The Religious Life of LondonRitchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
Religion
The Religious Life of London
Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
London (England) -- Religion; Religious thought -- England -- London
learned Bishop of Chester, and Archbishop Tillotson, whose lot was no
peaceful one, and of whom it is worthy of remark that in the language of
Jortin he broke through an ancient and fundamental rule of controversial
theology, “Allow not an adversary either to have common sense or common
honesty.” Poor Tillotson, you see, never got over the disadvantages of
Dissenting training.
But to return to the deaf and dumb. Inside this handsome church you will
find any Tuesday evening about eight o’clock, some fifty or sixty of them
sitting near the reading desk. Most of them are men and women in a
humble position in life, engaged in various callings in the
neighbourhood, more, however, in the east than the west. The desire to
profit by such services seems on the increase. They have, for instance,
at St. Lawrence, double the number they had, and the same may be said
with regard to the services conducted morning and evening at the
Polytechnic Institution. Nor are these services held in vain. Every
year some are prepared for confirmation, and special celebrations of the
Holy Communion are held for their benefit. To the ordinary attendants,
including even such as have little need of an interpreter to explain the
subject or to help them to follow the services in church, the committee
report, “these services and lectures are profitable.” “I have felt it a
great privilege to attend the services,” said one, “which have been a
great comfort and benefit to me, and I hope I shall remember what I have
heard” (it is to be presumed, by “heard,” the writer means what he saw:
his language is conventional). “After I left school I felt so lost I
could not hear what was said in churches, and now I am very happy in
attending them.” In another way, also, the religious condition of these
afflicted ones is kept in view. The Society employs missionaries engaged
in house-to-house visitation. By these missionary agents, acting in
concert with the parochial clergy, a personal acquaintance is maintained
with the deaf and dumb scattered over London, and a most marked
improvement in their character, conduct, and intelligence is the result
of the supervision exercised. The society is also engaged in promoting
the erection of a church for the deaf and dumb. For this purpose 550_l._
have already been subscribed. In the Old Kent Road there is a Deaf and
Dumb Asylum, and in other parts of the metropolis there are societies for
their special benefit. Of course no mere outsider can give an account of
a service with the deaf and dumb. It is easy to realize songs without
words, but not so easy to realize public prayer and preaching in which no
audible sound is heard, in which the service is conducted as it were by
pantomime. As much as possible the rubric is observed, the deaf and dumb
obey the instructions of the Prayer-book, and stand where standing is
prescribed, and “sign” the response to the Lord’s Prayer, Creed,
Confession, &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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