{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_32844/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_32844","id":"gutenberg_32844","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32844","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - British","Category: History - Religious","London (England) -- Religion","Religious thought -- England -- London"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1870 Tinsley Brothers edition by David Price, email\nccx074@pglaf.org.\n\n\n\n\n\n THE\n RELIGIOUS LIFE OF LONDON.\n\n\n * * * * *\n\n BY\n J. EWING RITCHIE,\n AUTHOR OF \"BRITISH SENATORS,\" \"THE NIGHT SIDE OF LONDON,\" ETC.\n\n * * * * *\n\n \"'Tis Nature's law\n That none, the meanest of created things,\n Of form created the most vile and brute,\n The dullest or most noxious, should exist\n Divorced from good.\"\n\n WORDSWORTH.\n\n * * * * *\n\n LONDON:\n TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND.\n 1870.\n\n * * * * *\n\n LONDON:\n SAVILL, EDWARDS AND CO., CHANDOS STREET,\n COVENT GARDEN.\n\n * * * * *\n\n TO\n SAMUEL MORLEY, ESQ., M.P.\n TO WHOSE UNEXAMPLED ACTIVITY AND MUNIFICENCE\n (BY NO MEANS CONFINED WITHIN HIS OWN DENOMINATION)\n MUCH OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF LONDON IS DUE,\n THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED\n BY\n THE AUTHOR.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nMan is undoubtedly a religious animal. In England at any rate the remark\nholds good. No one who ignores the religious element in our history can\nrightly understand what England was, or how she came to be what she is.\nThe fuller is our knowledge, the wider our field of investigation, the\nmore minute our inquiry, the stronger must be the conviction in all minds\nthat religion has been for good or bad the great moving power, and, in\nspite of the teachings of Secularism or of Positivism, it is clear that\nas much as ever the questions which are daily and hourly coming to the\nfront have in them more or less of a religious element. It is not often\nforeigners perceive this. Take Louis Blanc as an illustration. As much\nas any foreigner he has mastered our habits and ways--all that we call\nour inner life; yet, to him, the English pulpit is a piece of\nwood--nothing more. According to him, the oracles are dumb, the sacred\nfire has ceased to burn, the veil of the temple is rent in twain; church\nattendance, he tells us, in England, besides custom, has little to\nrecommend it. There is beauty in desolation--in life changing into\ndeath--\n\n \"Before Decay's effacing fingers\n Have swept the lines where beauty lingers;\"\n\nbut not even of this beauty can the Church of England boast. Dr.\nDollinger--a more thoughtful, a more learned, a more laborious writer--is\nnot more flattering. The Church of England, he tells us, is \"the Church\nonly of a fragment of the nation,\" of \"the rich, cultivated, and\nfashionable classes.\" It teaches \"the religion of deportment, of\ngentility, of clerical reserve.\" \"In its stiff and narrow organization,\nand all want of pastoral elasticity, it feels itself powerless against\nthe masses.\" The patronage is mostly in the hands of the nobility and\ngentry, who regard it as a means of provision for their younger sons,\nsons-in-law, and cousins. Our latest critic, M. Esquiros, writes in a\nmore favourable strain, yet even he confesses how the city operative\nshuns what he deems the Church of Mammon, and draws a picture of the\nEnglish clergyman, by no means suggestive of zeal in the Master's service\nor readiness to bear His yoke. Dissent foreigners generally ignore, yet\nDissent is as active, as energetic as the State Church, and may claim\nthat it has practically realized the question of our time--the Free\nChurch in the Free State. In thus attempting to describe the Religious\nLife of London, I touch on a question of which I may briefly say that it\nconcerns the welfare of the community at large.\n\nIVY COTTAGE, BALLARD'S LANE, FINCHLEY,\n _April_ 4_th_, 1870.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n CHAPTER I.\n PAGE\nON HERESY AND ORTHODOXY 1\n CHAPTER II.\nTHE JEWS 16\n CHAPTER III.\nTHE REFORMED JEWS 37\n CHAPTER IV.\nTHE GREEK CHURCH 47\n CHAPTER V.\nTHE ROMAN CATHOLICS 58\n CHAPTER VI.\nTHE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 76\n THE DEAF AND DUMB AT CHURCH 87\n A SUNDAY IN JAIL 93\n HIGH CHURCH REVIVALISTS 100\n A SUNDAY WITH THE LUNATICS 107\n LAY WORK IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 113\n AN EVANGELICAL PREACHER 121\n CHAPTER VII.\nAMONG THE PRESBYTERIANS:--\n AT COLEBROOK ROW 131\n PARK CHURCH, HIGHBURY 139\n CHAPTER VIII.\nCONGREGATIONALISTS AND BAPTISTS 146\n THE SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS 159\n CHRISTMAS MORNING WITH THE YOUNGSTERS 169\nDR. PARKER AT THE POULTRY 177\n MR. LYNCH'S THURSDAY EVENINGS 187\n CHAPTER IX.\nTHE UNITARIANS 193\n AGGRESSIVE UNITARIANS 204\n CHAPTER X.\nTHE WESLEYAN METHODISTS 210\n AT A WATCH-NIGHT SERVICE 223\n CHAPTER XI.\nTHE QUAKERS 232\n JONATHAN GRUBB AT THE AGRICULTURAL HALL 236\n CHAPTER XII.\nTHE MORAVIANS IN FETTER LANE 244\n CHAPTER XIII.\nTHE SWEDENBORGIANS 252\n CHAPTER XIV.\nTHE IRVINGITES, OR APOSTOLICAL CHURCH 271\n CHAPTER XV.\nTHE FREE CHRISTIAN UNION 279\n CHAPTER XVI.\nTHE LONDON ECCLESIA 291\n THE CHRISTADELPHIANS 298\n CHAPTER XVII.\nSOME MINOR SECTS 306\n THE PECULIAR PEOPLE 307\n THE SANDEMANIANS 313\n THE SOUTHCOTTIANS 320\n THE SPIRITUALISTS 328\n THE CAMPBELLITES 335\n THE MORMONS 344\n CHAPTER XVIII.\nADVANCED RELIGIONISTS:--\n THE CHURCH OF PROGRESS 352\n THE INDEPENDENT RELIGIOUS REFORMERS 359\n SOUTH PLACE, FINSBURY SQUARE 365\n THE SECULARISTS 371\n CHAPTER XIX.\nTHE IRREGULARS 380\n IRREGULAR AGENCIES 381\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I.\n ON HERESY AND ORTHODOXY.\n\n\nThe original meaning of the word heresy is choice. \"It was long used,\"\nwrites Dr. Waddington, \"by the philosophers to designate the preference\nand selection of some speculative opinion, and in process of time was\napplied without any sense of reproach to every sect.\" The most fruitful\nsource of speculative opinion is, and has ever been, religion; from the\nschools of philosophy to those of theology the term heresy passed by a\nvery intelligible and simple process. The word is thrice used in the\nActs to denote sect (Acts v. 17, xv. 5, and xxiv. 5), and Paul himself\nwhen on his defence before Felix and in answer to Tertullus confesses\nthat \"after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my\nfathers.\"\n\nIn process of time heresy came to have a bad meaning attached to it. It\nis easy to see why this should be so. We naturally prefer our own\nopinions to those of other people. We naturally prefer the society of\nthose who hold our own opinions to the society of those who do not. Life\nis short, and we do not want to be always disputing. Life to most of us\nis hard, and it would be harder still if after a day's toil Paterfamilias\nhad to discuss the three births of Christ, or His twofold nature, the\nAEons of the Gnostics, the Judaism of the Ebionites, the ancient Persian\ndualism which formed the fundamental idea of the system of Manes, or the\nwindy frenzy of Montanus, with an illogical wife, a friend gifted with a\nfatal flow of words, or a pert and shallow child. We like those with\nwhom we constantly associate. They are wise men and sound Christians.\nThey are those who fast and pay tithes, and are eminently proper and\nrespectable. As to the heretics--the publicans and sinners, away with\nthem. Let their portion be shame in this life, perdition in the next.\nThus it is heretics have got a bad name. Church history has been written\nby their enemies, by men who have honestly believed that a man of a\ndifferent heresy to their own would rob an orphan, and break all the\ncommandments. The Rev. Mr. Thwackem \"doubted not but all the infidels\nand heretics in the world would, if they could, confine honour to their\nown absurd errors and damnable deceptions.\" The phrase \"absurd errors\nand damnable deceptions,\" is one a real theologian might envy, or at any\nrate appropriate. In another sense also that hero of fiction is a type\nof the spirit in which orthodox people often (thankfully we record the\nexistence of a better spirit in our day) have written on theology. \"When\nI mean religion,\" cries Thwackem, \"I mean the Christian religion, and not\nonly the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion, and not only\nthe Protestant religion, but the Church of England.\"\n\nStill the question occurs, What is heresy?\n\nIt is not difficult to say what it is not. The African Bishops on one\noccasion, in council in Carthage, decided that heretics were not at all\nany part of the Church of Christ, but this opinion was modified by a\nlater council. \"Heretics,\" writes Epiphanius, \"are divided into two\nkinds: those who receive the Christian religion, but err in parts, who\nwhen they come over to the Church are anointed with oil; and those who do\nnot receive it at all and are unbelievers, such as Jews and Greeks, and\nthese we baptize.\"\n\nAccording to the Articles of the English Establishment, \"the Church of\nChrist is a company of faithful people among whom the pure Word of God is\npreached and the Sacraments rightly administered according to Christ's\ninstitution.\" But on this very matter we find the Church divided. Low\nChurchmen tell us that the ritualists do not rightly administer the\nSacraments, and the latter say the same of their opponents. The _Record_\nsuggests that Bishop Colenso is little better than one of the wicked, and\ncharitably insinuates that the late Dean Milman is amongst the lost. Dr.\nPusey places the Evangelicals in the same category with Jews, or\nInfidels, or Dissenters, and has strong apprehensions as to their\neverlasting salvation. Dr. Temple was made Bishop of Exeter, and\nArchdeacon Denison set apart the day of his installation as one of\nhumiliation and prayer. Yet all these are of the Establishment. Dr.\nParr gladly associated with Unitarians, and went to Unitarian chapels to\nhear Unitarian ministers preach. Would Dean Close do so? Yet Dr. Parr,\nas much as Dean Close, was of the Church as regards solemn profession,\nand deliberate assent and consent. Mr. Melville believes Dissent to be\nschism, and one of the deadly sins, while the Deans of Westminster and\nCanterbury hold out to Dissenters friendly hands. If we take the\nArticles, the Church Establishment is as orthodox as the firmest\nChristian or the narrowest-minded bigot can desire; if we turn to its\nministers, we find them as divided as it is possible for people\nprofessing to take their teaching from the Bible can be. If there be any\ngrace in creeds and articles, any virtue in signing them, if their\nimposition be not a solemn farce, it is impossible that heresy should\nexist within the Established Church. It is in the wide and varied fields\nof Dissent that we are to look for heresy.\n\nYet the Church of England is tolerant, to a certain extent, of heresy.\nThe judicious Hooker writes, \"We must acknowledge even heretics\nthemselves to be a maimed part, yet a part, of the visible Church. If an\ninfidel should pursue to death an heretic professing Christianity only\nfor Christian profession's sake, could we deny unto him the honour of\nmartyrdom? Yet this honour all men know to be proper unto the Church.\nHeretics, therefore, are not utterly cast out from the visible Church of\nChrist. If the Fathers do, therefore, anywhere, as often they do, make\nthe true visible Church of Christ and heretical companies opposite, they\nare to be construed as separating heretics not altogether from the\ncompany of believers, but from the fellowship of sound believers. For\nwhere professed unbelief is, there can be no visible Church of Christ;\nthere may be where sound belief wanteth. Infidels being clean without\nthe Church, deny directly and utterly reject the very principles of\nChristianity which heretics embrace, and err only by misconstruction,\nwhereupon their opinions, although repugnant indeed to the principles of\nChristian faith, are notwithstanding by them held otherwise and\nmaintained as most consistent therewith.\" The Privy Council by its\nJudgment of \"Essays and Reviews\" has decided that a Churchman may hold\nheretical opinions.\n\nIn popular language, the Congregationalists, the Baptists, the\nPresbyterians are orthodox; the Quakers, the Methodists, Wesleyans and\notherwise, are orthodox; for our purpose popular language is sufficient.\n\nHeresy, says Tertullian, is the result of wisdom, real or assumed. He\nwrites: \"The philosophers are the fathers of the heretics.\" It is\ncomputed that there have been no less than five hundred distinct\nheresies. Happily for us, most of them are dead and buried in Greek and\nLatin folios, rarely read and still more rarely understood. The East was\nthe land of heresy. Every day saw the birth of a new one amongst a\npeople of subtle intellect and endowed with a language wonderfully\ncontrived to express the most delicate and phantasmal forms of belief.\nWe laugh at the schoolmen, at their barbarous Latin and incomprehensible\ndisputations. No one now ventures to discuss how many angels could stand\nupon the point of a needle, but in the early ages of the Church the\nFathers wasted their lives in disputations equally windy and barren of\npractical result. \"Greek Christianity,\" writes Dean Milman, \"was\ninsatiably inquisitive, speculative. Confident in the inexhaustible\ncopiousness and fine precision of its language, it endured no limit to\nits curious investigations. As each great question was settled or worn\nout, it was still ready to propose new ones. It began with the Divinity\nof Christ, still earlier perhaps with some of the gnostic cosmogonical or\ntheophanic theories, so onward to the Trinity; it expired, or at least\ndrew near its end, as the religion of the Roman East, discussing the\nDivine light on Mount Tabor.\" Extinct long ago are the questions to\nsettle which Church councils were held, fanatic monks swarmed into\nConstantinople by hundreds from far away--Syrian, or Arabian, or African\ndeserts--and armies took the field. Even a vowel might stir up strife\nand bloodshed. The enmity of the Homoousian to the Homiousian was as\nbitter as that between Guelph and Ghibelline, as that of Capulet and\nMontague; and only the pen of a Swift could do justice to the brawls\n\n \"Bred of an airy word.\"\n\nHeresy can be put down in two ways. You may argue it out of existence,\nor you may crush it out with the sword. As soon as ever the alliance\nbetween Church and State was formed, the latter was the favourite mode of\ndealing with heretics; it saved so much trouble. If you cut off a\nheretics head, you are certain to stop his heretical tongue. There is an\nend of his pestiferous logic. Continue the process, and heresy is\nexterminated, as Unitarianism was in Poland--as the Huguenots were by the\nmassacres of St. Bartholomew--as Protestantism was crushed out in the Low\nCountries by Alva, and in Spain by Torquemada and the _auto da fes_ of\nMadrid. After a similar fashion, Bombastes Furioso proposed to\nannihilate his enemies single-handed. His plan was to take them\nhalf-a-dozen at a time, and when he had cut off the heads of the first\ndivision, a second was to follow to receive a similar favour at his\nhands, and so on till all were slain. Power has always dealt with\nheretics after this fashion; in this way Churchmen endeavoured to put\ndown Puritanism in England, Presbyterianism in Scotland, Popery in\nIreland. To Henry IV. is due in this country the first permission to\nsend heretics to the stake. The Preamble of the Act of 1401, _De\nHeretico Comburendo_, is as follows: \"Divers false and perverse people,\nof a certain new sect, damnably thinking of the faith of the sacraments\nof the Church, and of the authority of the same, against the law of God\nand of the Church,--usurping the office of preaching,--do perversely and\nmaliciously, in divers places within the realm, preach and teach divers\nnew doctrines and wicked erroneous opinions contrary to the faith and\ndetermination of Holy Church. And of such sect and wicked doctrines they\nmake unlawful conventicles, they hold and exercise schools, they make and\nwrite books, they do wickedly instruct and inform people, and excite and\nstir them to sedition and insurrection, and make great strife and\ndivision among the people, and other enormities horrible to be heard\ndaily do perpetrate and commit. The diocesans cannot by their\njurisdiction spiritual, without aid of the king's majesty, sufficiently\ncorrect these said false and perverse people, nor refrain their malice,\nbecause they do go from diocess to diocess, and will not appear before\nthe said diocesans; but the jurisdiction spiritual, the keys of the\nChurch, and the censures of the same they do utterly condemn and despise,\nand so these wicked preachings and doctrines they do from day to day\ncontrive and exercise to the destruction of all order and rule, right and\nreason.\"\n\nThe Bishops by this Act received arbitrary power to arrest and imprison\non suspicion, without check or restraint of law, at their will and\npleasure. Prisoners who refused to abjure their errors, who persisted in\nheresy or relapsed into it after abjuration, were sentenced to be burnt\nat the stake.\n\nSo much deadlier a thing was heresy deemed than evil-living on the part\nof the clergy, that, previous to the reign of Henry VII., Bishops, who\nhad no power to imprison priests even though convicted of adultery or\nincest, had, as Mr. Froude points out, power to arrest every man on\nsuspicion of heresy, and to detain him in prison untried. Constantine\nwas the first Christian Emperor who had recourse to this system; and it\nwas against the Arians, who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, that\nhis enmity was directed. Death was the penalty for any one guilty of\nconcealing an Arian book. Of course the Arians, in their turn, were\nequally ready to draw the sword. In those passionate and contentious\ntimes it was hard consistently and constantly to be orthodox. Justinian,\nwhose laws against heretics were more severe than those of Constantine,\nand who was hailed by the Church as \"the most Christian Emperor,\"\nactually died a heretic. A controversy arose as to whether the body of\nChrist was or was not liable to corruption. A new sect of course was\nformed, known as the Corruptibles and the Incorruptibles. The latter\nwere considered heretics. Justinian gave them his support, and was on\nthe point of persecuting others of a different way of thinking when he\ndied. One of his successors, Theodosius, was just as ready to persecute\nthe holders of equally unimportant opinions. He it was who put down the\nTascodragitae, \"who made their prayers inwardly and silently, compressing\ntheir noses and lips with their hands, lest any sound should transpire.\"\n\nFortunately for our readers, religious London is not thus minutely\ndivided and subdivided. We have still absurd squabbles, that for\ninstance whether Mr. Mackonochie was kneeling or only bending, being\npre-eminently so; yet on the whole in Western Europe and among the German\nraces the tendency is more and more to practical, and less and less to\nspeculative life. In another way also may the comparatively speaking\nundisturbed orthodoxy of Western Europe be accounted for. For the\northodox there have been cakes and ale, and even the ass knoweth his\nowner and the ox his master's crib. Nothing so keeps men from religious\nspeculation as a good endowment. In his \"History of Latin Christianity,\"\nDean Milman very significantly writes: \"The original independence of the\nChristian character which induced the first converts in the strength of\ntheir faith to secede from the manners and usages, as well as the rites\nof the world, to form self-governed republics, as it were, within the\nsocial system; this noble liberty had died away as Christianity became an\nhereditary, an established, a universal religion.\" The poet asked, and\nhe might well do so--\n\n \"What makes all doctrines plain and clear?\n About two hundred pounds a year.\"\n\nTo have an opinion of his own, and to express it, was utterly impossible\nto any man whose heart was set upon church preferment. One illustration\nwill suffice: Many--many years ago there was in the old city of Norwich a\nBishop known by the name of Bathurst. His connexions were good, and when\nGeorge III. was king there was an Earl Bathurst and a Lord Chancellor\nBathurst, and a Sir Benjamin Bathurst. This clerical scion had thus on\nhis entry into public life every chance in his favour. He lived to a\ngreat age: he was born in 1744, and died in 1837; but to the last he was\nonly Bishop of Norwich. Why was this? Well, on the 27th of May, 1808,\nLord Granville moved for the House of Lords to resolve itself into a\ncommittee \"to consider the petition of the Irish Catholics.\" The\npetition was not a prayer for political equality, simply for employment\nin military and civil situations. The Bishop of Norwich had the audacity\nto lift up his single voice from the episcopal bench on behalf of Lord\nGranville's very moderate motion. The heavens did not fall--nor did the\nearth open its mouth and swallow him up--but the light of the royal\ncountenance was lost to him for ever. His daughter writes: \"A friend of\nmy father's happened to mention in the presence of Queen Charlotte that\nthe Bishop of Norwich ought to be removed to the see of St. Asaph, as the\nemoluments were better and the duties less numerous. 'No,' said her\nMajesty, quickly; 'he voted against the king.'\" Some years afterwards it\nwas said by those about the Court that the Bishop \"might have commanded\nanything in the Church if he had taken the right line.\"\n\nIt has thus come to pass that heresy in London and the country has been\nconfined within narrow bounds. Whatever Churchmen may have thought, the\ncreed and the public utterances of the Church have been orthodox.\nPopular dissent has followed suit--heresy has been avoided by some as a\ntemptation of the devil, by others as an obstacle to worldly success, but\nno religious life can exist without it. In the religious world, as a\nrule, heresy is life, orthodoxy death. \"Are you a Christian?\" asked one\nwell-known man of another. \"When I am a good man,\" was the reply; but,\nsay the orthodox, it is on his belief or rejection of dogmas that a man's\nChristianity depends. One cheering sign of the times is that the\nreligious public is beginning to realize the fact, that it does not\nfollow that because a man holds heretical opinions he will pick your\npocket, elope with your wife, or make away with your silver spoons. It\nis well when people come to think that there may be something purer,\nhigher, holier, than unreasoning uniformity of opinion or than a blind\nassent to scholastic terms and definitions. Mental stagnation is not\nChristian life, neither does sterile orthodoxy deserve the name. It was\nthe recognition of this idea that gives to the Apostle John a special\nclaim to admiration and regard. \"If,\" says he, \"a man say I love God and\nhateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother,\nwhom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen?\" It was\nunder the influence of the same spirit that the Master rebuked the zeal\nof his disciples when they would have hindered one who was according to\ntheir own account doing good, merely because \"he followed not us.\" The\npassage is worth transcribing. \"And John answered him, saying, Master,\nwe saw one casting out devils in thy name and he followeth not us, and we\nforbade him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him\nnot, for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name that can\nlightly speak evil of me; for he that is not against us is on our part.\nFor whosoever shall give you a cup of water in my name because ye belong\nto Christ, verily I say unto you he shall not lose his reward.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\nTHE JEWS.\n\n\nOf the many definitions of London, perhaps the truest is that which\ndescribes it as several cities rolled into one. The rich inhabit\nBelgravia, the poor Bethnal Green. In Mark Lane on a Monday morning you\nmight fancy, if you were to shut your eyes and listen to the conversation\naround, that you were in primitive East Anglia; on the contrary, in\nChancery Lane, and all the places of resort contiguous, the talk is of\nwrits, of issuing executions, of levying a distress, and of all those\nhorrible processes by which law seeks to secure property from its natural\nenemies, poverty or rascality. Irish abound in Drury Lane, and in\nunsavoury Houndsditch the seed of Abraham congregate.\n\nThe traveller from the palatial West will perhaps shrink from leaving on\nhis right hand Aldgate Pump, and plunging in the dark alleys and crowded\nlanes in which the Jews reside. Nor, if he be of a fastidious stomach,\nwould I much blame him. In Meeting House Yard, for instance, I saw a\npool of dark fluid, around which little pale children were playing,\nsuggesting something very rotten in the state of Denmark. It is in this\nneighbourhood that the far-famed Rag Fair is held on the Sunday, and all\nthe week there is more or less dealing in such articles as come under the\ndenomination of \"old clo',\" respecting which it may as a general rule be\nsafely affirmed that, whilst we may dispute the title of clo', as regards\nmuch there vended, there can be no dispute as to the appropriateness of\nthe descriptive adjective. In the lanes and courts around us are names\nfamiliar to us from infancy. Lazarus keeps a second-hand book-shop, and\nMoses sells fried fish. You see a printing-office, with posters up; on\nthose posters are Hebrew characters. In Duke Street there are a couple\nof book-shops, but the books are all or chiefly Hebrew. In this\nneighbourhood you can easily forget that you are in London at all. It is\nnot the English tongue you hear; or, if it be, it comes to you disguised\nin such a foreign accent as to be scarcely intelligible. Through the\nmist and fog dark eyes, all redolent of the far-off East, flash on you;\nand now and then a tall figure in flowing robes, sad and solitary, stalks\nby; and you rub your eyes to be sure that you are not in a dream. This\ntemporary delusion will be stronger if you visit this neighbourhood on a\nFriday evening just after sunset. In Whitechapel and Aldgate the gas is\nflaring, and a busy trade is carried on; in Leadenhall Street, in the\noffices of the great Navigation Companies or of the leading shipbrokers,\nclerks are busy writing, and weather-beaten skippers from Australia or\nthe Cape or New Zealand are tearing about, if we may use a colloquial\nexpression much in vogue, like mad. It is a contrast to pass from this\nbusy scene into the Jewish quarter, where the shops are all shut up and\nwhere all is still. How is this? The answer is, it is the eve of the\nSabbath, and the Jews are at their synagogues. There are three in this\nneighbourhood. The first and oldest is that of the Portuguese Jews in\nKing Street, Duke's Place, erected in 1656. The first German synagogue,\nalso in Duke's Place, was built in the year 1691, and occupied until\n1790, when the present edifice was erected. This is called the Great\nSynagogue. The New Synagogue, as it is denominated, in Great St. Helens,\nis a very elegant and ornamental structure. The interior is very\nbeautiful. In so dark and dolorous a neighbourhood you are not prepared\nfor anything so fine. Very liberally must these ancient people have\nsubscribed for the fitting worship of their God. From the ground spring\nup pillars highly decorated, and in the side are windows of a rich\narabesque pattern in stained glass. The ceiling is semi-dome with\noctagonal coffers containing gilded flowers upon an azure ground; and the\npavement, which is of polished marble, forms a perfect circle. The\nministers of the Great Synagogue were considered the leading ones. It is\nnot so now. Dr. Adler is the head rabbi. He has been long in office,\nand is universally esteemed by Christians as well as Jews. He is an old\nman, and as his English is that of a foreigner it is clear that in his\npublic addresses you get an inadequate idea of his talents or\nattainments. This remark applied to most of the Jewish ministers in\nLondon. They were foreigners, and in speaking English did not succeed\nmuch better than we do when we attempt to speak German or French. Now\ntwo-thirds of the Jewish ministers are English.\n\nVery far back in English history we find the people whose descendants\nhave taken possession of Houndsditch and all around, and turned it into a\nJewish colony. More or less they have always been with us. In\nAnglo-Saxon times we seem to have had a fair sprinkling of them. After\nthe Conquest they arrived here in great numbers. By William Rufus they\nwere especially favoured, and Henry I. conferred on them a charter of\nprivileges. They were enabled to claim in courts of law the repayment of\nany money lent by them as easily as Christians, and while the latter were\nforbidden to charge any interest on their loans, there was no restriction\nin this respect put upon the Jews. At this time, doubtless, they laid\nthe foundation of their subsequent wealth. The sovereign rather\nencouraged them, as the richer they were the more gold could be forced\nfrom them--and with our earlier as well as with many of our later kings,\ngold was a commodity always in request. During the former part of the\nreign of King John (A.D. 1199-1216) they seemed to have gained the favour\nof that monarch, or at any rate obtained permission to exist, and trade\nand worship in this country on sufferance. Subsequently, however, they\nappear to have suffered much persecution, and were eventually banished\nfrom the country in 1291 (19 Edward I.), continuing in exile for 367\nyears. Menasseh Ben Israel, a Jewish rabbi of great learning in\nAmsterdam, petitioned the Protector Cromwell, in the year 1649, on behalf\nof his brethren, for a liberty which the Latin Secretary of the Lord\nProtector it is to be hoped would be foremost to advocate. During the\ninterval the Jews lived secretly in England, but did not possess any\n\"Jewries,\" or publicly organized congregations. Ultimately they obtained\npermission to return, though the Commonwealth refused to give any formal\nsanction to their re-appearance, merely tacitly consenting to it. The\npeople of England, says Rebecca in \"Ivanhoe,\" \"are a fierce people,\nquarrelling ever with their neighbours or among themselves, and ready to\nplunge the sword into the bowels of each other. Such is no safe abode\nfor the children of my people. Ephraim is an heartless dove. Issachar\nan overburdened drudge, which stoops between two burdens. Not in a land\nof war and blood, surrounded by hostile neighbours and distracted by\ninternal factions, can Israel hope to rest during his wanderings.\" There\nis, however, reason to suppose that nowhere, except for a short interval\nin Spain and always in Holland, have the Jews fared better than in this\ncountry. In our time they have been allowed to take their seats as\nM.P's. We have seen a Prime Minister of England of Jewish origin. Need\nwe say more? Jews are in all respects on an equality with Christians; in\nart, and literature, and science, and the acquirement of wealth, they\nhave displayed a genius equal to our own. In practical piety--in the\nbenevolence which teaches the rich to give of their goods to the poor,\nthey are infinitely our superiors.\n\nTruly, if we may judge by the aspect of the Hebrew race in Houndsditch\nand its neighbourhood, there is much room for charity. Just as the Irish\nCorporations were accustomed a few years ago to land a cargo of \"the\nfinest pisantry under the sun\" on the Welsh coast to beg or steal, work\nor die, according to circumstances, so the chiefs of the Jews on the\nContinent ship the poor and helpless of their people here, and a heavy\ntax is thus enforced on the wealthier portions of the community. Then,\nagain, the Jews have a great dislike to military service; and the\nconscription which is imposed in Prussia, Austria, Poland, and France,\ndrives large numbers away from the land of their birth. Thus their\nnumber in London is greater than people imagine. Dr. Stallard places it\nas 55,000, but many Jews inform me that 100,000 is nearer the mark. One\nthing is certain: as soon as a synagogue is opened anywhere it is\nimmediately crowded; and on special occasions, such as the days of\npenitence, fifteen regular and eighteen or twenty temporary synagogues\nare opened in different parts of London. Most of the foreign Jews when\nthey arrive here are wretchedly poor and ignorant, but under any\ncircumstances the Jew has to fight the battle of life under circumstances\nof peculiar difficulty, in consequence of the Mosaic law, which he is\nbound to obey, and which he does at a very heavy pecuniary sacrifice. It\nis almost impossible for a Jew to work with a Christian. He may not\npartake of his food. He may not work on Friday evening or on any part of\nSaturday, nor on the days set apart for the observance of the Jewish\nfasts and festivals. He is thus shut out from all employment in our\nfactories, shipyards, engine works, or shops. If he seeks work at the\ndocks he is driven away by the roughs. The \"old clo'\" business is being\ngradually taken away from him by the Irish, so his chief industrial\noccupations are tailoring, cigar-making, fish and fruit selling. The\nwomen are employed in tailoring and shirts making, in the manufacture of\numbrellas and parasols, caps and slippers; latterly the supply of cheap\npicture frames has got into the hands of the Jews. I fancy none of these\ntrades are very lucrative, yet the Jew is rarely a thief, never a\ndrunkard, always attached to his family, and remarkable for his\nlongevity. Suicide is rare, and murder never met with among the Jews.\nThere are not twenty-five male Jewish convicts in all England, and for\nmany years there has not been a Jewess in any convict establishment.\nSuch is the charity of the wealthy that the poorest, who have resided\nhere six months, are looked after. No Jew ever is permitted to die in a\nworkhouse. In many of our hospitals there are wards for the Jews,\nsupported by them. The Jewish Board of Guardians inquire into every case\nof distress, and relieve it. Yet so economically do they go to work that\ntheir expenditure in 1869 was, including loans, not quite 5000_l._, yet\nin that year the applications were 12,510.\n\nBut, in addition to their charities, the Jews are alive to the importance\nof promoting religion and education. The Jewish Association for the\nDiffusion of Religious Knowledge has now been in existence eleven years.\nAmongst its supporters are the Rothschilds, the Goldsmids, and the other\nwealthy Israelites whose charities are known all over England; but it\nneeds, and let us add deserves, more efficient support. It has\nestablished a Sabbath school, where the present number of pupils is over\n500, where instruction is given in reading, translation, and explanation\nof the Bible, translation of the prayers, religious and moral lessons,\nand Hebrew hymn-singing. It has established a synagogue in Union Hall,\nArtillery Lane, where lectures on the Sabbath are given. It has provided\nScripture classes, and has published a series of Bible stories and\nSabbath readings, of which half a million of copies have been delivered.\nThe committee, when issuing the first number of their publications,\nstated that those papers would \"have for their object to impress upon the\nJewish mind proper notions of the principles and observances, spirit and\nmission, of Judaism, and by appeals to the reason rather than to\nsentiment, to develope and foster the most fervent conviction of the\ntruths of our sacred religion.\" In the way of Bible distribution the\nSociety has especially been active; until recently it was comparatively a\nrare occurrence to find a Bible in the houses of the Jewish poor. Where\nit was found it was of course the authorized Anglican version, which,\nsays the report, \"however great its literary merit, must be admitted to\nbe faulty, and to contain numerous mistranslations adverse to the spirit\nof our religion.\" The version they circulated was Dr. Leeser's, and they\nanticipate the day when no poor Jewish home wherein parent or child can\nread shall be without a Jewish version of the Holy Scriptures. Under the\nauspices of the committee, a reply to Bishop Colenso was published.\n\nThe children are educated in a way of which Christians have no idea. The\nJewish free school in Brick Lane, with its three thousand children, is a\nsight to see. There is, besides, an infant school equally flourishing,\nand no poor Jew is relieved unless he sends his children to school. In\nthe visiting of the sick, in the care of the poor, all take their share.\nI believe a synagogue is a little commonwealth in which the rich help the\npoor, most frequently by way of small loans, and in which the strong take\ncare of the weak. In these works of beneficence all take their share,\nthe humblest as well as those of more exalted rank. The Jewish M.P.\ntakes his place at the Board of Guardians. The Jewish Countess will not\nonly give of her wealth, but will leave her stately home and seek out the\nabode of sorrow and distress. Charity is inculcated in the Talmud as the\nfirst of duties; and, if heaven is won by good works, the Jews are safe\nand sure.\n\nAs a theology, to an outsider, Judaism seems ritualism _in excelsis_.\n\nThe Jewish faith is contained in the Creed and the Shemang. Of the two,\nthe latter is the more important. It is a declaration of the unity of\nGod, the first utterance of the child, the last of the devout Jew as the\nwatchers stand by his bedside, at the head of which is the Shechinah, or\nDivine presence, and at the foot of which, with outstretched wing,\nwaiting for the last breath, hovers the angel of death. The Creed, which\nevery Jew ought to believe and rehearse daily, but which they treat as\nChurchmen do their Thirty-nine Articles, is as follows:--\n\n1. I believe, with a perfect faith, that God (blessed be His name!) is\nthe Creator and Governor of all created beings, and that He alone has\nmade, does make, and ever will make, every production.\n\n2. I believe, with a perfect faith, that God (blessed be His name!) is\none God, and that there is no unity whatever like unto Him, and that He\nalone is our God, who was, is, and will be eternally.\n\n3. I believe, with a perfect faith, that the Creator (blessed be His\nname!) is not corporeal, nor is He subject to any of those changes that\nare incidental to matter, and that He has no similitude whatever.\n\n4. I believe, with a perfect faith, that the Creator (blessed be His\nname!) is both the first and last of all things.\n\n5. I believe, with a perfect faith, that to the Creator (blessed be His\nname!) yea, to Him only, it is proper to address our prayers, and that it\nis not proper to pray to any other being.\n\n6. I believe, with a perfect faith, that all the words of the prophets\nare true.\n\n7. I believe, with a perfect faith, that the prophecy of Moses our\ninstructor (may his soul rest in peace!) was true, and that he excelled\nall the sages that preceded him or they who may succeed him.\n\n8. I believe, with a perfect faith, that the law which we have now in\nour possession is the same law which was given to Moses by our\ninstructor.\n\n9. I believe, with a perfect faith, that this law will never be changed,\nthat the Creator (blessed be His name!) will never give us any other law.\n\n10. I believe, with a perfect faith, that the Creator (blessed be His\nname!) knoweth all the actions and thoughts of mankind, as it is said,\n\"He fashioneth their hearts, and knoweth all their works.\"\n\n11. I believe, with a perfect faith, that the Creator (blessed be His\nname!) rewards those who observe His commandments, and punishes those who\ntransgress them. (12.) The Jew believes in the coming of the Messiah;\nand (13), in the resurrection of the dead.\n\nThe Jews in London are divided into three communities--the Reformed, the\n_Ashkenasim_, or Polish and German Jews, and the _Sephardim_, or\nPortuguese and Spanish. These latter pride themselves on their ancient\ndescent, and especially on their nationality. Their Church, as we have\nsaid, is the oldest in London; their rabbi is Dr. Artom, and their\nservice differs from that of the _Ashhenasim_ in matters of detail not of\nfaith. Of course both take their stand upon the Pentateuch, which they\nterm the Torah or law, a portion of which is read every Sabbath; but,\naccording to the rabbinists, Moses received two laws on Mount Sinai, one\nwritten, the other unwritten. This latter was transmitted down from\ngeneration to generation by word of mouth until after the destruction of\nJerusalem, when it was committed to writing. This work is called\n_Mishna_, or repetition. In process of time it became a text-book in the\nschools of Palestine and Babylon, and lectures were delivered on it and\ncomments made by rabbis more or less learned and devout. In course of\ntime these comments and lectures were collected together into one work\nunder the title of _Gemara_, completion. The _Talmud_, which means\ndoctrine, contains the two. There are two Talmuds in existence. One\ncontains the decisions of the Palestine rabbis, collected and published\nsomewhere in the fourth century; the other contains similar decisions on\nthe part of the learned divines of Babylon. The difference between the\ntwo is exclusively in the _Gemara_. The Babylonian Talmud is the one in\ncommon use. It is for this Talmud, long too much neglected by\nChristians, that the Jews have contended for ages, and it is for this\nTalmud an able writer, in an article in the \"Quarterly,\" which produced\nan immense sensation at the time, eloquently pleaded, much to the\nastonishment, most undoubtedly, of those bigoted ecclesiastics who,\ndeeming the traditions of the Romanist Fathers equal in authority with\nthe Bible, look down upon the older and truer traditions of the Talmud\nwith the contempt which ignorance always cherishes for what it cannot or\ndoes not understand. Sentiments, as the learned Professor Hurwitz wrote,\nworthy of Plato have been described as rabbinical reveries, and their\nauthors arraigned of impiety on no better grounds than what the\ndetractors supplied by wantonly imposing their own literal sense on\nexpressions evidently and unmistakeably figurative.\n\nIn the synagogue is the worship daily or weekly of the devout Jew\nperformed, for the aim of that worship is to connect itself with the\ndaily life. Dr. Arnold's idea of the Church and State being\nsynonymous--an idea as old as the judicious Hooker's Ecclesiastical\nPolity--is undoubtedly in its origin Jewish. The officers of the\nsynagogue are a complete political as well as religious administration.\nA synagogue forms a little world of its own. A volume would be requisite\nto tell of the officers of the synagogue and of their various duties.\nThere is among them no separation into lay and secular. The community\nconsists of three kinds of members--the Cohen or priest, the Levite, and\nthe Israelite. A minister must often support himself, but his ministry\nnever ceases. To the last hour of his life he maintains his ministerial\ncharacter. \"The rabbis are men of great learning; and now in the Jews'\nCollege the students,\" writes a report just received, \"have the advantage\nof a careful and systematic clerical education, and an equally valuable\nadvantage, an example of piety and earnestness in their teachers.\"\n\nThe oldest synagogue in London is, as we have said, that of the\nSephardim, in Bevis Marks. Let us go there first. All Jewish synagogues\nare alike; all the men keep their hats on, and wear a scarf round their\nshoulders, hanging down to their knees. At one time, in another respect,\nthey were much alike--that was in the use of a service not understood by\nthe people generally. All this is altered now. Within the last thirty\nyears there has been a great change for the better. There are but few\neven of the poorest Jews who do not understand Hebrew.\n\nThe governing officers of the synagogue are the Wardens, the Treasurer,\nthe Overseer, and the Elders. The clerical officers are the Chazan, or\nreader, and the Shama, or second reader, and clerk. The ark is always\nsituated in the south-east end of the synagogue, to direct the worshipper\ntowards Jerusalem. The ark contains the law, written on vellum, fastened\nto rollers, on the tops of which are little crowns of silver surrounded\nby bells. The rolling and unrolling of the Law is a ceremony carefully\nobserved every Sabbath. In form the Bevis Marks synagogue much resembles\none of our old Nonconformist places of worship before they were improved\naccording to the requirements of modern taste. You pass into it from\nbehind some raised benches, on which several stout old gentlemen are\ngesticulating with all their might. A little further on is the reading\ndesk, where the reader, with his hat on, his scarf round his shoulders,\nis performing his appointed task--at one time singly, at another time\nwith the energetic assistance of the whole house. The readers wear black\ngowns. The faces of the reader and the rabbi are alike turned to the\nark, before which a lamp perpetually burns. Of course there never are\npews, but benches, under which are lockers, in each of which the\nworshipper deposits his scarf and prayer-book. In the synagogues of the\n_Ashkenasim_ the benches nearest the ark, where the chief rabbi stands,\nare considered the most honourable; but the Spanish and Portuguese Jews\nmake no difference in this respect. In the evening the synagogue is\nlighted up by means of large tapers and old-fashioned gas-chandeliers.\nIn the service all join with more or less fervour. It consists entirely\nof reading and singing prayers and certain portions of Scripture. No\nsermon or lecture, except on Sabbaths and festivals, is necessary or\nusual. The melodies used are ancient, and the reading is of a very\npeculiar character, and not to be confounded with chanting or intoning as\nknown to Christians. Most of the congregation in Bevis Marks seem to\nkeep time with their bodies, as the sound rises and dies away. Also\nevery other sentence begins with a woah-wooah sound of a monotonous cast;\nbut all seem to enjoy it, especially the little Hebrew lads, who make\nmore noise than anybody else. Sometimes the people stand up, at other\ntimes they sit down--they never kneel; but the stranger realizes little\nsolemnity while the service is performing, and many of the Jews are quite\nready to enter into a little secular conversation, or, if need be--as we\ncan testify from personal observation--to quarrel. The prayers are\nchiefly of a laudatory, a confiding, a grateful, reverent character, and\nin a style, as regards composition, indicative of a foreign origin.\nIndeed, all the time the service is performing--the principal one is on\nthe Saturday morning, and very long--you feel as if you were a stranger,\nas if you had no business there; that to the hook-nosed, black-haired,\ndark-eyed men around, you are a poor pale-faced, flat-nosed Saxon, to be\npreyed on and victimized to any extent. Here and there you see a\nforeigner in the picturesque garb of the East, looking sad and solitary\nas if he really remembered Zion, as if he had walked along the shores of\nGalilee, rested beneath the shade of the cedars of Lebanon, or had drank\nof\n\n \"Siloa's brook,\n That flowed fast by the oracle of God.\"\n\nOccasionally a Jew will rush in, seize a prayer-book, and, shutting his\neyes, gabble on at a prodigious rate as if he had started late and had to\nmake up for lost time, and his repeated bowing to all points of the\ncompass is, to the spectator, of a very perplexing character. In this\nquarter the Jews, as regards appearance, are not very wealthy, nor have\nmany of them very clean hands, nor, except on certain occasions, are the\nsynagogues very well filled. Here you fail to recognise the swell Jews\nof Margate and Ramsgate, of Brighton and the Boulevards, the fact being\nthat the rich Jews, like the rich Christians, have gone further west; yet\nthe Montefiores belong to Bevis Marks, and the Rothschilds to the great\ncongregation in Duke's Place. Such are the London synagogues, including,\nin addition to those we have already referred to, those in Fenchurch\nStreet, St. Alban's Place, Maiden Lane, Cutler Street, Islington,\nPortland Street, Bayswater, and others. But the reader will ask, What of\nthe ladies?--most of our churches and chapels would look intolerably\ndestitute without them. The answer is, all the duties of their worship\ndepend entirely on the males. The Jewesses are allowed to sit in a\ngallery. At Bevis Marks you see they are there, that is all. Whether\nthey are white or black, whether they listen or not, it is impossible to\ntell, as they are concealed behind a lattice-work almost as impervious to\nmale eyes as those behind which, on the night of a debate, our House of\nCommons hides our British fair. In other synagogues their gallery is\nopen, and they can see and be seen.\n\nEven these ancient people are moving with the times. The _Jewish Record_\nsays, \"That the Synod of Jewish Rabbis, which has just been held, has\nrecognised three new principles. 1. Individual authority in religious\nmatters. 2. The primary importance of free scientific investigation. 3.\nThe rejection of the belief in Jewish restoration. The Synod also\nrecommends choral services and the use of the organ in the synagogue, and\nmusical performances on Sabbaths and festivals.\" This paragraph is not\nexactly correct. The Synod was one of little importance, and the\nprinciples enunciated were not affirmed, only discussed; but I quote it\nas an indication of the spirit existing in our day in all the religious\ncircles of our land.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\nTHE REFORMED JEWS.\n\n\nSappho, implies Mr. Pope, at her \"toilette's greasy task,\" is quite a\ndifferent individual to \"Sappho fragrant at an evening mask.\" Just as\nmuch does the Jew of the West-end, the Jew of society, rich and\ncultivated, the Jew who gives good dinners, drives in a faultless\nbrougham, on whose fingers diamonds sparkle, differ from the Houndsditch\nJew, toiling along painfully under a load of ol' clo' considerably the\nworse for wear, or smoking bad cigars in the Effingham Saloon. In the\nsame way do the synagogues of the West differ from those of the East. In\nplace of that in Portland Street, the Jews have erected a gorgeous one,\ntowards which the Rothschild family have subscribed 4000_l._ Those in\nthe Haymarket and at Bayswater and Islington are clean and comfortable,\nand that in Margaret Street is especially so.\n\nOn Saturdays service commences there at ten and terminates at one. Let\nus go there. As you enter, of course you face the ark. On each side\nbenches, well cushioned, are placed. On the right of the ark is a\npulpit. In the middle is the raised platform for the readers and the\nrabbi, the Rev. Mr. Marks. There is a gallery facing the pulpit, in\nwhich is an organ, an innovation of which the orthodox do not approve, as\nit implies Sabbath labour, and there is another innovation I dare say\nequally shocking. Actually in the side galleries appropriated to ladies\nyou can see them. People of an uncharitable turn often insinuate that so\nmany young men attend at such or such a church that they may see the\nladies. I don't think the fact that you can see them in Margaret Street\nSynagogue adds materially to the male congregation. Yet Hebrew maidens,\nsome of them, have been and are beautiful as any whose names have come\nechoing down to us along \"the corridors of time.\" However, if the\nChristian stranger should let his eyes wander thitherward he is to be\nforgiven. Hebrew is a difficult tongue to follow if you are ignorant of\nit, and, save where there is no singing, which is very fine, the reading\nof the prayers is not very impressive. Nor do the gentlemen around, all\nwearing black hats and silk scarfs over the coat, appear to be much\nimpressed. They sit with their prayer-books in their hands, in\nappearance as calm and unmoved as real West-end Christians of\nunquestioned respectability. At a certain interval the ark is unlocked,\nthe roll of the law is taken reverently to the platform, where it is\nuplifted on all sides that all may see it, and then, when the reader has\nfinished, it is borne back and deposited in the ark as formally and\nreverently as it was taken out. After a little while, as you begin to\nweary, one of the individuals on the platform leaves it. He wears a\nblack gown and bands, he ascends the pulpit and preaches with his hat on;\nthat is the Rev. Mr. Marks. He is thought much of by the younger and\nmore educated Jews. As a preacher, much is to be said in his favour: he\nis short, he delivers himself well, his style of address is popular, and\nhe gives many an Old Testament lesson. He demands of Abraham's\ndescendants Abraham's faith in God, and obedience to Him. The Christian,\nof course, misses much. We worship a Messiah who has come; the Jews\nstill, with sad and weary eyes, look onward, waiting His advent.\nWherever civilization and science go hand in hand, wherever humanity\nreaps \"the long results of time,\" whether in the old world or the new,\nwherever the great Caucasian race multiplies and nourishes, there, more\nor less, is there a living faith in the mission of Christ as a Divine\nteacher, as the comforter of human sorrow, as the healer of human woe, as\nthe model for all to follow who aspire upwards to heaven and to God. In\nEurope there are 280 millions of Christians, and but very few of Jews.\nEverywhere they are an immense minority.\n\n \"The cedars wave on Lebanon,\n But Judah's statelier maids are gone.\"\n\nThe Jews are not a proselyting people, but they are becoming increasingly\nanxious that the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should not forsake the\nGod of their fathers; and about thirty years ago certain of the London\nJews agitated for a reformed mode of worship, as they deemed, more in\naccordance with the circumstances of their brethren in this age and\nclime. They argued that there is much that is local in the Jewish\nritual, and much that is inapplicable now; that the people in consequence\nwould fall away unless a reformed mode of worship was introduced. I do\nnot think the Reformers have made as much progress as they anticipated,\nthough to a stranger they certainly appear to have not merely modified,\nbut improved the service. The Prayer-book was carefully revised, an\nimproved ritual was drawn up by blending the beautiful portions of the\nPortuguese and German Liturgies, a choir was formed for the purpose of\ninspiring devotional feeling by means of solemn song. In the old\northodox synagogues the custom of calling up persons to read the law for\nthe sake of presenting their offerings during divine service, often\ninterferes with the edification of the assembly, according to the Jewish\nreformers, and this also they omit. Furthermore, they decline to\nrecognise as sacred, days which are evidently not ordained as such in\nScripture. It must be remembered the Jew of the Restoration is much more\nof a formalist than the Jew of David's and Solomon's time, that the\nrabbis returned after the captivity laden with Babylonian learning, and\nthat a new school arose. In his sermon on the opening of his new place\nof worship in 1842, Mr. Marks said, on behalf of himself and people, \"We\nmust as our conviction urges us solemnly deny that a belief in the\n_divinity_ of the traditions contained in the Mishna and the Jerusalem\nTalmuds is of equal obligation to the Israelite with the faith in the\ndivinity of the law of Moses. We know that these books are human\ncompositions, and though we are content to accept with reverence from our\npast Biblical ancestors advice and instruction, we cannot unconditionally\naccept their laws.\" \"On all hands,\" continued Mr. Marks, \"it is conceded\nthat an absolute necessity exists for the modification of our worship,\nbut no sooner is any important improvement proposed than we are assured\nof the sad fact that there is not at present any authority competent to\njudge in such matters for the whole house of Israel. Now, admitting this\nas a truth (since the extinction of the right of ordination has rendered\nimpossible the convocation of a Sanhedrim, whose authority shall extend\nover all Jewish congregations), does it not follow as a necessity that\nevery Hebrew congregation must be authorized to take such measures as\nshall bring the divine service into consonance with the will of the\nAlmighty, as explained to us in the law and the prophets?\" To the force\nof this reasoning the Jews as a body remain impervious, and though time\nhas mitigated the angry feeling which the Reformers created, as Reformers\nalways do, and no longer do the chief men of the orthodox Jews issue\nwarnings against the Reformers, who from the first professed their love\nto the old synagogues and their desire to continue connected with them in\nworks of charity, yet the new community is by no means cordially received\nand sanctioned by the old. Nor can we expect it to be otherwise. The\nmore men have in common, the smaller is the difference between them, the\nmore, often, is the ill-will with which they regard each other. The eye\nof the true theologian is of a wonderfully magnifying character. As he\nlooks, a little rivulet expands into an impassable gulf, and a molehill\nbecomes a mountain. What bitter things have been said, what fierce\npassions have been aroused, what martyrs have had to die and survivors to\nweep, because of what seemed to cool observers trifles light as air!\n\nYet, after all, there is a danger. If rationalist principles prevail,\nand the Old Testament be a series of myths or allegories, why still\nretain the ritualist law in all its strictness? and if that goes the\nwhole system goes. Pious Jews find all society against them; its spirit,\nits customs, its literature, all hostile, if not to their nation, at any\nrate to their faith. In too many cases they perceive that those who\nforsake the religion of their forefathers are but little the better for\ndoing so. They find that those who begin by laughing at rabbinical\nabsurdities end by despising the Word of God. A Hebrew infidel, an\ninfidel among the Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption and the\nglory and the covenants, writes a Jewish author already quoted, \"is\nindeed a frightful and portentous phenomenon,\" and thus the more\nsensitive and conservative amongst them shrink from in any way modifying\ntheir ritual in accordance with what is termed the spirit of the age.\nChristians have no idea of the earnestness of spirit, of the striving\nafter conformity to the law of God, of the devout Jew, or of the great\nand grand truths which he extracts from observances or forms in which\nthey can see no meaning. The Jew is fond of pleasure, fond of show, fond\nof jewellery and gorgeous dress, and on his Sabbath rarely exhibits a\nvery devout appearance; nevertheless his religion requires daily\nobservances from his birth upwards, which can only be carried out by\nmeans of a living faith. In the first place his religion is an expensive\none, and he must pay in various ways very heavily for its support. It is\ntrue many of the observances required have become obsolete, but on the\nSabbath he has much to go through at home, as well as to attend at the\nsynagogue and to abstain from all worldly occupations. After the third\nday of the month every strict Jew either alone or with a number of his\nco-religionists must make the salutation of the moon. Then every month\nhas certain days to be kept, especially in October, their new year, on\nthe first and second days. It is believed that the destiny of every\nindividual is determined on this month by the Creator Himself; that those\nwhose demerits preponderate are sealed to death, those whose merits\npreponderate to life, and those whose merits and demerits are equal are\ndelayed until the day of atonement. The first ten days of their new year\nare ten days of repentance, during which the Israelites are to repent and\nconfess their sins, pray to the Almighty to write them down in the book\nof life, and grant them a happy new year. On the seventh day every one\nhas a branch of willow procured under the superintendence of the officers\nof the synagogue, and all repair there with branches in their hands. The\nlast of these days is the Day of Atonement, and is religiously kept by\nevery Jew. On the 15th is the Feast of Tabernacles, on which the Jews\nare expected to live in booths, but in this country the rule is not\nstrictly observed. In April is the most important of all the\nfestivals--that of the Passover and of unleavened bread, when the doors\nof the house are left open for all, even the very poorest of the poor.\nIn June is held the feast of Pentecost, to commemorate the giving of the\nlaw. The synagogues on that occasion are decorated with flowers, and in\ntheir houses the tables and floors are also dressed with flowers, sweet\nbriar, and other fragrant herbs. A conscientious Jew must have a life of\nintense labour and self-denial, nor can he evade his duties nor impose\nthem on another. How welcome to them of old must have been the Master's\nkindly words, \"Come unto Me all ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I\nwill give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, and ye shall\nfind peace unto your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.\"\nTo appreciate these words aright you must fancy yourself a Jew, weighed\ndown to the earth by the daily routine of painful ceremonial and the\nrigid requirements of inelastic law.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\nTHE GREEK CHURCH.\n\n\nIn the dark ages of Christianity, when the zeal and purity of the early\nprofessors and martyrs of the new creed had died away; when Constantine,\nanxious to fix his throne on a permanent basis, entered into an alliance\nwith priests and bishops, not satisfied with the humble position assigned\nthem in the Church, only by courtesy at that time to be called\nApostolical; there was a revival of an old abuse, or rather, of a Pagan\nprinciple--the alliance of Church and State. Dr. Arnold, the truest\nChurchman in modern times, believed that the national conversions to\nChristianity, which then became the fashion, were productive of immense\nevil. This is the opinion long held by Dissenters, and latterly by an\nincreasing number of independent inquirers. If so, Constantine was an\narch-heretic; for surely, when Christ had taught that His kingdom was not\nof this world, it was heresy to disbelieve it, and, in the very teeth of\nsuch a declaration, to introduce an ecclesiastical system founded upon\ncompulsion, ignoring altogether the Divine power of Christianity, and\nassuming that it could only be maintained by the sword and pay of the\nState.\n\nConstantine's empire has vanished, but his Church remains; and it speaks\nto us, as Dean Stanley says, in the only living voice which has come down\nto us from the Apostolic Church: the State Churches of Europe, including\neven the pretentious one at Rome, are but its children. It is the\npattern and model for them all. Greek was the original tongue of the\nearly Christians. It was at Antioch, a Greek city, the birthplace of\nIgnatius, of Chrysostom, of John of Damascus, that they were first called\nby the name which now denotes the noblest form of human development. In\nthe Old World or the New, the Councils to which Churchmen in all ages\nhave referred, as of equal, or almost of equal, authority with the Bible,\nwere Eastern. In them the Pope of Rome was considered but as a Bishop in\nthe midst of his equals. The great fathers of the Church wrote in Greek.\nDean Stanley says, the earliest fathers of the Western Church, Clemens,\nIrenaeus, Hermas, Hippolytus, did the same. St. Mark first preached his\nGospel at Alexandria. St. John established a school at Ephesus, and\nPolycarp at Smyrna. The very word theology, as Dean Stanley remarks,\narose from the peculiar questions agitated in the East. If there be such\na thing as apostolical succession, the Greek Church has it. To this day,\nthe English Church owes much to the East; the direction for holding of\nEaster is of Alexandrian origin, and on every Sunday, in the \"Kyrie\nEleison,\" the \"Gloria in Excelsis,\" in part of the \"Te Deum,\" and the\nprayer of St. Chrysostom, English Churchmen borrow from the service of\nthe Church of Constantine. In Queen Elizabeth's time it was enacted that\nthe Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon were\nequally judges of heresy as the High Court of Parliament with the assent\nof the English clergy in their Convocation. No wonder, in these days,\nwhen Churchmen are prone to rely on Church claims rather than on Bible\nteaching--when, of little faith, and timid as to the future, they trust\nrather to hazy traditions than to living truths--no wonder the Greek\nChurch has become to them an object of special reverence; that they long\nto form a union with it. Though proud of its superiority, it regards\nthem as little better than Roman Catholics--Roman Catholics as a Greek\nonce said to the writer, without the Pope.\n\nThe oldest creed we have is Greek. The pious forgeries of our Church\nhistorians are enough to make a candid inquirer a thorough sceptic as to\nall they say; but we may still give some credit to Eusebius of Caesarea,\nthe father of ecclesiastical history. He tells us he read his creed\nbefore the Council of Nicaea. It was the same, he said, that he had\nlearnt in his childhood from his predecessors, during the time that he\nwas a catechumen, and at his baptism; and which he had taught for many\nyears as a presbyter and bishop. It had been approved of by the Emperor\nConstantine, and would have been carried had not there appeared a\nprobability of its being accepted by Arius and his partisans--a\nconsummation which, in the opinion of the majority, would have had a\ndisastrous effect, would have promoted union, would have saved many from\nthe sin of schism, would have allowed the energies of the Church to have\nbeen directed to the conversion of the world rather than to internal\nsquabbles, would have relieved Constantine from the stain and guilt and\nshame of having recourse to the sword to repress religious opinion. The\nCouncil of Nicaea cared for none of these things; all they wanted was\nvictory, and so the earliest Christian creed was rejected by the Church.\nIt was as follows:--\n\n \"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things, both\n visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God,\n God of God, Light of Light, Life of Life, the only begotten Son, the\n Firstborn of every creature, begotten of the Father before all\n worlds, by whom also all things were made; Who, for our salvation,\n was incarnate, and lived amongst men, and suffered and rose again on\n the third day, and ascended to the Father; and shall come in glory to\n judge the quick and the dead; and I believe in one Holy Ghost.\n Believing each of them to be, and to have existed, the Father only,\n only the Father and the Son, only the Son and the Holy Ghost, only\n the Holy Ghost.\"\n\nInstead of this, but on it, the Nicene Creed was framed, and this creed\nis still the bond of union in all the Churches of the East. We have\ncorrupted it, and as Dean Stanley remarks, \"every time we recite the\ncreed in its present altered form, we have departed from the intention of\nthe fathers of Nicaea, and incurred deprecation and excommunication at\nthe hands of the fathers of Ephesus.\" In the heart of London the Greeks\nhave a place of worship. You feel interested as you enter. In the\ntongue in which you hear the Gospel there read, the Gospel was first\nproclaimed. Peter, Paul, John, spoke just such language as that you\nhear. Ever since the Master left the earth has Sunday after Sunday, and\nyear after year, this Greek Church met in Syria in remembrance of Him.\nIn many things the Church of Constantine was less assuming than that of\nHenry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth. Where in our Prayer-book we have, \"I\nabsolve thee,\" the Greeks say, \"The Lord absolve thee.\" Where the\nEnglish Church says, \"Receive ye the Holy Ghost,\" the Greek more humbly\nand Scripturally offers up a prayer for the Divine blessing. In other\nways also they differ: they have no organs; the congregation stands all\nthe time of service; their baptism consists of three immersions, and\nlaying on of hands; they administer extreme unction, offer prayers for\nthe dead, and allow infant communion; they have no organized hierarchy;\ntheir clergy are married, and their laity have a considerable amount of\npower. They pride themselves on their orthodoxy, and are very bitter\nagainst the doctrine of the double procession--that is, that the Holy\nSpirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.\n\nAnd now let us go to London Wall, of which the Pope, or head, is the Rev.\nNarcissus Morphinos, a gentleman really courteous and sincere, and\nindefatigable in the performance of his sacred duties. Of all the\nchapels in London, surely this in London Wall is the most unique. As we\nenter we face a recess, before which lamps are burning; in that recess is\na crucifix with a lamp burning over it. In this recess is a door which\nis partly open, and between the door and the crucifix officiates the\npriest at a small table. He wears a very rich cassock, and occasionally\nhas on his head a primitive-looking sort of hat, without a brim, and very\nbig. I fancy there are no poor Greeks in London. On our right is a\nrecess, in which are ladies elegantly dressed. On our left is a pulpit\nvery rarely used, and a table at which two clerks are seated. They seem\nto have the performance of the service very much to themselves. There is\na choir in one of the side galleries. In his recess, before the altar,\nthe priest is engaged in praying and taking the sacrament; but every now\nand then he comes out. A side door opens, and a lad in a white surplice,\nholding an enormous lighted taper, appears. Then the priest comes from\nthe altar, and stands on the steps. It may be to swing the censer, or to\nbring out the Gospels bound in silver, which almost all present come\nforward to kiss; or it may be, in the course of the service, some one\nwishes to communicate. Then, while the clerks are reading, the doors of\nthe altar are opened, and the priest appears with a cup in his hand,\nwhich the communicant comes forward to receive. (The cup, it must be\nobserved, contains bread and wine.) Again the priest comes forward with\nthe crucifix, to which all bow; and last of all he comes forward and says\na few simple words of edification to his faithful flock, in number, I\nshould fancy, from two to three hundred. And this reminds us we have not\nyet stated where they are. Well, they are exactly opposite the altar,\nbefore which there is a vacant space well carpeted, and into which, on\none or two occasions in the course of the service, the priest descends.\nThe seats are beautifully carved, and are something like those in our\ncathedral stalls. Each worshipper is well fenced in by himself; and, as\nhe stands all the time, he will find the sides very convenient for\nresting his arms on. Each seat is beautifully finished, as the reader\ncan well imagine when he is told that the carving of each seat cost about\neight pounds about fifteen years ago, when the chapel was first opened.\nThere are no sittings appropriated to particular individuals, any person\ncoming takes the first he finds vacant. All expenses are paid by the\nmen, chiefly merchants in Finsbury Square, who subscribe on an average\nfor the cost of the service about twenty-five pounds a year. Two\ngentlemen contributed eighty, and one as much as two hundred pounds, a\nyear. The annual income of the church is stated to be 1660_l._, and of\nthis 50_l._ or 60_l._ has to be paid to an English church over the way--a\ngrievance which the Greeks, as well they may, feel deeply. There is\nanother Greek church in London, that of the Russian Embassy,--that of\ncourse being much smaller. It cannot, I should fancy, surpass in\nneatness and finish this in London Wall. The Greek Church, Dean Stanley\ntells us, has always been unfriendly to the arts. You would not think\nso; the building seems just what it should be--handsome, ecclesiastical\nin appearance, and yet plain. On the screen, behind which is the altar,\nare paintings of the \"Last Supper,\" \"The Virgin and her Child,\" and a few\nothers, intended to denote to the eye of the worshipper the great fact\nthe worship has to commemorate. Pictures are used but as symbols, as\neven words themselves are, of ideas needed for human salvation.\n\nThe Greek Church protests against anything in the way of doctrine not\nfound in the Bible. Surely it cannot claim the same sanction for its\nrites and ceremonies. As each worshipper entered he made the sign of the\ncross on his forehead and his shoulders and breast. This ceremony was\nrepeated several times in the course of the service, the priest on more\nthan one occasion doing the same; indeed, this seems to be the only way\nin which the laity join in the service. They utter no responses, they\ndeclare with one voice no creed, they raise no sacred chant or song;\notherwise, they stand as it were motionless and apart; everything is done\nfor them by the officiating priest. He comes between them and God. They\nspeak through him and by him; without him they cannot worship the Father\nin heaven. Such is the theory of worship current in the Greek Church.\nThus was it when the Imperial purple was worn by Constantine fifteen\nhundred years ago; thus it is in the reign of Queen Victoria, thus it\nwill be, we may predict, for the Greek Church is jealous of every iota of\nits creed, _in secula seculorum_.\n\nWell does a living writer remark, \"Such as the Greek Church became on the\nextinction of Paganism, such, or nearly such, she seems to be now. Her\nmissionary work has been narrow, her moral influence and control at home\nsmall, and though she has preserved a rigid continuity of doctrinal form,\nthe principle of an ever-expanding and all-absorbing vitality has been\nwanting; in great cities her prelates have too frequently been the slaves\nof wealth and power, of courtly intrigue and political faction; in the\ndesert her monks have become dreamy and unpractical anchorites. No lands\nreclaimed, no centres of agriculture and civilization created, no\nliterature preserved, no schools founded, no human beings raised to a\nhigher sphere of social action and duty, are to be set down to the\naccount of the Greek Church. She is a fragment of old Byzantine\ncivilization, as rigid and angular as the mosaics that still adorn and\nseem to frown down from the walls of her churches.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\nTHE ROMAN CATHOLICS.\n\n\nIf we may quote the Eastern Church, the Roman Catholic Church is the\ngreatest heresy of modern times. In the Encyclic Epistle of the Eastern\nPatriarchs, the Papal system is referred to as \"the chief heresy of the\nlatter days, which flourishes now, as its predecessor, Arianism,\nflourished before it in the earlier ages, and which, like Arianism, shall\nin like manner be cast down and vanish away.\" \"I die in the faith of the\nCatholic Church before the disunion of East and West,\" were the last\nwords of Bishop Ken. Under the Stuarts, in solemn conclave the Anglicans\naccused the Romanists of idolatry. In the opinion, then, of the oldest\nChurch, the only Church with an indisputable apostolical succession, and\nin the opinion of some of England's greatest Churchmen, the Church of\nRome is an heretical one. Such is the conclusion to which also we are\ndriven by the very slightest historical inquiry. Lady Herbert wonders\nthat an Anglican Churchman can go to Jerusalem and not become a Romanist.\nWhy, as the priest takes you from one sacred station to another, shows\nyou where the Saviour fainted beneath the load of the cross, where Saint\nVeronica wiped His face with her handkerchief, where the print of the\nSaviour's foot yet remains,--when we all know that the Jerusalem of the\nSaviour's time is some eighty feet below the surface, and that all these\nassertions are absolutely false, you feel indignant, and, if you have the\nsmallest iota of intellect left, after listening to the priestly legends,\nreturn a considerably sounder Protestant than you went. In like manner,\nhistory leads you to a similar conclusion as to the Roman Church.\nHistory, with an impartial pen, tells us how the Roman heresy sprang up,\nand grew, and reigned in every land. History robs Romanism of all its\nterror and of all its power. We see it, with plain, unblinded eyes, to\nbe a heresy gradually enlarging its claims in accordance with the\nincreasing ambition of its prelates, and the increasing credulity of its\ndevotees. Gradually, as the memory of apostolic teaching and preaching\npassed away, the Church of Rome, after the fall of Jerusalem, continued\nto advance among the western Churches certain vague assertions of\nauthority. In proportion as its clergy asserted their claims, other\nchanges of an unscriptural character were made. First of all, the\ndoctrine of baptismal regeneration was asserted; then a mysterious\nveneration began to attach itself to the celebration of the Lord's\nSupper; the sign of the cross was held to be vital to the expulsion of\nthe devil; and prayers for the dead became common. A great step was\ngained when the doctrine of the celibacy of the clergy was enforced; when\nGregory the Great, as the Romanists may well call him, inculcated\npurgatory, and pilgrimage to holy places; instituted the Canon of the\nMass, and added splendour to the ceremonies of the Church, and claimed\nthe power of the keys for the successors of St. Peter. On the foundation\nthus raised it was easy to base the most astounding claims; whether you\nare asked to believe that the Church of Loretto flew through the air from\nSyria to Italy, or, as in our time, the liquefaction of the blood of St.\nJanuarius, and the immaculate conception of the Virgin. After a certain\npoint gained, the rest is sure to follow. Give up the Bible, believe in\nthe priest, and the Roman heresy is the natural result.\n\nIn the Catholic Directory I find the statistics of Romanism as it exists\nin London. The province of Westminster, established by his Holiness Pope\nPius IX. (Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince\nof the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church,--such are a few\nof the titles he assumes), Sept. 29,1850, comprises the diocese of\nWestminster, with twelve suffragan dioceses. Westminster comprises\nEssex, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex, with, for Archbishop and\nMetropolitan, the Rev. Edward Henry Manning, elected and consecrated in\n1865. In London also there is another Church dignitary, the Rev. Thomas\nGrant, Bishop of Southwark, elected and consecrated in 1851. The patron\nsaints of the diocese of Westminster are \"our blessed Lady, conceived\nwithout sin; St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles; St. Edward, King and\nConfessor.\" In addition to the Virgin in Southwark, the patron saints\nare St. Thomas of Canterbury and St. Augustine. The ecclesiastical\nstatistics of Westminster diocese are, priests--secular, regular,\noratorians, oblates of St. Charles, and unattached, 221; public churches,\nchapels, and stations, 123; and the average attendance at the four\nschools of the diocese was, for 1866-67, 12,056. Of course this includes\nmore than the London district; but then in Southwark diocese I find St.\nGeorge's Cathedral, and, besides, about thirty chapels or stations; and\nof the 160 priests in the diocese, we may reasonably conclude that a\nfourth are engaged in London and its suburbs. Last year thirty-eight\nsecular clergy were ordained for England. Of these, thirteen were for\nthe dioceses of Westminster and Southwark.\n\nA correspondent of the _Weekly Register_, writing to show the increase of\nCatholicism in London during the last thirty years, points out that in\n1839 there were in the metropolis and the suburbs the following Catholic\nchurches:--St. Mary's, Moorfields; St. Mary's, Chelsea; the French\nChapel, King Street, Portman Square; the Chapel of the Benedictine\nConvent at Hammersmith (now removed to Teignmouth, Devonshire); St.\nMary's, Kensington; St. Anselm's, Lincoln's Inn Fields; St. Patrick's,\nSoho; St. Aloysius, Somers Town; St. James's, Spanish Place, Manchester\nSquare; and the Assumption, Warwick Street, Golden Square; in all ten\nchurches or chapels. There are now, in addition to the above, St. Mary\nand the Angels, Bayswater; the new church at Bow; the Oratory, Brompton;\nSt. Bridget, Baldwin's Gardens; St. Joseph, Bunhill Row; the Servite\nFathers, Chelsea; St. Peter's, Clerkenwell; SS. Mary and Michael,\nCommercial Road; the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street; St. Thomas,\nFulham; the German Church, Whitechapel; the church built by Sir George\nBowyer, in Great Ormond Street; St. John the Baptist, Hackney; Holy\nTrinity, Brook Green; Nazareth House, Hammersmith; the chapel at\nHampstead; the Dominicans' Church, Haverstock Hill; the Passionist\nChurch, Highgate; the Augustinians' Church, Hoxton; the Sacred Heart,\nHolloway; St. John the Evangelist, Islington; the Italian Church, Hatton\nWall; the Carmelite Church, Kensington; the church in Kentish Town; the\nchurch at Kilburn; Our Lady and St. Joseph, Kingsland; the new French\nChurch, Leicester Square; the Rosary, Marylebone Road; St. Francis,\nNotting Hill; St. Charles, Ogle Street; the Polish Chapel, Gower Street;\nSt. Mary's, Poplar; the Holy Family, Saffron Hill; St. Anne's,\nSpitalfields; Our Lady's, St John's Wood; St. Vincent de Paul, Stratford;\nthe English Martyrs, Tower Hill; Our Lady of Grace, Turnham Green; St.\nMary's, Horseferry Road, Westminster; and SS. Peter and Edward, Palace\nStreet, Westminster--in all forty churches or chapels in thirty years\n(without counting many private chapels or convents, &c.), or fifty\nchapels, where thirty years ago there were but ten. And it should be\nborne in mind that of the new churches many, such as the Oratory,\nCommercial Road, Farm Street, Islington, the Italian Church, Bayswater,\nBrook Green, St. John's Wood, and others, are of a size and beauty which\nthirty years ago would have been deemed a folly even to hope for. There\nare now as many masses said at the Oratory, Bayswater, and Farm Street,\nas thirty years ago there were in all the chapels in London, so great has\nbeen the increase of priests in London since 1839. On the south side of\nthe water, in the diocese of Southwark, the change for the better is even\nmore manifest than in that of Westminster; but, the congregation being\npoorer, the churches are also smaller. In what is now the diocese of\nWestminster, there were, in 1839 (writes the same correspondent), about\nseventy priests, and of these but two were regulars--Jesuits--who lived\nalmost as private individuals in the Marylebone Road. There are now a\nhundred and thirty secular priests--fifteen Oratorians, sixteen Oblates\nof St. Charles, sixteen Jesuits, ten Marist Fathers, seven Oblates of\nMary, six Carmelites, six Dominican Fathers (besides as many more not yet\nordained), six Passionists (in addition to ten or twelve not yet\nordained), five Servite Fathers, five Fathers of the Society of Missions\n(Italians), five Augustinians, two Franciscans, and three Fathers of\nCharity--in all, between regulars, seculars, and priests not attached to\nany particular mission, there are two hundred and forty-one priests in\nthis diocese. Of convents for women there were in 1839 two within what\nis now the diocese of Westminster; there are at present thirty-eight.\n\nIn calculating the amount of Roman Catholic influence and activity, we\nmust remember that in their churches and chapels service is always being\nperformed; and that thus one Romanist place of worship for all practical\npurposes may often be considered as equivalent to a dozen Protestant\nplaces, especially where the incumbents are of the class of old-fashioned\nclergymen who have a relish for port and what used to be considered a\ngentlemanly religion. For instance, let us see what is the round of\nservices at the cathedral, Blomfield Street, Moorfields. On Sundays and\nholidays there is mass at seven, eight, nine, ten, and high mass at\neleven. At three there is catechism, at four baptism, and on Wednesdays\nand Fridays at eleven A.M.; vespers, sermon, and benediction at seven.\nOn week-days mass is performed at half-past seven, eight, and ten. On\nThursday, rosary, sermon, and benediction at eight; on the other evenings\nof the week rosary and night prayers at that hour. On the first Friday\nof the month there is sermon and benediction in honour of the Sacred\nHeart; on the second Friday of the month the Way of the Cross. There are\nthe confessions, sometimes twice a day; and the Confraternities of the\nBlessed Sacrament, of the Sacred Heart, of Holy Angels for Children.\nThen there are the Societies, such as the Holy Family Total Abstinence\nSociety, Holy Family Provident Society, Benevolent Society for the Relief\nof the Aged and Infirm Poor, and the Night Refuge for Homeless Women of\nGood Character. Nor is this the only way in which Roman Catholic\ninfluence is felt in this district. On good works the Roman Church has\never laid great stress, and thus we find from the centre in Blomfield\nStreet the priests have specially assigned to them Newgate Prison, Old\nBailey; Debtors' Prison, Lower Whitecross Street; St. Bartholomew's\nHospital, Metropolitan Free Hospital, Royal London Ophthalmic\nHospital,--an amount of exertion incompatible with spiritual ease and\nworldly enjoyment. I mention this to show that you are not to judge by\nwhat you see; attendance at any particular time is no criterion as to the\nstate of the Catholic community. You may depend upon it that it is\nalways much stronger than it seems. Those present are but a tithe of the\nRomanists in any particular locality, and the admirable organization of\ntheir priests peculiarly fits them for aggressive purposes. I believe\nthey are most successful in the low neighbourhoods, in the guilt gardens,\nin which a great metropolis like ours abounds. Their charities in London\nare very extensive. There is a Catholic Poor School Committee, a\nWestminster Diocesan Education Fund, an Aged Poor Society, an Association\nfor the Propagation of the Faith, a Society of St. Anselm, for the\nDiffusion of Good Books. The Associated Catholic Charities, for\neducating and apprenticing the children of poor Catholics, have six\nschools in London. The Immaculate Conception Charity assists the clergy\nin providing for children whose faith or morals are exposed to imminent\ndanger through the death or helplessness of their parents. The Society\nof St. Vincent de Paul, whose chief object is visiting poor families at\ntheir own homes, has sixteen branches in London, besides a large\nOrphanage, at this time containing eighty boys, and a Catholic Shoeblack\nBrigade. The Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul have an\nestablishment in Westminster. The oldest Roman Catholic charitable\ninstitution is the Benevolent Society for the Relief of the Aged and\nInfirm Poor, founded in the year 1761. During the six winters the\nProvidence Row Night Refuge for Homeless Women and Children has been in\nexistence, 92,194 nights' lodgings, with suppers and breakfasts, have\nbeen given gratuitously. The only condition requisite for admission is\nthat the applicant be homeless and without food and money. Such are the\ncharities in London of the Roman Church.\n\nAs regards the pulpit, the Romanists are not wise in their generation.\nIn London, where oratory can do so much, they fail to provide themselves\nwith a grand and effective preacher. They have no Father Hyacinthe in\nLondon. Surely Italy might have sent us a Roman Catholic Gavazzi.\nIreland supplies us with orators in abundance, but where are her eloquent\npriests? Cardinal Wiseman was florid and heavy. Archbishop Manning is\nmore than sixty years old; and oratory, unlike wine, does not improve\nwith age. His position, his talents, his zeal, incline you to hear him\nwith respect, nothing more. As I have listened in some of the fine old\ncathedrals of the Continent to fiery priests, thundering away to crowded\nand attentive audiences, it has often occurred to me that it is just as\nwell we have no such preachers in London to bring the Roman Catholic\nChurch into fashion; to make it the sensation of the hour; to do for it\nwhat Irving did for Presbyterianism when he drew around him to the Scotch\nChurch in Hatton Garden all the beauty, the fashion, the genius, the\nintellect of his day.\n\nThe ordinary public service of a Roman Catholic Church requires little\ndescription; nor do you see it here as you do, for instance, in the\nmagnificent cathedral of Antwerp, where, in the dim dusk of an autumn\neve, while a flood of music floats down from the choir, and the gorgeous\npriests, with tapers and incense and costly banners, are sweeping, dimly\nseen, along the fretted aisles, the writer has often felt there is a\nstrange, weird effect produced, which, here you can never dream of. All\nis poor, something like a theatre by daylight, or a fancy ball when the\ndelusions of gas have been dispelled by the too candid and impartial rays\nof the sun. There are the tapers and the usual processions, the\nvestments of various colours, and the music ever flowing, while at the\naltar end the priests are bowing and kneeling and scattering incense, and\nperforming the service of the mass. If you have to listen to a sermon,\nit will not be a long one; and if you be a Protestant, it will strike you\nas verbose in style and un-English in tone. Nearest to the altar will be\nthe upper ten thousand, who come in broughams, and have fashionable\naspirations. At the other end will be the very poor, such poor as you\nsee nowhere else, scarcely educated enough to count, as they do on their\nknees, their beads, and certainly not competent to intelligent\nappreciation of the service. Of course the people kneel to the altar and\ncross themselves as they come in, and join in the worship with an\nappearance of piety (I mean the elder ones--young ladies who have eyes\nwill use them, whether they be saints or sinners), which is pretty well\nfor such an undemonstrative people as ourselves, but is nothing to that\nof the Moslem, who plumps on his knees, regardless of all, exclaiming\n_Allah hu akbar_! as the Muezzin calls to prayer.\n\nOn the Continent it fares ill with the Papacy. In France--in Italy--in\nAustria--even in Spain it has lost its power. Its chief strength at this\ntime seems to consist in the sayings and doings of an increasing section\nof the Church of England. It appears there is a society actually in\nexistence to form a union with Rome, and Mr. Malet, the Vicar of Ardley,\nin Hertfordshire, was lately sent on such a mission. As to the idea of\nChristian union no one can find fault with that. It is lamentable that\nthe Christian Church should be divided into sections that turn against\neach other the energies that should be devoted to the destruction of a\ncommon foe. That all should be brethren in Christ who believe in Him and\nlead a Christian life, is manifest, the common reader will say, in his\ndesire after Christian unity. Mr. Malet comes then, of course, to all\nChristians, of whatever sect or denomination, and holds out to them the\nhand of fellowship? Alas! no; he does nothing of the kind. First of all\nhe tells us he will not call himself a Protestant, then he dresses\nhimself like a monk, and has his friends to call him \"Brother Michael.\"\nHe then gets letters from the Archbishop of Canterbury and Dr. Manning,\nand goes to Rome humbly to ask the Pope to recognise the Church of\nEngland. Of course, at Rome, he is favourably received, and is delighted\nwith all he saw, and seems to have swallowed all he heard, not even\nexcepting the most monstrous fable or the absurdest legend. From Rome\nBrother Michael finds his way to Jerusalem--that Jerusalem that crucified\nthe Lord of life, that stoned the prophets, that persecuted and slew the\nteachers and apostles and converts of early times--that Jerusalem where\nthere is more downright lying in the name of God, and under the plea of\nreligion, if it be possible, than in Rome itself--that Jerusalem where\nthe rival monks to-morrow would cut each others' throats if the Turkish\nsoldiers did not keep them quiet;--and then to the Greeks and Roman monks\nhe offers a similar request; and \"the aged pilgrim,\" as he terms himself,\nreturns delighted, believing that the Church of England will be permitted\nto join with the Pope in asserting all the frauds of the Papacy, and with\nthe Greeks in celebrating that pious fiction of the holy fire once a year\nin Jerusalem. \"The aged pilgrim\" sees many favourable signs in this\ncountry. One is the reprint of Edward VI.'s Prayer-book for twopence;\nand another the fact that incense may be bought in many shops at the West\nEnd, and that half a pound lasts a long time. Now what must the\ncultivated, intellectual, and sceptical spirits of the age think of a man\nholding such opinions? What must be the effect of his teaching on such\nmen, but to estrange them more and more from the Church and its\ninstitutions? Brother Michael falsifies history as much as he does\nreligion. Actually he tells us there would have been no vice and crime\nin the country, no godless education, no pauper Bastilles, if Henry VIII.\nhad not put down the _Holy Brotherhood_. Of course he means by the \"holy\nbrotherhood\" the lazy and dissolute monks. Why, if we were to sully our\npages with but a tithe of the abominations and obscenities and\nrascalities recorded of the \"holy brotherhood\" in indisputable historical\ndocuments, every father of a family would hide away this volume. The\nless Brother Michael says about \"the holy brotherhood\" the better.\n\nAgain, let us take another illustration of High Church literature:\n\"Innovations: a lecture delivered in the Assembly Rooms, Liverpool, by\nRichard Frederick Littledale, Priest of the Church of England.\" The aim\nof Dr. Littledale is to show that prayers for the dead, the choral\nservice, the sign of the cross, the weekly offertory, the daily\ncelebration of Holy Communion, the elevation of the Host, turning to the\neast, the division of the sexes in churches, the mixed chalice, incense,\nvestments, and lights are _not_ innovations. He knows so little of\nhistory that he tells us that the conversion of our forefathers is due to\nGregory the Great (the man under whom Popery was introduced into\nEngland); calls Edward VI. \"_a tiger cub_,\" and speaks of Cranmer, the\nmartyr for his religion, as having \"_been arrested in his wicked career\nby Divine vengeance_.\" He says, \"of the depth of infamy into which this\nman descended\" he has not leisure to speak; and all the Reformers,\naccording to him, were equally bad. Dr. Littledale says, \"Documents,\nhidden from the public eye for centuries, in the archives of London,\nVenice, and Simancas, are now rapidly being printed, and _every fresh\nfind establishes more clearly the utter scoundrelism of the Reformers_.\"\n\nThe Doctor admits the Church of England was in need of a physician in\nHenry VIII.'s time. His language is, \"A Church which could produce in\nits highest lay and clerical ranks such a set of miscreants as the\nleading English and Scottish Reformers must have been in a perfectly\nrotten state--as rotten as France was when the righteous judgment of the\nGreat Revolution fell upon it.\" The Rev. Thomas W. Mossman, West\nTorrington Vicarage, Wragley, Yorkshire, goes further still. In a letter\nto Dr. Newman, he says he believes that a time will come to pass that\nAnglicans will also see that it is God's will that they should submit to\nthe Holy Apostolic See, and that it is their duty as well as their\nprivilege to be in communion with that Bishop who alone is the true\nsuccessor to St. Peter, and by Divine Providence the Primate of the\nCatholic Church. He speaks of the \"lurid murky flame of Protestantism\nenkindled in the sixteenth century;\" and hail the light \"once more\nbeginning to beam upon us from the Eternal City, where the Prince of the\nApostles and the Doctor of the Gentiles shed their blood.\" When such are\nthe utterances of leading clergymen,--if the Church of England were\nChurch of the nation as it claims to be, the language of Dr. Manning\nwould be undeniably true. \"Protestantism is dead in England. We may\nsave the time which controversy wastes, and instead of going out into the\nbattle-field, we may go into the harvest-field to reap and to bind and to\ngather our sheaves into our garner.\"\n\nDissent, however, has not been taken into account. It is rarely a\nDissenter becomes a Roman Catholic. It is impossible, if he understands\nhis principles, that he should. To too many it is the Church of England\nthat leads to that of Rome.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\nTHE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.\n\n\nThe peculiarity of the Church of England, that by which it is\ndistinguished from orthodox Dissent, is the priestly character of its\nclaims, and its intolerance of other sects.\n\nThe \"Tracts for the Times\" tell us \"that the Bishop is Christ's\nrepresentative, and the priests the Bishop's, so that despising the\nclergy is despising Christ.\" \"A person not commissioned may pretend to\ngive the Lord's Supper, but it can afford no comfort to any one to\nreceive it at his hands; and as for the person who takes it on himself\nwithout a warrant to minister in holy things, he is all the while\ntreading in the steps of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. It is only having\nreceived this commission that can give any security that the ministration\nof the Word and the Sacraments shall be effectual to the saving of your\nsouls. The Dissenters have it not.\"\n\nThe Dean of Chichester writes--\"Our ordinations descend in a direct\nunbroken line from Peter and Paul. Unless Christ be spiritually present\nwith the ministers of religion in their services, those services must be\nvain. But the only ministration to which He has promised his presence\nare those of the Bishops, who are successors of the first commissioned\nApostles, and the other clergy acting under their sanction and\nauthority.\"\n\nThe Bishop of Winchester says--\"We believe that we do possess, as we\ncannot see that others do, Christ's direct commission for our ministry,\nand a certainty and fulness, therefore, of His presence and of His\nSacramental working, which, to say the least, may be lacking elsewhere.\nIf we do not hold as much as this we must dissent from the plain language\nof our own Ordination Service.\" The Bishop also denies that it is a\nsuperstitious theory that \"the clergy can convey to the soul by a\nmaterial intervention some spiritual influence in an occult manner.\"\n\nThe Rev. E. Blenkinson, in the \"Church and the World,\" a book presented\nto Convocation by the Bishop of Oxford, says the Protestant bodies have\n\"cut themselves off from the participation of the one Spirit as living in\nthe Church and flowing through the Sacraments, which are the veins and\narteries of the body.\" The last utterance on the subject is that of the\nBishop of Ely, who places the first and undisputed General Councils as of\nequal authority with Scripture. The Catechism teaches Baptismal\nRegeneration. The clergy also tell us that they are called by the Holy\nGhost, that the Bishop has conferred on them spiritual graces by the\nlaying on of hands. This is the theory of the Church of England. In\naccordance with this in time past, it drove out the Evangelicals on\nBartholomew Day, and has at any rate till our time prosecuted Broad\nChurchmen for heresy.\n\nThe bitterest opponents of this theory are the Evangelicals. It is a\nsingular and noteworthy fact, that the theology dearest to the hearts of\nthe people is that which teaches in the plainest manner the literal\ninspiration of the Bible, the doctrine of Original Sin, of\nPredestination, of everlasting damnation, of a Devil ever thwarting the\ndesigns of a benevolent Deity, and seeking whom he may devour. Yet the\ncharacter given by Dr. Arnold of the Evangelical clergy is still true,\nand accounts for the little influence they have in educated circles.\nAnother fact also becomes increasingly prominent: their readiness to\nswallow their words, to quietly accept whatever may be offered them by\ntheir opponents apparently merely for the sake of position in society.\nEvery now and then a crisis occurs in the history of the Church. If\nBaptismal Regeneration, for instance, be ruled to be permissible they\nmust leave, and then when the time comes for them to arise and become\nmartyrs, they quietly pocket their principles and remain. Of course they\nplead their greater opportunities of usefulness, as if religion were\nbetter served by dishonesty than by honesty,--as if the cause of God were\nbetter advanced by falsehood than by truth,--as if position as regards\nsociety were of more importance than the man's consciousness of\nindependence and honourable life. For the ritualist or the Broad\nChurchman it is no difficult matter to remain in the church in company\nwith the Evangelical; but they, in accordance with his theory, are\nteaching soul-destroying errors; yet he remains with them, and is,\naccording to his idea, a partaker in their sins.\n\nThe characteristic of our day is the Broad Churchmanship, which rejects\nthe common theology as a prejudice well fitted for certain times, but\nunworthy of credence now. Of this party are the ablest men in the\nChurch; all who are disgusted with the childishness of ritualism--with\nthe narrowness of orthodox formulas, turn to them, and hail them as the\nregenerators of Church and State. Such men as Dean Stanley and Mr.\nMaurice are a power in the land. They walk hand in hand with the poets\nand men of science of our time. In their teaching is gathered together\nmuch that is best and truest in the wisdom of the past. The difficulty\nof their position is that they are tied down as strongly as they can be\nto orthodoxy, and half their strength is wasted in the effort to show\nthey have a right to be where they are. Nevertheless it is quite true\nthat there can be no honest faith without honest doubt; that we fight our\nfears and gather strength; that as we know more, we feel how outworn is\nthe old creed of Christendom. Sir J. D. Coleridge tells us the Articles\nare Articles of peace--that is, for the sake of uniformity a minister may\nmake statements which he cannot believe. But a man who cannot trifle\nwith words is denied all this liberty; he is tied hand and foot. The\nState gives him moral prestige, supremacy, wealth, on certain conditions.\nThe Dissenter is free; the wildest ranter has a liberty which an\nArchbishop may sigh for in vain. Such is the law. A State Church such\nas is desired by Broad Churchmen is an impossibility. And yet in spite\nof the rival and differing parties in the Church, and in spite of the\nfact that Churchmen themselves are longing to be free of the fetters of\nthe State, I know not that the Church of England, as regards London, was\never stronger than now. The layman has little sympathy with Church\nsquabbles: he goes to church feeling that in doing so he is not committed\nto any form of belief or worship. Dissent requires some sort of faith as\npreliminary to fellowship. In the Church you avoid all this: the\nPuseyism of the pulpit seldom extends to the pew. Then, again, there is\na natural yearning in all minds after national union in religious as well\nas political matters. The higher class of Dissenters display this\nfeeling in an extraordinary degree. Their chapels are built like\nchurches--they cling to the steeple which the stern old Puritans\nconsidered an abomination--the meeting-house has ceased to exist. Day by\nday Dissent gets rid of all its characteristics--its ministers assume a\nclerical appearance--they adopt the Prayer-book as their model--they now\nlisten to read sermons and read prayers. Of late years their leaders\nhave grown rich and respectable, and anxiously disclaim all connexion\nwith the loud and exciting form of worship that has attractions for the\nignorant. You may safely assume that the teaching of modern Dissent is\nindirectly in favour of the Establishment. Dissenters tell us they have\nmodified their customs in order to retain their hold upon the young of\nthe wealthy classes. But they cannot be retained by means like these.\nIt has almost become a proverb, that in the third generation they will\npass through the chapel to the church. Half the great mercantile houses\nof London and the empire were founded by Dissenters whose sons, as they\nhave grown rich and cultivated, feel more and more the awkward isolation\nof Dissent. Increasingly this feeling is spreading among Dissenters, and\nthe Church, if it were wise--its history is a career of blunder upon\nblunder--would have laid its plans to recover such. All the levers of\nsociety have been at its disposal. The Establishment rolls in wealth;\nthere is no other Church in the world so wealthy; the aristocracy are\nbound to support it. Literally, there is in our land no career for a\nDissenter. Dissent is a stigma in society. Even men who have no\nreligious predilections would scorn the name of Dissenter. The schools,\nthe universities--all have wealth and honour for those who will conform;\nand for those who conscientiously refuse to do so--exclusion and\ndisgrace.\n\nIn London, within twelve miles of the Post-office, there are some seven\nhundred churches and chapels connected with the Church, and about treble\nthat number of officiating clergy. At St. Paul's it is estimated that on\nspecial occasions as many as 7000 or 8000 persons take part in the\nservices. For the special evangelization of the metropolis there is what\nis called the Bishop of London's Fund. In the summer of last year the\nBishop of London stated that towards the sum proposed to be raised for\nthat purpose, 360,000_l._ had been subscribed. By means of that\nsubscription 200 clergymen have been added to the diocese, and\ncontributions made to the erection of 69 new churches and of 20\nparsonages. Sites also had been secured for 33 more churches, 27\nschools, 15 parsonages, and 4 mission stations. 15,000_l._ had been\nexpended for educational purposes; upwards of 9000_l._ for 53 Scripture\nreaders; about 2000_l._ for 27 parochial mission women, and 2670_l._\ntowards the rent and expenses of mission rooms. It says something for\nthe Church that it has thus raised funds for such purposes. When Bishop\nBlomfield appealed for 10 new churches for Bethnal Green, and raised\nsufficient money both to build and to a great extent endow them, it was\nfeared that he had called forth such an expression of Christian\nliberality as would exhaust the resources of wealthy Church people in the\ngreat metropolis for many years to come. Since that time it is estimated\nthat 1,700,000_l._ have been expended in London on churches and\nendowments. I am not aware that any other religious sect can say as\nmuch. The _Times_ estimated that there are as many as 85 clerical\ncharities in London.\n\nIn the City of London the Church does not seem to thrive. The _Church\nTimes_ published a kind of census of fourteen of the City churches drawn\nup after personal inspection during service time not long ago. It gives\nthe value of the benefice, and the number of persons actually present\nwhen the correspondent entered the church.\n\n Annual Value. No. Present.\n\n (pounds)\nSt. Bartholomew the Great, 680 40\nSmithfield\nSt. Anne and Agnes, St. 626 25\nAnne's Lane\nSt. Michael le Querne, 300 closed\nFoster Lane\nSt. Mary Magdalene, Old 230 18\nFish Street\nSt. Nicholas Cole Abbey 270 closed\nSt. Bennet's, Paul's Wharf 254 6\nSt. Nicholas Queenhithe, 260 11\nThames Street\nAllhallows, Bread Street 382 3\nSt. Martin Pomray, Old 410 1\nJewry\nSt. Margaret, Bread Street 287 3\nSt. Peter le Poor, Old 1725 20\nBroad Street\nSt. Martin Outwich, 1100 6\nBishopsgate Street\nSt. James, Mitre Square 300 20\nAllhallows with St. 650 9\nBennet, Lombard Street\n 7074 162\n\nIn the City there are 105 churches, parochial and district, and in the\nCity the superiority of the Church over Dissent is manifest. The Jews,\nthe Greeks, the Roman Catholics, the Wesleyans, the Baptists, the\nCongregationalists, the Presbyterians altogether have but twenty-six\nchapels in the City.\n\nFrom the beginning of the long reign of George III. to its close--that is\nfrom 1760 to 1820--there were not six new churches erected in the\nmetropolis.\n\nWhen the Great Fire had devoured the eighty-nine parish churches of\nLondon, Sir Christopher Wren superintended the building of fifty-three at\nthe same time that he was building St. Paul's. Various Acts were passed\nin the reign of Queen Anne and George I. to increase church accommodation\nin London, and Commissioners were appointed to apply the coal duties from\nthe year 1716 to the year 1724, to the building of fifty-two new\nchurches. Much of the money was misappropriated and only eleven were\nbuilt, and a subsequent fund of 360,000_l._ was granted, to be paid in\ninstalments of 21,000_l._ a year. In 1818, Parliament was prevailed on\nto vote a million and a half for building churches throughout the country\nas a thank-offering for the termination of the war; and in the same year\nthe Incorporated Church Building Society was founded, to build, enlarge,\nand repair churches; of which many, such as those in Bethnal Green,\nHackney, St. Pancras, Battersea, were in London. Daniel Wilson, Bishop\nof Calcutta, persuaded the vestry of Islington to vote 12,000_l._ for\nchurch building. In 1836 Bishop Blomfield inaugurated the Metropolis\nChurches Fund, to which he himself gave up sinecure patronage at St.\nPaul's to the extent of 10,000_l._ a year. Sixty-eight churches were\nbuilt by this fund at the cost of 136,787_l._, before it was merged, in\n1854, in the Diocesan Church Building Society. During the twenty-eight\nyears of his episcopate, Bishop Blomfield consecrated 108 churches in\nLondon. The whole number of churches ten years ago, writes Mr. Bosanquet\nin 1868, was only 498. Now Churchmen aim at absorbing the entire\nmetropolis. \"But in order to secure for every 2000 of our population one\nclergyman,\" said the present Archbishop of Canterbury in 1867, \"we shall\nneed twice as many additional clergymen as we have yet, with a\nproportionate number of schools.\" And here as elsewhere it seems to be\ntrue that supply creates demand. As soon as a church is opened it is\nwell filled.\n\nThe Bishop of Winchester's Fund, also known as the South London Church\nExtension Fund, is a similar effort to supply the spiritual need of that\npart of London which belongs to the diocese of Winchester.\n\n\n\nTHE DEAF AND DUMB AT CHURCH.\n\n\nIn London there are two thousand persons born deaf and dumb. To the\nsweet music of speech, whether in the way of conversation or lecture,\ngrave or gay, or song however sacred and Divine, they are insensible. It\nfollows almost as a natural consequence that they are mute, that from\ntheir lips can never come the thoughts that breathe and words that burn.\nIt is almost impossible for us to measure adequately the greatness of\ntheir loss or the depth of their desolation. How in some degree to make\nit up to them, to raise them in the scale of being, to teach them to\nthink, and feel, and learn, and to enable them to communicate to others\nthe results, is certainly not one of the least praiseworthy of the many\npraiseworthy Christian efforts of our day. With this view two courses of\naction have been followed. A Jewish school has been established at 44,\nBurton Crescent, where the system of teaching by articulation and\nlip-reading is pursued. For some time a similar system has been in\nsuccessful operation in Rotterdam. As to the merits of the system a warm\ndispute has been for a considerable time in progress in America. Its\nadvocates tell us that when these results shall have been made known, and\nthe attention of the philanthropist and man of science shall have been\ndirected to them, the days of the old system of dactylology, or\ncommunication by the aid of fingers, will be numbered. They ask,\ntriumphantly, What parents will be content that their children shall\ncontinue to communicate their thoughts and wishes by the aid of signs,\nwhen it can be proved to a demonstration that 999 deaf mutes out of every\n1000 possess the faculty of speech, and that such faculty can be\nsuccessfully utilised? Mr. Isaac tells us, that at Burton Crescent,\nafter only eighteen months' instruction, a deaf child who had never\npreviously uttered a clear sound, recited a verse of the National Anthem\nin a way that brought tears into the eyes of many hearers. The questions\nare put by the teacher in audible language; and the deaf mute, by aid of\nlip-reading--another marvel of the system in which the eye does duty for\nthe ear--comprehends every question, and gives answers audibly and\ndistinctly. The Association in aid of the Deaf and Dumb, of which the\nRev. Samuel Smith is the able and indefatigable secretary, are, however,\ndoubtful of the new system--and certainly lip-reading seems liable to\ngive facilities for great misapprehension as to the speaker's\nmeaning--and prefer to continue the system which the society was\norganized in 1840 to teach, and under which it has worked more or less\nsuccessfully ever since. Under this system has sprung up a deaf and dumb\nchurch-going public. On Sundays there are five or six places opened for\nsuch in London; on Tuesday evenings there are two, the principal one\nbeing held in the fine old church of St. Lawrence Jewry, near the\nGuildhall--one of Sir Christopher Wren's churches--in which are monuments\nto Wilkins, the learned Bishop of Chester, and Archbishop Tillotson,\nwhose lot was no peaceful one, and of whom it is worthy of remark that in\nthe language of Jortin he broke through an ancient and fundamental rule\nof controversial theology, \"Allow not an adversary either to have common\nsense or common honesty.\" Poor Tillotson, you see, never got over the\ndisadvantages of Dissenting training.\n\nBut to return to the deaf and dumb. Inside this handsome church you will\nfind any Tuesday evening about eight o'clock, some fifty or sixty of them\nsitting near the reading desk. Most of them are men and women in a\nhumble position in life, engaged in various callings in the\nneighbourhood, more, however, in the east than the west. The desire to\nprofit by such services seems on the increase. They have, for instance,\nat St. Lawrence, double the number they had, and the same may be said\nwith regard to the services conducted morning and evening at the\nPolytechnic Institution. Nor are these services held in vain. Every\nyear some are prepared for confirmation, and special celebrations of the\nHoly Communion are held for their benefit. To the ordinary attendants,\nincluding even such as have little need of an interpreter to explain the\nsubject or to help them to follow the services in church, the committee\nreport, \"these services and lectures are profitable.\" \"I have felt it a\ngreat privilege to attend the services,\" said one, \"which have been a\ngreat comfort and benefit to me, and I hope I shall remember what I have\nheard\" (it is to be presumed, by \"heard,\" the writer means what he saw:\nhis language is conventional). \"After I left school I felt so lost I\ncould not hear what was said in churches, and now I am very happy in\nattending them.\" In another way, also, the religious condition of these\nafflicted ones is kept in view. The Society employs missionaries engaged\nin house-to-house visitation. By these missionary agents, acting in\nconcert with the parochial clergy, a personal acquaintance is maintained\nwith the deaf and dumb scattered over London, and a most marked\nimprovement in their character, conduct, and intelligence is the result\nof the supervision exercised. The society is also engaged in promoting\nthe erection of a church for the deaf and dumb. For this purpose 550_l._\nhave already been subscribed. In the Old Kent Road there is a Deaf and\nDumb Asylum, and in other parts of the metropolis there are societies for\ntheir special benefit. Of course no mere outsider can give an account of\na service with the deaf and dumb. It is easy to realize songs without\nwords, but not so easy to realize public prayer and preaching in which no\naudible sound is heard, in which the service is conducted as it were by\npantomime. As much as possible the rubric is observed, the deaf and dumb\nobey the instructions of the Prayer-book, and stand where standing is\nprescribed, and \"sign\" the response to the Lord's Prayer, Creed,\nConfession, &c. As to the sermon, all that can be said is that it comes\nup to the Demosthenic standard for eloquence--action, action, action.\nAmong the deaf and dumb the best preacher must be the best actor. Not\nmerely are the fingers in constant requisition, but every part of the\npreacher's face, as much as possible, is speaking all the time, either in\nthe way of exhortation or entreaty. Great use, as we may imagine, is\nalso made of the arms, and the body sways backward and forward as if to\nlend expression to such ideas as it may be the design of the teacher to\nconvey. The great aim of these services is educational. They are\nintended to afford such an insight into the meaning and use of the Book\nof Prayer, that the deaf and dumb may be enabled to join intelligently in\nthe public worship of the Church of England, and undoubtedly it is\ndesirable that the terrible sense of isolation so natural under the\ncircumstances should be got rid of, that the deaf and dumb should feel\nthat they are part and parcel of the universal Church. Nevertheless\nthere must be a deaf and dumb pulpit from which may flow the ever\nfructifying stream of Christian truth--a pulpit which the deaf and dumb\nmay feel exists especially for them. Of this pulpit at present the Rev.\nSamuel Smith is the most distinguished orator, and as you watch him,\nthough you cannot understand him, you cannot but wonder at his marvellous\nskill. Evidently his heart is in his work; equally evident is it that he\nhas to complain of no wandering eyes. Every hearer is intent, many seem\nreally devout and find the privilege one not lightly to be esteemed. The\ndeep strain of the organ is not there, you miss the song of praise, you\nhear no penitential chant. From no living tongue falls the sweet promise\nof salvation and eternal life, from those sealed and silent lips escapes\nno audible prayer. Yet we know that\n\n \"God reveals Himself in many ways,\"\n\nand that He may be met with even among the deaf and dumb.\n\n\n\nA SUNDAY IN JAIL.\n\n\nMost travellers by the Great Northern Railway must have been struck with\na feudal castle apparently, just what you might expect to see on the\nRhine, but certainly not such a building as you would look for in the\nimmediate vicinity of the Cattle Market and of Mr. Mark Wilks's\noverflowing congregation. As you approach it, all around you are genteel\nvillas and desirable residences; the neighbourhood has an air of comfort\nand respectability; the inhabitants seem substantial and well to do--in\nshort, to belong to the upper strata of that middle class which in our\nland, at any rate since the last of the Barons fell on Barnet Common, has\nbeen a powerful influence for good in England and all over the world.\nYou would scarce fancy that feudal castle, with its \"jutty, frieze, and\ncoigne of vantage,\" was a jail, or that inside it there were shut up\nbetween three and four hundred rogues and vagabonds, old and young, male\nand female, who have outraged the laws of their country, and have been\nsent there, if possible, to receive punishment for their offences, and to\nlearn to do better for the future. Yet such in reality is the case. You\nare standing outside the City House of Correction, which was built some\nfew years ago at a cost of 100,000_l._ Into this place it is rare for\ngood characters to obtain an admission. They may knock at the door, but\nit will not be opened unless they are furnished with an order from the\nSecretary of State, or one of the visiting magistrates, who are aldermen\nof London city.\n\nIn this necessarily short paper it is not our intention to describe the\ngeneral arrangements of a place which we fear to too many of its inmates\ncan have but few terrors. There are homes outside of filth, and want,\nand degradation; where, morning, noon, and night all that is decent, that\nis tender, or true, or pure is crushed out of man, woman, and child;\nwhere you can scarce believe man was made in the image of his Maker, that\nhe is a little lower than the angels; where you feel that rather than\nhave company with such you would associate with the beasts of the field,\nor dwell in some lonely isle \"far off amid the melancholy main.\" To\nsuch, such a place as Holloway, with its cleanliness, and fresh air, and\nwholesome food, educational advantages, and considerate attendance, must\nbe simply--in spite of its drawbacks of the treadmill, &c.--a millennium;\nand the question arises whether we have hit on the most effectual mode of\nmaking the dread of jail an incentive to the criminal class to keep out.\nAnother question also suggests itself: Is it right thus to tenderly treat\ndishonesty, when honest poverty in our midst undoubtedly fares so bad?\nHere, however, that subject cannot be discussed, neither can we touch on\nthat other question, at this time strongly agitating the aldermanic mind,\nas to the propriety of allowing prisoners to have a religion of their\nown, and to be attended by their own religious ministers--a question the\nmajority of the court evidently think absurd, for, as Alderman Cotton\nobserved--and our readers must remember Alderman Cotton aspired to the\nhonour of a seat in Parliament,--\"if every dissenting sect were to apply\nfor facilities for the celebration of their religious services, what\nwould become of them? They should have to give the Baptists a pool to\nbathe in, the Mormons a harem, and the Shakers a circle in which they\nmight make their dance.\" Of course, then, when I write of a Sunday in\nHolloway jail, I write of a Sunday where the services--there are two,\nmorning and afternoon--are Protestant, and Protestant according to the\nChurch of England. As the worthy chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Owen, is now\nabout to preach, let us accompany him. We follow him up a flight of\nstairs, and are at church and in jail. To most of us it is to be hoped\nthe sensation is a novel one.\n\nIn a small gallery, under which is the clerk and in the middle of which\nis the pulpit, we take our seat. The chaplain, of course, is seen by\nall. A red curtain, which we are requested not to remove, hides us from\nthe congregation. However, we can see them nevertheless. On the right\nof the preacher, partitioned off so as to be seen by none but himself,\nare the women prisoners; on his left, in another recess, are the boys,\nlittle lads for whose offences against society others and older ones are\ncertainly more responsible than themselves. Before us, in rows gradually\nascending, are ranged the male adults--pale, melancholy-looking men, who\nform the principal portion of this sad community. While they are seating\nthemselves let us note the cheerful, neat appearance of the place. Not a\nspeck of dirt is anywhere visible. You might, to use a common but\nexpressive form of speech, eat your dinner off the floor. The wooden\nceiling is very light and airy; the windows are plain and plentiful; the\nwalls are bare, but of snowy whiteness. Underneath is the\ncommunion-table, and once a quarter such as the chaplain considers truly\npenitent are permitted to partake of it. Some dozen officials, in\nuniform, on raised seats, are ranged in different parts of the chapel,\nand when all have taken their places the service is commenced by singing,\nin which generally the wife of the chaplain--a lady not unknown in the\nliterary world--assists by instrumental performance. This part of the\nservice is especially remarkable. The prisoners are fond of singing.\nThere is weekly a class for this purpose, and they enter into it with all\ntheir heart and soul. Of course the tunes are very simple and\nold-fashioned, such as we used to hear, but they are sung with a fervour\nof which few outsiders can have an idea. One could not help thinking of\nLongfellow's lines:\n\n \"Loud he sang the Psalms of David,\n He a negro and enslaved.\"\n\nThe book used is the collection of Psalms and Hymns issued by the\nReligious Tract Society, and those selected are chiefly of a penitential\nand consolatory character. The soothing influence of this part of the\nservice is, according to the experience of the chaplain, very great\nindeed. It was also very evident that the men took great pleasure in the\nresponses, and one could not but hope that it was not all assumed; that\nwhen they confessed themselves \"miserable sinners,\" that when they\nexclaimed, \"We have followed too much the desires and devices of our own\nhearts,\" or that when after the chaplain read each one of the\nCommandments they prayed, \"Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our\nhearts to keep this law\"--that to some, at any rate, these words were\nfull of meaning, and did represent actual workings of the mind. In\nchanting also they join, and the way in which they find out the proper\nplaces in the Prayer-book, or in which they turn up the portions of\nScripture read, or find out the text, or repeat the Creed, is a model to\nothers, and gives an illustration of the existence of a very desirable\ninfluence which the men appear to be under. It must be remembered that\nthey are there by themselves, that no external eyes are on them, that to\nmany of them the service is an unaccustomed novelty, and that to those to\nwhom it is not it affords a welcome relief after the monotony of the\nweek. Be this as it may, nowhere in London or the country, at home or\nabroad, have I seen a quieter or better-behaved congregation. If you did\nnot see the prison garb, and the number on the arm, and the little brass\nplate on the breast, you might fancy you were in the midst of an earnest\nChristian people, who for purposes of their own excluded women, and\nbabies, and old men. The chaplain's sermon generally occupies from\nfifteen to twenty minutes, and is of a character adapted to his audience;\nyet I must confess the attention paid to it was not equal to that which\nwas shown in the more active parts of the service. The pulpit has yet to\nlearn to be plain and practical; and chaplains, it is to be feared, with\nvery remarkable exceptions, are inclined to be conventional. Still, the\npreacher did his best, was kind and simple, and when he speaks of such\ntopics as godly sorrow for sin, and of turning away from it to God, or of\nthe many ways in which men fall from rectitude, many evidently,\nespecially of the younger ones, seem desirous to understand and realize\nit, and to lay hold of something spiritually soothing and appropriate.\nIn many faces was to be seen an expression of great earnestness, forming\na contrast to the unconcerned look of the indifferent. As the chaplain\nvisits them all the week, and reads prayers to them every day, his\ninfluence must of course, whether in the pulpit or out, be great. Be\nthis as it may, to many it is manifest that to them has arisen unmixed\nadvantage from spending a Sunday in jail.\n\n\n\nHIGH CHURCH REVIVALISTS.\n\n\nWhat is a mission? In a book of the mission edited by the Society of St.\nJohn the Evangelist, at Cowley, Oxford, I read--1. It is a special call\nfrom God. \"Jonah preached a mission to Nineveh, and the whole city\nrepented and was saved. Lot preached one night to Sodom, but they would\nnot hearken, and were destroyed by fire.\" 2. It is a time of special\ngrace. The men who have devoted twelve days to a mission in London have\ntaken a bold and brave step in connexion with the Church of England. As\nmuch as Sodom or Nineveh, London, with its pauperism, and vice, and\ncrime; with its nobles stooping to the foul companionship of the jockey\nand the courtesan; with its high-born daughters rushing to see _Formosa_\nat Drury Lane; with its merchant princes deeming it no disgrace to be\nhonest as the world goes, or as the times will allow--needs if it would\nbe saved from the fearful fate of Sodom, or the decline of Nineveh, that\nit should be specially preached to and called on everywhere to repent.\nFor twelve days, then, some hundred churches have been open nearly all\nday long, in addition to the Sunday services, which have been conducted\nas usual. At All Saints, Margaret Street, for instance, the first\nservice began at a quarter to seven in the morning, and the last did not\nclose till past nine P.M. Church people are not partial to innovations.\nIt was only this week a lady was complaining to the writer that in the\nparish in which she resided a week-evening service had been introduced.\nAs if two services on a Sunday were not quite enough. And truly, as\ntimes go, she had reason to complain. Two such sermons as one generally\nhears read in that lackadaisical, sing-song manner, which seems to be the\nonly thing clerical the raw curate picks up at Oxford or Cambridge, are\nquite enough. If such were the preachers employed in the recent mission\n(I see their number is set down at forty-eight), it must have proved a\nfailure. At All Saints, so far from the mission being a failure, it has\nbeen, I should think, a success. I have always respected the Ritualistic\nclergy; I have always given them credit for honestly attempting to\ndevelope the Catholic element, of which there is a considerable leaven,\nin the historical English Church; I have always felt that amongst them\nrather than amongst popular evangelical preachers, whose favourite haunts\nare the drawing-rooms of dowagers, or Broad Churchmen, the delight of\nsceptical peers, are to be found the men most ready to take up the cross\nand bear the yoke; but I had no idea they could preach, or if they did\nthat men of sense could listen. I have found out my mistake. I have\nbeen one of the thousands who have listened to Mr. Body, of\nWolverhampton, and I never heard or saw within the walls of a church a\nman so absorbed in his message, so carried away with its import, so\nimbued with a sense of its Divine reality. I may also add that a more\nawkward-looking, ill-favoured clergyman I never saw ascend the pulpit\nstairs.\n\nBut these people were all Ritualists--believers in form? Well, they are;\nthere was an exaggeration of form, I frankly admit; there was a great\ndeal more crossing the forehead and the breast than we English approve\nof; there was far too much of appearance of devotion. A man may worship\nGod in a hearty, cheerful way as well as on his knees and with elongated\njaw. The preacher himself at times assumed an air of needless imbecility\nas he stood with drooping head and with hands folded, as if engaged in\nsecret prayer; lank and pale, and with a sickly smile upon his face, as\nwas the manner of mediaeval and pre-Raphaelite saints. And then of\ncourse, like most of the services of all churches, of whatever\ndenomination, the harlot, and the publican, and the sinner to be called\nto repentance, kept away. It is a sign of respectability to attend a\nplace of worship, and people who come to church in neat broughams, who\nare partial to diamond studs, who wear brilliants on their fingers, are\neminently respectable; still there were poor sinners there, and the place\nwas full, and many were evidently deeply smitten, for the apostolic\nfervour of the pulpit crept from row to row till the sinner and the\nsceptic ceased to sneer, and all seemed mastered and subdued. Before the\nservice began half the audience seemed engaged in silent prayer, and at\nthe close that silent prayer was resumed.\n\nIt is difficult to describe this new burning and shining light. A\n_verbatim_ report of his sermon would convey no meaning. Who cares to\nread the sermons of Whitefield or Wesley? I heard him twice. In the\nafternoon he gave an address on the subject of prayer. There he stood in\nthe pulpit, without gown or surplice, dressed in plain black cloth,\nmouthing and ranting apparently in the wildest manner, just as on the\nboards of the theatre they love to represent a Chadband or a Stiggins.\nHis dark short hair was brushed right down to his eyes. The principal\nfeature was his enormous mouth, over which an unripe moustache seemed\nstruggling into life. One moment his face was brought down to a level\nwith the pulpit, the next it was shot forward almost into the faces of\nthe occupants of the nearest seats, and the next he seemed to spring on\nhis toes, with each arm extended over his head, and as far apart as\npossible. In the same manner the tones of his address were\nproportionately varied. One moment he spoke in a whisper, the next in a\nquiet, conversational manner, the next there came a thundering blast as\nif he sought to arouse the dead. Was this art, or was this passion? The\nformer, says the sceptic. The tragedian can mouth it just as grandly, on\nthe stage. But as the greatest tragedians are the men who, like Kean,\nfelt--ay, even to their inmost core--all the agony they endeavoured to\nrealize and express, so I would say of Mr. Body that the intenseness with\nwhich he realized what he said elevated him, and enabled him to embody,\nas it were, the sublime of human passion. For instance, at All Saints\nover the altar is a crucifix. In his evening sermon he was pleading that\nas much now as ever was it our duty to confess Christ before man. It was\ngrand for the Crusaders to save the Holy Land from the Infidels. It was\ngrand the way in which St. Agnes and St. Polycarp died, in which the\nearly Christian martyrs lived and died. Nowadays the Church and the\nworld were far too friendly, and what was the result? That we tried not\nhow much we could do for Christ, but how most easily we could save our\nsouls. We sang the song of martyrs, we acted the part of cravens.\n\"Look,\" said the preacher, turning round to the crucifix, \"look at the\nSaviour on the Cross. Who placed him there? who made those wounds\nthere?--the world. And you try to be friendly with the world.\" So\nintense was the power of the speaker that all seemed awestruck, as if\nbefore their very eyes stood the Saviour with His wounded and bleeding\nlimbs. Another wonderful thing about the preacher is his common sense.\n\"Look here, now,\" said he, \"here are a million of people who do not go\nanywhere on a Sunday in London. Suppose each one of you now resolve to\ngo to the east of London and bring the people to church. Suppose you\nwere to be street preachers. I don't see why you should not. I don't\nsee why some of you laymen should not come and preach in this pulpit. Do\nyou want your commission? Here it is, 'Let him that heareth say Come,'\nand if you did this you would accomplish more good between now and\nChristmas than would be done by the Society for the Employment of\nAdditional Curates if they worked till Doomsday.\" Well, there is a\nfreshness, and a vigour, and a common sense about this style of remark\none does not often meet in the pulpit. And the service itself, too, was\nthe perfection of common sense. It began in the evening at eight. It\nwas over by nine. It began with a short prayer and a hymn which did not\ntake ten minutes, and it ended the same way. There was a service after\nto which many stopped, but short as the service was I fear the speaker\nhad overtaxed himself. He speaks from the chest deeply, hoarsely, and\nhis throat gave him a good deal of trouble at the end. Sometimes in his\nhomely Saxon and ironical way he reminds you of George Dawson, but then\nGeorge Dawson never stirred the depths. The only man I have ever seen\nequally effective was J. B. Gough, but then Gough was no orator, and\ncould only act one character, while Mr. Body is a master of powerful\nlanguage, and words never fail. He can read and sing also as well as he\ncan preach, and while I write I seem to see him as he stood giving out\nthe hymn after the sermon, as a general might marshal his troops--\n\n \"Onward, Christian soldiers!\n Marching on to war,\n With the cross of Jesus\n Going on before.\"\n\n\n\nA SUNDAY WITH THE LUNATICS.\n\n\nOne of the earliest of the Gospel stories is that which tells how the\nSaviour healed the man possessed with devils. It is only of late that we\nhave learned to imitate His example. For hundreds of years society has\ngone on torturing the mad, hardening the hardened, depraving the\ndepraved. We are now retracing our steps; we are atoning nobly for sins\nof omission and commission on the part of our ancestors. It would do\ngood to some of the noisy poor who waste their time in low pot-houses\ntalking of their rights, when all that a man has a right to is what he\ncan earn, to look over such places as Hanwell and Colney Hatch, where\npauper lunatics are lodged in a palace, waited on by skilful male and\nfemale attendants, spend their days in light and airy rooms as clean as\nwax-work, have four meals a day, and every reasonable want supplied. I\nhave no doubt that many a careworn City man, as he has been hurried\nbackwards and forwards past such places by the train, has often wished\nthat in some such stately pile he had a niche where he could come of a\nnight, after the day's work was over, to breathe the fresh air, to tread\nthe fresh grass, and to smell the fresh flowers. I propose to gratify\nthis wish,--come with me, respected reader, and in the twinkling of an\neye you will find yourself in Colney Hatch.\n\nIt is on Sunday, a day when the asylum is closed to the public. Far and\nnear this bright sunshiny afternoon there seems resting over all a\nSabbath calm. On the neighbouring rails no trains are running; the doors\nof the Station Hotel are shut; no traffic occupies the road and distracts\nyour attention. You gaze on fields as yet yellow with no ripening corn,\nmeadows as yet uncarpeted by flowers, trees as yet leafless. Farther off\non the distant ridge we see lofty mansions.\n\n \"All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.\"\n\nArrived at the gate we ring a bell; the porter opens it to us. We enter\nour name in the visitors' book, and descend the gravel slope on which the\nasylum is placed. All round is a wide extent of land in which the\nlunatics take exercise and occasionally work. There are none outside\nnow, for it is the hour appointed for Divine service. The door is opened\nfor us by an attendant, who understands our mission. He takes us\nupstairs and we find ourselves seated in a little gallery set apart for\nthe leading officers of the asylum. Just below us is the pulpit; on a\nline with it, but a little farther off, is the reading-desk; opposite us,\nat the other end of the room, is the organ. From the floor on which the\npulpit is placed there is a gradually ascending series of benches; on our\nright are ranged the female, on our left the male inmates of the house.\nIt may be that there are some four or five hundred present. Here and\nthere amongst them you see their well-clad keepers. The lunatics attend\nthis service willingly, it is a pleasure for them to come, it is a\npunishment for them to keep away. On the whole they behave very well,\nand, as is often the case outside the walls of lunatic asylums, the\nfemales greatly preponderate. From our gallery in this clean, cheerful\nchapel we look down upon the group below. The sight is an unmitigatedly\nsad one; we fail to see a single pleasant face. The chapel, considering\nwho are the audience, is almost light and cheerful. It is painful to\nturn from its white walls and rafters to the crowd beneath and realize\nhow much darker and more cheerless is the human face when it is void of\nintelligence. In this chapel you do not see the worse cases, they are\nproperly concealed from the spectator's eye; it is enough to know that\nthey are equally wisely and carefully tended with those before you. The\nwomen are far more troublesome than the men. All are hideously ugly,\nsuch as Fuseli might dream of after a supper of pork-chops, such as,\nperhaps, that wonderful painter at Brussels, whose pictures form the\nchief modern attraction of the place, could have painted in that queer\nlittle imitation Roman ruin in which he lived and died, but such as no\nliving artist, at any rate in England, could portray. You feel inclined\nto exclaim with Banquo--\n\n \"What are these,\n So withered and so wild in their attire,\n That look not like the inhabitants of earth,\n And yet are on't?\"\n\nSome sit as living corpses, others with scowling eye, flesh-and-blood\npictures of despair. Others there be who have driven themselves mad with\ntheir bad tempers and unruly tongues. You can read all that in many a\nrepulsive and reddened face. This one had led a gay life; what a\ntermination for a career of pleasure! That one has become what she is by\ndrinking; this one by the grand passion which underlies all human life,\npast or present, all philosophy, subjective or objective, all religion,\ntrue or false. Amongst the men you do not see so many thoroughly dead\nand vacant faces; you will also see among them more diversity of action\nand a greater assertion of individuality. Some look angry, some silly,\nbut few have that God-forsaken appearance sad to behold anywhere, but\nespecially on the face of what might have been possibly under happier\ncircumstances a tender, loving woman. But the tones of the organ\nindicate that the service is commencing. Men and women are now hushed\nand still; in spite of an occasional friendly word with a neighbour, whom\nvery probably they pity as \"As mad as a March hare,\" males and females\ncome and go quietly and comfortably. Most of them have Prayer-books, and\nmake a proper use of them; they join in the responses with great fervour,\nand repeat the Apostles' Creed, and bow at the name of Jesus quite as\ndecidedly and uncompromisingly as do any of the sane outside. As to the\nsinging, it may be briefly said that it is loud, and is all the better\nand more harmonious for the organ, which, especially at the end of the\nlast verse, is prolonged unusually, and with a view to the drowning\nsounds of an unnecessary character. Indeed, this tendency to individual\nutterance is the chief danger of such a meeting as this. You can detect\nnotes occasionally very undeniably loud and defiant, and, as it is, one\nfemale at the close of the sermon begins talking so loud as to require\nthat two female attendants should take her off as quickly as possible;\nnot that any one is disturbed--oh no! nothing of the kind. In a\nBelgravian chapel or church such an interruption would have created a far\ngreater disturbance. Here no one is surprised, the preacher goes on just\nthe same, and not a lunatic takes the trouble to turn round and look at\nthe disorderly sister. Out she goes, and no one cares. With this one\nexception the service was most decorous. One very plain young female\nappeared to me to be too much taken up with her fruitless endeavour to\nattract the eye of a very plain young person of the opposite sex, who did\nnot in any way seem to respond. Another also seemed to be smiling\njoyfully many times, when in the sermon there was nothing to call forth\nsuch an external manifestation. Many also seemed to hear with\nintelligent attention, but as a rule the audience listened to the\npreacher with that resigned and spiritless expression with which most\nchurch-goers are but too familiar. Yet the preacher was short and\nsimple, and spoke of matters in which all could take an interest; and\nwhich all could understand, of Him who hath borne our griefs, and carried\nour sorrows, who was bruised for our iniquities, and with whose stripes\nwe are healed. It is cheering to think that even here some do not hear\nof Him in vain.\n\n\n\nLAY WORK IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.\n\n\nDissenters have taught Churchmen a lesson, which they are, at any rate in\nour time, not slow to learn. The theory of the Church has been up to our\nown day almost exclusively sacerdotal. Its parochial system is, as Canon\nChampneys termed it upon one occasion, \"a great allotment system,\" and to\nwork that system there was the priest with his assistant deacon. That\ntime has gone. There was time also when it was quite sufficient to argue\nagainst anything that it was a custom practised among the Dissenters.\nThe reader of Wilberforce's Life will remember how anxious was that good\nman that the Dissenters should not take up the question of sending the\nGospel to India, as if they did he feared their activity would put a stop\nto all Church action in the matter. It is not so now. The pressure of\npublic opinion, the dreadful mass of heathenism which had grown up while\nthe Church slumbered, the growing influence of Dissent, the increasing\nspirituality of the clergy, the zeal and liberality of their people, have\nin London completely altered the position of the Church of England.\nNever were her services so well attended, never were her clergy more\nuseful than now. At the West-end the Church is the fashion. In the\nEast, where the poverty is too great to admit of the existence of a\nchurch on Dissenting principles, the Church is in some parishes the only\nplace of worship, and the Church clergyman the only religious teacher. I\nhave heard of one parish where the utmost that the clergyman could get\nfor religious and charitable purposes from his wealthiest parishioners\nwas but ten shillings; and of another, where the clergyman spent five\nhundred a year in charity. It is in these parts of London that the\nChurch is most useful, most successful, most untiring in its operations,\nmost lavish of its spiritual and temporal good. The laity give\nmunificently. For example, the Countess of Aberdeen gives three hundred\na year for the support of a clergyman in the East, who preaches in a\nchurch built by Lord Haddo; the Marquis of Salisbury has subscribed\n300_l._ for a similar purpose; and the clergy, whether vicars or curates,\ndevote themselves unremittingly to the performance of their sacred\nduties. Under these circumstances they find themselves unequal to the\ntask, and appeal to the laity for help.\n\nThe Association of Lay Helpers for the Diocese of London was formed in\nthe year 1865, and \"readers\" have been admitted in the chapel of London\nHouse with a form of service drawn up for the purpose in the form\nfollowing:--\n\n John, by Divine permission, Bishop of London, to our beloved and\n approved in Christ, A. B., Greeting: We do, by these presents, give\n unto you our Commission to act as Reader in the parish of C, within\n our Diocese and jurisdiction, on the nomination of the Rev. D. E.,\n Rector [or Vicar] of the same, and do authorize you, subject to his\n approval, to read Prayers and to read and explain the Holy Scriptures\n in the School thereof, or in other rooms within the parish, and\n generally to render aid to the Incumbent in all ministrations which\n do not strictly require the service of a Minister in Holy Orders.\n And we further authorize you to render similar aid in other Parishes\n in our Diocese, at the written request, in each case, of the\n Incumbent. And we hereby declare that this our Commission shall\n remain valid until it shall be revoked by us or our successors\n (whether _mero motu_, or at the written request of the said D. E.),\n or until a fresh admission to the said parish of C. shall have been\n made. And so we commend you to ALMIGHTY GOD, Whose blessing we\n humbly pray may rest upon you and your work. Given under our hand\n and seal, &c.\n\nAt present the Association consists of 44 lawyers and medical men, 141\nclerks, 48 mechanics and labourers, and 156 ranged under the head of\nmiscellaneous. They aim to strengthen the hands of laymen already at\nwork by bringing them into closer relationship with the Bishop and with\none another, and to call out more lay help by making known the kind of\nwork in which the clergy want assistance. Recently the Association has\nbeen very active on the subject, and has held many meetings in all parts\nof the metropolis. At these meetings undoubtedly much good has been\ndone; a distinguished layman has taken the chair; a paper carefully\nprepared has been read upon the subject, and then a discussion of more or\nless interest and value has ensued.\n\nGreat care is taken in the appointment of suitable agents. They must be\ncommunicants sanctioned by the Bishop; a register of the names and\naddresses of the members is kept, showing what description of work each\nunemployed member may be willing to undertake, and also of the place and\nnature of the work in which each unemployed member is engaged. Upon the\napplication of incumbents, members of the Association are put into\ncommunication with them, with a view to such arrangements for lay\nassistance in parochial work as may be mutually agreed upon. Once in\nevery year the members attend Divine service and receive the Holy\nCommunion together. Once, at least, in every year a meeting of the\nmembers is held under the presidency of the Bishop if possible, in order\nto consult together upon one or more of the various branches of work in\nwhich they are engaged, and to make such regulations as may be found\nnecessary or expedient. I hear also of the formation of Parochial\nAssociations of Lay Helpers which hold monthly or occasional meetings of\na desirable character. The executive committee of the Association is\nappointed yearly by the Bishop.\n\nThe work to be done is various. At all the meetings which I have\nattended I have found the principal stress laid upon house-to-house\nvisitation and mission-house services. It has been found that the poor\nhave a reluctance to attend the church, but they will attend a\nmission-house service, and to preach and pray at such place lay help is\nurgently required. Other subjects specified are teaching in\nSunday-schools and getting children to attend, conducting Bible-classes,\ntract distribution, seeking out the unbaptized and unconfirmed,\nencouraging the newly confirmed to come to Holy Communion, and inducing\nthe poor to attend church. Under the head of week-evening work such\nsubjects are indicated as teaching in night and ragged schools,\nmanagement of working-men's clubs and youths' institutes, assistance at\npopular lectures, penny readings, and other means of recreation,\nattendance at penny banks, clothing funds, and school and parochial\nlibraries, visiting the poor, assisting in church services. Day work is\nmuch the same. Other subjects not already mentioned are superintending\nthe distribution of relief, reading and speaking to working men on\nreligious subjects in workshops; collecting and canvassing for funds for\nparochial and mission purposes, and acting as secretaries to parochial\ninstitutions and religious and charitable societies. Especial stress is\nlaid upon the clergy being relieved of their secular duties as relieving\nofficers. It is felt that clergy laden with an infinity of secular work,\nessential to the good of the parish and the carrying out of their plans,\nare thus more or less incapacitated for the performance of the higher\nfunctions of their office. When we think what are the manifold duties of\nthe clergy, it is no wonder that sermons made to represent original\ncompositions, and which may be read as such, meet with a ready sale.\nParochially London has grown wonderfully of late. The census of 1861,\nfor instance, enumerates twenty-three parochial districts as formed out\nof the old parish of Kensington. Bishop Blomfield consecrated in all no\nless than 198 churches during the twenty-eight years of his episcopate,\nof which no less than 107 were in London.\n\nLay organization may be said to have commenced but recently. The first\nDistrict Visiting Society of which I have heard, writes Mr. Bosanquet,\nwas founded in connexion with St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row, of which\nDaniel Wilson, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta, was visitor. The Parochial\nWomen Mission Fund was established in 1860. This association does not\nsend its agents into any parish without a written application from the\nincumbent, who selects both the agent and her lady superintendent. There\nare now about 100 agents at work in London, acting chiefly in the\ncapacity of Bible-women. For the young men connected with the Church\nthere is a Church of England Young Men's Society in Fleet Street, with\nfifteen branches in London and the suburbs; of 200 members on the books,\nmore than half are engaged as teachers in Sunday-schools or other lay\nwork. Then there is the Metropolitan Visiting and Relief Association,\n21, Regent Street, formed in 1843, to distribute the contributions of\ncharitable persons in such parts of the town as most need them, by means\nof the clergy and their district visitors. For that part of London which\nis in the diocese of Winchester there is the South London Visiting and\nRelief Association. How well laymen can work is understood in the\nneighbourhood of Drury Lane, where more than 500 of the lowest and the\npoorest in that district may be seen any Sunday afternoon at two\nBible-classes conducted by laymen. Another lay agency in operation is\nthe Workhouse Visiting Society.\n\nIn spite of all these organizations the Church of England as regards\nLondon has not yet fulfilled her mission. The harvest is plentiful, the\nlabourers are few. Clergymen in the East say they would be glad of lay\nhelp from the West; but it does not come. In some parts of London there\nare parishes containing from 15,000 to 30,000 people, and in such a\nclergyman is almost unable to do his duty, in spite of his curates and\npaid lay agents. In most cases the number of visitors is quite\ninsufficient. Mr. Bosanquet refers to a friend of his who had told him\nthat some months after entering on a very poor cure in the south of\nLondon he had twenty-eight districts for visitors, but that twenty-seven\nwere hopelessly vacant, and that the twenty-eighth was taken by his wife.\nThis reminds me that some of the ladies of the clergy, especially in the\nEast and poorer districts, labour as energetically as their husbands. I\nhave heard of one lady who has two sewing-classes, with a hundred women\nin each. Commander Dawson, conference secretary of the Association of\nLay Helpers, looks forward to the time when every communicant will be one\nof the agents of the society, thus stimulating his fellows, and giving\nfresh life and courage to his clergyman. It is clear when this\nconsummation is achieved the Church of England, whether established or\nnot, will shine with a saintly lustre which has never yet been hers.\n\nLet me give a sketch of\n\n\n\nAN EVANGELICAL PREACHER,\n\n\n\"You must go and hear the Church Spurgeon,\" said an intelligent lady,\nresiding not a hundred miles from Highbury New Park, to the writer.\n\n\"Who is he?\" we asked.\n\n\"The Rev. Gordon Calthrop,\" was the reply. \"He preaches in a temporary\niron church, St. Augustine's, Highbury New Park.\"\n\nSoon afterwards, on a certain Sunday, we made our way to the church in\nquestion. There was very little difficulty in finding it out. As you\nenter Highbury New Park, leaving Dr. Edmond's new church on the right,\nyou come into a region of broad roads and handsome villas, into which\npoverty, which has an unpleasant knack of pushing itself where it is not\nwanted, actually seems ashamed to intrude. In these houses, almost\ncountryfied, standing in the midst of well-trimmed lawns, shaded by leafy\nshrubs, between which flowers of the richest beauty bud and blossom, only\nrich people and people apparently well-to-do dwell, and they all attend\nat Mr. Calthrop's church. Follow any of them, as on a Sunday morning the\nhour of service draws nigh, and bells far and near are calling men to\nprayer, and you find yourself at St. Augustine's. Close by, a handsome\necclesiastical structure is rapidly rising, which is to hold 1400 people.\nThat is the permanent church, the foundation-stone of which was laid by\nthe Bishop of London, and where, it is hoped and believed, Mr. Calthrop\nmay labour for many years to come. As it is, he has been preaching in\nthis iron church, which will seat about nine hundred, for the last five\nyears. He came there a stranger, fearful of the future, doubting what\nwould be the issue. The church was quite a new one. The neighbourhood\nhad been but recently built on, but he came with a heart full of zeal,\nwith an experience ripe and varied, and in a little while it was apparent\nto himself and his friends that the step he had taken was fully justified\nby the result. Now he has a crowded church, more than 250 communicants,\nand a people ever ready to respond to his appeal, and rich in that\ncharity without which a religious profession is but little better than\nsounding brass. The sacrament money at St. Augustine's, as they have no\npoor of their own, is distributed amongst those of neighbouring churches.\nOne of the noticeable features in connexion with the place is the\nattendance of young men from the neighbouring College of St. John's. For\nthe benefit of my readers let me add, that what was Highbury College is\nnow a place of training for ministerial work in connexion with the Church\nof England--of young men who have not had, owing to unavoidable\ncircumstances, the benefit of a University education, but who\nnevertheless are the right stuff out of which to make useful preachers of\nthe Gospel of Jesus Christ. On Sundays they find employment as\nSunday-school teachers in various parts of the metropolis; also on that\nday, with a view to future usefulness, they go to hear such eminent\nclergymen as may be preaching in the City or the West-end, but mostly\nthey attend at St. Augustine's, and under Mr. Calthrop's preaching they\nprepare for the great work themselves.\n\nNor do I know that they could have a better model. Mr. Calthrop is not\nthe Church of England Spurgeon. I am not aware that the Church of\nEngland has a Spurgeon. I know none of the other Christian churches of\nour day that have. It is only once in an age that a Mr. Spurgeon\nappears, but Mr. Calthrop has no need to fear comparison with Mr.\nSpurgeon or any one else. Personally, he is much smaller than the\nfar-famed Baptist orator Mr. Spurgeon, and in figure and face very much\nresembles the late Douglas Jerrold. His voice is one of wonderful\nsweetness and power, and as he reads the Liturgy of his Church you feel\nthat with him it is no empty form, to be repeated parrot-like and with\nrailway speed, but the voice of a people humbled on account of sin, and\nstanding trusting, yet trembling, in the presence of their God.\nExquisitely can he render all its pathos, all its tenderness, all its\nsorrow, all its fulness of exultation, all its ecstasy of Christian hope.\nFrom the reading-desk to the pulpit the transition is easy and natural.\nAt a distance there is something youthful in his look; but in his grey\nhair, in his face lined with thought, in his eye, which seems ever\nlooking far off, as if here was not the boundary of his horizon, as if it\nhad realized something of the glory which is to come; you see that\nalready golden youth has past, and that you have before you one who has\nattained to the strength and steadiness, and ripeness and experience, of\nChristian manhood. He will not detain you long, nor will he weary you\nwith learning, nor will he aim to dazzle the intellect and neglect the\nheart. In language of poetical simplicity will he unfold and illustrate\nhis text, and force home on the hearts and consciences of all, its\nlessons. There is nothing of the pretension of the priest about him, nor\ndoes he delight in the terrors of the law. Evidently he is the servant\nof one whose yoke is easy, and whose burden is light; and such is his\nfreshness and originality, and such is his careful preparation for the\npulpit, and such the naturalness of his delivery, that the more you hear\nhim the more you like him. Much of his ministerial work is done at his\nown house, amongst the young people whom he collects there in his\nBible-classes, which are largely attended. For this work he seems\neminently fitted by a refinement of manner, not so much, I should fancy,\nthe result of training, as of the natural instinct of a kindly heart.\nThe North of London is favoured as regards clergymen, and Mr. Calthrop is\na favourable specimen of his class. There are none around him more\neloquent, more laborious, more successful. A recent American writer\npoints to the chaplainships founded and supported in all the places of\nfashionable resort on the Continent as a proof of the amazing energy, and\nwealth, and power of the English Church. I would rather point to such\nchurches as St. Augustine's, where a pastor is maintained in affluence,\nand a church crowded, and real good accomplished, without one farthing\nbut what is raised by the free-will offerings of the people.\n\nOutside his own immediate circle Mr. Calthrop has laboured with much\neffect. As a platform speaker he is very effective. As an out-of-door\npreacher he at one time greatly distinguished himself. He was also one\nof the first to take his share in the work of preaching in theatres; and\none of the best accounts of one--a service at the Britannia, which was\nreprinted in almost all the religious journals at the time--was from his\npen. A little while ago he had the honour of preaching in Westminster\nAbbey. He was before that one of the preachers in the special services\nat St. Paul's. Perhaps the greatest compliment in this respect paid him\nwas the appointing him University preacher at his own university--that of\nCambridge--a few years since. To have occupied that pulpit is a\nmemorable event in any clergyman's life.\n\nLittle more need be said. Mr. Calthrop was born in London, and educated\nat Trinity College, Cambridge. He at one time had thoughts of studying\nfor the law, but ultimately the pulpit became the object of his choice.\nAs a curate he originally laboured at Reading; he moved thence to\nBrighton, where he was curate to the late Rev. Mr. Elliott, author of a\nwork still known in theological circles--the \"Horae Apocalypticae.\" Six\nyears of his ministerial life were spent at Cheltenham, and thence he\nremoved with his wife and family to what was then a new and untried\nsphere of labour. The wealth and material prosperity around him seem not\nto have impaired his devotedness. Very possibly they have opened to him\nfresh fields of usefulness; for if ever plain preaching was required for\nrich men, it is in the day in which we live. It is to the credit of Mr.\nCalthrop that he realizes this fact, and sees in the Gospel he proclaims\na message for the richest of the rich as well as for the poorest of the\npoor.\n\n * * * * *\n\nA book might be written about Church Life. I can only say Dr. Temple\ntells us, that such commands as those in Leviticus as to tattooing,\ndisfiguring the person, or wearing a blue fringe, should be sanctioned by\ndivine authority, is utterly irreconcileable with our present feelings.\nThe Bible is before all things the written voice of the congregation,\nwrites Dr. Rowland Williams. The Pentateuch was not written by Moses.\nThe Psalms do not bear witness to the Messiah. The prophecies are\nhistories. Justification means peace of mind, or sense of the Divine\napproval. Regeneration is an awakening of the forces of the soul.\nReason is the fulfilment of the love of God. The kingdom of God is the\nrevelation of Divine Will in our thoughts and lives. The incarnation is\npurely spiritual. In London pulpits the preacher best known and most\nidentified with Broad Church theology is Professor Jowett, whose great\ntheme is that eternal punishment is inconsistent with all that we can\nconceive of the requirements of justice or the character of God. Dean\nStanley says no clergyman believes the Athanasian Creed, and treats many\nparts of the Bible as mythical. Of Father Ignatius and his\neccentricities it is needless to speak.\n\nThe following statistics will interest many:--\"There is a weekly\ncelebration of the Holy Communion at 169 churches, more than one-fourth;\ndaily celebration at 20, nearly one-thirtieth; early morning celebration\nat 159, one-fourth; evening celebration at 97, nearly one-sixth;\nafternoon celebration at 5; choral celebration at 63, one-tenth;\nsaints'-day services at 198, nearly one-third; daily service at 132, more\nthan one-fifth; no weekday service at 104, one-sixth; full choral service\nat 128, more than one-fifth; and partly choral service at 115, nearly\none-fifth; giving a proportion of nearly half where the psalms are\nchanted; surpliced choirs at 137, more than one-fifth; paid choirs at 88,\nnearly one-seventh; voluntary choirs at 231, more than one-third.\nGregorian tones are used exclusively for chanting at 46, one-fourteenth.\nThe weekly offertory is the rule at 128, nearly one-fifth. There are\nfree but appropriated seats at 141, nearly one-fourth; free and open\nseats at 65, more than one-tenth. The Eucharistic vestments are worn at\n20, being one church in every 31; incense is used at 7, one-nineteenth;\nthe surplice is worn in the pulpit at 83, more than one-eighth; and 26\nchurches are open daily for private prayer.\"\n\nDr. Sherlock, afterwards Bishop of Bangor, in his \"Test Act Vindicated,\"\npublished in the year 1718, tells us that in the year 1676, upon a\ncalculation that was made, the Nonconformists of all sorts, including\nPapists as well as others, were found to be in proportion to the members\nof the Church of England as one to twenty. That this is not the case now\nshows how the Church of England has misused her opportunities, or else\nthat her claims have been rejected by the nation at large.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\nAMONG THE PRESBYTERIANS.\n\n\n_At Colebrook Row_.\n\n\nInnovations are the order of the day. New times and altered\ncircumstances require them. In Christian work they are imperatively\nrequired. While the Church has folded its arms and slept, while people\nhave been lulled to ease and carelessness by the respectability of Church\nlife and the wealth of professors, while pastors and ecclesiastical\nauthorities have found satisfaction in the observance of ancient order\nand in the routine of established work, all at once there comes to them a\ncry that the heathen are outside of them, blaspheming the name they love,\nignorant of the Gospel tidings, perishing in their sin and crime and\nmisery at their very doors. John Wesley wrote how, in the latter end of\nthe year 1739, eight or ten persons came to him in London, who appeared\nto be deeply convinced of sin, and earnestly groaning for redemption.\nThey desired that he would spend some time with them in prayer, and\nadvise them how to flee from the wrath to come. In our time the curtain\nhas been lifted up, and the devout and earnest Christianity of the day\nhas stood face to face with the unbelief which, by ignoring the existence\nof a heavenly Father, and robbing humanity of its loftiest hopes and\ndeepest consolations, left the masses in our crowded cities to live and\ndie like brutes. The revelation has raised up in many quarters a feeling\nthat something more has to be done than has yet been done, that the\nChurch, to discharge its mission aright, needs a more earnest\nconsecration of the heart, a less formal _modus operandi_, a freer\nutterance, a less stiff and starch and time-worn manifestation of\nChristian life.\n\nIn accordance with this feeling, one Sunday evening there was a novel\nservice in the Presbyterian church, Colebrook Row, of which the Rev. J.\nThain Davidson is pastor. The night itself was one of the most\nunfortunate that could have been selected for that or for any other\nexperiment. London people have a great, and, let me add, a natural\nobjection to wet weather. If it rains hard it offers them a good excuse\nfor stopping at home. They do not like to spoil their Sunday clothes,\nand they have a great aversion to bronchial affections. In this respect\nthe Scotchman contrasts favourably with the Englishman. In such places\nas Edinburgh or Glasgow the churches are as well attended in bad weather\nas in fine. If it were so in London how many a pastor's heart would\nrejoice! At Colebrook Row they are Presbyterians, and in England we\nnaturally presume Presbyterians to be Scotchmen--at any rate, this must\nbe the case as regards the attendance at Colebrook Row. On Sunday\nevening the place was crammed. I did not see a seat anywhere to spare,\nnor did I see a hearer who did not seem to take the deepest interest in\nwhat was going on.\n\nWell, and what was going on?--a thing I should think never seen in a\nPresbyterian place of worship before. It appears that the services in\nthe Agricultural Hall just by have led to an increased demand for\nreligious agency in that district. Hundreds who attend no place of\nworship have now been induced to do so. Hundreds who were careless about\nreligion have now become concerned. Hundreds who a short while ago would\nhave refused the gift of a tract, and would have shut their doors in the\nface of a Christian visitor, are now ready to receive the one and to\nlisten to the _viva voce_ instruction of the other. Naturally, the\nappeal is made to Mr. Davidson, but his own duties in connexion with his\nchurch and congregation leave him no time to spare. A fund raised partly\nby Mr. Davidson's own people, and partly by the liberality of a private\nindividual, has enabled the London City Mission to send an agent to\nlabour in connexion with the services at the Agricultural Hall. But,\nafter all, one man in such a multitude can do but little, and on Sunday\nevening Mr. Davidson, instead of preaching a sermon, organized, as it\nwere, a public meeting,--yet not exactly a public meeting, for there was\nno chairman, there was no rhetorical fireworks, no murmurs of\napplause--the aim of which was to elicit Christian co-operation in\nevangelistic work in that particular locality. Belonging to their\ncongregation there are some two hundred young men. How much can they do\nif they have but the willing heart!\n\nThe service commenced in the usual manner by the singing of a hymn. Mr.\nDavidson, who was in his pulpit and wore his gown, then offered up\nprayer, leading up to what was to be the peculiarity of that evening's\nservice. He then delivered a short address explanatory of the\ncircumstances in which that meeting had been originated, and which had\nled to the visit of the deputation who were to address them that night.\nIt had seemed to their evangelistic committee that an opportunity had\narisen in consequence of the services at the Agricultural Hall which\nrequired the utmost efforts of Christian workers. The object of that\nmeeting was to excite to further effort. They were all too much inclined\nto be supine, to be content with mere religious routine. There was a\nneed to break through spiritual monotony. They must endeavour to breathe\nnew life and energy and freshness. There was a fine field before them,\nfor London truly was, as it was often termed, the finest missionary field\nin the world; even amidst the lowest of the low there was an encouraging\nfeeling existing. The masses felt that on the whole the Christians were\ntheir best friends--those most ready to do them good temporally as well\nas spiritually. Especially was it so in that particular district. The\nChurch was much to blame in that it had not been more ready to take\nadvantage of this feeling and to turn it to proper account. People had\noften been driven away from places of worship. As an illustration, Mr.\nDavidson said that in one of the churches in that locality a young man\nentered and took his seat one Sunday evening. Presently the lady to whom\nthe pew belonged came in: she said to the young man, harshly, \"This is my\npew, you have no business here.\" The young man took up his hat and\nwalked out, resolving never to enter a place of worship again. In a week\nafter, he was dead.\n\n\"In their various societies,\" continued Mr. Davidson, \"there was ample\nroom for all; some were more fitted for one kind of work than another,\nbut they wanted workers of all kinds. There was a large amount of\nChristian talents amongst them lying waste, and they were losers, no one\ncould say to how great an extent, through all eternity, in consequence.\nWhen there was a cry of anguish from earth, Christ came; and now can we\nrefuse to utter the response, when there is a cry to the Church, 'Lord,\nhere am I; send me?' Help is needed, nor can the work be done without\nhuman help.\" The reverend gentleman then called on Mr. Mathieson, the\nbanker of Lombard Street, who stood up in the table pew, and, after a\nshort prayer, proceeded to read a few verses from Matthew's Gospel,\ndescribing how the multitude were fed in the wilderness with seven loaves\nand a few small fishes. \"In our time,\" said the speaker, \"there was just\nsuch a multitude exclaiming, 'Who will show us any good?' and in the\nScriptures we find rules for our guidance. We find our means of\nusefulness in the inexhaustible love of our Saviour. No man could do any\ngood who did not feel that. Christ said, 'I have compassion on the\nmultitude.' What was compassion? Fellowship in suffering. And this is\nrequired from us. It was in this the greater part of Christ's suffering\nconsisted. We may be ready to come to Christ, to have fellowship with\nHim at this table; but the question is, Are we equally anxious to have\nfellowship with Him in His suffering? It was the wonder-working power of\nlove by which Christ fed the multitude. The practical question, How many\nloaves have ye? was one to be put to us. If our answer is, We have\nscarce enough for ourselves; we have very little over, we must use that.\nThe manna that was not eaten at once became corrupt. We must realize the\nfact that when we took God's vows upon us we became as much consecrated\nto His service as any priest. Find out your gifts, learn not to be\nimpatient of results, and make the most of the opportunity God has given\nyou in so remarkable a manner to work in His service.\" Such was the\nsubstance of Mr. Mathieson's address. Another hymn was sung, and then\nDr. A. P. Stuart, a medical man well known at the West-end, spoke briefly\nyet energetically on the living Christ, and the constraining power of His\ndeath and resurrection as the most powerful and only stimulus to\nChristian zeal. The discourse was constructed on two passages in Paul's\nEpistles to the Corinthians, in which he shows how the love of Christ was\nthe motive power, and how necessity was laid on Him in consequence to\npreach the Gospel. \"It was not alone,\" said the Doctor, \"the living\nChrist, but it was the fact that He died for sin, that supplied the\nfoundation of Christian effort. All we can do is far too little to show\nforth His praise. What is wanted is life in the soul--a dead soul can do\nnothing.\" The speaker then showed what a revival of religion had been\nproduced by personal conversation after sermons, and concluded with an\nurgent appeal--an address of unusual earnestness. Then Mr. Davidson\nclosed the service in the usual way. The experiment was a bold one, but\nnone present could have regretted it. Why should not qualified laymen\ngive addresses in our chapels and churches on special occasions--on a\nSunday night? Is there a valid reason why they should not, or why\nministers should not thankfully accept their aid?\n\n\n\nPARK CHURCH, HIGHBURY.\n\n\nAt the back of substantial and well-to-do Highbury Place, bounded by the\nNew River and the North London Railway, has sprung up of late years a\nflourishing settlement of villas, single and semi-detached, known as\nHighbury New Park. At one end of it there has been erected, at a cost of\nsomewhere about eleven thousand pounds, a very handsome place of worship\nof white brick, ornamented with a very handsome spire. From an\ninscription in front of it I learn that it is a United Presbyterian\nChurch, and that the pastor is the Rev. John Edmond, D.D. The Doctor\ncame from the north to London some few years ago to preach to a\ncongregation of Scotch men and women, meeting in Myddelton Hall,\nIslington, whence they had to move, as the church increased in success\nand influence and Christian zeal and power. Boswell, when introduced for\nthe first time to old Sam Johnson, admitted that he was a Scotchman, but\nadded, humbly and by way of apology, that indeed he could not help it.\n\"Sir,\" replied the Doctor, \"that's what many of your countrymen cannot\nhelp;\" and, the writer would add, a good thing too, when we see what Dr.\nEdmond is, and how he and his church labour to spread Christian truth\naround.\n\nInside you are struck with the comfort and cheerful appearance of the\nbuilding. In form it is almost a square, and is remarkably light and\nairy. The pews are all open and well cushioned. The pulpit is a\nhandsome platform. Underneath is the choir. The chapel is computed to\nseat comfortably 1200, but that estimate is rather under than over the\nmark. Underneath the chapel are rooms fitted up with every convenience\nfor week-evening lectures, for meetings of young men's mutual improvement\nsocieties, for ladies' working parties, and the other organizations of an\nactive and flourishing church. I find here about 2000_l._ is annually\nraised for religious purposes. The pastor has a salary of 700_l._ a\nyear. Attached to the place is a Young Men's Literary Institute, a Young\nMen's Christian Fellowship Association, a Missionary Association, a\nPsalmody Association, a Ladies' Working Association. In Highbury New\nPark there are no poor people, and, consequently, there is no missionary\nagency or Sunday-school in connexion with that district; but the church,\nconsisting of between four and five hundred members, is not idle nor\nneglectful of its special privilege and duty. In the neighbouring Hoxton\nthere are many poor untaught, and for their souls the church in Highbury\ncares. There a City missionary is employed, whose labours are not in\nvain. They have organized a Mothers' Meeting, a Bible Class, Penny\nWeekly Readings and Musical Entertainments, a Singing Class, and a Band\nof Hope. Last year their missionary conducted 156 in-door and 21\nout-of-door meetings, 2100 district visitations for Scripture reading,\n&c., 500 district visitations to the sick and dying, besides the\ndistribution of a large number of religious tracts. In Harvey Street,\nHoxton, the church maintains a Sunday-school with an average attendance\nof 160, a day-school not so numerous, a Sick Relief Society, and in\nAlbert Square another Sunday-school and a domestic servant class. Dr.\nEdmond himself preaches twice on the Sunday, and once on a week-night.\nHe has a special service for servants on Sunday afternoons; on Fridays\nand Saturdays he also holds Bible classes. On Sundays the service itself\nis conducted very simply, much as it was in old-fashioned Dissenting\nchapels before the introduction of chants and anthems. To the stranger\nthe principal novelty is the vast preponderance of young men in the\ncongregation, and the use of that somewhat inelegant version of the\nPsalms compared with which, in Scotch--not English ears,\n\n \"Italian thrills are tame.\"\n\nAnd now what further shall the writer say of Dr. Edmond? Personally he\ndoes not come up to the English idea of a successor of one of the old\ngrand Presbyterians who died gladly for God and His covenant in troubled\ntimes, and to whom, humanly speaking, as Mr. Froude has well shown,\nEngland owes the civil and religious liberty she enjoys. Even with his\ngown on he does not strike you as being a big man. His features are\nsmall, and when he is reading or looking down his very dark eyebrows\ncompletely shadow and eclipse his eyes. For his age he is very bald, but\nhis face is apparently that of a man of hardy constitution and active\nout-door life. His voice is excellent, and every syllable he says can be\ndistinctly heard. He preaches apparently from notes, and as he goes on\nhis way rejoicing the fire burns; he leaves his desk, now retreating\nbehind, now walking a few steps on one side, and a smile lights up his\nface as he talks of what the Gospel has done, and of the brighter\ntriumphs it has yet to achieve. At other times he comes forward,\nreaching his right arm as far as he can over the desk, as if anxious to\nindividualize his appeal, and to force it home to every heart. As a\npreacher he hammers at his text with true Scotch pertinacity, and will\nnot give it up till in the way of spiritual truth he has wrung from it\nall it can be made to yield. There can be no question about his\northodoxy, or his knowledge of Scripture, or of the firm foundations of\nhis faith, or of the ample preparation he makes for his Sunday services.\nNo hearer need go empty away from Park Church. It must be his own fault\nexclusively if he does. The preacher understands his vocation, and to it\nconscientiously devotes his every power.\n\nThe English have never taken kindly to Presbyterianism; the simplicity of\nits worship, the sternness of its Calvinistic creed--that of the\nWestminster Assembly of Divines--have repelled our English sympathies.\nOf late it has put forth, and is still putting forth, growing strength.\nThere are about twenty Presbyterian churches in London, only two of\nthem--Dr. Cumming's being the principal--being connected with the State\nChurch of Scotland.\n\nThe Presbyterians are moving with the stream; they are beginning to\nsubstitute \"human hymns,\" as they are called, for the Psalms of David.\nIn one London chapel, at least, the organ has been introduced. In some\nquarters doubts have been entertained as to the divine right of\nPresbytery. There is amongst them a growing feeling of the impossibility\nof spending the whole time of the Sabbath in \"the public and private\nexercises of God's worship, except so much as is taken up in works of\nnecessity and mercy.\" It is to be questioned whether the Catechism\ndefinition of the duties of the State in relation to the Church is\nmaintained by London Presbyterians. \"The civil magistrate hath\nauthority, and it is his duty, to take order that unity and peace be\npreserved in the Church; that the truth of God be kept pure and entire;\nthat all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and\nabuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed, and all the\nordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed. For the\nbetter effecting whereof he hath power to call synods, to be present at\nthem, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according\nto the mind of God.\" The Calvinism of the moderns is not the Calvinism\nof the Westminster Assembly, and yet every clergyman at his ordination\ndeclares that \"he sincerely owns and believes the whole doctrine\ncontained in the Confession of Faith to be founded upon the Word of God;\nacknowledges it as the Confession of his Faith; that he will firmly and\nconstantly adhere to it; and that he disowns all doctrines, tenets, and\nopinions whatsoever contrary to and inconsistent with the Confession.\"\nHoly Willie's prayer--\n\n \"O Thou wha in the heavens dost dwell,\n Wha, as it pleases best thysel',\n Sends ane to heaven and ten to hell,\n A' for Thy glory,\n And no for onie guid or ill\n They've done afore Thee\"--\n\nwhatever it was in Burns's time, is a caricature of Presbyterianism as it\nexists in London in our day.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\nCONGREGATIONALISTS AND BAPTISTS.\n\n\nEarly in our religious history two theories as to Church and State were\ndeveloped. If the Presbyterians had gained the day in that time of\nreligious ferment--which had so melancholy a termination in the\nrestoration of Charles II., with his puppy-dogs and mistresses--we should\nhave seen the Church established independent of the State: the latter\nacting as its servant, exercising the sword at its bidding and on its\nbehalf. The Churchmen of that day adopted a lower theory, as appears by\ntheir favourite formulas--\"the power of the magistrate in ecclesiastical\nmatters,\" and \"passive obedience without limitations.\" In his zeal in\nthis direction, Archbishop Sancroft actually went so far as to alter the\nrubric. If Bishop Cosin may be believed (the story is told by Calamy),\nwhere it was said nothing was to be read in the churches but by the\nBishop's order, Sancroft took on himself to add, \"or the King's order.\"\nIn short, the theory was then what Sir J. D. Coleridge only the other day\nstated it, that \"the Church was a political institution.\" Against this\ntheory, as dishonouring to God and degrading to religion, the Puritans\nsternly protested, and at the peril of their lives. Naturally they fell\nback upon such texts as, \"My kingdom is not of this world,\" \"Render unto\nCaesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things that are\nGod's.\" More and more it became clear to them that the Church was simply\nan assembly of believers; that Christ's kingdom was exclusively a\nspiritual one; that the greatest service the State could do to religion\nwas to leave it alone. They argued, and not without some show of\nplausibility, that the faith enunciated by the carpenter's son,\ndisseminated through the world by tent-makers and fishermen; the faith\nwhich had found its way into the hearts of the stubborn Jews; which had\nbeen more than a match for the pride of Rome or philosophy of Greece--for\nwhich the multitude, the grey-haired sire, the high-spirited lad with\nlife with its golden prospects opening all round him, the tender and\ndelicate maiden, had gone smilingly to die--the faith immortal with the\nimmortality of truth, required not the vulgar patronage of worldly men,\nor that the State should attempt bribery on its behalf. Of course they\nwere wrong; for only last session of Parliament the present Archbishop of\nCanterbury, in his place in the House of Lords, on the night of an\nimportant debate, denominated a religion thus supported as a spurious\none; and it was only within the memory of living men that Nonconformists\nwere permitted to be parish constables or town councillors.\nNevertheless, half the worshippers of England and Wales are\nDissenters--that is to say, are of this spurious religion, and pay their\nown ministers, and build their own chapels, without asking a farthing\nfrom the State. Their leading denominations are the Baptists and\nCongregationalists; and it shows how terribly Dissent undervalues the\nhistorical element when I state that the Independents now prefer to call\nthemselves Congregationalists. There is an historical halo around\nIndependency. Mr. Brodie remarks that \"the grand principle by which the\nIndependents surpassed all other sects was, universal toleration to all\ndenominations of Christians whose religion was not conceived to be\nhostile to the peace of the State--a principle to which they were\nfaithful in the height of power as well as under persecution.\" Nor\nshould it be forgotten that Locke, the first of our philosophers to argue\non behalf of toleration, gained, as his biographers confess, his\nenlightened views from the Independent Divines.\n\nSpeaking relatively, Dissent is a thing of yesterday. It was born of the\nPuritanism which filled the gaols and fed the fires of Smithfield, when\nthere were men and women ready to die for Christ and his Cross. Wycliffe\nwas one of our earliest Dissenters. What he taught was the study of the\nBible as the source of religious faith and the rule of a religious life.\nAt college he was known as the Gospel doctor.\n\nQueen Elizabeth ever believed in the invocation of saints; the worship of\nthe Virgin Mary; thought it sinful for priests to marry, and had a couple\nof lighted candlesticks on her altar; but the country was full of learned\ndivines, who had come from Geneva or Frankfort with a contempt for such\npapistical ideas, and with a more keen appreciation of the spiritual\ncharacter of true religion. About twenty years after her accession, the\nprinciples of Independency were openly taught by Robert Brown, a relative\nof Cecil, the Lord Treasurer. When Black Bartholomew came, Puritans and\nPresbyterians were alike driven out of the Church. Owen, Vice-Chancellor\nof the University of Oxford, Baxter and Calamy, might have been Bishops,\nbut they held that they could not assent to the teaching and ritualism of\nthe Church, and be false to conscience and to God. For this they had to\nendure hardships, poverty, imprisonment, of all kinds--when Charles II.,\nwho obtained the Crown of England under false pretences, though he did,\nas Pepys tells us, take the Sacrament on his knees, received from his\npliant Bishops his title of most religious King. Calamy, when a lad,\nwondered why the old ministers who led peaceable lives, and always prayed\nfor the King, were persecuted, and in our day the feeling of wonder still\nexists.\n\nThere have been times when the religious life of England has been utterly\ndivorced from the Church. Such were the times when George II. said all\nthe Bishops were infidels; such were the times when the clergy read to\ntheir congregations the Book of Sports, enforcing on their hearers\ndancing, jumping, archery, Whitsun ales, May-poles, and Morrice dances on\na Sunday; such were the times when the Methodists were expelled Oxford,\nand when old John Newton wrote, that besides himself, there were only two\npious clergymen in London. It is impossible to overrate the obligations\nof this country to Dissent. It saved England from Popery. It laid the\nfoundation of the mightiest republic the world has yet seen. It crushed\nthe despotism of the Stuarts, while the Church was indecently declaring\nthat a royal proclamation had the force of law. It gave us civil and\nreligious liberty; the wonderful change for the better which within the\nlast thirty years has come over the Church life of this country is due to\nthe fact that, rivalling the Establishment in zeal and good works, has\nbeen an ever-growing, intelligent, and educated Dissent.\n\nWhat are the doctrines of orthodox Dissenters? I reply, as regards\nBaptists and Congregationalists, they are very much the same. The real\nquestion at issue, whether adults or infants are the proper subjects of\nbaptism, and whether the rite should be administered by baptism or\nimmersion, really being but of little more importance than that of the\nBig Endians and the Little Endians of Gulliver. The Congregational Union\nissue a statement called \"The Principles of Religion,\" which they\npublish, not as a bond of union or as a series of articles to be\nsubscribed to, but as a summary of what is commonly believed amongst\nthem. In this document they state they believe the Scriptures of the Old\nTestament as received by the Jews, and the books of the New Testament as\nreceived by the Primitive Christians from the Evangelists and Apostles,\nto be divinely inspired and of divine authority; they believe in one God\nas revealed in the Scriptures as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; in the\nfall of man; in the existence in man of \"a fatal inclination to moral\nevil utterly incurable by human means;\" in God, before the foundation of\nthe world, designing the manifestation of his Son in the flesh for our\nsalvation, to attain eternal salvation for us. They believe that the\nHoly Spirit is given to quicken and renew the soul of man; that all who\nwill be saved were the objects of God's electing and eternal love; in the\nperseverance of the Saints; in the perpetual obligation of baptism and\nthe Lord's Supper; in the coming of Christ to judge all flesh; that the\nrighteous will receive life everlasting, and that the portion of the\nwicked will be everlasting punishment. As I have stated, such is a rough\noutline of the common belief in Congregational and Baptist Chapels. It\nis to be questioned, however, whether it would receive the unanimous\nassent and consent of Baptist and Congregational ministers.\n\nAs regards Church order and discipline, I may attempt the following\nsummary, which I believe is as true of Baptist as of Congregational\nChurches.\n\nA Church, according to them, is a society of believers meeting\nvoluntarily together to observe religious ordinances; to promote mutual\nedification and holiness; to perpetuate and promulgate the Gospel in the\nworld; and to advance the glory and worship of God through Jesus Christ.\nThe New Testament exclusively is their authority for Church customs, and\nChrist is their only head; they elect their own officers, whether bishops\nor pastors, and deacons. They believe that no person should be received\nas members of Christian Churches but such as make a credible profession\nof Christianity; are living according to its precepts, and attest a\nwillingness to be subject to its discipline. They believe that the power\nof a Christian is purely spiritual, and should in no way be corrupted by\nunion with temporal or spiritual power.\n\nIn London there are 220 Congregational churches and 210 Baptist; some of\nthe latter being very small, and the ministers illiterate and\nnarrow-minded more than is usually the case. The Congregationalists are\nchiefly incorporated in a body known as the Congregational Union, which\nmeets twice a year to deliberate; once in London, and once in such\nprovincial city or town as shall previously have been resolved on.\n\nIn London the Congregationalists have two or three Colleges for educating\nyoung men for the work of the Ministry--the principal one being the New\nCollege, St. John's Wood. This College is in connexion with the London\nUniversity, where some of the students graduate. The Baptists also have\na fine College in the Regent's Park, the students of which also\noccasionally are in the class lists of the London University. But the\nreal fact is that in all the Dissenting Colleges the men who take\nuniversity honours are the exception, not the rule; the reason is the\ncourse extends over but four or five years--and so much of that time is\ndevoted to theological study and pulpit preparation that there is not the\ntime to attain to the high standard prescribed by the London University.\nThe student has often had but an average middle-class education. He\nfeels an impulse, or, as it is technically termed, \"a call\" to the\nMinistry. He has been found acceptable as a Sunday School teacher, or in\nother ways has demonstrated his ability and religious character and zeal.\nWith the sanction of his Minister and the Church with which he is\nconnected, he is sent to College, where he remains till his professional\neducation is complete. Occasionally young men seek to enter the Ministry\nwith very humble views. Recently I heard of such a one. His pastor\nhaving indicated his doubt as to the possession of the requisite ability,\nthe reply was: \"Oh, sir, I know I never could be a learned man like you,\nbut I thought I might make a hignorant Minister like Mr. ---,\" naming a\nwell-known and popular Minister of another denomination.\n\nThe Baptists have also their Baptist Union sitting in London, and\noccasionally in the Provinces. The first General (Arminian) Baptist\nChurch is said to have been formed in London in 1607. The first\nParticular (Calvinistic) Church in 1616. I fancy that in some of the\nBaptist Bethels and Cave Adullams, an Antinomian, or, at any rate, a more\ndecided Calvinism exists than prevails in the Independent Churches. As\nregards Church government, their ideas are the same. One necessity of\nthis state of things is that their ministers must have some preaching\nability, a thing which is quite an accident in the Church of England;\nanother advantage is, that there are few pecuniary attractions to tempt\nmen to undertake duties for which they are unqualified.\n\nThe leading bodies connected with Church work in London are as\nfollows:--1. The Congregational Chapel Building Society, of which the\ntwentieth anniversary was held last year. We gather from the facts laid\nbefore the meeting that during the 21 years (including 1869) of the\nSociety's existence it has materially assisted in the erection or\npurchase of 87 chapels--representing a contribution from it in grants and\nfree loans of 110,000_l._ towards an aggregate outlay of 360,000_l._, and\nproviding (exclusive of intended galleries) nearly 80,000 sittings for\nadults. Dividing the 21 years of the Society's history into three\nperiods of seven years each, in the first period its list comprises 17\nchapels, in the second 26, and in the third 44. The Society is at\npresent engaged, with Mr. S. Morley, M.P., in the erection of 24 chapels,\nto each of which Mr. Morley contributes 500_l._, and the Society 500_l._,\nhalf of the last being free loans. The success of the Society is largely\nowing to its loan fund, now amounting to 11,006_l._ 19_s._, from which\nloans are made free of interest to committees engaged in the erection of\nchapels. This fund remains intact, and will be carefully preserved for\nthe object. The grant fund is, however, just now nearly exhausted, while\nthe liabilities of the Society on this account reach 2000_l._ Among\nother particulars, it may be stated that the Society has been\ninstrumental in saving from extinction the two metropolitan chapels of\nGeorge Whitefield--Tottenham Court Road Chapel, and the Tabernacle,\nMoorfields. Indeed, with the exception of Spa Fields Chapel, the\nCountess of Huntingdon's followers may be said to be absorbed in the\nCongregational body.\n\nThe London Congregational Association has four District Missions. It has\naided in planting and sustaining eight Churches and Missions in four\ndistricts. They ask 1000_l._ a year, with which, aided by local support,\nthey undertake to plant ten new district Missions in spiritually\ndestitute localities, and sustain them until they are enabled to support\nthemselves. As an illustration of what may be done in this way I give\nthe following account of the District Mission established by the Church\nand Congregation under the care of the Rev. Dr. Raleigh, of Hare Court\nChapel, Canonbury, as drawn up by the Rev. J. H. Wilson, of the Home\nMissionary Society.\n\nThe parent Church selected necessitous districts, in which they have\nopened schools and mission-rooms; in these a number of the congregation\nbegin to labour as teachers, visitors, evangelists, &c. The result is\nthe early formation of a branch Church, where the poor people secure all\nthe privileges of Christian fellowship, and the fine feeling of a\nChurch-home, a place which they call \"our Chapel,\" and where they look up\nto some one whom they call \"our pastor,\" and soon those so gathered\ntogether become co-workers with the parent Church in extending its\ninfluence in the locality--rising out of these movements, the Church at\nHare Court Chapel have now five branch Churches. From the last report\n(1868) it appears that there are now three rooms for religious service\nfor the young, and several others for meetings with the poor and\nignorant; three day schools, and five Sunday or ragged schools; two large\nweek evening schools, and several smaller ones; seven mothers' meetings;\na district nursery for children and infants, whose mothers require to\nleave them during the day; coal clubs; home for little boys, where thirty\nare fed and clothed; three paid ministers; six lay evangelists or\npastors; two Bible-women; six paid teachers, and seven paid monitors for\nday schools; and to aid them, there are from 300 to 400 members of the\nChurch and congregation earnestly engaged as evangelists, pastors,\nteachers, helps, visitors, Scripture readers, &c. During the year about\n120 had joined the Church. The Sunday and ragged schools are attended by\n1300 children; the day schools by 900, and the evening schools by upwards\nof 400. Besides, there are temperance societies and Bands of Hope, and\nin the summer months out-door services.\n\nAnother society worked by the Congregationalists is the Christian\nInstruction Society, founded in the year 1825, to aid in evangelizing\nLondon. House-to-house visitation was from the beginning and still is\nits main characteristic. Its other agencies are lay-preaching in and out\nof doors; the Sunday afternoon opening of places of worship; lectures on\nprevailing immorality and vice, and united quarterly prayer meetings.\nThis society, however, is by no means sectarian. At its united quarterly\nprayer meetings ministers of the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Independent\ndenominations join.\n\n\n\nTHE SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS.\n\n\nAs you go down Leman Street, Whitechapel, on your left, nearly at the\nbottom, stand two public-houses--one the Shamrock, the other, if I\nmistake not, the Brown Bear. Between them is a narrow little passage; on\nthe right is a Gospel Hall, facing you is a plain brick-built\nMeeting-house, with a door which at certain times opens in vain, and with\na window which is covered with wire of a very suggestive character.\nAbove the window is an inscription, stating that it was rebuilt in 1790,\nbut that it was founded more than a century before that. A side door\nleads you into a grass-grown and quiet enclosure. There are a few\ngravestones there, recording, in illegible characters, the piety and\nvirtues of those who have gone before. At the back of the Meeting-house\nis the minister's residence. In the same square resides the pew-opener,\nwith her little family, who seem fresher and livelier than you would\nexpect in such a place. Outside rush along the Fenchurch Street trains\nto and fro, sometimes with a scream which, as you will by-and-by find,\nwill drown the preacher's voice. Outside there are factories and\nwarehouses darkening the air; outside there are heathens--baptized I\ndaresay, but nevertheless heathens--as complete and entire as any\ndiscovered by Captain Cook; outside go up and down all day the sailors of\nevery country under heaven, at all times when on shore a disorderly lot,\nwith a strong tendency to get drunk and quarrel; outside are the\nlodging-house keepers, and Jew slop-sellers, and foul women and crimps,\nwho lie in wait for poor Jack; outside, nightly and daily, on Sundays and\nweek-days, once a week and all the year round, is the ever-deafening and\never-growing roar of London life.\n\nOn Saturdays this little old-fashioned meeting-house is opened twice a\nday. Of sects, as we all know, there are many Lilliputian varieties.\nOne of the smallest of these is that of the Seventh-day Baptists. In\nthis country there are two congregations of them; one in Mill Yard, and\none far away in Gloucestershire, where, according to the common proverb,\n\"God is.\" At one time they were a sect, as they are I believe at this\ntime in America. Here, in England, they have dwindled down to two\nskeleton congregations, an endowment, and a Chancery suit. As there is\nmoney a form of worship is kept up, though for all practical purposes the\ncause is dead. There may be four grown-up persons besides the pew-opener\nto form the morning service: there are just as many in the afternoon.\nThere is no week-evening service. At one time, many, many years ago,\nthere was a Sunday-school, but the scholars have grown up and moved away,\nand none have come to take their vacant places. Inside the door you are\ninformed there are no pew-rents, no collections. Nevertheless, the\npeople keep away. In the pulpit is a learned man of an old-fashioned and\nalmost extinct type, and no one regards him; and yet I must confess there\nwas to me a fascination in the place. It was the ghost of what I knew in\nyouth. Long, long ago, there were just such old-fashioned meetings, with\njust such sounding-boards over the pulpit, just such plain and high pews,\njust such learned divines, just as deficient in all practical appeal. Up\nin the window before me buzzed the very same bluebottle fly, only a\nlittle more elderly and less active in consequence, which, in younger and\nhappier days, distracted the writer's attention, and interfered sadly\nwith what would have been otherwise a profitable opportunity. There are\nno meeting-houses now. If you want to see one as they were, in all their\noriginal nakedness and want of grace, go to Mill Yard, Whitechapel. We,\nof course, have wonderfully improved, and yet I have a tenderness for the\nold meeting-house. How learned were their ministers, how awful and\northodox their deacons! With what fear did I eye the man who gave out\nthe hymn, and with what greater fear the watchful individual who poked up\nwith his long stick inattentive or sleepy boys!\n\nBut I return to Mill Yard. The Christian Church in our day has pretty\nwell agreed to get rid of or, at any rate, ignore what is read in the\nBible about the seventh day being \"the Sabbath of the Lord your God.\" At\none time this was not so. Now the tide has receded and left the\nSeventh-day Baptists stranded on the mud. In doing so, the Church, of\ncourse, has increased the difficulty some feel about the Divine origin\nand perpetual obligation of the Christian Sabbath. Archbishop Whately,\nfor instance, could reason with the Christian who had exchanged, in spite\nof the literal command of God, the Christian for the Jewish Sabbath, but\nhis arguments would fail to touch the Seventh-day Baptist, who would\ncontend that he was doing that which God had commanded. But the fear of\nthis has not led Christians to abandon what, in the opinion of most of\nthem, is the apostolic plan of meeting on the first day of the week. It\nis to be hoped the fund left for the benefit of the Seventh-day Baptists\nis not a large one. The mouldy appearance of Mill Yard Meeting-house\nindicates that it is not. But it is enough to retain at his post a\ngentleman who, perhaps, would be more profitably engaged elsewhere.\nCertainly it does seem like a waste of power to have a chapel and a\nservice lasting nearly a couple of hours for one grown-up adult male and\nthree adult females, excluding the chapel pew-opener. I must say, with\nthe exception of a young gentleman in knickerbockers, who was so\nastonished at the apparition of a real stranger that he kept staring at\nme all the time of singing, all seemed to do their duty. The\nsinging--and there was plenty of it--was really and truly Congregational.\nFive or six parts of the Bible were read, and the congregation followed\nwith open Bibles. The preacher laboured at his discourse, and quoted\nHebrew and Latin as if we had all been learned divinity students. Nor\ncould he have prayed with more fulness and power had the benches been\nfilled with living souls waiting to draw near to the Father of spirits\nand live. One could not but respect the preacher, however useless seemed\nhis learning and misdirected his research. Yet I would be sorry to stand\nin his shoes. He had hearers once--Where are they? Dead, or moved away,\nis the reply. He says in 1840 he began \"to officiate as afternoon\npreacher in the ancient Sabbath-keeping congregation in Mill Yard.\" He\ntalks of \"nearly sixty years of close critical, philological, and\nexegetical study of the sacred Scriptures;\" of \"more than thirty years of\nconstant and laborious exposition of them;\" of his having fully, freely,\nfearlessly, and repeatedly discoursed upon every part of natural and\nrevealed religion. In spite of his age, physically he is not unequal to\nhis work. He has a good voice, yet practically he beats the air. There\nare few to listen to his words and respond to his appeal. I wonder--as\nin his quiet study he reads the ancient versions of the Bible and\nlaboriously constructs his argument:--whether it ever occurs to him that\nthere is something better and grander than seventh-day baptism, or\nsystematic theology, and that is everyday Christianity. I wonder, too,\nwhile looking on the dead graves and the long grass, whether it occurs to\nhim that in that region of all unclean and deadly sin it especially\nbehoves the preacher, in preference to ingenious speculation or\nantiquarian research, to impress on the heart and consciences of men the\nyearning, living love of God. It is not in the calm retreat, the silent\nshade, that vice and irreligion can be confronted and changed into purity\nand piety. One would fancy at Mill Yard the contrary opinion was held,\nas the preacher goes on, expounding the Proverbs or the Book of Job to\nempty benches, while close by the harlot plies her unhallowed calling,\nthe publican retails his vitriol gin, and mothers, with eyes artificially\nblack, knock about their little ones or cover them with kisses, as they\nthemselves are alcoholically stimulated into maudlin tenderness or\ndemoniac rage! If you want to see what an endowment can do for religion,\ngo to Mill Yard. No doubt those who left money for the place thought\nthey were doing God service. In reality, an endowment can but preserve a\ncorpse which had better be put away. We bury our dead out of our sight.\nAs it is in the material world so it is in the spiritual world. We love\nto look on life; we shrink with abhorrence from the sight of death, when\nTime's decaying fingers have dimmed the lustre of eyes once bright as\nstars, and plucked from beauty's cheek the blushing rose.\n\nA more curious spot in all London is not than Mill Yard Meeting-house.\nThe day I was there, after a service of nearly two hours, it was\nestablished by the learned minister, who is an F.S.A., and calls himself\nelder of the congregation (he must often stand a good chance of being\njunior as well), that the title of the Book of Proverbs was only to be\napplied to the first part, that it consisted of divers distinct sections,\nand that generally the book was found in the Bible after the Psalms.\nEvidently the preacher is a learned, painstaking student of the Dryasdust\nschool--full of crotchets; but the biggest crotchet of all is that he\nshould go on preaching year after year in Mill Yard.\n\n * * * * *\n\nMr. Spurgeon's works and essays are so constantly before the public that\nthe briefest notice of them is all that is necessary here. In his great\nTabernacle near the Elephant and Castle, which is one of the sights of\nLondon, he has a church alone consisting of 4700 members, and such is the\norderly arrangement that, as he said, if one of his members were to get\ntipsy he should know of it before the week was out--a statement perhaps\ntrue in reality if not literally. Enormous as his place of worship is,\nit is always filled; but it represents, not so much a Christian Church as\na Christian community on a gigantic scale. In his Orphanage at Stockwell\nsome 135 boys are boarded, clothed, and taught. Then at Newington he has\nestablished an Orphanage and School, and under his great Tabernacle is a\nPastors' College, which in a couple of years takes the raw student from\nthe shop or the counting-house and sends him forth into the world a\nready-made divine, occasionally not a little to the dismay of those who\nconsider a good training and a careful preparation great helps to\nministerial usefulness. The students are lodged in families around, and\non the Sunday are principally employed in preaching in various districts\nnear London. Some of the Baptist places are very small indeed, and very\nbadly attended. It were better, one would think, that they were shut up\nand merged with other churches or denominations. There is something\ninexpressibly melancholy in the long lists of Zions, and Bethels, and\nMount Sions, where the pastor and the people scarcely live. Amongst some\nof the Baptists there are some of Antinomian tendencies, and the\npreachers of such doctrines have very large congregations. They are the\nelect of God, and can never sin. As to their doctrine and its results,\none illustration will suffice. A member of one of the largest of these\nAntinomian places unfortunately got tipsy, fell out of the cart in which\nhe was riding, and broke his leg. \"Ah!\" said his sympathizing pastor\nwhen he heard of it, \"what a blessed thing he can't fall out of the\ncovenant.\" The Antinomian believes that Christ paid, with his death, the\nprice of the pardon of a certain number. These are in the covenant, and\nout of that covenant they cannot fall. There are in the Church of\nEngland those who preach this doctrine, but their number is rare. Up in\nNotting Hill is a Tabernacle built up and carried on by Mr. Varley, an\nhumble imitator of Mr. Spurgeon. Originally Mr. Varley was a butcher,\nbut he took to preaching; and finding that people came to hear him, and\nthat he did them good, he now devotes himself entirely to ministerial\nwork. At his Tabernacle, in St. James's Square, there is accommodation\nfor 1200 hearers, and for the education of more than 500 children. This\nhistory of these Tabernacles shows what may be done when suitable agency\nis employed. Mr. Spurgeon's subscriptions are really wonderful. Twenty\nthousand pounds were given him by one lady for the purpose of founding\nhis orphanage. More than once 2000_l._ have been dropped into his\nletter-box, as he told the writer of an article in the _Daily Telegraph_,\nwhere, ludicrously enough, he appeared under the head of \"Unorthodox\nLondon.\" \"When recently attacked by illness, he began to despair; but\nthat same evening a lady left 100_l._ at his door, and 1000_l._ came in\nimmediately afterwards.\"\n\n\n\nCHRISTMAS MORNING WITH THE YOUNGSTERS.\n\n\nAmongst the most unpleasant recollections of an otherwise not unpleasant\nchildhood are those connected with attendance at chapel on the evenings\nof Christmas Days. On such occasions there were circumstances, needless\nto explain, and in which the reader would take no interest were they\nexplained, which compelled the writer to leave the pleasant fire and the\ngames and mirth of the season, and, putting on his coat, trudge manfully\nin the dark and through the snow to shiver for an hour and a half at\nleast at meeting. Other people the writer well knew were enjoying\nthemselves. Father Christmas was not the rage then that he is now;\nChristmas-trees were a later invention, and so were Christmas tales; but\nstill even in those far-away and benighted times there were cakes and\nale, and homely Christmas carols and a little fun on a Christmas night,\nwhen blind-man's-buff was in fashion, and snapdragon was to the little\nones a wonder and a joy. The writer felt, as he sat in the comfortless\nsquare box of green baize and deal, and surveyed the scattered\ncongregation, how much more agreeable it would have been had the old\nmeeting been shut up on such a night, had the old minister saved his\nsermon, had the old ladies and gentlemen who formed the congregation\ndozed comfortably in their old arm-chairs at home. He arrived at the\nconclusion then which he has ever since retained--a conclusion the\ncorrectness of which no subsequent consideration has induced him to\nmodify--that services at church or chapel on Christmas nights are an\nimmense mistake. Christmas morning special services, however, are quite\na different thing, and especially where children are concerned. They at\nany rate realize Christmas more fully than their elders, and assuredly it\nis by them the religious aspect of the day may be most vividly felt.\n\nThis is not a question for argument. More than forty years ago the late\nDr. Fletcher, of Finsbury Chapel, instituted a special morning service at\nhis own place of worship for Sunday-school children from the\nSunday-schools of the district. The avowed object of that service was\nthe benefit of the young. In time past it has been found to have had a\nsalutary effect. It has been continued by Dr. Fletcher's successor, the\nRev. A. M'Auslane, a minister whose manner, and personal appearance, and\nmode of speaking qualify him especially for so delicate and difficult a\ntask. Mr. M'Auslane hails from the land where Christmas is unknown. He\nwas a student under Dr. Wardlaw at Glasgow. He commenced his pastoral\nduties in Dunfermline, but he has travelled south, and at Newport, in\nWales, where he stayed a short while, and latterly at Finsbury Chapel,\nwhere he has now been eight years, he has caught something of the English\nregard for Christmas Day, and preaches accordingly. I scarce think\nLondon has a prettier sight to show than that of Finsbury Chapel on a\nChristmas morning. It is full in every part. On the ground floor and\nthe first gallery are ranged the children and their teachers, and up\nabove there is another gallery full of adult spectators. As they sing\nsome of the finest of our hymns, such as--\n\n \"Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,\"\n\nthe swell of their young voices is beautiful to hear. Their faces, full\nof joy, were equally beautiful to see. To be preached to by a learned\nman in a gown in a big chapel is something indeed for a little ragged\nurchin to think of. Then what pains must have been taken to master the\ntunes and sing them so well. Nor is this all by which the event of the\nyear--as it must be for some of them--is characterized. At some of the\nschools the children, I believe, have a breakfast given them by the\nteachers previous to starting. At all of them there is a distribution of\nsomething satisfactory in the shape of buns. The muster is considerable.\nThe schools represented at the service I attended, in addition to that\nbelonging to the place, were Mile End, King Edward Street, Wood Street,\nSpitalfields, Willow Walk, Ark Street, Paradise Street, the Weigh House,\nthe New Tabernacle, Bell Alley; Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell; Andrew\nStreet Ragged-schools, Union Walk, Jewin Street, James Street, City Road,\nRopemakers Street. The service commenced with singing--\n\n \"Another year has passed away,\n Time swiftly glides along,\n We come again to praise and pray,\n And sing our festive song;\n We come with song to greet you,\n We come with song again.\"\n\nThe Rev. W. Tyler then read a part of the fifth chapter of Matthew, and\noffered up an appropriate prayer, in which a special reference was made\nto the evangelistic work carried on in the City. Another hymn was sung,\nand then came the sermon, the subject of which was Christ blessing\nchildren, and the text of which was in Mark x. 14 and 16. Mr. M'Auslane\ndescribed how a painter had portrayed the scene; not having the picture\nthere to show them, he would attempt a description of it in words. Some\nmight have thought Jesus too busy or children too insignificant. In\nreality it was not so, and he believed that if Jesus came in this year\ninto London, He would act now as He did then. Sometimes people\nforget--the butler forgot Joseph. Jesus Christ never changes. The\npreacher endeavoured to bring out what the text teaches about Jesus and\nchildren:--1. It taught that Jesus is attractive to children. Some men\nand women children don't like at all; others they go to cheerfully and\nwillingly. Jesus Christ draws them to Him just as the sun the flowers.\nHe is spoken of as the Sun of Righteousness. Why is a child not afraid\nto walk through the valley of the shadow of death? It is because he sees\nJesus, and when he has passed through on the other side there is Jesus,\nthe most attractive in all that land. 2. The text taught that Christ\ntakes a deep interest in children. It was clear the Apostles did not, or\nthey would not have tried to prevent them from coming forward. He takes\nthe same interest now. It was to Him children had to be grateful for\nbodies and souls, for kind friends, and the comforts of life. All power\nis given to Him in heaven and on earth. Salvation is the gift of Christ,\nand that is another proof of the interest He takes in children. If any\nboy there had no father or mother, sister or brother, or friend, if he\nstood in this cold world alone, let him take this thought with him--in\nthe morning as he rose from his humble cot, in the evening as he retired\nto rest--Jesus cares for me. Here the preacher paused while the children\nrefreshed themselves by singing \"The Pilgrims,\" the boys asking, the\ngirls replying, and all joining in the chorus, the last verse of which\nis--\n\n \"Come, oh, come! and do not leave us;\n Christ is waiting to receive us,\n Christ is waiting to receive us,\n In that bright, that better land.\"\n\nMr. M'Auslane resumed. The text taught (3), Jesus prays for children.\nIt is true we have not the prayer, but, nevertheless, he believed that\nJesus prayed. The account in Matthew implies that He did. His prayer\nwould, in all probability, be that God would be the protector of these\nchildren, and guide them all through life to the heavenly, happy land.\nThere was a young man once condemned to die. His brother, who had lost\nan arm in the service of his country, went and pleaded for him. The\njudges were overcome, not by his eloquence, but by the sight of the stump\nof the amputated arm, and spared his brother's life. Christ, in the same\nway, might plead with the Father the five wounds received on Calvary. \"I\nhave often heard an old man pray for children,\" said the preacher, \"and\nhave heard him ask for things which I am sure were not proper to ask for\nfor children. It was so long since he had been a child that he had quite\nforgotten what children's feelings were. It was not so with Jesus. But\nyou must remember also to pray for yourselves. Jesus prayed for Peter\nthat his faith might not fail, but it did, because Peter did not pray for\nhimself. 4. Christ wishes children to be happy, and they could not be\nthat without the pardon of sin and hope of heaven. 5. The text taught\nthat there are a great many children indeed in heaven. It is true there\nwere there Jesus, and the patriarchs, and prophets, and angels, and\napostles, but there were more children there, for of such is the kingdom\nof heaven. That last text meant that the glory of heaven was open to\nchildren, but it also meant that the population of heaven was made up of\nchildren. They would be there of every colour,--from every quarter of\nthe globe. Last Christmas morning one little child was in that chapel\nwho is in heaven now. \"Shall we go there when we die?\" was the question\nwhich concluded and enforced the preacher's appeal, which was plain and\nsimple and thoroughly adapted to its end. Of course there were some\nlittle ones who could not follow the preacher, but it seemed to me that\nevidently the majority did. It is to be hoped they did, for none but\nthose who live in London can tell what are its trials and sorrows for\nsuch as they, or what are their needs. From the Sunday-school even many\na lad and girl has gone astray. It was only a few weeks before that, at\na midnight meeting in the Euston Road of some eighty or thereabouts--I\ncannot speak within one or two--some seventy fallen, weeping women\nconfessed that they had been Sunday scholars, and amongst them even there\nwere Sunday-school teachers! Of the hundreds who trooped joyously into\nFinsbury Chapel on our last bright, joyous Christmas morning, who can say\nwhat may be the end? Of this one thing, however, we may rest assured, it\nwill be long before some forget the wise, kindly words listened to then,\nthe songs in which they then took a part, or the prayers that then went\nup to heaven for them.\n\n\n\nDR. PARKER AT THE POULTRY.\n\n\n\"What are you doing?\" said lately one of London's biggest D.D.'s to a\nvisitor from the country. \"Oh, sir, I am in the ministry now,\" was the\nsomewhat exulting reply. \"Ah, but, my brother,\" said the querist again,\n\"is the ministry in you?\" Rather an important question that, and a\nquestion to which, alas! many ministers would be unable to give a very\nsatisfactory reply. When I see a nervous, timid, feeble, hesitating,\nwavering brother in the pulpit, I think of the Doctor's question as one\nfrom which such a man would instinctively shrink.\n\nDr. Parker belongs to another and a rarer class. The ministry is in him\nas a divine call, and not as an accidental profession. He speaks as one\nhaving authority. In an age of negation, and mistrust, and little faith,\nhe is as positive as if spiritual truths had been audible to his bodily\near and seen with the bodily eye. Amidst the perplexities of a theology\never shifting in external phraseology, where man's wisdom has darkened\nGod's light as revealed in His Word, where the miasma of doubt has\nrepressed and stinted Christian life, he walks with a masculine tread,\nand he does so not from ignorance but from knowledge, because he knows\nhow difficult is the way, how dark the path, how easily error comes to us\nin the form of truth, how the devil himself can assume the shape and\nborrow the language of an angel of light. He has got good standing\nground, but he knows how treacherous is the soil, and what pitfalls lie\nopen to catch the rash, and reckless, and overconfident. His is the\nstrength of the athlete who has become what he is by years of careful\ntraining, protracted conflicts, and painful discipline, and in all his\nwords, and they are many, you can hear as it were the ring of victory and\nassured success. Physically he looks and speaks like a man. What he\nsays he means, and what he means he believes. He is not the kind of man\nto write an apology for Christianity; he would laugh to scorn the idea.\nHe can laugh at much, because, as Hobbes says, to do so implies\nsuperiority, and Dr. Parker, strong in his faith in the everlasting\nGospel, has an immense feeling of superiority; and as you listen he takes\nyou up with him into his coign of vantage, and you laugh too. It is good\nto see wit as well as logic and learning in the pulpit; to feel up in\nthat serene height, where the preacher has it all himself, and none may\ngainsay him, there is humanity there, a flesh and blood reality, and not\na respectable academic ghost in whose brain there is hollowness and in\nwhose eye there is no fire of speculation. What a head the man\nhas--ample, well formed, well and fairly developed. What a voice the man\nhas--strong as a mountain torrent, impetuous, irresistible, mastering\nall, carrying like a Niagara all before it. Dr. Parker is better off\nthan Paul. Apparently the earthen vessel in which he has his treasure is\nof admirable adaptation and utility.\n\nLondon has gained and Manchester has lost Dr. Parker. Already he has\nmade himself no stranger in London. To many his \"Ecce Deus\" has\ncommended itself as the work of a vigorous thinker, and all have\nconfessed that his \"Springdale Abbey\" was full of very clever talk. No\nordinary preacher could have written such books, that was clear. In\nManchester he had become a success. How came he to be such? Partly I\nhave explained the reason. In the first place, in an age of doubt, of\nnegative theology, of blinding and bewildering speculation--when between\nthe so-called Christian and the Cross in all its eternal lustre has risen\nup a fog of gloom--when the Gospel of unbelief and despair has come into\nfashion, so that when we listen for the shout of psalm or the holy\nexultation of prayer, we hear instead\n\n \"An agony\n Of lamentation, like a wind that shrills\n All night in a waste land, where no one comes,\n Or hath come since the making of the world.\"\n\nDr. Parker has a living faith. And then again he has a deep sense of\nwhat the pulpit requires, and an unmitigated scorn of that kind of\npreaching which is too common there. \"Almighty God has to tolerate more\npuerility in His service than any monarch on earth. If Christianity had\nnot been Divine it would have been ruined by many of its own preachers\nlong ere this. The wonder is, not that it has escaped the cruel hand of\nthe infidel (it can double up a whole array of crazy atheists), but that\nit has survived the cruel kindness of its shallow expositors.\" Whose\nlanguage, you ask, is this? Why, Dr. Parker's own. The preacher who can\nthus censure his fellows is bound to guard sacredly and constantly\nagainst that which he condemns, and to come to his pulpit with every\nfeeling attuned and with every energy aroused for its gigantic work.\nGive to such a man the requisite brain and tongue, let him have the\nrequisite delivery, let his lips be touched by that spirit which\n\n \"Touched Isaiah's lips with hallowed fire,\"\n\nand you have a Dr. Parker. He has come to London--a difficult thing for\nany man to do, but in this case the step has been undertaken under\npeculiarly difficult circumstances. Time was when the City was the home\nof citizens, and many of the wealthiest and most influential of them went\nto the Poultry. That time has long gone by. It was when deacons shook\ntheir heads at Mr. Binney as not quite sound. Of all places on the earth\nthe most deadly on a Sunday is the City of London, and especially that\npart of it in which the Poultry stands. At St. Mildred's, close by, it\nis impossible, or seems to be so, to collect a decent congregation. Will\nDr. Parker succeed better? Some sort of answer was given to the\nquestion, when to a crowded and attentive congregation he preached what I\nmay term his inaugural discourse. If I say it was an eloquent display I\nshall excite the Doctor's indignation, as he contemned the use of such\nphraseology in his sternest and most indignant manner. Nor indeed with\nregard to the discourse in question would the phrase be literally\ncorrect. No one can doubt the Doctor's eloquence, but in speaking of\nhimself and his hopes and purposes in connexion with the Poultry--in\nshowing the grand principles upon which he took his stand, and by means\nof which he was placed beyond the fear of failure, he aimed at something\nmore than eloquent display. \"I am preaching to myself as well as to\nyou,\" said the Doctor in the course of his sermon; and such was in\nreality the case. For the work which he has to do, for the programme\nwhich he trusts to work out, truly indeed does the Doctor need the\nguidance of that Providence which shall go before, and which shall make\nthe crooked places straight. This, indeed, was the Doctor's text. You\nwill find it in Isaiah xlv. 2. From the beginning to the end of the\nservice this was the leading and appropriate idea. He commenced with\nCowper's magnificent hymn, \"God moves in a mysterious way.\" The portion\nof Scripture read was Christ's commission to the seventy to go and preach\nthe Gospel all over the world; the prayer was an acknowledgment that the\nhuman will should be subordinated to the Divine; and it was \"Guide me, O\nThou great Jehovah,\" which formed the closing song.\n\nAs Dr. Parker told us he was going to publish his sermon (his sermons now\nappear weekly, under the title of \"The City Temple\"), I need say little\nof the discourse, of which I have already given the text. It began with\na reference to the triumph and danger of liberty--that man might go\nwhether with God or without Him. Man was free, nor was his religion one\nof slavery. To those who considered such a statement to be a grand\ncontradiction of what we know of eternal decrees, it was sufficient to\nreply that it could only be harmonized in the ecstasy of light and love.\nGod will not make everything straight, but only in proportion as we trust\nHim and live with Him will our difficulties diminish. As to his text in\nparticular, remarked Dr. Parker, it was first a warning--there are\ncrooked places. It was a promise--the crooked places God would make\nstraight: all that we required was patience. Also it was a plan--God\nwould go before us. Say some, that is God's sovereignty--that is the\nomnipotent Jehovah. No, it indicated His love, His tenderness, His care.\nIn such an idea we do not dwarf God, but exalt Him. Then came the\nlimitation of the promise. This going before was a question of\ncharacter. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. That,\nhowever, was no motive for carelessness, but the reverse. The Doctor, in\nconclusion, spoke of himself. He had been told that in leaving\nManchester and coming to the Poultry he was moving into a crooked place.\nIn explanation he stated he did not look for the ordinary course of a\nminister. He looked at London, that immeasurable centre; he thought of\nthe young men who come strangers to the metropolis, and with no friends\nto guide and guard them; and if he did not get people to come and hear\nhim on the Sunday, he trusted they would do so on the Thursday, when\nthere would be a service from twelve to one, when he would aim simply to\ntouch the heart with a sense of sin and forgiveness. He also intended to\nuse the printing-press. He had great faith in the printed page. It\nremained to be read at spare moments when a man had nothing to do.\nFinally, said Dr. Parker, he spoke with fear and trembling, but he came\nthere with a strong determination to succeed, and he appealed to all\naround to do their duty--not to carp, or criticise, or say unkind words,\nbut to resolve to labour and to be guided by heavenly power and wisdom.\nAt the close of the service there was a collection. After this the\nimmense congregation streamed out into the open air, much to the\nastonishment of casual passengers, who did not understand what was the\nmatter. The Poultry has a prosperous look, and they have got a new\npulpit there almost as rotund, and bright, and buoyant as Dr. Parker\nhimself.\n\nI know not how the Sunday service succeeds, but the Thursday morning\nservice is wonderfully well filled. In this busy age it is scarcely\ncredible that in the busiest part of London, and at the busiest hour of\nthe day, a chapel as large as the Poultry can be crowded, and is\nregularly crowded, with merchants and men of business and others. Yet\nsuch is the case, and Dr. Parker has succeeded in an attempt which, until\nhe tried it, certainly seemed hazardous in the extreme. If the Doctor\nseems a little bombastic, it may well be forgiven him under these\ncircumstances, especially when we remember that no preacher can succeed\nin convincing others that he is worth hearing till he has become firmly\nconvinced of that fact himself. A modest man I fear is out of place\nanywhere, but most of all so in the pulpit. It was in wisdom that Dr.\nParker was selected for his post. I should think he is a preacher\npre-eminently adapted to the young. Judged not by what he has done, but\nby years, the Doctor is almost a young man himself. There is youthful\nvigour in his full round face, in his small dark eyes; and certainly\nthere is no small store of youthful enthusiasm in his heart. In his\nblack hair and beard there is no suggestive tinge of grey. If he has\npassed through and left the golden portals of youth behind, it can only\nbe but recently that he has done so, and there is still in him somewhat\nof its grace and glory. In another respect also the choice of Dr. Parker\nwas appropriate. The Poultry Chapel is in the very heart of London; the\nchances were that most of the young men present--and, I might add, of the\nold ones too--were more or less engaged in some secular avocations. In\nlike manner, so the writer has always understood, the Doctor's youthful\nyears were passed. Hence it came to pass the old Poultry Chapel is in a\nflourishing state. The Doctor seemed in his right place, and, if we may\njudge from appearances, the people seemed to think so.\n\n\n\nMR. LYNCH'S THURSDAY EVENINGS.\n\n\nIn a great city like London there are many sources of pleasure completely\noverlooked. If people complain that life is dull--that it is\nmonotonous--that it presents to them few objects of interest or\nattraction--I fancy they have chiefly themselves to blame. No man or\nwoman either with heart or head need lead a barren life either in the\ncountry or in town. There is always something to do, to see, or to hear,\nand in London especially is there much to hear of which Londoners know\nbut little. Such, at any rate, was the reflection of the writer one\nThursday night as he made his way along the Hampstead Road to a neat\nlittle iron church on the left-hand side as you go from the City, and\njust before you reach Mornington Crescent. Every Sunday morning there\npreaches there the Rev. Thomas Lynch, the author of some choice prose and\npoetry--a man at whom there was a dead set made by certain religionists a\nfew years ago, but who has long outlived that, and to whom that time of\ntrial and of trouble was undoubtedly a most blessed event, inasmuch as it\ntaught the gentle author of the \"Rivulet\" his strength, both as regards\nhimself and as regards the best of our religious teachers; and inasmuch\nas it demonstrated to all anew, and more clearly than ever, how hard, how\ncruel, how unmerciful dogmatic theologians could become. At that time\nMr. Lynch was preaching in a chapel in one of the streets running from\nTottenham Court Road into Fitzroy Square. He is now nearer Camden Town,\nand preaches in a building between which and the pastor there seems to be\na kind of resemblance and sympathy; at any rate, as much as can exist\nbetween what is abstract and concrete--between matter and mind. The\nchurch is no Gothic edifice, hoary with time, but slender and modern,\nand, as much as possible, graceful. You wonder it has not been swept\naway by the storms of winter. A similar feeling exists when you look at\nMr. Lynch. There are great mountains of men, whose tread is terrible,\nwhose laugh is volcanic, whose heads are rugged rocks, whose bodies are\nbulls of Bashan, whose speech is as the roar of an angry sea, whose faces\nin summer parch you up like burning suns, or in winter darken you with\nangry clouds. To this genus Mr. Lynch does in no way belong. The\nfairies who assisted at Mr. Lynch's birth did very little for him\nphysically--at any rate, they robbed his bones of all flesh, and made his\noutward frame as spare as possible. It is to be wished also that they\nhad endowed him with better health. Yet his figure cannot be termed\nungraceful or his appearance unattractive. In his dress he is\nscrupulously neat. Even on weekday services he wears the white\nhandkerchief, which when round the neck denotes that you are a swell on\nyour way to dinner, or a waiter, or a gentleman of the clerical\nprofession. His grey eye is full of enthusiasm, and kindles up a pale,\ndark face that otherwise might be dull. His voice is stronger and\nclearer than you would expect. You are agreeably surprised to find how\nanimated and vigorous he can become. After all, and in spite of\nill-health, time has dealt not ungently with Mr. Lynch. He is a trifle\nbald, and you can detect a greyish tint in his hair--that is all; but Mr.\nLynch, I imagine, is not one of those who age fast. He has a happy\ncheerfulness apparently, which compensates for the poetic sensitiveness\nwhich frets away many a man's, life, and which made a hard-headed\nWordsworth write--\n\n \"We poets in our youth begin in gladness,\n Whereof come in the end despondency and madness.\"\n\nIndeed, Mr. Lynch's cheerfulness is evidently, ever welling up out of his\nheart and colouring all his thoughts and words. In his services this is\neverywhere apparent. He has much of the lithe action of the comedian,\nand he stands ever, like Garrick, between tragedy and comedy, one moment\nready to make you smile, and the next touching all that is most earnest,\nmost serious, most devout in our common nature. He leans on his little\ndesk, his hands before him, and talks away, sweetly and devoutly, about\nthings that interest all--things that have a spiritual bearing, things\nthat are secular and profane, only to the secular and profane. There are\nnot very many people to hear him; but then, they are hearers, and there\nis sympathy between the preacher and the pews. The Iron Duke said, \"When\nyou begin to turn in bed, it is time for you to get up.\" In a similar\nway it may be said, when the people begin to turn to look at the clock it\nis time the preacher or lecturer was done. The other night I found Mr.\nLynch's service occupied nearly two hours, yet it did not seem wearisome\nor long. The service was commenced with chanting, and prayer, and\nreading scripture, and singing. Then there was a text, and a lecture or\nsermon from that text. On the occasion to which I refer the subject was\nJohn Howe, as an illustration of that passage in Proverbs which\npredicates of the man diligent in his business that he shall stand before\nkings--a prediction literally verified in the case of John Howe, who was\nchaplain to Oliver Cromwell--a man greater than any king--and who had\nfriendly converse with that Protestant hero, William the Third, the best\nking England ever had. Very vividly did Mr. Lynch bring out all that was\nnoblest and brightest in John Howe's character and career, dwelling with\nevident unction on the many pregnant titles of Howe's works, which he\nseemed much to prefer to the works themselves, and in which he was right;\nfor Howe's thoughts, it must be conceded, are not couched in the form and\nlanguage most easy of apprehension to the men of to-day; and from the\npast, with some rare exceptions--those, of course, written in a dead\nlanguage being the chief--it is vain to extract literature for the study\nand edification of the present. Religion is no exception to a universal\nlaw; indeed, more than anything else, it is required of him who preaches\nit that he should speak to living men in the living language of\nto-day--not according to formulas that have long died out, or in terms\nthat have long become extinct; and this specially may be said of Mr.\nLynch, that as much as any one he realizes this great law, and does use\nlanguage and illustration and argument familiar to the men and women of\nLondon in this latter day--that he does not cease to be a man when in the\npulpit, and deal with abstraction rather than with real life. When Mr.\nLynch began his ministerial career this virtue was rarer than it is now,\nand of this desirable result Mr. Lynch deserves, at any rate, some of the\ncredit. Be that as it may, the writer has one other thing to say. It\nseems to him that these Thursday evening lectures of Mr. Lynch's deserve\na wide support. There are many in London who would be glad enough to\nattend. There are many living out of town who would find it worth while\nstopping an hour or two later on a Thursday evening. The service\ncommences at a quarter past seven; and I believe generally Mr. Lynch\ntakes some specific subject, such as \"John Howe,\" or \"Bells,\" or anything\nwhich seems to him notable. The writer heard also on the night in which\nhe was there something about questions asked and answered; but on that he\ncan say, as he knows, nothing.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\nTHE UNITARIANS.\n\n\n\"In the apostolical Fathers we find,\" writes the Rev. Islay Burns, \"for\nthe most part only the simple Biblical statements of the deity and\nhumanity of Christ in the practical form needed for general edification.\nOf those fathers Ignatius is the most deeply imbued with the conviction\nthat the crucified Jesus is God incarnate, and indeed frequently calls\nHim, without qualification, God. The development of Christology in the\nscientific doctrine of the Logos begins with Justin and culminates in\nOrigen. From him there proceed two opposite modes of conception, the\nAthanasian and the Arian, of which the former at last triumphs in the\nCouncil of Nice, and confirms its victory in the Council of\nConstantinople.\" By the Ebionites Christ was regarded as a mere man. By\nthe Gnostics he was considered as superhuman; but in that capacity as one\nof a very numerous class. The doctrine of the absolute unity of God,\nalike in essence and personal subsistence, was held by the Monachians,\nwho are divided respectively into Dynamistic and Modalistic. As the\nlatter held that the whole fulness of the Deity dwelt in Christ and only\nfound in him a peculiar mode of manifestation, it was assumed that the\nnatural inference was that the Father himself had died on the Cross.\nHence to these heretics the name of Patripassians was applied by the\northodox. Sabellius, who maintained a Trinity, not of divine Persons but\nof successive manifestations under the names Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,\nwas one of the chief Patripassians. The Arian controversy, as Dean\nStanley shows, turned on the relations of the divine persons before the\nfirst beginning of time.\n\nIf Dean Stanley be correct, at this time the Abyssinian Church is\nagitated by seventy distinct doctrines as to the union of the two natures\nin Christ. It is clear, then, no one man can epitomize all that has been\nuttered and written on this pregnant theme, over which the Church\ncontended fiercely three hundred years. \"Latin Christianity,\" writes\nDean Milman, \"contemplated with almost equal indifference Nestorianism\nand all its prolific race, Eutychianism, Monophysitism, Monothelitism.\"\nWhen the Reformation quickened free inquiry and religious life, Socinus\nappeared; the epitaph on his tomb shows what his friends thought of his\ndoctrine. \"Luther took off the roof of Babylon, Calvin threw down the\nwalls, Socinus dug up the foundations.\" Furious persecution was the fate\nof the holders of his opinions; Servetus was burnt by Calvin; and Joan\nBocher was sentenced to a similar fate by the boy-king Edward VI. for\ndenying the doctrine of the Trinity. With tears in his eyes as he signed\nthe warrant, he appealed to the Archbishop. \"My Lord Archbishop, in this\ncase I resign myself to your judgment; you must be answerable to God for\nit.\"\n\nUnitarianism has made way in England. When Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act\nbecame law the Unitarians in England were a small sect, and had not a\nsingle place of worship. It was not till 1779 that it ceased to be\nrequired of Dissenting ministers that they should subscribe to the\nArticles of the Church of England previous to taking the benefit of the\nToleration Act, and even this small boon was twice thrown out in the\nUpper House by the King's friends and the Bishops. In 1813, however, one\nof the most cruelly persecuting statutes which had ever disgraced the\nBritish code received its death-blow, and the Royal assent was given to\nan Act repealing all laws passed against those Christians who impugn the\ncommonly received doctrine of the Trinity. It was no easy matter to get\nthis act of justice done; the Bishops and the Peers were obstinate. In\n1772, we read, the Bishop of Llandaff made a most powerful speech, and\nproduced from the writings of Dr. Priestley passages which equally\nexcited the wonder and abhorrence of his hearers, and drew from Lord\nChatham exclamations of \"Monstrous! horrible! shocking!\" A few years\nafter we find Lord North contending it to be the duty of the State to\nguard against authorizing persons denying the doctrine of the Trinity to\nteach. Even as late as 1824, Lord Chancellor Eldon doubted (as he\ndoubted everything that was tolerant in religion or liberal in politics)\nas to the validity of this Act, and hinted that the Unitarians were\nliable to punishment at common law for denying the doctrine of the\nTrinity. Yet the Unitarians have a remote antiquity. They can trace\ntheir descent to Apostolic times, and undoubtedly were an important\nelement in the National Church, in the days of William and the Hanoverian\nsuccession.\n\nDr. Parr, says Mr. Barker, \"spoke to me of the latitudinarian divines\nwith approbation. He agreed with me in thinking that the most brilliant\nera of the British Church since the Reformation was when it abounded with\ndivines of that school;\" and certainly Unitarians may claim to be\nrepresented at the present day in Broad Churchmen within the\nEstablishment, and in divines of a similar way of thinking without. They\nhave been much helped by their antagonists. No man was less of a\nUnitarian than the late Archbishop Whately, yet, in a letter to Blanco\nWhite, he candidly confessed, \"Nothing in my opinion tends so much to\ndispose an intelligent mind towards anti-Trinitarian views as the\nTrinitarian works.\"\n\nAs a sect, the Unitarians are a small body, and at one time were much\ngiven to a display of intelligent superiority as offensive in public\nbodies as in private individuals. They were narrow and exclusive, and\nhad little effect on the masses, who were left to go to the bad, if not\nwith supercilious scorn, at any rate with genteel indifference. There\nwas in the old-fashioned Unitarian meeting-houses something eminently\nhigh and dry. In these days, when we have ceased to regard heaven--to\nquote Tom Hood--as anybody's rotten borough, we smile as a handful of\npeople sing--\n\n \"We're a garden walled around,\n Planted and made peculiar ground;\"\n\nyet no outsider a few years ago could have entered a Unitarian chapel\nwithout feeling that such, more or less, was the abiding conviction of\nall present. \"Our predominant intellectual attitude,\" Mr. Orr confesses\nto be one reason of the little progress made by the denomination. A\nUnitarian could no more conceal his sect than a Quaker. Generally he\nwore spectacles; his hair was always arranged so as to do justice to his\nphrenological development; on his mouth there always played a smile, half\nsarcastic and half self-complacent. Nor was such an expression much to\nbe wondered at when you remembered that, according to his own idea, and\ncertainly to his own satisfaction, he had solved all religious doubts,\ncleared up all religious mysteries, and annihilated, as far as regards\nhimself, human infirmities, ignorance, and superstition. It is easy to\ncomprehend how a congregation of such would be eminently respectable and\ncalm and self-possessed; indeed, so much so, that you felt inclined to\nask why it should have condescended to come into existence at all. Mrs.\nJarley's waxworks, as described by that lady herself, may be taken as a\nvery fair description of an average Unitarian congregation at a no very\nremote date. Little Nell says, \"I never saw any waxworks, ma'am; is it\nfunnier than _Punch_?\" \"Funnier?\" said Mrs. Jarley, in a shrill voice,\n\"it is not funny at all.\" \"Oh,\" said Nell, with all possible humility.\n\"It is not funny at all,\" repeated Mrs. Jarley; \"it's calm, and what's\nthat word again--critical? No, classical--that's it; it's calm and\nclassical. No low beatings and knockings about; no jokings and\nsqueakings like your precious _Punch's_, but always the same, with a\nconstantly unchanging air of coldness and gentility.\" Now it was upon\nthis coldness and gentility that the Unitarians took their stand; they\neliminated enthusiasm, they ignored the passions, and they failed to get\nthe people, who preferred, instead, the preaching of the most illiterate\nranter whose heart was in the work.\n\nIn our day a wonderful change has come over Unitarianism. It is not, and\nit never was, the Arianism born of the subtle school of Alexandrian\nphilosophy, and condemned by the orthodox Bishops at Nicea; nor is it\nSocinianism as taught in the sixteenth century, still less is it the\nMaterialism of Priestley. Men of the warmest hearts and greatest\nintellects belonging to it actually disown the name, turn away from it as\ntoo cold and barren, and in their need of more light, and life, and love,\nseek in other denominations what they lack in their own. The Rev. James\nMartineau, a man universally honoured in all sections of the universal\nchurch, confesses:--\"I am constrained to say that neither my intellectual\npreference nor my moral admiration goes heartily with the Unitarian\nheroes, sects, or productions of any age. Ebionites, Arians, Socinians,\nall seem to me to contrast unfavourably with their opponents, and to\nexhibit a type of thought and character far less worthy, on the whole, of\nthe true genius of Christianity. I am conscious that my deepest\nobligations, as a learner from others, are in almost every department to\nwriters not of my own creed. In philosophy I have had to unlearn most\nthat I had imbibed from my early text-books and the authors in chief\nfavour with them. In Biblical interpretation I derive from Calvin and\nWhitby the help that fails me in Crell and Belsham. In devotional\nliterature and religious thought I find nothing of ours that does not\npale before Augustine Tauler and Pascal; and in the poetry of the Church\nit is the Latin or the German hymns, or the lines of Charles Wesley or\nKeble, that fasten on my memory and heart, and make all else seem poor\nand cold.\" This is the language of many beside Mr. Martineau--of all,\nindeed, to whom a dogmatic theology is of little import compared with a\nChristian life.\n\nLet us attempt to describe Unitarianism negatively. In one of his\neloquent sermons in its defence, the late W. J. Fox said, \"The humanity\nof Christ is not essential to Unitarianism; Dr. Price was a Unitarian as\nwell as Dr. Priestley, so is every worshipper of the Father only, whether\nhe believes that Christ was created before all worlds, or first existed\nwhen born of Mary. Philosophical necessity is no part of Unitarianism.\nMaterialism is no part of Unitarianism. The denial of angels or devils\nis no part of Unitarianism.\" Unitarianism has no creed, yet briefly it\nmay be taken to be the denial of a Trinity of persons in the Godhead, or\nof the natural depravity of man, or that sin is the work of the devil, or\nthat the Bible is a book every word of which was dictated by God, or that\nChrist is God united to a human nature, or that atonement is\nreconciliation of God to man. Furthermore, the Unitarians deny that\nregeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit, or that salvation is\ndeliverance from the punishment of sin, or that heaven is a state of\ncondition without change, or that the torments of hell are everlasting.\nIt may be that the Broad Churchman entertains very much the same\nopinions, but then the Unitarian minister has this advantage over the\nChurch clergyman, that he is free. He has not signed articles of belief\nof a contrary character. He has not to waste his time and energy in\nsophistications which can deceive no one, still less to preach that\ndoctrine so perilous to the soul, and destructive of true spiritual\ngrowth, and demoralizing to the nation, that a religious, conscientious\nman may sign articles that can have but one sense and put upon them quite\nanother. Surely one of the most sickening characteristics of the age is\nthat divorce between the written and the living faith, which, assuming to\nbe progress, is in reality cowardice.\n\nIn our day we have seen something of an Evangelical Alliance, that is, a\nmanifestation of the great fact that people are yearning after a Catholic\nunion, and are caring less and less for denominational differences. The\nUnitarians all speak and write of the orthodox as of a body of Christians\nperfectly distinct from themselves. Yet there is an approximation\nbetween them, nevertheless. Unitarianism, as it becomes a living\nfaith--as it leans to the theology of the sweetest singers and most\nimpassioned orators of the universal Church--becomes in sentiment and\npractice orthodox; while orthodoxy, as it grows enlightened, and burst\nthe bonds of habit, and, laden with the spoils of time, gathers up the\nwisdom and the teaching of all the ages underneath the sun, sanctions the\nRationalism and the spirit of free inquiry for which Unitarianism has\never pleaded and its martyrs have died in our own and other lands.\nActually, at the meeting of the British and Foreign Unitarian Society, an\neffort was made to get rid of the title altogether, and to call\nthemselves instead a British and Foreign Free Christian Association, on\nthe plea that the Christian Church consists of all who desire to be the\nchildren of God in the spirit of Jesus Christ His Son, and that,\ntherefore, no association for the promotion of a doctrine which belongs\nto controversial theology can represent the Church of Christ. To this\nUnitarianism has attained in our time. This is the teaching of Foster,\nand Ham, and Ierson, and Martineau--a teaching seemingly in accordance\nwith the spirit of the age. Unitarian theology is always coloured with\nthe philosophy of the hour, and consequently it is now spiritual and\ntranscendental instead of material and necessitarian.\n\nAs regards London, the statistics of Unitarianism are easy of collection.\nIn their register we have the names of fifteen places of worship, where\nHoly Scripture is the only rule of faith, and difference of opinion is no\nbar to Christian communion. In reality Unitarians are stronger than they\nseem, as in their congregations you will find many persons of influence,\nof social weight, of literary celebrity. For instance, Sir Charles Lyell\nand Lord Amberley are, I believe, among the regular attendants at Mr.\nMartineau's chapel in Portland Street. At that chapel for many years\nCharles Dickens was a regular hearer. The late Lady Byron, one of the\nmost eminent women of her day, worshipped in Essex Street Chapel, when\nMr. Madge preached there. In London the Unitarians support a domestic\nmission, a Sunday-school association, an auxiliary school association,\nand a London district Unitarian society.\n\n\n\nAGGRESSIVE UNITARIANS.\n\n\nIt is not often that Unitarianism is aggressive, or that it seeks the\nheathen in our streets perishing for lack of knowledge. Apparently it\ndwells rather on the past than the present, and prefers the select and\nscholarly few to the unlettered many. Most Unitarian preachers lack\npopular power; hence it is that their places of worship are rarely\nfilled, and that they seem tacitly to assume that such is the natural and\nnecessary condition of their denomination. It is with them as it used to\nbe with the old orthodox Dissenters in well endowed places of worship\nsome thirty or forty years ago. Of them, I well remember one in a\nleading seaport in the eastern counties. I don't believe there was such\nanother heavy and dreary place in all East Anglia, certainly there never\nwas such a preacher; more learned, more solemn, more dull, more\ncalculated in a respectable way to send good people to sleep, or to\nfreeze up the hot blood and marrow of his youthful hearers. Once and but\nonce there was a sensation in that chapel. It was a cold evening in the\nvery depth of winter. There was ice in the pulpit, and ice in the pew.\nThe very lamps seemed as if it was impossible for them to burn, as the\npreacher in his heaviest manner discoursed of themes on which seraphs\nmight love to dwell. All at once rushed in a boy, exclaiming \"Fire,\nfire!\" The effect was electric--in a moment that sleepy audience was\nstartled into life, every head was raised and every ear intent. Happily\nthe alarm was a false one, but for once people were awake, and kept so\ntill the sermon was done. It is the aim of Mr. Applebee in the same way\nto rouse up the Unitarians, and in a certain sense he has succeeded. He\nhas now been preaching some eighteen months in London, in the old chapel\non Stoke Newington Green, where, for many years, Mrs. Barbauld was a\nregular attendant, and where long the pulpit was filled by no less a\ndistinguished personage than Burke and George the Third's Dr. Price; the\nresult is that the chapel is now well filled. It is true it is not a\nvery large one; nevertheless, till Mr. Applebee's advent, it was\nconsiderably larger than the congregation. Before Mr. Applebee came to\ntown he had produced a similar effect at Devonport; when he settled there\nhe had to preach to a very small congregation, but he drew people around\nhim, and ere he left a larger chapel had to be built. I take it a great\ndeal of his popularity is due to his orthodox training. It is a fact not\nmerely that Unitarianism ever recruits itself from the ranks of\northodoxy, but that it is indebted to the same source for its ablest, or\nrather most effective ministers.\n\nIn the morning Mr. Applebee preaches at Stoke Newington; in the evening\nhe preaches at 245, Mile End. It seems as if in that teeming district no\namount of religious agency may be ignored or despised. In the morning of\nthe Sabbath as you walk there, you could scarce fancy you were in a\nChristian land. It is true, church bells are ringing and the\npublic-houses are shut up, and well-clad hundreds may be seen on their\nway to their respective places of worship, and possibly you may meet a\ncrowd of two or three hundred earnest men in humble life singing revival\nhymns as they wend their way to the East London Theatre, where Mr. Booth\nteaches of heaven and happiness to those who know little of one or the\nother; nevertheless, the district has a desolate, God-forsaken\nappearance. There are butchers' shops full of people, pie-shops doing a\nroaring trade, photographers all alive, as they always are, on a Sunday.\nIf you want apples or oranges, boots or shoes, ready-made clothes,\narticles for the toilette or the drawing-room, newspapers of all\nsorts--you can get them anywhere in abundance in the district; and as you\nlook up the narrow courts and streets on your left, you will see in the\ndirty, eager crowds around ample evidence of Sabbath desecration. I\nheard a well-known preacher the other day say it was easy to worship God\nin Devonshire. Equally true is it that it is not easy to worship Him in\nMile End or Whitechapel. The Unitarians assume that a large number of\nintelligent persons abstain from attending a religious service on Sundays\nin the most part \"because the doctrines usually taught\" are \"adverse to\nreason and the plain teaching of Jesus Christ.\" Under this impression\nthey have opened the place in Mile End. In a prospectus widely\ncirculated in the district, they publish a statement of their creed as\nfollows: 1. That \"there is but one God, one undivided Deity, and one\nMediator between God and man--the man Christ Jesus.\" 2. That \"the life\nand teachings of Jesus Christ are the purest, the divinest, and truest;\"\nHis death consecrating His testimony and completing the devotion of His\nlife; his resurrection and ascension forming the pledge and symbol of\ntheir own. 3. \"That sin inevitably brings its own punishment, and that\nall who break God's laws must suffer the penalty in consequence;\" at the\nsame time they \"reject the idea with abhorrence that God will punish men\neternally for any sins they may have committed or may commit.\" Such is\nthe formula of doctrine, on which as a basis the Unitarian Mission at\nMile End has been established, and to a certain extent with some measure\nof success. It is charged generally against Unitarians that they have no\npositive dogma. The Unitarianism of Mr. Applebee has no such drawback.\nHe has a definite creed, which, whether you believe it or not, at any\nrate you can understand. In the eyes of many working men, that is of the\nclass to whom he preaches at Mile End, he has also the additional\nadvantage of being well known in the political arena. As a lecturer on\nbehalf of advanced principles in many of our large towns he has produced\na very great effect. I confess I have not yet overcome the horror I felt\nwhen I saw at the last election how night after night he spoke at\nNorthampton on behalf of Mr. Bradlaugh's candidature. Surely a\nsecularist can have no claim as such on the sympathies of a Christian\nminister. Yet at Northampton Mr. Applebee laboured as if the success of\nMr. Bradlaugh were the triumph of Gospel truth, and as if in the pages of\nthe _National Reformer_ the working men, to whom it especially appeals,\nmight learn the way to life eternal. But Mr. Applebee is by no means\nalone. In Stamford Street Chapel and in Islington you have what I\nbelieve the Unitarians would consider still more favourable specimens of\naggressive Unitarianism.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\nTHE WESLEYAN METHODISTS.\n\n\nTertullian wrote in his apology, or rather in his appeal, to the heathen\npersecutors on behalf of the Christians of his age, \"We are but a people\nof yesterday, and yet we have filled every place belonging to\nyou--cities, islands, castles, towns, assemblies, your very camps, your\ntribes, companies, palaces, senates, forum. We leave you your temples\nonly. We can count your armies; our numbers in a single province will be\ngreater.\" The language was boastful, but it was founded on fact.\nWesleyan orators might indulge in a similar rhetorical flourish. In 1729\nJohn Wesley returned to Oxford, intending to reside there permanently as\na tutor. He found that his brother Charles, then a student at Christ\nChurch, had, during his absence, and chiefly through his influence,\nacquired views and feelings corresponding with his own, and had prevailed\non two or three young men to unite with him in receiving the Lord's\nSupper weekly, and in cultivating strict morality in their conduct, and\nregularity in their demeanour. \"Here is a new set of Methodists sprung\nup,\" said one. The name took at once, and was thenceforth applied\nderisively to the little band. To this company John Wesley united\nhimself; and of it his ardour and his wonderful talent of organization\nand for ruling his fellows soon made him the head. In the world's\nhistory a hundred and thirty years is but a little while; the fathers and\nfounders of Wesleyan Methodism have as it were but recently passed away.\nThere may be some living now whose little eyes saw Wesley's body carried\nto the grave in 1791, or whose young ears heard the last public\nutterances of the dying saint. And now it appears from the\nrecently-published returns of the Conference that the total number of\nmembers, not mere attendants, at Wesleyan places of worship, is in Great\nBritain at the present time 342,380, being an increase of 5310; and there\nare upon trial besides for Church membership 24,926 candidates. A people\nwhich have thus grown, which have thus become a power in the State, to\nwhom Dr. Pusey has appealed for aid, surely are well worth a study.\n\nIn an exhaustive work by Mr. Pierce we have, as it were, the inner life\nof Wesleyan Methodism, methodically arranged and placed in chronological\norder. \"The attempt,\" says the Rev. G. Osborn, D.D., in his Introductory\nPreface, \"is made in honesty and candour; and has required a large amount\nof labour on the part of the compiler, which, however, his love and\nadmiration of the system have made, if not absolutely pleasant, yet far\nless irksome than under other circumstances it would have been.\" We\nmust, in fairness, add that Mr. Pierce has certainly exhausted his theme,\nand his non-Wesleyan readers. A catechism of 800 large pages of small\ntype is more trying than even that of the Assembly of Divines. Surely it\nwas possible to do what Mr. Pierce has done in a more readable form.\nStill, however, his work is invaluable as a cyclopaedia of Wesleyan\nfaith, and organization, and practice.\n\nMr. Wesley had originally no intention of seceding from the Church of\nEngland. Dr. Stevens, in his very interesting work, has shown how, step\nby step, he was forced into secession, and was compelled, by the force of\ncircumstances--the irresistible logic of events--to abandon his very\nstrong Church principles. In this respect Conference has rigidly adhered\nto Wesley's teaching. \"What we are,\" it stated in 1824, \"as a religious\nbody we have become both in doctrine and discipline by the leadings of\nthe providence of God. But for the special invitation of the Holy Spirit\nthat great work of which we are all the subjects, and which bears upon it\nmarks so unequivocal of an eminent work of God, could not have existed.\nIn that form of discipline and government which it has assumed it was\nadapted to no preconceived plan of man. Our venerable founder kept only\none end in view--the diffusion of Scriptural authority through the land,\nand the preservation of all who had believed through grace in the\nsimplicity of the Gospel. This guiding principle he steadily followed,\nand to that he surrendered cautiously but faithfully whatever in his\npreconceived opinions he discovered to be contrary to the indications of\nHim whose the work was, and to whom he had yielded up himself implicitly\nas His servant and instrument. In the further growth of the societies\nthe same guidance of Providential circumstances, the same signs of the\ntimes, led to that full provision for the direction of the societies, and\nfor their being supplied with all the ordinances of the Christian Church,\nand to that more perfect pastoral care which the number of the members\nand the vastness of the congregations (collected not out of the spoils of\nother churches, but out of the world which lieth in wickedness)\nimperatively required.\" Thus, practically abhorring the name of Dissent,\nMethodists became Dissenters themselves, and certainly as a sect put\nforth, as the above extract teaches, the strongest claims to a Divine\norigin and sanction.\n\nIn 1784 Conference had a legal habitation and a name. All power was then\nplaced in its hands as regards the Wesleyans. \"The duration of the\nyearly assembly of Conference shall not be less than five days nor more\nthan three weeks.\" It has to fill up vacancies by death, elect a\nPresident and Secretary, expel or receive preachers--who must, however,\nhave been in connexion with it as preachers for twelve months,--and\nregulate all the affairs of the body. Appointments of preachers are\nlimited for three years. According to the original rule, no person could\nbe a member of the Methodist Society unless he met in class. If he\nneglected to do so for three weeks in succession (if not prevented by\nsickness, distance, or unavoidable business), he was considered by such\nneglect to exclude himself. Consequently, the meeting in class is still\nmade a fundamental condition of membership, and is indeed the only gate\nof admission into society. Once a quarter each of these classes is\nvisited by one of the travelling preachers, for the purpose of\nascertaining the spiritual state of every member, and giving to each a\nticket or printed badge of membership, by the production of which he is\nadmitted to any of the more private means of grace. The preachers are\ninstructed to give notes to none till they are recommended by a leader\nwith whom they have met at least two months on trial. If in the opinion\nof a leader any reasonable objection exists to the character and conduct\nof any person who is on trial, such may be stated, and, if established to\nthe satisfaction of the meeting, the ticket may be withheld. No\nbackslider after gross sin may be readmitted till after three months.\nAll members are expected to meet in the classes belonging to their\nrespective circuits, and all persons acting as local preachers,\nclass-leaders, stewards, conductors of prayer-meetings, or sustaining any\nother office in the body, are expected to belong to the circuits in which\nthey reside. In order to avoid conformity to the world, it is forbidden\nto teach children dancing, to dress according to the fashion of the day,\nto drink spirits, to smoke tobacco, or take snuff, to indulge in evil\nconversation or strife. Music, and such-like diversions, are also\ninterdicted. In the Conference of 1836 similar injunctions were\nrepeated, as it observed with sincere regret in some quarters \"a\ndisposition to indulge in and encourage amusements which it cannot regard\nas harmless or allowable.\" The strict observance of the Sabbath is\nenforced. On that day members are not to employ a barber, or to trade,\nor go to a feast, or engage in any military exercise. In 1848, convinced\nof the great and growing importance of a careful observance of the Lord's\nday to the Church of Christ and the nation at large, the Conference\nappointed a committee to watch over the general interests of the Sabbath,\nto observe the course of events in reference to it, to collect such\ninformation as may serve the cause of Sabbath observance, to correspond\nwith persons engaged in similar designs, and to report from year to year\nthe result of their inquiries, with such suggestions as they may think\nproper to offer. The duty of family worship is strongly recommended.\nThe power of expulsion is conferred only on preachers, who have ever\nappointed leaders, chosen stewards, and admitted members. No one is to\nbelong to the society who is guilty of smuggling or bribery at elections.\n\nFor the support of their ministers most careful provision has been made.\nThe direct means by which funds are raised is that of weekly and\nquarterly collections in the classes, and quarterly collections in all\nthe chapels. It is expected that every member, in accordance with the\noriginal rule of Mr. Wesley, should contribute at least one penny per\nweek and one shilling per quarter.\n\nI have spoken of the class meetings. Band Societies are the same, except\nthat they are divided into smaller companies and are on a stricter plan\nas to the faithful interchange of mutual reproof and advice. The\nquestions proposed to every one before he is admitted are such as these:\nHave you forgiveness of your sins? Have you peace with God through our\nLord Jesus Christ? Have you the witness of God's Spirit with your own\nthat you are a child of God? Is the love of God shed abroad in your\nheart? Has no sin, outward or inward, dominion over you? Do you desire\nto be told of all your faults? Do you desire that every one of us should\ntell you from time to time whatever we fear--whatever we hear concerning\nyou--that in doing this we should cut to the quick and search your heart\nto the bottom? And so on. Again, at every meeting it is to be asked,\n\"What known sins have you committed since our last meeting? What\ntemptations have you met with? How were you delivered? What have you\nthought, said, or done of which you doubt whether it be sin or not?\" To\nthe members of these bands the minutest injunctions are given. Amongst\nother things, they are to \"pawn nothing--no, not to save life.\"\n\nSociety Meetings were instituted by Mr. Wesley immediately after the\nformation of the first Methodist Society, and were regarded by him of\ngreat importance in a spiritual point of view. All preachers were to\nhold them on the Lord's day; only those members who had tickets were to\nbe admitted. On these occasions the society is to be closely and\naffectionately addressed by the preacher on those important subjects\nwhich relate to personal and domestic religion. A Methodist love-feast\nis a meeting at which none are present but the members of the society,\nand such as have obtained special permission from the minister. The\nmeeting begins with singing and prayer, after which the stewards, or\nother officials of the society, distribute to each person a portion of\nbread or cake, and then a little water. A collection is then made for\nthe poor. Liberty is then given to all to relate their religious\nexperience in accordance with the words of the Psalmist--\"Come and hear,\nall ye that fear God, and I will tell what He hath done for my soul.\"\nThis service is usually held once a quarter, continues about two hours,\nand is concluded with prayer. The times for holding public\nprayer-meetings are not fixed by any established rule of the connexion,\nbut are left to the discretion of the superintendent of the circuit, who\nusually appoints such times as may be most convenient to the people of\nthe district. Prayer-meetings are generally held on Sunday mornings and\nweek-days. Missionary prayer-meetings are held once a month, and\nmeetings in private houses for prayer are strongly recommended.\nQuarterly days of fasting and humiliation are also held. The religious\nservices known as Watch Nights are usually celebrated on the New\nYear's-eve, but they are not always confined to the close of the year,\nfor it is the custom of some places to hold them quarterly. On the first\nSunday afternoon in the New Year, a solemn service is held entitled the\nRenewing of the Covenant. It generally commences at two and closes at\nfive. None but members or those who have obtained special permission\nfrom the preacher may be present.\n\nBaptism is regarded by the Methodists as a dedicatory act on the part of\nChristian parents. The Sacrament is their most solemn and sacred\nfestival. In the bread and wine they see no mystical efficacy, but a\nsignificant emblem of the body and blood of Christ; but they do not make\nit the test of Church membership. Originally the Wesleyans went to their\nparish church for the purpose of celebrating it, and it was not till\nafter Wesley's death that the body received the Sacrament in their own\nchapels, and from their own ministers.\n\nOn the Sabbath morning public worship is usually commenced by the reading\nof the Church of England service in a more or less abridged form. The\nConference has appointed that, where this is not done, the lessons for\nthe day, as appointed by the Calendar, should be read. A hymn is then\nsung from a hymn-book compiled by Charles Wesley, and subsequently much\nenlarged. Extemporaneous prayer follows; then another hymn; then, unless\nthe Church service has been previously used, the reading of portions of\nthe Scriptures; then an extemporaneous sermon, and the worship is\nconcluded with singing and prayer. With the exception of the Church\nservice, the same order is observed in the evening.\n\nAmong Wesleyan institutions must be placed first and foremost pastoral\ninstruction. Catechumen classes for the instruction and edification of\nthe young are held by catechists. Sunday-schools were next established;\nthen day and infant schools. In 1843 steps were taken for the\nestablishment of the Wesleyan normal schools in Westminster. This led in\n1856 to the establishment of the Westminster Training College. Other\nschools, such as those at Sheffield, Taunton, and Dublin exist for the\nchildren of such as can pay for a good education for their children. The\nKingswood and Woodhouse Grove Schools are supported by the denomination\nfor the free training of the children of preachers. Then steps were\ntaken for the establishment of the Wesleyan Theological Institution at\nRichmond and Didsbury. In 1866 it was resolved to have one at Headingley\nfor training missionaries. The responsibility of recommending candidates\nfor the ministry originally rested upon the superintendent. He proposes\nhim to the quarterly meeting. The candidate is then recommended to the\nensuing annual district meeting, and they recommend him to Conference,\nwho decide. The candidate must previously have been a local preacher.\nAfter a certain time of trial the candidate is ordained or admitted into\nfull connexion, after a private examination by the President and a few\nsenior ministers whom he may select. The ordination is by imposition of\nhands. No travelling preacher can marry during the term of his probation\nwithout violating the rules and rendering himself liable to be dismissed\nfrom his itinerancy. There are besides, assistants and superintendent\npreachers. Every preacher shall be considered as a supernumerary for\nfour years after he has desisted from travelling, and shall afterwards be\ndeemed superannuated. No person is eligible to be a local preacher\nunless he be a regularly accredited member of society, and meet in class.\nHe has to undergo an examination of a private nature.\n\nIt would take far more space than I have at command to continue the\nsubject. The Wesleyans have a Stationary Committee to draw up a plan for\nstationing ministers; a Committee to guard their privileges; a Committee\nto look after and support worn-out preachers; another to consider the\ncase of the widows; another for the maintenance of the children of\nministers; another for the Home Mission and what is called the Contingent\nFund. In 1862 Juvenile Home and Foreign Missionary Societies were\nestablished. The General Wesleyan Missionary Society, as it is now\nknown, dates from 1817.\n\nThe chapels are, of course, the property of the denomination, and the\nsame may be said of the preachers' dwelling-houses. There is a Chapel\nLoan Fund, a Connexional Relief and Extension Fund, a Wesleyan Chapel\nCommittee, and a Metropolitan Committee for the same purpose, which,\nsince 1862, has granted 11,625_l._ to nineteen chapels in the\nmetropolitan districts, which cost altogether 89,499_l._, and gave\naccommodation to more than 17,000 hearers.\n\nThe Methodist Book Establishment consists of the President and\nex-President, the members of the London Book Committee, thirty-nine\ntravelling preachers, and the representatives of the Irish Conference.\nThere is also a Wesleyan Tract Society.\n\nSuch is Methodism on paper; of Methodism in practice we can only say\n_Circumspice_. In London there are 132 Wesleyan, 54 Primitive Methodist,\n52 United Methodist Free Church, 9 Reformed Wesleyan, and 13 Methodist\nNew Connexion Chapels.\n\n\n\nAT A WATCH-NIGHT SERVICE.\n\n\nMethodism has one special institution. Its love-feasts are old--old as\nApostolic times. Its class meetings are the confessional in its simplest\nand most unobjectionable type, but in the institution of the watch-night\nit boldly struck out a new path for itself. In publicly setting apart\nthe last fleeting moments of the old year and the first of the new to\npenitence, and special prayer, and stirring appeal, and fresh resolve, it\nhas set an example which other sects are preparing to follow. In the\nChurch of England the Methodist plan is being extensively carried out.\nOn last New Year's-eve there were midnight services in the churches in\nall parts of London. Especially have the Ritualists availed themselves\nof the opportunity. Dr. Cumming chose the occasion for preaching a\nsermon to young men, and Mr. Spurgeon's great congregation met, as usual,\nto see the old year out and the new year in. But after all, the\nMethodist services were the most numerous. In the metropolitan district\nthey advertised services on watch-night at no less than seventy-three\nchapels, and there were other smaller ones at which watch-services were\nheld, though they were not advertised. At first sight there seem to be\nmany obvious objections to midnight meetings. They keep people up late;\nthey keep them out in the streets late; they interfere with the routine\nof business and the prescribed order of domestic life; they cause\ndelicate people to wake up next morning with an aching brow and a fevered\nframe. To others they bring catarrh, disorder of the mucous membrane,\ncold, necessitating as a remedy water-gruel and cough mixtures.\nObviously, however, these are minor considerations. It may be asked: Is\nnot the soul, that never dies, of more value than the body, which\nto-morrow may be dust and ashes? The life that now is--what is it\ncompared with the life that is to come?\n\nLast year's eve I was one of a crowd that found their way to the ancient\nhead-quarters of Wesleyanism--the fine old chapel which, it is to be\nhoped, will not be improved off the face of the earth, in the City Road.\nIt was an unpleasant night to tear one's self away from one's study fire\nor the friendly circle. The rain was heavy, the streets were a mass of\nmud, and the melancholy lamps, which are the disgrace of such a\nmetropolis as London, did little more than make the darkness visible.\nOver all the City a Stygian gloom prevailed, except where the light\nblazed forth from the gin-palaces, which seemed, as I passed, to be doing\na roaring trade, and to be filled with sots but too happy to find an\nexcuse for the glass. Occasionally also a cigar shop threw out a little\nray of light on the pavement and across the street, and now and then from\nan upper window the lamps gleamed, and you heard the click of billiards.\nSo still was the traffic that even the beggars had gone home. Here and\nthere an omnibus, here and there a cab crawling for the last time, for\nthe new Act was to come into operation the next day--here and there a\npoliceman, here and there a belated clerk, here and there an\nunfortunate--such were all you saw as you paced along the deserted City\nthat night. You could almost fancy its inhabitants had fled as if an\nenemy were on its way, or as if the plague ran riot in its streets. A\nlittle after ten the scene began to change. Doors were opened by heads\nof families doubtful as to the state of the weather. Up area steps\ncreeped ancient males and females to do what they had done years and\nyears before. Children, young men and women, fathers and mothers,\nmasters and servants, got out into the streets. I followed them, and was\nsoon seated in the chapel in the City Road. All round me were monuments\nof Wesleyan worthies. It were a task too long to describe their virtues\nor record their memories here. Up in that pulpit Wesley preached, and\nthere the imprint of his genius yet survives. It is hard to realize what\na power Wesleyanism is. I did not expect to see many; in reality the\ncommodious chapel was well filled. The service began at half-past ten,\nbut it was not till long past that hour that the congregation had\nentirely assembled. It seemed to me this was a great mistake. For half\nan hour or so the opening and shutting of doors and the entrance of\nhearers interfered much with the comfort of those who had already come.\nUnder these circumstances the service was trying to all taking part in\nit. Neither preacher nor hearer had a fair chance. In reality the\nattraction of the night was the sermon of the pastor of the place, the\nRev. M. C. Osborn, and he did not begin till his pulpit had been occupied\nby an assistant for an hour. After it was all over it puzzled me to\nperceive what had been gained by the preliminary service and the\nassistant's sermon. The assistant was a young man, and it was the sort\nof a sermon a properly trained young man would preach. The subject was\nthe barren figtree, a striking subject treated with all the tediousness\nof commonplace. It was clear the preacher had read more than he felt, or\nhe would not have spoken of the responsibility of a figtree, or bothered\nhimself with the threefold sense which cropped up under his three\ndivisions--first, as to the figtree, then as to the state of the Jews to\nwhom Christ told his parable, and then as to its applicability at the\npresent time. His great virtues were fluency, perfect coolness and\nself-possession, and a distinct and powerful utterance. When he came to\nthe terrible climax, when he spoke of the condemnation which awaited the\nfinally impenitent, when he repeated how there could be no hope for such\nas they, how for them there was agony of which no tongue could tell the\nhorror, or no imagination conceive, there was no pathos in his tones, no\ntear trembling in his eye, no sign of sensibility in his heart. The\nSaviour wept over Jerusalem as He saw the coming fate of the city that\nhad mocked at His warnings, that had stoned the prophets, that was to\ncrucify Himself. It did not seem to me that the sermon produced much\neffect. When it has been the writer's privilege to converse with\nWesleyans they have contrasted their warmth with the coldness of the\nservices of other denominations; but in Episcopalian church or\nIndependent or Baptist chapel--nay, at a Quaker's meeting--such a service\nas that preliminary to Mr. Osborn's appearance might have been held\nwithout causing any sensation on account of its extra warmth and fire.\nIt was plain, and simple, and orthodox, and when it was over the people\nseemed to feel that the proper thing had been said, and that was all.\n\nMr. Osborn next entered the pulpit, while the people were singing with\nwell-trained voices and without the help of an organ one of the\nwell-known Wesleyan hymns. His appearance excites confidence. As he\nstood up there seemed in his face something of the fatherly feeling of a\nreal, not a conventional bishop. A lay brother engaged in prayer. In\nspite of its boisterous tone and stentorian _Ohs_ and _ands_ it was deep,\nand heartfelt, and impressive, and invoked the responses which custom\npermits in a Wesleyan chapel alone. Then came a short sermon from Mr.\nOsborn, from the text in Jeremiah which tells how \"the harvest is past,\nthe summer is ended, and we are not saved.\" In his hands the text\nsuggested three thoughts--1. There are special seasons for men to become\nreligious. 2. There is a possibility of letting such seasons pass away\nunimproved. 3. A time will come when the consciousness of such neglected\nseasons will awaken in the mind bitter memory and unavailing regret. The\nsermon was in its way wonderfully ripe and full. To every man living\nunder the Gospel is salvation offered. To some that offer is made in\nyouth, or by the preaching of the Gospel, or by providential\ndispensations, or by revivals of religion occurring in their\nneighbourhood. But God never coerces any one, nor interferes with man's\nfree will. Human law proceeds upon the supposition of man's perfect\nability to control his actions, and God does the same. The grace of God\nis resistible, as the Bible shows in the case of the Antediluvians, of\nPharaoh, and Jerusalem; but too late people who resist that grace will\nremember it, and that remembrance will form the most bitter ingredient in\ntheir lot. As it is, when people are going wrong, they refuse to think.\nThe preacher then dwelt on the last words--not saved. Most powerfully\ndid he carry out that meaning as he pictured the shipwrecked mariner who\nsees the sail that was to have saved him pass out of sight; or as the\nbesieged army behold the succour that was to have rescued them cut off;\nor as the criminal left for execution hears there is no reprieve for him;\nor as that poor woman with her babe and little ones, who found the other\nnight (alluding to a tragedy which had just occurred) the fire-escape\nfailed to reach them, and fell a sacrifice to the devouring flames. But\nwhilst there was life there was hope; and then the preacher appealed to\nall on that last night of the old year to accept God's offer of life, and\nto cast themselves at His feet. For about ten minutes every head was\nbowed in silent prayer. In that great assembly I saw no wandering eye;\nand then, just after the clock had struck twelve, all rose to sing--\n\n \"Come let us anew our journey pursue;\"\n\nand after a short prayer by the preacher for blessings during the coming\nyear, the service closed, and out I went into the streets, suddenly as it\nwere wakened up into life--while church bells rang out the old 1869, and\nrang in A.D. 1870.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\nTHE QUAKERS.\n\n\nModern Christianity, it is often said, has little in common with that of\napostolic times: I fear it is equally true that the Quakerism of to-day\nhas little in common with the heroic Quakerism of an earlier day. It was\nin 1646, during the prevalence of civil and religious commotions, that\nGeorge Fox commenced his labours as minister of the Gospel, being then in\nthe twenty-third year of his age. It was a hard time of it he and his\ndisciples had; no men ever fared worse and for less provocation given, at\nthe hands of arbitrary powers, than did the Quakers. Baxter thus\ndescribes them:--\"They made the light which every man hath within him to\nbe his sufficient rule, and consequently the Scripture and ministry were\nset light by. They spake much for the dwelling and working of the Spirit\nin us, but little of justification and the pardon of sin and our\nreconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. They pretend their\ndependence on the Spirit's conduct against set times of prayer and\nagainst sacraments, and against undue esteem of Scripture and ministry.\nThey will not have the Scriptures called the Word of God. Their\nprincipal zeal lieth in railing at the ministers as hirelings, deceivers,\nfalse prophets, &c., and in refusing to swear before a magistrate, or to\nput off their hat to any, or to say _you_ instead of _thou_ or _thee_,\nwhich are their words to all. At first they did use to fall into\nwailings and tremblings at their meetings, and pretend to be intently\nacted on by the Spirit, but now that is ceased. They only meet, and he\nthat pretendeth to be moved by the Spirit speaketh, and sometimes they\nsay nothing but sit an hour or more in silence and then depart.\" The\nmost fiery, the most untameable of men were the old Quakers, now a Friend\nis the sleekest and fattest of men; lives in a style of the utmost\ncomfort, and wears the best of everything; there are no such homes of\nluxury, no such lives of ease as amongst the Quakers. It is no wonder\nthey are a long-lived race. They mingle little with the world, and find\na peace which often the worldlings miss. As a religious organization\nthey are becoming weaker every day; they have a few chapels in various\nparts of London, but as the old worshippers die off no new ones appear.\nAt their last annual meeting Mr. R. Barclay, who referred with\nsatisfaction to the fact that all over the land, Sunday by Sunday, 1100\nFriends were engaged in teaching 1400 children and 3000 adults, regretted\nto find that no other Church had declined so much either in this country\nor in America since 1720. In the United States 13,000 seats were closed\nin the meeting-houses between 1850 and 1860. \"If,\" said he, \"other\nChurches had declined as we have done, Christianity must have died out.\"\nAs regards the metropolis they seem to be in a little better condition;\nthe last statistics of membership show an increase of 95 in the year, the\nwhole number being 6608 males, 7286 females; total, 13,894; the births\nexactly balanced the deaths. There were 121 new members from\nconvincement and 61 resignations, against 31 disownments there were 19\nreinstated. The habitual attenders at the places of worship are 3803,\nbeing an increase of 145. It was remarked by a senior Friend that the\nresignations were fewer and the convincements more than in any year since\naccounts had been kept; Mr. Tallack gave it as his opinion that the\nSociety was never more healthy, not even in the first years of its\nexistence; J. Grubb believed that there was a considerable change for the\nbetter, both as regards public and private prayer. It is to be hoped\nsuch may turn out to be the case. The great characteristic testimony of\nthe Friends, particularly against ecclesiastical pretensions on the one\nside and against religious forms on the other, is as much requisite now\nas ever; there is, as one of their official documents remarks, \"a strong\ntendency in the human mind to substitute the form of religion for the\npower, and to satisfy the conscience by a cold compliance with exterior\nperformances while the heart remains unchanged. And inasmuch as the\nbaptism of the Holy Ghost and the communion of the body and blood of\nChrist, of which water baptism, and bread and wine, are admitted to be\nonly signs, are not dependent on those outward ceremonies or necessarily\nconnected with them, and are declared in Holy Scripture to be effectual\nto the salvation of the soul, which the signs are not, Friends have\nalways believed it to be their place and duty to hold forth to the world\na clear and decided testimony to the living substance--the spiritual work\nof Christ in the soul and a blessed communion with him there.\"\nPractically, in the promotion of temperance and education, in the\nimprovement of prisons and prison discipline, in the advocacy of\nuniversal peace and freedom, in philanthropy and charity, the Friends\nhave ever led the way. For such ends they have freely sacrificed money\nand time, and energy and life itself; nor do they forget those of their\nown household, as it were; every poor Friend who may be unable to earn a\nlivelihood usually receives aid from his brother members to the extent of\n20_l._ to 40_l._ per annum (administered privately in general), according\nto age or infirmity. When the poorer Friends are out of a situation they\nare often helped to obtain employment by various arrangements under free\nregistries, and by the aid of private inquiries for vacancies. In\naddition it may be remarked that a large number of charitable bequests\nand special funds have been bequeathed for the local or general benefit\nof the members of this religious community. The City of London owes much\nto Quakers, who in time past by their industry and self-denial laid the\nfoundations of many of its noblest charities and its most princely\nmercantile establishments.\n\n\n\nJONATHAN GRUBB AT THE AGRICULTURAL HALL.\n\n\nLong, long ago the wise men came from the East, and from the east of\nEngland has come to us a man wise, in the opinion of his friends, in the\nbest wisdom. It is of Mr. Jonathan Grubb I write, who has been living in\nSudbury for many years, and who for the last twelve or fourteen has\nalmost entirely devoted himself to missionary work in various parts of\nEngland, Scotland, and Ireland. I think as a temperance lecturer he\nfirst came before the public. It was the sin of drunkenness which first\nled him to lecturing. He had seen the evils of intemperance; he had seen\nwhat poverty, what wretchedness and crime were its results; and much and\ndeeply moved thereby he mounted the platform, which more or less ever\nsince has been familiar with his name. While in Cornwall on one occasion\nhe found an opportunity of talking on something else--on that common\nsalvation without which, in the opinion of pious people, temperance\nitself is of little worth. The opportunity was one of great spiritual\nbenefit, and ever since he has been engaged in what is called by the\ndenomination to which he belongs--the denomination whose energetic and\nuntiring philanthropy has been honoured all the world over--the\ndenomination which, from the days of George Fox, has ever borne a silent\nprotest against the frivolities of fashion and the vanities of\nlife--public preaching. In the opinion of those excellent people an\nordinary minister is not a public preacher at all. They reserve that\ntitle exclusively for one who, like Mr. Grubb, goes out into the world,\nas it were, collects the crowds by the wayside, on the seashore, in the\ncrowded street, and there, to those for whose souls few care, who\notherwise would perish for lack of knowledge, proclaims that Gospel which\ntells how, for such as they, pardon can be secured and life and\nimmortality brought to light. In our day no Friend is more extensively\nengaged in this work than Mr. Grubb. In all parts of Suffolk his labours\nhave been many. In various districts of the metropolis he has been\nsimilarly engaged. He has also spent much time in Ireland--where he has\nbeen listened to and aided by Roman Catholic and Protestant alike. It\nwas only on one occasion that he has ever been prevented from preaching\nby the intrusion of a mob, and that was (tell it not in Gath, publish it\nnot in the streets of Askalon) in no less ancient and respectable a\nborough than that of Bury St. Edmunds. In the filthiest and most\ndepraved districts of London, in the very heart of Roman Catholic\nIreland, he has never been interfered with at all. Of course some of\nthis success is due to Mr. Grubb himself. With his one aim to tell how\nsinners may be saved, he has been remarkably successful in avoiding\ncollision with class feelings and sectarian animosities. His manner is\nalso eminently kind and gentle; but after all does not his experience\nalso show, what we have long believed, that honest, simple, faithful\npreaching is never exercised in vain? It may be also said that some of\nMr. Grubb's qualifications are hereditary. By birth he is an Irishman\n(he comes from Tipperary), and his mother was an eminent Quakeress, and\nextensively useful in her day. It was a sermon from her that was the\ninstrument, humanly speaking, in the conversion of one of the most\nrespected of our open-air preachers in London at the present day. We\ntake much from those to whom we owe our being. Why should we not also\ninherit some of their excellences? The question may be asked though not\nanswered here.\n\nBut to return to Mr. Grubb. The last time I heard him he had a truly\nmagnificent congregation at the Agricultural Hall, Islington. Mr. Thain\nDavidson's well meant effort to attract outsiders, and to keep up a large\nSunday-afternoon service, now that the novelty of the thing has passed\naway, seems as successful as ever. He and his people have lately moved\ninto the new hall, a most commodious building, and right well do they\nfill it. It will be much to be regretted if this scheme fall through for\nwant of funds. It appears much good has resulted from it. Not a week\npasses but cases occur in which it has been shown how awakening have been\nthe addresses delivered. A service that only lasts an hour is a\ndesideratum. No one could have listened to Mr. Grubb without feeling how\nhis kind of address is pre-eminently adapted to encourage and stimulate\nthe religious life, to arrest the attention of the impenitent, and to\ntouch especially the hearts of the young. Mr. Grubb takes no text,\npreaches no formal sermon, aims at no rhetorical flight, does not strike\nyou as being very intellectual, or very original, or very learned. It\nmay be that he is all three--it certainly is not for me to say that he is\nnot--but whether he be so or not, it is clear that he judges and judges\nrightly that, at the Agricultural Hall on a Sunday afternoon what is\nwanted is not the glare of the rhetorician, not the learning of the\ndivine, not the elaborate argument of the trained logician, not the fancy\nof the poet, not the dramatic action of the elocutionist, but the tender\nbeseeching of one who, saved by Divine mercy himself, and assured of all\nits fulness and omnipotence, would force a similar boon on all around.\nIt was thus he preached on Sunday afternoon. He seemed to speak out of\nthe depth of a holy love, in language very simple, abounding with the\ncommonest, and, as some might think, most worn of Scripture quotations,\nyet with a pathos that, as it came from the heart, at once reached the\nhearts of all his hearers. A more homely or plainer-looking man than Mr.\nGrubb you don't often see. As he stood there, with his sunburnt, honest\nface, with his suit of sober black and grey, with his rustic air, you\nfelt that his power (for there was not a single unattentive hearer) was\nsuch as a Whitefield or a Wesley wielded, and which has never been\nexerted in our world in vain. Man's fallen state, his need of pardon,\nhis need of pardon now, the danger of delay, the duty of all instantly to\nreceive the proffered grace--such were his themes. He told them he had\nstood by the death-bed of a woman who had believed that there was no\nmercy for such a wicked old sinner as she was, and had heard her song of\njoy as she passed from the poverty and sorrow of earth to the wealth and\njoy of heaven. Yes, for all there was mercy, and that all there present\nmight attain it was his prayer; and as thus he spoke, light came to his\neye and animation to his voice, and, with uplifted arm and flowing\nutterance, he gave you his idea of the true evangelist--the man always\nneeded in our land--and it is to be feared, in spite of all our boasted\nChristianity, never more than now. But it is not for me to say what are\nMr. Grubb's peculiar qualifications for his work. What they are may be\nbest gathered from his abundant labours. In his own denomination it is\nwell known how numerous are his efforts and how great his successes. He\nis a fitting representative of active and spiritual Quakerism. Men say\nthat body is not what it was; that it is losing its power; that it has\nlittle hold upon the people; that it makes no converts. It may be so,\nbut if it has many such ministers as Mr. Grubb in its midst, as much as\nany it is fitted with a living ministry which will go out into the\nhighways and hedges and bring back to the fold those who have wandered\nfar away. His appeal is not to the high and mighty, to the rich, the\nlearned, or the great, but to the poorest of the poor. Mr. Grubb's\nmission is evidently a special one. Amongst fallen women, in districts\nwhere ragged-schools and churches are required, in corners of our land\nwhere no regular means of grace exist, he finds special charm and need.\nIt is pleasant to see him supported by the good men and true of his own\ndenomination and others. It is evident that at the Agricultural\nHall--perhaps all the better for its not being professedly such--we have\nthe true idea of an Evangelical Alliance, an alliance for Christian work\nrather than of Christian creed, an alliance practical, not speculative,\nnot in form and dogma, but in life and love.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\nTHE MORAVIANS IN FETTER LANE.\n\n\nWhat virtue there is in an if. Without going as far back as the Book of\nGenesis, and thinking what a different thing life would have been if the\nmother of us all had not plucked and eaten\n\n \"The fruit\n Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste\n Brought death into the world and all our woe,\"\n\nit is very obvious much depends upon the ifs. If Sir Robert Peel had\nencouraged the advances of Disraeli, how different would have been the\nstate of politics in this country. If Louis Philippe had shot Louis\nNapoleon when he had the power to do so, the Orleanists might have been\nthe rulers of France. If old George III. had had brains as well as\nself-esteem and a stubborn will, what untold horrors might have been\naverted from England and Ireland. If Balthazar Gerard had not fired his\npistol at William the Silent, Belgium at this time would have been as\nintensely Protestant as it is now intensely Catholic. If John Wesley had\nperished in the fire at Epworth Parsonage, where would have been the\nMethodist Revival of the last century? And if Wesley himself had not\nbroken from the little band who met in Fetter Lane, what sect in England\nwould have equalled in numbers or usefulness that of the Moravians? Now,\nin this teeming London they have but one place of worship, and that but\nvery indifferently filled. It does not even present the usual appearance\nof a place of worship, and thus attract notice; the stranger passes it\nby. Yet it is a place of surpassing interest, one of the hallowed spots\nof London, where sinners have wept, where souls have rejoiced, where the\npower and presence of God have been marvellously displayed. Let us go\nthere; we pass along a passage till we come into a very old-fashioned\nmeeting-house. There we shall find plenty of room. There are two\nhundred communicants, and at certain times they are all present, but they\nare scattered far and wide, and in general the place has a very deserted\nlook. The benches--there are no pews--are most uncommonly hard to sit\non. There are galleries, and in one of them there is an organ. The\nplace is neat and clean. The service itself calls for no especial\nnotice. It is much like that of other denominations. The liturgy is\nexclusively that of the Moravians. The preaching is such as you may hear\nelsewhere. Attached to the place is a skeleton Sunday-school. There is\nlight about the place, but it is not very powerful. It suggests more\nthat of the setting than of the rising sun. I confess I see no reason\nwhy this should be the case, why the Moravianism, so powerful in many\nplaces, so blessed in missionary efforts, should be so powerless here.\nMoravianism is older than Lutheranism. It has an apostolical descent\nmore genuine than that of the English or the Romish Church.\nPre-eminently it may claim to have followed the leadings of Providence.\nNowhere is there a trace of the gradual elaboration of any plan dictated\nby human wisdom. The leading men in the Ancient Unity, the emigrant\nfounders of Herrnhut, Count Zinzendorf himself, and those of his\nfellow-labourers who were instrumental in introducing the Church into\nEngland, were all led gradually and by a way which they knew not to\nresults they had not contemplated. As an anonymous writer, one of their\nbody, remarks, \"What a striking proof is here afforded of the wisdom and\nfaithfulness of God! Surely it well becomes the members of a community\nwhich has been so undeservedly favoured to inquire whether they, as\nindividuals and collectively, have faithfully improved the privileges\nbestowed upon them.\"\n\nBut about the chapel. Turn to Baxter's Diary, and we find the place\nmentioned there. He writes: \"On January the 24th, 1672-3, I began a\nTuesday Lecture at Mr. Turner's church in New Street, near Fetter Lane,\nwith great convenience and God's encouraging blessing.\" It is, writes\nMr. Orme, that between Nevill's Court and New Street, now occupied by the\nMoravians. It appears to have existed, though perhaps in a different\nform, before the Fire of London. Turner, who was the first minister, was\na very active man during the Plague. He was ejected from Sunbury, in\nMiddlesex, and continued to preach in Fetter Lane till towards the end of\nthe reign of Charles II., when he removed to Leather Lane. Baxter\ncarried on the morning week-day lecture till the 24th of August, 1682.\nThe church which then met in it was under the care of Mr. Lobb, whose\npredecessors had been Dr. Thomas Goodwin and Thankful Owen. This church\nstill exists, but on the opposite side of the way, under the care of the\nRev. J. Spurgeon. The Moravians came into possession of the building in\n1740. They had previously met in Fetter Lane, but in a smaller room.\nThe present chapel was then known as the Great Meeting-house, or\nBradbury's Meeting-house. Tradition says that the place was once used as\na saw-pit, and as a place of asylum when the State Church was busy at the\nwork in which it has ever been untiring, no matter how remiss in other\nmatters--that of enforcing its rights real or fancied, and disregarding\nthose of other men. Tradition also says that the place was built, for\nthe same reason, with two modes of egress, that the good men in the\npulpit might have an additional chance of safety. It was in the meeting\nthat Emmanuel Swedenborg was for a time accustomed to worship. It was in\nthe old place that Whitefield and Wesley attended, and where, as Southey\nwrites, \"they encouraged each other in excesses of devotion which, if\nthey found the mind sane, were not likely long to leave it so,\" but of\nwhich Wesley writes in very different language. Let us hear what he\nsays. \"About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in\nprayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried\nout for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were\nrecovered a little from that awe and amazement we broke out with one\nvoice, 'We praise Thee, O God! we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.'\" \"It\nwas a Pentecostal season indeed,\" wrote Whitefield. Let me add that it\nwas there, and not in the present meeting, that Wesley stood up and read\nfrom a written paper such of their doctrines as he contemned, especially\nthat of there being no degrees of faith short of perfect assurance. He\nhad learnt much from the Moravians. They had found him a mere Ritualist,\nthey had left him a converted man, but he had outgrown his teachers, the\nmild and loving and placid Germans of Fetter Lane. \"I have borne with\nyou long,\" said he at the end of his discourse, \"hoping you would turn;\nbut, as I find you more and more confirmed in the errors of your ways,\nnothing now remains but that I should give you up to God. You that are\nof the same judgment, follow me.\" When he had thus spoken he withdrew.\nThis breach was never healed, and from that day to this Moravianism has\nnever in this country, and especially in London, recovered from the blow.\n\nIt may also be said that the impulse given to the religious life of\nEngland by the Moravians has tended naturally to their decrease. Their\nspeciality was to preach the atonement made for sin by the blood of\nJesus, and happiness in communion with Him. In the dark days, when they\ncame over, this doctrine was far less commonly believed than now, and in\nproportion as it has been preached by Churchmen and Dissenters has there\nbeen a decline of Moravian influence. In reality, what they came here to\ndo has been done by others who had learned how to do it from them. All\nEvangelical sects teach now what they teach, and even where they now\nbreak fresh ground it is found those whom they have influenced prefer to\ntake part with churches of a more native origin or British character. As\nregards London the position of their chapel is very much against them.\nAn out-of-the-way situation is as undesirable in a spiritual, as in a\ncommercial point of view. In their church government they are\nEpiscopalian, and meet at certain great occasions in synod. At one time\nthey much favoured the lot, but now that is rarely used, and their\nmarriages are not arranged by it as was formerly the case. A bishop is\nan elder appointed by the synod to ordain ministers of the church. The\nlatter are sent to a congregation, but it exercises a veto. The\ncongregation is ruled by a committee chosen by the communicants. They\nclaim not to be Dissenters; it was the opinion of Archbishop Potter they\nwere not. They trace their pedigree from Zinzendorf to Huss, from Huss\nto the Greek monks, Theodorus and Cyril, who in the ninth century\nintroduced Christianity into Moravia and Bohemia. But after all they\nchiefly glory in the fact of preaching, to use one of their own hymns--\n\n \"That whoe'er believeth in Christ's redemption\n May find free grace and a complete exemption\n From serving sin.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\nTHE SWEDENBORGIANS.\n\n\nIf the reader be told that there exists in this enlightened age a sect\nwho believe that the day of judgment is passed, that it took place nearly\na hundred years ago, that the Christian dispensation is at an end, that\nEmmanuel Swedenborg daily visited the spiritual world, and made\nacquaintance with its inhabitants, that he was directly appointed by God\nto describe to men the scenery of heaven and hell, and the world of\nspirits, and the lives of their inhabitants, and that through him the\nLord Jesus Christ makes his second advent for the institution of a new\nChurch described in the Apocalypse under the figure of the New Jerusalem,\nat once you exclaim, this is \"one of the things no fellah can\nunderstand.\" Nevertheless, such actually is the fact--nay more, it may\nbe observed, that the number of Swedenborgians is on the increase; that\nthey have a hundred chapels in England, and a larger number in America,\nand that this sect, while it has excited the rude laugh of ignorant\nfolly, has attracted to itself some of the greatest intellects of the\nday. Emerson claims for Swedenborg that he was a \"colossal soul;\" and\nMr. Kingsley speaks of him, though not very correctly, as a \"sound and\nsevere and scientific labourer, to whom our modern physical science is\nmost deeply indebted.\" The Swedenborgians, says Theodore Parker, have a\ncalm and religious beauty in their lives, which is much to be admired. I\nshould fancy the artist Blake was a Swedenborgian. Amongst the active\nSwedenborgians of the past I find such names as John Flaxman, sculptor;\nWilliam Sharpe, engraver; the Rev. Joseph Gilpin, curate to Fletcher of\nMadely; and James Hindmarsh, one of Wesley's preachers; Charles Augustus\nTulk, a friend of Joseph Hume, and M.P. for Sudbury in 1821; Samuel\nCrompton, the inventor of the spinning-mule, of whom it was truly\nremarked by his biographer, \"Few men, perhaps, have ever conferred so\ngreat a benefit on their country and reaped so little profit for\nthemselves.\" In our time Swedenborgianism was represented in Parliament\nby Mr. Richard Malins, now Sir Richard, and a Vice-Chancellor. Mr. Hiram\nPower, the American sculptor, is a zealous missionary of the\nSwedenborgian faith. The chief of the living Swedenborgian literati in\nthis country are Dr. Garth Wilkinson, and the Rev. Augustus Clissold,\nformerly of Exeter College, Oxford. Other well-known names in connexion\nwith the sect are Mr. Isaac Pitman and Mr. George Hartly Grindon.\n\nThe Society shows signs of life. In Islington there is a college for the\neducation of young men for the ministry. Mr. W. White, no friendly\nwitness,--he was driven from the community on the question of\nspiritualism,--writes on the testimony of Her Majesty's\ninspectors:--\"There are no better schools of their class in England than\nthose maintained by the Swedenborgians of Manchester and Salford, in\nwhich about fourteen hundred children are educated.\" The Swedenborgians\nhave besides a national missionary institution, with a very limited\nincome, and two societies for the production of tracts, one in London and\nthe other in Manchester. The London Missionary and Tract Society of the\nNew Church had in 1865 an income of 209_l._, and circulated 32,000\ntracts. The Manchester New Jerusalem Tract Society had the same year an\nincome of 154_l._, and circulated 100,000 tracts; their chief society is\nthat for printing and publishing the writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg,\nestablished in London in the year 1810. \"For half a century,\" writes Mr.\nWhite, \"this society was the happy meeting place of all who had any\nlively interest in Swedenborg, whether citizens of Hindmarsh's New\nJerusalem, or Churchmen like Clowes, or Quakers like Harrison, or\nunattached like Tulk.\" In 1845 the Swedenborg Association was formed in\nLondon to promote the sale of Swedenborg's writings, which were\ntranslated by Dr. Wilkinson, the Rev. Augustus Clissold, and Mr. Strull.\nIn 1854 it was thought advisable that the Society should establish a book\ndepot of its own. Accordingly the Rev. Augustus Clissold subscribed\n3000_l._ for the purchase of suitable premises. A house was taken in\nBloomsbury Street. In 1865 there were 3016 volumes disposed of, valued\nat 217_l._, and the income of the Society from subscriptions and\ndonations was in that year 205_l._ The operations of the Society are\nnot, however, confined to its sales. Swedenborg's works are kept in\nprint, and often are given away to libraries and to persons of eminence\nat home and abroad. It does not appear that Swedenborg's writings have\never been very popular. The first volume of the \"Arcana Coelestia\" was\npublished in 1749, and was completed in 1756, in eight quartos. The book\nfell stillborn from the press. In his \"Spiritual Diary\" Swedenborg\ndescribes the fact, and thus accounts for it:--\"I have received letters\ninforming me that not more than four copies have been sold in the space\nof two months. I communicated this to the angels. They were surprised,\nbut they said it must be left to the Lord's providence; that His\nprovidence is of such a nature that it compels no one; and that it is not\nfitting others should read the 'Arcana Coelestia' before those who are in\nthe faith.\"\n\nI hasten on to finish what I have to say as to the Swedenborg\norganization. There are many of his admirers who believe that the\nattempt to form a separate sect was not a wise one; certainly Swedenborg\nhimself did nothing of the kind. Fletcher of Madely, who read \"Heaven\nand Hell,\" and used to declare that he regarded Swedenborg's writings \"as\na magnificent feast set out with many dainties, but that he had not an\nappetite for every dish,\" when asked why he did not preach the new\ndoctrines, candidly confessed, \"Because my congregation is not in a fit\nstate to receive them;\" and so, in the opinion of many, people might be\nSwedenborgians, as members of other churches, without setting up a new\ndenomination. Such was the opinion of the chief apostle of\nSwedenborgianism in England, the Rev. John Clowes, for the extraordinary\nterm of sixty-two years rector of St. John's, Manchester. A complaint\nwas laid before his Bishop, Dr. Porteus, charging him with the denial of\nthe Trinity and the Atonement, and with holding heretical opinions. The\nBishop summoned him to Chester, \"read to him the several charges, heard\npatiently his reply to each, made his remarks (which discovered plainly\nthat he was by no means dissatisfied or displeased with his opinions),\nand dismissed him with a friendly caution to be on his guard against his\nadversaries, who seemed disposed to do him mischief.\" And no wonder.\nSwedenborg took almost as great liberties with the Pentateuch as Bishop\nColenso himself.\n\nRobert Hindmarsh, a printer, in Clerkenwell Close, the founder of the\nsect of \"the New Church signified by New Jerusalem in the Revelation,\"\nwas not of the same way of thinking as Clowes or Fletcher. In 1783 he\nheld meetings at his own house; he had an audience of two. In 1784 he\nwas joined by others; chambers were rented in New Court, Middle Temple,\nunder the title of \"The Theosophical Society, instituted for the purpose\nof promoting the heavenly doctrine of the New Jerusalem, by translating,\nprinting, and publishing the Theological Writings of Emmanuel\nSwedenborg.\" Meetings were held on Sundays and Thursdays, at which\nportions of Swedenborg's writings were read and discussed. In 1787 a\nchapel was opened at Great Eastcheap. In 1797 Proud came to Cross\nStreet, Hatton Garden, a place built expressly for him; and very large\ncongregations for some years attended on his ministry. In time the\nchapel became deserted, the preacher ceased to draw. In 1812 it was sold\nto the managers of the Caledonian Asylum, and then for a time Irving\nblazed in it, the comet of a season; and then once more it came back to\nthe Swedenborgians; and now, at any rate of a Sunday night, it is a sad,\nlonely spot. Proud was succeeded by Noble, an engraver, who commenced\nhis ministry in 1819, and continued it till 1853, when he closed it by\nhis death in his seventy-fifth year. One of the blessings promised in\nthe Old Testament to those who keep the Commandments seems to be\npre-eminently enjoyed by the Swedenborgians, and that is length of days.\nSwedenborg himself lived to be eighty-four.\n\nFrom the Wesleyans the Swedenborgians got the idea of a conference which\nwas to govern the new Church. As represented in conference, the\nSwedenborgians form a congregation of 3605 members, divided into\nfifty-five societies. In London there are four societies, containing,\nsays Mr. White, 566 members. In 1807 one was held, at which they decreed\nno one should act as minister who had not received their ordination, and\nrecommended all who would enter the New Jerusalem to receive baptism at\ntheir hands. Since 1815, conferences have been held regularly in various\ntowns. Conference has for its organ the _Intellectual Repository and New\nJerusalem Magazine_.\n\nThe faith of the new Church is briefly this:--\n\n \"That there is one eternal, self-existent God, who is Infinite Love\n and Wisdom, the Creator and Sustainer of all things.\n\n \"In the fulness of time and for the redemption of man, He took upon\n Him human nature by birth of a virgin, and became God manifest in the\n flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, in whom dwelleth all the fulness\n of the Godhead bodily.\n\n \"The Lord Jesus Christ is the one only true object of Christian faith\n and worship, and in Him is centred the Divine Trinity of Father, Son,\n and Holy Spirit. The divinity of the Father being the soul of the\n Son, and the humanity of the Son being the body of the Father, whence\n proceeds the Holy Spirit to regenerate and save mankind.\n\n \"The Lord became our Redeemer by subduing the infernal hosts, and\n glorifying His humanity, without which no man could have been saved,\n and by which all men are capable of being saved by belief in Him;\n such belief implying a faithful obedience to the Divine laws, as the\n means of receiving the gifts of salvation.\n\n \"The Sacred Scripture is the Word of God, and contains within its\n external or literal sense an internal or spiritual sense, being thus\n Divine.\n\n \"On the death of the natural body, man rises again in a spiritual\n body, and according to the quality of his life here, lives in\n happiness or in misery hereafter.\n\n \"Now is the time of the Lord's second coming, not in person, but in\n the power and great glory of His Holy Word, to establish a new and\n permanent Church, testified in the Revelation by the holy city--New\n Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven.\"\n\nAs a philosophy Swedenborgianism is the exact opposite of Materialism.\nEverything in nature, Swedenborg tells us, exists first in spirit. \"We\nare created by the Lord, so that during our life in the body we may\nconverse with spirits and angels, as indeed was the habit of the people\nof the most ancient times.\" During his worldly life \"he (man) is not\nseen in spirit, because he is immersed in nature.\" God is in\neverything--is the life of everything. In heaven all is love--in hell\nall is selfishness. There is besides a spiritual world.\n\nThere are four Swedenborgian congregations in London. The principal one\nis that in Argyle Square, King's Cross, at which preaches the Rev. Dr.\nBayley--a tall, pleasant gentleman, in the prime of life. Outside, the\nplace presents the appearance of a well-built, superior sort of chapel;\ninside, the massive pillars give it almost a cathedral appearance. It\nholds about 700 people; there are no galleries, and it is generally well\nfilled. The people have a respectable appearance, and some of them have\narrived at the dignity of \"carriage folk.\" The preacher is attentively\nlistened to, and if passages of Scripture are referred to in the course\nof the sermon, there is at once an appeal to innumerable Bibles. There\nis service twice a day; and in the afternoon there is a conversation\nclass, at which the Sunday-school teachers meet and take tea together.\nIn the course of the week there is a theological class; and then, in\nconnexion with the chapel, there are societies of a friendly and\nphilanthropic character; there is also a lending library, and a day as\nwell as a Sunday school. At either school the average attendance is the\nsame--about three hundred.\n\nAt the far end, as you enter, there are two desks or pulpits, one for the\nminister and another for the assistant reader. The minister is in the\none on the right-hand side. Between them is the communion-table. Both\nthe minister and the assistant are dressed alike, in white\nrobes--typical, we may suppose, of the doctrine and the life.\n\nThe service begins with a hymn, followed by certain passages from the\nBible, in which all the congregation join, with the help of an efficient\norgan and choir. Then the minister reads, while the congregation kneel,\na prayer of confession and supplication, ending with a prayer to \"our\nFather who art in the _heavens_.\" Then the congregation stand while the\nminister reads the Ten Commandments or the Beatitudes. Again passages\nfrom the Psalms are sung, and there is another prayer, varied according\nto its being the first, or second, or third, or fourth Sunday--a\nvariation deserving to be imitated if ever we have a reformed Book of\nCommon Prayer. In these prayers there is a scrupulous avoidance of\nevangelical formulas. Of course we hear nothing of the blood of Christ\nto wash away the stain of sin; and if terms are used common to other\ndenominations, they are carefully toned down. Instead, praise and\nadoration are offered \"for the establishment of a church upon earth as\nthe means of raising us to heaven, and may it be increasingly receptive\nof those exalted principles which constitute Thy spiritual Zion; and may\nit speedily advance to that glorious state which is the subject of\nprophetic promise. Grant that the holy city, New Jerusalem, descending\nfrom Thee out of heaven, may be more and more extensively welcomed; and\nthat all who are enabled to perceive its heavenly nature may show forth\nthe knowledge of Thy truth by a life in agreement with its dictates.\"\nHymns, more philosophical than theological, are sung, and sacred anthems.\nNo reference is made to other churches, or to other bodies of Christians.\nAmongst the special services we find Christ is thanked for His victory\nover the _hells_. God is, we are told, one in essence and in person; and\nin Him is the Divine Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The\npartaker of \"the Holy Supper,\" as it is called, is required \"to\nacknowledge that the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the only God of\nheaven, and that His humanity is divine.\" In the Marriage Service we are\ntold, \"Love truly conjugal is the union of two minds, which is a\nspiritual union, and all spiritual union descends from heaven. Hence\nlove truly conjugal comes from heaven, and its origin, from the marriage\nof goodness and truth there.\" But while we have been looking through the\nliturgy, the preacher has read a short prayer, and has commenced his\nsermon, the text of which, you may be sure, is taken from the Old\nTestament. Let us listen. I have said it is sure to be taken from the\nOld Testament. The reason is, Swedenborg rejects the Acts of the\nApostles, and the Epistles, or, rather, declares that they have no\n\"internal sense.\"\n\nOnce upon a time, as the story goes, an aged minister was asked the\nreason why he abounded in expositions in preference to regular sermons.\nHis reply was, because when he was persecuted in one text he could flee\nunto another. Swedenborgian preachers need no such excuse. According to\ntheir master, Scripture has a threefold sense--_the celestial_, _the\nspiritual_, and _the literal_ or natural. In this Swedenborg was not\noriginal. He recognised a threefold sense in Scripture corresponding to\nthe threefold nature of man--as body, soul, and spirit. This idea was\nundoubtedly suggested to him by the threefold division of mankind\naccording to the Gnostic system. \"The _celestial_ sense,\" writes the\nRev. Mr. Clowes, \"according to Baron Swedenborg, involves in it\nwhatsoever relates to the Divine love, and whatsoever has a tendency to\nexcite that love in the will and affections of the devout reader. The\nspiritual sense, again, involves in it whatsoever relates to the Divine\nwisdom, and whatsoever is communicative of that wisdom to the devout\nreader's understanding and thought. And lastly, the natural or literal\nsense involves in it whatsoever relates to the expressions of the Divine\nlove and wisdom, and is best adapted to convey those heavenly principles\nto the reader's mind, and to impress them on his life.\" According to\nthis method, then, the Swedenborgian has a fulness and a liberty which,\nin the pulpit, should give him a power of amplification denied to those\nwhose Biblical exegesis is of a more old-fashioned character. If, for\ninstance, as Swedenborg says, the history of the Creation in Genesis\nmeans the rise of the most ancient church--if by Noah is meant the\nancient church in general--if Shem typifies true internal worship, Ham\ncorrupt internal worship, Japheth true external worship, and Canaan\ncorrupt external worship--it seems to such as the writer the\nSwedenborgian preacher may do what he likes, and in his flights of\nrhetoric may leave his brethren of other denominations far behind. Take,\nfor instance, the plague of frogs. An ordinary preacher could make but\nlittle of it; but a Swedenborgian will tell you that frogs mean false\ndoctrines, and then what room you have for expansion! Again, if I take\nthe word Egypt in the Old Testament to mean the \"natural principle,\" how\nmuch more can I say than he who means by Egypt--Egypt and nothing else!\nAt the same time this very liberty seems to hamper and confine the\nSwedenborgians. There is something narrow and pedantic about their\npreaching. As Swedenborg studied the Bible and read no other book, so\nthey seem to confine themselves exclusively to Swedenborg; and as they\nhave none of them his genius, or his fulness, or his power, the result is\nsomething very far-fetched and tame and second-hand. You feel that in\naccordance with their own system of interpretation they might do much\nmore than they actually do. \"It is unquestionably true,\" however (writes\nMr. George Bush, late Professor of Hebrew in the University of New York),\n\"that the piety inculcated by the doctrines of the New Church is of a\nmore genial and cheerful stamp than that which is usually found under the\nauspices of the prevailing creeds, because the doctrines impart a higher\nand sublimer view of the infinite love and benignity of the Lord towards\nthe human race, as willing the salvation of all, and ordering every event\nof His providence with a view to eternal ends of mercy in regard to each\nindividual, and incessantly aiming to withhold him from hell, so far as\nit can 'be done consistently with his moral freedom.'\" When Tennyson\nwrites:--\n\n \"Behold we know not anything;\n I can but trust that good shall fall\n At last--far off--at last to all,\n And every winter change to spring.\n\n \"That nothing walks with aimless feet,\n That not one life shall be destroyed,\n Or cast as rubbish to the void,\n When God hath made the pile complete\"--\n\nhe merely reproduces Swedenborgianism. Again, the Swedenborgians claim\nfor their system an active philanthropy superior to that of any other\nsect. If heaven and hell are in us--if, as we develop the good we arrive\nat heaven, or as we develop the bad we sink into a deeper hell--no sects\nhave greater provocatives to a godly life, and we might expect in their\npreaching a glowing sympathy with human right and popular progress, which\nassuredly in their pulpits in England finds but little utterance.\nSwedenborg teaches, in the strongest manner, that no man can lead a\nspiritual life apart from civil and moral life. Again and again he\nargues that the life which leads to heaven \"is not a life of retirement\nfrom the world, but of action in the world. A life of charity, which\nconsists in acting sincerely and justly in every situation, engagement,\nand work, in obedience to the Divine law, is not difficult; but a life of\npiety alone is difficult, and such a pious life leads away from heaven as\nmuch as it is vulgarly believed to lead to heaven.\" The Christianity of\nhis day he proclaims again and again to be worthless. It was founded on\nopinion, not on conduct. He who believes otherwise than the Church\nteaches is cast out of its communion; \"but he who thieves, if he does not\ndo so flagrantly, lies, betrays, and commits adultery, if only he\nfrequents a place of worship and talks piously, passes as a religious\nman.\" When a great abuse has to be attacked--when a hoary wrong in\nChurch and State has to be swept away--when help is to be given to the\nwretched and the perishing, have we ever seen the Swedenborgian minister\ncoming to the front as a leader? On the contrary, you will find him in\nhis New Jerusalem ignoring humanity altogether, and torturing with\ntedious complacency Genesis and Revelation alike. If I were a preacher\nof any denomination, I would have Swedenborg's works by me. They should\nbe the fruitful source of many an argument to illustrate or arouse; but\nif in the future the pulpit is to maintain its place and power, the\nSwedenborgians, unless they turn over a new leaf, must retire into the\nbackground. Look at Cross Street, Hatton Garden, for instance, on a\nSunday night; you will not find thirty people there; yet it stands in the\nmidst of a teeming population, where the devil preaches to a crowded\ncongregation every day and every hour. Let it not be supposed, however,\nthat Swedenborgianism is perishing for lack of new blood. It was only a\nfew days since I heard of a clergyman of the Church of England, who had\nresigned his living in consequence of his joining the Swedenborgians. Of\nthe fancies of Swedenborg let me say there are those to whom they suggest\nmuch--reveal much. According to the man's own statement, he was sent\nfrom God, and saw and revealed the secrets of the invisible world.\nSometimes his revelations are very indecorous. Here is one. \"Spiritual\nangels dislike butter, which was made clear to me from this circumstance:\nthat although I am fond of butter I did not for a long while, even for\nsome months, desire any, and during which time I was in association with\nthem; and when I had tasted butter I found it had lost the pleasant\nflavour it once had to me. That the spiritual angels caused this\naversion was plain from the fact that when a celestial angel was with me,\nand I was impelled to eat some good butter, the spiritual angels caused\nan odour of butter to rise from my mouth to my nostrils by way of\nreproach; still, however, they are much delighted with milk, and when I\npartook of some the relish was more grateful than I can describe. Milk\nbelongs to the spiritual, as butter does to the celestial angels--not\nthat they delight therein as food, but on account of their\ncorrespondence.\" I should have said Swedenborg divides all angels into\ntwo orders--the celestial angels are the angels of love or the will, the\nspiritual angels are those of truth or the intellect. Angels, according\nto Swedenborg, are poor guides in worldly matters; \"they only regard the\ngood intention, and can be adduced to affirm anything which promises to\nadvance it.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\nTHE IRVINGITES, OR APOSTOLICAL CHURCH.\n\n\nIf the absence of brotherly love for religious people, if a scorn of all\nwho worship God different from themselves, constitute heresy--and surely\nthe Apostle John shows that it does very clearly--then there are no such\nheretics in London as the Irvingites, who worship in a very magnificent\ncathedral in Gordon Square. Irving, I imagine, with all his genius, had\na very uncatholic spirit. Take, for instance, his celebrated missionary\nsermon. Requested by the directors of the London Missionary Society to\npreach the annual sermon at Surrey Chapel--how did he begin?\n\nWhen he ascended the pulpit he entered on a kind of audible soliloquy.\nSaid he, \"How shall I encourage myself to address the thronging multitude\nby whom I am surrounded? I will even cast about for a few examples.\nThere are three of a notable character which now strike me: that of the\nApostle Paul preaching before the Jewish Sanhedrim, that of Bernard\nGilpin preaching before the Court of King Edward VI., and, that of a\nScottish Divine preaching before the Commissioner of the General\nAssembly. On these three examples, as on a sacred tripod, I feel my\nspirit propped; but especially the last, the Scottish Divine preaching\nbefore the Commissioner of the General Assembly. If he could venture to\nencounter the hoary-headed eldership and substantial theology of the\nNorth, surely I may, without fear, address myself to the flimsy\nevangelism of the South.\" In this kind and flattering way did Irving\nspeak of the great body of English Dissenters.\n\nOf the Irvingite Church, the late Drummond, the banker, M.P. for Surrey,\nwas also an elder, and the same spirit lent bitterness to his sarcastic\nand biting tongue. It was a treat to see and hear him, especially when\nthe topic was at all theological. Irving describes Drummond as one \"who\nhath taken us poor despised interpreters of prophecy under your wing, and\nmade the walls of your house like unto the ancient schools of the\nprophets.\" But out of his own house Drummond seemed to have taken little\nelse or nothing under his wing. His mission apparently was to preach\nthat in nothing was there anything--that we were all whited sepulchres.\nThe Egyptians placed a skeleton at their feasts to remind them of their\nmortality. The Sultan Saladin, it is said, had a similar message dinned\ndaily into his ears by a herald especially appointed to that purpose.\nMr. Drummond voluntarily took that duty on himself. In his eye we were\nall morally dead; all virtue was gone clean out of us; the Church was in\ndarkness and in the valley of the shadow of death. Nor had Dissent one\nray more of Gospel light. Under the mask of patriotism he saw the\ngrovelling soul of the placeman; in the love of liberty the desire of\nlicence; in the rulers of the land a lamentable lack of understanding; in\nthe people a blind, senseless, untaught mass. Drummond was such a one as\nTennyson describes:--\n\n \"Thou shalt not be saved by works;\n Thou hast been a sinner too.\n Ruined trunks on wither'd forks,\n Empty scarecrows I and you.\"\n\nThus did he perorate with the thinnest of voices, and gentlest manner, to\na House of which, for many sessions, he was the delight and puzzle, all\nthe while he was a member of the Irvingite Church.\n\nA great claim is set up by this Church. Like Aaron's rod, it is to\nswallow up all the rest. So great is its hatred of sects, it forms a new\none. While calling itself the holy and Apostolic Church, it makes no\nexclusive claim to the title. It acknowledges it to be the common title\nof the one Church baptized unto Christ. It claims to be no body of\nseparatists from the Church of England. The members recognise the\ncontinuance of that Church from the days of the Apostles, and of the\nthree orders, bishops, priests, and deacons, by succession from the\nApostles. They have no sympathy with Dissent in any of its forms. That\nis schism, and is to be condemned accordingly. They meet in separate\ncongregations, but they are not open to the charge of schism, on the\nground of their meeting being permitted and authorized, so they say, by\nan ordinance of paramount authority which they believe God has restored\nfor the benefit of the Church. At once their ecclesiasticism strikes the\nmost superficial observer; the idea of the Church, that it is a mere\nassembly of believers, is rejected by them on every occasion and in every\nway. Their great glory is that the Apostolical order exists and is\nmanifested in them.\n\nTheir special teaching is something more. It is often asked, Are the\ndays of Pentecost gone never to return? Have miracles ceased from among\nmen? Cannot signs and wonders be still wrought by the Holy Ghost? As a\nrule, the Church answers this question in the negative. It teaches that\nthe age of miracles is past; that they are no longer necessary; that in\nthe fulness of time the Divine will was made known to man; and that the\nChurch needs not now the signs and wonders by which that revelation was\nattested and declared. A large, or rather an active body, some few years\nago sprang up in Scotland, crossed the Border, and extended to England,\nand enrolled amongst their members many in what may be termed an\ninfluential position in life. Enter their churches, and you learn,\naccording to them, the gift of tongues still exists, signs and wonders\nare still manifested to the faithful, miracles are still wrought by those\nupon whom God has conferred the gift. Still, as much as in Apostolic\ntimes, does the Divine afflatus dwell in man, and the man so endowed\nbecomes a prophet, and declares the will of God. \"The doctrine of\nChrist's reign upon earth was at first,\" says Gibbon, \"treated as\nprofound allegory, was considered by degrees as a doubtful and useless\nopinion, and was at length regarded as the absurd invention of heresy and\nfanaticism.\" A similar process has been in operation with regard to the\npower of working miracles and speaking in unknown tongues. Against this\nprocess the Irvingite or Catholic Church is a living protest.\n\nIt is now many years since a magnificent Gothic cathedral was commenced\nin the corner of Gordon Square, between what at one time was Coward\nCollege and the handsome building erected by the Unitarians, and known as\nUniversity Hall. Architecturally the new church may take high rank. The\ncathedral, still unfinished, is perhaps the most extensive modern work of\nthe kind that has been undertaken. The Early English style has been\nadopted generally for the exterior, but inside the style of the roof and\nstone carvings is Decorated. The flat ceiling of the aisles, with rich\ntraceried bosses and spandrels, is very effective. The ornament\nthroughout, of which there is a considerable quantity, displays careful\ndesign. Indeed, in the opinion of competent critics the execution could\nnot be surpassed. There are daily services in the church; on Sunday\nthere are four. In the evening there is a sermon addressed to strangers.\nIt may be added here that, under the title of Catholic Apostolic\nchurches, there are in all seven buildings registered in London. To\neach, I believe, appertain an evangelist, an apostle, a prophet, and an\nangel; and as each officer is peculiarly distinguished by his dress, in\nthe cathedral in Gordon Square an effect is sometimes produced almost as\nscenic as any in a Roman Catholic cathedral. There are chairs for some,\nand benches for others; as much as possible they come and go in\nprocession. All that is wanted to make you believe that you are in a\nRoman Catholic place of worship is a little incense, a few more banners,\na little more life in the pulpit, and, above all, the presence of\nconsiderable numbers of the poorest of the poor. Here, indeed, the\nresemblance fails; there are no poor, comparatively speaking. Everyone\nis distressingly genteel; and I could swear more than once when I have\nbeen present, the preacher, so fashionable has been his lisp, has been,\nif not Lord Dundreary himself, at any rate his own \"brother Thwam.\" The\nhearers must be wealthy and liberal--the service of the church, and the\nchurch, all indicate this.\n\nI do not here enter into the question how far Church authority extends,\nwhether apostolical gifts are to be looked for in our day rather than the\napostolic spirit. I am not even definitely able to sum up the teaching\nof the lights of Gordon Square. They avoid putting their doctrines in\nprint--and seem to seek to make converts by sly insinuation rather than\nby open statement. All I can say is--and any outsider can see it--that\nwith apostolic pretensions these men avoid every appearance of\napostolical simplicity. They must meet not in an upper room, but in a\ngorgeous cathedral, where they must clothe themselves in every variety of\necclesiastical millinery, and appeal to the senses, to the eye and to the\near, rather than to the brain or heart. Thus is it, when genius fails,\nmen have recourse to art. Irving would preach for hours to enraptured\naudiences. The church has no Irving now, but rejoices instead in mosaic\npavement, fine music, man millinery, and elaborate ceremonial.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\nTHE FREE CHRISTIAN UNION.\n\n\nMany professedly Christian people, and many who are in no way such, have\nlong been of opinion that there is something that is wrong about our\npresent religious organizations; that they tend to separate rather than\nunite; that what society requires is not dogmatic theology, but freer\nChristian union. Rightly or wrongly--and that is a question not to be\ndiscussed now--this idea has led to the formation of the society whose\ntitle heads this article. In June last year the first practical attempt\nwas made towards the formation of such a society. In the winter previous\nthe basis of union was agreed on, and in the month referred to the\nanniversary was held in Freemasons' Hall. Believing that in the vain\npursuit of orthodoxy men have parted into rival churches, and lost the\nbond of common work and love; that doctrinal uniformity is become\nincreasingly difficult, while at the same time there is a growing and a\nstrengthening of moral and spiritual affinities; that the Divine will is\nlove to God and love to man, and that equally broad should be the terms\nof pious communion among men, the new Union requires a spiritual\nfellowship co-extensive with these terms, and aims by relieving the\nChristian life from reliance on theological articles or external rites to\nsave it from conflict with the knowledge and conscience of mankind, and\nbring it back to the essential conditions of harmony between God and man.\nThe Society proposes to issue publications to illustrate the spirit of\nunsectarian Christianity, and to furnish the means of undogmatic\ninstruction; to give aid to persons suffering for conscience sake from\nthe spirit of exclusiveness; to watch legislation so far as it bears on\nreligious freedom; to help existing sects to widen their basis, and to\nencourage the formation of congregations where the terms of communion\nshall be broad and undogmatic. Further, it aims at the establishment in\nLondon of a central church for the maintenance of Christian worship and\nlife, apart from doctrinal interests and names, the services of which\nwill be conducted by ministers of various ecclesiastical positions.\nAmongst the committee of this Union may be noted the names of George\nDawson, Esq., the Rev. J. Martineau, and the Rev. W. Miall. The Rev. P.\nW. Clayden is one of the secretaries.\n\nTo the promoters of this new religious organization the attendance the\nfirst night must have been eminently gratifying. The large hall was well\nfilled, and outside there were as many cabs and private broughams waiting\nabout as at the Opera when a star of the first magnitude is engaged. On\nthe occasion there was a special form of prayer devised, which was read\nby the Rev. Mr. Martineau, and two hymns were sung, one of Wesley's--\n\n \"The saints on earth and those above\n But one communion make.\"\n\nAnd another from the Breviary--\n\n \"Supreme Disposer of the heart,\n Thou, since the world began,\n With heavenly grace hast sanctified\n And cheered the heart of man.\"\n\nBesides there was a chant, in which all joined, and a small band to sing\nthe Amen. Two sermons were preached; one by the Rev. Athanase Coquerel,\nthe far-famed leader of the section of the Reformed Church of France\nwhich does not sympathize with orthodoxy. In the personal appearance of\nthis celebrated preacher there was little that was heretical or foreign.\nWith his round face and stout frame you might have taken him for one of\nthe sleekest of Anglican divines. Nevertheless his sermon was French in\nits construction and style of delivery and emphasis. His text was--\"One\nthing is needful.\" His argument went to show that that one thing needful\nwas the love of God, and that forms of faith and ritualism were so many\nhills in our way, which blinded the view and impeded our appreciation of\nthis grand fundamental truth. The discourse, which lasted half an hour,\nover, the Rev. W. Miall engaged in extemporaneous prayer, in which there\nwas a special reference to the death of the Rev. Mr. Tayler, of\nHampstead, one of the committee of the Union, and a Professor of\nManchester New College, London; and then came the Rev. C. Kegan Paul,\nRector of Upminster, in Dorsetshire, with another sermon. It is scarce\nnecessary to observe that Mr. Paul--a fine, tall, muscular man in the\nprime of life, with a black beard and with a voice almost as sonorous (a\nFrenchman's lungs always seem better than an Englishman's) as Pastor\nCoquerel himself--is a man much distinguished by collegiate success and\nEton fame, and that his sermon evinced high intellectual culture. His\ntext was, \"He is not here, but is risen,\" and his aim was to show how men\nseek the dead Christ rather than the living one. The Reformation was an\nattempt to get rid of ritualism and formalism, and now again it is felt\nthat religion can no longer be confined in an article. It is not only\nthe Bible we must consult, God has written His Word in life and humanity.\nThey were not Theists; Christ was a name symbolical of humanity, and they\nwere, as a matter of fact, Christian men. Nor would they get rid of\nChristian phraseology as long as the feeling of the heart clothes itself\nin language hallowed by the use of ages. A change is passing over\nsociety, and we have now to study religion in connexion with nature,\nscience, progress, life. Still, nothing that has nourished the soul of\nman can die. All that has been is a part of what is to come, and\nsustained by this truth we are not to faint or fail. And then came the\nbenediction, and ministers and people went home. In this Church of the\nfuture, as it aims to be, it is clear there will be nothing derogatory to\nthe ministerial office. The committee were seated in various parts of\nthe hall, while the ministers in black gowns occupied the platform.\nApparently never in Freemasons' Hall had there met there men more\nspiritual and anxious for Divine guidance, and devout. As to the issue\nof it all we can safely and reverently wait.\n\nThere are two sides to every picture--two aspects, at the least, in which\nhuman schemes and organizations may be viewed. On the first night, as\nregards the Free Christian Union, we had the one view which must have\ncheered its promoters; on the next, when the business meeting was held,\nwhen we were told of what the Society had done and what it was going to\ndo, an element of a very different character appeared. In this great\ncapital, at this season of the year, when London is crowded with\nnotabilities, the managers had to go to Cambridge for a young man to\npreside, who had--we say it respectfully--really a physical\ndisqualification for the office. Then there was a very young gentleman,\nquite unknown to fame, called on to second a resolution, and forced on to\nthe platform from the body of the hall to say that and nothing more. As\na matter of fact, the Society had enrolled, we believe, a couple of\ncongregations, and voted a grant of 5_l._ to the Free Christian Church at\nLynn. Nevertheless, with a platform on which few men save those\nconnected with the Unitarian denomination appeared, and with but little\nresponse even from that body, the Society aims to influence the public\nmind, especially by the press, by the publication of essays on the\nconnexion between scientific theology and pure religion, the Bible as\nliterature, dogma, prophecy, miracles, the possibility of a national\nformula of public devotion, the ethics of conformity, the place of\nreligion in education, the limits of State action in ecclesiastical\norganizations. In some quarters it was evident that the feeling was that\nthe Society had better aim at some practical work, such as the\nreconstruction of the National Church on the bases laid down in its own\npreamble; and one speaker, forgetful of the fact that the Church of Rome\ndenied the right of private judgment in matters of religion _in toto_,\nasked whether any effort had been made to secure its sympathy and\nco-operation. It says little for the meeting that such a puerile\nquestion was politely received. As to speaking, indeed, the meeting was\na failure, or would have been had it not been for the presence of\nAthanase Coquerel, who spoke in English at great length with the utmost\nfreedom and warmth, and who had much to say of his own struggles on\nbehalf of Free Christianity in France, of universal interest.\n\nIt appears in its early days the Protestant Church of France was entirely\nexclusive, and its confession of faith was drawn up by Calvin and Beza.\nOne of its forty articles decreed that the sword had been put by God into\nthe hands of reigning princes, magistrates, &c., not only to enforce\nobedience to the second table of the Ten Commandments, but also to the\nfirst. Another article implied that little children, even unborn babes,\nare condemned to eternal perdition in hell; and if they die without\nbaptism can in no way whatever be saved. By-and-by a little more\nelasticity was imported into this creed, and the Liberal party continued\nto live, even when, as in 1685, Louis XIV. shut up all the Protestant\nacademies in France. An English writer had truly remarked that no Church\nhad suffered so long and so much from persecution as the Reformed Church\nin France, and he was right--the last pastor who was hung in Paris\nsuffered that penalty only as recently as the year 1762. A young pastor\npreaching at Nismes had for one of his hearers Lafayette, and he and\nLafayette got from Louis XVI., in 1787, an edict that gave the French\nProtestants civil rights, and since then the Church has revived, but at\nthe same time it has steadily and consistently refused to re-enact the\nold rigid creeds. At present there were two parties in the Church, one\northodox the other Liberal. In the Church at Paris, consisting of\nbankers, with whom Guizot always acted, the Consistory is orthodox. That\nConsistory was formed in 1802 by Napoleon, who selected for that purpose\nthe twelve persons most wealthy. In 1848 this Consistory was re-elected\nby universal suffrage, and this was the cause of great changes. The\nultra-Conservative feeling of the day retained the old set in office, and\nthey, feeling themselves invested with additional power, began that\npersecution of M. Coquerel's father which continued till the last hour of\nhis life. Of that persecution he, the speaker, had his share, and at\nlast to support him the Union Protestante Liberale was formed. In a\nlittle while after he had spoken, to a certain extent favourably, of\nRenan's work, he was excluded from the Church, and M. Martin Paschaud as\nwell. As to himself he had obtained leave with two young ministers to\ncommence preaching in a hired room. At the same time, as they had not\nbeen legally ejected from the Church, they can baptize, marry, perform\nfuneral services--in short, do everything but preach. In conclusion, the\nspeaker said how rejoiced he was to find in England an attempt made to\nestablish such a Society. It was the want of the time, and long he\ntrusted might they continue to uphold the banner of peace and love.\n\nIt is clear, outside the meeting at Freemasons' Hall the idea is\nentertained that this was simply a Unitarian movement. Evidently such is\nthe feeling of leading Unitarians themselves. One of them, the Rev. Mr.\nIerson, who preaches in a beautiful and costly chapel in Islington, to a\ncongregation that does not half fill the place, evidently so regards it.\nAfter the annual meeting, from the text, \"Blessed are the peacemakers,\"\nhe preached a sermon on behalf of the new organization. He was delighted\nwith what had been done. In the devotional service he had witnessed more\nlife than he had ever seen in a Unitarian service before, and he was\nthankful for it. At the same time Mr. Ierson expressed his regret that\nthe movement did not aim to accomplish something more, and also regretted\nthat it did not succeed in enrolling beneath its banner men of\nsufficiently diverse sentiments. This was not difficult to account for,\ncontinued the reverend gentleman. The Independent Churches, meaning by\nthat term Baptists and Congregationalists, have great fear of each other.\nThe ministers are afraid of the people, who look well after them. In\nmany places, if a man shakes hands with a Unitarian he is straightway\ndenounced as a Unitarian himself. Nor was this altogether wrong. The\nreal fact was that it would be found, directly any one approximated in\ncivility to the Unitarians, he had either given up the doctrine of\neternal damnation or some of the other dogmas of his body, and was not\ncompletely, and in the old-fashioned sense of the term, orthodox.\nMeanwhile the duty of the Unitarians was very obvious. They had to be\nmore than ever charitable and deferential to all Christians, whatever\ntheir denomination. It was something to get men to respect each other,\nto believe each other to be honest, however they differed in faith and\ndogma. In his own opinion the Free Christian Union would have had a\nbetter chance had it been originated by another body of religionists.\nEven as regarded themselves he feared many of them were not sufficiently\neducated up to the mark; but at any rate it was something for the\nUnitarians to be associated with such a catholic and Christian union.\n\nOne word more may be said. At the business meeting one of the speakers\nwas the Rev. Leigh Mann. Distinctly he avowed a belief the reverse of\nUnitarianism, and distinctly he glorified the association as one in which\nmen of the most opposite dogmas could meet. In such an utterance we have\nan indication, how significant or eccentric time alone can tell. At any\nrate, while confessing that hitherto there has been little of Christian\nunion founded on dogma, we may anxiously ask, is there a better chance if\nthe common bond be work?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\nTHE LONDON ECCLESIA.\n\n\nIn the independent way, Baxter, describing the Westminster Assembly of\nDivines, says, \"I disliked many things.\" After mentioning what those\nthings were--their making too light of ordination, their unnecessary and\nunscriptural strictness about the qualification of church members--he\nadds, \"I disliked also the lamentable tendency of this their way to\ndivisions and subdivisions and the nourishing of heresies and sects.\"\nThe soul of the good man was wearied, as well it might be, with these\ndifferences, so trifling yet so fiercely discussed, with this waste of\npower, with this spirit of wrangling and contention, with these quarrels\nof Christian with Christian, when the world was only to be made better,\nand the true Church only to be built up, by a holy life. In our time the\ntendency of some minds to fly off into fresh sects is greater, perhaps,\nthan ever. In one street you see a placard up stating that here the\nGospel is preached, and nowhere else. A good man says he is weary of all\nthis sectarianism, and at once hires a room and starts a new sect. A\nman's conscience is too sensitive to allow him to worship with a one-man\nministry, or with any existing denomination. He shakes his head, and\nmourns over their worldliness, their carnality, their want of spiritual\nlife; but does he better it by standing aloof, by shutting himself up\nwith a few dismal-minded people, who come with their Bibles, and see in\nthem, not what sound scholarly criticism teaches, but that which their\nown morbid fancy suggests? As men of the world, these things are to be\nlooked at practically, and by the light of common sense. Here are\ncertain religious agencies at work--by them people are being strengthened\nin the Christian life, trained to Christian work, in their way promoting\nthe welfare of man, and glorifying God. I may affect a superior piety, I\nmay refuse to associate with common Christians, I may leave them; but\nwhat is the result? That as far as I can I put hindrances in their way.\nIgnorant people look up to me as a saint, and the church and the minister\nwhere I have any influence are to the extent of that influence damaged.\nA gentleman writes to me--\"Those who now represent the London Ecclesia,\nin recognition of the constitution and order of its organization, are, in\nthis metropolis, myself and three others;\" and then quotes--\"'Strait is\nthe gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be\nthat find it.'\" It is in Peckham this new religious body meets. At such\nmeetings they do not admit strangers, in fulfilment of the ordinance of\nthe Lord which enjoins us to assemble \"ourselves together to worship God\nin spirit and in truth,\" and commands us--\"If there come any unto you and\nbring not this doctrine (the doctrine of the Christ), receive him not\ninto your house, neither bid him God speed.\"\n\nFor the doctrines of this new sect I must refer the inquirer to a\npamphlet published at 22, Paternoster Row, called \"The Truth as it is in\nJesus, defined in the Constitution and Order of the London Ecclesia, or\nimmersed believers of the things of the Kingdom of God and the name of\nJesus Christ.\" In this pamphlet we have a summary of the faith delivered\nto the saints contrasted with the erroneous dogmas of popular theology,\nand also the apostolic rules for an ecclesiastical organization. In\nAmerica, and many parts of England, Ecclesias, as they call them, exist.\nThe document to which they subscribe their names is an exceedingly\nlengthy one, nor is it very intelligible. I should say that wherein they\ndiffer from other Christians in point of doctrine is this, that\n\"everlasting life is the gracious gift of God through our Lord Jesus the\nChrist--the clothing upon the living soul or mortal body of life of a\njustified believer, with the quickening spirit or house which is from\nheaven, or the swallowing up of his death nature in the life of the\nDivine nature, so that this corruptible puts on incorruption, and this\nmortal puts on immortality by an impartation of spirit-life energy into\nevery fibre of its organism, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,\nduring the sounding of the last trumpet; and according to his type the\nLord Jesus, the saint then becomes a son of God in power by a spirit of\nholiness, through a resurrection from among the dead, and cannot sin\nbecause he is born of God, and lives and moves and has his being in the\nessential goodness and peace and blessedness of the Divine existence.\"\nHence \"the physical and moral impossibility of _an immoral agency of\nevil_ exercising the attributes of an uncreated spirit--omniscience,\nomnipotence, and omnipresence--emanating from the Supreme Good, to\nantagonize His purposes and defeat the counsels of His will concerning\nthe redemption of the Adamic race for the glory of His name.\"\n\nSo far I quote what the followers of this new sect call their Marturion.\nAs people generally can neither understand nor find time to read such\nverbose and minute confessions of faith, let me add that they believe\nthat punishment on the finally impenitent is \"the infliction on him as a\nliving soul or mortal body of life of the many or few stripes in\nexecution of his sentence until the appointed hour of his final doom\narrives--to utterly perish in his own corruption.\" Furthermore, I glean\nthat with them the Devil simply means sin in the flesh. As the reader\nwill have gathered from the title of their confession, they baptize with\nimmersion; they deny, amongst other things, the common doctrine of the\nTrinity, or that Christ is God and had an existence independent of the\nFather; that the Holy Ghost operates of His own power as God; that God\nfashioned man after His own image; that the serpent was an incarnation of\nan immoral intelligence; they deny the common ideas of heaven and hell;\nthat the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses the sin of the whole world, so\nthat infants, idiots, and believers obtain eternal salvation under the\ncovenanted and uncovenanted mercies of God; or that the knowledge of the\nglory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas,\nthrough the instrumentality of the orthodox ministry as ambassadors of\nChrist, beseeching men in His stead to be reconciled to God by believing\nin the Gospel, and in the Jesus they present as the Way, the Truth, and\nthe Life, and that Christ is with them always, even to the end of the\nworld. Their appeal is, however, to the Bible, and its inspiration is\none of the cardinal articles of their creed.\n\nLet me now speak of their order. They meet every Sunday for worship, and\nfor the purpose of celebrating the Lord's Supper, and have, besides,\noccasional meetings for the exposition and study of Scripture. The\nexecutive consists of a presiding elder and deacons elected by the\nmembers. A candidate for church membership is required to make a written\nconfession, and every one joining the Ecclesia, either by immersion or by\nadmission from other Ecclesias, is to sign the articles of constitution\nand order of which I have given a brief outline.\n\nAs regards the service, any brother is at liberty to take a part. Of\ncourse this is the defect of this system--as of all such, where the\npublic are concerned. As a rule, nothing can be more inedifying or\ndreary or repelling than amateur preaching, and this is manifestly the\nweak point of all the good people who find preachers so unprofitable, and\nwho so delight in the sound of their own voices. As evangelizing\nagencies they are a failure. They produce no impression on the world.\nMen of sense want something more thoughtful, more in accordance with the\nfacts of life, and the young are driven to the other extreme. I believe\nthis remark will hold good of most of these super-refined Christians.\nThey have a wonderful command of Scripture language. They can talk by\nthe hour, and they are intensely ignorant, as all people who shut\nthemselves to one book and ignore God's Word in His works must be. They\nmay edify each other, they certainly have no power of edifying any one\nelse.\n\nThe rules of their Sunday service are--Prayer, singing, comprehensive\nprayer, offered up by one of the brethren at the instance of the\npresiding brother on behalf of the members of the one body, the\nadministration of the Lord's Supper, exhortation from or exposition of\nthe Word by any brother who wishes to respond to the invitation of the\npresiding brother, and the Lord's Prayer in conclusion. After the\ncommunion, there is a box placed on the Lord's table to receive, at the\nclose of the service, the free-will offering of the brethren for the\ncommon good of the Ecclesia in every work of faith and labour of love.\nBesides, there is a monthly charge made to each of the brethren which is\nhanded over to the brother responsible for its satisfaction on the last\nSunday of every month. I find I have omitted to state that one article\nof faith is the restoration of the Jews, and the reign of Christ and His\nsaints upon the earth for a thousand years. Already there has been, as\nwas natural, division in the camp. The Christadelphians are an offshoot,\nas I understand. They are very adventurous people, these\nChristadelphians. They welcome strangers in their midst. The original\nEcclesias contend for the application of the principle of separation in\ncommunion worship.\n\n\n\nTHE CHRISTADELPHIANS.\n\n\nThe love of names is one of the strongest passions of which human nature\nis susceptible. In starting a newspaper, in publishing a book, in\nopening a shop, a good name is half the battle. Years and years ago\nthere was an individual advertising his academy as Hogflesh. How\ndisgusting! Respectable parents objected, and the name became Hoflesh.\nA little while since a poor fellow, tortured by the jeers of the world,\nadvertised that, for the future, instead of bearing the monosyllable\nunpleasantly suggestive bequeathed him by less scrupulous or\nthicker-skinned parents, he would henceforth call himself, and be called\nby others, Mr. Norfolk Howard. (I should not wonder if by this time,\nwith his new name, the man has married an heiress.) Poor Charles Lamb\nonce wrote a farce, but as it turned out that the hero of it was Mr.\nHogsflesh, good society would have none of it, and straightway it\nvanished into limbo. Our fathers can remember what ridicule was showered\ndown on Dissenters by the _Edinburgh Review_, and what laughter there was\nat them all over the land when the Rev. Sydney Smith told how Mr.\nShufflebottom was ordained at Bungay. It is to be feared that in the\nreligious world names have had even a greater influence than amongst the\nprofane. What good men have been persecuted and suffered wrong because\nthey bore the name of a sect distasteful to an imperious majority! How\nthe mob have thirsted for their blood! \"These are Christians--away with\nthem to the lions,\" said they of old Rome. \"Down with the Roundheads!\"\nwas the cry of country squire and rural parson when a few devout men such\nas Richard Baxter and others more or less known to fame met in a small\nroom to keep alive the spirit of piety and prayer amongst themselves. It\nwas the same when Wesley and Whitefield, often at the peril of life,\nproclaimed in parishes of England sunk in ignorance Gospel truths. There\nare thousands who, like the late Isaac Taylor, of Ongar, could tell how a\n\"Church and King mob\" kept them in perpetual fear, because they were\n\"Meetingers.\" There are yet parishes in Suffolk and Norfolk where to go\nto chapel is to insure your being despised as a \"Pogram,\" and cut by all\nthe dignities of the village, even if you have the learning of a German\nprofessor and the piety of a saint. In the Babel of London, however, it\nis different; here, there is a rage for new names, and there are\npreachers and people ever ready to resort to a new name, as if novelty\nwere a possibility in our day, after eighteen hundred years of\ntheological hair-splitting and threshing of straw. The Christadelphians\nare the latest production in this way. They meet in Crowndale Hall,\nCrowndale Road, St. Pancras Road, every Sunday; in the morning, at\neleven, for the breaking of bread, and worship; in the afternoon at\nthree, when there is a Bible-class especially for inquirers, when\nopportunity to ask questions respecting the one faith is afforded; and at\nseven in the evening, when we are told the Word of God is expounded in\nharmony with the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of\nJesus anointed. One of the most active teachers is Mr. Watts, late of\nVernon Chapel, King's Cross Road. The Athenaeum Hall, Temple Road,\nBirmingham, seems to be the headquarters of Christadelphian publications.\nThere are published there the _Christadelphian Shield_, the _Biblical\nNewspaper_, and the _Ambassador_, monthly periodicals, and other\npublications more expensive, and aiming to be standard works.\n\nThis, I take it, is the epitome of their faith:--\n\n \"One God, the Eternal Father, dwelling in heaven in light of glory\n inconceivable; one universal irradiant Spirit, by which the Father\n fills all and knows all, and when He wills, performs all; one Lord\n Jesus Christ, Son of God, begotten by the Spirit of the Virgin Mary,\n put to death for sin, raised from the dead for righteousness, and\n exalted to the heavens as a Mediator between God and man; man a\n creature of the ground, under sentence of death because of sin, which\n is his great enemy--the devil; deliverance from death by\n resurrection, and bodily glorification at the coming of Christ and\n inheritance of the kingdom of God, offered to all men on\n condition--1, of believing the glad tidings of Christ's\n accomplishment at His first appearing, and of His coming\n manifestations in the earth as King of Israel and Ruler of the whole\n earth at the setting up of the kingdom of God; 2, of being immersed\n in water for His name; and 3, of continuing in well-doing to the end\n of this probationary career.\"\n\nThis is the teaching of the new sect. They rejoice in their emancipation\nfrom the bondage of orthodoxy. Mr. Watts says:--\"My past nineteen years\nof religious life I regard as so much lost time taken up with the fables\nand follies of man's fleshly mind, systematized upon a pagan theology;\nand although I honestly thought myself right, and strove hard to lead\nothers, yet I am now fully persuaded it was all done in ignorance of the\ntrue knowledge of God.\" He tells us the Evangelical party in the Church\nor Dissent do not know the Gospel. \"Nothing can be more clear,\" he says,\n\"than that this (their doctrine of the resurrection) first item of the\nGospel as preached by Jesus and the Apostles does not form any part of\nthe teaching either of those who pretend to be the successors of the\nApostles, or the sects and parties of Dissenters who have imbibed their\nsystem of theology from the same polluted stream.\" The doctrine of the\nsoul's essential and inherent immortality is a pagan myth. For the\nheathen there is no future life; for them what Macbeth wished has come to\npass, and life is indeed\n\n \"The be all and the end all here.\"\n\nThe mere belief of this doctrine relieves orthodoxy of the perplexing\nproblem, What becomes of the heathen? and of course strikes at the\nfoundation of the doctrine of purgatory. Yet we are not to suppose there\nwill be no punishment for the wicked and the disobedient; they shall\nbeaten with stripes, and then, according to the righteous Judge, enter\nupon that second death state, from which there shall be no\nresurrection--an opinion the direct opposite of that of Origen and\nArchbishop Tillotson, first promulgated in modern times by Dr. Rust,\nBishop of Dromore. The Calvinistic formula is also, in the opinion of\nthe Christadelphians, a mere travesty of the subject of the atonement.\nAs to man in general, he is born to die. God treated the first man\nfederally. He put him on probation, and in him all his successors stood\nor fell. We never read of immortal, never-dying souls in Scripture, and\nto foist such a meaning on 2 Cor. v. 8, as that it proves the existence\nof a separate state of disembodied spirits, is to handle the Word of God\ndeceitfully. Once Mr. Watts believed in a kingdom in the sky, a throne\nin the heart, a seed of Israel, a New Jerusalem and promised land, all\nmystically referring to something at present existing in the so-called\nChristian Church. He does so no longer. His eyes are opened, the light\nis come, and he and his friends, chiefly juveniles, rejoice; and if they\nhave the true light, who shall say they have no reason to rejoice?\nFarewell, writes Mr. Watts, in a poem considered poetically of doubtful\nmerit--\n\n \"Farewell to the false, I welcome the true,\n And begin the year with Christ anew.\"\n\nThis reference to poetry reminds me that the Christadelphians have a\nhymn-book of their own, to frame which appears to have been a matter of\nno little trouble. With the hymns used by Christian churches in general\nthey find much fault. They require something manly and robust, whereas\nthe churches of all denominations rejoice in what is sentimental, and\ntheir songs of praise and devotion are described as \"oceans of slops.\"\nWhether the Christadelphians have much improved theirs, I leave the\nreader to judge. As a specimen I quote one verse from Montgomery's\nwell-known poem, \"The Grave.\" In their hymn-book I find it printed thus.\nI quote from memory:--\n\n \"There is a calm for saints who weep,\n A rest for weary Weyyah found;\n In Christ secure they sweetly sleep,\n Hid in the ground.\"\n\nAt present the Christadelphians do not seem very flourishing. In their\nlittle room--which is miscalled a hall--there are about forty of them of\nan evening, quibbling earnestly, and to the best of their ability.\n\nIn taking leave of the Christadelphians, let me refer to a passage in our\nChurch history. It is notorious that the celebrated Henry Dodwell,\nCamden Professor of History in the University of Oxford, in order to\nexalt the power and dignity of the priesthood, endeavoured to prove that\nthe doctrine of the soul's natural mortality was the true and original\ndoctrine, and that immortality was only at baptism conferred upon the\nsoul by the gift of God through the hands of one set of regularly\nordained clergy.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\nSOME MINOR SECTS.\n\n\nThere are two classes of people of whom a wise man should be wary. He\nwho comes to you in a jolly, confidential sort of way, and tells you that\nyou know that he never pretended to be much of a saint, and he whose\nsaintship is so sublimated that he finds all denominations in grievous\nerror, and must form a new sect for himself. It is to be feared that\nsuch men are in a very bad way, and have most erroneous conceptions of\nGod and His dealings. It is certainly remarkable that they are chiefly\nto be met with in the most ignorant sections of professors--amongst the\n\n \"Petulant capricious sects,\n The maggots of corrupted texts.\"\n\nAny liberal culture seems fatal to them. As soon as they manage to\npronounce their h's and to talk grammatically, they can worship with\nother Christians, can rejoice in the magnificent inheritance which has\ncome down to the Church of our day from the sanctified intellect of\nformer times--can derive edification from an educated ministry--possibly\nmay sing the songs of a Keble, and may be able occasionally to join in a\nform of prayer which was found adequate for the expression of the\nspirituality of a Martyn or a Wilberforce.\n\n\n\nTHE PECULIAR PEOPLE.\n\n\nIn London, if we are to believe what we hear in some quarters, the real\nseat of true and undefiled religion is to be found amongst the small body\nwho meet in an obscure street leading out of the Walworth Road. The\nneighbourhood is not a very attractive one, and is inhabited chiefly by\nretail tradesmen, who must find it in these hard times a struggle to make\nboth ends meet. You must look sharp to find the place of which you are\nin search. In a row of shops opposite Lion Street you will see one in\nthe day-time with the shutters up. On the shutters you will see one or\ntwo little bills headed Christian Meeting House, containing an\ninvitation, as follows:--\"Dear friend, you are affectionately invited to\nthe following meetings.\" Then you have a list of the times of meeting,\nan announcement that all seats are free, and the text, \"For both He that\nsanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all one, for which cause He\nis not ashamed to call them brethren.\" If you enter, you see a few\nbenches in what is meant for a shop, and a few more in the room behind.\nWhere the window is there is a desk, at which the chairman or conductor\nof the meeting sits. By the door is a little box into which the\nofferings of the faithful are poured. As a rule the place, which cannot\nhold more than forty or fifty adults comfortably, is well filled by very\npoor people. It is the only place of meeting of the sect in London.\nThey are numerous, so they say, in Essex, Sussex, and Surrey, but in the\nWalworth Road they are few and not popular with their neighbours, who\npossibly know no better. Now and then up comes a street-boy and makes a\nhideous noise through the keyhole; but the Peculiar People have got used\nto that. I should fancy with the keen-witted artisans of London they\nmake but little way. The reader may remember that a little while ago\nsome of these people figured in a police-court. They had refused all\nproper medical aid for a child, and it died in consequence. They have\ngreat faith, these poor people. They have great scorn also for people\nmore benighted than themselves. They speak contemptuously of the time\nwhen they knew no better, when they trusted in forms, and attended on a\none-man ministry, and were humbled and dejected on account of sin, and\ncalled themselves miserable sinners, and confessed that they had done the\nthings they ought not to have done, and left undone those things which\nthey should have done. All that sort of feeling and talk is all wicked\nin their opinion; for theirs is the glorious liberty of the sons of God\nand joint heirs of heaven. Religion has no difficulties for them, no\nmysteries; nothing beyond the reach of man, heights to which he cannot\nascend, depths which he cannot fathom. To come together and declare\ntheir unspeakable joy is all that they have to do. For this the beginner\nis as competent as the grey-headed believer, the sister as well as the\nbrother, the ignorant man as well as he who has had a college education.\nTriumphantly they ask--\n\n \"When the Lord would speak,\n Think ye he needs the Latin or the Greek?\"\n\nOf course not. And thus in turn they all preach and pray with a zeal\nwhich literally is not according to knowledge. If a man cannot say he\nlives without sin, they set him down as no Christian. At one time they\nheld that as the Spirit of God only teaches one thing, that if true\nso-called Christians disagreed in Church matters, one of them was a child\nof the devil; and as they were not at all backward in applying this\ndoctrine, they were split up as fast as they gathered together. They\nhave a great deal of the Methodist leaven amongst them, and at prayer, or\nwhile speaking is going on, express their feelings in a way which, to a\nstranger, may be considered unnecessarily noisy. Their leaders seem to\nbe a small tradesman in the Southwark Road, and a little, pale, wizened\nfemale, whose utterances and prayers are of the most extraordinary\ncharacter--a sort of sing-song, now rising and then dropping, in a way\nwhich in a secular personage and on secular subjects would be ludicrous\nin the extreme. But they profess to have no leaders. They have elders,\nwho are simply elders. They become such by lapse of time alone.\n\nAs to their organization, I much question if they have any. One brother\nassured me there were rules, but as the price was fourpence, and as trade\nwas slack, he had been unable to procure a copy of them. In answer to\nour appeal, an elder said there were such, but they were under lock and\nkey, and he could not find them for us; whereupon another brother reached\nout a New Testament, with the assurance that there, and there alone, were\ntheir rules. What information we could get we had to fish out by\nquestions. As to Church membership, they have no preliminaries. All who\ncome are of the Church; those whom the Lord calls will join them, and if\nthe Lord has not called them they will soon drop away. They consider\nthat every service is the sacrament, and they have no special form. In\nthe same way they have no baptism--infant or adult, creeds, confessions\nof faith, forms of prayer, ministers set apart and trained to\npreach;--all these things they have done away with. By communion as\nbrother with brother, and sister with sister, they can cherish the true\nChristian life. If one of them lack anything, let him or her ask of God.\nHow familiarly and at times irreverently they pray, the reader can well\nimagine. It is difficult to say common things with propriety, says the\nold Latin proverb. It is more difficult to introduce them into prayer,\nto inform the Lord that Brother Jones would have been present had he not\nbeen unable to come, and to explain the peculiarly distressing\ncircumstances of Sister Smith. For acting on the world outside, they\nhave great faith in out-of-door preaching, an exercise in which they take\ngreat delight, and for which they consider themselves peculiarly\nqualified. They forget, as one has wittily remarked, that if the Lord\ndoes not need man's learning, still less does He need man's ignorance.\nAs to the financial question, they get over that without much difficulty.\nTheir expenses are next to nothing, and each brother or sister is ever\nready to contribute his mite. They have nothing to pay for pew-rents;\nthey have no minister's salary to collect; they have no educational\ninstitutions to support; the rent of a room in a back street is no\nserious item; and as to church furniture, that is easily supplied--a\ndoor-mat, a dirty desk, half a dozen old forms, a second-hand Bible or\nso, a greasy hymn-book that has done duty many times, and they have all\nthat they require. It is not for me to judge my brother. To show him\nhow fatal is his fluency of tongue, how presumptuous his hope, how\nunfounded his joy, is a thankless task. All I would suggest is, that he\nshould exercise a little of that charity of which he stands in need\nhimself, and not fancy that to him has been revealed what men of greater\npiety and higher intellect have been unable to discover. Another\nobjection may also be taken. In an ancient town, with a fine old castle,\nmany, many years ago, there was an attempt to form a volunteer regiment.\nUnfortunately all wanted to be officers; the consequence was, the\nregiment came to grief. The Peculiar People have too many officers.\nWhere every one has an equal right to teach, the number of the taught\nwill be small indeed.\n\n\n\nTHE SANDEMANIANS.\n\n\nIn this our day one of the expiring sects of Christendom is that of the\nSandemanians. At no time have they been a very powerful denomination\neither from their numbers, their influence, or their wealth. They have\nnever yet made their mark upon the world, nor are they likely to do so\nnow. The late Professor Faraday was one of their elders, and for a time\nconferred on them a little of his world-wide reputation; but one swallow\ndoes not make a summer, nor does one great man confer greatness on a\nchurch. The eccentricity of men of genius is proverbial. Sharp, the\nengraver, believed in the lunatic Brothers and the impostor Joanna\nSouthcote; Irving in the gift of tongues and the power of working\nmiracles; Swedenborg in his faculty of piercing the veil which envelopes\nall sublunary affairs and realizing what we are taught to consider will\nonly be revealed to us when the heavens and earth shall pass away as a\nscroll, and time shall be no more. Even our great emancipator Luther,\nthe Moses who led forth--to borrow a figure from Cowley--our modern\nIsrael from its house of bondage, and brought them into the promised\nland, testified to a visible appearance of the Prince of Darkness, to get\nrid of whom he had to dash his ink-bottle, a type, as it always seems to\nme, of the victory yet to be achieved by means of print over the devil\nand all his works. But Faraday is gone. No longer can the Sandemanians\nboast the possession of one of England's greatest philosophers; and they\nhave now little power of influencing or predominating in society. They\nseem to me a very plain and humble folk, aiming at keeping up in their\nown hearts Christian love, and in their own circle primitive practices,\nrather than in aggressive movements, without which no church or\ndenomination can expect in this busy age long to live.\n\nThere is one Sandemanian church in London, up in Barnsbury, at the corner\nof one of the streets running out of the Roman Road. The original church\nwas founded in the year 1760, in the Barbican. City improvements\nnecessitated its removal to this site, where it has now been erected four\nor five years. It was in the old chapel that Professor Faraday used to\ntake his turn in preaching. In the new chapel his widow is still one of\nthe worshippers. As you pass the place you would not see anything very\nextraordinary. It is a neat, simple structure, of white brick, with no\narchitectural pretensions of any kind. It only differs from other places\nof worship in having no board up announcing to what denomination it\nbelongs, nor the name of the preacher, nor the hours of assembly, nor\nwhere applications for sittings are to be made, nor to whom subscriptions\nare to be paid. Indeed, the only reference at all to an outside world\nseems to consist in the putting up a caution intimating that the building\nis under the guardianship of the police, and persons evilly disposed had\nbetter mind what they are about. Thus, and thus only, is the recognition\nof an outer world lying in darkness and needing the true light of the\nGospel in any way acknowledged. They have service twice on Sunday, in\nthe morning and afternoon, and a week-day meeting on Wednesday evening.\nThey have no Sunday or day-school, no tract distribution, no district\nvisiting, no minister, and no other means of acting on the world or\nforming religious opinion. Indeed, I fancy they are averse to anything\nof the kind. \"We are utterly,\" I read in one of their publications,\n\"against aiming to promote the cause we contend for either by creeping\ninto private homes or by causing our voice to be heard in the streets, or\nby officiously obtruding our opinions upon others.\" Even if you enter\ntheir place of worship there is no pew-opener to show you to a seat.\nThey claim simply to obey the commands of the Bible implicitly, to be a\nchurch founded for mutual edification and love--nothing more. The\nstranger who for the first time attends will be struck with the absence\nof the pulpit, instead of which he will find two large desks, one above\nthe other, in which are seated three or four elderly persons; the\nattention which is paid to the reading of the Bible; the illiterate way\nin which those who preach and pray do so; and the length and dulness of\nthe service. The morning service, for instance, begins at eleven, and is\nnever over till half-past one. No wonder the Sandemanians are not a\nvigorous sect. I believe they have but one place of worship in England,\nthree or four in Scotland, and more, how many I know not, in America.\nThe chapel in Barnsbury will seat, I imagine, from three to four hundred\npeople, and it is always nearly full, and attended by people in\nrespectable appearance. Of the really poor they seem to have none at\nall.\n\nThe Sandemanians originated in Scotland, in 1728, as a kind of reaction\nagainst Presbyterianism and Calvinism. Mr. John Glass, a minister of the\nKirk, was deposed by the Presbyterian Church Courts because he taught\nthat the Church could be subject to no league or covenant--that faith was\nsimple belief--and that Christianity never was, nor ever could be the\nestablished religion of any nation without becoming the reverse of what\nit was when first instituted. Mr. Robert Sandeman, one of his elders,\nhowever, by his numerous writings, left on the new organization the\nimpress of his name. In these days, when metaphysical speculation has\nlittle encouragement amongst Christians, the Sandemanians tell us they\nhave no formal creed or confession of faith--that they simply follow\nScripture practice, and that is all. For this purpose they meet together\non the first day of the week, not only to read and hear the Word, but\nparticularly to break bread or communicate together in the Lord's Supper;\nto pray, which is done by several in turns; to listen to an exhortation\nfrom one of the elders. They are a Christian republic. At the\nconclusion of every prayer--whether pronounced by the elders or the\nbrethren--the whole church say Amen, according to what is intimated in 1\nCor. xiv. 16. In the interval between the morning and the afternoon\nservice they have their love-feast, of which every member partakes, when\nthey salute each other with a holy kiss. The children are all baptized,\non the plea that if one of the parents believes the children are not\nunclean but holy, and because it is written in Acts, \"Believe on the Lord\nJesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and _thy_ house.\" They deem it\nunlawful to eat flesh with its blood; they wash each other's feet; they\nhold all things in common so far as the claims of the poor and the Church\nare concerned; they forbid no amusements but those connected with the\nlot, such as cards or dice; their elders are chosen from amongst them on\naccount of their piety and character, and are ordained by prayer and\nfasting, and laying on of hands. A deacon is elected in the same way,\nminus the fasting. Any one who appears to understand and believe the\ntruth may be admitted into their fellowship. When a person is\nexcommunicated the act takes place in the presence of the whole church.\nTwo elders must be present at every act of discipline. It may be further\nstated that in every church transaction, whether it be receiving,\ncensuring, or expelling members, or choosing officers, or in performing\nany other business, unanimity is deemed indispensable. If there is a\ndissenting brother, after the reasons of the dissent have been stated,\nand judged unscriptural by the church, he is expelled. The Sandemanians\nallow neither government by a majority nor a representation of\nminorities.\n\nAs an outsider I should say nothing was ever more uninteresting, nothing\never more calculated to alienate from religion intelligent young people,\nthan the services conducted by the Sandemanians. The elders and deacons,\nexcellent men undoubtedly, are singularly deficient in oratorical\nability. I think the worst sermon I ever heard in my life was preached\nby one of them. They cannot even read the Bible in an impressive and\nedifying manner, nor is their psalmody much better. They have a literal\nversion of the Psalms, and they sing them through, a couple of verses or\nso at a time. I give one specimen I heard, not the last time I attended\nthere:--\n\n \"Moab I will My Wash-pot make,\n O'er Edom cast my shoe;\n Do thou, O land of Palestine,\n Triumph, because of Me.\"\n\nThe modern hymnology, of which all sections of the Church are justly\nproud, exists in vain for them. Their church seems utterly destitute of\nintellectual vigour; and when, as in these days, brains are beginning to\nrule, the piety that rejects or ignores them is in danger. There is a\nrelation between the Bible and modern thought of which the good people\nwho preach dull sermons and make dull prayers up in Barnsbury have no\nidea.\n\n\n\nTHE SOUTHCOTTIANS.\n\n\nIncredible as it may seem, there are, in these days of penny newspapers\nand universal enlightenment, Southcottians in London. They may be met\nwith in the neighbourhood of Kennington Common, and in one of the\nforlornest spots in Islington, Elder Walk, Essex Road. Thence they issue\ndocuments worthy of Bedlam. I have now before me their \"Midnight Cry,\nBehold the Bridegroom cometh.\" And this august warning and bruising and\ninviting announcement is \"to and for whomsoever it may concern of\nMammon-crushed Israel.\" One extract I fancy will suffice--one at any\nrate I must give, otherwise such religious lunacy will be held\nincredible.\n\n \"Oh, dutifully observe now, O all Israel, (namely) O Judah and\n Ephraim, that this Universal Marriage overture unto you, together\n with these Proxy Marriage lines and record, are made and offered you\n entirely because 'I am' and Jesus Christ is Life, Love, and Light\n everlasting, and because of His power and right to give, and the Son\n of Man's to receive, and the worthy Woman to bring Him forth, and\n Israel's to inherit,--viz., the promises unto Adam, Eve, Noah,\n Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and all their seed, who were originally\n the void waters and dark-faced deep until God said, Let there be\n Light and there was Light. And from henceforth there shall be Light,\n and both Light and Love abundantly in Heaven, here below as in Heaven\n above, for in the beginning God created Heaven and Earth, and did,\n and is, and will finish on the sixth day the same and all the host of\n them.\"\n\nThe main instrument in the above precious compilation is Whatmore, one of\nJoanna Southcott's chosen apostles. The paper referred to is issued from\nNo. 9, Elder Walk, Essex Road, Islington, London, of Britannia Zion. It\nstates, as far as I can gather, that in August last year something of\nimportance was to take place. \"A month since and the gauntlet has been\nsuccessfully run; therefore, Whatmore, now has Thy lowly instrument\nWatmore Whatmore, John, to submit of and by Thy worthiness, O Lord God.\nOh, shall I submit a Song of Solomon, or a Lamentation of Thy Prophet\nJeremiah, or a sermon of Thy immortalizing mount, unto Thy flock, O, O,\nO! Submit, love,\" &c., &c. I gather that the mystery of God is to be\nfinished speedily by unveiling His Bible word, and His codicil thereto by\nHis spouse, \"the wonderful Queen of prophets, Joanna Southcott, that thus\nsons and daughters by her womanhood may greatly replenish the earth, and\nthat the poor now suffering from the murdering love of money in\nconsequence of unjust stewardship may fare better in time to come.\" This\nseems to be the only idea I can extract from the Southcottians. All\nmammon laws are to be abolished, money currency is to be destroyed, there\nis to be no more selling, martyring, and bartering of humanity and their\nrequirements, \"thus saith the Lord Jehovah, by J. Watmore Whatmore, and\nJ. G. Grant, of Zion.\"\n\nAs these prophets speak of the spouse of God, Eve the second, called\nJoanna Southcott, Queen of the prophets, who in 1802 opened her\ncommission, and declared herself to be the woman spoken of in\nRevelation--\"the Bride, the Lamb's wife, and clothed with the sun\"--let\nme briefly tell her story:--\n\nJoanna was born at Gettisham, in Devonshire. Her parents were in the\nfarming line, and members of the Established Church. She herself was in\nservice or in industrious employment, \"without,\" writes her biographer,\n\"any other symptom of a disordered intellect than that she was attached\nto the Methodists.\" Nevertheless, it was Mr. Pomeroy, the clergyman\nwhose church she attended at Exeter, who appears to have encouraged her\nto print her prophecies and to assume spiritual gifts. The books which\nshe sent into the world were written partly in rhyme, all the verse and\nthe greater part of the prose being delivered in the character of the\nAlmighty. Her discourses were nothing else than a mere rhapsody of\ntexts--vulgar dreams and vulgar interpretations. Her fame spread, and\nseven wise men from different parts of the country, the seven stars, came\nto believe in her. Among the early believers were three clergymen, one\nof them a man of fashion, fortune, and noble family. As her followers\nsupplied her with money and treated her with great reverence, the more\nextravagant were her assertions and the loftier her claims. The scheme\nof redemption was completed in her. If the tree of knowledge was\nviolated by Eve, the tree of life was reserved for Joanna. Her greatest\ntriumph was a conflict with the devil, which lasted a week. According to\nher own account the devil had the worst of it. She gave him ten words\nfor one, and allowed him no time to speak. Very ungallantly, at the\ntermination of the dispute he remarked no man could tame a woman's\ntongue; he said the sands of an hour-glass did not run faster. It was\nbetter to dispute with a thousand men than one woman. After this dispute\nJoanna is said--and her followers believed it--to have fasted forty days.\n\nShortly after commencing her mission, she published the following\ndeclaration:--\n\n \"I, Joanna Southcott, am clearly convinced that my calling is of God,\n and my writings are indited by His Spirit, as it is impossible that\n any spirit but an all-wise God that is wondrous in working, wondrous\n in wisdom, wondrous in power, wondrous in truth, could have brought\n round such mysteries so full of truth as in my writings; so I am\n clear in whom I believed, that all my writings came from the Spirit\n of the Most High God.\n\n \"JOANNA SOUTHCOTT.\"\n\nOne of her means of making money and increasing her influence was the\nsealing of such as signed their names to a declaration intimating a\ndesire for Christ's kingdom to be established upon earth, and the\ndestruction of that of the devil. Whoever signed his or her name\nreceived a sealed letter containing these words:--\"The sealed of the Lord\nthe elect. Precious man's redemption to inherit the tree of life, to be\nmade heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.\" To this document\nJoanna's name was appended. In December, 1813, she declared her\npregnancy, and prophesied that she should have a son that year by the\npower of the Most High. Her followers now increased rapidly, and chapels\nwere opened for promulgating her doctrines. As the time drew nigh\npresents of all descriptions, it was said, came in unasked. There was a\nmagnificent cot for the expected Messiah, manufactured by Seddons. All\nthe articles used on such occasions--as laced caps, bibs, robes,\npapboats, caudle cups, &c.,--were lavishly supplied; and when it appeared\nthat the poor woman had died, asking pardon for her late blasphemous\ndoctrines and past sins, the delusion was still kept up, and her\nfollowers believed that she would reappear. It was only after a\n_post-mortem_ examination that the fiction of a miraculous conception was\ndispelled. Joanna was sixty years old at the time of her death, and was\nburied privately in Marylebone Upper Burying-ground, near Kilburn.\n\nThe present leader is John Whatmore, formerly a smith, but who has been\nled in a marvellous way, according to his own confession, to believe in\nJoanna. He is an open-air preacher, and may be met with in London\nFields, Somers Town, and elsewhere pursuing his calling, which apparently\nis not very lucrative. He has two boards joined together, on which some\nunintelligible jargon is printed, which he calls his two sticks. These\nhe holds up to view, at the same time calling out, \"Britannia! Ephraim!\nJudah!\" Then he commences his oration, a strange medley of Scripture and\nnonsense. According to him the world is in the worst possible way; and\nthe devil has a fine time of it. The present commercial system of\nsociety by no means meets with Whatmore's approval. The poor are rotting\noff, and woe to them to whom such a catastrophe is due. There are many\ndisciples, he tells us; but fear of this world and a false sense of shame\nprevent them from declaring themselves. There must be some, otherwise\nthe man could not get a living. His library seems to consist chiefly, if\nnot exclusively, of the New Testament and his own absurd hand-bills,\nwhich a printer supplies him with on the chance of his selling them. In\nanswer to my inquiry as to where he attended when not preaching himself,\nhis reply was that he sometimes went to the Agricultural Hall; but they\nwere not advanced enough for him, and so he falls back on himself, and\ngoes about to do what he thinks is--or at any rate what he says he thinks\nis--the Lord's work. There is no bounce about him. He is apparently a\nmuddle-headed, well-meaning mystic; about as mad or sane as others of his\nway of thinking. That he is wretchedly poor, that he is ignorant, that\nhis language to ordinary folks seems simply unintelligible, perhaps in\ncertain quarters may be accepted as signs of his Divine commission. At\nany rate, he is a representative man. If he is ignorant and talks\nnonsense, what must be the ignorance and the nonsense existing in those\nwho listen to him? How dense must be the ignorance, how crass the\nnonsense cherished in his hearers! It may be asked, and this is a\nquestion I put to the religious public, is not the manifestation of such\nreligious folly a reproach to our age? If the Church had done its duty,\nwould such a folly have been possible?\n\n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS.\n\n\nSomehow or other the Spiritualists are under a cloud in this country, and\ntheir leader--Mr. Home--has been compelled, in consequence of the\ndecision of a highly-prejudiced and extremely ignorant jury, to hand over\nto Mrs. Lyon a very handsome sum of money which she had conveyed to him\nin consequence of representations made by him to her that such was the\ndesire of her deceased lord and master. Up to that time Spiritualism was\nmaking great way, and Mr. Home, as its high priest and apostle, was in\nrequest with the nobility, and was the friend of kings and emperors. He\nhad married a Russian Countess; he wore a diamond ring on one hand, given\nby the Czar, and on the other hand another, the present of the Emperor of\nFrance. His speaking eye and melodramatic manner made him in society a\nreally charming man; literary ladies were enthusiastic in his favour. A\nspiritual Athenaeum was opened in Sloane Street, Chelsea, at which a very\neminent man gave the inaugural discourse, and at which there were spirit\ndrawings displayed, and spirit poems read--all suggestive of the fact\nthat the spirits were very ordinary people, after all. But it was not so\nmuch there as at the houses of his friends that Mr. Home tried best to\ndisplay his powers. At such times there was a wonderful parade of\nreligion. Previous to his attending a _seance_, a friend of the author\nwas asked whether he believed in the doctrine of the Trinity; \"because,\"\nsaid the fair questioner, \"we find that the spirits do not like to appear\nbefore sceptics;\" and the Bible was read, and prayer offered up in\napparently the most reverent, and earnest, and occasionally the most\ntiresome manner. Then came a few childish tricks, such as a handkerchief\nconveyed by spirits _under_ the table, the accordion played by spirits\n_under_ the table, and other intimations of what was said to be spiritual\nagency, but all equally out of sight. A few marvellous things were said\nby Home--secrets occasionally--which the hearer thought no one knew but\nhimself, but secrets of the most uninteresting and unimportant character.\nAnd then the unbeliever passed out, scarcely knowing whether to laugh or\nweep; whether he had assisted at a religious meeting or a farce; whether\nhe had been in the company of a mortal fitted for a solemn mission to an\nidle and adulterous generation seeking after a sign, or whether all he\nhad seen and heard was but the clever manoeuvring of a clever professor\nof legerhave to take his stand with the Brothers Davenport and other\ndoubtful mediums who have had their day.\n\nThe Spiritualists in this country set great store by Home. They have\nnever been able in our cold climate to raise mediums worth talking about.\nThe latter have been chiefly American importations. Mr. Harris came as a\npreacher of Spiritualism, and, after a few Sundays at Store Street,\nvanished like a spirit, and was heard of no more. A _Spiritual Magazine_\nwas started. Mrs. Marshall and her niece, of 22, Red Lion Street,\nHolborn, were declared by that--we presume official authority--to be\n\"Media.\" Then came the solid testimony of a learned American judge,\ndeclaring \"the first thing demonstrated to us is that we can commune with\nthe spirits of the departed; that such communication is through the\ninstrumentality of persons yet living; that the fact of mediumship is the\nresult of physical organization; that the kind of communion is effected\nby moral causes; and that the power, like our other faculties, is\npossessed in different degrees, and is capable of improvement by\ncultivation.\" But the sect did not prosper. Then came grotesque\nindications of spiritual presence. Not content with table-rapping, the\nspirits had recourse to all kinds of antics, and the subject of\nSpiritualism became more and more distasteful to the intelligent, and\nmore and more popular with that large class of idle wealthy men and women\nwho have no healthy occupation, and are always in search of excitement.\nThe climax was reached when the _Cornhill_ told how Mr. Home floated in\nthe air, how heavy tables would leap from one end of the room to the\nother, how music was produced on accordions, \"grand at times, at others\npathetical, at others distant and long-drawn,\" when those accordions were\nheld by no mortal hands. \"I can state,\" wrote Dr. Gulley, of Malvern,\n\"that the record made in the article 'Stranger than Fiction' is in every\nparticular correct; that the phenomena therein related actually took\nplace, and moreover that no trick-machinery, sleight of hand, or other\nartistic contrivance, produced what we heard and beheld. I am quite as\nconvinced of this last as I am of the facts themselves.\" Well might the\nSpiritualists crow; had not Robert Owen and Lord Lyndhurst also believed?\nWas it not uncharitable to say that they were in their dotage? The\ntestimony of such men settled everything.\n\nIn America, Spiritualism is more prosperous than in England. In the\n\"Plain Guide to Spiritualism\" Mr. Clarke tells us there are in that\ncountry 500 public mediums who receive visitors; more than 50,000 private\nones; 500 books and pamphlets on the subject have been published, and\nmany of them immensely circulated; there are 500 public speakers and\nlecturers on it, and more than 1000 occasional ones. There are nearly\n2000 places for public circles, conferences, or lectures, and in many\nplaces flourishing public schools. The decided believers are 2,000,000,\nthe nominal ones nearly 5,000,000; on the globe itself it is calculated\nthere are 20,000,000 supposed to recognise the fact of spiritual\nintercourse. In Paris and the different parts of France the\nmanifestations have been almost of every kind, and of the most decisive\nand distinguished character. \"Great numbers of persons have been cured\nby therapeutic mediums,\" writes William Howitt, \"of diseases and injuries\nincurable by all ordinary means. Some of these persons are well known to\nme, and are every day bearing their testimony in aristocratic society.\"\nWriting thus, Mr. Howitt defines Spiritualism \"as the great theologic and\nphilosophic reformer of the age; the great requickener of religious life;\nthe great consoler and establisher of hearts; the great herald to the\nwanderers of earth starved upon the husks of mere college dogmas.\" \"I\nbelieve,\" says Mr. C. Hall, \"that as it now exists, Spiritualism has\nmainly but one purpose--to confute and destroy Materialism, by supplying\nsure, and certain, and _palpable_ evidence that to every human being God\ngives a soul, which He ordains shall not perish when the body dies.\"\nThis, as good old Isaak Walton says, in narrating Dr. Donne's Vision,\n\"this is a relation that will beget some wonder; and it well may, for\nmost of our world are at present possessed with an opinion that miracles\nand visions are ceased.\"\n\nWhat is Spiritualism? Ask its opponents. They regard it as necromancy,\na practice not only forbidden under the Old Testament, but which even in\nthe New we find classed by St. Paul under the general denomination of\nwitchcraft, with such works of the flesh as idolatry, murder, adultery,\nand drunkenness, concerning all of which the Apostle Paul adds the solemn\ndeclaration (Gal. v. 19-21), \"That they which do such things shall not\ninherit the kingdom of God.\" Such undoubtedly is the feeling entertained\nwith regard to Spiritualism by the great majority of orthodox Christians,\nwho are quite satisfied by Scripture testimony, who accept what they\nthink God has revealed to them in His Book, and who seek or require\nnothing more. In a weak but well-meaning work just put into my hands\n(\"Spiritualism and other Signs\") I read: \"The whole system is essentially\nopposed to faith in, and walking with, Jesus Christ, and the Spiritualist\nknows it.\" The writer quotes the well-known text: \"Now the Spirit\nspeaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the\nfaith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking\nlies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.\" At\nthe same time there are many in the Christian Church of undoubted piety\nand intelligence who are believers in Spiritualism. After all, however,\nthey are the exception rather than the rule. Amongst all sects there is\na condemnation of Spiritualism of a very sweeping character. In this one\nthing Wesleyans, Low Churchmen, and Congregationalists are agreed. The\nouter world, the Secularists and the Positivists, of course regard\nSpiritualism with the same scorn and unbelief with which they regard all\nreligion, whether true or false, whether old as the hills or but\nyesterday's creation.\n\n\"It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapsed since the\nCreation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has\never been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death.\nAll argument is against it, but all belief is for it.\" Such is a\nsentence I borrow from Dr. Johnson. It is as applicable to the present\ntime as to that in which he lived.\n\nIn conclusion, let me add, as a distinct organization, hitherto\nSpiritualism has failed in this country. I hear nothing of the\n_Spiritual Athenaeum_ now, nothing of Mr. Harris, either as preacher or\npoet, very little even of Mr. Home. Strange that a man who could not\nwrite an ordinary note decently should have been a favourite medium of\nthe spirits. I am aware, however, the Spiritualists will extract an\nargument out of that last remark of mine in favour of Spiritualism. A\nyoung Jewish convert it is said would go to Rome. His teacher, a priest,\nfeared, knowing Rome too well. On his return he questioned his pupil as\nto what he saw in Rome. \"Ah!\" said he, \"I am persuaded now your religion\nis of God, otherwise it would have perished of the wickedness of its\nprofessors.\"\n\n\n\nTHE CAMPBELLITES.\n\n\nIn America of late years there has been an enormous increase of what are\ncalled the Campbellites. They now number in that country 500,000, have\nfifteen colleges, and a large university with 800 students; they have\n2000 churches, and 1000 regular ministers. They are also well\nrepresented as regards literature. They have one quarterly, six or seven\nweeklies, two ladies' magazines, and several Sunday-school papers. In\nLondon they are not a numerous class. They have places of worship in the\nMilton Hall, Camden Town, and in College Street, Chelsea. The truth is,\nas regards chapels and churches, public worship is as much a social as a\nreligious institution. Fashion has a great deal to do with the\nattendance. It is the fashion to go to church. It is not the fashion to\nrun after new sects or preachers of new doctrines. In a flourishing\nchurch there are societies which bring people into contact with one\nanother--these promote in their turn, like the far-famed ale of Trinity,\n\"brotherly neighbourhood.\" The old ladies get a habit of\ngossiping--Jones, Brown, and Robinson take tea together--and then young\npeople form alliances in consequence often of a serious and matrimonial\ncharacter. It is uphill work, then, in London for a little isolated\ncause. The odds against its permanent success are infinite. Still the\nCampbellites are making way. They have a fine base of operations in\nAmerica, and they are spreading over England,--if they are not doing much\nin the Metropolis. They are good, pious people, and earnest in the\nconviction that they alone understand and maintain apostolical charity;\nand deeply deploring the present divided and unhappy state of the\nChristian Church, and with a view to unity, they increase the number of\ndivisions by withdrawing from all other religious bodies, and forming a\nfresh one of their own.\n\nWho are the Campbellites? I will endeavour to answer the question.\nTheir creed, as they tell us, is simply the Messiahship. According to\nthem, the Christian creed thus presents for individual and immediate\nacceptance the one living, personal, loving, Divine, all-wise and\nomnipotent Saviour from ignorance, sin, and rebellion. Humanly devised\nand written creeds demand faith in abstract metaphysical, theological,\necclesiastical, and political propositions, and have so effectually\nsupplanted the good confession, that though admitted as a doctrine, few\nchurches or professors of the present day would consider themselves safe\nin depending solely on its saving faith or belief in God's testimony as\ncontained in His Word, as delivered by apostles and prophets, and as\ncorroborated by signs and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the\nHoly Spirit. Campbellism distinguishes the Gospel not only from the\nwords of men, but from Scripture generally--that Jesus is its subject.\nIt apprehends him not only as Jesus of Nazareth, but as God manifest in\nthe flesh--the Son and Christ of the Father consecrated to the high\noffices of Prophet, Priest, and King. It recognises the applicability\nand reference of the Saviour's mission and work to the individual himself\nas clearly as if he were the only sinner for whom Christ has died; nor is\nit a mere intellectual assent, but a willing, heartfelt reception of the\ntruth and surrender of the whole man, body, soul, and spirit. Now, as I\nimagine most orthodox Christians would say as much, and would state their\nbelief in similar terms, with the exception of the Presbyterians and\nEpiscopalians, who have the advantage or disadvantage, whatever it may\nbe, of having to repeat a creed of more scholastic character, the\nquestion still remains, why cannot the Campbellites worship with other\nChristians? I must frankly confess there is in their services nothing\nmore fitted to make an impression upon the world than there is in the\nservices of other denominations; neither at Chelsea nor in Camden Town do\nyou get from their preachers an idea that they are men of greater power,\nhigher spiritual life, deeper experience, or more usefulness than are\nothers. Clearly this definition of Christian belief is no warrant for\nanother schism, even though the aim be Christian unity, and the putting a\nstop to the endless differences which are the grief of the Christian and\nthe laugh of the worldling. Their form of worship is eminently simple\nand dissenting--a revival, it may be, of that of apostolic times--that I\ncannot say as, according to some, there are remains of a liturgy in the\nPauline epistles. It is not clear how the ancients worshipped, but it is\nclear the Campbellites simply sing and pray, and read the Scriptures and\ndeliver an address. They are Baptists, and they believe that Baptism is\nessential to salvation. Baptist churches are numerous in London. No\nBaptist need hire room, or chapel, or barn, or hall, and meet there to\nedify himself and his friends apart from the great and active community\nwho feel as he does in that matter. The Campbellites maintain that many\nthings are wrong which are done in other churches. They assume that\nthere was a greater purity in apostolic times than now, and they aim to\nrevive it. For this purpose they exalt the power of the Church, and\ndepreciate that of the ministry. I don't learn that they have all things\nin common, though that was certainly one of the most prominent features\nin apostolic times; but they draw a sharp line between the Church and the\nworld, and in their Sunday services almost ignore the latter. They have\nlittle of that charity which hopeth all things, which thinketh no evil,\nwhich is long-suffering. If they are building a chapel they would not\ntake the money of an unconverted man. If they were collecting\nsubscriptions for the sending out Evangelists, for the printing of\nreligious books and tracts, for the support of a Christian ministry, they\nwould refuse those of worldly men. More logical or more consistent in\nsmall matters, they make no provision in their books of praise for the\nunconverted man. I find in their hymn-book no one verse in the whole\nvolume is designed to be sung simply by the unconverted. Their hymns are\nfor those who, having the spirit of adoption, cry, Abba Father! It is\nproper, says the writer of the preface to the volume to which I refer, it\nis proper for convicted sinners, who do not know the way, to seek\nsalvation, but they are not called to sing their sorrow, much less are\nChristians called to unite with them. Again, he tells us the unconverted\nhave no need to sing prayers for pardon. What then, I may ask, are they\nto do? The answer is that, they may stand and listen and be sung at, as\nwell as preached at. Mr. King, the writer already quoted, says, \"Though\nthere are not hymns for the unconverted to sing, there are appeals to the\nunconverted to be sung by the church.\" Practically, however, the\narrangement differs little from that of other churches. A book is put\ninto your hands, and the chances are, people who are in the habit of\nsinging sing. As only immersed adults are Christians, it is not clear\nwhat the young people who attend their service are; that they sing I can,\nhowever, testify. It is to be feared that the Campbellites are not\nexempt from the faults of all religious worship, as manifested in\nstrength of expression. If men and women believed what they say or sing\nin all our churches and chapels, little would remain for us but the\nMillennium.\n\nThe Campbellites do seek to guard against this danger. It is the Church\nthat sings. It is the Church that worships. All Christian worship is in\nScripture confined to Christians, and necessarily so, for worship offered\nby any one else is not Christian. Thus it is only on the faithful in\nChrist Jesus that the various items of Christian worship are enjoined:\nthey are profaned and prostituted when applied to any others. In the\nmorning of the Sabbath the Church meets by itself to break bread and sing\nand pray; on such occasions the members exhort and edify one another. In\nthe evening the service is of a more general character; appeals are made\nto the unconverted, and they are invited to attend.\n\n \"All you that are weary and sad come,\n And you that are cheerful and glad come,\n In robes of humility clad come,\n Away from the waters of strife.\n Let youth in the freshness of bloom come,\n Let man in the pride of his noon come,\n Let age on the verge of the tomb come,\n Let none in their pride stay away.\"\n\nAs a matter of fact, the unconverted do not avail themselves of the\noffer. It is a small place of meeting, the Milton Hall, but it is quite\nlarge enough, and more than large enough for the church and congregation.\nOne brother prays and reads the Scriptures and gives out a hymn, another\nbrother delivers an address, another brother concludes with prayer, and\nthen there is a prayer-meeting after. The advantage of the Campbellites\nseems to me that they are only a little duller than their neighbours.\nThe little ones around me, when I attended, found it hard to keep awake,\nand yet the service is short. It commences at seven and closes a little\nafter eight. As they have no paid ministry, as their elders and deacons\ntake the chief parts in the service, even after supporting an evangelist\ntheir expenses are not heavy, and in this they find a plausible plea.\nIf, say they, half a dozen churches are built where one would be enough,\nand half a dozen ministers are kept where only one is required, clearly\nin consequence of these divisions amongst brethren, there is a lamentable\nwaste of money and power and spiritual influence. Unfortunately, as\nregards London there is no force in the plea, and will not be till the\ntime comes when the various sections of the Christian Church shall have\nmade all necessary provision for the spiritual wants of the metropolis.\n\n\n\nTHE MORMONS.\n\n\nThirty years ago, writes Hepworth Dixon, in that glowing account of\nMormonism which, next to \"Spiritual Wives,\" he seems to consider as the\ncrowning glory of his life,--\"thirty years ago there were six Mormons in\nAmerica, none in England, none in the rest of Europe, and to-day (1866)\nthey have twenty thousand saints in Salt Lake City; four thousand each in\nOgden, Prono, and Logan; in the whole of their stations in these valleys\n(one hundred and six settlements properly organized by them and ruled by\nbishops and elders) a hundred and fifty thousand souls; in other parts of\nthe United States about eight or ten thousand; in England and its\ndependencies about fifteen thousand; in the rest of Europe ten thousand;\nin Asia and the South Sea Islands about twenty thousand; in all not less,\nperhaps, than two hundred thousand followers of the gospel preached by\nJoseph Smith. All these converts have been gathered into the temple in\nthirty years.\"\n\nThe other day the Mormons of the London district met at the Music Hall,\nStore Street, and held a conference. Mr. Franklin Richards, the\nPresident, delivered an address. From his speech it appeared that in the\nmetropolis there were nine branches, one hundred and seven elders of\nconference, fifty-three priests, twenty-four teachers, thirty deacons.\nDuring the six months preceding 132 persons had been baptized, sixteen\ncut off or had died; the total number in the London district, including\nofficers, was 1172. I imagine the Mormonites flourish better in\ndistricts less enlightened. Around Birmingham they are very sanguine,\nand I have seen the miners in Merthyr Tydfil by thousands listening to\nthe gospel according to Joe Smith and Brigham Young.\n\nThe principal place of worship of the Mormons or Latter-day Saints is in\nthe Commercial Road, but there are others; one of them is in George\nStreet, Gower Street. In that locality there is a very shabby dancing\nsaloon, from which the graces seem long since to have departed. At three\no'clock every Sunday afternoon the Mormons assemble there. On a raised\nplatform may be seen seated some seven or eight men, apparently decent\nworkmen. Below them is a table, around which are a few lads, who set the\ntunes and take round the sacrament, which is administered every Sunday to\nall, including any strangers and children who may feel disposed to\npartake of it. Benches fill up the rest of the room, which are occupied\nchiefly by females with their families--including, of course, the baby,\nthe inevitable feature in all gatherings of the lower orders. All seem\nenthusiastic and very friendly, and wretchedly poor. Their idea of\nMormonism seems to be chiefly that of a successful emigration scheme,\nonly mixed up with a little of the religious phraseology, which is most\nfluently uttered unfortunately by the unthinking masses to whom words do\nnot represent ideas. You might fancy as you enter that you had made a\nmistake, and got amongst the Primitive Methodists. The hymns are very\nmuch the same, and so is frequently the style of prayer. Sermon there is\nnone, but instead you have addresses, the burden of which is generally of\none kind. The speaker is thankful that at last he has known the Lord,\nand wishes he had done more for Him, and hopes, if health and strength be\nspared, to do more. There is also generally an address of a wider\ncharacter. The Lord is calling them out of this country, where the\nGentiles have the rule over them, and they are to hasten, old and young,\nto the City of the Saints. They are to pay their debts, mend their old\nclothes, save all they can, and then those that cannot pay for their\nvoyage will be helped to join the settlement in Utah. Apart from the\nprayers and hymns, these meetings seem secular rather than spiritual,--to\nhave reference more to this world, than the next. If, as it seems to me,\nthe Mormonites in this country have had a Methodist training, they have\nmanaged to eliminate pretty completely the Methodist theology; but,\nperhaps, they treat it as they do the Bible. The Mormons profess to\nbelieve in it, at the same time they omit its spiritual teaching\naltogether. Their theology may be best explained in one of their own\nhymns:--\n\n \"The God that others worship is not the God for me,\n He has neither part nor body, and cannot hear and see;\n But I've a God that lives above,\n A God of power and love,\n A God of Revelation,--Oh, that's the God for me!\n Oh! that's the God for me; oh! that's the God for me.\n\n \"A church without apostles is not the church for me,\n It's like a ship dismasted, afloat upon the sea,\n But I've a church that's always led\n By the twelve stars around its head,\n A church with good foundations--oh! that's the church for me!\n Oh! that's the church for me! oh! that's the church for me!\n\n * * * * *\n\n \"The heaven of sectarians is not the heaven for me,\n So doubtful its location, neither on land nor sea,\n But I've a heaven on the earth,\n The land that gave me birth,\n A heaven of light and knowledge--oh! that's the heaven for me!\n Oh! that's the heaven for me! oh! that's the heaven for me!\"\n\nSuch are the songs sung, with a fervour unknown in better attended and\ngenteeler places of worship.\n\nThe Mormons speak of us as Gentiles, yet in reality they take our creed\nand add to it polygamy and communism. Their belief as regards Father,\nSon, and Holy Ghost is almost orthodox, and if they claim to be divinely\nruled and to have the power of working miracles, do not other sects the\nsame? Like the Quakers, they can dispense with religious forms. Like\nthe ancient Israelites, they are a peculiar people, but what is peculiar\nto them, and that which constitutes the secret of their success, is\nthis--that they preach to the poor, and wretched, and starving, that the\nkingdom of God has been founded upon earth, that it belongs to the\nsaints, and that they are the saints. Man, they say, is part of the\nsubstance of God, and he will become God. He was not created by God, but\nexisted from all eternity. He was not born in sin, and is only\naccountable for his own misdeeds. Angels, it seems, from what Young told\nHepworth Dixon, \"are the souls of bachelors and monogamists, being\nincapable of issue, unblessed with female companions, unfitted to reign\nand rule in the celestial spheres. They have failed,\" said Young, \"in\nnot living the patriarchal life--in not marrying many wives. An\nunmarried Mormon fills but a low scale in the order of things.\" Man\nbeing of the race of God becomes eligible for a celestial throne: his\nhousehold of wives and children being his kingdom, not on earth only, but\nin heaven, polygamy is thus his highest duty, and most glorious\nprivilege. In the East, polygamy does not answer. The races with one\nwife there breed faster than the Turks. In the city of the Mormons,\nunder polygamy, births are very numerous. The actual wives of Young are\ntwelve! the twelve apostles own from three to four each. Young has\nforty-eight children, and all have their quivers full. The women,\naccording to Mr. Dixon, dislike polygamy nevertheless.\n\nIn this country and among the Mormons the doctrine of polygamy is not\nthat on which much stress is laid. Here the Mormon preaches temperance,\nsobriety, honesty, industry, the need of saving up money, and the\nadvantages of emigration to Utah. In the _Millennial Star_, the organ of\nthe community, one brother writes from Wales:--\n\n \"The Word of Wisdom is quite a text with us of late, and is producing\n very good effects. We see its fruits manifested among the Saints,\n several of the brethren leaving off tobacco and other things that are\n injurious to the constitution. _The tea is a matter that bothers the\n sisters considerably_, but in the face of this difficulty many are\n leaving it off, and pronouncing it of no beneficial effect in any way\n whatever. I think that much will be done by abstaining from those\n things towards clothing those children that are very thinly clad.\"\n\nIt is in this way that Mormonism has spread. It has come to the poorest\nof the poor, and used their own language. Its phraseology is that dear\nto the natural heart. We are all too prone to throw our responsibility\non others: It is the Lord who saves me. It is the devil who makes me\nbad; and it is a great help to the ignorant and uneducated, not merely to\nhave spiritual states shadowed forth in earthly language, but to feel\nthat, after all, heaven is here in the shape of comfortable dwellings,\nwives and children, raiment to wear, and a bellyfull. \"This is great\nencouragement to the saints in their pilgrimages here in old Babylon, and\nstimulates them to more diligence in building up the kingdom of God, and\ndelivering themselves from the yoke of tyranny and oppression, to enjoy\nthe liberty of the people of God in the valleys of the mountains.\" Thus\nwrites one of the elders with reference to certain manifestations of the\ngift of tongues; but I quote the passage here as applicable in an eminent\ndegree, and as illustrating the religious phraseology, affected no doubt\nfor certain ends by the Mormons. The kingdom of God, for instance, of\nthe theologians may be difficult of apprehension to the illiterate and\nthe rude; but if it means to me a good house and good living in Utah, it\nat once assumes an attractive form. If to live in England is to live in\nBabylon, of course it is my duty to emigrate; and if Brigham Young is the\nLord's deputy on earth, then to disobey his call is an act of sin. So\ndegraded are many of our brethren and sisters in this Christian land,\nwhere we have one parson at the least in every parish, that they are\nutterly unable to contemplate anything apart from its accidental forms.\nTheir God is a God of parts and passions; their religion is one of\nsensation; their heaven a loss of physical pains and the presence of\nphysical delights; they become at once an easy prey to the Mormonite\npreacher when for ten pounds he offers them the realization of their\nhopes, not at the end of life, but now, and tells them that in the Land\nof the Saints they shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\nADVANCED RELIGIONISTS.\n\n\nThe Church of Progress.\n\n\nAt length, if I am to believe what I hear and see, the religious problem\nof the age has been solved, and I am presented with a form of worship\nwhich is in accordance with the discoveries of science and the dignity of\nman. In St. George's Hall, Langham Place, this new association meets;\nits president is Baxter Langley, Esq. It dispenses with prayer, and with\nthe reading of the Bible, but instead there is a performance of sacred\nmusic by a choir of a hundred voices, with solos sung by professional\nladies and gentlemen specially engaged, and then the President himself,\nsmiling and buoyant as if it were an election meeting, as chairman,\nperforms many solos on his own account. In short, as a paper lying\nbefore me says, \"Everything will be done to make the service delightful,\nwhilst instruction will be secured by a popular lecture each evening from\nsome gentleman eminent in science, literature, or art.\"\n\nIt seems to be a speciality of this Church of Progress that it disappears\nin summer altogether. It is only in the winter time that its doors are\nthrown open--not at all to the poor and needy, but to those who can pay.\nIs not this a little hard? Life is short, and the disciple of progress\nmay well mourn that for him half the year exists in vain. Then, again,\nthis Church of Progress, as much as the oldest and most-abused Churches\nof Christendom, makes very rigorous requirements on the pocket. Sixpence\nis the minimum paid. If you would hear comfortably you must pay a\nshilling. If you would have a seat where you can see and hear still more\ncomfortably you must shell out half-a-crown. Now, if a man goes with his\nwife and family, it is obvious that the sum he will have to pay will be,\nif he have but a scanty income, no small consideration. It is true that\na reduction is made if you take tickets for the course, but what I find\nfault with is that the casual poor have no chance of being benefited by\nthis new gospel--that it does not appeal to them--that it ignores them\naltogether. I may hear the greatest of Dissenting preachers, I may sit\nunder deans and bishops--nay, I may listen to the finished accents of an\narchbishop--without putting my hand in my pocket, but for the lecture at\nSt. George's Hall, and the sacred minstrelsy there, I must at the least\npay sixpence. The sum is a small one, but it has a tendency to narrow\nthe Church and to limit its influence--it must keep outside many who\notherwise would worship there. Why should the Church of Progress only\nappeal to the man with sixpence in his pocket? Is it only the capitalist\nwhose soul is worth looking after? For common people will any old-wife's\nfable do?\n\nA more serious fault may be found with the Church of Progress. \"We are\nnot animated by any spirit of antagonism,\" they say; \"and as we propose\nto occupy a new field of utility, we see no reason why our assemblies\nshould be regarded with hostility by other bodies.\" \"Our religion is\npositive and constructive, not negative and aggressive.\" \"Our Church is\nfounded upon the recognition of the primary importance of human welfare;\nand its purpose will be to develop the power of philanthropy by education\nin the truths of science and philosophy, and by the elevating influence\nof the highest and purest art.\" What Protestant Church cannot say the\nsame? As to art, whence does the Church of Progress get its music, which\nperhaps is its chief attraction, but from the Churches which it tells us\nare losing their hold upon the minds of the people? It rears\nphilanthropy: what was Peabody? It talks of philosophy: what were such\nphilosophers as Sir David Brewster or Professor Faraday? Equally\ndelusive is its denial of antagonism. It is founded for those \"whose\nreligious ideas find no suitable exponent in any of the existing\nChurches.\" The existing Churches more or less appeal to the Bible, and\nto Christ as Master, and place before the mind as consolation, or\nwarning, or allurement, the splendours and the terrors of a world to\ncome. In the new Church all this is set on one side. Science, not\ndogma, is to be the teacher, and they sing--\n\n \"Reason and love! thy kingdom come,\n Oh, Church of endless ages rise!\n Till fairer shines our mortal home\n Than heavens we sought beyond the skies.\"\n\nIs it true to say that between this new light and the old there is no\nantagonism? Is it honest to say, as they do in the address already\nreferred to, \"we ask no one to adopt or deny any of the creeds of the\nChurches. We shall endeavour to promulgate truth, and truth is always\nDivine\"? Is it not clear that no one can join the Church of Progress\nunless he has ceased to believe in the creeds of the Churches? that it is\nimpossible to believe in Christ and Baxter Langley as well? When Pilate\nsaid unto the Jews, \"Whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas, or\nJesus which is called Christ?\" none but an idiot would have said there\nwas no antagonism between the two. Again, it may be asked, by what right\ndo these \"earnest, conscientious men and women\" in Langham Place call\nthemselves a Church? Is it for the sake of deceiving the public? To\nteach art, or science, or literature, is not religion. Why, then, define\nas a Church people who meet on a Sunday to hear lectures on science,\nliterature, and art? Undoubtedly, people may do worse on a Sunday night,\nbut in listening to such lectures they have no right to say they are at\nchurch.\n\nMr. George Jacob Holyoake is also one of their lecturers; and if he be\nnot antagonistic, what is he? Of all irrepressible men Mr. Holyoake is\nundoubtedly the most so. You meet him everywhere. Not a social science\nmeeting, nor a political gathering, nor a philosophical discussion exists\nwithin reach of London but he is present at it, to take part in its\ndiscussions as the exponent of the views, and feelings, and desires of\nthe British working man. If London is demonstrative, as when a Garibaldi\nappears upon the stage, foremost of those who meet to do him honour is\nMr. Holyoake. In the House of Commons he is similarly prominent. In the\nSpeaker's gallery or in the lobby you may see him all night long, here\nspeaking to a member, there listening to one as if the care of all the\ncountry rested on his shoulders. I don't fancy Mr. Holyoake is the great\nman he takes himself to be. I deny his right to be the exponent of the\nclass of whom he condescends to be the ornament and shield. I admit his\nboundless activity, his wonderful talent for intrusion, the cleverness of\nhis talk. I admit, too, the energy with which in the course of a now\nextended career he has travelled the land, with a view to convince his\nfellow-men that there is no future, that he who says there is but repeats\nthe old worn-out fiction of the priests, and that it is for this world\nrather than the next that we must labour and strive. Undoubtedly for Mr.\nHolyoake some extenuation must be made. A man may well doubt the\nChristianity which instead of removing his religious doubts throws him\ninto gaol for the crime of expressing them. Nevertheless, I may doubt,\nif not the sincerity,--for about that there can be no question--at any\nrate the truth and wisdom of his creed; and may, after all, prefer the\nlight of the Gospel to that which he asks me to admire. I may admit that\nthere have been quacks, and impostors, and charlatans in the religious\nworld--that the Church has fearfully failed in its mission--that, armed\nwith the sword of the State, it has been often a curse and a blight--but\nit does not follow that the truth, of which the Church should be the\nliving organization, has no existence, that it has no mission in this\nworld, that the Bible is to be trampled under foot, that the Saviour is\nto be abolished, and that for man, instead of the narrow path and the\nheavenly crown, nothing is left but that he should eat, and drink, and\ndie. Such, however, I believe, is Mr. Holyoake's Gospel. As to his\nutterances on Sunday when I heard him, they were of the poorest character\npossible. The subject was the common people; and after describing three\nor four classes of them, he finished with the inculcation of the by no\nmeans original idea--that they were not so bad as they seem, that we had\nto respect in them the humanity which, under favourable circumstances,\nmight be developed into something better. I never heard Mr. Holyoake\npreach before, and I shall take care never to hear him again. As a\nspeaker, one of Mr. Spurgeon's rawest students would beat him hollow.\n\n\n\nTHE INDEPENDENT RELIGIOUS REFORMERS.\n\n\nThe Theists in London are, we are told, very numerous, and yet, till\nabout ten years since, no steps had been taken by them to provide public\nbuildings in which to assemble for instruction and conversation, and no\nchurch had been opened in which they could invite their friends to hear\nthe principles of Theism explained and defended. In order to supply that\nwant, Dr. Perfitt, a layman, resolved upon renting South Place Chapel,\nFinsbury Square, for the purpose of delivering lectures and discourses\nupon various religious topics. In 1858 the Society of Independent\nReligious Reformers was organized out of the hearers he had thus gathered\naround him. A committee was elected, rules were passed, and the\nfollowing were declared to be the objects of the Society:--\n\n1. To secure the association and co-operation of all persons who are\ndesirous of cultivating the religious sentiment in a manner essentially\nfree from the evil spirit of creed, from the intolerance of sectarianism,\nand the leaven of priestcraft; of those persons who respect the authority\nof reason, and reverentially accept the decrees of conscience.\n\n2. To discover and methodize truths connected either with the laws of\nnature, the progress of thought, or the lives of good men in all ages and\ncountries, so that they may be rendered of practical value as guides to a\nhealthy, moral, and manly life.\n\n3. To assist, as in the performance of a religious duty, in the\nregeneration of society by co-operating with every organized body whose\naim is to abolish superstition, ignorance, drunkenness, political\ninjustice, or any other of the numerous evils which now afflict the\ncommunity.\n\nTo carry out these ideas the noble painting gallery, built by the late\nSir Benjamin West, in Newman Street, Oxford Street, was procured and\nfitted up. This large hall seats 1500 persons. A good organ was\nerected, and schools and a library were talked of. At this place, on\nSunday mornings, the public are treated to what is called a free\nreligious service, based upon the great facts and principles of\nintellectual Theism. In the evenings popular lectures are delivered\nbearing upon science, history, or religious free thought. In both cases\nDr. Perfitt is the orator. On many occasions the Doctor has appeared in\npublic. Under not very pleasant circumstances--for he had little\nsupport--he appealed to Finsbury, but in vain, to send him into\nParliament. It is clear, then, what of success the man has accomplished,\nor of good the man has done, has been chiefly in connexion with the\nSociety of Independent Reformers. We were told in 1863 \"the church in\nNewman Street is but the forerunner of hundreds which will rest upon the\nsame foundation.\" Dr. Perfitt has been more than seven years in Newman\nStreet, and quite twenty at his work. A man can do a great deal in such\na space of time if he has a fluent tongue, as is abundantly illustrated,\nnot to go beyond our age, in the careers of Father Mathew, Father\nIgnatius, John B. Gough, or Mr. Spurgeon. Irving did not last so long,\nyet, metaphorically speaking, he managed to set the Thames on fire. It\nis clear Dr. Perfitt has peculiarly advantageous conditions under which\nto work. In the first place, as his aim is--\n\n \"To serve the truth where'er 'tis found,\n On Christian or on heathen ground\"--\n\nhe has a wide field over which his oratory may range. It cannot all be\nbarren from Dan to Beersheba. In the second place, according to the\nIndependent Religious Reformers, the great want of our times is such as\nthey are. \"It is well known,\" they tell us, \"that although the orthodox\nreligious establishments are earnestly supported, they cannot gain the\nhearts of the people. The intelligence of England has outgrown the old\ncreeds and formulas. Theism is secretly approved by thousands.\" The\ntime, then, is ripe for such a mission as Dr. Perfitt proposes. The hour\nhas come, and he is the man. It is not in his negative and critical\naspect that he is to be judged. In the position in that respect he has\nassumed there is no novelty. Unfortunately, the Church of England, like\nall established churches, more or less lays itself open to the most\nirreverent criticism. The new wine cannot be put in the old bottles. We\ncan quite agree with him that \"the majority of the clergy have no just\nconception of what, according to the nature of things, they are called\nupon to do;\" that St. Paul would find himself sadly out of place were he\ncalled upon to preach to the congregation of a fashionable suburban\nchurch; and that there would indeed be a flutter and commotion raised\nwere \"the Archbishop of Canterbury, cutting himself adrift from the level\nof Belgravia, to stand out before men denouncing woe upon the butterflies\nof fashion and the Dundrearies of Parliament as Jesus denounced the\nScribes and Pharisees of old.\" But the saying these things does not\nconstitute a man the founder of a new and better sect. Mr. Froude tells\nus \"the clergyman of the nineteenth century subscribes the Thirty-nine\nArticles with a smile as might have been worn by Samson when his\nPhilistine mistress bound his arms with the cords and withs.\" It is\nscarcely possible to write a bitterer thing of the clergy, yet Mr. Froude\nis not, so far as we are aware, an Independent Religious Reformer. Even\nof the Church of which such hard things may be said, and justly said, we\nmay argue that its theory of the identity of Church and State is a noble\none, and that the dream of such men as \"the judicious Hooker,\" of\nColeridge, of Dr. Arnold, is that of all who, in stately cathedral or\nhumble conventicle, pray Sunday after Sunday to the common Father, \"Thy\nkingdom come, Thy will be done upon earth as it is in heaven.\" Man is a\nreligious animal; the heart is true to its old instincts. There is no\npeace for his soul, no rest for the sole of the foot, no shelter for him\nin the storm, no brightness in the cloud, no glory in the sun, no hope in\nlife, no life in death, unless he can believe, adore, and love. But we\nhave forgotten Dr. Perfitt. Well, we need be in no hurry. If you go to\nNewman Street you will find very few people there by eleven. The\nexclusively religious service, as one of the hearers informed us it was,\ngenerally commences at a quarter past, where in the large hall about a\nhundred may be collected together, the majority, of course, males,\nchiefly of the lower section, I should imagine, of the middle class.\nThere is music; then the Doctor reads a chapter of the Bible, and takes\nit to pieces; then there is more music; then a prayer, and a half-hour's\nsermon, from a regular text, according to the fashion of the orthodox,\nbut generally coming to a very unorthodox conclusion. Indeed, the former\ncome off hardly at the Doctor's hands. He demolished them as easily as\nif they were so many men of straw; President Edwards, Richard Baxter, Mr.\nSpurgeon, the apostles, and their great Teacher, all look very small by\nthe side of the clear, logical, learned, fluent, sarcastic, infallible\nDoctor, who is the heir of all the ages under the sun; who talks of\nZoroaster, and Vedas, and Shasters; who is as familiar with Brahma and\nBuddha as if he had assisted at their birth, and who knows what's o'clock\nin Sanscrit better than you or I, my good sir, in ordinary English.\nAfter the sermon comes the collection, and the congregational\ndinner-hour, for the sale of the beer for which, the neighbouring publics\nopen just as the Independent Religious Reformers, exhausted by the\nDoctor's omniscience, require the refreshing fluid.\n\n\"Hae, sirs!\" said an elderly female in a remote part of Scotland, as for\nthe first time she saw a black man; \"hae, sirs, what canna be done for\nthe penny!\" Assuredly some such feeling must be entertained by the\nlistener who for the first time hears Dr. Perfitt in his rostrum in\nCambridge Hall. For a pound a year you may have this pleasure every\nSunday, and become one of the Independent Reformers. What more can man\ndesire?\n\n\n\nSOUTH PLACE, FINSBURY SQUARE.\n\n\nThe religion of humanity has been for a time dominant in South Place,\nFinsbury Square. Its oldest and original teacher in connexion with the\nplace was the late W. Johnson Fox, M.P., a popular writer and eloquent\norator, who did much in his day and generation on behalf of freedom in\ntrade, in politics, and religion, and did it well. Nor did he labour in\nvain as regards himself. Born in an humble position, he became a student\nat Homerton College and an orthodox Dissenter. In a little while he\njoined the Unitarians, and then left them for a freer and fuller\nreligious creed and form of worship. He had many friends. His letters,\nsigned \"Publicola,\" in the _Weekly Dispatch_, were the delight of the\nworking classes; and his Anti-Corn-law orations charmed all, and there\nwere tens of thousands who had the privilege of listening to them. He\nwas returned to Parliament by the electors of Oldham, and a monument\nerected to his memory there still perpetuates his name. He died at a\nripe old age, ever having preserved the character of an independent and\nhonourable man. As a religious teacher he was no extraordinary success.\nIt was rarely indeed that South Place was very full. Of course, the\nhearers were the very _elite_ of the human race. Wherever you\ngo--especially among sects not particularly orthodox or popular--the men\nand women with whom you come in contact are no ordinary men and women.\nBy a happy dispensation of Providence they fail to see themselves as\nothers see them, and are as firmly convinced of their own intellectual\nsuperiority over a benighted British public as they are of the truth of\ntheir principles and of their ultimate success.\n\n \"There is a religion of humanity,\" said Mr. Fox, \"though not\n enshrined in articles and creeds, though it is not to be read merely\n in sacred books, and yet it may be read in all wherever they have\n anything in them of truth and moral beauty,--a religion of humanity\n which goes deeper than all because it belongs to the essentials of\n our moral and intellectual constitution, and not to mere external\n accidents, the proof of which is not in historical agreement or\n metaphysical deduction, but in our own conscience and\n consciousness,--a religion of humanity which unites and blends all\n other religions, and makes one the men whose hearts are sincere, and\n whose characters are true, and good, and harmonious, whatever may be\n the deductions of their minds or their external profession,--a\n religion of humanity which cannot perish in the overthrow of altars\n or the fall of temples, which survives them all, and which, were\n every derived form of religion obliterated from the face of the\n earth, would recreate religion as the spring recreates the fruits and\n flowers of the soul, bidding it bloom again in beauty, bear again its\n rich fruits of utility, and fashion for itself such forms and modes\n of expression as may best agree with the progressive condition of\n mankind.\"\n\nIt was in accordance with these ideas that the Sunday morning services in\nSouth Place were carried on.\n\nAfter Mr. Fox came Mr. Ierson, and a nearer approximation to regular\nUnitarianism. But the place did not prosper; there were far too many\nempty benches. He was succeeded by a gentleman formerly a Baptist\nminister, but who had outgrown his sect, and for a little while there was\nharmony and progress. Again there was an interregnum. \"Seekers are,\"\nsaid old Oliver Cromwell, \"next best to finders.\" In London, especially\nin these unsettled days of free inquiry, are many such, and to such the\npulpit of South Place was freely offered. I do not fancy as a rule\nseekers are good preachers. To say anything effectually you must have\nsomething to say. To make others weep you must weep yourself. With mere\nnegations you can never sway the minds or influence the lives of men. In\northodox places of worship there is often much of dreariness. The\nclergyman whose heart is not in his work is a miserable spectacle for\ngods and men, but the dreariness of heterodoxy is infinitely greater; and\nof all things under the sun the most miserable in the clerical way is the\nsight of a would-be philosopher feebly diluting or expanding, as the case\nmay be, windy platitudes or transcendental moonshine. Under such an\ninfliction, as it may well be imagined, South Place did not flourish\ngreatly. At length, in due course, a man appeared to continue the work\nwhich Mr. Fox had originated. His name is Mr. M. D. Conway. I believe\nhe is of American origin, and evidently under him the cause is in a\nprosperous state. When I say prosperous, the term is not to be\nunderstood as it would be in orthodox circles. The latter class of\nreligionists, when they say that a place is prosperous imply by the use\nof such language that a place of worship is well filled; that men are\nturned from sin to holiness, from serving the devil to serving God, that\nthe place is a centre of religious life and activity, and that all, young\nand old, rich and poor, are to the best of their power and means\nco-operating in Christian work. Prosperity in this sense cannot be\npredicated of South Place. Its doors are only opened once a week. There\nis no religious, or educational, or philanthropical agency connected with\nthe chapel; but there are more attendants than there were, and that\nencourages Mr. Conway and his friends. Indeed, there is a talk amongst\nthem of establishing a Sunday-school. At the same time it seems to me\nthat the class of people who go to South Place are not socially or\nintellectually what they were in Mr. Fox's time--when the Cortaulds would\ncome up all the way from Braintree to hear Mr. Fox, when City lawyers\nlike the late Mr. Ashurst, and City magnates like the late Mr. Dillon,\nwere amongst the audience; when on a Sunday morning might be seen there\nsuch men as Sir J. Bowring, or Macready, or Charles Dickens, and others\nequally well known to fame. They left when Mr. Fox left. I believe Mr.\nP. Taylor, M.P., still keeps up a connexion, more or less fitful and\nuncertain, with the place. Sir Sydney Waterlow also still retains a\ncouple of sittings, but he is rarely there. Nevertheless, the\ncongregation has greatly increased; the chapel is quite three parts full.\nStill they use the little book of hymns and anthems selected by Mr. Fox;\nand the musical part of the service, always a great matter at South\nPlace, is as well conducted and as attractive as ever.\n\nMr. Conway is a very advanced thinker. The character of his preaching\nand praying is purely theistic. He wars with dogmas in every form. It\nmay be a wing to-day, a fetter to-morrow. For him there are no sacred\nbooks, or rather he places them all on an equality. For his motto he\ngoes to India, and quotes the Brahma Somaj. In this respect he is a true\nfollower of the late Mr. Fox, whose fascinating oratory owed very little\nof its charm to that which orthodox Unitarians or orthodox Christians\nhold highest and holiest; whose aim was more to pull down than to build\nup, and who had a greater faculty for the exposition of Christian\nfallacies than for the enunciating of truths and principles needful to\nhumanity in its hour of temptation, distress, danger, or death. Few have\nhis exquisite humour, his power of sarcasm, his acquaintance with modern\nliterature, his copious command of polished language, his expressive yet\ncalm delivery, his gentleness almost as touching as that of woman; but\nthat which was lacking in him often made men his inferiors in intellect,\nhis superiors in the art of arousing the spiritually dead, or in giving\nto the moral wastes in our midst the vigour, the beauty, the fertility of\nlife.\n\n\n\nTHE SECULARISTS.\n\n\nIt is a sign of the times when Infidelity visits the workshop or the\nfactory, and challenges the admiration of the men in fustian--the men\nwhose hard labours and horny hands have helped to make England what it\nis, and who in an increasing ratio are making their influence felt on the\nExchange where capital seeks investment, in the ancient halls where the\nteachers of the next generation are training, in the study of the\npolitical philosopher, in Parliaments where practical people assemble to\nlegislate after their necessarily imperfect fashion for the general weal.\nIt is said of Sir Godfrey Kneller that he was deeply shocked at hearing a\ncommon labourer invoking imprecations on his own head. Some such feeling\nmust be entertained by the old-fashioned, scholarly sceptics at all times\nmet with in highly intellectual communities. Religion was a good thing\nfor the poor; it taught them to know their place, to be humble,\nindustrious, and not to murmur when deprived by human agency of the\nrights to which all are born, or when by the same agency they were made\nto bear innumerable wrongs. For such religion was intended; and for such\nconsiderations it was right and proper that it should be accepted by\nsociety--sanctioned by the law--its ministers rewarded and salaried by\nthe State. It was under the influence of some such feeling that Napoleon\nthe Great is reported to have said, if there were no God, it would be\nnecessary to invent one; and in a proportionate manner do the\nphilosophers feel alarm and indignation when the working man, for whom\nsuch trouble has been taken,--for whom religion has, as it were, been\ndiscovered,--for whom an Establishment, the most richly endowed with this\nworld's goods in Christendom, rejoices to call itself the poor man's\nChurch,--turns round, and, in his coarse, rough way, says, \"Ladies and\ngentlemen, I am much obliged to you. I see your little game. Pray don't\ntake any trouble on my account. Please to leave me to go to the bad in\nmy own way. Give me the right to the free inquiry you claim for\nyourselves, and don't quarrel with me on account of its results.\" Really\nit seems to me the Secularist has the best of it. I may regret his\nconclusions. I cannot blame his independent spirit.\n\nOf the men who talk in this way it may be said, at any rate as regards\nthe metropolis, Robert Dale Owen was the teacher and apostle. Owen was\nthe first to proclaim to the masses that there was no such thing as moral\nresponsibility; that a man's character was formed for him partly by\nnature at his birth, and partly by the external influences to which he\nwas exposed. As man, there was for him no choice of right or wrong. Any\nreligion, and emphatically that of Christ, which proceeds upon the\nsupposition that man can lay hold of eternal life, can accept the offer\nof God's mercy, can believe and live, is false and to be rejected with\ndisdain. Owen was a man of blameless life--a man who made great\nsacrifices of wealth, and time, and labour, on account of his ideas. As\nhis last apologist has well stated, \"his condemnation of religion was not\nthe result of libertine excesses, nor of a philosophical conceit, but\nfollowed honestly from the shallow theory he had adopted.\" Amongst the\npoor, ignorant, superficial denizens of our crowded cities he was hailed\nas the regenerator of manhood, and made many converts. Nor are they to\nbe blamed. Owen met with an attentive hearing from such as Brougham and\nBentham, Earls Liverpool and Aberdeen, Jefferson and Van Buren, the Duke\nof Kent and the King of Prussia; actually, we believe, he was presented\nat Court. It is true in his old age he became a believer in spirits,\nafter all, and was buried in the little churchyard of Newton,\nMontgomeryshire, in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection\nto eternal life; but by that time the truth or falsehood he had\nproclaimed had sunk into many minds, had been re-uttered by many tongues,\nhad been commended to the working classes by no less a master of language\nand argument than George Jacob Holyoake. Certainly, in the hands of the\nlatter, Owenism, under its new name of Secularism, lost none of its\npower. The master was apt to be egotistic--dogmatic--much given to\nrepetition--very diffuse. Mr. Holyoake's enemies cannot conscientiously\nsay he is that. His friends, many of them the cleverest of London men,\nclaim for him talents of no common order. A shop in Fleet Street was\nopened--the _Reasoner_ was established--and Mr. Holyoake went all over\nthe land to emancipate the human mind, spell-bound by priestcraft, and to\nroll back the double night of ages and of ignorance. In a little while\nhe retired from business, the shop in Fleet Street was shut up, the\n_Reasoner_ reasoned no more--Mr. Holyoake ceased perambulating. Still we\nhave a genuine Apostolical succession: Mr. Bradlaugh takes up the\nwondrous tale, and the _National Reformer_ records the triumphs of his\ncause. According to him, all is prosperous. Hope paints a glorious\nfuture--when man's\n\n \"Regenerate soul from crime\n Shall yet be drawn,\n And Reason on this mortal clime\n Immortal dawn.\"\n\nYet what is the fact? The _National Reformer_ costs 10_l._ a week, and\nit does not pay. Its readers tell us their name is legion; yet it does\nnot pay. At any rate, it is constantly appealing to its public for\nsupport. In every workshop or factory, in all our great hives of\nintelligence and life, the Secularists boast their thousands. All the\nintelligent operative manhood of England is, according to their own\naccount, theirs; yet their organ--the child of a giant--is very weak on\nits legs, and very short of wind.\n\nThe headquarters of the Secularists is Cleveland Street, a street lying\nin that mass of pauperism at the rear of Tottenham Court Road Chapel. In\nthat street there is a hall, originally erected, I believe, by Owen\nhimself. At any rate, it is the resort of the illuminated to whom his\nphilosophy has opened up a new moral world,--which, as regards\nappearances, is little better than the benighted Egypt out of which they\nhave departed. Here you will find no free Gospel. The Secularists are\ndetermined to make the best of this world. If you wish to enter, you\nmust pay; if you wish to show your gentility and sit near the lecturer,\nyou must pay twopence more. Previous to the lecturer commencing, a boy\ngoes up and down the room selling copies of the _National Reformer_, and\na table at one end is devoted to the sale of publications of a similar\ncharacter.\n\nCleveland Hall, every Sunday evening, then, is devoted to what are called\nPopular Free-thought Lectures. The doors open at seven, the lectures\ncommence at half-past. The programme for the month of August, which I\nhave now before me, will give the reader an idea of what is meant by free\nthought:--\n\n \"On Sunday evening, August 2, Mr. Charles Watts--An Impartial\n Estimate of the Life and Teachings of the Founder of Christianity; on\n Sunday evening, August 9, Iconoclast (Mr. Bradlaugh)--Capital and\n Labour, and Trades' Unions; on Sunday evening, August 16, Mrs.\n Harriet Law--The Teachings and Philosophy of J. S. Mill, Esq.; on\n Sunday evening, August 23, Mrs. Harriet Law--The Late Robert Owen: a\n Tribute to His Memory, Drawn from a Comparison of Present\n Institutions and their Effects, with those Advocated by that Eminent\n Philanthropist; on Sunday evening, August 30, Mrs. Harriet Law, an\n Appeal to Women to Consider their Interests in Connexion with the\n Social, Political, and Theological Aspects of the Times.\"\n\nLet me add, discussions are invited at the close of each lecture, and\nthat, as may be anticipated, after a discussion the combatants remain of\nthe same opinion. Nevertheless, the Secularists enjoy these discussions\nimmensely--and no wonder, as on all such occasions they form not a\nmajority merely, but almost the entire assembly. It is not often they\nfind their match. Men who can meet them on a common platform are rare.\nA sincere Christian is shocked and pained, and loses his temper. Every\ncock can crow on his own dunghill; and at Cleveland Hall the Secularists\nhave it all their own way, and are merry at the expense of their\nopponents. Nor is this all; they often indulge in a style of abuse which\nsounds even to tolerant ears uncommonly like blasphemy. In fact, they\nare often needlessly antagonistic, and vulgar, and coarse.\n\nI have said Cleveland Hall is the headquarters of the society, for there\nis a society of which Mr. Charles Watts is secretary. There is another\nhall in the City Road; lectures are also, I believe, delivered elsewhere\nin London on a Sunday evening, and there are at least four or five\nsecular societies. In the summer time they have open-air lectures on a\nSunday morning in different parts of London. When the writer has been at\nCleveland Hall, the room has generally been half full of respectable and\nsharp working men, all very positive and enthusiastic. There are not\nmany women present, but, of course, there is the irrepressible baby. The\nlecturers are generally the persons whose names I have already given, who\noccasionally vary the scene of their labours by provincial engagements.\nTheir work, whatever it may be, has now been going on for some years.\nThis argues, on their part, some special fitness, and an adaptation of\nwhat they say and think to the class to whom they appeal. In this\nrespect they set many of the clergy a good example. The people at\nCleveland Hall do not call out for quarter of an hour lectures. Nor do\nthey require anything in the way of music, or choral performances, or\nfloral decorations, or altar lights, to make the service interesting.\nFor children, whether they go to church or chapel, you must provide\nshows. For men nothing more is needed than logic and the human voice.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\nTHE IRREGULARS.\n\n\n\"What do you think of the Ranters, Mr. Hall?\" I quote from the life of\nthe celebrated Baptist orator; \"don't you think they ought to be put\ndown?\"\n\n\"I don't know enough of their conduct to say that. What do they do? Do\nthey inculcate Antinomianism, or do they exhibit immorality in their\nlives?\"\n\n\"Not that I know of, but they fall into very irregular practices.\"\n\n\"Indeed, what practices?\"\n\n\"Why, sir, when they enter a village they begin to sing hymns, and they\ngo on singing until they collect a number of people on the village green,\nor in some neighbouring field, and then they preach.\"\n\n\"Well, whether that may be prudent or expedient or not depends upon\ncircumstances, but as yet I see no criminality.\"\n\n\"But you must admit, Mr. Hall, it is very irregular.\"\n\n\"And suppose I do admit that, what follows? Was not our Lord rebuking\nthe Scribes and Pharisees and driving the buyers and sellers out of the\ntemple very irregular? Was not almost all that he did in his public\nministry very irregular? Was not the course of the Apostles, and of\nStephen, and of many of the Evangelists, very irregular? Were not the\nproceedings of Calvin, Luther, and their fellow workers in the\nReformation very irregular?--a complete and shocking innovation upon all\nthe queer out-doings of the Papists? And were not the whole lives of\nWhitefield and Wesley very irregular lives, as you view such things? Yet\nhow infinitely is the world indebted to all of these? No, sir, there\nmust be something widely different from mere irregularity before I\ncondemn.\"\n\n\n\nIRREGULAR AGENCIES.\n\n\nBetween Churchmen and Dissenters there are bodies claiming and often\nreceiving the support of both. The number of buildings used in London\nevery Sunday evening for theatre services now amounts to eleven, eight of\nthe eleven being engaged by a united committee, of which the Earl of\nShaftesbury is the chairman,--viz., Astley's, Standard, Pavilion, Royal\nAmphitheatre, Sadler's Wells, Britannia, and the Metropolitan and Oxford\nMusic Halls. The other buildings are St. James's Hall and the Effingham\nand Victoria theatres. One result of this state of things is rather\ndoubtful. Of the perniciousness of some of these places there can be no\ndoubt. It may be that some of them would have been closed ere this had\nnot the money received from the Sunday preaching made up for the losses\nof the week. In one year in these places 122 services were held,\nattended by 190,000 persons.\n\nThe London City Mission employs 361 agents. During the last year the\nnumber of visits made by them to the houses of the poor amounted to\n1,987,259. The number of visits which they made to sick and dying\namounted to 255,102. They gave away 6000 copies of the Bible; they\ncirculated 2,677,901 tracts; they held more than 36,000 Bible classes and\nreligious services indoors; they conducted 3764 out-of-door services;\nthey induced 1296 persons to partake of the Lord's Supper, 242\nbacksliders to return, 608 families to begin family prayer, 863 drunkards\nto abstain, 141 shopkeepers to close their shops on the Sabbath, and 8297\nchildren to attend ragged and Sunday schools.\n\nIn London there are 300 Bible women always at work; then there is the\nChristian community founded in the days of John Wesley; the members of it\nvisit workhouses and lodging-houses in the East of London and preach in\nthe open air. Last year the number of open-air services held by them\namounted to 542; the number of addresses delivered, 1626; and the number\nof hearers, including indoors and out, 379,370. The Society also visits\nlodging-houses and the Juvenile Refuge, and gives free tea meetings,\nwhich, as we may imagine, are very well attended. During the past year\n255,477 tracts had been distributed, and altogether it had held 8573\nservices.\n\nThe Open-air Mission needs also to be recorded. It is calculated that in\nthe summer our open-air preachers address every Sunday nearly half a\nmillion of persons in the metropolis alone. It must also be remembered\nthat of late, by the closing of public-houses, the number of idle,\ncovetous, mischievous persons thrown on our streets is considerably\nincreased. On Sundays it is evident that the blockage of the streets is\ngreater than ever. In such places as Trafalgar Square, and the\nsteam-boat piers, and in all our back streets, there are thousands of\nboys and men gambling and demoralizing one another. The Open-air Mission\ncatches some of them, and in the lowest neighbourhoods--where the most\ndepraved live--its agents generally receive a favourable hearing; one\nexception is recorded, which occurred at the Royal Exchange. Preaching\nlast year commenced there in April, and went on with many striking\ninstances of success till May 9, when a band of secularists,\nhumanitarians, and infidels came to oppose,--one man reading the Koran,\nwhile the agent of the City Mission was as usual about to commence his\nservice. On the next Sunday the opposition was still greater, being\nreinforced by Roman Catholics and their priests. Under these\ncircumstances preaching was suspended, only to be reopened when the\nexcitement and the danger of a breach of the peace shall have passed\naway. The Society aims at open-air preaching, special visitation,\ndomestic visitation, and conferences for mutual intercourse. The visit\nto Epsom belongs to the second class of these subjects. Twenty-one\nagents had been there during the race week, 60,000 tracts had been given\naway, many addresses had been given, and a Bible-stand erected. At this\nlatter place, on the last wet Friday when the Oaks was being run, they\nsheltered a couple of hundred of poor starving wretches, and for five\nhours kept up preaching and praying on their account. Their service on\nthe Sunday before the races was very interesting. On the Monday they\nheld a service for the benefit of the gipsies, one of the speakers at\nwhich was the Dean of Ripon, better known perhaps as the Rev. Hugh\nM'Neile.\n\nOf the 60,000 Arabs of London there are 20,000 in the Ragged Schools.\n\nThe Female and Domestic Bible Missions now number 230 paid agents, each\nwith her district and lady superintendent, and expend some 11,000_l._ a\nyear, exclusive of between 6000_l._ and 7000_l._ which is paid to it in\ninstalments by the poor themselves for Bibles, clothes, and bedding.\n\nThe Young Men's Scripture Association has been very successful. Nearly\n200 of a Sunday afternoon attend the Bible class in Aldersgate Street.\nIt has twelve branches in different parts of the town.\n\nConnected with no denomination are six or seven chapels or rooms, where\nas they meet they break bread in the morning and preach the Gospel in the\nevening. In addition, the Plymouth Brethren have some thirty places of\nworship, and their dulness and isolation from the world, which cause them\neven to avoid discharging their duties as citizens as inconsistent with\nthe spiritual life, indicate the little they need be taken into account\nas a religious body aiming in any way to influence the religious life of\nLondon. According to the late Mr. Buckle, good people really do very\nlittle good. I fancy this is the case as far as the Plymouth Brethren\nare concerned.\n\n * * * * *\n\n THE END.\n\n\n\n\nBY THE SAME AUTHOR.\n\n\n * * * * *\n\n In Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7_s._ 6_d._,\n\n\n\nTHE NIGHT SIDE OF LONDON.\n\n\n NEW EDITION REVISED AND ENLARGED.\n\n * * * * *\n\n CONTENTS.\n\nConcerning London--Aristocratic Amusements--The Alhambra--The Modern\nTheatre--The Casino and the Argyll--The Bal Masque--Judge and Jury\nClubs--The Cave of Harmony--Discussion Clubs--Cremorne--Life in the\nEast--Caldwell's--The Strand as it was--The Police Court--Up the\nHaymarket--The Music Hall--Public-houses--Leicester Square--A Midnight\nMeeting.\n\n OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.\n\n\"Mr. Ritchie has with well-meant and terrible truthfulness described the\ntemptations to which the youth of our great metropolis are exposed. 'The\nNight Side of London' is a fearful and, we believe, faithful\nrepresentation of the extent to which unlawful and revolting\nlicentiousness lays its bait and ruins its victims. . . . It is well\nthat our employers of labour and those who are anxious to keep up the\nage-long conflict with the flesh and the devil should know how sleepless\nare the powers of evil, how omnipresent the inducements to illicit\npleasure. Our author has touched this desperate evil with deep\nconviction, extensive knowledge, and delicate hand.\"--_British Quarterly\nReview_.\n\n\"The author has revised and enlarged his former accounts of London life,\nand has now brought his observations down to the present period. He has\ncontrived to bring within the compass of one volume all the objectionable\nand disgusting sights and doings in this great metropolis, and it will\ncertainly astonish the reader to find what innumerable sins are committed\ndaily and nightly within his reach.\"--_Observer_.\n\n\"Mr. Ritchie has done good service in the cause of public virtue by the\npublication, and now by the enlargement and revision of this book. He\nhas looked upon and described some of the dark aspects of London life\nwith an ability and an earnestness which should secure for this hook a\ncordial welcome in many homes. His heart and intellect revolt at the\nawful spectacles which he has witnessed, and it would be greatly to the\nadvantage of our young men if they could meet with this high-minded book\nin all our institutes and libraries. Mr. Ritchie's book should be known\nfar and wide.\"--_Literary World_.\n\n\"Mr. Ritchie is well known as a lively and amusing writer, but in the\nwork before us he has given us something more permanent than amusement\nand more valuable than mere mirth. The facts and figures of London life\nas here drawn with the shadows of night upon them are enough, and more\nthan enough, to rouse to greater activity the efforts of all\nphilanthropic and Christian souls to do more than is done for the sins\nand sorrows of our modern Babylon.\"--_The Rock_.\n\n\"Messrs. Tinsley Brothers publish a new and revised edition of Mr. J.\nEwing Ritchie's very interesting and well-written sketches, entitled \"The\nNight Side of London.\" The present issue contains some additional\nmatter, giving the benefit of the author's most recent\nobservations.\"--_Morning Star_.\n\n\"Much information is given which is both curious and interesting; and the\ncomments and suggestions put forward by the author are full of sound\nsense and high toned morality.\"--_City Press_.\n\n * * * * *\n\n In Crown 8vo, price 10_s._ 6_d._,\n\n\n\nBRITISH SENATORS;\nOR,\nPOLITICAL SKETCHES, PAST AND PRESENT.\n\n\n * * * * *\n\n CONTENTS.\n\nInside the House.--The Right Hon. Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Stanley Sir\nJohn Pakington, the Right Hon. S. H. Walpole, the Right Hon. W. E.\nGladstone, the Right Hon. R. Lowe, the Right Hon. J. Stansfeld, Mr.\nLayard, the Right Hon. E. Cardwell, the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, Sir R.\nPeel, C. Gilpin, Esq., the Right Hon. H. Brand, the Right Hon. J. Bright,\nJacob Bright, Esq., P. Taylor, Esq., J. White, Esq., G. Melly, Esq., T.\nHughes, Esq., A. S. Ayrton, Esq., E. Baines, Esq., H. S. P. Winterbotham,\nEsq., J. Cowen, Esq., Mr. Alderman Lusk, Sir F. Crossley, Mr. Newdegate,\nG. H. Whalley, Esq., C. Reed, Esq., S. Morley, Esq., H. Richard, Esq., W.\nM'Arthur, Esq., Milner Gibson, J. A. Roebuck, B. Osborne, Edward Miall,\nthe Right Hon. J. Whiteside, J. S. Mill, Lord J. Russell, Lord Lytton,\nViscount Palmerston, Sir J. Graham, W. J. Fox, R. Cobden; T. S. Duncombe,\nH. Drummond, Sir C. Napier, Sir C. Lewis, Lord Herbert.\n\n OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.\n\n\"A critic, whether clever or otherwise, may be allowed to congratulate\nMr. Ewing-Ritchie on the sparkling and intelligent volume which he has\nbeen able to put together out of a number of personal sketches written at\nvarious dates within the last few years. It is difficult to write\npersonal sketches of living celebrities with entire good taste; but we\nthink the author of this book has gone near to mastering the difficulty.\nThe characteristics of public men are struck off with real felicity. Mr.\nEwing-Ritchie writes in a pointed, perspicuous, somewhat _staccato_\nmanner, and is never too long. His volume is one thoroughly well adapted\nfor its purpose.\"--_Pall Mall Gazette_.\n\n\"Mr. Ritchie seems to have hit the happy medium in simply outlining the\ncharacters of the men whom he touches at all. . . . Yet, Mr. Ritchie\nnever fails to produce a characteristic likeness, though his view of a\nman seems to be always taken on the wing in the heat of action and\nexcitement. This of itself is a merit that adds much spirit to the\ncurrent of his criticisms. . . . In the main, his sketches are as clear\nas they are brief. . . . A good feature of this book is its general\nfairness.\"--_London Review_.\n\n\"We can bear testimony to the fidelity of Mr. Ritchie's representations,\nthe spirit of impartiality shown in his estimates of character, the\nbreadth and liberality of his sentiments, and the very interesting\ncharacter of his book.\"--_Literary World_.\n\n\"His lively style and his avoidance of anything subtle or disputative,\nthough he never conceals his political sympathies, united with his ample\nresources of Parliamentary and political knowledge, fit him admirably for\nthis modest undertaking. Mr. Ritchie has seen and remembered and\ndescribed many Parliamentary incidents, and those who want to know what\nthe House of Commons is like, how its principal men have gained their\npositions, and how they comported themselves therein, will find him a\npleasant guide.\"--_Morning Star_.","title":"The Religious Life of London","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":82960}