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Praise for
The Emergence of Modern Shi‘ism

“This is an absorbing account of the rise of modern

Shi‘ism and of the rise of the Shi‘i clergy as
authoritative interpreters (mujtahids) of theology,
religious practice, and the law. Zackery Heern aptly
situates the ‘triumph of Usuli Shi‘ism’ in Iraq and Iran,
brought to fruition by Vahid Bihbihani and his disciples
during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries, within broader contemporary currents of
Islamic religious revival and reform.”

Peter Sluglett, Director,

Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore

“A major achievement. This original new work explains

not only the roots of modern Shiite thought but also
places these roots into the context of Middle Eastern
religious reformism since the second half of the 1700s.
An excellent and timely introduction for students as
well as general readers seeking to understand the
beginnings of modern Islam.”

Peter Von Sivers,

Associate Professor, History, University of Utah

“Zackery Heern has produced a very important and

deeply researched contribution to the history of

2
Shi‘ism. At last there is a book that sets developments
in Shi‘ism in the context of the larger Islamic world.
Scholars of Islamic studies will greatly benefit from
reading this book.”

Roy P. Mottahedeh,
Gurney Professor of History, Harvard University

“Heern not only provides the most thorough

intellectual, social and organizational analysis of the
rise of the rationalist Usuli school in Shi‘ism, but
contextualizes it within the framework of local, regional
and global changes of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. Significantly, he posits these developments
as an important manifestation of the global
phenomenon of multiple modernities.”

Meir Litvak, Associate Professor,

Department of Middle Eastern History, Tel Aviv
University

3
4
A Oneworld Book

First published by Oneworld Publications, 2015

This ebook edition published 2015

Copyright © Zackery M. Heern 2015

The moral right of Zackery M. Heern to be identified as

the Author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs, and Patents
Act 1988

All rights reserved

Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available from the British
Library

ISBN 978-1-78074-496-4
ISBN 978-1-78074-497-1 (eBook)

Typesetting and eBook by Tetragon, London

Oneworld Publications
10 Bloomsbury Street
London W C 1 B 3 S R
England

5
‌

CONTENTS

Preface
Introduction
The Triumph of neo-Usulism
The Eighteenth-Century Moment
Contemporary Shi‘ism and its Roots
Shi‘i Knowledge and Authority
Summary of Chapters
Chapter 1
The Times and Places of Reform in the Modern World
Introduction
The Place of Modernity
The Time of Modernity
World Systems and Multiple Modernities
Creation of the Modern World
Tradition and Change: From Pre-Modern to Modern
Chapter 2
Shi‘ism and the Emergence of Modern Iran

6
Introduction
Safavid Centralization of Iran (1501–1722)
Decentralization of Iran (1722–85)
Qajar Recentralization of Iran (1785–1925)
Conclusion
Chapter 3
Shi‘ism and the Emergence of Modern Iraq
Introduction
Ottoman and Mamluk Rule in Iraq
Shi‘ism and Arab Tribes in Southern Iraq
Conclusion
Chapter 4
Wahid Bihbihani: Shi‘i Reviver and Reformer
Introduction
Reviver of the Eighteenth Century
Bihbihani’s Early Life
Bihbihani in Bihbihan
Usuli-Akhbari Dispute in Karbala’
The Historical and Mythical Bihbihani
Conclusion: Why Usulism Prevailed
Chapter 5
Wahid Bihbihani’s Usuli Network In Iraq And Iran
Introduction
Usuli-Qajar Alliance
Bihbihani’s Students in Iraq

7
Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi Tabataba’i “Bahr al-’Ulum”
(Najaf)
Shaykh Ja‘far al-Najafi “Kashif al-Ghita’” (Najaf)
Mirza Muhammad Mahdi Shahristani (Karbala’)
Sayyid ‘Ali Tabataba’i (Karbala’)
Bihbihani’s Students in Iran
Mirza Abu al-Qasim Qummi (Qum)
Mulla Ahmad Naraqi (Kashan)
Muhammad Ibrahim Kalbasi (Isfahan)
Muhammad Baqir Shafti (Isfahan)
Additional Students of Bihbihani
Conclusion
Chapter 6
Wahid Bihbihani’s Conception of Islamic Law
Introduction
Bihbihani’s Legalistic Conception of Knowledge
Four or Five Sources of Usuli Shi‘i Law?
1. The Qur’an
2. Traditions (Hadith)
3. Consensus (ijma‘)
4. Reason (‘aql)
5. Transference (ta‘diyya) vs. Analogy (qiyas)
Language (lugha) and Custom (‘urf)
Conjecture of Mujtahids
Conclusion

8
Chapter 7
Founding Fathers of Modern Islam
Introduction
Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab and the Wahhabi Movement
Ibn Idris and Neo-Sufism
Political Influence of the Reformers
Knowledge and Authority
Opponents of the Reformers
Primary Concerns of the Reformers
Conclusion
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
‌
For Mona, Liya, and Jamal
‌
If you would understand anything, observe its
beginning and its development.

ARISTOTLE
‌

9
 ‌PREFACE

I initially began research for this book for my PhD

dissertation. I had already written an MA thesis on the
development of Shi‘ism in the nineteenth century,
focusing on the figure of Murtada Ansari who, in many
ways, brought the Usuli movement to a logical
conclusion. For the PhD I decided to investigate the
earlier developments of Usuli Shi‘ism. All roads initially
led to Wahid Bihbihani, who remains the lead actor of
this book. After completing the chapters on the
emergence of the Usuli movement and the figure of
Bihbihani, my advisor, Peter von Sivers, encouraged me
to contextualize Usulism within the history of the
Middle East. He continually asked me why and how the
Usuli movement emerged at this particular time and
place in history. We came to the conclusion that it was
largely a response to the fall of the Safavid Empire and
the decentralization of Ottoman rule. I then became

10
interested in additional Islamic responses to the socio-
historical conditions of the late eighteenth century,
which prompted a comparison of the Usuli movement
with the movements of Wahhabism and neo-Sufism, or
the tariqa Muhammadiyya.

After completing the dissertation, I began teaching at

Murray State University, where much of my teaching
work focused on world history. As my understanding of
global trends increased, I could not help but notice
parallels between Usulism and seemingly unrelated
movements throughout the world – including the
Enlightenment and Neo-Confucianism. Prior to
teaching world history, I was questioned in a job
interview by a Europeanist whether Usulis borrowed the
rationalist element of their movement from the
Enlightenment. My response was definitively, “No, the
rationalist tradition in Islam predates the
Enlightenment by a thousand years.” I still do not think
that Usuli rationalism is a direct result of the
Enlightenment, but the syncronicity and convergence
of the two movements is certainly striking. Therefore, I
focused much of the revision work for this book on
situating Usulism in a global context. Additionally, I
rewrote the entire book, partially in an attempt to make

11
it accessible to a wider audience. In the process, I added
and deleted entire chapters.

The book was made possible by the generosity and

assistance of scholars, institutions, and my family. I
owe a special debt of gratitude to Professors Peter von
Sivers, Peter Sluglett, and Bernard Weiss. I will never be
able to repay the countless hours they spent imparting
knowledge, sharing wisdom, writing letters of
recommendation, and of course guiding my dissertation
project. I will be ever grateful to Novin Doostar and
everyone at Oneworld Publications for publishing this
book. I also thank Robert Gleave who included me in
the Clerical Authority in Shi‘i Islam Project, lent me
countless books, and was also on my PhD committee. I
am also thankful to Moojan Momen, Meir Litvak,
Sholeh Quinn, Marjorie Hilton, and William Schell for
their comments on earlier drafts of my manuscript.

This book would not have been possible without the

support of several universities and their libraries. I
thank UCLA and the University of Utah, especially the
History Department and the Middle East Center at the
University of Utah, for providing institutional support
for my studies. I am also grateful to Murray State
University, particularly my colleagues in the History
Department. An additional debt of gratitude is owed to

12
the Aziz S. Atiya Middle East Library at the University
of Utah and the University of Cologne for granting me
unlimited access to its lithograph collection in the
Schia-Bibliothek. Finally, Firestone Library at Princeton
University, The Library of Congress in Washington, DC,
the Young Research Library at UCLA, and Waterfield
Library at Murray State were of great help.

My entire course of study would have remained a dream

without generous fellowships and grants from multiple
donors and institutions. At the University of Utah, I
thank the History Department for the three-year Burton
Teaching Assistant Fellowship, the Middle East Center
for five Arabic and Persian FLAS Fellowships, and the
Graduate School for the Marriner S. Eccles Graduate
Fellowship in Political Economy and two University
Teaching Assistantships. I also thank the University of
Utah Middle East Center and the Graduate School for
multiple conference travel grants. I am likewise
thankful for the Reza Ali Khazeni Memorial Scholarship
for Graduate Study Abroad. Further, I am grateful to the
Institute of Ismaili Studies in London for its generous
Dissertation Scholarship as well as the British Academy,
the British Institute for Persian Studies, and the British
Society for Middle East Studies for funding the Clerical
Authority in Shi‘i Islam Project. Finally, thanks to

13
Murray State University for two CISR grants and the
History Department for research and travel grants.

My family and friends have been an immovable support

system throughout the arduous process of writing this
book. Thank you first and foremost to my wife, Mona
Kashani Heern, for being a constant source of hope and
encouragement, and to the lights of my life, Liya and
Jamal Heern, for consistently bringing me joy. I hope to
follow in the footsteps of my first teachers, Bobette and
Jim Heern, who instilled within me a love for learning
and taught me the value of hard work.
‌

14
 ‌INTRODUCTION

‌THE TRIUMPH OF NEO-USULISM

In the late eighteenth century, a debate between Usuli

and Akhbari Shi‘is gripped the scholarly community in
the holy city of Karbala’ in southern Iraq. Akhbaris
argued that the foundational Islamic texts (the Qur’an
and Hadith) are the only living sources of knowledge,
authority, and law in Islam. Because of their emphasis
on scripture, especially the traditions (akhbar or
Hadith) of the Prophet Muhammad and the Shi‘i
Imams, Akhbaris are commonly referred to as
scripturalists or traditionists.1 While Akhbaris rejected
the use of reason (‘aql) as a source of Islamic law, Usulis
accepted it. Therefore, Usulis are often referred to as
rationalists.

A century before the Usuli-Akhbari dispute came to

blows, Akhbaris had consolidated their control over the

15
complex of Shi‘i seminary colleges (hawzas) in Iraq.
Shi‘i sources tell us that Usulis ran the risk of being
beaten if Akhbaris caught them with Usuli books.2
Therefore, Usulis met in secret and hid their books in
handkerchiefs. By the turn of the nineteenth century,
Usulis overcame the Akhbari leadership and claimed
their role as the guardians of Shi‘i Islam, or “custodians
of the saved sect” as Wahid Bihbihani, the founder of
the modern Usuli movement, put it.3 Usulis violently
expelled Akhbaris, Sufis, and other would-be
challengers from Karbala’ and consolidated their
control over the Shi‘i communities of southern Iraq,
Iran, and the majority of the Shi‘i world.

This book is primarily concerned with the modern Usuli

movement, which I argue is the single most dominant
Shi‘i trend of the past several hundred years. The
intellectual foundations of Usulism and Akhbarism are
not new to the modern period. In fact, rationalism and
traditionism represent two of the most prevalent
currents that stretch back to the foundational period of
Shi‘i intellectual history. However, in the late
eighteenth century, Usulism emerged as something
more than an intellectual trend. It became a powerful
social movement, which has largely defined the course
of modern Shi‘ism and has played a critical role in the

16
social, economic, and political development of the
modern Shi‘i world. Therefore, I refer to the Usuli
movement that began in the eighteenth century as neo-
Usulism or modern Usulism. In what follows, I will also
use Usulism for shorthand, just as Shi‘ism will be
shorthand for Twelver or Imami Shi‘ism. This is not to
exclude the importance of Zaydism, Isma‘ilism, or other
branches of Shi‘ism. However, Usuli Shi‘ism is a
movement within the dominant branch of Shi‘ism often
referred to as the Twelvers (or Imamis) because they
accepted twelve Imams, whereas Zaydis accepted five
Imams and the Isma‘ilis believe in seven.

More than one thousand years before the Usuli-Akhbari

dispute took place, Karbala’ was the site where Husayn
(the third Shi‘i Imam) and a small band of his followers
were massacred by forces of the ‘Umayyad clan, who
established the first dynasty in Islamic history from
661–750. The martyrdom of Husayn was a decisive
moment in the transformation of the followers of the
Imams from a political party to the full-blown sectarian
movement that we now know as Shi‘ism. Similar to
Christian commemorations of the crucifixion of Jesus,
Shi‘i observances dedicated to Husayn still rouse
passion among participants.4 Karbala’ eventually
developed as a Shi‘i center of pilgrimage, learning, and

17
leadership where Shi‘is pray at the shrine of Imam
Husayn and learn at the feet of Shi‘i scholars. In
addition to Karbala’, the Iraqi city of Najaf, as well as
Qum in Iran, are the most influential Shi‘i cities. Najaf
became the center of gravity for the global Shi‘i
community in the nineteenth century and remains the
most important Shi‘i center outside Iran. Prior to the
rise of Qum in the twentieth century, aspiring clerics
had to study in the shrine cities of southern Iraq (Najaf
and Karbala’) if they wanted to be taken seriously in the
rest of the Shi‘i world.5 Since the mid-twentieth
century, Qum and Najaf have become relatively
independent of each other, which is illustrative of the
nationalization of Shi‘ism over the course of the past
century.6

Relative to Sunnis, Shi‘i scholars played a limited role

in the political development of Islam going all the way
back to the foundational period of Islamic history.7 The
term Shi‘i or Shi‘a originally referred to the “party” of
‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661) – the son-in-law of the
Prophet Muhammad. Shi‘is claim that ‘Ali was the
rightful successor of Muhammad and the first Imam.8
According to Shi‘is, ‘Ali and subsequent Imams
inherited a measure of Muhammad’s divine knowledge
as his male heirs. Therefore, Shi‘is often refer to

18
themselves as the “People of the House” (ahl al-bayt) of
Muhammad. Even though ‘Ali did have some political
success and is considered by Sunnis as one of the four
“rightly guided” (rashidun) Caliphs, Shi‘is did not
initially win the day politically. The first Islamic
dynasties associated with Shi‘ism, the Fatimids
(909–1171) and the Buyids (934–1055), did not appear
until the tenth century – two and a half centuries after
Imam ‘Ali. Shi‘is played a relatively limited role in
mainstream politics after the fall of the Fatimids and
Buyids. That is, until the Safavids came to power in
1501. This, of course, is not to say that Shi‘is were
completely kept out of politics between the twelfth and
sixteenth centuries. For example, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
(d. 1274) served as advisor to Hulugu Khan after the
Mongol invasion of the Middle East. Additionally, local
Shi‘i dynasties of this period include the Sarbardarids of
Sabzivar.

For much of Islamic history, Shi‘i scholars associated

the rejection of worldly affairs, including politics, with
piety. Many Shi‘i scholars have claimed that all
governments are illegitimate until the promised Mahdi
(the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi) returns to
establish everlasting peace and justice on earth. This
ideological position stemmed from the development of

19
Shi‘ism as a minority movement, which was often
divorced from the political establishment. As Said Amir
Arjomand points out, the sixth Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (d.
765) “transformed the early political Shi‘ism into an
introverted and quietist religious movement. The
Imams ceased to be anticaliphs … and became the
spiritual guides of the Shi‘ite (Imami) sectarians.”9
Additionally, Hamid Algar argues that “after the
occultation of the Twelfth Imam, Shi‘ism became even
more quietist in its attitude to worldly power.”10
Therefore, the rise in socio-political involvement of
Shi‘i clerics in the modern period may seem surprising.

What accounts for the increase in the socio-political

position of Shi‘i clerics in the modern period? The
answer to this question begins with the adoption of
Shi‘ism as the state religion of the Safavid dynasty
(1501–1722) in Iran. As Henry Corbin argues, Safavid
Shi‘ism gave rise to “something like an official clergy,
exclusively concerned with legality and jurisprudence,
to such a point that original Shi‘ism, in its essence
gnostic and theosophic, has, so to speak, to hide
itself.”11 The Shi‘i clerical establishment consisting of
religious professionals came into existence during the
Safavid period “with firm roots among the people and
therefore with a power base independent of the state.”12

20
By the time the Safavid dynasty fell, the majority of
people within the empire had converted to Shi‘ism and
clerics retained their strong base of popular support.

The Qajar (lit. “marching quickly”) dynasty

(1785–1925), which was superimposed on the ruins of
the Safavid Empire, adopted Shi‘ism as the state
religion in an attempt to legitimize their rule. The early
Qajar shahs especially supported Usuli scholars
(mujtahids), who began publicizing their claim to be the
deputies of the Hidden Imam. Usulis proclaimed that
the Qajar shah ruled on their behalf and made it clear
that the Qajars were only authorized to enter the
Russo-Persian war after they issued declarations of
jihad. One Usuli mujtahid (Kashif al-Ghita’), in fact,
equated the authority of Shi‘i scholars (‘ulama’) to the
authority of God. In his declaration of jihad against
Russia, Kashif al-Ghita’ states: “He who disobeys the
most distinguished ‘ulama’, by God, disobeys the imam,
and who disobeys the imam disobeys the prophet of
God, the best of creation, and who disobeys the best of
creation disobeys Almighty God.”13

The Qajar central government was not particularly

strong, partially because of the intrusion of Russian and
British imperialists, who propped up the weak regime.
Instead of colonizing Iran, Russia and Britain

21
established spheres of influence in northern and
southern Iran, respectively. Escaping formal
colonization in the nineteenth century, modern Iran
emerged with the potent mix of a strong transnational
clerical establishment and a weak central government.
In addition to the relationship between high-ranking
clerics and the national government, the religio-
political balance of power also played out on the local
stage in which politicians and clerics competed for the
upper hand.

In addition to political and popular support, the

transformation of clerical status required an equally
grand reinterpretation of clerical authority, a process
that began with Usulis in the pre-modern period. The
French traveller Jean Chardin famously reported that
Usulis had already protested the Safavid political
establishment in the following manner:

How can it be possible, say the clergy, that

these impious kings – consumers of wine
carried away by their passions – to be the
vicars of God, communicate with heaven, and
receive the necessary enlightenment to guide
the faithful believers? How could they resolve
a case of conscience and the doubts of faith, in
the required manner of the lieutenant of God,

22
 they who can barely read? The supreme throne
of the universe belongs only to a mujtahid, or
to a man who possesses sanctity and the
sciences, transcending the community of men.
However, as the mujtahid is peaceable, he
should have a king at his service to exercise his
sword to the cause of justice as his minister.14

In other words, the political system should be in service

of the Usuli establishment, not the opposite. In this
way, Usuli clerics continued to justify their
appropriation of the role played by the Imams. That is,
they claimed the right to declare war (jihad), collect
zakat and khums money, and issue binding legal
judgments. Some Usulis also claimed to possess the
spiritual authority of the Imams.

Such authority was revived and reformed by the founder

of the modern Usuli movement, Muhammad Baqir
“Wahid” b. Muhammad Akmal Bihbihani, who is
scarcely known in Western scholarship – even in
Islamic studies. His life spanned most of the eighteenth
century (1704–91) and his students were the most
dominant Shi‘i figures during the foundational period
of the Qajar regime. Although Wahid Bihbihani has
received little scholarly attention, his importance is not
lost in Shi‘i sources. Shi‘i biographers and historians

23
unanimously cite him as the primary catalyst for the
establishment of neo-Usulism. Authors writing in both
Persian and Arabic call him the “teacher of all” and the
“reviver” of the twelfth Islamic century (roughly
eighteenth century C E). Bihbihani’s successors also
describe him as the one who was inspired by God to
overcome the Akhbari establishment. The leadership of
Bihbihani was indeed largely responsible for the success
of the initial phase of the neo-Usuli movement. But, we
are getting ahead of ourselves. Before returning to the
topic at hand, let us consider the broader context in
which modern Usulism emerged.

‌THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MOMENT

This book specifically focuses on the origins and early

development of the modern Usuli movement, a period
that roughly spans the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. A central argument of the book is
that the recent ascendancy of Shi‘ism is a culmination
of the neo-Usuli movement. Therefore, I agree with
Arjomand who states that “the establishment of an
Islamic theocracy ruled by the Shi‘ite ‘ulama [was] the
last stage of the evolution of clerical authority in Shi‘ite
Islam.”15 This book, therefore, examines the historical

24
roots of the contemporary stage of the Shi‘i
establishment.

Similar to the revival and reform of Islam in the past

several decades, the foundational period of the modern
Usuli movement was also an age of reform in the
broader Islamic world. Put differently, neo-Usulism
emerged as part of a wider trend of Islamic reform and
revival that began in the eighteenth century. The most
prominent examples of such movements are Sunni
Wahhabism and neo-Sufism. The conservative Wahhabi
movement started by Muhammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab
(1703–92) remains to this day the ideological basis for
Saudi Arabia, and the alliance between the Saudi clan
and Wahhabi ideology has continued to the present
day. In the past several decades, Wahhabism has spread
throughout much of the world, partially as a result of
Saudi oil revenue.16 Otherwise, it might have remained
a fringe movement. The term neo-Sufism has been
vigorously debated by scholars, but is generally
associated with Ahmad Ibn Idris al-Fasi (1760–1837),
who emphasized a close orientation toward the Prophet
Muhammad. Mark Sedgwick and other scholars have
rejected the concept of neo-Sufism in favor of “the
tariqa Muhammadiyya movement, the movement of the
Muhammadan way.”17 Although Ibn Idris was less

25
known for his political influence than Ibn ‘Abd al-
Wahhab, Ibn Idris’s successors did involve themselves
in politics.

I argue that these three networks (Usuli Shi‘ism,

Wahhabi Sunnism, and Idrisi Sufism) are the most
powerful Islamic movements that emerged in the
modern period prior to European imperialism. Although
the movements were not Islamist organizations per se,
the roots of contemporary Islamist movements can be
found in them.

The three movements began at a critical moment in

modern world history – simultaneous with monumental
changes in the “West” and elsewhere, including the
industrial revolution, the Enlightenment, the American,
French, and Haitian revolutions, Christianity’s Great
Awakening, as well as the ideologies of nationalism,
secularism, communism, and capitalism. Primarily
focusing on Euro-American changes, the well-known
historian Eric Hobsbawm calls the period from
1789–1848 the “Age of Revolution.”18 Enlightenment
thinkers and historians alike have also referred to this
period as the “Age of Reason.”19 Because of the critical
developments of this period, historians often divide the
modern period into two parts: early modern (c.
1450–1750) and late modern (c. 1750–1950).

26
What occurred in the late eighteenth century that
warrants this split in time, which separates one age
from the previous age? Historians have vigorously
debated this question, but it seems that three changes
stand out above others, which include new forms of
industrialization, a new global economic system, and
the emergence of the nation-state system from a
collection of empires and kingdoms. Each of these
changes had global roots and implications, which were
not simply confined to Europe or the “West.” Indeed,
the age of “revolution” and “reason” were not limited
to the Western experience as illustrated by the Islamic
reform movements.

The eighteenth-century Islamic revival was specifically

linked to the decentralization of the Ottoman and
Mughal Empires and the collapse of the Safavid Empire,
a process that preceded the emergence of nation-states
in the Islamic world. The Ottomans, Safavids, and
Mughals are often referred to as “Islamic gunpowder
empires” or “military-patronage” states. Several
scholars, including Marshall Hodgson, who popularized
the term “Islamic gunpowder empires,” have pushed
back against exaggerating the importance of gunpowder
in the formation of these empires.20 Likewise, we should
be weary of overstating the role that Islam played in

27
these empires. Nevertheless, I will continue to refer to
the three empires with references to Islam and
gunpowder for shorthand. By the sixteenth century, the
Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals dominated the swath
of earth that includes Eastern Europe, West and South
Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. Similar to the
empires that developed in Russia, China, and Western
Europe, the Islamic empires reached their height in the
seventeenth century. By the eighteenth century,
gunpowder empires throughout the world began to
decentralize, often resulting in the emergence of
nation-states.

This process of political decentralization is the subject

of considerable debate among historians, some of
whom argue that the decentralization of Safavid,
Mughal, and Ottoman territory in the eighteenth
century began a period of “decline” from which the
Islamic world has not yet recovered.21 Indeed, the
Ottomans lost direct control of several imperial
provinces, including Iraq. European imperialists
eventually began referring to the Ottoman Empire as
the “sick man of Europe” and debated how its territory
might be divided up once the dynasty fell. To them the
“Eastern Question,” as it was known, was not a
question of whether the Ottoman Empire would fall,

28
but when. Unable to reach a consensus about how to
divide it without disrupting the European balance of
power, imperialists maintained the Ottomans in power
until World War One, which resulted in the final
collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the end of the
Islamic Caliphate for the first time in history.

In the past few decades, however, scholars of the

Middle East and Islam have generally rejected the
“decline” thesis, partially on the basis of cultural
studies related to issues of revival and reform.22 Decline
has, in fact, become the politically incorrect “d-word”
in Middle East Studies.23 Instead of an age of decline,
some scholars proposed that the eighteenth-century
Islamic world experienced its own enlightenment.24 I
suggest that the terms “decline” and “enlightenment”
are too simplistic and do not add to a nuanced view of
the eighteenth-century Islamic world. The issues at the
heart of the two debates, however, are interconnected.
The political decentralization in the eighteenth century
produced conditions that led to Islamic revival and
reform. It is no coincidence that new, semi-
independent Islamic movements emerged as the early
modern empires decentralized and collapsed. Neo-
Usulism, Wahhabism, and neo-Sufism were direct
responses to the changing socio-political conditions of

29
the Islamic world by reformers who attempted to
breathe new life into their societies.

These movements, therefore, are part and parcel of the

modern experience. In addition to reviving Islamic
traditions, they also initiated reforms in an attempt to
adapt to the emerging modern world. As Ira Lapidus
puts it, reform (tajdid) movements “are a response to
and expression of Muslim modernity, but they are also
rooted in a deep historical and cultural paradigm.”25
Lapidus defines tajdid movements as “universalistic”
projects that “emphasize correct ritual legal practice,”
provide a “mechanism for political organization,” and
look to the Prophet as the model of Islam.26 Lapidus,
like many scholars, however, ignores Shi‘i reform
movements altogether and only focuses on what he
calls “the Sunni-Shari‘a-Sufi synthesis.”27 One of the
goals of this book, therefore, is to add Shi‘ism to the
history of eighteenth-century Islamic reform.

‌CONTEMPORARY SHI‘ISM AND ITS

ROOTS

Since the late eighteenth century, Usuli Shi‘ism has

been dominant in Iran and Iraq and throughout the
Shi‘i world. Although Iran has been the locus of global

30
Shi‘i trends since the mid-twentieth century and
especially since 1979, it does not completely define the
transnational Shi‘i community. While Shi‘is are as little
as ten percent of the global Muslim population, Shi‘is in
the Middle East may be as much as thirty percent. Over
ninety percent of Iranians are Shi‘is and roughly sixty
percent of Iraqis are Shi‘is, the majority of whom live in
southern Iraq. Mass conversion to Shi‘ism in Iran and
Iraq is a modern phenomenon and Usulism played a
critical role in the Shi‘ification of both countries. The
majority of Iranians converted to Shi‘ism during the
Safavid period (1501–1722) and most of the tribal
confederations in southern Iraq began converting in the
eighteenth century.28 Yitzhak Nakash argues that this
point also “marked the beginning of a process of Shi‘i
state formation in southern Iraq,” which was
specifically associated with the emergence of Najaf and
Karbala’ as desert market towns.29 In addition to Iran
and Iraq, Bahrain has a majority Shi‘i population.
Although roughly two-thirds of Bahrainis,
approximately a million people, are Shi‘i, the Sunni al-
Khalifa family has ruled Bahrain since the eighteenth
century. Lebanon also has a significant Shi‘i
community, which is one of the three confessional
groups in the political system. Shi‘i communities also
exist in Syria, Northern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan,

31
Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf states. The majority of
Shi‘is in Saudi Arabia live in the oil-rich al-Ahsa
province. The epicenter of Shi‘ism in India is Lucknow,
once the capital of the Shi‘i state of Awadh. In Pakistan,
Shi‘is comprise roughly fifteen percent of the total
population and primarily reside in Lahore. In
Afghanistan, Hazaras and many Tajiks are Shi‘is. In
Africa, Shi‘i communities are primarily composed of
Indian Khojas, who are organized under the Federation
of Khoja Shia Ithna-Ashari (Twelver) Jamaats of Africa.
The largest communities in Africa reside in Tanzania,
Kenya, and Uganda, although none of these
communities number above the tens of thousands.30

After the post-world war period of secularization in the

Islamic world, masses of Iranians, led by Ayatollah
Khomeini and other Usuli clerics, succeeded in
overthrowing the Iranian government in one of the
most spectacular revolutions in modern history.31 What
made the revolution particularly stunning was that it
brought a religious establishment (Usulis) to power.
The secularization of much of the Middle East (except
for Saudi Arabia) in the decades leading up to the 1979
revolution made the emergence of a theocratic
government unthinkable to many analysts. After all, the
struggle between secularism and traditional religious

32
establishments is a hallmark of modern history.
Although many scholars assume that secularism is a
pillar of modernity, Khomeini and many of his Usuli
colleagues disagreed. Usulis successfully established
themselves in power as champions of Shi‘i Islam and
moved to eliminate those who did not fit their
ideological vision, including Marxists, secularists,
royalists, and Baha’is.

The theocratic political system that Usulis have built in

Iran is a unique innovation in Islamic history. It is a
culmination of the modern revival and reform of
Shi‘ism that started with the Usuli movement. It is no
secret that the most powerful figures in the government
are Usulis. This is not to say that all Usuli clerics
support(ed) the Iranian revolution or the Islamic
Republic. Additionally, not all of the architects of the
revolutionary government were Usuli clerics. Like any
complex social or religious organization, Usulism is not
monolithic. In fact, the revolution made the networks
of Usuli clerics more diverse. Ardent supporters of the
Islamic Republic are at one end of the spectrum, while
those who denounce it as un-Islamic are at the other
end. The influence of the Iranian revolution was also
not confined to Usulism, Shi‘ism, or Iran; it
reverberated throughout the Middle East and the

33
Islamic world. Many scholars argue that the Iranian
revolution signaled or at least contributed to a more
general revival of Islam since the 1970s.32 Therefore,
the Usuli movement has been a major part of this shift
in the history of the Islamic world.

The context for the revival of Islam in the twentieth

century included the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the
creation of new nation-states after World War One, and
decolonization after World War Two. By the end of this
chain of events, the number of sovereign countries in
the world more than tripled. In 1945 there were roughly
fifty sovereign states in the world and by the 1970s,
there were approximately 150 countries. The new states
in the Middle East, with the exceptions of Iran, Turkey,
and others, were based on the territorial divisions of the
Sykes-Picot Agreement recognized in the League of
Nations Mandate System after World War One. Britain
and France had won most of the territory in the Middle
East and created new states on the basis of their own
interests and the perceived realities on the ground.
Justifications for national unity often came in the form
of ethnic or sectarian identity, which had also been the
basis for the creation of national identities in Europe.
While calls for unity in Islam often transcended ethnic
identity, ethnic nationalism transcended religion.

34
Despite appeals to Islamic solidarity and the pan-
Islamism associated with figures like Jamal al-Din al-
Afghani (d. 1897), secular governments generally
prevailed in the Middle East in the first two-thirds of
the twentieth century. This was especially the case in
Turkey, Iran, and Egypt. Secularism in these countries
was specifically associated with Mustafa Kamal Ataturk,
Reza Shah Pahlavi, and Gamal ‘Abd al-Nasser
respectively – each of whom had been military officers
before seizing power. These figures perceived Islam as
an obstacle to modernization, which they attempted to
achieve through Westernizing reforms. Such reforms
included the prohibition of religious dress, banning of
Islamic organizations, and the establishment of secular
educational and legal institutions. Culture associated
with Islam was officially replaced by European fashion
and attempts to import European-style institutions.

Islamism (or political Islam), therefore, emerged in the

context of nation-state building and the Westernizing
secularism of the twentieth century. To borrow Peter
Mandaville’s definition, Islamism “refers to forms of
political theory and practice that have as their goal the
establishment of an Islamic political order in the sense
of a state whose governmental principles, institutions,
and legal system derive directly from the shari’ah.”33

35
Muslim theorists had been discussing methods and
ideals associated with socio-political organization long
before the modern period. However, a new impetus for
the development of political Islam came when Mustafa
Kemal abolished the caliphate in 1924. For the first
time in Islamic history, the Muslim world was without
the authority of a caliph (khalifa). Four years after the
end of the Ottoman caliphate, Hasan al-Banna
(1906–49) formed the Muslim Brotherhood, which is
often referred to as the quintessential Islamist
organization.34 The founders of the Muslim
Brotherhood advocated a greater socio-political role for
Islam and pushed back against the importation of
Western culture and secularism. Emphasizing a holistic
conception of Islamic society, Hasan al-Banna defined
the Brotherhood as “a Salafi movement, an orthodox
way, a Sufi reality, a political body, an athletic group, a
scientific and cultural society, an economic company
and a social idea.”35 Although originating in Egypt,
branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, including
Palestine’s HAMAS, spread throughout much of the
Islamic world.

Islamist trends proliferated as new states developed.

Sayyid Abu al-‘Ala Mawdudi, for example, established
Jam‘at-e Islami, an organization similar to the Muslim

36
Brotherhood, in the early 1940s in the midst of the
independence movements that created the new nations
of India and Pakistan. In 1932 Abdulaziz Ibn Saud
founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as an “Islamic”
state. Indeed, the Saudi government protested the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights because it
guaranteed individuals the right to change their
religion. King Faysal (r. 1964–75) continued to resist
secularism by incorporating religious figures into the
state. He also established the global Organization of
Islamic Cooperation, which has fifty-seven member
states and a regular delegation to the United Nations.

The Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and particularly

the Iranian revolution accompanied the rise of
additional Islamist organizations after World War Two.
The Iranian revolution pioneered a new model of
political organization and ushered in a new phase of
Islamism. For many Muslims around the world, Iranians
had bucked the global order of superpower patronage.
Inspired by the revolution and partially supported by
the new Iranian government, Shi‘is in Lebanon founded
Hezbollah for the expressed purpose of providing
assistance to the Lebanese Shi‘i community and
fighting Israeli forces that had been stationed in
southern Lebanon.36 Resistance to the Soviet invasion

37
of Afghanistan, which began simultaneously with the
Iranian revolution, led to the development of the
Taliban and transnational jihad organizations, like al-
Qaeda. Additionally, HAMAS, which emerged in
Palestine in the late 1980s, conducted terrorist attacks
against Israelis and provided social services to
disenfranchised Palestinians.

Although no other country has copied the model of the

Islamic Republic of Iran, the influence of the new
system has been far reaching. When Israel invaded
Lebanon, Iran armed and trained Hezbollah fighters
who rose in opposition. Seeing Iran’s regional reach,
Saddam Hussein feared that Iran’s revolution might
spread to Iraq’s Shi‘i population. Also hoping to score
the oil-rich region of Khuzistan, Saddam Hussein
invaded Iran. The Iran-Iraq war raged on for nearly ten
years until it finally ended in a stalemate, with
Khomeini and his revolutionary forces more deeply
entrenched in power.37 The war also allowed Saddam to
tighten his grip on power and prevent any would-be
Iraqi Shi‘i revolutionaries from initiating change in
Iraq. However, the 2003 American invasion and
overthrow of Saddam Hussein afforded Shi‘is in Iraq an
opportunity to gain political power for the first time
since the creation of the Iraqi state in the early

38
twentieth century. Realizing the opportunity this
presented, Ayatollah al-Sistani – the head of the Usuli
establishment in Iraq – supported Iraqi elections. His
role, therefore, has been decisive in post-Saddam Iraq.

Shi‘i influence in the Islamic world over the past three

decades elicit mixed reviews. No matter how historians
eventually treat this period, it seems clear that Shi‘i
influence has been on the rise since the 1979 revolution
in Iran. Although contemporary Islamism is not the
central theme of this book, any understanding of
contemporary Islam is impossible without knowledge of
Islamic history. Marshall Hodgson referred to the tenth/
eleventh century as the “Shi‘i century.”38 Only future
historians will be able to assess whether the twentieth/
twenty-first century, a millennium later, will also be
considered a Shi‘i century. In addition to discussing
issues related to sectarianism and nationalism,
historians will be tasked with answering the question of
how and why Shi‘i clerics reversed a longstanding
policy of staying out of politics. One of the aims of this
book, therefore, is to contribute to this question, which
is closely linked to matters of Islamic knowledge and
authority.

39
‌SHI‘I KNOWLEDGE AND AUTHORITY

Knowledge and authority stand at the heart of

questions related to the emergence of modern Usulism.
In practical terms, Usulis and Akhbaris debated the
problem of how to rule on new issues not explicitly
addressed in the Qur’an and Hadith. For example, is it
permissible to drink coffee or make use of new
technologies? In the twenty-first century, we debate
whether cloning is morally acceptable and how to
handle climate change. Settling the big questions of the
day is an eternal human problem. Historically speaking,
the duty of answering such big (and small) questions
was often the domain of religious officials, who were
supposed to possess the knowledge and authority to
guide entire societies on the right path. Similarly, the
Usuli-Akhbari debate was about the relationship of Shi‘i
scholars to Islamic knowledge and authority. More
specifically, Usulis and Akhbaris argued over proper
methodologies for interpreting the Qur’an and Hadith,
the permissibility of handing down legal judgments
with the aid of reason, and the authority of Shi‘i
scholars in relation to Muhammad and the Imams.

In fact, the rationalist-scripturalist dispute is one of the

most persistent debates in the history of Islam.39 It is a

40
fundamental question faced by every society because it
has to do with change. How does a society adapt to
change without losing its core traditions, identity, and
culture? Who in the society has the power to effect
change or define the tradition in the first place? The
question for many Muslims is, what constitutes
“Islamic” knowledge and authority? The relation
between knowledge and authority, therefore, is
intimately interconnected. As far as Shi‘ism is
concerned, it was the divine knowledge inherited from
the Prophet Muhammad that authorized the Imams to
lead the community. When the twelfth Imam
disappeared into mystical occultation (ghayba) in 874,
the problem of knowledge and authority became a
pressing issue in Shi‘ism – just as it had been after the
death of Muhammad for Muslims in general.40 On what
basis would the new leader(s) of Muhammad’s
community claim authority?

After the death of Muhammad, his divine revelations

were canonized into the Qur’an and his sayings and
deeds were compiled as Hadith collections. These two
sources became the ultimate foundations of knowledge
and authority, which unified the majority of the Muslim
community. In addition to these sources, the authority
of the Imams became a unifying factor for Shi‘is. After

41
the disappearance of the Twelfth Imam, Shi‘is also
relied on Hadith reports attributed to the Imams. In
practice, Muslim scholars (‘ulama’, literally “those who
know”) claimed that their knowledge of the Qur’an and
Hadith gave them authority to lead the community. The
following tenth-century report, attributed to the
concealed Twelfth Imam, is illustrative of the
delegation of authority from the Imam to the Shi‘i
scholars during the occultation: “Concerning the new
cases that occur, refer to the transmitters of our
Traditions, for they are my hujja (proof) unto you and I
am God’s proof unto them.”41 This reference specifically
refers to the authority of Hadith transmitters, which
indicates the textualist bent of clerical authority in
Islam.42

However, the authoritative textual sources (i.e. Qur’an

and Hadith) of Islamic law, and that of other text-based
traditions, are finite in the sense that they do not
contain explicit rulings on all legal matters, which are
potentially infinite. The question, then, is how do
Muslim scholars rule on cases that are not found in the
texts, if at all? Similarly, American legal experts must
create new laws within the textual framework of the
Constitution, which contains little content from which
legal norms can be derived. Like the Constitution and

42
any other text-based tradition, the Qur’an contains a
limited amount of textual sources that explicitly relate
to law. It is often suggested that the Qur’an contains
roughly five hundred verses of “legal” content. Hadith
compilations contain far more legal statements that
instruct Muslims on how to act in order to adhere to the
divine law (shari‘a). However, the traditions found in
the Hadith are not exhaustive.

Questions related to the extraction of rulings from the

texts and the creation of new rules are the domain of
Islamic law (fiqh). The importance of law to Islam
cannot be overstated as indicated by its designation by
Muslims as the “queen of the sciences.” If philosophy
was the defining feature of ancient Greece and the
modern world is a civilization characterized by science
and technology, then Islam is a civilization of law. As
many scholars have pointed out, the Islamic legal
system is “something grander than law: it aspired to
classify and categorize all human acts.”43 Therefore,
Muslim legal experts assume that God has a ruling or
law (hukm) for every human behavior and that their
duty is to uncover whether each act is forbidden,
discouraged, permissible, recommended, or mandatory
according to the Lawgiver (al-Shari‘). Shari‘a is divine
law as it exists in the mind of God, the Lawgiver,

43
whereas fiqh is the human understanding of shari‘a.
Islamic law, therefore, is much more than a list of do’s
and don’ts for which one will be punished or rewarded
by governmental or religious authorities. It is a complex
divine moral code of conduct that encompasses all
areas of social, economic, political, cultural, religious,
and other human spheres of activity.44

The process or exercise in which Muslim jurisconsults

(mujtahids) endeavor to derive new rulings is called
ijtihad. The famous Iraqi mujtahid, Muhammad Baqir al-
Sadr (1935–80), succinctly defined ijtihad as “the effort
which the jurist expends in extracting a divine-law
ruling from its arguments and sources.”45 A central
question for those who engage in ijtihad concerns the
non-textual sources that a legal expert has at his
disposal. In other words, in conjunction with the Qur’an
and Hadith, on what sources should new rulings be
based? This question is the foundation for the subfield
of jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) in Islamic law, which is
the “theoretical and philosophical foundation of
Islamic law.”46 Usul al-fiqh literally means the “sources”
or “principles of the law” and is the origin of the term
Usuli. It is also one of the primary distinguishing
features of both Sunni and Shi‘i legal schools of
thought. Many Sunni Muslim scholars agreed that

44
consensus (ijma‘) and analogy (qiyas) are legitimate
sources to be used by mujtahids in addition to the
Qur’an and Hadith.

Usuli scholars accepted consensus (ijma‘) and reason

(‘aql) as the third and fourth sources. The first scholar
to define Shi‘i usul al-fiqh in this way was Shaykh al-
Mufid (d. 1022), who was influenced by rationalist
Mu‘tazili and Sunni legal scholars.47 Mufid’s work was
the first to clearly move beyond the transmission of
textual sources. He maintained the superiority of the
foundational texts by arguing that reason needed the
help of the texts, not the opposite. Prior to Mufid, the
task of scholars was to collect traditions, not give their
opinions on them. Mufid harshly attacked scripturalists
and accused them of being too liberal in their collection
of traditions, without investigating or thinking critically
about what they were reporting.48 Whereas Sharif al-
Murtada’s (d. 1044) system favored a more prominent
role for reason, Shaykh al-Ta’ifa al-Tusi (d. 1067) struck
a balance between reason and revelation, which was
followed for at least a century after him. These
eleventh-century Usulis argued that Shi‘i scholars were
permitted to fulfill functions that had previously been
associated with the Imams, including the collection of
and distribution of zakat and khums, the

45
implementation of criminal punishments (hudud), and
leading congregational prayers. Usulis of this period
also developed theories of the Imamate which
suggested that the Hidden Imam’s return was not
imminent and would not be hastened by human action.
Although they upheld the notion that all political
institutions are illegitimate in the absence of the Imam,
they encouraged political quietism and a willingness to
work more closely with those in power during the
Imam’s occultation.49 In fact, the newly established
Shi‘i Buyid dynasty (945–1055) in Baghdad welcomed
such theories and promoted Usuli scholars, partially
because their school of thought allowed for greater
pliability of the law.

The Usuli school was later developed by scholars

working during the Mongol period who continued to
expand the authority of Shi‘i scholars. Al-Muhaqqiq al-
Hilli (d. 1277), whose emphasis on ijtihad increased the
authority of mujtahids, claimed that Shi‘i scholars are
the deputies of the Hidden Imam during the occultation
and insisted that a ruling from a mujtahid is like
“talking with the tongue of [God’s] law.”50 Muhaqqiq’s
nephew (al-Allama al-Hilli, d. 1327), who became an
official in the Ilkhanid court of Sultan Oljaitu (d. 1316),
argued in favor of the division of the Shi‘i community

46
into mujtahids and emulators (muqallids) of mujtahids.
He contended that an emulator who failed to comply
with the rulings (sing. hukm) of a mujtahid was a sinner.

Akhbari scholars, however, rejected Usuli rationalism,

charged them with adopting Sunni methods of
jurisprudence, and maintained a reliance on the texts.
In other words, Akhbaris insisted that the Qur’an and
Hadith are the only authoritative sources of knowledge
and authority and, therefore, viewed ijtihad and the
authority of mujtahids as illegitimate. Although Akhbari
sentiments existed prior to the modern period,
Akhbarism was articulated by Muhammad Amin al-
Astarabadi (d. 1627), who attacked rationalist
methodology and contributed to the development of
what has become known as the Akhbari school.51
Astarabadi rejected ijtihad as a tool of Sunnis and
argued that it only produced conjectural knowledge
(zann) at best. Instead, his methodology was limited to
sources that would produce certainty (qat‘), especially
Hadith reports (akhbar), which perfectly reflect God’s
will.52 Astarabadi suggests that the authority of
deducing new rulings rest with muftis and judges
(qadis), instead of mujtahids.53

In addition to the textualism of Akhbaris and the

rationalism of Usulis, a third response to the question

47
of knowledge and authority emerged under the rubric of
Illuminationism (ishraqiyya), which emphasizes
intellectual intuition in the formation of knowledge.
The emergence of the Illuminationist school is often
traced back to the figure of Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi
(d. 1191), who promoted the idea that true knowledge
was the result of both rational and intuitive emanations
from the mind.54 During the Safavid period,
Illuminationism was associated with the School of
Isfahan, especially Mulla Sadra Shirazi (d. 1640), whose
cosmology included rationalism and visionary
experience, and required purification of the soul
through asceticism, mysticism, and gnosis. Mulla Sadra
also developed a new synthesis for Shi‘i authority in the
absence of an earthly Imam. He writes:

The earth cannot be devoid of a person upon

whom the proof [hujja] of God rests … Thus, in
each time, there must be a saint (wali) who
worships God by his personal experience and
possesses the knowledge of the divine book as
well as what the ‘ulama’ and mujtahids have
learned. He has absolute supervision and
leadership in both religious and temporal
affairs.55

48
In the early nineteenth century, Illuminationism was
associated with the Shaykhi movement, founded by
Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa’i (d. 1826), who was a student of
the founders of the modern Usuli movement.56
Dissatisfied with his Usuli education, Ahsa’i claimed
that his knowledge was the result of intuitive
experiences with the Imams.57 Therefore, he rejected
the idea that mujtahids were the vicegerents of the
Hidden Imam and instead suggested that living
authority was with the “Perfect Shi‘i” (Shi‘i kamil) or the
“Fourth Pillar” (rukn al-rabi‘), who would be in direct
contact with the Hidden Imam.58 Responding to the
Shaykhi challenge of their authority, Usulis eventually
declared infidelity (takfir) on Shaykhis as they had done
with Akhbaris.

As we have seen, therefore, three broad sources of Shi‘i

knowledge and authority are discernable: the
foundational texts (naql, i.e. the Qur’an and Hadith),
reason (‘aql), and intuition (kashf). Although the
majority of Muslims accept the authority of texts, the
second two sources have caused divisions. Some
scholars accept reason and intuition as methods of
textual exegesis while others believe that these two
sources can be used independently of the texts to arrive
at new knowledge. Still other scholars have accepted a

49
synthesis of the three sources. While appeals to the
texts, reason, and intuition are fairly consistent
throughout Shi‘i history, periodic shifts in Shi‘i thought
often result from emphasis on one of the three sources.

‌SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS

As indicated already, this book examines the rise of the

modern movement of Usuli Shi‘ism. In addition to
contextualizing Usulism within the Shi‘i intellectual
tradition, I analyze the rise of the Usuli movement
within the framework of global, regional, and local
changes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Much of this book focuses on the individuals and
groups associated with Usuli Shi‘ism, which is loosely
organized. Therefore, I look at Usulism from the
perspective of informal networks of students–teachers
and patrons–clients, which are not always related to
formal institutions. At the highest level, Shi‘i clerics are
engaged in scholarly activity, teaching, issuing legal
judgments, and maintaining networks of supporters.
Therefore, much of what follows will be associated with
these activities. I argue that the Usuli movement
prevailed as a result of a variety of factors, including the
ability of Usulis to survive independently of state

50
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accomplished, and that without creating any popular disturbances
amongst the natives, thus falsifying the predictions of their
opponents, who, from the press and in both houses of parliament,
were accustomed to say, that the safety of our Indian possessions
was endangered by the presence of our missionaries there; and that
our Indian empire would be irrecoverably lost if any legislative
measure were introduced to suppress or control the superstitious
customs and rites of the natives. In the first place, the missionaries
have given us correct information on all matters relating to the
Hindoos—their worship, and its various ceremonies—their character,
and social habits; and thus, by an accumulation of authentic facts,
they have disproved the statements of our popular writers, that the
Hindoos are not only an intelligent, but a very virtuous people; and
that their religious rites and services, though novel and repulsive to
Europeans, are both chaste and humane. Since the missionaries
exposed this deception, which had been so long practised upon us,
no one has ventured to eulogize the virtues, or defend the religious
practices of the Hindoos. In the second place, they established
schools for the education of the youth of India, both male and
female; and thus they have succeeded, to a very considerable
extent, in diffusing both scientific and biblical knowledge, which is
noiselessly but effectively rescuing them from the dominion of the
debasing ignorance and superstition under which their forefathers
had been living from time immemorial. And no one doubts, who is at
all conversant with the present state of things in India, but the rising
generation will far surpass any preceding one, in mental acuteness,
in knowledge, and in moral character. In the third place, by their
writings, their preaching, and their intercourse with the natives, they
have proved useful pioneers in clearing the way for the peaceable
introduction of the laws promulgated by the British government for
the suppression of many of those cruel practices to which I have
already alluded. In the fourth place, without employing any undue
modes of attack and exposure, they have succeeded, to a very
considerable extent, in shaking the confidence of the Hindoos in the
truth of their national faith; and a powerful conviction is impressed
on the Indian mind—an impression which is becoming deeper and
deeper every day—that the days of their mythology are numbered,
and that ere long its humiliation and subversion will be achieved.
And, in addition to these proofs and indications of their success, I
have to report another of their triumphs, and that refers to your own
fraternity—the conversion of many of our own countrymen, who, on
their settlement in India, became first speculative, and then practical
unbelievers—rejecting, as visionary or fabulous, the faith of their
early training, and often distinguishing themselves by their virulent
hostility to the Christian missionary and his labours; but who now
zealously co-operate with him in his exertions to spread the
knowledge of the way of salvation."
"To you, these doings of your missionaries are splendid triumphs
in confirmation of the Divine origin of that faith, which restricts the
bestowal of a state of future blessedness to the comparatively few
who believe in Jesus Christ; but to me they appear nothing more
than the natural consequences of a well-concerted attack on a long-
established and nearly worn-out order of things, which we know
invariably results in dividing popular opinion. On all such occasions
Divide and conquer is the motto, and when this is done, then the
pruning off from the old stock of belief and opinion, and the
engrafting on the new one, is an operation as natural as it is easy.
Human nature is given to change; the love of it is an essential
element in our mental constitution, and nothing is more common
than going from one extreme to another, or more likely than the
change from Brahminism or Buddhism to the faith of Christianity."
"And from Deism to Christianity also, as I have shown you. Hence,
to quote your own words, I indulge the hope that you will become a
believer, if we have patience."
"A possible event, on the assumed correctness of your hypothesis,
as then I may be operated on by some Divine influence, which I
shall have no power to withstand; but on my own supposition, as
remote from possibility as the junction of the antipodes."
"We shall see. You have already advanced some way in the right
direction. But to return to India. Here is a fact, which was not
publicly known amongst us, till it was reported by our missionaries—
that one whole tribe in India has uniformly destroyed every female
child born amongst them, so that they have been obliged to take
their wives from the tribe next in rank to them. On one occasion a
father's heart recoiled when the emissaries of murder demanded his
daughter; and he repelled them from his presence. Her life was
spared, and she grew up tenderly beloved by her parents; but the
sight of a girl rising to maturity in the house of a Rajpoot, was so
novel, and so contrary to the customs of the tribe, that no parent
sought her in marriage for his son. The grief-worn father, suffering
under the frowns of his own tribe, and trembling for the chastity of
his daughter, and the honour of his family, bore her off to a pathless
desert, where, with his own hand, he slew her, leaving her body to
be devoured by wild beasts."
"Horrid! horrid! Such transactions as these, if true and believed,
are enough to rouse popular indignation against our government for
not adopting some prompt and severe measures to prevent their
repetition. I would annihilate the whole tribe, rather than suffer such
inhuman monsters to live on earth."
"You then would recommend a wholesale massacre to save a few
lives; while I would advocate the introduction amongst them of a
pure and humane faith, which teaches and enforces the relative
obligations of parents and children as they prevail amongst
ourselves. This sense of relative obligation, and the social
improvement which necessarily follows it, Christianity, by its mild and
persuasive influence, has already succeeded in establishing in the
cannibal islands of the South Sea, and also, to some extent,
amongst the natives of civilized India. Christianity can do, and I have
no doubt will do, for India what she has done for Britain—subvert
her idolatry, with its cruel and obscene rites, and raise up an
enlightened and renovated native population, who, with gladsome
voices, will sing the song of Bethlehem, 'Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good-will toward men' (Luke ii. 14)."
Mr. Gordon, on rising to take his leave, said, "Well, there is no
denying the fact, that the world is in a sad disordered state; and if
you think you can improve it by your missionary labours, I will not
impeach the benevolence of your motives, though, without
hesitation, I may predict the failure of your sacrifices and exertions."
"But, Sir, you must acknowledge that it is more honourable to fail
in the cause of philanthropy than to make no effort."
"This honour, I believe, is in reserve for you, though I must say
you merit one more brilliant. Go on, my dear Sir; but don't be too
sanguine. Utopia I know is very rich in splendid scenery, but
unfortunately it partakes much of the nature of the mirage. Good
night; with many thanks for all your good wishes."
 A RENEWED ENCOUNTER.
The night before I left London, Mr. Gordon again called,
and, after some desultory conversation, our attention
happened to be directed to the book entitled No Fiction,
which was lying on the table. This led to a somewhat
sharp and lengthened encounter.
"I dipped into that book," said Mr. Gordon, "the other day, and it
gave me some amusement, as the tale is made to appear a very
natural one. Its author narrates and sketches extremely well, for a
divine, and it is highly creditable to his talents, which must certainly
be of a superior order."
"Yes, Sir, he is quite a superior man. There is one paragraph of his
tale to which I should like to direct your attention, and which, by
your permission, I will read to you."
"Read on, Sir, and I'll give all due attention."
I then read as follows:—

"I have often been delighted," said Douglas, "in reading the
accounts of the power of religion on the minds of children; but
this is the first instance which has fallen beneath my own eye.
What a religion is ours! How great—and yet how plain! It is so
sublime, that it rises beyond the conception of the most
enlarged mind! and so simple, that it brings home its lessons to
the bosom of a little child! The elements of the gospel, like the
elements of our nourishment, are adapted to the endless
varieties of age, and character, and circumstance, throughout all
the human race."
"And this appears," said Lefevre, "to be a feature in our
religion which distinguishes it from all false religions. As far as I
 am acquainted with the subject, no one of the pagan systems
could have been rendered universal. They all received their
character from national prejudice, national policy, and
predominant national vices."
"Yes," rejoined Douglas, "and as, in their own nature, they
were not adapted for the benefit of mankind as such, so their
great teachers discovered an indifference to the bulk of the
human race, incompatible with everything which deserves the
name either of religion or morality. With haughty pride they
exulted in their own wisdom, and looked down with scorn or
ridicule on the folly of those who were not initiated into their
false philosophy. Man scarcely deserved their notice, but as he
claimed the proud titles of rich, or wise, or noble; and women
and children were utterly abandoned to ignorance and
wretchedness. Jesus, our blessed Saviour, was the first Master
in religion who opened the door of knowledge to all—who
carried his instructions and his tears to the cottage of the poor!
This appears to me to involve a powerful evidence of the truth
of Christianity, that may well perplex and confound the hosts of
infidelity. I have more than once thought that the psalmist must
have referred to this use of the subject, when he said, 'Out of
the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength,
because of thine enemies: that thou mightest still the enemy
and the avenger.'"

"This passage, if I remember rightly," Mr. Gordon remarked,

"refers to a tale very similar to your story of The Woodman's
Daughter; but I must confess, with all due deference, that I see
nothing very remarkable in it; and how you can think of adducing it
as an argument in favour of the Divine origin of Christianity, rather
surprises me. Children, we know, are imitative. They take the
manners, the habits, and the tones of their parents and teachers;
and if they should adopt their sentiments, feelings, and expressions,
it certainly ought not to be considered remarkable. But yet I should
like to hear how you contrive to connect such a fact and the divinity
of the gospel together."
"Such a fact, Sir, proves that the Christian religion is adapted (as
we may fairly presume it would be, if of Divine origin), to the moral
condition of man, irrespective of his age—of the strength or
weakness of his intellect—or the peculiar shades of his moral
character. To suppose that this adaptation is by accident, would be
no less objectionable than to conclude, with the sceptics of the
French school, that it is by chance we see, hear, and speak. If you
are prepared to admit that the marks of contrivance, which we can
easily discover in the construction and organization of our senses,
supply us with a legitimate argument in favour of the existence of a
God, by whose power and wisdom this organization has been
arranged, I cannot conceive how you can avoid admitting the marks
of contrivance which we can as easily trace in the Christian scheme
of salvation, as conclusive evidence in favour of its Divine origin."
"O Sir! it has been invented by a few crafty men, who wished to
display their skill at the expense of our credulity, and they have done
it most dexterously. They were certainly adepts in invention."
"I know that this is a favourite opinion with you Deists; but I do
not think that you can support it. How came these men to devise a
scheme of religion which is so admirably adapted to the moral state
of man? From whence did they gain their information? They tell us
that they wrote under the dictation of an infinitely wise Spirit, and,
in common fairness, their testimony ought to be admitted; and, I
think, a candid examination of what they have done, and the style in
which they have done it, will satisfy us that they are truth-speaking
men. I form my judgment on this point as I should on another
somewhat analogous to it. If, for example, I saw an epic poem equal
to that of Virgil or Milton, or a treatise on logic superior to that of Dr.
Watt's, written by a boy of ten years of age; and, if on expressing
my astonishment and admiration, he should say—'The writing, Sir, is
mine, but nothing more—I wrote from the dictation of Wordsworth
and Whately,' I should at once believe him, from a consciousness of
his incompetency to produce such compositions by his own unaided
powers. So with the sacred writers. We know that, with very few
exceptions, they were unlearned and ignorant men, and their
contemporaries who knew them spoke of them as such; and yet
they have surpassed all other men in the science of moral and
spiritual truth. In confirmation, too, of this internal evidence of the
truthfulness of their testimony, that they wrote under the dictation of
an infallible Spirit, we find, on examination, that the various parts of
their comprehensive, yet minute theory, are in perfect harmony with
each other, while, at the same time, the theory itself is admirably
adapted to the moral condition of humanity. The marks of
contrivance are too obvious to allow us to refer the arrangements to
chance, or the mere skill of man. For our guilt, it provides a
propitiatory sacrifice, whose blood cleanses from all sin—for our
depravity, it provides a renovating influence, by which, we are made
partakers of the purity of the Divine nature; regarding us as
oppressed with cares and sorrows, it animates us with exceeding
great and precious promises, by which we are enabled to put our
trust in God, and thus rise above the trials of this life; and, viewing
us as panting for immortality, it unveils futurity, and delights us with
the sublime vision of endless happiness."
"To you, who are initiated into a firm belief of the Divine origin of
Christianity, this apparent adaptation of it to our moral condition and
necessities, and its revelations of a future state of happiness, must
appear as the consummation of wisdom and benevolence. But I
cannot resist the impression, that it is to the activity of your
imagination you ought to attribute this correspondence, rather than
to any actual fact; and that you are, at least so I think,
unconsciously beguiling yourself with pleasing anticipations which
will all prove visionary."
"The gospel, Sir, is a living reality, and it works moral wonders."
"I don't quite comprehend your meaning."
"I mean, that it answers the purpose for which it was intended, or,
in other words, it does the moral work which is ascribed to it, and
does it effectually; this I can prove by an appeal to living testimony.
Hence, when it is received by faith, it does give peace to a wounded
conscience; it does infuse a renovating power, by which man
becomes a new creature, in his moral principles and social habits; it
does administer the most soothing and strengthening consolation to
the child of sorrow, and it animates the dying believer with the
hopes of a blissful immortality. These are moral facts which the
experience of myriads can attest."
"Yes, I see how it is; the imagination traces a correspondence
between its own impulses, and aerial flights, and the component
parts of your scriptural theory; and you very naturally think that you
would be robbed of an inestimable treasure, and the world at large
sustain an irreparable loss, if your theory of faith should be exploded
as a worn-out relic of an antiquated superstition."
"But, after all you say against the Christian faith, I do not think
you would vote for its expulsion from the earth, even if you thought
you could succeed in effecting it; and I will tell you why. Its
expulsion would be as great a calamity to the moral world, as the
total disappearance of the solar light would be to the physical—we
should at once relapse into a state of profound ignorance on all the
important questions which relate to God, to our origin, our
immortality, and our destiny. We should then find ourselves groping
about, like the ancient heathen, amidst vain and foolish speculations,
striving to unravel the mysteries of our nature, and finding no
resting-place for our troubled spirits. I have often thought, when
musing on such a fearful occurrence, what an awful gloom would
spread over the world if we knew that the fatal hour was coming,
when, by some supernatural process, all our knowledge of Jesus
Christ, and the design of his mission and death, would suddenly pass
away from human recollection; and when every leaf in our Bible, and
of all other books referring to him, should become as blank as they
were before they were printed—leaving us, like the doomed spirits of
the infernal world, without a Saviour, or any promise of mercy."
 "You would anticipate such a strange event with sad and awful
forebodings. The disappearance of Jesus Christ from your theory of
belief would be to you, and to all of your way of thinking, an
irreparable calamity; though I must confess, that I cannot account
for the hold he keeps on your imaginations. To me, this is a mystery
which deepens in profundity the more I try to fathom it. His very
name appears to be a charm, and of more than magic power."
"Yes, Mr. Gordon, there is a charm in the name of Jesus, which at
all times, but more especially under circumstances of great privation
and danger, both soothes and elevates his disciples. They fear not to
die in the tranquillity of their own homes or the raging of the
tempest, on the scaffold or the battle-field."
"I will not attempt to deny a fact which general testimony
confirms; but permit me to ask, if you can assign any rational cause
for what appears to me so mysterious?"
"I can; the fact admits of a fair explanation. Those who have faith
in Christ believe that, though invisible, He is ever near them to
succour and to comfort them. Hence, the sailor, when pacing the
deck during the dark and stormy night, prays to Him, who, when
sailing with his disciples, rebuked the winds and the waves; and he
feels that he is addressing one who hears him, and can save him.
Yes! and in the dreary cell of tyranny—at the stake of martyrdom—in
penury, suffering, and in death—the name of Jesus is uttered with
thrilling accents, and awakens associations which have tenfold
greater power over the soul than the kindest expressions of human
sympathy and love. I was an eye-witness, not long since, to a
display of Christian heroism in death:—A young man, of superior
intelligence and station in life, who had been rather sceptically
inclined, was taken ill, and during his continued illness his sceptical
notions vanished, and he became a simple believer in Christ Jesus.
After the lapse of some months, his physician told him he must die,
as his disease was beyond the reach of human skill. I was present
when this announcement was made, and he received it without
expressing either surprise or regret. When his medical attendant
withdrew, he said to his mother and his sisters, who stood weeping
by his bedside—'I am not surprised by your tears, for I know you
love me; but weep not for me, for I am nearing the end of my
course. My confidence of a glorious issue is placed on Him, who is
mighty to save; he is with me, though I see him not. Death's dark
vale is illumined with the light of life, and I shall soon pass through
it, and then I shall be safe and happy for ever.'"
"Most marvellous! and yet I believe it. Such incidents as these are
most impressive. We are mysterious beings, alternately terrified by
our own imaginary fears, and excited to ecstasy by the illusions of
our own fancy."
"But the extinction of Christianity and its sacred records might
prove a great disaster to you sceptics; especially at some of the
turning points of your history."
"To us! you now really take me by surprise; but, to be serious,
how do you make this out?"
"Why, it is well known that sceptics, when in expectation of death,
often call on Jesus Christ to save them."
"A drowning man will catch at a straw."
"He would prefer a life-boat."
"True."
"I ask you one plain question—If you lived on a dangerous coast,
would you ever scuttle a life-boat which has rescued many from
destruction, and which possibly you may live to need?"
"I see your drift, and admire your ingenuity. Of course, I would
not."
"Well, I will venture on another supposition, and leave you to
decide whether I am not right in my conjectures, that even you, with
all your antipathies to Jesus Christ, may be surprised in
circumstances which would render the sound of his name the most
effectual solace that could be given. Suppose, for instance, we were
walking together in some vast forest in the far northern part of
America, and saw advancing toward us a band of apparently
ferocious savages, should we not tremble with fear and
apprehension? But suppose, while in this state of terror, we should
hear them singing in chorus a verse of some familiar hymn, would
you then recoil in terror? Would you experience additional
consternation on perceiving that these barbarians had been
instructed in the Christian faith?"
"I like your illustrations—they amuse me. Can't you favour me
with another?"
"I will try. Suppose you were sailing among the islands of the
South Seas, and, when nearing one of them, would you not rather
see the natives on the beach clothed in European dresses, as at
Tahiti and Raratonga, than in a state of savage nudity? and would
you hesitate to drop anchor if you heard them singing in harmony—

'Jesus shall reign where'er the sun

Does his successive journeys run:
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.'"

"In arguing," said Mr. Gordon, "there is nothing more desirable

than a good illustration, which gives pleasure, even when it does not
produce conviction. Well, then, I will admit that there is a strange
fascinating power in a name, and in mental associations, for which
our most sagacious philosophers are unable to account; but that's
no reason why I should give it my sanction, if I believe, as I do in
these cases, that it springs out of a superstitious belief; and,
therefore, leaving the sailor in the storm, and the prisoner in the
cell, with the rest of your illustrative examples, and not caring to
conjecture how I should act or feel if I were placed in such
circumstances as you describe, I certainly, according to my present
views and impressions, would vote for the expulsion of Christianity, if
my suffrage could bring about such an event; but I fear that it is too
deeply fixed in the prejudices of the public mind ever to be rooted
up—at least in our time."
"But would you not tremble in anticipation of the success of such
an effort? Expel Christianity from the earth! Why, what evil has she
done? You may trace her progress by the improved condition of the
people whom she has visited and blessed. Where she finds a
wilderness, she leaves a fruitful field for the sickle of the
husbandman; she meets with briars and thorns, and converts them
into the myrtle tree and the rose; she encounters all the base lusts
and ferocious dispositions of our nature, and supplants them with
the tranquillizing affections of purity and peace. She improves the
intellect, refines the taste, and humanizes the character; and, by
raising men to a state of spiritual communion with the Supreme
Being, imprints on them the image of his benevolence, and animates
them with his love of righteousness. She mitigates the violence of
sorrow—binds up the wounds which adversity inflicts in the heart of
man—reconciles the mourner to his bitter loss—disarms death of his
terrors—and exhibits beyond the grave a scene of tranquillity and of
joy which no hand can portray or tongue describe. Expel Christianity
from the earth! Then, Sir, you would give perpetuity to those horrid
systems of idolatry which maintain their dominion over the great
majority of the human race, as no power will ever destroy them but
that which the gospel of Christ displays. Nay, Sir; if you were to
succeed, you would prove the greatest enemy to man that ever
visited the earth since the author of all evil triumphed over our first
parents: for how many thousands would you, by such a wanton act
of cruelty, deprive of their sweetest sources of consolation, and their
brightest prospects of happiness!"
"You are eloquently severe; but, my dear Sir, you may spare your
severity, as it is not likely that I shall ever make the attempt, and
less likely that I should succeed, were I vain, or, to quote your own
language, wanton and cruel enough to do it. I willingly admit that
Christianity has done some good, but you must allow that she has
done some evil; and it is but fair to balance the one against the
other, to see which preponderates. If she has promoted peace in one
country, she has planned massacres in others; if she has blessed one
family, she has introduced discord and division into others; and if
there are a few solitary individuals animated by her promises of
mercy, there is a larger number who tremble under the awful
denunciations of her vengeance."
"Her promises of mercy are addressed to all, and all are invited to
receive the blessings which she is willing to bestow; but if they
disdainfully reject them, and treat her message of grace with
contempt, she turns away, and announces their approaching doom;
and she does this in a tone, and with a lofty majesty of speech,
which often makes the most daring quail before her. But why do
they tremble, if they believe she has no power to punish? Your other
charges against her I will meet by a quotation from a book[14] which
I wish you would peruse, and which I shall be happy to present to
you:—

"That men calling themselves Christians have persecuted

others with unrelenting cruelty, and have shed rivers of innocent
blood, is but too true. Did Christianity countenance this conduct,
it would merit unqualified reprobation. But far from such a
disposition, it forbids all violence and injury to be employed in
its defence. Christianity never shed a drop of its enemies' blood
since the day that Christ died on the cross; but it has been
lavish of its own. It never forged a chain to bind a heretic or an
adversary, nor erected a prison to immure him. Christianity
never dipped her pen in tears of blood, to write a penal law
denouncing vengeance on infidels. She never made her bitterest
foe heave a groan, from any bodily suffering inflicted by her
hands. Her only weapons of offence and defence are truth and
prayer. She returns good for evil, and blessing for cursing.
"If men, wearing the garb of the disciples of Jesus, instigated
by pride, and the lust of dominion, and a desire to gratify the
worst passions of the human heart, injure any of the human
race under a pretence of zeal for religion, they act in direct
opposition to the gospel, and you cannot condemn them with
 too much severity. But surely Christianity should not be
condemned for what it forbids men to perpetrate under pain of
the Divine displeasure. Or if such as were truly Christians ever
sought to put a stop to infidelity or error, and to propagate the
gospel in the world by force (and it is to be deplored with tears
of blood that such there have unhappily been), they will receive
no more thanks from Christ than the three disciples when they
wished him to bring down fire from heaven to destroy the
Samaritans:—'Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of: the
Son of man came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them.'
Nor would he account the words, which he directed to Peter on
a different occasion, too severe to be used to them here:—'Get
thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me; for thou
savourest not the things which be of God, but the things which
be of men.' Both the principles and precepts of the gospel, and
the conduct of Christ and his apostles, are as remote from
persecution as the east is from the west."

"I admire the candid and amiable spirit of the writer, and will
certainly read his book, if only from respect to the friendship which
dictates the present; but I will not flatter you with any hope of
bringing me over to your belief. However, waiving all personal
remarks, allow me to ask you if you really believe that Christianity
will ever become a universal religion? and, if so, how do you think it
will be propagated through the earth?"
"That it is adapted to become a universal religion, no one can
doubt who has ever inquired into its nature and design, or who has
ever read the history of its progress. It is suited to man as a
rebellious subject of the Divine government; and it has been
embraced by men of every rank, of every clime, and of every
description of character. Hence, if you could bring together, in one
place, some natives of Europe, Africa, Asia, and America, or from
any of the islands or cities which belong to either of these great
divisions of the earth; and could, by some miraculous influence,
impart to them the power of speaking the same language, you
would find them all, if they had embraced the pure faith of Christ,
giving utterance to the same sentiments—expressing the same
feelings—exulting in the same prospects—and disclosing all the
peculiarities of the same singular and extraordinary spiritual
character."
"But, Sir, if this hypothetical statement be correct, how will you
account for the endless divisions which prevail amongst those who
are known to embrace the same Christian faith?"
"You ought, Sir, to distinguish between a real and a nominal
Christian; and though I will not deny but there are diversities of
opinion even amongst real Christians, yet they relate to minor and
subordinate questions. Consider Christianity as coming from God—it
is pure and unspeakably good; view it as received by men—it will be,
as the schoolmen say, secundum modum recipientis. If the
difference of capacity, and the prejudices and passions of mankind
be duly weighed, we shall not account it strange if they do not all
think alike, nor receive the truth in all its purity. But this is not
peculiar to the Christian religion. There are divisions and dissensions
in matters of religion among pagan idolaters, among Mahometans,
and among Deists. You cannot deny it. But the Deist does not
consider this as a reason for rejecting Deism. If so, neither is it a
reason for rejecting Christianity. More particularly, some men are
destitute of every noble principle—they are full of deceit, avarice,
pride, and sensuality. We see them abuse the gifts of nature, and of
Providence; is it wonderful, then, if they pervert Christianity too, and
entertain different ideas of many of its doctrines from wise and godly
men? It is no more an objection against Christianity being from God,
because such persons come short of its purity, than against the gifts
of nature and other temporal blessings being from God, because
they are often abused. Weakness of intellect will produce
peculiarities of sentiment on every subject, and, consequently, on
religion. The prejudices of education and early habits will generate
attachments to certain opinions and rites; hence, also, differences in
religion will arise; but the fault is not in Christianity, it is in man.
From similar causes we see a diversity of opinion among the learned
regarding sciences of great utility—medicine, law, politics,
philosophy; but, notwithstanding this, all allow them to be highly
beneficial to mankind—none deny their usefulness, although people
differ about some particular points. To reject the gospel, because
bad men pervert it, and weak men deform it, and angry men quarrel
about it, displays the same folly as if a person should cut down a
useful tree because caterpillars disfigured its leaves, and spiders
made their webs among its branches."
"I have no objection at present to offer to this fair explanation of
the difficulty which has often perplexed me; but you will permit me
to refer you to my former question—Do you think that Christianity
will ever be universally established?"
"I do, Sir; and my belief is founded on the following basis.
Christianity is adapted for a universal religion; it foretells the fact of
its universal establishment; its disciples are commanded by the Lord
Jesus Christ to seek its universal propagation; and it is now
spreading itself with unexampled rapidity through the nations of the
earth. You cannot, Sir, but be conscious that the aspect of the times
indicates some approaching change in the destinies of man; and
though you, on your principles, cannot hail any redeeming power by
which the curse that inflicts such mighty evils on suffering humanity
can be rolled away, yet we can on ours; and hence, while you are
left to speculate on the charms of a philosophy which has never
ameliorated the moral condition of man, we can speak with
confidence of the intervention of Him, who will turn the curse into a
blessing, and make this earth the abode of purity, of harmony, and
of bliss."
"But how do you expect this great and mysterious change to be
brought about?"
"Not by force. That has been tried by short-sighted rulers in
former times, and has utterly failed. Conversion to Christianity which
is effected by such means produces no change in the human heart.
The man remains the same, though his professed belief may vary.
The circulation of the Scriptures, the distribution of religious
treatises, and the preaching of the gospel, are the only means which
we employ to accomplish this great design. But, even when these
means are used in the most judicious manner, we do not calculate
on accomplishing the purpose which we have in view without the
influence of a supernatural co-operation; for it is not by the power of
man that the demon of superstition, or the Moloch of idolatry is to
be dethroned, and Christianity established, but by the Spirit of the
Lord."
"I rather admire your dexterity in avoiding, on principle, the
mortification attendant on any failure in your pious efforts in behalf
of the perishing heathen."
"I don't quite understand you."
"Why, you say, your success is dependent on the concurrence of a
supernatural power; and, consequently, if you fail in your pious
undertaking, you lay the blame on the inactivity of this supposed
preternatural influence, never for a moment doubting your own
sagacity, or questioning the efficacy of the means which you
employ."
"If you examine the theory of the Christian faith, you will find that,
in every moral operation, this concurrence of supernatural power
with human agency forms an essential part of it. 'Man sows the seed
of truth, it is God who gives the increase.'"
"As such a theory must tend to limit exertion, and depress an
ardent mind, it strikes me that it is an ingenious invention to provide
a pleasant solace in the season of disappointment, which, I believe,
has its periodical visitations in your ecclesiastic annals."
"It has analogy in its favour. We eat and drink to sustain life, but
the efficacy of the nourishment to sustain life depends on God. The
farmer casts the seed into the soil, but it is God who causes it to
grow and yield its increase. His confidence in God gives a stimulus to
his own exertions."
"Well, I won't dispute this point with you; but, after all, does it not
tend to discourage your pious exertions, when you believe that a
successful issue is dependent on an influence which you cannot
control, and over which you have no power?"
"No. It has a contrary effect, as in the case of the husbandman.
We look upon ourselves as mere active instruments employed in
accomplishing the Divine purpose of grace and mercy in behalf of
the perishing heathen; and the established law of the economy of
our faith and practice is embodied in the following record of
inspiration:—'For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and
maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower,
and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of
my mouth: it shall not return unto me void; but it shall accomplish
that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent
it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the
mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and
all the trees of the field shall clap their hands' (Isa. lv. 10-12)."
"I bow before such an ingenious theory of faith; but still entertain
my doubts. Patience must still hold on, or you will abandon me in
despair."
"I will continue to hope, even against hope; because I know there
is an unseen power which is capable of effecting such a
transformation, as I devoutly trust may yet be accomplished in you."
THE EFFECT OF A WORD SPOKEN IN
SEASON.
Not long after I had returned home, and was again busily
engaged in my pastoral duties, I received a letter,
informing me of the last illness and death of an
esteemed friend and occasional correspondent, Mrs.
Hastings. Her history is an interesting one, and aptly
illustrates the effect of a word spoken in season.
"You must often," says Dr. Chalmers, "have been sensible, in the
course of your history, how big, and how important the
consequences were, that emanated from one event, which in itself
was insignificant—how on the slightest accidents the greatest
interests were suspended—how, moving apparently at random, you
met with people, or with occasions, that gave rise, perhaps, to far
the most memorable passages in your life—how the very street in
which you chanced to move, brought you into contact with
invitations and appointments, or proposals of some sort, which
brought results of magnitude along with them; insomuch that the
colour and direction of your whole futurity have turned on what,
apart from this mighty bearing, would have been the veriest trifle in
the world. A word—a thought—an unforeseen emotion—an event of
paltriest dimensions in itself—may be the germ of an influence wide
as a continent, and lasting as a thousand years—may, in fact,
change the current and complexion of a person's social history and
character, and lead to consequences which shall be durable as
eternity."
Many years ago, I was unexpectedly called to London, on a matter
of great emergency. My travelling companion, for part of the way,
was a lady, attired in deep mourning. I endeavoured to draw her into
conversation, by referring to the beautiful scenery, and other
common-place topics, but I could not succeed. At length, on seeing
her drop a tear, which she endeavoured to conceal, I said, "This
world is rightly denominated a valley of weeping."
"Yes, Sir, it is," replied the stranger. "I hope you will excuse my
weakness. I have sustained the greatest loss that can ever befall a
woman. I am a widow. I had one of the best of husbands; but cruel
fate tore him from me, even without permitting me to see him, till
his corpse was rudely exposed before me."
She then told me that her husband left her early one morning to
go out shooting, but, on passing through a hedge, it is supposed,
the trigger of his gun got entangled in the briars, as he was found,
an hour after the report had been heard, lying on his face, with his
gun by his side, and his dogs crouching before and behind him, as
though their master was asleep.
"Since that fatal hour, Sir, I have not had one pleasant feeling in
my desolate heart; and now I have left a spot on which nature has
lavished her beauties, to seek a tranquil death in some distant
shade."
"But, Madam, do you never expect to see another happy day?"
"No, Sir, never! No, never! I have tried every expedient in my
power, but they have all failed. I have been to Bath, to Cheltenham,
to Brighton, and have travelled on the Continent. I have read the
most popular novels of the English and the French schools; but all is
useless—mine is a hopeless case."
"No, Madam, it may not be hopeless. I can direct you to a source
of consolation which you have not yet thought of."
"Indeed, Sir; then I'll try it. I would freely part with wealth for
mental ease; for wealth, without happiness, is but an aggravation of
misery."
"I would recommend you, Madam, to read the Bible. That book
was composed for the express purpose of promoting our happiness;
and if you read it with attention, and pray for wisdom to understand
it, and for a disposition to receive the truths which it reveals, you will
find that it will do you more essential good than all the expedients
which you have been trying."
"If, Sir, I had not received a favourable impression of your
benevolent disposition, I really should imagine that you were
disposed to turn my intense grief into ridicule. Read the Bible! Why,
Sir, what is there in that obsolete book to interest me?"
"No, Madam; the book is not obsolete, and never will be, as long
as human misery abounds in the world. That book has healed
wounds as deep as yours, and mitigated sorrows no less poignant;
and, if you examine it, you may find it as a well-spring of life to your
withered happiness."
"Your advice, Sir, is prompted, I have no doubt, by the kindest
sympathy; but my heart instinctively recoils from adopting it."
"Why, Madam?"
"Because I cannot conceive how the reading of a book, which I
have always regarded as a collection of legendary tales, can remove
or assuage such sorrows as wring my spirit. I have neither faith nor
taste for such reading."
"Have you ever read the Bible, Madam?"
"O no, Sir, never! I may have read some passages as a school
lesson, but I don't remember any. My mother died when I was but a
little girl. From what I have heard an old servant say, I believe that
she was fond of the Bible; but my father abhorred it, and he trained
me to abhor it. He used to call it the Grand Mogul of superstition. Its
style of composition, I have heard him say, is as offensive to correct
taste, as its sentiments are revolting to a cultivated mind."
"If you will permit me, Madam (taking out my little pocket Bible
while speaking), I will read you a few passages, and then you can
judge how far your belief is supported by evidence."
She bowed assent, and I then read the twenty-third psalm. I saw,
by the expression of her countenance, that the chaste imagery of
the psalmist pleased her; but before we could interchange any
remarks the horn blew, and the mail suddenly stopped. However,
when she alighted to step into the carriage which was in waiting to
receive her, she said, in a tone of subdued seriousness, "I will follow
your advice, Sir, and read the Bible to form my own judgment of its
character and tendencies; and if you will favour me with your card
(which I gave her) I may, possibly, some day let you know the
result, especially if it should be what, I do not doubt, you wish it
may be."
A long period had elapsed after this occurrence took place, and it
had nearly passed from my recollection, when it was very
unexpectedly revived by a letter from the lady. The letter was
subscribed Susannah Hastings, and, after calling to remembrance
the circumstances in which we had met, she proceeded to give me a
general outline of her subsequent history, accompanied by an
interesting account of her severe mental conflicts in her spiritual
inquiries, and a pressing invitation to call and see her, should I ever
pay a visit to London, where she then resided. I acknowledged the
receipt of the letter, congratulated her on the great moral and
spiritual change through which she had passed, and stated that she
might expect to see me very soon. Not long after that I had occasion
to be in London. Within a few days after my arrival, I called on her,
and had from her own lips a more detailed account of the process of
her conversion from darkness to light, than she had given me in her
letter. My visits were repeated during my sojourn there, and since
then we kept up an occasional correspondence. From these two
sources of information—her letters and her verbal communications—
I am able to give a finished sketch of her somewhat marvellous, if
not romantic history.
Having entertained, from early childhood, a belief that the Bible
was a very objectionable book, both in point of sentiment and style
of composition, she says, in her first letter, "I was not only surprised
but delighted, by your reading the twenty-third psalm. I saw the
rural scene vividly depicted; the sheep feeding in the green
meadows, while the shepherd was reclining on the bank of the
gently flowing stream, watching the glad movements of the sportive
lambs, as the evening sun glided in noiseless splendour through the
sky. I at once resolved to purchase a Bible, thinking, then, that it
was merely a work of the imagination—an antique relic of some
early poetic age." But on her arrival in London, she was prevented
from doing this so soon as she intended, in consequence of the
assiduous attentions of her friends, who were ceaseless in their
efforts to raise her drooping spirits; naturally thinking that, if they
could succeed in doing so, she would get reconciled to her fate, and
again enjoy life. Hence she was lured from one gay scene to another
still more exciting, and every expedient was adopted which ingenuity
could devise, to amuse and gratify her. But she soon found, that
neither the opera, nor the theatre, nor the fascinations of private
parties, could assuage the tumultuous agitations of her heart. "I
moved amongst them," she said, "more like an automaton than a
living being who felt any pleasure in existence."
An incident now occurred, that led her into a new train of thought,
which proved the beginning of an eventful issue in the history of her
life. On passing her bookseller's, she looked in, to inquire about a
new novel, which she had seen announced as just issued from the
press. There she saw on the counter a small Bible, which brought
our conversation in the stage coach to her remembrance, and she
purchased it. In her first letter, she says, "I soon found the twenty-
third psalm, and as I re-perused it, its poetic imagery appeared to
my mind more beautiful than ever. I then turned to Psalm ciii., which
I read with more solemnity of feeling. It made me think of myself,
and it brought me imperceptibly into contact with God. I was
delighted by his assumption of the paternal character. This was the
first time in my life I felt any force, or perceived any intelligible
meaning, in the petition in the Lord's Prayer—Our Father, who art in
heaven; but yet my perceptions of its meaning were very vague and
indefinite. They did not excite any emotions of love, or of gratitude,
or filial trust; but they left a strong impression on my mind. It was a
strange and startling impression, that, though an inhabitant of earth,
I was moving towards another world. I am sure I had not thought so
much about God or another world all my life, as I thought that night,
and particularly when my head was on my pillow. My day-thoughts
came up in my dreams, and in a more lucid form, and produced a
more powerful effect. When I awoke in the morning, I felt a strange
sensation of mental ease, which greatly astonished me, as I knew
not by what cause it had been produced. The agitating forces of
bitter grief and sullen discontent were in a state of quietude; and
though not really happy, yet my spirits were buoyant, rising at times
to cheerfulness."
At this juncture she had to fulfil a long-standing engagement—to
accompany a party of friends on a tour to the north; and though she
endeavoured to excuse herself, yet she felt compelled to yield, as
the excursion had been planned principally on her account. When
alluding to this excursion, at my first interview with her, she said:
—"At an earlier period of my life, I should have been delighted,
when wandering through the Trosachs or sailing on Lochlomond,
when gazing on the wonders of Staffa or surveying the magnificent
scene from the top of Goatfell; but my mental susceptibilities were
unstrung, and I felt no response to the scenes of beauty and
grandeur which I beheld. But never shall I forget the little
unobtrusive inn at Brodick, nor my neat little bed-room there, as I
there saw a Bible, the first I had seen since I left home. I sat me
down, and, in addition to the two psalms that had become favourites
with me, I read Psalm cvii., which greatly excited me, as it revived
the fearful emotions of the preceding day, when, on nearing Arran,
we had to encounter a terrific storm."
On her return home, she resumed her reading of the Scriptures,
and passed from the Psalms to the Prophecies of Isaiah. The bold
imagery of the prophet delighted her, but she could not trace its
application, or its meaning; and, in reference to his sixth chapter,
she was greatly perplexed to decide whether it was a poetical fiction,
or a real description of heaven. "My first course of reading," she says
in her letter, "left an impression on my mind that we have not, in any
of the walks of literature, such a class of men as the writers of the
Bible. These men possess some rare endowments; they appear to
know more about God and another world than any other writers
whose works I have ever read. There is a majestic simplicity, and
sublime grandeur, in all their statements and descriptions of the
unknown world, and its great spirits."
Having no one to guide her in her study of the Scriptures, her
reading was very desultory; she passed from one book to another in
great mental perplexity, and could not discover any obvious
connection between them, resembling the continuity preserved in
other works with which she was familiar. At length she turned to
Paul's Epistles, but they were dark and mystical, and rather repulsive
to her taste, being so unlike the poetic and the prophetic books; to
her mind they presented no sublimity or beauty; and yet she
admitted, it was a strange repulsiveness—it gave her no offence, or
even distaste to the Bible. "I now," she adds, "began reading the
Gospels. They were more intelligible. The narratives pleased me. I
was delighted with some of the scenes, particularly the Prodigal Son,
and the Pharisee and Publican in the Temple. The tales interested
me; they seemed to wear the air of truthfulness, and yet at times I
thought them inventions. The history of Jesus Christ very soon took
a strong hold of my imagination, and I soon began to admire the
fine blending of majesty and meekness, of dignity and tenderness,
of lofty bearing, which no insults could disturb, and sweet
compassion, which his character so broadly exhibits. Yes, I often
said, he is a real person, for no human genius could invent such a
person, or draw such a character. I followed him through the dark
period of his agonizing sufferings, from his prostration in the garden
to Calvary, where he was crucified. I wept when I saw him on the
cross."
In one of the interviews I had with her, she said, that two things
both surprised and perplexed her. She was at a loss to conceive the
reason why his countrymen treated Jesus Christ with so much
unkindness and cruelty, when he was such an extraordinary
benefactor, and so benevolent—going about doing them good,
healing their sick, restoring their injured senses of sight and hearing,
and even raising their dead. The other thing that surprised and
perplexed her was, that he should continue to live amongst them,
when they were so rude in their manners, and insolent in their
speech, and when he knew they were often plotting to take away his
life. Why did he not leave them, and go and live amongst some
more humane and generous people, who would return such a style
of treatment by courtesy and gratitude? The more she thought of
these things, the more she was perplexed. She felt so bewildered,
that she put her Bible in her book-case, under an impression she
should never be able to understand it. And yet she could not let it
remain there long. Her curiosity was too much excited, and her self-
imposed prohibition tended to increase her eager solicitude to make
out the meaning of what she read. Hence she resumed her reading
exercise; and on going through the Gospel of John very carefully, a
ray of light fell on one fact in the history of Jesus Christ, which,
while it increased her perplexity, opened the way towards a
discovery to be made in some future stages of her inquiry. The fact
was this: she perceived that, when in conversation with his disciples,
he occasionally made emphatic allusions to the necessity of his
death. This she thought very strange, as it was a case without a
parallel within the compass of her reading. However, it fixed her
attention; and, on a more minute examination, she perceived that he
professed to come from heaven, and avowed his intention of
returning thither; and that he spoke of dying, as though he had a
stronger interest in death than in life, foretelling to his disciples the
agonizing death he was to die (Matt. xx. 17-19). His not recoiling
from such a death, and doing everything in his power to escape it,
led her to think that he was some incarnate being of a peculiar
order, who had some special mission to fulfil, and yet she could not
imagine what that mission could be—a mission, depending for its
accomplishment on death, rather than on life, appeared to her a
mystery too profound for human ingenuity to unravel. "At length,"
and I cannot do better than quote from her letter, she says, "a
thought struck me and I acted on it, and the labour of doing so
produced a momentary suspension of my oppressive anxiety. I
arranged, as well as I could, some of the passages which appeared
to assign the reasons for Christ's death, to which he often alluded,
particularly the following:—'Even as the Son of man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for
many' (Matt. xx. 28). 'I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep.' 'As the Father knoweth me, even so
know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.' 'Therefore
doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might
take it again.' 'No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This
commandment have I received of my Father' (John x. 11, 15, 17,
18). I endeavoured to work out an intelligible meaning from these
passages, but I could not. A mysticism enveloped them which I
could not penetrate. I wanted a living expositor. I longed for an
interview with you, and more than once half-resolved to come and
see you, as, though you were a stranger, I felt you were a friend,
and I knew no other whom I could consult. I had no book in my
library which gave me any help, and I knew not what book to inquire
for, if I applied to my bookseller. No language can depict the excited
state of my heart. I felt intuitively assured there was some latent
meaning in these mysterious sayings of Jesus Christ, or he would
not have uttered them. He was too wise and too good to utter what
was false or foolish. But I could not trace out the clue of discovery.
This at times repulsed me, but, on cool reflection, it appeared like a
silent proof that the Bible was not a book of human invention, as, in
that case, I thought, by dint of application, I should be able to
decipher its meaning. One thing now surprises me, and that is, that,
while cherishing the idea that the Bible was a Divine book, rather
than a human one, I never thought of lifting up my heart in prayer
to God for wisdom and grace to understand it."
In this state of painful bewilderment, depressed by repeated
failures in her efforts to acquire the knowledge which she deemed
essential to her happiness, yet resolutely determined to prosecute
her inquiries, she wrote to her uncle, a clergyman of the Church of
England, stating her case, with its painful perplexities, and desiring
his sympathy and advice. He replied, expressing some surprise at
the receipt of such a letter, and intimating his apprehension that she
had been hearing some methodistical or evangelical preaching,
which he denounced as a fatal heresy, more calculated to drive
people into a state of derangement, than to advance them in virtue
or in happiness. He assured her that, as she had been, in baptism,
made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the
kingdom of heaven, she need not cherish any anxieties about her
spiritual safety or final salvation. He advised her to banish the
absurd chimæras, which were disquieting her, and go and take the
sacrament, which, he said, was the spiritual nourishment which
Almighty God had provided to sustain the inner life of the soul; and,
in addition, he recommended her to mingle rather more in the circles
of gaiety, so as to drive away her melancholy ideas. This letter was
both mystical and unsatisfactory. It contradicted her experience, and
she felt astonished that a clergyman should advise her to go more
frequently into the gay world. "I knew," she said, "that my own
ideas were not fanciful, but the vague conceptions of some great
truths of the Bible; and I felt as unable to banish them from my
heart, as a person, when asleep, feels unable to banish the dreams
which disquiet him." However, she decided on joining in the
communion; and being then at Bath, away from all her gay friends,
she went to church, and took the sacrament—a thing she had never
done before. But it had no tranquillizing effect; indeed, it increased
her perplexity, and for awhile made her think that her case was a
hopeless one, and that it would be better for her to abandon all
further solicitude and inquiries, than to cherish and prosecute them.
But she could not bring herself to such a decision; and the more she
laboured to do so, the more anxious she became to get the clue of
discovery, which she thought was to be found somewhere. In this
state of intense anxiety and great depression, she returned to her
town residence. Her friends were more assiduous to please than
ever; but some were mortified, and others were offended, because
she would not again enter into the gay scenes and habits of former
times; occasionally they hinted their apprehensions that she would
soon turn an Evangelical, and become as scrupulous and devout as
any of the sect. These sarcasms, in conjunction with her uncle's
letter, suggested to her the idea of going to some church, where an
evangelical minister did duty, thinking it possible that he might give
her the explanation she so much desired; but she long hesitated
about doing this, as she had not gone to any place of public worship
for many years, with the exception of the time when she took the
sacrament at Bath. Her desire at length became so strong, that one
Sunday morning she left home, not knowing where to go; but, on
passing along the street, she saw some respectable and sedate-
looking people going into a church, whither she followed them. This
church was a Dissenting chapel, which, she said, she should not
have entered if she had known it, as she had been accustomed to
hear Dissenters spoken of as an uneducated and uncouth people.
She felt a strange sensation on seeing the clergyman ascend the
pulpit in a plain black coat, instead of going into the reading-desk in
a white surplice; but the soft melody of the singing, and the
emphatic solemnity of his style of reading the Scriptures, calmed her
momentary agitation, and she listened to his prayer with devout
seriousness. This was the first extempore prayer she had ever
heard; and when speaking of it, in one of our interviews, she
remarked that, in one particular, it bore a resemblance to her Bible
reading—parts were plain and intelligible, and parts were under a
veil of mysteriousness. The minister seemed to know the desires and
emotions that were stirring within her, and he expressed them with
so much accuracy and force, that it greatly astonished her. "Had I
confessed to him," she remarked, "he could not have had a more
perfect knowledge of what was passing in my mind."
When God has any special design to accomplish, we may often
trace the harmonious conjunction of the various agents and agencies
which he employs in effecting it. The Ethiopian eunuch was sitting in
his chariot, reading the prophet Esaias, when Philip, under a Divine
impulse, went and seated himself by his side. The passage he was
reading was veiled in darkness, and he asked for an explanation,
which was immediately given, understood, and felt; the moral
transformation took place by the concurring action of Divine power;
he avowed his newly originated faith; was baptized, and went on his
way rejoicing—the visible agent of the great transaction
disappearing, that the tribute of adoring gratitude might be offered
up exclusively to the God of all grace. We pass from this wondrous
scene to another, stamped with the same moral insignia, though not
quite so obviously conspicuous. Here is a person of superior
intelligence, who has long been labouring, by her own unaided
reason, to decipher the hidden mysteries of the truth as it is in
Jesus, and labouring in vain. She leaves her own home on a Sabbath
morning in quest of a living expositor, yet not knowing where to find
one. An unseen hand guides her to a chapel, which she would have
disdained to enter had she known its denominational character. Her
latent prejudices spring up into powerful action when she observes a
slight deviation in the order of the service from that with which her
eye was once familiar; and yet they are overcome by a devotional
exercise, which surprised her by its novelty, while it strongly
interested her by its appropriateness. The question she left home to
have solved is a simple, yet a very important one; and on its solution
her happiness is dependent. The second hymn is sung. The minister
rises in his pulpit; his Bible is open before him, and, after a short
pause, he announces his text, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he
should die" (John xii. 32, 33). The sketch he gives of the crucifixion
is thrilling; and many weep while he presents to their view the chief
actors who performed their parts on this tragical occasion. Mrs.
Hastings also weeps. The preacher now passes from description to
explanation; from a detailed statement of facts, to an elucidation of
the design for which the Son of God groaned, and bled, and died.
She listens with breathless attention, as he unravels the thread of
mystery which ran through all the passages of the Bible which she
had arranged and studied, without perceiving their import. "I felt,"
she said, "intuitively assured, when he entered on this part of his
subject, that the light of explanation was coming; and I was
intensely eager to catch every utterance. I now perceived that the
death of Jesus Christ was a voluntary ransom, to redeem and to
save the lost and the guilty. The first part of his sermon awakened
my sympathy; the latter part touched another chord of my heart. I
wept again; but from a different cause. My sins made me weep; and
the love of Christ in dying to expiate them, made me weep—and I
now wept as I had never wept before. It was with some difficulty I
could refrain weeping, even when the clergyman had finished his
sermon, which lasted rather more than an hour. I could have
listened to him much longer. I never knew time go so rapidly. I left
the hallowed place with reluctance, thinking, as I paced back to my
home, that I was now entering as into a new world of existence,
abounding with mystic, yet intelligible wonders. I was in a tumult of
emotion, yet it was a calm ecstasy of feeling. I clasped my Bible, and
pressed it to my bosom. I thought of your words, which I never
forgot, though, when I first heard them, they sounded in my ear as
the mockery of grief:—'That book has healed wounds as deep as
yours; and if you examine it, you will find it a well-spring of life to
your withered happiness.' I now can attest the truth of your
declaration. I have tasted its sweet waters; they are indeed the
waters of life. None other so sweet or powerful. I can now respond
to the truthfulness of the following paraphrase of Dr. Watts, whom I
now prefer to Byron or Wordsworth—he is the poet of the heart
weighed down by sorrow and anxiety:—

'Lord, I have made thy word my choice,

My lasting heritage:
There shall my noblest powers rejoice,
My warmest thoughts engage.

'The best relief that mourners have,

It makes our sorrows bless'd:
Our fairest hopes beyond the grave,
And our eternal rest.'"

I was happy to find that she had withdrawn from the gay circles of
fashion, and, while she kept up a partial intimacy with some of her
former associates, her spirit and example bore a testimony against
their vain and ensnaring pursuits. She had put on a religious
profession, and felt it to be an honour to obtain membership with
the church of which her spiritual counsellor and guide was the
pastor. This gave great offence to her clerical uncle, and also to
some of her other relatives who resided in London, but she was too
independent in spirit to submit to the arbitrary control of those who
were the secret enemies of the cross of Christ; and though she did
not court reproach as a desirable test of principle, yet she gave
proof, by her steadfastness in the faith, and the amiable placidity of
her temper, that it possessed no power to warp her judgment or
disturb her peace. She was too retiring in her habits to take an
active part in any of the public institutions connected with the
church and congregation of which she was a member, but she
became a generous contributor to their funds, doing good and
working righteousness, not desiring to be seen of men—a devout
woman, who feared God above many. She might again and again
have changed her widowed state, and with flattering prospect of
distinction and happiness, but she had fully made up her mind, that
she would never put off the weeds of widowhood till the set time
came when she was to pass away from earth, to be arrayed in the
vestments of the heavenly world. She cherished through every stage
of life the memory of her dear departed husband with an intensity of
feeling which appeared to increase as she advanced in years. To the
poor of the household of faith she was a warm-hearted and liberal
benefactor; in no exercise did she take more delight than in visiting
the sick and afflicted; and though a Dissenter, she was free from
bigotry and prejudice, and could say, with the apostle, "Grace be
with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen"
(Eph. vi. 24).
Our correspondence was kept up for a number of years, and in
one of her last letters she says:—"I am truly thankful to God that he
gave me grace to withdraw from the gay world. It is altogether a
gorgeous sham—a fascinating delusion; felt as such even by those
who are spell-bound by its charms. I often look back, dear Sir, with
astonishment and gratitude, to our casual meeting in the stage
coach, which has proved to me the most eventful and the most
important occurrence of my life. It has been the introduction of a
new era in my history. The mystery of my irreparable loss is now
explained. The husband of my devoted attachment was smitten, and
died. He was taken from me without my being permitted to say
farewell, and, even to this hour, I feel a bitter pang when I think of
his melancholy end. Had he been spared to feel what I have felt of
spiritual sorrow, and of spiritual consolation and hope, we should
have lived in the sweet anticipations of eternal life. I pine, but I dare
not murmur. The past is the fearful thunder-storm of desolation,
from which, praise be to God, I have now emerged, and enjoy the
brightness and calm of a serene and unclouded sky.
"When, my dear Sir, I contrast, as I often do, my present, with my
former self—my present, with my former tastes—my present, with
my former habits, and my present bright prospects of immortality
with my former prospects, overshadowed by the deep gloom of
ceaseless sorrow—I appear a wonder to myself. I am the same
person I was when I repelled your advice to read the Bible, thinking
it a piece of wild fanaticism; but how changed am I now in heart and
feeling—become, I trust, a new creature in Christ Jesus." Psalm ciii.
1-5.
My friend who announced to me the decease of Mrs. Hastings,
informed me that her preceding illness was not of long duration, nor
was it attended by any severe physical sufferings. During its
continuance, her mind was kept in perfect peace; and at times, she
felt a joy unspeakable in anticipation of beholding the Son of God,
who was crucified on Calvary, seated on his celestial throne; and of
mingling with the countless myriads, in offering their adorations and
praises. Her last intelligible utterance was, "Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit;" and, after a slight convulsive struggle, she cast one look on
the friend standing by her side, and then expired.
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