40. The Brazen Serpent, p. 253, quoted in William Hanna, Let- ters of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen from 1S00 till 1840, 1877, p. 183. Compare these passages quoted on the same page from On the Gifts of the Spirit: "Whilst I see nothing in the Scripture against the re- appearance, or rather the continuance of miraculous gifts in the church, but a great deal for it, I must further say that I see a great deal of internal evidence in the west country to prove their genuine miraculous character, especially in the speaking with tongues. . . . After witnessing what I have witnessed among those people, I cannot think of any person decidedly condemning them as impos- tors, without a feeling of great alarm. It certainly is not a thing
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to be lightly or rashly believed, but neither is it a thing to be lightly or rashly rejected. I believe that it is of God."
41. Hanna, as cited, p. 218; cf. p. 220.
42. Hanna, as cited, p. 209: "I think that I mentioned to Lady Matilda at Cadder the circumstance that shook me with regard to the Macdonalds at Port Glasgow, that in two instances when James Macdonald spoke with remarkable power, a power acknowl- edged by all the other gifted people there, I discovered the seed of his utterances in the newspapers. . . . And I put it to him; and although he had spoken in perfect integrity (of that I have no doubt) yet he was satisfied that my conjecture as to its origin was correct. ... I thus see how things may come into the mind and remain there, and then come forth as supernatural utterances, al- though their origin be quite natural. James Macdonald could not say that he was conscious of anything in these two utterances dis- tinguishing them from all the others; but only said that he believed these two were of the flesh. Taplin made a similar confession on being reproved by Miss Emily Cardale for having rebuked Mr. Irving in an utterance. He acknowledged that he was wrong; and yet he could not say where the difference lay between that utter- ance and any other."
43. Hanna, as cited, p. 204. He adds: "This does not change my mind as to what the endowment of the church is, if she had faith, but it changes me as to the present estimate that I form of her condition."
44. In March, 1834, after hearing in Edinburgh "the utterances " through Cardale and Drummond, he speaks of his scepticism re- garding them, despite his agreement (except in two instances) with the matter delivered in them, and the pleasingness of their form. "The shake which I have received on this matter," he writes (Hanna, as cited, p. 209), "is, I find very deep; or rather it would be a truer expression of my feelings to say that I am now convinced that I never did actually believe it." He adds: "My conviction that the gifts ought to be in the church is not in the least degree touched, but a faith in any one instance of manifestation which I have witnessed, like the faith which I have in the righteousness and faithfullness of God, I am sure I have not and never have had, as far as I can judge on looking back — that is, the only true faith, even 'the substance of things hoped for.'"
45. Hanna, as cited, p. 233: "James Macdonald is to be buried to-day at one o'clock. . . . This event has recalled many things to my remembrance. I lived in the house with them for six weeks, I believe, and I found them a family united to God and to each
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other. James especially was an amiable and clean character, per- fectly true. And those manifestations which I have so often wit- nessed in him were indeed most wonderful things and most mighty, and yet — I am thoroughly persuaded — delusive." This was written February 6, 1835. George Macdonald died the year following — both of consumption, the disease which carried off Isabella Camp- bell, and from which both Mary Campbell and Margaret Macdonald were supposed to be suffering when they were "healed."
46. P. 279.
47. P. 304.
48. Life of Story of Rosneath, by his son, p. 231, note, quoted by Henry F. Henderson, The Religions Controversies of Scotland, 1905, p. 126.
49. Scottish Divines 150J-1S72, etc., 1883, being a series of "St. Giles Lectures," Lecture VII, Edward Irving, by R. Herbert Story, p. 254.