THE LIFE OF A DISSENTING MINISTER.*
THE subject of this biography was in his day a man of con- siderable reputation. Among the Dissenters he was for many years a popular preacher, and there were, perhaps, throughout the ranks of the nonconformists few names more respected than that of John Leifchild. Without scholarship, though after a four years' novitiate at Heaton Independent College, whatever that might be worth, without any endowments of which one could speak as being extraordinary, much less original, Mr. Leifchild gradually worked his way up to prominence. It appears that he was born at Barnet in 1780. His father and mother, according to his own statement, do not appear to have dwelt together very happily, for "his mother had been too genteely brought up to be a suitable helpmeet to one in his father's station of life "—an 4' incongruity which produced numerous little inconveniences." Then the father, being a sanguine Wesleyan, and the mother of a saturnine Calvinistic tendency, there arose differences of opinion, not quite unnaturally, and not unnoted by the children. Strange to say, however, in spite of the " uneasi- lames " and the controversial phenomena "which pained the children to witness," the "religion" of both preserved things in order in the main. Neither Dr. Leifchild, nor from his son, the author of the 'volume under review, can we ascertain clearly what trade the grandfather, and then, for a time, the doctor himself, pursued before the latter entered on what is termed the "sacred calling." In one place it might be concluded that the " Dr." had been a brewer, in another we might fancy he was a cooper ; but whether he had to manufacture the containing barrel, or the contained beer, we feel quite confident that in either case he was an honest and industrious workman, and should be very sorry to believe that it is implied in this biography that a cooper or brewer must enter the Christian ministry in order to cease from a profane calling. The future 4' doctor" did not do much at school, and as early as his eleventh year he was " workng at his father's trade ;" but "the works of Richardson and other novelists," religious and historical books, drawing and painting, skill in playing the flute and bass viol, attachment, "although so young, to a young female," attendance son Wesleyan preachers, and sometimes, too, on the Calvinistic ministry of the father of the comedian Mathews, combined with aove and veneration for his father himself, at once "heated his imagination," "preserved him from deteriorating influences," and "generated a consciousness of superiority to inferior persons which continued to influence me through life." Notwithstand- ing, however, this precocious, and, as it turned out, prophetic consciousness of superiority, the youth's early religious im- pressions, "being the effect principally of early training and pious example," were evanescent—a rather discouraging announcement to good fathers and mothers ; but an announce- ment which meets with its own counteraction a few pages further on, where it is written for our learning that " much is to • John Lynch:7d, D.D.; his Public Ministry, Private Cenulnels. and Personal Characteristic:. Founded upon an 'Autobiography. By J. IL Leifchild, A.11. Lou- don: Jackson, Walford, and Hodder. 1868.
be expected from good example." An unexpected call t,"21k take part in a Wesleyan prayer-meeting, while Mr. Leifchild was about seventeen years of age, seems to have issued in the resolution to proclaim himself a converted character, and to associate henceforth only with the so-called people of Goi. To an unnamed" female" of this select circle he was married, soon after his removal to London in his twentieth year. For about four years Mr. Leifchild's time was divided between his trade and doing duty as a Wesleyan preacher, when it appeared to him that he should find a more comfortable fellowship within the sub-Calvinistic horizon of the Congregational Independents, than under the Arminian banner of the Methodists. He could, apparently, from his own experience, believe in election, but re- probation, as he thought, was a camel he could not swallow, and so he left it to those 'persons of weaker capacity" for whom the Assembly's shorter catechism was charitably designed. A shrewd, sagacious man was Mr. Leifchild ; but his sagacity was not keensighted enough to discover that the mild apathy towards millions of the human family, as distinct from reprobation, which modern Calvinism ascribes to the Perfect Charity, is logically inconsistent with that fierce damnation of which for nearly half a century he discoursed so fervently ; and that it is, on the whole, quite as loveless as the old decree, for it simply represents the Almighty and most merciful Father as "passing by on the other side," and leaving our sorely wounded humanity a prey to all the contingencies of chaos.
In his twenty-fourth year Mr. Leifehild "broke up his estab- lishment" and became a student of theology, and it is not a little curious, as illustrative of the inorganic conditions of one section of English dissent, that his passport of admission to the popular theology studies in Hoxton College was his intimation to the treasurer of that institution of his acceptance, in general terms, of the doctrinal articles of the Church of England. From a quite early period in his curriculum, it was clear that the muscular and mature student would be a highly acceptable spokesman through- out the whole extent of what we may call Tozerdom." Spe- cially did he work hard under the inspiration of the teacher of elocution, a Mr. True—" Orator True, a true orator !" as the heading describes him—to make the most of voice and gesture ; and his ideal of a preacher, in the student days, is thus set forth— an ideal, moreover, which would seem to have been always a power- ful influence during all the admirer's after years. The doctor writes:—" On leaving the Methodists, and entering as a student at Hoxton A.cademy, I attached myself to the ministry of the Rev. G. Clayton, at the Weigh House Chapel. His striking figure, his gentlemanly manner, his good voice and gesture, his frequent personal appeals, his divisions and set sentences, fixed me as his frequent hearer. Once when he was preaching from the text "And what will ye do in the evil day ? " he adverted to the day of death and that of judgment. He then directed his eyes to that part of the gallery where I was sitting, and exclaimed, "Un- decided Christian, what will you do then ? Careless sinner, what will you do then ? I will tell you ; you will die, and be damned?" A shudder was the consequence."
"A good voice and gesture," "frequent appeals," "set sentences," and "a shudder," are very significant elements of attraction for an aspiring Evangelist. We would fain believe that there are few "literates," or illiterates, can- didates for holy orders, or a Dissenting ministry, who are not covetous of something very different indeed from a patent recipe for producing a Sunday "shudder." We do not mean in thus speaking to insinuate that Mr. Leirchild did not aim at the production of other results than the shudder, or that he dealt more in damnatory clauses than the majority of his brethren ; but ,judging from the notices of his earliest and latest teaching in this memoir, we are restricted to the conclusion that the specially reserved " trot for the avenue" in every sermon was Hell-fire. Of old, the summons to repentance was based on the truth that men were God's children, however far they might, in heart, have wandered from Him, and that Heaven did lie about them—that all of highest and holiest in- fluences were claiming their loyal submission to themselves, for just this reason, that goodness in itself is precious, and truth in itself is noble, and an uncharitable religion is the most hor- rible of all delusions, and self-sacrifice is the only true life for humanity. But now the preacher says, repent, not because the kingdom of heaven is here ; but because a very different king- dom is there. What, in strict speech, is that salvation worth which is represented merely as an alternative ? As if Chris- tianity were other than the discipline 'which supplies the divinest elements for human culture —a culture, however,
whichlwe desecrate and do our best to render impossible, for its own' sake, so long as we set over against it a quite heterogeneous rabtive.
In his twenty-eighth year Mr: Leifehild was appoiuted to his first charge—a congregation in liensington ; and there lie laboured for sixteen years. From Kensington he removed to Bristol—the " Bristol period" extending front 1821 to 1830. In the latter year he came to London, undertaking the pastorate of a chapel in Craven street. In this Isis last sphere of stated ministerial labour, Mr. Leifchild, although not entering on its duties before his fiftieth year, did the work, we might almost say, of two vigorous young men. We suspect that few so-called "interests" ever proved a greater success, judging by the pecuniary and numeral standards, for during the twenty- four years of the Craven street dispensation, 1993 new mem- bers were added to the " Church," 1559 of whom were either converted, or became " decided " under Mr. Leifchild's ministry, fourteen benevolent societies were formed in con- nection with the congregation, and 70,000/. were raised from seat-rents (though the money, as it appears, did not enrich the pastor), and a debt on the chapel of 7,000/. was cleared off.
At the ripe age of seventy-four, Mr., now, for some time, Dr. Leifchild, retired. For two years, however, Ire preached in Brighton, where also his second wife died. In his seventy- seventh year the yet hale old man made experiment of a trip to the gay capital of France ; and at length, having attained his eighty-second year, the hardworking, honest, kindhearted, con- sistent veteran laid him down to die.
Differing, as we very decidedly do, from not a little of Dr. Leifchild's theology, we nevertheless truly respect the memory of the man ; and are of opinion that his life was remarkable enough to be worth recording. But we grieve to be unable to speak of the biography in terms of approval. We accept the biographer's apology for the many references to himself which occur in the volume, although we think that good taste would require the omission, or at least the modification, of nearly all of them. We cannot, however, regard with the same measure of toleration the details which are furnished respecting conspicuous living "deacons" and " females" who were "brought to God" by Dr. Leifchild. Very wearisome, moreover, and weak is the writer's straining after alliterations and antitheses, even amid scenes of pathetic interest. But what is most of all to be regretted, is the fact that those who did not know Dr. Leifehild himself, will rise from the perusal of this memoir with something like a false impression of what he really was. At least, for our own parts, we have to confess that it is only by a resolute ignoring of much vulgar jesting, and, as they seem to Us, of many indiscreet details touching "legacies," domestic -" fallings out," the economics of the dinner table, and also of a hinted belief in a new Beatitude, entitled, " Blessed are the rich "—that such an image of the good man comes forth as dwells in the memory of those who knew him. Dr. Leifehild was not a gourmand, and did not try "to make the most of both worlds." He was not great ; but steadfast, strong, and clear within his limits. His sympathies reached far beyond his own sect ; and he was the founder of the Evangelical Alliance. He was ever ready to aid a brother in distress ; and his efforts on behalf of needy ministers are beyond all praise of ours. In his domestic relations he seems to have been all that was genial,— and abroad he was recognized as a worthy specimen of the truly Christian gentleman. He held his own over his successive large congregations with something like kingly power—never pandering to what was mean or vulgar. He met successfully a large demand, and we are sure that his memory will long be piously cherished. But if much in this biography be ac- ceptable among Dissenters, it will be a sad proof how the influence of Leifehild is fading away before that of Spur- geon.
If ever Mr. Leifchild should feel called on to tell the world again about the death-bed of a good man, we would seriously counsel him to take heed lest, in his anxiety about the balancing of his own sentences, he should leave on his readers' minds the painful impression that he has yet to learn that it was not the self-con- gratulation of the "Pharisee," but the prayer of the "Publican," which found acceptance with Him who "came to visit us in great humility."
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