The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-24 00:00:00

THE CHURCH Or ST, JOHN OF
JEDUSALEN.

(This Day.)

In connection with a noble Hospital, under
the same title as the above, there has been
formally opened to-day, in Great Ormonde-
street, the very beautiful Church of St. John
of Jerusalem. It is the sole foundation
of Sir George Bowyer, Bart., M.P. Da
signed, as the Hospital is, for the relief of the
afflicted of all countries, classes, and creeds indis-
criminately, the opening of the sacred edifice
attached to it was solemnly inaugurated by H. E.
Cardinal Wiseman, assisted by a number of Roman
Catholic Dignitaries in the presence of a very
fashionable congregation. High Mass com-
menced at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. The
procession, which filed
into the sanctuary
from the sacristy to the sound of Mendels-
sohn's Wedding March from the Midsummer
Night's Dream a procession ushered in by
acholytes bearing lighted wax tapers, and swing-
ing the thurible of license, included in its
array, besides a number of Rumaa Catholic
priests several high diinitaries of their commu-
nion. Among the latter were the Right Rev. Dr.
Morris, Bishop of Tray partibus); the Right
Rev. Dr. Grant, " Estop of Southwark;"
the Right Rev. Monsigtore Manning, the Very
Rev. Dr. Hearn, an---immediately preceded
by the Very Rev. Cuoon O'Neil and Mon-
signore Searle—his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman.
The music was of no one " Mass" in par-
ticular, but consisted of a selection. It was
performed by an excellent choir with orchestral
eccompaniments. Tne tCyrie was from Hayon's
Imperial Mess—the Gloria from the same great come
poser's Sixteenth. At tie Gradual was given the
Cujus Animant from Bossini's " Stabat Mater."
At the Offertory, from the same masterpiece, the
Injianzmattes. The " Credo" was Weber'e. But
the "Sanctus," the " Benedictus," and the
" Agnus Dei," were all from Haydn, the last men-
tioned of these, like the liyzie, from the Imperial
Mass. Immediately after the Gospel, an impressive
sermon was delivered by Cardinal Wiseman from
the brief but suggestive text, " Heal the sick"—au
injunction enforced by the after-words, " Freely
you have received, freely give !" Tnis sermon,
which occupied some considerable time in the
delivery, was illustrative, for the most part, of
the fact that the whole notion of a hospital
originated with Christianity. The idea of
healing the sick, said the Cardinal, appeared never
once to have entered into the imagination of the
most refined and civilised races of antiquity.
Charity, in effect, had no existence, as a
word even, much less as a living principle,
until the foundation of Christianity. Among
the pagan Romans, it was true, there was a
place set apart in each camp for the accommodation
of the wounded soldiery. As—in the establish-
ments of the wealthier patricians of the em-
pire, there were infirmaries for the con-
venience of such slaves of the household as were
indisposed. But these things wore done purely as
matters of convenience. The healing of suffering
humanity was not for a moment seem•
ingly dreamt of—until the coming of
the Good Physician) " Break the bread to
the hungry" was said of old to the pious Jew by
his prophet. But—the helping the leper, the Fara •
lytic, the fever•strieken, the consumptive--all this
came only with Christianity. Wherever Jesus of
zereth went-r-there was the model of the Hospital.
l'he blind by the wayside clamoured to him for aid.
The leper, denied access to the abodes of men, and
regarded with loathing by all others, were per-
mitted to come freely to Him to be cleansed. One
powerful word from His lips was enough. At His
bidding the cripple rose, took up his bed and walked.
The mere touching of the hem of His garment
was a sovereign remedy—the mere flitting
by of His shadow ! All the agonies and infirmi-
ties of man disappeared at His appi olch. The
Hosptal was given to us then in all its perfected
organizmion. And here—in this Hospital of bt.
John of Jerusalem, in the very midst of London, was
anbther of those noble structures which had been
raised in such splendour in all ages of Carietianity
and which are to be found scatLeretl fa/ dud wiae
over the surface of Christendom, Edifices so ex-
quisitely designated, each of them, in France Hotel
DlEU—Palace of God !

This noble building of The Church of St.
John of Jerusalem is bath externally and inter-
nally, but especially within, worthy of Ell praise
as an architectural achievement. It is in the Italian
style and has a polished and carved Portland stone
front in Great Ormond-street, a frontege greatly
adding to the appearance of that thoroughfare.
laside, the building is sumptuously finished
with marble pilasters with richly gilded
capitals and cornices—and having a carved and
ribbed roof crowned by a remarkably elegant cupola.
The structure appears to be occupied, to the extent
of nearly one half of it, by the sanctuary, which is
paved with polished marble. Besides two side altars.
upon either hand, the High sitar stands imme-
diately below the dome, with a magnificent beide.-
chino or canopy composed of varied and costly marble
—the baldachin° sustained over this central altar
upon the summit of four noble piliars of mottled and
cream-coloured marble, each of them surmounted
with a richly gilded
Corinthian capital. Behind
this, fronting the entrance door of the church,
is the choir of the nuns who arc in at-
tendance upon the
poor patients in the adjoining
hospital—the very same community (it may Da
interesting to mention) which did such good ser-
vice for our wounded soldiers in the Crimea and at
Scutari. The nuns' choir, which is fitted up with
carved stalls of mahogany as well as of woods of
various other descriptions, is surmounted by a grille,
through the gilt lattice-work of which the sister-
hood are dimly distinguishable. Two tribunes, with
carved atone corbels, and polished alabaster parapets
are for the accommodation, one of them,
of the
lower ward of the Hospital, the other, of the choir
and organist. The hospital next door eccomodatos
41 patients, most of them incurable, and is arranged
with every appliance which modern sanitary science
has invented. The convent extends behind the
church, and will accomodate 30 Sisters of Mercy
with spacious and well arranged,
but perfectly
simple apartments.
The whole of these works have been done at the
expanse of Sir George Bowyer, by Mr. Simpson,
contractor, of 241, Tottenham-court-road, from the
designs and under the superintendence of George
Guldie, architect,
of 34, Oloucestereplaee,
Portman-square, London.

Liverpool Cotton Market—This Day.
4-----
Market continues dull, Bales probably 0,000 or
6,000 bales,