The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-06-10 00:00:00

THE "FLOWER SERMON."

The Daily New gives the following interesting account of
the " Fiower Sermon," which was preached on Whit
Tuesday by the Rev. Dr. Whittemore to a crowded congre-
gation in the church of St. Katherine Cree, London :

In accordance with the long-established Whit Tues-
day custom what is known as the flower sermon, was
given on Tuesday night by the Rev. Dr. Whittemore
to a crowded congregation in the ancient City church
of St. Katherine Cree. At this interesting service, as
the Daily News has in former years explained, the
young persons for whom it is specially designed attend
with nosegays of flowers, the hymns sung are chosen
for their allusions to the flowery gifts of the summer
season, and the sermon is preached upon some
one of the many flowers mentioned in the Bible.
It is about twenty-three years since it occurred
to Dr. Whittemore to profit from the universal interest
that is taken, especially among children, in flowers, by
choosing this convenient day in the season of flowers
for a children's service. The experiment was so suc-
cessful and so acceptable to both young and old that
it was continued; as a matter of course the service is
now quite a City institution. Children with bouquets,
and adults with smaller nosegays or button-hole
flowers, fill every available space in the old church,
and the preacher looks down on a veritable garden as
he pleasantly discourses on his particular theme.
Until the old-fashioned boxes in the church give
place to the modern pew the sight to individual
members of the congregation will not be nearly
so striking as it must be from the pulpit. Still there
are the ancient costumes and the happy faces of the
Aldgate Ward charity children to be seen in the organ
gallery, with their bouquets—the gift of the church-
wardens—and the not less beaming faces and smiling
nosegays of the children in the centre aisle from St.
John's School, Westbourne-park, not to speak of the
display of flowers around the visitor in whatever box he
may find himself enclosed. In the pulpit is a nosegay
which has been placed there by a hand that re-
cognised Dr. Whittemore's interesting services in
the same way many years ago. The hand was then.
that of a gratified child, who now attends the ser-
vices as a married woman, with children of her
own, but who still claims the privilege of thus
adorning tke pulpit from which she has so long de-
rived pleasui-e and instruction. Dr. Whittemore ac-
knowledged this little attention almost in his earliest
words. His discourse on this occasion was on the olive
flower from the text in Job 15 and 33 "Ile shall cast
off his flower as the olive." A brief description of the
olive preceded the usual lessons which the rector draws
from his text for the fl)wer sermon. The first lesson
was deduced from the fact that many different trees
belong to the olive family. Similarly, said Dr. Whitte-
more, Christians may be outwardly different and yet
essentially alike; so that rich and poor, one denomina-
tion and another, ought to recognise their family re-
lationship. The second lesson was a warning from the
castingef the olive flowers—that blossoms do not always
lead to fruit—and an injunction to desire the privilege of
being fruitful in the Redeemer's service. From the use
of tha olive as a huml,le fare—the relish of the poor
man's bread in the East —the moral pointed was
the possibility of sweetening each other's lives even in
humble spheres where no grand opportunity of doing
good presents itself. Noticing the double process of
extracting oil from the olive by which first the pure
virgin oil is obtained on light pressure, a coarser oil
being afterwards obtained by crushing, the lecturer
urged on his young hearers the desirability of yielding
to holy influences when young and pure. Dr. Whitte-
more further earnestly impressed upon his hearers the
necessity of being grafted into Christ as a tree from
whom a new principle of life and vitality would be
derived. The sermon, which lasted nearly forty
minutes, Was listened to with marked attention. i

THE AMUSEMENT OF LONDON I
HOLIDAY-MAKERS.
In a leader on the Whitsuntide holidays, and the manner
in which Londoners enjoy them, the Daily News remarks :
It may well be doubted whether any great city has
environs so charming for the holi lay-maker as London.
The outskirts of Paris are singularly unattractive for
the most part; and, indeed, wherever Paris is not
artificially and elaborately beautiful, she may be set
down as decidedly ugly. She is, perhaps, in that
respect a liAle like the famous saint who had one
side of her face very beautiful, and the other side
unmistakably plain, only that Paris does not
usually try, as the saintly woman did, to keep
the unattractive side always. turned to roving
eyes. Berlin ier a city set upon-a sandy fiat. Florence
has delightful surroundings, but her river assuredly is
not like our river. Rome can hardly be said to have
any environs. The citizen passes at once from the
gates into the waste, as in Mr. Lowe's famous simile
inconsiderate nations venturing on extension of the
suffrage pass at once into the barren plains of demo-
cracy. But our river, our hills, our commons, our
roads, our green lanes—which can still be reached
without much toil or delay -to say nothing of our
parks and our palaces of amusement north, south, and
central, seem with all the spread of bricks and mortar
to make London still an unequalled city for a summer
holiday.
Probably a stranger studying London during the
season would think ours the most home-keeping popu-
lation in the world. Every place of amusement in and
near the metropolis he would find to be crowded. The
Crystal Palace with the Dog Show, the Alexandra
with its concert and its dramatic performances, the
Aquarium, the Rinks, the Horse Show at the Agri-
cultural Hall, the Canadian game of La Crosse
at Hurlingham —all these will draw their crowds.
The Royal Academy will be thronged by people
who will go there under the impression that, as it
is a popular holiday, everybody else will fear a
crowd, and keep away from Burlington House.
Every place, of amusement will be filled at night.
Nor will all these be filled by holiday-makers who have
come up from the country. The unmistakeable Lon-
doner will be seen in the majority everywhere. It is a
fact which we think any reasonably observant eye can
vertify for itself, that the Londoner of the class which
makes up the larger proportion of the Whisuntide holi-
day crawd is not growing taller as years go on. Not
very long before his death Canon Kingsley drew atten-
tion to the surprising increase in the number of small
young men and women to be seen in a crowd of London
holiday-makers. Any one who doub's the
accuracy of Mr. Kingsley's observation has
only to open his eyes to-day as he passes along the
streets, and judge for himself. It is not, however, by
such a test as that we would recommend the observant
stranger to distinguish between the London holiday-
maker and his corsrade from the country. As all
cities beeome great, the tendency of the hard-workers
who live in its central places is, we fear, to fail in ro-
bust growth, but in any case the observation will only
apply to certain classes. Tried by whatever teat, it will
be found that an immense number of the holiday-makers
in London places of amusement at such a season as
this are genuine Londoners. The observant stranger,
therefore, whom we have supposed to be engaged in
studying the question, might well imagine that all the
Londoners stayed at home to enjoy their holiday. His
observation, however, would have led him very mach
astray. Every year our people go farther afield and in
greater numbers to find their amusement. In all the
seaside towns and places, in the Isle of Wight, in the
Channel Islands, at Boulogne, at Dieppe, in Paris, the
Londoner will b 3 found this season. Oar observant
stranger, if he only takes another point of view for his
observation, is likely enough to come to -the conclu-
sion that daring Whitsun-time all the Londoners who
care for a holiday rush out of London. There will be
evidence of vast weight on both sides of the question,
and the philosophic stranger who forms his opinion
from the study of the one side only which happens to
come under his eyes will not be very unlike the ma-
jority of travellers who tell of the national habits of
strange peoples..