After A While They
Alighted Before A New Gothic Congregational College, In St. John's
Wood.
I found that there had been a kind of tea-drinking there by the
Congregational ministers and their families, to celebrate the opening
of the college.
On returning, we called for Mr. S., at the dinner, and went for a few
moments into the gallery, the entertainment being now nearly over.
Here we heard some Scottish songs, very charmingly sung; and, what
amused me very much, a few Highland musicians, dressed in full
costume, occasionally marched through the hall, playing on their
bagpipes, as was customary in old Scottish entertainments. The
historian Sir Archibald Alison, sheriff of Lanarkshire, sat at the
head of the table - a tall, fine-looking man, of very commanding
presence.
About nine o'clock we retired.
May 15. Heard Mr. Binney preach this morning. He is one of the
strongest men among the Congregationalists, and a very popular
speaker. He is a tall, large man, with a finely-built head, high
forehead, piercing, dark eye, and a good deal of force and
determination in all his movements. His sermon was the first that I
had heard in England which seemed to recognize the existence of any
possible sceptical or rationalizing element in the minds of his
hearers. It was in this respect more like the preaching that I had
been in the habit of hearing at home. Instead of a calm statement of
certain admitted religious facts, or exhortations founded upon them,
his discourse seemed to be reasoning with individual cases, and
answering various forms of objections, such as might arise in
different minds.
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