The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-23 00:00:00

EARLY CLOSING ASSOCIATION.

Last night the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon preached in
the Scotch Church, Regent square (Dr. Hamil-
ton's), in aid of this very valuable organisation.
The place was well filled ; but, from the ad-
mirable arrangements which .had been made in
regard to the issue of tickets, and the restric-
tion of the admission to persons who pos-
sessed them, it is not too much to say that this
celebrated young preacher perhaps never ad-
dressed an audience, in a strange place, who
were able to assemble and find seats more
comfortably than the audience last evening. He
was assist. d in the preliminary devotions by the
Rev. Dr. Hamilton. He took for his text, "Gather
out the stones." Isaiah chap. 62, verse 10. On
this he founded a discourse characterised by his
usual ability. The " stones" he described as
obstacles which it was the duty of Christian people
to remove out of the way of those who were thereby
prevented from hearing the gospel preached:
Amongst the various stones or obstacles which he
neticed, the first was the consecration of places of
worship ; but, he said, to remove this stone, they
would pi each anywhere so that good might be done.
The second was the abstruse and unintelligible
style which preachers sometimes adopted, and to
remove this, he said, they would be as plain as
possible. The third stone was the inconsistencies
of people who professed Christianity, to remove
which, he said, Christians would s►rive to avoid
causes of offence. The fourth stone was that
Christians were gloomy ascetics, men walking in
darkness ; to try to remove which, he said, Chris-
tians would labour to obey the injunction of the
Apostle, who commanded them to " rejoice in the
Lord alway." The fifth stone was the long hours
during which many persons were obliged to labour,
which rendered it impossible, they said, for them
to attend to the concerns of their souls. From
Monday morning till Saturday night, there was
nothing but work ! work ! work 1 and if these
poor people came to a place of worship on the
Sundays it would require something as powerful as
the trump of the Archangel Gabriel to keep them
awake and atteetive. They might well say :--
"Christ's yoke is easy, but the yoke which a.pro-
fessedly Christian public imposes upon me is other-
wise." This overvvolking was a stone which lay
in the path of thousands, and it was the duty of
Christian people to remove it. The rev, gentleman
at great length, and with much eloquence, showed
that it was the duty of all those who profess and call
themselves Christians, if they were masters, to close
early, and, if they were merely customers, not only
not to shop late themselves, but to avoid deal-
ing at shops which kept open late, for others,
He made a particularly touching appeal on behalf of
the poor dressmakers, exposing very powerfully the
criminal thoughtlessness of those ladies who, by the
lateness at which their orders are often given, keep
these poor creatures at work night and day almost
continuously for the paltry sums which are doled
out to them by their employers. Judging from the
long rows of carriages which lined the approaches
to the church, this powerful appeal was addressed
to the class which is especially blamable in this
regard ; and it is to be hoped, for the sake of
humanity, that it will not be utterly lost upon
those in whose bands the remedy rests. He said
teat, once riding with a farmer, the latter stopped
the vehicle and got down to pick up a broken glass
bottle, which he threw over the hedge, exclaiming
as he re-entered the vehicle, "Ah ! I lost a 'good
horse throUgh a broken bottle like that, and I
should be sorry that any one else should sustain
such a loss." He urged Christian's to act on this
man's example, and remove every stone out of the
way, and particularly the Obstacle of late hours,
which he said prevented the thoughtless from being
impressed, stifled impressions where theyelid exist,
and even when a man became a Christian prevented
the development of the religious life. His perore-
tion was particularly powerful, and at the conclu-
sion of the service a collection was made in aid of
he society's funds.