruction amongst us, but I am persuaded that
the chief are that the judicial character of God is made to
swallow up and conceal His paternal character; that thus
Christ is viewed as a refuge from the Father instead of the
way to Him, and that the Law is represented as a standard
by which we are to be tried and condemned, instead of a
standard to which it is the purpose of God to raise and
draw us up. I believe that the true assurance of salvation
is unattainable where such thoughts exist and prevail.
Finally, I believe that we are all called and elected to
eternal life, but that we may frustrate the counsel of God,
and that therefore we are exhorted to make our calling
and election sure, not to make ourselves sure that we
are called and elected, but to make our undoubted
calling and election ftefialav, firm, solid, as .ZEschines said
of the democracy. The democracy existed, but it might
be made sure, or it might be sapped by the factious
oligarchy.

jet. 69. BISHOP COLENSO. 397

Farewell, dear sir ; I trust you will not think me either
presumptuous or officious in thus writing to you.

T. Erskine.

IV.— THE BIBLE.

Among Mr. Erskine's papers was the copy of this letter
addressed by him to Bishop Colenso, without a date : —

224. TO BISHOP COLENSO.

My dear Lord, — I could not satisfy my own conscience
if I did not make some acknowledgment of your kindness
in sending me your remarks on the Bishop of Cape Town's
proceedings in relation to you.

Of course I agree entirely with you in your view of the
legality of the Metropolitan's claims, and not only as to
what the law actually is, but what in reason and righteous-
ness it ought to be.

But further, I agree with you on a much more important
matter, namely, the meaning and purpose of authority in
all true teaching. I am sure that so long as we believe any-
thing that is of the nature of a principle merely on outward
authority, be it the authority either of God or man, with-
out discerning for ourselves its own truth, we are not truly
believing it. We may be believing the veracity and the
wisdom of our informer, but we are not believing in the
truth of the thing he made known to us, until we discern
that truth. If I am to be saved or spiritually healed by
a truth, I must have my spirit brought into contact with
the quality and character and reality of that truth, so as to
be affected by it in accordance with its proper nature, — and
any faith which is not fitted to do this is not that which
I need.

398 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

The object of all true teaching is to make us independent
of authority ; and to reduce all belief into submissive
obedience is as great a blunder in religion as it is in common
sense. I cannot become loving or pure or humble by mere
obedience. I must perceive the excellency of love and
purity and humility. I believe that the most strenuous
advocate for authority would admit, that if the Bible and
the Koran were put at the same time into any one's hands,
and he were called on to make choice between the two
religions, he ought to be able to see that the Bible contained
more and higher truth than the other. And if it is granted
that man ought to judge rightly in such a case, it must also
be granted that he has the capacity of discerning truth in
spiritual things, which capacity it is the purpose of all
religious teaching to cultivate.

The value of the Bible, according to my reason and
conscience, consists in what it contains, — in the truth which
I find in it, — not in the manner in which it was composed.
I cannot fully estimate what it has been to myself or to
my race. From the history of human thought I see that
there has been hardly any true apprehension of the nature
and character of G-od, or of our relation to Him, out of the
pale of its influence. That this light should have been
enjoyed by that small tribe, and that it should have been
continued amongst them through a succession of teachers,
whilst even Greece and Rome were comparatively dark
until enlightened through them, seems to suggest that there
must have been the interposition of a supernatural agency.
But I believe this on account of the truth which I find. I
do not believe in the truth on account of the supernatural
agency ; and yet after having been constrained to recognise
that supernatural agency, I feel that I am not justified in
reading the Bible as if I had made no such discovery. It
will still remain true that I cannot believe till I discern

BISHOP COLENSO. 399

truth, but I shall read with a reverent thought that though
I do not yet see it, there is truth there, if I could
see it.

Erom your quotation in page 14, I gather that you look
on the Bible very much as I do ; and as you doubtless
acknowledge that all education must begin with some
form of authority, you will also feel the importance of avoid-
ing everything which is likely to shake the confidence of
those multitudes who, you know, will never advance beyond
authority all their lives. Whether you have actually and
in your writings been sufficiently careful here, is the point
on which many whose views on the nature and use of
authority in all teaching, and especially in religious teaching,
are the same as your own, yet differ from you. You seem
to me to think that those who agree with you on this sub-
ject of authority, and also acknowledge that there must be
very considerable truth in the critical conclusions as to the
history and composition of the Old Testament books at
which you have arrived, ought also consistently to approve
of your publications on these books. But you may be mis-
taken. If all the religious teachers of this country, or even
a large proportion of them, did really in their teaching
address the conscience and reason of their people, so that
the people were accustomed to this kind of thought, I do
not believe that your books could have excited any alarm ;
but you know well that this is not the case, and that con-
ventional notions on religion are the common notions of
the country, and that, generally speaking, Christianity itself
is identified with, and is supposed to stand on nothing else
than, the belief of the verbal inspiration of the Bible. This
wrong state of things ought certainly to be corrected as
speedily as possible. But by what means ] By denouncing
the error, or by guiding the people into the truth % It is a
difficult question, because it must be a question of degree.

400 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1858.

I feel that I shrink from what you have done, and yet I
can conceive your acting perfectly conscientiously. When
I think of your criticisms I often seem to hear the voice of
the Great Teacher saying, " I have many things to say unto
you, but ye cannot bear them now," as a call to thoughtful
tenderness for our brethren. I sometimes also consider
whether you are prepared yourself for the results of such
criticisms on the New Testament. — I remain, my dear Lord,
with best wishes, yours faithfully, T. Erskine.

I do not feel myself justified in saying anything by
merely knowing that it is true ; I feel bound to look to
its probable effects on those who hear it.

225. TO PROFESSOR LORIMER.

Hotel, Geanton, \Ath July 1858.
Dear Sir, — It was with no small interest that I read
over those sheets.1 It seems to me most important to
understand the place which the Scriptures really occupy,
that so we may make the use of them which they were
intended to serve, and be delivered from any superstitious
feelings about them. This is specially needed here in
Scotland, where a belief in the Bible is often substituted
for faith in God, and a man is considered religious, not
because he walks with God in his spirit, but because he
acknowfedges and maintains the verbal inspiration of the
sacred canon. I have seen people brought up in this way
who would have felt their whole faith in spiritual things
annihilated by the discovery of any contradiction or inaccur-
acy in the Gospel history. A faith of this kind, which
rests on ignorance and which is dispelled by knowledge, is
certainly not the kind of faith which we should desire
either for ourselves or others. The most lamentable

1 Some sheets of a volume on the "Inspiration of the Scriptures," hy
L>r. John Muir, who endowed the Sanscrit Chair in the University of
Edinburgh— transmitted to Mr. Erskine, to obtain his opinion of it.

iET. 69. PROFLSSOR LORIMER. 401

infidelity cannot fail to be the result of it. I agree also
with the author of these sheets, that it is desirable that
laymen should take up the study of the Scriptures, as they
may be expected to be less fettered by prejudice than those
who have been brought up within the limits of articles and
confessions of faith.

I feel all this, but there is another principle which is
perhaps liable to be forgotten amidst such thoughts, and it
is this, that no man can successfully study spiritual truth
except in a spirit of reverence. If a man approaches the
New Testament as he might approach a new book on
geology or botany he will certainly fail to understand it.
Solomon has well said, " The scorner seeketh wisdom, and
findeth it not." His mind in a self-conceited or even a
careless state (I mean morally careless) cannot comprehend
wisdom. All spiritual truth is addressed to the conscience
in man, and is only understood by the conscience ; and if
the conscience is not in action the truth is to him like light
grasped by the hand instead of received by the eye. A
grammarian or logician, in the exercise of his function, is
apt to overlook this, and to forget that there may be mean-
ings in the words or reasonings which he is handling that
require the co-operation of another faculty.

I believe that ninety-nine out of a hundred of the religious
people of Scotland believe in the verbal inspiration of the
Bible, and would have their faith shaken to pieces by the
facts which your friend adduces in those sheets. I should
like to see them disabused, but I should like this to be
done in a way that would transfer their faith from the
letter to the spirit, and not destroy their faith altogether.

I believe that all spiritual truth is of inspiration, and
that it is apprehended (as I said before) by that in man
which is of the nature of inspiration. Unless there were
" a true light lightening every man that conieth into the

2 c

402 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1858.

world," God would never speak or have spoken to man, for
He would not have been understood. I cannot draw a
distinct line between Inspiration in the Bible and Inspira-
tion out of the Bible, but I am sure that all that God
speaks to us through others or from without is intended to
make us better apprehend what He is speaking to each of
us in the secret of our own being.

At the same time I ought to say that I find thoughts and
words both in the Old Testament and in the New, which
reach my inmost soul with a conviction and a power that I
find in no other thoughts or words.

I think that the great fault of our common preaching-
consists in the almost entire want of reference to that
inward light in man. " Christ in you the hope of glory "
is the gospel which Paul preached to the Colossians (ch. i.
27), and the outward Christ could not have been our
Saviour unless He had been also within.

I have been long of sending this, but I have thought it
right to send it that I may mark where I conceive your
friend to be quite safe, and where I think he ought to be
on his guard. This is all very desultory. — I remain, dear
sir, yours truly, T. Erskine.

Mr. Erskine's letter having been sent to Dr. Muir, he
wrote expressing a strong desire that Mr. Erskine would
give to the world his views on the subjects handled in his
pamphlet. To this Mr. Erskine replied : —

226. TO PROFESSOR LORIMER.

Linlathen, Dundee, 5th Aug. 1858.
Dear Sir, — I return your friend's letter, wishing much
I could do what he suggests in it. I believe that a true
explanation of what Christianity means is the only evidence
on which it can be received. No miracles of whatever kind
could make a man who felt in his conscience that he was

Mr. 69. PROFESSOR LO RIMER. 403

called to be good, loving, righteous, believe that God was
not good, nor loving, nor righteous; his difficulty is to
reconcile this character of God with the facts around him
— I may add, with facts within him. The idea of judgment
comes in and bewilders him. He sees sin and misery around
him; he is conscious of sin and misery within himself, and
God becomes to his conception a Judge and not a Father.
With such a conception it is impossible that he can make
any progress in moral or spiritual life. If I suppose that
God is simply pronouncing judgment on me through the
voice of conscience, and not educating me, I can have no
confidence in Him, and without confidence in Him I am
powerless for any good. I must have confidence in Him,
but it must be, not a confidence in His laxity or indulgence,
but, a confidence in His purpose to make me and all men
like Himself. This is the confidence that I must have
in God if I am not to fear Him, or hate Him, or despise
Him. With this confidence I can trust myself on the
immeasurable ocean of being ; without it I must either live
without thought, or a prey to continual fear, or a devil
occupied with my own appetites and passions. Wherever
I find such a character of God I acknowledge a true
religion. It meets my conscience, it meets my reason, it
is the crowning fulfilment of that order which is presented
to me in the relations of life. According to this light, the
laws of the spiritual world are unchangeable ; an unloving,
unrighteous, impure, selfish being must be miserable. God's
mercy never dreams of relaxing this law, but His constant
and eternal and finally triumphant action is to draw man
out of that evil condition into His own goodness. If I can
gather this character of God out of the Bible, I feel that I
owe an immense debt to it, or rather to Him who by His
providence has thus supplied the need of my soul. Of one '
revelation I am perfectly sure, and that is the revelation of
God's light in my conscience. And yet, as I have just said,

404 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1858.

I find that I am often puzzled by it, and that I draw wrong
inferences from it. I feel myself delivered from my
difficulties and helped to give the true interpretation to the
indications of the light within me by this view of the
character and purpose of God which the Bible, and espe-
cially the New Testament, opens up to me. And so I
acknowledge it as a revelation also. The only revelation
from without which I can acknowledge is some light which
will give its full and satisfactory interpretation to that
revelation within, which I already have. I believe also
that a man may be almost insensible to the light within
him, and may yet find that light stirring itself under the
action of a true light from without which awakens him to
a consciousness of its being there.

This character of God as a teaching Father who eternally
desires and seeks the holiness of His reasonable creatures
seems to me the great revelation of the Bible, and the true
meaning of Christianity. I am prepared to hear any criti-
cisms on the book ; they do not trouble me in the least.
I have found a medicine which heals me ; I have found an
omnipotent Friend, whom I may, by following selfish desires,
shut out from my spiritual sight, but from whom I can
never separate myself — a friend who is the eternal enemy,
and will be the eternal conqueror, of all evil, and who will
neither spare Himself nor us any suffering which may be
necessary to this result. This is the pearl of great price
which when a man has found he needs not that any other
should tell him its value, he knows it and feels it ; he
does not need any evidence that this revelation of the
character of God is a true revelation, he knows it must
be true, or his own existence, his own consciousness, is
a lie.

If any textual emendations or any improved translation
could bring this truth into clearer light, I should welcome
them with my whole heart. Even without this unspeakable

xr. 69. . BISHOP EWING. 405

advantage I welcome them ; but I have often been disap-
pointed by finding that men who were zealous for the
critical processes were comparatively cold to this, without
which these processes are mere matters of philology. Now
if I were to attempt a crusade it would be for this truth,
and not for the philology, because I should like to concen-
trate the thoughts and hearts of men upon it.

Now, my dear sir, I have to repeat of this what I said
of another of my letters, that it is all very desultory, but I
think there is a truth in it which will commend itself to
some consciences. — Yours truly, T. Erskine.

227. TO BISHOP EWING.1

41 Charlotte Square, February 8, 1861.

No man can long more for an agreement between our
Christianity and our conscience and spiritual reason than
I do, but I do not think this is to be effected by such
works as the Essays and Reviews.

It is not by such criticisms that man can be helped to
read and understand the Bible. This is the eighth day of
the month, and I have been reading the Psalms and lessons
for the day, and I find in all the portions of Scripture, so
widely separated from each other in point of time, and in
the circumstances of the writers, the breathing of the Holy
Spirit, so revealing to man, as no other voice ever did, his
true condition before God, and drawing him up out of that
horrible pit, with an apprehension of his Heavenly Father's
unchangeable purpose of holy love towards him, and help-

1 This letter was written immediately before a visit paid by the Bishop
to Mr. Erskine, of which he writes :— " I have just come from being ten
days with Mr. Erskine in Edinburgh. It is always a great gain to be
with him. I learn more from his conversations than from all the books I
read. His looks and life of love are better than a thousand homilies." —
Memoir of Bishop Ewing, p. 311.

For other and most valuable letters to Bishop Ewing besides those
quoted in this volume, see Present Day Papers, Third Series.

406 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1861.

ing him to rise into fellowship with the heart, where that
purpose ever lives, as an everlasting ground of hope and
consolation, that after reading these words I have felt that
when some gentlemen of cultivated faculties combined
their efforts to enlighten their countrymen in the nature
and structure of that book (so that it might be studied
with intelligence and profit), a very different result was
to have been expected from that which they have actually
accomplished.

Every one who has read the Bible with real earnestness,
must have felt that its chief object was to help man to
know God, and to know themselves in His light, and so be
led to receive His Spirit, and to become temples of the
Holy Ghost. Surely then, if we find this chief object
ignored and unnoticed in dissertations written to elucidate
the character of the book, we must at least admit that by
this omission a very grave mistake has been committed.
I am reading them over, so that I may not form my own
judgment on quotations picked out by those who have
assailed them in the periodical press.

I have finished the first, and find nothing to condemn
in it ; but it, I suppose, is the most innocent of the seven,
with perhaps the exception of the last, whose author is, I
know, a thorough believer in subjective Christianity at
least, and is an earnest man. In fact it is more what they
have left unsaid than what they have said that I grieve
for; although I feel that a miraculous previous history,
such as that of the Jews, according to the Old Testament
record, is required as the preparation for the appearance of
Jesus Christ. It is required also as the explanation of the
difference between the religious knowledge of the Jews and
that of all other nations. Does not a miraculous dispensa-
tion seem the reasonable and necessary concomitant of
that wonderful light shining in the midst of gross dark-

/et. 72. BISHOP EWING. 407

ness 1 God thus taught the people, that they were not to
be the slaves of matter, but to be the free children of Him
who governs all things. The miracles of the Bible are not
marvels, but illustrations of the character of God, and
prophecy is the continual witnessing that in God alone is
the redemption of man, and that the redemption is to be
accomplished by the way of sorrow and suffering and
death. — Very truly yours, T. Erskine.

228. TO MISS GOURLAY.

127 George Street, 14<A Aug. 1869.
My dear Miss Gourlay, — Miss Wedgwood is very
good and diligent. She reads Ewald to me, the history
of Israel divested of miracle, and as a nation choosing God,
not chosen by God. Such a choice continuing during
such a length of time, in the midst of surrounding idolatry,
seems to me more incredible than any miracle. But it is
a very ingenious and very gravely written book.1

V.— SELF-SACRIFICE— THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.
229. TO BISHOP EWING.

41 Charlotte Square, January 9, 1861.

My dear Bishop, — Don't you yourself feel that the
sacrifice of Christ was truly the sacrifice of self at the very
root of the humanity % It is written in the Epistle to the
Hebrews that " He put away sin by the sacrifice of Him-
self."

Sin consists in self-seeking; and sin can therefore be

put away by no other means than the sacrifice of self — a

1 See also "The Bible in relation to Faith," being the fourth chapter
in The Spiritual Order.

408 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1861.

sacrifice, however, which must be reproduced in every soul
of man before he is individually delivered from sin.

Christ's sacrifice cannot be unlike anything else in the
world — it is the very type of what must be done by the
spirit of Christ in every human being. — Yours affection-
ately, T. Erskine.

230. TO BISHOP EWING.
41 Charlotte Square, January 15, 1861.
My dear Bishop, — "What is the meaning of the words
of our Lord, "Not my will, but thine be done"1? and those
others, " I came not to do mine own will, but the will of
my Father"? Jesus Christ was truly a man, and truly
tempted, although He always resisted temptation, and,
therefore, had that in Him which could be tempted. He
came into humanity, and went through the education of
humanity, laying down self at each step. He would not
have been a real man, if He had not had that self in Him
which would seek its own. And He was our Saviour by
continually sacrificing that self, and by presenting Himself
continually to His Father in every thought and word and
deed — a perfectly loving and obedient Son. His sacrifice
was the work of His whole life, and this sacrifice is the
basis and the soul of all true worship of God in man. ...

231. to the same.

41 Charlotte Square, February 1861.
Vescovo Carissimo, — I have, of course, read Mr.
Maurice's book on Sacrifice, and I felt there, as in all his
writings and speakings on the subject, the presence of that
element of which he feels the absence both in Mr. Camp-
bell and in me. It is not, however, absent from my mind,
only I feel a great difficulty in forming anything like a

jet. 75. BISHOP EWWG. 409

clear idea of it. It is the redemption of humanity by its
purgation in its root — the God-man, through His death
and resurrection. I have been always accustomed chiefly
to contemplate this in its reproduction, in the spirits of
men, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, when it becomes
part of our own personal conscious history. I have always
felt Mr. Maurice's language on this subject less clear than
I could wish. I find this both in his book on Sacrifice,
and in the remarks which he makes on Campbell's book
in the introduction to his Epistle of St. John. I believe
that Christ's work on earth could not have been a mere
manifestation of the loving purpose of the Father, but
must have accomplished something, and that was the
purgation of which I have spoken above. . . . — Very
truly yours, T. Erskine.

VI.— EDUCATION— NOT PROBATION.

232. TO THE SAME.

Linlathen, August 17, 1864.
Vescovo Carissimo, — ... It is as clear as day that,
however true a truth may be, it can never have its full
legitimate influence over me and value to me, until I
discern the truthfulness of it ; but I require to be gradually
educated into the discernment of its truthfulness; and
authority is an indispensable element in this education.
A child must begin in its knowledge of numbers by
believing on the authority of its teacher that twice two is
four, yet no one even supposes that the child has really
learned the truth on this matter until it is in a condition
to reject any authority that would try to give it the idea
that twice two was five. Even so in religious truth we
must begin with authority : the child is to be educated

'410 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. . 1864.

into the discernment of truth, and we know that in regard
to much in this department of thought, nine hundred and
ninety-nine out of every thousand remain children to the
end of their lives. At the same time, the object of the
true teacher will always be to help the child (whether he
be young or old) to discern the truthfulness of the truth,
and this is to be done by helping it from a lower step to
a higher, by letting it perceive the connection between
them, just as a child, after it has perceived that twice two
is four, may be helped to see that twice four is eight.
Thus a child may soon understand that God wishes it to
be good, if it has the good fortune to have a father or
mother who it feels wishes it to be good, and when it has
got the knowledge in this way, it has hold of the truth,
not on authority, but really. In the same way it may
learn that God's purpose in punishing it is to make it
good, and that the meaning of God's goodness in relation
to it is that He will use the fittest treatment (whether
pain or pleasure) to make it good. It may then go on to
learn that real trust in God means a confidence that His
purpose in all that He does is to make it good. It is
quite evident that the duty of faith in God might be
taught as a dogma resting on the authority of Catechism
or Scripture for a hundred years without the slightest
good, because the old child has never discerned the truth-
fulness of the truth. Now, as I believe that all the
dogmas of Eevelation are connected with that primal
truth, their truthfulness must be discerned in the light of
that truth before they can do the work they are intended
for. The true teaching of Christianity is helping men to
see that the work of Christ is simply the declaration of
and carrying out of this primal truth, that God's purpose
is to make men good. For my own part, I feel that 1
believe the Bible because of the things that I find in it,

jet. 76. BISHOP EWING. 411

rather than that I believe them because they are in the
Bible.

I believe that if it were generally adopted as a funda-
mental truth that man was created not to be tried but to
be educated, it would help to clear the way both of teachers
and of learners very much. The idea that we are in a
state of trial or probation necessarily forces us to look on
God as a Judge, and forces us also to be more occupied
with the forgiveness of sins than with a deliverance from
sinfulness. It is this idea which has given its character
of substitution to the life and death of Christ, representing
it as the ground on which God is justified in forgiving
men, rather than as the actings of the root of the human
tree, by which the sap is prepared for and propelled into
the branches. It seems to me also that it is this idea
which has made eternal punishment to be received as a
principle in God's government. If it were believed that
God had created us for education, and that not one in a
thousand had really received any education, it would
generally be accepted without hesitation that the education
must necessarily proceed in the next world. . . .

I hope the Great Physician's treatment may be profitable
both for your soul and body. — Yours very truly,

T. Erskine.

233. TO BISHOP EWING.

Linlathen, August 24, 1865.
My dear Bishop, — Your question about God doing
evil that good may come — doing an evil moreover which
we distinctly see, to produce an assumed good which we
do not see — is one which has probably at times darkened
most minds. The answer which my mind makes to itself
is, that the spiritual education of individuals, and not

412 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

the outward ordering of society, is God's great object,
Righteous causes in the world are often overborne by
unrighteous power, and yet the man who suffers for the
defeated righteous cause completely justifies God in his
own heart, giving Him credit for a purpose of training
which he finds realised in his own experience. The Maho-
metan ship arriving after the king's prayer that the ship
of the true faith should come first belongs to the same
class of things. Is not the way of the Lord unequal"?
Whenever a man lives in this world as if it were all, the
way of the Lord must appear unequal. What a monstrous
thing in appearance it seems that I should come into
existence with a predisposition to malice and envy, and
pride and sensuality ; and then that I should, in the
ordering of my lot, have every opportunity afforded me of
gratifying these evil inclinations. Nothing but that life
is an education, can give a meaning of righteousness to
this fact.

It seems to me that God's eternal, unchangeable, and
unalterable purpose of making all men righteous, combined
with His perfect wisdom and knowledge, is the only ex-
planation of the wholesale slaughter of Canaanites and
Perizzites, etc. If a surgeon knows to a certainty that he
can cure a man of cancer or frightful neuralgia by putting a
knife through the part, he would be wrong not to do it. It
is a great help to apprehend the immense difference between
a man becoming good by choice and being made good
whether he will or not, and the necessarily great superiority
of the one goodness over the other, and hence to infer the
righteousness of all means used to produce the former.
God does me no injustice whatever misery He may subject
me to, if He is by it leading me to this. The smallest
unnecessary suffering I protest against ; but any suffering
which is needed to press me into eternal life, eternal

/et. 76. BISHOP E WING. 413

righteousness, I accept with my whole reason and choice,
however much I may shrink from it whilst it is upon me.
One is apt to forget that the small annoyances of life con-
stitute parts of this process. If I can remove them I
consider myself entitled to do so, but I am wrong if I do
this with no other thought than to get rid of a burthen.
There is a supernatural element in all my circumstances
which is nothing less or lower than the will of God, and I
ought to handle it reverently.

I should much like to have a few days with you, but I
fear I ought not to venture so far from home. I shall
be seventy-seven in October — very near the conclusion
certainly ! It is a wonderful thought the passing through
the veil. — Yours most truly, T. Erskine.

234. TO BISHOP EWING.

Linlathen, September 16, 1865.
My dear Bishop, — ... I am not searching into the
origin of evil. I merely say that, as a spiritual being is
only good by choosing to be good, it needs to be educated
into this choice of goodness, and cannot be made good
in the truest and highest sense. Those who suppose
that this goodness could be created or made, can never
understand the spectacle of this world. They think that
God might have saved an enormous amount of sin and
misery by creating men permanently good at once. I do
not feel that I am beating my head against an insoluble
difficulty when I maintain that the goodness which God
desires to see in men is a goodness which in the nature
of things can only result from a process of educational
exercise. I believe that every human being is intended
to occupy a particular place in the great organised body
of the humanity of which Christ is the Head, and that a

414 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1865.

suitable course of education will be applied to each one,
through all the stages of his existence, until he is made fit
to fill this place.

And when I further see that the great object of God in
this education is to make man sensible that he requires God
in everything, that he can do nothing rightly without God,
then I can understand, that there may be a real progress in
this education, even by all the down-breakings which men
make in life. I see that faith and recipiency are one thing.
The righteousness of faith is God received into man's will,
as his only possible portion and refuge — "Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done." But a belief in the inextinguish-
able loving purpose of God is necessary as the basis of this
faith.

I am thankful to be able in my own mind, in my own
reason, to justify the ways of God to man. I am thankful
to be able to give God glory in all His dealings with myself
and my race. . . .

I would say to , "I don't deny that there is a

trial and probation throughout man's whole life — but the
trial is subservient to the education : he is tried that he may
be educated, he is not educated that he may be tried."

And to I would say, " Men are always under this

purpose of education, and this purpose implies forgiveness
of past sins ; and thus they are under the forgiveness of God,
whether they know it or not." He interprets this into an
affirmation, on your part, that men were saved whether they
knew it or not ; but the above was and is your meaning, no
doubt.

I would say that faith means a perfect assurance that
what ought to be, will be, — that God will certainly do that
which is right, and that right is the best thing that can be
done for me, and for every one else. A man who believes
that right could ever possibly do him harm has no true faith.

,et. 76. REV. G. D. BOYLE. 415

The man who believes that right must always do him good,
has got hold of the secret of truth and peace — for he will
also believe that God must always do right. This is the
text of the prophecy of Habakkuk — one of the most pre-
cious books of the Bible — in my estimation. It is the
eternal blessed reality of that technical conventionality in
the English Constitution, that the king can do no wrong.
The real King, the eternal King, can do no wrong. He
must do right, and right is the universal good — for you, for
me, and all — for bad and good.

I should like now and then to have a word with you.
The living voice is better than the touch of a pen ; but
these things are true, whether spoken or unspoken. They
are rays of that eternal light, of which it is said, " Thy
sun shall no more go down, for the Lord shall be unto thee
an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." — Ever truly
yours, T. Erskine.

VII— THE TRUE CHARACTER OF GOD'S
RIGHTEOUSNESS.

235. TO THE EEV. G. D. BOYLE.1

Edinbcegh, 19^ May 1864.
Dear Sir, — It may seem strange to you that I do not
remember whether I answered your letter to me of last
November, but I don't like to run the risk of not answer-
ing it, and would rather answer it twice. I conceive that
great confusion often arises from misconceptions as to the

1 " I never saw Mr. Erskine, but he was so well known to many friends
of mine that, on the suggestion of my friend the Rev. F. D. Maurice, I
wrote to him, and had this letter in reply." — (Extract from letter of the
Rev. G. D. Boyle, Summerhill, Kidderminster.)

416 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSK1NE. 1859.

meaning of righteousness in God. It is generally inter-
preted to mean the conscientious and scrupulous fairness
of a judge who gives sentence according to a law which he
is appointed to administer, and which has no other end
than to protect innocence and to punish crime. Now the
righteousness of God must be very different from this ; His
righteousness desires to communicate itself, its object is to
make men righteous. If you saw a father punishing his
child, and you asked him what he intended by it, if he
were to answer, I do it because the fellow deserves it ; if
you then were to ask him what effect he expected to pro-
duce on his son's character by it, and he were to reply, I
don't think of that, I satisfy myself with knowing that he
deserves it, — would you not say at once to him, You seem
to me to have renounced both the duties and the privileges
of a father ; you are neither a righteous father nor a right-
eous man ; God made you a father that you might help Him
in His purpose to make your child a good man, and you
have ignored this high calling entirely. The true right-
eousness endeavours to make righteous ; it can never cease
to do so ; when it does cease, it ceases to be righteousness.
Now is it not evident that this true righteousness necessarily
implies and contains forgiveness in its very nature ? It
punishes with the purpose of blessing, not for punishing's
sake. The gift of Christ is just the manifestation of this
righteous purpose of God. The love which gave the gift
contains and implies forgiveness. Now, if this is just a
repetition of something which I have already written, you
will excuse it, remembering that I am nearer eighty than
seventy. I don't write with the expectation of an answer,
but if you choose to write, which will be always gratifying
to me, the safest address in present circumstances (of flit-
ting) is the New Club, Princes Street. — I remain, dear Sir,
yours truly, T. Erskine.

jet. 78. MRS. BATTEN. 417

VIII.— SUDDEN CONVERSIONS.

236. TO MRS. BATTEN.

Linlathen, Ylth August 1859.

Dear Mrs. Batten, — The information contained in
your own letter, and in Mr. Brendon's, and the other,
about the conversions taking place in your neighbourhood
and elsewhere, is very remarkable and very interesting.

I do not pretend to judge them. I am sure the Lord
desires the conversion of all, and that His Spirit is striv-
ing with all, whether they yield to the sacred influence or
resist it.

A conversion, that is to say a true conversion, implies
a knowledge of God, and of the relation in which we stand
to Him in His Son. It implies a knowledge of God as a
holy, loving Father, who desires for us that we should be
partakers of His own holiness and His own blessedness.
But a man may be awakened without being converted ; he
may discern that it is a fearful thing to be opposed to
the God who holds him and all things in His hands. He
may discern that the words which he has been in the
habit of using about God and sin are the representatives
of tremendous realities, but until he knows that this God
is his own loving Father, he can never turn to Him truly.
I would say that God lives by and in His own Will, that
Will is the eternal life of God, and when a created spirit
receives God's Will into its will, it becomes partaker of
the eternal life. This I conceive is salvation; I don't
understand any other meaning of salvation. This is what
I believe man was made for ; his danger, his temptation, is
self-will, — making himself his centre. This is sin, that
which separates a man from God and his fellow-creatures.

Jesus came to save men from sin, from this sin, which
2 D

418 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1859.

is the root and summing-up of all sin. This then is the
salvation of Christ : I don't believe that He came to
deliver men from any penalty. I believe that every
penalty which God has inflicted on men has been for good,
so that deliverance from it would be an evil. I cannot see
any distinction between salvation and the conformity of
the will to God.

I agree with Mr. Brendon that I should expect more
lasting results from a silent conversion than from a more
excited one, still it is the actual turning to God which is
the important matter.

In this country we are all brought up from childhood
with the great words of Christianity sounding in our ears, but
they have no meaning to us until we hear them in the spirit.

This discovery of the truth does not make God our
Father. He always was and is so ; He is the Father of
the prodigal whilst eating the husks with the swine, but
until he knows His Father's love he shuts out the eternal
life, because he cannot trust his Father. He cannot open
his will to let in and embrace his Father's Will, for that
seems to threaten him with destruction ; but when he dis-
covers that that Will seeks only to deliver him from the
disorder and confusion and misery which his blinded self-
seeking has produced, then he can and will say, " Search me,
0 God, and know my heart ; try me, and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in
the way everlasting." He now lees that what God desires
for him is the very thing which he desires for himself,
but which he can only get through a participation in God's
Spirit, and through yielding himself to all God's training.

" Open Thou mine eyes, that I may see wondrous things
out of Thy law." God is my Father, Christ is my head,
and the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son is
breathing into my conscience.

jet. 70. MRS. BATTEN. 419

This is all true, whether I believe it or not. My faith
cannot make it, but until I know Him whose voice it is,
until I know whence that voice cometh, and whither it
would lead me, I am not, and cannot be, born of it ; for
this is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent ; and the birth of the
spirit, the birth from above, is just to receive the eternal
life, to receive the will of God, instead of the will of the
flesh, or self-will.

One man may teach another words, but he cannot even
give him thought, much less can he give him a realising
apprehension of the realities of the unseen world.

I think that there is a great deal of wisdom in Mr.
Brendon's observation, that in the case of these sudden
conversions there is always the danger of the person trust-
ing in the conversion, instead of trusting in God. In fact
there is a continual temptation to escape difficulties by
substituting a sham for a reality. I may have eternal life
for ten minutes, but I must abide in it by a sustained faith
in God and by the continual action of my will, if I would
keep the blessing. I must fight the good fight of faith,
not merely to get hold of eternal life, but to keep hold of
it, and to make progress in it.

Man was created perfect, that is, merely without the
wrong bias j and he was placed where he was that he
might learn the superiority of God's Will to his own, and
practically to acknowledge that superiority. He had the
self-will in him which he was to keep in subjection to the
will of God. This he could only do by continual trust
and continual watchfulness, but he seems to have for-
gotten that he was placed there to learn to fight, and
thought only of enjoying, and thus the first temptation
overcame him. And are we to think ourselves secure be-
cause we have tasted of the love of God 1

420 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1859.

I don't believe that a man is or can ever be stereotyped
either in good or evil. To suppose that God is good by
necessity and not by His own will would be to degrade
Him ; and it must be the same with the creatures made in
His image. Moral good always implies choice, so man can
neither be made good nor upheld in good by a mere act
of power. And yet neither conversion nor perseverance
in good is man's own act. They are the voluntary yield-
ings of man to the actings of God. We are the branches
of the Vine, whether we receive the sap or not ; our will
cannot make the sap, or be a substitute for it. The voice
of conscience is the effort of the sap to enter into the
branch ; that effort gives us the power to receive. Man is
made to be a continual receiver, and in order to this he
must be in a continual state of trustful dependence. We
are to be fellow-workers with God, I suppose and believe,
for ever.

I believe that the baptism of an infant means simply to
declare God's fatherly love and relation to the child, and
His purpose to educate it for Himself, — this I believe to
be true of every child born into this world. Baptism
declares the truth, it does not make it. The child must
afterwards learn to yield its will.

I believe also that the forgiveness to be preached through
Christ is the same thing which is declared in baptism.

It is not withdrawing any penalty, it is the declaration
of God's fatherly love and relationship to every human
being, and His unchanged and unchangeable purpose to
train him into conformity with the Divine Will, which
will be carried forward on the other side of the grave as
well as on this. — I am, etc., T. Erskine.

jet. 70. BISHOP EWING. 421

IX.— ETERNITY OF LIFE— OF PUNISHMENT— OF EVIL.

237. TO MADAME FOREL.

41 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh,
24th April 1862.

... I BELIEVE as you do, that eternity has nothing to do
with duration. I think eternal means essential in opposition
to phenomenal. So eternal life is God's own life ; it is essen-
tial life ; and eternal punishment is the misery belonging
to the nature of sin, and not coming from outward causes.
A man who receives the will of God into his inner being
is taking hold of eternal life, for God's life is in His will,
or perhaps His will is His life, and thus a participation in
His will is a participation in His life. Que ton royaume
(regne) vienne, que ta volonte soit faite. This is salvation,
— when a man uses his individual will merely as the reci-
pient of God's will. All the planets have their separate
individual centres of gravitation, but then only there is
order, when these are kept in subordination to the sun as
the common centre. Salvation is true order in the moral
world. It means a deliverance from disorder, not a deliver-
ance from punishment, for punishment is desirable when
it corrects disorder. Give my affectionate regards ■ to
Madame Vinet . . . and believe me, very truly yours,

T. Erskine.

238. TO BISHOP EWING.

3 Charlotte Square, February 1, 1864.

My dear Bishop, — The question of the eternity of evil

has a difficulty in it beyond what appears at first. If we

suppose eternal creation, we can scarcely escape from the

eternity of evil. I believe that there is a continual con-

422 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1864.

test, and a successful contest, of good and God against
evil : but I believe also that whilst the creation of moral
agents with free wills continues, the evolution of evil from
these free wills will take place. Thus the eternal existence
of evil is a quite distinct idea from the permitted per-
manency of evil.

What your Charge I suppose meant to suggest was, that
God always must contend, and contend successfully, against
evil, and never consents to its permanency. The eternity
of evil, if true, does not arise from the permanency of evil,
but from ever new creation of free-will agents, who in their
progress evolve evil. — I remain, yours always,

T. Erskine.

239. TO AN UNKNOWN CORRESPONDENT.

Faith in God, trust in the righteous God, the Almighty
Maker and Ruler of all things, contains within it the
assurance that good must overcome evil universally But
what is the victory of Good over Evil % Is it the destruc-
tion and annihilation of all evil beings % No, that is not
the victory of good over evil, but the victory of strength
over weakness. The victory of good over evil is the con-
version of all evil beings into good beings ; it is the
making darkness light and crooked things straight.

I am saved from pantheism by the consciousness that I
can and do resist God, and also that I can and do yield
myself to Him.

X.— FINAL SALVATION OP ALL.
240. TO MR. CRAIG.1

Dear Sir, — Your epistle on the " Final Salvation of

1 Author of " Final Salvation," etc.

MR. CRAIG. 423

All Men from Sin " has been put into my hands by a friend,
who knew that the principles contained in it are those
with which I have long concurred and sympathised : and
having read it, I cannot help reaching out to you a
brotherly hand, and saying, God speed you !

The title of your pamphlet has been, I think, well
chtsen. It is not a deliverance from punishment, but
a deliverance from sin, that you desire or expect. All
punishment appointed by God, whether it be the natural
result of sin, or any superadded chastisement, is intended
by Hin " for our profit, that we may be partakers of His
holiness;" so that a deliverance from punishment, instead
of being a thing to be desired, would, in fact, be equivalent
to the deliverance of a sick man from the necessary and
wise prescription of a skilful physician. This is the
reveaed purpose of punishment, — a purpose agreeing with
the ciaracter of God, and with the relation in which He
standi to men. He is the " righteous Father " — " the
Fathe: of the spirits of all flesh," " who willeth not the
death f a sinner ; but that all should come to repentance."
Let uphold fast the purpose of God in all punishment,
and member that as it is the purpose of Him who
changes not, but who is the same yesterday, to-day, and
for eve, it cannot be a purpose confined to any one stage
of our eing, but must extend over all the stages, and the
whole dration of our being. It is surely most unreason-
able to uppose that God should change His manner of
dealing ith us, as soon as we quit this world, and that if
we haveresisted, up to that moment, His gracious endea-
vours to lach us righteousness, He should at once abandon
the purpce for which He created us and redeemed us, and
give us i> to the everlasting bondage of sin. Do we not
feel that sch a supposition is too horrible — that it is most
dishonoung to Him who has said, "I will never leave

J

424 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

thee, nor forsake thee," and, " The mountains shall depart,
and the hills be removed, hut my kindness shall not
depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my
peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on
thee"?

This reasoning agrees with the argument presented co
us in the 5 th chapter of the Epistle to the Eomans, where
the Apostle, in setting forth the fulness of the redemption
by Christ, declares that the benefit through Him /s, in
extent, parallel to the evil introduced by Adam ; fat is,
that as the evil affects all without exception, so tli bless-
ing embraces all without exception. Let any me read
the 12 th and 18th verses of that chapter, is if in
juxtaposition, which they really are by con&trijction,
and he will find himself constrained to admit tha this
and nothing less could have been the meaning (f the
writer. Indeed, through the whole chapter there is a
preponderating advantage thrown into the scale if the
redemption, to the effect that not only were th' evils
of the fall met by the salvation of Christ, but tjat the
gain far surpassed the loss, so that it is really Jntrary
to sound criticism to hold, that in that most marled and
most remarkable passage, where the comparative isults of
the fall and the restoration are expressly consideed, any
ground is allowed or given for a doubt as to ne final
salvation of the whole human race. The lltli chapter
of that Epistle is pervaded by the same doctrinj being a
declaration that God's election does not affect aejtruth
and certainty of the final salvation of men, but elates Ao
the temporary-use which He makes of individuals^ nations
to accomplish the ends of His government. I iiow well,
that most people in this country feel that allpch argu-
ments and expositions are met and overturn! by the
solemn words of our Lord in the 25fch chaier of St.

MR. CRAIG. 425

Matthew, and by other passages of a like import. I feel, on
the contrary, that the passages which I have quoted from
the Epistle to the Romans ought really to be considered
as the ruling passages on the question, and that those from
St. Matthew, and others of the same class, should be
explained by them, and in accordance with them, because
in them the fall and the restoration are expressly compared
with each other, in their whole results, and the entire
superiority claimed for the restoration in amount of benefit,
and entire equality in point of extent ; all which would
seem to me to be utterly nullified by the fact of a single
human spirit being abandoned and consigned to a perma-
nent state of sin and misery. I therefore understand that
awful scene represented in St. Matthew, as declaring
the certainty of the connection between sin and misery,
but not as a finality. I do not believe that alcovios, the
Greek word rendered " eternal " and " everlasting " by our
translators, really has that meaning. I believe that it
refers to man's essential or spiritual state, and not to time,
either finite or infinite. Eternal life is living in the love
of God ; eternal death is living in self ; so that a man
may be in eternal life or in eternal death for ten minutes,
as he changes from the one state to the other.

There is no lack of arguments for the general view
which I have taken of this subject, drawn either from
conscience or the Scriptures, or both. There is one which
cannot but have great weight with all who fairly consider
it. Throughout even the Old Testament, God is more
constantly presented to us as a Father than in any other
character ; and in the New, our Lord speaks of it as the
chief purpose of His appearance in this world, to reveal
His Father, as the Father of the whole human race. In
both, frequent appeals are made to our sense of the love
and desires and obligations of an earthly parent towards

426 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

his children, in order to impress on us the nature of the
relation in which God stands to each one of us ; and very
frequently these appeals are accompanied with the assur-
ance that the love of the human parent is but a faint
reflection of the love of the Heavenly Father. What can
be more touching than the appeal in the prophet Isaiah 1
" Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should
not have compassion on the son of her womb 1 Yea, they
may forget, yet will not I forget thee." The parallel
passage in the New Testament is this : " If ye then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your Heavenly Father give!" But we
all feel that the first and ever-during duty of a father
is to endeavour to make his child righteous. A righteous
father must always do this. The moment he ceases to do
this, he ceases to be a righteous father. However the son
transgresses, we never feel that the father's obligation to
try to bring him back can be dissolved. And the righteous
father's heart goes along with his obligation ; he could not
give up his son although the whole world agreed that he
had done all that could be done for him, and that it was
useless to try any more. And shall we not reason confi-
dently that the righteous Heavenly Father will do exceed-
ing abundantly above all that the righteous earthly father
can either desire or effect 1 But does this desire for the
righteousness of his child, in the heart of the earthly father,
terminate with the child's life ? Although he is only the
father of his body, does he not yearn after the soul of his
son, who has been, perhaps, cut off suddenly in the midst
of sin and thoughtlessness ? He does indeed yearn after his
soul, and carries it on his heart a heavy burden, mourning
all his life long, and wavering between hope and fear as to
what his everlasting lot may be. The righteous earthly
father, being only the father of the child's body, feels thus

MR. CRAIG. 427

and acts thus ; and can we suppose that the Father of the
spirits of all flesh will throw off His care for the souls of
His children when they leave this world, because they have,
during their stay here, resisted His efforts to make them
righteous 1 The supposition seems monstrous and incred-
ible, and in truth could not be acquiesced in by any human
being, were it not for certain false ideas concerning the
justice or righteousness of God.

I believe that love and righteousness and justice in God
mean exactly the same thing, namely, a desire to bring
His whole moral creation into a participation of His own
character and His own blessedness. He has made us
capable of this, and He will not cease from using the best
means for accomplishing it in us all. When I think of
God making a creature of such capacities, it seems to me
almost blasphemous to suppose that He will throw it from
Him into everlasting darkness, because it has resisted His
gracious purposes towards it for the natural period of
human life. No ; He who waited so long for the forma-
tion of a piece of old red sandstone will surely wait with
much long-suffering for the perfecting of a human spirit.

I have found myself helped in taking hold of this hope
by understanding that God really made man that He
might educate Him, not that He might try him. If we
suppose man to be merely on his trial here, we more
readily adopt the idea of a final judgment coming after
the day of trial is over. But if we suppose man to be
created, not to , be tried, but to be educated, we cannot
believe that the education is to terminate with this life,
considering that there is so large a proportion of the
human race who die in infancy, and that of those who
survive that period there are so many who can scarcely
be said to receive any education at all, and that so few —
not one in a million — appear to benefit by their education.

42S LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

That, as there are great judgment days in this world, so
there will be great judgment days in the other world, I
have no doubt ; but I believe that they are all subservient
to the grand purpose of spiritual education. We are
judged in order to be thereby educated; we are not
educated that we may be judged. I believe that each
individual human being has been created to fill a particular
place in the great body of Jesus Christ, and that a special
education is needed to fit each one for his place. Whilst
we are ignorant of the destined place of each, it must of
course be impossible for us to understand the wonderful
variety of treatment, through which the great Teacher is
conducting all by a right way to the right end. But He
knows and does what is best and wisest ; and may there
not be a necessity in some cases for treatment which can
only be had on the other side of the grave 1 And shall
we in our short-sightedness consider Him debarred from
any such treatment 1

I cannot believe that any human being can be beyond
the reach of God's grace and the sanctifying power of His
Spirit. And if all are within His reach, is it possible to
suppose that He will allow any to remain unsanctified ?
Is not the love revealed in Jesus Christ a love unlimited,
unbounded, which will not leave undone anything which
love could desire 1 It was surely nothing else than the
complete and universal triumph of that love which Paul
was contemplating when he cried out, " Oh the depth of
the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! "
(Eom. xi. 33.)

Let me conclude now hy saying that I am persuaded
that this doctrine which you advocate is the only sufficient
ground for an entire confidence in God, which shall, at the
same time, be a righteous confidence. According to it,
God created man that he might be a partaker in His own

MR. CRAIG. 429

holiness, as the only right and blessed state possible for
him. If I truly apprehend this — if I truly apprehend
that righteousness and blessedness are one and the same
thing, and just the very thing I most need — I shall
rejoice to know that God desires my righteousness ; and
if I further know that He will never cease to desire it
and to insist upon it, and that all His dealings with me
are for this one end, then I can have an entire confidence
in Him, as desiring for me the very thing I desire for
myself. I shall feel that I am perfectly safe in His hand,
that I could not be so safe in any other hand ; for that,
as He desires the best thing for me, so He alone knows
and can use the best means of accomplishing it in me.
Thus I can actually adopt the sentiment of the Psalmist,
and say, " Thou art my strong habitation, whereunto I may
continually resort. Thou hast given commandment to
save me, for Thou art my rock and fortress." And I can
adopt these words without any feeling of self-trust, because
my confidence has no back look to myself, but rests simply
on God. The greatest sinner upon earth might at once
adopt those words, if he only saw that righteousness was
his true and only possible blessedness, and that God would
never cease desiring this righteousness for him. I am
fully persuaded that the real meaning of believing in
Jesus Christ is believing in this eternal purpose of God,
the purpose of making us living members of the body of His
Son. And as this blessed faith helps me to love God and
trust Him for myself, so it helps me to love my fellow-
creatures, because it assures me that, however debased
and unloveable they may be at present, yet the time is
coming when they shall all be living members of Christ's
body, partakers in the holiness and beauty and blessedness
of their Lord. — I remain, dear sir, Yours truly,

T. Erskine.

430 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1864.

241. TO BISHOP EWING.

Keir, June 18, 1864.

Vescovo Carissimo, — You know that I believe that the
Bible was given to us, not to be cited as a peremptory-
authority in anything, but to help us to understand the
character of God, and the relation in which we stand to
Him ; so that I should regard it as a misuse of it were I
to allow any particular passages in it to outweigh the
general instruction which it contains on these points, and
yet I can say that those passages which give the most
direct utterance on the subject of the final destiny of man
seem to me to be most unequivocal declarations of uni-
versal deliverance. . . .

But now to leave the general instruction which the
Bible gives as to the character of God, and to go to
particular passages referring to the final destination of
man, let me ask you to re-read the 5th and 11th. chapters
of the Epistle to the Romans. It seems to me impossible
to read those two chapters without the conviction that
St. Paul, at least, was fully persuaded that all men should
finally be saved. In the 5th he contrasts the loss of Adam
with the gain of Christ, and whilst he puts them exactly
on a par in point of extent, he claims a superabundance of
blessedness for the latter over the condemnation of the
former. Nothing can be clearer than this. But proceed
now to the 11th chapter. The apostle begins by saying
that it would not be fair to say that God had cast away
His people, because it was evident and undenied that some
were not cast away ; but still he acknowledged that though
there was an election that had obtained what they sought
for, yet the nation, as a nation, had failed to obtain it ;
nay more, that they were blinded, and under a judicial
sentence of spiritual slumber and blindness, and deafness,

jet. 78. REV. JOHN YOUNG. 431

as it is written in the 7th verse, " Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained
it, and the rest were blinded." So here we have the
election satisfactorily disposed of; and we are invited to
follow the apostle in what he sees of the future history of
the rest who were blinded. This future history he takes
up at the 1 1th verse. " I say then, Have they stumbled
that they should fall ] God forbid ! impossible, but rather
through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles to
provoke them to jealousy." Now read the 12th verse,
and the 15th and 16th verses; then go on to the 25th
and 26th verses; and so to the end of the chapter; and
then say whether in your conscience you can believe that
St. Paul did not intend to teach the final salvation of all
men ; for it must be of all men if it is of all the Israelites ;
and to suppose that such a word as this could really have
an honest fulfilment, by the conversion and salvation of
some distant future generation of Jews, whilst all the
intermediate generations were left to perish, appears to
me gross trifling with the character of God. Strange as
it appears, I have found very few people who have read

the 11th chapter with real attention. With I feel

the question to be more and more essential every day. —
Yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

242. TO THE REV. JOHN YOUNG.

1866.
My dear Sir, — My hope for the final salvation of all
men rests, in the first place, on the ground in which I know
you believe as I do, namely, the desire of God that all men
should be righteous ; in the second place, on the assurance
that God sees the end from the beginning, and will never
bring into existence any spirits which He foresees will

432 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1866.

finally resist His desire. But further, I may perhaps
appear to you to think too lightly of sin ; but I cannot
help thinking that there may be a teaching through sin, an
instruction in righteousness through sin, which perhaps
could not be given in any other way. The conviction of
the Tightness and blessedness of a perfect trust in God may
be more efficiently taught through the conviction of the sin
and misery of self-trust and self-seeking than through simple
spiritual apprehension. May not Peter have learned from
his sin in denying his Lord a lesson of self-distrust and
trust in God which the words of Jesus could not have given
him % God foresaw the whole results which would follow
the creation of creatures endowed with free-will, and with
these all before Him, He took the step. He saw the enormous
amount of sin and misery that would be produced, yet He
proceeded in the work. I trust in His trust, in His love,
and in His wisdom. . . .

When I think of having actually resisted the righteous
will of God to gratify my own selfish will, it appears so
monstrous that though God declares that He forgives me,
I cannot forgive myself, I cannot look at it without horror ;
but if I come to feel that through the deep contrition arising
from this transgression and the assurance of a love which
proceeds in its endeavours to train me in righteousness, un-
damped by all this iniquity, my heart has been really
brought to trust in God more and to die to self more, then
I become reconciled to myself ; I can think of my sin, not
with less but more hatred of it, yet with less horror of
myself. I can look forward to eternity without the idea
of the hideous memory making existence painful. I have
gained by sin. I have gained righteousness through means
of it. If this is possible I don't think God would prevent
sin even if He could. *

I send this to you very ill written, scarcely legible, but

xx. 78. REV. JOHN YOUNG. 433

you may find it worth spelling out. Farewell. — Very truly
yours, T. E.

243. TO THE REV. JOHN YOUNG.

16 Charlotte Square, 18^ Feb. 1867.

Dear Sir, — . . . There is one thing which I have long
felt to be a great defect in our popular theologies, the want
of distinguishing between faith, as meaning filial trust in
God — the faith which Jesus Christ Himself had and lived
by — and faith as meaning belief in what Jesus Christ was,
and did, and suffered. The value of the first is that it
constitutes spiritual life, whilst the value of the second
consists in its furnishing and explaining and illustrating
the ground on which the first rests.

A man who, though entirely unacquainted with the
Jewish or Christian Scriptures, had yet attained to filial
trust in God, to the confident assurance that God was his
loving Father, and that His purpose in creating him was to
train him into a participation of His own righteousness and
blessedness — such a man would possess true faith, the faith
which Jesus Himself had, and such a man would truly
" have the Son " in the spiritual meaning of the text, " He
that hath the Son hath life." " Christ in you the hope of
glory " is, I believe, the universal condition of humanity,
having the same meaning as the word " God created man in
His own image." Man has this image, this indwelling
spirit in him, which is really the spirit of faith, and which
testifies within him that he is not his own ; that as he is
neither his own creator nor sustainer, so he cannot be his
own end, or object, or portion ; that he must be a dependent
receiver, and that the giver from whom he receives must
be love — a loving Father — as otherwise His gifts could
never satisfy the heart, and His commandments could never
be obeyed. Faith is the law of spiritual gravitation, the

2 E

434 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1870.

spiritual nexus of the universe, the open mouth whereby
the spiritual creation receives out of God. Jesus is the first
truster, and all our belief in Him is to help us to enter into
His trust, the trust which He has in the Father. I agree
with you in your strong protest against the idea of satis-
faction to divine justice. I believe, moreover, that man
could never afford to want any punishment that God could
inflict upon him, and that it is a universal and unchange-
able law of the universe that God afflicteth not willingly,
but for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holi-
ness. The man who really believes this is put right — he
is ready for anything that comes. If you know the Gorgias
of Plato, you will understand me when I say that I
learned the meaning of justification by faith from that
dialogue, before I saw it in St. Paul. I am at present
engaged in writing a few last words, which I find great
difficulty in doing to my own satisfaction. When it is done
I shall beg your acceptance of a copy. It will be a very
heterogeneous miscellany, I believe. . . .

244. TO THE REV. JOHN YOUNG.1

Feb. 1870, answered 5th Feb.
Dear Sir, — I am not able to write a letter such as
ought to be written in answer to yours. I can only say
that I do not believe that thinking people will be helped
to take hold of the doctrine of Universal Salvation by mere
texts. I believe that the assurance that the purpose of
God in creating man was the loving, righteous, fatherly
purpose of educating him into His own fellowship, i.e. a
participation in His own righteousness, is the true basis of
such a belief. And as the whole Bible seems to me in-
tended to give that assurance, I feel as if I were weakening
the great general effect by picking out particular texts.
1 The last letter written by Mr. Erskine — left unsigned.

MRS. GURNEY. 435

" Good and upright is the Lord, therefore will He teach
sinners in the way," was, I think, the first text that led
me to the desired conclusion, and after that the 107th
Psalm; and in the New Testament, the end of the 5th
chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and also the end of
the 11th chapter. Some of the chapters of Jeremiah, from
the 29th to the 33d, contain the same meaning very
strongly, — also the 26th chapter of Leviticus. The pur-
pose of all punishment being education is surely the true
argument, — that purpose, one may say, being necessary to
the very existence of love and of righteousness.

XI.— DOCTRINE OF THE FATHER AND THE SON.

245. TO MRS. ■GURNEY.

41 Charlotte Square, Good Friday 1862.
Dear Mrs. Gurney, . . . — It is indeed wonderful !
If there is uo goodness but what is in God, and flows out
from God, then there must be in Him two kinds of good-
ness,— first, the goodness of giving and blessing and
ruling ; and second, the goodness of receiving and trusting
and obeying — the Father and the Son — active and passive
goodness, united in one Spirit. Jesus says, " I do nothing
of myself. Whatsoever the Father saith unto me, that I
do. My Father is greater than I, and yet I and my
Father are one." There are thus, as it were, two hemi-
spheres in God, upper and under, distinct personalities.
The unity of God is not singleness — it is completeness ;
and would not a God of love, living from eternity without
an object, without a recipient of His love, be incomplete 1
Is not the thought of such a thing most oppressive and

436 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSK1NE. 1862.

overwhelming to the mind 1 And the moral creation is
appended to the lower hemisphere, united to the Son, as
He prays " that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art
in me — I in them and Thou in me, that they may be
made perfect in one," etc. This I find helpful towards the
knowledge of God. Contemplating this idea of God, I see
and feel that love is His nature, giving and receiving sym-
pathy in communion; no doctrine can ever have been
taught by God except to help us nearer Himself, not
that we should simply submit our reason to it. — Dear
friend, yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

246. TO MRS. GURNEY.

41 Charlotte Square, 14£A May 1862.
Dear Mrs. Gurney, . . . — I am not sure, from your
notice of it, whether you really appreciated what I said about
the doctrine of the Father and the Son. I think that in
general, even where it is considered as capable of some ex-
planation, the explanation offered is simply its relation to
man's redemption, and yet I am satisfied that its true ex-
planation must be helpful in knowing God Himself. Now
this help seems to me largely given in the doctrine of the
Father and the Son. When we contemplate God before
creation — if we can realise such a state in our imaginations
— we are sometimes overwhelmed and lost in the sense of a
dreary depressing solitude. From everlasting God had been,
and God is love. His life consists in love, yet whom had
He to love ? The idea of love in action excludes the idea
of singleness ; oneness then is not singleness — oneness is
completeness. Then in this completeness there cannot be
absolute equality ; order always supposes inequality, — " My
Father is greater than I." There is the order of giving and
receiving, governing and obeying, blessing and trusting.
This lower hemisphere is the Son, continually receiving and

Mr. 73. MRS. GURNEY. 437

returning the Father's love, giving a sympathising response
to every thought and feeling in the Father's mind. It is a
manifestation of love, and the moral creation is appended to
the lower hemisphere that it may partake in the spirit of
the Son — " I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be
made perfect in one." Faith implies recipiency ; the Son's
faith receives out of the Father, and man is created in the
Son that he may receive of the divine nature and the
eternal life. Thus the creation of man necessarily sup-
poses the purpose of Incarnation, the recipiency of the
divine nature by flesh, the difference between the Head
and the members being this, that the Head is God assuming
flesh — men are flesh receiving God.

We read the sermons on your brother-in-law with ex-
ceeding interest. He must have been a noble-hearted man
and a true. I regret in reading them that I had not
endeavoured to become intimate with him, that I might
have imbibed some of his spirit. I feel that your husband
must have loved him and honoured him, and must have
felt his human existence much impoverished by his
removal. I myself had a most noble-hearted brother,
whom I loved and honoured and trusted entirely, and
even now the thought of him helps me to realise my rela-
tion to the great Elder Brother, the loving Head of men,
who is in each one of us as the head of the natural body
is present by the nervous system in every member of the
body. He is closer to us than aught else, and is con-
tinually seeking to train us into a perfect sympathy with
Himself, sympathy with the Father and the Son in every
thought and feeling. This is the eternal life ; it is a par-
ticipation in God's own will, and God's will is His life.
Mrs. Paterson has been unusually ill lately, and we do not
feel that she is yet round the corner.

I beg my very kind regards to your husband and also

438 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1863.

to Mrs. Cowper, besides great love to your mother from us
all. — Ever affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

247. TO MRS. BATTEN AND MRS. RUSSELL GURNEY.
13 Charlotte Square, 23d Feb. 1863.

Beloved Friends, Mother and Daughter, — Any word
from you is always most welcome and refreshing, bringing
intimations of the eternal sympathy which is also the
eternal harmony. I am thankful to find that you have found,
in one important matter, that oneness — I mean, that you
have found that in very deed the consent of your will to
the will of God, in opposition to all self-seeking, is the
true order and the true blessedness. Milton speaks of
concent as arising out of consent, the c marking the musical
harmony, the s the harmony of feeling. The Father and
the Son dwelling in the sympathy of one Spirit are the
Fountain of all love, and all goodness, and all blessedness.
Wherever we see good, we see the presence of God, for
there is no other good. It may be unacknowledged by the
creatures in whom it appears ; but it is always acknowledged
at the Fountainhead by Him who is the beginning of the '
creation of God, and in whom all things consist. The
Eternal Receiver lovingly and thankfully acknowledges the
Eternal Giver as His Father and our Father, as His God
and our God ; and His continual work is to produce this
loving and thankful receiving in the whole creation, and
when this is accomplished then will come forth the full
burst of song, which the ear of the Psalmist heard, though
far off, and which our ears will one day hear as the actual
voice of the Universe.1

My sister is better, and in the drawing-room ; but she

See also "The Divine Son," being the second chapter in The Spiritual
Order, pp. 28-46 (2d edit.)

jet. 74. MRS. BATTEN AND MRS. R. GURNEY. 439

does not expect to have her accustomed capabilities until
she can drive out, which she hopes soon to do, but which
cannot be tried without a certain risk. I hope if we are
spared till summer that we shall have the great pleasure of
seeing you both at Linlathen. These annual meetings
must soon come to an end in the course of nature, but the
eternal meeting never ends. My sister Davie is very well
for her — enjoying her friends, young and old as always.
We all three unite in truest love to you both. Farewell. —
With my and our best regards to Mr. Gurney, ever
affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

440 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

CHAPTER XIX.

Letters of Sympathy and Consolation.

On being informed by Mr. F. Russell of Mr. Erskine's
visit to him at the time of his wife's death, Mr. A. J. Scott
wrote, " It was with no small pleasure I thought of Erskine
being with you at such a time, the man who, of all I ever
knew, renders humanity and Christianity most completely
into the form of sympathy."1 Vinet was in the habit of
referring to a slight but not insignificant expression of
the humanity of this sympathy. He and Mr. Erskine were
spending an evening in the house of a common friend.
Some moths flickered around the lights, till one touched
them and was half burned. Mr. Erskine hastened to
abridge its sufferings by seizing it and plunging it into the
flame. " Ceci 6tait tout ordinaire, mais c'etait l'expression
de compassion, de souffrance intime, presque de sympathie,
la delicatesse avec laquelle il avait saisi la pauvre bite,
qui avait profondement touche Vinet."2 "Mr. Erskine,"
Dr. Campbell tells us, " used to fix a child's eye by a look
of kindness when we walked among the happy little groups
in the Tuileries, and when he elicited a responsive smile he
would say, ' That child's spirit and mine have communion.'"3
His simple look of sympathy in one instance exercised quite

1 Extract from letter dated Manchester, July 19, 1865.

2 Preface to "La Pleine Gratuite du Pardon," p. 21.

3 Memorials, vol. ii. p. 245.

LETTERS OF SYMPATHY. 441

a singular influence. The story was told him of one living
at the time in the same hotel with him in Switzerland, upon
whom had just been flung such a burden of sorrow as
inflicted intense mental agony. Just as Mr. Erskine had
taken in the whole tale of grief, the sufferer entered the
room. They did not know each other, were not introduced,
but such was the effect of the look of sympathy that Mr.
Erskine bent upon him that the sufferer threw himself into
his arms and laid his head upon his shoulder, weeping. It
was his large capacity for sympathy which gave him such
power as a consoler. He had, besides, a gospel of consola-
tion to impart which he lost no opportunity to apply to
the hearts of all, whatever the nature and source of their
suffering, — a gospel which embodied itself in one of his
favourite hymns, a copy of which he was in the habit of
sending to friends : —

I say to thee, do thou repeat

To the first man thou mayest meet,

In lane, highway, or open street,

That he and we and all men move

Under a canopy of love,

As broad as the blue sky above.

And ere thou leave him say thou this
Yet one word more — they only miss
The winning of that final bliss

Who will not count it true that love,
Blessing, not cursing, rules above,
And that in it we live and move.

And one thing farther make him know,
That to believe these things are so
This firm faith never to forego,

Despite of all that seems at strife
"With blessing, all with curses rife,
That this is blessing, this is life.

442 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

248. TO MISS PRISCILLA MAURICE.1

LlNLATHEN, list Oct. 1850.

Dear Friend, — I suppose that you are fast journeying
to your rest, and I wish once again, before you leave this
scene of things, to send you a word of sympathy. I have
been refreshed and quickened by reading your book on
the duties and consolations of the sick, and I have felt
thankful on your behalf that in such circumstances as yours
you have been sustained to write it. It is a loving legacy
to leave to your brethren. What a full and pregnant
thing life is, when God is known ; and what a weary empti-
ness it is without Him ! The gift of existence would be
indeed an intolerable burden if one did not believe fully
that He who is the Fountain of existence is able to give
it a true and unfailing interest. Without that faith what
reflecting spirit could join in the thanksgiving for " crea-
tion and preservation"1? Dear friend, you can thank
God for creation, for it has been to you an introduction
into His own eternal fulness. I am a sinner, yet I feel
as if my God had given me a claim on Him, a deep undeni-
able claim on Him, by drawing me out of the rest of
nothingness into this conscious existence, this conscious-
ness of emptiness, this capacity of horror from this
emptiness unfilled. But all this emptiness is another
name for the capacity of being filled, — filled, dear friend,
with God. The river of God is full of water, and He will
moisten and fill these parched hearts of ours out of the
river of His own Life. Whatever fears, whatever doubts,
may stir within us, of weariness and withering, let us be
ready with our answer : Christ in me, the hope, the eternal

1 Sister of the Rev. F. D. Maurice, and authoress of the Trials and

Blessings of Sickness..

^et. 67. MRS. SCHWABE. 443

hope, of satisfying joy. The untiring state of a spirit is
love and duty, and these we have in the Father and the
Son. " Thou art my hiding-place." " Because I live, ye
shall live also." Farewell. — Ever affectionately yours,

T. Erskine.

Mr. Erskine had no personal acquaintance with Kichard
Cobden. He knew him only as a public man, and as a
friend of Mrs. Schwabe. But the sad and sudden death of
Mr. Cobden's only son opened the floodgates of a sympathy
which poured itself out in this touching letter : —

249. TO MRS. SCHWABE.

122 Geokge Street, Edinburgh,
21th April 1856.

Dear Friend, — I have just heard of your return to
England, and of the melancholy event which has occasioned
it. It seems to be your vocation to weep with those that
weep, to be brought into connection with the suffering and
the sorrowful, that you may give them that comfort which
true sympathy cannot fail to supply. We grieve for the
Cobdens, — an only son, a first-born, so suddenly snatched
away without the satisfaction of watching over him and
meeting his last looks. I don't wonder at their desire to
see you, as the friend who had last seen him, and who
could repeat to them some of his words, and perhaps tell
them things indicating a noble and loving nature in him
which promised to develop itself in much that was great
and good. You may tell them these things, and enter into
their sorrow with a true human and maternal heart. And
yet I feel that the best human sympathy really fails in its
object if it does not help the mourner to rise to a living
fountain of sympathising love at the top and centre of all
things, on which he may depend with absolute confidence,

444 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1856.

not only for real sympathy, but also for doing what is best,
and wisest, and kindest. And does not that parental rela-
tion which has given your poor friends so much joy, and
is now giving them so much sorrow — does not that mys-
terious relation of love conduct us up to the same top and
centre of the Universe, revealing to us that that central
fountain and regulator is a father's and mother's heart %
If this be not so, we are all orphans, and if this be so, we
have all a Father who is training us, by a way that His
wisdom sees best, into a participation in His own character,
His own love and truth and righteousness, and feeling
with us in all the duties and difficulties and sorrows which
that discipline requires. The idea of a sorrowing God
shocks the minds of many. It does not shock mine ; I
cannot conceive love being without sorrow. I cannot
believe that man can give me a sympathy which God does
not give me ; I cannot believe that man can give me a
sympathy which does not flow into him from God ; and if
any one should say to me, Why does an omnipotent God
bring creatures into existence who grieve themselves and
cause grief to Him 1 I answer, God, in making men, made
creatures whom He desired to be good ; goodness means
choosing to be good ; they cannot be made good, they
must choose it, and omnipotence cannot do that without
unmaking the man; wise and loving training must do
it. God desires the joy of seeing His creatures choose to
be good, and the capacity of choosing to be good implies
the capacity of refusing to be good, and thus the possi-
bility of such a joy is always accompanied with the risk
of a great sorrow, which sorrow, I believe, God knows
and feels. Your friends do not sorrow as those without
hope. They hope to see their child again, no longer a
child, but what his childhood promised. He is still in
God's school, under his Father's eye and training ; they

xt. 67. MRS. SCHWABE. 445

also themselves are in God's school, in another room from
their boy, but under the same eye, the same guidance, as
be and we all are. And it seems to me that we might
have a real communion with all the scholars in that great
school, whether here or elsewhere, if we were to cultivate
as we might our relation with our heavenly Teacher and
Father. We are members one of another; we belong to
one great whole ; we can never sever ourselves from them,
do what we will; but our communion would be of the
right and blessed kind were we to make it our continual
business to enter into the mind and purpose of God con-
cerning us and all men, and so to become conscious and
willing fellow- workers with Him in working out that great
salvation which consists in the spiritual Tightness of all
humanity. I need not say to you that this is the view
which Christianity gives of God ; it sets Jesus Christ before
us sympathising with and participating in every form of
human suffering in order that He might draw men up to
love and righteousness ; and through His whole course He
tells us that it was as the Revealer of the Father that He
appeared on earth ; thus signifying that it was by no act
of omnipotence that man was to be redeemed from the
power of sin, which is in fact from the power of selfishness,
but by a true sympathy, a true holy love. God bearing
man's burden with him, God, as it were, sacrificing Himself
that man might learn to sacrifice himself, — this is the
sympathy which can alone heal the broken heart with true
healing. And what a teaching there is in sorrow ! How
it elevates and enriches the spirit ! The Cobdens did
not desire your presence merely because you were the last
friend who had seen their son ; they desired to see you
because they knew that you had yourself sorrowed, that
the soil of your heart had been deepened and fertilised by
having the ploughshare of sorrow passing through it. The

446 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1856.

veriest triflers learn wisdom through sorrow; as I look
back on my own life I find all the most remarkable epochs
marked by the deathbeds of those whom I loved. These
were fresh starting-points for the character. This must be
a common experience. Then again, how much has Mr.
Cobden's sorrow changed my whole feeling towards him.
I before thought of him only as a public man ; I admired
his talent and his public spirit, and I knew him as the
holder of certain views of social policy, with some of which
I agreed, and with some I disagreed. But now I feel
towards him as a suffering man, as a bereaved father, and
as an affectionate husband, as one opening his heart to
human sympathy. Thus sorrow breaks down the barriers
and removes the boundaries which separate us from each
other. And now, dear friend, to carry this thought still
further, do you not think that, whilst we regard God as a
great sovereign, just and generous it may be, but out of
the reach of our joys and sorrows, not needing our love,
but only requiring it as a duty, we may talk of loving Him,
but it is only talk % we cannot love Him till we know that
in His heart there dwells a true humanity, a capacity of
sorrow, an actual suffering under all the sin and sorrow of
His creatures, a need of our love and of our sympathy,
until we see him manifested in the Man who wept at the
grave of Lazarus, who wept over Jerusalem, and drank the
cup of human suffering even to its dregs. As I was writ-
ing, Miss came in and told me she had just fallen in

with an account of Luther's feelings when he lost his little
daughter Madeleine.1 It struck me that it might be sooth-
ing to your friends to read it and to mix their sorrow with
that of the stout but tender-hearted Eeformer.
1 Michelet's Life, of Luther, pp. 298-9.

jet. 67. MRS. MAC NAB B. 447

250. TO F. RUSSELL, ESQ.1

Lxnlathen, Dundee, 25ih July 1855.
My dear Friend, — I must not delay to answer your
most touching letter. You seem to find it good to be
afflicted, and as I believe the only real good consists in the
discovery of an unseen spiritual portion in the love of God,
so I believe that discovery is generally made through the
rent veil of the flesh of visible and temporal hopes and
possessions. And when the spirit does really meet its
Father, and find Him to be the infinite loving One, giving
us His love, and asking our loving confidence, then it
understands that word of the Man of Sorrows, " Blessed are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." There is
no brotherhood like the brotherhood of sorrow. The true
purpose of sorrow is to reveal a need and the Supplier of
all need : and its consolation, as you say, does not consist
in teaching us to undervalue the blessings that have been
removed, but by showing us that what constituted their
essence, their true value, is not and cannot be taken from
us : — for all live in Him. Dear friend, the peace of God
be with you ; and may He provide good guidance and good
protection to your little ones. I am glad that I have
seen her — I never could forget her — that delicacy of nature
and texture that one could weep at. But all live in Him.
— Ever affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

251. TO MRS. MACNABB.2

Feb. 1860.

Dear Friend, — I feel a desire to write to you, and yet

it is chiefly to say to you that I feel for you, and in some

measure feel with you, under this heavy blow. ... A

bond has been broken which I believe has had more

: On being informed of the death of Mr. R. 's wife.
2 On the death of her husband.

448 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE, 1862.

tenderness in it than is generally found in similar bonds,
but there is a bond remaining which our Lord indicates
when He says, " I in you, and you in (me," — a bond
uniting us to God and also to each other, which is not to
be broken, belonging as it does to the Divine nature, being
in truth Christ Himself, resting in which we may in all
circumstances rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
This is the fourth heavy sorrow under which I have known
you, and it is the heaviest of them all. I always loved your
husband and admired his purity and tenderness, and the
delicate affection of his nature, and I in some measure felt
what he was as a husband and a father and a friend. I felt
how deep and unselfish an interest he took in all with whom
he was connected. I was much impressed with that feature
of his character when I last saw him in Barry's Hotel, and I
know the hold that such a quality takes of the hearts of
those who are daily under its influence. When I saw him
at that time I had the feeling that he was not well, that the
gift which you all had in him was precarious and anxious.
But then, in whose hand was he 1 in whose hand are you
all 1 This is the everlasting consolation, dear friend. You
would feel the mercy of James being in Europe, and being
able to soothe the last hours of his father, and of Flora
being also back in time. Farewell ; the peace of God be
with you all. — Ever affectionately yours,

T. Erskine.

252. TO THE REV. CHARLES MONEY.

Linlathen, Dundee, 11th June 1862.
Dear Friend, — I have heard from Mrs. Cameron that
you are in very deep sorrow, that the Lord has laid His
hand heavily on you. But it is His hand, our Father's
hand, who afiiicteth not willingly, but for our profit, that
we may be partakers of His holiness. I have this morning

jet. 73. REV. CHARLES MONEY. 449

been reading the 2 2d Psalm, the cry of Him who was
afflicted more than any man, and He seems to seek and
find a rest for His spirit, not in anything which could dis-
tinguish Him from any child of Adam, but in that which
was common to Him with them all. ' Thou art He that
took me out of my mother's womb. I belong to Thee, I have
none to look to but Thee. I am Thine, oh save me. There
is no created thing that can help me, it must be Thyself.
Thou hast made me for Thyself, and it is Thyself only that
can help me or satisfy me.' The universal temptation is
to give to God's gifts the place which belongs to God Him-
self, so that we seek our satisfaction in them and not in
Himself; and yet we can only have the eternal life in so
far as we know Him and feel Him to be our portion, and
thus enter into sympathy with Him and with His loving
purpose towards ourselves and all others. I believe that
we cannot truly and rightly love God's gifts until we know
the Giver and can discern Him in His gifts. I know well
that it cannot be a full consolation to you to believe, and
even to experience, that you are to be brought nearer to
God by this stroke. God gave you in her an object whom
you knew and loved as an individual. He intended that
you should so love her, and He knew that if, in taking her,
He had said, ' I will give you something better,' He would
have been in some sort mocking your sorrow. You would
have said, 'I loved herself; anything, even though better,
is not what can satisfy the affection which Thou hast given
me for her.' I believe that this is often overlooked. God
loves us as individuals, and He intends that we should love
and appreciate others as individuals. Observe the endless
variety of human characters. He knows the idiosyncrasy
of each one, and He desires both to receive sympathy from
each one according to that idiosyncrasy, and to give this
to each one in the same way. " How precious are Thy

2 F

450 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1862.

thoughts unto me, 0 G-od ! and how great is the sum of
them !" He has counted the hairs of our heads. I believe
that nothing is lost but evil, and that there is a special
purpose of wise love in all God's gifts to us, therefore she
is not lost, but laid up by God for Him and for you. I be-
lieve that God is love, and that love demands sympathy.
Benevolence may be satisfied with a general well-being in
its objects, but this does not satisfy love. Love is not
satisfied with submission ; it requires that we should enter
into its purposes. Our Lord's prayer for us is, " I in them,
and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one."
Beloved Charles, this is our high vocation, and we are to be
trained for it by entering into the mind of God in all His
appointments. I thank God for all the affection which I
have experienced from my fellow-creatures. I endeavour
to receive it and remember it as a pledge of His love, His
love to me, His love to each individual. He has taught
me by it that He has made me for sympathy, to find my
happiness in sympathy, and has thus drawn me upward
to seek His own sympathy, as that which harmonises and
sanctifies all lower sympathies. I often look back to Venice,
and to the love which I met there, and thank God for it.
I think of your loving and beloved mother, and dear Mary,
and all the rest, and the excellent and venerable father. You
were highly privileged in being born into a house of love,
stamping on your young minds the image of our Father's
house above, where ever remain the spiritual and eternal
types of all human affections. Let us then set our affec-
tions on things above, on that which is really heavenly,
even in the things which are on earth, — for when we see
and love God in His gifts, our affections are really set on
things above, whilst we love things which are on earth.
Give my best love to your mother (and mine), and to the
sister and the brothers. T. Eeskine.

jet. 73. JOHN BROWN, M.D. 451

253. TO DR. JOHN BROWN.1

3 Charlotte Square, *Jih Jan. 1864.

Yes, my dear friend, I am sure you are nothing but
grateful to God for her release. He had His own wise
and loving purpose in detaining her here so long, in that
state of mind which He had permitted and appointed, and
she and you will doubtless one day know and rejoice in the
accomplished effect of that purpose ; but we can without
hesitation acknowledge the mercy of her deliverance.
What a blessed and glorious thing human existence would
be, if we fully realised that the infinitely wise and infinitely
powerful God loves each one of us with an intensity
infinitely beyond what the most fervid human spirit ever
felt towards another, and with a concentration as if He had
none else to think of! It is to His hands that you have
to trust her, and it is in His hands that she now is, always
has been, and always will be. And this love has brought
us into being, just that we might be taught to enter into
full sympathy with Him, receiving His, — giving our own
— thus entering into the joy of our Lord. This is the
hope — the sure and certain hope — set before us ; sure and
certain, for " the mountains shall depart, and the hills be
removed ; but my kindness shall not depart, neither shall
the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that
hath mercy on thee."

I always hope to be a better man by everything of the
kind I hear — more free from the bondage of corruption,
selfishness, and seen things ; and more thoroughly possessed
with the conviction that at every step in the journey of life
I have the opportunity given me of being a fellow-worker
with God in working out this great salvation. — Ever
affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

1 On the death of his wife.

452 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSK1NE. 1865.

Mr. Erskine was not in Edinburgh when the carriage of
his friend Mr. Constable, without any fault on the part of
the driver, passed over the body of a child and caused its
death. He heard of the sad accident at Linlathen, and
knowing what grief it would occasion to a spirit kindred
with his own, his sympathetic nature sought and found
relief in the following note : —

254. TO MR. THOMAS CONSTABLE.

Linlathen, 23d June 1865.

My dear Mr. Constable, — Ever since I heard of that
great affliction, I have desired and intended to express my
sympathy with you and Mrs. Constable. I do not know
any two persons who by the tenderness of their natures
were more fitted to feel all the agony of such an occurrence.
At the same time, I know that both of you live under the
deep conviction that nothing can happen by accident —
that God overrules all things, and has a gracious and wise
purpose in adapting them to our spiritual education.

I know that you can never escape from this suffering
except by realising this loving purpose of your heavenly
Father, — and thus He, as it were, lays it on you as a
necessity, to have Him and His loving purpose ever
present in your thoughts as your only refuge from agony.

If such is the purpose of God in permitting this tragical
event (and what other purpose with regard to you two
can we suppose Him to have had ]), is it not your wisdom
to make use of it for this purpose, and whenever it recurs to
your minds, just to accept it as a direct call from Him to
keep near to Him, to listen to what He will speak, assured
that His only desire is to wean you from the power of seen
things, and to make you partakers of His own eternal
life?

Most assuredly our Father has had a wise and loving

jet. 76. MR. CONSTABLE. 453

purpose in this thing, towards the child and the parents : —
the education of the child was to be carried on better in
other circumstances, and the parents were to learn that
God was the only satisfying portion of the souls which He
has made.

I suggest these things — though it is probable that the
very same thought has occurred to yourselves. May the
consolations of God be with you !

It is always pleasant to me to write your name, and even
to think of it. — Yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

454 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

CHAPTER XX.

Reminiscences by Arthur P. Stanley, D.D., Dean of "Westminster.

You ask me to give an account of my recollections of
the conversations of Thomas Erskine. I have always felt
that whilst it was impossible to form any conception of the
man except from his conversations, it is almost equally
impossible to give to one who had no experience of them
an adequate idea of what those conversations were.

Their peculiarity consisted, if I may use words which I
have employed in another place, and to which I may refer
for my general impression of his place in the religious
history of Scotland,1 in the exquisite grace and ease with
which he passed from the earthly to the heavenly, from the
humorous to the serious, from the small things of daily
affection or business to the great things of the ideal world.
It resembled the flight which I have seen amongst the in-
numerable sea-fowl in the neighbourhood of the Bass Rock,
in which the wild birds dart with equal felicity out into
the air, or feed upon the rocks, or dive and play in the deep
waters. All three elements seem alike familiar to them.
So it was with the topics of conversation over which our
friend's mind glanced to and fro. I can only profess to
give some notion of his manner by a succession of frag-
mentary instances.

The, Psalms. — He was, as you are aware, in the habit of
1 Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland.

B Y DEAN STANLE Y. 455

reading in the family devotions the Psalms and Lessons as
they occur in the calendar of the Church of England. He
used to say, " I greatly value the fixed order in which this
calendar induces me to go through the various parts of the
Bible irrespectively of my own predilection or fancies;"
and then he would add, with a twinkle of his peculiar
humour, "And this, I think, is the one single spiritual
benefit which I have derived from the Church of England."

On one of these occasions the Psalm which he read was
the 1 36th, where the words occur : " Who smote Egypt and
their first-born • for His mercy endureth for ever. Who
overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Eed Sea ; for His
mercy endureth for ever." " Yes," he said, in speaking of
it afterwards, "that has a meaning beyond what the
Psalmist knew. There was mercy even for Pharaoh ; even
Egypt and their first-born had a place in the mercy of God.
Egypt and Assyria shall be blessed in the midst of the
land." And then, with the same thought darting forward
to the stern text in the New Testament, "Jacob have I
loved, and Esau have I hated," — "Yes," he said, "but
Jacob was chosen for his special purpose, and Esau, that
fine generous character, was rejected yet preserved for
another purpose not less special." " The purpose of God
for all of us is to make us better. He can have no other
intention for us."

He touched also on the 139th Psalm, with its description
of the penetrating omniscience of God. " That is the Psalm
which I should wish to have before me on my death-bed."

" How natural and free are the expressions of the Psalms !
They begin with that great universal benediction on the
upright honest man, ' the noblest work of God,' and they
end with the generous universal invocation of all nature
— 'Let every thing that hath breath' — every creature,
without limit or exception — ' praise the Lord.' "

456 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

"How admirable are the 90th, 91st, and 103d Psalms !
Never surely were any writings like these of David ! Do
tell me, you who know history, has any other king written
anything of the kind1? Listen to the 23d Psalm ! Listen
to the 1st Psalm !w And he then repeated both these
from memory in Hebrew.

"'There is mercy with Thee, for Thou renderest to
every man according to his works.' That is a very fine
passage ; and so is this, 'He that believeth shall not make
haste.' There are some who are so fond in all matters of
snatching, that they snatch here and there, ' and grudge if
they be not satisfied.' "

Here are remarks on more general subjects.

" The redemption in Jesus Christ is shown to us by His
own redemption of Himself ; by His own faith persevering
to the end, even to the giving up of His life, which is what
is signified by His blood. ' Into Thy hands I commend
my spirit,' — that expresses the supreme purpose of His life
and death."

" The day of judgment is not the only last day : it is a
judgment, a crisis, like others in life. We are judged that we
may be taught, not taught that we may be judged."

He was fond of dwelling on the passages in the Bible
which bring out the overbalance of love and mercy as
against vengeance and wrath. " This," he said, " shows
the right proportion of faith." And one of these to which
he often referred was the close of the second commandment
— "visiting the sins of the fathers unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy
unto — (not "thousands," as of individuals — but — )tjnto THE

THOUSANDTH AND THOUSANDTH GENERATION — (quoting the

words of the Hebrew original — ) of them that love me." I
never read that part of the commandment without thinking
of this saying, and of the tones in which he uttered it.

B Y DEAN STANLE Y. 457

He would often speak of the incidents in life which seem
like steps in our spiritual education. "Every one," he
used to say, " ought to cherish with peculiar care the one
instance in life which seems to him not to have been
fortuitous, as St. Paul did the vision on the way to
Damascus."

I had mentioned to him immediately after my appoint-
ment to the Deanery of Westminster that I was startled
by hearing in the service on the day of my installation a
special prayer which had always been used on such occa-
sions in "Westminster Abbey, that the new-comer might
be enabled to do his best for the enlargement of God's
Church, the very thing which seemed to me most important
to be done. This delighted him. " That," he said, " is
your oracle or xprjo fi6<; — just like the oracle delivered
at Delphi to Socrates : an oracle said a hundred times
before, yet at last lighting on the man who felt it."

He often spoke of the difficulty of accommodating him-
self entirely to any one form of Christian worship. " I am
inclined," he said once, " to think," with a full sense of the
humour of what he was saying, " that the last and best
revision of the Liturgy would be to enjoin absolute
silence."

Critical Remarks. — He had no turn for critical inquiries
himself, but was much delighted in conversing about them
with others. When he first read Eenan's book he exclaimed,
" This is beautiful ! If it is to be answered at all, it should
be answered in French, as fine as its own French, and by
another Pascal ! Throughout the book it is evident that
the author entertains a far higher idea of Christ than he
likes to confess even to himself."

In speaking of the objection which religious people have
to historical investigations into the origin of the Sacred
Books, he said it reminded him always of the speech of

458 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

an old woman to Miss Dundas, who was telling her of the
journey of William Dundas to Palestine, " Ye '11 no' tell
me that there 's such a place on earth as Jerusalem/'

"The Aoyia of St. Matthew contains not only the teach-
ing of Christ, but Christ Himself. Look at the seventh
chapter."

Personal Remarks. — Here are a few anecdotes, personal
or historical, partly interesting in themselves, but partly
because they recall the peculiar emphasis with which he
related them.

" ' Do you know what the Covenant is ?' was said to
an old Scottish wife. ■ I dinna ken what it is, but I '11
mainteen 't.' That expresses a vast amount of common
theology."

" What is so very remarkable in the Old Testament is
the continuity of the successive teachers. How striking
are those words at the end of the 7 2d Psalm, even though
they don't specially relate to it — ' The prayers of David
the son of Jesse are ended.' He had nothing more or
greater to ask for than the petitions of the 7 2d Psalm."

" Those who make religion their God will not have God
for their religion."

" How I wish that Paul were here for a month to tell us
what he meant by ^dpto-fia in the 5th chapter of the
Epistle to the Romans ! How I wish that he had but
just spoken a little more distinctly !

" We ought not to deny the existence of anything because
of the difficulty of imagining how it exists. To deny the
existence of rational creatures in the moon because it is
difficult to imagine them there, is like the priest who not
being able to find the Baptismal Service in the Mass-book,
said, ' C'est un enfant tres-difficile a baptiser.' "

To the question, What is to be said of the moral pur-
pose of the worst characters of mankind 1 — " Characters,"

B Y DEAN STANLE Y. 459

he said, " like Iago or Judas, or like many of the depraved
classes of great towns, are to be explained by the detesta-
tion of evil they cause in themselves and others. The
conversion of Judas might result from the new fact of
seeing his own sin."

" Christianity in its progress through the world has
had less than its due. Mohammedanism in its progress
has had more."

" There are some men who are profuse in giving out of
their own mind what they have. Such a one was Bunsen :
that is noble. There are others who economise and keep
to themselves what they have, unless they find those whom
they think worthy to hear it. Such has been some other
one : that is ignoble."

A servant of William Stirling of Keir, in 1713, was
called to give evidence as to whether his master had been
present at a treasonable meeting at the Brig of Turk. He
swore positively that he had not. In reply to the remon-
strances from his friends when he came out for this mani-
fest perjury, he said, " I had rather trust my soul in God
Almighty's hands than my master's head in the hands of
those rascals."

" Adolphe Monod, had he lived and gone forward, would
have grown out of the sphere of his admirers, as, in fact, did
Vinet. Vinet could count those who wholly sympathised
with him on his five fingers. His views were distorted by
the temporary controversy on the relations of Church and
State ; but he was constantly going forward. He had a
fine power of writing."

He had a deep sense of the horror of human wicked-
ness, of the sinfulness of sin — the more remarkable from
his fixed belief of the all-absorbing mercy of God and
the final restoration of man. It was impossible to con-
tinue the conversation if it would take at all a light tone

460 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

in speaking of some base or dishonourable act, after the
short, severe condemnation which filled his whole expres-
sion, both of language and countenance. And I seem
still to hear the deep tones of his voice repeating the
lines from Macbeth, as an illustration of the terrible judg-
ment of conscience upon sin : —

" Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased :
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow ;
Raze out the written troubles of the brain ;
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff,
Which weighs upon the heart ? "

" What is Christianity 1 It is the belief in the inex-
haustible love of God for man." " He came to seek that
which is lost, until He find it!' " What is human exist-
ence1? It is not probation, it is education. Every step
we take upwards or downwards is a stepping-stone to some-
thing else." " What is the proper use of Eeligion ? The
sun was made to see by, not to look at." " What is the
effect of Revelation to us ? It is the disclosure to us of
our true relations to G-od and to one another, as when
an exile, after long years' absence, returns home, and sees
faces which he does not recognise. But one in whom he
can trust comes and says, ' This aged man is your father ;
this boy is your brother, who has done much for you ; this
child is your son.'"

These and such as these were amongst the sublime
thoughts that sustained his soul in what at times
might have seemed an almost entire isolation from all
ecclesiastical ordinances, but what was, in fact, a com-
munion with the inner spirit of all. Presbyterian by his
paternal connection with the author of the Institutes and

B Y DEAN STANLE Y. 461

the minister of Greyfriars, Episcopalian by his maternal
descent and by his early education, it came to pass that in
later life, whilst still delighting in the occasional services
and ministrations of the Episcopal Church, and enjoying to
the last the tender care of an Episcopalian curate, he yet
frequented the worship and teaching of the National
Church, both in country and in town — a living proof
of the effacement of those boundary-lines which, before the
exasperations of our latter days, were to many of the best
Episcopalians and Presbyterians almost as if they did not
exist. In all the varying Scottish communions he had
those who counted his friendship one of their chief privi-
leges; and not only there, and in the hearts of loving
friends in England, but far away with Catholic Frenchmen
in Normandy, and in the bright religious society in which
he had dwelt in former days by the distant shores of
Geneva, his memory was long cherished, and will not pass
away so long as any survive who had seen him face to
face.

I have heard it said that once meeting a shepherd in the
Highlands, he said to him, in that tone which combined in
so peculiar a manner sweetness and command, and with
that penetrating emphasis which drew out of every word
that he used the whole depth of its meaning, ' Do you know
the Father V and that years afterwards, on those same hills,
he encountered the same shepherd, who recognised him and
said, ' I know the Father now.' The story, whether true or
not, well illustrates the hold which the memory of that face
and figure and speech had on all who ever came across it.

There are not a few to whom that attenuated form and
furrowed visage seemed a more direct link with the unseen
world than any other that had crossed their path in life.
Always on the highest summits at once of intellectual cul-

462 REMINISCENCES: DEAN STANLEY.

tivation and of religious speculation, lie seemed to breathe
the refined atmosphere

" where the immortal shapes
Of bright aerial spirits live insphered
In regions mild, of calm and serene air,
Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot
Which men call Earth." 1

1 See Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland, pp. 159-61.

MRS. STIRLING. 463

CHAPTER XXL

Death of his two Sisters.

Mr. Erskine was never married, but all, and more than
all, that the sisters of Charles Lamb and Lord Macaulay
were to their unmated brothers, his two sisters were to
him. With a deeper meaning than was in the poet's words,
he could have said of Mrs. Stirling what Wordsworth said
of his dear sister Dorothy : —

' She gave me eyes, she gave me ears ;
A heart, the fountain of sweet tears ;
And love, and thought, and joy.'

After her short and childless married life, Mrs. Stirling
returned to Linlathen to be more to him than ever. Of the
outward things of life he took but little charge; they were left
wholly in her hands. Gentle and gracious, but prudent and
firm, unobtrusive and unimperious, she guided all, the guid-
ing hand unfelt. More delicate than all ordinary domestic
arrangements were her close and tender dealings with his deep
and sensitive nature. In his more peculiar idiosyncrasies he
needed sympathy from those nearest him. Such sympathy
he got from her in measure so full that no want was ever
felt, yet meted out so wisely as to be largely serviceable in
preserving him from becoming too engrossed with the domi-
nant idea of the time, or from carrying it too far. In this
respect the understanding between them was as complete

464 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1866.

as the attachment throughout was entire and unbroken.
Her death was unexpected. In November 1866 her
brother and she had removed from Linlathen to take up
their quarters for the winter in Edinburgh, at No. 14 Char-
lotte Square. She was in her usual state of health till the
end of the month, when the illness came upon her which
in a few days proved fatal. In all her illnesses she had
been especially fond of quiet, and she got it in her last.
Early on the morning of the 1st December Mr. Erskine
was called to her bed-side. Sick-nurse and good physician
— their last offices rendered — retired. Brother and sister
were left alone. " I like to feel you near," she said, as she
took his hand, patted and held it. He felt its grasp relaxing.
Then he took hers and held it till her gentle spirit passed
quietly away. " A look of rest and peace remains on her
dear face — a smile of complete satisfaction." 1 The sad
event was announced on its occurrence by Mr. Erskine
himself to two dear friends, and seldom has the character
of a lost sister been more truthfully and vividly described,
seldom has a death been more pathetically deplored, than
in the- letters which follow.

255. TO MRS. GURNEY.
16 Charlotte Sqtjabe, 1st and 4:t7i Dec. 1866.
Beloved Emily, — It has pleased God to take my dear
sister Christian to Himself. She died this morning after
a week's illness, having been to me, for thirty years, my
constant companion, my faithful, patient, loving friend, my
mother, wife, sister, all in one. . . .

1 From note written at the time by Mrs. Paterson to her uncle, Dr.
M'Leod Campbell.

jet. 78. LADY AUGUSTA STANLEY. 465

256. TO LADY AUGUSTA STANLEY.

Charlotte Square, 3d Dec. 1866.

Beloved Friend, — Do you know what has come upon
us 1 It has pleased God to take away my dearest sister
Mrs. Stirling, who has now for thirty years been my chief
earthly comfort and stay and guidance. You have known
her, so you can in some degree appreciate my loss ; she
has been felt by all who have come near her to be the
fitting depository of all sorrows and anxieties, because she
had a heart always at leisure from itself, and so free to
give a listening ear and a loving sympathy to every human
being. I never heard her say an unkind word of any one,
and I never saw her weary of doing good to any one whom
she had once taken up, however undeserving.

I have found her the most trustworthy of friends and
the most faithful and wisest of counsellors. I communi-
cated everything that I heard or knew to her — as one
always sure to help me to a right judgment on it. And
now that place is empty — on which I used to lean so con-
fidentially. It is empty, but God is behind that empty
place, and I believe that He would teach me, by making
it empty, to find Himself more really than I have ever done.
All her patient love and ready sympathy flowed out of Him
as their living Fountain, and He shows us the streams to
guide us up to the Fountain. I know that I may trust
Him fully — that He will never leave, never forsake — and
yet I feel a desolateness unutterable. I have many friends ;
but none could fill her place. She had no crotchet, nor
caprice, nor vanity. She never either spoke or acted for
effect — all was love, and truth, and duty. Beloved and
blessed friend, you will feel with me. — Yours most affec-
tionately, T. Erskine.

My loving regards to the Dean.
2 G

466 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1866.

An announcement similar to these was sent to Mr. Car-
lyle, from whom promptly came the following note, one of
the first that Mr. Erskine received, and one of the most
affectionate : —

MR. CARLYLE TO MR. ERSKINE.

Chelsea, 5th Dec. 1866.

Oh my dear Mr. Erskine, what a boundless disaster
has befallen you ; — I know it too well ! The one that
was your own in this world is lost. The gentle, wise, and
beautiful soul, who had lovingly attended you, and been
your fellow-pilgrim and guardian spirit for so many years,
is gone to her rest, and, in this world, can be with you no
more.

I know well enough how vain are human words of com-
fort, nor will importune you with any such : you will go
for some solacement where you know it is to be found ;
and time and meditation will abate the poignancy of what
is at first so harsh and so strange. God is above us ; she
is with God, even as we are : what more can we say ] If
in the bitterness of your grief you sometimes reflect, " I
am suffering this in her stead ; had I gone first, it must
have been she," you may find that a momentary encour-
agement, if only a momentary.

I write no more, dear Mr. Erskine ; but I understand
well how sad is your heart, and my sympathy with you,
could it do the least good, is painfully true. God be
with you, dear friend. — I am ever affectionately yours,

T. Carlyle.

257. TO M. CRAMER MALLET.
16 Charlotte Square, Edinr., 18th Dec. 1866.
Cher ami, — Mdlle. Clementine aura la bonte de vous
traduire la lettre suivante. It has pleased God to take to

jet. 78. REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL. 467

Himself my dear sister Mrs. Stirling, who has all her life
long been to me a loving friend, and for the last thirty
years has been my companion and fellow-pilgrim — the
light of my house, and the wise and sympathising arranger
of my material life, as well as the gentle helper of my
spiritual interests. It is impossible to exaggerate the loss
that I have sustained; at the same time I feel that my
sorrow is very selfish, for the gain to her has been I am
sure unspeakable. I cannot expect to survive her long,
being now seventy-eight years of age ; but I know that
not an hour of that time, whether it be longer or shorter,
can pass without my feeling my need of her who has so
long been my reminder and my adviser. I often feel that
by this dispensation God would teach me to know that
He who gave the gift is better than the gift, and that all
the confidence which I placed in her may with still more
assurance be placed in Him. If we can trust ourselves in
the hand of a fellow-creature with undoubting confidence,
surely we do wrong to God, if we do not lie with still
more confidence in His hands. She was a living member
of Jesus Christ, witnessing in her whole life that same
love of which He is the fountain. Tell this to your
brother Ernest, that I may have his sympathy as well as
yours. Pray, do not discontinue to write to me. Your
letters are always interesting to me, and used to interest
her very much. I value your friendship exceedingly,
remembering also the love of your dear parents. — Ever
affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

258. TO THE REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL.

16 Charlotte Square, 1st Jan. 1867.
Dear Mr. Campbell, — I enter upon a new year with a
feeling of loneliness, such as none can know but those who

468 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1867.

have known and lost such a friend as my dear sister has
been to me during my long life, and more especially during
the last thirty years that we have passed together in closest
intercourse. She has been to me a continual stay, and sup-
port, and witness for God, by her unwavering fidelity, and
loving wisdom, and diligence in all duties.

If I could so trust her as I have trusted her, is it not
doing our Father great wrong, if I do not absolutely and
entirely trust Him]

This has been the special form of the witness which she
has borne of God to the hearts of many — for she has been
a much-trusted woman ; people of all characters have felt
that they might trust her, that she was at leisure from
herself to attend to them and their griefs or interests
with her whole heart.

I feel that my grief is for myself and for her surviving
friends, and that she must now be nearer the fountain .of
love. "Having loved His own that were in the world,
He loved them unto the end." Love to your household.
— Ever affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

Mrs. Paterson was living at Morningside near Edinburgh
at the time of her sister's death. Broken health, requiring
change of climate, and family ties requiring separate resi-
dence, had hindered her from being so much with her
brother as her elder sister. But still the intercourse was
close and the communion perfect. As thoroughly at one
with him in all the favourite ideas as her sister, there was
a liveliness, a buoyancy, a force in her sympathy, as com-
pared with that of her more placid-minded sister, which if
it might have carried him farther on, would have lifted him
higher up. He delighted in the youthfulness of spirit
present in her to the close. That close was near at hand.
She scarcely ever left her room after Mrs. Stirling's death.

jet. 78. DEATH OF MRS. PATERSON. 469

Two months afterwards she became suddenly worse. " A
joy and brightness indescribable shone in her face and was
heard in her voice as at the close of a week's illness the
doctor said that she was not likely to live another day.
" Say that again," she said. " Did he say — to-night — that
I shall see my God? Oh joy, joy !" The joy remained
through all her suffering. She spoke of all whom she was
so soon to meet, of all whom she left behind, passing every
friend in review with a tender word of farewell for each.
The favourite idea with her during that closing week was
that it was all one life — the life here on earth, the life
there in Heaven. In an interval of comparative relief,
on the closing day, her eldest grandchild was brought to
her. She took the child's hand in her own, and said,
" Darling Mary, this is not the end of life, but the beginning
of an endless life ; I am now going to this life in heaven,
but it is all one life. The life of Christ on earth — a daily
dying to self, a daily dying to self — that is to be your life, my
darling child." To another younger grandchild she said,
" My darling, God does wish you to be so good ; God does
not only say, 'Boysie, you must not do this,' 'Boysie, you dare
not do that,' but ' My child, take My hand and walk with
Me.' And He will lead you in the paths of pleasantness,
and you must not walk in them alone, you must take your
brother with you." His father (her son) lifted the little
boy up and she kissed him. With grave and wondering
look the child was borne away, and after one burst of
grief he said to his eldest sister, " I am happy, for granny
is so very happy."

Her brother, who had called twice daily, now came in
to her. " Tom, Tom," she said, " I shall not long speak to
you. Listen to God. The Brandon Street life has been an
open book before me these two days.1 The life there, the

1 Brandon Street, where Mr. M'Leod Campbell used frequently to stay

470 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1867.

same always — eternal life. . . . Beloved Mr. Campbell,
beloved Mr. Campbell. . . . To-night I shall see our elder
brother ; yes, I shall see our dearest James— but it is Jesus
I mean. Yes, I shall see him to-night, and know Him for
my very own Elder Brother. Oh wonderful ! oh joy, joy !
. . . Best, did you not hear that % it was so clear. Light,
did you not see that 1 no, you could not. . . . Hush, hush !
He is near." Gently, very gently, she passed away.

259. TO LADY AUGUSTA STANLEY.

16 Charlotte Square, 21th March 1867.

Beloved One, — You will sorrow with me in this sorrow
as few can, for you had received much of her love, and
knew its truth and sweetness and holiness, and you had
returned her love, as a loving, trustful child. It is a call
upward to all who knew her, for such love as hers is rarely
seen on this earth. I almost remember her birth, and she
has always appeared to me as a child — so young and fresh
and simple in all her ways. I am glad the Dean knew her,
for he will be able to understand what you may feel and
say about her.

All things seem changing, but God remains a faithful
Creator, absolutely to be depended on. " I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee." And whatever of earthly love we
hold in Him will always remain imperishable. These two
sisters of mine are withdrawn from my sight, but the places
which they occupied are not empty ; God is there, and if I
find them empty, it is because my spiritual perception does
not discover Him there. This is the lesson which I have
to learn hour by hour. I hope you sometimes see dear
Katherine, Mrs. Erskine, who is now my nearest earthly

with the Miss Patersons, and where Captain and Mrs. Paterson used to
meet him.

jet. 78. M. CRAMER MALLET. 471

tie, and who, I hear, is very delicate, and feeling herself
tottering.

My hour, as well as hers, cannot be distant. What a
curious effect the noise and boisterousness of political life
have in the presence of the deep silence of eternal things !
— Ever with true love yours, T. Erskine.

260. TOM. CRAMER MALLET.

16 Chablotte Square, 1*lih March 1867.

Cher et ancien ami, fils des amis cheris, — Mdlle.
Clementine aura la bonte de vous traduire cette lettre, qu'il
me faut 6crire en Anglais, car je suis trop accabl6 pour
m' arranger faire une lecon frangaise.

My beloved sister Mrs. Paterson has not been long of
following her elder sister. I saw her breathe her last on
Saturday night, the 2 3d March, and now I remain the only
survivor of my family. These two sisters have been good
and precious gifts to me, for which I desire to be most
thankful to my heavenly Father. They have been most
helpful to me, by enabling me to realise that I live encom-
passed by an ever-loving presence and care of God. They
have been streams out of that infinite Fountain, bear-
ing witness to its unfailing fulness. Her symptoms did
not alarm her family till within a very few days of the
end ; but she had herself felt the approach of death, and
longed for it, as the entrance into near communion with
her Father and her Saviour.

I never knew any one who had more spiritual enjoy-
ment than she for many years, and she had that frank and
open nature that allowed her to utter what she felt. It
would be most ungrateful to God, and most unkind to
them, to grudge them their deliverance from the burden of
life, and their entrance into the fuller joy of their Lord ;
but their departure has made the world very empty to me.

472 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1867.

I believe that my Father's purpose to me in all this is to
make me know and feel more than I have ever done that
He is Himself my rest, and joy, and dwelling-place. My
affectionate regards to your sisters-in-law, and daughters,
and Ernest. — Dear friend, very truly yours,

T. Erskine.

Mr. Carlyle, as before, hastened with words of sym-
pathy : —

MR. CARLYLE TO MR. ERSKINE.

Chelsea, 1st April 1867.

Dear Mr. Erskine, — Your mournful tidings, not un-
anticipated, were abundantly sad to us here ; and have
been painfully present ever since, though till now I have
written nothing. Alas ! what can writing do in such a case1?
The inexorable stroke has fallen; the sore heart has to
carry on its own unfathomable dialogue with the Eternities
and their gloomy Fact ; all speech in it, from the friendliest
sympathiser, is apt to be vain, or worse. Under your
quiet words in that little note, there is legible to me a
depth of violent grief and bereavement, which seems to en-
join silence rather. We knew the beautiful soul that has
departed, the love that had united you and Her from the
beginnings of existence, — and how desolate and sad the
scene now is for him who is left solitary. Ah me ! ah
me !

Yesterday gone a twelvemonth (31 March 1866, Saturday
by the day of the week) was the day I arrived at your
door in Edinburgh, and was met by that friendliest of
Hostesses and you ; three days before, I had left at the
door of this room one dearer and kinder than all the earth
to me, whom I was not to behold again : what a change
for you since then, what a change for me! Change

mt. 78. MR. CARLYLE. 473

after change following upon both of us, — upon you
especially !

It is the saddest feature of old age, that the old man
has to see himself daily grow more lonely ; reduced to
commune with the inarticulate Eternities, and the Loved
Ones now unresponsive who have preceded him thither.
Well, well ; there is a blessedness in this too, if we take it
well. There is a grandeur in it, if also an extent of sombre
sadness, which is new to one ; nor is hope quite wanting,
— nor the clear conviction that those whom we would most
screen from sore pain and misery are now safe and at rest.
It lifts one to real kingship withal, real for the first time
in this scene of things. Courage, my friend; let us endure
patiently and act piously, to the end.

Shakespeare sings pathetically somewhere : —

" Fear no more the heat of the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages ;
Thou thy weary task hast done,
Home hast gone, and ta'eu thy wages j"

— inexpugnable and well art them ! These tones go tink-
ling through me, sometimes, like the pious chime of far-off
church bells.

Adieu, my friend. I must come to Scotland again at
least once, if I live ; and while you are there it is not quite
a solitary country to me. — Yours ever truly,

T. Carlyle.

261. TO ME. CARLYLE.

16 Charlotte Square, 5th April 1867.
Dear Mr. Carlyle, — Your good and kind words are
always very welcome and helpful. A purpose of goodness
and kindness at the foundation of all things, and ordering

474 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1867.

all things, is the only rest for the soul of man amidst the
agitations of time, and every loving voice that reaches me
bears its testimony to the existence of such a purpose, and
its great Purposer. Yes, what changes have come upon
both of us since that 31st of March last year, darkening
our whole horizon ! Still let us be comforted by the
assurance that there is no accident in them, and that indeed
that wise and loving purpose underlies them all, and, when
truly entered into and understood, gives them a satisfying
interpretation.

The complete separation which death makes is indeed
wonderful — we must walk by faith and hope, or else lie
down and die. I have great pleasure in reading the Psalms,
and I endeavour to persevere in the same kind of work
which has long occupied and interested me, and thus I
keep afloat. Your recognition of me as one of the ties still
drawing you to Scotland is very gratifying. My kind
regards to the Doctor,1 whose letter I have this morning
received. — Yours affectionately, T. Erskine.

1 Mr. Carlyle's brother.

jex. 78. MISS WEDGWOOD. 475

CHAPTER XXII.

Letters of 1867-68-69.

After Mrs. Paterson's death, at Mr. Erskine's desire her
son with his family took up their permanent residence at
Linlathen. He joined them there in the autumn of 1867.
The sense of utter bereavement never left him, but very-
touching was the simplicity and grateful tenderness with
which he met the unremitting attentions of every member
of the new household and the sympathy of old friends
who came to visit him in his sorrow. He kept up as he
was able his old habit of going about among the cottages
of the poor, and no sympathy was more welcome to him
than that which came to him from those who mourned
with him over a common loss. It pleases us to notice that
there was another healing influence from which his deep
grief did not shut him out, to which he was as open as he
had ever been. On the 19 th September he writes to a
friend : —

262. TO MISS WEDGWOOD.

Linlathen, 19<A Sept. 1867.
... I have been paying a visit to Miss Dundas
at Perth for the last week, and have been making
acquaintance with a most beautiful country, which has
always been within my reach, but has never been really
understood and felt by me till on this occasion. The

476 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1867.

river Tay at Perth and above it is a glorious thing. It is
just of a right size, quite graspable, but deep and strong
and living, rapid and yet unbroken. Like the Rhone and
the Rhine, it comes out of a lake, quite pure and full-grown.
I think it more companionable than these are, because not
so large. When you come again you must try to get ac-
quainted with him. I have been also seeking deeper and
more intimate acquaintance with the Creator of all things,
with my Creator, whose hands have made me and fashioned
me, and whose continual care of me is necessary to my
existence. My spiritual life, I am sure, must consist in
love, and there can be no other ever present, ever em-
bracing love but His. — Ever affectionately yours,

T. Erskine.

Within doors at Linlathen much of his time was given
to that work upon which now more than ever he was bent,
but which increasing infirmities rendered him less and less
capable of accomplishing as he desired. A pleasing break
came in the arrival of a literary package from Mr. Maurice,
winch was thus acknowledged : —

263. TO MR. MAURICE.

Linlathen, Dundee, 28th Oct. 1867.

Dear Friend, — I thank you for your kind gifts. I
always find instruction in your thoughts. Our ordinary
theology has been drawn chiefly from the Epistles, and often
seems almost to overlook the personal teaching of Christ.
I have heard a very intelligent professor say, that the
Sermon on the Mount distinctly taught justification by
works, in opposition to the Pauline doctrine. I conceive
that any one who has such an idea must misunderstand
both of his authorities.

By faith, Paul certainly means filial trust (the faith of

^et. 79- FROM MR. MAURICE. 477

Jesus — the faith which Jesus [the Son of God] had : thus
assuming that we are also His children, else we could not
be called to have that faith). And assuredly our Lord
rests the whole of His teaching on the fatherly relation of
God to us. " That ye may be the children of your Father."
He is already your Father, but He desires that you should
be His worthy children.

I have been struck lately by the communication which
God made to Moses at the Burning Bush. " I am " — the
personal presence and address of God. No new truth con-
cerning the character of God is given ; but Moses had met
God Himself, and was thus strengthened to meet Pharaoh.
There is an immense interval between " He " and " I " —
between hearing about God and hearing God. What an
interval !

I wish that you had a church in Cambridge as well as a
chair — they might complete each other. I felt a need to
apologise for my last letter, and I feel a similar need now.
— Ever affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

The winter of 1867-68 was again spent in Edinburgh.
A visit from Mr. Maurice was doubly prized as having
been volunteered. On both sides it was fully appreciated.

MR. MAURICE TO MR. ERSKINE.

3 St. Peter's Terrace, Cambridge, 13th Jan. 1868.
My dear Friend, — I do indeed look back with much
wonder and thankfulness to the intercourse with you which
inaugurated the beginning of this year for me. There is
so much in the interchange of convictions, even if one re-
ceived nothing fresh ; but you gave me what was the quick-
ening of thought and life that had been in me doubtless,
but that were not clearly and consciously in me, so that I

478 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1 868.

felt you to be truly an instrument of the Spirit doing and
fulfilling His work. I have especially recurred to all you
said about faith. It seems to me that all my teaching here
ought to be affected by it. I cannot help fearing that we
have been trying to build social life and personal life upon
distrust and suspicion of each other, and of God ; and that
the human 77S09 is as you said that of trust ; the man, the
divine man, being the truster Himself, and the source of trust
in all the race. I quite feel with you that Christ's trust
in the Father is the sign and witness of His divine nature,
that which corresponds to and shows forth the righteous-
ness of God, that which is the form of righteousness for
man. And I cannot doubt that in Him God has justified the
trust of every man, Jew and Gentile, since the foundation
of the world, and pronounced sentence on all the distrust
and self-exaltation of every Jew and Gentile. All poli-
ties and societies grew up, I conceive, through the trust of
men in each other, and through trust in some one whom
they could not see and could not hear, but who, they felt,
was not far from any one of them. And as clearly and
obviously all polities and societies perished through distrust
of the members in each other, and through distrust of their
Father in heaven, through the establishment of some dark
power to be dreaded and hated, not trusted, in His place.
The revelation of the Father by the Son, as well as of the
Son by the Father, was in truth that which men in all dif-
ferent ways, in their social acts and theories, as much as
what would be called the religious acts and theories, had
been showing that they needed. Christ came in the fulness
of the time to bring to light the mystery that had been,
about all ages and generations, though hidden from all.
And in all ages since, the trust of men in every work they
have engaged in, as thinkers, discoverers, martyrs, has had
no other root than that faith of Jesus Christ, that confidence

JET. 79. FROM MR. MAURICE. 479

of Him in His Father which sustained Him in life and
death, and to which He appealed in every leper, and blind,
and palsied man, as well as in every one whom He raised
from the dead. That I understood to be your meaning,
and my conscience thoroughly responded to it.

I wish I had read more of your book and talked more
about it with you. That part I read interested me deeply.
And, I think, when you come to the third chapter of which
you speak, you will be able to show how much its sense has
been perverted by the efforts to make out a charge of uni-
versal depravity from it as the reason for the necessity of
faith, whereas if I read him aright he is teaching us that the
Psalmist found among the Jews of his age — those Jews
who were in the covenant, and had every call to exercise
faith, — an utter want of it, and therefore great moral cor-
ruption. " What the law speaks, it speaks to those who
are under the law." The Jew is proved to have no better
standing ground, in himself, or in his national privileges,
than another man, that he and all might know that they
have a standing ground in God's righteousness — that no
trust in that can be wrong or can fail. All are concluded
under sin, and proved to be sinners in themselves, that
they might be all righteous in God, that they might, Gen-
tiles as well as Jews, believe that Christ had manifested
that for their justification. Justification by faith is surely
a most wholesome and comfortable doctrine, when it means
faith in a Justifier, in one who is righteous and who makes
righteous. But is it not a pestilent doctrine if it means
that we are justified by faith in our difference from those
who are not justified 1 That is the very faith which St.
Paul is beating to pieces as the essential unbelief.

F. D. Maueice.

480 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1868.

The " dark hollow of the year " was cheered by this letter
from Mr. Carlyle : —

MR. CARLYLE TO MR. ERSKINE.

Chelsea, 23d January 1868.

Dear Mr. Erskine, — The sight of your handwriting is
itself welcome and cheering to me at all times. And I owe
you many thanks this time for that pious little visit you
have made to G-reenend and poor Betty.1 Often had I
thought of asking you to do such a thing for me by some
opportunity, but, in the new sad circumstances, never had
the face. Now that the ice is broken, let me hope you will
from time to time continue, and on the whole, keep your-
self and me in some kind of mutual visibility with poor
Betty, so long as we are all spared to continue here. The
world has not many shrines to a devout man at present, and
perhaps in our own section of it there are few objects hold-
ing more authentically of Heaven and an unseen " better
world " than the pious loving soul and patient heavy-laden
life of this poor old venerable woman. The love of human
creatures one to another, where it is true and unchangeable,
often strikes me as a strange fact in their poor history, a
kind of perpetual Gospel, revealing itself in them ; sad,
solemn, beautiful, the heart and mother of all that can, in
any way, ennoble their otherwise mean and contemptible
existence in this world.

I am very idle here, very solitary, which I find to be
oftenest less miserable to me than the common society that
offers. Excepting Froude almost alone, whom I see once a
week, there is hardly anybody whose talk, always polite,
clear, sharp, and sincere, does me any considerable good.
He has an excellent article in the last Fraser's Magazine,
on " Protestantism," which I think you, if you have not
already read it, would read with sympathy.
1 Mrs. Braid, referred to in page 328.

jet. 79. MR. CAMPBELL TO HLS DAUGHTER. 481

It is a great evil to me that now I have no work, none
worth calling by the name ; that I am too weak, too lan-
guid, too sad of heart, to be fit for any work, in fact to care
sufficiently for any object left me in the world, to think of
grappling round it and coercing it by work. A most sorry
dog-kennel it oftenest all seems to me, and wise words, if
one even had them, to be only thrown away on it. Basta-
basta, I for most part say of it, and look with longings
towards the still country where at last we and our loved
ones shall be together again. Amen, amen.

A sister of mine is with me here for these two months
to help us through the dark hollow of the year; it is the
one you saw in Edinburgh, as she right well remembers, I
can see. Lady Ashburton is again in Mentone with her
child. Adieu, dear friend. — Yours ever,

T. Carlyle.

The close of February brought another friend to Mr.
Erskine's side, who gives this notice of their intercourse : —

REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL TO MRS. MACNABB.

Laurel Bank, Ath March 1868.
. . . Mr. Erskine was better than I expected to find
him; and, as usual, I felt more fellowship with him in
what seems to be his life, and what I desire may more and
more be my own life, than I ever feel with any other man.
This notwithstanding of differences in our understanding
of many passages of Scripture, and even in our thoughts :
— his tendency to reduce many aspects of truth to one
making him hesitate to see now the importance, not to
say the correctness, of what he once urged ; making him,
indeed, appear to give up what he once held. I do not
believe that his views have at all changed as they appear
to himself to have done ; and I have urged him to have

2 H

482 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. ' 1868.

his old books read to him, in the expectation that he may
receive from his former self, so to speak, strictures upon
what he now dwells exclusively on, that he cannot easily
receive from another. This, however, I say with no
reference to that great distinguishing element in his
thoughts, viz., his expectation as to " the restitution of all
things " which had a place in him before I knew him :
although occupation with the present gospel of remission
of sins through the death of Christ for all men, did, in the
Row days, and for a considerable time, seem to engross
him and be all the gospel he needed. jSTow he feels that
to be but the first element in the gospel, and the hope,
into which he sees it expanding, he feels essential to its
being to him gospel indeed ; while he further sees what is
to him implied in the love of God to man manifest in the
death of Christ, not only as so implied, but as actually taught
by St. Paul, and what we must see in the Epistle to the
Romans, if we understand it. Whether he will ever satisfy
himself with the adequacy of his own bringing out of
the apostle's teaching in the Epistle to the Romans so
as to publish it, I know not, but he still labours at this
work.1

Before the first anniversary of Mrs. Paterson's death came
round another of the old Linlathen circle died in London,
— his brother's widow. On the 4th March he had written
to her : —

264. TO MRS. ERSKINE.

2 Forres Street, Uh March 1868.
Beloved Katherine, — I am afraid from your continued
silence that you at least feel disinclined to make any exer-
tion, which indicates weakness, if nothing more. I wish to

1 The result of these labours was published after Mr. Erskine's death
in the volume entitled The Spiritual Order.

jet. 79. DEATH OF AIRS. JAMES ERSKINE. 483

let you know, however, that I do not cease to think of yon,
in connection with the past and the future, with memory
and hope. I was thinking of your dear mother this morn-
ing, and her ready sympathy with any spiritual thought
or feeling, and her preparedness for the blessedness of the
communion of saints. We can conceive her joy as she
advances in acquaintance with the unsearchable riches of
Christ, and with the love of God which passeth knowledge.
There is a great company, continually increasing, of those
who follow the Lamb wheresoever He goeth, from all nations
and kindreds, and ours are with them. Since I last wrote
to you I have had a visit from dear Maurice, who is most
affectionate, and Mrs. Schwabe, and Mr. Campbell, who
was with me for a week — a very precious man, a man of
much prayer.

I find human kindness a great help to realising the love
of God. ' If ye being evil can thus love, how much more
will your Father who is perfect in goodness ? '

Give my love to any friends whom you may see. — Ever
affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

Do you sleep tolerably 1

Before this letter reached her, Mrs. Erskine had joined
the company to which it alludes. "I have not seen
much of her lately," Mr. Erskine wrote to one friend,
" but she was one of the same class and school as my
sisters, and she was faithful in her relations to God and
man. She has ' brought up children,' which is one of the
special duties of a widow, and she evidently lived much in
the presence of God. Her death, though looked forward
to by herself as an event which could not be distant, yet
was sudden at the last. She appeared as well as usual on
Sunday, and she was dead on Wednesday at 5 p.m. She
knew the hand that held her, and felt herself safe in it.

484 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1868.

The young family that she has been guiding so long will
miss her much. Indeed, all who knew her will miss her
as a witness for God and a helper of their faith. — Yours,
etc., T. Erskine."

And to another : — " She was an admirable woman,
faithful and diligent in all duties, and unwearied in her
efforts to help those who needed her help. I believe also
that she was scrupulously conscientious in her own inner
walk with God, seeking to bring every thought under sub-
jection to His will, to His love ; and she had learned to
love."

Of Mr. Erskine's daily drives in the course of this winter
one singular memorial has been preserved in a letter to
Miss Wedgwood, dated 19th March : —

265. TO MISS WEDGWOOD.

2 Forbes Street, 19tft March 1868.
Figlia MIA, — . . . In my drives I generally go out towards
the west, and of course return with my face towards the
east. During the winter I was attracted and interested by
the frequent recurrence of the same natural phenomenon.
The moon rose a little before the sun set, and had just the
appearance of a thin bit of fleecy cloud, like a great many
others, for in the hazy atmosphere its outline was not at
all distinct. I was not looking out for the moon, and so it
was often a good while before I identified it as the moon.
I saw it simply as a bit of cloud floating about along with
many others of a like tissue and even a like form. At last
it gradually distinguished itself from the rest by having
always the same shape and the same place. It got occa-
sionally covered over or merged in the other fleecy things ;
but still it never failed to reassert its own individuality.
It was evidently a permanent thing amongst changeable

jet. 79. BISHOP EWING. 485

things, — an objective thing amongst subjective things, shall
I say? For I felt that these clouds were exhalations
from myself (I being the earth), suggestions of my own
mind, continually liable to change through the modifica-
tions which they suffered from other thoughts ; they were
all decidedly subjective. At the same time they bore wit-
ness not unfrequently to the existence of an objective, just
as the clouds bear witness to the existence of the sun by
the glory which they receive from him. But I wanted and
needed to have the consciousness of the actual presence of
the great Objective in me, — not thoughts about Him, but
Himself, or at least something which I was sure did not
depend upon myself, but would always assert its own dis-
tinct independent reality, and which could not possibly be
my own imagination, having this personal power and life
in it, unmistakeably.

I don't like to go on with this, but I should like to
finish it viva voce with you. The faculty of blundering
grows upon me. — Your ever loving, T. Erskine.

When you see Mrs. Rich, embrace her for me. She has
known most of those whom I have chiefly loved in this
world, and that is itself an immense boon. I hope to
write to her and to Mrs. Batten and to Emily soon.

Give my loving regards to your own mother.

The idea so picturesquely presented here was put into a
kindred shape in a letter addressed a month afterwards

266. TO BISHOP EWING.

2 Forres Street, lGth April.

. . . The revelation is both objective and subjective.

Christ was the objective revelation of the Father ; but we

need the subjective revelation, which consists not in taking

a veil off the Father, but in removing the scales from our

486 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1868.

own eyes. Perhaps the objective revelation is contained
in the subjective. To them who are without, who are liv-
ing in the flesh, all things must necessarily be in parables.

I sympathise, however, with the demand for a com-
plete objectivity in God. The shadow within me must
always keep its character of shadow, leading me to look
outwards for the substance. I desire to know G-Od
as really (and far more) as I know a man. It is not
merely by any thoughts of Him that I am to be comforted
and strengthened (though I expect and find comfort and
strength from such thoughts) ; I desire and expect an actual
putting forth of His own hand, a direct breathing of His
own love upon me. It is said in Deuteronomy that Moses
died by the word of the Lord. The Hebrew for word also
means, mouth, and hence also lass ; so the Jewish tradition
is that Moses died by the kiss of God. This is something
more than knowing God is love ; and I should like to receive
all the sorrows and pains of life, as it were, by the kiss of
God.

My dear Bishop, I have done you little service by this
letter;1 but receive it lovingly, as from a friend who loves
you — a friend who would pray and hope before long to die
by the kiss of God.

Affectionate regards to Lady Alice. T. Erskine.

It was to the same correspondent that Mr. Erskine at this
time wrote : —

267. TO BISHOP EWING.

I look with great sadness on the fading away in so many
minds of the Christianity of our childhood. Take the

1 A greater service had already been rendered. "Writing to Mr. Erskine
seven years before this time, Bishop Ewing says :— " I owe yon more, dear
sir, than to any man alive. I owe you belief in God,— in God as my and
our true Friend and Father." — Memoirs, p. 327.

jet. >]9- BISHOP EWING. 487

great mass of minds in whom it is fading, can we in any
sense say that it is like the vanishing of narrow Judaism
before the early dawn of the gospel 1 — the phase which St.
Paul saw and has so vividly pictured to us. It seems to
me we are more and more coming to this issue — Has God
revealed Himself to us as one whose " ways are not as our
ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts " ? or, Do we evolve
out of our own inward light the existence of One who per-
sonifies our own highest conceptions of moral good 1

For my own part, I am deeply thankful to the Oalvinian
atmosphere one has insensibly breathed from childhood for
predisposing the mind in favour of the first, although by its
unscriptural excesses unhappily contributing to the spread-
ing reaction in favour of the latter. T. Erskine.

268. TO THE SAME.

2 Forres Street, Edinburgh, May 26, 1S68.

Mr. Campbell came here yesterday to attend a great
dinner given to Dr. Wylie of Carluke, on the fiftieth
anniversary of his ministerial appointment to that parish.
I went with Mr. Campbell, and Mr. Story of Eoseneath
was the proposer of a toast, in which Mr. Campbell's name
and mine were joined, and received honourable treatment
from the proposer, who is a very able man, and who seems
very anxious to make the Church of Scotland understand
the sin and blunder she committed in regard to Mr. Camp-
bell thirty-eight years ago. It would be a right thing for
her to rescind her act of deposition even now, if she really
sinned in passing that act. Dr. Norman Macleod was
expected at the dinner, but he did not come. His brother
was there, whom I like very much.

All that class of men condemn the deposition of Mr.
Campbell. And yet I believe that neither in the Church of

4S8 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1869.

Scotland nor in the Church of England is the root of the
question then agitated understood to this day.

Is a man to become a child of God, or is a man a child of
God in virtue of his being a man % What is the meaning
of the name of God proclaimed to Moses 1 — " The Lord
God, merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression,
and sin, without clearing the guilty." An inexhaustible
love which punishes, because the purposes of love can no
otherwise be accomplished. A love which eternally desires
our sympathy because such sympathy must be our holiness
and blessedness, is the nature of God, and the explanation
of all His dealings with us. — Ever yours,

T. Erskine.

One of the earliest letters of 1869 was addressed to Mr.
Carlyle, from whom came the following remarkable
reply : —

ME. CAELYLE TO MR. ERSKINE.

Chelsea, 12th Feb. 1869.
Dear Mr. Erskine, — I was most agreeably surprised
by the sight of your handwriting again, so kind, so wel-
come ! The letters are as firm and honestly distinct as
ever ; — the mind too, in spite of its frail environments, as
clear, plumb-up, calmly expectant, as in the best days :
right so ; so be it with us all, till we quit this dim sojourn,
now grown so lonely to us, and our change come ! " Our
Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name, Thy
will be done " — what else can we say 1 The other night,
in my sleepless tossings about, which were growing more
and more miserable, these words, that brief and grand
Prayer, came strangely into my mind, with an altogether
new emphasis ; as if written, and shining for me in mild
pure splendour, on the black bosom of the Night there ;

JET. 80. FROM MR. CARLYLE. 489

when I, as it were, read them word by word, — with a sud-
den check to my imperfect wanderings, with a sudden soft-
ness of composure which was much unexpected. Not for
perhaps thirty or forty years had I once formally repeated
that Prayer ; — nay, I never felt before how intensely the
voice of Man's soul it is; the inmost aspiration of all
that is high and pious in poor Human Nature; right
worthy to be recommended with an " After this manner
pray ye."

I am very thankful that you went to see poor Betty ;
she is one of the most venerable human figures now known
to me in the world. I called there, the first thing after my
bit of surgery in the neighbourhood, end of July last ; I
seemed to have only one other visit to make in all Scot-
land,— and I made only one. The sight of poor Betty,
mournful as it is, and full of mournfullest memories to me,
always does me good. So far as I could any way learn,
she is well enough in her humble thrifty economics, etc. : if
otherwise at any time, I believe you understand that help
from this quarter would be a sacred duty to me.

I am still able to walk, though I do it on compulsion
merely, and without pleasure except as in work done. It
is a great sorrow that you now get fatigued so soon, and
have not your old privilege in this respect ; — I only hope
you perhaps do not quite so indispensably need it as I ;
with me it is the key to sleep, and in fact the one medicine
(often ineffectual, and now gradually oftener) that I ever
could discover for this poor clay tabernacle of mine. I
still keep working, after a weak sort ; but can now do little,
often almost nothing; — all my little "work" is henceforth
private (as I calculate) ; a setting of my poor house in
order ; which I would fain finish in time, and occasionally
fear I shan't. Dear Mr. Erskine, good be ever with you.
Were my hand as little shaky as it is to-day, I would write

490 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1869.

to you offcener. A word from you will ever be welcome
here ! — Yours sincerely and much, T. Carlyle.

269. TO THOMAS CARLYLE, ESQ.

9 Albyn Place, 19th March 1869.
Dear Mr. Carlyle, — Since ever I received your last
letter I have had a desire to thank you for it. I felt it to
be a word in season, a word of comfort and hope, to which
I was thankful to find myself able to respond. Assuredly
it is a great deliverance from the bleak solitude of life, and
from its weary turnings and tossings, to discover that we
have ever within our reach One without whom not a sparrow
falleth to the ground, to whom we can say " Our Father
which art in heaven " with any assurance that He really
regards us as His children, and has the purpose of training
us into a participation of His own character, by all that
path of life which He appoints for us. And I do indeed
feel that the petitions with which the prayer commences
express the deepest aspirations of man's being, the principles
in which it would be his righteousness and blessedness to
live. There seems as if there were a power in the very
words to quiet the troubled spirit, and if we at all succeed
in realising the embracing presence of Him whom we call
our Father, we cannot fail of finding ourselves helped and
comforted and lifted up into a holier and purer atmosphere.
— Dear Mr. Carlyle, yours with much regard,

T. Erskine.

270. TO MISS WEDGWOOD.

9 Albyn Place, 13th March 1869.
"Well-beloved S., — The sight of your handwriting is
always agreeable to me, and it is more especially so at
this time, coming as it does from Maurice's house. Your

mt. 80. REV. DR. M'LEOD CAMPBELL. 491

report of him, however, is not very satisfactory. I am
afraid that he has actually worn himself out.

To my mind a thought is valuable in proportion to its
capacity of becoming more precious the longer I know it.
I always expect to understand his books better on a second
reading, and to find out more of their secret — for every
man has a secret, something which distinguishes him from
every other human being. It is that critical character of
your mind which demands novelty ; it is like that taste
which would require a different dinner every day in the
year. I wish I bad some book to read. I have been
trying some of De Tocqueville, which makes me like the
man very much.

I heard Keble's Life read, but I felt it waterish. The
entire want of any theology provokes me. Give my loving
regards to your host. — Ever affectionately yours,

T. Erskine.

We have had Jowett here lecturing1 and preaching.

271. TO THE REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL, D.D.

9 Albyn Place, 5th April 1869.
Beloved Friend, — I have had much pleasure in reading
the Spectator's review of your "Bread of Life," which will,
doubtless, introduce it to the acquaintance of many, and I
feel assured that very few works published in our day are
fitted to give more help to their readers. I have had it
read over to me in its new form, with increased satisfaction.
I am particularly struck by the parallelism which you
indicate between the mass and imputed righteousness in
the respective places which they hold in the minds of
Romanists and Calvinists. But I like it chiefly on account

1 Mr. Jowett delivered two Lectures on Education before the Members
of the Philosophical Institution.

492 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1869.

of the help it gives to those who are desiring to feed on
the bread which came down from heaven. That is what I
desire for myself and my brethren, that thus we may be
continually growing into a greater conformity to our
Father's will, growing in filial trust and love and joy, for I
believe in the truth of the word, " The joy of the Lord is
your strength." I need this very much, and I desire to
give God the glory of rejoicing in Him, and to be delivered
from the weakness which the want of that joy produces.
There is a great deal in the 1 1 9th Psalm which expresses
either what I feel, or seek to feel. " Thou art my portion, 0
Lord," " Thy hands have made me and fashioned me ; give
me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments."
I know that He is very nigh me, and that He hath said, " I
will never leave thee nor forsake thee." You do not forget
me in your prayers. Give my love to . . . . — Ever
affectionately yours, T. Erskine.

272. TO THE REV. J. M'LEOD CAMPBELL, D.D.

127 George Street, 18th May 1869.

Dear Mr. Campbell, — It is indeed most interesting to
think that you are to spend your remaining days on the
banks of the Gareloch, and specially on the Eoseneath
side, which still remains as a type of ideal beauty in my
memory.

I wonder whether the Church of Scotland will not at
last take the step of reponing you, when the Glasgow
University confers the degree of D.D. on you, and you are
invited as an honoured guest at the Moderator's dinner.
Most of your prosecutors are either dead or in the Free
Church, and the obligation of the Confession of Faith
on the consciences of clergy as well as of laity is much
relaxed. . . .

iET. 80. DEAN STANLEY. 493

273. TO LADY AUGUSTA STANLEY.

127 George Street, 15th June 1869.

Beloved Lady, — The remembrance of the reviving visit
of you and the Dean is most pleasant to me, especially when
connected with the hope of its repetition, before very long.
I have sent you a photograph of Madame Vernet, which
I think you will like as a Swiss pendant to Lady Christian
Erskine, and as a discovery of the antecedents of Madame
de Stael. She had the breadth of our Cardross friends in
the higher cultivation and refinement, but without their
humour, which, however was not missed in her. There are
some people who seem complete without it, and she was
one of them.

Tell the Dean that I have been hearing Bright's Speeches
read with great interest and admiration. I wonder whether
he is a man really and sincerely desirous of doing what is
right, and whether the frequent introduction of such words
as humanity and justice and Christianity indicates some-
thing real in his heart and conscience. I have thought
this night a good deal about the House of Lords, and what
course they may choose for themselves. They cannot
throw out the Bill without doing harm, and I trust that
even those of them who may see an abstract Tightness in
doing so will yet make allowance for the hardness of the
hearts of the people. — Ever affectionately yours,

T. Erskine.

274. TO DEAN STANLEY.

127 George St., Edinburgh, 11th June 1869.
My dear Dean, — I have been listening to the speech
of the Bishop of Peterborough, and though my own mind
had been to a considerable degree made up as to the general

4P4 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

lightness of the Bill, I yet could not refuse the consent both
of my reason and conscience to much which he said. I do
not believe that with the modifications which it is sure to
undergo, before it becomes law, it will conciliate either the
Catholic priesthood or laity, and there can be no doubt that
the Protestants, to a man, must feel themselves aggrieved,
and they would like that England should be taught to
know how much she has owed to them in time past, and
how she was now slighting those through whose faithful
adherence she had the firmest hold of Ireland. There
must be left some establishment and endowment, else in
the rural districts, the support of the clergy being thrown
on the landed proprietors, an inferior class of men would
almost certainly be introduced, and lower the general stan-
dard both of Christian character and intelligence amongst
the people. It is a very grave question, which must be
considered not only in the large, but in all its details, in
order to its being rightly judged. . . . Any man who
meets this question simply as the member of a party ought
to be hanged forthwith. . . . — Very truly yours,

T. Erskine.

PROFESSOR LORIMER TO DR. HANNA.

1 Bruntsfield Crescent, 20th Feb. 1877. •
My dear Dr. Hanna, — You ask me to tell you the par-
ticulars of the interesting meeting between Mr. Erskine
and Monsieur Pr6vost-Paradol at which I had the privilege
to be present, and I shall do so most willingly, so far as I
can remember them. It came about in this wise. In the
winter of 1869 the Directors of the Philosophical Institu-
tion wished M. Paradol to lecture to them on the social
and political aspects of French Society, in which he then
played so conspicuous a part, and, as from a variety of
causes, to which I need not refer, I was in the habit of

PROFESSOR LORIMER TO DR. HANNA. 495

corresponding with him, they requested me to arrange the
matter for them.

I gladly embraced the opportunity of making his per-
sonal acquaintance, and invited him to pay us a visit.
When he was staying in my house I took him to call on
Mr. Erskine, then certainly one of the most remarkable
and interesting men in Edinburgh. Strangely different as
they were, I felt that they would sympathise, and I knew
that they had many subjects of common interest. I intro-
duced M. Paradol as a friend of the De Broglies, who could
give Mr. Erskine the latest news of the circle of friends to
wbom he was bound by so many associations. Eor a time
Mr. Erskine talked to him about the old days at Coppet,
and his recollections of Madame de Stael. Very soon,
however, as his wont was, he diverged into the subjects
which continually occupied his thoughts, and he did so in
a manner which at first was somewhat startling. "Asa
member of the liberal party, M. Paradol," he said, " your
religious opinions are probably not of a very positive kind."
M. Paradol assured him, in a very reverential tone, that
his religious point of view was less negative than that of
many of his countrymen, and that if his creed was not very
definite he held it very sincerely. Mr. Erskine's face lighted
up with that expression of sublime earnestness which
every one who knew him must remember. He felt that he
had a sympathetic listener, whose position enabled him, if
he chose, to carry his message where it was much needed,
and to proclaim it in words that would be listened to, and
he. determined not to miss his opportunity.

He poured out to him his own deep and simple faith ;
he cleared away- the needless superfluities with which
tradition and dogmatism have obscured Christianity ; and
told him that pretty nearly all that Christ Himself had
enjoined on us was that we should love God. " Love God,"

496 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

he repeated over and over again, " that is about the whole
of it." I cannot of course recall what he said, and if I
could it would be needless to you. It was the doctrine he
taught us all ; but I, who knew him much less than you
did, never heard him put it with so much power and sim-
plicity. Paradol was very much struck with it, and with
the man altogether. He did not know what to make of
him. When we got down into the street he was eloquent
in his expressions of his wonder and admiration. I had
told him before who he was, but he insisted on hearing it
over again. That he was a member of the Bar who had
succeeded to a good family estate, and that his " two books"
were Plato and the Bible, was all that I could tell him.
He was bewildered and awe-struck at the appearance of a
personage so far elevated above the negative and colourless
conception which he had formed of an English country
gentleman. He was so simple, so considerate, and even
indulgent, and yet he was so dignified and authoritative,
and he dismissed him with something so like an apostolic
benediction that he could not get over it. When he left us a
few days after on the pier of Leith — for, unlike a French-
man, he went up to London in mid-winter by sea, — he
thanked me specially for taking him to see " that kind of
old prophet." After Mr. Erskine's death he wrote me the
letter which I send you. It was one of the last which I
received from him, and as it will interest a wider circle
than that to which Mr. Erskine was known, you may per-
haps like to publish it. — Yours most truly,

J. LORIMER.

M. PARADOL TO PROFESSOR LORIMER.

Paris, Wednesday, April 6th.
My dear Lorimer, — I am very thankful for your kind
letter, and also for the interesting papers which you have

JET. 81. MRS. MACHAR. 497

sent to me. The Scotsman and the Spectator on our admir-
able Erskine were most welcome, and I have remarked in
the Spectator a letter which I am inclined to attribute to
you. We have had and we have still here many good and
even religious men, but what is rare and original, quite
Scotch and anti-French, is a life so unearthly and spiritual
as that of Erskine spent out of the Church ; when a man
is religious here, he is either a member of the clergy or an
outside political rather than religious defender, like our
Montalembert and Falloux. I am happy to learn that
you are well ; we are still in the uncertainty here about
everything, as well as about my own affairs. Afraid of
electoral reforms, and of electoral agitation, the Emperor
and his ministry have thrown themselves into the plebiscite
absurdity and the constituent agitation, which is a dread-
ful mess, still more puzzling and dangerous than the Pechey
injustice. — With my best love to all, believe me ever yours
sincerely, P. Paradol.

275. TO MRS. MACHAR.

Edinburgh, Feb. 1, 1870.
There are few living now whose words are so welcome
to my heart as yours, and in whose hopes and sorrows I
feel such a readiness to sympathise. I am become very
weak in body, and have probably a good deal of suffering
before me, but my chief burden is the remembrance of past
sins. Although I believe them forgiven, yet they often
come between me and the face of my heavenly Father. I
do not doubt His love, but I desire to have a more living
sense of it. I would say to Him, " Be not silent to me."
" Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation." I need the Holy
Spirit to quicken my cold affections, and to help me to
apprehend what is contained in the unspeakable gift of
Christ. The assurance that " God afflicteth not willingly,

2 I

498 LETTERS. OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1870.

but for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holir
ness," is a great support. He brought us into being that
He might educate us into the likeness of His own Son,
This is, I believe, His unchangeable purpose concerning us
all, a blessed purpose surely ; and when we think of the
manifestation of His purpose, Jesus Christ, we can scarcely
conceive anything lower or less to be intended. This is a
rest. — Yours, etc., T, Erskine.

This letter was written a short time before his death.
The answer to it was read to him only ten days before the
close, and was the last letter, save a note from Professor
Lushington, which he was able to listen to.

ILLArESS. 499

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Close.

During the spring and summer of 1868 Mr. Erskine's
health had on the whole improved. There was one short
but solemn interruption. He was suddenly threatened with
a malady which he knew must, if unchecked, terminate
quickly and painfully in death. He faced the likelihood
with a calmness and courage the more remarkable that he
shrank from pain, and had always a dread of the act of dying.
" I should not like to die," he had once said to a friend, " in
a frenzy of pain, all the decencies of a death-bed lost sight
of in physical agony." Now this seemed impending. As
his niece Mrs. Paterson sat by him reading those parts of
the Bible which he indicated, and while he awaited the
effect of the treatment, he said to her, " It is a very solemn
pause, but I can trust Him absolutely. Still, I should have
liked my death not to have been a painful one, but to have
passed away with my door open and my friends coming
in and out." The treatment was successful, the malady
was checked, — but these words were remembered when
the last illness came, when all was done, and done success-
fully, to carry out his desire.

Soon as any capacity for work returned he was once
more at his writings, aided alternately by his two most
competent and devoted lady friends. By his residing
latterly so much in Edinburgh, the ties of an early friend-

500 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1870.

ship with his cousin George Dundas (Lord Manor) had been
drawn closer. They were seeing each other daily, when
death suddenly stept in and took his friend from his side,
— a loss felt by Mr. Erskine deeply, and felt to the end.
There was yet another parting, with his dear friend James
Mackenzie, who died a few months later. The last
meeting here was singularly impressive to those who
witnessed it. Mr. Mackenzie was just dying ; he sat in
bed with eyes closed, insensible, his head laid back upon
the pillow, his silver locks floating as in a pale light over
his forehead, his finely chiselled features, always beautiful,
now set in the marble beauty of death. Sent for to bid
him a last adieu, Mr. Erskine paused as he entered the
room, stood for a few moments absorbed, gazing upon the
sight, then gently approached, put his lips to those of the
dying, and, not a word spoken, withdrew. Coming down
to the dining-room to his niece, who had accompanied him,
" he looked round the room," she tells us, " as if saying
good-bye to it too, then told me of the gentle leave-taking,
saying with that peculiar and tender smile he always had for
James Mackenzie, ' his death is lovely, like himself "

For many months at this period Mr. Erskine suffered
from an affection of the heart which gave rise not only
to great bodily discomfort, but to much mental depression.
At times, when under this depression, a conscience always
very sensitive magnified some trivial fancied offences of
the past till he became most unhappy in the retrospect.
Those who saw him at such times, and listened to his
bitter self-condemnation, might have misjudged, as if his
faith in God, his trust in his Saviour, his confidence in
the largeness of the divine love, had misgiven. Nothing
was further from the truth. Never, not in his hours of
greatest darkness, did he doubt or distrust his God and
Saviour, or feel uncertainty as to his personal relationship

LAST DA VS. 501

with Him. It was but the action of a diseased sensibility.
This was manifested in the most striking manner at the
close, when the burden and pressure of disease were
removed.

On Thursday the 10th of March 1870 he drove out as
usual into the country. He looked admiringly on the
opening buds, — "swelling into life," he said, "just as he
was passing out of it." His niece, who accompanied him,
reminded him that his sister, as she watched it from her
window at Morningside, used to call spring that " yearly
miracle." " Yes," he said, " I am not passing out of life ;
the great miracle of entrance into fuller life is near — very
near perhaps." He then asked Keble's Morning Hymn to be
repeated, going before at times, and saying at the close, " I
forgot it was so beautiful." That evening he was calm,
though silent. During the night he had more sleep than
usual, and slept quietly. But at breakfast-time a cough
brought up some blood. He had suddenly broken a blood-
vessel. The relief to head and heart was immediate,
but he felt that his hours were numbered. " There was
something majestic," Mrs. Paterson tells us,1 " in his look
and tone," as he sat up in bed taking, as he thought, his
last farewells of those around. "You must not try to
keep me," he said quite cheerfully, but solemnly. But
when Dr. John Brown, who came in as he repeated the
words, said, " You will take this, dear sir ; we cannot keep
you when God sends for you," Mr. Erskine answered, "You
are right; give it me, I will wait His time." Then pre-
sently he said to the doctor, with a touch of his old
humour, "I am better now, — if you had not given me
that!" then added solemnly, "His time." "Thy time, 0

1 The narrative which follows is derived from full and interesting records
preserved by his niece and by Miss Gourlay, who, along with his nephew,
were his close and loving attendants by night and by day on till the close.

502 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1870.

Lord." All that day the relieved heart seemed to leave
his spirit free, and the grand calm, and the loving mes-
sages to his relations, remembering each, and suiting the
message to each, were wonderful.

Turning in the course of the day to Miss Gourlay, he
said to her, " I want the paper in the tin box — the one
on Education and Probation — to be printed separately as
a tract, and I want it to be prefaced by these words :
'This principle of Education lies at the very basis of
the Gospel, for it contains in it, or expresses, the ever-
lasting purpose of God towards us, to make us partakers
of His own righteousness.' " 1

Sunday the 1 3th. — Between services the Eev. Mr. Sand-
ford came and administered the Holy Communion. His
nephew and niece and Miss Gourlay partook of it along
with him. He watched as Mr. Sandford went up to each,
evidently praying for them. With folded hands, and
following the service with deep feeling, he received the
Sacrament, saying at the close, " Oh wonderful ! my Lord
and my God!"'

In the evening his kind friend Dr. John Brown came
in, for the fourth or fifth time. Mr. Erskine brightened
up and said, " Well, here I am still, you see." Dr. Brown
said that many Were anxiously asking for him, and "just
now I have been talking about you with Lushington."
"Ah, Lushington," he said, with a smile, and then re-
peated a Greek sentence.2 We asked the meaning : " Not
only Nature's finest workmanship, but made of Nature's
finest clay. My loving farewell to him."

Monday the lith. — All day very peaceful. Several
friends came in at his " open door," and for each he had
just the right word.

1 See Appendix, No. V.

8 Mr. Lushington was Professor of Greek in the University of Glasgow.

LAST DA VS. 503

Tuesday the 15th. — A day of much bodily uneasiness.
Throughout indeed there was much physical restlessness.
His position had to be shifted frequently, and many little
services to be rendered. When some of these were not
rendered as promptly or as efficiently as he desired, his
patience for the moment failed, but, instantly recovering,
with the utmost grace he craved forgiveness.

Often and often did he say to those who were trying to
soothe his bodily sufferings, " I am very grateful. I am
very much obliged. I thank you all for Jesus Christ's
sake." Frequently on such occasions one or other of
the two passages was repeated. " If ye then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him," and " Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done
it unto Me." " Wonderful words," he added as he recited
the last of these verses — "what exquisite beauty in
them — what tenderness !"

Wednesday and Thursday. — Less restlessness, and always
the same steadfast trust, calm peace, and holy joy.
Whispered words coming ever and anon from his lips,
almost always words of Holy Scripture — very seldom his
own — and so long as strength lasted, he repeated each
verse from beginning to end. Among those most fre-
quently thus repeated were — " God so loved the world,"
etc. ; " God commended His love towards us, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us;" "He tasted
death for every man;" "The blood of Jesus Christ his.
Son cleanseth from all sin;" " He hath made Him to be
sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him ; " " Fear not, for I am with
thee," etc. ; " Call upon me in the day of trouble ; I will
deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me;" "Though I

504 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1870.

walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for Thou art with me," etc.

The Psalms were much upon his lips. For more than
fifty years they had been his daily study and delight, the
cadence of many of their well-known verses the softest,
sublimest music to his ear. And now they refreshed his
soul in death. The 20th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 31st, 32d,
62d, 73d, 86th, 103d, 116th, 130th, and 139th were
special favourites ; recited by himself with deep solemnity
of tone, or, when voice failed, listened to and re-echoed as
repeated to him by others.

The Sonship and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ were now
much in his thoughts. " Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus Christ," he
said over and over again, in such a tone of earnest rever-
ence, love, and tenderness, as if a new revelation of the
meaning and preciousness of the Incarnation had been
given. The Divine Sonship was contemplated as embodied
in the person of Christ. " Jesus, the Son of God," he was
heard to whisper to himself, "and God;" the peculiar
emphasis laid upon the and indicating the current of his
thoughts. " Say words of God to me," he once said. In
answer to his request, the words which for weeks before
had been often upon his own lips, were repeated — " This
is My body, broken for you," etc. He listened and was
satisfied ; very marked throughout his selection of those
verses which speak of the death of our Eedeemer and
its results. And running through the whole was the
close direct sustained communion with God, breaking
forth in expressions like these : — " God, my God ; I can
trust Him utterly." " 0 Lord God, heavenly Father, my
heavenly Father, I am in Thy hands." "0 Lord, how
long? Grant me Thy patience, keep not silence." "O
Lord, my soul longs after Thee." "I desire to do Thy
will — yes, living or dying to be the Lord's." "Holy

JET. 81. LAST DAYS. 505

glorious God ! let me see Thy face: — my Lord and my
God !"

Being laid for the night he said, "I want to be left
alone ; I want to have my dealings with God ; I want
that to be done with first. Done with ! it 's never done
with ; but I mean — " there the voice failed. He put
himself evidently to sleep with a sort of command to
himself, " Be still and know that I am God."

Friday the \&th. — In the course of the day his nephew
writes to Miss Wedgwood —

" My dear uncle is still here, and though not suffering,
it is a long weary death, but most peaceful and trustful.
I wish you were here to see it, and get a loving look and
word. If many loved him in his life, more would love
him in his death. All his words, conscious or unconscious,
are expressions of love to God and man, without a cloud.
His very tones are so gentle and loving. As he has spoken
much in all states of consciousness and unconsciousness,
you see all that is in him, and I believe it might.be said,
' God saw that it was good.'

" May our last end be like his. . . ."

Leaving him for the night his niece kissed him, as
she thought probably for the last time. Bepeating her
name, he said, " Beloved, love to your uncle. All's well,"
and then fell asleep.

"A loving farewell to your uncle " had been the first
words addressed to Mrs. Paterson on the preceding Friday,
when death seemed imminent, and he was bidding adieu
to those around. Day after day — again and again — he
sent messages to his friend — "Dear Mr. Campbell, my
gratitude to him — beloved Mr. Campbell." And now upon
Friday the 18th, three different times when life seemed
fluttering into death, his niece caught the words addressed
to her, "Farewell — beloved — love to your uncle."

506 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. 1870.

Nor was it by direct messages alone that it appeared
how present his absent friend was to his thoughts. As
they were once raising him in his bed he said — " Do it
gently — with the gentleness of God. Be very gentle
with me. There 's Mr. Campbell, dear Mr. Campbell, he's
always faithful, but so gentle. Try to be gentle, with holy
gentleness."

Saturday the \§th, — To the same friend in London to
whom her husband had written, Mrs. Paterson now
writes : —

" We wish you could have had some of the comfort of
hearing some of the calm (I would say manly) words of
those last days, and of seeing the brow gradually widen
as every ruffle passed away for days before the end, and the
loving tone and grateful acknowledgment of our efforts to
soothe the distress of the body. . . .

" All these sweet human touches were very precious, and
then the marvellous entrance into such steadfast, simple
trust, and the strange inner clearness of spirit and constant
sleeping-and-waking communion with his God. . . ."

Sunday the 20th. — At two o'clock in the morning he
called Miss Gourlay three times by name. Looking at her
as she came, distinctly and very solemnly he said, " I am
done, everything is done — for me — with this outward life
— this outward life ; but I have perfect confidence and
perfect hope for the eternal life. Will you try to do
what you can . . . for me . . . put ... in order . . ."
He meant his papers.

Two days before, while seeming to be asleep, there had
issued from his lips, " My beloved mother — my dear, dear
brother — my beloved Davie — my beloved Christian."

And now in a sweet, clear, musical voice he called out
" Christian, sister !" Already were the broken ties of the
past being revived and re-formed.

jET.il. DEATH. mi

In the evening Dr. Brown came in. He looked at him
with a half smile and welcome recognition. " You there ! "
he said. "Yes," replied Dr. Brown; "I will stay with
you." " To the end," Mr. Erskine added. He was raised
upon the pillows, and folded his hands in prayer. At
intervals were heard — " 0 Lord my God . . . Jesus ...
Jesus Christ . . . love . . . the peace of God . . . for
ever and ever, for Jesus' sake, Amen and Amen." Then
there was a silence, a change passed over his face, there
were long intermissions between the breaths, but no
struggle, no appearance of suffering; at last one long
gentle sigh, like that of a wearied infant dropping asleep,
— one last breath, and he was gone.

The countenance became very beautiful after death. It
seemed to lengthen, and the wrinkles and marks of suffer-
ing and conflict which had made it rugged all passed away.
Through the whole of that last week there was a
nobility in it, a look of calm patriarchal dignity, of peace-
ful gentle patience, waiting till his time came, a striking
realisation of his own conception of what the last moments
of earthly life ought to be.

Next morning Dr. Brown wrote —

" Our dear sweet-hearted friend is away. He died very
gently last night at a quarter to ten, laid his pathetic
weary head on the pillow like a child, and his last words
were 'Lord Jesus.'".

Dr. Campbell, to whom his niece had been sending daily
bulletins, wrote thus a few days afterwards to his sons : —

"My beloved Mr. Erskine died last Sunday evening.
A time of comparative ease and freedom from suffering,
combined with great weakness and occasional symptoms
that seemed to himself and to those around him to
intimate the close, spread the consciousness of a death-
bed over so many days and nights that to him and

508 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

to them, and to us to whom there was a letter almost
every day, it has been a prolonged parting; giving
occasion for oft-repeated utterances of his faith and
hope and love, which are to us all memories of our
latest communion with him here, which solemnly and
most sweetly connect what we remember as his past life
among us with our hope for that on which he has now
entered : our hope, as his hope, being an anchor of the
soul, sure and steadfast, having its hold within the veil."

Few have ever passed away from among their fellows
of whom so large a number of those who knew him best,
and were most competent to judge, would have said, as they
did of Mr. Erskine, that he was the best, the holiest man
they ever knew, — the man most human yet most divine,
with least of the stains of earth, with most of the spirit of
heaven ; the man in whom the ideal of his own favourite
poet stood in every feature realised : —

" I 'm apt to think the man
That could surround the sum of things, and spy
The heart of God and secrets of His Empire,
Would speak but love — with him the bright result
Would change the hue of intermediate scenes
And make one thing of all theology."

Gambold.

REMINISCENCES: PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 509

CHAPTER XXIV.

Reminiscences by Principal Shairp.

My dear Dr. Hanna, — You have often urged me to
attempt some connected narrative of the life and character
of our revered friend, the late Mr. Erskine of Linlathen,
and I have often myself felt a strong desire to do so.
But as soon as the desire has arisen, I have been restrained
by a sense of utter inability. I felt the truth of those
words which Dr. Macleod Campbell wrote to Bishop
Ewing soon after Mr. Erskine's death : ' No man is able
to say to those who knew him not what he was; no man
could say this to those who knew him in a way that they
would feel satisfying.' All that I shall now attempt is
to put together such recollections of him as I can give, in
the hope that these may be found to be in keeping with
the impression made by those delightful letters which you
are publishing.

Although it was as a spiritual teacher working by voice
and pen that Mr. Erskine was known to the world, yet
one cannot fully understand his mind and influence with-
out taking some account of his human temperament and
earthly circumstances. In him, hardly less than in more
mundane characters, the race from which he came, and
the people who surrounded his childhood, had much to
do with making him what he ultimately became. He
himself would have been one of the last to underrate what

510 JtEMIAUSCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

he owed to his ancestry. On either side he was sprung
from a far-descended and gracious race, and among
these, his kindred, he passed a childhood and youth
sheltered from those early shocks and jars which probably
lie at the root of much of the unkindness and asperity
there is in the world. Equally on his father's and his
mother's side he came from what the late biographer
of Walter Scott used to call, with so much satisfaction, "' a
fine old Scottish family.' Often of a winter evening,
as with one or two guests Mr. Erskine drew in his
chair round the dining-room fire at Linlathen, he would
look up to the family pictures that hung round the
room, and tell their history, and remark on their
characters. When he looked at the portrait of ' the Black
Colonel,' as he was called, partly from his swarthy com-
plexion, perhaps too from the dark armour in which he is
encased, he would speak of him with a peculiar twinkle
in his eye and a humorous smile on his face. Among
the virtues you have attributed to the Black Colonel,
that bulwark of Presbyterianism, there is one you have
omitted, — his great love of litigation. His great-grandson,
however, used to tell how on his death-bed he is reported
to have said, ' Haena I thretty gude ga'in pleas on hand,
and that fule Jock will hae compounded them a' a fort-
nicht after I 'm dead ! ' That ' fule Jock ' was his son, the
great Scottish jurist, author of the Institutes. His picture
hangs near his father's, and his pale chiselled refined features
form a striking contrast to the broad swarthy pugnative
visage of the Black Colonel. Mr. Erskine would also dwell
lovingly on an excellent copy by Urquhart of Eaeburn's
beautiful picture of a refined old lady's face. This was
the portrait of the Hon. Christian Mackay, daughter of
the third Lord Reay, which hung beside that of her grave
earnest husband, Dr. John Erskine, minister of Greyfriars,

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 511

who was Mr. Erskine's uncle. In the late Raeburn Exhibi-
tion in Edinburgh the original of this picture of Chris-
tian Mackay was regarded as one of the finest of the many
fine old-lady portraits by that great artist. He would also
speak of the strong homely sense mingled with genial yet
refined humanity that looked out from the face of Lady
Christian Bruce, the wife of his uncle James, the laird of
Cardross. Most of the pictures that hung round that
dining-room belonged to his father's side of the house.

Of his maternal ancestors, though there was but one
picture on the wall, the images dwelt no less vividly in his
heart. At Airth Castle, his mother's home, the happiest
days of his childhood were spent. The old Lady of Airth,
his maternal grandmother, you have yourself well described,
reading her English-Church service every Sunday to her
family in her own drawing-room, while the Presbyterian
worship was going on in the kirk, which then stood hard
by the Castle. The old place of Airth is one deeply to
impress itself on a young imagination.

Out of the carse of Falkirk, that great dead level plain
that stretches from Falkirk to Stirling, which, as the great
battle-field of Scotland, holds in Scottish history, as Dean
Stanley has suggested, the same place which the plain of
Esdraelon held in the history of Israel, — out of that carse,
about a mile inland from the Links of Forth, rises a scarp-
ment or ridge of sandstone abruptly breaking from the
surrounding flats. On the edge of that scarpment stands
the old castle, originally a square peel tower with pent-house
roof, like those common all over Scotland. To that tower
has been built on a long high line of building, with crow-
stepped gables, a steep roof, and dormer windows
projecting from it. This range of building forms
the later dwelling-house, — all that was there in Mr.
Erskine's childhood; though since then there have been

512 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

made quite modern and not very congruous additions.
This long building, flanked on the west by the older tower,
looks down, over a small precipice, on a quaint garden
beneath, and beyond the garden are old trees and a lazy
stream lingering towards the Forth. The house fronts
southward, and across the dead level carse the windows
look far away to the rising ground of Falkirk muir, the
scene of two great battles. Contiguous to the house, on
the north-east side, is the old churchyard, full of ancient
graves and grey tombstones. A church must once have
stood there, but it has disappeared. Behind the house,
to north and west, long straight avenues and park trees
stretch on toward the grounds of Dunmore Park. It is
almost an ideal abode of an ancient Scottish family, like
those Walter Scott loved to picture. Such outwardly was
the place and neighbourhood where Thomas Erskine drank
in his first impressions of a world in which he was to
abide for fourscore years. For the associations of a mere
town house in childhood go for little compared with .those
of the first country home.

The inside of Airth Castle was warm to him with much
loving-kindness and old-fashioned yet refined simplicity.
The old servant, himself quite a part of the family, who
spent his whole lifetime at Airth, lives in Dean Ramsay's
well-known story about Mrs. Moray of Abercairney and
the salt-spoon, — a story, by the way, with which Mr.
Erskine furnished the Dean. But to that quaint
example of

" The constant service of the antique world,"
Dean Ramsay has not added one pathetic incident with
which Mr. Erskine used to accompany it. That old family
man-servant, John Campbell, lived to see Mrs. Graham's
eldest son, the heir of the house, go to India in his
country's service. Years after, the ship which was ex-

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 513

pected to bring him back to England, brought the news
of his death. On the day when the new mourning suit
which John was to wear for his young master's death was
laid down on the table before him, he fainted away. That
kind of faithful affection in a domestic servant, common
enough at the beginning of this century, has become rarer
now-a-days.

Airth, Kippenross, Keir, Ochtertyre, Cardross, with
occasional visits to Ardoch, his grandmother's home, and to
Abercairney, — the summers of childhood and boyhood
spent in these melted into him with associations of beauty
and ancestral repose which were indelible, and the
warm atmosphere of human life that then surrounded him,
sweetened his whole nature to the core. It had no doubt
much to do with drawing out that deep and tender affec-
tionateness which made him all life through the much-
loving and much-beloved man he was.

In this he was very unlike most men. Hearts more or
less, I suppose, most of us have, but we keep them so
close-cased and padlocked, we wear an outside so hard or
dry, that little or none of the love that may be within
escapes to gladden those around us. And so life passes
without any of the sweetening to society that comes when
affection is not only felt but expressed, — for to be of any
use to others it must be expressed in some way. Mr.
Erskine was in this happy above most men, that, being
gifted with a heart more than usually tender and sym-
pathetic, he had brought with him from childhood the art
of expressing it simply and naturally. So it was that
the loving-kindness that was in him streamed freely forth,
making the happy happier, and lightening the load of the
sorrowful. It was as if inside his man's understanding
he hid, as it were, a woman's heart. And though this is a
thing no early training could have implanted, yet when it

2 K

514 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

was there, the warm affection that surrounded his boyhood
was the very atmosphere to cherish and expand it.

If this had been all, it might have led to softness, but
the society of his childhood, though based on affection, had
enough of the old Scottish verve and intellect in it to keep
it from degenerating into sentimentalism. His own busy
intellect too was early stirring, and the winter home of his
mother in St. David Street was pervaded by that old-world
simplicity and frugality which is so bracing to character.
Besides, even if the boy's early years had been too tenderly
nurtured, school life, as it then existed, especially in the
rough old High School of Edinburgh, was sure to give
scope enough for the hardy virtues.

Although I had long known Mr. Erskine by reputation
and through mutual friends, it was not till the year 1854
that I became personally acquainted with him. As I
happened to be in Scotland in the winter of that year, his
cousin Miss Jane Stirling wrote to him that I was anxious
to meet him, and he at once invited me to visit him at
Linlathen.

It was, I think, on a Saturday afternoon, the 7th of
January in that year, that he received me in that library
at Linlathen which his friends so well remember. I had
not been any time with him before he opened on those
subjects which lay always deepest in his thoughts. Often
during that visit, in the library, or in walks after dark up
and down the corridor, or, when the weather allowed, in
walks about the grounds, those subjects were renewed. The
one thing that first struck me at that time was his entire
openness of mind, his readiness to hear whatever could be
urged against his own deepest convictions, the willingness
with which he welcomed any difficulties felt by others, and
the candour with which he answered them from his own
experience and storehouse of reflection. He exemplified

B Y PRINCIPAL SUA IBP. 515

that text which he often quoted, 'The heart of the righteous
man studieth to answer.' This was a characteristic of him
which is not often found in men so religious. Commonly
the statement of any view, very unlike that which they
have been accustomed to hold, shocks them ; and younger
inquirers, seeing that they are thought impious or give
pain, cease to reveal their thoughts, and intercourse is at
an end. With Mr. Erskine it was just the reverse of this.
His whole manner and spirit elicited confidence from
younger men. No thought could ever have occurred to
them which, if they were serious about it, they need have
hesitated to tell him. And it would seldom be that they
did not find in his replies something either really helpful,
or at least something well worth their pondering.

The following are some notes of his conversations made
during that first visit.

What is the true guide 1

Answer. — I fall back more and more on first principles.
The conscience in each man is the Christ in each man. It
is the ray of light coming straight from the great Fountain
of Light ; or rather, it is the eye guided by the Sun • or
it is the child's shell murmuring of its native ocean ; or
the cord let down by God into each man by which He
leads each. Often the string lies quite slack ; the man is
not conscious of the guidance and the guide. Then the
string becomes tight, and the man feels the drawing, he
is conscious of G-od. The great thing is to identify duty
and conscience hourly with God.

The universal diffusion of conscience through all men is
Christ in all men, — " Christ in you the hope of glory."

He was in the man, and the man was made by Him,
and the man knew Him not. This is true of every man
by nature. And the great thing is to become conscious
of Him, and to know Him through Himself revealed in

516 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

conscience. ' The Spirit (not the wind) bloweth whither
it will, and ye hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell
whence it cometh or whither it goeth.' But for not being
able to tell we are in fault. This is our sin. [This was
with Mr. Erskine one favourite gloss upon that text in St.
John's Gospel, though I never felt sure that it was a correct
one. Besides this he gave to it other applications.]

"No man hath ascended up to heaven. . . ." And
so it is only Christ in the man, the man who has become
one with Christ, and Christlike, in whom the old self is
subdued, that can ascend up to heaven.

This light, this conscience, manifests itself often to man
as witnessing against his present state, making him feel
the hollowness and discomfort of life apart from God.
Still, the witnessing against him, — this is Christ within the
man, grieving for his alienation, calling him to be recon-
ciled. This condemnation and uneasiness of soul is the
sound or tone which God's voice takes when speaking in
the natural heart. It is God and Christ calling him to
return. This voice of God sounds loud in great crises. If
a man were tempted to commit murder, then it would
sound more loudly than usual. But it does not then for
the first time begin to sound. It has been sounding
always, through all his ordinary life, in a low habitual
tone, but he has not heard, nor cared to hear it.

There is into each man a continual inflowing of the
Logos. It is by virtue of Christ being in all men that
conscience is universal in men.

"He that answereth before he heareth is a son that
causeth shame." So we ought to hear this voice of the
Spirit before we act or speak ; we ought to wait for it, and
not make haste. " The heart of the righteous studieth to
answer." Man ought to wait on this voice, for it is always
there, if we would hear it. "When our Lord said, " He

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 517

that hath ears to hear, let him hear," it was this inward
ear he meant.

This conscience, this inward light, is the great organ of
Theology. Only that which commends itself to his con-
science, that which each man can feel to be right and true,
that only he really believes. Whatever more he fancies
he believes on authority or otherwise, is not real belief, or
faith. But does not this make the old Sophists' saying
true, avOpwKOs fiirpov irdvTcav, or each man's individual
frame or feeling the measure of truth for him 1 No ! For,

1st, It is of the true nature of conscience not to be
individual. Conscience is not mine, I am conscience's.
Each man does not possess it, but is possessed by it. It
speaks in virtue of a higher light than itself, of which it
declares itself to be but a ray. It swells outward to Christ,
and finds its fulness only in Him and God. It is Their
continual witness, referring back not to itself but to Them.
Therefore this light never can cut itself off from its source,
and set itself up as an independent authority, for this
would be to abdicate its own nature.

2d, Neither will a man, who is truly awakened to listen
to conscience, set up his own conscience as a rival of the
Bible, and reject all Scripture that does not at once com-
mend itself to him. For the conscience that is true is
humble, and feels that it is but a feeble struggling ray, and
will lie at the feet of the true light. Only it will not say
that it believes anything till it does believe it, that is, till
it feels it to be right and true. Further than this it
cannot go. That larger light which men may urge on its
acceptance, on the authority of the Church or of Scripture,
it does not deny this, or set itself against it. Only it
cannot take it in, make it its own, till for itself it sees
light through it. It will say, What you urge me to
believe may be true, but I do not know it to be true now.

518 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

I may come to see it, or I may not, but at present I am
not in a condition to witness for it.

Christ is the great universal conscience, calling to every
man, Hear and your soul shall live — live to God, die to
yourself.

Next day he added this corollary to the above : God
speaks to me in conscience, but I do not always apprehend
His. language. I seek to know and apprehend it, and I
find far more in the Bible than anywhere else that explains
conscience. It may be said, All things are calls, all-
things are intended to educate men, and so in a sense they
are. But the Bible is so in a peculiar way. I explain con-
science by the Bible, and the Bible by conscience, both
ways ; but till they meet and illuminate each the other,
there is no true light, no true conviction.

The Gospel history is the consciousness I find within
me expressed outwardly. It is only by finding a oneness
between the outward history and the inward consciousness
that I can understand the history, and the history makes
me understand my own consciousness. The history of
Jesus Christ, what He sorrowed and suffered, is a perfect
outward manifestation of what will go on imperfectly in
every man's heart now, just in proportion as he enters
into the mind of Christ.

Another day during that visit Mr. Erskine's conversa-
tion took this turn : — Christ stands to us in two capacities.
First, As the Bepresentative of the Father He came,
showing us what is the character of the Father, bringing
down to us His holy, righteous, loving purpose towards
us. And so He comes down now to each man, is, as it
were, again incarnate in each man's conscience, and in
that conscience, the true light, the Spirit within each man,
He grieves over each man's sin, agonises for it in each
man, 'suffers, the just for the unjust.' Just as you

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 519

might conceive the spirit of St. John to enter inside the
spirit of Barabbas, — St. John's heart to be shut up in
Barabbas's heart, — how it would be pained and grieved by
the dark polluted environment in which it found itself!
Naturally it would will itself away from such an abode.
But if it were to stay there, and though grieving and
sore pained yet refuse to depart till it had purified
Barabbas and won him back to God, in some such way
we may conceive of the Christ indwelling in each man.
Or as an upright high-minded elder brother might grieve
and feel pain at seeing some great meanness or base action
in a younger. At first the elder only would feel pain and
grief, the younger would feel none. But this pain of the
elder might in time be seen by the younger, and being
seen might draw him to feel the same, to enter into the
sorrow of the elder, and so to be of one mind with him,
and be delivered from his meanness.

Christ came once, and was manifested eighteen hundred
years ago ; but both before and since that time He has been,
as it were, diffused through humanity, lying at the bottom
of every man as the basis of his being. It was in Him that
God created man — just as light was the first created
thing, spread abroad diffusedly, but not gathered up into
the sun till the fourth day. So Christ the Head was
latent in humanity as the Head, but the Head did not
come out and show itself to the senses till the personal
Christ appeared in the flesh.

Secondly, Christ's second capacity is as the Head of the
whole race. In this capacity He fulfils God's whole will,
accepts the suffering which is eternally inseparable from
sin, bears it willingly, not indeed to save us from suffering,
but to call each of us to accept God's whole will gladly as
He accepted it, to accept suffering when sent, not as a
punishment but as healing, and so to follow Christ, — to

520 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSK1NE

call each to die continually to self, and to accept death as
a duty, as the declaration of God's will and purpose
towards us, — to accept it, not with sullen resignation, or
general bare trust in God's mercy, but as feeling that
God's purpose for us is always and wholly good, whether
in life or death. It is through dying to self continually
in life, and at last through actual death, willingly borne,
only thus that man can overcome. - Sin and suffering are
eternally connected. The body which belongs to this
seen system of things, to which man alienated from
God has surrendered himself, it is righteous that it
should suffer and die for its sin. And the spiritual man
will see and feel the righteousness of this, and willingly
give himself up to suffering and death. And so Christ
the righteous, as the Elder Brother of our race, standing
at the head of humanity, willingly entered into and bore
this death which the rest had to bear, and by bearing He
overcame it. And so it is only by closing with death
and suffering willingly (in the fellowship with Him), by
accepting it as righteous, and apprehending God's righteous
loving purpose in it, that any man can overcome it. . . .

Christ once entered into humanity, and enters again
into each man, not only to express God's grief and pain
over each man's sin, but also that He may say in His
capacity as the Son, and also as the Head of the race,
Eighteous art Thou, 0 God, in thus judging sin, in con-
necting suffering eternally with sin. In this aspect both
the capacities of Christ combine.

Another time this was the turn his conversation took : —
Suppose a man who had all his life long been a reckless
profligate, sinning every day without the least compunction ;
but suppose that at last it had come to this that he must
either commit one of his daily sins, tell one of his habitual
lies, or be put to death unless he did so. It might be

BV PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 521

that this might pull him up; conscience might awake,
check him, and keep him from the meanness of buying
his life by one of those sins which he had been in the
habit of committing daily without scruple. Here some-
thing within might whisper, Do it this once, and then
you will have time to repent of all your past life ; for if
you die now, you must go at once to hell. This would
seem to be conscience, but it would be a false conscience.
The true conscience would say, Do it not, fear not that
God can ever punish a man for doing right, or that a man
can ever lose by doing God's will, by obeying His own
voice within him. In every call from God to arise and do
the right, justification for the past is implied. The justi-
fication comes contained in this voice of conscience. The
command to abstain from sin implies that God justifies, —
has put away the past sin. And thus when the man
consents with his full will to death rather than do the
wrong, and recognises and accepts in the call to die God's
loving purpose toward him, he receives the forgiveness
and justification into himself. Every call of God to do
right, every voice of conscience, is a new coming of justifi-
cation to the man. Even if it come in the shape of a
condemnation of the man's present condition, it is still
the same, a fresh inflow of justification from God. For
why should He deal with the man at all, even to condemn
him, if He did not intend to deliver him from sin and
alienation 1

When Sir Walter Raleigh was brought to trial, the
counsel for his defence pleaded that he could not by the
law of England, or by right justice, be condemned, or even
tried, for the said offence, because it took place long ago,
and he had received the royal commission to serve the
Queen since the offence had been committed. And every
time the royal commission was given to a man, it by its

522 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

nature declared that he was a perfectly clear, free man.
So every time that G-od speaks to us in conscience, we
may accept it as declaring that He still justifies us,
pardons us, calls us to put away our sin, to die to our
own selves, to give up our own will, and enter into His
will. And if we apprehend His call thus, and do surrender
ourselves willingly to His will, we accept the justification.
Another time during that same visit he said : — The
Bible is the great interpreter of consciousness, and of
conscience. Conscience is not mine, I am its. Often a
man does not understand his conscience. A man, for
instance, is wroth with his neighbour who has wronged
him, vents his anger against him, and longs to be revenged.
Another comes and says to him, Why are you angry with
that man % Why do you wish to trample on him % He
answers, Because my conscience, looking at this injury
in God's light, tells me that I do well to be angry and
revengeful against him. The other rejoins, Did God
really give you this conscience, this sense of your neigh-
bour's sin, in order that you may trample on him, or not
rather that, feeling deeply his sin, you may help him out
of it 1 Again, years afterwards the expostulator finds the
angry man on the point of death ; he is overwhelmed with
the remembrance of his sin, and he says that all this terror
is just the effect of God's anger towards him, and the sign
that He intends to punish him. The expostulator puts
him in mind of their conversation years ago, asks him if
he thinks that God has this anger, and has made this
declaration of it in his terror-stricken conscience, that he
may destroy him, and not rather that he may help him
out of his sin and his terror — just as the strong conviction
of his neighbour's wrong-doing years ago was given to
himself, not that he might take vengeance on him, but
that he might help him out of his sin.

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIR P. 523

Such were some of the lines on which his thoughts ran
during that first visit in 1854. All who knew him will
probably recognise in them either the very thoughts they
have themselves heard from him, or at least thoughts like
those they have heard from him. These were the channels
which his mind latterly had grooved for itself, and which
it wore ever deeper as time went on. When he was
alone with a sympathetic hearer, and sometimes to those
who were not very sympathetic, his discourse would return
again and again to the same channels, and flow on for
hours together in thoughtful monologue.

These more inward subjects of conversation he often
varied by recurring to the events and the persons of his
past life which had most impressed him. He would often
talk with much affection of the friends he had made abroad,
— at Paris, at Geneva, and at Eome, and most frequently
recurred to the memory of Madame de Broglie.

Of home events, that which filled the largest place in
his retrospect was the revival of religion which began at
Eow in 1828, and continued there till it was cut short by
the summary verdict of the General Assembly in 1831.
Mr. Erskine, as is well known, had been an earnest sym-
pathiser and fellow-worker with Mr. Campbell, had stood
by his side through all the persecutions he was called to
undergo, and had been a witness of that never-to-be-
forgotten night in the General Assembly which cast out
from the Church of his fathers one of the saintliest of her
sons. The decisions of the Assembly could not touch Mr.
Erskine, but all the more for this he felt the deep wrong
which the Church by that act had done to his friend, and
the still deeper injury she had done to herself. He never
ceased to regard it as the stoning by the Church of Scotland
jif, her best prophet, the deliberate rejection of the highest
light vouchsafed to her in his time. Few felt as he did

524 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

that day; but as years went on more and more woke
up to know what an evil thing had been done in the
land. From that time on for many years he ceased to
have any sympathy with the Church of Scotland, when
not only the men, but the truth he most prized, had been
so rudely trampled down. In his eyes all the calamities
that befell her were the natural sequel of, perhaps judg-
ments for, the wrong she had done in 1831. In the last
twenty years of his life he came to know and value both
the character and the teaching of some of the young gene-
ration of ministers, and from time to time he attended their
ministrations. His was not the spirit to feel anything like
sectarian hostility to the Church, though he believed it to
have so deeply sinned, but he never ceased to feel righteous
indignation against the wrong-doing, though not against
the wrong-doers.

One story connected with this time he used to tell. It
was of the Rev. William Dow, a good man, who was
minister of a parish in the south of Scotland, but who for
siding with the views of Mr. Campbell of Row was called
to stand his trial before the General Assembly. On the
Sunday immediately before he went to Edinburgh for his
trial, being quite sure what fate awaited him, he thus
addressed his country congregation : — " You all know that
to-morrow I leave this to go to Edinburgh, and to stand
my trial before the General Assembly. And the result I
know will be that I shall be turned out of my parish, and
that this is the last time I shall address you as your
minister. This you all know. But there is one thing
about myself which you do not know, but which I will
tell you. When I first came here to be your minister I
found difficulty in obtaining a house in the parish to live
in. There was but one house in the parish I could have,
that was suitable, and that belonged to a poor widow. I

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 525

went and offered a higher rent for her house than she paid.
She was dispossessed, and I got the house. I put that
poor woman out of her house then, and I hold it to be a
righteous thing in God to put me out of my parish now."

This accepting the punishment as a righteous thing was
entirely" to Mr. Erskine's mind.

His friend Mr. Campbell of Eow writes of him in 1863 :
' He is very full, as has ever been his way, of the thoughts
which have last taken form in his mind, and would bend
everything to them ; and my work, as of old, has been to
endeavour to keep before him what he may seem to me to
leave out of account.' This exactly describes his discourse
as his friends knew it. — ' And would bend everything to
them,' that is, to the thoughts that for the time absorbed him.
This was especially observable in many of the interpreta-
tions which he imposed on difficult texts of Scripture. They
were exceedingly ingenious, and such as could only have
occurred to a meditative and highly spiritual mind. But
it often seemed, as if the interpretation was born from
within his own thought, rather than gathered from impar-
tial exegesis. So strong was the heat of his cherished con-
victions, that before them the toughest, most obdurate text
gave way, melted and fused into the mould which his bias
had framed for it. It was the characteristic of his mind
to seize whatever truth if did see with a peculiar intensity
of grasp. This is what Mr. Campbell in a letter of 1868
speaks of as his ' tendency to reduce many aspects of truth
to one, making him hesitate to see now the importance,
not to say the correctness, of what he once urged, making
him, indeed, appear to give up what he once held. I do
not believe that his views have at all changed as they
appear to himself to have done. . . . ' This passage seems
to mark exactly the distinction between the minds of the
two friends, as they struck me when I used to see them

526 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

together, or rather perhaps when, after conversing with one,
I afterwards spoke to the other on the same subject. Mr.
Erskine, whatever truth possessed him, threw himself wholly
into it, became absorbed in it, expounded it with a gentle
yet vehement eloquence, and illustrated it with a wealth
of ingenious illustration which was quite foreign to Mr.
Campbell's habits of thought. Mr. Campbell, on the other
hand, even the truths he most realised, he could con-
template with long patience, could move round them, and
consider them deliberately from every side, could see them
in all their bearings on other truths, and see those other
truths in their bearing on them. This patient power of
balancing truths seemingly opposed, combined with the per-
sistent adherence to his first cherished principles, contrasted
strikingly with the vehemence with which Mr. Erskine
flung himself on the thoughts that had once taken pos-
session of him.

Arising perhaps out of this tendency in Mr. Erskine to
be absorbed in one great truth, which he made to over-
bear all other truths that opposed it, was his belief
in the final restitution of all men. This seemed to him to
be the only legitimate issue of the G-ospel. The conviction
that it was so grew on him latterly, and he expressed it
freely. He used to dwell much on those passages in St.
Paul's epistles which seemed to him to favour this cherished
belief of his. In one thing, however, Mr. Erskine was alto-
gether unlike most of those who hold the tenets of Uni-
versalism. No man I ever knew had a deeper feeling of the
exceeding evil of sin, and of the Divine necessity that sin
must always be misery. His universalistic views did not in
any way relax his profound sense of Cod's abhorrence of sin.

Any one who talked intimately with Mr. Erskine in
later years could not help hearing these views put strongly
before him. Often when he urged them on me he seemed

B Y PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 527

disappointed when I could not acquiesce. I used to urge
that we do not know enough of the nature and pos-
sibilities of the human will to warrant us in holding that
a time must come when it will yield to moral suasion which
it may have resisted all through its earthly existence.
Then as to the Bible, though there are some isolated texts
which seem to make Mr. Erskine's way, yet Scripture,
taken as a whole, speaks a quite different language. The
strongest, most emphatic declarations against his views
seem to be words of our Lord Himself. Therefore I
shrink from all dogmatic assertions on this tremendous
subject, desiring to go no further than the words of Scrip-
ture allow, till the day comes which shall bring forth His
righteousness as the noonday.

It would be no adequate representation of Mr. Erskine
as he appeared among men, to conceive of him as confin-
ing all his conversation to religion and theology. Yet
these, no doubt, were his favourite subjects, those that lay
nearest his heart ; and when he met with a sympathetic
listener he poured himself forth unweariedly. It was not
any mere speculations about theology, any mere dealing
through the intellect with what is called scientific theology.
That was to him the mere outwork, the shell of something
far more inward and vital. In that inner region that lies
beyond all mere speculation you felt that his whole being
was absorbed, — that he was making it his own, not with
the mere understanding only, but that his heart, conscience,
and spirit were wholly in it. And whether his listener
understood all he said — for sometimes it was hard to catch
for its subtlety, — and whether he agreed with it or not, for
sometimes it was novel and even startling, — no one, who
could feel what spiritual-mindedness was, could come away
from his converse without feeling that in his society they

528 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

had breathed for a while a heavenly atmosphere. To
return from it to common doings and every-day talk was
like descending from the mount of vision to the dusty
highway.

It used to be a strange feeling to walk about his place with
him, wearing, as he did, to the outward eye, the guise of a
Scottish laird, while all the while his inner spirit, you felt,
was breathing the atmosphere of St. John. It was some-
thing so unlike anything you met with elsewhere in society.
The Scotland of his later years, in his own rank, and
among all the educated classes, had become more religious
than that of his early manhood. But even at its best the
tone of religious society was unlike his. For when left
alone to himself he was a man absorbed in the thought of
God. There is a saying of Boehme's which he loved to
quote : " The element of the bird is the air, the element of
the fish is the water, the element of the salamander is the
fire, and the heart of God is Jacob Boehme's element."
As I have heard him quote these words I used to think
' Thou art the man that Boehme describes himself to be.'
What Mr. Alexander Scott is reputed to have said, many
other hearts will respond to, that ever after he knew Mr.
Erskine he never thought of God but the thought of Mr.
Erskine was not far away. And combined with this went
another tendency, — I mean the absolute conviction that all
true thought about God would be found to harmonise with
all that is truest and highest in the conscience and the affec-
tions of man. It was the desire himself to see and to make
others see this harmony, to see that Christian doctrine was
that which alone meets the cravings of heart and conscience,
— it was this desire which animated him in all the books
he wrote, and in all the many conversations he carried on.

Over the social circle that met within his home at
Linlathen, his Christian influence showed itself in many

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 529

ways, and. though differing according as it met with different
characters, yet was always in harmony with itself. Among
the many relatives of all ages and characters who visited
him, and the guests who, especially during summer, were
welcomed to Linlathen, there were of course those who could
not sympathise with him in his deepest interests. If, how-
ever, they cared for literature, in Mr. Erskine they found
one who was at home in all that was finest and most soul-
like in literature, ancient and modern, and his bright and
sympathetic remarks or questions drew out the stores even
of the most reserved. The Classics he knew and loved to
speak of, Shakespeare he knew only less well than the Bible,
and his conversation was edged, with many apt quotations
from him. Even when sportsmen were his guests, men
whose chief delights lay at Melton Mowbray, he found
some bond of sympathy with them, something that made
them take pleasure in his society. He had a wonderful
art of setting every one at ease, and drawing out
the best side of every character. In this, his own
natural graciousness was perfectly seconded by his sister
Mrs. Stirling, who so long presided as the lady of the
house at Linlathen. She was of a character hardly
less remarkable than her brother, like-minded with him
in her aims and in the spirit she was of, but with more
turn for the practical affairs of life. She stood, in a large
measure, between Mr. Erskine and the buffets of the
outward world, and allowed his life to flow on in its own
natural current. How much her presence contributed to
make Linlathen the well-ordered and happy home that
it was can hardly be over-estimated. Never perhaps
were brother and sister more fitted to each other, more
able each to supply what the other had not, and so to
make a home in which all the requirements of refined
Christian society were combined. Very seldom has a home

2 L

530 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

been seen in which perfect ease, refinement, and high intelli-
gence so blended with the most sunny graciousness and
all-pervading Christian charity. No one, however great a
stranger he might be when he entered that house, could
there be a stranger long, and none of the many who visited
Mr. Erskine and his sister there, — neighbours, high and low,
guests from far and near, — will ever forget it. Another
element was added to the family group by his sister Mrs.
Paterson, who generally spent a great part of the summer
at Linlathen. She was so much of an invalid that she could
not come down-stairs regularly, but when she was able for
this, or when visitors had an opportunity of conversing
with her in private, they found in her an interest in things
as keen and an intelligence as active as her brother's, com-
bined with a spirit singularly gentle, attractive, and
elevating. To one looking back on the Linlathen of those
years, it seems to represent the very Scottish counterpart
of that gentle and high-souled English family-group which
is portrayed in the ' Memorials of a Quiet Life.'

I remember calling one summer afternoon at Mrs.
Paterson's house in Morningside, about the year 1863 or
1864, 1 think. Mrs. Paterson, Mrs. Stirling, and her sister-
in-law Mrs. James Erskine, were alone together in the
drawing-room. For an hour I sat while they talked of the
things nearest their own hearts and their brother's, in a
natural yet most unworldly strain, such as conversation
seldom attains. Mrs. Paterson perhaps spoke most, but all
three took part. It was early summer, and the western sun
was shedding a soft light along the green slopes of the Pent-
land hills, visible from the drawing-room window. When the
hour was ended I came away, but a soothing sense remained
long after, as though for a brief while I had been allowed
to overhear a high pure strain of heavenly music. I felt
that all three were, not by natural kinship only, but by

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 531

the kinship of the heart, spiritual sisters of their gifted
brother.

With any of his guests at Linlathen who cared for it,
Mr. Erskine used to continue his talk, not only in his
library and along the corridor, but in walks about the
place, or in a longer walk to the bare bleak links of
Monifieth, where the outlook was on the eastern sea. A
few of his sayings during such walks recur to me.

He said more than once that all the most deeply devout
men he had known had been brought up as Calvinists.
'How then do you reconcile this fact with the life-long
conflict you have maintained against Calvinism V 'In
this way,' he would reply; 'Calvinism makes God and
the thought of Him all in all, and makes the creature
almost as nothing before Him. So it engenders a deep
reverence, a profound humility and self-abasement, which
are the true beginnings of all religion. It exalts God
infinitely above the creature. In this, Calvinism is true
and great, and I honour it. What I cannot accept is
its conception of God as One in whom power is the para-
mount attribute, to which a loving righteousness is made
quite subordinate, and its restriction of the love of God in
a way which seems to me not righteousness, but par-
tiality.'

Another time, when speaking of how orthodoxy, cor-
rectness of intellectual belief, is made in Scotland the test
and synonym of goodness, he used to tell of a gardener he
had at Linlathen. The old man was, like many of his
countrymen, a great theologian, and piqued himself on the
correctness of his belief. One day, when speaking of the
good men he had known, the gardener said, after enumerat-
ing several, ' And there was Mr. Campbell of the Eow ;
he was a vara gude man, but than he devairged (diverged),'
-. — as if after that there was no more to be said for him.

532 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

His relations to his neighbours at Linlathen of all classes
were of the kindliest. I remember hearing of his having
lost a number of his best Southdown ewes which were
feeding in the park. The keeper watched, and found that
the destroyer was a large Newfoundland dog, which he
caught in the act. The dog belonged to a resident in the
neighbouring town of Broughty-Ferry. The case went
before the Sheriff, and the owner of the dog was condemned
to pay to Mr. Erskine the value of all the ewes which had
been destroyed. Some time afterwards Mr. Erskine was
taken with compunction, as if he had been too hard on his
neighbour ; so he sent him from his own flock a present of
fully as many ewes as had been paid for. One never heard
how this act was regarded in the district, whether as the
deed of unselfish kindness that it was, or as one of eccen-
tricity and weakness.

In earlier days of his discipleship, when he and Mr.
Campbell first saw a light in God's love which not many
others then acknowledged, Mr. Erskine, as is well known,
had for a time expounded, and even preached, to audiences
more or less large, at Linlathen and elsewhere. He had,
however, long ceased to do this when I first knew him.
His voice was only heard in his morning reading of the
Bible and in prayer with his own household in the library.
The impression of him, as he conducted that simple wor-
ship, those who shared it will always remember. His daily
walk, either in going or returning, often brought him to
some cottage where a sick or aged person lay, and he would
request his companion to remain for a little, while he went
in to pay his friendly visit. Many records might have
been gathered of persons around Linlathen, at Broughty-
Ferry and elsewhere, who being in darkness and distress
of mind, and finding no relief from the ministrations
of the ordinary religious teachers, first found light

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 533

and peace from words spoken to them by Mr. Erskine.
One can readily understand how this should be. It was
not only that his large human sympathy, and his deep
moral and spiritual hold of truth, fitted him to reach
hearts that were in darkness. But it was because when
he spoke to them of God and His love, he did not speak,
as at second-hand, of something he had read in a book,
but he witnessed directly to that which he had himself
known and tried.

For the last ten or twelve years before Mrs. Stirling died,
he generally took a house in Edinburgh, where they passed
the months from January till May. This suited his social
disposition, and gave him exactly that kind of society which
he most relished. He thus was able to continue his inter-
course with such of his early companions as still survived, with
his cousin the scholarly Mr. George Dundas (afterwards Lord
Manor), with Lord Rutherfurd, and with the aged Mr. James
Mackenzie, son of ' the Man of Feeling.' In this way, too,
he saw something of younger men, who- were drawn to him
by reverence and affection, and whom he welcomed with a
, sympathy at once fatherly and fraternal. Those winters in
Edinburgh gave him, moreover, opportunities of seeing many
relatives and friends not easily seen at other times, and each
winter brought his two old and like-minded friends, Mr.
Duncan of Parkhill and Mr. Campbell (of Row) to be his
guests for a time. In his house in Edinburgh he used to
exercise the same loving hospitality as at Linlathen. ' What
is the end of all social gatherings of men?' some one asks,
and answers, 'A little conversation, high, clear, and spiri-
tual.' This result was attained, if ever, at the board
where Mr. Erskine presided. He used to gather round
his table small parties, seldom more than eight or ten, of
persons well assorted, who would like to meet each other.
Never were there more delightful evenings, — anecdote,

534 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

pleasant humour, and thought flowed freely and naturally,
and you came away feeling that the hours had passed, not
only enjoyably, but profitably. Of a visit to Mr. Erskine
in 1864, Mr. Campbell wrote : — 'Mr. Erskine is so varied
and full, passing so easily to what Professor Thomson, who
dined with us yesterday, or Professor Eogers, who dined
with us to-day, contribute from their special stores, draw-
ing them out as an intelligent questioner does, and often
by natural transition passing to what is higher.'

His forenoons were spent partly in writing letters ; some-
times in giving more regular expression to his favourite
thoughts ; partly, also, in reading. His love of literature
was intense, with a keen sense of what was most excellent.
I have already noted his familiarity with Shakespeare, and
how readily he drew on that great storehouse. If you went
into his sitting-room on a forenoon during those years,
you would probably find him engaged in reading some of
the speeches of Thucydicles, or a dialogue of Plato. His
Greek was kept in -continual exercise by the close study of
the New Testament in the original. He used to say to me
that he had such a thirst for learning, and admiration of it,
that he believed he would have made himself a learned man,
had it not been for the early failure of his eyesight. This
confined his reading for some years to a quarter of an
hour a day. What more he overtook was by the tedious
process of listening to a reader. This inability to study
cast him back on his own thoughts, and did much to
foster that inwardness of mind which was natural to him.

During those winters his appearance, as he passed along
Princes Street to and from his afternoon visit to the New
Club, must have struck most passers-by, — with his broad
hat or wideawake, and his quaint, antique, weather-fending
guise. Walking with him on one such occasion, I
observed that he stopped and spoke very cordially with a

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 535

distinguished ecclesiastical leader of the time, who was well
known to disagree with him, and strongly to disapprove of

his views. ' You seem very cordial with Dr. .' With

a smile, he answered, 'He tries to cut me, but I never
allow him. I always walk in before him, and make him
shake hands/ On another occasion as 1 walked with him,
we forgathered with Dr. John Brown, and we three stood
talking together for some time. When Dr. Brown passed
on, he said, ' I like him ; he is a fine vernacular man ; he
can speak to you in a whisper. Have you ever observed
it is only Scotchmen who can speak in a whisper 1 The
English cannot do it.'

One Sunday he and I had been together to church,
where a young divine preached a somewhat rambling, un-
connected discourse. We came away, and said nothing.
Some time afterwards, as we were walking in silence, he
stopped, and looking round to me said, ' The educated mind
desiderates a nexus,' and then, without any more, passed on.

These are small things, hardly worth repeating, but
they are characteristic, and to those at least who knew
him, may serve to recall, not only his tone of voice, but the
quiet smile with which he used to say such things.

Among the last of the occasions on which he was allowed
to receive his friends in Edinburgh was in the spring of
1866, when his old and much- valued friend Mr. Carlyle,
after a long absence, revisited Edinburgh to be installed as
Bector of the University. Many will still remember the
wise and gracious courtesy with which he then performed
the duties of hospitality, on the one hand securing for his
guest the repose he needed and desired, on the other
according to as many as possible the coveted privilege of
meeting the sage of Chelsea. On the day on which Mr.
Carlyle addressed the students in the large Music Hall, Mr.
Erskine, knowing how great was the effort for a retired man

536 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

of Mr. Carlyle's years, and anxious how he might feel after
it was over, had asked no one to dinner for that day. When
the address was well achieved, and Mr. Erskine found that
Mr. Carlyle was none the worse, but rather the better for the
deliverance, he asked two or three of his intimate friends
to come and join a quiet dinner-party. That evening Sir
William Stirling Maxwell sat at the foot of the table, and
with nice tact gave such turn to the conversation as allowed
fullest scope to the sage who has praised silence so well,
out fortunately does not practise it. Eeleased from his
burden, Mr. Carlyle was in excellent spirits, and discoursed
in his most genial mood of his old Dumfriesshire remem-
brances, of the fate of James IV., and other matters of
Scottish history, and of the then Emperor Napoleon, of
whom, as may be imagined, he was no admirer. Those
days when Mr. Erskine received Mr. Carlyle as his guest
were among the last of his hospitalities in Edinburgh.

During the next winter his two sisters, first Mrs.
Stirling, soon after Mrs. Paterson, who had been the chief
earthly supports of his life, were removed, and his house
was left to him desolate. The staff of family affection, on
which he had so long leaned, was broken ; the hand which
for years had arranged all the outward framework of his life
was withdrawn. All that was identified with his youth, all
that ' his eye loved and his heart held converse with ' from
childhood, had now passed out of sight. ' He was as a man
moving his goods into a far country, who at intervals and
by portions sends them before him, till his present abode
is wellnigh unfurnished. He had sent forward his friends on
their journey, while he himself stayed behind, that there
might be those in heaven to have thoughts of him, to look
out for him, and receive him when his Lord should call.'
These words, in which Dr. Newman describes the old age
of St. John, truly represent Mr. Erskine during those last

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 537

years. Though he passed his few remaining winters in
Edinburgh, yet he never again after Mrs. Stirling's death
took a house there. In summers at Linlathen he used to
say, 'As I go to bed at night I have to pass two empty
rooms, which I never passed before without entering them.'
Younger relatives gathered round him. His nephew and
niece especially, who lived with him at Linlathen, did for him
all that the most devoted and watchful love could do. But
his own strength and health were declining, and there was
an oppression about his heart, which at times was distress-
ing. Still, during those last years he laboured on assiduously
to complete a book which he had begun, when roused by a
strong sense of the spiritual blindness betrayed in Kenan's
much-talked-of ' Vie de Jesus.' That book, notwithstanding
all its outward grace of style and felicitous description,
seemed to him at the core so short-sighted and misleading,
that after a silence of more than thirty years he once more
took his pen to say something in reply to it. He utterly
repudiated the character which it drew of our Lord, and
almost resented the fatuity which could separate with a
sharp line the morality of the Gospels from their doctrinal
teaching as to Christ Himself. He used to say, ' As you see
in many English churches the Apostles' Creed placed on
one side of the altar, on the other the Ten Commandments,
so Kenan would divide as with a knife the moral precepts
of the Gospels from their doctrines. Those he would
retain, these he would throw away. Can anything be more
blind? As well might you expect the stem and leaves
of a flower to flourish when you had cut away the root,
as to retain the morality of the Gospels when you have dis-
carded its doctrinal basis. Faith in Christ, and God in
Christ, is the only rgot from which true Christian morality
can grow.' This, or something like this, was what he used
to say, and to bring this out fully in connection with

538 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

his other views of the inner and eternal relation of the Son
to the Father, and of the Father to the Son, was a work
which he desired to accomplish before the end. The
whole line of thought which he wished to express stood out
clear before his own mind to the last, but the physical
labour of committing it to paper and arranging it was
great, almost too great, for him. Yet he never ceased
trying to put it into shape, and if he died without accom-
plishing all he wished to do, completed chapters were found
sufficient to appear, after his death, in his last work, ' The
Spiritual Order.'

The last visit which I remember having paid to him at
Linlathen was on the sixth day of July, 1868, — a beautiful
summer day. I had arrived there in the forenoon, and after
lunch he asked me to take a drive with him. We drove to
the manse of Mains, to make his first call on a young minister
who had been recently placed there. Mains was a parish
in which he had taken much interest, and which, chiefly
through his influence, had enjoyed the benefit of a suc-
cession of unusually good ministers. Among those whom
Mr. Erskine had helped to place there, and with whom he
had afterwards lived in much intimacy, were the late Dr.
John Eobertson, afterwards of the Cathedral Church,
Glasgow, and the Eev. John M'Murtrie, now minister of
St. Bernard's, Edinburgh.

It was a day of delightful sunshine, and as we drove to
Mains the genial air seemed to touch the springs of old
feeling and memory with him. He went back in retrospect
to early companions, — the large cousinhood who used to
meet at Airth and Kippendavie. He said how he loved
the scenery of Stirlingshire and Perthshire, with the green-
ness and luxuriance of their woodland, — not without, I
think, a silent mental contrast with the bare landscape and
stunted timber of the eastern coast, in which his own lot

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 539

had been cast. He said, if I remember right, that he had
often had a dream of spending his last summers in those
western regions which were so dear to him in memory.

After we had returned from our drive, we sat for some
time on the lawn just over the Dighty Water, which ran
underneath the bank on the top of which the house stands.
It was about six o'clock p.m., and the sun was shining
warm on us as we sat, and beautifying the landscape near
and far. After talking for some time, he asked me if I
remembered Mr. Standfast in the ' Pilgrim's Progress,' and
his words when he came to the bank of the stream : ' The
thoughts of what I am going to, and of the conduct that
waits for me on the other side, doth lie as a glowing coal at
my heart. . .' And then, looking across the Dighty to its
farther bank, he added, ' I think that within a year from
this I shall be on the other side.'

He then, I think, spoke of the awful silence of God, how
it sometimes became oppressive, and the heart longed to
hear, in answer to its cry, some audible voice. Then he
quoted that word, ' Be not silent to me, 0 Lord : lest if
Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down
into the pit ; ' and then I know he added, ' But it has not
always been silence to me. I have had one revelation ; it
is now, I am sorry to say, a matter of memory with me.
It was not a revelation of anything that was new to me.
After it, I did not know anything which I did not know
before. But it was a joy for which one might bear any
sorrow, — " Joie, joie, pleurs de joie," as was the title of a
tract I used to read at Geneva. I felt the power of love,
that God is love, that He loved me, that He had spoken to
me,' — -and then, after a long pause, — ' that He had broken
silence to me.' As he spoke he touched me quickly on the
arm, as if to indicate the direct impact from on high of
which he had been aware. As he walked away, leaning

540 REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS ERSKINE

on my arm, round the west end of the house, towards the
door he added : ' I know many persons in the other world,
and I would like to see them again.' This was, as far as I
remember, the last visit I paid him at Linlathen. The
conversation I have just given was so remarkable that I
made a note of it immediately, and I have given it as I
wrote it down at the time.

During the next two winters (1868-69 and 1869-70)
I saw him from time to time in Edinburgh.

One thing very remarkable during those last years
must have struck all who conversed intimately with
him, — his ever deepening sense of the evil of sin, and
the personal way in which he took this home to himself.
Small things done or said years ago would come back upon
him and lie on his conscience, often painfully. Things
which few other men would have ever thought of again,
and which when told to others would seem trifling or harm-
less, were grievous to him in remembrance. ' I know that
G-od has forgiven me for these things,' he would say, ' but
I cannot forgive myself.' How far this burdened sense
was connected with physical oppression about the heart
no one can determine. He himself would have been among
the last to accept the common explanation of spiritual
malady by merely bodily causes. This, however, I believe,
is true, that after that great effusion of blood, which was
the prelude of the end, had relieved his heart, the rest
was, as Mr. Campbell writing at the time expressed it, all
peace, — love, with perfect clearness of mind. I was not
privileged to see him during that solemn interval when
he lay waiting for the end, and speaking words full of
comfort and light to all those who were around him.

But his funeral day I remember well. It was a calm
bright day of March. The funeral prayers of the English
Church were read in his own library, where he had

BY PRINCIPAL SHAIRP. 541

so often prayed alone and in the family. He was laid
beside his mother, and the brother he so revered, in
Monifieth Churchyard, which is situated on the estuary
of Tay. where it broadens out to meet the ocean. The
churchyard was filled with his kindred, his friends, and
his neighbours, and over that place and company there
seemed to rest for the time a holy calm in harmony with
the saintly spirit that had departed. The thoughts of others
far away were centred in that churchyard on that day.

One who had in her childhood often listened to his
voice, and had since then been long an invalid con-
fined to her room,1 breathed from her sickbed these touch-
ing words as she thought of that day. The image in the
third verse especially all who knew him will understand.

ASLEEP.

Maech 28th, 1870.

Toss, ye wild waves

Upon the shore,
He is at rest

For evermore.

Moan o'er the surf,

Thou wind so drear ;
Moan, sob, and wail ;

He will not hear.

Close by he lies ;

But a long sleep,
His wondrous smile

Enchained doth keep.

Eoll, thou wild sea,

Against the shore,
He is at rest

For Evermore.

1 Miss C. Noel, daughter of his old friend the Hon. and Rev. Gerard Noel.

APPENDIX.

No. I. — Page 100.

EXTRACTS FROM " THE UNCONDITIONAL FREENESS OF THE
GOSPEL."

The leading ideas in the " Unconditional Freeness " are
sufficiently indicated in the following extracts, taken from
the fourth edition : —

"The medicinal virtue of the Gospel lies in the mani-
festation of that holy love with which God so loved the
world as to give His only begotten Son as an atonement
for its sins. Holy love is the great principle developed
in the Gospel. It is the union of an infinite abhorrence
towards sin, and an infinite love towards the sinner. This
mysterious history is the mighty instrument with which
the Spirit of God breaks the power of sin in the heart, and
establishes holy gratitude and filial dependence." — P. 1 6.

" The use of faith is not to remove the penalty or make
the pardon better, — for the penalty is removed and the
pardon is proclaimed whether we believe it or not, — but
to give the pardon a moral influence, by which it may heal
the spiritual diseases of the heart, which influence it cannot
have unless it is believed." — P. 22.

" Men are not, according to the gospel system, pardoned
on account of their belief of the pardon, but they are
sanctified by a belief of that pardon, and unless the belief
of it produces this effect, neither the pardon nor the belief

544 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. a pp.

are of any use. The pardon of the Gospel is a spiritual
medicine ; faith is nothing more than the taking of that
medicine ; and if the spiritual health or sanctification is
not produced, neither the spiritual medicine nor the taking
of the medicine are -of any avail ; they have failed of their
object."— P. 23.

" The gratuitousness of the Gospel, then, consists in the
unrestricted freeness of the pardon which it proclaims." —
P. 26.

" The Gospel reveals to us the existence of a fund of
divine love containing in it a propitiation for all sins, and
this fund is general to the whole race, every individual has
a property in it, of the same kind that he has in the com-
mon light and air of the world which he appropriates and
uses simply by opening his mouth or his eyes. Is it not
clear that as soon as any one really knows that such a
fund exists, and that it is indeed the gift of God to the
world and the common property of all the individuals in
the world, just as the natural air and light is, he will
immediately infer his own particular interest in it, and
enter into the enjoyment of it, and he will make the blessed
discovery which no tongue can rightly describe, and no
mere intelligence can rightly conceive, even that he him-
self has a possession, an unalienable, an everlasting posses-
sion in the heart of God.?"~P. 88.

" I know that justification is generally considered to mean
pardon, or the imputation of Christ's righteousness, and I
believe that sometimes it may have this meaning in the
Bible. But yet I am persuaded, by reasons which I shall
afterwards explain, that it chiefly bears the meaning which
I am now attributing to it, namely, a sense of pardon, or
of acceptance, or having the conscience purged of guilt, — and
that justification by faith always means a sense of acceptance
and safety arising from a belief of that accepted p-opitiation

I. ' THE UNCONDITIONAL FREENESS: 545

which has been^ made for the sins of the whole world." — Pp.
89-91.

" Now, if a man really looks to his faith in anything as
the ground of his pardon or hope before God, he is as
much nourishing the spirit of independence, and as much
walking in that spirit, as if he trusted in his obedience.
Self is in the one case, as well as in the other, the axis on
which the man turns, and the root out of which he grows.'
And he can scarcely avoid falling into this error in some
measure, if he thinks there is no pardon for him until he
believes. For if the pardon does not exist until he believes,
and immediately exists when he believes, surely his belief
has something to do in making it. It is in vain to tell him,
that faith does not make it, but only receives it. For he
may ask, Where is it then before faith receives it 1 If my
faith only receives it, it must have been in existence before
my faith. The only idea that I can attach to the expres-
sion, receiving the pardon by faith, is that of believing in the
pardon ; but in order to this, the pardon must have been
a real pardon before. If the gospel, as it stands in the
Bible, actually includes my pardon, then it is clear, that
when I believe the gospel, I shall also believe my pardon
as a part of it, and thus my faith will receive the pardon.
But if the gospel does not in itself contain my pardon, how
can my belief of the gospel be a receiving of pardon % " —
Pp. 95-7.

" If the gospel were, that God only loved those who
should believe in Christ, and that Christ died only for those
who should believe in His sacrifice, it is clear that such a
gospel does not embrace my pardon, nor the assurance of
God's love to me, unless I am a believer; and, therefore,
that my belief in such a gospel can give me no comfort,
nor peace, until I first ascertain that I believe in Christ.
And thus my belief in Christ is made something distinct

2 M

546 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. . app.

from a belief in the gospel, and is only a prerequisite con-
dition in order to my drawing comfort from the gospel ;
and thus also pardon and the love of God are made rewards
of faith in Christ. But this is not the gospel of the Bible,
nor the view of faith contained in the Bible, as every atten-
tive reader of that blessed book must know." — P. 99.

" A very common idea of the object of the gospel is, that
it is to show how men may obtain pardon; whereas, in
truth, its object is to show how pardon for men has been
obtained, or rather to show how God has taken occasion,
by the entrance of sin into the world, to manifest the un-
searchable riches of holy compassion. And it is to present
this most important truth (as I cannot but consider it) to
some who may not have thought of it before, that I have
published this book, — and it is for this same reason that
I have chosen to depart from the common phraseology on
the subject, — because I have found the common phraseology
liable to misinterpretation. Thus I have observed, that
even the phrase free offer of pardon is so interpreted, that
the very existence of the pardon is made to depend on the
acceptance of the offer. The benefit of the pardon does
most assuredly depend on its being accepted, but the pardon
itself is laid up in Christ Jesus, and depends on nothing but
the unchangeable character of j God." — Pp. 102-3.

"When I consider this important feature of the first
promise (its universality), I cannot help thinking that the
modern commentators on prophecy have reason, when they
say that the expectation of the restitution of all things
occupies a much less space in the common announcements
of the gospel, or in the thoughts of Christians than it ought
to do. It is the chief feature of that gospel which was
preached to Adam, and it is bequeathed to the church in
the last words of inspiration as an enduring consolation
and expectation, — " Behold, I come quickly." The general

n. ' THE BRAZEN SERPENT. ' 547

statements of the gospel in our days relate too exclusively
to what is already past, and to the individual salvation of
each believer. Of course it is impossible altogether to
separate the doctrine of Christ's sacrifice from its general
and future results; but these results seem to me not brought
forward by preachers as they are in the Bible. I do not
speak of the detail of these results, nor of the particular
fulfilment of the prophecies which relate to the last times,
because I do not feel myself qualified to speak on these
subjects ; but I speak of a fixed and longing expectation,
of the sure and fast approaching accomplishment of those
promises which announce the final triumph of the Messiah,
the establishment of His reign upon earth, the manifestation
of the sons of God, and the full development of all . those
high privileges which arise out of their union with their
divine Head. This doctrine appears to me now in a very
different light from what it once did." — P. 82.

No. II.— Page 139.

EXTRACTS FROM " THE BRAZEN SERPENT."

The following extracts, from the second edition, are
given as illustrative of the testimonies of Mr. Maurice and
M. Vinet :—

" But why was this suffering of our nature in the person
of Jesus needful % It was a fallen nature ; a nature which
had fallen by sin, and which, in consequence of this, lay
under condemnation. He came into it as a new head, that
He might take it out of the fall, and redeem it from sin,

548 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE, app.

and lift it up to God ; and this could be effected only by
His bearing the condemnation, and thus manifesting, through
sorrow and death, the character of God, and the character
of man's rebellion; manifesting God's abhorrence of sin,
and the full sympathy of the new Head of the nature in
that abhorrence, and thus eating out the taint of the fall,
and making honourable way for the inpouring of the new
life into the rebellious body. . . .

" "When we ask, What is the meaning of the sufferings of
Christ ; or in what way did those sufferings tend to accom-
plish the purposes for which he had left the bosom of the
Father, and came to this world 1 we ask a question which, in
its bearings, involves the whole character and purposes of
God, and the whole character and prospects of man. If this
question were put to many persons, we should probably get
various answers. One answer that would be pretty gener-
ally given to this question is, ■ that He came to save sinners,
and that He could accomplish this only by suffering in their
stead the punishment due to their sin, because thus only
their salvation could be reconciled with divine justice, and
thus only could it become a righteous thing with God to
remit the punishment of the real offenders. In this way
both the justice of God and His love were magnified. His
justice, in demanding the full penalty of the law ; and His
love, in providing a substitute to stand in the place of the
real offenders, and bear that for them which would have
overwhelmed them in everlasting perdition, if they had been
obliged to bear it themselves.' I believe that the Spirit of
God has made this view of the atonement spirit and life to
many souls — and yet I believe that, with some truth in it,
it is a very defective view, to say the least of it.

" This view of the atonement, which is generally known
by the name of the doctrine of Christ's substitution, has, I
know, been held by many living members of His body —

II. ' THE BRAZEN SERPENT: 549

and yet I believe that, with some truth in it, it contains
much dangerous error. In tile first place, I may observe,
that it would not be considered justice in an earthly judge,
were he to accept the offered sufferings of an innocent per-
son as a satisfaction for the lawful punishment of a guilty
person. And as the work of Christ was wrought to declare
and make manifest the righteousness of God, not only to
powers and principalities in heavenly places, but to men,
to the minds and consciences of men — it is not credible
that that work should contain a manifestation really opposed
to their minds and consciences. Let me here entreat of my
reader to be patient and not to misunderstand me, nor to
suppose that, by using this language, I do at all mean to
deny or bring into doubt the blessed truth, that Christ
tasted -death for every man, — for verily and indeed I believe
that Christ did taste death for every man, and that, too,
in a far deeper and truer sense than is taught by the
doctrine of substitution in its ordinary acceptation. The
humanly devised doctrine of substitution has come in place
of, and has cast out the true doctrine of the headship of
Christ, which is the large, and glorious, and true explana-
tion of those passages of Scripture which are commonly
interpreted as teaching substitution. Christ died for
every man, as the head of every man — -not by any fiction of
law, not in a conventional way, but in reality as the head
of the whole mass of the human nature, which, although
composed of many members, is one thing, — one body, —
in every part of which the head is truly present.

-'-If my right hand had committed murder, and my left
hand had committed theft, and my feet had been swift to
shed blood, — were I to suffer beheading for these offences,
no one would say that my head had been the substitute
for my hands and my feet. And although, in this case, it
be true, that the planning head is the real offender, and

550 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. ■ app.

therefore is the proper sufferer, yet the force of the com-
parison is not thereby destroyed, for even if these mem-
bers were capable of independent action, they would be
punished in the punishment of the head, because they are
all really contained in the head, in virtue of its being the
root of that system of nerves, which, by pervading them
all, does in fact sustain them all. . . .

" And secondly, He did not suffer the punishment of sin,
as the doctrine of substitution supposes, to dispense with our
suffering"it, but to change the character of*our suffering,
from an unsanctified and unsanctifying suffering, into a
^sanctified and sanctifying suffering. And thus, when our
[Lord himself speaks to the disciples about His cross and
j sufferings, He uniformly calls upon them to take up their
cross and follow Him, by the same road of suffering. This
connection is marked through all the Evangelists, and must
^therefore be a designed connection. — See Matt. xvi. 21-25 ;
Mark viii. 31-35; Luke ix. 22-24; John xii. 23-26.
And Paul desires fellowship in Christ's sufferings, and con-
formity with His death. The substance of all these pas-
sages proves that the substitution of Christ did not con-
sist in this, that He did or suffered something instead of
men, so as to save them from doing or suffering it for them-
selves. And this agrees with the obvious fact, that Christ's
death does not save the believer from dying a natural death,
nor does His sorrow save the believer from sorrowing. On
the contrary, the believer dies ; and moreover, dies daily,
in consequence of and in proportion to his faith. What
Christ, did, for us, was done for us in a sense and with a
view very different from that of saving us from doing it
ourselves. He fulfilled the law, for instance, certainly not
with the view of saving us from fulfilling it, but, on
the contrary, with the very view of enabling us to fulfil it.
For the salvation of Christ consists mainly in ' writing the

II. < THE BRAZEN SERPENT: 551

law upon our hearts,' — and He made Himself a sin-offering,
' that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.'

" When, therefore, it is said that Christ did or does things
for us, it is not meant that He did or does them as our sub-
stitute, but as our head. He does them for us, as a root
does things for the branches, — or as a head or heart does
things for the body. . . .

" But if Jesus did not suffer punishment to dispense with
our, suffering it, what has He accomplished for us by suffering
for us 1 Take this answer in the meantime. Sin can only
be burned out of our nature, by our sense of its misery,
and by our acquiescence in the righteousness of that misery
— which acquiescence we can never truly give, until we see
the holy love of God resting upon us, and manifesting itself
in the law against which we have sinned, and in the misery
which is inflicted upon us through our sin, and on account
of our sin. But holy love is a thing which our natural life
is incapable of seeing ; for our natural life is consciously
under the condemnation of sin, and is bearing its punish-
ment, and it cannot draw near to God, or look on God ;
for its condemnation implies and contains a separation
from God — it therefore cannot know love, or see love,
because God is love — the natural life, in truth, is the carnal
mind, which is enmity against God. And thus, while we
continue to live in this natural life, and to see things in its
light, we can see nothing in the punishment of sin but what
increases our fear, and enmity, and opposedness to God.
And thus punishment acts as a poison until we see it by
the light of another life — an uncondemned life — which has
freedom of access to God, and which can see His love.
Now, this is the great thing which Christ has accomplished
by suffering for us ; He has become a head of new and un-
condemned life to every man, in the light of which we may

552 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. app.

see God's love in the law and in the punishment, and may
thus suffer to the glory of God, and draw out from the
suffering that blessing which is contained in it. . . .

" The work of Christ is thus the source of life. It was
a work which no creature could have done — a work which
none but He could have done — a work without which no
man could have been saved — a work, to attempt to do which,
or to add to which, is to crucify the Son of God afresh, and
without which no man ever did or ever could have done
any of those things which his leader and head and God
calls on him to do, or indeed ever could reasonably have
been called on to do them. It was the great work of
atonement, on the credit of which, before it was accom-
plished, and through the channel of which, since it has
been accomplished, the love of God, in the form of favour
and forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit enabling man to
glorify God, has been given to every human being." —
Pp. 34-58.

" With reference to what is written in the 2d chapter of
this book on the subject of substitution, let me beg the
reader's attention to a few lines more. In the first place,
substitution is not a Bible word, but I do not wish to con-
tend either for or against words ; I wish to contend for the
truth of God, — and if ever I have unnecessarily jarred
against the feelings of any child of God, by my use of words,
I grieve for it as a sin. But I am satisfied that I have not
been guilty of this sin, in objecting to the word substitution
as characterising the relation in which Christ stood to us
in His sufferings, because I am satisfied that there is a dan-
gerous error connected with the word. Substitution always
supposes that the person suffering in the place of another
is quite distinct from that other, and quite free from all
righteous liability to the doom under which that other is
sentenced to suffer. This is, I believe, the idea generally

in. • THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION: 553

associated with substitution, — and it is as conveying this
idea, that I object to the word, for this idea really controverts
the true humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. For though,
whilst he was yet in the bosom of the Father, before He
took our nature, He was free from all liability of suffering,
and was under no call to suffer for men, except the impor-
tunate call of His own everlasting love, yet after He took
our nature, and became the man Jesus Christ — He actually
stood Himself within the righteous liability of suffering,
not indeed on account of any flaw in His spotless holiness,
but as a participator of that flesh which lay under the sen-
tence of sorrow and death, and being now engulfed in the
horrible pit along with all the others, He could only deliver
them, by being first delivered Himself, and thus opening a
passage for them to follow him by; as a man who casts
himself into an enclosed dungeon which has no outlet, in
order to save a number of others whom he sees immured
there, and, when he is in, forces a passage through the wall,
by dashing himself against it, to the great injury of his per-
son. His coming into the dungeon is a voluntary act, but
after he is there, he is liable to the discomforts of the dun-
geon by necessity, until he breaks through. This is one
man suffering for others, but it is not substitution." —
P. 263.

No. III.— Page 177.

EXTRACTS EROM " THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION," ETC.

"My object in this treatise is to set forth, as distinctly
and simply as I can, the grounds on which I have come to
the conclusion, that the doctrine of God's Election, as taught

554 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. Arp.

in the Bible, is altogether different from, and opposed to
that which has passed under the name of the Doctrine of
Election, and been received as such, by a great part of the
professing church through many ages." — P. 1.

" I held this doctrine for many years, modified, however
inconsistently, by the belief of God's love to all, and of
Christ having died for all — and yet, when I look back on
the state of my mind during that period, I feel that it
would be truer to say, I submitted to it, than that I be-
lieved it. I submitted to it, because I did not see how the
r language of the 9 th chapter of the Epistle to the Komans,
and of a few similar passages, could bear any other inter-
pretation ; and yet I could not help feeling that, on account
of what appeared to be the meaning of these few difficult
passages, I was giving up the plain and obvious meaning
of all the rest of the Bible, which seems continually, in the
most unequivocal language, and in every page, to say to
every man, ' See, I have set before thee this day life and
good, death and evil, therefore choose life that thou mayest
live.' I could not help feeling, that if the above repre-
sentation were true, then that on which a real and righteous
responsibility in man can alone be founded, was wanting,
and the slothful servant had reason when, in vindication
of his unprofitableness, he said, ' I knew thee, that thou art
an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gather-
ing where thou hast not straw ed.' Above all, I could not
help feeling that if God were such as that doctrine described
Him, then the Creator of every man was not the friend of
every man, nor the righteous object of confidence to every
man ; and that when Christ was preached to sinners, the
whole truth of God was not preached to them, for that there
was something behind Christ in the mind of God, giving
Him to one, and withholding Him from another, so that the
ministry of reconciliation was only an appendix to a deeper

in. « THE DOC TRINE OF ELE C TION. ' 555

and more dominant ministry, in which God appeared simply
as a Sovereign without any moral attribute, and man was
dealt with as a mere creature of necessity without any real
responsibility." — Pp. 3-5. i

"Thus, besides his own individual personality, we see two
powers in every man — the one, the power of this world and
of its prince y and the other the power of the world to
come, and of its Prince. These are the flesh and the spirit,
the seeds or principles of the first and second vessels. The
man is not either the flesh or the spirit, he is separate from
both, but they are seeds sown in him, and his capacity of
acting is merely his capacity of choosing to which of these
two active principles he will yield himself up. They are,
as it were, two cords attached to every heart, the one held
by the hand of Satan, the other held by the hand of God.
And they are continually drawing the heart in opposite
directions, the one towards the things of self, the other to-
wards the things of God — the one being the reprobation,
and the other the election. Thus man, in all his actings,
never has to originate anything ; he has only to follow
something already commenced within him ; he has only to
choose to which of these two powers he will join himself.
Here, then, I found that which I had approved in Calvin-
ism, and which I required as an element of every explana-
tion of the doctrine which should be set up in opposition
to Calvinism, namely, a recognition that there is no self-
quickening power in man, and that there is no good in man
but what is of the direct acting of the Spirit of God."
—Pp. 58-9.

" When we see the two natures, of flesh and spirit, so in
every man that he may join himself to either of them, and
thus become either reprobate or elect, we see the root of
the doctrine of election. And when we see rightly the gift
of Christ, we shall see that as He is the true light which

556 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. app.

lighteth every man, so also there is in Him a communica-
tion of life to every man. For ' in him was life, and the
life was the light of men ; ' and thus the light which light-
eth every man is a living light — a light whereby he may
live. And thus by the entrance of the Word into our flesh,
not only has God been brought near to us, as an object of
trust and love, but also His living Spirit, the divine nature,
has been communicated to us subjectively as a capacity of

embracing God, whether we exercise it or not

The whole responsibility of man consists in his power
to recognise and follow this inward drawing of God,
or to reject it, according to his own personal choosing."
—P. 61.

" Let me not be misunderstood, as if I said either that
man can, in his own strength, turn to God, or of his own
origination would ever desire to do so, — but man, since the
gift of Christ, need not do anything in his own strength.
The strength of God is communicated to him, in the seed
of the word sown in his heart, so that he may take hold of
it, and walk with God ; and it is only by his own wilful
refusal to use that strength that he is without it. Conver-
sion is, indeed, man's first step in the spiritual life, but he
never could have taken this step, nor could he ever rightly
have been commanded to take it, unless God had first taken
a step towards him. The Word who was with God, and
was God, and in whom there is life, hath come into man's
nature,— 'into the whole mass of the nature, — as a fountain
of life, to quicken every man, and as a living cord, to draw
man up to God. And shall we now speak and reason about
man, as if he were yet in the condition into which Adam's
fall brought him, before the Word was given ; though now
in him, ' God is the Saviour of all men, specially of those
who believe,' and in Him also ' the grace of God which
bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared,' and ' where

III. < THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTIONS 557

sin abounded, there hath grace much more abounded ' 1
Most assuredly there is in Jesus Christ a general sal-
vation for the whole race, inasmuch as in Him they are
lifted again into that state of probation from which in
Adam they had fallen, and are provided with spiritual
strength to go through their probation, whether they use
that strength or not : but none becomes personally a par-
taker of salvation, except by personally turning to God.
And, in like manner, there is in Jesus Christ a general
election for the whole race — inasmuch as, in Him, they are
lifted out of that state of reprobation into which, in Adam,
they had fallen ; but no one becomes personally elect
except by his personally receiving Christ into his heart."
—Pp. 141-3.

" With regard to the importance of the outward Word,
I may have exposed myself to misapprehension, especially
where I have asserted the unprofitableness of the out-
ward Word to those persons who were not listening
to the imvard word. But the reader will understand me,
if he carries along with him, that by this expression I mean
to describe persons contenting themselves, and pacifying
their consciences, either with the formal reading of the
Bible, or with the mere understanding of its theology, but
without seeking or finding spiritual communion with God
in it. Whilst they continue thus to read it or study it, no
one surely who knows what religion is, would consider it
profitable to them. Yet even in their case, I could not
wish that they should give up the reading of the Bible.
They are at present without faith, but the Bible has an
intrinsic aptitude to produce faith. It contains, in the
largeness of its inspiration, a tally corresponding to every-
thing in the hearts of all men, and a key to every variety
of their outward circumstances ; and God is continually
preparing a way for it into their consciences, by the events

558 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. app.

with which He is meeting them in His providence, making
them, through the discipline of these events, feel the truth
of what it testifies of the wickedness and desolateness of
the heart which is away from God, as well as the suitable-
ness of its counsels and threatenings and consolations, to
their experience and condition. And as the Spirit of God
is ever bearing the same witness within them, although it
may be generally disregarded, the coincidence of these two
solemn voices, from within and from without, will some-
times strike like a knell upon them, and bring home to
them the feeling that the Searcher of hearts is dealing with
them, and that they are entangled in his net, and that there
can be no true deliverance for them, and no true abiding
rest for them, but in knowing Him, and in being of one
mind with Him. It is in the hope of such a result as this,
that I feel thankful to know that even those who are with-
out faith are reading the Bible ; for those who are in the
practice of reading it are more in the way of this operation
than those who read it not.

" And for this same reason, it appears desirable that there
should be books, proving the inspiration and authority of
the Bible, by all sorts of argument, notwithstanding the
danger there is of men mistaking their assent to a demon-
stration for that faith which saves the soul ; because a man
who is really convinced that the Bible is a supernatural
book, is more likely to seek God in it, than one who regards
it as of at least doubtful origin." — Pp. 157-9.

" ' If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'1
Compare this with the 7th verse : 'If we walk in the
light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth
us from all sin.' From the comparison of these passages
1 1 John i. 9.

in. ' THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION: 559

it may be inferred that the confession of sin means the
same thing as the receiving of reproof, or the accepting of
punishment, and that this is the blood of Jesus Christ, or
the shedding of the blood of man's will in the Spirit of
Jesus. For surely it is not to be supposed that two dif-
ferent ways of being cleansed from sin are set before us in
these two verses of John, but that the one only way is set
forth in both, under two different forms of expression.

" All sin consists in man's independent will ; and there-
fore the shedding out of the blood of man's will is that
which cleanseth from all sin. And as the true confession
of sin is the condemnation which a man passes on his
past life and doings considered as a ground of confidence,
so it is an accepting of death as his due, which is the
virtual shedding out of the blood of all his past life, and a
casting of himself, in the Spirit of Jesus, on God and on
His mercy, which endureth for ever, as the only life and
hope of life.

" This was the continual sacrifice of Jesus, who bore
and confessed the sins of all men. And He is the un-
speakable gift of God to all men, not in order that they
may be excused from making this sacrifice, but in order
that they may partake of the Spirit of Jesus, and thus may
be enabled to partake with Him in this sacrifice of self —
in this acceptable service — so that God may be just,
whilst reckoning them righteous." — Pp. 240-2.

" And now if any of my readers are disposed to stop here
and ask me, 'Do you in your conscience think that this
dealing of God towards man, in allowing an innumerable
race to suffer by the act of a single individual, is consistent
with goodness and righteousness1?' I feel quite free to
meet the question, — and I answer unhesitatingly, that I
cannot think it good or righteous that any one should
suffer, on the whole, or taking the whole of his existence

560 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. APP.

into the account, by the fault of another — and that my
confidence in the goodness and righteousness of God in this
dealing of His towards man, is founded on the conviction
that out of it a greater amount and a higher kind of
blessedness will arise than could have been produced with-
out it — and that eventually no one individual will fail to
participate in that greater good, except by his own deter-
mined rejection of it.

" I might have just cause to complain, if exposed to trials,
without an adequate provision of strength to meet them; or
exposed to sufferings, without a prospect of deriving good
from them. And the justice of my complaint would not be
at all affected by the circumstance of this condition coming
to me by inheritance, in consequence of the sin of another,
whether that other was my progenitor or not. I cannot
admit the justice of a demand which He who makes it
knows I cannot meet, and of sufferings being laid upon me
which He knows cannot produce any good to me. And I
feel that my complaint is equally well founded, whether
this condition comes to me by original creation or by inherit-
ance. Indeed, I do not feel that the way of its coming to
me makes any difference on the justice of the dealing, so
long as it does not come in consequence of a culpable act
of my own.

" But again, I do not feel that I have any right to com-
plain of being called to any exertions or sufferings, however
great and however irksome they may be, if the appointer
of my lot supplies me with strength to meet them, and if I
have a prospect of deriving good from them, in proportion
to their difficulty. I should have no right to complain of
being originally created in such a condition of things, and
the circumstance of its coming to me by inheritance from a
progenitor on whom it was denounced as a mark of God's
disapprobation of his disobedience, does not change the

in. ' THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION: 561

case, so as to give me a right to complain as if such a con-
dition of things were unrighteous.

" If, according to the nature of things, a created mind can
only rise to spiritual excellence and blessedness by passing
through a spiritual and moral conflict, which embraces suf-
ferings and self-denial — and if there be a proportion be-
tween the amount of excellence and blessedness obtained
on the one hand, and the difficulties met and overcome on
the other, — then it will follow, that God is indeed only
calling us to a higher holiness and blessedness, by placing
us under such a condition of things as we now find our-
selves under, in consequence of the fall ; and although that
condition may have come to us as marking God's displea-
sure against the sin of our progenitor, it will not on that
account alter its own character in relation to us, or cease
to be a reason for gratitude to God for His goodness in
giving us this higher call.

" As to the idea of one man being considered actually
culpable on account of what another man has done amiss,
it appears to me as opposite to the whole tenor of the
Bible as it is to our own consciences. Yet I feel that an
instruction is conveyed to me in the fact that the perver-
sion of my nature, and consequent liability to pain and
death, come to me by inheritance from a man who had
brought them upon himself and his descendants by his
personal transgression, which I could not have had, if I
had been created originally in that condition, without any
such apparent cause leading to it. So that if it were said
to me, ' It is the plan of God to put you into this state of
trial and suffering, but you may choose whether you will
have it so settled by original appointment, or whether you
will have it come as the consequence of the sin of a pro-
genitor,' I feel a reason for choosing the latter. With
regard to myself, they are equally dealings of sovereignty,

2 N

562 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. app.

irrespective of deservings ; but according to the first way,
I have only the wise appointment of the circumstances of
my probation, whilst in the other I have an additional
speaking testimony from God, warning me of the poisonous
nature of sin by the example of my progenitor.

" In like manner, the fact that I am invited to receive,
through another One, the favour of God and the gift of the
Spirit, as a reward for his having resisted and overcome all
sin, notwithstanding of his having been encumbered with
all the disadvantages arising from Adam's fall, contains an
instruction which I could not have had if these blessings
had been bestowed upon me in unexplained sovereignty.

" I am instructed by these two facts to consider spiritual
darkening and weakening as the consequence of volun-
tary alienation from God, and spiritual enlightening and
strengthening as the consequence of a voluntary surrender
of self to God ; for I can never in my conscience suppose
that I shall suffer a true and permanent evil from the acts
of the first Adam, except by yielding myself to that spirit
of self-pleasing which brought on his penalty, or that T
shall derive a real benefit from the acts of the Second
Adam, except by yielding myself to that spirit of self-
sacrifice which brought on his reward.

" Thus, if the condition in which Adam was placed after
the fall was one in which he was called to greater exer-
tions and sufferings than in his former state ; and at the
same time, if his supply of strength was proportionally
increased, so that by using that strength faithfully in
meeting his trials, he had the certainty of obtaining a
much higher place, both in holiness and happiness, than
he could otherwise have reached, — then we may say that
Adam was a gainer by his punishment, and that his pos-
terity, notwithstanding of what they suffer through him,
have a higher hope set before them than they would have

in. ' THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION: 563

had if they had stood with him, in the original condition
in which he was created.

" But it will be answered that, although the truth of all
this be granted, still it must be taken into account, that
whilst men have a higher hope set before them, on this
new footing, they have also a greater risk as well as a
more arduous task, and that therefore they are tempted
to wish that they had an easier part to act, and less respon-
sibility, though at the expense of having a lower hope
before them.

" They may be tempted to wish this, but they cannot in
their consciences deny that such a temptation proceeds from
an evil source — from a base, low-minded slothfulness, in-
different and careless about the gracious purpose of God
to lead us upwards to Himself; and, at all events, they
cannot charge their Maker with unrighteousness in calling
them to a good and righteous conflict against evil, whilst
He does not fail to provide them with strength adequate
to their needs. They might as well complain that they
are not in the condition of a wild horse in the plains of
Tartary, or of an eagle amongst the Andes — set free from
all responsibility. Nay, they might as well complain that
they have a God at all over them, and that they are not
their own gods." — Pp. 257-64.

" I believe that the original condition of man, the fall,
and the redemption, are only so many consecutive distinct
steps in that mighty plan which is now in progress, and
which may continue to be so for ever, by which God would
train up a creature for real participation in His own holy
and blessed nature. I cannot conceive that a creature such
as man will be when that purpose is accomplished, could
have been made at once, in other words, that such a por-
duction is within the province of creative power. I believe
that holiness is an acquirement which can only be made by

564 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. app.

the co-operation of the creature's own personal will ; it is
a habit, and not a mere capacity, and. thus belongs not to
the first creation, but to the second, which requires the
consent of the creature." — P. 272.

" Thus every man has, in his present state of trial, three
distinct wills within him, of which he is himself conscious,
— first, the will of God striving with his conscience ; second,
the will of Satan or self ruling in his members ; and third,
the elective will, in his own personality, which determines
with which of the other two wills he shall side. This last
will, though it has this peculiar prerogative, is yet never
itself the dominant will, it only chooses which of the other
two shall be dominant." — P. 281.

" The conscience which God has given to every man is a
much higher gift than either an outward or an inward
oracle, such as we have been supposing. It is a capacity
of entering into the reasons of God's actions and command-
ments, it is a capacity of a true spiritual union with Him ;
and thus when we meet the will of God in our consciences,
we receive it in the way of participation, or as an infusion,
so to speak, — whereas, when we meet it in an oracle simply,
we receive it as an impulsion. That which does not enter
by the conscience, but is merely put upon us, or conferred
on us, can never really affect our nature, — it may elevate
us as instruments in the hands of God, but it cannot elevate
us into fellowship with God. And therefore the smallest
conscious and sympathetic conformity to the will of God
is a much higher thing than the being made the instrument
of raising the dead, or declaring things to come. In the
one case the nature is really elevated ; in the other, it is
only used for an elevated purpose." — Pp. 513-14.

" The Protestant does the same thing with regard to the
doctrines of religion that the Papist does with regard to

III. * THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION: 565

religion throughout. He relieves himself from the personal
obligation of apprehending their truth in the light of his
own conscience ; he looks to the Bible as the Papist looks
to the Church, and he adopts whatever doctrines he thinks
that he finds there, without feeling the obligation of person-
ally seeing their truth in the light of his own conscience,
before he is really entitled to call himself a believer of them.
He thus substitutes outward authority in the place of the
light which is Life, although he condemns the Papist for
doing that very thing." — Pp. 515-16.

" But when I say that we are not left to lean on any out-
ward authority for our knowledge of God, and of His ways
towards us, let no one think that I am putting aside the
Bible as an authority ; for my meaning is simply this, that
although many most important truths are set before us in
the Bible, which never would have entered our hearts had
they not been thus set before us ; yet that being thus set
before us, they are then only profitable to us, and even truly
believed by us, when they awaken within us a corresponding
form of our inward spiritual consciousness, so that we recog-
nise them henceforth, as truths which we ourselves know
to be truths, by conscious experience, and not merely on
the outward authority of the Book.

" There are many facts in our intellectual experience quite
analogous to this, which might be used to illustrate it.
Thus, a man may be perfectly incapable of making any
advance in mathematical science by his own original and
unassisted efforts, — and yet if Euclid be put into his hands,
he may find himself quite able to follow and appreciate the
reasoning, and thus to gain a very considerable acquaintance
with the subject. His mind in consequence is filled with
a new class of ideas, which he has acquired entirely from
the reading of this book. And yet it is not on the author-

566 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSK1NE. app.

ity of the book that he rests his conviction of the truth of
any of the propositions contained in it, but on his own
personal discernment of their truth. Indeed, we could not
consider him to have entered in the slightest degree into
their meaning, if we found him resting his belief of them
on the authority of the book, or on any outward authority
whatever. Nor indeed would we call such a belief a
mathematical belief at all. And yet had not the book
presented the truths outwardly to him, the inward intellec-
tual types might have lain for ever dormant within him.

" In this case, we do not feel that we detract from the
importance of the book, when we say that it is subordinate
to the inward intellectual authority ; that is, when we say
that it is to be judged by that authority, and that no man
can believe it rightly except by discerning its agreement
with that authority within him; and that any other kind
of belief is not a belief which suits the subject, because it
is not a belief which discerns truth in the subject.

" And in the same way we do not detract from the im-
portance or from the authority of the Bible, when we say
that then only can its authority be rightly acknowledged
by us, when we discern its agreement with the testimony
of the spiritual witness within us, and that its great im-
portance consists in awakening our consciousness to the
presence and the instructions of that spiritual witness." —
Pp. 523-26.

" Metaphysicians have disputed whether conscience is a
simple faculty, or whether the impressions which we ascribe
to it are produced by a combination of faculties. And if
there be no higher nature in it than man's nature, it is of
little consequence which of these opinions we adopt; because,
on this hypothesis, our power of obeying its intimation,
which is certainly the important point, could not be affected

in. l THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION: 567

by the correctness or incorrectness of our opinion. But if
the voice in our conscience is the indication of the actual
presence of God within us, a knowledge that it is so is of
immense importance to us ; for thus we enter into the
secret of God's love towards us, and of His purpose concern-
ing us, that our hearts should be His temples, and that we
should be one with Him, through Jesus Christ ; and thus
also we discover, that though in ourselves we are only-
ignorance and weakness, yet we have within our reach,
and within the limits of our own nature, the infinite
wisdom and infinite strength of God, to which we may
unite ourselves, and we are thus encouraged to run with
confidence the race that is set before us.

" Some of my readers may think that I have given too
great a place throughout the whole book to the subject of
'■onscience ; but in this I have acted from the conviction
hat neither the doctrine of Election, nor any other doctrine,
c*i be rightly understood except through the doctrine
ofxmscience." — Pp. 544-46.

No. IV.— Page 373.

MR. ALEXANDER J. SCOTT.

In 330 Mr. Scott became minister of the small
Scotch >ngregation at Woolwich. Here, in compara-
tive retiment, immersed in studies of many kinds, he
remainedor upwards of fifteen years. His connection
with Edwd Irving at the first, and his residence so near
the metrojis afterwards, brought him into close fellow-

568 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. app.

ship with Carlyle, Maurice, Hare, Dunn, etc., disclosing to
them at once the rich resources of his scholarship and the
peculiarities of a spiritual intelligence, the depth and width
and height of which seemed equally above the ordinary
range.

In 1841 Mr. Scott delivered in London a course of five
lectures on " The Social Systems of the Present Day com-
pared with Christianity." These lectures were reported
in the Pulpit. They dealt with Romanism in the shape
it then took of Puseyism, and which now, after an interval
of thirty-six years, has reappeared in the guise of Ritualism;
with Chartism in the shape it then took of demand for
universal suffrage, annual Parliaments, and vote by ballot,
and which now by kindly treatment and wise concession
has almost disappeared ; with Socialism in the shape
it then took of Owenism, and which now, instead of dis7
appearing, or being seen only among the lower and th/
more unenlightened, has in the portentous shapes I
Materialism, Secularism, Comtism, spread widely a/d
taken hold of all classes of the community. The reaer
of Mr. Scott's lectures, as he reflects that more than /he
years of a generation have passed since their delivery Jvill
be surprised that there is so little in them that is r/t as
directly applicable to the present as to the past, /-hey
owe this to a quality by which all his handlings o/such
topics were distinguished, — that the merely temporary,
secondary, adventitious was set aside, and in each /se the
root-principle was sought for, grasped, and aloj< dealt
with. In the following year (1842) another bu^horter
course of lectures was delivered in the same /ace on
"Schism," the same method observed, and with a ^e result.
Three years later (1845) Mr. Scott preache' a very
original and remarkable sermon at Woolwichpn " The

iv. MR. ALEX. J. SCOTT. 569

First Principles of Church Government." Its object was
to show that, as represented in Holy Writ, this principle
consists in the free exercise, on the part of the Church, at
all different times, and in all different circumstances, of
her own best judgment in the selection of the means best
fitted to promote the great ends of her institution ; that
she has not been bound down to any specific form of
government or worship or discipline by a divine enact-
ment in its favour ; that her institutions stand not on the
strength of statute, but in that of their fitness to fulfil the
great objects of her mission ; that in point of fact the
history of their origin proves this to be their character.
The discourse consists mainly in a review of the first
institution of Judges under Moses, of the Schools of the
Prophets and of the Synagogue in Old Testament times,
and of the appointment of Deacons and the decisions of
the first Council at Jerusalem in New Testament times,
with the design of showing that what was in each case
done, sprang naturally and primarily out of the form and
pressure of existing circumstances, did not originate in a
divine edict, and though the sanction and blessing of God
were conferred and bestowed, human wisdom, seeking
such guidance as is always promised, was permitted to
prompt and to fashion. The sermon was published as a
pamphlet and came into the hands of Dr. Chalmers, who
wrote thus to its author : —

" Edinburgh, March 22, 1845.

" My dear Sir, — Yours is no every-day pamphlet ; and
I have read it with the most entire and cordial satis-
faction. . . . How the adoption of your principle ought
to speed the cause of Christian union ! . . .

" The saying of Paul that • I speak as a man,' while it
does not affect the plenary inspiration of Scripture, which

570 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. app.

is responsible not for the thing recorded but for the truth
of it, teaches, in my opinion, your very lesson, by letting
posterity know, from even his high example, that it was
competent on mere human discretion to decide on ques-
tions of ecclesiastical regulations and polity. There is
thus a great purpose served by that brief intimation, and
it is a further enhancement of the lesson when he says, ' I
speak as unto wise men, judge ye what I say.' — I am,
my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers."

In November 1848 Mr. Scott was appointed to the
Chair of "English Language and Literature " in University
College, London. In the year following (1849), on the
invitation of the Directors of the Philosophical Institution
of Edinburgh, he delivered in that city six lectures on " The
Philosophy of History." In the winter of 1850-51 he
was called to occupy the position of Principal of the new
College (Owens) then founded at Manchester. In addition
to the Principalship, he filled the Chairs of "Moral and
Mental Philosophy" and of "English Language and
Literature." Again and again the Directors of the Philo-
sophical Institution of Edinburgh sought and obtained his
highly prized services as a lecturer. In 1850 he delivered
before its members four lectures on "The existing Ele-
ments of English Society historically considered ; " in
1851, four lectures on "The Progress of Mental Philo-
sophy," and four lectures on " The General Literature
of the Period." In 1853 he was asked by the Directors,
as the greatest honour they could bestow, to deliver the
Introductory Address to the course. In 1856 he delivered
four lectures on. "The Literature of the Middle Ages;"
in 1858-59 four lectures on "The Revival of Letters
anterior to the Reformation;" and in 1860 four lectures

iv. MR. ALEX. J. SCOTT. 571

on " The Reformation in its Philosophical and Social Ten-
dencies, and the Result."

The Principalship of Owens College Mr. Scott after
some years resigned; but the Chairs held originally in
connection with it he occupied till his death, which took
place in January 1866, at Veytaux, on the Lake of Geneva,
to which place failing health had taken him at the close
of the summer session at Manchester in 1865.

As a linguist Mr. Scott had at free command, and
turned to frequent exercise, the three old tongues of
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. His mastery of the three
modern ones, French, Italian, and German, was complete.
With the Anglo-Saxon he was so versant as to undertake
to teach it. It was as instruments, however, that he used
these languages, employing them as the needed keys to
open up to him mediaeval and modern literature and
philosophy. The rich and varied stores thus gathered in
were used again but as instruments or materials for that
spiritual faculty of insight and reflection which in origi-
nality, subtlety, depth, and comprehensiveness was scarce
surpassed by any pure thinker of his times. It is ever to
be regretted that he has left so little behind him. This
was largely due to his possession of a singular facility of
extempore address, and as singular an indisposition either
to write or to publish. No matter what his topic, — whether
recondite, involving sustained trains of purely abstract
thought ; or historical, involving numerous references to
persons and events ; or critical, involving the introduction
of many apt illustrations, — in lecturing he never used a
manuscript, seldom indeed had committed his thoughts to
writing, and yet the stream of words flowed on unbroken, —
words apparently all chosen with the nicest care and most
delicate adaptation. "I have never," wrote Dr. W. B.

572 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. app.

Carpenter, " heard any public speaker who could be com-
pared with him in masterly arrangement of materials,
lucid method of exposition, ready choice of the most
apposite language, freedom from all redundancy, force and
vigour of expression, beauty and aptness of illustration, —
in a word, in all those qualities which fix the attention of
hearers." Could Mr. Scott have submitted to the labour
of writing and publishing the thirty-one Edinburgh lectures
alone, accompanied by illustrative notes, what a wide field
would they cover, what a vast range of reading would they
indicate, what profound remarks and delicate criticisms
would they have presented to us ! As it is, we have only
notes of the four on the Literature of the Middle Ages,
taken down by a shorthand writer, and published at Mr.
Erskine's instance and expense. Urged by many friends,
a year or two before his death, Mr. Scott put together and
had printed three early papers from his pen, the lectures
on Social System and Schism, and the sermon on Church
Government. These, published by Macmillan and Co.
after his decease, under the title " Discourses by Alexander
J. Scott," are all the fruits that now remain of all the
searchings after truth of a spirit so finely touched that
the two friends who knew him best, and who had each
large acquaintance with distinguished men, have separately
declared that he was the man above all others they had
ever met who impressed them with the sense of mental
and spiritual superiority.

HIS WRITINGS. 573

No. V.— Page 502.

WRITINGS OF MR. ERSKINE.

Ten years or so after the publication of the " Doctrine
of Election," two distinguished Americans called upon Mr.
Erskine, giving as their apology for intruding without
introduction, their strong desire to become personally
acquainted with an author whose writings had made a
wide and deep impression on their countrymen. " It is
strange," said Mr. Erskine ; " it is a long time since I have
read any of them, and my impression is that if I did, I
would dislike them." His interviewers named one of his
volumes as to which they fancied he could have no such
feeling. " My impression is," was the reply, " that that is
the one that I would particularly dislike." Cherishing for
a time this feeling, Mr. Erskine suffered his earlier publi-
cations to go out of print. In 1844, Mr. Wright Mathews
having written to him suggesting that the " Introductory
Essay " to the little volume of " Letters by a Lady " should
be reprinted, and offering, if the liberty were given to
republish it, to superintend the press, received the following
reply :—

" St. Geokge's Hotel, 26th Sept. 1844.

" I don't wish to oppose your desire to have that little
Essay reprinted, and yet I know that I could not put my
seal to it as I could have done when it was written, and I
do not like to put anything forth as the Gospel, which
contains so imperfect a view of truth as that little essay
does. You could make a much better tract than that, and
if so, why publish an inferior and defective tract 1

" I hope yet, if God spare me, to write some short state-

574 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. app.

ment which may contain all the truth which I have
published, and omit the trash. Let this be my answer,
dear friends, to your proposition."

Discouragement only led Mr. Mathews to renew and
enlarge his offer, and he got in return a carte-hlanche, upon
which he never acted : —

" Paris, 8th October 1844.

" You are very welcome to do what you please with my
books, only don't touch much on the last, which I hope
yet to put into a better form, and perhaps to make it into
a risumt of all that is valuable in the former ones, parti-
cularly the conclusion. In the introduction to the old
lady's letters I remember some severe words about the
leprosy of the Church of Scotland, which ought to be
omitted as hurting without healing. It is long since I
have read any of them. I cannot do it, there are so
many things which are stated there as whole truths, which
are only half truths. This is my general fault to them."

Under the title " True and False Eeligion," the " Intro-
ductory Essay " alluded to in the first of these letters, was
re-issued in 1874, by the incumbent of Glenfield, Leicester-
shire, and it is gratifying to observe that the passage
pointed to by Mr. Erskine as the one he would not like to
see reprinted has been, of his own motion, omitted by the
judicious editor.

The conclusion of the volume on Election, referred to in
the second letter to Mr. Mathews, was also separately
republished, by one who thoroughly appreciated its place
and importance among Mr. Erskine's writings, under the
title, " The Internal Word ; or, Light becoming Life ; a
Short Guide to the Eule of Faith and of Life ; being an
Abridgment of the concluding portion of Mr. Erskine's

HIS WRITINGS. 575

volume on the Doctrine of Election. Edited by the Eight
Rev. the Bishop of Argyll. Edinburgh, 1865."

The indisposition to authorship cherished so long was
at last dispelled. The publication successively of the
"Essays and Reviews," Renan's "Life of Jesus," " Ecce
Homo," and Colenso on the "Pentateuch," awakened in
him profound anxiety and not a little alarm. It was not
in the direction taken by the writers of those volumes
that he felt inclined to move. It was not from movement
in that direction that he anticipated the truest and best
advance. Apostle of progress in religious thought as he
had proved himself to be, depth was to him far more than
width. It was a broadening which should do nothing to
weaken or dilute the faith that he aimed at and desired.
There was much in the fresh historic criticism brought
to bear upon the narrative of the Bible with which he
was inclined to sympathise, but whenever he detected a
disposition to set aside or make light of the great truths
of the Incarnation of the Deity in the person of Jesus
Christ, and the new relation of sonship to God into
which the world has been begotten by His life and death,
he drew back and repudiated. When the great truths
or laws revealed in the central facts of Christianity were in
any way unsettled, it was not, in Mr. Erskine's opinion, by
Biblical criticism that the unsettling process was best met,
but by a fresh or still further unfolding of their grounds
and reasons in the character of God and the constitution
of human nature. In this region he felt that he had a
word to say of moment to the times ; he set himself to say
it too in such a manner as might address itself pertinently
and with power even to those who entirely repudiated the
inspiration and the supernatural in the facts and records of
the Bible. The letters from 1864 onwards tell with what
difficulties he had to contend in trying to give fit expres-

576 LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE. app.

sion to his latest thoughts. And they sufficiently indicate
what these thoughts were which he had yet but imperfectly
embodied when he was removed by death. His dying
charge to Miss G-ourlay was most faithfully and intelli-
gently executed. All that was in a fit state for publica-
tion was carefully seen through the press, and published
in 1871 under the title, "The Spiritual Order and other
Papers, selected from the Manuscripts of the late Thomas
Erskine of Linlathen," whilst the specific instruction as to
the paper on Education and Probation was carried out by
its separate publication in 1870 under the title, "The
Purpose of God."1

With the removal of the indisposition to prepare any-
thing new for publication, there came also the removal
of the impression that his earlier writings were in anything
like dissonance with his later ideas. Yielding to repeated
solicitatiou, he consented to listen to his volume on the
" Unconditional Freeness of the Gospel," as read to him
by friends, and being satisfied that it was in substantial
harmony with what he was then preparing for the press,
consented to its republication. It appeared in 1870, soon
after his death, and a new. edition was issued in 1873.

WRITINGS OF MR. ERSKINE; WITH DATES OF
PUBLICATION.

1. Remarks on the Internal Evidence for the Truth of Revealed
Religion.

Edinburgh, Waugh and Innes, 1820.
Fourth Edition, 1821.
Ninth Edition, 1829.
Translated into French by the Duchess de Broglie, and pub-

1 It appears as the third chapter of The Spiritual Order.

v. WRITINGS OF MR. ERSKINE. 577

]ished in Paris, 1822, under the title " Reflexions sur l'Evidence
Intrinseque de la Verite du Christianisme."

Translated into German, and published at Leipzig, 1825,
under the title " Bemerkungen liber die Inneren Griinde der
Wahrheit der Geoffenbarten Religion."

2. An Essay on Faith.

Edinburgh, Waugh and Innes, 1822.
Fifth Edition, 1829.

Translated into French, 1826, and published at Paris under
the title "Essai sur La Foi."

3. The Unconditional Freeness of the Gospel.

Edinburgh, Waugh and Innes, 1828.
Fourth Edition, 1S31.
Fifth Edition, 1870.
New Edition, 1873.

Translated into French under the title " La Pleine Gratuite"
du Pardon," and published at Lausanne, 1874.

4. The Brazen Serpent, or Life coming through Death.

Edinburgh, 1831.
London, Whittaker, 1846.

5. The Doctrine of Election, and its connection with the General

Theory of Christianity, illustrated from many parts of
Scripture, and especially from the Epistle to the Piomans.
London, James Duncan, 1837.

6. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Greenock, R. B. Lusk, 1830.

7. Introductory Essay to Extracts of Letters to a Christian

Friend.

Greenock, R. B. Lusk, 1830.

8. Introductory Essay to the Works of the Rev. John Gam-

bold, A.M.

Collins' Select Christian Authors; Glasgow, 1822.
2 0

578 WRITINGS OF MR. ERSKINE.

9. Introductory Essay to the Saints' Everlasting Best.

Collins' Select Christian Authors; Glasgow, 1824.

10. Introductory Essay to the Letters of Samuel Rutherford.

Collins' Select Christian Authors ; Glasgow, 1825.

11. The Spiritual Order, and other Papers.

Published after his death, in 1871.

INDEX.

INDEX.

Adam, Dr., Rector of Edinburgh
High School, 10.

Adam's Private Thoughts, 72,
79.

Adrian's tomb, 95.

Advocates, becomes a member of
the Faculty of, 11; bids fare-
well to the Bar, 15.

Affliction, use of, 52, 179 seq.,
215, 270, 336, 370, 372, 376,
412, 416, 423, 440-452, 497.

Airth Castle, 7, 511-12.

Albano, 94, 96.

Anderson, Christopher, 30.

Argyll, Bishop of ; see Ewing, Dr.

Art, works of, enjoyment in,
33, 41, 42, 48-50, 73, 75-78,
279.

Assurance, personal, doctrine of,
118.

Atheism, 361.

Atonement, the, 25, 107, 110, 179,
184-195, 200, 215, 250, 270,
281-82, 304-5, 309, 310, 329-
332, 334, 407 seq., 417-8. See
Campbell, Maurice, Jesus Christ,
Pardon, Punishment of Sin,
Salvation.

Aubigne^ Merle d\ See Merle.

Authority, submission to, 343,
338 seq., 397, 409.

Baillod, M., a Swiss artist, 45-
47, 79.

Batten, Mrs., 485; letter to, 417.

Emily, 485. See Gurney.

Baveno, 48, 67-70.

Beecher, Dr. Lyman, 27.

Believing in Jesus Christ, — its real
meaning, 429. See God, Sal-
vation.

Bible, the, and man's conscience,
217, 218, 518, 522; critical
spirit towards it, 355, 365 ;
difficulties in, 364 ; letters on,
397-407. See Civilisation.

Blackwell, Mrs., letter to, 332.

Bohme, Jacob, 91, 528 ; a disciple
of, at Lausanue, 233.

Bologna, 76.

Bosanquet, Mrs., 313.

Bost, M. Ami, 233.

Boyle, Rev. G. D., letter to, 415.

Braid, Mrs., 328, 480, 489.

Brazen Serpent, The, publication
of, 138; extracts from, 255,547.

Breule, M. de, 235.

Bright, John, speeches of, 493.

Brigue, i. 63-66.

Broglie, M. de, 224, 226.

Madame de, 7, 63, 75, 203,

261; her death, 196, 221 seq.;
letters to, 205-8, 210, 213-19.

582

LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

Broughty-Ferry, chapel at, 94,
244.

Brown, Rev. Baldwin, 311.

Brown, Ebenezer, of Inverkeith-
ing, 242.

Brown, John, M.D., 241, 501 seq.,
535 ; letter to, 451.

Bruce, Lady Christian, wife of
James Erskine of Cardross, 5 ;
see Erskine, James. She was
aunt of —

Thomas, seventh Earl of

Elgin ; see Elgin. The two
following were daughters —

Lady Matilda, 91, 146, 154.

See Maxwell.

Lady Augusta, 203. See

' Stanley.

Bruce, James, of Kinnaird, 6.

Bunsen, Chevalier, 91, 96, 97,
459 ; letter to, 307.

Burnett, Mrs., of Kemnay (grand-
daughter of Dr. John Erskine),
letters to, 14, 15, 177, 179, 250,
258, 266, 281, 297, 300, 302,
335, 382.

Burns, Dr., of Paisley, 104.

Butler's Analogy, 25, 364.

Cadder House, 17, 39, 98, 245.

" Calvinian " atmosphere, the,
487.

Calvinism and Arminianism, 33,
248, 249, 311, 531.

Campbell, Dr., of Kilninver,
264.

Rev. J. M'Leod, of Eow,

case of, in the Church courts
102 seq., 127-8 (see 487, 492'
523, 524) ; the spiritual gifts,

129 seq. ; in Paris, 209 seq. -
letter to his son, 371 ; letter to
his daughter, Mrs. Macnabb,
481 ; letters to, 174, 180, 225,

251, 264, 283, 311, 321, 325-6,
341, 343, 372, 373, 467, 491-2;
tender farewells of Mr. Erskine
to, 505 ; letter to his sons on
Mr. Erskine's death, 507 ; dis-
tinction drawn by Principal
Shairp between Campbell and
Erskine, 525-6.

Campbell, Rev. Donald, 371.

Thomas Erskine, 251.

Campbell, Isabella and Mary, of

Fernicarry, and their spiritual

gifts, 129 seq.
Capri, island of, 93.
Cardross, estate of, 4, 9, 10.
Carlyle, Dr., of Inveresk, 339.
Carlyle, Thomas, 198, 202, 235,

267, 268, 378, 535 ; letters to,

252, 256, 268, 287, 292-4, 306,
319, 328, 473, 490; letters
from, 379, 472, 480, 488.

Cayley, Edward S., 339.

Chabaud, Mademoiselle, 208.

Chalmers, Dr., letters to, 17-21,
32, 86, 98, 122, 139 ; visit to
Paris, 196, 210 seq., 217; letter
to Rev. A. J. Scott, 564.

Charteris, Lady Caroline, letters
to, 327, 333, 335.

Christ, person and work of ;
the two capacities in which He
stands to men, 518 seq. See
Atonement, Jesus Christ.

" Christ in you the hope of glory "
predicable of every man, 384,
515 seq. See Conscience.

Christianity, in what it consists,

INDEX.

5 S3'

206, 262, 334, 35S, 460; re-
cords of, 361. See Judaism.
Church, idea of the, 140, 155, 161-

164.
Church of England, 183; service

of, 196.
Church of Scotland, Disruption

of, 268, 273.
Civilisation, modern, and the

Bible, 363.
Closing scenes of Mr. Erskine's

life, 499 seq.
Cobden, Richard, letter on the

death of his son, 443-46.
Cockburn, Henry Lord, 1 1 ; letter

from, 38.
Colenso, Bishop, 310, 341, 342,

343 ; letter to, 397.
Coleridge, S. T., 250, 257,
College life, 10, 11.
Combe, George, 287.
Cpmo, Lake of, 40, 71.
Conscience, 144, 203, 206, 216-8,

228, 234, 330, 362 seq., 420,

515, 559.
Constable, Thomas, letter to, 452.
Continent, visits to the (1822-24),

29; (1826-27), 61 seq. ; (1837-

1839), 196 seq. ; (1844-46), 275

seq. ; (1849-50), 294.
Conversations, notes of, 353-366,

515-23, 531, 539-40.
Conversions, sudden, 417 seq.
Corn Law agitation, 257.
Craig, Mr., letter to, 422.
Cramer, M. and Mme., of Geneva,

39, 50, 204, 314; death of

Madame, 251.
Cromwell, Oliver, 253, 256, 269,

294.
Culross, burning of kelp at, 2.

Dante, 95, 96.

Death of Mr. Erskine, 507.

Death, sudden, 236.

Death as the penalty of sin, 123,

547 seq. See Pardon, Penalty.
Degree of LL.D., 378.
Deity, the circle of, and its two

hemispheres, 303-4, 435-9.
Diodati, 63, 231, 236.
Disease of the soul met by the

gospel, 16, 20, 270, 332, 376,

543 seq. See Forgiveness.
Dispensation, of Christ and of

angels, 143.
Doctrinal letters, 184-95, 382-439.
Doddridge, Dr., 80.
Dogmas of Christianity, 345, 347,

410.
Dow, Rev. William, deposed, 524.
Drummond, Henry, 153, 306. -"
Dunblane, cathedral of, 8.
Duncan, Mr., of Parkhill, 533;

letter from, 167.
Dundas, James, of Ochtertyre

(uncle), 45, 51.
Mrs. (Elizabeth Graham),

(aunt), 51. Children of —
George (Lord Manor), 51,

500, 533.

Balph, death of, 45.

Thomas, 221.

William, 262-3.

Ann, 475 ; letter to, 262.

Eliza (Mrs. James Stirling

of Glentyan), 51, 126.
Dunn, Rev. Mr., 197, 199, 562.
Durham, school at, 10.

Early years, glimpses of, 6 seq. ;
513-4.

584

LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

Edinburgh Review, 11 ; on the
spiritual gifts, 133.

Education ; see Life, Trial.

Edwards, Jonathan, 4, 322.

Election, work on, 177, 228-9,
234 ; extracts from, 553 ; con-
cluding portion republished by
Bishop Ewing, 569.

Elgin, Lord (nephew of Lady
Christian Erskine), 203. See
Bruce.

Lady, 203 ; letters to, 142-

150, 152-158.

Elgin Marbles, 198.

Elphinston, General, 13.

Epistles, New Testament, 476.

Erskine, Henry, third Lord Car-
dross, notice of, 1.

Hon. Col. John, ' the Black

Colonel,' of Carnock (1661-
1743), son of David second
Lord Cardross (great-grand-
father), 1-3, 510.

John (1695-1758), son of

the preceding, Professor of Scots
Law in Edinburgh University,
and author of the Institutes
(grandfather), 3, 4, 460, 510.

Dr. John (1721-1803) (uncle),

eldest son of the Professor, and
- minister of Greyfriars Church,
Edinburgh, 3-5, 510; his family,
57 ; portrait of his wife, the
Hon. Christian Mackay, 510-11.

- Christian, daughter of Dr.

John Erskine, letters to, 57,
59, 84.

' James, of Cardross (uncle),

half-brother of Dr. John, 5 ;
his daughters, 9 ; portraits of,
and Lady Christian, his wife,

168, 511. The five following
were daughters —
Erskine, Ann, 6, 63, 64.

Janet (Mrs. Hay of Dunse

Castle), 9.

Matilda (Mrs. Graham of

Gartur), 9.

Marion (Manie), 9, 66, 300.

Rachel, 8, 9 ; last illness and

death, 298-300 ; letters to, 62,
78-84, 88-94, 97, 107, 111-116,
119, 124, 127, 150, 158, 165,
168, 172, 173, 175, 211-213,
219, 238.

Erskine, David, W.S. (father), son
of the Professor, 5 ; abstract
from his family record, 6 ; his
death at Naples, 6, 92.

Mrs. David (mother), 6, 7,

171 ; letters on her death, 173-
176.

Ann (sister), illness of, 8, 9.

Christian (sister), 6, 17. See

Stirling, Mrs. Charles.

David (sister), 6, 29. See

Paterson, Mrs. James.

James (brother), 12-14, 38,

224, 541.

Mrs. James (cousin), (see

Stirling, Katherine), 59, 85,

175, 470, 530; letter to, 482 ;

letters on her death, 483-4.
Erskine, W., son-in-law of Sir

James Mackintosh, 48, 298.
Essay on Faith, 34, 35, 37, 40.
Eternity, 57 ; has nothing to do

with duration, 421, 425.
Evangelistic labours, 119, 244,

532-3.
Ewing, Dr. Alexander, Bishop of

Argyll, 298, 405; letters to,

INDEX.

585

368, 369, 3S0, 405, 407-415,
430, 485-8.
Ewing, Greville, 35.

Faith, 121, 161 seq., 414, 419,
433, 476-9, 531-33, 543 seq.

"Faith of Christ," — meaning of
the phrase, 476-79.

Farrer, Miss, 02? """""'"

Father and Son, doctrine of, in
the Godhead, 303-4, 435-39.

Fatherhood of God; see Atone-
ment, God, Life.

Final salvation of all, 422-35. See
Restoration.

Florence, sculpture and paintings
at, 42, 48, 279.

Forel, Madame, letters to, 228,
246, 254, 277, 284-6, 421.

Forgiveness nothing without heal-
ing, 193, 376, 404, 536. See
Disease, Gospel, Pardon.

Foster's Essays, 278.

Fox, George, 249.

Freeness of the Gospel published,
100-102 ; extracts, 543 ; re-
publication of, 576.

Friendship, cultivation of, 54, 62,
111, 529.

Froude, J. A., 480.

Fry, Mrs., 261.

Fullerton, Lord, 11, 299.

Future punishment, eternity of,
232, 302, 303.

Gaelic School Society, 30.
Gaeta, 91, 92.

Gairloch heresy case, 102 seq., 487,
492, 523-4.

Galloway, George, letter to, 288.

Gambold, John, his favourite poet,
251, 508.

Gaussen, Dr., 64, 116, 186, 231 ;
letters to, 177, 186, 204, 271,
313, 317 (see 323) ; letters from,
169, 314.

Gell, Sir William, 8S.

Geneva, 38, 48-50, 221 seq., 277,
313, 318.

Gifts, The Spiritual, — narrative of
the manifestations in the west
of Scotland, 129 seq. ; and in
London, 141 ; letters on, 135,
139, 142-167, 341.

Gifts of the Spirit, tract on, pub-
lished, 138.

Gloag, Dr. Paton J., letter to, 391.

God, — his love universal, 109,
113, 117, 118, 120, 127, 265
(see Love) ; difference between
viewing Him in the character
of a Judge and in that of a
Father, 374-6, 393 seq., 403,
418.

His fatherly purpose to make

all men partakers of His holi-
ness, 192, 266, 314, 334, 336,
376, 392, 405, 410, 490, 554.

personality of, 291.

righteousness of, 351, 374-6,

416, 426 seq., 434, 478.

Godhead, relations in the, 303-4,
330, 435.

Gospel, the, as a remedy, 16, 20,
122, 123, 216, 305, 329-31, 347,
404 ; connection between it and
the conscience, 228, 515 seq.
See Conscience.

Gourlay, Miss, 501 seq., 576 ;
letter to, 407.

586

LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

Graham, ' Mrs., of Airth {grand-
mother), 7, 8, 511.

Thomas [uncle), death of his

daughter Mary, 85.

■ Missj of Airth [aunt), death

of, 285.

Ann (Mrs. David Erskine,

q.v. ), (mother), 6, 7, 45.

■ ■ Elizabeth (aunt) ; see Dun-
das, Mrs.

—, — - Mary (Mrs. Stirling of Kip-
pendavie and Kippenross),
(aunt), 7.

Graham, Mrs., of Gartur (cousin) ;■'
see Erskine, Matilda.

Grandpierre, M., 208.

Greek sculptors, 41.

Gresson, Mr., death of, 82, 83.

Guizot, M., 204 ; his mother,
208.

Gurney, Mrs. Russell, letters to,
435-9, 464. See Batten.

Guyon, Madame, 247, 249.

Habakkuk, Prophecy of, 415.

Haldane, James A., 30.

Robert, 30, 94 ; his teach-
ing, 314.

Hare, Mr., English clergyman at
Geneva, 236.

Hay, Sir John, 230.

w William, of Dnnse Castle,

9 ; his wife, Janet Erskine,
q.v. ; death of his son Charles,
85.

Robert, 85.

—. Miss, of Kingston Grange, 9.

Healing, gifts of, 145, 147.

Hernnhut, 32.

Heubner, M., of Wittenberg, 34.

Houston, Ludovic, of Johnstone

Castle, 203 ; death of, 342.
Hurd, Bishop, 4.

Imputation, 544, 547 seq.

Infancy, death in, 356.

Inglis, Sir Robert, 199, 312.

Lady, 198, 199.

Inspiration, 399 seq.

Internal Evidence, publication of,
22 ; extracts, 22-26 ; testimo-
nies to its effect, 26-28 ; trans-
lated into French, 22.

Ireland and the Irish, 287.

Irving, Edward, his book on the
Prophecies, 86, 87, 91, 97 ; his
connection with Alexander J.
Scott, 103, 151 ; the spiritual
gifbs, 141, 142; letter to, 160;
his death, 165. See London,
Oliphant.

Ischia, island of, 93, 95.

Jacob's ladder, 84, 85.

Jebb, Bishop, 197.

Jeffrey, Lord, 11 ; at Geneva, 38.

Jesus Christ, — his relation to the
race, 115, 229, 249, 250, 263,
317-8, 329-31, 356, 385, 392
seq., 413, 428, 478, 515.

Jowett, Professor, 283, 380, 491.

Judaism and Christianity, 360.

Judas as purse-bearer, 354.

Justification, 478, 543. See Faith.

forensic theory of, 391 seq.

Keble, John, — his Christian

Year, 111, 501 ; Life of, 491.
Ker, Alan, 373.
Kiugsley, Charles, 307, 311.

INDEX.

5S7

Kiss, the, of God, 486.

Knox, Alex., of Dublin, 197, 199.

Lausanne, 221, 227, 230, 236,275.

Law, William, bis Spirit of Prayer,
90, and Spirit of Love, 97 ;
objections to bis views con-
sidered, 384.

LeigbtoD, Arcbbisbop, 32, 64.

Leipzig, picture-gallery at, 31.

Lerescbe, M., letter from M.
Vinet to, on tbe Internal Evi-
dence, 27.

Life, tbe new, 112-16.

Life, tbe present, — tbe process
of spiritual education continued
beyond, 237 ; not a state of
probation, but a process of edu-
cation, 246, 288, 344, 350 seq.,
375-6, 409 seq., 427. See God.

Linlatben, estate of, purchased
by Mr. Erskine's father, 5, 6 ;
bis own succession to it, 15 ; the
household at, 29, 51, 171, 274,
475 ; autumn receptions at,
283.

Literary tastes, 296, 327, 529.

London, tbe " church " in, 141
seq., 152 seq., 155.

Lord's Prayer, the, Mr. Carlyle
on, 48S-9.

Lorimer, Professor, letters to, 400-
405 ; letter of, to Dr. Hanna,
494 ; letter of M. Paradol to,
496.

Love of God, 109, 112, 113, 115
seq., 234, 250, 270, 273, 281-2,
2S4, 303, 320, 332, 334, 357,
374, 436, 488. See God, Salva-
tion.

Low, Dr. Eicbard, 327.
Lusbington, Professor, 498, 502.
Luther, 34, 446.
Lyons, Captain, 413.

M'Crie, Dr., 30.

Macdonalds, tbe, of Port-Glas-
gow, and the spiritual gifts,
129 seq., 154; death of, 165.

Machar, Dr., 126.

Mrs., letters to, 126, 273,

377, 497.

Mackay, Hon. Christian, wife of
Dr. John Erskine, 510-11.

Mackenzie, James, 268, 272, 290,
293, 533 ; letters to, 245, 260,
268 ; death of, 500,

Miss F., 89.

Macknight, Dr., anecdote of, 106.

M'Leod, Dr. Norman, 106, 374,
487.

M'Murtrie, Rev. J., 335, 538.

Macnabb, Mrs., letters to, 265,
285, 447.

Maggiore, Lago, 40, 67, 71.

Malan, Csesar, 37, 56, 109.

Mallet, Cramer, letters to, 242,
257, 271, 295, 466, 471.

Manor, Lord; see Dundas, George.

Manuel, M., 220, 221, 227, 230.

Martineau, James, 329-31.

Mather, Dr. Cotton, 4.

Mathews, Rev. Thos. Wright, 31 ;
letters to, 311, 312, 321, 342,
378.

Maurice, F. D., 100, 118, 198,
199, 302, 381, 408 ; his King-
dom of Christ, 180 ; letters to,
308-9, 312, 333-5, 337-8, 341,
476; letters from, 101, 477-9.

588

LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

Maurice, Mrs., letter to, 258.

■ Captain Frederick, 34L

Miss Priscilla, letter to, 442.

Maxwell, Sir John, of Pollok,

332-3 ; his death, 353, 368 seq.
Lady Matilda, 332, 368-9.

See Bruce.

■ Sir W. Stirling, 333, 536.

Mazzini, Giuseppe, 293.
Mediatorship of Christ, 193-196.
Melville, Hon. James, of Balgar-

vie, maternal grandfather of

Dr. John Erskine, 4.
Merle d'Aubigne\ Dr., 30, 34, 62,

178, 204, 231, 243, 314, 318;

letter to, 54.
Michael Angelo, visit from a

descendant of, 42.
Milan, 39.

Mildmay, Sir N. and Lady, 64.
Miller, Rev. Samuel, of Monifieth,

274.
Milton, John, 438.
Miracles, 144 seq., 358, 402, 406-7.
Misgivings as to the credibility of

the Gospel history, 11.
Mola di Gaeta, 91, 92.
Momiers, the, of Geneva, 44.
Moncreiff, Sir Harry, — his bio-
graphy of Dr. John Erskine,

4, 5, 14.
Money, Rev. Charles, letter to,

448.
Moneys, family of the, 35, 37, 55 ;

letter to Mr. and Mrs., 109.
Monifieth Churchyard, 541.
Monod, Adolphe, 178, 202, 204,

295 ; letter left by, addressed

to Messrs. Scholl, Gaussen, and

Erskine, 323 ; letter from, 170 ;

letter to, 320.

Monod, Frederick, 202.

Montagu, Mrs., letter to, 56.

Moravianism, 32, 33.

Moray, Mrs., of Abercairney, anec-
dote of, 512.

Moses, divine communication to,
477 ; death of, 486.

Muir, Dr. John, 400, 402.

Naples, 92.

Napoleon L, 31.

Netherlands, the, 29.

Necker -de - Saussure, Madame,

223, 255, 258.
Newman, Dr. J. H., 536.
Noel, Hon. and Rev. Gerard, 35,

37, 38, 41, 46, 541.
Miss G, — lines by, on Mr.

Erskine's death, 541.

Objective and subjective reli-
gion, distinction of, important,
33. See Revelation.

Oliphant, Mrs., 59, 338.

Ordinances in the church, 155.
See Church, London.

Oswald, Lady, death of, 80.

Pantheism, 422.

Paradol, Prevost, — his interview
with Mr. Erskine, 494 ; letter
to Professor Lorimer on hearing
of Mr. Erskine's death, 496.

Pardon and salvation, distinction
between, 56, 543 seq. See For-
giveness, Salvation.

changes the character of the

penalty, 123 ; universality of,
objections answered, 123, 124.

INDEX.

589

Paris, 61, 62, 200, 208.
Parliament House, — brilliancy of
the period of his attendance at,
11.
Paterson, Captain James (brother-
in-law), 29 ; letters to, 45, 135,
236 ; his death, 325.

Mrs. (sister), letters to, 39,

61, 94, 196, 198, 201, 208,
227, 237, 310, 530, 536 ; her
last illness and death, 468-9 ;
death of three of her children,
171 seq.

Paterson, J. Erskine (nephew —
now J. Erskine Erskine of Lin-
lathen), 265, 475, 501, 537;
letter of, to Miss Wedgwood,
505.

Mrs., 464, 499, 501, 537.

Paton, Sir J. Noel, 336.

Patriarch, the, of Venice, 74.

Peebles, Dr. 81.

Pelet, Madame, 208.

Penalty of sin, 123 ; redemption
from it universal, 124, 184 seq.

Penington, Isaac, 158.

Perrot, Mr., 46, 271.

Perth, visit to, 475.

Peterborough, Bishop of, 493.

Plymouthism, letter on, 3S2.

Pollok, visits to, 368.

Pomaret, Madlle., 223.

Port-Glasgow, the spiritual gifts
at, 129 seq. See Gifts.

Porter, Prof. Noah, letter from,
26.

Predestination, 33.

Principles and statutes, a dispen-
sation of, distinguished, 143.

Private judgment, 247, 387.

Probation, state of ; see Life.

Promises, Scripture, 266.

Prophecy, object of, 150.

Psalms, the, 454, 504.

Punishment, accepting of, 179,
182, 216, 255, 286, 525. See
Future.

Punishment, eternal, 302, 359,
411,421-2. See Eternity.

of sin, cannot satisfy Divine

justice, 396 ; its revealed pur-
pose, 423. See Penalty, Salva-
tion.

Puritans and Puritanism, 249,
252.

Purpose of God in His dealings
with man ; see Atonement, God.

Puseyism, letter on, 386.

Quakerism, 249, 390.

Ramsay, E. B., Dean of Edin-
burgh, 335.

Redemption. See Atonement,
Love of God.

Religion, 39, 205, 206, 208, 213,
214, 359 ; human and divine,
contrasted, 117, 118 ; the
Christian, one of centres, not
of circumferences, 143.

Reminiscences of Mr. Erskine by
Dean Stanley, 454-62.

by Principal Shairp, 509-41.

Renan, Ernest, 346, 347, 357,
457, 537.

Responsibility, man's, 33, 161,
163.

Restoration, final, of all — hope of,
71, 82, 237, 286, 305, 422-435,
526-27, 547.

590

LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSK1NE.

Revelation, effect of, to us. See
Bible.

objective and subjective,

484-5.

Revolutions, European, of 1848,
286-88, 292.

Reynolds, Sir Josliua, 42.

Rich, Claudius James, 199, 348.

Rich, Mrs., 348, 59, 172, 199,
280, 485.

Richter, Jean Paul, 279.

Robertson, Dr. William, the his-
torian, colleague of Dr. John
Erskine in the Greyfriars, 5.

Robertson, Dr. John, of Glasgow,
290-91, 538.

Rogers, Professor, 534.

Romans, Epistle to the, — studies
on, 181, 237, 248, 424, 430,
458, 482. See Spiritual Order.

Rome, 42 seq., 50, 78, 86, 274,
277.

Row, summers at, 104 seq.

Ruskin, John, 302.

Russell, Dr. David, Letters of, 37.

Francis, 312, 440 ; letter to,

447.

Rutherford's (Sam.) Letters, Intro-
ductory Essay to, 15, 16.

Rutherfurd, Lord, 533 ; letters
to, 263, 289-92, 296, 298, 301.

Sacrifice of Christ. See Atone-
ment, Love of God, Jesus
Christ.

St. Aulaire, Madame de, 207.

Salvation, a deliverance from sin,
not merely from punishment,
16, 184 seq., 218, 395, 410, 417-
419.

Sandford, Rev. D. ¥., 502.

Scheffer, Ary, 7.

Scholl, Charles, of Lausanne, 221 ;

letter to, from A. Monod, 323.
School life, 10.
Schwabe, Mrs., 303, 310 ; letters

to, 303, 329, 336, 443-6.
Scott, Dr., of Greenock, 103.
Alex. J., his friendship with

Mr. Campbell and Mr. Erskine,

103 seq., 197 ; deprived of his

licence, 106 ; his connection

with Irving broken off, 151 ;

tour in Bernese Alps, 220 seq. ;

his " Discourses," 261 ; his

death, 372 ; notice of, 567 ;

letters to, 172, 180, 230, 272,

339, 344.
— — Mrs., letters to, 235, 346,

370, 372.
Scott, Sir Walter, 11; his sketch

of Dr. John Erskine, 5.
Self-sacrifice, 407.
Sermon on tie Mount, doctrine

of, 476.
Shairp, Principal — reminiscences

of Mr. Erskine, 509-41.
Shakespeare, familiarity with, 327,

383, 460, 473, 534.
Silence of God, the, conversation

on, 539-40.
Sin, views of, 526, 540. See

Atonement, Salvation.
Simplon, the, 39, 67, 68.
Spirit, living in the, 337.
Spiritual gifts. See Gifts.
health, restoration to, the

true idea of salvation, 16, 20,

332, 543 seq. See Disease.
Spiritual Order, and other Papers,

preparation of, 377, 407, 434,

INDEX.

591

438, 482, 538; publication of,

576.
Spiritual world, evidence of a, 361,

363.
Stael, Baron de, 63, 75.
Madame de (daughter of

Mme. Vernet), 116, 222 seq.,

260, 261 ; letters to, 116, 255,

269, 280, 322.
Stanley, Dean, 6, 291, 346; letters

to, 344, 493 ; reminiscences of

Mr. Erskine, 454-62.

Lady Augusta, letters to,

340, 346, 368, 465, 470, 493.
See Bruce.

Stirling, William (afterwards Sir

W. Stirling-Maxwell of Pollok),

333, 536.
Stirliug, Charles, — marriage of, to

Christian Erskine, 17 ; death

of, 124 seq.

Mrs. Charles (sister), 125,

126, 177, 463, 529, 536 ; letters
on her death, 464-8 ; letters to,
31, 38, 41-43, 48-50, 58, 76, 97,
178, 182, 197, 198, 202, 220,
223, 232, 239-42 ; letter from,
to Mrs. Burnett, 294.

Stirling, John, of Kippendavie and
Kippenross (uncle), 7; his wife,
see Graham, Mary ; family of, 7,
8 ; tablet to his memory in
Dunblane Cathedral, 12.

The following are sons and
daughters —

■ Captain James, of Glentyan,

8, 105 ; his wife, a daughter
of James Dundas of Ochtertyre
(both, cousins), 51 ; letter to,
125.

Captain Patrick, 12.

Stirling, Mrs. Patrick, 237, 238.

Jane, 7, 59, 175, 514 ; letter

to, 221 ; death of, 336.

Katherine (Mrs. James

Erskine), 7, 13, 59, 175. See
Erskine, Mrs. James.

Margaret (LadyTorphichen),

59. See Torphichen.

Story, Rev. Robert, of Roseneath,
132, 133.

Dr. Robert H., 4S7.

Strauss, D. F., 235.

Stuart, Dr. Charles, of Dunearn
(son-in-law of Dr. John Erskine),
14, 30, 54, 57, 85, 180; letters
to, 30, 34-38, 43, 46 ; allusions
to his death, 57, 60, 85, 233.

Miss (daughter of the pre-
ceding), 58, 60, 86 ; letters to,
54, 165.

Stuart, Dr. Moses, 27.
Substitution of Christ, 2 15, 548 seq.

See Atonement, Jesus Christ.
Switzerland, religion in, 44, 233,

274.
Sympathy, letters of, 52, 280, 420-

452.

Tait, Rev. "William, and the Catho-
lic Apostolic Church, 153 ; letter
to, 374.

Taplin, Mr., 155.

Tayler, J. J., 303.

Taylor, Dr. N. W., 27.

Tholuck, Professor, 31.

Thomsou, Dr. Andrew, 153, 155.

Tocqueville, Alexis de, 491.

Tombs of the old Romans, 95.

Tongues, speaking with, 132. See
Gifts.

592

LETTERS OF THOMAS ERSKINE.

Torphichen, Lord (tenth baron),
59.

Lady (Margaret Stirling),

{cousin), 59.

Trial subservient to education,
431-2. See God; Life, the
present.

Trotter, Lady, 295.

True and False Religion, being In-
troductory Essay to " Letters to
a Lady " re-issued, 574.

Unitartanism, 306, 358.
Universal Salvation, 422-35. See
Restoration.

Venice, 71 seq.

Vernets, the, of Geneva, 50, 75.

Vernet, Madame, 63, 75, 223, 237,
238, 255-6, 493 ; letter to, 52,

Vesuvius, 92, 95.

Vinet, M., intercourse with, 221,
227, 230, 232, 245-6, 249, 255,
266, 274-5, 459 ; letter on the
Internal Evidence, 27 ; opinion
on The Brazen Serpent, 275 ;
letter to, 277 ; death of, 284-5.

Madame, 232; letter to, 233.

Wagner, Rev. George, letter to,
280.

Warburton, Bishop, 4.

"Way, Mr., English minister in

Paris, 61, 62.
Wedgwood, Mr., 199, 236.
Miss, her journal of a visit

to Linlathen, 353-366; letters

to, 349-53, 366, 376, 380-81,

475, 484, 490 ; letters from Mr.

and Mrs. Paterson to, 505-6.
Wesleyanism, 248-9.
Westminster, Dean of. See

Stanley.
Confession, and the Church,

106.
White, Rev. Joseph Blanco, his

sonnet on Night, 360.
Wilberforce, William, 36,
Wilder, Mr., 35, 36.
Wilkes, Mr. (father of Lord

Jeffrey's wife), 38.
Will, the, 214, 234-35.
William, King (Prince of Orange),

and Lieut. -Colonel Erskine, 1, 2.
Woodford, Rev. Mr., 197.
Wordsworth, 463.
Wylie, Dr., of Carluke, 13; jubilee

of his ministry, 487 ; letters to,

273, 339.

Yotjng, Rev. John, letters to, 431,
433, 434.

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FORBES— The Deepening of the Spiritual Life.

By A. P. Forbes, D.C.L., Bishop of Brechin. Fifth edition.
18mo, cloth, price Is. 6d. ; or paper covers, Is. ; calf, red edges,
3s. 6d.

8 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS.

FORBES— Kalendars of Scottish Saints, with Per-
sonal Notices of those of Alba, etc. By Alexander Penrose
Forbes, D.C.L., Bishop of Brechin. 1 vol. 4to, price £3, 3s.
A few copies for sale on large paper, £5, 15s. 6d.

"A truly valuable contribution to the archeeology of Scotland." — Guardian.

"We must not forget to thank the author for the great amount of informa-
tion he has put together, and for the labour he has bestowed on a work which
can never be remunerative." — Saturday Review.

"His laborious and very interesting work on the early Saints of Alba,
Laudonia, and Strathelyde."— Quarterly Review.

Fragments of Truth. Being the Exposition of several
passages of Scripture. Third edition. Extra fcap. 8vo, 5s.

GAIRDNER— On Medicine and Medical Education.

By W. T. Gairdner, Professor of the Practice of Medicine in
the University of Glasgow. Three Lectures, with Notes and an
Appendix. 8vo, 3s. 6d.

GAIRDNER— Clinical and Pathological Notes on
Pericarditis. By W. T. Gairdner, Professor of the Practice of
Medicine in the University of Glasgow. 8vo, sewed, Is.

GIBSON, O. P -Cheerfulness.

By Charles P. Gibson. In 1 vol. fcap., 3s. 6d.

"It depicts, in very graphic and glowing terms, much of the scenery of
this northern district of England, and is therefore sure to be prized very
highly by those Northumbrians into whose hands it may happen to falL
Apart, however, from its local interest, it has peculiar merits of its own,
and no one can read it without feeling that his own spirit has been en-
livened and elevated by so doing. Its pictures remind us very forcibly of
those of Thomson, Cowper, and Burns." — Newcastle Daily Journal.

GORDON— The Roof of the World ;

Being the narrative of a journey over the high plateau of
Tibet to the Russian Frontier and the Oxus sources on Pamir.
By Lieut. -Col. T. E. Gordon, C.S.I. With numerous Illus-
trations. Boyal 8vo, 31s. 6d.

BOOKS PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS. 9

GORDON— The Home Life of Sir David Brewster.
By his Daughter, Mrs. Gordon. Second edition. Crown
8vo, 6s.

" With his own countrymen it is sure of a welcome, and to the savants of
Europe, and of the New World, it will have a real and special interest of its
own." — Pall Mall Gazette.

GORDON— Workers.

Fourth thousand. Fcap. 8vo, limp cloth, Is.

GORDON— Work; or, Plenty to do and How to do it.

Thirty-fifth thousand. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d.

GORDON— Little Millie and her Pour Places.

Cheap Edition. Fifty-fifth thousand. Limp cloth, Is.

GORDON— Sunbeams in the Cottage; or, What
Women may do. A Narrative chiefly addressed to the Work-
ing Classes. Cheap edition. Forty-fourth thousand. Limp
cloth, Is.

GORDON— Prevention ; or, An Appeal to Economy

and Common Sense. 8vo, 6d.

GORDON— The Word and the World.

Twelfth edition. Price 2d.

GORDON— Leaves of Healing for the Sick and
Sorrowful. Fcap. 4to, cloth, 3s. 6d. Cheap edition, limp
cloth, 2s.

GORDON— The Motherless Boy ;

With an Illustration by Sir J. Noel Paton, R.S.A. Cheap
edition, limp cloth, Is.

"Alike in manner and matter calculated to attract youthful attention, and
to attract it by the best of all means — sympathy." — Scotsman.

1 0 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS.

HANNA— The Life of our Lord.

By the Rev. William Hanna, D.D., LL.D. 6 vols., hand-
somely bound in cloth extra, gilt edges, 30s.

Separate vols., cloth extra, gilt edges, 5s. each.

1. The Earlier Years of our Lord. Eighth thousand.

2. The Ministry in Galilee. Third edition.

3. The Close of the Ministry. Sixth thousand.

4. The Passion Week. Fifth thousand.

5. The Last Day of our Lord's Passion. Forty-seventh

thousand.

6. The Forty Days after the Resurrection. Ninth

thousand.

HANNA— The Resurrection of the Dead.

By William Banna, D.D., LL.D. Second edition. One vol.
fcap. 8vo, 5s.

JOHNNY GIBB of Gushetneuk, in the Parish of

Pyketillim : with Glimpses of the Parish Politics about A.D. 1843.
Fourth edition, with a Glossary. Ex. fcap. 8vo, 2s.

" It is a grand, addition to our pure Scottish dialect ; ... it is not merely
a capital specimen of genuine Scottish northern dialect ; hut it is a capital
specimen of pawky characteristic Scottish humour. It is full of good hard
Scottish dry fun." — Dean Ramsay.

Notes and Sketches Illustrative of Northern Rural

Life in the Eighteenth Century, by the Author of "Johnny
Gibb of Gushetneuk." In 1 vol. fcap. 8vo, 2s.

Life among my Ain Polk.

By the Author of "Johnny Gibb of Gushetneuk." 12mo,
cloth, 2s. 6d.

KENNEDY— Pilate's Question, "Whence art thou?"

An Essay on the Personal Claims asserted by Jesus Christ, and
how to account for them. By John Kennedy, M.A., D.D.,
London. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.

KER— Sermons by the Rev. John Ker, D.D., Glas-
gow. Eleventh edition. Crown 8vo, 6s.

"A very remarkable volume of sermons."— Contemporary Review.

BOOKS PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS. 1 1

LAING-— Lindores Abbey, and the Burgh of New-
burgh : their History and Annals. By Alexander Laing,
F.S.A. Scot. 1 vol. small 4to. With Index, and thirteen Full-
page and ten Woodcut Illustrations, 21s.

" This is a charming volume in every respect." — Notes and Queries.

"The prominent characteristics of the work are its exhaustiveness and the
thoroughly philosophic spirit in which it is written." — Scotsman.

LANCASTER— Essays and Reviews.

By the late Henry H. Lancaster, Advocate ; with a Prefatory
Notice by the Rev. B. Jowett, Master of Balliol College,
Oxford. Demy 8vo, with portrait, 14s.

LAURIE— On the Philosophy of Ethics. An Analy-
tical Essay. By S. S. Laurie, A.M., F.R.S.E., Professor of
the Theory, History, and Practice of Education in the Univer-
sity of Edinburgh. Demy 8vo, 6s.

" Mr. Laurie's volume now hefore us is in substance, though not in form, a
reply to Mr. Mill's Utilitarianism. Mr. Laurie has the metaphysical head and
the metaphysical training of his countrymen, and has brought both to bear
with great force on the problem proposed." — Saturday Review.

LAURIE— Notes on British Theories of Morals.
Demy 8vo, 6s.

"His criticisms are candid and highly instructive, e.g. those of the views of
Bentham, Mill, and Bain. He manifests great aptitude in detecting radical
defects, in exposing logical inconsistencies, and in detecting the legitimate
tendencies of philosophical systems." — British Quarterly.

MACK AY— Memoir of Sir James Dalrymple, First

Viscount Stair. A Study in the History of Scotland and Scotch
Law during the Seventeenth Century. By M. J. G. Mackay,
Advocate. 8vo, 12s.

MACPHERSON— Omnipotence belongs only to the
Beloved. By Mrs. Brewster Macpherson. 1 vol., extra
fcap., 3s. 6d.

MACPHERSON-Gifts for Men.
1 vol. ex. fcap, Svo, 6s.

12

BOOKS PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS.

MACLAGAN— The Hill Forts, Stone Circles, and
other Structural Remains of Ancient Scotland. By 0. Mac-
lagan, Lady Associate of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
With Plans and Illustrations. 1 vol. fol., 31s. 6d.

" We need not enlarge on the few inconsequential speculations which, rigid
archaeologists may find in the present volume. We desire rather to commend
it to their careful study, fully assured that not only they, hut also the general
reader, will be edified by its perusal." — Scotsman.

MAXWELL— Antwerp Delivered in MDLXXVII. :

a Passage from the History of the Netherlands, illustrated with
Facsimiles of a rare Series of Designs by Martin de Vos, and
of Prints by Hogenberg, the Wiericxes, etc. By Sir William
Stirling Maxwell, Bart., K.T., and M.P. In 1 vol. folio.

[In the Press.

MIOHIE— History of Loch Kinnord.

By the Rev. J. G. Michie. Demy 8vo, 2s. 6d.

MILN— Researches and Excavations at Carnac

(Morbihan), the Bossenno, and Mont St. Michel. By James
Miln. In 1 vol. royal 8vo, with Maps, Plans, and numerous
Illustrations in Wood-Engraving and Chromo-Lithography, 42s.

MOREHEAD— Memorials of the Life and Writings
of the Rev. Robert Morehead, D.D., formerly Rector of
Easington, Yorkshire, and previously Dean of Edinburgh.
Edited by his Son, Charles Morehead, M.D. Or. 8vo, 7s. 6d.

NAPIER— "The Lanox of Auld:" an Epistolary
Review of "The Lennox, by William Fraser." To which is
added, A Postscriptive Memorie of the House of Merchiston.
By Mark Napier. With Woodcuts and Plates. 1 vol. 4to.

[In preparation.

PATRICK, R. W. COCHRAN-Records of the Coin-
age of Scotland, from the earliest period to the Union. Col-
lected by R. W. Cochran Patrick of Woodside. Only Two
Hundred and Fifty Copies printed. Now ready, in 2 vols. 4to,
with 16 Full-page Illustrations, Six Guineas.

BOOKS PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS. 13

" The future Historians of Scotland will be very fortunate if many parts of
their materials are so carefully worked up for them and set before them in so
complete and taking a form." — Athenaeum.

" When we say that these two volumes contain more than 770 records, of
which more than 550 have never been printed before, and that they are illus-
trated by a series of Plates, by the autotype process, of the coins themselves,
the reader may judge for himself of the learning, as well as the pains, bestowed
on them both by the Author and the Publisher." — Times.

" The most handsome and complete Work of the kind which has ever
been published in this country." — Numismatic Chronicle, Pt. IV., 1876.

PATRICK, R. W. COCHRAN -Records of Mining

in Scotland by R. W. Cochran Patrick, of Woodside, in 1 vol.
4to. . [In the Press.

Popular Genealogists ;

Or, The Art of Pedigree-making. Crown 8vo, 4s.

" We have here an agreeable little treatise of a hundred pages, from an anony-
mous but evidently competent hand, on the ludicrous and fraudulent sides of
genealogy. The subject has a serious and important historical character,
when regarded from the point of view of the authors of The Governing
Families of England. But it is rich in the materials of comedy also. . . . We
are glad to see such a step taken in the good work as the publication of
the essay which has suggested this article, and which we commend to those
who want a bit of instructive and amusing reading." — Pall Mall Gazette.

RBNTON, W— Oils and Water Colours.
By William Kenton. 1 vol. fcap. 5s.

" The book is obviously for the Artist and the Poet, and for every one who
shares with them a true love and zeal for nature's beauties." — Scotsman.

" To have observed such a delicate bit of colouring as this, and to have
written so good a sonnet in the ' strict style,' as that we have quoted, shows
that our author has no common powers either as an observer or a writer."
— Liverpool Albion.

"To those minds that really hold this joy in beauty, Mr. Renton's book
will undoubtedly give delight." — Northern Ensign.

ROBERTSON— Historical Essays in connection

with the Land and the Church, etc. By E. William Robert-
son, Author of "Scotland under her Early Kings." In 1 vol.
8vo, 10s. 6d.

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ROBERTSON— Scotland under her Early Kings.

A History of the Kingdom to the close of the 13th century.

By E. William Robertson. In 2 vols. 8vo, cloth, 36s.
" Mr. Robertson's labours are of that valuable kind where an intelligent
and thorough sifting of original authorities is brought to bear upon a portion
of history handed over hitherto, in a pre-eminent degree, to a specially
mendacious set of Mediaeval Chroniclers, and (not so long ago) to a specially
polemical and uncritical class of modern Historians. He belongs to the school
of Innes and Skene and Joseph Robertson, and has established a fair right to
be classed with the Reeves and Todds of Irish historical antiquarianism, and
the Sharpes, and Kembles, and Hardys in England." — Guardian.

SHAIRP— Studies in Poetry and Philosophy.

By J. C. Shairp, LL.D., Principal of the United College of
St. Salvator and St. Leonard, St. Andrews. Third Edition.
1 vol. fcap. 8vo, 6s.

SHAIRP— On Poetic Interpretation of Nature.

By Principal Shairp, LL.D. Second Edition. In 1 vol. ex.
fcap. 8vo, 6s.

SHAIRP— Culture and Religion.

By Principal Shairp, LL.D. Fifth Edition. Fcap. 8vo, 3s. 6d.

SHAIRP— Wordsworth's Tour in Scotland in 1803,

in company with his Sister and S. T. Coleridge ; being the
Journal of Miss "Wordsworth, now for the first time made
public. Edited by Principal Shairp, LL.D. Second Edition,
1 vol. crown 8vo, 6s.

" If there were no other record of her than those brief extracts from her
Journal during the Highland Tour, which stand at the head of several of her
brother's poems, tbese alone would prove her possessed of a large portion of
his genius." — North British Review.

SIMPSON— The Near and the Par View, and other
Sermons. By Rev. A L. Simpson, D.D., Derby. 1 vol. ex.
fcap. 8vo, 5s.

SKENE— The Four Ancient Books of Wales,

Containing the Cymric Poems attributed to the Bards of the
Sixth Century. By William F. Skene. With Maps and
Facsimiles. 2 vols. 8vo, 36s.

"Mr. Skene's book will, as a matter of course and necessity, find its place
on the tables of all Celtic antiquarians and scholars." — Archceologia Cambrensis.

BOOKS PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS. 1 5

SKENE— The Coronation Stone.

By William F. Skene. Small 4to. With Illustrations in
Photography and Zincography. 6s.

SKENE-Celtic Scotland.

A History of Ancient Alban. By William F. Skene. Vol. I.
Book I. History and Ethnology. Illustrated with Maps. 15s.

" It is a book of solid and good work, and which ought to be thankfully
welcomed by all who are engaged in any minute study of the early history of
Britain."— Pall Mall Gazette.

"This volume is the first instalment of a work which will bring the early
history of Scotland out of the clouds and mists of artificially constructed
systems of history, exaggerated tradition, and legendary fiction, and into a
real, if still somewhat dim, historic light." — Edinburgh Courant.

"Daist es denn in der That ein Fortschritt, wenn ein Gelehrter, der sich
die schwierigen, aber unerlaszlichen Sprachkenntnisse erworben und seit
Jahren mit Sichtung der vertrauenswerthen Ueberlieferung von den Trugge-
bilden, welche alles Keltische so leicht bedecken, befaszt hat, die bedeutende
Aufgabe in die Hand nimmt nach strenger Methode die wirklichen Thatsachen

jener Anfangsjahrhunderte hinzustellen Linguistik, Ethnographie,

Topographie und Kritik der historischen Quellen greifen fur diese wichtige
Epoche des Uebergangs wirkungsvoll in einander, wie es meines Wissens
bisher in keinem anderen Werke geschehn ist." — Gottingische gelehrie
Anzeigen.—I>T. R. Padxi.

SKENE— Celtic Scotland.

A History of Ancient Alban. Vol. II. Book II. Church and
Culture. In 8vo. With Maps, 15s.

SKENE-Celtic Scotland.

A History of Ancient Alban. Vol. III. Book III. Land and
People. [In preparation.

SMALL— Scottish "Woodwork of the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries. Measured, Drawn, and Lithographed
by J. W. Small, Architect. In one folio volume with 100
Plates, 84s.

SMITH— Shelley : a Critical Biography.
By George Barnett Smith. Ex. fcap. 8vo, 6s.

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SMYTH— Life and Work at the Great Pyramid.
With a Discussion of the Facts ascertained. By 0. Piazzi
Smyth, F.R.SS.L. and E., Astronomer-Royal for Scotland.
3 vols, demy 8vo, 56s. '

SMYTH— An Equal-Surface Projection for Maps of

the World, and its Application to certain Anthropological
Questions. By C. Piazzi Smyth, F.R.SS.L. andB., Astronomer-
Royal for Scotland. 8vo, 3s.

SOUTHBSK— Britain's Art Paradise ; or, Notes on
some Pictures in the Royal Academy, 1871. By the Earl of
Southesk. 8vo, sewed, Is.

SOUTHESK — Saskatchewan and the Rocky

Mountains. Diary and Narrative of Travel, Sport, and Adven-
ture, during a Journey through part of the Hudson's Bay
Company's Territories, in 1859 and 1860. By the Earl of
Southesk, K.T., F.R.G.S. 1 vol, demy 8vo, with Illustrations
on Wood by Whymper, 18s.

SOUTHESK— Herminius.

A Romance. By I. E. S. Fcap. 8vo, 6s.

SPENS— The Sanitary System of Scotland: its

Defects and Proposed Remedies. By Walter Cook Spens,
one of the Sheriff-Substitutes of Lanarkshire. Demy 8vo, 6s.

STRACHAN— What is Play?

A Physiological Inquiry. Its bearing upon Education and
Training. By John Strachan, M.D., Jun. In l vol. fcap., Is.

TAIT— Sketch of Thermodynamics.

By P. Gr. Tait, M.A., Professor of Natural Philosophy in the
University of Edinburgh. Second edition, Revised and Ex-
tended. Or. 8vo, 5s.

WILSON— Reminiscences of Old Edinburgh.

By Daniel Wilson, LL.D., F.R.S.E., Professor of History and
English Literature in University College, Toronto, Author of
"Prehistoric Annals of Scotland," etc. etc. 2 vols, post 8vo, 15s.