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  BIOGRAPHY
  by A.P. Moore Anderson
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A biography documenting the life and work of a figure in Christian ministry,
tracing their spiritual development, labors in the gospel, and contributions to
the church.

  Chapters: 12

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. 01. Dublin - the beginning and the Call.
    2. 02. Gospel, commando operations in Ireland.
    3. 03. London - the Home Office and Secret Service.
    4. 04. Scotland Yard.
    5. 05. Criminals and Crime, a pioneer.
    6. 06. Friendships.
    7. 07. Home Life.
    8. 08. Preacher and Witness.
    9. 09. Author, Teacher and Defender of the Faith.
   10. 10. Counsellor and Helper of Many.
   11. 11. Mr. Valiant-for-Truth.
   12. 12. Carrying on to the End.

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  CHAPTER 1: 01. DUBLIN - THE BEGINNING AND THE CALL.
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CHAPTER I. DUBLIN. THE BEGINNING AND THE CALL Erin, the tear and the smile in
thine eye Blend like the rainbow that hangs in the sky. - - Irish Song.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. - Psalms
23:6.

I change, He changes not, The Christ can never die; His love not mine the
resting place, His truth not mine the tie. HORATIUS BONAR.

"AN anglicised Irishman of Scottish extraction". My father’s description of
himself. Born in Dublin of Ulster stock, his youth was spent in the part of
Ireland now known as Eire. Called to the Irish Bar he was early side-tracked
into Secret Service work in connection with the Fenian movement of those times.
When this led to his crossing the Channel to England it was, as he afterwards
expressed it, with a return ticket in his pocket. But from that day his native
land knew him only as a visitor. First in the Home Office, then at Scotland
Yard, and finally in retirement, he remained a Londoner for the rest of his
life. Duty made him a relentless tracker of criminals. But the dynamiters would
have been more than a little surprised had they known that the man behind the
scenes who hunted them down was author of many books on the Bible and the
Christian life. No less amazed would have been many a professional burglar could
he have come upon the C. I. D. Chief giving a Gospel address in some London
mission hail. His life of seventy- seven years was a many-sided one, in some
respects unique.

Robert Anderson was born in 1841 at his parents’ home in Mountjoy Square,
Dublin, whither his father, Matthew Anderson, had come from Londonderry as a
young man. The appointment of Crown Solicitor for the city was given to my
grandfather by the government of Lord Beaconsfield. An elder of the Irish
Presbyterian Church, he served first in the old Mary’s Abbey congregation, of
which my father was a member in his youth, and afterwards at Kingstown, now
called Dun Laoghaire. When living in Dublin one of his duties was that of
Seneschal of the Manor of Mary’s Abbey, where he used to hold a Manor Court; an
appointment which he owed to Lady Harriet Cowper, for whom he acted in legal
matters. Her first husband had been the famous Count D’Orsay, who made several
gifts to my grandfather, including a bronze equestrian statuette of the Iron
Duke, now in my possession, modelled by himself in 1848.

D’Orsay was born in Paris in 1801. Known as the last of the "Dandies," unusually
handsome and well-dressed, he was looked upon as "the mirror of of fashion and
the mould of form." An accomplished painter and sculptor, he was an intimate
friend and supporter of Louis Napoleon. By a coincidence the St. Mary’s Abbey
estate had belonged to my mother’s family for about a hundred years from the
time of King James the Second. Drogheda House, their Dublin residence until
1822, was on the property. A family friend, Professor Pierce Simpson, gave his
impression of Matthew Anderson in these words: "I used to regard him as the Lord
Chancellor and Primate of Ireland rolled into one, and to hear him say prayers
was enough to make a saint out of a sinner." My grandmother, before her marriage
Mary Lee, also came from Derry, where an ancestor, Samuel Lee, won fame as a
leader of the freemen of the city, the ‘Prentice Boys, in the siege of 1689.

"Five generations have since passed away," wrote Macaulay, "and still the wall
of Londonderry is to the Protestants of Ulster what the trophy of Marathon was
to the Athenians." And H. V. Morton says: "I suppose that no other city except
perhaps Limerick has such a single-minded memory of its history. You cannot live
even for a few hours in this city without hearing the story of the Closing of
the Gates of Derry. They tell it all over again with just pride; how the
thirteen ’prentice boys shut the gates in the face of a Catholic army sent to
win the town for James II; how Derry declared for William of Orange; how the
town endured the worst horrors of starvation and disease for one hundred and
five days.. It was one of the most gallant defences in the history of siege
warfare." And now in 1945 one reads of our own King George VI and Queen
Elizabeth being taken on a tour of the walls. No doubt they heard once again the
great story of" No Surrender," and of how at last the relief ships bringing food
broke the boom across the Foyle.

" It is never possible," writes Morton, "to feel that Derry is an ordinary city.
Look where you will and you see the wall and a peeping cannon. The memory of
1688—89 is as vivid as though the smoke of Roaring Meg was still blowing from
the walls."

Assuredly, as I listened to my grandmother’s tale and gazed at the portrait of
the Rev. George Walker, the heroic acting Governor, my childish impression was
that she had been through the siege herself. Another coincidence is that an
ancestor of my maternal grandmother, William Gardner of Coleraine, was killed
when in command of a company of the defenders; another of my mother’s forbears,
Henry, third Earl of Drogheda, commanded a regiment of Foot in the Battle of the
Boyne shortly afterwards. My father was educated privately in Dublin and later
in Paris and Boulogne. On leaving school he began a business career in one of
the Dublin breweries, its owner being a rich and sonless friend of his father’s.
But after eighteen months he turned from this and at the age of eighteen entered
Trinity College, familiarly known as T. C. D. In 1862 he graduated B. A. with
Moderatorship and Medal, being awarded the LL. D. in 1875. The earliest diary I
have found is for the year 1861, the brief entries in which often include items
such as: "Read for five hours; cricket." He was keen on Rugby football too,
playing half-back, I think. The College Historical Society at T. C. D.
corresponds to the Union Societies at Oxford and Cambridge, the membership being
reciprocal. My father became Auditor (President), and it was one of the chief
interests of his ‘Varsity life. A number of his contemporaries became prominent
in after years, some of them famous. A close friend, David Plunket (Lord
Rathmore), wrote a few months before my fathers’ death, "Your references to the
past helped me, like Clarence Mangan’s poor old battered Barmecide, to ’call up
many a gorgeous show which the pall of oblivion hides’ of the gay days when you
and Tom Snagge and Ashbourne and FitzGibbon and Freeman Wills and Lecky, and
many another more or less famous Argonaut, sailed out with me from the old T. C.
D. harbour on life’s journey. You and I now alone remain. And you carry on still
with all your remaining canvas set. More power to your elbow and to your brave
heart!" [Those mentioned in this letter all became well-known personages: Sir
Thomas W. Snagge, D. L, LL. D, Judge of County Courts; Edward Gibson 1st Lord
Ashbourne, Lord Chancellor of Ireland; Rt. Hon. Gerald FitzGibbon, P. C, Lord
Justice of Appeal; Rev. Freeman Wills, M. A, author and dramatist; Rt. Hon. W.
E. H. Lecky, O. M, LL. D, D. C. L, historian and philosopher. ], And my father
himself said: "I cherish pleasant memories of those years. Religion and politics
are the bane of Ireland, but the politicians and priests had not yet poisoned
the life of the country. In Trinity, Orangemen and Romanists, ’ferocious
Radicals’ and high Tories, mixed together and discussed their differences with
the courtesy and kindness of Irish gentlemen." In the light of this, it is
interesting to find his diary for 1898 recording a "T. C. D. Dinner" in London
at which there were present Mr. John Redmond, the Irish Nationalist leader, and
Sir Edward Carson, the Ulster Unionist. Mr. W. E. H. Lecky was in the chair, and
others in the company were Lord Rathmore, Sir Robert Ball (the astronomer), Sir
Thomas Snagge and Canon Teignmouth Shore. The 1900 diary also mentions the
dinner, when those present included Lords Morris, Iveagh and Londonderry, Sir
Dennis Fitzpatrick and Dr. J. B. Crozier, Bishop of Ossory and Ferns. But to
return to the early years, the 1861 diary records a short time spent in London
as a law student at the Temple. An entry for 5th February reads: "Went to the
House of Commons and met Williams; got into the Lords’ to hear the Queen. Dinner
with W, then down to the House where heard Disraeli, Russell and Bright." In his
reminiscences he related how he came to hear the Queen’s Speech that day, the
last occasion on which Queen Victoria read her Speech herself for after the
Prince Consort’s death in that year she never again did so. The future Assistant
Commissioner used to make friends with the police on duty in the House and
through them obtain members’ orders admitting to the Gallery. A police officer,
a fellow Irishman, put him up to the adventure of getting into the House of
Lords along with the "faithful Commons." However, "if we catch you," said he,
"it’s not in the House of Lords ye’ll find yourself; but we’ll not catch you if
ye do what I tell you." Admitted to the Lobby my father found himself in the
middle of a group of M. P.’s waiting there. When the Speaker’s procession,
followed by some of the leading members of the Lower House, had passed, the
waiting group closed in with a rush. "Had I been as anxious to keep out as I was
to get in," the story proceeds, "nothing could have stopped me. I was almost
carried off my feet, and it was not until I found myself inside the Lords’ that
I was able to raise my hand to take off my hat." The next day the diary records:
"Went to House of Commons by boat. Heard FitzGerald and Russell." And later in
that year: "Drove down to Moville tandem to see the Fleet. Went on board
Revenge, where the Admiral was receiving the Corporation: good feed." Does this
diary entry forty-two years later (1903) show that there was some reward for his
having been a law student in London, for he never practised at the English Bar?
"The King’s Dinner in Middle Temple. A great function; Sir. R. Finlay, Choate,
Duke of Devonshire, Lord Rosebery, Lord Lansdowne. The King present."

Mention has been made of my grandfather being Seneschal of the Manor of Mary’s
Abbey. A Manor Court exercised a civil jurisdiction such as County Courts used
to have. The judge was nominated by the lord of the manor. The idea of holding a
mock court occurred to my father, his elder brother, and some of their college
friends, a typically Irish performance resulting. The court-keeper was notified
of a special session to be held on the chosen evening; and all was found ready,
not excepting the presence of a police-constable at the door. One of the actors,
who attained fame at the Bar and in Parliament, later a peer, took his place on
the bench in borrowed wig and gown; a divinity student, afterwards an
archdeacon, was put upon his trial for an assault. The combination of lying and
cunning in the evidence seemed true to life, and the speeches were eloquent if
not altogether relevant. The seats allotted to the public were fairly well
filled, for an evening sitting and a criminal trial were unprecedented. But when
the proceedings resulted in a conviction, and the "judge" announced that before
dealing with the prisoner he really must have a smoke, there was a roar of
laughter, "in which the accused heartily joined." The public, suddenly realising
that they had been fooled, stampeded from the court. It was characteristic of
life in Ireland then, said my father, that they were not taken to task for the
escapade, which was never reported nor noticed in any way. And the Seneschal
first heard of it many years later as he sat by the fireside with his
grandchildren playing around him.

Another incident which could hardly have occurred except in Ireland was related
by my father long afterwards in his plea for more common sense and imagination
in the treatment of youthful criminals. A boy had been brought before a Dublin
magistrate who was a man of great force of character and quite unconventional.
Although the charge was a petty one the police gave a bad account of the lad,
declaring that he had a chance of doing well if he wished, but that he was going
wrong and was likely to become a regular criminal. To the amazement of a friend
who was sitting with him on the Bench the magistrate, in blood-curdling
language, sentenced the youth to be flogged in the adjoining yard. The friend
was then taken to the magistrate’s private room from which they could see the
prisoner, looking half-dead with fright, while two burly constables were
inspecting instruments of flagellation borrowed, presumably, from some police
museum. The yard gate, however, had judiciously been left open - for the
dramatis persona were Irish and understood their parts - and, seeing his chance,
the lad made a dash for it and escaped. "Now," said the magistrate, "we’ve saved
that boy; we’ll never see him here again!" My father’s long life of Christian
witness and service really began with a deep spiritual experience a few months
after his nineteenth birthday. The Story must be given in his own words, written
fifty years later, near the close of that life, "Until I get to Heaven, I shall
never know whether I was not a child of God in infancy. My mother regarded me as
God-given to take the place of a son who died shortly before I was born, and who
was evidently a veritable Timothy (2 Timothy 3:15; R. V.). She loved to talk to
me about him, and his story had a great influence upon me. Even in early years
prayer was no mere form with me, and I delighted in reading the Gospel of John
and some favourite Psalms. But in due course I was taught that no one who has
not been ’converted’ can be a child of God, and I had never experienced any
crisis of that kind.

"As time went by my conviction deepened that 1 had not been ’converted.’ But
owing doubtless to my early experience and to the restraints of a Christian home
I continued to lead ’a religious life.’ And I had occasional fits of penitence
and anxiety. But they were transient; and their after-effect was to make me
increasingly callous, the hardening process being intensified by the influence
of that other doctrine that my eternal desting depended entirely on whether I
was ’elect,’ and therefore nothing I could do would affect the issue.

"Such was my condition in 1860. But in that memorable year of Revival new
spiritual longings were awakened in me by the conversion of one of my sisters
through attending services which J. Denham Smith was holding in Dublin. Owing,
however, to my experience of such periods of anxiety I refused even to
acknowledge a desire to go to a meeting. But on a certain evening when my sister
very specially wished to be present her promised escort failed, and I got credit
for unselfish kindness by offering to accompany her. The meeting only
disappointed and vexed me. The sermon brought no comfort or help and some of the
hymns offended me: for, owing possibly to my being ecclesiastically Scottish,
certain popular hymns do not suit my spiritual digestion.

"The fact of my sister’s conversion still held me, however, and I cherished the
thought that the next Sunday services in the Kirk might bring me blessing. But
the morning service left me more discouraged than ever; and I made up my mind
that if the evening one brought no relief I would give up the quest, and seek to
enjoy life again as best I could.

"The evening preacher was Dr. John Hall, afterwards of New York. His sermon was
of a type to which we are now accustomed, for he boldly proclaimed forgiveness
of sins and eternal life as God’s gift in grace, unreserved and unconditional,
to be received as we sat in the pews. His sermon thrilled me. Yet I deemed his
doctrine unscriptural, so I waylaid him as he left the vestry and on our
homeward walk tackled him about his ’heresies.’

"My first point was that he had no warrant for saying that there was forgiveness
for sinners without first ascertaining whether they had repented. This he met by
quoting Scripture to prove that repentance was not contrition; nor was it a work
preparatory to coming to Christ, but a change produced by believing the Gospel
as the Word of God.. At last he let go my arm, and facing me as we stood upon
the pavement he repeated with great solemnity his message and appeal: ’I tell
you as a minister of Christ and in His name that there is life for you here and
now if you will accept Him. Will you accept Christ or will you reject Him?’
After a pause - how prolonged I know not - I exclaimed, ’In God’s name I will
accept Christ.’ Not another word passed between us, but after another pause he
wrung my hand and left me. And I turned homeward with the peace of God filling
my heart." A letter dated 9th October 1860 gives the date of the great decision.
Writing to one of my father’s sisters, a friend - Henry Neilson - said: "Our
walk home was indeed a happy one, for Bob told me that last Sabbath evening God
the Spirit had opened his eyes to see Jesus as his Savior. Glory be to Him Who
ever is faithful to answer prayer." That other influences had been preparing him
for the crisis is indicated by a letter to his mother some time later.

"I was very sorry not to have been at home when Mr. Parke was there. He was one
of the few clergymen I knew in old times who seemed to care for souls. When he
was with us before I was greatly struck by his speaking about the Lord Jesus
constantly while at table. And I remember well the last words he said to you
before leaving, ’Somehow I am sure that I shall hear of a blessing in your
family.’ We were then all unconverted."

It was not long before my father entered upon his lifelong ministry as a
lay-preacher of the Gospel. He thus describes the occasion "One day soon after
my conversion I received a letter from a friend telling me that he was unable to
keep an engagement to address a Gospel meeting, and asking me to take his place.
The messenger waited for an answer and I promptly replied that I could not take
such a position. But then I fell a-thinking. I had been praying that God would
give me work to do for Him; might not this be the answer? So I hurried after the
messenger to tell of my change of mind. And the next day I preached my first
Gospel sermon."

He was certainly not unacquainted with sermons. Forty-five years afterwards,
writing on " Preaching: Past and Present" in the Nottinghamshire Guardian he
said "The days of great preachers are past. In all the churches the men are but
few who could rivet the attention of a congregation for an hour. Is there a
preacher who could hold an audience for two? Yet a sermon that lasted three full
hours is one of the memories of my childhood. The preacher, I need not say, was
a Scotsman, the great Dr. Duff, the Church of Scotland’s first missionary to
India. Child though I was, I remember how his hearers hung upon his words." The
effect of the revival was deepened by a series of annual conventions in Dublin,
the "Believers’ Meetings." Members of all denominations met simply as
Christians. Amongst the leaders were the Rev. Marcus Rainsford, Rector of
Dundalk and later incumbent of Belgrave Chapel, London, and the Rev. J. Denham
Smith of Kingstown. Many years later Marcus Rainsford wrote to my father: "It
quite warmed my old heart to read your kind letter and your affectionate
remembrance of myself. I have also long since made up my mind that it is full
time we children of the Most High God gave up our ’fads’ and were determined to
know nothing, nothing, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, risen, ascended, and
sitting at God’s right hand, ’and we in him’" When sixty years had gone by, Mr.
J. W. C. Fegan wrote: "With the passing on before of Sir Robert Anderson we have
lost the last surviving link with the notable group of Irish evangelists and
teachers associated with the Revival of 1859 and the abounding spiritual
activities of the ’sixties."

Nearly all the names mentioned by Mr. Fegan appear in my father’s diaries and
letters of that period or in later reminiscences: Henry Bewley, Denham Smith,
George F. Trench, F. C. Bland, C. H. Macintosh, J. Butler Stoney, R. J. Mahony,
T. Shuidham Henry; also Reginald Radcliffe, Richard Weaver and Harry Moorhouse,
visitors from England. Others to whom the diaries for 1860 to 1865 refer as
preaching in Dublin or visiting the family are the Revs. H. Grattan Guinness,
William Haslam and Horatius Bonar. The Rev. Horatius Bonar, D. D, was the
well-known Scottish Divine and hymn writer who wrote "Here 0 my Lord, I see Thee
face to face"; "I heard the voice of Jesus say"; "A few more years shall roll."
He preached both in Mary’s Abbey Church and in Merrion Hall (the meeting-place
of the brethren), and was a welcome guest at the Anderson home, then in
Fitzwilliam Square. In a letter to my father from Kelso, dated 27th November
1864; Dr. Bonar wrote, "My DEAR FRIEND, - Thanks for your letter and for those
which accompanied it. They are deeply interesting and I should greatly like to
have further accounts of God’s work in those parts... You use an expression
which I do not fully understand, ’failed in communion.’ I think I see your
meaning, but I do not find the words in Scripture, and I am afraid of using
expressions - or at least of admitting them to constant use - which are not
exactly Scriptural. According to the meaning of the original word, a believer
cannot be out of communion any more than he can be out of salvation, but he may
be out of a sense of communion. However this may be, I still question whether
the phrase be a Scriptural one; if not, its frequent use may imprint a wrong
idea in the soul, even though there may be some truth wrapped up in it. With my
kind remembrances to your father and mother, your brothers and sisters, I am, my
dear friend, yours faithfully, Horatius B 0NAR."

We still have a copy of Dr. Bonar’s book, God’s Way of Holiness, with the
inscription: "Robert Anderson, Esq, with brotherly regards from H. B, Kelso,
Nov. 28, 1864."

One of the leaders mentioned above, Mr. F. C. Bland, who was himself led to
Christ by his friend Richard Mahony and C. H. Macintosh, became a man mighty in
the Scriptures and a teacher of teachers. During Mr. D. L. Moody’s great
evangelistic meetings in the Opera House in London, it is said that scarcely a
day passed without his spending an hour over the Bible with Mr. Bland. A
reference to the Dublin home came long afterwards when Professor Alexander
Macalister of Cambridge University wrote to my mother after my father’s death:
"Let me with sincere sorrow write a note of sympathy... It is to me the breaking
of the last tie with an early period of my life when we were members of the same
Church and associates in our earliest intellectual and religious work. He was
just two years my senior, and I remember looking up to him as an example of what
I should wish to be. I owe the greatest debt of gratitude possible to the
Anderson family, for it was in their home I first met my dear wife, to whose
wisdom and saintly piety I am indebted for far more than I can express."

Professor and Mrs. Macalister and their family proved exceedingly kind and
helpful friends to my brothers and myself in our Cambridge days, and my father
was often a guest in their home.


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  CHAPTER 2: 02. GOSPEL, COMMANDO OPERATIONS IN IRELAND.
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CHAPTER II. GOSPEL COMMANDO OPERATIONS IN IRELAND

Oh, send me forth, my Savior; Oh, send me for Thy glory, Thy glory. Let not
myself; my carnal self; self-seeking self, Come ‘twixt me and Thy glory. Oh,
mortify it, mortify it; put it down, my Savior; Exalt Thyself alone. Lift high
the banner of the Cross, and in its folds Conceal Thy standard-bearer. (A letter
from Robert Anderson to his home in 1863 ends with this verse.)

If you give up your personality to Him, He will not conform it to your
neighbour’s. He prefers that it should be your own, for He has a niche for you
which nobody else can fill.

ALEXANDER SMELLIE. IN the aftermath of the revival which spread through many
parts of Ireland in the years 1859 and 1860 lay-preaching became a regular
practice. No one had heard of commando raids eighty years ago, but the term
seems a not inapt one for the sudden incursions of teams of two or three laymen
into towns and country districts with the one object of preaching the Gospel,
attacking strongholds of evil or of apathy and indifference, and leading men and
women into new life, light and liberty. This sometimes entailed going where they
were quite unknown and unheralded. They might receive the blessing and
cooperation of the local clergy and ministers; but not infrequently open or
veiled hostility had to be faced. When the use of Church buildings was not
granted, meetings were held in schoolrooms, court-houses or jury-rooms, in
private houses, cottages or barns, once at least in a ballroom, at times in the
open air. In 1862, the year in which he took his degree at Trinity, my father
first went on one of these preaching tours in the south of Ireland. George F.
Trench, the friend who led him into the work, was a cousin of Townsend Trench,
estate agent to the Marquess of Lansdowne. "Towny," himself one of the
best-known men in the south, had recently been converted and was preaching with
all the energy and originality of a striking personality. Incidentally, the
Trenches were related to my mother, whom in those days my father did not yet
know. George Trench was her cousin; in after years he married as his second
wife, Edith Lee Anderson, my father’s niece, a fresh link between the families
being thus formed. An unusual feature of the revival movement in County Kerry
was that amongst the first to be influenced were some of the landed gentry.
Trench and Anderson were welcomed by them, and life-long friendships were formed
by my father with Richard Mahony of Dromore Castle, Lindsay Talbot-Crosbie of
Ardfert Abbey, and F. C. Bland of Derryquin Castle. Later on, through the
preaching of Thomas Weldon Trench, the revival spread to Sligo, and George
Trench went there to carry on the work, again asking my father to join him. The
clergy and ministers were unsympathetic. Not only so, but the evangelists were
treated to a crusade of abuse and ridicule in a local newspaper which accused
them of being impostors preaching for filthy lucre’s sake and getting their
salaries from a committee in London. One issue published a letter, said to have
been picked up on the road, in which they were taken to task for embezzling the
contents of their money-boxes! Worse still, there appeared a seemingly genuine
account of their getting drunk at a picnic When Trench had to return home owing
to ill-health, some doggerel verses described the quarrel which led "the
Trencher" to desert his pal "Handy Andy." This is all mentioned to show how
unbefriended they were. However, when my father returned to Sligo later in a
professional capacity to conduct an election, that editor made an abject
apology. But at the time no notice was taken of the attacks. They only served to
advertise the meetings, so that not a few attended out of curiosity or looking
for amusement. But no interruption or annoyance came from the people, and
spiritual power was continually manifested in conversions.

"I confess, however," wrote my father long afterwards, "that I had some
misgivings when my friend left me; for he had a charming presence, a ‘gift of
song’ and a ‘gift of prayer,’ whereas I had none of these advantages." The
meetings, indeed, were then almost entirely lacking in the attractions now
deemed essential in an evangelistic mission. But the Gospel proved indeed " the
power of God unto salvation." Everywhere in Sligo and later in Mayo the meetings
were crowded, conversions and changed lives resulting. "It is grand the
matter-of-fact way the people take it all," he wrote at the time; " there is no
excitement, but when asked, do they know the Lord, they say: ‘No, I’m afraid
not, but I want to.’ They take the truth on the authority of the Word; and the
next thing is: ‘Would you speak to this person?’ Some of them are working for
the Lord before they have known Him an hour." He wrote later from the north of
Ireland, "I think nowhere is there so much to rejoice over as in Sligo and Mayo.
It is astonishing when I think of the people who have been saved, among them
some of the most influential men in the county. Sir Richard O’Donnell told me
this about Colonel X, who is well known as one of the hardest, cleverest men of
the world that could be found. At the last Assizes in Castlebar he said to my
friend in the Grand Jury Room: ‘O’Donnell, what a happy thing it is to know
Christ!’ Sir Richard was amazed and asked him how he knew anything about that,
and Colonel X told him it was from the preaching of ‘ those gentlemen’ as they
call us. I have just got a letter from one of that circle in which he says: ‘ Do
you remember the 9th October 1864? It was the evening you first preached in
Ballina; what a time of blessing it was! You were the first to bring us the
message of a full and free salvation, and the way you preached that glorious
truth we can never forget.’ A notable feature of the work is shown by a letter
from one who, after telling of his own conversion, goes on to say, "My four
sisters and brother, four cousins, and a number of my acquaintances are now
rejoicing in the Lord. It does not seem so strange that persons who have made
themselves infamous by a life of immorality should awaken to a consciousness of
their lost state. But it is passing strange that those who are looked upon by
their friends and perhaps by themselves as religious should be brought to
thorough conviction that, with all their amiability, morality and religion, they
were sinners in the sight of God, being without Christ." A sidelight on the
experiences met with at times is given in this Sligo story told by my father,
"Though we had good lodgings our comfort was neglected, for the landlady, who
was English and the widow of a Frenchman had no Irish heartiness in her
composition; and she objected to serving meals at irregular hours. On the
Saturday evening after my friend had left I had a meeting in a village 2 miles
out; and on my return after a cold drive on an outside car I found an empty
grate, and no supper save some bread and butter and a jug of cold water. I went
to bed hungry and shivering, feeling that in a humble way I was entitled to be
reckoned among the martyrs! " (Now for the sequel.) "The following Saturday
night, when I got back from that same drive, great was my surprise and delight
at finding a cheerful fire and a hot supper. And the stern ‘landlady’ face was
softened by blushes and a pleasing smile! Madame Leger had been at my meeting
the previous evening and had heard and received the Gospel." The account thus
far given relates to work which continued at intervals during the years 1862 to
1865, when my father was between twenty-one and twenty-four years of age. A few
extracts from his diaries are of interest. In 1862 one finds "Went to Athy with
George Trench. Dinner at 3. 30. Croquet, tea and meeting in Corn Exchange. Spoke
on 1 John 4:17 as to position of a Christian. Caused great row among the
Methodists! A lot of the young fellows came in for a grind on the Risen Life."

It appears, however, from his diary for that year that a few days later he
"preached in Methodist House at Portarlington," and that during nine and a half
weeks of the summer he held fifty-one meetings alone or with other speakers.
Irish readers may like to know some of the places visited. These include Athy,
Portarlington, Tullamore, Frankfort, Carlow, Mallow, Tralee, Tarbert, Kilkee,
Kilrush, Mountmellick, Carbery, Edenderry, and a dozen others. The diary for
1863 has this note: (June 20.) "At Court 11 to 3. About 40 of us dined at the
Bewleys, Willow Park. Conference in the evening on the Lord’s Supper."

He was called to the Irish Bar in 1863 on his twenty-second birthday, and went
on the North-West Circuit. The diary has such notes as: "Dined with Judges...
Dined with Bar... Judges dined with us." But there are also reports of meetings
at some of the places already mentioned as well as at Moate, Ferbane,
Ballinagore, Mullingar, Maryboro’, Clonaslee, Clara and Mount Lucas. At
Cookstown he addressed a large meeting on the lawn - about 500 present - and
there was one in the Chapel at Stuart Hall at which the Earl of Castlestuart was
present. The 1864 diary, referring to the College Historical Society, notes "C.
H. S. Swell debate; emigration question. FitzGibbon, Plunket, Snagge and
Chadwick; Lawson in Chair... Went to C. H. S. Was elected Auditor. Walked home
with W.; preached to him." A few weeks earlier: "Spoke timidly and unfaithfully
of the Lord to..." However, shortly afterwards, he "went round the big shops
leaving handbills for Thursday’s meeting."

Soon after this he went on Circuit again, visiting Cavan, Longford, Enniskillen
and Derry; and there were more meetings in the north at Armagh, Newry,
Rostrevor, Banbridge, Rathfryland, Castleblaney and Crossmaglen. Back in Dublin,
the daily record is: "Court eleven to four"; with notes of meetings at places
like Wicklow, Dalkey and Bray. In the summer he was away again with George
Trench to Sligo for another series of meetings lasting about three months. Brief
records in the diary are "To Boyle. Meeting in Court House. About 100; no
singing and not much power. A success, but not a triumph... The Devil was at me
all day, but the Lord gave me grace and strength... Not much power; feared that
I went beyond my message... Meeting crammed. Great power of God and wonderful
blessing. About 40 stayed; could not speak to them all, but many received the
truth."

Back to Dublin again in October; at court every day. Then in December he was off
to Boyle, Skreen, Ballina and other old haunts preaching and encouraging
converts. Having to go to Sligo professionally the following year, he found
opportunity for further meetings there, and afterwards in the north. One entry
is: "Much power; people clung to me; sad at leaving them." More than sixty
meetings are recorded during three months of that year. A few more of my
father’s letters to his home now take up the story. This from Sligo, "I never
saw such continued uninterrupted blessing. Last evening at Ballymote I gave the
people an opportunity of going, but all sat down for an after-meeting. Nothing
outwardly remarkable, but a calm power with the truth that I never saw in Dublin
meetings."

Again, at Collooney, "Last night we had about 250 people, nearly the entire
Protestant population, and many R. C. s. Many come from five miles around. This
in a place where the Sunday evening congregation at Church is from 6 to 20... A
gentleman said that a week ago he was the vilest wretch in the county, but now
saved... Rochfort considers this the most remarkable work in Ireland. If the
Lord-Lieutenant got converted and preached in Merrion Hall it would be nothing
to Captain 0. being converted and preaching in this county."

Another letter tells of a meeting at Cork held at a few hours’ notice with 500
people who seemed unwilling to leave although they were "dismissed" several
times. A week-end at Ballina in 1864 is described thus "Saturday, we started
after breakfast for a country meeting at 11 a. m.; drove on to another at 2 back
to dinner at 6 and a meeting in the Glen at 7. Sunday, I preached in the Glen at
11; then drove to Mullafany for a meeting at 3; back to dinner at 7, late for
the evening meeting. Monday, we had two meetings in the Glen."

It is not surprising that the entry "very tired" occurs now and then in the
diaries. There was, too, the inevitable reaction at times "I have recently been
rather inclined to become weary and faint in my mind, and the Lord has reproved
me by letting me hear of hitherto unknown blessing. Really one gets used to this
and forgets what it is to be in a dry, cold place." The way in which converts
were watched and shepherded is shown in a letter to George Trench from Sligo,
"BELOVED GEORGE... I met Dr. M. and spoke to him, not knowing who he was; he has
been attending the meetings and found peace the other evening. W. is steady; J.
is doing well, reading his Bible, I think. N. I do believe is converted; On
Sunday last he dined at A.’s and refused to touch the whisky though on the
table; he has not tasted any for some days and has been very steady. Will you
make it a matter of special prayer that I may be guided, that I may not let
anything induce me to leave till the Lord says, ‘Go’; and that I may hear Him at
once and obey when he does say ’Go’"

There had been much to encourage. Mr. Alfred Trench, another fellow-worker, in a
kind and gracious letter to the mother in Dublin, told her of the way her son
was being used and owned of God. He added: "Perhaps it will be a relief to you
to know that he does not think of giving up the ‘tent-making,’" this, of course,
a reference to Acts 18:3; and Acts 20:34. That the thought of whole-time
Christian service had come into his mind is shown by a letter more than thirty
years later when my brother Alan told him he was thinking of entering the
ministry of the Presbyterian Church of England. My father then wrote, "Your news
about your life-work thoughts is starthng. On such a grave matter I would
certainly not intervene save by putting the pros and cons fairly before you. The
question is one to be settled with God, and I would not think of vetoing any
purpose of the kind. Had I not had scruples about taking ordination in either
the Presbyterian or Anglican Church, I myself would now be a Minister instead of
a Peeler."

It is hardly to be wondered at that there had been some anxiety about his
apparent disregard of both his health and his professional prospects. "You need
not fret about me," he wrote to his mother; "I am sure of mutton chops and beef
steaks. What I said was contrasting this fare with that at Newport House, where
there was fresh salmon daily, puddings, pies, melons, etc." And again: "Alfred
and I have just returned from. a walk and a bathe in the sea, and are going to
have dinner before we start for Collooney; so you see we are taking care of
ourselves." To his sister he said, however: " I am all square, but getting very
thin, as if I had been going up gas pipes!" Another letter reported: "We are
living in pilgrim fashion. Tom Law brought down a fine ham which was a valuable
acquisition. But plenty of open air keeps one all right."

Regarding the future he said to his mother, "I am not surprised that Papa is
disappointed at my going about as I am doing. I suppose he was expecting me to
take a position at the Bar. No one knows as well as I do what I am losing for
the sake of the Lord; but it is not my will in the matter. I would stop
preaching if I could, for it is not pleasing to the flesh. I should be extremely
unwilling to have to decide upon giving up the Bar. But if it came to the point
of giving up the Lord’s work or the Bar, I trust I should not hesitate." Again,
"Surely you don’t mean that you would have me return home before the Lord has
done with me here? My desire would be to have grace to be willing never to
return if He should want me elsewhere. It is perfectly idle my thinking of
leaving for any consideration or tie of the flesh. Thank the Lord that it is
Sligo I am in, five and a half hours from Dublin, and that He does not want me
in Spain or Timbuctoo or the backwoods of America!" My father evidently had the
clearest conviction that he must await the moving of the pillar of cloud and
fire as did the Israelites of old. "I can’t see my movements ahead at all," he
wrote; "I don’t see that I can leave this just yet. The Lord has kept us hanging
upon Him day by day... He knows whether I want rest, and will give it when I
need it." And to George Trench he said: "It is all humbug staying at home from
natural love and affection when there are so few to preach the Gospel and souls
are longing for it." A contemporary account said that no written statement could
make people realise the character of the work who had not actually seen such
things as a meeting, remarkable at first only for levity and unconcern, awed and
broken down by the manifested power. of the Holy Spirit; the very persons upon
whose lips had curled the smile of ridicule or contempt remaining at the close
in deep anxiety: "Many have witnessed such scenes in recent years. Many know
what it is to enter a parish or town which seems a spiritual sepulchre and in a
few short weeks to be surrounded by a little church of saved ones exulting in
their new-found joy." That the evangelists were not concerned with mere numbers
is shown by a letter from Sligo in which my father said, "These places are quite
outside the town and can’t be taken care of from here. Besides it is new ground,
and I would rather have a little schoolhouse full of people in ‘the regions
beyond’ than the Merrion Hall full. It is glorious to bring the Gospel into dark
places where it is unknown." And to his mother he wrote from Lurgan: "Tom Law is
here now. We have constant work in visiting among the cottages besides meetings
daily." And again: "In visiting among the poor I have heard of much blessing.
Many have told me they were converted in ’59 but had fallen back greatly, and
that these meetings had been the means of restoring them." In spite of his
intense earnestness and sense of responsibility and vocation there are many
humorous touches in his letters. That he was not too easily taken in by outward
profession is shown in a letter to a sister: "I have come on two old buffers on
this Circuit who say they’re saved. They ought to say it on every opportunity,
for no one would ever find it out!" One of his favourite Irish stories may not
be out of place here. Father Healy, parish priest of Bray and (the Protestant)
Archbishop Plunket were on their way together to the railway station. The priest
urged that they should hurry, but the prelate’s appeal to his watch convinced
him that they had ample time. They arrived to see the Dublin train disappearing.
The Archbishop’s apologies were lavish; he pleaded that he had always had
unbounded faith in his watch. "My.. dear Lord Plunket," was Father Healy’s
rejoinder, "faith won’t do without the good works." From the diary for 1866, the
year before he left Ireland for London, it seems that there was only one visit
to the west, with meetings in some of the old spots. There are a few entries on
the lighter side, such as: "Riding party... drove to Enniscrone with Captain and
Miss Jackson and Mrs. Pery. Great fun...

Row on Carramore Lake... Picnic to Woodpark. Great romping." Writing to a sister
who was paying a visit in the south of Ireland about this time, he said: "Why
don’t you go home? The -’s will be heartily sick of you. Are you aware that
people don’t wait to be turned out even in Kerry, where the fellow was asked to
spend the night and stayed twenty years?"

Opposition to the work on the part of clergy and ministers has already been
mentioned. In a letter home in 1864 he tells of this: "Boyle is all in a stir.
The Rector put his veto on lay-preaching in general, and my preaching in
particular, last Sunday. Captain R. has been at it for forty years and feels
very much hurt. It has made him more interested in our work. Most of the people
are very fond of him and take his side." On the other hand a letter from
Castlerea records: "The Rector has acted with amazing grace. He is helping us in
arranging meetings. He sees we have a way of working of our own, and leaves the
meetings entirely to us." Again, from Kilbaha: "The Rev. W. Soresby,
Presbyterian, is giving us his church; I believe he is a regular brick." And
from Cork: "The independent minister who has been hindering rather than helping
hitherto and the second Presbyterian, Mr. Hunter, came and offered me their
pulpits." A curate, the Rev. Sidney Smith, was a warm supporter. Writing from
Ballysokeery Vicarage, Ballina, he says, "My DEAR BOBBEE, - My rector has
departed for a tour of five weeks. I am lord of all I survey, with powers to
issue letters of marque to any pirate friend to sojourn with me. I can collect a
meeting for you of my own people, & I will ask the Presbyterian minister of
Ballina to lend his schoolhouse. Also I could ride over & ask the next rector to
allow a meeting in Crossmalina." A few days later Mr. Smith wrote: "I am going
in to Ballina to try and arrange about getting the disused Baptist Chapel. As I
am a stranger there it will be hard, but if the Lord wills, difficulties
vanish." The following letter from my father tells of the result "I felt very
low about the meeting in Ballina on Sunday. But after a time alone with the Lord
I was quite calm about it. I was posted through the town to preach in the
Baptist Chapel. I didn’t know anyone in the place, much less any Christian: and
as Sidney couldn’t come I was alone absolutely. Besides all this, summons had
been issued to all the clergy to attend a convention, the Dean in the chair, to
drive me out of the place. Well, I found the chapel crowded, and some could not
get seats. I had no singing of course. But when the time came I rose and looked
at the people; they had an air that seemed to say, We are not going to be
humbugged. I said a few words to any Christians present to say I was one of
them, and why I had come, and asked them to join me in prayer for the meeting. I
then preached the Gospel. The Lord gave great power and clearness, and I had
breathless attention. Not one even of those who were standing left, though I
spoke for an hour and a quarter.

After the meeting several came to ask for another. I had asked the Lord that if
this were His will it should come from them."

Three days later he wrote: "The Rector is coming back, so I must clear out. Pray
earnestly for Ballina. It is far harder to break down a meeting of the
better-class than of poor people." That a great change came over the scene is
shown by a letter two years later. Writing from Carramore House, Ballina, he
said, "I expected to be home before this, but every day makes me more unwilling
to leave. It is not only that kindness could not do more to make my visit a
happy one, but the meetings are most important just now. A set of people are
beginning to come in who were never reached before, and there is great life in
the Ballina meetings. I had a Bible Reading at Belleek Manor on Tuesday, and
Col. Knox Gore, his wife and daughter, were in again at the Gospel meeting... Do
you remember Captain Jackson, with whom I am staying? I think he dined with us.
The General [General Sir James Jackson, Colonel 6th Dragoon Guards] is away, and
I have great exercise riding his chargers."

Sir Richard O’Donnell said that as a result of meetings at Newport there had
been ten remarkable conversions; but he added that owing to opposition from all
the priests and parsons it was hard to reach the people. In this connection my
father wrote in 1863 from Tullamore, "I suppose Alfred has told you that there
is most determined opposition... The meetings have been stopped in the Barony of
- ‘ and Tom Trench now refuses to speak in the neighbourhood at all. He infers
that from the etiquette of grouse shooting he is in honour prohibited. At
Portarlington I found Mr. Stewart Trench at work. I spoke first and then he gave
a pastoral. He said that he expected he would not again address them, as he
wished to leave the work to younger men. But he had come to assert their right
to meet in that way, as a large and influential body in the county were
endeavouring to put an end to such gatherings. He took up all the objections and
demolished them. The meeting was crammed, and the people seemed dying to cheer
him, for they were determined to show that they won’t stand priestcraft of this
kind." To this attitude of clergy and ministers in many places the most notable
exception was the Rev. Edward Nangle, Rector of Skreen. Of the work in his
parish my father wrote at the time, "We had the school-house crammed with people
who never went to Church. Mr. Nangle spoke first; told them they were good,
kind, everything he could wish, but most of them he feared had not Christ. That
his efforts appeared to have failed, and so he had asked me to come. ‘Dear, dear
friends,’ he said, ‘I must see some of you converted.’... [Later] Mr. Nangle
says that some weeks ago he was praying that God would take him out of the
place, but now he would not leave for the fattest living in Ireland... [And
again] Mr. Nangle writes that last Sunday the communicants were three times the
previous average number, and the parish filled with anxious or rejoicing souls.
His joy is refreshing to see; he says it is new life to him. Formerly his
visiting was drudgery; now it is his greatest pleasure. It is delightful to see
how he owns the Lord’s work and sets himself aside."

Another letter said that Mr. Nangle had been trying to get the evangelist into
several other parishes, but in two cases, although the rectors were personal
friends, he had met with peremptory refusals. About that time Dr. Horatius Bonar
wrote to my father, "I rejoice to see that some of the clergymen have thrown
themselves into the work. I have observed that in such cases there is more of
progress and stability. While God is showing that He can work through any
instruments He does not set aside the Ministry, but continues to honour it. When
the Minister is a faithful one I always exhort converts to gather round and
uphold him. We have amongst us faithful and unfaithful Ministers."

There can be little doubt that in our own day one of the chief reasons for what
is called failure and lack of results after evangelistic campaigns is the fact
that those who have professed conversion may have to go back to churches where
the atmosphere is cold and unsympathetic to the Gospel, and where the new-found
joy and zeal of converts meet with discouragement.

Looking back on this story now after eighty years, it would seem that, on the
human side, there were certain definite factors making for permanence, and
distinguishing the work from much of the evangelistic effort to which we are
accustomed.

Amongst them were probably the entirely undenominational nature of it; the fact
that the financial element was not merely secondary but non-existent; the
absence of hard and fast arrangements as to the length of missions, so that the
preachers were free to remain in one town or district as long as they felt led
to do so. Then there was the way in which the friends were able to relieve one
another when converts seemed in need of further teaching to establish them in
the Faith. There were also the return visits time after time to scenes of
blessing, just as the Apostles of old "went through Syria and Cilicia confirming
the Churches."

Two notes may form an epilogue. The first was sent me by my aunt, Miss F. Lee
Anderson, to whom so many of the letters which have been quoted were written:
"At the New Alliance Club last week I met a lady whom I had never seen before.
On hearing her name I asked if she was related to a man whom I had known long
ago in Ireland. She said he was her husband’s uncle and knew Sir Robert Anderson
well, and that her husband’s father and her own father had both been converted
through him." And this is from my father’s diary for 1917 (near the close of his
life) "Reading my old letters to Fanny from Sligo; was amazed and greatly
humbled by the record of the work there."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 3: 03. LONDON - THE HOME OFFICE AND SECRET SERVICE.
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CHAPTER III. LONDON. THE HOME OFFICE AND SECRET SERVICE

Sir Robert Anderson, son of the late Crown Solicitor for Dublin, is one of those
men to whom the country, without knowing it, owes a great deal. Silently and
efficiently he and his family have worked for years in high Government
positions. And they have worked with a sweet reasonableness and an absence of
hide-bound, red-tape-tied officialism which is as delightful as it is
exceptional. His brother, Sir Samuel Lee Anderson, was a singular instance of
the level head and the sympathising mind. It is a rare combination and an
exceedingly fine one. Hard heads, soft hearts.

R. BLATHWAYT in Great Thoughts.

ROBERT ANDERSON may almost be said to have drifted into Secret Service work. He
belonged to the fortunate class of barristers who become self-supporting from
the start. In 1865 a number of persons were charged at State trials in Dublin
with treason-felony. My grandfather, the Crown Solicitor, had deputed his duties
to his eldest son, afterwards Sir Samuel Lee Anderson. Between the brothers
there was unrestricted confidence; so it came about that the Crown briefs were
placed at my father’s disposal, and all the confidential reports and secret
information which led to the arrest of the leaders of the conspiracy.

There was then at Dublin Castle no Secret Service organisation or Intelligence
Department, and all kinds of secret documents lay in an undigested mass in an
office cupboard. The new Chief Secretary, Lord Naas, later Earl of Mayo,
entrusted my father with the duty of preparing a précis of these and other
official papers relating to Fenianism. The task completed, he wrote a history of
the Fenian conspiracy up to date which proved of value to the government. This
again led to his services being requisitioned by the Attorney-General when a
Fenian outbreak occurred in 1867. The Irish Republican Brotherhood was popularly
known as the Fenian Society, or simply the Fenians. It was a political
association of Irish or Irish-Americans for the overthrow of British authority
in Ireland and the establishment of a republic. Centres were formed in the
United States with the object of raising funds, especially ‘for the purchase of
arms and munitions of war. "Fenian Bonds" were issued for the purpose. I have
one of these, beautifully engraved, which reads, "The Irish Republic is indebted
unto the bearer in the sum of ten dollars, redeemable six months after the
acknowledgment of the Independence of the Irish Nation with interest from the
date hereof at sixpercent. perannum." The "date hereof" is 30th March 1866, and
it is signed by John O’Mahony, Agent for the Irish Republic.

Two abortive raids into Canada were staged in 1866 and 1871. Later developments
(about 1883—85) were the formation of a "Skirmishing Fund," raised to promote
the free use of dynamite for the destruction of English public buildings and
English commerce; and the rise of an extreme party called the Clan-na-Gael.
Members known as the "Invincibles" were to make history by the removal of
"tyrants." But to return to my father’s experiences in 1867. In order to secure
the necessary evidence he obtained a permit to see all the prisoners without any
restrictions. Going one morning to Kilmainham gaol, he took the Governor into
his confidence. After visiting a number of the men he left the prison as openly
as he had entered it. But, returning by way of the Governor’s house during the
officials’ dinner hour, he was smuggled unobserved into the cell of the man he
indicated. Determined that not even the police should get an inkling of his
mission, he enjoined the Governor not to release him until after locking-up
time, refusing to listen to the warning that he little realised the ordeal
before him.

Long afterwards, when engaged in his campaign for prison reform, he described
this experience. When his object had been attained he found that three hours
remained before his release was due. The only thing distinguishing that cell
from any other barely furnished closet-room was that the aperture which passed
for a window was, as in every prison cell, placed high up near the ceiling,
obscured glass preventing the sight of even a few square yards of sky.

Although his mission had been successful beyond expectation, the prisoner having
told all he knew of the Fenian leaders in America in addition to giving all the
evidence required for the coming trials, my father said he felt a depression
which would in time have become almost unbearable. And so, in after years, he
made use of this never-forgotten ordeal in his plea for more humane methods in
the treatment of prisoners. There lies before me as I write a permit given by
the Home Office in 1867. It reads To THE GOVERNORS, respective Prisons. Allow
Mr. Robert Anderson to have an interview in private, and without the presence of
any officer of the Prison or other person, with any prisoner whom he may desire
to see. (Signed) JAMES FERGUSON, Bart, Under-Secretary of State. To continue the
story of those early years I quote the words of an obituary notice in The Times
fifty years later It was in this almost accidental way that he was enlisted in
the public service. His special knowledge of the ways of Irish political
conspiracy became known in high official circles not only in Dublin but in
London. After the famous Clerkenwell explosion in 1867 - a warning of which he
was able to transmit beforehand to the London police, although they failed to
make use of the information - one of the results of what he himself termed the
unreasoning panic that followed was the organisation of a Secret Service
department of the police, and he was invited to take charge of it. But it only
remained in existence for three months, and he was about to return to the Irish
Bar when he was requested to take charge of Irish business at the Home Office.
In this capacity he had a good deal to do with the surveillance of the Fenian
conspirators - Irish and American-Irish - whose plots gave some anxiety to the
Government in the years 1869 and 1870. My father had what he called an
intelligent aversion to the Civil Service. And he did not entertain a high
opinion of the Home Office of those days. When he first took up work there in
1877 it was impressed on him that the way to get on was to do as little as
possible and do it as quietly as possible. The ordinary work was light, and it
was left to an industrious minority. The hours were from 11a. m. to 5 p. m, a
nominal 11a. m. and a punctual 5 p. m.; much of that time was given to luncheon,
gossip and the newspapers; and there was plenty left for games and ragging.
However, about that time, with the advent of a new Under-Secretary, a new era of
efficiency set in.

Looking upon his work in the Civil Service as temporary, he had no intention of
abandoning his profession and was duly called to the English Bar, but never
engaged in court practice in England. In the meantime, Sir Richard Mayne,
Commissioner of the London police, had given him access to the detective
department and, soon gaining the confidence and goodwill of the officers, he got
to know all that was worth knowing about their work. And the London life had
great attractions for him, especially the House of Commons, where his friendship
with Captain Gosset, then Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms, gave him access to
"Gosset’s Room," which was in reality a sort of social club, invitations to
which were extended (with the exception of two or three relatives) only to M. P.
s. In this way my father was brought into touch with all the by-play of the
House, and met the elite of its members. An instance of the sang-froid which
stood him in good stead when dealing with informers and people of that kidney in
the course of secret service and police duties is given in one of his stories of
those days "On the last evening of the historic debate on the Irish Church an
old friend of my father’s whom I met at dinner spoke of his fruitless efforts to
get an order for the Peers’ Gallery, and declared that he would give £100 for a
seat. When we rose from dinner I asked him to come with me to Westminster. I
passed with him through the lobbies and up to the gallery door. There, with the
lordliest manner I could assume, I told the doorkeeper that I would be extremely
obliged if he could find a seat for my friend. Whom he took me for I never knew,
but he responded effusively, and begged me to bring him in. Later on I noticed
that the official and a colleague were evidently discussing me, trying no doubt
to make out who I was. So I thought it better to ‘skip’ as the Yankees say; but
my friend kept his seat till the House rose. In passing out I thanked the
doorkeeper for his courtesy and expressed regret that I could not stay longer
myself. I should add that I never got the £100!" The way in which my father
became acquainted with Charles Reade, author of The Cloister and the Hearth, is
worth telling again. In order to avoid an unwished-for visit from some
relatives, the novelist told his housekeeper, Mrs. Seymour, to put the rooms on
a house-agent’s books, and to write the relatives that they must not come; he
himself then went off to Oxford, where he had a Fellowship at Magdalen. Within a
few hours my father had taken the rooms in Reade’s beautiful house at Albert
Gate overlooking Hyde Park, without having any idea to whom they belonged.
Finding him there on his return set Reade fuming more than the proposed visit of
his relatives had done; he wouldn’t have lodgers in his house, he declared. But
Mrs. Seymour knew how to manage him, and the lodger was left in possession,
although for a time ignored by the "landlord." The way in which they made
friends must be told in my father’s own words, "Although I couldn’t write Never
too Late to Mend, I could make buttered eggs, and as Reade watched the operation
in my room one night, his looks and words suggested that he thought the cooking
more wonderful than the writing. We had met at the hall door on his return home
very hungry from a theatrical supper at which, he explained, there was a
division of labour, he doing the talking and the others the eating. In his
handkerchief he had some baked potatoes purchased at a stall which stood in the
street opposite his house; and his apology for not offering to share them with
me was that in his room he had neither knife, fork nor plate. So I begged him to
come upstairs with me, and I disclosed the contents of my cupboard, which
included all needed for an impromptu supper, not excepting a loaf and butter,
eggs, a saucepan and an etna. As already intimated, the process of making
buttered eggs excited his admiration, and from that hour I believe he regarded
his lodger as a personage." My father received many kindnesses from Reade, who
even used to lend him his own pet room, built in the garden, when friends came
to dinner, sometimes joining the party himself. In that same room, looking out
on "the trees of the nation," is laid one of the chief scenes in A Terrible
Temptation. Charles Reade’s house was, as far as I know, the first and last one
that the future C. I. D. Chief broke into.

"I never realised," he wrote, "what an amount of determination and nerve it
takes to break into a dwelling-house at night until I discovered my own
deficiencies in these respects. Arriving home late one night I found I had
forgotten my latch-key, and being unable to rouse the inmates I decided to enter
burglariously. My experience of criminal courts had given me a theoretical
knowledge of the business, and it was with a light heart that I dropped into the
area and attacked the kitchen window. Of course I had no fear of the police.
Neither had I any cause to dread a pistol shot on entering the house. Yet such
was the effect on my nerves of spending twenty minutes in that area that the
sound of a constable’s tread in the garden made me retreat into the coal-cellar.
I felt then that my case was desperate. As there were no steps to the area,
escape was impracticable, and a new bolt on the window baffled me. So I was
driven to break the glass. The passers-by were attracted by the noise; but they
had no bull’s-eye lantern to flash into the area, and as I had again taken
refuge in the coal-cellar they could see nothing. As soon as they had gone it
was an easy task to scramble in... The police were sent for next morning. The
broken glass and the marks inside and outside gave proof of a felonious entry;
but nothing had been stolen, nothing even disturbed. The case was most
mysterious, and passed into the statistics as an undetected burglary. Charles
Reade’s delight was great when I told him the facts." The moral of the story was
that burglaries are usually committed by men who are burglars in the sense that
other men are doctors, lawyers, architects, etc, the only difference being that
in the burglar’s trade success gives proof of greater proficiency than seems
necessary in some other lines During the early years in London, in addition to
his ordinary work, he was secretary to several government Commissions; in this
way, as related elsewhere in these pages, he gained the friendship of Lord
Aberdeen, the 7th Earl, who became Viceroy of Ireland 1886 and 1906 -15, and
Governor-General of Canada 1893 - 98. It was in connection with a Royal
Commission on Railway Accidents that the first of three attacks was made upon
him in Parliament, in replying to which Mr. W. H. Smith stated that he had
discharged his duties with great ability and perfect faithfulness. When serving
on the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh Commission he made the acquaintance of Sir
George Airy, the Astronomer Royal, whose help proved valuable when The Coming
Prince was being written, one of his books referred to in Chapter X.

He also acted as secretary to the Royal Commission on Loss of Life at Sea. Lord
Aberdeen, who was again the chairman, tells in his reminiscences (We Twa) that
this Commission was appointed as the result of a vehement controversy arising
from certain statements by Mr. Joseph Chamberlain regarding the excessive
mortality amongst the crews of merchant ships, attributed largely to the
overloading of vessels. Shipping interests as a whole strenuously challenged
this inference. The controversial element was quickly manifested when the
Commission met, and it was frequently the chairman’s duty to throw oil on the
troubled waters. On such occasions he often found it advisable to discover that
it was just time to adjourn for luncheon, which usually had a soothing effect.
This, however, would certainly not have been the case had not a private
arrangement- been entered into with the caterers whereby the Treasury allowance
of 1s. 6d. perhead was augmented. "Of course," wrote Lord Aberdeen, "this was
kept a profound secret, known only to myself and our secretary - the late Sir
Robert Anderson, K. G. B, a very able and high-minded public servant." In this
connection my father mentions that the Duke of Edinburgh did not approve of
hurrying over the cigar stage of the luncheon recess, and when his colleagues
rose, usually kept the secretary with him. On H. R. H.’s leaving to take up a
command in the Mediterranean he desired my father to write to him regularly
about the work of the Commission, and afterwards, after the well-known manner of
our Royal Family, gave many proofs that he had not forgotten him.

Lord Aberdeen, by the way, seems to have shared my father’s poor opinion of
Treasury ways. He gave his support in a tussle over salary and pension rights,
and wrote, "If the object can be secured without making the Treasury feel they
have been defeated it will be much better; otherwise they will try to punish us
all through the enquiry."

Another letter from him throws light on the almost incredible pettiness of some
officials. "My dear Anderson," it reads, "I do now remember that I carried out
(by stealth for fear of hurting the feelings of the Department) a private
arrangement about a clock!" In the same letter Lord Aberdeen said: "I am very
sorry you have to cross again to that tiresome old island of yours in this
weather." The following year however he became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and
he then wrote from Dublin: "I think the Irish are still amenable to marks of
sympathy." He was, of course, a strong supporter of Mr. Gladstone’s Home Rule
policy.

It was as secretary to the Prison Commission, which, unlike the others, was a
branch of the permanent Civil Service, that my father gained experience which
was to prove of great value in after years in his campaign for reforms in the
treatment of criminals and in the nature of prisons.

Eighteen-eighty was an epoch-making year in Ireland, for it was then that
"boycotting" was introduced - a crime which, according to an Irish judge, made
the life of the victim a living death. At the same time a revival of Fenian
activity in Ireland excited the conspirators in England to follow suit. It was
in these circumstances that Sir William Harcourt, the Home Secretary,
re-enlisted my father in Secret Service. "Such work was never to my taste," he
wrote afterwards," and I had definitely turned away from it. I was still in
touch with le Caron and some prominent Fenians in America, but not with the
leaders of the organisation at home. To ascertain who were the London leaders
was an easy task, but how to get hold of them was the problem. They solved it by
forming a plot to discover who their enemy was at Whitehall. A letter came from
a man whom I knew by repute as one of the most dangerous of the London Fenians.
He wished to give information to the government - that was the bait - but he
would deal only with ’the gentleman at the head of the Intelligence Department’
he would hold no communication with the police." The sequel gives an idea of
what Secret Service sometimes entails "I met the fellow by appointment one
night. He lied to me for an hour whilst I listened as though I believed all he
was telling me. This as I expected led him to ask for money. I then pretended to
lose my temper. I said I had come prepared to pay him handsomely for
information, but I was not to be fooled by the yarns he had been telling me.
Taking a handful of sovereigns from my pocket I jingled them before him. The
greedy look on his face told its own tale. He pleaded that if I would give him
time he would tell me all I wished to know, and meekly asked for his expenses. I
saw that the bait had taken, so I gave him a couple of pounds. Within a few
weeks I had two of the most influential London Fenians in my pay... I will only
add that the hold thus obtained upon the organisation prevented the commission
of outrages at a critical time, and further that the information received from
these men was never used to bring a criminal charge against any member of the
conspiracy." In such work, however, kudos is not gained by preventing crimes,
but by detecting them and successfully prosecuting the offenders. My father had
again decided to turn from this branch of service, partly because he had
received offers of more congenial work, when what he called a hateful and
fateful murder drew him back into the toils. On 6th May 1882 Lord Frederick
Cavendish, who had just been appointed Chief Secretary, and Mr. Burke, the
Under-Secretary, were done to death within sight of the Viceregal Lodge in the
Phoenix Park, Dublin. Although creating such a sensation it was only the last of
a series - one more added to the terrible list of Land League murders. And as my
father pointed out it was in one respect of less significance than many of those
which had preceded it. For the assassination of government officials could give
no such indication of the state of Ireland as the murder of a lady returning
home from church or of humble peasants whose only offence was obedience to the
law. In many districts terror reigned in every cottage-home refusing allegiance
to what was fitly called the defacto government. The Phoenix Park murder,
however, galvanised the British Government into action; a new Coercion Act was
passed, and special measures adopted to administer it, an Under-Secretaryship
for Police and Crime being established in Dublin; and under pressure from Sir
William Harcourt my father agreed to represent this department in London. At
that time his work at Whitehall was many-sided. Whilst still Secretary to the
Prison Commission, he was retained by the Irish government to look after their
interests in London, and was also responsible to the Secretary of State in
relation to political crime in general. When the dynamite campaign began he was
in daily touch with Dublin Castle, and kept up a private correspondence with the
British Consuls in America as well as with le Caron and other informants there.
And never a week passed without his having to meet informants in London at his
own home or sometimes in out-of-the-way places, for they never went to
Whitehall. But to return to the Dublin murders - my uncle, Sir Samuel Lee
Anderson, was another of the officials marked down to be "put out of the way,"
his life being saved by what is commonly called a chance. His regular daily
route to the Castle was known to anyone who cared to watch him. But once when
within a stone’s throw of where the murder gang were waiting for him, suddenly
remembering some commissions he had promised to execute for his wife, he turned
back and went round another way.

Having to keep a secret for twenty-one years for the sake of another’s safety
can hardly be a usual experience. In Major le Caron’s life story (Twenty-five
Years in the Secret Service) he pays this tribute to my father "He never wavered
or grew lax in his care. He proved indeed to me not the ordinary official
superior, but a kind, trusty friend and adviser, ever watchful in my interests,
ever sympathising with my dangers and difficulties. To him and to him alone was
I known as a Secret Service agent during the whole of the 21 years of which I
speak. Therein lay the secret of my safety. If others less worthy of the trust
had been charged with the knowledge of my identity, then I fear I should not be
here on English soil quietly penning these lines." Can the spy stories of
fiction produce anything equal to the true narrative of this man’s adventurous
career? His real name was Thomas Beach, son of a respected citizen of
Colchester. A thirst for excitement led him to leave home again and again in
early life; and while still a boy he found himself in Paris without money or
friends or knowledge of the language. Having been a choir-boy at home his
singing gained the friendship of a member of the English church he attended in
the French capital, and this led to his obtaining a good berth. But when the
American Civil War broke out in 1861 he was on the move again; crossing the
Atlantic he enlisted in the Northern army, with the name of Henri le Caron. In
due course he obtained a commission and rose to the rank of major. During his
service he made the acquaintance of John O’Neill, who later became head of the
American Fenians. It was from him that le Caron first heard of the Fenian
schemes, including those for raids into Canada; and this led to his becoming a
spy in their ranks. The accusation that he undertook this hazardous task for the
sake of financial gain is utterly false. He had become a qualified medical man,
was happily married, and could have settled down to a quiet, comfortable life.

Le Caron joined the Fenian movement with the definite object of serving his
country, and it was in letters to his father that he first reported all their
doings and plans. These were shown to the local Member of Parliament, who passed
on the information to the Home Office, no payment being given or asked for. But
at a later date, the M. P, Mr. Rebow, urged that le Caron should be put into
direct touch with a representative of the government, and my father was then
asked to deal with him. Thus began a correspondence lasting for over twenty
years until le Caron came into the open at the time of the Parnell Commission in
1889.

Morley’s Life of Gladstone states that for more than twenty years le Caron was
in the pay of Scotland Yard. "Scotland Yard," replied my father, "was not aware
of the man’s existence until he appeared as a witness at the Parnell
Commission." As a matter of fact the correspondence was carried on through his
wife in America and a relative of my father’s in England, and was always treated
as private. On his visits to London, le Caron used to see my father at our own
house; I have a clear recollection of seeing him there and wondering who he was.
At the Special Commission he was denounced by Sir Charles Russell (afterwards
Lord Russell of Kilowen) as a "common informer who wormed himself into the
confidence of men presumably honest, however mistaken their views, only to make
money and betray them." "Actually," wrote my father, "the assassins and
dynamiters whose plots were exposed by him were justly described by Sir Henry
James, for The Times, as ‘enemies of the human race, the lowest and most
degraded of beings.’" Sir Henry went on to point out that the exertions of a man
who apprehends a criminal after the crime are rightly praised, "but here you
have a man who, running risks such as probably no one ever ran before, set
himself to defeat crime before it was carried out, and thus to save the lives of
those who had no other protection." Further, it was stated by my father that in
no single instance was a criminal charge brought upon le Caron’s testimony. As
regards financial gain, he was as indifferent to money as to danger; anything he
received was not enough to compensate him for having to employ a qualified locum
tenens during his absence. The only really important payment he ever received
was his reward for thwarting the 1870 Fenian raid on Canada. From the first he
considered his role to be that of a military spy in his country’s service. As
illustrating the need for keeping their names secret, my father tells that his
first Fenian informant was shot as the result of his name having been given to
Lord Mayo, then Chief Secretary for Ireland, who passed it on to the
Lord-Lieutenant during dinner at the Viceregal Lodge. A servant behind a screen
repeated the information in the servants’ hall. My father learned this from a
detective officer at Dublin Castle, and states that from that time no informant
of his was ever betrayed. His refusal to give their names and his insistence on
treating their letters as private was objected to at one time by Sir William
Harcourt, who remarked that "Anderson’s idea of secrecy is not to tell the
Secretary of State"

Another incident shows how easily secret information can become known. On the
occasion of Mr. Gladstone’s visit to Haddo House mentioned in another chapter,
my father tells how the Premier, sitting beside him at a writing table, was busy
with a file of Foreign Office papers when another guest brought a passage in the
Odyssey to his notice. Mr. Gladstone discussed this as though the Foreign Office
did not exist, but directly afterwards took up his pen and wrote a Minute of
grave importance about Egypt. It was the time when excitement over the Sudan and
General Gordon’s position in Khartoum was at its height. "How do I know the
purport of the Minute?" said my father; "it was perfectly legible on the
blotting pad he had used! Is it any wonder I refused to trust the lives of
informants to ministers of state? As another example of Mr. Gladstone’s
versatility Sir Robert mentions a long letter (a closely written four-page one
which I have in my autograph album) about a book of his, written on the day
which, according to Lord Morley’s Ljfe of Gladstone, was devoted to the
reconsideration of the whole Irish question in view of Mr. Parnell’s visit to
Hawarden. And Lady Aberdeen tells, in We Twa, how, on returning from church one
morning, he asked for a hymn-book, which he took to his room, and in the
afternoon produced a translation into Italian of the hymn, "Hark, my soul, it is
the Lord." This was on a Sunday when he was in much anxiety over affairs in
Egypt, with messengers from Downing Street coming and going, and he was
conferring about a statement to be made next day in Parliament. But to return to
le Caron. My father paid this tribute to him, "During the four-and-thirty years
of my official life I came to entertain a sincere regard for not a few of the
Police Officers who assisted me in campaigns against criminals, but none of them
did I esteem more highly than le Caron. And it is with them that I have always
classed him, not with secret agents and informers. No bad man could win as he
did the unbounded respect of wife and children. And to personal charm he added
sterling integrity. He was one of the most truthfully accurate men I have
known... Though he deserves well of his country he will never get a statue. But
if he is to be pilloried I will take my place by his side." After le Caron’s
appearance at the Commission his life was in constant danger. There were many
rumours as to his whereabouts in various parts of the world. Actually he lived
under an assumed name not far from Hyde Park. I remember more than once, when
walking there with my father, his saying that he had to go and see a sick
friend, never giving the slightest hint of his identity even to us. Afterwards
he wrote "Though I had been in communication with him for so long, and seen him
on his visits to England, I never really knew him until the illness which ended
fatally on April 1st 1894. With all his cynicism and coldness of manner he was a
remarkably attractive man... At first we used to talk over his adventures, but
later on we often spoke on subjects of which I will make no mention here."

What these subjects were may be gathered from the following letter "I fully
appreciate and will always endeavour to keep in my mind the pith, the main
principle of what you have impressed upon me in reference to God’s goodness and
my duty to Him; and if I live to get well again my earnest desire is that I may
ever keep uppermost in my mind what I owe to Him and what He is willing to do
for me.

Believe me to be, Yours sincerely, H. LECAR0N."

I have the original letter in my possession; also his commission as Major and
Military Organiser in the service of the Irish Republic, dated 5th August 1868.
This is signed by John O’Neill, President, Fenian Brotherhood, Patrick J.
Meehan, Acting Secretary of War, and John Byron, Assistant Adjutant-General F.
B. It was on account of his relationship with le Caron that my father was the
subject of two violent attacks in Parliament. At this length of time the story
would not be of sufficient interest to relate in detail. On the first occasion
he was accused of handing over, in his capacity as head of the C. I. D,
confidential documents to an informer. As already mentioned, le Caron’s letters
had always been deemed private, and he claimed accordingly that he should have
access to them in preparing the evidence he was to give at the Parnell
Commission. The letters had never been on record in any government office; they
had indeed been kept in our own home. My father was vigorously defended by the
Home Secretary, Mr. Henry Matthews, afterwards Viscount Llandaff; and his chief
assailant, Sir William Harcourt, gave kindly proof afterwards that he bore no
ill-will in spite of his violent political invective. In 1905 his son, later
Viscount Harcourt, wrote to my father, "I am most grateful to you for your kind
words about him, which show a real appreciation of his character in spite of his
hard-hitting propensities which showed themselves on the surface." The second
attack was made in 1910 in consequence of Sir Robert having mentioned in
Blackwood that he was author of certain articles on the American Fenians
published anonymously in The Times as far back as 1887. They were entitled
"Behind the Scenes in America." In this case he was accused of having acted in a
way contrary to the rules and traditions of the Civil Service. The fact that one
of the articles exposed a plot to bring about a dynamite explosion in
Westminster Abbey at the time of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee might, one would
think, have excused any breach of official propriety had such been indeed
committed. But naturally the wild Irishmen in the House were out for his scalp
and demanded the withdrawal of his pension. Unfortunately, on this occasion the
responsible Minister, instead of defending him, contented himself with appeasing
his opponents by making light of the whole matter and minimising the services he
had rendered to the State. Of the many letters of sympathy and encouragement
received at that time, only one will be quoted here. The writer was a Scottish
lawyer, Mr. R. B. Stewart, a valued friend, who was well- known in connection
with the Keswick Convention and many other branches of Christian activity "To
speak of a faithful and able servant of his country, who unsparingly gave
himself to her service in work most trying and involving danger to his own life,
during a perturbed time which it is difficult for any one who did not live
through it to understand or even to credit, - in the way in which you have been
spoken of, is a lasting disgrace to British statesmanship. And it was in order
that those might be kept sweet who are the representatives of the spirit and
work condemned by the Parnell Commission!

What man can be zealous in his work if he feels that one day for party purposes
he may be sacrificed to an opposing faction whom, in the line of his duty, he
has offended, and that the sacrifice may be made for the sake of getting votes?

Politics are corrupt. Let us hope that the officials of the country may
notwithstanding remain true, little as is the encouragement they sometimes get."
The next chapter goes back to the year 1888, when the period of service at
Scotland Yard began. Incidentally it was the date of the appointment of the
Parnell Commission to which reference has been made. The Times had published a
series of articles entitled "Parnellism and Crime" which were a tremendous
indictment of the chief Nationalist leaders. A Special Commission was appointed
to inquire into the whole matter, the trial lasting for 28 days. Mr. Parnell was
formally cleared of the charge of having been personally guilty of organising
outrages; but his Party was declared to have been guilty of incitement to
intimidation, out of which had grown crimes that it had failed to denounce.


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  CHAPTER 4: 04. SCOTLAND YARD.
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CHAPTER IV. SCOTLAND YARD The period 1860 to 1900 proved to be one during which
there was almost continuous decrease in crime... By signal successes in
sensational cases, and by steady achievement in the less advertised everyday
business of dealing with rogues in general, the C. I. D. built up in the
‘nineties a world-wide reputation for efficiency in crime detection.

"Scotland yard and the Metropolitan Police", by Sir John MOYLAN.

SIR HARRY FURNISS, the famous artist, devotes a chapter of his book Some
Victorian Men to the London Police, in which he says "One of the hardest-working
and most brilliant heads of the Criminal Investigation Department for many years
was that eminent Victorian, Sir Robert Anderson, K. G. B." The "Jack the Ripper"
scare, resulting from the Whitechapel murders of the year 1888, synchronised
with my father’s appointment as Assistant Commissioner of Metropolitan Police
and Chief of the C. I. D. For reasons of health he was ordered two months’
complete rest before entering upon his duties, and after a week at the Yard he
left for the Continent. The second of the murders was committed the night before
he took office and the third occurred during the night of the day on which he
left London. The newspapers soon began to comment on his absence, and when two
more victims had fallen to the knife of the murderer-fiend, an urgent appeal
from the Home Secretary brought the new Chief back to duty. "We hold you
responsible for finding the murderer" were the words which greeted him.

Thus he entered upon an office which was far from being a bed of roses. Apart
from the state of alarm produced by the murders, there had been a good deal to
make conditions in the Police Force difficult at that period. Two years
previously the Chief Commissioner, Sir Edmund Henderson, had resigned when
called to account over a West End riot. There were constant bickerings between
his successor, Sir Charles Warren, and Mr. James Monro, then in charge of the
detective department. Further, the rank and file objected to the military
discipline introduced by Sir Charles, who was a distinguished soldier. His
popularity was established however by his defence of the Force against what were
considered unjust strictures by the Home Office on the occasion of further
riots.

Anderson had been warned that he would "never get on with Warren." But he found
the Commissioner frank and open; he was treated as a colleague and left quite
unfettered in the control of his department. It was therefore a matter of regret
to him when Sir Charles became so annoyed by the ways of the Home Office that he
in turn threw up his appointment. To my father’s great satisfaction, however,
the new Chief Commissioner was Mr. Monro, the former Head of the C. I. D, a
personal friend. All seemed set fair for a time of happy and fruitful
co-operation between them; but once again friction between the Home Office and
the Commissioner led to the latter’s resignation. His successor was Colonel Sir
Edward Bradford of the Indian Army. Shortly after his appointment he wrote,
"19th August 1890.

"My DEAR ANDERSON, - It was a pleasure to have your kind letter... I had a most
delightful morning with your people in the C. I. D, and look forward to many
more of a similar nature after your return. Nothing I like so much as men who
are enthusiastic in regard to their work; and I am delighted to find you are so
about C. I. D. matters.

"Yours very sincerely, "E. R. C. Bradford."

Going back to the time when my father entered upon his new duties, he found that
the officers of the C. I. D. had become demoralised by the treatment accorded to
Mr. Monro - a strong esprit decorps always existing in the department. They
believed too that they were regarded with jealousy in the Force. The feeling of
discouragement had affected their work, the Commissioner’s report for 1888
recording that crime had shown a decided tendency to increase. So strong was the
feeling about Mr. Monro that the new Chief had some difficulty in persuading
Chief-Superintendent Williamson not to resign. My father only learned afterwards
that he himself had been protected by Sir Charles Warren when the Home Office
wanted to call him to account because there was not an immediate change for the
better.

Warren had not only to suffer the nagging ways of the Home Office, but to face
considerable public criticism on account of failure to find "Jack the Ripper." A
cartoon of the period in the Pall Mall Budget shows an East End deputation in
the Commissioner’s office. Upon walls and desk and lying on the floor are
regulations and instructions about drill. A police officer stands stiffly at
attention. The deputation protests: "Another murder, Sir Charles, the fourth
in..." The Commissioner in uniform with sword and medals replies: "Why bother me
over such a trifle? Still, if something must be done, what do you say,
Inspector, to another hour’s battalion drill?" The Home Secretary, Mr. Matthews,
was also attacked in the Press. Innumerable letters with theories and
suggestions were sent to the police and the papers. One theory propounded was
that the murderer was a Malay serving in a ship, who committed the crimes during
brief shore leave. The facts were that the locality in which the crimes occurred
was full of narrow streets with small shops over almost every one of which was a
foreign name. The victims belonged to a small class of degraded women
frequenting the East End at night. However the fact be accounted for, no further
murder in the series took place after a warning had been given that the police
would not protect them if found on the prowl after midnight. The criminal was a
sexual maniac of a virulent kind living in the immediate vicinity. The police
reached the conclusion that he and his people were aliens of a certain low type,
that the latter knew of the crimes but would not give him up. Two clues which
might have led to an arrest were destroyed before the C. I. D. had a chance of
seeing them, one a clay pipe, the other some writing with chalk on a wall.
Scotland Yard, however, had no doubt that the criminal was eventually found. The
only person who ever had a good view of the murderer identified the suspect
without hesitation the instant he was confronted with him; but he refused to
give evidence. Sir Robert stated as a fact that the man was an alien from
Eastern Europe, and believed that he died in an asylum.

Probably few people know how the name Scotland Yard originated. From the time of
the Norman Conquest there had been a place in Whitehall known as "Scotland,"
where Scottish kings and queens stayed when on visits to the English court. In
Stuart days the Palace of Whitehall included a court or yard named Scotland Yard
because it was part of the original "Scotland" or adjacent to it. The detective
department of the police used to have its office there, and when the new
headquarters on the Thames Embankment were built they were given the name of New
Scotland Yard. The Metropolitan Police district extended over a radius of
fifteen miles from Charing Cross, covering an area of 700 square miles, with a
population in 1900 of over seven and a half millions. The problem which daily
faced the C. I. D. was to find criminals hidden in such a crowd. Like a spider
in the midst of a monster web, the Chief was in touch with inspectors attached
to each of the twenty-one divisions into which Greater London was subdivided.

"When I took charge," wrote my father, "I was no novice in matters relating to
criminals and crime. I was not a little surprised therefore to find occasion for
suspecting that one of my principal subordinates was trying to impose on me as
though I were an ignoramus. For when any important crime of a certain kind
occurred, and I set myself to investigate it in Sherlock Holmes fashion, he used
to listen to me in the way so many people listen to sermons in church; and when
I was done he would stolidly announce that the crime was the work of A, B, C, or
naming one of his stock heroes. It was Old Carr, or Wirth, or Sausage, or
Shrimps, or Quiet Joe, or Red Bob, etc, etc, one name or another being put
forward according to the nature of the crime."

However, on putting the subordinate’s statements to the test, it appeared that
he was generally right, for "great crimes are the work of great criminals, and
great criminals are very few," that is, skilled and resourceful criminals
capable of certain types of crime. The problem, then, is not to find the
offender in a population of many millions, but to pick him out from a few
definitely known "specialists." In his reminiscences my father mentions a few
cases in illustration. One was a "ladder larceny" at a country house in
Cheshire. The Chief Constable of the county called next day to invoke the aid of
the C. I. D. He gave a vague description of two strangers who had been seen near
the house the day before the burglary. He was shown three photographs, and at
once identified two of them as the men in question. One was "Quiet Joe," and the
other his special pal. Arrest and conviction followed. A man named Benson was
the son of an English clergyman. He was a man of real ability, of rare charm of
manner and an accomplished linguist. Upon the occasion of one of Madame Patti’s
visits to America, he ingratiated himself with the customs officers at New York,
and thus got on board the liner before the arrival of the reception committee.
He was a stranger to the great singer, but she was charmed by his bearing and
appearance and the perfection of his Italian, and had no reason to doubt that he
had been commissioned for the part he was playing. And when the members of the
Committee arrived they assumed that he was a friend of hers, with the result
that she took his arm when disembarking. All this was done with a view to the
carrying out of a huge fraud, the detection of which brought him to ruin. The
man was capable of filling any position; but the life of adventure and ease
provided by a criminal career had a fascination for him.

Another great criminal was Raymond, who like Benson had a respectable parentage.
His schemes were Napoleonic. His most famous coup was a great diamond robbery.
His cupidity was excited by the accounts of the Kimberley mines, and he sailed
for South Africa to investigate. He found that the arrival of the diamonds at
the coast was timed to catch the mail steamer for England, but if accidentally
delayed on the way they had to lie in the post office till the next mail left.
He had no difficulty in obtaining wax impressions of the postmaster’s keys; in
fact, the postmaster was one of a group of admiring friends whom he entertained
at dinner the evening before he sailed.

Some months later he returned to South Africa under an assumed name and cleverly
disguised. The diamond convoys had to cross a river ferry on their way to the
coast. Making his way up-country to the place, he unshipped the chain of the
ferry and let the boat drift down stream, and the next convoy missed the mail.
£90, 000 worth of diamonds had to be deposited in the post office strong-room.
They reached England in Raymond’s possession, and he afterwards boasted that he
sold them to their rightful owners in Hatton Garden!

Raymond loved his "work" for its own sake; and though he lived in luxury and
style, he kept at it to the last, organising and financing many an important
crime. It was he who stole the famous Gainsbprough picture for which the record
price of £10, 000 had recently been paid. A doctor friend told my father of
having an extraordinary patient. The man was wealthy and lived sumptuously, but
was extremely hypochondriacal. Every now and then an urgent summons would bring
the doctor to the house to find the patient in bed with nothing whatever the
matter. He always insisted on having a prescription however, which was promptly
sent to the chemist. The last summons had been exceptionally urgent; and when
the doctor entered the room with unusual abruptness, the patient sprang up in
bed and covered him with a revolver! Raymond (for it was he) knew that his
movements were of interest to the police; and if he had reason to fear that he
had been seen in dangerous company, he bolted home and sent for the doctor,
whose evidence, confirmed by the chemist’s books, would prove that he was ill in
bed until after the hour at which the police supposed they had seen him miles
away. My father put Dr. Max Nordau’s "type" theory to a test when the latter
called on him at Scotland Yard. Dr. Nordau was shown two photos covered so that
only the faces could be seen, and told that the one was an eminent public man,
the other a notorious criminal. He was challenged to say which was the criminal
"type." He shirked the challenge; for as a matter of fact the criminal’s face
looked more benevolent than the other and certainly as "strong." "The one was
Raymond alias Wirth - the most eminent of the criminal fraternity of my time -
and the other was Archbishop Temple. Need I add that my story is intended to
discredit, not his Grace of Canterbury, but the Lombroso ‘type’ theory?" At the
time of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1887 there was a hellish plan to bring about
a dynamite explosion in Westminster Abbey during the ceremony. The Irish Fenians
in America had issued a circular announcing the early renewal of active
operations, "a pyrotechnic display in honour of the Jubilee" being specially
indicated. The scheme was discovered and thwarted by Mr. James Monro, then Chief
of the C. I. D, with whom my father was in close touch in connection with his
Secret Service work. Ten years later there occurred the last in the series of
these plots. A gang of dynamiters crossed from America in August 1896. The
leader, a man called Ivory alias Bell, landed at Antwerp and made his way to
Glasgow, where he was arrested. His chief confederate, Tynan by name, the "No. 1
" of the Phoenix Park murders - was arrested by the local police at Boulogne,
the others at Rotterdam. Ivory was put on trial, but the Law Officers of the
Crown on learning that one of the gang had given information decided to withdraw
from the prosecution. Just before this occurred, Ivory’s counsel had told my
father in strict confidence that he would withdraw his plea of not guilty if he
would promise to get him a light sentence. The C. I. D. Chief said he was
confident he could obtain an early remission if Ivory would openly express
regret for his share in the conspiracy. Ivory was just about to make such a
statement when the Solicitor-General interposed to announce the decision at
which the Law Officers had arrived.

"Such are our ways with dynamiters," wrote my father, "these men were aliens who
came in time of peace to perpetrate outrages which if committed by soldiers in
war-time would ensure them short shrift after trial by drumhead court-martial...
And yet these miscreants were treated with a quixotic leniency that would not be
extended to ordinary criminals. For the measures adopted to detect quasi
political crime in no way differ from these by which every competent police
force deals with organised crime of any kind." In this case the information was
given, not by one who could possibly be accused of being an agent provocateur,
but by one who had gone as far as he safely could in checking the schemes of his
confederates. When the case was first reported to the Home Secretary he took the
view which was finally adopted by the Law Officers, that there should be no
prosecution. He decided, however, to put the matter before the Prime Minister,
Lord Salisbury. So my father went with Sir Matthew Ridley, afterwards Viscount
Ridley, to Walmer Castle. The Home Secretary after stating his own view said:
"Anderson differs from me entirely." When the Premier had heard both sides and
asked a number of questions, he gave his decision unreservedly in favour of the
latter.

Incidentally, I remember my father coming home and telling us how much he had
enjoyed his visit to Walmer, where Lord Salisbury was in residence as Lord
Warden of the Cinque Ports; this included a very simple and informal luncheon at
which he found himself seated between his host and hostess. During lunch and
afterwards on the terrace many matters were discussed, amongst them the Channel
Tunnel scheme and of course Ireland and the Irish. On the return journey Sir
Matthew Ridley generously expressed his gratification at the Prime Minister’s
having been satisfied that the Ivory case might be allowed to proceed, and he
afterwards noted his full approval of the police action. But, as already stated,
the Law Officers decided to throw their hand in. An additional point however
must be mentioned. It appeared from the evidence that Bell had left the Antwerp
house before the arrival there of the explosives; and, although his conduct gave
cause for the gravest suspicion, the Solicitor-General felt unable to press for
a conviction, the accused’s counsel paying a tribute to Sir Robert Finlay’s
judicial fairness in the matter. The case received a good deal of publicity, the
police being complimented on the almost simultaneous arrest of the suspects in
Glasgow, Boulogne and Rotterdam. There was on the other hand - the usual attack
by Irish members in the House, who asserted that the whole prosecution
originated in a fraud concocted by the police and carried out by agents
provocateurs, a charge which was indignantly repudiated by the Home Secretary.
In the course of a leading article on the case, The Times said, "It is greatly
to be regretted that no official notice was taken of the gross attacks upon Mr.
Robert Anderson, the able and energetic Assistant-Commissioner who has the
control of the Criminal Investigation Department, and to whose vigilance and
activity it is undoubtedly due that so many detestable terrorist conspiracies
have been nipped in the bud... There can be no shadow of doubt that a great
crime was being prepared in the bomb factory at Antwerp and that its execution
was defeated by measures adopted by the C. I. D." In The Lighter Side of My
Official Life Sir Robert wrote: "When Mr. Joseph Chamberlain visited America in
1896 there was a formidable plot to assassinate him at the home where he was
sojourning. Facts which came to light convinced the local police of the truth of
the information received, and the American authorities deemed it necessary to
take very special measures for his protection." The following letter from Mr.
Chamberlain refers to that time "HIGHBURY, "BIRMINGHAM.

"Oct. 11th 1896.

"DEAR MR. ANDERSON, -... I feel that I ought to write at once to thank you for
your activity on my behalf while I was in the United States. It is not pleasant
to be accompanied everywhere by policemen, but I have undergone the experience
before, and have no doubt that in the present case it prevented very
disagreeable consequences. I was living in an isolated house in the country to
which access was perfectly easy and open, so that any ill-intentioned person
would have had no difficulty in reaching me, but for the guards placed there by
the U. S. Government.

"There is one paragraph in your letter which I do not understand. You say the
gentleman entrusted with the duty of despatching me was ‘sent to the West.’ But
I was all the time in the East, at a small village in Massachussets. I do not
know how they found out that I was guarded, for we managed to keep the matter
very quiet and there was no notice of it in any of the papers till after I had
sailed...

"Please accept my renewed thanks. I am only sorry to have been the cause of so
much trouble.

"I hope you will get Tynan! Yours very truly, "J. CHAMBERLAIN." The South
Western Railway murder case in 1897 was of special interest for two reasons.
First, it was a striking example of the difference between French and British
methods of dealing with such crimes. A young woman was found dead in one of the
coaches of a train arriving at the London terminus. It was obviously a case of
murder. The French police would have closed the station, and no one would have
been allowed to leave until they had finished their investigations. But at
Waterloo, not only were all the passengers permitted to go their ways, but the
body was removed and the carriage cleaned so that any possible clue was lost
before the C. I. D. were informed. The case was of particular interest also
because in spite of this handicap an elaborate chain of circumstantial evidence
closed round a certain person. The only apparent flaw in it was that a principal
witness wavered in his identification of the suspected man. The ground of
hesitation was that this man was clean-shaven, whereas the murderer had worn a
moustache. The witness did not know, however, that an hour before the crime was
committed the man whom he had singled out of a dozen paraded for inspection had
purchased a false moustache at a barber’s shop! That fact seemed to render a
case which was already strong both complete and irresistible. But it was
inseparably bound up with another fact. The distance between the barber’s shop
and the station at which the murderer joined his victim on the train was
adequate proof of an alibi which shattered the whole case against the accused.
That one fact possibly saved him from the gallows. This story was used by my
father in his book Pseudo-Criticism to illustrate the fallacious arguments of
some critics of the Bible, who thought that a seemingly complete case against
the genuineness of a book was sufficient evidence to decide the issue as one of
their "assured results."

Another story which he reckoned an instance of truth being stranger than fiction
was that of a great City house which was victimised by a plausible swindler who
had a recipe for multiplying gold! The firm actually advanced the man £20, 000
in sovereigns; a house was hired in Whitechapel and a laboratory fitted up. The
experiments ended in the complete disappearance of the scientist and of the £20,
000. He had insisted on being searched every time he left the laboratory; so how
the feat had been accomplished was a mystery until, in sheer bravado, he told
his victims that on every occasion his hollow walking-stick had been packed with
sovereigns! He was confident that the firm would not prosecute for fear of the
ridicule which would be incurred; and he judged rightly.

Much ordinary police work has always been concerned with the prevention of crime
rather than with its detection, and is of necessity performed behind the scenes.
The duty of protecting royal personages visiting Britain fell to Scotland Yard,
and Chief-Inspector Melville was frequently entrusted with this task. In a
private letter to my father from Windsor in November 1899, he mentioned that
when out shooting the previous day the Prince of Wales [afterwards Edward VII]
and the Duke of York had cordially shaken hands with him, and the Prince had
said the Queen was very pleased at his being sent down. He continued, "I thanked
H. R. H. and told him that every precaution was being taken, but in as quiet a
manner as possible. Subsequently the Duke had several conversations with me as
to the relative merits of the Continental police. I was surprised later on when
the Emperor [Kaiser Wilhelm of the 1914 - I 8 war] came away from the Royal
party and shook hands with me very heartily; he said: ‘You have a wonderful
police force in England. Our detective force in Germany is very bad; there is
always a lot of fuss, but nothing done.’ His Majesty spoke in this strain for
several minutes, and I thanked him for his appreciation of the English police."
For some time Mr. Melville was the officer personally responsible for the safety
of Queen Victoria. In his Memoirs of a Royal Detective, ex-Detective-Inspector
H. T. Fitch writes: "It is certain that one of the Kaiser’s attendants for a
long period was an English ex-detective of the name of Bell." He tells also of
the last Emperor of Russia saying to him: "I wish you were in my police service,
Mr. Fitch. My police are much harsher than yours in England, yet how much do
they achieve? Yet you seem to have the measure of these revolutionaries." The
detectives deputed to guard foreign royalties received many personal gifts.
Occasionally their Chief was also remembered in this way, twice by the ill-fated
Nicholas II of Russia, the first time when he was Czarevitch, the gift being a
Russian salt-cellar. The second present was a diamond ring of such dimensions
that it might fit a super-size thumb. The diamonds with the Imperial monogram
made a fine brooch for my mother. The gold ring, reduced to normal size, with
the Russian N, II and crown reproduced, I am wearing to-day. As illustrating the
slight measure of precaution considered necessary in the case of our own Royal
Family, my father told of an experience which greatly impressed him. It was in
1894 when the Duke and Duchess of York were away on one of their tours and the
Duke and Duchess of Teck were abroad. On returning from a holiday my father
received a private letter telling him of things being said in anarchist clubs
about "Prince Eddy," now the Duke of Windsor, who was then at the White Lodge in
Richmond Park. Riding out there next morning he found that the nurse might be
seen any day walking unattended in the Park with the baby in her arms. "What a
delightful picture of the peace and security of life in this favoured land!" The
lady in charge at the lodge gave cordial consent to certain police measures
which seemed desirable, and my father’s visits passed as friendly calls. When
the Duchess of Teck returned she expressed her gratitude, and a friendly
discussion took place as to what might be done when the Duke and Duchess of York
came back to St. James’s Palace. Appeals were made to my father to withdraw his
objection to the child being taken to the Green Park for his daily outing. But
the presence in London of foreign anarchists had to be taken into account. "Was
there another capital in all Europe," he asks, "in which the suggestion would be
entertained of an infant Prince in the direct line of succession to the throne
being taken daily by his nurse to a public park?"

Some readers may be interested in knowing the impression made upon Press
interviewers by the C. I. D. Chief. One of them said: "Dr. Robert Anderson is
essentially a reticent and retiring man. Pressmen usually despair of getting any
interesting information out of him, and he is one of the most difficult men in
the public service to interview. He undoubtedly knows more about the criminal
classes than any other man in this country." A representative of the Evening
News had "A Chat with the Prince of Detectives," mainly about the finger-print
system of indentification which was about to be adopted. "People who have not
seen him," said the interviewer, "probably expect to hear that he possesses the
‘keen grey eyes’ with which writers of fiction have always endowed their
criminal investigators. Mr. Anderson’s are like any other pair of pleasant
eyes... He looks - this quiet gentleman who has had his finger unceasingly on
the pulse of crime for so many years, and who has seen through the network of
the Irish physical-force party’s conspiracies - a simple unobtrusive citizen,
and such in private life he undoubtedly is." An article in Black and White on
"The Detectives who Frustrated the Dynamite Plot" (in 1896) said: "In Dr.
Anderson’s appearance there is more of the man of peace than of the, terror of
conspirators. Yet it is certain that he has been a conspicuous success in his
high office, thanks to his analytical mind, his keen reasoning powers, and his
’scent’ for the right trail. He is frigid and reserved when on duty at least,
and his trifling hardness of hearing becomes practical stone-deafness when
embarassing questions are asked... Chief-Inspector Melville, the head of the
Special Division of Scotland Yard, or the Dynamite Brigade as they are called,
is a man of another type as far at least as personal appearance goes, though he
is a great admirer of Dr. Anderson, whose patience, caution and discernment
inspire the utmost confidence in all associated with him." Another impression,
given two years later, was: "Dr. Anderson has been described and fitly as the
ideal detective of real life, yet he bears but little resemblance to those of
the novelists’ creation... His power of close and rapid reasoning from facts and
his marvellous quickness in seizing on the essential points in difficult cases
are at once the wonder and admiration of the men under his control. Naturally he
is a discreet, silent and reserved man; his training has made him even more so,
but no officer who has yet presided over the affairs of the C. I. D. can boast
of being more popular or more genuinely respected by his subordinates." In a
report of a lecture on Professional Criminals before the Leeds Philosophical and
Literary Society in 1903, the Yorkshire Weekly Post said "After many years’
service in the responsible position of spider in the centre of a web which
reaches almost to the end of the earth, he is now a gray, elderly man, somewhat
stern and searching, cool and calculating, as befits an official of Scotland
Yard; but in truth warm-hearted and jocular, ever ready with a quip and a joke,
and on the whole impressing one as a sane and delightful man of the world."

"John 0’ London," in his Unposted Letters, writing of some remarks concerning
Sherlock Holmes by Sir Basil Thomson, then Chief of the C. I. D, goes on to say:
"This brought back to me an interesting experience. Nearly twenty years ago,
when the Sherlock Holmes stories were being read and talked about every-where,
it occurred to me that it would be interesting to obtain Scotland Yard’s opinion
of Conan Doyle’s hero. Accordingly I wrote to Sir Robert Anderson, who two years
earlier had retired from his post as Head of the C. I. D. Hardly hoping for
results, I was gratified when his card was handed to me, and was followed by the
expert himself. He sat down and at once began to talk. I saw a keen and kindly
old gentleman who looked like a super-detective by not looking like one at all.
He was indeed better known to me as a distinguished theologian and scholar.
Still, there was that in his eye which one could connect with the penetralia of
the Yard. The result of our talk was that he undertook to write an article. It
was entitled ‘Sherlock Holmes as seen by Scotland Yard,’ and it is as
interesting to-day as when it was written." Referring to the article, John 0’
London says, "The real relation of a Sherlock Holmes to a first-class Scotland
Yard detective was put to me by Sir Robert very simply: the inventor of a
detective story makes both the lock and the key, whereas Scotland Yard is
limited to finding the key to the lock... In a detective story we are interested
from first to last in the solution of the mystery; that solution is the
detective’s triumph. But in real life the elucidation of the mystery is only the
first chapter; if there is no second there is no story and no triumph." My
father’s private diaries contain a few brief references to his official work. In
April 1893 there is this note: "Saw Bradford. By his desire I saw Mr. Asquith on
Townsend’s case. (Attempt to shoot Mr. Gladstone.) Later to see Sir Algernon
West about protecting Mr. G." In October 1893: "4 o’c to Trafalgar Square with
Macnaghten to see an Anarchist meeting." In June of the same year: "The
Australian cricketers came to see the Museum. Had chats with Bannerman, Giffen,
Blackham, Lyons,’ etc." (The "Black Museum" at Scotland Yard was full of
gruesome records of crime and criminals; I have a vivid recollection of it.) A
week later he went with Sir Evelyn RugglesBrice to Paris: "Called on M. Lepine,
who received us with great cordiality. To Bertillon’s Bureau. Saw Cochefort of
the Sureté and Guillot, head of the uniform police. To a reception by the
President and Madame Faure at the Elysee. Saw Marie Antoinette’s cell in the
Conciergerie." On 18th October 1898: "Col. Dawson, Military Attaché of our
Embassy in Paris, called with an introduction from the Foreign Office to ask my
help in finding agents to keep our government informed of movements of the
French army and navy in the event of war, which he deemed probable." There are
many notes of visits by parents whose sons or daughters were missing or in
trouble, and by society people concerned about lost possessions. One entry is of
a very different kind: "Lady W. called by appointment, and I had an hour’s talk
with her. Found her ‘tender’ and eager to hear the Gospel. I had sent her The
Silence of God." The last incident suggests a reference to the many meetings
addressed in connection with the Christian Police Association; Miss Catherine
Gurney, its founder, wrote after my father’s death: "I shall always remember the
very many kindnesses and encouraging words and all the kind help he gave us in
the early part of our work." At a convention of the Association in Bolton the
diary notes that he spoke on police duty being in the line of God’s government
of the world (Romans xiii). There are several mentions of "Maud Colley’s Police
Class; about 100 young P. C. s." Meetings on behalf of the Police Court Mission
are also referred to, one of them in the Mansion House, London. Many others are
mentioned in connection with Police Institutes and Orphanages in Birmingham,
Leeds, Harrogate, Glasgow and other cities. At a Police Institute meeting in
Grosvenor House, London, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Sir Robert were the
speakers.

There are frequent references to lectures and addresses on crime and its
problems, one to the Whitefriar’s Club, another to a large audience in the Cory
Hall, Cardiff. On the lighter side was a dinner of the County Chief-Constables’
Club, at which Lord Desart and my father were the chief guests. Many of these
activities were of course after his resignation.

Returning now to his service at "the Yard": Sir John Moylan in his Scotland lard
and the Metropolitan Police states that "the period 1890 to 1900 proved to be
one during which there was an almost continuous decrease in crime." He
continues: "By signal successes in sensational murder cases such as that of Neil
Cream the poisoner, and Milsom and Fowler the Muswell Hill murderers, and by
steady achievement in the less advertised everyday business of dealing with
rogues in general, the C. I. D. built up in the "nineties’ a world-wide
reputation for efficiency in crime detection... Crime reached a low watermark in
1899." The period of my father’s service as Chief of the C. I. D. was 1888 to
1901. In Criminals and Crime he himself wrote: "It is to the habit of dealing
with criminals instead of with crime that the phenomenal success of the C. I. D.
is largely due. I have no reserve in praising a department of which I was
recently the Chief, and for the excellent reason that no one knows better than I
do to whom the praise for that success is due. With a chief who did not enjoy
the fullest confidence and respect of his subordinates success would be
impossible. But the best of chiefs can do little more than stand behind the
working staff - a body of officers that as a body when judged by the double test
of efficiency and character are unequalled in the world. Character I include
with emphasis because it is often overlooked when judging the relative merits of
different Forces."

Amongst those who supported him so loyally and effectively at Scotland Yard, Sir
Melville Macnaghten, Superintendent Frederick Williamson and Chief-Inspector
William Melville have already been mentioned. Others whose names frequently
appear in the records of causes célebres were Inspector (later Sir Patrick)
Quinn, who went after Pigott the forger when the latter fled to Spain, and Chief
Inspector Frank Froest, who brought Jabez Balfour back from the Argentine and
who was concerned also in the Adolph Beck case. In the words of George Dilnot in
his interesting Story of Scotland Yard, "Sir Robert Anderson after honourable
and distinguished service for many years retired from the Criminal Investigation
Department in 1901." His friend Major-General J. C. Russell, C. V. 0, Equerry to
King Edward VII, wrote: - "I don’t know whether to congratulate you or to
condole with the State... As a wretched item in the Commonwealth I feel that my
person and goods are no longer so safe as they were." The New Year honours in
1896 had included the Companionship of the Order of the Bath, the decoration
being bestowed by Queen Victoria at Windsor. He found the lack of ceremony there
somewhat embarrassing, Her Majesty being seated in an armchair in the middle of
the drawing-room. His loyalty and veneration betrayed him into giving her hand a
real kiss instead of the correct purely ceremonial touch, and he noticed an
amused smile on her face as he bowed himself out. To his reief however, Sir
Fleetwood Edwards, who was in attendance, followed him to say that the Queen
wanted to know more about him. After relinquishing office, the rank of K. C. B.
(Knight Commander) was conferred on him by King Edward VII in 1901. Dr. Adler,
the Chief Rabbi, wrote: "The honour must be greatly enhanced by the
consciousness that it has been earned by diligent labour. ‘Seest thou a man
diligent in his business? He shall stand before Kings.’"

Amongst other letters of congratulation which gave him special pleasure was one
from Inspector Kirchner quoting Browning’s lines, "The best is yet to be, The
last of life for which the first was made," and one from Superintendent Donald
Swanson who wrote: "It was with real pleasure that I read this morning that my
old master was the recipient of honour from H. M. the King. Everybody I have
spoken to here is pleased." Every Christmas thereafter brought greetings from
Mr. Swanson; in 1917 he wrote, "My best wishes to Lady Agnes and you my dear
former master. I often think of you and your kindnesses to me which are
remembered with pleasure and are impossible to forget." The reply said, "I was
greatly gratified by your remembrance of me. My very pleasant memories of my
service at ‘the Yard’ are mainly associated with the Staff of the department,
and very specially with my senior officers. I don’t believe there was one of you
who had an unkind thought about me... Very heartily do I wish you all good
during the year about to begin. ‘Tis a sad and a solemn time we are living in.
As for me, its sadness would overwhelm me were it not for the Faith and the Hope
which become more real and more gladdening as the days go by." In a letter to
myself after my father’s death Mr. Swanson said, "Yes, certainly you have my
willing permission to publish any letter to me from my dear respected master, if
it will help you to portray his character as I found him during the many years I
was under him... He was able, just, firm, good and kind. We never knew an
unpleasantness, though we differed sometimes, but very seldom and then over very
trivial matters. I am conscious that I owe him very much and shall always feel
grateful. Under him were spent the happiest of my thirty-five years’ service."

Another chapter will tell of Sir Robert’s long campaign, waged both before and
after his retirement, for drastic reforms in the methods of dealing with
criminals and crime.


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  CHAPTER 5: 05. CRIMINALS AND CRIME, A PIONEER.
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CHAPTER V. CRIMINALS AND CRIME. A PIONEER

Sir Robert Anderson has had a remarkable and rare opportunity for studying and
becoming acquainted with most existing forms of crime, and also with the manner
and working of our criminal punishment system. His views therefore are worthy of
the utmost respect and consideration. The Liverpool Post.

WE justly deplore the barbarity with which past generations treated their
criminals. The elaborate folly of our present methods will excite the wonder of
generations to come." These are the opening words of the book Criminals and
Crime published in 1907 and based upon a series of articles in various journals
from 1891 onwards, notably The Nineteenth Century, the editor of which, SirJames
Knowles, was a strong supporter of the campaign for reform. "But he is a
pioneer," said Lord Guthrie the Scottish judge when I was introduced to him in
South Africa as the son of Sir Robert Anderson. The following pages will in some
measure show the truth of the remark.

One plea which met with a good deal of misunderstanding and misrepresentation,
not to say hostility in some quarters, was for a new approach to the problem of
"professional crime." Habitual criminals belonged to two classes. One consisted
of those who were so utterly weak or so hopelessly wicked that they could not
abstain from crime. Some of these were hereditary criminals who were allowed to
beget children to follow in their steps. Such children were brought up in
surroundings which would be fatal to the offspring of the best of men; and then
we were proud of having efficient police to capture them and well-ordered gaols
in which to cage them! But the other class were those who were criminals by
deliberate choice, pursuing a career of crime with full appreciation of its
risks. A certain man of good education and address was visited in prison by a
minister of religion. When the latter voiced his distress at finding him in such
a position, the man asked whether one who was keen on fox-hunting gave it up
when he had a fall. "I have had a bad fall and no mistake," he said, "but I
count on better luck another time." This case was thoroughly typical, said my
father. For such a man a criminal career was a life of adventure such as would
compare favourably with most kinds of sport. He was not a weak creature who
yielded to uncontrollable impulse. Stories of Benson and Raymond, two men of
this class, have been given in the chapter on Scotland Yard. Such men, the elite
of the profession, lived well; they could name their favourite wine and knew a
good cigar. A trip to Brighton was an ordinary incident in their easy lives, and
a winter visit to Monte Carlo nothing out of the way. They were responsible for
the elaborate frauds, the great forgeries, jewel larcenies and bank robberies,
which now and then startled the public.

They were few in number and as well known to the police as were the members of
the Cabinet. The men who were competent to finance as well as to organise great
crimes were so few, said my father once, that the room in which he was then
writing would suffice to seat them comfortably. But there were many others who
might fairly be called criminals by profession; they too were well known to the
police, and a single wing of any large prison would hold them all.

Referring especially to those who were trained and accomplished burglars, he
described the routine at Scotland Yard when a skilled burglary was being
investigated, or such a theft as that of an oil-painting from a public gallery.
The problem could not be solved by sitting down in the Sherlock Holmes style
with a wet towel round one’s head. The men competent to plan and execute the
crime were limited in number and were definitely known. Some would be "doing
time" at the moment; others would be known to be out of London; yet others could
be proved to have been at their registered addresses on the night in question.
The list thus became reduced to working dimensions; and it was not difficult to
go on eliminating one name after another until the thief was discovered.

If evidence was forthcoming (and there was the difficulty), he would be arrested
and sentenced to perhaps five years’ penal servitude. In less than four he would
be back at the practice of his profession. After another good run during which
he might commit ten, twenty, fifty crimes, enjoying a "high old time," he would
be caught again; and the same farce would be re-enacted. This routine my father
described as the "shot drill" of the C. I. D, referring to the obsolete
punishment of having to carry cannon-balls from one spot to another in a prison
yard and then carry them back again. The energies of the most highly trained
police in Europe were expended in ways bearing a striking resemblance to this.
The case of a ladder larceny in which "Quiet Joe" was implicated was mentioned
in the previous chapter. If the men had been asked what they would do on the
termination of their sentence they would have replied "why, go back to business
of course; what else?" And so he records that the year after he left office he
recognised his old friends in the newspaper accounts of a similar case at
Bristol. The C. I. D. noticed that the men were meeting at a free library and
studying provincial directories; they were tracked to a bookshop where they
bought a map of Bristol, and to other shops at which they got the plant for a
ladder larceny. They then went to Bristol where they took observations of the
house they had fixed upon. At that stage the local police, warned by the Yard,
seized the criminals, who were given a nine months’ sentence on a minor issue.
The burglars openly expressed their gratification at the police not having
waited to "catch them fair on the job," as they were both over sixty and another
penal servitude sentence would have about finished their career. As it was they
would live without expense for a short time, and a paternal Government would see
that the money found on them would be given back on their release to enable them
to buy more jemmies and wire and screws, so that no time would be lost in
getting to work again. Such was our punishment-of-crime system "Quiet Joe" made
a good income at his "profession," wrote my father; but he was a thriftless
fellow who spent his earnings freely and never paid income tax. "Old Carr" was
of a different type. Never having done an honest day’s work in his life, he was
a thief a financer and trainer of thieves and a notorious receiver of stolen
property. "Upon his conviction," runs the story, "I was appointed statutory
administrator of his estate. I soon discovered that he owned a good deal of
valuable house property; but this I declined to deal with, taking charge only of
his portable securities for money. The value of this part of his estate may be
estimated by the fact that he brought an action against me for maladministration
of it, claiming £5000 damages!... The man lived in crime and by crime; and old
though he was, and rolling in wealth, he once more resumed the practice of his
profession. He was arrested abroad during a trip taken to dispose of some stolen
notes, the proceeds of a Liverpool crime, and his evil life came to an end in a
foreign prison." No words surely, argued the C. I. D. Chief, could be needed to
point the moral of such cases. The criminals who kept society in a state of
siege were as strong as they were clever. If the risk of a few years’ penal
servitude gave place to the certainty of final loss of liberty on conviction,
these professionals would put up with the tedium of an honest life.

What, then, was the suggested new method for dealing with these professional
criminals? The proposal was that any convict who had been registered or licensed
under certain Acts, when again convicted, should be further charged with being a
professional criminal, and the judge might then proceed to an after-verdict
inquiry upon that issue. This should be an open inquiry and the accused should
be given adequate opportunity for meeting the charge. Then, if as the result of
such judicial investigation a man was adjudged a professional criminal, he
should be registered as such, and solemnly warned that if by his own wilful act
he was convicted of further crime, he would for an indefinite period be deprived
of a liberty which he used only to prey upon society. If at any time new
circumstances or proof of genuine moral reformation seemed to warrant it, he
could be restored to liberty. In a lecture he said: "I do not mean that these
men [the professional criminals] are to be numbered by tens, but they are to be
numbered only by hundreds. We have in London five hundred burglaries a year;...
they would be the work of probably not more than fifty men. What an outrage that
these fifty professional burglars, who are perfectly well known to Scotland
Yard, should be permitted to be at large, a terror to the community." With
regard to armed burglars, he considered that when a burglar was found with a
revolver in addition to the legitimate "instruments of his profession" he ought
to be given a life sentence. In an interview my father said: "During my time at
Scotland Yard I acted as administrator to almost every high-class professional
criminal, and I know who and what they are and how comparatively few they are.
You ask: Would shutting up a few dozen criminals really make any sensible
difference in the crime of the country? And I reply that is precisely what I
mean. My opinion is based on definite facts and a knowledge of the personnel of
the criminal fraternity."

"One of the best and boldest utterances in the January magazines is Dr.
Anderson’s article in the Contemporary on the means for the abolition of
organised crime" was the opinion of a reviewer as far back as 1891. Ten years
later an article in theNineteenth Century evoked a great deal of comment mainly
favourable; an exception being The Times which, after saying that few persons
had larger experience with reference to the criminal classes, proceeded to
accuse him of wanting to put down crime by terror and harshness. However my
father was able to turn the tables rather neatly when in Criminals and Crime he
quoted a Times leader of 1891 strongly supporting his views. The Spectator
received the proposals with favour, saying that the suggestions seemed simply a
precept of common sense. Many other papers, London and provincial, drew
attention to the articles and the book. The view of a Church journal was that,
while on the surface the scheme seemed almost terrifying, beneath the surface it
might be found as merciful as it would prove to be effective. Whilst the
proposals regarding professional crime attracted most attention many other
matters were brought forward. The whole "punishment-of-crime" theory, was
attacked as in the following words: "In any sensible and civilised community the
aim ought to be to deal with the criminal and never mind the crime. If the crime
is a chance offence our main effort ought to be to save the offender; if a
deliberate crime the main thought should be the protection of the community."

Sir John Bridge, one of the most experienced London magistrates, had said: "I
have nothing to do with punishing crime. That rests with a Higher Power. My
business is to protect the community." Major Arthur Griffiths, one of H. M.
Inspectors of Prisons, had declared that the prison population might be classed
in two main divisions, those offenders who ought never to have been sent to
prison at all and those who ought never to be released. "I maintain" said my
father, "that no one should ever be sent to prison in the aimless and
unintelligent way in which so many offenders are committed. Every committal
ought to be with some definite object, whether it be the prisoner’s punishment,
or his reformation or merely his detention, or some combination of these aims."

"Let us judge of our present methods by results," he wrote. "Are the sentences
of imprisonment imposed by our courts in fact deterrent? And does the
imprisonment as now administered reform those who are subjected to it?... As
regards the first question, do the sentences now imposed create a dread of the
gaol in the minds of the class from which the prison population is recruited?
Here two facts claim notice. First, a considerable proportion of commitments are
due merely to default in paying money penalties. Secondly, the majority of
direct commitments are for terms almost as brief as the above. The opinion of
those in a position to judge is that so far from having a deterrent effect, the
result is that persons who specially need such an influence come to regard
imprisonment as a commonplace incident in their lives..

"As regards reformation; human nature being what it is, a few weeks in gaol may
do much to demoralise, even to degrade, but practically nothing to elevate or
reform. But do not the severe sentences imposed by the superior courts avail to
make the law a terror to evil-doers? The answer may be gleaned from the
notorious fact that criminals return again and again to penal servitude. For
even the discipline of a convict prison has no terrors for men who have become
gradually accustomed to a life in gaol by a preliminary course of short
sentences.

"If it be reasonable to expect that no one shall be imprisoned without a
definite and intelligent purpose, is it not equally reasonable to insist that,
when that purpose is the reformation of the offender, the discipline and
treatment shall be adapted to bring about that result?" Reform in the character
of prison buildings was strongly urged, especially in the matter of windows
designed to shut out all view of external nature such as might soothe and
possibly elevate the mind. Asylum prisons were advocated for those who gave
proof that they could not be trusted with liberty; for there were the utterly
weak as well as the utterly wicked. Discipline and industry must be enforced,
such a prison being made self-supporting. But there should be as much liberty
and opportunity for mental and moral improvement as compatible with discipline;
and prisons should be open to all the influences of Christianity, not only to
official religious services. "It is nothing short of a scandal," he wrote, "that
in a Christian and Protestant country the inmates of our gaols should know
nothing of religion save what comes to them officially like the water and the
gas. To turn from the soul to the intellect; what means are now available to
develop or excite a prisoner’s mental powers? Short-sentence prisoners have
practically nothing. And the only provision for those who are committed for
longer terms is that the use of library books is allowed as a reward for good
conduct. But what use would it be to Bill Sykes or to Hodge if you gave him all
the thirty-five volumes of Wisdom while you wait! Why should not prisoners on
one night a week have a religious meeting of a kind fitted to win them, and on
another night a popular lecture calculated to interest and instruct them? By all
means make them work hard; and punish severely for idleness or misconduct; but
don’t starve either their souls or their brains."

Apart from the indefinitely prolonged seclusion of those who deliberately outlaw
themselves by making crime the business of their lives, there should be an
"habitual offender division," in which the convict will obtain even more
generous treatment than is now either politic or justifiable. There are two ways
of preventing a dog from biting one’s neighbours. One is by the fear of the
lash, the other by chaining him up. If the criminal is to be restrained by the
fear of a measured sentence, the discipline ought to be severe; if by his being
kept in seclusion then severity is unnecessary. Our methods of dealing with
unpremeditated "chance crimes" due to moral weakness, sudden temptation, or the
pressure of want, he considered to be "deplorable both in their severity and in
their effects." The restitution of stolen property ought to be insisted on. A
burglar should not be set at liberty until he had disclosed what he had done
with his booty. This would go far to abolish the market for stolen property and
even put an end to stealing. If necessary the thief should compensate the
individual he had robbed by work done and paid for in prison.

Very strong support came from Mr. Justice (Sir Alfred) Wills, of whom it was
said that in all the great qualities that go to the making of a just and
merciful judge he was pre-eminent. After its criticisms of the 1901 Nineteenth
Century article Sir Alfred wrote a long letter to The Times emphatically
agreeing with my father’s main contentions and proposals, and pleading for a
prompt and effective inquiry into them. The following year Mr. Justice
Phillimore in the charge to a Grand Jury drew attention to the articles and said
that the matter had been brought before the King’s Bench by one of the oldest,
most experienced and most humane of their number, with the result that
communications had passed between the Home Office and the judges with regard to
devising some new form of detention, more or less permanent, for old offenders.
When Criminals and Crime appeared in 1907 Sir Alfred Wills wrote to my father,
"I should like to find some opportunity for saying in public how thoroughly I
agree with almost - I think I might even say with quite all that you say... I
like particularly your objection to the ‘punishment of crime’ theory... I can
only now thank you heartily for your manly and courageous support of true
principles, and your plain speaking upon matters with respect to which
hesitation, cowardice and mealy-mouthedness have already done such infinite
harm." In 1908 Mr. Herbert (later Viscount) Gladstone introduced a Bill " to
make better provision for the prevention of crime," which adopted some of the
proposals which had for so long been advocated by my father, although in 1901
the then Home Secretary had stated that there was nothing in them which could be
made the basis of legislation! The measure, however, suffered severely in its
passage through the House. "I found," wrote Sir Alfred Wills, "that as you say
everything of value in Part II was gone." And again: "The ‘humanitarians,’ as
they audaciously call themselves, have scored this time, and I suppose they will
until a set of statesmen arise, if they ever do, who have views of their own and
will stick to them regardless of consequences when a great principle is at
stake."’ Sir Robert himself said "The chief merit of this Bill is in the
recognition of the principle that the protection of the public is a
justification for prolonged sentences. But this recognition is made in a halting
and incidental way. The Bill fails to provide for the numerous class of cases in
which, though the actual crime charged is not in itself a grave one, inquiry
would satisfy the court that the offender is a professional criminal who ought
to be detained indefinitely. If the sick were treated with the folly which marks
our dealing with criminals, a man with a violent cough would be sent to hospital
though possibly suffering from nothing worse than a fly in his throat or a
common cold, whilst a slight cough would be neglected although it might be a
symptom of some fatal disease."

Regarding the relationship of drink and crime, Sir Robert remarked that judge
after judge had said drink was at the root of the bulk of the crime of the
country. That, he said, must be taken with a certain reservation. Crimes of
violence and brutality were nearly always the result of drink. But gambling and
betting also led to crime and misery; so did overcrowding and dirt and
everything that tended to immorality and the lowering of the standard of life. I
remember his saying that he had asked one of the most experienced of the London
magistrates what proportion of the ordinary cases of crime coming before him he
considered to be wholly or in part the result of drink. The reply, which he
confessed was a surprise to him, was that drink was an element in nine out of
every ten cases. So great an advance has been made in respect of the treatment
of first offenders, especially of juveniles, that I deal only very briefly with
this aspect of Sir Robert’s penology. "The aim," he argued, "should be by all
possible means to reform a young offender and give him a new start in life." To
this end he advocated corporal punishment in suitable cases - anything in fact
rather than gaol. In reply to those who objected to punishments which they
classified as degrading, although affording an alternative to imprisonment in
the case of youthful offenders, it was urged that no punishment degrades an
offender so thoroughly as one that allows him to make his crime a subject of
boasting. The Irish story related in the first chapter of this book was given as
an example of the opposite effect being produced. "I will not," he said, "insult
the intelligence of the reader by explaining the moral of my story. And I will
only add that if offenders of this class were punished in the manner that public
schoolboys are punished, and then turned out at once to rejoin their companions,
an appearance in a police court would cease to be a matter for boasting!" The
right of boys to go wrong was challenged: "I advocate reforms that will reduce
the ranks of the army of crime; I plead also for measures that will stop the
recruiting." Before the unemployment problem had become acute, and before two
wars had accustomed the British people to conscription, it was pointed out that
the sort of boys who become "street arabs" and hooligans often made splendid
soldiers and sailors. And the suggestion was that magistrates should be
empowered to deal with any lad between the ages of, say, sixteen and twenty-one
who habitually made the streets his home and had no visible means of
subsistence. The Earl of Meath, founder of the Empire Day Movement, having seen
an article by my father in 1910 on the best way of dealing with young offenders,
drew his attention to the Duty and Discipline series of leaflets, and asked him
to write one dealing specially with the subject of corporal punishment for
children not amenable to milder influences. Lord Meath said: "There is so much
humanitarian sentiment to be met with in the present day that there appears to
be a real danger lest all control over the rising generation should be thrown to
the winds." The Aliens Act required strengthening and honest administration. No
other country in Europe tolerated the presence of alien criminals. Why then
should such men as anarchist conspirators be allowed to live in Britain? The
ne’er-do-wells and known criminals of other countries should be excluded. "Why
should a professional criminal be admitted because he happens to have a
first-class ticket on the Channel boat? He would not be fit for his ‘profession’
if he could not dress like a ‘toff’ and pay for a high-class revolver of the
newest pattern."

Accusations of hardness, lack of sympathy and the like were not wanting. In his
letter to The Times, already quoted, Sir Alfred Wills had said: "Dr. Anderson is
undoubtedly fearless, and pace his critic in your columns, in my opinion a
merciful and fair- minded man." Another kind of light was shed on the question
by a writer in the Daily News: "I believe Sir Robert Anderson to be one of the
best friends of those who can be reclaimed, whether young or of mature age. He
is in full sympathy with the boys (an average of 500 annually) whom Mr. William
Wheatley has in hand, and the Superintendent certainly looks upon him as a very
steadfast friend. I happened to be in the chapel in Little Wild Street when Sir
Robert gave an address to nearly 500 children belonging to the schools of the
St. Giles Christian Mission, and Lady Agnes Anderson distributed some hundreds
of prizes. It strikes me that this is service worthy even of the Humanitarian
League." Mr. Wheatley, on hearing of my father’s death, wrote: "I am more than
grieved to read this morning of the passing Home of my very dear old friend, Sir
Robert. Words fail me to express the deep feeling of my heart." A fact which is
probably not generally known was mentioned in Criminals and Crime. Speaking of
one of the organisations which had attacked him as being too hard on their
protégés the "professionals," the author said: "I must add that never a, day
passes in which the much-maligned police do not give more help to weak and
deserving criminals than this sort of society has rendered during all its
history."

I close this chapter with a few South African opinions and suggestions in the
years 1945 and 1946. Their similarity to what Sir Robert Anderson was saying
fifty years ago is too obvious to need pointing out. Dr. F. E. T. Krause, late
Judge-President in the Orange Free State, was quoted recently as having said,
"The doctrine of retribution and revenge was and is still now the underlying
principle of our penal laws... It was not and is not now the prescribed function
or duty of the prison staff to do anything towards the actual reform of the
prisoner. All prisoners are dealt with as if they conform to a single pattern or
type... What is needed is not a reasonable interpretation and a liberal
application of the regulations, but an entire change and abandonment of a
barbarous, wrong and purposeless system..

Reformatories have now been placed under the jurisdiction of the Education
Department. This has been the first tangible proof of a change in the policy
which regarded the ’crime’ and not the criminal as the principal factor in
awarding punishment..

Most of our country prisons still follow the dungeon pattern - thick iron bars,
slits of windows, no sun, faulty ventilation and semi-darkness in the cells." At
a conference in Johannesburg on penal reform, Mr. W. G. Hoal, Secretary for
Justice and Director of Prisons, said that the gaols were overcrowded with
persons many of whom should never be there. The short sentence for a trivial
offence, followed by committals for longer periods according to a carefully
graded scale, defeated the whole object of imprisonment. The head of a
reformatory stated that it was nonsense to say that the punishment must fit the
crime; it should fit the criminal. The Cape Times in a leading article on the
above conference said: "Time after time it has been emphasised by the highest
authorities that thousands of prisoners are housed in our gaols who should never
be there. Modern observation has proved beyond doubt that prisons create more
criminals than they frighten or cure. Only with a drastic overhaul of the
present methods of conviction and detention is there hope of our prisons
fulfilling their rightful function of reformatories." And Mr. Justice Twentyman
Jones is reported in the Cape Times of 23rd August 1945 as saying with reference
to lawlessness among coloured youths, that it was time some institution was
established with full powers to round up these youths and put them where they
would have no opportunity to commit crimes. The Government should take the
matter up and not wait for the courts to commit the youths to gaol, because when
they came out they only resumed their criminal activities. A commission on penal
reform was appointed by the South African Government in November 1945. The terms
of reference include inquiry into the general objects of punishment; the
desirability or otherwise of short terms of imprisonment and the means by which,
if undesirable, they may be avoided; the classification and proper control of
penal institutions and of the inmates; also the development of suitable forms of
education for all prisoners. In a leading article on the commission under the
heading "Prisons on Trial," the Cape Times says, "The need for a radical
examination of the prison and punishment system of the Union is obvious. All
civilised countries have at last made up their minds that the true object of
imprisonment ought to be not so much the desire to exact revenge as the desire
to reform the criminal. The long history of the penal system... gives fairly
clear evidence that the deterrent effect of punishment has been grossly
overrated... It is plain that our present penal system is a hopeless failure and
needs complete renovation."


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  CHAPTER 6: 06. FRIENDSHIPS.
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CHAPTER VI. FRIENDSHIPS In one aspect Sir Robert Anderson’s theological writings
reflect the man - his sturdy Ulster inheritance and training, his clear-cut,
logical habit of thought, his impatience with any form of "mediating" theology,
his capacity for dealing hard straight blows, and his unsparing condemnation of
anything he judged a departure from the truth. What they do not reflect in
adequate measure is his fundamental geniality, beautiful simplicity of spirit,
and abundant kindness of heart. These are enshrined not in books but in the
hearts of all his friends.

E. H., in The Christian 28th November 1918.

"SOME who only knew Sir Robert from his writings and public utterances may have
missed any clue to the traits which endeared him to his more intimate friends.
He had a rare genius for friendship." So wrote one of the oldest of these, Mr.
J. W. C. Fegan. The expression "a genius for friendship" may sound almost trite;
but I know not how else to account for that which won the warm affection of a
host of men and women of high and low estate and widely differing character and
interests.

One can think of few temperaments in some respects more dissimilar than those of
Dr. Handley Moule, sometime Bishop of Durham, and my father. Yet there was
between them a close bond of understanding and Christian affection. When this
memoir was first being prepared Dr. Moule said: "It will be a personal happiness
to me that anything affecting me should be included in your memoir of your
father, that friend whose never-failing friendship was for long years one of the
treasured possessions of my life. Anything to make those who had not the
privilege of his friendship know something of his rare character, its gifts and
the many-sided power behind them, must be of value for both minds and hearts."

Dr. Stuart Holden, who contributed the Foreword to the first edition, in
thanking me for letting him see an intimate letter, wrote: "It gives me no
surprise, as I have had the privilege in recent years of getting many such a
glimpse into the heart of love and tenderness sometimes disguised by an austere
manner." The letter was one asking forgiveness for some expressions
misunderstood by a great friend. "I now recognise," it said, “that my words are
open to the construction you have placed upon them". and I wish frankly to
withdraw them, and to express unreservedly my deep and sincere regret for the
pain they have given you. Forgive me this wrong. And may I venture to hope that
it will be ’as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you,’ reaching on to and
including the ’no more remembrance’?”

Reference has already been made to the life-long friendships formed at " T.
C.D." and in the south and west of Ireland. Some of them, notably with the
Blands, Trenches and Talbot-Crosbies, and the family of the Rev. J.
Denham-Smith, have been continued to the third and fourth generation. But all
along the way his devotion to the life of Christian service and witness was
repaid by the love and affection bestowed upon him; whilst many whose
acquaintance was made in the course of official or public duty became warm
friends. But it was only to those who got beneath the surface that his real
character was revealed. After his death Mr. Fegan wrote in the Christian “When I
was on my first evangelistic visit in Kerry, Mr. F. C. Bland, who was - to use a
word of his own coining - a very judgmatical man, said to me in his
characteristic vein of affectionate raillery, ’Bob Anderson is a daring
impostor. He assumes an air of stoical reserve ; but the truth is that his heart
is as tender as a woman’s.’ In all the varying experiences of a friendship of
forty-five years I have found it so. I have often said to those who took
exception to some harsh phrase of his in controversy that if I was in deep
sorrow or trouble I knew no friend to whom I could turn with greater assurance
for heartfelt and comforting sympathy. . . . I must say no more. I could not
withhold this much in tribute to one of the staunchest, tenderest friends that
ever man had."

Association with Lord Aberdeen in the work of Royal Commissions led to a sincere
personal friendship, invitations to Haddo House following the official
intercourse. Letters to my mother tell of one of these visits, apparently in
1876. (The letters are undated.) On the evening of his arrival he said : “I had
a first séance with Lord A. over business; then a walk by the lakes; after lunch
a drive with Lady Aberdeen and Lady Harriet Lindsay; a game of tennis with Lady
Katherine afterwards. Since then I’ve been romping with the children (Lady
Harriet’s). I so wish you and Artie were here. Now on coming to my room I find
the fire lighted and everything most snug. “Lord A. assured me he liked his
friends to act as if they were really at home, and if I wanted a fire early in
the day, or tea at any hour, I was to ring and order it. As for the tea, it is
to be had in the hall at 4. 30 and goes on till 6, so that I am in clover.
Indeed I never was in a pleasanter house (except Ardfert !) or with kinder
people. Lord A. interrupted me by coming in to explain that ladies were scarce
and that he couldn’t find one for me, but asked me to sit next his sister’s ’
young man,’ Lord Balfour of Burleigh, whom I know in official circles, a very
nice fellow indeed. We sat down 16 to dinner, a very swell affair; the first
time I ever dined off silver plate, save at a city dinner! After dinner we had
some music, Mr. Turle playing much - for 50 years the organist of Westminster
Abbey, a very nice old gentleman. At 10. 30 we all tooled off to a little chapel
or meeting-room, and Lord A. conducted family prayers. I counted 12 servant
women and 5 men. Afterwards I had some talk with Lady A. whom I found to be a
true Christian. I am now gone to bed." The following day: “I have just had my
romp with the children. I couldn’t have believed I should be so thoroughly at
home. I have only wanted you to share it all to make me supremely happy." Next
evening, Sunday : “I feel I have really made friends here. I went to the Parish
Church in the morning. Two omnibuses started, one with the servants, women
inside, men out ; the other with the ladies and those who preferred driving to
walking. . . . At 6. 30 p. m. Lord A. read the evening service, Mr. Turle at the
harmonium, a new one presented to Lady K. by the servants. Dinner at 8 and
sacred music all the evening." A visit in 1884 was on the occasion of a
reception to Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Gladstone; he was at that time the famous
Victorian Premier, the opponent of Disraeli and Salisbury. Monday 15th September
was the great day. About midnight a description was written to my mother

“The people had collected in hundreds in front of the house, awaiting the G.
O.M., [the Grand Old Man, ] as Mr. Gladstone was popularly called.• At 6. 30
Lord Aberdeen who had gone to old Meldrum to meet them rode up amid cheers. A
few minutes afterwards arrived the Gladstones in a carriage-and-four escorted by
about 300 of the tenantry on horseback. The Gladstones came up to the house
where all the party had gathered round Lady Aberdeen, the cheering being worthy
of some 1200 Scottish throats. After the G. O.M. had shaken hands with the Haddo
guests, one of the oldest tenants addressed a few words of welcome. Meanwhile
the ’cavalry’ had formed up under the balcony, the people on foot on the grass
beyond, and Mr. Gladstone made a speech in reply. All this you can read in the
papers. The dinner was a big one, as a number of local celebrities were invited.
The biggest swells among the new arrivals were Lord and Lady Elgin. . . . P. S.
(Tuesday). I am at the library table, and the G. O.M. has just sat down beside
me at the next blotter and might look over my shoulder!"

Again, late that night: “After I wrote to-day we had the photo of the
house-party. Then I got Mr. Glyn, Lord Elgin and Mr. Henry Gladstone, and we had
two good hours tennis. We had a big dinner again; 34 sat down." I still have the
photo of this group, which included, in addition to the Gladstones and Aberdeens
and the present Marquess as a small boy, the Rev, the Hon. E. Carr Glyn,
afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, and Lady Mary Glyn, the Earl and Countess of
Elgin (he was Viceroy of India 1894 - 99), Mr. Henry Gladstone, and various
Scottish notables. The last letter from Haddo has a postscript: “I think my fate
is sealed and I suppose I’ll stay another day. We have had a particularly
pleasant party this evening; the Glyns, Lady Tavistock, Mrs. and Miss Hogg, Dr.
Donaldson and Mr. Henry Gladstone. We had great fun all round, and very definite
appeals to me to stay another day. Mr.. Sholto Douglas comes to-morrow. I had a
long quiet chat with Lady Aberdeen this evening. She and A. were kinder and more
cordial than ever in the leave-taking." His hostess wrote in reply to a
thanks-letter: “I hope there may be many repetitions of your visit. It is a
great comfort to me to think that you are to be the one with whom Aberdeen is to
work for the next year or two." And his host: “Yes, I think Miss Hogg’s ideas,
for instance, underwent a revolution or got a revelation as to the formidably
staid and respected Mr. Anderson!"

Mention of Mr. Sholto Douglas recalls another incident. Writing the same year
from Douglas Support, Coatbridge, my father said: “This morning I drove with
Lady de Crespigny to see Bosworth Castle; we are sworn friends. I find Mr.
Douglas had been warning the ladies that all levity was to cease when I came,
and nothing to be spoken about except evangelical and prophetic topics. Lady de
C. confessed they had looked forward to my advent with anything but pleasure!"
When at Haddo again the following year, he wrote describing a Sunday: “Professor
Henry Drummond and I absconded after breakfast and made for the Free Kirk, where
I occupied the pulpit. . . . Tea at 5. 30 and Chapel at 6. 30. It was full and
many were shut out. Lord A. read the service and Professor D. gave the sermon.
Dinner at 8. 45, and after a spell of talk and some sacred music, I was very
glad to see A. bring out a heap of hymn-books, and we all had some hymns before
separating. It is very happy to see this element in the midst of such princely
and luxurious living."

There is a beautiful photograph of the Haddo Chapel in We Twa, the memoirs of
Lord and Lady Aberdeen. Lady Aberdeen tells there that Archbishop Tait advised
against a formal consecration, as this would involve its belonging to and being
under the authority of one particular Church. He thought, and the Aberdeens
agreed, that it would be much better for it to be nominally just a room in the
house, built in the form of a chapel, and dedicated to the special service of
God. Accordingly it was opened on 11th December 1881 by a service conducted by
Mr. Carr Glyn, then Vicar of Kensington. My father seems to have lost touch
somewhat for a time with the Aberdeens, possibly on account of their very
divergent views on the Irish Home Rule controversy. When Governor-General of
Canada, however, Lord Aberdeen wrote thanking him for the gift of a book, and
kindly added : “If ever I can be of any use, e. g. in showing attention to any
friends to whom you might wish to give letters of introduction, pray let me
know." And a diary entry during a visit to Dublin at a later date reads : “To
Vice-regal Lodge to tea. Aberdeen as friendly as of old." The last letter I have
come across was one thanking my father for an "expression, most warm and true,
of deep sympathy" on the death as the result of an accident on 16th December
1909, of the Hon. Archie Gordon at the early age of twenty-five. A photograph in
the uniform of A. D.C. to his father, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland,
accompanied the letter, and a booklet giving the story of his short life. Under
the photo are the words: "Thanks be to God Who giveth us the victory." Ties of
warm friendship and fellowship in the Gospel and Bible study were formed with
the Rev. Sholto D. C. Douglas, mentioned above, Rector of All Souls Church,
Langham Place, and afterwards of St. Silas, Glasgow.

After his marriage to Miss Violet Paget visits to their summer home at Balmacara
on Loch Alsh became a delight. "Such a view!" runs a letter to my mother. "The
hills looked as they do in Herbert’s frescoes of the East, save that the
colouring far surpasses the East. Not a cloud from horizon to horizon, and a
panorama of lake and sea and mountain like Rigi and Derryquin in one. . . .
Evening service (Church of Scotland) at 6, which I took ; the little place
packed, the majority men, not a few of them kilted." In the summer of 1893 my
brother Alan and I were there with my father on a never-forgotten visit. Others
in the house- party were Dr. E. W. Bullinger, the Rev. H. L. C. and Mrs. de
Candole, Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Davidson, Count Moltke of Copenhagen, Mr. Alister
and the Hon. Mrs. Fraser, and Mr. Thomas Stockdale. Our hostess divided us into
major and minor prophets for the daily Bible Readings which made the Balmacara
visits so much more than the sheer enjoyment they were in any case. As ever my
father wrote home about it all. One letter tells of a visit to Skye: "We weighed
anchor in the Skeandhu for Portree at 11. 30. The occasion was to see Lord and
Lady Macdonald (Mr. D.’s cousins), and he came on board as soon as we arrived.
We had a very enjoyable run back, reaching home at 8, and dinner was late. Now
all the party are gone to bed, and I’ll follow. . . . P. S. I didn’t. I took up
the Graphic and became so interested in the sinking of the Victoria that before
going up I read the report of the court-martial. Then I saw a steamer with
brilliant lights coming as it seemed ashore. This morning I found she was the
Iolanthe, Sir Donald Currie’s yacht. The day broke exquisitely, and throughout
it was one of Mrs. D.’s ’blue days’ in which everything looks unnaturally
beautiful. . . . The evening meeting was crammed; Sir D. Currie, Sir J. Pease,
Mr. Shaw Stewart and others (three M. P.s) ; also a number of the crews of the
Jolanthe and Fire Fqy (R. Y.S.). Very solemn. Mr. Stewart and I went back with
Sir Donald and dined on board." His diary for 1892 records : "In the yacht to
Glenelg. Tea at the Master of Blantyre’s; then up the Glen to see the famous
Pictish tower, a wonderful ruin said to be 2000 years old." Warmhearted
invitations to Balmacara came year after year; and Mrs. Douglas in her
inimitable way describes the attractions of that lovely spot. To my mother she
wrote : "We are in a spell of Divine loveliness which no words out of the Bible
can describe. Even Balmacara is more like the New Earth than it has ever been;
and I have grudged every hour of it, feeling all through how your dear man would
revel in it all, how he would roast himself in the hot sun and grow speechless
in the beauty. I cannot tell how I long for you both to come and enjoy it with
us. Do pack up and come to-morrow, dear, dear people."

One summer our own family and our friends the Cootes went to Ramsgate, taking
two adjoining school buildings, complete with swimming-bath, playing-fields, and
other attractions for boys and girls. A letter from Mrs. Douglas containing some
choice sarcasm came to "My very dear friends" : "We wonder," she wrote, "at the
vulgarity of your preference for Ramsgate over Balmacara. . . . Ramsgate ! ! !
Well, it is nice to see the ’arrys enjoying themselves and to listen to the band
and watch the niggers. And the wild shrieks of the Pipes welcoming us at night,
as we come home in the sunset from the rugged Coolins or the lonely Lochs, of
course cannot compete with the music of the Spa ! But still we wonder at you ! "
Then follow more raptures about the beauties of the Highland home : "I feel I
could open my arms and take into them the scenes, the peat smells, the weird
lights, the lovely bare rocky heathery stretches, the Highland cattle and shaven
sheep, as if they were human things to hug and love. Don’t you feel just that
same sort of drawing towards the nigger minstrels and the donkeys on the sands,
and the elephantine hotels on the parade? I am sure you do!"

Another letter in July 1896, to my father, speaks of all the hills being lit up
with lights such as are only to be seen at "Bal." or in Heaven; "and we groaned
that you were not with us; we are having a proper honeymoon this time, expecting
no one except you or Bully, or such like odds and ends " - Bully being Dr.
Bullinger. A few days later: ’We are delighted to think that you will be an
’odds and ends’ with us. We will let you do exactly what you feel inclined for
from morning to night; unlimited tea, fresh made! What other inducements can we
offer? Absolute rest of mind and body. If you care to join us in Biblical
researches you shall; but we promise not to be scandalised if you snooze on the
beach instead, for we have great sympathy with what must be your longing to
think of nothing but food and air." A note thanking my parents for going to call
on Mr. and Mrs. Douglas when on a short visit to London says : "Yes, it was nice
of you to toil up to us so often, real friendly; but indeed I could as little
doubt your true and lasting friendship as I could Sholto’s love to me!" Visits
were often paid to Rossie Priory, Perthshire, the home of Lord and Lady
Kinnaird. Writing after my mother’s death, the Hon. Emily Kinnaird said: "Your
father and mother have been associated with our whole life, and we have such
happy recollections of his visits and her devotion to you all." My father’s
diary for 1908 records : "Chapel at 6. Full. Spoke on Luke 4:14-30. Bishop
Taylor Smith took the opening prayer. I spoke for near 50 minutes: very
attentive: ended with the story of my conversion . . . ." (Later) "Fourth day of
rain ! I perambulated the corridors ; from the end of mine to the end of the
picture room is 16o yards; the hall is 50 yards."

Yachting on the Clyde used to be enjoyed with special friends Mr. and Mrs.
William Sloan of Dunara, Helensburgh, whose eldest daughter was one day to be my
wife. The diary mentions my father’s preaching in the two parish kirks (Church
of Scotland) at Helensburgh and in the Congregational and United Free churches.
The Duncan Davidsons of Inchmarlo, Captain and Mrs. Bisset at Lessendrum, and
the Blackwoods at Gogar Mount near Edinburgh, were other folk in Scotland who
welcomed my parents. The "Reminiscence" in Blackwood’s Magazine were the basis
of the book The Lighter Side of my Official Life.

Besides frequent visits to the Dublin relations, Irish hospitality was extended
by the Barcrofts at Newry, the Boyds of Ballymacool, Lord Langford at Kilcock,
and Sir Algernon and Lady Coote of Ballyfin. A diary entry refers to a visit to
the latter: "At evening prayers I had all the household and a number of the
outside staff (31 in all) and gave them a talk on Acts xvii and God’s gifts to
us, forgiveness, life, sonship." Ballyfin, like Moore Abbey, not far away, has
since then passed into other hands.

One of the chief pleasures of my father’s later years came as a result of his
official duties. During the dynamite campaigns Scotland Yard officers were
stationed at various home and foreign ports: and at places such as Dover,
Folkestone, Calais and Boulogne their presence had proved of such value that it
was decided to continue their services. A gang of criminals had for years lived
in luxury on the contents of purses and pocketbooks stolen on the Channel
steamers. But some had far bigger game in the shape of valuable securities in
the ships’ treasure chests, keys for which they were able to secure. The C. I.D.
men were of great assistance to the French police in keeping watch on these
gentry, but there was always some danger of friction, and it was thought
advisable for the Chief to pay occasional unexpected visits. The railway company
who were also the owners of the steamers gave him a free pass between London and
Calais, very kindly making it available for himself and another. Not only so,
but they continued issuing the pass after his retirement from Scotland Yard.
This meant that my mother or one of us could accompany him on cross-ChanneTrips,
having lunch or tea on the French side. Often my people stayed at Dover,
crossing on fine days, and enjoying not only the trip but meeting friends and
acquaintances on board. In this way they got to know the Marine Superintendent,
Captain Dixon; the Harbour-Master, Captain Iron; as well as the Commanders of
the ships, amongst whom were Captains Bennett, Dane, Paine, Hancock, King and
Belchamber, some of whom became warm friends. A genuine welcome always came from
the railway officials as well as from the detective officers and others. My
mother and Sister too became familiar figures on the Admiralty Pier at Dover,
receiving friendly greetings on every hand. Amongst the fellow-passengers most
frequently met was Mr. Alfred Harmsworth, afterwards Lord Northcliffe, whom they
often saw in London also. In view of the supposed influence of newspaper
magnates in the making and unmaking of politicians and governments the following
note is of interest. (Mr. Asquith had resigned the Premiership in December 1916
and been succeeded by Mr. Lloyd George) "PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE, "LONDON, E. C.

"I 4th Jan. 1917.

"DEAR SIR ROBERT, - I would have replied before, but I have been out to the war.

"Miss Asquith is rather sanguine if she thinks we shall hear any more of Papa. I
understand that he has no desire for further work.

"Yours sincerely, "NORTHCLIFFE." When not crossing themselves my people used to
find constant interest in watching the sailing and arrival of the Channel
steamers. Many diary entries refer to this, such as - " Madame Sarah Bernhardt
and Company on board." Amongst the crowned heads and others mentioned are the
Kings of Spain and Portugal, the Shah of Persia, the Khedive of Egypt, the Crown
Prince and Princess of Sweden, the Maharajah of Jeypur. Other items in the
diaries are: "Passed Holbein on his swim about 1. 5 miles out. . . . Saw Lord
Roberts receive the Freedom of Dover." (Both on 28th August 1902). A few days
earlier: "Banquet to Officers of German Warship Stein"; and the same year:
"Procession of the Court of Guestling; Mayors of the Cinque Ports, etc." In
those days a trip from London to Calais and back in a day was not quite such a
trifle as it is now; and many people had unpleasant memories of the crossing.
When discussing the Channel Tunnel scheme during the visit to Walmer Castle,
mentioned in Chapter IV my father spoke of going over for pleasure Lord
Salisbury’s response was - " For pleasure?" However, when occasionally at
breakfast he decided to "go to France," everything possible used to be done by
the officials to make the journey by train and boat comfortable and pleasant,
and of course he. chose his day. From the diaries I find that thirty-seven
visits to Calais were made in 1898 and thirty-eight in 1902, and many almost
every year, most of them just from Dover. The view of the White Cliffs from the
Channel suggested thoughts to him besides the customary ones. When pleading for
prison reform in his book Criminals and Crime he wrote: "Some who read these
pages will know nothing of the structure of a gaol. When next they find
themselves upon a Calais steamer let them glance up at the prison on Dover
Cliffs, and realise that all those rows of cells are so designed as to prevent
the imnates from seeing the English Channel. . . . There may be gaols where no
outlook could be given that might not be deemed unsuitable. But here, if the
cells on the southern side were fitted with windows extending from wall to wall
and from floor to ceiling, the prisoner could look on nothing but sea and sky,
and in Nature’s brighter moods the far-off coast of France. And the prospect
might well make him pine for liberty with moistened eyes instead of with
clenched teeth and knitted brow."

Apart from the enjoyment of the sea trips, one of the great , attractions of
Dover was visiting the Worsfold Mowlls, the Martyn Mowlls and their families.
Years afterwards Mr. Rutley Mowll recalled "with happy memories those visits to
Whitfield; days of sparkling wit, delightful anecdotes, and spiritual joy." One
of the family, Dr. Howard Mowll, Archbishop of Sydney, wrote recently to my
sister:

"It was such a pleasure to hear from you. It brought back so many memories. I
always remember several of Sir Robert’s Bible Readings in our Hall in Dover,
especially his saying on one occasion, ’What is your conception of God? How few
have the Psalmist’s majestic conception of God !’ . . . His books are still a
great help to our theological students. Then I think of dear Lady Agnes and her
many kindnesses, and her pleasure when she saw me carrying a large Bible !"

Recalling those Dover days Colonel C. M. Davidson of His Majesty’s Bodyguard
wrote: "I look back with pleasure to the bright talks I enjoyed with Sir Robert
on Dover Pier - so full of interest and always impressing one with his Christian
faith. He was so consistent, and one always felt the better." My father’s 1912
diary records "a long talk with P., who declared himself an infidel and seemed
very hard, but softened somewhat at last." That talk was on Dover Pier.

Amongst the friends with whom my parents used to stay in England were the Barrow
Cadburys of Birmingham, Sir Victor and Lady Buxton in the Epping Forest, the
Herbert Apperleys and D. C. Apperley , the T. A. Dennys, the Boakes and the
Brand-Apperleys. There were, too, the Edward Trotters, Herbert Trittons, and
Hanburys, as well as the Fegans, Macalisters, and others mentioned elsewhere.
Referring to one of his visits to the Whit- wells at Oxford, my father’s diary
records : "Dined at All Souls. I sat at head of table with Prof. Dicey on left
and Prof. Edgeworth on right. . . . Very pleasant evening; told a series of
Irish and other stories." The Rev. W. Mitchell-Carruthers wrote after my
mother’s death: "How greatly I valued the friendship of your parents, and what a
delight your father’s annual visits to me in the days when I was at Holbrook."
(Mr. Carruthers was the rector.)

Some of the friends from across the Atlantic who visited our home were the Revs.
Dr. Harris Gregg, Dr. James Gray, Dr. Robert Cameron, Dr. A. C. Dixon, Dr. C. I.
Scofield, editor of the Scofield Bible, and Mr. Charles Alexander of the Torrey
Alexander and Chapman-Alexander Missions. Dr. Cameron wrote: "I want you to know
that I count it one of the highest joys of my life to have enjoyed your
fellowship." And Dr. Gray spoke of the possibility of meeting my father as one
of the great attractions of a visit to England. The recent war gives added
interest to this extract from a long letter in 1916 from General Ralph Prime of
Yonkers

"These two years of awful history have been full of intense concern for you with
all of us. I need not tell you that England and the English have the deepest
sympathy of all our people. I do not know of an American but thinks and feels
for your people. If we were all fellow-citizens of Great Britain we could not
feel more deeply for you. . . . We send you our best wishes and prayers for
God’s protecting care and grace. May the Good Lord have you and yours in his
keeping."

Other welcome visitors from overseas included the Hon. W. H. Edgar of Australia,
the Revs. Alexander Reese and Eldred Hercus of New Zealand, and the New Hebrides
missionaries Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Frater and the Rev. Fred. Paton. On hearing of
Sir Robert’s death, Dr. John Hoskin, K. C., of Toronto, wrote: "It is with much
deep sorrow of heart I learn that my very dear friend has been summoned Home. My
friendship for him was deep, and so long as I live I shall remember him." And
Miss Carpmael, Dr. Hoskin’s niece, has sent this kind appreciation of my father:

"He was so utterly sincere, so devoted to his Lord and so genuinely kind to all,
high or low, rich or poor, that he was greatly beloved wherever he went. . . .
My uncle when dying asked me, to read a passage from The Gospel and its
Ministry." My father was fortunate in the medical men whom be numbered amongst
his friends. Dr. T. Gilbart-Smith, one of the oldest of these, wrote once:
"Robert, my old friend, your friendship is one of the brightest spots in this
dark London." And years later Mrs. Gilbart-Smith said : "Oh, how Gilbart loved
him, I think more than any other man outside our own family." Another friend of
early Irish days was Dr. Hamilton Bland; right to the close of my father’s life
he had unbounded confidence in this beloved physician. Others who attended him
from time to time were drawn to him in a special degree; Mr. Mark Hovell said:
"I always thought of him more as a friend than a patient." At a time of
distressing heart weakness, Dr. Bezley Thorne wrote, "I am so thankful to learn
that you have had a restful night. Thank God for it." Although not treating him
professionally, Dr. Frederick Price became a warm family friend in later years.
"Your father," he wrote, "was a great man and his life had far-reaching
influence. He had a really great intellect; besides which he had a child-like
faith in Christ - not a frequent combination. I got to love him."

"Why, oh why did we not know each other in bygone years?" said the Rev. J. H.
Townsend; and a letter from the Rev. Dr. C. H. Waller ended, "Yours ever (but I
do love a scrimmage with you !)." Two letters began thus: "My dear old
over-worked Detective," and "My dear Darius, the friend of Daniel," the latter a
reference to Daniel in the Critics’ Den. Remembrance of the early Irish days is
in these other brief extracts. Mrs. Pery Knox Gore wrote: "Many and many a time
you and the dear old days are in my mind. God bless you, dear old friend. May He
in His own good time send you to be among us here again." Another letter,
referring to those times, begins: "Very dear old Andern, It is good to find you
are just the same affectionate old friend as of old." In lighter vein, thanking
him for a new book, Miss Bland of the Kerry family says: "You blessed man, not
only will I forgive you anything you have done (and that is saying a good deal),
but I will forgive you anything you may do!"

I can think of only one occasion when my father committed a real faux pas.
Shortly after I went to the Leys School he came to see me, and in the course of
conversation with the famous Head, Dr. W. F. Moulton, he introduced some of his
favourite criticisms of the Revised Version of the Bible. He told me afterwards
how if suddenly dawned on him that "the Doctor" in defending the Revisers was
using the word "we." He had had no idea that he was speaking to the Dr. Moulton,
as he put it. The latter, however, far from being offended, became a warm friend
and admirer, writing to him two years later: "No book of yours that I have seen
has failed to interest me greatly, and certainly this is no exception. I
sympathise deeply with your object."

He was referring to For His Name’s Sake, incorporated later in The Honour of His
Name (" A Plea for Reverence "). Dr. Moulton went on, however, to deprecate an
expression "strange pedantry" used in connection with two Revised renderings,
pleading that the words implied not merely inconsistency but falseness of
motive. He then kindly explained at some length the reasons which had decided
the choice of the English renderings; referring to the fact that a two-thirds
majority was required for alterations to the Authorised reading. The question
was the translation "King Eternal" in 1 Timothy 1:17; and " King of the Ages" in
Revelation 15:3.

Reference has been made in Chapter III to the attacks upon my father in
Parliament. One happy result was the way friends rallied to him. One of them
wrote in 1910 "My Dear Robert, - I always say that if there is one man who is
able to take care of himself it is you ! At the same time, when offensive things
are being said, it may be some little satisfaction to you to know that old
friends are as they were with unshaken confidence. The sickening personalities
of public life at the present time must disgust all reasonable men.

Always yours affectionately, LINDSAY TALBOT-CROSBIE. And this came from Lady
Tritton:

"I have been thinking much of you during the storm that has been raging around
you. I have often prayed for you in my hours of quiet and leisure. I have a
conviction that God has a very special purpose of blessing in all this. I know
you will forgive me for saying so much, and accept the word of comfort I have
been wishing to send to one whose words have been a help and inspiration for
many years." The last letter recalls one from Lady Kinnaird at another time: "I
think you said yesterday on the doorstep that you had prayed for me lately by
name; I want to thank you particularly. I wish we had more of that personal
ministry." And this brings to remembrance an unusual appeal from Mrs. Sholto
Douglas for prayer-help:

"Mv DEAR FRIENDS BOTH, - We are coming to London to preach in Portman Chapel for
four Sundays, and I long with a great and growing longing that our month may be
a real mission among the rich. Old friends are coming to hear Sholto, and may
God fill him. I want your earnest prayers, I don’t often ask praying people for
their prayers, because I know what a serious thing it is to pray in earnest. And
yet, as one sees miners converted every week, as we have done all winter, thank
God . . . and as one hears of work in Uganda, China, amongst Esquimaux -
everyone seems to be reached except the poor rich people. Do, do pray, dear kind
people, as you love souls; here are real heathen to be reached."


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  CHAPTER 7: 07. HOME LIFE.
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CHAPTER VI. FRIENDSHIPS In one aspect Sir Robert Anderson’s theological writings
reflect the man - his sturdy Ulster inheritance and training, his clear-cut,
logical habit of thought, his impatience with any form of "mediating" theology,
his capacity for dealing hard straight blows, and his unsparing condemnation of
anything he judged a departure from the truth. What they do not reflect in
adequate measure is his fundamental geniality, beautiful simplicity of spirit,
and abundant kindness of heart. These are enshrined not in books but in the
hearts of all his friends.

E. H, in The Christian 28th November 1918 "SOME who only knew Sir Robert from
his writings and public utterances may have missed any clue to the traits which
endeared him to his more intimate friends. He had a rare genius for friendship."
So wrote one of the oldest of these, Mr. J. W. C. Fegan. The expression "a
genius for friendship" may sound almost trite; but I know not how else to
account for that which won the warm affection of a host of men and women of high
and low estate and widely differing character and interests.

One can think of few temperaments in some respects more dissimilar than those of
Dr. Handley Moule, sometime Bishop of Durham, and my father. Yet there was
between them a close bond of understanding and Christian affection. When this
memoir was first being prepared Dr. Moule said: "It will be a personal happiness
to me that anything affecting me should be included in your memoir of your
father, that friend whose never-failing friendship was for long years one of the
treasured possessions of my life. Anything to make those who had not the
privilege of his friendship know something of his rare character, its gifts and
the many-sided power behind them, must be of value for both minds and hearts."

Dr. Stuart Holden, who contributed the Foreword to the first edition, in
thanking me for letting him see an intimate letter, wrote: "It gives me no
surprise, as I have had the privilege in recent years of getting many such a
glimpse into the heart of love and tenderness sometimes disguised by an austere
manner." The letter was one asking forgiveness for some expressions
misunderstood by a great friend. "I now recognise," it said, "that my words are
open to the construction you have placed upon them". and I wish frankly to
withdraw them, and to express unreservedly my deep and sincere regret for the
pain they have given you. Forgive me this wrong. And may I venture to hope that
it will be ’as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you,’ reaching on to and
including the ’no more remembrance’?"

Reference has already been made to the life-long friendships formed at " T. C.
D." and in the south and west of Ireland. Some of them, notably with the Blands,
Trenches and Talbot-Crosbies, and the family of the Rev. J. Denham-Smith, have
been continued to the third and fourth generation. But all along the way his
devotion to the life of Christian service and witness was repaid by the love and
affection bestowed upon him; whilst many whose acquaintance was made in the
course of official or public duty became warm friends. But it was only to those
who got beneath the surface that his real character was revealed. After his
death Mr. Fegan wrote in the Christian "When I was on my first evangelistic
visit in Kerry, Mr. F. C. Bland, who was - to use a word of his own coining - a
very judgmatical man, said to me in his characteristic vein of affectionate
raillery, ’Bob Anderson is a daring impostor. He assumes an air of stoical
reserve; but the truth is that his heart is as tender as a woman’s.’ In all the
varying experiences of a friendship of forty-five years I have found it so. I
have often said to those who took exception to some harsh phrase of his in
controversy that if I was in deep sorrow or trouble I knew no friend to whom I
could turn with greater assurance for heartfelt and comforting sympathy... I
must say no more. I could not withhold this much in tribute to one of the
staunchest, tenderest friends that ever man had."

Association with Lord Aberdeen in the work of Royal Commissions led to a sincere
personal friendship, invitations to Haddo House following the official
intercourse. Letters to my mother tell of one of these visits, apparently in
1876. (The letters are undated.) On the evening of his arrival he said: "I had a
first séance with Lord A. over business; then a walk by the lakes; after lunch a
drive with Lady Aberdeen and Lady Harriet Lindsay; a game of tennis with Lady
Katherine afterwards. Since then I’ve been romping with the children (Lady
Harriet’s). I so wish you and Artie were here. Now on coming to my room I find
the fire lighted and everything most snug. "Lord A. assured me he liked his
friends to act as if they were really at home, and if I wanted a fire early in
the day, or tea at any hour, I was to ring and order it. As for the tea, it is
to be had in the hall at 4. 30 and goes on till 6, so that I am in clover.
Indeed I never was in a pleasanter house (except Ardfert!) or with kinder
people. Lord A. interrupted me by coming in to explain that ladies were scarce
and that he couldn’t find one for me, but asked me to sit next his sister’s ’
young man,’ Lord Balfour of Burleigh, whom I know in official circles, a very
nice fellow indeed. We sat down 16 to dinner, a very swell affair; the first
time I ever dined off silver plate, save at a city dinner! After dinner we had
some music, Mr. Turle playing much - for 50 years the organist of Westminster
Abbey, a very nice old gentleman. At 10. 30 we all tooled off to a little chapel
or meeting-room, and Lord A. conducted family prayers. I counted 12 servant
women and 5 men. Afterwards I had some talk with Lady A. whom I found to be a
true Christian. I am now gone to bed." The following day: "I have just had my
romp with the children. I couldn’t have believed I should be so thoroughly at
home. I have only wanted you to share it all to make me supremely happy." Next
evening, Sunday: "I feel I have really made friends here. I went to the Parish
Church in the morning. Two omnibuses started, one with the servants, women
inside, men out; the other with the ladies and those who preferred driving to
walking... At 6. 30 p. m. Lord A. read the evening service, Mr. Turle at the
harmonium, a new one presented to Lady K. by the servants. Dinner at 8 and
sacred music all the evening." A visit in 1884 was on the occasion of a
reception to Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Gladstone; he was at that time the famous
Victorian Premier, the opponent of Disraeli and Salisbury. Monday 15th September
was the great day. About midnight a description was written to my mother "The
people had collected in hundreds in front of the house, awaiting the G. O. M,
[the Grand Old Man, ] as Mr. Gladstone was popularly called.• At 6. 30 Lord
Aberdeen who had gone to old Meldrum to meet them rode up amid cheers. A few
minutes afterwards arrived the Gladstones in a carriage-and-four escorted by
about 300 of the tenantry on horseback. The Gladstones came up to the house
where all the party had gathered round Lady Aberdeen, the cheering being worthy
of some 1200 Scottish throats. After the G. O. M. had shaken hands with the
Haddo guests, one of the oldest tenants addressed a few words of welcome.
Meanwhile the ’cavalry’ had formed up under the balcony, the people on foot on
the grass beyond, and Mr. Gladstone made a speech in reply. All this you can
read in the papers. The dinner was a big one, as a number of local celebrities
were invited. The biggest swells among the new arrivals were Lord and Lady
Elgin... P. S. (Tuesday). I am at the library table, and the G. O. M. has just
sat down beside me at the next blotter and might look over my shoulder!"

Again, late that night: "After I wrote to-day we had the photo of the
house-party. Then I got Mr. Glyn, Lord Elgin and Mr. Henry Gladstone, and we had
two good hours tennis. We had a big dinner again; 34 sat down." I still have the
photo of this group, which included, in addition to the Gladstones and Aberdeens
and the present Marquess as a small boy, the Rev, the Hon. E. Carr Glyn,
afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, and Lady Mary Glyn, the Earl and Countess of
Elgin (he was Viceroy of India 1894 - 99), Mr. Henry Gladstone, and various
Scottish notables. The last letter from Haddo has a postscript: "I think my fate
is sealed and I suppose I’ll stay another day. We have had a particularly
pleasant party this evening; the Glyns, Lady Tavistock, Mrs. and Miss Hogg, Dr.
Donaldson and Mr. Henry Gladstone. We had great fun all round, and very definite
appeals to me to stay another day. Mr.. Sholto Douglas comes to-morrow. I had a
long quiet chat with Lady Aberdeen this evening. She and A. were kinder and more
cordial than ever in the leave-taking." His hostess wrote in reply to a
thanks-letter: "I hope there may be many repetitions of your visit. It is a
great comfort to me to think that you are to be the one with whom Aberdeen is to
work for the next year or two." And his host: "Yes, I think Miss Hogg’s ideas,
for instance, underwent a revolution or got a revelation as to the formidably
staid and respected Mr. Anderson!"

Mention of Mr. Sholto Douglas recalls another incident. Writing the same year
from Douglas Support, Coatbridge, my father said: "This morning I drove with
Lady deCrespigny to see Bosworth Castle; we are sworn friends. I find Mr.
Douglas had been warning the ladies that all levity was to cease when I came,
and nothing to be spoken about except evangelical and prophetic topics. Lady
deC. confessed they had looked forward to my advent with anything but pleasure!"
When at Haddo again the following year, he wrote describing a Sunday: "Professor
Henry Drummond and I absconded after breakfast and made for the Free Kirk, where
I occupied the pulpit... Tea at 5. 30 and Chapel at 6. 30. It was full and many
were shut out. Lord A. read the service and Professor D. gave the sermon. Dinner
at 8. 45, and after a spell of talk and some sacred music, I was very glad to
see A. bring out a heap of hymn-books, and we all had some hymns before
separating. It is very happy to see this element in the midst of such princely
and luxurious living."

There is a beautiful photograph of the Haddo Chapel in We Twa, the memoirs of
Lord and Lady Aberdeen. Lady Aberdeen tells there that Archbishop Tait advised
against a formal consecration, as this would involve its belonging to and being
under the authority of one particular Church. He thought, and the Aberdeens
agreed, that it would be much better for it to be nominally just a room in the
house, built in the form of a chapel, and dedicated to the special service of
God. Accordingly it was opened on 11th December 1881 by a service conducted by
Mr. Carr Glyn, then Vicar of Kensington. My father seems to have lost touch
somewhat for a time with the Aberdeens, possibly on account of their very
divergent views on the Irish Home Rule controversy. When Governor-General of
Canada, however, Lord Aberdeen wrote thanking him for the gift of a book, and
kindly added: "If ever I can be of any use, e. g. in showing attention to any
friends to whom you might wish to give letters of introduction, pray let me
know." And a diary entry during a visit to Dublin at a later date reads: "To
Vice-regal Lodge to tea. Aberdeen as friendly as of old." The last letter I have
come across was one thanking my father for an "expression, most warm and true,
of deep sympathy" on the death as the result of an accident on 16th December
1909, of the Hon. Archie Gordon at the early age of twenty-five. A photograph in
the uniform of A. D. C. to his father, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland,
accompanied the letter, and a booklet giving the story of his short life. Under
the photo are the words: "Thanks be to God Who giveth us the victory." Ties of
warm friendship and fellowship in the Gospel and Bible study were formed with
the Rev. Sholto D. C. Douglas, mentioned above, Rector of All Souls Church,
Langham Place, and afterwards of St. Silas, Glasgow.

After his marriage to Miss Violet Paget visits to their summer home at Balmacara
on Loch Alsh became a delight. "Such a view!" runs a letter to my mother. "The
hills looked as they do in Herbert’s frescoes of the East, save that the
colouring far surpasses the East. Not a cloud from horizon to horizon, and a
panorama of lake and sea and mountain like Rigi and Derryquin in one... Evening
service (Church of Scotland) at 6, which I took; the little place packed, the
majority men, not a few of them kilted." In the summer of 1893 my brother Alan
and I were there with my father on a never-forgotten visit. Others in the house-
party were Dr. E. W. Bullinger, the Rev. H. L. C. and Mrs. deCandole, Mr. and
Mrs. Duncan Davidson, Count Moltke of Copenhagen, Mr. Alister and the Hon. Mrs.
Fraser, and Mr. Thomas Stockdale. Our hostess divided us into major and minor
prophets for the daily Bible Readings which made the Balmacara visits so much
more than the sheer enjoyment they were in any case. As ever my father wrote
home about it all. One letter tells of a visit to Skye: "We weighed anchor in
the Skeandhu for Portree at 11. 30. The occasion was to see Lord and Lady
Macdonald (Mr. D.’s cousins), and he came on board as soon as we arrived. We had
a very enjoyable run back, reaching home at 8, and dinner was late. Now all the
party are gone to bed, and I’ll follow... P. S. I didn’t. I took up the Graphic
and became so interested in the sinking of the Victoria that before going up I
read the report of the court-martial. Then I saw a steamer with brilliant lights
coming as it seemed ashore. This morning I found she was the Iolanthe, Sir
Donald Currie’s yacht. The day broke exquisitely, and throughout it was one of
Mrs. D.’s ’blue days’ in which everything looks unnaturally beautiful... The
evening meeting was crammed; Sir D. Currie, Sir J. Pease, Mr. Shaw Stewart and
others (three M. P. s); also a number of the crews of the Jolanthe and Fire Fqy
(R. Y. S.). Very solemn. Mr. Stewart and I went back with Sir Donald and dined
on board." His diary for 1892 records: "In the yacht to Glenelg. Tea at the
Master of Blantyre’s; then up the Glen to see the famous Pictish tower, a
wonderful ruin said to be 2000 years old." Warmhearted invitations to Balmacara
came year after year; and Mrs. Douglas in her inimitable way describes the
attractions of that lovely spot. To my mother she wrote: "We are in a spell of
Divine loveliness which no words out of the Bible can describe. Even Balmacara
is more like the New Earth than it has ever been; and I have grudged every hour
of it, feeling all through how your dear man would revel in it all, how he would
roast himself in the hot sun and grow speechless in the beauty. I cannot tell
how I long for you both to come and enjoy it with us. Do pack up and come
to-morrow, dear, dear people."

One summer our own family and our friends the Cootes went to Ramsgate, taking
two adjoining school buildings, complete with swimming-bath, playing-fields, and
other attractions for boys and girls. A letter from Mrs. Douglas containing some
choice sarcasm came to "My very dear friends": "We wonder," she wrote, "at the
vulgarity of your preference for Ramsgate over Balmacara... Ramsgate!!! Well, it
is nice to see the ’arrys enjoying themselves and to listen to the band and
watch the niggers. And the wild shrieks of the Pipes welcoming us at night, as
we come home in the sunset from the rugged Coolins or the lonely Lochs, of
course cannot compete with the music of the Spa! But still we wonder at you! "
Then follow more raptures about the beauties of the Highland home: "I feel I
could open my arms and take into them the scenes, the peat smells, the weird
lights, the lovely bare rocky heathery stretches, the Highland cattle and shaven
sheep, as if they were human things to hug and love. Don’t you feel just that
same sort of drawing towards the nigger minstrels and the donkeys on the sands,
and the elephantine hotels on the parade? I am sure you do!"

Another letter in July 1896, to my father, speaks of all the hills being lit up
with lights such as are only to be seen at "Bal." or in Heaven; "and we groaned
that you were not with us; we are having a proper honeymoon this time, expecting
no one except you or Bully, or such like odds and ends " - Bully being Dr.
Bullinger. A few days later: ’We are delighted to think that you will be an
’odds and ends’ with us. We will let you do exactly what you feel inclined for
from morning to night; unlimited tea, fresh made! What other inducements can we
offer? Absolute rest of mind and body. If you care to join us in Biblical
researches you shall; but we promise not to be scandalised if you snooze on the
beach instead, for we have great sympathy with what must be your longing to
think of nothing but food and air." A note thanking my parents for going to call
on Mr. and Mrs. Douglas when on a short visit to London says: "Yes, it was nice
of you to toil up to us so often, real friendly; but indeed I could as little
doubt your true and lasting friendship as I could Sholto’s love to me!" Visits
were often paid to Rossie Priory, Perthshire, the home of Lord and Lady
Kinnaird. Writing after my mother’s death, the Hon. Emily Kinnaird said: "Your
father and mother have been associated with our whole life, and we have such
happy recollections of his visits and her devotion to you all." My father’s
diary for 1908 records: "Chapel at 6. Full. Spoke on Luke 4:14-30. Bishop Taylor
Smith took the opening prayer. I spoke for near 50 minutes: very attentive:
ended with the story of my conversion..." (Later) "Fourth day of rain! I
perambulated the corridors; from the end of mine to the end of the picture room
is 16o yards; the hall is 50 yards."

Yachting on the Clyde used to be enjoyed with special friends Mr. and Mrs.
William Sloan of Dunara, Helensburgh, whose eldest daughter was one day to be my
wife. The diary mentions my father’s preaching in the two parish kirks (Church
of Scotland) at Helensburgh and in the Congregational and United Free churches.
The Duncan Davidsons of Inchmarlo, Captain and Mrs. Bisset at Lessendrum, and
the Blackwoods at Gogar Mount near Edinburgh, were other folk in Scotland who
welcomed my parents. The "Reminiscence" in Blackwood’s Magazine were the basis
of the book The Lighter Side of my Official Life.

Besides frequent visits to the Dublin relations, Irish hospitality was extended
by the Barcrofts at Newry, the Boyds of Ballymacool, Lord Langford at Kilcock,
and Sir Algernon and Lady Coote of Ballyfin. A diary entry refers to a visit to
the latter: "At evening prayers I had all the household and a number of the
outside staff (31 in all) and gave them a talk on Acts xvii and God’s gifts to
us, forgiveness, life, sonship." Ballyfin, like Moore Abbey, not far away, has
since then passed into other hands.

One of the chief pleasures of my father’s later years came as a result of his
official duties. During the dynamite campaigns Scotland Yard officers were
stationed at various home and foreign ports: and at places such as Dover,
Folkestone, Calais and Boulogne their presence had proved of such value that it
was decided to continue their services. A gang of criminals had for years lived
in luxury on the contents of purses and pocketbooks stolen on the Channel
steamers. But some had far bigger game in the shape of valuable securities in
the ships’ treasure chests, keys for which they were able to secure. The C. I.
D. men were of great assistance to the French police in keeping watch on these
gentry, but there was always some danger of friction, and it was thought
advisable for the Chief to pay occasional unexpected visits. The railway company
who were also the owners of the steamers gave him a free pass between London and
Calais, very kindly making it available for himself and another. Not only so,
but they continued issuing the pass after his retirement from Scotland Yard.
This meant that my mother or one of us could accompany him on cross-ChanneTrips,
having lunch or tea on the French side. Often my people stayed at Dover,
crossing on fine days, and enjoying not only the trip but meeting friends and
acquaintances on board. In this way they got to know the Marine Superintendent,
Captain Dixon; the Harbour-Master, Captain Iron; as well as the Commanders of
the ships, amongst whom were Captains Bennett, Dane, Paine, Hancock, King and
Belchamber, some of whom became warm friends. A genuine welcome always came from
the railway officials as well as from the detective officers and others. My
mother and Sister too became familiar figures on the Admiralty Pier at Dover,
receiving friendly greetings on every hand. Amongst the fellow-passengers most
frequently met was Mr. Alfred Harmsworth, afterwards Lord Northcliffe, whom they
often saw in London also. In view of the supposed influence of newspaper
magnates in the making and unmaking of politicians and governments the following
note is of interest. (Mr. Asquith had resigned the Premiership in December 1916
and been succeeded by Mr. Lloyd George) "PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE, "LONDON, E. C.

"I 4th Jan. 1917.

"DEAR SIR ROBERT, - I would have replied before, but I have been out to the war.

"Miss Asquith is rather sanguine if she thinks we shall hear any more of Papa. I
understand that he has no desire for further work.

"Yours sincerely, "NORTHCLIFFE." When not crossing themselves my people used to
find constant interest in watching the sailing and arrival of the Channel
steamers. Many diary entries refer to this, such as - " Madame Sarah Bernhardt
and Company on board." Amongst the crowned heads and others mentioned are the
Kings of Spain and Portugal, the Shah of Persia, the Khedive of Egypt, the Crown
Prince and Princess of Sweden, the Maharajah of Jeypur. Other items in the
diaries are: "Passed Holbein on his swim about 1. 5 miles out... Saw Lord
Roberts receive the Freedom of Dover." (Both on 28th August 1902). A few days
earlier: "Banquet to Officers of German Warship Stein"; and the same year:
"Procession of the Court of Guesthng; Mayors of the Cinque Ports, etc." In those
days a trip from London to Calais and back in a day was not quite such a trifle
as it is now; and many people had unpleasant memories of the crossing. When
discussing the Channel Tunnel scheme during the visit to Walmer Castle,
mentioned in Chapter IV my father spoke of going over for pleasure Lord
Salisbury’s response was - " For pleasure?" However, when occasionally at
breakfast he decided to "go to France," everything possible used to be done by
the officials to make the journey by train and boat comfortable and pleasant,
and of course he. chose his day. From the diaries I find that thirty-seven
visits to Calais were made in 1898 and thirty-eight in 1902, and many almost
every year, most of them just from Dover. The view of the White Cliffs from the
Channel suggested thoughts to him besides the customary ones. When pleading for
prison reform in his book Criminals and Crime he wrote: "Some who read these
pages will know nothing of the structure of a gaol. When next they find
themselves upon a Calais steamer let them glance up at the prison on Dover
Cliffs, and realise that all those rows of cells are so designed as to prevent
the imnates from seeing the English Channel... There may be gaols where no
outlook could be given that might not be deemed unsuitable. But here, if the
cells on the southern side were fitted with windows extending from wall to wall
and from floor to ceiling, the prisoner could look on nothing but sea and sky,
and in Nature’s brighter moods the far-off coast of France. And the prospect
might well make him pine for liberty with moistened eyes instead of with
clenched teeth and knitted brow."

Apart from the enjoyment of the sea trips, one of the great, attractions of
Dover was visiting the Worsfold Mowlls, the Martyn Mowlls and their families.
Years afterwards Mr. Rutley Mowll recalled "with happy memories those visits to
Whitfield; days of sparkling wit, delightful anecdotes, and spiritual joy." One
of the family, Dr. Howard Mowll, Archbishop of Sydney, wrote recently to my
sister, "It was such a pleasure to hear from you. It brought back so many
memories. I always remember several of Sir Robert’s Bible Readings in our Hall
in Dover, especially his saying on one occasion, ’What is your conception of
God? How few have the Psalmist’s majestic conception of God!’... His books are
still a great help to our theological students. Then I think of dear Lady Agnes
and her many kindnesses, and her pleasure when she saw me carrying a large
Bible!"

Recalling those Dover days Colonel C. M. Davidson of His Majesty’s Bodyguard
wrote: "I look back with pleasure to the bright talks I enjoyed with Sir Robert
on Dover Pier - so full of interest and always impressing one with his Christian
faith. He was so consistent, and one always felt the better." My father’s 1912
diary records "a long talk with P, who declared himself an infidel and seemed
very hard, but softened somewhat at last." That talk was on Dover Pier.

Amongst the friends with whom my parents used to stay in England were the Barrow
Cadburys of Birmingham, Sir Victor and Lady Buxton in the Epping Forest, the
Herbert Apperleys and D. C. Apperley, the T. A. Dennys, the Boakes and the
Brand-Apperleys. There were, too, the Edward Trotters, Herbert Trittons, and
Hanburys, as well as the Fegans, Macalisters, and others mentioned elsewhere.
Referring to one of his visits to the Whit- wells at Oxford, my father’s diary
records: "Dined at All Souls. I sat at head of table with Prof. Dicey on left
and Prof. Edgeworth on right... Very pleasant evening; told a series of Irish
and other stories." The Rev. W. Mitchell-Carruthers wrote after my mother’s
death: "How greatly I valued the friendship of your parents, and what a delight
your father’s annual visits to me in the days when I was at Holbrook." (Mr.
Carruthers was the rector.) Some of the friends from across the Atlantic who
visited our home were the Revs. Dr. Harris Gregg, Dr. James Gray, Dr. Robert
Cameron, Dr. A. C. Dixon, Dr. C. I. Scofield, editor of the Scofield Bible, and
Mr. Charles Alexander of the Torrey Alexander and Chapman-Alexander Missions.
Dr. Cameron wrote: "I want you to know that I count it one of the highest joys
of my life to have enjoyed your fellowship." And Dr. Gray spoke of the
possibility of meeting my father as one of the great attractions of a visit to
England. The recent war gives added interest to this extract from a long letter
in 1916 from General Ralph Prime of Yonkers "These two years of awful history
have been full of intense concern for you with all of us. I need not tell you
that England and the English have the deepest sympathy of all our people. I do
not know of an American but thinks and feels for your people. If we were all
fellow-citizens of Great Britain we could not feel more deeply for you... We
send you our best wishes and prayers for God’s protecting care and grace. May
the Good Lord have you and yours in his keeping."

Other welcome visitors from overseas included the Hon. W. H. Edgar of Australia,
the Revs. Alexander Reese and Eldred Hercus of New Zealand, and the New Hebrides
missionaries Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Frater and the Rev. Fred. Paton. On hearing of
Sir Robert’s death, Dr. John Hoskin, K. C, of Toronto, wrote: "It is with much
deep sorrow of heart I learn that my very dear friend has been summoned Home. My
friendship for him was deep, and so long as I live I shall remember him." And
Miss Carpmael, Dr. Hoskin’s niece, has sent this kind appreciation of my father,
"He was so utterly sincere, so devoted to his Lord and so genuinely kind to all,
high or low, rich or poor, that he was greatly beloved wherever he went... My
uncle when dying asked me, to read a passage from The Gospel and its Ministry."
My father was fortunate in the medical men whom be numbered amongst his friends.
Dr. T. Gilbart-Smith, one of the oldest of these, wrote once: "Robert, my old
friend, your friendship is one of the brightest spots in this dark London." And
years later Mrs. Gilbart-Smith said: "Oh, how Gilbart loved him, I think more
than any other man outside our own family." Another friend of early Irish days
was Dr. Hamilton Bland; right to the close of my father’s life he had unbounded
confidence in this beloved physician. Others who attended him from time to time
were drawn to him in a special degree; Mr. Mark Hovell said: "I always thought
of him more as a friend than a patient." At a time of distressing heart
weakness, Dr. Bezley Thorne wrote, "I am so thankful to learn that you have had
a restful night. Thank God for it." Although not treating him professionally,
Dr. Frederick Price became a warm family friend in later years. "Your father,"
he wrote, "was a great man and his life had far-reaching influence. He had a
really great intellect; besides which he had a child-like faith in Christ - not
a frequent combination. I got to love him."

"Why, oh why did we not know each other in bygone years?" said the Rev. J. H.
Townsend; and a letter from the Rev. Dr. C. H. Waller ended, "Yours ever (but I
do love a scrimmage with you!)." Two letters began thus: "My dear old
over-worked Detective," and "My dear Darius, the friend of Daniel," the latter a
reference to Daniel in the Critics’ Den. Remembrance of the early Irish days is
in these other brief extracts. Mrs. Pery Knox Gore wrote: "Many and many a time
you and the dear old days are in my mind. God bless you, dear old friend. May He
in His own good time send you to be among us here again." Another letter,
referring to those times, begins: "Very dear old Andern, It is good to find you
are just the same affectionate old friend as of old." In lighter vein, thanking
him for a new book, Miss Bland of the Kerry family says: "You blessed man, not
only will I forgive you anything you have done (and that is saying a good deal),
but I will forgive you anything you may do!"

I can think of only one occasion when my father committed a real faux pas.
Shortly after I went to the Leys School he came to see me, and in the course of
conversation with the famous Head, Dr. W. F. Moulton, he introduced some of his
favourite criticisms of the Revised Version of the Bible. He told me afterwards
how if suddenly dawned on him that "the Doctor" in defending the Revisers was
using the word "we." He had had no idea that he was speaking to the Dr. Moulton,
as he put it. The latter, however, far from being offended, became a warm friend
and admirer, writing to him two years later: "No book of yours that I have seen
has failed to interest me greatly, and certainly this is no exception. I
sympathise deeply with your object."

He was referring to For His Name’s Sake, incorporated later in The Honour of His
Name (" A Plea for Reverence "). Dr. Moulton went on, however, to deprecate an
expression "strange pedantry" used in connection with two Revised renderings,
pleading that the words implied not merely inconsistency but falseness of
motive. He then kindly explained at some length the reasons which had decided
the choice of the English renderings; referring to the fact that a two-thirds
majority was required for alterations to the Authorised reading. The question
was the translation "King Eternal" in 1 Timothy 1:17; and " King of the Ages" in
Revelation 15:3.

Reference has been made in Chapter III to the attacks upon my father in
Parliament. One happy result was the way friends rallied to him. One of them
wrote in 1910 "My Dear Robert, - I always say that if there is one man who is
able to take care of himself it is you! At the same time, when offensive things
are being said, it may be some little satisfaction to you to know that old
friends are as they were with unshaken confidence. The sickening personalities
of public life at the present time must disgust all reasonable men.

Always yours affectionately, LINDSAY TALBOT-CROSBIE. And this came from Lady
Tritton, "I have been thinking much of you during the storm that has been raging
around you. I have often prayed for you in my hours of quiet and leisure. I have
a conviction that God has a very special purpose of blessing in all this. I know
you will forgive me for saying so much, and accept the word of comfort I have
been wishing to send to one whose words have been a help and inspiration for
many years." The last letter recalls one from Lady Kinnaird at another time: "I
think you said yesterday on the doorstep that you had prayed for me lately by
name; I want to thank you particularly. I wish we had more of that personal
ministry." And this brings to remembrance an unusual appeal from Mrs. Sholto
Douglas for prayer-help, "Mv DEAR FRIENDS BOTH, - We are coming to London to
preach in Portman Chapel for four Sundays, and I long with a great and growing
longing that our month may be a real mission among the rich. Old friends are
coming to hear Sholto, and may God fill him. I want your earnest prayers, I
don’t often ask praying people for their prayers, because I know what a serious
thing it is to pray in earnest. And yet, as one sees miners converted every
week, as we have done all winter, thank God... and as one hears of work in
Uganda, China, amongst Esquimaux - everyone seems to be reached except the poor
rich people. Do, do pray, dear kind people, as you love souls; here are real
heathen to be reached."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 8: 08. PREACHER AND WITNESS.
========================================================================

CHAPTER IX. PREACHER AND WITNESS Thou shalt tell me in the Glory All that thou
hast done, Setting out alone, returning Not alone.

Thou shalt bring the ransomed with thee; They with songs shall come, All the
golden sheaves of harvest Gathered Home.

T. P.; translated by FRANCES BEVAN.

"WHO of us appreciates aright the privilege, the responsibility, the solemnity
of bringing the Gospel to our fellow-men? ’Evangelists’ are as definitely the
gift of our ascended Lord as are Pastors and Teachers (Ephesians 4:11); but the
privilege and duty of making known the Gospel are not limited to Evangelists. No
Christian therefore need wait for any human sanction for ’ministering the word
of life’ to a fellow-sinner. But here a caution is most necessary. We must never
forget the solemnity of such work. Let us take heed that no levity marks either
our words or our spirit as we make our appeals or give our testimony. We may
come down to our own level as it were when reasoning with others about their
conduct or their attitude to the dread solemnities of life. But no one of a
reverent spirit can fail to be distressed by the flippant language in which ’the
glorious Gospel of the Blessed God’ [2 Corinthians 2:17 (Weymouth)] is sometimes
’ huckstered.’"

These words of Sir Robert’s throw light on the manner and the spirit of his
ministry of the Word. Looking back on the many times one heard him speak, one
realises that in a sense he never came down to the level of his audience.
However simple the language and illustrations when taking a mission hall
service, for instance, the realisation of the majesty of the truths he was
proclaiming never left him. He disliked the expression " the simple Gospel " -
miserable words he called them, however true in one way.

He often said that he was not a preacher of sermons, and seldom if ever took a
text. He liked best of all to expound a portion of Scripture, such as one of the
great passages in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, or one of the Lord’s
miracles of healing, or the Gospel as portrayed in the story of the Good
Samaritan, which tells how a helpless sinner for whom the law and "religion"
could do nothing might be saved.

I remember him saying that he could not understand any man standing up with the
Bible in his hand and failing to be interesting. He told how a friend, a general
in the Army, had said: "Give me any page you chance to open of one of our
military hand-books, and I’ll undertake to speak upon it in a way that will
interest soldiers: how is it that with that wonderful Book in their hands the
parsons and ministers succeed in being uninteresting?" My father’s own
explanation was that the theological colleges taught their students to read the
Bible through the coloured glasses of either superstition or rationalism, and
did not teach them to understand the book of human nature. A letter from a
stranger is of interest here: "You and I have much in common. Ever since Harrow
and Oxford days I have wondered why there is not more sanctified common sense
amongst Christians. ’The foolishness of preaching’ is by no means the preaching
of foolishness." Another letter says: " It is most kind of you to undertake my
services next Sunday. I very jealously guard our pulpit, and ask only those who
I know will have something to say, and the ability to say it, and will do so in
the help of God without fear or favour." Some of Sir Robert’s Church of England
friends by the way pressed him to accept appointment as a Lay Reader in order
that he might have further opportunities for helping them. His diaries suggest
that he was a little surprised at the situations in which he sometimes found
himself; e. g, "Preached in Eldon Parish Church at the morning service. Was
seated by the ’altar’ till I went into the pulpit... Conference sermon in the
Church. Procession of parsons, some twenty in all. I wore LL. D. gown and hood
and came last with the Rector!"

Even to the humblest gathering in the worldly sense he loved to bring the great
truths of the Faith, above all to magnify the grace of God in Christ. His
addresses were not lacking in humour, but were always deeply reverent in tone.
At times he would startle the hearers by sudden bangs on the table or
reading-desk as he inveighed against "religion," which could be one of the
greatest curses the world had ever known; Christianity, he would explain, was
not a "religion" at all, but a revelation and a Faith. He was never content with
giving "a simple Gospel address" when he realised that many of his hearers were
already Christians. He would then often speak chiefly to them, afterwards
turning to the unsaved with words such as: "And now if there are any here who
are strangers to all this..."

He was thoroughly at home with audiences of the Mission Hall type, and his
visits were greatly appreciated as shown by very many letters such as the
following: "I know it will help you to hear that much blessing has followed your
labours at the Hall. One poor woman, who has been a great sinner, said to a
friend of mine: ’Oh, I could have thrown myself at dear Dr. Anderson’s feet and
told him what my precious Savior has done for me. It seemed as if every word he
uttered was for me, for me."

"I shall always remember Sir Robert Anderson addressing a meeting at -. There
had been quite a revival among the country people during a mission by Mr. Fegan;
but they were slow of mind, and I wondered if when Sir Robert spoke they would
follow him. But he spoke with the most beautiful simplicity. The youngest
present understood, and all were deeply touched by his words." My father was a
frequent speaker at Ranelagh Hall for the Misses Hurst. "Some of the very best
and happiest Sunday evenings were when he was taking the meeting," was their
testimony. A letter to Lord Blythswood tells of an address to men in the Paget
Memorial Hall in London in 1915. The writer says, "We have had a rich day with
the men this afternoon. Of all Sir Robert Anderson’s visits this is the best one
by far. It was a time of great and very solemn power. I never remember a time
when the men sat so spell-bound. Sir Robert discoursed upon the man at the Pool
of Bethesda. It was truly a men’s address, faithful, rousing, tender and
remarkably appealing. Glad to say we had 75 present, and didn’t they sing! Sir
Robert was greatly helped, and was evidently touched and moved himself into real
brotherliness and helpfulness.. That he did not undertake such work more lightly
at the close of his life than in earlier days is beautifully shown in this
letter in May (only a few months before his Home-call) to Mr. Wilson Heath, "I
am deeply touched by your kind and gracious letter - all too kind and gracious.
And yet your testimony to my words on Sunday tends both to humble and encourage
me. What you wrote about your recent mission led me to make this visit a very
special subject of prayer, lest I should in any way hurt the good work begun. As
that exquisite poem Ezekiel has it ’I had rather stand a prophet of my God than
bear the palm of any other triumph.’ And as the years go by I feel increasingly
the solemnity and the privilege of ministering the Word of Life." In the light
of this a letter from Mr. J. W. Walton (composer of a tune for the hymn Safe) is
of special interest: "The last time I saw Sir Robert," he wrote, "was one Sunday
afternoon at a little service which he addressed. Portions of the talk I still
have in memory. Oddly enough I remember the expression upon his face more than
what he said. It was one of such absolute sincerity." Another testimony came
from Colonel Granville Smith of the Coldstream Guards: "Your address last night
was undoubtedly a new revelation to many of the listeners, judging by their
faces. We have already been told of the great value it has been."

Very frequently he was a speaker or chairman at public meetings, those touching
the inspiration of the Bible or the Hope of the Lord’s Return making a special
appeal to him. At a Prophetic Conference in 1894 he said: "The Coming of Christ
is not some strange thing that faddists have imported into Christianity. It is
part and parcel of Christianity. No one has any right to call himself a
Christian who denies the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." In that address
however he gave a warning against fixing dates in connection with that Coming,
saying that someone had sent him a copy of a prophetic magazine published
fourteen years previously and giving the names of 120 writers, many of them men
of eminence in the Church, who were unanimous in believing that the end of the
world would come before the year 1890. He then went on to say: "You ought not to
be merely a person who holds the doctrine of the Advent; if you are a Christian
you should hold it as a living hope in the heart... Get hold of this that every
Christian is a man with a secret. If word came to you to-morrow morning that you
had come in for a hundred pounds, think how such a secret would affect you. All
day long those about you would see something strange in you; they would say, ’He
has some secret; I wonder what it is.’ But would a hundred sovereigns lying at
the Bank for you be a greater thing than this - the riches of Christ that cannot
be measured, that you are His own, and that He is coming for you?... Here is the
secret to carry with you into your daily life, behind the wash-tub or in your
kitchen. Here is the secret of the Lord with them that fear Him."

He began the address (at Forest Gate) from which these words are taken by saying
that he liked a meeting of the kind because one could speak freely. Had he been
expected to give what is called an address he was not sure that he would not
have lost himself on the way, for he had no address to give. He was a busy man
speaking to busy people, although he doubted whether many of them were as busy
as he was just then, for recently he had been unable to get rid of his work
until close on midnight. He had many similar meetings, but there were also often
opportunities of speaking to students. In my own Cambridge days and afterwards
he was one of those several times invited to the Sunday evening meetings of the
C. I. C. C. U. (Cambridge InterCollegiate Christian Union) for ’Varsity men, and
sometimes to the similar gatherings at Oxford. At Trinity College, Dublin, his
alma mater, meetings were arranged for him by Mr. Everard Digges la Touche,
whilst the diaries record visits to most of the Student Christian Unions at the
London hospitals and colleges. And many other openings for witness amongst the
more educated classes came his way. But no invitation was refused if it was
possible to accept, although it frequently meant long train journeys across
London at night in all weathers, even when he was getting old and was a victim
to chronic catarrh and not infrequent attacks of influenza. The pages at the end
of his diaries sometimes give a list of places visited for meetings during the
year. To detail these would partake too much of a geography lesson. In addition
to those already mentioned one finds Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Bedford,
Bournemouth, Glasgow and very many other centres. Addresses were often given for
the Bible League and at Protestant Congresses. Meetings of a different kind
include for example one of about 100 working-class men belonging to a Hoxton
Brotherhood, and a Kensington Workhouse gathering where there was "a large
attendance of old men and women," to whom he, spoke on John 3:16. At the
beginning of this memoir I suggested that the term unique might be applied to my
father’s life-story. May not the word be used to describe an occasion in Belfast
in March 1905? Two lectures were delivered on the same day to "large and
interested audiences" according to the Belfast News Letter. In the afternoon the
subject was "The Bible and Modern Criticism," the chairman being the Rev.
Professor Leech, D. D, of the Presbyterian Assembly’s College. The Lord Mayor,
Sir Daniel Dixon, Bart, D. L, presided at night, when the lecture was on "Our
criminals and how to treat them." The audience included the Commissioner of
Police and local Magistrates. The Lord Mayor explained that Sir Robert was
paying a visit to the city in order to give a helping-hand to the Shankhill Road
Mission amongst the non-church-going classes of the community. A few years later
by the way another Lord Mayor of Belfast, a namesake and personal friend - Sir
Robert Anderson, Bart. - paid a visit "down under." On his return he wrote to my
father: "I could not tell you how often I was asked if I were t; he Sir Robert
who wrote the books, when of course I had to offer a proper explanation. I do
not think there is a man in England who would receive a better reception than
you if you went to Australia and New Zealand. Your books have a wide circulation
and are greatly appreciated."

Invitations to the United States and Canada came from various friends and
others. In 1906 Dr. A. C. Dixon (himself a Baptist) wrote: "Yesterday I was
requested by five pastors - one Methodist, one Congregational, one Presbyterian
and two Episcopalian - to write you and learn whether it would be possible for
you to visit Boston and give a series of lectures on the Bible and Modern
Criticism." Sir Robert was often a speaker at the annual conferences held at
Mildmay. The successive superintendents who resided in the Garden House were all
friends of my parents - Mr. James E. Mathieson, Captain Francis L. Tottenham,
Captain the Hon. Reynolds Moreton, R. N, and Colonel James F. Morton. Mr.
Mathieson evidently felt that his countrymen in what used to be called North
Britain were in need of enlightenment, as witness a letter to my father dated
6th April 1888, "I have taken the Free Assembly Hall in Edinburgh for October
9th 10th, and 11th, for a Conference on our Lord’s Second Coming, with the full
concurrence of Horatius and Andrew Bonar, John Riddell of Glasgow, Prof. Alec
Simpson, Dr. Elder Cumming and others... We propose a very simple programme, and
for speakers Presbyterian ministers chiefly, so as to gain the ear of Scottish
Christians. I would much like you to take some part, being (as you are) a kind
of Presbyterian broke loose, rather like myself! I hope you will encourage me in
this venture to give testimony concerning the blessed Hope & my rebellious and
gainsaying countrymen North of the Tweed... I was in Edinburgh assisting at the
ministerial Jubilee of Horatius Bonar. His brother John (a good Free Church
Minister in Greenock) is 86, Horatius is 8o, and Andrew, who was present and
spoke sweetly, is 76." As Mr. Mathieson suggested, my father was somewhat of a
free lance. Speaking on the platform of the Evangelical Alliance on one occasion
he remarked, "I say honestly that, while I would go hundreds of miles to bring a
sinner to Christ or to bring a Christian nearer to Christ, I would not cross the
street on a snowy day to bring a man into my Church... Oh, if we could but get
nearer to the Lord Jesus Christ, and if we could but realise the meaning of the
words that He loved the Church and gave Himself for it, and that all real
Christians are in the Church He then went on, "I think Sunday morning is the
right time to ask guests in your house where they want to go and worship. But
with regard to all ordinary intercourse with Christians just leave this question
aside. There are two ways to promote unity. One is by outward organisations;
that is the sheep-dog method. The other is by having One Shepherd. And if only
we would think more about the Lord and less about our ’isms’ and our Churches,
we should find ourselves without realising it at one with our brethren. And what
a power it would be! I do feel this very solemnly that, while in the evil
influences which prevail around us there is a tremendous power of unity, it is
sadly lacking in vital Christianity... God’s purpose is not to exalt the Church,
whether the Brethren or the Church of England or the Baptists or you or me.
God’s purpose is to exalt Christ. And the more you have Christ in your heart and
life the more you will fall in with this great purpose. And this will be, as far
as you are concerned, the realisation of the Lord’s solemn prayer that we all
might be one."

Beyond all else my father was a man of the Book, and he loved to talk over the
Bible with some kindred soul such as Miss A. R. Habershon, who compiled a
valuable concordance of The New Testament Names and Titles of the Lord of Glory,
for which my father wrote a preface, and whose help in various ways was of great
value to him, or even with some beginner, learned or unlearned, no less than in
more formal Bible Readings. The latter were often held in private houses and
were a very interesting feature of those days. Those invited either came to
dinner first or joined the party afterwards. Amongst the homes opened in this
way were those of Lady Jane Taylor, Georgina Lady Seafield, Colonel Granville
and Lady Blanche Smith, Mr. T. A. Denny and Lady Hope, and our own. The friends
taking part in the discussions or attending as listeners included the Revs.
Sholto Douglas, Marmaduke Washington, Mervyn Clare, Mitchell Carruthers, Marcus
Rainsford, J. J. B. Coles, and Dr. Bullinger; also Mr. Richard Mahony, Mr. J. E.
Mathieson, Col. H. Bentinck and Countess Bentinck, the Herbert Trittons and
Edward Trotters, Mr. and Lady Anne Campbell, Gen. Sir Robert Phayre, Col. H. G.
MacGregor, Miss Emma Bland, and Dr. A. T. Schofield, who had Readings of a
slightly different character in his own house also.

Another type of Bible Readings sometimes addressed by my father used to be held
for the staffs of London business houses, such as Derry and Toms, Peter
Robinson, Lewis and Co, Selfridge’s, and Whiteley’s. Amongst his many other
interests were the Lawyers’ Prayer Union, the Victoria Institute, the Prophecy
Investigation Society; and he was a strong supporter of the different Protestant
societies. He was a vice-president of the Alliance of Honour which for over
forty years, including both world wars, has done a great work for personal and
national purity. His interest in Mr. Fegan’s Boys’ Homes and in Mr. Wheatley’s
work is mentioned elsewhere. Dr. T. J. Barnardo in asking him to join the
Council of his Homes wrote, "So now, my dear friend and brother, whom I have
known almost all my Christian life, don’t refuse this request if you think it
possible to accede to it." He not only accepted the invitation, but took a keen
personal interest in the great work, often attending the prayer meetings at
Stepney Causeway. A kind letter to myself from Pastor D. J. Findlay, of Glasgow,
thanking me for the first edition of this memoir, gives a striking impression of
Sir Robert, "THE TABERNACLE, ST. GEORGE’S CROSS, "GlasGow.

"8th December 1919.

"As your book makes clear to those who did not already know it, your father had
two very pronounced sides to his personality.

"I have a vivid recollection of one Sabbath night when he preached here about
fifteen years ago. His address was clear as a bell and cold as an icicle to a
certain point. Then he told a thrilling story about going home with a poor girl
to her garret off Holborn and spending the night wresthng with her soul, which
he won before the morning. Then he sent her off to her parents’ home in
Yorkshire; and later, if my memory is right, she went to -, where she became a
happy wife and mother. The story in its detail was one which no young man would
have dared to tell; but it was told so tenderly that it completely broke the
audience down. My wife and I entertained - and still entertain - a warm love for
the grand old man, and Heaven is richer because he is there."

I do not remember my father ever speaking of that incident. In his 1917 diary
there is a note of a meeting at Shepherd’s Bush in which he says: "I told the
story of B, whom I met in Pimlico and visited in her bedroom, when she received
the Gospel. She became a Christian worker in -."

I have at various times been asked what my father’s "religious persuasion" was.
Brought up a Presbyterian, he became closely associated with the Brethren in
early Dublin days, as did his elder brother and sisters and many of their
friends. Some, of our cousins in fellowship at Merrion Hall to-day - Edith
Trench and Alice Ida and Herbert Boyd. This last, Sir Walter Herbert Boyd,
married a daugter of Sir William and Lady Fry who, with their parents, were also
members of Merrion Hall, are others of the present generation of the Frys. For a
wlile after coming to London he attended a little mission hall Walham Green,
often preaching at the Gospel services there in St. George’s Hall. But for many
years afterwards up till close of his life he worshipped in Trinity Presbyterian
Church, Notting Hill, well known for the ministry of Dr. Adolph Saphir. The
successive Ministers of that Church were all close friends - Dr. H. Sinclair
Paterson, the Rev. George H. C. Macgregor, Dr. Hugh Falconer and the Rev. Joseph
Rorke.

He never held office, but often preached there, and in the pulpit to which he
was invited, frequently for Pastor Frank I White of the (Baptist) Talbot
Tabernacle, which we young folk attended with our mother for some time until Mr.
Macgregor came to Trinity. I remember hearing my father say that, if I was put
with his back to the wall and compelled to make a avowal, he would say he was a
Presbyterian! "The saint of incisive vision." Thus Pastor F. E. Marsh headed an
article in The Prophetic News, "Sir Robert Anderson," he wrote, "was no
visionary man, but a man of vision... one like Paul who has had a personal touch
with Christ and who has responded to Him, who has not been disobedient to the
Heavenly Vision."

After speaking of his keen insight into human nature and merciless criticism of
those who criticised the Word of God the article went on: "Those who came into
close contact with this beloved servant God know what a kindly heart he had and
what a consistent Christian he was.

"He had a specially clear vision of God’s Word. He did not follow in the beaten
track of received opinions. He studied the Word under the Spirit’s guidance for
himself... Members of the Prophecy investigation Society, especially the readers
of papers at its conferences, had to listen to something out of the ordinary, as
he would often tilt over the edifices of their erection... We praise God for the
faithfulness of Sir Robert’s testimony, for the fragrance of his life, and the
aroma of his friendship." An appreciation in The Witness at the time of his
death told how, not many months previously, he had explained to the writer that
his main reason for not continuing regularly with the Brethren was their
unwillingness to provide intelligent ministry at meetings other than the Lord’s
Table, and their haphazard way of doing things. The Brethren he thought were
strong on ministry and weak on ministers. Yet he expressed his indebtedness to
and esteem for "brethren beloved," and had the joy of worshipping with them and
helping them as opportunity offered. The article concluded "On the platform he
appeared warriorlike, in conversation he was professor-like, in friendly
intercourse brother-like; and throughout his life he bore the true test of
Christian manhood, the better known the better loved."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 9: 09. AUTHOR, TEACHER AND DEFENDER OF THE FAITH.
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CHAPTER X. AUTHOR, TEACHER AND DEFENDER OF THE FAITH When Sir Robert Anderson
was at leisure from official duties he undertook literary work in defence of
Christian truth and the authority of Holy Scripture. The qualities which made
him eminent in official life, together with his loyalty to truth and his
incisive logic, rendered his advocacy of those causes weighty and influential.
(From a Minute of the Victoria Institute 22nd December 1918.) Sir Robert
Anderson’s books are amongst the most valuable of our day, and will long abide
as a testimony to the truth of the Gospel. The Rev. W. H. Griffith Thomass, D.
D, in The Evangelical Christian.

Sir Robert Anderson is in some respects the most remarkable of current writers
on religious subjects, whether we consider his personal history or the range and
character of his work... To sit at the feet of a man with such knowledge, mental
power, courage and native wit, who is at the same time Spirit. taught, is for
the true Christian one of the greatest privileges. The Rev. James M. Gray, D. D,
of Chicago. IN his Introduction to The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
descants feelingly upon his incapacity for literary effort during the years when
he held an appointment in the Custom House. But there are spheres of work in the
public service compared with which the Custom House might seem almost a
sanctuary!" A quotation from the Preface of one of my father’s books. Knowing a
little of the conditions under which some at least of them were written, one
could underline the words.

Back in 1876 his old college friend Canon Teignmouth Shore asked: "How on earth
have you had time to dive into theology?" And in later years Dr. A. T. Pierson
wrote: "I often wonder when and how you found time to develop the ’theologian,’
for I find few amongst the most acute writers on doctrine whose power to
differentiate equals your own."

Altogether seventeen volumes on varied aspects of the Christian faith and life,
besides three books of a secular nature and numerous pamphlets and magazine and
newspaper articles, came from his pen. In many cases the aim was to help fellow-
believers in the knowledge and understanding of their Bibles, and to build them
up in the Faith; and the over-mastering desire to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ
was ever present. Several books were concerned with the defence of the
Scriptures against the errors of rationalism or superstition. In some instances
the method was frankly destructive criticism of the methods and conclusions of
Biblical critics. The results of prolonged study of prophecy, fulfilled and
awaiting fulfilment, were seen in other works. In one or two books the appeal
was mainly to men of the world as such. Regarding one such effort, first
published anonymously as A Doubter’s Doubts about Science and Religion, Mr. W.
E. Gladstone (British Prime Minister) wrote "I agree with you about dilapidation
in some quarters and danger in more. I think that to counter-work the process
and try to build up his fellow-creatures in the faith is the highest way a man
has of serving them. I opine that you are not very far from this sentiment, and
I heartily hope your book will be successful." The Gospel and its Ministry,
appearing in 1875, has reached sixteen editions. It deals in fresh and striking
terms with the great truths of the Gospel of the Glory of the Blessed God (see I
Tim. i. xi): Grace, the Cross, Faith, Repentance and the Spirit’s Work,
Substitution, Righteousness, Sanctification, Reconciliation, Justification and
kindred topics. Dr. Falconer, an ex-Moderator of the English Presbyterian
Church, wrote to my mother, "After checking them [Sir Robert’s books] and
comparing them with Ewald, A. B. Davidson, Fairbank’s Typology and other
writings, I am more than ever convinced that The Gospel and its Ministry is
simply the classical handbook on the doctrines of grace. It should be in every
minister’s library. Some points of course I might put differently, but the
substance of the Evangel is splendidly stated in that great book and in a style
hardly any theologian can rival."

Mr. Duncan Davidson of Inchmarlo said: "I’m giving away (and studying over and
over again myself) The Gospel and its Ministry. It is the only book that touches
on the Godhood of God. That false general Fatherhood is lulling the multitudes
to sleep." In 1892 permission was given for translation into Swedish, and a
Japanese version was published in 1904, the work of the Rev. A. B. Hutchinson of
the Church Missionary Society. Baron Alexander deHeeckeren asked in 1905 for
permission to prepare a Dutch translation, but I do not know if this was
published. The Coming Prince was written during very busy years, much of it late
at night after "overtime" official work. The title refers to "the prince that
shall come" of the ninth chapter of Daniel, and the book offers a solution of
the much-discussed prophecy of the "seventy weeks." This depended on fixing the
date of the decree to "restore and build Jerusalem" as the 14th March 445 B. C,
and on the calculation that sixty-nine sevens of prophetic years (173, 880 days)
from that date ended on the 6th April A. D. 32. On that day, now known to us as
Palm Sunday, for the first and only time in His earthly life the Lord was
publicly acclaimed as the long-looked-for King of Israel. For ascertaining the
terminus a quo the Astronomer Royal, Sir George Airy, kindly had calculations
made showing that new moon occurred at Jerusalem on the 13th March 445 B. C.
(444 Astronomical) at 7h. 9m. A. M. The words of the prophecy are "unto the
Messiah the Prince,", and as stated above the day of the triumphal entry into
the Holy City on the eve of the Crucifixion was reckoned to be the terminus
adquem. In the Preface to the tenth edition of his book Sir Robert claimed that
the searching criticism to which this elucidation of the prophecy had been
subjected had failed to detect error or flaw; and that its exact fulfilment
provided overwhelmingly cogent evidence for the Divine authority of Daniel. On
this interpretation the seventh "week" (i. e. seven years) remains to be
fulfilled. But regarding the future our author refused the temptation to attempt
prediction in detail. He held unswervingly however to the conclusion that the
Anti-Christ is yet to come, and that this great world-ruler for whose advent the
stage is now being prepared is none other than "the prince that shall come" of
Daniel’s prophecy, the last great monarch of Christendom, "who by the sheer
force of transcendent genius will gain a place of undisputed pre-eminence."

Amongst the changes which must precede his appearance are the restoration of the
Jews to Palestine. Writing sixty years ago, before the inception of Zionism as a
practical movement, the author said that the prophecies of a restored Israel
seemed to many people as incredible as predictions of the triumphs of steam and
electricity would have appeared a century previously. As to how this restoration
might come to pass it was suggested that the decline of Moslem power along with
other causes indicated might lead to the formation of a protected Jewish State,
possibly with a military occupation by or on behalf of some European Power or
Powers. Then "nothing more need be supposed than a religious revival among the
Jews to prepare the way for the fulfilment of the prophecies." Another
interesting fore-view is given in discussing the predicted division of the Roman
earth about which so many guesses have been ventured by prophetic students.

"History repeats itself," wrote Sir Robert in the days of Victorian peace and
security; "and if there be any element of periodicity in the political diseases
by which nations are afflicted, Europe will inevitably pass through another
crisis... and it is impossible to foretell how far kingdoms may become
consolidated and boundaries changed." In view of the European situation to-day
(1946) another suggestion is of importance regarding the vision recorded in the
seventh chapter of Daniel in which the four winds of Heaven strove upon the
great sea and four great beasts came up from it. This has generally been taken
to refer to the same Gentile kingdoms as the vision of the great image in chap..
ii, viz, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. But in an appendix note my father
hinted that the vision might have a still future reference, allowing that (as
elsewhere in Scripture) the great sea meant the Mediterranean. "May not the
opening portion refer to the gigantic struggle which must come some day for
supremacy in the Mediterranean?" The lion might typify Britain, and the bear
represent the Russia of to-day fully as well as the Persia of Cyrus and Darius.
But such suggestions were purely tentative, including the possible
identification of the third beast with Germany or France. His views were
assailed with vigour by writers of the "Historical" school, notably by Dr.
Grattan Guinness. But Sir Robert claimed that his writings gave proof that he
thoroughly accepted a historical interpretation of prophecy; his objection was
to "the system which dares to write ’fulfilled’ across the prophetic page. Dr.
Guinness asserts that the apocalyptic visions have been fulfilled in the events
of the Christian era. I hold him to that of the sixth chapter [of the Book of
Revelation]. That vision describes the tremendous events which lead men to call
upon the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that
sitteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His
wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" The historical system teaches
that these awful words meant nothing more than the rout of heathen hordes by
Constantine! He claimed that the question was vital, for that interpretation
would mean that the most awful warnings of Scripture were wild exaggeration.
Further, he urged that if that vision still awaits fulfilment, so do all the
prophecies which follow it in the Revelation, My father often quoted Lord
Bacon’s belief that many of the prophecies "have springing and germinant
accomplishment throughout many ages, though the height and fulness of them may
refer to some one age." In a long Preface to the fifth edition of The Coming
Prince Professor S. R. Driver’s arguments against the authenticity of Daniel
were subjected to analysis and criticism. A further indictment of his views as
expressed in his Book of Daniel was contained in a short work entitled Daniel in
the Critics’ Den, the first edition of which however was in the main a reply to
a book of a popular nature by Dean Farrar. In the latter all possible evidence
against the authenticity of Daniel had been marshalled; and yet according to the
Dean no words could exaggerate the value of this work of "avowed fiction" by
some holy and gifted Jew of a later time. Historical errors were alleged; also
"violent errors as to matters with which a contemporary must have been
familiar." It is strange at the present date to find amongst "historical errors"
the fact of the existence of Belshazzar and Darius the Mede! But space can be
given’ here to one point only in this attack. According to the Scripture record
Belshazzar made Daniel the third ruler in the kingdom. This statement had always
presented a difficulty until, the discovery that Nabonidus was king at the time
and Belshazzar himself only the second ruler. Defenders of the reliability of
the Bible naturally made much of this fresh evidence. Farrar’s comment was:
"Unhappily for their very precarious hypothesis, the translation ’third ruler’
appears to be entirely untenable; it means one of a board of three." I remember
that just when my father was writing on the subject he paid one of his visits to
Cambridge, and at Professor Macalister’s home he met Dr. Adler (The Very Rev.
Hermann Adler, D. D, LLD, Ph. D, Chief Rabbi United Hebrew Congregations of the
British Empire). When the question was put to the Chief Rabbi he replied after a
moment’s thought - " the third ruler." He afterwards wrote "I have carefully
considered the question you laid before me at our pleasant meeting on Sunday...
I cannot absolutely find fault with Archdeacon Farrar, as he follows two of our
Hebrew commentators of great repute. Others translate this passage as ’he shall
be the third ruler in the kingdom.’ This seems to be more strictly in accord
with the literal meaning of the words as shown by Winer.. A letter from
Professor A. F. Kirkpatrick of Cambridge about the same time (1895) gives his
view thus: "The Aramaic presents peculiar difficulties, but ’and rule as third
in the kingdom’ is probably the right translation." I refer to this at some
length first as illustrating the recklessness of the critic in the attempt to
prove his case; and also as an instance of the care my father took in preparing
a reasoned defence and reply.

"A REMARKABLE TITLE, and it heralds A REMARKABLE BOOK.

We are profoundly grateful for this most striking endeavour to move a terrible
stumbling block out of the way of many." The words are from a review in The
Record of The Silence of God, a book written in 1897 during the Scotland Yard
period. It was in a Preface to this work that my father made the reference to
Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter quoted at the beginning of this
Chapter.

"’A Silent Heaven is the greatest mystery of our existence.’ In these words the
problem is stated. It is illustrated by the hideous tale of the Armenian
massacres of 1895 and 1896 which raised such a storm of indignation against
Turkey that the Sultan Abdul Hamid was shamed into laying aside his dignity and
making his personal defence. ’But in vain do we strain our ears to hear some
voice from the throne of the Divine Majesty. The far-off heaven where in perfect
peace and unutterable glory God dwells and reigns is SILENT!’" And how
immeasurably greater is the mystery now in face of the horrors of the war which
has just drawn to its close! But the problem includes a vast deal more - the
sufferings of the martyrs the death of missionaries at the hands of those for
whose sake they had gone forth; the oft-times prolonged painful illnesses of
saints of God in spite of the prayers of those who love them. The problem seems
the more insoluble in view of the miracles of Divine intervention recorded in
Scripture. But the book proceeds to show that miracles which were so frequent
when the Lord was on earth, and in the early days of the Church as recorded in
the Acts, gradually ceased before the close of that book is reached. And
although there have been innumerable answers to the prayers of His people
throughout the intervening centuries, the world has never witnessed any public
manifestation of God’s intervention.

It may be suggested that the notable instances of Divine interventiôn at Dunkirk
and on other occasions during this and the last great war are evidence that the
statement is not correct. They are indeed proof that God is still on the throne.
But He remains within the shadows, and there is no public intervention such as
would silence the scoffer. The solution of the mystery is found in the fact that
miracles are connected with the history of God’s earthly people - Israel. The
Book of Acts records their final rejection, as a people, of their Messiah. The
Epistle to the Romans reveals that a new dispensation had begun with the setting
aside for a time of the Jews, and the proclamation of the Gospel of grace and
reconciliation to all without distinction. "Grace reigns unto eternal life." The
book goes on, "A SILENT HEAVEN! Yes, but it is not the silence of callous
indifference or helpless weakness. The silence is the pledge and proof that the
way is open for the guiltiest of mankind to draw near to God. When that silence
is broken one day it will mean the withdrawal of the amnesty: the end of the
reign of grace; and the dawning of the day of wrath foretold in Scripture. God
is silent now because He has spoken His last word of mercy and love in Christ.
He is beseeching men to be reconciled [2Co. 5:20]. The One to whom all judgment
has been committed, and who will appear one day as the Judge of all, is now the
Savior and is seated upon the Father’s throne in grace." A Danish version of The
Silence of God, entitled Gud’s Tavshed, appeared in 1917, the work of Mr. J.
Fischmann of Copenhagen. I have had the pleasure of lending a copy to some of
our Danish friends in Capetown. The famous preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon said
that Human Desting was "the most valuable contribution on the subject" that he
had ever seen. In this volume various theories of Universalism, Conditional
Immortality and the Wider Hope are subjected to searching investigation. The
immense problems and difficulties are freely admitted; but an appeal is made
from the ideas of men to the Divine revelation regarding the tremendous question
- After Death, What?

"On this subject," says the author, "’orthodoxy’ has gone beyond what Scripture
warrants, and ’heresy’ ignores or denies some of its plainest teaching." One
chapter deals with the question What is Life? An appendix discusses many
passages often quoted on the subject and gives a list of differing translations
of various Greek words. The pages of Human Desting "are the reflex of the
struggle by which one enquirer has escaped from the difficulties set forth in
the opening chapter. Perchance the record may prove helpful to others."

Dr. Handley Moule, Bishop of Durham, contributed a Preface to The Bible and
Modern Criticism and The Lord from Heaven. Of the former he wrote "What is the
book? It is the free and (to use the word in its best sense) popular
presentation of the results of an independent study of the New Criticism... done
by a student entirely free from professional bias, and trained in a severe
school of legal and judicial investigation to sift witnesses and to weigh
evidence. In the best specimens of such study there is often a quite peculiar
value, a fresh and bracing air of thought all their own, a faculty for throwing
wholesome light upon subjects tangled by the over-handling of experts. Experts,
as Sir Robert Anderson reminds us, are by no means as such good judges."

Any brief sketch of the argument of this book would do it scant justice, and I
will not attempt an outhne. But I give an example on "the lighter side "of the
way in which special experience and training may be brought to bear upon the
problems with which critics deal. It relates to the moral difficulties of the
Old Testament. "A few years ago," Sir Robert wrote," a certain London merchant
killed an unfortunate wretch whom circumstances had placed in his power. He did
not actually kill him with his own hands, but he had him brought to a secluded
room prepared for the purpose. And there he stood by while his victim was
strangled by a man whom he had hired to do the deed. I myself examined the
place. I can testify moreover that all the facts were known not only to the
authorities but to the Queen. And yet not only did the homicide go unpunished,
but with the full knowledge of all I have related Her Majesty singled him out
for Royal favour and conferred a title upon him."

I heard my father read this paragraph to a highly intelligent and cultured
friend, and I remember the horrified exclamation which escaped her, and the
amazed relief with which she heard the denouement. The story goes on: "What
estimate will my readers form of such conduct on the part of one [Queen
Victoria] whom we have been taught to regard as a pattern and paragon of public
and private virtue? But before they pass judgment they ought to know a few
additional details. The victim was a condemned murderer; the man paid to
strangle him was the common hangman. The secluded room was in Newgate Prison;
and the merchant who received a knighthood was the Sheriff whose official duty
it was to execute the criminal."

"And now," the author, continues, "the meaning of my parable will begin to dawn
upon the reader. Let these added details be suppressed, and a narrative which
does not contain a syllable that is untrue or even exaggerated may seem to
endanger the reputation of the Queen. And it is precisely by this sort of
suppression that the Bible and the God of the Bible are misrepresented. Will any
person of culture in our day dare to defend the extermination of the Canaanites?
Will anyone, I answer, dare to defend the strangling of a helpless wretch in a
shut-in room?" Men read the Bible story, the book proceeds, in the false light
of the evolution craze. They picture a number of semi-civilised tribes on the
upward path of progress being exterminated by an invading horde of religious
fanatics. Actually they were a degenerate race whose destruction was decreed by
a God of infinite mercy, because they had given themselves up to unnatural and
loathsome sin. (Archaeology has shown that they were lapsing from civilisation,
not emerging from barbarism.) And God’s mercy is seen in the fact that Israel
were left as strangers in a foreign land for four generations, "because the
iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full." Sir Robert adds in a footnote that,
prior to knowledge gained at Scotland Yard, the Divine judgments on the
Canaanites were a difficulty to him. In the opinion of a reviewer in the New
York Tribune the Bible and Modern Criticism is "a work of singular lucidity of
style and remarkable argumentative power... which places critics as radical as
Professor Cheyne or as conservative as Professor Driver on their defence before
men of common sense." It was however no surprise that a mere layman should be
ignored by the critics. But it was a keen disappointment that the Bishop of
Durham’s notable appeal in the Preface should have evoked no response from them.
Dr. Moule had been a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Principal of Ridley
(Theological) Hall, and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University,
and, according to Bishop Weldon, "he was probably the most accomplished
classical scholar on the Episcopal Bench." Seldom had he written with more
impressive earnestness, said Sir Robert, than in his appeal to Christians to
take note of the tendencies of this Biblical criticism. But the critics seemed
blind to the consequences of their teaching and contemptuously indifferent to
the opinions of all who differed from them, whilst their camp-followers in
pulpits, lecture halls and schoolrooms and in the Press carried on the work of
proclaiming " the assured results of modern criticism." The Bishop of Durham’s
plea was that this modern attitude to the Scriptures was totally different to
that of the Lord Jesus Christ alike before and after His resurrection. To Him
"it is written" was a formula of infinite import. The principle involved lay at
the heart of His teaching. But it was now openly or tacitly taken to be out of
date, narrow or uncultured to make much of "it is written," as if an appeal to a
supernatural book-revelation was a thing discredited. This conclusion, if true,
was portentous. It meant that on a matter central in His message our Master was
much mistaken. The most worshipping theology might hold that He consented in His
humanity to limitations of His conscious knowledge; but the Christ of the
critics appeared to be ignorant with the sort of ignorance which profoundly
impairs the whole value of a teacher - the ignorance of one who does not know
where His knowledge ends.

Such a fallible Christ lay open to the suspicion of fallibility on other matters
than the integrity of the Old Testament. If such conclusions were demanded by
irrefutable fact, let them be made, but not light-heartedly in the modern style.
Let them be made with a groan and let the unauthentic promise be carved no more
upon the tombs of the beloved dead. "But first," said Dr. Moule, "let us take
care to be sure that our detraction from the complete infallibility of the Lord
Jesus Christ has infallible grounds. Let us take particular care to be sure that
its basis is no a priori theory of the genesis of religion which may already be
on its way to discredit in the court of knowledge and thought. The question is
of tremendous urgency. We are contending for our all." The Bible and Modern
Criticism was addressed in the main to Christians. Another book,
Pseudo-Criticism, made its appeal rather to men of the world. The author again
challenged the right of experts to act as judge and jury in addition to giving
their evidence, and pointed out how lacking in judgment they often were. He
showed that the apparent success of the so-called Higher Criticism largely
depended on the fallacy of supposing that if a seemingly complete case could be
made out against the genuineness of a book the fact was thereby established that
it was not genuine. Were the critics aware that no criminal charge was ever sent
for trial unless an apparently complete case could be offered in support of it?
An example was the "assured result" that the Pentateuch was a Jewish work of a
comparatively late date. A really strong case might be shattered by a single
fact. And if the critics’ case against the Mosaic books were as complete as it
was faulty there was one fact which would explode it. That fact was the
Samaritan Bible. The C. I. D. story of the man who bought a false moustache was
here requisitioned as an illustration, The sacrosanct Scriptures of the
Samaritans were limited to the Pentateuch. The standing feud between them and
the Jews was a matter of common knowledge. Yet the critics would have us believe
that the Scriptures which the Samaritans held in such special reverence were
literary forgeries compiled by the Jews after the separation from them of the
Ten Tribes, a considerable portion dating from after the return of the Jews from
the Babylonian captivity! The critical case, however, rested, on Professor
Driver’s own showing, only upon "plausible arguments, grounds of probability"
and the like. A diary entry in December 1906 is of interest here: "To Mrs.
Finn’s to view a wonderful old Samaritan Pentateuch. Her husband was British
Consul in Jerusalem, and befriended the Samaritan colony at Shechem." The Rev.
A. H. Finn was author of The Unity of the Pentateuch. The Samaritan evidence is
of the utmost weight," said the Bishop of Durham in a personal letter. The
reader will perhaps ask, said Sir Robert, what answer the critics give. "The
critics give no answer whatever. Indeed they never notice anything urged against
’the assured results’ of their inquiries; presumably because they imagine, as I
have said, that if a case can be established for or against anything the
question at issue is settled. It is an attitude of mind with which my experience
of legal and police work has made me familiar.

Dr. Robert Sinker, Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge, wrote to my father:
"I think the parallel you draw between the Incarnate Word and the Written Word
is very powerful; the One human save only without sin; the other human in its
form, Divinely infallible in its teaching." The Lord from Heaven, the other book
for which the Bishop of Durham wrote a Preface, deals with the Deity of Christ.

"To Christianity," said Dr. Moule, "if it is the Christianity of original form
and not of late and arbitrary theory, the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, true,
proper, absolute, is vital. It was an insight into that vitality which made
Athanasius strong contra mundum..

He saw that no compromise was possible. His opponents were prepared to say
practically anything of the greatness of the Christ short of this - that without
reserve, without compromise, sans phrase, He is GOD... The human soul can find
rest only in a Savior who is one with man and one with God. Such a Savior
bridges as with living adamant the gulf of doom and sin which severs creature
from Maker. A Savior not quite God is a bridge broken at the farther end." The
author explains how he had been asked on one occasion to mediate between the
committee of a missionary society and some of their younger agents whose faith
had been disturbed by Moslem hostility to the truth of the Sonship of Christ. He
had been unable to find any book which definitely met their difficulties, and
the thought of writing such a one was suggested to him. It is not controversial;
it is a Bible study. And the question at issue was not merely the divinity of
our Lord, now generally acknowledged, but his Deity. "Thou being a man makest
Thyself God"; this was the charge for which the Jews threatened to stone Him.

After reading this book, Dr. Bullinger wrote: "I feel I have a fuller, better
and deeper knowledge of ’my Lord and my God,’ and praise Him and bless you for
it." Of Sir Robert’s other works, The Bible and the Church is referred to in
Chapter XII of this memoir. The Hebrews Epistle is a Bible Study demanding some
deep thinking on the part of the reader. The Way - Chapters on the Christian
Ljfe throws fresh light on many problems of the daily walk and warfare. The
Entail of the Covenant or the Savior’s Little Ones is of special interest to
Christian parents, dealing with the New Birth, Conversion, and many other vital
matters in an original way. Redemption Truths - For us Men treats of the
doctrines of the Gospel, being designed specially to help those who are seeking
assurance for themselves or who desire to lead others into the way of life.
Misunderstood Texts of the New Testament again sheds new light upon a number of
difficult or "misunderstood" passages.

Reference was made at the beginning of this chapter to an early book, A
Doubter’s Doubts, which attracted W. E. Gladstone’s attention. A good deal of
this was included in a later work, In Defence - A plea for the Faith. This was
written from the standpoint of "the true scepticism which tests everything, not
the sham sort which credulously accepts anything that tends to discredit the
Bible." One who is a sceptic both by temperament and training, said the author,
can appreciate the difficulties of the honest truth seeker. A list of some of
the writers quoted in the course of the discussion gives an idea of its scope;
Darwin, Huxley, Tyndale, Kelvin, Herbert Spencer, Mark Twain, Sir Leslie
Stephen, Harnack, A. J. Balfour, Max Muller. Although some of the theories and
positions criticised are now discredited, the main argument is remarkably up to
date. The Honour of His Name (Psa. 66:2), written in 1912, was "a plea for
reverence" in naming the Lord of Glory. "The Christian who accepts the opening
vision of the Apocalypse as a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ as now
enthroned in Heaven will need neither warning nor appeal to avoid all irreverent
freedom in naming Him - to shun even the appearance of forgetting ’the honour of
His Name.’" The author was referring to the manner in which the Lord is so often
spoken of by his human name, Jesus, alone, "as if He were a dead hero or an
equal." The book points out that while He is called Jesus hundreds of times in
the Gospel narratives, when we come to the words spoken by the disciples to the
Lord or to others about Him a title of reverence is always used. The one
exception is significant; the disciples on the Emmaus Road (Luke xxiv. I 9)
spoke of their late Master as "Jesus of Nazareth," proving by the very words
that they were thinking of the "prophet mighty in deed and word" who was now
dead. Not thus did they name Him when alive and present with them. Sovereigns
who have passed into history are commonly called by their Christian names. But
can one imagine a member of the great Queen’s household speaking of her as
"Victoria" during her lifetime? Only an equal would have done so. When we turn
to the Epistles we find that "the modern familiar use of the simple name Jesus
has little authority in Apostolic usage." The words are Bishop Ellicott’s in his
New Testament Commentary. " If we substitute ’no’ for ’little,’ " said Sir
Robert, "this will accurately express the truth." In point of fact the
occurrences of the name "Jesus" by itself in the Epistles scarcely exceed a
score. The Apostle Peter does not use it once. James, the Lord’s brother, never
names Him without some title. When used in the First Epistle of John the
significance is clear: "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God" i.
e, Jesus is the human name, the name of the man of Nazareth. Similarly in the
Acts: "God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and
Christ." In all the thirteen Epistles acknowledged to be St. Paul’s, the "simple
name" occurs only eight times. In the Epistle to the Hebrews again it is used
eight times; there, according to Ellicott’s New Testament Commentary, "it will
be found that special stress is laid on the lowly and suffering humanity of the
Lord, or the historic facts of His ministry on earth are referred to." In the
Book of Revelation the Lord Himself uses the name; "I Jesus" (Rev. xxii. i 6;
cf. Act. 9:5, 6), and the remaining four passages have special significance. The
first chapter of the Epistle to the Corinthians shows the Apostolic usage. The
words "Jesus Christ our Lord," "the [or our] Lord Jesus Christ," occur six times
in the first ten verses. "In many a Christian book of two hundred pages that
title of glory will not be found as often as here in less than two hundred words
"Hymnology is a delicate subject," said the author; "yet so great is the
influence of hymns that Christians do well to give intelligent thought to what
they sing. The exigencies of rhyme and rhythm have much to answer for; but some
hymns would be improved even from that standpoint by the substitution of "Lord
Jesus" for "0 Jesus." Children’s hymns are often at fault. It is in early life
that the habit of reverence can most easily be formed. Yet in many a Christian
home children are taught to speak of the Lord of Glory much in the way some
children, are allowed to talk about a pet uncle." The words are starthng, but
they merit thought. Mrs. Duncan Davidson wrote after my father’s death: "Of all
the things I learned from him, I think his holy reverence for his beloved Lord
stands out above everything. ’My Lord, my Lord Jesus,’ as he often said." The
Hope of the Lord’s Return was an ever-present reality to my father throughout
his life. Forgotten Truths, written on this theme in 1913, was (to use his own
words) the outcome of earnest thought and study for more than half a century. In
a letter to myself at the time he said, "Your reference to Forgotten Truths in
your letter to Mother has greatly interested me. You are entirely right on two
salient points first that the truth of ’the Coming’ is not an isolated doctrine
that can be recognized or ignored without affecting the divine revelation of
Christianity. It is a vital and central element in it; and if displaced (or
misplaced) the unity of the whole is lost. And, second, it is too true that it
is generally not only ignored but rejected with a strange animus... I have just
received a very cordial letter from the Bishop of Durham about it. He says: - ’
It arrived when I was away in Switzerland, and even now I have by no means read
it through. What I have read has done what your writings always do for me. It
has at once stimulated attention and challenged thought, often along quite fresh
lines, and has everywhere braced and strengthened the faith of my soul in the
divine character of Scripture.’ He adds that he hopes to make it his companion
on ’an impending railway journey. Was there ever a more gracious man!"

Easter-tide 1917 saw the appearance of the last book, a small volume,
Unfulfilled Prophecy and the Hope of the Church, written in response to a
request from the Prophecy Investigation Society. A "special subject" in a school
curriculum, said the author, is often ignored as not being essential; and
prophecy is neglected by many a Christian as being unnecessary to salvation. But
such neglect is perilous in these days of subtle and sustained attacks upon the
Bible. "The writings of the eminent scholars who have led or championed that
sceptical crusade (the destructive criticism of the Bible) will be searched in
vain for proof of acquaintance with the scheme of Divine prophecy, a scheme
which can be traced like a silver thread through all the Scriptures. And still
more remarkable is their neglect of the typology of Scripture, so closely allied
with prophecy. Indeed their writings are notable examples of exegesis on the
text-card system. These critics are like men who empty the works of a watch into
a bowl, and then after, examining them in detail arrive at the sapient
conclusion that they present no proof of unity of design!" In a Preface to the
second edition Sir Robert remarked that the world war then raging appeared to be
exciting fresh interest in the study of prophecy. He uttered a word of warning
however against the chronological schemes and theories to which the deliverance
of the Holy Land from Turkish rule had given rise. For Jerusalem must remain
under Gentile control "until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled" (Luk.
21:24). But although Lord Allenby’s victory in 1917 was not the fulfilment of
any definite Scripture it was clear that it prepared the way for the
accomplishment of God’s purposes for Israel. "Prophecy is not given to enable us
to prophesy, but as a witness to God when the time [of fulfilment] comes." These
words of Dr. Pusey’s were often quoted by my father, and chronological forecasts
he said were to be received with special caution.

Unfulfilled Prophecy is devoted mainly to "sorting out" the various prophecies
of the Return of Christ. It is shown that there will be at least three
"Comings." First that which will bring to an end the present dispensation of the
reign of grace and the heavenly Church. Then the "Coming of the Son of Man" in
fulfilment of Messianic prophecy; and lastly His coming to judgment in the far
distant future, the "Second Advent" of theology.

"Christianity is based upon the teaching of the Bible; whilst the theological
doctrine of the Second Advent depends largely on the teaching of the Latin
Fathers. In their day the Coming which Bengel called ’the hope of the Church’
had already been forgotten, and Messianic prophecy had been so perverted or
’spiritualised’ as to shut out Israel’s hope altogether."

It is argued therefore in this volume that the great predictions and promises of
the Old Testament (including those in Daniel) which were not fulfilled at
Christ’s first Coming have to do in the main with a time when God shall have
once again taken up His earthly people, Israel, as shown by St. Paul in the
eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Much of the "apocalyptic"
teaching of our Lord, as well as that in the Book of Revelation, belongs to the
same future period. There it is revealed that this sin-cursed earth is yet to be
a scene of peace and blessedness - all that we should expect a God of Infinite
goodness and power to make it, "When a King in Kingly glory, Such as earth has
never known, Shall assume the righteous sceptre, Claim and wear the holy crown."
But before that day dawns Israel must pass through a "tribulation" even greater
and fiercer than they have yet known. And there must appear the Super-man, the
Coming Prince of Daniel’s vision, the Man of Sin of the Second Epistle to the
Thessalonians, the Anti-Christ of St. John’s first Epistle, the Beast of the
Book of Revelation, who will be endowed with satanic, superhuman powers, so that
all the world will worship him (Rev. 13:8, 12). Our Lord Himself, in the
twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel, uttered solemn warnings regarding
those days. But He gave too the glad promise of His own return in the clouds of
Heaven with great power and glory as foretold in Old Testament prophecy. The
Coming of the Lord revealed in the Epistles of the New Testament however is one
of the "mystery" truths of Christianity; and, as Bloomfield puts it, "in
Scripture the word mystery signifies, not a thing unintelligible, but what lies
hidden and secret till made known by revelation of God." It is a Coming to call
to their heavenly home the redeemed of this present dispensation, which will
thus reach its close. This is the Coming ever brought to remembrance in the
words: " As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye proclaim the Lord’s
death till He come" (1Co. 11:26 [R. V.]). This is "the hope of the Church." And
it is a fact of great significance that it is never mentioned in the Epistles as
a doctrine needing to be expounded, but only as a truth with which every
Christian was supposed to be familiar.

Writing of Unfulfilled Prophecy, the Bishop of Durham said, "I hope that the
’Till He Come’ which every Communion service so solemnly and as with a voice
from heaven reiterates will mean yet more to me from your book. Those three
great words are inscribed on the cover of my communion table in our beautiful
old Chapel. I have long thought them the most appropriate of all mementos
there."

Mention must be made of the remaining books from the author’s pen. Criminals and
Crime has been dealt with in •~ Chapter V of this memoir. Sidelights on the Home
Rule Movement was his only incursion into politics; the well-being of Ireland
was to him indeed a matter standing above politics in the ordinary sense. He
wrote, in the words of Lord Justice FitzGibbon, with "unexampled and
unprejudiced knowledge of the facts." The Lighter Side of my Official Life
contained, according to a review in The Librarian of February 1911, "the
personal recollections of a raconteur with an inimitable charm of manner and no
mean ability." My father hoped to write in more serious vein of his official
life at a later date; but this was not to be.

Specially bound copies of several of the "theological" books were graciously
accepted by Their Majesties Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary, and some other
members of the royal family.


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  CHAPTER 10: 10. COUNSELLOR AND HELPER OF MANY.
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CHAPTER XI. COUNSELLOR AND HELPER OF MANY "How hast thou helped?... How hast
thou counselled? "—Job 26:2-3

"STRENGTH and sensitiveness are the twin qualities of a really great soul,"
wrote Dr. Stuart Holden. The measure in which my father possessed these,
together with the gift of ready genuine sympathy, must account to some extent on
the human side for the way in which so many folk appealed to him confidently for
counsel and help. A letter from an old friend of mine, grandson of one of the
leaders in Irish Revival days, gives an insight into this. Writing about the
first edition of this memoir, he said, "I owe so much to Sir Robert, for it was
he who opened my Bible to me, and taught me of the hidden harmonies therein;
hidden to so many but wonderful and absolutely engrossing when explored with the
key in one’s hands. And to how many your father gave that key! He was always so
kind and sympathetic to me when I asked what must have seemed such silly
questions. He always answered as if I was his mental equal and, unlike most
people of whom one asks questions, when he answered one immediately under
stood... I rarely pick up my Bible without thinking of him."

"I am rather scared of pundits," wrote another friend to him; "but you are so
kind in that way. You know a lot, but you do not have the fact written all over
you; and you have always been so kind to me that you are bound to have your good
nature abused." And speaking of the original memoir Mrs. Hugh Falconer wrote:
"Dear Sir Robert! You have succeeded in making him live again in the pages...
His sternness and love, his knowledge and capacity for making allowances, and
all his humanness." "It is so difficult," said a medical student, "to meet
people who are both fitted and fearless enough to attempt to answer questions
that press upon one at every turn. This is the only excuse I have for troubling
you." And this was from an American lady: "... The time has come when the need
for advice from a friend with a big brain and a big heart is most urgent. May I
turn to you?" A long correspondence sometimes began as a result of letters in
the Press or articles and addresses. In 1892 The Times published a series of
letters on "The Bible and Modern Criticism" from Professor T. H. Huxley and my
father, the (8th) Duke of Argyll and others also taking part. Afterwards a lady
wrote to Sir Robert, "Will you allow me to thank you for the personal note
struck in your letter to The Times last week?... My faith is not as unfaltering
as I could wish I feel the power of destructive criticism. I have taken a great
interest in the letters, but none have appealed to me like yours or satisfied my
intelligence as well." And again: - " I feel that every line you write to me is
prompted by kindness and Christian consideration for a total stranger who
appeals to you for counsel and guidance because you know. It may seem strange
that I should prefer to write to you instead of speaking openly to a friend, or
making my confession to some doux pasteur detroupeau desames, but your writings
impress me as other people’s do not."

Many letters speak of help received from the books. One of special interest came
from Capt. E. J. Carré, widely known in connection with the Merchant Service
Officers’ Christian Association, who tells the story of his conversion in the
booklet Out of the Power of Darkness. He wrote, "I wish you to know how much the
thoughts expressed in your book The Silence of God helped me in the time of
crisis in my life when the darkness was densest before the dawn. I think the
booklet fully expresses just how you helped me, and I wish to thank you
greatly." From another sailor, a Norwegian, came this message, "High up in a
little watch-room in a lighthouse on the coast of Norway I am sitting during my
lonely watch hours reading and thinking over a book The Gospel and its Ministry.
A perfect. stranger as I am to you, I take the liberty to write this letter in
view of that Christian fellowship and brotherhood that exist between all true
believers. This is the true freemasonry, the only brotherhood worth calling so."
And this writer testified "After years of Church training I was cast as a lad of
18 into the land of Australia, there amid the stern realities of life to find
that all I had learned and believed was nothing more than a myth...

I cannot tell all that The Silence of God and others of your books have done for
me and what a new God and Savior they have revealed to me." A Vancouver
correspondent said: "Dr. Torrey sent me a goodly number of your books. I could
not tell you how many have blessed God for them. I owe more than I can ever tell
to them and to the kindly loving counsel received in letters from you." A
California lawyer, an avowed unbeliever, through the reading of The Silence of
God and other books publicly announced his belief in the Scriptures and the
Deity of Christ. " Sir Robert holds a brief for Christ" was his witness. A
lonely up-country trader in South Africa wrote: Sir Robert Anderson’s books have
put me right. I have thanked God for him many times." The Rev. H. Hofmeyr, a
missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church, said: "May God nerve you to other
efforts for the strengthening of the faith of many more in His word and in the
person of His Son." And the beloved Rev. W. M. Douglas wrote also from South
Africa: "I am only one of thousands to whom he has been the messenger of grace
and peace because he had himself faced and conquered the doubts and fears that
beset so many of us through the modern criticism of the Word of God." Yet
another honoured Christian worker said: "His was the strong understanding faith
that helped me when things seemed tottering." But it was not only in spiritual
things that his help was sought and given. "You have such a kind way of doing
kind things," said one friend; which may partly account for the variety of the
requests that poured in. A minister asks for assistance in getting his son into
the Royal Air Force. Another letter asks help in getting an ex-convict relieved
of the duty of reporting to the police. A Christian worker wants an introduction
to some police official in Rome. A friend desires to secure the services of an
cx- policeman for a post. A peeress seeks advice about seeing a procession. An
artist wants a permit to sketch in a military area during the war. And there
were of course many appeals for help in graver matters. A young man desires a
long talk about the question of ordination. Advice is asked as to the best book
to put into the hands of a young man who has promised to read any one book given
to him. A heart-broken parent (a complete stranger) seeks light on the silence
of God. A young man wants to start a fresh and better life. A beautiful silver
box now in my possession bears the simple inscription: "Robert Anderson; from a
grateful father." Back of this lies a tragedy of the C. I. D. days.

Letters came from Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, New Brunswick; Austria,
Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland; Belgium, Holland, Congo-Beige; Canada,
British Columbia; the United States (many parts); the Argentine, Brazil, Chile,
Costa Rica; Portugal, Tangier, Malta; India, China, Burma, Turkey-in- Asia; from
South Africa (the Cape, the Transvaal and Natal); and from many another place.
The way Sir Robert’s writing and speaking appealed to the more educated classes
as well as to others is illustrated by these extracts from letters. The Rev. Dr.
Sinker of Cambridge wrote with reference to one of the books: "I gave a copy to
a most dear friend, a highly cultured woman and a humble believer. It has been
such a joy to her, and we have often had talks about it." Another referred to
The Silence of God: "Many, many thanks for the book. We have had another long
letter about it from Lady -.

I am unspeakably thankful to have just such a book to put into such. hands, for
she reads much and is clever." A delightful expression of thanks came from Miss
Emma Bland, herself a gifted writer "I have been helped and blessed by your
book, and I thank God for putting it into your heart to write it. I feel like a
person who has had a beautiful but badly tangled skein of silk, of which I have
been cutting a needleful day by day for personal use. But this makes me feel as
if the right thread has been put into my hand by which I can unwind the skein
and have it all in one piece. My dear old Bible! I’m so glad I never gave it up
by reason of its tangles. It has always been the living Word of God to me, but
it is more wonderful than ever since I have finished your book." The hymn, "Safe
in Jehovah’s Keeping," printed on page 169, was a means of encouragement to
many. One said: "The great rock of real help and comfort was that glorious hymn.
I couldn’t tell you the number of times I have turned to it when days were very
dark and difficulties overwhelming." And the famous missionary, Dan Crawford,
author of Thinking Black, wrote: "I have translated Dr. Anderson’s glorious
version of "Safe"; there is scarcely its kin the broad and brown earth over."
There is also a Danish translation.

One quality in my father’s writing and speaking which made a special appeal was
the strength and certainty of his own beliefs. "Amidst all the weakness and
mystifying," said Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid, "it gives one hope to read your strong
words." And Bishop Taylor Smith wrote: "Sir Robert always inspired and helped
me." The Rev. J. Chalmers Lyon testified: "His ceaseless and fearless advocacy
of the great essentials of the faith, and his utter devotion to his Lord, made
an abiding impression on all who knew him; and J owe him much." The late W.
("Cairo ") Bradley wrote to my sister: "Your father was a wonderful champion for
the truth, and can ill be spared in these days when error seems rampant, and
those who should hold forth the truth only seem to be watering it down." And
from the Rev. E. L. Langston came these words: "Sir Robert has been an
inspiration to us all in his strong adherance to the Word of God and his zeal
for the truth." "A Prince has fallen," said Dr. A. J. H. Townsend; "he was a
born leader; and with such intellectual gifts and deep learning in the
Scriptures he combined the lowliest humility in spiritual things." A member of
the Trinity (Notting Hill) congregation wrote when on active service: "It seems
as though a personal friend had gone, for Sir Robert was one of the few men in
whom I had absolute confidence... one who helped me to have an intelligent
understanding of the faith I now hold." And an elder of the same church said: "1
learned to love and honour Sir Robert for his wonderful Christian life and
example, and as a man who never feared the opinion of the world." A missionary
in China wrote, "How thankful I am that Redemption Truths ever came into my
hands. It has helped me more than any book I have read for many a day." And
another in Asia Minor, saying he had bought six of the books within a year,
added that a missionary needs absolute confidence in the Word of God. " The Lord
from Heaven opened a larger view of God’s Word than I had ever before received,"
wrote a journalist in California. And an English lawyer in Switzerland said:
"Long ago when I was seeking God I found great help from The Gospel and its
Ministry." Yet another testimony was: "The Silence of God held me strongly by
the hand when I staggered for a wee bit near the Slough of Despond." "So many
commentaries," said another letter, "shirk all the difficult texts and give
voluminous notes on easy passages; whilst you, like good old Bishop Ryle, fairly
face them." The following incident was told me by my aunt, Miss Lee Anderson.
Mrs. White Jansen was staying at a Mission House in China when she saw a young
Chinese doctor talking to a poor man about the Lord Jesus. She joined them, and
the doctor said to her: - " All I know I owe to Sir Robert Anderson. When a
student in London I was at his home, and I can never tell what I owe to him; I
have all his books." The closing chapter will tell how this ministry continued
until the end of the earthly pilgrimage.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 11: 11. MR. VALIANT-FOR-TRUTH.
========================================================================

CHAPTER XII. MR. VALIANT-FOR-TRUTH Then said Great-Heart to Mr.
Valiant-for-Truth "Thou hast worthily behaved thyself. Let me see thy sword." So
he showed it to him. When he had taken it in his hand and looked thereon a
while, he said, "Ha! it is a right Jerusalem blade." The Pilgrim’s Progress.
With the conscientiousness and courage of an Old Testament prophet Sir Robert
Anderson sounded the trumpet of alarm, and led the battle against the errors
which he believed were destroying the fundamentals of Christianity. His lot to a
large extent was the loneliness of the man who seeks to be a prophet of God,
faithfully proclaiming God’s message without regard to results, not a leader
following the line of least resistance and seeking to gather round him the
largest number of followers. The age needs such men. May God multiply the
number. The Rev. A. C. DIXON, D. D, in The Biblical Recorder. TO some people my
father was known chiefly as a fearless and by no means gentle critic of the
methods and findings of modern destructive Biblical criticism. "Would that the
Daniel controversy could be brought before some competent tribunal!" he once
said. And the test of competency should be adequate knowledge of the science of
evidence, together with experience of inquiries of the kind, and a fair share of
that rare quality called common sense. Reasonable qualifications, surely; but in
each of them the critics seemed singularly wanting. "If you are a man of
affairs," he wrote," and especially if you be a trained lawyer or an experienced
juror, you are better fitted to deal with the Daniel controversy than the
Hebraist, the professor or the ecclesiastic as such. The Christian who gives up
Daniel at the bidding of the professor is both intellectually and morally on a
level with the Roman Catholic peasant who blindly takes his creed from his
priests." The publication of one of his books brought a letter from Mr.
Gladstone impressing on him that one of the distinguished scholars arraigned in
it was wholly lacking in the judgment needed for such an enquiry. And Matthew
Arnold, in spite of sympathy with the critics, had not been able to refrain from
saying, "Shut a number of men up to make study and learning the business of
their lives, and how many from want of some discipline or other seem to lose all
balance ofjudgment, all common sense!" And after speaking of the ordeal of a
strong and strict sense of fact, Arnold went on to say, "We are much mistaken if
it does not turn out that this ordeal makes great havoc among the vigorous and
rigorous theories of German criticism concerning the Bible documents."

Although the critics practically ignored him as a mere layman, such opinions
encouraged Sir Robert in continually stressing the point that their proper place
was in the witness-box as experts; and that they had no right to appoint
themselves judge and jury into the bargain. And he claimed that consideration
for the critics as men should not prevent very strong speaking about their
opinions and their "assured results." This explains in part the vigour of his
attacks on them. Another side was well brought out in a review of the first
edition of this memoir in Evangelical Christendom "The Church of Christ owes a
great debt to the memory of Sir Robert Anderson... It is a great mistake to
suppose that he was a narrow-minded man, or an opponent of legitimate criticism,
or a mere unreasoning champion of orthodoxy. He had insight into the full-orbed
Gospel, and his attachment to Christ amounted to a passion which sometimes - as
for instance against the blasphemous ’New Theology’ teaching - found full
display... Sir Robert was a humble Christian of a most tender disposition as we
were privileged to know by experience."

Another review in The Christian World had this appreciation "Ulster had a
typical son in Sir Robert Anderson, whose strongly marked personality was
familiar in strict evangelical circles for half a century. It was through
several protective rinds that one had to pass to get to the simple pleasantness
of the Christian father and friend. He was first (outwardly) the keen,
relentless Secret Service agent, the terror of Irish rebels; he was the
’no-surrender’ foe of Biblical criticism; he was the tireless speaker, preacher
and writer for his faith. But when his day’s fight was done he was lovable and
much loved. Friend and foe alike, recalling that austere and dignified presence,
will gladly read this outhne of his full and consistent life."

It is entirely true that he was no opponent of legitimate criticism, being, as
he often used to say, by temperament and training a sceptic and critic himself;
and he was far from being an unreasoning up-holder of orthodox views as such.
But lifelong study of the whole Bible as a whole made him ever more firmly
convinced of its Divine authority and integrity. His belief in its inspiration
(in the fullest sense of the word) rested on no merely negative ground, as this
extract from a letter well shows, "Beneath all these special lines of truth
there lies the many-stranded line of type and prophecy running unbroken through
the Bible, giving proof upon proof that it is all Divine. A moral fitness
moreover is needed for the study of it... And of course one must know something
of the deeper language in which it is written. I do not mean Hebrew or Greek,
but type and anti-type - that language which speaks Christ in it throughout.
Refer to Alford’s Commentary (Greek Testament) on Luke 24:1-53. But all this is
beyond the ken of the Critics. Some of them give sad proof that they are
spiritually ignorant of God. None give proof that they know anything of this
meaning of the whole Scriptures as a whole." The letter went on to give his own
experience along these lines. At one time his natural scepticism had seized upon
the plain differences in the four Gospels as proof that they could not be
Divinely inspired. But an address in a friend’s drawing-room turned the points
which once more shunted him on to the line of faith. In a rapid summary of the
Synoptic Gospels the speaker showed how each followed consistently what the
writer was being used of God to unfold. Matthew revealed the Son of David and
Abraham, Israel’s Messiah and King, in all the circle of their earthly promises
and hopes. Mark revealed the Servant humbly fulfilling the work of God. Luke
spoke of the son of Adam - the Son of Man - revealed on the wider platform of
Gentile and world blessing. And then John revealed the moral glory of the
Only-begotten of the Father, with no special mention of the Nativity or even of
the Ascension. "Light shone on the Book where all had been doubt and darkness;
and I learned that while I boasted of being a superior person and a critic, I
was but a poor conceited ignoramus." This new light on the Gospels led him to
turn afresh to the Old Testament as well as to the rest of the New Testament in
a study of the Scriptures as a whole. The "assured result" was an ever-deepening
belief in the Divine nature of Holy Writ. This was the positive basis of his
faith. On the other hand, long and patient investigation, with all his
experience of weighing evidence, led to the conclusion that the modern criticism
could be met and answered on its own ground. And realising that its claims could
be made good only at the cost of discrediting the testimony of the Lord Himself,
he felt that in resisting it "we are contending for our all." In the main it was
a lonely and difficult path, laying one open to much misunderstanding. But there
were many to encourage and cheer him on.

Dr. A. T. Pierson of the United States, well known and beloved also in Britain,
wrote: "R’ The more I know you the more I feel that like Esther you are ’come to
the kingdom for such a time as this.’ You believe as I do in carrying the war
into the enemies’ camp." And again: ".

"Your remarkable paper in which you handle the critics without gloves. It is
trenchant, vigorous in argument, irresistible in logic, and shows a remarkable
adroitness in marshalling testimony."

Canon J. McCormick, of St. James’s, Piccadilly, said "How some of the Higher
Critics dislike your writings! If you did not hit them hard they would take no
notice of you. I pray God to give you more and more grace in defence of His
truth... The Bishop of - thinks your language a bit strong. Something strong is
needed when the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection are denied by professing
Christians. Some of the critics are so conceited that they deserve some pointed
epithets... Some try to get rid of you by saying, ’Oh, he cannot teach, he is
only a layman.’ But you need not mind. Sacerdotal critics are peculiar "I am
only a plodder and slow by nature," wrote Canon R. B. Girdlestone, "but I am
thankful if I can supply cartridges for quick-firing guns like yourself. People
are only half awake to the enemies’ tactics. If Christ may not be trusted with
regard to the past, how about the future? And what about the’ Ransom for many?’"
"The attacks have their value," wrote Dr. Robert Sinker of Cambridge; "they show
you have struck a blow which is felt." And another friend said on a special
occasion: "I am looking out for the glitter of your sword." Lord Rosebery gave
his support in these words "My DEAR SIR ROBERT, - I am very grateful for the
book, and glad that you have taken up the cudgels for revealed religion which in
these days needs all its defenders.

"Yours sincerely, R." On the general question of Biblical criticism a valuable
opinion was expressed in the following letter from Dr. Oswald Dykes,
ex-Principal of Westminster College, Cambridge, "I am not an expert in Old
Testament criticism, and with some of the material on which critics operate I am
quite disqualified to deal. But 1 am unable to suppress the suspicion - shared
probably by many in my position - that there has been a great deal of rashness
and over-haste in drawing conclusions from weak or uncertain data, and in
confidently offering for ’results’ positions that can only be described as more
or less probable conjectures. There is plenty of room in my judgment for such
warning and protesting works as yours, with their appeal from the ’expert’ to
the trained weigher of evidence." The fact of the German origin of much modern
Biblical criticism is if possible of even gPeater importance now than a a
generation ago. Sir Andrew Wingate, K. C. I. E, writing after my father’s death,
drew attention to this aspect in the following words: "His training, aptitude
and experience alike fitted him to be a leading antagonist of German slanderous
and malignant attacks upon the Bible, and enable him to face a false scholarship
before which the Churches quailed.

Long before the war Sir Robert appreciated whither such insinuations against
truth must lead a people, and in Germany we have seen their absorption into the
mind turn a nation in one generation into devil-inspired brutes. The British owe
a deep debt to Sir Robert for having raised a powerful barrier against the
unquestioned acceptance of these falsehoods which were already infecting our
teaching of Scripture." On this question my father himself wrote in 1915, "The
Kultur which has produced results so widespread and deplorable is none other
than the latter-day phase of the Satan gospel of Eden, ’Ye shall be as gods.’
Such is the sinister power behind the infidel crusade of the sham ’Higher
Criticism ’ - the most subtle attack that has ever been launched against the
faith. And it is as successful as it is subtle. For in a single generation it
has led to the dethronement not only of the Bible but of the Christ of the Bible
in Germany... The German people have been taught to regard the most sacred of
all sacred words as merely ’a scrap of paper.’ And this is the Kultur which has
changed a great and God-fearing nation into the Germany of this infamous war.
And as the movement is rapidly leavening the Protestant Churches of Britain it
is high time to give warning of its effects." And now, thirty years afterwards,
we can see how the road led ever downwards to the pagan religion of National
Socialism. In Cross and Swastika (published by the Student Christian Movement),
Dr. Arthur Frey, a German-Swiss, writing just before the outbreak of the second
world war, tells the story "The philosophy of the 18th and 19th centuries had
broken away one stone after another from the Christian creed. God’s Word was
humanised; it was made subject to human knowledge... Man in his faith in
himself, in his folly, did not shrink from subjecting even the Word of God to
his so modest and pitiful bits of knowledge."

National Socialism, according to Dr. Frey, is only a product of the development
going on for the last hundred years leading to the deification of man, following
the belief that man is by-nature good, and the rejection of the Bible doctrine
of man’s inherent sinfulness and need of redemption. "The morality of an
optimistic belief in evolution became indigenous not only in the world but in
the Church." Reconciliation and redemption in the Christian sense were not
needed by the German man. But now, he goes on, who still dares to hold that man
is by nature good? "There has gone to pieces that belief in man and his
continuous upward evolution by which Liberalism and Socialism lived."

Then he tells of the stand made by the Confessional Church. "What saved and
renewed the Church was nothing else than simple belief in God’s Word and simple
obedience to that Word." Professor Karl Barth, in an Introduction to the English
edition of the book, stresses that the Church had to turn back anew to its true
original foundations, to the Holy Scriptures and the doctrine of the Reformers.
And in a warning to the Churches of other countries he says: "We have but to
think of the apostasy from the faith of the Bible and of our fathers, of the
bad, weak theology of which all the Churches are guilty, and with which they
have all contributed to the affliction which has now fallen on the German
Church!" And this is from Dr. Frey: "In the conffict of the Evangelical Church
in Germany it has become plain that Christian doctrines, as these are to be met
in the latest Protestant literature, have not been the slightest help to the
Confessional Church." The Bishop of Durham, writing to my father in 1913,
mentioned having seen a report that Dr. Welch, Professor of Hebrew in New
College, Edinburgh, "that stronghold of the new criticism," had emphasised the
weighty criticism to which the Wellhausen theory was being subjected, and had
expressed his belief that "Moses and the Prophets were returning to their old
position." If the report was substantially correct, said Dr. Moule, it was a
very remarkable sign of the times, or " a breaking of the arrogant and obstinate
reign of that bad substitute for the Apostle - the Professor!" But even now many
preachers, teachers and others, seem completely ignorant of the notable swing
"back to orthodoxy" on the Continent as well as in Britain. In this connection
special interest attaches to the opinion of Dr. A. H. Sayce, the eminent scholar
and archaeologist. A member of the Old Testament Revision Company at the age of
twenty-nine, and for over thirty years Professor of Assyriology at Oxford, in
his early years the "German theories" as he called them strongly appealed to
him, and he regarded himself as a champion of higher critical views. His
archaeological researches however convinced him of their unreliability, and
eventually he became an unrelenting and aggressive opponent of those views. In a
letter to my father about one of the latter’s books he wrote, "It appeals to the
general public in a way that the ordinary thinking man can understand and
appreciate. You have made the issues clear to him, which is just what the
disciples of the ’Higher Criticism’ are generally indisposed to do; sometimes
because, their own ideas are not clear, sometimes because they do not wish to
express themselves clearly. The point you insist on, that an adverse verdict
must be based on complete and not imperfect evidence, is a very important one.
The philological evidence when applied to matters of history or archaeology is
necessarily imperfect. In fact we cannot prove a negative by means of it, our
critical friends notwithstanding."

Air-Commodore P. J. Wiseman, C. B. E, R. A. F, writing in the Bible League
Quarterly, No. 2 issue 1945, states: " In a recent higher critical publication
it has been alleged that in a private conversation he [Sayce] made statements
which involved the abandonment of the position he maintained with growing
strength up to the latest of his many books. I was in Iraq when he visited it
just before he died, and can say that there is no warrant whatever for any
alleged change of view." Not only publicly but behind the scenes Sir Robert
laboured for the cause so dear to his heart. Having had some correspondence with
Professor S. R. Driver about the Book of Daniel, he appealed to him personally
thus, "May I without presumption add a word or two to explain my appealing to
you? Others like - seem utterly devoid of that sort of judgment which would fit
them to be jurors in a heavy case at nisi prius. They are simply incapable of
taking a large view of a question. But in my Preface I have taken the liberty of
referring to your writing as ’so conspicuously moderate and fair’; and in this
conviction I earnestly appeal to you to reconsider this Daniel controversy in
the light of evidence other than the merely philological. The effect of
discrediting the Book of Daniel is disastrous upon all bold and fearless
thinkers. God knows I have nothing to gain by defending it. I do so as the
result of long and patient and earnest consideration and study, which slowly led
me to a deep conviction of its authenticity."

I have not found a reply to this letter. And it must be added that some years
afterwards my father criticised Dr. Driver’s later writings very severely in his
Pseudo-criticism.

Personally also my father came into touch with many other men of diverse views.
I remember his coming home and telling of a conversation with a well-known
minister, the writer of charming popular stories. The question of the
inspiration and authority of the Epistles, particularly St. Paul’s writings, had
arisen. Dr. - admitted having doubts regarding these, but said that he took his
stand on the Lord’s own words recorded in the Gospels. My father asked him how
he knew that we had a reliable record of those words. "If one of my officers at
Scotland Yard," he said, "brings me a report of a conversation, I ask how soon
afterwards was it written down. If the reply is, On the following day, I say at
once that in that case it is not good enough for me." Are we then to believe, he
continued, that apart from the inspiration of the Bible in the fullest sense of
the word the authors of the Gospels were able, long years after hearing them, to
commit accurately to writing the long discourses of the Lord Jesus? It should be
added here that the question of "discrepancies" in the different Gospels was of
course not ignored in my father’s writings. This brief record of his long
campaign against what he believed with all his heart to be dangerous error must
include a reference to his uncompromising stand against Romanising influences
and practices. In the Preface to The Bible or the Church he wrote, "’The
greatest achievement in English history ’ is a distinguished historian’s
estimate of the Reformation. But in this flippant and shallow age we seem to be
letting slip what the Reformers won for us. For a national lapse toward
superstition upon the one hand and rationalism upon the other is one of the
marked characteristics of the day." A review of that book under the heading "A
Layman’s Theology" in the South African Review (December 1908) is of unusual
interest for the purpose of this memoir, "This treatise is marked by many of
those practical touches which a layman is apt to give to theology when all too
rarely he enters upon a discussion of that subject. Sir Robert has not forgotten
and does not wholly lay aside the experience gained at Scotland Yard, and.. is a
gain that the sacerdotalist should be subjected to a scruting based on methods
which are accustomed to run the gauntlet of judge and jury before a verdict is
asked for. It must not be supposed however that our author is a mere amateur
dabbler in theological questions. His study of the sources has evidently been
most thorough. And he makes short work of demolishing the claims of those who
would overthrow the Reformation platform, the Bible, and substitute for it the
voice of the Church.

"Sophistry and subterfuges of mere professionalism meet with short shrift at Sir
Robert’s hands. And he is not afraid of being accounted old-fashioned when he
repudiates what he believes to be pagan in certain doctrines and ceremonial
sought to be revived h the extremists of the modern ritualistic school. His
legal acumen stands him in good stead when he frames his indictment against
those who seek to undo the work of the great Reformation; and he disposes of
many of the arguments deduced from the patristic writings by copious references
to the same authorities, many of which I show support standards of truth which
closely approximate Reformation ideals.

"In an appendix on Romish propaganda he gives a highly interesting account of an
attempt made to induce him to yield to - Papal claims." The last reference is to
a lengthy correspondence with a gentleman who wrote to my father expressing
solicitude for his spiritual welfare, and an earnest desire to see him within
the fold’ of the Catholic Church "Towards the close of our correspondence," said
Sir Robert, "he sent me a Catholic treatise to show how grievously I had
misjudged his Church. His letter enclosing the book gave me the first definite
hint of what I had guessed, that his letters were part of a systematic effort to
lead selected Protestants to make their submission to Rome His letter remained
unanswered; for I am utterly at a loss to know what answer is possible to one
who ignores or distorts both history and Scripture, and honestly and earnestly
believes in what he calls ’the Church.’"

Speaking on the platform of the Evangelical Alliance, Sir Robert referred to the
movement for the reunion of Christendom and the position of the Church of
England with regard to it, quoting the opening address at a Church Congress
which stated that the desire for this reunion had been implanted by God Himself,
and was in accordance with the wish and prayer of our Divine Lord. "I humbly
venture to challenge every statement in those words," he said; "it is not the
reunion of Christendom that the Lord spoke of in that solemn prayer recorded in
the seventeenth chapter of John." The Church Congress address had stated that
the Church of England was peculiarly fitted to help forward the work of reunion
because she had points of contact with all the severed members of Christ’s
mystical body.

"I would say," he replied," with all the emphasis that I would throw into my
words that the whole conception of this is essentially anti-Christian... I do
not think these things are consonant with Christianity, and I would venture to
say they are absolutely inconsistent with the doctrines of the Reformers... Will
anyone tell me that a Church in which the doctrines and practices of the Church
of Rome prevail is acording to the Articles of the Church of England ’a
congregation of faithful men in which the pure word of God is preached, and the
sacraments be duly administered according to Christ’s ordinance’? Or take
another type of Church, one where the very foundation truths of Christianity are
assailed - the Virgin Birth, the Incarnation, the Atonement - where the Old
Testament which the Lord Jesus accredited is dismissed as a farrago of myths and
legends and forgeries. Can you say that in that Church, I care not what it calls
itself; the pure Word of God is preached?" The Bible or the Church was based
upon an earlier work entitled The Buddha of Christendom. Canon Teignmouth Shore,
a college friend, who was Chaplain-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria and King Edward
VII, wrote with regard to this: "I saw the notice of your volume in The Church
Times. It only shows how hard you have hit them. I need scarcely say how
heartily I agree with you. The Church of England became Protestant at the
Reformation, but the Bishops have by their cowardly connivance allowed her
practices and doctrines as now taught by six-tenths of the clergy to become
Roman Catholic... The Bishops snip off little bits of fringe here and there,
when it is the whole pattern of the garment that is wrong." A soldier’s opinion
was forcibly expressed by Field-Marshal Viscount Wolseley, "It is very kind of
you to send me a copy of your book. Its Protestantism cannot be too strong for
me; for it is not only that 1 abhor all the absurd idolatry and customs
appertaining to it that our fathers protested against and rid England of at the
Reformation; but I have a sublime contempt for the invertebrate creatures in
trousers who try to take from our religion that healthy manliness which
Protestantism engrafted upon our national Church." The Record ended a long
review of The Bible or the Church thus "We are sincerely grateful to Sir Robert
Anderson for bringing out so clearly the antithesis of the Bible and ’the Church
’ - not the Church as St. Paul would have described it, and as our own Article
XIX describes it, but a Church overwhelmed with accretions of human error and
human perversity." And here are the closing words of The Buddha of Christendom
"The position maintained by the martyrs was no mere negation of the false; it
was a testimony to the true. The Christian converts of early days ’turned from
idols to serve the living and true God.’ The martyrs of later days turned from
’the Church’ that they might be loyal to Christ. So it must ever be. There can
be no true loyalty to the king without denouncing the pretender. Loyalty to
Christ implies the repudiation of what is false to Christ." As Chairman of an
anniversary meeting of the London City Mission, Sir Robert said: "Protestantism
is no anchorage for faith; but it is like the breakwater which makes our
anchorage secure. It shields from influences that make Christianity impossible.
While priestcraft would set up a Church to mediate between God and man,
Protestantism points to the only Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ. By placing an
open Bible in our hands it leaves us with free consciences to follow God." But
whilst he was a Protestant of the "No surrender" type of his Derry forbears in
regard to the doctrines and practices of the Romish Church and of Anglo-Catholic
followers, he recognised that amongst those whom he withstood so strongly there
were many who were one with himself in their exaltation of the Lord. He felt
indeed that he had more in common with many a devout Roman Catholic than with "
Modern Churchmen" who denied the Deity of Christ and His atoning sacifice. His
personal touch with individuals in other Communions is exemplified by this
letter from Father Ignatius, "It is most kind of you to write to me in so
brotherly a way and to send me your pamphlet. Indeed what you and I believe in
common far exceeds in grandeur and importance the smaller details respecting
which we may differ. I have read your Coming Prince with much pleasure and
profit, and now shall read (D. V.) your book on Modern Criticism.

"Believe me your affectionate brother in our Lord Jesus, "IGNATIUS, O. S. B,
Monk."


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  CHAPTER 12: 12. CARRYING ON TO THE END.
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CHAPTER XIII CARRYING ON TO THE END We will never doubt Thee, Though Thou veil
Thy light; Life is dark without Thee, Death with Thee is bright.

Light of light, shine o’er us On our pilgrim way; Go Thou still before us To the
endless day.

W. WALSHAM HOW. With mercy and with judgment My web of time He wove, And aye the
dews of sorrow Were lustred by his love.

I’ll bless the Hand that guided, I’ll bless the Heart that planned, When throned
where glory dwelleth In Immanuel’s Land.

A. R. Cousins. And so through all the length of days Thy goodness faileth never:
Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy praise Within Thy house for ever.

HENRY WILLIAMS BAKER. THE closing years of my father’s life were shadowed by the
first world war. The horrors of it distressed him the more because of his
inability to take his share in service, whilst my brother Graham’s loss was a
very heavy grief. The feeling of loneliness too became more poignant, shut off
as he was by his deafness from so many interests which had filled his days. Back
in 1893 he had written to Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Bland, the Irish friends of his
youth: "The world is getting lonely, and I can’t spare you yet. I am beginning
to live in the past and in the future; the past of happy friendships and
fellowships fast dropping off; the future of my children’s prospects and hopes."
A quarter of a century, however, full of manifold labours, still lay ahead when
he penned those words. And many new friendships with men and women of a younger
generation enriched his life. Above all, the peace that passeth understanding
was a great reality to him. Air raids held no terrors, for he would repeat the
91st Psalm to himself and go quietly to sleep. But even in the midst of the
greater anxieties and sorrows of those days he lived in the consciousness of the
safe keeping of which he had sung his own hymn " Safe." He had an anchor of the
soul both sure and steadfast. A few diary entries in 1917 afford glimpses of his
life at that time: "I had a hideous nightmare dream, and had to get up and read
Redemption Truths... Agnes woke me at 1 a. m. to say a raid was on. She, Fanny,
Agneta and the servants were downstairs for 3 hours. I refused to stir; soothed
myself with my favourite Psalms and went to sleep again... To Kensington
Gardens. Found the children [grand-daughters] and played ’cricket’ with them...
News of capture of Jerusalem.! Hallelujah!" Some words written then are of
special interest in view of the problems which seem beyond the wit of man to
solve to-day, after the second world war. Lady Kinnaird wrote to him in 1918:
"Do you think God is standing aside in this war, leaving the government to the
prince of this world? Someone said the other day, ’I believe this with Sir
Robert Anderson.’ " The reply was: "I have never said what the someone you quote
attributed to me. In The Silence of God and other works I have emphasised that
Satan is the god of this world, and that in the sphere of religion his influence
is seen everywhere. But to say that the government of the world is his is
utterly false." He went on to refer to his comments in Misunderstood Texts on
the words "the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (Revelation 19:6).

"Anyone who views the world with unclouded mental vision, might well doubt the
truth of Scripture if it really taught that the Lord God omnipotent is reigning.
The infidel may well demand ’Where is thy God?’ And the taunt is not to be met
by pious platitudes. But the teaching of Scripture is explicit... It is not that
the providential nor yet the moral government of the world is in abeyance, but
that in this age there is no punitive action against human sin. A silent heaven
is the mystery of God. But there is an appointed limit to the era of that
mystery."

He then went on to speak of the time in the future when the great anthem will
resound, "Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent has begun to reign"
(Revelation 19:6; and Revelation 11:17). " It ill becomes the Christian
therefore to give way to despondency or doubt because that consummation is
delayed. For a silent heaven is eloquent in its testimony to Divine
long-suffering; and above the darkening clouds is the glorious sunshine of the
reign of grace.’

Some letters at that time prove what the Faith and the Hope were to him. This to
Dr. Moule, "Never do I write a book without feeling a great desire to send you a
copy. But I always hesitate to do so lest I should seem to presume on your
indulgence and kindness. And yet I owe so much to your sympathy and
encouragement that once again I’ll take the risk... Next week I pass the 76th
milestone on my Homeward way, and a glance at Who’s Who reminds me that I am
only a few months ahead of you. Well, neither of us can say, Few and evil have
been the days of the years of my pilgrimage; for goodness and mercy have been
our portion.

"And yet I feel very lonely at times in view of the loss of nearly all my
friends of half a century ago. Moreover increasing deafness deprives me of help
from pulpit or platform. But deafness and the lapse of years only make the BOOK
more precious. Without the Faith and the Hope old age would indeed be an awful
trial To Pastor D. J. Findlay of Glasgow he said "Our orbits don’t cross and we
never meet these times; yet you are often in my thoughts, and every remembrance
of your good work is grateful to me... It was in view of such a time as this
that the Lord bade the disciples look up. As for me, were it not for the Hope I
should have no desire to prolong my pilgrimage." And to Mr. A. C. Gaebelein of
New York, Editor of Our Hope, he wrote: "The truth of the Lord’s Coming I
learned in early life from Horatius Bonar; and in the dark days through which we
are passing I prize and cherish ’ the Blessed Hope’ increasingly."

H In a letter to the Rev. J. J. B. Coles are these words, "Life is becoming very
lonely. There are great and ever widening gaps in the ranks of those who are
pals both socially and spiritually. But the BOOK is increasingly a companion.
What a gold-mine it is! I tremble when I think at times what life would be in
old age without the Faith and the Hope. I always held drinking in contempt, but
I can understand a man’s taking to it if his only horizon were the grave."

Early in the war, when important decisions had to be made by us who were in
South Africa, we received this message: "I need not tell you how unceasingly I
think of you all. Night and morning I name each one of you in my prayers that
God will give you clear guidance and grace to follow it." The last letter (a
much prized one) which I had from him was in 1917, when I was in Central Africa
and had been acting as unofficial Padre as well as Medical Officer to a South
African regiment, "My very DEAR SON ARTHUR,- YOUR last letter set my heart
singing, telling of your work for the Lord in connection with your work for your
country. It is a great privilege and a very great joy to be used of Him in the
Gospel. And one bright feature of this hateful war is the Gospel testimony and
its results on every battle front. "I have had great longings myself to have a
share in the work, ’but my deafness is a fatal bar to it. But you my dear son
have both the opportunities and the health to avail yourself of them. And my
day-by-day prayer for you is that God will use you more and more and bless you
increasingly."

I may add that I heard the news of his death a year later when on my way from
Pretoria to Cape Town. I had just got free from Army service and was hoping to
get a passage home soon.

Here are a few extracts from the diary for 1918 To Blackheath and paid Dr. Kidd
a visit. [Dr. Joseph Kidd, who, as Disraeli’s physician, was called to attend
him in Berlin at the "Peace with Honour" Conference. ] Great pleasure to see the
old man again... Visited B. H. and sat for an hour and a half. In answer to
prayer I had a most important talk on spiritual subjects. •.. Goodness and
mercy; for which I thank my God and Father.

Felt very isolated and lonely all day... John Lewis House Bible Class; about 30
young women. To Mansion House for the Lord Mayor’s Evangelical Alliance prayer
meeting.. •. Began a paper for The Witness on " Christianity is Christ"...
Evangelical Alliance meeting at Queen’s Hall." (Note.—The last two within a
fortnight of his death.) On the 13th October 1918 he preached in Trinity
Presbyterian Church, Notting Hill. The Rev. Joseph Rorke in thanking him
mentioned the death of two of the congregation, adding: "The veil which divides
us from the eternal world seems at times almost transparent." My father’s reply
was: "It is a constant grief to me that I can take so little part in the service
and ministries of the congregation; but this makes me all the more eager to give
proof of my sympathy with you in the work of the Lord. Yes, death is busy in
these days, not only on the battle-field, but here at home."

Early next month he had a mild attack of influenza, but was not confined to bed.
On 15th November he was feeling much better and was out twice. In the evening he
sat writing and reading his Bible until half-past ten, when he went up to bed. A
few moments later the limitations of the earthly life were no more, and he had
been called to the freer and more perfect service of the Land towards which his
steps had so long been set. Of the way the Call had come his sister, Lady Boyd,
wrote, "I was so glad to hear all you told me. It reminded me of Robert’s
never-failing remark in every letter that goodness and mercy were following him.
I don’t think he would have chosen anything different." And this was from Mrs.
H. W. Webb-Peploe, "A friend gave me a beautiful comment after she had called at
your house. She said the atmosphere was full of triumph, not like a house where
death had entered. And of course Translation is a much more suitable word than
death." The services in Trinity Church and at Kensal Green were conducted by the
Rev. Joseph Rorke, the others taking part being the Revs. R. Wright Hay, Dr. A.
C. Dixon and Harrington C. Lees, afterwards Archbishop of Melbourne. Many
letters of sympathy have been quoted already; only one other will be mentioned
here, that from the Bishop of Durham, who wrote from Auckland Castle, "My DEAR
LADY AGNES, The announcement of Sir Robert’s call Home has deeply moved me. For
long years he had treated me with wonderful brotherliness as a friend in God and
a fellow-believer in the truth of the Written Word. His letters and our too rare
talks have left on my heart an impression all their own. He was so strong, so
keen in insight and logical power, and yet so inexpressibly kind, so manifestly
THE MASTER’S scholar in that way..

"I am with deep and most respectful sympathy, "Yours in Christ and His hope,
"HANDLEY DUNELM."

After my mother’s own Home Call seven years later Dr. Hugh Falconer wrote to my
sister "We were astonished at the quality and insight of the little leading
article in the Women’s Protestant Union paper, the last I think which your dear
mother wrote or dictated. It brought her back so vividly that I felt as if she
were present. And the very spirit and presence of Sir Robert were with me too;
and the kind of intimate Christian conversation we used to have seemed to talk
itself over again. He often used to ask me what did I understand by our Lord’s
title ’the Firstborn of God’ and yet ’among many brethren,’ - all therefore in a
measure like Him in relation both to our Father and to one another. But we could
only hold up our hands and say, ’0, the depth of the riches!

Canon T. D. Bernard, Bampton Lecturer at Oxford in 1864, once wrote to my
father: "I am thankful, and so will you be, that we leave some words behind us
not against the truth but for the truth, which may if God permit serve their
purpose in one life or another after we are gone." This memoir has been compiled
partly from a desire that my father’s many readers may know more of him; but
also in the hope that others may be led to consider "the words for the truth"
which he has left behind, and may perhaps be helped and encouraged by the
witness of his and my mother’s lives. Here are the closing words of his last
book, Unfulfilled Prophecy, "If even a very few Christians in every place would
begin to ’speak often one to another’ about the Coming of the Lord, they would
soon come together to pray for His Return. And from such small beginnings it may
be that, for the first time in the history of Christendom, companies of His
people shall be found meeting together to claim the fulfilment of His promise,
’Surely I am coming quickly,’ and to pray the prayer which He Himself has given
us, ’Even so come, Lord Jesus.’

"SAFE."

SAFE in Jehovah’s keeping, Led by His glorious arm, God is Himself my refuge, A
present help from harm.

Fears may at times distress me, Griefs may my soul annoy; God is my strength and
portion, God my exceeding joy.

Safe in Jehovah’s keeping, Safe in temptation’s hour, Safe in the midst of
perils, Kept by Almighty power.

Safe when the tempest rages, Safe though the night be long; E’en when my sky is
darkest God is my strength and song.

Sure is Jehovah’s promise, Nought can my hope assail; Here is my soul’s sure
anchor, Entered within the veil.

Blest in His love eternal, What can I want beside Safe through the blood that
cleanseth, Safe in the Christ that died.

R. A. THE END


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/anderson-a-p-moore-biography/
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