credit for honestly attempting to
develope the Catholic element, of which there is a considerable leaven,
in the historical English Church; I have always felt that amongst them
rather than amongst popular evangelical preachers, whose favourite haunts
are the drawing-rooms of dowagers, or Broad Churchmen, the delight of
sceptical peers, are to be found the men most ready to take up the cross
and bear the yoke; but I had no idea they could preach, or if they did
that men of sense could listen. I have found out my mistake. I have
been one of the thousands who have listened to Mr. Body, of
Wolverhampton, and I never heard or saw within the walls of a church a
man so absorbed in his message, so carried away with its import, so
imbued with a sense of its Divine reality. I may also add that a more
awkward-looking, ill-favoured clergyman I never saw ascend the pulpit
stairs.

But these people were all Ritualists--believers in form? Well, they are;
there was an exaggeration of form, I frankly admit; there was a great
deal more crossing the forehead and the breast than we English approve
of; there was far too much of appearance of devotion. A man may worship
God in a hearty, cheerful way as well as on his knees and with elongated
jaw. The preacher himself at times assumed an air of needless imbecility
as he stood with drooping head and with hands folded, as if engaged in
secret prayer; lank and pale, and with a sickly smile upon his face, as
was the manner of mediaeval and pre-Raphaelite saints. And then of
course, like most of the services of all churches, of whatever
denomination, the harlot, and the publican, and the sinner to be called
to repentance, kept away. It is a sign of respectability to attend a
place of worship, and people who come to church in neat broughams, who
are partial to diamond studs, who wear brilliants on their fingers, are
eminently respectable; still there were poor sinners there, and the place
was full, and many were evidently deeply smitten, for the apostolic
fervour of the pulpit crept from row to row till the sinner and the
sceptic ceased to sneer, and all seemed mastered and subdued. Before the
service began half the audience seemed engaged in silent prayer, and at
the close that silent prayer was resumed.

It is difficult to describe this new burning and shining light. A
_verbatim_ report of his sermon would convey no meaning. Who cares to
read the sermons of Whitefield or Wesley? I h