591
remove him at their own pleasure, without regard to
character, doctrine, or pastoral efficiency. It was
a natural result into which Independency, whether
religious or political, is so often seen to fall. To
find time to establish their illegal authority, they
endeavoured to keep the change a secret from their
pastor, but he was soon apprised of it. He was at
this time supplying a vacant pulpit in Edinburgh,
and preaching to a congregation that wished to have
him for their minister; and from this vantage-ground
he sent a letter to his London managers of which the
following is an extract:—"If I must submit to the
domination of men whom I never saw, whose
authority I never recognized, and hold to be usurpa-
tion; men who can have no scriptural or reasonable
connection with my charges or with myself;—if such
men are to control my procedure, decide my merits,
and regulate my subsistence; if such men are to rob
my people of their rights to manage their entire
affairs, to choose and depose pastors, either as a
body, or as represented, and having their authority
concentrated in their own managers, who are of
themselves—if such men shall have the privilege, as
often as they please, to convene the managers at
Tabernacle House, and in their presence to criticize
all the doings of a pastor, misrepresenting and
maligning him; to rob him of his character, and ruin
his usefulness, while to him is denied all means even
of explanation or defence;—if these things, and as
much more as the principle, or rather want of prin-
ciple, renders possible and practicable, are to exist
any longer, and if by a legal instrument they are to be
rendered perpetual, then I must, my dear Christian
friends, with all the esteem which I bear you, be
permitted to intimate, with the utmost decision, with
all solemnity, and much sorrow, that our connection
is at an end."
In consequence of this express alternative it was
necessary that Mr. Campbell should ascertain by
actual experiment whether he could reduce the
managers to reason, or must himself yield to the
storm, and be minister of the charge no longer. He
accordingly at the close of the week returned to
London, and on Sunday presented himself hi the
Tabernacle for the usual discharge of his public
duties. But there an opposition had been organ-
ized against the attempt, which would have been
simply ludicrous but for its profane indecency. The
pulpit had been secured with a lock, and turned into
a sentry-box in which a man had remained all night
upon watch and ward. The door at the foot of the
pulpit stairs was also secured with a lock, and a
guard of policemen and church-managers drawn
up before it to confront and hinder the first advance
of the minister. These were the military arrange-
ments of a Sunday morning in a Christian church,
and all to try conclusions with the pastor, and
prevent him from the performance of his sacred
public duties. Nor here did the painful farce ter-
minate; for a gentleman—a professed friend of Mr.
Campbell, but who had lately become a member of
the oligarchic clique—first gave out a hymn to the
congregation, thanking God for their minister's safe
arrival, then prayed with great fervour for his wel-
fare—and finally took his stand with his back to the
pulpit-door to keep him out. Not for one day also,
but for six months, was this strange display of
recusancy maintained unbroken.
During this warfare, although Mr. Campbell pre-
sented himself every Sunday at the appointed hour
for the performance of his duties, there was no
relenting on the part of the conspirators, so that he
withdrew in silence as he came, and preached to
nine-tenths of his congregation in a large hall, the
use of which had been secured for these services.
Not content also with this annoying opposition,
which shocked the feelings of the serious in London
and furnished food for the merriment of the profane,
the enemies of Mr. Campbell attempted to blacken
his character both as a minister and a man. He
was not only, they asserted, heterodox in doctrine,
but too practical in his preaching to be evangelical
—that he was Arminian rather than Calvinistic, and
an Arian rather than a Trinitarian—that he was
loose in the admission of members into the flock, so
that the church at the Tabernacle was no better than
an open communion—that his Bible-classes were
mere debating clubs—that in public and private he
was addicted to insincerity and falsehood; and that,
in short, there was scarcely anything too mean and
worthless at which he would stop short for compas-
sing his ends. There are limits in the endurance of
injuries beyond which patience ceases to be a virtue,
and on the 18th of December, 1834, this vexatious
case was brought for adjudication into the vice-
chancellor's court. Thus reduced to a question of
legal right, its merits were intelligible, and a con-
clusion made simple and express. It was against
the arrogant claimants, and in favour of Mr. Camp-
bell and his congregation, who were left in quiet
possession, while the oligarchy was so utterly scat-
tered that it could not afterwards be found. In
reviewing this case many years afterwards, Mr.
Campbell writes in a grateful spirit, " I have reason
to reflect, with no small degree of satisfaction, on
the general course adopted by my friends and my-
self. Even at this day I see very little on their part,
or my own, to cause regret. Never did churches
more lovingly, generously, and faithfully uphold a
pastor, or more boldly, steadily, or perseveringly
stand by a cause—the cause of truth and righteous-
ness, justice and liberty. I count it an honour to
have served such a people in the gospel of Christ,
and to have shared with them in so noble and
virtuous a struggle."
While Mr. Campbell was watching his case through
the court, and studying the characters of the choice
ornaments of the bar, all this was not enough for his
active mind, and during these hours of waiting and
suspense he occupied himself in planning one of his
best literary works. It was a prize-essay offered
for competition by a benevolent Christian gentle-
man, who wished that members of the Congrega-
tional denomination, although not educated for the
ministry, should be more extensively employed than
hitherto in the work of Christian teaching among the
community at large, and who announced a prize of
one hundred guineas for the best essay on this
employment of a lay agency. It was a subject
according to Campbell's own heart, upon which he
also had large experience; and during the progress
of the trial he had sketched out and prepared a large
portion of the work, which finally appeared at the
close of 1839 under the title of Jethro, a System
of Lay Agency in connection with Congregational
Churches. We are not informed of the number of
competitors, but the judges had little hesitation in
awarding the palm of superiority to Jethro, and
on being published its popularity was almost uni-
versal. It is, on the whole, the most intellectual
and elaborate, and perhaps the best, of all its
author's writings.
Having now been borne into tranquil waters, he
was enabled to resume his pastoral cares which had
been so rudely disturbed; and as Tottenham Court
Chapel, which by the late decision had been re-
turned to his charge along with the Tabernacle, was
dwarfed into a mere preaching station, he was