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
Mr. Spurgeon’s works and essays are so constantly before the public that
the briefest notice of them is all that is necessary here. In his great
Tabernacle near the Elephant and Castle, which is one of the sights of
London, he has a church alone consisting of 4700 members, and such is the
orderly arrangement that, as he said, if one of his members were to get
tipsy he should know of it before the week was out—a statement perhaps
true in reality if not literally. Enormous as his place of worship is,
it is always filled; but it represents, not so much a Christian Church as
a Christian community on a gigantic scale. In his Orphanage at Stockwell
some 135 boys are boarded, clothed, and taught. Then at Newington he has
established an Orphanage and School, and under his great Tabernacle is a
Pastors’ College, which in a couple of years takes the raw student from
the shop or the counting-house and sends him forth into the world a
ready-made divine, occasionally not a little to the dismay of those who
consider a good training and a careful preparation great helps to
ministerial usefulness. The students are lodged in families around, and
on the Sunday are principally employed in preaching in various districts
near London. Some of the Baptist places are very small indeed, and very
badly attended. It were better, one would think, that they were shut up
and merged with other churches or denominations. There is something
inexpressibly melancholy in the long lists of Zions, and Bethels, and
Mount Sions, where the pastor and the people scarcely live. Amongst some
of the Baptists there are some of Antinomian tendencies, and the
preachers of such doctrines have very large congregations. They are the
elect of God, and can never sin. As to their doctrine and its results,
one illustration will suffice. A member of one of the largest of these
Antinomian places unfortunately got tipsy, fell out of the cart in which
he was riding, and broke his leg. “Ah!” said his sympathizing pastor
when he heard of it, “what a blessed thing he can’t fall out of the
covenant.” The Antinomian believes that Christ paid, with his death, the
price of the pardon of a certain number. These are in the covenant, and
out of that covenant they cannot fall. There are in the Church of
England those who preach this doctrine, but their number is rare. Up in
Notting Hill is a Tabernacle built up and carried on by Mr. Varley, an
humble imitator of Mr. Spurgeon. Originally Mr. Varley was a butcher,
but he took to preaching; and finding that people came to hear him, and
that he did them good, he now devotes himself entirely to ministerial
work. At his Tabernacle, in St. James’s Square, there is accommodation
for 1200 hearers, and for the education of more than 500 children. This
history of these Tabernacles shows what may be done when suitable agency
is employed. Mr. Spurgeon’s subscriptions are really wonderful. Twenty
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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