The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-17 00:00:00

" SPECIAL SERVICES."

Baru of the Bills for authorizing " Special
Services" in halls and unconsecrated places
have failed, and been withdrawn. Thrown
back on the former state of things, and finding
the law to be quite uncertain and obscure, the
Committee which had commenced the Exeter-
hall movement, in the Spring of 1857, now
reverts to its original plan, and has made
arrangements for a second series of " SPECIAL
SERVICES," the commencement of which we have
just seen.
The success of this second attempt must be at
least doubtful. Westminster Abbey has been
opened, and will prove a formidable rival to
Exeter-hall. The Dissenters have occupied the
latter place for two or three months past, and
they found the audiences grow more and more
slender, till at last they brought their preachings
to a close. It is more than questionable whether
the Churchmen's Committee will be able, now
that the novelty has worn off, to revive that
interest in the " Exeter-hall Special Services"
which formerly existed, and which will be needed,
to supply that large building with " crowded
congregations."
And the question constantly recurs to the
mind,—" Is this the fitting remedy for the exist-
ing evil? Do these Special Services suit the
exigencies of the case ?"
What was the evil which incited the Exeter-
hall Committee to make this particular effort ?
It was, there can be no question, the absence of
the working men of London from public worship.
The fact is, unhappily, too certain and too no-
torious, that the myriads of our working men are
not found either in the churches or the meeting-
houses, on the Sabbath-day. Neglect of public
worship has grown into a settled habit, with at
least three-fourths of the labouring classes of this
metropolis.
Such being the fact, we cannot feel any anger
with a party of Christian gentlemen who resolve
to make some effort to attract the working men
into some new place, for a Sunday evening's
occupation. Their purpose, beyond all doubt, is

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good, however open to question their mode of
operation may be.
The hesitation which we have always felt as to
the expediency of this particular movement, has
arisen from our not seeing its applicability to the
existing case. The working men of London do
not much frequent our parish churches. This is
to be lamented ; but how shall it be cured ?
Surely, the rational way is, first, to search out
the reasons of their absence, and, secondly, to
find a remedy for those particular evils.
Now, beyond all doubt, the reasons of the
absence of the working classes from our churches
are twofold. The chief reason is, that they are
not welcomed to our churches—that they are not
accommodated therein, as men would naturally
accommodate those whom they desired to see.
A description of the reception of a mechanic
in one of our London churches, which appeared
in a London newspaper about three years ago, is
so just and so graphic that we can do no better
than simply to copy it
Now, the week's work being over, the son of
toil turns out into the fields for his Sunday-
morning walk, and after a long ramble he hears
the bells ring for morning service. The sound
arrests his attention, and he thinks he will go to
church, and concentrate the various grateful
emotions that the pure air and the contemplation
of Nature in all her beauty have recalled to his
smoke-dried brain. He looks down at his cord
trousers and laced boots, as he approaches with
some misgivings on seeing the smart people
coming up; but as he passes through the church-
yard he reads on one tombstone, God is no
respecter of persons ; ' and on another, Come
unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.' So, remembering his
coat is decent black, and his shirt-front clean, he
ventures inside. But how is he treated when he
gets there? For a long time he stands, hat in
hand, at the top of the aisle, inhaling the fumes
of Eau de Cologne, and making way for fine
folks every moment, who stare at him rudely as
they pass to their pews. He soon begins to think
this is no place for him, and that he was never
intended to go there. Over the velvet-topped
pew-door on his right he sees Dives frowning
down upon him with an air of afflicted respect-
ability ; and on the left old Mrs. Millefleurs
drops her gold eye-glass, and stretches hastily
across her three stately daughters for the
patchouli to purify the tainted atmosphere. The
stern glance of the clerk in the reading-desk has
nearly led him to a determination to retreat,
when a creak from a boot and a tap on the
shoulder cause him to start and turn round. By
degrees his self-possession returns, and he finds
himself in the awful presence of that concentrated
sublimation of illustrated snobbishness, the gilt-
edged beadle. Not quite sure whether he is
about to be expelled vi etarmis, or whether he is
not then in actual custody, he is aroused by a
sepulchral intimation from somewhere amongst
the gold lace and buttons, that Them's the free
seats.' Getting up into the dark corner indicated
by that immense functionary, he meekly takes
his seat amongst some woebegone specimens of
antiquity, decked with the parochial blue check
and the union button.

" Disappointed and dissatisfied he comes away,
and perhaps during a long life he never enters a
church again. lie may become in after years a
Paxton, a Cubitt, or a Peto, and by his position
set an example to thousands ; but the chances
are, he will never forget the slight put upon him
at the church, and he resolves to resort in future
to the modest Dissenting chapel, where he is
treated as a man and a Christian. This, I venture
to say, is the feeling with thousands."

This is, in the main, a fair description of the
real state of things in many of the great churches
of London. There is no disposition on the
of the working men of the metropolis to go AV
they are not welcomed. So they avoid the
churches, and prefer to go, a few to the meeting-
houses, but the great majority to the parks and
tea-gardens. And hence we find, that on Regis-
tration Sunday (March 30, 1851) the churches of
Westminster, which have accommodation for
53,082 persons, had, at the evening service—the
one most used by the poor—only 15,097 atten-
dants. The population was 242,345; the at-
tendants at church, only 15,097.
As we have said before, we cannot blame, or
feel surprised at, any benevolent persons, who,
alarmed at this state of things, rush forward ti

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open Exeter-hall, or Westminster Abbey, in the
hope that they may induce the myriads to come
in. But we do greatly desidemte a little calm
reflection,—a little serious inquiry, whether this
is the best course of proceeding.
What is to be the result of these Special
Services ? Is it meant that what is now special
shall become regular ; and that leaving the
churches in their present deserted state, we
should rejoice that we have filled one or two
large places, like Exeter-hall or 'Westminster
Abbey ? Is this to he the practical result, or
are these services to cease, after a time, and all
things to fall back into their former condition ?
If the first is what we aim at—if; while 38,000
empty seats remain unfilled in the Westminster
churches, we rejoice that we have drawn 5,000
persons to Exeter-hall and Westminster Abbey
—then we must say that the remedy does not
meet the evil. Still less, if these Special Services
are to be no more than a spasmodic effort, and if,
after a series or two of three months each, the
labour is over, and the former apathy is to return,
—still less shall we have taken any rational means
to cure the mischief which we deplore.
One chief regret which we feel, with reference
to these Special Services, is, that they withdraw
the public attention from the principal evil, and
paralyze all effort to remove or cure it. When
we see empty churches, our first care should be to
search out the cause and to apply some fitting
remedy. Instead of which, we propose some-
thing which is no remedy. We find, for instance,
in the city of London, twenty or thirty churches
open on each Sunday evening, and not more than
three or four of them provided with even half a
congregation. And the remedy proposed is to
open St. Paul's Cathedral for a service in the
dome or nave, which, if successful, will collect
2,000 or 3,000 people. Now, there can be no
doubt that, if 2,000 or 3,000 persons are so
collected together, one-half of them will be
drawn from the twenty or thirty parish churches
which have had but scanty congregations. These
will be still more empty, still more sad and dull.
The ministers will be still more disheartened ;
the congregations will be still more gloomy and
listless. If some good has been done by attract-
ing one or two thousand persons to St. Paul's,
some mischief has also been done, by diminishing
many congregations which were already too
small.

If a judicious friend to the Church were to
take up the map of the City, in order to discover
how her services could be made more efficient
and more attractive in that part of London, he
would soon discover three things to be desirable :-
1. That some of the small City parishes should
be united, and one church left open where now
there are two or three. The population of the
City is now so much smaller than it formerly was,
that the actual amount of church-room is super-
abundant. There are about fifty churches for
about 57,000 people. Twenty or thirty would
be quite sufficient.
2. Yet, with all this superfluous room, the
working classes are not received as they ought
to be. The City churches are filled with high
oak pews, well cushioned, into which the pew-
opener never thinks of ushering a man who has
not a very good coat on his back. The labour-
ing man, if he ventures to enter, is eyed as if
almost an intruder, and is directed to some dark
seats in a corner. The first thing that should
be done in the City is to reduce the fifty churches
to twenty or twenty-five; the next is to reseat
those twenty or twenty-five churches in such a
manner as that every decent man who enters
should at once be made welcome.
3. But in London and in Westminster, and in
short everywhere, we need a style of preaching
which, without vulgarisms or claptrap, should
interest and instruct all classes. Sometimes the
sermon is too learned and cold ; at other times it is
jejune and dry. All men feel the want of, the
whole press unites in calling for, a more lively and
animated style of preaching. But we need not
dilate upon this subject here. It would be idle
to expect that any great change in the English
pulpit could be brought about suddenly, or just
when it was called for.
But the other changes of which we have spoken,
particularly a proper adaptation of our churches
to the wants and circumstances of the people,
might be commenced immediately. We desi-
derata a " Church Reform Association" for the
metropolis, limiting the phrase "Reform" to the

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