AN INTERESTING AND STIRRING CONVERSATION BETWEEN A RC ARCHBISHOP
AND JAMES HALDANE, A NOTED PROTESTANT EVANGELIST
Taken from "The lives of Robert and James Haldane" by Alexander Haldane (Banner of Truth Trust: pp 406-409)
In
1816 Mr. James Haldane spent some weeks at Gilsland, in Cumberland, in
the hope of recruiting his wife's drooping health. On that occasion he
met a well-known Roman Catholic Archbishop, the late Dr. Everard,
titular of Cashel. He was one of the old school of Irish priests,
before the well-educated and well-mannered race, trained in France, had
been exchanged for the coarser and more turbulent pupils of the College
of Maynooth. Dr. Everard was a man of very cultivated mind, who had
lived in the families of some of the highest English aristocracy, and
had seen much of the world. His character was described in glowing
colours by Lord Glenelg, in one of his speeches in favour of what was
called Roman Catholic emancipation. At first he appeared at the hotel
simply as Mr. Everard; and the only circumstance which created any
suspicion, in regard to his rank, was the awe with which he was
obviously regarded by a priest, who was also staying at the hotel, and
whose reserved conversation and altered habits denoted a restraint,
which he had not previously indicated.
On
the very first day that they met at table, Dr. Everard singled out Mr.
James Haldane from the crowd of visitors, and in the evening made up to
him and engaged him in very interesting conversation. Next day his
attentions became more marked, and, at dinner, it appeared that the
Doctor's servant had received orders to wait on Mr. and Mrs. Haldane as
much as on himself. The intimacy increased, and every day hours were
spent in the walks or drives around Gilsland, discussing the claims of
the Romish Church and the doctrines of the Gospel. Mighty in the
Scriptures, and armed in Christian panoply, Mr. James Haldane repelled
every argument drawn from the traditions of the Church or the authority
of man; and, on the other hand, assured his new acquaintance, that if
Romanists refused an appeal "to the law and to the testimony," it must
be because there was no light in them. These friendly discussions were
carried on with intense earnestness. and in a spirit that inspired
mutual respect. Dr. Everard confidentially disclosed his rank and
position in the Romish Church, but solemnly appealed to heaven, that he
sought only the truth, and was indifferent to all secular
considerations. The conversations became daily more interesting.
On
the Lord's-day Mr. James Haldane preached in the assembly-room. Before
the service, Dr. Everard begged the daughter of his Protestant friend
to persuade her father to preach in the drawing-room, and tell him how
much he himself desired to listen. After the service was over, Dr.
Everard asked why his request had not been complied with, and why the
sermon had not been preached in the drawing room, "where," he said, "I
could have remained and listened without any breach of discipline or
canonical law, although, of course, it was impossible to follow you to
another place." It was explained that many servants and cottagers would
have been excluded from hearing, had he conducted the service in the
drawing-room, but he offered to go over all the leading topics of his
discourse. This he did, and discussed them with his usual candour.
A
few days before he left Gilsland, Dr. Everard confined himself to his
room and did not appear in public. He afterwards sought a parting
interview with his Protestant friend; it was at once solemn and
affecting. The Archbishop told Mr. James Haldane that the conversations
he had enjoyed with him, and particularly his appeals to the Bible, had
shaken him more than anything he had ever before heard, and that they
had made him very uneasy; that he had, therefore, determined, with
fasting and prayer, once more to seek counsel of God, in order that his
error, if he were in error, might be shown to him. He added, that his
meditations, during his hours of fasting, and retirement, had led him
to this train of thought: "Here is a man who is certainly mighty in the
Scriptures, but who interprets the Bible for himself and depends on his
own private judgement. The case is different with myself. If I err, I
err with a long line of holy men who have lived and died in the bosom
of the Catholic Church." Mr. James Haldane endeavoured to show the
danger of trusting to the example or opinions of fallible men, although
some of those named, such as Pascal and Fenelon, had been themselves
persecuted for their Protestant tendencies; and he contrasted the
conclusions based on the shifting sands of human opinion, with the
certainty that belongs to the written Word of God, read by the light of
God's Holy Spirit shining on its pages. He also said something about
"the traditions of the apostles." "What," said Dr. Everard, 'do you
speak of traditions? I had thought you discarded them entirely." The
reply was, "The traditions of fallible men I reject, but the traditions
of the apostles, as recorded by the finger of inspiration, are to be
received as every other part of the inspired Word of God." Mr. James
Haldane added, "Pardon me, but I must tell you, in faithfulness and
love, that it is my firm conviction, that the Church which you so much
esteem is no other than the woman which the apostle John beheld in the
Apocalypse " drunken with the blood of the saints and martyrs of
Jesus.'" Again he said, "Do not think me rude." The Archbishop
affectionately pressed his hand, and said, "No, my dear Sir; I know you
too well to think so. I am persuaded that you only speak for my good."
The necessity of further investigation of the Bible with prayer, was
once more urged on the amiable Prelate. A compliance with this request
was promised, coupled with an urgent entreaty that his Protestant
friend would do the same. Mr. James Haldane replied that his
convictions were based upon a rock too solid to be shaken, and one
which would admit of being again and again examined with minute
attention. But he reminded Dr. Everard, that all the claims of Popery
rested on human testimony; on principles that would not bear the light
of God's Word, and around which there was, at best, a lurid halo of
doubt and uncertainty.
They
parted with mutual expressions of regard, and Dr. Everard died a few
years afterwards, at Cashel, where there were whispers in the
neighbourhood, which intimated that his dying room was carefully
watched to prevent the intrusion of those whose presence was not
desired, and that the mystery which was kept up, as to his illness,
arose from suspicions that he did not continue steadfast in the Romish
faith. The deathbed of the celebrated Bishop Doyle, at Carlow, was
attended with similar and even darker suspicions, some of which have
been since confirmed by the touching narrative published by his amiable
wards, who were not suffered to enter his chamber until the lifeless
corpse was laid out in state, in his Episcopal robes, attended by
monks, with lighted torches, chanting his requiem, amidst all that
pompous ceremonial with which Rome strives to make the senses the
slaves of the imagination.
THE END