USUALLY a strong aversion to recantations is felt. The very name itself has come to convey a significance which is odious. Yet there are recantations that reflect all honor upon the recanting one. An account of such an one has fallen under my notice. It is from Thomas Chalmers,—one gifted with ability and eloquence seldom equalled,—one who from choice, in the fullness of an unexampled popularity, forsook all the endearments of an old and influential, even wealthy position, in an active and commercial city, which had become proud of his talents, so that his influence was almost unbounded, even in circles of the highest refinement of that city, and sought a field of labor among the untaught, degraded thousands that "swarm around the base of the social edifice."
In the early years of his ministry, he held opinions regarding the duties of ministers wholly different from those which he came to entertain after the Spirit of God had wrought a true conversion in his heart. In a General Assembly of ministers he gave expression to sentiments so different from former expressed opinions, that one of the number stood forth and read a paragraph, purporting to be from an anonymous pamphlet. Dr. Chalmers, by the interposition of another speech, had a brief period for recollection afforded him. Then in the midst of breathless silence he arose and said, "Sir, that pamphlet I now declare to be a production of my own, published twenty years ago. I was indeed surprised to hear it brought forward and
quoted this evening; but since it has been brought forward in the face of this house, I can assure the gentleman that I feel grateful to him from the bottom of my heart for the opportunity which he has now afforded me of making a public recantation of the sentiments it contains. I now confess myself to have been guilty of a heinous crime, and now I stand a repentant culprit, before the bar of this venerable Assembly. . . . Alas, Sirs, so I then thought in my ignorance and pride! I have now no reserve in saying the sentiment was wrong, and in the utterance of it I penned what was outrageously wrong!! . . . Strangely blinded that I was."
Here truly, was a recantation verging on the sublime. So, too, in that other instance, when he separated from the national or established church. So very recently had he advocated an established church, that he now drew upon himself the charge of inconsistency. And this as late as the year 1843. The General Assembly was again convened. "Dr. Walsh read a paper prepared for the occasion, then turning and bowing respectfully to the commissioner, he took his hat and walked down the aisle to the door. Dr. Chalmers, during the reading, had stood looking vacantly and abstracted. Starting as from a reverie at Dr. W.'s movement, he seized eagerly his hat and hurried after him. The whole audience, it is said, were now standing, gazing in stillness on the scene. Man after man, row after row moved along that aisle, till four hundred ministers and a greater number of elders had withdrawn."
Here was a recantation, not of sentiment alone, but of action. An action by which, ere its full measures were carried out, four hundred and seventy ministers in Scotland "relinquished their churches, their residences, their living; incurring the scorn and dislike of those who could not comprehend the principles that governed them, and bringing on themselves all the power of caste and a religious aristocracy." In this, Chalmers, in the space of a few hours, so changed his views that he stepped out in one of the most important acts of his life, evincing a heroism and independence characteristic of the man.
Have my readers been interested in the recantations I have related? Will they listen to a personal one? Illustrating how in the quiet, humble walks of life we may be called to recant from former positions and views. A fancied consistency holds many in religious bondage; for the opinion so widely prevails that any new view of Scripture truth must be an innovation. But such as do prayerfully and earnestly make the Bible a study, will from time to time find new revelations bursting upon the mind with all the power of an intuition; and this because the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, takes of the things of God and shows them unto men. They will find that though all that is essential to salvation is laid down so plain and simple that a child may understand, yet there is much that the profoundest philosophers cannot fathom; and this because the divine Spirit has not yet thrown the light of revealment upon it.
But in some of the plain teachings of the Bible, (if they be taken literally) egregious errors have crept in through a spiritualizing, mystifying habit of understanding the Scriptures. Under this deleterious influence I had come to middle life, trained in the various doctrines of the so-claimed orthodoxy of my church—the punishment of the wicked with the rest. My attention had been called to the view I now hold; but with a shrinking "holy horror," akin to that manifested by the Romanist, when the dogmas of his church are questioned, I sometimes cast furtive glances in that direction. The truth flashed and glared upon my conscience, for I was astonished to find how full the Bible was of it. But with the quietus that it was God's purposes and there it might rest, I sought to let it rest. But rest it would not, but surging back upon the mind it constantly came stronger and stronger. With aching heart and agitated mind it became the burden of every hour. The morning dawn found it pressing down the sinking soul; the midnight hour saw it resting there with accumulating weight. Sleep departed from the eyes and slumber from the eyelids.
Just at this point occurred a general public exercise of our Sunday-school. The subject, God's View of Truth and Falsehood. The manner of conducting the exercise was, each class convened in their respective175places and the afternoon services gave place to it. Each one having previously selected passages of Scripture bearing upon the subject, were to answer as their respective classes were called. The passages which I preferred among those I had selected, had been used over and over again, before our turn came. The most explicit passage in the Bible had not been named, and I too felt reluctant to quote it. But when our class was called and no one seemed inclined to reply, without rising from my seat, I repeated, "All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." Rev. xxi, 8. The house was large and well-filled, and our class occupied a distant seat. The pastor standing in the desk was conducting the exercise. As I ceased speaking, he remarked, "I did not hear what was said, neither do I know who spoke." No alternative being left, I rose upon my feet and repeated the passage as distinctly as I could. But my voice was tremulous from embarrassment, and overwhelmed, almost chagrined for having spoken at all, I sank into my seat. But my mind was quickly relieved and diverted from myself, by the words from the pulpit. A young lad had risen, about to leave the house, when familiarly sounded from our leader the words, "Stop there, my boy, a moment, I want you to hear something about that verse that has just been repeated;" himself then repeating it, and commenting upon it to the school.
On relating the incident a few days afterward to an intimate friend, not concealing that my aversion to quote that passage grew out of the conviction that it had a literal significance, her reply was, "And when you reached home you should have gone on your bended knees, and thanked the Lord that you were forced to do it." At any rate, I do thank him now that I have been taught by his Spirit to receive his word in simplicity and truth. And those of my readers who may recall a former article, The Punishment of the Wicked, is it Material or Mental? will understand how fully I indorse the sentiment of the Bible verse, I once so reluctantly quoted.