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I recognize that in this topic I am possibly speaking to some who may be in strong disagreement with what I have to say. I want to deal very graciously, however, with any who would disagree with me. I want to be utterly honest in my dealing with the subject. I want to know that which is true in history. and its relationship unto the word of the Lord. Trust I shall therefore have sympathetic hearing even from any who might disagree with those things that I say tonight. I'm going to look very, very briefly at the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit in the great revival of 200 years ago. I'm going to deal with but two personalities in the revival, Jonathan Edwards in his work in America, George Whitefield in his work in England. Jonathan Edwards lived from 1702 to 1755. He was a pastor in Northampton in Massachusetts in the United States. He followed his grandfather in that pastorate. The grandfather had held to a view that allowed unconverted persons to become members of the Church, even though the grandfather himself was a magnificent preacher of the gospel. With that view was the idea also that an unconverted man may be in the pulpit under the saying, a converted minister is best, but an unconverted minister cannot fail to do some good. Edwards took over that pulpit and realized he had a number of unconverted in the church. They were seeking to be converted by the fact they had been sprinkled as babies and that they were attending the communion service. The idea was the sacrament, as they called it, was a converting experience, and they'd be converted by these works. Facing that situation, Edwards began a series of sermons on the sovereignty of God in the salvation of man. He says that he used especially the text, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Or again, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And Edwards says then, in late December of 1734, Under the preaching of those sermons, the Spirit of God began extraordinarily to set in and wonderfully to work among us. And there were very suddenly, one after another, who were to all appearances savingly converted. Then he goes on to enlarge upon this work of what he terms the setting in of the Spirit of God. He talks about it as a work of conviction. or he used the term awakening, souls that were asleep in sin, carelessness, awakened to realization of their spiritual need. He says that this went on from an awakening work unto a regenerating work, and he talks about persons being brought into the fulness of new life in Christ. With all of the wonderful analytical powers of Edward's mind, he analyzed these cases or instances of conviction and of conversion seeing each one slightly different from the other in the manner in which, as he says, the Spirit of God worked in this one and in the other one. He goes on to tell of the blessings, the change that came. I'll take but a moment to read a word or two of it. A glorious alteration in the town. The town seemed to be full of the presence of God. It was never so full of love, of joy, nor yet so full of distress. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in every house, the time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought unto them, parents rejoicing over their children, husbands rejoicing over their wives, wives rejoicing over their husbands. The goings of God were then seen in his sanctuary. God's day was a delight. His tabernacles were amiable. Our public assemblies were then beautiful. Our public praises were greatly enlivened. God was served in our somedy. singing of Psalms in the beauty of holiness. Then he goes on, I won't take time to read it, tell how this blessing spread from Northampton to another town and another town to 24 different towns around about. I started in the record to put a red mark around every time he mentioned the Spirit of God and then a mark from that to another and another and another and I've got a world of red marks in the copy as he speaks constantly about this as being a work of God, the Spirit of God in awakening conviction, the Spirit of God in this work of conversion. And when God so remarkably, in so remarkable a manner, took the work into his own hands, there was as much done in a day or two as at ordinary times. with all endeavors that men can use, and with such blessings as we commonly have, as is done in a year." This is something of Edward's description of the work of the Spirit of God in the revival that he witnessed. He goes on later when certain elements of fanaticism crept into this great awakening as it was termed. Edwards used the great analytical powers of his mind to write marks of a work of the Spirit of God. He used the text that Dr. Adams read tonight, Try the Spirit, and he spoke of how to discern that which is a work of the Spirit of God and to differentiate it from that which is not the work of the Spirit of God. He looked upon the revival that he witnessed as and outpouring by sovereign grace of the power of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit using the preaching of God's truth out of the Bible as the means of bringing conviction, bringing awakening, bringing conversion, and this transformation of the town, of many a home, the transformation of his Church. I'll deal briefly also with George Whitefield. George Whitefield in England, beginning his preaching ministry at the age of 21 in Church of England, churches in Bristol and London, to deal especially with his own story, his own report of his conversion. I do so, and it's difficult for me in this regard, and I must mention the name, my good friend Dr. Lloyd-Jones of London, England, in a recent commentary on Ephesians the opening chapters of Ephesians, has interpreted Ephesians 1 and verse 13, after that ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit, a promise, as meaning a two-stage experience. I understand it in the mind of the dear Doctor. He is 80 years of age, he is a Welshman, and he has looked for revival all his days, and he hasn't seen the revival that he has expected. I feel that perhaps now in the advanced age that he is in, and I thank the Lord he is still in manifest good health, notwithstanding two or three bouts of surgery, that this interpretation, which is not borne out by the rest of the New Testament, and in order to back up his view, he quotes from George Whitefield. Whitefield made a report of his conversion. He has a lengthy account of what he calls my temptations, a time under great conviction, after he had read Schugel's The Life of God in the Soul of Man. George Whitefield as a good, earnest young Anglican and a member of the Holy Club, living a very rigid type of life, conforming to the details desired by the Holy Club's planning. thinking thereby to save their soul, would feel realized from the school he was not converted, that he must be born again. And he began to seek for the new birth. He knew not how to seek. All he knew was by increasing the ascetic practices, going without food, making long fasts, sleeping under difficult circumstances, going with his face on the ground out in the parks of Oxford University, even in the wintertime, and crying out to God in prayer. And all of this brought no salvation, till at the end of a period of seven weeks of sickness he cast himself upon the mercy of God in Christ, and God brought him truly unto himself. He describes that. in a journal that he wrote at the time, under the effect of this exciting experience. He was 20 years of age at the time he wrote it, and he's an excitable, highly emotional young man at least. Then, some 23 years later, he revised these journals that he wrote. And in revising his journals, he rewrote the account of his conversion. Now, the account of his conversion that he first wrote, Thus were the days of my mourning ended after a long night of desertion and temptation. The star which I had seen at a distance before began to appear again. The day star rose in my heart. Now did the Spirit of God take possession of my soul and seal me unto the day of redemption. So my dear friend in London, England, says this is two separate experiences some months apart. And I was amazed when I was in England recently to find a number of men agreeing simply because the very outstanding man says so. Whitefield, however, 23 years later rewrote his journal and in writing it After having undergone innumerable buffetings of Satan, many months in expressible trials by night and day, God was pleased at length to remove the heavy load, to enable me to lay hold of his dear Son by a living faith, and by giving me the spirit of adoption, to seal me even to the day of everlasting redemption. Some who want to follow the Doctor I've had letters from them arguing strenuously that this is two separate experiences of which Whitfield here is speaking, and he had already been converted months earlier, and all these months of difficulty and striving. He was a Christian all that time, and now this final experience is simply the sealing by the Spirit. If language means anything at all, this is his report of his conversion. And the days of his mourning had ended. Now this is the account of being adopted into the family of God. Grant him the gift of a living faith to seal him unto the day of redemption, not two separate experiences. If it were two, it could just as well be argued it's four, for he has four different accounts in there. If the Apostle Paul had meant in Ephesians 1, verse 13, that he's talking of two experiences, you're converted in believing in Christ, months later you receive the spirit of adoption, all throughout Paul's letters what would we find? We'd find Paul dealing with people who've had only the first experience and who need to go on to the second experience. And when he says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption, if Paul had believed in two separate experiences, we'd have him saying there, grieve not the Spirit of God, whereby some of you were sealed unto the day of redemption, and he'd be urging the rest to go on and get the seal. Nowhere throughout all Paul's writings is there the slightest suggestion that there's another experience awaiting, but there is the one great experience of conversion It includes with it the seal of God, and the seal is the Holy Spirit himself, placed within the believer's heart. This is God's seal unto the day of redemption. Moreover, if Whitefield had believed two separate experiences, we would find him preaching it, but we find the very opposite. His one sermon preached when he was 23, the indwelling of the Spirit, the common experience of all believers. And throughout his sermons, his ministry, his journals, his letters, he constantly uses the idea of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the individual's heart as the true evidence of conversion. Perhaps with that I'll leave because of the importance of what else I have to say. the matter of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine as held during the revival. That the work of the Lord was won in the matter of conversion, every believer receives the Spirit of God as God's seal upon him. And with the Spirit of God within, the believer is enabled to go on unto a growing sanctification, a sanctification that is endless as we grow up and go on in the Lord. But I want to deal particularly with Edward Irving. Now we're coming to another period of history. What I've talked about is in the early 1700s, 1730 to 1750. Now we jump over some years. Edward Irving was born 1792, died 1834. Edward Irving was a Presbyterian, born in Scotland, grew up in a staunch Presbyterian home. Edward Irving had one particular gift as a young man growing up that I could envy. He grew to be about six feet four and some would say six feet six. I always envied the big fellows when I went to school. I got bullied around and how I wish I were a great big strong fellow. Well, I had to put up with what I got, but Irving was not only tall, but a magnificent physical figure. I have three or four different pictures of him. stood magnificently erect, a gorgeous great head with a mask of raven black hair, carried himself with a certain feeling of majesty. It was a dominating feel about the very look of the man. This as he grew up in his teens, became a school teacher. Late in his teens went to Edinburgh University to train for the ministry. One peculiar matter arises, however. Nowhere do we find in Edward Irving's writings any mention of conversion. I'm not saying he wasn't converted, but I point out with some of the other authors there's no mention of Irving's part of a definite experience of conversion. Moreover, as we get to look at his theology, we'll find that true conversion did not come in to the theology that Irving held. Nevertheless, there was much that was magnificently attractive about Edward Irving. Trained for the ministry, the Scots Presbyterian practice then was that in order to get a call to a church, you needed influence. There were persons, patrons. A patron would have the total authority over who was called into a certain church. The great disruption that came in Presbyterianism in Scotland in 1842-44, I believe, led by Chalmers, was partly to do away with this Patton business. Irving not having a Patton put him into a church, there was no opportunity, it seemed, for him to become a pastor, and he stayed as schoolteacher. Some marvelous stories of him taking the children out into the fields and studying nature, He knew nature, he knew plants and trees and birds and animals, stars in the sky. I'm sure a magnificent teacher. Also some records of physical, what's the word I want, shall I say punishment? A great big physical strong man exercises, was the practice in those days. Discipline in the physical sense upon children in school. But in 1819, Edward Irving would then have been 27. He became assistant to the great Dr. Chalmers in a Presbyterian church in Glasgow. Now, Chalmers is one of the greatest names of Presbyterianism of all time. Certainly that century in Scotland saw no greater figure than Chalmers. Chalmers had been magnificently converted. He had preached. before he was converted, and then a vast change in his preaching when he truly came to know the law. Moreover, in his work in Glasgow, Chalmers was reaching out to do a social work. He had his whole parish divided up into various areas, and he had men from his church to oversee the areas. He was taking in offerings in the church to meet the needs of the poor. one of the grandest of social schemes ever devised to try to elevate the conditions of the poor. Chalmers was also a most extraordinary preacher, man of great power in the pulpit, great utterance, magnificent knowledge of the word of God, all such good things may be said about him. And Irving, great man, But all his power is somewhat frustrated in being overshadowed by Thomas Chalmers. Irving, we have the picture of him going out in the homes, this great giant figure of a man, and carrying himself accord always with this majesty and dignity, and yet utterly childlike in the simplicity of his nature. And he loved children, story after story, him going into the homes. taking the children on his knee, talking their language as it were to them, almost wherever he went, a big hand to go on a child's head, even as he's passing him on the street, and lift up his heart in prayer to the Lord for that child. A number of glorious qualities in Edward Irving in these days of working with Chalmers in Glasgow, but he longed to be in the ministry and in the pulpit, and he received a call to a Scotch-Gaelic-speaking Caledonian church in London, England. He was willing to learn Gaelic if necessary in order to go there. Also, they had a building that seated 500, but a congregation of about 50 within it. They couldn't do much in the matter of salary, but he didn't care about that, just something to be there where he could utilize his gifts to serve the Lord. And so he went down to London to become pastor of this church. He had certain gifts of the use of language that Mr. Spurgeon didn't like. Spurgeon, writing about him fifty years later, didn't like his great rolling language. Irving's language. I can read Irving and just rejoice in it. As a young man, he had memorized large portions of some of the Latin writers, Ossian especially. He had memorized Milton, and he would be walking with the schoolchildren in the fields. He would be pouring forth great, rolling phrases from Milton's Paradise Lost, etc. And as he began to preach, there was this grandeur of language, and some of the outstanding figures of the House of Commons began a discussion in Parliament. Before he had been two or three months in London, the building that had a congregation of fifty was packed to overflowing with a number of persons from the government and people from literary and artistic circles coming to hear Irving. He was virtually idolized by this company, a number of outstanding names, one especially, Coleridge, S. T. Coleridge. Coleridge had a great influence on Irving. Coleridge's influence comes down today from Irving's day into our own. We'll spend a minute with S.T. Coleridge. Coleridge was a genius in the matter of literary output. The vast area of his intellectual grasp is utterly amazing. I was in the library of the British Museum a month ago, and I found that Coleridge's notebooks had been edited. A Canadian woman had spent half a lifetime going over these notebooks, and they're now published. Just a few copies, as it's evident there won't be a great demand for them. And oh, with great excitement in the north area of the British Museum Library, I received the eight volumes of Coleridge's notebooks. I knew of his association with Irving. Sad to say, the notebooks ended at 1818. His association with Irving began in 1822. But I was utterly amazed at the endless realm of subjects that the genius of Coleridge was able to deal with in an authoritative manner. However, Coleridge in about 1810 had become subject unto laudanum opium. Now, I know that they didn't in those days have any drugs to ease pain. An aspirin tablet would have been a great benefit to them. reading about poor old Charles Wesley with a toothache. He tried tobacco, stuffing tobacco in his aching tooth, and found it made it worse rather than better, and an aspirin and a tablet or two would have been of value. And perhaps Coleridge got into laudanum and opium because of physical pain, but he became utterly subject unto it. The narcotic traffic is common today, and we sympathize with those who come under its terrible enslaving power, and Coleridge came into an enslavement of dope. And throughout the years from 1810 onward, he was trying to alleviate that by his drink, alcohol, and laudanum together. Thankfully, by 1815 he was taken into a home of a Dr. Gilman in the Highgate area of London. Gilman trying to be helpful, Gilman virtually imprisoned him. Had him virtually locked up so he couldn't get out to get his dope. And by 1820, Coleridge had largely overcome these bad habits. But he was a poor, twisted, bent little man physically. But between Coleridge and Irving, great Irving, with his majestic, tall carriage and bearing, The poor, twisted, half-crippled form of a little Coleridge beside him make a strange pair. But Coleridge had also begun life with the thought of becoming a Unitarian minister, rejecting the biblical view of the Deity of Christ. By 1820 he possibly had largely overcome those Unitarian views, but 1822-23, Edward Irving and Coleridge became great friends. Irving admits he would sit at Coleridge's feet and learn from him. What did he learn? We'll come a little later into Irving's theory of the person of Christ. Bear in mind the association with Coleridge with his views of rejecting the deity of the Lord Jesus. At this time also, Irving began to get ideas very contrary to what were held concerning eschatology, the doctrine of last things, related to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Irving became filled with the conviction that Christians were carrying out the Lord's work in a wrong manner. There must be a return to apostolic conditions and to apostolic missionary and evangelistic practices, and this return would herald the soon coming of the Lord Jesus. He was asked in 1823 to speak at a great missionary rally in London, various missions. They had their works in Europe and out in Africa and India, and they had this great rally. They took the Whitfield Chapel, the largest building available in England then, packed it to overflowing an hour before the time the service was to start. The building was packed, Irving was to preach, so he began to preach that hour before the given time of starting. He preached on for two hours. He knew what it was to hold a congregation for two hours. I won't be keeping my own rule tonight. For the young men, I say, be satisfied with 25 to 30 minutes for the first number of years of your ministry. Tremendous errors are made by young men and maybe older men trying to preach too long. Don't find fault with me tonight, however. Irving preached for two hours on this occasion. You know what he preached? Here are the missionary societies all there and the heads of the missions wanting him to stir the people up now to get behind these missions and support them. And Irving preached the return to apostolic conditions. He took us his text, Go, having nothing, and he scorned the idea of missionaries being supported. with a missionary bar and appeals for offerings. God calls these people to go out as missionaries and let them go with nothing at all, the way the apostles went. Well, there was consternation among the missionary societies and we've got to think of Irving. as a rather naive, childlike individual who would be simply moved by principle and wouldn't quite realize what he was doing to these missionary societies. He published that address, and in publishing the address, he dedicated it to Coleridge. And in the dedication, he tells Coleridge, I have learned more of Christian doctrine and Christian practice from you than I have from anyone else. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who had spent the years subject to his booze and his dope, and here is the great Edward Irving dedicating this sermon to him, widely circulated. Well, again, it created consternation. Irving became filled with this thought of a return to apostolic conditions and there was to be a total return of all the charismatic gifts mentioned in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus was to return soon, get the Church back to these apostolic practices and would bring the Lord from the heavens. Realize also, Europe had been greatly stirred under the French Revolution. And then under Napoleon, Napoleon had been defeated, but by these years to which I am speaking, Napoleon III was on the scene. He was a thorough weakling, nothing at all like the great Napoleon I. But they got the idea with this that he was to be the Antichrist, and this also was part of the continuing moving of events unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Among this circle in London, in which Irving met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, we have, I say, an elite company here of people in the world of literature and art, various of the ambassadors, the statesmen of England, in this circle that would meet together and Irving, their idol, in their midst. Among them was a man named Hatley Frere, a brother of the British ambassador to Spain. Hatley Frayer had developed great ideas on prophecy, and oh, if he could only find some public figure who could give great publicity to these views that he had. And now Irving was just the man for him. Again, we think of Irving in this rather naive, rather credulous. Irving was of such upright principles himself, so utterly honest and straightforward, he couldn't imagine anyone else being dishonest. He attributed to all mankind these very upright, wholesome qualities that he had himself. I would love to have known the man. I find him exceedingly attractive. Anyway, Hattie Frere got a hold of Irving, and Irving and all his credulous nature took in completely all the theories of Hattie Frere. These were the theories about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, his return to apostolic conditions, the return of all the charismatic gifts, Napoleon III to be the Antichrist. Hattie Frere was setting the date. of 1834, nothing in prophecy past 1834, the Lord Jesus would surely come by then. Then, as I've mentioned, the group in London met Coleridge, he met Hatley Frere, now one other, Henry Drummond. Henry Drummond was another big man physically, carried himself in a magnificent manner. Henry Drummond was the president and partial owner of one of the great banks of England, a man of great wealth, a man of strong opinions, a man of dictatorial, dominating manner. Henry Drummond had a great estate down south of London. Some of you know England, or if you know England, you know Guilford, and six miles out of Guilford is a great country estate, Albury Park. I was there a month ago. great magnificent mansion, and then driving into the mansion, the brother who was with me said, Look at that beautiful church over there. It seems right in the fields across a creek. And he said, I'm sure that church is about 170, 180 years old. Great stone Gothic building there in the fields. We went from there on into the park and there's this magnificent mansion. It's not lived in, now by one family, but apartments have been made for senior citizens. Fifty apartments for senior citizens there, but the living room and the library exist today as they were back in Henry Drummond's time. Now, in the light of these prophetic views, Henry Drummond called a prophetic conference to meet in his library, and Irving was there as the dominating figure of it. and a number of others, I don't need to go into the personnel of them. These were prayerful Bible study sessions that went on for six days at a time, from the Monday morning until the Saturday night. These were held four years in a row from 1826 to 1830. With it, they inaugurated a paper, the Morning Watch. which was to present these views on prophecy and to awaken the Christian world from its sleep, the realization that the Lord was about to come and the apostolic gifts were to be restored. Moreover, Irving's Caledonian Chapel was overflowing, and his people launched out and built Regent Square Presbyterian Church. Again, if you know London, St. Pancras Station, and about two blocks to the south is an area of Scotch Streets around there, and that was where the chapel stood. I walked and walked looking for it, only to learn that it had been bombed out in wartime and doesn't exist anymore. thought it was a magnificent great church with two twin towers, something like York Cathedral, that seated possibly 2,000 people. And Irving moved his congregation in there. By this time, however, because of Irving's prophetic notions, great popularity was beginning to fade and a much smaller congregation gathered in the great church. Now we move from there to Scotland. Irving went to Scotland in 1828 on an evangelistic or preaching tour. Not evangelistic in the sense of preaching the gospel to win souls to Jesus Christ. This didn't seem to come into his ministry at all. But he went there to preach with great fervor and mighty power this assurance of the restoration of the charismatic gifts and of the apostolic conditions and the apostles themselves. It was to be a rebirth of apostles. God would again appoint apostles. And Irving preached this with great power throughout some weeks in Scotland. Two other men at least, two other Presbyterian pastors, one A.J. Scott, a man of powerful mind, strong opinions, took up with this. One or two others, J. M. Campbell. And now, a few months later, on the shores of the Clyde River in Scotland, there was a home, a family named Campbell, a young girl, we don't know her age, a consumptive, virtually dying with the disease, a girl named Isabella Campbell, under somewhat of the influence of this ministry of Irving and Scott and others. came into experience of ecstatic condition, what she called speaking in the power. I'm sure a very, very good, earnest Christian girl, and fame of her saintliness spread around the area. But by 1829, Isabella Campbell had passed away. Her life story was written by her pastor, and this life story spread around in great numbers over the area. On the other side of the Clyde River was a family named MacDonald, and associated with them was an elderly gentleman named James Grubb. James Grubb also was dying, and he was converted on his deathbed after a long life of utter ungodliness, and in the month or two that he had as a Christian, The testimonies are to the effect that he had a vast knowledge of the scriptures and could quote the word of God, live constantly in the presence of the Lord, exuding this ethereal saintliness, something like that, that the Campbell girl had experienced before. In virtually his dying moments, James Grubb intimated that God had spoken some special words to him. a prophecy so sacred that he dare not tell it forth. Folks began to wonder what this prophecy was, and we are to think of this as spreading through much of this area of Scotland. Irving's preaching, preaching of Scott and Campbell and others, the testimony of this girl who had died after this saintly life, they put up a stone memorial to her, the writing of her life, and now the death of James Grubb. This was in the MacDonald home across on the other side of the Clyde River. Now there was a daughter in the home, Margaret MacDonald. She appears to have been only about 13 years old. She also had this same kind of ecstatic experience And they called it speaking in the Spirit, receiving the power in which she would be seemingly somewhat lifted out of herself, almost unconscious of circumstances and conditions around about. Now, some of her statements were taken down in shorthand and are published, and virtually there's very little in them that one needs to read. They're all to the effect they can be boiled down almost to, the Lord is at hand, his appearing will come very soon. And Margaret MacDonald, we bear her in mind now, and this was to her prophecy, this attitude of elevated spirit almost carried out of herself. She spoke of, and others around her spoke of, as the ministry of prophecy, that which had been spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12. and listed among the charismatic gifts, prophecy. This was the fulfillment of that scriptural word. Here was the beginning of this return to the apostolic gifts. Moreover, she prayed for her two brothers. They came home from work at noon. They were standing in the room. She also was a consumptive and was in bed, apparently unable to get out of the bed at the time. praying much for her brother George and her brother James, that they might receive the fulness of the Spirit of God. And suddenly James walked over to the window and said, I have got it. And with that, he prayed also for his brother. The brother received the same experience. And then he went to the sister in bed, took her by the hand. I say unto thee, arise. and she arose professedly completely healed of the consumptive condition from which she had been suffering. Across the river we go back again now to the Campbell home, and there was another Campbell sister there, also consumptive and in bed sick. James MacDonald wrote a letter to her telling how the Lord had come and visited him and his brother and how his sister had been raised with a sudden miracle of healing and that she also was to arise from her bed immediately and be healed. The next morning she came across the river on a little vessel and they met and she told them the miracle had taken place. After receiving his letter she also had arisen from bed and now here was the miracle of healing. But that wasn't all. In this experience of what they call receiving the power and speaking in the Spirit, now these would be coherent words that were spoken. I say there are a number of them taken down. There are some pages of these utterances in coherent language. But into that began to come incoherent language, possibly in the month of March of 1830, in the midst of these experiences. incoherent language. Now, they said in marvel, here is the gift of tongues, spoken of in Corinthians and in other parts of the New Testament, being restored. And we can understand something of this sense of tremendous excitement. Here was this magnificent evidence of the supernatural, the miracle. Here all that Irving had been talking about of the restoration of the gifts, here it was taking place before their very eyes. At this very time also, Margaret MacDonald, about thirteen years of age, in this condition of rapturous speaking, professedly healed of the consumptive condition, in one of her utterances, now not an incoherent one, but one of coherent words, she made mention, it had been revealed to her, that the coming of the Lord Jesus was not to be as people had expected, the great, open, visible, glorious coming, but rather, it had been revealed to her, he was to come first of all secretly. It was to be a two-stage coming. And she wrote a letter to a friend urging that friend to be converted, to come to Christ, lest you are left to go through the tribulations that will follow. the coming of Jesus Christ. I want to deal with this a little bit tomorrow night, but I don't think it can be said by any that anywhere else previously in all Christian history anyone had ever suggested a two-stage future appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. It began with Margaret MacDonald a girl about thirteen years of age in this ecstatic utterance in the midst of these conditions in Scotland in 1830. News of this got around tremendously. Folk came from all over parts of Scotland to see these miracles. Moreover, it got down to London. News of it got into Edward Irving's church in London. Can't we see something of what this would mean? Edward Irving had been preaching the return to the apostolic conditions and that the gifts would be restored and that it only took faith on the part of the church that God would come and answer with the restoration of the gifts. Now the news from Scotland. Here it is. Healing, rapture speech, and the gift of tongues. And so from Irving's work in London, An outstanding lawyer, J.B. Cardale, went hurried up to Scotland, got a letter of introduction to the Macdonald family, and was able to live in their home for some days. Moreover, J.N. Darby, founder of the, we term the Plymouth Brethren, and I speak with great regard for them. I was converted in the Brethren Sunday School, and I have very, very happy remembrances of some of the very dear, fine folks that I knew in that Sunday school. Jane Darby, the founder of the Brethren, heard about it and he went up immediately. He was very much opposed to these emotional outbursts, the tongues and the rapturous speech. I should mention that these girls also did automatic writing. Not only the speech, but they said the Spirit of God would take a hold of their pen and they would write. consciousness of what they were writing, and that one gift was parallel to the other as the Spirit of God took hold of their tongue and gave them this ecstatic speech, so also he did the same in the automatic writing. Darby opposed all of that, but he took up very much with the view of a two-stage concept of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. I say we can think of what this would mean as news of this got down into London. J.B. Cardale went up and came back to London with a report and another lawyer, a very brilliant young lawyer named Robert Baxter also went up to see it, came back down to London, and this was all reported in Irving's paper, The Morning Watch. Again, I say, we can hardly realize the excitement this would create in Irving's church in London, as they had been talking of the return of the apostolic gifts. Now God had answered, and here were the gifts of tongues and of healing manifest there in Scotland. This took over became fully accepted in Irving's Church in London. Moreover, there arose in Irving's Church individuals who claimed the gift of prophecy. You will recall the list of the gifts in Ephesians. Paul talks about charismatic gifts. His word may be well-translated charismatic persons or spiritual persons, spiritual gifts. One translation is probably as correct as the other. However, when he lists them, first of all, the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, and then he goes on about prophecies and gifts of healing, miracles, tongues, interpretation of tongues, discernment of spirits. And of course, the first two gifts are the word of knowledge. and the word of wisdom. I would say, and just briefly in passing, if the gifts are restored today, the first would be the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom. From those who had the gifts, we'd have marvelous knowledge, marvelous wisdom pouring forth in the spoken and the written word. It would be the first sign of a true return of these gifts. Believe that. There came the prophets in the work in London. Mainly it was J. B. Cardale, this very fine lawyer, Mrs. Cardale, his wife, and Emily Cardale, the daughter, in the Cardale home. There were others. Baxter became one of the great of the prophets, others whose names I don't need to mention. Here we can see the magnificent figure of Edward Irving standing to preach the word of the Lord, and a man, as I've said, of great convictions and mighty speaking power. And as he's starting to preach, lo and behold, Emily Cardale jumps to her feet. She's in the power, speaking in the power, and God is using her as a prophet. And Irving, great mighty man that he was, credulous as he was, fully believed that God was speaking through those prophets, therefore he, as a mere minister of the gospel, must keep quiet. And this was the emphatic and definite direct revelation from heaven, the marvel of it, one written revelation here within God's book, but another immediate revelation equal to this, there God speaking through his prophet, and so the great Edward Irving. would keep quiet until the Prophet got through. Now, we have a number of the words of the Prophets that have come down to us, and there is so little in anything they say, largely to the effect that the Lord is coming right away, words repeated over and over and over again sometimes. But the great point is, Irving, in the credulous nature that was his, this fully trusting, believing nature, fully accepted that these Prophets were speaking the immediate revelation from This went on week after week throughout 1830, 1831, until the services of that great Presbyterian Church were disturbed and broken up. Then the Presbytery of London called Irving to account, and he was put on trial, as Presbyterians do, in a church court, and he was found guilty of contradicting his vows as a minister in allowing unordained persons to speak in the Church, and he was banished from that great church building that had been built for him to preach in. He and his people went to church the following Sunday morning after the trial, expecting to carry on as usual, and they found a great padlock upon the door. They turned and went away to a nearby park, had the service there that Sunday, and then moved to a rented hall and then to another building and that they used permanently from then on. But by this time the Prophets were taking over more and more in Irving's services. Irving went away for a trip to Scotland, and when he came back he found that the Prophets had virtually displaced him. What did they need a mere preacher for, with the written word of God, when they had a number of Prophets, Baxter, Mrs. Cardale, the daughter, Mr. Cardale, and a number of others, and they mention the great, tremendous power of voice that was given to most of them when they spoke in the Spirit. They tell of one who had laryngitis terribly, couldn't utter sound that could be heard, and suddenly in the power of the Spirit, great mighty voice, and when the utterance of the Spirit was over, back to the laryngitis condition again. The prophets, with their immediate revelation, had displaced the great Edward Irving and his preaching of the word of God, and were to think of Irving as fully accepting this in this complete faith that this was indeed immediate revelation from the Lord. Irving was then called to trial in Scotland in the village town of Annan, where he had been ordained first of all. He had been rejected by the Presbytery of London for allowing these unordained persons to speak within the Church, and he was put out of the Church building there. Now his whole ordination as a minister is to be called into account. The trial in Scotland was concerning his doctrine of the atonement or of the person of Christ. In our days in seminary we use Strong's theology and the seven theories of the atonement and the Irvingian theory of the gradual extirpation of sin by the death of Christ. I never could make head or tail of it then, and I haven't been able to make head or tail of it since. But Irving claimed he believed the orthodox view concerning the person of Christ. And yet he claimed that Christ had a sinful human nature. I'm sure that Coleridge had influenced him in this regard. And that Christ in dying at Calvary's cross did not render a satisfaction unto an outraged deity for the sins of mankind, but that Christ merely possessing sinful nature, the fallen nature of Adam, in dying he somehow extirpated that nature. very difficult to find in Irving how a soul is supposed to be saved, something to the effect of, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. The individual comes into some sense of crucifixion with him, but also he made much of what he called baptism, infant sprinkling, and he claimed it was a saving ordinance And as one receives, a babe receives life, physical life when he comes into the world. A few days after his coming into the world, he receives spiritual life. And now by the sacrament of the Lord's table, he goes on to grow in this spiritual life. But it seems as though Irving denied the sinlessness of Christ. He claimed, with all the fervors being, he didn't deny the sinlessness of Christ. I don't profess to split hairs enough to understand exactly what he did believe and didn't, but he was tried in Scotland for their claim that he believed in the sinful nature of Christ and he was therefore deposed from the Presbyterian ministry. Let's realize it. He was sent out of his church in London and to meet with his company in a rented hall now, and all the great fame of his artistic literary friends had pretty well all left him. Now in Scotland, he's banished from the Presbyterian ministry completely. And in the trial, Baxter, who had been one of the chief of the prophets, rose to his feet as a witness, not to testify for Irving, but to testify against him. Baxter, a brilliant young lawyer, said, I have come to realize that all of this that we've been through in this speaking in the power and speaking in the spirit and the tongues, etc., was all delusion. And I was deluded, and these others were deluded. He said, it's all something totally human, a psychological upworking of things. And Irving, expecting Baxter to testify on his behalf, utterly heartbroken to find Baxter testifying against him. One of the women also had been a prophetess, testified likewise against him. See with me then, Irving coming back to London from Scotland. no longer his Church and his great fame in London, now deposed from the Presbyterian ministry, comes back to London and finds the prophets have taken over there and he is no longer wanted. In their new building, they rented a hall and then got a building of their own in Newman Street. They had six levels of platforms. The top levels were for the Apostles, and under Henry Drummond By the way, he has nothing to do with the Henry Drummond who wrote later The Greatest Thing in the World and Natural Law and the Spiritual World. No relation, the name is the same. Henry Drummond the banker had been appointing apostles. He had them a great, vast wealth. to finance all that he was doing, and creating now the Catholic Apostolic Church. The top level were for the Apostles. One of the Apostles was Drummond, one was Cardale, and there were twelve seats and they were all to be filled as the other Apostles were appointed. Moreover, there were to be no later apostles. This was once for all, in all Christian era, that God was appointing another twelve apostles, for these men would all live until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. They would be caught away in the rapture. Then the next level was for the prophets. We have the various women and various men who were prophets on the next level below that. And then a level for elders. and a level for deacons, what are we going to do with Irving? See again, the greatness of the man. And finally they decided they'd call him God's messenger. Revelation 1, the word used there, the angel. So they dignified him with the name of angel. And they finally made a seat for him somewhere in the midst of all these others. But he was on the lowest level, and all these others on a higher level above him. Then God revealed to Emily Cardale that Irving was to go to Glasgow and found a unit of the Catholic Apostolic Church there. They got seven churches in London, parallel to the seven churches in Revelation. And they had one just two blocks from here, in my days, in Toronto. The normal school was where the Ryerson Institute is now. Over the far corner on the next street was a fairly good white brick building. I never saw any life in the place. That was Catholic Apostolic Church. And in Edinburgh they built what I'm told is a magnificent great cathedral, the place. worth today millions and millions of dollars, the Reformed Baptists bought it a few months ago for one pound. They meet in the vestibule. They can't even begin to heat the rest of the building. Banner of Truth is using part of the rest of the building as a storehouse for books. But our Reformed Baptist friends are meeting in the vestibule of this magnificent building. Catholic Apostolic Church under Henry Drummond developed a tremendous ritual, the highest of Anglican practices, Anglo-Catholic practices almost, and worked out a great ritual and magnificent paintings on the wall and carvings. They had special garments. and they used candles, etc., but they were to build these churches all the world around. These apostles, there were to be the twelve of them, and they were to be the spokesmen for all of Christianity. The Pope and all the Church of Rome and all of Anglicanism and everything else was to come under their power, these apostles, gods, emissaries to the earth for these last days before the return of the Lord Jesus. Irving, after all this disappointment, was sent to Scotland, Emily Cardale, as the Prophet is telling him that God had said he was to go there, and Irving by this time broken-hearted in this great frame, suffering physically from the heartbreak, possibly from disease also. He took a trip up through Wales. He got a lengthy report of his trip through Wales. In one hotel he was in, there was a doctor staying there, and he thought of seeing the doctor. No, I'll trust the Lord. I won't go and see the doctor. From Wales he got through up into Scotland, and he got to Glasgow. But this time he's terribly sick, but his heart is filled with a certainty there's going to be a great miracle of healing. God is going to raise him up, and the whole world will know this great miracle, and God will use him to found a great church in Glasgow. But he got weaker and frailer as the days went by. The sicker Irving got, the stronger became his faith that God was going to raise him with a mighty miracle. And this went on for weeks, and he grew weaker and weaker. But this time his wife lost her confidence that he was going to be healed. And Irving himself held on till the very last with this confidence. The sicker he was, the greater would be the miracle of healing. Amidst it all, Edward Irving, at the age of 42, after that amazing and disappointing life, passed from this world. In one sense, it's a very sad life. Robert Murray McChain wrote into his diary a note then about the passing of Edward Irving, speaking of him as a good and a great man. and yet a very mistaken man. A few words before I conclude about the movement of today. The two-stage theory of the coming of the Lord Jesus has come down from the days of Margaret MacDonald, taken up by J. N. Darby and popularized throughout the Brethren movement. and then taken up by others. The dates were set, 1834. When nothing happened then, they decided that they had done their calculations wrong, 1260 years from, well, where do you start to get that? And they had something to do with Justin Martyr, I think, Justin Martyr's death in the 5th century, and they added it together. They decided that was the wrong place to start, and they started somewhere later. And this came to 1867. The Lord was sure to return in 1867, and there was to be another Antichrist for Napoleon. Tremendous disappointment when Napoleon III died and hadn't proved to be Antichrist. So they had others, but this went on, and as we all recognize, it has become a widely accepted theory today. I would say quite dogmatically, no one has ever written out a clearly reasoned document to prove the view from scripture. And I'll deal a little with it tomorrow night. And yet we're told you must believe it or you're not orthodox, you're not sound in the faith. I'll leave that, however. That's one of the outcomes from Margaret MacDonald, the charismatic movement of the day. I'll be very brief with it. It holds its great dangers. In the charismatic movement of the day, a number of very good, earnest people, and I'm sure many who would be able to tell us that they have been marvelously blessed spiritually in their relationship to that movement. However, let's realize that among them is a great emphasis upon immediate revelation. When I was in England Some of the pastors were telling me of churches now, evangelical churches in England, that no longer use the Bible at all. Don't need that old book revelation, written revelation from 1900 years ago. How much better they come, and God has immediate revelation through his prophets in their meetings now. I don't need to emphasize the danger. that can come out of that which would displace the written word of God with what claims to be immediate revelation. Also, let's realize there is an ecumenical attitude in much of the charismatic movement of the day. Doctrine doesn't count. All you need is love, as long as we have love to one another. And we have the various hymns and choruses about it, and we all just love one another and go along together. And a person can deny almost any and every doctrine of the Word of God and can have a big part be well accepted in the charismatic movement of the day. God has set forth his truth in that book, and it is unchanging truth. And we are told, earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the Saints. And it can be the greatest of dangers. It will say, I'll just do away with all doctrinal emphasis and all doctrinal differences. We'll all just go along together. And I've heard it and you've heard it. People talk about, oh, he's just a lovely fellow. No, he's no believer in Christ. He's a lovely fellow, and he's got the spirit, and that's all that matters. This kind of thing is one of the great characteristics of this movement today. In England, they're appointing apostles again now. I heard of six in an area down between London and Brighton and various places, and the whole twelve are supposed to appear. They apparently are self-appointed. Somebody says, I'm a prophet first, and a little later he says, God has told me I'm to be an apostle. They are telling me of vast differences, great disagreements between these self-appointed apostles that are there. Oh, what confusion could be before them. God has given us his written revelation. While written revelation was being given, because men and women did not have the written revelation complete, God used immediate revelation through prophets and set his seal upon the work by these various forms of miracle outlined in 1 Corinthians 12-14. I should have mentioned back in these days, when the gift of tongues, what they claimed was the gift of tongues, was evident, they said, Oh, this now is the beginnings of a great missionary movement. We're going to reach the world, the heathen world, with the gift of tongues. Margaret McDonald claimed her tongue was the tongue of the Pilu Islanders, who'd ever heard of them. And anyway, this was to be the means of going into the foreign field. Some went to Japan and expected immediately to speak in Japanese. And of course they found they had to learn Japanese like anyone else. The whole aspect of the tongues movement failed, and of course it did, and it was one of the areas of disappointment to Irving and to the others. But back to the conclusion I'm trying to bring. Written revelation, and when written revelation was being given, God allowed immediate revelation. And when that which was perfect, which is perfect, was come, that which was in part passed away. immediate revelation now, but what we need is to know the printed, written revelation of God, and we need to preach it. And oh, may God raise up preachers of the word of God, expositors of the great truths of the book, and we'll know all through our churches the great doctrines of the word of God. And these we'll sing, and our services and our lives will be characterized by these great truths and the whole aspect of worship that goes along with it. May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.
Work of the Holy Spirit in the Revival
Series Arnold Dallimore Lectures
(4 of 6) These messages were given at Toronto Baptist Seminary by pastor and historian Arnold Dallimore in 1980. We are grateful to the Seminary for permission to make these valuable messages available for the edification of God's people.
Sermon ID | 122151658396 |
Duration | 1:07:43 |
Date | |
Category | Conference |
Language | English |
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