Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-30
LONDON CHURCHES.
AMONG THE humber PLACES OF
CHRISTIAN WORSHIP.
Some of the Noted Events and Per-
sonages Associated With Them
IN Distant Past.

Especial Correspondence CT the REcoRp-CSIoN.l
LONDON, February IL, 1889.
The places of WORSHIP in London, except
ing St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster
Abbey, are little visited by the stranger
and almost as seldom noticed by the Lon
doner unless he belong to their parishes.
Perhaps there would be more truth than
fiction in the assertion that nine out of ten
visiting Americans could End as much, if
not more, tie interest then in some of the
churches kave lately seen as they could
in the great show houses of the Cathedral
and Abbey
THE CHAPEL OF THE FsUNDLING HOSPITAL
Has one OF the lovliest sights in the world
ON Sunday mornings. The building is in
the center of the hospital erected by Cap
tain Thomas Coram, 1889, and has little to
attract one in its style, but it is about the
hundreds of little children seated, the boys
one side, the girls on the other, of the
famous organ given them by Handel, that
the interest centers. These children have
all been given up by their mothers, who
must present them in person, never again
to be reclaimed, to be completely lost to
them forever.
The girls, ranging in age from thirteen
down to little ones who seem scarcely two
feet high, are uniformed in white caps,
collars and aprons, and look as sweet and
'demure as do Sir Joshua Reynolds Pene-
l. bat.x ha 4 i
The boys are in black with white collars
and scarlet waistcoats. As in all childish
voices when in chorus, there is divine
softness, a penetrating gentlepess which
TOUCHES TIE HEART OF TEE LISTENER,
And can but bring the better feelings of
humanity into life. The sadness which
cannot but hover about these motherless,
fatherless little ones, who nevertheless are
not orphans, is lighted by the thought that
God, in His mercy, has put it into the
heart of man to raise SO noble charity.
After services one may be brought back to
ones every day world by seeing these little
cherubs deport themselves quite like other
hungry youngsters at their MONDAY meal,
the scene in the dining-rcom being, in its
way, as pleasant sight as that In the
ShaPSi- I1SiS diS IlO5dftH MARCH 10
Finchley" and the portrait Of Coram, and
some of Reynolds and Gainsborough's
works.
THE CHAPEL ROYAL, WHITEHALL,
Is interesting from its being the famous
banqueting hall and all that now remains
of the palace. The building is one of the
finest pieces of the great lingo Jones'
work, and the ceiling is frescoed by Ru-
bens, but London smoke has rendered these
paintings nearly invisible, and | doubt
that the chapel, as house of God, has
lost much by it. Perhaps the greatest in
terest attached to this converted hall "
lies in the fact that from one of its win
dows Charles l. stepped to the scaffold.
The scene is graphically described in
John Inglesant," and if one is familiar
with Shorthouse's story it is with difficulty
that he can follow the service, as his
thoughts constantly revert to that fearful
time which changed the crown of king
TO that of martyr On Maundy Thurs
day some member Of the royal family, DUR
ing services, distributes gifts to certain
men and women whose age is the same as
that of the sovereign.
BOW CHURCH.
To be born within the sound of whose
bells constitutes "cockney," is one of the
ffty-three London churches of Sir Christie
pher Wren, whose peculiar style if once
seen is never forgotten, with its successful
combination of Roman and the effiorescent
style of the sixteenth century, with sud-
den flights of Gothic and here and there a
bit of Greek. Nothing but Gothic seems
to me TO be in perfect harmony with Chris
tian worship; but Wren's beautiful spires
and arched roofs are certainly superior to
the adaptations OF Greek and Roman tenn
pies, which only Cypress the worshiper and
never allow his thoughts to rise above the
earth. Some lines of Jean Ingelow, as |
recall them, say:
Turn again, turn again. once they sang
cheerily.
While boy listened alone,
Made his heart yearn again, sitting so YEARLY
All by himself on a stone
The boy was Wilmington at Highgate,
and the sound of Bow Bells came over the
meadows to him, meadows now filled with
brick and mortar, and called him back to
become in time Lord Mayor.
THE ST. oLAvE's CHURCH.
All keepers of diaries should visit St.
Olave's Church in Settling Lane, for here
is the tablet TO the memory of that con-
ceited, lovable man, Samuel Pepys. and
his good wife, whose new gowns are de-
scribed with such nicely in the immortal
diary, is buried near the altar. The great
plague had its beginning in the parish OF
St. Olave and its churchyard was its bury
ing ground. Over the gate from Seethjne
Lane is a row of carved skulls as a memo
rial of that awful time.
ALL HALLows' BARKING.
Is interesting TO US as having been the
place where William Penn was christened
in 1914. 1t was also spared by the great
fire of 1866 though Pepys tells us that its
dyaH and porch were burned, and it was
from the tower he viewed the scene of DESC
lation, the description of which he SO
neatly closes by saying in his honest way,
II became afraid 10 stay there long, and
therefore came down as fast as / could"
The church has many beautiful and old
tombs of historical interest, but its CHIEF
charm lies in the quiet which pervades it.
and that quiet is rendered doubly valuable
by the surrounding confusion and noise oil
the city. In all these old churches one
finds people, usually of the poorer class,
resting body as well as spirit, and several
times have seen invitations to enter for
rest and PRAYER. | wish
OUR CHURCHES AT HOME
Could be always open to the tired
wanderer, and even if the carpets and
cushions were worn out sooner by it, am
sure that many weary man and woman
would be made spiritually better. Our
churches should be, as in old days, the
broad sanctuary where the hunted could
find refuge, though not as then, refuge
from the law and justice, but from the
ever-pursuing spirit Of crime, which finds
its easiest victims in those tired, homeless
ones who have no place but dens Of infamy
open to them where they may rest the
body. Jesus teaches TO reach the heart
through material acts.
THE CHURCH OF ST. HELEN's,
Bishopsgate, is built upon the site of one
erected by Constantine in memory of his
mother,wh was born Colchester. In 1912
some Benedictine nuns were here, and the
church has held prominent place in
London history from the remotest time.
Here is the tomb of the great Sir Thomas
Gresham, founder of the Exchange. and