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
The present minister of the chapel is the Rev. Richard Abercrombie.
He has only just arrived, and may in one sense be termed the
"greatest" minister in Preston, for he is at least six feet high in
his stocking feet. He is an elderly gentleman,--must be getting near
70; but he is almost as straight as a wand, has a dignified look,
wears a venerable grey beard, and has quite a military precision in
his form and walk. And he may well have, for he has been a soldier,
Mr. Abercrombie served in the British army upwards of twenty years.
He followed Wellington, after Waterloo, and was in Paris as a
British soldier when the famous treaty of peace was signed. His
grandfather was cousin of the celebrated Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who
defeated Napoleon's forces in Egypt, and his ancestors held
commissions in our army for upwards of four generations. Tired of
military life, Mr. Abercrombie eventually laid down his arms, and
for 33 years he has been a minister in the body he is now connected
with. It is worthy of remark that, before leaving the army, he
occasionally sermonised in his uniform, and 35 years ago he preached
in his red jacket, &c., in the old Orchard Chapel. Mr. Abercrombie
is a genial, smooth-natured, quiet man--talks easily yet carefully,
preaches earnestly yet evenly; there is no froth in either his
prayers or sermons; he never gets into fits of uncontrollable
passion, never rides the high horse of personal ambition, nor the
low ass of religious vulgarity--keeps cool, behaves himself, and
looks after his work midly and well. He has two or three sons in the
United Methodist Free Church ministry, and one of them, called after
the general who defeated the Napoleonic forces, is the only man
belonging the body who has a university M.A. after his name.
Very good schools are connected with Orchard Chapel. The average day
attendance is 140; and on Sundays the average is about 350, In the
last place, we may observe that the people belonging Orchard Chapel
are, generally, getting along comfortably in all their departments.
Formerly they had feuds, and fights, and church meetings, at which
odd pieces of scandal were bandied about--they may have morsels of
unpleasantness yet to encounter; but taking them all in all they are
moving on serenely and well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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