The Express.
London, England, 1868-08-08 00:00:00

CHURCH SERVICES AND SERMONS.

Tian was a time when the preacher wielded
a great power in England. He was an earnest
man speaking to earnest men. He had a message
to deliver, and believed in himself as the appointed
messenger. Rough, plain-spoken, impetuous,
often fanatical, he spoke home to his audience
in burning words, and kept them spell
bound at his feet. Sermons have exerted
much influence in the Romish Church ; but they
have been the back-bone of Protestantism, and
especially of Protestant dissent. It is unneces-
sary to go back several centuries to the " grey
" fathers" of the Reformation, or to record the
feats of men who, like JOHN HOWE, in Caort-
wax's time, would preach for hours consecu-
tively to • mighty throng of hearers. What the
press does for us now the pulpit did then ; but in
more recent days the influence exerted by such
men as Wasurr and WIIITTIMLD, CRALNEss and
IRWIN°, ROBERT HALL, and ROBERTSON of
Brighton, has been almost wholly pulpit
influence. And there are men amongst us now—
few indeed in number—whose eloquence is equally
persuasive, and whose sermons can be listened to
with interest beyond the conventional hall-hour.

In allowing, therefore, that church-goers who
grumble about sermons have a legitimate ground
of complaint, we do not think it necessary to
follow their conclusions, and to abolish preach-
ing altogether. We believe that a reform
is necessary, not a revolution. In the Church
of England too many gifts are expected from one
man. There is scarcely any clergyman who can
preach well upon the Sunday if, to quote the
words of TIIAOIXILAT, " he has been busy all the
" week, at schools and sick beds. with watchful
" teaching, gentle counsel, and silent alms." The
ditties of the pastor and preacher, at least in large
parishes, are incompatible, and what the clergy-
man gives his people in one direction they must
iadritably lose in another. The Times thinks the
whole grimace resolves itself iato the fact that

Me. Rarnazt Bnimuott has published a pam-
phlet entitled, " Railways and the Public," which 1
has the merit of novelty, and contains some curious
statistics. He argues that the great highways of
a country should be placed under national autho-
rity; he shows, or attempts to show, why the
present railway system has proved so unremune-
rative ; he points out with considerable force the
inconvenience caused to the public by
rival lines, and he proposes that Govern-
ment should take up the railways, and that
each shareholder should receive, in return for his
shares, Government railway stock, bearing inte-
rest at 4 2-tithe per cent., guaranteed by the State.
This is not all. Mr. BRANDON is ambitious of
effecting as great a revolution in our railway
system as Sir ROWLAND Hus. has accomplished
in the Post-office. He suggests that a universal
fare of threepence should be charged for any dis-
tance for each person travelling by third class,
sixpence for second class, and one shilling by first-
class ; and he calculates that, in consequence of
this reduction, six times the number of people
would travel, and that there would be an excess
of the present receipts by upwards of twenty
million. To simplify matters and diminish ex-
penditure, Mr. BRANDON proposes the issue of
railway tickets in the form of stamps, which he
considers would cause a considerable saving in the
salaries of clerks ; he suggests too that all luggage
should be paid for, though he apparently hesi-
tates to fix the rate of payment. " Many
" readers of this pamphlet," says Mr.
,BR.ANDON, " will at once say that the
" idea of carrying a passenger from London
" to Edinburgh for threepence is preposterous;
" but we must remember that it was not until Sir
" ROWLAND HILL had shown its feasibility that
" any one thought it reasonable to take a letter
" from London to Edinburgh for the same charge
"as from London to Richmond. It may be said
" that the analogy does not exist; that the half
" ounce of a letter is nothing, but that &passenger
" is really heavy, and makes some difference in the
" cost of running a train. In reply, I say that
" the delivery of a letter is the most expensive
" part of its cost to the Post-office, whereas a
" passenger takes himself away ; that the
" average of trains run, could each carry six
" times as many passengers as are now conveyed
" by them, and, though the expenses might be
" slightly increased, the increase would be ex-
, " tremely small, while the receipts, as I show,
" would be enormously augmented." There is
nothing more deceptive than figures based upon
hypothesis, and very probably Mr. BRANDON'S
argument might fail if brought to a practical
test. Nevertheless there is much in the pamphlet
worthy of attention; for there can be no
question that the present state of our railway
system is as unsatisfactory to the public as it is
to shareholders.