ot been counted at any
time during the summer, though some of the "penny-a-liners" have given
the exact number. There was an immense crowd listening to the people's
subscription band in the Regent's Park, and at a low estimate the numbers
considerably exceeded a hundred thousand. In the Victoria Park, where
another people's band played from five till seven o'clock, there were
about 60,000 persons present at one time. The aristocracy had a very
large number of carriages in the Hyde Park, and about 8000 entered
Kensington Gardens during the afternoon. From these estimates, intended
to be free from all exaggeration, it would appear that out of the
population of London, about one quarter of a million were engaged in what
has been characterized as the "public desecration of the Sabbath." If we
include servants, omnibus-drivers, cabmen, &c.--persons who follow on the
Sunday the usual avocations of the week, of course this number is
considerably increased.

It is cheering to think that the pulpit has advanced; and to feel, if it
have not its lights, such as Chalmers, or Irving, or Hall, it has become
almost freed from the buffooneries by which at one time it was disgraced.

''T is pitiful
To court a grin when you should win a soul;
To break a jest when pity should inspire
Pathetic exhortation; and to address
The skittish fancy with facetious tales
When sent with God's commission to the heart!'

Huntington, the S. S., or Sinner Saved, used to stop in the middle of his
sermons with exclamations such as--'There, take care of your pockets!'
'Wake that snoring sinner!' 'Silence that noisy numskull!' 'Turn out
that drunken dog!' Rowland Hill once preached as follows:

'The mere professor reminds me of a sow that I saw an hour since
luxuriating in her stye, when almost over head and ears in the mire.
Now suppose any of you were to take Bess (the sow), and wash her; and
suppose, after having dressed her in a silk gown and put a smart cap
upon her head, you were to take her into any of your parlours, and
were to set her down to tea in company: she might look very demure
for a time, and might not give even a single grunt; but you would
observe that she occasionally gave a sly look towards the door, which
showed that she felt herself in an uncomfortable position; and the
moment she perceived that the door was open, she would give you
another proo