Edward White : his life and work

EDWARD WHITE: HIS LIFE AND WORK

DWARD WHITE

HIS LIFE AND WORK

BY

FREDERICK ASH FREER

SECOND EDITION, REVISED

LONDON

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW
1903

PREFACE

EDWARD WHITE, the subject of this biography, was a
Free-Church minister in London during a period nearly
coincident with the second half of the nineteenth century.
In the early part of his metropolitan career he was kept
to some extent in the background, in consequence of
certain unpopular theological opinions which he had made
public while in a provincial pastorate; but by his power-
ful evangelical preaching, his sterling Christian character,
and his remarkable intellectual ability, he gradually won
general and hearty recognition as one of the most
eminent representatives of Free-Church principles. He
was also chosen to occupy the most honoured positions
in the Christian community with which he was ecclesiasti-
cally associated.

Of the long and useful life of Edward White some
permanent record is needed, in order that those who have
not had the advantage of personal acquaintance with him
may be able to gain something like an adequate idea of
the man : a man whose life-work has had a marked effect
upon the general mode of thinking in relation to questions
of supreme importance to humanity.

Mr. White was wont to say that, after the Bible, no
books are more useful than biographies of good men and
women ; and that the large proportion of personal history
in the Bible forms an important elemeat in the power

vi PREFACE

for good of that wonderful collection of books. And
this biography has been prepared in the hope that the
story of a life of such unswerving loyalty to Truth and
devotion to the Gospel ministry may help to prolong
the beneficent influence of that life.

The author had the privilege of years of association
with Edward White in Church fellowship and Christian
work, and he enjoyed Mr. White's intimate friendship
until his life's close. He has endeavoured to make the
book as much as possible a self-revelation by the subject
of it. He offers his sincere thanks to all those friends
who have favoured him in any way with their co-opera-
tion.

F. A. F.

September 1902.

This second edition is a reprint of the first, with a few
emendations and additions.

F. A. F.
February 1903.

Contents

CHAPTKR PAGE

I. EARLY YEARS, 1819-1835 ... .1

II. PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY, 1836-1840 . 9

III. CARDIFF AND HEREFORD, 1841-1851 . . 19

IV. THE LONDON MINISTRY, 1852 . . '33
V. LITERARY WORK, 1853-1864 . .- .42

VI. HAWLEY ROAD CHAPEL, 1865-1869 . . 53

vii. THE "LIFE IN CHRIST" CONTROVERSY, 1870-1875 65

VIII. RECREATIVE TRAVEL . . . '79

IX. LOCAL AND GENERAL ACTIVITIES, 1870-1875 . 91

X. CONTROVERSIAL WORK, 1876-1879 . . 105

XI. DEVELOPMENT OF THE " LIFE IN CHRIST " CON-
TROVERSY, 1876-1883 . . . 126

xii. MERCHANTS' LECTURER, 1880-1882 . .154

XIII. THE HAWLEY ROAD PASTORATE, 1883-1885 . 169

XIV. CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION, 1 886 187
XV. THE JUBILEE YEAR, 1887 .... 208

viii CONTENTS

CHAPTHK I'A(,K

XVI. RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE, 1888-1889 . 221

XVII. THE WORK OF DECLINING YEARS, 1889-1894 . 248

XVIII. LATEST ACTIVITIES, 1894-1897 . . . 266

XIX. THE CLOSING SCENE, 1898 .... 290

XX. CONCLUSION . . . . . 304

APPENDICES.

A. TRIBUTES OF APPRECIATION. . . . 309

B. CONDITIONALISM AND CURRENT THOUGHT, BEING

AN ANALYSIS AND CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF
MR. WHITE'S BOOK, LIFE IN CHRIST, BY REV.
W. D. MCLAREN, M.A. . . -324

C. INFLUENCE OF EDWARD WHITE ABROAD . . 336

D. DR. DALE'S ADDRESS AT HAWLEY ROAD CHAPEL . 347

E. GLEANINGS FROM LATEST NOTE- BOOKS . '357

CHAPTER I

EARLY YEARS
1819-1835

IN the case of every man who has made his mark in the
world it is both interesting and instructive to review
the circumstances and relationships of his early life, and
the various influences then surrounding him, which helped
to mould his character and to develop his powers. The
subject of this biography has left a distinct mark in the
theological world, and in this chapter will be found a
description of the beginnings of a long and remarkable
career.

Edward White was the seventh child of his parents, John
Bazley White and Henrietta Tindal. According to his
own description of them, his father " was ' an Israelite
indeed ' of most upright character, sunny temper, and
endless industry," and his mother was " a woman of sound
judgement, high principle, and indefatigable energy." These
characteristics appeared also in their son. His great-grand-
father, John Albra Witt, was a Hollander who immigrated
to East London in the time of George II. His son, John
William, without consideration for Teutonic etymology,
altered his name to the English White, as being nearest in
sound to the original and proper surname of Witt, which is
said to have been derived from an old favourite German
hero-god, the tenth from Odin.

2 EDWARD WHITE

Settling in England as a British subject, this John
William White married an English wife, Mary Hanvood,
and their son was John Bazley White, father of the Edward
whose career has now to be traced.

Of his grandmother, Mary Harwood, Edward White has
recorded that he well remembered her luminous face when
she was seventy years of age. He has also stated that her
conversion to real religion in the later years of George
Whitefield's revival brought a new tendency into a family
which had been noted aforetime for a cheerful musical taste
rather than for serious reflection. She thereafter brought
up her son in the fear of God ; and the strength of her
character has been reproduced in many of her descendants.

One among these, her grandson, Edward White, was
born on the I ith of May, 1819, just a fortnight before our
late revered Queen Victoria, as he was accustomed to tell
his friends when speaking of his age. The place of his
birth was Nine Elms Lane, a part of South London now
covered by the London and South-Western Railway, his
father being then a partner in the firm of Francis and
White, carrying on business as makers of Portland cement
in that neighbourhood. Since then the business has been
removed to Svvanscombe, and is now carried on under the
style of J. Bazley White & Co., Limited.

Soon after this boy's birth the family removed to
Norwood, where some of his earliest years were spent, and
his first steps in book-learning were taken under the
guidance of a Miss Aldridge. In 1826, when he was seven
years old, there was another removal of the family, this
time to South Lambeth, and Edward then attended a
school at Stock well.

At ten years of age he was sent to the public school at
Mill Hill, in the foundation of which his father had taken
a part some twenty years previously. This school was
founded to provide for the education of sons of Protestant
Dissenters, who were not at that time admissible into the

EARLY YEARS 3

older public establishments. Here he continued his studies
during four years, and in this period were laid the founda-
tions of his classical learning. His testimony as to the
general character of the school in those years, however, is
very unfavourable. But while there he came under the
instruction and influence of Thomas Priestley, who, he
says, was a thorough teacher of Greek and Latin elements,
and the only master, out of about twenty during his time
at Mill Hill, who taught anything thoroughly. Happily,
the state of things there is now very different, both as to
the teaching and the morale of the school, which in those
days left much to be desired. Yet he always retained an
appreciative remembrance of the school, and often attended
the meetings there on Foundation Day.

Quitting Mill Hill at the age of fourteen, he was sent for
a year to a private school at Lavender Hill, Wandsworth.
This necessitated a daily walk of three miles, which was
doubtless more helpful than harmful to the growing lad.
This school was kept by Mr. George Hughes, son of the
Joseph Hughes who was one of the founders of the
British and Foreign Bible Society. The love of reading,
which soon afterwards became one of Edward White's
leading characteristics, he attributed in some degree to the
influence of this Mr. Hughes, but still more to that of his
own eldest sister Ellen. That sister, after her marriage,
when Mrs. Ranyard, became very widely known as the
originator of the London Bible Women's Mission. Being
nearly ten years his senior, she was already a woman when
he left Mill Hill, and to her he was always devotedly
attached. On her part there was an equally strong affec-
tion, which proved one of the most valuable formative
influences upon his character. The reading circle to which
she belonged, and the conversation parties which she
instituted at their father's house, were also useful in
stimulating his mental culture.

Being now fifteen years of age, he was taken into the

4 EDWARD WHITE

office of the cement works at Nine Elms, as a preparation
for the business career which seemed naturally to open for
him there. Two years were thus spent in the business, and
the time was not lost, for the advantages of such business
experience are many, and are often recognized in later life,
even when the business itself has been abandoned. It was
so in Edward White's case ; for in the Christian ministry,
to which he then aspired, such experience always proves
valuable ; it enables the minister to sympathize with
business men in their difficulties, and is helpful in his
practical teaching and pastoral supervision, as well as in
the more material affairs of the Church over which he pre-
sides. This business period may therefore be considered
as a part of the indirect preparation for his life's work.

During this period he had become a member of the
Congregational Church at York Street, Walworth, of
which his father was one of the leading members, and
the Rev. George Clayton was the pastor. This Mr.
Clayton was one of the best known and most respected
Congregational ministers in London at that time. He
has been described by Mr. White as a thoroughly good
man, of stately appearance and speech, but an unimagi-
native preacher, and rigidly orthodox. In speaking of this
period, and of the influence exerted by the ministry and
the associations of York Street Chapel over himself
and over Robert Browning, the poet — who as a lad was
then a regular attendant — Mr. White has said : " If a
radiance of faith and hope rests upon and hovers over
the grave in Westminster Abbey where the poet lies
enshrined in eternal fame, that faith and hope were nursed
into stronger life under the Puritan influences to which
I, and so many others, owe the final direction and con-
secration of our lives, influences which came from York
Street Chapel."

Powerful as were these influences, however, they were
not the only, and perhaps not the most powerful, forces

EARLY YEARS 5

that were operating on the lad's character and conduct
at this time. He was accustomed, as frequently as he
could, on Sunday evenings to attend the ministry of the
Rev. Thomas Binney, whose more original and vigorous
thinking and teaching had greater attractions for the
youth who was then beginning to think for himself. To
Mr. Binney he was always ready to acknowledge his
obligations, and with him he maintained a close friendship
until Mr. Binney's death on February 24, 1874.

In a letter published in the Christian World in
September, 1894, Mr. White thus described the effect of
Mr. Binney's preaching : " When, with other very young
men, I first came under his influence at the Weigh House
Chapel, that man might be described as the Bible again
alive in the form and speech of a nineteenth-century
preacher. . . . And what was the charm which principally
drew us breathless to listen to him? It was this — that
whereas in so many other places of worship sacred
antiquity with its records was a wearisome topic, in that
meeting at the Weigh House Chapel the old world lived
again from the beginning, and narratives which, when
read in the dreary hum of formal church lessons for the
day, passed instantly out of the memory, became in this
preacher's hands a living panorama of the ancient world ;
so that the characters of the Old Testament's patriarchs,
prophets, saints, and soldiers passed into our memories
as indelible and well-nigh living and coloured transcripts
of the days of old, vanquishing incredulity by the very
brightness and reality of the form in which they thus
obtain an earlier 'better resurrection.'"

Referring to his early experiences in connection with
York Street Chapel, Mr. White, many years afterwards
said that in those days " the plight of children as to their
instruction in the ways of God was pitiable indeed.
Practically, little was said in detail, or by way of
application to individuals, of the theory then prevailing

6 EDWARD WHITE

in the ministry. But thoughtful children knew very well
what doctrines underlay the surface-teaching in families,
schools, and churches. It was this — that they were all
born immortal beings, born with souls that must live
for ever, in happiness or in torment ; and born with
souls so degenerate and prone to sin that there was no
escape from the doom of fire in hell for ever except by
regeneration, either by baptism, or, without baptism, by
truth. Arminians, such as the Methodists, taught their
children that all might escape this doom by faith and
repentance. Calvinists (and the Independents and
Baptists were mostly Calvinists then) taught their
children that only a certain number of those born could
be saved, because only a certain number were pre-
destinated by God to be saved ; all the rest born in sin, and
not elected from eternity to salvation, must suffer torment
in hell throughout the eternity to come. This was the
creed, taught in a quiet and respectable way, under which
I was myself educated among the Independents. It was
not worked out in detail by the pious preacher ; the
younger and more thoughtful hearers were left to work
it out in their own reflections.

" Mr. Robert Browning, then a boy with marvellous
countenance and black and flashing eyes, listened to
this doctrine in the corner of the gallery, close to the
reverend preacher's right hand, and I listened to it in
the same church, on the floor. What effect it had on
Mr. Robert Browning I can only guess from his poems.
For myself, it nearly drove me mad with secret misery
of mind, in thinking of such a God. Our young souls
were enmeshed in the most perplexing tangle of contra-
dictory ideas. We were taught that God was good and
just ; all the Bible and all the hymns said that, and
Nature confirmed the lesson. But what could we make of
this Omnipotent Being, who ' so loved the world ' as to
determine on the birth of an immense multitude of non-

EARLY YEARS 7

elect children, who must suffer for ever, while we
ourselves might be amongst the fated number? Well,
it did not quite make infidels of us, for better influences
were at work, but it did so very nearly. It poisoned
the fountains of youthful joy, and rendered it the most
dreadful task on earth to think steadily of our Creator.
From fourteen years old and upwards our faith depended
very much on the art of not thinking on the hateful
mystery.

" Such was the youth out of which sprang my own
subsequent history ; and to-day I praise and extol and
honour the King of Heaven, who has shaken this old and
frightful system of theology almost to the ground, and is
strengthening a great company to protest, year after year,
against such teaching of the young.

" Throughout England, children to-day are taught the
true character of God as never before. Few teachers dare
to repeat to them the mediaeval tales of dread under which
our own earlier years were so deeply oppressed."

Notwithstanding these difficulties, Edward White looked
upon the Christian ministry as the career most worthy of
his adoption, and the one offering the widest scope for the
exercise of the powers that he was conscious of possessing.
These he determined to use in the endeavour to win
sinners to the acceptance of the Gospel of the grace of
God, and his aspirations towards it became ever stronger
while engaged in business. Being fully conscious of the
damaging effect upon his worldly prospects of such a
choice, he yet decided, with his father's approval, to leave
the office, and proceed with the studies which were to be a
further preparation for his life-work as a Christian minister,
and, as it proved, also as a theological reformer. Nor did
he ever regret this decision. Only two months before his
death he wrote : —

" Notwithstanding the sorrowful remembrance of many
faults, the recollection of fifty years spent in the work of

8 EDWARD WHITE

trying to interest men in the Revelation of Divine Love
and everlasting Life is full of gladness. I was originally
destined to be partner in my father's great manufacturing
business of Portland cement, where I should have acquired
considerable wealth, but the review of fifty years spent
in trying to proclaim eternal Life to dying men is
more cheering than any retrospect of gainful trade
would be."

CHAPTER II

PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY
1836-1840; AGE 17-21

EDWARD WHITE was not sent to a Denominational
College, nor to any other theological training
institution, when his destination for the ministry had been
decided upon ; but he went to the minister of a Congrega-
tional Church at Norwood, the Rev. Charles Nice Davies, of
whom ever afterwards Mr. White spoke in terms of warm
gratitude ; more especially for having taught him the
importance of a connected study of the books of Scripture.
He has often declared that his own theological training
consisted in consecutive, patient, and persistent study of
the sacred books in the original languages. This kind of
training had its disadvantages, but it made him a most
effective expositor of Holy Scripture throughout his long
ministry. In a letter written in his old age, and published
after his death in the Christian of August 11, 1898, he
said : —

" Nothing is more needed than a revolution in the
teaching of theological colleges, so that the students may
be founded not on the word of men, but of God, by direct
and connected study, close and continuous exposition,
based on all existing aids in hermeneutics, so that the men
may early and clearly know that God has revealed Himself

io EDWARD WHITE

to man, and requires that revelation to be made known by
His servants.

" As things are at present, the men go forth, not so much
as ' fishers of men' as of texts ; and thus they spend their
lives in fishing for their texts, instead of in close, connected
study of these wonderful writings, one half of whose mean-
ing is ' between the verses ' — i.e., in a real and logical con-
nection of the paragraphs.

" The theory of modern preaching is to make a ' Senno '
— a human speech — not to set forth the connected ideas of
Deity, starting from that death which came by sin, and
ending in the immortality which comes by the incarnate
Word and the Eternal Spirit The masses of our middle-
classes who go to church are grossly ignorant of the con-
tents of the Bible (Biblia — set of books), and submit to
methods and rules of interpretation which they would scout
if attempted to be enforced in interpreting or dealing with
a classic or a newspaper.

" Here is an eruption of my little mole-hill of a volcano !
But it is a just and necessary outbreak, which is (I doubt
not) in direct, conformity with the will of Him who is the
Amen — 'the Faithful and True Witness.' I thank God
that the only theological education I ever had in early life
was that received from my friend and tutor, Charles Nice
Davies, an Indian officer, once Persian interpreter to his
regiment, who had a bad accident to his spine, and became
a minister of a Congregational church at Norwood, where
I lived well-nigh a year before going to Glasgow
University."

So strongly indeed did he always feel on this subject, that
he afterwards made it the theme of his address from the
chair of the Congregational Union, at Norwich, in 1886.

Of Mr. Davies he has said : " He was before all things
a man, and a good man. He awoke my mind to full work
by conversation, and taught me that only connected Scrip-
ture was Scripture." The manliness of Mr. Davies may be

PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY IT

illustrated by the fact that the injury to his spine was
occasioned by an heroic act in stopping a pair of runaway
horses in a carriage, and thus saving the lives of the lady
occupants.

Edward White's next move was to Glasgow University,
where, besides making progress with his studies, he formed
valuable friendships. Among his friends were Dr. Ward-
law, whose church he attended, Mr. Greville Ewing, John
Morell Mackenzie afterwards dro'wned in the Pegasus,
Dr. J. C. Shairp, afterwards Professor of Poetry at Oxford
and Principal of St. Andrew's University, John D.
Morell, David Russell, Edward S. Pryce, and Professors
R. Buchanan and Sir Daniel K. Sandford. Under the last
named of these he studied Greek, and under Buchanan
Logic ; and at the end of his two years' course he obtained
first honours in the Logic class and took a prize. At the
meetings of the Debating Society, in the College theatre,
he was a frequent speaker, and this no doubt helped him to
attain that readiness of utterance for which, afterwards, he
was so well known. He did not proceed to a degree, which
he subsequently regretted ; and he has stated that, on the
whole, there was more of inspiration than of learning gained
at Glasgow. So in 1838 he returned home and resumed
private study at Swanscombe, where his father then resided,
near to the cement works of which he was the proprietor.

It was while thus occupied in private study at home,
towards the end of 1838, or early in 1839, that the event
occurred which turned the current of his thoughts and of
his studies in the direction which led to the production
of his principal book, Life in Christ. At a second-hand
bookstall in London he picked up a book entitled, Eternal
Punishment Proved to be not Suffering but Privation, and
Immortality dependent on Spiritual Regeneration. It was
announced as being the work of " A Member of the
Church of England." Although the book was thus pub-
lished anonymously, there was inside this copy a manu-

12 EDWARD WHITE

script letter, addressed to the Bishop of Llandaff, and a
signature on the title-page, which together prove that the
author was one James Fontaine.

This book, as Mr. White has said, coloured his whole
life, for although it was neither learned nor critical, it led
him to study the books of the Bible with a definite aim and
purpose, to discover their real teaching on the subject of
human immortality. Having carefully examined nearly
all the books of Holy Scripture, making full notes in a
three-volume interleaved Bible, he gained, as he has
declared, " ever clearer ideas on the main questions of the
Gospel revelation, by this direct and connected study of
the sacred Scriptures, with resulting conviction, never
afterwards lost, that immortal life is through Christ, and
only in Christ for regenerate men." Since, in his early days,
he had frequently suffered real torture in hearing the con-
fident assertion of eternal suffering as the inevitable fate
of all the unsaved, this conviction was an immense relief
to his spirit, and it enabled him to preach the Gospel of life
with all the greater freedom.

His own account of the effect upon himself of reading
Mr. Fontaine's book is as follows : —

" I found myself both astonished and interested by the
august idea which in simple language it unfolded ; that
man, by sin, had lost immortal life ; and that the object of
the stupendous procedure of the Incarnation of the God-
head in the person of Christ was to restore the divine
image to man, and with it an everlasting life in God. I
found it impossible to shake off the impression which it
made upon me, agreeing as it did so much with the surface
meaning of the Bible. But the next thought was that
since this doctrine had sunk out of general knowledge, as
was evident by my own surprise at hearing of it, it had
failed of acceptance because it was only one of many
unsuccessful heresies.

" Nevertheless, I resolved to keep it in view in those

PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 13

systematic studies of Holy Scripture in which I was then
engaged, knowing that, although it had been generally
rejected, and had sunk out of view, that was a fate which
had befallen some undoubted truths in a world not much
given to careful examination of evidence, and ruled in its
belief by authority and by custom rather than by inquiry.
Under any result, fresh examination would either confirm
the idea of Mr. Fontaine's book, or would re-establish my
feet upon the rock of orthodox faith. Therefore, on a
night of extraordinary splendour and beauty, when the
vastness of the starry heavens seemed to impart a most
solemn urgency to the question of human destiny, I
remember praying to the God of heaven, in a high garden
on the banks of the Lower Thames, that He would lead
me into the knowledge of His Truth on this matter, and
strengthen me even for a life-long conflict, either to re-
enforce the awful doctrine of orthodoxy on the future of
humanity, or to shake its sway. I do not think any
youthful spirit ever more honestly devoted itself to find
out TRUTH by patient investigation, and if necessary to
suffer for its diffusion, than I did on that night, when the
Infinite seemed to open afresh on my view."

Meanwhile, it seemed probable, as Mr. Fontaine's view
was in opposition to the general belief in the Churches,
that his own conviction of its truth might shut him out
from their pulpits. Accordingly he had to face this
probability, and although it did not cause him to flinch
from the trial, he clearly and keenly felt its seriousness.
This is proved by the way in which he wrote of it to his
friend Edward S. Pryce, in a letter dated Swanscombe,
August 14, 1839. It is a long and remarkable letter,
indicating careful study and deep thought in the writer ;
and if it should appear to the reader that he has employed
some phrases which are too strong or too familiar, it should
be remembered that the letter was written, not for publi-
cation, but for the perusal of a private friend. Yet its

14 EDWARD WHITE

introduction here seems justified, because it contains in
germ the ideas subsequently developed in his later writings.
The principal part of it relating to the subject of his
controversy is as follows : —

" If you question a single opinion in which people are
born you must endure the result of your temerity. An
illustration of this sentiment is soon likely to burst upon
my head, for, alas ! though I hail it myself as a glorious
truth, men will kill and eject me for believing it, namely,
that the doctrine of sacred Scripture with regard to future
punishment is that the wicked are to be destroyed.
This will surprise you. All that I beg is that you will not
preach the doctrine of eternal torments again until you
may have reconsidered these following notes : —

" r. The common doctrine rests on a figurative inter-
pretation of life and death — 6 Bavarog 6 Sevrtpos — and
this on the authority of Matt, xxv., last verse ; the
meaning of which KoXamg, may be found 2 Peter ii. 9-12,
and the meaning of which ulwviov, Jude 7. This rests
on no Socinian quibble. Rev. xiv. 10 is also quoted,
but turn to Isaiah xxxiv., where he is threatening
Idumea, and examine the context of Rev. ch. xv.-xvi.,
the pouring out the last temporal plagues on Babylon
and the enemies of the Gospel, in the presence of the
throne of God (the opened temple), and I think you will
acknowledge the verses in chap. xiv. to refer in prophetical
language to earthly judgement and not to the final
destiny.

"The rich man, Dives, is clearly suffering before the final
doom, by the context, so that argues neither way.

" Now excepting these texts there is not one in the Bible
that does not read off more easily on the theory of absolute
destruction of bad men with lingering pain at the day of
judgement, leaving their carcases a spectacle for some time
to the nations of the saved. [See Isaiah Ixvi. 24.]

"2. Mark that no one pretends to find eternal torments

PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 15

in the Old Testament, yet all are to be adjudged to them
on the common showing. Why were they not there ?

"3. If two or three texts are to explain five hundred
figuratively, why may not five hundred explain two or
three? Answer : Because men are vain of believing
terrific lies ; a striking, but to my mind, indisputable
moral phenomenon ; whereas on the one hand it would
agree with Natural Religion, and be extremely delightful
to see such an indication that God is love ; on the other
it shows a good, stiff, sinewy, muscular credulity to
suppose He will act like a demon.

"Another better answer, and with respect to the
majority, a true one, would be : Because so few men
ever thought of doubting a doctrine which as Calvinistic
infants they suck in with their mothers' milk. It is so
tremendous a subject, they think it worthless to search
the Scriptures for a proof of it. ' Men never would
have added it to the word of God.' Would they not ?
Look at Popery, Socinianism, and the Church of
England, and see whether men will not add and
subtract as suits either their lusts or metaphysics.

" 4. As far as I can find from the Apostolic Fathers,
eternal torments are never mentioned. Arnobius, 180
years after John's death, teaches in his book ' Contra
Gentes' that the punishment is annihilation with pain,
when and where there will be weeping and wailing and
gnashing of teeth.

" The natural operation of fire is to burn up, not to
immortalize its fuel, but the credulity of an unphilosophical
Calvinist will receive even this, without inquiry, for this is
the subject of my warfare.

" I account for the introduction of the doctrine by the
Platonic falsehood of the necessary immortality of the soul
of man, which entered the Christian Church in the fourth
century, as you may see in the learned Dodwell on the
Soul, a book with a fine title-page. The original doctrine

16 EDWARD WHITE

of the Jewish and Christian Churches of the Old and New
Testaments was, I am certain, the mortality of man's soul
for Adam's sin, but its possible immortality by regenera-
tion and sanctification. See Job, Genesis ii., Psalms,
Proverbs, I Corinthians xv., Galatians iv.

" The consequences of this view of punishment I take to
be : (i) love to God ; (2) gratitude, unmingled, to Christ ;
(3) a strong motive to holiness ; (4) an avoidance of furious
zeal on little questions, which arises now from thinking
God a tormentor ; and (5) a union on great principles.

" I do not venture to talk in this confident style without
feeling an increased conviction of the truth of these views,
notwithstanding the mass of popular opinion against them
and the manifest disadvantage they will bring to my
reputation on earth. Pray and think and read on this
subject as much as I have done during the last month, and
if you differ at the end, send me reasons. It is either a
great truth or a great lie, a useful and encouraging
doctrine or a pernicious error. Either I or the theologians
have broken the command at the end of Rev. xxii.
Modesty might lead any one to suppose almost without
examination that himself was in the wrong. But I declare
to you that every hour brings me to the contrary convic-
tion. It does give me almost a new life in looking upon
the myriads of our fellow-creatures and thinking upon the
ages of eternity, that the time is arriving when the good
and beneficent Being who is kind to the unthankful and
the evil will extirpate all suffering from the universe, by
extirpating the causes of it. As for the spirit, the joy, the
feeling of the glad tidings with which you preach the
Gospel in this view, I cannot, need not describe it. Rejoice
in the Lord, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in
heart. Are these suggestions of the Devil? If bad men
become worse because they will only be annihilated :
mind, this is not the first truth of sacred Scripture which
they have wrested to their own destruction ; but it is not

PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 17

only annihilation, the day of judgement is one of fearful
agony, a spectacle of horror, a night much to be remem-
bered by the Lord's hosts. The deluge was forty days in
drowning that world of the ungodly."

The marvel is that such a letter should have been written
by one so young, for at this time Edward White was only
a little more than twenty years of age.

Being then too young to think of settling at once in the
ministry, at the suggestion of Mr. C. N. Davies, he went to
spend a year at Worcester, where his further studies were
to be under the guidance of Dr. Redford. While there he
became acquainted with the Rev. John Angell James, and
formed other friendships which lasted through life.
Occasionally also he preached in the villages around.

On his coming of age in 1840, his sister, Mrs. Ranyard,
familiarly known as L. N. R., addressed to him a poetic
expression of her affectionate interest in him, and in his
future career. From it the following lines may be quoted : —

" My brother, thine has been a thoughtful youth,
A youth of deeper thoughts than most men's age,
And still, with all thy philosophic lore
Thou hast a poet's heart, a sympathy
With all things beautiful, a happy power
To cull from nature and from common life
Ethereal essence, and to shed it back
Into congenial souls. The poet's crown
Were yet, I deem, too low an aim for thee.
Thou hast forsaken the paternal hearth,
The din of traffic and the paths of gain,
For holier things than these that thou mayest prove
' Wise to win souls ' from the wide realms of sin.
We touch on solemn times ; division, change,
Disruption, mark the world's advancing age
And I oft ponder on thy destiny
Amidst it all, young aspirant ; with prayer
That God, who hath bestowed rich gifts of mind,
And turned that mind towards Himself, may keep
Thee lowly at thy suffering Saviour's feet,
And fill thee with His Holy Spirit's power,
Then use thee as He will.

" My heart doth ache,

Sometimes, to think how we have lost the light
3

i8 EDWARD WHITE

Of thy perpetual presence. Thou wilt dwell

No more amongst us, save at intervals,

And Love's bright chain must spread its links afar ;

Yet ne'er, dear brother, by our winter fire

Will we forget thee ; and with thoughts of thee

The calm retiring light of summer eves

Shall ever mingle at the hour of prayer."

Gratefully recognizing the helpful influence exerted
upon him during his youth by the writer of these lines,
as mentioned in the previous chapter, Edward White had
the happiness at a later period of being able to render
efficient aid to her in her literary and philanthropic
labours. In the preparation and revision of her well-
known work, The Book and its Story, and of her later
book, Stones Crying Out, he was her counsellor and inde-
fatigable helper. In her long-continued and beneficent
work among the London poor, too, he was ever ready
to assist either with private counsel or public speech.
He rejoiced greatly over the success of the Bible Women's
work initiated by her, and in its rapid growth while still
under her wise direction and subsequently. Since her
death in 1879 that work has continued to progress, and
even with increased rapidity, until it has reached its
present vast extension as " The London Bible Women
and Nurses' Mission," employing ninety Bible Women
and sixty efficient Nurses who minister to the poor in
their own homes in all parts of London.

CHAPTER III

CARDIFF AND HEREFORD

1841-1851 ; AGE 21-32

THE kind friend and teacher who had guided the
youth in his first studies with a definite view to the
Christian ministry, Charles Nice Davies, had by this time
become Principal of Brecon College. He had not lost
sight of his young friend and pupil, and having recognized
his sterling qualities and considerable capacity, as well as
his stability of character, he proposed, in 1840, that
Edward White should go to Cardiff to minister to a small
congregation of seceders from the Church at the old
Womanby Street Chapel. This charge was undertaken,
and young White went there with the determination to do
his best to heal the split, and preach the people back again.
In this purpose he seems to have succeeded, and to have
himself gone with them and preached at Womanby Street.
It was at this period of his career that Mr. White
received from the celebrated essayist, John Foster, that
long and very interesting and important letter, on
questions relating to the future life and the fate of the
unsaved, which was published at length in Foster's
Life and Correspondence^ vol. i., and from which a
rather long extract may be found in Mr, White's Life in
Christ (3rd ed., p. 61). That letter, coming as it did
from a veteran in the ministry, greatly encouraged him in
his determination to study these questions thoroughly,

19

20 EDWARD WHITE

and to speak out when fully convinced as to what was the
true doctrine.

At Cardiff he remained more than a year, gaining several
valuable friendships, as well as a beginning of pastoral
experience. He was present on the ship with the old
Marquis of Bute at the opening of the Bute Docks, which
proved the beginning of the phenomenal development of
the business and the town of Cardiff, the population having
increased tenfold since that time.

The death of his friend C. N. Davies, at Brecon College,
on the 22nd January, 1842, was the occasion of Mr.
White's next move. He went to Brecon, and with another
friend, Mr. D. Blow, accompanied the remains to Hereford,
where he conducted the funeral service. The burial took
place in front of the Eignbrook Chapel, which had been built
through the influence and exertions of Mr. Davies during
his pastorate of the Church from 1827 to 1831. It re-
placed the older one, which dated from the times of active
persecution and was inconveniently small. The building
thus erected was itself superseded in 1872 by the present
one, of a more modern pattern and more commodious.

In speaking of Mr. Davies at the funeral, Mr. White did
not fail to acknowledge his own indebtedness to his
deceased friend. His speech on the occasion was printed,
somewhat abridged, in the Hereford Times of the I2th
February, 1842, and in 1881 was reprinted in pamphlet
form, by one of the Hereford friends, as a memorial of
Mr. Davies. It seems to have made such an impression
upon Mr. White's brother, George F. White, as to have led
him to write to his sister Henrietta a remarkably prophetic
letter, dated 27th February, 1842, from which the following
is an extract : —

" I have been reading Edward's incomparable memoir
of his master. It is impossible to separate the character
of the man from the delineation of it by his pupil, or to
know which to admire most. I think there can be hardly

CARDIFF AND HEREFORD 21

another man living who knew Davies well enough to have
written it. The question might arise, What did Davies do
for his generation ? It is well answered by the fact of his
having trained one such mind as Edward's. He might
have written volumes and preached daily and yet been
less useful than he will be proved to have been if, by God's
blessing, Edward's life be spared. The feeling with
which he regarded him is proved by the touching allusion
to his residence with Davies, his regret that it was so.
short, the value set on his instructions, the deep affection
that he entertained for him, and by the important use he
has made since of that year's advantage. Depend upon
it, Edward is destined to achieve a great work. In many
respects he will be as little understood as his departed
friend, but he will be a more public man, a more writing
man, and if not offensive to say so, a more useful man.
The similarity of his own mind to the one he describes
is so remarkable that were his memoir to be written
to-morrow, he has written ,it himself, if we make due
allowance for age, position, and circumstance."

Although some superior persons derided this oration as
inflated rhetoric, — an estimate in which Mr. White's own
more mature judgement agreed, — it had one effect which
was not at all foreseen : it induced the Eignbrook Church
to invite the speaker to become its pastor. This call he
accepted, and accordingly removed, in March 1842, from
Cardiff to Hereford, where he remained as pastor until
September 1851, nine and a half years, dwelling in the
quaint old manse which still stands close to the present
chapel.

While still at Cardiff, Mr. White had published a lecture
on " Christian Union," which he had delivered at Newport
on the 1 4th September, 1841. It was occasioned by some
discourses of the then Bishop of Llandaff. In this lecture,
while vindicating the separation of Dissenters from the
ecclesiastical organization of the Established Church, he

22 EDWARD WHITE

argued for the real spiritual unity of all true believers, and
for its outward manifestation in community of worship and
work. Soon after his settlement at Hereford, he also
published a lecture on " The Errors and Omissions of the
Church Catechism," the occasion of which was a Bill in
Parliament relating to the education of factory children.

It was while at Hereford, too, that he began his contri-
butions to periodical literature. In 1845 he wrote a series of
five articles for a publication called the Weekly Evangelist,
the subject being again " Christian Union." Thus early in
his career did he begin to use his literary power and
influence in favour of union among all true Christians, a
subject which lay very near his heart. An earnest desire
for spiritual unity characterized his whole life, and was
illustrated even in his latest years when residing at Mill
Hill, by his fellowship with the various local bodies of
Christians there, and his willingness to allow his name to
appear on the Methodist plan as a local preacher.

During the Hereford period also occurred several of the
most momentous events in his life, among them his
marriage. In 1841 he had written, "A man's marriage is
the grand error, or the most useful step, in his whole life."
In his case it proved to be the latter. His own account of
the circumstances that led to it is, that when he was on a
visit to London in 1842, he met at Swanscombe a visitor
named Rachel Ainsley Aldersey, " and," he writes, " I
persuaded her to become my wife and good angel. After
a year of waiting we were married at Chigwell Row on
June 6, 1843."

Meanwhile he had been himself solemnly ordained to
the Christian ministry at Hereford. The ordination took
place on the i8th of August, 1842, but no detailed account
of the services has been found. His father was present,
and in a letter written the following day and dated,
" Bishop's Palace, Hereford " (the said " Palace " being the
humble dwelling already mentioned as close to the chapel),

CARDIFF AND HEREFORD 23

he gave to his daughter, Mrs. Leedham, a few items of
interest. He wrote : " Yesterday was a good and happy
day. ... I brought down Mr. John Clayton and Mr.
Binney, and Mr. Alderson joined yesterday. Our meeting,
I hope, will have the favour of God. The services were
conducted with great propriety, ability, and right feeling.
Edward is now installed as a Bishop, in the Scriptural
sense, not, as we were truly told, as a Diocesan, but as a
Pastor and Teacher ; and I may gratefully number it as
one of my happy days, to see a son thus publicly devoted
to God's work, with every prospect of being made useful.
I will tell you more details when we meet."

Of the daily life of the new " Bishop " in this obscure
pastorate, an interesting idyllic picture is presented in a
letter written at Hereford by his sister, Mrs. Ranyard,
addressed to their father, and dated June 10, 1844.

" Edward gives you a full impression of a man living a
holy life, and intent on leading all over whom he has any
influence to dwell upon the, world to come and to live as
if they had souls. If I ever see him, as I think, should
God spare his life, we must rationally expect, in a
wider sphere and in the trying sunshine of popular
approval, I shall look back to him with the deepest
interest ' in his frame ' at Hereford, where he is satisfied
with labouring to save souls, one by one, and where he
appears to have work enough for his physical strength,
and to feel perfectly at home. . . . The secret now of his
happiness is his practical piety ; his heart is improved, I
can scarcely believe him to be the same person that he was
a year and a half ago. This earnest self-education is now
bringing forth its mental fruit too, and the deep and ever-
lasting fount of Scripture is the well at which he daily
draws. I have seen more in this visit of the roots of his
thinking and of the habit of his mind, than ever before,
and hope to follow him as in my position I may. He is
a very industrious Bee (in everything except early rising),

24 EDWARD WHITE

and makes honey for himself out of all he sees, hears, and
reads, and does not do it now and then, or by fits and starts,
but every day and always. There are two drawers full of
this honey, which he calls his stock-in-trade (and which will
be the foundation, doubtless, in time to come of something
that will show to the world what his mind is) ; and if he
were put to the alternative, rather than lose these he would
part with his treasury drawer."

Having diligently pursued his studies relating to human
immortality during these years, Mr. White has told us that
" the result was an ever-deepening conviction that Fontaine's
unlearned book set forth the very truth of God — ist, on the
nature of man as not necessarily immortal ; 2nd, on the
result of the Fall as bringing man under sentence of death,
in the sense of extinction of all life ; 3rd, on the object of
Redemption to renew man in the divine image, in the
possession of an endless life through union with the
Incarnate life of God in Christ ; while it resulted, also,
4th, that man out of Christ will utterly perish and die the
' second death ' in hell without hope of recovery."

He then goes on to say : —

" I had pretty early discovered that these ideas had a
very ancient history ; that they were distinctly held and
taught by some of the most important of the writers of
the second and third centuries ; and had been, in whole or
in part, revived by a long succession of writers in subse-
quent ages — most of whom, however, had treated the
question erroneously, chiefly as one of future punishment,
instead of regarding it as a question on the nature and
objects of the Christian redemption.

" Accordingly, after laying the critical and historical
evidence which had carried my own judgement before
several able friends, who were similarly affected by it,
notably before John Foster the essayist, who responded in
the celebrated letter published in his memoirs, I published
a pamphlet without my name in 1844, entitled, 'What was

CARDIFF AND HEREFORD 25

the Fall ? ' — thus showing that the object was not to affront
Christendom by a juvenile or dogmatic denial of its settled
beliefs, but to obtain a much-needed thorough discussion
of a neglected topic in theology. This pamphlet obtained
no success, except a scurrilous and contemptuous notice in
the Evangelical Magazine''

In 1845, feeling it his duty to set forth the argument in
greater fulness, he gave a course of four lectures at Here-
ford. These were published in the following year as a small
octavo volume, entitled, Life in Christ: Four Discourses
upon the Scripture Doctrine that Immortality is the Peculiar
Privilege of the Regenerate. Speaking of this book in 1882,
Mr. White said : " It was received, along with Mr. Dobney's
work I published in the same year, without any serious
examination, and with a storm of indignation against us,
which plainly showed that my own prospect of further
employment in the Congregational ministry was ended. It
is difficult to convey to this generation a conception of the
vehemence and severity of the condemnation with which
these early efforts of ours were met by the English religious
public.

" The practical result for myself was exclusion from every
Nonconformist pulpit in the land ; and I could not con-
scientiously enter the National Church. One mode alone
of continuing in the ministry remained available — to go to
London, as the centre of English thought, and to obtain,
if possible, some church building where there might be a
egal right to preach the Gospel under such conditions as I
have described, where these conclusions might be tested
and thoroughly sifted amidst the culture and experience of
London Christianity."

The publication of this book, Life in Christ, may be
considered as the crisis of Edward White's career. It
committed him to the championship of an unpopular

1 On the Scripture Doctrine of Future Punishment. (London :
Ward & Co.)

26 EDWARD WHITE

doctrine, which he had been led, by anxious and prayerful
study, to regard as the very truth of God, and it obliged
him to face the prospect of bitter opposition. Although
the Rev. H. H. Dobney, of Maidstone, had published at
about the same time his excellent work on Future
Punishment,1 in which the same doctrine was advocated
from a different standpoint, it was not he, but Mr. White,
who had to sustain the burden of the controversy thus
raised, and of the opposition provoked. He has thus
described the immediate effect of the publication : —

" Our two books, and our two selves, were attacked in
the religious periodicals of the day with a vehemence and
contempt which perhaps betrayed some suspicion of weak-
ness in the assailants. But the good men who wrote
against us, and stirred up a popular indignation which
resulted in a prolonged excommunication, are now long
laid to rest, and we will say nothing of their past behaviour.
Nothing except that that noble man, and true friend of the
people, Mr. Henry Dunn, Secretary of the British and
Foreign School Society, himself a firm believer in Immor-
tality through Christ, undertook our defence as young
men against the calumnious attack of the Eclectic Review^
and showed to the Nonconformist public how unfairly
we had been charged with hostility to the Evangelical
system.

" For seven years these books, although working beneath
the surface, made but one prominent convert to the revived
faith of early Christianity. This was Sir James Stephen,
then Professor of History at Cambridge, where, as he once
told me, he always kept some copies in circulation. In
the Epilogue to his Ecclesiastical Essays he has plainly
expressed his opinion on the necessity for a revision in
this department of theology."

1 In 1882 Mr. White wrote of this book : " No one has yet answered
it, and it cannot, I think, be fairly answered, even by himself, if we are
to be guided by the ordinary principles of interpretation."

CARDIFF AND HEREFORD 27

The article in the Eclectic Review above referred to
treats Mr. White's publication as a youthful vagary, an
attempt to do that which " requires more than the circum-
spection, wisdom, and knowledge which usually adorn the
years of young men," undertaken without due caution or
sufficient warrant. The reviewer speaks of the writer as
" very flippant and insulting towards all the teachers of the
orthodox system." Although Mr. White's whole case
rests upon the proper interpretation of Scripture, it is
charged against him that " there is throughout a lament-
able deficiency of deference to Scriptural statements, and a
constant effort to unspiritualize spiritual things."

Enough has been already said to show how mistaken
was such a representation of Edward White's position and
purpose, and to prove that, on the contrary, he was a man
who had determined, by earnest prayerful study of the
Holy Scriptures, to test and regulate all his beliefs and to
work out for himself a scheme of doctrine in accordance
therewith, independently of the standards current among
the Churches, whether Congregational or other. It was
thus, by a gradual and painstaking process, fully recog-
nizing the seriousness and importance of the subject, and
of the consequences to himself, that he had reached the
position indicated in his book. In a similar way, while at
Hereford, he became convinced that the Advent of Christ,
promised in the New Testament and still expected by the
Church, will be pre-millennial, and in this conviction he
never afterwards wavered.

Another subject to which he devoted careful study at
this time, was the doctrine and practice of baptism.
Having been born and educated among psedobaptists, at
the beginning of his ministerial career he seems to have
had no doubts as to the propriety of infant baptism. He
not only practised it, but preached in favour of it, or at
least prepared a sermon setting forth the reasons why he
thought it should be practised. Yet even at this time he

28 EDWARD WHITE

was conscious of some of the abuses connected with it, for
in his common-place book, in 1840, he wrote : "What an
awful number of lies are told every year in Church
baptisms ! " His further study of the question led him
gradually to the conviction that the arguments on which
he had formerly relied for justification of the practice were
not valid. In 1844 he wrote, probably with reference to
this question of baptism : " We are more likely to be in
bondage to our own opinions than to those of any other
person, especially to those opinions which we may have
formerly defended." Some years later he writes of the
importance of bearing testimony against infant baptism, as
encouraging the false and dangerous delusion of baptismal
regeneration.

By the year 1850 he had become convinced that : " The
awful perversion of baptism in infant regeneration over
the whole world, renders it imperative upon every Christian
to testify against it by personal reception of the rite in
mature years." And it was not his way to lay down a
rule for others which he was not prepared to observe
himself. If the reception of baptism was imperative upon
every Christian, it was surely even more so upon every
Christian minister. Accordingly he made arrangements
for his own baptism, which was administered to him by
the late Dr. Gotch at Broadmead Chapel, Bristol, in that
year (1850).

About the same time he delivered a long and carefully
prepared lecture, also at Bristol, stating, in considerable
detail, the reasons why he rejected the practice of infant
baptism, whether explained as the actual means of re-
generation or not, and pointing out that the explanations
given by different representatives of the Independents
were mutually destructive, as well as unsupported by
Scripture authority. This lecture was published with a
rather long title : " The Three Infant Baptisms of Oxford,
Glasgow, and Manchester, and New Testament Baptism

CARDIFF AND HEREFORD 29

for the Remission of Sins, with considerations on their
respective bearings on personal religion and the constitution
of the Church ; to which is prefixed a Brief Defence both
of Immersion and Pouring. A Lecture delivered at the
Gallery of the Fine Arts Academy, Bristol. By Edward
White, author of Four Discourses on Life in Christ.
London : B. L. Green, 1850."

The following extract from this lecture may be worth
introducing, as showing how Mr. White regarded the
influence of infant baptism on the subjects of it. He said :
" Notwithstanding the allegations of a few enthusiastic
defenders of paedobaptism as to the benefits which they
suppose themselves to have derived from it, I apprehend
that of all the influences which act upon us in forming the
character, the fact that we were baptized in infancy is the
faintest. Circumcision left a permanent mark upon the
subject of it, which might remind him of his privileges and
obligations. Infant baptism leaves no such mark, either
on the body or on the memory. It can be known to the
baptized only as a traditionary fact in the family history.
If, however, it exercise any influence at all, that influence
is likely to be of a pernicious tendency, encouraging the
vague idea that there is some other way of becoming a
Christian than by personal thought upon Christian truth
and personal obedience to it. Not to have been baptized
in infancy on the other hand must exercise a positively
good influence upon the opening intelligence of children.
It would present a far stronger motive to piety to be made
to feel that membership with Christ's Church is a high
privilege vouchsafed alone to those who design to serve
and please God in Christ, and suggesting ... a feeling
of danger while abstaining from personal repentance,
obedience, and baptism."

This divergence on his part from the belief and practice
of the Congregational Churches generally, made his
position at Hereford difficult to maintain, for he could no

30 EDWARD WHITE

longer baptize the infants of the members. He was,
however, willing to have them brought into the assembly
and solemnly dedicated to God in public with prayer and
thanksgiving ; a practice which he continued all through
his ministerial course, so far as it was desired.

Some years before this he had written : " Unfortunately
innumerable private interests and livelihoods have become
entangled in all our theological controversies, rendering
the settlement of these infinitely more difficult. See the
Church Establishment and the endowments of the
Dissenters." This fact had now come home to him in
his own experience, and so, in the year following that of
his baptism, he determined to resign his charge and seek
a position in London in which he might with greater
freedom preach and act according to his convictions.

Leaving Hereford, therefore, in September 1851, Mr.
White was assured of the sympathy and goodwill of his
people there at a crowded public farewell meeting, which
was attended by all the neighbouring ministers and
reported in the Hereford Times. In his speech on that
occasion he warmly acknowledged the kindness and for-
bearance with which he had been treated by them all, with
the result that they parted in the most perfect peace and
harmony. He said that, in spite of all the secondary
opinions which he had divulged in that place, and referred
to occasionally in his discourses, he thought he might
honestly say that the Gospel as understood by all
Christians had been his great theme. Elsewhere he had
been known by some secondary opinions, which had
created a strong feeling, and to which he did not wish to
make further reference, but in Hereford he had been
known as putting prominently forward the fundamental
truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Some of his characteristic remarks may be here quoted.
He said : " All attempts to unite men on details must
prove fallacious. If you try to lay down definite principles

CARDIFF AND HEREFORD 31

and articles as the standard of union, they are sure to lead
to all sorts of division. We can only be united upon
fundamental truths. ... I have tried to speak irrespective
of consequences. . . . The evil of the present day is
compromise for false peace's sake. The great thing is to
please God by fidelity to principle. . . . We have just as
much hope of eterna1 glory as we have of Christ, and no
more." In closing, he asked their prayers on his behalf, in
a far more difficult course than his had been in Hereford.
Country preachers when taken to London seemed, like
birds, to lose their " wood-notes wild." Many were afraid
to speak out. The influence of a great city was almost
omnipotent upon the mind, and nothing but the Spirit of
God dwelling in a man, filling his mind with the knowledge
of Christ, can make him regardless of the opinion of the
world. It was only this could make him stand in the evil
day. He therefore urged them to pray for him, that he
might open his mouth boldly, as he ought to speak.

The measure in which such prayers were answered in
his subsequent course will 'appear in the later portion of
this memoir.

On the following day a deputation of the ladies of the
congregation waited upon him, and presented him with an
elegant gold watch as a testimony of their regard.

On leaving Hereford he went, with his wife and four
children, to Swanscombe, where his father found him a
house, and he preached there in the school chapel during
six months, while waiting for the opportunity to test the
value of his personal convictions, by obtaining a place
where he might preach freely the Gospel of God's grace
and salvation as he now understood it.

The experience of these nine and a half years in com-
parative obscurity at Hereford had more than one advan-
tage as a preparation for his subsequent work. For one
thing, it taught him to speak plain English. Soon after
his settlement there, he wrote: "If you wish to learn to

32 EDWARD WHITE

speak plain English, you must go and preach to a country
congregation for a few years." Another advantage was
that it gave him the opportunity of becoming acquainted
with Christians of various types, and with their several
modes of thought and speech. Hereford, although a
Cathedral city, had only a comparatively small population,
and he was able to sustain amicable relations with
adherents of the Church of England, with Baptists,
Methodists, Plymouth Brethren and Quakers, and to gain
insight into their differing methods and doctrines. This
helped to develop in him that catholicity of spirit, already
alluded to, which was one of his leading characteristics in
later life.

Although Mr. White had been led to accept the views
of the Baptists with respect to baptism, he was not willing
to sever his connection with the Congregational body, so
long as it might be permitted to continue ; and in fact it
continued to the end of his life. While agreeing with
Baptist principles, he objected to the name, and did not
see the necessity for separation from other Christians
holding similar views as to Church organization and
government. Thus he was never willing to be called a
Baptist, and would not allow his name to be retained in
the list of Baptist ministers compiled by the Baptist
Union.

In this year, 1851, was opened in Hyde Park the first
great " International Exhibition," which was the embodi-
ment of a noble idea of the late Prince Consort, and was
inaugurated by Her late Majesty Queen Victoria. After
Mr. White's first visit he thus records the impression that
it made upon him : " Went first time to Exhibition.
Walked up the nave from the American end. Astounding
impression made by the view of ' all nations ' walking in
the grand avenue, seen from the galleries at the end."

In October of the same year he witnessed Kossuth's
enthusiastic reception in London.

CHAPTER IV

THE LONDON MINISTRY

1852 ; AGE 32-33

THE desired opportunity for making a practical test
of the doctrine of " Life in Christ," by preaching
freely on that basis, was not long delayed. In August
1851 Mr. White had ascertained, through his friends Edward
S. Pryce and Frederick Trestrail, that a chapel in Kentish
Town, built for the use of the Countess of Huntingdon's
Connexion, and known as St. Paul's Chapel, Hawley Road,
was disused and available. This chapel Mr. White
arranged to take at a yearly rent, feeling confident that, if
this thing were of God, eventual success would be sure,
although it would inevitably involve many difficulties and
much trial of patience, as well as risk of pecuniary loss.
If it were not of God, he would be content that it should
fail. After having continued the work in that building for
thirty years, he preached a sermon in which he told the
story of its beginning.

"This building, in its original form, in a somewhat
obscure suburb, was the only one that offered. We were
not acquainted with a single Christian person in the
neighbourhood who would be likely to render assistance.
But I committed the cause to God alone, and went for-
ward. No prospect could have seemed more unpromising.
We were then alone in London in these beliefs. Devout

4 33

34 EDWARD WHITE

men, held in deserved honour, went about warning all who
' valued their immortal souls ' not to cross this threshold.
For my part I was not sorry for these disadvantages. The
movement had begun in incessant prayer for light on this
awful problem of man's nature and destiny, in ceaseless
study of the sacred Scriptures, and in a willingness to
suffer anything in disrepute and loss of promotion, God
enabling us, in order to test the truth, and to promulgate
it if confirmed. If these ideas were errors, we said, let
them be crushed — the sooner the better — by all the weight
of public authority and of hostile learned opinion ; or let
them be smothered by this local obscurity, insignificance,
and financial difficulty. On the other hand, we said, if
these ideas are true and divine, ' ye cannot overthrow
them.' If some few people are found ready to suffer
sharply enough, and long enough, in bringing them before
the public, they will certainly make way at last ; God will
fight for them if they are His truth, and will strengthen us,
or some one else, to continue the witness, and will supply
the needful resources. And if ' these things are so,' He
will in time open the eyes of some of His abler servants to
see what we, and so many others before us, have seen, and
strengthen them to acknowledge the doctrine of Life in
Christ as true in itself, and true for the times.

" No sooner was the building opened for worship than
some signs of sympathy appeared. Several distinguished
ministers, guarding themselves against the supposition of
agreeing with us, preached at this re-consecration. A few
friendly and heroic souls from a distance, whose hearts
God had touched, cast in their lot with us at the very
commencement, nearly all previously unknown. These
have mostly passed away ; a few remain still to enjoy the
recollection of their remarkable self-denial and courage,
and to join their thanksgiving with ours to-day in the
review of the years that have gone by.

" There was this speciality in the establishment of this

THE LONDON MINISTRY 35

congregation, that it was founded in 1852 to do a double
work. First, it was founded to fulfil the ordinary function
of a congregational society, to ' gather out ' of the
surrounding population, by the preaching of the Gospel of
Christ, 'a people for God's name,' who by joint worship
and work might become the instruments of the Holy
Spirit for saving other souls, and for helping forward the
general mission of the Gospel through the world. This
was the chief end proposed in our Church foundation, and
I thank God that this has been our chief end ever since.
No one who has joined us has ever been asked what was
his opinion or belief on any secondary subject ; the only
condition of Church-membership has been declared faith in
Christ and in the dogmatic authority of His apostles, and
a consistent life. We have been glad to welcome the
adhesion of persons who agreed with us in important
secondary views, but such agreement was not essential,
and as a matter of fact only a fractional section of our
society has exhibited a strong theological tendency in any
direction. It has been this practical spirit of the Church
for thirty years which has been its salvation in every sense
of the word, for no Church can subsist wholly or chiefly
upon controversy, even on matters of the gravest import-
ance. It is the chief comfort of my own reflections to-day
that there never was more uncontroversial zeal for the
common salvation, never more zeal for the salvation of
souls, never more good work done amongst us for young
men and women, for the ignorant, for the poor, for the
rich, for the surrounding population, for the heathen
nations, than at the present time.

" There was, however, a second end to accomplish — and
a difficult one — namely, to combine with the ordinary
course of evangelization and Church-fellowship here, a
public effort to explain, to defend, and to propagate those
doctrines on immortal life which long previous study had
led us to regard as worthy of all acceptation. It was a

36 EDWARD WHITE

sufficiently entangled undertaking. There was always the
danger of giving undue prominence to these specialities ;
of which those who disliked them would not be slow to
make observation. There was the opposite danger of so
concealing them that one chief object of the movement
would be sacrificed to the aim of pleasing its adversaries.
We have tried to avoid both extremes.

" Whether all that has grown up here and elsewhere
throughout the world from these beginnings is to be traced
to the good hand of God upon us, or to the aid of the
power of darkness assisting a small number of men for
thirty years, at great personal loss and discomfort, to
enforce and propagate a pernicious heresy, you can judge
at your leisure. For my own part, I end these thirty years
as I began them by calling God to record that we have
been actuated, so far as we know, by no spirit of rebellion
against His holy revelations, but by an honest desire to
interpret the Bible according to the plain rule of taking its
meaning from the most obvious sense of its general
expressions, as on all other topics, so on this subject of
Life and Death eternal. And at the end of this long
period of additional study of God's Word, of conference
with an immense number of scholars of all Churches, and
of several nations, of laborious investigation of the ancient
and modern literature of the questions concerned (having
hereby obtained an acquaintance with the controversy
which gives one a certain moderate claim to be listened to,
superior at least to that of hasty and trifling notice-writers
in religious newspapers and magazines) ; above all at the
end of these thirty years' experience of the spiritual effects
seen in Christians subjected to such teaching, and in
alienated souls both ignorant and educated, who have been
reclaimed by its influence, I solemnly this day confess
again the doctrine which was taught here at first, that man
is not represented in the divine revelation as immortal
since the Fall, but as a being who has lost the hope of ever-

THE LONDON MINISTRY 37

lasting life, which he can regain only by spiritual regenera-
tion and union with the immortal Son of God. And,
therefore, I protest again, with all my heart and soul and
mind, against what appear to us still those two opposite
errors, both springing from the common root of faith in
man's natural immortality : first, against the doctrine of
endless torments to be inflicted in hell on unsaved men,
whether civilized or barbarian ; and, secondly, against the
now popular doctrine of the absolute final salvation of all
men, good and bad ; as directly contrary both to the letter
and spirit of the Christian revelation recorded in Holy
Scripture."

Possession of the building was obtained in January 1852,
and the opening services were held on the 23rd March of
that year. At these services the "distinguished ministers"
above referred to as having taken part were : Rev. W.
Brock, of Bloomsbury Chapel, who preached in the
morning of the opening day ; Rev. J. C. Harrison, of Park
Chapel, Camden Town, who led the prayer ; and Rev.
John Stoughton, of Kensington, who preached in the
evening. Mr. White's own first sermon in the building
was on the words, " I am not ashamed of the Gospel of
Christ" (Rom. i. 16).

In anticipation of the opening of the chapel, seeing that
it was to be done on his own personal responsibility, Mr.
White had to consider upon what lines he would conduct
the enterprise. He wrote at this time in his common-
place-book : " No man can work with all his heart if he
habitually conceals half his mind." And again : " ' Strong
meat ' consists of secondary truths. The great truths are
' milk for babes ' ; these alone sustain life, the others
direct it" Further : " Providence seems to have inter-
posed the obstacle of ' circumstances ' in order to strengthen
character and to develop virtue."

With these ideas in mind, he laid down the following
general rules by which he intended to be guided : —

38 EDWARD WHITE

1. Expound every sacred Scripture according to con-
viction, whether it accord with the most common persuasion
or not ; since my opinion signifies to me the probable idea
of God.

2. A large presentation of the physical element of
religious knowledge. Hitchcock, Dick, &c.

3. No Church, until it appear that there are the elements
for a true one ; and no officers, until truly gifted Church
governors appear.

4. When a Church does appear, bring it forward very
much as the chorus of God in worship.

5. Trust more to the creative than the destructive force
of truth for permanent usefulness. "Not blasphemers of
your goddess."

6. Attach considerable importance to instruction on
secondary opinions for edification of " men in Christ Jesus,"
but to the great truths for " babes."

7. Always preach on supposition of the distinction
between the fleshly and the spiritual ; and finally have
the professed disciples separate. Our work not to amuse
or gratify a mixed mob — of souls — but to bring out the
obedient and to edify the kicAr/o-m.

8. Occasionally lectures on Sunday on important events,
and on influential books, good or bad.

9. We sow many seeds to get a few flowers.

With respect to the ordinance of baptism, he made no
restriction as to the subject or the mode, but Mr. White
himself would not baptize infants. When the chapel was
put in trust, later on, the only restriction inserted in the
deed was that its administration should not be at the
usual times of public worship, but at special meetings to
be appointed for the purpose.

Among the " few friendly and heroic souls" who at once
associated themselves with this enterprise, a Committee
was formed to assist Mr. White in the management, but

THE LONDON MINISTRY 39

there was no formal organization of a Church until the
following autumn, when a solemn declaration, dated
ist September, 1852, was prepared and signed eventually
by seventeen men and an equal number of women, in the
following terms : —

" We whose names are hereunto subscribed, having been
brought by the Providence of God to worship together at
Hawley Road Chapel, and being convinced of the propriety
of joining ourselves together in the fellowship of the Gospel,
for the better discharge of Christian duties, and the fuller
enjoyment of Christian privileges, Do hereby resolve so
to join ourselves together in humble dependence upon the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, in gratitude for the love of
God our Father, and in earnest hope of the communion of
the Holy Spirit

" And thus constituted by our mutual agreement and
prayerful resolution into a Church of Christ, we will
endeavour henceforward to bear one another's burdens,
and so to fulfil the law of Christ. We will hold ourselves
in readiness to strive together for the faith of the Gospel.
We will affectionately receive to membership with us any
fellow-disciples professing repentance towards God and
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We will maintain the
sacred character of the Church, as the holy Temple of
God, by the administration of discipline according to the
directions, and as far as lies in us in the spirit, of
the New Testament Scriptures. And we will watch unto
prayer that, as a Church, we may bring forth fruit unto
holiness, the end of which shall be incorruption and
eternal life.

" In token of which resolution we hereby attach our
signatures, as in the presence of Christ Jesus our Lord,
who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in His
own blood and made us unto our God kings and
priests. To Him be glory and dominion for ever and
ever. Amen."

40 EDWARD WHITE

There was no appointment of deacons until some time
after the signature of this declaration. Those who were,
later on, first chosen for that orifice were Messrs. Carter,
Nalson, Tomkinson, and Barker, who, with their wives,
were among the earliest to unite in this enterprise. Mr.
and Mrs. John Haddon and Mr. Bourne were also among
the early adherents.

The Church when thus formed was still too small and
weak to meet all the necessary expenses of public worship,
and provide in addition adequate support for the pastor.
In order therefore to maintain his family, while gradually
gaining the confidence of his neighbours and additional
adherents to his enterprise, Mr. White took a house in the
vicinity and received young men as boarders, also allowing
some other lads to join his own children for the reception
of his daily instruction. He continued thus to teach lads
at his own home for seven years.

During his early years at Hawley Road, he was for the
same reason contributing largely to periodical literature,
writing articles, grave and gay, for the Christian Spectator,
the Church, a penny monthly, the Patriot, the Freeman,
started in 1855, and other weekly and monthly publica-
tions.

In commencing his ministry in London, it was his fixed
determination to make that ministry, as it had been at
Hereford, truly evangelical, not controversial ; and, as
already hinted, he seldom referred in his Sunday sermons
to the special controversy on the doctrine of Life in Christ.
Nevertheless, his presentation of the Gospel of salvation
was necessarily moulded thereby, the subject was con-
stantly in his mind, and he did not fail to use every suit-
able opportunity of pressing it on the attention of Christian
people, ministers especially. A list, written by him in
1853, of six reasons for urging the doctrine may here be
introduced : —

i. It gives to minds a tangible apprehension of the

THE LONDON MINISTRY 41

existence and goodness of God, delivering them from a
vague terror under which all loving thought is impossible.

2. It brings forward the justice of God into vigorous
relief, as justice, graduating punishment.

3. It furnishes an answer to the difficulty occasioned by
reflecting on the pagan world as abandoned to ignorance,
yet destined to eternal torment.

4. It brings out forcibly the distinction implied in
regeneration.

5. It takes the teeth out of the jaws of infidelity.

6. It centres all human thought on Christ, on whom all
divine thought is fixed as the Elect of the Lofty One.

Thus, while keeping the subject constantly in mind,
studying it in all its aspects, and occasionally speaking of
it in private, in meetings of ministers, and, though rarely,
in public, but abstaining generally from reference to it in
his Sunday ministrations, he was gradually gaining a well-
earned reputation as an earnest and faithful evangelical
minister ; and this gave increased force and efficacy to his
testimony when the time came for him to make a fresh
presentation of his side of the controversy to the Christian
public.

CHAPTER V

LITERARY WORK

1853-1864; AGE 33-45

BEFORE he had been long settled in London, Mr.
White became known as a popular lecturer. His
home and church were within the area of the vast suburban
parish of St. Pancras. In 1856 he prepared a lecture upon
the story of that saint and martyr, who was the son of a
wealthy Phrygian nobleman, who died leaving him an
orphan at ten years of age under the care of an uncle.
The uncle took him to Rome in the time of the Emperor
Diocletian. There they both became Christians. The
uncle died, and the young Pancratius, at the age of fourteen
years, became a victim of the fierce persecution which then
raged. This lecture was delivered first at the Vestry Hall
of the parish, on June 24, 1856, and afterwards elsewhere ;
and it was published and republished in pamphlet form
that same year.

Among the other subjects on which Mr. White lectured
in later years were: "A Penny"; "Mind in Animals";
" Low Spirits " ; " Thoroughness " ; " Miracles " ; " West-
minster Abbey," which he came to know nearly as well as
the officials there, having been intimate with Dean Stanley
during many years ; " The Story of Kentish Town from
the Creation," which was an exposition of the results of an
examination of the cores brought out by the boring tubes

42

LITERARY WORK 43

in the sinking of an artesian well in the neighbourhood.
In like manner he often turned to good account passing
events, both local and general. His lectures were in
request, not only in London, but also in some of the large
provincial towns.

During these early years in Kentish Town he became
intimate with the Rev. T. T. Lynch, for whom he had
both admiration and affection. The publication of Mr.
Lynch's book of devout poetic meditations, entitled the
Rivulet, was the occasion of an outburst of bitter criticism
and invective, on the part of some writers in evangelical
periodicals ; the author being reproached as a Unitarian —
which he was not — and for what was called his " negative
theology." Mr. White was not one to allow his friend to
be attacked so fiercely without making some attempt to
defend him, especially when the attack was so palpably
cruel and unjust as in this case. Accordingly he not only
joined in the protest of fifteen principal London ministers
against the articles in the Morning Advertiser, then
conducted by Mr. James Grant, and in the British Banner,
edited by Dr. Campbell, but he wrote also on his own
account in vindication of Mr. Lynch's evangelical sym-
pathies and teaching. If the leaders of this attack failed
afterwards to recognize their injustice to Mr. Lynch, many
of those who at first agreed with them perceived and
acknowledged it. Of the hymns in the Rivulet some
have become, so to speak, the common property of the
Churches, and are to be found in the most evangelical
collections. Who now would be willing to lose such
hymns as those beginning : " Dismiss me not Thy service,
Lord " ; " O where is He that trod the sea ? " ; " Gracious
Spirit dwell with me " ; " Mountains by the darkness
hidden " ?

Mr. White's friendship for Mr. Lynch was maintained
unimpaired until the death of the latter in 1871, when
Mr. White took the leading part at his funeral. At that

44 EDWARD WHITE

time there appeared in the Spectator a laudatory notice of
Mr. Lynch, contrasting his "marvellous wealth of thought"
with the utterances of " the ordinary platitude-mongers of
church or chapel," and expressing wonder at the neglect
in which he had so long been left, preaching to a small
audience in a dismal iron chapel in the Hampstead Road.
Mr. White's comment on this article was : " Why did the
Spectator neglect him all his life time, knowing him so
well, but all the while keeping up the story about the lack
of ' culture and breadth among the Dissenters ' ? " And to
the Christ-like character and marvellous mental and moral
power of Mr. Lynch he paid a gracious tribute in a
memorial sermon at Hawley Road Chapel.

During these years Mr. White came into contact with
many interesting persons, besides Mr. Lynch and other
neighbouring ministers. Thus he met Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe twice in May 1853: once at Mr. Binney's, the second
time at New College. In 1856 he went to the reception of
Dr. Livingstone at Freemasons' Tavern. In 1858 he met
Mr. John Sheppard, of Frome, and visited William and
Mary Howitt, whom he had met at one of his own services
at Hawley Road, and they told him about their frequent
spirit-communications, and showed him drawings, &c., done
under spirit influence. He met Mr. Gladstone in 1864 at
the house of the Rev. Newman Hall.

In 1854 the Crystal Palace was opened at Sydenham,
the Exhibition building of 1851 having been removed
thither from Hyde Park. Mr. White was at the opening,
and remarked that it seemed to be arranged more for
sensuous pleasure than for moral instruction. But he
afterwards often resorted to it for recreation, and found it
charming on the occasion of a Grisi Concert in 1856. In
June 1857 he attended the first Handel Festival there,
which he highly appreciated.

From 1860 to 1864 Edward White was Editor of the
Christian Spectator, a monthly magazine for which he had

LITERARY WORK 45

previously written a good deal. At this time he was also
the principal contributor to its pages, the contents of some
numbers having been wholly from his pen. In the issue
for February 1860, the second for which he was responsible,
an article appeared over the signature D. J. E. on " the
Volunteer Rifle Movement," which was then in its infancy.
This article, which was strongly in favour of the move-
ment, gave umbrage to some of the supporters of the
magazine, and a communication from Mr. Henry Richard,
then Secretary of the Peace Society, stating the writer's
objections both to the article and to the Volunteer
Movement, and covering more than five pages, appeared
in the April number. To this were appended some brief
editorial notes, in vindication of the general position taken
in the former article, maintaining " that the Peace Society
is founded on a radical misunderstanding of the respective
functions and mutual relations of civil government and
Christianity, . . . the old error of confounding the law and
the Gospel. The only valid argument against the Rifle
Movement must be founded on a proposition which would
be wholly fatal to civil government founded on force."

In the succeeding number this brief indication of Mr.
White's position in relation to war and the civil power
was elaborated in an article on " Law and Gospel : or the
respective spheres of Civil Government and Christianity."
Beginning with a quaint aphorism from Luther's " Table
Talk," it goes on to show that the confusion of the Law
and the Gospel, with which the adherents of the Quaker
dogma of non-resistance are chargeable, " relates to an
illegitimate interchange of the spheres marked out for the
two different systems of Divine government respectively
by the common author of both. The State is the sphere
of Law," in the sense in which Paul uses the word in
Rom. ii. 14. " The Church, on the other hand, is the sphere
of Gospel. Now what we maintain is that it is as erroneous
and absurd to think of regulating the State by the Sermon

46 EDWARD WHITE

on the Mount as it is to legislate for the Church by Act
of Parliament." Further on occurs the remark : " What
sort of peace at home and abroad could be maintained by
a magistrate deprived of ' the sword ' it is difficult to
conceive. Nor has it ever been shown why, if he is to be
divested of ' the sword,' a policeman's truncheon should be
left at his disposal." This attitude of the editor, reasonable
as it seems, cost the magazine the loss of some of its previous
supporters. Mr. White, however, consistently held to it
throughout his career. His " Merchants' Lecture," in May
1 88 1 proclaimed his mature opinion on the subject of
Law and Gospel, and this was still further explained
and enforced in his address as Chairman of the Congrega-
tional Union in May 1886.

The year 1862, being the bicentenary of the ejection on
St. Bartholomew's Day, 1662, of the two thousand clergy
who refused to subscribe in the terms required by the Act
of Uniformity, as being contrary to their belief, Mr. White
took a considerable part in the discussions that arose in
relation to that event and the celebration of it. He wrote
largely on the subject, not only in the Christian Spectator,
but also in the Nonconformist, the Patriot, and elsewhere.
The fact that in our time many men do subscribe to the
required declaration, and to the articles of the Church of
England, while they do not hold them in their plain
grammatical sense, seemed to Mr. White so great an
aberration from the way of truth that he had not waited
for this bicentenary in order to condemn it. Early in
1860, in a review of a pamphlet by the Rev. Wm.
Robinson, of Cambridge, on The Sin of Conformity, he
had written : " The sin of conformity has continued so
long, the sin of conspiracy to make plain words stand for
something different from their obvious meaning, that it is
questionable whether heaven will put so much honour
upon the evangelical clergy " as to induce them to come
out from the Establishment altogether. Moreover, in the

LITERARY WORK 47

same year, in the Christian Spectator for August and
September, he had caused to be reprinted a long and
carefully reasoned address by Mr. Binney, delivered long
before, on " Conscientious Clerical Nonconformity," re-
marking that it had gained rather than lost value since its
first publication.

The line that he took in 1862 was to declare with great
sorrow and seriousness that there is no such thing as non-
personal immorality, and that subscribers in a non-natural
sense could not be acquitted of guilt. In this view he was
not supported by the majority of Nonconformists, but he
was soon cheered by the approval of some of his more
judicious friends.

Recognizing as he did that the two thousand ejected
ministers were not in principle opposed to the State
Establishment, and seeing that the Committee organizing
the celebration was composed so largely of supporters of
the Liberation Society, Mr. White, while favourable to the
celebration, held aloof from the Committee until it was
made clear, by a statement from the chair by Mr. Edward
Miall, that it was not intended to make it a demonstration
against the principle of the Establishment, but only against
the required subscription to articles not accepted in their
natural sense, and that even those who approved of the
connection with the State would be welcomed, if they were
willing thus to strengthen the protest against dishonest
subscription. Mr. White had thought there was danger
lest some of the eager spirits among those opposed to
State control should impute their own opinions to the
Puritan clergy, and that would have been an offence
against historic truth. Having been thus reassured, he
gave willing support.

It was in this connection that he came into personal
contact with Mr. Edward Miall, and being so favourably
impressed with the spirituality of his character and the
justice and moderation of his principles of action, he soon

48 EDWARD WHITE

afterwards began to attend the meetings of the " Society
for the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage and
Control," generally known as the " Liberation Society," of
which Mr. Miall was the leading spirit, and it was not long
before Mr. White appeared on its platform as a speaker.

When that Society was first formed under the name of
the " British Anti-State Church Association," altered in
1853 as above, Mr. White would not join it, mainly
because it was a political association, and he was not
satisfied as to the spiritual character of its leaders and its
operations. While at Hereford he had written out a long
series of reasons for not joining the Society. But now
that its title had been changed, and he had become
acquainted with Mr. Miall, and convinced that he and his
principal colleagues were truly spiritual men, he no longer
refused co-operation. His previous hesitation had not
been caused by any doubt as to the evils inseparable from
the State Establishment. As early as 1842 he had
written : " The political swamp in which the foundations
of the Establishment were laid is buried three centuries
deep, and therefore its loathsome nature is not known by
the present inhabitants of the building." Then in 1847:
" The union of the Church with the State does not so often
make the State religious as the Church political." And
only two years later : " The controversy between Church
of England and Nonconformity is just this : whether in
religion we are to be subject to a hierarchy of men, or to
the living God revealing Himself in His Word." Again in
1 86 1 : " Unless the New Testament idea of the Church, as
a spiritual body, be maintained, it is better to have no
Church at all ; since a corrupt Church is an organized
power of evil." In 1862 he wrote three articles in the
Patriot on what appeared to him as dishonesty on the
part of the evangelical clergy. He had thus been
gradually preparing to cast in his lot publicly with the
Society ; and in 1864 he spoke at its annual meeting in

LITERARY WORK 49

May, on the break-down of the old argument for an
Establishment, as maintaining one theology and one
morality. In a speech delivered at Cambridge in 1871 he
is reported to have thus explained his change of sentiment
and attitude : " After observing for many years the course
of conduct of the leaders of the Society to be fair and
thoroughly characteristic of gentlemen and Christians, and
being satisfied that such an organization had more merits
than defects, he had become a convert to its ranks. He
would proceed with the arguments which had induced him
to join this Society. First, because he believed that the
separation of the Church and State was essential to the
morality of the country ; secondly, to the interest of the
English Church as a Protestant institution ; thirdly, to the
working of the State ; fourthly, to the rights of Dissenters ;
and, lastly, to general society." In subsequent years he
took prominent parts in meetings and conferences arranged
by the Society in London and elsewhere.

In 1862 Mr. White visited Lancashire, and while there
he was deeply moved by the' distress caused by the Cotton
Famine which had resulted from the American civil war.
He was also much impressed with the patience with which
that distress was endured by the people. He soon went
again, carrying some gifts to relieve the distress, and on
returning from this second visit he wrote to his old friend
Mrs. Eliza Cannings, under date of December 17, 1862,
thus : —

" I ought to have written to you last week, but I was so
busy in Lancashire that there was no time. I took your
things with me and gave them to Mr. Waters, Chairman
of one of the Manchester district Reliefs, who will take
care that they go to suitable people. It is sad to see how
almost any quantity of money and clothing is swallowed
up in the tremendous vortex of Lancashire destitution, and
leaves the great abyss yawning for more." He also wrote
an article entitled, " The Silent Mills of Lancashire,"

5

50 EDWARD WHITE

describing the great distress, and the various methods of
relief adopted, the sewing schools, &c. This article he
introduced to the readers of the Christian Spectator with
the remark that he thought it might be profitably
presented to them at the approach of winter. And the
Rev. Charles Williams,1 of Accrington, testifies that the
effect of this publication was to call forth generous
response from hundreds of readers. " Many a burden was
made lighter, many a heart was cheered, many a home was
brightened, many a housewife renewed her faith and hope,
and many a man fought his battle more bravely and with
greater confidence in final victory through the loving and
considerate ministrations of Mr. White."

The Rev. George Clayton died in 1862, and Mr. White
assisted at his funeral, paying thus his last respects to his
first pastor, whom he described as having been, while in
life, "dignified as a Roman statue."

With so many occupations involving constant attention
and much mental activity, occasional recreation was
absolutely needed. Accordingly, in order to obtain
complete change of scene and surroundings, Mr. White
made several excursions on the Continent, as well as visits
to various parts of our own land. In 1854 he went to
Havre, Rouen, and Paris; in 1856 to Amiens and Paris;
in the following year to Normandy and Boulogne, his
family sharing the sojourn of some weeks at Boulogne,
during which his two boys had a narrow escape from
drowning. In 1859 he was again in Paris for a time. In
1 86 1 he had a pleasant time in Switzerland, with his sister,
Mrs. Ranyard, and in 1863 he again spent a few days in
Paris.

In September 1860 Mr. Vine Hall, father of Newman

Hall and author of The Sinners Friend, died ; Mr.

White was present at his funeral, and gave an address. In

April 1861 he was at the opening of the Metropolitan

1 See his contribution to Appendix A.

LITERARY WORK 51

Tabernacle, having a great esteem for Mr. Spurgeon as an
earnest and successful preacher of the Gospel, although on
some theological questions they were opposed to each
other.

An illustration of Mr. White's skill in the use of irony as
a controversial weapon may be here introduced. It was a
contribution to the discussion of the question of Church
Rates, in the form of an imaginary addition to the eighteenth
chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. It was therein narrated
how Paul as Bishop of Achaia caused a Church Rate to be
made and levied upon the Jews and upon the Gentiles and
upon the Church of God ; how the ruler of the Synagogue
refused to pay, saying, Lo ! are not all these Nazarenes ?
and I believe not their words ; how his goods were seized
and sold in the market-place ; and how Paul rewarded the
churchwardens who had effected the seizure by the appoint-
ment of the son of one of them to a parish with light duty
and the son of the other to a living in Macedonia. All this
was described in New Testament phraseology, divided into
verses, and set forth as being the translation of an ancient
Greek manuscript then lately discovered in the library of
Hereford Cathedral, and as intended for the edification of
conscientious members of the Church of England and the
conviction of schismatical dissenters. So skilfully was this
done that a Hereford verger, not perceiving the irony, had
a copy exhibited in his window as a justification of the im-
position of a Church Rate being then made in that city.

The year 1864 was specially memorable in Mr. White's
life on account of two important events. The first of these
was the decision to undertake the renovation, enlargement,
and embellishment of the chapel in Hawley Road, which
at that time was both unattractive and uncomfortable.
The interior was arranged, as was usual with chapels of
Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, with a high pulpit at one
end and a lower reading-desk on each side of it. The
pews were straight and high backed, and the whole was

52 EDWARD WHITE

enclosed within bare whitewashed walls. In the latter
part of this year it was determined to acquire the
remainder of the long lease under which the property was
held, and then to make the building both attractive and
commodious ; and this purpose was carried out in the
following year.

The second memorable event of this year was Mrs.
White's death, which occurred on December i ith. A man's
home-life has an important influence upon his public life
and work, and home sympathy is ever a source of inspira-
tion and power. So it had been in this case. It is
impossible to tell how much that gifted and gracious lady's
quiet and unobtrusive help, and her gentle yet powerful
influence, contributed, both in home and church, to the
accomplishment of the wonderful amount and excellent
quality of the spiritual and literary work done during
those early years of the London ministry.

That closest of home ties which, for twenty-one years,
had bound him to his wife was now sundered, and he was
obliged to forego the help and stimulus of her companion-
ship, which had been to him of such great value. His own
estimate of home may be gathered from the following
words written by him in 1853: —

" A love of home is one of the most sacred passions
which can illuminate the sanctuary of the human breast,
and happy are they whom neither adverse circumstances,
nor disastrous misalliances, nor the ravages of death
hinder from enjoying the best blessing which remains on
the blighted earth. For a true home has repose for its
foundation and love for its top stone. It is the abode of
' peace on earth.' It is consecrated by the sanctities of
marriage, by the sweet innocence of childhood, by the
holy sympathies of joy and sorrow, by the longing hearts
of scattered families, who turn thither as to the centre of
their mortal life, and by its typical resemblance to the
heavenly mansions of eternal rest."

CHAPTER VI

HAWLEY ROAD CHAPEL
1865-1869; AGE 45-50

THE renovation proved to be a complete transfiguration
of the building ; and the necessary preliminaries
occupied a considerable time, and a good deal of Mr.
White's attention. The lease of the chapel was acquired
in January, 1865, but the arrangements for carrying out
the alterations were not complete until the end of May.
On Sunday, June 4th, the last services were held in the un-
altered chapel, and on the following day the work was
begun by the removal of the high, straight-backed pews,
and, with the exception of a short interruption through a
strike among the workmen, it went on steadily until in
September it was finished. On Saturday evening, 23rd
September, the chapel could .be lighted up, and on the
Tuesday following the re-opening celebrations began, and
the sermon in the morning was preached by the Rev.
Samuel Martin, from the words : " I will take the cup of
salvation and call on the name of the Lord." In the
evening there was a public meeting, at which addresses
were given by neighbouring ministers.

On the first Sunday in the renovated sanctuary, October
1st, Mr. White himself preached in the morning, from the
words of John iii. 16, those words being visible in the apse
to all the congregation. In the evening the service was

54 EDWARD WHITE

conducted by Rev. J. Stoughton, of Kensington. On the
succeeding Sunday morning the pulpit was occupied by
the Rev. Thomas Binney. The Revs. Newman Hall and
H. Allon conducted some of the subsequent services.

The result of this renovation was a practically new
chapel, the interior especially forming a striking contrast
to its previous plain and forbidding appearance. The
style and decoration were indicative of Mr. White's
ecclesiastical attitude and taste. Where formerly the
pulpit had stood an apse was added, in which the
communion table was placed, while the pulpit was
removed to the outer corner of the apse near the vestry
door. Delicate shades of colour were introduced on the
walls, and the apse was embellished with brighter colours,
and inscriptions in gilt letters. On the wall of the apse
facing the congregation, under the semicircular arch, in
the curved border is the sentence : " Thou art the King of
glory, O Christ." In the space enclosed by this border
and the horizontal line dividing this semicircle from the
lower part of the wall is the text (John iii. 16), "God so
loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life." The lower surface of this wall of the
apse is divided by upright pilasters into three compart-
ments. In the first of these is the Apostles' Creed ; in the
middle one, texts relating to the Lord's Supper and Christ
as the Bread of Life ; in the third : " Ye are come unto
Mount Sion," &c. (Heb. xii. 22-25). On the front of
the gallery, erected on three sides of the building, are the
words in large letters : " Therefore with angels and arch-
angels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud
and magnify Thy glorious name, evermore praising Thee,
and saying : Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven
and earth are full of Thy glory. Glory be to Thee, O
Lord most high."

The seats throughout had been fixed at an angle that

HAWLEY ROAD CHAPEL 55

enabled their occupants to sit at ease, and it is fair to say
that a pleasanter, more tasteful, and even elegant as well
as comfortable place of worship could not easily be found.

The cost of this work, including the purchase of the
lease, was nearly ^"4,0x30. Towards this the congregation
contributed generously ; but a large proportion of the
money was raised by Mr. White himself outside his
Hawley Road connection. The building was in the hands
of the workmen for more than three months, and during
that time he had opportunities for sometimes listening
to brother ministers in London, sometimes preaching for
them, and sometimes preaching in other parts of the
country ; and of trying here and there to obtain monetary
aid for his enterprise.

At this time Mr. White was carrying out another building
scheme in Tufnell Park, where he had planned to have a
house built for himself, near that in which he then resided,
on a vacant piece of ground from which there would be a
wide stretch of country visible as far as Highgate Church.
The house thus built, which he called " Brathay House,"
was completed in the following spring, and into it he
removed on March 19, 1866. In that house he con-
tinued to reside until after his retirement from the
pastorate at Hawley Road.

Mr. White had gradually attained recognition, outside
his own communion, as a growing power in the religious
life of London. The Rev. Christopher Nevile invited to
dinner on March 22, 1866, at the Westminster Palace
Hotel, a company of representative men from the ranks
of the Church of England, Nonconformity, and Scientific
Research, in order to bring men of such widely divergent
views and tastes and sympathies into pleasant social
contact, which would be likely to promote a better mutual
understanding among them. Mr. White was one of the
guests, and the rest of the company included such well-
known men as Lord Ebury, Lord Houghton, Dean Stanley,

56 EDWARD WHITE

Hon. Mr. Kinnaird, Messrs. E. Miall and Samuel Morley,
Revs. Dr. Vaughan, Dr. Angus, T. Binney, Newman Hall,
H. Allon, Charles Williams, Sir S. M. Peto, Sir John
Lubbock, Professors Tyndall, Huxley, and Hensley. It
was probably as a comment on this gathering together
of so many heterogeneous personalities that Mr. White
at that time remarked : —

"I never hear the wind blowing near a great city without
thankfulness, or considering how necessary is such a move-
ment of the air to drive away the accumulations of carbon
which overhang the homes and pervade the breathing
space of so many millions. In the same way controversy
is the salvation of the popular mind. You do not like the
wind ? Then go in doors, but do not fail to prophesy in
its favour and say : ' Come from the four quarters and
breathe upon these slain that they may live ! ' '

In August of the same year Mr. White attended the
meetings of the British Association at Nottingham, and
listened to the exposition of the most recent phases of
scientific research in Geology, Astronomy, Chemistry, and
Geography. But while thus attentive to the proceedings
of men of science, and their attitude in relation to
Christianity and the future life, he was not unmindful
of the condition of those in the lower strata of society
and the alienation of so many of them from the
Churches of Christ. For a long time he had been
seriously concerned at the general repugnance with
which skilled artizans regard the services of Christian
Churches of all the denominations, and he had made
various efforts to win them. He was well aware of
numerous exceptions, especially in some of the dissenting
Churches, many very useful members of which are of that
class, but he knew also that the majority remained outside.

In November 1866 he published, in several newspapers,
a letter in which he called attention to the fact just
mentioned, and suggested that a meeting should be

HAWLEY ROAD CHAPEL 57

convened in which there should be a representation as far
as possible of the non-churchgoing artizans, and of the
clergy and laymen of various Christian Churches, for the
purpose of free and friendly conference, in order to
ascertain the extent and causes of the alleged general
alienation of skilled workmen from existing religious
institutions. This letter raised a good deal of interest in
the subject ; private meetings of friends were held, and it
was decided to make an attempt to carry out the proposal.

The first step taken was to bring together about a dozen
representative working men, and a similar number of
clerical and lay members of Christian Churches, at Ander-
ton's Hotel. At that meeting a joint Committee was
formed, in order to arrange for a larger and more public
Conference to be convened by circular. The names
appended to that circular of invitation included those of
such well known and representative men as Canon Champ-
neys, J. Baldwin Brown, Dr. Guthrie, Newman Hall,
Thomas Hughes, J. M. Ludlow, Edward Miall, F. D.
Maurice, Samuel Morley, G. M. Murphy, Goldwin Smith,
and Edward White, together with those of half a dozen
working men of various trades. The large room of the
London Coffee House, capable of accommodating about
three hundred persons, was secured, and invitations were
issued to Christian ministers and laymen on the one hand,
and to working men on the other, in about equal number.

The Conference was held on January 21, 1867. It
began soon after two o'clock and, with a break of about
half an hour when tea and coffee were served in an adjoin-
ing room, continued until ten, when there were still a
number of names on the list of those prepared to speak,
but it was not thought desirable to further prolong the
discussion, which had to a large extent served its purpose.

The chair was occupied by Mr. Edward Miall, who in
his opening speech struck the right keynote, which main-
tained the harmony of the proceedings. He asked for

58 EDWARD WHITE

plain speech, freely uttered, but without bitterness or
imputation of unworthy motives, the purpose of the meet-
ing being to gain a better understanding of each other's
feelings and position with regard to the very important
question before them. There was to be no resolution
proposed, and no vote taken, except as to the order of the
proceedings and the length of speeches, which were
limited to ten minutes. About forty persons spoke, and
there was a very free interchange of opinion, and of
question and answer. Many reasons were given by the
artizans for their abstention from religious worship
in the Churches, some of which were shown to be mis-
taken, while others were admitted as of some force, and
indicative of needed changes in the methods and habits of
the Churches.

Dean Stanley asked if the working classes present could,
either themselves or through any body else, give him any
notion how the services in Westminster Abbey could be
made more available and more useful to them. Any
practical suggestion of that sort would be the greatest
gratification to him.

Mr. White, who was the originator of the Conference,
told how he had been led to move in the matter by a
question asked by a worthy clergyman in the West of
England, as to the reason why the Dissenters succeeded
better than the Church of England in securing the
sympathies of the working people. He had expressed
doubt whether his questioner was correct in his assump-
tion, believing that, with the exception of the Methodists,
the Dissenters generally were not more successful than the
Church of England clergy. But the question set him
thinking and inquiring, and this Conference was one out-
come of his inquiry. He believed that the artizans were
jealous of the middle classes, on account of their own
exclusion from the political influence of the franchise
enjoyed by those classes, and he hoped that the removal

HAWLEY ROAD CHAPEL 59

of that political exclusion would break down the principal
barrier between the working community and the church-
worship of England. Other speakers had given abundant
utterance to other causes, but he thought this one ought
not to be overlooked, as its removal would be likely more
than anything else to conciliate attention to Christianity,
and remove prejudice.

When Mr. Miall was obliged to leave, at his suggestion
Mr. White took the chair and presided over the remainder
of the meeting.

The chief importance of this Conference, with its free
interchange of views and opinions, was that it led to many
others of a somewhat similar character, in that and the
succeeding years, in which Mr. White took part, and at
which various moral, religious, political, and ecclesiastical
questions were freely discussed. In this way he won the
ear and the confidence of the artizan class in a higher
degree than most ministers. He also delivered at Hawley
Road Chapel a series of lectures on "The Reasons and
Excuses given by intelligent Mechanics for not going to
Church," dealing in turn with such topics as these : " The
mercenary character of the ministers of Christianity, who
get their living by teaching it " ; " The Difficulty of know-
ing what is true, through the multitude of opinions " ;
" The horrible Doctrines taught " ; " The need for fresh
air, rest, and enjoyment on Sunday, which are not to be
had in Church " ; also one on " The bad characters of
Church-goers," considered as an excuse. In following
years he gave occasional lectures specially addressed to
artizans, and the success of these efforts led him afterwards
to institute the regular monthly Sunday evening lectures
which became so great an influence for good in Kentish
Town and the neighbourhood.

In this and the following year Mr. White also took part
in meetings and conferences of the Liberation Society,
some of these being with working men, and some having

60 EDWARD WHITE

special reference to the disestablishment of the English
Church in Ireland, which was then impending.

In 1867 Mr. White published an octavo book, of 443
pages, entitled, The Mystery of Growth, and other
Discourses* Of this book one of his friends said, that
it was " One of the books destined to retain a place in the
sermons of this generation." It contained a number of
selected addresses, many of which had previously
appeared in the Christian Spectator or other periodicals.
These discourses contain much original thought, and they
have a very practical bearing. The first of them gives its
title to the book. They are arranged under five heads,
viz. : i. Discourses on the Elements of Faith ; 2. Dis-
courses on the History and Character of the Lord Jesus
Christ ; 3. Discourses on some of the Christian Doctrines;
4. Practical Discourses on Personal Character ; 5. Dis-
courses on Matters relating to the Church. The last of
these is a careful and moderate statement of the
arguments for and against Conformity with the Church
of England.

As an illustration of the practical quality of one among
these addresses, the following extract may be given from
the Log of Captain Home, in the Unicorn, bound for
Kurrachee in 1868 : —

"Sunday, June I4th. Calm, scarcely a breath of wind has
been felt the whole of the last night. . . . The crew being
seated under the quarter-deck awning, read 4th chapter of
James and a discourse by the Rev. Edward White on ' the
Reality of Man's Intercourse with his Maker.' No con-
gregation could be more attentive than the one on the
deck of the ship this morning. And while duties,
privileges, and the certainty that God will draw nigh to us
were set forth in plain but forcible language, their attention
never seemed to flag. Amidst the calm of the Sabbath,

1 London, Elliot Stock, Second Edition, R. D. Dickinson, still
on sale,

HAWLEY ROAD CHAPEL 61

and the calm of the surrounding sea, one might have heard
a pin drop. Surely it was too valuable a lesson ever to be
forgotten."

On the 2pth August, 1867, Mr. White was married at
Croydon to Miss Mary Gillespy, who became his faithful,
affectionate, and helpful companion until his life's end.

In October of the same year his father, who had greatly
aided and encouraged him throughout his career thus far,
died at Blackheath at the ripe age of eighty-three.

The Rev. Henry Solly, of the Working Men's Club and
Institute Union, had taken part in the Conference with
working men already narrated, and on I5th January, 1868,
a meeting was held for his installation at Cambridge Hall,
Newman Street, Mr. Thomas Hughes presiding. At that
meeting Mr. White spoke upon the second resolution,
which was in favour of Sunday evening lectures. He first
referred to the true and false craft of the priest; the false
leading to the destruction of individual thought, the true
to its liberation and development ; and he urged that these
two should not be confounded any more than King-craft
and State-craft Then as to the resolution, which stated
that there was a deficiency in practical teaching in the
Churches, he admitted that it was partly true, but asserted
that it was partly false, because much of the teaching in
the Churches was more reasonable than could be known
by those who do not attend them. He then expressed
the conviction that it is allowable and proper to utilize
Sunday as proposed in the resolution. He thought that
the English people needed to understand that Sunday
is a day for teaching them the whole of their duty.
Performance of duty should be based on knowledge of
facts, laws, and relations ; and these should be taught to
the people on Sundays. Lectures therefore should be
given on (i) physical laws ; (2) social relations, politics — not
party politics, but the claims and dues of the various classes ;
and (3) religion, for Christianity is founded on facts, not on

62 EDWARD WHITE

a series of abstractions, but on a course of facts, which
ought to be recognized and understood. He thus
enunciated the principle on which he acted in his Sunday
afternoon Readings for Working Men, and subsequently
with greater success in his regular monthly Sunday
evening Lectures to Artizans in Hawley Road Chapel.

In the autumn of 1868 was published Mr. White's
book On Some of the Minor Moralities of Life.1 The
sparkling essays of which it consists were contributed to
the Christian Spectator during his time as editor, and
were now republished as a handy little book of 250 pages,
in good clear type, making a suitable and convenient
Christmas or New Year's gift book. A few of the titles
given to these essays will sufficiently indicate their
character: "On the Duty of returning Borrowed Articles";
" On Simplicity and Affectation, or the Natural History of
the Minx and the Swell " ; " On the Duty of delivering
Kind Messages"; "On the Duty of Speaking and Reading
distinctly " ; " On keeping Secrets " ; " On going too fast
and too far " ; " On Attention to the Festive Element in
Life" ; "On Fireside Amenities."

At the end of this year arrangements were made for
obtaining a lease of the house next to the Chapel, and
building a Schoolroom on the garden at the back, as the
Sunday School had outgrown the available accommoda-
tion. The work was begun in December, and on February
21, 1869, the Sunday School occupied the new room.
On the 23rd a meeting was held in it to celebrate the
opening, several neighbouring ministers taking part.

In June and July 1869 Mr. White spent six weeks in
France, Switzerland, and North Italy. Returning by way
of Dieppe, he had a long conversation on board the
steamer with a Roman Catholic priest on subjects ethical,
doctrinal, and ecclesiastical. His comment thereon is : —

1 London, Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row. Still on sale.

HAWLEY ROAD CHAPEL 63

" This long conversation, on the quiet green water, was
a strange and fitting conclusion to a journey in which we
had seen so much of the power and influence of Rome.
The final impression was, that no external argument
would shake that marvellous fabric. They start from the
idea that Christ promised to be with His Church to the end,
and that the Catholic Church is the Church, and after that
you are helpless. The individual mind is the organ of the
Catholic Church, and when brought up in it, as he has
been, doubt is almost impossible. Indeed, I never felt
more strongly how impossible it is for conversion of priests
to occur except through a spiritual illumination which
would give a new starting-point. Increased wonder at the
Reformation, however it occurred ! Increased sense of the
evils of disunion among Protestants."

The recent remarkable exodus from the Roman Church
of French priests may be noted as illustrating the correct-
ness of Mr. White's observation, these men having been
impelled by " spiritual illumination " to quit the Roman
communion and enter upon a larger liberty.

The Bill for the Disestablishment of the Church in
Ireland was passing through Parliament at this time, and
Mr. White took a lively interest in its progress, and
attended various conferences on the subject in connection
with the Liberation Society. The Bill received the Royal
Assent on the 26th July, and so became an Act. At a
private conference with Mr. Gladstone held at Rev.
Newman Hall's Surrey Chapel manse, some two years
later, a remark having been made that " the great Irish
remedy" would be some day applied to the Church in
England, Mr. White observed, that no one knew when any
thing will happen in England, so many influences being at
work. Mr. Gladstone assenting to that observation, added
that the Irish Church was upset by Brooks's murder and
the Clerkenwell explosion — not by fear — but these acted
as a force which rendered action possible.

64 EDWARD WHITE

While still editor of the Christian Spectator, Mr. White
had published in that periodical a series of seven articles,
from his own pen but without his name, containing pun-
gent criticisms of some aspects of English Nonconformity.
In response to a general desire he republished these as a
small book of 142 pages, entitled, The Customs of the Dis-
senters, still without his own name, although no one ac-
quainted with his mode of thought and style of composition
could have doubted his authorship. Himself a staunch
Dissenter, he was painfully conscious of some defects of
his fellow Dissenters, and of frequent differences between
theory and practice among them. In these essays he
sought to make them sensible of these, as he was himself,
and so to raise the standard of actual life among them to
the true scriptural level. Many of the thoughts thus set
forth, relating to ideal Independency, admission to church
membership, equality among the brethren, church finance,
appointment of ministers, conduct of public worship, &c.,
were more fully enunciated by Mr. White in after years ;
some of them appear in other chapters of this book.

In August 1869 Mr. White was writing leading articles
on Disestablishment and cognate subjects for the Non-
conformist. At the same time he was engaged in a
correspondence in the English Independent, arising out of
his pamphlet, then recently published, on Missionary
Theology. This helped to prepare the way for the
further discussion of the doctrine of " Life in Christ,"
which arose in the following year out of his letters to the
Christian World.

CHAPTER VII

THE " LIFE IN CHRIST " CONTROVERSY

1870-1875 ; AGE 50-56

AT the beginning of the year 1870 the conductors of
the Christian World considered that the subject of
the future life and its conditions was so largely in the.
public mind, that it would be wise to allow it a place in
their columns. Arrangements were made with representa-
tive men for statements of the three principal doctrines
held by evangelical Christians. Mr. Spurgeon was invited
to expound the doctrine of the eternal continuance of
suffering for the unsaved, but he declined. The invitation
was then given to Dr. Angus, an older man, and one who,
on account of his learning and experience, might be
considered more competent to deal with such a disputed
theological question, and he accepted it. The Rev.
Andrew Jukes was the representative of the believers in
universal salvation ; and Mr. White was the efficient
exponent of the doctrine that immortality is to be the
portion of those only who obtain it through the Redemp-
tion that is in Christ Jesus. Each of these champions
was allowed space for three letters, in three succeeding
issues, and they were to be expository of the writers' own
views, and not controversial.

Mr. White's three letters began the series. Of these the
first was published in the issue of February iith. It con-

6 6s

66 EDWARD WHITE

tained a concise statement of the doctrine, as held by
himself, and a considerable number of Christian believers
in this country and elsewhere ; and also of the principles
of interpretation by which the doctrine has been deduced
from Holy Scripture. The principle applied in order to
determine the true meaning of Scripture, — the historico-
grammatical, — is the one which has governed orthodox
Christendom in dealing with all other subjects. It might be
thus stated : That the meaning which comes out from the
literal sense of the main current of expressions employed
in the document, shall always be taken as the ruling sense,
so that every seemingly exceptional phrase, or passage, is
to be explained in accordance with that " ruling sense."
In support of this principle the words of Richard Hooker
are quoted : " There is nothing more dangerous than this
licentious and deluding art, which changeth the meaning
of words, as alchemy doth, or would do, the substance of
metals, making of anything what it listeth, and bringing in
the end all truth to nothing." After illustrating the
application of this principle to the words used in the New
Testament to denote the fate of impenitent sinners, and
indicating their use in classical Greek literature, Mr. White
contends, " that the leading words in the Greek Testament
must be taken in the sense which they bore in all other
Greek literature. If the principal words of the Greek
Testament do not signify what they signify elsewhere, then
the Greek Testament, being given in an unknown tongue,
was not a revelation to the Greeks." He further points
out, that " the figures employed to denote future punish-
ment agree with the literal sense of the words most
commonly used to describe it, and do not agree with any
other notion."

His second and third letters Mr. White devotes to the
consideration of the principal objections that have been
raised against the doctrine advocated. They are chiefly
these : I. That it is a novelty ; 2. That it is opposed to

THE "LIFE IX CHRIST" CONTROVERSY 67

certain statements of the Bible ; 3. That it is a doctrine
of evil influence on both saints and sinners. Of these
objections the first two are dealt with in the second
letter, the last being reserved for fuller treatment in the
third letter.

That the doctrine is no novelty, but was taught by the
early Christian fathers, is shown by a long passage from
Irenaeus, who was only one remove from the Apostle John,
Polycarp being the link of connection between them.
Also by quotations from Justin Martyr and Arnobius.
And the reader is reminded that, after ages of corruption,
every genuine Christian doctrine will be a novelty to the
generation that first effectually hears it.

On the objection, that the doctrine is contrary to some
statements in the New Testament, especially to passages
in Matt, xxv., Mark ix., and Rev. xiv., Mr. White, in his
second letter, makes three preliminary remarks : I. That
any valid objection to this doctrine ought to be addressed
to the principle of interpretation set forth in his first letter ;
but to assail that is to assail the very basis of Christianity ;
2. That it is inconceivable that any paramount truth of
revelation, such as would be the endless misery of un-
regenerate men, can have been set forth before the world
in a vast and various revelation, in such a manner that it
can be deduced only from three ambiguous passages, which,
if absent, would leave the Bible silent on the subject ; all
of these being found in close juxtaposition with other
passages giving the plainest categorical contradiction to
the idea ; 3. That each writer is best explained by a
careful consideration of his own phraseology.

The passages in question are then examined, and shown
to be capable of the most reasonable construction in
accordance with the doctrine defended. It is, however,
admitted that some might be open to the interpretation
so generally put upon them, but only on the unwar-
rantable assumption of man's natural immortality, which

68 EDWARD WHITE

is nowhere taught in Scripture ; and even on that
assumption, they do not necessarily require such an in-
terpretation.

Mr. White's third letter is on the influence of the
doctrine, in reply to the objection, so often made, that it
is dangerous to the spiritual interests of mankind. He
begins by asserting that the one sufficient answer to the
objection would be, that truth is never dangerous and that
the truth of a Scripture doctrine can be ascertained by one
method alone, i.e., by applying to the Bible the general laws
of honest interpretation. But he goes on to state that this
is not the sole defence relied upon in meeting the objection ;
and he proceeds to indicate some of the advantages that
would be gained by the general acceptance and promulga-
tion of the doctrine which he holds to be divine truth.
He gives reasons for the opinion that the influence of belief
in this doctrine would be generally, as in many cases it has
been, to deliver from much superstitious dread of the future ;
to strengthen the faith, the hope, and the love of all God's
servants, as revealing His true character, and exhibiting a
prospect that will bear thinking of; to help faith in the
Christian system of truth as a whole, bringing the details
into harmony with each other ; to aid resistance to the
powerful seductions of the now fashionable theory of the
salvation of all men, which involves practically giving up
the Bible ; to promote the hope, joy, and love of the
spiritual life in those who possess it, as rendering the
moral character of God no longer incomprehensible, as it
is under the long-prevalent doctrine ; as well as to aid
powerfully in the work of awakening souls sunk in torpor,
and in converting wicked men to Christ ; because what is
most needed for that purpose is a doctrine which, while
terrible to evil doers, is yet both credible and real. The
letter closes thus : —

" I present these considerations, for years successfully
stifled by literary managers, to the vast audience which

THE "LIFE IX CHRIST" CONTROVERSY 69

you have invited me to address, and in their presence
earnestly beseech the examination of these arguments by
competent critics ; by critics whose competency does not
consist only in a knowledge of the popular tastes, but in
an adequate knowledge of the contents of the Scripture, in
some proved ability to confront ignorant clamour, and to
withstand the anathemas of pope-ridden priesthoods, at
any cost, when duty calls. To none but such shall I pay
the slightest attention. This controversy awakens the
deepest feelings of which mankind are capable, and it is
well for all concerned in it to avoid needless provocation,
but there is no subject better worth examining to the
foundation. The strife is not for our victory or defeat,
but for men's faith in Christianity, for souls, and for the
everlasting salvation of the world."

These letters were promptly reprinted in pamphlet form,
with a characteristic dedication to Mr. Spurgeon which is
well worthy of being here reproduced : —

"MY DEAR SIR, — I dedicate these letters to you, not
because, with characteristic zeal, you denounced them
beforehand in the Christian World, (when only one of them
had been published), as fitted to 'gratify infidels and harden
careless hearts,' nor because I think it likely that a man so
early and so deeply committed by unexampled rhetorical
triumphs to a popular theology, will prove an easy convert
to what you erroneously call ' new views ' —(they are, as I
have here shown, the ' views ' of Irenaeus, the spiritual
son of Polycarp, the disciple of the Apostle John, to go
no higher), — but, frankly, because I regard you as one of
the most sincere and consistent preachers of the doctrine
of the eternity of evil, and am rejoiced to believe you
possess that rare courage and honesty which would, if
conscience compelled you, -not scruple to say, ' I have
unconsciously been deceiving myself and the people.'
Allow me to assure you, on the other hand, that although

70 EDWARD WHITE

you declined to controvert my statements in the Christian
World, I shall carefully note whatever you write elsewhere ;
and there is no one from whom, (notwithstanding a tone
of absolutism somewhat resembling that of Pope Pius IX.)
I would more readily learn than from yourself. You know
me also, I think, well enough to believe that I would not
stand fencing in support of verbal quirks and evasions, if
you or any other person can show our arguments to be no
better. My whole life has been a sacrifice to conscience
on this question, as you also very well know — gain, repute,
and good-fellowship having been abandoned for what has
seemed to be truth and duty. I think I deserve at least
respectful treatment even from you, who have had so
much more success. And what am I asking for, after so
many years of trouble ? — a solid common-sense defence of
the method of interpretation which takes the ordinary
language of the Scripture on future punishment in a
signification contrary to its natural meaning. If it is our
duty to God to take the verb aTroXXw/it, to destroy (as in
Matt. x. 28 — ' Fear Him who is able to destroy both body
and soul in hell '), in the sense of inflicting eternal misery,
contrary to all known Greek usage elsewhere, you, who
are the chief preacher on earth of that duty, ought to be
able to give plain reasons to honest minds of all orders-
such, for example, as those of Dr. Weymouth, or Dr.
Mortimer, or Mr. Minton, or Dr. Leask, or Mr. Sheppard
of Frome, or the undersigned, which will satisfy them
therein. We shall make no needless difficulties. If we
were to say that Life signifies a happy dissolution of being,
you would call on us for proof; and if we refused it,
you would denounce our audacity in unsparing terms —
and rightly. Can you expect us to believe you without
proof, when you tell us that destruction signifies living for
ever in misery f It seems to me that if Death means life
in misery, Life ought to mean a happy destruction. The
words would then be treated by one and the same rule.

THE "LIFE IN CHRIST" CONTROVERSY 7!

If you quote Matt. xxv. 46 as decisive of the doctrine of
endless misery, we quote Matt. x. 28 as decisive against
it ; and you must excuse me for saying that the question
will not be set at rest by a pulpit thunderbolt, or by
disingenuously talking of ' dragging the great " truth " of
the judgement to come into the arena of debate in a
newspaper.' The only difference between the ' arena ' of
the Christian World and that of the Sword and Trowel is
this, that in the former your assertions on what you think
the ' truth ' could be answered, if necessary ; in the latter
they cannot.

" I trust it is unnecessary, in speaking with this freedom,
to say that I distinguish between Mr. Spurgeon as a critic
and theologian and Mr. Spurgeon as a man and a minister
of Christ. In the former capacity I am compelled, without
at all undervaluing your really great attainments, in a
question turning upon interpretation to yield no more
deference to your assertions than your authority deserves.
In the latter capacity I freely give way to the promptings
of admiration and affection, and pray for the long con-
tinuance of a life so dear to us all, and of an example so
stimulating. We meet with many ' Broad ' Churchmen
whom no words can bind to anything in the Bible ; and
who, when shut up into a conclusion by fair criticism, will
boldly say that ' words can settle nothing in Christian
doctrine.' We meet also some who pretend to be
orthodox, men who, when pressed, will try to escape with
the equally wicked evasion that the New Testament is not
written in Greek such as was understood in the first
century of our era, but in some sacred dialect known only
by the elect. There is no possibility of reasoning with
such persons as these ; but, as you are not one of either
party, I commend these arguments to your candid attention
with sincere regard. — Believe me, my dear Mr Spurgeon,

" Yours faithfully,

EDWARD WHITE."

72 EDWARD WHITE

In this pamphlet form the letters had a considerable
sale, and one effect of their publication in the Christian
World was to immediately increase the sale of that
periodical by five thousand copies, as testified by the
editor. Mr. White's three letters having appeared in the
month of February, the three by Mr. Andrew Jukes
followed in March, after which Dr. Angus set forth the
arguments for the so-called " orthodox " doctrine, devoting
his third letter to an exposition of the possible " allevia-
tions" of its horror. In the meanwhile both Mr. Spurgeon
and Mr. Rogers, then tutor in his college, had published
articles in other periodicals against Mr. White, and there-
fore in the Rainbow for June he had an article in reply to
them, and to Dr. Angus's three letters.

In this reply, having first pointed out that the term
" annihilation " does not express his idea of death, and
that in the chief works on his side the use of that term
has been carefully eschewed, Mr. White continues : " It
entangles the question with metaphysical arguments on
the abolition of substance, and wholly conceals what we
think the truth on the dissolution of the tripartite nature
of man. Now it ought to be observed, that nearly the
whole stress of the argument of Dr. Angus, and absolutely
the whole of Mr. Rogers's, depends upon their being
allowed to impute to us the idea, and the doctrine, of
metaphysical annihilation. Once grant this word as our
definition of death, and the issue of debate is brief and
decisive ; but Dr. Angus will not find, in any of my
writings on this subject during the last twenty-five years, a
single instance of the use of this term in teaching the
doctrine of Life in Christ. He will not, I believe, find the
word in the works of Professor Hudson, of Mr. Minton,
of Mr. Constable, or Mr. Maude. I must, therefore,
re-state the case, begging our opponents to abstain for the
future from that imputation, which is now nothing better
than an advantageous misconception, but will be henceforth
a deliberate misrepresentation.

THE '-'LIFE IN CHRIST" CONTROVERSY 73

" Our idea of the death of a man is, that it is fundamen-
tally the dissolution of his complex being, the destruction
of that life which consists in the union of the parts. It is
evident that this breaking up of humanity, or destruction
of its life, may be effected in two different ways
— either by the separation of the elements of man's
being, or by the destruction of the very materials of his
existence. There may be two ' deaths,' one in which the
body is broken up, and the spirit which informed it is
taken away from it, while both the dust and the spirit
remain in being — and another in which not only the life
and individuality of the complex man is dissolved and
destroyed, but also the very elements of conscious being
are reduced to nothing.1 What we have taught is, that
both these modes of death are spoken of in the Scripture,
and are called respectively the first and the second death.
To invent a special sense for the New Testament is to
nullify the New Testament as a revelation. . . . When
Luke wrote a Gospel for the Churches planted by Paul in
Achaia, or Macedonia, or Asia Minor, or when Paul him-
self wrote letters to the Corinthians recently converted
from heathenism, who can imagine, except a man who has
some special theory to -serve, that these compositions were
set forth in words which were employed in senses
previously unknown to the readers at Corinth, Philippi,
Athens, or Thessalonika. Granted that, as foreigners,
there would be some tincture of Hebrew idiom in the
combination of their phrases, and granted that there would

' In using here an English phrase which is equivalent to the Latin
word "annihilation," Mr. White is not inconsistent. His protest is
against the use of that word as a synonym for death. Life and death
are simple and correlative terms which have no synonyms. What is
here admitted is that, in the case of the finally impenitent, the
second death may result from the complete destruction of the
sinner's very being. And it should always be understood, that such
destruction will not be caused by an arbitrary or extraneous act, but
will be the inevitable and constitutional result of the sinner's own
moral alienation from God, the source of all life and being.

74 EDWARD WHITE

be some wholly new idioms introduced from the usage of
Greek-speaking Jews of Palestine or Alexandria, under
that spiritual discipline which the Greek language had
undergone, in the countries surrounding Palestine, for
three hundred years before the birth of Christ, still it is
evident that their ordinary expressions were, from the
very fact that they were used by the apostles, judged
by them to be in intelligible Greek, so that none of the
idioms were beyond the comprehension of an intelligent
religious Greek-speaking man ; and equally evident that
old words would not be used in new and strange senses
(such as making death stand for endless life in misery, as
it is said to be in Rom. v. 12-21) without full warning from
such conscientious correspondents. . . .

" On our side there is no denial of the self-evident fact,
that the term life, as used in Scripture to describe the
present and future states of regenerate men, does include
the associated ideas of holiness and happiness arising from
a new relation to God, a spiritual resurrection resulting
from redemption (Rom. vi. 4). No one ought to affirm
that the bare idea of existence is all that the term includes.
No one of any account does affirm it. Our position is
only that this idea of existence is included in the meaning,
is fundamental to it, the moral ideas associated with it
having this physical conception of eternal conscious being
(in opposition to death or destruction) as their basis."

These letters and articles had brought the controversy
to a stage in which it could no longer be entirely ignored
by Christian teachers, nor treated, as the Eclectic Review
had treated Mr. White's publication of Life in Christ, in
1846, as the outcome of youthful presumption and the
desire for notoriety. His conduct during the quarter of a
century that had elapsed since that time had clearly shown
that the publication of that book had not been lightly
undertaken, nor without the cost having been duly
counted ; but that it had been rather the burden of the

THE "LIFE IN CHRIST" CONTROVERSY 75

Lord laid upon him, which he dared not shirk. This
fact, and the manner in which his consequent temporary
theological isolation had been borne, had won for him at
last a respectful hearing. Moreover, his continued careful
study, during all these years, both of the question itself,
and of all the objections raised against the position he had
taken, had given him a wider view of the whole subject,
and deeper insight into its various relations, so that he
could now recognize the crudity of his earlier work.
Accordingly, in the short preface to his pamphlet, he
expressed the desire that he might be judged by the
statements now made, rather than by those of the book
issued so long ago ; although it should be stated that the
main argument, and the conclusion, remained the same.
In that preface he also explained that these letters did
not profess to be a complete treatise, but only a general
introduction to the subject, for a thorough examination of
which other books should be consulted, and a careful and
systematic study of the Bible would be needed.

Notwithstanding Mr. White's emphatic repudiation of
the use of the term " annihilation " to represent his idea of
" death," his opponents persisted in using it, and still
persist, in spite of all that has been done to make his
position clear. Mr. Baldwin Brown, not a very long time
after these articles appeared, and again in 1877. gave
lectures on what he called "The Miserable Doctrine of
Annihilation," and the lectures were published under that
title in the Christian World. The same misrepresentation is
still current, and is set forth by some who ought to know
better. For example, the following statement appeared
in the British Weekly of February 14, 1901, over the name
" R. J. Campbell " : " The ' conditional immortality ' view
held by many at the present day, championed by the late
Dr. Dale and favoured by Mr. Gladstone, is that the life
after death is only for those who are in Christ, and that for
the rest of mankind death is annihilation"

76 EDWARD WHITE

Neither the late Dr. Dale, nor Edward White, ever
championed, nor did Mr. Gladstone x favour any such
doctrine as that. They were always as firm believers as
Mr. Campbell in a life after death for all men, and in
a judgement to come; and we have seen how emphatically
Mr. White denies that he has taught, or even thought, that
death is equivalent to annihilation. There are indeed
some believers in "Conditional Immortality" who think
that between death and resurrection there is no conscious
existence, but even these would repudiate Mr. Campbell's
description as a misrepresentation of their belief; and Dr.
Dale agreed with Mr. White in strenuously opposing that
idea. In a letter printed in the Christian World of
March 10, 1881, Mr. White wrote: "None believe more
strongly than Mr. Dale, Mr. Minton, and myself, in the
survival of all souls till the day of judgement, according to
the Scriptures, when God will make it clear to all beings
why each condemned person perishes for ever." But all
these agree in the belief that except in Christ there is no
endless life for man.

The course of the discussion that followed the publica-
tion of his letters led Mr. White to the conviction that the
time was near when he might usefully prepare a treatise
more complete than any hitherto published on this most
important subject. His own book, issued so many years
previously, he regarded as tentative and inadequate ; and
it was out of print. Towards the end of 1873 ne resolved
to re-write his book Life in Christ and he began to
prepare the materials ; but it was nearly a year before
he could see his way to a satisfactory plan. At last it
came to him as a sudden inspiration, and the writing then
proceeded rapidly. According to a memora'ndum made
by him on returning the last proof-sheet to the printers,

1 See his Studies Subsidiary to the Works of Bishop Butler (Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1896). Particularly his Summary of Theses on a
Future Life, pp. 260-267.

THE "LIFE IN CHRIST" CONTROVERSY 77

on September 25, 1875, "It was begun in October 1874
to be written, and ended in February 1875 ; writing and
printing ended in the year." On October I ith he received
the first complete copy of the new book with the old
title, Life in Christ, of which the title is certainly more
generally known than the contents. Only those who take
the trouble to read it carefully throughout can perceive the
great cumulative force of the series of arguments embodied
in it. As Mr. White once wrote : —

" The effect of holding up the truth of Immortality in
Christ amidst the revelations of Scripture, is like the
lighting up of a vast stalagmite cavern by a great torch at
its centre. The relations of its parts are seen, its splendours
appear, its dark defiles are illuminated with a lustre never
seen before."

Of this book there was a reprint in the following year ;
and in 1878 a third and cheaper edition was prepared,
carefully revised, and with added notes, account having
been taken of the chief criticisms that had appeared.
Of this edition ten thousand copies were printed, and
eventually all were issued.1

1 There is an error in the book, into which Mr. White was led by
taking a quotation at second hand. At page 272 of the 1875 edition,
at page 251 of the 3rd edition, 1878, the poet Cowper is represented,
on the authority of Ste. Beuve, as having written : " God is always
formidable to me, except when I see him disarmed of his sting, by
having sheathed it in the body of Jesus Christ." The error is in the
first and most important word in the sentence, which instead of
" God " should be " Death," as Cowper wrote it in a letter to his
friend, Joseph Hill, dated January 21, 1769, published in his Life by
Thomas Taylor, ist ed., 1833, p. 76 ; 4th ed., 1835, pp. 88-9.

Of course this correction completely alters the sense, and makes
Mr. White's quotation of the sentence inappropriate. Some years
ago (1889 or 1890) his attention was called to the error by Rev. Eric
A. Lawrence, of Halifax, to whom he at once wrote as follows : —

" Many thanks for your obliging note on Ste. Beuve's mistake.
As a lover of Cowper I am delighted to find that his words have
been shockingly perverted by the Frenchman. I will take care to
correct my error in any future edition of Life in Christ. The third
edition of ten thousand is nearly exhausted, so that perhaps there
will be an opportunity of correction in my lifetime.

78 EDWARD WHITE

" I quite forget whence I had the quotation from Ste. Beuve. I
have a number of his Causcrics, but cannot lix the original of this
shocking sentence. If I have a suitable opportunity in any public
writing, I will, before any new edition, remember to correct this
frightful French misrepresentation. I thought Ste. Beuve was at
least trustworthy."

As there has not been any further edition of Life in Christ, it has
not hitherto been possible to make the correction.

NOTE. — In the Appendix B will be found a concise analysis of the
book with a statement showing the relation of the doctrine therein
set forth with the theological thought and needs of the present
time. This has been kindly supplied by Rev. W. D. McLaren,
M.A., whom Mr. White on several occasions indicated as the one
among the younger theologians who had most thoroughly grasped
the doctrine, and the whole series of arguments supporting it, and
as being the most competent, therefore, to explain and restate his
position to the men of the new generation that has sprung up since
his book was published.

Appendix C contains some information respecting the influence
of Mr. White and his book on the Continent, and in other parts of
the world.

CHAPTER VIII

RECREATIVE TRAVEL

MR. WHITE travelled in Europe a good deal, in
his later years as well as in his earlier years of
strain and struggle. This he considered a good investment
of both time and money. He said that money spent in
travelling is not " soon gone," because it " lays up a per-
manent stock of pleasant recollections, and is invested in
pictures which will never grow old." As he wrote, so long
ago as 1841, " The more a man has travelled, the better he
will understand every country that he sees, or sees again.
So with books : the more a man reads, the better qualified
he is to read again the works which first instructed or
delighted him." Indeed, it is only by travelling that
capacity for appreciating descriptions, when heard or read,
is developed ; as Mr. White once wrote : " Description is
powerless to convey impressions of scenery, except to those
who have already seen something." He was one of those
who make good use of their eyes in travelling. As he
used to say, " The eye looks, but the mind sees ; " and
he not only looked but saw.

At Bonn, in 1872, his meditation on contemplating the
prospect over and beyond the Rhine, took shape thus : —

" The Power which works in atoms to produce living
organisms, embodying patterns, works also in scenery to
produce pictures, landscapes. But atmosphere is just what
cannot be imitated or fully remembered.

79

S«> EDWARD WHITE

" The Rhine descends from heaven as rain and snow
upon the Alps, and gathers force and body as it flows from
the Neckar, the Moselle, the Sarre, the Main, and the Meuse ;
and thus it has flowed for ten thousand years unchanged,
for mountains guard its course. Yet how changed the
scenes which have been reflected upon its waters age after
age : the primeval forest, ancient Germany, Roman
dominions, the Prankish and Gothic Germany, the Papal
Germany, the Germany of the Reform, the Modern
Germany. Every living thing on the banks of this
eternal river dies, every flower fades, every tree decays,
but the grand Divine Idea and Landscape remains.
This river has given printing and poetry to the world. . . .

" All things on the Rhine prove a mitigation of old
ferocities. The amphitheatre at Treves was for the plea-
sure of seeing men and beasts fight to the death — in ruins.
The castles on every hill are the monuments of an age of
incessant war between small sovereignties ; the river has
run with blood at various times in its history. The towns
are now unwalled. One vast empire protects all. Liberty
of thought, speech, religion, prevails everywhere. Ehren-
breitstein its symbol (100,000 men).

" But life is not nobler than it was. It has turned from
tragedy to comedy, except great State passions lift it up
and great religious emotions absorb it and glorify it."

On revisiting Bonn the following year he wrote : " Long
time a wanderer in foreign parts, nothing that I have seen
comes from nature to the heart like a true English land-
scape." And indeed it was a great pleasure to him, besides
paying a due tribute of admiration to the grander scenery
of our own islands, occasionally to visit out-of-the-way
parts of England, halting in small towns or villages, and
taking long walks or drives round about. In this fashion
he made acquaintance with some of the many little-known
old country-houses with interesting associations ; here and
there also with country ministers who, as he notes, do

RECREATIVE TRAVEL 81

good and noble work without obtaining much recognition,
beyond their own very limited circle of influence. Now
and again he would surprise the natives by telling them of
some interesting or historic event that had occurred in
their region, but of which they had never heard ; as, for
instance, at Ebbes Fleet, near Minster, in Kent, where it is
said that the monk Augustine, on his arrival from Rome,
was met by the king, Ethelbert.

Of all Mr. White's visits to the Continent, the longest,
the most important, and the most interesting, was in the
early part of 1875, when he was abroad a little more than
two months, and spent most of that time in Italy, about
twenty-eight days of it in Rome. This journey not only
gave him great pleasure but also helped him in his later
work.

On his first visit to Paris, in 1854, he had remarked, that
it made him feel " the immense difference between hearing
and seeing." " I have been reading of Paris," he wrote,
" all my life, but it was all as fresh to me as if completely
unknown." If that was so in relation to Paris, how much
more must it have been so when Rome was to be seen, the
city of the Caesars, of the Christian martyrs, of the Popedom !

The visit to Rome was the main purpose of this journey,
and although it involved so long an absence, it was under-
taken with the enthusiastic consent and support of the
Church at Hawley Road. Mr. White's preparations for it
included a number of books, as he " was resolved to read
some of the right books on the right spots," and these,
" like spectacles, would help him to see/' He also took
other aids to vision in the shape of spectacles and opera-
glasses, on account of his near-sightedness.

Starting from London on February 8th, with Mrs. White,
they travelled, via Dover and Calais, to Paris, Dijon, Turin,
Genoa, Pisa (where Sunday was spent), then Siena and
Rome, arriving there on February i/th, in the dark
evening. On this last stage of the journey they had an

7

82 EDWARD WHITE

American Captain for fellow-traveller, one of those typical
American tourists who rush at breakneck speed through
Europe, so as to be able to say they have been to this place
and that, but failing to gain any real knowledge or under-
standing of any. As a young lady " o' that ilk " once
remarked, on being urged to stay in a town of considerable
interest at least long enough to go through it : " Oh ! I
shall put down the name in my note-book, and trust to
my imagination for the rest ! " So this American, in one
month after landing at Cork, had been to Dublin, Liver-
pool, London, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Moscow,
Vienna, Trieste, Venice, Milan, and Turin ; and now he
was on his way to Rome and Naples, only one day to be
given to the latter. He was to be in America again by the
middle of March. That was not Mr. White's idea of travel.

During his stay in Rome the weather was only occa-
sionally propitious, but, in spite of the rain, the time was
well occupied from February i/th to March pth, and from
March ipth to March 26th, the interval between March Qth
and i pth having been spent in Naples and the neighbour-
hood chiefly in company with Dr. and Mrs. Underhill.
The following portion of a letter to Mr. W. D. Knight,
one of his deacons, and a most intimate friend, recounts
some of his experiences : —

"... At last the sun begins to shine. We have had
dreadful weather for three weeks, rain, rain, cold wind, &c.,
no better than England. But we have not been idle.
We have been active enough to wake up the dead inhabi-
tants of all the churches and tombs. We have done miles
of galleries, and seen a succession of Holy Families and
St. Sebastians, enough to last a lifetime. I am tired of the
Holy Family. Indeed, Rome is famous for sculpture
rather than painting. My chief interest lies in antiquities.
Yesterday we did the Forum and the Coliseum more
thoroughly than before.and certainly that Coliseum must have
been a wonderful sight when eighty thousand human animals

RECREATIVE TRAVEL 83

were crowded together to see the wild four-legged beasts
tear each other to pieces, all hurrahing at the top of their
voices. I understand better why in prophecy the Roman
Empire is called a Beast. Also why this old Church is
called the Harlot of Babylon, for she dresses in shockingly
bad taste. Yesterday I had a talk with Gavazzi, who calls
me ' Red White.' Also the night before with Monsignor
Nardi, the Pope's private secretary, to whom the Dean of
Westminster gave me a letter. Only think, the private
secretary of Antichrist! And he came in his hat and
buckles and best clothes when I was in bed, so he had to
wait in the passage while I dressed again to receive him.
And he offered to introduce me to the Pope, which I
declined with thanks, and is going to give me tickets to see
behind the North Wind if I like it. I shall call on him to-
morrow and shall try to evangelize him. He is going to
be made a Cardinal, and a very pleasant one he will make.
He wanted to know what sort of religion ours was, and
whether there were any other congregations like ours ! So
I shall teach the Pope's secretary all about Congrega-
tionalism, and give him a tract, very likely ! He seems
immensely amused at Stanley's having sent him a fero-
cious bigot and puritan, a live English Dissenter. He
wanted to know how much Stanley gets per annum, and
whether the Establishment was coming down just yet, on
all which questions I was able to give him information.

" I shall tell all about Wall in my sermon-letter. He
seems to me to be the truest man in Rome, and his work
genuine and simple. I like him immensely, and his wife
is as good as he. I gave him the 333 francs you collected,
being (as I pointed out to him) just half 666, the number
of the beast. He will write a letter to our Church. . . ."

The last paragraph relates to the Mission carried on in
Rome since 1870, when the city was first open to evan-
gelistic operations, by Rev. James Wall and his family,
now in connection with the Baptist Missionary Society.

84 EDWARD WHITE

Mr. White was present at the services on the opening of
their place of Christian worship, the " Sala Cristiana " in
the Piazza, in Lucina, on Sunday and Monday, March 21
and 22, 1875, and spoke at the Monday evening meeting on
the use of infidelity in destroying faith in the mythology
of Romanism. He wrote a letter which was read at the
Sunday evening service at Hawley Road on March I4th,
in which he fulfilled the promise to tell his impressions of
Mr. Wall's work, a work which he appreciated very highly.

A second letter to the Church was sent from Rome, and
read at the week-night meeting on April ist, extracts from
which may here be introduced : —

" During the past week, on our return from Naples, I had
the opportunity of being present at a meeting of the 'Free
Christian Church ' of Italy in the schoolrooms of Signer
Gavazzi, where Mr. McDougall of Florence was also
present, perhaps the most distinguished evangelical labourer
in Italy. This ' Free Christian Church ' must not be con-
founded with Mr. Wall's Mission, of which I gave some
account in my former letter. It is strictly a native Italian
movement of which Gavazzi and McDougall are the
leading spirits. The latter has been so long in Italy,
nearly twenty years, that the Italians reckon him to be one
of themselves and accept his guidance without the
reluctance which they feel to that of most foreigners.
He is therefore on the Governing Committee of the
Free Church. This Free Church partly resembles our
English Congregationalism and partly Scottish Presby-
terianism. It resembles Congregationalism inasmuch as
it is based on spiritual discipleship and definite Church
membership. Its basis of belief is very simple, not
extending to such questions as baptism, so that each
one seems left on those matters to follow his judgement.
This Free Church, however, has an organic unity, with an
Assembly possessing rather more of a legislative quality
than our Congregational or Baptist Unions. And the

RECREATIVE TRAVEL 85

Churches meet by deputy twice a year, in the Italian
cities in succession. Of these, Milan takes the lead in
numbers and influence. They have a Church there of six
hundred members. These are very earnest evangelists.
They have sent out agencies all over Italy, and interest
themselves in Christian education everywhere. They have
a Church also at Florence, and a settled pastor — not Mr.
McDougall, for he is unattached, an agent of the Bible
Society, and a member of the Free Church of Scotland.
But you see the influence of this useful servant of God
everywhere. He is the chief agent in collecting the large
funds in England and America which are needed to supple-
ment Italian contributions. The Italians have scarcely
learned yet the lesson of Christian giving as we under-
stand it in England. Hence foreign aid is required to help
in maintaining the ministry and fabrics for these forty
Churches. Our Congregational Continental Society gives
,£450 per annum, the Scottish Free Church gives 25,000
francs annually.

" This Free Church movement alone represents the
work of hundreds of devoted evangelists in many parts
of Italy, all protected by the law, ail able to speak Italian
to their fellow-countrymen, all knowing the best way of
approaching them, and I may say all praying earnestly for
that baptism of the Holy Spirit without which Paul may
plant and Apollos water in vain.

" Now a word as to the state of mind of the Italian
people. They differ very much in the different provinces.
Down in Naples, where we were last week, they seem to be
.an animalized, sensual race, bearing the marks of long
neglect by their rulers and ages of oppression. The people
look poor, and dirty beyond belief. One would gladly see
the whole million people who inhabit the shore of the Bay
of Naples driven into the water of the Bay and compelled
to wash themselves. Their religion seems to consist of
downright idolatry, with no attempt to spiritualize it what-

86 EDWARD WHITE

soever. But in Rome and in the north the people are very
different. They have more capacity and more education
and culture.

" It is these northern populations who have made the
Italian Revolution. That Revolution is a much greater
work than is commonly understood. The Government of
the King of Italy, under Signor Minghetti, is immensely
strong, and it is using its strength thoroughly to break
down the priestcraft which has oppressed Italy for ages.

" But the middle classes are thoroughly saturated with
infidel French literature. The Pope's Chamberlain, Mon-
signor Nardi, told me that they read greedily all the
wicked French trash they can lay hold of. Thus, in
evangelizing this people, while there is some advantage
in finding them not so mad upon their old idols, there is
also a great disadvantage in finding them thoroughly
infidel, and opposed to all religion.

" They care much more for politics than for Christianity.
Garibaldi is the idol of the multitude ; a noble old patriot
in all secular things, but unhappily an infidel — that is, a
Deist and firm disbeliever in the authority of the New
Testament. The day before yesterday was St. Joseph's
Day (the husband of Mary). The Roman people kept it
as the festa of another St. Joseph, i.e., Joseph Garibaldi.
It is a sad fact that the enormous, and in most respects
wholesome, influence of Garibaldi is not exerted to promote
Scriptural religion, but only the Deism which is the re-
action from superstition.

" But it has generally been found that a reaction into
scepticism is a necessary preliminary to the conversion of
populations who have been drenched with superstition. It
was so in respect to the population of the pagan Roman
Empire at the coming of Christ. The sceptical philosophies
were useful in destroying the popular faith in the old
heathen gods and goddesses. Then came apostolic Chris-
tianity and filled up the void which had been made. So

RECREATIVE TRAVEL 87

it will be here. The curse of Romanism is that it so
thoroughly fills the mind with a mythology that you can
scarcely introduce Scriptural Christianity into it until a
thorough clearance has been made of all the old notions
and beliefs. The very idea of God has to be created in
the mind over again. I do not therefore look upon the
prevailing scepticism quite so hopelessly as some of my
friends. Things are going on in the right direction, and
God is working wonderfully, raising up suitable agencies
to make known His truth. The greatest evil of the popu-
lar religion is that it puts God so far away and represents
the saints, with Mary at their head, as the real persons to
be propitiated. It is nothing but affectionate gospel-
preaching which can remedy this evil, bringing us near to
God and showing the way into the holiest made manifest
by the blood of Jesus.

" But the Gospel, like everything else, gains force by
going. Every day sees the growth of the evangelical
movement, and if the various believers in Christ are not
openly one, yet the glory of the truth seems to shine
through even the faults of men, and Italy is certain to hear
before long of a Gospel with one Priest only, and one
effectual Redeemer.

" The Church of Rome, however, has not lost its power
over large numbers of the people. It can be said only that
the large majority of men support the Government, and
the Revolution, and free thought. It would be a mistake
to suppose that there are no devotees. On the contrary,
they are numerous and bigoted, and if they had the
chance would, I believe, enjoy the opportunity of another
St. Bartholomew to crush the Revolution. The machinery
of the Church, its fabrics everywhere in Italy, are grand
beyond all description. After years of reading, I feel
astonished at the splendour and vastness of these struc-
tures. And great buildings are great powers everywhere.
The priests are stripped of much of their wealth, but they

88 EDWARD WHITE

do not acknowledge themselves beaten, and they persevere
in their courses with a zeal worthy of a better cause. One
thing alone is strong enough to overpower the influence of
these sublime structures and services, and that is the true
Gospel — a world of new ideas. And as the Gospel once
emptied the Italian temples of heathenism, so it is equal
to emptying the temples of Antichrist.

" Acquaintance with the struggle of principles here going
forward would be very wholesome for us at home. We
ought to sympathize warmly with the representatives of
the truth. On my return I hope to be able to make some
of them better known to you. Meantime let these few
hints serve to awaken on Thursday evening some earnest
prayers for Italy, and specially for the work of God in the
newly-formed Churches of the Gospel."

During the quarter of a century that has elapsed since
the foregoing letter was written all the men whose names
appear in the letter have disappeared from this mortal scene:
Pope Pio Nono, Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel, Minghetti,
Nardi, Gavazzi, McDougall, and last of all Mr. Wall, after
more than thirty years of evangelizing work in Rome, and
nearly forty in Italy. This long period has brought great
changes in Italy, and a large extension of the evangelistic
labours of Christians there ; but the hopes expressed by
Mr. White have been as yet only partially realized, and
the evangelization of the Italians will be a slow process.

Extracts from a letter written to Mr. Knight at a later
date may fitly be introduced here, as they relate to the
same visit to Rome.

" Every reference in your letter brings before me a vivid
image of the object referred to, and renews faintly the
pleasure of the original observations, which we owed in
part to your lifelong kindness, as you may perhaps re-
member. But I pat my own back retrospectively for
taking every measure possible at the time to perpetuate
the impressions by writing them down the same day, so

RECREATIVE TRAVEL 89

that ever since these brief records recall the objects which
I wish to think of, and with considerable success, the whole
resulting in a lifelong pleasure. I well remember every
piece of the visits you describe, and only wish many other
recollections of my life were as vividly recoverable as these.
But the whole concern is a ruin and a clerical rook's nest
compared with the aspect of things in the respectable days
of those grand old pagans who built the city and were
not yet corrupted by absurd poperies and melodramatic
religiosities. I quite agree with you about St. Paolo, and
much prefer it to St. Peter. I quite believe the tradition of
the Tre Fontane, so far as to its being the place of St.
Paul's execution ; there being no [more] reason why an
erroneous tradition should be handed down respecting
such an event than one respecting the martyrs at Smith-
field. Only I wish St. Paul could have the chance of an-
nouncing a course of sermons to be delivered there, in
continuation of the Epistle to the Romans and the Acts
of the Apostles, Luke giving out the hymns and reading
the lessons. . . . Ever since I saw Rome, history has been a
new pleasure to me, yielding images so much more distinct.
And the thought often occurs, ' Oh that I had looked more
distinctly for this and that ! ' I hope you went to St.
Gregory's Monastery, whence came the English Mission."
As illustrating Mr. White's love for scenery and
appreciation of its beauties in detail, the following letter
may prove interesting. It was written to Mrs. Cannings,
a lady with whom he corresponded very freely during
many years, when on a visit to Switzerland endeavouring
to recuperate after a serious break-down in his own and in
his wife's health : —

" AEGISCHHORN, July 5, 1885.

"... We came hither from Glion at the east end of the
Lake of Geneva, where probably Adam and Eve were
created and put in Paradise. Oh ! the colours of that lake

go EDWARD WHITE

audits mountains, day and night! If looking at colours
would mend anybody, we should be both well. Thence
we steered up the Rhone valley, and finally ascended to
heaven on two obstinate horses — not of fire, but of lead —
lashed by attendant porters — not angels. We arrived out
of great heat to damp cold and a raging thunderstorm.
But the next day was better, and we immediately began
to climb the mountains, or what remains of them between
this and the stars. The rest of the time is spent in eating
goat and hill-mutton and stringy beef. To-day, Sunday
5th, opened gloriously. Heaven came down on earth. I
rose early and went forth alone along the western pathway
on the mountain-side, until after turning two or three
headlands the Zermatt valley came into distant view from
this enormous height. And it was a sight worth even that
ascent to see. There was the Weisshorn, rising up against
the blue sky, with its pyramidal apex, the whole vast
mountain clothed in purest white from top to bottom, and
extending its wings of gold and silver far on each side.
On one side of him the Matterhorn rising to nearly equal
height with its quaint and dangerous looking top, whence
fell Hadow and the rest of the climbers. Then again the
Mischabel and Monte Rosa, and on the other side in pale
distance Mont Blanc. Often as I have seen these moun-
tains, I never saw them in this fashion. The morning sun
was brilliant, the air pellucid, and all the green middle
distance shining in verdure and repose. No wonder God
called the prophets up mountains to die, for this ' great
vision ' was fit to think of when the shadows will deepen
at the last. Man and the great mountains show that there
are hopes beyond. Fancy a pig transported at the view of
the Weisshorn, or a cat overpowered before breakfast at
the spectre of the Matterhorn against the blue ! And we
shall ' see greater things than these.' ..."

CHAPTER IX

LOCAL AND GENERAL ACTIVITIES
1870-1875 ; AGE 50-56

A LTHOUGH the controversy on "Life in Christ"
JL\. has been allowed to take precedence in this narra-
tion, it was only one among many subjects which engaged
Mr. White's time and attention during these years. What-
ever else demanded his sympathy and co-operation, the
claims of his pastorate always held the first place in his
thought, and in the apportionment of his time. That
pastoral work cannot, however, bulk largely in a biography
which is intended for the general public. His sermons
were always carefully prepared, and to a great extent
written, although his use of the MS. in the pulpit was very
free, and sometimes it was discarded altogether. What he
felt with regard to the sermon may be gathered from a
note written in 1 870 : " There is no work on earth so
difficult as to say something in half an hour which shall
interest, instruct, and spiritually edify a miscellaneous
company of men, women, and children." His estimate of
the importance of visiting the sick appears in a note,
written at a later date, but embodying views long held and
acted on : "It is one half of a good pastor's duty to visit
the sick, and the other half to see that those who are not
sick do the same thing. Nothing can be more injurious
than for a pastor to absorb all sick-visiting. It is as bad

91

92 EDWARD WHITE

as his absorbing all praying, all giving, all teaching of the
truth." Accordingly, there was a good deal of visitation
carried on, not only by the deacons, but also by other
members, especially by the ladies of the Church. Nor
was this confined to the sick ; it was extended largely to
the poorer inhabitants of the neighbourhood, to whom
timely succour was often carried when they were in distress.

But while keeping a watchful eye upon all such activities,
and aiding with his counsel and personal co-operation, Mr.
White devoted much time and energy to objects outside
his own Church, and some of these must now be men-
tioned.

In 1870 Mr. Forster's Bill to provide for Elementary
Education became law, after a good deal of controversy as
to the requirement, or permission, of religious teaching in
schools that were to be largely maintained out of public
rates. Many of the Nonconformists were strenuously
opposed to all such teaching as part of the school pro-
gramme, and by teachers who might, or might not, be
themselves religious ; while others were equally opposed
to the exclusion of the Bible, and of all reference to
religion. By the " Act," when finally passed, the question
was left to the decision of each Board to be elected under
its provisions, so that there was room for variety in the
practical treatment of this burning question. Mr. White
took part in the discussion both while the Bill was before
Parliament, and afterwards when the School Board for
London was to be elected. He was strongly opposed to
the exclusion of the Bible from the schools, and supported
those candidates who were in favour of Bible reading, but
without sectarian teaching of any sort. In this he diverged
from his close friend, Dr. Dale, and the Birmingham
Board, who were in favour of the rigid application of the
principle that public money should not be used for teaching
religion, which ought to be taught by the Churches. Some
of the Hawley Road members agreed with that view, but

LOCAL AND GENERAL ACTIVITIES 93

the majority were in sympathy with Mr. White, and the
local candidates supported by him were returned. Similar
results were attained in so many other districts of London,
that their policy was adopted by the Board when it came
to decide the question. This policy has been very generally
followed by other School Boards, and even Birmingham
has at last come round to it It has worked fairly well
now for thirty years, under the supervision of a succession
of Government Administrations, and would continue to do
so were it not for the efforts of Church of England partizans
to get their special teaching introduced and subsidized.

In the same year, 1870, the Vatican Council under Pope
Pio Nono was induced to decree the Infallibility of the
Pope when speaking ex-cathedra. This was done on
July 1 3th, and on the very next day war was declared
between France and Prussia. Mr. White followed the
proceedings of the Council with keen interest, foreseeing
some of the disastrous results which were sure to follow
such a decree. He took an equally deep interest in the
course of the Franco-Prussian war, which so soon became
Franco-German, and he sought to derive from it useful
lessons for himself and his congregation. In the early
stages of that war he noted the fact, that even " Christians
in every State are very likely to be persuaded to take
national views of war : French Christians to think God
is on the French side, Prussians to think Him on the
German side, neutrals to think He is neutral. . . . The
truth is, that God is on the side of disinterested justice
and right, on the side of humanity, as distinct from France
or Germany ; on the side of retributive justice for all
sinners. And that is the side on which Christians must
range themselves." He endeavoured to trace the secon-
dary causes which led to the collapse of the French army
and Empire, and the superiority of the German — causes
which on both sides were moral, and therefore such as are
fraught with instruction for all peoples and all times.

94 EDWARD WHITE

The establishment of the London Congregational
Union was, to a large extent, brought about by Mr.
White's influence at this time. In the spring of 1871
he read a paper at the meeting of the Congregational
Union of England and Wales on " Comprehension." On
November 28th was held a private meeting at the house of
the Rev. J. C. Harrison, to consider the proposal to form a
local Union for London. The preliminary work of com-
municating with the Churches, explaining the project, and
obtaining their adhesion, occupied a considerable time, so
that it was not until June 17, 1873, that the first Con-
ference of this Union was held at Finsbury Chapel, where
there was a large assembly of ministers and delegates, the
Rev. J. C. Harrison presiding. At this meeting Mr. White
read a paper " On some of the Undeveloped Forces of
London Congregationalism." In this paper he referred
to the chief purpose for which the Union had been formed,
which was to bring the Churches into touch with each
other, and so promote mutual helpfulness. Conferences
such as this would be more manageable and afford more
scope for real discussion of local needs than the larger
meetings of the Congregational Union of England and
Wales. With such great variety in the circumstances, and
the capacities, of the many Churches in the metropolis, it
would be a distinct gain if, by these meetings for con-
ference, all could be informed of the condition of each.
Their varied endowments, mental and spiritual, ought not
to be considered the private property of the holders, but as
belonging to all. He continued : "It is generally con-
fessed that we have been too much isolated from each
other in our Independency. The overmastering passion
for local administration, which is our besetting virtue and
traditionary characteristic, has reached its fullest develop-
ment in London and is a legacy from evil days long
passed away. . . . Notwithstanding the excuses for isola-
tion, isolation is a great practical evil, for it tends to

LOCAL AND GENERAL ACTIVITIES 95

narrow and stereotype our views, thereby to diminish
our force, to depress our spirit, and greatly to aggravate
our selfishness. ... It is in its spiritual life that all the
real power of Independency consists. We are surrounded
by Church systems in Europe which openly welcome to
their membership miscellaneous populations and seek to
win them by the attractions of sense and superstition.
With these we can hold no rivalry. We build everything
on the foundation of the regenerate life. ... If we have
not that, our Churches become, decorate them as you may,
the dullest of dead organisms in Christendom. With that,
we can appropriate and sanctify into a divine use all the
arts and even all the sciences, if we had them ; but we can
also do without them and thrive on God alone . . . Union
is strength, not less in spiritual affairs than in temporal,
and the benefits of union we may have without sacrificing
one atom of our local independency. A general union of
London Churches will strengthen all district unions, and
that ought to be our ultimate object. There is distinctly
a blessing on every attempt at manifesting in a spiritual
way the unity of the body of Christ. . . . Heaven seldom
confers all its gifts upon one man or one community, not
even when the man is the many-gifted minister of an
Independent Church and the Church one of the straitest
of the Congregational persuasion. There is much that we
might learn in spiritual affairs from each other, if we had
the chance. . . . We profess to build on Holy Scripture
alone, to take not only our teaching but our principles of
Church constitution from the writings of the evangelists
and apostles. The opposition to this plan of religious
thought and action is very fierce and contemptuous, as
it has always been, but ours is a position of immense
strength and utility in the general battle of ideas at the
present time. Singly we may not be very formidable
upholders of this position, but united in closer ranks and
yielding each other more support we shall make the

96 EDWARD WHITE

influence of this principle felt throughout English
Christendom. ... If all of us were doing even half
of what God has given us power to do, the whole city
would be moved, as when Jesus rode in triumph into
Jerusalem. Let us once look upon the world with eyes
that have looked first within the veil, and realize that we
are in the midst of a scene where men are earning death
eternal in the error of their lives, and some are ending
their course every hour, and then there will be an onset
and a shout of battle and a rush in among the evil doers,
and a cry of ' Turn from these vanities ! ' which might
almost cause the sun and moon to stand still for heaven
to enjoy the spectacle of such a victory."

Mr. White continued to take a lively interest in this
London Congregational Union, and an active part in
its management until his retirement from the pastorate.
In 1883 ne was its chairman. At the annual meeting on
March 9th that year he delivered an address on " Church
Life in London," wherein he reverted to the same theme ;
this time, however, applying the true principles of In-
dependency to the conduct and needs of the separate
Churches, instead of to their joint action as a Union.
He began by saying that he should speak : first, of the
normal idea of genuine Independency ; second, of its
counterfeits ; and third, of the necessity of stirring each
other up to a more vigorous internal life. A few extracts
may be given : " In the present state of English society
one object alone makes it worth while to incur the costs
of Nonconformity, and that is the hope of establishing
Churches more apostolic in doctrine, more catholic in
temper, more friendly to the spiritual, intellectual, and
practical training of Christians than the Church estab-
lished by law. If this end can be attained, all sacrifices
are worth making to realize it. ... It is only by great
ideas and by lofty aims that the higher enthusiasms of
men can be kindled. . . . The whole heart of a Christian,

LOCAL AND GENERAL ACTIVITIES 97

in its noblest exercise of faith and self-sacrifice, can go
forth only to that which bears marks of being a living
branch of Christ's Holy Catholic Church. Plenty of
people can be persuaded on all sides to work for ecclesi-
astical combinations which have in them more of the
human than the divine ; content with the old-established
ways of going on in thinking, worshipping, sermon-hear-
ing, giving, and internally going to sleep. . . . But then
this, whatever else it may be, is not what is designed by a
Christian Church, which when genuine is as much a super-
natural work of God as the Church of Corinth or Ephesus,
and it is a shame for such assemblies, if they exist, to call
themselves Independent Churches. . . . The one thing that
makes it worth while to be Independents is that we may
have a real Church life, a Church life better than the paro-
chial one ; and this is not to be attained without very
serious exertions, much consideration, and most earnest
prayer. . . . The original formative idea of Independency
meant just this : Christ's Catholic Church, comprehending
all of all ranks who believe in Him and keep His com-
mandments ; the weak as well as the strong ; but putting
away openly wicked persons by a vigorous discipline ; one
Church indivisible in every neighbourhood and owning no
subjection to Synod, or Prelate, or Archbishop, to none
but Christ the Lord speaking through His apostles. To
restore this idea was the object of the early Independents,
in opposition to forms more or less degenerate. But the
almost universal prevalence of organized priesthoods and
connexional Church systems, established and unestab-
lished, or of Churches set up for the special defence
of some one idea, have defeated the local Catholic
development which would unite us in one body. Our
so-called Independents have never yet succeeded in
persuading all the earnest Christians in one parish,
or even in one village, to throw their knowledge,
culture, faith, wealth, activity into one common stock

<>8 EDWARD WHITE

for mutual help in edification and worship, and for home
and foreign missions. . . . But even under present circum-
stances it is possible for these limited societies to exhibit
the working of sound principles. ... I wish that we could
persuade all our pastors, deacons, and the better educated
members of the Churches jointly to resolve, with God's
help, on the restoration of a more vigorous Church life in
London, beginning with the Church meetings. The details
of frequency and mode of procedure I must of course pass
over, having no general recipe for improvement ; but I
submit to you that the meeting of a considerable com-
pany of men and women, all in some degree earnest as
to religion, and apart from the presence of persons who do
not care enough for Christ even distinctly to confess Him
before men, is always a great power and a power of a very
peculiar description. If there is any species of assembly
in which we may expect signs of God's presence and help,
it is here. A congregation of seatholders, irrespective of
faith and obedience, is not a Church of Christ at all. . . .
Why are we so much afraid of rendering our Church-
meetings more various, more interesting, more powerful,
by at least occasional conference on divine truth, on the
spiritual interests both of the Church and its neighbour-
hood ? Why can we not persuade every member of the
Church to consecrate resolutely that evening — it need not
be of too frequent occurrence — to the development of the
latent energies of the community? If a man will not
sacrifice now and then a late dinner, a concert, a party, his
fireside ease, or even his gains, to such an object, he is at
all events not as earnest in his religion as many atheists
are in attending their consistories. . . . The life of In-
dependency, next to the spirit of prayer, is free and honest
thought, free and honest speech, free and honest action ;
and I cannot understand why in religion these should be
feared more than in any other departments of modern
activity. . . . When real Church life is fully restored and

LOCAL AND GENERAL ACTIVITIES 99

its true importance is attached to the society of confessed
believers, as distinct from its exterior followers, then this
distinction [between proclaiming the Gospel to people who
are still outside, and teaching truth in its details to Church
members] will recur in all its force. There will be the
preaching or heralding of the Gospel to ' them that are
without,' . . . and there will be sometimes more advanced
teaching for the Church 'publicly and from house to house.'
And this last teaching of smaller selected companies in
houses is just as important as teaching the whole company
of the faithful."

Mr. White went on to explain how this distinction
between preaching and teaching throws light on more
than one practical question. He mentioned three :
(i) Women's ministrations. Paul prohibits a woman to
teach in the Church, but no similar embargo is laid upon
the services of women in prophesying, or evangelizing,
outside. (2) The proper work of the unofficial members
of the community. " A teacher ought to know a little
more of the Word of God than his hearer, and ought to be
' first proved ' in this before we set him in the chair of the
Church doctor, since there the truth ought to be taught as
a living whole, and not as a compilation of negative
controversies. . . . But there are frequently men in our
London Churches, men of education, writers, professional
men, men of social position, who ' ought to be teachers,'
at least sometimes, yet whose voice is never heard in the
assembly on either Sundays or week-days, they being
usually the very last who are willing to assume uncalled
this public responsibility. . . . But the rule here, as every-
where, is : ' Let these also first be proved.' When such
men can be persuaded to hold office as deacons in the
Church it gives to the office a double influence and
double sanctity." (3) The preaching or proclamation of
the Gospel, teaching the elements of Christianity to out-
siders, as to which the principle is " that every one who

loo EDWARD WHITE

understands the Gospel not only may, but must, in some
way, in public or in private, habitually communicate it to
others. And the only dangers to be guarded against are
(i) lest men should mistake this power of preaching the
Gospel for omniscience, or even for the power of teaching
in the Church ; and (2) lest any should undertake public
evangelistic work without some previous instruction, and
without a distinct examination and commission from the
Church." The address ended with a stirring appeal for a
more thorough evangelization of the millions in the vast
metropolis.

This characteristic address has been introduced here, in
anticipation of its chronological position, because it seems
to complete the one mentioned just previously ; and it
gives an interesting view of Mr. White's attitude in relation
to several important practical questions. Its introduction
here is no anachronism, since at the period now under
review the principles expounded in it were held and taught
in his own ministry, and put into practice in his own
Church and neighbourhood. The evangelization of the
streets around the chapel was not neglected, the methods
adopted being various. Early in 1874 Mr. White prepared
a " Friendly Letter " to the inhabitants, showing that the
Gospel message is one of Forgiveness of Sins, while amend-
ment of life is to follow. This was printed, and got up as a
neat little book, five thousand copies of which were put into
envelopes, as many as possible were addressed, and they
were distributed by members one Sunday morning in
February, at all the houses in the immediate vicinity.
Similar little books were circulated in like manner in
subsequent years. On the first Sunday evening in 1875,
Mr. White preached to a large audience in a Camden Town
theatre, a series of such services having been arranged
for.

On March 20, 1874, he accompanied Mr. Oncken of
Hamburgh, and Mr. Wilkin of Kentish Town, to West-

LOCAL AXD GENERAL ACTIVITIES lol

minster, and introduced them to Dean Stanley, whose aid
they sought in endeavouring to put an end to the
persecution of the Baptists in Southern Russia, usually
called " Stundists.'1 The Dean promised to do what he
could, by private conversation in high quarters, during the
visit of the Russian Court in London. His opportunities
for this were slight, but, whether in consequence of his
representations or not, as a matter of fact the persecution
became less violent soon afterwards. When Mr. Wilkin
and his friends heard that a special messenger had been
sent to the South of Russia on this business, and found
that no further accounts of persecution reached them, they
concluded that the Dean's efforts, combined with those of
other friends both in England and America, had really
produced the desired effect.

In 1871-2 Mr. White was visited by three persons who,
on account of their reception of the doctrine of Life in
Christ, had been "put out of fellowship " by the " Brethren "
of Bethesda Church at Bristol, under the lead of the well-
known George Miiller and Henry Craik. The first of
these outcasts was Mr. J. F. B. Tinling, B.A., who had
done much successful evangelistic work, in India as well as
in England, and was to have worked with the Bethesda
Church in connection with the new building at Clifton.
His call upon Mr. White was the beginning of a friend-
ship that was unbroken except by death. The other two
persons similarly treated by the " Brethren " were Miss
Groves and Miss Craik, each of whom was nearly related
to one or other of the leaders in that Church.

At the autumnal assembly of the Congregational Union,
in October 1875, held in London, Mr. White seconded a
resolution relating to a proposal, emanating from some of
the most liberally minded of the Anglican clergy, for
legalizing their officiating in Nonconformist places of
worship.

His speech on that occasion gave rise to much comment

102 EDWARD WHITE

on both sides, and his words and attitude were so mis-
construed by some that he felt it necessary to write a letter
to the Nonconformist in order to set himself right. In his
speech he had said, that in England there is, all round, a
good deal of stolid sectarianism of thought, and a good
deal of organized intolerance, which render it desirable to
get an occasional infusion of thinking from men bred in
other Churches, and under other systems. Isolation, such
as that of the Congregational Churches, has its dangers as
well as its advantages, so that it would be really a good
work, if it were possible, to promote some interchange of
ideas on Sundays. But he agreed with the sentiment of
the resolution, that it would be useless to expect such
blessedness as the free interchange of ministry from the
Anglican clergy while things remained as they then were.
The resolution indicated disestablishment as a necessary
preliminary to any such free interchange as was desirable,
and Mr. White expressed the hope that by that means it
might be brought about, but asserted that the longer dis-
establishment was delayed, the less likely would be the
realization of such a consummation. He said : " The
spirit of a Church when disestablished depends a good
deal on what it was when united with the civil power. . . .
If it was a thoroughly Protestant Church, it is possible
that its clergy will behave in a proper brotherly spirit
when compelled to stand alone. If it was a Roman or a
Romanizing Church its clergy will become the most
intolerant, the most intriguing, and the most dangerous body
of men in the whole Commonwealth. . . . If you wait until
the Anglican clergy are still more thoroughly saturated
with the ' sacerdotal spirit ' of which the resolution speaks,
not only will they, when set free from State control, not
preach for you, but perhaps they will render it at least very
uncomfortable for you in the villages and small towns to
preach at all."

The quarter of a century that has elapsed since that time

LOCAL AND GENERAL ACTIVITIES 163

has given to the last-quoted sentence a sharper point, and
a fuller meaning. In his letter to the Nonconformist, after
pointing out a misconception of Dean Stanley, who had
referred to the speech in a sermon in Westminster Abbey,
and mentioning the fault found with him by the denomina-
tional Press, Mr. White goes on to say : " As to my own
speech, I had resolved, from the moment of undertaking to
second the resolution, to show to the movers of the inter-
change scheme, and to all other Church of England men,
that if we felt opposed to the project of special legislation,
as likely to result in a one-sided reciprocity, this was not
because we were disposed to a policy of intellectual or
ecclesiastical isolation, or because we felt ourselves secure
against the danger of insularity to which we and all
Englishmen are liable. In carrying out this idea, in a
speech of fifteen minutes, I presumed on the true and
generous catholicity of the audience which I had the
honour to address. I reckoned that, if not delivered with
ill-nature, they would hear and support by their sympathy
certain admissions as to our liability to such insularity, and
of our need of frequent intellectual association with other
Christians, even going so far as to affirm our advantage
from the secular Press as a means of culture and an incen-
tive to research, and inviting the assembly to say how they
would like to be subjected to an exclusive diet of their own
denominational organs. Hinc ilia lachrymce. It had been
on the tip of my tongue to add the question how Church
of England folks would enjoy being shut up with nothing
to read except the Rock and the Record, the Guardian and
the Church Times. But I refrained from this, thinking
that the object was sufficiently clear from the words which
preceded, that we ' must allow that there is in England all
round z. good deal of stolid sectarianism of thought, and a
good deal of organized intolerance, which render it desir-
able to get an occasional infusion of thinking from men
bred in other Churches and under other systems.' The

104 EDWARD WHITE

audience took my words as they were intended, with
perfect temper and benevolence. The denominational
journals, however, failed of my expectations, and have
not ceased since to belabour me with undeserved severity,
thereby only confirming my position that a pabulum of
that quality alone would not be good for men of any
theological party whatsoever."

CHAPTER X

CONTROVERSIAL WORK
1876-1879; AGE 56-60

" I ^HE peculiar position which Mr. White had taken
J. on the question of baptism has already been re-
ferred to. In the spring of 1876 this led to a passage
of arms between himself and Dr. Landels, who was then
President of the Baptist Union. At the closing session
of the Congregational Union a paper was read by Dr.
Parker on "Organized Congregationalism," and in the
discussion that followed Mr. White spoke of the two
denominations of Congregationalists existing in England,
and deprecated all rivalry between them, with special refer-
ence to the address of Dr. Landels, then recently delivered
from the chair of the Baptist Union. He claimed to be
qualified to speak on this point, as being in a sense
" amphibious " to both denominations ; and urged that
in villages and small towns, where there is one Church
of the Congregational order, and not room for two, they
should on each side abstain from setting up a second,
which would inevitably be itself weak, and would weaken
the other. He did not understand having a stronger con-
science on baptism than on Christianity, Protestantism, and
Free Churchmanship. He closed by saying : " If we would
make the best of our Free Churchmanship, and represent
its principles so as to win the adhesion of the people of

105

io6 EDWARD WHITE

England, we must on all sides learn to think a little more
charitably and kindly of each other, and then it is probable
we shall successfully organize Congregationalism."

For this speech he was taken to task by the denomina-
tional papers and by Dr. Landels, who repudiated respon-
sibility for Mr. White's inferences from what he had said.
Mr. White replied to his strictures in a long letter to the
English Independent, wherein he explained that it was from
hearing, not reading, Dr. Landels' address that he had
received the impressions dealt with in his speech. He
then proceeded to say: "After reading Dr. Landels'
explanations in your columns, I am convinced that he
did not intend to make any one of the three statements
which I have 'directly or indirectly' represented as the
substance of the offending paragraphs in his address ; and
therefore with many apologies for my simplicity, I submit
frankly to his declaration that he did not contemplate the
inferences deduced by me from what he said." He then
reiterates his opinion that these inferences were, to a person
not too intelligent, the natural, if undesigned, results of
what had been said.

Dropping further reference to Dr. Landels, he then goes
on to enlarge upon the topics to which allusion had been
made, and in the closing paragraph puts his own position
so clearly that it seems worth while to quote it in full :
" In making these allusions, I refer especially to the impu-
tation of small and corrupt motives which some Baptist
newspapers are apt to make on persons who partly agree
with them, yet who prefer ecclesiastical communion in
Churches among whom they were born. I entirely con-
cur with such writers in their estimate of the importance of
a right doctrine on baptism, but there are at least a few
worthy persons who think that that holy ordinance, one of
the great sacraments of the Gospel, loses much of its
sanctity, and even some of its meaning as the baptism
of repentance for the remission of sins, by becoming the

CONTROVERSIAL WORK 107

watchword of a sect, by being taken under the patronage
of a party, so as to be looked on almost as their private
property ; who think further that the formation of a com-
munity on such a basis inevitably leads weaker minds to
vulgarize the specialty and make a hobby of it ; and worse
still, that such a procedure intensifies indefinitely paedo-
baptist obduracy of opinion and hinders, more than all
others combined, the diffusion of this very doctrine which
the party is supposed to uphold and defend. Whereas if
you thoroughly sympathize with paedobaptists in the strong
points of their position on infant baptism, namely, in their
zeal for children in relation to Christ ; if you do justice to
their honest intentions in the touching ceremony, to which
especially holy women cling, and are able to show them
tenderly that while children will lose nothing by the
omission of an inoperative and seemingly uncommanded
rite, the Churches which teach the monstrous error of
baptismal regeneration in infancy will lose their chief
moral support in losing the example of Nonconformist
paedobaptism, something might eventually be done to
extend widely the area of such beliefs. These at least are
my own convictions, held, however, with due remembrance
of the difficulty of the controversy. Dr. Landels will, I
fear, speak of such an avowal as ' lecturing both bodies at
once,' and as indicating a fearful degradation of moral
character. But hard words break no bones, and I know
many Baptists who are of a similar way of thinking,
though repudiating with all their strength both that
mischievous and unwarrantable name, and the denomina-
tionalism to which it leads. Meantime we shall all agree
that there are no finer Congregationalists (that is apostolic
Churchmen) and none who more deserve our reverence and
affection than multitudes who glory, like Dr. Landels, in
both."

At the autumnal meetings of the two Unions in the same
year there were further incidental references to the subject,

io8 EDWARD WHITE

and these induced Mr. White to write letters to the Free-
man and the Christian World. An extract from the latter
of these will complete the description of his position in
relation to baptism. He writes : " For me the subject of
baptism is involved in other questions relating to man's
death by sin and immortality in Christ, and therefore I
cannot discuss it simply on the old party basis. To a
mind in this state it appears as reasonable to establish a
sect based on the reformation of the doctrine of the
Eucharist, as the symbol of the Bread of Life, and to
call it the Lord's Supperist Denomination, with all the
usual appliances, as base a sect solely on a reformed
doctrine of baptism. . . . The whole truth on the baptism
of repentance for the remission of sins (the only baptism
mentioned in the New Testament, though seldom referred
to by even Baptist Nonconformists) seems to the under-
signed to be divided between several ecclesiastical parties,
and the desire to give the utmost prominence to the
Christian culture of children, which underlies infant bap-
tism, appears also a feeling deserving the warmest
recognition as truly Christian."

In connection with the meetings of the Congregational
Union, in that year, an instance occurred of Mr. White's
faculty for good-humoured banter, which puts an end to
painful discussion without leaving a sting. Several
ministers, in a private committee-room, had been speak-
ing with some bitterness of a public utterance of one of the
brethren whose name happened to be Joseph. Mr. White
relieved the tension and amused them all by remarking
that "it was only Joseph making himself known to his
brethren."

In July 1876 Mr. White took part in a conference of
Anglican dignitaries and leading Nonconformists at Lam-
beth Palace on the subject of " Modern Unbelief." The
general opinion seemed to be that this was not widely
spread, but that the masses were held to faith more by

CONTROVERSIAL WORK 109

tradition and sentiment than by argument. Infidelity
cannot be silenced ; it can talk on long after the process
of argument has ceased.

In 1877 Mr. Henry Richard, M.P., was Chairman of the
Congregational Union ; and, in his address at the spring
meeting, he referred to the proper attitude of Christians
towards war in such a way as to renew the controversy of
1 860 on that subject with Mr. White, who not only spoke
at the Union meeting, but also wrote several letters which
were published in the English Independent and the Christian
World, in vindication of his position ; which was, that the
" Sermon on the Mount " is not the law of the State, but
that the magistrate is, and ought to be, a terror to evil
doers. This question Mr. White afterwards treated more
fully, when in his turn he presided in 1886 over the
meetings of the Union.

On various occasions Mr. White's speeches at the
meetings of the Congregational Union have been
followed by sharp criticism in the religious newspapers.
This was particularly the case with a speech delivered at
one of the meetings at Leice"ster in October 1877. That
speech abounded with amusing touches, and was received
with both laughter and applause, but the aim all through
was serious and practical. The purpose in view was to
vindicate the exclusion from the Union of those who do
not admit the divinity of Christ as the Incarnation of the
divine Logos. The subject, as announced, was, " The
Flexibility of Independency," and he began with a joke on
the manufacture of elastic, which he had been told was
one of the staples of Leicester. He used the structure of
the spinal column as an illustration of flexibility in con-
junction with firmness and strength, and then, before
dealing with the question in relation to Independency,
proposed to study it in some other religious bodies.

Beginning with Rome, he said : " There is the standing
example of the Popedom, with the poker of infallibility

no EDWARD WHITE

down its throat, that throat red hot with centuries of
cursing all attempts at independent thinking, the un-
changeable, the unreformable, the stiff-necked Popedom,
which will put off neither the ' old man ' nor the old
woman, but sticks to its ' old wives' fables ' in the full
blaze of the nineteenth century.

" Now let us come nearer home and take a kindly
survey of the interior of the Anglican Institution. No one
can say that there is any lack of flexibility there. If a
young man in early life is visited with a desire to help to
save the souls of his fellow-creatures, he can go into the open
market and buy a living, and come out in one of three
very different characters. He can come out in the full
glow of the sacerdotal system, and hope some, day to be
the confessor of the younger women which are sisters, and
the elder women also, and grow into an old woman in the
process. Or he can start in the line of the old-fashioned
Evangelicalism ; or he can select the more new-fangled
system of the most advanced modern scepticism, in the
shape of the extreme left of the Broad Church party ; and,
having thus bought his living, he can go into his parish
and lay before the souls of the persons whom he has thus
bought his view of things eternal. Now nobody can com-
plain of any want of flexibility there. He may sign the
Articles in any sense he pleases, and with an accommodation
in the meaning of words which, if it were practised in
business, would soon put an end to all English trade ; but
in matters relating to the other world, that is not a matter
of such importance." Reference was then made to the
Church Congress at Croydon, and the complete equanimity
of its proceedings, and Mr. White went on : " Though
many personal attachments among the clergy would
prevent me from ever speaking of them as a body without
great affection and respect, yet I cannot sincerely say that
I believe their quietness at Croydon was in consequence
of any real growth in their characters of the principle of

CONTROVERSIAL WORK in

what we understand by toleration. It was because of
something very different, for when there came a test of the
growth of toleration in their minds, when the question of
the burial of dead Dissenters came on, out flared the old
spirit from all the three parties with uncompromising force,
and it was manifest that our brethren had not made any
real progress in spiritual equanimity. Last week I
happened to be walking through London with a very little
girl, and we saw in the distance the exhibition of the
peripatetic dramatic show of Punch and Judy, and she of
course wanted to go and look at it, and so did I. We
went and stood in the crowd, and what I saw was this,
that at the beginning of the representation, although the
leading character laid about him pretty well with his club,
and there was an interchange of blows in moderation, it
was when the coffin was brought up that the blows rained
fast and furious and the tragedy ended in an exhibition of
wrath and indignation. I thought to myself (I hope that
the humble quality of the illustration will not offend any
of my brethren outside our own circle) that it was a very
lively image of the termination of the Croydon Congress ;
and I could not help thinking that if they feel so strongly
against dead Dissenters, what must be their real inward
feeling towards live ones?

" Then next we come to the Methodists. God bless the
mighty organizations which have sprung out of the labours
of John Wesley ! and incline the heart of the new Con-
ference to a little relieving of the preachers from their
bondage, so far as requiring subscription to all and every-
thing not left an open question in John Wesley's writings.
I almost think I saw at Bristol the handle of a silver poker
down the open mouth of Methodism.

" Last of all, in this rapid survey of the great religious
organizations around us, you have the Presbyterians.
Presbyterianism, both in Scotland and in England, has
glorious traditions and a creed which, even in its sternest

U2 EDWARD WHITE

aspects, has much to do with the production of the
stalwart Scottish nation. But here again they say,
privately at least, both north and south of the Tweed, that
a little less inflexibility in forcing those terrible old
standards down the throats of the young ministers, a little
less resolution to load them up to the muzzle with those
old cartridges and shells, would enable them all the better
to fight the battle of substantial orthodoxy, with less
danger of bursting out into heresy and revolution.

" Now we must come home. What about the flexibility
of Independency ? I think I may say that it is a flexibility
which is of inestimable value in the present day, first of all
in matters relating to the search for truth, secondly in
matters relating to its internal organization, and thirdly
in matters relating to its action on the outer world. Its
flexibility, in relation to the search for truth, I attribute to
the absence of any system of rigid subscription, of any
system of synodal authority, and of any overpowering
personal influence, or influence of the Press. We do not
give ourselves over, bound hand and foot, to any synods or
sanhedrins. We stand on the principle that God is
making a revelation by His Spirit to every man who is
willing to receive it. There was once a savant in Paris
who enclosed some tadpoles in a box perforated with
holes, and then placed it at the bottom of the Seine, out of
the light, and he found that the tadpoles only developed
into bigger tadpoles, and did not become frogs. It is just
the same with minds. There is no such thing as develop-
ment and growth in character apart from light. We agree
upon the standard, and then we agree to examine that
standard, to study the Scriptures, and see whether the
things are so which our teachers have told us." Having
thus shown the flexibility of Independency, he proceeded
to argue that the question of personal association was one
on which each man who thinks seriously must determine
for himself as before God ; and that the attempt to make

CONTROVERSIAL WORK 113

Unitarians and Deists and Evangelical believers live
together in unity will no more succeed than an attempt to
make sulphur and saltpetre and charcoal live peaceably
together when a spark drops into the combination.

This was the part of the speech which brought down
upon him the attack of those who desired that the
Congregational Union should embrace Churches and
ministers who, as he had expressed it, " believe nothing
particular." And he had to defend himself against the
charge of " atoning for a pet heresy by being specially
hard on every other," and that of having turned his back
upon his former self in respect of liberty of thought and
speech. This he did in several vigorous letters to the
Christian World in the remainder of that year and in the
early part of 1878. In one of these he wrote : " I know
that it appears a monstrous inconsistency, to those who
are but superficially acquainted with my convictions, that
a person who has persisted in a long battle against one of
the reputedly orthodox doctrines, should stand forward to
counsel resistance to proposals that sound so catholic
and comprehensive, and should speak so severely of
Unitarianism, its criticism, its doctrine, and its spirit. It
is therefore needful again to explain that a closer study of
our position will prove that such resistance to Unitarianism
is the necessary consequence of our convictions. Other
Christian people have a good reason for so doing. To us
there is a second reason, arising from our faith that the
Incarnation was the union of the divine Life with
humanity in order to save it from perishing, and that the
spiritual union with Christ is the condition of salvation for
all who hear the Gospel."

On November 6, 1877, Mr. White read a paper on " The
Office of the Deacon in the Free Churches," at a meeting
largely composed of such deacons and held at the
Memorial Hall. After referring to the different concep-
tions of the office entertained by the Anglican Church and

9

114 EDWARD WHITE

by the Free Churches, he said : " In Christ's Church, as
founded by the apostles, the whole body of the people, the
laity, are the priesthood under Christ the High Priest.
Not some of the Lord's people are priests to the exclusion
of others. All are such. ' Ye are a holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices.' There is then no official dis-
tinction under the Gospel answering to that between the
sacrificing Cohen of the law with his assisting Levites and
the people. To introduce such distinctions is to go back
again to the ' beggarly elements.' We are all priests unto
God. This is the true sacerdotalism. The offices of
the Church of Christ were based on the customs and ideas
of the Synagogue, not on those of the Temple. The
Jewish Synagogue was the point of departure for the
Church in every city. In the Synagogue there were the
elders with a president, or ruler ; and there were the
assistants, or secondary officials, discharging various func-
tions in aid of the elders. Here was the original of the
(i) Elders, or superintendents, and (2) of the Deacons,
who were ordained as helpers in the Church of Christ."
The supreme importance of the spiritual qualifications
of those holding office in a society existing for spiritual
ends was insisted on ; also that none should be appointed
who do not possess suitable gifts and training. And a plea
was introduced for not only maintaining the solemn ordi-
nation of pastors, but for a similar public induction of
deacons to their office. Recognizing that the particular
duties of deacons must vary with varying circumstances,
Mr. White urged the desirability of a distribution of the
duties among the deacons where there are several, so that
each might be specially responsible for his own special
department, but under the general superintendence of the
body of deacons and the pastor. He enlarged upon the
importance of the office, as bearing upon the true pros-
perity of the Church at all times, but more especially when
without a pastor. He said : " The Church is a home, a

CONTROVERSIAL WORK 115

school and college of instruction, a hospital for sick souls,
a factory of industrial work, and finally a temple of the
living God. There is no nobler work given to men than
to carry out these divine ends, and so to regulate affairs
as to make the Church, next to Christ, the light of the
world."

In the following month, at a meeting of the Liberation
Society at Coventry, Mr. White spoke on the religious
aspects of Disestablishment, and he made a sketch of what
he considered would be the most desirable attitude to be
assumed by Anglicans arid Nonconformists in prospect
of that event, and the most desirable state of things
afterwards. In a long letter to the Nonconformist about
the same time he further develops this theme, dealing with
the probable results of Disestablishment upon — (i) The
Church of England, (2) Nonconformity, and (3) Chris-
tianity considered as an interest higher than either. He
expresses the opinion that if no strong national movement
towards Protestant unity takes place, a movement in which
the Nonconformist Churches heartily join, the effect of the
old ecclesiastical rivalries will be to greatly consolidate the
Anglican community by pressure from without, and thereby
greatly to intensify the evils that come with a widely
extended and uncontrolled hierarchial authority. In this
case there would be no improvement in the social relations
of the various Churches, and the Nonconformist commu-
nities would make a new departure, each on the lines of
ancient sectarian peculiarities. Not having been able at
that time to foresee the Federation Movement among the
Free Churches, which has made such rapid advance of
late, he goes on to deprecate such a result and asks : " Is it
utterly beyond the reach of English Christianity for the
people who are most in earnest in the faith of Christ, in
the desire to show the practical results of faith, in the
passion for making the great world of outsiders partakers
of these benefits, to seize the opportunity of Disestablish-

Ii6 EDWARD WHITE

ment when it arrives, for reviewing their own ecclesiastical
position, and for manfully throwing off the evil traditions
which hinder the better organization of the followers of
Christ's holy Gospel ? Is it utterly impossible that some
working fusion should be effected, in every locality, of the
forces which are on the side of Christ, in opposition to
those which are against Him ? Is it beyond the range of
' practical politics ' to ask whether we had not better
meditate, all round, on casting away some of the super-
stitions of the past, and on asserting in every neighbour-
hood the spiritual unity in worship and in work which may
subsist between all who acknowledge a common authority
and agree upon a few fundamentals of faith? . . . Con-
sider what a new life it would pour into every locality if
the idea were once to become popular that the Protestant
Christians of that locality were ' one body ' recognizing each
other as servants of God and organizing their forces for
the benefit of the neighbourhood ! Consider what a
blessing it would be for the Anglicans of every parish to
know intimately their fellow-Christians who had been bred
as Nonconformists, and I will add, what a blessing it would
be for the latter to know a little better the good people of
the episcopal community. . . . That such a consummation
would involve the abolition of the English prelacy and the
restoration of local apostolic Episcopacy and Independency;
that it would demand the overthrow of extreme sacerdo-
talism, of the mild Methodist despotism, of all synods
undertaking to govern the life of Christians from a
metropolitan centre ; that it would require the sacrifice in
one good bonfire of those old Tests and Confessions of
Faith and Books of Articles, and Full Declarations of
Faith and Order which are now causing so much trouble
to men's understandings and so much entanglement to
men's consciences ; that it would compel the cessation of
those anti-Christian claims to exclusive validity in their
clerical orders which now form the ' joy and crown ' of

CONTROVERSIAL WORK 117

Anglican priesthood ; that it would also inflict a final and
desperate blow on the prospects of many unqualified pre-
tenders to the pastoral office who now degrade the very
idea of a public teacher of truth, one must frankly allow.
But if these sacrifices were followed by a fresh lease of
popular faith in Christianity, if the alienated masses of the
working population were conciliated and won over by the
spectacle of Christian union, if truer, deeper sympathies
were awakened between man and man in every town and
in every village, the nation would therein find a sufficient
compensation for the disappearance of those complete con-
fessions of faith which nobody entirely believes in, of the
party spirit which dishonours us, and of those territorial
hierarchies who have subverted the district liberties of
Christendom."

An address given by Mr. White in this same month of
December to the students at the Stockwell Training
College for female teachers may here be mentioned. He
was asked to address specially those just about to enter
upon the active work of teaching. After congratulating
the students on their choice of the teaching profession,
although it is one of the most laborious, he went on to
speak of the wonders of growth and development, and the
interest with which these may be watched, whether in
plant life or in human life, and it is the teacher's business
to foster such interest. He pointed out the distinction
between education and instruction, reminding them that
both were within their sphere, and spoke of the necessity
for physical as well as mental culture, and their own need
for plenty of fresh air and exercise in order to keep them-
selves in good health and in good spirits and good temper,
and so to be able to teach effectively. " The truth must
be mixed with oxygen in them that teach it as well as in
them that hear it." With regard to the teaching he gave
a few useful hints, urging the teachers to strive after
thoroughness in the teaching of elements, to try to infuse

n8 EDWARD WHITE

into the pupils a taste for reading, to teach clear pronun-
ciation, a proper distinction in the use of adjectives, and
the history of our own country, the great aim being to
kindle in the children an interest in the subjects taught.
He closed with a few words as to the religious aspect of
the teacher's work, the great advantages now enjoyed by
the female sex in our time and country, and the high ideal
of womanhood which they should strive after and incul-
cate.

In March 1878 Mr. Henry Dunn, who was for many
years Secretary of the British and Foreign School
Society, died, and was buried at Norwood in the presence
of a large company of friends. He had been a good
friend to Mr. White, even in the days when he had been
under a kind of proscription, and had written in his vindi-
cation. It was therefore fitting that Mr. White should be,
as he was, one of those who officiated at his funeral.

At this time he was earnest in deprecating war on
behalf of Turkey, for which many persons in England,
chiefly Conservatives, were loudly calling. Happily the
counsels of prudence prevailed.

In this year 1878 Mr. White began his monthly Sunday
evening Lectures to Artizans, which were continued until he
retired from the pastorate. On those occasions the usual
occupants of the seats on the ground floor were asked
either to stay away or to go into the gallery, so as to leave
the whole of the ground area for the artizans. These
Sunday evening lectures were really attended and appre-
ciated by the class of skilled workmen for whom they were
specially prepared. A mechanic who was recovering from
illness, and upon whom Mr. White called, told him that
these lectures were known all over London, and had pro-
duced a great effect in the factories in that region. He
said that he was personally acquainted with a large
number of the men who were accustomed to attend, and
told of a fellow- workman, an atheist, whom he had himself

CONTROVERSIAL WORK 119

induced to go with him to the lecture on John's Gospel in
1 88 1, and who was so moved that at the close, when asked
what he thought of it, he answered only by tears. That they
had a beneficial effect in the neighbourhood generally was
also indicated by the testimony of City missionaries and
others, who asserted that in Kentish Town, where such
workmen are very numerous, infidelity had been consider-
ably checked, and there were no atheists among them.
To show the attractiveness of these lectures, the following
quotation from a letter written by Mr. White on April 6,
1880, may here be introduced. Addressing Mr. Knight,
one of the deacons who was then absent, he said : —

" Last Sunday evening the lecture was attended by an
overwhelming crowd, really the fullest ever seen, two chairs
abreast up both aisles, and the lobby and vestry both full.
This achievement of two chairs abreast is looked upon as
a local triumph of Christianity. I wish it were ! The
moral drawn by the deacons is to put up those flaps at
once. But the Reformation was an attractive subject, and
we shall soon sink back to' the one chair state."

It may be added that the flaps referred to were put up
at the end of all the seats, and were afterwards often used.

Lectures of similar character are at the present time
delivered on Sundays monthly by Dr. Horton at Lynd-
hurst Road Church, Hampstead, and these are a direct
outcome of Mr. White's. In the course of his lecture on
July 7, 1901, at the end of twenty-one years, Dr. Horton,
speaking of 1880, said : —

"Just at that time my friend and neighbour, the Rev.
Edward White, had recommenced his monthly lectures to
working men, and he was endeavouring in the most
remarkable way to expound the Scriptures and to bring
all the confirmations that archaeology and science had
made familiar to him within the reach of the artizans of
Kentish Town. I ventured in my very boyish way to
follow the example of my distinguished and venerated

120 EDWARD WHITE

friend. I began those workmen's lectures at his sugges-
tion, intending to continue them for twelve months, but
they went on for four years in the iron room where, at that
time, we worshipped in the Willoughby Road ; and then
this building was erected, and exactly seventeen years ago
this evening this building was used for the first Sunday
service, and the first evening service in this building was a
workmen's lecture, the title of which was, ' A Welcome to
the New Church.' "

At Mill Hill School, on Foundation Day, in June of this
year (1878), Mr. White spoke of the value of a classical and
mathematical training in turning out men who know that
something can be absolutely proved, and are not mere
rhetoricians. Present-day problems — social, political,
religious, and theological — demand minds cultivated and
trained to think, and to appreciate moral evidence, and
mathematical training is a preparatory exercise for that.

At Bishops Stortford School, in the following month, he
gave an address on a comparison between ancient Greek
and modern English education. The Greeks aimed at
strengthening and developing the beauty of body and the
power of mind, and made a nation that conquered the
world. Modern education is based on religion, inspired by
revelation, and its main aim is the formation of character.
In our day we require men, not mere machines ; wills, not
mere passions ; men for whom the world will make way.
Courage is needed in both the search for and the confession
of truth.

Mr. White's holiday this year was spent at and in the
neighbourhood of Penmaenmawr, with his wife and several
members of his family, in the latter part of August and
beginning of September. At that place he met with some
prominent ministers who were also taking holiday. While
there he prepared, and preached in the presence of many of
these, a striking sermon on the impression made by Jesus
Christ upon His contemporaries, some of whom said " that

CONTROVERSIAL WORK 121

Elijah had appeared," while others were reminded of John
the Baptist or one of the old prophets. Evidently to
these observers His appearance was " far different from that
represented in the most noted pictures and hymns, of the
all-gentle Jesus. Was He then not gentle too ? Yes,
indeed He was. There is no tenderness like that of the
strongest men. . . . Just as John has been drawn half a
girl, whereas he was a Son of Thunder ; so Jesus, the Son
of God, has been drawn so much as the Son of Mary
that men have forgotten that some said ' Elijah had
appeared.' . . . The strength of Jesus attracted the weakest
as much as the strongest, as the sun draws after him the
tiniest satellite as well as the mightiest worlds " This
sermon on " The Sternness and Tenderness of Jesus " he
afterwards preached in various parts of the country.

Natural history was throughout his life a subject of fre-
quent study by Mr. White. It is recorded in his note-book
that on September 1 8th of this year he watched a spider
outside his study window making his third web that
week, its predecessors having been blown down by wind
and rain. He thus describes the process as observed :
" His vision must have taken in the area of his web and
the fastening places of the outer lines. He pulled out
with one leg the line from his spinners, as far as his leg
would stretch, and that was enough to fill the space
between the two radiants. He fastened the fresh line
with the other foot of the same pair, the front. Later
on he dabbed his spinners down on the radiant at the
part in the line which measured the exact distance." A
further note dated ten days later states : " Spider still at
work, web after web, catching about two flies a day and a
brace of flylets — a pheasant and two partridges." This is
a good illustration of the minuteness with which he
examined and observed, always with a view to 'the use
of such observations in his public teaching.

The autumnal meetings of the Congregational Union in

122 EDWARD WHITE

1878 were held in Liverpool, and there Mr. White was the
guest of Mr. Samuel Smith. He delivered an address
to working men on the subject of " Reading." This
address was both instructive and humorous, and its
delivery was punctuated with applause and laughter.
At the outset the speaker declared that what he wanted
to say concerned as much, or more, those who were not
working men, as he did not believe in the salvation of the
people by class lecturing, or by class reading. " England
is one, and our reading ought to unite not separate us.
. . . We cannot exaggerate the importance of what a man
reads, and therefore we cannot exaggerate the importance
of what a man prints and his responsibility for it." He
spoke of reading for entertainment and amusement, for
political information, and for religious ends, or purposes
hostile to religion, and dealt with the use and abuse of
each of these kinds of reading. The address was fully
reported in the English Independent of October 24th.
It might be reprinted as a tract with a good prospect of
being useful.

The death of Mrs. Ranyard, his eldest sister, was to Mr.
White a very sensible loss, as there had been, from his
childhood, a very close sympathy between them. What
she had been to him in early life has been already
mentioned. In later life he had materially aided her
in her literary and beneficent enterprises. Her death
occurred on February II, 1879. At her funeral service,
in the Scotch Church, Regent Square, Mr. White took a
leading part, and also spoke at the cemetery at Norwood,
telling of the beginning of her active interest in, and care
for, the poor in the cottages around their father's house.

The desirability of publishing a French edition of Life
in Christ having been considered by Mr. White, he had
made an arrangement with Mr. Charles Byse, a Swiss
pastor, and one thoroughly competent both as linguist
and theologian, who had been introduced to him by Dr.

CONTROVERSIAL WORK 123

E. Petavel T some years previously, to undertake the work
of translation. Dr. Petavel also had promised his help in
the revision.

In the autumn of 1879, Mr. White, with his wife, visited
Paris and Switzerland, and was thus able to confer per-
sonally with both of these friends. Mr. Byse was then
residing in Paris, and editing a weekly religious news-
paper. Mr. White remained in Paris a few days in con-
ference with Mr. Byse, and revisited the art collections in
the Luxembourg, the Louvre, &c. ; he then went on to
Lausanne, and after a day and a half there, proceeded by
steamer to Geneva. Dr. Petavel was then residing in a
villa formerly the property and residence of the celebrated
historian Sismondi, at Chene Bougeries, a village a little
distance from Geneva. Thither the travellers made their
way in a carriage, and there were received by the friends
with warm hospitality. While there Mr. White was laid
up for three days, but with that exception this visit was
full of interest and pleasure. One day, having driven to
Mornex, on the slope of the'Saleve, they there met Gustave
Dore, with whom Mr. White had a long conversation,
partly relating to the Bible, which the artist was then
illustrating. Returning by way of Paris, one day was
again spent in that city, 'affording an opportunity for

1 Dr. E. Petavel's first introduction to Mr. White was in 1861, on
the occasion of a visit paid by the latter, in company with his sister,
Mrs. Ranyard, to Dr. Petavel's father, Abram F. Petavel, Professor in
and Rector of the Academy of Neuchatel, at his house in that town,
Rocher Saint Jean. Two years later, not knowing Mr. White's theo-
logical views, Dr. E. Petavel became pastor of the Swiss Church
in London and intimate with Mr. White, having himself previously
and independently attained the conviction that the end of the im-
penitent must be destruction. From Mr. White he learnt to look
at the question of human destiny from the positive standpoint,
regarding as the subject of chief importance the offer of immortality
to dying men through union with Jesus Christ by faith. This com-
munity of belief brought the two men into very intimate relation,
which continued to the end of Mr. White's life. Dr. Petavel has
become the principal propagator of these ideas in France and Switzer-
Jand, where his success has been considerable. (See Appendix C.)

124 EDWARD WHITE

further conference with Mr. Byse as to his translation,
which at that time was already in the press, though it
was not published until early in 1880.

In December of this year Mr. White paid a visit to Dr.
Perowne, then Dean of Peterborough, and spent the
Sunday before Christmas there, witnessing in the Cathedral
the Ordination of Deacons and Priests in accordance with
the Anglican ritual. He noticed that in this service the
priests as well as the Bishop lay their hands on the heads
of those to be ordained, and this he regards as a relic of
the ancient presbyterial ordination. He sympathized
with and admired a good deal of the service, but was
greatly annoyed with the "intoning," as to which he
wrote : " I spent the Sunday in hearing them intone
everything, till I was nearly ill. I wonder they don't
intone their sermons. The Dean has tried to stop them,
but they won't. They go on just like barrel-organs, and I
believe nothing but death will stop them. The Bishop
sent for me, and we had a good talk on theological
matters. They have all read my books, and it seems to
me with very good effect. ... I must say I enjoyed our
little service last night a hundred times better than all that
intoning, which comes to nothing and means nothing."

Earlier in the same month he had read a carefully
prepared paper on " Moral Education in Schools " at a
meeting in the Memorial Hall of the " Society for the
Development of the Science of Education." The paper
took the form of a review of the chapter on that subject in
Professor Alexander Bain's work on Education as a
Science. It is far too long for insertion here, but some
characteristic sentences may well be introduced. " The
old writers on morals used to distinguish between virtues
of perfect, and those of imperfect, obligation. The law of
justice regards all duties of perfect obligation. The rule of
charity or benevolence, requiring such acts as giving
money to the poor, returning good fqr evil, totally Abstain-:

CONTROVERSIAL WORK 125

ing from things lawful, regards duties of imperfect obliga-
tion. Obedience to the first law is absolutely required in
order that a man may be good at all and cease to be a
wrong-doer. Obedience to the second is not compulsory
in any particular instance. . . . Now one of the chief
dangers of the moral teaching of our time is, to spend so
much effort in enforcing counsels of perfection, duties of
imperfect obligation, as to lead to the neglect of the essen-
tial foundation in virtues of perfect obligation — the virtues
of temperance, truth, justice, and honesty. . . . Counsels
of perfection are not the proper aliment of youth. But
nothing is of greater importance than to establish the
reign of justice in schools — justice in the exercise of
authority, justice as between the pupils themselves. . . .
Boys should hear of the law of right, and of doing rightly,
and should experience the penalties of doing wrongly, a
great deal sooner and oftener than they should hear of
forgiveness for doing wrongly. If this modern disposition
to dwell so disproportionately on the virtues of imperfect
obligation continues, one would like to know where the
iron-backed men of principle needed for the nation's work
in the future are to come from. Now in all this of course
I do not wish to speak a word against grace and charity
and tenderness in their proper place and proportion, but
only to redress the balance and to see restored the
equilibrium of the virtues in education."

CHAPTER XI

DEVELOPMENT OF THE " LIFE IN CHRIST " CONTROVERSY
1876-1883; AGE 56-64

publication of Mr. White's new book, Life in
J. Christ, in 1875, naturally called forth a number of
reviews and criticisms, and some of these proved useful in
the preparation of the later editions. It was also the
occasion to the author of a good deal of private correspon^
dence. As a specimen of the letters received may be
given the following, from a prominent Christian gentleman
in Liverpool, whose friendship, initiated by this correspon-
dence, became a source of great pleasure to Mr. White,
and whose sympathy in his work was to the end of his life
a great support and comfort. The letter bears date May 3,
1 876, and is as follows : —

" DEAR SIR, — I wish to say to you how deeply inter-
ested I have been in reading your book entitled Life in
Christ ; it has sent a thrill through my whole nature, and
stirred me in a way no book has done for many years.
The reason of this is, that I have been for many years
deeply exercised about the destiny of mankind, and at
times have felt awfully afflicted by the thought of the
orthodox doctrine concerning the unsaved.

" A firm believer myself in the Lord Jesus, and never
doubting my own salvation since my conversion, a good

136

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 127

many years ago, I felt that I could not have peace or joy
while the bulk of mankind were exposed to endless tor-
ment, nor could I reconcile it with the character of God,
as delineated in Scripture and as revealed in the person of
His Son. For several years I have only half believed the
doctrine, though unable to see clearly on Scriptural
grounds how I could escape from receiving it. I had
been taught to accept as a matter of course the doctrine of
the soul's immortality, and as the Scriptures negative the
idea of the ultimate recovery of the unsaved, there seemed
no alternative but the orthodox view. It was a year or
two ago that the idea of the soul's conditional immortality
was first suggested to me from a public discussion in this
neighbourhood (in Birkenhead) ; it flashed across my
mind like a light from above, and I have since been
reading the Bible with this thought before me, testing it
by the Word of God. Your book came into my hands just
as my mind was open to receive it, and it presented a
coherent view of the whole matter which has impressed
me most forcibly with its truthfulness ; indeed, the
arguments from Scripture seem to me to be conclusive.
" The difficulty with me, as it must be with many, is
that your view is so new to most Christians, and is looked
upon as so dangerous and delusive by most leaders of the
Christian Church, that one feels staggered, and almost
unable to resist the powerful influence brought to bear
upon him. Indeed I feel that to me it would be a kind of
martyrdom to avow such opinions, for I am deeply inter-
ested in religious work in this town, and identified with
many evangelical associations, and in daily contact with
earnest and influential Christians, nearly all of whom, I
suppose, would look upon a lapse to your views as a
heresy that would disqualify from Christian work. Conse-
quently I might be shut out from working for the Lord
Jesus in great measure, which is the great end of my life,
and the thought of this is very painful to me. Still, I feel

128 EDWARD WHITE

I could cheerfully endure all this were I perfectly certain
that your views are true, and that God is with us ; but I
have not yet reached this full assurance ; if I do reach it,
I would feel it my duty to avow it, for what has been so
great a relief to my mind should not be concealed from
others. I would much like to meet with you, and converse
more fully regarding these things. Should you be in this
neighbourhood I would be delighted to see you, or if
agreeable I might call upon you some time in London.
Meanwhile I will write to your publisher to send me
several copies of your book for circulation among friends,
and believe me, dear sir, yours very truly,

"SAMUEL SMITH."

Mr. White promptly replied, thus : —

" MY DEAR SIR, — Your interesting letter resembles
many which I have received during the past thirty years.
I deeply sympathize with you in this disturbance of the
social equilibrium which the entrance of these views
causes. But a prudent conduct on the part of men of
character and position seldom brings the believer in these
ideas into much discomfort. No man is called upon to
proclaim thoughts for which the generality are not pre-
pared, in miscellaneous companies, even when he is
thoroughly convinced of their truth. The truth, if truth it
be, on Life eternal ranks with truth on Predestination and
on the Advent of Christ, &c., and is best spoken to pre-
pared minds. These prepared minds are: (i) Those
whose faith is endangered by the prevalent notions, and
(2) Christians sufficiently established and instructed in
Scripture to encourage them to study ' the whole counsel
of God.' Some whole neighbourhoods are more prepared
than others. Now and then a wise introduction of the
topic by a lecture may do good, but I don't think Mr.
Warleigh is very wise, and probably more harm than good
was done at Birkenhead.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 129

"It is getting to be understood that persons of the
greatest weight in learning and piety are adopting these
views. Dr. Dale is a thoroughly competent critic and a
devout, prayerful thinker. Professor Stokes of Cambridge
is the first mathematician in England and a very earnest
Christian.

" Long after the judgement is convinced, the old idea
haunts the mind as possibly true. I know no remedy for
this except mastering the right principle of interpretation
and then incessantly reading the Bible. We are only
applying to this subject the orthodox rule of interpretation
applied to the Scriptures on all other topics, i.e., the rule
of taking the natural or literal sense of the general
expressions.

" But what persuades my own mind is the complete
wheel of truth which appears when the thing is explained
as in my book. So perfect a circle, so many spokes all
converging, so firm an axis, could not be the effect of error
and heresy. Whereas under orthodoxy there is no real
system at all, all a mass 'of incredibility and confusion.
This is what is carrying conviction to thousands.

" I pray that you may be rightly led as to your public
course. ' Privately to them of reputation ' seems the right
course, at all events at first. It can scarcely be right to
sacrifice all your other usefulness by a sudden avowal of
opinion to unprepared minds. Every year is making such
avowal easier, but my general counsel is for prudence,
not precipitation. One class of men I except — public
teachers, ministers of position. I believe their duty is
avowal as helping others. In London my own undis-
guised avowal hinders me in no good work or desirable
fellowship.

" If you are in London pray call on me. But send me a
card first. Shall you be up next week or sooner ?

" Faithfully yours,

" EDWARD WHITE."

I3o EDWARD WHITE

In this connection, as indicating the effect upon personal
religious character of the belief in the doctrine of" Life in
Christ," may be introduced an extract from a letter written
by Mr. White to the same correspondent in 1889, after his
retirement from active pastoral work. He wrote thus :—

" As to my own pursuits, I had hoped to write some
things. But my brain has been enfeebled by tough work
for many years, and rest now for a time seems necessary.
The general review of the past is a crowded panorama of
mercies and enjoyments and marvellous providential
friendships, yours especially among the number. I cannot
doubt the substantial correctness of the objects aimed at,
because I have found that they all led me more and more
to Christ and brought me into close friendship and love
with such people as heaven must consist of for its com-
pany. Yet this firm and thankful retrospect of assent to
the main ends is accompanied with so much sense of hidden
and open personal failure that I seem to lose my interest
in the fate of my own name on earth, in the much more
real thought of the judgement of the Master. I have taken,
I well know, a great and awful responsibility, but I think
He has kept me patient under temporary rejection, and
wishful only that Truth shall triumph. 1 dare say that
you pray for me sometimes, that the end may be peace."

As, in an earlier chapter, it has been shown that on an
old age retrospect of his career he felt no regret at having
forsaken the pursuit of worldly gain for the endeavour to
win souls, so also in late life his conviction had become
stronger than ever that the special doctrine he had en-
deavoured with so much ability and success to propagate
was the very truth of God, and worth all the sacrifice that
its advocacy had involved for himself. And his whole life
and career, with its earnest endeavours persisted in for so
many years to persuade dying men to " flee from the

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 131

wrath to come " and to " save their souls alive," was a
striking refutation of the assertion that the effect of
holding this doctrine must be to diminish the preacher's
sense of the value of the human unit,1 and his earnestness
in trying to win back the fallen to the only path that
leads to the life eternal.

One of the principal events in relation to the controversy
in the year 1876 was a Breakfast Conference held at the
Cannon Street Hotel and presided over by Lieut-General
Goodwyn. This meeting was arranged for testimony, not
for debate ; the speakers represented a considerable variety
of social and ecclesiastical attachments, while the large
attendance included many ministers of various denomina-
tions : Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, ex-Brethren, as
well as representatives of the Army, of Art, Business,
Education, Literature, Medicine, and Science.

With an old soldier to preside, the proceedings were
orderly and harmonious. The first speaker called upon
was Rev. Samuel Minton, M.A., a man whose powerful
advocacy of the doctrine of " Life in Christ" was always
couched in such kindly terms as to disarm opponents, and
whose steady friendship, as long as he lived, was a great
help and support to Mr. White. The task assigned to Mr.
Minton was a brief statement of the main position in which
Conditionalists all agree, while differing on some minor
points. One extract from his speech may not be out of
place here, since the objection which it was designed to
meet is still sometimes brought against the doctrine.
Having spoken of the objection on moral grounds urged
from the Universalist side, he said : " We confess ourselves
unable to see any force in the objections made either to
the theory of human perishableness or the belief that some

1 The value of the human unit depends upon and indeed consists
in the capacity for reception in regeneration of a new and immortal
life. It may be compared to the wild fruit-tree, which is of little or
no value until it has been grafted.

132 EDWARD WHITE

human beings will actually perish. Some of the objections
can be distinctly answered now, and the rest we can easily
believe will be answered abundantly by the result. Briefly,
we say that to pronounce it a degradation to humanity for
any single human germ which reaches some undefined
point of development not to live as long as the Creator
Himself is surely the ne plus ultra of human self-exaltation.
The great marvel we hold to be that any creature should
do so. But to suppose that every member of the entire
race, and that a fallen one, must necessarily have an ever-
lasting life of some kind or other, we maintain to be as
arbitrary, as unreasonable, and as extravagant an assump-
tion as could enter the mind of man."

The next speaker was Dr. Leask, whose subject was
" Life in Christ and Christian Missions." After his speech
the Chairman called upon Mr. White, who was to speak
more especially on the conduct of the religious Press in
relation to the subject of Conditional Immortality. He
began by referring to some of the causes of the present-
day scepticism, and the necessity for abandoning all such
defences of Christianity as are shown to be untenable
before the objections of scientists. As he expressed it :
" There is great danger to popular faith from some of the
results of modern inquiry ; but the ship may be saved by
throwing overboard the worthless part of the cargo." He
pointed out that neither on physical nor on metaphysical
grounds can survival in death be confidently anticipated ;
the moral argument alone suggesting it in order to retribu-
tion. " But," he said, " conscience does not teach a good
man that he deserves for his goodness in time an endless
reward ; nor does it teach a wicked man that he deserves
an endless penalty. The whole subject of survival, there-
fore, is covered with darkness. Man, by the study of his
own nature, finds in it no pledge of immortality. ... In
this crisis of European thought, God in His providence is
directing the attention of many minds to an anciently

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 133

revealed but long-forgotten truth, precisely adapted to
meet the present needs of mankind and to maintain and
exalt the public faith in Christ and Christianity. That
truth is, that Redemption lays down as its very basis and
first principle the fact which Biology lays down as its last
conclusion, the total mortality or evanescence of man in the
present condition of his nature ; with this difference, that
science concludes on man's total mortality not knowing
the reason of the fact, while revelation declares that man's
death is abnormal and the result of sin. The Bible
nowhere teaches an inherent immortality, but teaches that
it is the object of redemption to impart it." He then pro-
ceeded to speak of the attitude of the religious Press
towards this teaching, that being generally hostile, and so
far as it refers to the doctrine at all it usually misrepresents
it ; but he mentioned the Contemporary Review and the
Christian World as honourable exceptions, for the latter,
while advocating editorially the " mischievous delusion " of
the salvation of all men, has always allowed a fair repre-
sentation of the doctrine of" Conditional Immortality."

Mr. White then said, as he has often said elsewhere,
that the greatest calamity that could happen to this move-
ment would be that it should fall into the hands of a set of
narrow-minded men who would be anxious for nothing
else, and engaged in no other good works ; who would be
concerned to spread no other truths ; or who should labour
to spread these ideas only in a negative form, as a doctrine
of extinction, apart from their vital connection with the
whole divine revelation ; or lastly, into the hands of men
who deny all that revelation positively teaches on future
punishment, on the action of evil spirits, and on the
incarnation and atonement of the Son of God. " These
ideas," he said, " will benefit the world only as they are
proclaimed by men who fear God, by men who love Christ,
by men who are superior to the childish passion of forming
a sect or party with a fanciful name, by men who truly

t34 EDWARD WHITE

labour for the salvation of souls." In closing he showed
how exactly this doctrine is suited to meet the case of the
millions of Asia, and finished by claiming that the religious
Press ought to assist the investigation of the subject, quoting
the saying of Robert Hall : " The evils of controversy are
all transitory, but its benefits are all permanent and
eternal."

The other speakers were Prebendary Constable, Rev.
J. B. Heard, M.A., Rev. Arthur Mursell, Rev. J. F. B.
Tinling, B.A., and Mr. Starkey. Professor Barrett,
F.R.S.E., of Dublin, would have spoken had time
permitted. Of the speakers at this meeting the
majority are no longer living to continue their testi-
mony, but that which they then delivered remains ; a
full report of the speeches was at once published in
pamphlet form, with an introduction by Mr. Samuel
Smith, and before the year closed nearly fifty thousand
copies had been issued to ministers and missionaries at
home and abroad.

In March 1877 Mr. White's semi-jubilee was celebrated,
on the 2 ist, by a public meeting in the chapel at Hawley
Road. Mr. Henry Richard, M.P., would have presided
if he had not engaged to be at the Memorial Hall that
evening. In his absence Mr. White himself took the chair,
and in opening the proceedings explained that the purpose
of this public gathering was not a retrospect of personal or
private experiences, but a review of the course of English
history during the past quarter of a century, in order to
call attention to some elements of progress noticeable
therein. Among the letters from friends who were unable
to be present was a touching one from Mr. Edward Miall,
the first he had attempted to write with his own hand for
nearly a year, in which he said : " I thank you for asking
me to your proposed meeting on the 2ist inst, and send
you my heartiest congratulations on the occasion of it. I
cannot come. Anything like a public meeting would

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 135

knock me to pieces in my present state of nervous debility.
I trust, however, that your meeting will be all that you
can wish."

Mr. White then enumerated some of the principal events
that had occurred during those twenty-five years, outside
as well as within our own borders, including the rise of the
second French Empire and its fall through the Franco-
German War, the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, the
establishment of a united Italy, the American Civil War
and abolition of negro slavery, the Vatican Council and its
decree of papal infallibility, besides many great improve-
ments in our own legislative, political, social, and religious
life. He spoke of the wonderful confirmation of Scripture
history by discoveries in the East, and of the general
advance of various kinds of knowledge. But he acknow-
ledged that there were some drawbacks : a revival of
sacerdotal tastes on one side, and of semi-scientific
materialism and atheistic scepticism on the other, these,
however, being in their influence mutually destructive, so
as to leave the field clearer for the progress of Scriptural
Christianity. But this, he said, would depend on English-
men maintaining in vigour their ancient noble passion for
honest and open discussion.

Turning then to the subject of most vital interest to
himself and his congregation, he said : " On the deepest
questions of all there have arisen debates during the past
quarter of a century affecting the interpretation to be put
upon the Bible regarded as a Revelation of Everlasting
Life. In these discussions we have, as a Church, from the
beginning taken some share. We have no cause in our
own spiritual experience to regret it. The effort has cost
us dear, but the cause has consecrated the needful sacrifices.
The doctrine that neither natural reason nor Scripture
represent man as, by his birth, endowed with endless and
indestructible being — that the prospect of such endless life
in the divine image is lost by sin ; that the very object of

136 EDWARD WHITE

the Incarnation was to immortalize, as well as to sanctify
and save, mankind ; and, finally, that none but the ' sons of
God ' by a ' second birth ' are destined to eternal life, is still
regarded with great hostility and suspicion. The ancient
doctrine of an endless misery has been widely shaken. But
it has been largely replaced for a time by various types of
Universalism, or the doctrine of the final salvation of all
mankind. Able men can throw a glamour of argument
around almost every theory ; but if the New Testament
was written to teach this doctrine, it is to me the most
unintelligible book in the world, and, for my part, I believe
that the effect of preaching that doctrine will, by abolishing
fear, work deep spiritual mischief among men. It has done
so in America, and it will do so in England. Indeed, it
seems to me that the tone of the whole Bible is far more
like to that of the old theology in the representation of the
judgements of God against sinners, than it is to the tone of
this false gospel of love, so-called, which will make no
Felix tremble. Bishop Butler's grave warning, that it is
possible to make much too free with the divine goodness,
requires in some quarters to be pondered afresh."

After having read a letter from Mr. Thos. Walker, late
editor of the Daily News, Mr. White gave place to the
succeeding speakers, who were Rev. J. B. Heard, M.A.,
Dr. Dale, Dr. Underbill, and Rev. Samuel Minton, M.A.
Dr. Dale's speech on this occasion was so interesting and
important, and extracts from it have been so often quoted
that it seems desirable to reprint it almost in its entirety as
an appendix,1 so that such quotations may be seen in their
original and natural connections.

At the more private meeting of the Church which was
held the following evening, a review of the Church work in
the twenty-five years was read by Mr. Carter, the senior
deacon, and a presentation was made to Mr. White in the
form of a hundred guineas, and an album.

1 See Appendix D,

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 137

About this time Mr. White had to defend himself
against a renewed attack from the Universalist side. The
Rev. J. Baldwin Brown published, in the Christian World,
his second series of lectures on what he had called " The
Miserable Doctrine of Annihilation " (see p. 75), and Mr.
White replied in a series of four letters to that periodical.
These, together with three letters by the Rev. Samuel
Minton, M.A , in reply to Mr. Baldwin Brown's former
lectures on the subject, and originally published in the
Christian World in 1875, were afterwards published as a
pamphlet of eighty pages under the title Life and Death.

In his first letter, after having expressed his gratitude to
Mr. Brown for having broken the silence so generally
maintained by leading ministers in relation to the questions
of man's nature and destiny, although it was done in terms
of scant courtesy to himself, and in opposition to his con-
victions, Mr. White asserts that Scripture must decide the
question of a future state for man, since that is the only
source of certain knowledge on the subject ; and that the
silence and the speech of Scripture are both in favour of
Life in Christ only. He writes : —

" We are ' nowhere' in the theological world if we have
not a solid basis in Revelation. It is not, as Mr. Brown
repeats ad nauseam, that we weakly suppose we glorify
God's grace by a ruthless dishonouring of humanity. It is
that we think we take the measure of humanity from the
testimony of its Maker, and read its destiny in the pages
of His message to the world.

" We are placed in this difficulty : we have to choose
between the lofty speculations of Mr. Brown respecting
human nature as such, and the far less exalted statements
of the apostles and prophets. It seems to us impossible to
reconcile the two. Mr. Brown, like Dr. South, has drawn
for us, with a splendid astronomical background, a striking
picture of Adam in Paradise, and of the constitutional
place of humanity in the great universe. Man was created

138 EDWARD WHITE

unconditionally in the image of God, and this includes
God's eternity. This transcendent attribute of endless
being has never been lost, can never be lost. Well, such
is the realistic turn of my mind that, in reading Mr. Brown's
almost enthusiastic eloquence on this head, I wished he
could have been permitted to deliver that lecture to Adam
and Eve, under the shadow of the forbidden tree in Eden,
surrounded by their animal associates ; congratulating them
on this Godlike eternity of theirs, this immortality, or
deathlessness, which, in its utmost essence, no sentence of
justice should ever dissolve. I fancy that while they
would have been sorely puzzled by the glorious flights of
their distinguished descendant, there would have been at
least one delighted auditor of the discourse — and that is
the Old Serpent — who would have chimed in at once, at
every climax, with a confirmation of the promise that they
' should not surely die,' since God knew well that in the
day in which they ate of the fruit ' their eyes would be
opened,' and they would become divine in a double sense,
being Godlike already in an eternal nature, and Godlike
afterwards in an added power of understanding and con-
tradicting the hollow threats of the tyrannical Divinity.
But even after hearing the lecture, it would still have
remained for the transgressors to be expelled from 'the
Tree of Life.' ' Now lest he put forth his hand and take
of the tree of life, and eat and live for ever — so He drove
out the man,' saying, ' Dust thou art, and unto dust thou
shalt return.' This may be perhaps consistent with all
that the lecturer tells us of Adam's constitution, but, at
least, on the surface, it is more confirmatory of the belief of
those who say that man was not created, either in body or
soul, possessed of indefeasible immortality,"

He then vindicates himself against the charge of teaching
that man is no better than the beasts, and in closing the
letter cites, with perfect assent, a passage from Dr. Dale's
speech at Hawley Road Chapel, in which he dea.lt with this.
" hideous misrepresentation."

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 139

The second letter relates to the question, whether there
are moral differences in men corresponding with the
doctrine of an eternal distinction in their destinies. Recog-
nizing the service rendered by Mr. Brown in bringing out
the stupendous nature of the supposed change in those who
pass out of death into life eternal, Mr. White goes on to
say:—

" Hard, and cold, and callous as he seems to think us, I
can only say that in my own case his lectures have revived,
in their most overpowering influences, all the awful hours
of long-past thought on human destiny, with which for so
many years, by night and day, I have been visited, until
faith, as it seemed to grow more solid, only threw a darker
shade around me ; for, indeed, the first effect of deeper
believing is to create a profounder scepticism, arising from
the very infinitude which opens before the eye that gazes
firmly on eternity. Too vivid conceptions of eternal things
are not desirable in the spiritual life of mankind. Yes, it
may well be said to us,: Do you indeed believe that
regenerate man passes into endless being, or that true
faith carries with it a destiny so different from that of
common men, as you would assign to it ? Who, that
reflects on the community of the human race in all its
conditions of temporal existence, on its common origin, on
its physical, intellectual, and moral unity, on the historical,
and ancestral, and social causes which determine so much
that we call character, on the many excellences of the
bad, and on the manifold imperfections of the good — can
fail to stumble at first at a doctrine which places the seal
of indestructibility on the foreheads of some, and relegates
the rest of mankind, with all their virtues, struggles, and
woes, to the realms of the perishable, and the doom of
irremediable destruction ?

" I know of no authority but One sufficiently command-
ing to compel me to this conclusion, and even that one
leaves me still staggering under the weight which it lays

140 EDWARD WHITE

upon me ; leaves me still applying myself to maintain its
revelations against contradiction with a mind ' astonied,'
like Daniel's when he looked upon the glories and terrors
of the invisible realms. Who, indeed, is sufficient for these
things ? ' For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in
them that are saved, and in them that perish ; to the one
we are the savour of death unto death ; and to the other
the savour of life unto life.' These, however, I say to
myself, were the words of one who ' wept ' and ' trembled '
as he taught, and staggered sometimes as we do, yet
believed in the teaching of the Spirit, and persisted in his
faith that nothing less than death and life everlasting de-
pended on the issues of man's probation here. But they
were also the words of one who had not thrown off the
burden of faith by a desperate rush into theories which,
if they help a man to imagine himself ' sufficient ' to grapple
with the facts of life and of destiny, relieve only for a
moment, by an artificial light not kindled at 'the fountain
itself of heavenly radiance,' and that soon dies out, leaving
the darkness deeper than before."

He then points out the Scripture authority for the belief
in the distinction, a distinction which is not natural, but is
dependent upon the use made by each human being of
his power of choice, and shows that Mr. Brown's difference
is with the Bible. He further suggests that the " failure to
discern the infinite difference in character between good
and evil men arises not from the obscurity of the pheno-
mena, but from the vast extent of a superficial and decep-
tive profession of religion, or from the spiritual blindness
of the observer." With regard to the effects on character
of the reception of this doctrine, which Mr. Brown had
stigmatized as " degrading " and " brutalizing," Mr. White
states the result of his own experience, and quotes the
recent declaration of Professor Barrett, of Dublin, published
in the Christian World, to the effect that not a few men of
scientific culture have been saved from gross materialism

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 141

and atheism, as the result of hearing Christ preached thus
as the Messenger of Eternal Life.

The third letter is on the doctrine of the future
punishment of impenitent sinners by destruction. At the
outset the reader is reminded, that —

" This doctrine on future retribution is but a segment
of the wider doctrine on Life in Christ only (though often
mistaken for the whole of it), and it is necessary to repeat
that that wider doctrine is supported by several lines of
evidence wholly distinct from the Scripture teaching on
punishment. That this teaching agrees with the otherwise
established truth of Conditional Immortality is, however,
naturally regarded by us as a decisive argument in
confirmation of it ; and it is no small indication of its
validity that it delivers us at once from the incredible
horrors of the Augustinian theology, and from the ruinous
mental and moral entanglements of Universalism."

Mr. White then quotes some of the objections raised
against the doctrine from the two opposite sides, and
writes : —

" The maintainers of this doctrine of future retribution
are subjected to two strangely contradictory attacks.
Here we have men of the highest capacity objecting to
it on account of its incredible terribleness ; and perhaps
the next able objector will dismiss it, without further
examination, because it ' takes away all fear of future
punishment from before the minds of mankind.' The
garbled indictment varies. Sometimes the doctrine is to
be set aside because it is too terrible to be true that God
should ' annihilate ' a sinner after ' untold ages of torment ' ;
and sometimes it is a removal of all the sanctions of moral
government, because no one will be afraid of being raised
from the dead ' only just to be reduced to nothingness
again.'

" It is impossible to follow in these letters all the
windings of an opposition which seems to think almost

142 EDWARD WHITE

any weapon sanctified by the use to which it is turned,
in assailing a doctrine so heartily disliked all round, and
which indeed proved critical to many in causing the
rejection of Christ when on earth. It was when He had
taught distinctly in the great synagogue at Capernaum
that men had not 'life in themselves,' that salvation
meant ' living for ever,' and that living for ever means
' not dying ' in the plainest sense of the terms, and that
this living for ever depended on the closest spiritual union
with Him — that ' many went back and walked no more
with Him' (John vi. 26-66)."

In his own vindication he declares that : —
" What has been taught by us on this subject has been
so taught simply and altogether in the fear of God, as the
result of what we think to be honest interpretation of the
records of Revelation. Not one word have I to say on the
ground of reason, natural philosophy, or natural religion
as to the results of human probation in a future state,
before consulting Scripture. ' Surely ' (in the striking
words of Mr. Thomas Walker, late editor of the Daily
News, in a letter with which he recently favoured me)
' when the destiny of mankind is concerned, we cannot
rest in the conclusions of speculative philosophy — too
often the dictates of human pride — nor trust to the fancied
results of psychological or historical analysis. We must
have the assurances of our Father in heaven, which as men
of faith we will accept. Far from us the disposition to
prescribe to the divine Teacher, or to distinguish what He
will find us ready to believe, and that which we have
resolved beforehand to reject. Surely it must be the highest
wisdom, humbly, thankfully, and unhesitatingly, to believe
in the Son of God, who died to save us, when He speaks
of the awful problems of human destiny.' Not one word,
then, have we to say in defence of the doctrine of the
resurrection of the wicked, and their destruction in the
fire of God's wrath, unless these awful prospects are

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 143

matters of divine revelation which lie open to every eye."
He challenges his opponents to prove, and not simply
assert that the whole Bible ought to be read in the light
of the assumed natural eternity of the soul of man. He
declares his own conviction that the statements denounced
as monstrous and incredible, " are precisely those which
Christ, the Son of God, has affirmed, which His apostles,
Matthew, John, Peter, and Paul have repeated . . . namely,
that the wicked shall be 'raised from the dead,' shall
'stand before God,' shall be 'judged according to their
works,' shall be 'cast into everlasting fire,' and in that
fire shall ' pay the penalty of everlasting destruction '
(2 Thess. i.). Set aside those words of the messengers of
God, and we have no further argument to offer to revolted
Christendom. But so long as these stand unblotted from
the New Testament, they who rest their faith on them
will not cease to warn men to close their ears against the
siren song of hypothetical Universalism, which must be
luring men to their eternal ruin."

In this third letter is 'a paragraph on the spiritual
source of the doctrine of universal salvation which is
too important to be omitted : —

" In reply to many fallacious consolations offered to
impenitence, I must profess my persuasion that much of
the religious teaching of the last few years has proceeded
from a gradually-declining sense of sin in its evil, and in
its deserts ; as that again has proceeded from a declining
sense of the justice of God. This is but to repeat the
lesson of all history, that ages of great external civilization,
and of physical luxury and comfort, have ever been ages
of epicurean theologizing. Amidst plenty of corn and
wine, amidst the illusions of art and beauty, men lose the
sense of ' the sinfulness of sin,' of the righteousness and
severity of God, and of the terribleness of the world of
doom beyond. So is it to-day. ' Men heap to themselves
teachers, having itching ears.' They will ' not endure

144 EDWARD WHITE

sound doctrine.' Hell itself must become a school of
glory ; heaven the final refuge of a world of unfortunates,
who really had almost every excuse for their villainies and
crimes. Between the fall of Adam, and the force of
circumstances, and the cheapness of vicious indulgences,
and the bias of heredity, and the difficulty of knowing
whom to believe — Jesus or Mohammed, Paul or Rousseau,
John or Voltaire — a hopeful case must be made out for
every man; and if God Himself should 'judge the world
in righteousness,' He must unsay all the ancient threats
of exclusion from future blessedness ; and, after some
fatherly chastisement of ' dogs, and sorcerers, and whore-
mongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and lovers and
makers of lies,' must receive them with open arms to
paradise. This is certainly the tone of much of the most
fashionable preaching of our time, both in and out of the
National Church. If I stood alone in this generation
(instead of re-echoing the judgement of myriads of the
wisest and holiest men) I must till death continue to raise
an outcry of alarm to my fellow-sinners against this sure
sign of an approaching deluge. Never has this tone taken
possession of the Church, but some dread era of judgement
has vindicated the reality of the government of Him
' whose feet are like fine brass burning in a furnace.' Oh,
for the awful voice of some Savonarola to thunder over the
heads of the ungodly millions of Europe, and awaken
them to the realities of judgement to come ; to turn their
attention away from the ' prophets who prophesy smooth
things ' to the true sayings of God. ' The judge standeth
before the door,' and here are the very signs of His
approach — men saying, Peace and safety ! — all right, and
all for the best, in both worlds — when ' sudden destruction
is coming, and there shall be no remedy? "

The fourth letter is devoted to a consideration of the
alleged tendency of the doctrine of Life in Christ to
encourage materialistic atheism. Mr. White shows how

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 145

this doctrine may meet materialism on its own ground,
and enable its professors to believe in God, and in a Gospel
of salvation. He says : —

" The apostles evidently went forth with a Message
which could save without delay Epicurean Materialists
and Sadducees, without insisting first on a psychological
conversion to faith in man's natural immortality and
possession of a ' never-dying soul.' This is precisely our
position. We who hold this doctrine are not necessarily
materialists. I myself am not one, but am strenuously
opposed to that form of opinion. But the ' Gospel which
we preach ' is adapted to meet, on their own grounds —
' just as they are ' — materialists of every grade and type,
with a moral certainty of a glorious result as to multitudes
of them."

He then points out the distinction between different
classes of materialists, and maintains that some of them
are true Christian believers, who apart from Christianity
would have no hope of a future life. After an admission
of the danger to society of a perfectly logical materialism,
he puts the question : But how may it best be encountered
and overcome ?

" The answer is, not by any simply metaphysical or
philosophical process — not by a psychology which may be
riddled by the objections of Mr. Herbert Spencer, or made
to look doubtful even by Mr. Holyoake. It cannot be
checked even by lectures on the immortality of the soul,
nor even by the additional bribe to faith of a promise of
universal discipline and salvation. No ; the true remedy
for a debasing materialism (for I will not admit that
Milton's materialism was debasing) is to be found in the
moral rather than in the intellectual realms of thought.
It will be found, not in a contrary theory as to the
substratum of mind, or as to the eternity of the thinking
power, but in the preaching of a credible judgement to
come, and of the grace of God in the salvation purchased

146 EDWARD WHITE

by Christ. If you wish to overcome the evil types of
atheistic materialism, you must awaken conscience rather
than entangle the intellect in doubtful disputations.

" But this is not the complete answer. Christ is in every
sense the Light of the world. His special message is not
that of Terror, but of Mercy. Proclaim that mercy.
Preach the Gospel to every creature. Bring near, with a
heart that feels it, the love of God to sinners. Set before
them Christ ' openly crucified for them,' ' bearing their
offences, carrying their sorrows ' ; declare to the penitent
the remission of their sins — and you will wield against the
bad sorts of materialism the most powerful weapon in the
world."

In 1878 Mr. White was a good deal occupied with the
case of the Rev. W. Impey, General Superintendent of
Wesleyan Missions in South-Eastern Africa, who, on the
ground of his agreement with Mr. White's mode of pre-
senting the Gospel, was required, in the spring of that year,
to resign his position.

At a valedictory meeting on his return to South Africa
as a private worker, held in Hawley Road Chapel on
August 10, 1878, Mr. Impey gave some account of the
Wesleyan Missions in Africa, and of the circumstances
under which his forty years' connection with them had
been brought to an end. Mr. White then gave an address
to Mr. Impey, thanking him for the information he had
just given, and explaining that this manifestation of sym-
pathy did not mean any blame or reflection upon those
honoured brethren by whose decision this separation had
been caused, for under their rules they had no option. He
then proceeded : " But there were some of us onlookers
who had met with and learned to love and honour you
with an affection that increased with every advance in
knowledge, who said, ' This must not be. This man shall
not return to Africa without the utterance of at least a few
English voices lifted up in blessing and sympathy.' I

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 147

look upon it as certain that instead of deserving to return
in silence and shame to the Cape Colony, we ought to
'accompany you to the ship' with hymns of praise to
God who has strengthened you to deliver a momentous
testimony. It is not for some trifle in dogma or discipline
that you have incurred the penalty of deprivation. It is
for the greatest of all ends that you have made this
sorrowful homeward voyage, and incurred this deposition
from your eminent position. It is as a witness to the just
and merciful character of the living God. It has been in
order to aid the settlement of the question, ' What is the
character of the Deity who shall be made known to the
heathen world by the Christian nations ? ' . . . You have
made a movement towards earnest thought on this ques-
tion, and this has separated you from your English friends.
But it will bring you nearer to the heathen — of whom it is
said, 'the Lord loveth the stranger.' It will bring you
much nearer to the heathen who are seeking after God.
. . . Your witness is of priceless value. It will gradually
become known. It will kindle many a youthful Methodist
to earnest protest and similar sacrifice. It will travel
through the whole missionary world. A missionary of
forty years' standing, and sixty years of age, does not
speak lightly on questions like this. A single voice speak-
ing the words of reason and of Scripture, and speaking
from the depths of an all-sacrificing conviction, is stronger
than any sanhedrin attempting to stifle your testimony by
silence, or to answer you by a reference to antiquated
standards. I augur the best results from your own sorrow.
. . . You have done much to represent as realities both
judgement to come, and the life everlasting, and to make
the divine love intelligible to men. We therefore bid you
farewell in the peace of God. God bless you and the
noble companion of your toils. Though you may no more
preach in the churches which you have built, your voice
and your thoughts will reach farther than you at present

148 EDWARD WHITE

believe, and your deep affliction will tend more than your
past forty years' labours to the eventual triumph of the
truth."

After attending the Mildmay Conference in the early
part of 1879, Mr. White sent a letter to the Christian,
insertion of which was at first refused, but, on his
remonstrance with the editor, it was allowed to appear
in the issue of April loth.

" LITERAL INTERPRETATION.

" SIR, — At the first meeting of the recent Mildmay Con-
ference, which I was glad to attend, Dr. Horatius Bonar
used the following weighty words — ' I feel a greater cer-
tainty than ever as to the literal interpretation of the
whole Word of God — historical, doctrinal, prophetical.
" Literal, if possible," is, I believe, the only maxim that
will carry you right through the Word of God, from
Genesis to Revelation.'

" Your columns are not the place for any long discussion
on the principles of interpretation, much less on any
special doctrine ; but, in view of certain terribly severe
observations by Dr. Mackay, of Hull, on the ' Sadduceeism
and infidelity ' of some amongst us who, earnestly retain-
ing our evangelical faith, have yet been led to unpopular
conclusions on the Scripture doctrine of immortality by
the application of Dr. Bonar's own maxim of exegesis, I
should like to ask either of these honoured brethren (and
I do it in all good faith) to be kind enough to tell us
whether they are in possession of any secondary maxim,
defining the ' possible,' and limiting the application of the
general principle.

" For my part, I desire to bow implicitly to the authority
of Holy Scripture soundly interpreted. I hold that the
maxim of Dr. Bonar is the right canon of interpretation —
on all subjects — and that the literal, or obvious, sense of

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 149

the main current of Scripture testimony is the ruling
sense, which must govern the explanation of all single
' texts.' In accordance with this rule, I joyfully believe in
all the usually accepted evangelical doctrines, and also in
the premillennial advent of Christ, and the establishment
of God's kingdom on earth. The same rule applied to the
ordinary language of Scripture on the nature of man, on
the object of redemption, and on the destiny of saints and
sinners, leads me, at present, to conclusions which Dr.
Mackay denounces as of the nature of infidelity. Kindly
and patiently explain to us the secondary maxim by which
in this case Dr. Bonar's general canon is to be limited ;
and if we find it appealing to our conscience before God,
I, for one, will at once recant, and adopt again the beliefs
of Dr. Mackay on eschatology, and the object of the
incarnation of the ' Life.'

" Yours faithfully,

"EDWARD WHITE."

In the autumn of 1879 under an arrangement made by
Mr. Samuel Smith (subsequently M.P.) and Mr. White, the
Rev. W. A. Hobbs, a former missionary in Bengal, who
some years previously had retired, partly on account of
ill-health, and partly because his acceptance of Mr. White's
teaching made his position almost untenable, went to
Calcutta in order to resume mission work on the basis of
the doctrine of Life in Christ. He continued that work
with considerable success during more than four years,
sending reports to Mr. White from time to time, which
were also read with interest by Mr. Smith. Further
details as to this mission will be found in Appendix C.

The bearing of the doctrine of Life in Christ upon
Calvinism, was a subject treated occasionally by Mr.
White. In March 1881 a long letter from him on that
subject was printed in the Christian World, wherein he
said : —

150 EDWARD WHITE

" With respect to the bearings of this doctrine of im-
mortality on Calvinism, I need not say that Calvinism
has, and always has had, a strong hold on the convictions
of a large section of Bible readers. There is a philosophy
and exegesis of Calvinism which have, in every age, carried
the conviction of multitudes of learned men, as its tone of
God-honouring piety has carried the adhesion of multi-
tudes of unlearned Christians. . . . But a belief in the
eternal predestination to salvation of a certain number of
mankind, even when unaccompanied by Calvin's doctrine
of personal predestination to eternal damnation, has always
been heavily weighted by the notion of the everlasting
misery of the non-elect. It is not wonderful that Calvinists
all over the world, who are 'principled' in their main
theory, are breaking loose from some of their fetters, so far
as to embrace widely a doctrine which enables them to
believe in predestination to life, apart from the shocking
doctrine on the results of non-election. Calvinism, held
under the hypothesis of Augustine, that all men are
naturally immortal, leads to immoral and maddening views
of the divine character. . . . Now this immoral conscience-
killing element in Calvinism is cleared away for the mind
which embraces as Scriptural the doctrine that immortal
life is the privilege of the elect alone. No injustice is
imputed to God when it is thought that out of a race,
mortal through sin, and having no just claim on Him for
an unending life in bliss, He bestows this blissful life
only on some, and judges equitably the remainder. . . .
Practically, I have found, during a ministry of thirty years
in London in the same place, that certainty and nearness
and credibility, in the prospect of judgement to come,
operate at least as effectually as the old infinite threaten-
ings, which produce more unbelief than they vanquish,
while they also hinder the direct action on thoughtful
minds of that merciful message which, after all, carries
with it the main energy of the Gospel in bringing men
back to God."

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 151

In a similar strain he wrote to Dr. Gloag in Scotland in
1888: "I note what you say on Calvinism. Under the
theory of Life in Christ only, people may retain their
Calvinism without any moral shock, since God owes eternal
life to no one, and may give it as and when He pleases ;
and no one under this view has to be shocked by the
prospect of endless torments for the non-elect. But sup-
posing one believes in the possibility of the obedience of
faith for all, whether here or in Hades, as it is open to
believe under my way of thinking, then the question is
whether or not all who hear the Gospel have not, with the
Spirit's inwork, power to believe and be saved. As to the
ungodly not having ' spiritual life' and thereby power to
take hold of God, I may astonish you when I say that I
wholly reject the notion that what is called ' spiritual life '
is so denominated in Scripture. But you will recollect
that I have Cremer's N. T. Lexicon on my side. He
utterly rejects the phrase ' spiritual death ' as being of
divine authority. If you will look under 6/avaroc and
vtKpbg you will see what he says. He affirms that these
are all phrases proleptically used to denote souls under
sentence of death and certain to die in hell ; and so I hold
that 'living in the spirit' means having eternal life, not
having holiness, but life ; and further I hold that every
human soul, on hearing of the divine mercy and worked
on by the all-loving God, has power to believe and repent,
and thereby to enter into eternal life. (See Rom. viii. 1-14.)
The 'life' of the Ephesians (ii. 1-12) was one to which
they had been raised along with Christ ; and He was never
raised out of sin to holiness, but out of death to life
eternal. There is nothing in Farrar's argument for future
opportunities of salvation for ignorant souls which cannot
be held under the general theory of Life in Christ ; as any
one may see who will read that book, an exercise which
few of the saints ever submitted to, though it was a work
of my best thirty years."

152 EDWARD WHITE

In a later letter he wrote : " I think the difference
between us is the result of method. You write as if
my chief interest were in the question of penalty. All
along it has lain in the question of immortality. If
I thought Revelation proceeded on the basis of man's
inherent immortality, for the whole race, I should be
driven to Universalism, more or less pronounced, as
you are. But my central interest has always been in
the Incarnation, and in connection with the gift of
immortal life ; and since I cannot see any reason why
it should be thought that God owes that gift to all
alike, I feel no difficulty in taking Scripture language
literally and concluding that it is reserved for the ' elect,'
and denied to the non-elect, who will suffer 'everlasting
oXedpog ' from the presence of the 0;//#zpresent Being. Of
course I distinguish between universal survival of souls
and universal immortality. Nature is full of survivals
which are not eternal survivals, and I believe all souls
survive, some for evangelization, some for punishment, but
not all for endless life."

As an illustration of a still persistent misconception of
Mr. White's position and of the great difficulty of inducing
an opponent to recognize the true point of an argument,
may be here introduced an extract from a private letter
received by Mr. White in December 1883 respecting a
third party, and Mr. White's reply. His correspondent

wrote : " was a good worker, and I highly esteemed

him, even when he went off into your errors, and thought
that life meant existence and death annihilation. Receive
my hearty wishes for your long life, not in the base sense
of existence. Ah me ! what a word life is ! So be it
given abundantly, even as you now possess it."

To this Mr. White replied : " Let this one word sink
down into your ears. I have never said or written any-
thing so foolish as that life means existence only. What
we have said is that, whatever else it signifies, it does not

DEVELOPMENT OF THE "LIFE" CONTROVERSY 153

lose its proper meaning of continuing alive, of conscious
existence ; and that whatever else the threat of death and
destruction may signify, it does not lose its primary
meaning of cessation of life, of existence as well as of
blessedness."

CHAPTER XII

MERCHANTS' LECTURER

1880-1882; AGE 60-63

IN February of the year 1880 Mr. White received the
first copies of the French edition of Life in Christ,
its French title being L? Immortalite Conditionnelle ou la
Vie en Christ. The influence of that book on the Con-
tinent is indicated in Appendix C.

In March, feeling the need for more fresh air and mental
rest than was possible while he remained in London, Mr.
White spent the insides of two consecutive weeks in Kent,
chiefly at Ramsgate, but made a roundabout journey
through some of the picturesque towns and villages of the
county before reaching that town.

At this time the General Election was going on which
turned out the Tory Government, and once more put Mr.
Gladstone at the head of affairs. In all these proceedings
Mr. White took a deep interest, not merely on public
grounds, hoping to see the result that actually was attained,
but also for family reasons, more than one of his near con-
nections being candidates for the House of Commons.

On April /th he heard Renan, the famous French writer
and critic, give a lecture at Langham Hall on " Religions."
He was not favourably impressed with the Frenchman's
personality, nor with his argumentation, which he called
an "attempt to smother the positive facts and doctrines

154

MERCHANTS' LECTURER 155

of Christianity in a vast tide of imposing generalizations
as to the tendency of humanity. No single outburst of
prophetic zeal for righteousness."

At an " At Home," held at Grosvenor House on July
6th, to which Mr. White was invited, he was greatly
pleased to meet Robert Browning, whom he had known
in his early days at York Street Chapel, but had not
previously met since they had both grown to manhood.

In the same month of July 1880 he was chosen one of
the Merchants' Lecturers, to fill the place of Dr. Raleigh.
These " Merchants' Lectures " are delivered each week on
Tuesdays, at 12 o'clock. There are six lecturers, who take
turns of a month each, so that each takes two turns in the
year. At this time they were delivered at the old Weigh
House Chapel on Fish Street Hill ; when that building
was taken over by the railway they were removed to
Finsbury Chapel, and afterwards to the Memorial Hall.
Mr. White's first turn came in October, when he took for
his subject : " Certainty in , Religion," and the four lectures
were published in book form in December.1 Writing some
little time later to Mr. Knight, he added a postscript,
saying : " Just got a letter from the Duke of Argyll crying
up Certainty, which he bought from seeing the leading
article on it in Saturday week's Spectator'' Mr. White
continued to take his share of this work after his retire-
ment from the pastorate, until the year 1893, when the
state of his health induced him to resign it. Of his
discourses on these occasions many others have been
published, some in the weekly Press, some also in more
permanent form.

Among those published in book form were those of his
last series, which were delivered in May 1893, and related
to modern spirit manifestations. Having no doubt of the
reality of many of these, notwithstanding the existence of
much trickery, he was fully convinced that they were

1 Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row.

156 EDWARD WHITE

unlawful and wicked. The publication was entitled,
Modern Spiritualism judged in the light of Divine Reve-
lation?

In response to a requisition, signed by men of great
weight and influence, which stated that " almost the whole
of intelligent modern infidelity rests on the assumption
that the proved conclusions of modern science are hope-
lessly at variance with the fundamental doctrines both of
natural and of revealed religion," which assumption was
believed not to be warranted by the facts, the Archbishop
of Canterbury convened a private Conference, at Lambeth
Palace, of men of science who were not in agreement with
that assumption. To this Conference Edward White was
invited and went on January 7, 1881. There he found
himself in company with such men as Professors Sir G. G.
Stokes, Balfour Stewart, T. G. Bonney, Dallinger, and
Henslow ; Sir James Paget, Rev. J. M. Wilson, &c. The
general sense of the meeting seemed to be that the chief
need was for the confession of their faith by a few of the
scientific believers whose names would carry the greatest
weight, rather than books of essays, or organizations which
would lead to antagonism. The upshot was the appoint-
ment of a small committee, with secretary, to keep up
communication with men of science who are believers.

At this time Mr. White occasionally preached to the
paupers at the St. Pancras Workhouse. His sense of
humour found expression sometimes even there in his
choice of texts for his sermons, as well as in his mode of
dealing with them. For example, one of his texts,
particularly appropriate to such an audience, was : " As
having nothing, yet possessing all things."

On a journey to Bournemouth (April 6th) he was
detained for an hour at Basingstoke by an accident to a
waggon. The purpose of the journey was to speak at a

1 Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, and James Clarke & Co.,
13, Fleet Street.

MERCHANTS' LECTURER 15?

meeting of the Liberation Society at Bournemouth. The
notes of this speech indicate clearly, as did so many of his
utterances, that the reason why he was willing to aid in
the movement for the disestablishment of the Anglican
Church, was simply his zeal for righteousness, and not at
all hostility to that Church, which he firmly believed would
be benefitted, so far as it is a spiritual organization, by
being liberated from State bonds. It was in the hope of a
reformation of Nonconformity, as well as of the Church of
England, that he longed for disestablishment ; in hope of
a reconstitution of English Protestantism, the abolition
of existing sects, which should all be merged into one
Protestant Church in each town or neighbourhood, the
ideal independency which he never tired of commending
to the attention of Christians. And he said : " Our
business is not to succeed, but to protest ; to teach and
enforce right principles, and to accept instalments when
we cannot obtain a complete repentance."

He wras always very impartial in the distribution of
censure on the systems of Dissenters as well as the
Anglican system ; and in this speech he did not spare.
While advocating Disestablishment as right in principle,
he still dreaded some of its probable effects. On that
subject he wrote as late as 1895 : " In politics the best is
often the enemy of the good. Disestablishment is right in
the abstract, but the status quo is a less evil to endure than
would be the furious and mischievous revenge of all the
' craftsmen of Diana,' whose trade would be injured by its
success. There was no such revenge in Ireland, because
the majority of Irish were Catholics. But in England the
majority, and the most powerful classes, would revenge
disestablishment of the Church whereby they have their
living, and their supremacy."

On the 29th April, 1881, Edward Miall died, and on the
5th May he was buried. On tht following Sunday evening
Mr. White preached a memorial sermon, in which he

158 EDWARD WHITE

showed how completely he had overcome his early pre-
judice against both the man and the work to which he had
for so many years consecrated his time, his talents, and his
energy. In the course of the sermon, he spoke of Mr.
Miall as one of our best and noblest politicians ; and of the
work of his life as having been truly spiritual, entirely
governed and dictated by faith derived from Heaven.
Holding that a man's life could best be characterized and
estimated by the ideas to the promotion of which it was
chiefly devoted, he applied this test to Mr. Miall's life.
That had been given up for many years to the extension
and propagation of one of the most important ideas that
could occupy the minds of Christian people as lovers of
liberty, viz., the necessity for the separation of Church
from State. First, for the purpose of vindicating divine
truth and doing justice to Christianity ; and secondly, for
the purpose of rendering justice to all ranks and orders of
men. Such a separation was absolutely necessary, because
of the fundamental distinction between the law and the
Gospel, because the one was based, like the Mosaic dis-
pensation, on justice and on force used for its advance-
ment, while the other was based on grace, with the object
of saving sinners. He then sketched the outlines of the
story of the incongruous union between the two systems,
which came to pass after three centuries of separate action,
and has continued more or less ever since, to the detriment
of both. It was in the struggle for freedom, as between
Church and State, that the honoured life of Edward Miall
was spent. No man had done more in this generation
than he, no man had done so much as he, to teach the
necessity for this separation to the men of his age ; no man
had suffered more in this cause, no man had endured more
of every kind of infamous contumely, or had with such
Christian temper manifested its infinite importance. To
those who say that the great institution, of which Mr.
Miall was the founder and the mainspring, has not yet

MERCHANTS' LECTURER 159

borne its fruit, the answer is that already it has changed
the condition of England. Many of the Dissenters'
grievances have been already swept away and we breathe
a freer atmosphere, and these results are due, in great
degree, to the influence and labours of Mr. Miall. But this
was not his only work. How earnestly and how thoroughly
he worked for all good objects was illustrated by the part
that he took in a Conference held at the London Coffee
House in 1867, as narrated in Chapter VI. There was
reason, said Mr. White, for believing that the speeches at
that meeting, on both sides, were not lost, but that by them
a new interest was created among large numbers of the
hand-workers of the factories — men frequently among the
hardest headed in the country — in the subject of the
Christian revelation ; and much of the success of that
Conference was certainly due to the wise counsels and
conciliatory temper of Mr. Miall. His work was now done,
but its influence would remain.

Only three days later came the public meeting of the
Liberation Society at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, at
which Mr. White was one of the speakers. In supporting
a resolution which indicated that all the endeavours of the
Church of England to reform itself would be ineffectual
while it continued to be established by law, he dealt
chiefly with the question of the purchase and sale of
ecclesiastical benefices. He gave an account of the facts
as revealed in the report of a Royal Commission of
Inquiry appointed in 1879. Of the livings or benefices in
England, about 13,000 in all, he said there were 6,000 in
the gift of public bodies, and these were unsaleable,
but the other 7,000, which are private property, might
be sold by the owner like any doctor's practice. He
explained that it was possible for the proprietor of any
of these to sell the next presentation only, retaining the
right to all subsequent presentations ; or the proprietor
might sell the advowson, that is the right to appoint

160 EDWARD WHITE

the rectors of the parish for ever and ever. He went
on to show how the oath, or declaration, against simony
is evaded under cover of certain legal decisions. It
was impossible to do away with the sale of advowsons
except under the conditions of disestablishment, and that
the clergy were not yet willing to accept. He did not
wish needlessly to decry the character of the clergy of the
Church of England, for he knew them too well not to
honour and love very many of them. At all events he
himself had clean hands, for in early life he had aban-
doned an inheritance, which he supposed would now have
been of the value of eight or ten deaneries, in order to
addict himself to the ministry of the Gospel. He could
not subscribe to everything in the Book of Common
Prayer, and in consequence had been consigned to forty
years outside the Church of England, and to obscure
labour in the back streets of London ; but he would
undergo another forty years of separation from the privi-
leged position of an English clergyman, rather than soil
his hand with that scandalous system of traffic in livings,
which was the very foundation of the system for distri-
buting pastors to the English nation. And for this
system, as he had pointed out at the beginning of his
speech, the whole nation is responsible so long as the
Church remains established.

It was on the day after he had delivered this speech that
he wrote to a lady, who had sent him a little present, a
characteristically playful letter, in which he said : —

" The smelling-bottle I took with me to the Tabernacle,
where I had to address 5,00x3 people last night in a speech
on ' Purchase in the Church ! ' and was horribly frightened
at having to do so. But a sniff of that ammonia quite
inspired me, and I felt equal to anything after it. It is a
sort of bottled courage and philosophy."

On May i/th the Revised Version of the New Testa-
ment was published. Mr. White purchased a copy in

MERCHANTS' LECTURER 161

Paternoster Row at 8.30 a.m., and having to deliver the
Merchants' Lecture that day at noon, he read from this
Revised Version, being thus almost certainly the first to
use it for reading in a public service.

At the end of May he had a very pleasant visit to
Cambridge, meeting there a number of interesting persons
and preaching at Emmanuel Church on the 29th.

In June he went to Bradford, and lectured at the
Mechanics' Institute on " The Churches and Outsiders."
He then went on to Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he pre-
pared and preached a sermon on Psalm cxxi. : " My help
cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth," the
occasion being the celebration of the birth of George
Stephenson. He showed that man, by his discoveries
and inventions, only reaches to, and makes use of, the
energies of God.

The death of Dean Stanley, on July ipth, meant to
Mr. White the loss of a valued friend. The Dean had
given him, in 1866, a card of perpetual admission to
Westminster Abbey, of which he had made such good use
that he had gained that thorough knowledge of the Abbey
which has already been indicated. The Dean's funeral
took place in the Abbey on July 25th, and Mr. White, who
had been preaching at Lowestoft on the 24th, came up to
town in order to attend it. He remarked that the Abbey
was full of notabilities, and said that the attraction to this
funeral was the combination of sweetness and light ; not
faith in truth, but affection for a man who was exceed-
ingly courageous and honest, according to his percep-
tions. Dean Stanley was illustrating the " Beatitudes "
from the people buried in the Abbey, immediately before
his death.

Later in the year Mr. White gave a lecture on the
subject, in which he showed the need there was to dis-
tinguish between the personal character and the theo-
logical ideas of the late Dean, who, as he said, had long

162 EDWARD WHITE

been regarded by the extreme Broad Church party as their
very flower and crown. He said : —

" Our dear friend carried his desire for comprehen-
sion much too far. He lived, perhaps, a life too inno-
cent and protected to have any effective knowledge of,
or sympathy with, the deep emotions of great sinners,
or with the Gospel of redemption which they need.
. . . He much resembled Apollos before his illumina-
tion by Aquila and Priscilla : a man eloquent and
learned and fervent in spirit, and conversant with all
the brilliant lore of Europe and Asia and Africa, but
' knowing only the baptism of John,' and not sufficiently
dwelling even on the keynote of John's ministry." Of
the newer Broad Church Christianity Mr. White spoke
as " a Christianity without backbone or skeleton, a fluid,
molluscous mass of sentimental theism, professing unity
with all other theistic religions, but producing none of the
effects of genuine Christianity, producing no conversions,
eliciting no contempt of the cross from ungodly men,
notable chiefly for its steady denunciation of dogma, and
exaltation of charity. . . . And the dear Dean of West-
minster, with his universal drag-net of comprehension,
must not be quoted in order to stop the mouths of Christ
and His apostles, whose words are quite distinct that
ungodly and wicked men ' shall not inherit the kingdom
of God,' but shall be punished with 'everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His
power.' "

At this time Mr. White's new house, which he called
" Hilda's Mount" at Highwood Hill, near Mill Hill, was in
course of erection, and he watched its progress, and the
preparation of the surrounding garden, with much plea-
sure, going there as frequently as he could find opportunity
and delighting greatly in the pure air and pleasant scenery.
It was not, however, ready for occupation until the follow-
ing year, when it was partially furnished, and then sup-

MERCHANTS' LECTURER 163

plied a welcome retreat from the noise and bustle of
London life, of which he was glad to avail himself as often
as opportunity served. After his retirement it became his
home for the remainder of his life.

The autumn holiday this year, 1881, was spent at
Whitby, from August pth to the end of that month.
While there Mr. White took great interest in the ruins and
in the history of the ancient Abbey. He was, indeed, so
interested in the story, that he made it the subject of a
lecture delivered at the West Cliff Congregational Church
on August 28th, in celebration of the iioth anniversary of
that Church. He mentioned that in the preceding week
there had been the anniversary of the St. Bartholomew's
Day massacre of the Huguenots, and the ejection of the
two thousand nonconforming ministers from the Church of
England, and the i,2OOth anniversary of the death of the
Princess Hilda, the founder of the original Abbey in the
year 658. He then described the state of England at that
time, and the blessing that such an institution became to
the neighbourhood and to the country, having been a
school of medicine and a place of healing, of worship, of
learning, of teaching, not only of religion, but also of the
useful and fine arts, and of the copying of books. Boys
and girls were there educated, and preachers went forth
from thence into the surrounding region, which at that time
was almost entirely heathen. That foundation lasted for
two hundred years, and then it was destroyed by the
heathen Danes who invaded the land, and it was not
until the time of William the Conqueror that the imposing
structure now in ruin was built by the Percys. The
character and influence of this new monastery were not
nearly so beneficial as had been those of the former one,
and it was suppressed in the reign of Henry VIII. Mr.
White's aim in this discourse was stated at the outset to be
to remind the Independents of Whitby of a few facts and
principles which might help them to feel and to assert

164 EDWARD WHITE

their unity with all that is good in the past, so as to repel
the exclusive claim of Rome to St. Hilda, and to establish
the truth that Independency, rightly understood, is
Catholic and Apostolic Christianity ; ardently acknow-
ledging all that is spiritually good and Christlike, yesterday
and to-day, at Rome, in Whitby, and all over the world.
In summing up at the close, he spoke of the many interest-
ing historic churches and other ecclesiastical buildings
which he had visited, and then said : —

" And yet I turn to this modest sanctuary with an
undoubting faith that if we can but be earnest Christians,
worthy of these principles [i.e., of the true Independency],
by the grace of God, not Hilda's Abbey, not Columba's
cells, not the great fabric of Canterbury, nor even the
marvellous Church of St. Paul at Rome beyond the gates,
near by where that apostle died for Jesus Christ, so well
represents original Christianity as does this Church of
believers, consecrated to simplicity of ritual, to apostolic
doctrine, and to brotherly communion."

This lecture was very soon afterwards printed at Whitby
as a small pamphlet. In acknowledging the receipt of
a copy of it sent to him by Mr. White, Dr. Perowne, then
Dean of Peterborough, wrote : " I don't think there is a
very serious difference between us. You are broad and
catholic enough to find links of brotherly love with all
who profess and call themselves Christians. I only wish
that in your body as in ours there were more of the like
spirit, men who would look for the points of agreement
more than for the points of difference."

In this year Mr. Skrefsrud, a Norwegian missionary
among the Santhals, an aboriginal tribe dwelling in the hills
of Northern Bengal, was in England for the second time,
his previous visit having been in 1874. He is a wonderful
linguist, and has done a great work among the Santhals. On
December nth he occupied the pulpit at Hawley Road
Chapel, and of his testimony Mr. White thus wrote : —

MERCHANTS' LECTURER 165

" We had a wonderful day of his preaching. In the
evening the outpour resembled inspiration more than aught
else : accent enough to remind you that he is a foreigner, but
such an outflowing of truth and grace as moved the whole
congregation with wonder and joy ; delivered in English
without one grammatical mistake, though he has not
spoken English except for a few days for seven years.

" Mr. Skrefsrud's report as to the spiritual effect of
teaching truth on eternal life to the converted heathen
included three principal particulars.

" i. Such teaching relieves them of the oppressive and
unprofitable horror with which former teaching led them to
regard the fate of their ancestors.

" 2. It strongly corroborates the consciousness of the
life-relation existing, through the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, between themselves and God — thus enabling them
more vigorously and joyfully to retrieve lost ground, and
to recover after stumblings ; and

"3. It greatly stimulates their zeal, (as well as that of
the missioner), in the work of ' holding out the word of
life,' as giving more vivid reality to the message, and
more credibility."

In 1882, just after there had been a great outburst of
Anti-Semitism in Europe, Mr. White devoted his Mer-
chants' Lecture, on January 24th, to a recital of " The
Sorrows and Glories of the Jewish People." After speak-
ing of the marvellous vitality of the race, notwithstanding
the persecution which it has endured, and the strange way
in which it has held together as a race while scattered
among all nations, he acknowledges our indebtedness to
them for those precious books which they have conserved
for the world, and which have had so much influence
in keeping their own race together through all their
wanderings. "What other books are like them?" he
asks, and suggests the experiment of trying to deal with
a.ny classical book as we deal with the Bible, which he

i66 EDWARD WHITE

foresees would speedily fail. He asserts that the whole
Jewish people ought not to be charged with the guilt of the
death of Jesus, and that their stubborn resistance to
European Christianity has often been a noble resistance
to idolatry and superstition. He looks forward to a time
when the outrages from which they suffer shall cease, and
the Christ shall come again to avenge Israel and end " the
times of the Gentiles " by the restoration of the scattered
nation to its old central position in a renovated world. In
closing he pronounces an eloquent eulogy on the character
of their ancestor Abraham, who was Jehovah's friend.
Fifty Jews were in the audience, as Mr. White informed
Dr. Petavel.

In March 1882 came the thirtieth anniversary of the
opening of the Chapel. The two remarkable discourses by
Mr. White, delivered on Sunday the iQth, giving a sketch
of the history of English opinion on human destiny during
the previous thirty years, were afterwards published as a
pamphlet, with the title, The Endless Life. On the
following Thursday a social meeting was held, at which
a number of former members who were residing at a
distance were present to cheer and congratulate the pastor,
and presentation was made to him of a sum of money
in addition to several artistic and useful articles.

On April 4th there was a meeting of the London
Congregational Union, at which Mr. White was chosen
Chairman for the year 1883.

Some of his friends had publicly suggested his name as
that of one suitable for election as Chairman of the Con-
gregational Union of England and Wales for 1883. The
choice had to be made at the meeting on May 8th. In
anticipation of that meeting, having learnt that there were
two other names that were likely to receive an equal
number of votes, so that the first ballot would probably
be indecisive, he wrote a letter, which appeared in the
Nonconformist and Independent of May 5th, in which, after

MERCHANTS' LECTURER 167

explaining his position and stating some objections to the
mode of election, he said : " Under these circumstances,
not having been a voluntary candidate, but set forward
without my own consent and contrary to my wish, . . .
I have resolved to request, at the earliest moment after
being made acquainted with the facts, most respectfully
but most earnestly, all those gentlemen who had designed
to vote for my election to abstain from their purpose, so as
to reduce the process to the choice between two candidates
only." This letter had the desired effect, and the election
fell upon Dr. Fairbairn.

At a meeting of the Union held on the I2th at the
Memorial Hall, he spoke on the "Moral Causes of Absence
from Public Worship."

The autumnal meetings of the Union were held at
Bristol. Mr. White was entertained at the house of an
old friend who had known him at Cardiff forty years
previously. Mr. White was one of the speakers at the
great public meeting held in the Colston Hall on October
1 2th. He spoke of the Bible, always his most congenial
subject, and of influences hostile to it. Of these he
mentioned : (i) Ignorance of its contents ; (2) Literary
criticism without spiritual insight ; (3) Science which has
lost one of its eyes; and (4) Intolerant orthodoxy. On
Sunday, the I5th, he preached at Redland Park Church,
and the next day proceeded to Cardiff to revisit some of
the scenes of his earliest ministry, and to give his lecture on
" Number in Nature an Evidence of Creative Intelligence."
The day following he went on to Swansea, the Mumbles,
and Caswell Bay. In that region he stayed until the 2ist,
when he went to Llanelly, preaching there an the 22nd.
On the Monday he was interested in seeing the various
processes at the Tin Plate Works there, and on the
Tuesday he returned home.

In the Homiletic Magazine during 1882, there was
published a " Symposium," which ran from March to

168 EDWARD WHITE

November, on "The Scripture Doctrine of the Atonement."
Among the contributors were men of such divergent
views as Dr. Littledale, Mr. J. Page Hopps, Canon Farrar,
and Edward White, whose contribution appeared in the
November issue. The summing up of his paper in the
last paragraph is as follows : —

" Under these views the At-one-ment is a deeper
mystery than has been sometimes supposed in recent
ages. It is the union of the spotless Word of God, the
Life of the universe, with sinful and perishing humanity,
by a self-emptying of which modern theology has taken
too little account, thereby perplexing the whole doctrine
of the Trinity. It is the re-assumption of humanity by
the Eternal Word in the resurrection, under the law of a
new creation. And lastly, it is the lifting up of sinful and
dying man, through regeneration, justification, sanctifica-
tion, and redemption of the body, into a oneness with the
glorified Christ, which carries with it the gift of indestruc-
tible immortality in God. ' He that hath the Son hath the
life, and he that hath not the Son hath not the life.' ' The
world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth
the will of God abideth for ever.' "

CHAPTER XIII

THE HAWLEY ROAD PASTORATE

1883-1885 ; AGE 63-66

A PLEASANT variation from his pastoral and theo-
logical work was Mr. White's visit of three days to
Lord and Lady Portsmouth at their country seat of Egges-
ford, in February 1883.

In March he went to Halifax, as the guest of Mr.
Edward Crossley, at Bermside. Preaching on the Sun-
day in Halifax, he found that, by telephone, his words
reached eight people at Bradford, Leeds, and Bermside,
and were heard distinctly. He was much interested in
visiting the Crossleys' carpet works, and also the Orphan-
age, to which he was taken by Mrs. Crossley.

He was the Merchants' Lecturer for the month of
March, and so it fell to his lot to deliver the last lecture
at the old Weigh House Chapel. The lecture was on
" The Place of the Hebrew Doctrine of Good and Evil
amidst the Philosophies and Religions of Ancient Asia,"
one of those subsequently published in book form with
the title, Genesis III., History not Fable. This lecture
was given on the 2/th of March, 1883, and being the
last in the old building there was a large congregation,
including many ministers and laymen of all Churches.
This being the year during which he was Chairman

of the London Congregational Union, he delivered his,

169

170 EDWARD WHITE

presidential address at the Memorial Hall on April Qth.
The subject was " Church Life in London." The August
number of the magazine called the Congregationalist
contained a portrait and a sketch of his life, which ended
thus: "Time does its healing work, and the evangelical
breadth and depth of Mr. White's ministry have long
since been acknowledged, and he is now frankly and
warmly welcomed in the pulpits of our churches as a
faithful servant and soldier of Christ, without any sacrifice
of freedom or principle on the part either of preacher
or hearers. We have no decorative honours with which
to distinguish our faithful ministers, but in those public
and private testimonies of personal regard which Christian
men hold much dearer Mr. White is rich indeed."

The foundation-stone of the new building in Lyndhurst
Road, for the Hampstead Congregational Church, was laid
on April I2th, and at the ceremony Mr. White met the
veteran African missionary, Robert Moffat. Mr. White
presided over the evening meeting in the Vestry Hall,
and spoke on the influence of buildings in the perpetuation
of ideas and the conservation of faith, and on the true idea
of a Christian Church.

At the annual public meeting of the London Mis-
sionary Society in May of this year, Mr. White was one
of the speakers. Following the Earl of Shaftesbury, who
had spoken as Chairman, he delivered a very carefully
prepared speech, which was afterwards characterized by
a gentleman connected with the religious Press as the
best missionary speech he had ever heard. Dr. Kennedy,
however, in a letter to the Nonconformist and Independent,
expressed a doubt whether one part of it would not tend
to discourage missions. Mr. White therefore wrote to
that paper in explanation and vindication of his position.
In his letter he said: "Lord Shaftesbury's closing passages
added, as Dr. Kennedy evidently sees, to the difficulties
with which I had to contend at Exeter Hall. That which

THE HAWLEY ROAD PASTORATE 171

I principally intended to maintain was, not some speciality
of opinion, but the reality of historical prophecy, the
dramatic unity of the divine government of the earth,
and the approach of one of those great epochs of judge-
ment which precede each of the chief developments of
God's kingdom among the nations. . . . My point was
that the warning of 'judgement' speedily coming, in some
sense, on the existing systems of heathenism and corrupt
Christianity, is a powerful means of striking the Asiatic
imagination and conscience, which ought not to be cast
aside in consequence of the extravagances of prophetical
interpreters. ... I am not at all certain about any details
of Christ's reign on or over the earth in the latter days,
much less of His personal 'visibility' during the millen-
nium, and feel no vocation to make confident statements
concerning them. The one thing which is clear to my
mind is that divine prophecy is real, historical, and moral,
and is a force not to be dispensed with just because Dr.
Cumming and others have rendered it somewhat ridiculous.
. . . The true use of the doctrine of Christ's parousia is
not to discourage men in any line of duty, public or
private, but to urge them on with zeal to assert Christ's
present sovereignty, both in Church and State, at home
and abroad."

These few sentences will serve to indicate his attitude
towards the promised future advent of Christ. The
incident is a specimen of what often followed after a
speech by Mr. White, as he so often used expressions
or made statements to which his hearers were not accus-
tomed and which they were therefore apt to misunder-
stand.

At a Christian Conference in the Jerusalem Chamber at
Westminster Abbey, on the nth of June, 1883, the Dean
presiding, Mr. White read a paper on "The Relation of
Public Worship to the Christian Life." He began by
alluding to the great difference between the ideal and

172 EDWARD WHITE

the historical Church, but said : " It is a mistake to lose
heart by dwelling too much on the history of degeneration,
when it is possible for each successive age, first by the
study of the ideal and next by communion with the living
God and His servants, to return nearer and nearer to the
true conception, both of Church life and of public worship."
The essential conditions of these two having been
stated and the prominence in our Lord's teaching of
private prayer rather than of public worship, the paper
goes on to say : " The evil public element in religion is
the subject of some of Christ's earliest and sternest
warnings, the danger of ostentation in almsgiving, in
fasting, and in devotion. . . . The Pharisee of the Gospel
history, whose face is too long (' of a sad countenance '),
whose purse is too long (who 'devours widows' houses'),
whose robes are too long (who 'loves to go in long
clothing'), is the man whose visible devotions also are
too long ('for a pretence he makes long prayers'), and
this strong hand tears him and his phylacteries in pieces,
as a warning of the judgement of heaven upon a public
worship which has no relation with solid personal good-
ness." After pointing out and lamenting the divisive
influence of modern English Church life, which " embodies
and expresses in its public worship, doubtless with much
that is better, the whole sum of the antagonisms, intellec-
tual, social, doctrinal, of the last two thousand years,
instead of their most catholic thoughts and comprehensive
sympathies," and then contrasting the rigidity of the
Anglican services with the lack of reverence in many of
those of the Nonconformists, Mr. White further laments
" that public worship, including under that designation
the preaching and teaching which forms a part of it, has
come to exercise far too little energy in the deeper
formation of English character on week-days." This,
he thinks, is " partly because, neglecting the social in-
struction which comes from the familiar conference of

THE HAWLEY ROAD PASTORATE 173

small companies, we expect too much in the formation
of character from public service, and from discourses on
abstract themes delivered to persons sitting silent on a
lower level at a distance, and chiefly because there is too
little teaching of definite morality. ... In close connection
with this want of practical application to the actual world
in public teaching is the too exclusive place given, under
popular Christianity, to the virtues of 'imperfect obliga-
tion,' such as almsgiving, to the neglect of instruction in
those of ' perfect obligation,' such as the duties of tem-
perance and chastity, the duty of justice in money dealings,
the duties of home and business, the duties of superiors,
inferiors, and equals, and finally the duty of searching for
and certifying truth. A little of our zeal for definitions
in theology might advantageously go into the sphere of
practical morals." In closing, he makes one practical sug-
gestion, and one encouraging reflection. The suggestion
is the opening of all religious buildings daily as places
for quiet retreat and prayer. " Wherever the Church
edifices are thus open and are reckoned not too holy to
be useful to man, those buildings . . . become endeared
to the labouring population. The encouragement to our-
selves is this : There is abroad and around us everywhere
an influence distinct from all ecclesiastical endeavours,
higher than all existing church worships, a spirit moulding
character and uniting divinely touched souls with an energy
far greater than that of any visible institutions. In spite
of all traditional hindrances, under this influence the party
walls become transparent to us. We see each other, and
feel each to each in the relations of an interior churchman-
ship. If we know God, in a growing measure we know
good men when we see them, in every stage of their theo-
logical development ; and we are drawn to them by an
attraction which we find to be irresistible and know to be
eternal, in the chambers of the ' Jerusalem above, which is
the mother of us all.' "

174 EDWARD WHITE

Preaching for Dr. Dale at Birmingham, in July, while
Carr's Lane Chapel was undergoing repair and the services
were being held in the Town Hall, Mr. White stood on the
spot where Mendelssohn had stood when he conducted his
oratorio of " Elijah " on its first performance in England.
In recognition of that fact in the history of the building,
he chose for the subject of discourse the story of Elijah as
told in i Kings xviii.

This year's holiday was spent in August at Padstow,
various excursions being made from that centre. St. Columb
was thus visited more than once, St. Evals being taken on
the way ; Mawgan Convent Church, Trevose Point and
lighthouse, Wadebridge, Newquay, Tintagel, and Boscastle
were also visited. While at Padstow a new lifeboat was
brought thither and launched, making quite a commotion
among the simple Cornish folk, who greeted the new
arrival with singing, shouting, flags, and a procession.
The sea, with its perpetual variety, is always and every-
where an unfailing source of interest and often of pleasure
to the observer, and one day while on this north coast
of Cornwall, after watching the waves rolling in and
dashing against the rocky cliffs, Mr. White wrote : " It
was the finest spectacle of the sea waves I ever saw,
the wind being landwards. Rows of billows, each higher
than the last, towering up in foam over the green water,
and then dashing against the headlands and into the coves
and over the broken foundations of the ancient cliffs." He
was charmed with the Cornish scenery generally, some
of which he described in glowing terms.

During this summer the case between Mr. Bradlaugh
and the House of Commons was the theme of lively dis-
cussion, both in that House and outside. The Government
of Mr. Gladstone brought in a Bill to enable those who
could not conscientiously take the prescribed oath to make
a solemn affirmation in lieu of it. This Bill was supported
by Mr. Gladstone in a noble speech, which won Mr.

THE HAWLEY ROAD PASTORATE 175

White's admiration, in favour of the civil liberties of all
citizens, whether Christian believers or not.

In October, Mr. White attended the meetings of the
Congregational Union at Sheffield, and took part in some
of them by his speech as well as by his presence.

In the same month he assisted in the ordination of Mr.
W. D. McLaren, M.A., as pastor of the Church at Creaton,
in Northamptonshire, and gave the charge to the young
minister. He also told how Mr. McLaren's introduction
to Creaton came about, through a conversation between
Dr. Dale and himself, under the oak in his garden at
Mill Hill.

On November 6th came the meeting of the London
Congregational Union, at which Mr. White, as Chairman,
gave an address on "The Danger of Extreme Anti-
Ritualism."

In the Homiletic Magazine of 1883 was published a
" Symposium " on the question, " In what sense and
within what limits is the Bible regarded as the Word
of God ? " A contribution to this discussion from Mr.
White's pen appeared in the December issue. In his
article he begins by setting aside the old ecclesiastical
idea of the Bible as one book, in which every part
has received the sanction of the Church in the early
Christian ages as authentic and divinely inspired ; he
then urges the need of falling back for a basis upon
the statements of the Scripture writers themselves,
as to the measure and quality of their own inspira-
tion. He goes on to show that, "If the whole New
Testament were blotted out of human memory to-morrow,
with the exception of a single Gospel, suppose that of St.
Matthew, and that Gospel came to us floating on the
stream of general history just as an ancient work, without
any recommendation whatever from Church authority, and
without any annexed theory as to its inspiration, . . . there
would exist in the self-evidencing worth of that single

176 EDWARD WHITE

writing an amply sufficient basis for faith in Jesus as the
Son of God and Saviour of the world. The only question
would be : Is this wonderful and holy narrative of the
teaching, the miracles, the life, the sufferings, the resur-
rection of Jesus of Nazareth true ? ... If you have not
ground to believe in the historical truth of the four Gospels
from intellectual and moral reasons, . . . you cannot
possibly attain solid belief in them by setting up a
doctrine of verbal inspiration. . . . But if you already
have reason to believe, from their tone and style, that
Matthew and Luke are thoroughly honest and well-
informed, and above all, God-fearing writers, recording
the substantial truth, you gain nothing by the notion of
the Canon or by the gratuitous hypothesis of verbal infal-
libility as the law of the composition. . . . Take the his-
torical books of the Bible for what they are worth as
human histories. Do they record events truly? If they
do, then the higher dogmatic pretensions to inspired
authority on the part of prophets and apostles can be
sustained, or rather these follow upon the truth of the
history. . . ."

Here follows Mr. White's answer to those (in our days
sadly too numerous) who maintain that in the recorded
teaching of Jesus before His death we have the whole
of Christianity, and so set aside the authority of the
apostolic writings. These ignore the important fact that
not until after His death and glorious resurrection was
it possible to make men understand the true meaning and
scope of the Gospel message, and that it is only in those
unappreciated apostolic writings that we see the develop-
ment of the teaching of the risen Christ, during those forty
days of frequent communion between the resurrection and
the ascension, and that of the subsequent teaching by the
Spirit. Accepting the historical books on their merits, and
as not themselves claiming special inspiration, Mr. White
proceeds : " But it is far otherwise with those books of

THE HAWLEY ROAD PASTORATE 177

apostolic origin which contain the dogmatic teaching of the
prophets and apostles. Here we find, time after time, the
most explicit claim to speak to believers by a direct inspira-
tion and command of God. . . . We find this alike in the
pages of Isaiah and in the Epistles of SS. Paul, Peter, and
John. In every one of his epistles St. Paul distinctly and
emphatically claims to speak with the direct and infallible
authority of the risen Christ, except in two or three small
matters on which he gives his opinion. A full induction
of every phrase in his writings asserting or implying such
a direct inspiration would require an abstract of nearly
half his writings. The whole second epistle to the
Corinthians is an elaborate and unflinching assertion of
this claim. Here, then, there is no alternative except that
of either receiving his teaching as divinely authoritative, or
of rejecting it ; and that must be determined by each man
according to his general belief or unbelief in the history
of Paul's commission as an apostle by the apparition of
Christ, thrice recorded in the narrative of St. Luke, and
according to his spiritual recognition of the divine element
in this apostle's life and writings, in which he ' commends
himself to every man's conscience.' "

Taught by the Spirit we may be led to " perceive that
inward spiritual unity of the holy writings which does
indeed interiorly organize them into a ' Canon ' and a
'Bible' for discerning eyes, at the end rather than at
the beginning of the Christian life." Towards a correct
estimate and exposition of the Bible, Mr. White believes
that "the first step is resolutely to fling aside the post-
Nicene theory of the inspiration of ' the Bible ' as a whole,
to resolve this Bible into its original elements, and to
regulate our view of each of these component parts by
the writer's own testimony concerning the degree in which
he was ' moved by the Holy Ghost.' And while this will
modify the sense in which we shall habitually speak of the
whole collection, from Genesis to Revelation, as equally

178 EDWARD WHITE

and fully and directly and permanently he ' Word of
God,' it will leave us with an ever-growing sense of the
substantial truth of its histories, and I think with nothing
less than an infinitely deeper and more submissive
reverence for the authoritative teaching of those who were
the prophets of Judaism, and the apostles of the Gospel."

In the Homiletic Magazine of March 1884 it was
asserted that Mr. White's article was "the clearest, the
ablest, and the most powerful of the whole series."

During the years 1882 and 1883 Mr. White was deeply
and painfully interested in certain proceedings that were
going on in Brussels in relation to the Protestant Church
in the Rue Belliard, of which the pastor was Mr. Byse, the
translator of his book Life in Christ into French. The
result of those proceedings was, that because of his teach-
ing that immortality is only to be had through Christ, Mr.
Byse was obliged, by the action of the Synod of the
Belgian Christian Missionary Church, to quit his post as
pastor of a Church of which the members, with one or
two exceptions, wished him to remain, being warmly
attached to him while he was as warmly attached to them.

At the beginning of 1884 there was a fusion of the
English Independent with the Nonconformist under the
joint title the Nonconformist and Independent. A portrait
of Mr. Edward Miall, the originator of the Nonconformist,
was issued with the first number of the new paper, which
contained a highly appreciative article by Edward White,
on the character, career, and eminent public services of
Edward Miall. In this article he wrote : " No sufficient
estimate can be formed of Mr. Miall's public services
except by those who can compare the present state of
affairs with the condition of things at the time when the
Nonconformist was originated. There has been effected
nothing less than a revolution in the public and political
position of Free Church principles and their adherents in
England, and without injustice to the claims of others it

THE HAWLEY ROAD PASTORATE 179

may be truly said that to no single agency is this revolu-
tion due so much as to the life-long campaigning of Mr.
Edward Miall. ... It is simply to deny manifest fact to
question the statement that among the most efficient
causes inciting the nation to demand parliamentary
changes in the direction of religious equality, Mr. Miall's
writing and ultimately his activity in the legislature are to
be reckoned in the first rank during the last thirty years.
. . . Every man who was engaged in a difficult conflict for
more reasonable ideas in morals or divinity found in him
substantially a steady and sympathizing supporter. He
knew by experience the trial of being conscientiously com-
pelled to think and speak at right angles to prevailing
opinions and interests ; of being denounced as heretical by
men who, if they had but a little more ability, would
become the most pernicious heretics extant ; of being
taunted with the weight of hostile majorities when their
hostility as majorities was mainly due to the silence or
imperfect honesty of the very men who flung the taunt
and should have led the 'way to justice and reform."

These last sentences, perfectly true with respect to Mr.
Miall, might have been written to describe his own
personal experiences. The article was very widely
appreciated, according to the testimony of the editor ; and
it shows that Mr. White's estimate of the man and his
work had not been lowered, but rather raised, since the
time when he preached the memorial sermon on Mr.
Miall's death in 1881.

Early in 1884 Mr. White took a party of fifty working
men to the British Museum, where he pointed out to them
and explained a number of the interesting relics of ancient
Egypt, which are there preserved. He had some time
previously made Egypt the subject of several of his
lectures to artizans.

On January i/th he assisted in the ordination of Mr.
R. F. Horton, M.A., of Hampstead.

i8o EDWARD WHITE

At this time Mr. Moody was holding evangelistic
meetings in London, several of which Mr. White
attended. After one of these, he took Mr. Moody home
to tea, and they had much conversation together on
evangelistic work, and on the various modes of presenting
the Gospel. After another of these meetings Mr. White
went to assist in the inquiry-room ; and one of the persons
with whom he talked was an artizan who had heard some
of his lectures, and who was then troubled with doubts and
difficulties from a Unitarian standpoint.

In connection with a visit in May to West Haddon in
Northamptonshire, where on the Sunday he preached in
the morning at the Baptist Chapel, and in the evening at
the Methodist place of worship, Mr. White drove to Naseby
and went over the field of battle, tracing its course on
Broadmore.

His Merchants' Lectures for July were printed in a small
volume with the title, The Laws and Limits of Respon-
sibility. The third of these, " Pardon not Impunity," set
forth a truth which he had taught twenty years before,1 but
which needed to be uttered afresh.

On June 3<Dth he was present at the funeral of his
personal friend but theological adversary, Rev. J. Baldwin
Brown, at Norwood Cemetery.

The jubilee of the emancipation of all slaves in the
British Empire was celebrated on August i, 1884, by a
great meeting in the London Guildhall, over which the
Prince of Wales presided. Mr. White was present ; he
could not have absented himself on such an occasion, and
he records his own recollection of the event fifty years
previously, when he was a scholar at Mill Hill, and of his
reading in the newspapers about the celebrations in the
West Indies at that time.

Ten days at the end of August and beginning of

1 In T^i? Mystery of Growth. Discourse on "The Secondary
Consequences of Sin."

THE HAWLEY ROAD PASTORATE 181

September were spent at Boulogne, with which city he
was already familiar through several previous visits. Here
he studied afresh the Roman Catholic religion in its work-
ing and irfluence. He went several times to the great
Cathedral of Notre Dame upon the hill, and not only
there but everywhere found Mary as the goddess taking
the place of Christ, and a religion of outward ceremonies
and observances. In connection with this visit he observes
the difficulty of English Protestants in influencing any of
the French Roman Catholics, kept asunder as they are by
the double wall of race and language. Yet the apostles of
Christ went as foreigners into every Greek and Roman
province, and although separated from the people and
leaders by even stronger differences, they made converts
to Christ in every city, and succeeded in gathering into
one community in every place men of every tongue, colour,
culture ; barbarian, Greek, Negro, Roman, Asiatic, lord, and
slave. How could this have been done except by an in-
spired language, an inspired doctrine, and a God-given
miraculous energy of attestation?

At the invitation of the Committee of the Baptist
College at Bristol he gave the annual address to the
students on their reassembling after the autumn vacation.
He went to Bristol on the Qth of September, and was the
guest of his old friend Dr. Trestrail, with whom he spent a
quiet evening reviewing past experiences. The following
morning he delivered the address in Broadmead Chapel,
dealing in it with the need for connected exposition of
the Scriptures as a most important part of the Christian
ministry. There was a large attendance in addition to the
students, and some persons there told him that they had
known him at Cardiff, at Hereford, and at his baptism at
Broadmead, one stating that he had assisted him in coming
out of the water.

In the latter part of September he spent nine days at
Keswick, with his brother and party, exploring that

i82 EDWARD WHITE

picturesque region and meeting with some interesting
company.

The autumnal meetings of the Congregational Union
were held in London this year, from 6th to loth October.
In the discussions Mr. White spoke on the relation of the
Colleges to the Churches, and advocated increased use of
the Church buildings, and their opening as proseuc/uz, or
places for quiet and prayer.

In the Homiletic Magazine for March 1885 a " Sympo-
sium "on "The Foundations of the Belief in the Immortality
of Man " was concluded by an article from Mr. White's pen,
to which he had devoted much attention in the preceding
months. In it he deals first with the meaning of
Immortality, which he distinguishes from survival, as
that may be only temporary. He takes severely to task
one of his predecessors in the Symposium for the assertion
that the soul " by the law of its being will live for ever,"
quoting against him a number of eminent names, including
that of Prof. Bonney, who in his Hulsean Lecture in
December had declined to rest man's hope of immortality
on " the law of his being." He discusses the ancient
Egyptian belief, and that of the Hebrew nation, and the
Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Churches, and then
introduces his own explanation of the Scripture teaching,
as indicating that human immortality is to be had only by
the impartation to the individual of a new and divine life,
this being made possible only by the redemption wrought
by Jesus Christ. In closing he points out that if the
defenders of this doctrine are the minority at present, in
the earlier stages of a controversy, the authorities on either
side should be weighed rather than counted.

During many months of 1885 MA White suffered from
intermittent action of the heart and loss of voice, which
obliged him to abstain from his accustomed public work.
Taken ill on the i5th February, he consulted his medical
attendant the next day, and was advised to take entire

THE HAWLEY ROAD PASTORATE 183

rest for two months. Accordingly he went to Bourne-
mouth on the i pth ; but returning on the 2/th, he
remained at home through March and April. His
condition was still such as to preclude public speech, and
the two months' rest had eventually to be extended to six.
Provision had therefore to be made for the supply of the
pulpit at Hawley Road during his absence. This was
done by the appointment as his assistant of Mr. D. Basil
Martin, M.A., who remained in that relationship to the
end of Mr. White's pastorate, and was then chosen to be
his successor. In the beginning of May a few days were
spent at Harrogate, without much benefit. At that time
the spring meetings of the Congregational Union were
being held, and on May nth, the sixty-sixth anniversary
of his birth, Mr. White was chosen Chairman for 1886, on
the first ballot, and by twice as many votes as were needed
for election, no other name being mentioned. This result
was received with enthusiasm by the assembly, indicating
the greatness of the change since the time when he was
kept out of the Union and the pulpits of the Churches.
After this he tried a few days at Eastbourne and Hastings,
but returned without improvement. In June he went
again to Harrogate, and while there his trouble was
increased by a break-down in Mrs. White's health. This
induced him to go to Nottingham on his homeward
journey, in order to consult his son Charles, who was
residing there in practice as a doctor. His advice was
that they should go at once to Switzerland or to the South
of France.

In accordance with this advice they returned home and
immediately prepared for the journey, staying in London
one night only. On June I9th they reached Paris, where
they remained two days, after which they went by the
night train to Lausanne, and the next day to Glion, a high
point above Montreux, at the upper end of the Lake
of Geneva, from which there is a fine view of the lake and

184 EDWARD

of the mountains beyond it. Mr. White writes of it as an
ideal picture from the garden and balcony of the hotel,
a row of catalpas forming a shady cover for seats, a rose-
hedge in front, the foreground sloping down 800 feet to
the blue lake. In the evening there was a wonderful ruddy
sunset, with fine after-glow on the snow-crowned Dent du
Midi to the left, and a purple splendour on the Savoy
Mountains in front. His delight in the beauties of nature
has already been mentioned ; of this scene he says : " This
beauty never palls. It is the eternal ' beauty of the Lord
our God.'"

LeavingGlion on July 2nd, in order to reach higher ground,
they went first to Aigle in the Rhone Valley, staying the
night there. The next day they proceeded up that valley
by the railway to Brieg, thence after lunch by diligence
to Viesch, whence on horseback they ascended to the
Aegischhorn Hotel. The sojourn there, in the vitalizing
mountain air, and in the midst of magnificent mountain
scenery, soon had the desired effect, and after a week's stay
they were able to walk by the Rieder Alp and the Aletsch
glacier to the Bel Alp. There Sunday was spent, and Mr.
White met and had a long talk with Professor Tyndall,
whose chalet is a little way above the hotel. On the
Monday, July I3th, again on foot, they went down to Brieg,
where they took train for Lausanne, and thence continued
their journey to Neuchatel. In the evening of the follow-
ing day a two hours' journey by diligence took them to
Chaumont, in the Jura range, where Dr. Petavel was then
staying at his little chalet not far from the hotel. A full
week was spent there ; and being so near to the Petavels'
chalet they often went there and enjoyed much intercourse
with the family. Mr. Byse also spent a day with them
during their stay.

Descending from Chaumont to Neuchatel, on the 2ist
July, they went by night train to Paris and so home by
Calais and Dover. From the height of Chaumont, in very

THE HAWLEY ROAD PASTORATE 185

clear weather there is a most magnificent view of the
whole range of the Bernese Oberland, a view extending
from the Santis on the left to the chain of Mont Blanc on
the right. This glorious vision was revealed to the
travellers on the last day of their stay, a vision never to be
forgotten by those who have seen it. Mr. White went
down from Chaumont to Neuchatel on foot along with Dr.
Petavel, and he refers to that walk as having been "a feast
of colour, the bright sapphire lake gleaming through the
green fir-trees, and turning their foliage into all sorts of
splendour. Several reaches of the trees like a long
cathedral nave." Elsewhere he writes : " I shall never
forget it ; it was a spectacle worthy of the Alps seen in
the morning."

After his return from Switzerland he was able to resume
his preaching and pastoral duties, but for some time
suffered a good deal with sciatica.

On August i /th there was a farewell meeting at Camden
Road Chapel for six missionaries who were going out to
the Congo region, including T. J. Comber, one of the
pioneers of that mission, his brother Percy, and four others.
Mr. White was present, and took an interest in watching
the career of these young men, all of whom died during
his lifetime.

In this year the autumnal meetings of the Congrega-
tional Union were held at Hanley. Mr. White attended
them, and one evening went on to Macclesfield, where he
gave an address on " Independency," that being a word
descriptive of a wider idea than Congregationalism, signi-
fying local Church government, but inclusive of all
Christians in the Church area. During these meetings he
came into contact with Gipsy Smith, whose evangelistic
work he appreciated highly.

In the October number of the Homiletic Magazine
appeared a contribution to a "Symposium" on the question :
" Is Salvation possible after death ? " While agreeing with

i86 EDWARD WHITE

some preceding articles in the view that the Scripture
gives no hope of such salvation for those who have heard
and rejected or neglected the Gospel message in this life,
he admits that for the ignorant and heathen there may be
an opportunity, and that none will be finally condemned
until they have come into contact with Jesus Christ, and
have understood His claim on their faith ; and he quotes
various Scripture passages in support of this belief. But
as he says, " The result of such opportunity may not always
be their salvation."

At the opening of the new chapel in Robertson Street,
Hastings, on October 2ist Mr. White spoke on buildings in
relation to the Gospel, and the condition of spiritual success
in the spiritual edifice.

In November came the General Election, and Mr. White
took a public part in it, presiding at a meeting in favour of
Mr. Waddy, Q.C., in North Islington, and speaking at
another on behalf of Mr. Gibb in St. Pancras.

In all these months since May, when he was chosen to
be Chairman for 1886, he was constantly and carefully
considering and preparing for his address, to be delivered
from the chair in the coming May. From time to time,
during his forced abstention from public speaking, both at
home and abroad he had made very numerous and even
voluminous notes on the various subjects that he intended
to introduce into that address. He considered the Chair-
manship as being not so much an honour as an important
post of duty, and was determined that in that post his
best energies should be heartily exerted. Before leaving
for Switzerland he wrote to Rev. W. D. McLaren, M.A. :
" Many congratulations are coming to me about the Chair-
manship, but very few seem to think of it otherwise than
as an honour. To me it is chiefly in prospect a new cross,
because the right thing to be said can scarcely be very
acceptable to many. You will pray for me that ' I may
open my mouth boldly, as I ought to speak,' to declare
the mystery of the Gospel."

CHAPTER XIV

CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION
1886; AGE 66-67

BY this time much of the prejudice against Mr. White
had died away, and a great change had come over
the general theological world. Not so many ministers were
preaching the old doctrine of endless suffering as the fate
of the impenitent, and those who did so, presented it in a
much modified form and tone. Moreover, the steady and
sturdy evangelical character of Mr. White's preaching and
of his Church had become widely known, so that when the
time came for him to take his place in the Chair of the
Union, he was received very heartily by the Churches, and
was soon in great request among them for preaching and
speaking on special occasions. His engagements of this
sort, outside his own pastorate during his year of office,
numbered more than sixty, in all parts of the country,
north and south, east and west, from Whitby to Bourne-
mouth, and from Norwich to Swansea. To mention them
all would be wearisome, but some of them were made the
occasion for remarkable and characteristic utterances,
which deserve some notice.

Notwithstanding these numerous engagements away
from home, he did not neglect his monthly lectures to
artizans, of which he missed only two of the usual dates,

and one of these was supplied by Dr. Allon. The first

187

i88 EDWARD WHITE

lecture of this year on January 3rd, being the seventy-second
of the series, was on " The Great Choice and the Great
Refusal." Starting with the story of Elijah and the
priests of Baal, on mount Carmel, Mr. White pointed out
that in England the choice lies not between Jehovah and
Baal, but between the Living God, the author of Nature
and Christianity, and no God at all, a life without
religion.

In this first week of his chairmanship, in response to an
appeal by a brother minister, published in the Noncon-
formist and Independent, he wrote a letter to that paper
respecting special seasons of prayer for an outpouring of
the Spirit, some writers having suggested that the annual
meetings of the Union in May should be made such a
season. He wrote chiefly, as he said, to remind his brethren
of that which all know, but sometimes forget, that seasons
of prayer for the Spirit's help are of no avail apart from
immediate repentance from those "dead works," those
known sins by which he is " resisted," " vexed," and
" grieved " in actual life ; and that such seasons of re-
pentance and confession are in the first instance best spent
in the preliminary retirement of home.

On February i8th a meeting was held at Hawley Road
for the public recognition of the Rev. D. Basil Martin as
assistant minister to Mr. White, a position in which he had
already rendered very efficient service.

During this winter there was a large amount of poverty
and distress in London, and Mr. White was much occupied
with relief of the distress in various ways, in connection
with the Charity Organization Society, and otherwise.
There was a special committee, which sat at the St.
Pancras Vestry, to superintend the distribution of relief
from the Lord Mayor's Central Fund, and in this work
Mr. White took an active share, in spite of his numerous
other engagements.

The President-elect of the Baptist Union being the

CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION 189

Rev. Charles Williams, of Accrington, an old friend of
Mr. White, it was arranged between them, with the con-
currence of their committees, that the Spring assemblies of
the two Unions should be held simultaneously, and that
there should be two joint meetings. The necessary arrange-
ment of details relating to these joint meetings involved
several conferences between the two Presidents and their
committees. When in London on this business Mr.
Williams was the guest of Mr. White. The joint meetings
were held on May I4th, in the City Temple, that in the
morning being a joint assembly of the two Unions, presided
over by Mr. Williams ; that in the evening, a public
meeting, at which Mr. White was chairman.

Presiding over the evening public meeting, Mr. White,
after explaining the character and meaning of the gather-
ing, which he said would have no real significance apart
from the reality of Christ's present life in the heavens,
described the way in which it had been brought about.
He said : "This is the first time that our two Unions have
met together in their annual assemblies. The origin of
the movement was in a sudden flash of inspired genius on
the mind of Dr. Hannay,1 in a parenthesis in the middle of
a sentence on another subject at the Hanley autumnal
meeting of last year, when he interjected the proposal that
during my chairmanship some action might perchance be
proposed in this direction. You know the rest. The pro-
ject was warmly entertained by Mr. Booth,2 and by my
dear old friend and fellow-soldier, Mr. Charles Williams,
and I need not say joyfully promoted by me. The
majority of the members of either Union are personally
strangers to each other. The only qualification which I
possess to occupy this chair to-night — which I consider a
greater honour than to occupy the seat of my namesake,
the Archbishop of Canterbury 3 — arises from the accidents

1 Secretary of the Congregational Union.

2 Secretary of the Baptist Union. 3 Edward White Benson.

190 EDWARD WHITE

of my theological life which have made me, perhaps more
than many present, acquainted with the men of both the
Congregational Brotherhoods, and with their work during
this generation. And here before God I thank Him for
this double connection ; for the life-long and reverent
friendship, or more distant knowledge, which He has given
me during the past forty years, in youth or age, not only
with the leading ministers and laymen of both bodies, but
with many of the congregations, and with a glorious com-
pany of their missionaries from all parts of the world."
Having mentioned the names of a large number of these,
he thus continued : " Missionaries, ministers, scholars,
builders in the living temple all, who have enabled me to
understand a great deal better than I could if I had known
but one single set of God's sons, what is meant when it is
said that we are ' come to the general Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn,' and better to imagine what the wealth of
that world will be when the sections of Christianity, already
so rich in the divided tints and colours of the rainbow, will
be absorbed and united in the white light of Christ's eternal
splendour. ... If this wider knowledge has come to me
through a blunder in my theology, or a defect in my
sectarian zeal, I bless the destiny which gave me over to
believe a good deal with the Baptists and to work with the
Independents, a destiny which has ensured me a life-time
of such inspiring friendships and glorious recollections of
the saints living and departed. But, my brethren, we all, I
trust, by God's grace are going forward to some still better
thing, in the vision of a world where soon we shall see and
rejoice with the whole company of the faithful, ' redeemed
unto God out of every nation and kindred and people and
tongue.' "

Fifteen years later the experiment was repeated, but
alas ! Mr. White did not live to see and rejoice over the
similar manifestation of brotherly love at the joint meetings
of the two Unions in 1901, at which the concourse was so

CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION 191

vast that the great City Temple could not receive all who
wished to take part in them. The very success of these
joint assemblies has rendered their further repetition
difficult, the numbers desiring to unite in them having
become too great to be accommodated in any available
building.

On May nth, his own birthday, Mr. White delivered,
also in the City Temple, his address to the Congregational
Union as its Chairman, the subject being, " Free Church
Foundations, or the application of the apostolic distinction
between Law and Grace to the Theology, Ethics, and
Politics of the modern Independents." That address was
referred to, some months later, by a London religious
weekly, as having been " the most extraordinary ever
delivered from that position," and with an expression of
wonder that it had not produced a mightier effect upon
general religious opinion. It had been, as already indicated,
the outcome of much thought and careful preparation,
embodying principles which he had long held and taught
by voice and pen, although never before to such an
audience or from so influential a position. For a whole
year it had been prominent in his thoughts and prayers,
and it was one of the principal subjects of his study during
the months of his enforced silence. It was considerably
longer than such addresses usually are, and although he
read for two hours he was obliged to omit a good deal ; it
was, however, published in full in a handy form, and the
following is a concise abstract of it.

At the beginning of his address, after alluding to the
convictions in which he differed from many Congrega-
tionalists, Mr. White said that the difficulties of his position
had been minimized by the general understanding that no
theological significance of an exceptional character attached
to his appointment as Chairman. He proceeded to survey
the progress of the Independent Churches during the pre-
ceding half century, and referred to the increased freedom

IQ2 EDWARD WHITE

allowed for the expression of individual thought, and to
various changes that had taken place in the prevailing
ideas concerning some of the doctrines and rites of
Christianity. Three facts might be perceived affecting
the development of Congregationalism in the future,
(i) The continued existence of the ancient evangelical
spirit which rejects the notion of baptismal regeneration,
and is based on recognition of the absolute authority of
apostolic doctrine. (2) The reaction towards reform in
relation to the divine services and the sacred ministry.
Many Nonconformists made too little of the dignity of the
Christian pastorship, and too often appointed as teachers
unqualified men, and public worship had been degraded
by irreverent customs and language. Hence there was a
necessity for the restoration of the due solemnity and
dignity. (3) The presence of the party of theological
reform which insists on reconciling theology with science,
and the freest criticism with a spiritual faith. Although
these reformers sometimes fall into the error of extra-
vagance, they should receive patient and gentle treatment,
for they contribute to the progress and power of the whole
community.

I. LAW AND GRACE IN THEOLOGY.

The cardinal distinction between law and grace is the
essence of apostolic Christianity. It is this truth which
shines as the pillar of fire in the van of the Free Churches,
and through ignorance of which men are stumbling at the
record of a miraculous revelation, because of the prominence
which the study of nature has given to the idea of universal
and unalterable law. But Christianity is represented by
every one of the apostles, not asja revelation of law, but of
grace ; having its origin in those central depths of the
Eternal Love in which the freedom of the Almighty Will
is paramount over law itself, and in God's compassion for
law-breakers. Sin and death are preter-natural evils in

CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION 193

the human condition, forming no part of the system or law
of nature, and therefore they can be remedied only by
super-natural grace and power. This offers a rational and
credible account of the miraculous essence and evidence
of revelation, and it follows that the mam duty of the
Christian preacher is not to be a teacher of law, but to
press upon sinful and dying men the message of grace in
Christ Jesus.

II. THE ETHICS OF LAW AND GRACE.

Fundamental truths in theology necessarily determine
the complexion of the moral system which accompanies
them. The moral law is an expression of the absolute
divine righteousness. It asserts the eternal claims of God
as Creator and Ruler of all intelligent beings, and the
eternal claims of all creatures on each other. Its pro-
foundest principle is love. But according to the New
Testament doctrine moral law is not gracious. It knows
nothing of forgiveness any more than physical law.
Hence by the law there is no salvation for law-breakers.
God, however, has " so loved us " as to bestow pardon and
life eternal freely on law-breakers, through the sacrifice of
His beloved Son, and on this foundation of salvation by
grace is built a new moral system, or the morality of grace,
and the general principle which underlies the new moral
COQ-C is that the grace of God should lead to gracious
conduct in believing men. The Sermon on the Mount sets
forth the new code, but the rules therein are not laid down
as normal laws to be enforced on individuals who are not
believers, much less on public authorities set for the defence
of justice, and the restraint of evil-doers.

The mode in which the ethical system of Christ proceeds
in contrast with legal morality might be illustrated in
many particulars. For example — (i) in relation to the
Consecration of Time. The old law of the seventh-day
Sabbath was imposed under the penalty of death, but in

14

194 EDWARD WHITE

the system of Christ and His apostles this law does not re-
appear as a portion of the new moral code for His followers
among the Gentiles ; and the observance of the Lord's Day
is nowhere expressly commanded. Under the Gospel,
though set times for rest and worship are needed, there is
no such thing as the intrinsic holiness of portions of time
and space. The merciful and restful temper should abide
through the whole of the week. It should be considered
right to use part of the Sunday sometimes for teaching, in the
most interesting manner, all that it most behoves working
Englishmen to learn on their one day of rest. (2) The
distinction between the ethical systems of Law and Grace
finds another important application in the department of
Expenditure. The law required the tenth of a man's
income, but the disciple of Christ is taught to give first
of all his whole heart's love, and then to consecrate his
life, strength, and resources, for the purposes of Christ's
kingdom. (3) The influence of the ethical system of Christ
under the reign of grace upon Family Life and the regu-
lation of Amusements must receive a brief notice. In
every one of his epistles St. Paul insists upon the loving
subjection of the secondary ranks in the family to those
who are placed above them by the providence of God.
The apostolic ethics are clearly designed as a training for
eternal service under a divine Monarchy ruling over
a universe of innumerable ranks, and demanding loving
subjection in all subordinate orders. Good and modest
manners towards elders and superiors ought to be taught
as a part of the Gospel.

The vast space which amusements occupy in modern
and nominally Christian life makes it essential for the
Church of God to make it clear as day that a determined
limitation in pleasure-taking is one leading law of the
Christian life. If the Churches of our country are to be
maintained as spiritual powers, they must be persuaded
to incur the " reproach of Christ " by presenting a more

CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION 195

solid front of open opposition to the vast expenditure of
time and money on mere amusements.

Two examples of the danger which may arise from
enforcing Christ's counsels of perfection upon the surround-
ing world as normal laws of morality are seen in the
history of Church celibacy, and in the conduct of the total
abstinence reformation by its un wiser advocates. When-
ever the counsels of perfection which our Lord inculcates
among Christians are set forth to the world as carrying
the authority of eternal moral laws, the results have always
proved most disastrous.

III. LAW AND GRACE IN POLITICS.

The relations between the State and the Church may
be summed up in a sentence. The State is the organiza-
tion of justice ; the Church is the organization of grace.
Both are divine institutions. The duty of the State is the
assertion and protection by law, and the vindication, if
needed by force, of the righjts of all persons belonging to the
commonwealth. The Church is a selected society consisting
of believing men ; organized for the purpose of worship, of
saving evil-doers, of teaching Christian truth, and practising
Christian morality. Two societies differing so profoundly
in their principles, constitution, methods, and aims cannot
be united in one national organization without injury to
each. In order to recognize moral principles in govern-
ment it is not necessary to establish or endow Christianity
and its Churches. The law of the State is, or should be,
representative of the eternal law of justice as between man
and man and between man and God, and it is set up
expressly for the purpose of maintaining that law in its
integrity, by upholding right and punishing crime, if
necessary by the sword. But the religion of Christ repre-
sents the principle of grace, or forgiveness to law-breakers,
and Christ exhorts His disciples to "turn the other cheek "
to the wrongful smiter ; which is just the very thing that

196 EDWARD WHITE

the ruler of the State ought not to do. The history of
England shows what terrible evils spring from the attempt
to make these two radically different moral systems work
in combination. No single cause has so much embittered
English life, or provoked to irreligion the alienated multi-
tudes, as the so-called State provision for the poor man's
religion.

The relation of the Free Churches to the Anglican
Church is one of opposition, not only to establishment and
endowment by the State, but also to sacerdotal pre-
tensions in the Christian ministry, and to superstitious
perversions of the Christian sacraments. Yet the largely
Scriptural Protestantism of the original constitution of the
National Church must be acknowledged, and it should be
remembered that the ancient Church of England trans-
lated, distributed, and caused to be read in churches the
sacred Scriptures, the foundations of pure Christianity.

A closer union with the great and good men of all
ranks, from the highest to the lowest, who abound in
all communions can be attained only through a common
return to the ecclesiastical life of the first two centuries in
which free and powerful local Churches embraced all
Christian believers ; first, because nothing was imposed
as a test except faith in Christ, hope, and charity ; and
next, because fellowship with godly men was accounted
of more importance than the nominal churchmanship of
hordes of baptized heathen and fashionable profligates.

" Meantime, while allowing such ideas slowly to percolate
through society, and so to do their reconciling work
between divided communities, let us intreat of the
Almighty God that contests for political equality or
theological reform may not rob us of the serious tender-
ness which alone can qualify us to reach the sorrowful and
sinful multitudes around ; and that while such contests
last they may be conducted with a magnanimity and
grace which will demonstrate the presence with us of

CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION 197

that Spirit in whom all Christian people are eternally
one."

From Dr. Perowne, then Dean of Peterborough, to
whom Mr. White had sent a copy of this address, he
received a letter thanking him for it, and calling it " an
address worthy of yourself and of the occasion on which
it was delivered." The Dean wrote further : " The
peroration of your address is, I think, the most magnificent
eulogium ever pronounced on our Church. It is a model
of the loftiest eloquence, written in the purest English, and
with a breadth of sympathy, a large charity, a hearty,
ungrudging appreciation of all that is excellent in the
Church, which must not only make Churchmen grateful
to you, but which, I cannot doubt, found an echo in the
heart of many who heard you, and will tend, I firmly
believe, more than any other utterance I have seen on
either side, to allay animosities and promote Christian
brotherhood."

The address was described by the Christian World, in a
leading article, as " a complete, suggestive, and most valu-
able treatise on the relation of the distinction between
Law and Grace to the theology, ethics, and politics of the
modern Independents," which, having been delivered with
great vigour and incisiveness, evoked " loud expressions of
sympathy and admiration, even where the sentiments
might have been expected a little to startle such an
assembly." The same article declares that " the eloquent
description given of the attractiveness and the glories of
the Anglican Church ought for ever to stop the mouths
of those Church defenders who can see in Liberationism
nothing more than sectarian spite."

In the "Brief Notes" on the May Meetings in the
Congregationalist, it was asserted that " Mr. White's address
was fully equal to his own reputation, and exceeded any
anticipations which had been formed in relation to it.
From first to last it was a piece of sustained eloquence,

198 EDWARD WHITE

often marked by a rare felicity of expression, and lighted
up by touches of quiet humour very characteristic of the
man." It was further stated that "the address showed
that vigorous independence in thought and that courage
in utterance for which Mr. White has always been dis-
tinguished. Of course it will offend some people, but that
is the lot of every man who dares to be true to himself.
We should ourselves qualify some of his statements,
particularly those relating to Sunday evening work."

Exception was taken by some to other parts of the
address besides that relating to the proper use of Sunday.
Thus, for his expressions on the subject of temperance
and total abstinence he was very quickly put on his
defence by the Congregational Total Abstinence Asso-
ciation. To the letter of the Secretary he replied, on the
24th of May, showing that those of his own actual state-
ments against which objection was brought would not bear
the construction put upon them, and then he wrote as
follows : " Your friendly instruction on ' abstinence from
things lawful for our brethren's sake ' I take in good part,
having myself tried to act upon it in several directions ;
but my point was, that we must not convert our praise-
worthy self-denials in things lawful into absolute pro-
hibitive laws for all other Christians ; and above all must
not confound temperance with incipient drunkenness.
When the Roman clergy adopted a similar tone towards
Luther on the question of celibacy, he replied by marrying
Catherine von Bora.

"For myself, I do not feel at liberty to teach in the
pulpit total abstinence as a part of Christ's Gospel, but
only temperance in all things. In the pulpit I give
incessant warnings against the first beginnings of free
indulgence in intoxicants. ..."

In relation to the duty of the State in the use of force,
involving the question of war, the position taken in this
address was the same as that which he had vindicated

CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION 199

with so much logical force against Mr. Henry Richard,
then Secretary of the Peace Society, in 1860; and again
in 1877, when that gentleman was Chairman of the
Congregational Union.

Having at this time been chosen one of the Directors of
the London Missionary Society, Mr. White's first atten-
dance in that capacity was on May 24th. Thenceforward,
for more than ten years, he continued thus to serve that
Society, in which he always took a deep and particular
interest, as he also did in the missionaries who were its
agents.

On June 24th he gave an address at New College,
specially to the students of that and the two other com-
bined Colleges, who were then leaving to begin their work
in the ministry. He began by speaking of the question of
authority as between the soul, the Church, and the divine
Revelation, and asked : " Are your minds solidly made up
on the question whether you are to go forth as the Lord's
messengers and obedient ambassadors, or are you to go
forth in the character of moderately inspired prophets and
apostles on your own account ? This is really the question
which to-day underlies all other questions in the theological
colleges and in evangelical ministries. . . . According as
this question has been settled in our own minds in one
way or the other, it will of course determine the direction
and complexion both of our life-long studies and of our
aims. ... I doubt not this question has been decided by
you as men who during the past few years have, while
conversant with many other books, made the private study
of the New Testament and constant prayer for the
illuminating grace of the Holy Spirit to fall both on its
pages and on your own hearts, your main pursuit." He
proceeded to indicate a few practical conclusions drawn
from his own rather prolonged experience of the work.
The first of these was the great importance of maintaining
the knowledge of Holy Scripture in its original languages.

200 EDWARD WHITE

" It is only by the personal, continuous, incessant, and
sympathetic study of the Bible, from one end to the other,
that you can come to know and feel the overpowering
spiritual influence of the Divinity and the Shekinah which
dwells within it. The Word which has been made letter
is like the Word which has been made flesh." A second of
these conclusions was the importance of private and per-
sonal contact and conversation with those who are to be
the subjects of ministerial influence, and the little effect of
public discourse in moulding character. "The teaching
of Jesus to His disciples was far more frequently conveyed
in dialogue than in discourse ; and the teaching of any
man who desires -really to reach the busy crowds of
modern men and women must consist more and more
in conversing freely with small companies of them, in
Bible-classes, or in parlour conversations, or in absolutely
private interviews, especially when they are young and
their hearts are yet tender." The third point insisted on
was the superlative importance of maintaining the
spirituality of the Churches. He said : " Allow me to
conjure you not to assist with your voices or example the
contemptible process which is going forward in many
quarters of converting Nonconformity into a shabby and
flabby imitation of parochial Anglicanism of the Broad
Church type. . . . The very essence of Free Church
worship is that it shall be spiritual, that our societies
shall consist of persons individually confessing Christ and
hopefully the subjects of spiritual regeneration. Apart
from this idea, I do not understand what makes it worth
while to incur the disadvantages of separation and social
excommunication in England."

After the close of this address, at the business meeting,
it was announced that Mr. White had accepted the invita-
tion to occupy the chair of Homiletics during the ensuing
two years. This engagement he found exceedingly inter-
esting, bringing him as it did into close personal contact

CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION 201

and acquaintance with so many students preparing for the
Christian ministry.

At the invitation of Canon Fremantle, Mr. White
visited him in July when in residence at Canterbury in the
precincts of the Cathedral. On Sunday the 25th he
attended the services in the Cathedral morning and evening,
and in the afternoon preached in the Crypt, in that part
which was granted to the Huguenot refugees in the time
of Queen Elizabeth for their reformed worship.

On the 28th of the same month he addressed the lads at
Tettenhall College on modern improvements in the system
of education, which now cares even for the dull and does
not expend all time and energy in coaching up a few of
those who, being quick, might be able to learn for them-
selves. He said that recent improvements had brought
English education nearer to the Greek model, which he
proceeded to sketch. He closed by charging the lads to
carry into life that backbone of honesty, that manly faith
which alone could direct their career, teaching them not to
drift but to steer, and to steer by the stars straight for
eternity.

In anticipation of the autumn assembly of the Union at
Norwich in October, Mr. White had to prepare another
address from the chair. The subject that he chose,
" Handling the Scriptures," was one that he held to be of
the utmost importance, and it had often been the topic of
his public discourse and private conversation. But although
the substance and the purpose of the address were by
no means new to him, the manner and the setting were
fresh, and the result of careful thought and preparation.
The aim was to urge the need for more full and connected
study and exposition of Holy Scripture. The following is
a short synopsis of it : —

The Bible being the history of a divine revelation, there
is urgent need for bringing it into closer contact with men's
rninds, The general custom of preaching from isolated

202 EDWARD WHITE

texts, commonly consisting of a single verse or sentence,
cannot sufficiently set forth the meaning and unity and
authority of the Scriptures, for the Bible is the record of a
progressive and organized revelation, requiring careful and
consecutive study of all its parts. If this had been more
common in the Churches, some of the principal delusions
on doctrine and discipline might have been exploded long
ago. The ability of the Protestant Churches to stand firm
against the tide of scepticism, superstition, and worldliness
must come from the steadfast, laborious ministry of men who
will awaken, first of all among the more intelligent Chris-
tians, a new and solemn passion for the study of the Holy
Scriptures as a whole, in a humble and constructive spirit,
and not in the haughty temper of what is now too often
called enlightened criticism ; and next, from a far more
graphic and coloured representation of the Sacred History.
From an increase of such consecutive unfolding of Scripture
four principal advantages may be expected to arise.

i. The faith of thoughtful men will be made more clear
and strong. The difficulties attending the supernatural
revelation, and the limitation and imperfection of the
human element in the Bible, are likely to create involun-
tary scepticism unless the view of the divine element is
clear and many-sided. The Bible as a whole is an over-
powering reply to all serious objections to the Bible in
detail. And its victory as a history does not depend, any
more than English or Roman history, on the completeness
of a canon, or on the minute accuracy of each historian in
every jot and tittle of the narration.

That which a majority of even good men in Christendom,
especially the teachers, call their religious faith, is too often
the acceptance of articles imposed on them by impersonal
organizations, and the main theological function of Scrip-
ture comes to be to prove by verse-texts some Church
standard of human origin. Faith of this quality is akin to
credulity on one side and to scepticism on the other, and

CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION 203

will not impel a man to speak and act with the force and
fervour of the early messengers of Christ. Their faith was
produced by close contact with Christ Himself, and then
by close contact with the men who had heard and seen and
handled of the Word of Life. It was not the result of
listening to a few chosen sentences of theirs, but of a full
and continuous attention to the teaching of Christ and His
apostles ; and if the faith of this age is ever to resemble
the faith of the first, it must be alimented by the corre-
sponding methods.

2. In addition to the gain of a deeper spiritual life in the
Church and its ministry, a further gain might be expected
from the establishment of a public judgement in support of
Christianity. The people should be trained to study their
Bibles as a connected history, freshly confirmed by every
successive year's discoveries in archaeology ; as an organic
whole, in which the analogy between nature and the super-
natural history comes into prominence with every advance
in biological knowledge ; then popular faith could stand
firm against the opinions of men who imagine that the
discoveries of science discredit the Bible. Under the
system of dealing with selected verses or phrases, it is
scarcely possible to build up before the modern world the
image of the many-sided Christ, or to overthrow the errors
and superstitions arising from an incomplete conception of
the Biblical teaching. Taken as a whole, and in the plain
sense of the main current of its words, the Bible will be
victorious in the conflict with scepticism and error.

3. A more regular and systematic reading and explana-
tion of Holy Scripture in the Church would increase the
variety, breadth, and colour of the instruction and bring a
far deeper sense of Divine Authority accompanying the
message.

The Bible contains a wonderful variety of marvellous
histories, and biographies, and poems, and doctrinal
arguments, and soul-moving exhortations, and awe-striking

204 EDWARD WHITE

prophecies. When these are opened in order before the
people, in the light of modern knowledge and thought,
they become exceedingly interesting, and so men are
brought near to Christ's own authority in His permanently
recorded Word. It is there only that it can be had at first
hand. If the Holy Scripture be in any sense of the term
the record of a divine Revelation, then the nearest approach
to a final authority both for faith and practice is there.
But this divine Authority will not be felt as it ought to
be so long as the custom is tolerated for the teachers to
consider the Bible only as a repository of texts, out of
which a preacher may pick a few for his need, as David
picked a bagful of pebbles from the brook to pierce the
skull of his particular Philistine ; and the danger will be
imminent of men's yielding to the persistent clamour of
Rome and the Jesuits. The advance of the priest in do-
minion over the people has always been measured by
popular neglect of Holy Scripture, but sacerdotalism has
no chance of progress among a population carefully taught
by connected Biblical exposition.

4. A large increase in expository teaching would have
an important effect on practical life and its motives.

When the writings of the prophets and apostles are
explained in regular order, the most important lessons on
human life in its principal relations must receive careful
and deliberate consideration, and persons of every class
will in turn be taught their duty ; but under the method
of dealing only with selected texts there is an inducement
to avoid practical moral teaching. There is also a tendency
towards the neglect of the sterner portions of the revelation,
and when God's mercy is preached apart from His discipline,
and apart from "judgement to come," the garden of the
Lord soon lapses into an arid wilderness. " Against these
evils the exact and continuous exposition of Holy Scripture
offers the only sure defence. But all mere methods of
handling the Holy Scriptures will fail apart from the

CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION 205

personal aid of that Holy Spirit of Grace and Power, by
whose direct teaching alone men will see with unveiled
face the eternal realities, and catch the inspirations of a
Saviour's love."

Although this address was received by the assembly
with warm approbation, it shared the usual fate of Mr.
White's unconventional public utterances, in provoking
adverse comments on details in the religious Press, based
for the most part on misstatement of his words, amounting
in some cases to a perversion of their meaning into a
totally opposite sense.

In the course of the same month an announcement had
been made that the Rev. H. R. Haweis would preach for
Dr. Parker at the City Temple. This, however, was pre-
vented by the Bishop of London, Dr. Temple. This
action of the Bishop gave occasion for a loud outcry
against him for narrowness and bigotry. Mr. White,
however, wrote to the Times a letter which was published
on October 3Oth, justifying the Bishop as having only done
his duty. He wrote : lt Not a few of us, with every
facility for entering the Church of England, have sacrificed
that career from regard to our own consciences on the
question of subscription, and it appears to such persons
that they ought to respect conscience in other men as
much as they respect it in themselves. The Bishops are
bound by the Act of Uniformity and by their own most
solemn promises at their consecration to enforce it. It is
the essential condition of the establishment of the Church.
It is not a question of individual breadth or narrowness of
view. Bishop Temple is not likely to err in such a case
through pride or prejudice, or [to act] through anything
less than principle. Let the questions of conformity be
fought out on their merits, and let us not attempt to carry
our contention by setting at naught solemn engagements.
Just legislation cannot be promoted by private dishonour
or by conniving at illegality. Let the existing law be

206 EDWARD WHITE

steadily enforced, and then before long the nation as a
whole, shocked at the frightful disunion among Protestants,
will insist on the amendment or repeal of the Act of
Uniformity in the face of day, and all parties will be able
to respect one another in the interval."

The Merchants' Lectures in November were on
"Animals and their relations with God and Man." Of
these Mr. White wrote thus to Dr. Petavel : " I must
send you my lectures on animals because the last is a very
bold and daring assertion of the truth from the chair of the
Merchants' Lecturer, the first time I have done this
hitherto. I have just quoted Scripture, without note or
comment, and then said : 'If this does not naturally
express popular ideas, the fault is not in apostolic language,
but in the popular ideas.' So leaving them to get recon-
ciled to St. Paul, and cautioning them not to call him a
heretic meanwhile." The fact that a doctrine can thus be
taught in Scripture language is surely presumptive evi-
dence of its truth.

The foregoing may suffice to indicate the large amount
of public work done during this year of office. It was a
matter of thankfulness to Mr. White that his voice had
not once failed him, although in the preceding year its
failure had kept him almost silent for months together.
He rejoiced in all his numerous opportunities of becoming
acquainted with the Churches, and of making them better
acquainted with himself and his earnestly evangelical
teaching. On the 2/th December he wrote to Rev.
W. D. McLaren : " My year is ending, a year of wonder-
ful health and strength, after one of illness and nearness to
death. I have made sixty expeditions, near and far, and
have not failed once in my voice. The good Lord grant
that some fruit may grow from all this seed-sowing. . . .
I shall be glad of the cessation of my publicity. . . . Yet
I have accepted so many invitations because I thought it

CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION 207

accustomed the public to the idea that people of our way
of thinking may be employed by the Churches in such
functions and make it easier for others. In private con-
versation also in families, there have been many oppor-
tunities of speaking the truth on moral topics. ... I find
the New College work difficult, but pleasant. It gives an
opportunity of constantly insisting on Scripture study."

A word may here be added as to Mr. White's political
position at this time. He had taken an active part in the
General Election in November 1885. In the election that
followed the rejection of Mr. Gladstone's Bill for giving
Home Rule to Ireland in 1886, he was in some doubt as to
the wisdom of that proposal, but considering the long tale
of wrongs suffered by the Irish, and believing that Mr.
Gladstone's Bill had been an honest attempt to right those
wrongs, he decided to give his support to the Liberal side.
Accordingly he supported the Liberal candidate for North
Islington, the division in which he resided, and went to
Walthamstow to speak for Mr. Albert Spicer. It was
understood that before another presentation of the Home
Rule Bill to Parliament it should be altered in some parti-
culars, and Mr. White evidently felt the need for this, as
he wrote : " The one condition of Home Rule for Ireland
is the extension of the principle to England and Scotland,
and the union of the three in one Imperial Parliament. If
this arrangement is not yet practicable, we must remain as
we are until a favourable opportunity occurs."

Later on he still further modified his attitude towards the
question, and joined the " Unionist" ranks.

CHAPTER XV

THE JUBILEE YEAR

1887 ; AGE 67-68

IN January of this year Mr. White went to Nottingham,
and addressed the students of the Theological Institute
on " Aggressive Christianity." At the end of the same
month he went to Bristol, to speak on behalf of the
Colonial . Missionary Society. On the first Sunday in
February the subject of his lecture to artizans was
"The Queen's Jubilee and the Working Classes." The
next day he went to Birmingham to preach and speak on
behalf of the Midland Baptist Association. Later in the
month he preached in Liverpool. In March he was at
Worcester preaching on the 2OOth anniversary of the
Church meeting in Angel Street. Thus although his
year of office had expired, he was still in request for
special occasions.

As ex-Chairman, the Congregational LTnion also claimed
his services as its representative at the meetings of the
Scottish Union at Dundee in April. This expedition to
Scotland was full of interest to him, for it brought him into
contact with both old and new friends. His presence and
speeches made an excellent impression upon the Scottish
folk. For his speeches he had made careful preparation,
and he was rewarded by attentive and appreciative

audiences.

208

THE JUBILEE YEAR 209

The Union meetings were held in Dundee, but Mr.
White went first to Glasgow, where he preached twice on
the Sunday, April 24th. He was the guest there of his old
college friend, Rev. David Russell. On the Monday they
went together to Dundee, where Mr. White's first address
as delegate of the English Union was delivered on the
Tuesday to the students of the Theological Hall, on the
" Special Responsibilities of the Ministry." In the evening
he was introduced to the meeting of the Union by the
Chairman, Mr. Ross, and made a brief reply. On the
Thursday evening he addressed a social meeting on the
purposes of Church Association, especially that of the
formation of personal character, in the promotion of which
he feared that the existing Churches were somewhat
remiss. On the Friday he gave his lecture on " Wasted
Lives," at Ward Chapel, and on Saturday went to
Edinburgh. There, on the Sunday, he preached three
times — in the morning at Dairy Church, in the afternoon
at Free St. George's, and ,in the evening at Augustine
Church.

The more private social engagements which intervened
between the public meetings also contributed largely
towards making this visit to Scotland very pleasant. Of
it he wrote to Rev. W. D. McLaren : " Taking it altogether,
it was a great opportunity, and I think prayer was
answered by gaining a hearing for two or three principal
points. I stuck to my chief texts: (i) St. Paul a fully
inspired messenger of God, claiming to be so 186 times in
his writings, and proving it by results ; (2) The true
Gospel, a religion suitable for the wicked, the false Gospel
suitable only for respectable people ; (3) More danger
from Gnosticism inside the Church than from Agnosticism
outside ; Gnosticism being defined as knowing better than
the apostles how to teach Christianity."

In June came the celebration of the Jubilee of Queen
Victoria's reign, and in the preparations for it Mr. White

2io EDWARD WHITE

took considerable interest. The fact that he was born in
the same month, and only a few days earlier than Her
Majesty, seemed to give him a rather special and peculiar
interest in all that concerned her.

As the ex-Chairman of the Congregational Union, he
received a ticket of admission to the Queen's thanksgiving
service in Westminster Abbey, of which he was glad to
avail himself. This took place on June 2ist, the fiftieth
anniversary of her proclamation as queen. It was needful
to be there two hours before the time of service so as to
secure a good place, and there was an immense assembly.
Descriptions of the scene and the service were published
at the time, and need not be here repeated. Mr. White
said that the Queen looked radiant as she entered, that the
service was very solemn, real, and pathetic, and that as she
returned Her Majesty's face was full of emotion. He got
out in time to see the Royal party leave the Abbey, and as
they went up Whitehall he heard from St. James's Park
the thunder of the people's voice as they acclaimed her,
and this he characterized as " a sublime sound, like nothing
else in nature."

On the following Sunday he preached on the Mosaic
Jubilee, comparing and contrasting it with that of the
Queen's reign, and giving a description of the scene that
he had witnessed in Westminster Abbey.

On Monday the 27th, along with Dr. Mackennal, who
had succeeded him in the Chair of the Congregational Union,
he went to Windsor to present to the Queen a congratu-
latory address from that body. They found themselves in
the company of about a hundred men representing fifty
societies or other bodies, municipal, religious, and scientific,
who were there on a similar errand. Lunch was provided
for them on arrival, and after that they were shown into
first one ante-room, and then another, until at last they
were ushered into the presence of the Queen herself, whom
he described as a little old lady in a big widow's cap sitting

THE JUBILEE YEAR 211

behind a table. She sat to receive the municipal repre-
sentatives, but stood beside the table to receive those of
the religious bodies. He spoke of it as having been a
momentary entrance, like a magic lantern slide, and exit
backwards. Although this was so brief an interview with
Her Majesty, it brought him into very close touch with her,
and formed one of the bright spots in his memory through
the remainder of his life.

By this time the exhaustive effects of Mr. White's great
activity and much public speech during the preceding
eighteen months was indicated by a persistent insomnia,
and it was evident that thorough mental rest was needed.
In order to obtain this it was arranged that he should go
with his brother and nephew for a trip to the Tyrol and
Pontresina. They started at the end of July, and after a
brief visit to Innsbruck they went on by railway to
Landeck. Thence by the roads along the Alpine
valleys and by several stages, they proceeded over the
Stelvio Pass to Pontresina. There the large company at
the hotel made their sojourn less quiet and restful than
would have been desirable for Mr. White ; but he regained
his faculty of sleep. Sometimes, however, when awake,
he would observe the night sky, which made a deep im-
pression upon him, the stars seeming so much brighter and
nearer, viewed from so great a height and in overwhelming
numbers, so that he could say, "It was worth the whole
journey to look upon this ' spacious firmament on high,
with all the blue ethereal sky,' a ' back heaven ' for the
everlasting hills."

From Pontresina they made several excursions : to St.
Moritz, to the Roseg and Morteratsch Glaciers, the
Schafberg, &c. A stay of eight days was long enough
for Edward White, and he persuaded his brother and
nephew to move on. Accordingly on August i6th they
started on the return journey to England by way of
Zurich and Basle.

212 EDWARD WHITE

In a letter that appeared in the Baptist of September
1 5th, Mr. White mentioned four distinct causes of mischief
in the Churches at that time. These were — (i) General
scepticism promoted by atheistic science and criticism ;
(2) Small attention paid to connected study of Scripture in
colleges ; (3) The so-called religious Press, in which much
of the writing is done by men who scoff at the apostolic
message of eternal judgement and of immediate forgive-
ness through the atonement of Christ, the message which
alone in any real sense can " save sinners " ; and (4) The
unreasoning, uncritical dogmatism of the school in which
Mr. Spurgeon has so many humbler and less worthy
imitators. On this last cause he says, " Stiff, immovable,
Calvinistic orthodoxy, with its everlasting torment in hell
(think of it!) for the non-elect of all ages and of all
nations, including youthful sinners, has been widely one
provocative cause of prevailing heresy. Men are more
deeply influenced by their antipathies than by their
sympathies, and I think that this school of evangelical
men, notwithstanding all their merits, have much to answer
for in the modern reaction towards Universalism (with its
washed-out message of general consolation, confounding
salvation and damnation under one definition), towards a
still wider scepticism, and even towards the abyss of so-
called ' scientific ' atheism. ... I know very well that Mr.
Spurgeon's stiff backbone has been one secret of his
influence for good over the unlearned multitude, but it has
also alienated and even wrought up to bitter antagonism
multitudes of intelligent men whom, under different
treatment, he might have saved from apostasy."

Such was Mr. White's judgement on the " Down Grade "
controversy, which for a while made a considerable stir in
the Free Churches of the land.

At the opening of the session at New College, Mr.
White gave the introductory address to the students on
October 4th. The subject he had chosen was, " The

THE JUBILEE YEAR 213

Influence of Spiritual States on Biblical Criticism." In it,
referring to recent discussions on the Old Testament, he
pointed out the growing importance assigned to the
spiritual factor, both in determining the value and
authority of the Scripture writers themselves, and the
weight and authority of the scholars who criticize
them. A man who is an eminent Orientalist may lack
" the vision and the faculty divine " which would inspire
and illuminate his criticism of those writings. This
principle is recognized in the Scriptures themselves. He
said : " The function of the Church teacher is to furnish a
living voice to the records of divine revelation, to be a
medium between the sacred historians, prophets, and
apostles and the people to whom God has sent His Son
as Redeemer and King. But this function of teacher is
entangled with a double difficulty, arising out of the
surrounding presence of spiritually blind guides ; that is,
of parties corresponding in character to the old sects of the
Pharisees and Sadducees in the days of Christ, namely,
the formal traditionary party of religious commentators
and practitioners, and its reactionary product, the sceptical
and destructive party of critics and thinkers. And just as
Christ, the living Word, maintained an independent
position between them, and committed Himself to neither,
... so is it still in relation to the written Word in our own
time, when the Pharisaic and Sadducean parties still divide
European society between them. Our present danger is
undoubtedly chiefly from the influence of the latter. . . .
And yet, on the whole, there seems no reason why we
should be seriously alarmed. Let us keep our minds cool
and honest ; let us read diligently and in order that
wonderful work the Revised Version of the Old Testa-
ment, where you have in English substantially ' the Law
and the Prophets ' as they were in Christ's time, in which
He believed and on which He rested His claim to be the
Saviour of the world ; and let us ' pray to God alway '

214 EDWARD WHITE

like Cornelius. Then, if spiritual men, we shall, I think
soon discover that those great scholars of France, Ger-
many, America, and England are right who maintain that
the outcry of triumph on behalf of the Dutchmen and
Scotsmen who suppose that they have already nearly
made an end of an authentic Pentateuch has been raised
somewhat too early in the conflict. . . . The true light
dawns again after every eclipse ; for though the evils
of controversy are great, they are all temporary, while
its benefits are all permanent. . . . The business of
breaking down and discrediting the Bible as a whole
is a far more difficult and complicated undertaking than
either its hostile critics or its lukewarm friends sometimes
imagine, especially since evangelical scholars have learnt
to avoid dangerous exaggerations and to allow for honest
Biblical compilation and partial editorship. In order to
break down the Bible narratives as a whole, you have to
deal with a prolonged spiritual structure. . . . There is
another remarkable circumstance : that the subversive
criticism which occupies itself with the Old Testament
Judaism seldom employs itself upon apostolic Chris-
tianity, and vice-versd, that the scholars who attack the
supernatural in Christianity seldom occupy themselves
with Judaism. They do not work together as partners
ought to do ... but generally conduct independent
critical business in the line of anti-supernaturalistic ad-
venture. Is not this because it seems a much more
formidable enterprise to undertake the overthrow of both
together than of either singly ? . . . But we ought not to
despair of the ultimate faith of these eminent writers,
because they exhibit a wonderful power of belief, even
in their present speculations. Their belief may have
taken a wrong form, and may be governed by mistaken
principles, but they do believe the most miraculous things
as to Jewish and Christian history ; and when this be-
lieving power of theirs is turned in another direction, they

THE JUBILEE YEAR 215

will probably find little difficulty in accepting the far less
exacting phenomena of the old historical Judaism and
Christianity. ... A literary criticism springing from a
secret hostility to the supernatural and divine is neces-
sarily fatal to fair dealing with the Bible. The knowledge
of God in our own souls is the clue to all beside in nature
and grace. Apart from this divine illumination we shall
lose our way in the labyrinth of life, and still more in the
study of that revelation which alone can guide us into life
everlasting." J

In October Mr. White attended the meetings of the
Congregational Union at Leeds, and in connection there-
with went to speak at a meeting held at Dewsbury.

An article was contributed by him in this year to a
" Symposium " in the Homiletic Magazine on the question :
" The Reunion of Christendom : is it desirable, is it
possible ? " His article followed one by Rev. H. N.
Oxenham, M.A., and much of it is devoted to an exposition
of some of the fundamental differences which make it quite
impossible that there can ever be outward organic union
between free evangelical Churches and a system such as
the Roman represented by Mr. Oxenham. He goes on to
argue thus : " Christianity, as depicted in the apostolic
writings, asserts the priesthood of all true believers, all
alike having direct access into the Holy of Holies through
the great High Priest, but it recognizes no special priest-
hood in the pastors of the Churches. These are designated
presbyters or elders, and bishops or overseers, not once
priests. The ' craft ' of the ' priest ' when practised with a
free hand has ever proved fatal to the intellectual, social,
and political liberty of Christendom ; and the combination
of all the ' priesthoods ' of Europe into one vast organiza-
tion would mightily invigorate the pretensions of all, would
prepare for us a world where men for their own comfort

1 This address was published in full in the Congregational Review
for November 1887.

216 EDWARb WHITE

might as well resolve at once on abandoning their claim
to be regarded as rational creatures. They would become
the slaves and negroes of a world-wide hierarchy. For the
effect of a close combination in widely ruling corporations
is to diminish the sense of personal responsibility, and
indeed the belief in the value of individual manhood. . . .
There is a special delusion which haunts the combinations
by which men seek to recover the sense of power and to
unite their forces in order to accomplish nominally praise-
worthy ends. The delusion consists in mistaking joint
responsibility for divided responsibility. The persuasion
is widely extended that union is not only strength in
administration and enterprise, but that it distributes the
oppressive burden of responsibility in equal and in-
significant shares between all the persons who are joined
together in any government or enterprise ; so that although
the practical result of their united action may be morally
indefensible or even intensely wicked and injurious, no
single person can be justly blamed or rendered account-
able for the whole criminality of the result. . . . The
truth is that the relation of the individual to the moral
government of God is primary, dominant, and inalienable,
and cannot be diminished by the evil concurrence of others.
Before God the combination of men in counsel and action
results always not in divided responsibility but in joint
responsibility. . . . The day that beheld the Reunion of
Christendom according to Mr. Oxenham's plan, would
probably see enthroned an organized mastery of the
multitude over the individual, . . . which would first
punish and then attempt to extinguish all individuality of
thought and practice in religion, so bringing into action
the ancient forces of persecution, disciplined and sharpened
by the refinements of modern ingenuity and intolerance.

" The really effective security for the liberties of Europe,
intellectual, social, and political, the best conceivable
defence against the introduction of a Chinese uniformity

THE JUBILEE YEAR 217

in religious thought and a semi-Chinese despotism in
administration, I find, not in the reunion, but in the
providential divisions and rivalries of what Mr. Oxenham
denominates ' Christendom.' . . . With due deference to
Mr. Oxenham I deny, with all my fellow Nonconformist
Protestants, that the unity for which our blessed Lord
besought His Father on the night before His passion, the
unity which finds its archetype in the unity of the Godhead,
the unity which was largely realized in the apostolic age of
the Gospel, the unity through which the world will be
brought to believe in the mission of the Son of God, was
a unity analogous to the ecclesiastical unity of a
Christendom bound together by an organized hierarchy of
prelates and priests, having their centre of force at Rome.
. . . Can any serious, impartial student of the four Gospels
. . . believe that if ' this same Jesus ' should appear on
earth at this juncture in the world's history, He would as a
first reform proceed to bring about a reunion of Christen-
dom after the fashion advocated ? . . . No ! Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday and to-day and for ever. And this
encourages the belief that a reunion of Christendom on His
lines would be found in some present and practical reality
operating in every parish. . . . Let all men who Move God'
in any neighbourhood begin to ' love one another also,' and
to show it by an immediate endeavour to realize local
union. ... At all events this result would somewhat
resemble early Christianity, with its short creed and its
brotherly love. . . . If successful in a single parish, of town
or country, it might be repeated in all the parishes of the
United Kingdom. But I admit that it is difficult even to
imagine what would become of the majority of us who are
religious teachers under such a revolution."

A letter published in the Nonconformist and Independent
in December of this year shows how ready Mr. White
was to accept all proved results of recent nature-study,
while steadily refusing to admit the unproved assumptions

218 EDWARD WHITE

of nature-students as grounds for disbelief in the Bible.
The subject of the letter was "The Influence of Method
on Results," and a few extracts may be given : " There are
few investigations in which the result attained is not
greatly determined by the method. ... It is so in the
pressing question on the modes of divine action in creation
as affecting the credibility of the sacred writings. There
are two opposite methods of inquiry here which seem to
lead men to different results. . . . The first method leads
men to commence the induction amidst the mists of the
remotest antiquity of the globe in the most distant geologic
times, and thence to travel onwards, through successive
fossil worlds, until an approach is made to the more recent
periods of the earth's history, including finally its existing
condition and present inhabitants. Under this method it
is, as a matter of fact, possible for speculative science to
reach such a conviction of the permanent action of the
evolutionary energies of Nature, whether proved or not to
be of absolutely universal application, as to lead men to
assert the chain of life to be unbroken through all the ages,
and to include man in the latest number of its links — links,
however, belonging to times immensely more ancient than
those represented by either archaeology or history. This
method of study carries with it usually a denial of any
recent creation of either animals or men, and from that
denial proceeds a bouleversement of the fundamental
Scripture histories on which the New Testament writers
base Christianity. . . . But there is another method of
studying the phenomena set before us in history and in
nature, and the pursuit of this method greatly affects the
result. Instead of beginning our researches into the modes
of divine action only in the primeval world, we begin also
at the latter end of the great history of providential action.
We study the modern world as we know it, in the whole
extent of its inorganic and vital phenomena, this world
which is nearest to ourselves and close at hand. And here

THE JUBILEE YEAR 219

we are at once confronted with a wholly new view of
divine action, differing from that which meets us in the
dim fossil world. Before us we see, indeed, a vast system
of gradual and evolutionary processes in full operation,
' ordinances of heaven and earth,' giving us the assurance
of certain fixed and permanent methods of divine govern-
ment in nature and compelling us to accept the belief,
from the comparative study of internal structure that what
we term evolution has borne a great part in the divine
production of living things now existing, and the conse-
quent probable connection at least of many of them with
previous forms of life now extinct and fossilized. So that
any successful and general attack on the doctrine of
development becomes less and less possible for minds duly
informed of the facts.

" But — and here is the chief result of the second method
—we are confronted, if we study concurrently the modern
period of the divine government, with undubitable signs of
a divine action which is not gradual and evolutionary,
but direct, new-creative, and supernatural. Miraculous
Christianity — appearing only twenty long life-times ago —
is as much a proved historical phenomenon in recent
history as any case of animal evolution can be in the pre-
historic world of nature. The history of Jesus Christ and
of Christianity, of His death, resurrection, and ascension,
and of their spiritual consequences on earth, are as
thoroughly well authenticated as any conclusion that can
be derived from the study of fossilized Australian
marsupials, or of the hipparion in America. But here,
whether ungodly scientists recognize it or not, we see at
once a direct supernatural action of God. Nature cannot be
supernatural. The supernatural is in God alone. . . . And
thus at once comes into view the double action of a Deity
acting in the natural and in the supernatural spheres, the
evidence of both being under our eyes. There is a sphere
of action for Nature, a sphere of action for Man who is a

220 EDWARD WHITE

true cause, and a sphere of action for Deity. What
follows ? Clearly, that the Being who has ' created a new
thing in the earth ' in Christ and Christianity, may also
have created new things in the natural world aforetime ;
even, as some naturalists say, whole tribes of living
creatures in successive worlds ; so that He may also have
recently 'created man in His own image,' as we read in the
record on which Christianity is founded. I am speaking
to believers in Christ only.

" In a word, does not the truth lie in a synthesis of the
contending theories ? Each is partly true. The whole
truth requires the seldom-pursued study of the world's
history from both ends at once. ... Is there not something
worth thinking about in this way of putting matters ? "

Before the close of this year Mr. White had become
convinced that the time was at hand when he ought to
retire from the pastorate at Hawley Road, which had been
the main interest of his life for nearly thirty-six years.
Indications of failing powers had appeared, and the strain
of so much public work was felt to be too great for
continuance. Accordingly, after having mentioned the
matter privately to the leading persons in the Church,
he announced his intention to the members on Sunday,
December nth. His actual retirement took place in the
following year.

CHAPTER XVI

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE
1 888-9 ; AGE 68-/0

AT a special meeting of the Church at Hawley Road,
which was held on Sunday evening, December n,
1887, Mr. White read a letter, written by himself to the
deacons a short time previously, giving the reasons which
impelled him to contemplate his resignation of the
pastorate early in the coming year. In that letter he
stated that, ever since his year of Chairmanship of the
Union, he had felt persuaded that it would be better for
the Church that he should terminate his work at Hawley
Road before his declining strength should be so marked
as to lead to a similar weakening of the community. He
wrote : " It is a grave mistake for pastors who have long
held the same position in any neighbourhood to postpone
this step until the patience of either young or old is
exhausted." He stated his resolution therefore to retire
from the pastorate early in the coming spring, while
there was still plentiful vitality in the Church to provide,
with God's blessing, for the future. He then mentioned
some further reasons which urged him to this course, and
thus concluded : " No words can express the feelings
towards you all with which I bring to an end my labours
among you. So far as the Church at Hawley Road is

222 EDWARD WHITE

concerned, my life has been one of unbroken happiness.
The loving and generous care shown to us by the living,
and the memory of the steadfast affection of the dead,
touch me more than I can now tell you in writing. My
comfort is that, if spared, we shall be comparatively near
neighbours, and not lose by distance either society or
friendship.

" May the Great Shepherd guide you in the steps which
will be required by my withdrawal, and may the old peace
and unity continue to the end."

It was then stated by the deacons that, having fully
considered the reasons given for the contemplated re-
signation, they saw no course open but to accept it.
Further consideration of the subject was then adjourned
to the regular Church meeting, to be held on the 22nd
December.

At that meeting a resolution was moved by Dr. Pye
Smith, and seconded by Mr. Mercer, in the following
terms : —

" That we, the members of the Church assembling at
Hawley Road, desire to render devout thanks to Almighty
God for His many mercies, and particularly for having
for so many years continued to us the blessing of Mr.
White's oversight in the Lord, for the benefit of his public
and private prayers, for his preaching of the Gospel of the
grace of God, his exposition of the Holy Scriptures, and
his Christian character and example.

" That we hereby record our respect and affection to
our beloved minister, our deep and universal sorrow that
the bond which has long and happily held us together
should be broken, and our earnest desire and prayer that
the deeper bond of gratitude and love, of our common
faith and of our united hope may never be broken, but
may grow continually stronger for ever.

" That while praying for every blessing upon him, upon
Mrs. White, and on their family, we hope that he may

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 223

long be spared to be of eminent service in the Church
on earth, that we may from time to time have the privilege
of again hearing the Word of Life from his honoured lips,
that his last days may be his best days, and that they may
be crowned by an abundant entrance into the Kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ."

After discussion of the possibility of suggested alterna-
tives, which were shown to be impracticable, this resolution
was unanimously agreed to.

At the Church meeting held on February 23, 1888, the
last at which Mr. White presided as pastor, he read the
original declaration signed by the thirty-four earliest
members of the Church, and addressed the members on
the concluding verses of the first chapter of the Epistle to
the Philippians ; and prayers were then offered for both
pastor and Church in their separation.

A special farewell meeting open to the public was
held in the chapel at Hawley Road on March 22, 1888,
at which testimony was borne to the high estimation in
which Mr. White's life and labours were held, not only by
neighbours, and ministers, and representatives of various
Christian Churches and religious associations, but also by
representatives of science, legislation, and literature. After
letters had been read from Dr. Dale, Professor Barrett,
and others, the Rev. J. C. Harrison, who presided, spoke
of his close intimacy with Mr. White during all the thirty-
six years of his pastorate at Hawley Road and his regret
at losing him as a neighbour. Dr. Stoughton referred to
some of his pleasant associations with Mr. White and his
chapel, particularly to one Sunday evening when he saw
the place packed with an eager throng of artizans. The
Rev. John Nunn, as one of those ministers who had been
longest neighbours of Mr. White, was the next to pronounce
a valediction. Then followed the special event of the
evening.

Mr. Russel Elliot presented Mr. White with an

224 EDWARD WHITE

address signed by about four hundred of his friends, all
of whom had subscribed to the presentation about to be
made, including not only members of his congregation,
but many other admirers in different parts of the country.
Mr. John Carter said that, as one of the oldest
members of the Church over which Mr. White had faith-
fully presided for thirty-six years, he had been requested
to perform a very pleasing duty. When Mr. White's
resignation became known, a strong desire sprang up in
the minds of many present and past members of the
Church, and also of those who had read his works with
great pleasure and profit, that some tangible evidence
should be presented to him of the esteem and affection in
which he was held, and especially for his able and faithful
exposition of the Scriptures. Consequently a few friends
came together, a committee was formed to receive sub-
scriptions, and he was sure it would be gratifying to Mr.
White to know that contributions had come not only from
members of his Church, but from a large number of
ministerial friends and others in London and throughout
the country. The result was that in the name of the
contributors he had the honour and the very great pleasure
of presenting Mr. White with a cheque to the value of
£1,000, which he begged him to accept as a token of their
love and affection. He had now another pleasing duty to
perform. Many of the present and past members of the
Church, knowing what a true helpmate Mr. White had in
his beloved wife, and knowing the great interest Mrs.
White had always taken in everything connected with the
Church, had expressed a strong desire that a testimonial
should be presented to her also. Knowing Mrs. White's
fondness for botany, it had been suggested that a fern-
stand would be appreciated, and, acting on that suggestion,
one had been obtained, which they begged Mrs. White
kindly to accept as a token of their estimation of the
valuable work she had done, and they hoped that when

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 225

attending to the flowers and ferns it contained Mrs. White
would remember the many friends connected with Hawley
Road Church. As they were about sorrowfully to bid Mr.
White farewell, they were most anxious that he might be
assured of their earnest prayers that his future years might
be very happy, and that his later days might be his
happiest, and that in his last moments on earth he might
be cheered and comforted by the prospect of meeting
around the throne of God many who had attended his
ministry, many loved ones gone before, to spend a glorious
eternity with Christ and His redeemed, and hear those
welcome words : " Well done, thou good and faithful
servant ; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Rev. Edward White, who was received with loud and
prolonged applause, said it would be easily understood by
the meeting that he felt great difficulty in expressing
himself. The whole of the meeting and the incidents
connected with it had come upon him nearly altogether
as a surprise. The loving-kindness which had prepared
the meeting had been most 'ingenious in concealing from
him what was going to happen, and whereas at first the}'
had spoken of holding a kind of domestic farewell with
each other, it seemed to have been developed into this
much wider meeting. He wished first of all to lay at the
feet of Him whose presence they all realized at that
moment the honour that had been conferred upon His
servant. Whatever had been true in the things which had
been said by his dear friends concerning the nature, the
purpose, and the principles which had animated him in
the past was a description of Christ's work through him
and in him. They were all members of Christ. He was
their Head, and if He was their Head and lived in them,
then certain works corresponding with His purpose would
show themselves forth in them, and it would be vain
presumption not to acknowledge the goodness and love
of Christ the Lord in enabling them to do any such work

16

226 EDWARD WHITE

in His name. That took off the evil side of human praise,
which was liable to go to excess if left to itself. Where
work had been faithfully and honestly done in spite of all
temptation, in constant habit of prayer to Him who was
their Righteousness, their Sanctification, their Redemption,
and their Eternal Life, it was only honouring their Lord
to accept such declaration as part of His praise, and if the
praise and love of Christians on earth was so sweet, what
would be the word of Christ, " Come, ye blessed of My
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world " ? Almost all Christian works
were works of combination. The Lord did not give much
to be done by individual souls. What had been accom-
plished by them was the result of co-operation, and it was
because they had had such help and such marvellous
sympathy that they had been able to accomplish some
of the work which had been described. It was indeed
a most solemn thing for a man to enter on a course of
Christian ministry. St. Paul said : " To the one we are
the savour of death unto death ; and to the other the
savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these
things ? " What a fearful discrimination between the two
destinies ! What a boundless blessing if they could really
believe that their adherence to the divine truth had been
so steady and their purpose so honest that they might
hope that the influence they had exerted had been, in the
main, for human salvation ! He could not conceive of
any employment more delightful than that which he had
been permitted to exercise at Kentish Town for the last
thirty-six years. They had had an unbroken history of
brotherly love ; it had, indeed, been a true Church in the
midst of London. There had never been a quarrel between
the ministers or between the Churches, and at the end of
the time they could look back upon a long course of faith
and hope and love. In looking back over his past life he
wished to render honour to his first tutor, Mr. Charles Nice

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 227

Davies. To him he owed the habit of sitting down daily
to study the Holy Scriptures. They used to sit down
every morning to study the Greek Testament, and Mr.
Davies fastened in his mind a habit which he had never
lost ; he had always tried to understand the Holy Scriptures
for himself, and he had always tried to convey to others
that which had thus been conveyed to himself. If any
good had come to others in consequence of that habit, he
thought Mr. Davies's name ought to be mentioned. His
soul now rested with Christ, and for him was reserved the
peace which passeth all understanding in the everlasting
kingdom. The result of Scriptural study had been im-
mensely to strengthen in his own mind perfect confidence
in what were understood as the old foundations of the
evangelical faith. That had been the keynote of his
teaching at Hawley Road — forgiveness first, amendment
afterwards. With regard to the kind and most generous
munificence of the presentation which Mr. Carter had
made in the name of so many friends, he scarcely knew
what to say, as it was the last thing which entered into
his thoughts. He could sum it all up in one word : " From
my heart, my friends, I thank you." He could not help
thinking of those ministers who reached old age without
any presentation of any shape or form awaiting them, and
he hoped, by means of the munificent gift which he had
just received, to be able to help some of his older brethren
in a more obscure position in life. As for the results of
his labours, it was indeed an unspeakable delight to be
able to think that he had helped in some degree the faith
of mankind, and, he hoped, promoted the salvation of
many. Christianity was opposed by two kinds of un-
believers. There were those who were opposed to
Christianity when it was pure, because they were opposed
to the Author of Christianity. But there were also those
who were sceptics and doubters in consequence of the
corruption of Christianity, and it was a comfort to think

228 EDWARD WHITE

that he had helped some of these to take such a view of
Christianity as to enable them to reconcile faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ with scientific knowledge and with those
wider views which had grown up in the world in modern
times. His earnest hope was, that of the multitudes of
educated men who were giving themselves to the Christian
ministry, it would please God to lift up a few of them in
the character of expositors of the divine Word. If they
could clear Christianity of its corruption there was no
rational scepticism that could stand against it. Christ was
greater than any sceptic, and if they did but present their
Lord to the world as He should be presented, there was
something so wonderful, so loving, in Him that He was
able to vanquish even the utmost hostility of those who
were opposed to Him. He was thankful to say that at
Kensington, where he was going for the next fifteen
months, he should be amongst old friends. The presence
of so many honoured men on the platform overwhelmed
him, and he could only say that he wished everybody to
accept the warmest thanks of himself and Mrs. White for
the kindness that had been shown to them.

The subsequent speakers were the Rev. D. Basil Martin,
who acknowledged his great indebtedness to Mr. White,
whose assistant he had been for more than two years ;
Professor Sir George G. Stokes, Bart., F.R.S., M.P., who
recognized and reciprocated Mr. White's catholicity ; the
Rev. T. McDougall Mundle, who read a resolution of
regret and appreciation passed by his Church in Kentish
Town ; the Rev. Samuel Minton-Senhouse, M.A., a close
friend and comrade of Mr. White while himself in the
ministry of the Church of England ; the Rev. Dr. Hannay,
who represented the Congregational Union ; Mr. Samuel
Smith, M.P. ; the Rev. Newman Hall, who had only just
arrived from Mentone and had travelled day and night in
order to be present ; the Rev. Robert Harley, F.R.S. ; Mr.
Thomas Walker ; and the Rev. George Hawker.

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 229

The following hymn, composed by Mr. White, was sung
at this farewell meeting : — •

o

Offspring of God, we boast the name ;

To God let all our voices rise,
With holy joy the praise proclaim

Of our great Father in the skies.

The glory of the burning dawn,

The purple evening's softer ray,
By His command foretells the morn,

With peaceful gladness crowns the day.

Above this vast revolving world

The heavens unfold their midnight scroll ;

Millions of orbs in courses hurled,
Through deep unbroken silence roll.

The movements of the universe

Depend on His controlling hand,
And wide from age to age rehearse

His awful name in every land.

His calm, eternal eye surveys

All things in one unchanging view,
Each creature lives beneath the gaze

Of "Him with whom we have to do.1'

Yet wonders still on wonders rise ;

The heavens are bright, the earth is fair,
But, far more wondrous in our eyes,

This mighty God, He heareth prayer !

Through Christ, our Life, upon the throne

To Him may mortal sinners go;
His death doth for our guilt atone,

And life in endless joy bestow.

Writing to Mr. Knight a few days after this meeting,
Mr. White said : " Amidst the tumult of last Thursday
evening I really do not think we exchanged five words,
but you will know what I feel for your share in the celebra-
tion of the farewell. I could not help thinking how glad
the first teachers of Christianity would have been to have
so good a time, instead of being kicked and stoned to the
last moment of their lives, But the pleasure, though

230 EDWARD WHITE

mainly ours, must have been shared by those who have
stood by me so long as you have done. It was very
striking to picture to myself the little band of ' heretics '
who gathered on the same spot thirty-six years ago, few
in number and small in resources, in contrast with the end
of the battle ; and for how many years did you take an
effectual part in it. Well, you know how we love you
both, and have reason to. It was a new sensation to be
stroked the right way of the stuff for two hours without
stopping ; till at last I felt as if it would be only right to
let loose the Christian World or some other less partial
friend to do the other thing. However, it is over now,
and may God keep us steady, in good report as in evil."

On the 3 ist March he wrote in the following terms to
the Church at Hawley Road :—

" MY DEAR FRIENDS, — I have been glad to hear that
the usual financial meeting is to be held on Thursday
week, because it will offer me a suitable opportunity of
saying to you a little more of what is in my heart
than was possible amidst the excitement and surprise of
the 22nd March. I have felt ever since how miserably I
failed on that evening to express in any adequate way the
astonishment and gratitude which I felt at the parting
festival of love which you had prepared for us ; the like of
which has not often been seen in our Churches. It was
a good thing for both you and me that we could so part,
a good thing for Nonconformity, and a good thing for
Christianity, in our neighbourhood and in London ; and
we both alike owe it to the ' kindness of God our Saviour,'
who has taught us to love one another with sincerity and
truth, and to respect one another as well.

" But what shall I say of the most munificent gift, which
embodied and expressed in a practical form your care for
our future ? I thank you for it with true affection, one and
all, richer and poorer, and the feeling which it expressed is

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 231

of more value than the money. I did not wish, in leaving
Hawley Road, to be any expense to you after last Christmas,
but you have overpowered my desire by your kindness, and
have by an immense amount of loving labour on the part
of some of you drawn others into the business of sending
us away laden and honoured with many honours, like St.
Paul from Melita.

" Well, our love has been the growth of many years and,
if we may judge by its lasting on earth, bids fair to be
eternal. While listening to my own praise from men, I
kept steadily before my mind the thought of the one all-
seeing Judge, who knows both sides of our characters ; and
yet, though He could not have spoken without saying ' I
have somewhat against thee/ I think He knows that my
aims have been right and the love to you sincere. The
affection I have received from you can never be repeated
elsewhere on earth, both from old and young ; but what is
best to think of is that this affection is of a moral as well
as a personal value and will help us to keep our faces
directed to the eternal City of God, where we hope to
spend together the endless days.

"I cannot close this letter without saying, (i) How
delighted I was that you joined my dear wife in your
testimony of affection and how much she feels your kind-
ness ; and (2) How thankful I was to receive your gifts and
addresses through the lips of Mr. Carter and Mr. Russel
Elliot, who in their two generations have been to me such
helpers and friends as I only wish every minister of Christ
possessed throughout the world. May God bless them and
bless you all in both worlds and for ever and ever. For
my wife and children, who all wish to join in these words
of affection to you, I am, dear friends, ever gratefully and
affectionately yours,

" EDWARD WHITE."

In November 1887 Mr. White had preached at the chapel

232 EDWARD WHITE

in Allen Street, Kensington, which had been the scene of
the ministry of Dr. Stoughton and Dr. Raleigh, the Church
there being at that time without a pastor. When the
approaching retirement of the pastor at Hawley Road
became known, and it was understood that he would be
open to occasional preaching engagements, the Church at
Kensington decided to give two invitations : first, to invite
Mr. C. Silvester Home, then studying at Oxford, to become
pastor at the close of his term of study ; and second, to
invite Mr. White to take the temporary oversight for
about a year and a half, preaching there generally on the
Sundays, except when Mr. Home could occupy the pulpit.
This invitation reached Mr. White on January 6th, and on
the 1 2th he wrote agreeing to the proposal, undertaking to
help the Church to the best of his power, but giving
warning that his occasional exhibitions of vigour must not
be taken as the measure of his strength.

Feeling the necessity of having a dwelling-place within
easy reach, he arranged to take a house in Holland Road
for the limited period of the engagement, and moved into
it in the course of March. His house in Tufnell Park he
soon afterwards sold. He still, however, had the house at
Highwood Hill, and to this he retired for quiet and refresh-
ment as often as he conveniently could.

The last Sunday in February had marked the end of his
Hawley Road pastorate, and on that occasion there were
large congregations, many who had formerly been connected
with the Church being present. The Kensington engage-
ment began with the first Sunday in April, and so he had
the month of March free. This freedom was welcome, for
the business of clearing out of a house of that size after
twenty-two years' residence is not easily or quickly
accomplished, especially with so large a number of books
to be classified and packed, some for Kensington and some
for Highwood.

In writing from Kensington in the month of June to the

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 233

Very Rev. Paton J. Gloag, D.D., LL.D., of Edinburgh, he
gave the following account of these events : " I brought
my ministry in Kentish Town to an end in March, after
thirty-six years, making with ten years at Hereford forty-
six years, and intending to adjourn to High wood to spend
the rest of my time in writing and occasional preaching.
But just at this juncture our great Church at Kensington
wanted a 'stated supply' for fifteen months, until Mr.
Home is ready at Oxford. So I came here, engaged in
preaching to a very interesting congregation, and have taken
a house for a space of time, which gives us much oppor-
tunity of visiting museums, &c."

On the evening next following that of the farewell and
presentation at Hawley Road, a meeting of the opposite
character was held at Kensington, at which there was a
public recognition and welcome accorded to both Mr.
C. S. Home, as the pastor elect, and to Mr. White as the
"stated supply" or interim pastor. Dr. Stoughton, who
had been one of the speakers the previous evening at
Hawley Road, was a most fitting chairman on this
occasion, he having been for many years pastor of that
Church, and the chapel in which the meeting took place
having been erected during his pastorate.

After the opening prayer Dr. Stoughton said they had
present that evening, so to speak, the past, present, and
future tenses of the verb "to minister." He himself
represented the past, for it must be something like forty-
five years ago that he entered upon a pastorate there that
lasted thirty-three years. He was glad that Mr. White
was to be one of his successors. He remembered years
ago receiving a letter from a daughter of Dr. Redford in
which she said : " We have got such an interesting young
man here, and he is studying for the ministry. He reminds
us so much of you." That young man was Mr. White.
He highly approved of a minister doing what Mr. White
vvas about to do ; leaving the settled ministry while he still

234 EDWARD WHITE

has health and strength remaining, and becoming a sort of
bishop at large ; and he felt sure that while at Kensington
Mr. White would gain great favour and do excellent
service, as an expositor of the Scriptures and lecturer
to working men.

Mr. Thomas Walker, one of the deacons, welcomed Mr.
White to the pastorate, and congratulated the congrega-
tion on the satisfactory settlement of the difficulties
attending the vacancy. They proposed now to gather
up their resources, and to travel on the old, well known,
well trodden and divinely appointed road, trusting in the
guidance and protection of the Almighty. The great
guarantee for the future was the preserving grace of God,
but in their case they had, on the human side, additional
guarantees in the men they had chosen to be their teachers.
After referring to the high testimony given at Hawley
Road on the previous evening to Mr. White's faithfulness,
he said that although objection might be taken to Mr.
Home's youth, that was a defect that would constantly
tend to disappear.

Mr. White then spoke briefly of his desires and inten-
tions in undertaking thus to stand where so many eminent
preachers had stood. He cared less and less to preach
intellectual sermons, and preferred to appeal to the moral
faculties and the affections.

Mr. Home then expressed his hearty gratitude for the
kind simplicity of the welcome accorded to him and his
satisfaction in being thus associated in work with Mr.
White.

Although in these two meetings there was such a con-
sensus of appreciation of Mr. White's long ministry, the
prejudice against him and his teaching was not even then
extinct. Of this there was evidence at the meeting in
May of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
among the Jews. Mr. White delivered an admirable
speech, which was received with loud and general

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 235

cheers. Yet one person got up and asked an offensive
question with reference to what he called Mr. White's
specialities.

At the meeting of the Christian Evidence Society in the
same month Mr. White was one of the speakers. Refer-
ring to the objections against Christianity with which the
Society had to deal, he said that some were caused by the
theological and ecclesiastical corruptions and hostile specu-
lations of the past eighteen centuries, but that it makes
way in spite of them, mentioning his own experience in
the north-west of London in confirmation of that assertion.
That which moves the common people in our day, as it
did in the first days of the Gospel, is the " secret " of Jesus
Christ, the message of immediate forgiveness for sinners,
which will lead to reformation of life. The sense of sin is
the very clue to Christianity.

Mr. Henry Richard, M.P., was at this time residing in
Kensington and a member of Mr. White's congregation.
The relations between these two men were most cordial,
notwithstanding their opposition in the controversy as to
the use of force by the State. On June 26th Mr. Richard
was announced as " at home," and Mr. White was one of
the guests. But this connection did not last long, for on
August 2Oth Mr. Richard died. The funeral took place at
Abney Park on the 24th, when Mr. White and Dr. Dale
conducted the service, and Dr. Evans addressed the crowd
in Welsh. Mr. White referred to that crowd as " a wonder-
ful assembly of men engaged in the wars of the Lord, a sea
of fine faces." At the morning service on September 2nd
he preached a memorial sermon, in which he urged the
duty of Christian men taking their part, as Mr. Richard
had done, in political life in order to fight against evil and
bring about the triumph of justice and good will in the
laws and in the government of their country.

In September a trip to Ireland with Mrs. White
was undertaken. Having heard glowing accounts of

236 EDWARD WHITE

the scenery of the west coast, they determined to go
thither. Accordingly, after a day spent in seeing Dublin,
they travelled across Ireland to Westport. The day of
their arrival was unfortunately a fair day, so that the
streets were encumbered with cattle and people, and the
number and variety of noises increased their discomfort.
They therefore soon quitted Westport, and went by rail-
way to Ballina, where a Sunday was spent. On the
Monday they made an early start by mail car, and
reached Sligo at midday, where they had a row on the
lovely Lake Gill, proceeding later in the afternoon by car
to Bundoran at the end of Lough Erne, arriving at six, the
whole day's journey by car being fifty-nine miles. From
the heights above the town the next morning there was a
fine view of Donegal Bay, with its vast circle of headlands,
and opening out into the Atlantic. Thence by railway to
Londonderry in the afternoon ; and the following after-
noon to Coleraine and Portrush, going on from Bush Mills
by the electric railway to the Giant's Causeway Hotel.
The Causeway was visited next morning after breakfast,
and a seat enjoyed at the airy extremity open to the
Atlantic breezes. The afternoon was occupied in a walk
over the hills to Pigskin Promontory, whence there was a
fine view, lighted up by the western sun. Early the follow-
ing morning they started for a long drive by the coast to
Cushendall, where they spent that afternoon and the
morning of the next day. Of the scene as viewed in that
morning's walk, Mr. White made the following notes :
" Bright morning. Wide and magnificent view of sea
and mountains from the top. Promontories on the north
stretching out one after another into the ocean ; Sheep's
Island in the mid-distance, looking through iron gates.
Wonderful picture of sea and sky. Two descending
headlands enclosed the immense stretch of water, the
long length of sea deep blue, shading off in the south
into sunlit water and paling towards the coast, The

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 237

bright emerald fields and yellow corn on the promontories
set off the blue water. The sky a pure pale blue above,
flecked near horizon with a ledge of white mountain-like
clouds." In the afternoon they had another long coast
drive to Larne, and then the railway took them to Belfast
for the Sunday, September 3Oth. There Mr. White
preached in the evening for Mr. Fordyce, whose guests
they were for three days.

During this visit to Ireland Mr. White had much con-
versation with people of various ranks and classes on the
state and needs of the country. In the west he found the
farmers prosperous, having the best harvest for many years.
One farmer told him that the grievance of the people is in
their tenancies, but that they would strive for Home Rule
if purchase were granted. He thought the Government
should become landlord, and forbid non-residence, or affix
penal consequences. The latter part of the journey being
in Ulster, opinion was different, the religious aspect of the
question became more prominent, and the distinctively
Protestant views were put' before the travellers. One car
driver said that the peasantry drive away the landlords by
their conduct, and then complain of absentee landlords.
Ministers who were met in Belfast were all ready for some
sort of Home Rule, but none for subjecting Ulster to the
Nationalists ! On the whole, the experiences gained during
the journey tended towards the severance of Mr. White
from the party that followed Mr. Gladstone's lead on that
subject, a severance which became definite in the following
year.

Leaving Belfast on October 4th, they went by steamer
to Liverpool, where they were entertained by Mr. Samuel
Smith, M.P., and on the 6th they went on to Manchester,
where Mr. White preached twice for Dr. Maclaren. They
then went to Nottingham, in which town the Congre-
gational Union meetings were held that week. There
Mr. White joined in a protest against holding a meeting
in connection with the Union on Home Rule for Ireland.

238 EDWARD WHITE

At this time Mr. Samuel Carter Hall was residing in
Kensington ; he had attained a great age, nearly ninety, and
had outlived his wife, who was equally well known in the
literary world. In response to inquiry, Mr. White received
from him a note, written in a very shaky hand, as follows : —

"REV. AND DEAR SIR, — I have not much physical
strength left, but please God I shall have enough to receive
you any day about one o'clock or a little before.

" I do not often leave my bed, but am praying for the
' removal ' that will bring my beloved wife to greet me at
the golden gate.

" Truly and faithfully yours,

" S. C. HALL."

This note was received on February 4, 1889, and
Mr. White promptly called upon the writer. He found
him in bed, propped up, being so weak, but a grand old
man, with a fine face, flowing white hair, and white eye-
brows, in full possession of his faculties, and expressing
himself in a noble and deliberate strain of dignified speech,
with an occasional touch of poetic thrill. He spoke first of
his " hobby," which was concern for the work of the sisters
of St. Claire at Kenmare, who wholly educate and partially
iced and clothe four hundred poor children. To these
Mr. Hall had sent every month for eight years a box of
clothes, towards which he asked for a contribution in
exchange for several cards on which pieces of his poetry
were printed. This Mr. White very willingly sent. He
also called again a fortnight later, when the talk was chiefly
about spirit manifestations, of which Mr. Hall had much
experience. On looking through a book in which many
supposed communications from Mr. Hall's dead wife were
recorded, Mr. White noted that there was nothing in
them at all resembling the heaven of Jesus Christ, nothing
which a lying daimonion could not accomplish.

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 239

In this same month of February two letters from
Mr. White were published in the weekly Press. Of these
the first was addressed to the editor of the British Weekly,
and was as follows : —

" SIR, — Allow me to offer a respectful remonstrance
against your proposal to elicit opinions on the subject of
future punishment, at least on the basis indicated in your
last number. I do not think that any persons who really
understand the doctrine of Life in Christ will consent to a
competitive examination for popularity in relation to the
single topic of the final doom of unregenerate men. The
doctrineof Life in Christ is not primarily,or even secondarily,
a doctrine on hell. It is a doctrine on the nature of man,
on the object of the divine Incarnation, and on its effects
in the case of the saved. It is only in the last place a
doctrine on the final destiny of the unsaved. When
treated simply as a scheme for getting rid of the later
patristic and mediaeval doctrine of endless torments, I have
never seen the slightest benefit of a spiritual kind resulting
from its adoption. It is only when embraced as a system
of evangelical theology, resulting from a scientific and
common-sense method of Scripture exegesis, a system
which places the idea of eternal life as a gift of grace in
the centre of Christianity, that any good spiritual results
ensue. And since a connected study of Holy Scripture is
just the very last thing to which present tastes incline the
religious public, those who hold this system of belief as of
divine authority are in no way shaken in their faith by the
opinion of the multitudes who accept either the natural
immortality of all men, from philosophy or tradition, or the
salvation of all men, from speculative philanthropy or
religious agnosticism."

This letter may serve as an illustration of the great
difficulty there has always been in getting preachers or

240 EDWARD WHITE

writers or editors to understand the full and true scope of the
doctrine, and to treat it from the positive side as a doctrine
of life, and not as a doctrine of doom.

The second letter, of which a portion follows, was on a
different subject, one which Mr. White had before treated
in a sermon at Fenmaenmawr in 1878, as mentioned in
Chapter X. This letter appeared in the Spectator, and so
brought the question before a different and perhaps wider
public than that which the sermon had reached :—

" SIR, — Many of your readers will thank you for the
timely support given in your article in the Spectator of
February i6th on 'The Sternness of Christ,' to the true
doctrine as to the impression made by Christ's character
on the people of Palestine. I venture to offer two
additional items of evidence on the same side.

" ' It was said of some that Elias had appeared.' If Jesu.s
had been in appearance and manner the ' weak creature '
which a very eminent sceptic, often mentioned in your
columns, sometimes declares Him to have been — the true
original of the low-browed, thorn crowned, passive Christs
of mediaeval and ecclesiastical art — is it conceivable that
the common people of Galilee could have mistaken Him for
the promised Elijah who had been, so to speak, an incarnate
thunderstorm in the days of Ahab and Jezebel ? There
must have appeared, at least often, a mysterious mingling
of the awful and terrible with the compassionate and loving
in Jesus Christ.

" The close friendship, again, into which our Lord drew
the Apostle John seems to me to point in the same
direction. This apostle of love, as he is called in many
pulpits, was at least by nature a Son of Thunder, though
sometimes, as in the case of the Samaritan villagers,
mistaken in the proposed aim of his thunderbolts. His
Gospel and Epistles, not to speak of the Apocalypse, are
full of signs of a most robust and severe moral disposition.

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 241

No one employs more terrible denunciations in enforcing
the doctrine of ' love.' St. Peter was a Fenelon in com-
parison. Nevertheless this Son of Thunder was ' the
disciple whom Jesus loved.' Was it not a case of the
attraction of similars ? — of that similarity which con-
sisted in the noble and rare conjunction of manly religious
strength and womanly tenderness, the strength which can
contend for righteousness even unto death and judgement,
and the tenderness which melts into sympathy in the
presence of sin and sorrow ? How should it be otherwise
if this Wonderful One truly was an incarnation of Deity —
of that Being who is at once the ' great and terrible God,'
yet ' full of compassion and merciful,' the God both of
Nature and of Revelation ? "

At the Memorial Hall on March 25th a meeting was held
to welcome Dr. Hannay and Mr. Lee on their return from
South Australia, where they had been visiting the Churches.
Mr. White was there to join in the welcome. A misleading
paragraph relating to some statements made in Australia
as to opinion in England having been published, Dr.
Hannay took this opportunity of explaining what he
had really said. Among other things in his speech he
said : " I did say that the old doctrine of eternal material
torment of the impenitent was dead, and had been dead
for some time. I said that part of the ground formerly
occupied by that doctrine — that is to say, part of the area
of conviction which that doctrine had at one time covered —
was now divided between two active schools of thought,
which had presented to the candour of their countrymen
more or less distinctly formulated doctrines. I named first
the doctrir.e of ' conditional immortality,' immortality in
Christ, through the life eternal of Christ within the man ;
and then the doctrine of ' the larger hope,' which I asked
them, on the testimony of some of those whose minds have
found rest in this doctrine, to distinguish from dogmatic
Universalism. These two forms, I said, divided part of the

242 EDWARD WHITE

area of conviction formerly held by the old doctrine. I said
that the former of these two doctrines, that of conditional
immortality, was maintained by some of our foremost
men — foremost whether regard were had to their power
as theological thinkers, their eloquence, their literary
capacity, or their fidelity as Christian ministers ; but that
the doctrine of the larger hope had vogue chiefly among
the younger men. I made no hint as to the extent of that
vogue. . . . Then there was a third category of which I
always spoke on those occasions, to which no reference
whatever is made in this paragraph — a non-dogmatic
category to which no dogmatic designation can be applied,
in which are to be placed the names of men, not a few
who refuse to dogmatize on this awful subject. . . . And
I venture to believe, though I am not confident that I said
it there, I proclaim it now as my belief from my knowledge
of the English Congregational ministry that under this non-
dogmatic category there will be found a much larger body
of men who are actively engaged in the pastorate of the
Churches than under the head of either of the other
schools."

On this statement Mr. White made the following
remarks in a letter to the Nonconformist and Independent :
" I venture to suggest, from some considerable acquaint-
ance with this special controversy, that nothing can be
more misleading than the attempt to decide doubtful
minds by vague assertions respecting the proportion of
thinkers, or non-thinkers, who hold opinions on any side
of this question — a question which cannot and ought not
to be decided by such considerations, but only by careful
study of the divine revelation which was given for the
purpose of making us ' know the certainty of the things in
which we are instructed.' If the palm of pre-eminent
wisdom is to be assigned vaguely to indecision on the
question of human destiny, the same reward may be

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 243

pleaded for uncertainty, and even for popular or learned
indifference, on the questions of the Incarnation, the
Atonement, and the work of the Holy Spirit. It is only
when Holy Scripture has been carefully, fully, and fairly
examined, under the laws of a scientific and common-
sense exegesis, that men are entitled to say : ' We cannot
tell.'"

Mr. John Bright's death on March 25th gave occasion for
special reference to him, to his character as well as his
career, in Mr. White's sermon the following Sunday
morning.

On the question of Home Rule for Ireland it has been
already shown that Mr. White was gradually attaining the
conviction that under existing circumstances it was im-
practicable. A meeting of Nonconformists opposed to
Mr. Gladstone's proposals was held at Willis's Rooms on
May 8th, and Mr. White showed his sympathy with them
by his presence. This led to the appearance in the Daily
News of May I4th of the following letter, giving his reasons
for thus acting : —

" SIR, — As you thought it worth while to notice my
attendance at the Nonconformist Unionist meeting last
week, perhaps you will permit me, as a thirty years'
reader of the Daily News, to assign in a few words the
reason which persuaded me, and probably many others,
into what you consider a state of political backsliding. It
has not been, I think, any decay of zeal for the main
objects of the Liberal party, or any loss of respect and
gratitude for the past achievements of the illustrious
Liberal leader. I cannot join in the unworthy reproaches
against him in which some of his old followers freely
indulge. At the last election, considering the ancient
wrongs of Ireland and its pitiful condition, I worked and
voted for Mr. Gladstone ; hoping that he would, on
reflection, see his way to a plan of the Irish political

244 EDWARD WHITE

campaign more acceptable than that which Parliament
had condemned — perhaps through some proposed com-
bination with the Conservative leaders similar to that
which carried us through the question of the franchise.
These expectations have not been fulfilled ; we have
enjoyed the benefit of two years of elaborate and incessant
discussion ; and the Liberal party is still, so far as I can
see, without a definite and declared policy for Ireland
beyond that which is contained in the vague phrase of
Home Rule. Mr. Gladstone's followers maintained at the
last election that his first Bill was 'dead.' Mr. Gladstone
himself in a recent letter speaks of the statement
that he was without a definite policy as an ' impudent
falsehood.' If this be the state of the case, why does he
not assist his old friends and faithful followers to some
chance of maintaining their position in argument with
their opponents? On my own mind the effect of wide and,
I think, impartial reading on both sides since the last
election has been to force the conclusion that, whether the
Irish members are retained at Westminster or excluded
from the Imperial Parliament, the idea of a nearly
independent Irish Legislature is impracticable and in-
consistent with the primary rights of either Great Britain
or Ireland. ' If the Irish members may hold a powerful,
and often a decisive, position in the British Parliament,
while we are excluded from theirs ; or, if the Irish people
are excluded from a voice in Imperial affairs in our
Parliament, while we fetter their liberty with the restrictions
of Mr. Gladstone's rejected proposals, ' how is the Queen's
Government to be carried on,' or, indeed, any Government ?
At present we are totally in the dark on this crucial and
cardinal question, and until Mr. Gladstone furnishes us
with some valid reply to the Unionist objection on this
matter, as set forth by his old friends and fellow-soldiers,
Mr. Bright, Lord Hartington, Lord Derby, Lord Selborne,
the Duke of Argyll, Mr. Goschen, and Mr. Chamberlain

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 245

(to say nothing of such important journals as the Spectator],
I see no reason for following Mr. Gladstone blindfold ;
and, still less, no reason for sacrificing one's honesty and
self-respect to the insulting clamour of those pseudo-
Liberals who attempt to drown all serious discussion by
cries of ' Pigotry ' and ' Toryism ' against men who were
steady Liberals before they were born and have suffered
for their faith and practice. These were my chief reasons
for attending at the soiree of the Nonconformist Unionists.
I do not like the title, for Nonconformity, as such, has
nothing to do with the question. The excuse, however, is
that the general Nonconformist name has been too freely
used in the Congregational Union, as elsewhere, by some
' eminent ministers,' willing to follow even a leader who
steadily refuses to lay down a definite and declared policy
on the relations of the two proposed Parliaments of
England and Ireland, so that Nonconformist remonstrants
have a right to a separate hearing. For my part, notwith-
standing my friend Mr. Edward Crossley's statement last
year in the Congregational Union to the effect that
Unionists have ceased to be Liberals, I will not any
longer follow even Mr. Gladstone in the dark, because one
does not understand Liberal politics to be based, like
Popery, on blind, implicit faith in party wire-pullers.
" I am, sir, your obedient servant,

" EDWARD WHITE.
" 52, Holland Road, Kensington, W."

In this month he attended the annual meeting of the
London Missionary Society on the Qth ; and on the
loth he cpoke at the breakfast meeting of the Zenana
Mission on the influence of women, who are taking a
greatly increased part in the work of evangelization, and
the need for making the theology taught more like the
glad tidings that it should be.

With respect to his ministry at Kensington, Mr. White's

246 EDWARD WHITE

own experience, as described in a letter to an intimate
friend, was that it had proved more of a spiritual work
than he had expected. He felt that he had won the
attention of the people to his exposition of the Scriptures,
and was determined, as long as his service there continued,
to do his best to intensify this effect In a later letter
he writes : " The warmth with which people here have
welcomed my endeavours has surprised us. But really
they do seem grateful for the set of explanations of
Scripture which I have set before them. Home returns
from sea-voyaging in the beginning of October, and at
once commences."

His stated ministry in this Church had lasted longer
than was at first intended, and did not terminate until the
end of September in this year. His last sermons as its
pastor were preached on September 29th, that in the morning
on " The Church as the organ of the Holy Spirit for saving
men," that in the evening on " The Eternal Glory."

On the following Thursday a farewell meeting was held.
Of that meeting his old friend Mr. James Waylen, who
was present, wrote as follows : " Mr. White received the
Church's parting salutation and thanks. Cordially as the
document embodying this record was worded, we have
reason to think it but very imperfectly represents the
gratitude to Almighty God which has been kindled in
many breasts, for the light and lustre poured on the written
Word by the preacher's honest and fearless exegesis.
Systematically avoiding any of the catchwords at which
party spirit is so apt to take fire, Mr. White has, neverthe-
less, given utterance to those central truths which pulpit-
policy seems doomed to ignore. This he accomplishes by
making the Bible speak for itself — by a skilful method of
casting his argumentative definitions in Biblical phraseology,
linked in sequential order, and issuing in victorious affirma-
tion. Thus the people, before they are aware, are enlisted
in the good cause ; thankful to discover that their old

RETIREMENT FROM THE PASTORATE 247

Gospel only needed to be unveiled to flash into the
radiance of a new revelation. The congregation at Allen
Street contains many independent thinkers ; but, with
hardly anything that may be termed exceptional, all have
bowed to the supremacy of Scripture ; and not a jarring
note has been heard to qualify the affectionate verdict
which crowned this very happy period of Church life."

A fortnight later Mr. White presided at the formal
Ordination of Mr. C. Silvester Home, M.A., and in con-
cluding his address, wherein he had explained the
significance of the service, he said : " With this evening
my own brief but happy function as interim pastor of this
Church ceases ; and in delivering up this sacred office I shall
humbly join my prayers with yours for God's best blessings
to rest on my dear successor and on yourselves, whom he
will love the more the longer he lives among you and the
more self-denyingly he serves you."

CHAPTER XVII

THE WORK OF DECLINING YEARS
1889-1894 ; AGE 70-74

MR. WHITE'S idea of what retirement from the
pastorate should mean may be gathered from
notes written at a later period as well as from his own
actual mode of life after the close of his term of office at
Kensington. Thus in 1896, after quoting the words," They
shall still bring forth fruit in old age," he wrote : " When
retired from regular work in a system of labour, there is
great danger of sinking into a desultory, unsystematic,
unprofitable working with the left hand, not earnestly,
specially when village life (and its small population) is
added to the temptation of sloth. Both study and work
lose their motive and impulse, and we become doubly
unprofitable servants, and unable to respond to the
summons : ' Give an account of thy stewardship.' "

Later again, after quoting the two phrases : " Entered
into rest," and " They rest from their labours," he wrote :
" When retirement from a pastorate and post of continual
teaching is taken to mean a life of idleness and cessation
from all plans and details of spiritual and temporal useful-
ness, it only shows the worthlessness of the previous
' active life,' and the quality of the 'restful' change to be
sloth. If the devil can persuade you to substitute a life of

reading and dreaming for one of active work in saving

248

THE WORK OF DECLINING YEARS 249

others, he must look with delight in both his fiery eyes at
the exposure of such hypocrisy. Let the time of retire-
rr^ent from a fixed public work be a time of special watch-
lulness for the opening of great and effectual doors in other
directions."

He had nearly nine years of retirement in which to put
his principles into practice, as he did, preaching very fre-
quently, and often with great power, continuing his
Merchants' Lectures until 1893, when illness compelled
him to resign ; writing a good deal both for private and
public use ; and conversing with friends and with strangers,
into whose company he was brought. Very soon after his
retirement, however, he was for nearly five months debarred
from all public work by illness.

The term for which he had taken the house at Kensing-
ton had expired before the close of the temporary pastorate.
As he wrote in July to Mr. Knight : " Our brief career
here is coming to an end. We leave this house at the end
of August. I preach as a, traveller one month more (Sep-
tember) and then ! final casting off the harness and escape
from the shafts ; all work to be thenceforth irregular and
spasmodic. It will feel queer. The plan is to go to Mill
Hill till January, and then as February opens to go to
Italy for perhaps four months." That projected trip to
Italy was, however, never taken, for within a month of his
farewell meeting he was so ill as to be obliged to give up
all idea of so long a journey.

At the end of October he received from America a
volume of essays on the Life after Death, entitled, That
Unknown^ Country, to which he had contributed a careful
statement of his own belief, founded on Holy Scripture.
The separate essays in the volume being arranged in the
alphabetical order of the contributors' names, Mr. White's
appeared last in the book ; and as the first was by Dr.
Lyman Abbott, the Conditionalist view is stated both at
the beginning and at the end of the series, as well as in

250 EDWARD WHITE

several of the intervening essays, which are of very various
character — Unitarian, Mahommedan, Buddhist, &c., as well
as orthodox Christian. This large and expensively got-up
book was issued only to subscribers, and not published for
sale. Mr. White's note on it is : " My contribution, the last
in the series, reads like a summing-up of the preceding
anti-Scriptural jangle of opinions. Read much of it.
Never so glad that my name begins with a ' W ' and so
comes at the end."

Mansfield College, Oxford, was opened on October I4th,
and Mr. White went to the opening ceremony, staying
until the next day to hear Dr. Fairbairn's inaugural
lecture. After the luncheon he returned home, feeling
unwell. On Sunday, November 3rd, he preached in the
morning at New College Chapel, and in the evening, at
Highgate, gave his lecture on "Athens, Rome, and
Jerusalem." But in the afternoon he went to see Dr.
Andrews at Hampstead, who examined him thoroughly,
and pronounced his condition so serious that it made the
patient realize the possible nearness of the end. The
doctor gave directions as to warmth and diet, and the
avoidance of all chills. After a few days of this regimen,
a consultation was arranged with a specialist, the result of
which was, as Mr. White expressed it, a strange relief from
sentence of death by the verdict of two doctors, the most
serious symptoms having become much less marked. Thus
he was able to fulfil an engagement to lecture at Harecourt
Chapel on the I4th, on " Number in Nature." Continuing
the prescribed regimen, he was pronounced " much better"
when he went for examination again at the latter end of
January 1890. On the 29th of that month he went with
Mrs. White and his two youngest daughters to Bourne-
mouth instead of to Italy. Their stay at Bournemouth
lasted until the middle of April.

At this time, before leaving home, while still under the
impression of impending death, he wrote : "Just as you are

THE WORK OF DECLINING YEARS 251

going out of the world you begin to observe it carefully.
Never before have I so enjoyed the veined outlines of the
bare trees against the sky, and the prospect, as I have done
this year, each tree a variety of branching and twigging."

Meanwhile an event had occurred which was of deep
interest to him. On December 13, 1889, Robert
Browning died at Venice. His remains were brought to
England, and on the last day of the year were interred in
Westminster Abbey. Accounts of the impressive scene
and service there could not be read by Mr. White with
indifference, as he always retained a vivid remembrance of
the days when they were both boys, though Browning was
some years his senior.

During this stay at Bournemouth Mr. White read a
great deal, but did scarcely any public work. One Sunday
in March he preached for Mr. Ossian Davies. The weather
was frequently cold, but he was able to be out in the air a
great deal, often sitting on the pier, and gradually regain-
ing vigour. Among the interesting persons whom he met
there was Mr. John Macgregor (Rob Roy), with whom he
conversed more than once in his walks. He also met some
who expressed their thanks to him for his books, especially
his chief work, Life in Christ. One of the books that he
there read was a new translation of the celebrated treatise
by St. Athanasius, De Incarnatione Verbi Dei, recently
published by the Religious Tract Society as one volume
in their series of Christian Classics. He wrote in April
two letters to the Times, which were published, calling
attention to the teaching of that treatise on the nature of
man and the purpose of the divine Incarnation, that
purpose being to raise man out of the corruption caused by
sin, which would otherwise end in non-existence for the
sinner ; in fact, the same teaching as that contained in his
own book, Life in Christ. Referring to these letters in
the Times, a writer in the Nonconformist and Independent
said : " Mr. White, in calling attention in the Times to

2$* EDWARD WHITE

the Incarnation of the Word by Athanasius, modestly
ignores what theologians must regard as his own far more
able treatise."

In returning from Bournemouth on April I5th, a halt
was made at Winchester for a visit to the Hospital of the
Holy Cross, a mile and a half away from the city, and to
the Cathedral. At the latter they were conducted round
it by the most educated verger they had ever met, who
really explained the monuments. Mr. White calls the
building " a dream of sublime beauty in stone," and
meditating on the powerful influence exerted by such
buildings he asks : " What chance against such force have
the ignominious little chapels of dissent ? " The answer to
that question, as furnished by the questioner himself, is :
None, except by the exertion of a superior force, and that
of a spiritual character.

On May 4th he preached once more at Kensington, after
seven months' absence, and had a pleasant meeting with
many friends there ; on the i8th and again on June I4th
he was back in his old pulpit at Hawley Road Chapel, and
many old friends were there to greet him. Indeed he now
was able to undertake preaching engagements, and through-
out this and the following year these were very numerous.

On July 3 1st he started for a short visit to Holland.
Travelling via Harwich and Rotterdam, after a few hours
only in the latter town he proceeded to the Hague, after-
wards visiting Scheveningen, Leyden, and Amsterdam.
During this visit he took some pains to discover in the
Dutch picture galleries the pictorial records of the return
of Charles II. to England in 1660. He forthwith com-
municated the results of his search to the public in a letter
to the Times, giving also a description of another picture of
the series existing in England as private property. This
long letter, occupying nearly a column of the paper, was
followed soon afterwards by a short one from the Director
of the Communal Museum at the Hague, expressing regret

THE WORK OF DECLINING YEARS 253

that the writer of the former letter had not visited that
Museum, where he would have found another picture of the
series. These facts may serve to indicate the interest felt
by Mr. White in art as well as in theology, philanthropy,
and politics.

One of the original helpers at Hawley Road, who had
been a steady and efficient supporter in the most trying
and difficult periods of that enterprise, and a faithful deacon
during many years, Mr. John Carter, died on September
9th, and was buried at Abney Park on the I3th, Mr. White
officiating. Mr. White also wrote a biographical memorial
of his old friend, which appeared with a portrait in the Con-
gregational Magazine, and ended with the following words :
"In offering this brief memorial of my departed friend, I
have but feebly expressed the debt of gratitude I owe to
him for long years of courageous sympathy and aid. But
I shall be only too thankful if hereafter my name shall be
remembered by any in connection with any share in the
modern testimony concerning Christ as the life of men,
that hereby the name of this ' good soldier of Jesus Christ '
shall be remembered, among those of others, along with it.
He was a good deacon in the Church, but he was first of all
a good man, a man of God, a good husband, father, brother,
friend ; an industrious, straightforward man of business ;
an honest politician ; and therefore a pillar of strength in
the Church as a devout, steadfast, and consistent Christian.
He rests in the peace of God, and will live for ever with the
Lord whom he loved."

In September Mr. White spent two Sundays in Bristol,
staying with his old friend Dr. Trestrail, and preaching at
Tyndale Baptist Chapel for Dr. Glover, who at that time
was absent visiting the missionaries in China. The week
intervening between the Sundays was spent at his brother's
house, Pixton Park, near Dulverton.

In the welfare of the Church at Hawley Road he con-
tinued to take a fatherly interest after his retirement, and

254 EDWARD WHITE

was always ready to lend his aid and counsel in time of
need. On the question of an immediate successor his
advice had been sought and given ; it had also prevailed,
Mr. Basil Martin having been chosen. After a time, how-
ever, Mr. Martin had decided to go to Oxford for a further
period of study at Mansfield College. The next minister
chosen was Mr. Spedding Hall, and Mr. White went to the
meeting at his settlement on October 16, 1890, and took
part in his Ordination the following January. On the first
Sunday in November he gave the lecture to artizans on
" Men's Wages, past, present, and future," wherein he
showed how men live under a system of payment for
work for both worlds, and explained the combination of
salvation by grace, and reward for Christians according to
work. In April 1891 he preached there a sermon having
relation to the Census taken in that month, enforcing the
certainty that each one must give account of himself to God.
In 1892, when the Church was again without a pastor,
Mr. White occupied the pulpit for two months. He also
attended a meeting of the trustees of the building, who met
to consider a proposal which resulted in the settlement of
the Rev. W. Herwood Allen as pastor. After that he
several times preached on the Sunday School anniversary,
and in 1896 attended the Church anniversary in March,
when he spoke of the unwearying nature of true religion,
those who have it being never weary of the truth believed,
nor of the conflict for it, nor of the companions of their
labours. He records the strong impression then received
of the indestructible nature of the spiritual affections.
" The loving recollection of our labours continuing as
fresh as ever in the people so instructed and guided in
past years, although so many of the old companion workers
are departed. They have absorbed and lived upon the
truths which they learnt at the hand of God, and find
them still 'a light that shines upon the road that leads
them to the Lamb.'"

THE WORK OF DECLINING YEARS 255

Whenever he undertook a service for his old friends he
could not easily be prevented from fulfilling it This
was so even to the last. Only a few years before his death
he went up to London, to the wedding of the daughter of
one of the old friends at Hawley Road. The day was
notable on account of the floods of rain which deluged
the streets. So great was the storm that one of the invited
guests was unable to attend, and sent as his message to the
bride and bridegroom, " Many waters cannot quench love."
On some one remarking on the appropriateness of the
quotation, Mr. White said : " I think I should have said,
' As in the days of Noah they were marrying and giving
in marriage, when the flood came.' "

In the beginning of the year 1891 the first volume of Dr.
Petavel's book, The Problem of Immortality, in French,
was issued. Mr. White took particular interest in its
publication, and he wrote a long article describing and
recommending it, which was published in the Christian
World of April 3Oth. The English translation did not
appear until early the following year, when the second
volume of the French work had appeared. Writing to Dr.
Petavel a little later, and referring to this book, he said : " I
think it is very generally felt that our movement has been
a really conservative one amidst so much destructive work
and amidst a scepticism more fundamental than any known
within the last few centuries." After the publication of the
English translation in 1892, he wrote to Dr. Petavel of
the book : " The adversaries are fairly confounded by its
elaborate learning and power, and temper unmatchable
for gentleness in the business of cutting down a big thorn
bush and planting in its place the Tree of Life."

The principal events of interest in relation to Mr. White
during that year were the following: In March the farewell
meeting on retirement of Rev. J. C. Harrison from his long
and fruitful pastorate at Park Chapel, Camden Town, at
which Mr. White was present, Dr. Stoughton presiding.

256 EDWARD WHITE

On April 1st J. D. Morell, M.A., LL.D., one of his Glasgow
fellow-students, died. In June he had a visit from Pro-
fessor Cheyne, whom he introduced to the meeting of the
Fraternal Society held at his own house at Highwood Hill.
In July he wrote to Rev. W. D. McLaren thus : " I keep
on slowly but steadily declining in energy and power. My
memory is weaker than ever. Yet, thankful to say, I
preached lately six Sundays running in large churches,
probably in all to five or six thousand people, which was
worth doing. I am to be a member of the Pan-Congrega-
tional Council, one of the English hundred." In the same
month came the meetings of that International Con-
gregational Council, in which he took part, and was
pleased to make the acquaintance of a number of
American and Colonial ministers. Dr. Dale was the
chosen President, and he gave his address in that capacity
on the 1 4th, but was too ill to do more. Mr. White had
the opportunity in the afternoon of that day to speak as to
the progress of opinion on Life eternal during the previous
fifty years.

In August he had a letter in the Christian World on
" Spirit Manifestations," wherein he states his personal
knowledge of some of the famous practitioners of these
" curious arts," as William and Mary Howitt, S. C. Hall,
&c., and adds : " But I go much further than the Psychical
Society, being fully persuaded that the results occurring
are produced in many cases by the action of disembodied
spirits, mostly human and non-Christian. . . . The reality
of such experiences I hold it lawful for such competent
inquirers to test by careful examination. But once deter-
mined to be real and spiritual, I hold just as firmly that
further communication is unlawful, being forbidden by both
the Jewish and Christian Revelations."

In October he went once more to Paris with his wife
and two youngest daughters, this being his last visit to the
Continent. There they remained a fortnight, so as to give

THE WORK OF DECLINING YEARS 257

the young people a good idea of that great city. While
they were there Mr. Byse, the translator of Life in Christ
into French, spent a few days in Paris, and was much
with them. He took them to an afternoon meeting of
mothers, in connection with the McAll Mission. Mr.
White told of the work of Mrs. Ranyard in London, Mr.
Byse interpreting. At another meeting he met Mr. McAll,
who reminded him that he had called upon him at Here-
ford when on his wedding trip. On the return journey they
halted at Amiens to visit the Cathedral, which Mr. White
calls " a vast Gothic mountain of stone, an elaborate
monument of middle-age corruption of Christianity." In
November he attended a meeting at Browning Hall,
Walworth, that being the old chapel in York Street
which he attended in his boyhood, and there he spoke
of those old times as well as of times more recent. On
Christmas Day he went to Upper Norwood, and there
called upon a Mrs. Williams, who remembered him as a
baby, although he was then, seventy years of age ; probably
the only person then living who could so remember him.

Early in 1892 Mr. White was invited to speak at a
meeting of Nonconformist Unionists to be held on March
3<Dth. He accepted the invitation, and at Princes Hall on
that date delivered a carefully prepared speech in justifica-
tion of the Unionist attitude. Just at this time he was
much gratified by receiving from Dr. Perowne, Bishop of
Worcester, a letter in which, referring to Dr. Petavel's
book, The Problem of Immortality, then lately published
in English, ne wrote : " You and he have done an unspeak-
able service to Christendom. Both works are admirable
alike in learning, temper, and force of argument."

In April Mr. White went to Edinburgh and preached
there on the loth, meeting for the last time the Rev. David
Russell, his old college friend, who died in the following
month. In April also he was the Merchants' Lecturer,
and the subject of his lectures was " The Higher Criti-

18

258 EDWARD WHITE

cism." These lectures attracted more attention than he
had anticipated, and that over a wide area. They were
promptly reprinted as a handy little book. Referring to
this publication he wrote in the following January to Dr.
Gloag : " It is very kind in a great critic like you to send
me an encouraging word respecting my little book for the
people on the ' Higher Criticism.' Indeed, I am thankful
to say it is doing some good among our younger men, for
they cannot pretend to say that I have lived on 'obscuran-
tist principles,' so they are perhaps more willing to listen
to me than to one purely orthodox all round."

At the end of June came the General Election under
Lord Salisbury. Mr. White wrote a letter, which appeared
in the Times, setting forth reasons why he considered that
the return to power of Mr. Gladstone would be disastrous
to the country. A leading article in the same issue referred
to the letter, and quoted some of its points as highly im-
portant, not only to the Nonconformists but to the people
generally. Notwithstanding these prognostications, Mr.
Gladstone was returned to power, though he failed to
carry his proposals for an Irish Parliament through the
House of Lords.

From July I4th to August loth Mr. White was away
from home, with Mrs. White and two daughters, visiting
first Edinburgh and Stirling, then Braco, as the guests of
Mr. Samuel Smith, M.P., at his beautiful place, Orchill,
where they stayed a fortnight ; thence to Ambleside and
Brathay Fell, where Dr. Andrews was their host for a
week. In both these visits they enjoyed views of mag-
nificent scenery, in spite of occasional rain. On the
homeward way they went, via Birmingham, to Stratford-
on-Avon to see the Shakespeare memorials, and then to
Warwick and Oxford.

It was in this summer that the collapse of the
" Liberator " group of societies became known. One
result of this was to cause considerable pecuniary loss

THE WORK OF DECLINING YEARS 259

to Mr. White, who was one among the large number of
ministers interested, either as shareholders or depositors.

Failure of memory for facts in the immediate past was,
thus far, the only serious indication of decaying mental
power in Mr. White. He did not, however, cease to
preach and lecture, both at Mill Hill and in other parts
of the country, as he had invitations, until the beginning
of June 1893, when he was again laid aside by illness, and
had to forego preaching for nearly a year. The persist-
ence of this illness led him, before the time came for his
next turn as Merchants' Lecturer, to resign that office.
The last series of his lectures, delivered in May, were on
" Spiritism," a subject on which, as already stated, he held
firm convictions, believing that, while there had been
much trickery in connection with it, there was reality in
some of the phenomena. But he was convinced that
whatever reality there was in it, the practice is absolutely
forbidden in the Scriptures. With respect to the quoted
prohibition of necromancy in Deuteronomy xviii., the
authenticity of which having been questioned on the ground
that the Canaanites were never driven out of the land, that
being held to prove that the threatening against them was
not the Word of God, Mr. White asserted that the promise
of the expulsion of the Canaanites was subject to conditions
on the part of the Israelites which were not fulfilled by
them. And he answered a further objection to the penalty
of death for sin as being not in accordance with the
character of God, by saying, among other things : " It is
no doubt \.rue that ' God is love.' But love is itself the
fiercest and most formidable of forces against those who
contest its rule. ' God is love ' and ' Our God is a con-
suming fire ' are, I take it, but opposite sides of the One
everlasting Reality, as all Nature declares and all Revela-
tion confirms."

On the question of authenticity one of his suggestions
was : " It is worthy of inquiry whether this eighteenth

260 EDWARD WHITE

chapter of Deuteronomy can even be imagined to be part
of a fabrication in the time of Josiah, or the product of the
later ages of the Hebrew monarchy. Heathen spiritualism
is set against Hebrew prophecy ; both are acknowledged
as real, but the latter alone as divine. And the much
earlier banishment of witches by Saul looks as if this law
against necromancy was much older than the age of
Hilkiah."

In a letter addressed to Dr. Gloag in Scotland, and
written at Dover, Mr. White says : " I quite agree with
you in the suspicion that spiritualism and other signs in-
dicate the closing days of the present dispensation. We
must not allow the early or later millenarian follies to
scare us away from that prominent revelation of the New
Testament that the ' Mystery of Iniquity,' in the corruption
and rejection of pure Christianity, is to have a supernatural
crushing."

In February 1893 Mr. Gladstone had introduced his
new Bill for creating an Irish legislature, the provisions of
which Mr. White carefully studied, but without being con-
vinced that they were practicable. In an interview with
a representative of the Pall Mall Gazette in April, he
described his objections to the scheme. Following closely
the discussion in Parliament as it proceeded, he felt moved
in July to protest, in a letter to the Times y against Tory
insults to the Irish people. Later on he again wrote to
the Times in order to appeal to his Nonconformist
brethren to reconsider their position in view of recent
utterances of some of the Irish leaders; and he urges
them to speak out against the physical violence party,
and to say definitely how far they are prepared to go in
granting autonomy to Ireland. He was convinced that the
Dissenters generally were following the lead of Mr. Glad-
stone more because they hoped that he would lead them to
Disestablishment than because they really agreed with his
Irish policy. For this opinion he must have had some

THE WORK OF DECLINING YEARS 261

foundation in fact, but certainly it was unjust to the great
body of those who supported that policy and were truly
anxious to deal justly and generously with the Irish people
and their sentiments.

In May 1893 he had another opportunity of seeing
Queen Victoria in a position near enough to observe the
expression of her face. It was at the opening of the
Imperial Institute, and he thus wrote of it: "Well now
I am seventy-four. On the day before yesterday I saw
the Queen, who is the same age ; she sat alone on the
back seat of her carriage, with two daughters in front of
her. As still as a stone sat she. I liked her large, round
face ; she looked good, not gay, but restful and intelligent,
with a tinge of mystery over her countenance as if looking
back on the wonderful past, and not forgetful of the future.
What specially struck me was the dignity and repose, and
the look as to something beyond. It made me cry a little
(inside) to think of it all. And now, who goes first through
the eternal gates, she or I ?- Both of us seventy- four."

After this came the illness which laid him aside from
public work for so many months. He suffered much from
rheumatism, for which massage was tried, but without
much benefit. A visit to Dover was undertaken in
October, and apparently did some good, and it enabled
him to renew some old acquaintances. Through the
winter he remained at home, doing little except reading
and writing. But in December he was well enough to
attend, as one of the stewards, at a public dinner to Mr.
Albert Spicer on his return from a visit to the mission
stations in India and Ceylon.

Of his life during this period of inactivity he gave the
following playful account to one of his numerous corre-
spondents in November : " . . . I have no news to tell, and
am keeping pretty well. Though feeling very old, because
it is so cold. Rheumatics make me shiver, and somewhat
affect the liver. Our trees are nearly bare, stripped by the

262 EDWARD WHITE

wintry air. But one brave oak keeps green, from the study
clearly seen. Whose boughs we sharply thinned, to let in
sun and wind. Our flowers are nearly dead, save here and
there a head of coloured blooms, which Edith and Irene
cut to decorate our rooms. This is not exciting poetry,
but it is of native growth, and reflects the mood of the
hour — a stupid mood ; but a certain fraction of most lives
is spent in stupidity. . . . This morning I read to myself
some of the Psalms. How wonderful they are! If you
compare them with the poetry of Babylon, Assyria, Greece,
and Rome, they seem to belong to another world, and so
they do. They can be accounted for only by the truth of
divine Revelation, and by them the saints of all ages are
brought into conscious unity. All best hymns are but
echoes of them. . . ."

In April 1894 ne Paid another visit of a fortnight to
Dover, from which he gained considerable benefit. While
there he wrote as follows in the letter to Dr. Gloag already
quoted : " Your kind letter finds me at this seaside, after
many months of weakness and of abstinence from all
public work and nearly all writing. For the time, I seem
now to be 'on the mend' ; but at seventy-five one cannot
but know that the last days are at hand, and if the remain-
ing years pass as quickly as the past few the final stage
cannot seem to be very distant. And then comes the
great solution of life's mystery, and the rending of the
veil which hangs before our eyes during our active days.
I have read much on astronomy which would make me a
sceptic were it not for the Gospel of John, which gives
us a flight of golden steps up to those mysterious heights,
and opens a way through the rent veil into the Holiest.
Pray for me, both of you, that my faith may not fail when
I must step out of the boat on to those deep waters, but
may hear the Eternal Voice and feel the grasp of the
Helping Hand !"

Early in 1894 occurred the death of Rev. S. Minton-

THE WORK OF DECLINING YEARS 263

Senhouse, M.A., and in response to a request from the
editor of the Faith, Mr. White wrote the following tribute
of affectionate gratitude to his deceased friend : —

" Only those who have been life-long contemporaries
with Mr. Minton, and enjoyed his intimacy, can quite fully
and properly appreciate the nobleness of the man and the
immense value of his life-labours. He and I were thrown
much together as humble English proto-martyrs of the
Truth in the earlier days of the modern controversy on
Life in Christ ; and therefore I am at least qualified to
bear witness to the part which he took in this latest revival
of the ancient testimony on Immortality.

" His earliest convictions on the subject were gained by
reading, as he has often said, about the year 1850 (as he
sat in St. James's Park), a copy of the first very inadequate
edition of Life in Christ (written in 1845, when I was still a
young pastor at Hereford, fifty years ago) ; and from that
time he never wavered for a moment in his strong adhesion
to the ancient truth of. Life in Christ only — the Life
Immortal.

" Up till that date he had been regarded as one of the
rising stars of the Church of England Evangelical firma-
ment. But from that date he was called to endure the
fate of a ' heretic,' and an ' apostate from the truth,' and
was ' cast out of the synagogue/ losing all hope of further
preferment. j

" He had up till that time written only on prophetic
subjects, and on the growing superstition of the Tractarian
party in the Church of England. His tract on The Romish
Doctrine of Intention was spoken of by G. Stanley Faber,
D.D., Master of Sherburn, as ' one of the most logically
able productions he had ever met with ' ; and similar praise
was awarded to it by Dean MacNeile. But after his
conversion to Conditionalism, he wrote industriously and
most successfully on this subject. His chief works
were : —

264 EDWARD WHITE

" I. The Glory of Christ in the Creation and Reconcilia-
tion of all things, with special reference to the doctrine of
Eternal Evil.

" 2. A New Bible : or Scripture re-written, to prove the
doctrines of Necessary Immortality and Eternal Evil.

" 3. The Eternity of Evil ; which was sold by thousands.

" 4. Immortality : an appeal to Evangelists.

" 5. The Way Everlasting. A Review of the controversy.

" 6. 77*1? Harmony of Scripture on Future Punishment ; or
the Truths contained in the views of Origen and Augustine,
reconciled in the earlier apostolic doctrine of a Conditional
Immortality.

" All of these pieces had a wide circulation, and had
much to do with the final wider diffusion of the Truths
advocated.

" He is gone — but he has fallen asleep in sure and
certain hope of a joyful resurrection at the return of our
Lord Jesus Christ to reign over the earth, at the end of
1 the times of the Gentiles.'

" A nobler soul I have never known. He was one of the
men with whom it will be delightful to spend the future
Eternity — and he was also one of the men who helped
others to believe in it — a man so self-forgetting, and so
forward to acknowledge spiritual gifts of grace in others,
that all who knew him could not but be drawn to magnify
and admire the grace of God in him.

" I trust that every copy of the works whose titles I have
mentioned will be treasured up as a memorial of this true
witness of Jesus, who has left behind him a memory the
dearest to those who best knew his tenderness, his integrity,
his lofty aims, and his quiet courage ; for his whole life was
a visible evidence of things unseen and eternal."

That the feeling expressed in the foregoing testimony
was heartily reciprocated by Mr. Minton-Senhouse was
shown by a memorandum in his own handwriting, found
among his papers by his wife, after his death, and sent by

THE WORK OF DECLINING YEARS 265

her to Mr. White. " I desire that my edition of Owen's
Works, which was part of the present made to me on
leaving Percy Chapel, should be given to my dear and
honoured friend, the Rev. Edward White, as a small
recognition of the debt of gratitude that I owe him for
having been the means of opening my eyes to the full
meaning of the record which God gave of His Son, that
in Him we have eternal ' life,' and not merely eternal
happiness.

" The reward of his self-sacrificing efforts to rescue that
great truth from the obscurity in which it had been buried
for ages by an unscriptural theology, based on the heathen
figment of man's natural immortality, will never be given
him in this world, but will be an added glory to that
incorruptible crown, that crown of life which he has so
faithfully preached in words whose ' sound has gone forth
into all the world.'

" ' 0 sit anima mea cum Jua,' in that day !

(" I wish the utmost possible publicity to be given to the
above, as far as it can suitably.")

CHAPTER XVIII

LATEST ACTIVITIES
1894-1897; AGE 75-78

WHEN May arrived in 1894, Mr. White was able to
resume active work, but his preaching was con-
fined to places near his home. On the first day of the
month he attended the Committee of the London Mission-
ary Society ; on the 8th the Congregational Union ; on
the I7th he was at an anniversary meeting at St. Albans ;
on the 2Oth he preached a Sunday School sermon at
Hawley Road ; and on the 22nd he spoke at a meeting of
Conditionalists at the Memorial Hall. A sermon on
" Christ in the Hospitals," preached on June loth at East
Finchley, was published in the Christian World Pulpit ;
as was also another, preached in the School Chapel at
Mill Hill on July 8th, the subject of which was " The Exis-
tence of God."

The day following the preaching of that sermon he
went on a visit to Bishop Perowne, at Hartlebury Castle.
There he met and had a long talk with Professor A. H.
Sayce, LL.D., on the value of that gentleman's work, and
on his confirmation of the historical character of the
biographies in the Pentateuch.

Leaving Hartlebury on the I2th, he went to Malvern
for a few days, calling on some old friends there, and
making a day trip to Hereford, where he met with some

266

LATEST ACTIVITIES 267

persons who remembered his ministry in that city.
Tewkesbury, Worcester, Reading, and Silchester also
were visited on the return journey, and he reached home
on the 2Oth. The characteristic letter from which the
following extract is given was written to one of the
Malvern friends, and it refers to this journey : —

" Thanks for your kind little note. But you shouldn't
abuse ' Theology ' indiscriminately, any more than I should
commend it. For I feel sure that any theology coming
from the Author of Nature has at least one bright side,
like Nature, even if, like Nature, it has one severe side for
wicked people and law-breakers. It is too true that the
characters of many professed Christians and the teaching
of many of the ' preachers ' becloud and darken the sky
and afford us little help in thinking of God in a way
which attracts us to Him. But there are quite enough
really good and delightful Christians to help us to brighter
views of their Master, like light which breaks through the
clouds ; and it is necessary for us to make the most of
these mirrors of the Eternal Light. Nobody thinks of
pitching into Nature because of her many cloudy and dark
days, and all who love Nature and her brightness should
set at defiance the corruptions of Christianity and stand
for the glorious light it throws both on time and eternity.
There's a little sermon for you ! my dear friend, from a
convinced old heretic theologian. I've got your picture in
my study, as a contribution to my theology ! and a pleasant
one . . . We all came back much refreshed by our outing ;
Hartlebury, Malvern, and Silchester made a most amusing
trio of places to us. When you come to town you must
come and see us. I will show you whole rows of blessed
books on a ' theology ' which shines in the very colours of
Nature itself. I know you will forgive this outbreak of
theology from your old friend who has found rest in a way
of thinking which unites most wonderfully earth and sky ;
yes, ' the blue ethereal sky.' "

268 EDWARD WHITE

Two days after his return from this trip, Mr. White
attended the funeral service of his old and valued friend,
the Rev. J. C. Harrison. The crowd that filled Park
Chapel in the middle of the day testified to the value of
that faithful minister's life and labours.

In the August issue of the Nineteenth Century, an article
by Mr. Gladstone appeared, in which he pleaded for the
recognition of Nonconformists as Christians by members
of the Established Church, on the ground that the laws
against heresy and schism bear some analogy to those of
the Mosaic law against taking usury and making graven
images. To this Mr. White replied in a long letter dated
August 5th, which appeared in the Times. He pointed
out that the Mosaic law did not forbid taking usury or
interest from strangers, but only from brother Israelites,
and that the prohibition against graven images was only
when they were for the purpose of worship. Accordingly he
proceeds: " Instead therefore of accepting Mr. Gladstone's
benevolent plea for the recognition of Nonconformists as
Christians by the members of the Established Church, not-
withstanding his apparent admission of the exclusive
validity of the Churchmanship of these last, I am afraid
that we must, if we accept correct principles of Old Testa-
ment exegesis, submit to acknowledge that the argument
of our most honoured and distinguished advocate is
unsound ; and that if no more solid basis can be found for
our social enfranchisement, we must continue under the
ban of historical Christianity and High Church tradition.

" But I will venture to add that the Nonconformity to
which many of us have adhered for a life-time has been
founded on the persuasion that the leading principle of
Mr. Gladstone's article is a mistake ; and that no system
of Churchmanship was set up by the apostles of Christ,
except that of city churches, locally independent, and not
united by any organized and centralized system of earthly
government into one world-wide empire by an organized

LATEST ACTIVITIES 269

army of ' priests,' but were bound together only by the
One indwelling Spirit, and governed only by that written
apostolic law of love which is supposed still to animate all
sincere Christians.

" The upshot of my argument, therefore, is, that those
Churches which are separate from the State control, or
locally independent of widely organized governments, do
not derive any valid support from Mr. Gladstone's argu-
ment on the modification of Mosaic laws on usury or
image-making, but rest on the more solid basis of con-
formity to apostolic example."

Mr. White was one of a number of retired London
ministers who were invited to spend the evening of
October i6th at the Memorial Hall ; and there he narrated
briefly the main facts in his own ministerial career, from
Cardiff by way of Hereford to Kentish Town and Ken-
sington.

Although not now undertaking preaching engagements
at a distance, he appeared several times on anniversary
occasions at Hawley Road, where it was always easy for
him to speak ; and he preached at Mill Hill several
remarkable sermons which were printed in the Christian
World Pulpit, Thus on November ir, 1894, he preached
at the School Chapel on " Valour in Common Life," taking
as a text 2 Peter i. 5 : "Add to your faith virtue," showing
at the beginning the etymological meaning of " virtue " to
be " manliness." He went on to speak of the influence of
school life in development of character, and of the impor-
tance of each individual character as having a share in
the formation of others, and therefore the great need for
decision of character in the right direction in early life.

Another sermon to the boys, on March 10, 1895, was an
invitation to them to come to the Communion. He took
for his text the words : " Do this in remembrance of Me "
(Luke xxii. 19). Referring to the case of Dr. Arnold at
Rugby, who, by the way in which he spoke in his sermons

270 EDWARD WHITE

about the ordinance, induced a large number of the lads in
the school there, even the young ones, to take a decided
stand, and acknowledge themselves soldiers of Christ, by
joining in the Communion, he went on to give an explana-
tion of the meaning of the two simple ordinances of
Christianity, baptism and the Lord's Supper, and to show
the joyful character of true Christianity. His hope for the
boys he thus expressed : " In the strong and bright and
gay time of your merry early life you will courageously
embrace and hold fast this blessed hope of everlasting life
beyond, and you elder young men will lend, I trust, the
immense force of your sympathy, your example, your
courage, your energy, your intelligence, to aid the younger
and the weaker to choose and maintain the better part
which ' shall not,' says Jesus Christ, ' be taken away ' from
either of you."

At the Methodist Church, Mill Hill, he preached on
June 2, 1895, on "The Connection between the Transfigu-
ration and the Ascension of Christ," and that sermon seems
to have been the last published in the Christian World
Pulpit. In it he drew a graphic picture of the company
assembled at the Ascension, to whom the " two men " in
bright raiment appeared, and gave the promise that this
same Jesus should so come again. These men he thinks
must have been the same two who were with the Lord at
the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah, not angels, since
when angels are mentioned in the New Testament they
are so called, and are not called " men."

Mr. White felt very deeply the death of Dr. R. W. Dale,
which occurred in March 1895, his deceased friend having
been a strong and steady support to him in his long
struggle against theological and ecclesiastical prejudice
and ostracism.

Mr. White was accustomed to say that he thought he
was the only man in the village of Mill Hill who was,
more or less closely, in touch with all the four religious

LATEST ACTIVITIES 271

communities existing there. In the chapel connected with
the Mill Hill School, and the Methodist place of worship,
he often preached ; he maintained friendly relations with
the vicar, and sometimes worshipped in the Anglican
Church ; but he also occasionally attended some public
function at the Roman Catholic College, where young
men are trained for mission work. On May 6th in this
year he was present at a valedictory service on the
departure of five young priests for Africa. Some extracts
may be given here from his description of the ceremonial,
as it illustrates the writer's catholic sympathies. Cardinal
Vaughan was the presiding dignitary who gave the
" charge " to the departing missionaries. He " was dressed
in splendid jewelled robes of scarlet and gold . . . and
wore a tall white mitre, richly gilt, which was a pasteboard
imitation of those ' cloven tongues ' of fire which sat on
the heads of the apostles. But his dress was forgotten in
the aspect of his countenance, which was that of an able
and earnest ruler of the Church. It is thirty years or
more since we served together on the London Committee
for Temperance Legislation, when I little thought the
London priest would become a splendid Cardinal, and
perhaps ascend the papal throne.

" To-day I must do him the justice to say that no one
could have delivered a more sympathetic, inspiriting, and
affecting address, an evangelical address. ... It thrilled
through every heart. . . . Then came, more Romano, a
procession, with chants and prayers, through the beautiful
grounds of the College ... to the sacred spot where one
of their own dead missioners reposes, and on their return
to the church came the final farewells between the living.

"In the ordination of missionary priests there -is some-
times a ceremony of almost overpowering impression, and
so it was to-day. The five young priests were brought to
the lowest step of the altar, and stood facing the con-
gregation, and then the students of the college in a crowd,

272 EDWARD WHITE

the tutors, and the priests of the diocese formed a cir-
culating procession to the altar, and in turn embraced the
departing young men, kissed them with warm affection on
both cheeks, and stooping down kissed their feet, after
which the choir and organ raised the chant, ' How beau-
tiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that bring
the glad tidings and publish the peace ! '

" The tide of visible emotion raised in the congregation
by this parting expression of brotherhood and affection
was such, I must admit, as is seldom seen in a Protestant
farewell. And surely it must remain as a stimulating
memory in the hearts of the young men, reminding them
in the African wilderness of the object of their mission
and of the well-spring of the hearty love borne to them in
their home. . . .

" I think I came away from this affecting service with
no diminution of Protestant principle, but with perhaps a
keener sympathy with my dear young neighbours in this
village, who from time to time are leaving England for a
battle with the powers of darkness in Central Africa and
in the great burning islands of the Equatorial archipelago.
I am sure it is well to remember John Knox and Oliver
Cromwell, but we must not wholly banish from our
sympathies the fellow-believers of Fenelon, Pascal, and
Frederic Ozanam."

At Hackney College meeting in June, Mr. Nunn gave
the address, while Mr. White presided. He records that
he "talked with a number of anonymous ghosts, whose
faces," says he, " I knew and who knew me, but whose
connections I had wholly forgotten ; yet they were ghosts
with kindly feelings towards me. A long life gathers an
immense crowd of facial acquaintances, but few life-long
intimacies." This is a pathetic note of the failure of his
memory.

In the following month, July 23rd, he went to the con-
secration of All Saints' Church at Swanscombe, where

LATEST ACTIVITIES 273

there was a great gathering in the garden of the house in
which his father had lived for many years, and where in
1842 he had met the lady who became his first wife. This
visit to the spot formerly so well known, naturally revived
the impressions of many events of his early life, which he
records in his note-book.

Always anxious to enlarge his stock of knowledge and
experience, he was willing to do some things and to go to
some places from which many a younger person would
shrink. Thus in August of this year, being seventy-six
years of age, to the surprise of some of his friends he went
the round of the Great Wheel at Earl's Court, and when at
the top enjoyed, in fairly clear air, a wide view over West
and North London, as far as Harrow and all the northern
heights.

In the following month he went, with his wife and
daughter, to Cromer for a fortnight. They were at first
disappointed with the place, but gradually found it more
interesting. While there, however, Mr. White was laid up
for three days, which was a diminution of the enjoyment.
He was interested in studying the effect of the sea in wash-
ing away and covering large portions of the cliffs ; and the
curious structure of the church, built so largely of flints,
and also its history. On the return journey they halted
successively at Norwich, Bury St. Edmunds, Ely, and
Cambridge, visiting the cathedrals at Norwich and Ely
and some of the colleges and the Backs at Cambridge.

The autumnal meetings of the Congregational Union
were held this year at Brighton. Mr. White went, and
attended some of them in the famous Dome. He enjoyed
the few days at the seaside in bright, clear weather,
meeting with many old friends, and making some new
acquaintances, among whom were the three Bechuana
chiefs, Khama, Sebele, and Bathoen, with whom he was
pleased to shake hands.

At the Hawley Road Anniversary on October /th he

19

274 EDWARD WHITE

spoke of the chief discouragement in Christian work, in
the feeling of individual impotence for converting others,
while opposed by the whole force of an apostate world,
united in the firm resolution to hold fast deceit. And the
remedy : the assured help of Omnipotence ; the very same
power that moves the globe and all the orbs of heaven ;
the power which dwelt in Christ and the apostles ; the
power of God unto salvation. All work is for individual
salvation. No one can deny that it is possible to do
something for the salvation of one person. A spoken
word is better than a printed tract, specially when it is a
word which comes from a person whose life is a visible
result of union with the spiritual world, and whose
character renders attractive the invitation to repentance
and faith. A soul that lives in God has a voice in unison
with the angelic companies, and these are souls working
together for God, whose words are akin in tone and
attraction to the angelic songs. We must not be too
much discouraged from endeavours to persuade others to
repentance, by the consciousness of our own faults. It is
in the character of sinful men, not of perfect saints, that
we speak to others.

" Standing here," said he, " after forty-three years from
the beginning of this Church's work, the eye rests on no
spot throughout its area where does not arise before the
mind the figure of some noble and beloved worker now
departed, workers and worshippers whose memory is dear
to all their survivors, faithful deacons, faithful Sunday-
school teachers, faithful district visitors, who can never be
forgotten, who lived the life which makes it easy to believe
in the immortal life beyond. Through their fidelity,
modesty, and good fellowship there sprang up a power
which extended itself in some degree over England and
America and the British Colonies, and gave wings to the
Word of Life spoken, which bore it through English
Christendom."

LATEST ACTIVITIES 275

On one of the early days of March 1896 along with
several other friends, Mr. White took afternoon tea at the
house of Mrs. Charles, author of Chronicles of the
Schonberg-Cotta Family, the book by which she is best
known, although she wrote a large number of others.
Two hours of interesting conversation were enjoyed, and
in a letter to a friend Mr. White wrote : " When we saw
her then there were no signs of decay or drooping spirits."
Yet on the 28th of the same month she died, and at her
funeral at Hampstead on April ist "a great company,
in the church and at the grave came to pay their last
tribute of respect."

In the same month he wrote to Dr. Gloag, of Edin-
burgh : " I have done nothing of late in the Immortality
discussion. I think the central idea of my life-work —
the close connection between the Incarnation and
man's hope of immortality — has made way widely
among the Churches, both at home and abroad. . . .
I never think of this discussion as dealing necessarily
or chiefly with the destiny of the lost, but with that
of the saved. I cannot but think that if so astounding
an idea as that every man is a natural co-eval of the
Eternal had lain at the basis of revelation, it would have
found clear and frequent expression in Scripture. Whereas
the ordinary language of both Testaments naturally lends
itself to the idea that the Fall involved man in total
mortality, and that it is redemption that brings to light
' Life and Immortality ' for the regenerate part of mankind
alone, here or hereafter. This idea is now widely diffused
over the English-speaking world, but less in Scotland than
elsewhere. Once put it into men's heads, and it seems to
agree naturally with the ordinary language, of both
Testaments. Sir G. G. Stokes, of Cambridge, with whom
I have corresponded for many years, has done a great deal
to place it before scientific unbelievers, with marked success
in quashing their principal objections to popular Christianity

276 EDWARD WHITE

Professor Adams, of Cambridge, the astronomer, was of
the same way of thinking."

During the year 1896 he often found himself weak and
ailing ; but he still preached occasionally and attended
various public functions. For instance, on February 1 1 th
he was at the opening of the Church House at West-
minster, with the building of which his nephew, Mr. F. A.
White, had much to do. On April 28th he was at a
breakfast-meeting held in honour of Dr. Alexander
Maclaren at the Holborn Restaurant. He was at Dr.
Newman Hall's celebration at the Memorial Hall on
May 22nd ; and at the laying of the foundation stone
of the new School Chapel at Mill Hill on October 3ist,
when he spoke of such buildings being visible monuments
of an unseen and eternal world. At the old School
Chapel his last sermon, the only one in 1897, was preached
on May 23rd. It had reference to the long and beneficent
reign of Queen Victoria, the text chosen being Isaiah
xlix. 23 : " Queens thy nursing mothers."

Meanwhile he had spent nearly three weeks, in
August and September 1896, at Colwyn Bay, taking
drives into the region around. He also paid a visit to
the Congo Institute, where natives of that region of Africa
are educated and prepared for the work of teaching
Christianity to their fellow-Africans in their own land.
Mr. White notes this as being the chief distinction of
Colwyn Bay.

In April 1897 he spent a week at Dover, and was there
again for some days in October. He much enjoyed sitting
on the pier there and watching the activity on both land
and sea. In August he paid a short visit to Yorkshire,
whither his eldest daughter had gone to reside.

Although preaching opportunities during these years
were so limited, his pen was not idle. Besides sermons
that were written out in full for the Press, he worked for
some time upon a biography of his sister, Mrs. Ranyard.

LATEST ACTIVITIES 277

This, however, like a former essay in "1879, was never
completed, for reasons which were extraneous to himself.
He also wrote numerous letters, for, as he at this time
remarked, writing letters to friends with whom one has
formerly been intimate, letters likely to be preserved, may
be a means of usefulness when local action is difficult
Many of his letters were thus private ; but many also were
published in different papers. Some of these published
letters deserve a more permanent publicity, and this may
be gained by their incorporation in this memoir.

In the British Weekly a letter of his, dated October 26,
1895, on "Accumulation of Wealth," gave rise to an
epistolary discussion on the subject in that paper, which
continued until December, when Mr. White summed it up
in another shorter letter. His two letters were as follow : —

I.

"SIR, — In the condensed account of Pastor Naumann's
' Social Letters to Rich People,' in last week's issue, there
is one comforting element in the case of the rich as against
the poor, which seems to be somewhat lost sight of in
these ' Letters,' or at least in the abstract of their contents.
I refer to the self-acting machinery of civilized society by
which capital is compelled to minister largely to the
necessities of labour and poverty, irrespective of goodwill.

"Any person, indeed, who possesses money and sits
upon it, without attending to the needs of other persons,
comes as near as possible to starving himself and every
one else who might be benefited by his expenditure. But
the moment he begins to spend or invest, is it not true that
he benefits his tradesmen and those poorer peisons who
earn a living in their service ? And that which is true of
small property-owners is equally true of rich capitalists.
It is but a small part of their property which they can
personally enjoy. The remainder is invested in various

278 EDWARD WHITE

undertakings, every one of which represents the payment of
wage-earners. If a rich man invested his wealth in a heap
of gold, of diamonds, or bank-notes, and sat upon it, the
poor would gain little or nothing from their rich neighbour.
But when he invests it in the enterprises of modern society,
the bulk of his wealth passes immediately into the hands
of skilled and unskilled labourers, who in return for this
benefit furnish him with ' interest ' or an ' income ' which is
again spent upon wage-earners. Thus 'the rich and the
poor meet together, and the Lord is the Maker of
them all.'

" It appears to me that not a little of the blame popularly
attaching to ' capitalists ' is mistaken in its application. . . .
When they invest their wealth in land which must be
cultivated by labour, or in public enterprises, and even
luxuries which must be paid for in solid coin, they are
performing a large part in the scheme of social unity, as
truly as the labourer or skilled artificer who receives
half a crown or half a guinea a day for his pains. The
rich man's duty to the afflicted poor comes under a distinct
category.

"If the rich man spends his income not in rewarding the
work of skilled and unskilled labour, but in games of
chance, wasteful and demoralizing, or in an excess of
domestic luxury which ruins morally all who share in it,
then he comes under the curse of St. James, the Lord's
brother, and ' heaps up to himself treasures of wrath against
the last day.' But there is nothing wicked in being rich,
so long as the wealth is honestly come by and religiously
invested and spent as in the sight of the Great Judge.

" The destruction of capital would be the ruin of the
working classes ; indeed it would soon nearly wipe many
of them off the face of the earth. Let the working man
and the capitalist be taught that they are ' members one
of another,' and let the relation between them be based on
brotherly consideration of the common needs of life, and

LATEST ACTIVITIES 279

there will then be no cause to invite the rich man to
' howl/ or the poor man to conspire and confiscate under
pretence of ' social equality.'

" The main idea, however, which I had in sending you
these few lines was to vindicate the ' divine right ' of the
capitalist as well as of the labourer, and to maintain that
Socialism, even if it could start under equality, would soon
pass into a complex system of capital and labour ; so that
the remedy for existing evils is not to be found in an
equalization of conditions, but in trades-unions, in Christ's
law of brotherly sympathy between the rich and the poor,
and sometimes in a conscientious choice of investments,
whereby the labourers may be most largely benefitted by
the capitalist. I shall be glad to learn if I am wrong in
these positions."

II.

"SIR, — I have no reason to be dissatisfied with the
correspondence which has followed my first letter upon
this subject — a letter designed to console the people who
are waiting for the confiscation of the landed property of
the country and for the 'distribution of capital,' by the
consideration that meanwhile they are reaping, in the
reception of wages for labour, the benefits of that ' fixed
capital' in a modified form. This, I think, has been
proved over and over again by several of your ablest
correspondents.

" And I think it has been conclusively shown that the
notion of confiscating the landed property of this small
country, and cutting it up into a vast chess-board of small
holdings, on which the game of the people might be played
as against the present ' nobility and gentry,' would end in
an awful ' checkmate' to the industry of the nation. The
history of landowning everywhere is the history of its
people, as dependent on its physical as well as moral con-
ditions ; and I think it has been proved that if you could

280 EDWARD WHITE

by any revolution dispossess the present landowners and
place upon the territory a numberless throng of petty pro-
prietors, before fifty years were over the land would fall
again into the hands of great and worse capitalists, and the
work of dispossession would have to be done all over
anew. Nothing but a jubilee law resembling that of the
Jews could obviate this result, and such a law could become
operative only under the direct government of Omnipo-
tence. Under these circumstances I continue to feel
grateful to Heaven for gradually raising up in England a
system of landowning which, in several forms, satisfies the
needs and the ambitions of various classes, not excepting
those of industrious trading and working men, and which
offers the best security against sudden revolutions and
foreign schemes for introducing the despotisms of ignorance
and mediocrity. There is no greater political miracle on
earth than the raising up of the British nation on so small
a territorial area ; and one chief cause of its power has
surely been the limitation of the order of landed proprietors.
It is this which has forced the majority to a life of educated
enterprise by land and sea, and placed the decisive influence
in legislation largely in the hands of men trained to con-
sider the permanent interests of the people. The poverty
of the xlestitute classes among us is not caused by the fact
that they are not landed proprietors, but chiefly by their
refusal to learn in youth, and by their drunkenness after-
wards. These at least are the conclusions which I have
come to as the result of fifty years' pastoral labour among
the working classes both in town and country."

To the last day of his life Mr. White continued his study
of the Scriptures, and was ever ready to give to others the
benefit of his study. Thus in 1895 a very interesting com-
munication from him respecting " The Locality of the
Pentecostal Outpouring of the Spirit " was printed in the
Christian. In it he said : —

LATEST ACTIVITIES 281

" I wonder what reply the majority of your readers would
give to the question — ' In what locality in Jerusalem oc-
curred the wonderful scene of the Pentecostal outpouring of
the Holy Spirit, and the sudden conversion of " about three
thousand souls" ?' If they have rested in domestic tradi-
tions similar to those in which most of us were brought up,
they would at once reply, ' In some large house in Jeru-
salem, and probably in the " large upper room," where our
Lord and His disciples "ate the Passover"' (Luke xxii. 12).
But a closer attention to the details of the Gospel history,
and to all the circumstances of the time, will, I think,
clearly result in the conclusion that this wonderful scene
occurred in the Temple " ; and the reasons for this belief
are then stated. He continues : —

" I conclude, therefore, that the scene of the great decisive
miracle of the Christian religion, next to the Resurrection
of Christ, was the area of the Temple, where, a thousand
years before, the cloud of the Excellent Glory filled the
House of the Lord, and consecrated it as ' House of Prayer
for all nations.' The central publicity of the place, and
the vision of the tongues of fire, as well as the thundering
sound of the ' mighty rushing wind,' would ensure the
immediate publication of the marvel throughout Jerusalem,
and surround the persons of the apostles with a super-
natural authority before which Pharisaic authority would
be impotent. . . ."

To a private correspondent who had raised some objec-
tions to these views and arguments, he wrote :—

" As to ' one place,' I suppose you think that it is a
literal translation of the Greek words, implying some other
place than the Temple. But the words in the Greek are
opoBvuaSbv 67Ti TO avro, and the words refer to the
unanimity with which they met together. The place was
Solomon's Portico, as we elsewhere are distinctly told, on
the south of the Temple square. Christianity did not begir
in a garret, it was proclaimed to the crowds of Jews and

282 EDWARD WHITE

Gentile proselytes who were numerous there, swarming
round this most public pulpit that Omniscience could
devise, ancl that was the Temple where Christ Himself
taught daily ; in that same Solomon's Portico, of course,
not in the central Temple area where the altar stood. That
South Solomon's Portico was their Exeter Hall, with three
sides open to the public, where every Jew had a right to go
and walk and sit in the shade, and talk and teach and
learn. And it was at least three or four times the length
of Exeter Hall and twice the breadth, with the north
shady side open to the Temple. It became the great
material provision for opening the Gospel Truth to the
people of Jerusalem, where nearly all ' rooms ' were poky
little places, holding about ten Jews closely packed. No
Albert Hall available. Christendom ought to feel much
obliged to me for again reviving this ancient piece of
knowledge in this generation, which brings out so vividly
the story of the early Gospel and makes a wonderful pic-
ture illustration for the story of Luke.

" I see you dwell on the word ' house ' where they were
sitting. This was the regular name given to the Temple,
and Josephus generally calls it ' The House,' ' The House
of the Lord,' or ' The Holy House.' At nine o'clock the
proper place of devout Jews was in the Temple on the day
of Pentecost, and Solomon's Portico was the most crowded
part of the great assembly." I

In another letter to the same correspondent Mr. White
says: "If the followers of Christ were not in the Temple
on Pentecost morning, they were the only pious Jews who
were not there."

Continuing to study the questions thus raised, he after-

1 In a recently published book on The Credibility <>/" the Acts of the
Apostlfs,by Professor Chase, President of Queen's College, Cambridge,
a similar view is advocated. Several of the editorial notes on first
page of the Expository Times for July 1902 relate to that book, and
they read like an echo of Mr. White's letter.

LATEST ACTIVITIES 283

wards sent to the Christian a further communication
relating to Solomon's Porch, which was published on the
last day of 1896, and contained the following paragraphs: —

" The term ' porch ' is now never used in English except
to designate some more or less stately entrance to a public
or notable building. The Greek word stoa, of which in the
text of the old and new English versions of the New
Testament the translation is uniformly porch, does not
stand for a gateway at all, but for a roofed colonnade,
pavilion, or cloister — a long pillared portico, open on one
side to the view, and shading pedestrians from the sun on
the southern side. Such was the shady stoa in Athens,
where Zeno taught, whose disciples were thence called
Stoics. This, too, is the proper signification of the word in
the New Testament, as is hinted in the margin of the
Revision by the substituted reading of portico in one of the
places in the Acts where it occurs.

" This vast and lofty colonnade seems to have been
plentifully furnished with, seats — sometimes occupied by
doctors of the law, as when in His childhood Jesus was
found by His parents sitting there in the Temple — His
' Father's House ' — ' both listening to them and asking
them questions.' In after years it was beneath the same
long, shady promenade that Jesus so often walked and
disputed with the scribes, and where once He had over-
turned the tables of the money-changers, who had converted
the sacred site into a ' den of thieves ' by their petty rob-
beries in exchange.

" All devout Jews would at the third hour of the day of
Pentecost be present to assist at the great morning sacrifice
and to commemorate the giving of the law at Mount
Sinai.

" In Solomon's Portico, therefore, we may conclude, I
think, with confidence, that the marvellous event occurred
of the descent of the Holy Spirit in tongues of flame, and
of the consequent outburst of joyful voices, in all the chief

284 EDWARD WHITE

languages of mankind, proclaiming pardon and eternal life
to men through the death and resurrection of the ascended
Messiah. As for the popular notion that the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit occurred in the ' large upper raw ' which
had been hired by the apostles as the last place of meeting
with their Lord, it seems to deserve no serious considera-
tion. How could crowds of wondering worshippers have
reached that small and temporary resting-place, or have
found space to behold the miracle ?

" This interpretation confirms the persuasion that that
sacred site, so long l trodden under foot by the Gentiles,'
will again in the latter days become, in some higher form,
the spiritual centre of the world, which, after ages of resis-
tance and incredulity, will accept the Christian message
which enables Jew and Gentile together to worship the
Father in spirit and in truth."

To the Rev. Dr. Mackennal, who was his successor in
the chair of the Congregational Union, he wrote in the
middle of 1896 two letters, from which the following
extracts are taken. After asking for news of Dr.
Mackennal's family, he writes : " I suppose I am con-
siderably older than you. Seventy-seven is an awfully
long spell to account for. But I am now past doing either
much good or harm of an active sort. If the antediluvians
really lived for centuries, no wonder they fell to knocking
one another on the head at the end of the time, from sheer
impatience at each other's deafness and stupidity. As for
me, I wish to kill no one — much the other way. But one
longs to see some of the associates of a more active time.
Do you ever come to London ? If you do, take compassion
on me. I built a house here fifteen years ago, with a view
over twenty miles round, until the trees grew up and shut
it out. But even now we see Harrow, and sometimes the
Surrey hills, we being 450 feet above the Thames.

" My children are all married and settled, except two
dear daughters, still with us, but just now absent on a lark

LATEST ACTIVITIES 285

at Paris. I read a little, write nothing, and see few men
who are moving the world. My burial service was per-
formed when I retired from Camden Town to this place.
Most of my time is spent in reading of past worlds, of
whose inhabitants I hope to make acquaintance some day.
Such interesting people must be somewhere, each one
carrying evidently an unfinished story, and many of them
a story whose beginning deserved to be continued in other
worlds. I look up at the heavens, and into the world
of the Bible, with greater interest than ever, with more
interest than I could have believed possible forty years
ago, and with almost no criticism. You may say : ' What
a change ! ' But it is a state to which all are advancing.
Now be charitable, and on four pages of note-paper give
me some account of yourselves."

This epistle did not remain long without an answer
from his friend, to which he thus responded : " I am
very glad to have elicited from your photographic pen
a lively picture of your ' state,' as St. Paul would say.
My humble attempt, preceding it, seems to have succeeded
at least in depicting an equally faithful representation of
my own mental, or rather lunatic, condition as to detailed
memory,1 a disorder which causes me much difficulty in
sceptical moments as to the possibility of remembering
things for ever and ever, as we usually expect that good
men will do who 'go to heaven.' But perhaps there will
not be so much need for memory when the most delightful
objects and occasions of thought will be ever present.
Whether the unmingled joys of which we hear on Sundays
will be as delightful as the present pleasures, ' touched
with pain,' remains to be seen. . . . But perhaps the per-
petual perfection of memory will be alleviated by intervals
of oblivion, like the black lines in the spectrum. . . ."

Having been invited to attend the Hawley Road social

1 The letter had been wrongly addressed, to Leicester instead
of Bowden.

286 EDWARD WHITE

gathering in the autumn of 1896, Mr. White wrote to Mr.
Russel Elliot, the secretary, a lively letter, in which he
said : " Thanks to you and all Hawley Road friends for
invitation for October iQth. An Exhibition of Fossils is
a suitable part of any museum, and I shall be delighted to
act that part on the I9th, if the weather allows me to keep
a solid form. But if the damp breaks me up, why it will
be no good sending up dust or fragments."

Invited again for the March anniversary in 1897, he
struck a different note, saying: "As the years roll on,
our own wheels drag somewhat more heavily, and we think
twice before making a journey to London. There are
reasons why we must decline your kind invitation for
this year's anniversary at Hawley Road, though I shall
be with you in spirit."

Another letter, embodying views long held and often
expressed, may be quoted here. It was dated May i,
1897, and addressed to the Christian World, on "Reading
the Scripture Lessons," thus: " SIR, — In the prefatory
address to the ' Dearly-beloved brethren ' with which
divine service commences in the Church of England it
is said that we assemble and meet together for four
purposes : —

"i. 'To render thanks for the great benefits which we
have received ' at the hands of God ;

" 2. ' To set forth His most worthy praise ' ;

" 3. ' To hear His most holy Word ' ; and

" 4. ' To ask those things which are requisite and neces-
sary, as well for the body as the soul.'

" It is on the third of these objects of assembly, that
of ' hearing God's holy Word,' that I venture to offer a few
observations.

" It may go without argument that the primary reference
in this third clause : ' To hear His most holy Word '
(printed with a capital W in the Prayer Book), is to the
Scripture lessons, and not primarily to the sermon, which

LATEST ACTIVITIES 287

may or may not deserve so honorific a title. And it is on
the reading of the lessons in Nonconformist congregations
that I am venturing to offer a few observations.

" General criticisms of an unfavourable character fail
of their object through their generality and frequent
exaggerations, and no one knows the habits of a sufficient
number of readers in the churches to allow of any indis-
criminate indictment I shall, therefore, restrict myself to
the statement that there are not a few congregations where
the reading of holy Scripture, as an element in the public
service of God, appears to many of us to be performed too
often with less regard to distinctness, instruction, and
impression than is desirable.

" One of the most wonderful qualities of the historians,
psalmists, prophets, and apostles of this ancient Bible is
that it is possible and delightful to read, for years together,
so large a portion of them to public congregations, not
only without shocking either the conscience or the taste
of the modern world, but with a certainty of winning an
admiring consent, when the reader does justice to his
theme by the simplicity, distinctness, sympathy, and
seriousness of his utterance, and by so much self-oblivion
as will leave room for the impression that he is desirous
of giving voice to those prophets and apostles of God, or
to the sayings of the 'Word made flesh,' rather than to
exhibit his own ability as a reader. The tone is the prin-
cipal thing which any man gives us in daily life, and it is
the tone which principally characterizes the speech, the
reading, the holy song in the service of the sanctuary.
This right tone can, however, be learned only by a kind of
secondary inspiration from God Himself.

"It is this wonderful Jewish Bible alone which can be
publicly read for centuries together in the civilized world.
No other selection from ancient or modern literature could
endure such a trial.

" But a mere elocutionist, however brilliant his voice or

288 EDWARD WHITE

genius, can never adequately read the holy Scriptures in
public. A soul in hearty sympathy with Christ is ever
a more effective reader than a mere trained rhetorician.
But such a sensitive soul who is also trained as a reader,
will surpass even the most eloquent occupant of the
reading-desk who cannot conceal his art, or forget himself,
who is devoid of both pathos and reverence, and who
perhaps openly shows that he does not even care to
assume them.

" I cannot resist the temptation (if you are good enough
to print this letter) of setting forth further a favourite
heresy of mine, that Nonconformity greatly suffers from
the lack of a lectionary for the public and private reading
of the holy Scriptures. If so considerable a revolution
should ever occur in our Churches as a willingness to
accept such an admirable aid to the public and private
reading of the Bible, my vote would be given at once for
the adoption of the Revised Version, and as nearly as
possible that of the last lectionary of the Church of
England. The fact that on Sundays all the Protestants
of England were reading the holy Scriptures from the
same translation and by the aid of the same lectionary
would awaken a lively sense of that underlying Protestant
unity which embraces the overwhelming majority of the
English religious people."

An editorial note in the same issue of the paper thus
begins its comment on this letter : " The letter from
Rev. Edward White, on the subject of reading the
Scripture lessons in public worship, which we publish
to-day, will be read with interest, not only for the evidence
it gives of the unfailing mental vigour of its veteran writer,
but also from the intrinsic importance of the subject. Our
own impression is that the standard of public reading in
Nonconformist congregations has of late been distinctly
raised, though, as our correspondent suggests, it still leaves
abundant room for improvement."

LATEST ACTIVITIES 289

The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria could not fail
to appeal very powerfully to the imagination and sympathy
of one so nearly of the same age as Her Majesty. Mr.
White was unable to take so active a part in its celebration
as he had done in the rejoicings at the Jubilee ten years
previously. A few days, however, before the historic day in
June, he went into the city to see the elaborate prepara-
tions for it. On the day itself some members of his family
went to London and saw the royal procession. He con-
tented himself with witnessing some of the local rejoicings
at Mill Hill ; and in the evening, from the top of the
house, he had a view of a dozen bonfires kindled in honour
of the occasion.

CHAPTER XIX

THE CLOSING SCENE

1 898 ; AGE 78-79

INDICATIONS of Mr. White's failing memory for
recent facts and events had been frequent for several
years. They became more marked towards the end of
1 897, and his physical strength diminished. At the end of
October, however, he had been able to take the leading
part in the funeral service of his old and faithful friend, Dr.
Stoughton, at Kensington Chapel, six other ministers
following with addresses. Within seven years, more than a
score of his intimate friends and relations had been
removed by death, and Dr. Stoughton was the last of these
whom he followed to the grave. The tragic death of Mrs.
Dale, the widow of his attached friend Dr. Dale, a few
months previously, had painfully affected him. He had
been accustomed during many years to read a good deal
in bed, and it was through a similar habit that Mrs. Dale
lost her life, the bed-curtains having caught fire from the
candle. Mr. White's comment on reading the sad story
was : " Providence never takes the place in human life, or
supplies the lack, of common sense. If people leave naked
candles burning by bed-curtains, no angel is sent to remove
them lest the curtains catch fire. If Providence undertook
to supply the lack of sense, attention, and conscience in all

free agents, the sense of responsibility would be every-

290

THE CLOSING SCENE 291

where destroyed, and the order of things completely
overthrown so far as free agency was concerned. The
object of Providence is to bring home to every free agent
his own power and responsibility for results, the endless
chain of evil consequences from one wicked and rebellious
act or word. God will not permit free agents to pretend
to be machines, driven by fate."

During the early months of 1898 his health failed.
January was a nearly blank month to him. At the
beginning of the new year he wrote : " The year opens in
my study with a tolerably complete set of books for
informing one of the chief things it is desirable to know in
this world, but with a greatly diminished power of reading
them, and thereby refreshing and extending one's know-
ledge of those subjects. It is but a few things which are
now of importance to a rational reader : the history of
divine revelation and the meaning of the sacred Scrip-
tures, as opening a telescopic vision of an eternal world
beyond."

On January 27th he notes that he had "not written
for three weeks, much of the time rather poorly, some of it
spent in bed." After that, during February, his reading,
meditation, and writing were chiefly on the Bible. On the
1 2th of that month he addressed a letter to the Christian,
which was published in the issue of March loth, and may
be given here as indicating his unshaken confidence, not
only in the Book itself, but also in the canon of interpreta-
tion which he had adopted at the beginning of his career,
and according to which he had consistently studied and
taught. The letter is headed : —

" ' IT MEANS WHAT IT SAYS.'

"SIR, — It is reported of Mr. Spurgeon, on an occasion
when some inquiring Christian, who had been brought
up under a system of perverse ' spiritualizing ' of Holy

292 EDWARD WHITE

Scripture, asked him to explain some passage in the
prophecies of Isaiah bearing upon the future kingdom of
Christ, that he replied, with emphasis, ' Why, it means what
it says.1

" I think that this canon of interpretation deserves more
attention than it receives among the thousands who
profess to accept the Old and New Testaments as the
record of a divine revelation, yet who, as they term it,
' spiritualize ' the prophetic Scriptures until they cease to
exercise any influence upon the faith and practice of their
readers.

" In opposition to this pernicious system of interpretation,
it requires to be pointed out that all the prophecies which
were fulfilled in the first Advent of Christ, were fulfilled in
the most ' literal ' sense — in His history and ministry, in
His suffering of death, in His resurrection and ascension,
in the foundation of His eternal Church, and in the calling
of the Gentiles. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah consists
of a large number of prophetic statements concerning our
Lord's first Advent, every one of which received the most
punctual and literal fulfilment in His history ; and it was
this precise fulfilment, in a literal sense, of these predic-
tions, which carried the faith, not only of His Jewish
disciples, but of His Gentile followers, such as the treasurer
of Queen Candace, in the early ages of the Gospel. There
was not one prediction respecting the First Advent and its
results which did not receive a precise and punctual accom-
plishment in a 'literal' sense at the beginning of the
Gospel. A ' figurative ' fulfilment would never have con-
vinced any of the Jewish literalists, nor have satisfied the
critical taste of Greek and Roman inquirers. In Justin
Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, the Jewish adversary, of
the second century, it is the literal fulfilment of prophecy
which is the main argument for the faith on which Justin
relies for the persuasion of his opponent.

" Now the prophecies, whose fulfilment in the most literal

THE CLOSING SCENE 293

sense in the First Advent of Christ became the chief instru-
ment of conviction both among Jews and Greeks, in nearly
every instance form introductory portions of inspired
writings in which the remaining sections are manifestly
unfulfilled. And these unfulfilled portions, in nearly every
instance, relate to the Second Advent" of Christ, as the
great event for which the Church is ' to wait,' as the era of
the world's ' regeneration.' It is impossible to deny that
the apostolic writers of the New Testament, following on
the four narratives of the life of our Lord on earth, one and
all represent the great object of hope to be Christ's return
from heaven to judge the rebellious nations, and to establish
the kingdom of God in visible supremacy.

" As a matter of fact, no other expectation appears in
the apostolic writings, or in the writings of early Christen-
dom, than this of the return of the Lord Jesus from heaven
at the end of Satan's kingdom — to judge the nations and
to establish a supernatural and perhaps aerial reign over
the earth, in conjunction with the risen saints of former
generations. There is not, in either Old or New Testament,
one single promise of a triumphant ending of the world's
history, apart from the promise of a visible kingdom of
God in the last days ! There proved to be nothing
incredible or impossible in God's personal and direct
sovereignty over the Jewish people for fifteen hundred
years, and there is nothing incredible in the expectation
of that direct sovereignty being extended over the whole
earth in the person of Christ in the last days, though having
its centre in the land promised to Abraham for his heritage.
Such a consummation of history would be simply the ex-
tension of the idea of David's divine kingdom over all the
earth.

" I have only to add that all the prophets, including
Isaiah, Daniel, and Zechariah down to St. John, place the
commencement of this glorious age at the period when the
' Babylon ' of the ' Seven Hills ' shall be smitten to destruc-

294 EDWARD WHITE

tion, and when the Gospel shall have been ' preached in the
whole world.'

" I know not how it is that comparatively few lay
Nonconformists are persuaded to undertake a systematic
and orderly study of the prophecies, pleading the follies of
half-learned and eccentric interpreters as an excuse for
such neglect. But no inquirer needs to be ashamed of the
study, or of the conclusions which reckon among their
adherents such scholars as those of our own time, who,
with Sir Isaac Newton, follow in the path of all the ante-
Nicene writers of Christianity in these anticipations.

"EDWARD WHITE."

Before the end of February he went to Worthing, in the
hope of regaining, in that milder climate, something of his
usual health. He was able to enjoy some drives in that
neighbourhood in the early days of March, but then became
very ill, and for a time it was feared that he might not live
to return home. This illness continued for several weeks,
but by the middle of April he was so much stronger that it
was thought safe to take him home to Mill Hill. There,
however, he had to keep in bed for a week, and not until
May was well advanced was he able to resume his usual
habits of reading and writing. Having then resumed those
habits, he was able to persist in them to the end. His
note-book covering that period contains few dates, but
numerous records of his reading and thinking, and of these
the greatest number relate to the Scriptures, the Gospel, and
the Life eternal, to which he clearly felt himself drawing very
near. Thus he wrote, probably in June : " At seventy-nine
years you come very near to Eternity. In looking back, how
much to lament ; in looking forward, the only hope is in
the reconciling and renewing agency of God. ' I will fear
no evil, for Thou art with me.' The God who is here is
there. He has been a merciful God here, and will ' delight
in mercy ' there,"

THE CLOSING SCENE 295

In June he also wrote two letters to Mr. Hobbs, whose
mission work in India from 1879 to 1884 had been under
his superintendence. They indicate Mr. White's high
appreciation of his work in Bengal, as well as great
personal esteem, and are as follows:

"Hilda's Mount, June i, 1898.

" MY DEAR FRIENDS,— I have just been reading some
MS. notes of the years when we were more closely con-
nected in action, and this has set me on writing to you a
few lines of long-standing affection, in order to obtain a
little information as to your 'state,' as St. Paul calls it.
This is my own. I am now just beginning my eightieth
year, a fact which rather overawes me and will, I hope,
enable you both to feel quite young people. I thank God
my health is fairly strong and steady, but of course my
poor wits are failing, and as to memory it is a bag full of
holes. But I have had a great deal to remember in my
time. However, my custom of keeping note-books of
reading, thought, and action enables me to live a good
many former years over again in a shadowy sort of way.
But the death-roll is a long one, and would be a sad one if
not for the thought that so many of the valued friends of
past years are certainly safe under the shadow of the
Almighty elsewhere.

" I should much like to hear from you both as to your
state and occupations. Do you keep up any connection
with Christians in India? Do you ever hear of any results,
theological or spiritual, of your work there ?

" My life here is a very quiet one ; the population is small,
and now that I am near eighty people do [not] think one can
preach at such an age. I watch and pray for opportunities
of some usefulness, but probably the work that remains
from former years is the most to be accounted of. Every
saved man will be astonished some day to see how God has
watched over his work, that it should ' remain,' though lost

296 EDWARD WHITE

to history, known to Him. All here, Mrs. W. and my
daughters, join in affectionate remembrance to you both,
and I trust to obtain some scrap of recent autobiography
from you. Ever affectionately yours,

" EDWARD WHITE."

"June 9, 1898.

"MY DEAR FRIENDS, -- Occasional correspondence
should be framed on the same principle as conversation,
not ending with one question and answer, but running out
to one or two interchanges, giving better the idea of a
conversation. Accordingly I send you an acknowledgment
of your kind and pleasant letter of June /th. It has given
us great pleasure to hear again the voices which we knew
and loved so well in past years.

" One or two points arise out of your letter. As to my
illness : at the beginning of the year I was very seriously
ill, for a month, but it pleased God to raise me up again
for a while, and since then I have been a tolerable invalid,
with little power of locomotion or application to study or
writing ; but still able to enjoy a quiet life and the sight of
friends who may kindly call upon us. Of course the
openings which occur to me for any kind of usefulness are
fewer and require watching. Probably the better part of
my work for God, if I may venture to call it so, was in
past years ; and yet I think that if we pray for it He lets
us be of some use in old age. Litera scripta manet, and I
do pray that my past printed work may, by God's loving
kindness, be enabled to do some good still. When print
leaves our hands, it does not leave His, if He owns it at
all. And so I trust that at least some of the printed work
of former years is active still. But it is hidden from
us.

"In reviewing the past, I find no reason to question
that on the great matter of Immortality we were walking
in the paths of the Holy Scripture. I cannot answer the

THE CLOSING SCENE 297

argument I often used to others : that if the Bible taught
man's natural immortality, it would have expressed that
idea as often and as forcibly and unmistakably as they do
who hold it in our time. Its pages would have rung with
appeals to sinful men to save their 'immortal souls.' They
never use the argument once during fifteen hundred years
of Revelation, from Moses to St. John ; not one of the
seventy sacred writers drops into that orthodox style of
speech. This surely can only be because God held them back
from presenting, as the basis of Revelation, a metaphysical
lie. All the Midland Counties came to know that R. W.
Dale was steadily a Conditionalist, and that has silenced
much evil speaking, lying, and slandering. At Cambridge
Professor Stokes's courageous avowal has acted similarly.
But indeed when I read John vi. I wonder how the saints
can be so blinded by tradition as to think that men are
naturally as immortal as God, thus blinding themselves
also to the leading truth respecting the Incarnation of
the Life, and the abolition of death by the sacrifice of
the Son.

" Now here is a piece of the old ' fanaticism ' for you,
which yet has cleared the way to faith to thousands in this
generation.

" Love from us both to you both,

" E. W."

As earlier chapters have shown, letters from Mr. White
on matters relating to Nonconformity were occasionally
accepted for publication in the Times. The last of such
letters appeared at the end of June. It was a fresh state-
ment of his indictment of dishonest subscription by the
clergy, and was as follows : " SIR,— A great company of
Nonconformists are regular readers of the Times. As
one of these may I venture to urge upon the evangelical
section of Church of England men closer attention to
Canon Gore's, doctrine of subscription, which requires the

298 EDWARD WHITE

clergy to sign the Church standards in the ' plain gram-
matical sense of the words ' ? Not a few of us who are
Nonconformists enjoyed in early life every facility for
entering the ministry of the Church of England, but were
hindered by conscientious objection to ' non-natural '
subscription to the standards, specially on the question of
regeneration in infant baptism, which is the foundation-
stone of the whole theological fabric. A Church which
teaches sound doctrine is bound also to teach and enforce
sound morality, and in a commercial country no moral
law is of more importance than that which requires sim-
plicity of interpretation in subscription to solemn engage-
ments. Clearly the Church of England by law established
ought to set an example to the community of straight-
forward dealing in the use of language on the most sacred
subjects, specially by the moral teachers of a commercial
nation.

"If the same laxity of interpretation which is now
tolerated in the Church of England were introduced into
business transactions in the City of London, the commerce
of the country could not be carried on for a single day.
It is the vain endeavour to fight the battles of truth and
righteousness in the old-fashioned armour of departed
centuries which is really at the root of all our English
sectarianism, both in the Established and Nonconformist
Churches of the country. The spectacle in every parish
of England of one State-favoured Church surrounded by a
set of ' free,' but too often feeble, communities, is as unlike
as possible to anything that existed in Christendom in the
first two centuries of Christianity. Perhaps it is too late
in the day practically to move ecclesiastical amendments,
but..at least we may keep our minds clear on the questions
which lie at the very foundation of morals."

This letter was the last of his writings for publication
and it was printed within a month of his death.

The end game at last unexpectedly, for although it was,

THE CLOSING SCENE 299

known that the condition of the heart was such as to make
sudden death probable, there were no symptoms pointing
to immediate danger on Monday, 25th July, so that no
hesitation was felt about leaving home on the part of the
family.

In the evening of that day his youngest daughter and a
granddaughter were the only members of the family with
him, when he suddenly complained of great pain in the
side. He lay down on the sofa, and in a few minutes all
was over.

He had already entered his eightieth year, and notwith-
standing the absence of any special warning at this time,
he was clearly conscious, as his note-books show, of his
nearness to the end. The last date entered in the last
book is that of Sunday, July 24th ; and after a blank page
appears the following meditation : —

"Rev. xiv. 13. 'Their works do follow them' (with
them : aKoXovBet" /utr ai>Twi>). The whole passage is one :
' Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth,
for they rest from their labours, and their works follow
with them.' 'ATT' apri : from now. Does not this refer to
the change made in the destination of holy souls in death
since Christ's ascension ? ' Father, I will that they whom
thou hast given me, be with me, that they may behold my
glory which thou hast given me.' And the works which
' follow with them ' are the train of biographic memorials
which ascend with them to the seat of judgement. The
biography of a lifetime made visible by the Omniscient
Hand, in a series of memorials which represent the past
and foretell the future. And the words follow also, in a
vast volume of articulate sounds which re-echo in music
the results of their speech on earth, in words of truth, of
kindness, of justice, of solid argument for the right, of
tenderness for the sorrowful, of loyalty and love for God.
And when He sees and hears their works and words, He
says : ' Come ye blessed of my Father,' ye fit inhabitants

300 EDWARD WHITE

of the Jerusalem above, come join your hands in the works
and your voices in the songs of angels, under the shadow
of the Almighty and the love of the Eternal King of
glory."

These were the last words written in the note-book, and
probably the last that he ever wrote. In a letter to
Mr. W. D. Knight, written only a few days before his
death, he said : —

" We have not forgotten each other, I am sure, but on
this planet it is necessary to say so now and then, and
therefore I say it, with much reason and much affection
to-day. It is a long time since we heard of your modern
history. Would it be possible for you to come here for a
night, both of you, and jointly repeat some chapter of
ancient history ? We are so old now that we seldom go
out of these premises. But memory keeps in view lively
pictures of the past, in which your faces are prominent
portraits. We have very little to tell : of local news,
nothing ; of public, only that which we read in the Times ;
but some chapters of old personal history belonging to
both of you it would be pleasant to read over together
once more. For I suppose that even the angels in heaven
will sometimes say off a chapter of former experiences,
when chatting with some brother cherub in a suitable
frame of mind. They cannot be always living with their
strings screwed up to the last possible turn of the keys.
A ' Celestial City ' with no chat, but only sermons and
songs, would be like an eternal Sunday with no Monday in
prospect. Your engagements are many, ours are few ; so
do you propose a day and night and settle to give us this
pleasure."

Before the suggested visit could be paid, the earthly life
of the writer was finished, and only at his funeral could the
friend thus invited show by his presence the esteem and
affection he had for him.

The funeral took place at Mill Hill on Friday,

THE CLOSING SCENE 301

July 29th. The burial was in the churchyard. The
service that preceded it was conducted by Dr. McClure,
headmaster of Mill Hill School, and Dr. R. F. Horton, of
Hampstead, who, in his address, spoke of his deceased
friend as the wittiest man he had ever met. It was held
in the new School Chapel, at the opening of which only a
few weeks previously Mr. White had been present. Many
of his old Hawley Road friends were there, as well as
others, including Mr. Samuel Smith, M.P., who had been
his staunch friend and helper for twenty years.

Mr. White had outlived and followed to the grave so
many of his intimate friends in the ministry, that there
was not one of his own generation available to conduct the
funeral service, and so that duty had fallen to the two
already named, who were friends of his later years and of
a younger generation. One of the hymns sung during the
service was composed by Mr. White as early as 1842,
perhaps earlier, and is as follows : —

" Our conversation is in heaven." — PHIL. iii. 20.

JTis but a veil that hangs between

The saint and things divine;
And beams of glory oft are seen
Amidst its folds to shine.

Those rays on hearts of darkness fall,

And chase the gloom within;
With hope they waken to the call,

And burst the chains of sin.

And hourly doth this veil unfold

Some waiting saint to bless,
Whom Jesus summons to behold

His face in righteousness.

The angels bear them, one by one,

To join the rapturous throng,
Which round about the burning throne

Awakes the conqueror's song.

302 EDWARD WHITE

Those holy sounds we hear not now,

But soon the day will rise,
When, without veil, we too shall bow,

Amid those upper skies.

The notices of Mr. White's death that appeared in the
daily and weekly newspapers, both religious and secular,
were very numerous. His sterling worth and evangelical
teaching were very generally recognized, with only here
and there a note of discord on account of his unpopular
doctrines.

Some of the older members of the Hawley Road Church
felt that it would not be right to allow these Press notices
to be the only outward memorial of their dear deceased
friend. They therefore took counsel together, and con-
sidering the connection of Mr. White with Mill Hill School,
both in the earlier and the later periods of his life, they
invited the co-operation of the headmaster, Dr. McClure.
After consultation with him, it was decided to place a
mural tablet in Hawley Road Chapel, and to establish a
scholarship, or a leaving-prize, at Mill Hill School, to be
awarded for proficiency in the study of the Scriptures in
the original, and to bear the name of Edward'White. A
circular was issued to the friends and admirers of Mr.
White, bearing more than a hundred names of those who
had signified their concurrence with the proposal, some of
these representing the United States and Switzerland, where
Mr. White's works have been highly appreciated.

The response to this circular was hearty, and the scheme
was promptly carried out. On April 13, 1899, a meeting
was held in the Chapel at Hawley Road, at which the
mural tablet was unveiled by Dr. Newman Hall in the
presence of a large number of friends and relations of the
deceased minister, including his widow and several children
and grandchildren.

The second part of the memorial scheme was completed
a little later on. After meeting the cost of the tablet, the

THE CLOSING SCENE 303

main portion of the fund remaining was invested in the
names of trustees, the annual income accruing from it
being available as the "Edward White Scholarship." This
is tenable for three years by the scholar successful in the
examination provided for in the trust deed, such scholar
being about to leave the school to proceed to a
University.1

1 The first to gain this scholarship was Mr. Henry Martyn Trafford,
of Hornsey (son of the late Rev. John Trafford, of Serampore), who
now holds it, being a student at Glasgow University.

CHAPTER XX

CONCLUSION

foregoing chapters have pourtrayed in the person
of Edward White a faithful minister of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, a life animated by high and noble motives
and dominated by lofty aims, a mind of more than ordinary
capacity, and a character of indomitable earnestness and
tenacity of purpose. Yet the picture would not be com-
plete without some personal testimony as to other charac-
teristics, which do not emerge from the story of his life as
a public man.1 In addition to the abundant power and
various other qualities which are illustrated in the narra-
tive, his many-sided personality possessed great charm
and tenderness, which, however, could only be manifested
in his more private and intimate social relations. His
conversation was often brilliant, sparkling with wit and
humour, so that, with his wide range of knowledge, both
of men and of books, he was the life of any company in
which he felt himself at home. His religion was joyful.
No one could more thoroughly relish a good joke or more
heartily laugh at an amusing story. If, as he once wrote,
"It is worth half a day's journey to hear some people's
laugh, such joy and music, like a peal of bells in spring,"
he was himself one of those whose hilarity he thus
describes.

He is probably most widely known as the exponent of

1 For testimony from various friends see Appendix A.
304

CONCLUSION' 3o5

the doctrine of " Life in Christ," but those whose know-
ledge of him extends only to his controversial writings
can have but the faintest idea of his real character. Such
persons may suppose him to have been a disagreeable,
contentious man, a preacher whose sermons were always
bristling with controversial daggers ; yet such an estimate
of his character and ministry would be the very opposite
of the truth. It is true that both his pen and his speech
were formidable weapons, which he well knew how to use
when occasion required. But as a man, he was most
genial and hospitable; as a friend, most helpful and
faithful ; as a pastor and preacher, most earnest in the
exposition and application of the great evangelical truths,
with only occasional direct reference to the important con-
troversy with which his name is so closely associated. In
fact, the most salient characteristic of his pulpit ministry
was the skill with which he made the Bible interesting to
his hearers and understood by them. Those who knew
him most intimately were those in whom he inspired the
fullest confidence and the most enduring affection. Being
a man of ardent temperament, quick action, and incisive
speech, he sometimes said and did things which gave
offence or caused pain even to his best friends. But
whatever his imperfections were, his life and character
were such that those who came into closest contact with
him were made to feel the reality of the world unseen and
the supreme importance of the spiritual and eternal verities
which formed the main theme of his pulpit discourses. The
freshness and originality of both thought and expression in
those discourses were so striking that, besides attracting
occasional listeners of widely different character and
attainments, from various classes of the people, from Peers
and Cabinet Ministers to artizans and cabmen, he also
gradually gathered around him a Church of intelligent and
appreciative men and women who were earnest Christian
workers and generous supporters of all sorts of Christian

21

306 EDWARD WHITE

and benevolent enterprise. To this fact — the character of
the Church over which he was for so many years the
beloved and revered pastor — Mr. White was accustomed
to attribute much of his success in breaking down pre-
judice with regard both to himself and to his teaching.

No man could be more generous than he was in the
recognition of all aid rendered to him whether in his
Church work or in the "Life in Christ" controversy.
To such efficient helpers in that controversy as Messrs.
Minton and Tinling in England, and Dr. Petavel and Mr.
Byse on the Continent, recognition was due ; but even to
a much less prominent coadjutor in the cause he wrote
only two days before his death, " When I open the Bible
now, I often wonder how ever the main truth on ' Life in
Christ ' could have been so early lost and with such diffi-
culty regained for Christendom. Its early loss almost
logically necessitated the loss of the truth on regeneration
by the Spirit and justification by grace. Well, we have
both been permitted to have a place in the rebuilding of
the wall of Jerusalem, and lived to see a good result as to
the faith of the world."

The controversy as to man's nature and destiny with
which Edward White's name is. so inseparably associated
necessarily occupies considerable space in the foregoing
pages ; yet the book would scarcely be complete without
some reference to the present position of the controversy
and to its effect upon opinion generally.1 The struggle
which seemed almost hopeless when he entered upon it in
his early manhood, was a half-won cause before he quitted
the scene of conflict ; not, of course, through his work alone,
others had entered into his labours, and had brought wel-
come and efficient aid. Other influences too had been in
active operation, some of them not really tending in pre-
cisely the same direction, but all preparing men's minds
for great changes in theological thought and teaching. To
1 For its effect in other countries see Appendix C-

CONCLUSION 307

that extent it may be admitted that the Zeitgeist has been
favourable to his enterprise, but only on its destructive and
least important side.

Two, however, of the principal difficulties encountered
by Mr. White, in carrying on the controversy, have not
been obviated by the spirit of the age ; they still remain
hindrances to the acceptance of his doctrine of " Life in
Christ." The first of these difficulties is that of inducing:

O

those who take part in the discussion, on either side, to
perceive that it is not primarily, nor even secondarily, a
negative doctrine on future punishment for the unsaved,
but is firstly and chiefly a positive doctrine of immortality
offered, under defined conditions, to all men without dis-
tinction, who otherwise must perish. The second relates
to those who have been brought up in the belief of the
Platonic but not Scriptural notion of the inherent immor-
tality of the human soul. It is the difficulty of inducing
such persons to accept the fundamental idea of the perish-
able nature of man, which lies at the basis of Mr. White's
doctrine, an idea which seems to be clearly and tersely
expressed in the words of Jesus Christ (John vi. 53) :
" Except ye eat ... ye have not life in yourselves," in-
dicating that man is not in himself immortal, but is rather
in the position of a candidate for immortality, subject to
conditions.

It is not, however, here contended, nor is it even
supposed that Mr. White's mode of stating the case for
what has been called " Conditionalism " is absolutely com-
plete and final. Indeed, the subsequent publication of Dr.
Petavel's book and the criticisms in Appendix B suffice to
show that it is not so ; yet even opponents admit that the
cumulative force of Mr. White's arguments is very great, it
is in fact much greater than any one can be aware of who
has not carefully read and studied his book throughout.

Dr. Salmond, of Aberdeen, in the first edition of his
work on The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, had

308 EDWARD WHITE

treated the Conditionalist doctrine too cavalierly, and on
this having been pointed out to him, he modified some of
his statements in subsequent editions, and expressed the
opinion that " it is capable probably of being better stated
than has yet been the case."

When once urged to publish a fresh and abridged
edition of Life in Christ, Mr. White's answer was,
" Each generation must write its own books." His book
was written a generation ago, and so the time may soon
come for a fresh presentation of the doctrine in terms
which, without invalidating the main argument of that
book, will include other considerations better adapted to
strike the imagination and win the assent of the men of
the twentieth century.

Whoever may succeed in producing such a work will
surely not fail to render due honour to his predecessor of
the nineteenth century, Edward White.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A
TRIBUTES OF APPRECIATION

From SIR MICHAEL FOSTER, M.A.. M.P., Professor of Physiology
in the University of Cambridge.

I shall always look back with gratitude to the beneficial
influence which Mr. White exerted over me as a lad, just begin-
ning to think. ... I recognized in him a broad, open mind,
willing to discuss any question on its own merits and absolutely
free from even the suspicion of " pontifical " airs. His experience
of the manner in which his own views about " the second death "
had been received by many, led him to be very tolerant towards
others ; and while he was ever most clear and decided as to what
he judged to be fundamental truths, he was always ready to give
a patient hearing to the expression of views differing from his own,
even though they might at times seem to him to be extreme in
character.

His keen intellectual interest in very varied branches of know-
ledge, his ready appreciation of literary excellences, and his great
sense of humour, while they gave him charms as a friend, added
to his power in the pulpit. And it has always seemed to me a
special feature in his character that just as in the midst of the
freedom of social intercourse he never did or allowed anything
which would depreciate his influence as a pastor, so he never
permitted his being a " minister " to be in any way a bar to easy
intercourse and open good fellowship. It was largely due to
this that for many years after I had ceased to attend Hawley

$io APPENDIX A

Road, and we came to diverge more and more in our respective
opinions, we remained to the end the best of friends, and always
enjoyed, at least I did, the few opportunities when chance brought
us together.

One special connection with him will always remain a pleasant
remembrance to me. He was, as is well known, for some time
editor of the Christian Spectator. Upon taking possession of the
editorial chair, he invited me to write an article for him. If I
remember right, I wrote a short paper for his very first number,
and continued to contribute during, I think, the whole period of
his editorship. These papers were my first literary ventures, so
that he was not only my pastor but my literary father.

From P. H. PYE-SMITH, B.A., M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.S., &c.,
48, Brook Street.

Although Mr. White was an old and valued friend of my father
for most of his life, I only knew him personally in the latter years
of his ministry at Hawley Road Church. His services in the
pulpit were marked by simplicity and devout earnestness. His
prayers were scarcely more ex tempore than his sermons ; both
were evidently thought out before. His sermons were closely
reasoned and vigorously delivered, but with little action and no
extravagant changes of voice. Occasionally, however, indignation
at the insolence of vice or sympathy with patient suffering and
self-sacrifice would reveal itself in perfectly natural tones. He
was always interesting because he was always interested himself.
Perhaps the most characteristic part of Mr. White's Sunday
service was the exposition of a carefully chosen and admirably
read chapter. Whether the subject was historical or doctrinal,
didactic or eucharistic, he showed a mastery of the facts, a
familiarity with the language and circumstances of the writer, and
a sympathy with the narrative, the argument, or the poetry of the
passage which never failed to interest and impress.

He took much delight in the discoveries of science and of
archaeology, and often illustrated his discourses by reference to
them, and also occasionally spoke of public events ; but he never
allowed a sermon to degenerate into a review of the week or a
diluted version of a magazine article. For several years he gave

TRIBUTES OF APPRECIATION 311

lectures to working men once a month on Sunday evenings. They
were always full and often crowded, and here he left the form of a
sermon and took any subject in science or geography or history
which was likely to interest his audience. He treated it in a
frankly Christian spirit and never without prayer, but not in the
Biblical strain of his sermons.

With strong sympathy and a natural love of the humorous side
of things, he never n conversation let pathos degenerate into
spurious sensibility, nor suffered an unbecoming joke to escape
him. In the pulpit there was never anything to move either tears
or laughter, but there was often deep and solemn feeling, and
sometimes an allusion which might prompt a smile.

Strangers were often surprised to hear nothing of Mr. White's
views on the subject of the book called Life in Christ. He
rarely expounded them in the pulpit, and only occasionally
referred to them, but never pushed them forward. Some of his
congregation did not share his opinions on this point, and many
differed from him on the subject of baptism, but no one could
touch on vexed questions with greater frankness, simplicity, and
freedom from offence. Though he was a strong Protestant and
Nonconformist, and was still more strongly attached to what are
called evangelical doctrines, he had the most generous sympathy
for all who, under whatever qualifying term, were followers of
Christ. His description of a burial at sea with the service of the
English Prayer-book, and his account of the Belgian priest who
died of leprosy contracted in his self-imposed duties, will never
be forgotten by those who heard them.

Personally, he was in every sense manly, straightforward,
upright, transparent, genuine. He was, or rather, perhaps, had
been, quick tempered, and was easily moved to indignation, but
his heart was as tender and his nature as friendly as his head was
clear. No one who knew him could help respecting him; no
one who knew him well could help loving him.

From REV. J. F. B. TINLING, B.A.

It is more than thirty years since I became acquainted with
Edward White (the conventional prefix does not fit his memory)
and from the moment of introduction I knew him as one of the

312 APPENDIX A

choicest of friends. Indeed, it would be impossible to name four
others who have occupied an equal place in my mind and life.
While yet unacquainted with the literature of Conditional
Immortality, I had been led by the Bible alone to the theological
position so ably defined and defended in Life in Christ only,
and a corresponding agreement on nearly all great questions of
doctrine and practice bound me to the author by many ties.

Like all the best men, he was best at home, and so it was a
delight to be with him at family worship, at the breakfast-table,
or in his study. It was a home in which good servants cared to
stay through many years, and in which they were treated as con-
fidential friends. Children were free, while love and dignity
maintained order and harmony, which I never saw interrupted,
and secured politeness of tone and manner even from the youngest.
The same spirit attained like results in the Church.

Though his genial dignity and the Attic salt of his addresses in
the chair of the Congregational Union enhanced his reputation,
he found himself at the autumnal session in Norwich obliged by
his judgement and conscience to resist an almost unanimous
desire of the assembly. For a few minutes the position was
painful to all, and peculiarly difficult to the Chairman, but a happy
issue was found and the climax of restored harmony was marked
by hearty laughter when, with reference to the stentorian voice
of one of the protesters, the Chairman summarized the incident
by quoting, " The young lions roared and they suffered hunger,
but they that feared the Lord have lacked no good thing."

His scholarly conservatism in the interpretation of Scripture
must have helped many to resist the arrogant claims of the
destructive critics ; and the suggestion in one of his Merchants'
Lectures, that it was time that the gentlemen who knew precisely
and by instinct how the narratives of Genesis had been pieced
together, should give us a few biographies like those of Abraham
and Joseph, was a characteristic blend of reasoning shrewdness
and humour.

He held Spiritualism in abhorrence, pointing out that it was the
special offence for which the Canaanites were doomed to destruc-
tion ; that in reference to it, both in Deuteronomy and Isaiah,
Christ is the divinely-appointed and only permissible medium, and

TRIBUTES OF APPRECIATION 313

that St. Paul expected a great recrudescence of spiritualism in the
last days. He told privately how he had been obliged to change his
early opinion that Spiritualism was a compound of fraud and folly,
by demonstration of its supernatural power and evil suggestion.

" I am sixty and tired," he wrote to me twenty years ago, and
long before the end he thought himself breaking up, and suffered
from heart weakness and some corresponding depression. Yet
his intellectual activity and his interest in other men's thoughts
remained marvellously fresh. In the last year of his life, when
reference was made to the many inserts of letters which were
more interesting to the senders than to the receivers, he said : "I
read most things that are sent to me ; " and one morning now
long ago, he told me he had read a book of mine of a hundred
close pages, for the second time, before getting up in the morning.

It was quite natural for this man, whose intense spiritual con-
victions had not prevented him enjoying the society of Cardinal
Manning and Dean Fremantle, to gladly permit his Methodist
neighbours at Mill Hill to place his name upon their plan of local
preachers when the infirmities of age had compelled him to lay
aside the burdens of the Congregational pastorate.

Before this, however, came the intermediate stage of the
temporary ministry at Kensington, which happily realized a wish
he had expressed to me not long before, to fill some other pastoral
sphere than that of Kentish Town while his working power
remained. In connection with that remark I expressed surprise
that he had not made the change before, and he promptly replied :
" I was never asked." Men of conventional thought and speech
can move easily from Church to Church, but the man whom the
late Dean Alford appreciated as " one of our choicest thinkers,"
and whose brave, pure life and manly utterance were always
worthy of his choice thought, was left to exercise his strong
ministry for thirty years in a side street of Kentish Town.

For the same reasons he carried no conventional degree.
Churches are full of small " doctors " on both sides of the Atlantic,
but one who profoundly influenced the theology of the last half-
century the conservative radical who insisted on proving
things and holding fast that which was good, the capable editor,
the keen but always reverent controversialist, the fresh and ever

314 APPENDIX A

growing student, the wise and witty essayist, who harmonized his
many parts and his noble purpose so as to give the final impression
of the cultured Christian gentleman, owes nothing to doubtful or
arbitrary distinctions, but remains in the memory and heart of the
Catholic Church simply as Edward White.

From REV. JOHN NUNN, Haverstock Hill.

I well remember Mr. White leaving Hereford soon after his
change of views with regard to baptism, and his taking over of the
then disused Episcopal chapel in Hawley Road, in order to form
there a Congregational Union Church, but one in the designation
of which baptismal distinctions should have no place.

There was for a time a lack of cordiality towards Mr. White on
the part of some, due to his advocacy of Conditional Immortality,
which on its negative side was seen to differ materially from the
prevalent belief in the eternity of future punishment. It was
overlooked that no man could hold Mr. White's view without
being intensely evangelical ; that the doctrine did not detract
from the glory of Christ — on the contrary, that it made Christ's
gift of Life not less but more. Those, however, were days of
rigid doctrinal definition, and any deviation from generally
accepted views was liable to be condemned as " Neology."

Mr. White gradually won the high esteem and confidence of
his ministerial brethren, and at the same time gathered around
him a congregation of intelligent people who valued thoughtful,
Scriptural, and practical teaching, from which the Gospel of Christ
as the power of God unto salvation was never absent. These
found in him not only a teacher but also a kind and faithful pastor,
and one who sought to make Church life and fellowship a reality.
I must add, what I take to be no mean evidence of intellectual
robustness and genuine kindness, that Mr. White's ministry was
decidedly acceptable to working men. They liked his frankness
of speech, his fairness of spirit, his mastery of subjects, and the
play of humour which revealed itself in many shrewd judgements
of men and things. He did not echo their class prejudices ; his
manifest concern was with their best interests of every kind. His
monthly lectures to working men became an institution. They

TRIBUTES OF APPRECIATION 315

took in a wide range of Biblical, social, scientific, and present-day
questions, so dealt with that he " might by all means save some."

It need hardly be said that Mr. White's presence was much
valued in private circles. He possessed wide knowledge and
excelled in brotherly kindness. His conversation abounded in
acute reasoning and practical wisdom, and often sparkled with wit
which had the charm of spontaneity. He was connected with a
Ministerial Fraternal, to which I also belonged, and which
numbered among its members Baldwin Brown, James Fleming,
Newman Hall, Joshua Harrison, Thomas Lynch, and Samuel
Martin. It was through the action of this Fraternal that the
so-called Rivulet controversy arose. The other members re-
sented the attacks which were being made on Mr. Lynch and
his little book, and protested especially against the charge of
heterodoxy, which they knew to be perfectly untrue. In making
this protest Mr. White took a leading part. The attacks which
had been directed against Mr. Lynch were now directed against
the entire Fraternal, but were so manifestly ill-natured and absurd
as only to recoil on their authors, and leave the protesters
unharmed. Not one of these, I think, ever regretted having come
to the help of a brother so saintly and beloved as Mr. Lynch.

I offer these brief memoranda to enable those who did not
know Mr. White, the better to understand what manner of man
he was. He will be recognized as one possessed of strong
individuality, who was saved from isolation by his equally strong
sympathies, which brought him into touch with all good men, and
into lasting friendship with those who knew him best. He was
profoundly reverent and devout, but also hopeful and confident,
because he realized eternal things and "endured as seeing Him
who is invisible." We must needs think of him as among the
teachers and pastors divinely given for the work of ministering,
and for the edifying of the body of Christ. May the Churches
have many preachers as mighty in the Scriptures as he, and
shepherds as careful of the flock ! I end by expressing my deep
sense of his worth as a man, a Christian, and a Christian minister,
and of the privilege which I enjoyed in knowing him as one of a
band of kindred spirits, all of whom have now "gone before"
into the presence of the Lord.

3*6 APPENDIX A

From REV. D. BASIL MARTIN, M.A., Hereford, formerly
Assistant to Mr. White at Hawley Road.

In common with many others, I was attracted to Edward White
more by his personality than by his theology. His independence
of character, sincerity of purpose, and bright, breezy ways had a
peculiar charm for those who felt stifled and depressed by the
usual atmosphere of the Churches.

Of all the men I have known he was the most manly. His
massive head and handsome Jewish face, set on large, square
shoulders, his sturdy figure and firm step, his quick, eager
glance, were the outward and visible signs of inward strength,
determination, and mental vision.

He was unconventional; he knew no bondage to form and
fashion, Nonconformist or otherwise ; he said what he meant,
regardless of consequences ; he spoke in the same tone in the
pulpit and out of it. In days when disciples were few, income
small, and efforts discouraging, he would not compromise a word
for the sake of conciliating opponents or winning public support.
He stood forth as a prophet with a message to proclaim to those
who had ears to hear ; as one sent by God, like Jeremiah, whose
words he often quoted : " to root out and to pull down, to destroy,
to build and to plant," for it must be confessed that although his
teaching was constructive and he much disliked to be known by
his negations, his tone was frequently that of a fervent iconoclast.

He was a man of devout spirit and deep reverence, a disposi-
tion which he imparted to his congregation. To see him walk
into the church on Sunday morning and observe the expression
of his face throughout the service was enough to make one feel
how conscious he was of the dignity of his office, the serious re-
sponsibility of leading the worship of Almighty God and speaking
to his fellow-men upon the mysteries of time and eternity. He
worked hard at his sermons, and threw his whole soul into them.
The thoroughness with which he studied his subject and the fear-
lessness with which he expressed his convictions made almost
every topic interesting. He could not pour out conventional
phrases which might take the fancy of his congregation, he must
give the very best he had in all humility and love.

TRIBUTES OF APPRECIATION 317

His reverence was founded on study and reflection, on a
knowledge of natural science and history, no less than theology.
His mind was overwhelmed with the vastness of creation, the in-
comprehensibility of the infinite Will, the strange movements of
Providence, and the wondrous love manifested in man's redemp-
tion. His study of astronomy gave him an unusual feeling of
awe and wonder. To his mind the very God who made and
governed those countless worlds of glory in the heavens had
given His Son that sinful, dying men might share His own eternal
life, and he regarded the formation and growth of the kingdom of
God as recorded in Holy Scripture and in the history of the
Church as one continuous miracle.

There was a tone of sincerity and common-sense in the
services at Hawley Road. Hymns of excessive emotion and
fictitious or doubtful sentiment were excluded ; the reading of the
Scriptures was interspersed with pithy explanatory remarks, and
the prayers were an expression of genuine feeling. He was one
of the first of our ministers to introduce a portion of the Anglican
liturgy into public worship, and other parts of the service showed
his familiarity with the devotional literature of the universal
Church.

Everything about him was real. His lectures were lectures and
his sermons sermons. If he announced a lecture on "The
Mouth '' or " The Stars,1' you might expect a scientific discourse
to illustrate the works of God in Nature, not an evangelical
appeal with a few poor scraps of physiology or astronomy thrown
in.

He never indulged in catch-titles or laid traps for the unwary.
He appealed to the intelligence of his audience and won their
respect. It is one thing to give an artizans' lecture and another
to lecture to artizans. Workmen are often conspicuous by their
absence in the services arranged for their special benefit. But
they came from all parts of London to hear Edward White, not
because they believed all he said, but because he was interesting
and genuine. He took them through a considerable portion of
the history of England as well as that of the Jews and early
Church on Sunday evenings. He also lectured on distinguished
men of modern times. It was on the occasion of his lecture on

318 APPENDIX A

Lord Shaftesbury that I remember his saying, "The second
lesson this evening will be taken from the Times newspaper."
He often said that Church history and missionary records were
but a continuation of the Acts of the Apostles, and ought to be
read at public worship. Once he remarked that if he had his life
to live over again he would live to teach men history.

His relation to the world in general may be perhaps summed
up in one of his own pithy phrases : " I have spent the last forty
years in preaching faith mixed with oxygen."

He was a born humourist, and his very humour revealed his
sincerity, it was so straightforward and happy. He enjoyed his
own jokes. To see him throw back his head and laugh after
making some clever remark that would shock the proprieties of
pious folk, or to hear him prattle with the lightheartedness of a
schoolboy, was as good as a sea-breeze.

Life grew more interesting to him year by year, and every
springtime seemed more beautiful than the last. On his sixtieth
birthday he exclaimed : " Oh how I envy you fellows who are not
sixty ! "

A brilliant talker and letter-writer, if only there had been a
Boswell behind his chair, we should have a second Life of
Johnson in our hands.

In sympathy and personal judgements he was broad-minded
and generous, and frequently said that "all good men were much
alike inside." He had little love of sectarianism. Though he
strongly disbelieved in infant baptism and refused to practise it,
he deprecated the division on the subject and said it was " as
absurd to call yourself a Baptist as a Lord's Supperist."

He was a Nonconformist only because his conscience com-
pelled it ; personal tastes and inclination would have made him an
Anglican, like so many of his friends. He had great love for the
historic Church and the historic faith.

He was an earnest student of the Bible, and never happier
than when expounding it. He liked to take long paragraphs and
give the general sense. He complained of the disastrous results
of preaching from separate texts and the absence of syste-
matic instruction in our Churches. His own faith in divine
revelation, he said, was due to his constant habit of reading the

TRIBUTES OF APPRECIATION 319

whole Bible in order in the original Hebrew and Greek. It was
on the Bible that his theology was founded, and those who have
not studied his arguments have little idea of the strength of his
position from that point of view.

But few men base their beliefs on a critical investigation of
Scripture even when they think they do; and since Edward
White's ministry began a wave of human feeling has passed over
theological thought which has made it for many as difficult to
believe in the destruction of the wicked as in their endless torture.
Hence it came about that while in the first part of his life Edward
White was considered a heretic, in the latter part he seemed con-
servative, though he himself had not changed.

But we of a later generation have little idea of the relief his
teaching brought to some minds fifty years ago. It was in
Hereford that his life-long opinions were formed or matured, and
there is still with us a lady who remembers as a child the sermons
in which he first expounded his doctrine of Life in Christ. She
tells how shocked her parents were, and whilst they were sorrow-
fully discussing the subject at dinner, her little soul was in a tumult
of excitement and joy at the light which was breaking through
the beliefs that to her were such a terror.

Few ministers have been loved more devotedly and even
passionately than Edward White. He was known to his own
congregation not so much as a clever controversialist and earnest
fighter for the truth, as a sincere friend, a man of God, and one
to whom the spiritual world was unusually real. If ever a man
could be at home in heaven it would be Edward White. One
whose mind was so often absorbed in the contemplation of
realities, who loved the society of good men of every order,
whose favourite motto was : " Live now as you would like to live
for ever. Do not prepare to die, prepare to live. If you are fit
to live in this world, you are fit to live in any world."

I have never heard any one talk in such a natural, realistic way
about the future life, and in his later years it was a favourite topic,
when, as he used to say, so many of his best friends had migrated
either to Hampstead or to heaven.

The last letter that I received from him concluded with the
following words : "If among the older Christians of Hereford any

320 APPENDIX A

remain who remember me and the word I spake unto them, tell
them that I am drawing very near the end, in ever-growing faith
in that Saviour who is alive for evermore."

From the REV. CHARLES WILLIAMS of Accrington. President in
1886 of the Baptist Union.

I had the valued privilege and great pleasure of more than
friendly acquaintance with the late Rev. Edward White. To me
the friendship was the more precious because it was not the
outcome of agreement as to his well-known doctrine of " Life in
Christ." I realized greater difficulty than he in believing that
God would destroy the life of unbelievers. I mention this fact
because it illustrates Mr. White's breadth of mind and largeness
of heart. He was by many years my senior and in every respect
my superior. All who knew him must remember his intense
earnestness of belief in the doctrine of which he was the chief
exponent. And yet he never allowed my inability to accept his
teaching, or my persistent opposition to it, to alienate him from
me or to lessen his confidence in me. We often discussed, and
sometimes with unrestrained freedom and no little plainness of
speech, the points in dispute between us ; but he never permitted
differences to divide us. I ever admired in him the love which
" doth not behave itself unseemly " and which " never faileth."
He did to others what he would that men should do to him, and
thus fulfilled "the law and the prophets." Mr. White ever
conceded what he claimed, and was as charitable as he was
conscientious.

My friend was intensely evangelical. I doubt whether,
except on the question of " Life in Christ," there was a more
" orthodox " believer in the ministry of our Free Churches than
Mr. White. To him the Scriptures were the sole as well as the
supreme written standard of Christian truth. His reverence for
and loyalty to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ were
unbounded. What impressed me most in Mr. White was his
absolute loyalty to self and Christ. He could not " make his
judgement blind." His mind was always open to the truth. The
light within craved more light from above and from without.

TRIBUTES OF APPRECIATION 321

"Are these things so?" was the question which he asked.
Ascertained fact never left him dubious. "Is it true?" he
demanded. When the answer was " Yes " he gave a welcome
to the stranger and henceforth he was its friend. If necessary he
would stand alone in championing an unpopular cause. He
loved the truth, was never ashamed of it, cheerfully suffered for
its sake, was ready to lay any offering within his power on its
altar, and, martyr-like, he could not but speak the things which
he had heard and seen, whatever might be the cost of fidelity to
self. This showed the measure of the man, entitled him to a
place among the heroic, and made him trustworthy.

I cannot close this brief and inadequate appreciation of my
friend without reference to the companionship which I remember
vividly and gratefully, and to fellowship in good works which was
and is helpful to me. What a delightful companion Edward
White was ! How genial and gentle, how widely read and
suggestive, how sunny and sage-like ; how tender yet stalwart
he was ! I shall never forget a holiday we shared together in the
New Forest; the quiet hours of converse at the fire-side, his
cheerful talk, wise counsel, sparkling wit and humour, and never-
failing resource. Riper fruit was not lacking in him. " By their
fruits shall ye know them," said Jesus of prophets. " Do men
gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?" Men gathered
grapes of this branch of the true vine.

At the time of the cotton famine in Lancashire, in the early
sixties, Mr. White visited me at Accrington. He was deeply
moved by the self-respect and courage with which operative
spinners and weavers endured poverty, took immense pains to
discover the nature and extent of their destitution, saw with his
own eyes the homes of the workpeople, heard them tell the story
of their sufferings, and pleaded their cause with rare persuasive-
ness and power. His article in the Christian Spectator, "The
Silent Mills," called forth generous responses from hundreds of
readers. Many a burden was made lighter, many a heart was
cheered, many a home was brightened, many a housewife
renewed her faith and hope, and many a man fought his battle
with more of bravery and with greater confidence in final victory
through the loving and considerate ministrations of Mr. White.

322 APPENDIX A

He sent again and again and yet again unto their need, had real
fellowship with them, and while the mills were silent, thanksgiving
was heard in scores of homes for the things which came from
Mr. White and his friends, "an odour of a sweet srnell, a
sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing unto God."

Here I stop. I might speak of our common interest in foreign
missions, of the quenchless enthusiasm of Mr. White in seeking
the extension of the kingdom of God among men, of the manner
in which he laboured as well as prayed for the fulfilment of the
divine purpose concerning the salvation of all men and the
evangelizing of the whole world. But others, doubtless, have
borne their testimony to his zeal in the greatest of all enterprises,
the making disciples of all the nations. I therefore close this
tribute to my friend, lamenting that we are parted for a time and
rejoicing in the hope that we shall meet again in the heavenly
mansion of our Father's House.

From the REV. NEWMAN HALL, LL.B., D.D.

Before his death, Dr. Newman Hall expressed to the author his
desire that in this book his high appreciation of Edward White
should appear. In his Autobiography there is, at page 305, a
warm testimony of his friendship. Also in the course of his
speech at the unveiling of the memorial tablet in Hawley Road
Chapel he said : —

" We meet to unveil a memorial tablet to Edward White. But
a far more enduring memorial is the abiding influence of his
teaching in the minds of tens of thousands by his writings ; and
a deeper and more sacred memorial in the hearts of those who
knew him personally and loved him well.

" I have enjoyed the privilege of brotherly intercourse with
him during thirty years. He has aided me by his counsel, cheered
me by his sympathy, instructed me by his learning and genius :
we have laughed together, and wept together, and prayed together ;
and hoping to be made more meet for the inheritance of saints in
light, I rejoice in hope of fellowship together in the blessed com-
pany of those who share the Eternal Life in Christ.

" I am specially indebted to him for clearer and happier views

TRIBUTES OF APPRECIATION 323

of Immortality, based not on philosophical or scientific theories,
but on the fact of Christ's Resurrection, and His assurance ' he
that believeth on Me shall never die ' : also I have been led to
hope that the coming of Christ to set right all that is wrong, does
not necessarily wait a vast interval of preparation, but may pos-
sibly be near.

" With his name I associate learning without pedantry, genius
without pride, laughter without folly, criticism without spite, piety
without formalism, conviction without narrowness, saintliness
without sourness, godliness pervading his humanness.

" How I have enjoyed the flashes of his genius, the joyousness
of his laugh, the depth of his sympathy, his scorn of all meanness
and pretence, his admiration of all goodness — how I have profited
by his comments on the Holy Book, and above all by his prayers :
his soul-thrilling aspirations of praise ; his outbursts of trust and
love and hope in the immediate Presence of the Great High
Priest!"

APPENDIX IB

CONDITIONALISM AND CURRENT THOUGHT, BEING AN
ANALYSIS AND CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF MR. WHITE'S
BOOK LIFE IN CHRIST

By Rev. WM. D. McLAREX, M.A.

THE remarkable volume entitled Life in Christ, whose origin,
appearance, and reception have been told in the foregoing pages,
undoubtedly constituted the chief life work of the author, both
in his own regard and in that of the public. Special analysis of
it has therefore been reserved for this appendix with the object
of examining the relation of its main contentions to current
thought. Reperusal after more than twenty years only serves
to exhibit afresh the vigour and completeness which characterize
the volume. It is divided into five books of unequal length,
dealing with the question of human destiny : ist, as regarded
in the light of science and philosophy only; 2nd, as viewed
by the Old Testament Scriptures; 3rd, as involved in the
Christian teaching on Incarnation and Redemption ; 4th, as
asserted in the New Testament doctrine of penalty; and
5th, as bearing on the faith and practice of mankind.

Mr. White's main contention is that the deathlessness of the
personal self in man depends on that union with God in Christ,
of which the special conditions are set forth in the New Testa-
ment, and which may be attained or forfeited accordingly. He
makes Immortality the supreme offer of the Gospel and the loss
of Immortality its supreme threat, and understands the Scriptural
phrase " Eternal LIFE " and its opposites in this sense. Beyond
the existence of God, the existence of moral good and evil, with
the implication of human freedom and accountability, no further
religious assumptions are made in the volume. The author

324

THE BOOK LIFE IN CHRIST 325

shows throughout his own profound faith in the authority of the
Jewish and Christian Scriptures ; but no part of his argument
depends upon a previous acceptance of this authority, for which,
as he himself says, an honest and clear interpretation of their
contents is the best evidence. To those who with him accept
that authority, his arguments may carry more weight, but to those
who do not, the view exhibited as that of the Scriptures is
commended on account of its intrinsic reasonableness. Through-
out, the necessity for a clear, consistent, and moral theology is
kept side by side with the attempt at a clear contextual inter-
pretation of Scripture.

In opening this treatise, Mr. White confronts us with the
alternative of ultimate extinction of life or immortality as the two
possible conceptions of human destiny, and suggests the connec-
tion of morality with the alternative, " Moral evil shutting the
gate of Immortality." The subsequent chapters indicate the
presence in germ in the lower animals of the distinctive human
characteristics, and in spite of this their universal mortality with-
out any appearance of survival. The conclusion drawn in chapter
iv. is that nature and science unassisted leave human origin, rela-
tionship, and destiny absolutely uncertain, throwing us over on an
alleged religious revelation.

Having noted the fact of the amazing myriads concerned in
the divine government of man, Mr. White proceeds to exhibit
the traditional interpretation attached to Bible treatment of
destiny, and chiefly its insistance on necessary deathlessness as
part of the Scriptural threat of death. Tracing modern modifica-
tions, he pertinently asks whether the whole of this interpretation
may not, like many others now discarded, be a huge error. He
ascribes to its prevalence the widespread European abandonment
of the Gospel. Finally he discusses the contention for necessary
immortality, on the grounds of the moral and spiritual nature of
man. Confessing these valid for a judicial survival or revival, he
pronounces them worthless to prove absolute deathlessness, and
cites the admission of leading conservative theologians of his own
day that no such deathlessness is taught or necessarily assumed
in any part of the Bible. The way is thus opened for the
author's own examination,

326 APPENDIX B

In dealing with the Old Testament doctrine of man, Mr.
White indicates his view of the place and purpose of the Old
Testament, and its consistent exclusion of all idea of inherent
deathlessness. His definition of " death " is open to objection,
as we shall see. His treatment of survival as due to redemption
still more so.

Chapter xii. contains an excursus on the reality and function
of diabolic agency in the scheme of human probation.

Our author's acceptance of the traditional treatment of the
Old Testament books does not lessen the force of his exegesis of
the opinions ascribed to patriarchs and lawgivers. These he
clearly shows to involve the thought of death, in an absolute
sense, as the reward of sin. His subsequent treatment of the
prophetic books is even more convincing, and will not to-day be
so disputed as twenty years ago. His two points, that God's
saints did anticipate a future life, and that sinners would be cut
off from it, are argued with some cogency. A chapter on the
divided Jewish opinion at the time of our Lord closes this
section.

Taking up the discussion of New Testament teaching, Mr.
White opens with what may be called a frank and explicit state-
ment of the central position of the book, viz., that immortality
for man is the object of the Incarnation of the Son of God.
Noting the prevalent antipathy to incarnation, he traces that
doctrine through the Synoptists, and its emphatic presentation in
the Fourth Gospel. The treatment here is unaffected by questions
of literary criticism. Unitarianism is ascribed to the absence in
his time of any clear and unanimous teaching as to the object of
the Incarnation. Life for the dying he conceives as the only
object worthy of so stupendous an act. Two valuable appendices
are attached to this the seventeenth chapter, one a caustic
exposure of the inadequacy of popular theology as an interpreta-
tion of John vi., and the other on later Rabbinical teaching as
to Pharisaism.

The chapter on Justification vigorously defends the evangelical
forensic doctrine, but connects it with the Mystical Union between
Christ and His people in a way not possible when the Justification
is treated as the deliverance from the woes of a deathless soul

THE BOOK LIFE IN CHRIST 327

instead of as the free gift of Life to a dying soul. This same
distinction is then employed to justify the doctrine of redemption
by penal expiation in the death of Christ. The ideas of divine
implacability on the one hand and of forgiveness without expia-
tion on the other, are both set aside. Penal expiation is set forth
not as mere sufferings, however spiritual, in the room of the
condemned, but as the endurance by the incarnate God of His own
death penalty. This for the twofold purpose of expressing His
own horror at sin and His desire to save the sinner. What this
implies in the death of Christ has been one of the chief points of
attack on Mr. White's book. Similar treatment is next accorded
to the doctrine of regeneration. This is argued to mean the real
bestowment of immortality by imparting not so much a new kind
of life as the conditions of permanency of life. This at least is
the view substantially, though rather more vaguely, presented in
the text. The unregenerate are " dead," not in the sense of
spiritually torpid, but in the sense of meriting imminent disso-
lution. Human constitution is again here dealt with, and in
violent contradiction to present popular belief, the divine Father-
hood of ungodly men is repudiated.

In continuing the discussion of the bearings of immortality on
the general scheme of doctrine, Mr. White is now forced to
examine the question of Hades. He ably reviews the theological
and Scriptural evidence for non-survivalism, the doctrine of some
of his associates, who believe in the complete cessation of life for
all men between their bodily death and the universal resurrection.
This evidence he pronounces insufficient, holding the position of
ordinary Christian teaching as fully established. The suggestion
is made that it is needless to assume uniformity in the immediate
state of the departed whether amongst the saved or the lost.
Reasons are given for the existence of the Hades state in the
economy of redemption, and an attempt is made to harmonize
the admission of survival with the author's previous position on
the constitution of men.

This is followed by an attempt to maintain the evangelization
of the ignorant in the disembodied state, on grounds which,
however, distinguish this view from any theories of universally
continued probation. This section of the work closes with an

328 APPENDIX B

exposition of the author's views on the resurrection and the
second advent.

So far doctrinal considerations have been favourable. But is
there not strong New Testament doctrine to the contrary in the
teaching on future punishment, both as conscious and as eternal ?
The fourth book deals at length with this matter. After re-
pudiating the popular error that Conditionalism is a mere theory
of future punishment, Mr. White emphasizes the need for a clear,
strong doctrine of doom, and then exhibits the New Testament
teaching as to the awfulness and finality of the fate of the lost.
There follows a careful examination of the terms describing the
nature of the doom as " death," and an exposure of the hollowness
of evasions, whether orthodox or universalist, which assume the
deathlessness of the "death "-doomed spirit. After exhibition of
the anticipative use of the term " death," the collateral ideas of
ruin and wretchedness and the relation of the actual doom to
the spiritual condition are carefully analyzed. The alternative
finally presented is not of inclusion or of exclusion of the
supposed spiritual senses of " life " and " death," but of inclusion
or exclusion of the literal, which carries the spiritual with it as its
condition.

The New Testament texts adduced for endless suffering are
then taken up by our writer, who, though with some oscillation,
decides on the final and endless meaning of atw»>H>£, but enforces
the doom as an endless loss of life, not as an endless life of loss.
The same treatment is pertinently accorded by contextual
examination to all the passages in question.

An interesting sketch of patristic literature and the corruption
of Church doctrine is given in chapter xxvi. The fluctuation
of some noteworthy Fathers is observed, and the clearness of
others whose teaching is important from being given, not as
private speculation, but as the then Catholic Faith. Discussion
on doom is closed by a severe handling of the postulates, the
methods, and the results of the teaching known as Universalism.

The last book of the volume, in four able chapters, treats of
the effects of the disputed doctrine on Christian life and faith ;
on ungodly men ; on the missionary enterprise ; and on modern
scepticism.

THE BOOK LIFE IN CHRIST 329

In addition to the discussion of interesting points, such as the
reason for the resurrection of the wicked, prominence is given to
the proper place of fear in religion ; to the importance of a
presentable view of the divine character, especially the divine
love ; to the true place of the moral reason in theology, and its
relation to the Scripture ; to the coherency of theology upon a
Conditionalist exegesis ; and to the credibility of miracle when
regarded as the expression, in the natural world, of life provided
for morally death-deserving men.

The book ends with praise to Christ as the life-giver.

In his preface to the third edition Mr. White complains of
misconstructions, which he attempts to remove. We still find
his doctrine accused of reducing man to the level of the brutes,
treating immortality as a new and alien element added to the
human constitution ; of creating two intrinsically different classes
of people; of insisting chiefly on annihilation, and so forth. A
reference to the above summary will indicate the inaccuracy of
these contentions and the places in the volume where they are
dealt with. Mr. White complains that his main contention has
not been faced by his critics, either on the Biblical or the theo-
logical side. This is still the case, as may be seen by reference
to the relative literature of the last twenty years. Attention is
usually drawn to details on the interpretations of special texts, or
to the questions arising from the consideration of the inter-
mediate state, or to the theoretical possibilities of annihilation,
instead of to the serious refutation of the principal position.

That there are weak points in the general argument for Con-
ditionalism, and also in Mr. White's presentation of it, is obvious.
Chief amongst these is the difficulty in accounting for the
spiritual survival of a composite being. In Mr. White's treatise,
his definition of death as a dissolution of the man and of the
survival of the spirit as compatible with it, appears quite incon-
sistent with his contention that the second death is incompatible
with any survival. The death of Christ when treated as the
penalty for sin also raises the difficulties which surround the
question as to whether His human spirit died in the sense

330 APPENDIX B

attributed by Mr. White to the second death. This can probably
be met by the affirmation of the persistence of a lifeless spirit
whose reanimation took place along with that of His body. Our
author leaves this vague. It would have been better, perhaps,
if he had frankly accepted the popular philosophy which con-
fines personality to the spirit, embodied or not, and treated the
death of the body as an instalment and premonition of the
death of the spirit in the same sense. This is virtually done in
discussing the second death.

Mr. White's usage of the term "death" is really consistent
throughout, but this is concealed by an attempt at a definition of
the constitution of man and of the relations of the spirit and
body. Those who are fond of pointing out such flaws should
recollect how much less consistent and indefinable is the usage
of Mr. White's opponents. Equally unintelligible is any doctrine
of the place of the body, present or future, in the human consti-
tution as exhibited by opponents. All controversialists would do
well to remember that " life " and " death " are elementary terms
of speech, have therefore no synonyms or definitions, and are
strictly correlative, the only variation being in matters to which
they are applied. In ordinary speech " death " in every case is
the total and real loss of life in that of which alone it is affirmed.
Seldom in any serious fashion do his antagonists deal with our
author's main contention, that these terms occurring in the Bible
refer not to limited religious functions but to the entire personality.
Instead of this we too often find derision of the substitutes
"existence" and " annihilation," which thoughtless advocates of
the doctrine have sometimes used as definitions of " life " and
" death." Whether or not a lifeless spirit can still exist, the
thought of its death is quite distinct from its annihilation and
precisely analogous to the thought of the death of the body or of
anything else. A careful examination of Scripture teaching, with
a view to proving from the context, in opposition to Mr. White,
that the threats of death and destruction to the soul are intended
to apply only to its religious functions and not to itself, has rarely
or never been attempted.

Frequent discussions from time to time have appeared on the
theological bearings of Conditional Immortality, but have.

THE BOOK LIFE IN CHRIST 331

generally been confused by some of the misconceptions already
adverted to, and they fail to grapple in any comprehensive way
with the general arguments of Mr. White. All the weakness of
special interpretations and all the implications on collateral
topics put together afford a very slight ground for opposition to
the evidence brought forward by Mr. White as to the real teach-
ing of the Christian standards. Considerations of this kind
evade but do not meet the main point, viz., whether the language
of Christ and His apostles is to be understood in this same sense
as the same words of other teachers when directed to the same
subject, or are to be taken in a limited religious significance.

Considerable theological changes have taken place in the
public mind since the last issue of Life in Christ ; chief of
these has been the different attitude now assumed towards the
authority of Scripture. Scientific and some unscientific criticism
as to the structure of various books of the Bible, and the realiza-
tion of its fallibility on non-religious subjects, and of the gradual
progress of religious revelation, have unsettled the public mind
even of the Church on the doctrinal authority of the prophets
and apostles, and have confirmed outsiders in questioning the
authority of Christ Himself. While in some senses this may
weaken the interest of those who see no cause to trouble them-
selves about the teaching of a fallible book, and so cease to care
about " proof texts " from Gospel and Epistle, there is, on the
other hand, a greater freedom from the desire to pervert the
sense of writings that were supposed to be authoritative. This
freedom leaves the mind more open to perceive the harmony of
the different parts of Scripture doctrine and the clearness of the
context on the question of " Eternal Life," and this honest and
clear interpretation will bring back the sense of Scriptural
authority as Mr. White's book reiterates. In this way while the
force of certain texts may have gone, the cumulative argument
remains in full force.

The next great change to be noted is the progress and initu
decline of Universalism. This doctrine, basing itself on the
Divine Fatherhood, has won its way through all the Churches,
and is to be found in the most unexpected quarters. Those whc
dare not affirm yet accept it. Those who cannot accept yet

332 APPENDIX B

desire it. Those who still profess the traditional faith on destiny
rarely do more than allude to that faith. Uncertainty and silence
prevail where Universalism is not taught. In many cases this
uncertainty has become dogmatic, and the superficial view of
destiny as a mere question of future punishment, on which we
may toss up and down opinions like jugglers' balls, has left the
Church destitute of practical teaching on judgement to come.
Within the last decade, however, a reaction has plainly set in,
not great or rapid, but steadily increasing. Universalism is felt
to be inadequate to account for the graver facts of life, and to be
ineffectual in rousing and convincing the careless. Notably the
universality of the Divine Fatherhood in any vital sense has
come to be questioned even in those schools of the prophets
where it has been reiterated to weariness, and it begins to appear
simpler to deny to God the Fatherly relationship to some men
than to attribute to Him such a discharge of it, in relation to this
life, as would be inconceivable in any righteous father. In this
way the stock argument of Universalists has begun to recoil on
themselves, and men's attention may now be enlisted for what
was once regarded as the " miserable doctrine of annihilation."

Public interest, which had subsided after the controversies of
the seventies, has been reawakened to some extent by the issue
of such works as Mr. Gladstone's annotated Btitler and Studies
Subsidiary, Dr. Salmond's erudite treatise on the Christian Doc-
trine of Immortality, and Dr. J. Agar Beet's two recent books on
the subject. The recurrent investigation of Atonement and the
persistent affirmation by Evangelicals of its penal character, not-
withstanding widespread popular denial, has also forced the Church
to a reconsideration of what the penal effect of sin really is. Still
more plainly is the question forced in view of the obviously evil
effects of a generation of silence on a doctrine of doom. Within
and without the Church men cry, " What does your religion really
teach on human destiny ? " The teachers are silent, or utter
faint and feeble contradictions.

Outside the Church, perhaps the most potent factor in modern
thought has been that of biological evolution. Its emphasis on
the relation of man to the sub-human races tells against the
sharp distinction drawn between them by the Universalist, who

THE BOOK LIFE IN CHRIST 333

makes all men as men to be deathless Sons of God. Its doctrines
of genetic progress on the other hand, and survival of the fittest,
obviously harmonize with the thought of an immortality con-
ditioned on the use made of the latest development of that
distinctively human feature, the completed reason and moral
sense. The focussing of its interests on the subject of life at
once suggests the thought that Christianity is the crown of biology.
The earliest and the latest chapters of Mr. White's book show
clearly that much of this had already been detected by him,
though his dread of a debasing materialism, and his excessive
estimate of the historic value of the Old Testament narratives
somewhat checked the working out of this line of thought. It is
clear that he also forecast the present state of practical opinion,
and wrote with that issue in view.

What is needed to make this doctrine the accepted faith of
Protestant Christendom within the next forty years is a sharp,
short presentation on the following lines.

First, there must be clear distinction made between the main
and minor points. Questions of the intermediate state; of a
continued probation ; of the methods and degrees of conscious
suffering in the execution of the final death; of the special
classes finally regarded as possessing or lacking a saving faith in
God ; and of the issue of the second death, whether in the
persistency or the annihilation of the lifeless essence of the
personality: These, however intrinsically interesting to popular
curiosity or philosophic inquiry, must be, for the time at least,
set aside or treated in subordination to the cardinal issue. That
issue is, whether a final separation between two classes of men is
or is not taught by Christ, and whether the alternative be two
states of life or be life and death respectively. That is a question
to be settled by the ordinary rules of the context, and not by
philosophical or theological assumptions. If these be set aside
the result ought to be more or less ascertainable by ordinary Bible
readers, when once the question is clearly put to them. This
result will not in any way be affected by modern Biblical criticism,
nor by the abandonment of certain passages wrongly used on this
side or that.

Two Scriptural difficulties chiefly hinder acceptance of Con-

334 APPENDIX B

ditionalism amongst those who are more anxious to receive and
understand New Testament doctrine than to achieve in the first
place a harmonious theology. Of these, the first is the notion
that the plain teaching of Christ on the endlessness of penalty pre-
supposes an endless life of the lost, and therefore a restricted sense
of a spiritual character on the endless life promised to the redeemed.
This objection usually vanishes as soon as it is perceived that
proof of the endlessness of a penalty is no proof of the endless-
ness of life in that penalty, if that penalty be death. Just as the
antithesis of Matthew xxv. 46 forbids us to understand its " Eternal
Life " as a life of punishment, so it forbids us to regard the eternal
punishment as a punishment of " life." The other great objection
of ordinary Bible readers to Conditionalism lies in the instinctive
dread of losing the rich, spiritual sense usually attributed to the
terms Life and Death. This fear is removed when it is seen that
this " spiritual sense " is far more clearly established and enforced
when it is regarded as the explicit condition rather than as the
exclusive content of the promised Life and threatened Death,
when these are understood in the absolute sense.

The chief theological objections are derived from the divine
character and benevolence generally, man's likeness to God, and
man's supposed relation to God and to God's purpose. Con-
ditionalism is represented as charging God with unfatherly
conduct in the death of His children, with failing in His purpose,
and with mechanically ending what He cannot mend. If, how-
ever, sonship be taken as the goal and not as the starting-point
of humanity, potential rather than actual, achieved not by normal
progress but by redemption and regeneration from a lapse into
atavism ; and if superabundant mercy be shown even during their
lifetime to those who finally commit suicide, then God is neither
unjust nor unloving, nor does He fail in His purpose of creating
out of the human material a family of divine sons. Nor is His
action mechanical when it is so obviously constitutional.

Such a presentation of the doctrine of Conditional Immortality
offers the following advantages : (i) It recognizes a second death
as an endless penalty, while at the same time it realizes the final
extinction of evil, so prominent in the New Testament and in the
prophets, as achieved not by the conversion but by the death of

THE BOOK LIFE IN CHRIST 335

the impenitent. Both theologically and exegetically it thus
removes the basis of dogmatic uncertainty found by pitting
various passages of Scripture against each other. (2) It meets
all the contentions in favour of the alleged spiritual senses of Life
and Death, not by refuting them but by incorporating them as
the conditions of the immortality really in question. (3) It gives
cohesion to Christian doctrine by making the Incarnation,
Redemption, and Regeneration to be respectively the intro-
duction of life to a race which was losing it, the deliverance of
life by a representative life laid down, and the recommunication
of individual life, through a uniting trust in the Life-giver. (4) It
satisfies the prevalent trend of thought which requires intelligible
stages of progress and conditions of fitness for survival, and at
the same time demands that theological opinion shall be strictly
ethical. (5) It gives an intelligible place to miracle, especially
the Life-declaring miracle of Christ's resurrection, as the symbol
and sample in the material sphere of mercy for the dying.
Miracle thus becomes correlative to the rigid uniformity of law,
usually adduced against it. The one carried out into the moral
sphere spells death to the unfit, the other points to the merciful
provision for the regaining of life forfeited. (6) And lastly it
presents a view of the divine character, intelligible in its purpose
of producing likeminded sons, awful in the righteousness which
that likeness must express, and stupendous in the love which
became incarnate among the dying, undergoing for them their
death so as to lift them up into its own endless life and blessed-
ness. Such a presentation of the teaching of Mr. White's book
ought not to find it difficult either to vanquish the expiring tradi-
tion of the past, or the overweening confidence of present
Universalism. The day has come for demanding the Gospel of
Conditionalism, and the Gospel for the day cannot express itself
otherwise than in terms of Conditional Immortality. That this
is now the case is in no small measure due to the prayerful
energy, ardour, loving devotion and persevering acumen displayed
in the volume entitled " Life in Christ," by Edward White.

APPENDIX C
INFLUENCE OF EDWARD WHITE ABROAD

THE influence of Edward White's theological labours has
reached far beyond our own borders. In various degrees and in
different ways it has affected the Continent of Europe and parts
of Asia, Africa, and America.

On the European continent our neighbours who use the
French language have been more fully than any others under the
influence of Edward White's teaching, since it has there been
most ably represented by two sympathetic and admirably equipped
Swiss theologians, Rev. Emmanuel Petavel, D.D., and Rev.
Charles Byse, both of whom had lived in London in frequent
communication with Mr. White and had become thoroughly
conversant with his views and with the course of the
controversy.

Before he knew Mr. White's views, Dr. Petavel had himself
attained the conviction that the end of impenitent sinners
would be complete destruction, not eternal sufferings ; but it was
from Mr. White that he learnt to look at the question from the
other side and to recognize that the purpose of the divine
Incarnation was to make eternal life possible for repentant
believers, this being the really effective side of the Conditionalist
doctrine. By his accurate scholarship, great literary skill, and
personal zeal, Dr. Petavel has succeeded in making a profound
impression upon the French-speaking theological world.

Introduced by Dr. Petavel to Mr. White, Mr. Byse quickly
assimilated the ideas embodied in his teaching, having already
reached a somewhat similar point of view under the influence of
a remarkable thinker, his friend Henry de May. After the

336

INFLUENCE ABROAD 317

publication in 1875 of Life in Christ, Mr. Byse, at Dr. Petavel's
suggestion, undertook to translate that book into French. This
was done later on from the third edition, issued in 1878, the
translation being condensed, introduced by an elaborate preface
by the translator, and published in Paris early in 1880.

A few details respecting the abundant and efficient labours of
these two friends and representatives of Edward White may
interest the readers of the foregoing biography.

The first publication in which Dr. Petavel enunciated the
principles of Conditionalism was a pamphlet of 75 pages contain-
ing a lecture delivered by him at Neuchatel, his native town, on
March 6, 1869, and entitled La Loi du Progrh. In that lecture
the subject was only slightly touched upon, but it was dealt with
in a more formal and direct manner in a paper read before
the Theological Society of Neuchatel on July 12, 1870. This
essay, together with a number of objections to which it gave rise
on the part of members of the Society and the author's replies,
was published two years later as a handy little book of 200 pages
with the title, La Fin du Mai. An English translation of this
work was afterwards published; entitled The Struggle for Eternal
Life, with introduction by R. W. Dale. Numerous articles by
Dr. Petavel advocating the same doctrine or in reply to objections
were published in reviews and magazines at Paris, Montauban,
Lausanne, &c., in succeeding years.

In 1878 Dr. Petavel delivered a course of ten lectures on
Conditional Immortality at the University of Geneva, and
these were largely attended, not only by students, but also by
pastors and many ladies. In 1886- he again lectured at the
University on the same subject, the course this time including
twelve lessons. These were repeated at the Academy of
Neuchatel in the following year, and they formed the basis of
the important book which was published in two volumes in 1891
and 1892, entitled Le Probteme de rimmortalite.1 This book
was translated into English and issued in 1892 with the
title, The Problem of Immortality.2

Meanwhile Mr. Byse's translation of Mr. White's book,

1 Paris : Fischbacher, Rue de Seine, 33.

2 London : Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row.

23 -

338 APPENDIX C

entitled Ulmmortalite Conditionnelle ou la Vie en Christ* had
been published in Paris, and had greatly contributed to the
success of Dr. Petavel's later lectures. Its appearance caused
considerable sensation among French-speaking theologians, and
it became the subject of much discussion among them. Pre-
viously to its publication Mr. Byse had been the editor of a
weekly newspaper in Paris, Le Journal du Protestantism* Francais,
wherein he had introduced the subject to his readers, and so to
some extent prepared their minds for consideration of the forth-
coming book. But soon after its publication, early in 1880, he
accepted a call to become Pastor of the Free Protestant Church
meeting in the Rue Belliard in Brussels, then connected with the
so-called " Belgian Christian Missionary Church." To this post
he was appointed after having explained that he could not agree
to the clause in the official creed of the Belgian association of
Churches which maintained an eternity of suffering for the
wicked, and received assurances that his explanations were
satisfactory, both from the Consistory of the Brussels Church
and from the official representative of the associated Churches.
Nevertheless the publication of his translation of Mr. White's
book and some expressions used in his own preface to the volume
at once gave rise to strong objections on the part of several
neighbouring pastors ; and when, two years later, he preached a
series of sermons on the subject, he was taken to task very
severely by these objectors, who proved to be all-powerful in the
official Synod, although in the Congregation at Brussels there
were very few objectors. The result of the proceedings in the
Synod was that the Congregation decided to sustain the Pastor
and to withdraw from the " Belgian Christian Missionary Church,"
thus resuming its original independence.

The Belgian law does not recognize trusts in relation to
property, and the synodal party took advantage of this fact and
induced the nominal proprietor of the chapel in the Rue Belliard
to cause the ejection from it of Mr. Byse and the Church to
which the building morally though not legally belonged. After
struggling bravely against numerous difficulties for several years,
Mr. Byse found himself obliged to leave. He went to Lausanne,
where he has resided ever since.

1 Paris : Fischbacher, Rue de Seine, 33.

INFLUENCE ABROAD ^0

While still living at Brussels, however, he had been nominated
by the annual gathering of pastors of the French Protestant
Churches to bring up a report on " Conditional Immortality " to
be presented the following year. This was done; the French
pastors were more open-minded than those in Belgium, and so,
at the "General Pastoral Conference" of April, 1885, in Paris]
Mr. Byse's report was " very much applauded and admired," as
testified by one who was present. It was afterwards printed as a
pamphlet entitled Notre Duree.

At Lausanne, in 1886, Mr. Byse delivered a series of six
lectures on Conditional Immortality on consecutive Sunday
afternoons, and arranged for a public discussion on the next
following Sunday. This was a great success, having been pre-
sided over by the venerable philosopher, Professor Charles
Secretan. Since that time Mr. Byse has taught the same doctrine
in many sermons and lectures, having been the first and for a
long time almost the only one in French-speaking countries to
preach openly that man is a candidate for immortality, and can
only through union with Christ attain eternal life. Among other
publications on the subject, Mr. Byse wrote in 1892 for the
Revue Chretienne (of Paris) a masterly reply to a plea in favour
of universal salvation which had appeared in a previous issue of
that review. Of all these facts Mr. White was kept informed,
and his influence was a potent factor throughout.

And what, it may be asked, has been the result of all this
activity? The answer is that, at the present time, the repre-
sentatives of the Augustinian doctrine are reduced to silence if
they have not all been converted, while some of the leading
advocates of the doctrine of universal salvation have been con-
vinced of the need for a penal sanction and now uphold in its
main lines the doctrine of Mr. White. Several of the professors
of dogmatic theology in the French and Swiss Universities and
Academies are Conditionalists, as was the late Professor Auguste
Sabatier, of Paris. The leading philosophers of France and
Switzerland, Mr. Charles Renouvier, his distinguished friend, Mr.
Pillon, and the late Professor Charles Secretan, have given their
adhesion. In Geneva, several leading pastors and the most
successful evangelists are pronounced adherents, so that the

340 APPENDIX C

teaching is no longer confined to the theologians, but is openly
preached among a population which has been largely alienated
from Christianity on account of its perversions ; and this preach-
ing is attended by crowds Sunday after Sunday, in the large
Victoria Hall. Similar results have been attained in other parts
of Switzerland and France.

As illustrating the effect of the doctrine on certain individuals
may be mentioned a statement made to Dr. Petavel in 1880 by a
well-known jurist of the Canton de Vaud, he being also a poet,
some of whose verses had then recently won for him a gold medal
in France. He said that, having been prepared by passing
through great trials, on obtaining Mr. White's book he read it
through with avidity within thirty-six hours, and it had been to
him like the fish's gall to Tobit, having opened his eyes to the
truth of Christianity.

Turning now to Germany, it cannot be said that Mr. White's
influence has been felt there in so great a degree. But the main
theme of Mr. White's book has been long held and taught by
some of the principal German theologians, a number of whose
declarations are quoted in Mr. Byse's preface to his translation
of Life in Christ. Dr. Dorner quotes that book more than once
in Vol. IV. of his System of Christian Doctrine, but without
giving full adhesion to the views thus quoted, although he says :
" This hypothesis seems exceedingly favourable to the unity and
harmonious consummation of the world ; " and in writing to Mr.
Byse he characterized Mr. White's book as " thoroughly scientific."

While the idea that personal immortality is and must be
conditioned by individual character and will is widely prevalent
among German theologians, it does not seem to be at all
generally preached or made popular, as it has been to so large an
extent in English and French speaking countries. But in March
1884 Dr. Petavel was able to write to Mr. White : " I find by a
work of Miicke that neither Universalism nor the traditional
dogma have been supported of late by first-rate divines in
Germany. Nitzsch was, Dorner is, very near to us; while the
great Rothe was entirely, and the powerful Ritschl is virtually,
with us.''

INFLUENCE ABROAD 34,

In Holland, a series of articles on the subject was published in
1883 and 1884 by Dr. Jonker, of Rotterdam, in the Theologische
Studien, a review issued at Utrecht. In a letter to Dr. Petavel
the writer stated that his first impulse to study the question was
given by the perusal of La Fin du Mai. He also said that the
subject had not previously been discussed publicly in that
country, and that these articles had roused a good deal of interest,
adding that many pastors and young theologians were favourably
disposed. In the first of his articles he had quoted Dr.
v. Oosterzee as calling Life in Christ a highly important
(hoogstbelangrijk} book.

Mr. White's book became known in Denmark, and one lady
of Copenhagen, Countess Bernstorff, was so deeply impressed
with its importance that she not only translated it into Danish,
but had it published at her expense.

In Italy too, Mr. White's work penetrated quickly to the
Waldensian valleys, where a book of 300 pages was published
in 1883 by Oscar Cocorda-, under the title. Llmmortalita
Condizionata ed il Materialismo. The main purpose of this book
was to defend Mr. White and the doctrine of Life in Christ from
the charge of materialism, which had been freely but erroneously
brought against them on the Continent.

In the United States of America Mr. White's writings are well
known, and have had considerable effect. Two of the most
renowned preachers, now deceased, Joseph Cook, of Boston,
and D. L. Moody, came into personal contact with Mr. White
when in England, and were undoubtedly influenced thereby in
favour of his views of the last things. In 1889, Rev. Ch. H.
Oliphant, of Methuen, Mass., published at Boston a translation
of some of Dr. Petavel's essays under the title The Extinction of
Evil. In anticipation of this publication, Mr. White was appealed
to for a preface, and being already acquainted with the French
originals, he wrote one recommending the book. His work,
Life in Christ, is quoted by Dr. W. R. Huntington and
J. H. Pettingell in their writings in favour of the same theme.

342 APPENDIX c

A large number of the younger ministers of both episcopal
and non-episcopal Churches in the United States hold the
doctrine and teach it, each in his own way. One of the leading
preachers in New York, Dr. Parkhurst, of Madison Square
Presbyterian Church, recently in a sermon spoke thus : " If —
and there is nothing to disprove it — it is the intention of Nature
that a soul should reach that spiritual longevity expressed by
the word ' eternal,' the soul will have to pay for the superb
prerogative by fulfilling the conditions and taking good care of
its spiritual health."

In 1893 Mr. Oliphant reported to Dr. Petavel the adhesion of
two recognized leaders in the Congregational Churches ; also
that at Andover seminary Conditionalism is allowed a place of
honour and of orthodoxy, adding : " The battle is now won so
far that no Conditionalist is henceforth to be branded on this side
of the water."

Two years earlier than that an American clerical correspon-
dent, certain to be well informed, wrote to Mr. White : " For
the pleasure and for the very great profit which I have derived
from all your published writings, I owe you a debt of gratitude
which I can never repay, but which it delights me to acknow-
ledge. Sirjce reading your first and larger book, Life in Christ,
I have recommended it personally to a large number of the
clergy of the diocese of Virginia. I found it already quite well
known to several of them, and in every case it was acknowledged
to be the master work on the subject. There is no sort of
question that it has done and will continue to do a vast deal
towards bringing the Church here to a knowledge of the truth on
this most important matter. My own observation convinces me
that the doctrine of Life in Christ has made long strides
forward in the Church in this country. ... I should say that
it is not only for the light which you have cast on the central
subject of your writings that I am indebted to you. There are
many other truths which I had overlooked, or of which I was
more or less ignorant, which you have illuminated for me. . . .
Almost every page of your writings has been to me a source of
inspiration. . . ."

INFLUENCE ABROAD 343

In India Mr. White's teaching has proved influential in more
ways than one. Two of these may here be mentioned.

An ant-eaten, fly-blown page of a tract, written by Mr. White
while at Hereford, and containing a statement of the doctrine of
Life in Christ, was left by some passing traveller on the window-
sill of a rest-house in India more than fifty years ago. One day
this is found there by the chief jailer of Bangalore while on a
journey ; he reads it, searches the Scriptures, believes it, forms a
lending library of the books and pamphlets which set forth the
argument. A young Wesleyan missionary, forced by the over-
powering burden of Conference theology to think over his creed
among the Indian millions, is led similarly to this conclusion,
and before he returns home by command, to resign his office, he
discovers that through the circulation of books from the pious
jailer's library, there was not a European Christian in a populous
cantonment near Bangalore, who had not embraced the belief of
Life in Christ.

Again, in Mr. White's own words: "Rev. W. A. Hobbs, a
Baptist missionary from Sewry, in Bengal, in 1870, at home on
furlough after ten years' labour, in passing up Fleet Street, sees
an advertisement of 'Three 'Letters on Life in Christ] then
appearing in the Christian World. Mr. Hobbs buys a copy,
reads, goes home, and goes back to India, to study the matter
for several years, is deeply convinced, avows his conviction to the
Baptist Missionary Committee. On returning home, invalided,
a second time, in 1878, he gradually and quietly drops out of
missionary employment, and is consigned to an obscure post as a
home worker; thence he is drawn out again by a wonderful
providence to an independent mission-work in Calcutta; com-
mences evangelical labour in open confession of the doctrine of
Life through the Incarnation ; conciliates all Christian hearts by
his temper and prudence ; is supplied with the means of main-
taining native fellow-workers, all of them earnest believers in \\
same doctrine ; circulates Christian literature ; writes catechisms
and tracts on a Scriptural basis-all his brethren encouraging
-ust because the hand of God is evidently with this

and devoted man."

What Mr. White did not say must here be added, that i

344 APPENDIX C

independent mission-work was arranged and provided for by
himself and Mr. Samuel Smith, M.P., who were both deeply
interested in the reports sent to them by Mr. Hobbs from time
to time.

With Mr. White's concurrence and co-operation, Mr. Hobbs
prepared several pamphlets setting forth the nature and claims of
Christianity in forms specially adapted to the Hindoos. One of
these, a series of questions and answers, was published in both
Bengali and English. With reference to this tract Mr. Hobbs
reported thus : —

" The Bengali translation of Aids to Light and Life has created
no small stir in native society, more particularly amongst the
native Christian community. It has been most gratefully re-
ceived by native Christians belonging to all denominations, as well
as by the heathen. At least fifty persons have warmly thanked
me for writing it, some of them assuring me that the reading of
it has removed from their minds difficulties and doubts which
have pressed upon them for years. One heathen man (Mone
Mahon Ghose), who had been inquiring into Christianity for
several years, but could not receive it on account of the sup-
posed unreasonableness of the doctrines of atonement, judge-
ment proceedings, and everlasting torments, had his difficulties
so largely removed by reading the tract, that he applied to me
for baptism, and is now a member of the Episcopal Church at
Kidderpore, which Church I advised him to join, being the
nearest to his residence. The English edition will probably
create as much interest amongst the English-speaking natives, as
the Bengali edition has amongst those who know only their
mother tongue. To God and His truth be all the glory."

Writing of some of the better educated natives, in fact native
gentlemen, Mr. Hobbs says : —

" The extent to which some of these men, who have got their
education at missionary colleges, are acquainted with the letter
of our Christian Scriptures is very surprising ; whilst the in-
ferences they draw from Scripture statements are amazingly
acute, though too frequently unwarranted or unfair. It is among
such persons that I hope my tract, Christianity God's Revelation
to Men will prove to be useful. As a rule they have a high

INFLUENCE ABROAD 345

regard for Christ's moral character, and accept a large portion of
His teaching ; but they wriggle about dolefully in their efforts to
get rid of all teaching which sets forth our Saviour as a suffering
and atoning God. In fact, there is but little difference between
them and Unitarians, except that most of them cling to the
notion that man's spirit is not an independent spirit, but a
fractional portion of the divine essence, to be eventually re-
absorbed into God. To a man, so far as my observation
has extended, they refuse to believe in the dogma of unending
suffering ; which of course gives me, with my Life in Christ
views, and other corollary ideas, an immense advantage in discus-
sion with them, which the majority of my missionary brethren
do not enjoy. In fact, when they launch out, as frequently
they do, against the truth of Christianity, on account of what
they call ' its unreasonable severity being antagonistic to man's
conscious or intuitive ideas of God's character,' it is almost
amusing to note how vacant they look, how they flounder about
in argument, when I tell them that I and many more do not
believe in eternal torment ; the simple fact of the matter being
that the whole subject hinges upon what is the right rule of
interpreting words, some taking the words bearing on future
punishment in a literal, other in a figurative or spiritual sense.
I then lay before them half a dozen texts from the Bible, and ask
them to tell me what they think the words mean. In nineteen
cases out of twenty they declare that, though my view is a new
view to them, nevertheless it is that which they themselves would
naturally adopt if they were for the first time reading the words."

By the personal use of literature of the right sort, and by
conversation with all whom he could reach, Mr. Hobbs exerted
considerable influence in Calcutta, also by public preaching in
Bengali in the streets of the city and in villages visited in com-
pany with other missionaries. When about to leave on his
homeward voyage he wrote : " For the last four and a half year
I have not at all laid out my efforts with a view to secure pul
baptism, but to impress hearts with a sense of sin and to sec
simple trust in the Anointed Lord Jesus, and I have had myrewar

The friendship thus formed between Mr. Hobb
White lasted as long as they both lived.

346 APPENDIX C

Referring to a remarkable series of articles in favour of Condi-
tional Immortality in the Statesman and Friend of India, in
Calcutta, at the end of 1893 and the beginning of 1894, origi-
nated by the Rev. H. G. E. de St. Dalmas, Mr. White wrote :
" A publication rendered more easy by the labours of a score of
witnesses in India, with many of whom I have been in corre-
spondence in years gone by. Hobbs was only one of the series,
but the work he did prepared the way for the present triumphal
march of St. Dalmas."

China, too, came under the influence of Mr. White, chiefly
through the medium of Rev. Evan Bryant, of the London
Missionary Society, long resident at Hankow. When on furlough
in England Mr. Bryant several times gave interesting testimony
at Hawley Road Chapel. Mr. White wrote in 1882 : —

" Mr. Bryant has openly taught for ten years what he believes
to be the revelation of God on Life Eternal, and his words will
not fall to the ground. For such is the nature of this truth that
sometimes one single hint or sentence of direction sets whole
companies of people reading their Bibles in a fresh light, and
when that process begins, especially accompanied by earnest
prayers, it is seldom long before some of the readers see as in
plain daylight that the Bible was not written to teach man's
natural immortality or the everlasting torments of lost souls. In
truth, future punishment does not occupy in the Bible nearly the
prominent position that it occupies in mediaeval and modern
theology."

Ten years later a vindication of the doctrine of Conditional
Immortality was published in the Messenger, of Shanghai.

As narrated in Chapter XL, Mr. Impey carried to South Africa
a vivid recollection of the sympathy of Mr. White and his
congregation, as well as a firm conviction of the truth of the
doctrine on Life in Christ, for the teaching of which in South
Africa he had been called to suffer.

Thus it appears that in all four quarters of the globe Mr.
White's influence has been operative, as it still is, more or less
directly, helping to save men from scepticism and leading them
to firm faith in the justice and mercy of God as revealed in
Jesus Christ.

APPENDIX D

DR. DALE'S ADDRESS AT HAVVLEY ROAD
See page 136.

THIS celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the commence-
ment of my friend's ministry in this place would be incomplete if
there were no recognition of the service which he has rendered to
the theological faith of this country by the courage, the earnestness,
and the singular ability with which he has maintained and illus-
trated the doctrine that the highest life of man — his true life — the
life which alone is properly endless — is that which man receives
from Christ. In these days it requires no great intellectual free-
dom, and no exceptional robustness of moral nature to challenge
the truth of any of the traditions of the Church. The traditions
are fast melting away. The old fences within which it was once
required that theological thought should travel appear to be rapidly
decaying, even where they are strengthened by formal confessions
of faith. Among the Churches that rely for the perpetuation of
a true knowledge of God upon the permanent presence of the
Spirit of God, rather than on the restraints of formal creeds, there
is very little to prevent any man of moderate vigour of character
and average force of intellect from venturing on new and un-
familiar paths. It was not so when Mr. White began his ministry
and published his treatise on Life in Christ in its earlier form.
What boldness of intellectual temper it required, what loyalty to
conscience, what faith in God, to enable him frankly to profess
the characteristic doctrine of that book, it is not easy for those of
you who are under thirty to imagine. Nor is it easy for you to
imagine what he must have suffered from the isolation into which

348 APPENDIX D

he was driven by the distrust of men in whom he recognized
a love for Christ as real and deep as his own.

The inevitable condition of all antagonisms to popular convic-
tions on grave questions he was, no doubt, prepared to accept.
When we strike hard at the faith of other men, it is absurd to
complain because they return the blow. It is unmanly weakness
to resent the vehemence and energy with which the opinions
which we challenge are defended, and to think ourselves hardly
used if we cannot retain the rewards which come to the men who
maintain popular opinion, and at the same time win the glory
which belongs to the leaders of reformation. . . . The temper of
the time might have shaken the steadfastness and fidelity of a
nature less vigorous than that of our friend. For myself I give
God thanks for the indomitable spirit with which, from first to
last, he has maintained the truth with which he believes he has
been entrusted. His fidelity has helped to make it easier to all
of us to be faithful to conscience and hope. It is well that we
should remember to-night that this truth is much wider and more
comprehensive than is usually imagined. It is not simply a
theory on the future destiny of the impenitent. It is a re-state-
ment of the relation of the human race to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is a re-assertion in a more definite and emphatic form of the
ancient doctrine of the Church concerning the nature and
necessity of regeneration. It has a claim to consideration on the
ground that it is rooted in the common faith of Christendom
concerning the wonderful character of that change which passes
upon men when they receive the life of God. If we think of the
new birth as being simply a great change in our habits and tastes,
the question arises, How great must the change be which renders
it possible for a man to enter the kingdom of heaven ? — a
question which has harassed many devout and earnest souls,
impaired their religious vigour, and restrained the freedom of their
joy in God. But if in the new birth there is the beginning of
a new Life, the question assumes altogether a different form.
We have to inquire whether there is adequate evidence that the
life of God has come to us. We are met with the objection that
there is no such infinite contrast between those who believe in
Christ and those who refuse to believe in Him, as ought to be

DR. DALE'S ADDRESS 34Q

apparent, if a divine life has been conferred on the one class
which has not been conferred on the other. It is alleged that
the history of Christendom is fatal to our doctrine — the facts are
altogether against us. But in my own name, and in the name of
all those who have received the truth for which Mr. White has
contended, I decline to assume any special responsibility in
relation to this objection. The responsibility of meeting it does
not specially belong to us. We share it with all — no matter how
vehemently they repudiate sympathy with our special position —
who accept the central truths of the Christian revelation.

Precisely the same objection might have been urged, with
precisely the same force, against St. Paul, when he maintained
that if any man is in Christ he is a new creature, old things have
passed away, behold all things have become new; when he
taught that Christian men are God's workmanship created in
Christ Jesus unto good works. Precisely the same objection
might have been urged, with precisely the same force, against St.
John when he affirmed that there are some men who are "of
God " and other men who are not " of God," and when he said,
" We are of God ; he that knoweth God heareth us ; he that is
not of God heareth not us." ' St. John, too, declared that " God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son," and
added, "He that hath the Son hath the life, and he that hath not
the Son hath not the life ; " and he said again, " We know that
we have passed from death unto life because we love the
brethren ; he that loveth not his brethren abideth in death."

Precisely the same objection might have been urged with
precisely the same force against a greater than St. Paul or St.
John. There were some to whom He said, " Ye will not come
to Me that ye might have life," or that the life was not theirs.
He said that except a man be born again he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God. Admission to the divine kingdom and exclusion
from it carries with it as great a contrast between man and man
as any that can be imputed to our teaching. He exhorted His
disciples to abide in Him that His life might be theirs, and that
they might bring forth fruit, and He warned them that if they
refused to abide in Him they would be cut off as a branch and
wither. Here, again, the difference between the living branch on

35° APPENDIX D

the living vine and the dead branch separated from the vine is as
vast as that which exists between men on the theory maintained
by ourselves. Nor is it pertinent at this point to urge that in the
endless years beyond death, all those who have rejected the life
in this world may receive it, for the objection affirms that between
those who are alleged to have received the life of God already
and those who have not there is no such apparent difference as is
required in order to verify the hypothesis ; and we maintain, in
reply, that the New Testament, from first to last, asserts a
difference as great as our position implies between those that are
in Christ and those that are not. It is not against us and our
position that this objection should be brought, but against the
widest assumptions and the fundamental truths of the Christian
faith. The objection is not unfamiliar to us. If there were time
to discuss it this evening, it might be met and destroyed. The
tares and the wheat may be so alike for a time, that, in our eyes,
the field in which they are growing together may seem to bear
only one crop. But the inner life of the wheat which will reveal
itself in the golden ear by and by is of another nature than the
life of the tares. God sees the difference ; and I venture to say
that the difference is revealed in a strong, emphatic form in the
whole history of the conflict of the kingdom of God with the
powers of evil.

" He that hath the Son hath the life, and he that hath not the
Son of God hath not the life ; " this is our fundamental principle.
It is a principle which, I suppose, we hold in common with all
Christians. To defend it is not our special concern, though we
think that our whole conception of truth makes the principle
more intensely real and vivid to the thoughts of men. When we
are asked what is the condition of those to whom the highest life
has not yet come, wide differences of opinion may at once emerge.
I cannot speak for others, but only for myself. To me it seems
certain that whatever may be the history of the origin of our race,
man, every man, is invested with prerogatives and powers which
raise him to an immeasurable height above the inferior orders of
creation. . . . Man, every man, has moral freedom. He has
more than this. He has a nature which can never reach its
perfection except in God ; he is agitated by yearnings for an

DR. DALE'S ADDRESS 351

infinite satisfaction ; he is moved by impulses which, however
constantly they may be baffled, reveal to himself and to others
that the true current of his life sets towards the divine. . . .
The tree of life was no graceful ornament of the paradise of God ;
it was there because man needed it ; it is the immortal symbol
of the truth that there are wants in human nature which only a
divine life can satisfy, possibilities which only a divine life can
fulfil. A beast ! No ! Man is infinitely more than that. It is
not a beast that struggles vainly against destiny in the ancient
tragedy. It is not a beast that in modern times resents with
infinite sorrow and fierce revolt the pain and disorder which have
come upon all creation. It is not a beast that has sought for
gods to worship in the stars of heaven, and in the meanest and
most majestic objects on earth — in the clouds, and in the winds,
and in the heroic founders of national communities. It is not to
a beast that the moral law appeals. It is not to a beast that the
life of God can be given. It is not a beast that has the power to
refuse it. The power to refuse it — this, the affirmation that the
power is essential to human nature — is the special heresy for
which we are responsible.

I ask those who in the interest of universal restoration reject
our doctrine as utterly incredible, to remember that so far as the
controversy between them and us lies in the province of specula-
tion, it resolves itself into two questions — perhaps into one. The
first — and in this the difference between us is probably a differ-
ence in terms rather than in substance — Is there a life possible to
man which he does not possess until in the New Testament sense
of the phrase he is " in Christ " ? The second— Is it possible for
man to refuse this life and to stand by his refusal ? The differ-
ence between us does not touch our conception of the love of
God. They do not, they cannot think that to us the divine pity
is less tender than to them, or the divine long-suffering less
patient, or the divine mercy less free. We, too, believe that for
us sinners and our salvation the Son of God laid aside His glory
and endured the shame arid sorrow and anguish of the cross :
that He came because God loved the world— the whole world,
and earnestly longs to bring the whole world to Himself. Has
not God shown mercy to us, as well as to them ; and after the

352 APPENDIX D

mercy He has shown to us can we in our thoughts set any limits
on His mercy to mankind ? No ; if there are any who say that
the God whom we preach is less loving than theirs, they say it
inconsiderately, and because they have not fully mastered the
true issues of the controversy. It is our conviction that God,
with all the resources of His infinite nature, is on the side of
righteousness ; and that He has an infinite hatred of sin ; but that
to man belongs the tremendous prerogative of confronting the
awful and august will, and refusing to be righteous. All the
tragedy of man's life comes from man's possession of this perilous
faculty. It is God's will that all men should be righteous now,
not merely in some future and remote age as the result of chas-
tisement, and love, and discipline ; God's will is resisted and
defied. When God made us He assumed the responsibility of
conferring upon us the power which is revealed in our revolt. It
is our conviction that this moral freedom, which renders possible
all the moral glory of the race as well as all its sin, is inalienable,
indestructible ; and that for ever — if man is to exist for ever — man
will retain the power of resisting the authority and love of God.
Those who meet us on the ground of speculation must meet us
here. Their assault must be on our assertion and defence of the
moral freedom of man. They must strip man of the awful dis-
tinction which to us is characteristic of his nature, before they can
demonstrate that all men must necessarily be restored to God.
Our philosophical controversy with Universal Restoration is a
controversy with the philosophical principles of the old Calvinistic
theology — principles which, in our day, are most strongly asserted
by the great teachers of materialism.

But a final conclusion is not to be reached by speculation.
When the moral freedom of the race is conceded, it may still be
maintained that for ever and for ever, until the last soul in revolt
yields to the infinite grace of God, the divine endeavours to rescue
us from sin will be sustained ; and that even if through eternity
the revolt is maintained, God fainteth not, neither is He weary ;
and through eternity He will continue to strive with the sin and
distrust of His moral creatures. With our limited acquaintance
with the possibilities of our own nature, and with our absolute
ignorance of the new moral conditions of the life on the other

DR. DALE'S ADDRESS 353

side of death, such a theory would have had everything to recom-
mend it in the absence of any distinct and authoritative revelation.
While we are as sure of our moral freedom as of our own exist-
ence, and while we are sure that if our moral freedom were
crushed, or irresistibly overturned, we should cease to be men,
we must acknowledge that of the life to come we know almost
nothing. But even in the absence of any distinct revelation con-
cerning the future of those who in this world have hardened
themselves against the power and love of God, we might have
feared that possibly their fate would be hopeless ; we might have
feared it, I say, though it would have been the audacity of pre-
sumption to have affirmed it. We might have feared it because
of what we have reason to hope will be the future condition of
those who have received Christ. For them we trust that moral
freedom will be consistent with absolute security from the possi-
bility of sin. They will be inaccessible to temptation. The
eternal law of righteousness, which is eternally one with the regal
will of God, the Ruler of all, will also be for ever one with the
loyal will of the redeemed — the subjects of His authority and the
children of His love. Law and freedom will be reconciled in us
as in Him, with perfect and immortal unity. Whether any corre-
sponding catastrophe might come upon those who have resisted
Christ, we should have been unable — apart from Revelation — to
tell. We might have regarded it as a fearful possibility. An
irrevocable divorce between the will and the law of righteousness
— a divorce consummated by man's own persistent disobedience
— might have seemed almost as likely as an immortal and inevit-
able union. As the very nature of the redeemed will become
light and holiness — freedom remaining — so we might have feared
that, freedom remaining, the very nature of the impenitent might
become darkness and sin. This fear seems to us confirmed by
the unambiguous teaching of Christ and the apostles. . . .

I have no authority to state on behalf of others the precise
definition of that doctrine of which Mr. Edward White is the
principal representative. In his presence I am conscious that
there is a certain presumption in any attempt to state it ; but as I
have been for many years so absorbed in other forms of work as
to be unable either to speak or to write much on this controversy

354 APPENDIX D

I thought my friend would forgive me if I ventured to say, in
connection with this service, what I have said to-night. To what
extent the doctrine, or the group of doctrines, for which Mr.
Edward White has contended has won the acceptance of Chris-
tian people I cannot tell. As I have said elsewhere, I believe that
for the moment the main current of opinion among us is running
strongly in favour of universal restoration ; but that doctrine
seems to me to be so destitute of all solid foundation that it
is impossible for it to remain as a permanent article in the
faith of the Church. It is the expression of the young and
ardent and generous hope of a generation that has only half dis-
entangled itself from the philosophical theory involved in the
doctrine of eternal torment. It is a form of theological specu-
lation which corresponds to some of the earlier astronomical
theories — theories which were constructed out of the intellectual
resources of those by whom they were created instead of follow-
ing the great facts of the universe. I believe that within a few
years the main body of opinion in the Free Churches, at least of
this country, will be in favour of that suspense of judgement which
very many recommend, and I cannot but believe that, after that,
the main body of opinion in our Churches will be found sub-
stantially on the side of the doctrine with the history of which
this Church and its pastor are so honourably connected.

I may take the opportunity to-night of saying that for a con-
siderable number of years I have held, and I have preached, what
I believe to be the truth concerning life in Christ — eternal life in
Christ only. I have read very little indeed on this controversy.
I studied as carefully as I knew how the contents of the New
Testament patiently and earnestly for many months, and for more
than many months, and at last reached the position with which I
had become familiar through my friendship for your pastor. I
wish now to declare that, having reached these conclusions, I am
not conscious that they have at all impaired the authority in my
teaching of any of the great central doctrines of the Christian
faith. The doctrine of the Trinity remains untouched ; and the
doctrine of the incarnation, and the doctrine of the atonement in
its evangelical sense, and the doctrine of justification by faith, and
the doctrine of judgement by works, and the doctrine of regenera-

DR. DALE'S ADDRESS 355

tion have received, I believe, from these conclusions a new and
intenser illustration. The condition of the progress and triumph
of any great truth is that it should be kept incorporate with the
whole substance of the Christian faith, and inspired with its life.
No truth has life enough in itself to win its own victory alone.
There is great peril always menacing those who believe that it has
fallen to their task to correct any religious error. They are likely
so to emphasize the truth which it is their function to illustrate
and to maintain, as to deprive it of the strength it ought to receive
from its alliance with the whole circle of truths and facts revealed
in Holy Scripture. I believe that my friend has escaped that
peril. To the public outside, his name, naturally enough, is
best known in connection with this special doctrine, just as
my name — if I may be forgiven a personal allusion — is best
known to large masses of the public in connection with certain
theories about the relation between the Church and the State.
Only the other day a lady, a member of the Church of England,
who has been worshipping in my congregation for a twelvemonth,
said to me, " When I came I was told that every Sunday morning
and every Sunday night I should hear a sermon against the
Church." I do not know whether she meant to complain, but
she said that she had hardly heard anything at all about it. Now
my friend has doubtless dealt with this great doctrine with which
his name is specially connected, and dealt with it in this pulpit ;
but I know him too well to suppose that he has limited the reli-
gious thought of this congregation to the special truth which it is
his function to defend.

To all who may share his beliefs and mine, I commend his
example. Let us preach the whole Gospel, giving this truth its
proper place ; but only its proper place. Let it be remembered,
too, that all great doctrinal victories have been won in connection
with great spiritual victories. The struggle of the Reformation
was a doctrinal struggle ; but it was also a great religious revival,
and the Reformation would never have won its victories had not
the religious life of the northern nations of Europe received a new
impulse and a new inspiration. Those, surely, can have no
function to declare new truth, or truth hitherto forgotten and
neglected, who are unable to use with force and with effect the

356 APPENDIX D

great truths which are the common inheritance of the Christian
Church. And if those of us who are specially entrusted, as we
believe, with the defence and illustration of this doctrine do not
secure the great spiritual results which the Gospel was intended
to achieve, our teaching will be condemned by the inefficiency of
our own ministry. I thank God that the ministry in this place of
my dear friend, whom I have known long and loved right well,
has been crowned with much success ; and I trust that both to
him and to you the review of the twenty-five years now left
behind you will enkindle fresh zeal and strengthen faith both
in the power and in the love of God, and that the years that are
coming may witness a richer and a nobler harvest than even the
years which have gone by.

APPENDIX E
GLEANINGS FROM LATEST NOTE-BOOKS

DURING the last few months of his life, Mr. White, while entirely
debarred from public work, was not at all inactive mentally,
except when too ill even to read or write, as was the case through
the greater part of January and again in March and April and
part of May 1898. It was at this period that he wrote: "Life
becomes wearisome when no work is in hand. Prayer for work
is essential. ' Thy will be done ' on earth, not merely read, or
thought, or preached about. When thought finds no outcome in
work, it is mere dreaming. 'Give us this day our daily work ' is
a prayer as much needed as that for our daily bread." And since
the only work that he could do was to record his thinking over
the Scriptures, that he did, and has accordingly left a large num-
ber of notes relating partly to the controversies in which he had
been engaged, but chiefly to the Scriptures themselves. The
following are selected in the hope that they may help to give
effect to the last efforts and studies of the Christian minister and
theologian who has passed away from this earthly scene.

The progress of any recovered truth towards general accep-
tance in Christian Churches depends greatly (i) on the clear-
ness and validity of the arguments by which it is maintained,
and (2) on the spirit in which it is set forth. The least sign of a
desire to found a sect or party based on the recovered verity, or
to make a name by its advocacy, is generally fatal to success.
He that loses his life for Christ's sake is the man that finds it.
And he who is willing to be crucified with Christ and counted as
" the offscouring of all things," is the man who is made to triumph

357 -

358 APPENDIX R

in Christ after a season of rejection. A resurrection of rejected
truths is always going on in the world, just in proportion as they
have " suffered awhile," with their witnesses, in the beginning.

* * # # #

The Old and New Testament Scriptures, considered as the
production of Asiatics, form one prolonged miracle of tone and
style. The Brahminical books, the Chinese classics, and the
Koran, are three specimens of the natural style of Asia — mystical,
bombastic, and malevolent. But the Hebrew Scriptures give us
history or biography, all in quiet perfection, all through, poetry
so true in tone, so lofty in spirit, and so sublime that the book of
Psalms has been adopted as the Psalter of all civilized nations,
and so spiritual that no other collection of verses in the world
can be placed even in the humblest comparison with this. Men
of all nations live and die with the words of the Hebrew Psalmists
on their lips, and feel that no worthier guide to worship could be
found in heaven. The Bible, on this side the veil, is the best
proof we can have that there is another side, where the realities
abide. The successive parts of the Bible form the connected
portions of a vast telescope by which we learn to see things
otherwise invisible. Genesis is the eyepiece. Revelation is the
great lens by which we see beyond the heavens.

The Four Evangelists. In the mouth of four such witnesses
"every word is established." For the hypothesis of invention is
impossible as an explanation of any one of the Gospels, but four
times impossible in relation to the four. How could four
Galileans have achieved such a triumph in biography, if inventors,
as to write each a Gospel which confirms the testimony of the
other three as to Christ's essential qualities, while each indi-
vidualizing in the quality of his memoir? The four together
resemble the four sides and faces of the Great Pyramid, con-
taining centrally the tomb of the risen King, the empty tomb :

"A form had pressed it
And was there no more,"

and surrounded by steps on each side which lead to a view of the
midnight heavens into which the risen King has ascended, there
" to prepare a place for " us in the life everlasting.

GLEANINGS FROM LATEST NOTE-BOOKS 359

It takes a lifetime of study to appreciate rightly the merits of
the four Gospels. These are : the presentation of one life, each
biography adding something to the general result, and this the
life-portrait of a Person the like of whom had never appeared
before among either Jews or Gentiles, a Teacher all compassionate,
armed with miraculous power, all holy, the terror of hypocrites
and formalists, the Saviour of the sinner and the sorrowful.
"Jesus, He shall save His people from their sins," make an end
of sins, by blood and by renewal of the spirit of life. How
wholly unlike all the great men of other nations, Egypt, Greece,
China, Rome ! More holy and severe for rebels, more com-
passionate for penitents. Socrates and Plato had argument and
wit, but no compassion or attraction for "sinners." Fancy the
scene of the sinful woman in the story of Socrates !

" Never man spake like this man " : —

1. In the name of God so as to realize His presence and
justice and mercy.

2. To the conscience of wicked men, like the Pharisees.

3. To the souls of sinners repenting, bringing them to His
feet weeping. His words still in all languages flying through the
world and bringing sinners to God in repentance and a new life.

4. Commending Himself to each man's conscience as the
Son of God, in proportion as each soul is honest and accessible
to the voice of God and the oracle of mercy.

* * * * *

We look at the New Testament with eyes accustomed to the
media through which it is now seen, the traditionary thought of
eighteen centuries. But if we come to look at it directly (and not
intermediately) one can as soon think the Alps to have been
reared by human agency as the Christian religion to have been
invented by Jewish provincial fishermen assisted by one provincial
Rabbi from Asia Minor. James, Peter, and John + Paul are
very inadequate inventors of the Christ, or of Ne'.v Testament
religion. For if Christ was not a reality, living, teaching, acting,
suffering, as the Gospels describe, then He was invented. But by
whom ? By an individual or by a company ? Who could have
invented Him? Pharisees? Sadducees? or who? If He was

360 APPENDIX E

invented, His creator has died out of knowledge. If the Jesus of
the four Gospels was a reality, then whence came He ? " Thou
art the Son of the living God " is the only rational answer. A
real and divine Jesus alone can account for the Gospel narratives,
or for the consequences which have followed them. So that
we behold, as in these glasses, the Glory of the Lord.

The four Gospels are four visions of the transfiguration of
humanity in Christ.

Nothing is more contrary to the spirit of Christianity than
the Hermitism of depraved Christianity. To be alone would be
to wither away, even in Paradise ; but to abandon the " body of
Christ," in which dwells the spirit of life, is to seek the second
death.

* :;: :;: # #

If the immortality of the sinful soul, its natural and destined
everlasting life, had been the metaphysical foundation of the
Gospel, it could not but have appeared everywhere in the Old
Testament and in the New. But nothing is more striking than its
absence everywhere from both Old and New Testaments. But
when the old saints looked for "a city that hath foundations,1'
they rested, not on their own nature, but on the life-giving promise
of God. The inheritance was not of the Law. " The soul that
sinneth shall die." And death by the Law is never once in the
Old Testament used or explained in the sense of everlasting life
in misery. The beasts " perish," and " man that is in honour and
understandeth not is like the beasts that perish."

The division of the sacred Scriptures into chapters and
verses, although itself a partially irrational process as to the
historical books, has proved practically a revelation in detail of
their infinite worth, the immense majority of its comminated
fragments having served to reveal more fully the solid value of
its material, and to prove that the effect of its chapters does not
depend upon their general or rhetorical value, but on the weft
and golden woof of its whole texture.

GLEANINGS FROM LATEST NOTE-BOOKS 361

The nearness to God which we may expect beyond the veil
depends on our nearness to Him here. If "far from Him by
wicked works " here, who can expect the beatific vision ? " Draw
nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you."

* -•• •;•- # *

•The common people, and all young people, judge pretty
much of Christianity by what it has done for their elders, in
middle life and old age ; whether it has given them an active
benevolence, a new spring of life, in thought and genuine feeling,
a life with a forward look to some better land beyond where " all
the air is love ; " or whether it has hardened still more all that
was hard before, and left them clinging tighter than ever to the
so-called "trifles" of this momentary world and its selfish interests.

The lives of good men in the Bible are helpful on both
sides, by their excellences and by their defects. If the Bible had
recorded only their good qualities, their influence would have
been diminished one half. But Abraham's equivocation, Moses'
violent temper, David's murder and adultery, Peter's falsehoods
and denials, as being the sins of good men assuredly in heaven,
have encouraged innumerable saints, who have sinned in special
instances, to hold fast to the " anchor of the soul " that entereth
within the veil, and so to recover themselves " out of the snare of
the devil " when overtaken in a fault.

There is no surer indication of a soul uninfluenced by truth
already known than a dislike of hearing it repeated. " Oh, you
have said that before ! " Yes, and if you had really received it
before, you would enjoy hearing it again. A dry, dead, mummy
of a soul, if it could speak, would cry out when listening to the
1 36th Psalm in the Temple service: "For His mercy endureth
for ever " : " Oh, you have said that before ; let it cease ! " As
well try to put an end to the morning salutation and "Good-
night"— said before!

Heads and divisions of a sermon are like the woodwork of a
window-frame, distributing and fixing the attention. These
divisions should be like one or two large panes, and not like a

362 APPENDIX E

casement consisting of many small pieces of glass. Too many
obscure the prospect.

Fully one half of the divine revelation is left out of the
teaching of the Church of the nineteenth century : (i) The greater
part of the meaning which lies in the connection of the verses.
(2) The bulk of the prophecies. (3) The large biographical
element. Preaching becomes a spider's web, hung on a few
points, but woven to catch flies rather than to instruct mankind.

* # * * *

Spiritualizing the statements of Scripture too often means
taking away the bodily substance of their plain meaning and
leaving them to a mere figurative influence upon the thoughts
and conduct of Christians. Between a mad materialization of
figurative language, as in the sacramental texts, and a mad
spiritualization of plain and literal teachings of Jesus on practical
duties, the whole commandment of God is "made void" by
eighteen centuries of " interpretations."

One may grow too old for speculative study of truth, but not
for the practice or enjoyment of it.

* * * * *

The literal interpretation of the threatening of death in relation
to the body (for which no one would have thought of substituting
any other) shows that the same literal interpretation applies to the
soul : " destroy both soul and body in gehenna " (Matt. x. 28).
The verb inr6\\vpt governs both accusatives, and cannot be taken
in one sense for the body and in another for the soul.

* # :;: --:= *

St. Paul's " Degree " in Divinity was " O.O.A." — Offscouring of
Allthings — conferred on him by the Jewish Sanhedrim and the
Athenian Areopagus.

v :|: * * -'.'•

Your hearers are likely to become what you are — not what you
say they ought to be.

« :•-. * * *

I know only one great difficulty in the way of a firm holding of
the doctrine of " Life in Christ," and that is that I was chosen to

GLEANINGS FROM LATEST NOTE-BOOKS 363

be one of the little group of men who were called to bring it again
into public knowledge, after ages of " natural immortality " teach-
ing and corresponding infidelity and atheism. But the Gospel of
John, read in the plain signification of its terms, and compared
with the language of Irenseus and Arnobius, can signify nothing
else.

What you feel towards the Bible depends on what you feel
towards God, and that depends on the way you spend your time
when you are alone. God visits His servants in solitude more
than in society, except in the Church under favourable conditions.

The Queen has not been compelled to wait for her reward in
posthumous fame. During her lifetime and in her own later
years she has enjoyed as great fame and honour as can come to
her after her death, and in addition a living love from all ranks of
people such as can be accorded only to the living. None of her
elder contemporaries can think of her without emotion and none
of her juniors without wonder and reverence. An honest, good
woman in the highest place, who began in the fear of God and
has been " kept by His power " ever since.

* :;< =:.- # *

In preaching the essentials are : —

1. The tone, which must be that of a messenger of God to
men, not of an original revealer of truth or ingenious commen-
tator. He is the Lord's messenger.

2. The solemnity and the joy of a man who has an eternal
destiny to declare, of life or death.

3. The clearness and simplicity of one who knows exactly
what he ought to say to people who are mostly not very educated
persons. God has not spoken in dark sayings.

Orthodox Churchmen profess to be astonished at the obstinate
revolt of Unitarians against the doctrine of the Trinity, as for-
mulated in the so-called Athanasian Creed. But who that has
ever read the Gospel of St. John or one of Paul's epistles, or the
epistle to the Hebrews, can pretend that they find anything re-
sembling those creeds on the "Trinity" in the writings of the

364 APPENDIX E

chief apostles of the gospel? In every New Testament writing,
and specially in the teaching of Jesus and St. John, the supre-
macy of the Father and the subjection of the Son are presented'
as primary articles of the faith ; so that, instead of an incarnation
of the Trinity, it is always held out that it was the Word, or Logos,
who "was made flesh," so being in the form of a 0«>e He thought
it not a thing to be snatched at to be equal to a Otoc, but emptied
Himself, wherefore " '06 eog hath highly exalted Him, &c." The
great 6«>e, 6 Geoc, hath "given to the Son to have life in Himself."
" My Father is greater than I " are words which Christ could never
have spoken if (i) He were only a man ; or (2) if as Xoyoc He was
equal to the Father, of whom He says, " My Father is greater
than I."

The first preparation for service is to know and believe the
"glad tidings of great joy;" when these are forgotten there is no
" gospel " to preach and no desire to preach any gospel.
* --:= * # #

The Universe is not a mere mechanism of puppets, angels and
men, actuated by an omnipotent will ; but it is a complex reality
of free agents, and character is the principal element in it, depend-
ing on the action of those free agents. But it is awful to think
that each man carries within him a will which can determine an
eternal destiny, according as it is under the government of God
or not in this present time. " Lead me in Thy truth and teach
me, for Thou art the God of my salvation." And there is no
salvation, no endless life, but in the favour and service of God
and union with His Spirit. " That which is born of the flesh is
flesh," and flesh is all corruptible.

Suppose you wish to write a readable biography worth writing.
First choose your subject. How many men do you know with a
life history worth writing or sufficiently distinct to allow of obtain-
ing a public to read it ? Few persons are acquainted with one
such character, of a man governed by a noble, courageous, sacri-
ficial life-purpose, of sufficient interest to deserve commemoration
when it is ended.

GLEANINGS PROM LATEST NOTE-BOOKS 365

The principal ground for separating from the Church of England
is not in its Articles of belief, but in its constitution, as composed
of millions falsely said to be " regenerated " in their infant baptism,
and governed by a clergy the large majority of whom falsely
declare that they " think themselves moved by the Holy Spirit to
take upon themselves the ministry of the Word and the govern-
ment of the Churches," when they know very well that they have
no such persuasion, but have been " put into the priest's office for
a piece of bread " and an easy life in grinding the ecclesiastical
parish organ.

Nothing so decisively proves that we are among those who will
serve God " day and night in His temple " for ever, as the evidence
of our practical life that we will serve and obey Him to-day.

The unity of the Bible, the minute fitting of each stone of the
structure to all the rest, resembles the workmanship of a bridge
of arches over the dark river of death, in which each stone is
fitted by its form to its special place in the work, and all together
combine to make a solid and beautiful roadway across into the
land of everlasting life beyon'd.

Considered in their consequences, the two most mischievous
elements in modern and mediaeval theology are —

1. The doctrine of the Trinity as taught in the Athanasian
Creed : " Three persons in one substance, equal and co-eternal."

2. The doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul, for good
and bad alike.

The first renders unintelligible the sonship of Christ and the
Incarnation of the Word, and nullifies our Lord's repeated de-
clarations as to His relation to the Father, as His agent. The
second subverts the very foundation of the Christian Dispensa-
tion, by denying (i) the total mortality of man, and (2) the object
of the incarnation of the life eternal of the Logos to communicate
eternal life to dying sinners.

# * * * *

Misinterpretation of prophecy, and total neglect of prophecy,
are the curses which Heaven has inflicted on apostolic Christen-

366 APPENDIX E

dom with respect to Christ's present government and approaching
advent to reign over the nations ; just as the curse of blindness as
to the prophecies of Christ's first advent came on the Jews in
revenge for their spiritual apostasy from God. They knew not
the Scriptures. In the same way the modern Churches, Roman,
Greek, and Protestant, are completely blind to the meaning of
the prophecies which foretell the premillennial second advent of
Christ, His destruction of apostate Christendom, and His estab-
lishment of the Kingdom of Heaven over all the earth, with His
saints reigning with Him over all nations — " caught up to meet
the Lord in the. air," and so ever with the Lord.

Will the Old Testament saints be raised also at that time?
Why not ? They beheld the glory from afar, and died for Him.
Shall they not reign with Him ? The saints of earth alive at the
second advent will not sleep but will be all changed. If the
saints then alive are to share the kingdom, why not the saints of
all former ages ? But St. Paul is explicit: "afterward they that
are Christ's at His coming," which must include the whole com-
pany of the faithful.

So long as the recognized alternative results of human life were
eternal joy or eternal pain in consequence of the natural immor-
tality of the soul, which was held as the basis of religion by all,
there was no escape from Predestination as a cause of these
effects; but with the reception of the truth on Life in Christ
there will come a new acknowledgement of the freedom of man
and of his responsibility for obedience of faith under the Gospel.
" Why ivill ye die, O house of Israel ? "

*****

LUKE

Of all the men who companied with the apostles during the
first century, I long for survival of St. Luke more than that of
any early Christian. It is said that he had been a painter. At
all events he possessed the genius of a painter, consecrated to the
Master's service. He could describe the scenes of the apostolic
labours and give reports of their teaching and depict the circum-
stances of their mission ; and above all he could paint individual

GLEANINGS FROM LATEST NOTE-BOOKS 367

life and character in such a way as to fix the picture in the
memory of Christians in never-fading colours.

2 Tim. iv. ii. "Only Luke is with me." Only Luke! the
author of the third Gospel with its holy Magnificat and songs of
angels and saints at the birth of Jesus, the ravishing accounts of
the Redeemer's life and teaching, and the narratives of the " Acts
of the Apostles." Only Luke ! Well, that man was equal in
interest to a whole Church full of ordinary Christians; a con-
temporary of Christ, an acquaintance of the twelve apostles, a
spectator of the early miracles of the Gospel, and himself a com-
panion and witness of St. Paul's wonderful and victorious assault
on Greek and Roman paganism. Only Luke ! But he was a
whole company in himself, as well as a companion, and carried
about with him the vivid story of the incarnation and the Christian
revelation. Just think what a companion ! the writer of the third
Gospel and the Acts, who had seen so many famous cities, and
talked with so many famous men, and heard at first-hand the
narratives of Christ's life from its Palestinian spectators. Only
Luke ! So much the better ! Other companions would have
perhaps shut him up in silence. But Paul sums up all he
felt in his phrase "the beloved physician" (Col. iv. 14 : b

The personality of St. Luke is a very important factor in the
early gospel history. He was a physician, his mind exercised in
accounting for morbid phenomena, anxious to cure diseases, and
satisfied fully of the reality of Christ and His miracles. His
writing proves his many-sided genius and general skill in com-
mon-sense thinking. He who had carefully traced out to its
very sources Christ's history, adhered to his apostles, and re-
mained as comforter, jail-companion, and fellow-worker with
St. Paul at Rome in prospect even of his martyrdom, which was
near at hand. It was Nero's reign. "The beloved physician"
was loved in his own day, and [has been] loved by countless
millions since, and most of all by educated men who are also
believers in Christ. St. Luke still exercises his profession. How
many melancholy souls has he cheered by opening his pages to
them in their saddest hours, by unfolding the paintings of his

368 APPENDIX E

divine portfolio, worked in undying colours, and carrying through
eighteen centuries the vivid picture of the apostolic age and the
portraits of apostolic men. A poetic soul also, who could recover
and set forth the Magnificat of the Mother of the Lord and the
song of Zacharias, so that his book opens like an oratorio at the
birth and ends with a vision of the ascending Jesus from Bethany.
Luke's mind, bred in criticism of diseases and in medicine,
made him a first-rate witness to the gospel and its results.

INDEX

Abstinence, 195, 198

"Accumulation of Wealth," 277 ff.

Adams, Professor, 276

Advent of Christ, 27, 171, 292 f., 366

Agnosticism on Destiny, 242

Aldersey, Miss, 22

Allen, W. Herwood, 254

Alford, Dean, 313

Allon, Dr. II., 54, 56, 187

American Traveller, 82

Amusements, 194

Andrews, Dr., 250, 258

Angus, Dr. J., 56, 65, 72

" Animals," 206

Annihilation, Death not, 72 f., 75 f.

Apostolic Fathers, 15

Argyll, Duke of, 155

Athanasius, 251 f.

"Atonement," 168

Authority, 176 f., 199, 203

B

Baptism, 27 ff., 32, 38, 105 ff., 181, 270
Baptist and Congregational Unions

joint meetings, 189 f.
Barker, R., 40

Barrett, Professor, 134, 140, 223
Bechuana Chiefs, 273
Belgian Christian Missionary Church,

178, 338

Bernstorff, Countess, 341
Bible, as " Word of God," 175 ff.
Bible Women, 3, 18

Biblical Criticism, 212 ff., 218, 257 .,

259 f-

Bicentenary of Nonconformity, 46 f.
Binney, T., 5, 23, 44, 47, 54, 56
Birth of E. W., 2
Bishop's Stortford School, 120
Bonney, Professor, 156, 182
Book and its Story, The, 18
Booth, Dr. S. H., 189
Bourne, Mr., 40
Bradlaugh, Mr., 174
Bright, J., death, 243
Bristol Baptist College, 181
Brock, W., 37
Brown, J. Baldwin, 57, 75, 137 ff. ;

funeral 180, 315
Browning, R., 4, 6, 155, 251
Bryant, Evan, 346 [336 ff., 340

Byse, Charles, 122 f., 178, 184, 257, 306,

Calvinism, 6, in f., 150 f.
Campbell, Dr., 43
Campbell, R. J., 75 f.
Cannings, Mrs., 49, 89
Canterbury Cathedral Crypt, 201
Cardiff ministry, 19
Carter, J., 40, 136, 224, 231, 253
Certainty in Religion, 155
Charles II., Pictures ot return, 252 f.
Charles, Mrs., 275
Chase, Professor, 282 note.
Cheyne, Professor, 256
" Christian Union," 21 f.
25 369

37°

INDEX

Christian World, Letters on Life in
Christ, 65 ff., 76, 113, 137, 149 f->
255. 343

Church and State, 48 f., 63, 102, no,
115, 157, 160, 195, 205

Church Rates, 51

Clayton, G., 4, 50

Clayton, J., 23

Clerical Subscription, 46 f., 205, 297 f.,

365

Cocorda, O., 341

Conferences: Working men, 57 ff, 159;
Lambeth Palace, 108 ; Cannon Street
Hotel, 131 ff. ; Christian, 171

Congo Institute, 276

Congregational Union, 101, 105, 108,
109, 121, 166 f., 175, 182, 183, 185,
(chair) 187, 189, 191, 201, 208, 215,
237, 266, 273

Constable, Prebendary, 72, 134

Cook, Joseph, 341

Cowper, 77

Craik, Miss, IOI

Crossley, E., 169, 245

Customs of the Dissenters, The, 64

D

Dale, Dr., 75 f., 92, 129, 136, 175,

223, 235, 256, 270, 290, 297,

347-356
Dale, Mrs., 290
Dallinger, Dr., 156
Dalmas, H. G. E. de St., 346
Davies, C. N., 9, 10, 17, 19 ff., 227
Deacons : first at Havvley Road, 40 ; in

Free Churches, 113 f.
Death of E. W., 299
Dedication of Infants, 30
Disestablishment, 60,63, IO2» U5» !57>

1 60, 260

Dobney, H. H., 25 f.
Dore, Gustave, 123
Dorner, Dr., 340
" Down Grade " Controversy, 212
Dunn, II., 26, 118

Duties of perfect and of imperfect
obligation, 173, 195

Ebury, Lord, 55

Editor of Christian Spectator, 44

Education Act, 92

Elliot, Russel, 223, 231, 286

Emancipation of Slaves, 180

Endless Life, The, 166

Estimates of character of E. W., 304 ff.,

309-323
Evans, Dr., 235
Ewing, Greville, 1 1
Exhibition of 1851, 32

Fairbairn, Dr., 167, 250

" Flexibility of Independency," 109 ff.

Fontaine, James: Book on Immortality,

II ff., 24

Foster, John, 19, 24
Foster, Sir Michael, 309
"Free Church Foundations," 191 ff.
Fremantle, Canon, 20 1, 313
Funeral of E. W., 301
Future Punishment, 141, 239, 307

Garibaldi, 86, 88

Gavazzi, 84, 88

Genesis III. History not Fable, 169

Gillespy, Miss M., 61

Gladstone, W. E., 44, 63, 75 f., 174,

207, 237, 243, 258, 260, 268
Glasgow University, II
Gleanings from last note-books, 357~~36S
Gloag, Dr., 151, 233, 258, 260, 262, 275
Glover, Dr. R., 253
Goodwyn, General, 131
Gospels, The Four, 358 f.
Gotch, Dr., 28
Grant, James, 43
Great Wheel, The, 273
Groves, Miss, 101
Guthrie, Dr., 57

INDEX

H

Iladdon, J., and Mrs., 40

Hall, Newman, 44, 54, 57, 63, 228,

276, 302, 315, 322 f.
Hall, Samuel Carter, 238, 256
Hall, Spedding, 254
Hall, Vine, 50

" Handling the Scriptures," 201
Hannay, Dr., 189, 228, 241
Harley, R., 228
Harrison, J. C., 37, 94, 223, 255, 268,

315

Haweis, H. R., 205

Hawker, Geo., 228

I lawley Road Chapel, 33 ; formation
of Church, 39 ; purchase and im-
provement, 53 ff. ; twenty-fifth anni-
versary, 134 ; retirement from, 221 ff.;
letter to Church, 230

Heard, J. B., 134, 136

Hensley, Professor, 56

Henslow, Professor, 156

Hereford pastorate, 21 ff. ; quitted, 31

" Higher Criticism," 257 f.

" Hilda's Mount," 162

Hobbs, W. A., 149, 295, 343 ff.

Home, Estimate of, 5 1 f.

Home Rule, 207, 237, 243, 257, 258,
260

Homiletic Magazine, 167 f., 175, 178,
182, 185, 215

Homiletics, Professor of, 200, 207

Hooker, quoted, 66

Home, C. S., 232 ff., 247

Horton, R. F., 119, I79> 3°i

Houghton, Lord, 55

Howitt, William and Mary, 44, 256

Hudson, Professor, 72

Hughes, George, 3

Hughes, Thomas, 57, 61

Huntington, Dr., 341

Huxley, Professor, 56

Hymns by E. W., 229, 301

I
Ideal Independency, 97, 163 f., 185, 217

Illnesses, 123, 182, 211, 249 f., 259,

261, 273, 291, 294, 296
"Immortality," article in Homiletic

Magazine, 182
Impey, W., 146, 346
Influence Abroad of E. W., 336-346
Inspiration of Scripture, 175 f-> 209
International Congregational Council,

256

Interpretation of Scripture, 148, 291 f.
Ireland, Visit to, 235 ff.

J

James, John Angell, 17
Jewish People, 165, 234
Jonker, Dr., 341
Jubilee of Queen Victoria, 208 ff. ;

Diamond, 289

Jubilee, the Mosaic, 210, 280
Jukes, A., 65, 72

K

Kennedy, Dr., 170
Khama, 273
Kinnaird, Hon. A., 56
Knight, W.D., 88, 119,155,229,249,300
Kossuth, 32

L

Lancashire Cotton Famine, 49, 321 f.

Landels, Dr., 105 f.

Law and Gospel, 45 f., 191 ff.

Lawrence, E. A., 77

"Laws and Limits of Responsibility,"
180

Leask, Dr., 132

Lectures, 42; artizans', 118; mer-
chants', 155

Leedham, Mrs., 23

Liberation Society, 47 f., 59, 63, 115,

157, 159

" Liberator" Societies, 258

Life and Death, 137

Life in Christ, 11, 19. 25, 74. 76 f-,
126, 251, 308, 312, 324-335, 341 f->
347; French translation, 122, 154,

337 f-» 340 f-

" Literal Interpretation," 148, 362

Livingstone, Dr., 44

London Congregational Union, 94 ff.,

166; Chairman, 169 f., 175
London Missionary Society, 170 ; a

director, 199, 245, 266
Lubbock, Sir John, 56
Ludlow, J. M., 57
Luke, 176 f., 366-368
Lynch, T. T., 43 f., 315

M

McAll, R. W. (Paris), 257
McClure, Dr., 301, 302
McDougall (Florence), 84 f., 88
Macgregor, J. (Rob Roy), 251
Mackennal, Dr., 210, 284
Mackenzie, J. M., u
Maclaren, Dr. A., 237, 276
McLaren, W. D., 78, 175, 186, 206,

209, 256, 324-335
Manning, Cardinal, 313
Marriage of E. W., 22; second,

61
Martin, D. Basil, 183, 188, 228, 254,

316-320

Martin, Samuel, 53, 315
Materialism, 145
Maude, Mr., 72
Maurice, F. D., 57
Memorial of E. W., 302 .
Mercer, Mr., 222
Merchants' lecturer, 155; resignation,

249, 259

" Method influencing results," 218 f.
Miall, Edward, 47, 48, 56, 57, 59, 134;

death, 157 ff., 178 f.
Mill Hill School, 2, 3, 120, 180; new

chapel, 276, 302
Minghetti, 86, 88
Miiwr Moralities of Life , 62
Minton, Samuel, 72, 76, 131, 136 f.,

228, 263 f., 306
Moffat, Dr. R., 170
Moody, D. L., 180, 341
Morell, J. D., n, 256

Morley, Samuel, 56, 57

Miiller, George, 101

Mundle, T. McDougall, 228

Murphy, G. M., 57

Mursell, Arthur, 134

Mystery of Growth, 60, 1 80 note.

N

Nalson, Mr., 40
Nardi (Cardinal), 83, 86, 88
Nature study, 121, 217 fT.
Necromancy, 259
Nevile, Chr., 55
New College, Professor of Homiletics,

200, 207
Nitzsch, 340

Nonconformists as Christians, 268
Nunn, John, 223, 272, 314 ff.

O

Oliphant, Ch. H., 341, 342
Oncken, 100 f.
Ordinations : E. W., 22 ; in Church of

England, 124; of Spedding Hall,

254 : C. S. Home, 247 ; R. F.

Horton, 179; W. D. McLaren, 175;

at Roman Catholic College, 271
Osterzee, Dr. v., 341
Oxenham, II. N., 215 ff.

Paget, Sir James, 156

" Pardon not impunity," 180

Parentage of E. W. ,1,2

Parker, Dr., 105, 205

Parkhurst, Dr., 342

Peace Society, 45, 199

Pentecost in Acts II., 281

Perowne, Dr. J. J. S., 124, 164, 197,

257, 266
Petavel, Dr., 123, 184, 206, 255, 306,

336 f, 340 ff.
Peto, SirS. M., 56
Pettingell, J. H., 341
Pharisees, all too long, 172
Pillon, 339

INDEX

373

Pope Pius IX., 83, 88, 93

Portsmouth, Lord, 169

Priestcraft, 215

Priestley, T., 3

Problem of Immortality, 255, 257, 337

Prophecy, Real, 171, 366

Pryce, E. S., 11 ; letter to, 13 ff., 33

" Public Worship and Christian Life,"

171 ff.

Punch and Judy, 1 1 1
Purchase in the Church, no, 159 f.
Pye-Smith, Dr., 310

Queen Victoria, 2, 32; Jubilee, 208,
209 ; thanksgiving, Westminster
Abbey, 210 ; Congregational Ad-
dress, 210 f. ; opening of Imperial
Institute, 261 ; long reign, 276 ;
Diamond Jubilee, 289 ; reward, 363

R

Raleigh, Dr., 155, 232
Ranyard, Mrs., 3, 17, 23, 50, 122, 257,

276

Reading Scripture Lessons, 286
Reality of prophecy, 171, 366
Reasons for urging "Life in Christ," 40 f.
Reciprocity with clergy, 102 f.
Redford, Dr., 17, 233
Renan, 154
Renouvier, 339
Responsibility, joint, 216 ; of the

Ministry, 209
Retirement from pastorate, 220 ; Chap.

XVI., 248

" Re-union of Christendom," 215 ff.
Revised N. T., 160 f.
Richard, Henry, 45, 109, 134, 199, 235
RitschI, 340
Robinson, William, 46
Rogers, George, 72
Roman Catholic Ordination, 271
Rome visited, 81 ff.
Rothe, 340

Russell, David, 11, 209, 257

S

Sabatier, Auguste, 339
Saint Pancras, 42
Salmond, Dr., 307
" Salvation after death," 185
Sandford, Professor Sir D. K., 11
Sayce, Professor, 266
Scholarship at Mill Hill, 303
Scottish Congregational Union, 209 f.
Secretan, Professor, 339
Shaftesbury, Lord, 170, 318
Shairp, J. C., n
Sheppard, John (Frome), 44
Skrefsrud, 164 f.
Smith, Dr. Pye-, 222, 310
Smith, Gipsy, 185
Smith, Goldwin, 57
Smith, Samuel, M.P., 122, 126 ff.,

134, 149, 228, 237, 258, 301,

344

Solly, H.,6i

Solomon's Porch, 281, 282 f.
Spicer, Albert, 207, 261
Spider at work, 121
Spiritism, 44, 155, 238, 256, 259,

312 f-
Spurgeon, C. II., 51, 65, 69 ff., 212,

291
Stanley, Dean, 55, 58, 101, 103 ; death,

161 f.

Starkey, N., 134
Stephen, Sir James, 26
" Sternness and Tenderness of Jesus,"

121, 240

Stewart, Professor Balfour, 156
Stockwell Training College, 117
Stokes, Professor Sir George G., Bart.,

129, 156, 228, 275, 297
Stones crying out, 18
Stoughton, Dr., 37, 54, 223, 232 f.,

255, 290

Stowe, Mrs. Harriet B., 44
Sunday Evening Lectures, 59, 61, f.,

118, 194, 198

374

INDEX

Tadpoles, 1 1 2
Temple, Bishop, 205
Tettenhall College, 201
That Unknown Country ', 249
Tinling, J. F. B., 101, 134, 306, 311-

Tomkinson, Mr., 40
Trafford, H. M., 303 note.
Trestrail, F., 33, 181, 253
Trinity, Doctrine of, 363, 364, 365
Tyndall, Professor, 56, 184

U
Underbill, Dr., 82, 136

V

Vatican Council, 93
Vaughan, Cardinal, 271
Vaughan, Dr. R., 56

Victor Emmanuel II , 86, 88
Volunteer Movement, 45

W

Walker, T., 136, 142, 228, 234

Wall, James (Rome), 83 f., 88

Wardlaw, Dr., II

Warleigh, H. S., 128

Waters, Mr., 49

Waylen, J., 246

Wheel, Great, Earl's Court, 273

"Wheel" of truth, 129

Whitby, 163

White, Charles, 183; F. A., 276; Geo.

F., 20 f. ; J. B., i, 22 f., 61
White, Mrs., death, 52
Wilkin, M. H., 100 f.
Williams, Charles, 50, 56, 189, 320-322
Wilson, J. M., 156
Women's Ministrations, 99

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