The Portland daily press., 1877-11-03
Letter from England.
THE ENGLISH BEECHER.

If you did not know all about it already, l
should discourse to you at great length of the
studied oddly of English names of persons and
places. / should tell you of Paternoster Row
and Pudding Lane, and Pail Mall (Pell Nell as
spoken) the "Angel at Islington'' a SER
aphic parsonage, but public house; of the
Balls Mouth" of Threadneedle street, hard
by the Bank of England, of the Red Lion and
Blue Boar, of Cockspur street and Titchburne
street, named for the claimant of the Turnstlles
leading from High Holborn into Lincoln Inn
Fields, of the Seven Dials, where seven dirty
streets pour into one unspeakable receptacle of
poverty and vice, the ripe and finished product
OF Eaglish monarchical and arstocratic insti
buttons, of the numerous "circuses'' formed by
the concaye architecture of streets meeting at
right angles, of the Georges" in quaint combi-
nation with dragons of various colors, and
hundred Others. As it is, I shall only say that
there is no elephant and no castle at the "Ele-
plant and CASTLE" which is your objective
point when you visit the Surrey side of the
Thames to see and hear Spurgeon. It is
simply another temple sacred to the great ALL
sop and the mighty Bass, who are, like several
other English brewers, members Of that House
0S~~~e~SAS
real commons yet holds seat. Round the
corner ia Spurgeon's Tabernacle. Within this
building yesterday there were at least five
thousand people; the immense auditorium and
the two galleries which run entirely around
1t, were one mass of human beings, all intently,
gazing on the stout, rather heavy looking man,
who spoke from spacious platform on a level
with the first gallery. So completely was the
space utilized that the whole floor under this
platform was filed with people, who in some
way found consolation inssuch words of in.
struction as could make their way through
some inches of deal board 1t is truly noble
theatre, built expressly to contain the largest
possible number of people within the sound of
the speakers voice. And it is great and
wonderful thing to be able to chain the atten-
ZION and excite the enthusiasm of SO
many Thousands of people SUNDAY after
Sunday for so many years. It is hard
to see how searsees- does--::ss.1-s5szos ,0t
on the ground that people accustomed to
the formal worship and heartless ceremonial of
Ine established church are naturally attracted
py display Of spontaneous earnestness and
genuine conviction. When heard him the
great preacher delivered good average camp
meeting exhortation. He desired his hearers
IN the language of Paul, to clay hold upon the
nope set before us" and he excited the most
interest by repeating in gruff, sailor-like tones,
no doubt "Reminiscences of his late VOYAGE. the
words "lay hold, lay hold, lay holdw He express
~ repudiated the notion that faith is a matter
OF feeling or emotion, insisting that it is an in
teiectual act which must precede the Joyous
experiences which are promised to the believer
as necessary sequence of his acceptance of
esiVation. Yet he gave no further explanation
OF the method of the mental submission
which he commended than is afforded in the
analogy of drowning mans 'laying hold'' of
q rope which is thrown to him, ignoring the
obvious fact thatl no rope islthrown to man
who does not believe and who cannot create
that means of security by any mere verbal ex-
preston OF assent. But he is not the first or
only preacher who has said ',have faith" to
Inose who have it not, without explaining how
q man is to understand for instance that the
three angles of a triangle are equal to two
rlgnt angles without having it demonstrated to
MIN or perceiving it intuitively. In the case
OF the triangle, to be sure, an uninstructed
man might well accept what is alleged of it on
t9e unanimous authority of those who have
examined it,-but what If more than half of
the geometricians declared that there were
Three right angles instead of two and if the
poor man sincerely believed that none of them
Aao intailipie means of knowing the facts?
= AMERICAN CREDIT.
Ii were aitourist or professional CORE
spondent would try to make my notes con-
eecutive and logical, but since they are writ.
ten la the leisure moments of "somewhat
pusy life" youz will excuse my hit-or-miss style
and my abrupt changes of subject In an Eng
nsn court the other day heard thing which
interested me great deal. The trustees of the
estate OF the deceased Singer of sewing ma
Cnine fame, made application for permission to
sell some millions of American government
ponds held by them, for the purpose of in
vesung the proceeds in English consols. When
.ne matter was called up the judge was pleased
W be very humorous. The immense amount
involved was evidently matter of great inter-
est and satisfaction to him and after remark
ang pleasantly thatsthis was "a tupenny mat
Ter OF only million Or SO ssterling''-great
virtue IN this word "sterling"-he was so good
as TO volunteer the explanation for the benefit
OF the bar and spectators, that this Singer was
tine great American millionaire who invented
or improved the sewing machine and-with a
good deal of gusto that he b.lieved
this wa only part of his estate. Bnt
he would not listen for moment to the appli-
cation. On this point he had very decided
views. ''These American securities" said he,
are just as good as ours-just exactly as good"
Not long ago." he continued II asked Sir
Anthony Rothsehild what was the very best
security in the world, and he at once replied.
line American five per cents" So the
singer trustees were very peremptorily directed
to keep their american five per cents" The
sly old fellow'-it was very plain to be seen
that no inconsiderabe portion Of his five thous-
and year-"sterling'-was snugly laid away
in these same lucious American ives!
WANTED. |
Immediately and the highest market price will
be paid for
A chair in which nobody of any reputation
or consequence ever sat-