CLARENCE ESME STUART.
BIOGRAPHY
THE late Mr. C. E. Stuart was youngest son of Mr. Win.
Stuart, of Tempsford Hall, Sandy, and grandson of Hon. Win. Stuart, Archbishop
of Armagh, who, like that prelate’s father, enjoyed the special confidence
of King George III. The Earl of Bute was direct ancestor likewise of the
present Marquis of Bute. The family descends collaterally from the old royal
house of Stuart, and C. E. Stuart was by some regarded as bearing a likeness to
Charles I. His mother was a maid-of-honour to Queen Adelaide as Duchess of
Clarence, who was his godmother; hence the name Clarence. The name Esme is one
familiar to students of modern Scottish history.
Clarence Stuart was born
in 1828, the year in which Benjamin Wills Newton took a First Class in the
Oxford schools, and was educated at Eton, from which he proceeded to St.
John’s College, Cambridge, in accordance with the custom of his family.
Here he took his degree of M.A., after gaining one of the earliest of the
Tyrwhitt University Scholarships in Hebrew. For sacred study he had early
conceived a special taste; the more so as, under the fostering care of a
Christian mother, C. E. Stuart in his youth experienced the spiritual change by
which we pass "from death unto life". He would, doubtless, in due course, have
taken Orders in the Church of England, to which his family belonged, but a
defect in his speech seems to have occasioned his remaining what is termed a
layman.
Mr. Stuart, marrying a daughter of Colonel Cuningham, of
Ayrshire, settled in READING, where for several years he interested himself in
Church work of the Evangelical type, that with which his family was
traditionally identified - a circumstance which found expression in the
marriage of a sister to a clergyman, a direct descendant of Bishop Ridley.
Amongst other forms of activity, Mr. Stuart at this period of his life promoted
the operations of the British and Foreign Bible Society. He ranged himself with
those friends of the Society who were opposed to the idea of its recognition of
the Apocrypha in the translations made under its auspices, or in distribution
of English copies containing those books. He explained his. views in a pamphlet
- the reading of which would again be seasonable now in connection with the
revival of public interest in the Apocrypha, promoted by the International
Association of which the Bishop of Winchester is President.
About the
year i86o Mr. Stuarth attention was called to the position taken by those
Christians commonly called "Plymouth Brethren" (though they have consistently
rejected any such title), represented in Reading by a large "gathering," amidst
which ministered the late Wm. Henry Dorman, a former Congregational minister,
whose connection with the "Brethren" dated from about the year 1840. In the
years 1845-1848 Mr. Dorman figured as a trusted ally of the late John Nelson
Darby in the formation of what has since been denominated the "Exclusive"
section of Brethren, the continued unhappy effect of which his eldest son, the
present Mr. W. H. Dorman, of Stafford, has endeavoured to some extent to
remedy. Mr. Stuart became convinced, under the late Mr. Dorman’s
influence, of the untenable character of his own churchmanship, and without
more ado took his place, as the expression was, in the Reading fellowship,
which remains today identified especially with his own name.
During
the years 1864-1866, Mr. Stuart’s fidelity to "J.N.D.," like that of
others, was tested by Mr. Dorman’s uncompromising, opposition to Mr.
Darby’s teaching with reference to a class of sufferings of our Lord,
discriminated as "non-atoning," as derived from His association with Israel.
This doctrine "W. H. D." put on the same plane as that of B. W. Newton, which
brought about the split in 1848. The close acquaintance, however, of C. E.
Stuart with the usage of Hebrew words which came into play for any Biblical
scholar having to consider such a question, aided him in determining the
direction of his own sympathies in the matter. He did not follow the example of
his Reading associate, who now seceded from the Darby fellowship. In i88r, when
"J. N. D." lent himself to another unsettlement among Brethren, Mr. Stuart
again stood with him; and in the next year, when that remarkable man passed
away, the hearty voice of "C. E. S." was one raised over his interment. For
three years longer Mr. Stuart remained in the company of those who had owned
the special leadership of "J. N. D."
In 1885 a storm arose over some
of his own views which then acquired prominence... These were deemed by many
inconsistent with the traditional teaching of Brethren, especially as regarded
the standing of the Children of God. In a further cleavage, which searched many
hearts, some rallied to "C. E. S"., who accepted his view as a distinct advance
in truth, whilst others, not prepared to commit themselves definitely to it,
held that the difference of judgment manifested from this time afforded no
sufficient reason for severance from "C.E.S." To the time of Mr. Stuart’s
death, as still, this division has remained unhealed; but he retained the
confidence and support, in general, of all those who had thrown in their lot
with his.
These eighteen years proved full of activity for his pen. In
addition to independent books and papers issued by him, Mr. Stuart was a
constant contributor to a periodical entitled "Words in Season." His earlier
writings comprised a book on the Sacrifices, "Simple Papers on the Church of
God" (always highly esteemed), an article on "The Atonement, as set forth in
the Old Testament," his "Textual Criticism of the New Testament, for English
readers," and a "Review of Robertson Smith’s Lectures on the Old Testament
in the Jewish Church," a paper the value of which was acknowledged by many
English clergymen. In textual criticism Mr. Stuart was an adherent of the
school of Tregelles rather than that of Scrivener.
Publications
belonging to the two last decades of his career commenced with a pamphlet on
"Christian Standing and Condition," which called forth much acrimonious
discussion, culminating in a division. This, and cognate pamphlets were
followed by a series of papers on Propitiation. From long familiarity with the
scheme of Old Testament types, Mr. Stuart insisted upon the detailed fulfilment
of the presentation of the blood of the Antitype after death, as the
propitiation par excellence, against the current view that the Cross
covers the whole ground of the atoning work. The line thus taken by him,
although supported by several expositors, including R. Govett, tended to
accentuate the differences existing between him and his old associates, who
held, with such writers as Ellicott, that the Old Testament should bend to the
New, and not vice versa. Then came a series of devotional expositions of the
Gospels of Mark, Luke, and John, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles to the
Romans and Hebrews, and the Book of Psalms, the spiritual value of the latter
being acknowledged by Professor Cheyne.
• Amongst the latest of
his writings was a pamphlet entitled "The Critics: Shall We Follow Them?" In
this case "C. E. S." did battle for traditional views of the Old Testament
against the Higher Critics. Nevertheless, he kept abreast of the most recent
scholarship, valuing, for example, Professor Driver’s Treatise on the
Hebrew Tenses." His library contained all the standard works used by modern
Biblical scholars, with some rare specimens from the past, including a valuable
copy .of the Complutensian Polyglot, which in his old age he presented to the
library of his college. As an interpreter, Mr. Stuart must be ranked with those
who adhere closely to the wording of the text of Scripture, and to belief in
verbal inspiration. He heeded little extraneous sources, such as Patristic
interpretation; least of all the suggestions of "modern thought." With
independent judgment he held firmly the general body of "recovered" truth,
ecclesiastical and prophetic, characteristic of "Brethren."
Simple in
his demeanour, with imich charm of manner, he endeared himself to the poor of
the flock, to whom he was "good." He delighted to share with them the light
which he enjoyed. C. E. Stuart must be reckoned with those of whom itt may be
said that, although dead, they yet speak.
E. E. W.