OUR VISIT TO BRITAIN.
VISIT TO FERGUSLIE—DESCEND THE SHAFT OF A COAL MINE—VISIT TO A THREAD FACTORY—SOIREE AT GLASGOW—ORIGIN OF ELPIS ISRAEL.
While at Paisley we were very hospitably entertained at the mansion of Mr. Coats, called Ferguslie House, beautifully situated in the midst of grounds very tastefully laid out, opposite the Braes of Glennifer, and commanding in the rear an extensive view over the valley of the Clyde. Mr Coats’ name is well known in this country to all who use cotton sewing thread. He has a princely residence, and a palatial factory in which he employs about 400 hands. His residence is fitted up in the most costly, convenient, and elegant style; and the furniture of the richest and newest fashion. We were not Yankee enough to inquire if the tea and dinner service of plate were gold or silver gilt; but we learned from another source that he had purchased it of a French nobleman, probably an exile in England, whose necessities compelled him to sell. Whether gold or gilt it had a very brilliant appearance, and was in keeping with all other objects in the field of vision. Comfort indeed, or rather luxurious ease, would be supposed to reign in undisturbed repose; and that none could enter there but Fashion’s votaries or the gay—the children of pride, of manners soft, and blood the gentlest of mankind. But he who should judge thus would do injustice to Thomas Coats, Junior, Esq. Though “Hard Times,” who visits many people in Paisley and elsewhere, may be supposed never to show his haggard visage within the precincts of Ferguslie House, yet doth its wealthy proprietor oftentimes make himself a guest in the dwellings of the poor with that unwelcome visitor. Though rich, he is highly commended by the poor for his open-handed liberality, and generous sympathy with them in their necessities. He has opened a reading room which he keeps supplied with useful publications for their especial benefit; and in fuel and other domestic necessaries bestows upon them some three thousand dollars a year. This of course gives him great influence over them for good or evil as he may feel disposed. From what we saw of him at our first, and second visits he seemed to be thinking in the right direction. Being a member of the Paisley church, he could have refused us admittance, and his refusal would not have been contravened however much it might have been regretted. Alexander “the great” * had spoken there, and had left behind him his proscriptive spirit which had entered into an influential senior of Mr. Coats’ family. During and previous to our first visit no incident had evoked its manifestation. We were invited and cordially welcomed. We were listened to “with great satisfaction,” and made a welcome visitor at Ferguslie House, and elsewhere in the family, and among the members. Nothing could be more kind or flattering than the attentions we received. A day was set apart for a special visit to Mr. Coats’ mines some few miles from Paisley, after which we were to partake of the good cheer provided at Ferguslie. We descended into Avernus, and found when all was ready the descent as easy as Virgil says. It was a holiday with the colliers on account of the burial of one of their number who had been burned the day before by an explosion of gas in the pit. Mr. Coats having ordered the engine to be fired up, we invested ourselves in the meanwhile with rough garments and tarpauling hats to suit.
* The Ecclesiastic Reformer, speaking of our friend’s preaching at the Kentucky Campbellite Convention, says, Bro. Campbell, ever great, has won new laurels by this visit, &c.!”
The band being adjusted on the periphery of the wheel, we all got into the bucket and were lowered a thousand feet into the earth. We traversed the mine up hill and down hill about the third of a mile. In some parts of the way we could walk upright; but in others, where “troubles” would occur, or an inclined plain was formed for rail boxes, it was necessary to form our bodies into two sides of a square. The mining operations were explained to us by the overseer who accompanied us. The darkness made visible by our flickering lamps was intense, yet though so deep below the surface and the level of all its graves, we were not in “the lowest sheol;” for we were still to be found in a living organised condition; if Jonah however, when in the great fish, were in “the belly of hell,” as he said, we were unquestionably there. His no doubt was a warmer place than ours, but darker it was impossible to be. Our exploration occupied about two hours, when we re-entered the bucket, and ascended to the light of day.
Having returned from the mines Mr. Coats showed us over his sewing thread factory. The rooms where the thread is wound on the bobbins would be a surprising exhibition of industry and art to the first father of mankind. The bobbin-making department is also very interesting because of the ingenious machinery by which the bobbins are formed. But what a monotonous existence to those who are employed in such establishments as these! Highly interesting to visitors viewing for an occasion the combined operations of the vast concern; but to be tending day after day for a life-time the winding of a set of bobbins, or the unvarying action of a piece of machinery, O we had rather not be than live to be an automaton such as this! But what are men to do? The bondage of a stern necessity compels them to labour hard, tediously, and monotonously for the bread that perishes; and a hopeless, cheerless, labour it is when unsolaced by the hope of glory. Ah, it is the poor that must needs rejoice in the gospel of the kingdom. They have no luxuries nor elegancies in their dwellings; nay, can scarce get the needful to keep their soul in life. When the kingdom comes—
“He will fill the hungry with good things; and the rich he will send empty away.”
Blessed epoch, glorious era for the poor! The King shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare them, and save them, and redeem them from deceit and violence, and their ungentle blood shall be precious in his sight. Factories, we opine, if allowed to exist at all, will not then be penitentiaries for unfortunates whose poverty is their only crime.
We may remark here, as we shall not return to Paisley again, that on our third visit we found a change had come over the spirits of some who had made us welcome there before. Elpis Israel was now in the hands of over seventy persons there. The things it contained had called into activity the spirit of Campbellism latent in the heart of the gentleman referred to. Our friend of Ferguslie was rusticating at Dunoon; but they whom we found in Paisley rejoicing in his name were by no means gratified at seeing us again. Had we been a Campbellite we should have been welcome to their pulpit on Lord’s day as before. But the doctrine we taught was found to have no affinity with the theology of the “Evergreat;” so that, although the church is a Scotch Baptist church, and refuses to be identified with the “Reformation churches” of Britain, we were given to understand by a friend, that the Campbellite spirit in one or two rich men was so excited, that if the house were applied for to be used by us on Lord’s day, it would not be granted; but no objection would be made to our having it in the week. As our object was not to create unnecessary difficulty, we acquiesced in our friend’s advice; being desirous also, if trouble did arise, the question should be “what is the gospel?” and not, “shall the author of Elpis Israel speak in our pulpit on Lord’s day, or not?”
On Friday night, October 12th, 1848, “the Grand Soiree,” as it was advertised, was held in commemoration of our visit to Glasgow. Mr. Turner, one of the city magistrates, was in the chair. This gentleman is an octogenarian of the radical, and Cameronian, schools. He was incarcerated in “good old Tory times,” as some call them, for permitting a meeting for “Radical Reform” to be held on the lawn before his house. He was just the right sort of a man to preside at a soiree “in honour of” Ishmael among the parsons! Though so advanced in years, he seemed as lively and vigorous as a man in the middle of life. May he live long, and witness the triumph of the saints in the kingdom of God, when the seed of his old enemies shall be put to shame.
The Rev’d Mr. Anderson, relief minister, was invited to attend and make a speech on the occasion, which he did, and a very excellent one it was. He is a man of learning, and high standing in Glasgow; although by pietists of mystical opinions, accounted “daft.” But that matters not; it is their way of olden time to impute idiocy or insanity to those who have more discernment, honesty of purpose, and scriptural information than themselves. Mr. Anderson told the meeting that he was once as blind and ignorant as they, knowing nothing of the prophets though professedly a teacher of the truth. He was indebted to the late Mr. Cunningham, a notable writer on prophecy, for a knowledge of his ignorance which was the first step to his comprehension of the truth. Mr. C. made him ashamed of himself; so little did he know of the great things God had revealed in his word. This he determined to study, and to blot out his reproach in the understanding of the matter. His investigation of the prophetic writings had led him to see that the purpose of God was to establish a kingdom in the land of Israel under Jesus Christ which should have rule over the whole earth. He then traced the idea of Theocracy from Eden through subsequent developments of the divine will; and concluded by a glance at what God had promised should come to pass hereafter. Mr. Anderson seems to have been the only preacher in Glasgow that believed that Jesus Christ would reign upon David’s throne a thousand years over the nations of the earth, and that feared not to avow his faith. It was no small encouragement therefore to him, for us to visit the city, and boldly to publish the doctrine with such cheering effect.
J. B. Rollo, Esq., also addressed the meeting on the subject before it. We had likewise as a matter of course to make a speech, which on such an occasion we find much more difficult than to expound the sounding of the Seventh Apocalyptic Trumpet. The meeting, which consisted of some 250 persons, was edified and strengthened in its good purposes by the late Mr. Richardson, the Scotch Baptist church’s preacher at Paisley. Altogether, what with the addresses, the music, singing, and good cheer, the evening, till 11 P.M., was spent in a very agreeable manner. At this hour the soiree was pronounced at an end; but before they arose to depart, a gentleman remarked that “he did not think that Dr. Thomas had treated, or rather was about to treat, them well. He had announced that he was to leave Glasgow in the morning, and that it was uncertain if he should ever visit them again. Now what he thought the Doctor’s friends had a right to complain of was, that he had come among them and roused their minds to an interest in subjects of more magnitude and importance than all others, and was now about to leave them with no other memorials than treacherous and fading memory could afford. Was it not possible for him to defer his return to America, and to publish the matter of his lectures in a book, that his friends and the public might possess it in a tangible and permanent form? He hoped he would find it possible, and give them a favourable reply.” This seemed to be responded to by many present. Though not famed for what pious sinners call “charity,” our phrenology, say cranioscopists, is illustrated by “Benevolence, 6 on a scale of 7.” We thought it a pity to leave the demand for knowledge of the truth unsatisfied, seeing that a craving after it by men and women is so rare a thing. We replied therefore to the meeting that “when we left the United States our intention was to return in the autumn. We had made no provision for a longer stay, and the probability was that our affairs would suffer in consequence. That however was a matter of secondary importance when it became apparent that the truth could be subserved by the sacrifice. We were glad to witness so great and abiding an interest in our labours, and could not therefore find it in our heart to refuse their request. For their gratification then we would prolong our stay in Britain. When we had got through our appointments at Edinburgh and Lincoln, we would return to London; and, if they would busy themselves in obtaining subscribers for the work, we would employ our time during the winter in preparing it.” This seemed to meet the approbation of the meeting, and with this understanding we parted. Thus was originated “ELPIS ISRAEL, an Exposition of the Kingdom, and Age to Come.”
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