The National Register.
London, England, 1809-01-01 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

'lt

POPULAR, PREACHERS.

No. XXI.

'Tis pitiful
To court a grin, when you should woo a soul;
To break a jest, when pity should inspire
Pathetic exhortation; and to address
The skittish fancy with facetious tales,
When sent with Gun's Cou►iuissiou W the lioart !
COW PI:R.

IMP. ROWLAND HILL, M. A.

U!

SURRY CH' SM.
'WISDOM assures us there is a time for every thing. I
wish, therelorc, that it. had fallen to my tot to characte-
rise the It KV. HOWLAN I) HILL when he was 1119 EC
to listen to the sug.restions of observation, and more able
to sustain critictl ; when years neither impaired his
strength nor confirmed his opinions, and when family be-
reavements kn not particularly atfected his feelings. I
*ay this unfeignedly. As a clergyman, I may disapprove
of Mr. HA; but I an% induced to respect his private con-
duct, and to honour his social benevolence,

The events of Mr. are too well known to re-
wire to be particularly detailed on this occasion. His
lineal descent is highly respectable; and he was placed, at
the proper age, in trainiug for the Christian ministry,
agreeably to the discipline of the established church of
these kingdonis. lie soon betrayed, however, an attach-
ment for v hat. was then generally stigmatised as methodism.
revolted from the system for which he had been intend-
ed ; and, by this dorilectioa, incurred so much the displea-
sure of his relations, that we are informed, in Mr. Jay's
of the Rev. Cornelius, Winter, he heCame, at one pe-
riod of his career, " a distressed gentl,eanan !"--Whether
Olte InOves which induced him to schism wereclearly con-
scientions, or whether he only preferred perwa.7%-ut popu-
larity to present property, forms no part of our immedi-
ate investigation, He " snared," as it was then consider-
• for righteousness sake ;" which. let it here be can-
• e:enuoted, ofVers no trivial evidence M favour of his
slucerity.
I do not deem it essential, to the purposes of this issquiry,
to ascertain exim,i-tly yvhcii thc, Rev. hovlaud Hill first
erected his, religions-", IteMnd *use," as his. place of wor-
ship hied been not unaptly• called ; uor dot think it at
ail necessary to exhibit, were it in my power to procure,
oue, an intelligible schedule of the ticketed seats of
" Sorry Chapel." as the said " hound !lousy" is evangeli-
cally described. Speculation is not the business of the pre-
sent ilvquiry. I imagine; however, that Surry Chapel will
not always coat vine so profit:Able! unto all things" as it
may bitiicrto have proved. Novelty, ceases to attract
its crowds to this evangelical octagon;, ancl the par.:
gar' influence of its l'ountler whe,m there wi,ll not soon
► found :in adequate substitute, is now rapidty
Like 'the late Mr. Menton, there is reason. to. apprehend
that 31r. Hill inav outprfach, if not'aiso outlive, himself t
Santilenvience, or. the elogneiace f the pulpit, is of so
little value in the Judgment of this celebrated Preacher,
that it is not to be suppol/2ed he will pay the least degree of
attention to anv observations of mine on his oratoFical
qualifications. What 1 shall remark, therefore, can only
benefit those who may wish to avoid the errors which so
evidently belong to his system of preaching. 0( the .gyle
of singing early adopted and still practised in his chapel, it
mug with justice be asserted, in the versification. o Pope,
flat

The liTeQsiog thrills through alt the
, laboring throng;,
And lleaven_is won b3—Violence of Song!
p. crimp. it is owing to this " violence of song-,," as the
poet by anticipation described it, that Mr. Hill is so sensi-
'Me azitated when he enters his pulpit, and first surveys,
in all directions, his surrounding congregation ; frequently
dcwoustratiug, dun); this periud, by alternate moyeturts
• t

JAN. 1.

of the hand or arm, how properly his mind is then engaged
in imploring blessings on the people t Notwithstanding this
display of pious prcciiion, there is, in this preacher, a neg-
ligence degenerating into slovenliness. Decorum really
becomes the pulpit. It is painful, it is worse than-painful,
to sec a divine, so placed, turn his back, the instalit he has
finished his prayer, on the hearers; then, having pulled his
robes into order, upon his cushion, rub his fate, feelihis
mouth, and pick his hose, These things are not to be
tolerated,

Mr. ma gives his text very indistiactty, and almost
inaudibly. The character of his discoerses is generally
known;—sameness in substance, incoherent in arrange.
meat, whimsical in illustration, commonly colloquial iR
language, and abounding in strange flights of fancy, and
apt but homourous stories. He absolutely tabours for his
metaphors; and, in his zeal to lower himself to what he
conceives to be the ".aptitude or capability" of his audi-
ence, he constantly mistakes -vulgarity for simplicity.—
Let us try, from memory, some of those passages by which
Mr. Hill's sermons are distinguished.
He invariably professes a holy hatred againet play-Nausea.
" \o man, indeed would go to a play-tionst," exclaimed
Mr. 11, "if he supposed it would be burnt down [mach
smiling on the part of those who heard this, and who did
not mistake his neat allusion to the conflagration in a
certain part of Corent Garden !] or else fall down while he
was there !" It is, I believe, equally notorious, tbat Mr..
Hill feels no great affection for the established Clergy of the
Church of England.—" Seattle preachers," he lately signi-
ficantly observed to his hearers, " had need he Doctors e
Divinity [he meant nothing uncourteous, let uncharitably
think, towards Doctor (Shyer] in order to carry their non*
sense down !" He shortly after declared, however, by way
of concession to, or compromise with, other clergymen,
" I don't blame those who must preach bad sermons, if
they read good ones; for it is certainly better-to read good
ones of other people's, than to preach bad ernes of their own"
He, then, by no unnatural transition, began to descant o
Village PFcaebing ; and preferred, for " this evangelical
trork," men with less learning- in their heads than prase
in their hearts," to all the dignified divines in existence.--
I should only spoil his description of these Pillage Mission..
cries, whose tabours are so piously seconded by the
" money her," to record Mr. Ifitl's strong similie for
begging, " frmn the London Mines," were iii
attempted by meta retrace it on. paper. When other giik?y
fellows are settio'ng out in their whiskeys, sabbatb after
sabbaib, then it is that these simple souls, the Village
Missionaries of the k". Loadoa Itinerant Society" start foe
the " evangelizing work i" and, as ,Mr. llirremarketh,
" what a comfortable employment it is for young men t"...
While others are spending money, these are saving it a and,
white others are whiskeying along the brood way that
leadeth to destructioni these are socially trotting, two by
two, the norrow path that must i*vitahly kart to blessed-
ness I So, at least, Mr. Ilill'Assures in not a most
admirable recruitin-serjeant, is the service of the evan-
gelical
-

Mr. Hill's talent at exciting. serious merriment i
able. 'tie does not content hies elf with standir4. 014.
low ground qf free-will," nor dyes he 1041 g settle, on " the
high ground free-grace;," but alights,. from Ls, ultuost
spiritual altitude, and condesceads to notice " the great
difference there is between getting over things anti getting
into, things ;" between preachii evangelically, aud de-
claiming, in- the style of common preachers, tike the
" sounding-brass," or the " Here, in-
deed, it was that Mr. Hill, much as he affects, to decry
oratory in others, was himself completely oratorical
mouthed the supposed sounding brass; and, like those pro.
Pane girls who play the triangle throagh the streets of our
metropolis, he most skilfully imitated, by the Inetionin
ji tigers, the nature of the tin kit mhal.
" I ant sure," said Mr. Hill, " that *hut they ea cotrt-
TormitiQn„ and the rest of risk clues more hap thaw good.":-",