Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/70

334 a place of worship; and here, completely removed beyond the control of church courts, Mr. Irving gave himself up to his prophets and prophetesses, whose exhibitions became wilder, and revelations more abundant than ever. A new creed a new church, and new office-bearers and rites were soon established; itinerant preachers were sent forth to proclaim the advent of a better world at hand, while miracles, effected upon the weak-minded and hypochondriacal, were announced as incontestable proofs of the divine authority of the new svstem. At length 50,000 worshippers, and numerous chapels erected through- out England, proclaimed that a distinct sect had been fully established, let its permanency be what it might. And now Mr. Irving had attained that monstrier digito which, with all his heroic and disinterested labours, he never appears to have lost sight of since his arrival in London. But as the honoured and worshipped mystagogue, with a church of his own creation, was he happy, or even at peace with himself? His immeasurably long sermons, his frequent preachings and writings, his incredible toils both of mind and body, were possibly aggravated and imbittered by the apostasy of some of the most gifted of his flock, and the moral inconsistencies of others; while the difficulties of managing a cause, and ruling a people subject to so many inspirations, and exhorted in so many unknown tongues, would have baffled Sir Harry Vane, or even Cromwell himself. His raven locks were already frosted, and his iron frame attenuated by premature old age; and in the autumn of 1834, he was compelled to return to his native country, for the recovery of his health; but it was too late. His disease was consumption, against which he struggled to the last, with the hope of returning to his flock ; but on arriving at Glasgow, his power of journeying was ended by the rapid increase of his malady; and he was received under the hospitable roof of Mr. Taylor, a stranger, where, in much pain and suffering, he lay down to die. In his last hours he was visited by his aged mother, and his sister, Mrs. Dickson, to the first of whom he said, "Mother, I hope you are happy." Much of the time during which he was sensible was employed by him in fervent prayer. A short time before he expired, the Rev. Mr. Martin, his father-in law, who stood at his bed-side, overheard him faintly uttering what appeared a portion of the 23d psalm in the original; and on repeating to him the first verse in Hebrew, Mr. Irving immediately followed with the two succeeding verses in the same tongue. Soon after he expired. This event occurred on the 6th of December, 1834, when he was only forty- two years old. His death occasioned a deep and universal sensation in Glasgow, where his ministry as a preacher had commenced, and where he was still be- loved by many. He left a widow and three young children, one of them an infant only six months old, at his decease.

IVORY, JAMES, LL.D. This excellent mathematician was born at Dundee, in 1765. After he had attended the public schools of his native town, until the usual course of an English education was finished, his father, who was a watchmaker in Dundee, being anxious that his son should be a minister, sent him to the university of St. Andrews, to prosecute those studies which the church has appointed. He entered the college at the age of fourteen, and continued there six years; but of the various departments of study comprised within this course, mathematics attracted his chief attention ; and in this he made such proficiency as to attract the notice of his fellow-students, as well as of the Rev. John West, one of the professors, who encouraged and aided him in his scientific pursuits. After these college terms had been finished, Ivory spent two