London (England) -- Religion; Religious thought -- England -- London
The Presbyterians have 23 chapels, some in connexion with the Church of
Scotland, and some not. The number of chapels thus connected is 5, and
the number of Scotchmen settled in London being about 130,000, it is more
than probable that Sawney is not the church-going animal abroad, he most
undoubtedly is when he is at home. It seems that the Scotch attending
Presbyterian churches in London, even if they occupy every sitting, are
not more than 18,211; and, if Sawney were not proverbially an economical
fellow, one would be inclined to hint that you will catch him taking a
cheap railway excursion on the very day in which, in his ‘land of the
mountain and the flood,’ it is deemed sinful to do more than walk from
one’s home to the nearest kirk.
Next, as regards numbers, come the Unitarians, who have 9 chapels in
London, and about 3300 sittings.
By-the-bye, we ought to have mentioned before this the Roman Catholics,
who have 35 chapels, and of whom there were, on the Census Sunday, 35,994
worshipping at one time. In no case do the Census returns give us the
real attendance. We have merely the number of sittings, or attendants,
morning, afternoon, or evening. In the case of Roman Catholics, we have
given the number of persons attending in the morning, there being this
difference between them and other sects, that with the latter, the number
of sittings will be generally much greater than that of the attendants,
whereas with the Roman Catholics the reverse is the truth, as they get
more out of their chapels than any other denomination can.
It seems the mild, drab-coloured men, who call themselves Quakers, and
wear broad-brimmed hats and square collars, and say ‘thee’ and ‘thou,’ of
whom Belgravia knows but little, but who, nevertheless, are foremost when
some great good is to be done, and some outcast class is to be reclaimed
and saved, are but a feeble folk, as far as numbers are concerned. The
‘youngest of the four surviving sects which trace their origin to that
prolific period which closed the era of the Reformation,’ they promise to
be soonest extinguished. In 1800 they possessed 413 meeting-houses; in
1851 they had but 351. Mr. Low gives them 9 chapels; Mr. Mann but 4,
with sittings for 3151. This latter number, small as it is, appears to
be considerably more than is required for their services. The real
truth, probably, is, that Quaker worship is too calm and phlegmatic for
this bustling go-a-head age. In George Fox’s time, men held communion
with the Invisible and Eternal—with Him who dwells in the light to which
no man can approach. There are but few who care to do so now, and
therefore is it that that race of practical philanthropists was far
larger in George Fox’s time than ours. As to the other sects, it is
scarcely necessary that we do more than take a very hasty glance at them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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