The Express.
London, England, 1858-01-04 00:00:00

rtattpartate trek
LIST of SURPLUS COPIES of RECENT
ir ass irlagrami tn. MOD111"1 1113.1102.
at vatend trims tar oat
Obitto Nom ttaliKelrest Leedom. tog Crogtdrat.

SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE dr WAITZINBTLIt

ABBEY.

In accordance with precious announcement, West-
misstep Abbey was opened yesterday evening, for the drat
time in its history, fur evening service; and so far as nuns-
bees are concerned, what the dean had spoken of as "pro-
visional and experimental," pn.ved highly satisfactory in the
inauguration. Seven o'clock being the hour dud for com-
mencing the service, as early as six o'clock a large number of
persons had assembled at the entrance where the congrega-
tion were to bo admitted, namely, that adjacent to Westmin-
ster School and the end of Victoria-street, and half an hoar
after not lees than 2,000 persons were waiting for admission
outside the iron gate. The Abbey bell commenced
tolling for the servios about half-paatsix; but, unfortunately,
the people were not admitted till about ten minutes later,
and the revisit sae that many persons, the females and a few
children especially, experienced a vary inconvenient degree
of pressure from the multitude in the rear. The behaviour
of all, however, was excellent, and the few policemen present
had little difficulty in restoring order and preventing any
casualty. On entering the nave, which had been set apart
for the service, one could riot help admiring the spectacle
presented. The vast space was lighted by two rows of gas-
lights, provided expressly for the services to be inaugurated,
no such al,xtern invention having previously been
witnessed within the Abbey walls. Each row
comprised eight branches, and each branch seem
bursars, two of the §eanclues bmiiktifialt _shut halals
la scr.ition, and the result we that the whole of the nave,freet
sib to side, and from the door to the roof, was illuminated,
the light being such as to exhibit in bold and imposing ,
relief the monumental sculptures, rich in national
associations, which adorn the surrounding walls.
The pulpit was placed in the centre of the
nave, about twenty yards from the choir, and
the interval between these wee partly occupied by
the choristers and the clergy In attendance. Of
the latter, five or six were present, including thou who
took ;art in the service; the choir was of the full ordinary
strength. The seats provided fur the congregation consisted
of chairs, the property of the Crystal Palace Company, u
wee obvious from the mark upon them : they were all im-
mediately occupied. Every part of the nave was filled,
several hundreds of persons being compelled to stand ; and
there were probably in all upwards of three thousand people
assembled. If dress Is a reliable criterion, the congregation
was composed to a very large extent of the middle
classes ; but there was a considerable mixture here
and there of persona who manifestly belonged to the working
classes, and that many of these were not habitual church-
goers wee inferred from their general demeanour, as well
as from the fact that they were not supplied with a prayer-
book. There wee a considerable proportion of poor females,
but on the whole the females were in a minority. All present
behaved throughout with the greatest decorum, large num-
bers reverentially, and happily the presence of the choir did
not in any degree prevent the congregation from joining un-
restrainedly and heartily is the chaunts and choral portions
of ths ceremony.

Divine service commenced at seven o'clock. Prayers
were read by the Rev. Mr. Hayden. The scripture lemons
were read by the Hon. and Itev. Lord John 1 hynne, the
eub•Dean, with a voicegf such power and downer that it
most have been audible to nearly every one. At the °oc-
clusion of the prayers the 100th Psalm, new version, was
sung by the choir and the congregation, the tune being the
Old Hundredth, and the first vine the well-known words—.
" With one consent let all the earth
To God their cheerful voices relies,
Glad homage pay with awful mirth,
And slag belore him songs of praise."

- -
The sermon was preached by the Dean of Westminster,
who, after ascending the pulpit, cast a scrutinising glance
around the vast congregation before him, probably with the
view of ascertaining what proportion of his hearers belonged
to those for whose benefit the service sou chiedy designed.
The rev. gentleman selected his text from the 13th chapter
of St. Luke's Gospel, the 6th and following verses .—" He
epake also this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted
in his vineyard ; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and
found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard,
Behold, thew three years I come seeking fruit on this dg
tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the
grattnd P Aod he anewering said unto him, Lord, Ist it
alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it ;
and if it bear fruit,' well, and if not, then after that thou
' shalt cut It down.' The bands of the great clock of time
(observed the preacher) crept swiftly yet silently onward,
with their stealthy march of minutes and hones, and
days and months; they meanwhile remaining al-
most unconacioua of their lees ; and yet there
were seasons when the great clock of time struck sadly
and loudly on their ears, end when the careless could scarcely
fail to give heed to those chimes. Sorb a moment was the
present, the conclusion of an old year, the beginning of a
new. A little while ago they saw the year which was gone;
it had now joined the irrevocable past, and the time that
remained was not merely short, it was manifestly shorter
than it was. If they were Christ's' now was their salvation
nester than when they believed ; if they were not Christ's,
their dreadful doom was nearer than at any previous moment
it had been. Let them not seek to suppress such thoughts--
wholesome, serious, awful thoughts—which as they stood at
the threshold of a new year were so naturally suggested to
their minds. It was, indeed, the high privilege of man to
look both backward and forward ; backward into the
life which be had lived, and forward into the life which re-
mained to him, either here or in some other scene of exist-
ence. He should ask them to do both on that first Sunday
of a new year, when they were, under no common circum-
stances, gathered in the house of God, and be should and
occasion for both in a plain exposition of the parable of the
barren fig-tree. After asking the congregation to unite with
him silently, before he proceeded, in praying to God that He
would bles the work which was being commenced, the rev.
gentleman proceeded to unfold the parable of the text. That
parable was, he remarked, intended by Christ as
an earnest summons to repentance. The church
waa God's garden, and they were trees planted
therein. They had not grown up in the wilderness of
heathendom ; they had not been left to themselves, to walk
in their own ways, and to bring forth the bad and bitter fruits
which fallen and corrupt human nature never failed to pro-
duce. God had hedged them round with gracious ordiniusces,
and there was not one amongst them—the most uncared-for
and neglected present that evening—not one of those who
crowded our alleys, and lane., and courts, who had net had
opportunities of knowing the will of God, and helps for
thong it, which he would never have had if he had not bum
born in a Christian land. God had, therefore, a right to eveet
fruit from every one of them. And yet bow often did He
come larking fruit on the fig tree and find WOO—
so good fruit, that was; of evil and bitter fruit
there was more than enough. He had come seeking fruit,
sad had found leaves, perhaps, the leaves of an empty sad
hypo:witted proteseks, lip homage which would not satiety
the Almighty. In many cases leaves and fruit were alike
wasting. It might be that some present that night did not
make even an outward show and semblance of serving God,
and of rendering to Him a retare for all that He had dose
for them. He looked for " the fruits of the spirit," and he
found " the works of the Beals." What were the " three
years" of the fig tree's banesasse compared with the
many years of unprothableness with which God might re- I
preach many of them I To how many among them might
He my, " Behold them twenty yam," or " these forty
years,' or " them fifty years come I esektm
fruit from this tom and find nose. I sum to him la his
childhood, and that was given to vanity ; I came to him in
youth, and said to Id eon, give me thine heart when
as yet thou haat not getsred upon thy soul thole darker and
deeper stains from which my grace may preserve thee,' but
he did not hem em ; childhood was given to vanity, youth to
youthful lusts. I cease to him in full age and asked for the
slid strength of his days, but this appeal also Ina in vain ;
and after that the elan of manhood were exchanged for those
of old age." What wonder, then, that it was said of the
tree thus barren, " Why cumbereth it the ground P"
" Why should it mischief the ground 1' was the true render-
ing of the original. The barren tree shed a baneful shade
around it. Would any person to whom the metaphor ap-
plied deny the justice of this charge, and say that be was no
main enemy but his own ? Would he say that who occa-
pied badly the place that another might occupy well; or he
who by uttering worldly, ungodly maxims, lowered the
standard of right in the company hi which he mixed; or he
who stood in the way of his Wars or child's con
hindering the blame of God's from reaciltingTil them
God'omdgmeritooncerningall was tbatthey • cumbered,"
that esa,miscbiefed the ground. It ems owing to " the dresser
of the vineyard" that the seaterme " out it down" wee not
immediately executed. The Lord Jesse Chris
an t, who woe !s-
-hy the dresser, stood in the gap as intercessor.
Mandealeteded that the tree might be spend a little longer; and
haying finished Hie work on earth, Hs continued, or rather
applied, it In hems where He appeared before the Father
se the inereneseer tar nem There were three Same
brought balm them In the tat-{he first was the marvel-
lons long sash, of God la sparing them after many years
of sin ; the seemed WWI that it was to Christ, to His smile
and lateresesiest that they owed it that they Wife
'pared • the third was that the time would ar-
rive wire ems Ids would plead for the impatient
sham m The rev. gent amen then enlarged es
them Naas awl Ira • thee practical applamiles et