The Influence Of This Association, As Will Be Seen, Has Extended All
Over England.
In Manchester a paper, signed by three thousand ladies,
was presented to the principals of the establishments, desiring them
to adopt the rules of the London association.
I mentioned, in a former letter, that the lady mayoress of London, and
the ladies of the city, held a meeting on the subject only a short
time since, with a view of carrying the same improvement through all
the establishments of that part of London. The lady mayoress and five
others of this meeting consented to add their names to the committee,
so that it now represents the whole of London. The Bishop of London
and several of the clergy extend their patronage to the association.
LETTER XXVII.
DEAR S.: -
The next day we went to hear a sermon in behalf of the ragged schools,
by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The children who attended the ragged
schools of that particular district were seated in the gallery, each
side of the organ. As this was the Sunday appropriated to the
exercise, all three of the creeds were read - the Apostles',
Athanasian, and Nicene; all which the little things repeated after the
archbishop, with great decorum, and probably with the same amount of
understanding that we, when children, had of the Assembly's Catechism.
The venerable archbishop was ushered into the pulpit by beadles, with
gold lace cocked hats, striking the ground majestically with their
long staves of office. His sermon, however, was as simple, clear, and
beautiful an exposition of the duty of practical Christianity towards
the outcast and erring as I ever heard. He said that, should we find a
young child wandering away from its home and friends, we should
instinctively feel it our duty to restore the little wanderer; and
such, he said, is the duty we owe to all these young outcasts, who had
strayed from the home of their heavenly Father.
After the sermon they took up a collection; and when we went into the
vestry to speak to the archbishop, we saw him surrounded by the church
wardens, counting over the money.
I noticed in the back part of the church a number of children in
tattered garments, with rather a forlorn and wild appearance, and was
told that these were those who had just been introduced into the
school, and had not been there long enough to come under its modifying
influences. We were told that they were always thus torn and forlorn
in their appearance at first, but that they gradually took pains to
make themselves respectable. The archbishop said, pleasantly, "When
they return to their right mind they appear _clothed_, also, and
sitting at the feet of Jesus."
The archbishop sent me afterwards a beautiful edition of his sermons
on Christian charity, embracing a series of discourses on various
topics of practical benevolence, relating to the elevation and
christianization of the masses. They are written with the same purity
of style, and show the same devout and benevolent spirit with his
other writings.
My thoughts were much saddened to-day by the news, which I received
this week, of the death of Mary Edmonson. It is not for her that I
could weep; for she died as calmly and serenely as she lived,
resigning her soul into the hands of her Savior. What I do weep for
is, that under the flag of my country - and that country a Christian
one - such a life as Mary's could have been lived, and so little said
or done about it.
In the afternoon I went to the deanery of St. Paul's - a retired
building in a deep court opposite the cathedral. After a brief
conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Milman, we went to the cathedral. I had
never seen it before, and was much impressed with the majesty and
grace of the interior. Nevertheless, the Italian style of
architecture, with all its elegance, fails to affect me equally with
the Gothic. The very rudeness of the latter, a something inchoate and
unfinished, is significant of matter struggling with religious ideas
too vast to be fully expressed. Even as in the ancient Scriptures
there are ideas which seem to overtask the powers of human language. I
sat down with Mrs. M. in one of the little compartments, or
_stalls,_ as they are called, into which the galleries are
divided, and which are richly carved in black oak. The whole service
was chanted by a choir expressly trained for the purpose. Some of the
performers are boys of about thirteen years, and of beautiful
countenances. There is a peculiar manner of reading the service
practised in the cathedrals, which is called "intoning." It is a
plaintive, rhythmical chant, with as strong an unction of the nasal as
ever prevailed in a Quaker or Methodist meeting. I cannot exactly
understand why Episcopacy threw out the slur of "nasal twang" as one
of the peculiarities of the conventicle, when it is in full force in
the most approved seats of church orthodoxy. I listened to all in as
uncritical and sympathetic a spirit as possible, giving myself up to
be lifted by the music as high as it could waft me. To one thus
listening, it is impossible to criticize with severity; for, unless
positively offensive, any music becomes beautiful by the power of
sympathy and association. After service we listened to a short sermon
from the Rev. Mr. Villiers, fervent, affectionate, and evangelical in
spirit, and much in the general style of sermonizing which I have
already described.
Monday morning, May 23. We went to breakfast at Mr. Cobden's. Mr. C.
is a man of slender frame, rather under than over the middle size,
with great ease of manner, and flexibility of movement, and the most
frank, fascinating smile. His appearance is a sufficient account of
his popularity, for he seems to be one of those men who carry about
them an atmosphere of vivacity and social exhilaration.
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