from the earliest times, a mode of Divine worship; that it was adopted and modified for the service of Israel-and that the practice obtained among the apostles and first Christians. But it does not appear that it was always direct praise to God, or addresses to the Deity. In the instances of our Lord and His disciples, given above, it may have been so. It seems to have been so with Paul and Silas in prison; and so directed in the Epistle to the Colossians. The Apostle James refers to singing as an expression of ordinary cheerfulness:-" Is any merry, let him sing psalms." Our Lord spoke of Psalms which were prophetic, not hymns of praise; "All things must be fulfilled which are written in the Psalms concerning me." Where so little is written, clearly, in the New Testament, for our guidance, it would be hardly right to build any theory, or enforce any particular practice, as to mode or posture. Simplicity, spirituality, and edification should | have their influence in directing us. Allow me here to say, that I wish this were more, instead of less, the guide of Congre gationalists. It may not be sinful; but the propriety is questionable, and the effort hazardous, if it be even worthy of us, to imitate a service and the peculiarities of a system which would degrade the cultivation of taste and make it supplant the great essentials of evangelical doctrine by an imposition upon the senses, deluding the heart and destroying the spirit of devotion instead of aiding it. I cannot help thinking, that chanting, intoning, emblematical figures, coloured glass, and peculiar architecture, operate upon many minds as a delusion; inviting back to something which may substitute the form for the power-appearance for reality-and external worship for that which should be "in spirit and in truth." Pleased with sensible influences, many will be in personal danger while their excitements may be classed with Dr. Watts's "joys of earth," "False as the smooth deceitful sea, And empty as the whistling wind;" of which some little expected will have to say "Your streams were floating me along, Down to the gulf of dark despair; And whilst I listened to your song, Your streams had ev'n conveyed me there." Employing song in the simplest manner in the hallowed service of praise, I submit that there is an object, not, indeed, difierent, but in harmony with direct praise, which is intended by this part of private, social, and public worship-I mean, the celebration of Divine truth. To speak of the great things of God" in exalted verse," to record the doctrines and service of Christ in solemn devotion, this will bring into hallowed use many of the hymns which your correspondent would exclude: hymns which celebrate the works, the ways, and the word of God, may thus be made the theme of the most "devout exercises of the heart," whether in private, social, or public worship. The history of the church of God, promises, doctrines, invitations, warnings; the institutions of Christ, dispositions of mind, joy, sorrow, meekness, fear, prayer, meditations, and many other things, may thus be brought to bear upon the true interests of the congregation, with all the power of song, "making melody in the heart unto the Lord." This view of the subject may lessen our regret, and account for the fact, that we have so few hymns of praise, while it will bring out some of the great truths and duties of religion in a manner likely to fix them in the memory, and to affect the heart; a form by which the greatest things may be remembered (from the very poetry and frequent repetition of them) when our prose addresses and writings may be forgotten. Hoping that these few remarks may help on the Scriptural correctness of our Psalmedy, I leave this paper in your hands, as "one of the brethren." THE ESTHETIC IN NONCONFORMISTS' PLACES OF WORSHIP. G. MR. EDITOR,-I well know that you are not the man to admit into the pages of the work under your control, any paper that might tend severely to reflect upon members of your own or any other denomination of professing Christians. I honour the feeling too much to violate, in any strictures of mine, the law of " brotherly kindness and charity." I do not feel as, in any sense of the term, a bigot or a partizan. I avow myself a Congregationalist; but, in doing so, I desire to look at passing events in the light of Eternity, rather than through the medium of Denominational peculiarity. The abandonment of state support;-the Independence of our churches under Christ;-the election of members and officers by the voice of the Christian people;-and the absolute supremacy of Christ in his own house, are principles for the maintenance of which I should be prepared, I trust, by Divine grace, to "suffer the loss of all things." I am thankful to feel persuaded that these great elements which distinguish our simple polity are not seriously menaced; and that the grand peculiarity of a Christian fellowship is yet upheld among us, as the distinguishing feature of an Evangelical Nonconformity. I bless God for this; and pray that the day may never come when worldly principles shall gain the ascendant, and union in the truth, combined with spirituality and holiness, shall cease to be the ornament and the glory of our Christian profession. I may be old-fashioned, or, perhaps, fastidious; but, if I have not read history backwards, there are manifestations among Evangelical Nonconformists, at the present moment, which may, perchance, develop themselves into formidable evils, when they have had time to operate. It is with no censorious spirit that I refer, in illustration of my fears, to the sudden advent among us of the Esthetic, in reference to our Christian sanctuaries. A new era has dawned upon us, and Nonconformists, north and south, are in many instances competing with the most zealous of other persuasions for the restoration of the medieval style of architecture in their places of worship. In some instances, we have reason to believe that spires, and stained-glass, and oak-carvings, and splendid organs, and other appendages, have been equal to nearly one-third of the entire cost of the gorgeous structures. my honoured brethren in or out of the ministry; but I would venture to offer a few suggestions, which have great weight with my own mind in moments of calm reflec tion on the present and future of our denomination. 1. The Times have a voice of warning in them.-Superstition cannot, perhaps, easily find a lodgment in our simple polity. But let us not forget the stern lesson of history, that the monster superstitions which we now deplore, had their origin, in many instances, in slight departures "from the simplicity that is in Christ." Is it not obvious to every one acquainted with our present state of society that, in connexion with the rise and progress of Anglo-catholicism, a rage has been generated for what has been deemed the best samples of the ecclesiastical architecture of the middle ages? We cannot have forgotten the "Camden Society," nor the rank superstition which animated its movements. Have not the Romanizing party in the establishment been, under the pretence of Catholic usage, getting every symbol into their churches that dare find shelter in a community professedly Protestant? I am not afraid that, in our present state of feeling, we should imitate their stone altars, their starbespangled domes, their carved images of saints and angels,-their burning tapers,-or the many antique fopperies connected with the revival of what has been falsely called catholic antiquity. But, in an age when such things have assumed a somewhat formidable aspect, and when there is actual danger of Popish ascendency, is it a time for Protestant Dissenters, anxious to exhibit and perpetuate the simplicity of Christian worship, to imitate, as near as may be safely, those forms of architecture which have been most closely allied with the darkness and superstition of the middle ages? Is it well, at such a time, or at any time, to surmount our Christian edifices with Greek or Roman crosses? to lay out hundreds of pounds on painted windows, with figures of Apostles and Evangelists, where no authentic resemblance can be proved? to multiply ornaments, at vast expense, for the express purposes of bringing our places of worship into harmony with an age in which Christianity, overloaded with such things, had well-nigh expired? and to designate our places of religious assembly by From this necessary digression I return to the term church, which, to say the least, has my main point, viz., how far Nonconformnists, been wofully abused? I cannot but think who adhere to the simplicity of New Testa- that the ominous times in which we live ment doctrine and worship, are likely to ad- should warn Protestant Dissenters against vance the cause most dear to them-the these very questionable inroads upon the power of vital and spiritual Christianity-by simplicity of former times, lest a spirit should cultivating, to any remarkable extent, the be generated among the rising youth of our Esthetic propensity in reference to their churches which will crave for ampler indulplaces for Christian worship? I have no gence in other circles. When we have done desire to dogmatize-much less to condemn our utmost, in this direction, we shall be far Before looking at this new state of things which has arisen among Evangelical Dissenters, allow me to say that I hold as much as any of my brethren the duty of Nonconformists, according to their ability, to provide neat and tasteful places of worship. As the wealth of Nonconformists has greatly increased, and persons in general live in a higher state of social comfort than they did fifty years ago, their places of worship should bear a reasonable proportion to the improved circumstances of the age, and should be built with a due regard to comfort and edification in all respects. They ought to be well lighted, well ventilated, well warmed, and, withal, well adapted to easy speaking and hearing. If, in addition to these, congregations can afford to provide for a certain amount of elegant and attractive architecture, whether Corinthian or Gothic, I see no reason to object, so long as the ornamental parts of the building have no dash of superstition thrown into them, and are not of that gorgeous character to encourage worldliness, to foster pride, or to tempt the worshipper to think more of the material than the spiritual edifice. I would neither revolt the tasteful by vulgarity, nor minister to the Esthetic by undue contributions from a bygone antiquity, to say the least of doubtful association. outstripped by others with whom conscience | stewardship." With vast masses of our people, will not allow us to symbolize. then, without the gospel, with millions of 2. I am not without fear on the score of worldly conformity.-Conformity, I mean, in the form of expensive and unprofitable show. We have nothing more, perhaps, to dread, for the true spiritual standing of our churches, than the insidious growth of the worldly spirit. It is creeping in upon us in a variety of directions; and many deeply exercised Christians are trembling lest there should be found in our nonconforming circles a marked declension of the spiritual life. We have all to struggle, with earnestness, against such a lamentable catastrophe; and to guard, with conscientious tenderness, against every thing on the surface or in the interior of our fellowships, which might depress our spiritual energy, or weaken the power of a living faith. Now, will there not be danger of ministering to the worldly feeling in religion,-to the real pride of life under disguise of something better, if a strong feeling for fine Gothic architecture, from the best models of antiquity, springs up among us; and vast sums of money are expended unnecessarily in rearing model sanctuaries, the most richly ornamented in a particular district? We confess to a feeling of anxious foreboding; and cannot help thinking that tasteful simplicity in architecture is more in accordance with our unpretending modes of religious worship and polity, A WORD TO LORD DERBY IN REFERENCE TO than samples of church-building borrowed from the ecclesiastical Esthetics of the day. There may be as wide a scope for pride and worldliness in the erection of a gorgeous sanctuary, as in the erection of a family mansion, or the laying out of a vast mercantile establishment. And if we are to have stone crosses, and professed pictures of men who have been in heaven eighteen hundred years, this is something more than worldliness,-it borders too closely on the symbolisms of superstition, to be quite harmless. Let any man try to defend it, and he will find that his argument will carry him further than he wishes to go. 3. The claims of a perishing world may suggest a doubt on the subject of undue expenditure in the erection of Christian sanctuaries.-Between man and man, there can be no doubt that individuals have a right to do as they please with their own. Who are we that we should sit in judgment on the use which men, as men, make of their property? They may have much of this world's good at their disposal; and they may feel impelled to some sacrifice of what they possess as an expression of their gratitude to God. But Christians ought to feel that all they possess is at the disposal of Him from whom they have received all. They are only stewards; and the hour is fast approaching, when it will be said to them, "Give an account of your Φιλάδελφος. THE CRYSTAL PALACE. WHAT a dark cloud now hangs over our beloved country!-more dark and lowering than if war, and pestilence, and famine were about to spread their dire calamities in the midst of us! These, as in times past, might be only God's visitations upon a sinful people, calling them to humiliation and repentance. But the threatened opening of the Crystal Palace, at Sydenham, on God's-day, under the sanction of a Royal Charter, is an event in our history so thoroughly un-English, and so marked by daring impiety, that we cannot even muse on its possibility but with a shudder of inexpressible horror and dismay. Will Lord Derby venture, in the present state of public opinion in reference to the question of Sabbath sanctification, to carry out his premature assurances to the Directors of the Sydenham Exhibition? Will he advise our youthful Sovereign, who lives so entirely in the hearts of her people, to invest this monstrous scheme of Sabbath desecration with the dignities of a royal charter?We pray God that this may never be. We are happy to find that a very able letter has been addressed to Lord Derby, entitled, "A Plea for a Whole Sabbath," in reference to the "Proposed Opening of the Crystal Palace on the Lord's-day." It is a Tract of great excellence; and as it is published by Wertheim and Macintosh, at one penny, it may be circulated very widely at small expense. We give the following ex tract: My lord, the proposal is, that the building be thrown open, and trains begin to run, at one o'clock. But can it be supposed that any considerable number of those who will spend the afternoon in pleasure will have spent the forenoon in prayer? If they did, would there be any harmony between the two parts of the day, and not rather the most glaring contrariety? Think of the young family of a mechanic promised, on some Sunday afternoon, a trip to Sydenham, by an excursion-train, and a visit to the Crystal Palace: what attention could those poor children be expected to pay that morning to the Sunday-school or Church? Would they be found in their class? or their parents in their place in church? Alas! my lord, it would too surely be found in practice, that in taking half the Sabbath the whole was gone. "It is not enough to say, in answer to these considerations, Oh, but the people are free agents, they are not forced to go; let them stay at home and go to church if they prefer it.' My lord, we whose office it is to watch for souls as they that must give account too often find our efforts unsuccessful, even when temptation is as far as possible removed, and every inducement and facility offered to a right course; but here a temptation is put in the poor man's way; the door is opened to him, the path made easy; and it is a false and fatal philosophy to maintain that you still leave to the man a free choice, and give him no downward inclination. "Our neighbours across the Channel do indeed set us an example of cutting down the Sabbath into the smallest possible fraction of a day. I remember, my lord, passing a Sunday some years ago in a French town. Being then new to Continental manners, I was surprised, in the course of an early walk, to meet crowds of people flocking to the chief church of the place at six o'clock. On looking in, I saw the large building almost filled at that early hour; and I began to think that a French Sabbath was a more devotional day than I had supposed. But I was soon undeceived. Service was quickly over, and through all the rest of the day nothing but pleasure seemed to be thought of. Gay parties promenaded the public walks, where refreshments of all kinds were freely sold; here dancing was carried on with great spirit, there a military band played the most lively airs; and a crowded theatre closed the day of God. Every Continental traveller knows that what I saw that day is to be commonly seen on Sunday in towns in France. Oh! my Lord, of all articles of French pro VOL. XXX. duction, let us not import their Sundays! Let not the Sabbath become with us a day of fétes, and reviews, and elections, and processions! Let us still keep our dear English Sunday; a restraint, it may be, upon the pleasure-hunter, a weariness to the worldly, but the foretaste of heaven to the Christianthe wonder of surrounding nations! I tremble, my lord, lest, if this fatal license be given, it should prove a step towards a French Sunday. I fear lest, if once the Sabbath be reduced from a whole to a half, the half also should gradually diminish, till at length our Lord's day should be reduced to a mere before-breakfast Sabbath, and it should content the people of this country to devote to religion one early morning hour, and the rest of the day to business and pleasure. "For the question here involved is not merely whether the Crystal Palace shall be open on Sunday afternoons, but whether a wide door shall be opened for Sabbath desecration throughout the country. If the most magnificent place of public entertainment be thrown open, places of less importance will not remain closed; if the metropolis set the example, the provinces will not be slow to follow it. "When the Crystal Palace was a National Exhibition, honour was done to God and his day; the building was opened with prayer, the official Catalogues bore mottoes of a religious character, and the doors were kept strictly closed during the Lord's day. It will be sad indeed, if a private speculation shall have power to mar this fair beginning, and to turn this splendid monument of art into a vast instrument of national Sabbath-breaking. "My lord, I cannot but think that the opponents of the scheme come to your lordship with a better grace than its promoters. The latter say, indeed, 'Give the poor man his Sabbath pleasures! Let it be a day of innocent recreation to him! Let him on that day at least breathe fresh air, and see interesting objects, and find something to relieve the wearisome monotony of constant toil.' But is it a breach of charity to suppose that private interest enters into the consideration of these gentlemen, as well as the enjoyment of the poor; and that their own dividends are sometimes thought of amid their plans for the mechanics' gratification? But we come to your lordship with clean hands. We have no private interest to serve. Our only objects are the honour of God, the good of our country, and the preservation of the Sabbath in its integrity. My lord, writing namelessly and as one of a class, I can use an argument which I could not otherwise employ. Place the promoters and advocates of this scheme on the one side, and its opponents on the other, and see which give most practical proofs of a care for the welfare of the 2 Y poor. On which side are found the liberal supporters of our great religious societies? On which side stand the founders of hospitals, the builders of churches, the promoters of schools, and ragged-schools, and model dwelling-houses? Where do they appear whose lives are devoted with untiring earnestness to doing good to the poor privately, visiting, teaching, relieving, comforting them? I will venture to say, my lord, that the real and tried friends of the poor will be found ranged with those who plead for a whole Sabbath. They were not of old real friends to the poor, who loved gain and found the Sabbath a weariness; and I believe the case is very much the same now: 'Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?' (Amos viii. 4, 5.)" SUNDAY-SCHOOL JUBILEE MOVEMENT. WE are much gratified to find that the Jubilee Fund is being taken up with great spirit. Large meetings have been held, of a very animating character, at Surrey Chapel, Manchester, Birmingham, and other places; and there is reason to believe that, before the close of the Jubilee Year, the funds necessary for the erection of the new building will be amply supplied. OPENING OF THE REV. JAMES HILL'S NEW PLACE OF WORSHIP, CLAPHAM; AND HISTORY OF NONCONFORMITY IN THE PLACE. THIS interesting event took place on Wednesday, the 29th September. The weather was fine, and the attendance was large and respectable. Many, both from love and curiosity, were drawn to Clapham, to hear the respected preachers, and to see the elegant place of worship, which is by far the most attractive sanctuary in the somewhat aristocratic vicinity in which it stands. It is a monument of architectural skill, and of the wealth and liberality of the congregation by whom it has been erected. The service was opened, very impressively, by the pastor, who read appropriate portions of Scripture, presented fervent prayer, and read a brief sketch of the history of Nonconformity in Clapham, which we have appended to this notice. Dr. Harris then delivered a discourse, from Rom. i. 16, 17, of great intellectual power, and of marked evangelical character; the very model of a sermon from the lips of a Theological Professor. Dr. Tidman then concluded the morning service, which was, indeed, truly refreshing. In the afternoon, a meeting of friends was held, at which the Chairman of the Building Committee presided, and many fraternal addresses were delivered by Messrs. Binney, Burnet, and others. At night, the chapel was crowded to excess, when the Rev. James Parsons preached one of his truly eloquent and impressive sermons, full of holy unction, and telling appeals to the hearts and consciences of the deeply-attentive and penetrated auditory. May the Lord prosper this great undertaking, and shed down upon pastor and flock the richest dews of his blessing! A Brief Statement of the History of Nonconformity in Clapham. On an occasion like the present, it will not be unsuitable, if, in the space of a few minutes, I present to this audience a concise outline of the history of Nonconformity in Clapham. Such an outline may serve to excite in us gratitude to God for the noble men, who in dark and troubled times risked everything, that they might keep a good conscience, and prove their allegiance to their heavenly King; and thankfulness, also, that the times in which we live are of so different a complexion. Between the years 1640 and 1650, there was an Independent or Congregational church at Clapham, gathered, as it is supposed, by the Rev. W. Bridge, M.A., who was one of the five more distinguished Independent ministers in the Westminster Assembly, which met in 1643. The names of the other four were Goodwin, Nye, Burroughs, and Simpson. These five were generally known by the appellation of the Dissenting Brethren, who, in the face of the fiercest opposition, and far in advance of their time, fearlessly and magnanimously maintained the inalienable rights of conscience, and the utmost latitude of religious freedom. Bridge afterwards left this country, and became the joint pastor of a church of the same faith and order in Rotterdam. Subsequently, however, he returned to his native land, and was pastor of an Independent church at Yarmouth, where he died, in 1670, aged 70. Mr. Bridge was succeeded in the pastoral office in Clapham by the Rev. Thomas Lye, another of the ejected ministers, who (according to Wood) preached in Clapham. He died January 7, 1684. After him, the Rev. Henry Wilkinson became pastor. He had been rector of St. Dunstan's in the East, Canon of Christchurch, and Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford, from which he was ejected at the Restoration of Charles II, and the latter part of his life was spent at Clapham, where he died, 1675. |