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Alexander Campbell
Letters from Europe--No. IV. (1847-1848)

 

FROM

THE

MILLENNIAL HARBINGER.

SERIES III.

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VOL. IV. B E T H A N Y, AUGUST, 1847. NO. VIII.
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LETTERS FROM EUROPE--No. IV.

NOTTINGHAM, June 15,1847.      

      My dear Clarinda--IN my last, per steamer of the 4th int., you were informed of our safe arrival at the residence of John Davies, Esq., of Mollington, Chester county. This much esteemed and beloved brother and his excellent lady, whom he generally salutes as "Mary Davis," constitute his proper family. In their hospitable mansion I have found a home which has afforded me every thing I could desire on earth, save the presence of that family which the Lord has given me. Our brother Davis lives in one of the most beautiful spots, of one of the most beautiful vallies in England. Indeed the valley of the Dee, around the very ancient and venerable city Chester is sometimes called the royal valley of England. From Liverpool to his residence, along a splendid railroad of some seventeen miles, or three quarters of an hour from the city, is a country under the highest state of English cultivation. It rather resembles a continuation of gardens, than of farms or fields, from the Mersey to Mollington. The green hedges of the sweetly scented hawthorn now in blossom, the emerald fields everywhere sprinkled with flowers of various colors, of which the daisy and buttercup, the innocent white, the golden yellow, and the blushing red predominate and refresh the eye as it luxuriates on all the forms of beauty which nature and art combining, can bestow on a country so uniform as that along the Dee from Chester to the mountains of Wales. There is just enough of forest trees and shrubbery scattered over the country [469] to afford all that pleasing variety which good taste requires to relieve and to please the mind of any one who desires to trace the hand of God and the hand of man co-operating in making a country a suitable and a delightful abode for man. Still the thistle rears its intrusive head every where in the meadows and green fields; and the brier occasionally obtrudes upon our path, reminding us that this is neither ancient paradise nor paradise restored.

      Our brother Davis is one of the main pillars of the cause of reformation in England as you are aware, and has done much to introduce and to circulate our writings throughout the length and breadth of this land. At his own expense he stereotyped the new version of the New Testament, and scattered it through England and Wales. Our late friend, the much venerated William Jones, of London, who greatly aided the cause for some years, but through the force of old prejudices, and in consequence of my unintentionally pressing too hard on the darling child of his old age, becoming restive, and taking the alarm that certain dogmata of the much and deservedly admired McClean, of Edinburgh, the father of the Scotch Baptists, were in imminent danger of death at my hands, suddenly made war against the New version, so far as he feared its influence; and, after writing an acrimonious preface to it, and making sundry very trifling and insignificant alterations, republished it with my prefaces and general addenda at the end of it, thereby taking the work measurably out of the hands of brother Davis, who, nevertheless, as Paul said of himself concerning certain envious preachers, rejoices that Christ is preached and the new version diffused by a fourth English edition of it, so far as the influence of our mach esteemed, though somewhat peevish and fastidious Elder Jones could give it circulation.

      Brother Davis having been born in Wales, only, indeed, some ten miles from his present residence, exerts much influence there as well as in England, in the cause of original Christianity. When brethren like him, of ample pecuniary means, not only labor in word and teaching, but are "willing to distribute," and "ready to communicate" of their abundance to build up the cause of Christ in the world, there is no limiting either the wide extent or long enduring influence which they may have in transmitting the blessing of the gospel of Christ to many of our perishing fellow men; and thus they lay up in store for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold of a glorious immortality.

      Brother Henshall, soon after our arrival together at Mollington, began to remember that he had a father and five brethren living in this county of Chester, whom he had not seen for more than seventeen [470] years. He became immediately restless, and, after dinner, in the evening, deserted me, and taking the cars, flew off some thirty miles and made himself known to his father's house. There, and in the environs, he spent one week, occasionally preaching a little, and endeavoring to win over two of his brethren who are preachers among the Methodists. One of his brothers, whom I saw at Mollington, is quite a grave, intelligent, and dignified person. He has almost decided to become one of us. Indeed, I calculate with certainty, that having been immersed on his own profession of the faith, himself and brother will plead in England what our brother James pleads in America.

      Meantime advertisements were printed announcing our arrival, and the next day, being Lord's day, we met in a spacious hall rented for the purpose, in the metropolis of the county of Palatine of Cheshire, one of the oldest cities of the English empire. Our audience was respectable for number, and very respectable in appearance. I can scarcely tell you how I felt when ascending the platform; I could hardly believe that I was in England; I still felt the. waves of the Atlantic in my person. Every thing around me was perfectly new. Every face was an original one, and myself to them all, equally original. I had to smother the singular and novel emotions and feelings that suddenly and wholly unexpectedly arose within me and quickened into life. This is the fatherland, thought I to myself,--and these are the people whence our American family and our American institutions sprang, from whom we have inherited our persons, our language, our laws, and our religion. And why, said I to myself, am I here to-day? For what purpose have I come? To speak to them the gospel? We received it from them! To develope to them the treasure which they had bestowed on us? Rather to show them how far we have profited by their instrumentality, and how we have used the talents which we received from them in trust, when expatriating ourselves, they gave us the parting benediction. But it is impossible to embody in language, the reminiscences of the past,--the feelings of responsibility and of gratitude, combining with the tides of emotion which, in quick succession, passed through my mind before I arose to address the waiting congregation.

      Brother Davis opened the meeting with the usual customs of the church, and, in his very apposite prayer, when mentioning the Queen and the royal family, in obedience to Paul, he opened again in me a new vein of sentiment and feeling.

      He read, at my request, for the morning reading, the opening of the letter to the Hebrews. My discourse, being an introductory one [471] to a series of some six or seven lectures, I submitted and discussed sundry preliminary propositions arising from the assumption of the Apostle, expressed in the first period of the epistle, and afterwards developed to the close of the fifth verse of the second chapter.

      In the afternoon the church met: we addressed it, and at seven o'clock we lectured to a much larger audience than we had in the morning. We continued the subject introduced in the morning.--The topics of the day were:--HAS GOD SPOKEN TO MAN? If he have, BY WHOM? and, WHAT HAS HE SAID?--The lawgiver, Moses, the angels of the Old Testament, the Messiah, the Prophets, the Apostles, their mission, character, work, &c. &c., came fully before us, and furnished matter, rich and various, for that day. Out of our Lord's day auditory, we made one for the week, which, without much variety or change, continued to meet every evening till Friday night. I delivered, in all, eight lectures in Chester.

      The hall in which we met, being constructed rather for music than for oratory, was exceedingly unfavorable for speaking audibly to a large audience. Its vaulted roof, very high, with the whole contour of the room, made it impossible to be heard clearly by those at a distance. Complaints were so numerous, we were constrained to remove to the ancient meeting-house of the celebrated Matthew Henry, for whom it was builded, some 146 years ago. I have had his five folios on my shelf for five and thirty years but never thought that I should have the pleasure of preaching in his pulpit. I delivered two of my lectures in this old Presbyterian chapel. But, strange to tell, this old and venerable looking building, with most of the ancient Presbyterian meeting-houses in England are now in the hands of the Unitarians!

      So far as courtesy indicates merit, they, indeed, more deservedly possess them. For while the Presbyterians almost uniformly refuse us the use of their meeting-houses, the Unitarians as uniformly tender theirs. And they do this, as they did in Chester, knowing that we do not at all sympathise with them in our views of the person, office, and death of Christ. Indeed, they invited us to their house, not only without restrictions, but assuring us that if even we chose to oppose their doctrines, we might freely use their house. There is an air of confidence in the strength of their theory, and, at the same time, a respect for public accommodation, as well as a tribute to free discussion in this liberality which are worthy of a better cause.

      From Chester, on Lord's day, the 6th of June, brother Henshall and myself, with brother Davis, went into Wales, and spent a very pleasant day at Wrexham, some fourteen miles distant from [472] Mollington. The ride was most delightful, the morning charming, and our associations with Wales, and reminiscences were all of a pleasing character. In Chester, at the Lord's table, we broke the loaf of blessing with some 80 brethren. We found here a larger number assembled, and spent with them a very pleasant day. I addressed a crowded house in the morning, brother Henshall in the afternoon. I again addressed the church at the supper. In the evening I spoke in the Baptist Church to an audience which our brother Clare, its Elder, said was the largest he ever saw in it. Our Baptist brethren heard with all candor, and on leaving the house to return to Mollington that evening, while we walked some distance in advance of our carriage, we were accompanied by a very large company of our brethren, both of the Baptist and of the Disciples' church. I have seldom been so much affected with a parting scene. The crowd that marched along with us down the beautiful declivity of one of the finest roads in the world, with a silent and solemn step, gave every demonstration of unfeigned affection and respect. They took the parting hand with such a grasp of fraternal feeling, that when we bade the last adieu we had scarcely any more command of our feelings than of the right hand of fellowship. We all seemed to be inspired with the same spirit, and to feel that on earth we all should never meet again. The whole scene more resembled Paul's embarkation from Miletus to Patara, in Lycia, as reported in the last verse of the 20th of the Acts, than any one I have before witnessed. Since leaving, we have heard that some efforts have been made at Wrexham to bring the Baptist brethren and the Disciples into one weekly communion. May the Lord bless them all, and enable them to maintain unity of spirit in the bonds of peace!

      On Monday and Tuesday evening, the 7th and 8th of June, we made our appearance in Liverpool. The brethren in Liverpool are not numerous, and occupy but a small room. The Owenites, alias Socialists, of that great city, some years since builded a spacious hall, now called "Concert Hall" for their free discussions of the theories of my friend Robert Owen, and other philosophers of the power and charms of circumstances. But as usual, in all each cases, circumstances compelled them to dissolve their meetings, annul their charters, and to return back again to the walks of common sense, to nature, and the domestic circles of Christian prescription.

      Our brethren hired this large ampitheatre, which the keeper says seats 2500 persons. We had it some two-thirds full the first evening, and quite full, indeed, crowded, the second evening. We stormed [473] the castle of infidelity the first evening, and gave them a lecture on the HOLY SPIRIT, the second evening. By the frequent demonstrations of approbation during our first lecture, we felt that it was not a church, but a "Concert Hall" which contained us; and also that the audience fully comprehended the discourse, from the points which they selected at which to place their, to us, rather annoying notes of admiration. On the second evening when commencing, we requested from the audience, no such comments as they were pleased to add to the text of our first discourse,--alleging that the subject of our lecture was too solemn for such indications of approbation, as in their liberality and complaisance they had given us the evening before. With one or two slight deviations from our request, we enjoyed the most profound attention of one of the most intellectual audiences I have seen. After I closed, some person in a remote corner of the room, muttered so loud as to disturb the congregation, often repeating that "he believed in a Holy Spirit that gave men religion right down from heaven, without any instrumentality." But the congregation showing no sympathy with him, he was overpowered with their reprobation, and left the room repeating his favorite dogma.

      Intending to spend a few days about Liverpool on my return, my appointments abroad being published over the kingdom, I was compelled to leave Mollington early on Wednesday morning for Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, a very ancient and venerable city, which I felt much interested to visit, it being the place of your mother's nativity, as well as the residence of a few valuable Disciples.

      I received a very kind and cordial invitation from sister Cook, of the Baptist church, to make her house my home, while in Shrewsbury. She is the sister of our amiable and excellent brother Hawley of Detroit, with whom you are acquainted. Accompanied by Mr. Samuel Davis, one of the warmest friends of reformation out of the church, I have met with, I had a delightful ride of some seventeen miles by railroad, and more than thirty by stage to Shrewsbury.

      For the first time in my life I took an outside passage, that I might see the country. I had a very pleasant ride, upon a very smooth and beautiful turnpike, as all the roads of England are, at the rate of some eight or nine miles an hour,--and enjoyed a fine opportunity of noting many things interesting to me, on the agriculture and husbandry of the country, of which I may say something hereafter.

      After dining with brother Thomas Butler, of Castle street, Shrewsbury, I was conducted to the paradise of sister Cook, immediately [474] out of the city. For all that good taste in the selection and location of shrubbery and flowers, and all that art could achieve in erecting and adorning a very neat, chaste, and beautiful private abode with adjoining gardens and fields, this is really one of the most delightful spots I have seen. I enjoyed all that I could enjoy of human comfort, in this Christian family. Sister Cook, and her four Christian daughters, seem to live just as much for one another, as for themselves,--and to enjoy themselves just as they promote the happiness of one another.

      The brethren obtained a very convenient and respectable public room for my lectures. I delivered three discourses on the great elements of the Christian religion, received and answered some questions. I formed an acquaintance with some of the "Plymouth brethren" in this place, who, on hearing some of my discourses, expressed a desire for a better acquaintance. They are numerous in many places in England, and truly a spiritually minded and intelligent people. They are more like our brethren than any people I have met with. Some of them have been immersed, and of the few that I have yet seen, (not, indeed, all immersed,) I have formed a very favorable opinion. They meet weekly to commemorate the Saviour's death and resurrection, are more devoted to the New Testament than any of the existing sects, and consequently, more self-sacrificing and devoted to the Lord. They have some peculiarities of which I shall not yet speak, not having fully heard nor considered them.

      The whole Christian profession, amongst all the dissenters in Shrewsbury, is at a very low ebb. The few living Baptists were very friendly, and after my lectures a union was proposed by some of them, with the immersed "Plymouth brethren" and the Disciples. May the Lord unite them on the ancient foundation of one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one body, one spirit, one hope, one God and Father of all!

      On visiting the old Baptist church, of which mother Bakewell's father had been a deacon, I found on the left hand, close by the door, two monuments bearing his name, one of which, much defaced, was some of his relatives. I was curious to have the history of this very old Baptist church, and was kindly furnished with the church books during the evening by one of the deacons. I found the name of George Bean as early as 1769, and as deacon in concert with Jos. Edgerby, July 1, 1794. This was your mother's grand-father, of whom I heard a good report from some who yet remember him.

      The church, it appears from its own record, had lived for a century "at a poor dying rate," frequently almost extinct, sometimes [475] actually dissolved, and then again reviving. At present it is at a very low ebb. The meeting-house is of a very antique construction, with heavy galleries, so that in no one spot, not even in the pulpit, (for I stood in it,) could the preacher see his whole audience.

      On having the sexton to wash one of the tomb-stones near the door, I was able to read, "Ann Bean, aged 62, Aug. 17, 1800."

      This and Chester city, Birmingham, and Nottingham, with some intermediate places, shall constitute the subject of my next letter. I arrived here, according to appointment, on Saturday the 12th inst. On the morning of Lord's day I delivered an address on miracles. This was spoken in the chapel which you visited when here. The congregation was just as large as the house could possibly admit, which is not more than some eight hundred persons. The brethren here have rented the Mechanic's Institute, the finest and largest Hall in the city; it is said to accommodate something over 2000 persons. It was crowded with the most attentive auditors. It has now been occupied three successive evenings, and is still well attended. The subject on Lord's day evening was the kingdom of heaven; on Monday night, the Holy Spirit; on Tuesday night, the gospel; and to-night it will be the principles of Christian union.

      I need not tell you that I am residing at brother Wallis' most hospitable abode: this, of course, you expected; nor need I tell you any thing of this most amiable and interesting family. You were here; and I can only say, that your testimony and that of Mr. Pendleton were no exaggeration. I need only say to you, that they are all well and glad to hear of your improved health and of every thing interesting of which you conversed when here; and that, of course, I just feel myself as much at home as I could possibly feel myself any where out of Bethany.

"Blest be the tie that binds
      Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
      Is like to that above"

I could wish that all that are called the enemies of our cause of reformation were both auditors and spectators of all that has been said and done in this Christian family since my arrival here. The whole family are now at home and in excellent health.

      If our English brethren have learned something from our side of the Atlantic, our American brethren might learn something from them on this side of the Atlantic. They are much more laborious, incessant, and unwearied in their efforts to impart the blessings of the gospel of Christ to their countryman than most of our American churches. They spend more time, more money, more effort than we, [476] with a very few exceptions, proportionally devote to the cause of primitive Christianity. Besides many other expenses now incidental and common, they, though having a spacious house of their own; are paying ten guineas for four evenings rent of the Hall in which I now address the public. These fifty dollars are paid for the enlightenment of their fellow-citizens, and not for themselves. The congregation being so much larger than they or we had any reason to expect, seems to more than compensate their labor and expenditures on this occasion. To succeed in any country in the proclamation of the gospel and the principles of the reformation, it is only necessary to obtain for them a candid and full hearing: for how shall they believe that do not listen, and how shall they learn who will not apply their minds to that which is taught?

      Brother Henshall labored in Liverpool and in Chester after I left. I did not inform you of the prevailing sickness--a very contagious and mortal typhus fever, which prevails in Liverpool. The poor refugees from famine in Ireland carried it to this and several other cities in England and Scotland. Indeed it prevails more or less in many regions in England. While I was in Liverpool I was informed by a very respectable citizen that the Doctors there reported ten thousand cases, and that it was still increasing. Brother Henshall, who spoke twice there since I left, informs me that it still increases and is spreading among the citizens. Pestilence generally succeeds famine, and thus the poor become a rod in the hand of the Lord to punish the rich for their neglect of them. He reports favorably of appearances in the fields in which we have been sowing the seeds of the kingdom. Though several seem to be convinced, he had only one immersion at Mollington. There are some good indications here.

      You may expect to hear from me in my next more particularly of the cities and counties through which we have passed. I have, indeed, little time to write: but I will redeem as many moments as I can to note whatever I may think to be agreeable and useful to yourself, my family, and my numerous kind and indulgent readers.

  In all affection, your father,
A. CAMPBELL.      

 

[The Millennial Harbinger, Third Series, 4 (August 1847): 469-477.]


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