SIR
ROBERT ANDERSON
Secret Service Theologian
BIOGRAPHY
Chapter
Two
GOSPEL COMMANDO OPERATIONS IN IRELAND
Oh, send me forth,
my Saviour;
Oh, send me for Thy glory, Thy glory.
Let not myself; my
carnal self; self-seeking self,
Come twixt me and Thy glory.
Oh,
mortify it, mortify it; put it down, my Saviour;
Exalt Thyself alone.
Lift high the banner of the Cross, and in its folds
Conceal Thy
standard-bearer.
(A letter from Robert Anderson to his home in 1863 ends
with this verse.)
If you give up your personality to Him, He will not
conform it to your neighbours. He prefers that it should be your own, for
He has a niche for you which nobody else can fill.
ALEXANDER SMELLIE.
IN the aftermath of the revival which spread through many
parts of Ireland in the years 1859 and 1860 lay-preaching became a regular
practice. No one had heard of commando raids eighty years ago, but the term
seems a not inapt one for the sudden incursions of teams of two or three laymen
into towns and country districts with the one object of preaching the Gospel,
attacking strongholds of evil or of apathy and indifference, and leading men
and women into new life, light and liberty.
This sometimes entailed going
where they were quite unknown and unheralded. They might receive the blessing
and cooperation of the local clergy and ministers; but not infrequently open or
veiled hostility had to be faced. When the use of Church buildings was not
granted, meetings were held in schoolrooms, court-houses or jury-rooms, in
private houses, cottages or barns, once at least in a ballroom, at times in the
open air.
In 1862, the year in which he took his degree at Trinity, my
father first went on one of these preaching tours in the south of Ireland.
George F. Trench, the friend who led him into the work, was a cousin of
Townsend Trench, estate agent to the Marquess of Lansdowne. Towny,
himself one of the best-known men in the south, had recently been converted and
was preaching with all the energy and originality of a striking personality.
Incidentally, the Trenches were related to my mother, whom in those days my
father did not yet know. George Trench was her cousin; in after years he
married as his second wife, Edith Lee Anderson, my fathers niece, a fresh
link between the families being thus formed.
An unusual feature of the
revival movement in County Kerry was that amongst the first to be influenced
were some of the landed gentry. Trench and Anderson were welcomed by them, and
life-long friendships were formed by my father with Richard Mahony of Dromore
Castle, Lindsay Talbot-Crosbie of Ardfert Abbey, and F. C. Bland of Derryquin
Castle. Later on, through the preaching of Thomas Weldon Trench, the revival
spread to Sligo, and George Trench went there to carry on the work, again
asking my father to join him. The clergy and ministers were unsympathetic. Not
only so, but the evangelists were treated to a crusade of abuse and ridicule in
a local newspaper which accused them of being impostors preaching for filthy
lucres sake and getting their salaries from a committee in London. One
issue published a letter, said to have been picked up on the road, in which
they were taken to task for embezzling the contents of their money-boxes !
Worse still, there appeared a seemingly genuine account of their getting drunk
at a picnic
When Trench had to return home owing to ill-health, some
doggerel verses described the quarrel which led "the Trencher" to desert his
pal "Handy Andy." This is all mentioned to show how unbefriended they were.
However, when my father returned to Sligo later in a professional capacity to
conduct an election, that editor made an abject apology. But at the time no
notice was taken of the attacks. They only served to advertise the meetings, so
that not a few attended out of curiosity or looking for amusement. But no
interruption or annoyance came from the people, and spiritual power was
continually manifested in conversions.
"I confess, however," wrote my
father long afterwards, "that I had some misgivings when my friend left me; for
he had a charming presence, a gift of song and a gift of
prayer, whereas I had none of these advantages." The meetings, indeed,
were then almost entirely lacking in the attractions now deemed essential in an
evangelistic mission. But the Gospel proved indeed " the power of God unto
salvation." Everywhere in Sligo and later in Mayo the meetings were crowded,
conversions and changed lives resulting. "It is grand the matter-of-fact way
the people take it all," he wrote at the time ; " there is no excitement, but
when asked, do they know the Lord, they say: No, Im afraid not, but
I want to. They take the truth on the authority of the Word; and the next
thing is: Would you speak to this person? Some of them are working
for the Lord before they have known Him an hour." He wrote later from the north
of Ireland,
"I think nowhere is there so much to rejoice over as in Sligo
and Mayo. It is astonishing when I think of the people who have been saved,
among them some of the most influential men in the county. Sir Richard
ODonnell told me this about Colonel X, who is well known as one of the
hardest, cleverest men of the world that could be found. At the last Assizes in
Castlebar he said to my friend in the Grand Jury Room: ODonnell,
what a happy thing it is to know Christ! Sir Richard was amazed and asked
him how he knew anything about that, and Colonel X told him it was from the
preaching of those gentlemen as they call us. I have just got a
letter from one of that circle in which he says : Do you remember the
9th October, 1864? It was the evening you first preached in Ballina; what a
time of blessing it was! You were the first to bring us the message of a full
and free salvation, and the way you preached that glorious truth we can never
forget.
A notable feature of the work is shown by a letter from one
who, after telling of his own conversion, goes on to say:
"My four sisters
and brother, four cousins, and a number of my acquaintances are now rejoicing
in the Lord. It does not seem so strange that persons who have made themselves
infamous by a life of immorality should awaken to a consciousness of their lost
state. But it is passing strange that those who are looked upon by their
friends and perhaps by themselves as religious should be brought to thorough
conviction that, with all their amiability, morality and religion, they were
sinners in the sight of God, being without Christ."
A sidelight on the
experiences met with at times is given in this Sligo story told by my
father:
"Though we had good lodgings our comfort was neglected, for the
landlady, who was English and the widow of a Frenchman had no Irish heartiness
in her composition; and she objected to serving meals at irregular hours. On
the Saturday evening after my friend had left I had a meeting in a village 2
miles out; and on my return after a cold drive on an outside car I found an
empty grate, and no supper save some bread and butter and a jug of cold water.
I went to bed hungry and shivering, feeling that in a humble way I was entitled
to be reckoned among the martyrs ! " (Now for the sequel.) "The following
Saturday night, when I got back from that same drive, great was my surprise and
delight at finding a cheerful fire and a hot supper. And the stern
landlady face was softened by blushes and a pleasing smile! Madame
Leger had been at my meeting the previous evening and had heard and received
the Gospel."
The account thus far given relates to work which continued at
intervals during the years 1862 to 1865, when my father was between twenty-one
and twenty-four years of age. A few extracts from his diaries are of interest.
In 1862 one finds
"Went to Athy with George Trench. Dinner at 3.30.
Croquet, tea and meeting in Corn Exchange. Spoke on i John iv. 17 as to
position of a Christian. Caused great row among the Methodists! A lot of the
young fellows came in for a grind on the Risen Life."
It appears, however,
from his diary for that year that a few days later he "preached in Methodist
House at Portarlington," and that during nine and a half weeks of the summer he
held fifty-one meetings alone or with other speakers. Irish readers may like to
know some of the places visited. These include Athy, Portarlington, Tullamore,
Frankfort, Carlow, Mallow, Tralee, Tarbert, Kilkee, Kilrush, Mountmellick,
Carbery, Edenderry, and a dozen others. The diary for 1863 has this note:
(June 20.) "At Court 11 to 3. About 40 of us dined at the Bewleys, Willow Park.
Conference in the evening on the Lords Supper."
He was called to the
Irish Bar in 1863 on his twenty-second birthday, and went on the North-West
Circuit. The diary has such notes as: "Dined with Judges . . . Dined with Bar .
. . Judges dined with us." But there are also reports of meetings at some of
the places already mentioned as well as at Moate, Ferbane, Ballinagore,
Mullingar, Maryboro, Clonaslee, Clara and Mount Lucas. At Cookstown he
addressed a large meeting on the lawn - about 500 present - and there was one
in the Chapel at Stuart Hall at which the Earl of Castlestuart was present.
The 1864 diary, referring to the College Historical Society, notes
"C.H.S. Swell debate; emigration question. FitzGibbon, Plunket, Snagge and
Chadwick; Lawson in Chair. . . . Went to C.H.S. Was elected Auditor. Walked
home with W.; preached to him." A few weeks earlier: "Spoke timidly and
unfaithfully of the Lord to . . ." However, shortly afterwards, he "went round
the big shops leaving handbills for Thursdays meeting."
Soon after
this he went on Circuit again, visiting Cavan, Longford, Enniskillen and Derry;
and there were more meetings in the north at Armagh, Newry, Rostrevor,
Banbridge, Rathfryland, Castleblaney and Crossmaglen. Back in Dublin, the daily
record is : "Court, 11 to 4" ; with notes of meetings at places like Wicklow,
Dalkey and Bray. In the summer he was away again with George Trench to Sligo
for another series of meetings lasting about three months. Brief records in the
diary are
"To Boyle. Meeting in Court House. About 100; no singing and not
much power. A success, but not a triumph. . . . The Devil was at me all day,
but the Lord gave me grace and strength. . . . Not much power; feared that I
went beyond my message. . . . Meeting crammed. Great power of God and wonderful
blessing. About 40 stayed; could not speak to them all, but many received the
truth."
Back to Dublin again in October; at court every day. Then in
December he was off to Boyle, Skreen, Ballina and other old haunts preaching
and encouraging converts. Having to go to Sligo professionally the following
year, he found opportunity for further meetings there, and afterwards in the
north. One entry is: "Much power; people clung to me; sad at leaving them."
More than sixty meetings are recorded during three months of that year.
A
few more of my fathers letters to his home now take up the story. This
from Sligo:
"I never saw such continued uninterrupted blessing. Last
evening at Ballymote I gave the people an opportunity of going, but all sat
down for an after-meeting. Nothing outwardly remarkable, but a calm power with
the truth that I never saw in Dublin meetings."
Again, at Collooney:
"Last night we had about 250 people, nearly the entire Protestant population,
and many R.C.s. Many come from five miles around. This in a place where the
Sunday evening congregation at Church is from 6 to 20. . . . A gentleman said
that a week ago he was the vilest wretch in the county, but now saved. . . .
Rochfort considers this the most remarkable work in Ireland. If the
Lord-Lieutenant got converted and preached in Merrion Hall it would be nothing
to Captain 0. being converted and preaching in this county."
Another
letter tells of a meeting at Cork held at a few hours notice with 500
people who seemed unwilling to leave although they were "dismissed" several
times. A week-end at Ballina in 1864 is described thus
"Saturday, we
started after breakfast for a country meeting at 11 a.m.; drove on to another
at 2 back to dinner at 6 and a meeting in the Glen at 7. Sunday, I preached in
the Glen at 11; then drove to Mullafany for a meeting at 3; back to dinner at
7, late for the evening meeting. Monday, we had two meetings in the Glen."
It is not surprising that the entry "very tired" occurs now and then in the
diaries. There was, too, the inevitable reaction at times
"I have recently
been rather inclined to become weary and faint in my mind, and the Lord has
reproved me by letting me hear of hitherto unknown blessing. Really one gets
used to this and forgets what it is to be in a dry, cold place." The way in
which converts were watched and shepherded is shown in a letter to George
Trench from Sligo:
"BELOVED GEORGE . . . I met Dr. M. and spoke to him, not
knowing who he was; he has been attending the meetings and found peace the
other evening. W. is steady; J. is doing well, reading his Bible, I think. N. I
do believe is converted; On Sunday last he dined at A.s and refused to
touch the whisky though on the table; he has not tasted any for some days and
has been very steady. Will you make it a matter of special prayer that I may be
guided, that I may not let anything induce me to leave till the Lord says,
Go; and that I may hear Him at once and obey when he does say 'Go'"
There had been much to encourage. Mr. Alfred Trench, another
fellow-worker, in a kind and gracious letter to the mother in Dublin, told her
of the way her son was being used and owned of God. He added: "Perhaps it will
be a relief to you to know that he does not think of giving up the
tent-making," this, of course, a reference to Acts xviii. 3, and
xx. 34.
That the thought of whole-time Christian service had come into his
mind is shown by a letter more than thirty years later when my brother Alan
told him he was thinking of entering the ministry of the Presbyterian Church of
England. My father then wrote:
"Your news about your life-work thoughts is
startling. On such a grave matter I would certainly not intervene save by
putting the pros and cons fairly before you. The question is one to be settled
with God, and I would not think of vetoing any purpose of the kind. Had I not
had scruples about taking ordination in either the Presbyterian or Anglican
Church, I myself would now be a Minister instead of a Peeler."
It is hardly
to be wondered at that there had been some anxiety about his apparent disregard
of both his health and his professional prospects. "You need not fret about
me," he wrote to his mother; "I am sure of mutton chops and beef steaks. What I
said was contrasting this fare with that at Newport House, where there was
fresh salmon daily, puddings, pies, melons, etc." And again: "Alfred and I have
just returned from. a walk and a bathe in the sea, and are going to have dinner
before we start for Collooney; so you see we are taking care of ourselves." To
his sister he said, however : " I am all square, but getting very thin, as if I
had been going up gas pipes!" Another letter reported: "We are living in
pilgrim fashion. Tom Law brought down a fine ham which was a valuable
acquisition. But plenty of open air keeps one all right."
Regarding the
future he said to his mother:
"I am not surprised that Papa is
disappointed at my going about as I am doing. I suppose he was expecting me to
take a position at the Bar. No one knows as well as I do what I am losing for
the sake of the Lord; but it is not my will in the matter. I would stop
preaching if I could, for it is not pleasing to the flesh. I should be
extremely unwilling to have to decide upon giving up the Bar. But if it came to
the point of giving up the Lords work or the Bar, I trust I should not
hesitate." Again:
"Surely you dont mean that you would have me return
home before the Lord has done with me here? My desire would be to have grace to
be willing never to return if He should want me elsewhere. It is perfectly idle
my thinking of leaving for any consideration or tie of the flesh. Thank the
Lord that it is Sligo I am in, five and a half hours from Dublin, and that He
does not want me in Spain or Timbuctoo or the backwoods of America!"
My
father evidently had the clearest conviction that he must await the moving of
the pillar of cloud and fire as did the Israelites of old. "I cant see my
movements ahead at all," he wrote; "I dont see that I can leave this just
yet. The Lord has kept us hanging upon Him day by day. . . . He knows whether I
want rest, and will give it when I need it." And to George Trench he said: "It
is all humbug staying at home from natural love and affection when there are so
few to preach the Gospel and souls are longing for it."
A contemporary
account said that no written statement could make people realise the character
of the work who had not actually seen such things as a meeting, remarkable at
first only for levity and unconcern, awed and broken down by the manifested
power .of the Holy Spirit; the very persons upon whose lips had curled the
smile of ridicule or contempt remaining at the close in deep anxiety: "Many
have witnessed such scenes in recent years. Many know what it is to enter a
parish or town which seems a spiritual sepulchre and in a few short weeks to be
surrounded by a little church of saved ones exulting in their new-found
joy."
That the evangelists were not concerned with mere numbers is shown by
a letter from Sligo in which my father said:
"These places are quite
outside the town and cant be taken care of from here. Besides it is new
ground, and I would rather have a little schoolhouse full of people in
the regions beyond than the Merrion Hall full. It is glorious to
bring the Gospel into dark places where it is unknown."
And to his mother
he wrote from Lurgan: "Tom Law is here now. We have constant work in visiting
among the cottages besides meetings daily." And again: "In visiting among the
poor I have heard of much blessing. Many have told me they were converted in
'59 but had fallen back greatly, and that these meetings had been the means of
restoring them."
In spite of his intense earnestness and sense of
responsibility and vocation there are many humorous touches in his letters.
That he was not too easily taken in by outward profession is shown in a letter
to a sister: "I have come on two old buffers on this Circuit who say
theyre saved. They ought to say it on every opportunity, for no one would
ever find it out!" One of his favourite Irish stories may not be out of place
here. Father Healy, parish priest of Bray and (the Protestant) Archbishop
Plunket were on their way together to the railway station. The priest urged
that they should hurry, but the prelates appeal to his watch convinced
him that they had ample time. They arrived to see the Dublin train
disappearing. The Archbishops apologies were lavish; he pleaded that he
had always had unbounded faith in his watch. "My.. dear Lord Plunket," was
Father Healys rejoinder, "faith wont do without the good works."
From the diary for 1866, the year before he left Ireland for London, it
seems that there was only one visit to the west, with meetings in some of the
old spots. There are a few entries on the lighter side, such as: "Riding party
. . . drove to Enniscrone with Captain and Miss Jackson and Mrs. Pery. Great
fun. . .
Row on Carramore Lake. . . . Picnic to Woodpark. Great romping."
Writing to a sister who was paying a visit in the south of Ireland about this
time, he said: "Why dont you go home? The - s will be heartily sick of
you. Are you aware that people dont wait to be turned out even in Kerry,
where the fellow was asked to spend the night and stayed twenty years?"
Opposition to the work on the part of clergy and ministers has already been
mentioned. In a letter home in 1864 he tells of this : "Boyle is all in a stir.
The Rector put his veto on lay-preaching in general, and my preaching in
particular, last Sunday. Captain R. has been at it for forty years and feels
very much hurt. It has made him more interested in our work. Most of the people
are very fond of him and take his side."
On the other hand a letter from
Castlerea records: "The Rector has acted with amazing grace. He is helping us
in arranging meetings. He sees we have a way of working of our own, and leaves
the meetings entirely to us." Again, from Kilbaha: "The Rev. W. Soresby,
Presbyterian, is giving us his church; I believe he is a regular brick." And
from Cork: "The independent minister who has been hindering rather than helping
hitherto and the second Presbyterian, Mr. Hunter, came and offered me their
pulpits."
A curate, the Rev. Sidney Smith, was a warm supporter. Writing
from Ballysokeery Vicarage, Ballina, he says:
"My DEAR BOBBEE, - My rector
has departed for a tour of five weeks. I am lord of all I survey, with powers
to issue letters of marque to any pirate friend to sojourn with me. I can
collect a meeting for you of my own people, & I will ask the Presbyterian
minister of Ballina to lend his schoolhouse. Also I could ride over & ask
the next rector to allow a meeting in Crossmalina."
A few days later Mr.
Smith wrote: "I am going in to Ballina to try and arrange about getting the
disused Baptist Chapel. As I am a stranger there it will be hard, but if the
Lord wills, difficulties vanish." The following letter from my father tells of
the result
"I felt very low about the meeting in Ballina on Sunday. But
after a time alone with the Lord I was quite calm about it. I was posted
through the town to preach in the Baptist Chapel. I didnt know anyone in
the place, much less any Christian: and as Sidney couldnt come I was
alone absolutely. Besides all this, summons had been issued to all the clergy
to attend a convention, the Dean in the chair, to drive me out of the place.
Well, I found the chapel crowded, and some could not get seats. I had no
singing of course. But when the time came I rose and looked at the people; they
had an air that seemed to say, We are not going to be humbugged. I said a few
words to any Christians present to say I was one of them, and why I had come,
and asked them to join me in prayer for the meeting. I then preached the
Gospel. The Lord gave great power and clearness, and I had breathless
attention. Not one even of those who were standing left, though I spoke for an
hour and a quarter.
After the meeting several came to ask for another. I
had asked the Lord that if this were His will it should come from them."
Three days later he wrote: "The Rector is coming back, so I must clear out.
Pray earnestly for Ballina. It is far harder to break down a meeting of the
better-class than of poor people." That a great change came over the scene is
shown by a letter two years later. Writing from Carramore House, Ballina, he
said:
"I expected to be home before this, but every day makes me more
unwilling to leave. It is not only that kindness could not do more to make my
visit a happy one, but the meetings are most important just now. A set of
people are beginning to come in who were never reached before, and there is
great life in the Ballina meetings. I had a Bible Reading at Belleek Manor on
Tuesday, and Col. Knox Gore, his wife and daughter, were in again at the Gospel
meeting. . . . Do you remember Captain Jackson, with whom I am staying? I think
he dined with us. The General [General Sir James Jackson, Colonel 6th Dragoon
Guards] is away, and I have great exercise riding his chargers."
Sir
Richard ODonnell said that as a result of meetings at Newport there had
been ten remarkable conversions; but he added that owing to opposition from all
the priests and parsons it was hard to reach the people. In this connection my
father wrote in 1863 from Tullamore:
"I suppose Alfred has told you that
there is most determined opposition. . . . The meetings have been stopped in
the Barony of - and Tom Trench now refuses to speak in the neighbourhood
at all. He infers that from the etiquette of grouse shooting he is in honour
prohibited. At Portarlington I found Mr. Stewart Trench at work. I spoke first
and then he gave a pastoral. He said that he expected he would not again
address them, as he wished to leave the work to younger men. But he had come to
assert their right to meet in that way, as a large and influential body in the
county were endeavouring to put an end to such gatherings. He took up all the
objections and demolished them. The meeting was crammed, and the people seemed
dying to cheer him, for they were determined to show that they wont stand
priestcraft of this kind."
To this attitude of clergy and ministers in
many places the most notable exception was the Rev. Edward Nangle, Rector of
Skreen. Of the work in his parish my father wrote at the time:
"We had the
school-house crammed with people who never went to Church. Mr. Nangle spoke
first; told them they were good, kind, everything he could wish, but most of
them he feared had not Christ.That his efforts appeared to have failed, and so
he had asked me to come. Dear, dear friends, he said, I must
see some of you converted. . . . [Later] Mr. Nangle says that some weeks
ago he was praying that God would take him out of the place, but now he would
not leave for the fattest living in Ireland. . . . [And again] Mr. Nangle
writes that last Sunday the communicants were three times the previous average
number, and the parish filled with anxious or rejoicing souls. His joy is
refreshing to see; he says it is new life to him. Formerly his visiting was
drudgery; now it is his greatest pleasure. It is delightful to see how he owns
the Lords work and sets himself aside."
Another letter said that Mr.
Nangle had been trying to get the evangelist into several other parishes, but
in two cases, although the rectors were personal friends, he had met with
peremptory refusals. About that time Dr. Horatius Bonar wrote to my father:
"I rejoice to see that some of the clergymen have thrown themselves into the
work. I have observed that in such cases there is more of progress and
stability. While God is showing that He can work through any instruments He
does not set aside the Ministry, but continues to honour it. When the Minister
is a faithful one I always exhort converts to gather round and uphold him. We
have amongst us faithful and unfaithful Ministers."
There can be little
doubt that in our own day one of the chief reasons for what is called failure
and lack of results after evangelistic campaigns is the fact that those who
have professed conversion may have to go back to churches where the atmosphere
is cold and unsympathetic to the Gospel, and where the new-found joy and zeal
of converts meet with discouragement.
Looking back on this story now after
eighty years, it would seem that,, on the human side, there were certain
definite factors making for permanence, and distinguishing the work from much
of the evangelistic effort to which we are accustomed.
Amongst them were
probably the entirely undenominational nature of it; the fact that the
financial element was not merely secondary but non-existent; the absence of
hard and fast arrangements as to the length of missions, so that the preachers
were free to remain in one town or district as long as they felt led to do so.
Then there was the way in which the friends were able to relieve one another
when converts seemed in need of further teaching to establish them in the
Faith. There were also the return visits time after time to scenes of blessing,
just as the Apostles of old "went through Syria and Cilicia confirming the
Churches."
Two notes may form an epilogue. The first was sent me by my
aunt, Miss F. Lee Anderson, to whom so many of the letters which have been
quoted were written: "At the New Alliance Club last week I met a lady whom I
had never seen before. On hearing her name I asked if she was related to a man
whom I had known long ago in Ireland. She said he was her husbands uncle
and knew Sir Robert Anderson well, and that her husbands father and her
own father had both been converted through him."
And this is from my
fathers diary for 1917 (near the close of his life) "Reading my old
letters to Fanny from Sligo; was amazed and greatly humbled by the record of
the work there."
Chapter Three
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