THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
At least a commission from London, of which the lawyer Cardale was the most prominent member, accepted them as the expected renewal of the primitive gifts, and a confirmation of the whole trend of apocalyptic preaching. Similar phenomena now occurred at gatherings in Cardale's house; prophecy and speaking with tongues became more and more frequent. Irving attempted for a time to keep these manifestations separate from the church services proper, while he welcomed them and made use of the messages thus delivered, and looked to the revival of the offices already recognized as essential. But revelation succeeded revelation, and presently Irving could no longer hold back the growing enthusiasm. In Oct., 1S31, it took possession of his church, amid scenes of great excitement. When Irving was summoned, in 1830, before the general presbytery of the Scotch churches in London to answer for his Christological views, and denied their jurisdiction, appealing to the general synod in Scotland, his own presbytery had stood by him. But now it accused him of violation of the liturgical ordinances in allowing women, and men who were not properly ordained ministers, to speak in his church. Sentence of deposition was pronounced on May 2, 1832. Four days later Irving began independent services in a hall with about 800 communicants, and in October he removed to a remodeled studio in Newman Street, leaving behind him the last remnants of the old Presbyterian order.
Though Irving was the " angel " of the Church, the voices of the prophets left him little hearing.
Cardale, Drummond, and the prophet
Irving Taplin took the lead of the movement,
Superseded, and the new organization proceeded
rapidly. New functionaries were created as the Spirit bade, on the analogy of New- Testament indications, and presently there were six other congregations in London, forming, with Irving's, the counterpart of the seven churches of the Apocalypse. Irving accepted the whole development in faith, although he had conceived the apostolic office as something different, which should not interfere with the independence of himself as the " angel." But he had lost control of the movement, and those who now led it lost no opportunity of humiliating the man to whose personality they had owed so much. When the sentence of deposition was confirmed by the presbytery of Annan, and then by the Scottish general synod, and he returned to London strong in the consciousness of his call by God to the office of angel and pastor of the church, he was not allowed to baptize a child, but was told to wait until, on the bidding of the prophets, he should be again ordained by an apostle. His health was now failing, and his physician ordered him, in the autumn of 1834, to winter in the south. He went, however, to Scotland, where the prophets had promised him great success in the power of the Spirit, and died in Glasgow, where he is buried in the crypt of the cathedral.
(T. Kolde.)
Bibliography: Irving's Collected Writings were edited by his nephew, G. Carlyle, 5 vols., London, 1864-65. Besides the literature under Catholic Apostolic Church, especially the biography by Mrs. Oliphant, and Carlyle's Reminiscences, consult D. Brown, Personal Reminiscences
of Edward Irving, in Expositor, 1887; C. K. Paul, in Biographical Sketches, London, 1883; W. A. Smith, " Shepherd " Smith, the Universalist, London, 1892.
IRVINGITES. See Catholic Apostolic Church; and Irving, Edward.
ISAAC (Hebr. yizhak, more rarely yishak, " the laugher "; LXX. Isaak, Vulg. Isaac) : the son of Abraham and Sarah, who served as an object for testing his father's faith and obedience. He was born (according to P) in Abraham's hundredth year and in Sarah's ninetieth. Gen. xxi. 6 (E?) — cf. xvii. 17 (P), xviii. 12 sqq. (J) — brings the name into connection with his birth. Abraham's obedience was shown in the circumcision of the boy eight days after his birth (Gen. xxi. 4, P), and in his readiness to sacrifice, at God's command, this son for whom he had so ardently longed (chap. xxii.). Isaac in this submitted to the will of his father, just as he did later in his marriage with Rebekah, although he was then forty years old. Few details are given in regard to the remainder of Isaac's life, and her appears as a rather weak copy of his father. He manifested a lesser fondness for journeying, since his travels were confined to the southern portion of the land, the Negeb, and the neighboring territory. In this desolate region, the well Lahai-roi (Gen. xxiv. 62; the modern Munailah), Gerar, the Philistine- city (xxvi. 1; the modern Jerar), the valley of Gerar (xxvi. 17), Beersheba (xxvi. 23), and finally Hebron (xxxv. 27), are places where he sojourned for a time. When at Gerar, according to Gen. xxvi. 7 sqq., he had an experience with King Abimelech similar to his father's (Gen. xx. 1 sqq., E, xii. 10 sqq., J). The similarity of the three accounts does not necessarily imply that they are variations of the same incident; but borrowings and substitutions may have taken place in oral tradition.
Isaac was characterized, as contrasted with Abraham, by a certain advance in civilization. In Gerar he devoted himself both to the raising of flocks and herds and to agriculture. His food was game and his drink was wine, while Abraham obtained the latter only from some other prince. Isaac appeared always as pacifically inclined, yielding to his envious neighbors when they disputed with him the possession of wells, and yet he enjoyed a singular respect on the part of strangers, who considered it desirable to be on friendly footing with the " blessed of the Lord " (Gen. xxvi. 28 sqq.). The principal significance of Isaac is that he carried over the divine blessing of the covenant from Abraham to Jacob, the ancestor of Israel. After his wife had been for a long time barren (Gen. xxv. 21), twin children of very different characters, Esau and Jacob, were granted to him in answer to his prayer. Although the father clung to the elder, when old and blind he was forced by the stratagem of his wife to bestow upon his younger son, Jacob, the blessing which had been bequeathed to him by Abraham (Gen. xxvi. 3 sqq., 24). Isaac showed little independence either at home or abroad, in place of which his submission to the decrees of the Almighty gave him his position between Abraham the faithful and Jacob, the champion of the faith. In this trio Isaac