Table of Contents

Biography of William Kelly (W.G.Turner)

Biography of William Kelly

by W.G.Turner

Introductory

Ireland

Guernsey

Blackheath

Churchman and Gospeller

Some Letters

The Workman

Middlesborough

Closing Days

Memories of the Life and Last Days of William Kelly.

Preface.

Biography of William Kelly (W.G.Turner)

Biography of William Kelly

by W.G.Turner

Introductory

Ireland

Guernsey

Blackheath

Churchman and Gospeller

Some Letters

The Workman

Middlesborough

Closing Days

WKELLY - Biographical

William Kelly

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Biography of William Kelly (W.G.Turner)

Biography of William Kelly

by W.G.Turner

By kind permission of soundwords.de whose permission should be sought for any further publication.

- Introductory

- Ireland

- Guernsey

- Blackheath

- Churchman and Gospeller

- Some Letters

- The Workman

- Middlesborough

- Closing Days

"No one is able to show to those who knew him not what he was; no one could show this to those who knew him in a way they would feel satisfying."

Introductory

William Kelly first saw the light when England was beginning to recover from the Napoleonic wars. The Battle of Waterloo lay only five years behind. Napoleon himself had just died at St. Helena. The least estimable character that ever occupied the British throne had but recently succeeded to it, and demands were everywhere rising for reform and popular liberty. The Home Secretary, Addington, and his more powerful colleague, Lord Castlereagh, sensing the uneasy situation, and fearing that the ominous stirrings so apparent might flare up into open revolution, foolishly introduced into Parliament a most unpopular and hated measure known as "Six Acts" hoping thereby to effectually prevent this. It only served, however, to increase the growing discontentment.

This measure threatened with severe penalties all who advocated any kind of social reform, and was repressive to a degree. The general populace was exasperated by its severity against all and any who dared to protest against the policy of the Government. The Home Secretary and Lord Castlereagh, however, succeeded in forcing the obnoxious measure through. When Castlereagh died shortly after, his funeral became the occasion of a most disgraceful outburst of hatred against both himself and the Act he had sponsored. The French revolution, alike so recent and near, only needed a spark to explode the magazine of pent up resentment felt by thousands at the injustice of the new law. Both politically and ecclesiastically a transition period had arrived. The more sober and practical elements were filled with alarm at the violent and threatening temper displayed by the masses, and the obtuseness of the ruling class to its implications. In a remote country parish one of Oxford's most brilliant students was then quietly brooding over the conditions in church and state. It was several years, however, before the result of his thoughts stirred the country in a sermon preached in the university pulpit, and published under the title of "National Apostasy".

Two great religious movements were then both due to appear and radically affect the religious outlook. The Evangelical revival was settling down into a quiet, select, self-complacent orthodoxy. The Methodist movement also was rapidly losing its original fire and fervour. A few years previously both had been fanned by the fires of persecution, but these had now died down. Ecclesiastical gales were beginning to blow from Oxford and Plymouth, and were disturbing the religious dovecotes. Both were destined to exert an influence upon English speaking Christendom beyond anything known since the sixteenth century Reformation.

One of these, the Tractarian movement, was later to be known as the Oxford movement; while the other was the Plymouth, or as often called, the Brethren movement. Both were silently taking shape and much has been written about them. The impetus given by both is still being felt after the lapse of well over a century. These two movements had their origin in the accident of urgent necessity! one from the suppression of ten Irish bishoprics by the Government; and the other by an Archiepiscopal order to the Irish clergy stopping the work of the Irish Home Missions, as an oath of allegiance to King George now became compulsory on the reception of the converts. "If it be true anywhere that such enactments are forced on the legislature by public opinion, is Apostasy too hard a word to describe the temper of such a nation?" This was the question asked by Mr. Keble.

Naturally enough, the two most prominent figures in the respective movements were clergymen of the Established Church; the one John Henry Newman, who strenuously opposed the former of these; and the other, John Nelson Darby, Lord Nelson's godson, who as strongly objected to the latter. At once a number of pious men with active minds and great natural abilities were quickly attracted to these movement. Two who stand out from their fellows were singularly alike in many respects John Keble, the Tractarian friend referred to earlier, and William Kelly, the henchman of the Plymouth leader. Both Keble and Kelly were humble and self-effacing men personally, although each had in their day carried off the highest honours of their respective universities.

The words of a brilliant contemporary of theirs may here be quoted, "Where personal character is the main source of influence on others - where the unconscious labourer, pressing forward in faithful service, reflects a glory from his upturned countenance, scatters the fire of his aspiration in surrounding hearts, and by that subtle impress of spirit upon spirit refines the conscience, warms enthusiasm and quickens effort - there it is that a life, a record, a portrait is most needed. The chief work is done without it, many a heart moulded, many a course changed by contact with the living man."

This fully applied to both these great men. It is, however, with William Kelly we are concerned in this present volume.

Ireland

Dublin, Downpatrick and the Wicklow Hills form the setting of William Kelly's birth, boyhood and youth. The son of an Ulster squire, he was born in May 1820 at Millisle, Co. Down. His father's early death left him and an only sister to be brought up by their devoted mother. At an early age he matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin, and here a natural flair for the classics and sacred languages was fostered. This, combined with a steady application, soon caused him to be regarded as a very promising student, one likely to add to the lustre of he University.

He early gave evidence of an innate love for study and also possessed the rare gift, for one so young, of sufficient wisdom to refrain from presuming of it. As Sir Joshua Reynolds says, "If you have genius, industry will improve it; if you have none, industry will supply its place." And William Kelly followed this hard but sure road. He himself in later years once casually remarked to the writer, "Genius is ninety-nine per cent hard work and close application to one's studies;" and his early career at Trinity College was an illustration of it, his steady industry being finally crowned with first class distinction when he graduated later in highest classical honours. The Principal, when warmly congratulating him upon his scholastic brilliance, offered a post upon the College staff, hinting that if accepted he would make his fortune in the world. "Which world, sir?" was his enquiry.

He was then only twenty years old, but the reply was both self-revealing and almost prophetically anticipative of his whole after life of being in the world but not of it. The influence of the Evangelical school of religion in which he, as an Ulsterman, had been nurtured made a deep impression upon him, the other-worldliness of that movement predisposing the devoutly minded youth in the direction of Orders in the Irish Established Church. Why this ambition was never realized will appear later, but at the time of leaving the University it was uppermost in his thoughts.

In passing we may note that half a century later Kelly's nephew by marriage closely rivalled his uncle's reputation at Trinity. The then Principal remarked to a friend of the Kelly family, "You know, we look on Malcolm as one of the chief ornaments of our college." In later life Malcolm Montgomery, the lad in question, was also regarded as the best Greek authority among the "Brethren", and showed that he shared his uncle's convictions as to the relative values of worldly honours when one has had the vision of higher things.

Upon leaving Dublin University Kelly found himself momentarily at a loose end, being then a couple of years too young for ordination in the Irish Church. He decided to seek a tutorial post in the interim, and keep up his special theological reading. He always held that it was in the providence of God that just then the Seigneur of Sark happened to visit Northern Ireland seeking a tutor for his young family. Being also the Rector of Sark, and happening to contact the University authorities, he heard of that year's brilliant student and expressed a wish to meet him. This resulted in a warm invitation to Sark, and Kelly's immediate difficulties as to a livelihood disappeared. William Kelly even afterwards regarded this entirely unexpected opening as a most important stage on his life's pilgrimage. When referring to it later, the present writer ventured to quote:

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends Rough-hew them how we will."

Mr. Kelly smilingly replied, "I am not a Shakespearian," and said that he much preferred the poet Cowper's version:

"God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform."

From the Emerald Isle, with the busy life of Dublin, Downpatrick and the Wicklow Hills, the boundaries of his youthful days, to the remote Isle of Sark, situated in the stormiest part of the English Channel, was a journey not to be lightly undertaken in the early nineteenth century. But in Kelly's case it was the first of the several stages en route for London, where so much of his life and work was done.

He firmly believed in the guiding Hand of God, and always regarded the stages of his pilgrimage as the direct leading of the One Who knows the end from the beginning and guides all the journey through. So from Dublin to Sark, thence to Guernsey covering the next twenty years; and then to London, where at Blackheath and Lee the rest of his days were spent, is the story of his earthly pilgrimage.

Few islands contain so much romantic interest in so small a compass as the Isle of Sark. It is remarkable for its grandeur of cliff and cave, and deemed the loveliest of those lovely gardens of the sea - the Channel Islands." Here in the Channel Islands it was that Kelly as a young tutor experienced what he always regarded as the two most important events in one's life: the knowledge of personal soul salvation, and the finding of life's greatest earthly treasure, a good wife.

Taking the latter as first in order, for the wife was used to lead him into the knowledge of the former, it was here he met and fell in love with a Miss Montgomery of Guernsey in whom for years until her death in 1844 William Kelly found a perfect help-meet in life and work. Like himself she hailed from the Emerald Isle, being a lady of the Ulster Scottish branch of the Montgomery tree and of Norman origin. These happy formative years in Sark were now filled with congenial employment, domestic bliss and happy Christian fellowship.

William Kelly had from boyhood been religious and conscientious; his growing knowledge of Hebrew and Greek had also fostered a scholar's interest in the Holy Scriptures in their original tongues. As a child familiar with what the Evangelicals of that day termed the "Plan of Salvation", he yet so far had not taken a really personal interest in the subject. The important step by which one passes from a general knowledge about Christ to a special knowledge of Him as a personal Saviour had not been taken by him, when he accepted the appointment in Sark.

Sixty years later in a public lecture in London, when quoting the text from John's epistle, "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater," he remarked, "May I recall the divine relief and deliverance these words gave more than sixty years ago to a soul converted but harassed and deeply exercised through sense of sin which clouded his soul's rest on Jesus? These words chased away all doubt, and made him ashamed to question God's witness. It became the application of truth to him, and no longer his applying it to himself, though not at all doubting the intrinsic worth of Christ's death for the sinner. "It was not my seeing as I ought the efficacy of the blood, but resting by faith on God's seeing it, and God's valuing it as it deserves." William Kelly thus explained the great change which was the prelude to becoming the man of God he did.

The third important happening which took place in the Isle of Sark was some months subsequently. He made a careful examination of current conventional ecclesiastical customs in the light of the New Testament which he always studied in the original tongue. The conclusion arrived at by him was expressed in the following words: "It is but too plain that whatever good men may do here and there, the only real inquiry is as to the will of the Lord. It is not a question of making others walk in your light, but you must not walk in their darkness. This is the great point, not occupying ourselves with others, prescribing what they must do, but feeling my own sin, as well as the common sin, yet by grace resolved at all costs to be where I can honour and obey the Lord." So he explained his action in then leaving the Established Church. He had come to see that in all the current religious societies, Established or Dissenting, one, if loyal to the tenets of the company, had either to surrender some Scriptural principle or to acquiesce in what was obviously unscriptural and therefore contrary to the will of the Lord.

He quietly decided, therefore, to associate himself with a very tiny company of likeminded Christian believers who were gathered simply to the Name of the Lord Jesus, relying upon His own assurance (Matt. 18,20) of His Presence in the midst of them. He found them making no pretensions to superior knowledge or spirituality, yet most certainly enjoying much spiritual blessing and happy fellowship in the things of the Lord, to which he had hitherto been a stranger. It was another lady, one of the well known Acland family, who helped the young tutor now, both to appreciate the simplicity of God's way of salvation, and also the Scriptural way to gather for worship and service. One Lord's day William Kelly went to a meeting for the Lord's Supper, the Breaking of Bread, as recorded in Acts 20, where it is written, "When upon the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread." To his momentary confusion, on that particular morning no other brothers were present in the tiny gathering, and he, though having received much light and help spiritually from the writings of J.N. Darby and other "brethren", had never actually met a "brother".

Some two years or so after this William Kelly, now in his twenty-fifth year, went on a short visit to Plymouth, and happening to call at a bookseller's shop in Whimple Street, there, to his great joy, met a man whose life for the next forty years was to be very closely linked with his own. For the last couple of years Kelly had been a close and careful student of the works of John Nelson Darby, then creating something of a stir in ecclesiastical circles, and the clerical dove-cotes generally. This had made him greatly desire to meet the author, and the meeting in that bookseller's was a great day in Kelly's life. Given in his own words he says, "I go back to my first intercourse with J.N.D. in the summer of 1845 at Plymouth. For though I had been for years in communion before this, it had not been my lot to see him for whom above all others I had conceived, because of his love and testimony to Christ, profound respect and warm affection. I was then living in the Channel Islands, in one of which I began to break bread with three sisters, before ever looking a "brother" in the face. It was in J.B. Rowe's shop, Whimple Street, that we met, and very frank and cordial was his greeting." This apparently casual meeting was another spiritual milestone on life's pilgrimage, and one of Kelly's most cherished memories.

Shortly after this first contact with J.N. Darby, whose conversation served to deepen greatly the impression which his own solitary studies had made upon him, an opportunity of attending a big London Conference of Brethren was presented, which enabled Kelly to hear an address by his new acquaintance and erstwhile life-long friend. This address by J.N. Darby made an ineffaceable impression upon him, so that some sixty years later in a reminiscent mood he said with emphasis, "It was a most impressive discourse." The ecclesiastical atmosphere was then very heavy with dark clouds. The gathering storm of the Oxford movement had increased in intensity in the months of Newman's secession, and the first great calamitous division of the so-called Brethren movement co-incided. The air was electric in the circles of both these movements. Kelly's interest was second only to Darby's. It was not Tractarians or Newtonians as such, but the truth of God and the honour of Christ which they felt to be at stake. It has been well observed, "the hour finds the man," and Kelly's special gifts were very speedily recognized beyond the boundaries of the Channel Islands where hitherto they had been exercised.

The comparatively early death of his young wife no doubt accounts for his decision to leave Sark, which he did shortly afterwards. His conviction, too, that the Lord was guiding his steps towards the sister isle of Guernsey finally determined him to remove his home there. Subsequent events proved that his action was justified, as the next chapter shows.

Guernsey

Guernsey, where William Kelly resided for the next twenty-seven years 1844-1871, provided a far wider field than Sark in his service for the Lord. Almost at once there began that surprising output of literary work which was remarkably sustained for half e century. It was here that Dr. S.P. Tregelles invited him to collaborate as a biblical textual critic, a great honour for so young a man, and an appreciation of Kelly's ability in this specialized department of sacred study. Here also his first great work appeared, the Revelation of John with an independent translation, to be hailed by Professor Heinrich Ewald of Göttingen as "the best piece of English work of the kind that had ever come under my notice."

Such tributes and recognitions quickly placed William Kelly in the front rank of those rising young writers upon sacred subjects whose work then claimed notice in the so-called religious world of that day. Reviews, articles, pamphlets and more substantial volumes, all bearing the hallmark of scholarship, simplicity and lucidity, appeared in succession from his eloquent pen. He was now recognized as a sound biblical scholar and controversialist of a formidable calibre. He had for some three years contributed articles to the Christian Annotator which attracted much attention. Then the editorship of the Prospect, at the age of twenty-nine, marked a further stage of progress in Kelly's early career. This magazine was one devoted to the exposition of prophetic subjects, and though issued in an uninviting style both as to size and shape, with the added drawback of closely printed type, yet for the two years of his editorship had a good circulation.

His opportunity came, however, when Professor Wallace, about to relinquish responsibility for the Bible Treasury, invited William Kelly to contribute a series of papers, six months later handing the periodical over to him. From the outset it was a success; here he found and held his ecclesiastical public for the next half century. It was a venture of faith for so young a man, but "the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord" (Ps. 37,23), and the Bible Treasury soon firmly established itself in the hearts of its readers. Archdeacon Denison, expressing his opinion a few years subsequently, said, "It is the only religious magazine any longer worth taking." Yet the Editor by no means spared the school of thought represented by the Venerable Archdeacon when he considered truth necessitated his so doing.

In the first number issued under the new editorship Kelly frankly states the aim of the new venture in these words,

The name of the periodical is not one which I should have chosen, as it wears a pretentious air - least to an unfriendly eye. But the project was unknown to me till after the first number, or the second, was in the hands of its readers. To the third I contributed the first of a series. Prom the eighth number the editorial care was mine; not long after the entire responsibility devolved on me. Though never liking the title as a question of taste and feeling I saw in it no sufficiently serious objection to risk the confusion which must have ensued from a change of name. If the work be a poor Treasury, as I cannot but feel, the Bible, at any rate, is in God's grace a rich unfailing source of supply.

Accordingly, whilst the prophetic word has not been neglected throughout the past eleven years, I may say, of its course, the reader can bear witness that there has been the continual desire to draw from every province of Scripture, avoiding no truth which God has revealed for our instruction. The person and the work of Christ, the expectations of Israel from of old, the prospects of the world, the hope of the Christian and of the Church, the dispensations and the Kingdom of God, have all been treated, most of these subjects frequently and by various pens, and this with a distinct view to the practical profit of souls. Exposition of Scripture (Old Testament and New, portions and whole books), has had, and I trust ever will have a large place. So, too, questions of the day for good or ill have been discussed, with occasional reviews or notices of such books as handle them. Neither exhortations to Christians nor appeal to the unconverted will be looked for in vain in these pages.

Critical difficulties, faults or textual readings in Greek and Hebrew, emendations of translations, and corrections of prevalent interpretation, may not interest so extensive a class, but they have ever had a prominent place here; because the aim has been ever to consider such Christians especially as desire to make progress in the things of God. How, mistake in text or version or exegesis arrests the mind in proportion to the value given to God's word. Hence to such as prize that word above all things, the exceeding preciousness of every fresh insight into its true bearing, and the importance of removing every hindrance.

As for the writers, no matter of interest to the believer, or of bearing on Christ's glory, will they exclude or evade; though it is assuredly desired to avoid the discussion of every unprofitable question, and to rid all things discussed as much as possible of a controversial aim. Papers of real value from any Christian will of course be admissible, save where known evil practice, or indifference to Christ, ruins the credit of the profession of His Name. "May the gracious Lord deign to use the work increasingly to the edification of souls and to His glory. 'For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.'"

This Guernsey period in Kelly's life, although thus full of outside activities was one in which the interests of the local assemblies of believers with which Kelly was so closely connected were never neglected. Always modestly disclaiming being an elder, bishop or overseer of the flock, yet his supreme delight was found in ministering to the sheep of God's pasture; and many gratefully acknowledged it was right good spiritual food which he supplied. It was also often remarked with surprise that so erudite a man could be so simple in his public ministrations, whether purely evangelistic, expository or of a more advanced character.

Intellectual cleverness, glibness of speech as worthless as they are common, William Kelly abhorred, his public ministry and private conversation being alike marked by the word of wisdom and sanctified common sense. He was alive to the danger of the then very critical period in the so-called religious world. It was the post-Tractarian era which followed hard upon Newman's defection and Manning's desertion from the Established Church.

Dr. Pusey, John Keble and some others of the early movement remained, but Maurice and Kingsley and their disciples now in the ascendant were busily introducing their Liberal Social Gospel with the openly expressed approbation of Dean Stanley; the Evangelicals appeared to have lost their savouring salt and much of their influence; and at the same time the "Brethren" were in the throes of their first great division. Earlier on they had caused dismay in ecclesiastical circles both Established and Dissenting by their rapidly spreading influence, so many of clergy and ministers having joined their ranks. Now considerable confusion prevailed on all sides, and a clear voice was needed to re-affirm the fundamental witness to God's inspiration of the Scriptures, and the true other-worldliness of real Christianity. On the one hand Dr. Pusey quickly sensing the alarming situation bore a very bold witness to both these matters, somewhat weakened, however, by his decided Patristic and Mediaeval leanings. Of these Mr. Kelly himself may be cited as being one of these scholarly voices then raised respecting these matters in the early fifties of the 19th century. (See Introduction to W. Kelly "Lectures Introductory to the Minor Prophets).

It was during this Guernsey period that William Kelly also began those occasional excursions to London for lecturing and preaching which in the sixties brought him into personal contact with hundreds who, already familiar with his writings, were anxious to see and hear him.

The first of these visits appears to have been made in the late spring of 1866, between May 31st and June 20th when he delivered a course of eleven lectures which drew remarkable attendances, and made a deep impression on the hearers. These were taken down in shorthand, a real demand for publication having arisen during the delivery of this series. These he corrected with additions and retrenchments, shaping them in a more written style. Issued in book form at the end of the year as "Lectures Introductory to the study of the Gospels", they found a remarkable sale. Two years later when local conditions again favoured another London visit, this time in May 1868, the reception given to a companion series of twelve lectures delivered on the Epistles of Paul was a further tribute paid to the expository gift of the lecturer. One who attended several of these lectures expressed recollections of the crowded gatherings night by night, and of real help received from the word so ably ministered then.

On this occasion publication was unavoidably delayed until the next year when they appeared as Lectures Introductory to the study of Paul's Epistles. In quick succession there followed a series of Introductory Lectures on the study of the Pentateuch; Historical Books of the Old, Testament; Minor Prophets, the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit; the Second Coming and Kingdom; the Church of God; and a bulky volume of Occasional Lectures on Ritualism, Rationalism, Creation and nine other subjects of general interest.

In the providence of God it appears that in one of his lecturing tours William Kelly met the accomplished lady, Miss Elizabeth Emily Gipps, who years later was to become his second wife. Her father, the Reverend Henry Gipps, rector of St. Peter's, Hereford, had married a Miss Plumptre, sister of the first Lord Menthuen and cousin to J.C. Ryle, later Bishop of Liverpool. A learned and venerable friend whose hobby and recreation appears to have been that of genealogical research, (especially among the pedigrees of the early Brethren), kindly supplied this detailed information. He also traces J.N. Darby's pedigree on the male line to Commonwealth days of 1674, and on the distaff side through the O'Mores and old Earls of Ormond back to the times of King Edward I. - The family of the Gipps, like that of the Montgomerys, became closely connected with the spiritual movement of which Kelly was one of the (if not the) most able exponents. The brother of Elizabeth, a Mr. Pemberton Gipps became a firm adherent of the London Park Street Fellowship in 1881, a fateful year in the memory of so many Brethren, when the cryptic remark of the late Principal, Dr. W. H. Griffith Thomas of Toronto University, received a further sad illustration. Said that worthy divine on more than one occasion, "The Brethren are a remarkable people for rightly dividing the Word of Truth and wrongly dividing themselves."

One further incident of the Guernsey period, and perhaps of more than general interest, may be mentioned before closing this chapter of William Kelly's life in the Channel Islands. It was the meeting between two men who some fifty years later were to be regarded as leaders in opposite camps of the Brethren, namely Kelly and Lowe. In the eighties and nineties some sectarian minded brethren might have been heard speaking of the "Kelly" and "Lowe" parties. This incidentally was not the spirit of either of these revered leaders. It, however, gives a spice of interest to the story of their first meeting.

William Joseph Lowe, than a brilliant and accomplished youth, Junior to William Kelly "by some eighteen years, had obtained an important position in Madras when only twenty-one years of age. Before sailing to take up this post, a holiday of some three weeks was spent by him in Guernsey where he met and heard Kelly. So mutually impressed were they that the acquaintance speedily ripened to friendship owing to common interest in divine things. Ever after, Lowe referred to this meeting as having been one of the great formative influences of his life. Indeed on several occasions he remarked that in some respects it was the turning point of his career which, in truth, was a remarkable one in many ways. W.J. Lowe, a civil engineer by profession, possessed great linguistic ability, speaking nine or ten languages with ease; and his worldly prospects in India appeared very favourable indeed. The climate, however, soon took toll of health and energy, and in a few years he felt compelled to resign. Upon his return to England one of his first visits was to Guernsey to see the man to whom spiritually he considered he owed so much. Then began a life of almost apostolic labours as he visited Belgium, France, Germany and other parts of the Continent in the service of Christ, eventually extending his visits to Canada and the United States. He also rendered invaluable assistance to J.N. Darby in the French translation of the New Testament which the latter very frankly and gratefully acknowledged. W.J. Lowe himself, as already remarked, never tired of acknowledging the debt to what was an apparently casual meeting with William Kelly when on holiday on Guernsey. There are no little things, however, in the life of a child of God. Upon a very small hinge a big door may swing and turn. In the retrospect how often it is seen that apparently trifling events have moulded our lives and work. "For all the ways of a man are before Him." Darby, Kelly, Lowe and the thousands influenced by their lives and teachings realised that things which have neither sanction in the word of God nor will bear the searching light of its testimony had invaded Christendom and gained acceptance by devout souls. St. Cyprian, in the early days of the Church, gave the warning that even antiquity is not authority, but may only be "vetustas erroris" -the old age of error.

Blackheath

The moving pillar of God's guidance and providence in William Kelly's life now pointed the road to the last and longest stage of his pilgrimage - Blackheath, where he resided for the next thirty-five years. This was perhaps the most important one of all, as here circumstances arose which forced him conscientiously to take a stand ecclesiastically separating him from many of his oldest and most valued friends.

Blackheath, five miles south of London, was then and for some years included in the county of Kent. It has played an important part in the history of London from Roman days, coins of Claudius and Gallienus having been found bearing the names of these Emperors. In 1710 a great many urns were dug up here, and among them two of an unusual form, the one globular, the other cylindrical; both of fire red clay, containing a great quantity of ashes. In one of them were the words "Marcus Aurelius IIII" rudely scratched. The Danes also had an encampment on Blackheath. Its history has bristled with battles, triumphant processions and splendid pageantry? Indeed every inch of it teems with history. Here kings, queens and cardinals from the year 1400 paraded "in all the pomp and pageantry of secular and ecclesiastical state" to Christian readers, however, Whitefield's mount still standing as a reminder of that great Evangelist preaching to thousands on Blackheath from a slight elevation, is of great interest. Morden College, founded by Sir John Morden in 1695, is on one side of Kidbrook Grove where the Kelly family made their home, and on the other is Greenwich Park, so pleasantly situated on the banks of the Thames that Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, called it Placentra, or the manor of Pleasaunce, in the reign of Henry VI, to be later used in 1675 for building the Royal Observatory, the old tower having fallen into decay.

In Blackheath Village, teeming with historical associations, the Brethren had a meeting place: called Bennett Park Hall with which, to the end of his life, William Kelly was to be closely connected. The Rink Hall near by, now displaced by a modern Post Office, also served on occasions when a conference overflowed the usual place of assembly.

William Kelly's coming to reside among the local gathering, he being a teacher of widely recognised influence and ability now in his early fifties, was welcomed by his brethren. Here, too, his gifts were to find ample scope, and before long the so-called religious press discovered his presence. It happened that if anyone wished to study prophecy (then a burning question in religious circles irrespective of denomination) from what was termed "futurist" standpoint, he commonly resorted to Bennett Park Hall in search of information, William Kelly being considered one of its ablest exponents.

A London journalist thus described a visit there veiling his identity beneath the nom-de-plume of "Spectator".

The Brethren are like Zoophytes who at certain times cut themselves off from the parent stem, and start life on their own account. The Brethren do this with themselves, only they never own their relatives after. This process of development has been again recently gone through; I am not sure whether "the meeting" I attended at Blackheath is, or is not, part of the original stem. Mr. Kelly is the "leading brother" as the chief minister, or ministering brother as a "gathering" (that is a meeting) is called. Bennett Park Hall, "the Room", is lofty and very comfortable} the Table is covered with the usual white cloth, a large decanter of wine, and some four or six large tumblers for the distribution of it; this gives the Table a singular appearance. I slip in, and before me is a board with a polite request written on it, not to trespass into the sacred enclosure of those "breaking bread". I wait; more arrivals until about one hundred and fifty or more people of the well-to-do class are present. Hymn books are provided for visitors. They are entitled "Spiritual Songs" "for the little Flock". Does the little flock mean the Brethren?

Mr. Kelly now arises and states that "our brother so-and-so from such a place is breaking bread with us today." This is, I judge, a signal that the meeting has commenced, for immediately after, a hymn is given out, and is sung standing. I notice there appears an unwritten rule that when hymns are addressed to the Divine Being they stand. If only truth about God or Christ they sit. The singing, though not unmusical, was of the slowest description until it became positively painful. Do they wish outsiders to consider they are going through a painful process?

Mr. Kelly then prayed; and it was on the whole a very remarkable prayer, and had some notable striking sentences. He said, "O God, we thank Thee it is Thy will to bring us together. We should never have thought of it, should never have known the joy of communion, and the deeper joy of Christ in the midst; separate us from the evil, from the evil which looks fair. O God, may our hearts be led by the Holy Ghost. Heaven is occupied in praising. Thou hast called us to praise Him. He became Man, to take up that great question, entirely insolvable to any but Himself, the question of our sins. O God, never didst Thou have an object which entirely filled Thy heart but Christ. We thank Thee for that One Who drew out Thine affections, Who brought out Thy counsels of glory. May there be holy liberty for Thy Spirit to exalt the Head, Jesus Christ." "Hymn again followed by some gentleman praying. He used very much the same style of language as Mr. Kelly. Another hymn sung standing; and Mr. Kelly then broke the bread, and prayed again. Addressing himself now to the Saviour he said, "O blessed Saviour, this is Thy particular command that we should break bread in remembrance of Thee. Lay it in our hearts, that we may as a continual offering give Thee the fruit of our lips. No tongue of men or angels could adequately set forth what Thy death means. What a sweet savour to God, what glory everlasting that death shall bring. Every other death is the wages of sin. Thou art the life everlasting, yet didst Thou die, Thou Who art the resurrection and the life.

The bread and the wine having passed round, a hymn was given out by one whose appearance and manner indicated that he was of the lower class. The good brother pitched it to the tune of Hold the Fort. It did not fit, so he had to pull it out the right size. This the good brother did, singing a solo at the same time. It is peculiar to hear this tune sung at the rate of a mile an hour.

At last it was finished and Mr. Kelly got on his feet, a rustle of expectation going through the room. The brief address being over, the box went round for the collection. Another hymn and short prayer, and the meeting broke up without the benediction.

Mr. Kelly is an able man as a teacher and theologian; moreover, he is a scholar and evidently a thinker. He was formerly a clergyman. His manner is not pleasant as a speaker, and he has a weak voice, dropping it at the end of every sentence.

Objectionable as the practice is, in a general way, of reporting prayers, since they are presumably intended for the Divine ear, and not as the American press once flatteringly remarked of a preacher that "his prayer was the most eloquent ever offered to a Boston congregation," yet, now that Mr. Kelly's voice is silent, few will regret that the reporter at Blackheath meeting included the above two devotional utterances which instinctively recall the speaker to those who knew him.

Shortly after settling at Blackheath Mr. Kelly commenced a weekly lecture in the Bennett Park Hall which soon became a regular feature of his ministry, and continued it for the rest of his life; suspended temporarily only on occasions of short absences from home. Every one interested knew that on Wednesday evenings he would be found at his post* and visitors to London, not only brethren, but clergy and others, were to be seen in the congregation fairly frequently. Indeed in the eighties and nineties, both at his Sunday evening Gospel services and Wednesday lectures, a rather cosmopolitan company would often be assembled to hear him. One well remembers having to vacate one's seat with many other local hearers in order to accommodate visitors from the Colonies and States who made a visit to the Blackheath Room (as the Hall was called by Brethren) a part of their tours. Also, as most of the thirty odd London gatherings of the Brethren held their week evening services on Mondays and Fridays, a goodly remnant could always be relied on to come to "the lecture" as it became widely known. And Kelly was a lecturer par excellence. One London divine who condescendingly came to hear this "Plymouth Brother", has put on record that on arrival at the Room he was astonished to find a congregation armed to the teeth with Bibles, listening to a masterly exposition of the origin of languages delivered without a single note, and lasting for an hour. It might have lessened the good clergyman's surprise had he been aware that others of his order, including Archbishop MacLagan, Bishop Ellicott, Archdeacon Denison and others also frequently consulted the lecturer upon matters of Scripture translation and exposition.

Quite another side of Kelly's ministry found illustration when a young Government official remarked to the writer that often, when standing alone under the starlit sky in the lonely Soudan, he had meditated upon a sermon of Mr. Kelly's at Blackheath heard by him on the Sunday evening previous to going out to take up his appointment. Though not then living at Blackheath, he had on the Sunday previous to his departure for Egypt gone over as he said, "to hear the old gentleman once more, perhaps for the last time;" and singularly enough, in his address Mr. Kelly, quite unaware of the visitor's presence or circumstances, dwelt very much upon the restless ambition of men for wealth or fame driving them to the ends of the earth, in seeking their own advancement in this world, while often neglectful of the all-important concerns of the soul. This made so profound an impression on this young fellow that when returning some three years later, on his first Sunday after landing in England, he went to Blackheath to hear again the one whose words had as deeply impressed him on the former occasion.

Another phase of Kelly's ministry the following will serve to illustrate. He was to preach at St. German's Hall, Lewisham, one week evening. This Hall was situated in a working class district quite unlike Bennett Park Hall. Here William Kelly delivered an interesting, instructive and most earnest address based upon the Scripture reading before the sermon from Luke 23, 33. With studied simplicity of style in words both simple and arresting, he told the old, old story of the love of God in Christ for mankind. The divisions of the subject were clearly defined:

1. Who the holy Sufferer at Calvary really was.

2. Why He so suffered.

3. His ability and readiness to save any.

4. The necessity of accepting so great a Saviour.

5. The peril of delay and certain doom of unbelieving despisers of God's mercy.

6. Finally, he earnestly appealed to all present definitely to accept the Saviour, and closing the Bible added with great earnestness, "Remember, one robber was saved, so none need despair; but," after a dramatic pause, "only one, so none may presume."

By way of contrast (was it on the following Sunday evening?) at his own place at Bennett Park Hall to a different congregation, one of mainly leisured and professional people, he commenced a series of three simple gospel addresses on 1 Peter 1, 2, the consecutive subjects beings

1. Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father (on the first occasion);

2. Through sanctification of the Spirit (upon the second evening);

3. Unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (for the final address).

One wonders whether any preacher since Archbishop Leighton's famous lectures on Peter's Epistles had ever used one such verse for three full Sunday evening discourses. They were masterly, reasoned expositions, shot through with evangelistical application and followed by the congregation apparently with intentness of interest. The scene even at this distance of time stands out clearly before the eye of one then present. Precisely as a chiming clock in a neighbouring church tower struck the hour, William Kelly stepped up to the desk, announced a hymn, followed this by a short earnest prayer; a further hymn and the reading of a short passage of Scripture from 1 Peter 1. Then we settled back as the short compact figure, as was his wont, his spectacles up on his brow announced the text with just the suspicion of a lisp in his voice, "Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father."

Asserting that the Calvinist was right in what he affirmed as to this, and wrong in what he denied by false deduction, he also declared the Arminian to be in the same plight, only reversed. He then proceeded to stress the importance of recognizing the pure grace which saved any, and the great importance of not receiving the grace of God in vain. The church clock chimed the quarter before the hour; the preacher carefully, but unhurriedly, summed up, announced a short hymn, and dismissed us on the stroke of the hour. He was ever a punctual man. Punctuality breeds punctuality, and Bennett Park Hall in William Kelly's days could afford an object lesson in this respect.

Another reminiscence of those days kindly contributed by an old friend may be appropriately inserted here. He writes: "You probably knew Dr. Joseph Kidd, famous as he was for his skill and generosity, and as being the personal physician of Lord Beaconsfield. I used to hear during my life in London of that Monday evening in April, 1881, when the prayer meeting was interrupted by a postman arriving with a summons to Dr. Kidd to wait on the dying Premier. We all have heard or many have done of Dr. Kidd's guinea fees, and how he put the guineas into a box. If a poor patient turned up out came the guineas to assist the needy brother." Personal recollections of the good doctor are chiefly of his stately entrance with Mrs. Kidd and the younger branch of the family on Sunday mornings. His snowy head, patriarchal beard, benign countenance and dignified bearing is not easily forgotten after the lapse of so many years. His reading of Psalm 65, "Praise waiteth for Thee O God in Zion," followed by a prayer in quiet reverent tones commencing with "Holy Father," made a deep impression.

Mr, Spurgeon, in these Blackheath days, referred to William Kelly in very suggestive terms in "Commentary and Commentaries" (of the College Series). First, as "a leading writer of the exclusive Plymouth School." Secondly, as "an eminent Divine of the Brethren School who sometimes expounds ably, but with a twist towards the peculiar dogmas of his party." In the third instance, he remarks, "We are sorry to see such a mind as Mr, Kelly's so narrowed by party bounds." Fourthly, "It is a pity that a man of such excellence should allow a very superior mind to be so warped." Finally, adapting Pope's well-known words, he says, "Kelly is a man who, born for the universe, has narrowed his mind by Darbyism."

It is, of course, true that William Kelly was an intimate friend and fellow-worker with Darby; indeed this oneness of mind and spirit led to him being asked both to revise and edit all the elder man's writings. The "Synopsis of the Bible", and from thirty to forty volumes of Darby's works: English, French, German, Dutch and Italian, all passed under his careful review as Editor. Yet throughout their close association Kelly was in no wise a blind follower of Darby; the bond of "truth in love" was what cemented the union in which each, while agreeing in the main, preserved independence of thought and action. This somewhat discounts Spurgeon's appraisal of Kelly and his work.

All critics were not so superficial, however; for a distinguished French scholar, who also wrote of Kelly and his works, says, "Kelly -savant, realisateur, tete logique, résumateur, philosophe;" and another critical writer spoke of him as "possessed a rare logical skill, fine precision, powers of original research, high moral power and spiritual culture." An Oxford man, and one not inclined perhaps to rate very highly the product of another University, frankly described Kelly as the distinguished alumnus of his (Dublin) University." His reputation apparently may therefore be considered as being established.

The final course of the Wednesday lectures was begun in his eighty-fifth year. At the concision of the first of these he announced, "I trust, if the Lord will, to continue these "Lectures on John's Epistles" without intermission." Happily he was enabled to complete the series which were, however, published posthumously. These were characterised by all his accustomed vigour of intellect and incisive speech, and possessed the added charm of a graciousness of spirit which greatly impressed some who were privileged to hear them delivered. It almost seemed as though a touch of completeness was being put to the long ministry of one who had figured so prominently in the many conflicts and controversies in the ecclesiastical arena in earlier days. They contrasted somewhat with the polemical style of much of his earlier work. Some who were devoted to him felt that a kind of sunset glory was resting upon this last phase of a faithful ministry. Many of them felt as the year 1905 ran out that these were the last addresses he would be giving. One very godly man who for sixty years had admired William Kelly, remarked at the close of one of these series, "Ah! If the old gentleman had always spoken like this, perhaps things would have turned out very differently with some." But William Kelly's own thoughts expressed in his words at this time clearly indicate just how his mind was working.

"Oh, my brethren" he exclaimed,

Be it ours to fill 'the little while' separate from the world, and above fleshly ease in the devoted service of Christ. Nothing so good and happy now, and nothing so appreciated on high and through all eternity; unless it be communion with Himself and the worship which accompanies it."

It was in 1869, when the scientific air was electric with speculations of Lyell, Darwin, Huxley, Asa Grey and others, that a lecture by William Kelly attracted great attention. The extraordinary grasp of ancient mythology, modern speculation and oriental languages possessed by the lecturer astonished some present who had hitherto regarded him as a mere henchman of J.N. Darby, and only a hidebound Plymouthist. His tacit rebuke of some who tremblingly sought to prevent the sacred ark of Holy Scripture from being shaken by its critics found expression in such a sentence as, "It is not part of wisdom for a Christian to deny facts. Why reject the phenomena which indicates states not only of the earth, but of living creatures there before Adam was made, i.e., before the six days? Otherwise how can we escape the supposition, that God was pleased to make vast quantities of fossilized objects, giving the appearance of having lived on earth, which never did? Are you prepared to accept the notion that God studiously gave a semblance of that which was not true? There are remains of animals, and animals too that were made with distinct objects, and with characteristics altogether different from those of animals to be found now, and supposing a correspondent state of things (as for instance, when the world was a vast marsh and enormous heat prevailed). There is no ground whatever to doubt these facts. I do not see that a Christian shows his wisdom, or his faith either by denying anything of the sort. (Creation p. 17, 18).

Sir Edmund Gosse in "Father and Son" relates how his father Philip Gosse had published an essay on Genesis 1, in defense of current orthodox teaching on Creation. His experiment in the field of geology called forth from the press, "God hid the fossils in the rocks in order to tempt geologists into infidelity," made Huxley scornful, and led Charles Kingsley, a close friend of Gosse, to write that he "could not give up the painful and slow conclusion of five and twenty years of study of geology, and believe that God has written on the rocks one enormous and superfluous lie."

The second Mrs. Kelly, to whom reference has been made in a previous chapter, one son and three daughters comprised the Kelly family at Blackheath. The son, named William after his father, was a young man of great promise who passed away in early life. Of the three daughters, one married a cousin, Mr. Edward Ramsden in 1875, another, Miss Emmie Kelly, married into the well known Colquhoun family, the other daughter later becoming Mrs. Armitage. William Kelly never failed to acknowledge the invaluable help rendered by his equally gifted wife, who was also an accomplished linguist. In the preface to an anonymously issued volume, "The Psalms - a new version with short notes", he pays this tribute to her memory:

"No apology is offered for the close rendering of the Hebrew, often no doubt uncouth to western ears. The aim of a version for public use is wholly different. But the more literal reflection is also full of interest and instruction to those who would weigh the form as well as the substance of the inspired word, whether Old or New; and this is what has been essayed here, however, inadequately. This I say for myself in particular, for time failed me with many calls on it to do more than supply what one ever dear to me began, but was compelled by sickness to give up just beyond the first fifty psalms. These first sheets lay for many years in the printer's hands, which it was a little labour of love to complete, with brief notes also on the distinctive aim of each of the hundred and fifty as I understand it. The critical eye may discern slight differences of rendering as to the words translated nations, peoples and Gentiles. For I felt bound not to alter a letter of hers on the one hand, on the other to be faithful in my part to give, what I believe, the precise sense. Also this memorial is given anonymously as all to whom it is of interest will understand that one or other name would not be quite true; and to put both savours to me too much of sentiment, which I dislike publishing, especially in divine things."

The loss of his second wife on February 4th, 1884, led him to remove across Blackheath to its extreme border at Lee, where for the remainder of his life he resided at Venner Lodge, Belmont Park. By this tine he had gradually acquired a very considerable library which grew until it reached some fifteen thousand volumes. The first view of it and the stocky figure with a short ladder against the book-lined shelves is not quickly erased from one's mind. But a further reference to this library and its disposal occurs later on these pages.

Churchman and Gospeller

"Act on your convictions, and the most honeyed courtesy turns sour; your desire to please God at all costs will be branded as Pharisaical pride and exclusiveness."

It was the Evangelical prophet who truly said, "He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey" (Isa. 59,15).

An American minister says, "William Kelly edified thousands by his clear Scriptural expositions." Yet it was to clergy and ministers of religion generally that his church position seemed to some very perplexing and to others so irritating. To himself it was a clearly defined one. He knew exactly where he stood in matters of faith and church order. True, he frequently experienced what the above quotation from Isaiah meant practically. At some real cost to him of worldly position and honours he consistently pursued his chosen course to life's end. On the vexed subject of infant baptism, or household baptism, his decided conviction forced by a study of Scripture was that there was neither warrant nor direction to be found for it; but although necessarily therefore a believer in the baptism of believers he way not a Baptist. He viewed with alarm the growing ecclesiasticism on every hand in the ranks of professedly Christian people.

On, the subject of Church fellowship his cherished and practiced principles, strangely so often misunderstood or misrepresented by some of a more legal turn of mind, found expression in the following, "We receive every Christian as such, without reference to their connection with Nationalism or Dissent; we rejoice to have communion with them, whether privately or publicly; They may join us in worship and the Supper of the Lord. They are as free as any of us to help in thanksgiving, prayer or a word of edification, if so led of God; and this without stipulation either to leave their old associations or to meet only with us. Where is this done save only with "Brethren"? With us on the contrary, if any godly Churchman or Dissenter thought fit to come when we remember the Lord together, he would be quite in order if he did any or all of these things spiritually; and this, not from any permission on our part, but as a matter of responsibility to God and His Word."

A letter of his on the subject is appended,

Blackheath, August 31, 1875.

My dear Brother,

Individuals among Brethren may urge their private views on evangelists or others; but all such narrowness is censured by every wise man in our midst; and, what is more important, it is dead against that return to keeping Christ's Word and not denying His Name which characterizes the work. The question has often arisen as to fellowship as well as service; and as often those who are entitled to speak have resisted the tendency to a restrictive school. If some have thought to require intelligence in those received, my own answer has been that it is in vain and unscriptural; that they themselves when received were the very reverse of intelligent; that if intelligence is to be anywhere, it should be in those who receive; and that those who require it in the received fail in the intelligence they demand from others; else they would not expect it where it could not be... Hence Scripture knows nothing of keeping outside a godly-walking member of Christ.

As little does it countenance the church's interference with the Lord's work, and especially in the gospel. To set the servant in the simplest dependence of the Lord, to foster his immediate responsibility to the Lord, without the intervention of the church is what every brother holds as a sacred duty and principle...This maintains the evangelist intact in his liberty and responsibility to his Master.

Ever yours,

W.K.

To another who prided himself on holding aloof from Assembly fellowship on account of real or imagined difficulties he wrote:

My dear Sir,

As far as I understand your position, it is one of "holding yourself aloof," or nothing-arianism to Church relations. Without doubt a dry morsel and quietness therewith is better than a house full of the sacrifices of strife; as it is better to dwell in the corner of a house-top than with a contentious woman in a house of society.

But I read unmistakably in the last epistle of the great apostle who alone communicated the truth of the Church, that grace gives a wholly different resource in view of the disorder and dangers of the last days. Circumstances may indeed here or there leave one isolated; but isolation is neither the revealed provision nor the legitimate aim. "The firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knew those that are His, and, Let every one that nameth the Lord's name depart from unrighteousness." This is individual and of deep moment as things are. But all does not end here. "Now in a great house etc." And this you own and have acted on. We are not tied to ecclesiastical corruptions where they are sanctioned constitutionally and admit of no removal. One must purge oneself out, if one cannot purge the evils out. But is this all? While the apostle bids his beloved child flee the lusts of youth, wide as they are and some of them subtle, he adds, "And pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." (2 Tim. 2, 19-22), Thus one may and ought to look for companions and fellow-witnesses called to like fidelity. Never should one contemplate isolation. The Holy Spirit bids one by grace to desire and expect communion of saints, however great and general may be the ruin of Christendom. Rev. 2,3 may be pleaded for individualism. How the call here to him that hath an ear is imperative in not allowing assemblies absolutely to govern faith and practice. I am bound, whatever the pretension of authority in defense of wrong or error, to hear not them but what the Spirit saith to them. Their voice is prima facie entitled (like that of my parents) to high respect and obedience," but certainly not if the wrong or the error is known and acknowledged; else that holy, responsibly holy, enclosure becomes a screen for evil, and may end in a hold of any unclean and hated bird. As a prophetic book the Apocalypse does warn and call for obedience to the word; but that word was to leave no faithful soul settled down in isolation. On the contrary, it encourages him, who separates from the evils men impose under the abused name of the Lord, to cherish a fellowship as much according to God as the separation. For Christ died to gather in one the children of God that were scattered abroad; and the Holy Ghost came to baptise them Jew or Gentile into one body. Never should God's will as to this inalienable privilege and duty become secondary. It is of all obligation, and the Holy Spirit abides to give both permanence and power, as we too are called to be subject to the Lord. Hence the blessedness of His own promise to be in, the midst (not certainly of all Christians in their wanderings) but of all that are gathered unto His name, were they but two or three. Let these be diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; and may they do it with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.

Yours faithfully in Christ,

W.K.

In August 1884 he paid a visit to America end made a point of attending a Conference of some thousand Brethren at Plainfield, New Jersey. Here he occupied the position of an observer, deeply interested but personally detached, although several of the leaders were anxious to consult him and to secure his acquiescence in their differing views as to reunion among themselves. In several interesting letters to Mr. Henry Glanvill of Blackheath he expressed himself very frankly, that in his opinion although good from the point of view of numbers, nothing of any real moment transpired at this Conference. He steadily refused to compromise, or to be drawn aside from what he was convinced was the Scriptural path of Church, faith and order. One of the Brethren enquired how it was that in places like America so few appeared to agree with Kelly. Another shrewdly sensed the situation and remarked, "It is because he did not travel around the country giving speeches in his own cause like a politician." As a matter of fact he rarely travelled outside the United Kingdom.

William Kelly was strongly opposed to ecclesiastical pretension, and nowhere so much as among those who professed to be "outside the camp." He possessed to a degree the judicial gift of weighing and sifted evidence, and gave short shrift to those partisan leaders who sought to enlist his aid in schemes of reunion by making compromises. It was this which led to the American visit mentioned above.

His habit, too, of minutely examining doctrinal novelties by whomsoever sponsored, and of drastically pillorying detected errors, did not make him exactly popular with their exponents. He, however, earned the lifelong gratitude of the "unlearned and ignorant" who, while in some degree sensing the evil, were not competent to discern exactly where, why, in what it consisted, and how to deal with it. Kelly's exposures in such cases commended themselves to the poor of the flock by the clarity, simplicity and devotion to Christ which marked them. Two instances may perhaps be permitted here. For example, when in the eighteen nineties a re-hash of Apollinarianism appeared under the guise of "fresh light" among one section of Brethren, Kelly quickly tore the mask off its ancient face, revealing it to be as heterodox as to the Person of Christ as when it was presented by the young bishop of Laodicea in Syria in the fourth century and condemned by the Oecumenical Council at Constantinople in A.D. 381.

In dealing with a quasi-doctrinal deliverance by another able teacher among the Brethren which for a time attracted more notice then than since as to propitiation being made after death in the disembodied state by our Lord, Kelly labelled it as a "ghostly theory of atonement." As a contradiction of the Lord's sixth word uttered with a loud voice, "It is finished", Kelly considered it in any case a slight upon the work of the Cross, detecting positive heresy in the statement and defence alike by the inventor. When in February 1900 it was formally considered by Brethren, and a paper signed by them refusing any compromise with this teaching, Kelly added as a postscript, "None but faithless or unwise men could wish such a matter to be an open question."

It is interesting to recall that when after Kelly's decease an American leader launched a line of teaching subversive to the doctrine of the Eternal Sonship of our Lord, a magazine editor unearthed a hymn of Kelly's written years previously which showed what his attitude towards this would have been had it promulgated in his lifetime.

"Unending praise be Thine,

Eternal Son, we say;

Who came to bring the true God nigh

And put all sin away.

Ah! Thee the world knew not,

Created erst by Thee;

Its kings and rulers cast Thee out

And nailed Thee to a tree.

Had'st Thou not then a sphere

By every right Thine own?

'Twas there Thine own from heathen craved

For Thee the cross alone.

Rejected, glorious Lord,

The Saviour only Thou

To God for men far off or near,

Alike the heart to bow.

For since Thy blood is shed,

Our sins to faith are gone;

And reconciled, we shall be saved,

Thou livest for Thine own."

It is only fair to note that Kelly's deep convictions and principles firmly held did not, however, lead him to neglect the Apostolic injunction of some "making a difference." It is the man who is sure of his ground who can go further than others in meeting difficulties and disarming the prejudices of others. This led him to be very patient with those who had genuine difficulties, as he was impatient with pretentious assumption of those gentry so felicitously described by the translators of King James' Authorised version as "self-conceited Brethren, who run their own ways, and give liking unto nothing, but what is framed by themselves, and hammered on their anvil."

A loving tribute to the memory of Mr. Kelly sent to the Editor of "Words of Help" by an old gypsy brother, may fittingly find a place in this chapter. Said he, "I read in "Words of Help" your writings on (of) W. Kelly with much joy, calling back to me my first meeting with that loved and departed brother, whose writings to me brought such joy and do now. I had not been many years a child of God, born again, and redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, when I met him. I had been only a poor gypsy, and not many of the tribe I belonged to could read or write; and his treatment of me was love; he met me as though I was one like himself, in such a humble and loving way.

I had asked who he was at a meeting, and when told it was W. Kelly I wondered why he had not even opened his mouth, for I loved his writings that I had read."

Surely this incident speaks for itself of the spiritual greatness of the one, and does honour to the other, and exhibits one of the characteristics which go to reveal the character of William Kelly.

Some Letters

William Kelly was good correspondent, prompt in his replies to letters received. He had, however, a penchant for postcards which occasionally, from his forthright habit of plain speaking, tended to embarrass the recipient. His habit of abbreviation made it possible to get a fairly long letter written upon a postcard, of which the following interesting specimen may serve as an illustration. It was sent to the Rev. F. W. Foster M.A., a clerical friend with whom he occasionally corresponded and was written microscopically with many abbreviations.

V.L., Bt. Pk., Lee, S.E.

1 Sept. 1905

My dear Foster,

Though I cannot deny plenty to do, I must write a few words to explain that the new Serial in which Dr. Driver takes a leading part is "The Interpreter", of which I have seen but No. 1. It was enough for me. But that he does not exercise great restraint, and steers clear of German scoffing and irreverence; but he seems to me only occupied with the husk and knows nothing of the inner fruit. The external caution makes him, with his Hebrew learning in the letter, the more dangerous in my eyes. Yet I mean to get and weigh his recent book on Genesis, puffed up by the "Times" which endorses that skeptical school.

Only I want to bring out Leviticus as a whole; which as it will make some 700 pages, raises the question of two moderate volumes. If allowed, I hope to bring out Genesis in three fair-sized volumes, D.V., so I fear my sword must wear out the old scabbard. Did I tell you that Col. (or rather Mr.) S., as he prefers to be styled, having abjured the army, is the literary executor of the late Mr. G., and asked me to review his own defence of the strange doctrines candidly. This, as you know, is my wont; and I only pray that it may blow up what hardly deserves the powder and shot. It is a scheme worthy of a maniac at issue with Scripture on every side. I have striven to speak kindly and repress indignation, and hope eyes may be opened. You nay not know that an early volume of mine (on the Ephesians) caught the eye of Father Thomas (an Oxford early Tractarian) who went over long before J. H. Newman, and (later) joined the Brompton Oratory. Astonished to find the "Church" there, as far from Rome as from Canterbury, he was given the volume which made the round of the cells. But I told the donor that these gentry needed "Romans" rather, and sent him one by post. I know no more, but do not forget that Roman Catholics have conscience to feel and souls to be saved.

With Dr. Wace I have never corresponded, but sent him occasionally a brochure.

You asked me (not in your last, I think, as to Councils of Orange). There were two as far as record goes; one presided by Hilary of Aries in A.D. 441, with thirty decrees on discipline; the other in A.D. 539 under Cassarius of Arles with 25 decrees on dogma, chiefly extracts from Aug. and Gen. and against Pelagianism. There was nothing of moment in either.

We had an excellent season at Southampton from Great Britain and Channel Islands from Saturday evening, 5th August, till Tuesday night; early prayer, forenoon, afternoon and evening. As I took a large part (save in the early morning being miles away) you may judge I am able to play the working man still. I am sure that they would have furnished you with much thought and lasting enjoyment.

Believe me, ever yours in the faith and hope,

W.K,

P.S. You may like my notice of Whitefield in Sept. B.T. Did you know R. F. Horton, N. C. Oxford? W. K.

From the same to the same.

Belmont Park, Lee, S.E.

3 Jan. '05

My dear Foster,

Though I fancy I wrote last, I do not scruple to write again, trusting that the New Year finds you fairly well, and awaiting the blessed hope. Port Arthur is fallen, and the Baltic fleet delays, the third is clamoured for by the young bloods of Russia, but we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, need grace to serve acceptably. I think, as you rather complained of apostolic rudeness of speech and, if I mistake not, in that Exposition of 2 Peter though finding substance in it, that I asked, your kind help in pointing out such defects. For though I rather despise rhetoric in divine things, and have not time even to cultivate it, I am happy to profit by a friend whose métier it is more than mine, The addresses on the Epistles (half) are in the printer's hand; and I may have a fourth more by the time he has done that half, and the remaining fourth as soon as he can set it up and get it through the press.

There is a mistranslation in 1 John 3,23, where "on" is contrary to the usage of ... with the dative. Yet to say "believe the name" seems strange, as if it were a person. What say you?

Believe me with best wishes

Ever faithfully yours,

W.K.

After the home-call of Mr. Kelly this correspondent sent the following to the writer, which is inserted as it throws a sidelight on their usual way of corresponding; it is of value also as showing the high regard in which he was held by one quite outside his communion.

From the Rev. P. W. Foster M.A., to W.G.T.

Sheffield.

St. Gregory's Day, '07?

Dear Mr. Turner,

Will you care to look at the accompanying brief (i.e., brief for that learned writer) postcard of the late Mr. W. Kelly. You see, I had been urging Mr. Kelly as editor of the "Bible Treasury" (monthly) to aim at all possible lucidity of exposition and beauty of style in his very able articles in that excellent periodical so far as his time allowed him to do so; what he says in his postcard is in substance a reply to my bold entreaty.

Nothing is ever written well in a hurry; no, not even if written by a pen like the late learned, earnest and eloquent W. Kelly's. I told him all I could remember, find out, or imagine about pisteuo with (1) the accusative, of things, and with (2) dative, of persons...

You cannot lay too great stress on one striking characteristic trait of our lamented friend, viz. his marked humility, conspicuous even in his smartest arguments and controversial writings...

The enclosed postcard is by no means a choice exemplar or very favourable specimen of Mr. W. K.'s skill as a letter card artist.

Yours sincerely and faithfully,

F.W. Foster.

P.S. - W.K. very rarely (I dare say) diverged into politics or contemporary topics, as he does at the beginning of this feuilleton.- F. W. F.

The next letter (also on a postcard), written on the evening of his wife's death is one of more than general interest, the vocation of a preacher and advice as to general habits of study.

22 Kid. Gr. B'heath

Tuesday evening. Feb. 4/84.

Dear Bro.,

When I say that it pleased the Lord this morning to deprive me of a devoted sister, wife, mother of several children, you will not expect more than a few words from me.

One who believes the Lord has called him and given him a gift to preach and teach, need not be hasty or anxious. Power makes itself felt; and it is well to begin in a small (proving one's gift and so be gradually led into a larger) way. But if sober brethren, who have heard, invite one to preach in their Room, one ought to have good reasons for declining. Love would lead to help; especially if gift were lacking among those older, or not of the kind to win souls. As to studying the Word, it is well when reading papers of interest to search generally. But this should not hinder the regular reading of O. and N.T. daily. Both ways are profitable, and should be combined. And it is not amiss how to read Gr. and Hebr. words, to learn even if one knows no more of the language; for this helps to better understanding of remarks, made by those who do know them. I do not think well of a slight knowledge of Gr. and, Hebr., and most men, even if they spend many years, could only acquire a slight knowledge. If one just learns enough to appreciate good remarks it is far better than spending time for what is generally pretension. The A.V. compared with the Revision and other helps, give better results than most are capable of acquiring. And remember, "prayer and the word," Acts. 6.

Yours aff.

W.K.

Apropos of this last letter, here may be a suitable place to mention what an encourager William Kelly was to young brothers who wholeheartedly engaged in the service of the Lord. The following incident is typical of many other instances of this fatherly interest. At a gathering of Brethren engaged in the Lord's work held in London, the question under discussion was one of gospel preaching. After several, including himself, had spoken freely, Mr, Kelly, looking across the room at a young brother who had been useful and was acceptable as preacher, remarked, "Let us hear what our young brother opposite has to say on the matter." Immediately several brothers who happened to be on the other side of the room, none of whom could be styled young, save by courtesy, looked up. Upon one of them beginning to express his substantial agreement with what had been said, Mr. Kelly interrupted with, "Yes, yes. But it was our brother, the young evangelist behind you to whom I referred." The opinion of the young fellow in question was probably of little value, but the memory of the kindly recognition by the great man of the gift of Christ in him was naturally a very treasured one. The Christian courtesy then, as on many similar occasions, shown by Mr. Kelly may well serve as an object lesson to some who, in their anxiety to curb the display of "flesh" in the meetings, forget that even an inspired apostle could write to a young man, "Let no man despise thy youth" as also to the gifted Corinthian assembly, "If Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear: for he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do. Let no man therefore despise him; but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me: for I look for him with the brethren."

Another incident may bear putting on record of rather a lighter character, A young Sunday School secretary faced by the annual difficulty of raising funds for the summer treat wrote asking him for a donation. Promptly arrived a postcard covered with apparently microscopic hieroglyphics, which upon deciphering appeared to be an invitation to call upon him at his house. A most courteous reception was given by Mr. Kelly who, however, proceeded to put his visitor through a fairly stiff cross-examination as to the whys and wherefores of Sunday School treats. He then intimated that the whole matter was rather outside his general line of things, and said that the arguments advanced had not at all convinced him of the necessity for Sunday School excursions. With a twinkle in his eye and a smile as he noticed the disappointment of the young visitor, he said, "Ah well, if I do not feel at liberty to assist you in your undertaking, I see no reason why I should not recommend you to some persons I know who very probably will." He then gave a short list of names which later produced very gratifying results. It smacked somewhat Hibernian, and was characteristic.

When on another occasion a young unknown scribe with an urge to write, but lacking almost everything else as a writer, approached him diffidently for advice, Mr. Kelly laid the youth under a lifelong obligation by his readiness to assist him. Without the faintest trace of that awful patronage which in others often mars even kindly intended help, William Kelly courteously, from the treasures of his well stored mind, gave sound advice and wise hints as to writing for publication. Then on closing the interview, he added, "Come again if I can be of further service. It is a real joy to be of assistance to those who are His. But pains and labour; pains and labour; nothing worth doing in this way is accomplished without pains and labour."

The Workman

William Kelly always stoutly disclaimed being an ecclesiastic in the sense of bishop, elder or overseer (whichever title of the same office is preferred). But, as a gifted teacher, he, from the earliest days of his ministry, was of necessity profoundly interested in ecclesiastical affairs. His close study of Church history familiarised him with the controversies of the first four centuries, so beloved of Anglican high churchmen, while interest in the disputations of the Schoolmen was evidenced by the contents of his well stocked, carefully selected and intense library of 15.000 volumes. Some description of these occur in the next chapter dealing with their transfer at his death to a Public Library in Yorkshire on the advice of Archbishop MacLagan of York.

His Editorship of the "Prospect", but even more of the "Bible Treasury", the latter for a very lengthened period, introduced him to many doughty champions in the ecclesiastical arena who, often not sharing his convictions, always greatly respected his scholarship. In many cases his advice on critical points of translation was sought by them. Being absolutely free of any denominational control, yet realizing and fully accepting his personal responsibility to the Head of the Church as His servant, William Kelly fearlessly pursued his course. His gifts as teacher and expositor, his qualifications as scholar and exegete, like his University degrees, were not honorary or assumed but actual and self-evident. His critical reviews of the Bampton Lectures caused much discussion as these appeared annually, and never failed to evoke both critical and complimentary notices in erudite quarters. The learned and friendly correspondence with the New Testament Revision Committee in later days when he freely criticised their findings also, betoken the regard with which contemporary scholars and men of letters regarded his scholarship and judgment.

It was his custom when issuing a new volume whether of Lectures, articles in more permanent form from the Bible Treasury, or books, on some important subjects to write a preface revealing the author in the character rather of a critic of his own work. Often these proved to be further thoughts on the subject treated, and were illuminating to the reader.

In the Guernsey period, possibly the most prolific of all in a literary sense, a volume appeared in the spring of 1868 on the five books of Moses; these had been delivered as lectures on a visit to London during the previous year. A more pretentious volume on the Twelve Minor Prophets followed to which a lengthy preface appeared and in which he explains what he recognises as a defect in a literary point of view. Indeed as one of his closest ecclesiastical friends and associates remarked upon reading the volume, "If you wish to know what W.K. thought, say on the subjects of the Church or the gospel, turn up his 'Twelve Minor Prophets', where neither occurs exegetically." The fact was that, while in the main steering a straight course, he was led to make so many long digressions in answer to questions that the book became cyclopedic of his religious convictions generally.

During a short holiday in Italy in 1897 William Kelly who had been stirred both by Dean Farrar's "Larger Hope" and his contribution to the "Expositor's Bible", felt moved to re-issue some lectures on the "Book of Daniel" with pungent criticisms on the Higher Criticism. He was Fundamentalist in the true sense of that oft maligned expression. Hence there is no hedging or doubtful disputation in the following prefaces:

"The lectures on the Book of Daniel were taken in shorthand and printed first some forty years ago, with a very slight correction in a later edition. It would be easy to fill up details and to improve their literary form. But as they are, they have helped not a few souls, and not at least since Great Britain and the United States have been beguiled into their growing pursuit of that guilty and withering craze which calls itself the "Higher Criticism". What is it in the main but a revival of older British Deism, aided by devices of foreign unbelief, and decorated with modern German erudition or its home imitation? Yet all fail to conceal hostility to God's inspiration, and ceaseless effort to minimize real miracle and true prophecy, where, as in this country, men dare not yet deny them altogether. The notorious Oxford Essays, which roused strong feeling in a former generation, are quite left behind. Dissenters vie with Nationalists (Episcopalian or Presbyterian), Methodists with Congregationalists, and of late Ritualists with avowed Rationalists, in showing themselves up to date in free thinking; as if the revealed truth of God were a matter of scientific progress. What joy to all open infidels, who cannot but hail it as the triumph of their contempt for His word! It is not now profane men only, as in the eighteenth century, but religious professors, ecclesiastical dignitaries in the varied bodies or so-called "churches" of Christendom, and particularly those who hold theological and linguistic chairs in the Universities and Colleges all over the world, who became increasingly tainted with this deadly infection. Alas! it is the sure forerunner of that "apostasy" which the great apostle, from almost the beginning of his written testimony, said must "first come" before the day of the Lord can be present.

Take, as a recent instance (and it is only one out of many in the conspiracy against Scripture), the then Dean of Canterbury's (F. W. Farrar D.D.) contribution on the "Book of Daniel" to the Expositor's Bible. Self-deception may hide much from its victims; but no believer should hesitate to say, "An enemy hath done this." While claiming for the book an "undisputed and undisputable" place in the Canon, think of the infatuation of denying openly and unqualifiedly its genuineness and its authenticity! "It has never made the least difference in my reverent (!) acceptance of it that I have for many years been convinced that it cannot be regarded as literal history or ancient prediction." Yet such persons assume to be actuated simply by the love of truth; for this they confound with the counter-love of doubting. Alas! they are under "the spirit of error" (1 John 4,6); or, as Jude so warns, "These speak evil of the things which they know not: but what as the irrational animals they know, in these things they corrupt themselves." May the Christian keep Christ's word, and not deny His name!"

W.K.

In 1903 Kelly's vigilant care for the truth of God led him to write his "God's Inspiration of the Scriptures". The ecclesiastical world just then was full of theological nostrums preparing the way for Mr. Campbell's startling deliverances at the City Temple a couple of years later of his "New Theology". A kind of Pantheism, which when exaggerated easily implies the ignoring of moral distinctions, was widely hailed by some and mourned by others. Principal Forsyth described it as "under developed and over exposed"; and Robertson Nicoll in a series of trenchant articles in the "British Weekly" passionately denounced Pantheism and all its implications.

The Preface to "God's Inspiration of the Scriptures" reads:

"There is no question agitated in Christendom of greater moment than the true character and claim of the scriptures. Nor has their divine authority been more widely denied all over the world than in our own day; and this, not merely by avowed sceptics, but by professing Christians of practically every denomination, and by many of their most distinguished representatives. But when the adversary comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord does not fail to lift up a standard against him.

In this volume my heart's desire is to furnish a help for souls that seek the light of God which inspiration furnishes to those who tremble at His word. I have presented the positive proofs that God speaks in it to every conscience and heart, more particularly of Israel in the Old Testament, and of the Christian in the New though all scripture is his food. Men may refuse to hear, or hear to despise; but this they do at their peril for God is not mocked. Such unbelief has a deeper brand of evil, after men have professed the Lord's name, that when the written word was first committed to human responsibility. It is the spirit of apostasy diffused by the great enemy of God and man, before the apostasy is established as a public fact, which is at hand. In the face of a preparation so dark and ominous, which scripture announces as certain (2 Thess. 2, 3), there are children of God all over the earth, who acknowledge with grateful thanksgiving His faithfulness in turning the attacks of Satan and his dupes to their confirmation in the faith, and the more profound enjoyment both of scripture and of Christ therein revealed by the Holy Spirit.

May the reader by grace be helped to share a privilege which bespeaks itself divine, the best antidote to that unbelief which enfeebles if it does not quite destroy the divine energy of every revealed truth. To human tradition I give no real weight, less if possible to the speculations of men on grounds which they deem probable. As the traditional school is one form of rationalism, so is neo-criticism another, the one adding to God's word, the other taking from it, to His dishonour. Legitimate criticism is the servant of faith in seeking to eliminate errors of transcription; but it receives without question every word that was originally written. What, is called "scientific inquiry" rises up in its empty pride against the divine authority of Christ, who has ruled what it dares to deny."

It is interesting to note that the published works of this able workman occupy four pages in the British Museum Catalogue.

Middlesborough

A born student, an accomplished scholar and an omnivorous reader, it is not surprising that in his long life William Kelly accumulated an immense library of valuable works. The great Codices (some in facsimile), all the great Polyglots, the works of the Fathers and the great Schoolmen, many rare and valuable volumes in every department of Science, Philosophy and History were comprised in his collection. His library was specially rich in the Classics, Ecclesiastical History and Theology, which had ever been his favourite study.

As the year 1905 wore on, Mr. Kelly became increasingly aware that the sands were running out, and that in any case his course would soon be ended. He had in early life embraced the truth of the blessed hope, and firmly held it to the end, ever living and working in constant expectation of its realisation by the return of our Lord to receive His people and take them to His Father's house. He did not, as some, presume to fix dates, nor as others to preach the coming as though it were the only truth of importance revealed in Scripture. Neither did he overlook the plain inference from the story of the talents (Matt. 25, 19). On being asked his thought as to death and the coming of the Lord during his last few days and as to whether he "would desire to depart and be with Christ", or to be amongst those who are alive and remain at the coming of the Lord, he replied,

"I have no choice, neither would I choose if I might."

"But surely you would like to be alive and meet the Lord on His return?"

"I have no wish at all in the matter, my dear," he replied.

"It will be as He wills, best either way." Here he confidently and peacefully left the whole matter.

In this spiritually sane and balanced spirit he considered the question of the disposal of his great library of almost priceless value. Where could it best be placed? An old friend, Dr. MacLagan, the then Archbishop of York, whose judgment he valued was consulted. After some consideration the Archbishop suggested that Middlesborough in Yorkshire would for many reasons be a most suitable place for its permanent housing. The town, too, was prepared (after the Archbishop's recommendation) to build a special wing to the Public Library to accommodate the gift! Mr. Kelly readily agreed on the sole condition that the anonymity of the giver should be strictly preserved. This, needless to remark, was in keeping with his general character. His wish for anonymity was respected, but upon his decease the Library authorities were compelled to make a statement with reference to this, which they did in the following terms:

The Free Library,

Middlesborough April 1906

Anonymity no longer!

We have been repeatedly asked why we have avoided all notice in our pages on the recent death of our "anonymous benefactor". More particularly as the bond of silence laid upon us has been removed by the publication of his name; we therefore take this opportunity of assuring our readers that it was not because of forgetfulness, or the lack of a sense of duty, but of the express wish of the family. "Mr. Kelly was a man who preferred to do good by stealth, or rather he held himself a steward only, of possessions either physical or mental, and only last summer (1905) he reiterated to us his hope that his name might not become public property as the donor of the valuable library which has come to us. We guarded the secret well, and it was with surprise and regret that whilst paying the last tribute of respect and gratitude to one to whom we owe so much, that we learned that "The Times" in an obituary notice, had stated his connection with the donation to Middlesborough. Then it was that his daughter signified her wish that we should remain silent, but the paragraph in "The Times" was copied and expanded, and eventually our local press published the information to our townsmen. It is greatly to be regretted that the donors wish has been disregarded by others, for it was the only obligation he laid upon us. His donation was a free one, without any of the onerous conditions which so frequently accompany such gifts, and perhaps the spirit in which the presentation was made can be best appreciated by the following fragment of conversation:

Standing in his library where the books were being packed for their transit to Middlesborough, we asked: "It must be painful to you, Sir, to thus part with your old friends, is it not?" "Well, no," was the reply. "I cannot hope to require them long, and I do wish to see them settled where they may be of service to others."

It was not our good fortune to know Mr. Kelly intimately, but as we did know him he was ever the cultured gentleman, a profound scholar without a shade of pedantry, whose knowledge was freely bestowed when sought, and whose friendship must have been a privilege.

Closing Days

"There is," said an old writer, "one chapter in the biography of distinguished persons - in the biography of a great genius, an eminent saint or seer - which has for us generally special interest, into which we are often most curious to dip - the chapter entitled "Closing Days", curious to learn how he bore himself, or what fell from his lips during those days in the shadow of the approaching end, to see something of the thoughts that then expressed his mind, or to hear something of his latest words. What of his behaviour, his expression, we ask, in his latest hours? The favourite pursuit - was its influence upon him then exemplified? The ruling passion - was it strong with him in death?"

The spring of 1905 brought to William Kelly some experience of what the sacred writer alluded to as "the grasshopper becoming a burden." He was in his eighty-fifth year at the close of a very active life, and by several indications seemed to feel that journey's end for him was not far distant. His doctor ordered rest and change of scene. So at the invitation of Dr. and Mrs. Heyman Wreford of Exeter to take a prolonged rest at their home, he gladly accepted it, and so speedily recovered a good measure of health and began to long to return to work. The two months spent in Exeter seemed to fill him with renewed energy so that immediately upon his return to Blackheath he resumed the weekly lecture at Bennet Park Hall with a new series on the Epistles of John. These were delivered with such power and unction that many regular hearers regarded them as being probably the most valuable ever given by him at Blackheath.

In the autumn at a Conference held in Southampton Mr. Kelly again took his full part to the profit and spiritual enjoyment of many from all parts of the country. Incidentally in a private letter to a friend he expressed his own joy at the fellowship shown throughout the long weekend spent together there. He made a point at being present at all the meetings day after day except the early morning at 7 a.m. from which he was debarred by reason of distance and lack of transport. The freshness, too, of his ministry then was remarked upon by some who had heard him for many years.

In addition to oral ministry, William Kelly, during that last year, maintained the "Bible Treasury" at its usual high level, as also his other literary work, the "Epistles of Peter" being the only volume he was obliged to leave uncompleted. His correspondence with clerical friends and other scholarly men showed the same keen interest in translation work, critical reviews and exegesis as in earlier days. Indeed, some learned correspondence on an unusual Greek formation in John's first Epistle as to its exact meaning, may well remind the reader of the epitaph on the tomb of John Richard Green, the historian, at Mentone, "He died learning".

The Southampton Conference over, and the last series of his Blackheath Lectures on John's Epistles completed, Dr. Wreford again kindly insisted upon a further stay with them. But it was not until the New Year that Mr. Kelly arranged to go down to Exeter, although he was badly needing rest from the round of activities which he still enjoyed. It was therefore on January 11th 1906 that he left Black-heath never to return. The complete change of air and scene with three or four weeks of loving care and attention again seemed somewhat to restore his wonderful constitution that in the last week of the next month, February 25th, he felt able to address a vast company in the then great Victoria Hall, Exeter. It was a special lecture on the subject dearest to his heart, the "Doctrine of Christ", and was regarded by many as a magnificent effort, coming as a crown to a long life of ardent devotion and loyalty to the Person of the Incarnate Son of God.

It was his last public testimony, and the end of sixty years of faithful ministry and service to Christ and His people. A month later he was called to his rest, Tuesday, March 27th being his last day when toward eventide he quietly fell asleep, and being "absent from the body was present with the Lord."

One who knew him well, himself a Christian scholar, on hearing of his death, wrote, "His supreme delight was in ministering in spiritual things to those whom he described as the few despised ones of Christ's flock." Some words of the late Bp. Francis Paget in "Hallowing of Work" recur to one's mind as the self-effacing life of William Kelly is reviewed. He says, "In this strange and tangled business of human life, there is no energy that so steadily does its work as the mysterious, unconscious, silent, unobtrusive, imperturbable influence which comes from a man who has done with all self seeking."

Fifty years after his passing, William Kelly's books are still being sought alike by scholars and simple believers all over the English-speaking world. This is significant. One of his very latest remarks expressed his life-long conviction and spring of action, "The hatred of the world is a real thing; the Cross is a real thing; and the love of God is a real thing."

His body was brought back to Blackheath, and on Saturday, March 1906 reverently laid to rest by loving hands in Charlton cemetery, Few who were present on that bright spring afternoon will forget the impressive scene as devout men carried William Kelly to his burial. The hundreds of mourners, the solemn strains of the hymn, "For ever with the Lord", the hush as the plain casket was lowered into the earth, broken by the voice of Dr. Wreford reading two portions of Scripture (Acts 20, 25-38} 1 Thess. 4,13-18) in tones charged with deep emotion. Then a heartfelt tribute to the departed brother, friend and leader, whose face here we should see no more, with great emphasis based on two thoughts suggested by the Scripture read, namely, "Sorrowing because they should see his face no more, " and the hope of the Lord's coming which prevents our sorrowing as those that have no hope. Dr. Wreford then gave thanks to God for the long life and ministry; and a hymn frequently used by the departed brother followed:

"Saviour before Thy face we fall,

Our Lord, our life, our hope, our all,

For we have nowhere else to flee,

No sanctuary, Lord, but Thee."

Memories of the Life and Last Days of William Kelly.

H. Wreford.

The coming of the Lord will in no way manifest the faithfulness of the servant; His appearing will. At 'that day' will be the display of whatever has been endured, as well as done, for the Lord's sake. W. Kelly.

Preface.

Through the great kindness of a medical friend, who has devoted a part of his holiday to looking after my practice, I am enabled to put together these memories of Mr. William Kelly's closing days.

This is in no sense a biography; I should never attempt anything of that kind. What I have done is simply to recall, and write down, some of the things I knew about Mr. Kelly, and especially the last things.

Had his closing days not been spent in my house, these memoirs would never have been written by me; but so many have expressed a desire to know something of them that I have felt constrained to write.

Many, too, who have listened to the living voice in his public testimony, are desirous that his last utterances should be preserved for the good of man, and the glory of God.

How valuable should the closing testimony of such a saint of God be!

Therefore it is that we have penned this little narrative, not to honour man, but in the heartfelt hope that God will bless to many of His own, as also to those who are still unsaved, this testimony of the faithfulness of God to the one He had given as a gift to His people on earth, and sustained by Divine power to his life's end.

Heyman Wreford, The Firs, Denmark Road, Exeter. June, 1906.

CONTENTS.

THE LIFE LIVED

REMINISCENCES

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

THE BREAKING OF BREAD

CLOSING SCENES

THE LAST THREE DAYS

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

CHAPTER 1.

THE LIFE LIVED.

We knew Him as we could not know

Through heaven's golden years:

We there shall see His glorious face,

But Mary saw His tears,

The touch that heals the broken heart

Is never felt above.

His angels know His blessedness,

HIS WAY-WORN SAINTS HIS LOVE,

Bevan.

"I HAVE DONE MY WORK FOR CHRIST. I WANT TO GO. OTHERS WILL BE STRENGTHENED TO DO THEIR WORK, BUT MINE IS DONE."

I was sitting by Mr. Kelly's bedside on Friday, 1 March 23rd, four days before he passed away, when he said these words to me. He lay there calmly waiting for the summons. After nearly eighty-five years of life, and more than sixty years spent for Christ, he felt his work was done. How bravely he had battled against the weakening by disease of that wonderful vitality that had made his life so real and strenuous! He never laid aside the "weapons of his warfare" until his Lord took them from his weary hands and bade him rest. He was indeed a warrior of the Cross. He does not need my poor words of eulogy, for all this was most distasteful to him; but he is gone, where earthly love and praise can never reach him, to "be with Christ which is far better."

It is impossible for us to form a true estimate of what his life was. We wonder when we think of the untiring energy of his Christian service; of the marvellous insight God had given him, by His Spirit, into His Word; of the volumes he has left behind him of such value to the Church of Christ; of the multitude of his public utterances; of his voluminous correspondence; of his spiritual help in his private intercourse; of his untiring zeal, shown year after year in visiting the assemblies of God's people and seeking their welfare in every way.

When we think of these things we can estimate a little what we have lost by his departure. He will be more valued now he is gone than ever he was before. No longer will that eloquent tongue be heard. No longer shall "that man of God " move among us. We shall sorrow now that we did not value him more; that we did not oftener attend his ministry; that we sometimes misunderstood his faith and zeal, and measured him by our poor human standards, and so failed to understand the Divine purpose in his life.

How often he was tried by the grievous inconsistencies of Christians; by the littleness of those who could not rise above the level of their own circumstances, and who so often blamed him because he would not leave his high estate to traffic with their low conceptions of a Christian's place and standing in this world. He has suffered deeply at the hands of those whom he always sought to serve; and while, thank God, many loved him as the honoured servant of his Lord, he had to bear the bitter reproach of those who could not bend him to their alien ways. More than thirty years ago he wrote these words in his "Introductory Lectures to Paul's Epistles," p. 241:-

"Oh, it is a blessed thing that in the midst of the sorrows of this world, the Holy Spirit knows how thus to blend the name of Christ, as the sweetest balm, with the sorrow, however bitter, and to make the very memory of the grief pleasant because of Christ, who deigns to let Himself into it all. It was this that so cheered the Apostle's heart in his loneliness often, in his desertion sometimes, when the sight of a brother would have given fresh courage to his heart. Looking to the Lord, as it is the life-breath of love, so it adds to the value of brotherly kindness in its season. Thus we know how on approaching Rome, Paul was lifted up and comforted, as he saw those who came to greet him. But there he was soon to experience the faltering of brethren; there he was to see not one standing by him in the hour of his shame and need. He must be conformed to his Master in all things; and this was one of them. But out of the midst of bitter experience he had learned Christ, as even he had never known Him before. He had proved long the power and the joy of Christ for every day, and for every circumstance of it."

Thank God our beloved brother was comforted, as Paul was. The desertion of brethren could not alienate him from Christ; nor the coldness of human hearts make Christ less precious to his soul.

We know that those who serve their Lord the best are those who are the oftener exposed to the assaults of the adversary. He ever seeks to lay low those who are in the foremost ranks of service, and the greater the servant, the greater the victory of the powers of darkness, if that servant can be discredited in any way.

Once more I ask you to listen to his words: "there is no more common device of Satan than to seek the destruction of the power of testimony by the allowance of evil insinuations against him who renders it."

"I HAVE DONE MY WORK FOR CHRIST, I WANT TO GO."

Yes, his work for Christ is done as far as the living witness is concerned. His tried heart, torn and rent by many a trial, will never throb now but with the blessedness of heaven. All through his long life of active service he was cheered by the consciousness of the presence of his risen Lord. How could he have laboured so abundantly, and borne the sorrows and afflictions of his earthly pathway, had not his spirit been sustained by a heavenly presence, and strengthened by the eternal Word?

Had earthly ambition claimed his life, what might he not have become? With his matchless powers and his great erudition he might have risen to any rank of life. It is not for me to speak of the honours of his University career, others know more of that than I do. But all his powers, and all his life, were consecrated to the service of the Lord. He was content to be lowly to serve the lowliest, and to forego all earthly honours, so that he might be the acceptable servant of the Lord Jesus.

The world cannot understand such sacrifices as these. It cannot understand a man willing to be nothing so that Christ may be all. Nor can it estimate the value of a life that is lived apart from the world, and devotes all its talents and all its strength to advancing a Kingdom that is not of this world, and in seeking the honour and glory of One whom the world has cast out and crucified.

With the failure of his bodily powers he was longing to go. "I WANT TO GO." The tired hands are lifted up to heaven and to God. The eyes, growing dim to earthly sights and sounds, have a clearer vision now for that which is beyond. "I WANT TO GO." The desert sands are trodden, and from his Pisgah heights he beholds the Promised Land.

With the weariness of earth and time weighing heavily upon him, he seeks "the rest that remains to the people of God."

When, in the glory and the rest

We joyfully adore,

Remembering the desert-way,

We yet shall praise Him more.

Remembering how, amidst our toil,

Our conflict and our sin;

He brought the water for our thirst,

It cost His blood to win.

And now in perfect peace we go

Along the way He trod;

Still learning from all need below

Depths of the heart of God.

Bevan.

CHAPTER 2.

REMINISCENCES.

And can I call my home

My Father's house on high;

The rest of God, my rest to come,

My place of liberty!

Yes, in that light unstained,

My stainless soul shall live;

My heart's deep longings more than gained,

When God His rest shall give.

J N. Darby.

In the year 1905 Mr. Kelly was with us from April 12th for about two months, when he went to Guernsey and then home, and during that time of blessed intercourse, one could not but see that much of the old vitality was wanting, and the storm and stress of Christian warfare was telling upon him. But there was the same keen interest in life; the same desire for work. Never shall we forget his expositions day by day at our family worship.

And in his table talk what vast stores of knowledge were his! What a pleasure it was to listen to his criticisms of men and things. How clearly he showed that the trend of events was only the fulfilment of the eternal purposes of God. What an unerring insight he had into the machinations of the powers of evil against the Christ of Scripture. He took an absorbing interest in everything that was happening in the world in which he lived: he looked at the vast panorama of nations spread out before him from the heights of faith; and the rise and fall of dynasties; the march of the conqueror, and the submission of the conquered; were all but parts of a Divine plan — working towards a certain end.

His Bible, one could see, was to him in every. thing the Alpha and Omega of Divine revelation. It was in deed and in truth the Book of God. He judged everything by the word of God. In speaking of the lives of men who figured largely in the world's history he showed a marvellous acquaintance with their teaching and their aims; and while he never excused their departure from the truth of God, he was only too willing to speak tenderly of those who loved the Lord, although they knew but little of His truth and love.

At Conferences and elsewhere we have seen him surrounded by eager seekers after truth. How ready he was to answer one and all; and to impart to others the truths God had revealed to him. How he bore with the infirmities of the weak in God's work, and rejoiced in the strength of the strong. He had the innate courtesy of the Christian gentleman. He was so human that every phase of life was of interest to him, and so spiritual that he would bring the truth of God to bear upon the thousand episodes of daily existence.

There were few earthly friends as true as he was; I speak what I know, and my testimony is also that of many, many others who knew and loved him well.

He was jealous for God at all times. How great was his love for the assemblies of God's people! How willingly he would go to lecture or to preach to the twos and threes scattered up and down the country! Guest of the rich or the poor, he was ever the same, loving the Lord's people for the Lord's sake, and ministering to them because he loved them.

Dear Mr. Kelly! I would that I could say how much I owe to him, but God knows.

Faithful servant of the living God, he has left behind him engraved on the fleshy tablets of many human hearts, memories of love that can never be eradicated.

And how he loved to speak of old days — the early golden days of united fellowship and service. How he lamented the divisions among the Lord's people! How grieved he was at attacks of so-called religious teachers on the inspiration of the Bible. One of his latest works was "The Inspiration of the Bible," published in 1903, when he was 82 years of age. A proof, if one were wanted, of the marvellous brain power that was his to the end of his life. In the Preface to this great work he says: —

"There is no question agitated in Christendom of greater moment than the true character and claim of the Scriptures. Nor has their Divine authority been more widely denied all over the world than in our own day; and this, not merely by avowed sceptics, but by professing Christians of practically every denomination, and by many of their most distinguished representatives. But when the adversary comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord does not fail to lift up a standard against him.

In this volume my heart's desire is to furnish a help to souls that seek the light of God which inspiration furnishes to those who tremble at His word. I have presented the positive proofs that God speaks in it to every conscience and heart, more particularly of Israel in the Old Testament, and of the Christian in the New, though all scripture is his food. Men may refuse to hear, or hear to despise; but this they do at their peril; for God is not mocked. Such unbelief has a deeper brand of evil, after men have professed the Lord's name, than when the written word was first committed to human responsibility. It is the spirit of apostasy diffused by the great enemy of God and man, before the apostasy itself is established as a public fact which is at hand.

In the face of a preparation so dark and ominous, which scripture announces as certain (2 Thess. 2: 3), there are children of God all over the earth, who acknowledge with grateful thanksgiving His faithfulness in turning the attacks of Satan and his dupes to their confirmation in the faith, and the more profound enjoyment both of scripture and of Christ therein revealed by the Holy Spirit. May the reader by grace be helped to share a privilege which bespeaks itself divine, the best antidote to that unbelief which enfeebles where it does not quite destroy the divine energy of every revealed truth. To human tradition I give no real weight, less if possible to the speculations of men on grounds which they deem probable. As the traditional school is one form of rationalism, so is neo-criticism another, the one adding to God's word, the other taking from it, to His dishonour. Legitimate criticism is the servant of faith in seeking to eliminate errors of transcription; but it receives without question every word that was originally written. What is called "scientific inquiry" rises up in its empty pride against the divine authority of Christ, who has ruled what it dares to deny."

We thank God for permitting his servant to leave behind him this monumental work on "The Inspiration of the Scriptures." How valuable to God's people is such a book at the present time. A book dealing with Divine authority and Divine design, every book of the Bible having stamped upon it indelibly the impress of inspiration, and the whole forming the "all Scripture . . . given by inspiration of God." He speaks of the New Testament sealing the truth of the Old Testament. "The poetic position attests it no less than the prose, the prophetic as clearly as the historical."

He shows us that "one directing Author presides over each several part, imparting a special character to it, and at the same time causing all to contribute to the common purpose of revealing His counsels of glory and His ways of grace, while fully making known the weakness or the wickedness of the creature in resisting His will and doing its own."

He was much occupied with writing, eager before his life here was done to complete the volumes he was engaged upon. The following, which was written a few weeks before he died, will give an idea of his characteristic handwriting, and will doubtless prove interesting to those who have never seen his written articles with their corrections.

When in Exeter in 1905 he lectured every week in the Queen Street Meeting Room. The lectures he then gave were taken down in shorthand, and will (D.V.) be printed in the Bible Treasury. He also preached the gospel in the Victoria Hall. To the work there he had been a faithful friend ever since its commencement twenty-two years ago.

There was never one who loved the gospel more than he did, or who preached it more fully. I have listened with wonder at the marvellous way in which he spoke of the love of Christ to sinners. I have felt as I listened, that I had never known how to preach the gospel, or realized so fully the depths of sin and the heights of the grace of God to sinners. Some have said he had no sympathy with evangelists. They little knew him, or they would never have said it. I have a letter written to me from the death bed of his wife, in which he sought amidst all his own deep sorrow to send me words of encouragement and help.

His work we know was not the work of an evangelist, but he never ceased to pray for the gospel, or to preach it.

He told me the verse that was used by God to convict him of sin was, "I saw the dead small and great stand before God." Over and over again he spoke of the blessedness of gospel preaching. I dwell upon this because he has so often been charged with having no sympathy with those who preached it. I make no apology for again quoting from his written works. You shall hear from his own lips, as it were, what the gospel of the grace of God was to him. This quotation is taken from his "Introductory Lectures to Paul's Epistles, p. 5: —

"He was debtor both to the Greeks and the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise; he was ready, as far as he was concerned, to preach the gospel to. those that were at Rome also (Rom. 1: 14, 15). Even the saints there would have been all the better for the gospel. It was not merely 'to those at Rome,' but 'to you that be at Rome.' Thus it is a mistake to suppose that saints may not be benefited by a better understanding of the gospel, as least as Paul preached it. Accordingly he tells them now what reason he had to speak thus strongly, not of the more advanced truths, but of the good news. 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek' (ver. 16).

"Observe, the gospel is not simply remission of sins, nor is it only peace with God, but 'the power of God unto salvation.' Now I take this opportunity of pressing on all that are here to beware of contracted views of 'salvation.' Beware that you do not confound it with souls being quickened, or even brought into joy. Salvation supposes not this only, but a great deal more. There is hardly any phraseology that tends to more injury of souls in these matters than a loose way of talking of salvation. 'At any rate he is a saved soul,' we hear. 'The man has not got anything like settled peace with God; perhaps he hardly knows his sins forgiven; but at least he is a saved soul.' Here is an instance of what is so reprehensible. This is precisely what salvation does not mean; and I would strongly press it on all that hear me, more particularly on those that have to do with the work of the Lord, and of course ardently desire to labour intelligently; and this not alone for the conversion, but for the establishment and deliverance of souls. Nothing less, I am persuaded, than this full blessing is the line that God has given to those who have followed Christ without the camp, and who, having been set free from the contracted ways of men, desire to enter into the largeness and at the same time the profound wisdom of every word of God. Let us not stumble at the starting-point, but leave room for the due extent and depth of 'salvation' in the gospel.

"There is no need of dwelling now on 'salvation' as employed in the Old Testament, and in some parts of the New, as the Gospels and Revelation particularly, where it is used for deliverance in power or even providence and present things. I confine myself to its doctrinal import, and the full Christian sense of the word; and I maintain that salvation signifies that deliverance for the believer which is the full consequence of the mighty work of Christ, apprehended not, of course, necessarily according to all its depth in God's eyes, but at any rate applied to the soul in the power of the Holy Ghost. It is not the awakening of conscience, however real ; neither is it the attraction of heart by the grace of Christ, however blessed this may be. We ought therefore to bear in mind, that if a soul be not brought into conscious deliverance as the fruit of Divine teaching, and founded on the work of Christ, we are very far from presenting the gospel as the apostle Paul glories in it, and delights that it should go forth. 'I am not ashamed,'" etc.

What follows is equally pertinent and important; but I trust I have quoted enough to show that even as the Apostle Paul lived and preached the gospel, so did he seek to do.

The following is a gospel hymn written by Mr. Kelly: —

Our Saviour Christ, 'tis now we see

God's glory in Thy face;

Thy blood is shed: our sins are gone

In o'er abounding grace.

Raised from the dead, Thou art on high

And seated on the throne:

How bright the proof our God displays

Thy perfect work is done!

No darkness more, nor cry from Thee

In weakness crucified,

Where judgment reached for us its end,

And God was glorified.

Now in His light without a veil

We read Thy cleansing blood;

Where love and holiness unite,

And we are brought to God.

Oh! matchless way of grace divine,

To which Thy cross gave right;

We praise Thee now and evermore —

Blest day without a night

How many there were who misunderstood him when he had to rebuke those who perverted the truth of God. He could be unsparing for Christ's sake. One has said of him, "I should feel inclined to agree with the narrator of the reminiscences that the vein of sarcasm and caustic humour obtruded too often in Mr. Kelly's critical writings, and gave offence to those he otherwise might have convinced and conciliated." I cannot agree with this, for a greater servant of God than Mr. Kelly was, has said, "For do I now persuade men or God? or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be Christ's servant." It was impossible for him to serve two masters. I have heard him speak in the kindest way of many he has had to oppose most firmly for the Truth's sake. He gave no quarter where the honour of Christ was concerned, and instead of blaming this faithful servant of the living God for this, we should be thankful that in our day and generation this great voice has been heard for Christ, and we have been permitted to know one of the profoundest exponents of the Scriptures that has been given to the Church since apostolic days. Every little fault of expression has by some been magnified into a crime; and little allowance has been made by others for his deep and true love for Christ, and his continued solicitude for the people of God.

The following is taken from a religious paper, The Christian, April 5, 1906: —

"Many of our oldest readers will learn with deep regret that Mr. William Kelly, who is thought to have been the last survivor of the first generation of the 'Brethren,' and who had been in fellowship with them for sixty-five years, passed away on March 27, in his eighty-fifth year. He was well known as the writer of numerous expository works on Scripture and as the editor of the monthly Bible Treasury. The magazine was noted for its loyalty to the Scriptures, and the notable degree in which Mr. Kelly combined scholarly attainment with spirituality made him a formidable opponent of destructive critics. A young relative whom he had prepared for Trinity College, Dublin, so distinguished himself that Mr. Kelly was urged by one of the professors to settle there, as by so doing he might make a fortune; but it was characteristic of the man that his reply should be summed up in the question: 'For which world?'

"To the last year of his life Mr. Kelly retained his mental vigour, and kept abreast of modern thought. As late as 1903 he published a goodly volume on 'The Inspiration of the Scriptures,' and followed this up two years later by issuing able and helpful expositions of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Epistles of John. He had edited the collected writings of J. N. Darby, of whose body of doctrine he was one of the foremost interpreters. His best known books consist of lectures on the books of the Bible (in particular on The Apocalypse), the Church of God, the New Testament Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Recently Mr. Kelly sent to Japan a selection of literature likely to help students in that country in the understanding of Holy Scripture."

From another source we have the following personal reminiscences: —

"I remember him," says the writer, "first as a lecturer in London, about 1870. His home at that time was in Guernsey, where there was a large and flourishing meeting of Brethren. About April in each year he used to come to town for a month, and he filled up most of his evenings with lecturing. He spoke to crowded audiences in different districts, for example, at the Priory in Upper Street, Islington; at William Street, near King's Cross; and at a hall in Kennington, close to the Oval. His Scriptural expositions were highly appreciated. His style as a lecturer was clear, and his manner dignified. He had the scholar's short-sightedness, and used to wear glasses for distance, but to the close of his life he was able to read the little Oxford Bible in diamond type, pushing his glasses up on his forehead as he began. His handwriting was almost microscopic, and he could put as much on a postcard as most men can on four pages of note-paper. Mr. Kelly's printers must have dreaded his corrections, for these were sometimes written out on postcards, and the aid of a reading-glass was required to decipher them. His expositions and lectures have had a steady sale, but many of them have fallen out of print. For fifty years he edited the Bible Treasury, and he was also the editor of Mr. Darby's 'Collected Writings.'

"Like all his Irish countrymen, Mr. Kelly had a gift of humour, but he had also a vein of sarcasm, which sometimes gave offence.

"For many years before his death, Mr. Kelly lived in Belmont-park, Blackheath, attending the Bennett Park meeting. His famous library, which was said to weigh seventeen tons, has been presented to the town of Middlesborough, on the suggestion of the Archbishop of York.

"In social life he was much beloved, though he lived very quietly, and moved only in a circle of intimate friends. Many can recall his graceful old world courtesy

"Mr. Kelly retained to the last a considerable share of physical and mental vigour. A few weeks before he left London for Exeter, he was calling on a friend in the City, and talked with distress on the progress of the Higher Criticism among ministers and laity. He mentioned at that time that he was suffering from sleeplessness, and that his doctor had ordered him to give up mental work.

"As a scholar, William Kelly will be long remembered. His critical Greek text of the Revelation was pronounced by Ewald to be the best piece of work of the kind that had come under his notice. Archbishop Benson warmly praised his work on the Mosaic Cosmogony. The list of his writings occupies nearly ten pages in the British Museum catalogue."

I never remember a time in my life when I did not know Mr. Kelly. The admiration of the boy for this honoured servant of God ripened into a warmer feeling as years passed on, and I was able the better to appreciate his wonderful powers in the unfolding of Scripture; and his untiring endeavour to serve those who loved his Lord and theirs. And as my service for the Lord continued, so did my love and respect for him increase; a more faithful friend and adviser one could never have. His plainness of speech where the truth was concerned may have wounded some, but not those who knew the true heart that never thought of consequences when the honour of his Master was at stake.

I have learnt many a lesson of Christ-like patience, never to be forgotten, as I have seen the way in which he has borne affronts that must have wounded him sorely. I have seen him many times full of sorrow at having been misunderstood, yet ready at all times to help any, and especially those who may have felt aggrieved at any word of his.

I loved him while he lived, and shall revere and love his memory to the end. It was a privilege indeed to have been allowed to minister to him in his last days, and to watch, with his loved ones, the departure of that mighty spirit to its well-earned rest.

He will live in his works, and thousands yet will thank God for this great gift to His Church.

Unfaltering in the path of Christian duty: unswerving in his loyalty to Christ: willing at all times to spend and be spent for his brethren: conquering fatigue and the infirmities of age in his deep desire to do all he could in devoted service to the Lord, so he lived — and now he is gone; and we stand sorrowfully in the shadow of this great loss. May the Lord bless his last words spoken in the sunset of his earthly life to many.

Surely, we who watched him day by day and night after night, can appreciate his deep true love for his Lord.

But his utterances will speak for themselves, and bear testimony to the reality of his faith, and to the grace of Christ that had never failed His servant through his life, and now sustained him at the end.

O Lord, through tribulation

Our pilgrim journey lies,

Through scorn and sore temptation,

And watchful enemies;

'Midst never ceasing dangers

We through the desert roam,

As pilgrims here and strangers,

We seek the rest to come.

Oh! by Thy Holy Spirit

Reveal in us Thy love,

The joy we shall inherit

With Thee our Head above;

May all this consolation

Our trembling hearts sustain,

Sure, though through tribulation,

The promised rest to gain.

J G. Deck

CHAPTER 3.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END.

There above I rest, untroubled,

All my service, to adore;

Cross and shame, and death and sorrow,

Left behind for evermore.

Therefore am I never weary,

Journeying onward through the waste,

And the bitter Marah waters

Have but sweetness to my taste.

Can there be but joy and glory,

In His cross and shame below ?

Sweet each mark of His rejection,

Where His steps are, I must go.

One the path, and one the sorrow —

Path the angels cannot tread;

Sorrow giving sweet assurance,

We are members, He the Head.

Bevan.

On Thursday afternoon, January 11th, 1906, I met Mr. Kelly at Queen Street Station, Exeter. He had come to pay what proved to be his last visit to our house. As I greeted him I thought he looked worn and thin. He had been labouring for months without pause, answering the "Higher Critics," and doing other work as well.

Owing to insomnia, his London doctor had ordered him to rest, and so he came to us.

For some days after his arrival he rested nearly all the day. He did no work, and as he was again attacked by diabetes, he had to be most careful in his diet. But slowly he began to get better. The insomnia was in a great measure conquered, and the diabetes was steadily decreasing.

In a week or two he came downstairs to breakfast, and again took family prayers. Feeling the necessity of out-door exercise, he went every day for a walk before lunch, and some times in the afternoon, after resting, as well.

With returning strength came the desire to be doing some work for Christ. As it was not wise for him to go out to the meetings, he suggested having Bible Readings in our house on the Book of Daniel.

These were commenced on Tuesday, February 13th, and ended March 5th. A good number attended these Readings, and all were struck with his clear rendering of Scripture. His mind seemed full of vigour. He very much wished to give these lectures in our Meeting Room, but that could not be allowed in his then state of health.

Most anxious was he to speak one afternoon in the Victoria Hall. This he did on Sunday, February 25th. His subject was, "The Doctrine of Christ," John 1: 1-14. How sorry I am now that the address was not preserved, for it proved to be his last.

In the morning at the Breaking of Bread he spoke most beautifully on the last clause of the 11th verse of 3rd Colossians, "Christ is all and in all." When he came home from the Hall in the afternoon he seemed so fresh and bright that I said, "I think we shall have to drive you to the prayer meeting tomorrow evening." He was always so happy in working for Christ.

During this time he passed days in solemn examination of all his life. He told me he was reviewing the past. I feel sure he knew that his time was short. He never spoke to me of future work. He was much in prayer. Out of doors, he always took my arm, and as he did so I could feel his increasing weakness; he complained too, that he was sooner tired, and could not walk as he did. His feet seemed to drag and he lost that springy, active step that was so natural to him all his life.

SATURDAY, MARCH 10.

This morning he was so well that he came down to breakfast. After the meal he wrote a post card and a letter and went for a short walk. At lunch he was very bright, spoke of his correspondence, etc., and was more inclined to chat than usual.

The writing on the Post Card:

THE FIRS, DENMARK ROAD, EXETER,

10th March, 1906.

MY DEAR J.

How strangely like the attack 20 years ago, not only insomnia but internal drain! Dr C. would not be incredulous now; and Dr. K, warned me of its probable repetition. All is in the best hands. The report much diminution of sugar, and increase of sleep. Good pulse, but little strength. Only they insist on as little writing as possible.

Self-judgment, how due to grace! which blots out our wretched past, and declares that, as He is, so are we in this world: an impossibility, but for His advocacy. This we need, no less than His propitiation.

Love to all.

W. K

We reproduce, on the opposite page, the last post card Mr. Kelly ever wrote, it was written to a very old friend in Guernsey, Mr. C., who has very kindly allowed us to have it inserted here.

In the afternoon, as was his custom, he went upstairs to lie down. At four o'clock I paid him my usual afternoon visit, and found him sitting over the fire. Although the room was very warm, he murmured something about feeling cold. He was quite unconscious of all that was done for him, and did not recognize any of us. As his condition was so serious, I telephoned to Dr. G., asking him to come and see Mr. Kelly with me. He kindly did so. We put him to bed and there he remained over Sunday.

On Monday morning, the effects of the seizure having passed off a little, he asked my wife to write a letter for him, and I also wrote some at his request. On Tuesday he wished to dress, but only remained up a few hours — he then returned to bed, and never left his room again alive. He was glad, indeed, to see his daughters, who came to be with him, and Mr. W. P. M. who also came to visit him. He said to me on Tuesday:

"I am peacefully resting, quietly resting through God's mercy."

At another time of the day, he said,

"The Lord may come, or I may go."

He spoke also of people seeking to add to Christ's work. He said, "Saving value is denied for all except through God's redemption in Christ upon the Cross. Some talk of adding something to Christ's work. There can be no addition . . . no other atonement can avail but Christ's."

To the servant, S. W., who waited upon him he said, "Jesus mine for ever be."

His daughter heard him say —  "His Father and our Father. His God and our God."

At night when he was being fed, he said, "I have all I want. The Father's mercy, overwhelming mercy. The Son's redemption, perfect redemption."

FRIDAY, MARCH 16.

Mr. W. P. M. left us today — in parting with him Mr. Kelly said,

"When first we met we little thought of meeting again when I was 85.

"Jesus has done all, all that is good, and blotted out all that is bad."

Mr. M said, "My wife sends her love to you."

His answer was, "I send to her the strong love of Him who died for us, and may that be her testimony for ever." He continued, "How poor our love, but His who can doubt except those who doubt everything? What infinite grace that He has given us a new nature that we might know Him.

"We have an old nature, and Satan has succeeded in producing from it every evil, pride, vanity and self-will, and we have told Him our badness, and although so feeble, we can tell Him like Peter did, that He knoweth all things, He knoweth that we love Him.

"We might regret that more had not been done to proclaim His word. Matthew, Mark and Luke, but these are in form that they may be published."

These words show clearly how his thoughts were occupied to the very end with the spread of God's truth. Although he felt he had done his work for Christ, and wanted to go, yet still he would have wished, had it been God's will, to have completed the volumes he had in hand.

He never tired in his Master's service, but lived only to proclaim the "unsearchable riches of His grace," as shown so fully in His word.

Mr. Kelly was converted in the latter part of 1841 in the Island of Sark. In writing of his conversion to a friend, in 1889, he says: —

"The gospel received by faith delivered me in no long time; but no preaching reached me, though I was indebted to a lady for directing me to 1 John 5, which brought me into liberty. Nor did I see any brother's face before I left the camp to go forth to Christ outside bearing His reproach, and was glad to find two or three Christian women breaking bread, with whom I esteemed it the highest privilege to break bread.

"A few months later I went to Guernsey, where was a little meeting; and the Lord made my path plain to devote myself to His service, as through grace I have done ever since."

About 1841 Mr. Kelly issued his first publication. It was a pamphlet printed in Guernsey explanatory of his new ecclesiastical position. His last publication was in 1905, a few months before he died, and he was editing the Bible Treasury to within a month of his decease. We thus find that his written testimony for Christ covers a period of sixty- five years.

My happiness, O Lord, with Thee

Is long laid up in store,

For that bless'd day, when Thee I'd see,

And conflict all be o'er.

O Rest! ineffable, divine,

The Rest of God above:

Where Thou for ever shalt be mine,

My joy, eternal love!

J. N. Darby.

NOTE. — Mr. Kelly's letter containing the story of his conversion might perhaps have been better among the reminiscences, but it came into my hands too late to be inserted there.

CHAPTER 4.

THE BREAKING OF BREAD.

Saviour in love divine,

'Tis Thou hast made us free

To eat the bread and drink the wine

In memory, Lord of Thee.

Oh! if this taste of love

To us is now so sweet,

What will it be, O Lord, above

Thy blessed Self to meet?

To see Thee face to face,

Thy perfect likeness wear,

And all Thy ways of wondrous grace

Through endless years declare.

Sir E. Denny.

LORD'S DAY, MARCH 18.

I went into Mr. Kelly's bedroom early this morning, and after our usual greeting, I said to him, "It is the Lord's Day, Mr. Kelly, I am so sorry you cannot go to the Breaking of Bread." A little further conversation and I left him.

I had only gone a few minutes when I was told that our dear friend had a great desire to remember the Lord in His death. It was early in the morning, but he was emphatic in his wish, and the table was spread with the bread and the wine. Mrs. C., my wife and I, and S. W. gathered around his bed. He lay with his hands clasped, and then said with a loud clear voice, "Let us give thanks unto the Lord."

It was a silent thanksgiving for awhile, and then I gave thanks and broke the bread; and the cup was passed from lip to lip, amid a silence that all felt was in the presence of the Lord. Most beautifully did dear Mr. Kelly give thanks; he spoke of the Lord's presence being surely with us, although the circumstances were unusual and he thanked the Lord. Then we silently rose from our knees, and left him lying peacefully with his hands folded, his lips moving in prayer, and a calm, rapt look upon his face. Oh! what sacred memories will cling to that blessed time! The dying saint — the Lord remembered in the broken bread, and the poured out wine. The thanksgiving from those feeble lips. The deep sense of the presence of our risen and ascended Lord. What it meant to him! What it should mean to all of us! "For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come."

Speaking the same afternoon with Mr. T. M., Mr. Kelly, said,

"The cross of Christ is real, the hatred of the world is real, the love of God is real."

In saying good-bye, Mr. M. said: "We'll meet in the glory." "Yes," he added, "in the glory."

For the remainder of the day he was quietly resting, bursting out in praise now and again, "We thank Thee, O Lord."

Before I speak of the last breaking of bread we had with our beloved brother the Sunday before he passed away, I would like to bring before you in his own words what he has said concerning it in his LECTURES ON THE CHURCH OF GOD.

I wish to put it between the two remembrances of the Lord, so that we may the better realize all it meant to him and what it should mean to us. On page 149 he says: —

"The Lord's Supper .... is primarily and strictly the standing sign of our only foundation; it is the witness of His love unto death and His work, by virtue of which such as we can worship. No wonder, therefore, we have the Apostle Paul showing the very solemn and blessed place which the Lord's Supper claims in the revelations of the Lord to him.

"'I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat, this is My body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This Cup is the New Testament in My blood; this do ye, as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come.'

"It is evident, on the face of the statement, what a large and deep place the Lord's death has in His Supper. No joy, no brightness of the favour of God in heaven, no consequent communion, nor hopes of everlasting blessedness with Him, can be allowed for a moment to detract from, or overshadow, the death of the Lord. But the reverse is the truth: for the more the Lord's death has its own central value before the Christian, all these things shine out not only more brightly, but also more sweetly and affectingly to the heart. And so the same man who was God's blessed instrument for developing the full extent of the Christian's privileges, is the very one who gathers us around our Lord's death, as that which pre-eminently attracts and fills every heart that loves His name.

"From Acts 20: 7, it is plain that the saints should break bread on the first day of the week, not of the month or quarter. But it is the resurrection day, not the day of His death, as if we were summoned to be there in mourning as for the dead. But He is risen, and therefore, with grateful, solemn joy, we take the Supper on the day that speaks of His rising power.

"The death of the Lord keeps constantly before the soul our utter need as once guilty sinners, proved by the Cross: the complete blotting out of all our sins by His blood: the glorifying of God up to, and above all in, death itself; the manifestation of absolute grace, and withal the righteousness of God in justifying us; the perfect glory of the Saviour: — all these things, and infinitely more, are brought and kept before us in those simple but wondrous words: — 'The Lord's death!'

"To take the Supper in remembrance of the Lord, and thus show forth His death, is what gathers us together as our prime desire. There can be no doubt about the meaning of the word of God which records this for our comfort and edifying; yet how could one infer that such was His will if one looked at the practice of Christians? Compare what they are doing Lord's-day after Lord's-day, with the obvious lessons of scripture, and intention of the Lord in so revealing His mind to us; and say whether for the most part this simple, touching memorial has not been slighted by real saints, and whether its character has not been changed universally in Christendom.

"Beware of thinking anything can be of equal moment with duly showing forth the Lord's death. The Supper of the Lord claims an unequivocal prominence in the worship of the saints. Not that one thinks of the mere fact of celebrating it, as to time, in the middle of the meeting. Indeed, it is remarkable how the Spirit of God avoids laying down laws about the Supper (and the same is true of Christianity in general) — a circumstance which the unfaithful may abuse, but which gives infinitely greater scope to the spirit of Christian affection and obedience. This however we may safely say, that it is not a question of the point of time when the act of breaking the bread occurs. The all-important thing is, that the Lord's Supper should be the governing thought when the saints are gathered for this purpose on the Lord's-day; that neither the prayers of many, nor the teaching of any, should put that great object in the shade. In ministry, however spiritual, man has his place; in the Supper, if rightly celebrated, the abased Lord alone is exalted. There might be occasions where the evident guidance of the Spirit brings it early before us, or postpones it late in the meeting, and thus any technical rule binding it to the beginning, or middle, or end, would be human encroachment on Him who alone is competent on each occasion and always to decide."

These are solemn and weighty words, worthy the deep consideration of every Christian.

SUNDAY, MARCH 25.

This was a day of great anxiety to one and all. I quite intended going to the Breaking of Bread with some brothers who had come from a distance to see Mr. Kelly, but at the last moment it was thought better that I should not, and I stayed at home.

The Lord's hand was in my remaining, for about a quarter after ten, we noticed a most serious and ominous change, which came on quite suddenly and without any warning.

The pulse almost ceased to beat, and the end seemed very near; so near that one was led to say, "He will be in heaven while they are at the Breaking of Bread." Again he rallied, and the pulse recovered strength.

At ten minutes to twelve I left him only to be summoned a few minutes later. Weak as he was, he had expressed a wish to remember the Lord once more in His death. Again the table was spread and we gathered around; at this time his two daughters, Miss W , my wife and I, and S. W. His hand had to be guided to the bread which he was almost too weak to swallow. He took no audible part, but lay quiet and still with his eyes closed.

No one had reminded him that it was the Lord's Day. He had rallied to remember his Lord once more, faithful to his Saviour's wishes to the end.

O! what is the remembrance of our Lord to us? Should not the Lord's table be the happiest, holiest, place on earth for every Christian? What an unspeakable privilege to be where "Jesus is in the midst," there to remember Him in His death!

May the words and example of our beloved brother make us feel more and more the solemn responsibility that rests upon us, not to neglect this great duty and this high privilege.

Lord, let us ne'er forget

Thy rich, Thy precious love;

OUR theme of joy and wonder here,

OUR endless song above.

Oh! let Thy love constrain

OUR souls to cleave to Thee,

And ever in OUR hearts remain

That word, "Remember Me!"

J G. Deck.

CHAPTER 5.

CLOSING SCENES.

Light divine surrounds thy going,

God Himself shall mark thy way,

Secret blessings, richly flowing,

Lead to everlasting day.

Though thy path be long and dreary,

Eagle strength He'll still renew;

Garments fresh and foot unweary

Tell how God has brought thee through.

When to Canaan's long-loved dwelling,

Love divine thy foot shall bring,

Then with shouts of triumph swelling

Zion's songs in rest to sing;

There, no stranger — God shall meet thee,

Stranger thou in courts above;

He Who to His rest shall greet thee

Greets thee with a well-known love.

J. N. Darby.

MONDAY, MARCH 19.

How deeply we felt the solemnity of these closing scenes. Day by day, and night after night, we heard from those feeble lips the communings of his soul with the Father and the Son. His passage from earth to heaven was marked by the finger posts of exalted faith and trust. There was no shadow in the valley — the waters of death did not overwhelm him. The faith of sixty years was active now. The Saviour he had loved and served so well was with him to the very end. The heavenly truth that God had revealed to him for his Church on earth, was the stay and comfort of his soul in the passing of his days. One could but say and feel, "Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his."

Mr. Kelly spoke to us today about his funeral. He said, "I have no wish as to where I should be buried at all; the humblest and most unpretentious way of burying me I particularly desire. I think this is all I wish to say with kindest love to my brothers. Mrs. Wreford is concerned that I should have sleep and so I have told you this before." Later on he said to my wife:

"The light of my heart is Christ." I said to him:

"How do you feel, dear Mr. Kelly?" He answered: "Weak enough to go to heaven." I replied:

"I hope the Lord may spare you here for some time yet." He said: "Heaven is my proper place, to be with Christ."

I told him of the many telegrams and letters that had been sent asking how he was — he sent his love to all. To his daughter he said "I am practically a dying man." "But dying," she replied, "to you is only going to be with Christ."

"Surely," he answered.

He sent his love to S. H with this message:

"Tell him I am sorry I could not give the Bible readings on Daniel where he lives as I have here."

We heard him say:

"Christ regulates everything for us as believers."

"I, by grace, stick to Christ. I can never give up Christ for any creature."

He had bad nights, was delirious at times. It was with difficulty we could get him to take his food.

TUESDAY, MARCH 20.

On this day his daughter heard him say:

"The saving Lord of sinners, the saving Head of saints."

He often spoke of J. N. Darby, and always with great affection. He loved to speak of all that he had done for Christ, of his great abilities, and his consecrated life.

He said:

. . . . "In no way forgetting what we owe to Mr. Darby." To one who called to see him "Farewell! my dear, dear brother."

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21.

Again:

"I long to depart and to be with Christ; I try not to be impatient. By searching myself up and down I have learnt much in my soul by this delay."

To his grandson:

"The true Man, Jack, and the true God. It seems long but it is not long — these are my last words and prayer to ring in your ears for ever."

Broken sentences every now and again fell from his lips:

"Blessing, glory, joy unfeigned."

"Simple faith ... Christ's own word."

On one occasion he was heard to say:

"The true God is confessed — the false god is denied."

. . . . . .

His daughter said to him: "How are you this morning?"

"Happy in Jesus," he replied — then after a pause, "Happy in those who are true in Jesus." Another pause, and then:

"Still more happy in those who love the Father and the Son; not only those who are good and righteous, according to the truth, but who bear for the love of the truth to the uttermost." Other things he said on this day were: "I am willing to go now."

. . . . .

"I own His righteousness."

. . . . .

"Man is sinful and deserves to die. If man receives Jesus and confesses Him, he is righteous through grace."

"I am a Christian, I believe in grace as the only hope of the sinner."

"Grace help me to die as I have lived for Christ, I ask no more."

"God, the righteous God."

"I give God thanks for all His grace and truth, but will in no way listen to anything that will forego His truth and righteousness."

Being asked by someone if he had any message for his brethren; he answered:

"Nothing save this, hoping that they are faithful to live and die for Jesus Christ the Lord, and to hate sin and lying about Jesus."

Mr. W. P. M. telephoned from B to know how Mr. Kelly was. I asked him if he had any message to send back. He replied:

"I still wait. I wait for the triumph of all life — divine power and glory, over all questions for heaven as well as earth; therefore I wait."

I said to him, "You may get better."

He answered, "That is a small thing compared with Christ." Then after a long pause:

"Everything of the highest — supreme."

Two brothers came from a long distance to see him, they had travelled all night. But his brain was weak and he was very tired, so he could not speak much to them, nor did he see the tears that filled their eyes as they left him.

THURSDAY, MARCH 22.

He was a little better and had had a quiet night. When his breakfast was being given to him he said:

"Jesus the food of faith. Jesus also the light and joy of faith."

After a pause:

"The outer form perishes, divine truth triumphs for ever."

He spoke again today about his funeral. He said: "My own opinion is that I should be buried in the place nearest to where I live with the least show, and as little delay as possible."

His daughter asked him if he would like to be buried at Charlton, and he said: "Yes, if it were convenient."

He sent this message to Mr. L.: "I die in Christ."

Often and often would he lift his hands and burst forth into some theme of praise or prayer:

. . . . . .

"All His work, all His efficacy, for such a poor sinner as myself."

. . . . . .

"The sin is taken away — the sins are borne. He bore it Himself! He bore it for God! God has completely destroyed it, and cut it off for ever."

I read part of Hebrews 13 to him, and later on his daughter read to him John 10: 27-36. He emphasized those verses particularly.

I was called up to see him in the night by his daughter Mrs. C., who sat up with him. He was very ill indeed, but after a while rallied again.

FRIDAY, MARCH 23.

He saw a brother from our meeting this morning. When he wished him "Good-bye," he pointed upwards and said: "that blessed hope."

Later, he wished his grandchildren good-bye. Most touching was it to see him open his arms in welcome to them, and as he kissed each one, to hear him utter those precious and tender words of loving blessing and farewell.

It was on this day that he said: "I'VE DONE MY WORK FOR CHRIST. I WANT TO GO. OTHERS WILL BE STRENGTHENED TO DO THEIR WORK, BUT MINE IS DONE.

Many things he said we could not catch, and some were uttered so rapidly they could not all be copied down. We have done our best to preserve all we could, but in some cases the meaning may not be exactly expressed as he wished, owing to the great difficulty experienced at times in remembering all. I wish to say this, so that there shall not be any difficulty in thus accounting for any sentence that may seem at all involved.

He had a quiet night on Friday.

SATURDAY, MARCH 24.

He uttered many precious thoughts today and was much in prayer. Sentences of faith and hope were constantly coming from his lips. With eyes closed and hands uplifted he said:

"Holy, holy, holy, and good."

. . . . . .

"Oh, the Saviour! Maker of heaven, yet the fullest Saviour of sinners."

"He is wholly perfect . . . . absolutely. Oh! how worthy! How worthy!"

It was beautiful to listen to his reverent voice as he thus spoke of God and Christ. He seemed to be rapt in praise and thanksgiving.

Other things he said were: "Everlasting ruin for all who reject Him. The One who is all, and suffered for all, and who brings in the blessing of the Father and the Son."

. . . . . .

"He is the Creator . . . . above all, and above all that can be uttered, or all that can be expressed."

"We ought to have the mind of Christ whether living or dying. May we meet in His presence."

"God be glorified, God be glorified."

"God absolute and supreme."

"Satan has his snares still for all who do not simply await His coming."

. . . . .

When he was fed he would often speak, and we could hear him when he was alone for a little, praying and speaking to God and extolling His love and truth.

Again we heard him say:

"My faith is in the Creator — the holy God who died for unholy sinners."

"All the value for faith is in God and in His Son — all the blessing is in and through God, who never changes."

"Beware of the snares of the enemy, and look only to the Lord Jesus Christ."

"The holy God who has no tendency to death has come in infinite love to save sinners perfectly."

. . . . . .

"He that had no sin, He could die and deliver those who were sinners. It is to Him I look. In Him I believe. I own Him alone in this infiniteness of divine life and love."

"I own myself a poor feeble sinner entirely dependent on the Father and the Son."

"There is nothing so good as the full grace of our Lord Jesus manifested fully and without any restriction in the Saviour's teaching . . . If we find a poor sinner in his sins, that grace is meant to reach the greatest need."

. . .

" There is nothing beyond Himself in infinite light, love and power."

He said firmly:

"I testify to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the alone givers — not only of life eternal, but of divine grace to make it effective. . .

CHAPTER 6.

THE LAST THREE DAYS.

And is it that I shall be like Thy Son?

Is this the grace which He for me has won?

Father of glory, thought beyond all thought,

In glory to His own blest likeness brought?

O Jesus Lord, who loved me like to Thee?

Fruit of Thy work, with Thee too there to see

Thy glory, Lord, while endless ages roll,

Myself the prize and travail of Thy soul.

Yet it must be: Thy love had not its rest,

Were Thy redeemed not with Thee fully blest,

The love that gives not as the world, but shares

All it possesses with its loved co-heirs.

Nor I alone, Thy loved ones all complete

In glory round Thee there with joy shall meet,

All like Thee, for Thy glory like Thee, Lord,

Object supreme of all, by all adored

J N. Darby.

SUNDAY, MARCH 25.

Mr. Kelly awoke at 4 this morning and exclaimed in a loud clear voice:

"The Lord bless His truth in every way through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen."

While he was having breakfast given him he said:

"God is everything in love and power, and man is everything in sin and wickedness."

He spoke to his daughters for some time about various things concerning his funeral, etc.

He said to my wife:

"Jesus is always with us."

At 11 o'clock I moistened his lips. He said:

"The absolutely good One . . . Life, love, truth, all in Him, Who is all life. . . ."

Later —  . . . . .

"All His love, all His love."

.. . . . . .

"All is good, all is infinite."

"It is His to work according to His goodness as He only can. What man did to Jesus showed what man was capable of — all iniquity. But God, the Father, and the Son, spring and source of blessing . . . to blot out the stain of this terrible evil."

. . . . . .

Softly, he said:

"That lowly life — suffering in all its perfection."

. . . . . .

Lifting up his hands he said, with much feeling and fervour:

"Oh, the mercy of Jesus! The mercy of Jesus! The love of Jesus! Poured upon poor guilty man! Jesus shows fully what man is and what God is. There is no perfection but in Jesus in Jesus."

"Jesus has glorified God."

And then in a loud voice:

"It is Jesus that glorifies God. It is Jesus therefore that could make everything most sweet, and holy, and true, and good . . . but where is it otherwise? . . . Where is it otherwise? Where is it otherwise, except in Jesus. In Him —  the Infinite God, . . . every perfection. Suffering for poor lost man . . . and causing man to see in Him his life, his eternal life, his life for evermore."

"What is any life compared with His life."

. . . . . .

"Oh the blessing! Oh the life in all its nature! . . . Life eternal . . . Life of its own infinite life."

Then with great pathos:

"Suffering, suffering as He alone could — suffering according to the Light — the Light — Himself."

"The true God is One that loves, and Who, when man was unworthy, deigned to become man and die for man's sin. The Son: He proves the truth and is it."

"It is Jesus that blesses; it is Jesus that glorifies God."

We heard him say loudly:

"Light of Light Thou art! Creator of infinity! Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Infinite Being! beyond all others — in power, and grace, beyond all others.

. . . . . .

"Jesus and Jehovah are one person, the denial is a false god."

"We give love in our little measure, not much, but still we give. The Father knows it and delights in it."

He said emphatically:

"Deny the lie, believe the truth, affirm the word of God Himself. God is the Highest. God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

. . . . . .

This morning, as already related, dear Mr. Kelly wished to remember the Lord in His death. During the afternoon several brothers came to see him. Later on we sang a few hymns together, one of them being "For ever with the Lord." How deeply were our hearts stirred as we thought of the one upstairs, so near the presence of his Lord.

MONDAY, MARCH 26.

This morning he was very weak indeed and we could not catch much that he said. There was the constant uplifting of his hands in prayer and praise, and broken remarks were heard occasionally.

To his daughters who helped to nurse him night and day, he gave many messages, and spoke of those to whom he wished to be remembered after he was gone.

He said:

"All the lies will pass away, and all the truth of God in Christ abide for ever."

. . . . . .

"By grace we hold the truth. Thou hast given it to us and wrought it in us."

He wandered at times, and we could hear him preaching the gospel. He said loudly:

"Be in earnest, be in earnest, be in earnest, pray be in earnest now, or you will perish in your sins."

At another time he was speaking, and as he spoke he gave that little shrug of his shoulders we knew so well — it seemed so pathetic to see him do it lying helpless in his bed.

. . . . . . .

Again we heard:

"All has come . . . real truth in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the glory with Thee without an end, without a doubt. Christ's and with Christ for ever."

How blessed to hear these words of undaunted faith — "with Thee, without an end, without a doubt." God's servant was nearing home, and the light of the coming glory shone on his heart. The faith he had preached to others filled his soul  - his one theme now, the Father and the Son.

TUESDAY, MARCH 27.

And now the last day of his life had come, and soon we were to hear that loved voice no more, nor be permitted much longer to perform those ministrations of love for one we valued so highly, and loved so dearly. His patience had been beautiful to witness all through his illness, his thankfulness for little things done for him so touching. He was very quiet all day, and spoke very little.

He said:

"He is all, He is above all, and better than all. Infinitely better than all."

. . . . . .

"Nothing but love."

. . . . . .

Again:

"Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Infinite God, infinite life, infinite love, infinite grace, infinite being . . ."

He was spoken to about the Bible Treasury and asked if he wished it to be continued. He said. "Yes, if possible; if not, it had better be discontinued."

He was then asked who he wished to edit it. He gave the name of the one he thought most fitting.

About one o'clock we were all standing around his bed when he suddenly opened his eyes. He looked from one to the other and nodded to each, while a beautiful smile broke over his face as he recognized each one, and its light fell on us all as he intended it should. It was like the last beams of the sun shedding glory on the earth, before the sunset. We shall never forget the recognition of that radiant smile.

And then he slept, or seemed to sleep awhile; but ever and anon the lips were moving in prayer, and then, there was the uplifting of the hands again. For a few days he had had difficulty in speaking, and his words were less distinct. About three o'clock he awoke and said: "Where have I been, where am I?" His daughter said:

"You are still here in H — 's house, with all those you love around you, Mrs. W — and all."

He looked up and said, "Thank God."

He was very quiet all the rest of the afternoon. Feeling the preciousness of each moment as the end drew near, we watched and waited around the bed — Mr. Kelly's daughters, Miss W — , Mr. R, my wife and I, and S. W — .

Just before passing away we heard him say:

"Oh! my Saviour. Oh ! my God."

Then a period of unconsciousness came on —  and then a short sharp struggle with death — and he was gone to be with Christ. The time was a quarter to seven.

The long warfare was over now, and as we gazed upon him, with eyes well nigh blinded with tears, a sense of irreparable loss seemed to fill our souls. The mystery of dissolution was written on that quiet face. There lay the saint of God who had been untiring in his service for Christ; and nothing now can bring him back to us; neither our tears, nor prayers, nor loving words; nor the want and weakness of saints; nor false doctrine to be combated; nor evil to be judged, and truth maintained. His day of earth is over — his eternal day with God, and Christ, begun.

Let us close this chapter with two of his own verses:

Father Thy love has made us one —

One in Thyself and in the Son:

Proof to the world that Thou didst send

Him who accomplished such an end.

And glory will to all make known,

When we are perfected in one,

That Thou didst love us as Thy Son,

Sharing with Him the victory won.

CHAPTER 7.

CONCLUSION.

Rest of the saints above,

Jerusalem of God

Who in thy palaces of love,

Thy golden streets have trod?

There in effulgence bright,

Saviour and Guide, with Thee

I'll walk, and in Thy heavenly light

Whiter my robe shall be.

God and the Lamb shall there

The light and temple be,

And radiant hosts for ever share

The unveiled mystery.

J N. Darby.

And now my loving, yet most sorrowful, task is almost done. The body of our beloved brother was taken to London on Thursday and buried in Charlton Cemetery on Saturday, March 31st, at 3 p.m.

The following account of the funeral is part of an extract from the Kentish Mercury of April 6th.

"The funeral took place at Charlton Cemetery on Saturday, between 500 and 600 persons being present. In accordance with deceased's strong aversion to anything like display, the ceremony was of a very quiet and unostentatious character. At the graveside the hymns 'For ever with the Lord' and 'Saviour, before Thy face we fall' were sung, and appropriate portions of Scripture were read. Addresses were given by Dr. Heyman Wreford, of Exeter (at whose house Mr. Kelly died), and Mr. T. Moore, of Bournemouth, the latter saying that a fortnight before his death Mr. Kelly remarked that there were three things that were real, the cross of Christ, hatred of the world, and the love of God."

Who can tell the sorrow that filled the hearts of the hundreds who stood around his grave. Many eyes were overflowing with tears, and every heart was filled with grief. There was the coffin, telling of our loss, there was the open grave to hold the body of this faithful servant of our Lord, his "pathetic dust." While the strains of the hymn "For ever with the Lord" were rising from our hearts, our thoughts went back to the days of the early Church — and the words uttered by the servant of Christ in the first century seemed marvelously applicable to the one we mourned in the twentieth. What moved hearts and shadowed lives in apostolic times, moved our hearts today.

We seemed to hear the words of farewell, spoken so long ago, again sounding in our ears —

"Ye know, from the first day I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons; serving the Lord with all humility of mind . . . and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and to the Greeks repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ."

Yes, we knew, we knew full well, the manner of his life. He lived in these Western Isles for God and Christ, and served Him here, as did Paul in those Eastern lands. Christians wept over Paul departing to his death, we weep over one gone to his rest, We have his testimony with us now. Taught of God, he imparted to us by His Spirit the marvellous truths given to the great Apostle. The unfolding of Scripture, and the ministry of the word, had been the great object of his life.

"And now behold I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more "

No more. The earthly work is done. The labourer rests with Christ. We shall never see his face on earth again, but, as our hearts sorrow for his loss; we shall remember those sixty years and more of patient work for Christ. Many of us can say, "all our lives he has been with us." We shall think of his service, recall his admonitions, dwell upon his words, and memory's constant aid will recall seasons of blessed fellowship with the one whom God has taken.

This is the human side; but again the great Apostle speaks to us in those blessed words:

"I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. WHEREFORE COMFORT ONE ANOTHER WITH THESE WORDS.

This is the divine side.

Small comfort should we find by looking at the grave; small comfort in the human sorrow that will find its place within us. We may fear for ourselves and others now that that loved voice is stilled; but our faith and hope look upward.

Thank God the truth remains — the Lord is still the stay and comfort of His people.

The will of God has brought us to this gate of sorrow. The path beyond may seem dark to many — but the Lord Himself is the Light.

In a day of weakness the tried heart can find comfort hour by hour in the promises of God. One well may be dried up, but He can cause rivers of blessing to flow in a thirsty land.

We may feel how dependent we have been on a human presence and an earthly voice — but God, even our God, shall bless us and give us to feel that the "everlasting arms" are around us, and that "in His presence there is fulness of joy." Waves of sorrow and a sense of loss may beat upon our hearts in almost overwhelming power, but He still treads the waters of affliction, and beneath His feet the storm is stayed, and furious winds of trouble and raging waves of fear all sink to rest when He says " Peace, be still." He comes in the watches of the night, and we hear Him say "It is I, be not afraid." We sorrow, but "not as others that have no hope," for the foundation of our hope is in Him Who has said, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." The future we can and must leave with Him.

Sorrowfully the "blessed dead" is left behind us. The great crowd disappears, and each believer who stood around the grave of God's honoured servant, and our beloved friend and brother, has to face for himself the responsibilities of Christian life.

Let the deep words of Apostolic benediction sound like heavenly music in our ears, and find a real and an abiding place in all our hearts: —

"And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you; to the end He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." — 1 Thess. 3: 12, 13.

Farewell! awhile, dear servant of our Lord,

Thy work on earth is done;

The Master calls thee home — His blest award,

Thy faithful heart has won.

Thy pathway to the skies was rough and long:

Reproach for Christ was thine.

But lo! at eventide God gave the song —

And light — His light divine.

His mercy, and His truth, sustained thee where

Thy fields of service lay

And up the shining heights of faith and prayer,

To rest, and endless day.

H.W.

APPENDIX.

Reprinted, by permission, from the "Christian."

THE LATE MR. WILLIAM KELLY, BIBLICAL SCHOLAR AND TEACHER.

BY A FRIEND OF MANY YEARS.

The close of the long, strenuous, and devoted life of Mr. Kelly, of Blackheath, is an event that will touch many Christian hearts that held him in deepest affection. He was one of Christ's special gifts to the Church for the late century's revival of Christian learning, truth, and testimony, who in service to the One that had won his heart, counted it gain to go out in separation from all to meet Him; and whose formula of the Christian life was — Faith in God's Word, true obedience thereto, and devotedness to the Person of Christ.

William Kelly was the son of an Ulster squire, and was born at Millisle, Co. Down, in May, 1821, He was educated at Downpatrick and at Dublin University, where the highest honours in classics were his. He was brought up a Protestant Churchman, and became enamoured with "Puseyism"; but was spiritually quickened shortly after graduating. Going to the Isle of Sark, he was brought into Christian liberty through a lady of the Acland family directing him to 1 John 5: 9, 10. He touchingly alludes to this happy fact in his "Exposition of the Epistles of John," issued last year — a work he was thankful to accomplish. He never swerved from the truth he then found, proving it the "witness of God" to his soul, of salvation and eternal life. To the last its reality remained with him; as he expressed it shortly before passing away: "The Lord is the light of my heart." Mr. Kelly was twenty-four years old when he first met Mr. Darby, the body of whose teaching he was readily grasping as of the Spirit. The discovery of the "judicious Hooker's" error in asserting that "the field is the Church" (Matt. 13), had given him the key of the truth, and he had closely studied the Scriptures during the intervening period. He now stirred up more widely his Christian activities, and in faith consecrated his great attainments and abilities to the cause of Christ.

Mr. Kelly was a man of recognised erudition, possessing powers, too, of original research. He had rare logical skill, fine precision, and keen controversial force, all with high moral power and spiritual culture. A French writer who long knew his works described him: "Kelly — savant, realisateur, tete logique, resumateur-philosophe"; and an Irish writer spoke of him as "a distinguished alumnus of the University." A student to the end, he was no recluse or mystic; and if he burnt the midnight oil, he also greatly delighted in Christian fellowship, and the practical ministry of preaching and teaching. He was held in high esteem for his critical work by members of the New Testament Revision Committee, with some of whom he held friendly and learned correspondence. He thought Darby's "New Translation" (though erring somewhat), more reliable than the " Revised Version," which he fully and critically examined in his monthly Bible Treasury, a periodical considered by many besides Archdeacon Denison as "the only one worth reading."

Commenced in 1856, this journal is replete with the writings of Brethren's leading expositors, among them none more luminous or richer in spiritual wisdom than his own. its critical studies, devotional papers, Scriptural unfoldings, doctrinal discussions and reviews, all combine to make it a half-century's reliable testimony to the restored truths of practical Christianity. In taking up the task, after Prof. Wallace had had six months as editor, he sought that "grace and wisdom" might be granted him for it; and surely it may be asked: Is not such an editorial service unique?

Mr. Kelly had previously edited The Prospect (1849-50), a most interesting volume as a study of some early work. From it he re-issued a translation of the "Revelation" from the Greek, with notes of manuscript readings and general remarks (1849). He also contributed numerous critical comments to Dr. Tonna's Christian Annotator (1854-6), a journal Mr. Darby did not care for. Dr. Tregelles and Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S., were also contributors. The work so highly commended by Prof. Ewald was "The Revelation of John, edited in Greek, with an English version," and a statement of authorities and versions. For it Mr. Kelly made use of MSS. never before applied to critical purposes, and gave extracts from the original Codex Sinaiticus, obtained through Prof. Tischendorf (1860).

Our friend edited "The Collected Writings of J. N. Darby," whose thirty-six volumes involved much tedious search over many years and in several languages. By this work "W. K." conveyed an important service to the Church of God, which few, if any, could have adequately accomplished. This is also true of the "Synopsis of the Bible," whose five volumes "W. K." thought J. N. D.'s best single work; as the "Examination" of B. W. Newton's " Apocalypse" his ablest critique. He highly valued Darby's writings, and circulated them as widely as possible. For their author he had profound regard, and delighted to speak of him with reverence and love, although their fellowship had been broken in upon after thirty-five years of happy, hearty co-service. He looked upon him as unapproached for Scriptural unfoldings of long-lost truths, and for dependence upon God and His word. "Read Darby!" he used to say, to the last.

Learned readers have often expressed appreciation of Mr. Kelly's critical writings; and studious (as all, he thought, should be) believers everywhere valued his expositions as "comfort and food" of rich worth. Their great extent and instructive variety is perhaps unparalleled. His "Lectures on the Revelation" form a profound work of critical value and spiritual perception, recently revised. In it he fully analyses the teaching of Elliott's "Horae Apocalypticae." The "Doctrine of the Holy Spirit" is still an exposition of rare value, as when declared by Dr. Bledsoe the "best discussion" extant on the subject. " Preaching to the Spirits in Prison" is a contribution of important interest to the discussion of this attractive subject. "Lectures on the Second Coming" afford clear and definite teaching on this much detested subject. The "exposition of Isaiah" (1895) is "a new book rather than a re-issue," which the learned author hoped would render "greater help to the Christian student, and even to the larger circle of those who seek more intimate acquaintance with the richest and most comprehensive of the Prophets." He exhaustively discusses the nature and object of Prophecy, and combats unsparingly the "bitter hostility" of the Neo-criticism he so deplored, in its assault upon "whatever is most bright and blessed."

The smaller "Daniel" is an instructive study of this little understood prophet of great precision, the new edition of which, after forty years, has also an expose of Neology. The "Exposition of John," 1898, was "written from first to last, with the deep conviction how little my plummet can sound John's revealed depths." His "Epistles of John" already alluded to, should stand with the "Gospel." The two volumes form an incomparable study of John's presentation of the Lord; nor does anyone need "Lives of Christ," who possesses these beautiful writings, so full of mature learning and spiritual understanding in the unfolding of the Person and work of God's Son. The graces of the Lord as Man are displayed in Luke; in John it is God making known Himself in Christ. Moreover, "Life eternal in the Son of God declared and manifested in His character in WAYS and WORDS, and that he gives this life is there written with more than sunbeam brightness." "The Creation" (long published) and "In the Beginning and the Adamic Earth" (1894) (commended by Archbishop Benson, and accepted by Gladstone for St. Deiniol's library), evince the beauty and perfection of revealed knowledge, and the faith and power of "W. K." for its elucidation. They form a profound guide to the study of Cosmogony. "Christ Tempted and Sympathising" (1871) is a finely discriminative study, and none will deny the devout erudition of his exposition of "The Lord's Prayer" (1850; new ed. 1900), or that the "Pastoral Epistles" are choice meditations of high spiritual character and helpfulness. His "Acts of the Apostles" is an instructive unfolding of the early days of the Church, as his "Corinthians" is of Church order and government, of gifts and ministry. To these should be added "Lectures on the Church of God," a veritable text-book; and "Notes on Ephesians," a book of the highest character of Christian instruction.

One of his later volumes, "God's Inspiration of the Scriptures," exhibits with unanswerable faith and proof the perfection of Divine revelation and "the grace of its purport in the glory of God." Mr. Kelly thought this work should be of help to "the spiritual understanding of all who value the Bible from beginning to end." To him it was a sad thing that many professed believers should seek to undermine God's word, and often attach more weight to inscribed stones and engraved cylinders than to the Divine revelation of the Scriptures.

Such are a few of the multitude of Mr. Kelly's writings, a rare legacy to the Christian community, all so evidently full of precise instruction to the spiritual intelligence. They bear the mark of an able writer, who sought such ease of style as would "come home" to the reader's heart and conscience, and who desired neither to form nor belong to any school of thought, doctrine, or interpretation; but in faith to take God at His word by the Spirit's guidance, and so to teach the Christian.

He sought to forward growth in grace and Divine knowledge, to prepare both "sincere milk" and solid food for Christian growth, "till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." He pressed for the cultivation of truth in the "inward parts," and the practical exercise of what was learnt, in testimony to Christ for His glory. He was as a "father" who had "known Him that is from the beginning," as well as one who would teach faithful men, that they might, by continuance in the things they had learnt, be able to teach others also.

Many of Mr. Kelly's books are reports of lectures. As a lecturer he especially excelled, being a public speaker of easy but impressive address. He made no display of learning, yet conveyed solid instruction. On rare occasions he would so open up the deep recesses of heart and mind as to cause wonder for what might be contained there.

He had a winning personality, with a charm of manner, a fine courtesy, and a humour of the purest. His small Bible and pushed-up spectacles, his firm mouth and shrug of the shoulders, have oft obtained affectionate remark, as now they have public notice. He also laboured with zeal in the gospel wherever he went, and wrote largely upon it. His "Born of Water and of the Spirit" and "The Apostle at Athens" studiously exhibit what Christ's work is, its mode of operation in grace, and what it involves for man's blessing and God's glory. They well illustrate the high character of his "gospel" productions. Years ago he was interested in some inquiring Japanese students in England, proving of marked service to them; and one of his last activities was in the selection of special Christian literature for China and Japan.

Mr. Kelly wrote a few choice hymns, finely expressive of worship "for grace and truth revealed in blessing for eternal glory." But he did not cultivate this "recreative work." He deeply deplored the flimsiness of faith today compared with a former robustness of Christian character, the increasing worldliness of believers, and growing lack of devotedness. The spread of materialism, Ritualism, and Popery pressed upon his heart, though according to revelation; and his constant aim was to deliver souls from these. He wrote sternly against the late Pope's Encyclical, and interesting cases of converted priests, monks, and others of education and high place have come before him both at home and in France.

It was his regret also to observe how hindrances to Christian light were spreading in University life and teaching, and around the young life of future Christian leaders. He considered the great lack to be a living faith in God and His revelation. David showed his superiority over Solomon in his greater value of the Ark, "for faith is always, if I may say so, wiser than wisdom." So again in Rev. 3, the Laodicean condition arises out of "despising the testimony given to Philadelphia —  the fruit of the rejection of the special truth that formed that Church" — keeping the word of His patience, and not denying His Name. His answering query, "For which world?" when once told he might readily "make a fortune," was perhaps surpassed by his reply to one who generously offered his influence to "do something" for him: "What can you do for me more than has already been done by the Lord Jesus?" He sought to avoid the Laodicean spirit at all cost.

He was concerned, too, for the vast amount of unprofitable reading extant, which he thought "best counteracted by sound and interesting testimony to the truth"; asserting that the young were largely affected by the "abounding fiction and worthless poetry of the day." Many Christian believers, he said, thought more of Milton's "fine imaginations" or of Tennyson's groping for light, than of God's true record; and too little of the writings of Cowper, "one of the best of all the poets," who through faith had helped many to praise God. He largely believed, however, with Darby, that poetry (not hymns) "is chiefly the effort of the human mind to create, by imagination, a sphere beyond materialism, which faith gives in realities." Like Abraham, "W. K." believed God!

Mr. Kelly never changed his ecclesiastical position after turning from the Established Church in 1841, and going "forth unto Christ outside the camp, bearing His reproach," but, with sufficient statement for Christian conscience and intelligence, continued steadfastly onward. He never "broke fellowship" with the leaders in the unhappy divisions among Brethren in the bitter way often ascribed to him; but, when having had to withhold confidence, he always lucidly, logically, and scripturally stated his ground as occasion called, consistently adhering to first principles. He was as severe in condemning unscriptural divergences (whether ecclesiastical or doctrinal) among Brethren as anywhere else. He could warn as well as help, rebuke as well as encourage. His sarcasm was the searching rapier of applied truth.

From beginning to end he bore unchanging practical testimony to the oneness of the Body, the unity of the Spirit, and separation unto the Name and Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, awaiting His return. One of the happiest of Christians, he knew the sorrows as the joys of the path, yet as he wrote myself not long ago, "Ours after all is but light affliction compared, I do not say, with His who suffered as none but Himself ever did, but with the Apostle, a man of like passions with ourselves. What had he not to endure from Jew, Gentile, and the Church of God!"

Mr. Kelly married firstly a Guernsey lady —  Miss Montgomery. His second wife, who died in 1884, was a daughter of Rev. Mr. Gipps, of Hereford. A lady of devoted natural and spiritual ability, she skilfully rendered much aid in her husband's special work. Like himself, she was a clever linguist, and possessed of wide knowledge. She translated nearly half the Psalms, to which Mr. Kelly added the rest, and last year issued them as a personal memento of her. Much pleasing interest attaches to her memory.

The gift of Mr. Kelly's remarkable library of 15,000 volumes, the choice tools of a scholarly and devoted Christian worker, was anonymous, and desired by him to remain so, but a London journal revealed it. Every consideration was given to the question of its future locale, and it is in appreciative hands. To have seen something of it, with its learned owner as interpreter, was a valued privilege. It included the great Codices (some in facsimile); all the great Polyglots; the works of the Fathers, and the Schoolmen. Replete in the departments of Science, Philosophy and History, it was specially rich in Classics, Ecclesiastical History, and Theology, including many very rare items connected with Biblical research. His hope, in sending it into Yorkshire near two years ago, was that others might prove its helpfulness in God's work.

Mr. Kelly devoted much time and labour to correspondence, serving alike the learned and the ignorant; every line of his exceedingly small but very legible writing carrying clear instruction and reliable information, Christian counsel and encouragement,  - all choicely expressed. He sought to be of the utmost possible service even in this respect, as over a hundred letters and postcards now on my table fully prove; spending himself for the Lord and the good of His people. He left the results, but was always grateful for the confidence and affectionate regard of believers everywhere. He had many admirers in the higher walks of life, and close readers of his writings there, who fully recognised his reaming and regarded his constancy and devotion. His friendship was a privilege, his confidence no mean trust, and to know him was to love him.

Thus passed the days and years in happy, constant, fruitful service until, after a few weeks at Dr. Heyman Wreford's home in Exeter, "peacefully resting and waiting," he was "put to sleep by Jesus," March 27. So closed a unique ministry, whose effect will remain unto many days, with many grateful hearts.

Mr. Kelly was interred at Charlton Cemetery (near to his gifted wife) on March 31, in the presence of some 500 mourners. Dr. Wreford having prayed, two hymns were sung — "For ever with the Lord" and "Saviour, before Thy face we fall." Brief remarks by Dr. Wreford on Acts 20: 25, emphasized gratitude for God's rich gift to the Church in "W.K.," and sorrow to see him here no more; but joy for the hope of the Lord's return: reading 1 Thess. 4: 13-18. Mr. Moore read Ps. 91: 1, applying also, "the beauty of the Lord," from Ps. 90: 16, 17; dwelt on "W. K.'s" love and work for the Lord, and how at the last he spoke of "realities"; as with emphasis he said, "the cross is a real thing; the hatred of the world is a real thing; and, [beloved brethren,] the love of God is a real thing!" The brief, solemn, yet appropriate and comforting service was closed in prayer by Colonel Binney, and all was over — "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away."

H. W. PONTIS.

IN MEMORIAM — W. K.

"They are all gone into the world of light." — H. Vaughan.

"A great man and a prince has fall'n today,"

Our eyes with tears are dim,

And life is dipt in hues of leaden grey,

As we lament for him.

Yet rather for ourselves must we deplore

The loss of such a mind,

So rich a treasury of sacred lore,

While selfless zeal, combined

With that great knowledge, mark'd him all the day

From youth to mellow age;

He was content to win the Master's praise

At end of pilgrimage

His was a real eloquence, that made

The Bible wondrous clear;

All tones were in it — answering every shade

Of thought, they reach'd the ear.

And aye his speech was clothed with dignity,

At times with pathos rare,

Or vivid scorn, or gentle irony,

But weak or aimless ne'er.

For his the speaker's gifts — yet did we find

Them e'er 'neath strict control;

He sought not to delight the idle mind,

But to inspire the soul.

And, earnest always, most he kindled, when

Descanting on the Name

Of the Redeemer and the Hope of men,

And setting forth His fame.

Ah, we no more shall see him — he has pass'd

Into that world of light,

Where flowers are faceless, pleasures ever last,

And there is no more night

"A great man and a prince has fall'n today";

I lose a lifelong friend;

But, though a moment grief becloud our way,

Joy cometh at the end.

R. BEACON,

Bournemouth.

Biography of William Kelly (W.G.Turner)

Biography of William Kelly

by W.G.Turner

By kind permission of soundwords.de whose permission should be sought for any further publication.

- Introductory

- Ireland

- Guernsey

- Blackheath

- Churchman and Gospeller

- Some Letters

- The Workman

- Middlesborough

- Closing Days

"No one is able to show to those who knew him not what he was; no one could show this to those who knew him in a way they would feel satisfying."

Introductory

William Kelly first saw the light when England was beginning to recover from the Napoleonic wars. The Battle of Waterloo lay only five years behind. Napoleon himself had just died at St. Helena. The least estimable character that ever occupied the British throne had but recently succeeded to it, and demands were everywhere rising for reform and popular liberty. The Home Secretary, Addington, and his more powerful colleague, Lord Castlereagh, sensing the uneasy situation, and fearing that the ominous stirrings so apparent might flare up into open revolution, foolishly introduced into Parliament a most unpopular and hated measure known as "Six Acts" hoping thereby to effectually prevent this. It only served, however, to increase the growing discontentment.

This measure threatened with severe penalties all who advocated any kind of social reform, and was repressive to a degree. The general populace was exasperated by its severity against all and any who dared to protest against the policy of the Government. The Home Secretary and Lord Castlereagh, however, succeeded in forcing the obnoxious measure through. When Castlereagh died shortly after, his funeral became the occasion of a most disgraceful outburst of hatred against both himself and the Act he had sponsored. The French revolution, alike so recent and near, only needed a spark to explode the magazine of pent up resentment felt by thousands at the injustice of the new law. Both politically and ecclesiastically a transition period had arrived. The more sober and practical elements were filled with alarm at the violent and threatening temper displayed by the masses, and the obtuseness of the ruling class to its implications. In a remote country parish one of Oxford's most brilliant students was then quietly brooding over the conditions in church and state. It was several years, however, before the result of his thoughts stirred the country in a sermon preached in the university pulpit, and published under the title of "National Apostasy".

Two great religious movements were then both due to appear and radically affect the religious outlook. The Evangelical revival was settling down into a quiet, select, self-complacent orthodoxy. The Methodist movement also was rapidly losing its original fire and fervour. A few years previously both had been fanned by the fires of persecution, but these had now died down. Ecclesiastical gales were beginning to blow from Oxford and Plymouth, and were disturbing the religious dovecotes. Both were destined to exert an influence upon English speaking Christendom beyond anything known since the sixteenth century Reformation.

One of these, the Tractarian movement, was later to be known as the Oxford movement; while the other was the Plymouth, or as often called, the Brethren movement. Both were silently taking shape and much has been written about them. The impetus given by both is still being felt after the lapse of well over a century. These two movements had their origin in the accident of urgent necessity! one from the suppression of ten Irish bishoprics by the Government; and the other by an Archiepiscopal order to the Irish clergy stopping the work of the Irish Home Missions, as an oath of allegiance to King George now became compulsory on the reception of the converts. "If it be true anywhere that such enactments are forced on the legislature by public opinion, is Apostasy too hard a word to describe the temper of such a nation?" This was the question asked by Mr. Keble.

Naturally enough, the two most prominent figures in the respective movements were clergymen of the Established Church; the one John Henry Newman, who strenuously opposed the former of these; and the other, John Nelson Darby, Lord Nelson's godson, who as strongly objected to the latter. At once a number of pious men with active minds and great natural abilities were quickly attracted to these movement. Two who stand out from their fellows were singularly alike in many respects John Keble, the Tractarian friend referred to earlier, and William Kelly, the henchman of the Plymouth leader. Both Keble and Kelly were humble and self-effacing men personally, although each had in their day carried off the highest honours of their respective universities.

The words of a brilliant contemporary of theirs may here be quoted, "Where personal character is the main source of influence on others - where the unconscious labourer, pressing forward in faithful service, reflects a glory from his upturned countenance, scatters the fire of his aspiration in surrounding hearts, and by that subtle impress of spirit upon spirit refines the conscience, warms enthusiasm and quickens effort - there it is that a life, a record, a portrait is most needed. The chief work is done without it, many a heart moulded, many a course changed by contact with the living man."

This fully applied to both these great men. It is, however, with William Kelly we are concerned in this present volume.

Ireland

Dublin, Downpatrick and the Wicklow Hills form the setting of William Kelly's birth, boyhood and youth. The son of an Ulster squire, he was born in May 1820 at Millisle, Co. Down. His father's early death left him and an only sister to be brought up by their devoted mother. At an early age he matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin, and here a natural flair for the classics and sacred languages was fostered. This, combined with a steady application, soon caused him to be regarded as a very promising student, one likely to add to the lustre of he University.

He early gave evidence of an innate love for study and also possessed the rare gift, for one so young, of sufficient wisdom to refrain from presuming of it. As Sir Joshua Reynolds says, "If you have genius, industry will improve it; if you have none, industry will supply its place." And William Kelly followed this hard but sure road. He himself in later years once casually remarked to the writer, "Genius is ninety-nine per cent hard work and close application to one's studies;" and his early career at Trinity College was an illustration of it, his steady industry being finally crowned with first class distinction when he graduated later in highest classical honours. The Principal, when warmly congratulating him upon his scholastic brilliance, offered a post upon the College staff, hinting that if accepted he would make his fortune in the world. "Which world, sir?" was his enquiry.

He was then only twenty years old, but the reply was both self-revealing and almost prophetically anticipative of his whole after life of being in the world but not of it. The influence of the Evangelical school of religion in which he, as an Ulsterman, had been nurtured made a deep impression upon him, the other-worldliness of that movement predisposing the devoutly minded youth in the direction of Orders in the Irish Established Church. Why this ambition was never realized will appear later, but at the time of leaving the University it was uppermost in his thoughts.

In passing we may note that half a century later Kelly's nephew by marriage closely rivalled his uncle's reputation at Trinity. The then Principal remarked to a friend of the Kelly family, "You know, we look on Malcolm as one of the chief ornaments of our college." In later life Malcolm Montgomery, the lad in question, was also regarded as the best Greek authority among the "Brethren", and showed that he shared his uncle's convictions as to the relative values of worldly honours when one has had the vision of higher things.

Upon leaving Dublin University Kelly found himself momentarily at a loose end, being then a couple of years too young for ordination in the Irish Church. He decided to seek a tutorial post in the interim, and keep up his special theological reading. He always held that it was in the providence of God that just then the Seigneur of Sark happened to visit Northern Ireland seeking a tutor for his young family. Being also the Rector of Sark, and happening to contact the University authorities, he heard of that year's brilliant student and expressed a wish to meet him. This resulted in a warm invitation to Sark, and Kelly's immediate difficulties as to a livelihood disappeared. William Kelly even afterwards regarded this entirely unexpected opening as a most important stage on his life's pilgrimage. When referring to it later, the present writer ventured to quote:

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends Rough-hew them how we will."

Mr. Kelly smilingly replied, "I am not a Shakespearian," and said that he much preferred the poet Cowper's version:

"God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform."

From the Emerald Isle, with the busy life of Dublin, Downpatrick and the Wicklow Hills, the boundaries of his youthful days, to the remote Isle of Sark, situated in the stormiest part of the English Channel, was a journey not to be lightly undertaken in the early nineteenth century. But in Kelly's case it was the first of the several stages en route for London, where so much of his life and work was done.

He firmly believed in the guiding Hand of God, and always regarded the stages of his pilgrimage as the direct leading of the One Who knows the end from the beginning and guides all the journey through. So from Dublin to Sark, thence to Guernsey covering the next twenty years; and then to London, where at Blackheath and Lee the rest of his days were spent, is the story of his earthly pilgrimage.

Few islands contain so much romantic interest in so small a compass as the Isle of Sark. It is remarkable for its grandeur of cliff and cave, and deemed the loveliest of those lovely gardens of the sea - the Channel Islands." Here in the Channel Islands it was that Kelly as a young tutor experienced what he always regarded as the two most important events in one's life: the knowledge of personal soul salvation, and the finding of life's greatest earthly treasure, a good wife.

Taking the latter as first in order, for the wife was used to lead him into the knowledge of the former, it was here he met and fell in love with a Miss Montgomery of Guernsey in whom for years until her death in 1844 William Kelly found a perfect help-meet in life and work. Like himself she hailed from the Emerald Isle, being a lady of the Ulster Scottish branch of the Montgomery tree and of Norman origin. These happy formative years in Sark were now filled with congenial employment, domestic bliss and happy Christian fellowship.

William Kelly had from boyhood been religious and conscientious; his growing knowledge of Hebrew and Greek had also fostered a scholar's interest in the Holy Scriptures in their original tongues. As a child familiar with what the Evangelicals of that day termed the "Plan of Salvation", he yet so far had not taken a really personal interest in the subject. The important step by which one passes from a general knowledge about Christ to a special knowledge of Him as a personal Saviour had not been taken by him, when he accepted the appointment in Sark.

Sixty years later in a public lecture in London, when quoting the text from John's epistle, "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater," he remarked, "May I recall the divine relief and deliverance these words gave more than sixty years ago to a soul converted but harassed and deeply exercised through sense of sin which clouded his soul's rest on Jesus? These words chased away all doubt, and made him ashamed to question God's witness. It became the application of truth to him, and no longer his applying it to himself, though not at all doubting the intrinsic worth of Christ's death for the sinner. "It was not my seeing as I ought the efficacy of the blood, but resting by faith on God's seeing it, and God's valuing it as it deserves." William Kelly thus explained the great change which was the prelude to becoming the man of God he did.

The third important happening which took place in the Isle of Sark was some months subsequently. He made a careful examination of current conventional ecclesiastical customs in the light of the New Testament which he always studied in the original tongue. The conclusion arrived at by him was expressed in the following words: "It is but too plain that whatever good men may do here and there, the only real inquiry is as to the will of the Lord. It is not a question of making others walk in your light, but you must not walk in their darkness. This is the great point, not occupying ourselves with others, prescribing what they must do, but feeling my own sin, as well as the common sin, yet by grace resolved at all costs to be where I can honour and obey the Lord." So he explained his action in then leaving the Established Church. He had come to see that in all the current religious societies, Established or Dissenting, one, if loyal to the tenets of the company, had either to surrender some Scriptural principle or to acquiesce in what was obviously unscriptural and therefore contrary to the will of the Lord.

He quietly decided, therefore, to associate himself with a very tiny company of likeminded Christian believers who were gathered simply to the Name of the Lord Jesus, relying upon His own assurance (Matt. 18,20) of His Presence in the midst of them. He found them making no pretensions to superior knowledge or spirituality, yet most certainly enjoying much spiritual blessing and happy fellowship in the things of the Lord, to which he had hitherto been a stranger. It was another lady, one of the well known Acland family, who helped the young tutor now, both to appreciate the simplicity of God's way of salvation, and also the Scriptural way to gather for worship and service. One Lord's day William Kelly went to a meeting for the Lord's Supper, the Breaking of Bread, as recorded in Acts 20, where it is written, "When upon the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread." To his momentary confusion, on that particular morning no other brothers were present in the tiny gathering, and he, though having received much light and help spiritually from the writings of J.N. Darby and other "brethren", had never actually met a "brother".

Some two years or so after this William Kelly, now in his twenty-fifth year, went on a short visit to Plymouth, and happening to call at a bookseller's shop in Whimple Street, there, to his great joy, met a man whose life for the next forty years was to be very closely linked with his own. For the last couple of years Kelly had been a close and careful student of the works of John Nelson Darby, then creating something of a stir in ecclesiastical circles, and the clerical dove-cotes generally. This had made him greatly desire to meet the author, and the meeting in that bookseller's was a great day in Kelly's life. Given in his own words he says, "I go back to my first intercourse with J.N.D. in the summer of 1845 at Plymouth. For though I had been for years in communion before this, it had not been my lot to see him for whom above all others I had conceived, because of his love and testimony to Christ, profound respect and warm affection. I was then living in the Channel Islands, in one of which I began to break bread with three sisters, before ever looking a "brother" in the face. It was in J.B. Rowe's shop, Whimple Street, that we met, and very frank and cordial was his greeting." This apparently casual meeting was another spiritual milestone on life's pilgrimage, and one of Kelly's most cherished memories.

Shortly after this first contact with J.N. Darby, whose conversation served to deepen greatly the impression which his own solitary studies had made upon him, an opportunity of attending a big London Conference of Brethren was presented, which enabled Kelly to hear an address by his new acquaintance and erstwhile life-long friend. This address by J.N. Darby made an ineffaceable impression upon him, so that some sixty years later in a reminiscent mood he said with emphasis, "It was a most impressive discourse." The ecclesiastical atmosphere was then very heavy with dark clouds. The gathering storm of the Oxford movement had increased in intensity in the months of Newman's secession, and the first great calamitous division of the so-called Brethren movement co-incided. The air was electric in the circles of both these movements. Kelly's interest was second only to Darby's. It was not Tractarians or Newtonians as such, but the truth of God and the honour of Christ which they felt to be at stake. It has been well observed, "the hour finds the man," and Kelly's special gifts were very speedily recognized beyond the boundaries of the Channel Islands where hitherto they had been exercised.

The comparatively early death of his young wife no doubt accounts for his decision to leave Sark, which he did shortly afterwards. His conviction, too, that the Lord was guiding his steps towards the sister isle of Guernsey finally determined him to remove his home there. Subsequent events proved that his action was justified, as the next chapter shows.

Guernsey

Guernsey, where William Kelly resided for the next twenty-seven years 1844-1871, provided a far wider field than Sark in his service for the Lord. Almost at once there began that surprising output of literary work which was remarkably sustained for half e century. It was here that Dr. S.P. Tregelles invited him to collaborate as a biblical textual critic, a great honour for so young a man, and an appreciation of Kelly's ability in this specialized department of sacred study. Here also his first great work appeared, the Revelation of John with an independent translation, to be hailed by Professor Heinrich Ewald of Göttingen as "the best piece of English work of the kind that had ever come under my notice."

Such tributes and recognitions quickly placed William Kelly in the front rank of those rising young writers upon sacred subjects whose work then claimed notice in the so-called religious world of that day. Reviews, articles, pamphlets and more substantial volumes, all bearing the hallmark of scholarship, simplicity and lucidity, appeared in succession from his eloquent pen. He was now recognized as a sound biblical scholar and controversialist of a formidable calibre. He had for some three years contributed articles to the Christian Annotator which attracted much attention. Then the editorship of the Prospect, at the age of twenty-nine, marked a further stage of progress in Kelly's early career. This magazine was one devoted to the exposition of prophetic subjects, and though issued in an uninviting style both as to size and shape, with the added drawback of closely printed type, yet for the two years of his editorship had a good circulation.

His opportunity came, however, when Professor Wallace, about to relinquish responsibility for the Bible Treasury, invited William Kelly to contribute a series of papers, six months later handing the periodical over to him. From the outset it was a success; here he found and held his ecclesiastical public for the next half century. It was a venture of faith for so young a man, but "the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord" (Ps. 37,23), and the Bible Treasury soon firmly established itself in the hearts of its readers. Archdeacon Denison, expressing his opinion a few years subsequently, said, "It is the only religious magazine any longer worth taking." Yet the Editor by no means spared the school of thought represented by the Venerable Archdeacon when he considered truth necessitated his so doing.

In the first number issued under the new editorship Kelly frankly states the aim of the new venture in these words,

The name of the periodical is not one which I should have chosen, as it wears a pretentious air - least to an unfriendly eye. But the project was unknown to me till after the first number, or the second, was in the hands of its readers. To the third I contributed the first of a series. Prom the eighth number the editorial care was mine; not long after the entire responsibility devolved on me. Though never liking the title as a question of taste and feeling I saw in it no sufficiently serious objection to risk the confusion which must have ensued from a change of name. If the work be a poor Treasury, as I cannot but feel, the Bible, at any rate, is in God's grace a rich unfailing source of supply.

Accordingly, whilst the prophetic word has not been neglected throughout the past eleven years, I may say, of its course, the reader can bear witness that there has been the continual desire to draw from every province of Scripture, avoiding no truth which God has revealed for our instruction. The person and the work of Christ, the expectations of Israel from of old, the prospects of the world, the hope of the Christian and of the Church, the dispensations and the Kingdom of God, have all been treated, most of these subjects frequently and by various pens, and this with a distinct view to the practical profit of souls. Exposition of Scripture (Old Testament and New, portions and whole books), has had, and I trust ever will have a large place. So, too, questions of the day for good or ill have been discussed, with occasional reviews or notices of such books as handle them. Neither exhortations to Christians nor appeal to the unconverted will be looked for in vain in these pages.

Critical difficulties, faults or textual readings in Greek and Hebrew, emendations of translations, and corrections of prevalent interpretation, may not interest so extensive a class, but they have ever had a prominent place here; because the aim has been ever to consider such Christians especially as desire to make progress in the things of God. How, mistake in text or version or exegesis arrests the mind in proportion to the value given to God's word. Hence to such as prize that word above all things, the exceeding preciousness of every fresh insight into its true bearing, and the importance of removing every hindrance.

As for the writers, no matter of interest to the believer, or of bearing on Christ's glory, will they exclude or evade; though it is assuredly desired to avoid the discussion of every unprofitable question, and to rid all things discussed as much as possible of a controversial aim. Papers of real value from any Christian will of course be admissible, save where known evil practice, or indifference to Christ, ruins the credit of the profession of His Name. "May the gracious Lord deign to use the work increasingly to the edification of souls and to His glory. 'For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.'"

This Guernsey period in Kelly's life, although thus full of outside activities was one in which the interests of the local assemblies of believers with which Kelly was so closely connected were never neglected. Always modestly disclaiming being an elder, bishop or overseer of the flock, yet his supreme delight was found in ministering to the sheep of God's pasture; and many gratefully acknowledged it was right good spiritual food which he supplied. It was also often remarked with surprise that so erudite a man could be so simple in his public ministrations, whether purely evangelistic, expository or of a more advanced character.

Intellectual cleverness, glibness of speech as worthless as they are common, William Kelly abhorred, his public ministry and private conversation being alike marked by the word of wisdom and sanctified common sense. He was alive to the danger of the then very critical period in the so-called religious world. It was the post-Tractarian era which followed hard upon Newman's defection and Manning's desertion from the Established Church.

Dr. Pusey, John Keble and some others of the early movement remained, but Maurice and Kingsley and their disciples now in the ascendant were busily introducing their Liberal Social Gospel with the openly expressed approbation of Dean Stanley; the Evangelicals appeared to have lost their savouring salt and much of their influence; and at the same time the "Brethren" were in the throes of their first great division. Earlier on they had caused dismay in ecclesiastical circles both Established and Dissenting by their rapidly spreading influence, so many of clergy and ministers having joined their ranks. Now considerable confusion prevailed on all sides, and a clear voice was needed to re-affirm the fundamental witness to God's inspiration of the Scriptures, and the true other-worldliness of real Christianity. On the one hand Dr. Pusey quickly sensing the alarming situation bore a very bold witness to both these matters, somewhat weakened, however, by his decided Patristic and Mediaeval leanings. Of these Mr. Kelly himself may be cited as being one of these scholarly voices then raised respecting these matters in the early fifties of the 19th century. (See Introduction to W. Kelly "Lectures Introductory to the Minor Prophets).

It was during this Guernsey period that William Kelly also began those occasional excursions to London for lecturing and preaching which in the sixties brought him into personal contact with hundreds who, already familiar with his writings, were anxious to see and hear him.

The first of these visits appears to have been made in the late spring of 1866, between May 31st and June 20th when he delivered a course of eleven lectures which drew remarkable attendances, and made a deep impression on the hearers. These were taken down in shorthand, a real demand for publication having arisen during the delivery of this series. These he corrected with additions and retrenchments, shaping them in a more written style. Issued in book form at the end of the year as "Lectures Introductory to the study of the Gospels", they found a remarkable sale. Two years later when local conditions again favoured another London visit, this time in May 1868, the reception given to a companion series of twelve lectures delivered on the Epistles of Paul was a further tribute paid to the expository gift of the lecturer. One who attended several of these lectures expressed recollections of the crowded gatherings night by night, and of real help received from the word so ably ministered then.

On this occasion publication was unavoidably delayed until the next year when they appeared as Lectures Introductory to the study of Paul's Epistles. In quick succession there followed a series of Introductory Lectures on the study of the Pentateuch; Historical Books of the Old, Testament; Minor Prophets, the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit; the Second Coming and Kingdom; the Church of God; and a bulky volume of Occasional Lectures on Ritualism, Rationalism, Creation and nine other subjects of general interest.

In the providence of God it appears that in one of his lecturing tours William Kelly met the accomplished lady, Miss Elizabeth Emily Gipps, who years later was to become his second wife. Her father, the Reverend Henry Gipps, rector of St. Peter's, Hereford, had married a Miss Plumptre, sister of the first Lord Menthuen and cousin to J.C. Ryle, later Bishop of Liverpool. A learned and venerable friend whose hobby and recreation appears to have been that of genealogical research, (especially among the pedigrees of the early Brethren), kindly supplied this detailed information. He also traces J.N. Darby's pedigree on the male line to Commonwealth days of 1674, and on the distaff side through the O'Mores and old Earls of Ormond back to the times of King Edward I. - The family of the Gipps, like that of the Montgomerys, became closely connected with the spiritual movement of which Kelly was one of the (if not the) most able exponents. The brother of Elizabeth, a Mr. Pemberton Gipps became a firm adherent of the London Park Street Fellowship in 1881, a fateful year in the memory of so many Brethren, when the cryptic remark of the late Principal, Dr. W. H. Griffith Thomas of Toronto University, received a further sad illustration. Said that worthy divine on more than one occasion, "The Brethren are a remarkable people for rightly dividing the Word of Truth and wrongly dividing themselves."

One further incident of the Guernsey period, and perhaps of more than general interest, may be mentioned before closing this chapter of William Kelly's life in the Channel Islands. It was the meeting between two men who some fifty years later were to be regarded as leaders in opposite camps of the Brethren, namely Kelly and Lowe. In the eighties and nineties some sectarian minded brethren might have been heard speaking of the "Kelly" and "Lowe" parties. This incidentally was not the spirit of either of these revered leaders. It, however, gives a spice of interest to the story of their first meeting.

William Joseph Lowe, than a brilliant and accomplished youth, Junior to William Kelly "by some eighteen years, had obtained an important position in Madras when only twenty-one years of age. Before sailing to take up this post, a holiday of some three weeks was spent by him in Guernsey where he met and heard Kelly. So mutually impressed were they that the acquaintance speedily ripened to friendship owing to common interest in divine things. Ever after, Lowe referred to this meeting as having been one of the great formative influences of his life. Indeed on several occasions he remarked that in some respects it was the turning point of his career which, in truth, was a remarkable one in many ways. W.J. Lowe, a civil engineer by profession, possessed great linguistic ability, speaking nine or ten languages with ease; and his worldly prospects in India appeared very favourable indeed. The climate, however, soon took toll of health and energy, and in a few years he felt compelled to resign. Upon his return to England one of his first visits was to Guernsey to see the man to whom spiritually he considered he owed so much. Then began a life of almost apostolic labours as he visited Belgium, France, Germany and other parts of the Continent in the service of Christ, eventually extending his visits to Canada and the United States. He also rendered invaluable assistance to J.N. Darby in the French translation of the New Testament which the latter very frankly and gratefully acknowledged. W.J. Lowe himself, as already remarked, never tired of acknowledging the debt to what was an apparently casual meeting with William Kelly when on holiday on Guernsey. There are no little things, however, in the life of a child of God. Upon a very small hinge a big door may swing and turn. In the retrospect how often it is seen that apparently trifling events have moulded our lives and work. "For all the ways of a man are before Him." Darby, Kelly, Lowe and the thousands influenced by their lives and teachings realised that things which have neither sanction in the word of God nor will bear the searching light of its testimony had invaded Christendom and gained acceptance by devout souls. St. Cyprian, in the early days of the Church, gave the warning that even antiquity is not authority, but may only be "vetustas erroris" -the old age of error.

Blackheath

The moving pillar of God's guidance and providence in William Kelly's life now pointed the road to the last and longest stage of his pilgrimage - Blackheath, where he resided for the next thirty-five years. This was perhaps the most important one of all, as here circumstances arose which forced him conscientiously to take a stand ecclesiastically separating him from many of his oldest and most valued friends.

Blackheath, five miles south of London, was then and for some years included in the county of Kent. It has played an important part in the history of London from Roman days, coins of Claudius and Gallienus having been found bearing the names of these Emperors. In 1710 a great many urns were dug up here, and among them two of an unusual form, the one globular, the other cylindrical; both of fire red clay, containing a great quantity of ashes. In one of them were the words "Marcus Aurelius IIII" rudely scratched. The Danes also had an encampment on Blackheath. Its history has bristled with battles, triumphant processions and splendid pageantry? Indeed every inch of it teems with history. Here kings, queens and cardinals from the year 1400 paraded "in all the pomp and pageantry of secular and ecclesiastical state" to Christian readers, however, Whitefield's mount still standing as a reminder of that great Evangelist preaching to thousands on Blackheath from a slight elevation, is of great interest. Morden College, founded by Sir John Morden in 1695, is on one side of Kidbrook Grove where the Kelly family made their home, and on the other is Greenwich Park, so pleasantly situated on the banks of the Thames that Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, called it Placentra, or the manor of Pleasaunce, in the reign of Henry VI, to be later used in 1675 for building the Royal Observatory, the old tower having fallen into decay.

In Blackheath Village, teeming with historical associations, the Brethren had a meeting place: called Bennett Park Hall with which, to the end of his life, William Kelly was to be closely connected. The Rink Hall near by, now displaced by a modern Post Office, also served on occasions when a conference overflowed the usual place of assembly.

William Kelly's coming to reside among the local gathering, he being a teacher of widely recognised influence and ability now in his early fifties, was welcomed by his brethren. Here, too, his gifts were to find ample scope, and before long the so-called religious press discovered his presence. It happened that if anyone wished to study prophecy (then a burning question in religious circles irrespective of denomination) from what was termed "futurist" standpoint, he commonly resorted to Bennett Park Hall in search of information, William Kelly being considered one of its ablest exponents.

A London journalist thus described a visit there veiling his identity beneath the nom-de-plume of "Spectator".

The Brethren are like Zoophytes who at certain times cut themselves off from the parent stem, and start life on their own account. The Brethren do this with themselves, only they never own their relatives after. This process of development has been again recently gone through; I am not sure whether "the meeting" I attended at Blackheath is, or is not, part of the original stem. Mr. Kelly is the "leading brother" as the chief minister, or ministering brother as a "gathering" (that is a meeting) is called. Bennett Park Hall, "the Room", is lofty and very comfortable} the Table is covered with the usual white cloth, a large decanter of wine, and some four or six large tumblers for the distribution of it; this gives the Table a singular appearance. I slip in, and before me is a board with a polite request written on it, not to trespass into the sacred enclosure of those "breaking bread". I wait; more arrivals until about one hundred and fifty or more people of the well-to-do class are present. Hymn books are provided for visitors. They are entitled "Spiritual Songs" "for the little Flock". Does the little flock mean the Brethren?

Mr. Kelly now arises and states that "our brother so-and-so from such a place is breaking bread with us today." This is, I judge, a signal that the meeting has commenced, for immediately after, a hymn is given out, and is sung standing. I notice there appears an unwritten rule that when hymns are addressed to the Divine Being they stand. If only truth about God or Christ they sit. The singing, though not unmusical, was of the slowest description until it became positively painful. Do they wish outsiders to consider they are going through a painful process?

Mr. Kelly then prayed; and it was on the whole a very remarkable prayer, and had some notable striking sentences. He said, "O God, we thank Thee it is Thy will to bring us together. We should never have thought of it, should never have known the joy of communion, and the deeper joy of Christ in the midst; separate us from the evil, from the evil which looks fair. O God, may our hearts be led by the Holy Ghost. Heaven is occupied in praising. Thou hast called us to praise Him. He became Man, to take up that great question, entirely insolvable to any but Himself, the question of our sins. O God, never didst Thou have an object which entirely filled Thy heart but Christ. We thank Thee for that One Who drew out Thine affections, Who brought out Thy counsels of glory. May there be holy liberty for Thy Spirit to exalt the Head, Jesus Christ." "Hymn again followed by some gentleman praying. He used very much the same style of language as Mr. Kelly. Another hymn sung standing; and Mr. Kelly then broke the bread, and prayed again. Addressing himself now to the Saviour he said, "O blessed Saviour, this is Thy particular command that we should break bread in remembrance of Thee. Lay it in our hearts, that we may as a continual offering give Thee the fruit of our lips. No tongue of men or angels could adequately set forth what Thy death means. What a sweet savour to God, what glory everlasting that death shall bring. Every other death is the wages of sin. Thou art the life everlasting, yet didst Thou die, Thou Who art the resurrection and the life.

The bread and the wine having passed round, a hymn was given out by one whose appearance and manner indicated that he was of the lower class. The good brother pitched it to the tune of Hold the Fort. It did not fit, so he had to pull it out the right size. This the good brother did, singing a solo at the same time. It is peculiar to hear this tune sung at the rate of a mile an hour.

At last it was finished and Mr. Kelly got on his feet, a rustle of expectation going through the room. The brief address being over, the box went round for the collection. Another hymn and short prayer, and the meeting broke up without the benediction.

Mr. Kelly is an able man as a teacher and theologian; moreover, he is a scholar and evidently a thinker. He was formerly a clergyman. His manner is not pleasant as a speaker, and he has a weak voice, dropping it at the end of every sentence.

Objectionable as the practice is, in a general way, of reporting prayers, since they are presumably intended for the Divine ear, and not as the American press once flatteringly remarked of a preacher that "his prayer was the most eloquent ever offered to a Boston congregation," yet, now that Mr. Kelly's voice is silent, few will regret that the reporter at Blackheath meeting included the above two devotional utterances which instinctively recall the speaker to those who knew him.

Shortly after settling at Blackheath Mr. Kelly commenced a weekly lecture in the Bennett Park Hall which soon became a regular feature of his ministry, and continued it for the rest of his life; suspended temporarily only on occasions of short absences from home. Every one interested knew that on Wednesday evenings he would be found at his post* and visitors to London, not only brethren, but clergy and others, were to be seen in the congregation fairly frequently. Indeed in the eighties and nineties, both at his Sunday evening Gospel services and Wednesday lectures, a rather cosmopolitan company would often be assembled to hear him. One well remembers having to vacate one's seat with many other local hearers in order to accommodate visitors from the Colonies and States who made a visit to the Blackheath Room (as the Hall was called by Brethren) a part of their tours. Also, as most of the thirty odd London gatherings of the Brethren held their week evening services on Mondays and Fridays, a goodly remnant could always be relied on to come to "the lecture" as it became widely known. And Kelly was a lecturer par excellence. One London divine who condescendingly came to hear this "Plymouth Brother", has put on record that on arrival at the Room he was astonished to find a congregation armed to the teeth with Bibles, listening to a masterly exposition of the origin of languages delivered without a single note, and lasting for an hour. It might have lessened the good clergyman's surprise had he been aware that others of his order, including Archbishop MacLagan, Bishop Ellicott, Archdeacon Denison and others also frequently consulted the lecturer upon matters of Scripture translation and exposition.

Quite another side of Kelly's ministry found illustration when a young Government official remarked to the writer that often, when standing alone under the starlit sky in the lonely Soudan, he had meditated upon a sermon of Mr. Kelly's at Blackheath heard by him on the Sunday evening previous to going out to take up his appointment. Though not then living at Blackheath, he had on the Sunday previous to his departure for Egypt gone over as he said, "to hear the old gentleman once more, perhaps for the last time;" and singularly enough, in his address Mr. Kelly, quite unaware of the visitor's presence or circumstances, dwelt very much upon the restless ambition of men for wealth or fame driving them to the ends of the earth, in seeking their own advancement in this world, while often neglectful of the all-important concerns of the soul. This made so profound an impression on this young fellow that when returning some three years later, on his first Sunday after landing in England, he went to Blackheath to hear again the one whose words had as deeply impressed him on the former occasion.

Another phase of Kelly's ministry the following will serve to illustrate. He was to preach at St. German's Hall, Lewisham, one week evening. This Hall was situated in a working class district quite unlike Bennett Park Hall. Here William Kelly delivered an interesting, instructive and most earnest address based upon the Scripture reading before the sermon from Luke 23, 33. With studied simplicity of style in words both simple and arresting, he told the old, old story of the love of God in Christ for mankind. The divisions of the subject were clearly defined:

1. Who the holy Sufferer at Calvary really was.

2. Why He so suffered.

3. His ability and readiness to save any.

4. The necessity of accepting so great a Saviour.

5. The peril of delay and certain doom of unbelieving despisers of God's mercy.

6. Finally, he earnestly appealed to all present definitely to accept the Saviour, and closing the Bible added with great earnestness, "Remember, one robber was saved, so none need despair; but," after a dramatic pause, "only one, so none may presume."

By way of contrast (was it on the following Sunday evening?) at his own place at Bennett Park Hall to a different congregation, one of mainly leisured and professional people, he commenced a series of three simple gospel addresses on 1 Peter 1, 2, the consecutive subjects beings

1. Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father (on the first occasion);

2. Through sanctification of the Spirit (upon the second evening);

3. Unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (for the final address).

One wonders whether any preacher since Archbishop Leighton's famous lectures on Peter's Epistles had ever used one such verse for three full Sunday evening discourses. They were masterly, reasoned expositions, shot through with evangelistical application and followed by the congregation apparently with intentness of interest. The scene even at this distance of time stands out clearly before the eye of one then present. Precisely as a chiming clock in a neighbouring church tower struck the hour, William Kelly stepped up to the desk, announced a hymn, followed this by a short earnest prayer; a further hymn and the reading of a short passage of Scripture from 1 Peter 1. Then we settled back as the short compact figure, as was his wont, his spectacles up on his brow announced the text with just the suspicion of a lisp in his voice, "Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father."

Asserting that the Calvinist was right in what he affirmed as to this, and wrong in what he denied by false deduction, he also declared the Arminian to be in the same plight, only reversed. He then proceeded to stress the importance of recognizing the pure grace which saved any, and the great importance of not receiving the grace of God in vain. The church clock chimed the quarter before the hour; the preacher carefully, but unhurriedly, summed up, announced a short hymn, and dismissed us on the stroke of the hour. He was ever a punctual man. Punctuality breeds punctuality, and Bennett Park Hall in William Kelly's days could afford an object lesson in this respect.

Another reminiscence of those days kindly contributed by an old friend may be appropriately inserted here. He writes: "You probably knew Dr. Joseph Kidd, famous as he was for his skill and generosity, and as being the personal physician of Lord Beaconsfield. I used to hear during my life in London of that Monday evening in April, 1881, when the prayer meeting was interrupted by a postman arriving with a summons to Dr. Kidd to wait on the dying Premier. We all have heard or many have done of Dr. Kidd's guinea fees, and how he put the guineas into a box. If a poor patient turned up out came the guineas to assist the needy brother." Personal recollections of the good doctor are chiefly of his stately entrance with Mrs. Kidd and the younger branch of the family on Sunday mornings. His snowy head, patriarchal beard, benign countenance and dignified bearing is not easily forgotten after the lapse of so many years. His reading of Psalm 65, "Praise waiteth for Thee O God in Zion," followed by a prayer in quiet reverent tones commencing with "Holy Father," made a deep impression.

Mr, Spurgeon, in these Blackheath days, referred to William Kelly in very suggestive terms in "Commentary and Commentaries" (of the College Series). First, as "a leading writer of the exclusive Plymouth School." Secondly, as "an eminent Divine of the Brethren School who sometimes expounds ably, but with a twist towards the peculiar dogmas of his party." In the third instance, he remarks, "We are sorry to see such a mind as Mr, Kelly's so narrowed by party bounds." Fourthly, "It is a pity that a man of such excellence should allow a very superior mind to be so warped." Finally, adapting Pope's well-known words, he says, "Kelly is a man who, born for the universe, has narrowed his mind by Darbyism."

It is, of course, true that William Kelly was an intimate friend and fellow-worker with Darby; indeed this oneness of mind and spirit led to him being asked both to revise and edit all the elder man's writings. The "Synopsis of the Bible", and from thirty to forty volumes of Darby's works: English, French, German, Dutch and Italian, all passed under his careful review as Editor. Yet throughout their close association Kelly was in no wise a blind follower of Darby; the bond of "truth in love" was what cemented the union in which each, while agreeing in the main, preserved independence of thought and action. This somewhat discounts Spurgeon's appraisal of Kelly and his work.

All critics were not so superficial, however; for a distinguished French scholar, who also wrote of Kelly and his works, says, "Kelly -savant, realisateur, tete logique, résumateur, philosophe;" and another critical writer spoke of him as "possessed a rare logical skill, fine precision, powers of original research, high moral power and spiritual culture." An Oxford man, and one not inclined perhaps to rate very highly the product of another University, frankly described Kelly as the distinguished alumnus of his (Dublin) University." His reputation apparently may therefore be considered as being established.

The final course of the Wednesday lectures was begun in his eighty-fifth year. At the concision of the first of these he announced, "I trust, if the Lord will, to continue these "Lectures on John's Epistles" without intermission." Happily he was enabled to complete the series which were, however, published posthumously. These were characterised by all his accustomed vigour of intellect and incisive speech, and possessed the added charm of a graciousness of spirit which greatly impressed some who were privileged to hear them delivered. It almost seemed as though a touch of completeness was being put to the long ministry of one who had figured so prominently in the many conflicts and controversies in the ecclesiastical arena in earlier days. They contrasted somewhat with the polemical style of much of his earlier work. Some who were devoted to him felt that a kind of sunset glory was resting upon this last phase of a faithful ministry. Many of them felt as the year 1905 ran out that these were the last addresses he would be giving. One very godly man who for sixty years had admired William Kelly, remarked at the close of one of these series, "Ah! If the old gentleman had always spoken like this, perhaps things would have turned out very differently with some." But William Kelly's own thoughts expressed in his words at this time clearly indicate just how his mind was working.

"Oh, my brethren" he exclaimed,

Be it ours to fill 'the little while' separate from the world, and above fleshly ease in the devoted service of Christ. Nothing so good and happy now, and nothing so appreciated on high and through all eternity; unless it be communion with Himself and the worship which accompanies it."

It was in 1869, when the scientific air was electric with speculations of Lyell, Darwin, Huxley, Asa Grey and others, that a lecture by William Kelly attracted great attention. The extraordinary grasp of ancient mythology, modern speculation and oriental languages possessed by the lecturer astonished some present who had hitherto regarded him as a mere henchman of J.N. Darby, and only a hidebound Plymouthist. His tacit rebuke of some who tremblingly sought to prevent the sacred ark of Holy Scripture from being shaken by its critics found expression in such a sentence as, "It is not part of wisdom for a Christian to deny facts. Why reject the phenomena which indicates states not only of the earth, but of living creatures there before Adam was made, i.e., before the six days? Otherwise how can we escape the supposition, that God was pleased to make vast quantities of fossilized objects, giving the appearance of having lived on earth, which never did? Are you prepared to accept the notion that God studiously gave a semblance of that which was not true? There are remains of animals, and animals too that were made with distinct objects, and with characteristics altogether different from those of animals to be found now, and supposing a correspondent state of things (as for instance, when the world was a vast marsh and enormous heat prevailed). There is no ground whatever to doubt these facts. I do not see that a Christian shows his wisdom, or his faith either by denying anything of the sort. (Creation p. 17, 18).

Sir Edmund Gosse in "Father and Son" relates how his father Philip Gosse had published an essay on Genesis 1, in defense of current orthodox teaching on Creation. His experiment in the field of geology called forth from the press, "God hid the fossils in the rocks in order to tempt geologists into infidelity," made Huxley scornful, and led Charles Kingsley, a close friend of Gosse, to write that he "could not give up the painful and slow conclusion of five and twenty years of study of geology, and believe that God has written on the rocks one enormous and superfluous lie."

The second Mrs. Kelly, to whom reference has been made in a previous chapter, one son and three daughters comprised the Kelly family at Blackheath. The son, named William after his father, was a young man of great promise who passed away in early life. Of the three daughters, one married a cousin, Mr. Edward Ramsden in 1875, another, Miss Emmie Kelly, married into the well known Colquhoun family, the other daughter later becoming Mrs. Armitage. William Kelly never failed to acknowledge the invaluable help rendered by his equally gifted wife, who was also an accomplished linguist. In the preface to an anonymously issued volume, "The Psalms - a new version with short notes", he pays this tribute to her memory:

"No apology is offered for the close rendering of the Hebrew, often no doubt uncouth to western ears. The aim of a version for public use is wholly different. But the more literal reflection is also full of interest and instruction to those who would weigh the form as well as the substance of the inspired word, whether Old or New; and this is what has been essayed here, however, inadequately. This I say for myself in particular, for time failed me with many calls on it to do more than supply what one ever dear to me began, but was compelled by sickness to give up just beyond the first fifty psalms. These first sheets lay for many years in the printer's hands, which it was a little labour of love to complete, with brief notes also on the distinctive aim of each of the hundred and fifty as I understand it. The critical eye may discern slight differences of rendering as to the words translated nations, peoples and Gentiles. For I felt bound not to alter a letter of hers on the one hand, on the other to be faithful in my part to give, what I believe, the precise sense. Also this memorial is given anonymously as all to whom it is of interest will understand that one or other name would not be quite true; and to put both savours to me too much of sentiment, which I dislike publishing, especially in divine things."

The loss of his second wife on February 4th, 1884, led him to remove across Blackheath to its extreme border at Lee, where for the remainder of his life he resided at Venner Lodge, Belmont Park. By this tine he had gradually acquired a very considerable library which grew until it reached some fifteen thousand volumes. The first view of it and the stocky figure with a short ladder against the book-lined shelves is not quickly erased from one's mind. But a further reference to this library and its disposal occurs later on these pages.

Churchman and Gospeller

"Act on your convictions, and the most honeyed courtesy turns sour; your desire to please God at all costs will be branded as Pharisaical pride and exclusiveness."

It was the Evangelical prophet who truly said, "He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey" (Isa. 59,15).

An American minister says, "William Kelly edified thousands by his clear Scriptural expositions." Yet it was to clergy and ministers of religion generally that his church position seemed to some very perplexing and to others so irritating. To himself it was a clearly defined one. He knew exactly where he stood in matters of faith and church order. True, he frequently experienced what the above quotation from Isaiah meant practically. At some real cost to him of worldly position and honours he consistently pursued his chosen course to life's end. On the vexed subject of infant baptism, or household baptism, his decided conviction forced by a study of Scripture was that there was neither warrant nor direction to be found for it; but although necessarily therefore a believer in the baptism of believers he way not a Baptist. He viewed with alarm the growing ecclesiasticism on every hand in the ranks of professedly Christian people.

On, the subject of Church fellowship his cherished and practiced principles, strangely so often misunderstood or misrepresented by some of a more legal turn of mind, found expression in the following, "We receive every Christian as such, without reference to their connection with Nationalism or Dissent; we rejoice to have communion with them, whether privately or publicly; They may join us in worship and the Supper of the Lord. They are as free as any of us to help in thanksgiving, prayer or a word of edification, if so led of God; and this without stipulation either to leave their old associations or to meet only with us. Where is this done save only with "Brethren"? With us on the contrary, if any godly Churchman or Dissenter thought fit to come when we remember the Lord together, he would be quite in order if he did any or all of these things spiritually; and this, not from any permission on our part, but as a matter of responsibility to God and His Word."

A letter of his on the subject is appended,

Blackheath, August 31, 1875.

My dear Brother,

Individuals among Brethren may urge their private views on evangelists or others; but all such narrowness is censured by every wise man in our midst; and, what is more important, it is dead against that return to keeping Christ's Word and not denying His Name which characterizes the work. The question has often arisen as to fellowship as well as service; and as often those who are entitled to speak have resisted the tendency to a restrictive school. If some have thought to require intelligence in those received, my own answer has been that it is in vain and unscriptural; that they themselves when received were the very reverse of intelligent; that if intelligence is to be anywhere, it should be in those who receive; and that those who require it in the received fail in the intelligence they demand from others; else they would not expect it where it could not be... Hence Scripture knows nothing of keeping outside a godly-walking member of Christ.

As little does it countenance the church's interference with the Lord's work, and especially in the gospel. To set the servant in the simplest dependence of the Lord, to foster his immediate responsibility to the Lord, without the intervention of the church is what every brother holds as a sacred duty and principle...This maintains the evangelist intact in his liberty and responsibility to his Master.

Ever yours,

W.K.

To another who prided himself on holding aloof from Assembly fellowship on account of real or imagined difficulties he wrote:

My dear Sir,

As far as I understand your position, it is one of "holding yourself aloof," or nothing-arianism to Church relations. Without doubt a dry morsel and quietness therewith is better than a house full of the sacrifices of strife; as it is better to dwell in the corner of a house-top than with a contentious woman in a house of society.

But I read unmistakably in the last epistle of the great apostle who alone communicated the truth of the Church, that grace gives a wholly different resource in view of the disorder and dangers of the last days. Circumstances may indeed here or there leave one isolated; but isolation is neither the revealed provision nor the legitimate aim. "The firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knew those that are His, and, Let every one that nameth the Lord's name depart from unrighteousness." This is individual and of deep moment as things are. But all does not end here. "Now in a great house etc." And this you own and have acted on. We are not tied to ecclesiastical corruptions where they are sanctioned constitutionally and admit of no removal. One must purge oneself out, if one cannot purge the evils out. But is this all? While the apostle bids his beloved child flee the lusts of youth, wide as they are and some of them subtle, he adds, "And pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." (2 Tim. 2, 19-22), Thus one may and ought to look for companions and fellow-witnesses called to like fidelity. Never should one contemplate isolation. The Holy Spirit bids one by grace to desire and expect communion of saints, however great and general may be the ruin of Christendom. Rev. 2,3 may be pleaded for individualism. How the call here to him that hath an ear is imperative in not allowing assemblies absolutely to govern faith and practice. I am bound, whatever the pretension of authority in defense of wrong or error, to hear not them but what the Spirit saith to them. Their voice is prima facie entitled (like that of my parents) to high respect and obedience," but certainly not if the wrong or the error is known and acknowledged; else that holy, responsibly holy, enclosure becomes a screen for evil, and may end in a hold of any unclean and hated bird. As a prophetic book the Apocalypse does warn and call for obedience to the word; but that word was to leave no faithful soul settled down in isolation. On the contrary, it encourages him, who separates from the evils men impose under the abused name of the Lord, to cherish a fellowship as much according to God as the separation. For Christ died to gather in one the children of God that were scattered abroad; and the Holy Ghost came to baptise them Jew or Gentile into one body. Never should God's will as to this inalienable privilege and duty become secondary. It is of all obligation, and the Holy Spirit abides to give both permanence and power, as we too are called to be subject to the Lord. Hence the blessedness of His own promise to be in, the midst (not certainly of all Christians in their wanderings) but of all that are gathered unto His name, were they but two or three. Let these be diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; and may they do it with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.

Yours faithfully in Christ,

W.K.

In August 1884 he paid a visit to America end made a point of attending a Conference of some thousand Brethren at Plainfield, New Jersey. Here he occupied the position of an observer, deeply interested but personally detached, although several of the leaders were anxious to consult him and to secure his acquiescence in their differing views as to reunion among themselves. In several interesting letters to Mr. Henry Glanvill of Blackheath he expressed himself very frankly, that in his opinion although good from the point of view of numbers, nothing of any real moment transpired at this Conference. He steadily refused to compromise, or to be drawn aside from what he was convinced was the Scriptural path of Church, faith and order. One of the Brethren enquired how it was that in places like America so few appeared to agree with Kelly. Another shrewdly sensed the situation and remarked, "It is because he did not travel around the country giving speeches in his own cause like a politician." As a matter of fact he rarely travelled outside the United Kingdom.

William Kelly was strongly opposed to ecclesiastical pretension, and nowhere so much as among those who professed to be "outside the camp." He possessed to a degree the judicial gift of weighing and sifted evidence, and gave short shrift to those partisan leaders who sought to enlist his aid in schemes of reunion by making compromises. It was this which led to the American visit mentioned above.

His habit, too, of minutely examining doctrinal novelties by whomsoever sponsored, and of drastically pillorying detected errors, did not make him exactly popular with their exponents. He, however, earned the lifelong gratitude of the "unlearned and ignorant" who, while in some degree sensing the evil, were not competent to discern exactly where, why, in what it consisted, and how to deal with it. Kelly's exposures in such cases commended themselves to the poor of the flock by the clarity, simplicity and devotion to Christ which marked them. Two instances may perhaps be permitted here. For example, when in the eighteen nineties a re-hash of Apollinarianism appeared under the guise of "fresh light" among one section of Brethren, Kelly quickly tore the mask off its ancient face, revealing it to be as heterodox as to the Person of Christ as when it was presented by the young bishop of Laodicea in Syria in the fourth century and condemned by the Oecumenical Council at Constantinople in A.D. 381.

In dealing with a quasi-doctrinal deliverance by another able teacher among the Brethren which for a time attracted more notice then than since as to propitiation being made after death in the disembodied state by our Lord, Kelly labelled it as a "ghostly theory of atonement." As a contradiction of the Lord's sixth word uttered with a loud voice, "It is finished", Kelly considered it in any case a slight upon the work of the Cross, detecting positive heresy in the statement and defence alike by the inventor. When in February 1900 it was formally considered by Brethren, and a paper signed by them refusing any compromise with this teaching, Kelly added as a postscript, "None but faithless or unwise men could wish such a matter to be an open question."

It is interesting to recall that when after Kelly's decease an American leader launched a line of teaching subversive to the doctrine of the Eternal Sonship of our Lord, a magazine editor unearthed a hymn of Kelly's written years previously which showed what his attitude towards this would have been had it promulgated in his lifetime.

"Unending praise be Thine,

Eternal Son, we say;

Who came to bring the true God nigh

And put all sin away.

Ah! Thee the world knew not,

Created erst by Thee;

Its kings and rulers cast Thee out

And nailed Thee to a tree.

Had'st Thou not then a sphere

By every right Thine own?

'Twas there Thine own from heathen craved

For Thee the cross alone.

Rejected, glorious Lord,

The Saviour only Thou

To God for men far off or near,

Alike the heart to bow.

For since Thy blood is shed,

Our sins to faith are gone;

And reconciled, we shall be saved,

Thou livest for Thine own."

It is only fair to note that Kelly's deep convictions and principles firmly held did not, however, lead him to neglect the Apostolic injunction of some "making a difference." It is the man who is sure of his ground who can go further than others in meeting difficulties and disarming the prejudices of others. This led him to be very patient with those who had genuine difficulties, as he was impatient with pretentious assumption of those gentry so felicitously described by the translators of King James' Authorised version as "self-conceited Brethren, who run their own ways, and give liking unto nothing, but what is framed by themselves, and hammered on their anvil."

A loving tribute to the memory of Mr. Kelly sent to the Editor of "Words of Help" by an old gypsy brother, may fittingly find a place in this chapter. Said he, "I read in "Words of Help" your writings on (of) W. Kelly with much joy, calling back to me my first meeting with that loved and departed brother, whose writings to me brought such joy and do now. I had not been many years a child of God, born again, and redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, when I met him. I had been only a poor gypsy, and not many of the tribe I belonged to could read or write; and his treatment of me was love; he met me as though I was one like himself, in such a humble and loving way.

I had asked who he was at a meeting, and when told it was W. Kelly I wondered why he had not even opened his mouth, for I loved his writings that I had read."

Surely this incident speaks for itself of the spiritual greatness of the one, and does honour to the other, and exhibits one of the characteristics which go to reveal the character of William Kelly.

Some Letters

William Kelly was good correspondent, prompt in his replies to letters received. He had, however, a penchant for postcards which occasionally, from his forthright habit of plain speaking, tended to embarrass the recipient. His habit of abbreviation made it possible to get a fairly long letter written upon a postcard, of which the following interesting specimen may serve as an illustration. It was sent to the Rev. F. W. Foster M.A., a clerical friend with whom he occasionally corresponded and was written microscopically with many abbreviations.

V.L., Bt. Pk., Lee, S.E.

1 Sept. 1905

My dear Foster,

Though I cannot deny plenty to do, I must write a few words to explain that the new Serial in which Dr. Driver takes a leading part is "The Interpreter", of which I have seen but No. 1. It was enough for me. But that he does not exercise great restraint, and steers clear of German scoffing and irreverence; but he seems to me only occupied with the husk and knows nothing of the inner fruit. The external caution makes him, with his Hebrew learning in the letter, the more dangerous in my eyes. Yet I mean to get and weigh his recent book on Genesis, puffed up by the "Times" which endorses that skeptical school.

Only I want to bring out Leviticus as a whole; which as it will make some 700 pages, raises the question of two moderate volumes. If allowed, I hope to bring out Genesis in three fair-sized volumes, D.V., so I fear my sword must wear out the old scabbard. Did I tell you that Col. (or rather Mr.) S., as he prefers to be styled, having abjured the army, is the literary executor of the late Mr. G., and asked me to review his own defence of the strange doctrines candidly. This, as you know, is my wont; and I only pray that it may blow up what hardly deserves the powder and shot. It is a scheme worthy of a maniac at issue with Scripture on every side. I have striven to speak kindly and repress indignation, and hope eyes may be opened. You nay not know that an early volume of mine (on the Ephesians) caught the eye of Father Thomas (an Oxford early Tractarian) who went over long before J. H. Newman, and (later) joined the Brompton Oratory. Astonished to find the "Church" there, as far from Rome as from Canterbury, he was given the volume which made the round of the cells. But I told the donor that these gentry needed "Romans" rather, and sent him one by post. I know no more, but do not forget that Roman Catholics have conscience to feel and souls to be saved.

With Dr. Wace I have never corresponded, but sent him occasionally a brochure.

You asked me (not in your last, I think, as to Councils of Orange). There were two as far as record goes; one presided by Hilary of Aries in A.D. 441, with thirty decrees on discipline; the other in A.D. 539 under Cassarius of Arles with 25 decrees on dogma, chiefly extracts from Aug. and Gen. and against Pelagianism. There was nothing of moment in either.

We had an excellent season at Southampton from Great Britain and Channel Islands from Saturday evening, 5th August, till Tuesday night; early prayer, forenoon, afternoon and evening. As I took a large part (save in the early morning being miles away) you may judge I am able to play the working man still. I am sure that they would have furnished you with much thought and lasting enjoyment.

Believe me, ever yours in the faith and hope,

W.K,

P.S. You may like my notice of Whitefield in Sept. B.T. Did you know R. F. Horton, N. C. Oxford? W. K.

From the same to the same.

Belmont Park, Lee, S.E.

3 Jan. '05

My dear Foster,

Though I fancy I wrote last, I do not scruple to write again, trusting that the New Year finds you fairly well, and awaiting the blessed hope. Port Arthur is fallen, and the Baltic fleet delays, the third is clamoured for by the young bloods of Russia, but we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, need grace to serve acceptably. I think, as you rather complained of apostolic rudeness of speech and, if I mistake not, in that Exposition of 2 Peter though finding substance in it, that I asked, your kind help in pointing out such defects. For though I rather despise rhetoric in divine things, and have not time even to cultivate it, I am happy to profit by a friend whose métier it is more than mine, The addresses on the Epistles (half) are in the printer's hand; and I may have a fourth more by the time he has done that half, and the remaining fourth as soon as he can set it up and get it through the press.

There is a mistranslation in 1 John 3,23, where "on" is contrary to the usage of ... with the dative. Yet to say "believe the name" seems strange, as if it were a person. What say you?

Believe me with best wishes

Ever faithfully yours,

W.K.

After the home-call of Mr. Kelly this correspondent sent the following to the writer, which is inserted as it throws a sidelight on their usual way of corresponding; it is of value also as showing the high regard in which he was held by one quite outside his communion.

From the Rev. P. W. Foster M.A., to W.G.T.

Sheffield.

St. Gregory's Day, '07?

Dear Mr. Turner,

Will you care to look at the accompanying brief (i.e., brief for that learned writer) postcard of the late Mr. W. Kelly. You see, I had been urging Mr. Kelly as editor of the "Bible Treasury" (monthly) to aim at all possible lucidity of exposition and beauty of style in his very able articles in that excellent periodical so far as his time allowed him to do so; what he says in his postcard is in substance a reply to my bold entreaty.

Nothing is ever written well in a hurry; no, not even if written by a pen like the late learned, earnest and eloquent W. Kelly's. I told him all I could remember, find out, or imagine about pisteuo with (1) the accusative, of things, and with (2) dative, of persons...

You cannot lay too great stress on one striking characteristic trait of our lamented friend, viz. his marked humility, conspicuous even in his smartest arguments and controversial writings...

The enclosed postcard is by no means a choice exemplar or very favourable specimen of Mr. W. K.'s skill as a letter card artist.

Yours sincerely and faithfully,

F.W. Foster.

P.S. - W.K. very rarely (I dare say) diverged into politics or contemporary topics, as he does at the beginning of this feuilleton.- F. W. F.

The next letter (also on a postcard), written on the evening of his wife's death is one of more than general interest, the vocation of a preacher and advice as to general habits of study.

22 Kid. Gr. B'heath

Tuesday evening. Feb. 4/84.

Dear Bro.,

When I say that it pleased the Lord this morning to deprive me of a devoted sister, wife, mother of several children, you will not expect more than a few words from me.

One who believes the Lord has called him and given him a gift to preach and teach, need not be hasty or anxious. Power makes itself felt; and it is well to begin in a small (proving one's gift and so be gradually led into a larger) way. But if sober brethren, who have heard, invite one to preach in their Room, one ought to have good reasons for declining. Love would lead to help; especially if gift were lacking among those older, or not of the kind to win souls. As to studying the Word, it is well when reading papers of interest to search generally. But this should not hinder the regular reading of O. and N.T. daily. Both ways are profitable, and should be combined. And it is not amiss how to read Gr. and Hebr. words, to learn even if one knows no more of the language; for this helps to better understanding of remarks, made by those who do know them. I do not think well of a slight knowledge of Gr. and, Hebr., and most men, even if they spend many years, could only acquire a slight knowledge. If one just learns enough to appreciate good remarks it is far better than spending time for what is generally pretension. The A.V. compared with the Revision and other helps, give better results than most are capable of acquiring. And remember, "prayer and the word," Acts. 6.

Yours aff.

W.K.

Apropos of this last letter, here may be a suitable place to mention what an encourager William Kelly was to young brothers who wholeheartedly engaged in the service of the Lord. The following incident is typical of many other instances of this fatherly interest. At a gathering of Brethren engaged in the Lord's work held in London, the question under discussion was one of gospel preaching. After several, including himself, had spoken freely, Mr, Kelly, looking across the room at a young brother who had been useful and was acceptable as preacher, remarked, "Let us hear what our young brother opposite has to say on the matter." Immediately several brothers who happened to be on the other side of the room, none of whom could be styled young, save by courtesy, looked up. Upon one of them beginning to express his substantial agreement with what had been said, Mr. Kelly interrupted with, "Yes, yes. But it was our brother, the young evangelist behind you to whom I referred." The opinion of the young fellow in question was probably of little value, but the memory of the kindly recognition by the great man of the gift of Christ in him was naturally a very treasured one. The Christian courtesy then, as on many similar occasions, shown by Mr. Kelly may well serve as an object lesson to some who, in their anxiety to curb the display of "flesh" in the meetings, forget that even an inspired apostle could write to a young man, "Let no man despise thy youth" as also to the gifted Corinthian assembly, "If Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear: for he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do. Let no man therefore despise him; but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me: for I look for him with the brethren."

Another incident may bear putting on record of rather a lighter character, A young Sunday School secretary faced by the annual difficulty of raising funds for the summer treat wrote asking him for a donation. Promptly arrived a postcard covered with apparently microscopic hieroglyphics, which upon deciphering appeared to be an invitation to call upon him at his house. A most courteous reception was given by Mr. Kelly who, however, proceeded to put his visitor through a fairly stiff cross-examination as to the whys and wherefores of Sunday School treats. He then intimated that the whole matter was rather outside his general line of things, and said that the arguments advanced had not at all convinced him of the necessity for Sunday School excursions. With a twinkle in his eye and a smile as he noticed the disappointment of the young visitor, he said, "Ah well, if I do not feel at liberty to assist you in your undertaking, I see no reason why I should not recommend you to some persons I know who very probably will." He then gave a short list of names which later produced very gratifying results. It smacked somewhat Hibernian, and was characteristic.

When on another occasion a young unknown scribe with an urge to write, but lacking almost everything else as a writer, approached him diffidently for advice, Mr. Kelly laid the youth under a lifelong obligation by his readiness to assist him. Without the faintest trace of that awful patronage which in others often mars even kindly intended help, William Kelly courteously, from the treasures of his well stored mind, gave sound advice and wise hints as to writing for publication. Then on closing the interview, he added, "Come again if I can be of further service. It is a real joy to be of assistance to those who are His. But pains and labour; pains and labour; nothing worth doing in this way is accomplished without pains and labour."

The Workman

William Kelly always stoutly disclaimed being an ecclesiastic in the sense of bishop, elder or overseer (whichever title of the same office is preferred). But, as a gifted teacher, he, from the earliest days of his ministry, was of necessity profoundly interested in ecclesiastical affairs. His close study of Church history familiarised him with the controversies of the first four centuries, so beloved of Anglican high churchmen, while interest in the disputations of the Schoolmen was evidenced by the contents of his well stocked, carefully selected and intense library of 15.000 volumes. Some description of these occur in the next chapter dealing with their transfer at his death to a Public Library in Yorkshire on the advice of Archbishop MacLagan of York.

His Editorship of the "Prospect", but even more of the "Bible Treasury", the latter for a very lengthened period, introduced him to many doughty champions in the ecclesiastical arena who, often not sharing his convictions, always greatly respected his scholarship. In many cases his advice on critical points of translation was sought by them. Being absolutely free of any denominational control, yet realizing and fully accepting his personal responsibility to the Head of the Church as His servant, William Kelly fearlessly pursued his course. His gifts as teacher and expositor, his qualifications as scholar and exegete, like his University degrees, were not honorary or assumed but actual and self-evident. His critical reviews of the Bampton Lectures caused much discussion as these appeared annually, and never failed to evoke both critical and complimentary notices in erudite quarters. The learned and friendly correspondence with the New Testament Revision Committee in later days when he freely criticised their findings also, betoken the regard with which contemporary scholars and men of letters regarded his scholarship and judgment.

It was his custom when issuing a new volume whether of Lectures, articles in more permanent form from the Bible Treasury, or books, on some important subjects to write a preface revealing the author in the character rather of a critic of his own work. Often these proved to be further thoughts on the subject treated, and were illuminating to the reader.

In the Guernsey period, possibly the most prolific of all in a literary sense, a volume appeared in the spring of 1868 on the five books of Moses; these had been delivered as lectures on a visit to London during the previous year. A more pretentious volume on the Twelve Minor Prophets followed to which a lengthy preface appeared and in which he explains what he recognises as a defect in a literary point of view. Indeed as one of his closest ecclesiastical friends and associates remarked upon reading the volume, "If you wish to know what W.K. thought, say on the subjects of the Church or the gospel, turn up his 'Twelve Minor Prophets', where neither occurs exegetically." The fact was that, while in the main steering a straight course, he was led to make so many long digressions in answer to questions that the book became cyclopedic of his religious convictions generally.

During a short holiday in Italy in 1897 William Kelly who had been stirred both by Dean Farrar's "Larger Hope" and his contribution to the "Expositor's Bible", felt moved to re-issue some lectures on the "Book of Daniel" with pungent criticisms on the Higher Criticism. He was Fundamentalist in the true sense of that oft maligned expression. Hence there is no hedging or doubtful disputation in the following prefaces:

"The lectures on the Book of Daniel were taken in shorthand and printed first some forty years ago, with a very slight correction in a later edition. It would be easy to fill up details and to improve their literary form. But as they are, they have helped not a few souls, and not at least since Great Britain and the United States have been beguiled into their growing pursuit of that guilty and withering craze which calls itself the "Higher Criticism". What is it in the main but a revival of older British Deism, aided by devices of foreign unbelief, and decorated with modern German erudition or its home imitation? Yet all fail to conceal hostility to God's inspiration, and ceaseless effort to minimize real miracle and true prophecy, where, as in this country, men dare not yet deny them altogether. The notorious Oxford Essays, which roused strong feeling in a former generation, are quite left behind. Dissenters vie with Nationalists (Episcopalian or Presbyterian), Methodists with Congregationalists, and of late Ritualists with avowed Rationalists, in showing themselves up to date in free thinking; as if the revealed truth of God were a matter of scientific progress. What joy to all open infidels, who cannot but hail it as the triumph of their contempt for His word! It is not now profane men only, as in the eighteenth century, but religious professors, ecclesiastical dignitaries in the varied bodies or so-called "churches" of Christendom, and particularly those who hold theological and linguistic chairs in the Universities and Colleges all over the world, who became increasingly tainted with this deadly infection. Alas! it is the sure forerunner of that "apostasy" which the great apostle, from almost the beginning of his written testimony, said must "first come" before the day of the Lord can be present.

Take, as a recent instance (and it is only one out of many in the conspiracy against Scripture), the then Dean of Canterbury's (F. W. Farrar D.D.) contribution on the "Book of Daniel" to the Expositor's Bible. Self-deception may hide much from its victims; but no believer should hesitate to say, "An enemy hath done this." While claiming for the book an "undisputed and undisputable" place in the Canon, think of the infatuation of denying openly and unqualifiedly its genuineness and its authenticity! "It has never made the least difference in my reverent (!) acceptance of it that I have for many years been convinced that it cannot be regarded as literal history or ancient prediction." Yet such persons assume to be actuated simply by the love of truth; for this they confound with the counter-love of doubting. Alas! they are under "the spirit of error" (1 John 4,6); or, as Jude so warns, "These speak evil of the things which they know not: but what as the irrational animals they know, in these things they corrupt themselves." May the Christian keep Christ's word, and not deny His name!"

W.K.

In 1903 Kelly's vigilant care for the truth of God led him to write his "God's Inspiration of the Scriptures". The ecclesiastical world just then was full of theological nostrums preparing the way for Mr. Campbell's startling deliverances at the City Temple a couple of years later of his "New Theology". A kind of Pantheism, which when exaggerated easily implies the ignoring of moral distinctions, was widely hailed by some and mourned by others. Principal Forsyth described it as "under developed and over exposed"; and Robertson Nicoll in a series of trenchant articles in the "British Weekly" passionately denounced Pantheism and all its implications.

The Preface to "God's Inspiration of the Scriptures" reads:

"There is no question agitated in Christendom of greater moment than the true character and claim of the scriptures. Nor has their divine authority been more widely denied all over the world than in our own day; and this, not merely by avowed sceptics, but by professing Christians of practically every denomination, and by many of their most distinguished representatives. But when the adversary comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord does not fail to lift up a standard against him.

In this volume my heart's desire is to furnish a help for souls that seek the light of God which inspiration furnishes to those who tremble at His word. I have presented the positive proofs that God speaks in it to every conscience and heart, more particularly of Israel in the Old Testament, and of the Christian in the New though all scripture is his food. Men may refuse to hear, or hear to despise; but this they do at their peril for God is not mocked. Such unbelief has a deeper brand of evil, after men have professed the Lord's name, that when the written word was first committed to human responsibility. It is the spirit of apostasy diffused by the great enemy of God and man, before the apostasy is established as a public fact, which is at hand. In the face of a preparation so dark and ominous, which scripture announces as certain (2 Thess. 2, 3), there are children of God all over the earth, who acknowledge with grateful thanksgiving His faithfulness in turning the attacks of Satan and his dupes to their confirmation in the faith, and the more profound enjoyment both of scripture and of Christ therein revealed by the Holy Spirit.

May the reader by grace be helped to share a privilege which bespeaks itself divine, the best antidote to that unbelief which enfeebles if it does not quite destroy the divine energy of every revealed truth. To human tradition I give no real weight, less if possible to the speculations of men on grounds which they deem probable. As the traditional school is one form of rationalism, so is neo-criticism another, the one adding to God's word, the other taking from it, to His dishonour. Legitimate criticism is the servant of faith in seeking to eliminate errors of transcription; but it receives without question every word that was originally written. What, is called "scientific inquiry" rises up in its empty pride against the divine authority of Christ, who has ruled what it dares to deny."

It is interesting to note that the published works of this able workman occupy four pages in the British Museum Catalogue.

Middlesborough

A born student, an accomplished scholar and an omnivorous reader, it is not surprising that in his long life William Kelly accumulated an immense library of valuable works. The great Codices (some in facsimile), all the great Polyglots, the works of the Fathers and the great Schoolmen, many rare and valuable volumes in every department of Science, Philosophy and History were comprised in his collection. His library was specially rich in the Classics, Ecclesiastical History and Theology, which had ever been his favourite study.

As the year 1905 wore on, Mr. Kelly became increasingly aware that the sands were running out, and that in any case his course would soon be ended. He had in early life embraced the truth of the blessed hope, and firmly held it to the end, ever living and working in constant expectation of its realisation by the return of our Lord to receive His people and take them to His Father's house. He did not, as some, presume to fix dates, nor as others to preach the coming as though it were the only truth of importance revealed in Scripture. Neither did he overlook the plain inference from the story of the talents (Matt. 25, 19). On being asked his thought as to death and the coming of the Lord during his last few days and as to whether he "would desire to depart and be with Christ", or to be amongst those who are alive and remain at the coming of the Lord, he replied,

"I have no choice, neither would I choose if I might."

"But surely you would like to be alive and meet the Lord on His return?"

"I have no wish at all in the matter, my dear," he replied.

"It will be as He wills, best either way." Here he confidently and peacefully left the whole matter.

In this spiritually sane and balanced spirit he considered the question of the disposal of his great library of almost priceless value. Where could it best be placed? An old friend, Dr. MacLagan, the then Archbishop of York, whose judgment he valued was consulted. After some consideration the Archbishop suggested that Middlesborough in Yorkshire would for many reasons be a most suitable place for its permanent housing. The town, too, was prepared (after the Archbishop's recommendation) to build a special wing to the Public Library to accommodate the gift! Mr. Kelly readily agreed on the sole condition that the anonymity of the giver should be strictly preserved. This, needless to remark, was in keeping with his general character. His wish for anonymity was respected, but upon his decease the Library authorities were compelled to make a statement with reference to this, which they did in the following terms:

The Free Library,

Middlesborough April 1906

Anonymity no longer!

We have been repeatedly asked why we have avoided all notice in our pages on the recent death of our "anonymous benefactor". More particularly as the bond of silence laid upon us has been removed by the publication of his name; we therefore take this opportunity of assuring our readers that it was not because of forgetfulness, or the lack of a sense of duty, but of the express wish of the family. "Mr. Kelly was a man who preferred to do good by stealth, or rather he held himself a steward only, of possessions either physical or mental, and only last summer (1905) he reiterated to us his hope that his name might not become public property as the donor of the valuable library which has come to us. We guarded the secret well, and it was with surprise and regret that whilst paying the last tribute of respect and gratitude to one to whom we owe so much, that we learned that "The Times" in an obituary notice, had stated his connection with the donation to Middlesborough. Then it was that his daughter signified her wish that we should remain silent, but the paragraph in "The Times" was copied and expanded, and eventually our local press published the information to our townsmen. It is greatly to be regretted that the donors wish has been disregarded by others, for it was the only obligation he laid upon us. His donation was a free one, without any of the onerous conditions which so frequently accompany such gifts, and perhaps the spirit in which the presentation was made can be best appreciated by the following fragment of conversation:

Standing in his library where the books were being packed for their transit to Middlesborough, we asked: "It must be painful to you, Sir, to thus part with your old friends, is it not?" "Well, no," was the reply. "I cannot hope to require them long, and I do wish to see them settled where they may be of service to others."

It was not our good fortune to know Mr. Kelly intimately, but as we did know him he was ever the cultured gentleman, a profound scholar without a shade of pedantry, whose knowledge was freely bestowed when sought, and whose friendship must have been a privilege.

Closing Days

"There is," said an old writer, "one chapter in the biography of distinguished persons - in the biography of a great genius, an eminent saint or seer - which has for us generally special interest, into which we are often most curious to dip - the chapter entitled "Closing Days", curious to learn how he bore himself, or what fell from his lips during those days in the shadow of the approaching end, to see something of the thoughts that then expressed his mind, or to hear something of his latest words. What of his behaviour, his expression, we ask, in his latest hours? The favourite pursuit - was its influence upon him then exemplified? The ruling passion - was it strong with him in death?"

The spring of 1905 brought to William Kelly some experience of what the sacred writer alluded to as "the grasshopper becoming a burden." He was in his eighty-fifth year at the close of a very active life, and by several indications seemed to feel that journey's end for him was not far distant. His doctor ordered rest and change of scene. So at the invitation of Dr. and Mrs. Heyman Wreford of Exeter to take a prolonged rest at their home, he gladly accepted it, and so speedily recovered a good measure of health and began to long to return to work. The two months spent in Exeter seemed to fill him with renewed energy so that immediately upon his return to Blackheath he resumed the weekly lecture at Bennet Park Hall with a new series on the Epistles of John. These were delivered with such power and unction that many regular hearers regarded them as being probably the most valuable ever given by him at Blackheath.

In the autumn at a Conference held in Southampton Mr. Kelly again took his full part to the profit and spiritual enjoyment of many from all parts of the country. Incidentally in a private letter to a friend he expressed his own joy at the fellowship shown throughout the long weekend spent together there. He made a point at being present at all the meetings day after day except the early morning at 7 a.m. from which he was debarred by reason of distance and lack of transport. The freshness, too, of his ministry then was remarked upon by some who had heard him for many years.

In addition to oral ministry, William Kelly, during that last year, maintained the "Bible Treasury" at its usual high level, as also his other literary work, the "Epistles of Peter" being the only volume he was obliged to leave uncompleted. His correspondence with clerical friends and other scholarly men showed the same keen interest in translation work, critical reviews and exegesis as in earlier days. Indeed, some learned correspondence on an unusual Greek formation in John's first Epistle as to its exact meaning, may well remind the reader of the epitaph on the tomb of John Richard Green, the historian, at Mentone, "He died learning".

The Southampton Conference over, and the last series of his Blackheath Lectures on John's Epistles completed, Dr. Wreford again kindly insisted upon a further stay with them. But it was not until the New Year that Mr. Kelly arranged to go down to Exeter, although he was badly needing rest from the round of activities which he still enjoyed. It was therefore on January 11th 1906 that he left Black-heath never to return. The complete change of air and scene with three or four weeks of loving care and attention again seemed somewhat to restore his wonderful constitution that in the last week of the next month, February 25th, he felt able to address a vast company in the then great Victoria Hall, Exeter. It was a special lecture on the subject dearest to his heart, the "Doctrine of Christ", and was regarded by many as a magnificent effort, coming as a crown to a long life of ardent devotion and loyalty to the Person of the Incarnate Son of God.

It was his last public testimony, and the end of sixty years of faithful ministry and service to Christ and His people. A month later he was called to his rest, Tuesday, March 27th being his last day when toward eventide he quietly fell asleep, and being "absent from the body was present with the Lord."

One who knew him well, himself a Christian scholar, on hearing of his death, wrote, "His supreme delight was in ministering in spiritual things to those whom he described as the few despised ones of Christ's flock." Some words of the late Bp. Francis Paget in "Hallowing of Work" recur to one's mind as the self-effacing life of William Kelly is reviewed. He says, "In this strange and tangled business of human life, there is no energy that so steadily does its work as the mysterious, unconscious, silent, unobtrusive, imperturbable influence which comes from a man who has done with all self seeking."

Fifty years after his passing, William Kelly's books are still being sought alike by scholars and simple believers all over the English-speaking world. This is significant. One of his very latest remarks expressed his life-long conviction and spring of action, "The hatred of the world is a real thing; the Cross is a real thing; and the love of God is a real thing."

His body was brought back to Blackheath, and on Saturday, March 1906 reverently laid to rest by loving hands in Charlton cemetery, Few who were present on that bright spring afternoon will forget the impressive scene as devout men carried William Kelly to his burial. The hundreds of mourners, the solemn strains of the hymn, "For ever with the Lord", the hush as the plain casket was lowered into the earth, broken by the voice of Dr. Wreford reading two portions of Scripture (Acts 20, 25-38} 1 Thess. 4,13-18) in tones charged with deep emotion. Then a heartfelt tribute to the departed brother, friend and leader, whose face here we should see no more, with great emphasis based on two thoughts suggested by the Scripture read, namely, "Sorrowing because they should see his face no more, " and the hope of the Lord's coming which prevents our sorrowing as those that have no hope. Dr. Wreford then gave thanks to God for the long life and ministry; and a hymn frequently used by the departed brother followed:

"Saviour before Thy face we fall,

Our Lord, our life, our hope, our all,

For we have nowhere else to flee,

No sanctuary, Lord, but Thee."