Our Churches and Chapels: Their Parsons, Priests, & Congregations: Being a Critical and Historical Account of Every Place of Worship in PrestonAtticus
History
Our Churches and Chapels: Their Parsons, Priests, & Congregations: Being a Critical and Historical Account of Every Place of Worship in Preston
Atticus
Preston (Lancashire, England) -- Church history
About ten years ago, the Preston Free Gospel people got Mr. James
Toulmin to build a chapel for them in Ashmoor-street; they having
worshipped up to that time, first at a place on Snow-Hill and then
in Gorst-street. He did not give them the chapel; never said that he
would; couldn't afford to be guilty of an act so curious; but he
erected a place of worship for their pleasure, and they have paid
him something in the shape of rent for it ever since. The chapel is
a plain, small, humble-looking building--a rather respectably
developed cottage, with only one apartment--and we should think that
those who attend it must be in earnest. The place seems to have been
arranged to hold 95 persons--a rather strange number; but upon a
pinch, and by the aid of a few forms planted near the foot of the
pulpit, perhaps 120 could be accommodated in it. There are just
fourteen pews in the chapel, and they run up backwards to the end of
the building, the highest altitude obtained being perhaps four
yards. A good view can be obtained from the pulpit. Not only can the
preacher eye instantaneously every member of his congregation, but
he can get serene glimpses through the windows of eight chimney
pots, five house roofs, and portions of two backyards. In a season
of doubt and difficulty a scene like this must relieve him.
There are about 30 "members" of the chapel. The average attendance
on a Sunday, including all ranks, will be about 50. The worshippers
are humble people--artisans, operatives, small shopkeepers, &c. A
few of the hottest original partisans were the first to leave the
chapel after its opening. There is a Sunday school connected with
the body, and between 40 and 50 children and youths attend it on the
average. Voluntaryism in its most absolute form, is the predominant
principle of the denomination. The sect is, in reality, a "free
community." Their standard is the bible; they believe in both faith
and good works, but place more reliance upon the latter than the
former; they recognise a progressive Christianity, "harmonising," as
we have been told, "with science and common sense;" they object to
the Trinitarian dogma, as commonly accepted by the various churches,
maintaining that both the Bible and reason teach the existence of
but one God; they have no eucharistic sacrament, believing that as
often as they eat and drink they should be imbued with a spirit of
Christian remembrance and thankfulness; they argue that ministers
should not be paid; they dispense with pew-rents; repudiate all
money tests of membership--class-pence, &c.; make voluntary weekly
contributions towards the general expenses, each giving according to
his means; and all have a voice in the regulation of affairs, but
direct executive work is done by a president and a committee. The
independent volition of Quakerism is one of their prime
peculiarities. If they have even a tea-party, no fixed charge for
admission is made; the price paid for demolishing the tea and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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