Untitled - Electric Scotland

1863-68] A LETTER ON IRVINGISM 531
in such a case the law is only invoked to compel registration.
If, therefore, the persons by whom you feel yourself aggrieved
have registered their building as a dissenting meeting-house, your
wise course is to leave them alone as much as possible, merely
using your private influence with those whom you can reach to
point out to them the great irregularity of the course pursued.
No clergyman of this diocese will think of officiating in the build
ing in question.
"
If you desire more specific advice, I shall be glad to give it.
I have contented myself with recommending that general course
of quiet forbearance which, I think, is right in itself, and most
likely to keep your people attached to yourself and to the Church.
-Believe me to remain, my dear Mr. -
-, yours very truly,
"
A. C. LONDON."
Irvingism was in those years attracting more attention
than now. In August 1862, the Bishop writes to a
friend :
"
. . . I have read the greater part of the second volume of
Irving s life. He was plainly mad, and so for the time were all
the people who prophesied to him, though one of them Baxter,
the solicitor is a shrewd man of business, whom I often see in
London. I was struck, however, this morning, in reading the
2nd Lesson from the Acts, with the thought how completely they
lived as St. Paul and his company, looking for distinct guidance
at every turn. The Apostle had good grounds, and they had not ;
but the frame of mind in both was much the same a waiting
upon God for guidance at every step. I suppose we all may have
this guidance if we will look for it, but we have no right to look
for it otherwise than in the common indications of God s will.
The scene of Mr. Baxter, a quiet solicitor, going to the Court of
Chancery, and waiting there four hours in expectation
of a
message from heaven to deliver to the Chancellor, is painfully
strange.
. . ."
Important efforts were made during these years, under
the Bishop s guidance, to promote a better system of
middle-class education in London, and the religious diffi
culty came, as always, to the front. The Bishop s known
sympathy with the liberal school in educational matters
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