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The Mirage of Authenticity: Scottish Independents and the Reconstruction of a New Testament Order of Worship, 1799-1808
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
- The snuffy cobler now you mildly kiss,
- And Cowgate damsels chuckle at the bliss.
- By frequent salivations render’d fair,
- They press your knees that envied bliss to share;
- And, liquorish fish, wives piously begin
- To think it sweeter than their morning gin.
In three satirical couplets the author of an anonymous pamphlet printed in 1812 suggests a possible reason for the popularity of the Haldane Tabernacle Connexion among the female population of Edinburgh at the turn of the nineteenth century. In doing so he touches upon an important feature of the wave of evangelical Independency which swept across Scotland from the late 1790s: the appearance of new forms of worship that consciously sought to follow New Testament models. Reinforcing the verse this fiercely polemical work, which almost certainly comes from an establishment source, takes the innovators to task for discarding reasoned biblical interpretation, flouting decency, and ignoring health dangers in their desire to resurrect long extinct practices from ancient Christianity.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History , Volume 35: Continuity and Change in Christian Worship , 1999 , pp. 261 - 274
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1999
References
1 Hypocrisy Detected in a Letter to the late Firm of Haldane, Ewing, and Co. (Aberdeen, 1812), pp. 41-2.
2 Robert Haldane (1764-1842) and his brother, James Alexander Haldane (1768–1851), who were members of a Perthshire landowning family, adopted evangelical views around 1795, and as a result applied their energies to the task of popular evangelism in Scotland. With their involvement in unconventional and suspect practices such as itinerant preaching, the establishment of Sunday schools, religious tract distribution, and the employment of laymen as catechists and travelling preachers, they quickly found themselves at odds with the Presbyterian religious establishment. A literal reading of the New Testament led to their preference for the congregational pattern of church government. However, the realities of mounting a national programme of evangelism led them to open large meeting places, known as tabernacles, in various centres across Scotland. The practical outcome was the emergence of the Tabernacle Connexion: a loose association of Independent churches bound together by a dependence for preachers and financial resources upon the generosity of Robert Haldane. While he remained a wealthy and influential layman, his younger brother was ordained in 1799 as pastor of the congregation that subsequently worshipped in the Edinburgh Tabernacle. In this satire the author refers to gin-sipping women who regarded the opportunity to exchange kisses with male members of the Tabernacle congregation as more exciting and daring than their customary glass of spirits.
3 Hypocrisy Detected, p. 43.
4 Anon., An Account of the Proceedings of the Society for Propagating the Gospel at Home, from their commencement, December 28. 1797, to May 16. 1799 (Edinburgh, 1799), pp. 7-12.
5 Haldane, A., The Lives of Robert Haldane of Airthrey, and of his brother, James Alexander Haldane, 3rd edn (London, 1853), pp. 234–44.Google Scholar
6 Hereafter referred to as Social Worship.
7 Ibid., pp. 20-7, 441.
8 Social Worship, p. 270.
9 Ibid., pp. 285-6.
10 Haldane, J. A., The Obligation of Christian Churches to Observe the Lord’s Supper Every Lord’s Day, stated in a Letter to the Church of Christ assembling in the Tabernacle, Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1802), pp. 11–12, 15.Google Scholar
11 Ibid., pp. 10-11.
12 Haldane, Social Worship, p. 319.
13 Ibid., p. 321.
14 Ibid., pp. 85-9.
15 At least one commentator openly attributed the new ideas evident in the Tabernacle Connexion from around 1807 to Glas and Sandeman: Ewing, G., Facts and Documents respecting the Connections which have subsisted between Robert Haldane, Esq. and Creville Ewing, laid before the Public, in consequence of Letters which the Former has addressed to the Latter, respecting the Tabernacle at Glasgow (Glasgow, 1809), p. 95.Google Scholar
16 Two leading Independents, John Aikman and Robert Kinniburgh, identified Ballantine as a prominent advocate of the new ideas. Aikman responded negatively to Ballantine in Observations on Exhortation in the Churches of Christ (Edinburgh, 1808), while Kinniburgh described his 1807 work on the elder’s office as ‘a withering blast … from the north, which was attended with direful consequences’, Haldane, Lives of Robert and James Alexander Haldane, p. 357. Ballantinc himself recorded the fact that he was accused by the chapel managers at Elgin of Glasitism, though he also denied the charge: Ballantine, W., Observations on confessions of faith of human composition, the independency and discipline of Christian churches, weekly communion in the Lord’s supper, church meetings &c. &c. in an address to the managers and others of the New Chapel at Elgin (Edinburgh, 1804), pp. 55, 123–4.Google Scholar
17 Ibid. pp. 49-50.
18 Ballantine, W., A Treatise on the Elder’s Office (Edinburgh, 1807), p. 77.Google Scholar
19 Strictly speaking, Ballantine’s period as pastor of the Free Presbyterian Congregation at Elgin took him outside the Tabernacle Connexion. It was his attempt to steer that congregation towards Haldanc-style Independency that contributed to his dismissal, and led to his re-establishing open links with the Tabernacle Connexion as pastor of the newly formed Elgin Independent Church.
20 Gleneaglcs, Perthshire: Haldane family papers: Catherine McNeil-Alexander Haldane, 27 May 1851.
21 Aikman, Observations, p. 10.
22 G. Ewing, An Attempt towards a Statement of the Doctrine of Scripture on some Disputed Points respecting the Constitution, Government, Worship, and Discipline of the Church of Christ (Glasgow, 1807), p. 169.
23 Aikman, Observations, pp. 10-11.
24 Ibid., p. 40.
25 Haldane, J. A., Observations on the association of believers; mutual exhortation; the apostolic mode of teaching; qualifications and support of elders; spiritual gifts, &c. in which Mr Aikman’s Observations on Exhortation, &c. are considered (Edinburgh, 1808), pp. 16–17.Google Scholar
26 Ibid., pp. 29-31.
27 Ibid., p. 40.
28 Ibid., pp. 41-4.
29 Haldane, Observations, pp. 44-5.
30 Haldane, J. A., Reasons of a Change of Sentiment & Practice on the Subject of Baptism (Edinburgh, 1808), p. 2.Google Scholar
31 Haldane, Lives of Robert and James Alexander Haldane, p. 359.
32 Haldane, Reasons, p. 9.
33 Ibid., pp. 4-5.
34 Ibid., ch. 3.
35 Haldane, Lives of Robert and James Alexander Haldane, pp. 359-61.
36 At Elgin the small continuing Independent section of the congregation was made homeless and was forced to rent a former Episcopalian chapel. In the case of the Perth Tabernacle the Baptists as the minority group, having taken possession of Robert Haldane’s building after the Independents had been evicted, were unable to collect a viable congregation. As a result of the division the premises were sold to the Methodists. Escott, H., A History of Scottish Congregationalism (Aberdeen, 1960), p. 262 Google Scholar; Kinniburgh, R., Fathers of Independency in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1851), p. 127.Google Scholar
37 Gleneaglcs, Perthshire: Haldane family papers: Robert Kinniburgh-Alexander Haldane, 11 March 1851.
38 Haldane, Lord’s Supper, p. [1].
39 James Haldane went out of his way to distinguish between miraculous gifts and the regular observance of the Christian ordinances: Observations, pp. 36-7. In a much later publication, in which he attacked Irvingism, he openly linked the supposed possession of miraculous gifts to doctrinal error: J. A. Haldane, The Signs of the Times Considered (Edinburgh, 1832), p. 31.