ISAAC
665
ISAAC
an article on Irving in the Xew Englunder (18G3, p. 816 sq.), seeks to refute this statement, so generally accept- ed as made by jMrs. Qlipiiant in her biography of Mr. Irving. But even IMr. Andrews acknowledges that when Mr. Irving was finally reordalned by these " superior" of- ficers, who claimed to have been called by God to high- er distinctions, his position '• was in some respects less in- dependent than before," and that it coidd not have been otherwise than "that Mr. Irving should have met with trials and difficulties in the progress of the work un- der his new phase," especially " a man of his great strength of character, and gifts for leadership, accus- tomed hitherto to be foremost in whatever he engaged in" (p. 821). But for once fortune favored Ir\4ng. The great degradation which he was called upon to suffer was to be his last, and a short one at that. In the au- tumn of 1834, the severe task which he had been im- posing on his mind and body began to tell upon him, and while on a journey to Scotland for the recovery of his failing health, he was taken dangerously ill, and died at Glasgow Dec. 8, 1834.
Of Irving it may truly be conceded that a more de- vout or earnest spirit has not appeared on the stage of time in the 19th century. Destined to be a Christian minister, "he strove" (said of him a friend who knew him well), "with all the force that was in him, to be it. He might have been so many things ; not a speaker only, but a doer — the leader of hosts of men. For his head, when the fog of Babylon had not yet obscured it, was of strong, far-reaching insight. His very enthusi- asm was sanguine, not atrubiUar ; he was so loving, full of hope, so simple-hearted, and made all that approach- ed him his. A giant form of activity was in the man ; speculation was accident, not nature. There was in him a courage dauntless, not pugnacious ; hardly fierce, by no possibility ferocious ; as of the generous war-horse, gen- tle in its strength, yet that laughs at the shaking of the spear. But, above all, be he what he might, to be a real- ity was indispensable for him." In another place the same friend exclaims : " But for Irving I had never known what the communion of man with man means. His was the freest, brotherliest, t)ravest human soul mine ever came in contact with. I call him, on the whole, the best man I have ever, after trial enough, found in this world, or now hope to find." Similar was the judg- ment of all Irving's friends, and even of most of his op- ponents. "All admired the man, his many virtues, his matchless eloquence : all deplored his fall, and the gulf of separation which it created between him and his mother Church." His works have been collected by his nephew, the Rev. P. Carlyle, who has published them under the title of Collected Writinr/s of Edward Trvinrj (Lond. 18G4-5, 5 vols. 8vo). See Mrs. Oliphant, Life of J-Jdward In-inff (Lond. 1862; N.Y. [Harpers'] 1862, 8vo); Carlyle, Miscellaneous Essays ; Metli. Qu. Rev. Jan. 1849 ; 1863"; Lond. Quart. Rer. Oct. 1862, art. vi ; Edinb. Rev. Oct. 1862, art. vii; Enci/clup. Britann. xii, s. v.; Baring Gould, Past Mediceral Preachers (of England only) ; Lit- tell's Lirinr/ Age (on Irving's works), Feb. 23, 1867, art. i; and M. W. Andrews (of the Catholic Apostolic Church, the name now assumed by the Irvingiies), in the Neic Englunder, July, 1863, art. i ; Oct., art. viii. (J. H. W.)
I'saac (Heb. Yitschak', pn^"', laughter, in the poet, books sometimes pH'J'', Yischak', Psa. cv, 9; Jer. xxxiii, 26 ; Amos vii, 9, 16, in the last two passages spoken of the Israelitish nation; Sept. and N. T. 'laaaK, Joseph. 'l(yciKoc, Ant. i, 10, 5), the only son of Abraham by Sa- rah, and the middle one of the three patriarchs who are so often named together as the progenitors of the Jew- ish race.
I. Pei-sonal nistori/. — The following are the facts which the Bible supplies of the longest-lived of the three patriarchs, the least migratory, the least prolific, and the least favored with extraordinary divine revela- tions. A few events in tliis quiet life have occasioned discussion.
1. The promise of a son had been made to his parents when Abraham was visited by the Lord in the plains of Mamrc, and appeared so unlikel}' to be fulfilled, see- ing that both Abraham and Sarah were " well stricken in years," that its utterance caused the latter to laugh incredulously (Gen. xviii, 1 sq.). B.C. 2064. Being reproved for her unbelief, she denied that she had laughed. The reason assigned for the special visitation thus promised was, in effect, that Abraham was pious, and would train his oflfsjiring in piety, so that he would become the founder of a great nation, and all the nations of the earth should be blessed in him. See Abraham. In due time Sarah gave birth to a son, who received the name of Isaac (Gen. xxi, 1-3). B.C. 2063. This event occurred at Gerar. Isaac was thus emphatically the child of promise. Born, as he was, out of due time, when his father was a liundred years old and his moth- er ninety, the parents themselves laughed with a kind of incredulous joy at the thought of such a prodigy (Gen. xvii, 17; xviii, 12), and referring to the marvcl- lousness of the event when it had actually taken place, Sarah said that not only she, but all who heard of it, would be disposed to laugh (Gen. xxi, 6). The name Isaac, therefore, was fitly chosen by God for the child, in commemoration of the extraordinary, supernatural nature of the birth, and of the laughing joy which it occasioned to those more immediately interested in it. This signification of Isaac's name is thrice alluded to (Gen. xvii, 17; xviii, 12; xxi, 6). Josephus (Ant. i, 12, 2) refers to the second of those passages for the or- igin of the name; Jerome (Qucest. Ilebr. in Gen.') vehe- mently confines it to the first; Ewald {Gesch. i, 425), without assigning reasons, gives it as his opinion that all three passages have been added by diiferent writers to the original record. There need be no dispute as to which of these passages the import of the name refers ; it includes a reference to them all, besides according with and expressing the happy, cheerful disposition of the bearer, and suggesting the relation in which he stood, as the seed of Abraham, the channel of the prom- ised blessing, and the type of him who is pre-eminently the Seed, whose birth has put laughter into the hearts of myriads of our race. The preternatural birth of Isaac was a sign from heaven at the outset, indicating what kind of seed God expected as the fruit of the covenant, and what powers would be required for its production — that it should be a seed at once coming in the course of nature, and yet in some sense above nature — the special gift and offspring of God. When Isaac was eight days old he received circumcision, and was thus received into the covenant made with his father ; while his mother's sceptical laughter was turned into triumphant exulta- tion and joy in God ((ien. xxi, 4-7). (See De Wette, Krit. p. 133 sq. ; Ewald, Gesch. i, 388 ; Hartmann, Ueber d. Pentat. p. 269 ; Lengerke, Ken. p. 290 ; Niemeyer, Cha- ruct. ii, 160.) See Najie.