The National Register.
London, England, 1811-03-10 00:00:00

elle pulpit.

No. XXXV.
PRISON WORSHIP!

/.et all things be done decently, and in order.—Epistle of
Paul to the Corinthians.

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Instantaneously that our fellow-countrymen becomq
tunately immured within the walls of one of their own jails,
although merely for the crime of being debtors, they seem not
only to be delivered up to secular punishment, but consigned to
spiritual excommunication. Whilst •the state leaves their bodies
to starve, the church scarcely deigns to feed their souls. .Who-
ever has accidentally attended th..! customary performance of
divine worship at either of our two master prisons, the Khig's
Benchand the
,Fleet, must, should he have gone to either of
them more than once, have been really pained to observe the
indecorous and unprofitable manner in which the national reli-
gion is administered in the chapels of those extensive, and, alas!
too generally populous places, of confinement.
When it is remembered in what circumstances persons attend
phlic worship, when in jail, and when the character of the
little congregation who are drawn together, just once during
each week, by the ringing of bell, to the service of Cod, is also
considered; when the where and the What are thus known, one
would suppose that, instead of hastiness and indifference of
manner, the ministers of religion would evince more than ordi-
nary solicitude to make the services of the 4.llL,lnnent accept-
able, and render their ministerial instructions effectual to their
end. Do the Pastors of PrisonS so act ? Excusing to them
natural and unavoidable deficiencies, defect of talent, do they
continually strive to atone for the absence of ability by the
ferVour of piety; and convince their hearers, that, however un-
boastful of theoligical endowments, they are at least to be re-
ipected for their earnestness, and revered for their sincerity ?
Let some of our prison chaplains put these serious question's to
their own hearts. • •
Perhaps it would not be quite candid to affirm that the Liturgy

a the Church of England is never altogether religiously read

within our prisons; but it frequest4 not deceutly repeated in
them, and is never, never 1 affirm, tliat I know, celebrated as it
regularly is ill the churches and chapels of the establishment,
and as it ought to be celebrated even in the chapels of our
prisons. Although there is a communion-table both in the
King's Bench and the Fleet (each of which tables might, without
much expence, he made to bear something like resemblance to
the altars usually erected by the church), yet the officiating mi-
nister thinks it too much trouble to quit the reading-desk before
he pronounces that impressive part of the national liturgy which
is conuec.ed with the Commandments, and which is tlitr de-
prived of ail its dignity and much of Its effect. As to what is
elsewhere psalmody, it is still worse. This otherwise inspiring
part of public worship is left almost, generally altogether,to him
who names the psalm and who seems hired to accompany it
• Many of those who -attend divine service in prison mot having
psalm-books, part of the evil of not joining in the singing would,
perhaps, belere remedied, if the clerk gave out each stanza in
conpletc, pausing between, as is still practised amongst souse

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dissenting christians.
Noble and energetic preachers seldom electrify our prisons.
Prisqn-sermons are of course written sermons; sermons calmly
wrote, and as calmly spoken. Preachments of this kind make
few appqls to the attention, and none to the affections, of
hearers. The preacher has his task to do, and as a task he
achieves it! Thus then the people are not IThoured for by him,
and thus the labourer is not worthy of his hire.
Clerical decorum is as notoriously iuglectcd. After having
*kipped throug,h :he prayers of the church, you way here sue