William Pepperell

“ In taking a seat in this little chapel, it is difficult to repress, even for higher considerations, a multitude of thoughts which gather around our modern English history. It has nothing of architectural beauty to boast of, being nothing more nor less than a loft apartment in the palace set apart for Divine service. The ceiling is heavily ribbed and panelled, the walls simply distempered, and the three arched openings to the west answer, without the slightest ornament, the sole useful purpose of admitting the light. ”

“ On entering church, the people, before taking their seats, bow one knee in the aisle towards the altar, and some cross themselves precisely in the manner of Roman Catholics. The time of service arrived, the organist takes his seat, having on a surplice and purple hood with white fur trimming, and, sending out a few solemn strains, the choir is heard in the vestry at the remote end of the church singing “Amen.” It sounds like a distant echo among the mountains. Immediately the people rise, and choristers and clergy walk in procession through the centre aisle to the chancel. ”

“ We cannot conceive a more delightful effect upon the mind than that producible by a whole congregation singing in perfect harmony some of those beautiful hymns which embody, when merely read, so much of elevating sentiment. We are compelled, however, to notice that the majority of the hymn collections we have seen, both in churches and chapels, contain compositions so inferior to the ideas themselves which possess the mind of any intelligent worshipper, that, guided by the words before the eye, it is impossible to rise to the highest sense of devotion. ”

“ Some distinguished men have thought that the parochial system has had its day, and ought now to be forgotten. Every day’s experience, however, tends to prove that such is not the case; for never has that system shown more vitality and efficiency than during the last thirty years. To take a single instance which is familiar to us all: I know not how, without the parochial system, provision could have been made for the pastoral care of what is technically called the suburban village of Kensington. ”

“ We can truly say that we have never listened to a minister without a MS. with more of that pleasureable sense which arises from the feeling that he who is addressing us is perfectly free from embarrassment. Nothing troubles a hearer more than to feel that the preacher has not thoroughly mastered his subject, and therefore is liable at every step to mental perturbation. We can safely promise any who go to worship at St. Paul’s and to hear the Rev. Capel Molyneaux the most complete immunity from any such infliction. ”

“ It is in virtue of that system, still by law established among us, that I have written to you, from year to year, not merely as the minister of a particular place of worship to which a certain number of Christians habitually resort, but as one to whom the care of a certain number of souls spread over a certain area is actually committed; as one who is expected to care for rich and poor alike, and to form as it were a link between them; as one who is responsible ecclesiastically to the Bishop of the Diocese, but in a far higher sense to the Divine Head and Pastor of the Church. ”

“ The effect of the whole is that of strength, but dimness and lowness. The architecture is of a mixed kind, in which the Italian is prominent, with a slight blending of Gothic. The diminished effect of space and light are, however, of course relieved by the illuminations and ornaments peculiar to a Roman Catholic church—the numerous candles, the images, the high altar, its bright furniture, drapery, and ministrant priests, standing out conspicuously, and lit by daylight from the chancel-windows. ”

“ If the Gospel told them to believe in Jesus Christ, was it not that Jesus Christ is truth, was holiness, love, living and incarnate? The more they followed him the more they would believe in him. For instance, there is one who as yet sees in Jesus a mere man, but his doctrine attracts and seems of a beauty incomparable. He would not like to pass for a man without faith, yet when he analysed his faith he found that it reduced itself to a mere belief in Christ’s moral teaching. ”

“ At the time of the Reformation, the Bible had been so long kept back from the people, that it was most desirable that the whole of it should be brought within their reach. And in an age when but few persons could read and still fewer possessed copies of the Scriptures, there was no better way of making God’s Word known, than the frequent and public reading of the whole of it in the Church. ”

“ The tower and spire have a stunted appearance, and would have looked better a few feet higher. The inside is in the fashion of a past age. Roofed in one space, there is no arcade; large galleries run round three sides of the church, and to enable the reader and preacher to be seen from these, a large and very tall pulpit and desk are used, which quite shut out the west, or Communion end. There is an entire absence of decoration, the church being almost Quakerlike in its simplicity, and, to the searcher after the picturesque, contains but little to interest. ”

“ It is an affecting sight to see so handsome a building deserted; and on visiting it for the purpose of a survey, an aged person, formerly, as we learned from himself, a member of the congregation, and who now seemed not far from the better world, was pensively whiling away the quiet morning in the fresh air around the silent temple. ”

“ The Church of St. Matthias, Warwick-road, Earl’s-court, Kensington, is within sight of St. Jude’s, and, like it, stands almost alone in the open fields. It has no boundary walls or fences, unless a broken-down hedge on the east side can be called a fence. Externally, as a structure, there are no very pleasing features; the permanent and temporary portions do not harmonise, and, indeed, the chancel and aisles, the only parts finished, have not in point of detail and design much to recommend their brick walls with bath stone dressings and window tracery of simple character. ”

“ It is certain that this is achieved with great success. The clearness of the preacher’s thoughts, and equal clearness and felicity of his language, make one feel as though sitting in the calm light of intellect, reflected from every point of the compass. ”

“ Were there not tendencies ahead which seem to show that humility is thought by some a virtue which might beseem the babyhood of civilisation; but that it is ours to practice a mode of thinking and acting natural to its manhood? Repentance well enough if it only meant living by experience of the past; faith well enough for those devoid of critical faculties, but certainly not to be exacted for any dogmas or doctrines even from the unlearned, who should be left free to their own opinions ”

“ A building set on a hill cannot be hid, and it is literally true of St. John’s Church; it is just on the crest, of Notting-hill, and may be seen from a great distance in the perspective of the long road, to the west of which it stands. Its effect is at first sight very good; the spire, however, rising at the intersection of the nave and transepts, appears too stunted, as if it had been drawn down several feet into the tower, a fault to be deplored in many instances. ”

“ There is nothing glaring, nothing particular to arrest or attract the eye, yet every part is worthy of inspection, and the parts taken together produce one of the best and most exquisitely charming interiors with which we are acquainted in this neighbourhood. The plan of the church may be said to be cruciform, and is divided into a nave and aisles, north and south transepts, and chancel and aisles. The grey columns of the nave support the arcades and clerestory, and the light nave roof springs from angel-corbelled columns. ”

“ The ragstone of which the church is built, with Bath stone tracing and dressings, has now enough of age to give a softened look to the exterior generally, and the young spring foliage and well-kept surrounding gardens lend their aid to make a rather pretty picture. Internally the church is effective, especially the view from the west end; but the absence of the usual nave arcades and aisle give a long, narrow look to the church, and take from the idea of its size, as at this point the transepts cannot in any way be seen. ”

“ Then there is the service of the hymns, alternate chanting of the Litany, intoning and responding to the commandments in song, singing of the Nicene Creed, the Sanctus, and Gloria in Excelsis, and other parts permitted to be sung by the rubrics, and, added to all, the anthem by the choir, which is often of considerable length. In this kind of service there is scarcely any thing left soberly to be said which the common people can readily appreciate and heartily join in. If they are not up to the music they cannot follow, and if they cannot imbibe the words they have no profit. ”

“ It will be next to a miracle if ever these churches rise to a position of influence and power in the neighbourhood. The locality is low and in great need of evangelistic efforts; and if anything could be done to bring the noisy, idle people who fill those narrow streets, or stand at their wretched little open shop-doors, waiting for stray customers, who steal out to market in the hours of Divine Worship, it would be a great boon. There is a Sunday-school attached to the chapel, in which some of the poor children around are collected together, and in this circumstance there may linger hope. ”

“ Live for holiness, truth, justice, the good, the beautiful, the true, and then they would surely believe that they were not mere cold abstractions of theology, but the most real of all things! Let them now go to the very core of religious faith. ”

“ The chancel is apsidal and has a groined ceiling, and is lighted by a very plain window on each side of the apse. The aisles are interspersed with the altars and confessionals, and the altar to the Virgin has an elaborate reredos, over which are various figures, the centre one being, as the Roman Catholics say, “Our Lady.” The organ, a very fine one, is mounted on granite columns at the north end of the nave, and is approached by a rather awkward open and spiral staircase, and the columns are confusing, which we do not think adds to the good effect of the church. ”

“ The style of the worship is precisely as in the former place, only we do not observe the same punctilio in separating the male and female portion of the audience. At every repeat of the Gloria Patri, the clergy and choristers turn their backs to the people; the intoning was done, in the purest Gregorian tone, by the Vicar himself, and the Litany was chanted by one of the curates, kneeling in front of the altar with his back to the congregation. ”

“ The choir and chancel are ample in dimensions, the former being furnished with high cathedral-backed stalls, and the former ornamented with neatly-illuminated texts, the Ten commandments, &c., and over the communion-table the words—which it may be hoped, will be a faithful index to the ministry ever to be exercised in the church, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to him that believeth.” The organ is a borrowed instrument of very inferior quality, and which is shortly to be supplanted by one more adapted to the beautiful and spacious edifice. ”

“ One whole side of the church is reserved entirely for females, and no intrusion of the other sex is allowed. On the other side both sexes are compelled to mingle, and even there two-thirds are of the feminine gender. To say that the service here is High Church is not saying all the truth; it is Ritualistic, and highly so, in its whole spirit and ceremonial. It is, in fact, the nearest approach to Romanism that we have yet witnessed in an Anglican Church in the course of these visitations, if indeed it be not very Popery itself under the thinnest guise of the Protestant name. ”

“ The choir-stalls and prayer-desk are complete and of good design, and the brass lectern is well-raised. The pewing and bench-ends strike us as being too heavy. The font is peculiarly elegant and graceful, and is a good specimen of early work. The passages are all paved with tile of dark colour. The style of the church is early English ornately treated, if anything perhaps a little too much so, the charm and beauty of early work being its extreme simplicity. ”

“ After retiring from their former chapel in Queen’s-road, and securing the present site, the Wesleyans, resolved not to build until secure of funds to complete the work undertaken, first worshipped in a large room. Next, proceeding by degrees, they erected their walls and put the roof on, and used the body of the chapel in an unfinished state, and finally they built their galleries, and completed the furniture, both of the chapel and schoolroom; and, what is most gratifying to add, possessed themselves of their beautiful sanctuary in its completeness entirely free from debt. ”

“ This creates confusion, and greatly mars the effect of the whole,—an evil which, we can only hope to see remedied by a more general diffusion of the whole,—an evil which we can only hope to see remedied by a more general diffusion of musical knowledge. If the time has come when music is to be insisted on as one part of ever child’s education, the period cannot be far distant when a more perfect state of things will obtain. ”

“ The address is intelligible to every one, the eloquence is of that home-speaking kind which is most likely to find its way to the heart, and, doubtless, it does reach to the hearts of many; whilst the teaching is in the main of that unmistakable Gospel kind which enlightens without mystifying. Mr. Molyneaux is at the antipodes from those “priests” who are oft in preaching up the “Church,” the “Clergy,” the “Altar,” much as though they were afraid people would forget their own professional importance. In the ministry at St. Paul’s all this essential emptiness is scattered to the winds. ”

“ Notwithstanding the superstitious belief of the Jewish people, we dare believe that the Ten Commandments were never given by Moses from Mount Sinai in a recitative.
It is therefore evident to us that, whilst in some of the churches the musical standard is slightly too low, both in quality and decree, and a certain languor results therefrom to the service, on the other hand true spiritual vigour in the worship is still more endangered by the opposite extreme to which we have referred. In a just medium lies all the virtue and good effect of Church Music. ”

“ The language of Scripture was undeniable in its inculcation of a teachable and childlike spirit. The Old Testament was as clear upon this point as the New, both alike insisting on the duty of obedience not only in a child, but in a man, and this not only to the ordinance and revelation of God, but even for the Lord’s sake to the ordinance of man. Ambition as such was in every one condemned. It is the duty of man to use and not abuse the powers and gifts which come from God ”